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9 yrs ago
dissertation done. can actually post again. yay.
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The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,091 (+2)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (251/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (218/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(146/100)
Rika: Level 5 ////////////////////////////////////////////////// (12/50)
Location: Smash City Alcamoth


Despite not having been a part of Nadia and Hat kid’s race, or even really knowing that was what they were doing, the moment the pair happenstantially blasted past the troop the prince headed and heeded the siren song of speed. The hovering clown car hit the deck as its kart wheels deployed, and he was off, the electric motor whirring as he sped after the pair.

Or, well, mainly after the hat kid really, the pair of kids engaging in a very disruptive kart race through the mall, sending people scrambling to the side to dodge out of the way of the racers.

He wasn't the only one to just start moving without question, and Rika found herself chasing after them more out of the instinct that if you saw allies running either to or from somewhere then you should join up with their advance/retreat if you wanted to be useful/live. Then once her conscious mind had caught up with her instincts she just found herself enjoying the exhilaration and exertion, finding it good to stretch her body after it had been healed up.

The ship girl was the slowest of the lot seeing as it was a land race, but Nadia slowing down and giving up after a bit let her catch up with her and her cargo.

”Hi there!” said the girl, her tone as cheerful and sunny as her sundress, as she joined them in walking after the two speeding kids. She exchanged a few words with the catgirl before leaning back a bit so she could introduce herself to Omori ”Oh you’re Kamek’s new friend right? Or something? Either way I’m Rika, it’s nice to meet you!”

After a bit of walking they caught up with the two racers and their victory juice boxes at the base of the central elevator that had turned out to be the finishing line. Said elevator turned out to be a rather weird affair truth be told, but rather than be freaked out like Nadia Jr just took it as someone's overly thematic lift ripped from who know where and plonked into the heart of the city by Galeem (he also thought whoever made it might have been trying a bit to hard too fit to whatever robot spider theme they had) while Rika lacked in so much context that for all she knew this was entirely normal.

Her simple yet appreciative comment of ”Neat!” made the ship girl’s state of mind on the whole affair perfectly clear.

On the other hand when it came to the familiar presence, she found herself a bit embarrassed truth be told, especially by Nadia’s comments of concern that made her realize she herself hadn’t really thought about where Bella had been since they got back, let alone New Southern. Now that she was, she hoped that the nihilistic princess had found at least some small comfort away from the dreadful island she had been freed from Galeem’s influence upon.

”Oh, uh, hi Bella. How’ve you been?” she asked, awkwardly raising a gauntleted arm and waving one of her wrist strapped hands as a greeting.

Turned out she’d been taking it easy and giving herself space to process things, and was now looking into maybe becoming an explorer, which if she did, then Jr had some good news on that front: ”Buncha people are riding trains all around the world right now, so if you want places to explore there's about to be a whole lot more of em than the pile we’ve got already” he informed her as they mused about heading up the elevator.

”Ooo it moves on its own? Spooky. Yeah let’s check it out” was Jr’s opinion on it once Bella filled them in on what she knew.

Unlike the prince, who was mainly interested because it sounded haunted, the actual view at the top seemed nice to Rika, who could relate to Bella’s desire to see new things a great deal. Alcamoth was, she just then realized, extremely contextless to her. A place she had teleported to and from but really had no understanding of where it was in relation to anything else.

It was one of the many many gaps in her knowledge she decided she wanted to clear up, and so she nodded in agreement to this plan.




When the kids ran off after the other kids, they had left their elders in the dust at the top of the mall.

”Should we, ah, go after them?” Kamek asked, glancing from her king to the rapidly retreating rapscallions’ rears.

”Eh they’ll be fine. Got each other and Nadia, how much trouble can they get into?” Bowser asked over the sound of someone shrieking as a result of almost being run over by a careening clown kart.

”Thank badness. Honestly I have never seen the appeal of that whole kart racing malarkey. Puzzles and board/minigames, now that is where it is” Kamek asserted, stepping off the broom she was halfway through mounting and setting the top down to the ground to use as a walking stick once more.

”Eh don’t knock it till you try it, and your always welcome to come give it a go you know” the king offered, something the mage waved off with a ”Ack, no, I’m much too old for that sort of thing” to which the king just shrugged in reply.

”Suit yourself”

A few moments of silence hung in the air as they watched the youths race on before Bowser stretched and said ”Dunno about you, but that fighting worked up an appetite! Wanna hit up a food stall or something?”

”Sure. Why not”

That was how Bowser wound up getting a seafood snack from a completely unflappable shrimp lady who was quick to insist that her suppliers ‘aqua farms’ where oh so much better than “that trash from the sea” despite her stall being half in ruin due to an unfortunate run in with a certain recklessly driving prince.

Kamek meanwhile just bit into an apple she had acquired and wondered if the woman had even noticed the incident or if she just rolled with the punches that well as Bowser came over. He had a takeaway box full of shrimp held in one hand from which he skewered a little morsel with a claw of the other and popped it in his mouth before chewing thoughtful and finally swallowing.

”So, how is it” Kamek asked, curious about the validity of the woman’s claims.

”Decent but it tastes a bit, uh, ” he snapped his fingers a few times before Kamek suggested ”artificial?”

”Yeah that’s it” he agreed, before the two lapsed into another silence filled only with the crunching sounds of crustacean and apple being munched down.

”So. What next?” Kamek asked after a bit

”I dunno… Wanna see if anyone we know is about?” Bowser suggested and, once he got a ”Sure why not” they set off to do just that.
Under the sea


A dark shape moved through the frigid water, the little water birds that called fleeing into the relatively safety of the crystalline vegetation smothered in the light devouring sea floor. Despite their ducking for cover, the titan kept coming, opening up mighty jaws as if it intended to simply devour its way through the reef.

And that was, in fact, what its plan was, just not with jaws. Instead of devouring with its maw, life, instead, emerged from it. Beings with round armored heads, grasping claws and, at their core, a human, wearing/piloting the harvester diving suit.

The team of miner-gatherers descended the ramp from the airlock of their cylindrical submarine, a construction made up mostly of geomagnetically manipulated flesh rock covering and coated by the bones and scales of sea monsters. The humans in hulking scale clad armor advanced on the field of crystals, crouched down, and began using the massive cutting claws on their suits to begin snipping at and cutting up the glittering bounty, severing the raw diamonds and unstable crystals from their roots with one hand, and then catching the crystals in another which stashed them in various storage sacks and pouches.

Elsewhere in the sea similar vessels slipped beneath ice and waves, hunting beasts and fowl or excavating vast amounts of umbrium, all in the name of industry and prosperity.

On land the population had grown from the initial group of colonists squatting in a single settlement to a sprawling realm of towns and cities, mostly built around ports on the coast. Those ports were the lifeblood of the realm, for both the new submarines and the more traditional seafaring vessels brought food and wealth from the sea, which in turn tempted more colonists from across it to set sail for the island, seeking a new life free from the fear of the wars that plagued much of the world. There were peoples from the realms under the triunvarate’s power, of course, but also beastfolk seeking a new life, and followers of the fallen mage god fleeing the massive wolf incursion presently ravaging the lands to the south not already embroiled in the war of life and death.

A true melting pot of people and ideas, and though it was nowhere close to being the crown jewel that was Eunomia, Xavior, looking down at it all from Shelly’s tower, was proud both of the people who had built it, and, of course, of himself for his own little additions here and there. However, while he had been doing his usual patronage and benefactor shtick, he’d been mostly tucked away in his tower on Shelly’s back, tinkering.

Most of his little projects had been simple things but the little stone he held in his hand as he stood atop the tower gazing out to sea? Oh that, that was something different. He gave it a little admiring stroke, and then hefted it back and hurled it out into the dead sea, where the nodes held no sway.

With a little plop it hit the water, unharmed despite the fall, and then sank, sank, sank, down, down, down, til it hit the ocean floor. It sat there for a moment. Motionless. Completely indistinguishable from the rest of the near identical stones also scattering the ocean floor. Then, cracks formed along its surface, the stone splitting apart at perfect seams as it revealed itself to actually be a little crab golem. It stood up on tiny legs, skittered around in a circle, and then approached a nearby rock and proceeded to give it a little chomp.

Magmatic energy pulsed from the point of the “wounded,” soaking into the stone that began to rapidly heat up, the water around it flash boiling for a moment before the reaction finished. The bite mark closed up as other cracks formed and the new rock crab came to life.

It stood, waved its eyestalks at its progenitor, and then both crabs wandered off and repeated the process, creating yet more crabs. Crabs upon crabs upon crags. Endless crabs, all free. They would spawn, multiply and spread out across the place where nothing lived and the gods could not sculpt, and see if there was anything to be seen.

And then, once the ocean had been picked clean, they would return.





The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 3,300 (+4) (+6 for Bowser and Rika from colabs)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (249/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (216/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(144/100)
Rika: Level 5 ////////////////////////////////////////////////// (10/50)
Location: Smash City Alcamoth


Like the others, Kamek and Jr squared up for battle. Unlike the others, they had found a way of technically following Mewtwo’s directive while also conserving energy, a goal the under-slept Jr had found it fairly easy to convince the old mage to help him pursue. With that in mind, they had gone not to a smash arena, but a pokemon one, because while the pair took it easy it was the minions who were brawling in their stead.



”Alright that’s enough Mimi, come on back!” The Prince called out from the hovering platform he’d parked his souped up clowncar on, one that floated over the gap to one side of the arena at a distance close enough to yell orders from, but far away enough that there was a low risk of the trainers becoming collateral damage. Then he tossed a pokeball into the arena which bounced once against the ground and then shot a red beam at his rather battered looking Mimikyu, who’d gone through quite her share of shadow clones till she’d been worn down by the fact that unlike the 2 minion Jr, Kamek couldn't actually run out of forces other than through mana drain or exhaustion.

The mage, who had set up a deck chair on her own platform and was only half paying attention as she flicked through her new grimoire, had at least been upfront about this, meaning that Jr’s minions were basically up against an endless survival battle. Not that this stopped Jr from wanting a victory out of this, which is why he called over to his training partner ”Hey, Kamek! I’m gonna use strikers this time to help out, get some combo training in!”

The mage cocked an eyebrow at this, but then shrugged and nodded.

”Cool. Now. Go Dazzle, let’s see what you’ve got!” Jr called out as he pulled his other pokeball from the bandolier on his chest and tossed it out into the fray. The ball bounced once, twice, and then split open, revealing the clown nosed sea lion with black feathered flippers that was Dazzle the Popplio.

The water pokemon shook his head clear of sleep, awkwardly pushed himself upright on the new flippers that he was still getting used to and then had a look at what he was up against.

Turned out to be a shadow clone of Bowser, the dark imitation of the koopa king flickering slightly at the edges due to a crater in its chest left by a departing electroball from Mimi.

”Foe’s weak Dazzle, so let’s finish it off and then get to the proper practice!” Jr commanded the mon, who looked back and nodded at his trainer before squaring up for battle.

”Pacify the flipper creature” Kamek commanded her clone with a lazy wave of a hand, prompting the royal doppelganger to give a roar before charging right across the stage at Dazzle.

”Start off with an Aqua Jet! Get the first strike in!” Jr commanded in response, which got a disagreeing bark from the mon, but he still followed his trainers order regardless, the mon scooting forward awkwardly on his flippers and tail while inflating a water bubble ahead of him.

Then he lunged and from his POV was engulfed in the water of the bubble and rushed along with it towards the incoming dragon turtle, but from everyone else's POV he blinked forwards so fast he was almost invisible, a torrent of water trailing in his wake. Then he slammed into the Bowser clone, turning at the last moment to make it a shoulder charge, and then the water came rushing in as a second punch, pushing the turtle back a bit as Dazzle dropped to the ground.

He looked pretty chuffed with himself as he picked himself up, only for the wet and water blasted Koopa clone to step right back in and give the mon a boot to the chest that sent him sprawling with a “Plio!” of pain. Turned out that Dazzle’s species were not great physical attackers and while Aqua Jet hit fast it didn't hit noticeably hard.

”Shoot. Quick get up before, oh no!” Jr shouted, alarmed, as the Bowser clone followed up its kick with a burst of flame breath. Dazzle squealed in alarm and rolled to the side, the water still clinging to it and his natural resistance leaving him merely steamed rather than cooked. Then, no sooner had he picked himself up that the brute was stomping towards him once more

”Don’t let him push you around, use that penguin leap technique on him!” Jr commanded, the aggressive kid seemingly having not learned his lesson, and it would be Dazzle who’d be paying the price.

The mon reluctantly puffed up another water bubble, but this time tossed himself on top of it with a flick of his tail, bouncing up and then falling down in a parabolic arc, flipper wings flapping to give him more speed as he sailed down, the red marks on his back flaring with power as he descended.

The slow set up and predictable arc had, unfortunately, given the clone time to bring up a guard, and so Popillo’s back smacked down into a raised arm guard rather than anything more vital. At least the clone had not been smart enough to just duck down and take the strike on the spiky shell. Plus, the dire penguin’s technique had also delivered more of an impactful blow thanks to a burst of evil red looking energy that discharged upon impact, the strike causing the clone to stagger back and giving Dazzle a moment to ”Fall back and give him a water gun!”

Now that was more Dazzle’s species’ style. The mon, having already been doing a set of forwards rolls using the momentum he got bouncing off the koopa to get some space, proceed his tail, bounced on another swiftly inflated water balloon and then did a swit acrobatic turn and used the momentum to tossed another balloon behind him as the ‘bullet’ of his water gun. This sored forth and right into the mouth of the Koopa Clone as it attempted to get off another burst of fire breath, the bubble popping explosively that nearly snapped the clone’s jaw, while also dumping it’s payload of water into its maw, dousing the fire it had been warming up.

”Mmm, that seems more like it, young master. I think Dazzle is best suited to ranged combat than up close brawling” Kamek called out a suggestion

”Hey, don't tell me what to do! Just messing about at range is for cowards!... and old people!” Jr called back irritatedly before adding ”Besides, I’ve got an idea to make those two flubbed attacks waaaaay better!”

That got a squawk of complaint from Dazzle, who did not appreciate the insult or Kamek’s accurate advice being turned down. Still, while Jr might be biased he was not lying about his plan which was ”Combine the penguin leap and the aqua jet to make a uh, ah penguin jet? Aqua… penguin? A Dire Jet!”

Dazzle scrunched his eyes, focusing on getting the plan through his brain for a few moments and then gave it a shot. He popped out a bubble, and then hopped onto one, bouncing off of it and then into the other which was about the time when he actually got it.

The lighting fast tunnel of water flowed up in an arch and then in the blink of an eye came slamming down into the Bowser clone’s unguarded chest, water, Popplio and malignant power all hammering into it in a three strike punch that sent it staggering back, scales cracked and its shadowy body flickering and fuzzing at the edge as it was on the edge of coming apart at the seems.

”One more hit!” Jr commanded, and sure enough, another water-balloon to the face sealed the deal, the clone bursting into a puff of purple smoke.

”Well done you two” Kamek called over (which got both mon and master puffing up their chests pridefully at the praise) before setting her book to the side, picking up her wand and saying ”Now then, shall we continue?” before she conjured up the next opponent for Dazzle to face, a chain that would continue till the mon could battle no longer.

The Popplio gulped, while Jr raised a fist and challenged ”Bring it!”




Frozen wind lashed up into the sky, chilling the pair of Kamek clones, the ice clinging to their robes and slowing down their harassing swoops just enough for the mon to nail them with a water balloon each.




Dazzle balanced a ball like Bytan on his snout before he flipped over and gave it a hefty smack with his tail, the ball splitting as it flew and shotgunned the Bowser clone with a triple tackle. The turtle staggered, recovered, and then received a hail of Goombas bounced off of water balloons raining down on its noggin as a follow up.




A drybone just lay down and gave up the fight as Jr and Dazzle finally found a way around its resurrection ability using the pokemon’s disarming voice.




Dazzle clung to a koopa shell as he used his Water Balloons as self made bumpers to ping himself around the arena. It had 0 combat effectiveness but it was evasive as heck.




As a grand finale the stage transformed, sporting a towering mountain at its center upon which Dazzle was joined by Mimi, the pair hammering a veritable swarm of clones and dry bones trying to assail their position and unseat the kings of the hill. Waterbaloons slapped down, followed by electroballs that shocked the soaked scoundrels in a deadly one two punch. Frost swept down the cliff sides, slowing their enemy’s advance while Mimi’s shadow struck them from behind. They even had their own little cadre of pint sized jr clowns helping them hold the fort as Mimi mimicked Kamek’s clone creation, the portaled in pint sized powerhouses tackling their larger mirrors and keeping them at bay.

As for the mage, well, Jr pulling out all the stops on his side had got her invested, and so she’d actually put down the book for good and had been focusing on commanding her troops. But there was something lacking, something, or someone, who she’d come to rely on in a short time that was missing from her strategy. It was tricky at first, the mage stringing as she focused on that bond, but once she had it in her mental hand and took a moment to reflect on it, the rest flowed oh so easily.

One more spell and a few moments later, and the top of the mountain exploded as a coastal bombardment’s worth of shells rained down upon it, blasting apart many of the other clones and fainting both pokemon in the blink of an eye.

”Wow! How’d you… oooooooh” Jr realized what had happened peered down and saw a familiar shape standing at the base of the mountain as the dust cleared ”I didn’t know you could make clones of her!”

”Well why shouldn't I? She’s one of us is she not?“ Kamek replied as the shadow clone of Rika marched her way to the top of the hill and claimed the perch as her own. ”Though I may need to get some pointers from her on how to use those guns” the mage admitted, eyeing the indiscriminate devastation the clone of her friend had caused to the rest of Kamek’s little army. That the real thing had had no such issues quite impressed the mage now that she’d had the opportunity to fail right from the get go.

She waved a hand, dispersing the remaining magical constructs and Jr tossed out both pokeballs and returned his minion’s to them. ”You two did good, now we’ll get you all patched up and then we can get a treat as a reward for all our hard work. Right Kamek?” he told them as he lifted off from the platform and hovered over to the mage, who couldn't really say no too that now could she?




As it turned out that going to get patched up was an excellent way to meet up again, because it lead the various injured members of the Koopa troop to all wined up in the same spot, namly the local poke/people center that provided your one stop shop for all your healing needs, conveniently situated ever so close to the arenas that where their main source of patients.

There, the wounded people and pokemon got all patched up and then took a recommended short rest on some of the benches in the room, where they proceeded to fill the time with chat. Bowser predictably praised his own performance in the battle (but a little surprising also had a few positive words for Peach as well) and Jr talked up both his mon and his ‘tactical genius’ to which Kamek added some more honest praise for his efforts.

When it came to Rika however, she folded in on herself, shoulders hunched in and gauntlets held over her chest almost defensively before she admitted ”I… I lost. Even with all those upgrades Jr worked on I still lost” sounding ashamed of the fact.

There was a little pause during which she seemed to shrink in even more on herself before Bowser shrugged

”Ahhh tough luck.” he said, and then gave her a reassuring pat on the back while adding ”You win some you lose a bunch, that’s the bad guy’s lot,” which got a bunch of agreeing nods from the rest of the troop.

”The important thing is to learn something from your mistakes, so why don’t you tell us about it, and we’ll see what you can” Kamek said, only for Jr to interject ”Can’t we just watch it back? There were fights on screens before we started right? So they also gotta be recording em!” he insisted, something he turned out to be quite right about as it turned out. That was what found them all sitting about watching a replay of Rika’s match on one of the center's little monitors.




”Ha, you’re a girl after my own heart. If you ain't wrecking everything you’re not fighting hard enough!” the koopa king cheered as Rika just went to town on the, well, town, blasting swaths of it to bits in her attempts to shoot down Blazermate




”Oh wow, ok that whole overdrive thing I found in your new specs was way better than I thought it would be” Jr commented when that destruction came to a climax in a hail of 15 for 1 shellfire

”You added something and didn’t test it?!” Kamek said, aghast by this lack of safety standards

”Hey, I had a lot to do that night!”




”Su uh, yeah, beeping stuff’s dangerous apparently” the shipgirl sheepishly admitted

”Well yeah duh” Jr replied callously only to be told of by Kamek for his rudeness ”Young master! Everyone learns everything they know for the first time at some point, it’s quite rude to lord knowledge over people''

”Yeah but everyone knows that beeping means dangerous and probably explosive” he retorted, only for Rika to ask ”Ok but why though? Wouldn't it be better to have dangerous stuff be sneaky?” to which he had no answer

”I.. Well… Just because it is ok!”




”You can fly!?” Jr cried out, amazed by the ship girl’s last second leap over the battlebot’s shield.

”No, jump good! Bowser’s whole water cannon jet-pack thing was pretty inspiring”

”Aw shucks. Just careful not to blow your legs off ok?” Bowser told her

”mmm”




Eventually the show came to a close with Blazermate finishing off Rika in a way that was a bit BM all things told, and the ship girl was left waiting for feedback. The chatting over the fight had put the nerves she had from vague memoirs of cruel debriefing in the fleet mostly at ease, but still, having people you care about judging your performance was still a bit scary.

”You know, you kind of had her on the ropes for most of it, just couldn't pin her down for a win. Flighty dodging enemies are the worst, yeah? Bowser suggested ”You really gotta corner em which can be tricky but once you hem em into a corner then all the running around in the world won’t save em from getting stomped!”

”Yeeeeeeeeah in hindsight torpedoes where maybe not the best thing to tinker around around unlocking, buuuuuut you did still make em work which was cool. Plus that invincibility was sooo unfair!” was Jr’s input ”Been there, done that, never fun to deal with a super star’d Mario. Gotta be on your toes and keep away from em while they run down the clock on those”

”I.. Thanks guys” Rika replied, smiling a little more now that they’d kindly excused her loss for her (which might not be the most positive way of dealing with it, but, well, bad guys where perhaps not the best role models she could have) and also given her a bit of advice ”But it still feels bad to have lost, you know”

”Well this was your first time fighting on your own as I understand it? You’ve been with us the rest of the time, so it is not like you have that much practice at battling on your own, if any. Teams can shore up weaknesses or gaps in your thinking so well you don't notice they are there” Kamek pointed out, and then had thought about something that might help cheer her up ”Oh, here, I learned to do something new related to that you might like”

”hmm? Oh, sure?” Rika replied, to which Kamek nodded in reply and opened up a portal, out of which a shadowy Rika clone stepped. It looked around a few times, and then gave the original a gauntlett salute.

”Oh wow” Rika said as she got up from her seat and sized herself up, noting that unlike Bowser, the clone of her had all the fusions popped into her as part of her, which made sense, they were much more a part of her identity than Bowser’s where of him ”So can you do versions of these for everyone now?” she turned back to ask to which the mage shook his head and responded simply ”Still only for those I hold dear”

”Oh neat” Rika said, and then only after a few moments what that meant actually set in, the ship girl fully turning to face her first friend and with a ”Awww. Come here you” scooping her up into a hug while Jr stuck his tongue out in the background and complained about mushy stuff.

”Feeling better now?” Bowser rhetorically asked after the smiling ship girl put down a rather winded Kamek.

”Mmm, I am, thanks” she said, before giving him a little hug too for good measure.

”Then let’s pack up and see if there’s anything else to do around here. I uh, think the nurse is getting mad about us taking up so much of the sitting room anyway” Bowser suggested, which a little bit later found the four of them wandering the halls, only for a Hat kid to go blazing past them followed by Nadia and Omori hot on her heels.

”Huh, what…. Hey wait, where are you lot running off too?!” Bowser yelled after them to no response, only for Jr and Rika to take the only logical option when you saw friends of yours running somewhere, which was to go chasing after them to find out what the fuss was about.
Who’s the Boss

starring Bowser and Peach
Word Count: 5672 (+6)


When Mewtwo arranged the matchups for the team’s sparring matches, the names of the assembled heroes whirled around like symbols on a slot machine, quickly building anticipation in the onlookers. A veteran of countless Mario Parties, minigames, and other events where everything came down to random chance in the end, Peach knew the feeling quite well, but the display kept her riveted regardless. In just a few short moments, she would be assigned her opponent among the Seekers of Light, but rather than enthusiasm the princess felt something more akin to dread.

Under ordinary circumstances, the task of a soldier fighting his or her leader probably sparked feelings of fear or even resignation. After all, one’s boss was the person who ought to know best, who commanded the most knowledge, skill, and experience, more than likely responsible for teaching the underlings what they knew. What Peach knew, however, was that the heroes around her had nothing to fear, and really, nothing to look up to.

For her whole life, she hadn’t been much of a leader. The day-to-day tasks of running the Mushroom Kingdom -what little that entailed- she left to her subordinates like Toadsworth, leaving her with nothing but free time. Possessed of an empty title, and ignorant of her own ignorance, she lived a life of vapid luxury interspersed with easy, pleasant sports and games as her sole source of competition. Without even the pride to care very much about the dozens of times she’d been kidnapped by Bowser, reasoning that Mario would just save her any time, she’d been content with that life. Only after the Seekers arrived to destroy Megadragonbowser, almost a week ago at this point, did she finally begin to realize what a leader should -and shouldn’t- be. A princess wasn’t someone who sat on her cushions while her people suffered, fighting and dying for the amusement of a tyrant, whether that tyrant be Megadragonbowser, or Galeem itself. From that point she tried to take responsibility, to be the commander of the campaign to save the worlds, but even after a dozen crash-courses in leadership out in the field, she still felt like an impostor. She couldn’t take charge when the team needed or fight well enough to swing the tide of battle; the team seemed to accept her, but it didn’t feel earned. That’s why this fight mattered: this time, the princess needed to be on the ball, and prove herself worthy of her role. All these thoughts raced through her head in just a couple seconds, at the end of which the holographic names slotted into place.

Bowser.

The eponymous villain, splitting image of a source of her inspiration and woes both. Stood among his sub team he was a picture of everything a leader should and shouldn't be as well as something of a thorn in the side with his assertions of authority. Truly, there could be no more appropriate challenge to test how far she’d come, and how far she had to go, than the Koopa king!

So it would have been a lot more dramatic a moment if he had been paying attention. Instead, as far as Peach could overhear, he was in the midst of arguing the virtues of a very very very big umbrella as a counter to the timefall rain, a plan that only the long suffering Kamek seemed to see the problem with. To add insult to injury the reason his attention was drawn to their names coming up next to each other on the slot machine was as a distraction by said Magi-Koopa to derail his hair brained scheme

”Ha, well that hardly seems fair!” was the king’s response to seeing the matchup, before he either uncharacteristically or very characteristically (depending on the intent) added ”Though you could say that about anyone who had to go up against me! The rest of you got lucky!” boastfully a moment later.

Peach grimaced. As much as she didn’t want to hear it, she couldn’t exactly deny his words. It wasn’t a fair fight by any stretch. In terms of size, reach, defense, constitution and especially strength, there was no contest between her and the Koopa King. His addendum painted his initial comment as a product of ego applicable to anyone, but it still stung. To not be taken seriously as a rival, or even a threat, hurt her developing sense of pride. For a moment she almost despaired; was she really destined to be dominated by this big idiot, over and over again, for eternity? Peach put a hand on her chest and she breathed in and out, slowly, trying to calm down. Forget about everything else, she told herself. I just have to do my best. Fight with everything I have. Her eyes cracked open to find that Bowser had already stomped off, despite not knowing where any of Alcamoth’s arenas might be. Peach narrowed her eyes and jogged after him, making sure to draw up alongside him and then pull ahead. “Follow me,” she told him. “I know a good spot.”



When the fog cleared, Peach floated down with her parasol to alight upon the surface of the stage. Her nerves were electric with anticipation now that her match against Bowser was nigh, but the princess worked to get a hold of herself. The woman who stood here now, on familiar ground, was not the same spoiled princess who awaited yet another rescue six days ago. She’d been through hell on Blackwater Bay and the nightmares of the Bottomless Sea, and melded with her very soul were two fighters very used to taking on monstrous foes. The cruel resolve of Mr. Grimm and the military professionalism of Chao Ho stabilized her shaky legs, and tightened her grip on her Boomshot. It was time to begin.

Opposite her the Koopa king was a picture of calm, the tower of scales and muscles rolling the shoulder of his arm housing his new kinetic strike module to give it a stretch, and then flicking both hands to his sides bearing his claws as the new mechanisms in his shell clicked in and out of position. Then they seemed to jam, the king frowning and giving his shell a thump, which was enough of a placebo to get things organized again back there. With a grunt and a nod to himself he turned back to face her as the countdown started

3


2


1


Go!


At which point Bowser immediately lept for the rope suspended platform before him, the thing sinking rapidly under his bulk before he leapt for the central platform, clearly intending to just come straight for her.

Peach inhaled deeply through her nose, then got to work. She let go of her Boomshot with her left hand and pulled out a grenaduck, which she lobbed across the pit to the center. Whether he waited for the opposite lift to lower or just tried to jump straight across, her explosive would blow up after a couple bounces, and it wasn’t her last bomb, either. With an upward flip of her heel behind her she popped out a torpedo, then span around while it flipped to smack it with a roundhouse kick and send it flying toward Bowser as well. Determined to start off with a bang, she finished off the explosive volley by pulling her Agro Torpedo rocket launcher from her Inventory, a blast from which sent a fiery payload Bowser’s way.

”Ha, is that all you … uh oh!” Bower began to mock when the duck was tossed, only to change his tune when everything else came to follow it up, the king comically doing a complete about turn and running back the way he came as the world exploded around him, only to be struck in the back by her the rocket launcher and fully blown across the pit he had cleared, winding up right back where he started.

Bower’s shell was tough however, and so the main thing that was hurt was his pride. ”Two can play at that game!” he shouted as he turned to face her once more, the top two segments of his shell rising up and four guns extending from them and then folding over his shoulders. The light also dimmed around him as he started to draw energy into his flashcanon reserves via the tentacruel orbs. As he charged, his guns opened fire and the king began to huck his slow moving fireballs across the arena, a fury barrage he’d end with a blinding beam should his light reserves reach full capacity.

For a brief moment Peach was surprised. She’d half-expected Bowser to shrug off her special deliveries and just juggernaut his way into melee range. Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t just close-quarters combat that her opponent excelled at. The princess balked at the entire arsenal that Bowser deployed to gun her down with, and the coarser part of her couldn’t help but blurt out her astonishment. “Goddamn…!”

Peach steeled her nerves as she tensed herself to move. She couldn’t push through this onslaught or run away from it, but with no water around and only a relatively narrow battlefield, she couldn’t strafe around as well as she would have liked to take advantage of Bowser’s less-than-ideal aim and projectile travel time. At least, not without a little ingenuity. As the barrage began, and the ground and scenery around her began to blow apart in the storm of cannonfire, she ran toward the edge while stowing her weapons. “Brave,” she muttered as she neared the precipice. “Be brave!”

She leaped into the open air, extended her arms, and began to float. As if gravity had forgotten about her, Peach scooted through the air in a horizontal arc, fast enough to make shooting her a serious challenge. When the princess sensed her floatiness running out, she pulled out and thrust her parasol upward, taking her even higher before the canopy popped open. At that point her speed decreased dramatically, as well as her chances of making it back to the stage–until she pulled out her Boomshot again, aimed it behind her, and let the recoil blast her back toward solid ground. The maneuver brought her close to Bowser again, which meant she needed to do something before he shot her down. With her Boomshot ineffective at such a range and her launcher still cooling down, that left only one option. She pulled out Mr. Grimm’s revolver, lined up a shot, and let loose the screaming Death Spawn soul shot, one of the strongest -albeit most difficult to land- weapons in all of Twisted Metal.

”Stay! Still!” the king demanded as the princess evaded his poor marksmanship only to go ”Uh oh!” as the soul came screaming towards him. Having clearly learned, (perhaps too well given his earlier retreat), that the world of light had a lot of things that could hurt even him, the king crouched and then tried to leap over the incoming shot, which meant it detonated beneath him as an unintended rocket jump. The explosion blasted his boots apart and sent him flailing, the king losing control of his stored up flash cannon and sending a blazing beam of light wildy slashing across the stage.

Then he slammed down onto the central set of floating blocks with an ”Oof” and scorched, bruised and most damning of all bare feet.

”Hey, I liked those! I got them for our wedding! Ow ouch!” The king complained as he tried to haul himself up onto his hurt claws, gave up and announced ”if I cant hit you, I’ll hit everything!” before withdrawing into his shell and beginning to spin rapidly, all 12 guns firing wildly as fired and indiscriminately unleashed a hail of fury spike torpedo from his back, his timed explosive spikes firing upwards and then showering down all across the stage.

“What!? Hey!” Peached holstered her revolver and held tight to her parasol for dear life as cannon shots whizzed by her. “H-how does this help you!?” She watched with wide eyes as Bowser himself spun around in a field of explosions of his own making, an impossible target. She couldn’t hit him like this, which meant she needed to get back to solid ground. In the midst of his volatile uproar, however, Bowser was laying waste to the terrain itself. His torpedoes and shells destroyed chunks of brick at a time, sent both suspended platforms plummeting down into the abyss, and knocked the rows of floating blocks from the sky. Peach veered back toward the area she started in, wondering if he meant to keep her from landing and force a win as she sank below the outer boundary. Well, he couldn’t possibly keep this up forever. After a moment Peach smacked into a row of bricks, climbed up, and promptly rolled away as a torpedo spike embedded itself nearby. “Ugh.” As the dust and rubble cleared, she called forth her revolver again. This time with both hands, she lined up a second shot at the epicenter of the explosive mayhem.

”Testing out Nadia’s thing!” came a semi informative roar over the din, a din which suddenly ended with a click click click of auto loaders trying to pull shells from stores that were entirely depleted. The same went for his back load of spikes, the king’s back presently as smooth as a koopa troopa’s. Well a heavily ornamented koopa troopa’s.

Now that the spin attack was over, rather than pop his actual arms and legs out of his shell and put up with sore feet right away, the king instead deployed the crab-like Dreugh legs from the back of his shell and used them to try and leap through the air towards her like an oversized Tektite. Peach gritted her teeth, adjusted her aim at the massive target flying her way, and fired. The screaming soul blitzed though the air like a railgun shot and walloped Bowser right in the torso, sending him right back the way he came. Unfortunately the recoil, which sent Peach into a wild spin while floating with her umbrella, now knocked her out of her inexpert firing stance and onto her back.

Bowser’s shell bounced once twice and then skidded to a halt right before the precipice, such that when bowser’s head popped out the top it was straight up hanging over the edge. ”Uuuuurgh, ok, not a good one” he groaned and then moved to pick himself of of the ground, the Dreugh legs helping with both that and, if he leaned forwards a bit, he could also use them to support his sore feet, giving him an opportunity to shake em both out before committing to his next move.

”Urg… that gun is nasty. So, I’ll be taking it now” he informed her polity, before squaring up, breathing out, and then breathing in hard, his inhalation turning into a twisting vortex that reached across the stage and tugged at her small arm, threatening to rip it from her hand.

With Peach’s focus currently on getting back up, she didn’t notice the vacuum until it was too late, robbing her of Grimm’s revolver. “No!” she lamented, grasping uselessly at the gun as it sailed away. While she didn’t think Bowser could use it thanks to his size, her win condition had been stripped away. On the plus side, however, she still had the rest of her weapons. With an angry scowl she pulled out her rocket launcher, holding tight the whole time. “Here, you can have this, too!” FOOMP!

The only thing that stopped Bowser getting a gut full of rocket was that he was considerate enough (if you could call it that) to not swallow her weapon and instead cut off the vacuum once it came at him and raised a hand to catch it. He failed, the gun bonking off of his nose and then clattered to the ground, but it left his arm in a perfect position for him to clench his fist and unfurl the shield of the mecha mit. The buckler sized energy barrier caught the rocket, blocking the core of the basalt, though the sides of it still rushed past and scorched his suit.

”Nice try,” the king said in not quite a taunt as one of his tentacruel tendrils plucked the stolen gun off the ground and stashed it in his suit. ”But now let’s see how you handle me without that crutch,” he added before he started to storm towards her once more, but this time deploying his turrets and firing four beams of supersonic soundwaves from them to disrupt her overwatch fire.

Peach scowled, but rather than waste time on a snippy comeback, she put her full attention into what came next. Thanks to his suppressive fire Bowser could now reach her without issue, and even if she relied on remaining structure around her for protection from the aural assault, she’d only delay the inevitable. Without Grimm’s revolver, she possessed only one more possible win condition. The problem was making it happen, and no plan came to mind. Still, the princess needed to do something...

As she retreated, hiding behind the pillars of brick, she began to pull vegetables from the ground two at a time. Thanks to their weight she could throw them indirectly from behind cover, and while most just bounced off Bowser’s scales, not all of them turned out paltry. Depending on their faces, some could deal a lot more damage and knockback than others, and Peach kept running and pulling until, just as she was about to run out of stage, she found what she was looking for. Instead of a bomb, she yanked a bob-omb from the ground, its fuse already sizzling as it struggled in her grasp. Perfect. She produced both a grenaduck and a heel torpedo, and after tossing them into the air Peach whipped out Chao Ho’s giant fan to blow all three explosives at Bowser in a single mighty stroke. As the makeshift carpet-bomb flew Peach ran in behind them.

”Ow, oof, fine i’ll eat my veggies!” came a shout after the first few turnup-y projectiles, followed by bursts of vacuum breath and sounds of revulsion replacing the pain sounds that made it somewhat unclear if Bowser’s strategy was actually reducing the damage her vegetable projectiles were doing.

Then her bombs came flying and the tennis seve of a toss it gave him just enough time to realise that sucking these in would be a poor plan, and recognise the oh so faimiler sight of a bob-omb in the mix. Having blown all the cover to hell already, Bowser took the stubborn option. He held his ground and let loose a blast of firebreath at the incoming bombs, burning the wick of the bob-omb right down to the base in a heatflash and detonating it prematurely.

As her bombardment went up in smoke, Peach opened and slammed her fan, blowing the haze of ash, and brick dust toward Bowser in one big gust. Whether he choked on it or not, its acrid particles and sizzling embers could sting his eyes and obscure his vision, or so Peach really hoped. Because now, after closing and hurling her fan at the big brute like a caber toss, she was closing to melee range. She got as close as she dared in order to start the real fight with a bang.

KRAKOOM!

A short-range blast from her Boomshot scattered the smokescreen, but before she could see what damage it did to Bowser, Peach hurled the gun right at him. In a flash her parasol was in her hand, bundled up tight and held like a rapier. With her sincerity writ upon her royal face, the princess prepared to strike.

The blinded king stumbled back from the blast with an ”Oof” followed by a ”What” as the gun bonked off of his snout. He blinked repeatedly both to clear his eyes and because of what he saw.

”Are you for real?” he had to ask, he didn’t wait for a reply, instead cracking his neck and then throwing both arms out to his sides as his own weapons deployed, energy claws flicking out from the mecha mit while the kinetic strike module’s first deployed into place.

”You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that, lets see if you can back em up,” the king challenged her, before the afterburners on his new rocket fist and he started their melee with a jet propelled uppercut.

Fueled by raw adrenaline, Peach’s life flashed before her eyes. This jerk’s trying to kill me! The conclusion jolted her into action, and throwing all thoughts of offense to the wind, she flipped horizontally backward and out of the rocket punch’s way. She landed in a crouch to see Bowser carried into the sky by the force of his knockout blow, looming over her like a meteorite. With terror the princess pictured his iconic Bowser Bomb, capable of reducing just about anything to smithereens. In that moment, however, she also saw her fan, descending in her direction. Peach embedded her parasol in the ground and caught the fan on her shoulder, which she opened with a twirling overhead slam to send a gust of wind up at the Koopa King. “Back off!”

If all the stars aligned it might have pushed him back far enough to plummet straight down into one of the stage’s pits, but she’d happily settle for not getting squashed flat. Either way, she hurried to put the fan on her back and ready her parasol once more.

Bowser was a bit too busy being surprised by the sheer power in the gauntlet he’d just tried to slam Peach with to consider any follow up slams, his legs kicking under him as they failed to find purchase. Only at the gust of wind did his senses snap back as the part of his brain that paid any denizin of Bowser’s world had honed to a fine point if they wanted to live screamed PIT at the top of its nonexistent lungs. Either thinking fast or not thinking at all, bowser jammed all 6 sets of guns out of his shell and slammed them all into hydro pump mode. The 6 sets of jets might not have been able to all point forwards, but they had enough of an angle to add to his backwards momentum such that he cleared the pit. Oh and almost staged-outed himself anyway by going too far past it, the koopa slamming a claw into the ground to stop him slipping on the last few inches of wet stone out of the arena.

”Close one,” he noted as he clicked the kinetic strike module back into storage position. Then he gave the stone a flame blast before rushing through the steam to hop across the gap, claw primed to reach out and grab her instead of smash her this time.

After a sound bombardment by Bowser’s hydro pumps that slammed her into the ground and soaked her to the bone, Peach staggered to her feet, bruised and ragged but holding her parasol firm in her grasp. Against a more conventional opponent she might have been able to make good use of her umbrella, employing her heightened dexterity and speed to beat her opponent down, but Bowser was anything but. Some other day, maybe. She braced herself as he bounded over the stage’s pits, then thundered toward her like a freight train. Her explosives weren’t ready; her fan and her turnips would do nothing. No cover remained around the stage for her to use for shelter, just scattered blocks and pieces of brick.

Peach’s eyes narrowed. She went low and performed a spinning sweep that kicked a number of bricks into the air. Then, with a powerful thrust from her parasol, she popped it open to send the debris flying toward Bowser. Despite her inventiveness, it unfortunately wasn’t enough. The tough guy took the smattering of masonry no problem, followed shortly by a thrust from Peach’s parasol as he reached out and grabbed hold.

“Guh!” The princess grasped as Bowser lifted her into the air, squeezed tight in his painful grasp. With just one eye open she could see his smug face, already sure of victory. Indeed, he could now end this at any moment. He could throw her off the stage, crush her beneath his weight, or just roast her right now.

But would he?

This wasn’t the first time Peach found herself grabbed by Bowser. This normally ended with him carrying her off over his shoulder, though at the moment he needed to beat her, not kidnap her. Still, the Koopa King was a sore winner, a gloat, and not at all the pragmatic type. That’s why Peach wanted this to happen. Only once he grabbed hold her, determined to never let go of his prize…was he close enough for her to win.

“All..” Peach grabbed at of his scaly mitt, as if hopelessly trying to dislodge his grip. After a moment, however, her gloved hands reached into his flesh, grasping at the core of his being–his spirit. Going through an extremity lengthened the process, but it also made it more painful, like slowly pulling off a bandage versus ripping it off in one go. Would he just stand and let this happen? She doubted it. But she had no other options. “...Or nothing!” And so the reaping began.

”Ah hey what is that?! It feels really weird!” Bowser complained as he felt existential pain for the first time, but the stubber fool didn’t let go. No instead he kept running across the center of the stage, not slowing the momentum that had brought him to her in the first place one bit, and jumped the last bit of distance before tossing her straight down, aiming to slam-dunked princess into the twin of the bottomless pit he’d only just avoided dropping into himself.

Peach pulled and pulled, but she just couldn’t draw Bowser’s spirit through–like a tapioca pearl through too small a straw. “Dammit!” she screamed as the Koopa King hurled her down the pit. Full of helpless fury, she did the only thing she could, and popped open her parasol to bring her downward trip to a screeching halt. Yet that alone wouldn’t save her. She couldn’t jump or fly back up, or jump back and forth between these walls. All Peach could do was continue drifting downward, rankled by the laughter of her triumphant opponent, and await the lackluster finish. Unless…

Peach summoned a new grenaduck and stared at it for a moment before clenching her teeth. “Not like this.” Her grip tightened, harder and harder as the explosive began to blink, until it erupted.

From the cloud of flame the princess flew out of the pit, singed and tattered but alive and ready for more. She stopped her uncontrolled momentum with a well-timed float, facing Bowser for a brief moment. “Don’t pity me! Ha…” she cried, twirling in place. Then she burst forward, her rear extended for a mighty Peach Bomber. “CHA!”

”What?” was Bowser’s confused reply before he brought up his arms into an X guard to block her ass blast, before counter attacking with a four pronged strike with his Dreugh limbs before he’d even dropped his guard back down.

The pincer attack struck Peach in the middle of her recovery and knocked her back to the edge of the pit. Wincing from the punishment, she fought to maintain her balance for a second, and she second she found it she charged again. Dragging the tip of her umbrella along the ground, she swept toward Bowser with a diagonal blow which the king simply raised his arm and took on his scaly forearm.

The king made a thoughtful noise as he stabbed at her with the carb legs again, really leaning into this style of combat and not even trying to use his fists for a bit. This time Peach yanked a struggling Toad out from nowhere to take the limb strikes for her, and return their combined damage twofold in a stream of spores accompanied by an ear-rattling scream.

The lim stabs were fairly wimpy compared to some of the real damage the king could put out, but the resulting burst of spores and sound still sent the king reeling and coughing, breaking his guard for a moment as he covered his ears.

Peach narrowed her eyes–this was it. Judging by her burns, bruises, and fatigue, maybe her last chance. She leaped into the air, and with her parasol thrust as hard as she could toward the space right between her opponent’s eyes.

The king went cross eyed as the tip of the umbrella went between them and smacked him right between the bushy brows with a “thonk” that sent him into a stumbling fall, closer to the edge. Then those crab legs lashed out behind him instead of infront, correcting over his tumble and sending the thick koopa’s noggin careening towards the princess.

When it looked like Bowser was about to fall, a spark of hope galvanized Peach’s faltering muscles into pulling out her rocket launcher in order to blast him off. But her opponent catch himself too quickly, and put his momentum into a fearsome headbutt. Peach turned the Agro Torpedo horizontally as a makeshift shield, and when the hammer fell she planted her feet and pushed back with everything she had. “Grrrrrrrrr…” she grunted, the visceral sound direct from her innermost being. “..rrrrraaaaaah!”

In the end she lasted only a second. Her arms gave way, and as her legs buckled beneath her Bowser’s headbutt smashed her flat. Parasol and rocket launcher both bounced away amidst a spray of shattered bricks, and Peach lay in the dust barely clinging to consciousness, unable to move a muscle.

GAME!

Bowser for his part stumbled backwards fists raised in a boxer’s guard, still mostly out of it for a few more moments and then a few moments later realized that no more violence was happening. He shook his head clear, then gave it a tap for good measure and then saw the consequences of his actions.

”Oh. Uh. Are you alright?” he crouched down and poked her with a claw.

Fog swept in across the stage, swallowing all in its path. It rolled over Bowser, Peach, and all their wanton destruction with the speed and indomitability of a tidal wave. Then it passed, leaving the fighters out in front of the archway they’d used to access this pocket dimension. A handful of spectators had gathered around, and when the two royals arrived they met with a handful of cheers, and applause. Revived with about a quarter of her total vitality, Peach got to her feet to find herself offered congratulations and sympathy. Even as she struggled on her own against an overwhelming opponent, many of them had been cheering on the underdog, and now she even got some praise for her smart moves out there. Bowser got his share of admiration too, but Peach didn’t even notice. Losing had been inevitable, but if some people actually thought she did a good job out there, and respected her for what she achieved, it was all worth it.

Bowser, of course, noticed his own fans, giving them a flex of his scally guns for show alongside a ”Yeah, I’m pretty awesome” before being tapped on the shoulder by one of his tentacruel tentacles while the other presented him with the gun he’d stolen from Peach.

”Oh, right” he said, plucking it from the tendril’s grasp and then turning around offering it handle first to Peach, the small put ever so powerful hand cannon held between his fingers ”Here your gun back, that thing’s got some bite” he said, rubbing his chest subsciously where it had hit him. ” You’ve come a long way,” he told her uncharacteristically when she took it, and then finally adding ”but maybe get something nastier than an umbrella for poking people with, yeah? Ooo or put spikes on it, that’d be cool!”

The princess did not look happy to see him, with some trace of resentment haunting her eyes, but she accepted the revolver without complaint. When she looked she would find that her Boomshot, fan, and other weapons were all back in her inventory where they belonged. “...Thank you,” she told him. The rarity of a compliment from the Koopa King did not escape her. Rather than shake hands she crossed her arms, an unsatisfied look on her face. “Maybe I will. Next time, you’ll have to take me more seriously.”

”Already am” the king replied pretty nonchalantly, before stretching and saying ”Now let's go find Blazermate or someone to patch us back up to full…oh and then a snack, fighting always workers up my appetite!” and moving to stomp off and do just that.
Promotions!


Redecorating the Godly Way


“So, uh, I don't want to sound ungrateful your maj but, well, when we signed up to this expedition we were kinda expecting a whole island and not, well, a ring of shrubs around fiery death and flanked by cold and hot infertile lands”

That was the message delivered to the god when he returned to Shelly after settling the business of node 33. As the Shepherd of shadows began stalking around the perimeter of the ring of volcanos it turned out others had already done so. Namly a tribe of plant people, who had raced around it on soul powered chariots and scouted out the land far quicker than any could have done via horse, foot, wing or flying fish.

Having brought back the news, their leader, a man with long palm fronds for hair that he’d tied into a ponytail, also ended up as the one reporting the settler’s feedback to the god.

Xavier pursed his lips and glanced behind the man and his assembled entourage at the steadily growing colony settlement, that sat equidistant between the ring of volcanos and maelite. Both were already being harvested for fuel, while stone structures were raised and crops were seeded for future growth. Until those started to bloom, they would have to rely mostly on their stores held with Shelly, the titanic turtle presently sat on the shoreline and sticking her neck into Mealite and gouging on the flammable ubrium within.

It would be sustainable, Xavier thought, but it wouldn't be able to grow into another Eunomia with the meger farmland the habitable ring around the prison provided. The lack of any major rivers ment there hadn’t been much space to ‘lake’ life into the ocean that sat outside the purview of the gods either, so while the ocean would provide, it would take some time to begin to do so.

He saw this, and where the mortals where coming from, but it was still a bit frustrating to him to be told this by a man modified and mutated by Monica’s murdurer. He found himself clenching a fist at that thought and forced himself to loosen that grip, remeinding himself that these people had fled the wars over slavery in their homeland, and had come first to the 12th realm and now across the sea seeking prosperity, freedom and safety. They were no pawns of his foe, a woman who as he understood it had very little to do with the running of the realm’s who’s node’s she had claimed, but poteitnal fiends, allies and clients.

“I understand your concerns and frustrations, the necessity of the prison and my sister's creation of… less than idealistic realms has left you with something of a poorer deal than what was promised, and I will do what I can to make up for that. However, presently I can only modify the 33rd realm, and its current state is important as a source of fuel. Simply wiping that away would be just as problematic”

“Well it might be nice as firewood, but we can’t exactly eat Umbrium,” the plantman pointed out

“Nor can we trade it with the mainland for much profit seeing as they have their own source” A merchant added “this land is rich in resources, yes, but it is nothing unique. All we have is a gamble on what the bees produce as being profitable, which is hardly a good place to be in”

“Can’t you, I don’t know, bury the umbrium under fertile soil? It’d be a pain to get too, but it’d solve the issue” the plant man asked

“No, no it would freeze the ground, kill the roots of any crops… hmmm” the god’s mind suddenly wandered to reports he had read about the relationship between the temperature of various parts of the sea and the amount of fish there in. Colder was apparently better in some ways. Putting his mind to it, adding knowledge gained about how hot and cold air worked, he could see how it would flow and churn more than a warm sea, becoming less stagnant in the process and drawing ntruants in to let life flourish despite the lack of warmth.

Add to that the god’s interest in the ocean as a potential place of archive of knowledge and artifacts of past crucibles, and the island’s present lack of sea life around the regular coast and he had a plan. He went over it with the mortals, and then, after a bit of back and forth, Southern Maelite sank beneath the waves.

Over the following days life took hold of the dead land. Pockets of glowing algae finally escaped from their disparate and tucked away nooks and crannies, able to blossom across the entire region, turning the pitch black umbrium beaded sea into a glowing one, light shimmering up from the shallow depths and through the drifting ice sheets.

These, the native diamond plants, and seeded unstable crystals became the basis for new life consistently mainly of a whole slew of penguins, from minnow sized to gorilla sized, as well as curstations, and crystal lizards Xavior fetched from the caves beneath the 12th realm and warped into a slew of marine reptiles (from Plesiosaurs and Ichthyosaur to simple snakes and turtles) all filled out the life in the waters.

All this fresh life provided a bountiful harvest for hunters and fishers, both in the realm itself and around, as Xavior made sure to make some creatures and plants not adapted to the Umbrium laced environment around the edges of the realm, which could spread out around the island and leave its waters rich with life too.

The crystal infused reptiles were of particular note, their mix of flesh and energy filled rock, now found in far greater variation than presenting various intriguing possibilities for alchemists and magmatic engineers both. It was not without its challenges of course, the main one being that the umbrium fuel was now at the bottom of the ocean. Still, Xavior was sure the people would rise to the occasion, and produce some tech that would be useful for when he eventually found the time to scour the ocean’s floors for anything of note.

“Bit chilly” the plant man complained, holding his arms and shivering as he and a few of the others took their first steps out onto an ice sheet clinging to the edge of the realm.

“If you think this is cold, you should have tried walking through Maelite before I sank it” Xavior retorted, but with levity in his tone “besides, catch a few penguins or lizards and you’ll have suitable clothing in no time I’m sure” he added. Some people were already setting about doing both that and more it seemed, as a squad of winged demons and Tonnikala riders swooped overhead, stone thrower rifles at the ready as they swooped about, seaking easy prey and the thrill of the hunt.

Happier even than them was Shelly, the massive snapping turtle trunding down the soar and then slipping into the water, smashing ice aside with ease as she settled into her temporary home. Xavior would have more use for her later, but for now he had other more pressing matters to attend to, the god looking to the sky and grinning as he saw his bodyguard and confidant Annie returning from the first hun, hauling a struggling Ichthyosaur in her grasp.

He had served the islander’s food, now all that remained was to find out how good it tasted.





The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 628 (+1) (+1 for Kamek from colab)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (239/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (212/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(140/100)
Location: Smash City Alcamoth
Feat: Rika


”Eh I get my butt kicked all the time. The important thing is to keep getting back up again when the world knocks you down!” Bowser added to Peach’s insistence that Rubric getting bodied by the gank squad was no great shame ”And then you train and you scheme and do a new awesome plan… and get your butt kicked again… and again… and again…” the King’s eyes gradually glazed over as the weight of his failures pressed down upon them

”His majesty is an old hand at taking down dimension warping eldritch beings though, aren't you Sire? Why this isn't even going to be the first one who tried to rewrite reality in their own image you have taken down!” Kamek hurried over to insist and stop any kind of downward spiral.

”Huh? Oh. Oh yeah I'd did do that didn’t I! Yeah!” the king cheered himself, his history of endless defeats all but forgotten.

A little bit after that, and they found out through Pit how the blue team was doing, which was well ”Glad they’re good. They killed a boss too? Nice, good job them” Bowser said in response to his question being answered by the somewhat familiar angle boy ”Thanks, uh, pat? Pot? Pit! Pretty sure it’s Pit. Right? Dunno much about you but you where a reel thorn in my side till you switched teams last time” Bowser said, misconstruing the situation where he had joined the mass of heroes entirely during the final act of the whole Subspace fiasco ”so good to have you”

After that, they got filled in on some more details that the Blue team had found, namely an underground cat based train network,, as well as some stuff about the state of the world. The big one was the fate of the mission Jr had sent out way back when to deal with Eggman. It had, apparently, turned into a right farce.

”Ah so you didn’t get Dr Eggman onboard? Shame, the guy is a tech wize and definitely a team player once he knows the world is on the line.” Was Bowser’s take on the situation ”Plus he’s surprisingly sporty for such a, uh, top heavy guy.”

Jr meanwhile napped right through the explanation of the series of events he had set in motion, but he did flutter open his eyes at the mention of a vehicle bay ”Yeah I used that place last night to upgrade my car, it's pretty neat. Plus we put the airship in there to be serviced, so we’ll have that boxy thing to use to get around. Or someone will eventually, I don’t know if they managed to restart it yet. Thing took a real beating seeing as it got emp’d twice in one night”

After that, the main question raised was where exactly they should go. Part of that planning was impossible to do, as the result of the blue team’s train rides could open up who knew where for easy travel, but they did the best with what they had. Being the most strategically minded of the Troop, it was Kamek who had their input into the situation.

”So, ah, this hole where the dead zone used to be” Kamek pointed towards the massive crater that had been left where the blighted realm had once stood ”What, exactly, happened there? And, well, there was no mention of the boss there on the list of ones dealt with so… do we need to go back there? Poke around? Put down the guardian there for good? Assuming everything there but the boss is blown to pieces, or rather only it got up afterwards, then we could walk or fly there, deal with it, and then go to this Midgar place perhaps?”
There are still lands left to be conquered


It had been a long long time since Xavior had seen an unstabilized realm but there on the horizon one loomed, coming closer and closer with each paddle of their turtle ship’s claws. He saw all this from the central tower of the city built atop its back, a towering spire of dark stone that held up the reinforced volcanic glass dome that sat in place of the turtle's back. Two large curved horns swept out of the top of the tower, piercing the dome in a fit of narcissism and practicality, the twin spikes being the arrays of a magmatic weapon made to defend the ship from other grand foes.

Around that tower were large sprawling buildings, the sharp brutal angles of their rapid construction softened by the gardens and farms that topped every rooftop in the self-sustaining city. Above, Tonikalla danced and played in the enclosed sky, flitting between chimneys that took the infernal fires of industry out of the shell, while below the mortal colonists went about their days, or gathered around the edges of the dome to see the same sight the god could from on high.

Below them the turtle (of the snapping variety), a mix of buoyant stone scales, Ambroisen musculature and divinely crafted flesh, glode through the oceans waves just as easily as it could have swam beneath them.

“So, there it is. You know in hindsight it's the only shape that makes sense given what I learned about the eternal depth of the nodes. They must all link up in the center somewhere down there, at the beating heart of this sphere of a world” Xavior said to his traveling companion as they approached the proof of the Shepherd of Shadow’s words regarding the shape of the world.

Benea leaned over the rails of the balcony and looked beyond the city towards the glass dome. Between the turtle and the unstabilized land, the water sat eerily still. There was no motion from a stable land to thrust life into the water, and without guidance in the sky other than the nightly painting of stars, it was a cold black glass. The goddess blew a stray hair from her face and refused to stand back up as she addressed Xavior. “You know dear, I could have told you it was round.”

“And yet you didn’t” Xavier replied, though not in an accusatory fashion. It wasn’t like it had ever had a reason to come up when they had talked in the past, as far as the god could recall. Still, that didn’t mean he didn’t take the opportunity of the moment to ask “So are there any other fundamental truths of the world tucked away in that mind of yours you think would be useful or even just moderately interesting?”

Benea chewed her cheek for a moment. “That’s a hard question, sweet Xavior, there is so much to this world, where would I even start?”

“We’re making landfall shortly, so I suppose whatever you can fit in in that amount of time that would be immediately relevant?” Xavior replied, not actually having expected her to offer to answer that question directly.

“Let’s see…” Benea trailed on. “Here you pick: either I can give you a small history lesson or regale you with some of Garravar’s theories — either or is useful for someone like you to know.”

“I’m sure we’ll have plenty of reasons to discuss Garravar in future, so let’s go with the history lesson shall we?” Xavior decided after a few moments of thought.

“Easy enough.” Benea twisted around so she was facing Xavior while she leaned back on the railing. Looking him straight in the eye she started. “You know, I wasn’t the first god to be in multiple crucibles.”

“I… huh” Xavior was a bit taken aback by this, but not as much as he had been by Benea’s first revelations. He had kind of got used to being hit with head turning information buy the ancient goddess at this point “How do you know that?”

“The same way I learned a lot of the intrinsic formalities of the crucible, dear.” Benea stood up. “The pillar that took my sister’s sanity. Oh yes, it spoke about another god before my time, and not in a favorable light.”

“We’re two for three then in terms of returning cast members being something of a problem then. Wait… oh my…” the got floundered for a moment for a curse that would make sense for him to use and then just gave up and went straight too “ was it a warning that they would return again?”

“Oh no, they were certainly dead and still are — if not erased from existence completely.” Benea poked her cheek. “His name was Falbach, and he was in three crucibles…” A pause. “Same as me, I suppose.”

“Then why the documentation of his…” Xavier began to ask, before getting it “ah, historical archival. Wise. I’ll stop interrupting” and then doing just that.

“His story is one I wish I never confided to Garravar, if I’m being honest, dear,” Benea looked down. A simple chair formed underneath her, catching her descent into it. It creaked and she leaned back. “Originally, Falbach was a mighty warrior and a man of love and compassion. He was unfortunate to have been born to a crucible of only five where two were violent and macabre. If the story rings true, one wished to bathe the world in an ancient and slumbering fire while the other wished to end the world entirely, and cause the end of time.”

A pause. “But Falbach was great and his love for life united him and the two remaining gods and together the three defeated the fire lord and the lady of nothingness.”

Xavior for his part created a small stool upon which to sit on, setting it next to the banister so he could lean against it and sit at an angle such that he need only turn his head to switch between looking at Benea as he listened and checking the approaching coast for any signs of danger.

True to his word, he simply nodded, and let her continue her tale without comment till she reached its, he suspected, grisly end.

“Well you see, after that — everything went perfect. Falbach and his two friends decided upon naming him the heir to the crucible and he did just that but as the triggering event ended and his will was thrust upon the world, for but a brief moment that only he could notice — his friends were deleted.”

“Simply… gone?” the god asked, confused. After all, the person speaking with him was proof that it was possible to pass from one to the next should the creator will it. So then why, he had to ask, had this occurred.

“For a moment, at least,” Benea continued. “In so many words his friends were then reconstructed as per Falbach’s will, as was everything else and thus began Falbach’s second crucible. It consisted of his two friends and seven new faces as well as several universal curses. I don’t know them all, of course, but I do know that one of these curses actually affects you and I! Falbach’s will saw our innate knowledge of the crucible to be taken away from us, hence why I relied on a pillar and you on Peninal.”

“That… is a lot to unpack.” Xavior took it back, you could never get used to the revelation wagon’s wild ride. “ As per his will… Do you mean he willed them back into being, or that they were created as per he understood their existence. As Peninal understood yours?” he asked, because if it was the latter, he could see the origin of Garravar’s seeking for a third option in this tale of uncertainty.

“Well let me continue for you.” Benea nodded. “So you see, that same issue arose for Falbach. He had no idea if he did either or and as time went on he became suspicious that his friends weren’t truly his friends but some strange creation of his and as his paranoia grew, his will began to crack and loosen, and as that happened, he began to lose his nodes. Before long, the world fell into a mad rush for the nodes as one would expect of a crucible. It was god against god, who would win? Well, Falbach won once again. He was the greatest after all, remember?”

“And then the paranoid man with a cracked will remade the world a second time…” Xavior said, seeing only a ruinouse ending to this tale.

“He did indeed!” Benea sounded almost surprised that Xavior guessed correctly. Her storytelling definitely needed some work. “Granted what he did was create seven new gods but this time, he had no delusions of peace and began to hunt them all for violent fun, or so it was perceived as such. He would laugh and smile and smash his enemies into dust and pulp and then one by one he killed each and every god… except for one, the writer of this tale and my original paragon if you will. Her name was Voittaja and as far as I can tell, there was none like her.”

“How did she overcome someone with so much more power and experience?” he asked, just a hint of desperation for that knowledge hidden in his tione, for that was almost exactly the odds he would face if/when he had to stand against Garravar.

“Luck was on her side, as was time,” Benea explained, “She hid for two hundred or so years, waiting for the perfect moment. She knew that Falbach’s bloodlust would turn into boredom eventually and his violent will would crack again, and once it did and his power started to slip, she struck. She was lucky the triggering event did not come sooner, like it did for me.”

“And unlike you or Falbach she decided she did not want to live once that event occurred?” Xavior asked.

“She lived.” Benea leaned back and smiled. “She lived longer than I have, longer than Falbach ever did — probably longer than both of us put together.”

“... was that not the one before yours then?” Xavior said, realizing he might have jumped to a conclusion. She had said she knew of seven, he now recalled, and that had only been three of the missing 6 before the ones Benea had been in

“It was.” Benea was giving Xavior a wide, fox-like smile. “But it wasn’t a crucible.”

She 100% earned that smile, given Xavior’s jaw was left hanging open and the god speechless.

“So, there have been 8 crucibles now but there is another sort of form this world can take, and as far as Garravar was concerned he found it impossible to count and so we only know of Voittaja’s. It’s called an interim. Basically, the difference between a crucible and an interim is that a crucible always starts when multiple gods are born. In the case of Voittaja, when she won the final crucible of Falbach, her will was so against creating new gods that the world instead was cast into an interim. It is basically a crucible with one god who already owns all the nodes…” Benea slowed down and pursed her lips.

“Um, Xavior dear, perhaps it is best if we don’t share this story.” She pinched her chin. “I am starting to realize how tempting this could be to some.”

“Perhaps, but she dies in the end though does she not? Or eventually changed her mind. Else we would not be here, but instead it would be, what, a chain of her own worlds over and over forever?”

“It was one world, one existence.” Benea held up a finger. “And it lasted longer than the six known crucibles put together. I don’t know why it ended, the story ends with her victory and the birth of her interim. Voittaja’s interim.”

“Then how do you know it lasted so long? Xavior asked, scratching his head thoughtfully ”either way, it is odd that it lasted so long, and yet that was the only thing left in the node that was not remade is it not? The temptation is there, but the unknowns do seem… grim.”

“The pillar was made after the interim had already been going on for a while, and from her account, just that small portion was already incredibly long, as for why only the pillar survived in the end — I have no idea.” Benea crossed her arms. “This story is one of the things that drove Garravar to where he is today, so be careful with it. Don’t make me regret this.”

“I won’t. I swore to not follow his path, and I stand by that oath. I will not kill our kin chasing these gambles of fate” he said, holding up a hand as he reaffirmed that commitment, before adding “though when it comes to other reasons I am as yet undecided.”

Benea frowned for a bit. “Dear, after I murdered my sisters I swore I would never take a life again. For my entire reign, I ruled as a pacifist and even continued that tradition into this crucible. Now I realize I was foolish; you and I are going to have to kill anyone who opposes the decision of our alliance. Containment didn’t quite work when I tried it on Anak’thas. If I name you heir, myself and Tsunya will have to see that decision through.”

“That… is perhaps not the optimum attitude to have when going into negotiations with a neutral power with territorial holds that seem to rival our own if the merchant tales hold true” Xavior replied cautiously, somewhat taken aback by this turn around on her attitude. He himself had only been thinking in terms of an eye for an eye and had expected push back on that, so being forced into the opposite corner of this moral quandary put him off balance to say the least “Besides, we will need to devise a form of containment or imprisonment if we are to deal with your icy shadow.”

"That much is true," Benea folded her arms and sat back in her chair. "Killing him doesn't work, nor does trying to break tolbog. Containment ironically is the answer in that case."

“So we would need a prison of some kind, one that can hold a god. You managed to hold Anak’thas with only a box after all, so it is possible as long as we add more reliable wardens. More defenses. A better box…” Xavior replied, mind suddenly whirring at the technical challenge such a feat would provide “Well, at the very least, we do have test subjects available to prove the viability of such an endeavor” he mused grimly. They certainly did not lack for divine foes after all.

"He is rather tricky even when compared to other divine, considering his ability to shatter." Benea chewed her cheek. "Off topic, but we should split up at the isles. Recapture Monica's node and I'll claim the other two. It's about time we start to put our claim out until we can convene with Tsunya and pick an heir."

“I believe Tsunya was promised one of them,” Xavior pointed out once he had caught up with the rapid topic change, “specificity traded my claim to it too her, and I would prefer to keep that bargain”

“Besides, if she links up one of her nodes to the nexus here, claiming it won't have much of a delay. Not one that will matter anyway, as it will take plenty of time to settle and make use of just the one habitable node”

"As long as it is expedient, dear…" Benea twisted her lips into a frown. "I have an anxiety in my gut that tells me time might not be as long as we wish."

“I suppose all we can hope for is our roll of the dice being a high enough one” Xavior replied, “and take things at an even pace, neither rushing to folly nor being so slow that folly catches us anyway ”

“Then I’ll take one node and turn it into a prison, I’ll leave one for Tsunya, and you’ll take Monica’s…” Benea paused. “Maybe the southern gods can see reason now that we are further into the crucible. I’ll offer them a chance to convene with us over the heir, I think.””

Xavior nodded at her and suggested dividing up of the land and then went on “Maybe. At the very least we need the information they have on Grym’s abominations and, if possible, support in combating him. Collaboration now may lead him to be more open to additional cooperation and eventual unification with our cause” Xavior suggested optimistically.

“I’ll take it; I’d rather not have to repeat the events of Lon and Galina.” Olipha looked to the ocean and stared until her hair erupted in a white flame. “I’ll summon a mount for myself —”

With little else, the black gloss of the ocean was disrupted by quaking vibrations and violent waves started to lap at the turtle city. A deafening roar pierced the sky, blasting the waves into the air as beast as big as the city rocketed out of the ocean. It had the head of a lizard, with eyes as black as coal. From its toothy snout it had golden scales leading down its back all the way down to a long and spear-headed tail. Webbed wings shook the clouds from its back, and claws hung off of strong arms and legs. It let loose another roar, but this time a tornado of white flame blasted outwards and into the sky, lighting the ocean into a cream color for but a moment.

A smile formed on Benea’s face. “Isn’t he wonderful, dear?”

“I’m certain you’ll make a dazzling impression” Xavior semi-agreed. He would have gone with black with gold trim personally. Sill, there was no denying that with two 5 star beasts at their command, taking the node should be a breeze.

“I had prepared an escort for taking the node, but I suspect with this fellow at your beck and call they’ll only slow you down. Still, Shelley will be available to provide fire support should you need it” he said, regarding that task which was swiftly approaching, the great turtle and its new escort now within spitting distance of the chaotic coastline.

Literally within spitting distance in fact, as the chaotic guardians of the node, legions of wretched toad like creatures, announced their existence by sending globs of sparking bile hurting towards the invader’s with croaks loud as cannonfire.

Much of the first volly fell short, but some splashed the head of Shelley, who groaned and then returned fire, magnetic energy flowing up the central tower the gods were standing on and arching onto the twin horns at its tip, there the power coalesced into a mighty fireball, which hung in the horn’s grasp. It swelled larger, larger, and larger still, and then the fireball the size of a merchant vessel was lobbed forth in a lazy arch before crashing down among the toads, vaporizing scores of them in a single blow.

“Boom” went Benea, and thus the battle began much as it went on till its end.




Benea stood by the 34th node, her hand hovering next to it. All around her, the chaotic storm of the realm was ablaze with white flame and high above, cyclones were ripping from her dragon with every beat of its massive wings. Standing the fiery hell of heavenly flame, Benea let her hand fall on the node and all turned to light.

The ground groaned and creaked as stones rubbed against each other. The crack of wood growing faster than it should joined the cacophony and in an instant, the realm was reformed. It was a strange land, different from any of Benea’s previous. Along the border was a ring of simple life similar to node 12, but the center was a vast and empty desert ringed by a pentagon of volcanoes that were angled towards the center of the region, forever blasting a stream of fire upwards to a spot floating far above the node — an island in the clouds.

This island was cloaked in flames and made out of pure metal, fit with a sea of chains and locks. Benea folded her arms — she knew who would be living there.




“So, have you decided what you are going to do with your life?” Xavior asked the Shepherd of Shadows as he finalized claiming Monica’s node, reopening access back home via the nexus, and sharing the claim with Dzallitsunya and Benea.

The guardian of Maelite, who had already tidied up the feral bugs of the ream, eventually replied that it had not.

“So, and this is just an offer not a command, but how would you feel about being a prison warden?”





The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 860 (2+) (+8 i forgot from food)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (238/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (211/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(138/100)
Location: Smash City Alcamoth
Feat: Rika


Morning dawned once more over Peach’s castle, and the Koopa Troop went through the closest thing to a morning routine they had had since they arrived in the world of light. Piling out of the large shared bedroom and then heading down to invade the kitchen in-order to acquire a hearty breakfast.

The main difference from yesterday was that all their clothes and gear had been cleaned, and just in time too. A day of rest had been most welcome, but adventure awaited them once again. The gang suited up, literally in Bowser’s case, while Rika tossed her old blue cape-like jacket and various satchels over the top of her new yellow sundress which certainly resulted in a look, that was for sure.

Kamek meanwhile donned her old, heavily modified, mages outfit mainly for the pocket-space while Jr personally had his trusty bib, duffle bag of gear and bandoleer of (2) pokeballs strapped to his chest. Oh and the prince also had his new and improved clown car, which was a fair bit bulkier as a result of it sporting some reinforced armor which housed the egg mobile's anti-gravity systems. The other visible change was a little windshield on the front that made it a bit more aerodynamic, which was useful considering it could now deploy a pair of small wings and a rocket engine from the back for increased speed. The new massive wrecking ball further added to the upgrade, adding a nice heavy hitter to the car’s eclectic arsenal.

The boy had worked late in-order to pull this off despite Kamek’s suggestion otherwise, so he ended up sleeping through a lot of the subsequent meeting. For him, Rika and Bowser the trip to that meeting was fairly uneventful, but for Kamek, well, she ended up doing a double take upon seeing a vaguely familiar child in a place she would not have expected to do so.

”Hello there, I’m Kamek, nice to meet you. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think you and I very briefly crossed paths yesterday at the market in Limsa Lominscuttle Town?” The mage asked after diverting away from the rest of the group in-order to introduce herself to the boy, before adding ”How in the world did you get here?”, then after checking his eyes ”and how are you fairing with your new understanding of reality?” and finally ”Is there anything I can do to help you or are you settling in just fine?”

While the mage got sidetracked the rest of the troop headed for their destination, a meeting on where they’d be going next that they’d agreed to do over breakfast with Peach. Finding the princess there, and the speedy Ms Fortune, was no big surprise. What was was the fact that they had apparently upgraded from the hand drawn map that had been (unbeknownst to the seekers) left for them to find by organization 13.

Bowser gave a whistle and a comment of ”fancy”/ upon seeing it, before cupping a hand under one chin and scanning his eyes over it. While junior parked his car in a corner and took a catnap Rika goggled at the sheer size of the map the world, tracing a pointed finger from Limsa Lominscuttle Town all the way up to Carcass Isle to get a sense of how little of it she had seen.

“Wow, its so big” she marveled “and so many places to go”

”Hmm? Yeah, right on the second, we’ve only been… well we started here” Bowser pointed down at the bottom center of the map to Precipice Knoll, and then transcend their route across the map for her ”went up to peach’s castle here, then along here to Lumbrige, messed about a bit, then went through here to Alcamoth”

“Wait, they're that far apart?” the ship girl interjected, talking about the distance between peach’s castle where they had woken up and Alcamoth, the place they had gotten to in mere moments of travel thanks to Jr’s painting.

”Heh. You think that’s far? Next we went all the way from Lumbrige to Inkwell Isle all the way over here in the blink of an eye through some hole in space” Bowser said, getting another amazed sound from Rika ”and then we took a boat to Limes-a- loin-scuttle town and then you know the rest” Bowser said, managing to butcher the long named town’s name in the process.

“That still leaves so many places”

”I mean I guess. But then again, this is supposed to be a mashup of everything from every world, yet there's what, like, a big country’s worth of stuff? You kinda have to ask where everything else is, you know, LIKE MY CASTLE!” the king yelled that last bit in the vague direction he thought Galeem was in (and getting it entirely wrong) before sighing and adding ”Well anyway, we’ve poked at this Deadzone place a bit, forgot to mention that, and some other group’s hitting up that big desert, so I guess we’ll wanna do something vaguely over here?” the king concluded before waving a hand at the entire west of the landmass.

“Mmmm, I got it” Rika said, before focusing her world scanning to that general area to see what the places they might be going next were like.

While she did that Bowser had a thought and turned to the psychic pokemon inorder to ask ”Hey Mewtwo, do we know how those other people are doing anyway? You know, the big bee and the furball and his robot and stuff…” he paused and then clicked his fingers a few times before finally snapping them as he remembered some names ”Tora and Poppie! Yeah them. And, uh, Sec something. Sec-topia? Anyway, any of them touched in to let us know they’re good recently?”

wordcount: 894 (+2)
Midna: level 8 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(43/80)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Garudo Town
Warp Charges: 2


Sleeping under the stars had been a lovely way to pass the night. Admittedly it had involved laying on the rough ground and had been quite cold, but a combination of exhaustion and the echoes of comforting memory had made for a deep and rejuvenating sleep that the princess had sourly needed. Then, of course, the blasted sun came up and it was time for the princess to get back to squinting and being much too warm.

”It’s going to be good to get out of this wretched desert, that’s for sure” the princess told her wolfos as she got herself fully dressed and then slipped out of the sleeping bag and into the morning air.

She had drifted up into the air and was in the midst of stretching some of the stiffness out of her limbs when Tora came storming past while making a right racket before tossing himself into the water for a morning swim. If anyone had still been asleep among the outsiders they were sure as heck awake now.

Still, a rude alarm clock the fluffball might have been, but at least he made up for it with his and Poppie’s cheerful attitudes and silly antics, the latter of which Midna was swiftly dragged into without any complaint. Sometimes you needed silliness, especially when the day ahead no doubt held more trials and tribulations. In short order the princess found herself dashing across the sands and using her shadow-hand to launch the living volleyball, the exertion and laughter that resulted from this doing far more to get her limber and awake than the stretches had.

Unfortunately the game eventually came to an end when the mercenary boss yelled at them to get a move on ”Ahhh you're no fun, but fine fine, let me just check in with the market first for a moment so I can afford breakfast.”

Well, first she intercepted Sectonia, borrowed the Symbol of Avarice and used it to crush the Sanscale spirit she’d picked up last night. The common spirit gave her an unremarkable gemstone of some kind, but given that she’d been intending to sell whatever she got anyway, that worked out well enough.

A few minutes later and she’d found a jeweler and a silversmith who saw worth in her various looted currencies other than their unrecognized monetary value, indeed the buyer of the ducats had launched straight into seeing if they could make earrings out of the odd coins moments after the sale had been made. As a result the princess had wound up with a pretty decent haul of 2300 gold, most of which she set aside for future succulent pig-equse purchases.

First tap of that fund: a big breakfast

As a result Midna started the day with her seat at the table being served a big pile of eggs, bacon, hash brown, baked beans, sausage, toast and, fortunately, no regret because she had 3 other mouths to feed on top of her own. So when push came to shove it really turned out to be more of a small and mostly vegetarian breakfast for her, because most of the sausages and bacon went under the table to a rotating line up of her twilight-beasts who took turns at portaling in and getting some light-world grub.

So that was what Minda was up to while the team were informed of the existence of a giant cat based transportation that apparently existed in an underground ‘subway’ of some kind. It sounded very silly to the twilight princess, but then it was always better to have something silly and helpful than something nightmarish and ever so lethal in this mashed up world, so she couldn't exactly complain.

”So, guess what we’ll need to do is go down, split up, ride some more cat drawn carriages and find out where these ‘lines’ all end up?” Minda said, before taking a little scoop of eggs into her mouth and the having a thought ready by the time she swallowed
”Or, you know, just find a map? That would be a logical thing to have down there… which given how whimsical the place sounds I guess is not a guarantee”

”That said, I’ve got some unfinished business with that split mountain before we ditch this roasting land for good” Midna said, popping one of the port stones down on the table as she spoke to make it clear how she was getting up there ”get that poor guy his oil from that Convent… If either he or it is left… that worm probably messed up the mountain pretty bad”

That put a bit of a potential damper on her plan but still, I wouldn’t stop her from at least trying ”Well anyway, I don’t mean to drag it out. Pull a lightning raid on that place and then drop down the mountain more or less as fast as possible. If we put the other one of those warp rocks on the Virgin Victory I can just jump back, and maybe retrieve the one up on the mountain top while I’m at it if there’s nothing else worth seeing up there.” she suggested, putting something on the table to ensure that it wasn't a frivolous waste of time from the perspective of those who would need to take steps to ensure she was not left behind.
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