Seeing the kobolds fleeing in terror filled the Courier with vindication for his chosen course of action. He was positively elated, riding on top of the world! Or maybe that was just the jet, it was hard to tell. Stuff did get you high as a kite, that’s for sure. Still, a third of the forces saw fit to prioritize their own lives than to kill a few intruders, and that was a win in his book! That just left the goblins and the bokoblins, far more vicious in their behavior, and far more determined. Or maybe just more stupid. Regardless, the outcome would be the same.

Courier 6 took advantage of the momentary lull to reload his weapons, slotting a few extra rounds in the chamber of his magnum and forcing a few extra shells in his shotgun. In the middle of a live firefight, especially one involving melee attackers, you never knew when you’d get another chance. Better to do so now than to risk being just 1 shot too shy and getting an ax to the face for your troubles instead. Once that was done, the Courier made a spectacle of himself by taking the high ground atop the large rock he had dislodged from the canyon wall, yelling all the way. ”YEEEEEEEEEEEAH!”

Bang! Bang! With the remaining melee attackers focused on swarming Death, the Courier was left to freely engage the ones who were throwing spears on the ground. From what he could tell, Zer0 had zeroed in (heheh, he’d have to tell the assassin that pun later) on the enemies higher up.Thus he opened up by planting some magnum rounds into a few of the far-off spear-throwers. He intended to charge in head first and engage the ranged fighters with his shotgun, blowing them away with superior firepower, though he never made it that far.

Beep. Beep. Beee-

”OHSHITIT’SAMINEDIVEDIVEDIVE!” And dive he did, comically stumbling over the lip of his big rock (trademark) and nearly faceplanting on the opposite side. His PTSD had most certainly been triggered from… Various unfortunate situations back in the Mojave. There were an absolutely absurd number of explosions in the desert. Like, a weird amount.

Grumbling, the Courier rose to his feet, holstering his guns and picking up his dislodged hat before returning it to his head. ”A’right, where’s the fucker that threw a mine at me?” he muttered, pulling out his Ratslayer. It had to have come from up above, so up above is where he scanned around, first with the naked eye and then with the impressive scope on his rifle. "Zer0, can you cover me while I look for that bomb-lobbin’ asshole?” he called back over his shoulder.

Just as the ringing in his ears subsided, the Courier heard a new song pop on the radio. Damn, never liked this one. Hit too close to home.

Bowser’s yelling did little to stir his allies into action, primarily because they were already way ahead of him on that front. Blazmate and Michael, who had thankfully managed to save himself from harm eventually, made quick work of the assault on his rear, bullets and mecha hair fists pounding the goomba assault squad to a pulp. Meanwhile others spread out into the field, the centurion and linkle proving very effective with their flaming sword strikes and massive aoe crossbow attacks respectively. Meanwhile Ratchet and Din seemed to be disappointing at first, mostly limited offensive to bopping goomba Goombas with their respective metal sticks. The yellow furred hero did at least seem a rather agile bugger, which could be useful. Meanwhile the red headed woman’s main skill seemed to be dancing, something that initially confused the king when she started doing it infront of him.

“OK THAT'S REAL NICE BUT THIS IS REALLY NOT THE TIME” he began before her magic began to surge through him, patching up minor injuries that he received in between Blazmates bursts of healing and, more uniquely, invigorating the king with renewed strength and vigor. “NO WAIT, THIS IS GOOD KEEP GOING” he corrected himself.

The king made mental notes of all he had seen of his allies do in the fight, forming rudimentary records of how they could be best applied to future encounters. The king was not exactly a master strategist or anything, but even he knew that a leader had to understand their soldiers skills to apply them effectively. While it was a little disquieting to gain this information by observing what where, or had been, his leaderless minions being torn to shreds by his new troops but it was also good to know that he seemingly have competent help for a change. The king congratulated himself on making the in no way chivalrous and entirely selfish decision to protect them from the brick rain before taking advantage of their work to get pick himself up and get stuck in with the cleanup. After rising himself back to his feet the king took a moment to ensure his cargo’s safety.

“YOU, HELPFUL DANCING LADY. WATCH KIRBY FOR ME.”

His burden thoroughly dumped on someone else the king turning round to face the beleaguered enemy forces and announcing “I HAVE TRAITORS TO PUNISH”



Now free of the task of providing cover the king charged forwards into the battle, driving his enemies before him as he stomped towards the biggest thing in the fight, namly the goomba stack, as hammers pinged off of his shell and koopa shells ricocheted off of his steel toe caps. Those that did not flee before his royal bulk where annihilated by the king, be they crushed under beneath his feet or roasted by quick bouts of flame that caused many a goomba to run around in a panic while on fire, careening into their allies, pipes or surrounding shrubbery while generally spreading chaos and more fire till they eventually poofed into the little sprites that now littered the area. Bowser wasn't entirely sure what was up with these little balls of light that showed images of uncorrupted minions. Perhaps they were like the trophies that people had to turned into when defeated during the last multiverse crossover thing? At any rate it probably meant that the army wasn't going to just inconveniently respawn the moment they left the area thanks to a liberal application of 1up his troops received before going into battle. After all, what better way to encourage suicidal loyalty from such squishy minions than actual immortality. The king had of course hoarded much of this power himself, as could be seen by the fact that he had been dumped into lava more times that he could count and yet here he was, alive, in the flesh and subconsciously ignoring that big stinking zero that Galeem had left him with.

Continuing to ignore his current mortality the King rampaged on till at last the two titans of the battlefield met to begin an epic clash: Bowser the Koopa King vs a large stack of goombas. The two towering terrible titans started squaring off and taunting another: bowser repeatedly punching a scaly fist into a clawed palm while giving menacingly, the tower swayed back and forth in a show of mastery of the stacking arts, the bottom gomba hopping from foot to foot just to add to the display of skill. Introductions having been made, the king was the first to strike, dramatically winding up an all mighty right hook before slamming his fist forwards, only for the stack to sway to one side and then launch itself forwards in a retaliatory strike, the goomba tower bapping bowser somewhat ineffective in the face. The king growled angrily in response before repeating the attack with a left hook instead, only for the tower to dodge to the right and strike him once more. The many members of the tower, seemingly very pleased with themselves, proceeded to laugh at the king, only for their extatic expressions to be wiped off of their faces a few moments later to be replaced with looks of fear as the king, already sick of this humiliation sucked in a vast amount of air into his chasamous lungs. The tower’s many goombas wished to flee turn and flee but were horrified to find that their lowest member was still chortaling to themselves, unaware of its impending doom til the final moment as flames washed over the stack, roasting them all like a shish kebab.

Bowser laughed as the tower began to run amuck in its now pyre like state before loping after it and then leaping lightly into the air too bring bringing a claw crashing down on top of the now thoroughly to dodge stack’s top goomba. The scaly hand ripped down through the stack, squishing each goomba in turn till it swiped through the last and smacked the ground, leaving bowser’s foe thurley dunked on. The king finished by pushed himself back upright before giving a, perhaps premature, skywards victory roar/maniacal laugh.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Blazermate almost regretted not going down one of the other paths, almost. Fighting Bowser's minions was starting to get boring, with how little of a challenge they posed and how little sport there was in smacking their heads or smacking their shells. Apparently Linkle, Michael, Ratchet, and Din also got into the fight, which made things even easier. While Blazermate wasn't sure what Ratchet was doing, having thrown his wrench and disarming himself when she looked his way. Checking in on Michael and Linkle, Blazermate appreciated their ranged combat, but noticed Michael had gotten tapped with some debris. While Blazermate had absently healed him with her healing juggling, she gave him a nice long focused burst as she knocked away a few more koopa shells as she looked at the others in their group.

Even more people had shown up, most of them uninjured. Din was the only one that really confused Blazermate, since she was out of Din's buff range all Blazermate saw was dancing. Shrugging to herself, Blazermate went back on her rampage. At least, until some of the more competent members of Bowser's minions popped up. This gave Blazermate pause, and once the hammers started to fly, she retreated to take cover behind the now standing Bowser who was going on his own rampage. Getting behind his advancement, Blazermate swapped her healing beam onto the king as he just tanked everything his minions did and didn't really care. He crushed, roasted, and just outright decimated his own minion's ranks. "Ok, is anyone else insulted that the evil sun thing thought these things were a match for us?" Blazermate said to the rest of the group.

---

Ratchet was wrestling with a koopa when his wrench smacked one of the goombas from the tower, suffice to say it was rather disappointing to see it not have the effect he was hoping for. "You've gotta be kidding me..." He groaned as he threw the koopa off him into the swarm of approaching goombas, he let out a sigh before readying his fists. "This should be fun." he said, but before any of the enemies could throw themselves at him a hail of arrows started to barrage all of the goombas around him. A young girl landed in front of him and continued shooting arrows at the approaching horde. The beautiful display of projectile based carnage made Ratchet miss his guns even more, but he didn't have time to worry about that, he needed to get his wrench back. "Thanks for the save. The name's Ratchet, you?" He asked the girl before hearing someone shout "Here!" Looking over it was Tora throwing Ratchet his wrench back. Catching his ever faithful tool the lombax smiled and called back "Thank you!" Before looking back at the looming tower of goombas that was still about, it seemed Bowser was already on his way to deal with it, the titan storming up to it not even being fazed by the army of critters at his feet.

See that it look fairly obvious that Bowser was going to brutalize the poor things Ratchet saw it fit to return his attention to the girl, but as he was turning back to face her he saw the slightly large and more armored turtles hurling hammers. They seemed to have an unlimited supply as they just continued to toss more and more out. While Bowser wasn't bothered at all by them Ratchet felt it would still be a good idea to remove them from play. "You see those guys up that back, you think you can get me close to them?" Ratchet said as her walked up besides the arrow slinging girl, every no and the swatting away any of the koopas or goombas that managed to get close. "Also. Have you got any more of those crossbows?" His tone was a little sheepish, he wasn't expecting her to part with one of her weapons but he was sorely hoping she would.

---

Geno decided to stay behind cover while he scouted out the area around him. Even with the immediate ground-level threats having been eliminated, the ferocious birds above were still within the vicinity. While they aren't willing to head onto their ground, the wooden doll still couldn't shake the feeling that they were still watching him in the shadows. He'll still have to move regardless - and soon - but he'll need to figure out the movement of both factions before he can move ahead. Peach's castle was his only form of salvation from the ever-growing battlefield. If he could get inside, he should be able to hide away safely until the rest of the group arrived. The less the enemy knew about his presence, the better.

Suddenly, his eyes caught multiple objects that were floating randomly around the corpses of his fallen opponents. He took a second to glance over at this strange sphere-like structures. These glowing orbs were multi-colored, while producing a faint trail of rainbow light, and were emitting a low-lying hum which varied in pitch based on their movement. Upon closer examination, he can see faint icons barely peaking over the radiant spheres - showing the same figures that he had fought in battle. He can see mohawk rabbit creatures in a few, alongside several of the aggressive multi-colored birds, and he even sees the spirit of the large robot that he had just shot with the rifle. Geno was intrigued regarding these floating spheres... could they be representing the spirits of these fallen opponents?



Before he could come to a conclusion however, his concentration would be suddenly shattered by a loud mechanical blare that emitted in the distance. At first, this sound didn't concern Geno much, as he'd been hearing all sorts of mechanical clatter all around him, along with the raging rabbits issuing their chattering war cries on the other side. But as soon he was ready to move out, he feels an ominous rumbling groaning beneath his feet. He can feel it vibrate through his wooden joints - with the tiny pebbles jumping around like popcorn underfoot. Geno would soon begin to hear the unmistakable sound of treads coming closer and closer towards his position. This rumbling turned into the ear-splitting sound of mechanical scratching and moaning before the massive vehicle finally appeared over a large heap of rusted mechanical scrap.

It produced another loud blare as thick black smoke emanated from the exhaust muffler on its top surface.

Geno looked up to observe the gun-blue mechanical monster slowly chugging down the scrap heap and onto the ground below. He immediately identified it to be a tank that was part of the human-bots - judging it by its color and how it was manufactured. Yet it sported a rather confusing design. While it looked much like a traditional tank, it was much more square in design. In addition, it clearly didn't sport a gun-barrel of any kind and seemed rather defenseless. While it may seem rather odd for Geno - a wooden doll in a children's game - to know what a military tank looks like, one good look at his arch-nemesis would answer that question. Was this vehicle some sort of troop transport vessel? There is a hatch on its backside after all - which could mean that it's also piloted. And what hidden arsenal does it sport underneath its cubical-form, let alone if it has any at all? The star warrior continues to watch the tank tread by as it traveled over a ramp onto higher, more luscious, pastures.



But before its treads could get onto the grass ahead, two giant brutish rabbits emerged from a large wall made of metallic rusted junk. These rabbits were much larger than their smaller brethren, being roughly three times their size, already making them on par with some of the smaller human-bot opponents. And what's worse, they carried huge slabs of granite which they used as make-shift battering weapons. They began to take turns in battering the poor tank, which stopped for nothing as the dents on its side became deeper and deeper. One final smash later and the mechanical monster bursted into flames, finally stopping it dead in its tracks.

The giant rabbits quickly flipped the tank on its side as they hollered in victory while beating their chests. Geno would definitely have to look out for these guys and not get crushed by their massive slabs - less he wanted to become a wooden pancake. With their hollers of victory, they in turn signaled the other regular-sized rabbit grunts to move forward. As the invading squad pressed further into enemy territory, they passed extremely by Geno's hiding spot. The Star Warrior made sure to make himself as quiet as possible as he continued to peak out at the action unfolding. As the rabbits continued to press forward, they soon encountered the enemy robo-army lying in wait for them. One of the mercenary-bots - a soldier-bot wearing a particular-looking hat over it's steel-bolted helmet - peaked out from a pile of scrap, quickly adjusting his hat as he pointed towards them.

"OPEN FIRE, MAGGOTS!"

Suddenly popping out of their cover, the large robot force made of both mercenary-bots and omnic-bots began to shoot at their bunny opponents. As the regular grunts made a mad dash towards the robots, the smashers surprisingly made a rather logical decision. Instead of running down as living meat shields, they too went for cover amongst the large piles of scrap and brick, and once the firing would temporarily cease they would steadily advance towards the enemy. Geno had to admit that he was somewhat surprised of how competent those brutes were in using basic tactics. However, this intelligent tactic would end once one of the smashers were hit by a stray shot from a sniper-bot a far. Overcome by pure rage, the giant rabbit issued a wrathful roar as it emerged from cover and charged towards the enemy. The robots would quickly retaliate by concentrating their fire on the giant rabbit - but they wouldn't take it down immediately.

In fact, the more they shot at the smasher, the angrier it got!

Upon reaching the nearest poor omnic, it would utterly crush the bot with his mighty slab, before destroying a stray-soldier bot, followed by demolishing a group of poor bat-wielding bots whilst crushing small omnics underfoot. Only after doing some significant damage did the poor smasher finally give up and died upon immediately collapsing on the ground. Still, even with their dim-wittedness, these units weren't mean't to be taken lightly. The star warrior was still moderately impressed by their utter tenacity in high-stress environments.



Geno would be so preoccupied on the battle raging ahead, he almost didn't hear the sound of mechanical clanking coming from the other side of the pit! He would turn around to see the mech-bot reinforcements racing steam ahead towards the battlefield. It appeared that they used a side route to quickly flank and outmaneuver their enemy. But it appeared that their opponents had anticipated their movement and also set out to intercept their set-course and foil their plans of getting the upper hand! And both forces were converging on the doll's location fast! The star warrior was now in big trouble - now stuck between a rock and a hard place. He had only seconds to decide before they can properly discover him!

Geno quickly looks back at the castle in the distance. From the quick upwards glance, he realizes that the birds had finally gave off the hunt for him. Good riddance. Some of them were already making their way towards Peach's Castle as well, paying no attention to what was going on the ground. This was the perfect opportunity to make his quick getaway. And so, with only a fraction of time to spare, his thrusters sprung into life as he quickly ascended back into the sky. Even if the opposing forces took note of him and began to fire at him, they would simply be too late to stop the star warrior.

Now speeding straight towards the castle, potential salvation from this cursed battlefield was only just a good distance away. The only opposing obstacles blocking Geno's path were the small group of birds that were straight ahead of him. He could perhaps shoot them with his laser beams, but he had a better solution in taking them down quickly yet silently. Crossing his arms together, the doll formed two light disks from his hands before throwing them at the unsuspecting fowl. The disks whirled around in a zig-zag pattern before reaching the flock - slicing through some of them in their passing. Even for the ones who would survive, they would be unaware as the disks came back their direction like boomerangs, hopefully clearing the rest of them as the star warrior made one last push towards the castle. At this rate, he's almost certain that he's going to have to issue a crash landing by breaking through one of its windows...

And his sights would be placed on the highest window of them all... the one perched high on the castle's middle tower.

---

Zer0 was in heaven. He was pretty sure, anyways. Where else would he get to beat all these challen-

Oh, yeah. Pandora. Oh well. This could be Pandora 2: Zer0 Strikes Back!

As he finished off the last of the visible enemies above, and the cowards of the enemy ran like pathetic LOOT Bots, he took a moment to enjoy the odd music that the Merc had been playing. In the middle of a spin, however, there was an audible clank nearby. He saw the weird ass bomb and promptly noped the fuck into a dive.

But unlike the Merc he didn't have the luxury of a big ass rock blocking the worst of it. The shockwave caught him, shoving him into a wall with a resounding SMACK as he stayed down until the explosion stopped. Slowly he stood up, retrieving his sniper from The ground at his feet, and he carefully assessed the situation. Assuming assessed meant activating his stealth and quickly moving to the flank of the enemy.

"How hilarious
You just set off my trap card
Your death approaches."

With the first utterance he began his attack, methodically attacking at the weak points. The first victim was in one moment preparing another spear when in the next moment there was suddenly a spray of blood and a sword sticking out of his neck. Zer0 was fast, agile, and had years of being aware of his surroundings. He was a skilled swordsman that few could hope to match.

And these mooks? They were no match for his blade. Just like butter for his toast.

Or maybe jam would be more appropriate, considering the color and goopy mess of flesh laying at his feet.

"Zer0, can you cover me while I look for that bomb-lobbin’ asshole?"

:|

"Pilling corpses at
My feet, cover I can give
Forming from bloodshed."

From there Zer0 focused on the remaining distance fighters, killing them brutally and efficiently in an almost casual way.

How do you kill someone casually when you had no face?

Hell if he knew. Hell if he cared.

Slipping his sword into the heart of an enemy, Zer0 pondered briefly about the situation. There seemed to be a Badass approaching, if that bomb was anything close to an indicator.

Oooooh, maybe it would be an Ultimate Badass. Those were always at least mildly challenging, and they were all the more satisfying to remove.

---

'I'm going to kill him...!'
'No, please don't! He hasn't done anything! Please! Just go-'
'Shut up! Didn't I tell you we'd kill everything in this world? Gah, just let me out of these fu-'
'Stop it... Please...'
'I said to shut, it. You don't have the right to talk.'
'...'
'That's right, you know you deserve this. You want this. Admit it, it makes you happy talking to me, doesn't it? It's nice, finally getting a chance to rest and all. To not be completely mindless.'
'...'
'... Fine. Suit yourself. It's your fault they're all dead anyway.'
'...'
'... Wait. What's that?'
'...'
'H-hey, wait a minute, don't put that thing near-'
'No... Not the light... Not the light again...!'

Darkness. Familiar.
She knew she had a headache. In fact her whole body was groaning from whatever had just happened. Her throat worn from screaming, her body throbbing from thrashing, and her eyes blinded by the light. How many times would she wake from death's door in her life? It felt like her attachment to death was so close now, you could say the teen was cursed. Of course she wasn't, no, curses weren't real. But... the supernatural definitely was. There was no reason to doubt that at this point.

The floor was unfamiliar to her, as well as her posture. Surely she'd been sleeping at some point before...? What happened? What were those... garbled noises that sounded fifteen feet underwater?
She wasn't sure. She didn't really care, honestly. She was tired, and if her senses weren't going to work for her, then so be it. The world wouldn't mind if she slept a little longer, right...? If she just let herself, relax?

"I really don't wanna fight you again.”

Cruelly, fate decided it wanted to shoot Minako with a shotgun today, reminding her that she was, in fact, alive, and that she hadn't been breathing. Without warning the Master of Master's would find his captive coughing and sputtering as though she'd almost drowned, practically dry-heaving by the mushroom she was previously bound by.
Whatever he had done, it did the job. It just wasn't quite as peaceful as Kirby's method.
Thankfully the girl was quick to recover her breath, not suffering any additional injuries. As she did so she tried to get up, but alas her legs weren't willing to obey her for a variety of reasons. But she could sit back up again, at the very least, tilting her head back and gasping out into the open air.

Beads of sweat weren't uncommon among her auburn hair and pearl skin. Though eyes of crimson still remained, they bore no animosity nor malice, in fact appearing rather dull compared to how they were before. She shook as though she had a fever, barely able to even lift her arms in this new position, as they hung loosely by her side.
And then she blinked, and finally came to.
Though the Master of Master's had likely been trying to interact with her while she recovered, she had only just registered his presence after she blinked. It would be clear for him to tell that she was coming to, which was only made all the more evident by her looking around, breathing slowly. Everything still felt a bit too bright and sunny, and her body still ached, but she was still alive. The question Minako now had for herself was: Where? Where am I alive?

But the Master of Master's gave it away. Finally, he had come to take her away. This was the end, right? When the hero finally gets to die a peaceful death? It had to be, right? It had to be Hell.

"Am... I dead...?" Quizzed Minako with a tired smile. She didn't register any questions he might have asked before. But judging from her tone, it was asking too much of her to remember them, anyway. She was weak. But at least this Hell looked nicer than Tartarus...

Level 1 - (5/10) EXP
Location: 1-1 Central Path

---

"I through this was how fights were supposed to go." Linkle replied to Blazermate, dodging to the side as a koopa troopa charged past whirling its arms. "You beat up on fodder till the boss shows up, then defeat them." The Hammer Bros had shown up right on time by her metric, immediately launching a hammer attack to try and take control of the battle back. Linkle actually felt bad for them after seeing what Bowser had done to those stacked Goombas.

As she was watching that brutality the little cat guy she'd come to back up took the opportunity to introduce himself. She smiles wide at him. "I'm Linkle. Nice to meet you, Ratchet. Here."

Without even thinking about it she flipped one her crossbows in the air, caught it by the business end, and extended it toward him. "And I can give it a shot if you want to take on those hammer turtleOH!"

She jumped back as the koopa she had dodged earlier came back around for another pass. She aimed her crossbow at its back, but stopped before pulling the trigger. Arrows just bounced off those things shells. That problem could be solved just by aiming for a limb or its head, but in all honesty Linkle had always been a quantity over quality sort of girl. She couldn't hit a target right in the center, but she could hit that target a hundred times along with anything unfortunate enough to be near it. This also wouldn't be a problem with bomb arrows, but that would require her to still have her bombs. She needed something with more punch if they wanted to take on the small turtles, let alone the big hammer throwing ones.

As she watched the koopa come around for a third attempt, though, she had an idea. That shell of his was the right color, same general shape, and about the right size. Instead of dodging this time, met him with a charge of her own. Spinning on her heel she brought one leg up and whipped it around, her heel leaving a streak of fire to trace its path as it collided with the koopas head.

There was a crack as the koopa was knocked right out of its shell, which went spinning upward. As it came down and reached up and caught it on the palm of her hand as her spin finished. "Da da daaa daaaaa." She sang, awkwardly loading the shell into the firing mechanism and admired it for a moment. "Turtle Arrows."

She had no idea if this stupid idea was viable. She hadn't even really thought about it beyond the words "turtle arrows." This is the crossbow she handed to Ratchet. "Let's go, I'll cover you! Bowser?" She asked, calling to the koopa king. "Throw us up there, we'll take those hammer turtles!"

---

As Courier 6 and Zer0 fired their guns at some of the ranged enemies, Death still had the melee attackers to fend off. He continued his assault on the goblins, hacking away at any of them that were foolish enough to stand against him. He couldn’t kill all of them as quickly as he would of liked to due to his weakened state and was forced to use his agility to avoid attacks from a few of them, blocking any he wasn’t able to dodge in time. As Death continued to deal with the ones that were attempting to swarm him, he heard a loud crash come from behind him. A semi-large piece of the canyon wall had just fallen, crushing a group of the creatures. The sudden impact caused from the rock had also sent most of the kobolds into panic as they flee the scene.

Not all of them had fled however, as there were still some goblins left to challenge them. Death immediately went back to work, rushing forward to take out the rest of the melee fighters. He had momentary trouble dealing with these monsters as they were a little stronger than the ones that had fled but they too will soon be defeated. As the last of the goblins were finished off, Death heard the Courier shouting about something. He turned back to see a spiked object of some kind land on the floor, making a beeping sound. He wasn’t as close to the bomb as Zer0 and 6 were but the shockwave from the explosion still pushed him back a couple of metres.

As he recovered, he looked back towards the Courier, who was using a rifle to search above the canyon for the one who threw the bomb at them. Suddenly, a spear had slammed head first into the floor next to him, close call. There were still just a few enemies left to deal with. Death’s right hand began to be enveloped in a glowing purple energy and he held out his hand in front of him, aiming at an enemy. Suddenly, a ghostly purple hand launched forwards and latched itself onto an enemy. Death jerked his right arm back, pulling the enemy to him and decapitating it with the scythe in his left hand. He did the same trick again but this time he pulled himself towards the enemy. Now holding both of his scythes, he began tearing apart one goblin after another, making quick work of them.

Despite their large numbers, these enemies were proving to be somewhat underwhelming. They were incredibly weak, and Michael found that they went down to a few hits. The small brown ones dies nearly instantly, while the turtles had their shells taken off by his bullets. He focused on them and the large stacks of the brown ones, as they seemed to be the biggest threat. The fight turned further in their favor as more newcomers arrived to support them, a woman with rapid-fire crossbows, and another one that began dancing for some inexplicable reason. While he found it bizarre at first, the dancing seemed to fill him and others around him with strength, and he chalked it off as something that he would ask about later. He gave a chuckle in response to Blazermate's statement. "Yeah, these things aren't exactly the strongest, huh?"

From the corner of his eye, he could see what looked like more enemies approaching. Looking up, he was barely able to get out of the way as a hammer sped towards him. "Hammers? Seriously?" Stepping out of their line of sight, he took a moment to load another magazine into his Mini Uzi. As Bowser advanced, he moved steadily behind him. Popping out of cover, he took aim at a group of the hammer throwers standing on floating bricks. Looking through his red-dot sight, he focused, and time seemed to slow down for him. He fired several bursts from the Uzi, each one targeted at the creature's exposed faces.

---

The king’s victory celebration had indeed been premature, interrupted as it was by a hammer bonking into his head, leaving Bowser a little dazed as the second interruption emerged, namely Linkle’s request for a hand in deal with their remaining foe. Shaking his head to clear the light concussion the king nodded at the suggestion and quickly snatched up his two projectiles and taking what was unmistakably a baseball pitcher's stance before winding up his throw and letting fly with the yellow haired pair, sending them sailing up towards the raised up platform the bros where fighting from, taking a great deal of catharsis from throwing something back at the hammer lobbing koopas.

---

Level 1 - (6/10) EXP
Location: 1-1 Central Path

Linkle squatted in Bowsers palm as her picked her up, gripping her now singular crossbow with both hands to keep from losing her grip on it in flight, and braced herself. The koopa King reared back, and as her let fly she pushed off with her own legs to get just that little bit of extra speed. She needed to be in front of Ratchet, after all.

As they sailed through the air Linkle pointed her crossbow at the turtles, holding down the trigger and raining a hail of arrows on the two. She didn't need to hit. She didn't even needs to do damage, really. She just had to draw their fire so they wouldn't shoot down the Lombax before he had the chance to fire his weapon.

---

Ratchet was pleasantly surprised to receive one of the girls two crossbows, taking in and following after her towards the koopa king. He was watching the hammer throwers making sure not to get caught by a stray hammer, he wasn't fully paying attention to what Linkle was saying up until the word throw. "Wait what!" Before he could protest Bowser had already scooped him and was winding up to fastball him towards the hammer koopas. "Wait wait wait!" Bowser either didn't hear him or didn't care because Ratchet was sent flying through the air in a rather ungraceful manner, spinning and screaming as he rocketed towards the targets.

He quickly regained his composure managing to steady himself out enough to start trying to aim his weapon, he didn't know how effective a "turtle arrow" was going to be but hey he was already flying through the air, now wasn't the time to worry about that. "Ok you got this." Ratchet said to himself, placing both hands on the crossbow steadying it. He was going to fly past the Koopas and try lining up the shot to hit them with the single arrow, because he did only have one. Taking a deep breath Ratchet aimed, he waited, he fired. He didn't get to see the results of his shot as thudded onto the ground and tumbled along the floor. An ungraceful landing for and ungraceful flight. "Ow..."

While none of Tora's new allies save the Lombax whose weapon he returned appeared to notice him, much less speak to him, the Nopon was in the zone. Though the Hammer Brothers hurled a limitless supply of the weapons they took their name from, those projectiles arced through the air slowly and predictably, allowing Tora to jog around and block them wherever they fell. Mallet after mallet clattered against his shield, leaving small dents but otherwise doing precious little.

After only a few more moments of fighting, the enemy force was all but exhausted, especially after Bowser's ruthless obliteration of the goomba tower once warmed up. His thunderous bellow of victory, a touch premature but not at all unfounded, caused all present to flinch for a moment. Even the Hammer Brothers, sitting pretty on their high ground, appeared to be aware of the dire state of their army, and one's fear prompted him to hurl a hammer Bowser's. When Bowser wound down, Linkle approached him with an idea in mind, and while they prepared to enact it Michael took the opportunity to keep his enemies' heads down. His uzi, less than perfectly accurate at this range and not as effective against their harder shells, nevertheless forced the Hammer Brothers on the defensive. One withdrew into his shell to be grabbed by the other and used as a shield, behind which the remaining koopa could continue throwing his hammers. Michael's work, no doubt a purposeful stratagem, effectively halved the enemy's damage output and brought them close enough that single attack might be able to spell both their ends at once.

Right on cue the King Koopa -having shaken off the hammer to the noggin- scooped up both Linkle and Ratchet, despite his protests, to fastball them at the vulnerable brothers. Where Michael's burst fire let off, the heroine in green picked up the slack, keeping her targets distracted on the defensive until her brother-in-arms could let his Turtle Arrow fly. Though Ratchet's trajectory prevented him from seeing the fruits of his labor, he could definitely hear them; a resounding crack rang out as the Hammer Brothers took the shell straight on. The protector's shell broke, putting him out of commission and in turn making him into a shield projectile to take out the one behind. Together, the two fell from their perch and burst into ash when they hit the ground. Only their spirits remained; the team could not have asked for better.

By that time, the efforts of Tora, the Centurion, and Blazermate had wiped out the stragglers, bringing the battle to its conclusion. The uneven road ahead to part two of the journey to Peach's Castle lay clear, so long as one didn't count the light platforming that would need to be done to get through. At the same time, no foes remained to challenge any fighters interested in backtracking a touch to get to know the Master of Masters a little better, either.

Happy as a clam, Tora replaced his shield to his back and danced around. “Piece of cake, time for a break!” he sang. He sat down where he stood, reached into a pocket, and produced a sausage swaddled in plastic wrap. With undisguised eagerness he pulled off the wrapped and ate the whole thing. “Ah, nothing like tasty sausage after blood get pumping!” He turned his smile on the rest of the group. “Friends were amazing! Hard to imagine any challenge team cannot accomplish!” Despite his optimism, his look turned downcast after another moment, and he fixed his eyes on the castle in the distance. “Still,” he murmured. “Victory without Poppi and Rex-Rex seem hollow. Must find.” His thoughts drifted back to the Master of Masters after a moment, and with some reluctance Tora picked himself up to head back the cloaked man's way.



Tora Level up!
New Power: Grin and Bear It

---

T he Master of Masters recoiled in surprise as the teenager hacked violently, as though struck by sudden, wracking illness. After it quieted, a moment passed in silence, allowing him to get a better grip of Minako's current status. Her eyes, red in hue but unblemished in aspect, contained such weariness and pain, and her health seemed to be in a sorry state. His mischievous tone and sleeve-worn enthusiasm evaporated like the morning dew, needless in a situation like this that demanded tact. “Not today, little lady,” he said after a moment, somewhat glad that she didn't seem to have registered his gravitas-devoid questions before. “Take it easy. You've been through a heck of a lot, more than I know, and I'm sorry to say you're not at peace.”

After weighing his options, he decided to give Minako a succinct explanation. “I'm nobody important, really, but I was able to foresee most stuff that happens. A godlike being called Galeem has wiped physical reality away and created a new world. It took the minds and hearts of those consumed -their Spirits- and made them puppets of their old forms to seal their hearts and blind their minds. I managed to free you, but this world is far from free.” Once again, he reached his hand down to help Minako up. If she could not lift her arm, he could certainly lift her. “For now, though let's worry about you, eh? I have potions for healing and energy that might help you feel better, if you like. And a hammock if you want to lie down.” Should Minako accept his aid, he meant to bring her about to the front of the mushroom, where his makeshift workshop and all its contents lay.

---

With little ceremony the trio mopped up their remaining adversaries. Death took good care of those who came to greet him on the ground, while the fume-fueled marksman kept the ranged fighters off his back, with 6 plugging a few rounds into the handful of javelin-chuckers that remained. The few mooks that the Horseman's scythe did not harvest fell prey to Zer0's swordsmanship. With their ranks so thoroughly decimated, the few archers and fighters left over turned tail to flee, albeit without the bolt holes of the kobolds to provide them quick escape. The moment the first goblin started to ascend on the other side of the canyon path, however, he tripped over something that nobody else could see. Before he could so much as yelp, he suddenly exploded, his ashy fragments flying all over as they dissolved.

It was then that the laugh from before could be heard again—or was it three laughs mixed together? One voice seemed high, one low, and one very deep. A rattling noise filtered down from above to the especially perceptive, but no perpetrators showed themselves. Instead, they revealed more bombs.

Perhaps aware of the sights trained upward, the unseen enemy started lobbing two at a time. The mines fell without any precision, some bouncing off the canyon walls without exploding, to land on the floor and wait patiently for any enemies to approach. While they could be handled safely by gunfire, any bullets merely destroyed them without setting them off. Any mines left unattended out of immediate range exhibited a curious phenomenon; they disappeared from sight after a couple seconds, becoming invisible until one wandered close enough to arm their second-and-a-half fuses.

Whatever goblins and bokoblins were allowed to flee invariably ran into more mines, evidently hidden at the canyon's other end. However, each creature got farther than the last, steadily clearing the explosive traps, until the last three or four could enjoy a blast-free exit so long as the gunmen permitted them it.

However, more and more mines fell, quickly becoming too much to deal with. If 6, Zer0, and Death wanted to keep all their limbs, they needed to follow in their fleeing foes' footsteps, and fast. That said, who knew how many mines lay in their path, invisible until nearly trod upon?

---

The wooden rocket blasting off from the middle of the two groups' soon-to-be battlefield drew their attention for a moment, but when it came to choosing between a blur already out of range and a squadron of enemy soldiers, there seemed to be a consensus between Rabbid and robot. Frenzied cries, energy blasts, and bullets filled the air as another furious exchange ensued. Geno, meanwhile, made good his getaway.

Once in the air, he zeroed in on his original destination: Peach's Castle. Its enormous moat posed no problem to him, but even after dealing with the birds in his way, an unsettling feeling came over him as he drew nearer to the classic structure. A doll did not have protective instincts in the way that an animal did, but nevertheless, something cried out to him as he approached the water's edge. His eyes drifted back toward the earth, to where the scrapyard ended and the bridge to the castle began. Two piles of junk rose from either side of the white stone walkway, oversized blocks rising from them and meeting together in the middle to form an arch. Atop that arch, he could spy three shapes: that of a man and two machines. The next instant a red laser sight locked onto Geno, and in unison both turrets opened fire.



He found in short order that while weaker, the smaller turret did not miss whatsoever, and while more inaccurate, the larger turret hurt. Even worse, the smaller of the pair backed up its pinpoint-accurate machine gun fire with a volley of homing missiles, closing in on Geno's position even now. Working together, the two turrets made it nigh-impossible to pass through their territory. If he did not dive for cover in the scrapyard or moat immediately, Geno would sustain critical damage before even making it out of the turrets' range.

Linkle’s plan worked like a charm, the rather complex maneuver putting an actual end to the battle this time. The two hammer bros were popped and the mop up was complete. All in all the king was very pleased with his new army, highly effective and, as the last maneuver had shown, had a lot of potential for special moves which where, as everyone knew, moves where you use your minions to attack stuff. Congratulations where in order.

“HAHA, WE WON. BOWSER’S BADDIES 1, STUPID GOW BALL 0. GOOD JOB TROOPS. KEEP THIS UP AND WE’LL BE DONE IN NO TIME, MAINLY BECAUSE THE TREE ORNAMENT HAS NO LEADERSHIP SKILLS WHATSOEVER. SEE” the king scooped up the bunch of the goomba sprites that had poofed out of the stack in one claw and presented them for viewing as he continued “THESE GUYS ARE ACTUALLY PRETTY DANGEROUS IF YOU ACTUALLY KNOW HOW TO USE THEM” The king insisted in a highly delayed response to the others talk about how crappy his usual minions were. “WHICH I DO. OBVIOUSLY”

It was at this point he noticed that Tora had started to wander off back to the Master of Masters. Sensing/predicting that this might be a common thing people wanted to do, along with the fact that he wanted to take a quick breather before having to do a bunch of platforming anyway, the king decided to make it part of his orders “ANYWAY. YOU’VE ALL GOT 5 MINUTES TO REST, HEAL AND FINISHED UP HERE BEFORE WE ALL KEEP GOING TOWARDS PEACHES CASTLE. ALSO SOMEONE GO INTERROGATE THE HOODED GUY FOR ME AND THEN BRING ME THE SHORT VERSION OF WHATEVER HE ENDS UP YAPPING ABOUT”

Commands given the king decided to actually take a closer look at the sprites he had held in his hands. “WHAT EVEN ARE THESE THINGS?” He asked, mostly talking to himself even if his natural speaking volume meant everyone would have difficulty ignoring his musings, as he brought the sprites up to his face, giving them a sniff before ogling them up close with a singular eyeball.

---

With the ground units too busy slaughtering one another, and with all the birds in the immediate area having been eliminated, Geno's path to salvation seemed nearly assured. Yet as he begins to reach the edge of the moat surrounding it, an utter sense of dread suddenly befell him. This almost seemed too easy for him. Surely there would've been some guards of some kind - whether they be rabbits or robots - guarding the castle. And some tough really tough guards at that. But yet, there seemed to be little, if none at all. Something was not quite right here. Even for a spirit incorporating the conscious of a mere wooden doll, his senses were beginning to warn him of an approaching threat.

And they were blaring excruciatingly in his head.

Geno would instinctually find himself looking back at the battlefield bellow him, particularly at the entrance to the bridge. And that's where he finally saw them. Bursting out of two piles of junk upon the white walkway and forming an arch, the doll could hear the sound of deep cackling laughter as he saw three shapes looking ominously down on him. Two of the shapes belonged to mechanical turrets - both aesthetically different in design - and a grey man standing behind them with red eyes. Geno first believed that man to be another robot - concerning his color - but the more he stared, the more it turned out that he was indeed an organic being.

One very possessed and evil man at that.

"Yer about to have a real BAD day, son!" the hard-hatted fellow chuckled with a heavy southern-accent.

With that, the Star Warrior found a red dot dotting his head, followed by two attentive beeps coming from the turrets. They were now locked onto him. Knowing what was about to happen, Geno quickly issued a barrel roll, followed by evasive maneuvers as he attempted to dodge the onslaught of bullets coming his way. But unlike the shots fired by the rabbits or the robo-heavy, these wouldn't be a simple "run-in-the-park" to avoid. The smaller turret's precision was extremely accurate, with the flying doll already suffering some damage as their bullets began to scrape at his wooden exterior. Suddenly, an explosion happened just beside him on his left, almost throwing him off balance. That must've come from the larger turret - and boy was he lucky to avoid that particular shot.

But the worse was yet to come.

The smaller turret would suddenly fire a volley of homing missiles that immediately tracked Geno's every movement! Things had now gone from bad to worse. At this pace, he's not going to make it to the tower window without getting severely damaged. Quickly analyzing his surroundings, Geno had only time to think of one possible getaway. With that in mind, he began to fly low to the ground and just as he reached the edge of the castle moat, he made a hard left downwards as he plunged into the waters below. He'd then swim deep enough for the missiles to hopefully loose steam as he proceeded to swim underneath the bridge.

Thankfully, for inheriting the body of a non-living entity, Geno had not to worry about coming up for air. In fact, now supposedly hidden away from the turrets, his next goal is to find the entrance into the castle from within the moat. If there is even an entrance down here in the first place. But as he continues swimming, he couldn't help but to think about that man he saw perched up on that arch. Again, he didn't seem robotic at all. While his color pattern was indeed grey, he sported out the same physique as a regular human being. Geno then recalls the floating balls that he saw back in the scrapyard. He had begun to develop the strangest hunch that these two could be related to one another. Could it be that these balls somehow have the ability to possess these characters? Was that how he and the others looked like when they attacked Kirby? And if so, how can they redeem these fallen characters and free their spirits from the control under the seraphim? Geno didn't know how for certain - but he hopes to find the answer sooner than later. Because the more people their group had, the better the chance they had to beat back this oppressive "god" and return back to their homes.

But in the meantime, he must focus to find the entrance into the castle.

Level 1 - (7/10) EXP
Location: 1-1, Starting Line
Word Count: 282 (give or take)

The Centurion removed his blade from the last enemy creature, and wiped it's blood off his steel gauntlet with a sharp mettalic rasp. He breathed in deep, span the blade around, and sheathed it. Satisfied, he turned to his allies.

"Alright, friends. Take a few minutes to rest up-"

“ANYWAY. YOU’VE ALL GOT 5 MINUTES TO REST, HEAL AND FINISHED UP HERE BEFORE"

"-Soon we'll make our way over to the Castle-"

WE ALL KEEP GOING TOWARDS PEACHES CASTLE. ALSO SOMEONE GO INTERROGATE THE HOODED GUY FOR ME"

"-Now this hooded person has some information for us, he told me-"

AND THEN BRING ME THE SHORT VERSION OF WHATEVER HE ENDS UP YAPPING ABOUT”

"...right."

The Centurion narrowed his eyes at King Bowser. He would have to discuss leadership roles with turtle man later. However, the Centurion had something he felt was more important- the capabilities of his comrades in battle. Some of them very clearly posessed some kind of magic, like the magic dancing, the magic healing, the magic flying. This, the Centurion understoof. Clearly he was entering a realm of high magic. However, the abilities of the seemingly normal man, Micheal, intrigued him. Before the group continued onward, it was important the Centurion gauged the fighting prowess of his comrades.

"Micheal!" The Centurion shouted jauntily, approaching with a jog.

"Micheal, my good man, I must ask you. What is that loud contraption? You seem to be a mediocre person, of sub-par physical build and of an age much older than recommended for front line combat. How does this...device assist you? Is it some kind of weapon? A bow-less crossbow?" He peeked around, trying to get a better glimpse of the sub machine gun inside Micheal's holster.

With Toba, Racthet and Bowsers advancement, with ranged support from Michael and Linkle, Centurian keeping the flank clear, and Blazermate healing the front line while Din did her dancing, the fight was over pretty fast. "Ok, seriously. It feels like any cop in Tokyo with a gun would be more effective than this army of things." Blazermate said to the rest of the group, considering how little healing she ended up needing to do Bowser seemed to feel the same way, making an excuse that he knew how to use these things way better than whatever was controlling them did. Blazermate could only roll her eyes at that, but considering how much of a teddy bear Bowser actually was, she gave him a little giggle. The spirits coming from the defeated enemies really didn't bother Blazermate all that much. This world was already far removed from her own, so anything that happened was pretty much par for the course considering what she knew. Having no need to rest, she took Bowser's suggestion to take a look at that one stranger.

The Centurian was the first person to offer to take a look at this strange fellow, him having talked to him previously before jumping into battle, but he seemed more interested in talking with Michael. From what Blazermate could guess at, the Centuiran had never seen a gun or the massive amount of power they could throw out against foes that weren't made to take hits from them. Walking over to the pair talking, she joined the conversation. "Hey, do you two wanna go take a look at that hooded guy? I know Mr. Centuiran here talked to him previously until he joined us over here. We can talk about Michael's submachine gun along the way." Blazermate said, motioning for the other two to follow her.

@Stekkmen@thedman

---

While not in a state well enough to properly show she had heard him, Minako most certainly had. Hearing that she wasn't dead yet was, in a way, disappointing. But at least there was some light in knowing that she wouldn't pass away anytime soon. That she had a life ahead of her, and that she could live that life how she wanted.

The problem with that, though, was the second bit of news her new associate made her aware of. That the world she had once knew? Gone. Now replaced with some kind of new world. One under this "Galeem's" control. Everything about the whole situation just felt familiar, being close to death and facing an enemy much greater than herself. It made the situation feel less important than it really was.
Spirits were Shadows, Galeem was Nyx, this world was Tartarus. Only this time, her friends weren't around. And that hurt Minako more than it would most people. Her friends meant to her as much as, or potentially more than, the entire universe, which granted her the strength to defeat Nyx - the Universe Arcana. Minako couldn't go back to her life before S.E.E.S, she simply could not live that life again, that life of loneliness and isolation. Ten years of lost social interaction gave her the strength to defeat a god, but also a weakness to compensate:

To feel like she did during those ten years once again would make her a vulnerable person.

Keeping her mind busy would be the best distraction to combat this, and, desperate to get away from such thinking, Minako lifted her hand to accept the Master's help. An audible groan escaped her throat as she was brought to her feet, however it seemed like she could stand with his support. "I'll be... I'll be fine. The hammock sounds nice, though..." The teen forced a smile, though eyebags and strained teeth gave away her difficulty. Still she pressed on, determined enough to get someplace more comfortable. Her social smarts were keen enough to glean that the Master wasn't about to cause her any harm, at least not anytime soon, and she needed all the help she could right now. He didn't seem to be lying, either. She got a feeling he could be trusted. But it was best to reserve that for later, and not blindly give it out, as she had so foolishly done so before...

'Ikutski...'

No, she couldn't think of that, she couldn't think of him. She had to leave the past behind for now and focus on the present. But, there was one thing she had to know before she could push herself completely into the present. As they came around the side of the tent, Minako asked the question she had wanted to originally ask upon waking, had she not seen the Master.

"Have you seen anyone like me...? I think I came to this world with others. They... they had this armband." At this she would point to the iconic S.E.E.S armband on her left arm, though wasn't confident it was a good enough reference point to go by. But if he could foresee things, maybe he knew about them, or something about who they were. Anything to put her mind at ease, really. But, assuming they had time, she could easily go into more detail about the individual members, if he only asked.

---

Ratchet simply lay on the ground for a moment having heard the crack his shot made. He was pretty impressed with himself for managing to make that, though weapons like the fusion rifle had given him some practice with precise aiming. "I can't believe that worked." He chuckled as he got himself back onto his feet. Ratchet dusted himself off as Bowser barked out his orders, his booming voice completely overpowering some person who was also trying to speak. Ratchet shook his head a little, this crew was an odd bunch that was for sure, quite unlike any team he'd ever been a part of. The spirits floating about were awfully unsettling the hollow sound really not sitting right with Ratchet, though they were now seemingly "free" again, not being shackled by the angelic star that sat on the horizon.

"Oh yeah." Ratchet looked over at Linkle giving her a wave as he ran over. "Thanks for the loan." he said as he held out the crossbow looking to return it. He took a moment to look at the path ahead, looked like it'd need a little bit of jumping to traverse, nothing he couldn't handle. Ratchet had climbed the tower of power during his time at Dreadzone, this path ahead would be a piece of cake. Facing back to Linkle Ratchet pulled out his wrench and rolled his shoulders, "You up for scouting ahead?" He asked looking at the castle off in the distance wondering what they might find there. Obviously something important or else there wouldn't have been so many enemies just now, that or whoever was calling the shots just randomly decided to plant a horde of (admittedly weak) guards in the middle of nowhere.

"It's fine if you want to rest but I'm going to go ahead anyway, who knows I might find something." Ratchet said before turning and starting off again on the path to the next area, quickly turning around and running backwards for a bit before calling out. "I'm just going to go scout ahead!" With that said Ratchet would turn back and head down the path, getting ready for things like falling sections of floor and buried enemies. He'd platformed enough to know a thing or two about sneaky traps.

After a tense few moments, the battle was over. The combined assault from the group proved to be too much for the enemy to withstand, and they were defeated. Michael gave a curious look towards the spirits that Bowser held up. So, they turn into...whatever those are, when we kill them. Then, what happened to us? Filing that question away in the "things to ask about later" folder, he took a moment to catch his breath. While he had, in recent times, been making an effort to improve his health, he was still not in the best physical shape. Although the fight was rather short, the last time he had been in a similar situation was during the Union Depository job, and the ensuing chaos, which was months ago. He was a criminal, not a soldier, and wasn't used to sustained combat. While he could adapt, it would take time.

After catching his breath, he took a moment to look at the castle in the distance, their destination. The structure reminded him more of something out of a children's story than a real-life castle, but maybe that was a good thing. There was no way to tell how defended it was, or if it was even occupied. The castle's fairy tale appearance made him a bit less nervous, but only a bit. Even if it didn't look very well defended, the inside could very well be filled with legions of enemies. The enemies his group fought were from Bowser's world, and if he recalled correctly, the castle was from his world as well, so it was possible that they would be fighting the same type of enemies again. Or, they could be facing something totally different. Maybe something from Earth...well, my Earth. If that's the case, I'd rather go up against something like rednecks or gang-bangers, instead of Navy SEALs or some shit.

His thoughts were interrupted by someone saying his name. Turning to face the direction of the voice, he was surprised to find the Centurion, of all people, was walking up to him. Adjusting his shades, he moved to meet him. As the Centurion spoke, he frowned when the armored man described his physical capabilities. "Yeah, I know I'm a fatass, you don't need to remind me." He returned to a more neutral expression when he realized that the guy likely came from a world where guns hadn't been invented yet. To him, it wouldn't make any sense for someone like Michael to be anywhere near a battlefield. Seeing as he was trying to look at his gun inside his suit jacket, he took the Uzi out, holding it up for him to see.

Before he could begin an explanation, Blazermate decided to join the conversation. He gave her a nod. "Yeah, sounds good." As the three began to walk towards the hooded man, Michael thought over what to say. He knew a great deal about how guns worked, but he'd never had to explain it to anyone, as pretty much everyone back home knew the basics of how guns worked. Holding the Uzi up, he began to speak. "Anyways, this is a Mini Uzi, which is a type of gun. There are a lot of different guns, and different types of guns, but they all work in pretty much the same way." Taking out the magazine from the Mini Uzi, he held it up so the Centurion could see it, and the rounds inside. "This is a magazine, which holds cartridges. The long part holds the gunpowder, and the metal bit on the end is called the bullet. When you pull on the trigger..." He lifted up the Uzi, and tapped the trigger for emphasis. "A little hammer inside the gun hits a primer, which ignites the gunpowder, setting off a controlled explosion. This makes the bullet fire out of the gun really, really fast. So, think of it like a crossbow, but it uses a tiny explosion to send the arrow flying. That, and it can fire a lot of arrows, in a short amount of time." He paused, taking a moment to look over the Centurion's armor.

"Now, if you go up against someone with a gun, I recommend you take cover. There's a saying on my world- never bring a knife to a gun fight. Unless you have some sort of magic shield, most guns will tear through your armor like paper. And don't think you can just rush them either- it takes only the press of a trigger to fire a gun, and bullets move extremely fast. Your best option is to either use a ranged weapon of your own, distract them, or sneak up on them. Also, if they use up all their ammo, they'll need to reload, so you could try to rush them while they're doing that."

"Look, whatever you do, don't underestimate guns. To you, they might look like funny pieces of metal, but they can kill you in an instant." As he finished his speech, he could see that their group had reached the location of the strange hooded man. Michael could also see another figure, one that looked like a young woman. Not wanting to intrude on anything, he simply stopped outside, looking over the camp.

"Well, anyways, looks like we're here."

---