Childe and Cherub
Word count: 4076 (+5)
Level: 5 - Total EXP: 241/50/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (86/140) (+1 bonus pending)
Jrâs feet crunched down into the snow a fair bit deeper than an observer would have guessed based on his size. He raised a fingertip-less gloves hand to his forehead as he looked up the tall tall mountain, hand touching the fabric of a green and orange striped bobble hat whoâs, well, bobble had been removed to allow for his topknot, still pierced by Omoriâs tulip hairstick, to poke out instead.
âHuh, starting us off with a big one I guess?â he assessed, before declaring
âGood! If weâre only doing four, way better this than some cookie cutting thingâ before turning to see who his partner was and going
âOh hey⊠Pitâ after taking a little moment to remember the angelâs name.
The hesitation in the young koopa's voice did not go unnoticed by his partner.
"Don't tell me you seriously almost forgot my name! We've been in two tournaments together!" he complained.
Atop Pit's head was a brown woolen ushanka with long sides that went past his ears and hung by his chin. His laurel crown had somehow ended up on top of it, holding the hat snugly in place, and the loose white scarf he already wore over his chiton was upgraded to a larger, puffier, warmer fabric. The climbing gloves ended just where his bracers began, leaving more than half of his arms covered.
"Plus I must be kind of famous by now! You know like when they mention the greats itâs 'Mario, Samus, Link, and Pit!'"âEhhhhhâ Jr replied, doing a little side to side hand shake before slapping him with the distinction of being
âMore like Olimar tierâ which was an extra slap seeing as the kid apparently didnât have any issue recalling the tiny carrot leading space manâs name.
"What?! That's- No way!" Pit sputtered.
Olimar?! Not even Donkey Kong or Kirby?! He looked like he very much wanted to argue that point but he snapped his mouth closed, let out a large huff of breath through his nose, and just shook his head.
"Okay forget about that right now! We've got a mountain to climb!" The angel flared his wings out, hopping and turning in place to face their obstacle and pointing up to its peak.
"And we wanna win, right? Let's get a head start!"âYeah, enough standing around! Letâs show them who the superstars of this game are gonna be!â Jr cheered, turning attitude on a dime thanks to his competitive spirit, before pursuing the penguin village, and pointing towards a set of platforms leading up one side of the gully it was in and saying that
âItâs gotta be that wayâ before immediately scampering off in said direction.
Pit jogged alongside him, squinting up at what he could see of the path. It was more vertical than anything else, which he guessed made sense since they'd be going up a mountain. Predictably they weren't the only pair that thought to get a head start, but the boys were confident.
They quickly came upon the first of many jumps they'd have to make, a sheer rock face with a ledge leading up to then two suspended wooden platforms Junior had spotted.
No problem! Pit thought.
"You guys are pretty good at jumping, right?" he asked Junior, talking about Koopas in general.
"And with my wings this whole thing should be easy!"âYou know it!â the prince agreed, before pausing and correcting
âWell except Kamekâ because the old Koopa was not going to be having a good time, that was for sure.
The angel easily leapt up onto the ledge, not paying much mind to the rope that attached him and his partner since he figured they both knew what they were doing. As soon as he landed he swiveled to go into the next jump immediately, and further from there. The prince effortlessly followed his lead, only a half step behind, resulting in there being plenty of slack in the rope as they made their way to the top of the little cliff face.
They arrived there just in time to see the rather absurd sight of Bowser swinging under a platform with Blazermate acting as his anchor, before the bot leapt up at the end of the swing, the momentum carrying both of them across a big gap that they couldnât simply jump across. The other pair had gotten a head start by virtue of simply being closer to the way up, and not bickering about relevance for a bit, so the two boys had some catching up to do. Still, it also meant they could simply steal the lessons learned from those in the lead, Jr saying
âohhh, so thatâs what the ropeâs forâ as he got the minigameâs gimmick.
"That's pretty clever." Pit watched the proceedings with some interest, but quickly turned to Junior.
"We won't even need it though! With my wings I can make it across and hold you up at the same time, no problem!" He boldly proclaimed. Of course a moment later it hit him: everyone else ahead of them seemed to have issues with how they normally moved around. Wouldn't the same be true for him?
"...but let me test it first!"As expected, his wings seemed to be weakened. He couldn't fly in the first place, but now he couldn't even get any higher than a single leap up. Disappointed but not discouraged, they'd just have to play the game the way it was intended.
âDonât need em huh?â jr echoed, followed by a snort of a laugh, before grabbing the tether in one hand, jabbing the thumb of the other behind him and telling pit
âjump, and iâll get to swinging chickenâ "I'm not chicken or a chicken!" Pit retorted, flustered. But since Jr. was already in position to anchor, he did as asked and started their swinging process.
Jr just grinned at the outburst, and then proceed to show off his disproportionate strength by, rather than simply swinging the angel under him, whittling him around up and over several times before launching him up up and away right as he took a run up and a jump of his own. Besides the initial surprise, the circle throw was actually pretty fun.
After that hurdle, neither of the boys had an issue with the next couple of sections of the climb. Without outpacing each other much they jumped up, and up, and up a series of wooden scaffolds and small rocky ledges. The benefit of both of them being familiar with platforming was that they could quickly and accurately get across these areas, until ultimately having to pause at the next wide gap that required true teamwork.
âHuh, whereâd papa get too?â the prince asked as they paused at the precipice, peering up ahead beyond the gap, unaware that the koopa king and his mechanical companion had just taken a tumble down the deceptively deep shaft blocking their way.
"They must be far ahead!" At least that's what Pit assumed, given the king was a veteran platformer. And his pair wouldn't be the only one ahead of them, as some smaller silhouettes were higher up the mountain.
"We gotta catch up!"Since he didn't want to fall behind, Pit planted his feet and pointed across the gap.
"You go this time."âBetter hold on tight then!â the prince taunted, before leaping back off the platform without any fear, and proving his taunt more of a warning than anything as the little prince proved to be quite a bit heavier than his little frame suggested.
Though unexpected, the burden wasnât too much for Pit to handle. He kept a tight hold of the rope and launched himself after Jr., then they scrambled to move on.
Immediately in front of them on the cliff was an icy wall that blocked in an even icier hollow, the same one Bowser and Blazermate had fallen down. The next platform up was at an odd angle, but between the two of them they could figure out what to do thanks to actually stopping to read the sign unlike the plummeting pair. A quick leap, wallgrab, and swing, and they were good to go, onwards and upwards
Another awkwardly placed platform awaited them after that, and above it a tall vertical shaft. Pit squinted up into it, trying to see if it went anywhere.
"Think this is a shortcut? We could hop from wall to wall and go up."âI, uh, never really got the hang of that ⊠but yeah letâs try it!â Jr replied with boundless enthusiasm
"It's easier than it looks," Pit assured him, which honestly wasn't really the case. Not to mention the angel himself was pretty out of practice at it. Either way, if this worked they'd cut ahead and if it didn't they'd just end up right back here, so the reward far outweighed the risk. Pit went on to quickly explain,
"just kick off and up from the wall as soon as your feet hit it!"âYuh huhâ the prince agreed, nodding along like he totally was going to be able to do this, before saying
âalright, letâs do this!â taking a step back to prepare a run up, glancing at Pit, and then once they were both prepared taking off at a sprint for a very short run up before leaping up at the wall.
Against all odds, the princeâs claws found purchase at just the right moment, and he kicked himself off the wall rising higher, prompting him to whoop in delight. Unfortunately, both of them had forgotten about the other key part of this, which was turning in the air so you could then kick off the other wall. As a result, Jr proceeded to slam shell first into the opposite wall, spikes jamming into it and leaving him hanging there, stuck.
With his partner locked in place, Pit couldn't get much higher. When the ten feet of rope pulled taut he slipped and fell down past Jr., ending up dangling in the air under him. The angel hung there silently for a moment, confused about what had happened - then he looked up and saw the koopa prince lodged in the wall. He looked ridiculous, making Pit laugh as if he didn't also look silly just dangling there.
"What happened?" he snickered, trying to swing himself and unwedge Jr. from the cliff side.
ââJust kick up and off the wallâ you said, âitâs easyâ you said! Well, no, it isnât! Now help me down from here!â the prince complained, arms flailing and legs kicking fruitlessly in an attempt to free himself.
"I'm trying!" Though it would take a couple more tugs to get the koopa unstuck.
"And it is easy! You're just not supposed to kick with your back!"After some more aggressive swinging, the little dead weight Pit had was able to dislodge Jr. Naturally when he fell Pit fell too, and the two of them landed back on the ground with a yelp. Pit was quick to hop back up onto his feet, flapping his wings to blow all of the snow off of him.
"Let's try again! Unless you wanna go the other way?"ââI can do this! Iâm an olympian. Just a few more tries and Iâll get it for sure!â the prince insisted, and, true to his word, it did only take a few more tries⊠Which basically negated any benefit from the shortcut. Still, the boy was happy, and counted for something in some peopleâs books, the prince cheering
âDid you see that! That Mario isn't gonna be able to get away from me again now that I got one of his moves down!â along with a happy little jig.
The boy's cheering was infectious, leaving Pit grinning. At the end of Jr.'s dance Pit raised both of his hands for a double high five. Although there was a voice in the back of his mind that thought,
should I really be happy about making Mario's life harder?The whole thing had been a distraction from the race itself, which became apparent when the stragglers started to make their way up to where they were. The two of them got back into the game after that. Though still behind, they skipped a chunk of the map and ended up at a shallow cave which they were able to blaze through with little issue. The swinging and flinging continued until they hit the obstacle that had given most of the teams the roughest time so far: the trio of stalactites with nothing beneath them except a long fall.
Rather than slow down, Jr straight up sprinted towards the first stalactites, leaped up, and grabbed it with his claws and mitts, calling out for Pit to
âGo! Go! Go!â we gotta catch up!
Not needing to be told twice, Pit leapt and swung himself around to the other side of the first underhang. As soon as he latched on with the gloves, he called back to his partner.
"I'm good! Go!"What followed was a high stakes, high speed gauntlet beneath the ledges. For the most part it went well, even when on the last swing Pit's momentum threw him too fast into the wall and bonked against it, causing the need for a second try before they both made it and clambered up to continue on. At least with everyone immune to damage, there wasn't any chance of a concussion or something like that.
...which begged the question, if no one could get hurt, why was there blood staining the snow on top of this rock? In their haste it might have gone unnoticed, but Pit stepped right in it and suddenly his foot slipped out from under him.
"Whoa!" He fell, landing on his back and forcing Jr. to stop in his tracks.
âHe whatâs the matter slowpoke-â the prince began to chide, only to, having been forced to stop, tilt his head in confusion at the blood in the snow
âWhat? Huh? Howâd that get there?â before glancing up and spotting the culprit, namely a blood jetting Nadia somewhere up ahead of them. In stopping to check out the competition he saw the perhaps even more egregious example of Roxas and Midna simply strolling across some gaps.
âWhaaaaaat! No fair no fair no fairâ the little prince yelled up at them.
When he stood up and saw what Jr. was looking at, Pit couldn't help but feel the same. He ran to the ledge and cupped his hands around his mouth, shouting,
"Hey! Roxas! That's totally cheating!!"Jr. stomped his feet and threw a tantrum before halting mid rage and going
âWait!â He then proceeded to grab a pokeball, tossed it and, in a flash of light, brought out Mimi, his mimikyu, who he told to
âMimic that cheater!â while pointing up at the cube spawning Roxas.
Pit spun around to look at the Pokémon.
"It can do that?"The angel looked enthusiastic about the prospect. Because even as a devotee of the Goddess of Light, the paragon of goodness, Pit was not above a little cheating. Especially when other people were doing it first. To be fair, it helped that Palutena wasn't above it either.
âyeah she can!â the prince replied, as the mon promptly demonstrated her borrowed power with a waft of a tendril limb and spawned a little stair case of blocks for them to use to shorten the next gap a little bit so they could just jump instead of one that needed some tricky swinging to do.
Thoroughly impressed, Pit pumped his fist and grinned at Mimi.
"Awesome! Catching up will be easy now!"Copying Roxas' ability trivialized the next sections of the course. There was a single instance where the boys still had to swing, that being another awkwardly placed underhang, but Mimi provided a way for the now three of them to breeze across wood, stone, and snow until they barreled into the mouth of the Fishy Mines.
âOh look. Slow moving platforms that you gotta wait to come to you. My faaaaavoriteâ jr complained as they watched one reel off into the distance, before glancing up and having the exact same idea as Roxas, skipping the whole first section of that by making a staircase up to just below second vertical moving platform.
He then immediately hopped up onto the little rock below, and began impatiently tapping his foot on going
âCome on, come on, come on!â and being completely blind to the rock shaking below him as he did
His partner had hopped up to join him, and it was he who seemed to realize what was about to happen. Pit blinked down at the stone they stood on curiously, noting it felt different, but when it clicked it was too late to warn Jr. Pit hopped backward at the same time the floor gave out. It sent the koopa prince tumbling down, and since he was midair at that moment Pit had no way to catch him. He still tried, furiously flapping his wings as he held onto the rope, but all that accomplished was slightly slowing their fall. The pair fell back down, though thankfully only a little below where they started.
"I hate those disappearing ground things," Pit sighed as he picked himself back up.
"There's probably a ton in here."âOuch, so thatâs what its like to be on the receiving end of those. Nastyâ Jr grumbled as he rubbed the head heâd landed on, and mimi just sort of phased up out of the floor into which sheâd ghosted. The mon and trainer looked at each other, and then the prince grinned, saying
âLuckly, thanks to the cheaters, we donât have to worry about those!â Indeed, just like Roxas had done earlier, once they got back up to the falling platform, they simply had Mimi make a more stable replacement that they could stand on while waiting for their elevator up.
Once they boarded the bucket, it brought them up to another deceptive rock - which was circumvented by Mimi once more. They jumped onto the cubes and the next moving platforms. While they rode it, Pit fidgeted in place as he was wont to do, hopping on one foot then the other in quick succession. Even following the lead pair's strategy and path, they had to wait out the elevator rides, which meant everyone ahead of them would just keep getting farther away.
"I wonder if there's a way to make these things go faster," he pondered aloud.
"I could smash it with the Upperdash Arm and send it flying. If we hold on and your weird Pikachu catches us with the blocks, we could skip even more...!"It was a pretty reckless plan though. Would they get in trouble for something like that? Nah, surely the ringmasters of the Big Top had something in place for property destruction. If it could even be destroyed, with the whole no damage thing.
âWait for real? That sounds awesome!â Jr instantly agreed, before chanting
âLetâs do it, letâs do it, make us fly!â Jr. being all in on that course of action dispelled any doubts Pit had. He grinned widely, peering over the side of the bucket and curled his left hand into a fist.
"Okay, hold on tight! And hold the rope too!"As already, but perhaps unwittingly, demonstrated by all of the minigame's participants, the basic laws of motion, physics, and all that good stuff was still at play. It meant that even though no one and nothing could get hurt, they could still move around mostly like normal, and allowed them to make use of the rope to swing each other in the first place. So, naturally, if enough force was applied to the elevator it should be pushed with speed relative to that force... or something. Something something momentum and friction. Pit had no clue how it worked, just that it
should work. And anyone that had been hit with the Arm weapon knew it could generate a tremendous amount of force.
Taking care to account for the lack of forward movement due to the game world's rules, he made a small hop off of the platform while summoning the Upperdash Arm at the same time. He struck upward, the spinning disc slamming into the underside of the elevator and sending it screaming up along its track. With Jr. holding the tether he clung on. With no resistance other than gravity, when it reached the end of that track the elevator was dislodged, continuing to hurdle upward. Of course now that it didn't have a track, the unbalanced weight of the boys caused it to start shifting, making for an unsteady ride likely to fling its riders off if they didn't keep their grip.
Jr was, at least, having a good time, laughing and whooping as they rose up, but he didnât just passively ride along. Instead, mana sparked through his metal tattooed arm, and out from his hand a large pole grew out to either side. Gripping this long rod, the prince tilted and turned it, keeping their balance like a tightrope walker.
Though slightly dizzy, Pit could climb up onto it properly thanks to Jr. setting it mostly straight. The angel shook his head to clear it after he did, then let out a joyous,
"alright!"They rode it as far as they could. When it started to lose momentum and its flight slowed, that was the signal for them to disembark. Otherwise it would drop fast, making it all the harder to leap off.
"Time to abandon ship!" Pit said, pointing towards what he thought were the closest platforms. There were tiny little rocks, larger fragile ones, and more elevators, but none they could reach without Mimi's aid.
Fortunately, the little mon was very used to clinging to her trainer for dear life, and this time had been no different. As Jr tossed away the rod and made to jump, she unreeled one of her arms, and wafted it forwards, creating a platform mid way between theirs and the closest solid ground.
The trio jumped from their impromptu vehicle and landed on the ruby cubes while the elevator they rode up on began to careen back towards the bottom of the mines. Thankfully they didn't even have to worry about it hurting anyone if it managed to crash into any teams coming up behind them. They hopped across a couple more platforms, eventually coming to a steep area with loose, shifting sand lining one side of the mine shaft. Caution signs hung all around them, but the way up wouldn't be as treacherous as it probably should have been if they kept following their cheating rivals' lead.
"Think we're getting close to the top?" Pit asked, squinting up into the dim light above them.
Jr peered up with him before shrugging arms spread out and palms up for extra emphasis on his having no ideaness
âI dunno, but this game sure ainât mini thatâs for sureâ