DracoLunaris

World of Light

The Koopa King

wordcount: 678(+1)(+18)
Bowser: Level 8 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (90/80)
Location: The Dead Zone -> Smash City Alcamoth

”You and me kid, we’re going to show them all” Bowser told Marie, as he briefly summoned her to finalize the pact. She still looked like she was possessed by the skullheart, but Bowser didn’t pay the implications much mind other than it meant she’d likely still be a powerful fighter.

”Plus we can do some fun stuff too when we have the time. Ain’t gotta be all peddle to the metal” He got a nod and a smile before she returned to whatever existence Strikers had between summonings and Bowser turned back to the matter at hand. Or. almost did. Blazermate’s question of anime came up, distracting him briefly

”It’s like. Cartoons or something right? I think jr watched one of those, something about catching monsters or something?” Bowser replied, his mind calling up an expy of the Pokemon anime made somewhere in his world, specifically a film he’d watched with Jr one evening not too recently.

”Don’t see what those has to do with what's his face though” he waved his hand towards Sephiroth realizing he didn't know the man’s name, something that was solved a few moments later when the silver haired pretty boy dramatically introduced himself. Now that he wasn't lashing out, the king had to admit the anime guy did have style to spare when it came to bad guy presentation. The small self assured smile brought it down a little bit, but overall it was a good delivery, Bowser thought to himself before realizing he's gotten sidetracked again.

The place was about to explode, now was not the time to be handing out scores for villainous introduction.

”ALRIGHT ALRIGHT LET’S MOVE IT PEOPLE, YES YOU CAN COME SKELETON GUYS I DON'T CARE LETS JUST LEAVE THIS PLACE ALREADY!” He commanded, but fortunately people were already queuing up. Bowser impatiently joined the queue and in relatively short order the teleported had warped them all back to Alcamoth.

”LINKLE GOT TRICKED BY A CURSED ARTIFACT THING CALLED THE SKULLHEART. YOU, CAT GIRL… MISS FORTUNE? IS THAT A PUN? ANYWAY IT COMES FROM YOUR PLACE RIGHT? WELL THEN TELL VANDHAM ABOUT IT AND THEN YOU SEE IF ANY OF THE TROOPS WE HAVE WOULD BE ABLE TO GET RID OF IT SOMEHOW. ALSO HAVE THE MERCENARIES KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR PEOPLE WEARING THE MASTER OF MASTER’S CLOAK IF YOU AREN'T ALREADY. THE THIRTEEN NOBODY'S OR WHATEVER THEY WERE CALLED. ONE OF THEM KIDNAPPED LINKLE BEFORE WE COULD DO ANYTHING TO HELP HER, THE MASSIVE JERK” Bowser commanded, getting a bit more detail over that might be useful to the mercenaries and also hoping someone from some world or other might have a trump card against the skullheart’s corruption that its own world lacked.

All that left was working out what they were going to do while they waited for the city to go kaboom. Likely something that would be hard to miss, so they went exactly going to have to camp up and keep an eye on the place till it did, which left them with plenty of options.

”HOW HARD IS CATCHING UP TO BLUE GONNA BE?” The King asked. Turned out that depended on how their shopping was going. Some of them, including importantly (to Bowser) Junior, had popped back through and acquired a heap of gold from Peach’s vault before heading back to a city in the middle of the ocean they were working out of, similar to how the team had worked out of Lumbridge for a time in the Land of adventure. Apparently they had been looking into acquiring an airship, which Bowser highly approved of.

”Well I don’t know about you but I’m going to the Blue, make sure Junior and Peach and Kamek and everyone else is still good. Then maybe we help them out or mix it up and head for the forest or do some side stuff to power up for a bit? These Spirit’s have worked out great so far, you definitely had the right idea with taking those on earlier than I did” Bowser said, mostly talking to Blazermate. While he did he noticed Sephiroth had come back from wherever he’d wandered off too with a scowl on his face. At first he’d assumed the man had gone to use the bathroom but unless that experience had been incredibly unsatisfied then odds are he hadn't found whatever he was looking for, likely because he’d wandered off arrogantly assuming he knew where to go rather than simply asking.

Bowser had been there before too.

”SO WHERE’S THE MAP BEING KEPT ANYWAY?” Bowser asked for him, saving the fellow villain the embarrassment of asking after failing to find it.

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 850 (+1)
Bowser Jr: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (68/70)
Kamek: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (66/70)
Location: Edge of the Blue – Open Ocean

What Sakura had done had not been what Kamek had been trying to get across at all, and yet.

And yet.

Geralt had arrived thanks to Ranger’s lift, giving Sakura all the room she needed to end the fight how she wanted. The grizzled man couldn't bear to watch. Kamek couldn't look away. A part of him thought it was infinitely stupid, to attemt to free something so blatantly monstrous and evil, and yet.

And yet.

Part of him realized that the monstrous ship girl could have been him, or Lord Bowser, or Jr or any one of their minions. He suddenly emphasized with her, where before he’d only wanted the danger to be over.

He could only watch transfixed as the girl approached, hearted the ship and tried to pull her up out of the water, almost scared to move lest it break the spell of peace that fell across the battlefield. As if an errant twitch would prompt the girl to lash out at the vulnerable heroine and gut her in an instant, and yet.

And yet

The moment stretched on, and against all logic, the monster seemed to have been tamed, attempting to rise and softly aid the injured Sakura. It was only when she raised her hand and waved up at the ship, up at him, and called for help that the bout of bystander syndrome that had gripped him was broken.

”It worked?” he said in amazement, before his eyes, freed from staring at the scene, glanced around and caught the sight of Ranger, slowly approaching the ship and the Sakura. He also spotted the other surviving abyssal vessel, the one wearing massive gauntlets and practically nothing else who The End had knocked out with a sleeping dart, being carried helpful thought the sky by his minions towards them.

”Oh no it worked!”

”Yeah it did now could you two old farts stop standing around being useless already! Do you have any idea how annoying it is to have to sit here holding this ship up, unable to do anything but watch and then to have you two just waste time staring like gormless morons or hiding like a boo” Jr yelled, having been unable to do much but move the ship to and from escape vectors as the battle unfolded.

Kamek snapped fully back into reality part through the boy’s rant and then sprung into action he called out, ”Jr get ready to pick them up” as he mounted his broom and then rapidly descended towards the standoff occurring between the princess, who could definitely be seen to be holding Sakura hostage if you were being uncharitable, and Ranger, who had every reason to be bloodthirsty vengeful even without Galeem’s influence.

”Already doing that!” Jr’s call came after him, the ship gradually descending to come down to one side of the ship stand… float off, its bay doors opening up as he did so.

Kamk meanwhile dropped down out of the sky right in between ranger and the Princess, joined by his two remaining clones and one Toady holding the mg armed Tyrant, blocking Ranger’s shot in the process.

”Let’s not do anything stupid please” politely told them as wands and a pig gun where brandished by him and his minions.

”This one is free now. I know that doesnt make sense, but trust me, a violent fog has been lifted from her mind. This can end without any more deaths, just give Sakura’s peace a chance” He told Ranger, who had the red clone facing her, wand brandished yet not quite pointing it at her. If she did try to do something stupid, there was a clear indication that Kamek wasn’t going to let her ruin the success of Sakura’s stupidly brave actions, but he didn't want to directly provoke her either. She was also the only Galeem influenced person left after all, at least the only one awake, (The rest of the retreating ship girls and pursuing abyssals had stayed away from them till now. He wasn’t sure how long that would last but knew that if either group came to them there’d be trouble) and that made her a liability to be handled with care.

”That said I can't say I entirely trust you Princess,” he told her apologetically. For all he knew freeing her form Galeem’s influence had just opened up the possibility for her to be incredibly crafty when pursuing her own survival ”It would be in your best interest to let Sakura walk away, after which my minion here will see to her health and then, should this end well, to yours,” he gestured to the white mage clone who slowly inched closer to provide physical support (if she needed it) and healing to the injured heroine, while keeping his wand still squarely aimed at the princess. The pig gun toting Toady, who hovered above and to the right of him, did the same, though whether the pint sized impromptu appointed marks-minion would be able to hit anything should it need to fire was doubtful.

World of Light

wordcount: 972 (+2)
Midna: level 2 EXP: ////////////////////////////// (4/30)
Location: Sandswept Sky (desert): Vah Naboris at Lakeside -> Vah Naboris, north of lakeside

level up

Call the pack: Midna can temporarily summon her other two wolfos into combat at the same time as the one she is using as a mount. The summoning window is brief, a few seconds at best, making it more optimal to use them as part of attacks that act as permanent troops. The wolves can pinwheel like spinning blades, spin dash like drills and even run circles to create vortexes that draw foes in or keep them in place, as well as use any other abilities they might pick up.

They wolfos can also be larger than the one being used as a mount, though whether this is indicative of their true size or a magical buff is unclear. Whichever is the case, the hulking beasts can be devastating to groups of enemies, careening through them before vanishing back to the twilight realm only to reaper from another angle a number of seconds later.

Passively, this power also lets Midna adjust the size of the wolfos she is riding to suit any shifts in size or proportions she herself experiences.

The bespectacled man, his words thickly accented, was the first to introduce himself, calling himself the Medic. He spoke of missing comrades, an unsurprisingly common trend among the other answers she got to her question after what they wanted. He, along with his companion the Heavy, also wanted money and weapons, which was standard fare for mercenaries as far as she was aware. Their desire for hats was oddly specific but perhaps, Midna thought, it was a cultural status thing where important people wore big and/or fancy hats to identify themselves as such.

”Spirits should be able to fuel those material desires. Well, mostly the weapon one. Defeated monsters and other foes will drop these luminous spirits, which can be crushed to produce useful items, like Tora’s shield over there. Or they can be absorbed into the heart or head to gain their power or skills respectively, though you might get weaknesses of theirs too. Finally you can convince them to work for you as temporarily summon-able minions,” Midna explained. It was going to come up at some point, so now was as good a time as any to get this piece of information into the hands of their new allies. As weird as some of them were. While the heavy began to exposit on the virtues of his endless sandwich the Doctor showed himself to be one of those people who were obsessed with knowledge above all else with his poorly obfuscated desire to “experiment” on her.

”As for your final question, Doctor, I am a Twili, though I am a touch cursed and spirit warped at the moment. Also, incidentally, while you can look all you want I’m afraid you can’t touch. Sorry, you're just not to my taste. Don’t feel too bad though, there are plenty of weird and wonderful fish in the sea for you to experiment on, I’m sure,” she told him in a mock rejection, though she also more seriously shook her head and made a face when Poppi came along to ask about healing that was a very clear communication of “no, not on her either”

Speaking of taste, the heavy’s talk about and then sharing his sandwich with Braum had attracted the attention of most of the other men on their vessel to talk about food from their home realms. All baring Fox. The leader of the scouting mission had returned last of all, barely slipping onto the craft in time to join their escape. Despite his near unequivocal success (they still had to free the newcomers, but otherwise had swelled their ranks without coming to harm themselves) the man looked troubled and even disheartened as he silently slipped past the talkative folks with near a word. She wondered what had happened, but didn’t pry. Not yet anyway.

Unlike their prior trip, there wasn’t time for in depth discussion as they rounded the Oasis. Midna’s reasoning was not wanting to risk finding out if they’d get bogged down in the water, but she didn’t exactly plow through the trees or other life clinging to the edge of the desert sanctuary either. As they approached the Pyramid a sharp eyed Poppi spotted the Thieves surfing down its side, safe and sound, along with the search party and a new plus one, which was reliving but also put a damper on Midna’s new warrior spirit.

”You all got back alive. Good boy” Midna replied to Mona’s demand for praise once they arrived back onboard, but it got intercepted by a creature who did not being treated like a pet as condescending as Midna’s wolfos, which had dutifully escorted Primrose all the way through the pyramid as instructed, bounded over and then sat before its mistress, tongue panting and tail wagging.

”That wasn’t…” She said before sighing ”Yes yes, you did well now go home and wash, your coat is dusty” she told it, Primroses best efforts of dusting the beast off apparently not quite good enough for the princess. Sand grains on bare skin were never fun no matter how few there were, you didn’t need to be a pea under a half dozen mattresses sensing Princess to get annoyed at them. The shadow beast would likely appreciate the ability to cool off regardless after a job well done and so it happily hopped through a twilight portal back to wherever it called home.

Midna did indeed lose track of the thieves’ latest member as soon as she had introduced herself, though this was mainly because Mona approached her and gave her the rundown of the obstacles that would be in their way as they headed for the mountain, notably a cliff face that seemed to block off progress further north. A worrying development as, as he pointed out, it would mean they would need to leave the ancient anti Ganon weapon behind to proceed any further.

”That’s.. Not good,” She said. The warning was useful, so as she set them on their way round the pyramid and then towards this broken bridge once she spotted it she had time to think over the implications.

”Maybe I can control it remotely and still use the main long ranged spell? Or send it back to the entrance to hand over control to Zelda or another mercenary so they can sweep the area after we’ve moved on?” She pondered as she floated away and examined the central control unit more closely to see what she could do with it if they were indeed forced to leave it behind.

While they traveled north she drifted to and fro and thought this over she caught sight of Fox again and, remembering his silent return, decided to see what the deal was.

”So, what’s the matter with you foxy? I thought you’d be happy with how your plan turned out, but you sure didn’t look it earlier” she asked him as she drifted by, before settling down on a nearby platform to hear if he had anything to say.

World of Light

The Koopa King

wordcount: 630 (+1) (-5)
Bowser: Level 8 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (71/80)
Location: The Dead Zone - Hell-bent City

Bowser’s punch clipped the anime boy, sending him tumbling, only for him to right himself and retaliate in the blink of an eye, drawing an absurdly long blade and soaring across the ground towards the King. Bowser instinctively brought up his arms in a boxer’s guard, dinky mecha mit shield deploying to try and block the blow. Yet it never came.

A hail of fire withered the man, demonic blasts, fireballs, energy blasts and mundane bullets coming at him in a torrent. The sound was deafening. When it finally died down Browser spread two fingers to peek through his guard and found Setheroth had been knocked down and yet, amazingly, his form remained among the living. Slowly he lowered his guard back down, his heart still hammering in his chest.

”SEE WHAT I MEAN?” He told Setheroth, dramatically spreading his arms out as if this had all been intentional rather than him impulsively lashing out without thinking about the consequences, before coughing and much more quietly and incredibly begrudgingly saying ”Thanks” to the multitude of heroes who had probably just saved his neck.

He approached the man, who was still trying to rise and felt a brief pang of sympathy, because though the man’s face didn’t show it, Bowser had been where Setheroth was now more times than he could count and he could guess how he was feeling. ”You get used to it,” He told him quietly, before summoning a friend heart ”THIS’LL CLEAR YOUR HEAD, YOU GET ONE SHOT AT NOT BEING AN IDIOT AFTER, SO LISTEN UP AND DON’T SCREW THIS UP” he told the man, before flicking it towards him from a safe distance.

”ALRIGHT. HERE’S THE DEAL. THAT” He pointed up at the ’sun’ ”IS GALEEM. IT’S A BIG BAUBLE WITH WINGS THAT RIPPED REALITY APART AND STITCHED IT BACK TOGETHER HOWEVER IT WANTED AND THEN STOPPED YOU NOTICING ANYTHING WAS WRONG WITH THE MESS IT'S MADE. IT ALSO MADE IT SO YOU’D TREAT EVERY FIGHT LIKE A FIGHT TO THE DEATH. BUT YOUR FREE NOW. SO PUT THE SWORD AWAY AND WE CAN TALK ABOUT THIS. OR DON’T, AND SEE WHERE IT GETS YOU”

”ALSO THERE’S SPIRITS AND STUFF, BUT ALL THAT MATTERS RIGHT NOW IS YOU ADMIT DEFEAT, AND THEN HELP PUT GALEEM DOWN SO WE CAN FIX THIS MESS AND CAN ALL GO HOME. OR YOU CAN GO BACK TO WHATEVER YOU WHERE DOING WANDERING THIS TRASH HEAP OF A CITY IF YOU WANT, BUT SEEING AS THIS PLACE MIGHT BE ABOUT TO GO BOOM, THAT'S PROBABLY A STUPID IDEA” Bowser concluded, before glancing back at the teleporter, checking if it was done. In doing so he caught sight of something he wasn’t expecting to see.

Marie’s Spirit, held in the palm of V's hand.

”YOU FOUND HER!?” They’d been wrong, the girl hadn’t been devoured by the heart after all, which was a massive relief. On the other hand she was also dead now thanks to them. That was still better than being for her than being the skullgirl, or so Bowser hoped.

There was one way to find out of course.

Bowser stomped his way over to V and then wordlessly took the girl’s Spirit from him and then moved a short distance away from the red team.

”Hey kid. Sorry it ended up like this. Look, I know this place isn’t the best, but do ya wanna stick around for a bit? So I can make it up to you, and we can get back at that wretched heart together? Because trust me, no matter what that smug hooded jerk wants, this isn't over,” The king spoke softly to Marie’s spirit, before glancing back at the team and pointing a finger at the teleporter ”QUIT JUST STANDING AROUND! START GETTING OUT OF HERE BEFORE WE ALL GET BLOW TO STARBITS”

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 260 (+1 (for Kamek))
Bowser Jr: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (67/70)
Kamek: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (65/70)
Location: Edge of the Blue – Open Ocean

As the fighter and the princess duked it out, Kamek’s toadies snuck around them both and found the sleepingabyssal ship who had been knocked out by The End’s tranquilizer dart. The lightly clad ship lay on her back, drifting across the waves and snoring up a storm. The constructs glanced at each other and then carefully grabbed her by her metal parts. With one toady carrying each massive shield gauntlet and the third gripping the metal components grafted into her spine the abyssal ship girl was ungracefully hauled skywards and then back towards the Blue Team’s ship and the toadie's awaiting master.

Kamek himself had swung back to the deck of the Atomos after strafing the princess with pig iron fire. The peeved pig themselves had been set down, because Sakura had once again gotten into close quarters, and who could blame her, she was tearing it up there. Kamek had initially been sure she’d reengaged because the sight of the ‘sinking’ ship girl had drawn her back in to end the battle in a victory rather than a tactical retreat, but as he watched, he saw that she might not be willing to do what needed to be done. Indeed, she even seemed to try and walk away at one point, as if the monster’s wounded and dilapidated state meant that she’d won, only for the ship-girl to attack and draw her back in, the abyssal vessel unwilling, indeed unable, to surrender or retreat.

”Stop holding back and finish this,” the old mage called out to her ”because she won’t surrender! She won’t retreat! She can’t! That is Galeem’s curse!”

---

The Koopa King

wordcount: 728 (+1)
Bowser: Level 8 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (75/80)
Location: The Dead Zone - Hell-bent City

”Ate, what do you mean ate...” Bowser asked Blazermate when she suggested that the skull heart had devoured Marie’s spirit. Then, thinking about how the thing’s voice sounded like a multitude of woman all speaking as one, the king thought he got it and demanded that ”YOU BETTER COUGH HER UP RIGHT NOW OR SO HELP ME I’LL HAVE PEACH RIP MARIE OUT OF YOU” or perhaps it would be accurate to say he'd thought of a more optimistic idea of what she meant. Sadly, he wouldn't have the opportunity to find out if his idea would have worked.

The Skullheart wasn’t the only they had on their issue either. Blazermate reminded them that they were on a timer till an antimatter blast ripped the city apart, and she clearly wanted to skip town and let the countdown roll by from a safe distance. The king wasn't inclined to disagree with this plan, as far as he knew there wasn't any reason to risk racing that clock, so her constructing of the teleporter back out of this wretched place and back to safety was more than welcome and got a nod of approval from him.

The third thing on their plate was the arrival of Sephiroth, the dead zone once again proving itself to be full mostly of horrifying monsters and anime pretty boys, though the latest arrival spice things up by being both at the same time. He also made Bowser comment about villainous team ups extra timely, though neither of these facts were immediately clear.

Not that Sephiroth made any attempts to hide them, casually strolling in and among the group without a hint of courtesy or concern about his own safety among strangers to get a look at the skull heart. Even Bowser could read the “evil dangerous creep alert” written all over his actions and words.

”WOW, HEY, BACK OFF BUDDY. MAJOR CURSE ON THAT THING YOU DO NOT WANT TO- WAIT LINKLE NO!” Bowser tried to reach out and take the heart before anyone, especially their new guest could, but disastrously Linkle naively thought she knew what she was doing and snatched it up for herself.

”I AM SERIOUS, IT’LL EAT YOU UP, DON’T DO IT!” Bowser added his booming voice to the others, trying to grab the heart again only for the nimble hylian to dodge away from them all and make her wish. It went about as well as everyone expected.

Exactly as Bowser had predicted, the Skull heart took all of a single heartbeat to stab the hopeful hero in the back, finding a tiny selfish chink in her noble wish and using it as an excuse to inflict its corruption. The king tried to force himself forward all the same, not actually knowing what he’d do if he did manage to reach Linkle, only for another hooded figure to step out of the shadows and freeze Linkle right before the transformation could finish.

The member of Organization XIII, not that Bowser actually remembered the name of the hooded meddlers he had Kamek for that kind of thing, stole the limelight of the dramatic event, freezing everyone just long enough for him to dictate what they should be doing next before stealing Linkle away into one of his ilks now quintessential portals. Time returned, but the shock of everything that had just happened wasn't something Bowser could unpack in an instant, leaving the newly arrived Sephiroth plenty of time to be a smug snake about what had just occurred.

Bowser ground his teeth, his claws bared, his brow shaking and his eyelid twitching before he turned all of his built up ire about the current situation on Sephiroth.

”WE GET IT. YOU’RE EVIL, YOU DON’T NEED TO LAY IT ON SO THICK! WHO. EVEN. ARE. YOU?” Bowser stomped right up to the man and then jabbed a blunt edge of a claw into Setheroth’s chest to punctuate his question before telling him that ”YOU KNOW WHAT, IT DOESN'T EVEN MATTER WHO YOU ARE, IN GALEEM’S WORLD YOUR JUST SOME TWO BIT DIME A DOZEN FAILURE WHO CAN'T EVEN-” the koopa king faltered ”Who can’t even… GRAAAAAAAH!”

Bowser’s rage echoed across the desolate city as he roared at the sky. Then, as was his want, he did something incredibly stupid. He tried to punch Sephiroth right in his beautiful smug face.

World of Light

wordcount: 530(+1)
Midna: level 2 EXP: //////////////////// (22/20)
Location: Sandswept Sky (desert): Vah Naboris at Lakeside

With a final thundercrack of deterring lightning the pursuers were seen off, and the escapees were allowed to board Vah Naboris in relative safety. As soon as they were, Midna pulled it up and made the titanic stone beast trot away as fast as it could, leaving the pursuers, who fortunately did not figure out its weakness, in the dust.

”Well, that’s that. We’re safe,” Midna announced, though she kept a mental eye on the remaining lapdogs, just in case they turned out to be a persistent kind of hunters. Overall, things had gone rather well. They’d gotten in, liberated a competent looking gang of mercenaries, and gotten out without a search. Despite this, part of Midna’s mind disliked the hands off, some might even say dishonorable, way she’d participated in the fight. Or more that she’d hardly participated at all. Which is why she practically lept at the suggestion that they go help the Thieves.

”Then we ride for the pyramid!” She replied to the suggestion, then caught herself, coughed and then said more levelly ”Primrose went in to check on them before your, ah, negotiations broke down. Might be good to check on her.” Midna’s concern came off as forcibly offhanded, the impish princess looking away and raising a palm as she did so, before turning her gaze back to the newcomers.

”So. Who are you all anyway? I’m Midna, the Princess of the realm of Twilight by the way” She introduced herself as she settled down on a the pile of gears and other things Sectonia had found, lounging regally on it as she examined the people that they, or rather the others, had risked life and limb to free. There was the dwarf, of course, and joining him was a cute young crossbow wielding girl who Tora was getting all flustered over. In sharp contrast to her was an incredibly muscular and handsomely mustached giant of a man who was carrying nothing but a massive shield and wearing practically nothing above the waist. Midna found herself biting her lip as she admired his bare muscled chest before forcing herself to move on before she made a fool of herself like Tora had.

Finally there was the heavy set heavy weapon and finger gun wielding bald man who’d been instrumental to getting the group out and a bespectacled gentleman (who stood out among the other men they’d picked up as being the only one with hair on his scalp) who’d fixed up the whole squad with an odd set of contraptions contraption he carried and wore on his back. That had solved the team’s earlier issue about needing a healer, Midna noted, but did make freeing the newcomers a problem for later. They’d figure it out, Midna was sure, though she made a mental note to ask about how working with those under the influence worked in a more subtle way than Tora had suggested hearting them.

”and what are you hoping to get out of this?” she also asked, both genuinely curious and wanting to separate the wheat that would be useful to the cause from the chaff that had its own goals and aims in mind.

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 914 (+2)
Bowser Jr: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (67/70)
Kamek: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (64/70)
Location: Edge of the Blue – Open Ocean

”Yessss. So cool. I mean. Ok so the teeth are kinda weird. What is it with these things and teeth?” Jr asked as he quickly looked over the now bigger and badder pig. Tyrant had, coincidentally, gotten some freaky new dentures just like Mimikyu had out of the transformation process, but the main draw was the large gun mounted on his now deck like back. Not being pink anymore was also a plus for jr’s image, though the deathly pale white wasn’t the biggest improvement in the world over that.

”Ok let's see what you can do hey wow!” Jr said as he held Tyrant, only for the beast to wriggle in his grapes and in the process accidentally fire off his gun while attempting to escape. The shot ricocheted around the room, causing jr to lose a grip as he ducked for cover, letting the tyrant hop back down onto the floor.

”Careful! You could’ve hit me with that!” Jr admonished his minion, with Tyrant only looking a little apologetic about it. They were mostly confused by the whole ordeal.

”Whatever,” Jr sighed ” just go out and help Kamek”

Tyrant looked from his master to the open door from which the sound of battle was emanating and after weighing up its options looked inclined to decline the order. Jr frowned, but before he could get royal mad at this hint of insubordination he had an idea. Quickly rummaging through his car’s glove box he pulled out a small piece of candy and, with a dexterous claw, unwrapped it single-handedly to wave around in front of the beast's snout.

”You want this? You want it! Kamek catch!” Jr taunted the gluttonous pig with the treat before tossing it out at his magly minder. The small sweet flew through the air with a pitcher’s precision and bounced off the side of Kaemk’s head. The mage scrambled to catch the object, which had bounced up into the air and then turned to shout back at his ward only to see an excitable and drooling Tyrant trotting out of the airship after the tossed threat. The beast was noticeably bigger and a little ungainly on its feet thanks to its new ship-like parts, which gave Kamek just enough time to toss the sweet for Tyrant to catch to avoid being accidentally gored or shot by the creature if it tried to forcibly get it off of him.

”Well now, isn’t this interesting” Kamek said as he examined the mutated Baby Behemoth. Then, after a moment he grinned devilishly at the sweet scoffing creature.

As Jr had been doing his animal experimentation Kamek’s remaining clones had continued to do what they could to help fight the Princess, directed by their safely distant creator. One of the red mages fought valiantly against the bomber squadrons alongside Ranger’s fighters, only to be obliterated by the Princess’s scattershot bombardment, becoming its only casualty. The final two, one red one white, moved to Ranger’s side as she recovered from the blast. The white mage raised his staff and got straight to work cleansing the injuries she’d received from her near miss. It would have aided Sakura as well, but some power was preventing her from actually being wounded and, whatever it was, the mage had no way to help restore it.

The red clone which had had to pull out of the air duel to be healed and thus avoided being exploded joined it by Ranger’s side just in time for the princess to show off her plane spawning stamina, throwing out a wave of bombers that sailed forth free from any retaliatory fighter harassment. Sakura hucked a a swarm of mini fireballs at them and the red mage joined in, using the small amount of mana Kamek had regenerated to launch out a seeking fire shot using the fire materia, before switching to the wand of Hopus Pocus to pull lines of playing card suits up out under the bombers. They were about to switch again to the tentacle spike for a last ditch charge when a hail of bullets suddenly hammered down, sweeping through the bomber squadron before the stream arched round to suppress the Princess herself.

The source of this fire swept by, revealing itself to be Kamek, holding Tyrant under one arm like a football. A toady was having to aid in this, flying alongside the mage hand holding the pig the waist, because Tyrant’s size had been increased yet again. He had been buffed to be 50% bigger than he already was by the mage and, thus, the shots he was firing from his back mounted light machine gun were also 50% larger. As a byproduct of being touched by the magic and logic of Kamek’s world however, they were also a little bit slower, indeed they were visible to the naked eye as they flew, but this made them no less deadly.

The mage ended his strafing run and swept skywards again, circling out and away. Behind him, Jr was already pulling the airship around and away, getting the larger target out of range of the Princess’ ire while Kamek’s remaining toadies dived down to grab the incapacitated Abyssal fleet member, relying on the fleeing fighters to acted as a distraction or, worst come to worst, they'd act as a distraction themselves to help the others get away.

If even Sakura was deciding that retreat was their best option, then neither Koopa was inclined to get bogged down in the fight any longer.

World of Light

The Koopa King

wordcount: 430 (+1)
Bowser: Level 8 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (74/80)
Location: The Dead Zone - Hell-bent City

Bowser pinwheeled blindly into the shadow, who rose to stop him striking down the heart. The king roared wordlessly with frustration and anger as she slowed his strike, only to feel 4 familiar shots strike him. A brief belief that he had been betrayed and shot in the back by Dante for some reason was flung away in the powerspin that the shot’s induced, the King buzz sawing through the shadow’s defenses and smashing into the heart.

The resulting explosion flung Bowser far away from their foe, his form bouncing once twice and then coming to a stop on the broken ground, the king left a bit dizzy and befuddled from the added uncontrollable spin and the subsequent explosion.

”uuuurgh. That hurt...” he muttered, complaining about the grueling approach, the subsequent ‘help’, and the resulting detonation all at once right as Nadia ripped the heart from what remained of Marie’s, well, remains.

”Wowowowow wait!” Bowser popped his limbs and head out of his shell and scrambled for support as the platform they had been fighting on started to collapse, but fears that he was about to be dumped down into a bottomless pit were unfounded, as the rather gentle collapse merely deposited them back down in the now ruined library. Slowly, Bowser picked himself up and checked the ruins for hostels, but after a few moments decided it looked like they were in the clear. Neither Sans nor Mari had been particularly subtle, so the lack of flying skulls and bones made it highly unlikely either of them were in a position to cause an issue.

After toasting a suspicious looking bookshelf, he did not put it past the mimics to still be lurking around even after their hidey hole had been wrecked, Bowsers slowly stomped back towards the group as Nadia went through some character growth and then the skull heart made its tempting offer.

”Oh, yeah sure, you're totally trustworthy, not prone to backstabbing whatsoever. Take it from a guy who’s been in a fair share of evil team ups, you only do it if you know you can double cross them before they double cross you, and this little rat’s gonna get stab happy right off the bat” He said with unusually quiet venom as he swept his gaze over the ruins around where the heart was laying, and failing to find what he was looking for. When he realized he might never be able to find it ”HEY! WHERE’S MARIE’S SPIRIT YOU SPLINTER! TELL ME BEFORE I CRUSH YOU INTO DUST!” he demanded as he made a grab for the heart, looking more than willing to go through on his threat.

---

wordcount: 642 (+1)
Midna: level 2 EXP: //////////////////// (21/20)
Location: Sandswept Sky (desert): Vah Naboris at Lakeside

”Allies then,” Midna replied to the dwarf’s correcting of her- saying his friends weren't here, an unsurprising if a little sad thing to say. Then he scooted off, grappling up on top of Vah Naboris just before the lightning struck. It was fortunate she’d been watching him zip up onboard rather than her targets as she got only a little dazzled rather than straight up blinded again when the lightning struck its target.

”Ugh, finally… huh, not bad Vah” she complimented the giant construct, confident no one would over hear, as she squinted down the result of Vah Naboris’ thunderous introduction to the battle. It might not have killed very many of their foes, but the disarray it had thrown them into was more than enough to give the escapees time to breach the fence and start getting clear. They weren't out of the woods yet however. Even if that had killed all their foes, they’d still come back, keep harassing them and wearing them down till they were dust. They needed a solution. Sectonia’s plan to ice them was, Midna had to admit, ingenious, but she felt sticking around to try and pull it off on all of their enemies was an unnecessary risk. As was trying to destroy the room they kept coming out of. Either they’d have to push to it, very dangerous, or try and stomp it down with Vah Naboris, and Midna was loath to give them more time to work out how to knock the divine beast out of commission in the same way fox and co had when they’d first captured it.

Distance, she felt, was what would be best. The briefly mentioned briefcase and announcer Sectonia’s quick rundown of the situation had spoken about didn’t seem important enough to her to tackle right now. Neither were going anywhere as far as she knew, whereas who knew what was going down in the pyramid as they burned time out under the sun. Putting distance between them and the resurrection room would give them time to figure out if it was worth going back for. Or so Midna hoped.

The fastest way they were going to get out of here was, of course Vah Naboris, so she sent it to swing round behind the escapees, again, leaving space to avoid making them into flatbread and then called out to them from her lookoutspot, ”I’m setting the camel down. Hurry up and get on so we can ditch these hunting dogs!”

The giant construct did just as it was told, carefully strutting its way round and to the side of the escape’s route of flight before setting itself down just in time for them to be reaching it. The camels body angled at 45 degrees to their rout so that, once the last of the runners was out of the way, it could lower its neck down to to act as a wall, preventing anyone from getting to, or at least shooting at, their side of the camel while the yellow team mounted their getaway vehicle.

”Quick, up here!” Minda, who’d shadow hopped onboard again, called down, directing a massive glowing pointer finger towards a stairwell leading up one of the pagodas that the legs extended out of that would be the best way to get onboard.

”Now then, we should probably make sure we don't have any uninvited guests” She suggested, both to the Scout and to any fliers or fast climbers who were on hand to ripple borders. There was, after all, a slight flaw with her plan, in that while it meant that the team should be able to get onboard without being harassed, it also left the entrances on the other side open to be boarded by the Red and/or Blue teams, so they might need to kick some unwanted hitchhikers off before they made their escape.

World of Light

wordcount: 824 (+2)
Midna: level 2 EXP: //////////////////// (20/20)
Location: Sandswept Sky (desert): Vah Naboris at Lakeside

Midna had gotten the rundown of the situation and then left behind as the queen bee headed for the fight with Tora in tow. She did not look particularly pleased by this, but Midna thought it was hilarious to watch. The catch-up chat had given Vah Naboris time to catch-up itself and now, together, the princess and the war machine advanced towards the battle that was already raging away, with those who had taken a deal for continued immortality chasing those that had been swayed by the speeches of their animalistic teammates.

One of those retreating had even managed to get out and over to her. The short bearded man had raced ahead of the pack despite his unimpressive stature (not that Midna was one to talk, being only a little bigger than him, and that only thanks to her absorption of Urbosa’s spirit) thanks to a hookshot like contraption that had let him wizz from point to point in the blink of an eye.

”Hello,” Midna called over to the dwarf, giving him a dainty finger wave from where she was drifting just adobe the sands in the shade of the titanic beast. She’d tried walking on the sands, but doing so barefoot had not been pleasant in the slightest. Even staying low as she was it still felt like her royal feet were being roasted by the heat radiating from the sand but after she’d seen what the enemies stray bullets had done to an unfortunate palm tree she'd decided to stick low to the ground despite the discomfort. This gave her the brief impression of being normal, and indeed her newly acquired Gerudo muscle even made her look a little dwarfish at first glance until you looked closer and saw everything else that was off about how she moved and looked impishly gliding across the sands.

”Be careful to not get squished like a bug under Vah Naboris' hooves. Also, I hope you’re not thinking of keeping running. There’s nothing but sand out there for quite a while,” she told him, her tone playful despite the warning she was in-parting, before laying out his options ”Either hide, guard me or find a way to help your friends get to safety and then we’ll all get out of here. Your choice” she told him shrugging to indicate she didn't really mind what he did, before adding after a moments thought ”Unless Fox has more risky ideas up his sleeves”

She realized that she wasn't entirely sure what the plan was other than keeping their new allies safe from their vengeful former comrades. Her instinct was to just leave now that they’d gotten what they could, but her talk with Fox gave her the impression he’d try to steal more chickens from the coop than they already had gotten out.

”Either way, it's time to bring down the thunder” she said, drifting onward as Vah Naboris’s humps began to spark with electricity, their arcane power humming to life and awaiting a target designation. Midna drifted up the side of a sand dune, laying belly down in the air and skimming over the hot sands so she could peek over the top at the fight. Even though she could see it though Naboris and her own eyesight was bad in the light part of her instinctively wanted to see the danger with her own eyes. She got a look just in time to watch the heavy snipe someone with his finger gun. Midna assumed she’d missed some kind of spellcasting and as a result judged the heavy to be a warrior who was also proficient in spellcraft, something that made him a potentially useful anomaly in her eyes. That trickshot still left a fair number of enemies rushing the yellow team after that however, and if she understood the situation correctly, the dead man would be back any second from their base. A bit like the monsters and minions that had been used during the shattering of time had just kept coming till you took their spawning forts.

Now that she thought about it, if they wanted to not abandon the kids or get trapped fighting their way out of the pyramid, they might need to deal with this. Most of her was at most mildly irritated by this, but another part of her, a new one, was almost pleased with the opportunity to fight against new and interesting foes. Midna didn’t take the time analyze this new impulse and simply pushed it down when it also complained about the dishonorable tactic she was going to employ.

”Hmmmm,” Midna scanned the targets available, laying belly down in the air with her feet kicked up above her legs. The squid and the soldier where getting too close to the fleeing yellow team, so she instead picked the slower members of their opposition, pointing at the group containing the Cunning, the Totem, the Raider, and the Vanguard and saying ”You lot will do”

Power surged on Vah Naboris’s back and static began to crackle around the Vanguard specifically as the rather slow charging sequence of the titan’s defensive weapon started warming up.

”Come on. Come on! Strike already!” she muttered to herself impatiently once it became clear this was going to take a while. As she waited she directed Vah Naboris to direct its path to one side of the fleeing team rather than right at them. She did not want to accidentally trample the escapees as they ran away.

---

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 489 (+1)
Bowser Jr: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (65/70)
Kamek: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (62/70)
Location: Edge of the Blue – Open Ocean

”Huh. Neat stuff” Jr said, looking over his shoulder as Geralt got his items from the crushed spirits, before thinking for a moment and yelling at Kamek ”Hey, where’s Mimi?”

Kamek paused, and then pointed to his pocket ”Broke her ’mask’”

Jr groaned, but he got the implication and so picked Mimi’s pokeball from where it was sitting alone on his chest bandolier and tossed it out. The ball bounced off of the cleaning, and then froze in the air, shooting a red beam out into the magikoopa’s robe's pocket, pulling the upset spook up into a hiding space that wasn't going out into danger once more. Then the ball bounced down to the ground and then leapt back into Jr’s hand. He’d gotten a bit of practice with tossing the pokemon storage device during his time learning from Steven Stone, but he was still impressed by how good they felt to handle. He also knew that, if given a bit of time, Mimi’d fix her own disguise right up in there. Somehow. But until she did he'd need to think of another way to contribute.

Kamek left the boy behind as he mulled over how he could be more useful in future and headed out onto the deck of the ariship. From there he got a clear look at the fight. One of the princess’s escorts was straight-up gone, while another looked like it had been knocked unconscious, something he didn’t even know could happen but that he guessed could definitely come in handy if they won and could take her back with them. The princess herself however was still up and fighting fit, engaging in a simultaneous battle of toy sized airplanes with Ranger while also duking it out in melee with Sakura, only to grab and toss the girl away a few moments after he started examining the battle. His 3 remaining clones were also still in the fight, but without direction they were being rather useless.

Silently he directed the two red clones to bombard the princess with his own standard bouncing fireballs as the surprisingly unharmed Sakura did the same with her cannons, before sending them after the bombers once the school girl got back into brawling range for fear of hitting her by accident. The magikoopa clones were not built for dogfighting however, and so one immediately took a bomb to the face and had to limp away from the fight for the white mage to heal. Meanwhile the other one used the tentacle spike to try and swat the planes out of the air, as everything else they had at their disposal was much too slow to hit the nippy ball shaped bombers.

While Kamek had been playing air force general from a safe distance, and Geralt dived off of the ship to get in close and go spirit hunting, the toadies had buzzed past their creator to collect one more spirit, this time at Jr’s request. They came back caring the To-Class cruiser that Kamek had previously downed. They drifted past and Kamek and presented their find to the prince, who glanced over from the fight and down to where his baby behemoth was sitting in his lap.

”Alright Tyrant,” he said, as he took the spirit from the toadies and then pressed it into the horned pig’s back ”Time to pull your weight”

World of Light

The Koopa King

wordcount: 470 (+1)
Bowser: Level 8 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (73/80)
Location: The Dead Zone - Hell-bent City

The gaster blaster’s lasers ghosted right through Bowser like the bone waves had, inflicting the same karmatic poison. The resulting pain coursing through his body cut off his vacuum breath before it could upset the tiny skeleton’s untouchability. The king crumpled to the floor, the poison burning at his essence, dark magic boiling off of him as the spell enlarging him to the brunt of the poison, causing him to shrink slightly before Blazermate dashed in and cleared the effect.

”You’re a lifesaver” Bowser said as the pain abruptly came to an end, but the robot girl was already dashing away to cure someone else before he could thank her properly. With their guardian angel on the case with her cure all San’s barrages of attacks had almost been in the red team's favor, the skeleton having decimated the hordes of other undead who lacked their own medic to save them from his indiscriminate blaster and bone fire.

Now however he was pouring wave after wave after wave of fire into a hulking titan summoned by V, the skeleton’s bones and lasers joined by Marie’s skull barrages. Despite this the monster didn’t even flinch under the hail of fire, even Marie switching target’s to the creature's summoner. Nothing could stop it, least of all Bowser who picked himself off the ground just in time to see the colossus unleash a great beam of purple light at Marie. The demonic laser beam was blinding, forcing the king to shield his eyes. When it subsided, all that was left of the cursed girl were her scattered bones and the pulsating dark skullheart holding the ruined remains of her around it. When the dark heart beat, the shadow that had been guarding Marie pulsed into view with the heart at its core, revealing itself to not have been a minion but in fact to be the one pulling the girl’s strings.

”YOU MONSTER! SHE WAS JUST A KID” Bowser roared, jabbing an accusatory finger at the shadowy figure. Where Sans was touched by a brief melancholy, Bowser was filled with rage at what this thing, this woman, had done to a child. She’d poisoned Marie’s soul, warped her body and mind and even now that she had been reduced to tatters and rags was holding her together to continue its destructive ends. Enough was enough. He didn’t need Blazermate’s helpful call to know who to target.

Bowser charged. Bones and beams struck him, but the king shed his dark power, growing smaller and faster. When slammed he landed on all fours and launched himself forward again till he got close, where he launched himself airborne, pulled his extremities into his shell and tried to deliver a shell spinning attack to the skullhearted shadow woman, the King coming in like a whirling fortress of spikes, armor and fatherly fury.