wordcount: 706 (+1) (+10) Bowser: Level 9 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (19/90) Kamek: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (84/70) Location: Limsa Lominscuttle Town - Outside The Bismarck
”Wow” Bowser was about as surprised as Geralt was that he caught the falling Witcher, the speedy tentacles once again acting like they had mind of their own, and much faster running ones than Bowser at that, and grappling him before he could plummet down into the water and then pulling him into the King’s arms.
”Uh, hi there” Bowser greeted him as they ascended with Bowser awkwardly holding the gruff man in a princess carry due to lacking the space on his transport to let him stand. Once they did arrive Geralt quickly extracted himself from his grapes and got on deck, after which Bowser followed suit, their carrier minion poofing into nothingness now that their job was done.
The battle, they found, was over by the time they arrived back on the scene. Bowser did a quick headcount as Kamek flew down to rejoin him and was relieved to see everyone was in one piece. The same, unfortunately, could not be said for the building, nor for a small number of bystanders that had been caught in the crossfire at some point. The king grimaced for a moment upon seeing their spirits, but for the most part wasn't overly concerned at the carnage that had been wrought.
”Here, you might want this?” The King said to Kamek, retrieving the spirit of the woman he’d smashed to pieces along with the floor ”magic, matches your robes, that kind of thing,”
”What? Oh yes, thank you sire but perhaps we should consider moving on before-” Kamek replied as he accepted the spirit of the blue Cia, but was prevented from hypothesizing on what kind of trouble this mess would bring when said trouble started to happen all at once.
First the chef came out and he was, unsurprisingly, rather angry about the state of his restaurant. What remained of it anyway. Bowser’s hole managed to only be one among a number of damages caused mostly by the giant explosions the sorceress had been dishing out. After him came the law, who seemed all too happy to come in in force now that the fighting was actually over. Bowser thought very little of the spear welding goons and instead focused his attention on the woman in charge and her escort. who seemed to be a fusion of woman and warship. Bowser, like his son before him, was instantly a fan of the idea though he did not appreciate the way they were pointing a dozen cannons at them. Not that they could avoid doing so, but it was still pissing the king off regardless.
”WHO DO Y- oh” Bowser began to demand before getting urgently tapped on the knee by his advisor who then hurriedly gestured the Blazermate and Ms Fortune (Sepiroth clearly didn't care about anything other than his new power so the mage didn't even bother trying to fill in the last member of Bowser’s reinforcement party) over and then whispered them a quick rundown of who they were dealing with while some of the others tried to answer for their crimes
”She has a large and powerful navy and we need their help to get to the bottom of the deep and storm wrecked part of the ocean where the region's guardian is. We have information she needs to help her win a war against an ’abyssal fleet’” At that point Geralt started helping provide some of that information. Kamek silently agreed with his decision not to make a mention of the abyssal turncoats they had stashed in the ship because that would not, he expected, have gone down well. ”So please, try to be diplomatic”
”Right right got it,” Bowser said, before standing up clearing his throat. It was important that he, as (self declared) leader, take charge and responsibility of the situation. ”I AM BOWSER, KOOPA KING AND LEADER OF THIS HERE ARMY AND I SAY,'' the king swept both his hands both hands down towards the (unrequited) love of his life who looked to be in a state of shock over the whole affair, and who was the only one of them who hadn't gotten involved in the fighting/trashing of the place, ”THAT PEACH CAN COVER THE COST OF THE DAMAGES'
wordcount: 593 (+1) Bowser: Level 9 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (8/90) Kamek: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (73/70) Location: Limsa Lominscuttle Town - Outside The Bismarck
The king descended like an anvil upon the bewitchered sorceress and then, like a wrecking ball, smashed both her and the floor to pieces.
”SHODDY WORKMANSHIP!” the king cried as he descended, followed by a shower of debris. Fortunately for everyone the fancy restaurant was built on a large balcony rather than as part of the tower proper and so the worst collateral damage that happened to the local bystanders was getting wet from being in the splash zone of the king’s mighty belly flop.
Then the king vanished beneath the waves. Then his hat appeared, upon which the spirit of blue slowly drifted down and landed atop of. Around the hat a stream of bubbles started bursting and then, after a few moments, the king himself burst to the surface of the water, gasping for air and also back to his usual size.
”Uuuugh. Well at least the dust’s off, but I’m definitely going to have this suit fixed” he muttered to himself as he tread water. Then, upon hearing the shout of Bacchus and looking over to see the man offering to help him up, and trying to get him to drink again, the king let out a long groan and let himself sink under the water again.
A moment later he burst from the ocean, his dripping form born towards the heavens by Carrie the Trowlon striker. The part towel, part trowel creature rapidly ascended, carrying the king on its back up towards the hole he’d smashed in the restaurant’s floor.
”SILL BUSY” he yelled down at the god, only for the light tilt of his head he made to do so to drop the spirit he hadn’t known was on his head down in front of him. A tentacle whipped out and caught the remains of the blue woman faster than the king’s hands ever could, after which he stored it away in a bottle. He was in a position to similarly catch anyone who happened to be dropped down the hole as he ascended back towards the battle.
And there 100% went any possibility that they’d be able to eat here ever, let alone after they’d finished with this skirmish, Kamek thought to himself as his master smashed through the floor of the restaurant. He wasn't overly concerned about Bowser himself, King had survived far worse drops and if the blue one had not simply been splattered by the king’s drop then it was probably her, not the king, who would be in trouble down wherever they landed. What remained up here was the last, red, mage who was horribly outnumbered by the heroes. For about 3 seconds.
Seeing her disadvantaged state she dodged towards the hole Bowser had smashed and summoned reinforcements, a quartet of dark doppelgangers of the Hyrulian Hero who all raced to strike down several one of his allies. The two that caught the mage’s gaze raced towards Sepheroth and Blazermate. The silver haired swordsman clashed with one, but, either due to ineptitude, selfishness or lack of ability (or at least those were Kamek’s guesses), ignored the other going for his healer. Free from being targeted, thanks to either his elevated vantage point or because he hadn’t done anything to be an immediate threat till now, Kamek found himself perfectly situated to intervene.
He jabbed a finger towards the Dark Link as it engaged the healer bot and called out ”Quiet!” summoning the silent skimpy sniper to his side, who raised her rifle, took quick but careful aim, and then fired at the doppelganger. Which resulted in her shooting it in the head right as the ace cadet cleaved it in half.
”ah, well, better safe than sorry” the mage said, earning a shrug from the sniper before she vanished back into the ether
”If you think that’s good, you just wait. I have so many ideas on how to improve it” Jr said, Rika had gone from nuisance to potentially super cool project in his head as he’d gotten a better look at her workings. It took him a few moments to realize that treating a person like an engineering project probably wasn't a great look.
”uh, her. If you're cool with that?” he added, very belatedly
“If I’m... cold with that? I’m not sure I understand. So sorry” the cruiser-girl asked apologetically. This one was certainly a bit bossier even though he was helping. Also he was royalty, meaning she trod a little more lightly around him than he did the ever friendly Sakura.
”.... It’s another way to say ‘good’. But in a... Cool way?” Jr scratched the back of his head and tried and failed to explain the nuance ”look, you can't really describe what makes something cool, you just know, you know?”
“I don’t think I do? But I like what you did already, so more would be ‘cool’” Rika replied after a moments thought
”Great,” Jr said, before turning his attention to Sakura’s somewhat vague understanding of her home’s political system, and countered with his own immature take on how things worked in his own ”Also royals are better than everyone else. Otherwise they wouldn't be in charge because someone better would come and kick their butt! I mean sure, Kameks says you gotta be compassionate and good at inspiring people and stuff but like all royals are mainly just bigger and better versions of their people so that’s the most important bit. King Bob’omb is a big bob’omb with a mustache, the goomba king’s a big goomba with a… mustache,” weird that ”also it's not just a bad guy thing either, those weird pea guys who live next to the mushroom kingdom’s prince is pretty strong apparently”
Jr realized no-one had any idea what he was talking about and tried a different tact ”Look. This, ' he snapped his fingers and summoned a koopa troopa, ”is a regular Koopa. Look at me with my cool spikes and horns and awesome butt kicking skills. Look at the plain Koopa whose main strategy involves walking into things to hurt them. Who do you think is in charge here?”
“you are boss” the minion helpful supplied
”right you are,” Jr said ”Seriously who votes to decide their leader?”
“We do that for picking the head of our union” the Koopa also supplied
”... Your what?”
“The wukmoo? The Working Koopa’s Minion Union?” From Jr’s expression it was clear had no idea what his minion was talking about, “it's this organization that negotiates our working conditions and things. All the minions have one and then there's a big ‘Minion of the Koopa Kingdom’ one for all of us?” still nothing “Uh... I don't think I have enough time to explain, but they mostly deal with Kamek I think so you could ask him? Times up gotta go sorry boss!” the troopa quickly tied to explain before running out of time and rejoining his kin in striker limbo, leaving Jr looking very confused
”uh. Right.” Jr shook his head and quickly dismissed it as one of those boring admin things his dad always fobbed off on Kamek and moved on ”Look, the point is, the person who can kick the most but is in-charge of anything that counts. We work like that, Abyssal fleet works like that, and I bet the navy works like that too?” he glanced at their resident navy girl for confirmation.
Jr’s mostly self indulgent line of conversation did end up having a point in the end, and that was for him to use it as a basis to give a more simplistic and violently practical suggestion on how to fix the issue abyssal fleet without grinding every last ship to dust. Or into items. ”So if you, Bella, want to do Sakura’s thing and take over the Abyssal fleet and stop them from killing you don't need to talk’em all round, you just gotta get strong enough to beat them all up and then they’ll follow you instead of who the current boss is. Probably don't even need to free everyone if you do it that way, just the bosses and then people like Rika will just follow suit? Oh, or you can get the bosses to free their own minions for you once you free them? Yeah! Delegating is something else Kamek says is important too.” he suggested, nodding proudly to himself at remembering that last bit. True, he mostly remembered it because it let him justify fobbing off stuff on his minions as a good thing actually, but still. ”You find another fleet, punch their princess in the snout to assert dominance. Then do that again and again till you’ve got a big rebel army going and then you take down the queen. Or the flagship? I guess she’d be both?”
Again, Rika had no idea what was being talked about, so she was very happy that exercising became the core part of the conversation again, and listened with rapt attention as Sakura answered her questions, complete with demonstrations of what sit ups and pull ups where. Even Rika could tell that this was something Sakura was both especially passionate about and more knowledgeable about than some of the other things she'd been talking about which made the ship girl even more enthusiastic about trying it out.
It was a bit weird that she could walk better than the princess, she thought as Sakrua switched to giving Bella standing lessons. She thought royalty’d be better at everything than her.
Jr assumed it was because Rika was built to be a brawler whereas the princess was more of a long range shooty girl, though he also didn't really understand why standing would be difficult at all. Surly they still needed to hold themselves upright while ‘standing’ on the water, or so he thought as he watched as Rika walked over to the door frame to try a pull up, her poise noticeably less stable now that her gauntlet strapped to her back rather than to her hands. But clearly enamored enough with anything that would let her use her freed hands that she wasn't going to let that stop her.
She gripped the sides and with surprising ease, pulled herself up and then set herself down without any issue. There was something a bit off about the pull though, or so Jr thought.
”Now do it without using the anti gravity you’ve got on those gauntlets. Or at least turn it down a bit.” Jr called over.
“Oh? Ok” nothing changed for a few moments, but then the girl suddenly let out and an “eep” as the giant gauntlets based backpack stopped supporting her weight and she almost toppled over, wobbling and flailing and then clearly turning the anti grav way back up to avoid completely collapsing while Jr snickered to himself.
He wasn't laughing for long, as all too soon Sakura moved on from trying to get the princess to stand on her own two feet to directing the prince and heavy cruiser into doing more advanced exercises.
”uuurg, fine” Jr said before bedding over, attempting to touch his toes, taping the deck with his explosive goo tipped wrist horns instead. After getting clear of the (fortunately very small due to only getting residue thatcher than a fresh dose of goo on the ground) explosion he tried again ”see? Easy and boring” he said. Indeed it was easy, mainly because the boy had legs that were very incredibly stubby when compared to a human’s proportionally speaking. Indeed his arms were actually a bit longer than them which was the opposite to most human’s proportions. All this meant he didn't need to bend down anywhere as much as the others would to achieve the same effect..
Rika meanwhile followed her instructions without question, partially out of habit, partially because it was Sakura but mostly because this was another thing she would not have been able to do before a few moments ago, bending over and tippy tapping her booted feet with her newly freed hands, her antigrav gauntlets not helping her cheat this exercise like they did the push up or even just standing. “Oooh. Oh I feel something? A lot of something? It’s a little burning feeling? That's cool. Or it isn't cold, but it’s still cool? I think. Is that how that works Jr?”
”Sure.” jr replied (prompting a smile from the ship girl who proceeded to start loudly counting to 10 under her breath as she held the pose) before asking ”Look wouldn’t it just be faster for the princess to fuse with a spirit that can walk anyway?” aware that that had its downsides but also being 100% the kind of person who’d take shortcuts like that.
”Also how long are you gonna stand like that? You’re just showing off at this point.” he added trying to copy Sakura’s pose with her standing with her leg over her shoulder while they talked, the prince only really able to tap his chin with the tips of his clawed toes thanks to his inhuman proportions.
Sakura scooted out of the room after he knocked, which was a little risky he thought, to thank him.
”Yeah yeah I was pretty” he began to brush it off/gloat before he was suddenly hauled into the air, quickly spun around and put down again right where he’d been standing, left blinking and a little disoriented by the sudden rotation. He was going to complain before being bombarded by a quick rundown of the Abyssal's progress in self identity, namely their names, and a quick reassurance that he wasn't the only one who’d forgotten the ship girl who had introduced them to the city. Stopsire? Shophire? jr realized he had forgotten her name already. He blamed the spinning.
At least Bella and Rika were shorter and easier to remember so he made an effort to not be embarrassed again, repeating them over and over as he wandered over to the command console of the bridge and then found the bay door controls, thumbing the button and then waiting for them to slowly close back up.
“Oh ok” Rika replied simply when told that they would have to keep hiding, but also that they wouldn't have to hide like that, (what would you call that, double hiding? She wasn’t sure) again which was a relief. She didn't really follow a lot of what was talked about next. Bella’s speaking about being alone among the legion did make much sense to her. She would be with people, how could she be alone, the ship though not understanding she was talking about how it would feel to go back rather than what the physical reality would be. Then she nodded automatically when the princess, even though she had a name now Rika still thought of her as a Princess, someone she should follow, said she wanted to go/stay with Sakura despite the danger that would entail.
It wasn't like she didn't want to follow Sakura either. Baring the gradually more uncomfortable feeling confinement and the brief bit of stressful hiding things had been nice so far. It was just that if the princess had decided to do anything else she would have done the same.
She didn't get what Ranger and Sakura’s conversation about spirits and using them being disrespectful meant in the slightest so she just rocked her torso back and forth, which relieve the boredom for some reason, admired the pig boat resting in her lap and listened without trying to hard process what was being said, just letting the sound of them talking was over her. One thing did stand out however and that was that they were talking about ships as if they stayed gone after they were killed which didn't sound right to her. She’d just kind of assumed that when she or someone else sunk the navy’s ships they came back the same as she had. But then again, had she ever seen any of the ones that had died again? She wasn't sure, she hadn't exactly had a reason to keep track, but she was not enjoying this line of thinking, which made Sakura’s call to exercise very welcome as it meant she could focus on that instead of her own thoughts. She eagerly got up to join in in this ‘exercise thing’, which caused two things to go wrong in quick succession.
Outside junior was just finishing shutting the door when he heard Sakura’s call to get in on something. Having nothing better to do, he turned to go join the girls when he hear a squeal from Tyrant, who was not happy about being dislodged from his resting spot on Rika’s lap when she got up unexpectedly, followed by some apologizing from the girl who’d forgotten about him in her urgency to stop reflection on the nature of death. Then, when he was about to open the door, there was another almighty clang as the cruiser tried to copy one of Sakura’s moves and banged a massive gauntlet into the ship again, this time hitting a wall instead of the ceiling.
Jr wrenched the door open and glared at the girl then the dent in the wall, then at the girl again ”Stop breaking my ship! What are you even doing?”
“Oh. um. Sorry. I was exercising? Like Sakura was?”
Jr’s eyes went a little wide at this, before he glanced over at the schoolgirl warrior, put two and two together and then made a quick decision to avoid being pressured into doing an exercise routine.
”Look. Those are stuck on right? If I help you get those off will you stop breaking my ship?” he asked
“They don’t come off” She wiggled a hand around but there was no escaping the fact that the metal coating her forearms was welded to the gauntlets. Her hands were sort of free, but all she could do with them was tap the top of the weapons, her palms and wrist held down by more metal. “I’ve tried and they’re just stuck like that. It's just was how I was made, so I don't think you can help”
”Not with that attitude you won't. Wait here” the boy asserted, before darting out and returning moments later with his tool box. ”Sit down again. You lot can exercise, I.. We are going to get... Rika? ” he got an enthusiastic nod from the girl who was still very please about having a name ”Me and Rika are going to get these off”
“I did want to exercise though. It sounded good. Or well, it’s Sakura suggesting it so it has to be good right?” Rika said, more stating facts rather than complaining or resisting.
”You can do that when you won't break the ship in the process. Now. hold still,” Jr told her, which as he retrieved a hacksaw from the GDI tool kit he’d acquired at hammerhead a few days ago ”and this won't hurt a bit. Probably”
With that he started sawing away at the metal binding girl and ship parts together, occasionally resorting to using a file, a hammer or little blobs of explosive goo to help him get through the tougher bits. While he worked both listened to/watched as Sakura kept talking about this and that and responding to or asking questions when they wanted too.
”I’m a koopa” Jr explained shortly when asked what kind of people he was ”and I have no idea if anything you said is right for my people. Haven't paid attention to fitness stuff since the Best Fitness Friends tricked me… tricked my minions into gathering the ingredients of a mind control formula and then sicked my own minions on me after they controlled them with the mind control medicine stuff.”
”I mean i didn't really care before anyway. Like. Why do stretches and stuff when you can run around and have fun instead? Seems boring,” He admitted
“I think getting stronger sounds good?” Rika suggested. There was a pinging sound as jr hacked the last of the metal holding one of her arms to the massive gauntlets. She brought her hand up and examined, turning to and fro making little “ow” when it hurt a little, the wrist and arm stiff from never having moved that way before, but it got better quickly. She likely looked a bit weird, as she went about touching things with her fingers that had felt nothing but cold steel since they were made just to see what it felt like. Jr ignored it for the most part and went to work on the other hand
”Why work for something when your born with it, I’m gonna be big and strong as my dad one day anyway” jr replied, before realising the ship girls hadn't met him and clarified a bit ”he’s huge and cool and strong and the best dad and king. trust me”
“So like how Bella was made stronger than I was?” Rika asked while poking her own nose with a freed finger.
”... maybe? Royals are just better than your average member of a species. Except peach maybe. She’s kinda just another human. Or well she’s way better than the useless toads she rules so maybe it’s just we’re stronger than out minions I don't know” there was another snap and jr freed the other hand from the gauntlet ”haha, there we go, all free”
“Oh” the ship girl brought her newly freed hand to the other one, clapping them together and then tippy tapping one set of fingers against the others. New sensations! It was very good. She got up, Jr assuming she wanted to exercise now only to be picked up and spun around again, this time by Rika, who had just barely seen Sakura do this through a little window in the door.
“And now I put you down again, right? And say thank you? Thank you” Rika told him, having gone through the motions in the way she had thanked him but also meaning her thanks with 100% sincerity.
”That uuuugh, you get one but that's not how you should be thanking people. Its not cool. Also, you seem a little tied up there” jr saids after shaking his head clear.
“Oh?” Rika looked down and found that the long pipes linking the gauntlets to her back were still there, and had wrapped around her waist when she’d done the twirl. The gauntlets themselves floated freely in the air, the antigrave that made them lift-able still working and now holding them up on their own. It was good she’d only one one spin, any more and she might have tugged them around and hit someone.
“What are we going to do about those? And how am I going to hold them now?” she asked, when she tried to grab them in the same spot where she used to ‘hold’ them and found nothing to keep them with her, suddenly worried about that now that it was actually an issue.
”uuum,” jr replied, also having not entirely thought this through either, before quickly walking around her and checking out the pipes ”yeah no of course those are welded rather than screwed on back there. Ok. Look. I need to go get parts for the ship later anyway, we'll figure something out then. Grips you can get in and out of, some kind of way of transporting those around when you're not using them, a way to disconnect those pipes... We’ll figure stuff out, but for now I’ll just... ” he pulled the two weapons behind her and after a few moments had duct taped them together into a single more manageable unit which he then taped to her back unit. ”Ok yeah that’ll work. We’ll do something better later. For now just try to remember they’re back there like some massive backpack, and enjoy having hands”
“Oh Ok” she was definitely enjoying that. She could move her fringe out of her eyes without wiggling her head around. That was great. Also she could just touch her hair in general and other things and. Yeah. It was excellent. She went over and petted Tyrant, who had claimed part of the bed, like she’d wanted to this whole time and it was just as good as she’d expected.
“Oh. right. Exercise” she suddenly said when she'd finished petting the pig on the head. She’d almost forgotten, distracted by the whole ‘having hands she could actually use’ thing.
”ugh” jr groaned as he packed away his tools, still not enthusiastic about the thing.
“So. Sorry. What is a sit up? Or a pull up?” Rika asked, potentially the only person other than Sakura onboard who was enthusiastic about the concept, “do I just do the stuff you were doing randomly? Is there a pattern? How do i know what to do?”
wordcount: 532 (+1) Bowser: Level 9 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (7/90) Kamek: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (72/70) Location: Limsa Lominscuttle Town - Outside The Bismarck
They never did find out what alcohol was.
Instead more important issues were focused on, like getting inside. Kamek went to go and try and tinker with the wall to see if he could poke any holes in its magics, shuffling over and giving a few taps with his wand ”Hmmmmm” and then pressing an ear-hole up against it.
”Yes, perhaps.” he muttered to himself, but his brief efforts turned out to be a pointless endeavor, as Misfortune did some out of the box thinking and found that whoever had put up the walls hadn't put their own roof on the place, instead relying on the existing building to act as part of her defense. Considering this included a cloth roof, this was perhaps not the best plan.
”Ah, a classic mistake” Kamek commented as the cat snuck in through her self made ceiling cat flap, covering the fact that he would have likely spent hours tinkering away with the magical wall while not even contemplating breaking through the mundane one ”This kind of thing would never keep Mario out” he added as he shook his head and tutted.
”AND IT WON'T KEEP US OUT EITHER! LET’S RIP THE LID OF THE CIRCUS AND GET IN THERE!” Bowser roared, before leaping up on the side of the building in a single floaty bound, boot landing on the solid roof of part of the building, which probably held the kitchen beneath it. He grabbed the awning and tried to rip it off, tugging at the cloth, a few of the connecting points break with each motion.
Then the awning was blown off by the multi mine explosion, hurling the cloth up in the air with Bowser still holding it. The King looked at this goggle eyed for a second, then recovered and whipped the cloth around and tossed it aside, revealing the chaotic mess below. On top of the people he’d been expecting there were a whole bunch of multicolored ladies. Also a frog man. And Sephiroth who hadn't gotten lost or wandered off this time but actually ended up where he needed to be which was a definite improvement on his last attempt.
”UUUUUUUH” Bowser raised a finger as it would get everyone to stop running around and exploding so he could work out what was going on, during which he was joined by Kamek who rode up on his broom to join his king.
”I think we can cross this one off the list” he muttered to himself. They were never going to be allowed to eat here even if they did recover from the carnage
Not the sharpest tack in the box it took Bowser a touch longer than it had Ms Fortune to work out that the colorful clones were the kidnapper(s?) in question, and thus the enemy. He brought down the raised finger and pointed it at the Blue one. Then, in his infinite genius, he decided to try and elbow drop her, leaping up in the air once again and then dropping down towards her like a ton of bricks, while she was charging up some kind of super spell. Kamek had little choice but to aid this airstrike, because the play could only end excellently or terribly and more mass helped in both cases, focusing his enlargement magic upon the king and boosting his size of the truck he was going to hit like by the time he was about to impact.
”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”
Fetzen
Frettzo
teenangstlife
Lord Zee
Neziul
Ariamis
rush99999
Simply Not Real
Shadowheart
