Chronicles of the Eight
The Challenge
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Summary: Mario, Yoshi, and a vast collection of other characters, are challenged by a strange being to enter a tournament. When the eight characters decide to accept the challenge, they discover that the being may have an alterior agenda.
Age Restriction: Due to the possibility of coarse language and violence depiction, it is recommended that readers under the age of thirteen seek out and obtain permission from a parent or guardian before reading further into this document.
Prologue
The Mushroom Kingdom is a lush land full of adventure and opportunities; at least that's what Princess Toadstool keeps telling people. Lately, however, it seems to have lost its excitement. Nothing exciting has happened here in months. It seems like peace has finally descended upon the Mushroom Kingdom.
That should make someone happy, shouldn't it? You'd think so. But not me. I feel, since Bowser was banished from the Mushroom Kingdom, that a part of me left with him. When I'm not saving Princess Toadstool and her kingdom from certain peril, I have nothing to do. I just have to sit here and pretend I'm happy.
Yes, I'm definitely pretending. There is nothing for me to be happy about anymore. Princess Toadstool gave me my own room in her castle, and the Toads who wander the castle's halls are always happy to prepare great food and to entertain me. But I feel inconceivably restless. I almost long for the days when I was fighting for my life, every moment of the day; but I know that thinking like that is selfish.
Suddenly, the ground begins to shake, and a low rumbling sound could be heard for miles around. I looked back at the castle, and saw dozens of Toads rushing inside the large doors to the safety that the Mushroom Castle seemed to represent. I started back for the castle, too, when a strange purple darkness seemed to consume the sky. I could hear a strange, booming voice in the distance...
I turned around so that I could see his face, and was surprised by his look of worry. He must have known that something was wrong. Whenever he found me sitting on top of the Great Fox while we were airborne, he knew something was wrong. I admired him for his keen sense of duty toward his friends.
I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn't find the words to explain. I knew that something dangerous was about to happen, but I didn't have any explanation as to why. Ever since Andross had been defeated, and his forces on Venom destroyed, I have had a sinking feeling that there was a bigger threat than even Andross himself.
Even though I hadn't said anything, apparently he understood what was going through my head. "It's okay," he said softly. "I feel it too." For a long while, we both just stood there, silently, staring out at the expanse of the sky, thinking about the past, and what the future would bring. Suddenly, the Great Fox shuddered, and we were nearly thrown from her outer hull. We managed to hold on, and glanced around to see the source of this sudden attack. We both gasped in unison.
We saw the faint silhouette of a hand against an ominous purple sky.
Ash Ketchum, my owner, is a great guy, but sometimes he treats me like a baby. So do a lot of people. I'm pretty sure it's just because I come from a very cute and attractive species. We Pikachu are often misjudged, just because we're perceived as the cutest and cuddliest of all Pokémon. Believe me, though, we're not always cute.
We can fight hard when we need to. I've proven that time and time again, but Ash doesn't seem to get the idea. I wish he would talk to me normally, instead of using that stupid baby voice he has reserved for me. Whenever he's talking to me, his voice gets all high, and sort of squeeky. It's really annoying, actually.
"Pikachu, where are you?" he says, in his high and obnoxious voice.
I scurry through the bush, and dive into a small hole in the ground, near the base of Shinra Headquarters. Personally, I think that Shinra is a bit creepy, but I set my uneasy feelings aside and hide quietly in the hole. I refuse to lose yet another round of this bloody game to Ash. My ears perk up, at the sound of a strange rumble.
I crawl slowly out of the hole, fearing that something may actually be wrong. Ash is standing still, his face pale and unmoving. He lifts a shaky finger, and points behind me. I turn around, and immediately run behind my owner. Hanging onto the fabric of his jeans, I slowly look from behind his leg and gasp in bewilderment and fright at the startling image. There is a large, gloved hand, that seems to be hovering above the Shinra Headquarters building. The sky above Saffron City has turned an odd purple.
He's tried to hurt my friends, he's tried to take over Kongo Jungle, and he's tried to enslave the jungle's inhabitants. But those offences are subpar. Most importantly, and most serious, he tried to steal my stash of bananas. Something like that just couldn't go unpunished. I beat him so bad he was seeing stars.
And now, me and Diddy were taking some well-deserved rest and relaxation on a beach in the southern area of Kongo Jungle. It was nice and hot, and there was a nice barrel of bananas close by. It was the perfect vacation. Suddenly, however, the water began to twist and a whirl-pool formed. Out of the whirlpool emerged something that looked like a hand, and the sky changed from blue to a strange purple.
I walk over to my bed, and lay down, with my head buried under my pillow. I'm not used to having this much time to think about where I am in life. I'm usually on the run from something, or figuring out a way to infiltrate a planet's defenses. But today, I have nothing to do except think. I realize that I'm spiritually lost and lonely.
I'm surprised I heard the alert klaxons at all. I didn't even notice my starship shuddering in protest against the sleek object that just sped past my starboard bow. I rushed to the Bridge, and my fingers hovered hesitantly over the control panels as I compared this strange object to phenomena in my computer's databanks.
There wasn't a scientific explanation for what I saw, but I knew what it was just from the visual image that my starship had captured before it sped out of sight. It was definitely a gloved hand. Don't ask me how something like that is even possible, but I am absolutely sure of it. A giant, gloved hand just sped past my starship, missing the hull by only 3.2m, according to my ship's navigational computers.
I set a pursuit course, and my starship's engines roared to life in an instant. As a proximity alarm sounded, I ordered a full stop and stared in amazement at the planet that the gloved hand had apparently found. The hand had entered the atmosphere, and was no hovering somewhere near the northern-most continent. The instruments aboard my ship didn't pick up any atmospheric disturbances, but my eyes sure as hell did. The planet's blue glow swirled and changed, until the sky was a dull purple.
With a gulp of air, I started to rise into the air. Flapping my little arms, I eventually reached the tree again. 'Now you're gonna get it, Wispy Woods!' I thought to myself. I found an apple on the ground, and sucked it into my mouth. I jumped into the air, turned toward the tree, and spit that apple at him with such force that I wouldn't have been surprised if it had split him in two!
Okay, so maybe it didn't happen quite like that. To tell you the truth, I just sucked in an apple and spit it at his face. It bounced off quite lazily, and he started to laugh at me. "Is that all you've got, you little pink..." his voice trailed off, as his eyes moved from my exhausted face to the sky. I looked to the sky by instinct, and gasped in awe at the pretty purple that had filled the sky. I also noticed a really big hand hovering somewhere nearby, and a loud voice that shook the Green Greens. I was so naïve that I didn't think something so funny could cause trouble. Boy, was I wrong.
Ganon's gruff laughter struck fear in my heart. He was too powerful for someone like me to defeat. My light arrows were the only weapon I had that could even slow him down, but I only had enough magic left for one more light arrow. I held the arrow to the bow, pulled back on the string, and concentrated the magic coursing through my veins on the arrow held to the bow. It began to glow with a faint light, which grew exponentially over the next few seconds. I pulled back harder, stared Ganon hard in the eye, and let the arrow fly. Ganon winced in pain, and stepped back.
"Link, Link, the Master Sword! Ganon's magic is fading, you can finish him off!" Zelda continued to yell support, until I finally reached the sword and lifted it from the ground, which had previously been surrounded in intense flames of Ganon's magic. I ran toward Ganon with newfound strength, lifted the Master Sword, and swung forth with all my might. Before I could tell what was happening, I was on the ground with the Master Sword knocked from my hands. The sky had turned from a deathly black to an odd purple, and I noticed the shape of a hand in the sky, just below the clouds.
Don't get me wrong, I think she's a really nice lady, but sometimes she stretches the truth just because she's the princess. I think that's wrong, but I'm not going to argue with her about it. I don't like arguing; it's not very fun. One day, when I was walking around the island, the sky turned people. I thought it looked really cool, so I told all of the other Yoshis about the sky, too. We all danced under the purple sky for a long time, having lots of fun, until that big gloved hand appeared...
To be continued...
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