~Chapter Three: Vs. Tabuu~

"Okay, so Link and Samus, you'll be on the right side of the stage with me, while Marth, Lucas and Sonic take the left," Mario strategized after calling the others into a group huddle. Tabuu lingered above, staring down at them silently waiting for them to make the first move. It was unnerving to Mario, but he shrugged it off to give his final orders to his comrades."I'll repeat this again, we only have one shot at this, so we can't screw this up." he made a point of looking in Sonic's direction during that last part, the hedgehog rolling his eyes. Mario felt a twinge of guilt in his stomach, wishing that things could maybe have worked out a bit differently between them. He shook away that thought though as he recomposed himself. "So... are we all ready?"

"Always," Samus replied, her visor flashing green and obscuring her face from those around her. Link and Marth gave curt nods, while Lucas audibly gulped before nodding as well. Mario's gaze fell onto Sonic, who just stared at him for a moment before smirking and giving him a thumbs-up.

"This'll be a piece of cake!"

Mario was irritated by Sonic's almost childish viewpoint of the situation - did he not realize that they were facing off against a dangerous creature that up until his surprise attack a few minutes ago had the capability of killing all of them? However, he saw a spark in those bright green eyes of his, and sighing decided to trust that Sonic knew what he was doing. After all, he wasn't constantly being compared to him for nothing.

"Let's-a-go!" he cried, the six of them launching into battle as the rest of the Smashers watched from down below, not knowing what the outcome would be.

Sonic was the first to land an attack, Tabuu shrieking as it attempted to swipe at him. Marth deflected the move back with a well-timed counter, as Mario tossed a fireball and Samus detonated a missile.

"PK Fire!" Lucas called, flames erupting from his hands while Link slashed at Tabuu with his sword. As they were fighting, Mario kept watching Sonic out of the corner of his eye, observing his battle style and noticing how he preferred to attack rather defensively, curling up into a ball rather then go hands-on with the enemy. Not a style that Mario would say that he cared for, but if it worked for him then who was he to judge?

They kept the heat on Tabuu for quite some time, until Tabuu had seemingly had enough and dive-bombed the stage from the right side, Sonic yelping as their enemy seemed to have come into contact with him. His suspicions were confirmed when he noticed blood oozing from Sonic's arm; though Sonic didn't seem to care as he shrugged off the injury and kept up the attack. Mario made a mental note to patch him up later when they'd escaped this living hell. Maybe it would help the tension between them thaw.

"Mario!" Samus called, Mario glancing in the direction Samus and Link were looking and noticing that Tabuu had projected a large hologram of his face on their side of the stage. Without warning a strong gust of wind was blowing all of them towards the edge of the stage, all of the Smashers desperately trying to hold onto anything in order to not fall to their deaths. Eventually Tabuu hovered above the stage once again, Mario quickly calling everyone into a group huddle.

"I think we need a new strategy," he whispered in a panicked tone. "Nothing we do seems to be hurting him enough to defeat him."

"He's doing something," Lucas pointed towards Tabuu, who had backed up a considerable amount from the stage. Seeing this, Sonic snickered.

"Maybe he's givin' up?" he suggested, folding his arms and giving their enemy a cocky smirk. Marth shook his head.

"Tabuu doesn't give up," he whispered as Tabuu unfurled his giant wings once again, broken somewhat from Sonic's previous attack but still intact. Mario's breath caught in his throat as he realized what Tabuu was trying to do.

"Do everything in your power to dodge, or you're going to die!" he called out to his comrades as Tabuu roared, sending a barrage of shockwaves towards the Smashers. And even though all of them were agile enough to dodge the attacks, Sonic landed a bit too early and a shockwave hit him square in the chest, sending him flying across the stage before he tumbled towards the edge, for a moment looking like he was going to recover before falling off the side of the stage.

And Mario wasn't going to let him die, even if they were bitter rivals. Wasting no time he dashed to the opposite edge of the stage, extending his arm and grabbing Sonic's hand, Marth and Samus helping him drag Sonic back onto the stage. As soon as Sonic was back on solid ground he took a moment to catch his breath before staring up at Mario, shock clearly written on his face.

"But... you're... we're..."

"Well I couldn't let you die after you saved all of us, could I?" he asked, Sonic blinking a few times before something changed in his eyes, and he gave Mario a true, genuine smile.

"Thank you," he whispered, standing and regaining his bearings. Tabuu roared, clearly angry that his attack hadn't done the damage he wanted. "So now's around the time where we really get serious about fightin' him, right?" Sonic questioned, Samus nodding her head.

"Don't need to tell me twice," she muttered, charging up her arm cannon. Link gripped the hilt of the Master Sword tight, as the wielder of the Triforce of Courage he would not fail.

"There's no way I can lose!" Marth declared. Lucas gulped, but looked determined to win. Mario took the lead of the group, and with a battle cry the six were at it again, far more aggressive this time. Tabuu was more aggressive too though, beginning to teleport randomly around the stage and making it difficult to land any sort of attack on him. He began to fling psychic blasts in every direction, Lucas crying out as one nearly missed his head, and Mario gritting his teeth in pain as one of them managed to slice open his arm, blood staining his outfit.

"You okay?" Sonic asked, Mario being mildly surprised by the concern but nodding.

"Sì... I'll be fine. I can still fight."

Tabuu roared above them, and the moment was lost as they continued with their battle. Link and Marth slashed away at Tabuu with their swords, while Samus detonated a bomb, followed by several missiles.

The battle raged on for what felt like an eternity, both Smashers and Tabuu visibly worn but neither side swaying. Finally, with a cry of, "PK Thunder!", Lucas shot his attack right into Tabuu's core... and all battle stopped.

Tabuu let out a shriek, yellow blood dripping from his wounds as he slowly began to disintegrate in front of the Smashers eyes, all of the areas he had chained up being released from his grasp. Realizing his plan had failed, in one final act of desperation Tabuu smashed the platform the fighters were on, the ground rumbling for the briefest moment before the whole thing shattered, sending the six plummeting down.

But to them, that didn't matter. Even if they died, so had Tabuu. They had accomplished their mission, the other Smashers were free to leave Subspace, and as they all fell towards the bright light below there was only one thing on their minds.

They'd won.