ProPro

World of Light

@Star Lord

Whoops. I forgot that Roadhog never introduced himself. There's no way for Din to know otherwise, so I'll change it so she doesn't refer to him by name.

@Stern Algorithm

The Courier also never introduced himself to anybody.

World of Light

Courier 6

Level 3 - (22/30) EXP
Location: Scrapyard - End
Word Count: 762

Everything went from bad to worse in one hell of a hurry. The pickaxe, despite how much stronger and faster it made the Courier, did absolutely nothing to harm the Omnic tank. Even the combined force of his swing and gravity meant he only scratched the paint. That he could deal with. Get away, change tactics, it wouldn’t be too big of a deal. What came next he couldn’t.

Multiple shots rang out across the battlefield, shots from a sniper rifle. But not an anti-material rifle. That meant the only one who could have made those shots was… ”Zer0…” the Courier wheezed, gripping his gut. He didn’t need to look down to see what had happened, he’d witnessed the assassin’s shooting first hand already. Those bullets had pierced straight through Bastion, and then straight through his gut. The padded armor of his duster didn’t make a difference. The NEMEAN subdermal armor didn’t make a difference. Whatever Zer0 shot, he shot straight through.

In an effort to deal with the sudden pain, stumbling to stay up on two legs, Six pulled out his bottle of whiskey. Sadly instead of taking a deep swig of delicious amber liquid he only coughed up precious red, which mixed ominously into the bottle. Then he suddenly lost his foot, though through no fault of his own, as the Omnic Bastion made a sweeping motion with its cannon barrel and, pardon the pun, barreled right into the Courier’s torso, tossing him aside like a rag doll. He couldn’t even grunt or yell as he fell and hit the ground, his bottle of bloody booze rolling away.

Vision growing hazy, the Courier heard explosions all around him, but couldn’t be bothered to truly see where they were coming from. He had enough of an idea, at any rate, but it didn’t matter. If he didn’t make it to Blazermate in short order…

No.

No.

”No!” he cried out in defiance. He had a god damn job to do, and he never left a job unfinished. Death may have been hovering over him, black and bleak, ready to take his immortal soul to the next life, but that asshole would have to wait. That Bastion unit still needed to die. Bowser still needed to get into the castle. That overgrown lightbulb in the sky still needed to be put in its place. Not today, Death. Not. Fucking. Today.

Gripping his new pickaxe with renewed vigor, the Courier felt its power coursing through his body in even greater amounts than before. He felt practically superhuman, and it was time to rejoin the fight! He looked up and, wait, Death was actually here? That wasn’t a hallucination brought on by blood loss? And he was fighting on their side?! And he was utterly destroying the robot?!

The remains of Bastion burst into ash not too far away, leaving behind a large floating spirit just as all the other deaths. The Courier bit his lip so hard he drew blood and spat it out (or was that blood already there?), then put all his effort into moving one foot in front of the other. Step. Step. Step. Even as strong and powerful as he felt with his pickaxe in hand, it still took everything he had just to move, but he could do it. He had been in worse places before. Hard to beat getting shot twice in the head and buried in a shallow grave. Hell, hard to beat having your brain surgically removed and still walk around. The Big Empty was weird.

Ignoring everything else in the battlefield, or perhaps simply too exhausted and injured to notice anything else, the Courier waded straight to the Bastion spirit. Finally, mere inches from it, he reached out with one hand and took hold of the thing, then fell to his knees. He released the pickaxe and suddenly a roaring wave of pain overcame him. He seized up for a moment, having to get acclimated to it all over again, but it was a necessary evil if he was going to reach into his pack and pull out the lakelurk spirit.

He remembered seeing King Bowser do the same with those hammer throwing turtles, and the rabbit. Damn, just speaking took so much effort. ”I need a posse. You’re gonna be my hombres. Capiche?” Still gripping the spirits in both fists, tight, the Courier fell to the ground on his back, still bleeding out profusely.

World of Light

Ow. Ow. Ow ow ow. Oooooowwwww.

Betrayed by Zer0, whacked by a tank cannon, and a (admittedly short) fall while still bleeding from injuries made by a giant turtle-crab monster. Oooooowwwwwww.

On the bright side, wielding this pickaxe means that I'm pretty much unstoppable now, right? :P

Reign: Kingdom Come

Marque de Bourdeaux

---

Marque jolted about as the massive hound suddenly changed course, pulling an about face. The sight he had desperately tried to avoid now stared him in the face. The creature, far in the distance but still close in threat, looming down on his beloved mentor Gardevoir who so selflessly chose to give himself up for their own survival. No, no Marque could not watch. He forced shut his eyes in an attempt to reject this reality for he could not bear witness to such a travesty. Suddenly the hound turned again, and Marque had to reaffirm his grip so as not to fall from the beast. But why had it chosen to do so?

"Mad beast! You simply couldn't let me take my final curtain with a hero's end, could you?!" No. No no no. Slowly Marque opened his eyes and sure enough, right there say Gardevoir like he had been born riding this animal. The young man felt a surge of emotion in all kinds, a total shock to the system. He honestly had no idea how to react, so it came out in the form of his fist slugging his master in the shoulder.

"You would have me mourn as a prank!" he half-accused, half-laughed. The entire thing felt very uncomfortable.

Then the older man took his cane and touched it to various items on all their persons. For Marque, it was the curious mask he had only just been gifted. So very peculiar. The glow somehow helped him feel a bit better about all this. A bit. But the creature was still in pursuit and they could not afford to get caught up in anything but their safety.

Gear

• Crow Mask
• Gardevoir's key
• cases of makeup
• Couple masks
• Two sets of clothes
• A wig
• Bag of coins
• "Proof" of affiliation to House Bryce
• Backpack
• 1 days trail rations
• Outdoor blanket
• Flask of water

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Verum Autem Ex

Leonard's charm had worked like, well, a charm. Bugsy's confidence had certainly grown exponentially, even if his coordination did not follow suit. Well, everyone had their flaws and not all of them will be overcome in a single lifetime. Still, the comedian had some lessons to learn about respect and recognizing authority, it appeared. Mr. Armstrong definitely seemed displeased by Bugsy's interruptions, a feeling the mercenary shared. Eventually their quarry had been dismissed and the Speedwagon Foundation's current head asked if there was anything else he needed to be made aware of.

"I did not happen to uncover any other circumstances of note, sir," he spoke in a professional tone. "At least not any as such pertains to our mission," he added, remembering the peaceful protest led by the Southern sounding woman.

World of Light

I love absolutely everything about Michael being pissed off at 6 in that post. Literally everything.

World of Light

<Snipped quote by ProPro>

lakelurk are snapping turtles aren't they? Mirleurks are the crabs I think. so it would be Turtle Dragon Turtle.

soul wise I am going to have bowser fish for some bloopers if given the time to add to the minion soul hoard. then I will need to think of a combo attack for em. maybe ink napalm or something. or they all the form up into a giant Splattershot. or they get used a missiles. so many possibilities.

@DracoLunaris

Technically, lore wise. Functionally and visually, though? They're completely identical, slightly palette swapped versions of mirelurk kings from 3. So for that reason I don't really think of them as separate at all.

World of Light

So now that the Courier has the spirit of a lakelurk ready to use, who's up for finding out what happens if I make it fuse with Bowser? :D Dragon turtle crab!

World of Light

Courier 6

Level 3 - (10/30) EXP
Location: Scrapyard - End
Word Count: 1562

Courier 6 largely ignored Blazermate, giving only a rude middle finger to the robot’s chiding. They may have been arguing, but it was an important matter to make sure Michael didn’t wind up killing any good people unnecessarily. By his account they’d all need as much help as they could get in defeating this Galeem, and a loose cannon firing off anti-material rounds in close proximity to comrades was completely unacceptable. The irony that the Courier was, himself, a loose cannon never once occurred to him.

Then came the Master of Master’s response to his question, which proved to be largely unhelpful and unenlightening. ”Naw, I don’t wanna sit here and chat now. That’s why I asked while walkin’,” he shot back, a bit of annoyance creeping into his tone. ”But if you wanna keep this whole mysterious voodoo hoodoo image you’ve got going on, that’s fine by me. Ain’t rightly my business and I respect a man’s right to keepin’ his personal matters to himself.” It was true enough. Even among his best friends and traveling companions, Boone and Arcade were locked up tighter than a New Vegas virgin’s legs. They warmed up eventually, but until that point both had proven to be extremely private, and in Arcade’s case, awkward. If the Master were to answer anything, he’d do so in his own time.

That’s when the Courier almost stumbled, having to catch himself. His arms flailed out awkwardly in a rather amusing attempt to maintain his balance. The culprit? Kirby! The adorable pink puffball was in walking condition again, and givin the Courier special attention. ”Well howdy there, Kirby. What’re you doin’ up and about?”

“Ey!” Kirby responded, creating one of those deep red hearts he had used to de-brainwash everyone. The heart popped on the ground and Kirby signalled the Courier once more. What was… What was he getting at?

”Erm… You want to be… Lovers?” the Courier questioned, reeling back. He had certainly slept with a lot of people of all varieties, and a lot of non-people, but something just felt inherently wrong about sexualizing Kirby. As though the very idea itself were a dark, depraved thing of anti-life only the absolute worst people could even conceive of. That’s when a different idea hit him. ”Wait…”

The Courier held out his left hand, palm open out. He concentrated, forcing his own heart and soul into the spread digits, feeling the warmth of his own goodness and trying to express it outward. A small heart appeared, then fizzled out as he lost that concentration, the energy returning to his body. ”Heh heh, hey everyone! Check out what I can do!” he cried out, manifesting a heart in each hand. Like a rodeo clown he began juggling the hearts, first two, then three, then skipping as he did so and giggling all the while. ”Hahahahahaha! Oh man, this is great!”

After a few moments, the Courier ceased his shenanigans, though the joy it brought him could still be clearly seen plastered across his face. In celebration he took a mighty swig of his whiskey bottle, then wiped himself off with a sleeve. ”I guess Kirby gave me his power to free people from that shining disco ball’s power, eh? Guess I’m his official favorite,” he declared, rather smugly. Of course he had no idea how wrong this truly was.

”Enough time has been wasted. We’ve got to hurry!” he urged the rest, then took off running in the direction of the others. He had a bad feeling that some of their partners were already in a really rough spot.

---

6 could surveil the situation from afar pretty decently. Enough to know that it was definitely bad. Some of their group that had gone off on their own earlier, the girl in the green hood, the other girl that showed up late, and that weird animal bird thing that talked in the third person, they had been pinned down, and in Tora’s case, nearly eviscerated. Thinking back on it, where the hell was that puppet? Did Geno just go flying ahead to leave everyone else and save his own skin? Er, wood? Didn’t he say he was going to scout ahead? Yeah, great fucking job, Geno. Would have been nice to know there was a big rabbit robot war and that the castle was guarded by some turrets and a machinist to keep them up and running. Fuck that puppet.

No time to dwell on the what ifs of Geno having done his job right. Things were only getting worse out there, and most of the group were holding themselves up in an advance on the bridge with the gun turrets. The Courier knew better. Almost always there was another route to take, a way to disable turrets, a way to get around. At least the team made for a great distraction while he took off to the side, away from the firefight. He dove into the moat, fully intent on swimming along the side and climbing up to the elevated position of the engineer and the Omnic that sported this deadly turret function. However, the journey would not be as simple as he had hoped.

Within the waters of the moat the Courier caught sight of some truly breathtaking and wondrous things. Large fish (how would they taste after being cut up and roasted on a spit, he wondered?), a large blue friendly looking sea monster in a hat (well hello there!), and… ”Glurb!” Air escaped the Courier’s lungs as a lakelurk took hold of him in a bearhug from behind. He recognized the slimy humanoid crustacean arms immediately as being a creature from his own world, and one that was especially deadly in its home turf. Unfortunately that was exactly where they were.

The Courier struggled as the beast squeezed harder, then bit deeply into his neck, piercing the sub dermal armor and causing some bleeding. The Ghost of the Mojave lucked out, managing to grab his magnum revolver and point it haphazardly off to the side. Not knowing where the bullet would strike, he pulled the trigger. The loud was bang significantly dampened by the surrounding water, as was the force the bullet shot out with, but at point blank range that didn’t change the overall effects. The bullet pierced into the lakelurk’s abdomen, just between its shell plating. The monstrous creature hissed in pain and reeled back, releasing its grip on the Courier.

Damn, this plan wasn’t working out. If only he had known the moat was infested with lakelurks! The Courier started swimming fast as he could back to the surface, but to no avail. The lakelurk was made for water combat and quickly recovered. With a slash of its claws, it left a bleeding gash in the Courier’s chest. More of his air escaped in the grunt of pain, and he couldn’t last too much longer without surfacing. Unfortunately the lakelurk had other plans.

Realizing how ineffective his guns would be under water, the Courier took hold of his new pickaxe, swinging it at the monster as the creature passed by for another stab. The pickaxe moved through the water with surprising power and speed, blindsiding the lakelurk, and even the Courier for a moment. The tip of the mining tool lodged itself into the lakelurk’s head, several inches deep, piercing the brain. It died, leaving behind a floating mote as with all the other creatures he had seen perish this day. Invigorated by… Something, the Courier quickly took hold of the monster’s spirit and surfaced as quickly as he could.

Feeling he could swim better without the pickaxe, 6 put it away only to realize he was suddenly fatigued, weaker, slower. Was it the pickaxe that gave that benefit? He didn’t feel anything before though, so why now? Ugh, it was so hard to think through all the… Bleeding! That had to be it! The pickaxe improved his physical attributes, but only while injured! Well, ain’t that a kick in the head?

Realizing that he was, in fact, in a better position with his new melee weapon on hand, 6 grabbed it once more and powered back up to the surface, taking in a deep gasp of air. He had emerged at the edge of the platform where their enemies had been positioned, so sparing a glance to the side told him nothing of how the situation had changed: his vision was too blocked. Sparing no time for rest, the Courier began to climb up the wall, slamming his pickaxe into the side for increased leverage and practically leaping up the side. The added physical effort only exacerbated the wounds given to him by the lakelurk, which in turn only improved his physical capabilities even more, allowing him to ascend ever faster, move with greater power. It was a circle of self abuse and power that ended with the Courier practically leaping straight over the edge of the wall, pickaxe in hand, and bringing it straight down on the very first enemy he happened to see: Bastion the Omnic.

World of Light

I don’t like to be “that guy,” but uh... The Courier already took care of the splicer that had Agoston pinned. >.>