The way the air suddenly yanked Clover was almost nostalgic. Being grabbed by something you can't even see and thrown this way and that, as though god had grabbed the earth and started shaking it like an over eager kid with their first carnival goldfish, was something that had marked a turning point in her life and the feeling gave her just a little bit a comfort to contrast the biting cold and numerous explosions.
At least, she assumed they were explosions. The wind was tugging at her ears something fierce and making it hard to hear anything. Clover spread out her arms and legs, the large white parka coat that made her look particularly fat and fluffy catching the wind and helping her stabilize her as she fell. She was greeted by the sight of the white expanse of the arctic, every so often dotted with the still burning remains of MAVERICK jets. It was a ghastly looking scene.
It was also a scene that Brown seemed to want to be intimately acquainted with and she shouted something Clover could barely hear over the wind and pointed her feet at the solid earth, plummeting straight down without regard for the convenient little parachutes Jonas had insisted on. Clover shook her head. "Nomads..." She said as she pulled her own cord and felt her plummet become a survivable descent.
She landed soon, unhooking the parachute and more or less surrendering it to the wind as she walked over to the others who had already landed. She had touched just in time to catch Aline talking about how cool Brown's near splatter had been and how she would have given it a try if someone had just let her. She gave the girls brother a sympathetic look as she fell in line. "At least one more of us present and accounted for, chief." She said, giving him a waive even as she scanned the sky for the others. It didn't escape her notice that the Justice Riders, for now at least, still had their own airplane soaring high above the puffs of black smoke that was all that remained of the mangled MAVERICK air fleet. "I told Jonas we should'a just caught ourselves a bird if we weren't riding with them."
Linkle was about ready to take out another of those crystals when the dragon came back, spewing a great river of acid as it came. The acid was more of a distraction, though, because the monsters real attack was just it passing overhead. Wind, stronger than any she had ever felt before, slammed into Linkle and send her tumbling over the ground like leaf in a storm. Pain exploded in her body as she slam, slam, slammed her way across the ground. Her whole world was an alternating vision of yellow stone and black sky before, suddenly, the pain stopped and she could see nothing but the yawning void. It took her a second to realize what that meant, and by that point she was already in freefall.
Linkle threw her arms around, twisting her entire body in the air to spot the island she had been on rapidly zooming away from her. To he relief she also spotted three white forms frantically fluttering back toward the island. The cucco's were so light the dragons windstorm had lifted them up and thrown them high into the air, where instinct had kicked in and they had started gliding back toward solid ground. Whipping her head around she managed to spot Euden having also been thrown off the island falling some distance away, but the Bee Queen had gotten to him before Linkle had to intervene. She couldn't really spot anyone else, so with all her current worries settled she decided to start making her way back to the island. She stared intently at the edge of the place, concentrated, and the world turned inside as she was warped a little closer to the island.
That was all right, Hyrule wasn't built in a day.
She warped again, getting slightly closer. Another. Another. Ano-no, she shot off to the side. Reorient, reorient! Another. Another...
By the time her clawed fingers wrapped around he edge of the platform Linkle thought she might just throw up. The constant ups and down, the momentum pulling at her than stopping only to pull that her again, the dizzying amount of consecutive warps, it had all combined into a serious case of nausea. As such she was exceedingly grateful when she felt someone grab her by the arm and start to pull her up. Linkle helped them out, digging her boots into the rock and pushing herself up back onto the island.
She had expected someone she knew, probably Geralt cause they could probably look at each other safely, but unless Geralt had taken in a dozen more of the shy monsters spirits since she'd last seen him this definitely wasn't Geralt. She stood in a semi circle of six of things, all looking at her strangely. The most helpful of the lot let go of her arm and took a step back. "Uhhhhh...thank's a lot." She said awkwardly. "You guys don't seem half bad."
One of them suddenly warped away and through the hole in the circle Linkle could see how thing had progressed while she'd gotten back up here. Bowser was giant sized again, the very sight of which made her lat out an excited little squeal, and was going claw to claw with the dragon itself. She scanned the spires and saw that the rest of the crystals were either taken care of or in the process of being taken care of, so the dragon was the best thing to focus on. She stepped through the hole left by the departed monster and started running toward the chaos when suddenly the one that had taken off came back, a frantic cucco clutched between its cage like claws. It held it out to her and Linkle took it, running her fingers along its crest to calm it down. The other two she could see running up behind the monster. "Thank you." She said, as though talking to a little kid who had brought her a interesting buy they had found. "You guys should go to another island, we'll stop bothering you after we beat this dragon."
With that she gave the posse a little wave and sprinted back toward the fighting.
Link was much closer to the thick of things. Having found himself sliding off the smooth obsidian spire on account of its remarkable ability to heal all the damage Bowser had down to it on his ascent, we was luckily still very close enough to the spire to get a grip on it as the dragon came down. If there was one thing he knew about dragons it was the incredible wind current they generated in flight, and when this one came down to weaponize it he hugged the spire for dear life as it passed to void being thrown off the platform.
Now the monster was down, grappling with a giant sized Bowser, and Link joined the firing squad or Tora, Poppi, and the Courier as he started unloading arrows into the beasts back while it was busy.
Matthew watched her for a long while, aghast in silence. They'd lost a lot of people? Like, a lot? How many? And to add to that here he was, some ass she had risked her life to pull out of the fire that burned a lot of her comrades, acting like he was cracking up. Her actual life. She had a life she had to go back to? She was using her vacation days to be here!? The thought had never even crossed his mind that she wasn't some kind of full time freedom fighter living on the lamb. Now she had to go back to a normal ass life, after all this, and pretend none of it ever happened? She was going to have people all around her expecting her to still be her with no knowledge of the feelings rolling around on the inside?
He was in a bad way, but from his perspective what Mira was walking into was hell.
"Mira." He said, hopping off the counter to stand beside her. "I should have said this earlier, but thank you. You saved my life. You save Jan's life. Without you, we would have both been completely fucked. I know that if you're going by the numbers it might seem like a drop in the bucket, but seriously. Thank you so much."
Penny considered her options. Splitting up wasn't ideal in her opinion, but that Hellmouth guy was already heading off down the beach before she could raise an objection. "I'm better equipped for the bush." She said, whipping up her sword toward the jungle. "Plus, I bet there's a ton of stuff to gather in there."
"And more dangers could await within!" Gawain added, standing triumphantly at her side and mirroring her pose. "Wild beasts, brigands, unseemly monsters. It is our duty o ensure no such danger threatens the beach."
"Right, that too I guess." Penny replied, visibly more nervous. "But I don't think we're gonna need you for that Gawain." She made a shooing motion over the miniature Knight with her hand. Gawain started to glow, parts of his body flaking off of him into glowing pellets of starlight. He sheathed his sword.
"Ah, but of course my lord. The honor of this hunt should be all yours. If you have need of me again, simply call my name and I will rush to your si-"
He didn't get to finish before fading out completely, disappearing back to wherever it was that they came from. Avalon? Maybe. Either way as soon as Penny felt the energy strain of the knight get lifted off her back she slammed her sword into the dirt. Her five workers exploded out of the ground around them like landmines, little hands grasping greedily for something to be put in them. "These guys will do a little better than palm leaves, I think. Welp, c'mon! Let's go see what we can find."
Penny marched off toward the treeline, the workers following behind her in a V formation. "We can probably do little cabins if we cut down enough of these trees," she said, slashing at the undergrowth to clear an easier path as they trekked into the jungle. The sword cleaved through the plant matter like it wasn't even there, barely even making a sound as it glided through them. "Maybe even a raft. But maybe we got lucky, and whatever put us here brought along some of the resort proper we can stay in."
A rune of the Sheikah Slate that allows it to function as a camera. Every picture taken is saved to an album that, as of this time, can hold 48 pictures. When photographing enemies, animals, treasure containers, useful flora, ore deposits, or equipment those photos are registered in the compendium. Once in the compendium an individual entry can be "tracked" by the Shiekah Slate, which releases a chime whenever that particular entry in nearby.
Level 7 - (65/70) + 4
Location: The End Word Count: 763
Link was pleasantly surprised to see the arrow actually sink in, even if the monsters quickly took off again after barreling over most of the group like a runaway Lynel. He noticed something though, and whipped up his Sheikah slate to zoom in and confirm it. Yep, the dragon definitely wasn't alone anymore. Some madman had actually gotten up onto the thing. Link envied him. He had tried to ride dragons, but for some reason he had never been able to get a good enough grip. Maybe it had something to do with them being holy creatures and the idea of him riding along between their horns was to undignified for the world to allow. Whatever the case, between the damage and the riding, this was clearly a lesser class of dragon than what you found in Hyrule.
He went to put the slate away, but he noticed something had changed about the screen. He didn't have time for that, however. AS though responding to his earlier though the dragon spun in the air and made a beeline back to the island, it's mouth full of boiling purple energy that it launched at them. Link backflipped backward as the purple acid slammed uncomfortable near him, drops splattering on his clothes and face. The dragon did not get away unmolested, though, as soon the sky erupted in light. The Koopa's had taken the time to climb up the various towers and launch a volley of projectiles at the dragon as it passed over him, but among the rain of beams, shapes, and fire was a distinctive shot of purple energy that seemed to home right in on the dragon.
A few moments later there was an explosion atop one of the towers, apparently one of those valuable looking crystals going off judging by how it was just gone and he heard another moment shout that the crystal had healed the...what? What was a pop-tart? He looked at the dragon though the slate again as it retreated, and understood. The wound it had gotten from him was nowhere to be seen.
He also saw that it had gotten more passengers, the turip man and his friend. Link decided that was perhaps the best shot he would ever get. He quickly selected the Rune that had somehow reappeared on the Slate and took careful aim at the dragons lower back. Snap! I wasn't the best picture of the actual monster, but he registered it anyway. It a beautiful picture, the little turnip guy wailing away on a creature a hundred times his size while the guardian girl looked on and the readhead shouting to to tell them something. He would have to show this to Zelda when he found her.
With that done and the Dragon turning back to the island Link decided he should do something about these towers. He looked up the one Bowser had so helpfully left his claw marks in, only to find the big Koopa had abandoned it. He spirited to it, stopped to catch his breath, then jumped up and started climbing up to the top.
Linkle also heard the Courier's warning about the towers, but she acted on this information much more quickly. After all, in battle if your comrades called out for something to be done you did it. It had to be important. Besides, if she was going to give Imani another shot she wanted this on to count.
She ran for the nearest tower, dodging between pools of acid, and shouted "Team jump!" The cucoo's behind her darted forward and placed themselves under her feet, throwing with all their strength as she leaped toward the tower. At the apex of her jump she locked her eyes of the top of the tower and felt the world turn inside out as she teleported up there. Shaking a second to shake off the dizziness, she looked up to find herself face to face with the crystal. It was a beautiful thing. It was too bad it had to die.
Linkle reached behind her back and unloaded on the thing with a flurry of thrown bombs before turning her gaze to the ground and teleporting again as the top of the tower went up like a jumbo sized bomb. She only got halfway to the ground, and the disorientation kept her from doing anything more than bracing for impact and hitting the spongy stone with a dull thud that it took a moment to pick herself up from. The cucoo's skittered over to show their concern.
Linkle kept her eyes down as her companions finished off the teleporting monsters that had already been triggered to avoid disrupting the fights by drawing any attention to herself from either these monsters or the ones that were probably still lurking on the islands up ahead. The Courier's gunshot, firing off close as it was, made her flinch and sent her ears to ringing. When the ringing ended the sounds of battle had gone with it.
The Princess, as always, laid out their situation. The uncharted void that existed all around them was a problem for anybody that wasn't capable of traversing the air safely, but while Peach's concerns were mostly focused on them being thrown off by the enemy Linkle was equally worried about traversal. They had to go across that series of floating islands to even get to the boss platforms and they had some people along that weren't suited to that sort of island hopping, herself included if she didn't have a partner to help her. She briefly considered making a bunch of ice bridges, but that would be more like a series of slippery ice slopes that would send you sliding into the void if you weren't careful. That's why when Peach offered the monsters spirits Linkle had an idea!
"You got it, Princess." She said as she stepped forward and plucked the Enderspirit out of her hand. She looked confidently back at the group. "This way I can team jump the rest of you across the platforms and then teleport after you. Here..." She bent down and picked up one of the cucco's milling about at her feet, looked around the group for the ones she thought might be least capable of doing the jumps, then tossed the bird underhand like a volleyball to Geralt. It fluttered through the air, keeping itself surprisingly aloft, before settling down either in his arms or on his shoulder. "You could even hold those for a safer descent. Trust me, they're really strong." She bent down and tossed another at the Cadet. "I used to jump off my roof holding these back home, never even got a bruise." She was about to toss the last one to Gaige-Tron, but stopped and looked down to lock eyes with the suddenly very nervous cucco. "Well, maybe not that strong." She said, throwing the last one to the Courier. "Just remember to throw them back if someone was behind you in line."
Of course the Princess didn't need to travel by Linkle power, she just floated along through the air. Tora and Poppi went together, Euden transformed into a dragon and took off, and Jak was already headed out. So with no time left to waste Linkle brought the spirit up, said a quick "thank you" in place of the usual ceremony she reserved for spirits, and plunged the spirit into her chest.
The effects were immediate and extraordinary as Linkle began to grow.
Enderman
Linkle's grown half again in height, making her 1.5x taller. Her arms and legs are much longer, her fingers lightly clawed, and overall she's much more slender. Her eyes are bright purple, her mouth can open unnaturally wide, and the base half of all of her hair is black. Confers the Power Warp, which allows her to teleport to any spot she can see inside of the range of a thrown stone. Doing so does not damage her, but there's a short period of disorientation that makes quick repeated warps risky. Also confers the Power One of Us, which makes Endermen consider her an ally and allows her to communicate with them. Confers the Weakness Eye Shy, which triggers her fight-or-flight response when an intelligent life-form looks at her. Also confers the Weakness Hydroanathematic, which causes her to take damage from external water exposure
Linkle shook herself off as the Endermans spirit came to rest within her. The first thing she noticed was that she was seeing the world from a new height again, which was immensely satisfying. "All right, everybody that wants to ride the Linkle express line uuuuuuuuaaaaaAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The second thing she noticed was the sheer weight of all the eyes on her. So many. To many! To many people were just looking at her. To many, way to many, to gouge all of them out. She stood there, her mouth the only thing not paralyzed in primordial terror, screaming as loud as she could. As she did her mouth went wider and wider until it seemed like her gums should be tearing themselves apart and then went past that as though she were some kind of snake person.
Then the screaming stopped as Linkle vanished out from under the groups sight, the last echos of it disappearing into the void. There were a few moments of silence, then a soft and relieved "Sorry," came from a figure a little ways away from the group, huddled up on the ground so you could only see the green of her cloak. "They really don't like when somebody looks at them, huh? Wow." She tried to sound casual, but it was clear to anyone listening that Linkle was trying to get her bearings back. Slowly she started to scootch her way across the yellow rock to the edge of the platform. "I think this can still work, just don't everybody show up at once. Try not to look at me, just run up and step on my back and I'll throw you."
Whether or not anyone took her up on the offer she would just teleport by herself. As she scootched she thought about these poor things, and what it meant to have one of them in her head. What a terrible way to live, being that angry and afraid from something as simple as being looked at. It wasn't something she could even conceive of, a completely foreign emotion that nonetheless now belonged to her. It reminded her of how angry she'd gotten back in Lumbridge and the casino. She'd been ignoring that, putting it down to stress, but after the starkness of the endermans pain she had to wonder whether that one was entirely her either.
"It would bee my honor." He said quickly in response to the bug queens offer. He didn't have any other choice, really. It was a Royal offer, and some of the few clear memories he had were of just how much of a pain royalty could make your life if they were feeling slighted. Besides, without his paraglider he didn't have too many other options. Even if he did the islands that were higher up would be a difficult trick without Revali's Gale, which he could only assume had been stripped from him as well.
As he tried to decide whether she wanted to carry the two of them or expected them to mount up, Peach came along to offer the Spirits of vanquished foes. That Linkle girl again stepped forward eagerly, and offered up her own idea of how to cross the islands. He didn't know what a Team Jump was, but the way she said it was so full of confidence he couldn't help but think it would work. At least until she did the spirit fusion.
Link had seen it once before, when the Cup had done it, and at first it didn't seem like as dramatic of a change. Different colored hair, noodlier limbs, fairly normal. The glowing eyes were a bit worrying, but otherwise she seemed fine until she opened up her mouth. At first he thought that she was dying or going insane, but she seemed to calm down considerably after she jumped out of the middle of the group. He wanted to go over and comfort her, but thought better of it. If that monster had imparted its neurosis onto her that might just make her feel worse. Besides, with the others already underway toward danger they didn't have that kind of time.
He took the hand she offered and climbed up into her waiting palm, and they took off toward the middle island. While up in the sky he got a good look at the spires surrounding the island and the valuable looking cubes that sat at their zeniths. He kept them in the back of his mind, just in case they turned out to be important. The spires themselves look a little too smooth to climb himself, but he might be able to employ the help of hero royal majesty again if it came to that.
He slid out of her hand as she settled down on the island and joined up with the group as they headed for the center.
As they traveled to their destination Linkle focused on how happy that the cucco’s didn’t trigger the monster’s feelings. Neither, it seemed, did the other monsters. More than once she’d been the last one on one of the islands and caught the things looking at her oddly or caught one in the middle of carrying a chunk of that yellow stone. She’d waved at it and to her surprise it hadn’t attacked her despite her stares, just teleported away stone and all.
She’d tried that afterwards with one of the Cucco’s, but she didn’t think the bird had enjoyed the trip at all. For her part, neither did Linkle. It was a kind of sick, lurching feeling that left her dizzy at the end of it. That feeling might go away with practice, but if she was being honest with herself Linkle didn’t think she’d have this spirit for very long.
As they arrived at the big island Linkle held back from the rest of the party for her own comfort. Up ahead she could hear Bowser shouting something about finding a door and started looking around from where she was before she suddenly felt eyes on her. Two purple lights revealed themselves in the distance, something she didn’t have time to process were eyes before the Dragon was upon them.
It was massive, more impressive than any dragon Linkle had ever seen, and yet it was so difficult to actually see. It blended so well that it was hard to tell where the dragon ended and the pillar it had wrapped itself around began. More importantly it was completely outside of her range up there.
Not her new friends, though.
In a puff of spectral smoke Imani appeared, her crossbow already aimed in the direction of the beast. “Hello Grenn.” She said, sizing the creature up through her scope.
“The purple spots are the eyes.” Linkle told her.
“Already on it.” The Striker replied, sighting the area between the two dots of purple. She wasn’t able to get a shot off, though, before the dragon swooped down on the main group. Biting off a curse the sniper readjusted, tracing the creature and launching the shot she’d been charging since she appeared into the creature's neck before vanishing. Linkle and the cuccos had already started running to the side in case the creatures charged carried it through where they were.
Link had never fought a dragon. There had been Naydra, but it hadn’t exactly been her trying to kill him and besides that you couldn't really call what he’d done with them fighting. He had “fought” three dragons in the same sense that a mosquito fights a Hylian. No, less than that, because a Hylian would be aware of a mosquito and he wasn’t sure any of them had ever known he was there. All that fire, ice, and electricity thrown his way could have just been something that had given off naturally.
To say he felt a little inadequate to be facing this monster was an understatement. He had two swords, a beat up shield, and the weirdest bow he had ever held. This was a bit much for battle number 2. So he pulled out his sword, raised his shield, and watched for the moves the others made to see if he could support them. Unfortunately the moves he saw were foolhardy attempts to body block the beasts bulk, but fortunately cooler heads were already on the case. The turnip man's companion grabbed him up, and Bowers' minions worked together to scoop up their lord and pull him to safety. Link ran up and lent his strength to that effort as he felt the wind rush of the beast as it passed.
Sheathing his weapons, Link tore the bow from his back, the arrow appearing in his hand even as he turned and trained it on the beast's back and fired. It would seem piddly next to what Boswer’s son was pulling off, but every little bit helped. Who knew, he might break off one of this dragon's scales for his trouble.
Location: The Land of Adventure ~ Spiral Mountain ---> The End Word Count: 1678
Link nodded thoughtfully to himself as things started sliding into place for him. The words of Bowser, Peace, Fox, and even that giant terrifying hornet he was trying to pretend wasn't looming menacingly over him, all contributed to his full understanding of the situation. He'd already had an inkling that he had been on the wrong side of whatever fight had taken place at this tower, judging by his lack of memory, unconscious state, and the conspicuous blade wound on the soft looking turnip person that had greeted Linkle and him as they'd entered the tower. The queenly hornet had all but confirmed that suspicion. With Peach talking about how he and Fox had been "restored" and Bowser's mention of how their comrades were still "red eyed and dangerous," he could only come to the conclusion that, in their defeat, the light monster had placed some form of magical control on them. He couldn't help but think back to the Calamity and how the force that had been assembled specifically to prevent it had been subsumed into its will and turned against the very Kingdom they were meant to protect. The idea of himself being used like that turned his stomach.
So, to stop that monster they had to travel around the entire world, defeating its minions to weaken it and gather strength from the spirits of the dead? Bowser had the right of it, this was all very much standard procedure for him. It did his heart good, at least, to know that the Princesses dramatic transformation was the result of bonding with one of these spirits and not years of hard living as he'd initially suspected.
"It's easier the second time." Link said, accepting the sword that Fox proffered to him with an appreciative nod. "They can only blindside you once." He held the sword up to the light, running a finger over the flat side of the blade and tracing the unfamiliar designs on the hilt before stepping back and giving it a few practice swings to judge the weight. As a first bit of preparation it wasn't bad. It wasn't the Master Sword, but it would make for a good fallback weapon. It would be a good idea to keep a lookout for these.
He leaned the sword up against the wall and took a few steps back, pulling the Sheikah Slate off his belt and holding it up to face. He pointed it at the sword and then pressed the screen. He frowned and pressed the screen again. His frown deepened. He started to fiddle with the thing, quickly sliding his thumbs over the screen to try and figure out what was wrong. As he did he felt frustration steadily growing steadily in his chest.
This thing was empty! All his food, all his materials, his maps, his special equipment, the encyclopedia, the Album! All of Princess Zelda's pictures! Even the runes were unavailable. He at least still had access to the scope, which he tested by zooming in on Bowser's face and placing a mark right on his left nostril. After that he decided to focus on the things he still had access too. His log's were also untouched, so he could still take notes. Storage was also still functional, even if it only contained the clothes on his back and the one sword he had been left with, but it looked as though storage space had been reduced to default settings. That was all right, that wouldn't be too big of a problem if he made use of this spirit equipment concept. If worse came to worse he could always fall back on the Master Swr...
He stared at the sword in his inventory, then reached back and unsheathed the sword he had on his back and gave it a look of disbelief.
While Link was painfully recognizing that they can, in fact, blindside you twice Linkle was tending to her flock. They'd walked in following Euden, all pushed up with pride over having kept the boy completely safe, and the girl now sad cross-legged on the floor with them all over her looking to get nuzzled. Linkle switched between the two in her lap and the one perched on her head, rubbing her fingers in between the feathers on their necks as they alternated between cooing and begging. With just three she could do this without even thinking about it, which was a good thing because just following the conversation nearby was taking up all of her mental power. She had to admit, a lot of the concepts being thrown around in the conversation about this mysterious Lord of Games went right over her head. All she really took away from it was that this guy had been messing with Donnie's head, and that he apparently didn't have a cannon. Poppi wanted to wait until after the battle with the second guardian to investigate this weird situation, but Banjo and Kazooie ran off immediately since this was somebody they knew.
She pondered going after them, just to give them some backup in case anything else was lurking in this canyon, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She found Link there, crouched next to her, his face awash with worried embarrassment. “Did I have the Master Sword before I woke up?” He asked.
“If you had the Master Sword we’d all be dead.” She answered with the utmost confidence before seeing the ghastly face he made and scrambling to another answer. “I mean...you know...blade beams….no, you didn’t have the Master Sword.”
He groaned and buried his face in his hands. “I lost the sword.” He said, more to himself than anything. Four little words made Linkle nearly choke on air. The Master Sword? The Master Sword. Lost!?! That...that...well, to be honest that left her in pretty much the same position she had been in before. She still had to look for it, right?
“Oh, no, Galeem probably just took it.” Linkle said reassuringly, putting a hand on his shoulder. A cucco scurried off her head, across the makeshift bridge, and plopped itself on his head. He looked up. “Galeem takes things. She took all my rupees, and my bow, and my hookshot, and everything.”
He glanced down at the slate hanging from his belt for a moment as understanding marched across his face. “So that monster has the sword?”
This question threw her a little. “I’m not sure.” She said. “Maybe she just put it somewhere. There might even be more than one. It should be okay, we always have to find it anyway.” Her smile faded slightly as she flashed back to her dream. She hoped there was more than one, she didn’t want to have to argue this.
Link started to ask a question, but his attention was arrested by the Bear and Birds triumphant return. In particular his eyes set on the letter the Bear held in his hand. Not long after that the Princess gave the call to head out. Whatever he had been about to ask, he would have to do it later.
Link made his way across the bridge and into the dark tunnel, about as equipped as he could be in this situation. He had grabbed the sword Fox had given him off the wall, the thing flashing blue for a second before seeming to vanish into thin air. Linkle had been very impressed, wondering whether or not he had destroyed it or something, but he just told her that it was in storage. He’d then asked, considering she had her crossbows, whether or not she needed that weird bow on her back. She’d immediately not only handed it and her entire collection of arrows over, but also the shield she kept on her back. The thing was damaged, but he’d made do with worse. He couldn't deny that the weight on his arm was comforting.
Another of their crew surprised him by bringing out a cage of what looked like fireflies, insisting that if there was a maze within their destination they would be able to help the group find one another again. As they buzzed around him in particular he could only think about how much he wanted to photograph them. He liked fireflies in general, and maybe he’d be able to find some of his own with the right photo.
The procession made its way through the tunnel in the mouth of the witch, with the turnip man and his female companion being the first to brave the inky purple that awaited them at the end. They followed after, pushing through the spirals thick as air, and arrived at a dark and dreary place, an island floating in a black sky.
It didn’t take long for the enemy to be upon them, the first unfortunately targeting the turnip man. Another appeared near the firefly guy, swiping down at him as it appeared. Bowser and his son went to back up Turnip as another showed up to harass the hornet. Link drew his sword, set his eyes on the one currency dueling the hornet, and circled around her with a series of side hops to get at the creatures back.
As he did another of their companions called out what he thought was the monster's weakness, causing Linkle to affirm, “Yeah! Yeah! I know these. They were in the junkyard when we were getting the karts. I wasn’t able to kill any because they teleported around.”
Going for their advice Link averted his eyes from the creature, trailing them up to watch the hornets eyes. He jumped as the creatures back, his downward slash guided by the reflection in her giant purple eyes.
Matthew jumped as the voice cut through the darkness, spinning around with a look not unlike a teenager whose mom had caught him looking at boobies on the family computer. "Uhhhhh..." he started, trying to come up with an excuse that didn't sound like he was cracking up, but he couldn't find anything to say except the truth. "You know, just keeping busy." He said, jumping up and sitting in front of her on the counter. "Trying to stay out of the way." He gestured over his shoulder to poor, freshly trepanned Kilroy. "Maybe do a little good. Probably not. I don't know."
Come to think of it, she was pretty far out of the way herself. In fact she didn't look all that different from how he felt. "It's just that every time I close my eyes I can see it. The cops, the centipede, the violet dawn, and it's all perfect. Perfect. Like I'm living it again. It's weird, I've never had anything I wanted to forget before."
He flipped the key between all his fingers, then held offered it to her. "You want to give it a try? It's been making me feel a little better."
Description: A retired Nomad and both The Warren's proprietor and mentor to all the employees that work there. Hazel is a woman who looks half her age which still doesn't leave her looking very good. A little wizened old woman with floor length chestnut hair, the most striking feature about her is her ears. Instead of normal human ears she has long, droopy, expressive rabbit ears. Unlike most of her employees Hazel's ears are real, marking her as a Mystic. Where she comes from isn't known, but popular theory at the bar is that she came from the moon. Spends her retirement managing the bar, drinking with her friends from the old days, and training her students. The bars dress code comes from the old woman's homesickness.
Fighting Style: While far past her physical prime Hazel's powers have not diminished in the slightest. She is able to create the same types of holes as her students, but in far greater numbers with far greater permanence, to the point where she hands out cards to her regular that contain holes leading directly to the Warren so they can pop in any time them like. She has great control over them, able to create spacial distortions by rapidly opening and closing holes in the space around her target in order to bend them unnaturally or throw them around. If she wants she can even use holes to cause direct physical damage, sucking the space around them inside and then closing the hole leaving perfectly circular wounds in her opponent.
[??? | Fiver | Female]
Description: The co-owner of The Warren, Fiver is a short brown haired girl with ears like Hazel. Their exact relationship is unclear even to the other employees, though they figure Fiver must at least be comparable in age to the old woman considering how familiar the old timers are with her. Her exact job isn't very clear and she hardly ever leaves the bar, living a very ascetic lifestyle despite that. In contrast to Hazel she eats only vegetables, consume no alcohol or surgery drinks, and abstains from fighting.
Fighting Style: None, but one would be remiss not to mention her remarkable Ki sense and prophetic ability to "hear" trouble coming. She in fact warned Whig and Clover to be careful when they traveled to Brazil.
[30 | "Big" Whig | Female]
Description: A giant of a woman, seven feet tall and built like a dumptruck, Whig was a trainee wrestler who was brought in by one of Hazel's regulars in a effort to have the frail looking old lady learn the girl some humility. It worked a little too well, as she gave up her career in the ring in order to become Hazel's disciple. Lost her arm protecting Clover from an attack and its for that reason Clover got involved in the fight against Oh-One.
Fighting Style: Whig is the most physically powerful but slowest of the Warren's employees, lacking the agility of the others and having to necessarily make her holes bigger to fit through them. However, to compensate for this she has developed an ability to close holes with such speed and force that she can create spacial quakes to damage and disorient an opponent.
[28 | Blackberry | Female]
Description: Tall and skinny with long blue/black hair and glasses, Blackberry is the most Hazel's most intelligent employee and is the go too technological consultant for problems either Hazel or the old timers are having. This trait makes up for her lackluster bar skills and inattentive nature. Clover called her up a lot during her hunt for Oh-One to grill her for advice on the best way to hurt robots.
Fighting Style: Instead of getting into melee range Blackberry uses holes in order to store equipment and pelt an enemy with gadgets and explosives from semi-safty. She will fold in straight up hand to hand fight with any nomad.
[19 | Dandelion | Male]
Description: A lad bursting with youthful energy, his eyes always hidden under a mop of curly blond hair. The best talker in the bar bar none, no one can get a patron to open up quite like Dandelion. An aspiring writer and lover of stories, he has watched the footage from the Justice Rider show religiously from the time Clover got involved in the Oh-One incident and bothers anyone who he finds was involved for details of the adventure. He plans on turning these accounts into a book.
Fighting Style: Dandelions special trait is his speed. No one in the Warren is capable of outpacing him and in a fight he uses this speed to pinball around his opponent, dashing in and out of holes in order to get the right angles for unexpected shots.
5'10'' and surprisingly muscular, with absolutely no superfluous body fat though a few old scars she's not so willing to show off. Freckles, orange hair. Her her waistcoat, gloves, bow tie, and ears are bright red. Her shirt is white, and her pants are black. Despite her lifestyle she does her best to keep this uniform clean and professional looking.
Clover was born on the wrong side of the tracts, the child of poor parents with so many kids they couldn't find time for even one of them. As a young child all but abandoned to her own devices she started to act out for attention, and as the frustration from her failure to raise any concern from them and the nigh unbearable social pressure of sharing a home with so many others built and built she began to lash out violently at anyone that gave her the excuse.
She turned out to be pretty good at it, too. She couldn't make anything, she couldn't cook, she was terrible in school but by god she could make even older kids run crying to their mothers. She started doing it a lot, especially as she got older, spending long night out wandering town looking for the strongest opponents she could find. She did not expect to find that in an old lady.
She hadn't set out to pick a fight with the old lady, more that a fight she was having accidentally spilled into the path of the old lady. The old lady may have commented on how sloppy Clover's technique was, Clover may have said some nasty things to the old lady, and a punch might have been thrown. Clover couldn't tell you, because she still doesn't remember most of that morning. All she knows was that when she awoke with a splitting headache that sent shutters of agony through her body every time she turned her head she was in a classy, huge, richly decorated bar. She was laying in a circle of concerned old faces, with the old lady grinning at her.
The old lady, she soon learned, was named Hazel. She was a "retired" nomad and this was her bar, The Warren. Then, completely unprompted, she asked Clover is she had a job. Clover said no. Hazel asked if she wanted one. Clover told Hazel exactly where she could stick her job. Hazel strongly implied that if Clover refused to take the job the police might find out she'd tried to assault a poor, defenseless old lady in the street.
Clover, who was not on the best of terms with the local police, took the job.
It chafed at first, of course. The uniform was embarrassing and being told what to do by the person that whipped you so hard you didn't even remember it grated on her pride, but the pay was actually really good and the old lady was an attentive and caring boss. She wasn't good at all the bartering stuff at first. She didn't know how to really talk to people, broke her share of glasses and spilled her share of expensive booze, but the old lady never seemed to get mad and helped her along to learn the ropes. The rest of the staff was kind and supportive. The old patrons weirded her out at first, what with them crawling out of black portals that Hazel had set up on the floor in an unused bathroom, but they never gave her a hard time and always had some really interesting stories to tell. What started as a job she had to take turned into a job that she not only loved, but was good at.
After a while Hazel started to trust Clover enough to share her secrets. She'd made this bar for Old Nomads, guys like her that just wanted to drink in peace without worrying about some upstart young fighter looking for glory ruining their night with some asinine challenge. Clover learned that the mentorship she'd been under was a habit of Hazel's, that all her co-workers had once upon a time been some disaffected punk with talent but no sense, and that now that Clover had sense she could finally start putting that talent to good use. Hazel trained her, passing on to Clover her style and the basics of her strange space bending powers.
Things had been going swimmingly for ten long years. The money Hazel was paying her was enough to help her move out of that crowded house and into a place where she could stretch her legs. She wasn't as angry anymore, had made some good friends, and only got into a fight around once or twice a month at most. Only when people were really rude, only if they started something.
It was a year ago when one particular robot really started something. She and her co-worker, a woman by the name of Whig, were delivering a specialty bottle of rum to a regular, "Ravishing" Ricardo Rosinante, as a consolatory gift for being knocked out of the tournament. When the robot Oh-One and it's minions attacked Whig and Clover felt the need to jump to the defense of the populous, a decision that cost Whig her arm in defense of Clover. That meant war. Clover left her friend to recover and set off after the robots, eventually getting tangled up in a group of Nomads who were also after them and taking part in the battle for the stones of power.
After beating the robot she returned to the Gold City, home of the Warren, to continue tending bar.
FIGHTING STYLE & ABILITIES
FIGHTING STYLE
Clover fights with a sort of hit and run style, relying on her speed to move quickly into range to deal a few solid hits before dashing out again to try and attack from a different angle entirely. Her legs are stronger than her arms, but because she focuses primary on moving around and jumping to disorient her opponent she mostly punches with only her finishers employing kicks. In addition to this she is not averse to fighting dirty and using her her environment or any weapon she can get her hands on if it would give her an advantage, a leftover from her street brawling days.
Clover's special ability, which she leaned from Old Hazel, is the magical ability to create holes either between her hands or directly on surfaces that, when applied to a surface, lead into some kind of dark space "underneath" that it. When she does this she can move around beneath that surface as though burrowing beneath the ground before either exiting through the hole she entered from or creating a new hole entirely to pop out of. This movement is limited to the surface where she placed the original hole. For example, if she placed a hole on the wall of a room she would have to pop out of that same section of wall, she couldn't move to the floor or ceiling. The hole also doesn't allow her to pop out of the opposite side of a surface. For example, if she dives into a hole on a sheet a paper she would have to pop out of the same side she dived into. It is possible for her to close the hole behind her, but doing so deprives her of air so she must come out at some point.
As it stands Clover can create one "permanent" hole that she keeps on the back of her waistcoat. This hole acts as a combination backpack/emergency hotel room.
SPECIAL MOVES & TECHNIQUES
■ [Burrow]
Clover creates a hole in a surface and dives in, popping out of a different place of that surface for a cheap attack.
■ [Easter Surprise]
Clover can create one permanent hole that leads to a "room." She keeps this hole on the back of her waistcoat, and can reach behind her back to pull out random things she's carrying to either throw or hit the opponent with. Examples include bricks, a bowling ball, a croquet mallet, various bottles of alcohol, books, pillows, or anything else she picks up and puts in there.
■ [Chase the rabbit!]
Clover jumps back, throwing a dozen leg wide holes into the ground between her and her opponent as she does so. If an over eager opponent rushes forward and gets their leg stuck in one clover leaps forward with a flying kick.
■ [Holey Blow]
As she attacks Clover creates holes in her own arm or leg, distorting its length in order to extend its range.
■ [Moon Kick]
Clover leaps over her opponent, throws an item out of her "room" hole, and kicks off of it toward the opponent below to deliver a flying kick.
■ [Crescent Moon Swing]
Clover creates a hole in front of the opponent and dives into it, grabbing onto the edge and swinging. She then creates another hole directly underneath the opponent. As they fall she swings up, bringing both legs right into them and launching them and herself out of the hole.
■ [Beer Goggles]
Clover makes a small hole that she throws at the opponent's face, where it then expands just enough to push their eye apart doing no damage but creating a blind spot right in front of them.
■ [Threading The Needle]
If attacked physically with something with a large surface area, such as a large weapon on a body slam, Clover can create a hole in the oncoming attack and slip inside of it to avoid all damage. If the attack was with a part of the opponents body Clover can combo this into Rabbit Infestation.
SUPER MOVES
■ [Rabbit Infestation]
Clover opens a hole on her opponents body and dives in. Holes then being appearing on the opponents body, out of which pops one of Clovers limbs to deliver a flurry of attacks before leaping out.
■ [5000 Proof!]
Clover Throws a bottle of Old Hazel's special brew at the opponent, shattering it and covering the opponent in alcohol. She then lights a match and throws it at them before diving into a hole to avoid the resulting explosion.
■ [Sandleford Burial]
Clover creates a hole and dives in. Then a large hole appears under the opponents feet. Clover pops out, pulls them in, and closes the hole to unleash a relentless assault in the under space ending with them being kicked out back into the real world.
WEAKNESSES & LIMITS
While a Nomad with all that entails Clovers defenses are low, relying on dodging and avoiding her opponents attacks to avoid injury rather than tank damage. In addition if a surface is broken while Clover is inside of it she takes massive damage from the resulting quake and is launched out, stunned.
If a fight isn't something she perceives as urgent she'll goof around.
OTHER
- Clover always has a Warren brand matchbook on hand, and will reflexively light anyone cigarette for them using it.
[132 | Hazel | Female]
Description: A retired Nomad and both The Warren's proprietor and mentor to all the employees that work there. Hazel is a woman who looks half her age which still doesn't leave her looking very good. A little wizened old woman with floor length chestnut hair, the most striking feature about her is her ears. Instead of normal human ears she has long, droopy, expressive rabbit ears. Unlike most of her employees Hazel's ears are real, marking her as a Mystic. Where she comes from isn't known, but popular theory at the bar is that she came from the moon. Spends her retirement managing the bar, drinking with her friends from the old days, and training her students. The bars dress code comes from the old woman's homesickness.
Fighting Style: While far past her physical prime Hazel's powers have not diminished in the slightest. She is able to create the same types of holes as her students, but in far greater numbers with far greater permanence, to the point where she hands out cards to her regular that contain holes leading directly to the Warren so they can pop in any time them like. She has great control over them, able to create spacial distortions by rapidly opening and closing holes in the space around her target in order to bend them unnaturally or throw them around. If she wants she can even use holes to cause direct physical damage, sucking the space around them inside and then closing the hole leaving perfectly circular wounds in her opponent.
[??? | Fiver | Female]
Description: The co-owner of The Warren, Fiver is a short brown haired girl with ears like Hazel. Their exact relationship is unclear even to the other employees, though they figure Fiver must at least be comparable in age to the old woman considering how familiar the old timers are with her. Her exact job isn't very clear and she hardly ever leaves the bar, living a very ascetic lifestyle despite that. In contrast to Hazel she eats only vegetables, consume no alcohol or surgery drinks, and abstains from fighting.
Fighting Style: None, but one would be remiss not to mention her remarkable Ki sense and prophetic ability to "hear" trouble coming. She in fact warned Whig and Clover to be careful when they traveled to Brazil.
[30 | "Big" Whig | Female]
Description: A giant of a woman, seven feet tall and built like a dumptruck, Whig was a trainee wrestler who was brought in by one of Hazel's regulars in a effort to have the frail looking old lady learn the girl some humility. It worked a little too well, as she gave up her career in the ring in order to become Hazel's disciple. Lost her arm protecting Clover from an attack and its for that reason Clover got involved in the fight against Oh-One.
Fighting Style: Whig is the most physically powerful but slowest of the Warren's employees, lacking the agility of the others and having to necessarily make her holes bigger to fit through them. However, to compensate for this she has developed an ability to close holes with such speed and force that she can create spacial quakes to damage and disorient an opponent.
[28 | Blackberry | Female]
Description: Tall and skinny with long blue/black hair and glasses, Blackberry is the most Hazel's most intelligent employee and is the go too technological consultant for problems either Hazel or the old timers are having. This trait makes up for her lackluster bar skills and inattentive nature. Clover called her up a lot during her hunt for Oh-One to grill her for advice on the best way to hurt robots.
Fighting Style: Instead of getting into melee range Blackberry uses holes in order to store equipment and pelt an enemy with gadgets and explosives from semi-safty. She will fold in straight up hand to hand fight with any nomad.
[19 | Dandelion | Male]
Description: A lad bursting with youthful energy, his eyes always hidden under a mop of curly blond hair. The best talker in the bar bar none, no one can get a patron to open up quite like Dandelion. An aspiring writer and lover of stories, he has watched the footage from the Justice Rider show religiously from the time Clover got involved in the Oh-One incident and bothers anyone who he finds was involved for details of the adventure. He plans on turning these accounts into a book.
Fighting Style: Dandelions special trait is his speed. No one in the Warren is capable of outpacing him and in a fight he uses this speed to pinball around his opponent, dashing in and out of holes in order to get the right angles for unexpected shots.
Izurich
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