The Veterans
Words: 2128 (+3 exp/rapport)
Bowser: Level 14
EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (203/140) (+1 bonus pending)
Blazermate
Level 13 Blazermate (Holding 5 level up) - (14/130)
”Scaling a mountain? Easy! I could do that in my sleep!” Bowser, who was dressed up like Santa, sans the beard but with a red coat and hat and all the rest (for some reason) declared.
”Why are you dressed up like Santa again?” Blazermate said, having no place to perch herself on his shell thanks to his outfit and instead walking around the big koopa, noting much like him her flight was greatly reduced with the ‘rules’ of this game.
”Because Santa Bowser’s gonna steal all the coins!” the king declared, retorting to criticism of the garb he didn’t even chose, before adding that ”It’s kinda my thing in a lot of these minigame parties most of the time”
”.. But the Namahage are what steal things during xmas, not Santa…” Blazermate said, confused. But then she quickly recovered. ”Wait, you’ve done this before? And multiple times? Huh… Well I guess that means I’ve got a vet on my side! Hope I can pull my weight, hehe.” she said, putting that whole thing aside.
”Ah, but then I’ll be giving them to the good little boy and girl. Or, well, big girl, but she still counts” the king replied, which almost worked out if it weren't for the fact he was competing against said kids as well. As for her praising him as a vet, he agreed that ”and yeah, you’re gonna have to give your best to keep up with this super star!” boastfully
”Don’t worry, I got this. I’m one of the scarier medabots even though I’m a healer. Funny thing, I know you haven’t seen many, but I’m actually one of the faster models hehe.” Although Blazermate, doing her own boast, left out the fact that she was also one of the few medabot models who could both heal, and keep up with the shooting bots with medaforce spam. ”Well, let's get hooked together and ready to climb! No flying for me, but I can climb.”
Although once the two got harnessed, it was almost comical how the under 5ft tall bot was tied to the ginormous koopa king. Blazermate could almost hide behind his leg, and with her lightweight frame, it was almost like Bowser was just climbing by himself.
He did not see the problem with this, and indeed his first thought was to simply too pick up the tiny bot in one claw, check that she was ”Ready for liftoff?” and then to crouch, tense and then leap into the air! Unfortunately, while he did an impressive jump by anyone else's standards, the king’s ability to jump good had also been disabled, and so rather than launch to the top of the cliff face he’d stepped up too, he just face planted right into it. Seeing this, Blazermate hopped out of his claw before he faceplanted along the wall with an ”oof”
Being unable to fly, Blazermate glided down and around Bowser to grab onto him on his side, ”We can’t really use powers, remember? But that means the others can’t as well. And uh… don’t try to squish me against a wall. I saw that happen to a metabee, it didn’t end well.” Blazermate said, almost chastising Bowser a bit after he almost smashed her into a wall with himself. She then, a bit more gracefully, jumped to the next platform. ”C’mon!”
Bowser shook his head clear and then, feeling a tug on the rope attached to him as Blazermate reached the limit of its short length, grunted and said ”Alright alright!” before leaping up alongside her with some regular jumps.
This worked for all of about 2 stories of jump throwable ledges that they could take one at a time, only for them to find a small pit with a floating platform hovering in the center. The first jump should not have been an issue, were it not for the fact that the rope was not long enough to go from one side of the other, which had predictable consequences as Blazermate, who was ahead, went ahead and attempted it first.
She thought she could make the jump, but soon found that the short rope held her back, causing her to miss the platform and glide down slowly before the rope and Bowser held her suspended in the air, the Koopa king soon reeling her back in. ”OK uh…. I guess we need some teamwork on this one. Any fun ideas?” Blazermate asked.
”Hmmmmm. Jumping while holding you didn’t work sooooo” Bowser replied, tapping his chin thoughtfully, before snapping his fingers. A moment later, Blazermate had stepped onto a lower pair of palms and tossed into the air. Naturally, she stopped about half way across the gap, but also far higher above it than she could have jumped herself, and started to slowly glide down. At this point the king leapt across himself, causing him to tug her floating form along behind him like a kite that swooped down to land beside him.
”How you like that!” ”It works, but you're making me feel like more of a toy than I already am!” Blazermate said as she floated down, more teasingly angry than actual angry, still having fun.
When they tried to do this again however, there came an issue: the king simply did not have the legs to leap across the second, longer, gap, resulting in him plummeting down into the snow and dragging Blazermate down with him, her jets stalling in mid air as she struggled to glide with the king in hand. The bot landed on her feet beside him as he pulled his head out of the snow, resulting in both of them getting a good look at the animated signpost of a penguin swinging a second penguin on a rope below the platform.
”What?” Blazermate was confused as well, until she got an idea. ”Oh, maybe we gotta have someone under the platform, someone on top, then we swing them to the next platform and do some weird… uh…. Teamwork thingy instead of both jumping or something. yeah…” Blazermate said, this place confusing her a bit much like Bowser.
”Yeah. Gotta be it” Bowser agreed, before glancing back and seeing that there was a fairly easy way back up to the start of the jump. As such, a few moments later, they were up there and ready to try it. Blazermate glided over to the platform, getting a grip on it so Bowser could swing over. The rope was super, super strong so she was sure it wouldn’t snap… right? Well, this was the best way to find out! She didn’t want Bowser to lose his grip and fall on her, that’d be uncomfortable.
”Alright, here goes!” the several times her size king declared, before leaping back the way they had come, plummeting down into the pit till the rope went taught and then Blazermate was held flat onto the platform as the king swung below her, holding onto the platform instead of the rope so Bowser wouldn’t drag her under. At least unlike before her jets were not’ stalling, but she was still blushing with effort on holding the giant koopa as he swung under her and eventually swung to the proper platform. At least once he managed to get a good jump, his weight mostly carried Blazermate’s jump with the ladybot being much more graceful than the king.
”Phew, we just gotta do that… a bunch of times now I guess. ” Blazermate said, more relieved than tired.
”Then let’s get started!” the king declared, though as it turned out they had to do a bunch of tandem jumps up a set of rising cliffs first, before doing one more swing, before immediately getting stuck again when they got to an awkward overhang
As it turned out, the drop under the overhang was deceptive, as it opened up into a deep pit after they tried and failed to just jump it anyway, which forced them to redo a dozen or so jumps to get back up to said overhang.
”What kinda level design was that, yeesh” the king complained upon getting back up, before glancing at the signpost and trying to work out how they were supposed to be doing this. This one seemed to show a penguin grabbing the side of the wall for another to dangle down from and swing from.
”Someone who likes pain, I think.” Blazermate said, just as confused about the sign as Bowser. Still, they had been making good progress with Bower’s might and Blazermate able to at least help him along and not get in the way over a few others. ”Any ideas? I don’t know what this sign is asking of us either. I’m more for fighting and doing casual stuff. I fly so I don’t need to do parkour…” Blazermate said, looking confused and trying to think of what this meant for them to do.
It took a bit, but after a bit of scouting from Blazermate, she saw a bit of a platform on the other side of the wall, so what they were meant to do was jump down, one holds onto the wall while the other swings. Blazermate suggested Bowser hold the wall til she swung over, since she doubted he could hold all his awesomeness.
Of course, the problem was that after he did this, claws and mits groping the wall nicely, bot easily swung up and under to the other platform …. He now had to come after her while she held the platform and reeled him in, which was, safe to say, a fairly slow process, the little robot heaving with all her might to raise the king up an inch at a time while Bowser climbed the rope himself.
With a claw, he pulled himself up and suggested that they try ”Maybe the, uh, other way around?”
As it turned out they had to try it that way anyway, as they ended getting to some underhangs soon after, where they had to swing one another up and under to get across. Which took time.
Taking time was the best way to describe their progress, as without their supernatural/science abilities, both king and bot proved to not make the most mobile pairing. Said progress made the section involving moving platforms even more infuriating to the king, who fumed at being made to wait for the same platform for the 4th time after failing a subsequent jump and losing piles of progress because of it. Blazermate did what she could to sooth his rage, but to be honest, she was just as annoyed as he was at waiting. They were getting behind!
”Hey, everyone is passing us! We’ve gotta do something!” Blazermate said as they got back to the start of the mine after that fourth tumble.
”I know! I can see that! Stupid jumping people! Gotta be cheating somehow!” Bowser roared up at them, clearly getting very frustrated with this course not just because they were losing, but also because it offended all his own level designing sensibilities.