Fetzen
Frettzo
teenangstlife
Lord Zee
Neziul
Ariamis
rush99999
Simply Not Real
Shadowheart
The Koopa Troop
wordcount: 3233(+5) (+2 from teemo colab) (-9 from freeing Teemo)
Bowser: Level 12 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (147/120)
Bowser Jr: Level 12 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (46/120)
Kamek: Level 12 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (32/120)
Rika: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (29/70)
Location: The Under - Home of Tears
After making their sales, a few minor purchases, and having a proper breakfast, the troop were all out of time and so headed back to the hotel with their pockets bulging with cash. That was probably for the best, given that the last time the troop had gone out shopping, Jr and Bowser had both ended up flat broke.
Within the hotel they got to confirm that everyone looked to have made it down to the city in one piece, and they’d both apparently picked up some newbies while they were at it.
”Welcome to the winning team, human guy and weird ghost thing. I’m Bowser, the koopa king, your new boss! And these are Kamek, Bowser Junior, and Rika” The king announced, still on the whole being in charge-thing, despite that not really being the case at all.
Arguably, at the moment, it would be Nadia, as far as someone who unleashed groan-inducing barrages of puns could be considered capable of being in charge of anything. At least Rika got a laugh out of it. As for why the argument could be made, well it was because she had the details for them to make their next plan, which was to see someone called IGV.
”Weird name” the king commented, to which his boy replied that it was ”Not quite as weird as the consuls’ one letter deal they got going on”
”At least we know its not one of them, because that would be a strange pseudonym for one of them to use, for sure” Kamek asserted, only for Rika to suggest that ”Maybe its three of them?”
”I. Hmmm. Surely not? I mean they would have put commas in between them if that was so, or at least I should certainly hope so” was Kamek’s retort to that theory, to which he then added ”and if it is, well, I can hardly feel worried about a group who would make such a grammatical error” smugly, not even considering that it might be done intentionally as a joke.
Either way, they talked a bit more, traded some data and a mask fragment count, and then decided on a plan of action, which was to send a small crew to this soul sanctum, while the rest were free to make use of the city for self improvement purposes.
As part of this, the troop split in two halves. Kamek and Bowser had made the wise parental decision to keep the youngsters out of danger, and the incredibly unwise decision of leaving them in a market district with a whole bunch of their spending money.
Well, only partially unwise. The kids had been left with a specific mission, and that was to find Rika some ammo. Said task proved easier said than done, for though there were merchant’s a plenty throughout the book based port, most of them stocked gear and equipment of a pre-industrial or magical bent. Any hope the two had had of maybe picking up some robot parts or other high tech equipment to let Jr tinker with Rika’s weapons, or his own clown car, were right out.
They were about to give up when they ran across across a curious floating fellow who owned a stand that hosted an assortment of strange living projectile weaponry, from a scornful two part gun, to an alien toad held in a robot claw, a roach like blaster and a little bubble blowing buddy. There were also a variety of fluid themed weapons, from a fire extinguisher water gun mix to an, acid slosher, a rifle that fired living slime and finally a striped down looking ink blaster.
What really got their attention however, was not any of those strange weapons, but instead a small stack of inconspicuous looking green boxes stacked up near the back of the shop, which were sitting among a few rolls of duct tape and jars of unidentified liquid.
”oh oh look at those, those are definitely ammo for sure” Rika insisted, hurrying on over to the stall, with a bored jr trailing in her wake while complaining ”You sure? We’ve been looking for aaaages”
”For sure for sure!” she insisted, before waving an un-gauntleted hand at the floating cube person and then saying ”Hi Hi. I’m Rika. Those are ammo crates right? What calibers you got, and how much for them?”
The response was, to her, an incomprehensible alien tongue which threw her for a loop, the ship girl having never encountered such a thing outside of Sakura’s occasional dipping into her native tongue.
”I'm sorry, what?” she asked, only to have her attention directed to a simple sponge sitting on the center of the creature’s stand. ”Oh, um, what about it? You want me to pick it up? Ok then” she said after some more insistent pointing, plucking the cleaning implement from the table and asking ”Now what?” before being surprised as the floating shopkeep was suddenly comprehensible to her.
“Hellooooooo, I’m Professor Goopton, goop scientist and seller of the finest squishy wares in the city!” the excitable creature introduced itself, before giving its sales pitch “Can I interest you in one of my cutting edge weapons? Some make lovely companions as well, while others wield the supreme power of goop!”
”Ah, no sorry, I’ve already got plenty of guns” she said, turning to the side to show off her gauntlets, which were presently strapped to her back, and then pointing down to her two ship turrets attached to her rigging.
“Hmm, so I see, so I see, but. Tell me. Do they shoot goops?” the professor asked, already of course knowing the answer was ”Well, no” but being quite taken by surprise when she informed him that ”But my horns do”, before she demonstrated by dabbing a ginger against the tip of the thicker of her two horns and coming away from it with a glob of green goo.
“Oooo, fascinating. And what does that do?” the professor asked, to which she replied ”It explodes when I spit on it and then ended up demonstrating for him via dabbing it on his counter top, and then spitooned a glob of saliva at it, causing the goo to shift from green to red in hue over a few seconds before it exploded.
”Kind of impossible to pull off with a helmet on, though, so I ain’t been using it much” she explained at the end, referencing the spartan helm hanging from her hip, which the professor thought was a real shame.
Jr then butted in to know what in the world they were saying, and proceeded to get a quick rundown. After that the two youngsters had to both awkwardly hold the translation sponge together in-order to understand the professor at the same time.
The first thing Jr did once he knew the score and could communicate was show off his own goop, namely that produced by his magic paintbrush, which also wowed the professor of all things gooey, and disappointed him when the boy refused to sell the marvelous creation.
”Didn’t you give that short floaty lady like a jar which made those bloopy guys, which could make more though?” Rika reminded him, which prompted a great deal of back and forth haggling over the price of that.
“I’ll make you a deal” the professor offered “Give me one of each of your slime creators, and I’ll help your friend there realize the true potential of her goop. Given what you’ve said, it’s not like it will cost you anything, and you’ll be making a brilliant contribution to science twice over!“
”That does sound cool” Rika began to agree, but jr insisted they get something more out of it ”Give us one of your guns at least! I mean your only really offering to help because you want to anyway, you goop obsessed guy you”
“Ah but you see, in-order to free Rika’s goo, we are going to need one of my weapons anyway” he retorted, before picking up and putting the grizzco blaster in-front of them “and you’ll need a master goo crafter to make it happen”
”You think you're the only one who can work with goo? I made a bear mounted cannon fire flaming goo just the other day” Jr retorted challengingly, only for the prof to show enthusiasm at the prospect rather than intimidated
“Ooooh? A fellow student of the goo are you, not just a wielder? Well why didn’t you say so! We’ll have to make it a collaborative research project then. Together, I’m sure we can make something stupendous! A marvel for all the world to see”
”Ha, you think you can keep up with me! I’d like to see you try” Jr boasted, but was now basically onboard.
With only a bit more back and forth they were in agreement, and the pair set to work.
Jr took Rika’s canon gauntlet off and plopping it on the table, before pulling out his tool box and starting to dismantle it, while the professor began to do the same with the grizzco blaster. Rika still attached to her gauntlet via cable and so unable to really go anywhere while they were at this asked ”So, uh, what can I do to help?” To which the professor responded by pulling off one of the 4 canisters attached to the blaster, tentacling it to her, and then instructing her to “fill it with your mouth goo!”
While the youngsters mucked around with slime, their elders were trooping through the halls of the soul sanctum. They were rapidly vindicated by their decision to leave the kids behind, as both agreed they could do without any more creepy experiences.
Thus it was up to them to tough out the horror, horror that came about soon enough, first in the form of half melted creatures that swarmed them without end.
”Ok so, shoddy boos, we can handle that” Bowser inside even while he was creeped out by them. At least they weren't the most durable, with Bowser and Kamek both able to pop them with a fireball or two. The problem was that they just kept coming. Still, when it was just them, that was manageable, with the mage and king watching each other's backs as they gradually climbed the sanctum, and both grateful for Sectonia‘s minions who took up most of the chaff cleaning.
The problem arose when they started running into other things. The main bulk of the issue was the patients, which proved to be much more durable, and when accompanied by the unending trickle of mistakes, a complete pain to handle. The sheer durability and relentlessness of them forced some of the more fragile members of their crew to have to kite them in order to survive, inevitably splitting up the team.
Anyone that stuck with Bowser however, would have the king himself to act as a roadblock for the bulbous headed creatures.
”Well this is a wretched place make no mistake” Kamek commented as he conjured up a number of doppelgangers, and made two of them red. As soon as said clones were painted red they started blasting, slapping mistakes out of the air with magic bolts.
Behind him and them Bowser raised his little energy shield to block a patient, who despite its small size left cracks in the buckler with its eldritch strength. He then delivered a rocket powered counter strike that sent the patient flying through the air until it smashed into a heartbeat monitor, before glancing back and asking his advisor ”So you think that new guy was right about this being some kinda trap?”
”I’m not sure. It certainly will make it clandestine once we reach the top, seeing as any spies would also have to get through all this to listen in. So we will have to see” the mage said, admitting he wasn’t sure either way, before he waved his wand and cast ”Sphere of protection!” on his king, wrapping him in a shimmering barrier that rendered the physical attacking patients mostly harmless to the already tough as nails king.
Empowered, Bowser advanced, punching his fist with glee while taking up most of the hallway, a wall of force that slowly but surely smashed its way through any patient or mistake he encountered.
Kamek then handled anything coming from behind, along with clones for fire support, and a toady for spirit collection. It was a good setup, however as he was in the midst of finishing off a patient that had tripped one of the dark energy mines he had been trailing after them, he realized progress had stopped.
”Everything alright there sire?” He asked, only to focus and hear the grunting of exertion before the king replied that ”This. Thing. Won’t. Go. Down”
The thing in question was a half melted mermaid-ish creature with a massive jaw and bulging muscles. It came at the king with biting jaws and flashing orbs from its eyes that cut right through the barrier surrounding him. As it did it babbled incomprehensibly with overlapping words
“Welcome to my special hell” “Do you think I'm pretty?” “I've felt this before” “but nobody came”
The king was forced to physically hold it back, hands pressing into melting flesh and shoving, because his blows seemed to cause it nary a scratch, impact wounds and claw marks melting away as if they had never occurred.
Eventually Bowser responded to its unending determination with some defenestration. With a roar he sunk his claws into its melting flesh, and heaved, lifting it over his head and then hurling it at one of the sanctum’s windows, which shattered and sent the melted creature plummeting down alongside a shower of glass. Amalgamate and shards then splashed down harmlessly into the dockside’s waters.
”Urrrgh, disgusting” the king complained as he tried to shake the liquid determination off his claws, then sighed in relief as Kamek got some white mage clones to start fixing him up, causing king’s mushroomy charm filling up the air with spores that wore down the mistakes without either of them having to do anything about them.
After that they continued as before, now hoping they did not run into any more amalgamates.
”Aaaaand, done!” jr declared after about half an hour of tinkering, to which professor Goopton nodded his massive noggin in agreement.
“Now if you could pass me the last tank of spit please?” he said to a very very dry mouthed and parched Rika, who complied wordlessly and tried to resist the temptation to grab and drink down some questionable fluid from the professor’s stock, and instead took in what they had done to her gauntlet.
The arm cannon, which had had the shotgun she had gotten removed from it mere hours after it had been added, had undergone a complete overhaul that involved splicing the grizzco blaster into it. At the back was a large tank containing a shocking ink based swooping stu, who would be endlessly harvested to provide power to the whole weapon.
Said weapon itself was lodged in the core gauntlet to where most of the original mechanisms, other than the triggers, had been stripped out and replaced with the guts of the blaster. From this body, one tube led up to a sucker around the tip of the gauntlet’s horn, while several more tubes lead from this up to the 4 shotgun shell sized canisters. One was filled with her saliva, while the other three contained one of each kind of Jr’s brush’s ink.
The various goos accounted for, they would then all meet in a central chamber, where saliva and Brachydios slime would interact, beginning their detonation countdown, and ink could be introduced to give the goop an elemental flavoring.
Finally, the weapon would draw electrical power from the shocking goop produced in the rear tank, and use that to launch the slimy mix forwards towards the enemy.
That was the plan anyway. The slight snag in it was that the shot would then explode a mere 3 meters in front of Rika’s face. At least the explosion was impressive, as was the once every second fire rate.
”You turned my artillery gun into .. into.. Into a useless flak cannon!” Rika complained after she peeked up from behind the counter she had thrown herself behind in response to the way to close range detonation.
“Ah, but now it is goopy!” the professor pointed out cheerfully, while Jr ”and you won’t run out of ammo seeing as you can produce it yourself. And i can provide the spice”
”I guess … ” Rika said with a sigh, popping off a few more explosions (over the water so as to not goop up the place up) and getting a bit less annoyed as she started to re-orientate how she thought about the weapon. After 3 more shots her brow furrowed for a moment, before inspiration struck and she set about fingering the trigger a 4 more times till she reached her 8th shot. That triggered her all out assault passive, causing the gun to fire 5 triple shots in rapid succession … all of which detonated close to each other, and produced a curved zone of goopy death far more practical than the triple shots of her long ranged shells that had a tendency to fly off all over the place and hit everything but her target.
”You know what … I think I like this new weapon” she said once the salvo ended, grinning a sharp toothed grin back at the two engineers who had taken her place hiding behind the stall from the explosive carnage she could lay down. The two took a moment to recover from the shell shock, and then they cheered, celebrating their glorious contribution to goop science.
Then they got a warning from a mermaid guard about disturbing the peace with said contribution to goop science. They were spared the fine she started writing up, however, when something came crashing down out of a window of the soul sanctum and splashed into the water, causing the mermaid guard to run off to investigate that instead.
After they’d all calmed down, and done a bit of gawking at the tearful if a bit confused reunion between the Amalgamate Bowser had yeeted out the window (who it turned out was named Lemon Bread) and her sister Shyren, the three of them got down to regular business again.
After humming and ha-ing over his inventory, they decided to just go with lots of ammo. At 150 a pop per gun to fill up the ammo stores, it was pretty pricey, but after the conversion of her main gun into a goop filled blaster, Rika only needed 3 instead of 4 to top herself up. One full stock up + a spare box for each put them at a 900 gold charge, which was a lot.
”Worth it though, those other mask holders don’t stand a chance against me now!” The ship girl declared, now firmly back in action after burning though close half the money they’d just gotten that very morning.
”Sooo, now what?” Jr asked ”Do we go buy more stuff or what?”
”Hmmmm” Rika thought, before suggesting ”How about we go test out your new invention on something?” which had Jr nodding in agreement.
”Also a drink” the shipgirl who had been spitting for hal an hour to produce one half of an explosive compound ”because I am thirsty!”
