Centurion had managed to get the Slicer off of him, turning the table. Now he was ontop of it. He stabbed it through the cannon, disabling it. He left the blade inside the Slicer and began smashing it into submission with his fist. Eventually, it crumbled and stopped moving.
Breathing heavily, the Centurion raised a hand in the air. "Ha haaaa! I got one!" He turned around and saw that his comrades had left for greater battles, defeating the other minions of evil. "Oh."
Well, he couldn't blame them, he thought. His fault for being slow. The Centurion would have to do better if he was to match his companions. It felt odd not having Legionnares by his side. Focus! He chastised himself. The Emperor needs you. He felt isolated without his empire. Perhaps the Master of Masters news had shaken him more than he knew. Could he truly be the last survivor of the Empire? All of those people, lost? The lands that he had fought and trained his entire life to protect were gone. Forces far greater than he could ever comprehend were at work.
He slapped himself across the helmet. Right! The time to act is NOW!
Boots slamming against the scrap covered ground, the armored man sprinted to catch up to his companions. Micheal, Bowser, Blasermate, the Master of Masters, Tora, and Minako, though he did not recognize the latter. Fortunately all of the enemies were desaturated, so it was easy to tell friend from foe. Fierce bright orange painted onto his cape trailed behind Agoston as he waded into battle. Quickly, he got his bearings. The hard-hatted man, Engineer, his sentry, and a metallic creature. All of them were armed with large guns. Luckily, they were all distracted. Simply having the numbers advantage in this fight was a huge boon. Too many variables, and a lesser tactician could get overwhelmed. The rabbit men were a wild card.
The moment was his! No more waiting! No more floundering! He was a Centurion and he would seize his opportunity and his enemies by the throat!
---Inner Monologue Over, here's the relevant bit---
"CARPE VICTORIA!" The Centurion shouted at the top of his lungs, charging forward. In moments of great passion he would slip into the higher language. Indeed, he was taken in patriotic fervor. His plan was simple, but perhaps difficult to pull off. Get the Engineer. He trusted his comrades to dole out their attention wisely. Hopefully, the Sentry and Bastion would be caught up with his allies while he was a part of the crew who attacked the Engy directly.
His friends would have to avoid being crushed by the tower, but the Centurion was already at full sprint when he reached the danger zone. He tried to zoom underneath the tower before it fell, dodging the falling blocks as well as Bowser and the Master of Masters. Determination steely as his blade, he surged forth, barreling up the rampart on the right to get the Engineer while he was switching weapons. He pitched hard, skidding his heels on the ground as he pivoted to meet the Engineer and his Sentry on the archway.
If it could be done, a metal gauntlet would wrap around the barrel of the shotgun pushing it away from Agoston, and a shoulder pauldron would smash into the Engineers face. Knocking the possessed Texan back, Agoston would then try to reverse the grip of his gladius and slam it down into the large yellow glove of the Engineer, not knowing it was a robotic hand underneath and not one of flesh. If successful he would wrench the embedded gladius towards himself and then throw his fist outward in a punch toward the Engineer.
Level 3 - (10/30) EXP Location: Scrapyard - End Word Count: 1562
Courier 6 largely ignored Blazermate, giving only a rude middle finger to the robot’s chiding. They may have been arguing, but it was an important matter to make sure Michael didn’t wind up killing any good people unnecessarily. By his account they’d all need as much help as they could get in defeating this Galeem, and a loose cannon firing off anti-material rounds in close proximity to comrades was completely unacceptable. The irony that the Courier was, himself, a loose cannon never once occurred to him.
Then came the Master of Master’s response to his question, which proved to be largely unhelpful and unenlightening. ”Naw, I don’t wanna sit here and chat now. That’s why I asked while walkin’,” he shot back, a bit of annoyance creeping into his tone. ”But if you wanna keep this whole mysterious voodoo hoodoo image you’ve got going on, that’s fine by me. Ain’t rightly my business and I respect a man’s right to keepin’ his personal matters to himself.” It was true enough. Even among his best friends and traveling companions, Boone and Arcade were locked up tighter than a New Vegas virgin’s legs. They warmed up eventually, but until that point both had proven to be extremely private, and in Arcade’s case, awkward. If the Master were to answer anything, he’d do so in his own time.
That’s when the Courier almost stumbled, having to catch himself. His arms flailed out awkwardly in a rather amusing attempt to maintain his balance. The culprit? Kirby! The adorable pink puffball was in walking condition again, and givin the Courier special attention. ”Well howdy there, Kirby. What’re you doin’ up and about?”
“Ey!” Kirby responded, creating one of those deep red hearts he had used to de-brainwash everyone. The heart popped on the ground and Kirby signalled the Courier once more. What was… What was he getting at?
”Erm… You want to be… Lovers?” the Courier questioned, reeling back. He had certainly slept with a lot of people of all varieties, and a lot of non-people, but something just felt inherently wrong about sexualizing Kirby. As though the very idea itself were a dark, depraved thing of anti-life only the absolute worst people could even conceive of. That’s when a different idea hit him. ”Wait…”
The Courier held out his left hand, palm open out. He concentrated, forcing his own heart and soul into the spread digits, feeling the warmth of his own goodness and trying to express it outward. A small heart appeared, then fizzled out as he lost that concentration, the energy returning to his body. ”Heh heh, hey everyone! Check out what I can do!” he cried out, manifesting a heart in each hand. Like a rodeo clown he began juggling the hearts, first two, then three, then skipping as he did so and giggling all the while. ”Hahahahahaha! Oh man, this is great!”
After a few moments, the Courier ceased his shenanigans, though the joy it brought him could still be clearly seen plastered across his face. In celebration he took a mighty swig of his whiskey bottle, then wiped himself off with a sleeve. ”I guess Kirby gave me his power to free people from that shining disco ball’s power, eh? Guess I’m his official favorite,” he declared, rather smugly. Of course he had no idea how wrong this truly was.
”Enough time has been wasted. We’ve got to hurry!” he urged the rest, then took off running in the direction of the others. He had a bad feeling that some of their partners were already in a really rough spot.
6 could surveil the situation from afar pretty decently. Enough to know that it was definitely bad. Some of their group that had gone off on their own earlier, the girl in the green hood, the other girl that showed up late, and that weird animal bird thing that talked in the third person, they had been pinned down, and in Tora’s case, nearly eviscerated. Thinking back on it, where the hell was that puppet? Did Geno just go flying ahead to leave everyone else and save his own skin? Er, wood? Didn’t he say he was going to scout ahead? Yeah, great fucking job, Geno. Would have been nice to know there was a big rabbit robot war and that the castle was guarded by some turrets and a machinist to keep them up and running. Fuck that puppet.
No time to dwell on the what ifs of Geno having done his job right. Things were only getting worse out there, and most of the group were holding themselves up in an advance on the bridge with the gun turrets. The Courier knew better. Almost always there was another route to take, a way to disable turrets, a way to get around. At least the team made for a great distraction while he took off to the side, away from the firefight. He dove into the moat, fully intent on swimming along the side and climbing up to the elevated position of the engineer and the Omnic that sported this deadly turret function. However, the journey would not be as simple as he had hoped.
Within the waters of the moat the Courier caught sight of some truly breathtaking and wondrous things. Large fish (how would they taste after being cut up and roasted on a spit, he wondered?), a large blue friendly looking sea monster in a hat (well hello there!), and… ”Glurb!” Air escaped the Courier’s lungs as a lakelurk took hold of him in a bearhug from behind. He recognized the slimy humanoid crustacean arms immediately as being a creature from his own world, and one that was especially deadly in its home turf. Unfortunately that was exactly where they were.
The Courier struggled as the beast squeezed harder, then bit deeply into his neck, piercing the sub dermal armor and causing some bleeding. The Ghost of the Mojave lucked out, managing to grab his magnum revolver and point it haphazardly off to the side. Not knowing where the bullet would strike, he pulled the trigger. The loud was bang significantly dampened by the surrounding water, as was the force the bullet shot out with, but at point blank range that didn’t change the overall effects. The bullet pierced into the lakelurk’s abdomen, just between its shell plating. The monstrous creature hissed in pain and reeled back, releasing its grip on the Courier.
Damn, this plan wasn’t working out. If only he had known the moat was infested with lakelurks! The Courier started swimming fast as he could back to the surface, but to no avail. The lakelurk was made for water combat and quickly recovered. With a slash of its claws, it left a bleeding gash in the Courier’s chest. More of his air escaped in the grunt of pain, and he couldn’t last too much longer without surfacing. Unfortunately the lakelurk had other plans.
Realizing how ineffective his guns would be under water, the Courier took hold of his new pickaxe, swinging it at the monster as the creature passed by for another stab. The pickaxe moved through the water with surprising power and speed, blindsiding the lakelurk, and even the Courier for a moment. The tip of the mining tool lodged itself into the lakelurk’s head, several inches deep, piercing the brain. It died, leaving behind a floating mote as with all the other creatures he had seen perish this day. Invigorated by… Something, the Courier quickly took hold of the monster’s spirit and surfaced as quickly as he could.
Feeling he could swim better without the pickaxe, 6 put it away only to realize he was suddenly fatigued, weaker, slower. Was it the pickaxe that gave that benefit? He didn’t feel anything before though, so why now? Ugh, it was so hard to think through all the… Bleeding! That had to be it! The pickaxe improved his physical attributes, but only while injured! Well, ain’t that a kick in the head?
Realizing that he was, in fact, in a better position with his new melee weapon on hand, 6 grabbed it once more and powered back up to the surface, taking in a deep gasp of air. He had emerged at the edge of the platform where their enemies had been positioned, so sparing a glance to the side told him nothing of how the situation had changed: his vision was too blocked. Sparing no time for rest, the Courier began to climb up the wall, slamming his pickaxe into the side for increased leverage and practically leaping up the side. The added physical effort only exacerbated the wounds given to him by the lakelurk, which in turn only improved his physical capabilities even more, allowing him to ascend ever faster, move with greater power. It was a circle of self abuse and power that ended with the Courier practically leaping straight over the edge of the wall, pickaxe in hand, and bringing it straight down on the very first enemy he happened to see: Bastion the Omnic.
Thanks to the others drawing the attention of the engineer and Bastion Bowser managed to survive his foolish play without taking any real damage. The sentry’s AI was built for firing highly accurate streams of bullets and missiles at man sized targets and thus the king was able to safely block all its fire with his roughly human sized shield, the dumb machine incapable of attempting to outwit this stationary blockade. That said, the shield seems to be slowly cracking as it took fire, lines of damage growing and multiplying across the translucent barrier at an alarming rate. It was somewhat concerning then that, other than Blazermate, most of the others behind him did not make good time in joining the fight. Nevertheless, those that were engaged still in total outnumbered their target and their unintentional pincer move seemed to be going well. Blazermate got over to the injured Tora in good time, Minako seemed to do something that summoned a great sword wielding spirit that shrugged of fire with remarkable ease, his own minions where bombarding their foes and even a Galeel controlled had Rabbid joined the fight, one sporting the costume of Mario’s green brother, who managed to cast a weakening spell before he was blown away.
Still, despite their efforts his defences were being worn down, so it was much to his relief when the fire of the sentry suddenly ceased firing and swung away from him at the command of the engineer’s control gizzmo. As soon as he was free bowser flicked his hand to the side, buckler switching to claw configuration, ready to slice and dice while the king bore his teeth at the gate gradient. Before he get stuck in however the engineers plan became clearer as a quad of rockets sailed to his left and detonated against a precariously stacked pile of junk. This junk pile them started to collapse. Which was bad.
“OH NO” bowser said flatly and then, catching themselves simply staring at the imminently arriving doom forced himself into action “RUN AWAY!” he yelled at his minions before Grabbing the master of masters in one claw and feeling from the debris shower.
Said minions reacted as best they could. Sledge, while slow, had the advantage of being the furthest back from the engineer and thus to get away from the collapse all he had to do was lumbar back in the direction they had arrived from to escape, winding up next to Blazermate’s abandoned minigun in the process. His brother and Heel where less fortunate. Having been tossed both to the leftof Bowser and closer to the engineer they were the worst off of all when it came to the avalanche of junk and the two were sent running for their lives, the rabbid screaming his head off the whole way. The pair ran as fast as they could, repeatedly getting in each other’s way and occasionally shoving each other aside to gain ground in a manner that would had been comical had their lives not been in danger. Adding to the chaos the two had to avoid parts of scrap that where detaching from the main mass of the tower and pelting down at them, heralding the main body’s imminent arrival. A bulky cart slammed down in front of the pair, blocking forward progress. They both tried to race to either side only for those ways to be blocked as well, then so to was their rear. Trapped, the two could do little else other than cling together as a van, missing one of its doors, crashed down on top of them, silencing their screams.
A few moments after the avalanche had subsided a faint hissing could be heard, like someone having to take a few tries to turn on a light, and then a spot on the side of the van suddenly lit up bright orange. This orange spot swiftly carved a crude image of a rabbids face before the entire lump of metal was bashed free of the vehicle by a hammer. Heel popped out of the escape hole and raised his hands up in the air, one of which held the Slice Cutter, laughing in victory. The rabbid was then plucked from the van by a newly arrived Sledge. who had brought the minigun with him. Mallet then poked his head out and was given a more dignified hand out of the wreck by his bro. The smaller Hammer bro dusted himself off while Heel performed a little victory lap of the van, then he grabbed the rabid by his bouncing emergency light on a stick.
“Alright enough of that. Let's get back in the fight.”
The rabbid became rather dejected at the prospect, but nonetheless followed the bros as they picked their way through the wreckage towards the castle’s entryway.
Bowser meanwhile had made it clear fairly safely, his energy shield and shell blocking and loose debris and had ended up right next to (and almost in) the moat. He let down the Master of Masters and then shook his spiked shell free of impaled junk. He turned to engage the engineer, who was in the middle of being overwhelmed by latea riving melee attackers, but his focus was instead drawn to one of the castles windows, out of which the long absentee Geno suddenly smashed, carrying with him an unconscious “MARIO!”
The king roared the name of his worst enemy. Here was his nemesis, his foil, the greatest hero that ever who was at that very moment... unconscious? Had Geno, the nobody puppet, done that which Bowser had so many times failed to do. Had he defeated the mighty plumber? The king’s mind refused this possibility outright and yet the scene still left him stunned.
Level 2 - (13/20) EXP Location: Scrapyard - End Word Count: 306
Zer0's mask displayed a frowning emoji as everyone seemed to ignore his dramatic posing, though he couldn't necessarily blame them. There was a lot going on at the moment.
So, instead, he simply leaned on his sword while watching the conversation between the sniper and the Courier. He couldn't necessarily blame the Courier for his reaction, nor could he much blame any of the others for their's.
Not that he really cared much. Interpersonal conflict was so very boring. There was no challenge to it. There was no loot to be gained, unless you killed the other of course. It was all talk, talk, talk, yap, yap, yap, blah blah —
Oh, they were leaving. Well, that was a pleasant surprise at least.
Slinging his sword back into its sheath, Zer0 fell into step beside his comrade. The battlefield was a mess by the time that they arrived. The Courier set off towards the moat while everyone else jumped into whatever needless actions they were planning.
Something was exploding, which really was irritating. Why did everything have to expose? Those dumb Gremlins back in the canyon. These dumb things. The stupid suicide psychos back on Pandora. Boom Bewm.
So. Many. EXPLODERS.
Zer0 dropped to one knee, pulling up his scope to line up with the tank. A freaking tank-turret-thing. Whatever. It was dead soon anyways.
He lined up on the thing's center mass, lining up his shot so that the bullet would penetrate through the hull and into the odd reactor looking thing on its back. Going through the core of its body was all the more helpful now that b0re was activated again.
As the Courier made his attack, Zer0 pulled the trigger.
BAM. BAM. BAM. One, two, three bullets sent in quick succession.
How he wished he had a corrosive Maliwan right now.
The answer given to him by the mysterious individual was strange enough, but he saw stranger things before. A "keyblade" that bounded his heart and restored him? Then, he realized that the individual had said "restored." What did that mean? Another question to ask later. For now, he followed the rest of the group until they were conflicted by a Bastion. It was strangely good to see even known it was a pain in the ass to deal with. The omnic was seen in the ranks of Overwatch for some reason that never was explored other than pure speculation among Talon. Regardless, it was just an omnic easy enough to kill it if you can get it to stand up. Of course, it seemed that nobody knew how to deal with it.
As a result, some people got hurt. Roadhog watched as the cowboy charged towards it with only a sample pickaxe while another omnic followed. That was when he had transformed into his ironic tank form and began firing at the enemy. It sent Roadhog into cover almost immediately. But the people around him didn't know what to do against a Bastion other than rush him.
He tried to shout as loud as he could, hoping the muffling wasn't too bad, and said, "Kill the machine once it stands up! It's the only way to defeating it! His turret form will kill everyone not in cover! I can hook it if it's distracted!"
Michael chose not to respond to the Courier's speech, instead trying to ignore him. While he might have brought up some valid points, it only served to piss him off. He knew the risks already, or at least he thought he did, and he thought he had done the right thing. Well...okay, maybe he's right on some of that, but he's still a dick. Fuck him. Dick. Fucking dick. Dickhead. Dick. To everyone else, it just sounded like Michael was grumbling about something. While he could have made a retort, like mentioning the fact that the Courier ran into battle before everyone else, he couldn't bring himself to do that. Something about the man just set him off. Probably the fact that he reminded him of himself a little bit. And he hated himself.
Soon, the Courier walked off, saying some bullshit line about how "bullets didn't work". That got another grumble out of him. It sounded stupid, but then again, he himself liked to quote old movies during his robberies, so it only pissed him off further. His therapist probably would have said something about it, but he killed his therapist, so it didn't matter. Blazermate tried to say something to break up the fight, but in return, all she got was the middle finger from the Courier and a grunt from Michael. "Yeah, whatever."
He continued to walk with the group, hearing the gunshots ahead that must have been from the bridge. He paid some attention to a conversation between the Master of Masters and the Courier, about how the Master had survived the light thingy that hit everyone. It was a good question, and the Master didn't seem to want to answer, only saying that it was a "long story". The hooded man was the only person they had found besides Kirby that wasn't totally brainwashed. As he thought about it, the pink one himself appeared, on his feet again. The little creature still seemed a bit strange to Michael, but if he could survive the initial light plus being shot by Michael's rifle, he must have been stronger than he looked.
To his surprise, Kirby approached none other than the Supreme Dickhead himself, waving his stubby arms to get his attention. Huh? What's he doing? Looking on with interest, he watched as Kirby suddenly manifested a bright pink heart, then pointed at the Courier. The sight of the heart stirred some forgotten memory within him, the sight oddly familiar. Soon enough, the Courier began to manifest his own hearts, proudly proclaiming that he was Kirby's "favorite". Michael let out another grumble, shooting a nasty glare in Six's direction. While the rational part of his mind saw that it was a good thing that he had the same ability Kirby used to bring everyone back, the other part saw it as a personal challenge. He grumbled again, walking forward as he continued to mumble incoherently under his breath. Nothing much happened of note after that, save for the Master explaining keyblades to the newcomer, and then asking about Blazermate, who responded by flirting with him in a way that made Michael's skin crawl and brought visions of disturbing Japanese cartoons to his head. Eugh...goddamn basement dwellers... Pushing the thoughts out of his mind, he surveyed the battle in front of him as he approached the bridge.
There were a few things that were immediately noticeable. One, their enemies- two turrets, a larger one that somewhat resembled the "omnic" robots from before, and a smaller one that was nearly identical to the turrets the robots had tried to set up in the scrapyard, but with a different color scheme. There was also the man who Michael assumed was controlling the turrets, a simple-looking man in a hard had and overalls that reminded Michael of a construction worker. While he didn't look too threatening, he was holding a shotgun, and could be a threat to any close-range attackers. He was also, as far as Michael was aware, the first normal human enemy that the group had come across.
Looking away from their adversaries, there were plenty of things that stood out. The girl from before had...summoned some sort of large being? Whatever it was, it was protecting a few of the group's members from gunfire. Huh. So that's what she does. Looking up, there was a loud crash as a window broke, and flying out of it came a guy in a red hat and a wooden doll that Michael had not seen in a long time. Geno? The hell has he been doing this whole time? He vaguely remembered that he went scouting ahead, but that felt like hours ago.
Looking back to the battle at hand, he thought of what to do to make himself useful. Bowser was already moving up to engage the enemies, followed by his newly-acquired strikers. The Centurion and the Courier followed, with the armored man attacking in melee while the Courier swam into the moat. The Engineer, seeing that the fight was going poorly for him, took out some sort of remote and used it to aim the sentry. While he expected the man to aim for the heroes, he followed the laser beam to... ...oh. Shit.
Soon enough, the missiles went off, toppling the scrap tower over them. Running in the opposite direction, Michael was still far enough away to avoid most of the scrap, only getting hit by a wave of dust kicked up by the tower's collapse. Waving away the dust, Michael crouched down, finally pulling out his rifle and looking over the area. With the Engineer still distracted, and the other robot shooting at something else, he had a short window to line up a shot.
The larger robot had too many nearby allies to get a clear shot, so he turned to the Engineer and the sentry. While he could try to take out the Engineer, the man might make a useful ally later, so he instead focused on his turret. Steadying his breath, he lined up his sights on the smaller sentry gun, aiming for its center. Entering Bullet Time, he focused his aim, steadied his breath, and pulled the trigger, sending out a loud BOOM! that kicked up dust nearby.
Level 3 - (4/30) EXP Location: Peach's Castle ---> Scrapyard (Reunited With Allies) Word Count: 800
Affliction:Boosted - (2 Posts Remaining)
"Out of the Dungeon, Back into Combat"
Geno braced himself as his wooden frame collided with the plushy plumber, using all of his added strength to lift him out of the dark dungeons. His thrusters were working overtime to use up all of the remaining fuel just to keep him going. As he lifted Mario up the stairs and to the first floor, the opponent attempted to break the bear-hug as he attempted to hammer down on the Star Warrior's back. Yet despite using all of his leverage, but due to the sudden G-forces he'd experienced upon collision, as well as just how fast he felt himself going, they weren't necessarily effective in hitting their mark. Even as the second strike hit upon Geno's back, the puppet's added boost strength allowed him to tank the hit significantly.
As they speed up the staircase, Geno was able to take a quick glance at both Donkey Kong and the dragon, who were both utterly taken back by the speeding duo. He still felt immensely guilty at who he did towards the latter, but at least he's going to find his way out from that devilish place. His thoughts were cut short as he unintentionally used Mario as a battering ram to break through the wooden doors ahead. Nevertheless he continued upwards, ignoring the lavishly nostalgic hub room of Peach's castle and the screaming toads that were locked within her walls, as he continued to ascend upwards. Next thing he knew, he smashed through a large stained-glass window and was immediately flooded with a flash of warm light upon his wooden skin.
The bits of colored glass reflected upon the sun's warm embrace while Geno flew straight into the sky. There he can finally see the outside world, which included the scrapyard closest to him and the rest of the green pastures way past. And what's even better, it appeared that the group had finally made their way here. They were currently fighting the hard-hatted engineer and its robo-turret counterpart. However, that didn't stop a few allies to look up and notice the wooden puppet carrying an unconscious plumber in his hands. The only character to actually seem to give a care was none other than the Koopa King himself, who roared his nemesis' name in disbelief.
And to think that he and Mario - hopefully - are going to team up again since their encounter a decade-and-a-half ago is something Geno believed to be utterly preposterous.
And speaking of his friend, the small puppet could already start to feel the strain of carrying an 89 kg (196 lbs) mustached plumber filled up on spaghetti and spicy meatballs. Good thing he didn't need to eat - nor issue photosynthesis for his plant-based frame for that matter. He'll need to drop him off somewhere very soon and somewhere out of sight from the enemy, unless he wanted all of his work in liberating his friend to be rendered futile. Yet as he observed the battlefield, he caught sight of the robo-turrets walking around and shooting everything that opposed them.
Yet there was one bot that seemed exceptionally vulnerable compared to the others - who was at the river's end about to obliterate one of the rabbit creatures. With his fuel about to resort to running on fuels, Geno had to act quickly to use them to the best of his abilities. He dove down towards the bot, still holding Mario in his free hand, as he pointed his arm cannon towards it and issued a power beam at its barrel. Unfortunately, it utterly annihilated the bunny by the time it got hit by the beam. And that's when Geno finally heard his thrusters give out. His wooden frame skided across the grass floor as he tightened his grip on Mario in order to keeping his meaty body from scrapping the floor.
Once they've grounded to a halt, Geno slowly rose from the ruptured dirt as he looked at the chaos around him. He had to find a place to seclude Mario concealed for the time being - or perhaps have someone else babysit him until the battle is over. But with most of the action taking place around the Engineer and the raging rockets that flew out of his sentry turret, perhaps it would be best for him to take it easy for the time being and stay away from that hornet's nest for the time being. Grabbing Mario by his wrists, Geno proceeded to haul his friend's body away from harm as they hide behind a mount of debris and dirt. He laid him up-right upon the rubble, comforting him for a minute before peeking out of cover to fire several potshots at the mini-boss from afar. Any opponents who got close to him would also be quickly dealt with by Geno's boost in power.
Level 2 - (14/20) EXP Location: Scrapyard Word count: 330
Ratchet looked over the battlefield trying to figure out what the best play would be. The larger turret was shredding through cover like it was nothing, it reminded him of the stalker turrets Dreadzone used, and boy those things were nasty. The smaller one seemed much less firepower heavy but the pinpoint accuracy made it far more threatening. Ratchet peered around seeing that most people were managing to stay in one piece (Praise Blazermate). Ratchet watched his allies engaging the enemy and in normal circumstances he'd have joined them right away, but this wasn't normal at all. Ratchet was not used to being in a situation like this, having such a limited arsenal and being surrounded by so many allies he needed to worry about, sure he'd worked with the galactic rangers against the Tyhrranoids but they only came in smaller squads and all fought using ranged weapons. But this crew had a good deal of melee combatants, that combined with his only gun being an bomb launcher with a tiny ammo capacity really limited his options. Not to mention Clank's absence... Yeah Ratchet wasn't feeling the best at the moment.
Ratchet dove behind cover to avoid getting turned to past by the set of turrets and pulled out his wrench. If it was too risky to use his gun he'd just have to settle for his wrench. Ratchet tapped his wrench against the floor for a moment as he decided what enemy he was going to go after, but before her could make a choice an explosion caught Ratchet's attention. Looking up Ratchet saw the tower start to topple, "Not good." there was no more time to think he had to move. Ratchet vaulted over his cover and sprinted towards the Engineer getting his wrench ready. The centurion was already locked in combat with the Engineer so Ratchet would take this chance to blindside the Engineer, leaping into the air aiming to strike the back of the Engineers head.
By raining blows down on the omnics, Din was able to knock away limbs to expose weaker joints, that she took advantage of with her dual wielding to attack. Eventually, with a few lucky strikes, she was able to decapitate and disable the assaulting robots. She turned to the rest of the group to see that they had already more or less finished with their opponents as well, though she did see the Master of Masters channeling an awe-inspiring tornado from his keyblade, making her wonder if the axe-like weapon was more of a wand than a blade. Still, with the arrival of Blazermate to heal what minor wounds the group had suffered, followed by the minor disagreement between a few members of the party, Din was distracted from her previous thought. As the group pushed forward though, Din walked along with them, glad to see Kirby up and about, and seeing its demonstration of generating 'friendship hearts', though she didn't know that that's what they were called, nor what they were for. It was difficult when one's savior was non-verbal, though upon reflection, Link was rather quiet himself. Still, the Courier's explanation seemed to make sense, which was helpful, since Din recalled the Master of Masters mentioning that though he had saved Roadhog, he didn't have energy enough to save another.
Arriving at the bridge to the castle, battle ensued between the party and the one man and one robot military emplacement. Unlike many of her allies, Din cowered behind cover, having never experienced firepower of this magnitude. She was even afraid to stand up to dance, for fear of getting shot. But reckless maneuver after reckless maneuver, the party gained ground, surrounding the enemy formation, distracting turrets, and even getting within the formation itself. Din was torn whether to jump into the fray herself, or stay behind and offer support, when she heard an explosion that drew her eyes upward only to see a blue and red streak shooting out of the castle and into the nearby foliage. The last missing member that Din had been worrying about secretly in her heart due to the long time that he'd spent away from the group. By this time, it seemed that perhaps the group could take the bridge without her, so Din called out to Blazermate, "I think that was Geno! I'm going to go see if he needs any help!" With that, she ran off in the direction of the falling doll.
Since he did not land very far away, it didn't take long before Din arrived at his location, and she found Geno being wary and protecting a midget in red and blue. "Geno! It's me, Din! I'm glad to see your safe. Are you hurt? I can...dance if you need a pick me up." The thought that her dancing had the magical ability to physically heal her allies was still unusual to Din, but at this point she had seen stranger things. "Who is this? A friend you rescued from the castle? Is he hurt?" But then a thought occurred to her. "Is he still...possessed? I...might have a way, two actually, to bring him to his senses. Should I?" She was treading new ground here, but from Geno's eyes and behavior, she could see that he cherished this mustached man.
Blazermate spent most of her time healing people on the battlefield, which happened to be mostly Tora, Bowser, and the occasional linkle or Minako. For the most part, the team kept their damage taken on their big beefy boys, which made Blazermate's job of healing much easier than it could've been. It was interesting watching how her allies attacked, and even more interesting to see that the wooden medabot Geno was safe, if a bit beaten up, as he came rocketing out of the castle with someone in hand. Considering the roar of anger Bowser let off and the name he said, she could guess this red capped man was Mario. Thankfully Din went to his aid, leaving Blazermate free to concern herself with the others.
But she didn't have time to worry about that, as the bastion robot turned itself into a tank and fired round after round of explosive ammunition, having shot at Tora and Blazermate briefly with its minigun and was now attempting to destroy the rabbid minion Bowser had coerced into joining the team. Thankfully Tora took most of the hits, and the few that tagged Blazermate she could heal away with her own healing, although it did take a bit longer to self heal herself. But taking damage from such a haphazard thing such as that didn't really go over well with her, and she had an idea considering how many angles this bastion robot was being attacked over.
Pulling out that weird tazer gun thing she got not a few moments ago, needing to attach it to her free hand considering its weird gauntelt like grip, she made her way to the Bastion robot, firing one of this item's weird energy ball things as she edged her way closer. At first she didn't know what they did, but when a blast vaporized one of the tank bastion's explosive rounds, she was much more confident in her plan and rushed the Bastion, making any return fire it shot at her useless. After Zer0 had unleashed a few rifle shots, Blazermate took that opportunity to dash to and on top of the bastion robot, laughing as she slid behind its only method of attack, its cannon. She then started to hammer away at the bastion, assisting 6's pickaxe swings with her own augmented strength.
Considering the Centurion, Bowser, and the others were taking care of the engineer bot, who's gun seemed to be very stupid at targeting, destroying the more autonomous Bastion was a better idea. And thanks to her scan ability, she could guide 6's pickaxe strikes to where the Bastion was weakest, all while it could do nothing in its tank form to dislodge the pair. In fact, Blazermate wondered if this strategy would also work while it was in its minigun form, if she could also get behind the gun. Thankfully she could still heal with one hand, although she could only heal those in range at the moment, and the Centurion and 6 would need some heals. Especially the Centurion, because whenever that gun from the engineer came online, it'd target him first since he was the closest.
It turned out Minako ideas involved summoning giant bulletproof monsters. As far as ideas went that was pretty great. She really should have waited for Minako to share her good good ideas. Her heart had stopped for a second there when Minako had jumped up out of cover, and again when the girl had raised her own gun to her temple, but the results where undeniably impressive. Between her monster and Bowser's relentless advance Blazermate had been able to get past the gun nest and over to Tora, healing him back up before Linkle even got there.
He waved at her as she heaved herself back on dry land and she tried to give him a halfhearted thumbs up before Blazermate blurted out the robots weakness and drew its undivided attention. As it spun up those guns Tora leaped into action, throwing himself between the girls and it despite his injuries. Linkle took that offer, diving behind the Nopon as bullets bore down like a harsh rain on his shield but they both knew that Tora couldn't take fire like this. As bullets rattled off the metal of his shield the force of it threatened to topple the little guy again, maybe this time for good. Growling in frustration at the thought Linkle crawled forward and threw her own weight against the shied to try and help hold it steady.
Fortunately for all three of them this turned out to be unnecessary on her part because the fire suddenly ceased, the booming shots replaced with a pathetic sort of clicking sound. Linkle popped her head up out of cover to take a look and didn't immediately lose it. Oh, right. Ammo! Michel had said something about waiting for a gun user to reload. He was out of shots. "Hah!" She laughed triumphantly.
That was when the robot transformed and pointed its bigger gun at them. Linkle ducked, praying for the best as she heard the resounding boom of the thing firing. What hit them, though, felt like barely more than a party favor through the shied. Cautiously she again poked her head out from behind the shield and she heard laughter over the din of battle. She was surprised to spot the hero rabbit, apparently having swum in the opposite direction as her, waiting by the shoreline and laughing up a storm as the last tared of red magic swirled around its hand and the Bastion. "Yeah!" She said, waving over to him. Whatever that rabbit had done Linkle didn't doubt that it had saved them.
Cheer turned to horror when she saw that the robots big gun now turned on the rabbit with a vengeance. She quickly turned her waves into the universal hand sign for "get down," but if he ever interpreted the signal correctly he never had time to act on it. As Linkle watched he was obliterated in an explosion and a cloud of black smoke, still laughing even to the last moment. Linkle felt her blood run cold. It wasn't the first time she had ever seen an ally die. The last battle at Hyrule castle had been big, and even though she'd saved as many men as she could she couldn't have been everywhere at once. Especially once that Dodongo had come rolling through, smashing keeps full of soldiers until her and Impa put an end to it.
That didn't mean it was easy, though, especially if you thought you could have saved them if you'd been a little faster or had just a little bit more insight.
Or if you thought you'd led them into it.
While she just stood there everyone else chipped in. The cowboy and Blazermate climbed on top of the robot while Ratchet and the Centurion raced to see who could stop the engineer first. Michael and Zero popped off shots with their own weapons, piercing the robot and turret in a way she had no way of replicating. Bowser and his men miraculously survived the falling pillar and refused to let up. Even Geno reappeared, firing a big blue blast into the robots steely hide.
Linkle looked down at her crossbows. Everyone was here now, this was the time for action, but she couldn't figure out what it was she could do.
Weak point. Blazermate said the robot had a weak point. She looked back at the courier and Blazermate as they wailed on it. No, the was all wrong. You didn't draw out a weak point like that. The man in the pig mask had yelled out over the battlefield that you could kill the machine when it stood up, but to make it stand up...
She suddenly had an idea. When King Dodongo had charged up his big fireball attack you threw bombs into his mouth to knock him down and reveal his soft underbelly. Those big shots looked like the same thing, so she guessed maybe the robot worked the same way.
She pulled out another bomb and sprinted back into the melee while all the guns were still distracted. She scaled the archway like a rabid squirrel, pulling herself up on the back of the robot tank along with the courier and Blazermate, shouting "Gang way, gang way, bomb, bomb, bomb." Instead of hiding from the gun barrel she pushed past them and puller herself along it. "Hey, me again." She said quickly, giving what she assumed was the robots face a jaunty little wave before stuffing the by now red, hissing, throbbing bomb down the barrel into what she could only assume was its robot gullet. Then she jumped right off the archway entirely, rolling on the ground to break her fall before pushing her back into it to hopefully avoid any direct fire.
The Engineer's worries proved themselves well-founded with startling immediacy. When his gambit sent the junk-tower careening toward the heroes, they burst into action, and not all of them chose 'flight'. While Bowser, the more visible threat, paused to help his allies, a previously-unseen man sprinted through the chaos unscathed to mount his assault. Agoston, far more physically fit than his adversary, astonished the Engineer with how deftly he made his way up, and by the time he could get his gun into position the Centurion had its barrel in his grip. A tremendous blast exploded from the barrel, but its buckshot ricocheted against the scrap instead of ripping Agoston apart. Before the Engineer could do anything else, his foe's hefty shoulder bash struck him dead-on, staggering him.
“Gah!” He grunted before he stumbled back a few steps, realized he might fall off the arch, and struggled to keep himself steady. With his focus split, however, he could only throw up a desperate hand to try and intercept Agoston's gladius before it reached his body. The steel slid through his glove's rubber and caught halfway through the Engineer's robotic hand. A wild grin broke out on his face; all he had to do would be to yank his hand away, and the Centurion would be disarmed.
Agoston yanked first. With his blade caught in the Engineer's prosthetic, that meant yanking the southerner forward as well, straight into the Centurion's heavy left cross. Short range and the Engineer's lack of hand-to-hand experience meant little trouble in Agoston directing that punch right into his goggle-clad face. When his fist landed, pieces of the Engineer's eyewear flew in every direction and a growl of pain tore itself from his throat. For a moment it seemed like he might fall over backward, but the southerner clenched his jaw and kept standing. Who did this brute think he was? Dell Conagher wasn't some goon playing with toys, going down at the first sign of a challenge. He was mercenary.
With a bellow the Engineer wrenched his arm away from Agoston, pulling out his other hand from behind his back is he did. Clutched in his white-knuckled fist was a heavy-looking wrench. While a blade would barely scratch the Centurion's armor, this tool could pulverize his plate and any bones beneath it. Strengthened by anger and pain, the Engineer started to swing.
CLANG!
A few chips flew from the Engineer's hard hat where Ratchet's wrench struck it. “Uuuughh...dammit,” he groaned, and his own wrench his the wooden block beneath him with a thunk. Its owner fell a moment later, tumbling off the archway onto the bridge a few meters below.
To Agoston's right, the sentry turret spun about, its two barrels and rocket launch leveled straight at the nearest target. However, the Centurion proved as lucky as he was impetuous; another ally came to his aid from afar. Michael's bullet slammed into the machine, its impact - thoughless effective on the nonliving, armored sentry- strong enough to put its hardware out of commission even before the thing fell over on its side. It lay there for a moment, sparking, giving Agoston and Ratchet a split second to celebrate their victory before self-destructing, blowing up in a small burst of fire and shrapnel.
VS Bastion
Location: Scrapyard Endzone, left side
In no time at all, Bastion's enemies converged on him. Crawling from the river not too far from where the green-clothed Rabbid went up in smoke, a gruff-looking man scaled the arch's side to swing a pickaxe at him. The Omnic failed to react before the weaponized tool struck him, but its results suggested his inaction o be intentional rather than accidental. Even propelled by an empowered Courier 6, the Equalizer was just a twentieth-century pickaxe at the end of the day, and Bastion was made of sterner stuff.
A moment later, three shots echoed from afar, though none of them as robust as ones fired from Michael's rifle. The Courier could be forgiven for thinking the culprit Michael at first, though, given the shooter's lack of regard for allies in melee range, which constituted an even more lethal hazard now than before. Zer0 based his aim on the knowledge about Bastion's weak point imparted to him by Blazermate and his hope to pierce it through his body, not knowing that Configuration:Tank rearranged the Omnic's interior along with his exterior. His bullets did not strike Bastion's core. But penetrate him they did, their damage reduced by a fifth thanks to their target's passive Strength, Ironclad—and after exiting his chassis, the rounds proceeded to exit right into where the gunslinger stood, on Bastion's other side.
Aside from taking potent but sustainable damage, Bastion himself didn't notice, since another attack was inbound. Blazermate, emboldened by the lesser damage dealt by his shells after being Weakened, moved in to take a more active roll in bettering her team's position. She began to intercept his shells, which, combined with a surprise laser attack from the sky that scraped by his barrel, roused his fury once again. He aimed a shot at her feet, hoping it would get around that new weapon of hers, but with a cheeky laugh she dashed over his barrel and behind him. There, she prepared to continue the melee attack where the Courier left off. Bastion would be having none of it. Who does this tin doll think she is? his CPU screamed. I'll teach her not to underestimate me. The next second a girl in a rabbit hood with a live bomb appeared, but that was all for the better. He couldn't shoot them, but he could do far more than fire mindlessly.
Kicking his servos into overdrive, Bastion swung his upper half around. His barrel span around at force, clubbing the Courier in the side before rising to catch Blazermate and Linkle as well. After spinning a full circle, and sending the interlopers -and Linkle's bomb- flying down onto the bridge near the fallen Engineer, he pointed the barrel as low as he could and used his adjustable treads to jump before firing. The ensuing blast launched him into the air, spinning lazily until he started firing without cease. Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom! echoed his cannon, each blast causing him to spin more wildly in midair and sending him higher. His technique littered the battlefield with explosions, forcing those who'd shown up to gleefully take advantage of his moment of distraction to think twice or suffer the consequences.
Yet, after only a couple seconds, his onslaught came to an end. The eight-second timer on Configuration:Tank ran out, forcing him to return to Recon mode mid-air. Bastion struggled to straighten himself as he fell, hoping to land on his feet and shift back to Configuration:Sentry as soon as possible.
Tora, Minako, and the Master of Masters
Location: Scrapyard Endzone, backline
“Whoa!” The Master of Masters balked as the tower of junk began to fall and, more prominently to him, some chunks blown loose by the sentry's rockets plummeted his way. He could see and hear Bowser not far away, no doubt poised to rush up and spirit him away to safety from the toppling pillar, but for this one moment the Master was alone with his peril. “Stop!” he cried, pointing his keyblade upward, and a wave of black energy burst forth. The debris stopped in its tracks as it hit the spell, giving the Master of Masters the precious moment he needed for Bowser to swoop in for the rescue. Coolly accepting the less-than-dignified position, he played it off with a laugh. “Hahah! If I didn't know better, I'd say you were the hero of this story!”
A few seconds later he found himself deposited on the left side of the battlefield, behind the sizable pile of scrap by which a few other allies loitered. Tora, Minako, and Linkle were nearby, far enough away from the tower of junk that only the dust troubled them when it slammed into the ground. Bowser's strikers joined the group not long after, having managed to get away from the hazard with a little luck and a little ingenuity. Another moment, and a duo of strangers appeared: Geno and Mario, the latter of which appeared to astound the King Koopa. “Heck of a time for a reunion.” Peering around his cover, the Master of Masters spotted the Engineer taking a tumble onto the bridge, with his sentry joining him in defeat in short order. “Hehey, one down!” he noted, and for a moment it looked as though Bastion would be following them. However, the Omnic turned the tables, throwing off his nearest attackers before executing a crazy maneuver. “Sheesh. Overkill much?” He ducked back as one shell struck the ground nearby in a burst of flame. When he looked again, Tora was on the move. “Hey, where are you going?”
The Nopon blocked an incoming shell and continued forward. “Tora cannot stand back and let allies get beat! If cannot stand in front to protect, will help in other ways!”
Trying to coordinate this many allies at once was not a skill Minako possessed, as she handled smaller squads rather than larger, more populated teams. Not that she could, in any case - she wasn't exactly in the right state of mind, hyperventilating and stressed out as she was. The feeling of summoning a Persona for the first time in awhile invoked a familiar feeling, though. It helped remind her of the time when she first summoned a Persona over a year ago, and what came of it. 'Eurydice.' She thought to herself with clarity, a welcome surprise amidst her fractured mental state. However, that name would begin to blur as Thanatos' abused this lack of control, using it to charge ahead in a slow, powerful run.
Weird. Personas usually flew. It was pointless thinking on it, however, for Bastion's relent in his assault meant her Persona was free to close the gap. His lack of speed truly brought him down a peg, severely impeding his progress, and if he were to be shot it would surely mean a restart. Yet surprisingly, the God of Death had nothing to fear from the turrets, as they weren't intent on targeting him at all. The change in tactics put many near the Omnic in immediate danger, yet being a summoner meant Minako's danger came in the form of overexertion. It was difficult sustaining Thanatos while so far away, though certainly not impossible, and so long as nothing hit him he would be alright. At her command, death incarnate let out a mighty roar, his coffins opening at will. Glaring up at the flying tank, a different kind of blue wind flowed from the coffins and drifted towards their target, able to freeze the very air around him.
Being the weakest version of ice-based elemental attacks, bufu wasn't going to freeze him to death or anything, however it could disrupt his overheating servos with the temporary flash freeze. Only lasting but a couple seconds, bufu kept the pressure on Bastion when his allies could not, and with an impressive display of accuracy on top. Was it enough? No. Would it help? Hopefully.
Minako didn't want to wait for him to fall and recover himself, though - she had heard Roadhog's suggestion and was going to put it to the test. Thankfully Personas were often much better at perception than humans, so with her mental direction he could get near where Bastion would land on his own. What she didn't know was just how Thanatos would accomplish this, as he couldn't levitate like before. Using his natural strength, the Persona jumped high into the air, reaching a platform to further jump his way up the archway. It was a sight she had never seen before, but welcome considering how quickly he approached the Bastion.
As planned, her Persona's icy spell struck the unprotected Omnic before he reached the floor. Like Din's ice before it, the bufu surged through his alloy frame, solidifying joints and choking power flow. Though not frozen solid, he was frosted-over, and could not reconfigure midair.
When he finally did land, Thanatos wasted no time at all, slashing at the omnic with his blade. Despite the sharpness, the weapon was more suited to just hitting things really hard, cleaving into them if necessary, which was just what he aimed to do. Each attack had a different degree of power and damage to it, and the heavy slashes in close proximity left their mark. Not content with just mindlessly slashing, Thanatos lunged at Bastion to get a grip on him, sending the blade directly into his face to cut it in half.
"Ravage him!" Ordered the summoner to her Persona, looking visibly quite exhausted from the burst of attacks. Being sent to level 1 was brutal on her stamina. She still wasn't looking out for her allies all that much, so Tora and Linkle rushing ahead didn't quite catch her as odd in the moment, especially with Blazermate nearby just before. Thankfully she was perceptive enough to know they had their medic, meaning it was safe to continue her assault and keep Bastion from transforming into his second form. While Thanatos wasn't very fast, his sword had a lot of reach, so the omnic had to be careful of any well-placed strikes and swings. Seeing as Bastion wasn't that fast either, Minako felt comfortable in predicting her advantage, though if she became too cocky he could transform and do a lot of damage.
Thanatos wiped away his master's doubts. His unrelenting flurry of attacks left Bastion's chassis deeply scarred, fatally so were he a living being, but the Persona's punishment didn't end there. The lunging grab left the compromised robot open to a brutal overhead chop. When it fell, it carved through Bastion's head and into his torso, leaving his neural center neatly bifurcated. A weak, high-pitched whine sounded out from him before he crumbled to ash.
At that moment, Tora reached the archway. Calling out “Big Boost!”, he hurled himself at the left-side stack. Midair, three small boosters deployed from his shield's back around the edges and flared to life. Their thrust propelled his weight into the tree-thick pillar, and the impact dislodged it enough to cause the entire archway to fall. The blocks making up the left stack tumbled into the river, bringing the long block that formed the arch's top with them. One piece, a compressed block of salvage, landed right on the Engineer's chest, dissipating him instantly. While a few bits of junk and blocks of wood lay on the bridge, the way to the castle was clear, and the battle was won.
*Note: appearing in the reserve party indicates a degree of participation in the fight that doesn't warrant the full reward. Therefore, please take only half the Encounter Reward
Of course, Tora's contribution was tenuous at best considering both minibosses were already beaten before he got into the mix. Still, he looked awfully proud as he peered between the two large spirits left behind, taking their presence as confirmation. “Hooray!” He sang, dancing gleefully. “Annoying bullet team beaten at last!” Only after a moment did he notice the condition of some of his teammates and fall into worried silence.
Far above and far away, a bright, fiery glimmer twinkled in the sky, chasing an even more imperceptible dark spot on its downward trajectory.
Level 3 - (22/30) EXP Location: Scrapyard - End Word Count: 762
Everything went from bad to worse in one hell of a hurry. The pickaxe, despite how much stronger and faster it made the Courier, did absolutely nothing to harm the Omnic tank. Even the combined force of his swing and gravity meant he only scratched the paint. That he could deal with. Get away, change tactics, it wouldn’t be too big of a deal. What came next he couldn’t.
Multiple shots rang out across the battlefield, shots from a sniper rifle. But not an anti-material rifle. That meant the only one who could have made those shots was… ”Zer0…” the Courier wheezed, gripping his gut. He didn’t need to look down to see what had happened, he’d witnessed the assassin’s shooting first hand already. Those bullets had pierced straight through Bastion, and then straight through his gut. The padded armor of his duster didn’t make a difference. The NEMEAN subdermal armor didn’t make a difference. Whatever Zer0 shot, he shot straight through.
In an effort to deal with the sudden pain, stumbling to stay up on two legs, Six pulled out his bottle of whiskey. Sadly instead of taking a deep swig of delicious amber liquid he only coughed up precious red, which mixed ominously into the bottle. Then he suddenly lost his foot, though through no fault of his own, as the Omnic Bastion made a sweeping motion with its cannon barrel and, pardon the pun, barreled right into the Courier’s torso, tossing him aside like a rag doll. He couldn’t even grunt or yell as he fell and hit the ground, his bottle of bloody booze rolling away.
Vision growing hazy, the Courier heard explosions all around him, but couldn’t be bothered to truly see where they were coming from. He had enough of an idea, at any rate, but it didn’t matter. If he didn’t make it to Blazermate in short order…
No.
No.
”No!” he cried out in defiance. He had a god damn job to do, and he never left a job unfinished. Death may have been hovering over him, black and bleak, ready to take his immortal soul to the next life, but that asshole would have to wait. That Bastion unit still needed to die. Bowser still needed to get into the castle. That overgrown lightbulb in the sky still needed to be put in its place. Not today, Death. Not. Fucking. Today.
Gripping his new pickaxe with renewed vigor, the Courier felt its power coursing through his body in even greater amounts than before. He felt practically superhuman, and it was time to rejoin the fight! He looked up and, wait, Death was actually here? That wasn’t a hallucination brought on by blood loss? And he was fighting on their side?! And he was utterly destroying the robot?!
The remains of Bastion burst into ash not too far away, leaving behind a large floating spirit just as all the other deaths. The Courier bit his lip so hard he drew blood and spat it out (or was that blood already there?), then put all his effort into moving one foot in front of the other. Step. Step. Step. Even as strong and powerful as he felt with his pickaxe in hand, it still took everything he had just to move, but he could do it. He had been in worse places before. Hard to beat getting shot twice in the head and buried in a shallow grave. Hell, hard to beat having your brain surgically removed and still walk around. The Big Empty was weird.
Ignoring everything else in the battlefield, or perhaps simply too exhausted and injured to notice anything else, the Courier waded straight to the Bastion spirit. Finally, mere inches from it, he reached out with one hand and took hold of the thing, then fell to his knees. He released the pickaxe and suddenly a roaring wave of pain overcame him. He seized up for a moment, having to get acclimated to it all over again, but it was a necessary evil if he was going to reach into his pack and pull out the lakelurk spirit.
He remembered seeing King Bowser do the same with those hammer throwing turtles, and the rabbit. Damn, just speaking took so much effort. ”I need a posse. You’re gonna be my hombres. Capiche?” Still gripping the spirits in both fists, tight, the Courier fell to the ground on his back, still bleeding out profusely.
Geno's participation in the battle against the hard-hat and the omnic robot was extremely limited, yet despite this he did all he could to pick out any approaching enemies from afar. He can already see that the battle was already seeming to wrap up, especially considering how much ground his allies were taking. But even then, Geno dared not to abandon his friend and leave him vulnerable to be picked off by any lingering hostiles still around. In fact, when a rather large omnic came rolling up behind him and prepared to fire, the puppet was quick to turn and fire off several blasts from his arm cannon. In just three shots to its chest piece, the hulking robot exploded in a ball of fire and metallic debris. And when several rabbids came creeping in to inspect the fallen plumber, they would immediately be forced to retreat as they looked down the barrel of the wooden cannon.
But just as Geno would be able to continue providing cover fire, he would suddenly hear a feminine voice call out his name. He ducked under cover before turning to his right to see a young woman running towards her. She introduced herself as Din - who was also part of the resistance group - and asked if he required healing.
"I am fine, thank you." the puppet replied politely, "I didn't expect you all to get here so quick."
Din would then ask about his unconscious mustached friend, asking who and how he got him here.
"Yes," he confirmed to her, "He is an old friend of mine. Mario is his name. But~"
The woman would then ask if he was still possessed, in which Geno nodded sadly.
"I found him as a metallic statue in the dungeons below the Castle," he explained bluntly, "When I released him, he didn't recognize me, and forced me into combating him. He's unconscious now, but I wish to find someone who can revert him back to his actual self - if... that's possible at least."
Din stated how she had two possible ideas in how to purify and revive Mario back to his former self and asked if she should. Geno was still somewhat cautious of this decision. It would take the puppet a few long seconds before he could answer.
"What are your options?" he asked warily.
But before anything else could happen, both would be able to hear the cries and cheers of victory coming from the allies themselves. Indeed, it didn't take long before the allies mopped up the last of the enemy opponents - including the two stronger "bosses". The whole sight invigorated the puppet's spirit tenfold. Even though they'd won only a single battle in an ever growing war against the seraphim, the star warrior believed that in time they would finally earn the strength and manpower needed to beat the divine conquerer and restore peace into the multiversal realm. But of course, he couldn't forget the utter carnage - including the wounded allies - that were littered across the scrapyard. This war will be anything but short and easy. And he must prepare for the absolute worse case scenarios should they - nay, once they - rear their ugly heads.
It was then when Geno noticed a hooded person amongst their ranks - one whom he vaguely saw upon his departure to the castle. Something about him both seemed off, yet strangely benevolent in nature. Curious as to who he was, he pointed his wooden-knobbed finger towards him for Din to see.
"And if I may ask," the puppet mentioned peculiarly, "Who is that person?"
“Hahah! If I didn't know better, I'd say you were the hero of this story!”
Bowser was not pleased with the thanks he got for saving the Master of Masters.
“YEAH, YOU DO KNOW BETTER. I... UH... JUST BE THANKFUL THAT YOUR USEFUL TO ME OK!” the king responded in a slightly flustered manner. Had Mario seen him do that he wondered. Even if he had not, he was concerned that Geno tell him. Bowser was so caught up in his concern for his own image that he almost missed the dog-piling of the bridges guards. Agoston had finally caught up with the party and wasted no time in engaging in a brawled with the engineer, while Michel had apparently decided to reduce the risk of friendly fire by targeting the mostly ignored sentry. Zer0 picked up where the sniper left off however, and managed to catch the cowboy as he was attacking bastion. Said omnic was acting as an excellent distraction carnifex, or would have been if his allies had not been taken down so easily by one on one fights. Nevertheless he showed himself to warrant the half a dozen people targeting it as cannon jumping let him rain explosions down upon his attackers. It was up to Tora and Miniko to save the day with their attacks on the engineer and bastion respectively, and together they put down the last of their foes. Victory had come at a price however, and several of Bowser’s troops had been wounded by bastion’s last ditch bombardment
A commiserative “OH THAT HAS GOT TO HURT” was all Bowser could really offer to the many wounded. Fortunately his minions could do more, heralding their arrival via coffin smasher. The wooden mallet sailed though the air and bonked into Blazermate, repairing her of any damage she had received from the explosive rain rather than hurting her even more as might be expected. The hammer’s flight was quickly followed by Heel, who also soared through the air after being thrown by Sledge to land in the middle of the wounded. With a flourish, a green pulse of energy emerging from his back back which radiated out through the group, lightly healing everyone. The Rabbid gave “baa bwaaa”, as if it had just performed a magic trick, as the lightly wounded where cured entirely, while the lethally wounded were at least stabilized, removing some of the pressure of target prioritization from the single target healers. A few moments later the two bro’s arrived, Sledge lugging the mini-gun with him while Mallet went to retrieve the coffin smasher.
Seeing/expecting everything to be well in hand and trying to avoid looking like he cared that much Bowser bypassed his squad and went directly to Geno. “SO NICE OF YOU TO REJOIN US SO SOON GENO” he told the doll sarcastically.
“I SEE YOU BROUGHT THAT PESKY PLUMBER WITH YOU AS WELL. YOUR NOT EXACTLY DOING YOUR BEST TO GET ON MY GOOD SIDE MATCHSTICK” he added, menace dripping from his words. After a tension filled pause however he relented to practicality and sighed, telling Geno in a resigned voice that “YOU SHOULD GO TALK TO THE GUY YOUR ASKING ABOUT ABOUT GETTING MARIO FREE FROM GALEEM’S BOGUS.” he pointed a thumb over his shoulder at the Master of Masters.
Left grumpy as a result what he had just done and wishing to head of any accusations of mercy or kindness Bowser stomped over to Ratchet plucked the Maniac's bombuilder off of him.
“I’M BORROWING THIS”
Then he stomped over to the moat and pumped 4 proxy mines into it before turning his back on it and tossing the magic grenade launcher back to Ratchet. A few moments later the mines, along with a few bomb fish, detonated down in the water and the moat exploded behind Bowser, showering the party with a light rainfall and the souls of the various aquatic creatures that had been swimming below. The King had his most evil grin on his face while this happened, just to add to the moment and remind everyone that he was the baddest of bad dudes and not some wussy hero. After a few moments in reveling in the catharsis of this act ordered his minions to “GATHER UP THE BLOOPER SOULS FOR ME.” The two bros obeyed at once while Heel had to be given some indication as to what he was collecting. The souls of the monochrome squid like creatures were then quickly gathered up and brought to the king where they joined the spirits of his other minions in his now rather ragged coat pockets.
While they where doing this Bowser went and collected his hat again from where it had landed after hitting bastion at the start of the fight. Then he turned his attention to the castle itself, wondering what perils it might have in-store. None that could be more dangerous than Mario, that was for sure.
“SO WHAT’S IN THERE ANYWAY GENO?” He asked their supposed scout, refraining from actually looking at the wooden doll and keeping his eyes fixed squarely on the castle itself.
Level 3 - (8/30) EXP - Holding level up Location: Scrapyard - Aftermath Word Count: 526
That bastion robot really didn't seem to like being outsmarted, and made a few motions that seemed kind of off for something she figured had an immobile cannon. Doing some weird spinning motion with his cannon, Bastion knocked Blazermate and the Coruier off himself, then launched into the air bombarding the area with explosives as he flew. Blazermate tried using her new fancy projectile deleting gun, but it only let out a tiny 'zap' sound as it had ran out of ammo. Noticing this, Blazermate jumped and tried to get out of the way of the incoming shots, however one hit her out of the air and sent her careening into a scrap pile.
Blazermate's plan sort of worked? At least, the Bastion got destroyed although it was by whatever Minako summoned rather than anything her and 6 did. And all she had to show for her little plan was herself face down in a pile of scrap and notable damage from one of Bastion's explosive shells hitting her. Sure Medabots were made of fairly sturdy stuff since there were blaster type medabots that used explosives, but it still hurt. As she groaned getting back up, one of her ponytails bent the wrong way, a light metallic 'thunk' could be heard from the hammer that one of Bowser's minions threw. She wasn't expecting to get any kind of healing this way, but she was thankful for it as she got up, snapped her pigtail back into shape, and looked at the rest of the team.
"Oof. Lots of wounded, and I'm not at 100% either. But..." Blazermate said as she gazed at everyone. Most people had injuries of varying degrees, but they weren't as bad as what 6 had for injuries. "That is... bad. Gotta fix that!" She said, brushing off her healing arm and putting her healing beam on 6. Apparently Bowser's minions were healers too, as they at lest did some of her work in healing the slightly injured to full health. While healing him, she noticed that she had landed near to where the engineer had fallen and perished, a bright glowing rainbow soul before her. Deciding she could use a powerup, as her ability to do damage seemed to be lacking in this world, she absorbed the Engineer soul into herself. 6's healing would only pause for a moment as Blazermate took the soul's power into herself, but once that was finished she continued healing. Once 6 was back up to nearly full strength, Blazermate moved on to heal the next heavily injured person, and went down the injured list until everyone was healed up.
"Hello there Geno, you really shouldn't separate so much from your medic." Blazermate said as she was healing someone. Looking at this 'Mario' character a bit more closely, she wondered if he did something similar to this engnineer she just consumed. Looking at Bowser, he seemed to not be happy at all at seeing this Mario character, and Blazermate wondered why. But she figured she had best make sure everyone was in tip top shape before she went prying into that bit of business.
"Well, my options are this," Din shows Geno Charm Equinox, the keyblade that the Master of Masters pulled from her heart. "I saw the Master of Masters use this to bring that guy in the pig mask back to his senses. I can try doing the same, but from the way he tells, it, it's unlikely I'll succeed. Something about how it's not that easy to wield a keyblade." Din looks back and tries to point out Roadhog, who reminded her of a large moblin to Geno, only to see the Master of Masters and hearing Geno's question. "Yeah, that's the Master of Masters, as he calls himself. Mysterious guy, but he seems to know a lot about this world."
Returning to her previous thought, Din continued, "My other option, you know how we all think that Kirby saved us from being controlled by that thing?" She points up at Galeem hovering menacingly in the sky, "Earlier, I saw Kirby, he's awake now by the way, I saw him demonstrating something. The person he was showing it to, the desert man in the hat and jacket, he wondered if this was how Kirby did it, and I think Kirby was trying to show that we could all do it too, or maybe just the desert man? I guess I could try."
Din held her arms over her body, then lifted them both straight up. She let out a cute “Ey!” emulating Kirby, but nothing happened. Fortunately, as a dancer, Din didn't let the embarrassment get to her though she was frustrated and disappointed at her failure. Maybe we should get the man he showed it to to do it," Din wondered, but then Bowser approached, giving Din a better idea, since Courier 6 seemed to be quite injured. When he had finished with his demonstration of 'pure evil', Din ran over to him, "Hey, Lord Bowser, you still have Kirby with you? I don't think the Master of Masters has the strength to save this Mario. He seemed pretty beat after healing the large man. But I'm sure Kirby can. Like, this heart-shaped thing popped out of his hands when he did that and he threw it on the ground. Or maybe you or Geno want to try the thing I just did that I saw Kirby do. Unless you're too embarrassed to try it."
Din had no idea how any of this worked and was desperately trying to put the pieces together, trying to be as helpful as she could. It was obviously magic, which wasn't too foreign a concept for her, just magic she wasn't familiar with.
level two // scrapyard - end // 247 words Mentioned: @Stern Algorithm
Roadhog didn't believe what he witnessed on the battlefield as the creature torn the Bastion apart. He didn't know what the fuck happened or wanted to know, since it helped secure victory. Now that the battle was over, Roadhog got out of cover and looked around to see some of the people got wounded. Especially the cowboy. He was foolish for charging at the Bastion without a single care in the world and he paid for that. Bastion was a difficult machine to face whenever Overwatch bought it along during missions. But, Roadhog learned how to defeat it after a painful lesson. Even the hogdrogen wasn't enough to heal the wounds until Moria "upgraded" it. Speaking of which, he went to check if the container was still empty since there wasn't any way of refilling it. Then, he saw it was already filled.
It wasn't possible. That container should have remained empty since he used it earlier. Suddenly, Roadhog heard his "nickname" being mentioned regarding getting his "senses back." He had enough waiting around and wanted answers now. Naturally, Roadhog walked towards the woman with determination to get answers. He was annoyed that he barely knew what the hell was going. He didn't know who or what was Galeem. He didn't know what happened that made him lose his "senses." And he planned on getting his questions answered even if it meant getting violent.
"I am sick and tired of waiting for answers." Roadhog said angrily while walking and still holding his shotgun. "I want to know what the fuck is going on? Who is Galeem? What are souls? Where am I? And why am I here?"
"And you." Roadhog pointed at the woman that talked to him earlier. "What do you mean that I lost my 'senses.' Answer me or else."
Geno listened carefully to Din's first explanation in how to revive Mario. She showed him what appears to be some sort of blade - one shaped into a key - and explained that the "Master of Masters" used it to revive someone named "Roadhog". According to her finger, the latter was an interesting man to say the least - with a tall yet round stature while also wearing an ominous-looking mask. Better for him to be on their side now rather than an enemy at this rate. However, the young woman also warned that she'd be most unlikely to succeed in such a procedure due to how unwieldy such a keyblade could be.
"I see..." the puppet sighed understandingly.
When he asked about the robed figure, Din would confirm him to be the "Master of Masters", noting his mysterious yet knowledgable aura regarding the state of this world. While he glanced over at him, a robot healer came over to greet him before fully healing the damage on him.
"Thank you." Geno kindly thanked the bot before turning his attention back to Din.
"'Master of Masters, he calls himself...?" he wondered puzzlingly over as he carefully examined the figure from afar, "Hm... that's quite a bold proclamation if I've ever heard one."
Din would soon begin to explain the second option in how to free Mario. She asked if the puppet recalled how Kirby saved them from the Seraphim's influence. Geno looked up at the hovering deity hovering in the far distance and nodded accordingly.
"I do." he answered, "You mean that he could revive my friend back to his normal self?"
The young woman seemed to confirm this possibility. She tried to explain how Kirby - who's now awake to Geno's relief - demonstrated something to Courier 6, the rugged-looking man with the brown leather coat, that hinted to how he must've revived the entire group as is. Whatever he demonstrated may be the key in release all of the other possessed fighters. Din then offered herself to try and demonstrate whatever Kirby did. Curious, the puppet stood back and let her do the "magic". She rose her arms into the air and issued a tiny squeak akin to the pink puffball's.
Geno waited for several moments, staring at her with his hazelnut-eyes, before looking back at Mario. Nothing seemed to be working. Was this part of the ritual? He looked at Din again before uttering his sense of confusion.
"It... didn't work?" he asked puzzlingly while scratching his head.
Din released her disappointment as she suggested that Courier might want to do it. The puppet seemed to doubt him as a possibility at this point. He didn't look to be the sort of person who would use magic at all. He was about to suggest something else before he heard the sarcastic bellow of the Koopa King come stomping up behind him. And the puppet seemed to already know what the topic of the conversation will primarily consist of. Regardless, he turned to face Bowser and looked up at his meaty snout.
"Ah, sire." the star warrior humbly greeted their team leader, "I didn't expect for everyone to arrive here so soon. How is~?"
The Koopa King immediately dispersed the pleasantries and cut straight to the topic at hand - that being the unconscious plumber whom he utterly abhors. There was a dreadful venom that emitted in his words, one that Geno knew all to well regarding their history. He had to cool his temper down before he'd become the group's next torchlight.
"I found him within the Castle." the puppet calmly explained while pointing to said building, "He was possessed by the seraphim as well. While I had no choice but to fight him, I chose to spare him and bring him here alive. I was told that there's someone here is able to disperse the influence off him."
The tensioned that filled the air would last momentarily, however Bowser ultimately subsided his anger and pointed Geno in the direction of the "Master of Masters" whom would help release Mario from "Galeem's bogus". Was that the name they gave to the Seraphim? Perhaps it was somewhat fitting giving how he "gleams" in the sky for miles on end. But the bigger question revolved around the hooded man's influence. Can he really bring his friend back to his former self as well? Do both he and Kirby have such unique powers to revive all those from Galeem's influence? This made him more hopeful of the situation.
"I shall go and see him." Geno replied in a rather cheerful manner.
But as he began to drag Mario to the Master, Din would approach Bowser and ask him about Kirby. She suggested that it would be better for Geno to see him instead, rather than the energy deprived Master. The puppet took a quick glance at the hooded man and did note how tired he happened to be after the battle. Maybe it was best if he given him some room to recover. He continued listening as Din mentioned how Kirby released a "heart-shaped thing" after he did the stance that she did to much success. She made it sound like anyone could do it. However, Geno was beginning to understand that perhaps it would be best for him to visit the other fellow star warrior himself for help. Because while he knew very little about him from Mario and even his brother Luigi, he was told that he had an affinity for his world's magic. He knew what he had to do.
"Then let me speak to Kirby." he replied somewhat woodenly in tone, "If what you say is true, then he will be the one to initiate the process."
Suddenly, their conversation would be interrupted by an angry Roadhog who demanded answers about what was going on. Armed with a shotgun, this giant of a man was no one to slouch at. Geno wanted little to deal with him, however he was still forced to at the very least keep his arm cannon on standby if he decided to go berserk.
Then again, he couldn't blame him for his attitude either. In essence, he was just like the rest of them - brought into this world against his will and with no idea as to why he's here - and asking why is everything and anything. The Master of Masters ought to explain everything to them soon, but for the time being Geno continued to search for wherever Kirby was.
Then Bowser would return to see Geno and asked him what he saw in the castle. After all, he did mention he was going to scout ahead. Luckily for him, there was stuff that he had seen within.
"Most of the castle seems to replica of the real structure," the puppet continued, "The first floor seemed to be the same and I believe Toads are still within her walls. However, there's a complex dungeon labyrinth underneath it that housed several notable figures. Mario wasn't the only figure I found down there. Donkey Kong and a small purple dragon were also present, although I believe they must've escaped by now."
He paused for a second before he remembered a key portion of information.
"And I must not forget," the puppet continued, "Speaking of the latter, I found him within a laboratory room, where he was experimented on by your own advisor, Kamek. He seemed to serve some 'King' of his... and from the sounds of it, I didn't believe he meant "Your Awfulness" either."
New Power: Eurydice Level 2 - (13/20) EXP Location: Scrapyard, End Word Count: 710
Pain
As his blade came to rest in the chassis of the now-fallen robot, Thanatos relaxed. Similar to Bastion's own disappearance, the embodiment of death would glow white momentarily, breaking back down into the shiny, glass-like texture, before fading into nothingness. He had done his part.
As soon as he was gone, Minako's legs gave out, causing her to fall unceremoniously to the floor. Intense yet shallow breathing indicated her condition was not good, and it didn't take a genius to tell she was bleeding more than she could handle. Large, near-bulletproof monsters still couldn't account for the sheer devastation that Bastion's minigun could inflict, and it showed. Her left arm was the worst off, following her right leg, and a single shot that broke through Thanatos hit her slightly above the hip. If it weren't for Personas being almost completely invulnerable, she would easily be dead by now.
That didn't stop her from getting upset at someone else, though. Acting in spite of her condition, the redhead got to her feet, and forced herself to move. She really couldn't be bothered with yelling at someone right now, but honestly, she had to say something or else it would happen again. In an awkward shuffle-like walk, the young woman began to approach her intended target: Linkle. Maybe it was that they were so similar, mostly by age and appearance, that lead her to get so worried over the otherworldly hero. Maybe it was her shortsightedness and willingness to walk out in front of an active minigun. Either way, something had to be said. As soon as she was close enough, Minako would forcibly grab hold of the green hero by the collar, though with her strength as weak as it was this wasn't so much a pull as it was a tug. The teen's glare and obvious annoyance was clear as day, though she refused to speak, not till she could get her thoughts in order. If she mindlessly yelled at her, there wasn't a lesson to be learned, except that she needed to be a better leader. Thinking constructively while tired and bleeding from several bullet wounds was tough, but she did the best she could, given the situation.
"Linkle. Do not, under any circumstance, do that again..." Her tone was stern, yet the weariness was impossible to mask. "Tora almost died under that barrage, and I didn't fare so well against it, either. Running out of cover when it had all three of us under its sights, let alone if the other turret or that man also thought we were a threat, is frankly stupid. You wouldn't do the same to a legion of archers, would you? An army of riflemen, perhaps? Because -- and I know you didn't know this, but -- that's what it is: an army in one." Her probing scarlet glare softened with a sigh, and she averted her gaze to the ground. It wasn't like she herself couldn't be blamed for something, either. Minako knew that the opportunity was there to stop her from running out, but she let her own fear control her. How could one call themselves a leader when they're unable to move in times of need?
"Look," she started, letting go of Linkle's collar, still staring at the ground. "At the end of the day, we made it. It wasn't pretty, but somehow, we did. And you did well enough not only keeping yourself alive, but using bombs to put pressure on the enemy. That's fine; great, actually! But..." Refocused, she looked like she was about to plead with Linkle. And... possibly cry? It was hard to say. "Be more careful, OK? If not for yourself, then for others. You can't expect to help anyone with a... well, you get the picture." A pained chuckle escaped the redhead's lips as she pointed to her own wounds. Minako hadn't really helped anyone the same as Blazermate had, but now with Eurydice back, perhaps there was an opportunity to do so. At the very least, she now had the means of recovering herself. But if Blazermate could do the job without tiring, then that would be preferable.
The adrenaline was beginning to wear off now. Those wounds were beginning to hurt like a mother. Tags: @Gentlemanvaultboy
