one more five horu drive to home...then ill stop spamming the status bar. promise. go back to only updating it once every few months
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1 yr ago
back in my home state. actually a real nice hotel compared to the last one that had cockroaches in the bathroom. so thats cool and good. ready to get home tomorrow. blehhhhjgkjgkjhatk
Level 7: 26/70 Word Count: short Location: The Under Points Gained: 1 NEW EXP balance--- Level 7: 27/70
Jesse sat back and watched as the two big bads engaged each other in fisticuffs. Bowser, and the bad guy from Zelda? Maybe.
I’ll have to get the research team to find the Bureau’s video game nerd. They should- man they are really going at it. Jesse raised her eyebrows as the two juggernauts slugged it out.
Is this a guy thing? I think this is a guy thing. Maybe it’s a villain thing? The ego of these guys is out of control. I suppose we better just hope Bowser can win the 1v1 otherwise things might get awkward.
Fortunately, he did, and Ganondorf yelled out the name of his new nemesis, much to Primrose and Jesse’s amusement.
Jesse passed Ganondorf and gave him a thumbs up. “Welcome to the party. Party as in adventuring party, not pizza party. Unfortunately.”
They were in pursuit of a mapmaker, and apparently one of the best ways to go was down a giant pit. Jesse thought of herself as a very talented spelunker- she could just kind of…float.
She did blink in surprise when Therion turned into a feline of unusual size. “Cool. Watch out for yarnballs.” She joked lightly. Both Therion and Nadia were intent on getting down there first, and Jesse figured she might as well join them due to her gravity proof technique.
“I might as well come too. I’ll meet you at the bottom, I guess.” Jesse said, stepping off the ledge and into open air, where she began to descend downwards. Motes of light trailed behind her, and a few pebbles and rocks as well, carried with her Levitation. Jesse cast her eyes downwards, gun out, watching out for any bigger bugs than the harmless looking, mostly cute flies bumbling around.
At some point during her descent, Miss Fortune encountered some misfortune. Jesse glanced up and saw her falling, loudly stating her definitely unbiased opinion about the Under. Clicking her tongue against her teeth, the Director rushed into action. Dropping Levitation, she picked it up at the last moment to prevent her fall. Landing, called out “Elastic Ooze!” and her ever faithful lunatic alchemist heeded her command, throwing a bottle of the green stuff into the air. Jesse caught it with Launch, and fired it with precision at where she thought Nadia might land.
It wasn’t terribly big, but it was a sizable enough target. If Nadia landed on it, she would bounce into the air, with enough time to readjust and land on her feet. Or, anywhere that wasn’t her neck.
Once Nadia and Therion were both down safe, Jesse gave the cat Therion an unimpressed look at his smugness. “Nice, Therion.” She said.
She glanced at Nadia. “You alright? Guess it’s true about cats always landing on their feet.” Jesse said. Whether or not this comment was entirely genuine was up to Nadia’s performance in the fall.
“You’ve probably heard that one before. Probably said it even more. Where the hell are we, anyways?” Jesse asked, glancing around for this mythical cartographer.
Sakura Level 9: 06/90 Karin Level 4: 24/40 Location: Kunad Highway Word Count: 640 Points Gained: 1 New EXP Balance--- Sakura Level 9: 06/90 (pending)
Karin Level 4: 25/40
Karin narrowed her eyes as Morax's health was restored before her. She readjusted back into her defensive kneel. ”Hmph. Very well. Perhaps you can prove yourself worthy of my-”
Morax began spamming fireballs.
Karin scowled. ”What is this, bronze league?”
He didn’t even change up his timing. Fire, fire, and more fire. A deluge of fire. Useful, if he was looking to scorch a crowd of fleeing peasants! Such an ignoble tyrant. That was what Karin learned. There was on better way to learn about someone than by fighting them.
For the first few blasts she took a single step forward and then blocked, the fire burning around her, thick, blue, dull impacts diverting the fire around her. It was hot, certainly uncomfortable. If he kept this up uninterrupted for forty five more seconds, she’d crumble. He didn’t have forty five seconds. And it’d only ever take her one.
Once she found the pattern, Karin made her move. Dash, sidestep, leap… ”Seppo!” She used her signature dash in the split second between bursts of fire. She dropped into another slide, her hand supporting her as she went feet first…in between Morax’s legs, and off the edge of the truck. She wasn’t going to risk triggering that Counter again- she was going to finish this now.
There she turned and gripped the side with one hand. With the other, she quickly fired a grapple around his torso, the clamp attaching. Crossing one arm over the other, she aimed at Belphegor. ”Be useful for once why don’t you?” She spat at Morax.
Morax turned around, but she had already pulled herself off the edge and jumped over him, causing his purple blast to miss. All he saw was Karin’s boots leaving his peripheral vision.
She landed elegantly behind him. So predictable was his attack pattern that she had time to briefly observe the battlefield- the Belphegor demon on his porcelain throne had returned, causing trouble for her allies. After Trumpeter unleashed its Despair, Karin was unaffected, only getting a passing understanding of the kind of mental anguish it wanted to afflict on her and her allies. Poppi was not so fortunate, and Belphegor was going to take advantage.
As it unleashed its deluge of ice, Karin aimed a grapple right at his center of mass, linking the two demons together. The line between them retracted, yanking them together. Both would clash bodily in mid air and be linked together- and breaking the link would leave Morax to be cast to the desert road rushing by underneath. If that didn’t come to pass, it’d make them both a wide target for ranged allies to target. Either way she would be assisting her teammates and ridding them of Morax.
Karin left herself vulnerable to do this, and received a blast of physical magic from Morax for her trouble. Grunting, she was knocked backward to the far end of the truck but rolled back onto her feet. She then blocked the ice attack, skidding to the back of the truck and scraping against her arms. More chip damage. She cast her eyes to the oncoming herd of…wild trucks?
”Oh, my.” Karin said. Their new ally, who from what Karin had seen, had been fighting rather valiantly, had organized their extraction. ”We must make haste, Seekers!” She called out.
Karin was nothing if not stubborn, however, and would be among the last to retreat. Lacking much ranged capability, she had little means to support her allies once the retreat began. And with her grapple gun giving her high mobility, such a decision only made sense. It was also a matter of pride- a Kanzuki never flees from a battle. This would be her covering a withdrawal. Getting into a defensive stance, she staked her claim on the rearmost truck and prepared for her next move, whatever that may be.
Aya flinched as the frog ribbited loudly. She had assumed he had a frog brain as well, and well, there was nothing to prove her otherwise yet anyway. Being right there as he hopped out of the bowl, the ambitious rogue spotted the commander's medal at the bottom of the bowl. "Why, for me? Thank you, Commander!" She said cheerily, snatching the shiny object up in a heartbeat. She slipped it into her pouch.
When she heard the zombies, Aya popped up into a standing position. "Son of a- quick, run!" Before she booked for the door, she span on her heel. "No, our money! Fight! Fight for the money!"
Her eyes flittered around the room in an instant. As they shambled up the stairs, she went into action. "I've drunk enough- get the wine on them!" She ordered one of the strapping men in the room. Then she scrambled to the campfire and lifted a burning branch from it, holding it by the non-flaming end. As soon as the wine was on the zombies she'd drop the flame on the alcohol and set them all on fire.
Level 7: 25/70 Word Count: ?? Location: The Under Points Gained: 527 NEW EXP balance--- Level 7: 26/70
Jesse glanced at Nadia and glared, good-naturedly. “Just don’t try to devour anybody and we’re square.” She rolled her shoulder and glanced around the cavern.
...Bad side, huh. It’d be funny if I was giving off sinister vibes. I mean what was I gonna do, bake the man-eating monster a birthday cake?
Then some little guys came in. Just a couple of little guys. They shot a bunch of little pellets out, decrying the deaths of their demonstrably monstrous ‘friends’. Jesse suppressed a sympathy laugh.
They’re gonna pick on us? She asked, raising her eyebrows.
Obviously they weren’t a threat. Curiously, Jesse turned her upper body and raised her arm, letting one hit her side. Basically nothing. They were so powerless, it was funny. Poor little guys.
Sectonia immediately mind controlled them with that annoying Natash-whatever person that they killed a few days back. That earned a shrug from Jesse. If it works, right?
“Pick better friends.” Jesse advised them, and then continued onward.
Lagging behind a little bit to observe the scenery and checking for teleporting interlopers, she nonetheless caught most of the early information and all of the important stuff. It seemed they had once again run into a new ally. He seemed vaguely ominous, but, then again, so did Jesse, apparently. He also reminded her of the Gerudos in Gerudo Town.
“Alright, so. Three magic doodads into the magic key slots. Thanks…you.” She gave Ganondorf a thumbs up, not knowing his name. But given Nadia’s general demeanor and that she had met him first, she assumed everything was kosher. Also, the Knight seemed to be down, which was a good sign. Besides, where else would a giant monster be except behind a magically locked seal? Giant Black Egg. That’s where a giant monster would be.
“Hey, you know what’d be funny?” Jesse unholstered her Tool Gun and pointed it at the Black Egg. “If I just No Collide this egg, we can-” Polaris shimmered with warning, causing Jesse to point her Tool Gun up and away.
“Mmm. Mm–mm. Nope.” Jesse shook her head. “Polaris says no. I figured that’d be too easy, but we should really do this the right way.” Polaris shimmered around the edges of her vision again, imploring her to take the path to the Masks. “Let’s find what we need to find.” Jesse was prepared to go about this quest with somewhat of a detached approach. That she was just going to protect the Seekers. But with Polaris’ go-ahead, she was convinced the path suggested was the right one.
Thanks for the heads up. Hopefully you can show me what we need to know or do first. Polaris shimmered in agreement. Jesse wasn’t quite sure how Polaris perceived the world, but she knew at the very least, how to ward off corruptive Resonances.
“So, where to first?” Jesse said, looking to pick a direction and go. Whatever way they hadn’t gone yet. “If there’s Three Masks…well, it’d be nice if they were all in a convenient, straight line. We could grab them up in one go and then bring them back all at once. Guess we’ll just have to see.”
Sakura Level 9: 01/90 Karin Level 4: 24/40 Location: Kunad Highway Word Count: 969 Points Gained: 2 New EXP Balance--- Sakura Level 9: 03/90 (pending)
Karin Level 4: 26/40
Karin took the point in the battle on the surfaces of the trucks, and the minotaur-esque wizard sought to challenge her. She regarded it coolly, in her battle stance. With its attention on her, it wouldn’t be able to attack her allies at range. The battle would continue to rage on around her while she fought.
The mage proclaimed he would have order, provoking a raised eyebrow from the Kanzuki. ”No. I shall have victory.” She said, glaring at him from the opposite side of the truck.
She expected ranged attacks from his general demeanor and staff weapon, and ranged attacks she received. A series of fiery explosions erupted towards her. In her elegant yet now practical adventurer’s outfit, she flipped forward with a jump. The explosions went beneath her. As she landed, she dropped into a defensive kneel, the explosions scorching across her now bare arms. Despite skidding backwards, she held firm, the damage and pain minimal thanks to her technique. She found a gap in the explosions and dashed around and forward, pausing to leap straight up into the air for the explosions to move beneath her. With one last dash she was in range, and Morax raised his staff to summon a close ranged, purple physical type spell.
But she was in range now, and he’d find his magic proudly interrupted by a crushing counter to his femur, Karin’s dance-like spin kick hitting with brutal power. This would also give her a head start on her V-Meter. As she did, her eyes were closed, a confident smirk on her face.
”Tenko!” She dashed forward and jabbed her palm outward as he recovered from her kick, looking to send him flying. The hit connected, but some type of magical Counter took place. Instead of flying away, he was rooted in place. Tenko was a high recovery move, and his Counter was swift, his stave smacking her across the face.
”Mmh.” She lost a step, her head flicking to the side, but it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. Doing any spell would be foolish now that she was in range. Curious about his magic, she stabbed her leg outward with long ranged, poking medium kicks. This time, when she triggered the counter, she was well ready for it. She caught the stave and the confident smirk returned and with a seemingly small movement of her arms, would do crushing damage to the extended limb.
Meanwhile, Sakura kept riding her motorcycle alongside the trunks, hunching her shoulders. People jumped around and above her, projectiles whizzed over her head, and the only thing keeping her from becoming a long skidmark on the desert road was two wheels and a motor.
Sakura bit her lower lip, eyes wide beneath her green goggles. They kept the sun, dust, and bugs out of her eyes, but they also painted everything an ominous hue. She saw two bikes clatter off the roof of the truck in front of her. ”Midna-san! Come on!” Sakura whined, watching them tumble and break apart with great remorse.
Sakura could only see people standing on the sides of the trucks, and even then usually only their upper halves or less. Pit was flying around, Roxas leapt forward. Raz was almost knocked off entirely. Midna’s great barrage of attacks didn’t seem to come through, and someone- the toilet demon?- cast some horrible spell. For a moment Sakura felt a horrible hunger settle in the pit of her tummy, but she managed to shake the effect off. It was a horribly familiar type of hunger, the kind she never wanted to feel again. It gave her a shudder just thinking about it, and reflexively her strong body deflected the spell with her 50% chance to resist. Sakura steered her bike so she was in between the two rows of trucks, closer to all of them. It made for scarier driving but she was in a position to help more of her teammates.
Trumpeter made his call, and Karin was affected. A well of devastating energy began to form beneath her feet. ”Oh, my!” She exclaimed. Using the single Super meter she had gained thus far, she executed a Seppo dash. Becoming a brilliant golden blur, she zipped with a loud ripple of energy away from Morax. Unsure of the radius or nature of the spell, she jumped at the end of her dash and flung herself away and off the trunk entirely. She interrupted her speed by attaching a grappling hook to the truck she was just on, and for a brief moment she sailed in mid air as the Trumpeter’s explosions purified several areas of the field all at once. ”What the-?” Sakura watched in awe, and yelped, instinctively driving to the side to dodge an explosion that wasn’t aimed at her. Much to her relief she wasn’t considered a threat by the trumpeter. Just one of those explosions and she’d be toast. For a short moment she thought Midna had been annihilated, but the Princess emerged with some kind of crazy space army car! She unleashed a blaze of bullets as the convoy moved past her, Midna taking up a flanking position at the tail end of this entire battle.
Karin pulled herself back onto the surface of the truck’s roof and rolled forward Morag, sliding to a stop. ”Now, where were we?” She asked, with a confident brushing of her ringlets.
If anyone needed to use Sakura’s bike to navigate the field she’d be within jumping distance of whoever she could. But otherwise the vehicle bound street fighter was just keeping her head down and trying to survive. She was acting like something of a reserve unit at this point- though unintentionally. If anyone really needed her help, she could abandon her motorbike and hop in to help.
"...Woah! Where's all this coming from?" Aya said, looking genuinely caught off guard by their reactions. One guy was being mysterious and aloof, and the other guy was just being plain gross. Victor and Anslem.
"You can't say you don't care who leads while also saying you don't want me to be leader. That means you do care. You stodgy bastards." She cartwheeled over to the frog in the bowl, grumbling to herself about 'complaining'.
"Complaining. Complaining! Wouldn't you agree that the previous management has failed us in some way?!" Aya proclaimed, offended. She squatted over the frog, emphatically gesturing at him. "He's a frog! And we have plenty of money now! I say we go to the nearest town and see if we can pick up any fresh faces! We could pay them so much. They'd be stupid to turn us down. Then we can go around and get even more money with all our new, better people. Or, cool new weapons!" She nodded, grinning.
"And along the way we could find a lovely pond to give our dear Commander Sigurd a well deserved retirement." She pet the frog on the head with one finger.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town
It had been quite the kerfuffle indeed, and Karin Kanzuki suddenly found herself in a hurry. The Seekers were on the run from the law. Karin followed the sound of Peach’s recognizable- if unbefitting- gunfire. ”I was hoping to have a little more time to relax but-” Karin fired her grappling hook and pulled herself over an entire row of buildings, landing with a flourish at the loading bay of trucks. ”I find myself relaxed and ready to engage nonetheless. Tally ho, Seekers!” She quickly put together that they had convened with some kind of Seeker cell within the city that had organized their transport.
”Very well. This shall do for a quick escape.” Karin said, a single elegant hop carrying her to the roof of one of the trucks. A few more hops later and she was towards the front of the fleet. Her golden eyes scanned the Seekers. But it wasn’t long before she spotted her friend Sakura on the front of a motorcycle, the Princess Midna there as well. Sakura had found much more success than Karin had in terms of finding transportation, that for sure, but as to where she procured that motorcycle Karin could only assume she beat someone up for it.
”These cops are creepy.” Sakura said to Midna as they rode past them. She followed the havoc, winding between fleeing people and glimpses of fleeing Seekers, blowing past the pursuing G-Men in the process.
Midna had no idea what a ‘cop’ was specifically, but she had to agree. Whatever peril the rest of the team had wound up stirring, it certainly had an ugly face.
”Looks like we’re taking the trucks after all, Midna-san!” She said, pulling to a stop and waiting for them to get moving. ”This is- um, not-” She tried to find the word. ”-subtle.”
”You don’t say”
”But that’s okay. Looks like we made some new friends!”
It was close- the G-Men almost caught up. But the convoy started at the last second and Sakura peeled away from the town and into the wilderness on her motorbike, with Midna has a passenger. The trucks were on the move. Sakura moved with Midna to the front of the pack, though if the Princess wanted to she could move wherever she liked. Sakura wished they had enough time to put some of the motorcycles down, but they were run out of town by the authorities before then.
She pulled up alongside one of the front trucks where Karin was standing.
”Karin!” She shouted up to her, waving and grinning behind her new green goggles.
”Greetings, Sakura! I see you fared rather well. I offer my congratulations. I merely procured some tea in our time apart.” Karin said, her hair blowing majestically in the wind.
”I got six radios and four motorbikes! All of ‘em are in Midna’s magic pocket. ‘Cept for this motorbike I’m on right now.”
”You could have done worse, you could have stirred up whatever trouble this is” Midna called up, before joking ”Really, you can’t leave some people alone for five minutes without them picking a fight huh” before she leapt off of the back of Sakura’s bike, floated up to truck Karin was on and proceed to dump the three remaining bikes onto it to be picked up by the others if they wanted them.
”Oh, and, nice to meet you of course” she turned to the second street fighter to say, before adding ”and I take it the two of you already know each other?”
”The pleasure is all mine. Indeed, Sakura and I, Karin Kanzuki, are friendly rivals.” Karin said. She glanced down at the bikes Midna had placed on the roof of the truck.
”Impressive, no doubt, but…” She looked at the ground speeding along underneath them. ”I’m not entirely sure how we’re supposed to get on one now, unless your magic can accommodate.”
”I could do it like this” Midna said, as she brought out her shadow hand, picked up a bike and then lowered it to the ground carefully, using her magical might to stop it getting ripped backwards upon contact with the ground and instead making it drive sidecar next to the truck for a little bit before picking it back up and popping it back in the pile.
”See, totally safe… anyone want one?”
After the princess made her offer, Karin glanced over Midna’s shoulder and to the horizon, where she spotted the oncoming enforcers. ”Hmph. It seems we have company. I’m afraid I’ll have to pass for now.” She adjusted the grapple gun on her bare arm. ”I’ll be more useful on foot.”
”...So, uh, what are you guys talking about?” Sakura asked awkwardly from her moving motorcycle below.
”It’s a ….. Bus!” Midna said after taking a moment to remember the word while pointing over at it ”And it’s not full of children”
No, it contained something much worse. Demons. Because that is apparently what the G-men truly were. That said, despite looking far more dangerous, many of them still maintained the absurdity of their disguise forms, the most bizarre of which Midna could not keep her mouth shut about ”That one’s riding a toilet? What’s it going to do …” she paused her mockery as realization and unwanted mental imagery flared in her mind and she cried out in a mix of horror and disgust ”oh goddesses, what is it going to do?!”
Sakura glanced over her shoulder, a nervous look plain on her face despite the goggles covering her eyes and eyebrows. ”Oh, man. This is going to be really dangerous. And not in a fun way. Can’t we just get a break? I guess- I guess I’d be more worried about the toilet guy if he wasn’t on a toilet.” She mused optimistically, before looking back where she was going.
”I wish I had your lack of imagination” Midna said as she crouched down on the top of the truck and got herself armed.
Karin jumped herself to the truck closer to the rear, nearer to the fight. ”I shall engage the enemy defensively, preventing them from harming our ranged allies. With my grapple hook I’ll maneuver myself easily, and if necessary, save anyone from falling too far behind should they lose their balance.”
”Sounds like a plan. As for me, let’s see if I can get this to work” the princess said, as she hoisted up a wide barreled musket she had stolen from one of the cat snipers, took aim … and then completely wiffed her first attempt at trying to shoot with it.
”Pfft-” Sakura covered her mouth and averted her eyes.
” … ”
There was a moment of silence as she tried to work out how to reload it, failed, and then just pointed in their foes and commanded ”Beast’s to me”
Two twilight portals opened up, divulging her mecha bear from one, and her Vibrava from the other, the insect increased to a size more befitting of its dragon typing. The massive false bug flew to a nearby truck, gripped it, and unfurled its wings before vibrating them in such a way that it sent a wall of ear bleeding sound as it used bugbuzz on the entire demon horde.
Back on the truck with Karin, Midna hopped up onto the back of the mecha bear, manning its back mounted cannon, swiveled it, aimed and then, before firing, commanded ”Javalins! Take out that toilet!” such that when she let rip with the cyborgs cannon, sending one of Bowser Junior’s fiery goop filled swoopin stu’s blasting out towards the twelve-foot demon, her shot was joined by a volley of 4 icy spears and 3 spears of psychic energy from her assorted strikers
Karin watched, eagerly anticipating the impact. ”An impressive barrage! Let’s see how they handle it.”
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