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[b]Word Count:[/b] 419
[b]Level 8 Roxas:[/b] 50/80
[b]Exp Gained:[/b] +1
[b]NEW EXP Balance---[/b] 51/80

[h3]Kooky Cabbies[/h3][/center]

[color=gold]”Guess we didn’t do so well this time, huh?”[/color] Roxas asked, not exactly sounding surprised by their lack of placement in the final standings. This elicited a shrug from Falcon, who was standing next to him.

[color=1f66b2]"We knew it would be a long shot, given the state of how our video turned out."[/color] Cap responded as he rested a gloved hand on the Nobody’s shoulder, not sounding discouraged in the slightest.

[color=gold]”That’s true.”[/color] Roxas admitted, [color=gold]”Oh well, there’s always the next game.”[/color]

That next game - it turned out - was a driving-centric one Ballyhoo called Kooky Cabbies. They’d have to drive people around to their destinations in a taxi, while making good time and doing tricks and stunts along the way for good measure. Well, that was convenient for Roxas, since it looked like he was gonna get to put his driver’s license to use again, although he did wonder how different the taxi would handle compared to the supe’d up machine he’d constructed back in Twilight Town.

Well, it turned out to be not quite the same. Driving a full-fledged car was indeed a different thing from driving what was basically a go-kart. But the taxi itself at least handled similarly to the car Roxas had taken his driving test in, so at least he wasn’t going into this completely blind. He also found some appreciation in the subtle-yet-personalized look of his particular taxi cab. It retained the default yellow color, but had a pair of small plastic keyblade baubles shaped like Oblivion and Oathkeeper dangling from the rearview mirror and a vanity plate that read: TWILIGHT. Obviously in reference to Twilight Town.

Roxas had started near a place called Mixed Martial Park, and it didn’t take him long to spot a first customer, a medium level one whose intended destination was an unfamiliar shop down in Grapital Vista. Well thankfully Roxas’ cab had a device that pointed him in the direction he needed to go, so at least he wouldn’t get totally lost. And so he hit the gas and started driving. He attempted to narrowly weave his way through some traffic for stunt points, but that turned out more challenging than he anticipated when his passenger was also chatting him up along the way. That bit of distraction resulted in a wrong turn which lost Roxas a bit of time when he actually did reach the destination.

[color=gold]”Racing around is one thing, but doing it while chatting? This is gonna be tougher than I thought.”[/color]

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[b]Word Count:[/b] 309
[b]Level 5 Captain Falcon:[/b] 15/10
[b]Exp Gained:[/b] +1
[b]NEW EXP Balance---[/b] 16/10

[H3]Kooky Cabbies[/h3][/center]

[color=1f66b2][i]A [b]driving[/b] game? Ha![/i][/color] Captain Falcon thought to himself. [color=1f66b2][i]Why not just give skip the formality and give me the trophy now?[/i][/color] He thought this with a confident smile on his face. He’d never say it aloud, of course. Wouldn’t be very sporting. And besides, for all he knew one of these folks was also a skilled racer. But either way, it looked like this next game was going to have him at a distinct advantage. Driving and racing was practically what he lived for!

His taxi cab made Falcon feel right at home with its blue paint job, and racing stripes that were colored to make it reminiscent of the Blue Falcon. In addition, it also had his falcon icon on the hood with his racing number “07” underneath it, both painted in white. The taxi also had its own vanity plate that read “GPX CHAMP” in reference to his previous victories in the F-Zero Grand Prix.

Cap’s starting position in Grapital City was in Southpaw Junction on the southern end of town. And he immediately made a beeline for a high-level customer who wanted to go to a residence in Trophy Heights, all the way up on the northern end of town. Compared to the F-Zero tracks? This may as well have been a walk in the park for Falcon. He effortlessly weaved through traffic and even managed to powerslide his way around a turn he narrowly missed. And all the while he had little difficulty in maintaining a conversation with his passenger. Falcon had plenty of experience socializing with strangers thanks to media interviews and interactions with numerous fans across his career.

In fact, unless one or more of the other competitors decided to start targeting Falcon for interference at some point? He may very well have had this particular game in the bag.

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[b]Word Count:[/b] 426
[b]Level 6 Ganondorf:[/b] 36/60
[b]Exp Gained:[/b] +1
[b]NEW EXP Balance---[/b] 37/60

[h3]Kooky Cabbies[/h3][/center]

They… won? Ganondorf was clearly not expecting that game to end in any sort of victory for him, but he turned out to be entirely wrong. Had it really been because of what happened to Juri at the very end? Possibly. Ganondorf had little-to-no understanding of how the teams’ videos were ranked against one another, so all he could do was just shrug his shoulders and accept the win when he could take it.

Although the description of the next game left him utterly confused. What was a “cabbie” and what made them so… “kooky”? Driving passengers around? Driving as in… carts or carriages? Well, as it turned out, no, no it was not a cart nor a carriage. Or if it was, it apparently did not need any horses to pull it. But the warlord was so bewildered by this machine that he ended up spending several minutes just trying to make the cursed thing go forward. And when he finally did figure it out, it zoomed out of control and veered off the street into some nearby grass.

[color=797979]”Hmph.”[/color] Ganondorf grunted and harrumphed in frustration. Yet again he was thrown into a game where he was at a severe disadvantage. At this point he was practically convinced that Ballyhoo was doing this on purpose. Indeed, the warlord hardly even noticed the personalized look of the taxi he was sitting in. A dark, almost black paint job with gold and bronze stripes and a fuzzy bauble hanging from the rearview mirror that was shaped like the Triforce. His taxi also contained its own vanity plate that read “KG OF EVIL” in reference to his legendary title.

[color=797979]”Bah!”[/color] Ganondorf finally grunted, [color=797979]”I know not why I should even bother.”[/color] He muttered to himself. At this point he was just sitting there, still parked where the taxi had stopped after it went off the street. He wasn’t sure where he even was, but he could see a beach of sorts in the distance. He couldn’t see it from where he was sitting, but there was also a sign that identified this location as Bold Coast. Ganondorf took a breath and then just leaned back against the seat of his taxi.

Maybe instead of trying to win this time, he should just take a nap or something? He’d won the previous game so he had a decent handful of rift tokens already, anyway. It’d certainly be less stressful and frustrating than trying to figure out how to make this blasted machine work at the very least.