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World of Light

Courier 6 and Jak & Daxter and Cuphead!

Level7 - (55/70) EXP (+6), Level 5 - (24/50) (+6), Level 3 - (18/30) (+6)
Location: The End
Word Count:1183

Though Jak had gotten a head start toward the large floating island where the boss no doubt was lying in wait for them, he wasn’t the first to arrive thanks to his light eco wings being largely clunky and ineffective. At one point Sectonia passed by and seemed to give him a strange look of approval? Well, he was mute in Light Jak form so he naturally said nothing, but even if he retained his powers of speech he’d have ignored the weird gesture. Daxter on the other hand shot her a mean mug look and stuck his tongue out.

”Weeee!” called Cuphead as the giant bee alien carried him to their destination. Once they landed, he hopped out of her hand and slicked back his straw, then spat on the ground to look like a bonafide tough guy!

The Courier would have the most difficulty crossing and thought about the situation. Those black creatures could teleport sure, but they weren’t exactly appealing. Besides, the spirits were all claimed and he didn’t want to agitate anymore to start another fight. Then there was the matter of his robot, Gaige-Tron, and his chocobo mount, Drumstick. She wasn’t a flying bird, but seeing those chickens (cuccoos?) of Linkle’s gave him an idea. ”GT, hitch a ride with the monk. He’s got a whole mess o’things that c’n help I’m sure.”

“No problem, boss! Initiating ‘Freeloader.exe’ now! Haha, just kidding! I don’t have freeloader software, but I am totally gonna hitch a ride!” The robot sped off to Donnie and latched onto his flying machine without so much as a please or thank you, ready to go.

”Come on out, Bugfoot!” the Courier released his heracross from his pokeball.

“Hera!” it cheered excitedly.

”Gonna pull a repeat of last time. I need you ta launch me an’ Drumstick up high, then we’ll glide t’the next island. We’ll keep doin’ this until we reach that big one over there. Comprende?” Bugfoot saluted enthusiastically and got into position. Drumstick didn’t seem so keen on the idea, but she calmed down with a few pats and encouraging coos from her master. Heracross hurled them both into the air with its mighty horn! Then Drumstick flapped her wings like she’d never flapped before, guided by the Courier to give them a softer landing. Once they hit solid ground he pointed the pokeball back to Bugfoot, recalling the pokemon, then simply let it out again next to him. Rinse and repeat three more times and the Courier finally got to the big boss arena.

The Enderdragon showed itself as everyone found themselves surrounded by tall obelisk spires. A powerful engine of destructive force which bled into the nightmare world it reigned over, it let out a roar and attacked! Cuphead thought he could take it on headfirst. After all, he beat Matchstick and that guy had three heads so this guy would surely be a pushover, right? Well, that mindset proved to be instantly wrong as he was bowled over, as were also Jak (who wasn’t able to react quickly enough with his light wings) and the Courier (who had just gotten there and was caught off guard).

All three were tossed around like rag dolls, though the two wastelanders could take the hits without much trouble. Cuphead got several cracks in the process thanks to his less than durable body, but he still sprang up without a moment’s hesitation. ”Why I oughta!” he called out and began firing his peashooter while running across the ground.

Jak dispersed his Light form, the wings going with it. Clearly this beast would be far far more mobile than he was in the air, so it was best to stick to the ground and attack at moments of opportunity. He swapped the morph gun to Rootrot mode and activated his jet board, zipping and zooming around the arena at super speeds taking potshots at the Enderdragon whenever he could. It didn’t look like the rootrot was doing any damage, but then he didn’t expect it to. This beast was huge and would not go down without a ton of punishment, but the rootrot would slow it down, hopefully. Weaken it enough so that everyone could get a lot more shots in on it.

The Courier gazed upon the dragon in all its glory and froze for a moment, taking it all in. It was… A freaking pop tart with rainbows coming out the ass?! Well whatever, it was clearly incredibly dangerous, and spat out huge breaths of acid to boot!

”Remember boss!” Courier called out to Bowser, who was atop a spire in cat form, ”Y’promised this one to me!” He popped some coyote chewing tobacco to increase his perception, heightening his senses to incredible abilities, then kept his eye on the dragon. It swooped down and he spurred Drumstick on to take cover just in time, while Jak nailed it in the head with some rootrot and Cuphead dashed through the acid cloud, seemingly invulnerable, peppering the dragon with shots. Something seemed off about it, but he couldn’t put his finger on what exactly that was just yet.

As the Courier applied the extra damage stickers he had received from the koopas onto his anti-material rifle, one of the spires shot out a blast of energy that collided with the dragon. He activated VATS, intending to catch the action as the beam was connected to the dragon, but his timing was off too late by a fraction of a second. The beam was gone, but so was… Didn’t the dragon take some minor nicks and cuts? He didn’t see any signs of injury, but he was certain it had taken at least some small damage, coyote tobacco chew never lied.

He deactivated VATS and let things play out for a moment. One of those snipers from earlier, the first one he had killed, tried to communicate something to Kamek but he was too prideful to care. She then attacked an obelisk, blowing it to kingdom come along with her physical form!

”Whoa!” Jak called out, flying back from the shockwave, having gotten a little too close.

”Watch it, beak-face!” Daxter yelled, shaking his fist at Kamek. ”That was your girl that almost took us out! My fur’s gonna have that nasty burn smell for days!”

”Take out the towers!” the Courier called out. ”I ain’t no wizard, but I know what I saw an’ I reckon she saw it too! The rainbow pop-tart ain’t hurt no more!” The Courier took aim at the nearest spire and it with enough killing force to penetrate heavy artillery armor.

World of Light

Courier 6 and Jak & Daxter and Cuphead!

Level7 - (49/70) EXP (+2), Level 5 - (18/50) (+2), Level 3 - (12/30) (+2)
Location: The End
Word Count:1094

Everyone gathered together near the entrance to subspace, as Bowser and the others with experience called it. The Courier was making sure that his weapons were fully locked and loaded, and replaced the ammunition for the anti-material rifle thanks to Blazermate’s engineer, having some scrap metal and gunpowder handy. Jak likewise ensured his morph gun was at the ready, placing it in scattergun mode in case whatever they found inside the bubble of strange spacial distortion was already in their faces. Daxter meanwhile was busy flexing and mugging, showing off to everyone, not that anybody cared. Cuphead marveled at the changes that had been brought forth by absorbing the Sniper, including his nose changing shape and the rim of his head changing slightly. He didn’t feel too different, but there was another sensation he couldn’t deny. He had to pee. Like, really bad. But he also didn’t have to pee? He couldn’t describe it.

Courier 6 hopped up on Drumstick and pet her feathers to calm the girl. She was still fussy and frightened, needing to be trained to be more battle hardened. The situation was now or never though, as they were about to face off against another of the guardians. 6 looked down to his robot, who looked back up at him. The tv screen displaying her face changed the static image of Gaige’s face from one of excitement to one of bewilderment, flanked by question marks. “What’s up, boss?”

”We’re about to face off against an hombre equal or better’n the last one, an’ he killed the badass I designed yer brain patterns on, an’ her friend. We might not all make it out of this one.” He glanced around to everyone, mostly keeping his eyes on the two newest of the group. Cuphead and Link. The way the world worked, they would still be weaker and wouldn’t get their abilities back for some time. They were most vulnerable.

“Don’t worry, boss! My securitron design means I can repair myself as long as my body hasn’t been completely scrapped! And I’ll make sure nothing happens to you!” Both the robot’s arms morphed into guns and she began waving them around dangerously. The Courier laughed.

”I ain't afraid fer myself. Plenty tried ta kill me an’ nothing ain’t kept me in the ground yet. But we got good people here. Better’n this ol’ ghost.” He gestured to the likes of Princess Peach, Donnie, and Hat Kid.

“Understood, boss!” Gaige-Tron saluted, then reeled back in surprise of herself. “Saluting? Unacceptable! ANARCHY FOREVER!”

”Heheheh.”

”So if this is a maze we’re going into, who should I stick with?” Cuphead asked, jumping around like a kid on a sugar rush. ”I’m not a maze guy or a puzzle guy, I’m more of a run straight in kind of guy!”

Tora went on in, followed closely by the koopas, so Cuphead shrugged and dashed forward, throwing all caution to the wind as he is want to do.

”You ready, Dax?” Jak asked his buddy, firmly perched atop his shoulder.

”Are we ever ready? Let’s just get this over with.” Daxter sighed. Jak ran off into the void next. After a few more followed, Courier 6 rode in on his chocobo, Gaige-Tron rolling up alongside him.

---

What they found when they emerged on the other side was not remotely what they had been planning on. A vast black abyss with floating islands, it was unlike anything that any of the heroes had ever seen before.

”Look at that, Dax! Floating islands! It reminds me of-”

”Shush shush shush shush!” Daxter interrupted, getting in Jak’s face. ”We never talk about that game. Seriously, it’s in our contract.”

Cuphead ran around, dodging between people’s legs and weaving around bodies to get a better look at everything from all the vantage points. Most of these people were so much taller than him! It was a pretty wild place, to boot! ”Golly! This doesn’t look like what you described, but it sure is swell! I’d even call it the bee’s knees!” He stopped a moment and looked Sectonia right in the eyes, then slooooooowly down her body, noticing her uh, distinct lack of… ”Oops, sorry. I hope wherever your knees are, they come back to you.”

The Courier was busy looking over the place, too busy to partake in any conversation. GT was scanning with her ocular sensors as well. Then suddenly a creature attacked Tora from seemingly nowhere! It’s body blended in so well with the area, but from its size and lack of power there was no way it could be confused for the area’s guardian. The way it flashed around, teleporting, still made it a potential threat though. The Courier activated VATS to take in the details with less stress. Time completely froze around him as he looked the creature up and down. It was another square creature, so it had to hail from the same universe as that square blacksmith with the square gunpowder, and those square skeletons and zombies. God what was up with the square things?

He deactivated VATS and continued observing as others jumped into action. Another locked eyes with the Ace Cadet and attacked! He had a feeling he knew what was happening. Guided by his intuition, adaptability, and thorough analysis during time dilation, he quickdrew his revolver and shot at the head of the enderman that had attacked Cadet.

”I reckon these fellers ain’t too keen on bein’ looked at,” he announced for the group. ”I scanned the area an’ there’s a whole mess of ‘em, but they don’ attack until y’get a good look. Avert yer eyes, hombres, an’ we’ll have an easier time.”

”Great, but that still doesn’t explain how we’re going to get across this giant void!” Daxter complained. Jak just smiled at Daxter, who realized what was about to happen and turned a nauseous green.

Jak suddenly sprouted his membraneous wings of light eco and began to glow in a bright white light. With this he could fly across the islands and even make it easier for those around him to see, but would it also make it easier to trigger the endermen attacks?

World of Light

Courier 6 and Jak & Daxter and Cuphead!

Level7 - (47/70) EXP (+2), Level 5 - (16/50) (+2), Level 3 - (10/30) (+2)
Location: Spiral Mountain
Word Count:885

”Message delivered.” The Courier looked at his pip-boy’s watch function before adding, ”An’ right on time, too.”

Gaige-Tron diverted her path to make a beeline for the Courier, then gave him a high five, which he reciprocated without missing a beat. “Boss, that was totally gnarly! You showed them what-for! ANARCHY!”

Bugfoot followed up behind, and the Courier smiled and waved, then returned the pokemon to his pokeball. ”Couldn’t a’ done it without my posse.”

Nearby, another duo was quite upset. ”Jak! What was that?! We didn’t get a single one! Really, poor showing on your part. I’m sick and disgusted.”

Jak grumbled, but shrugged and let it go. ”We can let others be heroes sometimes, Dax.” He holstered his morph gun then joined the entourage of people heading to the top of Spiral Mountain, Daxter complaining about it the whole way.

Meanwhile, Cuphead stood at the edge of where Sniper and Imani had made their last stand. Two thunderous booms had signalled the end of the sharpshooters, exploding them into red mist which quickly turned to dust, and Cuphead was left stunned. Shocked into place, the dust settled around him, and on him, which he was struggling to process. What had just happened? He was out for most of the fight thanks to be made into a trophy, but then it all just… Ended? And those guys just died right in front of him! They weren’t even walloped, knocked senseless, or subdued. They were just… Gone. This challenged what the little cup knew about life. Not even the Devil himself straight up murdered people, even if he did take their souls and force them into indebted slavery…

He looked on the two spirits floating in front of him for a moment and contemplated resurrecting them. All it would take was a quick parry, just a hop on then a hop off and POOF! Back to life, their spirits would take on new bodies and their ghosts would probably give a quick “thank you” before manifesting. Only… It was too late. They weren’t pink anymore, were they? He had stood there in shock, failing to register everything, and the opportunity timed out. Now they were well and truly dead dead. Was that worth it? They weren’t even trying to kill everyone, just turn them into trophies, right? Could it be that these guys Cuphead found himself allied with were, themselves, the bad guys?! Just because they clobbered that mean ol’ King Dice didn’t necessarily make them good guys. After all, the Devil had a sour relationship with his own henchman/casino manager, right?

There was no time to really process everything. The group was already on the move, heading to the top of the mountain and reconvening. The spirits were already gathered, and Cuphead was drawn out of his funk by a sudden whistling. He turned to see that it was Courier 6, who called for his chocobo, and the grizzled cowboy mailman rode off with his robot running alongside. Huh. Well Cuphead went ahead and followed everyone else to the top.

---

Once up top, Princess Peach began overseeing the dispersal of the spirits as rewards. The Courier eyeballed them all with intense greed, wanting them all for some new gun or gear, but knew it would be better to bide his time. If he overextended his reach now, Bowser might well rescind his agreement to give the boss spirit to him, and that would be no good. Besides, since he had Michael’s anti-material rifle now, there weren’t many guns that would be dealing much more damage.

Jak looked the spirits over as well, and Daxter dove into them in an effort to nab some, but was stopped by Jak grabbing the ottsel’s tail mid-flight and yanking him back. Daxter crossed his arms upset, but Jak shook his head. ”I don’t think any of these will be a great morph gun upgrade. They’re all snipers, and we’ve got a rifle configuration.”

Cuphead tilted his head, a bit of milk spilling out the top comically. He noticed that one of their opponents, the blue shirted elf boy, was among them. So he just changed sides all of a sudden? Well, that gave more credence to the idea that these were the good guys if the swordsman could just join them like that. More to the point though, the spirits still needed to be claimed, and Cuphead felt a bit guilty for missing his chance to bring them back to life. He dashed forward and snagged the Sniper spirit. ”Gee willikers, I guess it’s time to put this to the test, right?” He looked at the others who he originally met and explained the whole quest, who also spoke about absorbing spirits. In the head and he gets new knowledge and skills, in the heart and he gets their powers, right? But the Sniper guy didn’t seem to have anything in the way of powers per say. Welp, no time to test it like the present, right? Cuphead slammed the Sniper spirit right into his chest!

”Time to live again!”

World of Light

Courier 6 and Jak & Daxter and Cuphead!

Level7 - (35/70) EXP (+2), Level 5 - (4/50) (+2), Level 2 - (18/20) (+2)
Location: Spiral Mountain
Word Count:796

The place was utter chaos. The battle became an extended hit and run, hide and seek exchange, with their own group getting several skirmishers into the tower, back again, and once more into the breach. Not wanting to take any of the attention onto himself, Jak had to move more methodically. He could run, roll, and jump at full speed while invisible, but it didn’t last long and took just as long to recharge as it did to utilize. Naturally he fell behind, but figured it was for the best in this instance. The normally talkative Daxter knew not to utter a peep to ruin their distinct advantage, which would soon present a great opportunity. Two of the sharpshooters had been killed, others injured, and two more fell from the tower down below.

Cuphead, having been revived by the Ace Cadet a short while ago, was dropped off at the base of the tower. The giant and the swordsman in blue were engaged with whole groups from their entourage, quite busy with that. He thought about jumping in, but he didn’t want to get in the way. He knew he could be reckless sometimes, but he didn’t want to repeat the mistake he had just made. He may have been impatient, but he could learn! Instead, he looked to Imani and Sniper, dazed by their fall, and ran in (finger) guns blazing! ”Golly, this pea shooter sure isn’t too slick. Sure wish I had my charge beam!” he said, showering the two with a hailstorm of small energy bullets, mostly only capable of scratch damage.

Meanwhile, Courier 6 nodded acknowledgement to the Ace Cadet for reviving him and kept to the cover he had found with Princess Peach and Kamek. The last thing he remembered before being turned into a trophy was firing off a full clip from Michael’s anti-material rifle in VATS. If he remembered correctly, he was able to hit two of the enemies: the giant and the woman in the bikini. He had to take stock of the battlefield before jumping straight back into things. He listened carefully and watched, activating VATS to get infinite time to observe, but never using its targeting system. From the looks of things, the giant was still alive and kicking despite the grievous wound from a gun designed to blow up tanks, but the bikini sniper was gone. No doubt all that was left of her was some red mist. Another enemy seemed to be gone too: the old man. He couldn’t see the boy in blue, but listening there were still the sounds of battle elsewhere, and the old man would undoubtedly be incapable of a melee fight, so he reasonably assumed it was the boy. That left the other two who had fallen from the tower.

The Courier reloaded the anti-material rifle with his pack of rifle ammunition and spoke into his PIP-Boy. ”GT, I need suppressing fire on the snipers on the ground.”

“Boss, I’m glad to hear you’re ok!” Gaige-Tron’s synthesized voice spoke back from the PIP-Boy speaker. He couldn’t help but grin.

”An’ bring Bugfoot, but I don’ want ‘im engaging. Might not get close ‘nough an’ I don’ want ‘im gettin’ hit. Keep Drumstick where she’s at.”

“Got it, boss!” The connection cut out, and just then Cuphead came charging toward the sniper and Imani, firing off his pea shooter while jumping up and down like a maniac. The Courier snorted in amusement, then lifted up the rifle to take aim.

Right on time GT came charging up the hill, firing off her built in pea shooter (the handgun received from the living bullets, not the magic finger energy of Cuphead) right at the two enemies. The robot and the ceramic cup acted as a pincer against the snipers, coming in from opposite locations, Bugfoot the heracross creeping in from behind GT.

The Courier breathed in, and held it. V.A.T.S. activated. Targeting Sniper, torso. Probability of hitting: 89%. Now that he was on solid ground and the distance much closer, naturally the chances of success were much, much higher. Targeting Imani, torso. Probability of hitting: 82%. Targeting Imani, head. Probability of hitting: 75%. Even a headshot was likely at this point, but undoubtedly overkill. Just stick to the torso, then. He queued up one shot for each of them, in the chest. Fire!

”Now Jak!”

In an instant Jak and Daxter reappeared right behind Imani and Sniper, the invisibility broken not by Daxter’s voice, but by Jak’s weapon. He had the morph gun out in Scattergun mode and fired a large cone blast of red eco point blank.

World of Light

Courier 6 and Jak & Daxter and Cuphead!

Level7 - (33/70) EXP (+3), Level 5 - (2/50) (+3), Level 2 - (16/20) (+3)
Location: Canyon outside Subspace
Word Count:2050
Jak level up: ”It’s a dark power, Dax. Some kind of… Invisibility.” - When Jak comes into contact with a Dark Idol, it interfaces with his dark eco powers to make him completely invisible for about 15 seconds, even machinery and sentries are unable to detect him. He is still able to move around and perform all his acrobatic maneuvers, but if he tries to operate machinery or perform complex tasks or fight, the ability is immediately broken. As the World of Light doesn’t have dark idols scattered about strategically, Jak must create his own in a process that takes about 15 seconds uninterrupted.

With the battle complete, there was much rejoicing and celebration, but the war was not over by a longshot. The Courier beamed with pride at his newly acquired striker, the floow, but there were plenty of resources to go around still. ”GT, grab me some spirits to crush.”

“Got it, boss! Weeee!” the robot went rolling around, grabbing what it could, while the Courier made a stop with Blazermate to ensure he and his pokemon were fully healed. The rest of the group had definitely grabbed the lion’s share of the little spirits, and that was alright as far as the Courier was concerned. He may have been greedy, but the biggest prize still lay on the horizon. GT returned with 2 primid spirits, a sword primid spirit, a trowlon, and a boraboras. He crushed them all and waited for what he’d get.

”Reckon I could use a better weapon,” he mumbled to himself. ”Damn Galeem took me into this world with my weakest gear an’ I don’ much care fer that.” Just then a thought occurred to him. The other two normal humans (or at least for a given value of normal when he counted himself among the group), the criminals, were still hanging back in the big truck. Michael hadn’t been making use of that anti-material rifle much and the Courier remembered his own back home. The kick was mighty invigorating. Something told him that they’d be in need of that kind of firepower soon. Luckily, despite their checkered relationship, Michael agreed to lend the Courier the powerful weapon. The Courier tipped his hat in thanks and headed on out.

Meanwhile, Cuphead was zipping around the battlefield dashing to and fro. He had seen the use of spirits and it excited him! The powerups he always got were tonics and potions he bought from Porkrind’s Emporium, but this was so neat and different! He snagged himself a ticken and a couple bytans, then crushed them to see what would happen!

”Booyah! And that’s how it’s done Jak and Daxter style!” Daxter cheered, pumping his right hand into the air then crossing both his arms. ”Well, mostly Daxter, but Jak helped too. A smidge.”

Jak, of course, could only snort a small bit of laughter and roll his eyes. He put away the morph gun and gestured for Daxter to come with. His ottsel friend eagerly hopped back onto his shoulder and the two began walking alongside the rest of the group.

”Wait, so we’re not gonna grab any of those spirits? Try out a new gun mode? Get a striker?” Daxter asked.

”Naw,” Jak shrugged. ”The bigger and badder the spirit, the bigger and badder the power up. I don’t wanna waste our time with small fries anymore.”

”Oooh, I getcha! Only the best for the best! And that’s us!” Daxter offered a high-five, which Jak reciprocated.

---

Traveling through the maze-like canyons and ravines took quite a while. The likes of Jak and the Courier were used to long treks through wastelands and so they weren’t bothered much by this. The Courier even turned on his radio for entertainment, letting everyone get an ear full of classic music from his world. Daxter, despite being just as experienced and used to traveling as Jak, was far more impatient and immature about it. He let out a bunch of loud sighs intended to bother those around him. Cuphead… His juvenile and impulsive nature was the worst of the bunch. He couldn’t stop complaining the whole way, remarking that his feet were sore (and pulling off his shoe to prove it, showing off a swollen foot about 3 times the size of his shoe, visibly throbbing, which somehow fit right back in his shoe with no problem).

Something did happen eventually though. The landscape became familiar to a duo in the group, Banjo and Kazooie, who remarked on how home was in better shape than they left it. A curious statement, but the abilities of Galeem seemed to transcend time and space, so the Courier didn’t put much thought into it. Then it happened. The Mater Hand reappeared. The Courier, having seen the danger the giant glove posed firsthand, immediately pulled out Michael’s anti-material rifle, but the hand put up a forcefield before engaging with them. Grumbling, he knew better than to waste the shot.

The hand issued its challenge. With its powerful magical abilities a huge tower rose up from the ground and six challengers appeared atop it: every one of them a marksman. At Peach’s urgency everyone scattered, not that they needed to be told twice. Unfortunately their ally, the dragon man Euden, was struck by a black arrow and became a… Statue? Trophy? It was peculiar for sure.

”So that’s what the hand meant by ‘binary,’” the Courier remarked. ”Ya get hit, or ya don’t. Armor, defenses, they don’ matter.”

Then the elf boy’s arrow came crashing down in a large explosion. Luckily nobody was taken by it. Jak and Daxter had hidden themselves behind a large rock.”WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO, JAK?!”

Jak narrowed his eyes, peeking out from the side, then pulling back into cover. ”We can jet board between cover,” he said simply.

Daxter shook his head. ”Then the kid with the bow will blow our cover apart, and us with it!” Jak thought pensively about their options.

Meanwhile, the Courier was aiming down his sights with the anti-material rifle, scoping out their enemies. Linkle mentioned that one of them was “her,” so he assumed the elf bow was who she was talking about, just like the similar elf boys back in Lumbridge. His explosion making bow definitely proved to be a huge advantage to the enemy. Then again, that giant looked formidable by sheet bulk if nothing else. Wait, was it… Blind? That handicap proved to be a moot point as it launched a behemoth sized arrow with pinpoint accuracy. So it had some other method of detecting them… One of the enemies was an ancient old man, barely alive, but his aim was as true as the others if not moreso. This was quite the challenging pickle for sure.

”Run and gun!” shouted Cuphead. He took off, well, running and gunning. The little cup dodged and dipped and dashed right up the path, firing his peashooter power wildly up at the tower. With as weak as the shots were, he might as well have been throwing sand at the damned thing, but if one could throw enough sand, it would eventually have an effect, right? Still, this approach completely threw caution to the wind in favor of a quick, bold approach and certainly couldn’t last long… Aaaand it didn’t. The snipers had their work cut out for them and their attention divided among many foes, but Cuphead made himself far too easy a target. A shot from The End turned him into a trophy.

Explanations were given by those who had experience with this sort of thing, and everyone went off in their own strategies to overcome their foes. Some ran between cover. Some flew. Some made use of distractions. Jak was still contemplating the best move, when inspiration hit courtesy of his best friend.

”Boy, sure would be nice if we had one of those dark idols right about now. It’s a crazy madhouse out there!”

”Wait, what’s you say, Dax?” Jak gasped.

”I said our people are gettin’ massacred!”

”Not that, the other-nevermind. Dark idol. Dark idol.” Jak closed his eyes and focused. His hands began to pulsate with dark eco while Daxter bugged out and jumped aside. Amazingly, something began to form between Jak’s hands, and after several seconds it was complete! A dark idol!

”Wow. How’d ya know that was gonna work?” Daxter asked, hopping back on Jak’s shoulder.

”I didn’t,” he answered, and with that both of them went completely silent. The idol glowed for a brief second, and then the eco warriors completely vanished from sight. Jak made the most of the situation and darted out from cover, performing roll jump and roll jump for the maximum distance. He had to get closer, much closer, then take cover again.

The Courier had barely moved from his original cover. He had taken the opportunity to cross ground in bits here and there when he was certain they couldn’t fire at him, but he intended to be cautious about this, an unusual tactic from the crazy mailman. But the more he thought about it, the more his patented “so crazy it might work” insanity crept into his mind. Those black arrows didn’t actually cause physical harm, as explained by Bowser and proven by Euden, and they could be recovered, again proven by Euden. However those snipers still had to be dealt with and as long as his posse was on the defensive, there was no way they could gain ground.

”Alright ya brahmin brained ingrates!” he called out to everyone in earshot. ”Whatever’s about ta happen, ya damn well better bring me back!”

With that he grabbed one of his two pokeballs and released Bugfoot the heracross. “Hera?” it asked inquisitively.

”Git down!” the Courier ordered. ”Yer gonna use that horn o’yers ta toss me as high up in the air as ya can, no holdin’ back! Don’t worry about hurtin’ me one bit, put every last bit o’strength inta it! Got it?”

“Hera?” he asked again, puzzled. Upon seeing the steely determination in his trainer’s eyes, Bugfoot matched the expression. “Cross!” It pounded its fists together in excitement, then lowered its head enough for the Courier to climb on.

”Stay here an’ don’t come out until I say so,” 6 ordered not just to his pokemon, but to his chocobo as well. He quickly popped some mentats and coyote tobacco chew to maximize his mental processing and perception, then inhaled some jet to put his energy into overdrive. ”No matter what. Now then, throw me!”

“HERAAAAAA! CROOOOOSSSSSSS!” Bugfoot used Megahorn, throwing the Courier way up, blasting off into the sky!

At the apex of his journey, Courier 6 activated VATS and time stood still. There before him were the 6 foes causing such a ruckus, at the top of this tower. They were still a long way away, and a bit higher than him, but he managed to close a ton of distance to countersnipe them and now he had the perfect weapon for the job. Target: The End, head. Trajectory, distance, current unstable movement, probability of hit: 8%. Not good enough. What was the point of the tobacco and mentats if a headshot was only a measly 8%?! Target: The End, torso. Probability of hit: 19% That wasn’t fantastic, but it was significantly better. He repeated the process with all 6 targets, getting similar numbers for them all (except the giant for obvious reasons, which was a far more impressive 36%). It would take all his stamina to queue up 1 shot for each one, but that’s what he did. And then… Fire!

One Piece: Grand Cruise - A High Sea Adventure

Please keep in mind the second image is only a very loose guideline of what I had in mind for her hybrid zoan form. It’s not intended to be as visceral, grimdark, or horror themed. A more thorough description can be found in the devil fruit section of her abilities.

Sweet Death Ayako

”No, no, I don’t think any anesthetic will be necessary. Here, have a lollipop.”

Name: Kurosawa “Sweet Death” Ayako
Age: 24
Gender: Gender is a worthless social construct. I concern myself only with biological fact.

Race: Human
Height & Weight: 5’5” 142 lbs.

Personality: Ayako is always living in her own little world, barely aware of whatever else is going on. She’s quite hyperactive owing to her sugar addiction, and rarely stays on topic for very long unless it’s something that interests her, and what interests her is sweets and biology. She sees most people as an opportunity to experiment, but believes deeply in the sanctity of both life and consent: for this reason she will never ever take a life. However, if sufficiently angered she will deem that your right to consent has been revoked, upon which her target will surely wish they were dead. She holds her nakama in the highest regard and will not suffer any injury to them on her watch, and doing so would be a grave mistake. They’re likely to come back with a few… Enhancements. She just wishes one of them would let her graft on that tentacle she’s been experimenting with… Her tactics and demeanor when angered make her one of the darkest members of the crew.
Bounty: 48,000,000 belli bounty for crimes against God and nature (actually for betraying the World Government and destroying her research)

Origin Story: Dr. Kurosawa Ayako grew up on an island in the South Blue teeming with all kinds of unique animals and multiple biomes. Her parents were nature researchers and animal preservationists, and raised her to have a healthy respect for life. The marines setup a base on the island and conscripted the citizens as researchers to further the goals of the World Government, which includes Ayako’s family. She was given a top notch education and trained as a doctor, which she took to like a fish to water. She sharpened her skills as a surgeon, a chemist, and especially, as a microbiologist.

Then came a time when one of her animal friends was horribly injured by some poachers. The other doctors at the research center didn’t see any way to save it, but that wasn’t going to deter Ayako. She grabbed her scalpel and forceps and went to work, utilizing flesh from other creatures that had been recently deceased. By the time she had finished her work, the creature no longer resembled its old self: it was a mishmash of parts, absolutely Frankensteinian in appearance, but it was alive. Alive and grateful. Seeing tremendous potential in their war machine, the World Government ordered Ayako to make more of these chimera beasts, but she refused. What she did was a last resort at preserving life, but churning out helpless animals meant to be abused into monsters of war was immoral. They couldn’t consent to such a thing, and the mistreatment they would suffer was intolerable. To emphasize the point the marine captain in charge of the base shot an animal in front of her. “Make no mistake. Every beast that isn’t modified by the end of the week will meet the same fate. By that token, your experiments will be preserving their lives. Don’t you agree?”

Disgusted, Ayako set fire to the base that night. She set all the animals free, burned the place to the ground, stole a devil fruit they had on hand, and then she gave the marine captain exactly what he wanted: he quickly changed his mind, but that was no longer Ayako’s concern. She left home that night and never looked back, eventually joining up with a band of pirates.

Position: Doctor

Goal: To create the perfect artificial life form.

Abilities:

• Master class doctor - Ayako’s mastery of biology is second to only a very few, and her skills as a surgeon are tremendous. This gives her incredible knowledge of where and how to strike an opponent for maximum effect, develop drugs, poisons, and stitch up physical trauma. Her real specialty comes with splicing life together to create something new. She can make new viruses and bacteria, or put parts of one creature into another and make them work when they should be totally incompatible. She’s like a moral Dr. Hogback.
• Combat Prowess - In terms of fighting ability, Ayako is one of if not the weakest member of the crew, lacking any kind of training in battle. This is somewhat mitigated by her performance enhancement drugs, but they’re temporary and even boosting her physical strength doesn’t mean she suddenly knows how to throw a punch.

Phago Phago no Mi: Virus Virus Fruit

Ayako ate a zoan type devil fruit that allows her to become a virus-human. This gives her the ability to transform between her natural human state, a virus, and human-virus hybrid.

• Research Bilden - Normal everyday vanilla human form Ayako, in all her scalpel slicing glory.
• Infection Bilden - Full virus form, Ayako becomes a 2 foot tall bacteriophage virus, with a semi-transparent protein membrane for her head, long sheathe, multiple tail fibers as legs, etc. In this form She possesses the ability to see in every direction simultaneously and has faster speed, in addition to being a smaller target. This comes at the cost of her ability to fight.
• Surgeon Bilden - The hybrid form, Ayako’s torso becomes a long sheathe, her head takes on the geometric shape of a protein membrane, and she gains several extra limbs, both legs and arms, which are long and spindly. In addition to the increased strength that most zoans receive, the bonus limbs allow for excellent multitasking and rapid attacks.
• Injizieren - In both Infection Bilden and Surgeon Bilden, Ayako has the ability to infect opponents with a pre-made substance stored in her nucleic acid (the bit inside the protein membrane at the head). As long as she can make contact and pierce the flesh, she can pump them with a virus, bacteria, poison, or other chemical she’s crafted and stored within her body.

Tonics

Tonics are Ayako’s specialty drugs, chemical cocktails designed to improve, or hinder, one’s ability in combat. Most of them are made into the form of a lollipop or chewable candy. Her currently available tonics are described in the inventory section.

Inventory:

• Surgical supplies, first aid supplies, etc. Full doctor’s bag.
• A LOT of scalpels
• A LOT of candy
• Blitz Tonic - A drug designed to improve the user’s speed, boosting their movement to insane levels for short bursts, but without affecting their strength. Abusing Blitz Tonic runs the risk of heart attack.
• Erdbeben Tonic - A drug designed to improve the user’s strength to superhuman levels, crushing rocks with ease. Abusing this tonic runs the risk of exhaustion.
• Katzenauge Tonic - A drug designed to improve one’s eyesight to astounding levels, particularly in the dark. Abusing this tonic runs the risk of migraine.
• Schlange Tonic - A toxic drug intended to paralyze the victim by numbing the nerve endings and impairing motor function.
• Sengen Tonic - A toxic drug that stimulates the pain receptors in the victim directly, causing agony as though they were on fire.

Others: N/A

Character Progression: Observation haki, more numerous and potent tonics, improvement of actual physical and combat ability, creation of minions, augmenting herself and willing crew members with biological enhancements, and ultimately the ability to override a victim’s DNA via RNA sequencing with her viral injection in order to directly manipulate the body.

Arc Suggestions: N/A

One Piece: Waves of Change/Romance Dawn/Grand Adventure

@ProPro
1. Saw-wielding fishman shipwright? No problem. I like this idea.
2. You lost me at humanoid virus? How would this work? Will we see Corona D. Virus?

@Juro

Literally the same as any other zoan. Three forms, pure human, virus (though would be a very large one), and hybrid.

@BCTheEntity
Uh, Bomb Fruit is fine, but if you looked at the current sheets in progress, Kalas went for it.

He... literally acknowledged that fact as a reason why he didn’t want to go for it? To cause direct competition with someone else?

One Piece: Waves of Change/Romance Dawn/Grand Adventure

I’ve got two ideas at the moment, what would people prefer to see?
1) A Fishman shipwright that can repair the ship on the go from underwater, that fights using a carpenter’s saw as a swordsman.
2) A mad scientist doctor that develops crazy drugs and poisons for combat enhancement, with a zoan devil fruit that turns her into a humanoid virus?

One Piece: Waves of Change/Romance Dawn/Grand Adventure

Well, you certainly seem to have put more thought into this than most OP games that go out there, and even took a similar approach to what I did in my old OP game in regards to choosing the captain, and setting up crew relationships ahead of time. You can consider me interested. I've made about a thousand different OP characters so it's just a matter of choosing who I want to translate over here. Ideally I'd like to bring back my favorite, Captain Bartholomew K. Runch aka Cap'n Krunch, the "Cereal Killer" with his cereal based devil fruit, but his story won't work if he can't be guaranteed captain and if someone else is going for cook then I'd rather leave him on the table. That still leaves a buuunch of options though.

Edit: Might I suggest a tweak on the CS? A “job” or “position” category to denote what they do for the group? Obviously the captain/first mate won’t need to be something there but the actual jobs like cook, navigator, main fighter, swordsman, etc.

World of Light

Courier 6 and Jak & Daxter

Level7 - (25/70) EXP (+3), Level 4 - (34/40) (+3)
Location: Canyon outside Subspace
Word Count:1358

The Courier enjoyed his position quite a bit and had to hand it to himself, it was a good tactic. Bastion’s turret form absolutely hammered the enemy forces before they could get a leg up, and the rest of his small army did their part to make sure Bastion remained unaccosted, or otherwise took out their own fair share of the subspace army. Gaige-Tron was laughing maniacally as it went to town as well and the Courier wondered for a moment if maybe he programmed the robot to be just a teensy bit too crazy in his efforts to capture the personality of Gaige.

Their position of authority was soon overturned however, as a ghostly apparition rose up from the middle of his encampment. “Behind you!” Gaige-Tron shouted. The Courier turned round just in time to see the floow as it began its cacophonous attack. Wave after wave of piercing, damaging sound resonated outward into the group. Bugfoot covered its ears but still took heavy damage to its carapace. The strikers were even less fortunate, as the lakelurk was poofed away in an instant and Bastion was left so heavily damaged that the Courier recalled him intentionally to recuperate. Gaige-Tron did what it was doing best up until now, acting as a shield for the Courier and putting up its EradiShield. Unfortunately the EradiShield wasn’t up to snuff and broke after a good portion of the attack went off, which left Gaige-Tron to take some powerful shockwaves. The robot was damaged, but still in fighting form and its auto-repair protocols were engaged. The Courier himself got away with only some minor aftershock (as did Drumstick, his loyal chocobo mount), but it still left him slightly disoriented.

He shook his head, hearing the bellowing of Bowser with vital information: kill it quick, or it will regenerate. ”You’ve got to be shittin’ me!” he spat, pulling out his shotgun. He popped a bit of coyote tobacco chew to offset the disorientation, the chem immediately taking effect and increasing his perception and concentration. ”Ivories, keep’em off me!” he shouted, and the donphan grunted in response. A few primids came charging at him, but they were quickly flattened into pancakes by the rolling pokemon.

Time came to a near standstill while the Courier focused on the floow with his shotgun. He targeted each part of its body. Body shot: 99% chance of hit. Left arm: 74% chance of hit. Right arm: 77% chance of hit. Head: 92% chance of hit. Well with those kinds of odds, he was for sure going for the head. 3 shots queued up just as the floow was about to start shrieking again. Bang bang bang! The pellets of the first shot tore through the air and into the floow’s head, causing significant damage. The second shot did the same and left the ghost-like creature barely hanging on, but it wasn’t deterred from its sonic shriek. Shockwaves once again began to emanate from the creature as the third volley of shotgun pellets flew through the air. Most of the pellets were knocked aside, but a few flew true and in that instant the floow was finished off. Its segmented body fell apart. The shockwaves ceased right as they knocked the Courier off his chocobo and onto his ass.

”Gah!” he cried out, gripping his shoulder where he landed. Despite all his cybernetic enhancements, despite being virtually superhuman in his durability, that still hurt like Hell.

He looked off to the side, seeing Bugfoot swatting aside some primids with his big meaty claws, then toss a flaming primid way up high into the air with his horn. The movements were pained and sluggish, not made any better by how the fire primid managed to scorch the bug as it went into the sky. The Courier couldn’t let it go on like this and returned the heracross to his pokeball, standing up gritting the tobacco between his teeth. Ivories came rolling back to his side, still none the worse for wear. The donphan seemed to be taking some pride in that its rival pokemon was returned before she was. Gaige-Tron came rolling on up as well, blasting some approaching primids in the head with its peashooter before coming to a complete stop.

“I got you something, boss.” The robot held out its mechanical noodle-arm revealing a small mote, a little colorful orb. Inside the Courier could see the colorful ghost he had just vanquished.

”Heh. A real glass cannon, that hombre. Gracias, GT,” he said, snatching up the spirit. He turned round to take stock of the battlefield. There was some kind of scythe-tank driving around attacking them, a bunch of the small fry still running about, and some rather big boys in primary colors stamping about the place. Oh, and some flying carpet looking things were flitting about the place now in addition. So that was a thing. The Courier held out the spirit in his hand and spoke to it. ”Alright ghostly friend, how’s about you go some haunting fer the good guys? I’m sure that rolling scythe thing would love t’hear yer lovely singing voice!”

---

Jak and Daxter were making quick work of the feyesh and other airborne enemies without much hassle. Despite Light Jak’s wings being fairly slow for flight, maneuverability wasn’t a high priority when the morph gun was capable of mowing down all their foes with impunity, and Daxter was up to the challenge. At least he was, until reinforcements arrived. Suddenly there were fliers with ranged capabilities in the form of lightning shooting clouds, and carpet looking goons that could bring other goons with them!

”Uh-oh. Jak, you don’t happen to be able to use your shield again, do you?” Daxter asked worriedly as a spaak sent a ball of electricity hurling their way. ”Jaaaaak!”

Jak did not respond (not that he could talk in Light form) but instead completely stopped flapping his wings and adjusted himself in the air to fall feet first. Daxter freaked and jumped back up to Jak’s shoulder, throwing the morph gun up in the air in the process, which was quickly snatched up by its owner. The ball of lightning flew right over them as they fell down, and Jak revved up a yellow eco spear and impaled the spaak.

”Uh, Jak? I can’t help but notice that we’re still falling. You gonna uh, start flappin’ again?” The answer to Daxter’s question came in the form of action. The light eco surrounding Jak dissipated in a flash, leaving behind plain old vanilla Jak.

”Hang on,” he urged his friend, then popped off the jet board and surfed the air with it. ”Woohoo!”

A trowlon came to scoop up Jak, but he just flipped off of it with a shockwave, knocking the thing senseless. He flipped upside down and began rotating like a helicopter, a pleased grin across his face. Meanwhile Dax’s face had turned green and he was doing his best to hold in his lunch. The ground was quickly approaching though, and that meant the time for showing off tricks was over. Jak flipped back over and aimed his trajectory carefully, impacting against the side of the head of the largest nagagog. The jetboard released a shockwave directly into the monster while Jak flipped back and onto the ground.

Jak kicked the jetboard back up onto his back and swapped over his morph gun to its latest form: the Sporebloom. He quickly unloaded four shots of red eco “rot” into the behemoth nagagog, noticing a meter on the weapon rising with each shot fired. Well, if raw power just made this guy bigger and nastier, maybe a heaping bunch of rotting spores would knock it down a peg!