DracoLunaris

World of Light

wordcount: 309 (+1)
Bowser Jr: Level 6 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (108/60)
Kamek: Level 6 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (43/70)
Location: Edge of the Blue – Limsa Lominscuttle Town

”You went and spoke to her without us!” Jr whined upon hearing about Peach's meeting with the captain.

”Now, now young master, the princess was simply being efficient I’m sure,” Kamek told the boy. He was more than used to being left behind when it came to matters like this and as no important decisions had been made without them there was little reason to raise a fuss

”Why don’t you show the princess your new minion?” he suggested, attempting to derail the boy’s burgeoning tantrum.

”oh oh oh. Here.” the boy scooped up his new pig-like minion in both hands and raised it up lion king style for the princess to see ”This is Tyrant! He’s a behemoth and he’s gonna get real big and summon meteorites when he’s grown!”

The piglet wiggled a little in his grip, but seemed to accept being shown off without much complaint thanks to it's tummy still being presently full of pokepuff.

With Jr’s anger suitably smothered, the conversation could turn to what they were going to do with the information Peach had acquired. There were, at the moment, two routs that could be seen. Finding the The Maw and facing The Abyssal Fleet. Neither sounded like particularly pretty options to the mage, but the Cadet didn’t seem to even consider the Maw now that there was a more straightforwardly heroic option available. Kamek, frankly, did not blame him in the slightest now that they had additional confirmation of it's nightmarish nature.

”Airships. Duh. Boats might be old news here, but nothing beats an airship; they are the coolest thing ever!” was Jr’s response to the Cadets’s question about how they were going to get about the ocean without access to a naval vessel

”The Airship Deck does seem to be our best option at the moment when it comes to finding transport. The Sky's Hatchery might be worth an investigation as well, in case it is some kind of giant ride-able bird supplier,” Kamek said, probably accidentally taking the name of a bar, inn or tavern literally with his last suggestion.

”Sounds lame. Airship! Airship! Airship!” Jr chanted (with Mimi and Tyrant copying his tempo if not his words with kyus and oinks) in response to the bid suggestion, his mind clearly set on what they where gonna do

”Yes yes. Airships are certainly more our troop’s forte than overgrown birds. His majesty commanded quite the fleet of them back home and the young master was quite the accomplished pilot of such vessels,” Kamek agreed ”so if we can acquire one you'll be in safe... in well practiced claws, that I can assure you”

---

wordcount: 427 (+1)
Midna: level 2 EXP: //////////////////// (4/20)
Location: Sandswept Sky (desert) - Vah Naboris

Urbosa fell and, almost as soon as she did, Thunderblight’s Tyranny came to an end in spectacular fashion at the hands of the Phantom Thieves, who struck it down in a dazzling dance in a fractured space.

”You kids really are something else,” She commented, after shielding herself from the blighted bloodrain that had erupted from the Ganon fragment’s death. She could have said more, snarked about how over the top the whole finale had been, but they’d just ended a part of Gannon. That deserved, if not admiration, then at least the courtesy of putting aside her barbs for a while.

Tora was the one to diffuse the tension after the battle was over, releasing a loud sigh and the princess silently agreed with his assertion that the encounter they’d just had had been surprisingly sudden spike in danger. It did not gel with Midna’s experience with dungeons in the slightest. Then again, said dungeons never turned out to be perfect transport vehicles to cross the desert as Poppi and Tora together pointed out it was. The only flaw was that Minda had just dusted the person who would most likely have known how to use it.

”She was working with something that reeked of Ganondorf’s power, we wouldn’t have been able to trust her” Midna insisted incorrectly as she dismissed her wolfos, the beast hopping into a portal in the floor obediently without reviving any acknowledgment or praise for it's job well done at taking down Urbosa.

”Besides, I’m sure I can figure it out” she insisted, even though the task was a daunting one. Primrose's reminder of spirit mechanics and suggestion that they use spirits of the fallen defenders to help them take control provided a convenient shortcut for the task of deciphering the controls of the massive magical construct.

She drifted over to the dancer and plucked the spirit of Urbosa from her hand, ”Seeing as I’ll have the best basis for what we’ll be learning from this one, I’ll take the plunge” she said, before indicating to the remaining spirit of Thunderblight ”Also, If you know what’s good for you, you’ll break that one rather than let it anywhere close to your heart or mind” she indicated to Thunderblight ”and pray to whatever goddesses you hold dear that its corrupt master hasn’t risen yet in this world. This fight is nothing when compared to facing Gannondorf himself would be like”

With her warning given, the princess drifted back and raised the sprite of Urbosa towards her forehead. She paused right before contact, taking another breath to psych herself up completely for her first comprise of the self, and then completing the move, pressing the spirit through the fused shadow and into her forehead to absorb its knowledge.

World of Light

wordcount: 838 (+2)
Midna: level 2 EXP: //////////////////// (1/20)
Location: Sandswept Sky (desert): Vah Naboris

”Mistake!” Midna declared with a snap of her magical fingers. The power in her the dark energy field lashed out, striking Urbosa and marking her for death. Her mount landed forth at Urbosa, but the technique, hand crafted to kill corrupted Twili, proved imperfect against an opponent wielding a shield and acting defensively. The metal barrier confounded her overeager Wolfos and bought the warrior enough time to recover from the impact and shove it off of her.

The beast hit the stone flood on its back, before quickly rolling over and finding its feet below its mistress, who remounted her bestial minion as soon as she was able. The strike hadn’t been the knockout one Midna’d hoped it would be, but her strategy hadn’t been for nought. Bearing the brunt of the Wolfos’ unintended bodyslam and then forcing it back had overtaxed Urbosa’s muscles, leaving her shield arm limp and the woman herself vulnerable. To Midna’s satisfaction she saw that her ploy had also given some of her allies the time they needed to recover from the fallen hero’s lightning strike. Joker and Tora had picked themselves up off the ground (the mechanical Poppi was worryingly still down for the count) as warrior and wolf hand tousled and were now ready to re-engage Urbosa with a new strategy.

The masked teen summoned forth a phantom of a winged being with the most absurdly tall hat. It had many other extravagant features as well but Midna didn’t have time to take in all the gentleman’s outrageous aesthetics as it acted within an instant of being summoned. With a snap of his fingers (a popular type of flare today it seemed) a dark cloud smothered Urbosa, leaving her dazed and vulnerable. Midna didn’t need prompting to know now was time to strike, rushing forward and acting in tandem with the others. Her wolfos sprung to the right, the beast delighted to be fighting like it was in a pack and adding a howl to Tora’s battle cry as they bull and horned their foe.

The trio swarmed her, harrying her with a torrent of strikes. As Tora bashed her shin and Joker stabbed and shot Midna’s wolfos darted in to try and savage one of the giant woman’s calves while the princess herself drove a double sized magic fist at her gut. Even fighting dirty and ganging up on the massive muscled woman the team had their work cut out trying to bring down the warrioress, who dwarfed them all comfortably in terms of training, muscle and sheer size, and so the best they managed was piling on weaker blows, slowly but surely weakening her with strike after strike.

Their roguish attempt to bring death by a thousand cuts was bolstered when the rest of the team arrived, having boarded the camel after bringing it to a halt though means unknown to Midna. Primrose’s intervention, consisting of an eye catching dance, empowered Queen Sectonia’s magic, allowing her both to push back the darkness of Ganon for a moment and to summon eight of her ant like minions to aid them against Urbosa. The creatures that had been used as coolers now showed off their true ability, blasting their foe with icy shots. There were only three problems with this.

First, the shots were being thrown into a melee with her allies in it. That problem ended quickly without any friendly fire incidents with the introduction of the second, which was that Urbosa became enraged with a warrior’s pride when assailed by so many foes at once and found fresh strength, driving them back with a very familiar spin attack and mercilessly cleaving into the ant minions with her scimitar. The third was no-one was handling Thunderblight for a mere seconds, and that was apparently all the blighted beast needed to cause them all major grief.

”Goddesses, it's quick!” Midna cursed as Thunderblight darted from ally to ally, slashing at them with its magical blade whenever it got close. When it came for Midna she and her mount were already on the move. The wolfos dashed and leaped away from Thunderblight’s blade swings as the princess ducked her head and clung close to its fur. They ran through the chamber until the tyrant’s spawn suddenly switched targets on a whim and went after another one of the team.

The distance Midna had covered to avoid Blight’s harassment meant that when Urbosa unleashed another shockwave of lightning strikes she was just barely clear of the blast, tingles of static rolling across her mount’s fur as they leapt back into the fray. As they landed Skull, having shrugged off the lightning, brought out his own summon. This one was some kind of sailor Midna guessed, based on the fact that it proceeded to deck Urbosa with an entire ship. Smelling blood, Midna spurred her mount to keep up the momentum of their return, the Wolfos sprinting hard across the sandstone colored floor and then leaping at Urbosa, viciously lunging for the off balance warrioress’ throat.

World of Light

wordcount: 641 (+1)
Midna: level 2 EXP: //////////////////// (1/20)
Location: Sandswept Sky (desert): Vah Naboris

level up

Dark energy zone: Midna projects a growing ring of dark energy around herself and her mount. This ring starts out small but gradually grows to a significant radius. Once activated Midna makes the power held in the ring lash out at enemies within its dark interior, stunning them with an electrical attack and allow her mount to quickly lunge between all targets stunned by the field

Midna’s ploy worked, at least for a moment, halting the Ganon thing’s lightning fast assault on Sectonia right as it was about to strike her from an unexpected angle. When Thunderblight struggled Midna held fast, her hands gripping her mount’s fur and her thighs it's waist as the wolfos’ own claws scraped against the stone in an effort to avoid being thrown off of the precarious stone platform they were fighting on.

Their success in holding on was rewarded by the monster getting clever, electricity springing from its weapon and then down into its arm, the energy striking at the giant orange hand being made by Minda’s fragment of the fused shadow. Had it been made of flesh she might have flinched away, but the magical limb felt no pain and as the pinnacle of the Interlopers’s magic it would not bend or break to this fragments of the arch enemy’s power. That did not, however, mean Midna was safe.

The lightning bit and fizzed around the fingers before rapidly arching up them and into the hand, the electricity conducting up the magical limb and directly towards the back of Midna’s head. Midna gasped and in the moment before it struck her released her grip on thunderblight’s arm and spurred her mount back. The wolfos leapt away from the two floating fighters, leaving Sectonia on her own as Midna mentally wrestled with the lightning coursing through her magic third arm. For a tense few heartbeats it looked like she was about to receive the jolt directly to the base of her spine before the electrical sparks coursing through the glowing limb suddenly turned black and orange and was quickly drawn back up to the palm of the arm where it condensed into a barely held ball of angry energy.

It was at this moment that things went massively south for the members of the team facing down Urbosa. Midna caught the beginning of their battle’s end out of the corner of her eye. Energy pulsed out around the desert warrioress, sweeping over the heroes in a seemingly harmless wave but putting them on the defensive nonetheless. No one could miss the actual ending of the bout as lightning struck out at those within the field, rocking the insides of the camel with a deafening roar and blinding light, forcing Minda to cover her eyes reflexively. Even with the blur it left her vision in, it was hard to miss the fallen forms of those caught in the blast and the looming threat of Urbosa looking close to them, ready to finish the job.

Midna gasped and then yelled ”Keep that Ganon thing busy,” at Sectonia before racing to stop the worst from happening.

With a rapid sprint and a daring leap, Midna and her wolfos landed among to the fallen heroes. Her mount growled at Urbosa and readied itself to pounce as Midna combined the electricity of thunderblight with her own magic, forming a Dark energy zone (which looked like a rapidly growing orange ring filled with shadow) around her. The field quickly covered the fallen heroes, bathing them in darkness and presenting a flickering field of power around them. The intention was clear. If Urbosa wanted to finish them, the wounded warrior would have to enter the field and suffer the consequences.

”Try me, and we’ll see how you like it you whore of Ganon” She dared the fallen hero even as she warily watched her opponent with her recovering vision. She just needed time, some of which was bought as the ground shook beneath them as Vah Naboris’s outer defenses where beached and the giant camel submitted to be boarded by the rest of the team.

”So what was it that you betrayed Hyrule for hmm? power? jealousy? revenge? Must have been something irresistible to turn traitor and side with that that monstrous perpetual loser right?” she asked/taunted with as much false bravado as she could muster while the camel shook beneath them and her mount kept her balance during the transition for her, the beast ready to lash out at a moments notice despite the titan's tumultuous transition.

World of Light

wordcount: 1,435 (+3)
Bowser Jr: Level 6 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (104/60)
Kamek: Level 6 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (39/70)
Location: Edge of the Blue – Limsa Lominscuttle Town

Jr was, to put it simply, not having a good time with being shown up by basically everyone else who was taking part in the fishing minigame but he was too stubborn to give up on his ill suiting fishing equipment.

”Come one come on! Stay still and get spiked!” jr yelled angrily at the fish as he hauled the fishing spear out of the ocean for the half dozenth time, but they didn't seem inclined to listen.

Mimikyu, who had plopped herself on the ships railing to watch the proceedings, looked up at her increasingly angry and tired trainer with concern, before extending a long limb and patting him on the shoulder encouragingly.

”What!” Jr barked, flailing his free arm in her direction, before snapping out of his building tantrum when she scooted back in alarm ”huh? Oh... uuugh this is just so frustrating” Jr said, making an excuse rather than an apology as he tapped the but of the spear to the deck and leaned on it, ever so slightly out of breath from the unfamiliar form of exertion. Mimikyu seemed to accept this as the closest thing jr would give to an apology at the moment regardless. She shuffled back along the rail and then cocking her head to one side with curiosity when the boy’s expression suddenly turned to a grin as he looked at her.

A few moments later a much bigger disruption came to the fishers as a ball of lightning crashed into the ocean, zapping particularly large fish and stunning or scattering those around it. A moment later the fishing spear sailed down, hitting the now stationary target with ease

”Ahahaha! Gotcha!” Jr cheered as Minmikyu bounced to and fro excitedly beside him on the banister. A few moments later Jr had hauled his fish out of the ocean and raised it above his head triumphantly. ”Hey. Hey look Kamek! I got one! Isn’t it the best!” he called over to the mage and minder, who called back some, slightly inflated if still sincere, praise”Well done young master. A grand catch and an innovative solution for sure.”

The prince's haul would remain singular in number, as the last of the fish were caught or fled soon after. Not that Jr had much energy to keep going and so for the rest of the journey he retired to his car, laying back in the seat with his feet up on the side as he watched the sea and slowly fed Mimikyu bits of a pokepuff.

While Jr had been having his fishing misadventure, Kamek had been speaking with the grizzled Geralt, who it seemed decided now was as good a time to make proper introductions via the medium of asking personal questions. Namely: the reason why he followed the royal koopas so diligently.

”I have served” Kamek began, before deciding that obfuscating the reality of the situation was somewhat pointless ”I raised Lord Bowser since he was a baby, and I have helped him do the same for his son,”

There was still something left unsaid of course, but explicitly using the F word was not something he had ever done, and he wasn't about to start now.

”Also I would not take those spirits as the limit of the King’s armies. The Koopa Kingdom is large and has many subjects and soldiers. We just aren't quite sure where they are right now” he added in an attempt to defend the king's actual credentials as a leader separately from his own personal loyalty, ”Most of us aren't exactly the most physically dangerous creatures, so his majesty's immense raw power and confident demeanor garner a great deal of loyalty front he minions, one that he repays with a, shall we say, gruff compassion. The royal family are a center of strength that makes the kingdom greater than the sum of its parts.”

Kamek left it at that. Instead of going on about, he turned the direction of their conversation around towards Geralt instead ”You're not the usual type of hero are you? The rest of this group seem rather typical. Plucky. Upbeat. Used to victory. Naive. Your experiences must be rather different to theirs for you to have clashed as strongly with them over this Maw business as you did.

---

The spot of fishing turned out to be the only major event of their trip across the waves, leaving Jr bored and Kamek quietly relieved when they arrived at the two tiered ocean city and docked with its bizarrely empty port. The explanation as to why would come later with the arrival of the ship girls, but first there was the matters of payment for the ride and the question who had won the fishing contest. Both brought up by and then conveniently solved by the captain himself at the same time, when he suggested they hand some of their catch over to him in return for him bringing them across the waves.

”You’d certainly be a good impartial judge for our little contest, though If i might suggest, you could also take size into consideration as well” Kamek recommended, happy to completely offloaded the responsibility, and potential controversy caused by that choice, of choosing a winner onto their captain.

”Yeah! Mine’s definitely the biggest!” Jr said, without actually having examined the other two contestants' fish. It was certainly large, Mimikyu had chosen her target well when she'd zapped it, but that also meant the fish was a bit like a cooked meal that had been left alone to cool for several hours when Jr handed it over to be judged.

After that they learned a bit about the town, first from Brineybeard and then from a member of the “new navy” who were all apparently humans with ship names and bits attached to them.

”They’re ships, who are also girls?” Jr muttered his tone indicating that he was trying to decide if the idea was incredibly silly or very cool and that that decision was a very serious one. Regardless of what anyone thought of this unusual naval arrangement, the USS Northampton turned out to be a very useful source of information, dumping a comprehensive list of interesting locations onto Peach when she asked about the city.

”Did she say Airship Deck? We have got to go there” Jr said enthusiastically when hearing about the eponymous airship station. It was no secret that the troop in general, and Jr especially, loved their airships.

”Wait those aren't also girls are they?” he added, before imagining what a koopa troop airship-girl would look like with a serious expression on his face before his eyes lit up and he declared that ”I want one!”

”An airship would certainly be useful, and considering that regular boats are largely antiquated and thus likely in short supply. One of those might well be our best bet if we want to travel around the Blue” Kamek agreed, missing the context of Jr’s declaration, which consisted of him imagining himself leading an army of airship girls blowing up the mushroom kingdom.

”That said, we are somewhat lacking in funds at the moment, or I am at least, so hiring one for an extended duration might be tricky. I am sure if we put our minds to it we can think of some way to acquire one however ,” Kamek said ”either by helping out the city, though that might be tricky for those of you who are landlocked if they don't use boats at all or we could try a, ah, more direct ‘recruitment’ method I’ve been intending to test out the viability of,”

He didn't go into more details as Jr butted in impatiently with ”Alright alright. Less words more going to look at airships”

”Just one more moment young master” Kamek insisted before addressing the group one last time ”I’d also suggest that, if we split up, we regroup at the Bulkwark hall in, say, an hour? Then we can decide if we want to go straight to this Admiral... ” Kamek paused and then tried his own hand at the pronunciation of ”Mer-wild Blue-his-win? Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn! Yes. her. Go to her about this whole Maw business or if we’ve seen anything that might be a better method of breaching the depths while we are here.”

After delaying just a little longer to hear any replies he hurried up after Jr, who had grown inpatient enough to wander off, or rather drive, up towards Mealvaan's Gate, which stood between them and the rest of the city. Hopefully they had nothing then needed to declare.

---

The Koopa King

wordcount: 248 (+1)
Bowser: Level 7 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (36/80)
Location: The Dead Zone - Sundered Avenue

Bowser was joined in his narrow escape from the flood by Blazermate, who took up what was becoming her usual spot atop his back. The newly added tentacruel orbs gave additional spike free spots to stand, but the king had dissuade the shell dwelling squids from blindly harassing her with their tentacles.

”No. Stop. bad.” he told them, using his hands to shove the beaks of the squids back into his shell cavities, pulling the tendrils in with them ”Blazermate’s cool and I’m in-charge so quit it!”

With that resolved he thumped along the side of the cliff towards where the shockdozer had successfully landed after the flood blimp had been taken out by some kind of floaty bosomous specter. What had initially seemed like another instance of the chaos of the deadzone working in their favor instead turned out to be the arrival of an ally in the form of a dead woman who announced her presence and declared herself friendly to their cause while disarming herself in a show of trust. Bowser had no idea who she was, but was entirely nonplussed by her appearance or form

”SOME OF MY MINIONS ARE GHOSTS, SO IT’S COOL, he told her as he rejoined the party, right as the ground started to become unstable and denying them even a moment's rest, ”WELCOME TO THE ARMY GHOST LADY, NOW LET’S MOVE!”

With that, Bowser stomped onward, heading down the street towards the meat mountain that stood in their way.

---

wordcount: 451 (+1)
Midna: level 1 EXP: ////////// (10/10)
Location: Sandswept Sky (desert) - Divine Beast Vah Naboris

Unfortunately for Midna, she wasn't going to be given the time to poke around and try to figure out what made the giant magical camel tick, as the device’s defenders arrived to expel them, their arrival perfectly ironically timed with Tora’s optimistic comment about the lack of any defenses.

There were two of them. One was a giant of a woman, lightly dressed and armed with a scimitar and round shield who announced herself as Urbosa, champion of Hyrule. Behind her hovered a malevolent twisted reflection of the bold and heroic champion, a machine filled with corruption and sporting a mane of red hair that caused Midna to recoil away from both it and the machine she had been about to examine. She could feel the malice dripping off it, unending hatred and dark power melded together into a blighted corruption that could only have one source if it too came from her world.

”Ganondorf” Midna snarled the words with bared fangs. There was, it seemed, no escaping the ever returning monster. There was no time to question why a self declared champion of Hyrule was fighting alongside this evil as both it and Urbosa attacked as soon as the champion had finished introducing herself. The woman attacked Joker, Torra and Poppi, while the Ganon fragment assailed Sectonia, leaving Midna a choice of what to do that had only one real answer. The fragment of the demon king had to die.

”There's only one evil here!” she shouted in response to Urbosa's declaration, and then went after Thunderblight.

Summoning one of her twilight wolfos from a portal below her she doped down onto its back and spurred it after the arch corrupter, its paws speeding both her and it along the precarious walkways of the drum like room they were in. With a deft leap from her mount Midna landed behind Thunderblight, putting it between her and Sectonia. Power surged through her helm and into her hair, forming a massive glowing arm from her ponytail as she rapidly advanced on the blighted creature. The hand was about half the size of her head, and thus about half of the size of how big it could have gone, but she’d judged speed to be more important than raw power for battling the floating thunderblight.

Once close enough her mount turning to the side and quickly slid to a halt while at the same she lashed out with the hand aiming to grab the sword arm of thunderblight and hold it it in place so that the queen could strike it without fear of retaliation.

”End it quickly!” she called as both she and her wolfos braced for the struggle with thunderblight that was to come.

More Than Human

so my work hours have just gone back up to pre-covid levels without any kind of forewarning, so i won't be picking this up after all. Sorry bout that

World of Light

wordcount: 661 (+1)
Midna: level 1 EXP: ////////// (9/10)
Location: Sandswept Sky (Divine Beast Vah Naboris)

”Never sets? Goddesses that would be unbearable” Midna bemoaned in response to Primrose's suggestion that the desert day could in theory last forever. She shook her head, and put the dreadful prospect to the back of her mind. The comment was it a joke? It has to be a joke. She’s teasing me, right? had forced Midna’s mind out of her rage enough that she could think more clearly about their situation.

”You don’t put a giant lightning summoning artifact on something that advanced and leave it to wander around in the middle of nowhere if it isn’t carrying something important,” she agreed with Primrose’s assessment of the construct. Why else put that much magic into something if it wasn't going to be useful. Unfortunately they weren't any closer to cracking how to get into it, which is when the large Bee woman who had been flying outside the van informed them that she had a plan. She also derided Midna’s hitch-hiking idea, casting doubt upon her ability to follow through on it, something that did not sit well with the Twilight Princess.

”Now that I know it's coming, I can take precautions,” Midna forced herself to open her eye the one visible one bloodshot and squinting as she drifted up to confront the doubting monarch, getting right up in her face and almost certainly too close to her for comfort, ”So you do whatever your thing is Queeny and I’ll do mine.” she said, before giving the queen’s crown a flick with her finger and then vanishing from sight into the shadows.

---

Midna rode out the Queen’s flight in suspenseful ignorance. Her pitch black hiding spot safely tucked away from the light of both the sun and any flashes that might destroy more exposed shadows (like the one she had been in in the van when she had been ejected), which made it rather difficult to see what was going on. So instead she had to rely on audio cues to know when it was safe to emerge. When her ride announced that they had arrived Minda appeared atop Sectonia’s head, the diminutive imp floating up above her and wearing the Queen’s comparatively massive crown atop her bonce.

”It was a bit of a snug fit, but I’m lucky you have such a big head,” she said as she plucked the crown, who’s closed off shadow she’d been hiding in, from her head. ”Not my style either” she added after she made a show of examining it for a moment, before imperfectly popping the crown back in place atop the queen’s head.

After getting petty payback for the queen’s perceived slight against her, Midna floated towards the center of the chamber and took in the spacious interior of the camel while lazily stretching her arms above her head with her fingers laced together. ”Right see what we’re working with here. Wait...” Minda paused mid stretch as her eye met with a glowing eye symbol carved upon a structure built on a raised platform in the center of the cylinder ”Wait a second. I recognize that symbol!” not only had she seen it in several artifacts from Hyrule and worn by people like Zelda and Impa, but a similar symbol was also quite literally emblazoned on the back of her helmet and was often used as part of Twli symbology and runework ”which means this thing was made in my world?!”

She was amazed that this was even possible. Even when time had been shattered she hadn’t seen anything like it, ”Maybe I can figure something out?” she said, mostly to herself, as she drifted down to examine the core more closely. Now that she wasn't blinded by awe or an assumption that the creation was wholly alien she was starting to see some similarities between this (Sheikah) technology and that of the Twili.

Whether she’d be able to do anything with that similarity or not would take time to discover.

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 867 (+2)
Bowser: Level 7 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (35/80)
Location: The Dead Zone - Hell-bent City

Flanking round Bowser, the two motorbike riding flood revved their bike's handlebar mounted chainsaws and gunned for the shockdozer as it was in the middle of being swarmed by goddamn bats. In unison, they tilted their bikes to the side, bringing their sawblades low to the ground, aimed squarely at the vehicle’s large construction vehicle tires and, also in unison, they were each blasted by a torrent of water from behind. Losing traction and balance, the pair both lost control of their bikes, and hit the deck. Hard. One rammed its chest mounted infectors straight into one of its own chainblades, eviscerating itself in the process. The other survived its crash, didn’t last much longer than its compatriot.

The transformed Bowser, who’d pulled off his lucky bell to avoid the sprite’s effects sticking to the power-up’s form, came thundering down the road. His suit jacket buttons were straining thanks to his now rounder shell and small patches of damp had marred its shoulders underneath his new hydro shooting beaks(though with how much gore the battle had produced this was barely noticeable), but the king did not seem to mind. Instead he was laughing raucously, his new tentacle beard jiggling jollily on his chin as he crushed the surviving flood bike rider under foot and caught up with the Shockdozer. From the two ports on his shell, the twin Tentacruel beaks (two pairs of large blue pincers) emerged and tasted the air for a second time and found it fouled by the poisonous gases of the lurks. Two splintered reflections of the creature's mind ruled the new additions to the king and, now that they lacked their species usual poison resistance, they found this blight most fowl.

To Bowser’s delight, more than a dozen tentacles lashed out of his shell and began to assault the annoying bats assailing him and his minions with little input from his own focus. Where he was much too slow to catch the fragile speedsters, his new additions had no such issue.

”GAHAHAHA. POWWWWWER! I SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS SO MUCH SOONER” Bowser cheered as tendrils smashed and grabbed the Lurks around him, beating them down and causing their battered bodies to careen onto the ground or wrapping them up and dragging them to the Tentacrule’s maws, where their screeching was silenced with a deadly pincer snick. The alien bats scattered away from the king now that he was no longer an easy target, but the Crules weren't going to let them get away that easily. As their tendrils retracted back into Bowser’s shell their beaks swiveled skywards, twin tips acting like aiming reticles, and started blasting.

While the water wasn’t exactly a deadly substance, the high pressure streams were incredibly disruptive to the nimble. Just as it had totaled the bike riders, the twin Torrent’s smashed into the Lurks, knocking them off course and waterlogging their wings, causing several to crash and others to simply fall behind. Such too was the fate of the rest of the flood, as (after collectively and silently agreeing not to try to drive through an active flood vs demon titan warzone) the shock dozer hit a downwards slope and started ramming towards a ramp that they might be able to use to jump a ravine. Or use to plummet straight into it. Whichever event occurred, it was in the hands of those onboard and out of Bowsers, as he was also in the process of being left behind.

”HEY! NO! WAIT UP!” he yelled, but there was no stopping the car as it careened down the slope.

Bowser glanced behind himself at the flood hord, and found himself their only target. He also found himself no longer having to worry about friendly fire thanks to the Dozers rapidly increasing lead on him. As the swarm surged down the rap behind him, Bowser, instead of following the car directly, headed straight for the edge and then leapt. Once, twice and then three times in a hop, skip and then jump. His first two landings caused shockwaves, one of lighting and then one of fire. Each one rolled out across the ground, the rings ripping through the flood who were too tightly packed to all jump over them successfully. His third of the triple jump launched him up and over the chase towards safety. With lethargic pace, the Koopa king sailed through the air towards the other side.

”GAHAHAHA, LATER LOSERS!” Bowser laughed at the Flood as he left them behind on their own bank, before turning and actually looking where he was going, ”OH NO!”

There was a thud and jingle as the king impacted with the opposite side of the cliff wall, followed by the ear bleeding sound of cat claws scraping through solid stone. ”Phew. Close one” the Meowserified King said to himself, before slowly climbing his way up the sheer rock face and hauling himself up onto the flood free side of the gorge. There he unhooked the bell, wiped his brow and exhaled in both action and relief before turning and headed for where the shockdozer would have landed after its jump or, failing that, for the final root of the tree.

World of Light

wordcount: 814 (+2)
Midna: level 1 EXP: ////////// (8/10)
Location: Sandswept Sky (desert)

There was a bit of talking to do before they set out again.

”Midna appreciates Poppi helping Midna” Midna told Poppi, while mimicking the unusual self referential speech pattern she and Tora had for the fun of it, when she agreed to use keep her fancy eyes on the look-out for the Arbiter's Grounds.

”Unless you're from Hyrule or some place in the same world as it, it’s kinda unlikely that it’s the same mirror. Least if I’m getting the gist of this whole world tapestry situation right.” Midna told the large bee queen when she suggested that she might have been in possession of the mirror at one point ”And I’m fairly sure it spent all of its existence in the Arbiter's Grounds anyway.” she added with a shrug.

She also gave the queen some limited pointers on who’d be good for the missions, mainly endorsing Zelda (even if she wasn't a Zelda Midna knew, the two she had were an indication that the Hylian royal line had a good track record of producing affluent, wise and popular rulers if they’d lasted so long, and so she expected this one would have no trouble talking people into joining the fight). Unfortunately, most of what she knew about the other smashers was how far she could toss them.

Before they set off, the vulpine looking lad decided he wasn't satisfied with pointed directions and instead ran off to speak with the mystery woman in the dunes. There was a bit of tension, Midna was worried she might pick a fight when brazenly approached, but the lack of any panic, screaming or sounds of violence gave the impression that everything was ok, and even she couldn’t miss the lady blasting off into the sky shortly afterwards.

”Bold aren't you? Can’t leave a lady alone to stalk people in the desert nooo, ya gotta go talk to her and ruin the mystery” Midna said once Fox returned, mostly to hide the fact that she was embarrassed she hadn't thought to do that very simple thing.

”So... What’d she say?” she asked, genuinely curious.

---

After a bit more traveling the yellow team approached the giant camel, which meant Midna got to actually see what it was they’d all been gawping at earlier. The giant construct truly was a marvel of magical engineering, a wonder that put everything Midna knew about magic, and even what she had seen made by the ancient Oocca, to shame. She wanted to tear it apart to find out how it ticked, and simultaneously knew all she’d achieve in doing so would be to ruin the awe inspiring machine and be unable to affirm anything from the act due to the gulf in wisdom between her civilization and whichever one had built the Titan.

Before she could really take it all in, or start to recognize any of her own world’s magic system peeking out from her under the layers of sophistication, the titan took notice of them and things rapidly took a turn for the worse. The camel powered up some kind of lighting weapon and, after a few moments, let loose a thunderbolt to punish them for daring to get even slightly close to it.

The flash of light from the thunder strike obliterated the shadows in the car, dumping Minda back out into the light world and dropping her surprised form to the floor of the car. Her helm prevented any head injuries from the fall, and her low position prevented her from being exposed to any shrapnel, but this was little consolation for the Twilight princess ”Ahhh! My eyes!” she screamed, covering both her exposed eye and the Fused Shadow covered eye with her hands while letting out a long string of unintelligible Twili curse words.

After barely avoiding being obliterated by the titan’s lighting control the Morgana-car rolled away from the machine, which fortunately did not attempt to pursue them. The initial mood was grim, with Panther expressing doubts that they could take on the machine.

”I am (string unintelligible curse words) mad at this thing!” Midna complained angrily as she sat up on the floor. She pulled one hand away from her eye, then waved it about in her blasted vision before grimacing and putting it back over the eye again. ”Stupid walking temple. If anyone thinks they can get up I could hitch a ride… Or maybe we can wait till sunset and I can sneak up its shadow once it’s stretched out of its lighting range?” Minda suggested, before growling in frustration at the lack of easy answers, her former awe having been replaced with righteous fury and a lust for vengeance against the camel.

How long that anger would prevail remained to be seen, but for the time being Midna was 100% onboard any plans anyone could come up with to strike back at the Titanic machine, no matter how foolish the prospect of fighting it was.

World of Light

wordcount: 720 (+1)
Bowser Jr: Level 6 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (101/60)
Kamek: Level 6 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (36/70)
Location: Edge of the Blue – Seaward Bay

And they were off. The second leg of Kamek and Jr’s journey truly began as the captain’s vessel set sail out on the endless sea. While the aged Kamek quickly hunkered down in a spot away from the seaspray and wind, Jr initially rode the front of the ship, claws holding tightly to the banister of the ship as the wind and saltspray blowing in his hair. Mimikyu was forced to hold on tight lest her cloud-like body be blown away, looping one arm under and around jr’s neckerchief/bib to do so.

Despite the wind, both boy and mon eagerly took in the sights of the high seas and the refreshing sea breeze. It was a pleasant change from the Land of Adventure, though the dark clouds hanging over what had to be the Bottomless sea reminded any who saw them that this land likely held as many if not more dark terrors hiding out here than they had found in the shifting fields of the land they had just cleared.

Just when the sights of the sea and the islands floating atop it were starting to grow stale something new swam into view. Jr pulled himself upwards and hung over the edge of the ship a little in order to watch the myriad of fish schooling around the ship swim to and fro. At the mention of fishing from he captain Jr pushed himself back down onto the deck, causing Kamek (who had been about to pull the dangling boy back to sensible safety) to stumble back and away from him in surprise.

”oh! oh! I’ve got something just for this” Jr said as he quickly brushed past the mage, who was in the process of picking himself back up, and headed for his clown car. After rummaging around in its hammer-space interior for a few moments he pulled out a fishing spear he’d gotten on their first day in Lumbridge from a loot box.

”Bet you i can fish way better with this cool thing than you can with those rods!” jr said, as he hefted the spear and strode towards the edge of the ship.

”May I make just two suggestions young master? One, you might like to get a rope so you can get that thing back,” Kamek said, causing jr to pause right before hurling the spear into the ocean.

”Yeah, I knew that. I was just testing the weight is all” Jr replied, before going and borrowing the same rope that had been used to haul Sakura out of the ocean.

As the boy tied the the rope through a hole at the end of the spear Kamek continued ”and might I suggest that we turn this a game?” he suggested, thinking back to several fishing minigames he’d had people play while running Mario parties ”see who can catch the most, biggest and most interesting fish?”

”Sounds good. Coz I bet I’d win” Jr replied, despite having never spearfished before.

”Anyone interested? Perhaps to make it more interesting the winner could have the first claim on the spirit of the region’s boss once we acquire it?” he added. Prizes always made contests more fun and exciting in Kamek’s opinion, and what better a prize than one he didn't have to personally finance. A lot of the troops’ remaining money had gone into grocery shopping, which was, Kamek realized, still sitting in the Bowser mobile which itself was still sat on the approach to where the End used to be. A somewhat inconvenient location for a bunch of perishable goods.

”I’ll have to deal with that in a bit” Kamek muttered to himself, before putting the issue to one side and turning his attention to the bit of the ship being used or fishing, where Jr was lining up his first throw. With little finesse he hurled it at the sea the sploosh startling the fish and failing to hit anything.

”Perhaps you should stick to the rod young master? I think you’ve used one before after all” Kamek suggested, only to be brushed off by Jr, who hauled the spear up and had another failed go at it. The mage left the young prince to it with a shrug, and instead turned his attention to the other fishers to see how they were doing.

More Than Human: superhumans fighting evil in a post-modern fantasy

v cool stuff

Not set on it by any means as a char basis, but would tech looted from Pendulum allow the creation of a kind of human, or more than human, steampunk gadgeteer? Based on the clockwork animals and other bits of the description steampunks what I'm assuming the aesthetic is, or would it be more futuristic looking?