“Ah yes, the Sinmara, of course” Fae replied to the muscle bound oni of a women’s claim of fame, even as he set a subroutine to look her up on the weave. Said routine rapidly fed him back a picture of the woman that was practically identical to the one he’d gotten already, which was fairly amusing to the cyborg. Truly, he thought, sometimes you really could judge a book by its splendid cover.
“And perhaps I will take you up on that offer a little later darling” he in the meantime replied to the one she had made about sparring, adding that “It’s always useful to acquire relevant combat data, and it’ll give me some practice at stitching your remarkable looking physiology up after battle to boot” something he expected he might have to do a lot if she where as daring/reckless as she seemed
He was rather glad he’d specified later, because the woman had to subsequently take several moments to realize that this was not exactly the place to be thrown down when she misinterpreted a comment from one of the other arrivals about stepping outside.
He was rather less glad that his attempt at initiating introductions only really got him a response from Sinmara, lovely as it was, whereas the other two who he identified by their eccentric garbs seemed more interested in her than him. Still he got a bit of an understanding of them regardless, with the young woman in a schoolgirl uniform clearly being older than she looked (something they shared in common, he mused) whereas the other was of all things, a Jester. He was also, perhaps, an illusion, which would mean this man also had something in common with him, interestingly enough.
As he scanned the room to check for the source of the phantom funny man, he detected something much more interesting, and was as a result quite prepared when their real host popped in behind him to make her little comment.
A camera in the center of one of his mecha-tendril claws leaned in to get a closer look at her as the man in control of it casually replied “Really now? That is quite last century thinking, my dear” and intentionally leaving it quite unclear as to whether it was the assumption that he’d hold back against women or that he’d was only ‘gentlemanly’ towards women that he was correcting.
Naturally, it was both. He was sitting opposite a prime example of why the former was a foolish notion, after all, but was unfortunately bereft of any fine specimens with which to demonstrate the error in her assumption of the latter.
At any rate, after her little hazing game the woman, Acacia, formally introduced herself and filled them in on some extra details that hadn’t been in the invitation. A little presumptuous, he thought, to assume they were all already onboard, but the apparent need for expediency, and lack, it seemed, of many viable candidates, did mean it made sense.
If anyone did back out now it would be pretty disastrous given their low numbers.
Said expediency would apparently see them heading out the very next morning, which did not leave a lot of time for preparations. The self declared Red queen seemed like she was ready to go right this very moment, flashily donning a set of magical armor and summoning a fascinating looking great axe as she declared as such, and Fae was, as it turned out, somewhat in the same camp as her.
“I’m able to prepare whatever we need on the fly,” he informed them, before placing one mecha-tendril claw above the other and having them spin rapidly for a few moments as they printed a living photosynthesizing rose out of thin air. He caught it in one claw, took a moment to breathe in its authentic scent, and then handed it to one of the servers, who he informed that “it would look lovely sticking out of your breast pocket, my good sir” before focusing back on the group.
“Weapons, ammunition, medicine, you name it, I can produce it” he informed them, before adding an addendum that “it does take some time to make the more complicated items however, so I shall endeavor to find out a bit about this island chain we are being sent too and manufacture/acquire a few things accordingly ahead of schedule”
He also had a few affairs to take care of as well. He might be a free agent, but it would hardly be prudent of him to simply up and disappear on his various associates and clients now would it? Plus, no one had sworn him to any kind of secrecy, as much as that has been implied, so he was certainly considering filling in a few trusted members of his movement on a detail or two on the nature of this matter.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
Rika: Electro-swarm Hangers (Dark Magic Lampyre): Rika can now use SP to launch small swarms of insects (that look a bit like fireflies) formed out of pure electricity from her gauntlet mounted hangers. For a small amount of Sp she can launch a diversion swarm, which buzz around a target and flash and blink distressingly, lowering their accuracy. For a larger SP cost, she can create a shocker swarm, which upon closing with the foe discharge their electrical charge in a series of small lightning bolts which can deal a hearty amount of damage if they all manage to go off, while also draining some stamina from the foe as well.
Bowser and Jr: Olympian: The one with this strength has competed in numerous summer and winter Olympic games, and has experience in and talent at all the various sports. They are proficient at any activities that are represented by those events. Notably it does not improve basic skills like running, jumping or swimming, but instead provides an extensive if esoteric list of talents from discus tossing to rowing to skiing, basketball, rhythmic gymnastics, bobsledding, etc.
”Oh phew” Jr sighed in relief when the additional information the travelers had acquired via following up troops lead turned up that he was off the hook due to being a minor.
”That is good. Nine thousand nine hundred less points we need” Kamek calculated, before turning to Rika and asking ”Or possibly twice that? How old are you exactly, young mistress?” and then feeling a little guilty he’d never asked this. Or when her birthday was, which he did ask as well, but unfortunately the answer to both questions turned out to be the same.
”I dunno. Don’t really remember much in detail before a few days ago when I became Rika instead of just another abyssal mook” she replied, before thinking about it a moment before getting an idea, saying ”oh, I know!” before trying to snap her fingers like she’d seen it demonstrated, only to fail to make any sound.
”Oh. Um. How do you…?” she asked while trying it a few more times
”like this!” Jr jumped in to demonstrate, only for Kamek to point that ”Your using your claws young master, she can’t do that, plus that’s not quite how you’re meant to do it anyway”
This seemed to surprise both Jr and his papa (who also just used his claws), and soon enough all three royals were getting rapid clicking lessons from Kamek, filling the air with flubbed clicks till they all got it, all four clicking at once, resulting in only Bowser having a number appearing above his head.
”There we go, well done all of you” Kamek praised the royals, before realizing another implication of the situation, saying ”Ah. I hope no one saw that I don’t have a number” quietly, before more loudly stating ”But it does indeed look like you are indeed exempt, young mistress. Good news indeed”
Rika declared this ”Neat” before adding that ”I’m glad I don’t have to do it. I’m not sure I’d have been any good at it” sheepishly
”I’m sure you’d have done great” Bowser assured her with a reassuring clap on the shoulder before suggesting ”But yeah, being forced to by some rhythmic schmuck would be a pretty crummy way to learn, that’s for sure. You can always try it out for fun some other time instead though? You know, for fun. Because that’s what it's supposed to be”
”That… might be neat?” Rika agreed, a touch hesitantly, before pessimistically adding ”Assuming we can get out I mean. Getting from one hundred to ten thousand is a lot, right?”
”Eh it’s just numbers, and we only need nine more hundreds” Bowser assured her, confidently, before brushing off Kamek’s correction that it was ”actually ninety nine more hundreds, sire”
”Well, whatever. Either way, all we need to do is take on one of those big bosses to get everything we need. Should be no problem for the king of dance!” Bowser declared confidently.
”Perhaps you should warm up sire? Challenge, say, a skeleton or some other undead perhaps” Kamek suggested, already thinking about all the ways this could go wrong. 100 points was barely a margin after all, and if he lost by any amount at all, that would be the end of it.
”Nah” the king replied dismissively, before turning and calling out ”Hey, Cadence!” once again startling the blond woman, and this time putting on guard for a moment to boot, perhaps believing he intended to challenge her, but instead he simply followed up by asking ”Where’s the nearest boss I can stomp?”
Naturally she too, tried to dissuade this course of action, but ended up getting off on the wrong foot when she thought he was being noble (as in not wanting to knock people down to rise himself up) rather than egotistical, and so was near effortlessly steamrolled by the King’s villainous charisma in a matter of moments.
“If you really do want the closest one, then he’s just through here” she nodded her head towards the door she was leaning next too before beginning to exposit about how “He’s the one that knocked me out and cost me my soul-” only for Bowser to give her a thumbs up and a ”Thanks” as he stomped past her to take a look inside the room.
What he found inside was an undead parish, which you wouldn't exactly think made for a good dance floor, if it weren't for the way the pues had been cleared away to make place for a horde of skeletons to get down to the electro-gothic music pumping through the air.
”Soooo who’s the boss?” Bowser started to ask, before spotting the man at the front of the ‘congregation’ and correctly ID’ing him as who he was looking for. No normal person would ever dress like that after all.
Dead Ringer!
The king took a long look at the man and then gawfed ”What kind of getup is that! He’s got a bell on his head?!” which caused the man in question to snap his head to the side and to fix the king with a single eyed but incredibly intense stare.
”Oh yeah, real intimidating” Bowser taunted as he stomped on into the room ”You ain’t got nothing on me, pipsqueak, so bring it! You and me bell head, let’s do this thing. Best dancer wins!”
Rather than give a verbal reply, Dead Ringer disconcertingly jolted his head to one side, cracking his neck and setting the bell encasing his head ringing as its edge hit one of his shoulder pads, a low endless chime that seemed to reverberate through the rest of his brass armor. In response, the dance floor was swiftly cleared, and four large bells where placed around it on equidistant spots on the dance floor.
”What’s this, some kinda gimmick? What have these got to do with dancing?” Bowser asked, right as the dread ringer reached behind the church's pew and pulled out his massive signature hammer. He spun it once, before raising it up above his head, and laughing a deep and dreadful laugh as his music began playing.
And then rather than start dancing the dead ringer began advancing (though his every step was flawlessly on the rhythm), hammer held high and prepared to strike the king down.
”Coming at me? Oh so it’s a fight you want?” Bowser snarled, putting up his dukes even as he bobbed to the beat ”Tough luck with that, I’m even better at those!”
“Wait! You can’t fight back or you’ll void your contract and he’ll eat your soul!” Cadence shouted out from, which for some reason prompted a few shouts along the lines of “hey come on!” and “spoilsport” from the other neutral observers.
”What?” Bowser shouted back as he snapped his head around to double check if he’d heard her right, only to get bonked on the head by the hammer blow as the deceptively quick Dead Ringer reached him. The king stumbled back, head reeling, and just entirely off beat, and getting several boos from the crowd as a result.
Rather than follow up on the blow however, the dead ringer stepped away from the king and strode towards one of the bells. Upon arrival he raised his hammer and struck the bell, causing it to toll loudly, after which then seemed to lose its color, turning from gleaming brass to a dull gray.
It also summoned a hulking green dragon near as tall as Bowser was, towards which it started to stalk (on the beat) while the dead ringer moved in the opposite direction to go ring another bell, which would no doubt have a similar miniboss summoning effect.
”What! Oh come on!” Jr cried out in dismay, before demanding to know ”How is that not against the rules!”
“The bosses aren't contractors, they don’t have to follow the no fighting rule!” Cadence told him, before shaking her head in dismay at their foolishness.
”Wait…. But I’m not a contractor either… so I don’t have to follow those rules either!” which prompted a whole bunch of questions to be shouted by the non troop members watching, all of which Jr answered by shouting ”I’m a kid” as he leaped into the fray.
”Get away from my Papa you overgrown lizard!” the prince yelled as he formed and then hurled an iron javelin with practiced skill at the great beast, striking it right in the eye. It roared in pain and staggered back, only for the roar to be joined by the ring of a bell, as the Dead Ringer summoned a hulking ogre into the fray.
”Hey, stop that!” Rika shouted as she also stepped onto the dancefloor as well, and then proceeded to open fire on the Dead Ringer with all her firepower. The crack of her rifle and thump of her rigging turrets laughing disruption blobs drowning out the music, prompting yet more boos from the audience.
”Oh no no no no no” Kamek panicked, as he realized that the kids off beat actions where not crowd pleasers ”Even if we can fight back, doing so is making it harder for his grooviness still needs to win the dance off ”
Worse, her shots seemed to have no effect, being slowed by some invisible barrier right before striking, and then vibrating in the air for a moment before being spat out onto the floor.
”Uh oh” was Rika’s rather understated response to this major set back, while Kamek proceed to freak out even more, snapping his gaze to the side and beginning to cry out ”Sire you still have to win the dance-” only to pause when he saw he’d been beaten to the punch on that turn of logic ”-huh?”
”What, you think this is the first time I've danced after getting smashed by a hammer while dancing? Compared to last time, this is nothing. Mario’s was ten times that big! Also rocket powered” Bowser replied to the shocked gazes at how smoothly, if a fair bit dadishly, he was getting down to the beat, before blowing a fair few minds as he kickflip out of the way of a club strike coming from the summoned oger.
”I. Well. I suppose that solves that part” Kamek acknowledged, before addressing the kids, saying ”Now we just have to back him up in style, troop! Move and fight to that beat just like the summoned monsters are doing!”
”Argh, this is exactly what I didn’t want to have to do!” Rika complained, before she tried her best to block a hammerswing from the Dead Ringer that was coming her way in a rhythmic fashion.
She failed, and was sent tumbling into the crowd.
As Kamek flew to assist the girl, her brother was having a much better time. Tapping into his rhythm gymnastics experience the prince gracefully stepped out of the slow dragon’s reach, spinning and then jabbing it with a pair of iron spikes he’d formed to use in place of the clubs that performance usually involved. It involved quite a few unnecessary tosses and flourishes of the spikes, but the tumbles and pirouettes he did worked well as synchronous dodges of the dragon’s own slow on beat strikes.
Bowser meanwhile was doing pretty well at keeping away from the ogre’s blows, right up until another bell rang and out sprung a minotaur with harp strings strung in between its horns.
Despite the elegant instrument adorning its head, the bullheaded beast was just as brutish as its brawny body suggested it would be. The minotaur immediately charging towards Bowser upon spotting him, forcing him to slide to the left to avoid the charge, only for him to have to slide to the right to avoid another club blow.
”I could use some backup dancers over here!” Bowser shouted as he was forced to contend with two brawling brutes trying to club and gore him, a losing game if ever there was one.
Fortunately Kamek had successfully retrieved Rika, and the two now re-entered the fray, the first indicator of which was a giant wasp woman who came buzzing across the rooms, crimson ribbons streaming from her antenna, to slam her oversized cleaver into the ogre’s back. The monster roared in pain once, and then again when on the next beat the ichor queen thrust her stinger into it, injecting a hefty payload of venom.
As the striker turned to a mote and returned to its mistress, Rika (empowered by the poisoning) unleashed a second attack, launching a swarm of electrical insects from her gauntlet hangers. These formed a swift moving swarm who’s shape pulsed in time with the music, and then when they got close to the toxic stricken ogre, unleashed their eclectic payloads in a strobe light like series of discharges till the monster.
”How’s that!” Rika asked/taunted, as she bobbed on the spot, still not at all confident enough in her dancing skills to do anything but throw summons out that could feel the rhythm in her stead.
”A good start!” Jr called back in response, as he did a cartwheel out of the way of a lunging dragon snout, before perfectly timing his firing of a shower of iron knives into its brain with a rapid fire drumbeat in the song ”But you’ve got a way to go till your good as me sis!” The prince clearing having gotten over any embarrassment his out of character dancing style was causing and into the swing of things. Employing it for violence certainly helped.
”But I am sure you will catch up in no time, young mistress” Kamek reassured Rika, as he used his magical fist spell to give the minotaur an on the beat beat down while sitting safely out of range of any harm, broomstick rising and falling in time with the music.
AS a result of these attacks, the three summoned monsters were taken care of in quick succession, the minibosses no match for the equal number of boss monsters Bowser had supporting him.
Before he could gloat, however, the fourth bell rang, summoning forth a towering nightmare wreathed in a shadowy aura. Red eyes glowed in those shadows depths for a moment as unseen stagehands jumped in and removed the bells in a flash. When some others tried to bring something on stage however, there was some kind of scuffle and a shout of “Don’t give 'em the gong, the spoilsports don’t deserve it” before they all cleared out of the arena.
”A gong? How would that help us?” Kamek asked, floating up to look for it. Yet when the shadows cleared there was no sign of the stage hands, nor the removed bells, nor any kind of gong.
The rest of the troop where a bit more distracted by what had caused the nightmare’s effect to clear, namely the Dead Ringer slamming forwards at light speed, road killing the monster in the process, and appearing right before Bower, who he promptly slammed with a hammer again.
”Wait what!” Jr called out in surprise, only for the Dead Ringer snapped his gaze around, tensed, and then lunged forwards again, flash stepping in front of the prince and smashing him in the chest, launching him clear into the crowd just as his sister had been a few moments ago.
Then his gaze snapped to that same sister, causing her to give a panicked ”Eek!” as she proceeded to launch herself into the air like a startled bunny using her feather fall rune before he even charged, which the undead audience found hilarious. Thankfully her helmet prevented her from braining herself upon impact with the ceiling, and the slowfall effect of the rune kept her from simply dropping back down into hammer range.
As a result she had time to observe Kamek futility blasting the Ringer, as a barrier of sound caused by his vibrating armor tore apart or deflected any spells before they could hurt him. Worse, with only one target still on the dance floor due to Jr’s ring out, and the other two’s floating, he now only had one target. The hammer bearer moved to line up another charge on the king, who was still dancing even as he looked dazed.
”Don’t you dare!” Rika shouted down at the ringer, as she launched another wave of electrical insects from her hangers. Rather than zap the man she was now pretty sure they could not hurt, these instead flashed and pulsed right in front of his eye, partially blinding him, and throwing off his footing just enough that when he slammed forwards he sailed past the king rather than take him out.
The impact with the wall, and brief stun it caused gave the king the rest of the time he needed to recover, but he was still pretty worse for ware, and, worse, they couldn’t heal him without causing him to cause an explosion of damaging spores (due to a charm he had equipped) which would most certainly count as fighting back.
He managed to dance his way out of the next few flash charges, thanks in no small part to Rika’s follow up swarms repeatedly blinding him, but their luck, Bowser’s stamina, and Rika’s Sp reserves all weren't going to last. Even if the inevitable next blow didn't end him, Kamek was pretty sure that the rule of three would result in a third blow guaranteeing him a loss in the eyes of the audience anyway, which was just as deadly. They needed to end this on their terms, he was quite sure, and so after a few moments he called out.
”We need to find the gong they didn’t give us! I don;t know what it does, but surely it must have a use if they denied us it” thinking it the only chance they had, even if it was a longshot.
”Way ahead of you!” came a hoarse call in response, before said voice announced ”I made us one!” as a massive disk of iron came rolling into the arena, pushed by the last of the prince’s stamina, the rest having been spent using feromancy to form the massive instrument on the fly.
”I got it!” Rika called, as she dropped down from where she had grappling hooked the ceiling to avoid being forced to dance dodge, and prepared to receive their incredibly heavy salvation.
Unfortunately she did so just as she came into the line of sight of the dead ringer. He turned and squared up to charge right as the princess focused on catching the custom made gong on beat, prompting all the other troop members to cry out in alarm.
The Dead Ringer flashed forwards, his hammer crashing forwards like a comet before it struck the gong as Rika thrust it in front of her rather than abandon this linchpin to ending the fight. A final mighty knell tolled through the room, shaking its foundations to the core, and also sending reverberations thumbing into the Dead Ringer’s hammer. Down into his armor. Then finally up into his bell like hamlet that rang and vibrated like mad before it suddenly split in twain, twin halves falling aside and revealing a face that, while gaunt, was by no means dead like his name sake might suggest.
Amber locks fell around his face as he slumped to the ground, and prompted an expected cry of “Dad?” from the crowd as Cadence rushed forwards out of the crowd and towards the fallen man’s side.
“Cadence, I’m sorry” the man who had cost Cadence her soul coughed as he tried to reach a hand out to his daughter “I was under his spell”
The unexpected family reunion was thankfully not cut short by an oblivious to what was going on Rika, as Kamek managed to shout out for her to ”Stop! Don’t kill him!” before she eviscerated the formerly enthralled man with her chainsaw bayonet.
”Oh, ok” she agreed, backing down without any questions asked, before finding an entirely different question to ask, namely ”Soooo, now what. Did we win?”
”Music’s still going!” Bowser pointed out as he shimmied on over, before requesting ”Kamek, give me some dry bones as back up dancers! I want to actually show these ghouls my stuff, and without any interruptions this time!”
”I… very well sire” the mage agreed, before doing just that.
The dance floor was cleared of all who’s souls were not on the line, leaving the king and his horde of skeletal koopas to strut their stuff, and really give the crowd a thriller they’d not soon forget for the remaining thirty seconds of the track.
After those thirty seconds were up, well, there was nothing to do but bask in the candlelight glow of those sweet sweet 10,000 points. For the troop anyway. Cadence and her father were much too distracted embracing and catching up.
“Good morning, Mr Enzoani. I’ll cut straight to the chase: it has come to our understanding that you have been recently contacted by a group known as the Denizens Of The Damned”
So spoke a plain looking man in a plain looking suit, hat and sunglasses who had arrived in a plain looking vehicle, and had then promptly invited himself into the back alley studio-clinic, while remaining undetected by all but one of the security systems, of the person he was addressing.
That person skilled in their work, fingers of ivory and gold pausing their dance across the spinal column of a woman who’s cybernetics he was repairing, before just as swiftly resuming what they had been doing. There where a few small flashes of arcana, and then the hands withdrew
“There, that should resolve the jitters you were having” the man who had been operating told his patient, before adding “Now rest assured, I could suture you back up in my sleep, so I hope you don’t mind if I speak with my ever so rude guest while I do?”
A mere courtesy, given that they were currently anesthetized.
The man turned around, leaving his mecha-tendrils to do the work of closing back up the patient’s back, and in so doing revealing his face to the plain man who had asked him a question. Even in the dim light of his out of the way clinic, and surrounded by the scent of blood, solder and sorcery the man still managed to look like an immaculate picture of beauty, at least if the multiple parts of body that had been replaced with cybernetic components didn’t ruin the view for you.
“Please, call me Fae darling, everyone else does” the doctor replied at last, before promptly pausing to take a small sip from a glass of water, and then continuing “well, everyone I’m on friendly terms with at least. Are we on friendly terms mr …”
“West” the plain man responded simply, before reminding the doctor that “I asked you a question, mr Fae”
“Yes, yes, I know I know, mr west” Fae replied, not at all believing that was his real name, yet also finding it interesting that Mr West had (mostly) bowed to his wish in terms of his preferred address. As a result of that, after setting the glass down, he explained that they had come “A few days ago in fact, attempting to harang me into assisting them with some farcical venture. Dark One this, new world order that. I turned them down, of course. I’ve been working the backstreets long enough to smell trouble a mile away, and those fellows positively reeked of it”
“We know”
“Yes well, spooks like have been trying to monitor me for long enough I quite hope that you know that I know-” Fea began to go on, only for the man to interrupt him by clarifying that what he knew was “That you turned them down”
Fae paused, before beginning to enquire “Then have you come to me to find out what they’re up to? Because I’m not particularly interested in-” before being cut off again by the clarification “We know that as well”
Fae raised a hand in light incredulation, and then sighed, before requesting to know “Then why, my dear, are you even asking?”
In response the plain man reached into his suit and handed Fae a golden envelope. After making a comment about how out of mode such a thing as the written word was, he sliced the letter open with a scalpel tipped finger and then proceeded to scan the contents, remaining eye widening and then narrowing as he did.
“You wish me to believe that not only was everything those delinquents said true, but that the illustrious Unity Organization seeks my help in trying to stop them” he said after he was done, before asking “Is this some kind of a joke?”
“Not at all” Mr West replied, before explaining that “As you know, we’ve been aware of you for quite some time, Mr Fae, and though I, we” he corrected himself “do not particularly approve of your work, we do believe that you are, as they might say, on the level. Your actions a few days ago are additional proof of that. You also have a particular set of skills that can be put towards the cause of keeping a rather … diverse team in one piece, as well as the combat skills to keep up with them” Mr West indicated to a hereto irrelevant carcass of a laser burn riddled and partially dissected nightmare of metal and flesh from the wilds that was taking up a large portion of the room.
“You’re also desperate, if you’ve come to me” Fae filled in “I’m hardly the only combat capable engi-tor in the world” though admittedly it wasn’t a particularly common profession “and if you couldn’t get them, what makes you think you can get me? You should already know I don’t take bribes or sell out, so what could you possibly-”
Mr West calmly pulled out another, much plainer, envelope and handed it to Fae. He rolled his remaining eye at this, and then opened and read the letter inside, this one, it seemed, personally written by a rather distinguished researcher who was now working at the UO. After reading through it twice, he had to conceded that “well then, it seems you have my attention”
"Then we shall inform the Organization to expect your arrival” Mr West replied, before snapping his fingers, and causing both of the letters to spontaneously combust and turn to ash in an instant.
“Yes yes. Now be off with you Mr West, I have a patient to discharge” Fae told the man dismissively, as his mecha-tendrils finished flawlessly stitching the skin of his patients back back together, leaving not a hint that she had been being operated on mere moments ago.
Mr West nodded, and without another word, left the way he came.
“Uniting weapons to bring world peace. Ridiculous” the doctor muttered to himself disbelievingly, but even as he dismissed that, and started to wake what might be his last civilian patient in quite some time, his mind was already wondering at the marvels those weapons and whichever ancient places they dwelled within might hold. The promise of priority access to those had been, he had to admit, the perfect offer to make him.
It was certainly enough to convince him to travel to the center of town to join this little party of theirs at the very least. As such, he took the next train from the outskirts, the magitech marvel cruising along artificial ley lines at a blistering place, and arrived at the venue with plenty of time to spare.
He certainly drew some looks as he entered, striding into the resplendent halls of the HQ, and once seeming to fit right in with his immaculately kept appearance and flowing garments of a classical bent, and yet at the same time sticking out like a sore thumb with his extensive mechanical augments. His mecha-tendrils click clacked on the floor as they walked with him, while his holo projector created a small 3d model of a human with most of their internals on display which the doctor openly tinkered with as he walked.
He did at least have the decency to put the body horror show away when he sat down at the table where people were eating (he himself ordered only some light horderves after flash-forging a mostly illusionary chair he could actually sit in while still wearing his backpack), and instead switching to working on something wholly mechanical. He proceeded to tinker away for a while, openly displaying designs that would put the work of many corporate cybernetics departments to shame, and doing so without a care for who saw what to them would have been top secret information, till the commotion the Chairwoman caused caught his attention.
The entire spectacle was, he had to admit, highly amusing, and had Fae not so subtly laughing behind a raised hand at the chairwoman’s embarrassing escapade.
“Well then, this already seems promising, if I am to have such delightful company in this endeavor” Fae said, mostly to himself but not at all minding if the boisterous woman overheard him, before deciding to speak more broadly to those of his fellow invites who had arrived “Ah, but where are my manners, I’ve been antisocially tinkering away instead of introducing myself”
Upon saying that, he stood and proceeded to do just that “I am Ferdinand Altori Enzoani, humble seeker of the perfection of the human form, but you can call me Fae darlings, I much prefer it. A pleasure to make your acquaintances”
He gave a short but thoroughly theatrical bow, one set of arms held to his chest, the others spread out to one side, before inquiring “Now, if you don’t mind me asking, to whom do I owe that pleasure?” as he sat back down, intrigued to know if the others would turn out to be just as delightfully eccentric.
NAME: Ferdinand Altori Enzoani (Just call me Fae darling)
AGE: Unknown (It’s rude to ask you know)
GENDER: M
APPEARANCE: While Fae may be a cyborg, he has put in the effort to ensure remaining biological features are supernaturally perfect. His marble skin unblemished, his silver locks silky smooth and tangles-less, teeth pearly white and his remaining eye a striking ruby red. Put this all together and he should be teetering on the edge of the uncanny valley, and yet he deftly defies it regardless.
Where his body is augmented, it has been replaced or plated over with a mix of unnaturally warm gold-brass alloy and durable black steel. The most inhuman augmentation can be found on his back, out of which clusters of tool tipped arms and dexterous mecha-tendrils sprout, all powered by a thaumi-nuclar battery housed within the (detachable (and able to operated independently)) backpack. It also comes with an inbuilt oxygen mask for navigating aquatic/toxic environments.
Most of the components that actually replace body parts aren't that much more powerful than their flesh alternatives, but do provide Fae with an extensive life support system that preserve and prolonged his life, and makes him rather resistant to environmental hazards despite his light garb. An exception is his right eye, which has numerous sensors that can see far better, and a far wider spectrum, than the human eye.
He carries with him a tablet computer stylized as a tome oh his hip, one that houses the blueprints for much of his work, and is often seen wearing a set of flowing red robes.
ATTRIBUTES: Mind = 5/10 Body =0/10 Agility = 0/10 Craft = 5/10 Magic = 0/10
WEAPON: Fae does not carry weapons most of the time, but he has plenty built into himself. His mecha-tendrils are strong and swift (and entirely capable of lifting his own body), and are equipped with laser emitters at their tips, while his remaining arms consist of a gravity gun (capable of picking up and launching heavy objects), a combat drug injector, and a hard light hologram projector.
That said, his tendrils are also able to 3D print objects, which means that, if he is given time to prepare, he is able to arm himself as the situation demands. As a result he often ends up producing heavy ordnance such as missile launchers, HMGs, laser cannons, flamethrowers etc. which his additional arms can help carry and stabilize, greatly bolstering his firepower.
MAGIC BRANCH: Dark magic (reshaping and augmenting the flesh is hardly natural, though Fae does resent this designation somewhat) and illusions
Notable Spells/Skills: Repairs: flesh and steel are much the same to Fae, and he is able to repair both, using injections of magical chemicals to stimulate rapid regeneration, or using welding and soldering beams to fix armor and circuitry.
Glamor: Fae predominantly works with hard light constructs when it comes to illusion magic, something he started out doing to make blueprints of metal and flesh to help both plan his work and show what the results of his work would be to those he would be working on. As such he can change people’s appearances with relative ease, as well as create fake objects such as doors, walls, keys, etc. etc. to fool his foes. Said objects can be physically interacted with, but they are relatively flimsy, and become especially so if someone sees through their ruse.
He can also create semi autonomous illusions of people, animals, machines, etc. which follow simple instructions programmed into them at creation. Useful for making distracting doppelgangers, weak disposable minions, scouts (an illusion can hold/be built around a real camera after all) etc.
Synthesis: Fae’s tendrils can be used to 3D print objects from thin air if given time, creating more permanent objects out of more or less anything, be it meat or metal. This has a lot of utility both for more in depth repairs and for creating tools, weapons, combat drones, etc. as the situation demands.
Synthasist Legion (Signature skill): Fae digs out a mass of blueprint from his internal library, and flash-forms a host of ethereal warriors based on the many designs found therein. Despite being illusions, they can still pose a threat with their various weapons if the targets’ minds are weak enough to believe that they are being harmed.
BIO/FUN FACTS:
Fae is a prominent and perhaps founding member of a growing Transhumanist movement known simply as the Synthesists. As a very loosely aligned group, they seek to enhance the human form beyond the peak reached by evolution, while still clinging on to the things that make the human body worth living in.
This certainly puts them at what many would consider the extreme end of augmentation, though they are strictly against going full machine. What the line between having enough humanity left and going too far down the mechanical rabbit hole is, shall we say, and oft argued about point within the community. What they can agree on is that the Mechanists, who go full robot, have gone too far. Naturally there are also biotech-essentialists and non-replationists who think the Synthesists themselves have gone too far, all of which leads to a lot of transhumanist infighting
Fae has dedicated much of his (possibly) long life to furthering the cause, creating many of the blueprints and thesis used by the movement. Relatively well known within it, he has little fame beyond, and certainly little fortune to his name, due to open sourcing a lot of his work.
As for why he specifically seeks the seven? Predominantly, Fea hopes that the weapons will be able to provide at least the inspirational spark needed to push his craft to the next level, having fallen into something of a rut as of late. This may seem like a somewhat selfish goal that would put him in the V’s camp, but the ideals of the Synthesists are, ultimately, a pursuit of a utopian dream that they hope will benefit all. To make a better human, one that does not age, suffer, or wither away. One that has the strength to survive and thrive in an uncaring universe, and, importantly, one that still embodies positive human traits such as empathy, compassion and kindness.
He is, it has to be said, somewhat skeptical about the mysticism surrounding the seven, particularly the idea that the uniting of the weapons brings peace, a thing he thinks is simply too ironic to be true. The rising of the dark one, whatever they may be, has a bit more credence in his eyes. It would certainly be a dark age if those who would do the world ill for their own gains got their hands on the seven, that he can 100% agree on.
His definition of ‘those who would do the world ill for their own gains’ might be a little wider than his recruiters own however.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
The troop had a little bit of a wait at the top thanks to the head start most of their members had on the rest of the seekers. While they waited Jr ended up making a joke about how it was a ”Shame papa sold those massive scissors back in the city, you coulda used those” in response to Nadia’s murmured comment about getting her haircut, before thinking for a moment quickly forming a pair of crude pair of iron scissors using his ferromancy and offering ”How about with these then?” also mostly as a joke.
The cat burglar gave him a dubious glance, pulling her ponytail over her shoulder almost defensively. "Do..you know how to hairdress? I mean, I'm not some snooty purr-incess or anythin', but there's more to a haircut than actually cuttin' hair, y'know? If you hairdo a bad job, I'm hairdone for."
”I’m sure it’ll be fiiiiiiiine. I’ve done all sorts of talents you’d never guess at” the prince replied, before snickering, rather giving the game away in the process.
”and yet I am quite sure haircuts are not one of them” Kamek interjected, before plucking the scissors from he prince’s hands ”and even if you did, I would not advise using these”
”Hey! They aren't that bad” Jr complained, and then after giving the blunt things a second look, instead switched to insisting that ”I can make some way better ones” before attempting to do so.
With the prince briefly distracted, Kamek told Nadia that ”I actually have a little bit of experience cutting hair, though I am by no means skilled at it. Their majesties had something of a habit of scaring off any barbers trying to give them a trim in their earliest years you see, so I might have given them a surreptitious cut or two while they were sleeping” which got a pair of “wait you did?!” from both royal koopas.
Nadia chuckled at the Troop's antics. "That's super on-brand for you guys. And thanks fur offerin', but I think I'll pass. A girl's hair ain't somethin' ya do by trial and error." After another moment spent watching the Koopas, something occurred to her, and she raised an eyebrow. "Aren't there any gals in your Troop? Who's Junior's mom?"
”Fair enough” Kamek conceded gracefully while Jr made a little ”awww beans” in disappointment, before giving the small pile of rejected scissors he had made a light kick.
”Shame, that last pair looks good. I think. Sharp anyway” Rika commented, having never had so much as a trim before, as she took a look at the vicious looking pair of snippers the prince had formed in his last attempt.
”As for ladies,” Kamek then replied, ”well naturally there are, though it should be noted hair isn’t not exactly a common trait in Koopas, nor is it among the various other species that make up our ranks” the hairless himself Koppa replied, thinking most prominently of Wendy O’Koopa and her baldness when compared to the rest of the Koopalings (save the equally bare Roy), before thinking it over and then adding ”and a fair amount that do might be wearing wigs now that I think about it? Possibly? It would be rude to ask”
”And I don't have a mom yet” Jr replied very matter of factly (as if this didn’t raise several questions), his ego having already recovered thanks to Rika’s praise of his craftsmanship.
Nadia blinked at Junior a couple times and decided not to press the issue any further. Compared to all the bizarre things she'd been forced to accept already, this barely even registered.
At any rate, soon after that conversation wound down, the rest of the gang arrived, and they all set off on the next leg of their adventure, which took them into a spooky graveyard which had, of all things, an office desk sitting in it.
The troop approached this desk along with Nadia, and got a front row seat to the unfurling of the massive contract as a result.
”Badness me, that is quite the sea of legalease” the Kamek said as he took it all in, before adjusting his spectacles and starting to say ”if you’ll give me a moment I’ll-” before making an affronted noise as Bowser pushed him the the side and signed right away while declaring ”Yeah, no, we’ve not got time for that so let’s just get it over with so we can move on”
”Sire!” The mage protested, swiftly adding similar exclamations of ”Young master!” and ”Young mistress!” when Jr and Rika also signed without reading.
Well, in actuality Rika took the pen, paused for a moment, and then leaned over and asked Kamek ”Is my name spelled R-Y-K-A-H or R-I-K-A-H?” The princess had never had the need to write it down before after all, or anything else in her life really.
”Oh? I think it’s R-I-K-A” Kamek supplied helpfully, and added ”Oh and put Koopa at the end, as that is your last name now that you are his majesty’s scion. K-O-O-P-A.”
”Thanks! K-O-O-P-A and done!” the princess declared right in time for Kamek to realize what he’d just helped her do with an exclamation of ”Gah no wait!” Yet at that point it was much too late, and so he could do little but sigh and facepalm at their now collective stupidity.
Despite them having already signed, Kamek refused to peer pressured into also doing so, and so doggedly proceeded to slowly read through the contract line by tiny line (which was not pleasant on his old eyes, that he’d tell you) before doing so. Fortunately for Snatcher, Bowser was much too impatient to wait for him to finish, and so the rest of the troop forged on ahead far before Kamek reached the important part.
When he did, he proceeded to exclaim ”Their souls!” before hurriedly scanning the rest of the important part of the contact buried in the smallest of small-text while going ”No, no, no, no” before tossing the whole thing away like it was poison to the touch.
The mage paced to and for several moments as he mulled over what he could do, before snapping his fingers- and promptly getting on his broom and leaving.
A few moments later a tiny shrunken mote of light drifted through the room he had just left, suspiciously sneaking past the demon manning the desk, and then touching the wall beyond. The whips phased right through the material of the crypt, and popped right on out the other side, emerging into the dance party on the other side, where it joined the flashing lights of the dance floor.
A second or so later Kamek joined it, arriving in a puff of smoke, having teleported inside thanks to the remote vision his summon had granted him. The mage had been ever so worried about what fate had awaited his royal masters within, but he was both relieved, and a touch incredulous, that rather than finding them facing certain doom he instead found them in the midst of hosting a pizza party in the crypt’s central hub.
”Hey Kamek!” Rika called over as she gave him a wave ”Did you end up signing the thingy as well?”
”Oh yes of course, how else would I have been able to follow you in here” the mage replied loudly as he drifted on his broom and then landed among them, at which point he leaned in and whispered ”I’m lying, I teleported in here, so I still own my soul”
”What did that even mean anyway? Like, what’s a soul?” the princess asked before anyone could comment on Kamek’s cleverness, which sent the mage floundering for a way to explain that metaphysical concept ”Oh, well, um, see it’s well. It’s what makes you, you. But not your body or your brain, it’s a more, well, a more spiritual thing you see?”
”Oh so it's my spirit? But I’ve got a whole bunch of those in me, so can I just give him one of those instead?” Rika asked, thoroughly confuddling Kamek.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, Bowser stepped in at that moment to declare ”Nobody’s giving anyone any spirits, or any souls!” and then explaining that ”All we have to do is beat that necrodancer in a dance battle and we’ll win them back”
”Dance … battle?” Kamek repeated, before asking ”Is this something that was explained, or did you just guess that this is the case sire?”
”I mean it's obvious isn’t it. Guy’s got ‘dance’ in his name, and there’s a bunch of people doing dance battles in here, so they must be practicing to take him on” Bowser explained ”Fortunately for you lot, I’ve been in this situation before. Ya see it all started when Waluwigi stole the 4 magical Music keys, which I think is like the only solo bad guy thing has ever done, and it just got crazier from there” Bowser began, before giving a fever dream like recounting of the single day in which Mario decided to use the power of dance to solve all his problems which eventually ended with ”And that’s how I got my tone deafness cured!”
”Ah yes, that. I tried to forget” Kamek said, not particularly happy to have the memory of those events dredged up, while the two youngsters had thoroughly enjoyed the whole silly story from beginning to end.
”So you can dance real good?” Rika asked
”Yup! Runs in the family too! Jr’s a real good rhythmic gymnast and ribbon dancer don’t you know. Got some Olympic medals for it and everything” the king replied, while Jr groaned ”Daaaaad” just a little embarrassed about people being told about some of the less cool sports he’d done over the years. Or rather that they’d done, because his papa had taken part in the exact same events after all.
Rika at least thought it was ”Neat” as she often did regarding new information, before adding that she ”bet that’ll come in real handy” and then adding after a moment of reflection that ”I’ve never danced before in my life though, so I’ll probably slow you all down”
”Let’s not jump to conclusions shall we. For all we know this is simply how people are distracting themselves down here and we simply need to overpower this necrodancer in a conventional manner” Kamek suggested, before adding that ”If you give me a moment, I’m sure I can find out more by simply asking someone what this place’s whole situation is”
”Oh, right yeah I guess we could just do that” Bowser said, as he stood up to come join in with that (while continuing to eat pizza out of one of the many pizza boxes).
They left the kids behind to keep eating, during which Jr explained to Rika that she could probably dance with her spear, and he might be able to give her a few tips from his old rhythmic gymnastics routine that sometimes involved a long stick.
The two older troop members meanwhile took a little look around trying to decide who to ask, and ended up approaching the blonde woman due to her standing out so much (and after failing to get the attention of a number of undead).
”Good morning. Or is it afternoon? Regardless, hello to you young lady, I don’t suppose you could fill in a few newcomers about the nature of this place?“
”Yeah, like where’s the poser I gotta dance into the dirt to get outta here. I’m a busy guy, I’ve got a whole list of other people who need to get stomped as well after I deal with this speedbump” Bowser added along with a palm punch.
Though Bowser and Kamek's sudden visitation left the girl taken aback, she quickly composed herself to try and give her fellow unfortunates a hand. "Uh, hey. Guess you guys lost your souls too? I didn't even sign anything, I just fell into this place and got mine nicked off me." Though like the Organization girl she happened to speak with a British accent, hers was a lot less high-pitched and cockney. "Well, the NecroDancer's the one you want. He's the one holdin' everyone's souls, that Snatcher fellow's just a legal contractor. But it's not easy as walkin' right up to 'im and bustin' a move. You've gotta work your way up before he sees you as a worthy challenger. That means winnin' points through dance-offs." She wore a stern expression as she delivered the news. "Outdancin' the dead 'round here's piss easy, but beaten them won't get you much points. Better to beat other contractors, but they wanna live just as bad as you do. The NecroDancer's got special minions too, like Fortissimole and King Conga. They're worth even more, but they're tough as nails. So even if you're feelin' yourself, pick your battles. You don't wanna go below zero."
As she sighed, she leaned back, allowing just enough of the fickle firelight to shine on her face that the Koopas saw her sunken eyes and the worry lines etched in your face. "If you wanna know all the details, talk to the Amicassador. She's one of the NecroDancer's cronies, not to mention the best fan dancer in the Crypt. I'm Cadence, by the way." Leaning on her shovel with her left arm, she extended her right to shake.
”Kamek“ the mage replied, taking and shaking, before leaning in close and covertly asking ”Incidentally, what would I look out for if I, hypothetically, had to be worry about getting mine ‘nicked’ as well?“
”This Amicassador they guy who’s being shown up by the tracksuit bro’s over there?” Bowser meanwhile asked, based purely on the fact that said person also had a fan.
"Don't fall unconscious," Cadence told him ruefully. When she looked over at the person Bowser indicated, she raised an eyebrow. "Uhh...no. She is part fox though. And also probably the reason why nobody wants to learn from old Youko there. No point in even trying to fan dance with Tingyun around." She glanced back at Bowser. "That's the Amicassador. Just look for a big, fluffy brown fox tail."
Kamek offered her ”My thanks“ for the advice. Given that he wasn’t going to be doing any dances of his own, what with his age and lack of need, his biggest concern would be any acts of subterfuge on the parts of their host should they find him out.
”Yeah, thanks.” The king echoed, before adding that ”I’ll pay you back by bringing down the house within the day”
”I’m not sure how you being cheered helps h-“ Kamek began to say, before getting it ”ooooooh. I see. Yes, we’ll be sure to raze the roof if we can“
"Good luck," Cadence wished them, a slight smile on her face. Hopefully these newbies would fare better than the last batch
They were certainly convinced they would, and so headed back to the pizza party with their newly acquired information.
”I was right! It is a dance off system!” Bowser declared loudly and smugly
”Yes, yes“ Kamek conceded, before putting in all the work in relaying all the information they’d leard to the others, ending with ”So we should probably seek out this ‘Amicassador’ person next“
”Yup. After you finish lunch!” Bowser declared, which got a ”huh?” from Kamek, before he got a pizza box shoved in his hands by the king.
”Oh, well, I suppose now that we know we’re not in immediate danger I guess I can take a slight beak” he admitted, before flipping open the lind, breathing in the scent of somehow still hot and fresh Italian cuisine and sighing with delight. He hadn’t realized how hungry all the fighting and flying of the morning had left him till just now, and so he was then more than happy to sit down and much away while taking in the scenery inside the tomb in a more relaxed fashion alongside the rest of the troop, and anyone else who wanted to join them for lunch.
NAME: Ferdinand Altori Enzoani (Just call me Fae darling)
AGE: Unknown (It’s rude to ask you know)
GENDER: M
APPEARANCE: While Fae may be a cyborg, he has put in the effort to ensure remaining biological features are supernaturally perfect. His marble skin unblemished, his silver locks silky smooth and tangles-less, teeth pearly white and his remaining eye a striking ruby red. Put this all together and he should be teetering on the edge of the uncanny valley, and yet he deftly defies it regardless.
Where his body is augmented, it has been replaced or plated over with a mix of unnaturally warm gold-brass alloy and durable black steel. The most inhuman augmentation can be found on his back, out of which clusters of tool tipped arms and dexterous mecha-tendrils sprout, all powered by a thaumi-nuclar battery housed within the (detachable (and able to operated independently)) backpack. It also comes with an inbuilt oxygen mask for navigating aquatic/toxic environments.
Most of the components that actually replace body parts aren't that much more powerful than their flesh alternatives, but do provide Fae with an extensive life support system that preserve and prolonged his life, and makes him rather resistant to environmental hazards despite his light garb. An exception is his right eye, which has numerous sensors that can see far better, and a far wider spectrum, than the human eye.
He carries with him a tablet computer stylized as a tome oh his hip, one that houses the blueprints for much of his work, and is often seen wearing a set of flowing red robes.
ATTRIBUTES: Mind = 5/10 Body =0/10 Agility = 0/10 Craft = 5/10 Magic = 0/10
WEAPON: Fae does not carry weapons most of the time, but he has plenty built into himself. His mecha-tendrils are strong and swift (and entirely capable of lifting his own body), and are equipped with laser emitters at their tips, while his remaining arms consist of a gravity gun (capable of picking up and launching heavy objects), a combat drug injector, and a hard light hologram projector.
That said, his tendrils are also able to 3D print objects, which means that, if he is given time to prepare, he is able to arm himself as the situation demands. As a result he often ends up producing heavy ordnance such as missile launchers, HMGs, laser cannons, flamethrowers etc. which his additional arms can help carry and stabilize, greatly bolstering his firepower.
MAGIC BRANCH: A mix of Dark magic (reshaping and augmenting the flesh is hardly natural, though Fae does resent this designation somewhat) and illusions
Notable Spells/Skills: Repairs: flesh and steel are much the same to Fae, and he is able to repair both, using injections of magical chemicals to stimulate rapid regeneration, or using welding and soldering beams to fix armor and circuitry.
Glamor: Fae predominantly works with hard light constructs when it comes to illusion magic, something he started out doing to make blueprints of metal and flesh to help both plan his work and show what the results of his work would be to those he would be working on. As such he can change people’s appearances with relative ease, as well as create fake objects such as doors, walls, keys, etc. etc. to fool his foes. Said objects can be physically interacted with, but they are relatively flimsy, and become especially so if someone sees through their ruse.
He can also create semi autonomous illusions of people, animals, machines, etc. which follow simple instructions programmed into them at creation. Useful for making distracting doppelgangers, weak disposable minions, scouts (an illusion can hold/be built around a real camera after all) etc.
Synthesis: Fae’s tendrils can be used to 3D print objects from thin air if given time, creating more permanent objects out of more or less anything, be it meat or metal. This has a lot of utility both for more in depth repairs and for creating tools, weapons, combat drones, etc. as the situation demands.
Synthesist Legion (Signature skill): Fae digs out a mass of blueprint from his internal library, and flash-forms a host of ethereal warriors based on the many designs found therein. Despite being illusions, they can still pose a threat with their various weapons if the targets’ minds are weak enough to believe that they are being harmed.
BIO/FUN FACTS:
Fae is a prominent and perhaps founding member of a growing Transhumanist movement known simply as the Synthesists. As a very loosely aligned group, they seek to enhance the human form beyond the peak reached by evolution, while still clinging on to the things that make the human body worth living in.
This certainly puts them at what many would consider the extreme end of augmentation, though they are strictly against going full machine. What the line between having enough humanity left and going too far down the mechanical rabbit hole is, shall we say, and oft argued about point within the community. What they can agree on is that the Mechanists, who go full robot, have gone too far. Naturally there are also biotech-essentialists and non-replationists who think the Synthesists themselves have gone too far, all of which leads to a lot of transhumanist infighting
Fae has dedicated much of his (possibly) long life to furthering the cause, creating many of the blueprints and thesis used by the movement. Relatively well known within it, he has little fame beyond, and certainly little fortune to his name, due to open sourcing a lot of his work.
As for why he specifically seeks the seven? Predominantly, Fea hopes that the weapons will be able to provide at least the inspirational spark needed to push his craft to the next level, having fallen into something of a rut as of late. This may seem like a somewhat selfish goal that would put him in the V’s camp, but the ideals of the Synthesists are, ultimately, a pursuit of a utopian dream that they hope will benefit all. To make a better human, one that does not age, suffer, or wither away. One that has the strength to survive and thrive in an uncaring universe, and, importantly, one that still embodies positive human traits such as empathy, compassion and kindness.
He is, it has to be said, somewhat skeptical about the mysticism surrounding the seven, particularly the idea that the uniting of the weapons brings peace, a thing he thinks is simply too ironic to be true. The rising of the dark one, whatever they may be, has a bit more credence in his eyes. It would certainly be a dark age if those who would do the world ill for their own gains got their hands on the seven, that he can 100% agree on.
His definition of ‘those who would do the world ill for their own gains’ might be a little wider than his recruiters own however.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts) Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel) Vandelay Campus (Alleyway)
Minda successfully kept Painwheel from going after the others. Unfortunately she did this via triggering Galeem’s influence, and now she had the nightmare of a woman’s full murderous attention. ”She’s gone mad!” she proceeded to shout when things took this inevitable turn, as one last hurrah for her blatant ruse, while pulling her darknut out of a portal beside her. Luckily, some extra help came in the form of Roxas, who locked Painwheel down under a barrage of lightning bolts. The berserker crouched down and blocked them, angrily simmering while her foes healed up prepared their summons.
When Burn Rooster attacked though, she took the fight to him. She sprang up and snatched him out of the air with her Buer Reaper command grab, reeling the reploid into her grasp. When they hit the floor Painwheel slammed him against it, cracking the tile, then used Gae Bolga to grow a gruesome bloody spike for the delivery of a ruthless People’s Elbow. Just as Roxas finished speaking, the transferred damage caught him unawares, nailing him with an agonizing piercing sensation to the chest–enough to keep him out of commission for a few moments at least.
As Painwheel turned toward her for another Pinion Dash, Midna held her spear and single sword to her chest and filling them with a spark of power while she sheltered. She then promptly unleashed it upon Painwheel as the woman came charging in with her Buer Drive spinning alongside her. She took a step forwards before bringing the heavy cleaver down in a chop that pulled a bolt of lighting from the air and down towards her foe, while at the same time she thrust the butt of the spear forwards, causing a brief beam of electricity to zap forwards.
”What a shock, she needs to be stopped”
Before Painwheel’s Pinion Dash could run Midna over and dice her up, a lightning bolt stuffed it, causing the berserker to slide to a stop. As the dust flew she looked up to see the cleaver descend, and with a snarl she crouched down on all fours to brace herself beneath the Buer Drive. Metal met metal in a terrific impact, but despite its impressive weight the oversized machete did not cut through. Instead it caught against the Buer Drive’s blades, and even as enough electricity surged through Painwheel’s body to make her emaciated skin smoke, she did not relent. Instead the power of Hatred Install pulsed through her, its purple tint pushing her well beyond mortal limits, and her eyes blazed with rage. Her blades realigned and snapped shut around the cleaver like the teeth of a bear trap, two on each side, and began to squeeze.
“RrrrrrrrAAAAAAGH!”
With a horrible noise the blade shattered into a dozen big, jagged pieces As the deadly fragments showered down Painwheel span up her Buer Drive once more, and with the giant sawblade held diagonally as an offensive shield, she began to crawl toward Midna.
Midna had already abandoned the blade by the time it shattered, giving her just enough time to bring her second set of arms up to block her body, the magical limbs bearing the brunt of the shards, though she still was left with several actual cuts through her mask and helm ensured her face remained unblemished by blood.
”Even in death you annoy me!” the princess cursed the man the shoddy blade had been made out of as she stepped back, and her knight stepped forwards.
As the princess reinforced the magic of her false arms behind its guard, the darknut swept the flat of its blade around in a low strike, aiming to strike the spinning shield side on rather than head on. That blade boasted far more weight and destructive power than Zanzo’s cleaver, so the same stunt wouldn’t work again. When it swept in Painwheel took a different approach–she sprang off the ground and into the air, easily leaping over the mutant Darknut’s mighty but slow attack. Flying toward Midna, the berserker bent forward and extended spikes from the soles of her feet into the top of her outstretched Buer Drive. Tortured Rose rained down a shower of disorienting sparks as the blades descended.
”What the-” as her light sensitive vision was assaulted by the shower of sparks. In a blind response she summoned all 4 of her chillfos strikers around her, and having the frozen undead raise their spears up above her, the shafts crossing over to form a tank trap like X above her head as she ducked, and prepared to dodge based on the sound of the blade impacting with her conjured defenses, eyes clenched shut to guard them from more flashes.
While their summoner backed off, the Chilfos held firm. Painwheel’s blade cut their ice lances into ice cubes, but together the four of them managed to push her off, and right away they began to regrow their lances. Painwheel dashed in and they rallied together to defend again, but this time the berserker reached out with Buer Reaper, using her blades like a claw to drag the two central Chilfos into her waiting grasp. Her hands clenched around their heads and she smashed them into the ground, communicating a burst of concussive injury to Midna as the Chilfos strikers timed out and disappeared
At that moment though, purple electricity sparked along Painwheel’s body, and she flinched with a pained yelp. Brain Drain’s psychic voice reached out to reprimand her. ”Painwheel, stop this instant, he commanded. ”This one’s not your enemy.” When the berserker clawed at the air in protest, though, his tone became more resigned. ”Urgh, but they’ve both been triggered…the die is already cast.”
”goddesses, my head” the princess hissed in complaint as her just returning vision swirled from the transmitted blunt force trauma to the head. She at least had the darknut in between her and the uncontrollable puppet, and while that might have helped much last time, it did mean the knight itself was in the perfect position post 180 degree pivot to slam forwards with a shield bash while Painwheel was in the midst of being electrocuted.
Her summon landed a clean hit, knocking Painwheel away and onto her back. On landing, however, she performed a ground tech and flipped onto her feet using the Buer Drive as a springboard. She shook her head with a growl, her anger quickly resurfacing as her red-hot glare flashed between Midna and the Darknut. That revenant knight would keep pestering her until it was dealt with, but without vitals it would only succumb to structural damage. As Midna vied to recover, Painwheel revved up her Buer Drive and leaped forward, taking to the air like a miniature helicopter with thrice the maneuverability.
She closed in on the Darknut, planning to pick apart its armor piece by piece if she had to. As she did, Brain Drain made his move. ”Enough. This sideshow must end,” he declared, vivid pink psychic energy swelling as he hovered forward. ”By any means necessary.” A brilliant, rippling beam blazed forward from his skull case, slamming into the Darknut’s chest and applying a boatload of crushing force.
”Son of a-” Minda began to curse, before biting it down and reacting to this unexpected development by opening a portal beneath the darknut and warping it back to her home realm before it was entirely destroyed. As it was, she wasn’t getting any more use out of it without application of a smithing hammer and a whole lot of calcium.
Still, even with her losses and expenditures, she wasn’t close to being out of minions yet, the princess calling out ”Initiates! Vibrava!” as she summoned yet more forces.
On the ground, her trio of psychic strikers took cover behind parts of the central machinery, before forming spears of psychic energy and hurling them at Brain Drain. The princess, still slightly concussed, charged forwards as her minions fired upon the psychic director, declaring ”More like this freakshow must end” before twirling her spear in front of her using all 4 hands, fanning a blast of summoned singing sand ahead of her.
When a new volley of projectiles flew his way Brain Drain went on defense, sheltering behind a barrier of psychic energy, but he grew irate the moment he realized he was under attack by such amateur psionics. ”You dare confront me with such feeble minds?” He could not put them in their place, however, with Midna attacking. Her initiates would soon time out, but the Twilight Princess herself unleashed a sandstorm. As it reached Brain Drain he brought his hand down, using his telekinesis to part the flurry to either side. His brain charged up again, poised to cut through the chaos with another psychic beam.
Meanwhile, in the sky, Midna’s Vibrava took to the air on buzzing wings, and began to harass the propeller propelled Painwheel with blasts of its fiery, and potentially paralyzing, purple dragon breath.
In the Vibrava Painwheel found a match for her aerial mobility, but the two weren’t destined to have a dogfight. Unlike her enemy, the girl lacked ranged attacks, and her finite flight would be cut off when she executed any aerial attacks. In a bid to end this quickly she threw herself at the Vibrava with a wild dive, but the bug managed to evade and scorch her with Dragon Breath. With a frustrated snarl she went down. When one burst of flame left her paralyzed, it got the chance to lend another couple attacks, building its confidence. Still, Painwheel wouldn’t be dissuaded. One hit was all she needed. The moment her paralysis wore off, she leaped into the air. Though she couldn’t attack with her Buer Drive without falling, the berserker had other means. With an agonized shriek she ejected a dozen skewers from within her body, most several times longer than herself. Once her Buer Thresher Blockbuster dug in, the retracting barbs would bring her foe right into cutting range.
Unable to escape from the rising skewers, instead went all in, flapping its wings backwards once and then keeping them folded to its body, divebombing its 1 meter long form into the thorns. With its tail fins it desperately tried to weave its way past as many as it could, while its jaws became suffused with a dark energy in a hope that it could deliver a devastating crunch to its foe before she could rearrange herself back into fighting form.
As the insect closed the distance to sink its teeth in, a fresh crop of skewers burst out from beneath the mask on Painwheel’s face. Surrounded by the inky blood lances, the Vibrava had nowhere to go, and the barbs pierced its carapace. With her quarry stuck like meat on a spit roast, Painwheel brought down her Buer Drive, carving a grisly wound across the insect’s head and all the way down its front. The next moment both hit the ground, but while the Vibrava lay defeated, and promptly dropped into a portal that opened beneath it, Painwheel forced herself back up off the floor. Murky blood dripping off her body from the recoil damage, she began to pop her dislocated joints back into their sockets in order to rejoin the fight.
Back in said fight, Midna’s response to the impending psychic blast was twofold. First she squeezed a free hand, causing the deflected sand to rise up and come at the man again from both sides inorder to wrap the psychic in a swirling sandtomb. Then she kicked herself into the air, pivoting once and transferring a great deal of her charg’s momentum into a spear toss of her own, the butt off the electrified weapon sailing fourth to bludgeon the psychic in the gut.
To Midna, it looked like she’d struck home. Through the whirlwind of sand she could see Brain Drain’s form outlined in pink psychic energy, seemingly doubled over from the kind of body blow that could churn one’s guts and empty one’s lungs. The rhythmic pulse of his brain in its casing offered a clear target, however briefly.
Lacking in the skill or desire to land a lethal headshot, so instead of opting to pull out her pistol she instead resumed her charge, empty hands now bearing dragon claws. Rather than just let him recover however, she portaling in on of her dwindling stock of wooden supply crate she’s stolen off the back of a truck, and then proceeded to grab it with her shadow hand, before whipping it around her head and launching it at the Brainiac to keep him off balance.
The projectile flew at the silhouette, but rather than smashing into it, it somehow passed straight through. As the sandstorm dwindled, Midna could see that her target wasn’t Brain Drain at all–merely a psychic projection of himself, left behind as a decoy while the real Brain Drain flew under the cover of the sandstorm. How could one churn the guts or knock the wind from the lungs of a robot, after all? When she realized this and scanned the area, she found the real director floating up by the ceiling, his hand raised. ”What’s yours,” he said, forming a dozen psychic spears just like the ones her Initiates used. ”Is mind.” With a wave of his hand, the spears rained down. At the same time, Painwheel began to approach Midna, quickly closing the distance with her Buer Drive at the ready.
In response the princess summoned Skywave beside her, the exosuit launching itself skywards in an artful pirouette, one that carried the princess up into the air alongside her, the pair rising up just in time to avoid the spears raining down while she taunted ”No thanks, you can keep them!” There was a slight issue in that the exosuit vanished the moment their rise ended, Midna could not fly any more after all, but instead of plunging back down into the awaiting claw of Painwheel the princess thrust her shadow hand up from her helm, and sunk its dragon clawed fingers into the ceiling. Then she thrust herself forwards with the limb, flinging herself towards the psychic in a flying kick.
When Midna’s dug her dragon clawed feet into the class exterior of the Brainframe tank, causing cracks to spread across its surface and a malodorous chemical fluid to drip from the gaps, Brain Drain was stunned. His sheer astonishment at the pointless damage to something to so important made him an easy target for her kick. His robotic body might be state-of-the-art, but it wasn’t meant for combat. His levitation failed and he flew down toward the ground, landing hard on his back. The jarring impact left his mind reeling, which sent feedback into Painwheel’s, too. “Uuuurgh!” she groaned, staggered but momentarily free of Brain Drain’s hooks.
Though he hadn’t wanted to fight at all, the psychic director suddenly found himself in a bad position, and unfortunately he couldn’t back down, either. Without a word he focused on Midna, but he realized that he couldn’t shoot a beam at her without risking another potentially disastrous hit on the Brainframe. With her too far away to attack her mind directly, his options were limited. ”Doctor. Assist me,” he called out as he attempted to rise.
As it happened, the Doctor was already waiting outside. The doors that led back to the operating room were pushed open, and the inhuman physician peeked his abominable head down from the top of the doorframe. From there however, he went no further. A colleague of Brain Drain’s he might be, but a fighter he was not. He disappeared again and crawled back down the hallway’s ceiling, the telltale rumble of his passage quickly fading away. With no other alternative, Brain Drain quickly reached out to seize control of Painwheel again.
”Oh, so he thinks we can take him. Good to know” Midna commented about the actions of the Doctor, as she dropped to the floor, before lunging towards the rising Painwheel with shadow hand outstretched to snatch her up in her grasp and then hurl her nice and far away.
As she approached, a shadowy phantom of Brain Drain appeared behind Painwheel, and purple sparks goaded her into action. When Midna grabbed hold she attempted to fling Painwheel away, but the girl herself did not let go, instead clutching the shadow hand’s fingers while her Buer Drive began to spin. The blades cut apart the princess’s grasp, and Painwheel dropped to the floor a few meters away rather than a few dozen. She dawdled for just a moment as a psychic beam flew in from Brain Drain in an attempt to get a cheap shot on Midna, but the next moment the berserker went on the offensive again, performing an empty safe jump and then going low with a sawblade sweep.
Minda responded by summoning Roadblock in between herself and the other woman, the striker raising its massive barrier to block the hit, and followed up its black with a rocket bash. Unfortunately she was unable to help with the follow up, as she was sent stumbling by the cheap shot psychic blast from the side.
She growled in frustration as she caught herself, as much exasperated as she was fearful of how this two on one fight was going, which prompted her to shout out ”If you could hurry it up over there, I could use a hand over here!” intending to catch the ear of her fellow seekers, but unintentionally reaching those of a different set of help.
Yuito and Hanabi, having remained on the periphery of the fights with Dexio and Sina to render their assistance if it looked like anyone needed it, heard Midna’s call for aid and replied immediately. “On my way!” the young man called back, using his Psychokinesis to draw his sword as he led the charge through the room. Hanabi followed in his footsteps with a determined look on her face, her staff held at the ready and ignited with Pyrokinetic flames.
Though Roadblock managed to knock Painwheel askew with its shield bash, its disappearance the next moment gave her a clear shot to bombard Midna with Gae Bolga stingers, piercing her skin and even nailing one foot to the floor with the bloody spikes. Before her Buer Drive could start carving, Yutio intercepted it with his blade like a stick through a bicycle wheel, halting its spin and then pinning the blades against the floor with a deft twist. Painwheel immediately unhooked the Buer Drive and rounded on Yuito with a fresh burst of stingers, but Hanabi got in the way and blocked them with a spin of her staff. When Painwheel charged in and seized Hanabi’s guard with a command grab, Yuito was on hand to break his friend free with a Psychokinesis-propelled tub, knocking the berserker down in a blast of water.
He followed up with a flurry of slashes against Painwheel’s guard, his sword leaving his hand with every other stroke, until the poor girl caught him with Disfigure and followed up the quadruple stab with a punishing Malice Clover sweep. As he fell, she turned herself upside down and suspended herself off the ground with long spikes from her hands and feet, her screaming sawblade dangling beneath her like a lawn mower from hell. “DEATH CRAAAWL!” In the nick of time, however, Yuito saved himself by borrowing Gemma’s Sclerokinesis. As he withstood the vicious assault, Hanabi ran in behind him and pole-vaulted up to plant both feet in Painwheel’s face in an impressive dropkick. As she staggered, Yuito jumped up for an air combo infused with Hanabi’s fire, finishing with a flourish of blades slashes followed by an exploding blade plunge.
It looked like they had Painwheel under control, which meant that Midna could focus on Brain Drain. Sensing her coming, the psychic director opened fire with lasers to try and cut her down before she could reach him.
The princess responded by summoning her last healthy minion (that would fit in the room) to her side and then unleashed it with a command of ”Sic him”
The wolfos burst forwards, weaving between lasers and then ducking low to avoid one final desperate blast aimed at it. It slipped directly under the hovering psychic entity, before leaping up, grabbing the back of his coat and dragging him down to the ground, and then shaking him violently to stop him from blasting its master.
Said master approached as swiftly as she could, carrying with her her mace-like sun on a stick, its black metal and orange orb crackling with energy, declaring that it was ”Time to end this”
Brain Drain pulled his right hand back, extending lethal-looking needles from his robotic fingertips. “This is far from over.”
Absurdly, the princess’ response was to lunge forwards with her own hand, the princess grabbing the offending arm and suffering the expected results. Needles sunk into her wrist, digging deep … and finding not flesh, blood, or, importantly, nerves, but instead entirely alien and incompatible magic.
”All those brains and you don’t know when to give up” she told him as she leaned in close inorder grabbed his other hand in much the same way, before lightly thrusting the sun on a stick forwards, pressing it against his chin, and then unloading its charge. Electricity flowed freely, arching through his head, and yet rather than resounding with thunder, the lighting simply buzzed angrily, unloading just enough power to knock the man’s only remaining flesh unconscious without frying the machine keeping it alive.
She pulled the stick back once he was out, and carefully lowered him down to the ground, and turned to take in the fight her reinforcement where in, and to say it was a mess was an understatement. Painwheel was very much on the back foot due to being outnumbered, but the chaotic and brutal fighter had made the psychics attacking her pay with blood for every drop they were getting out of her, and she seemed to have far more to spare than they did.
Upon seeing this Midna commanded her wolfos to ”Fetch!” something and then began striding towards the battle, the frantic fight having taken enough out of her that she couldn’t afford to run back there again.
”Initiates! Roots!” she commanded as she approached, summoning her hooded psychic minions to her side again, and having them unleash their psychic foliage on painwheel. The saw-backed woman refused to be bound by anyone else however, slashing at and into the purple vines rising up to bind her, yet it was enough of a distraction to let the two psychics get their own hits in, sending the fighter sprawling.
”Thanks for your aid, but you’ve done enough! Back up and I’ll end this!” Midna shouted to them as Painwheel readied to retaliate. They moved to comply, clutching wounds as they did. Yet in that same moment Painwheel moved to repay them for her latest injuries, only for her to be struck by one of Midna’s shoddy cleavers, the princess having quickdrawn and hurled the blade in a flash. It did next to no harm, but it did get her attention, the taunted berzerker turning her focus to Minda right as the princess received her fetched spear from her wolfos minion, who she offering it the faint praise of ”Good thing”
The princess then held the weapon to her chest, charging it and the sun on a stick with power while her final hand made a ‘come at me’ motion and verbally taunting her foe with ”I already took down your master, now come and fall to me as well”
Painwheel obliged, bellowing a rage-filled battle cry and bursting forwards with furious speed, before short hopping and using the same Buer Thresher that had taken down her Vibrava, unleashing her own dark vines on the princess for some ironic turnaround.
In response, the princess raised her spear to guard her, but rather than a passive block she twirled it around, lighting arching from one end to the other, forging a shield of lighting that blasted away the vines trying to grapple her, a shocking mirror to Painwhee’s own defense. Then she flicked the spear to a stop, holding it close to recycle a bit of power into it, and at the same time thrusting the sun on a stick forwards, launching a lighting bolt that slammed the flying Painwheel back and knocking her down.
”Stay down if you know what’s good for you. I really don’t want to do this”
The Galeeming fighter ignored this of course, yet after taking so much punishment over the course of the fight from 6 separate combatants, and having to reconstitute her form from her failed grapple, the berzerker was slower to rise from this bolt than she had the one Midna had used in her opening. Her wolfos pounced at this moment, boldly slamming into her to knock her further off balance (and then escaping into a portal when she tried to retaliate) giving the princess the time to surge forwards with her remaining stamina, in order to drive the butt of her spear against painwheel’s spine and then unleashing its remaining lighting discreetly into it.
Brain brain’s pawn convulsed under Minda’s emulation of his punishment system, and then when the charge ran dry she thrust the sun on a stick in its place, while powering back up the spear. It was brutal, she, frankly, the princess hated it, but eventually, with enough charges of lighting delivered, Painwheel went the same way of her puppetmaster, blacking out under the far more intense stun prodding.
The princess was left panting after the exertion, her magical set of arms collapsing and dropping her stun on a stick as she put the butt of her spear to the ground and used it for support, blood and sweat dripping from her body.
Despite this, she forced herself to move forwards, telling the psychics to ”Keep an eye on them incase they wake up” and then moving to either check on or get medical help from Roxas, whichever was appropriate given the recoil he’d taken earlier while trying to protect her.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
While a fair amount of the seekers stayed below and engaged the organization member in a conversation that was equally enlightening and frustrating, Rika forged ahead of them, rising up and up and up with successive boosts. In doing so she discovered that the accent wasn’t going to be quite as active hostiles free as their descent.
The ousted wasp horde had been through here, a few of their number still lingering behind due to either crippling wounds or stubbornness, and in doing so the buzzing mass had stirred up the native threats. Most notable and nasty of these among these were the triple acid shot firing Primal Aspids that where a pain on their own, but so much worse when combined with artcher bugs who had uncanny aim when it came to hitting moving targets. Movement that the Aspids more or less forced with their spread of projectiles, creating quite the dangerous combination.
While Rika herself could slow their shots with her gaze, and got to a chance to try out her new corruption cannons on live targets, Bowser was having far more hellish time, scales and shell ending up covered in numerous acid burns and melted holes as they ate away at his armor.
”Buzz off you lousy bugs!” he roared in frustration at them, as he tried and failed to pick off the nimble fliers with his battleship guns and slow fireballs.
It would have been quite an embarrassing end, or at least an embarrassing state to arrive at the top of the climb in, being slowly whittled away by annoying bugs, but fortunately salvation arrived from below with time to spare, heralded by the sound of rocketry.
Jr, unintentionally aping the movement strategy of a bunch of determination fueled cave men, had in a fit of mad science welded rockets to the bottom of a pogostick, a strategy that had worked surprisingly well. He bounced off of clouds in much the same way as the creature they had been made for using the actual pogostick, and if he ever missed, he fired up one of the zonia rockets he’d strapped to it, blasting him back up and giving him a second shot at landing on the missed platforms.
This did make it a bit difficult to stop, it had to be said, but once he did the prince pulled his paintbrush off his back where he’d pinned it down using his bandolier and duffle bag straps, and used it to restore his papa to full Hp. In doing so they found out what his new vines could do, the full restoring Benediction massively fueling their growth, and giving the king a mass of them to use as green thorny armor, protecting his actual body from acid blasts.
He still couldn't really hit them, mind, but Jr’s noisy catching up got Rika’s attention in a way that Bowser had stubbornly refused to do, and so she came to lend them her far more swift and accurate firepower. Not to be outdone, Jr tried to use his new ferromancy to launch knives and spines from his arm even as he bounced up the clouds, but this proved to be pretty ineffective due to the obvious issue of aiming like this.
Still, quantity had a quality all of its own, and so he did manage to piece the odd wing or eyeball with one in every few dozen launched metal shards, which helped a bit and always got a cheer from the prince.
Working together now, the royals of the troop got to the top just in time for the fliers to catch up, something that put an end to the queen and mage’s conversation before Kamek found himself unable to explain the hole in one of his stories that avoiding explaining the exact nature of the Chaos heart and its full capabilities to a fellow villain was creating.
Jr was a little peeved about how Kamek had “cheated” and then even went on to claim he was the only one who had really played by the rules laid out by the green hopping thing, but Kamek managed to derail that mini tantrum by relaying a quick summary of what they had found out from this latest organization member.
”Ha, yeah, knew they were bad guys. No goody two shoes dresses like that, that is for sure” Bowser laughed, and then grinned at his kin as he said simply that ”and, well, we all know how we do at the end of bad guy team ups, yeah?”
The two koopas got it of course, but Rika had to be quietly filled in by Kamek: after much much much experience, Bowser had finally learned one simple thing about working with other villains. In order to avoid being stabbed in the back by your former ally, all you had to do was be the one who stabbed first.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts) Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel) Vandelay Campus (Alleyway)
”Hey I asked you a-” Minda began to shout at Brain Drain, before recognizing that now was not the time and cutting herself off with a ”-tch”
They needed to pin down the psychics and free them before they sent everyone falling down the same long long drop she had, and she was pretty sure she was the only one who’d get out of that mess in one piece. Even worse, all the while they were going to have to make sure that the beast of a woman Brain Drain had sicked on sakura’s mind controlled teammates didn’t get a chance to tear them to shreds. There was a plus that plenty of friends had arrived as well, but they were struck by confusion, trying to work out what was going on, just as she had when she had arrived.
There wasn’t time to hesitate however, and so when Sakura moved, Midna moved with her. Unfortunately the streetfighter picked to go for the earth shaker, which left the princess to handle the one throwing ice around (not to mention miss spinning blades on the back). Given that yelling ‘I am weak to ice’ to try and initiate a trading of foes would probably just make the situation worse however, she held the course.
Particularly because, well, the cryomancer was in the midst of freezing Luka to death in a bathtub.
”Go! Get her off him, but don’t kill her! Nobody dies today, not this time!” Minda shouted as she summoned and sent her wolfos racing ahead of her as she approached on foot, the unladen beast able to move much faster than it could if she were riding it into battle. In the next moment she summoned skywave, one of her new strikers, and sent it rushing forwards as well to unleash a flash of light upon both Sina and her victim, one that would blind one while healing the other.
As her beast rushed forwards to try and either bodily tackle the ice psychic, or bite her clothing to drag her back via them, whichever seemed better situationally to first get her away from luka and to then try and keep her off balance, she moved towards the fallen pinwheel and did her best to obstruct her re-entry into the battle.
”Watch out!” she shouted at the patchwork woman, while extending out her shadowhand and placing it in between her and Sina, playing it off as if she was attempting to protect one from the attacks of the other ”Your hurt, let me cover you!”
Whichever way Painwheel tried to rush forwards under her powered up form, Midna would do her best to obstruct and buy time for Sakura, Luka, her wolfos, and anyone else who jumped in to do something to pin down the mad psychics, or rough them up enough that she or someone could flick a heart their way.
While her shadow hand worked to put itself in the way, her other hands pulled out her treespear from a portal. The long spear sported an almost sword like spearhead, but Midna had no intention of using that, instead flipping the weapon around so she would be jabbing people with the base of the shaft instead of the pointy end.
The spear also let her block more of the way forwards, as she tried to put herself in in-between their ‘ally’ and their ‘enemies’ if she could (with the ‘cover’ of shouting ”Stand behind Midna! I mean me!” to ‘explain’ why she was body blocking the blade backed woman). If all else failed, and it looked like Painwheel was going to get past her she could ‘accidentally’ slap from the flat of a quickdraw cleaver into her in-order to taunt her and draw her attention.
She really hoped it wasn’t going to come for that, or her blatant ruse being seen through, but if it did, and it probably would, she'd handle it, somehow.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
The dramatic finish of the foe who had been crushing them, and then vanishing of her seemingly mortality wounded vanquisher, was slightly distracted from when Dazzle, Jr’s sea lion like Popplio, started glowing in his arms.
This prompted a minor panic from the prince and confusion/concern from the rest of the troop save for Mimi who knew exactly what was going on, even if she herself had never and would never experience it. After a few seconds passed with no one pressing any anything resembling a B button the light burst off of the pokemon, and revealed his new evolved form.
The pokemon promptly informed them of his new form’s name with a cheerful “Brionne!” and then did a celebratory backflip.
”I, huh, ok. I guess helping take down the queen wasp, uh, bee, was all the fighting experience you needed to evolve?” Jr said, just now remembering some more of his education about pokemon from a few days back regarding pokemon evolution, before admitting that ”Feels kinda like cheating seeing as Barnabee did most of the work in the end though” which got a harumph from the pokemon.
In saying that he brought their attention away from that brief distraction, and focused them back on the question of what had happened to their insectile guide. They got their sad answer only a few moments later as they followed a curious Nadia across a freshly formed bridge, into the mostly looted vault, and wherein they found the dead form of Barnabee’s queen, and the dissolving form of her protector.
Jr attempted to cast Benediction upon the bee to heal him, but it was of no use: Barnabee’s life had already ended the moment he unleashed his final smash.
The prince threw up his hands in exasperation at the futility of his act and then, unable to really process the spike of grief he was experiencing, stomped off in a huff. Rika followed him, having much the same issue as her brother in a much quieter fashion, leaving the elder Koopas to join Ms Fortune in her moment of silence.
They all mostly got over the sadness when they realized there was also loot in the room, and when going to take a look at it, got a front row seat to Nadia’s surprise return to her original state.
”Even the strikers? That’s even more powerful than Peach’s extraction” Kamek noted, before pulling out and preemptively offering Nadia the Snacktivator so she could personalize her refusion experience.
It was an interesting (and slightly blinding with all the flashes resulting from each fusion thing to watch, but at the end the troop declined the use of the orb, having already mostly modified themselves to their liking thanks to peach’s power, with only Rika having taken on more fusions since then. What this did remind them of was the fact that they had quite the pile of spirits all stuffed away in bottles, and, as people were going to spend some time tinkering with fusions, or os it seemed, now seemed like as good a time as any to make use of them all before any of them faded away.
Awoken Hollow (shell): the host’s shell has taken on a purple-pink stony texture, and their drugar arms and tentacruel tentacles have been replaced with prehensile vines that retain the abilities of the replaced limbs, as well as having their own. They gain the power Rejuvenation Cultivation: if healed during combat, excess healing will be used to fuel the growth of the vines that are rooted inside their shell. These vines can act as combat tentacles, or wrap around the user’s limbs to act as armor/external muscles. The vines will wither back to their base volume outside of combat. They gain the weakness Kindling Filled: the host’s vines are, naturally, rather flammable, and should they ignite they can act as wicks, drawing that fire back into the host’s shell, setting fire to the internals within.
Power: Dark Magic Lampyre (waist): The host’s rigging has taken on many of the aspects of the corrupted Lamyre. A small emblem/buckle style after its helmeted head sits at the waist, while the back sports 4 small orange wings and a large bunny tail like glowing orb sitting over her tailbone. The turrets have lost a barrel, while the remaining barrels have become thicker, and sport two orange spikes near the tips that together create a loose X shape. The cleaver sections of the hullblades have been removed, and instead two orange claws curve out the front of the metal plates. The metal of the rigging has become a darker hue, while the red parts on the sides have been replaced by a purple armor plate going over the top of the weapon.
The host has become slightly more aggressive.
The host has gained the power Disruption Cannons, which allows them to fire fist sized globs of dark magic from their rigging guns. When they strike, the globs release a small pulse of damaging dark magic, before sticking to the target and sapping some of their physical and magical strength until they are pulled/pried/shaken off. Each blob lasts for 30 seconds, and causes a 5% reduction each, for a maximum of 40%.
The Disruption cannons take a large amount of a resource called SP to fire, which slowly regenerates on its own, but can also be actively regenerated by taking a few seconds to rest.
It also infers the weakness: bright light, which prevents the user from disabling the glowing orb on the back of their rigging, making sneaking very difficult, and drawing additional attention to them in and out of combat.
Striker: Vespikan Ichor Queen: A towering wasp woman adorned in crimson robes and with red ribbons trailing from her antenna, armed with a single colossal clever blade who can be summoned (on a long cooldown) for a few second to either attack with her cleaver and venomous stinger, or to cast one of the one of a number of spells:
Lightning Bolt: the queen channels electricity into her blade for a moment before thrusting it forwards, shooting out a powerful lighting bolt that can do heavy damage to a single target
Pull from the grave: the queen kneels in prayer to her dark god for a moment before stabbing the ground with her sword. This causes a 5 meter patch of ground within 25 meters to manifest a flurry of earthen hands, which attempt to grab and drag any undead beings they can find back into the earth where they belong. Has no effect on any other kind of being or entity.
Draining touch: the queen reaches out and touches the body of a target with her hand, and in so doing begins to drain a mundane human’s worth of vitality from them over the duration of the cast time, transferring it to her summoner.
All of these spells take 2 seconds of channeling before they are cast. If the summoner is harmed (either directly or via feedback) the queen enters into a berserker rage, interrupting any spellcasting she was attempting to do as she blindly charges the culprit and tries to deliver a singular devastating cleaver strike to them, regardless of the desires of her summoner, or the feasibility of her reaching her target before her timer expires
Vespikan Ferromancer (arm): the host’s arm has become covered in an inflexible chitin in place of scales, onto/into which iron runes have been carved/tattooed. The hand is absolutely covered in these, making it appear almost entirely metallic.
The host has gained the power Ferromancy: allowing them to magically create iron objects out of their hand and arm. All new metal begins its life in contact with the host’s runes, though it can still be manipulated for a few brief moments afterwards. This can be used to quickly create and launch small blades/shards/spikes, form weapons or shields, coat their arm in metal armor or spikes etc. It can also be used more slowly to make complex components or higher quality equipment, weld things together, create small defenses or structures, etc.
They also gain the weakness Ventilate Heat: the metal inscriptions cause the arm to lose heat at a rapid rate. In environments that are not actively warm, the arm will feel unpleasantly cold and take more stamina to use than the uninscribed arm. Cold environments will make this worse, or be potentially dangerous. Insulation can prevent these issues, but will also reduce the effectiveness of any magic gained from the runes.
Vespikan Charnel Berserkers (striker squad): a quartet of wasp-woman cultists with red ribbons streaming from their antennas who can attack using their massive ultra-greatswords and venomous stingers. They can also use the length of massive weapons defensively in a fashion akin to a spearwall to repel melee attackers. If the summoner is harmed (either directly or via feedback), the berzerkers all enter into the rage of their namesakes, charging the culprit in an attempt to deliver a singular devastating cleaver strike to them, regardless of the desires of their summoner or the feasibility of them reaching their target before their timer expires.
Manikins and common Vespikan: Air x2, death x3, and nature x4 gems: small crystals which can be expended to cast a spell of the corresponding magical class without expending mana/stamina.
A handful of acorns x2: when planted, these acorns will each will rapidly grow into a trio of vineman, an amalgamation of vines and moss that attacks with its fists, for the duration of a battle. Vineman lacks any kind of vitals, making them quite difficult to take down, but are offensively pretty mediocre, being rather slow and only moderately competent/strong fist fighters.
150 gold
Hoppers: 144 geo
Pogostick a bouncing mode of locomotion made for entertainment rather than practicality.
Greater hopper: mantreads: a set of sturdy combat boots which reduce hostile knockback by 75%, and increase air controle by 200%. In addition it will triple the amount of force they transfer any target they goomba stomp, while also prevent any fall damage/recoil from being taken should they pull off this maneuver.
Milk snails: frigid javelin: An ice forged throwing spear that, after striking, melts and reforms in its thrower’s hand. On hit it will ignite the struck foe with freezing flames that block passive hp regen (but not active regen like potions or spells) and deal 1 more javelin hits’ worth of damage over 2 seconds.
Ice Lance: A long spear made from never melting ice. On hit it will ignite the struck foe with freezing flames that block passive hp regen (but not active regen like potions or spells) and deal another spear hit’s worth of damage over 0.5 seconds.
A ring that lets the wearer cast Ice Spear for a small mana cost, shooting a icicle like spear of ice from the ring at a target.
A ring that lets the wearer cast Coffin, which spawns a (fortunately empty) coffin out of the ring for a small mana cost.
15 gold
Blood Blamish Snails: Bruise blue snelm (round): a helmet made from giant snail shell that grants a reasonably large amount of protection, and also intimidates other snails, making them do less damage
A Bruise blue snelm (pointed): a helmet made from giant snail shell that grants a reasonably large amount of protection, and also intimidates other snails, making them do less damage
A cooked lava eel: caught from a lava river using a rod oiled with snail slime, this spicy fish restores a moderate amount of hp when consumed
131 gold coins
Dark Magic Lampyre: A golden spinner: a device that is very effective at capturing and taming monsters, and works exactly like a pokeball
An Unstable Tesla Coil: a lanturn sized accessory that, when equipped will send up to three beams of electricity to zap foes within 1.5 meters of the wearer for low but constant damage. Nearby minions will auto target foes struck by this electricity. It also can be used to attract metal ores from a small distance away.
Vespikan drones:
A Pungent Blood Cocktail: a throwing weapon that attracts the focus of carnivorous beasts for 10 seconds to its point of impact.
A Double knife glyph: a small glyph that can be applied to the arm or hand as easily as a temporary tattoo, though is by no means as easy to remove. Allows the user to spend a small amount of mana to summon and toss two gravity defying knives. The knives do relatively low damage, but are very accurate and inexpensive to cast, making them good for striking nimble foes, or for those with low mana pools.
Inkulinati snail: Black Knight’s Sword: a Greatsword made of a dark metal and inscribed with holy script, which allows it to do 20% extra damage to demons (but 0% extra damage vs snails). Designed to take on large foes, it is also more capable of breaking the poise of an enemy, and in doing so knocking them off balance. Finally, the holder can briefly raise the sword in the name of the First Lord (a salute involving holding the hilt in front of their chest with the blade pointing straight up) to gain perseverance, a buff that grants 45% damage reduction for 4 seconds.
The result was a lovely pile of goodies which Kamek proceed to poke through, shooting ice spikes and spawning random coffins first before poking the other items a bit, and then finally requesting Sectonia take a look, both for appraisal, and to see if she (ore anyone else) was interested in anything in the pile.
The others meanwhile experimented with their new powers.
”So uh, I’ve got plants in me now?” Bowser said as he wriggled the vines that had replaced all the other limbs stashed in his shell about, not really seeing what was new about them yet, and he wouldn’t till he got hurt.
Rika meanwhile had a rather obvious addition, in that she was now literally lighting up the room with her new tail light, which she spent a few moments chasing as she tried to get a look at it, the floating wings around it fluttering and throwing strobing shadows around the room.
Once Kamek got her to stop with some gentle chastising, she proceed to instead blast one of the walls with her new blob firing guns, drawing a smiley face on the wall out of the projectiles, and enjoying how she didn’t need anything but short rests to regenerate her ability to fire them. That would let her stretch her remaining ammo refills a lot further.
Finally Jr initially got annoyed at how cold his new arm was, till he instinctively formed a coating of iron over the top of his arm. That he found cool in the other way, before he had a brief moment of struggle to try and remove it, which he resolved by forming even more metal under the new armor which eventually caused it to burst off. After that he proceeded to tinker around with these metal forming powers, making caltrops, screws, knives, spears, and more, forming a small pile of iron items as a result, some of which Bowser borrowed to experiment with arming his new vine tentacles.
”Well I’m sure this has been very entertaining and informative” Kamek commented, pausing for a moment as he was interrupted by Rika’s new Ichor Queen striker blasting a metal target Jr had made with a lighting bolt before continuing ”But perhaps we should finish divvying up the items, and then work out where to go next?”
”Oh, yeah, hmmm” Bowser hummed in response, before trying to think of a plan
”Maybe we can ask some of the bees? They must know a bit about the stuff around their home, right? Threats and paths and stuff?” Rika suggested, thinking it would be pretty foolish to not know your surroundings.
”Plus I bet they’ll be happy about us freeing them! Maybe they’ll throw us a celebration!” Jr suggested excitedly, to both of which Bowser nodded along, before adding ”Maybe they’ll even make us a cake!” because that was what Mario got for his heroics he was pretty sure.
”That does sound like a plan” Kamek agreed, before asking the rest of the seekers if there were ”any objections or suggestions?”
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
Together the seekers took down the scrapwork wasp queen, tearing off its metal armor, and destroying its internals, sending both falling down into the massive pit below the platform the ground pounders were fighting from.
That proved to be a bit of an issue for Rika, who had been clambering around on the machine like a chainsaw armed tick, because as the last bit fell, it took rika with it, machinery and princess plunging down into the abyss
”It’s been cutting you up, but I gotta blast” Rika told the wreckage as she angled her rigging guns down at the wreckage and then fired them in tune with giving her featherfall rune a squeeze, launching herself up into the air with explosive speed.
She fired her grappling hook upwards towards the platform the seekers had been fighting on, only for the fall to have taken her too far down to reach it.
”Uh oh” she intoned, before calling out for ”Help!” as she started to (slowly thanks to the rune) fall into the pit.
Fortunately, Kamek had been keeping an eye on her, and was already swooping down to help her.
”Not to worry! Just grab on and-” the mage called down as he descended upon his broom, only to go ”Ek!” in surprise as Rika’s grapple grabbed his broom, and dragged him down to her.
”Oh! Sorry” the shipgirl apologize as she swung from the line where it connected her to his broom, and then managed to get a hand up to awkwardly grab on, her gauntlet kind of getting in the way of that as she almost knocked him off with it ”Sorry again!”
”Ah, Oh dear. Well. I suppose that works” the mage said once he’d steadied them both.
”Now hold on, this might take a while” he warned, as he slowly started to ascend back up towards the paltorm- only for it to shatter as a result of Rumor’s scepter throw mere moments later.
Light suddenly graced their eyes, revealing a second, rather more precarious set of platforms down below, which was convenient as it meant there was something for the plummeting King and Prince of the koopas to land on after they careened past the princess and their royal advisor.
”Oh, guess I could have landed on that just fine” Rika calmly noted (not at all perturbed by the giant bee turning into a plane above them) only to correct herself when she saw one of the platforms disintegrated beneath Bowser as the king was trying to pick himself up and dumped him down another layer ”Oh. Or not”
”Do you think he’s ok?” she asked, only for the King to come leaping back up onto the upper set of platforms with a furious roar, rejoining his son who had been faster and avoided being dropped down despite his 2 passengers ”Oh, yup, looks like it”
They two turned out to be even more Ok when Sectonia summoned up a massive crystal for them to stand on, giving the pair some permanent ground from which to start launching AA fire up at the bomber bee. Bowser alternated between charging and firing flash cannon beams which didn’t care about the issue of firing against gravity, while Jr had Dazzle sing his disarming voice up to the heavens and Mimi copycat his song yo make it a duet, one that bypass the same gravity issue, sending twin beams of pink soundwaves pulsating up into the air.
Rika meanwhile knew she would have the problem of gravity to deal with if she joined them, and would rather not have to worry about any missed bullets or shells raining back down ontop of them, so she requested ”Fly me closer please, so I shoot her with my guns”
”One moment, almost done” the mage who had been waving his wand around replied, before he finished the spell and summoned four of his toadies. The propeller hatted mini-hims grabbed Rika and hoisted her up so she didn’t have to hold on to the underside of his broom any more.
”Oh, that works, well” she commented as the minions started to buzz forwards with her in their grasp. Along with Kamek, she swooped after the bomber plane, the mage unleashing spell blasts and fira spells, while the ship girl opened fire with her machine gun and rigging guns.
Unfortunately these then proceeded to rapidly run dry, she’d fired rather a lot of shells and bullets between the city of tears and here after all, and this was hardly the time or palace to fiddle with ammo boxes to refill them.
She tried to urge the toadies to catch up, but their flight speed wasn’t exactly comparable with a plane. ”You’re going to have to toss me” she told Kamek far to casually for what she was requesting
”What?” Kamek asked, not sure if he’d heard that correctly.
”Toss me. I can just float down to the crystal if you miss” she clarified
”I suppose … very well, here goes nothing!” Kamek decided, before having the toadies hurl the shipgirl towards the plane, and even joined in by conjuring a magic fist and using its unfurled hand to push her onward at the last moment.
The shipgirl whooped as she sailed through the air, maneuvering thrusters flaring for extra speed and rune squeezed for extra height as she sailed through the air. Her grapple lashed out and caught the tail of the plane pulling her in as she blasted it with a few electrical goop shots from her grizzco blaster. Then her grapple snapped back into its launch tube, and she had mere moments to try and cling on, hull blades hacking, spear summoned and hooking over the wing, hand awkwardly trying to grab on.
She got a brief purchase and began to try and chainsaw bayonet off one off the tail fins, only for the plane to yell “get! Off!” after which she proceeded to do a barrel roll which flung the ship girl off of it once more.
Rika yelped in surprise as she went flying again, losing grip of her spear, which plummeted down below uncontrollably.
Still, the feather light ship girl did not plummet down with it, and instead managed to right her fall with her thrusters. Just in time to see two massive white gloved fists homing in on her location.
She launched herself into the air once more with her rune to avoid the fists, only for them to slowly turn to chase her, leaving her a slowly sinking duck, one out of range of the rapidly escaping plane.
”Uh oh. Um. Um. oh!”
The ship girl spotted her way out. She briefly canceled the rune as she summoned a striker, before kicking off the spirit’s body, launching herself forwards. Maneuvering thrusters fared at the same time, launching her forwards as she shouted ”Ah, wait up please” at her new target.
Said target, Sectonia, paused her own pursuit of the plane briefly to check on the sound, at which point the princess fired her hook forwards, latching onto them before calling out ”Coming in” as she started to rush forwards.
Angling herself, the ship girl swung under the queen’s abdomen as she was reeled in, boosting again at just the right moment to launch herself forwards (while giving a partying ”Sorry! Thank you!”) even more so she could catch up to grappling range with the plane. Grapple flew out, latched on, but instead reeling in inorder to try to board she swung under it, firing her grizco blaster and splattering the plane with electrically charged ink from all sides.
Then as she was on the upswing she triggered her feather fall rune, the rope still attached turning the upwards momentum into momentum back the way she had come, the princess launching herself over Sectonia’s head and into the awaiting arms of Kamek’s flock of toadies.
”See, It all worked out” she told the mage, (who had been worried sick from the moment the ship girl had been tossed off the plane) before admitting ”Though I am a little dizzy now”
”Then let us perhaps hold off on doing it again?” Kamek suggested, before adding ”or next time you might lose more than just your spear”
”No that’s fine, I can get it back, see” the princess replied, concentrating for a moment before her helbard like weapon teleported back into place hung over her back by its strap. Doing so seemed to take a lot out of her, energy wise, due to the distance involved from bringing it up from however deep the hole went, and so she was far easier to talk out of any more misadventures as a result.
The mage suspected the others would be glad to have freer sight lines, and in the koopa royal’s case, he was entirely right, as the beams of light and sound they had paused in the firing of resumed now that there was no more high flying trapeze artistry going on.
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