---

Tora's speech got a subtle groan from Minako, likely not loud enough to hear unless one were really close or especially perceptive. How does one even go about saving their friends without knowing where they are? In a world made up of other worlds, how does one begin to find the spirit of their former comrades? Obviously, they would need something capable of finding anything, but how do they find that? Where do you really begin?

It was a whole lot of directionless courage, though it seemed like the group had an idea of where to go. But unless they had a reason to continue past that, and just went with the flow, they wouldn't last long. It was painful just how alike this experience was. With each passing moment, something would remind her that she was back in square one, starting the same journey once again. If this was going to be a common thing then Minako had to get used to it quick, else she lose herself to her past, a fate likely worse than death for her.

Thankfully he was off before long, replaced by the Master of Master's, though his words did little to quell her suspicions of him. Sure, he wanted to help get her friends back, but for what reason? Something told the teen that the hooded man had plans of his own, and if that little eye could see the future, then he probably already knew she thought that. Unless, of course, she kept it to herself and didn't let anyone feel the same. She had time to decide what to make of him yet, and so merely nodded, closing her eyes after so he couldn't pick up on any subtle hints of her wariness. However this didn't last long, as Blazermate and Linkle gave Minako reason to open her eyes up again. Though the Aeon didn't say much, the Hermit was a little more talkative, which wasn't exactly out of the question for one. After all, it was just social isolation, and that could be represented in a variety of ways. Maybe she was compensating for a lack of people to talk to in her youth? The Fool couldn't say.

But from both their statements, Bowser was clearly the Tower: the giant pillar of (reptilian...?) strength, both physically and emotionally. Not hard to pick out from among the crowd, even if there were others who could fit that description. Great guess on her part.
The energy beam that had been attached to her body awhile now was filling her with renewed strength, but strangely only up to a certain point. After a little while she simply didn't feel any different from before, no matter how much Blazermate may have felt it was making a difference. It's easy to get a feel of your peak and your floor when fighting is a huge part of your life, and Minako was far from her peak, but definitely felt better. Given this, the redhead sat up with yet another audible groan, letting her legs touch the ground on her own. A little wobbly, but overall working, just needed a stretch. "Thank you," her tone was genuine, if a little tired still, "but I think this is as far is it gets for me. Sorry, I've just been... really, really tired lately. I'll be fine."

As though to prove this the girl got to her feet, almost stumbling to the floor if she didn't catch the naginata propped up by the tent. It was a sight for sore eyes, as was the Evoker and holster lying nearby on the ground. Naturally the Master had disarmed her before or while she was tied up, otherwise there was a chance of being attacked by your own captive. Maybe he was smarter than he let on? All the more reason to keep an eye on him...
"Hah. Sorry. My legs are still asleep. I can walk though, so you go catch up, I'll be there shortly."

Would she really?
Maybe.
But was it such a good idea? Maybe not. Then again, she didn't really have a choice, considering the state she was in. She just had to hope she got along with everyone, really. With some renewed strength, the holster and her Evoker were returned to their rightful position on her right leg, and her naginata, thankfully bearing a strap, along her back. With everything in place she had a decision to make: follow the rest or forge her own path?
Well, it really wasn't a hard decision, at least not this very moment it wasn't. Though her pace was a little stiff and slow to begin with, Minako gradually settled into a more relaxed and natural walk, not necessarily quick but enough to not fall behind. It was her first real time seeing this world, though the landscape had little in the way of eyecandy. Maybe somewhere in this world was Tartarus? If she were to head off anywhere on her own, it would be a massive tower in the distance bathed in green, because at least that was familiar. All this just looked like something out of a video game...

“Um...and last, if friend Bowser want spirit power, grab and shove into heart, meh!” Tora scratched his head, gnawed by the feeling that he'd forgotten something. “Oh right, mehmeh! Are thirteen biggie baddypon to beat up before team can challenge ultimate big bad Gleamy thing. That probably important, glad Tora remembered.” After finishing his hole-filled, semi-comprehensible explanation, the Nopon waved over the rest returning from the Master of Master's mushroom. Centurion, Blazermate, Linkle, Michael...all accounted for, plus two more. The unfamiliar girl he glimpsed resting in the cloaked man's hammock trailed along behind the group, and the Master himself could be found yucking it up in the middle of the pack. From what he said before it sounded like the hooded one wouldn't be coming along, but if he did, their odds looked even better.

Linkle walked up with a bottle in hand, which she offered to Bowser. Though it moved too quickly for him to make out specifics, Tora recognized the glowing orbs inside it as the spirits mentioned by the Master of Masters. He glanced around to take another look at the free-floating spirits, but to his bemusement there seemed to be fewer than before. Perhaps they dissipated after a while? Tora knew from his own time spent adventuring that uncollected loot tended to disappear. If the others wanted to claim the beaten koopas or goombas, they would need to act quickly.

A request returned the Nopon's attention to his new friends, and he nodded to Linkle's question. “Sure, will do.” Without protest he watched the girl head off, determined to find out where Ratchet and Din disappeared to. She moved with speed and grace across the laborious terrain that lay ahead of the group, making Tora wonder if he would need someone's help. Nopon weren't exactly built for agility, after all. Under normal circumstances Poppi's help would trivialize such an obstacle, but now...

In short order the group was together, and with break time concluded the team headed off. The first bit, one of the rolling hills, provided little challenge, but on the other side a couple short jumps led to a pit. Looking into it, Tora could see spiders but no visible bottom, and the other side lay far beyond his horizontal jumping capacity. “Uh...Tora might need help to get across.”

The Master of Masters, meanwhile, took the initiative. Chomping at the bit to get going, he sprinted toward the edge and leaped, swinging his weapon overhead. He fell short, and for a moment it looked as though he would plummet into the abyss, but the edge of his keyblade caught firmly on the lip of the chasm. “What a rush!” he exclaimed as he hauled himself up, using his tool as an effective if overlarge climbing axe. “I haven't...!”

He scarcely moved out of the way in time before a giant block hurtled down from above, nearly reducing the eminent Master of Masters to paste. As he scrambled on the opposite edge of the pit, the thwomp rose back up, ascending to the spot high above the pit where it hung at the ready for another potential victim to make the jump.

Tora sweat visibly. The elevated road the group now stood upon was narrow enough that there appeared no easy way to get around. Letting his request from earlier stand, he started the gears in his head turning, trying to figure out some way to beat this obstacle. After this, 1-1 should be smooth sailing.

---

Nimble and spry, Linkle proceeded through the central route's platforming challenge with ease, and entered the Ancient Gardens. Right away she noticed scattered groups of new creatures, though their numbers and attitudes were anything but threatening. Most of the rabbids simply loafed around, harassing one another or the wildlife, so Linkle could simply run past them across the verdant battlefields without even bothering to use the oversized brick blocks as cover. As she crossed the bridge between the first and second of the three areas, however, she came face-to-face with a group of the zany goons that she couldn't just slip by.

This squad of six, perhaps aggravated by someone else passing through, perked up at her approach and sounded the alarm—a chorus of irritating screams. They scattered, moving up and down the terrain to hide behind cover, either full-size blocks that masked them completely or waist-high slabs that granted only marginal protection. Four of the ziggies started shooting, their dinky-looking blasters somehow letting loose quick-fling yellow globs of energy. The remaining two engaged a strange technique, stamping one foot and then the other several times before hunkering down to stare at Linkle intently. If Linkle moved within these ziggies' line of sight within the next fifteen seconds or so, they would release a pinpoint-accurate reflex shot guaranteed to hit home and hit hard.

---

Addled by drug use, and perhaps a bit by nature, the Courier reviewed the situation and called his shots. The Techies approached, ready and willing to reduce their foes to smithereens, and in the hopes of detonating their explosive cache he released a burst from his Rat-slayer at the barrel on the back of Spleen, the largest of the goblins. Instead of containing powder, however, that barrel proved to be housing Spoon, the smallest of the three, hidden inside. An agonized swear issued from it in a deep bass voice when the first of 6's shots hit his desired target, but the remainder missed their mark. One missed completely, one hit the side of the cart, and the last sunk one one of the bombs. The sound, meanwhile, seemed to confuse the other two goblins, who glanced at each other briefly as if to say you heard it too?

They did not get much time to think about it, however, as the next moment Zer0 came sailing toward them. Despite being propelled through the air by a rocket's explosion, the mercenary's learned hands were steady. His sniper rounds pelted the cart, the Techies, and their bombs, piercing unarmored green flesh and igniting their explosives. In an instant the Techies seemed to come to an understanding, though none seemed to mind in particular, and they went to work. Squee launched a rocket straight down, sending the entire sizzling cart and its contents flying toward Zer0 and the Courier. The instant they hit the ground again, the whole shebang detonated in a wave of fire, taking out the Techies and anyone foolish enough to have not moved away from the impact site.

In the aftermath of the blast, dust and ash billowed through the air, settling only after a few dozen seconds. The clouds left behind a single floating mote of rainbow light, bearing all three Techies inside. With things settled down, provided they survived, Zer0 and 6 could see that they'd just about reached the point of 1-1 where the three paths converged and led to Ancient Gardens. A wandering eye could spot the members of the central route party tackling the high point of their road's platforming challenge, allowing for a convenient reunification in a minute or two.

---

To Geno's misfortune, not only did none of his newly-found keys fit the lock of the steel gate, but the lock itself lay elsewhere; this dungeon's main entrance, in a rather prudent fashion, was locked from the other side to prevent a situation just like this, keeping one of the dungeon's undesirables from entering the castle proper.

Though able to test his light disks' mettle against the reinforced metal of the door, the doll turned his attention inward. As much as he wanted to leave the contents of the thoroughly-locked chamber to someone more qualified, his piqued curiosity and lack of alternatives spurred him on. Key in hand, he approached the intimidating door, and one by one undid the heavy locks. Each clattered to the floor with a hollow rattle, chains dangling and then falling, until at last the great door bore no further obstruction. Wooden hand met iron handle, and with no small amount of strength Geno pushed in the bulky, uproariously-creaking door.

More wall sconces lined the perimeter, yet even their glow failed to fully penetrate the murkiness within. If Geno proceeded, he would be able to make out only the shadow of a shape hanging against the back wall, fickle torchlight glimmering off the chains that bound it. The nearer he grew, the better he could see outlines of red, blue, and brown. His every step brought wood against stone, releasing a clack that might have just as well been a sonic boom in the oppressive quiet of this place, and eventually the captive seemed to hear.

Scarlet eyes shot open in the gloom, and their dangerous radiance dispelled the last of Geno's doubts as they outlined a bulbous nose, four-cleft mustache, and emblem-bearing cap. Before the emissary of Star Road dangled a face that he knew, and for better or worse expected to find.

---

As Geno attempted to insert the regular key into the gate's lock, he would find that there was in fact no lock to be found at all. He looked all around the surrounding area, desperately trying to find a hint of where the other lock could be hidden. Yet it wouldn't be until he placed his eyes beyond the confines of the metal bars, where he finally found the lock. Unfortunately for him however, it laid on the other side of where he stood. And it was just out of reach for Geno to press as well. How smart of them. Looks like the new inhabitants did a good job in keeping their foes at bay with their new security measures.

Still, Geno believed he could get through. Utilizing his light disks, the Star Warrior threw them at the gate, hoping they would cut through the gate like they did with the previous one. And to his dismay...

Nothing.

Something about those bars prevented him from dealing any damage to it. Were they blessed or cursed to where they are indestructible? Did they absolutely require the user to by pass through basic puzzle-solving and trying to find an alternate way pass it? Maybe he can find a secret passage away or something? Surely there'd got to be one hiding around here, right?

But as Geno began to inspect the dungeon for another way out, he'd once again turn his attention to the ominous Bowser Gate. He found himself glaring at it for longer than he liked, but he couldn't turn away from it either. Something about it was calling to him. Whatever was inside required his absolute attention. He had absolutely no clue to what lurked within - only believing something bad must be inside - but it came to the point where he couldn't take the suspense any longer. Whatever it was keeping within, it must be most surely priceless - or extremely dangerous in that matter. After all, he had the key, and who knows how long it will take for Bowser and his crew to arrive. He closed his eyes before taking a deep breath.

"Forgive me, sire." he thought to himself.



Plucking the Koopa King's key from under his hat, the wooden doll proceeded to insert the golden key into the first lock. He'd cringe tightly as it clattered on the ground with an echoing thud. Geno would pause for a moment - as if he's almost regretting this situation - before continuing to release the other locks. Once they were all unlocked, he placed his wooden hand upon the metallic sheen of the great door, before slowly pushing it open with all his strength. It's piercing metallic frame shrieked as it slid against the stone-floor, ceasing only until thumping against the moldy walls.

Glaring into the room before him, the star warrior was welcomed to a dark abyss - lighted only by the vague torch-light which bore upon the walls. It definitely lived up to being incredibly forbidding. Geno would proceed to slowly, yet cautiously, walk inside - with each step bombastically echoing through the entire chamber. Now the musty-air was much more prominent, as if the room hadn't been properly used in years. Yet as he continued to walk farther in, he noticed something near the back of the room. A shadow hung against the back wall. The doll couldn't tell what it represented at first, but as he got closer, the light began to reveal more clues about its identity. He can make out chains that jettisoned from the ground. No doubt they held something dangerous within.

But what exactly?

Another few steps forward and Geno can make out vague outlines of color illuminated by the light. He can identify hints of red around the top of what appears to be a figure, along with blue around the middle portion, and at the bottom, hints of brown that produced an ovular shape. And that's when it would hit him. A wave of sudden nostalgia flooded through his wooden head as he recalled the moments of days past.

Could it be?

The wooden doll would halt his advance suddenly, his eyes squinting to get a better picture of who this person must be. And that's when he finally spoke.

"Mario?" he asked curiously.




His answer was revealed once two glowing eyes of dangerous crimson pierced through the darkness - almost as if he responded to his call. Every shed of doubt was shaved from his wooden body as Geno looked upon his old friend. Except that it wasn't the Mario he knew. His eyes were glowing ominously red - just like the man with the two turrets guarding the Castle. And just like him, the legendary hero had seemed to have turned into just another mindless minion of the floating god. He'd feel himself sink upon this sudden realization.

"Mario..." he'd say somberly as he looked upon his now corrupted friend.

There was only one way he could potentially free him. And it wasn't something he's going to enjoy doing either. He began charging up his cannon, as well as revealed one of his light disks in his free hand, as he pointed the former at his old friend. But even then, his wooden joints began to shake the longer he pointed at him. Surely the real Mario was somewhere within that cold, heartless husk, right?

"If you can hear me..." he motioned softly, yet determinedly, "If you're really in there... you know who I am. And surely you know I mean you no harm. Nod twice if you can understand me."

It was his last ditch effort to determine the true outcome. But if it led into combat, then Geno will have to try his hardest to free his friend from his endless suffering.

Frustration toward the large number of misses gave way to surprise at the results of the shot that had connected. Rather than black powder in the barrel, another of these green monster things jolted up in pain. The larger concealing the smaller? No doubt a great tactic for sneak attacks, which backfired in this particular instance. However the Courier didn’t get the opportunity to think too much more about it at the time, as Zer0 soared over head (did he propel himself on the rocket explosion’s shockwave? Holy crap that was awesome!) and planted some of his own bullets into their cart of explosives, leading to… Much more favorable results than the Courier’s own attempt.

Which led to the most insane plan the creatures could have possibly come up with in that instant. Had he more opportunity to appreciate the tactic, the Courier would have admired their determination and tenacity as one rivaling his own. Alas, he had to think quickly and react even faster as they propelled their own explosive-filled cart straight for him in a brutal suicide bombing. Having just exhausted his stamina as much as he could through the use of his V.A.T.S., sprinting wasn’t an option. The out of breath Courier took a dive down the incline, his back and thus the thickest part of his duster, to the crash site. Dammit, if only these creatures were leaving behind typical corpses rather than fading away with the only remnant being these wispy disk-like things! Then he could take proper cover behind a cadaver!

The explosion was the largest yet, fitting for the bomb-lovers’ final hurrah. The incline gave some measure of cover, but the Courier still felt a sharp piercing pain in his back, a few inches left of the spine near the waist. Reaching back, he bit his lips as he yanked a piece of metal shrapnel from his body, then looked it over. About an inch of it was dripping with red blood. Damn, lucky break. A couple inches over and it’d have hit his spine. If his sub-dermal armor hadn’t come back online, or he hadn’t made it partially down the incline, it’d have pierced much deeper.

Ok, now the music was just getting annoying. The Courier switched off the radio on his pip-boy, now finding the added stimulus to be more aggravating than calming, given his situation. That’s when he began to hear another sound altogether…

VRWOOP. VRWOOP. VRWOOP.

Where was that coming from? Was it the tinnitus from the explosion? No, that sensation was more of a ringing bell while this sounded more like a car trying to move forward, but in reverse, if you could imagine such a thing. It wasn’t back up the canyon, neither was it back down. Carefully the Courier looked upward, toward the very top of the cliff wall. There he witnessed a bizarre blue box fading away from sight, like it was rejecting reality. ”Hey, Zer0! Did you, uh… See that? Eh, nevermind.”

He straightened up, groaning somewhat from the stabbing pain.The high of the jet didn’t dull it one bit. It wasn’t like med-x or anything else useful in that regard, just gave him heightened awareness. Damn what I wouldn’t give for some med-x right now. Wonder if this place has any plants I can use to make some? Wait, why can’t I remember how to make it? Wait, my movements in that fight were sluggish and poor too. I can’t remember how to fight proper neither! Fucking sparkle-lord up in the sky. Guess I’ll have to keep trudging along until I remember those things like how it took some time for my armor to kick in again. That’s when the Courier remembered that he was, you know, bleeding. Pretty badly, too. Well, only one thing to do there. He pulled out his one and only stimpack left and injected it near the wound. Almost instantly 6 felt the pain subside as the blood coagulated and scabbed over, building proteins for muscle tissue at an extremely rapid pace. His minor cuts and bruises quickly faded as well. He wasn’t back to 100%, but damn it was near close enough.

After taking a moment to enjoy the feeling of the stimpack, the Courier noticed that the three bomb throwing creatures left behind but a single remnant between them all, not one apiece. This whole thing was kookie, but hey, who was he to complain? ”Oh, you all done pissed me off enough that I’ll throttle ya even in death!” Without further pomp or circumstance the Mojave mailman made his way to the crash site, stepping carefully around the wreckage and debris, then reached out to the floating moat of whatever-the-hell-it-was and made to crush it between his hands.

As Kirby came too, Din would look down at the hat and smile, "Hey little guy, feeling better?" However, the force of a nearby explosion would knock Din back and send the hat flying, only to be snagged by a large man with white hair, a pig-shaped mask, and a menacing hook, accompanied by one of the rabbit creatures.

The pair of miscreants had kidnapped Kirby from across a small ravine. "No! Kirby!" Din cried out in dismay. Through some spiritual connection, Din knew that Kirby was a source of good in this chaotic world and was loathe to let the puffball out of her sight. Letting Kirby go would also be disappointing everyone else in the party, especially Bowser, who had entrusted Kirby into her care.

"Ratchet! We need to get Kirby back. Do you think you can jump the gap?" Din asked, taking a few steps back in preparation for taking the leap across the cliff herself.

Ratchet tilted his head as the little pink puffball awoke, he didn't know who they were but they were obviously hurt. He couldn't help but find it's soft smile adorable as he smiled back. But the moment didn't last long as an explosion went of and knocked Ratchet to the floor he grunted and quickly got to his feet just in time to see a massive hook yank the poor helpless puff off into the distance the metal claw ripping it's way through the grass as it reeled in it's victim. At least they could see the enemies now and the contrast between the two was almost comical, one being a tiny white rabbit with some gear on trying to look tough and the other a towering man who looked imposing even with his lack of armor.

Ratchet looked looked over at Din as she cried out after Kirby? So that's what the little thing was called, honestly the cute name made sense. Din then asked if Ratchet could make the jump over the ravine, and he wasn't really sure if he could especially considering Clank wasn't on his back to help him out. "Uhh. Probably, but what about you?" He asked quickly turning his attention back to the Massive masked man and the rabbid, oh crap it was getting ready to throw another grenade! Quickly Ratchet took aim and started blasting in the rabbid's direction hoping to make it dive for cover. Ratchet slightly jerked his head back signaling Din to fall back a little "Quick find some cover! I'll jump the gap in a bit just got to take care of that grenadier first!"

Retrieve the pink creature. Destroy anyone that stands in your way.

Roadhog heard the whisper in his mind as he shoved it into the white top hat and placed it on his head. Then, he heard the other strange looking creature calling out for assistance. And when it was planning on running to cover, Roadhog shoved the creature aside to protect it from the threat. He felt a few arrows hitting his chubby stomach and groaned. Almost immediately after being shot, Roadhog pulled out one of the arrows and crushed it like a twig. Then, he placed his hook back into its correct spot and pulled out a gas container and started to inhale the chemical mixture known as hogdrogen. It was deemed illegal years ago, but one of the few mixtures known counteract the effects of radiation exposure. When it was empty, Roadhog just crushed the container and threw it away. He pulled out the remaining arrows without pain in seconds.

The grenadier came out of cover and looked at the masked man for guidance. Roadhog pointed at the woman with the long ears and the grenadier started to fire off grenades at her. Meanwhile, he was focused on the small animal and grabbed his homemade scrap gun. He shoved some scrap into it, aimed at the creature, and pulled the trigger.

Before Din could make the leap, Ratchet warned her to find cover. it was then that the kidnappers began attacking in earnest, forcing Din to duck behind cover to avoid the explosion of a grenade, and to momentarily give up her attempt to get across the canyon to retrieve Kirby. Looking around, Din was dismayed that most obstacles were only waist-high, otherwise she could at least dance and provide Ratchet with some backup. Of course, hiding behind Ratchet wasn't an option either, given how much smaller the Lombax was compared to her. Din occasionally peaked over the waist-high wall at Roadhog and the grenade-wielding Rabbid to look for an opening. From the looks of it, the large man's weapon was mechanical in nature, rather than magical. As such, like a crossbow, it had to be refilled with ammunition eventually. Carefully, Din was able to observe that the pile of slag that Roadhog had fed into his weapon was visibly being consumed every time he fired it. Din was useless like this, and figured that the only way she could help is to get across and attempt to engage them with her Rod. Din kept peeking over the wall, looking and waiting for an opportunity, hopefully when the last bit of scrap was consumed by Roadhog's gun, before attempting to make another leap across the canyon.

Ratchet watched the behemoth of a man just take the arrows to the arm like they were nothing, yeah this guy was going to be a problem if he was able to shrug off his shots like that. Ratchet wasn't given time to think as the man fired a nasty looking projectile mad of scrap at him Ratchet knew getting hit by that was going to hurt so he quickly jumped backwards and did a back-flip mid air to avoid the shot. After landing he'd ready his crossbow and charge forward just firing shots in the general direction of the two enemies as he made his way towards the gap getting ready to jump. But before he did he remembered it wasn't just him here, changing coarse he rolled to the side of an explosive that was hurled at Din and got behind cover with her. "I think you should take this." He said holding out the crossbow "If you give me some cover I can run up and snag that hat off the big guys head and we can get out of here." Ratchet covered his eyes for a moment as dust sprayed at him from a nearby explosion.

Roadhog watched as the animal did a backflip and retreated to cover. He kept an eye on the rabbit, who was still shooting at the enemy, and resumed firing. Of course, he ran out of scrap rather quickly. Roadhog reached for more scrap to shove into his gun while the creature kept firing grenades.

Din looked at Ratchet incredulously. She had no confidence in her ability to aim a crossbow, but as the smaller creature, he definitely had a better chance of stealing back the hat. "Th-then take this," Din offered Ratchet the inert Rod of Seasons; it could at least be used as a mace, and had a slightly longer reach than his wrench. At least if Ratchet threw his wrench again, he'd have another melee weapon at hand. As Ratchet made to jump during Roadhog's reload, Din would attempt to take a few potshots towards her enemies, trying to focus on the Rabbid, since Roadhog seemed able to shrug off the bolts that Ratchet had previously fired. Even if she didn't hit, she hoped she could at least provide enough of a distraction for Ratchet to make his move.

Ratchet nodded to Din and took the Rod of Seasons and ran for the gap dodging and weaving pasts the many grenades the rabbid was unloading. Storing his wrench quick ratchet ran for the little fissure and used the rod as a pole to vault with sending himself high into the air, he knew that he was in a bit of a bad spot now as the masked man would no doubt take a shot at him mid air. Just so he didn't drop it Ratchet put the staff away as well, if he did get hit and dropped it there wouldn't be a way to recover it. Ratchet was about half way across the gap before he jumped of the air itself with a slight whipping sound and from the looks of it he was going to make it across the chasm.

Roadhog saw that the animal was attempting to make across the gap and reached for his hook. He threw it in the hopes of catching it and dealing with it for good. Meanwhile, the other animal stopped firing at the woman because he needed to reload and tried to be quick about it.

Din popped out from behind her hiding spot right when Ratchet took the leap, peppering crossbow bolts in the direction of Roadhog and the grenade-flinging Rabbid, hoping to distract them from attacking her small friend. Seeing that the Rabbid had stopped launching grenades momentarily, Din attempted to focus her shots on it, seeing that it looked like the weaker of the two. Din would continue until Linkle's crossbow emptied before diving back behind her rock, and finding a magazine of crossbow bolts magically appearing in her off-hand. "How unusual," Din thought to herself as she reloaded the weapon.

As Ratchet thought the brute was going to take advantage of him being in the air, but instead of using his scarp gun he hurled his massive hook at ratchet. Yeah that thing looked like it could do some damage! Quickly pulling out his wrench he went to smack the hook out of the air but instead got his wrench caught by the hook. "Oh no." He said plainly as he was pretty sure what came next was going to really sting.

Roadhog managed to hook the animal's wrench before it could use it. He pulled on the hook's chains and sent the animal to the ground while the wrench flew towards him. Roadhog caught it and saw the rabbit dodging the arrows until one of them hit his grenade launcher, breaking it. The rabbit began to retreat in fear before Roadhog grabbed his arm. He knew that his weight was going to be a problem escaping and decided to give the hat to him. The rabbit grabbed the hat and begun running away from the scene while putting on the hat.

Meanwhile, Roadhog walked towards the animal on the ground, grabbed its neck, and started to strangle it.

Seeing Ratchet get hooked, and Roadhog passing the hat to the fleeing Rabbid, Din was momentarily torn with indecision. But she made up her mind quickly, and while the Rabbid was fleeing, and Roadhog was preoccupied strangling Ratchet, Din leapt across the canyon, running towards Roadhog and firing the crossbow at him repeatedly, shouting, "Let go of my friend!" She remembered seeing him ingest something earlier to recover from injuries sustained when Ratchet had struck him with bolts, like the red potions that were so common in Hyrule, and knew that if he needed to heal, he would have to let go of Ratchet's neck. Din was loathe to let the Rabbid make off with Kirby, but it seemed they wanted the puffball alive, so Ratchet took priority. Besides, she was sure that if they could successfully take down Roadhog, chasing down the Rabbid with it's tiny legs shouldn't be too difficult. Optimistically speaking, maybe they'd sandwich it between themselves and Geno.

Ratchet coughed as he struggled against Roadhog's massive hands, his legs flailing helplessly as he tried to pull the brutes hands from his throat. "Ghack-chccck!" Ratchet's eyes darted around as he frantically looked for a way to get himself out of the death trap that was the mans massive hands, spotting his wrench he wished he could reach it then he remembered the staff he was given. Though before acting he saw Din running to his rescue unloading a flurry of arrows into the goliath that was restraining him, if he could hold out a little longer the rain of arrows might make the man relent and open him up for a massive strike. And his mask looked like it would be a good place to hit, hopefully that would at the very least incapacitate this brute.

While Roadhog was strangling the animal, he heard the woman shouting as several arrows were heading for him. Almost immediately, Roadhog's left arm was used to shield himself for the incoming arrows. He had to deal with her before she managed to kill him. Roadhog got up as he was getting out his chain hook and threw it directly at the woman in order to stop her. It hit her stomach and caused her to stop for a moment. Roadhog started to retreat his hook when he realized that he left the small animal unattended and dreaded to turn around. Regardless, he at least tried to prepare for a response by reaching for his gun.

The hook hitting Din certainly knocked the air out of her. stunning her and causing her to double over. yet while her vision was realigning itself, she heard the soft clinking as the chain was being retracted. She wasn't sure if Ratchet was up yet, but she wanted to buy him some more time so she threw herself onto the hook, clamping the hook between her legs with the sharp part pointed away from her, while gripping the chain with her hands, essentially just adding her own weight onto the chain. She didn't know Roadhog's strength, but she doubted he could fling her as easily as he had flung Ratchet.

Ratchet fell from the giants grip as they used their arm to block the arrows Din had sent at them, now was Ratchet's moment! Now standing behind Roadhog Ratchet pulled out Din's staff and started running at Roadhog from behind again using the staff as a pole to vault with, he aimed himself at the giants heat winding up for a forceful strike at the mans head. "Hey porky!" He shouted as he unleashed his strike upon the man.

Before Roadhog could even react, the animal managed to hit his head hard enough with some kind of weapon. He tried to shoot at the creature, but he started to have trouble aiming. Then, he decided to attempt to get close towards him, but had trouble walking. And in his final attempt, he attempt to grab the container filled with hogdrogen to regain his strength; however, he finally collapsed onto the ground before he could inhale it. He had been defeated. As Roadhog was near unconsciousness, he heard the voice for the last time with a disappointing tone.

"Another failure. What a shame."

Then, he was unconscious; however, he was starting to remember the day that the world was consumed by a blinding light. Meanwhile, his container of hogdrogen was slowly changing back to its original color.

Shouting at:
@Stekkmen The Centurion
@Delta44 Minako
@thedman Michael
@LugubriousTora/the Master of Masters
@Archmage MC Blazermate

As the others went off either to scout ahead or talk to the master bowser stomped about their first battlefield sweeping up the souls of his minions and sneezing each time someone in the distance payed him an unheard compliment about his supposed niceness. Near the end of his cleanup Tora returned and regaled him with an explanation of what the master had said, one that was elongated to a length that the king had to assume was a far size greater than the actual explanation thanks to the hamster cat thing’s characteristic meandering manner of speech. The part of his plan involving the short version may have failed, but the king had nonetheless succeeded in the main goal of gathering up his minions, and the pockets of his white jacket where now positively glowing from within as a result of them being filled to the brim with souls, Koopas on the left, Goombas on the right. The king mused about where to put the two hammer bros while he took in Tora’s explanation.

“OH… THAT’S A BIT MORE THAN I THOUGHT” was his rather flat response to learning the universe had been destroyed and recreated in Galeem’s image. “I’VE SEEN THAT HAPPEN TO A GALAXY BEFORE THOUGH, SO IT’S NOT THAAAAAT IMPRESSIVE” The king continued in order to downplay their enemies massive achievement while referencing the time a galaxy rector he had made accidentally devoured the entire galaxy. Or maybe it had been the entire universe? At any rate the princess Rosalina and her luma’s had done something to reset the whole thing to save all of existence. Bowser’s magikoopa advisor/foster father Kamek had tried to explain what had happened to him in the aftermath, but Bowser had more or less brushed him off to go try and conquer the galaxy again, this time involving a plan involving a more controlled galaxy eating machine and having peach make him a very big cake that would match the building sized form he had had at the time. Galaxy conquest failed the second time around too naturally, but at least the universe did not need resetting another time, and the king subsequently returned to more grounded schemes like kidnaping pixi like beings, building a theme park and while wearing a catsuit, or going around the globe acquiring the ingredients for a perfect wedding on the moon.

The rest of the explanation passed without further comment as Bowser did his level best to internally translate his messenger’s semi incoherent rambling into useful info. He was going to have to mull over the implications of the souls but Tora’s final comment was something he easily grasped. “THIRTEEN BOSSES TO OPEN THE WAY HUH? YEAH, THAT'S PRETTY CLASSIC BAD GUY STUFF. THEY’RE GONNA REGRET BRAWLING WITH THE BIGGEST, BADDEST BOSS OF THEM ALL THAT’S FOR SURE.” he smirked before turning his attention to the rest of his returning troops. Linkle was the first to arrive with a bottle of goomba souls which she emptied out into the kings claw and telling him to “put them in his heart” so they could come back before plonking the bottle in the hands of Tora and sprinting off.

“WHAT KIND OF SAPPY MAGIC IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE?” he grumbled before shaking his head dismissively at such an un-villionouse prospect and popping the souls in with the other goomba souls. He proceeded to steal the bottle from Tora after the master gallivanted on past them to almost get himself squished and putting the two hammer bro’s souls in it before depositing the container inside the koopa pocket, keeping everything nice and organized. With that he turned his attention to the various people who had not raced on through level 1-1 while he had been distracted. The main thing he recognised, other than the fact that a lot of people had apparently gone ahead without waiting for his slow ass, was that some of the people left where not going to be making it over this introductory stage unassisted, namly Tora, who was upfront with it, and the new human girl who looked to be in no state to be doing any physical exertion despite Blazermate’s ministrations. If it weren't for the fact that sofar all of the new troops had proven themselves useful he might have just abandoned her there, or that is what the king told himself anyway. As it was he gave her the most basic of inductions into his forces “I’M BOWSER. YOUR IN MY ARMY. WE’RE GOING TO BEAT THE GALEEM”

With that settled the king gave a slightly over dramatised groan to indicate his displeasure with the prospect he was about to suggest “AND I GUESS I’M GIVING LIFTS AGAIN. ONCE WE CAPTURE PEACH’S CASTLE YOU ARE ALL GOING TO HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO JUMP PROPERLY”

After a few moments the king was loaded with passengers, one given a secure fireman’s carry while the others making do with taking perches on his shell, and was then ready to get underway



The king took a brief moment to rolled his shoulders and stamped his feet in warm up to this next bout of exertion before thundering down the approach towards the pit and the thwomp. Unable to go under the great block due to his size, as it would likely result in hims scrapping passengers off his shell like a truck going beneath a too low bridge, the king instead leaped up at the thwomp with a slow gravity defying leap. With his free claw he grabbed a corner of the great stone obstacle and then proceeded to hauled him atop it, the koopa carefully avoiding squishing anyone off in the process. The thwomp glared angrily at the heavy load that had mounted it, the king himself being only somewhat smaller than it, yet it was unable to do anything about its former master’s insulting position, anchored as it was with its lot in life. The simple mind of the massoned living weapon fumed as the king hopped down from it, landing at near the master with a heavy thump.

“YOU. SMART GUY. KEEP MOVING AND TELL ME WHO THE 13 BUTTS I GOTTA KICK BELONG TOO.” he ordered as he stood next to the master in prime boarding position.

The king then proceeded through the rest of the course, vaulting across chasms, collecting more minion souls, and smashing blocks until he came to the end, making his way by a flagpole that promptly raised a banner with his emblem on it in response to his passing, and arrived at the joining point of the three paths they could have taken. After allowing a moment for his passengers to get off bowser advanced into the ancient gardens to be confronted by yet more familiar faces.

“OH GREAT. THESE THINGS” He groaned before clarifying “I WENT ON VACATION ONE TIME AND WHEN I CAME BACK MY SON HAD RECRUITED THESE RABBIDS TOO FIGHT MARIO AND THEY MADE A HUGE MESS OF THE KINGDOM IN THE PROCESS” he left out the part where he had been possessed by some cyber phoenix thing that had seemingly been the true mastermind of the whole event on his return home and had to be saved by mario, green-stach, peach, mario’s dino dad and a bunch of rabbits cosplaying as the four “IT WAS A PRETTY GOOD ATTEMPT THOUGH.” he mused sentimentally before a look of concern crossed his face. He worried about how JR was faring in this misbegotten world. Bowser might be a repeated mindconsole victim but his son had been spared that fate until now. He assured himself that the boy was made of tough stuff like his old man was and then resumed forward progress, slowly stomping his way past the distracted rabbids with renewed purpose, heading for his love’s castle and the sounds of battle that echoed around it.

---

Zer0 was pleased to note that his shots hit where he wanted, but was mildly disappointed at the apparent lack of his skills beyond decepti0n. b0re should have made those shots more than enough to kill such meager Badasses.

He was coming closer to the ground now as the idiotic creatures decided to become Suicide Psychos before he could even process the change in behavior. His visor popped a '0w0' as he braced himself. The explosion went off as he was coming down, slowing his descent mildly as the shockwave nearly knocked him unconscious, and he landed on the backside the crater with a simple roll to his feet. Sword out he looked around before relaxing. They seemed to be in the clear, at least. He took a few moments to pull bits of shrapnel from his body, lazily tossing the pieces behind him.

;)

"Badasses go boom.
Their attempts at destruction
Were all for naught, ha!"

Carefully he walked back towards the mercenary as he made to crush the odd little ball thing in his hand. He seemed fairly unhurt, which was good for teamwork, and Zer0 decided that he'd work alongside this man for the immediate future.

"Vault Hunter, you
Have my loyalty. Badass
Verified teamwork."

Bowser reacted to the information that the Master of Masters had with about the response Blazermate expected, especially coming from Toba. That offhanded comment about "Sappy magic" did show that Bowser didn't fully understand what was going on, but Blazermate wasn't going to re correct him considering how many spirits he seemed to stuff in his suit. Looking around, Blazermate didn't see Linkle, Din, or Ratchet, and figured they had gone on ahead while Bowser had waited for everyone else in his 'troop'.

As Bowser rambled on about how he was going to destroy Galeem and the 13 cores of his power, quoting his own... farfetched achievements, Blazermate looked around at the surroundings. Apparently all this was from Bowser's world, and his world was mostly castles, highways, and floating things? Especially the floating rocks that just, sat over a bottomless pit, were just silly. But considering all the magic that Blazermate was expecting from a mismash of a bunch of universes, the outlandish was to be expected.

when the group made their way to a sheer cliff, with one of those rock things overlooking their path forward, the faceless master decided to go first and almost failed his jump, just barely making it and dodging the giant rock thing, which when the master got under it, decided it was going to try to squish him. Bowser seemed to know what this thing was, and offered a ride to most of the party, although there wasn't all that much space on his shell. Considering this was his world, Blazermate wasn't too surprised he could jump as well as he did carrying most of the party with him.

Blazermate herself wouldn't have any trouble crossing a canyon like this, but she noticed that someone was left behind. Walking over to her party member, she offered. "OK, I can't fly you across myself, but I can give you an extended jump with my jets. think you can jump far enough to make that?". with her offer taken, she started to hover in the air, grabbed that person's hands, and aided them across the canyon, making the pair almost gracefully glide through the air as her jets roared with noise. Sure that rock tried to squish the pair, but unlike the master, they were much faster in the air and landed much further along than he did, so the rock thing just missed.

Having aided her comrade, she followed Bowser through the rest of this strange highway, giving her aid to her comrade whenever they came across one of the many canyons in this area until Bowser had stopped, looking at an entirely new area with cartoon looking rabbit things that seemed a little unhinged. Bowser seemed to know them, and gave a little explanation of them, before he stomped onwards towards the area before the castle. Flying up a bit to scope it out, Blazermate saw what looked like a scrapyard with... very clunky robots fighting the rabbit things and each other with heavy ordinance, the stuff that was actually pretty scary to deal with. And before that, she caught the red color of Din hovering over a very rotund pig man.

"Hey Mr. Bowser. I found Din and Linkle up ahead. Din is fighting some giant pig man and Linkle is dealing with these rabbit things. Lets go pick them up. Beyond that looks... really really nasty. Like, Robots vs Robots, and none of them medabots. They're using guns, cannons, rockets, and lots and lots of other nasty stuff." Blazermate said, landing and explaining the situation ahead to everyone in the group. Advancing behind Bowser, she got ready to aid Linkle with her fight with these strange rabbit things.

As the group approached where Linkle was fighting everything, a thought crossed Blazermate's mind. She wondered where the Courier and Zer0 were, they should've been here by now. Geno meanwhile had gone on way ahead, and having seen the battle in the scrapyard, Blazermate was a bit concerned over the wooden medabot as she saw the robot v robot v rabbit fight there. But now she had to support Linkle, and further on, Din and Ratchet with their fights.

---

"AAAHHHHHHHH," Linkle screamed in kind as the strange rabbit things started going off like war horns, scattered, and opened fire. She started running almost immediately, leaping back and forth to dodge the hail of projectiles as she charged forward. What were those things they were using, anyway? They looked like guns, but unlike Michael's she could actually see the things it was firing. They were fast but not the sort of instant hit fast that she'd seen, so there was really no point in running for cover.

They were about as good a shot as her anyway, and this was obviously that "covering fire" thing he'd been talking about. That meant they were just going to be coming for her anyway, so she might as well speed things along by meeting them halfwa-

A shot, better aimed than the others, caught her right in the thigh and caused her to stumble and was followed up by a hit to the chest that burned a circle in her shirt and threw her to the ground. The other ones capitalized on this and pelted her with hot shots, knocking more sense out of her and tearing up the grass.

She pounded a fist into the ground and rolled behind a nearby block to take cover for herself. She pat down the spots where she'd been hit, which were already red. He chest, her back, all over her arms, everything started to burn. Then she heard the sound of flesh smacking against flesh, as though two of the rabbits had high fived, then they started laughing.

"Owowowow, little monsters." She said to herself. "You're not big enough to be this dangerous."

What had Michael's advice about this been again? Don't rush them? Well, she'd already made that mistake. What else? Wait till they run out of ammo? She didn't know if they had any ammo. Surprise them? Just use a ranged weapon of her own? That wouldn't work either, she couldn't aim.

She pressed her back up against the block and peaked up over real quick. A few of them had moved up, but she didn't get a good enough look before the she was noticed and had to duck as more shots rained on block. She'd gotten closer at least, almost within her comfortable range.

Still, she couldn't fight these guys like this. Not with them ready to shoot her as soon as she popped out.

There was that last thing Michel had said. Distract them. These guy certainly seemed easily distracted, but how could she do that now? Her eye slid to the green mental that hung from her shoulders.

She threw it out and it was shot by the hair trigger hares, but Linkle had already run round the opposite way and charged, crossbow clutched in both hands and shooting like a madwoman at the nearest rabbit before sweeping her bow back and forth to lay down some covering fire of her own as she ran.

She spotted those two the farthest back, the ones that had the really good aim. The two reasons she had had to sacrifice her favorite hood. As she looked at them a red light began to emanate from the tip of her bow and she couldn't help but grin. When had she gotten that back. With a whop she took her crossbow back in one hand and sweat it forward, like she was trying to hit the rabbit with it, and pulled the trigger. Instead of an arrow, though, what shot out was a bright blue bomb the size of her head with a hellishly burning wick. It landed right between them, but she didn't have to to watch what happened next.

She had managed to break into the middle of their little formation, and was utterly without cover. It was do or die time. She swung the still glowing tip of the bow at the next rabbit, then the next, then the next, quickly throwing bombs in all directions around her.

Though they found the way obstructed, Bowser and Blazermate wasted no time in rendering aid to their less-mobile allies. As much as he would have liked to be carried by the Medabot, Tora wagered himself too hefty for her to carry over the gap, or at least to get across fast enough to avoid the thwomp. In a way, Tora thought this better; after all, if Blazermate could pull it off, she'd be doing something accomplished routinely by Poppi in the past, and the Nopon did not want to think of her as Poppi's replacement in any respect. Instead, Tora found himself tucked under the arm of Bowser. After a surprised, “Mehmehmeh!?” he stopped wiggling and allowed King Koopa to bear him upward and onward. In a few moments, the whole team lay on the opposite side of the chasm, not one of them crushed beneath the thwomp's weight. As his little feet hit the ground again, Tora breathed a sigh of relief.

From there, the group made its way through 1-1 at a brisk pace, especially after Blazermate's briefing of what lay ahead. Though clearly affected by the exertion, the Master of Masters did not shy away from Bowser's question. “Actually, I wish I knew myself,” the cloaked stranger conceded. “My eye only ever saw Galeem's name written down. Best guess is, none of you ever find out the names of the enemies you're destined to face.” He vaulted over a green pipe, glancing back as a smoky-black piranha plant popped up from it a moment later. Turning forward again, the Master held up a single index finger. “That said, I do know something. One of them is, I believe, of the legacy of my apprentice Luxu. Whoever he is, he wields the nameless keyblade that contains my eye, and his heart is steeped in darkness. Black...that is the color of Galeem he embodies.” Another pit lay ahead, this one bridged in several places by rows of falling orange blocks. The Master of Masters ran across one, reached the other side, and spun about with fists clenched. “Doesn't that description just fill ya with dread?, or what?”

Evidently it did not, or at least not enough to stymie the group's progress. Before long the team left 1-1 behind, proceeding into a series of much more clearly-defined areas interspersed with cover. Tora marked Bowser's commentary about the inhabitants of Ancient Gardens, giving dubious looks at the rabbids he passed. “So...even under control of Galeem, they just fiddle around, not attack Tora?”

The Master of Masters shook his head. “Oh, nonono. They're not under Galeem's 'control', buddy. More like...they're under his 'influence'. Like if you're drunk, say. You see the world in a different way, and might do terrible things you'd never do normally, but you're not being controlled.” He leveled a finger at the seraphic entity far away. “Y'know, I very much doubt that thing's aware of what's going on at all. If it was...phooo.” A dramatic exhale escaped him. “I'd wanna be as far away as I could get. I betcha anything the thirteen bosses as the 'awake' fragments of its consciousness, protecting it from harm.”

He fell silent as sounds of commotion came from ahead. Everyone rushed over the wooden bridge separating the first and second thirds of Ancient Gardens, and arrived at the second battlefield. There, they arrived just in time to witness a series of small but brilliant explosions sending yowling rabbids soaring, stray shots flying in every direction. In the center of the chaos stood Linkle, bearing some battle damage and bereft of her hood but possessed of victory. With their reflex shots spent and no time to concentrate for more, the rabbids had proved unable to stop her as she lambasted them with her bombs. The three not reduced to ash by the onslaught were lit on fire, and ran screaming for the water. With nary a second's hesitation they dove in, and after quenching their fire floated off downstream. Three ziggy spirits remained behind, free for the taking.

It took a moment for Tora to close his mouth, which had been hanging open in awe. “Mehmeh! Even by self, Link-Link is great fighter!” Spotting a smoldering pile of familiar cloth, he jogged over to where Linkle's mantle had fallen. Just as he'd done for Ratchet in an attempt to endear himself to the owner, he held up the girl's garment with his wings. Looking through the holes in it, he called, “Here, must have dropped!” and wadded it up to hurl her way.

As exciting as the explosive end of Linkle's solo battle turned out to be, more adventure lay in store in the Ancient Gardens. After crossing the second bridge, and pushing through the leaves of a few gigantic ferns, the party happened upon the other scouting team. To the left, on the other side of a small river, Ratchet and Din could be found on either side of an absolute hulk of a man, who lay unconscious on the ground. The state of the heroes, as well as the scarlet emanation from within the stranger's pig-shaped mask, told at a glance what had transpired.

The Master of Masters, privy to a previous scenario somewhat similar, put two and two together lickety-split. “Good-ness me, you two took on -and beat- him alone? I was wondering when he'd show up, actually—I saw him with the team in the future, you see. But hey, great job! That's one discrepancy accounted for.” Reaching back, he hooked onto one of the oversized fronds with his keyblade and pulled it with him as he walked toward the edge. By the time he stood on the precipice, the whole thing was bent enough to provide a bridge to the other side, so long as someone held it down.

However, the Master of Masters did not seem inclined to ask for help. He upended his clockwork keyblade and stabbed it through the leaf and into the ground, then traipsed on over to where Roadhog lay. “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” he uttered. “Let's get you back on your feet, huh, pal?” He reached out a hand, but not toward Roadhog. Instead, his fingers extended toward Din. A light gleamed in her chest, and from the glow a mote of light shot out into the Master of Masters' palm. There came a flash, and when it faded he held a new keyblade in his hand. “And awaaaaay we go!” This weapon he unceremoniously drove into the unconscious man's heart. From the point of contact flared forth a burning, awful light, the same radiance that shone so keenly in the heroes' memories. A few moments of furious struggle passed as the Master of Masters endeavored to keep his keyblade on target, until with a final shove he cleaved Galeem's light away.

A blinding white flash obscured everything, but faded after a moment. Once it could be seen again, Roadhog's skin could be seen regaining its normal hue, and the red light in his eyes ceased. The Master of Masters collapsed, panting, and the keyblade fell to the ground a foot or so away from Din. If she touched it, she'd find that despite not existing just a minute prior, it felt oddly familiar and comfortable. “Guhh...” its crafter gasped. “...I dunno how many more of those I can do, to be honest! At least this guy's heart...is free.”

After the spectacle ceased to capture his interest, Tora ended up looking around. Pretty much everyone had been reunited now, except the doll, Geno, and...someone else. After a moment of contemplation he piped up, “...Maybe Tora misremember, but didn't friends have pinkypon Kirby with them?” Off on the far end of the Ancient Gardens, a squadron of rabbids could be seen making the ascent to the Scrapyard, among them a certain specimen with a pack and a giant white hat.

---

The spirit did not seem cognizant of the Courier's approach, not altering its usual, gentle floating even as his fingers closed around it. 6 found the orb more sturdy than he might have expected, but after a couple seconds it gave way beneath his escalating force, and buckled instantaneously with the sound of shattering glass. Its multicolored essence flowed out from his fist, the colors weaving into an entirely new shape. The process accelerated, lines becoming edges and panels turning to matter, until with a final shine a weapon had fully materialized.



A few moments after the grenade launcher appeared, the main group from which 6 and Zer0 separated themselves prior made its way from the central route into the area directly preceding Ancient Gardens. If the pair wanted to return to the fold, there would be no better chance for them to do so than now.

---

The moment Geno stopped talking, the heavy silence of the place returned. It hung alongside the musky, thick dungeon air. Mario, hanging by wrists bound in manacles of iron, gave no response until Geno began to prepare his weaponry. Squeezing his eyes shut, the plumber craned his head to the side, shying away from the doll's trembling cannon. Even so, while evidencing no sign of hostility, he did not appear to recognize the wooden entity before him. Geno's final plea went unanswered, and with his last ditch attempt fruitless, there occurred to him no recourse other than to pull the trigger.

In the confined space, the weapon's discharge created a tremendous uproar, but no voice could be heard mixed in with the clamor. When the light died down and the dust settled, Mario remained where he had been, albeit scorched and burning. His eyes, however, lay back on Geno.

He clenched his fists, pulling taut the chains. Raising himself up, he placed the bottoms of his feet against the wall, tensed his muscles, and pulled. The next moment his tremendous strength ripped him free from the wall, though not from the chains. When he hit the ground, two giant chunks of stone fell along with him, shackled to him by his bonds. The scarlet-eyed puppet put his incredible might to work, violently yanking the makeshift flails to slam into his newfound foe.

---

Linkle twirled her crossbow and slotted it right into her boot as she watched the serving rabbits dunk themselves into the river and float away. It wasn't very hero like, put it made her feel much better to watch them run around like that after what had happened.

It wasn't long after that that the group caught up with her, with Tora announcing their presence. Linkle turned and waved excitedly. "Hey guys. I had a little trouble, but nothing a hero couldn't solve. Oh, thanks Tora." She caught the wadded up ball of green and unfurled it in her hand. She sighed and sadly ran her finger around the edge of the biggest hole those things had shot in it. She couldn't believe it. The adventure had barely started and she'd already had her heroic green all torn up and ragged. She draped it back over her shoulders anyway. "Michael was right, guns are no joke. I don't suppose any of you guys know how to sew?" She asked hopefully.

It wasn't long before the three spirits left floating around caught her attention. She supposed they were hers, seeing as she'd taken them out. She wandered over, briefly considering taking one of the stampy ones aiming skills but quickly reconsidered putting one of those weird things in her head. Still, her right hand was kind of empty until they found Ratchet. She reached out and grasped one of the spirits, ready to crush it. Then, looking at it with great consideration, grabbed a second one.

If she was going to get equipment from these it paid to get a matched pair. She squeezed, and crushed them.

---

Linkle overlooked the hulking, pig faced man. "Wow, and here I thought the rabbits were trouble. You guys took this guy out? You're incredible!"

She wasn't so sure about letting the pig guy join up with them. Hyrule didn't have a very good history with pig men, what with one being the literal embodiment of everything vile and evil. What if he turned out to be a bad guy? Not like Bowser, who insisted he was a bad guy despite all evidence to the contrary, but an actual villain?

But the master said he was with them, so there was really nothing she could do about it. Destiny said so, so she'd hold her tongue.

Of course, she didn't feel the need to hold her tongue when The Master collapsed. She quickly leaned down to catch him, trying her best to keep him off the dirt.

When Tora brought up the missing Kirby Linkle looked around with him. "Oh yeah, were'd that little guy get off to? Did you hide him somewhere?"

Din was bent over, her hands on her knees, still attempting to catch her breath after the battle with Roadhog, when the rest of the group arrived. She wasn't sure what to do with the large man, but fortunately, the man in the hooded cloak had a solution. Din was taken by surprise when the man pointed at her, a warm feeling encompassing her body, and an uncontrollable gasp escaping her lips as the Master of Masters extracts a ball of light from her chest, which turned into a weapon. Din was captivated by the spectacle, and particularly the weapon, but Tora's question broke her out of her curious musings. Din felt horrible, but she had to tell the truth, "This guy had a partner, one of those rabbits, they took the hat and ran off that way." As she pointed, she squinted her eyes, realizing that it was still within view, though it seemed to have caught up with a group of its allies. "I see it! The rascal's right over there! We might be able to catch up with it!"

But with the group back together, Din was slightly less worried about letting the Rabbid slip out of their grasp and brought Linkle and Ratchet together. "Hey, umm, Linkle, this crossbow really saved our skin. Do you still need this, Ratchet, or should we return it to Linkle?" Din asked. Din also took back her Rod of Seasons, realizing that the Gem of Winter glowed with a faint light, while the others remained dull. Did this mean that the power of Winter had been restored to the Rod?

Whatever the fate of Linkle's crossbow, Din went back to the Master of Masters, and noticed the reviving Roadhog. "Umm, what is this weapon you pulled out of me? Could I use it to free these apparently mind-controlled creatures as well?" Din attempts to pick up the keyblade, not knowing its connection with her.

---

Geno waited anxiously for his old friend to respond. Yet as the seconds grew longer the longer he stood there, aiming his cannon straight at him, it wouldn't help to cure his ever increasing wariness towards the situation. Anything could do at this point - a simple nod, a "lets-a-go", or even a "mama-mia", just let it be something!

"Please..." Geno muttered quietly while shaking his head shamefully, "Don't make me do this, Mario."

But then Mario seemed to respond - however not through the star warrior's directions or hopes. At first, he remained as silent as a statue, looking into his eyes with a harsh-glare through the stale murky air. But then he'd proceed to close his eyes and turned his head to the side. Geno's wooden heart would sink deeply into his body upon seeing such a pitiful sight. Surely his friend was still somewhere inside that cold-metal exterior. He had to be!

Yet if he really was his friend, he would've nodded twice like the star warrior asked him to do. While this "Mario" didn't seem hostile to his presence, it certainly didn't seem to recognize him either. Yet that swerve of the head was enough to convince the wooden doll that there certainly was a spark within him. A small and rather insignificant one sure, but it survives deep down within him. That tiny speck of hope must be freed! But in order for that to happen, Geno had no choice but to engage his comrade. He hated the thought stupendously, still struggling to cease fire, but at the end of the day it was the only way to get him out. And once he'd do so, there's no turning back now.

"Well..." the star warrior mentioned softly with a wobbly voice, "You leave me with no choice... Know only that this will be for your own good."

Geno also proceeded to close his eyes as soon as his beam was fully charged. And with a sudden release, the cannon fired a beam of bluish-light, creating a vicious roar of energy and sound as it echoed throughout the dungeon halls. The sturdy wooden joints were enough to keep the star warrior planted on the ground, but even then the shockwave was able to have him slide back just a smidge. He covers his entire face before the explosive light died down. Thick dust was kicked up into the air, leaving his visibility momentarily compromised from the blast. And for the moment, not a peep could be heard from either side.

Geno peered through the dissipating dust as he finally laid his eyes on the corrupted Mario. Not surprisingly, he was still alive and - save for the scorch marks on his overalls - hadn't even moved an inch from where he stood. And he still pierced into Geno's soul with that menacing glare of his.

Now he'd done it.

With that, Mario quickly freed himself from his captive prison, using an incredible amount of strength that he was so renowned for. Geno watched in horror as he ripped himself from the wall which ensnared him and landed with a thunderous thud. And yet, he failed to break out of his chains - as they still dangled from his wrists, being dragged down by two large stone boulders that once secured him in place. Considering the amount of strength he utilized, the star warrior knew that he'd use these two stone pendulums as miniature wrecking balls.

And they'd surely hit him hard once they connected to his rather feebly wooden form.

Just shy from successfully dodging them, Geno found himself being tossed back with incredible force. He'd fly back for several meters before violently crashing into the opposite wall. The doll suffered from minor bruises and splinters - as well as temporarily being dazed upon impact - as he kneeled onto the cold pavement. He took a few seconds to gather his belongings as he slowly looked up to see his opponent and his menacing utilities in hand. He's going to have to take care of these restraints first and he's definitely going to keep his distance in this instance.

The star warrior's boot thrusters would suddenly spring to life as he began to quickly circle Mario, looking for a potential opening to strike at least one of his chains. He quickly forms two light disks as he carefully eyes his target. Once he found the chance, he threw both disks as they skimmed through the darkness with their powerful radiance. Geno figured that at least one of his disks will be destroyed before it can engage - although that was exactly the point. One disk would surely sacrifice itself to secure the vulnerable opening for the next.

And while that is in action, Geno attempts to fire another beam towards Mario in an attempt to punish him for being distracted.

Zer0’s words washed over Courier 6 as he ping ponged his thoughts to make heads or tails of the weird way the assassin spoke. Thankfully this time the flowery language was left at the door, leaving only the strange being’s syntax as the struggle to interpret. As far as the things 6 had heard Zer0 say, this time was refreshingly direct. Loyalty? The Courier was always willing to have another traveling companion. Badass? Heh, well yes, he supposed he was pretty badass. Vault Hunter, well that he… Wait, the Hell was a Vault Hunter?

”The hell is a Vault Hunt-What’s happening?” His attention shot back to the spirit in his grasp, which buckled and broke beneath his grip. The colors flowed outward and around, taking on new shape, malleability becoming solid substance. His eyes took it all in, the rainbow of color dulling into a bland paint job. He now held in his hand some sort of gun. Bigger than he was used to using, which could pose a problem, but a gun nonetheless. Two barrels, rotary action, he recognized what manner of weapon it was after only half a second of observation.

”I’ll be damned,” he muttered, then spoke up for Zer0’s sake. ”These spirits turn into loot when you break them! Hot damn! Now if this is what I think it is…” He played around with the weapon for a few seconds, turning it over in his hands, checking it over for any damage, following the mechanics. It seemed to lack any sort of ammo clip, magazine, belt, or feed. Even the rotating cylinder didn’t eject for reloads. Most peculiar. It also didn’t have any sort of power cell, so it didn’t appear to be an energy based weapon. That’s when his eye caught sight of a green meter along the side. Now what could that be? Well, whatever it was, time to test the weapon out.

Hearing some grumbling and pitter patter nearby, the Courier turned to see more of those goblin and bokoblin creatures slowly making their way up the incline. They seemed to have been surprise that he detected them, almost as if they were trying to make a last ditch sneak attack on the pair of badasses. Not a good move on their part. He held up the weapon, looked down the sights, and pulled the primary trigger.

Thwoomp!

A projectile launched outward, landing in the midst of the creatures. It barely gave off a single beep before exploding, triggered by their proximity alone. They went flying, then dissolved and left behind little spirits just as their kin did. A few survived, albeit heavily injured, and slinked away instantly, wanting nothing more to do with the conflict. The Courier winced slightly, not so much at the carnage he had just created, but at the functionality of the weapon. ”Dammit, I figured as much…” Once again he glanced at the little green meter, taking notice of how it had been partially depleted. However, very slowly, it was creeping back up. An internal power source with automatic recharge? The grenade launcher lacked any solar panels, so it couldn’t have been solar powered. How did it recharge, then? Energy didn’t just come from nowhere, it has to be transferred somehow! Curious, but ultimately disappointing to the Courier.

”You want this loot?” he asked Zer0, holding it up. ”I don’t like explosives. My world kinda, well, got blown up by nukes a few hundred years ago. Gives ya a weeeee little bit of a distaste for explosions.”

Zer0’s helmet flashed with another image, this one a “0w0,” as he spoke.
"Explosives are not
The kind of weapon I use
Except the Norfleet."

6 merely shrugged, barely bothering to spare a thought as to what this “Norfleet” could possibly be, and slung the grenade launcher over his back. No way was he just going to let it sit there for one of Galeem’s brainwashed flunkies to happen across. Maybe someone else in the group would be able to put it to better use? Speaking of which, they had reached the top of the canyon. The wastelander could see where all three of the paths intersected, and what’s more he could see the rest of the group moving forward, ahead without the two of them.

”Damn, guess everyone is in a rush. No time to harvest all these little guys for loot. Hey, thanks for the assist, pardner. You’re a real badass too, and I got your back anytime.” Without another word, the Courier took off at a brisk running pace. They had to catch up with the others, especially with what looked to be a full blown war going on up ahead.

---

The Courier ran past the various rabbit-like creatures, who for the most part all seemed to be doing their own things. None had attacked him, so he was content to live and let live. That meant that he was able to reach the main group just as the hooded figure was stabbing some morbidly obese creature in the chest with… Was that a giant key? Weird. Well setting that aside, the Courier approached the massive King Bowser to report the situation. He wasn’t looking forward to the encounter. Not that he expected the Koopa King to react unfavorably to the news, quite the opposite. It was just that the jet had worn off and he was coming down from the high. He didn’t much feel like talking to anybody.

”A’right boss, just like I promised, the canyon has been secured from all enemy forces. Once we take that castle, we can rest assured that no enemies will be launching an assault from that flank. Side note, I found out that if you throttle the fuck out of these little spirits left behind from our kills, they turn into loot!” He held up the grenade launcher that had once been the trio of bomb-lobbing goblins, as if to present a kill for his master. But of course, Bowser was not his master, just a temporary employer, and this was no gift. He wasn’t in the business of giving out gifts, at least not to the already entitled such as the king. Maybe to someone poor or down on his luck, but not a king. The Courier was much too greedy for that.

That’s when he noticed the dancing woman, Din, speaking to the cat person, Ratchet. Ratchet still had one of Linkle’s crossbows, but was otherwise unarmed. Unless you counted that oversized wrench Ratchet had on him, which the Courier most certainly did, but still, the cat-person looked a bit naked. The Courier decided to approach Ratchet with the Maniacs’ Bombuilder. ”Here,” he said, holding it out for Ratchet to take. ”It’s a recharging grenade launcher with two settings. I only tested the first one, which is proximity bombs.I’ll give it to you… If you do me a favor later. Sound good?”

The Courier didn’t even wait for Ratchet’s response, dropping the grenade launcher into what he assumed would be open and waiting arms. Tora had spoken up, saying something that demanded everyone’s immediate attention, even if they didn’t yet know it. Kirby, who was resting peacefully in Bowser’s white hat, had been taken by the rabbits!

The Courier armed himself with the Ratslayer, took a swig from his whiskey bottle, grit his teeth, and gave chase. ”Looks like it’s rabbit season!”

Ratchet was still rubbing his neck when the main group arrived on the scene, Ratchet was sitting on the ground hear the big mans head ready to hit him again if he moved. "Why'd he have to go for the neck." Ratchet wheezed as he looked up towards everyone. The motley crew seemed to have acquired another member, some dude in a robe with his face fully hidden. Ratchet wasn't sure what to make of him until he started talking that's when Ratchet was pretty sure this guy was harmless. Ratchet coughed a little as both Linkle and this newcomer commented on how impressed they were that Ratchet and Din hand managed to bring down the brute of a man. "Oh yeah that, it was nothing." He gave the downed giant a light kick. "See out like a light."

Ratchet handed Din back her staff. Din put forward the idea of giving the crossbow back to Linkle, and Ratchet was inclined to agree. "I think I'll be fine since we're all here now." Ratchet would nod to Din as she handed Linkle back her weapon. It was then that some cowboy came and dropped a gun into his arms and said he owed him a favor. Ratchet isn't one to turn his nose up at a free weapon however, taking the gun and spinning the barrel, "Uhh, thanks I guess." Ratchet shrugged to Din and Linkle "Looks like I've got a new gun anyway." he said with a brief chuckle. Truth be told Ratchet was pretty bloody excited to finally be holding a proper weapon in his hands, he would test fire it but he was near to many people at the moment, there was going to be more enemies up ahead anyway so he'd have targets to test it on soon enough. He spun the barrel of the grenade launcher as the hooded man poked some massive key into the fat mans chest, what was he doing and why the hell was it so bright!? Raising his arm to cover his eyes he waited for the intense light to stop before lowering it.

Just like that the big mans skin had turned from it's original dark hue to a natural skin colour. But before that Ratchet wanted to address the squadron of rabbits running off with the adorable Kirby. Ratchet looked over his gun one final time with a smile and ran after 6.

It didn't take long for the group to catch up to Linkle and Din, thanks to Blazermate's scouting. Linkle had just finished up her battle when they arrived, looking a bit ragged but mostly intact. As the group made their way to Din after picking up Linkle, Blazermate used her healing beam to heal any damage Linkle might've taken during her scrap, although she seemed mostly fine. "While I can heal your body, I can't really fix your cloths Linkle." Blazermate said, as Linkle offhandedly asked if anyone could fix her torn clothing.

Din and Ratchet looked a bit worse for wear than Linkle, although not by too much. Having healed up Linkle, Blazermate started to work on Din and Ratchet as the Master of Masters told the group that this pig man named Roadhog, was going to be a part of the group to save the world. Blazermate didn't really get why this masked man guessed at the future, as it wasn't set in stone, but another ally would be nice at least. What the master did next amazed and confused Blazermate. From the looks of things, using his odd weapon, he took a piece of Din's.... Blazermate wanted to say medal, and put it into Roadhog, bringing his skin and everything back to a much more natural color. This seemed to take a lot out of this master of masters to do, which was the most confusing part of it all.

Seeing this, Blazermate gave the Master a large dose of her healing beam, saying "Hope this helps, I guess your healing abilities cost you a lot of stamina." Giving the master a good dose of healing, Blazermate turned her attention to Roadhog. Around this point, Courier 6 and Zer0 rejoined the group, the former giving Ratchet a new funky looking gun and reporting in on what happened with him and Zer0 in the canyon. Absently healing Roadhog and hitting him with a revive protocol to get him up and on his feet, Blazermate looked at the two and exclaimed. "Wow what happened to you two? You really need to stick with your healer if you guys are going to come back that ragged!"

Before Blazermate was done with Roadhog, Toba exclaimed to the group that Kirby was missing, and some Rabbids had taken him and were making their way to the scrapyard up ahead. Hearing this, Courier 6 and Ratchet took off to chase Kirby's captors. Having given Roadhog some healing, Blazermate took off with the two, trying to get her healing beam on the courier, yelling. "Don't take off without your healer again!" Considering a fight would be fast approaching, it'd be best to keep these two healed up considering they had just fought, and 6 hadn't gotten any healing yet unlike Ratchet, and he looked the worse for wear.

---

So far, Michael had gone through the most physical activities he had done in weeks. A part of him hoped that they would get to rest soon, but the more logical part of him told him that, considering the whole "saving the multiverse" thing they were doing, there would be a lot more of this. As they stared down the gap, Michael had, with some apprehension, climbed onto Bowser's back and held on for dear life. He held his breath and closed his eyes, until they were across the gap. He got down, took a deep breath, and opened his eyes.

Fortunately, the rest of the journey was nowhere near as dangerous. He took mental notes of the sights on the way, searching for anything that would catch his interest. Blazermate had scouted ahead, and returned to the group with a warning of what lie ahead. Robots with guns? Sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie... Moving forward, he listened to the conversation between Bowser and the Master. It was a good question, but it seemed that the Master didn't know the answer, only that one of the thirteen enemies was related to his apprentice, and used the same sort of 'keyblade' weapon that the Master used.

As they moved on, he gave odd looks towards the rabbit creatures that they passed, seemingly too busy with whatever the hell they were doing to bother them. According to Bowser, his son had once hired them to fight for him. Bowser's got a son? Huh...I guess I could see it. Besides the fact that they were, like the enemies they had fought previously, once Bowser's minions, he could see that some of them held weapons that reminded Michael of toy guns. While he wondered what effect they might have when they were fired, it seemed they didn't have to find out, as they were able to pass by undisturbed. The Master's comments on them were also insightful- it seemed that Galeem didn't have much direct control over the creatures, rather having a sort of passive influence. The idea was somewhat worrying- if the enemies they had fought were simply being influenced by Galeem, what about those that were actively under his control?

Any further thoughts on the subject were interrupted as a series of explosions went off. Several rabbit creatures were sent flying, while the others fled by jumping into a river. Soon, Linkle appeared, looking a little worse for wear. When she made a remark about what he had said earlier about guns, he spoke up. "Well, it looks like you handled it well. I didn't know you could do...whatever that was." He gestured into the distance, where the explosions had gone off.

As they moved forward, they ran into two more party members, Ratchet and Din, as well as a hulking beast of a man that, from the looks of it, the pair had just finished knocking out. According to the Master, he had seen this guy on their team in the future. Moving up, Michael watched with curiosity as the Master began the process of bringing him out of Galeem's influence. After pulling a new keyblade out of seemingly nowhere, and then stabbed the guy in the heart. Light poured out of the man's chest, and Michael was thankful that he had his shades on. Soon enough, the light faded, and the fallen man's skin tone returned to normal. He didn't know anything about the guy, but from the way he looked, he probably wasn't too bad in a fight. The process seemed to take a lot out of the Master, though. Looks like we'll have to be careful about who we bring back. I don't want the guy to die or anything- he's the only one that knows how to bring people back, other than Kirby...which, speaking of Kirby, where the hell is he?

As Tora voiced the same question, although with less harsh language, Michael's eyes were drawn to a group of rabbids in the distance, with one of them carrying a very familiar white hat. He wasn't the only one to notice, as the cowboy-looking guy from earlier returned, only to immediately give chase, followed by Ratchet, who just got his hands on a new weapon. Filing the information about sprits away for later, he walked forward.

Putting on his earplugs, he reached for his rifle case, retrieving the Barret and flinging the empty case back over his shoulder. Stopping when he was about ten feet away from the rest of the group, he crouched down. "Everyone, if you value your hearing, I recommend that you cover your ears." Taking off his aviators, he brought the rifle up, looking down the scope at the group of rabbids. Holding his breath, he focused his aim, entering Bullet Time as he brought the crosshairs on the rabbid holding Kirby. He adjusted his aim to account for distance and the rabbid's movement, and when he had an angle where he could fire without hitting Kirby by accident, he pulled the trigger. A thunderous BOOM! could be heard as he fired the weapon, sending a .50 caliber round downrange towards the would-be kidnapper.

---

---

"Oi! Are you still kicking mate!" a familiar voice screamed towards Roadhog, who was lying on the road. He slowly opened his eyes and saw that his boss, Junkrat, was standing over him with his hands on his hips. Roadhog rolled his eyes and attempted to get himself up, but Junkrat offered a hand. And with his help, Roadhog got up and remembered that they were in King's Row neighborhood in London doing a mission with Talon. The mission was simple enough to follow: secure the EMP device and plant it inside the Underworld, a claustrophobic city for omnics. However, it seemed that Overwatch knew about their little plan and decided to stop them. Talon fought with Overwatch several times across the world and lost plenty battles with them. Recently, Rialto was a major failure as Overwatch agents were successful in entering Talon's headquarters and retrieved several classified info. It was most likely how Overwatch knew about the plan.

"What happened?" Roadhog asked Junkrat.

"Well, Reinhardt was beating you up pretty good before we came to the rescue." Junkrat explained to Roadhog while walking towards Reaper and the other team members. He shouted his name and pointed at Roadhog. Reaper came over towards the Junkers and said, "It seems that you lived. Not many could say that."

"He's stronger than he looks!" Junkrat pointed out.

"I suppose so." Reaper only stated before returning to the others. He was explaining how Sombra and Widowmaker went ahead to spy on Overwatch stationed near the entrance of the Underworld before Junkrat interrupted him. Now, he had a new plan on crushing the resistance. Sombra and Widowmaker would distract them while the rest of the team launched a surprise attack with help from the tube lines. Now with Roadhog presented, he was going to be the distract Overwatch with help from Junkrat (once he set up the explosions in the tube line). Meanwhile, the others would attempt to flank Overwatch and plant the EMP device.

With the plan in place, Talon split up and went to their destination. Roadhog waited at the abandoned Fox and Bear for Junkrat to return from the underground station. He took the time to reflect the life that he had as Roadhog, a merciless killing machine. Roadhog became a well-known name across the Outback for his ruthless method of completing contracts and collecting targets. Then, he met the infamous Junkrat. Junkrat was wanted for possessing something incredibly valuable to the entire world. Of course, Roadhog thought that it was going to an easy job to deliver him to the Queen; but, he never expected to be betrayed by her.

Afterward, he had no choice to work with Junkrat to find out why she betrayed him. Unfortunately, she didn't provide any useful answers to him and it left him feeling empty. It was when he offered to become Junkrat's bodyguard for fifty percent. Junkrat fought with him about the percentage but accepted it at fifty-fifty. Now it has been a year since the offer was accepted, both Junkers are close friends and have been through a lot during the year. Roadhog then remembered a life before the explosion. Before the Junkers. Before the mask. However, he noticed that it was brighter thanks to the reflection of the glass. It was as if an explosion went off in the distance, but he didn't remember Junkrat planting anything in London.

Originally, he went to contract Junkrat to question him about it but was abruptly interrupted by the sky. It lit up like the Sun was crashing towards the Earth, which caused Roadhog to be blinded for a moment. He tried to get back into the pub but fell to the ground on accident. While his vision was returning, he heard Junkrat shouting in surprise and tried to get in contact with everyone including his pal. "Hog, where are you?!" Junkrat demanded. Before he could respond, Roadhog's vision returned and watched as pure light was coming towards him like a flame. It was the last thing that he saw.

---

There was only oblivion. There was no way of communicating or moving in the darkness. It felt like Roadhog was slowing losing his mind to the blackness. But, he heard whispers of people in the distance with no beginning or ending. Finally, he decided to attempt running towards the source. It felt like he wasn't going anyway, but the whispers got louder and louder. Suddenly, he heard a shot so loud that it echoed across nothingness. Then, he woke up to a sunny day with clean skies. Roadhog felt like that he was asleep for an eternity, but he clearly remembered everything before being consumed by the light.

He knew that he wasn't in London anymore. And in a moment of fear and rage, he grabbed the chain and yanking it as hard as he could. The hook flew pass some of the strangers before Roadhog caught. Then, he stabbed the hook onto the ground and used it as a support to help himself off of the ground. After getting up, Roadhog shoved few of the strangers out of the way in the hopes of giving himself a fair advantage. He stared at the group of strangers and couldn't see Junkrat or anyone familiar.

Roadhog clutched his scrap gun and hook in preparation for a fight. He had no reason to trust them at all. After all, he couldn't remember how he got to this foreign land. "Where am I?" he tried to ask the group of strangers and got no answer due to the mask causing his voice to be muffled. When he got no answer, he pulled the trigger of his scrap gun and fired a warning shot. The scrap left holes in the ground to serve as a reminder to respond quickly. And when Roadhog felt that it wasn't quick enough, he decided to yell out the question in anger.

"WHERE AM I?!"

---

---

Bowser was just an absolute sweetheart, charming even her icy cold-
Never mind, trying to be sarcastic just gave her a headache...

A brief nod was all the response she needed to give. Bowser seemed like a busy man and not the type to be held up with introductions, so she let the conversation slide for now. He was kind enough to offer a lift to get across the gap, however she had to decline a place. Now was a good chance to test her strength for real, and remind her of just how much muscle she had lost in those final weeks. She began to stretch to warm herself up, finding even that simple act to be harder than it had once been. It was a long jump, yeah, but if the Master could make it then she was confident in her own ability to clear the canyon.

The Tower's mobility, even when weighed down, was impressive to say the least. Even with passengers he could clear the gap and climb above the Thwomp without too much difficulty. Maybe it was his sheer strength instead, as he was a rather muscly one.

But that was something she could comprehend at a later date. For now, Minako had to focus on herself.
Thankfully she had help in the form of Blazermate, who offered to help so long as she could jump well enough. It made the team leader chuckle. "Jump? How about we fly?" She gave her naginata a twirl as though to emphasise her point. She didn't get good with polearms just to fight, after all.

Once the two were ready the redhead, with a deep breath, sprinted down the path towards the canyon - an unspecified drop awaiting her if she miscalculated. But, considering she'd done this more than a few times now, it wasn't much of a problem. The real trouble came in pulling her body up and yanking out the naginata after she stabbed it into the ground, using it to pole-vault well into the air. The lactic acid was already kicking in, her arms throbbing with a dull ache, one clutching the naginata as the other sailed freely above. Her jump, while greater than the Master's, wouldn't be enough to clear the Thwomp on her own. Thankfully, she had Blazermate for that.

The two made it well beyond the initial pit, due to their combined effort, and, with the rest of the team, breezed through the remainder of the obstacle course. There was some struggling here and there, but ultimately her body was capable of keeping up, if only with some painful side effects. At least it wasn't deadly!

She mostly kept to herself behind the group, watching as they caught up with apparent acquaintances that had split off earlier. A westerner with a... grenade launcher? It made her uncomfortable watching him wield it so casually, though as he passed it to the much smaller yellow lombax, a sense of ease washed over her. Somehow she was more comfortable with Ratchet wielding it than Six.
Speaking of, they likely all had their own tarot assignments too: moon, star, and... temperance? Maybe. The new three members she'd have to think a little harder on. But she could only keep her mind on cards for so long, especially as the Master summoned one of those "key blades" from the lovers, before giving it to her after using it to seemingly revive the large... man?

At least it was easier to understand why he needed them now. If he could make blades from them to revive others, then it made sense to want to keep said people around. But now, the question was wh-

A sudden BOOM! sent a shock wave through Minako's entire body, heart beating harder than perhaps it ever had. It was a gunshot, no doubt. Her eyes looked around for any sign of the shooter, though couldn't find anything in the distance. Yet as her eyes drew to the foreground, the teenager found her answer:
The Devil. He was laying on the ground with a large rifle, thankfully aimed in the opposite direction. Yet even so, just the sound made her think of a time she didn't want to have to think about again. To a past that was best left alone...

Sadly the Master lacked much in the way of specifics regarding the nature of the guardians. One was identified, some key wielding warrior. That was at least something that was unique enough that it could stand out but as for the rest:

“SO.... THESE GUARDIANS COULD BASICALLY BE ANY ONE OF THESE POSSESSED PEOPLE? OR IS THERE A TELL?”

He asked before Tora’s own question shed some additional light on Galeem’s control. Not direct puppetry but rather evilifying juice. That sounded pretty useful honestly. Bowser filed this away for future schemes. The fact that the guardians where under Galeem’s direct control was of less concern, the king failing to grasp the danger of alerting their ultimate enemy to their existence before they had disabled all of its defences.

The king then headed deeper into the gardens, carefully eyeing the rabbids incase they got tired of mischief and attacked them while slowly recollecting most of his army as he traveled till they all reunited at the location of the unconscious roadhog. Now with everyone back together there where a couple of things to deal with.

First was a bit of scouting information arriving from Blazermate about the source of the distant sounds of combat, namly a butt load of robots. The healer’s description made them sound a lot nastier than anything the squad had faced so far but the king was sure they could handle it regardless, He just needed to avoid being shot in the face in the process. “GOOD TO KNOW. NO SIGN OF GENO FROM UP THERE?” he asked, a somewhat concerned about the fact that the wooden doll had not been seen since he blasted off away from them way back at the crossroads.

“OH GOOD YOU’RE NOT DEAD.” was bowser’s main response to the return of the beat up cowboy and the poetry ninja, but he was interested to see the results of one fourth of the master’s explained uses for souls. The grenade launcher was quite the impressive piece of work, though it was a little surprising to see the cowboy toss it to the tiny furry man instead of keeping it for himself. Not much of an explosives guy perhaps? Regardless, more firepower was more firepower no matter whose hands it was in.

Speaking of more firepower Bowser turned his attention to the fat man whom the Master was reviving. The bulky brute was rather a dramatic waker, pushing his weight around and demanding answers. A man after Bowser’s own heart it seemed, but the king was quick to try and force his will upon the man to get him to get in line with his plans.

“WELCOME TO THE NEW REALITY. IT’S MADE OF ALL THE OLD ONES AND THAT THING.” bowser pointed skywards to Galeem “IS THE GLUE HOLDING EM EM ALL TOGETHER. WANT TO GET HOME BACK TO NORMAL? SEE YOUR... PIGLETS OR WHATEVER EVER AGAIN?” the king gesture to himself with a clawed thumb “THEN YOUR WORKING FOR ME.”

The with the natural order of things seemingly firmly set in place the next issue to deal with was the bout of clamoring about kirby’s absence that began to grip the party. The king felt slightly guilty moment to realise he had accidentally misplaced their savior before his attention was brought to the thieving rabbids by people paying more attention to their surroundings than him.

“GAH! THEY HAVE MY HAT!” He started, before hastily adding “ALSO PROBABLY KIRBY?” before any further shouting was cut off by the thunderous sound of Michel’s sniper rifle. Seeing others racing ahead of him again king acted as if the sniper shot had been a Starting Pistols and began a thumping jog after the rabbids.