The Koopa Troop
wordcount: 2,891 (+3)
Bowser: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (191/140) (+1 bonus pending)
Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (74/140) (+1 bonus pending)
Kamek: Level 13 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (71/130) (+1 bonus pending)
Rika: Level 9 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(90/90) (+1 bonus pending)
Location: The Under - Mercy Dreams
”Oh thank badness” Kamek sighed with relief when he got the call from Nadia about how Ganondorf’s meeting had gone, namely, somehow, steller
”Really? Well, when you’re a backstabber you have to have some kind way with words I guess” Bowser loudly observes right after, causing Kamek to cringe, hope that their distance from the wall stopped anyone overhearing and suggest he ”maybe don’t be so loud about the man’s past performances, your thunderous-ness” before adding that ”with any luck we won’t be sticking around long enough for that to be a problem”
The subsequent question the two youngsters had about why they couldn’t take a bath somehow managed to be even worse than the king’s potential ruining of Ganondorf’s reputation. Fortunately while Kamek ah-ed and um-ed about how on earth to explain Nadia’s comment Bowser simply sidestepped the issue decarling ”Who needs their baths, we’ve got a plan to enact! Koopa troop, let’s move out and get us some mirrors!” which got him a pair of affirmations from the pair, and a relieved sigh from Kamek.
They left behind the burnt sand, as well as the satisfied with it’s victory Pycko, and headed inside, Kamek radioing in that they’d be checking out the market, a place where they would soon be causing quite the stir.
The crowds of ladies who’d followed the arrival of the king to the palace, or more accurately the ones at the back of it who couldn’t see anything over the rest of them and so where in the best position and with the highest inclination to go find the other voe to get a look at them, ended up having plenty of things to gawk at as a result of the troop’s entrance. The trio of voa turtles and their mechanical gauntlet wearing vai companion certainly were interesting to look at even just from a first glance, and things only got more entertaining from there.
Through this crowd maneuvered a middle aged woman who, had she been from earth, would have been from Indian decent, and had she been from her own she would have been from the queendom of Feminie, first vassal and then successor state to magnificent Ind, but as things stood she was a sorceress of Garudo town, and she was on the hunt for magic. Both of the smaller turtles radiated it, not just from themselves but from a set of small objects she could tell the hooded one had on his person. Objects from a home she did not know she had. Objects that resonated with her style of magic more than anything else in this world.
Thus she pushed through the crowd, and as she did she heard snippets of the troops antics-
“-she walked right up to the poor girl and asked why she was starting at her, as if we all weren't-”
“-he and the ‘king’ stole spheres of the world together-”
“-made metal from his hands- -armor of mirrors- -cracked them when he moved-”
“-reflect a god’s light, must be mad-”
-And then the crowd pulled back, letting her through to see them clearly now., and she was immediately concerned by what she saw.
”Your illuminous-ness, young majesties, I’m not sure this is the wisest idea” Kamek said, hovering atop his broom at the side of Bowser as the king angled a cannon down range, specifically at Rika, who was holding a round mirror her brother had welded an iron handle to the back off, creating a mirror shield of a kind.
”You were the one who said it ‘wouldn't be wise to use an untested strategy’” Bowser replied, mimicking Kamek’s voice as he repeated the mage’s words back at him, to which Jr added ”Yeah! Besides, Papa said he’d only use a weak flash cannon, right?”
Given the amount of sun that the king’s shell was presently drinking in, this seemed like something he’d be unlikely to be able to do. At any rate, they were prevented from finding out how a common mirror would fare vs a flash cannon round by the sorceress, who decided this was the perfect moment for a sale’s pitch.
“A mundane mirror is a terrible choice for defense” she declared, punctuated with a thump of her staff to the ground causing a little fiery burst that caused her ruby red robes to billow around her dramatically “fortunately for you, among my many magics I hold mastery, one is over reflections”
With that she drew a gold framed hand mirror from seemingly nowhere, flicked it so that it flashed in the sunlight, capturing a reflection of Bowser as it did so, and then in the next moment released that reflection, causing a mirror image of the Koopa king to be standing before him.
Both blinked, and then tilted their heads from side to side in curiosity, before the true king declared ”huh, that’s a pretty good one”
Kamek meanwhile was not so impressed, replying ”Somewhat impressive, but I can already do that” dismissively as he formed a portal and summoned a shadowy copy of Bowser as he had been before any of his fusions to face off against the other copy
“I think my likeness is much more accurate, don’t you?” the sorceress retorted, and indeed it was both in hue and to the king’s current state, causing the mage to furrowed his brows and then sneer as he replied that ”mine is truer to his spirit, and his strength. Let us see if your mere reflection can defeat a creation forged by my bond with my king?”
“No! No fighting, no magic duels, or whatever a flash cannon is!” barked the leader of the guards who had been assigned to watch the Troop, her brief thankfulness towards the sorcerer ended whatever the debacle had been about to unfold already at an end.
“Ah, of course captain. My sincerest apologies” the sorceress said as she dismissed her illusion, before saying to the Troop that “and my apologies to you as well, I did not mean that as a challenge, but as a demonstration of my talents. When it comes to enchanted mirrors, if you need one of the defensive variety, I may be able to make precisely what it is you need. Certainly something far more durable than vanity mirror you have strapped to the young vai’s arm”
”Well why didn’t you say so!” Bowser replied with a waft of a hand, before telling Kamek to ”Put that me away, we’ve finally found the right lady to ask about this” prompting the mage to grumbilingly dismiss his magical creation, much to the sorceress's relife, as she knew that her glamor made minion would have stood no chance against Kamek’s much more solid construct.
She didn’t let it show, however, and instead boasted that “indeed you have!” before turning and inviting them to “come, my home is this way, and within are the defenses you will need against this luminous foe.
With their assent, she led the way to her sandstone abode, slipping past the hanging bead-covered doorway, entering her home and getting away from the prying eyes of the crowd. Within was a fairly basic setup living space wise, cramped in by multiple sets of empty shelves. At least they seemed empty till the sorceress reached forwards and drew a book from the illusion warding her most prized possessions.
She set the tome down on a worn desk and flicked through it, pausing only for a moment to warn a curious jr “there’s traps in there too, so don’t go sticking a hand in if you want to keep it,” before finding what she sought.
“Here we are: The Mirror of Long Lost Battles” she told them, as she turned the book to show them a diagram of a warrior using a full length mirror as a tower shield, one out from which a second warrior was in the midst of lunging to strike at an unseen assailant.
“Far more durable than a plain metal shield, self repairing, and, as a bonus, capable of generating warriors to distract your foes. All you wanted and more, no?” she said, which got several over eager nods from the royals, while Kamek was more skeptical ”a diagram is all well and good, but can you make one? And what will it cost?”
“For me, 10 of these” she said, as she plucked a set of silvery gems from another glamored shelf and placed them on the desk, where they shimmered with a pink and purple aurora, before adding “from you, bronze and silver for the base materials, gold for my services, and something to barter for these gems. Mere gold will not suffice for them, I need an equivalent exchange of power, magic for magic”
That got them grumbling from the other, but Kamek was mostly nonplussed as he reached into a pocket and placed a handful of his own gemstone the table, two white, around which the constant wind blew, three purple, out of which a skull started, and four green that caused the wood of the desk to sprout leaves.
“Hmmm, air and death are not my specialties, I will need to trade those onwards or convert them at a loss of power. Nature is good. Still, more” she proclaimed, hiding her delight at gaining even these, causing another grumble from Kamek before he added 3 amber gems that shimmered with the light of a trapped soul onto the table. She looked thoughtful for a moment, prompting another sigh, and the addition of a poison cloud scroll by Kamek, which, after some inspection, got a nod from the woman.
“Good, very good. Now that is left are the metals, and, of course, my fee” she replied, preparing to up-sell them the other materials before Jr leaned over and commented ”Don’t we have that refined metal stuff, it seemed pretty good, right?”
”Ah of course, well remembered young Master. here” the mage said as he re-enlaged two sets of refined metal and placed them on the table.
“We would require specifically silver and-” the sorceress began to say, before pausing and correcting herself “No, wait. I see, I sense the potential and purity in these too. How intriguing. Those will indeed do nicely for the materials, now all I need is to be paid for my services”
More grumbling, only for Rika to pop a strange rock she’d gotten atop the pizza tower onto the table, saying ”Do you want this, I keep forgetting I have it, and it only works when running, not jumping about like I’ve been doing”
”Ah, well, if you are sure, but I’m sure we can cover whatever small extra cost we are accruing with gold, geo, or souls” Kamek replied, attempting to put emphasis on small.
“Souls?” the sorceress asked as she paused her inspection of the Little Disciple, prompting Kamek to hold out a hand holding in a sum of 900 of the ephemeral currency. The shimmering light of them reflected in the sorceress’ eyes, before she moved a hand to take them, paused, and then offered to shake on it instead, saying “with that, you have yourself a deal, and my best work, that I can assure you” quite sure she had just made a killing.
”It’s a deal” Kamek replied, clasping the offered hand and shaking it, quite sure they were the ones who had come ahead in the end. Really only time would tell. Specifically the amount of time it took the sorceress to create the item, which involved a lot of magical circles, chanting, and other magical classics as she worked her power.
While she did, the troop enjoyed the shade and privacy of her home, and either took a rest or played some video games, depending on their proclivities.
Soon enough there was the unmistakable flash and feel of magic, and it was done. Sitting within a burnt out spell circle, and surrounded by 10 now lifeless gemstones, sat the fruit of the sorceress's labor.
Tall as she was, the tower shield was framed with immaculately carved bronze, sporting the emblem of the Koopa troop at its top, namely Bowser’s face, which loomed over a plane of immaculate polished silver, that reflected both the troop and, shimmering around their own reflections, hazily reflections of Bowser’s minions … mostly in the process of being squashed by a certain plumber.
It appeared that ‘long lost battles’ could have two meanings, one of battles lost to the mists of time, and the other battles that had long ago been, well, lost. The troop certainly had a plethora of those to draw from.
Standing behind her creation, the sorceress was a touch confuse as to why the three koopa's eyes narrowed at the sight of it, then yelped in alarm as Bowser declared ”alright let’s test it out!” before swiftly cocking a shoulder cannon and unleashing a flash cannon burst at the offending object.
As he did so, one of the figures became clear in the hazy reflections of battles past, and a perfect mirror image of Mario leapt out of it. Right in the path of the bolt of light Bowser had fired. It slammed straight through the illusion and then into the polished silver of the mirror shield as the sorceress cowered behind it. It was the only thing that saved her from being blinded when the concentrated light bolt burst against the surface and the resulting light flashed back the way the shot had come.
There where several gah’s from the troop, except for Rika who had the passive protection of the essence of melted down sunglasses to shield her from the glare, so she was the first to observe how ”Oh hey cool, it worked”
There was a little pause, followed by a cough from the sorceress before she regained her composure and replied that “of course it did” even if it hadn’t really reflected the shot, mainly endured it. Still, Bowser for one was delighted (once he had wiped his eyes clear) declaring ”Gah ha! That was great! Let me blast another Mario!”
”Perhaps another time your glaring-ness, I can’t imagine the city guards will be very-” Kamek began to say, right on time for one of the guards to pop her head (and spear) in through the door to check if everything was alright.
“Everything is fine, nothing to worry about. I was just concluding a deal, assuming my clients are happy with it?” she replied, before glancing at the troop, who all nodded in agreement. The guard narrowed her eyes, made a gesture indicating ‘im watching you’ at the troop, and then departed, prompting Kamek and the Sorceress to sigh with relief.
“Well then, a pleasure doing business with you?” she enquire as a polite suggestion that they be on their way, to which Kamek agreed ”A pleasure” before following up on her suggestion by making his own, namely ”I think we should perhaps be on our way? Can’t leave the others lingering too long without, ah, proper royal guidance” which got them moving.
A few moments later, and they were heading out to find the rest of the team, their new mirror shield strapped to Bowser’s arm, the king lifting the tower shield sized bulwark as easily as a smaller being would a common round shield.