DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Smash Bros. series. I never have and most likely never will.
Okay, first chapter out just a few hours after the prologue. Am I overstressing myself? Hope not. Anyway, enjoy. Put a lot of work into this one.
Gigglypuff!
Starring Ike, Jigglypuff, Meta Knight, and Zelda
"…and of course, Kirby decided to go and eat all of the jam doughnuts right in front of him! Yoshi didn't really take that too nicely and then the next thing I know, there's about a dozen plates flyin' right at me and Master Hand's going all over the place, trying to calm 'em down… oh, you should have seen it yourself, Zel! Me and Ness were killing ourselves laughing about it…"
Zelda quickly blinked the fatigue out of her eyesight a fraction of a second before her head hit the table, then rubbed her eyes blearily, earning a concerned glance from her bluenette friend sitting next to her.
"Hey, you okay?" Ike ventured, raising an eyebrow. "You don't look so good."
She sighed. "I was up much too late last night. You'd think that I was still ruling Hyrule from here, what with the amount of paperwork they send me…"
"Ah, forget about 'em!" Ike stood up from his chair to give her a clap on the back a little harder than she would have preferred. "They're asswipes, that's all! Don't sweat yourself!"
Zelda rolled her eyes. "You don't run a kingdom, Ike. You wouldn't understand."
"I run a mercenary unit. They're not so different." He leaned in closer to her ear. "Just try and enjoy yisself! You didn't come here to do paperwork, did you?"
She shook her head.
"There, see? Weren't so difficult! Just relax a little and take a break. That's my advice."
The princess smiled. "Alright. I'll try."
"Atta' girl." She pouted at the childish remark, but Ike had already turned to the clock fixed on the dining room wall. His brows rose. "Cor', is that the time already? Better get going, then!"
"You scheduled for a match? Who with?"
"Jiggs, Meta and Luigi, I think. Bridge of Eldin, two – no, three - minute time. Shouldn't be too difficult." He grinned widely at her. "Well, what're you gawking at? Come on! You've gotta' start to lighten up some!"
Zelda stood then, stretching her back out. "Oh, why not? Lead on."
Okay, Ike. Smooth. Tough. Give them some whacks with Ragnell before moving in for the kill. Don't rush it too much…
The mercenary and princess stepped into the Brawling Chamber. Half a dozen identical widescreens winked at them from various places in the room, soon to display half a dozen different viewpoints of the brawl. Meta Knight and Jigglypuff were already patiently waiting for the match to start in front of their respective teleporters. Said knight looked up at them as they entered.
"Ah, Ike," he greeted. "Master Hand has said he has changed the rules slightly."
"Really?" The swordsman took his position in front of the red teleporter whilst Zelda sat down in one of the viewing chairs. "What's up, then?"
Jigglypuff smiled faintly and waved a hand. "Oh, he's turned on the Smash Ball and a few other items. Nothing too serious."
I can use Great Aether? Sweet! "Sure, okay, got it."
Meta Knight coughed. "Anyway, so how has it been going for you two, then? I hear there was an illegal brawl in the kitchen, and I've got a very suspicious feeling about who it was..."
He bluenette gave him a toothy grin. "Kirby and Yosh were arguing over what kind of icing to put on the cupcakes for tea. Kinda' pointless if you ask me. Why can't anyone see that vanilla is just tasteless? I'd go for strawberry any day."
"Oh, that was it?" Meta Knight rolled his eyes. "I really must teach that puffball how to control his temper someday."
"He's a good cook, dude! I love those walnut pancakes he makes for breakfast sometimes. With blueberry sauce."
Jigglypuff let out one of her high-pitched giggles. "Honestly, Ikey, I wonder sometimes how you keep your teeth in with all that sugar you eat. It's very poor for your body."
"What do you know? You're only a bag of gas!"
She glared at him with huge eyes. "Watch it, Bluey. Do you want me to tell Master Hand about what happened with the lawnmower?"
"Hey, if the scabbard fits…"
Luigi had chosen the time to enter the room at that point. The Mario brother waltzed into the room, blinked at the clock, which still said thirty seconds to go, and hurriedly took his place at the green teleporter.
"Run into trouble again, Luigi?" Jigglypuff dryly commented.
Luigi blinked at the question. "No. I was-a merely trying to clean up-a what was left of the kitchen."
Meta Knight made a movement that could have been compared to a nod. "Kirby sure can leave a wreck in his wake, hm?"
"Oh, no, not-a that accident. Wario challenged Dedede to an eating contest. It didn't really-a end well." Luigi frowned and grimaced briefly.
"Oh…"
"Ten!" the announcer's commanding voice boomed through the speakers. It was then that Ike noticed Zelda was missing from the room.
Must've gone to get some sleep. Tch. I suppose that's Zelda when you need her…
"Five!"
Ike popped his knuckle joints loudly as the scene shifted in a myriad of colours to the familiar hills and stonework of the Bridge of Eldin.
"Four!"
"Three!"
He gathered a deep breath…
"Two!"
…and yelled to his opposition…
"One!"
"Prepare yourself!"
"GO!"
As soon as the setting change finished, Jigglypuff wasted no time in locating herself. She was on the inner-left side of the bridge, just past the cracks where the bridge was scheduled to shatter due to King Bulbin. Ike was situated behind her, spouting his usual cheesy pick-up line of 'Prepare yourself!', with Meta Knight and Luigi straight ahead, with Meta Knight being closer.
"GO!"
She did a 180 on the spot to see Ike lunging for her, Ragnell held tightly behind him with both hands. Without missing a beat she sidestepped the attack easily, coming perilously close to the bridge edge, and before Ike could recuperate himself she had snatched a hank of his violet tunic and body slammed him back towards the left blast line.
The swordsman knew what was coming and rose to his feet on the spot, and took to the air, sword raised. Jigglypuff had barely managed to scoot herself sideways before Ragnell sliced through the air where she had been only a second before. She dropped height to Ike's level as the man's sword punched a crater in the stonework and stuck both of her feet out, catching him in the face and sending him head over heels closer to the blast line. The balloon then hit the floor again and pulled her foot back for a smash attack.
However, she was just about to release her kick when something hard and squealing smacked into her back and knocked her off balance. Luigi muttered a few colourful curses in Italian before pulling himself up to face Meta Knight, who had chased him across the bridge. She was about to turn to face Ike again when said swordsman suddenly bounded past her, headed for centre-stage. Irate at her lost opportunity, Jiggs rolled around Luigi – and a knight in the midst of a Mach Tornado – and was about to kick a smug-looking Ike in the face when he lashed out with a punch. His opponent stunned, he stepped forward and kicked her with a steel-capped boot before swinging Ragnell down, sending her flying straight into Meta Knight's attack.
She was whirled around as if in a wash-cycle before spat out again with incredible force. She caught a faint glimpse of a shimmering barrier when her body disintegrated into stardust, accompanied with a respectable explosion and a sound to match.
Jigglypuff, infuriated by the cheap KO, bounded off the revival platform just in time to hear Ike wail, "Kill stealer!" before pummelling him with a variety of aerial attacks again. She was never going to let him live that down.
Meta Knight, amused by the cheap KO, grabbed Luigi's nose and (ignoring the whining the plumber caused) spin-kicked him straight out of the arena, and the flash of light and sparkles more than confirmed his second knockout of the match.
Satisfied, he turned back towards centre field to see Ike being bombarded with a hail of kicks and head slams by an extremely irate-looking Jigglypuff. Feeling slightly sympathetic, Meta got a gliding head-start before smashing his foot into Ike's back, sending the bluenette piling into the balloon Pokemon like a living missile. Luigi had by then shot off his revival platform and while still airborne karate chopped Ike in the head before twisting and stomping Jigglypuff with both feet back towards the right area of the bridge.
Meta was about to do a triple slash on the flailing Ike above him when he suddenly felt the earth rock slightly. Turning, sure enough, there was King Bulbin, charging on his boar-like animal with a goblin ("Or was it Moblin?" he mused) struggling to keep up behind him. He transformed his cape into wings and started to lift himself upwards.
"No chance, mate!"
Meta's eyes didn't even have a chance to widen as Ike's sword came plunging down on top of him, smashing him back onto the floor. He spotted Ike just barely clearing Bulbin's animal before said creature ran him over, pounding him into the ground.
Meta picked himself up just in time to see an explosive barrel a few feet away from him burn away the last few centimetres of its fuse. He sighed.
"Oh, shi-"
'BOOM!' A thundering bang shook the ground, and Ike hurriedly jumped to avoid a Meta Knight skidding along the ground below him, and watched with a huge smirk as the puffball flew past the left blast line uttering an irritated cry as he did so.
That makes it… tied 1 with Meta, right? And Jiggs and Luigi are -1 each.
Grinning, Ike turned to look at the two, engaged in a fierce aerial battle further on. Meta Knight dismounted the revival platform with a look of extreme ill-temper, and flapped a few times over the newly-made gap in the bridge before glaring at Ike.
"You'll pay for that," he muttered.
A clang of steel sounded later, and the two were locked in combat again.
"Stupid-" She punched Luigi in mid-air with a heavy fist.
"-little-" She followed with a double kick to the torso.
"-plumber..!" She finished with an uppercutting slap, sending the Italian sailing a few feet into the air above her. Annoyed, the man spun and stuck his boots out at her, knocking her away.
Jigglypuff was about to take to the air to start duelling again, when a blinding flash of light tore into her vision. Her green eyes widely hugely. In front of her, Luigi's appeared to have the reached the same conclusion.
"The Smash Ball...!" he murmured quietly, before making the mistake of turning around to find out where it was. Jiggly hurriedly snatched the back of his overalls before he could get away and suplexed him behind her. But instead of chasing him, she double-timed it for the Smash Ball, currently being harassed by Ike and Meta Knight on the other side of the gap.
'Chink.' Ragnell came thundering down, but the Ball did not break.
'Chink, chink, chink.' Galaxia made three swift slashes, but surprisingly it still held as it boosted away, towards Jigglypuff.
Without wasting a second, she kicked the glowing ball with both feet.
Meta Knight watched helplessly as Jigglypuff shattered the Ball, setting her features aflame with a yellow aura. He could have sworn her face melded into the most demonic expression he had ever seen, amplified with the portal of twilight just whirling into existence above her.
Get away! he mentally screamed at himself. However, he had barely managed to turn around before a golden metal sword impaled him in the face, launching him into the already expanding Jigglypuff. He propped himself up on top of her and spared a fraction of a second to leer back at Ike.
Said swordsman stuck up a middle finger at him, clearly irritated at the loss of chance for a Great Aether, before scooting away. Closing his eyes, Meta sighed for the second time in the match.
"Oh, shi-"
Ike, who had thrust Ragnell into the floor and turned around to watch the show, wasn't quite sure what happened next. Jigglypuff was about to reach the peak of her size and 'explode' as he put it, but instead of yelling her unintelligible cry (and having Meta Knight skyrocket up and away into Netherland), she suddenly snapped upwards, feet flailing and stars in her eyes. Meta, on top of her, was tossed off almost immediately, over to the other side of her, where Luigi was.
And then she landed. Surprising, there was no earth-shaking tremor when she hit the floor, even at her monstrous size. Ike just stared, slack-jawed.
WTF?!
"Ow…"
Jigglypuff pulled herself up with a degree of difficulty, wincing. The bridge had rematerialised itself with her inside it, interrupting her Final Smash.
As she stood, she instantly realised something was very, very wrong. The gate at the end of the bridge leading to the field seemed significantly smaller, and the bridge itself was barely wide enough for her to stand on. Looking down, she could see Ike, who was leaning against his sword, staring uncomprehendingly at her.
She swallowed. "Uh, Ike, why are you so small?" Her voice came out pathetically high for her size.
His eye twitched nervously and he did not answer.
Raising an eyebrow, Jigglypuff twirled around in the little room she had to see Meta Knight and Luigi also gawking at her. They were still very much the same size she remembered them to be. She glared down at them.
'What about you two, then?"
As with Ike, they didn't answer.
"Oi! Earth to Meta Knight and Luigi!"
Meta glanced hopefully at Luigi, but seeing as the green-clad person clearly did not intend to do anything, he appeared to pull what calm he had left and spoke. "I – we – have no idea what happened, Jiggly."
"Hmph," she grunted. "Fine. I'll talk to Master Hand later."
"Excellent idea!" was just faintly heard as Ike butted in his approval.
She grinned devilishly. "What are you getting all hopeful about? The match is still going, and I'm two points behind both of you…" The three males all made unified squeaks of protest.
Meta Knight held up his hands futilely in a placating gesture. "Now, now, let's not get too hasty-"
He was interrupted with a gigantic foot colliding with his mask. There was a fraction of a second of silence, then Meta Knight went roaring over Luigi's head and into the blast line, followed with the usual explosion of red and orange sparkles. The plumber lost it right then and there, wailing and flinging his arms all over the place as the giantess Jigglypuff closed in on him. She grinned.
Today was a very, very good day.
Zelda had briefly gone to get a drink from the kitchens, and came back in holding a pleasantly refreshing cup of tea. Taking a sip, she sat down where she had before and looked at the screens of the battle.
It quickly turned into a stare as she saw a mega-sized Jigglypuff racing over the bridge, and roundhouse-kicking an unfortunate Ike who happened to be in the way with a massive foot. The swordsman just managed to holler an insult at the puffball before blowing up in the column of pixels.
Zelda blinked, looked down at her cup, stared at the screen some more, and then stood and walked straight out of the chamber for her room.
Less than a minute later, when a satisfied Jigglypuff, insane Luigi, stoic Meta Knight and thoroughly dishevelled Ike exited the teleporters, the princess was sound asleep in her bed.
There's a light in the sky! Oh, wait, that's just Luigi getting Star KO'd. Never mind.
I'll give you a taste of my overwhelming technical skills and tell you why Bowser does not have the same result when he does his Final Smash in this level. Unlike Jigglypuff, Bowser does not change size - rather, his growing in size is purely an animation, which explains why you have no resistance when you try and walk through him. With Jiggly, she does change in size, which also explains players' inability to get into her while she is growing - there is a clipping code in place which would never work if the growing was just an animation.
Lecture over, tell me what you think! Review, please!
Signing off,
grammaguy