Hyrule: Outside Princess Zelda's castle
Link was sitting in the middle of the field in front of the castle, where guards would normally be patrolling. The guards were all gone because they had been reassigned to areas closer to the border with the Mushroom Kingdom. Despite the fact that the action was clearly at the border, Link still felt paranoid that someone would try to sneak into the castle now that there was no security. There was definitely no one trying to sneak into the castle but it was a really nice day so Link was glad that he made the decision to hang out there in the sweet silent solitude. He didn't bother telling anyone where he was at because Zelda would've insisted that someone come along with him and that would've ruined the beautiful silence that he was now enjoying. Besides, he never spoke at those dumb council meetings anyways. He figured they just weren't worth attending anymore.
Link was enjoying himself being lazy, laying on the grass for at least a few hours when he saw a medium sized flying object in the distance. The object was approaching and it finally got close enough until he could recognize it. It was some kind of flying device with a rounded bottom that was kept in the air by a small propeller on the bottom. What made this contraption bizarre was that the exterior was painted like a happy clown face. Inside the flying object was some kind of dragon turtle monster that was barely able to fit in it due to his husky size.
"Finally!" The monster shouted in his deep gruff monster voice. "I've arrived at the castle!" The monster leaped out of his flying machine and landed with a loud thud a few yards in front of Link that made the ground around him shake. Link rose to his feet and was now holding the Master Sword and his Hylian Shield in preparation for a fight. The monster looked up at Link, smiled, and shouted, "You stand before the great, mighty, and terrible Bowser! I have chosen to take your castle as my own! You should be honored that one such as me has chosen to take residence in your castle so please just stand aside and I will ensure that the loss of life among your people is only half of what I would've preferred!"
Not saying a word, Link took a couple steps back as he started analyzing Bowser to come up with a weakness for this beast that he could exploit.
"Not talking huh?" Bowser continued. "Well that's fine as long as you GET MOVING BEFORE I LOSE MY TEMPER!"
His shell will probably be impossible to penetrate with most of my weapons but his front side seems a little exposed Link thought. I should definitely keep this fight at a distance to avoid getting out-muscled by this brute. Making up his mind, Link turned around to make a run and create some more distance between him and Bowser when something caught his eye. There was a short stout figure wearing red and blue standing atop one of the fence posts. Raising a hand to get the sun out of his eyes he identified the figure as Mario.
Bowser had also seen Mario standing on the fence post because he suddenly growled and shouted, "Mario!? What are you doing here!? GRAAAAHH! WHY DO YOU ALWAYS DO THIS!? You always ruin my plans! No fair!"
Link didn't know the past history between these two but he didn't really have time to think about it because Mario suddenly leaped from the fence post and landed in between Link and Bowser. Facing Link, Mario said, "Your-a soldiers are killing the Toads. I've a come to destroy it at the source. If I-a defeat you, the troops will lose-a the morale and stop killing the poor-a innocent Toads."
Link had no clue that the border dispute had resorted to fatalities but before he had a chance to respond, Bowser started shouting once again, "Don't play dumb Mario! I know you're here to stop me and my brilliant plans so just BRING IT ON!" Bowser clenched one of his fists in front of him challengingly.
Mario turned to face Bowser. "This isn't about you King Bowsah. I'ma gonna take the castle for the Mushroom Kingdom!"
With this, Mario turned back to face Link and jumped straight at him with a flying kick. Link pulled up his shield just in time to block the kick but he was still pushed several feet back. Mario continued to attack Link, sending punches and kicks which Link was just able to keep up with, dodging or blocking each attack that Mario made. Finally, Link saw an opening. He blocked one of Mario's kicks with his shield, shoved Mario's foot away to put Mario off balance, and then brought his sword down for a vertical slice. He didn't want to kill Mario so he aimed his sword at Mario's right arm as he swung it downward, but Mario was able to use the momentum of his leg being shoved away, to force himself to fall on the ground on his back thereby dodging Link's slash. Mario then jumped up as fast as he had fallen down with a flying uppercut ready to hit Link square in the chin. Link saw Mario's fist coming but knew he wasn't quick enough to dodge the attack. Then suddenly, Bowser's large hands had grabbed Mario from behind, and Mario was suddenly launched into the air by Bowser.
Catching his breath, Link was about to thank Bowser when he felt Bowser's gigantic fist slam into his stomach, sending him flying backwards several feet. "I'm still going to kill you once I annihilate Mario!" Bowser reminded Link, running to his flying machine to intercept Mario who was at least a hundred feet in the air.
Bowser flew to the spot where Mario was going to land but saw nothing. He looked around but Mario was nowhere to be seen. Then Bowser looked up and saw that Mario had pulled out his cape and was slowly gliding back to Link's location. "Ignore me will you!" Bowser shouted with rage.
Shortly after leaving, Bowser flew back to Link's location as soon as he saw that's where Mario was heading. He was moving as quickly as Link imagined that small machine could go, but he wasn't going to get to Link before Mario was. Taking out his bow, Link aimed up at Mario and shot a couple arrows at Mario's cape in order to ground Mario. Much to Link's amazement the arrows bounced right off the cape, doing no damage. Changing strategies, Link began shooting arrows directly at Mario who began to show off just how aerodynamic he was while flying with his cape, dodging each arrow.
Getting frustrated, Link was about to try curving one of his arrows when he suddenly heard "PIKAA!" accompanied with a visible bolt of lightning coming from the sky and grazing Mario, causing him to go spiraling downward and land in the castle's moat. Directly under where Mario was when he got struck down was standing Pikachu. At this moment, Link had recalled that there had been Pokémon involved in the border dispute between Hyrule and the Mushroom Kingdom fighting on both sides for hire. Link at first assumed that Pikachu had come to help him and nearly let his guard down when he saw Pikachu getting ready for a Skull Bash. Pikachu came flying at Link who hopped to the side just in time to dodge Pikachu. As he prepared to counterattack, Bowser came flying overhead to chase down Mario. Instead of attacking Pikachu, Link pulled out his Hookshot and latched onto the underside of Bowser's flying machine. The Hookshot latched on and Link was pulled up and away as Bowser flew over the moat.
Unbeknownst to Bowser, Link was slowly reeling his way up the chain and up to Bowser. Bowser himself was far too concerned looking for Mario among the water's current to notice Link. Link retracted his Hookshot completely and was hanging on Bowser's flying machine by his hands and began to pull himself up when Pikachu's small body suddenly slammed into them, sending the machine floating dangerously close to the castle wall and giving them a nasty shake leaving Link barely holding on by the tips of his fingers.
Bowser screamed in rage, "WHO IS ATTACKING MY KOOPA CLOWN CAR!?" So that's what it is. Bowser turned the Koopa Clown Car around to see Mario looking up at him. "So you've finally decided to face me? Well it's about time!" Bowser went on ranting. Link knew that Mario was still very determined on fighting Link and not Bowser, but the fact that Bowser was still clueless to Link's presence worked to his advantage. "I know you REALLY want to defeat me, Mario, but throwing rats at me is low tactics, even for you! BWAHAHA!" Bowser began laughing loudly and Link used it as an opportunity to muster all the strength in his arms, and hop up on top of Bowser shoulders. Link found a comfortable spot to sit in between the horns on Bowser's head and the spikes on his shell. For extra stability, Link grabbed Bowser's head horns tightly and began jerking them around in an attempt to control the flight of the Koopa Clown Car. "GRAAAA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Bowser began angrily roaring, "HOW DID YOU EVEN GET UP HERE!? STOP THAT NOW!"
Unfortunately, instead of steering the Koopa Clown Car as Link intended, all grabbing Bowser's horns managed to do was to greatly enrage Bowser, and cause him to force the Koopa Clown Car to spin wildly out of control. In an act of desperation, Link pulled out his Hookshot and shot at a nearby tree and pulled himself to it, off of the out of control Koopa Clown Car. Climbing on the tree, Link scrambled to the top then hopped to the opposite side of the tree in order to conceal himself. He peaked his head out to see Bowser gradually maintain control over the Koopa Clown Car but not over his anger. Bowser was now screaming louder than ever, "THAT'S IT! THIS IS YOUR FAULT MARIO! GRAAAAA!" Bowser hovered over Mario and began shooting huge balls of fire out of his mouth at Mario. Mario began to back flip and dodge every fireball that Bowser shot out. Bowser continued to chase Mario releasing fireball after fireball, laying waste to the previously green grassy field that Link had been lounging on just a few minutes prior. Link watched as things escalated and an injured Pikachu made his way back into the fight just in time to be forced to run away from the trail of fire that Bowser was creating. Pikachu jumped in the air and summoned another huge lightning bolt that struck Bowser, stunning Bowser for a moment and completely demolishing the Koopa Clown Car. The Koopa Clown Car quickly caught on fire, forcing Bowser to leap out of it with his share of bruises and scratches.
Despite the fact that the Koopa Clown Car was now destroyed, Bowser continued his flame assault on Mario and Pikachu on foot where he still outsized both of them by a significant amount. Their fight carried on until they approached the tree that Link was hiding behind. It was at this time that Pikachu's tail caught on fire and a panicked Pikachu ran over to the moat and leaped in to douse himself. Some stray fire ignited the bottom of the trunk, so Link climbed to the top to avoid getting burned. Bowser had turned his back to Link's position and he saw his opportunity. Link leapt down on Bowser, Master Sword in hand, and fell down on Bowser's back, sinking his sword as far into Bowser's shell as he could, which was only a few centimeters due to the shell's incredible density. Upon Link's attack, Bowser let out a painful shout. Unfortunately for Link, he had made a drastic error in judgment when he had jumped and while he did manage to penetrate Bowser with his sword, had been himself been stabbed in several areas by the spikes on Bowser's back. None of the stabs were vital but the injuries were painful enough to force Link to pull his sword out of Bowser and fall to the ground in crippling pain. Meanwhile, Bowser hunched over and fell on his stomach, grunting in pain. By this time, Pikachu had snuck away from the area after suffering third degree burns while Link and Bowser laid helplessly at Mario's feet.
"You're-a not worth killing King Bowsa. Same-a goes for you Link. That-a wasn't even a real fight." Mario said these things as he started walking towards the castle. "Maybe when you-a learn to fight you come back and do very good! I'll see you next time when you-a more prepared. Do-a your best because remember, it's a-me Mario!" With this, Mario walked into the castle, leaving the other two for dead, surrounded by the flames that Bowser had created.
Link felt himself fading from consciousness when he pulled out a red potion that he had hidden in one of his pouches. He held the bottle in his hand and was about to drink it when he looked over at Bowser's motionless husk lying next to him. The wound that Link gave him was even worse than he thought. The amount of penetration Link was able to make was a matter of inches, not centimeters. Link crawled over to the other side of Bowser to take a look. Judging by Bowser's elapsed breathing, the injury on his back, and the fire burning all around them that was limiting their oxygen intake, Bowser was almost certainly going to die. Link's injuries were not near as serious and recovery would be just a matter of getting away from the flames that were making him so dizzy. Fighting off the fatigue and pain that rushed through his body, Link pulled Bowser's mouth open and poured the red potion down his throat. Link watched as Bowser's eyes suddenly changed from being glazed over and empty to being full of life.
Bowser sat up looking confused on what had just transpired. "What the?" Bowser stammered, "Did you save me?"
Link looked up at Bowser and tried to ask Bowser to help him get out of the flames and that Link's survival depended on it, but his strength was already gone from him and found himself unable to speak. He felt his mouth move but no words came out. Shortly afterwards Link lost consciousness completely.