Kid was surprised to see the Courier respond the way he did to his first use of an umbrella (an idea with which he was unfamiliar); initially with interest and relief, followed swiftly by a sudden onset of frightful aversion. She didn't expect or mean for it to frighten him however it did, but moreso, she was confused as to how this grizzled wastelander, who just got through being blown up twice within the last minute or so, and has no doubt seen a lot prior to that, would be alarmed by something so innocuous as a child's sky blue, star-patterned parasol. Who knows? Maybe some who have seen things always see them. Unable to draw any rational conclusions from inspecting the underside of the simple weathershield and finding nothing, the child dismissively shrugged to herself and stored the device away, taking her leave of the waking Lombax to give him some space while he returned to his senses. She came upon a battleground all but cleared, calmer than when she had left it, save for last ongoing battle between two summoners and an archer that was probably best left uninterrupted, lest anyone be in the way of friend or foe. Anyone , if their newly bolstered ranks were anything to go on, they were all more than capable of taking care of themselves, so those remaining wouldn’t be far behind the rest of the party once they mobilized. Of course, despite having the most stake in it, their objective didn’t seem so urgent to the demonic bull tortoise--their self-appointed leader--that he couldn’t take a moment to bluster about how well his “plan” that he didn’t have worked, no thanks to him. Kid simply rolled her eyes at the boastful remarks and made her way into the castle alongside the others.

They were greeted in the castle foyer by the cacophonous wailing of panicked mushroom men, no taller than Kid (marginally shorter, perhaps), scurrying about in a disorganized fashion; a likely contrast to what was intended for them. Closer inspection would reveal them to be under the same spell (or whatever it was) that afflicted a few of those present mere minutes ago, but the more obvious fact was that they clearly posed no threat to any of them. The group thought the better of wasting any time trying to beat it out of them one by one. Even for those who really wanted to help them, there was a better, if astoundingly more difficult way for them to do that: by dethroning their oppressor. The company pressed on past the agitated servantry and through a set of giant, ornamental doors leading into a lavishly renovated throne room. At its end sat their enemy, Bowser’s more fearsome doppelganger, who wasted little time trading egos with his perceived lesser, pointing to the iron enclosures containing more tranced heroes in need of saving dangling overhead. Bowser (the good one) made the first move (well… command, actually) to free the captives with the intention of adding them to their fighting force, starting with the Herculean simian. This was all the excuse MegaDragonBowser needed to begin the battle proper.

Before anyone else could act, MegaBowser shot a sphere of incendiary breath to the ceiling that exploded on impact, scattering into a hellish rain of embers that set fire to every article of the scenery that could catch it, and threatened to do the same to any careless enough to not heed it. As a share of their number promptly set to rescuing the captives, Kid took off to do the same, keeping her senses about her as she sidestepped several beads of burning hail on her chosen route. She ran as many climbing steps up the wall as she could manage before having to grasp the adjacent drapery and shuffle hand over hand to keep her momentum going into an angular ascent as she lept from one set of curtains and banners to another, repeating this process until one came loose from its bearings from having a substantial portion of its material already burned away. In a moment of startled reflex, she propelled herself of the wall, releasing the falling remains of freshly singed-off fabric as she sailed with an arm outstretched towards the cage containing a stocky ursine and compact avian, and caught a hold of one of the bars by the bottom end.

Her motion carried through with a sudden uptake of force that just about jerked her arm out of socket, causing the cage to both spin and swing in circles. She would attempt to add as much as she could to it with her, frankly, meager strength and weight to build up more inertia until she was satisfied with its trajectory. She dismounted the cell at the height of is swing into a gaining tuck, turned to face the row of cages, whipped out her umbrella, and held it at her side as if ready to joust with it while she lined up her aim with her open hand. Her intention was to shoot the chains from as many cages as she could reach with a single, fully-charged shot, or at least attempt to create some kind of chain reaction (pun not intended) with just the one. While airborne, however, it wasn't entirely guaranteed that she would get even much of a good shot off, but without an otherwise adequately elevated foothold or suspension, it was worth a try. After a three count of energized whirring, Kid thrust her parasol forward, producing a wide torrent of red energy...

The heroes launched into action, scattering to the left and right to avoid the falling flame and ready themselves to attack. Megadragonbowser's former adversary threw open the valves of his F.L.U.D.D., dousing flame as he ascended toward he dangling cages. As much as the tyrant reviled him, he had beaten the red-capped menace once before and could do it again, so he paid Mario no special attention. The plumber received aid in fire-management from Din, whose rod rolled out a chilling carpet of cold to quench the flame blanketing the floor, and Blazermate, who somehow managed to delete a few fireballs before they splattered on the tile. Not really caring about his hazards, he ignored them in favor of his more direct assailants..

Jetting through the vast throne room's open air, Geno let loose beam after beam at Megadragonbowser, none particularly powerful or targeted. In a very literal fashion the tyrant shrugged them off, his searing shell unfazed. He cast an irritated glance as the Courier spoke to him, wondering why 6 bothered talking when his team was already attacking him. To the tyrant's surprise, however, the drug-addled blowhard proceeded to open fire on a few of his teammates, landing direct shots as they went about their business not threatening him. ”WHATEVER, PIPSQUEAK. STAY OUT OF MY WAY AND DON'T BOTHER CRYIN' TO ME IF YA GET PULVER-UGH!”

The distraction had allowed Henry free rein to dial in his aim and unleash a torrent of dark magic upon him. Ruin after Ruin burst against his face, the one part of his body his stance left exposed. Though more irritated than truly hurt, he lifted his head out of the noxious cloud far enough to leave the slimmest of openings, and the team's emote-happy sharpshooter took advantage of the fleeting chance. Zer0 plugged the Courier with as many bullets as his rifle's fire rate would allow, each shot increasing in strength as it non-lethally penetrated him, then striking Megadragonbowser in the upper chest. ”BAH!” he bellowed at the lances of pain, but the bullets did not trouble him for long. While B0re made them bypass his tough scales, which even for normal Bowser did well enough against gunfire, the rounds themselves were destroyed a moment after entering his blazing-hot insides.

Still, the attack hurt, and the tyrant's temper flared. Behind him, thanks to Din's magic, a number of Piranha plants burst through the tile as they grew, but Megadragonbowser didn't give them the chance to nip at his exposed tail. With a wordless bellow, the tyrant reeled back before launching himself forward, retreating into his shell as he did. Like a giant, killer hockey puck, he whirled down middle of the grand throne room, smashing anyone foolish enough to remain in his way. He continued to spin blindly until he struck the hall's great doors, blowing them apart in a shower of timber and coming to an abrupt stop. For a second or two the whole castle seemed to rattle, except for the four super solid-looking black stone pillars holding the ceiling up. Then, the Tyrant popped from his shell once again.



When battle erupted, Tora knew where to go. Whatever her misgivings from before, Poppi followed right on his heels as the Nopon rushed straight through the flame toward Megadragonbowser, shield at the ready. This brought the pair alongside the Courier, though despite his proximity 6 opted not to select Tora for his display of betrayal. While Tora knew that the teamshooting was for the sake of some gambit, like that failed attempt on the bridge, the knowledge did not render 6's lead harmless. “What is druggipon doing!?” he exclaimed, appalled. “How can possibly hurt those supposed to be friends!?”

Full of anger and dismay, he missed the clear signs that Megadragonbowser was just about to turn him and the Courier into a couple of stains. Saying, “Masterpon, pay attention! Banter come after victory,” she reached forward, grabbed Tora in both hands, and blasted off. The pair soared above the tyrant as he careened across the floor; the Courier, no doubt, eluded an unceremonious death as well.

Tora grumbled to himself, but he knew Poppi was right. He needed to focus on what lay ahead of him. If he'd been ready, he reasoned, he might have been able to block the attack and keep his allies from having to spend time dodging they'd otherwise be able to use attacking. Still held aloft like a fuzzy exercise ball, Tora waited for Megadragonbowser to hit the wall and open himself up for attack once again, since it looked pretty impossible to hurt him while withdrawn into his shell. While biding in time, he was surprised to see a couple cages hurl down around him, and looked up. Mario, Ratchet, Gaige's Deathtrap, Hat Kid and Blazermate were working to finish what Bowser's rabbid striker started before the tyrant's fireball put a temporary end to him. Their collective efforts, particularly the surprise laser blast from the little girl's umbrella, sent the cages plunging to the floor one after another, their captives healed enough to survive the impact. Donkey Kong, Banjo & Kazooie, and Fancy Pants were the first freed, leaving the Kid and Spyro still held on high. However, none were fit to fight. If these heroes were to battle alongside the heroes, more recovery and persuasion would be needed—or, to solve the problem outright, a Friend Heart apiece.

“Distraction needed,” Tora remarked, noting that the former captives would be sitting ducks until brought to their senses. At the front of the throne room, Megadragonbowser had come to a stop, so it was time to act. Craning his non-neck as best he could, he called, “Poppi, it showtime! Super big throw!”

The artificial blade nodded. “Roger, roger!” Shifting her grip, she grasped Tora by his free wing and began to spin. After a couple whirls she let him loose and started channeling energy into his drill shield. From the three nodes on its back-outer edge, miniature boosters popped out, and the drill extended from its front. For the first time, the oversized bit began to spin, and its rotation plus the boosters' thrust sent Tora flying even faster. Megadragonbowser lifted his hand to intercept, and the weaponized Nopon struck his hand dead-on, the drill causing sparks to fly as attempted to pierce the tough scales. After a second the lumbering tyrant closed his claws, grasped the edges of the shield, and threw his assailant off. Tora hurtled through the air and bounced when he hit the ground, landing on his feet after the second bounce. After shaking his head to clear the stars from his eyes, Tora reset his shield and prepared to defend.

Mega Dragon Bowser’s napalm attack caught off guard, leaving the hero's to rush past him to begin engaging their foe. Fortunately ice from Din’s magic and water from Mario’s conveniently required F.L.U.D made short work of the inferno that threatened to engulf the castle. The darn’d plumber always seemed to find the right tools for the job at just the right times, but at least for once this luck was helping Bowser rather than harming him. The mercenary cowboy then seemed to sell them out, but quickly paid for this when the rest of the team then opened fire, Zero’s shots once again catching the cowboy in the crossfire. Unfortunately just like how Bowser had shrugged off so much gun fire today the imposter came out of this initial voly mostly unharmed before retaliating with a spinning shell atack. The king was left scrambling to get out of the way along with the others while also having to contend with the issue of not squishing his troops at the same time. He was rewarded for the caution his double would never have shown by a shower of splinters striking his rear from Megadragonbowser's destructive impact with the door.

Bowser turned round just in time to see his double tossing aside the comparatively tiny Poppi. And leapt at the opportunity to go head to head with the imposter and dethrone him personally.

“I’M GOING TO STOMP YOU INTO PASTE!” Bowser roared at his foe before charging Megadragonbowser. The empower imposter turned to face him and raised a claw, catching Bowser’s initial mighty right hook with relative ease. While he was briefly stunned by this turn of events Bowser was not one to be put down so easily. Despite this no selling of his initial strike Bowser tried again, slashed at Megadragonbowser with the Mecha Mitt, only to find his wrist caught before the glowing claws could get close enough to leave a mark. As a result he was left standing there, his hands caught by the his double and unable to pull away.

”PATHETIC” MegaDragonBowser taunted his captive foe.

Bowser struggled for a few moments, attempting to get free, before realising that he had one advantage over the Galeme empowered Megadragonbowser, and that was that he was not yet out of fists. He grinned at the imposter as the sides of his top hat deployed their hidden pair of mechanical boxing arms, which then proceeded to deliver a series of rapid fire jabs to Megadragonbowser’s smug face. At the same time Sledge and Mallet appeared at their king’s shoulders to assist, having only just recovered their footing after being jostled around by the clash of titans. The larger bro spun up Blazermate’s minigun and and unleashed a hail of fire point blank while Malet made do with bonking the false king on the head with a few hammers thrown over his own king’s hat.

”RAAAAAAH!” Megadragonbowser roared more in anger than pain as he used his grip on bowser’s arms and the power of his wings to hurl Bowser to one side, throwing him clean out of the throne room though the shattered remnants of the doors and into the lobby. A few of the unfortunate Toads who had managed to survive the shower of splinters from the annihilated door were instead crushed by the tossed turtle. The hammer Bros meanwhile were poofed as they hit the ground, having been shaken off their king by the force of the throw.

”WHO’S NEXT!” the triumphant Megadragonbowser said as he turned his back on the dazed Bowser to face the room full of heros, daring any of the others to fight him one on one.

Ratchet flipped off of the falling cage of Fancy Pants after knocking its hanging chain loose, coming to a landing nearby and skidding on the smooth floor. The rather plain guy, with his very nice fancy pants, looked rather rattled by the experience, but his cage smashed open leaving him free all the same. Just a bit roughed up, is all. The others had had similar results in releasing the big ape wearing a tie, and the bear with the bird in a backpack, which still left the small purple dragon and the kid wearing the cape.

Ratchet couldn’t afford to have tunnel vision at this time though, as it seemed that the Courier had betrayed them all, openly declaring loyalty to the bigger, badder Bowser, and shooting some of them in the process! ”Hey! What’s the big idea?!” he cried out, equipping the Bombbuilder, but before he could get an answer or shoot at the traitor, Zer0 had shot straight through him. Multiple times. Just like back at the bridge. ”I guess I can tell where I’m not needed.”

The lombax shrugged it off, assuming the Courier dealt with, and repeated his previous endeavor to free more allies by hopping up (with a little boost from Clank) to the cage holding the purple dragon, who although injured looked infinitely better prepared for this battle than some child playing superhero. Once up, he went to pry the chain off with his trustee omniwrench yet again.

Meanwhile, the Courier’s gambit had paid off, though sadly not nearly to the degree he had hoped. The bad Bowser appeared to be fooled, as did his allies, yet the false koopa king’s response was less than thrilling, determining that the Courier wouldn’t necessarily be a target, but he also didn’t give a damn if he had crushed him as collateral, a threat he made good on when he pulled into his shell to go into a wild and crazy spin maneuver!

Nearby, Tora was tossed out of the way, while 6 had to rely on his own dodging ability, rolling to the side in hopes of not getting squished. He was successful, though narrowly. The spinning king ran over the tails of his duster, tearing a large chunk of it off the back, though thankfully the large spade design was left unblemished. The Courier could only think of how he’d make this evil Bowser pay for such an unforgivable crime, but while he was tucked away in the shell there was nothing he could do. Yet this provided another opportunity.

While spinning, it stood to reason this Bowser was blind, which meant that the Courier could drop his ruse without being found out, and openly undermine the king’s regime. The best way to do that, considering nothing in his arsenal would be able to harm Bowser inside the shell, was to secure more allies. Of those that had been dropped down so far, he had the choice between an injured gorilla with impeccable fashion sense, a guy with a mohawk and really nice pants, or a walking bear and bird. Since the gorilla was nearest, Donkey Kong was the first to receive the Courier’s friend heart.

“Oof oof,” DK said, his color palette returning to normal, revitalized by the heart.

”No time to explain, just kick that guy’s ass, and if it looks like I’m fighting our team, it’s a lie,” the Courier spoke quickly, as Megadragonbowser emerged from his shell. Damn, that was too fast, he couldn’t secure any more allies. Thankfully, their Bowser kept him occupied for a few moments, utilizing some sort of bizarre… Cartoonish… Stupid… Absurd mechanical boxing hat? That was awesome! 6 idly tapped the brim of his rawhide, half-hoping he could summon mechanical boxing gloves from it, but alas such was never meant to be.

”Look out below!” called Ratchet. Spyro’s cage came crashing down, smashing open for the dragon, another potential ally.

The Courier was already making a run for Blazermate, gun outstretched in a menacing way as he fired another shot, which missed entirely on purpose. He only had 2 shots before a necessary reload. The pair were far enough away from their enemy that he hoped he could talk over the cacophony of battle and not be heard by the titanic turtle-dragon. ”I’m hitting safe spots on purpose to get his trust, the injuries are superficial. Sneak some heals my way as Zer0 hits him through my body, will ya?”

The smaller, friendlier Bowser had been knocked aside by now as the imposing enemy issued a challenge, a threat, to everyone left. Ratchet of course couldn’t let such a challenge go unanswered. There hadn’t been any charge time for his Bombbuilder since the fight on the bridge, but it still had one proximity mine charge left. He carefully took aim from the sidelines and pulled the trigger.

”Eat this!”

---

Zer0 moved quickly when the Mega Bowser announced his displeasure at the bullets. From what he could see the reaction was stronger to his bullets, probably because of b0re, and that made things a little simpler.

Zer0 avoided the rampaging turtle-dragon, stealthing in the process, as he took an extended route towards where the cages were dropping.

It was obvious that they needed more allies, and he knew how to manage that. It seemed the Courier had the same idea, arriving just before Zer0 himself, and gifting a heart to the ape before running off towards the healer. Zer0 couldn't help but shake his head at the man, instead turning his focus to the others that had been free.

Quickly he repeated the process he'd done to revive Gaige on the remaining three that had been freed, finishing up the first two before the purple dragon landed nearby.

So, he did it to the dragon as well. This was just like Mercenary Day, in a way. All the allies he could want! Absolutely fantastic.

Up above, however, Gaige jumped from the cage she'd been on to get caught by Deathtrap mere moments later. The little furry guy with the miniature bot that sometimes appeared on his back was freeing another, some little dragon thing, and that left one cage to deal with. Which, really unsurprisingly, held some poor looking kid with a cape. Really, child labor at it's finest! Maybe this big dragon guy worked for Hyperion? This was the type of despicable, capitalistic behavior that they would take advantage of. She could just stand by and let this go, either. No, she needed to free him.

Directing DT closer, she gripped onto the plates of his shoulder she was sitting on as he made a mighty swipe with his free clawed arm through the chain holding the cage in the air.

“BE FREE AND FUCK THE BIG GOVERNMENT DRAGON GUY, KID! RISE UP AGAINST THE MACHINE!” she yelled at the kid in the cage as it fell towards the ground. She could see Zer0 reviving those freed down below, so she turned her focus towards their enemy.

Lifting her pistol, she fired at the giant beast as it came out of its shell, aiming for its face. She had DT take her to a safe spot, dismounting and throwing up her metal arm dramatically.

“TO HELL WITH THE FIRST LAW, GET 'IM DT!” she commanded, laughing maniacally as her robot whizzed off towards Mega Bowser.

Zer0 might've laughed at Gaige's insane yelling if it wasn't for the fact that they were in a life or death situation, and there was a metal cage falling directly at his head. With a shake of his head, he dived to the side, rolling with his momentum, before coming up with his rifle at the ready. He was closer to the Courier now than before, who was apparently in combat with their healer. Stealthily Zer0 positioned himself again, taking aim before firing twice through the Courier's body towards Mega Bowser's face.

What was it that they always said? Two birds with one stone, right? He couldn't tell if the Courier was actually helping them out or not anymore, so it was better to be safe than sorry. If he was helping them through some weird act, well, Blazermate could heal him back up in a jiffy. Just like a good shot to the face from Maya! Just, y'know, without the bullets or crazy Siren powers.

Considering this was a fight against a big boss, Blazermate wasn't too surprised at how hectic the battle was going. Magic and fire flying, plants coming out of the ground, and bullets flying. What she didn't expect was the Courier to shoot her between the eyes at random while in the air healing DK, knocking her for a loop and causing her to fall the 4 or so feet she was hovering. With a flourish, Blazermate flipped up like you'd see in an anime, her medibeam hand being used to heal herself. "What in sam hill is wrong with you, boy?" She said angerly, her Engineer accent coming out in full force. Thankfully Zer0 sort of quelled her anger at being targted by shooting the courier for her, and apparently causing Dragon Bowser a bit of... pain? Not much, but, it was something.

Thanks to the efforts of comrades both new and old, almost everyone besides a kid with a cape and pistol was freed from their cages. but Dragon bowser didn't appreciate being damaged from Zer0's shot and the magic being thrown around. With a bellow, the giant dragon turtle got into his massive shell and spun around the room, eventually crashing into a wall as he tried to do some damage. Blazermate was able to easily dodge this attach by just jumping high and hovering in the air. As she surveyed the battlefield, she saw Tora and his ally attempt to attack MegaDragonBowser but fail miserably, while Bowser tried his hand at fighting the monster and was also casually thrown out of the room, back to where they had entered.

"This is a tough one, although he doesn't seem to do much beyond what our bowser does..." Blazermate thought to herself. When she saw the friend hearts going out to the captives, she had an idea. Landing away and out of sight of MegaDragonBowser, she pulled out a toolbox and began to construct a sentry. With MegaDraognBowser and only a few others being under Galeem's control, the sentry would be much more helpful. As she was constructing the sentry, The Courier came running up to Blazermate, firing a shot that missed. But before she could wind up a punch on the approaching cowboy, he blurted out his plan and why he had shot Blazermate and a few other allies.

She let out a sigh, telling the courier. "Fiiine. But I've also gotta heal everyone else." So far she had her medibeam on herself, as while she could heal herself, it wasn't as effective as healing others. Using one hand to heal, and the other to build the sentry, she gave the Courier a bit of healing. But considering the relative healthiness of everyone who wasn't the courier or bowser, the latter she couldn't tell because she couldn't see him, she was able to put more of her effort into building the sentry and quickly got it to level 2.

With two audible beeps, the sentry locked onto MegaDragonBowser and fired round after round at him with its twin chainguns, never stopping or missing as it had the big guy in its sights. Blazermate, much like she did before, hid behind her new bit of cover while hitting it with her hand to refill its ammo and potentially get it to level 3, while using her other hand to heal the injured, which at this point was mostly the courier and the people in cages. Linkle and Mario weren't nearly as damaged, the courier's bullets apparently doing very little to them in the grand scheme of things.

---

---

With the machine gone, Roadhog was finally alone with Junkrat's unconscious body. Junkrat looked oddly peaceful despite being shot and beaten. Sooner or later, he will wake up and attack once more. Roadhog knew that he couldn't take him on his own and had to make a decision. Put him down now or get rid of the brainwashing. He honestly didn't want to kill his only friend, but there wasn't anyone that knew how to rid the influence. Except for the hooded guy. He managed to clear his "heart" with the sword earlier. If he could find him, then maybe it was possible that he could do the same to Junkrat. But, was he that selfish to do that to him?

He didn't know the answer to his own question.

A little way off, the topmost part of a soft, pink ball poked out from behind the grand doors leading into Peach's Castle. A pair of big, round eyes glanced in curiosity at the few remaining fighters scattered across the bridge, but is gaze lingered the longest on the portly man and his influenced friend. Unlike the others, Junkrat had yet to awaken from Galeem's touch, and the sight of the grenadier's limp body cradled by his faceless companion was a sad one. Even if Roadhog's mask obscured his features, Kirby thought he could tell that the man seemed very alone.

He did not hesitate to change that. Running as fast as his big red feet could take him, Kirby zoomed over to Roadhog's side. With a great big smile, the puff held his little nub-arms over his head, and a sparkling pink heart manifested. Before he threw it, however, Kirby waited for Roadhog's permission. Even someone as simple and small as Kirby knew that foisting his friendship on someone who didn't want it would do more harm than good. Nevertheless, he hoped that the big, sad man would let him help.

Roadhog heard noises beside him and saw that odd pink creature was standing beside him. He seemed to have summoned a big pink heart out of nowhere. Normally, it would have been weird to see a heart floating, but he had seemed weirder shit. Something about that pink creature seemed trustworthy to throw the heart towards Junkrat. So, he stepped away from the both of them and gave the all-clear to the creature. Of course, he was still unsure about the whole thing. He kept a hand on his gun in case the creature had managed to trick him; however, it seemed like the strange creature had no reason to betray his trust.

Overjoyed that Roadhog obliged him, Kirby squealed, "Whee!" and tossed the Friend Heart at Junkrat. The bizarre energy spattered upon hitting the man, popping like a bubble full of pink cheerfulness. It zoop'ed right into him, and where Kirby's essence made contact, the ashen pallor of Galeem washed away. When the junker opened his eyes, they were just that: his, once more. No longer did the otherworldly entity's strange light reside there--only the usual spark of madness that suited Junkrat so well.

Junkrat opened his eyes and immediately knew that he wasn't in London anymore. He remembered everything that had happened today until something consumed him. Some kind of light that turned the entire world into darkness with nobody to call out. And of course, there were the whispers that led nowhere. It was his only source of sanity left in this oblivion. Then, he felt warmth for the first time and woke up to a clear sunny afternoon. Junkrat looked around his surroundings and saw a cute pink creature beside him. It wasn't anything he had been used to seeing but it looked harmless enough. However, he heard the familiar footsteps and saw Roadhog walking towards him.

"Oi!" Junkrat shouted at his friend, "Where have you been?!"

Roadhog mumbled something that Junkrat clearly understood. "Alright, you can tell me later then! Until then, let's get out of here!"

He got up from the ground and looked around at the strange foreign land. Of course, he checked to make sure that he had his gear on him. His handy grenade launcher was lying on the ground covered up on dirt. And he knew that he had mines on him along with his detonator. Now, he and Roadhog needed to go home; however, he had to thank the strange creature first.

"Thanks for, um, waking me up!" Junkrat said happily towards the creature.

A delighted expression took Kirby over. "Hi!" he cooed, uttering a word for the first time whether he knew it or not. Having a new friend was a cause for celebration, so the pink puff launched straightaway into a bouncy dance. He finished with a pose, one nubby little arm thrust in the air, but after a moment his smile faded. Even if he wasn't quite fit to fight yet, he should be there for those engaged in battle. Junkrat and Roadhog could go where they pleased, but Kirby beckoned them, saying, "Ahh, ahh!" before taking off again, headed back inside. Within Peach's Castle, the sounds of battle resounded, roaring flame and crashing timber. It was time for the pair to pick a side.

Junkrat saw that the creature was pointing at the castle before walking towards it. It seemed that it wanted them to come along and help it out. Naturally, Junkrat was curious about the strange castle and ran towards it while Roadhog slowly walked behind. It was clear that they weren't in London anymore given the air quality was better and bright green grass. While he was heading towards it, Junkrat turned towards his bodyguard and asked, "Where the bloody hell are we? This place clearly isn't London."

"Long story." Roadhog responded before making his way inside the castle. There was a sound of battle going on in the distance and Junkrat rushed towards it without any hesitation. And what he saw was unreal. A massive dragon stood tall and proud while attacking the group below him; however, that group was fighting back against it. Junkrat thought that a talking monkey and a hamster operating a mech were the craziest things that he had seen. Roadhog knew the creature and opened fire at it while Junkrat was still standing there in disbelief. "What the actual fuck is that thing?!" Junkrat yelled out and turned towards Roadhog while pointing at it.

"Like I said, long story." Roadhog answered. "Just shoot at it."

"I can do that." Junkrat grinned and threw down his mine, standing on his with the detonator on one hand and grenade launcher on the other. He pressed the detonator and went up in the air. He managed to fire several shots from his launcher before he landed on the ground. Meanwhile, Roadhog was walking towards the dragon while firing at it. He watched as his pal landed on the ground and started to reload his weapon. Of course, he was happy to have him back, but he still hoped that it wasn't going to come back to bite him in the ass. Once Junkrat was finished reloading, he fired another shot at the creature and tried to call it out.

"Hope that fucking hurts, you gecko!" Junkrat shouted at the dragon and flipped it off.

---

---

As the plumber made his way towards the cages, he wouldn't go at this alone. Blazermate came to his aid along with her valuable healing capabilities pocketing him close behind. Mario recognized this notion and issued a thumbs up for thanks as he continued quenching the fires ahead. He zipped and zoom through the falling debris and blazing carpiture. The cages were just in sight and they were closing in! Just over that hill of debris and they'll be within range of the cages. He prepares his jump - ducking low - before firing his legs straight into the air. Being focused at the prizes ahead, it didn't even matter what was happening around him. Not even the triple shots that rang out from a particular revolver were of~

"WAAGH!"

Feeling a sudden burst of burning pain running rampant in his side, Mario's jump was interrupted in mid-air as a flash of red blinded his trajectory. He crashed down on the ground hard as he rolled over multiple times before grinding to a halt. Red ooze dripped from his sky-blue overalls and stained his snow-white gloves as he assessed the damage. He was definitely in significant pain, yet he strangely didn't feel as much as he thought he did. But of course, like Blazermate he too took quick note at the shooter - who of course was the infamous Courier. He very much had a few choice words and a blazing fist that he wanted to ram up his ass, but the healing robot took the honors for herself. And with the cowboy quickly getting shot by Zer0 and appointed a joint-strategy in foiling Megadragonbowser, Mario was forced to quell his anger elsewhere.

Still, being within the reach of the robot's medibeam was able to soothe this painful experience and heal at least some of the damage while she healed others nearby. Yet once a beam of energy shot through near the ceiling, it was able to snap several of the target cages. Amongst the captives freed, Donkey Kong along with an animal duo and a stick-figure similar to a Mr. Game & Watch wielding a pencil of some kind. However, the purple dragon and a kid were still stuck on top of the cages and both suffering major damage. The plumber recalled Geno wanting the former for his plan and was about to contact the blue-clad puppet before seeing a new female character free the remaining two.

With that taken care of, Mario turned his attention to the freed captives - specifically with the more familiar Donkey Kong. Hopefully he's going to have to open new wounds and old rivalries with this ape, despite his quelled-up rage with Courier. He quickly made his way towards his old friend and landed just a few meters away from DK. Raising up his right hand, he waved for the ape's attention.

"Oi Donkey Kong!" Mario shouted at the great ape.

The brown gorilla turned around with surprising speed, looked wildly at who called for him. When he finally rested his eyes upon Mario's, he froze as his expression turned to a more friendly tone. He then proceeded to gallop towards Mario, leaping over the burning rubble in his way before he was just feet away from him. DK looked down gingerly, issuing a curious whimper as he examined his old friend for authenticity. The plumber simply smiled.

"Yes," Mario said calmly as he rose his hand towards him, "It's-a-me, your friend."

The ape eyed the stached' plumber's blood-dripped glove with his scarlet-red eyes cautiously as he continued with his soft snorting. Again he paused before slowly raising his massive hand to reach his. His finger touched the palm of his friend's hand and soon the crimson left his dark-hazel eyes. His mannerisms and memories finally began to fully return to him as he gives out a friendly hoot and proceeded to beat his chest graciously. Mario was surprised it went down that easily for some reason, however now was not the time to get caught up with one another. The plumber eyed the flying demon koopa as he patted his newfound partner on his burly arm.

"You see that-a-flying Bowser?" he asked while DK nodded, "Thats-a our boss of the evening."

DK's mannerism fluctuated somewhat as he began to aggressively snarl towards the Bowser in white, forcing Mario to soothe the great ape down.

"No no, not-a-him," the plumber assured the confused DK, "That-a-Bowser is with us. Why he's-a-still wearing the suit I don't-a-know... But the one-a-flying is our enemy. We need-a-all the brawn we can muster to defeat-a-him."

DK looked to Mario and issued a grin of acknowledgement as he reared up on his hind legs. Once again he beaten his chest, this time roaring loudly to announce his position against the wing tyrant. The plumber nods as he shifts his cap with fire radiating from his palms. With a nod towards DK, they were ready to officially join the battle.

"It's-a-time to smash." he announced confidently before man and beast leaped into action.

Mario proceeded to run on the ground in a zig-zag formation, while Donkey Kong climbed one of the four pillars and proceeded to hug the wall next to him. Once the latter found himself close to Megadragonbowser, the great ape used his superior climbing skills to climb the face of said wall and leapt towards his foe as soon he was high enough. He rose his fists above his head - ready to unleash a devastating smash attack as soon as the enemy Bowser popped out of his shell.

---

Even at regular power, it became painfully clear that Geno's initial shots were literally being shrugged off by the enemy Bowser. Although the puppet wasn't clearly surprised by this notion, he knew that another plan of attack was just in order. Thankfully - or perhaps surprisingly - the flying koopa still didn't seem to even notice or bother with Mario and his ragtag team in foiling their plans to release the cages behind them. How could it be? The two were brutal nemesis no matter what realm or version they happened to be in (almost anyways). So the fact that he wasn't immediately going after the plumber was puzzling.

Yet Mario and his ally wouldn't be spotted by the great Koopa King - but by two of Courier's deliberate three shots that rang throughout the throne room, hitting the plumber and his healing companion while the other shot rang towards Din. The puppet paused to give a deadpan stare towards the ever troublesome and chaotic cowboy, however with his interactions with Zer0 proved that scoundrel right as they both dealt some damage towards the flying Bowser. And with Mario within the vicinity of a healer, Geno figured the plumber would walk it off.

Then when a sudden beam bursted bast him, the puppet saw it hit several of the cages as they fell down to the ground and freed three of the captives. Yet out of the two still holding on, he was quick to spot the grievously injured purple dragon lying weakly inside his cage. This was his chance to get him! If he was ever going to reprimand his cursed actions towards him, he'll have to do it now. But before he could rush over, one of their newest allies was able to strike the cages and freed the dragon in the process.

Spyro fell from the cage, badly wounded but alive. As his purple clawed feet landed on the harsh rocky floor, the wounds he'd suffered forced him to fall back on his side. He was hurting really bad. And he recognized that this place wasn't the best place to mope around in. He attempts to stand, his legs wobbling and teeth chattering, only to find himself plopped back down on his side. He was too weak. All the fatigue of the torture he had sustained from earlier had made him exhausted. And he was now helpless to the chaotic environment around him.

But as he observed the battle from a distance, he suddenly caught the attention of a wooden doll heading towards. A very familiar doll at that - with his blue clothing and short stature. He remembers him, and he doesn't take his presence lightly. His eyes slant as he growls towards the approaching Geno.

"You...!" the small dragon growled as he bore his teeth at his previous aggressor.

Geno remorsefully looked down at the struggling dragon. He too hadn't forgotten what he had done in the lab and the fact that he did such a thing was against his very notion. The doll rose his hands up as to prove his innocence.

"Stay calm dragon," the star warrior softly replied, "I'm not going to hurt you..."

Spyro backed away from Geno as he lowered his body in defense.

"Don't play dumb with me!" he yelled back defiantly, "You're the one who left me to die! You carried out the plans that the nasty wizard wanted! Do you know how long I was trapped down there?!"

"I regret much of what I've done down there," Geno replied shamefully, "I didn't intend to carry out Kamek's plan."

"Yet you did it anyways!" the purple dragon continued rambling, "You injected me with that awful dagger! I felt like my entire body was gonna explode! And just when I was going to be free from this hell, I find myself back in here! If only you've~!"

"That's enough." Geno interrupted as his eyes closed in shame. He took a deep breath and sighed before he continued. "My mind wasn't in the right place. The dagger I held had controlled my mind at that point, forcing me to carry out the deed. I did so AGAINST my judgement."

"Then why did he sound so surprised when you helped him?" Spyro inquisitively growled with resentment.

A good question indeed. Geno paused for a moment to gather his composure before he forced to reply.

"Look," the puppet continued, "We can discuss this later. Right now, we're in the middle of a battle. And I'm not the enemy. If you want to see yourself freed from his vile castle, help us take down the King of this castle. I promise everything will be explained afterwards."

The purple dragon eyed the wooden doll cautiously.

"How can I trust you then?" he asked carefully.

He paused before remembering something he had stored in his pocket.

"Here - take this as proof of my humble allegiance."

Rustling through, he revealed an HP mushroom and tossed it at Spyro. The shroom immediately dissipated upon contact with the dragon, before he found his wounds nearly healed and his energy restored. The purple creature cautiously inspected his body - watching for any unusual effects to his body - before lively getting back on his feet, feeling refreshed.

"Woah," Spyro breathed as he strutted his stuff, "I'm feeling rather better now."

He looked back at Geno with a more friendly look of acknowledgement.

"T-Thanks for the healing," he hesitantly responded, "Looks like you really are part of the good guys."

Geno's stern expression softened as he issued a nod.

"Thank you for trusting me," he replied, "I promise to make this all up to you soon."

The wooden doll then turns to point at Megadragonbowser.

"For now, we've got a boss to defeat."

---

As they dusted off the dirt and picked up their weapons, Michael and Franklin both took a second to catch their breath. Din's dancing helped to further invigorate them after the fight, and they both felt well enough to keep moving. As Michael took a moment to put away his Uzi and take his sniper out of its case, Franklin scanned the area, taking in the bizarre scenery. "I know y'all said we'll talk later, but...the hell are we? This ain't Los Santos..." His eyes moved towards the other members of the group, advancing towards the castle. "And who...what the hell is going on with these people?"

Michael, now holding his Barrett, looked towards Franklin and sighed. "When I said it's a long story...it's a really long story. Look, all you need to know for now, is that these guys are our friends, and in there-" He pointed towards the castle. "Is our enemy. We need to take them out." As he began to move towards the castle, he turned to Din and the Centurion for a moment, stopping to address them. "Hey, thanks for the help. You guys really saved my ass back there."

Franklin followed behind Michael, and in a moment, the two were at the entrance to the castle. The first thing they noticed was the fire, and the amount of heat radiating off it. Looking down the throne room, the immense form of Bowser's doppelganger was easy enough to spot. "That's the bad guy, isn't it?"

"Yeah. That's the bad guy." Staring down the corridor, Michael gripped his rifle tightly as the group began to spring into action. He took note of a bunch of cages dangling from the ceiling, and that a few of the group were already moving towards them. More allies, hopefully. Or at least a distraction. Looking back towards the ground, he noticed that the Courier had begun to talk to the Bowser-clone again.

"...the fuck is he doing?"

"No ide- oh, shit!" To their surprise, the Courier had seemingly switched sides, turning around and firing at several of his former allies. Before Michael or Franklin could retaliate, Zer0 beat them to it, shooting the apparent traitor, with the shot then going on to hit their enemy. Immediately after that, several more of the team opened up with their own attacks, with Din using an attack to spontaneously grow plants, and a newcomer that Michael vaguely remembered as being at the bridge used some sort of magical attack. Soon, the doppelganger retreated into its shell, and launched itself down the middle of the throne room. Fortunately for Michael and Franklin, they were on the far side of the room, and had enough time to escape the path of destruction, retreating behind one of the stone columns on the right side of the throne room.

Hiding behind the pillar, Michael poked his head out long enough to watch their Bowser engage the clone, managing to get a few hits in with some sort of weird hidden boxing glove device, before getting tossed out of the castle. He turned to Franklin, who was also watching the fight and had turned to face Michael with wide eyes. "Man, what the fuck are we gonna do against that thing?"

Michael took in a deep breath, looking down at his rifle. "Alright...how about, you distract him, and I shoot him in the face."

"...shit." He peeked out for a moment. "Shit...okay, get ready. This better work..." Moving out of cover, Franklin walked towards where Megadragonbowser was. Flicking the safety off his pistol, he took a deep breath to steady himself, before calling out. "HEY, ASSHOLE!"

As soon as he called that out, he raised his pistol, firing three shots towards the giant enemy. While his pistol would likely have little effect, that wasn't the point of the attack. As soon as he fired, he ran towards the end of the room, attempting to get into cover behind the next pillar. Hearing the gunshots, Michael took the opportunity to lean from cover, aiming his Barrett towards the enemy Bowser. Holding his breath and activating his Bullet Time, he lined up his crosshairs with Megadragonbowser's head, and pushed down on the trigger.

BOOM!

Well would you look at that! With his attacks seemingly hurting his foe as well as giving the rest of his allies enough of an opportunity to attack Henry was starting to feel confident in this battle. Sure there wasn’t much cohesion or teamwork coming from Henry’s side but he was used to working along. It wasn’t like the mage had any bonds in this group anyway. Thinking about it made him miss Chrom and Robin. Unfortunately while Henry was busy reminiscing the giant dragon was preparing another attack.

The humongous turtle creature retreated into its shell and started spinning at them in a way the dark mage never expected the monster to be able to move. Looks like most of the things from other worlds don’t follow the same laws of physics, and Henry absolutely loved it. So many absurd things are going on and they all looked awesome. He’d definitely try and talk to the rest of his new teammates whenever he finally got the opportunity. But for now a giant spiked shell was barreling towards the boy and he had to think fast. It was too late to try and dodge so there was only one, risky plan that came to mind. The dark magic sparked in front of him and Henry ran and jumped over top of it, the explosion below propelling him upward just enough to clear the very lethal spikes on the turtle’s back. And then he face planted on the ground on the other side. It took him just a moment to get off the ground but when he did the smile on his face hadn’t faltered. “That. Was. AWESOME! Oh man that was so fun, I’ll have to use that again later.” There was almost a childlike innocence in his voice which contradicted to the injuries he sustained from the blast and the fall, even though he acted like they didn’t even happen.

Henry turned back to the boss and noticed the some of the rest of his comrades, as well as a few additions he hadn’t seen before, all laying fire on the fire breathing monster. He also noticed a few of them including the wooden puppet he fought with earlier were working on recruiting new allies to the cause of taking down the king. Well Henry didn’t have much in the ways of convincing people, he was much better at driving them away from him by creeping them out it seemed, so instead he worked on wearing down the annoying and pompous iteration of Bowser. Well, more annoying than usual. “You’re tough bug guy, but I’ve stared down scarier things then you. Let’s see if that superior attitude of yours helps you survive my curses!” The dark mage aimed the explosions of dark magic at his vulnerable face again but a good number of them missed, hitting along his arms and whatever other areas were available. Hopefully his little display and taunt would draw the attention of Megadragonbowser. Henry knew strategy was an important part of battle and while he wasn’t necessarily a tank, Henry was more durable than some of the other fighters. He didn’t mind taking a bit of extra damage with a healer around. Though with all the attacks aimed at it, the mage wasn’t quite sure his plan would work out.

Well, there was one more thing he could try. Charging up the magic more than usual Henry let out a more powerful attack aimed at the evil Bowser’s face. There was a flashier spark than normal indicating the larger explosion and its target destination before the magical burst exploded. “Special delivery!” Henry called out as he let out his attack.

Success! The chains holding the cages aloft snapped loose at the points of contact with the beam, sending them crashing to the floor to shatter asunder against the marble. Hat Kid, unable to open her umbrella quickly enough after firing with it, landed just before the cages did, sunshade still in hand and knees bent from absorbing the shock of a slightly higher than usual fall. She was left stunned for about a second after the impact, but she otherwise sustained no real damage from it and was quick to regain herself. Luckily for her, she was closer to the ceiling when MegaDragonBowser threw himself into a reckless, whirling charge aimed for those directly before him at ground level, incidentally putting her out of the way of his unstoppable assault. Had she touched down a moment sooner, or fallen prematurely, she might have been made much thinner.

Incidentally, the now freed captives shared her fortune in timing, for in their present conditions, they weren’t good for much other than being out of the way; not yet, anyways. Lest they be promptly relieved of their exhaustion, injuries, ailments, influence, and whatever else, or, failing that, removing them safely from the fight somehow, the efforts made to rescue them would be rendered vain. Kid, being neither a healer nor “strong of Heart”, was outside of her means of seeing to any of that, so she would leave that to those who were while trusting the emancipated to keep out of harm’s way. Most everyone else set to bombarding the boss with whatever they had that could be thrown out him, even if that meant themselves.

Kid took note of the damage sustained to the hall's grand entryway from the boss's last attack, having completely splintered the doors into nothing. The entire room quaked from the impact, nearly knocking the child from her feet and causing her to stumble a step into one of the black columns for support. It was then that she noticed that they were the only structures about to be unaffected by any of it. If there was anything that she knew, it was that when something so conspicuous was placed in the environment in such a way, it usually served some intended purpose, however contrived it may be. This gave her an idea, but she wasn't entirely certain that it was the right one. Though, for lack of a better one, what harm could there be in trying it out? Well... other than maybe getting run over by a gigantic rampaging dragon turtle, that is.

The child placed herself directly in front of the pillar to be between it and DragonBowser, lightly gripped the tip of her weapon with her off hand for stability, and took aim for his face. The ongoing chaos he was currently preoccupied with gave her all the time she needed, which wasn't much, to get off another fully charged blast. The king loudly beckoned for another challenger after throwing aside his doppelganger, and as if to answer him, Kid jabbed her umbrella forward in his direction to fire off a vibrant red beam that fell in-sync with the startling report of a high-powered rifle. The latter of the two was undoubtedly more powerful, but less visible. How the boss responded would depend on what most caught his attention, and being noticed was all she was really counting on. Her plan was to goad the titanic overlord into charging headlong down the aisle once more, but this time into something far more solid. If he was anything like the allied Bowser (as he had thus far proven to be), his excitable temper meant it would take little else apart from directed aggression to provoke him into doing exactly that, but the possibility that he would fall for it was anything but guaranteed. In the case that he did turn his gaze toward her, she would put her left thumb to her ear and wave at him mockingly with her tongue stuck out blowing raspberries. Childish as her taunt was, the gesture would send a clear, if only somewhat feigned message to the king's ego: that she didn't entirely take him seriously. Since she was bold enough to prod him like this, however, she would have to ready herself to swiftly step out of his way for whatever he decided to do next in retaliation.

Hyped up from tossing his inferior self right out of the fight, Megadragonbowser let his taunt wash over the opposition. He had assumed intimidation on the heroes' parts, since after all he'd just made a fool of their biggest and burliest member, but his question was answered gratuitously. Ratchet shot first, imploring the tyrant to swallow whole the bomb now arcing his way. Had the Lombax not announced his attack, his position on the sidelines might very well have meant a free hit, his shout prompted Megadragonbowser to look his way. Before the bomb could strike him, he lashed out with a great claw and swiped it out of the way. ”HAH! MORON!” He raised his hand to attack, only then noticing the beeping contraption stuck to his talons. ”HUH?” Before he could respond, the proximity mine detonated. Its shockwave, so close to his head, left him dazed for a moment, unable to do anything but snarl wordlessly.

A smattering of small-arms fire struck him, barely noticeable, but he could not ignore what came next. A heavy bullet struck him, followed by a crimson beam of power, and then a second like the first. Roused by the pain, he shook his head and swung his arms to catch both the whirling mass of metal headed his way and the ape poised to pound him. Though strong, Deathtrap couldn't compare to the tyrant in terms of brute power, and neither could Donkey Kong. After a few seconds of grappling Megadragonbowser's iron grip closed around his prey. Letting instinct take over, he started to squeeze, but Blazermate's sentry broke his focus as it began to batter him with continuing fire. A guttural growl escaped the tyrant, and he opened his mouth to bathe DT in flame. Once the robot was covered, he hurled it as a blazing fireball at Blazermate's sentry and, given its creator's position behind it, her too. By then, Donkey Kong wasn't too far away from struggling free, so Megadragonbowser simply threw him over his shoulder after Bowser.

Some grenades, fired from a singed weirdo soaring through the air, exploded against Megadragonbowser's shell, doing little to harm him. He spared Junkrat a brief glance, deciding it would be too difficult to pursue him at the moment, before homing in on the much more obvious threat: Hat Kid. The little brat was mocking him! How dare that pipsqueak, that lowly insect, make light of him, a king!? ”PUNY SCUM! I'LL SMASH YOU FLAT!” More pistol fire hit him from the direction of the girl, the source being a unfamiliar man hiding behind the pillar the Hat Kid stood in front of. Megadragonbowser prepared to charge, but the world went dark in an explosion of pain.

”GRUUUUUUUH! he roared, reeling from the combined effect of Henry's critical hit and Michael's sniper round. Addled by agony and unassisted by his meager mind, the tyrant could only concentrate on the problem right before him. Seeking reprieve from the constant battery, he withdrew into his shell again and threw himself forward, spinning across the floor even faster than before. Mario, Zer0, Junkrat, Henry, Geno, Hat Kid, and Spyro had only a split second to react before the giant, spiked shell ran them over. Whether or not the little girl went two-dimensional, however, the pillar behind her remained. Megadragonbowser slammed into it with a momentous CRACK, the force obliterating the hardened stone and flipping the tyrant onto his back. Pieces of the column rained down as Megadragonbowser struggled feebly, totally stunned for a few seconds.



After getting thrown off, Tora got to watch the smorgasbord of attacks that awaited Megadragonbowser the moment he unveiled himself and got done with Bowser Actual. While he didn't think any did crippling damage -this bozo could take a lot of punishment!- the fusillade kept him from getting any attack started for a little while. The only payback the tyrant managed was to wad DT up, blanket him in fire, and send him hurtling toward Blazermate's encampment. Tora saw his chance to act, and took off running.

Poppi blasted after him, picking him up to carry as she identified his target. With her help, the Nopon got in the way in time, and delivered to the flying machine a shield bash from below to change his trajectory. Blazermate and her turret were no longer in danger, and with his momentum running out and the flames almost shed, DT would have the chance to recover midair with non-critical injuries and rejoin the fight. I did it! Tora wanted to cry in adulation, but his heart was pounding too hard. How did he do it, anyway? It was as if his body moved on his own. He turned back toward the tyrant, watching a few more attacks land before Megadragonbowser lost his temper completely and went to pulverize Hat Kid. “Oh, no!” Once more Tora and Poppi started to move, the latter grabbing the former for a rocket ride as before. The onslaught by Henry and Michael delayed their foe's assault by just a moment, but even still, Tora knew that he wouldn't get there in time. “Poppi, let go of Tora!” he yelled, “Get close and use Level Two on friends!”

A pained expression crossed the blade's face, but she nodded. “Okay.” If they were to stop their allies getting creamed, they needed all the speed they could get. She dropped Tora, who tossed her the drill shield as he fell, and rocketed closer to the allies closest to Megadragonbowser's incoming brutality. Her power flowed through the weapon, and its drill bit extended to rotate at incredibly high speed. “Noponic Storm!” A whirlwind of air surged forward to push Spyro, Henry, Geno, and Junkrat out of the way. The others, farther back, would have to dodge on their own.

What happened next, Tora did not expect. The force with which Bowser struck the sturdy pillar knocked him right over, leaving him completely open to attack. Thinking back, Franklin had taken cover behind it -though that meant he'd have to dodge raining chunks now- and the little girl stood in front of it to taunt their foe. The Nopon wondered if they'd planned it, but he had no time for amazement. He jogged toward where the fallen king lay. While starting to run out of breath, he knew an opportunity where he saw it. Poppi landed behind him and passed him the shield, and after taking it the Nopon went to town.

He whacked Megadragonbowser again and again, pausing only to execute a Big Boost or Spinning Cutter. His shield's drill bit screamed and its thrusters flared, sending up smoke while little bits of scale rained down. Standing by, Poppi continued to channel ether into him. While the others would no doubt be taking the chance to punish their adversary severely, Tora thought to build up his resources for the next stage of the fight. Whatever came his way, Megadragonbowser wouldn't be going down so easily.

Ratchet observed with a pleased grin as Megadragonbowser attempted to swat the sticky bomb aside, only to get caught up in its explosion. Frankly he was hoping that the big beefcake would take him literally and actually eat it, but this was almost as good. Quickly checking the ammo meter, the bombuilder didn’t have quite enough for another shot just yet, but he reckoned it’d be coming up soon.

Meanwhile a few free hits got in on the brute, only for him to quickly recover and send the big junk looking robot flying in a ball of fire. Not wanting to get in any closer with only just his wrench on hand, Ratchet stayed back from the action. The Courier, however, was happy to receive his brief healing from Blazermate, only to suddenly find a burning robot fling at the two of them! The Courier made to duck out of the way, only to have his dodge made redundant. Tora and the machine girl he had picked up intervened, knocking Deathtrap off course.

”... I totally had that…” he grumbled. Checking back on the evil Bowser (eviler?) just to see if he’d need to be keping up the act, he saw the king pulling back into his shell for another blind spinning assault. Great… Oh shit, the kid! He dashed fast as he could to help get the Hat Kid out of the way, but was too far and too slow: Megadragonbowser’s spinning shell technique was just too fast. But thankfully it had one major weakness which showed itself in spades here.

Thanks to being blinded, the enemy crashed into the pillar and flipped over onto his backside. Those big spikes certainly wouldn’t help matters, so the Courier took the best opportunity he was likely to get. ”My king! I’ll help you!” he cried out, taking off running. As he neared, he summoned the lakelurk beneath his legs, jumping from its shoulders only for it to disappear once again. Up in the air, he grabbed onto the edge of the giant koopa’s shell and flung himself up on MDB’s belly.

Ratchet kept moving about, now hopping side to side to avoid the raining rocks. He kicked off of what was left of the pillar, then kicked off of another large falling rock. Clank reappeared, keeping him hovered in the air as he took aim with the bombuilder and its newly regenerated proximity sticky bomb.

”Help you move on to Hell, that is.” The Courier planted his shotgun as close to the king’s exposed neck as possible and pulled the trigger twice in rapid succession.

”We’ll see how big and mighty you are after this!” Ratchet pulled the trigger, launching the bomb directly for Bowser’s face.

Magnumus Agoston, Centurion.

Level 2 - (7/20) EXP
Location: MegaDragonBowser castle
Word Count: 320

---

The Centurion had followed his allies into the fray, but he was admittedly overwhelmed by the action. It didn't even look like he could get close to the whirling monstrosity of death. Everytime he thought he saw an opportunity, a stray piece of rubble flew in his direction. Wayward flames. The battle was pure chaos. Not the organized effort of a well-oiled machine of war, no, it was amateur hour over here. Still, it looked like they were managing to somewhat get the upper hand on the Mega Dragon Bowser.

As Micheal squeezed off a shot, Centurion looked between him and Din. Suddenly, the dragon was knocked to the floor after a particularly rowsing series of blows. "Well. Wish me luck!" That being said, he sprinted as fast as he could. Courier 6 and the newly revitalized Ratchet were taking the advantage. Magnumus, too, decided to take his moment.

His boots slamming into the floor of the castle, he clumsily vaulted over some debris, ducked under a flying rock, and approached the evil incarnate. The beast was on it's back. Huffing and puffing, the Agoston built up his strength and leapt high into the air, coming down onto Evil Bowser's exposed underside.

"Die, beast!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. He flipped his gladius upside down, holding it in verse grip with both hands. Then, he plunged the blade as far as he could into Mega Dragon Bower's flesh. Bringing the sword out, he attempted to do it as many times as possible. "Hah! Haha! Die! Die! Take this!" He was, of course, freaking out. His gladius seems quite small in comparison to the massive beast. But, it's not how large the weapon is, it's how you use it. Not that Agoston would know anything about that. The Centurion questioned his own line of thinking before steadying his balance and raising his weapon another time.

Din was taken aback when Megadragonbowser tucked into his shell and launched himself across the room, forcing herself and several of her allies to duck out of the way. This sadly, put him out of reach of the piranha plants that she had grown with her spell of Spring in an attempt to hold him down. But with her allies somewhat disrupted, she took this time while they were all regrouping for their next attack on the boss to dance among them, granting them healing and invigoration, picking up the slack from Blazermate's more focused, high-priority healing. She stood closer to the back line as her allies continued to pummel the dragon, looking to do some significant damage, that or just pissing it off a lot, to the point that it went for another spinning shell attack. This time though, her allies had come up with a great idea to make the sliding beast collide with one of the sturdy pillars, causing it to flip over. As her allies punished the dragon, Din knew that she could probably contribute very little to taking the boss down, but she could help in keeping him down. She cast the Spell of Winter on the ground beneath Megadragonbowser, creating a slippery layer of ice that should impede any attempts at righting himself.

With a loud groan Bowser regained his senses after being tossed by his double and found himself himself lying on his back in the hallway that contracted the front gate to the throne room. As a turtle, this state of affairs was somewhat inconvenient. Thus began the rather undignified process off rocking back and forth till he eventually managed to get his feet back on the ground and righted himself. Fortunately everyone seemed to be more than distracted by Megadragonbowser to take notice of his temporary immobilization. Unfortunately said fight also resulted in Donkey Kong being thrown out of the throne room, causing the king’s victory over gravity to be undone as the ape collided with Bowser. The pair were sent tumbling back to the ground, though fortunately this time the fall did not result in any more innocent Toad deaths.

“GAHHH, WATCH WHERE YOU'RE SWINGING MONKEY” Bowser complained as he and the floor once again became close friends. He tired to get up only to be smacked in the face by a disgruntled ape. “NO. STOP. WRONG BOWSER! WRONG BOWSER!” He shouted at Donkey Kong as the latter got back on his feet and tired to shake off his concussion. As a result he was in prime position to watch the King rock back and forth on his shell as he tired to get up again. DK found this hilarious, slapping his knee before pointing and laughing raucously at the beleaguered king. “QUIT LAUGHING AND HELP ME!” he complained, which fortunately the great ape did, but only once he was done enjoying the spectacle. After Donkey Kong rolled Bowser onto his front the king stood himself up, dusted himself down and grabbed a Toad sprite before declaring:

“LET’S GET BACK IN THERE AND BEAT THE SNOT OUT OF THAT WANNA BE ME!”

Donky Kong took up thoughtful pose for a moment, one arm folded across his chest supporting the elbow of the other as it scratched his chin for a few moments, clearly wanting to do something a tad smarter than doing the exact same thing again while expecting a different result. He glanced over at Bowser and, at spotting his blocking glove hat, snapped his fingers as a light bulb appeared above his head. He had come up with an idea. With a leap the Kong placed himself upon Bowser shoulders, after which beat his chest and screeched apishly to psych himself back up for battle.

“GAH! HAY WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOUR WAY TOO HEAVY TO BE FREELOADING!” the king complained before he saw that DK had begun winding up a Giant Punch, spinning up his fist and building the momentum for one hell of a blow. “OH! I GET IT. ALRIGHT LET’S DO THIS!” he declared before taking their newly formed six armed double trouble power tower into the throne room for round two.

They arrived just in time to see the rest of the team lay into the incapacitated Megadragonbowser, but were too late to join in with kicking their foe while he was down as a result of their hallway slapstick shenanigans. At any rate, navigating through the friendly fire and icy floor would likely be another calamity waiting to happen. Also the pair could do with some healing, and so gratefully soaked in the healing melody that the dancer Din was producing. While they waited for the fire storm to die down Donkey Kong kept charging up his mega punch while Bowser crushed a toad sprite he had picked up from the entryway. “MAYBE ONE OF THESE SHROOMHEADS WILL BE GOOD FOR SOMETHING FOR ONCE”

The corrupted Bowser clone was becoming understandably infuriated with the inundation of munitions, magic and muscle being thrown his way from every angle, and why wouldn’t he be? It was a as good a sign as most that the group was starting to wear him down, even if appearances and facade didn’t betray that fact. Still, he was a ways away from going down, and showed no signs of letting up. Even with the overwhelming degree of firepower he found himself faced with, he still managed to toss aside the mightiest of their number with relatively little trouble, going so far as to disrupt their sideline offense while he was at it with a well-placed pitch of immolated scrapbot aimed for the sentry turret and its operator. In the midst of all the activity, Hat Kid managed to stand out to him with her intentive mockery, drawing his (negative) attention and proving her suspicion correct. His obvious ego made him easy to manipulate, but doing so immediately made her a target for an immensely powerful draconic behemoth that could casually run her over or stomp her into nothing without feeling it. She understood this to be a risk when she made her move; she could only wait in anticipation for him to make his.

Luckily for her, and everyone else directly in his way, MegaDragonBowser was momentarily stalled, blinded by a burst of arcane degeneration and racked with yet another deafening round of sniper fire to exacerbate the spells effect, extending their reaction window by one or two seconds before he started up his next attack. The instant the enraged tyrant receded into his shell. Kid spang upward into the air as high as she could manage, spending her second jump for good measure to clear herself of DragonBowser's path as he slid recklessly along the tile at alarming speed and smashed head-first into the onyx structure, violently upending him from the force of the impact. With a propulsive tap of her feet against the pillar behind her, Kid transitioned her back tuck into a forward tuck, unfurling at the crest of her flip, and forcing herself into a descending dive for a Homing Attack into the overturned overlord's exposed underbelly. Chances were that the hyde thickness was even throughout, so she wouldn't stress precision. A good hit anywhere would do, so long as damage was dealt.

She bounced off of her foe like a trampoline and touched back down to the floor, her landing leading her into a light skip. On her third step, she pirouetted mid-stride, turning back to face MegaBowser, and lunged forward once again with her trusty rainshield to fire a weaker, but quicker blue laser blast at the top of his head before he could get back up. (She could tell already that she would be getting a lot more use than usual out of this particular feature today.) The admittedly uncoordinated wave of capitalistic punishment brought down on the boss would not likely do him in, but it was sure to put a noticeable (at least for him) dent in his constitution. This being the result of his hubris and the child’s gambit, chances were he would remember as much and not make the same mistake twice. The party would have to adjust their strategy for when the hyper-temperamental demon turtle recovered, because he would most assuredly be angrier when he got back up than he was before he fell. Whatever would come of that they would have to be doubly ready for.

This MegaDragonBowser wasn't as destructive as Blazermate thought he'd be considering what he looked like. Sure he could throw any of her teammates around with his physical strength, but beyond that he didn't seem to do all that much as long as everyone kept their distance. Especially considering how just... wasn't doing all that much damage. Din could heal up all the lightly damaged people, and with Blazermate healing all the ones who are getting hit by MegaDragonBowser, he just wasn't being the threat he came off to be.

But at least the big bruiser was making an attempt. Tossing off and lighting Gauge's Deathtrap robot and throwing it at Blazermate and her sentry was at least a neat attempt. It did force Blazermate to pick up her sentry and try to dodge the flaming robot, but she didn't have to move much as Tora shield smashed the giant robot up and away from her encampment. When she noticed this, she redeployed her sentry and continued building it as MegaDragonBowser was incapacitated by all the magic being flung his way.

This gave her enough time to fully upgrade her sentry to level 3. Once it was fully upgraded, it beeped three times in quick succession, before locking onto MegaDragonBowser and started pelting him with its twin miniguns and its new weapon, a quad rocket launcher. With her sentry fully upgraded, she decided to leave its cover and come within healing range of the party, healing up whoever was the most injured. She watched as her team unloaded on the fake bowser, others from the hallway joining the frey. "Keep it up! He is taking damage from all of our punishment!" Blazermate said. She was still unable to tell where MegaDragonBowser's weakpoints were, but at least she could tell he wasn't doing so hot.

---

With Donkey Kong now joining the fight, Mario rushed towards Megadragonbowser with his flaming fists ready to rip him a new one. However, before he could get close to him, the giant koopa quickly went into his shell and spun around on the ground towards he and several other players nearby. Quickly, the plumber was forced to react as he made it for the air with a towering double jump. He flipped over the dragon Bowser and watched him as he crashed into a pillar - flipping him over as he struggled to get back on his feet. The allies proceeded to pelt the opponent with all of their might and arsenal, but Mario wasn't going to use his regular ole' fireballs, no no.

He's gonna do this the old-fashioned (and way more satisfying) way.

With a smirk and no time to loose, the plumber once again ran towards the fallen boss. As he did, Mario began to start gaining more traction. He'd jump once... then twice... and as soon as he was just feet away from his foe, he leaped for a third time, launching himself into high into the air just in time to avoid slipping on the ice that Din casted on the ground. He found himself almost touching the ceiling, as he looked down to see the utterly helpless Flying Koopa belly-side up and utterly vulnerable. Mario's mass rapidly shifted downwards, proceeding to initiate a sitting motion as he proceeded to issue a powerful ground-pound right on top of his opponent's exposed belly!

But he wouldn't be the only fighter to think of this trick...

---

Taking superiority of the air, Geno and Spyro proceeded to engage the Koopa King from a safe distance. Both fighters unleashed their projectile attacks, with Geno firing more beam shots and charged shots, while Spyro simply used his fire breath to cast fire balls on Megadragonbowser. However, their shot success-rate would be limited as their opponent was bouncing all over the place. They couldn't seem to get a good shot at him. However, once the opposing Bowser went into his shell and was flipped over upon hitting a pillar, it couldn't have been the perfect opportunity to go full out on the dazed boss!

As everyone else proceeded to do the same, Geno moved in to unleash everything in his arsenal, quickly charging up and releasing a more powerful charged shot towards Megadragonbowser's face. In the meantime, Spyro hooked with with the running Mario as they both leapt into the air and made their attacks from above. Mario issued his ground-pound, while the purple dragon cocked his horned head downwards and charged with a powerful headbash! He may look small and feeble, but his looks don't truly reveal the amount of strength and durability he can take! And with his horns about to gore the fallen Bowser's vulnerable underbelly, this move was surely going to hurt!

Like a feeding frenzy of sharks, the heroes made their enemy pay dearly for his foolishness. Their pesky projectile weapons hammered him, whether with a spread of buckshot to the throat, an explosive mine in his eyes, energy beams, or a volley of automated fire from Blazermate's sentry. Everyone took potshots at the king, even the least offensive among them like Tora, whacking away with his shield, and Hat Kid with her homing attack. Mario executed a hefty ground-pound to crack his adversary's armor, and Spyro's head-bash worsened the damage. The Centurion, with courage and tenacity the wings on his sandals, threw himself upon his reptilian foe and wedged his gladius into the cracks his allies made, again and again. When the tyrant's inner heat started to damage the blade, he ceased his assault, and just in time too—all the pain cut through Megadragonbowser's daze and turned his focus razor-sharp. Still, even roused into action he found rising more difficult than he anticipated, for Din's ice stuck his spikes into the floor and kept him from finding a handhold.

”ENOUGH!” A fiery orange glow consumed the tyrant, and from beneath him his wings of terror unfolded. Flame surged in every direction, annihilating the ice cast by Din, as he exploded, throwing his foes off him. Sent into the air by the blast, Megadragonbowser flipped onto his feet. So bright were his cruel eyes that looking at them hurt, just like looking into the sun. Searing light poured from his wounds as well; anyone in proximity could feel the heat pouring from them. ”YOU'VE HAD YOUR FUN, BUT I'M DONE PLAYING GAMES! COME HERE AND DIE!”

Undeterred, a few of the heroes took his challenge. Bowser, and Donkey Kong atop him, approached from behind, but they were not first to the party. Deathtrap shot straight toward him at Gaige's command, its metal claws primed and ready to tear Megadragonbowser a new one for burning it earlier. Before it could even draw close enough to strike, the tyrant reached out and snatched Deathtrap in his claw. This time, he brought the machine to his maw, opened wide, and chomped its upper half clean off.

“WHAT!?” Came its master's cry, more furious than scared. Gaige took a step forward, her pistol already up and firing. Megadragonbowser turned about toward his lesser doppelganger and his passenger and spat a special fireball that exploded midair. Somehow, the spiked colossus slid backward across the tile from the force, shooting toward the throne with surprising speed back-first. The Mechromancer tightened her fist and held down the trigger, firing round after round into the indomitable incoming shell. She didn't stop laughing except to say, “You want some!?”

When he struck, he did not even slow down—like a flyswapper destroying a gnat. Megadragonbowser continued to slide until his shell hit his own throne, wrecking its front and bringing him to a step. With a smirk he stepped away from the rubble; nothing he left behind could be remotely recognized as human. Blazerate's turret started pelting him once more, and the tyrant inhaled to release another explosive fireball its way. If it wasn't moved lickety-split, it would be obliterated in one shot, along with anyone within a fifteen foot radius. ”BAHAHA! WHO'S NEXT?”

For a moment, all was still. Then, from nowhere in particular, came a cold voice.

”A friend extinguished
Her name will be remembered
I'll wipe yours away.

A barely-distinguishable blur, scarcely there at all, descended from above the tyrant. The wind screamed and lightning sparked as Zer0 descended, landing invisibly upon Megadragonbowser's head. With a guttural cry, he plunged his blade into his enemy's eye, sinking it up to the hilt. Brilliant orange ichor splashed from the wound. Megadragonbowser jolted, then remained stock-still.

Another moment of silence passed.

Then, a horrible sound echoed through the throne room: a deep, grating chuckle. Megadragonbowser laughed, his entire body shaking. Zer0 withdrew his weapon and found his blade completely melted. When he forced himself to look at the tyrant's eye, he found no scar. ”OH HEY, DIDN'T SEE YOU THERE.” Before the assassin could come to his senses, the tyrant's claw closed around him. ”WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE AN ASSASSINATION? HAH! NO, THIS IS HOW YOU KILL SOMEONE!”

Clutching Zer0 tight, he brought up his other hand and extended a single finger. With terrifying swiftness and nonchalance the deed was done; the tyrant stabbed his claw clean through Zer0's head and then drew a line downward, carving the ninja in half. The others couldn't quite see what happened, only that a moment later, Megadragonbowser tossed two limp, indistinct bits to the side. Once again, despite the numerous wounds leaking ichor even now, the king smiled. The damage done to his face made his grin even more terrible. ”WHY THE LONG FACES? DON'T YOU KNOW...” He flapped his wings and jumped into the air, raising his fists above his head. ”...WHO YOU'RE DEALING WITH!?” He landed with a tremendous tremor, his fists hammering the ground to send a wave through the earth at his enemies.



Having guessed both that and when it would be coming, Tora and Poppi prepared for Megadragonbowser's resurgence and took no damage when he regained his feet in a fiery burst. The shockwave pushed them back a bit, but instead of continuing to retreat to a safe distance, the pair readied themselves to go in once more. Working in tandem, the two embodied their role; they belonged between their friends and their enemies, tirelessly shielding the go-getters from whatever punishment they were due. Yet, even their shared heroic resolve found a might foe in the furious tyrant's blazing eyes. For a moment they shared one thought: could they really stand against such strength? But then again, they knew the answer, and it wasn't 'yes' or 'no'. They would take it whether they could stand against it or not.

Though they leaped to action, neither Tora nor Poppi could save Deathtrap, who practically threw himself to his own death at Gaige's command. When Megadragonbowser started to move, however, they moved to intercept. Tora sprinted in the way of the unstoppable force, lifted his shield, and planted it in the ground before him. Standing out of the way, Poppi sent as much power as she could into her masterpon's weapon, but the link remained blue; her output wasn't enough. Her eyebrows shot up, and her mouth flew open to cry out in alarm. Their action was heroic and full of determination, but it was stupid, and it was time to pay the price.

“Tora!”

“Rigid Shield!”

Koopa shell met shield, and the shield's holder gave way. He tumbled over onto his back, and thanks to his small stature, Megadragonbowser passed right overhead; the Nopon slipped between his legs. Tora breathed a sigh of relief, only to seize up in fear once again. “Oh no!” Rattled but mostly unharmed, he jumped to his feet just in time to see Gaige erased from existence. A moment later Zer0 struck in retaliation, and for a moment it looked as though he'd assassinated the boss. But his efforts proved to be for naught. So hot were Megadragonbowser's insides that his weapon melted before it could do any damage, and the tyrant plucked him from his head. Another second later Zer0 was no more.

The shock made Tora's mouth hang agape. He was no stranger to fighting for his life, and seeing allies like Fan la Norne killed in the heat of battle, but the sight of two companions killed just like that stunned him for a moment. Then, as Megadragonbowser began to taunt, Tora closed his trap. This was what it meant to fight against Galeem. To be a hero. This was the job. Poppi knew it too, and she composed herself as well, extending her arm once again. They would not stop fighting.

The bond between them turned gold, energy radiating from their bodies. Tora lifted his shield once again as Megadragonbowser came crashing down, standing tall as the wave of earth and tile approached. It broke against his shield, which created a conical safe haven for any allies who got behind him.

As the rubble subsided, Poppi glared at Megadragonbowser, adjusting the zoom of her eyes on his various wounds. “Baddypon insides reddy-hot. But still seems to feel pain, and looks like power flowing out through wounds. More, bigger wounds, especially slashy or puncturey, should worsen loss.”

Tora nodded. “So then, blunt force not viable. Explosions less good too. Will need to get close and use drill.”