”What perfect timing you two have,” Midna greeted the two fliers as they descended to meet them. Not that they would have been able to find them before the sandstorm abated, she supposed, and in a sense it was perfect timing in that they were done and now needed a ride out of there. After the new arrivals took advantage of her allies' rather beat up state to friend heart them, removing the liability of Galeem’s touch and allowing them to explain the true nature of the world to them, later, they quickly gathered up the spoils of war.
Prime among them were, of course, the two Flygon spirits but also their young and a pile of odds and ends from inside their tent nest. There were a number of large (delicious looking) eggs plus a few other magical odds and ends, some cubes on legs (that they were quickly relieved of) and a whole pile of bits of bits of paper with pictures of old men in wigs on them that claimed to be legal tender, a claim which she did not find convincing. All of this was piled into a bag made from the tent canvas and then they were ready to set off.
”You two have a fun flight and try not to fall,” She told the mercs, before dismissing her wolfos and slipping into the queen’s shadow where she could ride weightlessly up the cliff in cool dark isolation.
The triumphal hunters and their transport arrived atop the cliff and found that while most of the team had stuck around to wait for them the Thieves had apparently left the group. ”Those kids completely gone or have they just run on ahead?” The princess asked those that remained in general.
The princess’s levitation and then her summoned mount kept her free of the mana draining sand initially, but sadly it seemed they were not done with sandstorms quite yet as the winds picked up and filled the air above with it, preventing their fliers from simply bypassing what lay between them and the “sphinx” that was their destination. She imagined they would very much have liked to do so, as said path rapidly revealed itself to be a gauntlet of traps and creatures seemingly purpose built to make the platforming a pain in the butt. Bowser would have given it a high score if he saw it. The terrain itself was made up of more ruins, these more tightly packed and made of various different styles and materials, all different to the broken bridges below, all of it jumbled together and left to be worn down by the sand.
Concerned that the wind might shift at any moment and dump magic killing sand all over, Midna stuck mostly to relying on her dexterous and agile Wolfos to see her through. Despite having to take part in platforming like the rest, it meant she wasn't at risk from dropping out of the sky while slowly levitating over gaps, or being dumped out of shadows while she rode or teleported between them. The fused shadow she was more confident in, its own magical reserves dwarfing her own by a significant margin, and both it and her wolfos were on hand to help people who struggled or failed at platforming. The idea of using it to climb, hauling her small body along behind it, or using it as a grappling hook did cross her mind, but again, the same issue of potential failure applied. The woflos was faster, and keeping it in the world of light wasn’t particularly taxing, making it the safest option. Plus it kept her maneuverable, which was convenient when there were Hinox skulls with armored chins flying around at high speeds trying to smash them into bits or into pits.
It was very fortunate that the power that kept her from being killed by the world of light’s, well, light was divine in nature rather than magical. Or that was what she hoped. Unsurprisingly the princess did not make any effort to test whether the sand was straight up lethal to her or not.
The princess led the way for much of the jumping, her and her mount scouting out safe paths and then occasionally helping people over them or taking a turn at carrying the treasure bag. She’d also fish for the sandy octoroc creatures, shoving the fused arm into their hiding places, digging around and if she found them then dragging them out of their hiding spot and tossing them at a nearby obstacle. It was a very cathartic moment in the midst of a lot of frustratingly slow and yet also occasionally hair raising progress.
After what seemed like an age they finally arrived at the ‘sphinx’ temple and were greeted by the flying ship who had been a girl before. Then they were directed inside where they found a goddess blessed little oasis and garden in which the Thieves had set up shop. There was shade, nice furniture, food and cooking equipment and, most importantly, water. Into this the round Tora almost immediately tossed himself.
Midna joined Poppi in rolling her eyes at this ”Have some dignity- woa!” before she cried in alarm as her mount chased him into it, the sand caked beast leaping into the water, causing a large splash.
”you mangy mutt you ah!” she berated it right before the beast rolled over and tipped her into the blessedly cool and cleansing water.
Silently she floated through the water to the edge of the pool while the beast doggy paddle around, removed her mask, fully exposing her face for the first time, and then draped the garments she’d gotten from fusing with Urbosa’s spirit over the top of it so that they could dry. Then, after giving herself a quick scrub to get the sand out of the worst places, especially her eye, she proceeded to float around in the water, her levitation keeping her at the perfect buoyancy so she could drift with her hands behind her head and one leg crossed over the other while she soaked her dusty and tired body.
”Ahhh, now this is more like it” she sighed contentedly. Food and drink and the acquisition of power could wait. For now, this was all she needed.
wordcount: 5,286 (+3) (+8) Midna: level 2 EXP: ////////////////////////////// (23/30) Location: Sandswept Sky – Before the Great Barrier
The Medic: Word Count: 5,286 (+3 Exp) (+8 Exp) Level: 1 Exp: ////////// (12/10) Level Up Imminent Location: Sandswept Sky (desert)
The Heavy
Level: 2 (18/20) Location: Before the Great Barrier Word count: 5,286 (+3 Exp) (+8 Exp)
For the first time since...well forever really, something went down Heavy’s spine that wasn’t Medic’s mind-shatteringly painful medical tools. No, what went down Heavy’s spine was shivers - Shivers from the very thought of what Medic had just mentioned. "Pyro...Heavy thought that terrible...terrible word could not frighten me more, but...DRAGONS!" Heavy seemed to attempt to distract himself from that terrible mention of the “Pyro”, whoever that was. Heavy and Medic knew perfectly well who, or what the Pyro was able to do, and it wasn’t anything good. But they had bigger fishes to fry, or rather Dragons to shoot with very expensive weaponry.
Heavy had paid very little attention to the conversation between his beloved Doktor and Midna the shadowy monarch, their intellectual prowess not his specialty. Mentions of masks and syringe guns went over his head, though the obvious sight of said DRAGONS brought Heavy’s attention to a sharp mercenary precision! The dragons were nothing like Heavy had seen before, but then again, he hadn’t seen a real DRAGON before either, so how should he know?
”Here, why don’t I just demonstrate” Midna replied when asked by the Medic what she could do, before floating down to the ground behind their observation spot, out of sight of the feasting bug looking but not actually bug type pokemon. The Medic had sighed, expecting her to fly directly into battle, but Midna was smarter than that. Her feet hit the sand, the princess wincing a little at the heat on her bare feet, before she turned ”I know i might look petite to you, but trust me, I hit hard” and flexed a toned arm.
It wasn’t very impressive.
Then she pointed up at the massive glowing one coming out of the back of her head, the fist of the flexing magical limb large enough to crush a man. Well, maybe not the Heavy, but certainly the Medic at whom she was aiming a toothy grin, ”And this is just a fourth of the fused shadow. Plus, I have some magic of my own.” She snapped both fingers and pointed to either side of her where two more wolfos, these ones approaching human height, appeared from the twilight realm, crouched beside her, ready to pounce ”You boys stay out of my way, and I’ll smash these things to pieces.”
The Medic watched her display with interest. His only experience with magic was a wizard that most certainly did not fight his own battles. I’ll have to test ze upper limitz of her magical hair’s strength.
The Siberian Brute had been just about to rush out ahead, when they needed to figure out a plan. Well, really it was Midna’s show of muscle that held him back for a brief moment honestly, the sight of her tiny baby muscles giving Heavy an approving chuckle in Russian. Clearly she wanted them to stay out of her, and what better way to do that than to begin the assault himself? Then again, Midna clearly wanted him to use Sasha against those DRAGONS.
The princess took a few more heartbeats to enjoy her own theatrics before dismissing all her magics, wolfos returning home and the hand turning back into her ponytail, and getting back to business. ”Which shouldn't be a problem for you, if I remember how that weapon works. Some kind of rapid fire projectile weapon right?” she pointed at the heavy’s minigun.
"Da! Sasha be fine weapon against Dragons...I think, never fought Dragon before. Medic? You think Minigun bullets penetrate dragon scale? If not, Heavy use fists of steel to give dragons good punch!"
It was clear that Heavy was losing his patience, wafting his fists and Minigun around in anticipation to start the fight. If neither Medic nor Midna soon started their match, Heavy was more than willing to storm out onto the battlefield and take out the baby DRAGONS like Medic had told him to. Minigun or not. He really missed his Boxing Gloves, though perhaps he would find them again soon?
Realizing their window for strategizing was rapidly dwindling, the Medic proceeded to rush through their current strategy. “Alright, crush ze babies viz your fists, und zen use Sasha on ze adults. I’ll cover you. Meanwhile, her highness vill distract ze parents viz her magic helmet und dire volfs. If eizer of you need healing, shout.” This last instruction was more for Midna’s benefit than the Heavy’s as he was well accustomed to such things.
”Perfect” Midna said, picking up on the large man’s impatience and, seeing little reason to delay any further, was more than happy to set them on their way. She floated up into the air, called her wolfos over from where it had been obediently waiting and mounted up. ”Then without further ado, let's get this started” she announced, before spurring her beast forward, riding around their little barrier and racing towards their targets. The buggy dragons seemed to be too stupid to have posted sentries while they feasted, and so initial her brazen charge wasn’t met with any resistance. This state of ignorance went on right up until the point where she got confident enough to glance back to see if the others were keeping up, at which point her wolfos stepped a paw into one of the small divots in the sand and slipped on the fine grains within.
And so it began - A new match! Heavy was ready to get his hands dirty, or even bloody, cracking his knuckles and charging head-on into the fray of battle. With a guttural, deafening roar from his deepest Siberian vocal chords of "EYAAAAAAA!" Heavy was running as fast as he could through the sandy ground. Ahead of him, Midna raced ahead of them on her mount like a bonk addled scout, and behind him his trusted Medic keeping up with his stubby little legs. Things were looking well, until Heavy’s not-so-nimble feet struggled to avoid a trap. Holes in the ground, where one would sink into. Sinkholes!
The Medic had been chained to the Heavy at the time, so he was a few feet behind Midna when she rode into what appeared to be a sinkhole.
”Wow there, what ahhh!” Midna cried out as a massive blast of sand shot of the pit, fired from the mouth of the adorable puppy sized creature within, which then proceeded to bite the slipping paw of the wolfos with its massive jaw. The beast yowled in pain, its advance entirely halted and alerting its mistress to its plight. The princess stopped trying to get sand out of her one exposed eye and sent a massive orange fist down from her head, which grabbed the biting creature and squeezed it. Hard.
Witnessing the event, the Medic shouted to the Heavy to watch for sand pits.
"I see now! Stupid holes in ground where no holes meant to be. This not be normal map! Not good..."
The beast let go and let out a cry of “Traaaaaa” before its little body broke in Midna’s grasp and she crushed it. ”Wretched thing” Midna complained as her beast limped away from the sand pit. Or rather the sand trap. Similar traps littered the area, and the reason why became immediately obvious as a duet of women voices singing in wordless song suddenly erupted, drawing all eyes to the dragons and their adolescent young.
The two more draconic flygons took to the air, their wings singing as they kicked up a rapidly intensifying sandstorm around them. While they did the younger insectile Vibrava scuttled or buzzed (the sound of which induced a mild headache that got stronger as they got closer) across the sand towards them, a swarm advancing along with the blinding storm whipped up by their parents. A storm that would make seeing the Trapinch’s pits much harder when it hit in a few heartbeats.
“Mache schnell!” The Medic shouted, trying to dodge sand traps while also rushing toward the vibrava. Once sure the Heavy had crossed safely, the two set about clearing the small fry. The Medic at first attempted to use his syringe gun, but the whipping sandstorm blew each syringe off course. Hissing loudly, the Medic switched to his emergency weapon, his bone saw. “I’m going to zaw zrough your BONES!” he shouted angrily as they both began culling the herd of large nymphs.
The meter long bugs came charging in in a scattered pack, the frontrunners rushing to be the first to strike the foolish fleshy things that had entered their domain.
One darted to the side, circling round to attack the side of the wounded Wolfos. In defence, the princess brought out her magic hand once more, flicking it in a wide ark that tore up the sand as the bottom scraped across the sand like a wrecking ball, clipping the bug and sending it sprawling. It rolled out of Midna’s range, hurt but not dead and the princess was unable to follow to finish the job thanks to the crippled state one of her mount’s limbs, prompting the Princess to cry ”Medic!” over the howling sound of song and storm.
The other launched itself at the medic, its mandibles stretched wide as it attempted to rip off his arm with a powerful Crunch. It received a jagged blade to the face for its troubles, though it’s skin was surprisingly tough. Still, the attack had been deflected, and the Medic stomped down on it as he put his saw away and once again pulled out his Medi-Gun, aiming it at Midna’s mount. The entire time the attack continued, with the Medic trying desperately to dodge the biting of the small creatures, with only some success. After just a few moments, the wolfos was healed, and the Medic returned to swinging his saw at the offenders. The speed with which he switched between weapons was incredible.
The woflos took a heartbeat to realize what had happened, before leaping into the fray, bringing a surprised princess along for the ride, to aid the helpful man, quick jaws snapping around a Vibrava before shaking it violently, savaging the creature fiercely.
"I will squash you all like bugs! REAL BUGS!" Heavy shouted in a warlike state, disregarding his minigun at the moment to follow suit of Medic and his tiny, itzy bitzy bone saw. Heavy on the other hands, preferred to use his bare knuckles to knock some sense into the heads of those little baby dragons. Sense, and death, mostly death. While Medic might have had some issue dealing with the sandy hostiles, Heavy had a much easier time picking up the tiny baby creatures and beating them senseless. One after another, Heavy grabbed, beat and tossed away as hard as he could the nymphs like tiny rocks in glass house, finding it an ever joyful sport.
As he did, multiple small mounds of sand rapidly closed in on the slower Heavy as numerous Trapinches dug their way through the sand to try and pick off the slower, meatier intruder. Three of them burst from the sand in quick succession, one on either side and one dead ahead. As soon as they emerged each one tried to spit a heavy ball of thick wet sand at the russian to attempt to blind, slow and distract him before they ran in and attempted to bite his ankles off.
The season of nymph-throwing was rudely interrupted by tiny, orange little creatures sneaking up on Heavy from underground. The heavy Russian tried to stomp at those little biting bugs as they approached, though the soft sand underneath his feet only managing to dig himself deeper into a sandy situation. Two of the Trapinches got him flanked at the sides while the last one faced him down like a true man...thingy! "Who sends babies to fight me?" Heavy taunted at them, only to feel a dry pain in his eyes with a heavy ball of wet sand stuck to his face. Letting out an agonizing "GAAH! It burns!", Heavy was becoming something worse than simply ready for a fight.
He was angry! Blinded by hatred for the tiny, baby cowards of the sand, Heavy gave one of his most powerful stomps to the ground yet. The sheer force of his foot managed to flow one of the critters up into the air for Heavy to grab hold of, snapping in two in a blinded state of frenzy, before digging maddeningly after the other one. "DIE!"
The Medic rushed over, taking out three of the vibrava on his way. He immediately began swinging away at the trapinch that had encircled his comrade. These were much younger and weaker than the flying nymphs, but he had still only managed to clear away one and start on another by the time the Heavy had crushed the remaining two. Switching once again to his Medi-Gun, the Medic began healing the Heavy’s wounds, though it took a considerably longer time than Midna’s wolfos. “Zese zings are stronker zan zey look! Ve mast azeest Meedna!” the Medic shouted over the raging winds. Some of the Medic’s wounds had already healed, almost as if by magic, but he had still taken a lot of damage just getting from one patient to the other. “Go! I veel heal you!”
The last Trapinche’s life was just as short as it was miserable, Heavy’s massive hand dug into the ground, grabbing hold of something shelly and pulling it out like a pebble in your shoe. Like it, Heavy wanted to do nothing but destroy the annoying little thing. This one Heavy slowly but surely squeezed to pixelated pieces with his meaty fingers, giving a satisfying POP as Medic took care of the last one. "We make good team, Doktor! Move!"
Ahead the sandstorm had reached a crescendo sung by the siren’s call of the Flygon’s wings. Dust and sand filled the air, scraping against exposed flesh and gnawing at unguarded eyes. The sun was gone, darkness loomed and in it flares of purple could be seen, as the remaining bugs showed themselves to be true dragons, unleashing burning breath crackling with draconic energy. Amid the flares of fire a dark shape danced, topped by an orange glowing arm as the princess and her wolfos danced amids the winds, guided only by Midna’s mask guarded eye. Then, suddenly, two more shapes appeared at her side, great wolves who blindly lunged forwards through the sands, leaping in great perfectly synchronized bounds as they rammed through sand and bug alike, before their last leap turned into a corkscrew drill attack at the end of which they suddenly vanished. With them, the throbbing pain in their heads subsided, the majority of the Vibrava now wounded, fainted or dead.
Yet the song still filled the air, and only moments later it shook the ground. The dunes trembled, sand dancing and flowing as an earthquake shook everything that was grounded, ruining their footing. Then three points of purple fire flared, richer and darker than that shot by the adolescents, and then slashed down as the claws upon which they burned sought vengeance upon the princess. There was a feral howl of pain, another flash of dragonfire around the creature’s tail and then the impish Minda came sailing through the air into view of the mercenaries, hitting the ground and rolling a few feet before coming to a stop close by. After a moment the princess, her body not marred by any claw mark but still burned and bruised by combat, shakily pushed herself up into a fighting stance.
A scant few heartbeats later the two dragons came hurtling into view above them, both their claws lighting up with dragon fire with which they slashed down at the Princess and the Heavy.
The Russian mercenary had rushed forward as hard as he could at this point, fearing that tiny little Midna would be no real match for a true DRAGON. His worst concerns were fulfilled a mere moment later, with the sight of the little royal imp crashing down into the ground before him and Medic. "Midna, noooo!" Heavy cried out, watching the burned body of her struggling to get back into a fighting stance. "Be careful, little imp Princess! Medic! Heal Midna!"
And not a moment too soon, as something much worse than a dragon coming into view to the Russian brute. TWO DRAGONS, spewing fire like...like...like a Pyro! It was a terrible sight indeed, but nothing worse than a real challenge for the one they called Heavy Weapons Guy! Heavy saw the slashing attack come, lifting up his beloved Sasha to deflect some of the blow with her strong metal frame, while a few inches of the slash penetrated his already thick skin. He grunted, seeing and tasting blood. The Dragons were about to have a real bad time. "I promise you one thing, dragon; pain without end!" He taunted, revving up Sasha and unleashing a hail of bullets onto one of the dragons, sending it reeling and fleeing back into the cover of the sandstorm. Many a warrior had struck a dragon with steel, many a wizard with spells, but bullets? If not a first, it would send a clear message out; Heavy was ready and able to kill you!
While the heavy delivered on his promises, Minda defended herself from the other dragon, projecting a great hand and holding it above herself as a shield, the dragon repeatedly trying to claw down at her. Hurt and unable to focus, all she could do was hold fast as the dragon hammer brutally on the glowing limb will claw strike after claw strike till it heard the screech of its mate. The sight of the other flygon retreating after being hammered with lead caused it to retreat too, but the red in their eyes meant they weren't going to back down.
The Medic had at first made a move toward Midna, but he too saw the incoming slash attack and, gasping, immediately ducked behind the Heavy, using the giant as a meat shield. Most would view this as cowardly, and perhaps it was, but his job was to keep his teammates alive. He couldn’t do that if he died, and the behemoth of a mercenary could take far greater hits than the Medic and remain standing. While the Medic could see the attack hit, it was nothing the Heavy couldn’t handle. The Medic took the momentary delay between attacks and ran out towards the princess. She was much smaller than any of his other patients, so rather than healing her then and there, he picked her up and ran back to his living cover. There he set her down and began healing her. For the first few seconds, the burning and healing simply counteracted each other, during which the Heavy was vulnerable(ish). Once the bluish flames subsided, however, the Medi-Gun made short work of Midna’s wounds. Despite being quite muscular, her small size gave her an even smaller damage threshold than the Medic himself.
”Goddesses, you're a lifesaver” the princess panted as the regeneration restored her to full vitality, the relife overwhelming the indignity of the situation. It was fortunate that the twin dragons did not come in to strike again, seemingly very wary of the heavy’s minigun, and instead harried the man with shots of dragonfire coming out of the sand while calling out to their remaining young together for a concentrated assault.
With the princess restored to full health, the Medic suddenly adopted a less panicked, deadly serious face. “Ztay behind us!” he shouted down at her.
The cover Heavy could provide for his tiny teammates was nothing new to him, accustomed to soaking up the worst of damage from any given enemy. The flaming attacks from the twin dragons were a new touch though, sending burning pain through Heavy’s thick-set body and making him cry out in fiery pain. "I’m burn!" Had it not been for his trusted Medic’s beam of healing, Heavy would’ve certainly ended up in the Eternal Spawn area far up in the sky-box. Thankfully he did not remember they’d lost that privilege from the Administrator, or else he’d taken the fire damage much more serious. "Princess of Shadow, stay behind cover! Let Heavy and Medic take care of dragon."
“Heavy!” The Medic chained himself once more to the giant man, healing the worst of his wounds, though this was more a bi-product of his true intention. With one hand, the Medic reached down and flipped a small, unassuming toggle switch on his Medi-Gun. “Ready to charge!!!” He declared, thrusting down on the lever of his healing cannon with renewed gusto. “HYAAAAAAA!!!!” The red mist that emitted from the front of the Medi-Gun ceased it’s lazy swirling and began pumping out ferociously and crackling with red colored electricity. Both the Medic and his patient flashed red for a moment before being consumed by the volatile energy. Their skin became red and gained a metallic sheen, while golden light erupted from their every orifice. Despite having just used the Heavy as a shield mere seconds before, the Medic rushed out in front of him, refusing to allow any kind of knockback to hinder his great monster.
"Charge me, Doctor!" Heavy’s Russian words were filled with murderous delight at those most beautiful of all words; Ready. To. Charge. Heavy’s grin grew three sizes at the sound of Medic’s charge, letting the red beam pump him full of whatever magical sciency stuff Medic had conjured up with Archemides. Whatever it was, Heavy felt the energy surge through him, giving him renewed strength and resolve to do one thing; KILL. "Is good time to run, cowards!"
The Medic ran head first into the remaining might of the Flygon’s brood. Dragonfire lashed out from a few remaining Vibrava, their flames harmlessly lashing against his uber shielded body while a rain of mud-slaps and sand attacks from a veritable swarm of Trapinches, gathered from every pit trap in the area, buffeted him, the impacts knocking him back and destabilizing him despite the shield. It was exactly as he had intended, his body blocking leaving the heavy free to rain death upon them.
Invulnerable, invincible and other smart words beginning with “i”, Heavy stampeded forwards like a raging bull seeing RED straight into the mass of tiny baby dragons and more. Their flame attacks were nothing to the Heavy, who simply shrugged them off with malign delight and let loose a hell of minigun fire at whatever wasn’t Medic and Midna. The true powers of Sasha was visible, an incredible rate of fire of ten-thousand rounds per minute raining down on the trapinches and Vibrava, not even their small size able to outsmart his bullets, which weren’t too big compared to them. "I am BULLETPROOF!"
Two hundred thousands dollars worth of ammunition rained down upon the hapless creatures, shredding through them like they were nothing compared to the deadly combination of german mad science and unending solviet firepower. Chiten shattered, wings were perforated with holes and after only 4 seconds the beasts were in a panic, scattering and fleeing and for another two the minigun gunned them down as the heavy drove all before him. Then one of the flygons appeared out of the sandstorm to the side and slammed down into the ground, its wings thrumming a violent song that caused the ground to dance in turn as it unleashed an earthquake upon them. Though the rumbling and shaking did no harm to the invincible mercs or floating princess using the Heavy as cover, it threw off the heavy’ aim something fierce, causing bullets to spray the open air and desert sands rather than at his target.
In this window of opportunity the other appeared, descending rapidly with its tail afire in draconic energy. With this it whipped round and slammed the empowered appendage into the medic who was, like Midna had been, launched by the impact. The medic flew forwards like he’d stepped on a sticky trap, the beam breaking as his invincible form vanished into the storm.
Using the momentum of the impact of its blow to reverse direction it charged the Heavy, who was still being shaken violently by the earthquake, claws bared and flaming. The claws bounced off the fading uber but then came in again as the medic’s power died completely.
A moment earlier, Heavy and Medic had been an unstoppable duo hellbent on destroying whatever stood in their way. Now Heavy stood alone, watching with despair at the Flygon flicking away his doctor like he was nothing at all, and he was unable to do anything about it. The earth shook underneath, causing Heavy to stumble and wait for the inevitable slash of pain. "Uh-oh..."
”Oh no you don’t!” came a call from behind as Minda’s giant orange hand lashed out from behind the man, the levitating princess unaffected by the ground based disruption. The fist slammed into the dragon, who was sent flailing and then tied to retreat once again, only for the hand to grab its long tail that had caused them so much grief. With it in her grasp the princess hauled the flygon over her head, slamming it into the ground behind her, before pulling it up and over again and again, slamming the screaming beast into the ground over and over.
As the concussed beast began to wail in panic and pain the quake halted suddenly, and the Heavy had mere moments and a flash of purple as a tell to react to the other dragon rushing from the side to try and save its mate.
The Princess, she had returned! Heavy looked up to see the hairy orange fist beat back at the green DRAGON, surprised but happy to see their tiny royalty get revenge. Especially as the flygon was slammed into the ground, again and again like it was a tiny baby toy, much to his murderous delight. "You are credit to team!" Heavy managed to shout out just before seeing the flash of purple descending down upon its mate and Midna. He had to act fast! Sasha was lifted and aimed at the incoming green menace, and then…nothing. Nothing? Nothing! Why was Sasha not working! Heavy dropped Sasha, his Siberian instincts telling him he had but one choice now.
To act like an American cowboy!
The Russian’s eyes locked onto the incoming DRAGON, his knees bending slightly as he took position. Precision and swiftness were key! Closer...closer...."POW! Haha!" Heavy’s finger gun went off, his imaginary bang nothing compared to the sudden impact upon the descending flygon, which was suddenly knocked off course and losing control. A steep fall and a booming crash later, the flygon dragon hit the sandy ground like a piano, missing Midna by mere meters. Heavy wasted no time, rushing over to it on his stubby little legs and throwing himself into a fist-fight! "Take that! And this, and that, and this and that!" His meaty fists knocked the poor creature senseless, unable to save its mate.
The medic meanwhile landed among the panicked bugs and, by chance, also next to Midna’s wolfos. The beast was heavily wounded and half buried with sand but it still had the energy to whine for help from the helpful human who had fixed it up before. As the medic’s charge flashed and began to die the Trapinches and Vibrava began to put two and two together, and some began to turn to try and burn or blast him now that he was on his own.
The Medic picked himself up, the merciless sand already trying to claim his hand and feet as the last of his Uber flickered out. His eyes darted from the entombed wolf, to the encroaching swarm, to the wall of sand around him. He couldn’t be more than a few feet away from his teammates, but for all he could see he had been launched into another world entirely. He looked back at the whining mount. He hadn’t seen it’s life as consequential, as he had seen Midna summon it and assumed she could simply summon another if needs be, but the sight of it laying there brought flashes of a man with similar physique to the Heavy’s crushing a white dove and throwing it to the ground. This brief memory brought feelings of panic, despair, and rage to Ludwig all at once, for reasons he couldn’t be bothered to examine at the moment.
The Medic reached down and pulled his Medi-Gun out of the sand, aiming it at the wolfos. He couldn’t allow this noble creature to die. Besides, his odds of surviving on his own were rapidly dwindling. “Come on… come on…!” He urged, trying vainly to dig the wolfos out with one foot. “Geet up, you useless creature! Are you going to let your princess die like zis!?” The Medic didn’t wait for it to be fully healed before throwing his Medi-Gun down and using both hands to frantically excavate it’s legs.
The wolfos, seemingly spurred on by the Medic’s panicked insult, began kicking furiously, just barely managing to break free of the sand’s grasp. All the while the assault from the vibrava continued. One of the large bugs grew too bold and began advancing without it’s brethren, leaping at the duo. Before it’s attack could make contact, however, the wolfos erupted from the sand, it’s jaws crunching down on the would-be attacker violently. The Medic rose to his feet and, after taking a moment to pull his own legs out of the gluttonous sand, finished healing his new companion. The vibrava hadn’t allowed him to rest either, but he did his best to ignore the stinging bites, burns, and bruises caused by heavy chunks of wet earth colliding with his body. With the wolfos now healed, the Medic pulled out his bonesaw once more and leapt onto it’s back. “Los, ve mast rejoin ze ozers! Schnell, schnell!” The disoriented wolfos didn’t know where they were, however, and instead continued to tear into the annoying creatures. Now along for the ride, it was all the Medic could do to hold on with one hand and help fend off attacks with the other. If they couldn’t assist their team directly, they could at least get rid of the ankle biters for them.
As the song ended and the sandstorm stilled around him, it became clear to the medic that his strategy of keeping the juveniles away from his allies had worked. The blue sky and the harsh sun came beating down on them once more and when it did he caught sight of his two comrades, who were in the process of beating the crap out of the pair of flygons. With a final crushing blow of his mighty fists the heavy shattered the skull of one of the flygons, causing it to burst into smoke and drop him and its spirit to the ground while Minda’s overhead smashing finally beat the living daylights from the other, causing it to burst and decay at almost the same time.
”Oh good, you're alive.” Midna said, her tone sounding genuinely relieved despite her choice of words when she turned and saw the medic and her wolfos riding at them full pelt, leaving the last of the swarm in the dust. Indeed the small numbers of remaining bugs ground their chase to a halt when they saw what had happened and, though they turned to flee, the hunters made quick work of mopping them up.
A few moments later, the trio stood together in a sea of spirits, a blessed silence filling the air. All that was left was to investigate the tent/nest and then argue over the loot.
wordcount: 239 (+1) Bowser: Level 9 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (6/90) Kamek: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (71/70) Location: Limsa Lominscuttle Town - Outside The Bismarck
Bowser and Kamek both snapped back to sobriety but it took them a bit longer than Nadia to actually get over the experience. The old wizard went from hysterical cackling to a slightly wheezing giggling that gradually died as he got a hold of himself, while the king had given up trying to right himself before the enchantment ended, and made no move to do so even when sober. Even after Bacchus had been dealt with and Kamek had accepted the catwoman’s help to stand he was still lying there.
Kamek dusted himself off and then glanced at the king, before becoming a touch worried. ”Sire?” Kamek called, and then when that got no response he shuffled over and poked Bowser’s foot with the end of his broom, causing the to startle awake (having apparently fallen asleep during the latter half of his brief drunken stint) with a ”GAH, WHAT. WHAT HAPPENED,” before he rolled over and pushed himself upright and demanded to know ”WHERE IS THAT GUY, I’M GONNA PUNCH HIM IN HIS STUPID FACE!”
”I believe Ms fortune already dunked him into the ocean” Kamek offered
”SHE DID? Oh. Good. That guy was annoying. Also what was that?”
”I am unsure. Quite the strange hex, that is for certain” Kamek replied making it fairly clear that neither of them had ever been drunk before, and also suggesting that they had no idea alcohol was even a thing.
Jr squinted, looked the woman up and down and then flushed with embarrassment when he realized she was right. ”Oh, ah, right. So you are,” he replied awkwardly scratching the back of his head and looking away as he functionally admitted that, yes, he hadn't really bothered to remember who she was once she’d left the picture. Generally that kind of dismissive attitude to remembering the names and faces of strangers didn't come round to bite him on the tail. It was a lesson learned, though whether it would stick remained to be seen. Fortunately the woman recovered quickly from the insult and got on to telling him why she was here with a chipper tone and friendly attitude.
He had to laugh at her impression of her boss, which made him actually feel bad about forgetting her rather than just embarrassed by it. She seemed fun. It helped that she didn’t have a suspicious bone in her body and hadn't pressed to investigate why he didn’t want her in the ship. Instead she was here to see who had been in the ship helping them in the battle, namely, them. Now that she’d worked that out she left as quickly as she’d arrived, hopping onto the water and scooting off to sortie against the fleet again. He wondered how long it would be till she got ripped apart by something like the water princess. He didn’t like that thought. Instead he waved her off and then waited till she was out of sight before letting out a quiet sigh of relief.
”Peach can’t get back soon enough” he said to himself, not that that would actually shovel the problem, the true Abyssals where going to be a problem while they were in town but it would mean it wasn't his problem anymore.
As it still was right now, he walked his way back into the ship, scrambled up to the bridge and then knocked on the door of the bedroom Coast’s clear, you can stop hiding under the bed now or whatever your doing in there”
Inside Rika let out a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding when Jr gave the all clear.
“Are we going to do this every time someone comes near?” she asked. It had not been an enjoyable experience in the slightest, sitting there pumped up for a fight but not able to do anything to release that energy and while also simultaneously worrying that they might be found and that she would have too do just that. Unable to actually put those feelings into words she reduced her experience down to simply “I didn’t like doing it, it felt bad”
wordcount: 679 (+1) Bowser: Level 9 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (5/90) Kamek: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (70/70) Location: Limsa Lominscuttle Town - Outside The Bismarck
Power- Cruel Cannons: Bowser draws from his Tentacruel spirits to allow his twin shoulder mounted beaks to utilize a pair of nasty new attacks.
Acid: The foe is sprayed with a harsh, hide-melting acid that may damage the foe’s armor. Super Sonic: Emits bizarre sound waves that may cause confusion.
Even Kamek had trouble matching the witcher’s pace, the armed, armored and scowl baring man cutting through the crowd like a hot knife through butter now that he knew where they were going. Sure, he could have just taken off and swooped away, but general cordialness and actual friendliness meant he stuck with the man, dodging street signs, low hanging supports and tall people as the pair made their way towards the royal duo and their entourage, catching up with them right as they were leaving the bar.
The mage skimmed past the giant angry man that Bowser had left in his wake, something rather common thanks to the king’s attitude with strangers so he didn’t give Bacchus much thought, and then caught up with the troop as they followed cuphead, whose head was now full of new more accurate directions.
”Greetings sire,” he said to the king as he caught up with them, flying alongside the hurrying street clearer of the party and then adding ”, your majesty, and company” to greet the others.
”Wha? Oh. Kamek!” Bowser stumbled for a moment, caught off guard by the sudden appearance of his head mage before regaining his footing and storming forth once more towards the Bismark. ”You’re ok!” he noted happily, before glancing back and noticing Geralt and no one else had joined them and asking, ”Is junior OK? And everyone else?” a touch of concern in his tone
”That they are sire. The young master and Sakura are back at the ship along with...” he stopped himself right before announcing the presence of the abyssals in public and instead simply called them ”some new guests. But why are you here?”
”City’s was gonna explode. Talk later.” the king said sounding a little winded by having to talk and hurry at the same time ”Link’s in trouble”
”Ah, so not dinner then. Shame.”, which was the last Kamek said on the matter as they focused on getting to their destination where they found the Bismark in the middle of being trashed and covered by a giant magical barrier ”definitely not. As if we weren't causing enough of an upset already.”
Bowser’s response was, of course, to try punching the walls. Repeatedly.
”I don't think that will work Sire” Kamek noted as the king stepped back, shaking a clawed hand after the last hit had gone particularly poorly.
”Yeah. Kinda worked that out. What a pain in the tail. We ran all the way here and now we just have to watch!” Bowser complained.
”Perhaps I can figure some way through of a more magical persuasion” Kamek suggested, only to be interrupted by another big brute as Bacchus butted into the situation, receiving a groan of ”GAH NOT YOU AGAIN, BUZZ OFF!” from Bowser. The drunken god called them all mopes and then tried to run in and get in on the fight only to slam face first into the barrier.
”TRIED THAT ALREADY!” Bowser complained right before the man smashed his jug on the ground. Both koopas were at first confused, and then when the shower of spirits hit them had about as much resistance as Peach had to the stuff.
”What. Is this?” the mage said, gripping his broom with both hands and then slowly sliding down it till he ended on the ground, at which point the broom fell over and comically bonked him on the head and then rolled away.
”ALLL RIGHT. ALLL RIGHT YA NUICENCE. THaaaAT’S IT. THaTS ENOUGH. PUT EM, PUT EM UP!” Bowser slurred, his larger constitution, stubbornness or just general angry mood keeping him upright for a few more moments than the other two from his world as he took up a drunken boxing stance and made a stumbling advance towards Bacchus. He got about two paces before he stepped on Kamek's broom, which rolled beneath his foot and caused him to topple backwards. Fortunately he didn't end up crushing anyone in the process, but he did end up stuck like a turtle on its back, his legs, arms and tentacles slowly flailing as his drunken mind failed to work out how to right itself.
A combination of this slapstick and the laughter of Bacchus and Nadia caused Kamek to break out into a cackling laughter as well, the old wizard now completely out of it.
Strength- Monster Master: Bowser Jr is good at training, commanding and using various creatures, such as pokemon, tem-tems, battle pets, etc. He bonds quickly with them, inspires loyalty and has a knack for teaching them how to fight and act at his command.
Rika the Ri-Class also got a little shiver of goosebumps from having someone use her new name. It was weird and she hadn't expected it at all but good and she wanted more.
She smiled and tried to return Sakura’s hand two finger gesture, the massive gauntlet attached to her arm making it a little tricky but her sitting posture meaning she didn't wreck the sealing again in the process. “Hi there, Sakura” she responded/imitated the spoken greetings as well before adding “Oh. It does?” surprised but pleased that she’d accidentally stumbled onto something with a meaning. It was a good one too, or at least something that fit with how Sakrua saw/was describing her.
Rika nodded in automatic agreement with the princess, with Bella, when she asked if they liked her new name. Then she thought for a moment about it and actually genuinely responded by saying “It’s very nice. Hi there Bella Navire, I’m Rika”
They’d done it. They’d chosen new names. This was fun. Which made it a shame when the cheerful atmosphere was ruined by the arrival of the enemy. Only the presence of the napping Tyrant in her lap prevented Rika from lurching into a combat stance (and probably breaking more of the ship in the process) when she heard there was one of the ship girls.
She didn't panic though. After briefly trying to shuffle over to the bed when instructed to she instead sat perfectly still and tried to be as quiet as possible. Hiding was not her thing, it wasn't really a thing on the open ocean, but she had been told to do so so she would.
Just outside the door Jr lowered his hand from where he was about to knock on the door to ask to be let in and realized that if they were all hiding, that Kamek and Geralt where going to be gone for awhile and that Brinybeard wasn't in on the whole harboring former enemies of the navy situation. He was going to have to cover for everyone.
”No pressure huh” the boy said to himself, before quickly descending back down into the empty (and a bit scratched up after the mortar ship had lobbed a shell into it) cargo hold of the ship.
”Hey there” he waved over at her, wondering if it would be OK to grab his car in-case this went bad and then, despite the fact that she was automatically pointing a half dozen ship’s guns at anyone she was talking to, decided that would be a bit suspicious.
”Um. No? Sorry, still fixing it.” he sort of lied after he hurried down to meet the green haired ship girl. It still needed fixing, this was true, but the damage wasn't enough to be dangerous and he wasn't going to fix it for a while either. Also, obviously, that wasn't why he didn't want her to come aboard.
”We can go onto Brinybeard’s one if you want though? He’s with us now” offered and he glanced over at the fully intact ship and then back up to the tall gun covered woman ”If you want to sit down or something?”
”Also sorry who are you and what do you want anyway?” he asked more bluntly, not having heard any of the specifics of her chat with the captain from up inside the ship.
The Ri-class listened intently as her questions were answered. Names were apparently chosen by parents, which she apparently knew about con at least a conceptual basis for some reason that she didn’t question, which didn’t really help her pick her own one and mostly just made her feel more alien.
Then she was bombarded by punk fashion and types of clothes she only kind of knew about. Whoever her parents where they hadn't instilled a vague understanding of human things in her without much concern for specifics. So while she knew what leather and jackets were for example but she didn't really know what they looked like when put together with studs and spikes added for good measure, or if that would be a good look for her, or what a good look even would be.
“That might be easier. I don't want to be a burden” she told Sakura when put the breaks to her own enthusiasm and suggested just keeping things simple for now. It would be less for her to carry back just the one outfit. She got the impression that if not limited then Sakura would bring a massive collection of everything she thought might work and that was too much.
She did want to try things out however, to see what would work and if she’d feel good wearing something else. Sakura’s enthusiasm and energy about, well, everything, was infectious. The Ri-class felt like she could sit and listen to her ramble on about Paris, french names and all sorts of other things for hours even though it was all confusing and mostly irrelevant to her.
She was also completely right when she said all this was hard. It was very difficult, making decisions. The Cruiser wasn't used to agonizing over them either. The only kinds of choices she’d made till now were the ones that you made quickly in and about the moment, and if you took too long to act you’d die. That instinct was hammering in her head both that she had to be quick and that if she was wrong it meant the pain of being resurrected. But, now that she thought some more, with this if she was wrong couldn't she just change her answer? It wasn't like they were welding the name to her face, or the clothes to her body. She could decide something now, and if she saw or thought of something better later, then couldn't she just change it?
That thought was rather liberating.
The ship nodded to herself resolutely and then told the others that “I think I’d like to be called Rika. For now anyway”
”Alright cool, thanks old timer”
As someone who’s understanding of an airship’s lifespan was ‘until Mario gets there and wrecks it’ Jr had to wonder what they merchants were going to do if they lost all or even just some of the airships. Have ship girls take over, with packs of them running around like post women for small delivery, or hauling things between them like Olimar’s pikmin for the large stuff? The mental image was kinda funny, causing the boy to grin to himself.
He also kind of wondered where stuff was going too or coming from, mainly in the context of getting a better understanding of all the stuff on the map they had. There were a bunch of other cities on it, some of which, he now realized, were a lot bigger than even this place. Were they active, or ruins? Old fashioned or modern? If there was anyone to ask it would be those ‘Independents’ the captain had mentioned.
As he thought about this boy hovered back and looked at his limited handy work and then frowned.
”gonna need more metal. And paint.” then he tilted his head to one side in thought and added to himself ”I wonder if I can get a cannon from the market?”
That could come later however, the prince was not interested in wandering around some bustling market and then hauling loads of stuff back to the ship on his own. So instead he put aside his tool box, landed his car, dismounted and wandered into the ship to see what Sakura and the others were up too.
wordcount: 980 (+2) Midna: level 2 EXP: ////////////////////////////// (12/30) Location: Sandswept Sky – Before the Great Barrier Feat @Dr Lovecraft and @ONL
Just as they were leaving they were joined by the medic’s companion, the Heavy. Having observed him in action, she knew he could be quite the asset but it was almost suspicious that it was these two specifically that were the ones coming with her and no one else. If the medic wanted to pull something this would be a fine time to pull it. The big man’s unprompted, as far as she could tell, joining and display of enthusiasm for the hunt mollified her suspicions somewhat, but she’d still be keeping an eye on these two. Doubly so because neither had any experience with fighting dragons
”I’ve killed a few Argorok before. They’re Wyverns admittedly,” and also admittedly it had been Link’s doing the first time and she'd had an army at her back the second time. It was a shame the scout wasn't coming, his grapple was almost like a hookshot and those had been instrumental in all her Argorok kills ”but that is still basically a dragon and a lot bigger than these ones are,” in fact calling them dragons might be over selling them, they were more like Aeralfos really. Not that those weren't also dangerous.
”Can’t or won’t?” she had to ask when the medic refused to disclose the specifics of how his machine worked. The general explanation of the results was very encouraging, but it would have been nice to know what exactly made the magic sticking people back together tick. Hopefully he actually did know, and this was some kind of idea protection thing (she’d had to arbitrate on a few such cases between angry inventors, scholars and business people since she’d reclaimed her throne), rather than them being glued back together by un-understood means.
She was also a little confused as to why the medic though she was missing an eye before realizing he had been misled by the way the Fused Shadow was covering one of her eyes but not the other ”Oh, no this isn't an eye patch. I can see out of the other one just fine” she lifted the gilded black crown up off of her head enough to expose the eye beneath and then immediately regretted it. The Shadow had been saving the eye beneath from much of the glaring light and so when exposed to it the princess squinted her watering eye hard, bared her teeth and even hissed a little through them a little before putting the mask back on as soon as she’d demonstrated the existence of the eye beneath.
She coughed, a touch embarrassed by her reaction to the sunlight and then explained ”This mask is just one forth of a helmet called the Fused Shadow, which is why it doesn't cover everything. It’s an ancient and powerful artifact of my people that got broken into bits after they failed to take over Hyrule and got banished to the Twilight realm. You’ll get to see it in action soon enough.”
Together the trio would head out across the sands between Va Nuboris and the abandoned tent that seemed to be home to a number of their prey. Minda, like poppy, had spotted it from above (using Va Nuboris’s eyes) and lead the way there, occasionally having her mount leap up atop a ruined pillar to make sure they were still headed the right way though the rolling dunes and fragmented ruins that littered the land at the base of the great cliff.
The princess brought the team up behind a collapsed segment of bridge that had crashed against the base of the cliff and that was relatively close (about a 20 second run) to the dragon campsite which made a good vantage point of the upcoming battlefield.
The tent itself was nestled against the cliff base and was home to two of the buggy green dragons who were outside of it alongside a swarm of smaller, even more insectile creatures that they seemed to be on friendly terms with. Together where tearing into the still living body of a sandworm that had had all its limbs ripped off to prevent it from escaping and was being kept alive to stop its juicy innards from poofing away into an unusable, to the animals, spirit. Even in Galeem’s strange world life found a way to keep devouring itself.
Outside of the tent was an expanse of mostly flat terrain, spoiled only by a few shallow dunes and a smattering unsuspicious round divots in the sand, which was home to two massive skeletons. One was a twisted combination of a whale and a chameleon, the other a fusion of a lobster and an elephant. Both sets of bones (and cartilage) had been gnawed on near their bases but were otherwise in rather pristine condition. The pair’s sand stripped remains lay locked together where they had perished in fight to the death, the lobster’s claws crushing the whale-chameleon's neck while its horns gored the elephant-lobster in the eyes, before the world of light had engulfed their remains as part of the terrain and deposited them here.
To their right the desert stretched on seemingly forever, dotted by a few uninteresting ruins that gradually pestered out as they got further front he wall, while further down the cliff a fair distance past the tent there seemed to be a number of caves or tunnels in the cliff face in and around which distant shapes scurried and clambered.
The princess popped her head over the top of their ruin vantage point to take this all in, quickly followed by her Wolfos doing the same mostly for imitations and inclusions sake.
”Thoughts?” She asked the Heavy and Medic, who due to working together she assumed would be on a similar wavelength when it came to strategy ”or if you just want to charge in first then be my guests”
Sepheroth broke off from the group and vanished into the city. Was he done with them? Did he know where they were going somehow or would he just get lost again? Bowser didn’t know. That left him and two still slightly wet ladies (weren't cats and robots supposed to hate water? You wouldn't think so based on how both had thrown themselves into the water. Then again, Miss Fortune did basically explode into pieces when she hit it and Blazermate had sunk like a stone, both of which had worried Bowser till they’d ascended back out like nothing alarming happened) following after peach and Cuphead's mad dash through the labyrinthine city, during which Bowser’s hulking form once again acted as a convenient way of spotting friendlies among the masses of the Influence.
”Good to have you Geralt. Another set of eyes should help in tracking down her majesty and the others a fair bit easier,” Kamek said to the Witcher. Unfortunately the old sea captain couldn't give them much more specific directions than the general direction they’d set off in, ”Might be too high class kind of place for the old pirate captain to have frequented it I suppose? Sounds like one certainly, and I think one of the ship girls we met at the start was very taken by it when she gave us a run down of the city?” Kamek said, thinking out loud as they set off.
She had certainly thought the food was delicious even if he could not remember the exact wording of her praise or, unfortunately, where she’d said it had been other than the fact that it was up somewhere. He had to agree with Geralt, if they people who had stuck around had had time to book dinner at a fancy restaurant while they were out risking life and limb it was only right that they covered the bill, though functionally it would be peach’s funds either way. He raised an eyebrow at the Witcher's joke at first, but then with an ”oh wait,” he remembered that the gruff man had mentioned being far older than he looked, which left him free to enjoy it with a swift cackle.
”I’ll accept nothing less than an incredibly late grave I’ll have you know,” he retorted with humorous aggrandizement ”it’s something I’m proud to say I’m making excellent progress on”
”Also yes, I’m a little surprised the old captain decided to join up, but then again us old relics do need to do what we can to avoid being left behind. Who knows, with the right spirits that living ship might become a terror of the ocean. At the very least it will be better than having all our eggs in the Atomos’ basket. There where far to many close calls back there, those abyssal ships are nasty. Still, we have two on our side now, and we know that we can add more while shrinking their own numbers, so that should also help. We’re getting quite the fleet together aren't we?”
The mage hovered alongside the Witcher as they made their way through the city for the most part, occasionally flying up or away to get a better vantage point for their serch but always making sure to not lose the ashen haired warrior in the crowds. It was on one of these flights that he spotted the familiar and yet unfamiliar form of Bowser stomping his way through the city. The mage had to adjust his spectacles to be sure, but even sporting several new bells and whistles the king’s hulking spiked dragon-turtle form stood out as unique, and the presence of a few other distinctive and familiar faces in his presence confirmed his identity.
”There they are” he called to Geralt, pointing his finger towards the group, who were ”heading for the central tower, and in quite the hurry too” Top of the central section did sound like the kind of location for a fancy restaurant to be found. Maybe it was even the fancy restaurant in the city. Definitely not the kind of place you wanted to be late too if you had a reservation.
The mage could have rushed over, but instead stuck with Geralt, floating to and fro to find him the fastest route while also not trying to lose sight of the party.
Said party wound up in a palace that was distinctly the opposite to their intended final destination, as far as dining establishments went. The massive circular bar was more of a food court than a single shop and, if taken together with the hawkers alleyway sitting smack dab in the entryway, it continued the city’s habit of forcing you to go through shopping areas to get anywhere. Bowser vaguely remembered markets like the alley, though smaller, in places he'd visited/conquered, but he’d definitely never seen a road run straight through a bar before, much less a central intersection of a city. Long story short, it was kind of weird, or at least that's what Bowser thought as they took a breather while Cuphead, who had clearly gotten lost (and who could blame him the city realy was a maze), was asking for directions. Unusual as it might have been, the setup was working as well as the alleyway was, because where Bowser had been kind of hungry when they got here, the sight, sound and smell of food and drink being prepared, served and eaten in the place was making him salivate.
”Yeah maybe” he kind of agreed with Miss fortune’s idea of coming back here, it would certainly fit everyone, but something in the air smelt odd to him, though he wasn't sure what it was. Not until they were leaving and the king got harangued by a large, bearded and toga wearing man who thought he was a sea monster (or a god or both) clapped him on the shoulder and shoved a source of the smell in his face.
”WOW HEY BUDDY WATCH IT. I’M NOT JORDANMANG... CTHLOOLWHO. WHOEVER THOSE GUYS ARE” Bowser replied as he tried to push the surprisingly strong man away, unable to pronounce the divine names but also assuming they were wrong anyway as part of the god’s slurred speech. In this he was wrong, the pronunciations had miraculously been perfect, but he had no way to know that.
”I’M BOWSER, THE KOOPA KING. AND YEAH, I AM PRETTY GODLY. AND BUSY” The King continued as he made another attempt to pull away and push past the man ”SO BACK OFF. I’VE HAD A BAD DAY AND I’VE GOT A KIDNAPPED HERO TO SAVE SO I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOU OR WHATEVER THIS IS” he tried to shove the wine jug back into the self proclaimed god's hands.
Princess Daisy raced out of Peach’s castle, an excited expression on her lips. Following her were Wario and Waluigi, who sauntered out with her, and finally, bringing up the rear, was the ever-nervous Luigi, sporting a quick fix medigun strapped to his back in place of the poltergust 9000 he’d been using the previous day. Moments ago they’d all been tasked by Bowser Jr in scouting out the area south of Peach’s castle to work out what had happened since the original party had passed through there and to find the source of the robot menace that had assailed the castle only a few hours prior.
“Oh this is so exciting! Hey, hey Holly! Guess who’s going on a mission!” Daisy cheered excitedly before calling out to the leader of a group of goblins who were finalizing an impromptu defensive wall protecting the arrival spot of Jr’s warp Graffiti. Where the drawbridge to the castle met the cart junkyard beyond there now existed a small barricade. It was made primarily of the torn down stone arch the engineer and bastion had used as a fortification, along with a few bits of scrap that had been easy to aquire. One of these was immediately recognisable to the Wario bros.
“Waaaaah! My ride. Whaat have you done to it!” came a cry from Wario .
“What?” Hollythorn, the goblin warchief who’d escorted Daisy out of the dark woods to the west and then taken it upon herself to fortify the, in her opinion worthless, castle watched in bemusement as the wario bros booths sprinted up the the butchered remains of the wario car “Oh that’s yours? That was like that when we got here. Hey. No stop. You’re going to break the barricade you weird elves!”
“You haven't even used that thing for ages” Daisy reminded them as they fought of a number of perturbed goblins and tried to pry the vehicle, which had been tossed on a scrap heap, riddled with bullets while being used as a shield by bowser and finally hacked into pieces by the goblins, out of barricade.
“Well. Yeeeeeah.” Wario said, pausing his anguish to disagree but clearly feeling a bit silly about the display now that he’d stopped it, “But still. It’s mine”
“Yeah! And you thieving little green things best give it back,” Waluigi added in support.
“Not thieves, stupid elf!” retorted one of the goblin watchwomen, who was joined by several others in heckling the pair from their barricade. The incredibly heavily armed nature of the goblins, who’d acquired the majority of the run-of-the-mill weapons gained from the spirits of the invading robots, got the bros to back off, while a brief conversation between Hollythorn and her troops in their native tongue got the goblins themselves to back down.
“Right. So. Peace? Peace? Good. You’re not getting that wreck back, sorry. Trust me, you wouldn't have wanted it in the state we found it in either,” Hollythorn said, the capstone the whole affair, “Now. What’s this about a mission Daisy?”
The goblin woman was clearly sceptical about the prospects, and got even more so as Daisy quickly explained that they were heading out to go explore the land beyond the goblin’s barricade.
“You lot? Scouts? No offense, but you lot do not look like you could handle that,” she looked over the fancily clad princess and her crew of 3 brightly colored plumbers with a critical eye before concluding that, “You lot look about as sneaky as a human artillery regiment in a swamp.”
“Hey” “Wah!”
“Look, Holly. I knoooow I didn’t give the best impression getting here, but that’s because this whole Galeem thing caught me off guard, but I’m prepared this time!” Daisy told her, before pulling up the hem of her skirt a bit to show the half dozen aluminum baseball bats she'd somehow concealed under there.
“Hey, that's where those went! You can't just hoard them!” Waluigi, who had a similarly unconventional taste in armaments, complained.
“Hey, you’ve got your racket, and it’d be bad form to borrow Peach’s gear so a girl has to take what she can get”, Daisy retorted, shoving him away.
“Wario’s got plenty of experience for everyone,” the massively overweight man added, flexing a muscular arm. He might not have been too interested in the mission at first, but he was not about to have some slip of a girl tell him he wasn't up to the challenge.
“Plus Luigi’s saved the mushroom kingdom a dozen times, right Luigi?” Daisy added, bringing attention to the smallest and quietest member of their party.
“W-well, I mean that was mostly my bro. Maybe she’s a right and a we should call this’a whole thing off.”
“He’s just modest,” Daisy insisted.
“Sigh, you’re really set on this?” Holly said, palming her brow.
“Mmm hmmm” “yeah” “well uh” “yeah-heh”
“Fine then, we’ll let you though. On one condition: I’m coming with you,” Hollythorn asserted.
“Yeah!” Daisy cheered before processing the condition “Wait what? Oh no that’s okay you really don’t need to...”
“Oh no, I really do. You lot have one chance to prove to me you can handle this. Slip up and I’m bringing you all back, at bow point if I need to,” she insisted “Got it?”
The plumbers’ reactions ranged from nervousness to “you can try” but Daisy was happy to have her friend along, “Okay then, let’s go!”
“Before we do, you lot might want to take some extra firepower” Hollythorn told them, before calling out to her goblins in their own tongue and getting them to present an assortment of lethal looking firearms to the squad. “We’ve been figuring these out, and some of this gear is really advanced.” The goblin told them, and considering that her crew’s most advanced weapon before now was a couple of carefully maintained flintlocks, she really meant it, “Wouldn't last a month in the jungle mind, but here and now it’ll level the playing field against those bots.”
“Wario doesn't need anything but these guns!” The brute insisted, flexing again before stomping past the proferred arms
“Oh, uh, no thanks, this thing’s enough,” Luigi piped up, already overwhelmed by the Quick Fix on his back, skirting around the proffered guns and following after the dismissive Wario.
“Hm. These don't seem very lady-like. And they look pretty heavy,” Daisy complained, looking them all over, especially put off by the hulkling rocket launchers and miniguns that the goblins were having to carry two apiece.
“Hmmmm. What gives Waluigi the biggest advantage?” The lanky scoundrel asked, always up for anything that could give him a leg up on the competition.
“These things doesn't fit my women’s wrists, but its powerful and I think it might work perfectly for you” Hollythorn told him, handing him a wrist mounted plasma pistol built to fit on an equally lanky creature’s wrist. As Waluwigi tried out his new weapon and blasted random bits of dirt and water with tight beams of superheated plasma Hollython turned her attention back to Daisy, having second thoughts about giving the woman a gun.
“You know, maybe it’s not the best idea for a human of your, ah, standing, to be using one of these. I imagine you’ve never had an expense with-”
“Oh no I’ve used one of these before,” she informed the goblin as she picked up a pump action shotgun “We did skeet shooting at the Olympics, remember Waluigi?”
“Waht?”
“So don’t worry about it. I know the rules. Treat it like it’s always loaded, don't point it at anything but a target, keep your finger off the trigger when not firing it, that kind of thing,” she explained, before seeing the surprise and touch of confusion on Hollythorn’s face and explaining. “Skeet shooting is like archery, but the targets are frisbees... discuses? It’s a sport, and I’ve played basically every sport that exists. We all have.”
“Tennis is the best one!”
“You only say that because you’re not good at anything else.”
“...Weh.”
“I see...” Hollythorn replied, surprised but not entirely taken aback by this revelation. She’d vaguely heard of human nobles doing that kind of thing back on their home continent after all.
The princess stored away her new gun alongside the bats and put some spare ammo for it in one of Peach’s handbags (that apparently she didn't have any concern about borrowing) and with that they were ready to go.
“You’re not taking anything?” she asked Hollythorn as the three of them moved out through the gateway of the barricade, (which was made of the Wario car’s doors among other things).
“No. There wasn't anything that fit my style. I’ve got one of the pistols as a backup, but I do my best work at a distance with my bow” Hollythorn replied after bidding farewell to her troops and assuring them she’d be back soon, safe and sound.
“There you are, wah, Wario was getting bored. Nice bracelet you got there” Wario said, hauling his ass up from the grass while Luigi gave them a polite wave.
“Yeah, it is. With this, Waluigi’s gonna win big time!”
“So, Holly, seeing as you’re the expert, where do we start?” Daisy asked the goblin warchieftain.
“I suggest we get some high ground. That scrap heap looks stable enough. Plus, it’ll be good to know if it’s safe, so we can scavenge from it later”
“You heard the lady, let’s go.”
With that, the quintet set off on their scouting expedition, quickly jogging across the open ground between the barricade and the nearest scrap pile. When it came to climbing it, the quartet of kingdom goers quickly demonstrated why they were actually quite a good choice for this kind of thing, for all it had been an impulse on Jr’s part and how much Hollythorn had doubted them, as their platforming skills let them bound their way up the pile of scrap with relative ease. By contrast, the goblin had to scramble up the side of it, and while her movements were swift and efficient she couldn't complete with the unnatural abilities of the princess and her plumbers.
“Hurry it up Holly, hehehe!” “Yeah, move it or lose it!” the Wario bros, who’d had time to sit down and relax while they waited for her to catch up, heckled the goblin as she reached the summit of the scrapheap.
“That’s Hollythorn to you, elf.”
“Well that's what she called you, weh” Waluigi replied.
The goblin merely stared down the lanky man till he dropped the issue
“What’s an elf anyway?” he asked instead.
“You are. Aren't you?”
“Uh, no.”
“Then what are you?”
The Wario bros looked at eachother and collectively shrugged. “What kind-a question is that? We’re the Wario Bros!”
The goblin stared at them for a moment, baffled by this lack of species self identity before moving on “Forget it. Daisy, Luigi. Seen anything interesting?” she quietly called up the last bit of the slope to where Luigi and Daisy were crouched behind a few pieces of scrap and peaking out at the land beyond. Luigi’s experience with rabbids having taught him the value of cover against the kinds of foes the Rabbids themselves had been fighting not too long ago, which, again, surprised Hollythorn.
The plumber in green pointed shakily across the scrapyard. From atop a strategic bluff, exactly as it had a few days before during the first real battle of the free, loomed an enormous armored vehicle clad in thick slate-blue plating and crammed with communications arrays. Robots milled around its base, ever watchful.
Wario grunted. “Bah, it’s a whole stinkin’ army of the suckers. It’s gotta be their base, but no way we’re gettin’ near that thing.”
A spindly finger pointed out the Carrier Tank’s roof. “Weheheh, but nobody up there! We can jump off junk heaps straight on roof and bust inside!”
A moment of silence passed as the others stared. Waluigi glanced furtively between them. “...Waht?”
“That’s actually not a bad idea,” Daisy forced herself to admit, loath as she was to give the beanpole any encouragement.
“Hah! Course it is,” Waluigi leered, crossing his arms in a self-satisfied way and instantly affirming Daisy’s doubts. “Waluigi actually good at what I do. People just don’t give me a chance.”
In another moment the four were on the way, their less-spry goblin companion in tow.
Hollythorn followed after the brightly-clad bouncing mercenaries, her heart lurching into her throat every time it looked like the band looked was going to be spotted by the robots below. The land they were passing through took them away from the route traversed by the original team, taking them from cart graveyard to a more general junkyard, filled with mundane refuse of all kinds, a few vehicle skeletons and, bizarrely, giant toys. These lead to once very tense encounter with a huge jack in the box but mostly the odder bits junk were just a curiosity, one more thing to hide behind out of sight of the robots mustered in the valley housing their giant mobile base.
Thanks to luck and some actual sneaking skills from various minigames the squad of mushroom kingdomers's weren't swarmed by bots and instead reached the roof of the giant machine in good time and without incident though, not without a few close calls. Hollythorn once again brought up the rear, but if there were awards for most sneaky the goblin woodswoman would have won every one. There weren’t however, so instead all she got were some snarky looks from the Wario bros and a long-lasting gap between the top of the junk pile and the roof of the massive robot carrying machine.
“I’ya can give you a boost? If you’a want?” Luigi offered quietly, cupping his hands together to offer up a team jump, having seemingly waited while the others hopped onboard. She looked at him, then at the wario bros and then silently took out her bow and an arrow, tied a rope to the arrow and pinged it across, narrowly missing Wario’s hat with it before it tangled itself around one of the strange dishes sat atop the machine. Then she secured the other end to a secure looking piece of junk and then nimbly tightrope walked, or rather ran, across her improvised bridge before pulling it back down in another swift motion.
Lugi sketched the back of his head awkwardly, a bit embarrassed to have had his help turned down and then hopped up to join the rest of the team.
“Found anything informative up here?” Hollythorn asked Daisy, who was the only person who had waited up top whose opinions she actually cared about.
“Mostly a roof,” the princess admitted. Certainly there were a load of radar dishes and other devices up top to look at and be baffled by, but being up there didn't make seeing inside all that much easier. There was still one more step they needed to take.
“Heyyy. There's these spiny things and windows and things down the sides we could look into if you went so chicken,”
“You do it then!”
“No. Waluigi likes his head attached to his body, where it belongs.”
The goblin shook her and then asked, “Do any of you have a mirror? Or something reflective?”
“Oh sure, here,” Daisy replied, rummaging around in her borrowed purse and retrieving a small makeup kit, bright pink and with Peach’s brown emblazoned on the back, which she flipped open to reveal it had a mirror inside along with the various beauty products.
“That works,” the warchief replied, forcing herself not to ask why she had that on her during a scouting mission after that decision had revealed itself to be useful. Then she quietly moved over to one side of the ship that was most shielded from view by junk, There she slipped a rope around the base of a radar dish again, and then the other end she tied around her waist.
“Oh, I get it. We’ll lower you,” Daisy said as she followed her over.
“I can… yes. That would be easier,” Holly admitted.
The team made their preparations, pausing a cautious moment as a contingent of machines marched by below and into the belly of the beast. Then the kingdom denizens began to lower their goblin friend. It wasn't far, only a few feet, but with Daisy and Luigi’s help (and the Wario Bros keeping watch) the rappeling went smoothly. Hollythorn carefully inched closer to the chosen window and then, after listening to make sure no one was right next to it, poked the mirror out so she could use it to spy inside, the small makeup kit more inconspicuous than her whole head would have been.
Within, she beheld the carrier tank’s spacious interior. The large central area, accessible by the main ramp and where the robot legions waited for deployment, contained a number of the machines idling. A level up on the side closest to the vehicle’s front lay the spacious command center, with an elevator connecting the two a wide walkway stretching either direction along the interior walls. Those same walls featured racks of equipment, fueling stations, and hi-tech pods for the secure transport and tuning of troops a step above the rank-and-file. In the sea of dull, mechanical blues and grays, Holly’s eyes were instantly drawn to a splash of red, and the bizarre man who wore it.
Standing in front of an extremely elaborate workstation on the upper deck and facing the vehicle’s rear was a bald, mustached man hard at work. His red coat, with its golden buttons and four coattails, failed to disguise his portliness, but in sharp contrast to his sizeable midsection were long, spindly limbs. With goggles, circular spectacles, and strange shoes, the disproportionate man cut an almost comedic figure, but the look on his face was one of intense concentration as his hands moved like lightning over the keyboard of a plug-in control pad before him. It attached to a mine on legs, which lay alongside the whole or partial remains of a number of other robot mercenaries. He looked about as far from pleased as one could possibly conceive.
As Holly watched, the squad she and the others spotted earlier made its way up the ramp and into the carrier. Most of them peeled off to stand at attention in an empty corner of the bay, but the leader entered the elevator to reach the upper deck. Holly took note of its greenish-blue material and blue-trimmed outfit, strangely topped by a head of yellow hair. Its belt buckle bore a single word -ennui- etched into its surface, which the goblin assumed to be its name. “Any luck, sir?” The robot swordsman asked, prompting the engineer to shake his head. “These hunks of junk are so frustratingly archaic,” he growled. “Infants could scratch out better code. And stick together sturdier chassis too, with their play-doh! The idea that I of all people should have to put up with this garbage is just...unconscionable!” He angrily pressed another few keys in quick succession, then ‘enter’. The Sentry Buster in front of him immediately started slamming its legs on the table like a child throwing a tantrum, noisily jostling tools and spare parts around. With a snarl the engineer brought his fist down, then yanked the cable from the Sentry Buster.
The swordsman watched the machine go limp, its face blank, as his superior picked up the control pad in disgust. “Sounds pretty miserable, considering all you’ve told me. A genius shouldn’t have to flounder in a dump.”
“Damn straight!”
Brushing his metal chin with his fingers, the swordsman continued. “IIf you’ve hit a dead end, you should take a break.” He produced a small bundle and laid it on the worktable. “Here. Picked it up near the forest.”
“Hmm?” Raising an eyebrow, the engineer deposited the control pad and unwrapped the bundle. After removing the last layer of brown paper he inhaled deeply, relishing what must be a pleasant small. “Oho, what do we have here?”
“Steak and Kidney Pie,” his assistant recited. “From a shop called Exotic Foods. The owner, a Mr. Bang Ersenmash, recommended it highly.” “Well...I suppose I could take a short break.” The engineer paid a visit to the onboard lavatory, taking only a few moments. While he was gone, the swordsman glanced in the direction of the window, forcing Holly to withdraw her hand quickly. If he noticed anything amiss, however, he gave no sign, and casually turned back to the workbench. Soon the mustached man returned, digging into the pie with a sterilized tool in place of a fork. “Not bad!” After satisfying himself, he resumed complaining. “Really reminds me what I’m missing out on! It’s really such a farce, having to scrounge in the wilderness like this. Making do with the bare minimum. And just when I’m finally getting somewhere, that meddling scum comes along and trashes the only decent machines I had! Why would they turn to dust in this world, leaving no spare parts?! It boggles the mind!”
The swordsman reassured him idly, speaking so clearly that Holly didn’t need to strain to hear. “Still, you’ve done a lot for what little you have, Dr. Eggman. Getting this army working, figuring out a way to manufacture them in your base to the east.”
“Of course. I am a genius, after all! The greatest mind to grace this brave new world!” The engineer called Eggman rose to his feet. He looked out through the carrier’s bay doors across the junkyard to the parapets of Peach’s Castle beyond, rubbing his hands together. “And tomorrow, after I’ve finished rigging the command modules, I’ll finally be able to overrun that oh-so-cheery citadel. No more token forces and data gathering for me, oh no! Think they saw the end of the robot hordes, did they? By this time tomorrow, the sun will be shining on the new Eggman Empire!”
That was, she felt, enough. Holly pulled her long ear away from the cold metal and tugged at the rope to get herself pulled up. Once up she put a finger to her lips and indicated that now would be a good time to leave. No point standing around on top of the enemy base while talking. Together the quintet rushed away from the mobile fortress before finding a safer, more secluded spot in the junkyard to listen to what Hollythorn had seen and overheard.
“Ohhhh. Eggman. Yeah I thought it sounded like him.” Daisy mused once Hollythorn got to the part where the blond-haired robot mentioned the bad doctor’s name.
“You know this megalomaniac?” Holly asked.
“Yeah. We play olympic sports with him and Sonic’s pals something like twice a year.”
Hollythorn was silent for a few moments and threw her hands up in the air with exasperation when the others all confirmed this.
“Well I guess he’s like Sonic’s Bowser. He’s a bad guy, but not so much that they can’t play sports or team up when the going gets tough you know. If we talk to him I’m sure we can figure things out.” Daisy tried.
“That bastard's robots killed some of my people!” the warchief was seething, yet she maintained noise discipline all the same.
No one had an answer for that.
“He’s got a base to the east and he’s going to attack the castle again before this time tomorrow and that place isn’t even close to being defensible.” She said, breaking the silence, “We’ve wasted enough time here. You need to report back, I need to prepare.” Hollythorn told them, before turning away and practically vanishing into the junk field.
“Holly!” Daisy called after her, to no avail.
“You really screwed that one up, weh.” Waluwigi began to snark before the princess punched him in the long, pink nose. “Owww, what was that for!?”
“She’a does have a point. We’a should head back and tell Vandham and the others” Luigi suggested carefully “They’ll know what’a to do”
Daisy sighed before agreeing. “Let’s go”
With that the four set off back through the junk field, heading for home.
Standing in front of the Carrier Tank’s ramp, Robo-ky watched the blips on his scanner disappear. If not for his rigid, metallic features, he might have been smiling as he gave a slight chuckle. He retracted the device into his body and stared off into the creeping pinks and oranges of a sky pierced by toy-block towers, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Message received--loud and clear.”
New mission: STRIKE - Assault the base of the nefarious Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik in the area east of the 1-1 junkyard to put a stopper in his plans to invade Peach’s Castle. Forces unknown, presumed robotic but fairly primitive. Unique robot swordsman identified as potential threat. Structure unknown. Rewards unknown
wordcount: 853 (+2) Midna: level 2 EXP: ////////////////////////////// (10/30) Location: Sandswept Sky – Great Barrier (in Vah Naboris)
Looked like airlifts was their plan. It was simple so probably for the best. Midna moved Vah Naboris to the base of the cliff to act as a takeoff point and then watched as the first group were hauled up into the sky, the group remaining blessedly unmolested by any of the flying wildlife. Naboris probably scared them off, or so the princess guessed. Speaking of Naboris
”Alright. I’ll be sending this thing back after we get up, so if you want out, now’s your last chance,” She told the remaining group, not really expecting anyone to take the offer seeing as they hadn’t expressed any interest in doing anything other than going with the group’s main objective but making it explicit nonetheless.
Warning given, she took a moment to summon up a Moogle to handle the other end of that delivery.
“Ohh. It’s hot out here kupo” it complained, before asking “So, want to start a mercenary mission?”
“Oh. hmm. Kind of? See this thing we’re on? It's called Va Nuboris and I’m going to be sending it marching back to the palace we came into the desert. Through that crack in the mountain north of the city. I want someone to secure it once it gets there. It will make any other missions in the desert a lot easier”
“Oh. That is a new mission, but that's fine. Who do you want to do it, kupo?” the moogle asked
“Doesn't matter, just get it done” Minda waved her hand dismissively, but when the moogle made a face that pretty clearly expressed the fact that it did not work like that she relented
“Fine fine. Hmmm. Zelda might work, it was made in our world maybe she knows about it, and. Uh. who else is there again?”
“Lots of people kupo, buuuut if you want suggestions then she worked with Wii fit trainer, Dr mario and the nintendog before” the moogle suggested, their ilk rather prepared for the mission giver's lack of knowledge about who they had available at this point
“Yeah sure them. Wait. nintendog. Isn't that just a puppy?” Midna said, surprised that someone had sent it on a mission at all.
“Yup. It was mostly a recruiting mission, though there was a bit of a fight at the end. I heard they helped a bunch. Want them on the team?”
“No no. They need someone. Strong. And tough. Someone to keep them save just in-case something goes hideously wrong”
“Hmmm. How about Caesar? Strong, loyal, dependable. They’d be perfect I think” the moogle replied
“Sure that sounds good” Midna agreed, entirely unaware that he moogle had deliberately suggested the other dog on the list as its own personal joke.
“Thats that all sorted, I’ll get them ready right away” the moogle said while finishing writing all this down on a little piece of paper. then, for some reason, it got an envelope and put the note in it, ready to be delivered by it's writer.
“Give it hour, it won't be back right away” Minda told it after looking at this strangely. She was almost incensed when it added a stamp and a wax seal for good measure.
“Sure thing. See you later kupo” it said in farewell, before vanishing and leaving Midna wondering what a ‘Kupo’ was.
That left the business of her suggested dragon hunt, the volunteers which currently consisted of the Medic who managed to wander off onto a tangent about how to scientifically define what made things cute which wasn't unnerving at all, especially when he finished and rapidly switched back to the topic of dragon hunting.
“Yes. Dragon hunting.” Midna reiterated, hoping it would prevent him from switching gears back again. This was going to be fun she thought to herself, though for two entirely separate reasons.
She gave it a little more time to see if there would be any other takers who didn't want to just hang around in the camel while waiting for a ride and then saddled up on her mount. It wasn't immediately clear whether it was the same one that had helped Primrose, but anyone who cared to look closely would see it was both clean of sand and looked too energetic to have been part of that piece of action.
The princess shifted about to get nice and comfy on its furred back and then spurred it forward out into the late afternoon heat, cringing a little at the lower angle of the sunlight. Despite the blazing heat and the unhinged company Midna was looking forward to getting in a fight which was, she had to note, a little unusual for her, but not completely without precedent.
Speaking of company, once the Medic joined her she asked “So, how does that device of yours work doctor?” she asked, indicating to the tube-like device attached by a flexible tube to the medic’s backpack. She’s seen it heal up the others, but if it was going to be used on something of hers (specifically the wolfos) or goddesses forbid her, she’d like to know what she was dealing with.
wordcount: 868 (+2) (Kamek -5 for heart last round) Bowser Jr: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (74/70) Kamek: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (67/70) Location: Edge of the Blue – Open Ocean -> Limsa Lominscuttle Town
”Sounds lame to me, like being grounded, but sure, whatever, be that way” Jr muttered when his suggestions about disguises or shape changing weren't taken on. If they wanted to stay cooped up inside the ship that wasn’t his problem and he wasn't going to bring them dinner either. Sakura could do that, seeing as she was being so pally with them.
”Perhaps that is for the best? It’s a less risky plan that is for certain.” Kamek admitted carefully (it did made things easier not having to worry about smuggling to enemies of the city through its streets) before confessing to the Seaplane Tender Water Princess that ”Also, I have to admit, it was, in hindsight, something of a way of avoiding saying your full name. Shame it doesn't make a good acronym. STWP doesn't work as a name, or at least one that suits you”
When they arrived at said city they received an unexpected welcome from Brineybeard who seemed to have been successfully recruited to the cause while they were away, though he seemed a little down when comparing his own ship to their new flying ride when Kamek headed down and greeted him. Jr followed after, parking his car and walking around their landing spot to stretch his legs after having spent the last hour or so tensely grappling with the Atomos’s controls.
When they asked about Princess Peach they found out she and Cuphead had recently had to rush away to a restaurant called the Bismarck ”That is odd. Perhaps they made reservations and were running late? Or Link’s causing a scene? Well, we need to go get her anyway so I will head out and investigate. Does anyone want to accompany me?”
Sakura had already decided against it and soon after so did Jr ”You’ll just be coming right back and then after we’ll go down again and that’s so boring. ‘sides, said I was going to try and fix the ship” the boy said, before glancing up at the vessel’s bruised exterior and cringing.
After waiting to see if Geralt would be coming and then getting some directions, the old mage set off for the Restaurant at a brisk pace, leaving the prince to get too work fixing the ship while Sakura went to go hang out with/keep an eye on the ship-girls. The boy got a few more stretches in before turning around, remounting his clown car and retrieving his toolbox from within it. With this he hovered about, trying his best to repair the damage the battle had done to their new vessel while not really keeping an eye out like Sakura had asked. With the captain about that wasn't really necessary as far as the prince was concerned.
”Hey. Cap. Know if there's anywhere I can get some junk or metal or anything to help fix this with?” he called over to Brineybeard before pausing between necro-smasher swings and also asking ”also do you know where they even make these? There a shipyard or something in the city?”
The Heavy Cruiser Ri-Class sat awkwardly on the floor, having instinctively not retaken the bed due to the presence of the more deserving princess. It wasn't a comfortable spot, and indeed she’d been a fidgeting shuffling nuisance trying to find a way to sit till she ended up with her legs crossed and a small pig boat sitting in her lap. Now she was trapped by Tyrant's napping form (part of her she didn't quite understand wanted to pat his head but she couldn't without squashing him) and sitting quietly with her (former?) boss and one of her (former?) enemies who now looked like one of her (former?) allies.
Into this strange atmosphere and slightly cramped confines burst Sakura like a ray of sunshine, who began bombarding the former abyssals with positive energy and confusing questions and suggestions. The ship glanced down at herself when he was singled out for needing to improve her clothing situation. She supposed there wasn’t a lot to see. In fact she had very little compared to the other 3 women. Or most people in fact, baring the turtle hovering around outside who was wearing only a strip of cloth around his neck. And a shell. Did that count?
It made her feel. Different. Out of place. She should fix that.
“What is punk?” she asked. Tough sounded good, it would make being shot hurt less. She wasn't sure why clothes being cold was good. Was it because the cold was blue, like her eyes? She hadn't known they were blue.
She also hadn't had to think about how she was dressed before. She had been made wearing what she wore, but now her mind was quickly flipped through what she would look like if she was wearing the other people she’d met’s clothes, only to be challenged by the prospect of having a name. Her choosing her own name. Or a nickname. An ‘important decision’. She hadn't made one of those before. It was a lot of pressure.
“I. um. Ri? Or Rika?” that one sounded nice, but “how do I know what one is the right one? How did you choose yours?”
The remaining red team trekked up towards the gates of Limsa Lominscuttle Town, and now that he wasn't distracted by Miss fortune’s bloody antics he could actually take it all in. The city was sprawling, a myriad of bridges connecting dozens of small stone pillars that housed various white stone and gold domed buildings. Definitely a nice change of pace from the drab and broken Dead Zone. While Bowser admired that it would make for some excellent obstacle courses if you blew up a bridge here or there and added a few spikes, minions and floating platforms he expected, incorrectly, that finding anyone in the city was going to be a pain in the tail. In this he was completely wrong because it took less than a minute.
Bowser had to agree with Miss Fortune, finding Peach had turned out to be incredibly easy. It helped that the king, and his now thoroughly battered top hat, both stood out and over most of the crowds in the bustling market they found themselves in after getting through customs and so it was more she who found them than the other way around. The king was happy to see her safe and sound, but she seemed to be in a rush and also surprised to see them. The latter wasn't exactly surprising, they had unexpectedly put their given goal on hold to avoid being exploded and were lacking a number of prominent faces after all, but the former did not bode well.
”We-” Bowser attempted to begin explaining why they were there, only to be presented with a hand to talk too. He shushed and then stomped after the princess. His royal presence, or more accurately his immense bulk and the threat of being rammed by it, parted the crowd as they rushed through the unfamiliar, to Bowser, City. As they ran Peach filled them in, telling them that Link had been kidnapped by some lady and taken to a restaurant of all places, which was very convenient.
”Yeah! We’ll crack some heads and then eat some dinner!” Bowser punched his palm as he agreed with Miss Fortune, who clearly had her priorities straight, at least in Bowser’s opinion.
”It’s just Link that's in trouble right? Everyone else good? he asked, hoping to get a response before they arrived. There wasn’t much time for it, their quick pace bringing them to the fancy looking restaurant. It would be the perfect place to cool down in the evening, but if it remained that way for long enough for them to enjoy it remained to be seen. Quick and clean most certainly did not describe Bowser’s fighting style after all, but he was pumped up and raring to go. They weren't going to lose another green clad Hylian youth to bewitchment today, that Bowser would guarantee with devastating force.
Drifting Pollen
Rezod92
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pkken
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