Magnumus Agoston, Centurion.

Level 2 - (7/20) EXP
Location: MegaDragonBowser castle
Word Count: 413

---

The Centurion felt the tremor beneath his boots as the ferocious beast began to stand. He leapt off the evil bowser as it threw him and his allies off of itself. Soaring the air, Agoston yelped in surprise before crashing down to the castle floor. Luckily, he managed to disperse some of the impact by landing on his feet and rolling to a stop. Standing, he attemped to reoriented himself.

"I think he felt that!" He shouted to his comrades. "Keep up the pressure!"

Before he could get moving, some allies he did not really know very well were destroyed. He acknowledged their sacriced but said nothing aloud. Then, the armored man watched in awe as Zer0 the samurai leapt from on-high and expertly planted a normally lethal blow into the eyesocket of the beast. It would be a final strike on any other beast, but the samurai did not predict the pure heat of the beast. His katana melted, and Zer0 himself was destroyed. The Centurion did not say anything aloud to this, either, but in this noble quest there were fewer deaths more honorable. Centurion did not know as much as your average scholar about the culture of the samurai in his world, but if Zer0's culture was anything like that, than his death was a good one, and he would be rewarded in whatever afterlife came next. So would the Centurion, if it came to that. No warrior in his homeland feared death. Whether it be the code of bushido, the halls of Valhalla, Heaven for the knights, and whatever the Wu Lin practiced, dying in combat was a truly glorious thing to be commended.

When the mighty beast slammed his fists into the ground, the Centurion knew what to do. His phalanx ability would protect him. He figured he would also be able to jump over the shockwave. Tora had some kind of shield, as well.

The Centurion used his Phalanx ability nonetheless. It would provide another safe haven for any particularly slow moving allies. Though they would still get knocked back by the blast, they would take little if any damage as the orange shield shattered into pieces after absorbing the blast.

As such, the Centurion stood to his feet once more. "I'll give him everything I've got!" He shouted. A well placed strike to the achilles heel might slow the beast down.

The Centurion ran as fast as he could, trying to navigate and maneuvre safely into strike range of the beast. If he could, he would plunge his Gladius into the heel of the beast and drag it down, severing as many tendons as possible. He was somewhat nimble, and hopefully would be able to avoid any wayward stomps. If he couldn't his Phalanx would be able to protect him from a smash attack or two.

Content with the effects of his proximity mine, Ratchet opted to hang back for the time being. With his only available weapon at the moment being his trusted omniwrench, and having nowhere near the size, strength, or durability of that monster, he didn’t want to get in any closer than was absolutely necessary. Besides that, there was already a congestion of firepower from his allies, so it’d just wind up being more trouble than it was worth.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Courier was as much in the thick of it as possible, considering he was standing on top of the giant Bowser’s belly and had just pelted the beast’s neck with an impressive amount of buckshot. His balance was thrown off as Mario performed what could only be described as flipping off the rules of physics and momentum, suddenly slamming down hard on megadragonbowser’s belly and cracking the exposed shell. ”Woooah~” he nearly fell from the mighty beast, but recovered. He was about to plug some more shotgun shells into the neck, if only he could regain his firing grip, but that was not to be.

Suddenly the foe exploded, literally, into a flaming hot rage. The Courier rolled with the force along the floor. This technique helped avoid any broken bones and certainly lessened his bruising, but it didn’t help the damage suffered from the initial blast. Fire singed at his duster, his hat had fallen off to who-knows-where, and portions of his skin were burned away. If you looked closely, you could spot his subdermal armor, giving the Courier a sort of shine to him, which reflected the mass of fire blazing from their foe.

He had barely recovered, back up on his feet, when the scene before him changed for the worse. First Gaige’s robot was chomped into pieces, then Gaige herself, blinded by furious rage, splattered into nothing more than red paste. He wanted to yell out, to scream, but he did not. Death, that was all too common where he came from. Usually in a much more painful, horrible manner than this. As far as deaths could go, it was painless and quick, infinitely better than radiation poisoning or getting eaten alive by ghouls. Still, the young girl’s slaughter filled him with rage. But he wasn’t the only one.

Zer0 descended upon the second Bowser in a killing blow, spouting off haiku in honor of his fallen friend… Only to have been rendered completely ineffectual. As Zer0 was casually plucked from the monster’s head, Ratchet bound away from the pillar he was positioned on. ”NO!” he cried out, jetting forward with the aid of Clank, omniwrench in hand, ready to break Bowser’s grip. But he was too late. The assassin was gut like a boar to be roast over a spit.

Ratchet altered his movement, daring not to attack the enemy as things currently stood, his rescue already failed. The Courier grit his teeth and spat out a black tar-like substance, some remnant residue of the various drugs in his system, as rage fueled his body. The flames emanating from this evil king could scorch him, and it would make no difference. He walked the Mojave at the height of summer, through irradiated wastes. This heat definitely beat that, but he was prepared for it. He could brace for it, work through it. It didn’t mean shit.

Still, running in close wasn’t an option. Sturdy as he was, stronger from the buffout, it would still be suicide. Shooting would certainly be harder with that shell, but safer. He took cover near Tora as the mad king Bowser created a shockwave along the ground, pulling out his Ratslayer rifle. In the midst of the shock, 6 activated VATS, effectively slowing time down to a near standstill. Ratslayer. Best accuracy. High chance of critical damage. Targeting exposed eye. Chance to hit: 21%. Not good enough. Changing target to exposed shell cracks. Chance to hit: 51%. Damn, still not good, but it’s the best I’ve got. Enough stamina to queue up 4 shots thanks to jet and buffout. Here’s hoping one of these crits. Good thing I’m a gambling man.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Four shots rang out in quick succession, straight for megadragonbowser. If they hit, there was a chance they could create critical damage. If they missed, they’d harmlessly bounce from the armored shell, completely wasted.

Meanwhile, Ratchet had to smile at himself, proud at what he had done. While their enemy was being all boastful, he’d pulled a fast one, and thanks to Clank in jet form, this shockwave tactic was completely useless. He took a single large jump, propelled much further and faster than usual, right over the tremor. He hung up in the air for a brief moment as the tremor past, then landed next to Tora and the Courier while Clank vanished for the time being.

”Here,” he said, offering something to 6. It was the glowing spirit of Gaige the mechromancer. In his other hand he held his wrench, but clamped firmly was Zer0’s own spirit, which he immediately placed against his heart to absorb into himself.

”Guess that’s one less ya owe me,” 6 mumbled, more focused on their enemy as he crushed Gaige’s spirit to form it into something useful.

The heroes were quick and utterly ruthless to punish the prideful king's haughty carelessness - with Mario and Spyro doing significant damage to the flying king's underbelly, while Geno continued firing more beams from afar. Yet even as they gave their all, Megadragonbowser was far from defeated. As he rose, both Mario and Spyro were thrown off him after he unleashed a powerful heated shockwave. As they landed on the hard stony surface, the star warrior above took most of the brunt force of the shockwave which knocked him back several meters. Their opponent's eyes began to glow a fearsome white, illuminating as bright as a miniature star. And his wounds poured liquid ichor of molten light that continued to intensify the heat within the throne room.

Before the fighters would continue to engage the boss however, three figures came rushing towards him in a particular order. The first robot rushed forward to strike, only to find itself brutally ripped apart by the boss's powerful jaws. Then, its owner proceeded to engage, only to be squashed by Megadragonbowser's powerful shell as she was crushed against the tyrant koopa's throne. As he launched a fireball towards Blazermate's turret, Mario found himself to be extremely close to ground zero and dodged just in the nick of time prior to it striking wherever it hit. And then, Zer0 swooped in with his sword in hand, ready to avenge his fallen friends as the robot plunged its sword deep into the boss's eye.

Yet the Koopa King barely reacted to it- in fact he simply laughed the wound off as the blade was completely melted off. Geno was completely mortified at the situation that unfolded. Now he not only had to worry about Bowser's fiery breath, but rather his entire body as a whole. One solid hit from the Koopa King and the wooden doll would find himself turned into a living torch. And just seconds, with a simple slice of his claw, Megadragonbowser effortlessly sliced the robot ninja into two, ending his service with the resistance...

Within the span of a mere minute, the boss had eliminated three valiant fighters.

Even with Ratchet being quickly able to recover the fallen spirits, the tone of the battle had shifted drastically. Mario wasn't entirely used to fighting such a brutal Koopa King - let alone one who could fly on its own. He needed to find a way to even the odds and fast. The plumber plunged his gloved hands into his overalls, searching everywhere for perhaps a lucky power up to assist him. Whether it be a fire flower, a tanooki suit icon, or better yet a star, anything could help him at this point. Yet while rummaging through his back overalls, he felt a smooth texture cup the palm of his hand. It felt to belong to that of a circular object. Mario quickly grabbed the object and pulled it out - revealing the iconic red-and-white Super Mushroom! This ought to help him once the time is right.

Meanwhile, Geno continued to fire his beams towards Megadragonbowser before he suddenly unleashed a different move altogether. He found his connection to Star Road somewhat more secure and felt connected to the skies above. He rose his hands into the sky as a swift barrage of small to medium-sized stars began to rush towards the boss's location - leaving a streak of rainbow-colored residue behind them. They would explode on contact with a solid surface, hopefully being straight into Bowser's face. But as Geno continued to focus on fulfilling as much damage towards the boss himself, he would suddenly recognize a purple blur rush by him.

"Wha~ little dragon!" he yelled towards Spyro in utter confusion, "What are you doing? Get back here before you~!"

But the purple dragon didn't seem to heed his call. In fact, the young dragon seemed to be fueled by anger towards Megadragonbowser's careless slaughter over their three allies. Was it still due to the waining effects of the dagger's influence from within the laboratory? Or was it purely out of vengeful free-will? Yet none of which seemed to add up to Spyro's careless and risky behavior as the dragon flew towards his foe as if engaging in a suicide rush. Yet unlike the three before him, Spyro did anticipate a counter and made preparations into invading it - and proceeding to issue a powerful head-butt towards one of his wings in an attempt to limit his mobility.

However did the cocky purple dragon really think this whole plan through?

---

Minako was just about ready to rush into an engagement with Junpei when Linkle came to her aid. Having lost her focus and determination from her words, a sea of self-doubt began to swell within her, only able to half-listen to Linkle as she gave Junpei a proper examination.
He looked... shocked. Like he was holding his breath, muttering to himself. He wiped his eyes and continued gawking. There was absolutely no way...

"Leader is fine." She kept her response short and simple, seeing as she was still thinking. About Junpei, about Linkle, about how to make this whole situation work. And yet for the life of her, even while in her element, she couldn't quite get down a game plan. Undoubtedly, Junpei's presence had thrown her off, even if she tried to focus and change her state of mind. The fact of the matter was that so long as they stood as enemies, Minako's resolve was shallow, no matter what she told herself, no matter how hard she tried. "Look, I..." She sighed, starting to get the jitters. "I don't quite have a plan right now. I've never had to... fight a friend."
She bit her lower lip and gave Linkle a nervous look.
"He's stronger than he looks, so be careful, that longsword isn't all for show. He can summon his own Persona, Trismegistus, who fights with fire and strong attacks that slash like a blade. They come from his wings, you'll see it if he summons him."

That's right, it was starting to come back to her, now. He had a special healing ability which recovered him after every attack, even if it missed. Considering he had 3x his normal strength, that meant Agidyne and High Counter, so physical attacks would be difficult. Engaging him at range was their best option, and with Eurydice recovered, fire attacks were less of a-

"Minako, w-wait a minute!"
His voiced snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked up. He was smiling and waving his arms around like a fanatic, ecstatic. It was only now that the realisation truly hit her:
This was Junpei.
"Mina, I'm so glad you're alright! I've been lookin' everywhere for ya!" A goofy grin surfaced on his face once he got the recognition from her he was waiting for. Her surprised gasp helped him come to the same realisation: even if she seemed like her spirits were down, she was still the same Minako who he first introduced himself to a year ago. She was still his leader, still the person who helped him deal with his issues at home, and still the same person who confessed to him. But if that was the case, why did something feel... off?
Of course, there was an easy remedy to that:
"Maaaaan, you gotta introduce me to the hot blonde beside ya! She's a real cutie, y'know! Are you pickin' up girls without me?"

Stunned into silence, Minako couldn't quite put words into her mouth to respond. But she looked about ready to cry! Perhaps to Linkle it would look like some kind of mental torture...

Linkle turned her gaze from the boy toward Minako, getting a look into her eyes. Right into her eyes, which was weird. Every other time she had had to look down at her, but now...



She shook the though out of her head. No, no, she could worry about that little detail later. The important thing was how much pain Minko was clearly in. Linkle frowned. She really had no idea what the girl could be going through right now. She'd never had to fight a friend of hers before either. To put a point on it, she'd never really had a real friend to fight. He didn't look like he was interested in fighting right now though, so she at least had time.

Sheathing her bows she reached over and put her steady hands on Minako's shoulders. "Minako. Hey!" she raised her voice to snap her at least slightly out of her weird headspace. "He'll be okay. He'll be fine. I told you, I promise, that we're going to save him and the one thing a hero never does is break her promises. Him saying stuff like that, all that means is he's just like that Kid or the fat guys or any of us. So you can introduce us once we've had our buddy Tora clean all that black gunk off him." She said, trying her best to reassure the girl she could swear she felt trembling under her fingertips. "But if you can't fight him, I won't ask you to. That rabbit's part of me now, so even if he brings out that fire monster you told me about it'll still be like he's fighting two people at once."

The snapping of fingers was effective in drawing Minko's attention, though she only gave Linkle the briefest of glances. Even so she listened, and lucky she was to do so, given how hopeful her tone was in the two getting Junpei back. It helped the teenager come to a realiztion as to why Linkle was so easy to get along with, despite their differences: her kindness and empathy were unlike any others. Perhaps greater than any heroic feat she could accomplish, Minako felt that her inspiring spirit was one of Linkle's greatest qualities. While she didn't completely stop shivering, the hand was comforting to the leader, encouraging. Even if she doubted herself, Linkle believed in her. Unable to help it now, the girl's eyes began to well with tears, though even as she cried, it was clear she was far from sad.
"He's alive...! L-Linkle, he's... h-he's alive!"
While it was hard to respond to all that her supporter had said, with Minako barely registering the height difference that the girl beside her hd undergone, she did her best to respond, even with eyes full of liquid.

"I-I hope Tora can... can do it. H-he's my... best friend..." She was kidding herself if she couldn't even admit that much. Junpei himself took a concerned step forward but, by command of the Master Hand, could not step further. His programming prevented him from doing so. "I'll... I'll try. I can't say I can do much, but I... I have a new Persona which can keep us a-alive. It can heal you up if you're injured, so I'll try to use it to protect you. B-but please..."

"Be careful... OK? B-both for him, and for yourself. I'll be with you, better three people than two."



Linkle nodded along as Minako affirmed her will to fight. That was good. She knew she'd be able to pull together, at least a little. It still looked like this was mostly Linkle's show, but it was good to have someone at her back. "You got it, Leader." She said, turning resolutely back toward Junpei and pulling out her crossbows.

"Okay buddy, this isn't going to be easy for you either."Linkle called over to the boy, stepping forward just enough to make herself the more tempting target without putting herself into range of that sword of his. She left a good distance between him and her. "That black stuff is going to make you do some things you're not gonna like, but I'll make sure you don't do those things to her."

She pointed both of the bows in Junpei's direction and was shocked at how steady this felt. She had never gotten the hang of aiming at distances like this, something about how the bolt didn't just fly straight had never clicked with her. Now, though, she just sort of got it. She smiled at that, almost imagining she could feel that rabbit guiding her hands. She let the spirit guide her to aim for his legs.

No bombs, not yet. She couldn't risk that. So she pulled the triggers and let the bolts fly, again and again, sending bolts flying toward his legs to try and incapacitate him before he got over to them.

"Man, I hate to do this to such a pretty lady, but..."
With a kick and a step, Junpei began to push into a run. Normally he wasn't the most dextrous or agile of people, but he showcased a significant increase in mobility, likely a result of that black aura that surrounded him, Crimson eyes honed in on his target, the boy careful not to run off too far to the side in case they tried to slip past him.
"PERSONA!"
He stopped in place, having gotten closer to the two girls but not too close to give Linkle a clear shot at his legs just yet. Her improved aim put a lot of pressure on him to keep back, knocking down his mobility would prevent him from doing anything, so he knew not to get reckless. As she shot at him further, her arrows would 'Ping!' off of the crystal-like diamonds that were appearing in front of him, which took shape to reveal a strange humanoid creature, using the same technique as Minako to summon it. The wings of the summoned beast caused the air to shift somewhat, and parts of it seemed to briefly light aflame.

Without the compassion to complain, he immediately followed up with a dangerous fire attack, the fire seemingly appearing all around Linkle, as opposed to being shot out of anywhere in particular. Its area-of-effect was minimal, however, so if she was quick to notice she could duck and roll out of the way before getting incinerated.
Minako had her Evoker on-hand, ready for immediate use if Linkle needed it. An Agidyne would hurt like all Hell, but at least she had the versatile summoner's newfound power to counteract it. The leader was well aware that Junpei could only use his fire so many times before running out of stamina, and any physical attacks he used would eat into his health. However, letting him be and not attacking at all would put the both of them at a severe disadvantage, due to Trismegistus' innate ability to self-heal. What an annoying fight this would turn out to be...

Linkle growled with frustration as the monster she'd been warned about sprang to life in front of him, just when he gotten close enough for her shots to actually start connecting, and her bolts bounced harmlessly off of it. She was getting real tired of running into things that wouldn't get hurt when she shot them.

She was about to attack again when fire suddenly sprang up all around her. The image of the ice attack that had been used on the robot earlier jumped into her head. Maybe if she just had her normal reflexes she'd be hit by that, but that rabbit was suddenly with her again. She ran towards the flames in front of her as they closed in, ducking at the last second and going into a slide as she felt a wave if heat from behind her as the flames collided.

Coming directly out of the slide into a dead run, she took a few more steps forward and raised her bows again, the tips glowing red as Junpei's eyes. Sweeping them upwards like she was under handing a ball she pulled the triggers and tried to launch of pair of bombs over the top of the creature at the boy behind it before jumping back and away from the both of them.

"Thanatos!" Where Linkle charged ahead to try and press an advance, Minako also pushed to try and keep up the pressure. She wasn't sure if Junpei knew any attacks to target groups of people, but she was banking on her own knowledge at this point; if she woke up with her Persona only knowing base-level skills, it was safe to say Junpei simply got the advanced versions of his base-level skills upon powering up. It only made sense, considering Eurydice' agi would eventually grow into maragi, then agidyne, making the skill 3x as powerful. Junpei's use of agidyne helped justify this train of thought, though if she was wrong...

As Linkle approached, Junpei used his Evoker again, firing off another shot into his temple to keep his Persona summoned. The winged humanoid turned not to Linkle, but to Thanatos, who was now charging with its blade. Trismegistus charged the opposing Persona head-on, slashing the death avatar with its wings, causing it to disappear as it had after the fight with Bastion. Pushing forward, it charged for Minako, who made the choice to summon her new Persona in an effort to block the attack. The resulting Persona took the form of a woman with a harp, who used said harp to block the charge of the winged humanoid, though not before taking a swipe that one-shot it as well.

On Linkle's side, the bombs she had thrown had taken Junpei by surprise, and even as he rolled forwards to avoid much of the blast, he was still caught in it marginally. The effects of the blast, however, would soon disappear, as a soft blue glow enveloped the teen's body, removing any sign of the former injury. He wasted no time in rushing her, longsword swinging like it was almost weightless, though his form was unlike anything she would have seen in Hyrule. "Heh. Thanks, Chidori." He muttered to himself, aiming a slash across her body.

Linkle saw it! She spotted it when the boy brought that guy up to his head to pull the trigger. There, that was the time when he was vulnerable.

Not that that did anything to help her right now. The monster shot off toward Minako, tearing apart the thing that had torn Bastion to pieces with ease and doing the same to the second creature Minako pulled out of her hat to defend herself. All this as Junpei charged in, swinging that sword of his with the strength of a full grown moblin.

Oh goddess's he was so much taller up close than she'd expected.

She couldn't run though. There wasn't a way to hurt the guys monster, so she had to make him call it off somehow. So in the face of his oncoming charge she held her ground and spun, bringing her leg up as it was set alight and planting her burning heel directly into the boys wrists to divert his swing to the side.

Linkle could feel something building up in her. That vibrant energy she got in every battle, as though the momentum of it was being converted into fuel for her to use. It was still small, but she could feel it there. "You'd better call your pet back fast, because there's no way you're beating me like that!" She said, continuing her rotation intending this time to bring her boot into his skull.

WIth his slash diverted, Junpei's force carried him low, however the added strength meant he was quick to recover. The flame on Linkle's boot that would do harm to pretty much anyone else did very little in this case, barely leaving a mark on him, though the force of the kick with his momentum still did the trick of diverting his blade. He was about to send it back at her in another wide-swept arc, but found a foot kicking him clean in the jaw, interrupting his swing. Yet, in spite of the force of said kick, Junpei didn't stumble, using the opportunity to catch her outstretched leg with an iron-like grip.
"Nah, I think I'm good."

With the strength of a titan, the teen pushed Linkle's leg up and back, trying to trip the significantly shorter girl to send her on her back. His Persona used agidyne on Minako, who couldn't escape the blast in time, sending her further from the battle. As his Persona started to de-summon, Minako summoned her own new Persona, Eurydice, to try and heal herself up.
With his Persona returned, Junpei attempted a quick summon on Linkle, giving her precious time to react. It only really gave her two-three seconds, but perhaps that would be enough to get a good hit in.

As Linkle was pushed backwards she jumped with her other leg, letting Junpei's amazing strength push her over entirely. She landed on her hands, bow points digging into the ground, before pushing herself backwards to land back on her feet. Behind hershe heard an explotion and grit her teeth. She would actually be having fun if this guy hadn't just gone and made a liar out of her.

She didn't have time to turn around and check her teammate as Junpei brought the Evoker back up to his head to summon that thing again. As he fired she spirited forward, sliding under the crystiline diamonds that marked where the Persona was coming into being while firing her bow in a sweeping motion in front of her.

As she came out of the slide she didn't let up on her attack. She thrust her bows forward one at a time, left, right, left, right, as though throwing punches, like she thought that that would multiply the force behind every arrow she was now firing right at him. As she fired she moved closed and closer with every thrust. If he broke, she needed to be close to captalize on it.

Finally, as though to put an exclamation mark on her assault, she thusrt both forward at once and launched another pair of bombs.

The assault was fluid in its motion, enough-so that it put pressure on the capped boy to not die. As soon as the first of her arrows weged itself into his hip he stumbled, and that was nothing to say of the second and third, which all had a noticeable impact. He winced, unable to quite take the pain of being shot that many times without feeling something, knowing full-well that if he failed to act his life could be forefeit. While no master ninja, Junpei knew his way around a bat and ball, and his added physical strength truly shined as he prepared a misdirection of his own. With a step to the side, groaning from the pain, he swung his sword with the flat edge running parallel to her arrows to thwart them. Though it didn't do much to those that were shot wide, bolts that came directly at him were passed on to the left or right of him, helping him avoid extra damage save for one stray arrow which left a mark in his shoulder. He couldn't help but growl in frustration, seeing the two bombs headed straight for him.

This time, Junpei let them.
Another gunshot as he tried to summon his Persona again. Though the bolts were quick, the forming crystals seemed like they deflected oncoming fire as a means of protecting the summoned spirit as well as the summoner, some kind of shield that deflected frontal attacks. The bombs bounced harmlessly off of the Persona, which took shape quickly, completely immune to the explosion which came after. "Brave Blade!" He ordered, his Persona rushing forward and draining the life from its' host, visibly weakening Junpei even as his body glowed that healing aura. Now Linkle had to face the charging wrath of his Persona, who aimed a much more precise slash than Thanatos, opting for a downwards cut followed by a heavy advancing slice from the side.

Meanwhile, further back in the battlefield, Minako had recovered herself enough to start getting closer once more, using Linkle's distraction to try and rush Junpei with Thanatos. While losing stamina over summoning him would hurt her in the long run, making sure he wasn't also going after Linkle was a priority. Her Evoker fired to reveal the embodiment of death once more, whose coffins flipped open to reveal that chilling wind which drifted around the enemy. Shivering, the young man started to freeze-over, his skin turning blue from the ice. "D-d-da-am-n...."

Linkle smiled as he brought out his Persona, even if her smash was denied to her again. She had no idea if he could see her through the monster but she stuck out her tongue anyway. "Told ya so!" She shouted at him even as the Persona charged in.

It brought its blade down in an overhead slice as Linkle jumped to the side, and ducked down as it continued its combo with a horizontal slice. "Told ya you'd need your monster to GAK!"

Whatever taunt was about to leave Linkles tongue was cut off by the sharp pain she felt flowing down from her head. At first she thought the monster had scalped her, and her hands flew up to the top of her skull to check. But what she found there wasn't a bloody hole, but two furry tubes she hadn't even known were there. As her fingers traced up the length of the protrutions she felt light fur becoming slick and matted, before they abruptly plateaued into wet littles marches. She pulled her hands down and saw they were spattered with fresh blood.

She didn't realize it, but she'd just gotten her new ears trimmed to half length.

Whatever injury she had wasn't important, though, because the monster was still right in front of her. More than that, though, she heard the crack of the Evoker again and the chill cracle of ice forming. Looking around the monster she could make out Minako, having moved in to attack while she had Junpei's monster districted. She beamed with pride at a job well done. There was no way he could take on Minako's monster without his, so the only thing she had to do now was try and keep this things attention. Pushing through the pain she dived to the side to try and get around it, holstered one of her bows, and pulled the Bwah Blaster from the hem of her shorts.

Maybe they ignored bolt, bullets, and bombs, but she had no idea whether they were immune to light blasts! The mouth of the gun flared to life as she lined up a shot at the Personas head and fired.

The mouth flashed as the bolt of light shot out and exploded directly on the monsters face. Unfortunately for Linkle it turned out to be just as immune to that as it was to everything that came before. Linkle marvaled for a moment, trying to figure out what these things were made of. She was about to try it again, but she somehow knew it'd be useless. Not because the monster wouldn't be hurt, she just knew that for some reason she had to wait between shots with this weapon.

Figuring it must be that helpful rabbit on her shoulder again, Linkle decided to cut her losses here and starting dashing back toward Junpei and Minako.

"T-Trismegistus!"
Without an option, Junpei's Persona turned on himself, fire appearing all around Junpei to shatter the ice around him. While he was unharmed from the fire, he did get knocked around a bit, sending him to the floor. Thankfully, this was just enough time for Thanatos to close the distance, drop-kicking the capped teen and sending him back towards the bridge. As soon as the hit connected, Minako closed in on Linkle, before bringing out her new Persona once more. It's gentle, beautiful melodies began to heal her wounds, though it probably wouldn't help Linkle grow her new rabbit ears back, at least not completely. Unlike Blazermate, this creature seemed to really tire out the user, with her partner panting visibly, struggling to keep up. "L-Linkle...! Y-you OK....?" She asked, careful not to get too distracted. Junpei was already getting back on his feet again, more annoyed than hurt, it seemed.

"I don't know." Linkle replied, befuddled even as the healing notes of the harp renewed her body and spirit. She wondered if the melody she'd heard about from the legends was anything like this. "What's on my head?"

She didn't get her answer before Junpei interrupted them.

"Y-you two really tick me off..." He muttered to himself, his Persona having faded between the two of them. Knowing he would have to get a bit more reckless, Junpei shot his Evoker again, only this time he wasn't going to give them a chance to react. They'd see just what he was capable of. "Sick 'em, Trismegistus! Brave Blade!" His orders were loud and clear, but his true intention was subtle: deal as much damage as possible with physical attacks, then pelt them from a distance while healing himself up. Not a bad plan for someone who usually couldn't formulate them, and this time it might just work. With speed far greater than anything Minako's Personae could ever hope to achieve right now, the winged angel of flame charged forwards, turning up wind as he flew by. His first target, Eurydice, neither had the endurance nor the means to defend against such a powerful physical attack. The first slice cut through her with ease, causing the Persona to shatter back into glass, and causing Minako to be suddenly overcome with some kind of painful tiredness.

Immediately following this, Trismegistus took aim at Linkle, the second biggest threat, and did similar slashing attacks to before, ony this time they just kept on coming. Though it started out in a pattern, quickly the creature's movements got erratic, growing more and more unpredictable by the second.

Linkle jumped back as the monster again demolished one of Minako's own and came straight at her with a flurry of powerful slashes. She was grateful, in a way, that the boy seemed to still have enough presence of mind to not kill his friend when he had the chance.

Because as Linkle jumped, ducked, and weaved about like a prizefighter she knew that Minako couldn't have lived through this. She knew how much each spell was taking out of her. She wanted to lead this thing away, but she knew that was pointless. He could just have it back in no time at all, and as long as she was having to avoid all this Junpei was free to do whatever he wanted to the exhausted and struggling Minako. In addition she was starting to feel the strain of dodging its blows merciless blows only a few seconds in, her normally inexhaustible supply of energy being pushed to the limit just to keep up with it. She felt the wounds start to appear, grazes and glancing blows she was just barely too slow to dodge. A cut along the thigh, a stab that scrabed her side, a few more inches of those knew ears lost. Every scratch, every blow, she could feel that old momentum building.

She had been watching it closely as it swung, looking for any point where it faultered or fumboed where she could strike back and had found none. As Minako's own monster had proven these things didn't even die when they were killed. Trismegistus had no weaknesses! The only thing she could see that beat these things, even momentarily, was raw power and as she felt that momentum peak from this struggle she knew could put out enough to at least stun it.

So she let loose.

She felt a surge of power fill her entire being as she crossed her weapons, firing both forward and backwards. The beam that came from the mouth of the blaster she was still using instead of her other crossbow burst harmlessly off the monsters chest, but she was already crossing her arms again and fired off in the other two directions, at nothing. Then she spun, firing like a maniac in a circle around her, and as she reached the end of her spin she felt that power burst out of her. A dome of fire and force sprung out with Linkle at its center. The fire crashed harmlessly off the monster, but the force was enough to push back the sword blow that it had been swinging at Linkle at the moment. It was momentarily pushed back, off balance, and that bought Linkle the second she needed.

As she stopped spinning her arm was extended and her blaster was raised. She looked down the barrel at Junpei, and looked past him to the most he had his back too. That drop kick had put him right where they needed him. Something was telling her what this blaster would do.

"Leader, your friend needs to cool off!" She urged, and fired the beam she intended would bounce him right into the water. She didn't get to see if it worked, though, before she heard the sound of the monsters blade cutting through the air. She turned, bringing the bow and blaster up to try and ward off the blow that hit her like a falling tree. She felt something break, and she hoped it was he arms for a moment because those would be less costly to repair in this weird world. Then she was lifted off the ground and sent flying through the air, rolling along the ground, and then slamming back first into something hard.

As soon as the blow collided with Linkle's frame, the monster disappeared, fading away from sight just as it had done before. However this time, she couldn't hear it or Junpei, the two of them having vanished from sight. In truth, her plan had worked almost flawlessly - the beam knocked right into him and sent the student flying backwards, straight into the moat, quite a ways away. He probably wasn't dead for now, that much Minako knew, but with the amount of distance now between them and how poorly he was at swimming, it granted the two more than enough time to catch up with the others.

It was no victory. They hadn't defeated nor converted him. But it was enough for now.

She lay blearily against some of the arch debris, eyes fluttering open as her crossbow and blaster clattered down on either side of her. She tried to pull herself up, felt something go CRICK, and decided that might be a bad idea. Still, her eyes searched for Minako and Junpei.

Minako hadn't been able to move for the past while, struggling to get back on her feet, using her weapon as a crutch. She carried a wayward glance over at Linkle, worry etched onto her face, but also a smile. Though not the best result, it would buy them time to patch themselves up and regroup with the others, at least to get into a working state. And so long as Junpei wasn't a spirit, Minako was pretty happy.
Her limp was evident, but unlike Linkle it wasn't particularly serious, especially with her naginata to support her. Her movements pained and precise, it took her longer than she would have liked to get close to her, but it was better than making Linkle walk to her.

"You... don't look s-so good..."
Stating the obvious, perhaps, but her concern was well placed. She knew just how much an attack like that hurt, especially when you were far weaker than you should be to take it. Several near-death experiences meant she had a good idea how much damage Linkle had taken. There was always the option of using her Soma, but she wanted to save that for the brink of defeat. Having only one meant she had to make it count, her countenance quivering as she put the Evoker to her temple once more. "I can... heal you a little more... But we really n-need to get to Blazermate..." She wasn't going to let Linkle protest, pulling the trigger, her eyes glazing over as though she had died for a moment, eyes a sick yellow. They returned to their natural red once Eurydice had appeared, regaining the life in them. The Persona strummed her harp, melodic and peaceful, and Linkle would begin to feel her wounds heal very quickly. It couldn't heal like Blazermate, but it may be just enough to get her standing.

It cost Minako another lot of stamina, eyes blurred as she fell to her knees again. It felt as though this would be a common occurence. What mattered most was that they could move. "D-did it... h-help...?" Her voice was fairly raspy and her throat was dry, like she hadn't had anything to drink in hours. She wasn't unconscious, but definitely didn't look to be in fighting condition.

"Yeah. Thanks, but you're right about Blazer." Linkle agreed, pulling herself up and looking around for Blazermate only to come to the startling realization that they were the only two out here. In fact, without the adrenaline pumping in her ears and a monster coming for her throat she could make out other sounds, the sounds of battle raging within the castle itself. "I think she's busy right now."

Their freinds had finished up and were right now engaged with that monstrous dragon Bowser. "Your friend is really something else, huh?" Linkle said, uncertainty tinging her voice form reason she didn't quite understand. This was bad. If they went in there as messed up as they were, Blazermate might heal them or they might get destroyed immediately. "If we go in there Junpei will follow us and who knows what'll happen to him in that melee."

Minako couldn't help but agree. Entering a battle they were unprepared for was like a death sentence. And letting Junpei get away meant they would have to face him again, surely with some form of support, but she didn't want to give him the chance to heal up. Even worse was if he teamed up with the big Bowser inside, making the fight infintely more stressful on those within. She had her Soma, yes, but for two people it was just rather pointless, especially when she knew it could fully recover four at least. It was best to have it as insurance for a later date, if the group ever got into a large battle they couldn't win without some kind of edge.
Edge... Junpei would be reaching the edge of the moat soon. Despite flying back so far, he didn't seem too unwell when he was hit by Linkle's Bwah Blaster. It definitely had some kind of effect, but it didn't look like it had killed him. The obvious knockback was a plus, though.

"Heh... He's pretty incredible, huh?" She sounded a lot less tired as she spoke of Junpei, though definitely looked like she had been through enough for one day. It couldn't contain her cheer, though. "I agree though, for our sakes, for the others, and for him... we can't let him get out of the moat."
She thought back to a previous escapade with water, between herself and the members of SEES, where Junpei had been splashing water at the girls and being a bit of a jackass, if she were honest. They gang all teamed up on him, forcing him to retreat deeper into the water, before using water blasters to keep him there.
Though a strange thought, it gave Minako an idea. A cruel, fun idea.

She took Linkle by the arm and began pulling, though without her full strength it was more of a tug. Approaching the moat, the two arrived just in time to see Junpei surface, apparently caught up in a scuffle with some monster of the deep. He was swiftly swimming to shore, using his full strength to get back there as quickly as possible. As he swam, Minako filled Linkle in on her plan. It wouldn't use up too much of her own energy to do, and with the Bwah Blaster, things would be a whole lot easier.

The plan was simple, easy to execute, and undeniably the lamest way Linkle had ever ended a fight. So, as Junpei reached the edge and pulled himself back out of the water with a triumphant cry Linkle half-heartedly aimed the blaster at him and pulled the trigger again.

Junpei was bounced unceremoniously back into what was now his watery prison as her and Minako seperated, each one taking a shore. If he tried to climb out, he got knocked back in. If he tried to pull his Evoker, Linkle blasted him. If he dived under the water Linkle stuck her head underwater and blasted him that way. If any of the waster creatures tried to hurt him, they got bombs, studded with arrows or, if Minako was feeling up to entombed in blocks of ice. His programming kept him from retreating, so he would just keep coming at either of them, and the light touch of the girls attacks combined with his natural healing kept him safe.

So long as the gang inside came out the way they entered to check on their allies, there wouldn't be any problems with such a plan.

---

Whatever the kid's plan was, it seemed to be working. As Franklin fired more shots at his enemy, it suddenly retreated into its shell, slamming into the column that Franklin was hiding behind. "Oh, shit-" was all he was able to get out before the massive creature made contact, knocking into the column and sending pieces of rubble falling dangerously close. Dodging the falling debris, Franklin ran back towards the entrance, to the column that Michael was hiding behind. "I think he's down!"

Peeking out of cover, Michael could see that the enemy Bowser had indeed been knocked down. "Yeah, he's down...for now." As he watched, the group used the opportunity to attack their incapacitated enemy, including, to his surprise, the Courier, who was surprisingly not dead, and even more surprisingly fighting on their side once more. Wait...then, what the hell was that about earlier? He better have a plan... Whatever the situation with him was, Michael couldn't take advantage of their enemy's mistake, as the amount of allies nearby made any attempts to get a shot in far too risky.

To the two men's dismay, their enemy wasn't planning on staying down. The fake Bowser let out a shout, and shot out fire, melting the ice that Din had put up to keep him trapped. Getting up, the two felt their hearts sink as they looked upon their enemy, lit with fire and seemingly no worse for wear, despite their allies' best efforts. A few of their allies rushed forward to engage the enemy, notable a robot that Michael recognized as one of the newcomers from the battles on the bridge. To his horror, the fake Bowser grabbed the machine, and bit off half of it. It's master fired a pistol at it, but the doppelganger sped forward in his shell, presumably crushing her.

Everything went silent, including Michael and Franklin, until Zer0 stepped forward, spouting off haiku in honor of his fallen friend before jumping into the air, and stabbing their enemy in the eye. Things were silent again, and the two hoped that, finally, their enemy had fallen.

But, to their horror, he began to laugh. Zer0's weapon melted, his attack seemingly having no effect. With the flick of his finger, Zer0 was cut in half. Three of their allies were now dead, and their enemy, seemingly unharmed, mocked them. Franklin closed his eyes for a moment, taking in a deep breath. Looking up again, he made a vow that, no matter what, this...thing, this monster, would die today.

While Michael barely knew the cyborg, much less his companion, they were his allies, and he had just watched them be cut down in front of him. While he was no stranger to death, the way the Bowser doppelganger casually killed them made him feel helpless. That feeling of helplessness soon turned to anger, anger at the monster in front of him. Almost automatically, he raised his rifle, feeling some sort of energy flowing through him. Whatever it was, his anger fed it, and he felt it flow into his weapon. As he shouldered his rifle, he sent a look at Franklin, and it wasn't hard for him to understand what Michael was about to do. Franklin moved out of cover, raising his pistol and firing several shots in the direction of their enemy.

Looking down his scope, Michael first centered his crosshairs on Megadragonbowser's chest. Activating his Bullet Time, he pulled the trigger, feeling the energy flow out of his rifle and into the bullet he just fired. A large fireball shot out of the barrel, and the bullet flew forwards like a small missile, a trail of smoke behind it. When it struck, it would cause a small explosion as it slammed into Megadragonbowser's chest. Using his Bullet Time, Michael quickly moved his crosshairs again, and fired twice more, once at the enemy's right shoulder, and another straight into his face. The sound of his shots were deafening, and the large fireball, plus the smoke trail, gave his position away, but it didn't matter to him in that moment. All that mattered to him was their enemy needed to die, and fast.

The death of Zer0 and Gauge didn't shake up Blazermate all that much, which felt almost odd to her. She knew she should be feeling at least a little bit of loss over a few teammates dying to MegaDragonBowser. But her instincts as a medabot, a being made to fight and defeat others to claim their power, alongside the mercenary thoughts of Dell Conagher, combined to give her a calm complexion. "Be careful of engaging in melee range fellas! Hes really strong there!" She said, as if that wasn't obvious to everyone in the room considering what happened.

Alongside the fury that MegaDragonBowser showed and the pride the monster took in destroying two of their allies, he also shot a massive fireball at Blazermate's sentry, clearly annoyed at how it was constantly peppering him with bullets, followed by a shockwave ground slam attack. She jumped and hovered over the shockwave attack, but since Blazermate was far away from her sentry, she let it go down in a blaze of glory. She happy that the fireball went towards something she could just build again, instead of another ally at least. Blazermate noticed that to dodge the shockwave attack, Ratchet was riding his robot companion. And in true medabot pride, Ratchet gathered the powers of their fallen allies to distribute between himself and the courier.

Looking around the battlefield, Blazermate attched her beam to Tora as he seemed to be ploting someone as she was trying to collect more scrap for another sentry gun. Considering what happened to Zer0, she wasn't about to go into melee range of that monster. Plus another sentry might do wonders, if it would eat another huge fireball attack like the previous one did. While she was scavaging around, she heard a series of explosive attacks come from MegaDragonBowser's person. Apparently a few more of her allies that hadn't came in the first wave were arriving now, which reminded her. Where was Linkle and that girl they had met under the Master of Master's mushroom thing?

@Archmage MC

Din screamed as she witnessed Gaige get splattered on the floor of the throne room, and again when Zer0 was torn in half. She wasn't a hero nor even an adventurer. She was a dancer with a traveling performance troupe, and the most danger she had been in was being kidnapped for her Oracle powers. Though she could defend herself decently enough, she had never been exposed to the horrors of combat, and all their fighting up to this point had been against machines or comical enemies who 'poofed' upon death. The humanoid ones, more or less, had been rescued by Friend Hearts. Din was so shocked that she failed to dodge the shockwave from when Megadragonbowser punched the ground, the force knocking her violently to the ground. She had taken some damage, but she was able to stand, only to notice a sharp pain in her elbow. Being a dancer, and a bit of a gymnast, she knew she had a broken arm. Holding her arm, she quickly limped over to Blazermate, but instead of asking for herself, she said, "Please! C-can you heal the...girl with the machine, or... the man with the sword?" She knew her own dancing could heal light wounds, but what had happened to Gaige and Zer0 was far beyond her abilities. Din hoped that Blazermate, whose healing seemed much more potent, could do something. Din didn't even know their names, and now they were...

It was good that they held back, because in all likelihood if they had engaged they would have got stuck in just in time to be blown back by Megadragonbowser’s explosive recovery. Bowser pocketed the super mushroom for use later, as it would take DK and his hat out of face punching range, before he went to get stuck in. After the tyrant tore their haiku slinging ally in half Bowser joined the fray. With a mighty leap he jumped over the shock-wave his double had sent out before bringing him and Donkey Kong down with a crash before their foe, this time ganging up on him with the others rather than going at it alone.

”BACK FOR MORE RUNT?” mega Bowser asked as he got up from his ground slam

“IT TAKES MORE THAN THAT TO TAKE A REAL BAD GUY DOWN AND YOU KNOW IT!” Bowser responded, bringing his fists up into a boxer’s stance.

”TWO MORE TIMES AND WE’RE DONE HERE? THAT’LL BE A BREEZE!” Megadragonbowser retorted as he brought up his dukes for their second bout.



Bowser and Donkey Kong engaged in an all out frontal assault against Megadragonbowser, starting with a combined mighty right hook. Megadragonbowser brought his arms up in front of him to shield his head, blocking the triple punch with his scaly limbs. The force of the punch sent him sliding backwards on the tiled floor mostly as a result of DK’s wound up giant punch, his clawed toes scraping against it and making the most awful sound as he did so. They kept up the pressure with a subsequent left hook which, while less powerful, took advantage of their initial blow having knocked him off balance. Striking the side of the boss’s blocking arms the team broke his defences, bashing the limbs to the side so that their third punch struck true.

The triple power tower slammed their fists into Megadragonbowser’s face, the power of the blow knocking his head back and to the left. “HA HA, NOT SO TOUGH NOW!” Bowser taunted, only to be caught flat footed as Megadragonbowser’s head whipped downwards as he stepped forwards under Bowser’s forth strike to deliver an uppercut to the king’s jaw. Even as he did so however Donkey Kong got a retaliatory strikes against their up close and personal target, driving him back just enough to stop him overwhelming the Bowser completely.

”ENOUGH!” he roared, before sucking in air, fire licking at his lips as he fueled his furnace.

“UH OH” Bowser said as he recovered from the blow and realized what was going on

“Eeek!” screeched Donkey Kong as he abandoned ship, leaping out of the way as fire burst forwards from Megadragonbowser’s mouth. Browser meanwhile retracted into his shell at just the right moment, his packed shell thudding to the floor as the flames rushed over his back. Safe from the flames he was not safe from being kicked, which was exactly what Megadragonnbowser did, slamming a clawed foot into his shell and sending him spinning away though the hall. ”BUZZ OFF!”

Bowser’s arm snapped out of his shell, the super-heated power-claws on it burying themselves in the ground and hand breaking him to a stop a fair distance away from Megadragonbowser. Successfully stilled Bowser un-retracted himself as quickly as possible and slammed the ground with a palm to push himself upright. Then he readied himself for any follow up attacks by his doppelganger. Meanwhile Donkey Kong had landed a touch away from the Megadragonbowser and had then used his momentum to somersault further away, after which he flipped himself into the air before landing back onto his feet near Tora and Poppi. He gave them a thumbs up before turning round again to keep Megadragonbowser in his sights.

Shocking though the demise of their comrades was, the heroes fought on. Once the wave of earth passed them by, the Centurion was the first to leap out from behind his team's defenses and approach the tyrant alone, though allies followed on his heels. Wise to the colossal koopa's act, Agoston did not hand himself over, and advanced warily enough to duck out of the way of Megadragonbowser's deadly but slow claw swipe. Having avoided the strike and gotten in, the man rushed behind his target, forcing the tyrant to choose between one man in a dangerous position or the bevy of enemies headed his way. Figuring he could take whatever the simple swordsman could dish out, Megadragonbowser opted for the latter. Agoston's ensuing stab into his heel elicited a growl, and fiery ichor began to leak out, but the tyrant felt it no more than that. When Agoston withdrew his weapon, he found it superheated, and close to melting. As bad as that was, the fact that it didn't disintegrate straightaway suggested that the tyrant's heat grew less intense toward his extremities.

Whatever the case, the Centurion found himself more or less ignored as his comrades made their attack. The real Bowser approached his incandescent doppelganger, and with Donkey Kong in on the action engaged in a melee as furious as it was brief. Though the pair got a couple good hits in, they were sent away a moment later, allowing their allies to open fire A number of bullets from the Courier cracked against Megadragonbowser's body, one of them hitting a crack on his chestplate in the perfect position to worsen the rupture. A sharp shard of bony plate flew as his burning blood spattered from the wound, leaving only his hide keeping the heat within. Geno's beams, gotten used to by the tyrant and by now even taken for granted, now took the form of prismatic columns falling from the ceiling. Each one seared Megadragonbowser's body, their radiance entirely different -and altogether higher- than the heat broiling within him. The continuous storm of light hemmed him in, preventing him from avoiding Michael's sights even if he knew what was coming. He, however, had no idea of just how great a threat the sniper posed.

The noise of Michael's explosive shots wasn't just thunderous—it was apocalyptic. Their sound alone seemed to rattle the foundations of the castle, much less the eardrums of his allies, but the volatile rounds they heralded did far more damage to Megadragonbowser. What remained of his chest and belly armor blew apart in a tremendous burst of burning blood; so great was the shock that the instead of a roar the tyrant could only let out a groan of agony before he fell forward, spewing ichor, onto all fours. Even if he withdrew into his shell, he would no longer be protected from the front whatsoever. Of course, the whole shell -fused with his spine- wouldn't be going anywhere, but the open, weeping wound on his chest was severely debilitating. Seeing the tyrant in this state, Spyro saw his chance.

The little dragon rushed toward Megadragonbowser with revenge on his mind rather than safety, and after the long-range annihilation he just suffered, the tyrant wasn't about to let another gnat get past his guard and nip at his ankles. Even worse, he could see that furry egg, that blasted Donkey Kong, and both robot girls hot on Spyro's heels. What was he going to do? He couldn't think straight. Instinctively he swiped at Spyro with a claw, but in his daze he mis-spaced it and instead batted the little dragon with his hand, knocking him to the side. Recognizing his error, the tyrant took another shot at him, but his claws clanged off Tora's shield. ”UGH.” He let out an abrupt belch of fire to get them away. After hopping backward, the Nopon tossed his shield to Poppi, who executed a rocket-powered attack with some sort of extendable mechanism from the drill. It slammed into Megadragonbowser's mouth, cracking his jawbone, and clamped down with teeth he didn't even know exists. With a roar he scooted backward, the sharp pain clearing his head.. The ground where he'd been hunkering was covered in burning blood.

”LITTLE...PESTS. SO MANY...BUGS...I GOTTA SQUASH.” Jumping into the air, the tyrant beat his wings and flew behind his throne, using its back as a shield to protect his middle as he hung on with his claws. With narrowed eyes he scanned the room. He needed to deplete the enemy's ranks further; who was the easiest target? His eyes fell on the mage, the two kids, the bear and bird, the fat guy and his friend. It looked like they were just standing around, letting their allies do the fighting and take their lumps. A great idea struck him, and with little ceremony Megadragonbowser tore the back off his throne and hurled it at them, hopefully to squash the whole lot flat. ”HAH, EAT THAT, YOU SCUM!” he roared, forgetting that he'd been using that projectile for protection.



Without a moment to lose, Tora and Poppi got into the action. The second or so it took to recover from defending against the ground wave saw a couple allies rush past and attack Megadragonbowser directly. The real Bowser, Tora figured, was relying on his size to avoid a messy end like those who preceded him, but the sight of Agoston hurtling forward send the team into a panic. Was he trying to get himself killed!? But the Centurion proved himself both brainy and brawny as he ran in, heedful rather than heedless. The tyrant's interceptor missed him easily, allowing the armored warrior to get in close and strike at his adversary's heel. Unable to protect Bowser and Donkey Kong, Tora and Poppi watched on high alert as they clashed, and a moment later the combatants came apart. Megadragonbowser received not a moment to lick his wounds as the heroes' ranged fighters hit hard and fast, culminating in a skull-rattling bombardment from Michael that tore the tyrant a proverbial new one.

What came next was a great chance to attack, but something about the way Spyro charged forward alarmed Poppi. “Masterpon,” she urged, pointed at the furious dragon as he ran. “Friend lizard not being careful. Could end up just like robot of girl earlier!” Nodding, Tora started to run. After a moment, Poppi activated her boosters and picked him up to cover more ground, and Blazermate -sensing a gambit in the works- followed behind.

A stroke of profound luck kept Spyro from becoming hamburger, with Megadragonbowser's palm bowling him over sideways, but Tora knew he wouldn't be so fortunate a second time. “Release!” he exclaimed, and Poppi let go to sent him sailing into the path of the tyrant's next attack. Shield met claw, and this time the boss's swipe proved insufficient. He reeled back as Tora landed, and the Nopon threw his shield to his partner. “Poppi, time to combine power!”

“Understood! Preparing to strike!” Energy surrounded Poppi as she powered up the shield, spinning it to maximum overdrive as she landed. “Jet Biter!” Its three thrusters ignited in one burst, and from the shield's center extended a heavy ball with chomping teeth on a scissor mechanism. It wreaked havoc on Megadragonbowser's already-brutalized face, forcing him to retreat.

The sight almost brought a smile to both driver and blade's faces, but it was too early to celebrate just yet. The tyrant moved behind his throne, then a moment later ripped off a part of it to hurl over the melee fighters' heads at a more distant group. “Meh meh!!” Tora and Poppi were too far forward to help. Either the targets would have to kick it into gear, or Bowser himself would have to try and intercept or deflect the thrown throne.



A sudden noise from the direction of the castle doors provided a distraction from Minako and Linkle's monotonous containment procedure. The familiar yet mysterious figure of the black-robed Master of Masters had emerged and clapped himself against the door, breathing heavily. On his head, a stark contrast in terms of color, was the happy-go-lucky pink puff, Kirby. “Yike-aroonies!” the keyblade wielder wheezed, “Little too hot in there to handle, eh, Kirbs?” He looked up, prompting his passenger to smile obliviously. “Aww, isn't he just the cutest darned thing?” the Master of Masters crooned, looking over at the nearest girl for confirmation. Somehow, he then seemed to notice they were there. “Oh hey, kids! What's up? I was wondering where you went.” His obscured face hid the curious look he gave to Linkle, but his wince at the state of her new ears could be far more easily discerned. “Oooh...hey, let me give you a hand with that. Heal!”

Around her blossomed a well of green energy and momentary flora. When it faded, her condition had improved considerably. Walking over, the Master of Masters peered into the moat, and spotted Junpei locked in his exercise of futility. “Huh? You're just keeping him here? Why didn't you...ohhhh, you weren't around when Kirbifer here showed how to give a heart.” He put his hands together, making a heart with his fingers. Nothing appeared in the middle. “Here's the deal: it's a matter of your heart's strength. If you're there, you'll be able to make one by doing...this!” With dramatic flair, the Master of Masters clutched at his own heart, then raised his hands high. Voice raised, he called out, “And a glorious heart will appear! Toss it on someone under the influence, and they'll snap right out of it.” He crossed his arms as something occurred to him. “Or, if neither of you are there, I could try unsealing him with my keyblade...” For a moment, his exuberant voice turned dubious. As much as he wanted to free Minako's friend, the energy it might take from him could have disastrous consequences. That could happen again. The Master of Masters shuddered, and gave a shrug. “Er, I could freeze him for you while you heart him. The ol' castin' hand ain't what it used to be, but I'm sure I could hold him for a few seconds in the water. You get me?”

Side by side Ratchet and Courier 6 stood behind Tora and Poppi, protected by the pair’s barrier as the spirits of their fallen comrades took on new form. For the Courier, he had to swing his Ratslayer back over his shoulder to make room for the larger weapon being made manifest in his hands. From what little he knew of Gaige before her untimely demise he had expected a robot, or something high-tech that could interface with robotics, or electric maybe. It was almost disappointing when her reshaped spirit manifested instead as an assault rifle. Sure, it was a very pretty assault rifle with some strange glowing green bits, and he loved guns, but he couldn’t help but feel like his expectations were betrayed. Of course this sentiment made absolutely no sense seeing as how he exchanged maybe three sentences with the teenager, but he wasn’t the type to subscribe to logic. Still, pleased at his new weapon, he took advantage of his relative safety to inspect it.

Meanwhile, Ratchet was undergoing a transformation as the spirit of Zer0 bonded with his heart. The power flowed through his body, changing him, altering him. The relatively short lombox grew taller by a wide margin, his five foot height stretching out to a very impressive six foot eight and a half inches. His wiry frame didn’t change at all, giving him more of a bean pole build, while his commando outfit altered in color to more closely resemble Zer0’s assassination armor. Though he couldn’t see the change, his eyes also turned red, which might be unnerving to some. As soon as the transformation completed, Ratchet rolled his shoulders as if to roll out the kinks.

”Wow, that was different. Hey, I can reach the top shelf now!” To emphasize his point, Ratchet stuck his hand straight up. His new reach was indeed impressive.

“This is a most fascinating development,” Clank said, temporarily manifesting on his back. While Ratchet had a growth spurt, Clank did not and so the duo’s pairing looked a bit off. “By my estimation, combining with another spirit contains an exceptional likelyhood of altering your mental and emotional parameters as well. Do you feel any different, Ratchet?”

The omniwrench clanged a bit on the stone floor as Ratchet tested out his new reach, swinging his trusted weapon about. ”Nope, nothing. I feel just like I always have, little buddy!”

Clank pondered for a moment, holding onto his mechanical chin. “This turn of events is unusual. If you do not want to lose too much of who you are, I would not suggest making a habit of this, Ratchet.”

”Yeah yeah, I hear ya, buddy,” the lombox said, pointing his wrench in the direction of the enemy Bowser, who was now hiding behind his throne. Clank dissipated just as Ratchet spoke again. ”I think it’s time to try out this new power I feel.”

Ratchet vanished from sight, leaving behind a holographic decoy of himself which made a mad dash for MegaDragonBowser, swinging its fake wrench around like a berserker. This left the real Ratchet to sneak about the throne room undetected. He knew it was dangerous, but Ratchet wanted to get behind the throne, behind the evil Bowser. There was a chance he could be useful in a sneak attack, but moreso he wanted to investigate the environment for anything they could make use of.

Meanwhile, the Courier had finished inspecting his new weapon. Of the assault rifle family, it seemed to be a machine gun. Moreover, the magazine this baby had was utterly absurd, looking to hold somewhere from eighty to over a hundred rounds! Unlike his revolver or his shotgun, this thing definitely wasn’t going to need to be reloaded anytime soon. Which led to another problem of the ammunition, because he sure as hell wasn’t carrying any machine gun rounds on him. Sure, he could make them with supplies, but at the moment if he ran out, he ran out, which meant it had to be used sparingly until this whole mess was over with. Further, as far as he could tell the glowing green bits served a functional purpose. As rounds traversed from magazine to chamber to muzzle, they were bathed in this green light… But for what purpose he couldn’t tell. Well, no better time than the present to find out, right?

The Courier took aim, glad that he wasn’t anywhere near the path of that flying throne, and released a quick volley of shots toward the evil Bowser’s chest. The fire rate was impressive, as was the recoil, but not as impressive as what happened when the bullets made contact with the enemy who had so foolishly (and literally) thrown away his cover. The bullets burst into a caustic green acid, beginning to erode away the tough scales and thick shell where they struck. Six’s eyes widened in surprise, then slowly narrowed in joy. A grin crept across his face in what could only be described as sadistic pleasure.

”YEEHAW! I’LL EAT AWAY THAT ARMOR YOU BRAHMIN TURD!” Instantly any thoughts he had of conserving ammo were gone as he took to a more suppressive fire strategy. The bullets fired out six per second for several seconds, growing more and more inaccurate as he held down the trigger. But it’s not like accuracy was that big a deal when the target was the size of a small house, right? Before he knew it, the Courier had chewed through about 36 rounds of his magazine before deciding enough was enough… For the moment.

---

Even through his earplugs, Michael could hear the report of his rifle as it fired three of the mysteriously enhanced rounds towards Megadragonbowser. Franklin had put both his hands over his ears, a grimace on his face as the vibration from the rounds shook him. When he lowered his rifle, smoke poured out the barrel, and the muzzle brake had turned a bright orange from the heat. "Holy shit..." Michael said, holding the rifle at his side as he looked up at his handiwork. The rounds had exploded on impact, tearing apart the creature's chest in a shower of fiery blood. Megadragonbowser, usually boastful, could only let out a groan of pain as he fell on all fours.

A small purple dragon, something that Michael vaguely remembered seeing in one of the cages, took its chance, rushing forward to attack, along with a few others. Franklin raised his pistol, getting a few shots off on the wounded enemy before the gun's slide shot back. "Aw, shit...I don't have a lot of ammo on me, Mike." He said, putting the empty magazine in his pocket and drawing a fresh one.

"Try to conserve it, if you can. We'll find you something better soon." Michael replied, raising his rifle up, the muzzle brake having cooled to a mild red color instead of a bright orange. He grimaced as he felt the heat radiating off it, but pushed it aside for now. While in normal situations, he wouldn't have to put his rifle through this much abuse, this was no normal situation. He tried to line up a shot as Megadragonbowser took off, but to his annoyance, he could feel his Bullet Time had been exhausted by the constant fighting. Before he could get a shot off, Bowser had flew behind his throne, using it for cover. He's hiding. Bastard knows we've got the advantage now.

Michael kept his scope on the throne, attempting to catch Megadragonbowser as he peeked from his cover. Suddenly, the beast grabbed the throne, and tore it from the ground, throwing it down the hall. "Oh, shit!" Both Michael and Franklin stopped what they were doing to watch the throne, unable to do anything to stop it. While they were out of the projectile's range, their allies would either have to move fast, or do something to change its direction.

When he turned back towards his enemy, Michael grinned as he realized the doppelganger's mistake. While throwing the throne at his enemies might potentially crush a few of them, he had, in the process, deprived himself of cover. He raised his rifle, settling his crosshairs on the creature's now-exposed chest. Holding his breath, he steadied his aim and fired, sending another (sadly not explosive) round downrange, intent on punishing Megadragonbowser for his potentially fatal mistake.

Din, being distraught over the death of Zer0 and Gauge wasn't in the best of states. Having been damaged, she limped her way to Blazermate in a shellshocked state. Seeing this, Blazermate started to heal her and applied a cleanse to try to snap her out of her state, saying. "Sorry ma'am. I can't fix dead. Especially when their power has already been taken. Best focus on keeping those who aren't dead alive."

As more and more of Blazermate's allies join the fight, MegaDragonBowser sure wasn't looking so great. While Blazermate still couldn't actually scan the brute due to his annoying aura, it was clear for everyone to see the big gaping hole in his chest was a weak point, including MegaDragonBowser who, after the bullets from the Courier and Michael, and the attacks form Tora, decided to go and hide behind his thrown. Although he wasn't too bright, and let his anger get the better of him, using his cover as a projectile.

Blazermate really couldn't do all that much to stop such a big projectile but heal one of the people the projectile was heading towards. Hopefully it wouldn't squish them flat and she could heal them up to full, but it was a tossup either way.

---

"I got it!"
"Pttttph! M-Mina-ko, wa-wa-wa-"

Junpei was driver to stop them from going into the castle. His programming begged him to swim ashore, to stop those two, kill them if necessary, anything to stop them from getting across to the bridge. Under normal circumstances, he might be able to complete his directive, but given where he was...
Oomf!
Skidding across the water from a kick to the gut from Thanatos, the driven Junpei was forced back to the middle of the moat. Though summoning her Persona typically was an exhausting experience, Minako's attack (if it could be called that) wasn't actually strong enough to cause the drain debuff to take effect and cause any noticeable self-harm. She had noticed it when Thanatos kicked him away earlier, that her body felt mostly fine despite doing something that would normally hurt. It came from the fact she wasn't actually straining her Persona with a proper attack, just ordering it to kick with whatever energy it required. Though she couldn't piece together why she wasn't feeling the strain of battle herself, it made keeping him at bay a heck of a lot more easy, so Minako shrugged it off as something to think about at a later date.

Sinking below the water, Junpei takes a moment to recover his stamina, the only thing that actually seems to be taking any sort of damage, yet even so, his 3x strength makes this drain negligible at best, leaving him always ready for more. Between Minako's Persona and Linkle's Bwah Blaster, the duo fend off the possessed Jun with ease, locking him into a constant state of swimming, crawling, flying, and sinking. Rinse and repeat.

The Master of Master's, along with Kirby, appeared at the front of the castle, taking a break from whatever it was that was going on inside. They seemed mostly OK though, which was a big relief, although she couldn't help but get a little jealous not being healed as Linkle had done. True, Minako was aware she wasn't hurt physically, but by god if she wasn't tired. At least the MoM offered helped with the old motivation.
His whole explanation of how to make a heart seal seemed silly, but not unfamiliar. Similar to how Tora himself had done it, it was a matter of making a heart with your hands and raising it up above your head. With Junpei only just surfacing to swim over, Minako decided to give it a try. It felt like doing those poses in the photo booths of Iwatodai, only it didn't take pictures of you so your embarrassment can never resurface or be traced. "Seems easy enough... Like this?"

Putting her hands to her heart, Minako thought of her past, of her friends. She thought of Junpei, all the happy memories the two of them shared, the laughs, the smiles, the tears. Even the unhappy memories, they filled her heart, creating a vibrant, beautiful pink energy, the strength of which almost at the same level of power as Kirby. As instructed, she raised her arms above her head, creating a beautiful, perfect pink heart, glimmering with power.
... Only for the heart to fracture and explode within moments.
It was strange. The heart went... grey. Like it had become infected by something. Stunned, Minako decided to try another heart, this one just as strong as the previous, yet the outcome even worse. It cracked above her head, shattering into glass, taking on a black and pink hue that felt... broken. One more time, it has to work!

The third heart seemed to... overflow, almost, like the energy inside was too strong, exploding once more into deep crimson dust. Minako didn't understand it at all. It felt right, but whenever that last part came up, she increasingly doubtful. Even committing to her resolve as much as possible didn't help - it just... broke.
She looked to Kirby and MoM with a confused look on her face. "Something tells me I can't do the thing..." Curiously, Minako looked to her friend, Linkle, in case she was capable of producing the fantastical friend heart. Meanwhile, Junpei was getting close to shore, but there was more than enough time to react to him.

---

@Lugubrious@Gentlemanvaultboy

Bowser took advantage of his allies following following up his attack to recuperate, a claw grasping his punched jaw to shoogle it side to side, setting it back in place with a few painful sounding cracks. After a few practice chews he got out the super mushroom from his jacket pocket and shoved it into his gob, chowing down on his nemesis's favorite snack to try and get an edge against his double. The moment the shroom hit his stomach the effect took hold and bowser increased in size by 50%.



“AHAHAHA” the now even more massive bowser laughed before flexing “NOW THIS IS MORE LIKE IT. WHO’S THE BIGGEST BADDEST BOWSER IN THE ROOM?” He asked rhetorically before ending his bout of showing off just in time to react to the flying furniture. His hand snapped out and grabbed the flying throne with an oversized claw, halting its killer momentum just in the nick of time.

“WHO’S A BUG NOW PIPSQUEAK!” He taunted Megadragonbowser while brandishing his newly acquired throne like like a liontamer, its for feet acting like four prongs of a spear. He stomped forwards as his allies unloaded their guns at the dethroned tyrant king and then stabbed forwards with the golden weapon, aiming to smash Megadragonbowser into the wall and pin him there.

“HERE, YOU DROPPED THIS!”

Spyro blazed towards the boss at break-neck speed, taking the opportunity to issue a crippling blow towards his wings. However, he would be swiped away by a blow of his clawed hand, knocking him back against a pillar. If it had been issued more precise, the blow could've easily killed the poor dragon - but alas he was still conscious. He was shaken and out of breath, but alive nonetheless. He uttered a grunt of pain before he struggled to get back on his clawed feet. He'll need a minute to recuperate before he can attempt to rejoin the battle at hand.

Geno was relieved that his companion only suffered minor injuries, but he still believed that his plan of rushing in head-first was a foolish maneuver. While he would normally comfort Spyro, he had to concentrate on the boss. He continued to keep his distance and still pelted the flying Bowser from afar using his Borealis ability before the boss leapt behind his throne to use for cover.

And all the while, Mario was still waiting for a chance to deal some major damage to Megadragonbowser. Yet before he could do anything else, he heard an all too familiar sound. Someone had eaten a Super Mushroom. And when the plumber turned around, he could see their Bowser towering over the battlefield as it laughed in the face of his doppelgänger as he tossed aside a piece of the tyrant's throne. Mario then recalled that he too had a Super Mushroom in his possession and proceeded to hastily consume it.

That's when he too found himself increasing his size by 50%, and found himself on equal footing with their Koopa King. He looked down at the now smaller boss and issued a cocky smirk of confidence.

"IT'S-A-GO TIME!" the enlarged plumber yelled as he stomped his way towards the boss.

Once he got close, he proceeded to issue a giant-sized fireball towards Megadragonbowser, hoping that it would hit its mark.

@Delta44@Lugubrious

---

It didn't take long for Linkle to get bored of this situation. She tried to be upbeat about this, but it just didn't feel right. She remembered, back when she was younger, her grandmother had knitted her a wonderful green hat and she'd worn it proudly around the village until two of the older boys had snatched it off her head and tossed it back and forth to one another as she ran around trying to get it back. Crying. This was reminding her an awful lot of that. Sure Junpei was still doing his level best to kill them, but she felt bad for him.

She tried to take her mind off it, and how embarrassed she was going to be when everyone came back out of that castle to see them doing this, but there really wasn't much to do. She tried counting the aches in her body from that solid hit. She got a good look at herself in the the moat, touching her new ears in surprise and unsuccessfully trying to wash the red streaks that had flowed out of them due to their clipping from her hair with the cool water. She even tried to come up with a new idea, maybe a way to handle this where the three of them still came out looking kind of cool, but before she could figure something out the Master appeared.

It wasn't the worst thing that could have walked out of there, but she still felt her face redden as he announced how he'd been wondering where they gotten off to, and all she could do was sheepishly point to Junpei and look away. Linkle still breathed a sigh of relief as the green energy called up by the Master, like the essence of Farore herself, finished what Minako had started. She watched in the reflection of the water as a pair of white blobs, limp like dead fish and seemingly caught in the updraft of the green energy, where lifted up from the inside of her hood and delicately attached themselves to the plateaus of her new ears. There was a flash along the place they joined and suddenly they were complete again. She bounced a few times, just to make sure everything was in working order again, and smiled as she watched them bob up and down. All right, she was ready for round two!

Before they could get to that, though, the Master had another revelation to give them. Apparently when they'd been away Kirby had taught everyone a new trick. That made sense. Tora using it had just felt so natural she hadn't questioned it, especially with that big dragon Bowser around to occupy her thoughts. She watched, grinning with anticipation, as Minako tried it out. The grin only turned to a grown as the hearts she made cracked, shattered, and exploded one after another. She turned back to the Master who was getting ready to jump in himself, but held up her hands. "Don't trouble yourself, Master. If I've got nothing else it's a stalwart heart." She nodded, mostly to herself, and clenched her hands into fists before shouting, "Leader, hold on, I'll be right over!" to the opposite bank and taking off at a dead sprint across the bridge.

When she approached Minako Junpei was nearly to the shoreline. She skidded to a stop in front of her, looking down at him struggling in the water. Then she brought her hands up the middle of her chest, her fingers just barely brushing against her keepsake compass, and concentrated. She tried to think of hearts, picture hearts, feel hearts, but nothing was happening as she tried to force it out. This was harder than it looked. Normally it was the other way around. Then, as she concentrated, her mind drifted back to that old hat. There was a glow, a glow that at first looked like it was coming from the compass itself, and out from her chest materialized a glowing, crystal pink heart that she lifted proudly above her head. "Da da da daaaaaa!" she called to herself, just like when she was a kid playing hero games.

She regarded it curiously. She wondered if she could use this to heal people? Before she could get to far down that line of thought Junpei reached the shoreline. She smiled down at him, taking the heart in her hands. "Told ya we'd save you!" she shouted, then wound back and pitched the thing right at his face.

@Archmage MC

Din felt the soothing effect of Blazermate's healing beam fix up her arm, but the robot's words did little to comfort her. Still the thought of death claiming her other allies steeled her to persevere. Looking around, it seemed as if her allies were managing their individual health well enough on their own, so the priority was downing the major threat of Megadragonbowser. Din was unsure how she could add to the damage that was already being done to the titanic beast. But as Oracle of Seasons, she had some understanding of how temperature affected matter, and considering that the creature's blood consisted of what resembled molten earth, Din wondered if rapidly cooling the exposed magma might have some sort of catastrophic effect. At worst it would solidify the blood that had pooled at his feet, perhaps petrifying him to the ground, at best it would fill the inside of his belly with rocks, which seemed a pretty gruesome thought. At any rate, Din stepped out from hiding and launched several balls of the Spell of Winter in Megadragonbowser's direction.

After getting knocked out of the way of the beastly Bowser’s earlier attack Henry decided it would be best to sit and wait. Even someone as messed up as him could see the variety of unfamiliar weapons and fighting tactics and continuing to fight with no knowledge might be just a bit too dangerous. Even if it was quite boring.

Though it proved fruitful as the curious mage got a perfect view of the weapons held by his allies. The ones that interested him most were the strange contraptions held by people like Michael or the Courier. Small, quick and a lot of firepower. So many cool things, he’d have to ask about it later after figuring out whatever was going on. While distracted and watching the others, two people of the group were brutally massacred. Despite being upset or disgusted Henry was more intrigued than anything, it’d been awhile since he’d seen a death as brutal as Zer0’s other than one of his own kills.

In awe of the newly encountered weapons all around, Henry almost hadn’t noticed a flying piece of furniture careening his direction until it was stopped by a giant bowser. “Thanks big guy! I owe ya one!” He called out to the giant turtle with a happy wave. “For trying to kill me like that, you’re in for a HEX of a death my friend.” Henry joked with a deranged chuckle as he turned his attention to the opponent. Pulling out a new tome that he never even realized he had, the dark mage waved his hand as he cast his new spell. “Nosferatu!” As the magic was cast a black miasma flowed from Henry and weaved its way over to Megadragonbowser before settling around him. As the creature stayed in the dark cloud of fog would slowly sap away at his health as it transferred the life force over to the caster who was already starting to heal from his injuries.

As expected, the heroic troupe wouldn't be able to keep the king on his back, and not for lack of trying. Virtually every available ally present relentlessly pummelled and peppered the downed tyrant for as long as his predicament and temperament would allow, which wouldn’t give them long. After a moment of uninterrupted punishment, the doppelganger decided he had enough and explosively unfurled his burning wings, propelling himself back upright and forcing his attackers off and away from him. Luckily for her, Hat Kid was already positioned far enough outside of the blast radius to not get caught in the fires, but was still thrown from her feet and back towards the broken entryway from the force. She managed to right herself onto three points as she slid to a stop, picking her head back up to look upon the rapidly redeveloping scene. The usurper beckoned them forth to their deaths; few answered--some to his satisfaction. What the child witnessed next was, if she was being honest, horrifying.

The pet killing machine: scrapped; it’s teenage master: pulverized; her friend, the assassin: bisected. All so suddenly--in spite of their best efforts--they met brutal, violent ends. Kid’s eyes went wide and her mouth agape with shock and the sudden and gruesome turn of events that she just bore witness to, powerless to do anything about it. It was then that it truly started to set in for her just how grave, perilous, and unforgiving this new undertaking that she inadvertently found herself a part of was. Less than half an hour she had been in this world, and already, she saw to comrades die in vain for a common cause that she wasn’t even aware of yet. She never even got the chance to properly meet them, which did precious little (none good) to make any of it any easier to watch. For the time being, however, whatever her thoughts or feelings on the matter, she would have to harden herself to it. The cowboy and commando, having reclaimed and assimilated what looked to be the life essences of the now deceased, seemed content to do as much, so she would do the same.

Then, it occurred to her that between the commando’s retrieval and the assassin’s assassination attempt, this made twice in under a minute MegaDragonBowser had been snuck around. This meant that there were places where he wasn’t looking; places where SHE wasn’t looking. If the onyx supports in the room made for an obvious solution, perhaps there was a less obvious one elsewhere. Her train of thought was momentarily interrupted as she braced herself a second too late for the shallow tide of tile that threatened to roll over them, only to be saved yet again by the wing-eared-armed(?) shield warrior when he somehow, to her amazement, managed to divide the earthen wave around everyone behind him. Luckily, that included her. With a moment bought back, the child resumed her musings. With her eyes closed and fingertips to her temples, she bore the appearance of one trying to think in a hurry, which she was in fact doing, but also, she was checking her hat to see if it could find something, ANYTHING nearby that could be of use. Whether it be at the back of the room, along the sides, at the top, directly outside of it, or wherever else, she was all but certain that there had to be a better answer somewhere...

Then, as if arriving at an epiphany, her hat picked something up. An imaginary waypoint directed her to an objective that lay out of the battle, at a door on one side of the throne room that lead -judging by a nearby cylindrical bulge in the wall- to a spiral staircase leading upward. She spared not a moment more of hesitation as she beelined for the stairwell, taking advantage of the ongoing chaos to stealth her way to the other side of the room. In the unlikely event that any of her allies notice her leaving, she hoped they would understand that she wasn't abandoning them, but simply trying to find a better way. After all, she wasn't much good to them in the fight as she was. Whatever it was she expected to find that would somehow help, she would hustle her way up to find out in a hurry so she could return in time to aid the others.

Eager to watch his foes go squish, Megadragonbowser watched his throne fly with bated breath. However, his breath caught in his throat as it was caught midair, not just by the real Bowser, but by a giant real Bowser. He must have used a super mushroom. Growling, he turned ahead once again to make himself feel better by scorching the incoming heroes alive, but they proved far more proactive in their assault.

When he let out his fireball at a strangely-elongated Ratchet, the Lombax vanished in the explosion. Megadragonbowser chuckled as he wiped one more off the ol' mental list, only to go slack-jawed in surprise when the fire subsided and Ratchet stood there still, swinging his wrench around until he vanished with an electronic static. By that time, the real Ratchet and his partner made their way around to the backside of the throne's plinth, below and a little behind where the tyrant hovered. There, the pair discovered an axe-shaped lever next to a crudely-drawn pictrograph depicting the ground in front of the throne opening up into a lava pit. Considering the position of his allies, pulling the lever might not be the greatest idea, but breaking it off to use it as an axe could work.

Megadragonbowser did not catch wind of Ratchet's activities, his attention instead occupied by the sudden burning feeling hammering his chest. An unprecedented roar shook the castle as the painful acid melted armor and seared scaly flesh, sputtering and bubbling all the while. A second later, Michael's last sniper round hit home, blasting straight through his chest and lodging in his shell on the wrong side. Fiery ichor poured from the wound, and the shock caused the tyrant's wings to seize up. He landed with a crash on the plinth where his throne stood moments before, where the dark haze of Henry’s Nosferatu surrounded him and leeched his health into its caster, leaving him totally unprepared for Mario and Bowser's charge.

A huge fireball exploded in the boss's ruined face, blinding him to the threat that followed. A moment later the four legs of the throne impaled the tyrant, and the larger of the koopas pushed him back into the wall behind him, nearly trampling Ratchet on the way. Even if the throne legs could have penetrated the shell on Megadragonbowser's back, they were not long enough to do so; nevertheless, the real Bowser held him there until the heat inside the tyrant melted the legs and dropped him to the ground. Megadragonbowser landed feet-first, but his feet did not hold him; instead, he slumped forward and landed on his belly on the black-and-white tile. His bright orange ichor pooled around him, and his burning wings turned to ash.

He cracked open his mouth, but rather than cinders all that issued forth was a groan. ”Ohhhhh.....”. Somehow, his shell seemed to be burning up. His very body smoked, in fact, suggesting that it was burning away. Feebly, yet with some sense of urgency, the stupid overlord clutched at Bowser's foot. ”You...” he moaned. ”You...want this. I know it...'cause I'm you. Kingdom...power...fear...respect...loving wife and son...old rivals ruined, destroyed...” His gruesome features, twisted by so much punishment, manifested a ghastly smile. ”Fuse...with me. Take my...my spirit. It can all be yours...only yours...everything...as it should be...” He cracked his mouth open wider, and from between his fangs drifted a tiny mote. It was small, but it burned brilliantly. Purest, deepest, most wonderful orange...tantalizing in its incredible power. Megadragonbowser's body was burning away, but his pleading eyes locked with his other self's. The Koopa King had a choice to make.

Bowser reached down and took the sprite in one hand. He raised it up before him, the seductive flame reflected in his eyes as he beheld its power. He glanced between it and the rapidly fading form of his double. It seemed like they really had been him in the end, not some doppelganger or mimic. It was a sorry thing, watching yourself die while pleading that someone continue your legacy, and Bowser was definitely one of self pity.

“FINE. BUT THIS TIME WE TAKE... WE EARN THOSE THINGS.”

A look came over the fallen tyrant’s face, one masked partially by the state of his features but otherwise very poorly disguised. It was one of unbridled, malicious glee. ”Put my spirit...into your heart,” he instructed, his mirth diluting his pain. Even if it did cost him the fight, the typical Bowser stupidity would be the real one’s undoing. In a few moments, the reign of the blazing tyrant would begin anew, rising from the ashes of the old. His flames would consume this oaf’s spirit, twisting it into a mirror image of his own. With his burning power plus the strength of this new Bowser, the so-called heroes would be crushed like gnats and his rightful kingdom restored.

“I KNOW HOW THIS WORKS” Bowser responded, his enrapturement with the sprite’s power blinding him to the poorly veiled deception. He moved to absorb the sprite.

“Bowsypon, noooooooooo…!” Tora cried as he rocketed upward toward the very tall Koopa’s head, carried by Poppi. The pair was aiming for the burning spirit in Bowser’s hand, but their terrible aim and slapdash flight mechanism carried them into their comrade’s head instead. A noise rang through the throne room, bi-doop-doop-doop, as Bowser shrank back to normal size, distracted from his fixation by the impact and sent off-balance. Tora plopped down flat on his face beside him, and Poppi landed on him a second later. The Nopon both cushioned her fall and bounced her back to her feet, but she didn’t have time to worry about her masterpon.

“OW. HAY WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA YOU OVERSIZED GERBIL!” Bowser complained while rubbing his bonked noggin.

As he wiggled around on the floor, Poppi straightened up, put a hand on her hip, and extended an accusatory index finger at Bowser with the other. Eyebrows furrowed, she declared, “Stop right there, biggypon! Has Bowser never heard famous idiom ‘power corrupts’? Not see very evil-looking grin on boss face? Is most obvious of obvious traps! Do not absorb!”

“POWER CORRUPTS? CORRUPT ME? GAHAHAHAHAHA.” Bowser slapped his knee and let out a raucous belly laugh at the very notion “CAN’T CORRUPT WHAT'S ALREADY AS EVIL AS CAN BE LITTLE MISSY. ALSO OF COURSE I’M SMILING EVILLY. HOW ELSE IS A VILLAIN SUPPOSED TO SMILE WHEN THERE ABOUT TO BE A PART OF THE GREATEST TEAM UP OF ALL TIME? WE’LL BE SUPER... MEGA... ULTRA DOUBLE DRAGON BOWSER AND IT WILL BE AWESOME!” Bowser retorted, flaunting the orange soul spark around as he did so.

Poppi shook her head emphatically. “While Poppi has only been with Bowser for short time, is easy to see that is not really evil, just sort of mean and loud.” Her finger turned on Megadragonbowser, who looked awfully frustrated all of a sudden. “But that one real evil. He kill good people just like that!” She snapped her metal fingers. Ting.

Beside her, Tora finally got to his feet and piped up, “Think about what big baddy do! Subjects enslaved and forced to fight to death. Wife and son probably only obey because of Galeem trance! Nothing earned, all taken. But Bow-Bow can do better! Can earn respect of others by being good bad guy.” He waved his wings imploringly. “Then everyone happy to have Bowser king, no need for evil power!”

Nearby, Megadragonbowser groaned. While his enemies bickered, he was wasting away. He reached out a feeble claw, but nobody seemed to notice. Fists against her waist, Poppi nodded solemnly to what her Masterpon said. “Plus, if Bow-Bow fuse with spirit, probably go crazy and attack us. Would have to fight, maybe destroy. But Bow-Bow not so weak he need power of Galeem to be king, right?”

Bowser crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes as he stared down the pair “OK ONE:” The fingers on bowser’s free hand counted out his points as he talked “I AM TOTALLY EVIL. I’VE BEEN A BAD GUY SINCE BEFORE YOU WERE EVEN BORN. OR BUILT.”

“TWO: YEAH OBVIOUSLY I’M GOING TO DO ALL THIS THE RIGHT WAY BECAUSE I’M NOT GALEEM’S DRUNK PUPPET LIKE THIS SCHMUCK DIEING ON THE FLOOR.”

“THREE: AND HERE IS THE KICKER. WHAT’S SO DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS ONE HUH? EVERYONE ELSE GOES AROUND STUFFING SPRITES IN THEMSELVES ALL WILLY NILLY AND YOU DON’T PIPE UP BUT AS SOON AS I GET A HOLD OF THE STRONGEST ONE WE’VE SEEN IT’S ALL ‘OH NOOO BOWSER, NON-PON DO THAT’ HERO MORALISING JUNK.”

“DON’T GO THINKING I DON’T SEE WHAT’S GOING ON HERE” Bowser said “I THINK YOU’RE JUST JEALOUS OF MY AWESOMENESS AND YOU WANT SOME OF IT FOR YOURSELF.” Bowser pinched the soul between his fingers and dangled it tauntingly just above and out of reach of the pair. “YOU WANT SOME OF THIS HUH? DO YA? WELL TOO BAD. IT’S MINE!”

A look of consternation took Tora’s face over--Bowser had hit the nail on the head. The Nopon’s partner, however, kept trying. “Wrong again! Poppi have plenty awesomeness, but now not time for that. Think with logic, Bow-Bow. Why would person who wanted kill you suddenly go and offer great power? Is all one big trick!” She fired her thrusters and hopped up to try and get at the boss spirit.

“WELL. UH. BECAUSE I WON AND PROVED I’M THE ONE TRUE KOOPA KING!” Bowser said as he pulled the sprite up and away from Poppi “SO I DESERVE THIS AND HE KNOWS IT.”

After corrected her course, Poppi made another futile grab at the spirit before she slowed down to hover. Frowning, she declared, “Despite age, Bow-Bow mindset very simple.”

Tora scratched his head. “That ironic coming from Poppi, but very true.”

Meanwhile, Megadragonbowser had been looking between the three in utter bewilderment, like a cat at a game of ping-pong. The argument was dragging on and on, with no end in sight, and finally the tyrant could take it no more. He unceremoniously gave up the ghost, slumping down and burning out. In only a few seconds the ruthless king was a pile of ash, upon which all eyes fell. Blinking twice, Tora asked, “Is over? Just like that?”

His question seemed to prompt a response. From the pile issued a great sigh that reverberated the air, and on its heels followed a wave of gentle darkness. It washed over Peach’s castle, putting out Galeem’s light wherever it shone.

The toads in the entry-way ceased their panic, eyes restored to normal. In her magnificent, immoderately-fancy bedroom on the second floor, Peach perked up from her sewing kit as though waking up from a dream. Bowser Jr. looked up from his toys in his great playroom, wondering where he was. Kamek, just now finishing off the last fire in his underground study, shook his head to clear his muddled thoughts and stared in wonderment as the burnt, useless artifacts littering his lab. Back in the throne room, the wave buffeted Bowser, Tora, Poppi, and the nearby Ratchet and Clank, not knocking them over but sending the spirit of Megadragonbowser skittering along the ground toward the rest of the group. Though mesmerizing in its power still, the spirit bore far less malevolence than it had when in Bowser’s grasp. To keep it out of the Koopa’s greedy hands, someone else would need to take care of it. Regardless, the battle with the incandescent tyrant had come to an end.





EXP gain is restored to normal.

Level 3 Tora: 40/30 EXP - Level up! Upgrade Points: 2
Level 2 Poppi: 20/20 EXP - Level up! Upgrade Points: 1

Zone Cleared:
Peach’s Castle


After a few moments, the clattering of heeled footsteps could be heard from one of the doorways adjacent to the throne room, leading to a stairwell. It grew louder and louder until the door burst open, and into the decimated throne room stepped the former monarch of the mushroom kingdom herself: Princess Peach. She cut a regal figure in her gown, but her face bore nothing but sadness. Yet, as her bright blue eyes swept over the scene, hope blossomed within them. She recognized that the Bowser still standing was not the one who lorded over her, and that the tyrant was no more.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened wide her eyes, and mustered a beautiful smile. “I can hardly express my gratitude. Even as I existed under the thumb of that monster, unable to object or disobey, I continued to believe that heroes would come. And here you are. Thank you.” She didn’t know about the fallen, yet tears sparkled in the corners of her eyes. She wiped them away and continued to smile. “Well then!” She clapped her hands. “You all must be hurt and exhausted. And hungry, I imagine. If everyone in this castle was freed along with me, then we’re well-equipped to cook up a grand feast worthy of heroes.” Without delay Peach began in the direction of the kitchen; she clearly intended to thank the heroes herself. Toads appeared, running into the room to crowd around their princess. A few stuck around her, babbling incoherently, but a number spread out to cheer for their saviors. In a couple moments their exultation filled the hall.

As Peach and her crowd disappeared into the kitchens, the wreckage of the throne room main doors pushed open to reveal the Master of Masters, Kirby, Linkle, Minako, and a freed Junpei. The cloaked man took in the whole scene at a glance and started to applaud. Kirby jumped from his head and started to dance, not quite as aware but even more overjoyed. “Bravo, bravo!” The Master of Masters declared. “That’s one boss down. Twelve more, and you can stick it to Galeem!” He took count of everyone here--and everyone not. A touch of sadness entered his voice. “Oh. I see. I figured that was why my eye never sees that girl, or why Zer0 doesn’t show up in the future. My sympathies.”

He sighed and let a few seconds pass, before composing himself again. “But hey, for us, life goes on. You bunch have more than earned some time to relax. Have some food, chat, explore, whatever you like. We’ll figure things out later, eh?”