wordcount: 1960 (+3) Bowser: Level 12 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (216/120) Bowser Jr: Level 12 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (97/120) Kamek: Level 12 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (91/120) Rika: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (93/70) Location: The Under - Home of Tears
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
The troop had wanted to head to bed, but the second brat of the underground apparently had other ideas, first getting all their attention, and then decided to sick the whole city on them somehow. Another bit of safety, ripped away, the promise that the whole world might turn against you if you made the wrong move that the galeeming masses had always held, finally being fulfilled.
”Gah! Stop it doctor!” Bower roared at Natasha, as he blocked an explosive shot from her grenade launcher she had fired right at him with his energy buckler. Then he saw a rifle being raised and aimed in his peripheral vision and moved faster than he ever had in his life to grab the gauntlet it was attached to and jerk i upwards, causing the spray of bullets it unleashed to fly over the crowd rather than end the life of a whole bunch of kid’s favorite person.
”Rika! Don’t shoot the nice orphanage lady!” He demanded of her, to which she respond with a momentary confused look, then a shrug, and proceeded to start to aim her other gauntlet at someone else, only for Kamek to catch this one and add ”Or anyone else, young mistress, if it can be avoided”
”But they’re trying to kill us?” the ship girl rightly pointed out, before asking ”What else are we meant to do, stand here and die?” with a tone that made it far more of a question than it really should have been, as if she might well have done just that if told it was what they were supposed to do.
It was that, as much as anything, that jolted Bowser’s mind to their exit strategy, the king calling out commands and having his team assemble a blubbery escape vessel onto which they leapt.
After waiting for a few moments for others to board, the monster of a whale set off, the strange mechanical whale propelling itself not by a great finned tail (for in place of one of those it had an anchor) but via jet propulsion from gill like protrusions on its side, which made for a much smoother ride than might be expected from a monstrous mount.
It was not, unfortunately, the only monster who was most at home in water
“Mermaid guard!” came a bellowing cry from the leader of the city’s defenders “AFTER THEM!”
The watery wardens where, of course, already on it, but a command from their leader induced a bout of order to the blind murderous haze, as ranks of mermaids pushed through the crowds that had stalled at the water’s edge and then leapt into it to give chase at a speed which finally demonstrated exactly why the half drowned city’s police force where aquatic in nature.
halfa dozendiferantkinds of mermaid surged through the water, putting the speed they normally put into rapidly responding to crimes into a high speed police chase across the city
Ironically, their leader did not join them, as her armor weighed her down too heavily to swim in the water. Instead she joined those pursuing on foot. It would be a long and for many fruitless chase to do so, as the whale sped away, and so only the most determined of pursuers would keep going the whole way.
Of course, among those that followed, none were more determined than Undyne, and her steel steps added a constant percussion to the chase, ever hot on the heroes’ heels.
Through the canal the troop’s mighty white whale did sail and onto its protruding spine, they did cling. On the beast’s long trailing anchor tipped tail came the mermaid guard, armed with tridents and swords, and at their rear was Officer Tethys who conjured frozen lances to hurl at the heroes, and if they could not withstand those, they stood no chance against her captain.
”Can I shoot these ones?” Rika asked as she ducked a spear.
”No!” Bowser told her again, before readjusting ”Not if you don’t have to. Just. Kick them off or something, we just need to get away!” before he deployed his own guns, but rather than unleashing death he started blasting water, creating a rather ironic situation where the aquatic cops who tried to grab onto and board the great whale where being blasted off by high pressure water cannons.
In response Tethys called out for the guards to “Stop trying to get on and get stabbing! Slow them down!” which like a school of sharks they began to do, blades and forks beginning to be slammed into the whale, often from below where there could be no retaliation.
Jr did his best to heal their steed, but it slowed ever so surely as its oily blood filled the water, which worst of all slowed its speed, allowing more mermaids to catch up.
”This is bad. Uh, um” he stammered as he tried to come up with a plan. Then it clicked ”Mimi! Copycat Kamek and take over keeping the whale big! And then Kamek, uh, do magic stuff!”
“Mimi!” the mon called out as it was sent out from its ball, and then took over enbiggenment duty, while Kamek was released from it, replying ”magic stuff coming right up, young master” sardonically before doing just so.
”First, let’s put a stop to all that stabbing shall we”, he said, before raising his wand and surrounding the entire whale in an magical yellow barrier, one that rendered in near impossible to harm beyond what Jr could heal, what with the 80% reduction to all physical damage it provided.
Then he summoned a green clone of himself, one that boosted the whale’s defenses further, before also increasing its speed.
He felt very smug about having countered their foes, right up until Rika called out ”Little boats up front!”. Indeed, just as she warned, up ahead were numerous paper boats that had launched from the shore of the river, and upon them many monsters where arrayed. Parked next to that launch point where a number of monster drawn carriages that had been commandeered by some of the place footsloggers, who had overtaken the whale as it was being slowed by being hacked at, and now launched this surprise ambush from the market.
Along with those hunters, the ships hosted many of the market’s denizens such as Professor Goopton armed with several of his goop based guns, and Seam who was armed with the overused pair of shears Bowser had sold him.
It was because of those two, not any of the other dozens of people in her way, that Rika did not need to be told what to do.
”Diving! We’re going under, so hold on!” she called out in warning before making the whale do just that, the great beast who had been about 60% under the water line sinking lower and lower till only its spine and cannons were above the waterline.
It surged beneath the boats, washing them aside but not crushing them like it would have had she kept it atop the waves.
Unfortunately, this incredibly low waterline left it in a perfect position to be boarded, and so once it rose back up on the other side of the ships, the whale had a fair few more passengers, with shopkeepers and citizens at the front, and a host of guards at the back.
After that, there was nothing to do but brawl as the whale kept racing for the edge of the city.
Jr deployed his car’s boxing gloves and laid into the brain washed folks, while calling out Dazzle the popplio, and having him strike from the water itself, the pokemon launching itself back out of it in mighty penguin leaps to knock people off of the whales back and into the drink.
Bowser used grabs and water blasts to do much the same, seeking to simply throw off their unwelcome gust, and hoping that they could swim, or that the guards already in the drink would prioritize drowners over keeping up the hunt.
Kamek summoned steams of toadies, replacing each one as they fell, and having them grapple the monsters and haul them off of the whales back, while also using castings of magic fist, shifted to be more of a magic shove, to get others off.
Rika was mostly on guard and steering duty to avoid any more paper boats, as no one really trusted her to not do a cold blooded murder of strangers due to not knowing any better. That was until she worked out she could use her grappling hook to disarm people, resulting int the ship girl stealing half a dozen swords, tridents, and other weapons and tossing them all overboard. More often than not this prompted the ones who were armed with these to give up the fight, because they sure as hell weren't going to get through the mountain of scales that was Bowser with their bare fists.
This all came to an abrupt halt when they ran out of river, the whale bursting over the edge of a waterfall, and then crashing down on top of a cliff of cheese, while the water itself drained down into the crack between the city and the cheesy cavern floor.
”Everybody off, abandon whale!” Bowser commanded, leaping off of it, quickly followed by the rest of the troop (minus the pokemon who were recalled to their balls) who all began legging it. The poor whale was left behind as bait, one that had been reduced to nothing once Undyne caught up.
She took one look at the mess, at her exhausted guards and the civilians, and at the heroes rapidly receding into the distance, decided to take drastic action “Tethys, get home base on the line, deploy project S.A.Y.U!”
Heading in the opposite direction from everyone else was, and blissfully unaware of the chaos that had overtaken her home, was backpack hero Purse, who was in the midst of doing one last cheese run before calling it a day when she spotted some familiar faces coming the other direction.
She called out “Hi Jr! Hi Rika!” to her former fellow cheese runners, only to be taken aback when they turned towards her with fists at the ready, as if expecting a fight.
“Wow wow what’s the big idea? Did I spook you? Why are you so on edge?” she asked, waving both hands ahead of her and backing away carefully.
”Wait what? You're normal?” Jr asked warily, to which the mouse replied with a confused “Normal? What do you mean normal?”
”We killed P, but then F mind controled and sicked the whole city on us! Gotta run” jr told her, as the troop immediately picked up the pace once more now that they knew she wasn’t a threat.
“You what? He what?” she replied, very confused, before focusing on the one thing she did get, and shouted “Wait, the only way out of here is Pizza tower, and it's super dangerous!”
”Can’t be worse than fighting a whole city!” Jr called back, before the troop leapt up to a higher cliff and vanished from sight, leaving the mouse scratching her head in confusion. Then she looked back to the city, and was even more confused as a team of human kids (disguised as monsters) combined their artistic talents and a great mass of static and pixels rapidly formed into a grand defender (tall as a 3 story building from head to tail tip) for the city.
One that started singing as she swooped forwards, trident in one hand, captain of the guard in the other, and a small host of monstrous fliers flanking her as they spread out across the caverns to hunt down the fleeing seekers. Any they spotted would have to contend with a rain of both spears and oversized pen nibs hailing down on them as they retreated.
wordcount: 3997 (+5 (for Rika and Jr only)) Bowser: Level 12 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (213/120) Bowser Jr: Level 12 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (94/120) Kamek: Level 12 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (88/120) Rika: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (90/70) Location: The Under - Home of Tears
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
While the older troop members set out to do the ever so boring task of selling stuff, Jr and Rika resolved to go take part in the much more interesting activity of buying things.
First thing’s first, they loaded up with tapes, the prince having talked Rika and only Rika into this whole monster transformation and then combination thing being a good idea. This turned out to be a winning option however, as the girl turned out to have a hefty wallet when it came to her cash reserves.
It was only after they had gotten the tapes that the issue of how to record things came up, prompting a trip out of the market again. Or rather a race out there, with jr drifting through the streets while Rika sailed up the miniature rivers running down every street caused by the endless rainfall.
The prince, who had reliable roads instead of inconsistent gutters, held his own till they reached the collection, with its many waterways. There, Rika started to catch up, only to nearly run afoul of some kind of oversized jellyfish, halting the race as she first blasted it, and then limped to shore to get her stings seen too by the prince.
”ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch. Someone really should do something about those that water’s not tactically secured at all” she complained as Jr cast healing spells on her.
“I think some folks are on that already, fortunately enough. A tall, fiery headed fellow with white swords who I would think was a human for one” came a comment from the owner of the stall they had stopped by.
”Sounds like Ganondorf” Jr replied, before snorting at the thought of the king of evil warlock punching the water like some insane fisherman, before taking a look at the living stuffed toy cat who had informed them of this fact.
“A friend of yours? Do thank them from me if you see them later then, that quest has been up on the board for much too long” the cat, who was named Seam, replied, and then pointed them over to a handy nearby commissions board when they inquired what he meant by that.
”Should we check it out? Kamek said they’d be a while after all” Rka asked, to which Jr replied ”Sure sure, just as soon as we’ve got those tape recorders”
“Tape recorders you say? Well now, aren't you lucky, because I just so happen to have a few. Or a pair to be exact. Oddly popular with humans, those. They come here, buy one, and then never come again. Funny that” the stuffed feline merchant informed them, smiling a little knowingly at his own comment.
“I suppose you’ll be wanting one for much the same reasons?” he then added, looking at Rika, who looked rather human from the waist up these days.
”Yup, but I’m not a human, I’m a ship” she replied, confusing him a little, and then confusing him more when she pulled of an armored boot and popped a reptilian foot up on the encounter ”Plus I have these now”
“I see,” the cat replied in the awkward moment that followed, one that only ended once Jr lifted the foot back off the table and said that ”Yeah, we’d like those. How much?”
“Not even wanting to see the goods first? Well that works for me, ha ha ha” the cat replied as he turned to go fetch them from his stash of odds an ends and popped a pair down on the table, each one coming complete with a set of headphones “that’ll be 120 each, so 240, if you please”
The two put their money on the table, and with a “thanks for that” the cat took their cash and pushed the items closer for them to pick up. Rika, naturally, tried hers on for size at once, while jr did the same … and realized that they didn’t fit on his head all that comfortably, particularly considering his ears were now up top, what with him being a cat-koopa and all now.
“Probably should have looked at them first” Seam said with mild amusement, before politely offering “I can take them back off your hands if you aren't satisfied”
”Nah I can just tinker with them a bit, probably” Jr replied as he inspected the cheap plastic band, and theorizing that, if that was stripped carefully away, he could free the cables and then assemble some kind of clips to attach them to his ears.
“Very practical of you. Now, can I interest you in anything else?” Seam asked, and then shrugged when the prince told him no.
”Oh, do you know what I can do with this?” Rika asked, showing him the fan of knives mod she had gotten from one of the cheese thieves, and getting pointed towards a local smith as a result.
After that, they bid the cat farewell, made a quick stop to get said mod cheaply installed in her left gauntlet, and then the two checked out the quest board.
After a bit of discussion, they decided to look into the fluke situation, but, lacking knowledge of how to get down into the waterways, they asked a guard, who then directed them towards one of the residential districts being harassed by the bugs in question.
There they came across a scene of a team of armored siren officers armed with runic sheilds lead by a axalotol looking siren preparing to raid an apartment building while several monster residents huddled outside, waiting for the all clear to be allowed back into their homes.
“You’re not the first ones to ask, and the last group didn’t come back” the leader of the group, officer Tethys, replied when asked about more details about the waterways and the gate.
”Whoever they were, I bet they were nothing compared to us!” Jr retorted self confidently, to which Rika added ”Mm hmm. Not that we can really prove it, but we’ve dealt with all sorts of dangerous stuff, I promise”
“Hmmm. Maybe you can prove it, and give my girls a rest while you’re at it. We’ve been on damage control all day, so how about this: you clear this one of flukes for us and prove you can handle yourselves against them, and then I’ll give you the details. Deal?” the officer cunningly replied, which got agreement from both of them.
“Great. Call if you need us to bail you out. Oh and try not to break anything. The people want their homes back in one piece after all” she requested, before gesturing for them to enter.
The two did, and found themselves in an ever so ordinary apartment building, the pair climbing (or hovering in Jr’s case) up the central stairway, following the sound of a strange sucking sound. They came across a broken down door, and when they peeked into it they found a cozy little home with pictures of a happy monster family on the wall.
Said family where currently outside however, and in their place where two hovering flukes watching as a big lanky one rummaging around an open (and beeping from being open to long) fridge.
”You're under arrest! You have the right to remain silent” Jr cheerfully shouted at them, getting their attention.
They immediately gave up that right as the two floating flukes (known as flukefey) swooped towards them, mouths peeling back and revealing a dozen sharp teeth and screeching as they went.
Rika, naturally, leveled her guns at them, only for Jr to shout ”No damage to the house, remember!” forcing her to quickly switch to a crude guard with her gauntlets. One smashed into that, but the other slipped down low and clipped her armored leg, bruising it through the metal before it kept on swooping.
Fortunately raced right into a saw blade slash from jr’s clown car which ripped up its face, and then a boxing glove punch sent its body sailing back across the room.
On a shaky leg Rika shoved her flukefey back, and used her hull blades to chop at it when it came in again, unknowingly mirroring jr s strategy as she followed that up with a gauntlet punch, though hers was tipped with a chainsaw gauntlet, sending the shredded corpse flying past the tall one as it came in to body tackle her.
It smashed into her before she could steady herself after her own punch, but she used her maneuvering thrusters to stop herself being knocked over, and the flat of her hull blades to push it back.
“Food ours. Stole first!” the fluke claimed with a feminine pitch as it stabilized itself after the pushback and prepared to charge in again
”I don’t want your food, I want your life” Rika retorted, only for Jr to call out ”Wait wait, don’t kill this one yet, I wanna record it!”, as he took out the tape recorder and prepped to do just that
”What, now?” Rika called back as she and the fluke started brawling, both of them relying mostly on brute force in the tight confines of the home.
”Just beat on it for 10 seconds and then we can end this” jr requested, a request which the ship girl found herself obliging even as she was forced to take on the full brunt of the fluk’s full body tackles.
Seven seconds later saw her holding it back with hull blades and one arm as it tried to use its fang filled sucker mouth to eat her face while she used her left arm to bunch it in the gut.
”Get. off. Me. - eek” the ship girl started as her new weapon mod, installed on the left gauntlet she was using to punch, triggered, shotgunning the fluke with knives at point blank range.
The blades scythed right through the fluke, splitting it in half and sending each half tumbling to the floor.
”Hey come on I almost had it!” Jr started to complain, only to be very confused when the tape clicked upon finishing recording, in a manner in which he assumed meant it had finished successfully.
”Huh?” he said confused, right as the two halves of the fluke, which notably had not turned to ash, suddenly rose up, the top half floating through the air while the bottom half revealed a second maw at the point at which it had split, and attacked
Both children screamed in panic, sending the officer outside racing up the stairs after them, but once she had gotten there, she found the two unharmed. The same could not be said for the apartment, which now had some bullet holes punched in the wall, and part of the carpet was on fire as a result of the two’s panicked response to the fluke’s final hurrah.
“Tsk tsk, what did I say about property damage” the officer said once she took in the scene
”You could have said they split in half! That was freaky” Jr complained as he got Dazzle to put out the fire.
”I mean, I guess we know now, so better when it's just one than when there's a load in the waterways?” Rika noted strategically.
“Exactly, the young lady gets it” the siren agreed “and now I know you can handle some flukes, and the unexpected, so I am way less leary about sending you down there to deal with them. So don’t worry too much about the property damage, lives are more important after all. Which also means you two can feel free to back out of this if it gets too rough, ok? We’ll still pay bounty on the flukes”
”Eh, we’ll be fine” Jr insisted at the same time as Rika replied with a salute and a ”Yes Ma’am”
“You’ve got a good head on those shoulders human, make sure you keep it” the officer told Rika, to which the girl responded ”Actually I’m a ship” once again, though this time she did not try and show off her lizard legs to additionally correct the false assumption
“Alright mis ship” the officer responded near seamlessly, before filling them in on what they needed to know.
Once they knew where it was, the majority of the trek through the waterways was a breeze, the pair using Rika’s plane to scout ahead, and picking off the odd handful of flukes here and there as they went, and collecting the spirits as proof of their kills. The only real issue they encountered where nests, which were home to narrow tunnel filling Flukemunga which would slide across the floor to attack like living battering rams.
After being chased out of a tunnel by one, and then turning their firepower on it once up a few ledges that it could not follow them up, they found the oversized creatures to be incredibly bullet spongy. As a result the pair agreed to just avoid them, the spirit it dropped almost certainly not being worth the cost in energy and ammunition needed to take it down. It’d drown once they were done anyway.
When they finally found the Royal Sluice, a great gate in a wall that groaned audibly from the pressure pressing against it, they also found a culpable mosh pit of flukes meandering around it. Fliers, walkers and big fat sliders alike, along with a host of the little grubs being tended to by their sisters.
Either something among their number had been smart enough to predict the way the city would try to deal with them this way … or the channel in-front of the gate was just a big convenient space that led to all the other tunnels. Certainly, the piles of stolen food and prevalence of grubs gave the indication that this second option was correct. What gave the indication of the first was that the duo caught sight of the party that the officer had mentioned had gone down before them.
Or rather they caught sight of their spirits: a fiery mage, a huking warrior, an eyeless healer and a serpintile rogue had all met their end at this final hurdle, and though the fluke spirits also laying around indicated they had taken down a fair number of foes down with them, it clearly hadn’t been enough.
By Rika’s estimate, as she observed this with a scout plane she was hiding in the shadows of the ceiling, it wasn’t enough of a thinning of the herd to let them take an easy victory either.
”Come on. We can take em” was Jr’s predictable response when she told him about all this.
”I dunno, it really doesn't seem like a good idea” Rika tried to tell him, only for the boy to try and badger her into doing his way, which might have worked had a cluster of wisps that had been shadowing them this whole time not swooped into silently back her up via forming a hovering cross of disagreement.
”What? Oh come on Kamek, we can handle ourselves” the prince told the mage’s remote minders huffily, and then started arguing with the voiceless spirits till Rika had an idea, one that she leaned in to whisper, and got a near instant agreement on.
A little while later, a totally normal and not at all suspicious fluke waddled on past the children’s former hiding spot.
”Careful, careful, you're gonna drop me” the top half complained, while the bottom half retorted ”I am not. It’s just tricky to hold on with just these teeth things”
Or at least that is what they tried to say, but the flukes’ bodies did not really allow for the greatest deal of coherent articulation. Either way, the two children in a trench coat, or rather making up the top and bottom halves of a fluke which they had turned into via tapes (having rather easily tracked down and then laboriously record the second half they needed before returning) wobbled their way into the room filled with yet more of ‘their’ kind.
The pair wisly shut their traps at this point, and did their best to blend in, Rika’s new legs carrying them in a meandering path that did not look at all suspicious. It got worse when they passed through the area where the fallen monster heroes’ spirits lay, and jr immediately gave into greed and tried to bed down to grab them, an action entirely uncoordinated with Rika, which caused her to lose grip and for him to tip off of her ‘shoulders’ and go sprawling onto the floor with the spirits scattered before him as every fluke nearby turned to inspect the sound.
There was a little moment of stillness, before jr scramblingly gathered up the monster spirits in his stubby little arm and took an embarrassing amount of time to hop back on top of his ‘lower half’. It was only once he was back and the ‘fluke’ had stopped to embarrass ‘herself’ that one of the other ones asked “what do?” with regards to the spirit collection to which the prince floundered for a response till he came upon: ”Tidying? Uh, messy glowing things, not neat?”
“Tidying?” “Tidying” “Tidying!” “Clean nest!” “Glowy things away!” went a round of replies, as the flukes came around to this novel idea, and immediately several of them started copying Jr in gathering up the spirits in-order to dispose of them, denying them any more unearned loot
Not that Rika would have gone and let them go near any more to repeat the incident, and instead she made a b-line straight for the goal. With a fair bit of difficulty they shimmied up a ladder leading out of the water channel, and up to the control systems for it. Well, control systems was a bit of a generous way of describing the big rusty wheel the pair came face to face with when they got up there.
Still, this was it, they’d made it, and despite a hiccup along the way, they were about to pull off their stealth operation without a hitch.
Then Jr tried to pull the crank, and it made just the loudest, screechiest sound as the old unused rusted metal ground against yet more of the same, resisting every turn. That certainly got some curious looks from the flukes, some of whom started to get an inkling that this was bad right as the alarm bells started ringing, warning everyone and everything nearby that the gate was about to open. That, plus a trickle of water that would herald the flood, 100% blew their cover.
“Water!” “stop!” “kill!” came cries, as the flukes all turned to storm towards the children, the sky filling with Flukefey as the Flukemon and Flukemunga became a swarm charging towards the raised platform.
There was the click of two tapes being paused, and then Rika and Jr (who was wearing custom made cat ear compatible clip on earphones) were there in person again, disguises discarded. The prince tossed two pokeballs over his shoulder before he grabbed the wheel with his claws, getting a far better grip using them than the stubby arms of the fluke and beginning to turn.
Behind him Mimi and Dazzle burst from their pokeballs, and immediately were rocked by the sound of gunfire as Rika opened up with all guns upon the incoming barrage of Flukefeys.
Rifle fire, shells, and ink flak all were let loose, swiftly being joined by the mon’s own electrical and watery blasts. The first wave that slipped through this AA screen hammer straight into Rika’s Knight and Cloyster strikers using shield and shell to block their charge, while the second met even more firepower as jr added super scoped armed Primid and pan tossing chef bro strikers to their firepower. A final bust of knives going off in sync with an all out adult from Rika’s blaster bought them a moment of clear air space just in time for the ground assault to start.
The first Flukemon to climb the ladder meanwhile got a face full of wisps, the little motes zapping the bug when it hit them, stunning it and sending it falling down among its kin. The second got a boot from Rika, sending it down in much the same way. Then the oversized Flukemunga rammed into the base of the platform, and acted as siege towers for their sisters to climb atop.
”No no no no,” Rika panicked as she switched to melee fighting, smashing flukes down with gauntlet punches, blocking and chopping with her hull blades. At her side Mimi lashed out with her claws, Dazzle with staggering penguin leaps, the whips with more zaps and a pack of goobas boodilly tackled flukes off of the platform. Despite all this, it looked like they might still go the way of the monster adventurers as Rika cried out for jr to ”Hurry uuuuup!”
”I’ve got it!” jr cried out in response, as with one final wrench the wheel broke free of all its rust, and spun smoothly at last, the gate opening, and the flood sweeping in. Torrents of water washed in, sweeping away first grubs, then Flukemon and finally the Flukemunga.
And, naturally, all of the spirits that had fallen down below during the battle.
It didn’t clear the skies either, as the few remaining Flukefey who dived in to try and avenge their sisters interrupted the kids' cheers to demonstrate, but they, too, fell when faced with both of them working together to cut them down to the last.
”We did it! We saved the city!” Jr cheered, while Rika sat herself down on the edge of the platform to rest and toned back the victory a little bit with ”Well, or some peoples houses and food and stuff anyway” before thinking and commenting that ”Anyway, this better not end up like the cheese thing and be super bad paying”
”I mean we got the spirits and stuff, so that’ll probably work out either way” Jr pointed out, remembering how the humble cheese slime had netted them an incredibly shiny hat that he was sure his Papa would have made bank off of by now, and not have been ripped off of by a scummy auction house.
At any rate, all there was left to do was gather up the spirits that hadn’t been washed away (there weren't that many) and then head back to the surface. The flooded tunnels might have made that tricky for some, but for the ship girl and the flying car riding prince, that was no issue.
Everything after that was plain sailing (literally for Rika). They followed the flowing water back to where they had entered the waterways, where they were greeted by an impressed officer Tethys, who directed them to the guard’s headquarters. A quick stop by First Officer Lobster Siren’s office, an account from one of Tethys’s shield officers of their success and an accounting of their fluke spirits (14 fliers, 8 walkers and 1 of the big ones) got them handed a hefty bag filled with 3000 gold pieces in it.
The two where delighted by this (and Rika slightly readjusted her view on paid work, in that murder, it seemed, paid well) and where eager to go blow it all at once, but some insistent prodding by their wisp escort directed them instead to go link up with Kamek and Bowser.
Jr was, it had to be said, a little miffed about them having given away all the toys, only to be placated by the fact that they’d kept a few of the more portable items for his amusement. That was how both kids enjoyed some game monster-kid gaming over a hearty supper, and after that they were all more than ready to hit the sack.
wordcount: 6,769 (+8 (+6 from last)(for Bowser and Kamek only)) Bowser: Level 12 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (213/120) Bowser Jr: Level 12 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (89/120) Kamek: Level 12 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (88/120) Rika: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (85/70) Location: The Under - Home of Tears
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
After they’d set up the auction Bowser and Kamek ended up with some time on their hands. The kids were still off on an adventure, one that the mage was quietly following the progress of using a wisp scout, so they had time. As part of that supervision, Kamek was aware of the help wanted board, and had something of an idea of what they might be able to get up to till they got back.
Or rather what they should do.
”I do believe the absence of a helper might be our fault, given we have taken possession of a man who might very well have filled that role” the mage told his king, still under the impression Jesse had said man in her possession, and perhaps making a rather baseless (maybe even egocentric) assumption given the size of the city. Heedless of these things however, he still suggest that ”Perhaps we should help them out?”
”I dunno…” the king said as he peered at the the notice board ”I am pretty scary looking after all”
”Only to your enemies, to your people you are a reassuring pillar of strength I assure you” Kamek replied, having not exactly expected that to be his king’s objection, even if it made sense in hindsight, but finding a counter to it with relative ease.
He got a grunt of response, which he knew to interpret as a wordless thanks, and then an agreement in the form of ”You know what, I’ve done enough fighting and dealing with weird complex auction houses stuff, I think I deserve to do something easy with the rest of the day, yeah?”
”Or .. maybe not easy, but different” he corrected himself, knowing full well that kids could be quite the handful. Either way, with that decided, they set off to find the orphanage to see if they could help out some kids have a fulfilling evening.
The two ultimately found their destination near the northernmost part of the Collection, on one of the islands directly adjacent to the one with the bridge that connected this district to Fountain Central. Standing on higher elevation than the surrounding islands, the building stood out like a sore thumb against the Home of Tears’ typical architectural style, with gray stone brick and rusty-colored metal rather than interlocking blue shells and silvery wrought iron. Warm light streamed through its windows down on a rather forlorn, rain-battered yard with meager vestiges of long-ruined playground equipment. Compared to the much bigger bridge nearby, the one leading to the Orphanage seemed both far less traveled and well-kept. After splashing over that path’s loose cobbles and perilous potholes the Koopas climbed up some steps and made their way to the front door, where a couple loud thinks of the heavy metal knocker announced their presence.
Instantly they heard a chorus of excited shouts, the voices of at least a dozen children. From behind the door the sounds were muffled, but they could still make out a frenzy of running feet. It soon gave way to the slower, louder thump-thump=thump of heavy footfalls. A moment later, the door unlocked, then swung open. In front of Bowser and Kamek stood what looked like a huge stuffed toy, at least five feet in height and barrel-shaped, with polyester stuffing poking from the spot where its right arm might have once been. Primarily pink in color, it featured a lime-green heart on its chest, a halo, and cross-shaped eyes just above a big zipper that resembled a crude, somewhat menacing mouth. In fact, its entire appearance -though outwardly cute and huggable- exuded a creepy undertone, particularly given its size. By looking a little closer, the two visitors could also see a dozen pairs of eyes locked onto them, some wary, some shining with excitement, and all belonging to the children of the orphanage as their peered out from doorways, behind corners, and around furniture. They could see an orange critter, a young kobold with a fluffy tail, a masked goblin kid, a tiny Zora girl with her plush fish toy, a pair of child spectrobes, a whole quartet of Kaka Kittens, and more. Every one of these kids seemed to be hoping beyond hope that today would be their lucky day. Trying to ignore their excited whispers, the mascot-looking creature took up a little sign from a table beside the door and held it up for the visitors to see. It read: ‘Hello and welcome. How can I help you today?’
The two of them glanced at each other, clearly a little put off by the strange creature, but seeing the children they remembered why they were here, and why they were needed. Well, mostly remembered, as Bowser immediately floundered on one of the details when he began by asking ”Hey there, we’re looking for a .. for a uh”
”Dr. Natasha” Kamek supplied helpfully
”Right. We’re looking for a Dr. Natasha? We’re here to help out for the evening” he concluded.
After a brief moment spent looking between the two, the mascot creature nodded, then gently beckoned the two to follow it inside the orphanage. It led the way down the hall, plodding slowly past the staring children who shrunk away as Bowser drew near by slid out of their hiding spots to follow at a respectful distance. Though a little let down by the news that the Koopas had come to help care for them rather than adopt, the kids seemed happy nonetheless to have someone there to see them. A few seconds later, the caravan arrived at the orphanage's main common room. It was full of couches and beanbags arranged around a TV and dim fireplace, with a few well-used toys here and there, carefully collected into bins to keep the place presentable. Corkboards and chalkboards took the place of paintings, covered with the denizen's scribbled drawings and misspelled letters. A staircase led up to the orphanage's other floors, and a red door stood next to it, labeled 'Natasha's Office' by a big crayon sign above the doorframe. This was where the pink monster headed.
"They're gonna talk to the boss!"
"Aw, how come we never get to see Miss Nat?"
"They're so lucky! Who are they?"
"Do-do-do you think they're gonna adopt one of us?"
"No, dummy, didn't you hear them say they're just helping?"
"Hey, that's still good, you meanie!"
As the other kids whispered and jostled, the nervous little goblin reached up and bravely tugged Bowser's hand. "Um, mister?" He asked, shaking a little as he turned his mask upward to look at the looming giant. "Miss Nat never comes out of her office, so…when you see her, can you give her a hug for us? Please?"
Once the mascot led the visitors into the office, they found themselves in an empty room. There were no windows or other doors, and only a couple articles of furniture. After they entered, the mascot slowly closed the door behind them, then with a click, locked it shut. Without a word, it circles around toward the desk, turned to face them, and then dissolved into a burst of static.
In the creature's place stood a beautiful human woman, with pink eyes, turquoise hair in a ponytail with loose strands across her face, and a mole by her lips. She wore a white dress of a curious style, with several vials of a green liquid worn almost like accessories, and a teddy bear hanging from her waist. Though not that old all things considered, she possessed a distinct motherly air, and her eyes and smile were both gentle and kind. She carefully pulled her headphones off and placed them along with her cassette player on the desk.
"Please forgive my deception," she began, her voice soft. "The poor darlings of this orphanage are all monsters who've lost their parents to humans. I fear the sight of one would upset them. So I rely on this to assume forms that are more comfortable for them. Like Mascotoy, which you saw. The kids name them, they call me 'Stuffy' when I'm in that form." She smiled, giving a light, chirping laugh. "And Burnie, when I'm Spitzfyre. Oh, but forgive me, I always end up babbling. I'm Natasha." She clasped her hands together. "Doctor by day, caretaker by night. Knowing what I am and what I'm doing, are you two still willing to help?"
”Even in a city of monsters, humans still are everywhere it seems” Kamek commented, intending it mostly as a joke, though he did also think it was an odd state of affairs, what with their own world containing only slightly more than a cities worth.
”That is to say, that won’t be a problem Doctor, right?” he then clarified, before glancing at Bowser. The king, for his part had his brow furrowed, and was deep in thought, before coming to a conclusion entirely unrelated to the matter at hand, but which was an answer to it all on its own anyway.
”You probably get a bunch while in disguise, but the kid did ask so” he said, as he stepped forwards and offered her the hug he’d been requested to give her for all her hard work.
“Oh, goodness!” Too tired from a long day’s work to exclaim with any real sense of alarm, Natasha found herself swept up in a titanic embrace. Though wary and on edge at first, she realized what was going on, and relaxed somewhat in Bowser’s strong, albeit comfortable arms. She even found it in herself to squeeze back a little. Once the two stepped apart a moment later, she didn’t even pause to fix her hair, but flashed the two Koopas an appreciative smile.
“Thank you both. I’m so grateful.” She turned to her cassette player and began to switch the tape out. “Well, you’ll get a chance to help right away! I was just about to get started on dinner for everyone. We usually do a big soup to make the most out of what little we have, and give everyone the chance to pitch in. One of my monster forms helps out a lot.” After putting in a tape labeled ‘Cookie (Coaldron)’ with a handful of food-based stickers plastered all over it, she donned the cassette player. “I’ll head over to the kitchen. After you say hi to everyone, please come and join me. Try and make sure everyone feels included. Oh, but look out for the little troublemakers–Skull Kid and Peeper. They might try to play pranks. I’m still working on a way to do lessons, since none of my monsters can talk, so after dinner it’s usually playtime. But on the off chance you have anything to teach or stories to tell, please feel free. I hope you’ll try to get to know everyone, and help them out however you can. We’ll meet up again like this later on to go over the bedtime routine. Sound good?”
”Sounds like a plan” Kamek agreed, before glancing to the side upon hearing the chime of a bell, and seeing the mountain of scales that was his king had become a fair bit fluffier, as Bowser had turned himself into Meowser.
”Some of them seemed a little nervous around me, so I thought maybe this would help?” he said, scratching himself behind his head self consciously as he did so
”It can’t hurt, I’m sure” Kamek replied naturally, before saying that ”I have a bit of experience with teaching children, so I can see what I can come up with on that front”
After receiving confirmation, Natasha unlocked the door, pressed play on her cassette player, and transformed into a tall ceramic figure with a cauldron body. Hobbling from side to side on her stubby little legs, she exited the office room and headed for the kitchen. Immediately everyone set up a cheer, all pretenses of propriety dropped as everything turned to anticipatory chaos. Already the Koopas could begin to get a grasp of everyone’s personalities; the four super-energetic Kaka Kittens were always at the forefront, while the fluffy-tailed koboldling always hung toward the back in complete silence. The Zora was timid and often left behind, but sweet, while the cyclopean alien kid was an annoying loudmouth, never far from a mischievous woodland sprite. As eager as everyone was for dinner, they seemed even more interested in Bowser and Kamek, crowding around them and pushing one another around with all their voices going at once. Possibly due to Natasha being unable to talk as a monster, it seemed like the children here could use some discipline. It was time for the volunteers to introduce themselves.
”Alright children, settle down for just a moment” Kamek requested, sticking close to his king to avoid getting crowded too badly, before introducing them both.
”My name is Kamek, and I’m something of a wizard, while this now fluffy fellow is Bowser” the king gave a wave and a ”Howdy” the pair of them having agreed to not make any mention of the King’s royalty so as to keep things simple ”We will be taking care of you while your usual minder sees to preparing dinner”
”Now then, now that you know our names, how about we go around the room so we can learn who all of you are?”
”Mmm, and how about we start with you” Bowser suggested, pointing out one of the excitable Kittens so as to not leave them impatient, or startle the shyer ones,but fully intending to work though everyone.
As one might expect, the kittens introduced themselves in a cacophony of high-pitched voices laden with verbal tics, each trying to one-up and be heard over the others. Though it took some doing, the Koopas managed to assign each a name after a few moments: the one with the green bow was Cali-Kaka, Feisty-Kaka had the blue, Fluffy-Kaka had the orange, and Spotty-Kaka had the pink. The two troublemakers were quick to introduce themselves, the cyclops as Peepers and the hat-wearing flute player as Skull Kid, evidently thick as thieves. Up next was Small, the energetic orange critter. After introducing himself as Ugu, the young goblin also introduced the kobold as Ga Bu, since the little guy didn’t seem inclined to speak for himself. Tentatively the Zora introduced herself as Finley, after which the two spectrobes announced themselves as Zen and, confusingly, Zora. The two snickering Subling siblings gave their names as Pitch and Dark, though Skull Kid immediately whispered to Kamek that their names were actually Bailey and Jenny. That just left the timid Bakomon, with its entire body covered in cardboard, and Badogai the Baddinyan, who did his very best to look like a delinquent while speaking only a little more crassly than usual.
After that, though, everyone more or less stampeded to the kitchen. Coaldron-Natasha had already filled her basin with water from the sink and was in the process of boiling it, turning it into a delicious broth. Using monster power, it seemed, was an affordable alternative to electric power. At one end of the kitchen lay the door to the pantry, with a crayon sign on it that read ‘Don’t steal! We only have enough to go around if everyone shares!’, but the pantry door lay ajar. Inside, the shelves were almost bare. There was a little bread, a few packets of noodles, a half-empty bag of croutons, some garlic, lentils, carrot, celery, onion, and a few herbs and spices. In the fridge was some meat, mostly chicken but a little beef, as well as cheese. Unfortunately, there were also crumbs on the floor. Someone had already been in here, but for now none of the kids said anything. They began storming the pantry to seize whatever they could to tear up into morsels and throw into tonight’s soup. Some of them, naturally, would just try to eat whatever they got hands on, or start food fights by throwing whatever they didn’t like at other kids they disliked about as much. Voiceless and full of soup, Coaldron-Natasha would struggle to try and oversee everything on her own.
”Oh dear” Kamek commented very generally on the whole situation, while Bowser muttered that he ”Woulda brought food as well if I knew this was gonna be an issue” before doing his best to carefully wade into the mob without stepping on anyone, and act as something of a wedge to try and break up any food fights on his way to blocking the pantry so he could do the food hauling himself.
Kamek meanwhile took to the air atop his broomstick to get an overview of the mob, and then summoned a few hoovering toadies who could drop down, pick up a problem child to either deposit them in a seat or distract them via flying them around the room.
While most of the kids tried helping as best they could, they needed direction to prevent messes and actually accomplish anything. The Kaka Kittens in particular were enthusiastically trying to tackle cooking tasks that their big mitts made tricky, while the Spectrobes didn’t even have hands to help with. Naturally, nobody wanted to set the table, or even get out the utensils and bowls people would need. A few like Ga Bu and Finley just remained passively at a distance, not contributing. Among them were Skull Kid, Peeper, and Baddinyan. After whispering together for a few moments, they split up, and the troublemakers began to cause a ruckus. Peeper tried to take charge of the situation, bossing the other kids around with his loud, nasally voice, while Skull Kid added to the general uproar by playing his flute. While they caused a distraction, Baddinyan snuck around to the shelves and began climbing to get at the cookie jar.
”Oh dear, oh no” Kamek stammered in a little panic, as he tried to direct his minions to put out fires to little success while pinching his forehead. Then the king readjusted how he was thinking about this, and switched tactics and mindsets to that of a boss of mooks.
”Aright, listen up squirts, we’re going to have some order, so you can get fed sooner” the king said with a voice that commanded armies, before reaching a hand over and plucking Baddinyan from their shelf creeping and telling them mre parentally ”and eating sooner means desert sooner” before setting them down.
”Right then. Cali, Feisty, Fluffy, Spotty bowls and plates” he ordered the Kaka kittens, given those were big and more easily handel-able. ”Ugu, Ga Bu, and Finley, help with the food, Dark, Bakomon and Pitch cutlery” because they had more dexterous hands ”Zen and Zora, get the chairs in order” because they were all over and that could be done via handless pushing.
Next ”Peeper, direct traffic and tell me if anyone is goofing off” because it was a less disruptive way of him indulging his desire for power, and someone needed to stop the kids running back and forth from running into each other, ”Baddinyan make sure no one is trying to have dessert or uncooked food before dinner” because who better than a thief to catch, and finally ”Skull kid, give us a marching tune” for some musical accompaniment.
”Everyone got that? Good, then let’s get to it!” he declared, leaving himself and Kamek as overarching supervisors. Right away the Kaka sisters hopped to it, racing to see who could set most places. Ga Bu did not want to help with preparing the ingredients for the stew, but he also didn’t resist when Ugu and Finley tried to coax him into it. Even Natasha helped as much as she could, gentle nudging things -and kids- into place. Pitch and Dark combed the kitchen, collecting every last spoon they could find and passing them to Bako to hold; once they had enough, a jet of steam from Natasha pointed them in the direction of the sink, and the Sublings started washing spoons that Bako then took to the table. Peeper kept bossing and pushing his peers around, and Baddinyan abused his appointment as Cookie Guardian to sneakily help himself, but on the whole the motley crew’s efforts turned a lot more focused and productive. All the while, Skull Kid’s lively playing permeated the whole place, channeled into something constructive rather than denied.
Kamek face-palmed at the decision to put a thief as a guard, but otherwise was rather impressed with his king’s handy work, while the king himself grinned self-assuredly.
Bit by bit the Coaldron filled with ingredients, boiling and simmering until the broth turned a rich greenish-brown, full of vegetables and strips of meat. Knowing the next step, everyone grabbed a bowl from the table and lined up in front of Natasha, jostling for position. She poured out bowlfuls of soup for everyone, including her new helpers. While the bigger kids might need more sustenance, any perceived sign of favoritism would cause issues, so she did her best to dole out equal portions.
All too soon the Coaldron was empty, and as the kids returned to the table to eat Natasha tottered off toward her office. Once hidden within she changed again, and a few moments later returned as a Spitzfyre. Her arrival provoked a chorus of cheers and delighted squeals among most of the children, even the cats, some of whom even left their dinners to rush the goggle-wearing dog down and stroke her fluffy fur. “It’s Burnie,” Finley explained for Kamek and Bowser. “Once we all finish our food, it’s time to play!” She then dug in, supping her soup as fast as she could, and the rest more or less did the same. Burnie sat by the table and waited patiently for everyone to finish.
Bowser, unsurprisingly, finished first given the size disparity, but having seen the state of their larder he did not complain (though his stomach certainly did), while Kamek slowly worked his way through the soup with a speed befitting his age, which at least took the pressure off of any of the slower kids with whom their impatient peers might take issue of their own pace.
“Where are you guys from?” Zen piped up after a few moments. The fiery little monkey’s eyes were wide with curiosity. “Never seen monsters like you before!”
Zora curled up by his bowl with his legs tucked underneath him, looking like a fluffy ball of wool. “Oh, they’ve gotta be from outside! What’s it like out there?”
“Yeah, tell us! Tell us, tell us!” the Kittens chimed in.
”Well, I mean that depends on what bit of the outside you wanna hear about, because we’ve been around a bit. If you just mean outside the city, well then … we’ve been to where the rain comes from” Bowser said, deciding that was maybe a good place to start
”It’s this huuuuge lake inside a massive cavern, and it's got these ancient trees going from these little sand banks alllll the way up to the ceiling. We had to climb down one and it took ages”
”But we’ve also been outside too,” he added, before emphasizing ”I mean really outside, above ground, under the blue sky. Been to a few places on this donut of a world. There’s Alcamoth, which we’re calling home at the moment, which is a city that floats. In the air. Very, uh, white, and with big domes. It’s in this place called the Land of Adventure, that apparently changes every week. New landscape, new creatures, new everything.”
The King wasn’t it had to be said, the best wielder of descriptive language, but he was happy enough to answer questions, and did try his best, even if it was unlikely he could paint a picture with words that could really convey what it was like beyond to these kids who had likely never seen anything beyond their rainy city. At least, not that they remembered anyway.
It was a thought along those lines that gave Kamek pause for thought, the mage wondering, if this world really had existed for far longer than they thought, then where, there children who had been born into it? Perhaps even ones who were children of more than one world. And if so, what would happen to them, if they managed to set everything back to the way it was.
It was a concerning thought, but one blissfully absent from Bowser’s mind as he tried to explain what things were like outside, as well as going and talking about the many strange and wonderful kingdoms that had existed back in their universe.
Most of the kids listened with bated breath as Bowser filled their heads with fantastic images, painting a vivid picture of the skies and seas that underworlders like them could only have ever dreamed of. Even Natasha found herself entranced. Though she possessed distant memories of the crisp blue heavens and the feeling of cold wind on her face, it felt like a lifetime ago. These tales made her homesick, bringing her back to the childhood she herself spent in an orphanage underground before adoption by her overworld family. Losing the sky, the snow, the breeze, and the fresh air all over again hurt, but her heart went out to these poor children who hadn’t the slightest idea what they’d been missing all this time.
When the stories came to an end, playtime began. Interested as the kids had been, none of them had neglected their food, and when Burnie started barking and performing a play-boy the children stuffed in their last couple spoonfuls of lukewarm soup and raced to join in on the fun. In no time Ugu, Pitch, Dark, and Finley were all perched on the Spitzfyre’s back, riding her as she ran around in playful pursuit of the squealing Kaka Kittens, chased in turn by the young spectrobes and Baddinyan. In that fashion they ran all around the orphanage, through its halls, up and down its stairs, and around the common room. The Spitzfyre even consented to chase and fetch a thrown ball, humiliating as that must be for her. Skull Kid and Peeper went off to entertain themselves. When the kids were tired of exercise with Spitzfyre, they settled down in the main room to play with what few toys and games the orphanage possessed, but most of the focus lay on Bowser and Kamek. “C’mon, play with us!” the kittens chorused, hoping their new friends could offer them something fun and new.
”How about a magic trick” Kamek offered, which got a ”Huh,” from Bowser who had thought they’d be doing something else before the mage floated up and whispered a plan into his ear, which earned the mage an ”Oooooh” of understanding from his king, who then hurried to pop into the good doctors office to get his jacket.
While he did that part, Kamek asked ”Now then, could one of you get me a blanket, or a bedsheet, or something of the sort? I’ll need it for the trick. And neatly please, it will have to go back after after all”
The children were off like lightning, scattering in all directions to find and bring back the requested item. Within a minute several groups returned with blankets, working together to drag them along the ground. Small and Ugu ended up riding on a sheet pulled by the spectrobes, although once the Kaka Kittens saw that all four dropped their blanket in order to jump on it for a ride, leaving theirs stopped in its tracks. With Zen and Zora weighed down, Bako pulled ahead with a patched-up quilt thrown over her shoulder, and after reaching Kamek first she offered it to him. That left Pitch, Dark, and Finley in second and third place, though they all seemed too interested in the Magikoopa’s trick to really care. Spitzfyre-Natasha helped pulled the squealing kittens over on their blanket to join the group, and everyone crowded around to see Kamek work his magic.
All that excitement kept eyes conveniently off of Bowser, who shuffled back in just in time to help Kamek run a bit of sleight of hand combined with actual magic.
The children had seen the koopa float, of course, so but now he pulled out all the stops.
”Now, you might not know this, but today is a day of change, or so I have heard. When children both good and bad, get what they deserve.” the mage said with rhyme, as he crafted wisps out of magic to fill the room with glowing motes, and using the same magic he used to color shift his clone to change their hue as well, though that was all the effect it had.
”But that is jumping to the end of the story And we’ll get back there soon, don’t you worry Now this city of yours, did you know it once had a king? his kindness and courage, the people would sing Yet because of those both, he had to leave for reasons most dire To tend to the cities roaring inner fire”
As the mage spoke, he made the wisps dance through the air, having them form together to form crude depictions of the tale he was spinning.
”And once he was gone, an imp crept on in Nasty and rotten and rude as sin Was he human or swine, or something even stranger? All I can say, is that to tell him now would have been a great danger For his tantrums where cruel and creepy While his minions they were ever so sneaky Yet the king, still gone one day made some friends And to them he put the task of fulfilling some ends”
A small horde of colorful whips descended into the room from above, having snuck up into the ceiling while the kids where looking elsewhere
”they snuck down into the city, under cover of night Ready and willing to fight the good fight First they made a new ally, atop a great tower And from him learned the secrets of their foe’s power First they sniffed through the streets to find the pigs minions, who hid in the dark And faced them in battle, though for them that was walk in the park Then into his castle, they strode without fear Knowing by the next day, all would have reason to cheer Some went high, and others low Ready to take part in a two part show”
The ‘fights’ as they were, were a combination of glorified pushing matches, yet by swooping to and fro, they wisps manage to make their conflicts rather dynamic.
”up in the tower, they fought a great battle One in which the pig thought he would slaughter them like cattle For control over time, that tyrant did wield And against that power, there is no shield Yet with their determination and brawn, The heroes soldiered on And with all the strength of a storm They forced that pig to reveal his true form”
The whips dashed to and fro, the rainbow of warriors facing down a much larger purple foe.
”the battle after that it went on and on But in the end the pig refused to sing a swan song Down into the depths, that coward did flee Yet deep down below, his fate he would see For they heroes had known, of his little hide away A place where the pig thought he could stay Safe and snug, with ill gotten gains Yet instead what he got was yet more pains Together, at last they banished him from the lands And so at last the king could know peace, in his exiled sands”
The large purple whip was ejected by the others, tossed through a window and into the rain, as had been the fate of all those defeated by the heroic wisps, before said heroes returned to bobbing around above the children’s heads as Kamek brought the tale to a close.
”Which brings us back to children getting what they are owed And the point, dear children, of the story told You see to steal from your people, that is something quite nasty But to steal back from a thief, well, about that let's not be hasty For that pig had taken treasures, oh yes he did And down in the depths, was where they were hid Gold and jewels, and yes, even toys All taken away from good girls and boys Yet rather than be used for what they were meant: play These toys dear children where all locked away And of these toys the heroes knew what should become Because there were kids not at all like the pig who really deserved them”
”and do you know who those kids are?” Bowser asked, having made plenty of use of the distracting performance to slip some things under the bed sheet they had retrieved at the beginning.
”Well, how about we see? What these heroes have brought for thee?”
Kamek asked, before, whipping a wand towards the little lump in the bedsheet, the ‘heroes’, the colorful whips, swooping towards it as he did so, and then spiraling around and around it as the lump grew and grew, larger and larger before their very eyes, before they all suddenly vanished up into the ceiling, leaving behind a great mass barely covered by the sheet.
”Go on” Bowser told the children, urging them to unwrap the gift from the ‘heroes’
For a few moments, everyone was silent. Their wonderment and amazement at Kamek’s incredible visual performance and accompanying verse had given way to bamboozled astonishment as he unveiled the hoard of loot. Even Natasha stared, her jaw dropped in bewildered surprise, her jaw practically on the other floor. To the denizens of this orphanage, this was nothing short of a miracle. Could it even be a dream? But when little Ga Bu stepped forward and took hold of a little doll, fashioned after a stocky stone titan, there could be no doubt. This incredible, unexpected windfall was one hundred percent real.
The kids all descended on the pile, shouting and laughing and cheering. Some took everything they could get their hands on, while others seized a favorite and held it tight. There were more than enough to go around–more than anyone could ever want or need. Action figures and sports equipment, toy weapons, board games, blocks and other buildables. It was like every Christmas they’d missed had all come at once. With her head Natasha beckoned Bowser and Kamek to share in the joy, and even she joined the romp. It wasn’t just the Koopas paying the children of the orphanage a visit; it was happiness and plenty themselves.
Some time later, Bowser and Kamek reconvened in Natasha’s office. When the woman turned back, her eyes were red, and her cheeks were wet with tears not of sadness, but of joy. “What…what could I possibly say? There’s nothing I could say that would even begin to express my gratitude,” she said, her brows curved upward. “A-and even less I can do to repay you.” One at a time she went to each Koopa and delivered a heartfelt hug. “But thank you. From the bottom of my heart. Seeing such joy on their face…” Sniffing, she composed herself, and put on a smile. “Well. It’s not much longer until bedtime. I’m sure everyone wants to play with their new toys until they topple over, but they’ll be there in the morning. We need to get everyone ready for bed. The kittens will probably zonk out and need to be carried. We’ll have to brush Small’s teeth, I guarantee it. He’ll have hidden the toothpaste…again…” Stifling a yawn, Natasha steadied herself against her desk. “I…whoooo...oh, forgive me. I’m so very tired.” She reached up to put her headset back on, only to place it back on the desk. “Please go ahead. I’ll be right behind you…just a second to put myself together…”
The two looked a little embarrassed by this heartfelt praise, with Bowser trying to brush it off like it was not such a big deal seeing as to him ”It just felt like the right thing to do, I guess?”
Then they stepped out to give the good doctor a moment or five to recover and saw about either hedging or transporting the children to bed, with Bowser doing much of the latter, the king making for an adorable sight with armfuls of kittens at one point in the process. A few of the others did need to be encouraged to leave the toys be and to head to bed, which was eventually achieved via suggesting they pick out a stuffed animal (or monster) to take with them, which saw Finley carrying a stuffed shark as large as they were with her to bed, among other cute displays of plushy selection and affection.
As that occurred, Kamek had some wisps sniff out the toothpaste for him, the motes, glowing softly with orange hues of sunset, eventually tracking it down to under Small’s own very own pillow.
When finally confronted, Small stared bug-eyed at the pink tube in the Koopa’s hand. “Uh oh, you found the toothpaste!?” He held up his hands placatingly, backing up against the bathroom wall as he jabbed one shaky finger into the air. “L-let’s get one thing clear! I can brush my teeth all by myself, okay?”
”Then I’m sure you can be a big boy and prove that to me then, yes? After all, a mouth of pearly white pointy teeth can look ever so fierce” the old koopa replied, trying the tactic that had gotten both Bowser and his son to take their dental hygiene properly.
In the end though, Small would not be talked into it. Moreover, this whole tooth-brushing ritual seemed to be a sort of game to him. He hopped around the bathroom like a march hare, avoiding the toothbrush like Kamek was ‘it’ in a game of tag. Ultimately, the Magikoopa had to get a little more hands-on. Once finally caught and brushed, Small struggled and spat, frothing at the mouth from the pink toothpaste foam, but before long his pearl whites were sparkling and he slunk off to bed with the last of his energy spent. Bowser and Kamek got the chance to tuck everyone in and say goodnight. It was all very cute, but they couldn’t help but notice two things: that Natasha wasn’t here helping, and that Ga Bu was missing.
When they went back downstairs, the two Koopas quickly found out why. The door to the doctor’s office was ajar, and inside they discovered a remarkable scene. After sitting down in her chair, Natasha had passed right out from exhaustion, and was now snoring softly. In her lap lay the missing Kobold with his toy, his little head laid on the woman’s chest as her arms wrapped instinctively around him. Both were sleeping peacefully.
After resisting the temptation to “awww” at the sight, the two stepped away, only for Kamek to return a few moments later, quietly drifting through the air and then laying a blanket over the pair so they would stay warm through the night time period. Then the two quietly saw themselves out of the orphanage, not at all concerned that they would not be able to receive the ‘repayment’ mentioned in the commissions board notice by doing this.
Bowser stretched and yawned wide once they were clear, it having been a tiring ending to an already tiring day ”I am beat. And still kinda hungry”
”Mmm, I agree, that was quite the task. Hopefully we’ve brightened up their world a little bit however” Kamek replied to his king, before noting that ”That said, our work is not quite done, as we have two final children that need to be put to bed”
”They’re good, right?” the king asked, having not had the mental energy while handling all the other kids to think about how the two of them were off on their own. He was sure that together, they’d be fine, but he worried a little still.
”They’ve been on their own little adventure, but I’m directing them back to us now” the mage informed his king, relieving him of his stress.
”Good, then let’s link up, grab some midnight snacks, and then hit the hay” the king commanded, to which Kamek agreed with a ”As you will it, sire” before the two headed back off into the rainy city’s streets once again.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts) Sector 05-06 plate divide maintenance corridor
While there were a couple of introductions and talk, ultimately the first offered plan, Blazermate’s was the one they went with. Not that that got the princess out of having to use up some of her limited portal energy, as her own suggestion of getting a change of clothes prompted a suggestion that they should get them from the main base. Still, one charge used was better than two, that was for sure, so she’d come out ahead in a way
”Just give me a second and I’ll find somewhere to put it” the princess said, before slipping into the shadows and then scaling down the side of the trench separating the plate they wanted into from the one next door till she found a maintenance tunnel of some kind.
In there, nicely out of sight if rather inconvenient if they ever tried to use this for something other than a clothing run, she popped down a portal, and then used it to go to and from the SOU headquarters.
She then scooted up top side again, and presented the team with a pile of button-ups of various sizes, having taken most of the stock to supply the others with disguises. She herself was not, however, wearing one, as her already inhuman proportions combined with various fusions meant that none of them really fit, and she’d apparently already burned through the supply of squid-kid sized outfits that had done so (both of which where not only dirty, but ruined as far as blending in went by various bits of battle damage).
It was a good thing she’d be spending most of her time hiding in the shadows then, as she’d returned to the classic nothing but a helmet look, augmented only by the cut in half psycho mask (currently sitting around her neck instead of deployed over her face), single shoulder guard, rosary, mimic tooth necklace, and overpriced watch. She’d simply decided that being entirely combat ready was worth giving up on being able to come on out in polite society without drawing attention, as she did not think the ancient stone helmet of unimaginable dark power would really fit in. Nor would the oversized lance she wanted to test out.
”Good luck to you all with getting in. If you need me to store anything in the twilight realm as part of blending in, just let me know” she told them, before slipping into Goldlewis’s shadow. From there she watched the entire proceeding ‘infiltration’ with interest.
Oh and also occasionally provided uncontrolled comments that came from nowhere such as telling the robot ”Looks like you're hearing things. Might want to get that checked out” or complaining that the city was ”Much to bright” and ”Like a rotten apple polished to a mirror sheen”
The dimmer hues of purples and blues of the bay they arrived at were much more her speed. They certainly weren't threatening to blind her the way light glancing off the glass buildings would have had she stepped out of the shadows.
The people’s style however, she did not respect very much, and it seemed the feeling was mutual, at least when it came to the garb of the people she was riding along with in the shadows of.
Speaking of them, that group soon got a fair bit bigger as they eventually found a spot for the teleporter in an out of the way public restroom, and used it to bring in everyone else. That was not the end of their travel woes however, as though they were now in the city, they still needed to get across it without getting all eyes on them.
Shame they couldn’t just drive again, as the city was a closed system, where only those who could afford a registered vehicle to use purely within its walls were able to make use of its roads. Which made the entirely unregistered bikes and warthog Midna had stashed away rather useless, nor could she simply bring Goldlewis’s car in as it did not have the right kind of license either.
”Goddesses, what a bureaucratic nightmare. They really want to keep the peasants out I guess” she said, which given she was royalty did not contain quite as much disdain as it might have coming from one of said peasants.
So they had to be smart about this.
”I could shadow hop all the way around to the other side and bring a teleporter with me, but that’d take a while, especially as I can’t just claim a restroom like we just did all on my own, so finding a spot to put it down would be even harder” she commented from the shadows, offering that as an option of last resort.
The boat idea did seem like a good one, though finding someone willing to take on a band of strangers and give them a ride for free (or for cheap) seemed unlikely. At least not without being very curious as to why this interesting bunch wanted to get across the lake in a hurry.
”I could put on a disguise and “borrow” a sail to get across, then just escape via the shadows once I am on the other side and set up the teleporter. Would cause a lot of noise, but they wouldn't know it was related to us if I pull it off right” she suggested as an alternative to relying on the kindness of strangers ”or could you, Goldlewis, just ‘requisition’ one using the credentials of your, former, position of … secretary of defense was it?”
Those were also tools to keep lower on the priority list in her mind however. She did not particularly like the idea of theft from random blameless individuals, even if they would only be using the vehicle for a short while. There was a reason she did not, say, offer to shadow sneak into a clothing store and simply portal away outfits for the group when no one was looking, for example. Part of that was her medieval presumption that said stores would be owned and operated by individuals, and not massive corporations who could easily foot the bill of their city/world/multiverse saving operations, however, so she could likely be convinced to do so in the name of the greater good.
Ultimately, she was along for the ride for much of this one unless things got spicy, and most certainly would not be the one going face to face with boat owners to try and talk them into things.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts)
Midna managed to steal a touch of downtime before they headed out. First thing’s first, she crushed a bunch of the Other spirits they had acquired from the tunnels (but not the exploding ones as Raz requested them as she was piling them all out). The thought that these might once have been people offering only a moment's pause and whispered memorial before their spirits were put to use in fueling her new quest for justice in their name.
You have acquired fromMissin Pound, Winery Chinery, Slippy Chinery, Saliva Santas: Smoke Grenade x2 The J4-M35 Smoke Grenade has helped many soldiers out of dire situations. Simply throw the grenade wait for the smoke to spread and change firing positions when the enemy can’t see you Active Camo An equipment module that can be activated and then attached to one's gear. Doing so will blanket the wearer in a cloaking coating for 45 seconds. The quality of this invisibility depends on the wearer's movement speed; moving while crouched confers almost perfect invisibility, but there's barely any effect on someone running or flying Treespear Golden spear with tree-like design. Hits are infused with yellow lightning, their strength dependent on the wielder's Faith. Requiring superior dexterity to wield, this greatspear can perform consecutive thrust attacks despite its larger size. Spit A sticker that, when applied, allows the user to spit damaging projectiles that fly in a slow arc. They deal damage of whatever single element most closely matches the wearer Jester cap A comical item of headwear with colors in two disparate halves, conjoined
This gave some interesting results, some of which she offered up (spit, the active camo module and smoke grenades) incase others found more use for them, while she kept the oversized spear for herself, Urbosa’s proficiency make it work smoothly in her hands (although unbeknownst to her, it would prove to be rather harmless in said hands, as her concrete knowledge that the golden goddesses and the lesser gods and deities of her world where real resulted in her having very little in the way of what could be considered faith).
She had no idea what to do with the silly looking hat.
There was also enough to tend to her menagerie of minions. Or rather, for the most part, to have Blazermate do that for her, as most simply required the bots healing, but there were two slightly more involved operations with decidedly opposite outcomes.
The first was she brought out her mechabear, and after a bit of observation of its state in a non-urgent environment, determined that the metal bits were not working, lacking some kind of energy. A touch of talk with Blazermate and a dig around her horde of collected items found a solution to that, an “energy spike” which had some convenient instructions on it explaining its operation written on it in very small text.
One connection of cybernetic armor with the repowering source, and her semi-mechanical steed was back in operation, though the spike was spent in the process.
The other side of the coin, however, was an offer by Blazermate to enhance her undead Darknut using her mawed shield. Apparently it had been very effective on the monsters it had reanimated, but when she took the bot up on the offer, they learned that applying a random mutation to a carefully constructed creation did not have the best result, as the bones of the dead creature grew twisting branches that clogged up the armor and made it more resilient, yes, but rendered near incapable of movement.
”Well, that’s ironic I guess” she noted, having traded one crippled minion for another. At least she knew how to fix this one, though it would involve a bunch of time with a bonesaw that she did not have at the moment, as they had an appointment to catch.
They could not dally two long before heading out after all, as there was a not insignificant car ride between where they were in Seiran and over to the Hublink, despite them only being a plate away from each other. That left the princess with plenty of time to think. Think, and be annoyed about how it seemed like every one of the organizations that were on the surface meant to stop their crisis was instead perpetuating it.
”Or I guess we only know that someone in Seiran is making Others, and also that they did something else with the psyfish. Making more of those, only to kill them as well. Then releasing them into the under-city … I wonder if that was used as another purge of dissidents like the one we just witnessed” she pondered, but, unaware of the existence of life light clocks, all she could think was they wanted strong spirits for something.
Then there were the other two groups. Neuron blatantly wielded their foes as weapons, which honestly led Midna to give them the biggest benefit of the doubt, while DespoRHado somehow resisted the virus that seemed to be driving their own enemies. Given what Riden had said before he went off on his own, there was 100% something suspicious about that.
”Maybe they made the virus? To build their own power and influence, especially of this Armstrong person? If they can control their enemy somewhat, while anyone else who fights them has to face the full force, that would be a way to make themselves a linchpin of the city’s survival” she suggested, but that was just a guess.
She was certainly a lot more interested in this debate all of a sudden, given that both of the people talking seemed to be at the head of conspiracies perpetuating the ever crisis. That and disgusted by the state of the city’s politics for the exact same reasons.
Either way, a little while later, they were rolling up to the gates of sector six’s upper plate, and meeting back up with the others. She wasn’t exactly really familiar with most of them, it had to be said, which made Poppie’s absence stab her heart even harder, a pain that found her giving Torra a sympathy hug and assurance that they’d get her back, whatever it took.
Step 1 for that, getting into the city housing the corporation that was apparently suspect of holding the key to doing so. There were, naturally, obstacles preventing them from just getting in, as they only had legal access for 6 people.
Or rather ”Seven” she corrected, because ”I can shadow you when you get in” That still left a whole lot of them on the outside, but Midna did have some suggestions for that.
”I could also set up portals to get the others in once the first six get past the barrier, but that won’t help us if they stop us again inside” she offered in tandem with Blazermate's suggestion, before having a little bit more of a think, and adding ”Best way to not be stopped, I think, would be to make sure we look like we belong there. Confidence is important for that, but so would looking the part and, well, we don’t exactly give off a high society look. Especially after fighting through ruins and over stagnant reservoirs”
She knew she could really do with another change of clothes, as cleaning herself up in the clinic’s bathroom had only done so much.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic
As the truck rumbled away the two stowaways strained to listen in to the conversation going on between the people who had stolen away the transformed Princess Peach, a task made slightly hard by the rumbling of the machine itself. Midna certainly had a better time of it, able to stow away inside the truck in its occupant’s shadows (although she had to spend the entire journey biting her own hand to avoid offering comment on the things being said), while unbeknownst to her (and vice versa) Raz clung to the underside of the vehicle, concrete wheezing by mere inches below.
Still, be they in or under, both spies got some very, very juicy details from the free flowing talk between what turned out to be some kind of revolutionary group seeking to cut out the rot infesting Suoh, which Midna would have found heartening, had she not found out about them right when they had just felt the boot of the system crush down on them, hard.
Though Midna had an easy time eavesdropping, it was unsurprisingly much harder to pick up quiet conversation inside of an armored truck when you’re clinging to its underside. Luckily, Raz was able to reach out with his ~psychic senses~ to remotely pick up what was being said. ”Metamorphose? Extermination..?” A bad feeling crept into Raz’s stomach, not helped by the precarious spot he chose to hide. It was a testament of his will that he didn’t puke right over the road. This was definitely juicy intel, though what it exactly meant, and if he could entirely trust Crenshaw and the others, he wasn’t too confident.
Midna, too, wasn’t so sure if she could really trust these people. After the ‘resistance’ of al-mamon turned out to be a front for some nefarious mind control plot, she was not going to jump into this organization's arms without more info, even if she managed to remain hopeful that said info would turn out possitive. The flow of that came to an end, however, as they approached some kind of rally point for the group.
The vehicle finally stopped, and the passengers started to move out. Minda, naturally, went to follow via slipping into one of their shadows. When she did, however, her low to the ground position, or rather functionality in it, let her see what the people she was tailing could not. Namely that she was not the only one who had stowed away.
She immediately switched priorities, and shadows, to link up with Raz. She had names of people in the organization. She had the name of what was probably their base, and most likely where Peach had been sent. It was enough. Making sure the boy did not get caught was more important.
Raz didn’t share that priority, of course. He thought he was undertaking a solo stealth operation to suss out a possible coup or alternate sect of rebellion within the Psych-OSF. In other words, the exact thing he spent most of his life dreaming of. He was a little held up from continuing from not having thought ahead, though. ”Okaaaay, now how do I get out of here? Do I go invisible again and jump into some kind of storage crate? Do they have any around here? It’s hard to see…”
”I wouldn’t recommend it, who knows where you’d end up delivered too” a voice coming from the ground interjected into his mutterings to himself
”I guess so, but it’s better than staying- huh?!” Raz, in surprise, slipped off the various car bits he was clinging to, falling a good three inches onto the hard concrete. ”Who’s there?” he snapped, trying his best to whisper.
”A whoops. Sorry about that scare. Its Midna” the princess of twilight clarified from the dark, only to curse wordlessly at the sound of footsteps approaching. One of the psychics seemed to overhear the thump of him impacting the ground, though their pace seemed to indicate curiosity rather than urgent concern.
Flipping around onto his stomach, Raz peered out around them at the approaching footsteps. ”You came too? Whaddya think, should we take these guys on? Get them to hand Peach back over to us?”
”They might be able to help so let’s not-” Midna started, before pivoting the conversation to dealing with the current problem instead of arguing strategy ”-let’s not stick around here to get found out. Can you invisible yourself and get to that tunnel to the right? I’ll meet you there and we can plan”
”What? But we’re right here, we can’t just leave!” Raz tried to convince Midna, though really he was starting to get cold feet himself. Wouldn’t be a very good stealth operation if he got caught on step one, after all. ”Fine, yes, I’ll meet you there,” he muttered, a little peeved at his moment of coolness needing to cut short. A quick pop out of the visible spectrum later, Raz rolled out from under the truck, jumping back onto his feet to make a break for the tunnel. He had to be quick since his un-amplified Invisibility wouldn’t last long.
Midna, after taking a moment to be impressed by the invisibility trick, and make sure that the psychic coming to investigate did not think anything was suspicious (they did not) simply hopped through a few shadows, and into the tunnel. Her eyes, adapted to the dark, had spied a runed van up the tunnel and popped out behind it to wait for Raz to show.
Soon enough the goggle-headed kid came up around the van, nearly jumping out of his boots in surprise. ”Gyah! Jeez, you’re really good at sneaking up on people…”
Minda could not help but have a short impish giggle at his expense now that they were somewhat clear, before taking it as a compliment ”Why thank you. It’s not that impressive though, I hardly even have to try” and being smug about it for good measure.
”Now get behind here, before someone spots you” she told him after, patting a spot so he could sit next to her with their backs to the van (and the outpost) behind them.
”Shouldn’t we get back to the others? They might be wondering where we went. Plus, we gotta tell them what we know as soon as possible, in case something happens.”
”Sounds like a good plan to me” Midna agreed, glad that the mad dash had apparently put the other one, namely to fight all of the people in the base, into the grave where it belonged.
”I can make these gates, which we can use to travel right back to the hideout, so we won’t have to walk either” she added, before pointing a little ways up the tunnel to where a light was glowing, and a the wall seemed to curve in a bit, and suggested ”and I think there might be a side path up there? I would rather not put the gateway in sight of the base, so how about we check that out?”
Raz nodded, working his shoulders to ease the post-riding-under-a-car cramps. ”Hey, you’re the expert on interspatial transport portals. I never got to that course yet.”
Nodded in response, and then slipped into the shadows again, appearing over at the inlet. Within, like she had hopped, was a door, one that, with a bit of magical trickery and brute force, she got open, revealing a dusty unused maintenance room.
She declared it ”Perfect” and immediately set up the portal, a crack in space forming just below the ceiling, before it opened wide, perfectly black squares unfolding across surface of the stone, and then a lattice of teal lines of power forming on those, twisting in on themselves till they had formed a tunnel into the space between the light world, and the twilight realm. Far away in Seiran, the portal she had set up there opened in the same way, both heralding and awaiting their arrival.
”There we go, ready to go” she declared, before holding out a crooked arm and telling to ”Hold on to me while we go, unless you want to find out what kind of animal my home will turn you into I’m sure”
Raz looked into the portal, then up at Midna’s hand. For a brief moment, he just thought. ”...maybe another time,” Raz finally said in full seriousness, taking the imp’s hand, ready to traverse the twilight.
The princes quirked a smile, assuming it was still actually a joke, before, without ceremony, they both were sucked up into the portal. They skimmed through the dark, getting glimpses of an endless eternally sunset (or was it sunrise?) lit void filled with floating islands and cities of gray stone and glowing lines of magic, so close, yet so far away, and then they arrived at their destination.
Upon said arrival, the princess gave an uncharacteristically wistful sigh and a ”someday” before she released his hand and loudly informed him, and everyone in the building: ”and we’re back”
”Miss us?” Raz added, very quietly following it with, ”I always wanted to say that,” under his breath.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
A severed limb splatted to the ground in front of the troop, causing all to start like a cat presented with a cucumber before they realized who it belonged to. Well. except Rika who crouched down, picked up and called out ”I think someone dropped this” with nary a thought of how weird this was behind her eyes.
The rest of them did actually get the message and once they had caught Rika up, they headed inside. They traded a brief hello with the pair, and then popped over to the counter to place some orders from the two baristas, Maddy and Clemence.
The menu consisted of fresh coffee, tinned coffee, milk, expresso, and so forth as expected, as well as cookies, muffins, scones, and, for some reason, Pear Fusilli. Even more out of place than the pasta however, was Clemence’s side hustle of selling blank tapes and rewinds for said tapes.
Upon seeing those Jr inevitably asked ”Hey, so, what’s the deal with the ‘tape’ things?”, the young prince was not even familiar with the antiquated audio storage format.
"Oh, zese?" Clémence seemed to perk up when the young prince voiced an interest in a very particular subset of her inventory. Though she spoke with a notable French accent, Junior could parse her speech pretty well thanks the time he'd spent around the Seaplane Tender, Bella, back in the Deep Blue Seaside. "Zey are cassette tapes. Nothing strange about zem, how zey work or what zey're made of, but with a cassette player and microphone you can use zem to record any monsters you meet out in ze field, and make zeir power your own." She held up two different tapes, one an ordinary dull black, the other metallic and shiny. "Two hundred for ze normal ones, seven hundred fifty for ze chrome, which are much better at recording. If you're new and you wish to know more about cassette beasts..." After looking around, Clémence zeroed in on one customer in particular. "You should ask him," she said, nodding at the Skelevangelist.
Sectonia wasn’t interested in the tapes as she figured there was a catch with them. Instead only grabbing another coffee to stay awake. Something more flavorful than what she had at the hotel, which was very, very basic and bland.
Jr, never one to turn down the possibility of acquiring new toys, was very much the opposite, and eagerly followed up on that suggestion, proceeding to go bother the indicated gentleman with little regard as to if that might be rude or not.
”Hey you, the lady at the counter said you knew stuff about these tape things. Lay it on me. I wanna know all the details. Like, can it be any monster? Or only specific ones? And are they any good if so? Or would this just let me turn into stuff less awesome than I already am” the little monster climbed up onto a chair opposite the man to ask.
At the mention of tapes, the other undead at the table Junior joined raised a collective eyebrow, and the Skelevangelist near-instantly went into panic mode. "Wuh...he-hey, hold your horses just a, just a hot second there, little guy." Leaning on the table in an exaggerated casual manner, he turned toward Skelly and the others. "He's, uh, heheh, obviously just a little confused. Mistaking me for someone else, I bet!" He floated up from his chair and patted Junior on the head, subtly tugging on his arm with the other hand. "Give me a second, will you, fellas? I'll get him sorted out, be back in a minute!" Then, in a barely-audible whisper, he hissed in Junior's ear. "Can't tell you here. Follow me?"
He led the way to a more secluded nook of the Terminal, then wiped the back of a bony hand across his skull. "Uh, sorry about that, kid. Look, I'll tell you whatever you want to know, as long as you don't go blabbing to anyone I know about cassette tapes or turning into monsters, okay? Deal?
”Uhhh, deal? But you might wanna tell the lady selling them that as well then?” Jr replied, very confused, but happy enough to roll with it. If it was meant to be a secret, then he assumed it had to be good. As was Kamek, who was observing this whole thing via a wisps he had sent to keep an eye on the boy when he started to wander off.
The Skelevangelist shifted uncomfortably. "Well, the tapes aren't very popular, so most people don't ask, and she doesn't tell. In a city that's ninety-nine percent monster, tapes that let you turn into one don't have much use. Except...well." Suddenly the Skelevangelist's body dissolved into what looked like TV static, fluctuating and reforming into the shape of a man. He looked to be in his early twenties, unkept and unshaven, rail-thin and gaunt. He held a cassette player, and as Junior watched he lowered his headphones down to hang around his neck. "I'm not really a Skelevangelist," he admitted, his eyes melancholic. "I just wanted to fit in, you know? I'm not the only person 'blending in', either. Humans d-don't...have a great reputation around here. Monsters don't tr-trust us. If my monster friends found out I was some loser human and not a cool skeleton, they wouldn't want anything to do with me! So please, k-k-keep it to yourself! It's my social life on the line!"
He tugged at his beard uncomfortably. "A-anyway, you wanted to know about the tapes? Well, they can record lots of different m-monsters. If you've got a player, put the tape in, point the microphone at 'em, a-and press this." He indicated a button on his player with a circle. "It's up to chance, but if a friend of yours beats on 'em it'll go up, and if you get hit it'll go down. When transformed, you can't do anything you did before, but you can use everything the monster c-can, and it's HP gets stacked on top of yours. The tape'll...uh, well, break if it takes too much damage, and you'll turn back, but you can re-re-re-wind the tapes to fix 'em up." He showed Junior the tape in his possession, emblazoned with a drawing of a skeleton's head. Then he slipped it back into the player and closed it, his finger hovering over the play button. "Uh...I guess it wouldn't hurt to mention, there's...one other thing the player can do, b-but most people can't use it. If two people have players and their hearts act as one, they might be able to fuse their monster forms together. A fusion's got the stats and p-p-powers of both combined, so they're crazy strong, but you gotta stock up power first." He carefully put his headphones back on. "Uh, b-but I don't know anyone who can, so don't get your hopes up. T-that's everything I know..." He pressed play on his device, and in a shimmer of static he turned back into a Skelevangelist. Instantly he seemed more confident, animated, and personable, with no trace of his stutter. "So keep it on the down low, will ya kid?"
”Yeah, yeah, sure, don’t worry about it” Jr replied, still not really getting the whole not wanting to be seen as human thing. Kamek meanwhile wondered if those who slither in the dark’s double lives had had any influence on the ‘humans being seen as mistrustful’ thing the man had talked about.
The boy left him after that, (or rather he left, then went back and said ”and, uh, thanks” after some rather blatant prompting from Kamek) giving the tapes thing a mull over as he and headed back to rejoin the others.
After the rest of the party had placed their orders, they had returned and took a seat with the two ladies, the king shrinking himself down to fit properly, while Rika had been busy drinking in all the neat sights to cause much of a ruckus.
Then getting to talk about her and Jr’s little adventure distracted her more than enough to prevent any shenanigans.
”Mmm, hmm. There’s this place called the crumbling caverns that’s made entirely of cheese!” Rika replied to the question, before going on an extended ramble about their experiences ”and there were these rat and mouse people who mined it, and we got a job to run some of it back, and got attacked by more rat people and some like, living cheese or something while doing that. They had jetpack knights armed with forks, it was silly. Anyway we killed some of them and they killed some guy who was with us. Then they ran off and we delivered the cheese but got paid basically nothing and learned that jobs are bad and you should just kill tings and crush spirits or steal to get money”
”Ah, no, maybe you should not have learned that specific lesson from that Rika … or rather young mistress” Kamek replied, realizing that he now functionally had two royal scoins he needed to help raise right.
”Young mistress? Oh, like how you call jr young master... Why do you do that anyway?” Riak asked, entirely skipping over the advisor’s attempt to adjust her learning, to which Kamek explained that, as daughter of a king, she was now royalty
”Soooo, does that make me a princess?” Rika asked, and then replying ”neat” once she got confirmation of that being the case. After all ”I mean I already have one in me anyway, but I didn’t know if that counted or not? Guess it doesn’t matter either way now”
While the matter of his lineage was clarified Bowser was pouring over the map and had gotten himself confused, pointing at the tall blurred out right section and saying ”Hey, shouldn't that bit to the side be filled in? We went down it right? Kamek check our map”
”Sire I … yes here” the mage unfurled his own (miniaturized) map, which matched Nadia’s entirely, as instructed, before correcting his king’s confusion
”I believe this up here” he tapped the ash lake ”Was where we came down. Most of our journey seems to have been pipe, at least compared to those who went through the ah, ‘womb’ structure”
”Oh. Right. I was just checking you know that” he insisted.
”Hm… Which area had that ‘clock’ you were talking about? Perhaps if its easy to get to, I could inspect that first. That pig boy did mention something about stealing lifelight, perhaps that clock is related?” Sectonia mused as she looked over the map. Really this was a guise to her agenda to see if she could make a regent out of the previous king here, but learning about the consul’s powers or potential about them could be useful.
”Oh? Ah yes, the clock. That would be here” Kamek pointed at the ash lake ”and can be accessed via a warp pipe found in the water under Gallo tower’s bridge. Should take you all the way back up”
”As for what the clock is, and what life light is, well, it appears that the red glow in the galeeming’s eyes suffuses their body, and keeps them alive somehow. Or maybe more accurately a lack of it kills them” Kamek explained what he remembered ”either way, the clock fills with lifelight whether when things die nearby, or when lifelight is put into it willingly, which is what Asgore does. Then people like those in the city take lifelight out to live.”
”Which I guess makes them sound like a good thing, but didn’t Asgore also think it would be good if they were destroyed?” Rika asked, having not quite gotten that part
”I. Yes. I suppose”
”I got real big and punched it and it still didn’t break, so they are straight up indestructible” Bowser added with a matter of fact rather than egotistical tone, despite egotistical being exactly what the statement was.
”Magic must often defeat magic. Nothing is indestructible.” Sectonia said flatly.
”Right. Well. One flaw I do know about the clocks is that the Conuls can take flame out of them, to either heal or … hmmm. You know, I do not recall, are they Galeeming or not?” he asked, which got some shrugs from the others in the troop.
”Considering upon his death he leaked red motes of energy instead of a spirit, perhaps this clock is meant to keep the consuls alive and all powerful, instead of what this ‘Asgore’ thinks it does? I wouldn’t know without seeing it though.” Sectonia said.
”Well, whatever the case, the clocks require conflict to keep the people alive, but breaking them would free people from that need. Perhaps from galeem’s influence?” he theorized, but he really did not know for sure (it was a rather academic question anyway, as breaking the clocks was currently out of the question) so he simply shrugged and left it there.
As they were mulling over the implications of the map, and considering where to go, the orders they had made on their way in arrived.
Decaf coffees for the two older koopas, warm milk for the young ones (which professed to calcium enriched for extra healthy bones on the menu) along with a small pile of cookies and muffins which Kamek, who had worried it might spoil their appetite for dinner, had been outvoted 3 to one on getting. So he’d gotten himself some pasta. Sectonia had gotten a fancy late.
That paused any real potential for strategizing, leaving plenty of time for others to catch up.
Once they did, and got their own orders if they wanted them, and Jr got back to nab his drink before it got cold and talk a bit about how neat the whole monster transformation and fusion thing sounded, the strategizing could begin.
”So, as the young mistress, Rika, has mentioned, she and the young master have had little trip over here” Kamek indicated to a section of the map to the right ”and found it not particularly dangerous, comparably”
”Yup, we went pretty far and only got attacked one whole time!” Rika agreed , before outlining what kind of progress could be made ”There was some kind of factory further on I think, but we didn’t get much of a good look. Also this town fairly close to that which would make an ok staging or rallying point for before we go hit that place”
”Which leads into my suggestion that we head out tomorrow rather than try and squeeze an expedition into the unknown into the evening. A proper night’s rest will do us much better than the cat naps we’ve most likely had. Plus it lets us stock up on and offload equipment at a more leisurely pace” Kamek popped his still not quite empty cup down to suggest ”We hardly want to be hauling P’s treasures with us when we set out, I shouldn’t think”
”Indeed. Some beauty rest for everyone would be best. As for what areas to go to, it really doesn’t matter in the end. It seems we will need to go get more mask fragments from all over the Under. ” Sectonia said. ”Speaking of all that loot. How should we go about dealing with that… Hm… There is quite a lot of it to move.”
”Best we sell it off before we leave.The sooner the better, so we can put those funds to work. Perhaps after this little meeting is over, you would be able to give us a touch of your time to aid in that endeavor?” the royal advisor asked the queen.
”The faster it gets done, the faster we can all get some proper sleep.” Sectonia said. ”I still need to go see this ‘Asgore’ to see if he can take the reagent position here for me as well. The citizens here would love their former king to return if he was ousted by that… pig.” Sectonia then thought about how to go about that, and had the thought of one of the buildings she had passed prior. ”There is that pawn shop, and the auction house not that far away as well that could expedite this perhaps.” She also thought a bit before saying. ”And if this isn’t that valuable, as none of it seemed to be magical, just giving it back could pay dividends more than gold should we come back perhaps. hm…”
”I do not believe he will be interested. He has charged himself with refilling the clock all on his own, which is not something he can do at the same time as ruling a city,” Kamek explained, skipping over the self esteem issues the former king had, before pivoting back to the loot issue and pointing out that ”Well, a fair amount of it is art and such things, which I would think would sell quite well at an auction house, would it not?”
”Perhaps. Art is a weird one to sell. It could be valuable or not at all. I suppose we will have to see. The toys however I don’t think will sell well at all, best to return those.” Sectonia said, giving her opinion on that.
”Awww, but I just got to play with those game console things for the first time” Rika bemoaned, and Jr too was a little miffed, but both were easily placated by promises of going shopping for their own toys, and so there was no further dissent on the part of the troop when it came to giving the children back their things.
Having said their parts, the turtles, bee and ship leaned back in their chairs and opened the floor to the other’s points of view on what they should be doing.
wordcount: 1425 (+3) (+16) (+13 for B&R, +7 for J&K) Bowser: Level 12 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (195/120) Bowser Jr: Level 12 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (85/120) 59 Kamek: Level 12 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (68/120) 42 Rika: Level 7 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (81/70) Location: The Under - Home of Tears
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
The party of the depths slogged their way back out of them, a slow but ultimately event-less journey, the mass of flesh that had distracted them on the way down not making another appearance.
There was no light to emerge into, of course, only rain, but there was still warmth to be found in the form of friends and kin. Friends and kin who had not had Jr’s presence to cure them of their ills, and who had just finished rooting around in a dumpster.
Specifically, Jr and Kamek found Rika sitting on the ground next to a pile of ammo while Bowser tried his best to try and reconnect the cable from the gauntlet P had stolen into a port in her back.
Spark ”Ow!” ”sorry” Spark
His best wasn’t very good.
Thus the king was doubly relieved when his son and royal advisor hurried over to join them, both because, well, they were alive and well, but also because he could hand over the technical stuff over to Jr, feeling nothing but pride when the boy sorted out the issue in only a few seconds.
”aaaand up we go again” Rika declared as she got back on her own two feet ”phew. Feels good to be able to walk again.” before hunching over in a bit of pain and holding her stomach, the after effects of the poison still with her ”That kid was a real big jerk, i can still feel my skin itching yech”
As Jr set about fixing up the two of them with his white mage magics, Bowser asked ”Oh right, yeah, where is the kid anyway?” with blissfully ignorance of what had occurred down in the tower’s depths
”Ah, well, you see, things did not go … quite according to plan” Kamek told him, tapping his forefingers together tepidly as he tried to think about he could explain things
”Huh, what do you mean?”
”The spells wouldn’t make him stop, and we couldn't just grab the big energy monster thing he turned into so they … well .. they killed him” Jr explained with a mix of frustration and gloom in the mages place, to which Kamek swiftly added ”It was that or let him run off and drain the city’s clock dry, so they, and I, did what we had to do” in explanation of the action.
The king visibly slumped in response to the news, and neither of the other koopas really knew what to say, which left plenty of room for Rika to come in and comment with ”Well that’s a shame. I reeeeeeally wanted to punch him in the mouth over and over for everything he did, the frustrating little jerk” with all the care of a bull in a china shop, the ship girl coming at this from an entire different emotional wavelength than the rest of them.
”I … Rika … he was a kid” Bowser attempted to explain, but only got a blank look before she went on ”But he made food hurt! Who does that! And made me itchy, and stole my things, and he was just, you know, really annoying”
”He did also threaten to functionally kill everyone in the city, and apparently regularly went out and did the same kinds of awful things that he did to us to other people sire” Kamek pointed out the boy’s more serious crimes, namely violently tormenting, belittling and harassing the populace.
”Yeah, and that stuff’s probably bad too!” Rika agreed with a nod, before pivoting the entire conversation around to what she cared about which was ”But you know what’s good? I’m adopted!”
There was a moment of confused silence as the koopas suffered yet more emotional whiplash.
”I …” Jr started, very confused
”By Bowser! Right? Adoption is, like, becoming part of a family right? Which I am now? Right? Or always was? You didn’t really explain that bit” she tried to clarify, glancing repeatedly at Bowser as she did so.
”I … Yeah?” Bowser agreed, mind still trying to catch up, before adding a more enthusiastic ”Yeah!” once it caught up.
”Yeah!” Rika echoed, before turning to Jr and saying ”Which means that I’m your sister now. At least I think that is how that works?”
”Oh …” jr replied, not really knowing how to respond to that, but eventually settling on ”Neat”
”I know right” Rika agreed, having thought exactly the same when she found ot.
While he did this Bowser was giving Kamek a ‘have I messed up’ look that he hoped no one would see, while the mage in question was holding his melting heart in one hand, and then gave a thumbs up and an agreeing nod with the other, which left Bowser much more relieved than he would admit.
”Alright, tonight, or this morning, or whatever it is, has been way too long and hard. So…. Family hug time!” the king declared, scooping up both his kids in his arms, much to both of their delight (though Rika’s was much more audible than Jr’s), and then declared ”So let’s go get some shut eye” which jr at least was a little less delighted with.
”Aw, but I don’t wanna go to bed. I mean rest, sure, but it's only just the afternoon!” he complained, before spying something over his dad’s shoulder and asking ”Hey, where’d you get that papa?”
”Oh that? I might have grabbed some of the stuff a bunch of robots where using” Bowser replied, explaining the little pile of games and dvds and devices for playing them that P’s robots had no more use for (seeing as they had all exploded)
”Oh cool. We took some stuff too, but queeny bee’s holding all of it” jr explained, before glancing over and saying ”Hey uh Rika ... sis? ... wanna play some video games instead of sleeping?” only to gasp incredulously when she responded by asking ”What’s a videogame?” and then insisting she play them with him at once
”Alright, games, rest” Bower declared, before his stomach rumbled and demanded his notice, causing him to add ”and room service too for lunch. Sound good?”
”An excellent plan sire” Kamek agreed, as he waved some toadies forwards to pick up the loot Bowser had acquired for him, while the kids both gave ”mmmm”s of agreement.
Thus the time passed, with Bowser and Kamek actually getting some shut eye, while jr introduced his new sister to the wonderful world of videogames. It was, admittedly, a bit of a janky one. The prince had absolutely no idea what any of the stuff they had acquired was like, the mess of consoles and games from several worlds being both a combination of an archivist’s treasure trove and scrapheap with a few jewels in it for anyone actually looking for fun.
The pig and monster entertainment systems for example, looked almost identical, and contained a library of games which were all weird alternate spins on the other’s. There was also a weird disk that they had 0 luck in getting to work (probably for the best). The Funmachine had a game where you boxed with snakes, another one that tried to teach math via fighting ninjas ontop of a few others. Meanwhile the GamePig, entirely unrelated to the PEN, featured a bunch more pig themed games such as Corporate Swine, Golf, OverWorld Zero, Swine Hunter, Swinekeeper, Street Hog, and Tic-Tac-Triop.
A lot of them were pretty simplistic, basically just a minigame, and so they ended up rolling back around to the MES console, and playing a bunch of monster kart on it for a few hours (Rika with her 0 experience with games came last most of the time, baring one particularity contentious item driven win, but she still had a blast regardless), before taking power naps of their own.
They all woke up a bit later when Bowser got hungry again because they were approaching dinner time. At that point they packed up and trooped out, running into Sectonia on their way out, and inviting her (and anyone else who might be about) to come get dinner with them. That, and suggesting that they should take a look into somewhere they could sell the treasures they had acquired, Kamek pointing out that it would most likely be good to send the artwork, fancy furniture and other shiny objects to some kind of auction house or other high class goods selling establishment rather than trying to pawn if off at, well, a pawn shop.
Either way, that could wait till after food, and so the troop set out to find a restaurant, inevitably hitting the downtown and passing by Nadia’s lookout spot on their way there.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic
Things didn't really go well for Midna, or her plans. First of all, before getting yelled at to shut up, she ended up arguing with Benedict about what they should do about Peach’s Otherfication.
”We are not abandoning our own, and we are not going to give up on her as long as there is hope we can save her” she retorted, angry both at him for suggesting it, and at a past version of herself who would have reacted just as callously to this situation.
”Besides, I can just gate-way us out if we get trapped in!” before having a thought and adding ”In fact that’s probably a better idea anyway, so thank you for that” as passive aggressively as she could manage. She was being honest however, despite the tone, as she had realized it would be a lot easier to seal the Peach-Other in with them (or just her) than it would be to retreat and trap it separately.
Not that she would have a chance to implement that plan mind, as things went from interpersonal relationships bad to just straight up bad right after that.
First her repetition of the darknut summoning was both predictable, and lacked the support it had the first time around, resulting in the Other pivoting from its spike attack to smash down onto the undead titan as it rose. The knight naturally raised its shield to guard itself, but the titanic blunt blow was more than enough to smash that down and into its own head. Metal buckled, bones cracked, and the only thing preventing the darknut from being turned to paste was the fact that the magic pulling it up was also overpowered, letting the Peach-Other whack-a-mole it right back to where it came from, but also causing said magic to act as suspension to soften the blow in the process.
Either way, the knight was sent packing, and was not coming back till anytime soon.
The only consolation was that to do that attack the Peach-Other had had to stop its spike attack, and that in focusing on her minion it left Midna with free rain to make her own strike, yelling ”I just made that you jerk!” as she drove the slap into its side.
That was the only hit she got before it pivoted to target her, and she might well have become paste had Luka not blinked in to deliver a hammer blow to a weirdly distorting limb. He attempted to insist he be allowed to handle things on his own, only to be struck before he could even make that heroic demand.
”For all of two seconds, so no” found herself retorting very unfairly given that he may have just saved her life.
Then her demand that they try and solve this with cleverness instead of killing truly fell apart when Geralt charged in in a mindless rage.
”Goddesses preserve us, what is wrong with you!? You're going to get both of you killed!” she cried out in alarm from her position hovering above as the witcher demonstrated the downside of strikers in full, because with only the fish looking one really being agile enough to avoid becoming collateral damage to the hulking Peach-Other, the rest would inevitably be hit and harm their summoner in the process.
She seethed for a moment, and then dove in, buzzing around the thing the other princess had been turned into like a gnat. ”I’m telling you, you maniac, back off!” she demanded of the Witcher, even as she took a leg out of Luka’s book, and aimed for the legs and arms, delivering jabs with her shadowhand to try and throw off its attacks, while her better reach and two sets of senses kept her clear of suffering his same fate.
Time passed in a hyper focused haze of disrupt, evade, disrupt until an age and a moment went by, and the icy hammer struck down the Other-Peach, sending it crashing to the floor.
It was only then that she could focus again on something other than keeping the other’s alive, and her mind flashed back to keeping Peach the same. But before she could move to try and put herself at Sina’s side in a show of support, the Peach’s transformed form was trapped and stolen away to a vehicle that had seemingly slipped in while they were blinded and/or distracted.
”Oh no you don’t” she practically growled, and then, before explanation could arrive in a green flash, she was gone. The princess’s vibrava dived down into a portal, while the princess herself shadow hopped after the kidnapper’s truck.
It was not, like Gralt, in a blind rage that she raced after them however, or at least not by the time she slunk around to find an ambush spot. She was outnumbered, out gunned (literally) and even if she could reliably take down all the soldiers and whoever the powerful psychic was, all that would do was unleash the Peach-Other once again, if they did not try and put her down while fighting.
Then there were the questions of who were these people? How had they known this would happen, as they must have to have had this truck and teleporter psychic prepared? Had they done this? If they had, did they know how to undo it?
That last question was what really stayed her hand, and so instead of lashing out, the princess of twilight lurked in the shadows, waiting to be delivered to the secrets that lurked in ones far far deeper, in the dark heart of this shining city.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic
”that’s it, roll over doggy” the princess barked at the Other as her and Raz’s concussive blows knocked it off its feet and onto its back, only to swiftly add ”wait no, I mean, sorry Peach” when she realized just how insensitive what her mouth had said was.
In what felt like karma to Midna, the flipping over the thing that had been (or still was? She was having difficulty processing that) somehow made the situation worse, as it picked itself and started operating upside down, with heads hanging under it, and proved to somehow be even more dangerous in this form.
”I said I’m sorry!” Minda yelled as she fled from the spikes striking up from the ground, the first of them having clipped her wolf’s back leg while she was storing her clubba club, resulting in that being a very narrow chase.
”Red shift was the chimeras! I didn’t know Otherfication was a thing!” Midna called over to Blazermate’s question about what was the cause of this, before demanding to know from the PSYCH-OFF personnel ”Is this a thing? How did it happen? Can it be undone?” in a fruitless hope that they knew more about what had happened than she did.
As for what they should do, well, Goldlewis seemed to think that keeping up the attack was the right thing to do, the giant of a man hammering into the Other, knocking it back and ending its borrowing spike attack. For a moment. Then it screamed and filled the air with dust and debris, obscuring itself from view much the same way the smoke clouds had done for some of the other Other earlier.
Then the spikes began again.
”Oh for the goddess’s love, again with the smokescreen!?” the princess complained, while also once more being thankful for her mask as it prevented her from choking on the dust. Rather than go on the run from the spikes again however, she instead leapt off of her wolfos, sending it home to lick its wound, and summoned her vibrava in its place. The dragonfly looking pokemon grabbed her back with now well practiced ease, and combining both its flight and her levitation, the pair took to the air to be well out of range of the ground based spike attacks.
That gave her time to think and speak while she swooped across the battlefield seeking out the towering form of the transformed Peach.
”Maybe we should fall back? It’s,- Peach is- whatever it is is huge, we could easily trap it in these tunnels. Collapse a ceiling, seal it somewhere. Then we’d have the time to work out how we can- if we can save her, without worrying about anyone getting hurt while we do” she called out a suggestion as she flew.
Despite her suggestion of a non-violent solution, if/when she found the Peach-Other, she would still attack. Luka had a point after all, she knew: every moment the other was allowed to keep spear striking was one where someone might stumble in the dust cloud, and get impaled. Having learned from Goldlewis she knew enough blunt force could end the impalement attack, and she had plenty of that. So that was her plan.
She would swoop down, and land on the shoulder of a summoned darknut, the towering undead rising out of a portal right next to the Peach-Other once again, and once again after it had fully arisen it delivered a shield bash to its side. At the same time Midna drove a mighty palm strike with her shadow hand from her shoulder perch, hoping the combined blunt force strikes would knock the Peach-Other off balance again and disrupt its attack.
While it felt a little cliche to rely on the same spell twice, if it worked it worked. Though she really would prefer if the Peach-Other would ”Stay down this time!”
Then she’d take off once more while her shadow darknut sank back into the twilight realm, and then calling out ”It’s over here!” to try and inform anyone who wasn’t yet in the know of the Other-Peach’s location.
Fetzen
Frettzo
teenangstlife
Lord Zee
Neziul
Ariamis
rush99999
Simply Not Real
Shadowheart
