thedman

World of Light

Michael and Franklin

Level 3- (5/30) EXP / Level 1- (3/10) EXP (+3 for both)
Location: Peach's Castle, Throne Room
Wordcount: 704

---

As they dusted off the dirt and picked up their weapons, Michael and Franklin both took a second to catch their breath. Din's dancing helped to further invigorate them after the fight, and they both felt well enough to keep moving. As Michael took a moment to put away his Uzi and take his sniper out of its case, Franklin scanned the area, taking in the bizarre scenery. "I know y'all said we'll talk later, but...the hell are we? This ain't Los Santos..." His eyes moved towards the other members of the group, advancing towards the castle. "And who...what the hell is going on with these people?"

Michael, now holding his Barrett, looked towards Franklin and sighed. "When I said it's a long story...it's a really long story. Look, all you need to know for now, is that these guys are our friends, and in there-" He pointed towards the castle. "Is our enemy. We need to take them out." As he began to move towards the castle, he turned to Din and the Centurion for a moment, stopping to address them. "Hey, thanks for the help. You guys really saved my ass back there."

Franklin followed behind Michael, and in a moment, the two were at the entrance to the castle. The first thing they noticed was the fire, and the amount of heat radiating off it. Looking down the throne room, the immense form of Bowser's doppelganger was easy enough to spot. "That's the bad guy, isn't it?"

"Yeah. That's the bad guy." Staring down the corridor, Michael gripped his rifle tightly as the group began to spring into action. He took note of a bunch of cages dangling from the ceiling, and that a few of the group were already moving towards them. More allies, hopefully. Or at least a distraction. Looking back towards the ground, he noticed that the Courier had begun to talk to the Bowser-clone again.

"...the fuck is he doing?"

"No ide- oh, shit!" To their surprise, the Courier had seemingly switched sides, turning around and firing at several of his former allies. Before Michael or Franklin could retaliate, Zer0 beat them to it, shooting the apparent traitor, with the shot then going on to hit their enemy. Immediately after that, several more of the team opened up with their own attacks, with Din using an attack to spontaneously grow plants, and a newcomer that Michael vaguely remembered as being at the bridge used some sort of magical attack. Soon, the doppelganger retreated into its shell, and launched itself down the middle of the throne room. Fortunately for Michael and Franklin, they were on the far side of the room, and had enough time to escape the path of destruction, retreating behind one of the stone columns on the right side of the throne room.

Hiding behind the pillar, Michael poked his head out long enough to watch their Bowser engage the clone, managing to get a few hits in with some sort of weird hidden boxing glove device, before getting tossed out of the castle. He turned to Franklin, who was also watching the fight and had turned to face Michael with wide eyes. "Man, what the fuck are we gonna do against that thing?"

Michael took in a deep breath, looking down at his rifle. "Alright...how about, you distract him, and I shoot him in the face."

"...shit." He peeked out for a moment. "Shit...okay, get ready. This better work..." Moving out of cover, Franklin walked towards where Megadragonbowser was. Flicking the safety off his pistol, he took a deep breath to steady himself, before calling out. "HEY, ASSHOLE!"

As soon as he called that out, he raised his pistol, firing three shots towards the giant enemy. While his pistol would likely have little effect, that wasn't the point of the attack. As soon as he fired, he ran towards the end of the room, attempting to get into cover behind the next pillar. Hearing the gunshots, Michael took the opportunity to lean from cover, aiming his Barrett towards the enemy Bowser. Holding his breath and activating his Bullet Time, he lined up his crosshairs with Megadragonbowser's head, and pushed down on the trigger.

BOOM!

World of Light

Michael, Din and Agoston

Collab with: @Stekkmen, @Stern Algorithm
EXP Gained: +3, -1 for Michael
Location: Scrapyard - Bridge
Wordcount: 1312

---

For a moment, Michael simply stared into the barrel of Franklin's gun, watching his life flash before his eyes. Was this it? It almost seemed fitting, in a way. After all the times he had screwed over the people that were closest to him, his life would be ended by one of his closest friends. Maybe this was what he deserved. Looking up, he still couldn't see any emotion in Franklin's eyes, just the haze that signified Galeem's influence. He didn't know why he hadn't just pulled the trigger already. Maybe there was some part of his friend that was trying to fight back? Either that, or whatever was controlling him just wanted Michael to suffer.

As Franklin's finger began to push down on the trigger, Michael could hear a familiar voice shout in the distance. As Franklin turned his head to face the direction of the noise, a ball of white energy shot forward, landing at his feet. "What the-" The approaching ball of magic caused Franklin to take a step back, causing him to slip as the ground beneath him turned icy. He fell backwards, hitting the ground with a thud. Groaning, he lifted himself back onto his feet, leaving blood stains on the ground. He used his left hand to hold onto his chest, trying to slow the bleeding from his multiple gunshot wounds. Despite his increased strength and endurance, being shot several times clearly hurt him. He steadied his right hand in the direction of Din, trying to line up a shot.

Meanwhile, Michael fell onto his side, clutching his wound. Oddly enough, as he lay there, he could feel the bleeding slowly decrease, almost as if it was healing itself. He took a few moments to catch his breath, trying to build up enough strength to keep fighting on despite the pain.

Noticing Franklin's gun trained on her, Din looked for something to hide behind, suddenly noticing Magnumus Agoston, who was standing by, ready to help. She didn't understand the difference in power between guns and bows, and assumed a man in full armor was strong enough to block a bullet, so she dove behind him and said, "Hurry! Michael's fighting his friend and they both look pretty hurt. His friend's got one of those 'guns', so be careful. I'll support you from behind."

The Centurion looked down at the dancer as she hid behind him. "Right!" He glanced up and tried to examine the situation. Michael's friend, or rather, his current enemy, was a young man who seemed to have similar gear to Micheal. Guns and the like. The man had trained his gun to retaliate against Din, but now it seemed Agoston was interposed between the two.

"Right." He said, a little deflated. But his instincts told him to stand his ground. The man lined up his shot, and Centurion took a few steps forward. The shot rang out, and Centurion raised his fore-arm before him in a position that would have once command a legion to prepare for a rain of arrows. The shot, suddenly, exploded into vibrant orange light as it glanced off an amber transluscent shield that cracked from the impact and then vanished into thin air.

"Haha!" The man in armor exclaimed, clearly excited he had achieved new power. The man seemed surprised, but quickly fired off another volley. Some of them missed, but most of them made contact. The Centurion rushed forward as the bullets pinged off his novel defense, but the shield was more and more cracked each time it appeared to deflect a shot. The Centurion was close, but the shield shattered as the fourth bullet slammed into it. He was a few feet away but not close enough to get a hit in. Running full speed he would take at least one or two more shots before colliding with Franklin.

Tilting his head up, Michael could see the Centurion approaching, and Franklin turning to face him, firing his pistol several times, with the shots being deflected by some kind of orange barrier. While he wasn't sure where the warrior had gotten the power from, he could tell that it wouldn't hold up forever. The shield seemed to weaken as multiple rounds struck it, and as it was hit a fourth time, it shattered.

Michael's regeneration had helped him tremendously, stopping the bleeding and healing his wound somewhat. While he was far from full strength, he felt strong enough to get back in the fight. With the Centurion's shield down, he would be vulnerable to Franklin's shots, but if he could distract his possessed friend for a few seconds, his allies could rush in to take him down. Stumbling to his feet, Michael felt a rush of adrenaline as he lunged at Franklin, grabbing the man by the arm and trying to pry the gun from him. Franklin, not expecting the sudden attack, stumbled as he tried to regain control, attempting to get Michael off of him.

As the Centurion approached, he braced himself to be shot by a gun for the first time in his life, and fight through the pain. Instead, Michael, regaining stability, rushed their possessed enemy. Encouraged, the Centurion smacked Franklin hard across the face with the back of his left gauntlet. Then, he brought his left hand down upon Franklin's left shoulder, and with his right hand pulled by Micheal, was easily able to hit him on the forehead three times with the pommel of his Gladius. After stunning the gun-toting foe, the Centurion attempted to wrench him off his feet and pin him to the ground.

"Dedere, dedere, dedere!" He shouted, trying to subdue Michael's friend. To be forced to fight against one's own free will truly is an abomination of the rules of battle.

Even with three times his usual strength, Franklin had a hard time fighting off two opponents that were grabbing him at the same time. He was left unable to defend himself as the Centurion grabbed him, striking him three times. He soon fell to the ground, momentarily incapacitated while the Centurion held him down. Michael looked on as Franklin struggled momentarily, attempting to break out of the Centurion's grip, but eventually fell limp, unable to continue fighting.

If Michael was going to rescue his friend from Galeem's influence, now was the time. But how? He had seen others summon Friend Hearts, but he didn't know how they did it. From what he could tell, it seemed to be something instinctual. Closing his eyes, he thought about his friend, about saving him...and he felt something. When he opened his eyes, to his surprise, a glowing heart was in his hand. "Woah..." Putting aside his awe for the moment, he motioned towards Franklin, and watched as the heart entered his chest. There was a pause, then he heard a cough, and saw Franklin opening his eyes. The haze and the blank look were gone, as his eyes darted between Michael and the Centurion. Michael put a hand on the armored man's shoulder. "It's alright. It's over."

"Ugh..." Franklin groaned, closing his eyes and putting a hand on his chest. Judging by his facial expression, he was in a severe amount of pain, as the increased strength faded away. Fortunately, Blazermate was nearby, and her healing dealt with the worst of his friend's injuries, as well as helped close up Michael's wound. Franklin took several deep breaths, before sitting up, looking over the group in front of him. "Man...what the hell just happened?" He looked down, noticing the blood staining his shirt. "How...how am I still alive?"

Michael reached out, grabbing Franklin's hand and pulling him to his feet. "It's a long story, kid." He turned his head, looking towards the castle in the distance. "But we'll play catch-up later. There's something more important we have to deal with first."

World of Light

I'm going to be eating dinner in a bit, but after that I should be available.

World of Light

@Stekkmen I guess we could use PM's.

World of Light

@Stekkmen @Stern Algorithm Do you guys want to work on a collab later today?

World of Light

Hey guys, sorry I haven't been active. I usually don't get a lot of chances to work on RP stuff during the week, but tomorrow I should be available to work on a collab.

hello folks

Welcome!

World of Light

I can try to get something up later this week.

World of Light

Added new power for Michael. Going to have to come up with a new one soon.

World of Light

Michael

Level 3- (0/30) EXP (+3) (Level Up)
Location: Scrapyard - Bridge
Wordcount: 1315

---

For a few moments, everything was quiet, the party seemingly frozen in fear. The silence was finally broken when the giant Bowser clone began to speak, mocking their Bowser. Michael couldn't help but frown as he listened to him go on about how much he was better than his apparent clone. Jeez, what a dick. As soon as he got done berating their Bowser for all of his failures, he immediately began to list off all the ways he was better. Well, no shit, your subjects are loyal because they're all brainwashed. Every politician's dream come true. The speech only made Michael dislike this Bowser even more. While their Bowser shared a few traits with the impostor, he at least seemed to genuinely care for the people he considered his subjects. This guy, on the other hand, clearly only cared about power.

Soon, the clone's attention was drawn to the Courier's drunken ramblings. For the moment, he seemed to be pleased with what the man said to him, but Michael could see that pleasure be replaced by disappointment as the clone noticed Mario getting up, wondering how "he got out". Michael felt his heart sink as it appeared that he had caught onto their scheme. Din performed a dance, which seemed to distract him for a bit and got Michael's hopes up, but said hopes were immediately crushed once the clone announced that he saw what they were doing. His heart sank even lower as he announced he was going to turn them into paste, and energy surged through him. Michael tightened his grip around his rifle, preparing to make what could possibly be their final stand.

Before they could be turned into paste, the air began to shimmer, and...something came out. It's a...hand? The fuck? Whatever it was, the clone Bowser stopped to speak to it. It unfolded its hand, revealing some sort of being inside it. The clone leaned in to listen to it, apparently annoyed at what he was being told. To Michael's surprise, the clone then announced that he had some "pests" to deal with, and would be returning to his castle. Michael let out a deep breath, relieved that he was gone. However, while one problem was gone for the moment, they now had a new problem to deal with. He took in a deep breath as the hand waved to them, trying to mentally prepare himself for whatever was next.

Michael didn't expect the hand entity to be able to speak, but it did. He could almost feel the air vibrating around him, and what it said sent a chill down his spine, as the entity directly addressed the group. Whatever it was, it was clear that it was on a higher level than anything they had faced before. While the other entities appeared to only be influenced by Galeem, it seemed that this being had a deeper connection. It spoke of their strength, before saying that they did not understand their mission, that it would leave them empty.

It then snapped its fingers, summoning what looked like seven trophy cases from thin air. They floated down to the bridge, and the hand entity continued its speech, asking them to give in to the light, and that they could live with their friends and family. He scoffed at that. Bullshit. What, does he think we're stupid enough to fall for that? He watched as the trophy case-looking objects shattered against the bridge, revealing different figures. The first one revealed a small robot, and the next...

No...no, you're shitting me. As much as he wanted to deny it, he was there. Franklin, the kid Michael had met by chance, and had taken under his wing. His business partner, and friend. He had hoped to meet him again, but even from the distance, Michael could see that his eyes were empty. Franklin, like everyone else they had met, had fallen under Galeem's influence. The entity spoke again, snapping his fingers to create some sort of field around the summoned people. It announced that they would not attack unless they attacked, but they would fight with three times their normal strength, and would not move from their position. It finished by saying that there only choice was to kill their friends, or die here.

Michael holstered his rifle, walking towards Franklin. He stopped as he noticed Ratchet run towards the small robot. "Hey, wait-" He tried to call out, but he was too late. As he embraced the robot, Michael watched with horror as light surrounded him, and as it dissipated, his eyes looked the same as the rest of the brainwashed figures on the bridge. "Oh, Christ..." The sight made his stomach turn, their former ally being taken by the force that he had once fought to stop. Looking away from them, he turned to face Franklin once again, walking near him, but keeping a safe distance.

Franklin recognized him as he approached, and his face lit up. "Michael! Man, there you are! Been looking for you."

Michael gulped as he spoke. "It's, uh...it's good to see you too." He scratched the back of his head. Looking around, he noticed that a few of the others had already engaged some of the spirits, with gunfire and explosions going off nearby. Disturbingly, Franklin didn't seem to notice at all.

"Hey, who's your friends? This some sort of Halloween party or something?" Franklin said, looking over towards the other members of the group.

"It's a long story. Anyways, since you're here...we sort of need to get inside the castle."

Franklin shook his head. "Sorry, man. I can't let you inside."

"...and why not?"

"I can't."

Michael frowned. "Frank, we're friends, right? Come on. How many times have I saved your ass, huh? Come on, for me. Just let me go."

Franklin just shook his head. "I still can't let you in. Sorry, man."

Michael frowned. He didn't want it to come to this, but it looked like there was no choice. Hearing the Centurion in the distance, he turned to him, raising up an arm. "Hey, big guy! Over here." He turned back to face Franklin. "Frank... I'm sorry for this. Once this is over, you'll understand." While he could easily snipe Franklin from a distance, he didn't want to kill him by accident. If he could get him incapacitated, they could use the heart-things to bring him back. While the entity said that everyone on the bridge would fight with "three times their power", he hoped that they would still go down easy enough. With the Centurion's help, it might be easy.

Taking a deep breath, Michael suddenly reached for his suit pocket, drawing his Uzi and firing several rounds directly into Frank's torso. While he was quick, and the shots were accurate, Franklin soon raised his pistol, and fired.

BANG!

Michael let out a anguished scream as the pistol bullet hit him with the force of a shotgun slug. He collapsed, falling to his knees and dropping the Uzi nearby. Looking down, he saw a large hole in his chest where he was shot. He put a hand on it to try and halt the bleeding, but the pain was intense. Looking up, he saw Franklin take a few steps towards him. To his horror, the bullets seemed to little effect, Franklin shrugging them off even as blood poured out onto his shirt. As he looked into his friend's eyes, he saw that they were empty, save for the unnatural haze that signified Galeem's influence. As he stared down the barrel of Franklin's gun, he tried one more time to reason with his friend. "Frank...don't do this..."

Franklin's expression remained blank, Michael's words seemingly no longer registering, as if a switch had been flipped. "Sorry about this." With that, he slowly lifted up his arm, aiming his pistol at Michael's head.