[center][img]https://www.mariowiki.com/images/thumb/b/b2/Koopa_Troop_artwork.png/658px-Koopa_Troop_artwork.png[/img]
[h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2]
[b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 2,217 (+4)
[b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 9 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (141/90)
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 8 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]//////////////// (66/80)
[b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 8 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]//////////////// (63/80)
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Bottomless Sea – the Maw - the Depths
Feat: Rika
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Jr sprinted through the water as quietly as he could, rushing to fetch the fan he had forgotten which would allow his escape. As he rushed Kamek could only grip a railing of his catwalk that hung high above the ones the fish monster could reach, and watch the boy legged it, his second attempt at distracting their foe a failure. Once he was sure that the prince was about to be chased, he darted his eyes over to where Ace’s flight had ended with a crash from which he still had not arisen. 

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Come on. Get up”[/color] he whispered under his breath, as if he could will the hunter back to his feet.

Others were descending too now, most having passed the koopa right by with their nimble ape/robot legs, and it was to their collective relife when Ace sat himself up after far too long a moment of stillness. One of those people was Blazermate, who suggested to him that she could offer to heal the sick fishy foe as part of a bargain

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”I appreciate the offer, but I am afraid the time for talk seems to be over. You’d be better off helping the Cadet, I believe.”[/color] Kamek replied (His second attempt to reach their enemy had sadly fallen on deaf ears) and then suggested, pointing over at the hunter, anticipating that he might not be in the best of shape. 

After speaking with her, he turned his eyes back to the action and saw two things. First, Jr had reappeared. The prince had spent the breathless moment the others had spent fearing for Ace’s life to sprint back to flow control, rip open the sub, dig around its insides to find the fan (it had become lodged under the chair), and then raced back to Nadia, all of this done in the time it had taken for her to have and recover from a the gripping jaws of despair.

[color=SpringGreen]”Made it,”[/color] he gasped between labored breaths, the rush through the the still rather deep for a child water having taken more out of him than he had expected and, like the rest, he was well past the point of running on empty by this point. It was well past time he, and they, got out of here. Maybe, just maybe, he hoped, the hunger was only a thing on this particular floor and their leaving would end it just as their arrival seemed to have begun it.

He set up the fan on a patch of junk sticking out of the water and then, with a leap into its currents, launched himself up to Nadia’s side, claws catching the metal and hauling himself up without risking pulling them both down into the watery pit below. Home free, he turned and then used cable he’d retrieved front he junk piles to haul the fan back up to him. He then untied it and handed the fan back to its owner.

He gave a thumbs up to communicate his thanks rather than strain his tired throat any more than necessary. He wanted to get moving, but instead he, Nadia (and Mimi who was as ever riding upon her trainer’s shoulder and who’s current job was carrying the winged key they’d found) where forced to hunker down and hide when Moreau charged towards their corner of the room. The big jerk’s attention has been caught by a shambling form of the diving suit that had accompanied Jr and the MULE into the depths. It had, after becoming separated from them almost immediately, apparently encountered trouble that had cost it an arm and, if it’s zombie-like state was anything to judge by, something more fundamental while wandering the murky depths.

Kamek and Jr were not in on the suit's whole situation, but even they winced as the monster found the machine and proceeded to mash it to splinters. As mockingbird’s short life came to a swift and tragic end, Jr followed Nadia’s lead and raced towards the exit as fast as his tired legs could carry him.  Rather than watch the rest of the machine’s brutalizing, Kamek looked up and worried about what was taking Bowser and Rika so long to catch up with them. What, he wondered, was keeping them when many of the others had already made their way down into the depths.

[hr]

The two members of the troop who would have cared about Mockingbird’s fate were, at that time, trying to use their two collective brain-cells worth of mechanical knowledge to operate the metal printer located in the machine room rather than doing anything that could be described as immediately useful towards the goal of escaping. With hunger gnawing at their bones the pair were all too aware of the amount of time they were potentially wasting on this, but Bowser was insistent that this needed done. 

“Are you sure this is worth the time?” Rika asked again as she watched the king dump all of the scrap he’d carried up into what they were both assuming was some kind of input port/hatch.

[color=FD0000]”Where there’s a key. There's a lock. Only an idiot would build a dungeon, and then put a puzzle in it to make a key, and then not put a lock that needs opening in it? That would be so pointless! So it's just obvious that we’re gonna need this key to get out,”[/color] Bowser said, pressing a hand down on top of the scrap pile and trying to shove/jam it all, before suddenly pulling his hand back and shaking it [color=FD0000]”gah. sharp”[/color] 

“I mean. Maybe it’s a distraction? Like the lady or Galeem just put this here to make us waste time? Make us put up with this stomach pain for longer,” she suggested almost conversationally while picking up and shoving the scissor cast (they’d decided to use it first as a test in case anything went wrong) into a slot that seemed built to accept them. 

[color=FD0000]”What no! That. No one’s that evil… just let's get this done!”[/color] he insisted, pulling a crank and bashing some buttons on the machine until it started making an encouraging amount of noise. As the two backed away, fire roared, gears grinded, metal bubbled and smoke bellowed. Then a piston lowered a lid down onto the cast, held there for a moment, and then with a hiss pulled back to reveal half of a pair of scissors made from refined metal, steam wafting off of it as it cooled.

[color=FD0000]”Haha!”[/color] Bowser cheered, moving to pick it up and then pulling the blade free and giving it a spin round his claw with zero consideration for or pain from the burning temperature of the metal.

“Huh. Well that wasn't too hard” Rika noted, prompting Bowser to nod and agree, [color=FD0000]”Yeah! Even an idiot could use this thing!”[/color] which was probably for the best all things considered. In short order they’d also printed out the key (also out of refined metal), at which point they found out that they’d somehow used all the scrap to print the two tiny objects, and weren’t going to be able to complete the scissor set as a result. They weren’t too upset about that fact however.

“I guess someone can use it as a knife?” Rika suggested as she tucked both key and scissor into a small pocket on her ripped dress that she’d just assumed it would have, unaware that she was rather lucky that it had any pockets at all.

[color=FD0000]”Something like that”[/color] Bowser said as he collected his hammer head and prepped to go [color=FD0000]”What matters is the key”[/color]

Rika nodded and moved to follow him, only to pause as her eyes fell on the porcelain doll that had been among Moreau‘s things. 

A few moments later the pair started hopping their way down the remaining platforms, moving towards the entrance, Bowser carrying the oversized hammer head under one arm while Rika did the same with the doll.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”There you are. What took you so long?”[/color] came a call up from Kamek who, despite having given up on talking to the fish a little while ago, was only a bit of the way further down from their entrance to the room and, as a result, had quite the ways left to go till he reached the elevator.

[color=FD0000]”Been printing the key. What have you been doing, you’ve barely gotten anywhere!”[/color] Bowser shouted back

The once and (hopefully) future sorcerer frowned and then pointed over the sea of platforms hanging over the first floor to where Jr was racing towards the entrance with Nadia, while the human (or at least human ish in some cases) men of the party had grouped up to make plans regarding what they were doing about the fish in the pit.

[color=FD0000]”Oh. Hey nice one”[/color]

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Oh thank you sire”[/color] Kamek called back, rather dismissively, before he kept on slowly moving his way towards the exit.

“Is he mad at you?” Rika asked as she and Bowser continued their hopping towards the entrance.

[color=FD0000]”...Yeah”[/color] Bowser admitted.

“Oh. That’s not good.” Rika replied simply before taking another hop towards the entrance.

[color=FD0000]”No. It's not...”[/color] Bowser agreed. He was quiet for a moment and then called back down to Kamek [color=FD0000]”Hey. Kamek. I’m. uh. I shouldn’t… you got any smart ideas about how to deal with fish breath down there?”[/color]
 
The koopa had gave a snort of a laugh to himself about Bowser’s solution to his inability to actually apologies in a straightforward way. Indirect praise and fuel for his ego was likely the best he was going to get out of the king, at least in the short term. It would have to do for now. There were more pressing issues to deal with at the moment after all, such as the aforementioned fishy foe.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”As matter of fact I do!”[/color] he called back, before pointing back up to the platform the pair were approaching [color=DeepSkyBlue]”There’s a canister filled with black gunk back in the entrance. Get it!”[/color] 

[color=FD0000]”Gah, do I have to carry more… I mean. On it!”[/color] Bowser grumbled and then called back down. In a few short moments the duo were back at the entrance. As Rika peaked down to make a better plan at how they were going to continue downwards, Bowser poked his head into the room with the boxes and the vent, and was met by two squeals as Tyrant and BB got spooked and broke away from where they’d been sitting and staring at the pulsing thing the black sludge had made. They bolted for the cover of the boxes, only to pause when they realized it was Bowser and then to come trotting over to him. 

[color=FD0000]”Oh. Right. You two ba-”[/color] Bowser paused before accidentally calling the pair ‘bacon bits.’ Describing minions as food was a mistake he wanted to make twice, even if they wouldn't understand him, and so he quickly adjusted the word to [color=FD0000]”-Boys.”[/color]

The king stepped into the room and then commanded the pair to [color=FD0000]”Alright, shoo, get out there, ”[/color] trying to usher the two of them out to Rika while looking around, cringing when he saw  the eyeball thing and then, finally, spotting the tank Kamek had mentioned.

A few moments later the pair of Baby Behemoths darted out of the room, followed a moment later by the saw blade cast, which sailed over the edge and plummeted down into the pit along with horrid eyeball laden passenger, and then finally they were all followed by Bowser who was hauling the hammerhead under one arm and the tank of black goop under the other. If he hadn't already had his hands full he’d have grabbed the blue magnet half which was also in there, but as it was, if it was going to leave the area with them it’d be up to one of the ladies to pick it up.

He gave a heavy sigh and, after a moment of watching Rika try and herd the two piglet sized monsters down the broken stairs after Kamek, moved to the edge and called down to him [color=FD0000]”got it! Now what?”[/color] only to get a beckoning come here gesture from his royal advisor. 

[color=FD0000]”Right right. Ok let’s get going”[/color] He told Rika

“Sure” Rika agreed, before shifting to one side to block a retreating pig and telling it “No no. Down. Go down. Yes I know it's towards the big monster but we’re going round him I promise!”

[color=FD0000]”Yeah move it piggies!”[/color] Bowser commanded with a stomp of his foot. Bowser’s added assertion did the trick, and soon enough the pair were herding the horned swine down towards Kamek and, beyond him, the exit.

The koopa himself was steadily making his way around towards the exit, using a narrow sheet of metal to make small bridges across gaps that the others had simply jumped across. In doing so he neared the gang of children currently dreaming up crazy schemes and, once close enough that he didn't need to shout, offered them this [color=DeepSkyBlue]”I didn’t catch exactly what your plan is, but if you need a distraction, his majesty is currently bringing one in a can. I can't imagine having that black goop molding itself on your body feels very good.”[/color]