Disclaimer: This chapter introduces Sheik, whom I will use masculine pronouns to refer to. In my eyes, even if he used to be Zelda, Sheik is his own person who is male presenting in his game. Plus video games need more trans representation. And I don't want any angry commenters arguing with me, ok? Good. Now, please enjoy!
Mario jumped out of the way just before a massive lazer blasted out of the robot's eyes, directly at them.
"What is that?!" Mario yelled in confusion, putting his guard up as the creaure prepared another attack.
Kirby was pretty sure of what to do though, as he'd face enough monsters with giant eyes at this point. He drew the monster's attention, dodging the lazer at the last second. He managed to get up close to the thing and pulled out his cutter, stabbed the robot in the eye. The thing's head spun and whirred before finally toppling over and exploding, sending the still attached Kirby flying back toward his ally.
The robot miraculously recovered, its deep red eyes now glowing light blue shortly before it disappeared like others before it.
"Well... Now I think I understand how this works." Mario said as he felt the increase of power from the spirit they just defeated. The two climbed up the temple stairs, getting a perfect view of their ultimate goal in the distance. "There's Galeem... That's where we need to get in order beat him and set things back to normal!"
The heroic plumber ran forward toward the opposite stair case, fully ready to face this foe. As he approached however, he felt a sudden, stinging pain in his arm. He looked down and saw several thin needles sticking out of his limb.
Kirby ran forward to check how Mario was, but as he got close, a nearly invisible rope wrapped around his foot, stopping him in place so that he couldn't avoid the small bomb that went off near him, knocking him to the floor. After the two attacks, a cloud of smoke materialized, with a ninja taking shape within it.
"Sheik?!" Mario yelled in amazement and anxiety, as he knew they would have to fight him. Kirby recovered from the blast and charged at Sheik as Mario removed the needles. As the star warrior charged with his hammer, the attacker teleported once again, dodging just as Kirby swung.
Mario got his arm back in working order just in time for Sheik to come flying in with his heel. The plumber countered this time, jumping up and landing directly onto the ninja's head, knocking his opponent to the ground, just in time for Kirby shoot out a blast from his cutter blade, directly at him.
Sheik laid on the temple floor for a moment before the heroes saw the damage miraculously recover, and the warrior got up, seeing the two others with their accompanying spirits.
"What kind of trouble are we in this time?"
A short explanation from Kirby, and a lot of effort from Mario to explain Kirby's charades
"This is far worse than Tabuu then..." Sheik analyzed. "And I've got another troubling concern... I tried, and it looks like I can't turn back into the princess. Galeem must have isolated our alternate forms... Makes sense if he wants less people going after him." He noted, something Mario and Kirby likely never would have found out. Sheik looked around, surveying their surroundings. "We don't have many options with all this fog. We'll just have to pick one of these staircases and see where it leads."
The moment he finished his sentence though, off in the distance a bright light flashed, and all of a sudden there were barriers blocking off two of the staircases
"That's some very selective magic Galeem has..." Sheik commented. "This way it is then." He stated, walking down the temple stairs with Mario and Kirby following close behind.
The group didn't get very far before the next attack though. Kirby watched as Mario was suddenly knocked to the ground by a flash of blue. Sheik quickly turned, but before he could assess the situation, he was hit too. Kirby had no idea what was going on, he braced himself for an attack, and when he heard the sound of something zooming toward him, he jumped up and backflipped out of the way. The being finally stopped, allowing the three to get a good look at it. They all expected to see the familiar face of another friend that needed saving, but were all surprised to see his robotic counterpart instead.
"Metal Sonic!" Mario shouted as he got up. The others had only moments to contemplate the ridiculousness of the robot duplicate before it began to speak.
"PRIMARY DIRECTIVE: DESTROY THOSE WHO POSE A THREAT TO GALEEM" The robot stated matter-of-factly before charging again. The attacker was fast, but Sheik was able to dodge at just the right moment. He noticed the orb that floated around him as his two counterparts described, and figured that the power-up he gained was the only reason he was able to dodge. It didn't help much the second time around though, as he was knocked down yet again.
Despite his previous shortcoming, Mario was the only person who had dealt with this foe before, and was therefore certain he could defeat him. "Look! Sonic!" He shouted as he pointed behind the machine. To everyone's disbelief, Metal Sonic immediately whipped around, leaving him open to a hammer strike to the head from Kirby.
The mechanical duplicate sputtered and whirred, the blunt for being powerful enough to fatally wound it. Finally, it fell down, but as was par for the course at this point, it got right back up, undamaged.
"RECALLING MEMORY... ANALYSIS: GALEEM HAS CAPTURED EGGMAN. PRIME OBJECTIVE: HELP HEROES TO SAVE EGGMAN" With his last words bluntly chosen, Metal Sonic allowed himself to dissipate like the others, until he was just an orb floating around the trio.
The group took a few moments to recover, before Sheik finally spoke up. "That was very close... We wouldn't have made it if not for Mario's trick. We need to have better strategies going into these battles. One thing's for sure though, we now know they have just enough of their original personalities left to be manipulated. Also, the question must be asked why some disappear immediately, while us three are able to remain here..." By the time the ninja was finished speaking, the other two heroes were fast asleep, worn out by the battles they had gone through so far. Sheik sighed, "I really hope someone serious joins the party next time..." He decided to take watch in case of more attackers, allowing the others to sleep and recover for now