Gathering: Take 7
Once I'd fully recovered from adapting to Australia's magic, we could begin the rest of our plan. Uncle Bentley had a few ideas for driving out the miners and dealing with the Mask of Dark Earth...but I could already tell that attempts regarding the latter would only work for cornering the Mask. I would need to deal with it directly.
The first task was to address the miner's lemonade bar, their favorite - and only - hangout. Uncle Bentley's plan was to take over it and drive the miners out. But I had a better idea...
"So we want to make the miners unwilling to mine here, right?" Coco asked curiously as Bentley brought up the plan to take over the lemonade bar.
"That's the idea," Bentley confirmed.
"Would you say the miners are the superstitious sort?" Coco inquired thoughtfully.
Considering how eagerly they imprisoned me, I would say so, Guru observed, though only Coco heard the clear message.
"So what if we played on that?" Coco pushed. "Instead of making them upset, make them scared. How would they handle it if the Earth itself seemed to turn against them? Say...an earthquake destroying their lemonade bar when there aren't any fault lines in Australia?"
Everyone grew thoughtful at that. "Can you manage that?" Sly asked worriedly. "You only just managed to adapt to the local powers so they didn't overwhelm you. That level of control-"
"Not control," Coco corrected. "Gentle guidance. The earth is angry that the miners are corrupting it. If I lay the right charms down so the earth knows where to take out its anger on the right sources..."
Coco smiled softly as she finished shaping the charms in the ground around the lemonade bar. Finding a quiet spot, she slipped into meditation and pushed her power into the charms, calling the earth's anger, gently beckoning it to those who had angered it.
The ground shook. A crack raced along the solid stone under the bar, ripping the building in half. The shakes grew worse as those inside fled in fear. The earth yawned open, and the bar collapsed inward into the gaping chasm, only to be crushed as it snapped shut. The rumbling slowed and ceased. The former patrons fled, screaming in terror that the earth had eaten their bar.
Worked like a charm. Guru was impressed!
Between Guru being inexplicably freed and his gear not where the miners left it, fear was at an all time high. One more point of the environment turning against them would send them running...and Uncle Murray accomplished that by enlisting some local gators and crocodiles to actively hunt the miners. I wasn't told what method he accomplished this by, as he did it while I was sinking the lemonade bar.
Dad and Uncle Murray retrieved some uranium rich oil from the oil fields as a means of dealing with the Mask. I'm not sure what Uncle Bentley expected it to do, as we never got the chance to use it. Before we managed to enact the plan to destroy the Mask of Dark Earth, Mom showed up with her backup to round up the terrified miners...and something really bad happened.
As the Cooper Gang moved to reunite with Carmelita upon her arrival, they heard a sudden frenzied roar. Before their very eyes, Carmelita seemed to swell into immensity, the Mask of Dark Earth affixed to her face and glowing brightly.
The Mask is filled with and feeds on rage, Guru observed worriedly as the group backed up. Somewhere inside her must be an intense fury unlike any other-
"Seft!" Carmelita roared out, punching a nearby mesa and collapsing the pillar of stone. "I won't let you hurt my little girl! Where are you Seft?"
...that'd do it, Guru observed.
"She must have seen some scorpions around," Sly murmured worriedly. "How do we get it off her?"
"The Mask is only held on by two hooks!" Murray called out, pointing up at Carmelita's head. "Maybe you could climb up her and unhook them?"
You must hurry! Guru insisted. With how much rage it has brought out, the longer the Mask remains on her, the harder it will be for her soul to recover-wait!
Coco had heard enough, and raced straight at Carmelita. Sly matched her pace for pace, each of them climbing up either side of Carmelita's boots by the laces before continuing up the seams of her pants, now wide enough to grip like a pole. They then hopped up the buttons of her jacket like climbing hooks before latching onto the hooks at either side of the Mask. As expected, Carmelita lifted her arms to try and knock them off, causing the Mask to come free and letting Carmelita shrink back to normal, slipping into unconsciousness. However, before anyone could react, the Mask shrank down and affixed itself to Coco's face.
"Coco!" Sly screamed out worriedly as they fell.
Coco barely heard him. The fierceness of the Mask's wrath made the initial adjustment to Outback magic feel tame by comparison. As she landed hard on the ground, the agony became excruciating...but she steeled herself in her mind and dove through the eddies, trying to get past the wrath to the source of it. Death, Darkness, Destruction...why was there so much wrath bound up in it? What did it want?
Brother!
That agonized mental cry struck her like a blow, knocking her through the eddies of wrath. Shaking herself mentally and husbanding her strength, she pushed inward. Once she reached the point she'd heard the cry, she approached slowly.
Brother!
The cry came again, just as forcefully...but because she was ready for it, she received more than just the word in the impression. Two sages, a mask, a girl, a staff...
The staff. Something about that locked on her attention. Mrs. Ruby had taught her everything in magic desired balance...
Managing to claw her way back to awareness of her surroundings, she drew on as much magic as she could manage. She'd only get one chance at this, and if she was wrong it would probably kill her...and everyone around her. I just have to hope I'm right... she thought silently as she took her cane and slammed it into the ground.
The ground split, and a plume of magma erupted from the deep hole she'd driven in that single, magic-enhanced blow. Wrapping her foreleg in her magic, she plunged it into the magma. The heat was still excruciating, but she wasn't burned. Reaching through the magma, she called on long dead trees to rise from their graves, to make their blood her armor.
The magma was joined by a spear of amber that shot out of the ground, wrapping around each other as the magma partially melted the amber and the amber cooled the magma. Seizing the mix, Coco pulled a solid staff from the swirling mystic power, a staff of amber and obsidian.
It wasn't complete. There was something missing. She vaguely heard Guru calling, the Moon appearing in her mind...
Desperately, she held the staff upward as the clouds parted to reveal the full moon. Lifting her hoof to the moon, she visualized the light coalescing there, and was surprised to see it happen. Touching the top of the staff, she drew the Cooper hook in moonlight, seeing it crystallize into metal. As her strength started to fail her, she touched the hook to the Mask.
...the rage slowed...
...brother...
...brother...
...and stilled.
Coco stared up through the mask at the staff. "...I dun wanna be a mage no more, Daddy..." she murmured before slumping into unconsciousness.
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Well Damn.... Tat, you did it again. Can't wait to see what happens after that!
Wow....
Hope what she said ain't true...
Excellent chapter.
reaction to the Lemonade Bar scene(s):
yep: that's Rarity/Batmare's BMFF, alright...
hell hath no fury like a woman scorned...or in this case, a mother protecting her kid(s): I mean, you've seen how Grizzly Bears are in regards to their cubs, right?
*edited 8/2/2017*
reaction to Carmelita and the Mask of Dark Earth:
reaction to that bit at the end:
...I'm not sure I fully understand...and I'm not sure if I WANT to... 
Seems Coco hooked onto the right idea with that staff
Oh brother, now we know what the mask needed.
Nothing is more painful than the sting of an enraged mother.
8106108 Seems to me like the mask was hooked on a feeling.
And the bonds of kinship were literally forged anew.
If she ever finds Seft, he'll wish she hadn't.
Damn, Coco! You's a gangsta girl!
But that's stating the obvious, isn't it?
Hohohooho, well then, nicely done man! Nicely done!
Welp Coco just gained complete control of the fierce deity mask.
What? With all the references how else was I going to look at it?
This seems to be moving really fast.
8106097 If I remember the lore correctly, the Mask of Dark Earth feared/hated the Moon. I don't remember why, or if it was the moon or some kind of Moon Spirit, but I know they originally made Murray out to be the Moon in order to draw out the Mask in the game.
And when you think about it, there are very few harsher fights than those between siblings. This may be the Mask desiring to rebond with the Moon Spirit, but scared of making things worse. That fear became rage, and so on and so on.
Of course, this is one of my more out there theories, so I fully expect to be wrong.
That's too bad, you're really amazing at it.
Someone! Draw this chapter!
I don't understand anything that happened from the moment the mask attached to Coco onward.
A pity the mask wouldn't change and hold different power for Coco to use in the future. This was a good chapter.
8106313 You gotta wait until he's done with the Fluttershy one first
I'd say this is straight up out of Okami with the visuals I"m getting. So Coco gets the Mask and a kickass Staff to help her???
miners
Darn it!
Tat keeps changing my favorites parts of the series!
8106977 *updating your favourite parts
.......Coco has reached Herald-Mage status........Without a Companion........
8106305
Shes handling Voodoo and the Elements. At this point it's more Shamanism than Arkhana.
8106362 the mask did change for it is the earth and the moon its brother because of the corruption the world went through it could no longer hear the moon and grew alone and afraid ,and soon that fear turned to rage ,full of hatred the earth created the mask to enact it revenge on thous who corrupted it ,but Coco she gave the world back its brother and reconnected their long lost bond once more.
wot.....
8107361 NO IT ISN'T! That bar brawl was another chance for the boys to re-bond as a trio! Now it got overwritten by Coco getting shaken to her core.
8110107 Sorry I thought you meant your favourite parts of Tats's story not the games.
8110452 Easy mistake. And its not like Tat isn't great at stories, but I'm feeling bummed at how often this one gets changed.
8111082 Yeah... weak trade.
Yeah not going to lie kinda sad we Dident see the lemonade bar scene that was one of my favorite parts. Plus it would be hilarious hearing coco inner thought on what the heck her family was doing.
I think a better word would be superstitious.