“Theology huh?” Rayne replied, now there was a topic she would not have been able to put an actual name to had she been asked. Given what the book she was given was about, she supposed it made sense that if you had lots of gods you’d need a field of study about them, but it was still so strange to her.
Gaia was barely worshiped. People had fought in the name of the attentive goddess, yes, but that had been more about what she represented, their planet and the death of its environment they had ultimately failed to stop even in their victory, rather than any desire to bow down or adore the goddess herself.
As a result this book describing ancient worshiped deities was just utterly bizarre to her. Why did people worship them in general, why had they stopped worshiping these ones in particular, what did they get out of it and how did they do it? Well, presumably the book had the answers, which made the fact that one was present and this lady knew exactly where it was ever so convenient.
Enough that it would have been suspicious to someone more versed in conspiracy, and while the witch knight had been on the wrong end of such things at thrice in one day a mere few weeks ago, she’d completely missed them all before having to brute force and power of friendship her way out of the consequences.
As such, paranoia wasn’t exactly her first response to strange circumstances, and she happily told the lady “Oh wow, this really does look perfect, thank you so much!” after doing that initial little glance at the provided books contents to see what it was all about.
She then stepped back and poked her head around a corner to call out “Miss Sanae, I think I’ve got what we need!” before looking back, and saying “oh, and I don’t think I caught your name, sorry?” mainly out of wanting to refer to and think of this mysterious stranger properly rather than doing so as, well, ‘helpful hooded lady’ whenever she came up in conversation in the future.
After indeed drawing a bit of attention with her floating, stares and children pointing and such, Rayne followed Sana’s example and returned to ground plodding. Plus, being able to quickly bypass all the crowds didn’t really matter if she was waiting up on someone who had to deal with it.
Of course, then the human woman had to be held up by Rayne’s short stature and stride, and also had to be the one to actually look out for things as the halfling got her sight-lines blocked by all the tall people in town.
It was thus by her eyes that they found themselves by the bookstore, having failed to find somewhere bigger, or with free access. The lack of public libraries was very much a black mark against the nation’s rulers in her mind. As it was they were going to have to pay for the knowledge they sought, if they could even find it.
Fortunately she had gotten a bit of coin doing odd jobs in this world, so if they did find something that looked promising it might be in their price range. The issue with that was that they’d probably only be able to get one or two things, so finding just the right book was key.
The complete lack of spine labeling or any real sorting system really was not going to help with that, which left Rayne stressing about going through each and every tome till she encountered the suspicious/helpful stranger.
She glanced him up and down in turn in just a touch of a ‘see how you like it’ kind of way, before tipping her hat in a witchy greeting of “hello, I’m Rayne” and then agreeing that “and yes, we are actually”
“We’ve just arrived in town," she said, answering the sudo-question about their unprecedented visit, before loosely explaining what it was they were here for “and were looking for any books that might be about, or mentioned a goddess called ‘Lavielle’. We found an old abandoned temple of her out near the border and have been asking around, but no one seems to have heard of her so she seems like she might be old or obscure?” she wasn’t entirely sure how a deity could be either of those things really, but then her world only had one. “Might be she’d be mentioned in a history book, or in some kind of, uh, book about goddesses?” she guessed before asking “don’t suppose you’ve heard of her or know where we might read about her?”
wordcount: 5,322 (+6 for jr) (+4 for rest of troop) (+3 rapport with Roxas for jr) Bowser: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (241/140) (+1 bonus pending) Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (126/140) Kamek: Level 13 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (120/130) (+1 bonus pending) Rika: Level 9 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(135/90) (+1 bonus pending) Location: The avenger: spirit chamber -> engineering
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
After fusing, the group had another run through their spirits, and decided what to do with the rest. They had planned to crush them, but a last second change of intent saw both Rika and Jr taking on another striker each, with the ship girl stashing her cloyster one in the storage room.
New striker spiritbound: Maria A dark knight wielding a blood-red twinblade. She can appear to swing twice with her swordblades, incurring just a 10s cooldown. She can also be summoned to perform a counter, using an empowered version of her basic attack when struck, though a 15s cooldown is incurred whether or not she's hit. Finally, she can perform Blood Rain over the course of two summons; the first one empowers her (10s), and the second performs a bloody slam that heals the host for all damage inflicted (40s)
New striker spiritbound: Sho A high-tech ninja wielding electric chain scythes. He can either perform quick melee slashes or a long-range scythe hurl every 10s. Every 30s, he can also perform Air Rend, hurling one scythe at an enemy that he then uses for flying grapple slash. Alternatively, he can use Evasion Rend to appear, then substitute a log that, if struck, lets him use Air Rend without having to land the projectile first
Testing those spirits would have to wait in the same way the fusions would have to wait, so just how good of an idea any of it had been would remain to be seen. All that remained then was items.
Mercenary's Eyepatch: An accessory that provides minimal physical defense but 20% crit rate Padwah's Wheel: A tank wheel devoid of its treads, wielded as a weapon. Though more than applicable as a blunt instrument, it's been retrofitted with flamethrowers that allow it to serve as a blazing ring of destruction. Driver's License: It would allow you to drive legally if you happened to be Alesha Book of Thoth: While possessing this item, you permanently gain 12 Mana per Stack, and receive 1 Stack by dealing a lot of damage to minions or a bit of damage to gods. You gain Magical Power equal to 4% of your Mana from items. At 50 stacks this item Evolves, gaining 10 Magical Penetration and increasing the Magical Power gained from Mana to 7%. Coin :A coin of unknown origin and value. Without any monetary use, it wields one single purpose: the ability to make decisions purely by virtue of random chance. In fact, this coin exists for no other reason, and that alone makes it an indispensable treasure Poison Perfume Bottle: A set of two bottles containing the pollen of miranda flowers, perfectly suited to wafting through the air, infused with dangerous toxins from poisonbloom plants. Inhalation of this scattered powder can quickly trigger long-lasting poisoning, but the 'perfume' dissipates quickly in the air. This is an arcane dexterity weapon, magical enough to never run dry, but indelicate usage (or damaging the bottles) will permanently ruin it Krull's Amulet: A spiky metal fishhook. Provides a small buff to attack and hp. If equipped with Krull's weapon and armor, they will provide a set effect that boosts hp by 30% Barbarian Mug :A unique treasure once possessed by the barbarian Gau. Fully drinking its contents grants the Vortex effect, increasing damage of the next attack by 50%. That attack also applies a 10s debuff that increases damage received by 5% Organic Polymer x4 :A natural material harvested from certain flightless waterfall. It's a useful component for crafting sophisticated weapons, machines, and devices Cursed Dream Silks: The thread scratches and wriggles between your fingers. A chill lingers in your skin long after you stop touching it. A skilled artisan could fashion it into the core of a ghastly weapon
The result was a mixed bag:
Kamek got a new item he intended to do flybys with using doplegangers, while Jr had an idea for a massive flaming yoyo if he ever got his clown car fixed. Yet another reason to visit engineering.
The boosting items mostly went in the pot, except the book that seemed to work just fine sitting in a bag which was handy. Said book and the eyepatch went to Kamek (which combined with the 10% magic crit he had from the hat he ended up smelting made for a pretty potent combo), and the amulet to Rika, while the mug was stashed due to being just too impractical really, but certainly worth something to someone.
Finally there were the two ”Oh come on!“ worthy items: the driver’s license and the coin, which were both simply stashed in random pockets.
Then, as they were finishing up, news arrived that they’d be needing to share rooms. For others this might have represented quite the conundrum, but for the troop, well:
”I call dibs on one with Rika!“ Jr called out, resulting in the predictable question of ”What is a ‘dibs’ and why are you calling?” from the shipgirl in question
”It more or less means ’I stake a claim’ young Mistress” Kamek explained, to which Rika responded with a simple informed ”oh” followed by adding that ”Well then I call ‘dibs’ on a room with Jr as well then”
”Then you’ll both have it” Bowser assured them with a grin, prompting jr to initiate a high five between the pair
”and I suppose for simplicity I shall double up with you, your soft sleepiness” Kamek said, to spare others the Koopa King’s frightful snoring, to which Bowser responded simply with a grunt that communicated ‘yeah, obviously’ putting that non-conundrum to rest.
Having easily sorted out the room situation, the troop where left to kill a bit of time before the meeting Sandalphon had suggested, and so set out to check out the ship a bit, and also to catch up with an a pair of allies wh where aboard, but who had apparently split themselves from the active teams: the tinkering Tora and his robotic companion Poppi.
Well, that and Jr wanted to check out engineering in general as well, and simply assumed they would be there. As such, after only taking two wrong turns on their way to the room that was practically next door, the Troop were filing into it and seeing what there was to see within.
In the few hours that the Seekers spent down in Carnival Town, Tora and Poppi had made some incremental progress in reconfiguring a corner of the workshop to suit the nopon’s needs, but nothing too drastic. While he hadn’t slain any guardians today, Tora had been through a lot already, so like his comrades he wanted to take it easy for a little while. Of course, for Tora blowing off steam meant doing what he enjoyed, which happened to be robotics anyway. Dispensing with the usual table, the diminutive engineer opted for the floor instead, where he’d already begun to arrange the various pieces of mechanical scrap on hand into the rough shape of his latest and greatest idea. For now, it just looked like an enormous hockey puck, but its size suggested that the nopon had something special in mind. Still, for now the hodgepodge assembly seemed to be a concept, and Tora was busy prototyping with modeling software on his little computer. Crude white sketches were taking shape on blueprints that dangled from nearby workbenches like banners, held in place by the weight of spare tools.
Poppi, meanwhile, was entertaining herself with an odd contraption: a cubic device with each of its six faces split into nine colored segments, able to be freely rotated in various directions by virtue of some highly sophisticated inner mechanism. She seemed intent on manipulating the device until all of its faces featured just one unified color, but this was evidently easier said than done. When the Koopa Troop arrived, she’d just removed one of the stickers in order to manually paste elsewhere, and when she saw the newcomers she seemed grateful for the distraction. “Oh! Hello friends, long time no see!” Though her chassis looked quite different from any iteration of Poppi that the koopas had seen before, she greeted them with the same cheerful smile as she tossed the cube over her shoulder. “Welcome to new workplace of Tora and Poppi! Say hello, Tora!”
“Hello, Tora!” The nopon chuckled at his own joke, then set down his white marker and got up. “Haha, just kidding, meh. Good to see friends again!” The dynamic duo and the Koopa Troop had been on different teams for two assignments now, but Tora had a special place in his heart for the four, especially Bowser. After all, the two of them had been there since the very beginning, a feat that only Blazermate could also boast of. “If shellypons here for machinery, Tora not ready yet! Need set up fabrication before work really get starting, meh. Custom parts is backbone of all Tora projects!”
Having made her way to her Masterpon’s side, Poppi patted him on the head. “Tora, they not here to order something! We should take chance to catch up!”
“Oh, right!” Tora crossed his little arms, smiling up at the newcomers. “What is up, friends?”
”Not much, just being the king of awesome, taking names and punching faces“ Bowser declared with not an iota of irony in that self declaration while behind him started whispering a quiet answer to Rika’s not at all quiet question of ”Who was this again?”
”Also heard you’d had some kind of rough time over at that Midgar place, so wanted to check if you’re good?“ the king then asked, the delivery of that info having been pretty light on details after all, and for all his self declared evil the king certinly cared about anyone he considered ‘his’. Jr meanwhile much more selfishly told them straight up that ” I just wanted to check out the workshop you’ve got“ while examining it all.
“That sound like Bow-Bow Tora know,” the nopon replied, using a customary double-name as a term of endearment. Fittingly enough, Tora ignored Rika, and while Poppi gave her a brief look, she assumed that the Koopa family’s hanger-on had simply tagged along regardless of who she might be meeting. When Bowser mentioned the pair’s experience in Midgar, both nodded gravely, their expressions suddenly serious. “Meh, meh…it get pretty bad back there, yeah. For while, Tora thought Poppi gone for good. Very scary.”
His companion patted him on the head again. “But in end, Poppi back and better than ever. Still going to be little bit before Tora and Poppi back in swing of things, but we together, and that what counts.”
Tora gave her a hug with his wings.He then turned his attention to Junior. “Well, littlepon check out whatever want, but no touch, meh. Everything in its place, yes? There method to Tora madness.”
He did this right in time to stop Jr from picking up to examine one of the more interesting looking tools, prompting a little grunt of frustration as he halted his hand, and then a huff of ”-s fine, I got my own anyway“ as he pulled it back.
Having said that, he retrieved the yellow toolbox from his duffle bag, had Kamek enlarge it, and then settled down in front of Tora’s tinker space, popping it open beside him. He then turned his neck around and said ”Come on sis, let’s get those fixed up, yeah?” prompting a little nod from Rika, before the ship girl settled down beside him, popping off the gauntlets so her brother could tinker with them.
As they did that, Kamek, now free from explaining who the pair were, poked his nose into the chat to ask ”Might I inquire into the nature of the scare? Anything we should be worried about in future?”
Tora and Poppi exchanged a glance for a moment, the latter giving an unbothered shrug to make sure her masterpon knew she wouldn’t be bothered if he talked about it. The nopon nodded and returned his attention to Kamek. “Well, while subject matter rather new, Tora did become teensy bit obsessed and learn everything possible, so Tora explain best as can.” He glanced at Junior for a moment, trying not to be too distracted by his rival engineer’s new project. “It kind of complicated, so bear with, meh. In Midgar, we dealt with big hullabaloo called Ever Crisis, meaning all kinds of nastypons attack all time. That include army of machines, and while not very tough, Machines turn out to have awful trick up sleeve. It called Logic Virus, and it infect robots like disease infect people, except instead of make sick, it change them, making crazy and violent. Mehmeh…as it turn out, this include Poppi. Poppi…started going haywire, then force herself to run away so she not hurt us. Tora, Roxas, and Pit-Pit all give chase, but in end, we unable to save Poppi.”
The artificial blade shook her head, her face one of consternation. “Poppi really not remember very well,” she admitted. “Entire incident corrupted in memory. But after lots of hard work making new body, Tora brought Poppi back thanks to Xatow from Organization XIII, who fetch Poppi spirit from Dystopiascape.”
After nodding, Tora tried to look more upbeat. “During reconstruction, Tora research viruses tirelessly, teaching self ins and outs of advanced cybersecurity. No virus ever infect Poppi ever again, meh! So word to wise: if friends get into artificial intelligence, make sure to have top-of-line antivirus programming! Meh, meh. Better yet, just leave it to Tora!” The Lost Numbers’ newest cybersecurity expert put his little arms on his hips, posing for dramatic effect.
”You’re gonna have to hope we never find our castle and the royal PC, I gave up on that thing“ Jr joked, having only been half listening, only for his brain to bring it up again and make him fully pay attention in-order to ask ”wait did you say they got you her spirit?“
”Wait, so did you figure out how that respawning thing works then?“ Bowser asked, before Kamek could get a word in, prompting him to sigh and suggest ”ah, let’s not jump to conclusions” before enquiring ”but yes, how did you do that?”
“Meh?” Tora gave Bowser a quizzical look, then his aide, then Poppi, but his companion knew just as little as he. He very much wanted to know what Bowser meant by that, and rather than let it be swept under the rug, he planned to do just that. “Xatow just retrieve spirit from where Poppi old body went offline, far as Tora knows. Since spirits just data, and Poppi artificial blade to begin with, she was ‘writing’ to it throughout journey, so it final piece of puzzle Tora need to bring her back.” He crossed his arms and began to stare at Bowser, regaling the king of koopas with his trademark discomfort-inducing, unflinching eye contact. “What friend Bow-Bow mean by ‘respawning thing’?”
Kamek simply sighed and, having anticipated the question unlike his king who had done a classic mouth open ”Guh“, decided to simply lay it out to the young Nepon ”It is, well, not a secret, more of a ‘I’m not sure how to tell you thing’ but seeing as its partially out in the open now, and to preempt speculation, I shall give a brief lecture on the topic” before hovering over to a convenient whiteboard and upon it drawing the symbol they had been shown by Asgore.
”According to a fellow who had been de-storied (which is what being freed from Galeem’s control is apparently called) for a long, long, long time, these are why Galeem’s world has not been depopulated despite how violent and, literally, death fueled it is'' he began, before explaining ”According to this fellow, he has seen places that were wiped out one day become filled with life the next. Specifically ones that have one of these symbols in them, which he believes ‘respawn’ those who are killed. Or others? Regardless anyone who dies will, at some point, in some place, be brought back to life with no memories of their past lives in this world”
”Including. Seemingly. Supposedly. All of us. Over, and over, and over and over again” the mage said, rapping his wand on the whiteboard with grimly delivered each ‘over’ for emphasis, before ditching the dire enunciations and returning back to a scholarly tone as he finished with ”Which concludes the lecture. Any questions about the cursed knowledge you now bare?”
Tora plopped down and just digested the new information for a few moments. While he understood the gist of what Kamek told him well enough, he still hard a hard time wrapping his head around that being the case, much less accepting it. In some ways it made sense, but in others it defied all logical explanation. And they had just the word of some old guy to go on? The nopon didn’t know what to think, and for all her sensibilities, Poppi didn’t know much better. After all, she’d already died and been brought back, skewing her perception of her own mortality somewhat. But Kamek did mention memory loss, which terrified her. Memories were what made her, an artificial being, who she was. Without them, she wouldn’t be Tora’s Poppi, who stood at his side in the World of Light since the Mushroom Kingdom. She would just be a copy, a second Poppi. For a machine, being replaced was as bad as dying.
“...Meh, meh. Scary words hurt Tora noggin, so Tora try not think too hard about it right now,” her masterpon decided after a few moments. “Maybe…come to terms with later. Tora need proof, for one thing. Either way, it can wait.” He leaned back and exhaled deeply, none too happy, then gave the Troop a weak smile. “Thankings for drop by?”
Poppi crossed her arms, pacing. “Maybe we should take walk around ship to clear head?”
As much as he tried to refocus on his blueprints, Tora could only look at them like he’d lost his appetite. “In little bit, sure. Tora want satisfactory stopping point before step away, or it take longer to get started again, meh.”
“Alright,” Poppi confirmed, turning to the others. “See friends at meeting, then? Poppi have sneaking suspicion that disturbing news not over.”
”Huh?“ Bowser replied, confused as to what had just happened, while Kamek sighed and agreed ”I suppose so” in response both to the suggestion to leave the pair alone for a bit, and to the worry that there might still be dire truths waiting to be revealed.
”One more second“ Jr said before there was a little flash of sparks and he finished resoldering a damaged component in Rika’s arm, prompting the metal fingers to twitch jittery, and then flex much more naturally, confirming that ”Ok done”
With that the pair got up to leave, followed by Bowser benign ushered along by an insistent Kamek, and in doing so they ran more or less straight into Roxas.
Roxas had indeed decided that he wanted a bite to eat. It hadn’t actually been that long since lunch, but between fighting that Consul and playing through those minigames he’d already worked up an appetite. So he figured some kind of snack would tie him over until it was mealtime again later on. And of course he wasn’t about to leave Scamp out either. The little Yamper was following right behind him and could probably smell the food he was carrying. Roxas had in fact just come from the Research Center, where Professor Koa had given him some Pokemon food to feed to Yamper. Before that he had been in Stolen Moments where he snagged a sandwich for himself.
”Oh, hey guys!” He said to the troop when he ran into them, ”Those minigames made me hungry so I thought I’d get a snack for me and Scamp here.”
”They have snacks on this flying ship?” Rika asked as if it was somehow unusual for a ship this size to not have food available on it ”They aren't cursed like last ships’ one are they? I didn’t get to eat those“ due to her experience on the Maw.
”They’ll be fine“ Bowser assured her, before asking ”Now where are they at… uh“ and floundering on the boy’s name.
”Roxas“ Kamek supplied. Jr meanwhile, was not focused on the food in Roxas’s hand, but instead the electric puppydog that his father and sister were acting way too much like.
‘Cursed snacks’? Roxas was definitely missing some context there, and he wasn’t sure he even wanted to know what it was. ”I got my sandwich from the Stolen Moments Bar, right above us on the next level up.” He said, even pointing a finger upward for emphasis. Meanwhile, Scamp had begun to return the attention that he was being given by Junior, until he eventually spun himself around in a circle with a cute little “Bow wark!” earning him a little snort of endeared amusement from the prince.
”Alright, next stop, the bar“ Bowser declared, with Rika nodding along, only for Jr to say that ”I’ll catch up” and Kamek to, in response to that, give a little sideways nod to say that he would too. Rather blatantly to keep an eye on the young prince due to a paranoia earned from that.
A few nods and “see you at the meeting”s, and jr got the time to ask his rather simple question, which was ”So you're a trainer too then, huh? Same“ as he puffed up his chest a little (and the 3 pokeballs strapped to it in the process) and locked eyes with Roxas, clearly expecting something that would not be forthcoming.
”What, whoa, hold on - you don’t want to…?” Roxas stumbled. ”I don’t think we can battle here. Too cramped, and we might damage something important.” He explained, hoping not to be drawn into a battle of three Pokemon against his one. ”I promise I’ll battle you later if you really want to. That reminds me…” he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, ”There’s someone here you might wanna meet later - Professor Koa. His lab is in the research area below where all the living quarters are. He studies Pokemon for a living and he might wanna give you a Rotom Phone like mine, see?” Roxas said, holding out the phone for Junior to see. He was also kinda hoping this would distract the prince from his desire for a Pokemon Battle.
”A phone?!“ Jr said, entirely successfully distracted by this as his eyes lit up at the sight of it, before demanding to know ”Where? What can it do? Does it have games?“ because ”I didn’t have mine when I got dumped here it has been sooo lame“
”You were grounded at the time, young master, so you did not have it before“ Kamek reminded the prince from where he was leaning on his broom, only half in the conversation, which made him miss the brief side to side glance the prince gave that might have given away that the latter had not actually been the case.
”I’ve never tried to play any games on it.” Roxas said, admittedly curious about that himself. ”But it’s got a camera. And the Pokedex on it lets it record useful information about the Pokemon you encounter so you can learn their types and stuff.” He went ahead and opened the Pokedex App and brought up the entry it contained for Yamper and then let Junior see it for himself.
Jr was up on his tip toes as he ”Ooo“’d at this, before saying that ”This guy sounds way better than the Stone guy who taught me stuff. He just made me do school work to learn a type chart, bleh“ only to then wonder what had happened to the man post smash city’s fall. Or indeed even Peach’s castle where he’d been when they’d last met.
They should maybe check that out.
But only after he got a new phone. Being able to take pictures alone would be worth it with how much wild stuff they’d seen that he now wished he’d had one to record, let alone being able to get more info on mon.
”Oh, oh, now do mine“ he then said after that last thought, taking a moment to pop open his pokeballs to release his trio of mon who were, well, a bit unusual to say the least. A Brionne named Dazzle with a ghostly skeletal whale tail, a Flutter Mane called Peeka with a necklace of living energy eyeballs, and a mimikyu named Mimi who had a metal jaw, battery on her back, and a cloud-like body.
Only this last prompted any comment from Jr, and that was ”Huh, maybe we should rejig you so that it's just the lower body Mimi? That way no chompy jaw?“ which got a few side to side tilts of thought before an enthusiastic nod from the little monster.
Roxas, having never seen any of these Pokemon before, had no context whatsoever about what they were supposed to look like. Thankfully the Pokedex could use the Rotom Phone’s camera to scan them so it could automatically search up their entries. It did this without issue for Dazzle and Mimi. But when he tried to do it for Peeka he instead got a confused look on his face. ”That’s weird.” He said as he fiddled with the Rotom Phone, ”Something about Peeka is confusing the Pokedex somehow. It gave me two search results instead of just one.” He showed the screen to Junior, which displayed the images of what looked like two similar-looking Pokemon. One was Flutter Mane, and the other was of a Pokemon identified as Misdreavus. Also, Flutter Mane’s entry seemed to not have as much information as the other entries did. Mostly just boiled down to speculation and conjecture about whether or not it was an ancient ancestor of Misdreavus.
”I wonder if the Professor would know anything about this. Maybe we should ask him later?”
”Huh, and it’s not even the fusion that’s messing with that, coz the other two where fine“ Jr noted as well as adding that ”and that’s not what she fused with either“ while pointing at the Misdreavus entry. Peeka herself wasn’t exactly a source of answers for this, that was for sure, the mon just tilting back and forth above their heads as it examined this other thing that was not it on screen.
”Also wait what do you mean later? I wanna get a phone now!“ Jr whined a moment of realizing what Roxas had said, only for Kamek to remind him of ”The meeting, young master, will be quite soon I believe“
”Aw come on we can get in and out real quick, it's only…“ he glanced at the time on the phone, went ”uhhhh“ and then asked ”How long ago did that tall lady-“ ”-Sandalphon-“ ”-Sandalphon say we’d be having a meeting in 30 minutes?“
”You could try to go now…” Roxas said for a moment, but then tried to tempt Junior another way. ”But if you go after the meeting you’ll have more time to ask him questions and stuff?” He suggested, seeing if maybe this would be enough to convince the prince to be patient. But also added that, ”You also won’t have time for snacks if you go now, too.”
Jr just narrowed his eyes ”You don’t remember either, do you?“ managing to see through at least this ruse. Partially anyway. He wasn’t exactly running off to try and harang the professor with a 10 second smash and grab after all.
”Uh…” Roxas stumbled, unable to answer because he too had forgotten. ”Okay, ya got me. I forgot too.” He finally admitted with sagging shoulders. ”But if Scamp doesn’t get to eat he might try to steal other people’s food.” He added in a tone that strongly implied that he was speaking from experience. It was how he’d met the little guy in the first place, after all.
Jr gave a little nose exhale of a laugh at this, and declared that ”You should have him better trained“ while at that very same moment one of Mimi’s very long arms was sneaking into his duffle bag inorder to steal a trio of poke puffs.
”Gimme a break…” Roxas said as he scratched the back of his head. ”...I only just adopted him a couple hours ago.”
Kamek, too amused to comment on this, instead simply suggested that ”Then perhaps we should begin heading up there young masters? I imagine the young mistress will have acquired a generous selection of snacks once again and we can skip that part of the trip in order to catch up“
”Sounds good to me. Snacking by myself wouldn’t have been much fun anyway. What do you think, buddy?” He directed the last part of that to Scamp, who gave a little hop and offered another one of its cute little bow-warks in response.
”Then let’s go already!“ Jr declared to, in a very like his father's manner, take charge of a decision that had already been made. He store forwards three steps, paused, then went back and hoisted the less land mobile Dazzle up into a princess carry, and then resumed leading the way, Mimi on his shoulder, Peeka floating above him.
The minagary was apparently getting to stay out and about for snack time.
Four days of travel and occasional informal magic training later, and their destination was in sight. Indeed it was rather hard to miss, the vast settlement, with its high walls and castle towering above all, dominated the local landscape. It was also incredibly picturesque, and certainly a sight the witch-knight enjoyed taking in, both from afar and also once they were inside.
That said, it was mostly the clean white aesthetics she was enjoying rather than any kind of enamorment with city life. The witch-knight had rather enjoyed her decade of peaceful life provincial farming that she’d lived on the outskirts of her world’s last settlement, which made the places they had been a lot more her speed than this one.
That said, it was still a bit nostalgic for the world that had come before the sky broke, while also lacking the magitech that had destroyed it, so she’d deal with the hustle and bustle of the untold number of souls cycling through the wheel within these walls as best she could.
Being able to float above it all now helped quite a bit with that as it turned out.
All that said, after all their traveling she did think it would be nice to get a hot meal and a drink at a tavern, but it looked like at least some of their crew was going to get straight down to business. First on this was Lady Remilia, who immediately began striding off in the direction of the castle with the intent of meeting with its owner. That felt a bit overconfident to Rayne, it had to be said, and indeed Anne did conveniently put voice to those concerns when the woman ran after her.
That left her to voice some other ones, which she did while drifting over head and asking “If we are splitting up, we should arrange a time and place to meet back up?” before making a suggestion: “When I was talking to the caravaners, they mentioned the ‘Dancing Donkey’ inn is a good place to stay in town. If we all head back there back there around sundown, we’ll have a place to meet, eat and spend the night”
It was one for travelers, unsurprisingly given the source of the information, and one fairly close to the entrance to the city they’d just come in. That made pointing out/giving directions to the twos story building with a sign sporting a very jovial looking ass on it very convenient.
Assuming she got agreement to that, from Anne and Lady Remilia, her next task was hunting down anyone and everyone else who’d set off on their own quest. For example, Lewa, who had apparently had child watching duty dumped on him? She had no idea why, but he seemed to have a plan, and with his size and distinctive appearance was relatively easy to spot from on high. As such, she’d catch up to him, fill him in on her plan before floating back to do the same for those who had yet to decide on where they were off to.
Only after that, would she try and figure out where she herself was going. Perhaps to find a library, assuming they had a publicly accessible one, was her first thought, and, failing that, some place of gods or higher learning. Learning more about their apparently obscure kidnapping goddess could only help them, she thought.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
”Only two? Come on! That’s nothing!” Jr complained loudly, arguing with his father ”what am I supposed to do with only two squads of minions anyway?”
His father did sort of agree, he was having to give up a whole lot of handy but not vital strikers because of this. Then again, when having thought through them all, he did have to ask, based on his own habits ”When was the last time you used the goombas?”
”I- I mean. That’s not the point! They’re my goombas. Besides, I got loads of age to brun-n stuff. Who wants to be as old as Kamek anyway, jeeze” The prince retorted, his point parried but not beaten
”You can put them in the machine, and they’ll still be yours, no-one else can take them out” Bowser replied evenly, before inclining her head to Rika, who had sat down and was tapping away at a game on an off brand gameboy while they were arguing, saying ”Your sisters already done that”
”That’s coz she just had some lame knights to store, while she’s still got that giant wasp lady. It was a super easy choice when you’ve got a standout like that, jeeze”
”Might I offer you a stand out of your own then, young master?” Kamek said as he shuffled back into the group, having been talking and trading with Midna for a bit, before holding out a hand and offering him the spirit of spirit of Blodia ”I have been told it is a giant robot that made for quite the formidable striker in the hands of one of the Midgar team’s foe”
That should have raised questions, but none of the other troop members had the thought to do so the same way Kamek had, instead focusing on the prize in question.
”Seems neat” Rika commented as she looked up from her game, while Jr was far more enamored, eyes sparkling, prompting his father to suggest that this was ”Bigger and better, yeah?”
”Urrrgh, fine, you win. Stop making this moment less cool jeeze” he complained as he grabbed the spirit, before saying that ”You owe me at least one more cool big robot before I stop being upset about this” and then obliging with his elder’s request to put the other strikers away.
Blodia A titan of vivid red and shining steel, too large to be fully summoned all at once. Instead, it can be called in on a long cooldown to deal attacks that cover huge areas with heavy damage. This abilities include Blodia Punch, a straight strike that hits like a freight train, Blodia Vulcan, a hail of gunfire, and Blodia Lift, which allows the striker to pick up or throw the host
Naturally, those elders followed suit/had already done so.
”Alright alright, now that that’s over with, let's get to the fun part” Jr said, as if he’d not been the one holding them back. He then immediately did so again by being picky, fusing with twoladies in his arm (one of which he’d gotten by trading), only to have miss judged both how human it would make said arm, and what mind fusions would give, having been aiming for the empowerment of his knife creation and missing the mark entirely.
Fortunately, the reset machine was right there, allowing him to set things straight. Sort of. The first thing he did was itemize the second lady, aiming to get the she rocket propelled knife lance things had, and get them he did, along with, for some reason, a pair of gauntlets.
Red Baron & Ace'Ace' is a pair of augmented boxing gloves, with blades attached. 'Red Baron' is a set of six red orbital machines that can join together into a pylon for carrying or storage. Once activated by Ace, Red Baron's segments can be controlled to fly around using their rockets, acting as airborne blades. Their high potential power is offset by the difficulty of controlling them
It took a few moments of experimentation to figure out his mistake, the first was that: ”Oh come on! Stupid humans with your stupid weird hand shapes urrrrgh” due to, well, his own big ol three fingered lizard mitts not fitting in the slim gloves
Rika took no offense at this, not considering herself one of those, but Jr certainly took offense at her ability to utilization of the gloves to control the flying weapons with a fair bit of skill right off the bat thanks to her practice directing her little scout planes. At least when it came to slowly hovering about, she very much admitted that if she started trying to attack stuff with them things might get a lot more complicated, but that this was ”For sure not a good place to practice that stuff”.
”Besides, I’d prefer to have my gauntlets anyway” she plainly stated, before commenting how ”it’s kinda funny how if I wasn’t fused, I’d be able to wear them inside the other gauntlets”
”Wait! Would that work? If we unfuse you, have you wear them, and then re-fuse you, would that just absorb them into the gaunlets?” Jr asked, fascinated by the prospect.
As it turned out, yes, it did. Unfortunately, they’d already been pushing the limits of the gauntlets with all the additions they’d made, and so between two guns, articulated fingers, hangers for scout planes, grappling hooks and chainsaw blades, it was already at capacity, and it was, frankly, a miracle that by the time they re-defused her neither she nor the gauntlets were damaged beyond repair, though they were still damaged.
”They better have a workshop on this thing” Jr grumbled, prompting as he did a patch job to both sets of gaunlets, prompting Bowser comment that ”Oh hey, if there is, I bet Torra’ll be there. Be good to check in on the fuzzy guy and Poppi” which neatly resolved what they were gonna be doing after the fusion work.
First things first however, namely re-fusion followed by the villains checking themselves out using the mirror of long lost battles to examine the resulting re-fashion
Power lost : Minion Captain
Power replaced by: Z-Power: Jr can perform team attacks with his minions, consisting of him pouring a large amount of mana into one of them so they can unleash a powerful attack drawn either form their base form or from one of their fusions. These can be things like Z-moves for pokemon, such as Let's Snuggle Forever for Mimi the Mimikyu or an ultimate ability like Life Form Disintegration Ray for Peeka, which would be drawn from her Vel’Koz fusion.
Fusion gained Astrid (Right arm) This spirit confers the ability Sick 'Em, which allows the host to perform a special weapon throw (for identical small weapons) that track somewhat and purge the target's most recent buff on hit. This spirit also confers the Weakness Earth Element, which decreases the damage dealt to fire-aspected enemies by 20%
Appearance:
Bowser jr is physically mostly still the same as he started, though he has equipped a pokemon ranger uniform, which came with a cool hat, as well as wearing a bandolier of pokeballs running from right shoulder to left hip. He also has a Tulip Hairstick stuck into the tie of his ponytail, in memory of the fallen Omori.
The ways his fusions have changed him are concentrated in two places, the first being his tail, which has grown into a long blue furred thing with w white bow tied around the base thanks to B’giotahmo Bravha, who’s influence has also lengthened the ranger jacked so its back hangs down to his knees like clerical robes.
The second is his right arm, and this is where the prince has focused most of his fusions. The hand itself is now a bit more human, being more lithe and with five better-defined fingers with smaller claws, and sporting a muted lime-green tint. The limbs appear covered in smooth chitin rather than flesh, but the material is soft rather than hard, not quite like skin but almost there. It is also engraved with iron tattoos gained from the Vespikan Ferromancer, especially on the hand which appears almost metallic as a result.
The white metal tipped band running around Astrid’s arm also does the same for him, though it connects to the tattoos on the wrist at the end of the arm rather than any clothing, and to a metal pauldron of undyne’s at the top. The rest of the arm below the jacket sleeve is exposed, including having the glove stripped off, to ensure the tattoos can freely generate metal without cloth getting in the way.
Personality: Bratty, spoiled and rude jr takes a lot after his doting father, both due to his upbringing and due to his craving for respect and acknowledgment of others, especially his father. Jr also generally dislikes being treated like a child, despite acting his age nearly all the time. He is somewhat smarter than his father, not that this requires much of an intellect, and a touch less stubborn as well, being able to swallow his pride if it is necessary. He also likes big dangerous machines and he really, really likes giant robots.
He is also somewhat lonely as a combination of his royal status, a lack of many acquaintances in his age group and, of course, his own rather abrasive attitude. The Koopalings, for example, act as more mentors or underlings than anything close to companions. Having gained an equal in his new sister Rika, then, is an incredibly welcome change of circumstance, and he will fight tooth and nail to ensure he gets to keep her.
Fusion has made him a little more gentle and aware of other’s feelings, but has done little to stymie his daring or enthusiasm for fighting.
”Welp, hand’s still human ish. Yay. Also now it’s taunting me because I could wear that glove if I didn't need this hand free to do metal stuff, urrrgh” the prince complained, but, as a plus, at least he could wear the cool hat that came with his new outfit now. The later examined power was a nice addition to his control over his knives as well
Fusion gained: Kuzenbo: This spirit confers the ability Shell Spikes, allowing the host to extend the spikes on his shell even while in hitstun or under crowd control effects. With these spikes out, enemies who land melee attacks on the host take 25% of the damage they deal, and when this effect is triggered any of the host's abilities on cooldown get their cooldown reduced by .8 seconds. This spirit also confers the Weakness Water Bowl, which lowers the host's defense and resistance by 7.5% when hit by hard CC, lasts for 30 seconds, and can be stacked up to 2 times.
Appearance: Bowser is a towering bipedal dragon turtle with turquoise scales across most of his body, a beige chestplate of lager scales on his front, and a spiky shell made of purple stone like plates surrounded with gold (flared outward in a wave pattern like the edge of Tentacruel's body) and tipped with golden spikes.
Atop his head sits a Kuzenbo’s gold crown with a small swirling mass of water sat within the ‘bowl’ this forms, which is flanked on either side by Kingtusk’s massive tusk set there like dragon horns. His eyes have amber iris, while his maw is narrower, longer, and somewhat beak-like, though not made of that material, and his nose is less pronounced.
His shell is now divided into seven plate sections, with a hexagon in the middle and trapezoids all around. At every corner of the shell plates there is a cerise Tentacruel orb. The whole outer layer of the shell is actually metal, with the seams gilded and a golden fleur-de-lis on the middle one, and it's biomechanical beneath. All six of the outward plates can raise up and extend a pair of thick cannon barrels each. in the direction their facing. Only the upper right and upper left ones can swivel forward to fire straight while Bowser is standing.
The biomechanical section is plant based, and is host to the mass of prehensile roots of the Awoken Hollow. The center section can raise up to release them, and they can serve the function of both Tentacruel tentacle and Land Dreugh limbs, rapidly growing to mimic the shape of either.
He is wearing duster styled after Trento’s long coat/cape (although the epaulet tassels are now Tentacruel tentacles) as well as her sash (although the eagle has been replaced with the koopa troop’s Bowser face logo) across his chest, while his waist is adorned by Kuzenbo’s belt.
On his legs he is wearing a set of ripped jeans, and under them a pear of knee high boots with gold toe caps styled after to Trentos, though much sturdier.
Personality: Brutal, merciless, destructive and cataclysmic, the koopa king is a classic villain through and through. While he might seemingly pull off this evil king image effortlessly it is in fact something of an idealized persona, one that he works hard to live up to. When it comes down to it, what really defines Bowser is his ego: He is the greatest villain and nobody else is going to take over the world on his watch. He is going to marry princess peach and woe betide anyone else who tries to kidnap her because that is HIS thing. He is also very overconfident, certain of his own cunning, strength and his eventual assured victory despite his many previous blunders. On the more positive side of things Bowser exhibits something of a sarcastic wit, occasional bouts of intelligence on evil villain related topics and shows a surprising degree of compassion and philanthropy when it comes to his underlings.
After absorbing several spirits his personality is sweeter, more caring, more honorable (he will keep his word and return gestures of respect), but also more mindlessly aggressive when angered and has a more childish sense of humor.
”Hmm, yeah, not bad. No more talking through those things, and I don’t look like that schmuck minibus any more too” Bowser said, misnaming the snout nosed Midbus he’d brawled with during one adventure, before flexing his shoulders and causing a silver aura to cover his shell, and spikes ”Gah ha ha, try stomping on me now Mario, I’ll do way worse than stub your toe!”
Fusions:
Hades: This spirit confers the ability La Danse Macabre. The host can extend puppet strings of dark energy from his claws to take control of any allied unit his size or smaller. When forcing a puppet to attack, the puppet deals an extra dose of dark-aspected damage. The puppets can also be manually repositioned, and even be used as shields or projectiles. This spirit also confers the weakness Specialized Magic, decreasing the damage dealt by non-dark elemental attacks by 15%
Appearance Thanks to Devan Shell he is a little younger, taller, and lankier, and his scales are more green than yellow (except on his undershell), while his shell is larger and patterned with purple.
After absorbing Cia (Blue) and Tigren Sourceress into just his head Kamek's hood has taken the shape of Cia's hat, with the pointed end now going off in two directions, with Cat ears existing beneath these two prongs.
The scales on his face have changed color, texture, and hardness, taking on the likeness of Cia's mask, including new 'armor' plating over the top of the host's beak, which is now sharper and longer, and filled with sharp teeth. Beneath the hood are some tufts of white hair. His glasses are now thinner, larger, rectangular, and red-tinted, the eyes beneath them are leonine.
The host also has Cia's necklace, as well as, on his hands and forearms, Hades (puppet master) skeletal mimicking black gloves. Underneath these, his scales are slightly softer to the touch, and have a slightly more pinkish hue.
Personality: Kamek, in sharp contrast to the royalty he’s mentored, is rather wise and exhibits a great deal of forethought and planning expertise, as well as general intelligence and knowledge-ability. He is tactful and patient if not entirely above a bit of sarcasm when it comes to dealing with his bosses. He is also one of the few people that Bowser treats with respect and the king will generally listen to the old Koopa’s advice or guidance, though this is in part due to how well practiced he is at providing it in a way that squares with the King’s often simplistic logic. He also acts as Bowser Jr’s and Rika’s mentor, caretaker, and, functionally if not in name, grandfather.
When it comes to his enemies however he has a tendency to be condescending and to have no qualms at delivering jabs and taunts as any good villain would. He is also unabashedly evil, willing to go to great lengths to aid his lord’s schemes and ensure his happiness. He nonetheless shares, or is perhaps the source of, Bowser’s care for his minions, though Kamek is considerably less obtuse in his concern for their safety and well-being.
After absorbing the tirgan sorceress, Devan Shell and Hades (puppet master) he has become somewhat more outspoken, considerably more egotistical, cartoonishly evil and prone to menacing those he does not respect in-order to get his way.
”Still a somewhat ridiculous headpiece, but then where would the ears go I suppose” the mage said to himself as he contemplated the split hood on his robes, before examining his gloves and deciding they where suitably villainous to keep on, particularly when he flexed them and caused dark threads to hang from the pointed finger tips, prompting a short villainous chuckle at the delightful aesthetic.
”What an interesting woman she must have been” he mused.
(fusions gained) Aileen: This spirit confers the ability Shark Weapon, giving the host's main acquatic summon the power to launch a volley three bombs through the air, which fly in an arc. This spirit also confers the Weakness Nonoptimal Range, decreasing combat effectiveness at short range
L'Indomptable: This spirit confers the ability I Will Not Yield, boosting evasive abilities by 15% and giving the host a last stand that activates when she would otherwise be destroyed, preventing death for 2.5 seconds and granting a random buff to either ranged firepower, deployed explosives, accuracy, or reload time. This spirit also confers the Weakness Short, making it harder to climb things, reach things, see long distances, and be respected by taller people--and of course, if someone jokes about her height, she will become Enraged
Appearance: Rika is a relatively short woman with pale human skin, a rather petite nose, crystal blue eyes and short bleach white hair with a single tuft of red over her forehead like L'Indomptable. This often isn’t visible however, due to her often wearing a spartan helmet done up in a black metal with pink highlights. It has the nameless spartan deserter’s cat ears on top and wyvern wing like ones up the side like rider and beast, and Tristana Titania Prime’s there pronged tiara on the front.
Her legs are reptilian, with saurian feet and Brachydios blue scales running up to her hips. This also isn’t usually visible due to her wearing a Agastya Alternate Costume that covers her from neckline to toe in a fine suit of black armor.
Without it she is adorned in a Aileen’s waistcoat hued white and gold, hung over a black and gold highlighted chest plate similar in shape to the spartans but more curved and elegant. Below this, covering her stomach, is Pacific Princess’s formal tank top, white with golden buttons, and below that a thigh length skirt sat like L'Indomptable’s, black underneath, white flaps on top, god Fleur-de-lises but with pink straps and ribbons.
Her legs are covered in white leggings which have metal plates strapped to her thighs like Vi does. Her feet finally are covered in hefty metal boots like L'Indomptable’s, but which sport boots with pink hull-like platforms instead of having her walk around on her tiptoes.
Her arms have a rounded pauldron strapped to the fore arms, black with gold trim, while her forearms and hands are covered by her gauntlets. These consist of a pair of giant mechanical hands akin to VI’s, which feature the brute wyvern’s visage on the back of their palms (in a similar style to the jade lions on this skin) while still sporting both horns sticking out from their foreheads.
The left gauntlet has absorbed the grizco blaster, no longer requiring the awkward pipes from the horn to get a supply of explosive goop, and can now fire the ink blasts from a barrel in the palm. The grappling hook has also moved over here, and now sits on the back of the gauntlet’s palm. On the right, her rifle has also moved into the palm, and sports a rotating gatling style barrel the same size as the grizco blaster’s one. The chainsaw bayonet now runs along the back of her gauntlet’s hand and in between the middle knuckles, giving her punches from that hand some extra bite during and after impact.
At her waist sits Mikuma’s rigging, although it has been heavily modified, and has taken on many of the aspects of a Dark Magic Lampyre. A small emblem/buckle style after its helmeted head sits at the waist, while the back a large bunny tail like glowing orb sitting over her tailbone, flanked by Titania Prime’s gilded, hollowed-out, hip-mounted wings that are less articulate but do provided some flight control. 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 lower red 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.
Personality: Rita started as something of a blank slate, containing blind military obedience and little else, leaving her rather naive when it comes to many aspects in life. Work from her friends and the influence of fusion has filled this out somewhat. Her main defining trait that is all her own would be curiosity, the ship girl always eager for new experiences and information. She also has developed quite the sweet tooth for candy and desserts, but when it comes to main meals will actively try to taste test anything and everything she can.
Rika also cares deeply about her friends, a bit about other former abyssals, but is pretty dissociative when it comes to strangers, and has basically zero qualms about using violence against them.
The spirits she has absorbed have made her more assertive, impulsive and aggressive, and so she has a tendency to rush in and pick fights as a first option when it comes to protecting the people she cares about. She’s also started calling minions, and people she doesn’t like, plebs, as if her new royal title is getting to her head, and is rather enthused by the prospect of wealth.
”Huh. Yeah. Ok. Looks good I think? The gold’s nice. I think I like gold now” Rika commented as she examined herself, having not really had strong options on the subject of fashion before other than wanting to fit in, but now finding glittering gold had its appeal. She looked expensive, and this was, for some reason, good.
She just rolled with the feeling.
What she did not roll with was Bowser pointing out that ”Hey look, you’re pretty short now too” in a cheerful tone, intending to comment as to how this was more accurate to her being functionally a kid, but accidently sounding a bit like he found that fact amusing and was insulting the girl.
He did not get to finish this, as Rika experienced a new feeling, that of being personally insulted, cutting him off with an incredulous ”Short?!” before raising her gauntlets up into a fighting stance, breathing heavily as fury rose from the depths.
”How dare you insult me you… you… You Pleb!” she barked furiously, prompting Bowser to take a step forwards hands raised and trying to wave of her fury while saying ”Wow hey no I didn't mean to-” only for Rika to wind back a punch and Bowser to go ”Uh oh” right before he was launched skywards and head first into the ceiling by a vaultbreaker punch.
Thanks to his new horns, he got stuck there for a moment, arms cartwheeling and legs kicking at air as he tried to get loose, which he did so a few moments later, crashing to the ground with an ”Oof”, and ending up laying on the ground dazed and confused, which Rika’s mind took as a victory.
Once it had, however, and her rage abated with a few more heavy nasal breaths, the fog of anger and refusal to be defeated both cleared enough recognise what she’d done, and to become quite alarmed by it
”Oh, oh no papa! I’m sorry I don’t know what happened!” she said as she crouched down to check if her adoptive father was ok, the confused king blinking a few times and looking up at her distraught face.
”You just made me feel like… like… like I was burning up inside” she told him, scowling slightly at the memory of why she had felt like that.
”Well at least you didn’t turn into a sky high fury filled titan” Jr said with an attempt at humor, only to clarify that ”Papa did that once, it was a mess” when Rika’s gaze snapped to him
”Young mistress, I do believe there has been a misunderstanding. I’m sure his eloquence was not intending to insult you at all” Kamek insisted, prompting Bowser to chime in that ”yeah, I was just gonna say your more kid sized” earning him a kick as Kamek facepalmed.
At least, he supposed, it had taken this long for the latest member of the koopa royal family to lose her temper. As a result of that familial trait she’d apparently picked up, Kamek had some experience with that sort of thing, though it took a little while to resolve the situation and for everyone to make up, not least in part because Rika herself was not at all used to getting mad.
The little incident certainly put a pause on any more spirit tinkering for a little bit, that was for sure.
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) Arahabaki’s entrance Deep Ground - the Source
After acquiring both Falcon and Juri’s vehicles and stuffing them into her otherworldly garage, the princess headed on out, and then a little bit later, up up and away to a floating hight she most certainly would have been nervous about had she not brought her flygon out to keep her compnay once she was up there.
Once collected, it was off to use all the spirits they had gathered, using the tools that the Lost Numbers and, apparently, the other team had acquired in spades to improve the results.
”first thing’s first“ Midna said as she borrowed the greed hat, removing her help to put it on, and then raising the spirit of the knight with the shining blade in her had ”let’s make a new beautiful-“
Item obtained: Breastplate of ValorIncreases physical defense, maximum mana, and mana regeneration. Most importantly, reduces cooldowns by 20%
”-set of armor????“ she gaped in horror at the defiance of her expectations, before near tumbling forwards due to the weight of it.
”What gives, I thought it was meant to make something better? So why isn’t it a sword?“ she complained to Kamek, who had been on had to advise about the under team’s acquisitions, and who was stealing glances at where her fused shadow was sitting on the ground between them, doing his best to resist the temptation of its dark power.
”Better, but getting exactly what you desire would be rather against the spirit of things” Kamek, who was mostly supervising at this point advised/joked, before pointing out ”besides, perhaps it is what you need? You have those pauldrons, but your chest only has fabric defending your soft flesh”
”The burn scars are hardly soft“ Midna grouched, unconsciously touching them at the collarbone, before thinking for a moment, and realizing ”but perhaps I don’t need them any more if I have this?“
Kamek merely inclined his head rather than offer input, seeing as she was coming to a positive concussion on her own. He did however offer a squire-like hand in getting it on, leaving the princess much more of a knight than the weak bodied spellcaster she had started out as.
”Interesting, I can feel it boosting my magic as well. It really is almost perfect“ she commented, finding it suited the fighting style she’d developed near perfectly. That made the result of her touching the reset machine all the more amusing as the once again imp sized Midna close to toppled over in her new armor that did not fit her at all.
”Ok, faster we sort this out, the better“ she decided, making only a quick stop to trade for a spirit she had spotted and liked before heading into the chamber, sans the harbinger but bringing along the harpist (Norah) the grey-skinned caster (Shemira) and the draconic warrior (Ariel) because damn the consequences of overfusing.
(harbinger removed, relevant skill/weakness lost)
Midna now stands at 1.7 meters tall, has a lean and toned physique of an agile warrior and her skin is the hue of a late sunset, topaz shades graying as night sets in, body closer to night, face closer to day. She is entirely humanoid, save for a long draconic tail which has pale green scales, ridged with short golden spines and is tipped with flygon tail fans.
Her hair is still done up in a ponytail, but is now a veritable mass of hair going down to the small of her back, and is a smoky orange filled with Norah’s blue jewels like stars. Her chin has become strikingly pointed, her eyes a dark orange, lips painted soft green, and her ears are now smooth and pointed like an elf’s. Each ear is adorned with three golden loops, smaller versions Urbosa’s, along their length, as well as having a golden ‘sheath’ over the tips like Ariel.
The twin crests on her helm now slope backwards, melding with a pair of gold-black dragon horns sprouting from her forehead. The pair of worm-like engraving on its front have become a pair of long bodied dragons, rear claws gripping the horns while the front pair grip a red eye like jewel on the forehead over which they seem to be battling. The psycho mask is permanently attached to the front of the helm, and turned into the snarling red face of Murasame, while Shemira’s eye mask covers both eyes and the top of the face.
Her shoulders bear a pair of large pauldrons, gold rimmed ‘scales’ filled with red, which match the similarly striking red and gold chest plate that covers her from shoulder to waist, that is relatively thin and form fitting. A black sleeveless jacket, open at the front and with a popped collar, is wrapped over the back of this armor. A round core of magic hums at the center of the chest, lighting crackling out of it and dancing across the metal, suffusing all her armor in electricity.
She has two sets of arms (top real, bottom magical) emerging from the sides of this armor like Orendi’s do and are clad in thin black, fingerless, elbow length gloves. Akira Howard’s cuffs and astral chain adorn her (real) wrists, but are of a golden metal, and are much slimmer and compact, closer to Ariel’s stylish wrist guards than bulky handcuffs
A black dress rests on her waist below the armor, trailing down to just above knee height at the front, just below it at the back, while leaving the thighs exposed. On her legs she wears a set of sturdy black thigh length heeled boots done up with cross stitching, which have golden metal caps on their toes who’s metal runs around the edges of her feet and down underneath as well. Both heel and toe tips are mechanically articulated, causing the boot to be flexible rather than rigid. This, combined with a set of dragon energy claws permanently extending from the toes and heel, allow the heels to enhance rather than restrict her mobility.
Her magic, dragon energy, lightning and astral chain have all now harmonized to have a black core inscribed with green twilight runes, all encased in a similarly green aura, in the same manner as her twilight volley bombs. Her shadow hands continue to match the hue of her hair however.
Personality:
Midna is not exactly a picture of princessly grace and virtue, as she can be manipulative, mocking, selfish, vengeful and violent to get her way, as well as being impulsive, unpredictable, and prone to colorful expressions thanks to Orendi. However, she also takes the responsibility of her royal title to heart, having a deep concern for the well-being of her people, one which she has learned to apply to others beyond her kingdom. Ariel and Urbosa’s influence have added a warrior’s spirit and deepened her sense of nobility to this protectiveness, though her tendency to tease, joke and taunt can sometimes make her seem more rogue than royal knight.
Shemira has made her more willing to help selflessly as well, while the undead woman’s pessimism is suppressed by Ariel’s belief in a better world, because though Galeem’s may be cruel and unfair, the only thing to be done is fight against fate. Part of that also comes from a belief in the divine, that there other great powers out there, that need only be freed from Galeem’s grasp such that they might be able to aid in undoing the damage it has done.
She has also inherited Norah’s muse, if not her talents, and finding musical inspiration coming to her at unexpected times, which when combined with Orendi results in sometimes humming or whistling tunes, or even more rarely, singing them.
New strengths/weaknesses
Ariel: This spirit grants the ability Cyclone Kick, a powerful high thrust kick that unleashes a bright green magical tornado to deal heavy wind impact damage in an upside-down cone, with a 160% chance to stun for 5 seconds. This ability must be charged by landing wind-type attacks, and after a target is stunned, it gains stun resistance for several minutes. This spirit also grants the Weakness Critical Fire Bane, resulting in 50% extra damage from fire-aspected attacks
Shemira: This spirit confers the ability Tortured Souls, making the host able to summon souls of the dead (who look like Poes) that spiral around her (with a radius of a couple of meters) to deal continuous damage over 12s, with 50% of their damage returning to the host as health. Tortured Souls constantly drains mana while active. This spirit also confers the Weakness Auto Battler, making the host more likely to zone out and fight without thinking in battles that don't interest her
Norah: This spirit confers the ability Rainbow Rondo. By strumming a stringed instrument, the host can bestow a boon upon nearby allies that lasts 20s. Whenever such an ally takes a hit, even if it deals no damage, the host has a 1/3 chance to perform a musical counterattack, dropping three magical notes on the attacker. This spirit also confers the Weakness Hard of Hearing, making the host's hearing worse
Midna whistled, first tunelessly, then pivoting unconsciously into a tune you might hear when opening a treasture chest as she checked herself out in the Mirror of lost Battles (which thankfully did not release another Ganondorf this time) before declaring ”Now this, this is better“ with a nod, before thinking out loud ”Now I just need a good sword or five and I’ll be set“
”Swords? Well now, why didn’t you say that is what you needed? I happen to be carrying quite the collection off sharpened odds and ends around for their majesties you know” Kamek informed her ”I believe we were mostly intending to sell them, however if they might be of use of you, I am sure we could be convinced to part with some”
She rather doubted him, till he started pulling out and enlarging tiny objects out of his robe’s many pockets. These included a serrated knife, what she assumed was a sarated shortsword till she saw the size of the grip that meant it was actually also a knife, just one for a giant, a Machete and Pistol that where apparently bound together in some way and, as a fusion of those in a way, a gunblade.
Somehow, however, that last was not the most absurd, because the final pair of blades just kept growing and growing till they towered over both of them.
”Those are not meant to be that size? Surly?“ Midna said, balking at the weapons that unlike the second knife had handles fit for human hands, and swearing ”Goddesses, what kind of monster was that made for?“
”A human woman with twintails and a flowers red dress, and similar taste in red, black, and gold as you now have funnily enough” Kamek informed her, before adding that ”the mirror produced her when Rika attacked some kind of living train monster, terrifying it in the process. She did indeed wield it with a meer two hands, which I imagine would be impossible even for the humans here”
”With two hands, yes, but-“ Midna replied, grinning to herself, before launching her shadow hand up from her head and then grabbing the blade’s handle and hauling it up into the air above while boasting ”I can do it with one!“
Dead End Express A pair of huge, heavy mechanized clubs forged from the remains of Wartrain Gouon, six feet long and a thousand pounds apiece. Each miniature locomotive boasts eleven grinding sawblade wheels that spin at high speed. Though nigh-impossible to wield, they boast terrifying destructive power, and can even be straddled or otherwise ridden and used as a vehicle
”Impressive, though actually his mightiness can wield it as well. The issue is also what do do when not wielding-” Kamek began to say, right before Midna opened a portal and deposited the chainsaw blade down into it for storage ”-ah”
”I can pull bladed weapons out to slash just“ she snapped her fingers ”like that as well. Not that I will demonstrate because that was already, well, quite space consuming“
”I see, hence the desire for swords” Kamek replied, regarding the ability she was attempting to feed
”That and they just feel like what I am best with, which makes it a shame that there’s not a conventional blade in your arsenal. Can’t say I’m surprised, I suppose. I’ll just have to be proactive about acquiring a proper scimitar instead of relying on whichever spiteful god of dice is laughing at me right now“ she resolved, before saying ”but I’ll still take what you have“
”Ah, ah, ah, payment first”
The princess sighed, and then tried to barter with the spirit she had not used, but the koopa was not particularly interested. It was then that she remembered that she did, in a way, have a reserve of spirits. Or at least several she wanted out of something.
A few moments later a portal was open, out of which a massive mechanical paw extended. This was then pushed into the reset machine, causing the paw to vanish and 3 spirits and a very confused wolfos to be spat out in its place. The beast received quickly, and made a right nuisance of itself (in Midna’s opinion) running around excited at having a brain again.
As it did that, Midna collected the spirits, and offered one to Kamek
”Here, your little prince likes machines and robots, correct? Well this one was 30 feet tall and made that thing into a pilotable war machine“ she told him, before admitting that ”It, uh, didn’t really work out as a fusion. Just wasn’t practical to use around anyone else, and to clunky in a fight, but the guy who used it against us as a striker was a real piece of work“
”You had an enemy use strikers against you?”
”Ah, right. Midgar knew how spirits worked as well,to the point that most of its top fighters were fused with at least one other spirit. They were even farming pokemon inorder to make an army of people with their powers. It was a nightmare of a place“
”Well now, that’s one more thing to worry about, I suppose” Kamek said as he examined the spirit, before deciding that ”Yes, this will do well I think. The young master was needing to change up his striker strategy anyhow, given his current army of them tactic is not good for his health” and then letting her take the other blades
Serrated Knife: A large dagger most infamously wielded by General RAAM of the Locust Horde. Although it is a knife in the hands of RAAM, by human standards, it is a short sword.
Machete and Pistol: Two piratical weapons bound together. The machete is short and broad, deal unremarkable slash damage while the pistol is a flintlock, with short range, high recoil, and deceptively big damage. However, the pistol is empty and does not accept ammunition. The only way to load it is by landing two subsequent hits with the machete. They share durability and upgrades.
Revolver: A renowned gunblade. What it lacks in power, it more than makes up for with its reliability. Despite its name, it cannot be used as an actual gun, meaning it does not fire projectiles, and can therefore only be used in melee combat. Triggering a round in the gun chamber sends a shock wave through the blade, increasing its damage potential, but the timing required is hard to learn, which is why it takes years to master wielding a gunblade.
With that all sorted, and her new blades stored, she called out ”Come here, thing“ summoning the wolfos back to her side, only for her to wipe the happy wagging mood it was in away when she held up 3 spirits.
This wolfos has become considerably more draconic in shape akin to that of Maridon, with a longer serpent like neck with a glowing throat pouch, and thicker, sturdier hind legs that sport a wider stance. It has also become more mechanical, with the nest of black ‘hair’ turning into metal cables that extrude to where the forehead plate, which itself is now fused to the flesh rather than floating above it, and its eyes are now those of Maridon. Its snout is wider and bulkier, its lower jaw is metal rather than flesh like the rampaging cyborg and its gullet is distinctly cannon shaped.
Its back sports a metal plate shaped like a motorcycle seat, while a second at the base of the neck provides 2 extensions that can be used as handlebars, as well as a hatch in between them that can be used to load ammunition to be fired out of the beast’s maw. Its tail is medium length and made up of the same energy filled tubing of its throat.
Its legs are the most drastically cybernetisised, coated from head top to bottom in Maridon blue metal, and sporting several jet thrusters. The front ones are akin to Khan’s with their attachment to the legs and blade like wings, only they stick out a 45 degree angle out and away so as to not simply burn it’s rear legs or it’s rider, while the rear ones are akin to Maridon’s with two Kahn ones attached on the outside acting like auxiliary thrusters. Each ankle has an extension holding a hubcap of a wheel on it, and when brought together with its twin on the opposite leg, it will cause maridon’s tyre to form between them, transforming the beast into a motorcycle. Finally its feet now consist mostly of three large razor sharp claws.
Maridon: This spirit confers the ability Thunder, which drops a shower of 6 thunderbolts in a moderate area. Each one deals appreciable damage, but they have low individual AoE and fall randomly, so smaller targets can evade them. This spirit also confers the Weakness Bog Standard, decreasing the power of standard/normal attacks (such as bites) by 30%
Khan: This spirit confers the ability Point-blank Shot, a high-damage, low-range, single-target projectile condensed from the host's primary element. If it's a critical hit, it's even stronger than a normal crit. This spirit also confers the Weakness All-out Attacker, decreasing defense and resistance by 15%
The results were both a lot less drastic than before, given that it still had a brain for one. However the odd dragon-ish creature did have wheels on it, and seemed to not be able to float, which made her rather annoyed at the waste of all those rocket boosters. Well at least until it rubbed its back legs together in response to a phantom itch, and promptly face planted when a massive wheel formed in between them.
After a little laugh at its expense, she dismissed the beast so it would stop taking up space, and got to the last business, which was some itemisation of the two spirits she knew no one would come asking for, namely the Pendran her wolfos had been fused with, and the harbringer who was no-longer ruining her beauty.
DagonA rare twin-headed ice wand that boosts the power of ice spells and has a 50% base chance to inflict Frozen if used as a melee weapon, although its melee damage is fairly low and it loses extra durability when used that wayHarbinger MaskA strange, full-face rebreather that seems almost molded from flesh, worn stuck to the face. It somehow doesn't obstruct visibility, but it does amplify the sound of the wearer's breathing. In exchange, it provides immunity to Poison and Burn, as well as variants of those afflictions, and 75% fire damage reduction
The wand was certainly interesting, though she herself was not going to get much use out of what seemed to be an affinity for ice magic. Perhaps someone else? As for the mask, well ”Not on your life“ was she wearing that thing, that was for sure.
However, she was reminded of the crucible item Kamek had shown off, and, out of curiosity, decided to try it out with this, and suffered seemingly no effect, at least, not one she would notice until something tried to set her on fire or poison her.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
”Ahhhhhh” Was how Jr began his ascent, but once the initial shock was over fear turned into delighted cry of ”ah ha ha, Woooooo!” till he came to a stop in the sky, bobbing on the attached balloon.
He was joined a few moments later by the rest of the troop, Bowser with his arms cartwheeling for several moments after they came to a halt, Rika looking like she didn’t get what all the fuss was about, and Kamek, who sat atop his broom, balloon less, having simply teleported up after them once they’d reached their max altitude.
”So, how was that?” the mage asked, just a little bit smug at having been able to avoid the trip.
”Kinda neat, though we are kinda sitting supply ships up here” Rika replied after Jr had given a simple ”Great!”
To demonstrate her point, she sent out her singular remaining scout plane and had it do a fake attack run on her balloon, making ”Pew pew pew” noises followed by ”Pop, and then down we go” which put pause to Jr’s delighted, prompting him to look nervously down at the mighty drop down below.
”I could catch you with my grappling hook and then just float all the way down, I think” she told her brother, sort of picking up on the discomfort she’d caused, and looking a little pleased with herself when he perked up in response to this news.
”And I will naturally go after your father” Kamek added, preempting the follow up question from his royal majesty.
With worries about falling to their doom put to rest, all there was to do was float, wait, and chatter till they got picked up by the invisible spaceship. They didn’t get a good look at it, unfortunately, due to the whole invisibility thing, which meant the more straightforward among them could not judge its combat capabilities by its cover. Not that they were going to be able to use it as a warship, given the million times punier than Jr children that were onboard, an argument that easily convinced Bowser not to take it into battle when it had been down below in the tent.
Still, they did get to learn about one capability right away, which was the room it had that was dedicated to spirits, which was very convenient. It was lacking in some former functionality apparently, but they had bits and pieces to fill that in. For one, the resetting orb. For two, well, Kamek was more than happy to show off their own little helpful fusion tool.
”For those of you not in the know, this is the Snaktivator” he said as he held aloft an odd little gismo that looked like a fishing rod with the rod part replaced with an aerial or raygun nozzle ”and it can be used to localize the physical changes a fusion causes to a singular body part”
As he said this, Bowser Jr popped open a pokeball, releasing Peeka the Fluttermane, and then held up the spirit of a tentacled being. The spirit was then pressed into the pokemon as Kamek poked the creature’s ‘necklace’ during the fusion process, Jr having already talked about this fusion idea while they were floating.
Spirit Consumed: Vel'koz('Necklace') The host's coloration is slightly greener, and the pink feathers a little more like tentacles. The main change concerns the 'pearls' around the host's neck, which are now brilliant glowing slitted pink-purple orbs like the eyes of Vel'koz itself. This spirit confers the ability Plasma Fission, allowing the host to fire out a plasma bolt that inflicts damage and a heavy 70% slow that quickly decays. While in flight, the host can will the bolt to split, firing off to the left and right at perpendicular angles. This spirit also confers the Weakness Low Mobility, decreasing the host's movement speed while floating
”Observe how the majority of the effects are localized in the desired area, while the rest of the form is (mostly) untouched” he declared, thinking this demonstration a complete success even if having the half a dozen purple eyes strung around Peeka’s neck stare at him while he spoke was a little unnerving.
It was certainly an alternative to the resonator, and likely one that, well, resonated with those who either desired to keep their true physical form mostly intact, or to limit the changes of a particularly discordant spirit.
A second demonstration was made with Dazzle as well, the other pre-planned fusion the troop had, which showed off its way to counter something Midna had had issues with, namely potentially massive size changes, as despite fusion with a whale, the resulting change was not quite so dramatic as might have been expected.
Spirit consumed: Bake-Kujira (Tail) The host has slightly increased in size overall, while darkening in color. His tail is longer and broader, its flippers jutting out at a more perpendicular angle, and much less flexible. The tail is also increasingly spectral toward the end, divided between murky teal flesh and ghostly blue energy juxtaposed over bone. This spirit grants the ability Twisting Dive, which allows the host to execute a cursed corkscrew leap. While diving, the host inflicts damage plus brief stun, is knockback-immune, and carries struck targets with him to the end point (as long as the targets are not larger/heavier than himself). At the end of the dash, a concussive splash deals extra damage, and this dive goes farther when underwater. This spirit also grants the weakness Lesser Pinniped Mobility. Due to the changes to the structure of the tail, he is no longer able to run on land like a sea lion, but must flop, roll, or slide like a seal
As something of a trend, however, this also seemed to reduce the pokemon’s mobility, though not quite as badly as the previous dire penguin spirit had, which the prince had removed to replace with this one. Ironically though, he had, as it turned out, mostly replaced one spirit with a functionally similar one given the power he’d later demonstrate, but at least the mon was once again more amicable, the use of the snaktivator seeming to result in personality changes somewhat less often being something of a stealth benifit.
That was not the end of the showing off of tricks however, as Kamek subsequently borrowed Sectonia’s mimic hat, and proceeded to crush the two pity spirits he had received while wearing it while exonerating its virtue of improving the outcome. The first went smoothly, garnering him a new casting implement that, while more cumbersome, he could feel the power within.
Horadric Staff A casting catalyst that provides a number of useful benefits to its wielder, including increased attack speed, HP and mana bonuses, 50% more damage to the undead, 10% more resistance to cold, fire, lightning, and 35% more resistance to poison
As a bonus, he even got to show off Sectonia’s other helpful gizmo, as after finding that the staff was solely empowering, absorbing its stat enhancing powers into himself via her Trinket Smelter.
Very pleased with that result, he swiftly crushed the second as well. It, however, spawned a stone pedestal, which was familiar too, and perhaps detested, by a few of the seekers. Kamek certainly became alarmed as its spawning location caused him to instantly touch the item it held before he could assess it, prompting it to be absorbed.
”Oh badness, what has that done” he worried, patting himself down, only for Jr to theatrically call out ”It’s behind youuuuuu”, prompting the mage to spin around on the spot, only for him to find nothing there.
He began to turn his head back to complain ”This is no laughing matter young master!” to Jr, only to ”Ak!” in alarm as he found the change floating behind him.
IncubusA batlike demonic creature. It binds itself to whoever touches it, then follows them around. When its host uses ranged attacks, the incubus will try to copy them using its demonic power, though such attacks are reduced in size, speed, and power by 50%
”Well then, that could be worse” he said after recovering, as if having a devil looming over your shoulders at all times wasn’t rather horrifying on its own, before pondering what it could do.
With the tight and packed confines of the fusion chamber however, testing out any fusions or weapons would prove rather difficult. Its ability to mimic his spells, free of charge unlike his clones (who also gained one), certainly would prove a welcome boost to his firepower.
With the easy fusion and itemizing work out the way, the troop settled themselves down in a corner to mull over their remaining collection, be be nosy about the other’s ones, and generally go through the hard task of thinking about how to reinvent themselves with all the tools available, if at all.
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) Arahabaki’s entrance Deep Ground - the Source
There was, well, a line for the gacha machine and as poor luck would have it, Midna ended up arriving when it was already pretty long. She could have looked at clothes in the meantime, but she’d somehow ended up with a pretty coherent police uniform and besides, why accessorize when there was power on offer to be grasped with all four hands.
Though with that though she also had one where she maybe shouldn’t have squandered a token on an in game item. Then again, maybe she only had 5 because she’d done that. Then again again, saving the world was a team effort, so had getting a leg up on her allies really been worth it?
These questions Midna shoved to one side in the interest in being nosy about what people were getting out of the machine. In particular she was very curious about why Therion was visibly sweating as he went over his results. She hadn’t, she realized, spoken very much with Primrose’s traveling companion, so in the interest of killing time and learning about him and the machine she was going to be using, she leaned in to ask: ”Soooo, what’s got you all worked up, hmm?”
One of the man's feline ears flicked in her direction, but Therion didn't turn to look at her. He kept his eyes on the orbs in front of him, squinting into the motes of light at the visages of the people inside. He was looking for a certain trait the spirits might have, that was what had him worked up. And he hadn't known until now that he was being that obvious about it.
It took him a moment to answer her. He wasn't sure he really wanted to tell anybody. It was only earlier this morning that he'd discovered one of the spirits he'd fused with was apparently deathly allergic water of all things, so he wanted rid of that weakness. He didn't know Midna all that well, but since it was pretty clear she'd fused a ton of times (and she'd done so even for the short time he had fought together with her), maybe she had some insight into this kind of thing.
"...I'm trying to get something specific. To counteract one of the spirits I took in," he said. "And gambling's not really my thing."
”Shame the best way to acquire power involves exactly that huh? Especially when your odds get worse the more you fuse, or so it seems. I’ve started losing abilities. Can’t even levitate or use strikers any more” Midna replied as she casually leaned against the wall, four arms crossed ”Although I suppose the crippling fear of sword, shield, and lighting users I received from the very first one has been the worst so far, at least when its come up”
Way back, when she’d first lost her throne, she’d have never been so open about her vulnerabilities and failings, but she’d come a long way since those days. Well, that and when her guard was down the loose lips she’d gained from a fusion were far more capable of running free.
Her easy admission surprised Therion - but he listened, finally turning his head in her direction. If she was scared to face something as simple and common as a sword, how did she even fight? More than her weaknesses though, hearing that she'd lost some of her skills was more worrying. Levitating... he was pretty sure that was something she'd always had, and even that had been lost? He couldn't imagine being unable to pick a lock or scale a wall anymore.
Jeez... he scrubbed a hand down his face. This was going to get complicated. So now he not only needed a spirit that would reduce or cure his weakness, but it also couldn't be so radically different from himself that it would affect his own skills.
"How do you even deal with all of that...?"
”I had people shoot lighting at me earlier till i learned how to resist it using another spirit, and the proportions I have now closer are closer to the real me, so I can actually walk and run places again rather than relying on floating around” she replied, as if the first thing was entirely sane, before clarifying the second with ”Being an imp was a curse, I am actually tall and beautiful, so after all this fusion I’m more-” she paused for a moment and then gave a little theatrical sigh before say that ”well I’m taller at least now”
Ah, exposure therapy or whatever it was called. Something Therion didn't really think worked, considering he hated the falling sensation every single time he'd had to experience it - and it had been a lot of the last few days. The thought of gradually standing in deeper and deeper tubs of water did not appeal to him at all, so there was no way he'd be doing that. Back to the spirit drawing board.
"So you're basically just making do," he said. Couldn't really blame her though. He huffed in amusement at her last comment, and when he rolled the proverbial dice for yet another capsule to add to his growing spirit collection only to receive a gorgeous woman who didn't appear to be water aspected whatsoever, he clicked his tongue and casually offered it to Midna.
"If you're trying to get back to how you were, take as many as you want. Just trade me any water-looking ones," he told her. He'd already given one of his first spirit rolls to Geralt, as he didn't have any use for the ones that wouldn't help him out. "'Cause no offense, but I'm not looking to have people splash me with a bunch of water until I get over it. Rather take a short cut."
”I can do that if you’ll let me sneak in after you” she replied as she examined the spirit, finding her certainly pretty, but not sure she’d get any use out of harp playing talent. Still she pocketed it anyway, before saying that ”I’ve got five chances. One off that second pity, though I’m not sure if that’s much of a loss” as she popped them out of a portal and caught them in an open hand.
”Had one of those yet?”
"A 'pity' pull?" He had, though he didn't get how exactly it was different from getting a random spirit. So far he'd gotten two of them, and though he had to admit they were both much more interesting options than his other gets while also being closer to how he currently looked, neither of them were what he'd actually wanted. Well, third time's the charm as they said. "I'm about to get another one."
He slipped the token into the slot and turned the crank handle. The Orb Machine rumbled and dropped a capsule down into the prize space. The blue colored base immediately caught his attention - maybe this was actually the one? Popping it open revealed a man with some promising wave patterns on his clothes.
"Huh, this could be it." Therion rolled his last remaining token between his fingers.
”If that’s what you need, then maybe those pulls are worth a fair bit after all” Midna guessed, before leaning in and asking ”Saaaay, how many tokens did you have again? Because if it isn’t a multiple of 3, it’d be better for the team to get as many of those as possible.” before adding ”I’ll even trade you something for it so you’re not going empty handed. I’m carrying around quite the arsenal you could pick from”
Therion dragged his clouded eyes from the coin in his hand to Midna's face. She made a fair point, although he was inclined to just keep the token and try to get lucky again. However, her offer made it clear she didn't expect charity - which the thief appreciated. He thought on it for a moment, then a wry smile formed on his face.
"Here," he said, flicking the token with his thumb in her direction. "Take it. And let's just say you owe me a favor, alright?"
She caught it, looked a little tepid on that point of a nebulous favor for half a second, before smiling back and replying ”allright, but don’t hold onto it for too long. In a few days we’ll have Galeem in a grave and then who knows what the future holds after that”
"Of course." A favor could be a powerful thing, so he would be taking advantage of it as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Given the nature of the Seekers' collective mission, he was sure it wouldn't be very long.
Therion moved out of the way of the machine, jerking his head toward it so Midna could take her turn next. "All yours."
”Why thank you” the princess replied with grace, before stepping in and, with much less agonizing over her results than the man had exhibited, popping out all her rolls one after the other without even taking a look at the results in between. Then she too stepped aside to swiftly make space for those she’d cut inline in front of, before finding a spot to examine her winnings
For her random rolls, well, for the first she could only comment that ”That, well, that’s a lot” before moving on to less hilly pastures. The second she had more interest in the weapon the woman was holding than the woman herself because she couldn't figure out ”What in the world is that? Is it a hammer but with a bow as the shaft? How? Why?” and promptly resolved to find out the answer once they where on the ship.
Next up was a blindfolded woman in a dark dress that very much fit her fashion sense. Also her inhuman skin color. That certainly made her a fusion candidate on aesthetics alone, though was that worth whatever the price was? Something to consider. Finally, a lady with a familiar looking weapon, more or less exactly like the thing that had dragged Goldlewis up in the film those freaks game, which is the only reason she knew what it was for. Probably another item candidate.
As for the pity rolls, the intent for the first was obvious ”A floating beast for one of my things to fuse with. Funny is that because I mentioned losing my own ability to float or?” but the second had her stumped while looking at the man, only to understand when her eyes went up to his magnificent weapon.
”Ohhhh, well now. Hopefully that’s not a flimsy piece of junk like the last two swords I got. I really do need a replacement for those” she said, before adding just a little sadly ”and for Maos”
She hoped the demon was doing ok, wherever he was, regardless of his abrasiveness.
At any rate, with that sorted, it was high time they prepped to get going, the princess moving her way towards the exit so as to avoid any rush. While doing so she overheard that this Captain Falcon fellow, who they had apparently recruited, wanted to bring his vehicle along, but was unable to do so due to the weight limit of the ‘fulton devices’ they were going to use to get back.
”I can help with that” she popped into the conversation to inform him that ”I can send stuff to a parallel dimension via portals, like this” she briefly demonstrated by portaling in and out a motorcycle ”So if you have it on hand I can do the same with this transport of yours”
That didn’t help the whole air hanger only, no landings permitted, problem, but they could figure that out at a later date she was sure.
Once she’d caught up with the caravan, things had gone relatively smoothly, and in short order, the witch knight had set them on a path to link up again. With that sorted, and having missed everything to do with the catatonic girl thanks to her message running, she decided that the best course of action now would be to have a fly up high into the sky to check the lay of the land. The last thing they wanted to do was cross the next hill, and find yet another giant blobby army over it after all.
Plus, who knew, maybe she could get some kind of clue as to wherever this one had come from in the first place, be it simply whatever was in the direction they’d come from, if not some kind of actually identifiable origin.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
”Wait… did we win?” Rika, who was towering over everyone else due to still being large. Kamek naturally dropped the spell and let her start shrinking, but it wasn’t quite fast enough for Rika’s cheer of ”Woo hoo! we won! we won!” to force everyone nearby to cover their ears lest they be deafened by her delight.
”Ah, yes, we did indeed, young mistress, very well done on your catches” Kayak praised her after he had his hearing back and she was back down to size. Jr hurried over to chat to his sis about who and how she’d found people, while Bowser did some slow metal math and realized something with a ”Buh” and a slack jaw: namely that he was the only member of the troop to not win a single podium position at all.
One of the few people to be in that pile even, and for them, there wasn’t going to another chance because of their frugalness was putting a stop to the fun before they ran out of free games. That got some a shared ‘awwww’ from the troopa kids, with Rika having done a full U turn on the games thanks to her win, and that was probably the whole plan of the tent, to get kids to beg their elders for more, presumably pretty expensive, games after the first taster.
Fortunately these particular elders, while not exactly masters of parenting, did at least know how to get out of this situation, namely with twin bribes of ”We can go check out some of the races, catch those koopa kids and maybe get on the track ourselves yeah?” and ”Don’t you want to cash out for some prizes?” which did the trick.
Unfortunately they weren't going to be able to follow up on that former idea, and would have to hurry on the latter, because it looked like they had another reason to put an end to the games: trouble was incoming.
”Heading to Midgar?” Midna piped up on hearing the final destination of the ship that had apparently laid waste to their old home base ”We’d best warn Sakura and co, because it sounds like H is looking to fill the power vacuum we made and that can only be bad news for, well, everyone involved”
”Why let them get there at all when we can bust their heads here and now” Bowser immediately declared, only for Kamek to suggest ”Perhaps let’s get to this ship and assess its capabilities first, sire? To see if it is a worthy vessel for the Koopa air fleet of course” cleverly leading his king by the nose to avoid an unwise and blind dive into that confrontation.
Midna, it had to say, didn’t entirely disagree with the nation, but as they had taken on a whole city of heroes, she was not sure if they were strong enough. Fortunately, there was, well, power to be claimed here, though as Midna was finding the more fusion power took it, the more it took from you.
No reason to not to roll the dice and find out what was on offer however.
Well, other than fashion anyway.
Bowser, at the very least, could do with some of that. His suit was a wreck, the consequences of being someone who took hits rather than avoided them, and the hat that had once gone with it had been lost somewhere along the road. It was somewhat of a dated look anyway, given that the wedding he’d been wearing it for had been ever so rudely crashed right before this whole thing had gone down.
Now was as good a time as any for a new style then, and the offer of something that wouldn’t get mix and matched by every fusion had a lot of appeal. Sure, it wasn’t power, but properly looking the part of a big bad tough guy had power all of its own, certainly when compared to looking like a raggedy mess.
Then again, Bowser’s usual fashion sense where some spiked bands around his arms and one around his neck like a dog collar, so it was easy to argue he rather missed the mark when he ended up picking a biker getup consisting of ripped jeans, sleeveless front open leather jacket and finger-less gloves
Jr, following his papa’s example, ended out picking out an orange and black pokemon ranger uniform, which came with a cool hat but unfortunately the cat ears he had refused to share head ornamentation space with anything else.
Rika meanwhile was already costumed up with her armor, and so passed, while Kamek was just fine with the robes he already had and which had also not changed a dime thanks to the snacktivator.
Speaking of those, while it was not time to fuse, it was time to get a whole load more options to be used for real soon. With that in mind they headed too and started using the gatcha machine, and got to rolling the dice to see what would come up. Bowser, naturally, went first, and was also done the quickest due to his complete lack of podium positions in the games
Opinion wise, the first was interesting due to the stabby back arms that might fit with his existing souped up shell, the second he found was trying way too hard to look dark and evil, and as for the third, well, ”Hey, look at this dime a dozen guy, copying my style” he complained. At least till Kamek pointed out that ”would that not let you regain some of that style, your fashionableness?”
That certainly showed the power of pity, though when Jr stepped up to the plate, he realized that he was a token off getting a second pity thanks to his clothes buying, and promptly badgered Kamek into giving him one of his.
Of the regular roles, was hard to say he was particularly enamored with the pair of muscled humans or the Pit alike, but the lady of the group he did show Rika given that ”Hey, look at this one, she’s got punchy gloves like you, and some kind of rocket knife squadron?” which the princess assessed was ”Neat”
For his pitties however, well, they weren't regular old humans, which was a plus, but they were also super out there and jr couldn’t make heads or tails of why he’d gotten them till it clicked: ”Ohhhhh. Sea creature for Dazzle, weird tentacle thing for Peeka, duh” which seemed pretty good.
Next up was Kamek, and, well, if Jr’s pity pulls had been briefly confusing, Kamek had to admit he was stumped by the bearded old man and mostly featureless blindfolded little girl. In-fact, between the scroll and poison wielding mages, it seemed that the regular rolls were more him than those generated specifically for him.
He also had no idea what to make of ‘woman with axe’, but the lance knight also seemed up Rika’s ally. Speaking of her. She was up next and last, and got herself an extra Token from Kamek after the mage became thoroughly disillusioned with the whole rolling affair.
She got a big rock golem creature, which caught Midna’s eye when she happened to spot it, and then a whole pile of ladies (and one guy) with rather interesting looking weapons for her regular pulls. Energy blades, a big wheel, and an odd double ended blade that none of them had any idea how it worked.
”Might be able to integrate some of those maybe? Or if not they probably sell” Jr supposed as they looked over all the assets. They all paled in comparison however to what looked to be a hoverbike sized lance wielded by a tiny (probably ship) girl she got for her first pity, and even that wasn’t anything compared to what seemed to be an entire giant mechanical shark her other pity pull got. Its purpose at least was pretty clear as she guessed that it would ”Probably upgrade my whale?”
That would have to wait however, as it was high time to hit the road, and check out this ship the other team had found themselves on.
Only question was, if they had been launched down in one way trip pods, how were they intending to get back up?
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