Gentlemanvaultboy

World of Light

Link

Word Count: 856

Level 5 - (55/50) + 2

Location: The Bottomless Sea ~ The Maw

---

Lift, place, hop.

Lift, place, hop.

Lift, place, hop.

Noise, crash, hide.

Listen, for, screams.

...

... ...

... ... ...

No screams.

Start, breathing, again.

Lift, place, hop.

Link had gotten what he had started referring to as The Sakura method down to an exact rhythm. He was making good time with it, owing mostly in a sense of self-assured confidence in his own athleticism. He had traversed the most difficult possible terrain Hyrule could throw at a person, up and downhill, through rain, snow, and fire. On Death Mountain the floor really was lava. If he could handle that he could handle jumping between some pillows where, at the very least, he had a few seconds to clamber back onto the pillow if he missed before the floor monster devoured him whole.

Still, where was he making his way toward. He'd been following Sakura, but she had clambered up into some kind of machine to avoid the gaze of their ceiling lurking friend. He figured, eventually, they were going to have to climb one of these junk mountains to get at the vent Peach had seen. He kept an eye at each of the spires he passed along the way, looking for rope or a dart gun like Mirage had found. Something to make that climb easier when the time came. Occasionally he'd spot movement upon them, angular white shapes ducking out of sight as he approached.

It was while he was studying one of these nearby trash islands that he laid eyes upon something interesting. He diverted course for a moment, angling the pillows to bring him to a modestly sized island composed of interlacing surfboards. A forest of beach umbrellas stuck out from between them, far too big to carry with him even if their covers hadn't been torn to shreds ages ago leaving only the skeletal branches of them sticking out. Those hadn't been what had drawn his attention, however. He carefully stepped onto one of the boards, testing his weight to make sure climbing up wouldn't lead to a sudden shift that would noisily alert the ceiling lurker to where he was, and picked his was past what looked like dead deflated version of that ringed creature they had spotted back at the lagoon until he came upon what looked like a glider.

At least, he thought it was a glider. It was big enough to be one, between his small size and the fact that everything was big around here, but as he picked it up he noticed a few things. One as that it was very light, far lighter than his regular paragliders despite its size. The part that was usually cloth was glossy and was colored in a wavy light blue, and as he picked it up a handle connected to it by a string come unwedged from the bones and tumbled down toward the island. It took only one heart racing second for Link's hand to flash and and snatch the handle out of the air before it clattered to the floor and spelled his doom.

More importantly, something had been hiding under it.

A small creature, slightly smaller than Link, looked up at him with big bulging eyes. It's body was entirely white, and simplistic like clay that had been shaped into a vaguely humanoid form. It's head was pointed, triangular almost, with a long snout like a horse and what looked like hair was actually, upon closer inspection, quills. It blinked up at him for a moment, then its eye shifted to the ceiling dweller. Link realized that it must have been taking shelter under the glider until the beast stopped hunting. "Sorry." He mouthed, and went to put the glider back. He stopped, however, when the thing pulled out a bomb.

It wasn't like any bomb Link had ever seen but the general shape and the way the creature menaced him with it by miming a toss made it easily recognizable. Link held very still as the thing walked its way around him and, to his horror, started making its way toward the pillows Link had used to get over here without taking its eyes off him. He started after the thing, compelling it to shake the bomb at him harder, but Link just shook his head. He pointed at the bomb, pointed at the monster of the ceiling, then mimed the thing slamming its hands together. The message was clear: throw that and we both get crushed.

The thing considered this for a moment, then held up the bomb even more vigorously and pointed to one of the larger nearby junk piles.

"You want to move to a better hiding place?" Link asked, and the little monster nodded. “Well, I will take you there.”

The thing didn’t put down the bomb, but it stopped being quite so threatening with it. It hopped down onto the pillow and patted the other with its free hand insistently. Link followed after it, kite now strapped to his back and working diligently toward the base of one of the taller mountains near where Peach had indicated.

World of Light

Link

Word Count: 408

Level 5 - (54/50) + 1

Location: The Bottomless Sea ~ The Maw

@Dark Cloud

---

Link let himself down from the top of the cupboard, climbing down the shelves while keeping his feet as close to the interior wall as possible. Every individual creak from the old wood made his heart skip a beat as he watched the eye scan around for more intruders to crush. He landed softly on the edge of a suitcase, keeping in mind the enemy that lurked below along with the on lurking above.

He made a series of short hops along the solid furniture lining the path to the bed, going from an end table to a white bust of a stern looking old man, then across an ironing board to the pile of cushions beside the bed. Link had decided to stay up where he was an act as a makeshift lookout as the others had started making their journeys across the room, evaluating each strategy as he watched. Of everything he had seen Sakura's idea, though the slowest, seemed to be the safest and least attention grabbing way of making their way across the room. Now though, with that big monster on the search, it left her woefully isolated.

Still, she was at least moving. There were some that hadn't even started yet, though from apprehension or indecision about the best route he didn't know. In particular a green haired boy whose general hopelessness was pretty familiar by this point. "Glenn?" He urgently whispered as he approached. He was reasonably sure, considering his headcount. The only other person this could be was Geralt but, well, this boy was green. "We can't just hang around here, we've got to start moving. If you don't think you can make these jumps, follow Sakura." He said, digging in the cushions to find two big lumpy looking ones. He shoved a faded green one into the boys arms and carefully dropped the other over the side. "Watch the eye. If it starts looking your way, sandwich yourself between the cushions. Go!"

He didn't take his eye off the ceiling monster as he spoke, clutching a big throw billow in his arms. If that thing swept over to the bed he was going to push Glenn and anyone else nearby that was spacing out under the pillow before throwing himself over the side onto the one he had already tossed onto the floor. Hopefully he could disappear over the edge of the bed before he was spotted in the case.

Target Earth! [A Monster Marathon]

Luna

---

Luna slowed to a stop as she came upon the oddest sight she had ever experienced. The muffin men she had expected. The shadow zombies were something she was completely unprepared for. The two factions were locked in the throes of fierce, tonally noncongruent violence with one another in the streets that led to the Seashell Bakery. Their way was completely blocked, at least if they still wanted to ride.

Gou had hopped out of the sidecar to get a better shot of the conflict and had backed up out of view, but Luna quickly turned when she heard a cut off yelp thinking that a muffin or shadow might have snuck up behind them but it wasn't wither of those. It was a...well...if Luna had to put a word to it the word would be "Pokemon." A beautiful bird-lizard with brown and white feathers that, as Gou ran back to the scooter, quickly descended on another of the muffin monsters.

Gou was saying something about how the dragon-moth-bird seemed to be keeping the city safe, but she had to shake her head back into the present to pay attention. "Wha? Yeah, yeah, looks like it. Sorry I'm just...wow...when I woke up this morning I didn't live in a world of cosmic fantasy." She said, watching the thing rip a muffin man out of a shadows arm and bite a chunk out of its chest.

At the mention of finding Yuri and Grizzly she was brought back to considering the battle in front of them as a problem instead of a spectacle. "They're probably smart enough to head in the direction we're going. I'm surprised we haven't heard Grizz already, honestly. Maybe-"

He thoughts were interrupted as an orb of light shot up into the sky and exploded right near where the bakery was. "Looks like the beat us to it. No way we're getting through there on this. Time to run." She said, hopping off the scooter and grabbing her oar and a bottle of water from the sidecar. She popped the cap and doused the paddle to get a good layer of water started, then ran forward and jumped into the battle. Literally.

Luna took a flying leap and managed to land right on a shadows shoulders, bouncing off and onto the back of the dragon before sliding off its back and onto the street. Most of the muffin men and shadows seemed preoccupied by one another, but there were a couple of muffins that didn't have dance partners and one of those ran at woman with a raised rock-candy club. It brought the club down as Luna dove under it, the force of the blow shattering the asphalt of the street. It began to turn, but Luna had already swung her oar back. The whirling waters sliced through the muffin mans leg like a river through gingerbread and sent the man tumbling onto the street where it was an easy target for its shadowy opponents. Strangely enough the shadow men didn't seem too interested in living flesh though whether that was because the were friendly or their chosen prey was just tastier she couldn't know. Nevertheless, she kept an eye on them as she moved forward trusting Gou to keep up.

---

It was a relatively quick run, weaving between combatants and dealing with whatever muffin broke away to try its luck against them, until they turned a corner and stepped into a pile of moist muffiny sludge that made Luna regret that she wore sandals everywhere.

The whole street was like that though, covered in what could only be taken as muffin man viscera. Candy weapons lay in the street where they fell, and from out of the various buildings that lined the street fearful faces could be seen peeking out through the windows and glass doors. "Somebody was busy." Luna mused, impressed. She looked up the street and saw, at the end of it, a deep dark blob. That was the way to the bakery, so she pressed on in that direction.

As they approached the sounds of battle grew ever more loud and Luna realized that the dark blob was more of those shadow men. If what they had passed through to get here was a battle than this was full on war, a tide of shadows and muffins crashing against one another. In the middle of it, hard to make out from the rest due to his dark suit, seemed to be a man. Seemed to be, only because he had on a equally dark gas mask and looked to be commanding the shadows. "Yooooo!" Luna called as she began to run towards him and the battle he was evidently winning.

Target Earth! [A Monster Marathon]

I'll see what I can do!

@Gentlemanvaultboy I'll be writing about them already reaching there if that's alright

@mantou

Yeah, go ahead.

Target Earth! [A Monster Marathon]

Luna threw the phone over to Gou as she dashed toward the other one, tilting her oar forward and driving it into the earth before using it to launch herself at the Muffin man. It looked cocky for a moment. Luna wasn't doing a flying kick or anything. In fact, she had her arms spread wide as though she intended to grapple it. She wasn't even flying towards it, she was too high. If the dessert monster did nothing she would just pass right over him, but why would it waste the opportunity to bat his opponent out of the air? It reared back with its candy cane lie it was pinch hitter about to knock one into the stratosphere.

He took no notice of the oar, or that the water that had been swirling around the paddle had vanished. He didn't see the wet distortion in the sand, the beach soil raising slightly as it did when water travels just under its top layer. It didn't notice when the distortion settled under his own feet. He did notice when it bucked.

There was a wet explosion under the muffin mans feet as the water suddenly rose to the surface and burst with enough force to throw him into the air. He flipped like a table, tumbling backwards with his arms flailing, and as his head looked down at the beach that's when Luna caught him. She wrapped her arms around his torso, held his arms wide with her legs and drove the muffin mans head right into the beach. "Wavebreaker Style: Flounder." She said, letting go and rolling backwards back onto her feet. It didn't feel right saying it after you did the move, but you didn't really have a choice when you were going for a sneak attack.

She turned around and flashed a peace sign to Gou. "And that's a wrap. Good hustle everybody." She said, but something was nagging at her. When she had gotten up close and personal with this thing the smell had been intoxicating. Intoxicating and familiar. She looked back down at the muffing man, still and half buried in the sand, and not caring at all how weird this might look reached down to his muffiny thigh and ripped off a piece before popping in in her mouth and thoughtfully chewing.

"I know this taste!" She declared as the emergency alert on her phone suddenly sounded in Gou's hand. "This is no space muffin, he was baked on earth. Come on, we got to get to the Seashell Bakery." She sprinted back down the beach, grabbing her oar on the way as she headed for her scooter. When Gou followed, they'd zoom off toward the city.

World of Light

Link

Word Count: 675

Level 5 - (53/50) + 1

Location: The Bottomless Sea ~ The Maw

---

Link bent down and wrapped his hands around the handle jutting up from the floor, the object hemmed in on all sides by shoes, baggage, and general junk. He pulled with all his might, putting in all the power his small arms and knees had, and after a few seconds the thing dislodged from the floor with enough force to throw shoes into the air and send him tumbling over onto his back.

He looked over his prize, a an badminton racket. Of course, he didn't know what this thing was. What he did know is that Peach hit people with something that looked like this during the tournament.

He stood up, fitting the racket into his belt. He had a belt now. It was part of a very smart looking uniform. A blue and white tabard, some sturdy leather boots and gloves, no actual bits of metal armor but that was fine. It just made it easier to move around in. All in all, a pretty good set of clothing. Too bad it was just too small for him. Well, under normal circumstances it would be.

He looked back down at his tiny, tiny hands and sighed. This was not a trick he had ever expected The Maw to pull on them. They might have been able to avoid it if they had come in careful and quiet, maybe, but that hadn't been an option once that thing had risen up out of the depths. No one had to tell Link to start running, you always got out of dodge when a machines eyes started glowing red. He had half expected it to start laser barraging them as they went. He was so glad Shippy had taken off before that monster had appeared. He hoped she made it back safe.

As everyone had started to wake up and take stock of their predicament Link's first instinct had been to acquire some sort of weapon, even if it probably would do any good against the monsters that had done this to them. Those things had been bigger than them when they were still adults, after all. It was more that he had never felt more naked in his life, even when he had actually been mostly naked. His equipment was gone, his slate was gone, and as he flexed his arms he could feel a loss that, after experiencing it twice before, was excruciatingly familiar.

He pulled out the racket again, giving it a couple of practice swings and doing a few side hops across the uneven ground. "Hya, hyu, hyaaaa! Hup, hup, hup." At the very least he was still a swordsman. A weaker swordsman, but a swordsman all the same. He guessed he had his dad to thank for that, getting him started on it super early. It was a disappointment that this transformation hadn't put any old memories in his head. He would have been thrilled to know what the mans face looked like, at least. What else might he still have access too? "Cia?" He whispered, kind of dreading the idea that the woman would appear still fully grown. Adult or otherwise, though, the woman hadn't appeared.

This wasn't much to work with.

It seemed like he had more to work with than, say, Sakura who seemed convinced that they were all going to be eaten by monster. "Hey, we're not going to be eaten by monsters!" He called over. "Not if we're careful." He gave another confident swing of the racket. "Besides, I'll get 'em with this! I've seen Peach send Bowser flying with one of these."

Speaking of Peach, Link looked around for some kind of vantage point. Spotting an old cupboard sticking out of the debris and jumped up and scrambled up the shelves like a ladder until he reached the top and started looking around for both the others or an exit. "Are we all here?" He called out. "Speak up if you haven't! If you were one of those fat people we're not gonna hurt you."

Target Earth! [A Monster Marathon]

If it helps all my lore was just stuff I made up on the spot.

Target Earth! [A Monster Marathon]

Even if we don't get contacted on the moth phones, I think I have a way to get us to the bakery.

World of Light

Link

Word Count:

Level 5 - (52/50) + 1

Location: The Bottomless Sea

@DracoLunaris

---

Link cocked an eyebrow as the pair of sleeping minions were roused from their drunken slumber and started babbling in an language entirely unknown. "That's new." He said, relaxing as it didn't seem like either of them wanted to go for their weapons. He had just taken it for granted that the two of them would be understandable if they were willing to talk.

The mystery was discarded as a loud whoop cut its way through the rain, drawing their attention back towards the sea lab and the elevator therein. Thinking that the building had finally noticed their intrusion, he stumbled in to catch his first look of the lord of the laboratory and his frightful creations. At the very least the grotesque, bulbous people didn't seem outwardly hostile. If anything they were a bit vacant as they filtered past the seekers toward the doors.

The end of their journey soon appeared, rising out of the sea just off the platform. A monstrous boat the size of the island, a gaping maw hungry for its guests. The man in the green armor confirmed as such. So that was The Maw. Just like that, they were placed at the crossroads.

First, though, there was the matter of Shippy and the Abyssals. Sakura offered the suggestion the Junior could just warp them away, which Junior informed them would be a one way trip. "Even if its one way, I think you should send Shippy home at least. I don't like the idea of leaving her at the mercy of a man willing to feed...something like that." He said, giving a sour look toward The Maw. "Just give me time to go and get all the supplies out of the hold if we do."

Even if he disliked the thing itself, though, he still found himself agreeing with Bowser's plan again. "I say we take take on The Maw. We know hardly anything about either of our options, but there are three things pointing me in that direction. The first is that that monster out there defiantly feels like the greater of two evils and I would really like to put an end to it. The second is if we take The Maw then we're free to go wherever we like. And last, the woman in the black coat must of known about this lab if she knew about the Dead Sea and she still suggested the Maw. If she wants us to succeed, then that means The Maw is likely a safer path than traversing this underwater labyrinth."

He would ultimately bend to party consensus, but he had been of the mind to take the Maw since he had first learned of the option and nothing he had seen today had changed his mind.

Target Earth! [A Monster Marathon]

Should have invested some cash into Urban Combat Model Racoon-1.