The heat was on as we entered the final part of our journey in the Region of Earth: the one occupied by Bowser.
It was a base with many AI enemies, commanded by his son, Bowser Jr's Robot Reactor.
We would have to fight hard for the Grand Star, and our confidence was waning.
But in the end, we were led out of it. By the Shining Stars.
Traveler's Log Entry 08: Robo Rampage
Stars: 07
Luigi
Mario, Aeron and I stood on deck, in silence as we blasted towards our final destination.
"We're one step closer to getting to where Peach is," I said.
"I know," Mario said, keeping his eyes forward. "We'll be going one giant leap once we get the Grand Star."
Aeron looked at me. "Hey, Luigi, doesn't Mario's mood seem kind of different right now?"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"He seems a bit more quiet and reserved," Aeron explained. "Usually, he's loud and a total idiot."
"I'm right here!" Mario shouted. "Stop talking about me like that!"
We stood in silence for a bit. Then, Aeron spoke. "Something's seriously bothering you guys, isn't it?"
"Huh?" I said. "No, nothing's bothering me."
But in reality, something was. I couldn't help feeling jealous of Terra. She had gotten her new power, and now it felt like she was more important than we were.
"You're jealous of Terra, aren't you?" Aeron asked.
Both Mario and I were shocked. He had nailed it dead on. "How did you-?"
"What do you two fight for?" Aeron asked. "Do you fight just to save Princess Peach? Or do you fight for the good of the universe?"
"Um…I never thought of it that way," I said.
"Well, if you fight for the universe, that's understandable," Aeron said. "That means you want to protect people, but now she can do it better than you can."
"Well, yeah," I said.
"Don't worry about it," Aeron said. "The fact that you're trying to protect people to the best of your ability is good enough."
"I can't protect people alone, you know."
We jumped when we heard her. Terra and Axel had quietly come on deck. Terra looked kind of serene. "Don't be jealous of me just because of my new power," she said. "In my eyes, the greatest power is…friendship. I can give in to despair sometimes, and I've done it many times in my life. You give me the power to keep going on. So it's thanks to you I have the power. Don't be jealous of it."
"Guys, we're here," Mario said as he stopped the Starship outside a spiraling galaxy.
But the galaxy didn't look like a very welcome place. Everywhere we looked, robots were everywhere.
"Whoa…that's Bowser Jr.'s Robot Reactor…" Terra said (she pulled the name from the holomap). "They sure put emphasis on 'robot'." Thanks to Axel, Terra had fully recovered from her battle with Mario's evil clone. I'd say who he was, but I swore to myself I'd try to forget it all. So I can't tell you. Sorry.
"Let's a go!" Mario shouted. The Launch Star appeared, and he ran towards it.
"Guys, wait, isn't this kind of reckless?" Aeron asked.
"We can't wait," Axel said. "A universe is counting on us, you know."
"Um, everyone, wait…" Terra said. "What's that?"
We looked and saw a colossal three legged robot on some tiny planet.
"Well, whatever it is, I'm sure we'll find out later," Aeron said.
"Let's a go!" Mario shouted. "As I said already."
We landed on an earthen planet with…many metal barricades around. They surrounded us, and not to mention there was some weird building or whatever up ahead that we couldn't get into because of the barricades.
"WTF?" Mario shouted. "What's all this about?"
Oh yes, and might I add that there were many robots. That all were turning towards us.
"What the heck? Starsmasher?" Terra shouted.
"Nah, can't be Starsmasher, he was a lot bigger and meaner," Axel said.
"What the heck is a 'Starsmasher'?" Mario asked.
"Some boss guy who we defeated," Axel said. "He had shields and a missile launcher…well two actually…and he was really annoying."
The Starbashers (that's what we dubbed them at the time of my writing this) raised the orbs on their hands, and red shields deployed from them.
"Break the shield!" I shouted.
"With what?" Axel asked. "Luigi, what kind of attack do we need to destroy them?"
"Let's see…" I analyzed the shields. "We need a seismic wave! Like before we defeated Starsmasher!"
"I'll get them!" Terra shouted, and she smashed her hand into the ground. A massive seismic wave smashed the Starbashers' shields and critically damaged their systems. Before they could recover and put their shields back up, Terra threw her other hand onto the ground, and massive spikes of earth blasted up from the ground, impaling them and disabling them for good.
Immediately, some of the barricades receded. But Magikoopas were waiting for us. They tried to conjure a magical barrier to prevent us from getting in.
"Rule over the Midnight Heavens…Shiruba-Getsu!" Axel shouted, releasing his Shikai. As soon as it was finished, Axel raised his hand, and the blade retreated into the gauntlet. Then silver energy spiraled around his hand. "No barrier will save them from this. Ketatamashi Getsu!"
Axel fired several slender beams of sliver energy, and they raced towards the magical barrier. "It won't work!" Terra shouted.
"Just watch me," Axel said.
The beams hit the barrier...but didn't explode against it. They pierced straight through it and blasted the Magikoopas, blasting them away. The barrier quickly evaporated.
"So easy to bust through shields," Axel said. "I love this technique."
We walked through the base, but turned a corner and suddenly found several Astrogoombas, or rather Goombas who had helmets, blocking our path.
"Watch out; nothing can penetrate their helmets," I said.
"Really?" Axel asked. "Ketatamashi Getsu!"
Axel's beam blasted through the Astrogoombas helmet, erupting it into Star Bits right away. But more were in our path. Way too many more.
"Look," I said. "Mario and I will clear this quickly. Ready, Mario?"
"Got it!" Mario said. "Which one will we use, though?"
"This one," I said, reaching into my pocket, and then finding what I was looking for. I pulled it out: a green turtle shell. "The Green Shell!"
"You can stuff that in your pocket?" Terra asked, gaping.
"More about that later. Get ready, Mario!" I shouted, and I threw the Green Shell and punted it with my foot. The Shell raced across the ground and smashed into an Astrogoomba, bowling it over. But the Shell kept going.
It ricocheted back towards Mario, and he booted it into several. After ricocheting several times, the Green Shell raced back to me. I made my kick, but I just barely missed! "No!" I shouted. "Another Green Shell wasted!"
"I'll get it!" Aeron shouted, and he drew his sword. "Rule over the Raging Heavens…Tsubasa no Raioh!"
As soon as his sword finished morphing, Aeron raised it over his head. White lightning outlined with gold arced into the blade until it was totally covered with surging white volts.
"Ikazuchi Chikara (Thunder Force)!" Aeron shouted. He drew his sword back, and then he stabbed it hard into the Green Shell.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I shouted. "YOU'LL BREAK THE SHELL!"
But apparently, I was wrong. Aeron's sword fired a massive column of lightning at the Shell, blasting it towards the shocked Astrogoombas.
The Shell blasted forward towards the Astrogoombas, now faster than ever before and trailing numerous gold lightning. It smashed into one Astrogoomba, exploded…and released so much electricity that it destroyed EVERY SINGLE FREAKING ASTROGOOMBA THERE WAS.
"Wow!" Terra said. "That was amazing!"
"Well, I've actually never used it that way," Aeron said. "Up 'till now."
"Yeah, right, that's great," I muttered, annoyed that he performed better with one of Mario and my signature moves. "Look, let's keep moving."
"At least they can't use the Yoo Who Cannon!" Mario said.
"Um…hate to break it to you, Mario, but we can't use it; the way to use that attack doesn't make any sense in this story," I said.
"Aw…" Mario said.
We kept going on through the base, passing through a hallway that had windows, allowing us to look at many robot arms circling conveyer belts, putting pieces together, screwing them in, and welding things together. Further down, Koopas worked to forge and hammer out armor plates and missile launchers. And if you put all the pieces together…you'd get a Starbasher!
"They're making more of those robots," Aeron said. "But we've only seen those robots here. Are they planning to mass produce them and make an army?"
"They're more powerful than average troops. They'll give us more trouble," Mario said.
"We can't allow them to," I said. "Do you guys have ideas?"
"We sure do," Axel said, grinning. "Right, Aeron?"
"You got it," Aeron said. "Ready when you are. Okay, ready? Go!" And the two leveled their blades at the many systems that worked to make the Starbashers. (Both had their Shikai on.)
"Ikazuchi Chikara!" "Boruto no Kage (Bolt of Shadow)!"
Aeron's sword was surrounded by white lightning once again, and he blasted it at the forges down below. At the same time, Axel's blades retreated back into their gauntlets, and then the gauntlets burst with deep blue lightning. He blasted it out at the robots.
Both attacks smashed through the floor, and Aeron's massive blast smashed through conveyer belts and other things until it crashed into the forges. Axel's crackling surges zipped through the chaos, smashing the more delicate robot arms, severing them and allowing them to fall away.
When the two ended the attack, the floor was covered with scrap.
"And there you have it," Axel said.
"Wow!" we all said.
We continued navigating the base, but there was little else to find.
"This is boring!" Mario shouted. "I hope we get out of here soon."
Suddenly, Terra shouted. "There's the exit!"
Sure enough, there was a gate leading out onto a platform…and the Launch Star was on the platform!
"Awesome! Let's go!" I shouted. I walked towards the gate…
Suddenly, I felt my foot sink down a little. I looked down to see a part of the floor indent slightly under my weight. It was a pressure plate! And to make matters worse, I saw in the room several Starbasher robots!
"Oh, god, no," I said. "RUN FOR IT!"
But it was too late. Red lights blared on and off. Barricades slid across all entrances. We were trapped! Then the Starbasher robots came to life, activated their shields, and raced towards us.
"We're trapped!" Aeron shouted. (No duh.) "Take out the Starbashers!"
"SOGOYA!"
We stopped as some redheaded girl suddenly blasted inwards, slashing the Starbashers to pieces. Shortly after, the barricades receded.
"There we go," the redheaded girl said. She turned towards us. "I only accept cash for super robot destruction."
Then we saw who she was…
"RINNA?" Terra shouted. "What are you doing here?"
"Hold on a sec…"
*insert record scratch here*
"You mean there ISN'T a Morning Lune here?" Rinna asked, looking puzzled.
"What? What's a Morning Lune?" I asked. (No one bothered to listen to me, and no one's told me what a Morning Lune is, so don't ask me.)
"What do you mean?" Axel asked.
"I thought the idiot who paid me to make cameos (the author) said I'd get a Morning Lune if I made a pointless cameo at some random inappropriate time!" Rinna shouted, obviously ticked off. "If there isn't a Morning Lune here, then I'M OUTTA HERE!"
"…" We watched as Rinna jumped through some swirly portal…and…
KRESH!
"WHOA!" we heard some girl shout from the swirly portal.
"WHAT IN THE NAME OF TOTALLY JERK GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS IS GOING ON HERE?" another girl shouted.
"Itai…" we heard Rinna say. "Oh, hey Trude, Erica. What's with the looks on your faces?"
"RINNA SKYWIELDER WILCKE!" that person who shouted about "totally jerk government officials" shouted.
"Um…why are you so angry, Trude?" Rinna asked. "And Erica, did you wake up cranky again?"
"No, I-" the girl who shouted "WHOA!" began.
"HARTMANN (aka Erica) AND I WERE ENJOYING OUR TEA WHEN YOU SUDDENLY LANDED ON THE TEA SET AND BROKE EVERYTHING!" that girl who was shouting a whole ton (I believe it was Trude) yelled. "AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, WHAT AM I GOING TO DO ONCE SERGEANT BISHOP CO-"
"Captain Barkhorn, what's going on?" we suddenly heard the voice that girl who had freaked out about tea sets back in that swirly portal that we saw at Topman's Tower say. "Why are you freaking ou…oh…"
"Uh…Bishop? Why're you falling?" we heard Erica say.
THUMP!
"Lynne? You okay?" Rinna asked.
"Great," Trude grumbled. "What am I going to do now?"
The swirly portal suddenly closed.
"O…k…that was weird," Axel said. "Moving on."
After blasting off out of the base…
We landed on a planet that was completely spherical, but it had many holes in it, as well as cages, Astrogoombas, and…missile launchers.
"Missile launchers?" Axel wondered. "What're they for?
"Guys, don't go near them," I said. "Those are Bill Blasters. They shoot Bullet Bills, warheads with consciousnesses. They home in on anyone they feel like…not to mention when they feel like it."
Terra was looking kind of worried. "Guys…I don't know if I can do this well."
"Huh?" Mario asked.
"I'm deprived of my element here," Terra explained. "Look, the planet is entirely composed of metal."
"You can create your own element," I said. "I've seen you do it with those emeralds many times already."
"Well, Shining Stars aren't commonly embodied with power to create their element," Axel said. "Terra's lucky to just be able to create emeralds. However…" he looked at Terra. "Judging by our battle with Starsmasher, and also the one you had with the Mario Clone, it appears you get fatigued by using your powers. Am I wrong?"
"Well, not really," Terra said. "But it isn't tiring to make earthquakes, and it wasn't tiring when I made all those earth spikes under the feet of those Starbashers and the Mario Clone. Really, I've only felt it when I create emeralds."
"But why emeralds?" I wondered. "Is it some spiritual thing?"
"I don't know," said Terra. "Despite being one myself, I don't know much about Shining Stars. But I suppose it's because I like emeralds. They kind of look beautiful and…"
"FOCUS!" Aeron shouted at us, smashing an Astrogoomba over our heads.
"Uh…right!" Terra said. "But there's no Launch Star…"
Astrogoombas began running towards us to avenge their fallen comrade.
Terra raised her hand, and enormous emerald spikes suddenly rose out of the ground, impaling the Astrogoombas.
"Wow! Way to go, Terra!" Mario shouted.
"Y-yeah," Terra said. She did seem kind of tired, actually.
"Guys, I found the Launch Star!" Aeron shouted.
"Awesome! Let's g-" Mario began.
"HOLD YOUR STINKIN' HORSES!" Aeron shouted.
*insert record scratch here*
"Wait…what?" Mario asked.
"Guys, the Launch Star's in a cage," Aeron said. "So we can't get to it."
"Well this sucks," Mario said. "Now we need to get a Bullet Bill to break it open."
"Right," Aeron said. "How should we lure it over?"
"Well, I could jump in front of the Bill Blaster, and then the Bullet Bill would follow me and I could lure it so that it hits the cage," I said.
"But you said to not go near the Bill Blaster," Terra said.
"Wah-I-well-no-I mean-look, just someone go in front of the Bill Blaster and get a Bullet Bill!" I said, annoyed that Terra had beat me down with my own words and no effort.
"Whatever," Aeron said, waving his hand in front of the Bill Blaster. Almost instantaneously, a Bullet Bill popped out and launched itself at Aeron. Aeron led it towards the cage, and then jumped away as the Bullet Bill crashed headlong into the cage, destroying it. The Launch Star, free of the cage, expanded to regular size.
"We're almost there!" Mario said. "Let's keep going!"
Unfortunately, we were far from "almost there."
Our next stop was a small, round planet of metal with…many, many, MANY Starbasher robots.
"Holy…" I said.
"Crap…" Mario said.
The Starbashers noticed us, immediately leveled their missile launchers, and began firing warheads.
We began dodging in midair, but there were way too many missiles flying at us. Then, Terra suddenly looked up and shouted in shock.
"What is it?" I shouted, looking at where she was looking…and a massive emerald spike racing towards a figure. It was the Mario Clone!
"It's you again!" Terra shouted. "What are you doing here?"
"My affiliation is with the Koopa Troop," the Clone said. "So I can get my 72-inch Plasma Screen TV!"
*insert record scratch here*
"Hold on," Axel said. "YOU'RE DOING THIS ALL FOR A TV?"
"Yep," the Clone said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
It's definitely him… I thought. It can't be anyone else. "We won't let you win," I said. "Even if it means you won't get your plasma screen TV."
"Whatever," the Clone said. "I will get my plasma screen TV. Through this!"
The Clone's hands suddenly began to pull in shadows, until black was completely surrounding them, and then he began blasting down blobs of black energy towards the Starbashers.
"What the heck?" Terra shouted. "He's blasting his own troops!"
"Something's definitely wrong here," Aeron said. "Those shots aren't to destroy, they're to…enhance."
"What? Enhance?" Mario shouted, looking panicked. "That can only mean…"
"Yes," Aeron said. "The Starbashers are getting their abilities upgraded through corruption by Shadow."
"Victory is mine today!" the clone shouted, and he bolted away, laughing evilly.
"Argh!" Axel growled. "When we get him…"
The mottled black faded away, but the Starbashers came out looking more evil than ever before. Their dull silver armor was now pitch black with dark gray lines forming hexagon shapes, and their lights and orbs glowed an eerie red.
"What the heck?" I shouted. "They became Neuroi! :O"
"Um…yeah, I'm pretty sure this isn't Strike Witches related," Axel said. "WHATEVER. LET'S TAKE THEM DOWN!"
Axel leveled his blades, and they retreated back into his gauntlets. "Boruto no Kage!" Dark blue lightning blasted out of them, quickly striking the dark Starbashers. But they just deployed red shields, and the lightning exploded harmlessly against them.
"Crap, it didn't work!" Axel shouted. "Tsukiren!" He blasted a silver-blue wave of energy at the Starbashers, but it harmlessly exploded against the shields once again.
"What does work against them?" Axel shouted. "Ketatamashi Getsu!" He blasted the slender silver beams through their shields, and they smashed into the Starbashers and blasted away their armor, even making holes in them…but then suddenly the armor began crystallizing back over the holes!
"Regeneration?" Aeron shouted. "And we don't even know their weak point! How can they be defeated now?" Suddenly, the Starbashers all charged, trying to smash us with their shields.
"Look out!" Mario shouted. We all scattered, and the Starbashers turned around and leveled their cannons. Then they fired mottled black blobs of energy, and they struck the ground in front of us. Shadow erupted everywhere.
"Augh!" I shouted. "This…how can we hope to win now…?"
"Don't…Luigi…please…" I heard Terra say. "Don't…give in…to despair…"
How? I thought. How can she say this? We're going to lose! I can't find their weakness, and that means the only option is to smash the shields again and again until they go down! And who knows how long that may take? "Terra…it's futile…we can't win…" I said.
"No…no!" Terra shouted through the shadow. "We…didn't come…this far…to just…walk away…we can't…give up now…we can win!...Help is coming…I can sense it…"
"You got that right," we heard. Suddenly, the shadow cleared, and Axel was standing there, with…a cell phone?
"This leaves us with one despearate measure," Axel said. "Time to call in the experts on Neuroi beatdown!"
"HUH?" Mario shouted. "WHAT DO NEUROI HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?"
Axel just dialed, and then said into it: "Hello, is this the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, AKA the Strike Witches? Yeah…I kind of have a Neuroi problem here…5 MINUTES? THE (explicative removed)? All right…I can wait…" He hung up. "Yeah, help's coming."
"Let's do it!" Aeron shouted, pointing his sword at a Starbasher. "Ikazuchi Chikara!" Aeron fired the beam of lightning. The Starbasher put up its shield, but slowly and steadily got plowed backwards by the blast.
Then Axel went alongside him. "Boruto no Kage!" he shouted, and he blasted lightning at the Starbasher, pushing it back further.
Mario and I began kicking Shells against the Starbasher's shield, trying to weaken it further. But then the Starbasher just raised its orbs, and shot red beams from them that destroyed the shell quickly. Mario muttered something and grabbed another shell.
"I'll help too!" Terra shouted, drawing back her fist. Emeralds began to crystallize around her…soon becoming MASSIVE SIZED GEMS.
"Terra, NO!" Aeron shouted. "If you do that, you'll be out of it for who knows how long!"
Terra punched, and then the massive emeralds smashed into several Starbashers, plowing them down. But more came to take their place.
Terra immediately drew back her fist, and smashed the Starbashers with more emeralds. But still more were coming. There were like 100 when we got there, and now there were 83 standing.
"I'm going to have to hit harder…" Terra said.
"STOP!" we all shouted. But Terra didn't listen. She smashed her fist into the ground, and massive spikes disabled a whole ton of Starbashers: about 45. But now the ones she plowed down earlier were getting back up…
She prepared to get some more…and then suddenly collapsed.
"What the-?" Mario shouted.
"She exerted way too much of her power quickly," Aeron explained, pulling Terra away from some more beams. "Now she'll be out of it for a while."
"In the meantime," Axel said. "We have to hold out here ourselves."
"But not alone!" we suddenly heard. "We're here to kick some Neuroi-no, Neuroi wannabe-butt!"
We turned to see a redheaded girl…who we were quite familiar with by now. "Rinna!" Axel shouted. "Glad you could come!"
"And not just me…" Rinna said, grinning. "But I brought some of my friends to help!"
Then four other girls stepped out of the swirly portal behind Rinna. One looked like an older, more mature version of Rinna; however, for unknown reasons, both Rinna and that girl had wolf's ears and tail. Another bore a strange resemblance to Terra, except with brown eyes and neater hair, as well as the ears and tail of…some animal I couldn't identify. A third had brown hair that was tied into pigtails, and not to mention features of…oh boy…a German Wirehaired Pointer. The last one had silver hair and her features were of a black cat. And all of them wore strange devices on their legs that had helicopter blades on them, and they were armed with guns.
"I brought my friends to help me," Rinna said. "My older sister, Minna…" she gestured at the person who looked like her. "Yoshika …" she gestured at the girl who looked a lot like Terra. "Trude…" she gestured at the girl with the brown pigtails. "And Sanya," she finished, gesturing at the silver haired girl. "We're all going to get the Neuroi wannabes off your hands before you know it!"
"And just when I finally managed to find a time slot to go visit Chris in the hospital…" Trude muttered.
Minna smiled. "You were the most raring to go, you know."
Trude blushed and opened her mouth, but no words came out. Rinna giggled. "Siscon mode activated!"
"Siscon…?" I wondered. But I didn't get to ask, because the Neuroified Starbashers leveled their missile launchers and attacked.
"Scatter!" Minna shouted, suddenly snapping into a serious tone. The four quickly flew away from the shots of shadow. "Let's see…there are 98 total…Sanya, Miyafuji, attack the ones to the right. There should be about 36 there."
"Yokai (Roger)!" the two shouted, and they flew towards the Starbashers.
The Starbashers immediately lowered their guns and blasted away. "Look out!" I shouted.
Yoshika thrust out her hand, and suddenly a massive circular shield appeared…with three circles rolling around its circumference. At any rate, it deflected the shadow blasts easily. "Sanya-chan, now!" she shouted.
"Right," Sanya said, and she leveled her Fliegerhammer (a kind of rocket launcher). Then she blasted rocket after rocket at a Starbasher. The Starbasher tried to block it with its shield, but eventually, Sanya's attacks were becoming too much for it, and the shield broke. While Sanya stopped to reload, Yoshika quickly pulled out her own gun-a Type 99-2 13 mm machine gun-and then fired relentlessly at the Starbasher. White holes quickly were blasted into the armor, and then suddenly, the black armor was blasted away and there was a red crystal there!
"What is that?" I shouted. But Yoshika didn't reply. She just shot at it. Then Sanya finished reloading, and she leveled the Fliegerhammer and blasted a rocket at the crystal, destroying it. The Starbasher exploded into white dust.
"Wow," Rinna said. "You know what a Neuroi is, and you're asking what its core is? You're weird!"
"Rinna, just focus on your own battles!" Trude shouted, grabbing her and yanking by the arm away.
"UWAH!" Rinna shouted as Trude flew towards the Starbasher with Rinna in tow. "Let go! Let go!" Then, Trude suddenly did let go. "AAAAAAAAAAHHH~" Rinna shouted.
Trude reached behind her back, and much to my surprise, she pulled out two kinds of machine guns-one MG42 and one MG151/20. "Two machine guns?" I asked. "Who does she think she is?"
"I don't think, I know!" Trude shouted, and she immediately began shooting. Her blasts quickly pumped the Starbashers full of bullets…or rather white holes. Then, to my shock, she flipped the machine guns in her hands so she was holding them by the barrels. She raised them over her head and flew towards the Starbashers, and then smashed the drums into the Starbashers' heads, crushing them instantaneously. Rinna followed by taking out her own MG42 and blasting the crystals to pieces.
Trude spiraled upwards, right behind one Starbasher that was slow to turn around. "SOGOYA (Take this)!" Trude shouted, and she smashed the drums of her guns into the Starbasher, crushing it completely and blasting it into white dust.
Minna leveled her own gun (also a MG42) and blasted away, smashing the Starbashers' armor. "We can't keep going like this," she said. Suddenly, she seemed to notice something, and suddenly deployed a blue shield that was similar to Yoshika's, except the design on it was different. Sure enough, a shadow missile smashed against her shield.
"We can launch our own attacks now!" Axel said. "And now I know where the core is…" He pointed his hand at a group of Starbashers. "Ketatamashi Getsu!" Axel's beams pierced the crystals, and the Starbashers were destroyed.
"I guess that's the problem with becoming Neuroi," Yoshika said. "They have the same weakness as regular Neuroi: the core. But how did they become Neuroi in the first place?"
"Well…" Axel quickly explained how the Mario Clone made the robots Neuroi. "But there's no logic in how they were able to become Neuroi just by having shadow energy put into their systems and armor."
"Maybe Neuroi are of shadow themselves," Yoshika suggested, flying out of the way of a shadow bomb. Suddenly Axel pulled her down. "Hey-!"
"Create a shield now," Axel said. "Aeron's going to make things a little messy here."
"Quite right," Aeron said. "Land now, and shield yourselves. Or else…" Gold lightning crackled around his sword. "I can't guarantee that you'll get out of this unscathed."
The girls quickly landed and made shields. The rest of us hid behind their shields.
"Good," Aeron said. "Now…it's time for things to get serious. Time to whip up a Storm!"
Aeron raised his sword, pointing it towards the sky, and gold lightning coursed around it, now threatening to blast out unexpectedly. "Raikou Amimono (Lightning Web)!"
The lightning suddenly did crackle out. It blasted in all directions, smashing into the Starbashers and blasting massive holes in their armor. Some of them blasted against our shields as well. Minna (who was right next to me) blocked them successfully, but she seemed to be getting taxed by having to block attacks of that magnitude.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Y-yeah," Minna said, pushing against a stray lightning bolt. Then Aeron's attack ended, and Minna immediately opened fire. Several crystals shattered, and several Starbashers with them.
Yoshika flew into action and tried to shoot the Starbashers' cores, but they were rapidly regenerating even before she started shooting. "There's no end to them!" she shouted frantically.
"Then fight harder!" Trude shouted, leveling her machine guns. She blasted away at the cores, destroying them.
"Barkhorn-san, you seem a bit reckless today," Sanya said, flying after her and shooting rockets at the ones that had almost fully regenerated. "Please don't do anything rash, it worries me."
"I…I…uh…sorry?…Um…er…well, we just have to fight harder, okay?" Trude stammered, blushing. She quickly looked away, flipped her machine gun again and hammered a crystal to pieces.
"Barkhorn-san, look out!" Yoshika suddenly shouted.
"Wha-" Trude looked up and realized that a storm of beams was headed straight towards her. She immediately deployed a shield, but it wouldn't expand to its full size in time.
Yoshika, who already had her own shield activated, raced in front and the Neuroi beams smashed against the shield harmlessly. "Barkhorn-san, are you alright?"
"I…er…thanks…" Trude said quickly, and she flew off.
"What's with her and those two?" I wondered as I punched a crystal into pieces. "Trude, I mean."
Rinna giggled. "Trude's a Siscon, you know," she said. "And if you don't know what that means…well, she turns clumsy…worried…doting…blah blah blah…in the presence of younger sisters. And those two trigger her Siscon mode for some reason that I will reveal when I feel like it."
"Whatever," I said. "We've wiped out almost all of them! Let's keep going!"
"Whatevs," Rinna said, and then suddenly began to generate a whole ton of red energy. "Let's just end this quick." Then red flame began to gather at her hands, and she put them together and raised them. The flames continued to intensify. More flames raced to swirl around her entire body."HaaaaAAAAAAA~" Rinna shouted."Rinna, NO!" Minna shouted. "I TOLD YOU NOT TO DO T-"'
"Burn Bullet!" Rinna shouted, and then launched herself at the Starbashers, a massive flaming storm whipping around her, utterly destroying the remaining ones.
"Whoa…" Mario said. Suddenly, a Launch Star appeared. "Hey, there's the Launch Star!"
"And there you have it," Rinna said. "That's the awesomeness of Rinna Skyweilder Wilcke."
"BAKA (idiot)! I TOLD YOU NOT TO USE THAT MOVE!" Minna shouted, smashing her fist down on Rinna's head.
"WAAAAAAH~MINNA HIT ME~" Rinna shouted, somehow going chibi.
"What the heck?" Mario shouted. "Chibi?"
"WAAAAAAH~" Rinna shouted in a high pitched voice, flying around.
"I knew this would happen," Trude muttered, and she grabbed Rinna by the collar of her shirt.
"AAAAH LET GO LET GO LET GO!" Rinna shouted.
"Well, the Neuroi have been eliminated," Sanya said. "Should we return to base now, Minna-san?"
"We sh-" Minna's eyes suddenly narrowed, and she whirled. There were MANY, MANY random robot guys there.
"Where did they come from?" Yoshika asked.
"Wherever they came from," Mario said, bracing himself. "They're going back."
"No wait, Mario, we have to go get the Grand Star!" I shouted.
"But-"
"Tell you what," Minna said. "We'll take these guys on. You go and get what you need to get."
"Will you be alright?" Axel asked, picking up Terra.
"We'll be just fine. We've seen MUCH worse," Minna said, smiling. Then she went back to commander mode. "Strike Witches, prepare for battle!"
"Yokai!" they all shouted, and began shooting at the robots.
"May we meet again," Aeron said to Minna (who nodded at him) before blasting off with the Launch Star.
"Later, Strike Witches!" Axel said, racing after Aeron.
"Are you ready, Mario?" I asked.
"Ready," Mario said. "We'll see this one out, right Luigi?"
"Right," I said. "Let's a go!"
So we blasted off in the Launch Star to our final destination in The Region of Earth.