It's a real shame that Necro and I let this account lie- Brawl's coming out and we know the fandom's getting ready to explode- but what the hey!
Chapter 5
Inevitable
The fans filed into the darkened stadium and awaited the announcement regarding who would be participating that night. One by one the challengers were teleported into the rocky double-sided arena, dwarfed by the incredible monster swaying and screaming in the background.
The first competitor materialized from the dressing room, a young woman with golden hair curled behind her ears and the hem of her flowing pink gown swirling around her ankles. She always was the one finding herself in the clutches of the next participant: a rather large reptile living inside a green spiked shell. It was a themed match it seemed- especially considering the next two on the platform.
A man and his riding companion, the former a stout Italian clothed in blue overalls and a bright red shirt and cap. The latter was somewhat startling in appearance, a bulbous nose taking over the bulk of his round happy face, and duck-like tail protruding from behind him as he resembled a cuddly green dinosaur. The two had been together since the man's childhood, when as the infant he had been dropped on the reptile's island.
The combatants took their spots and waited for…
"GO!"
The four players lingered for only a moment before the match was underway. A Single-Life, Four-man, Free For All, the difference this time around being that the items had been restricted to the more blunt objects. The small, big-nosed pig-like creature affectionately named Mr. Saturn already had several copies of himself waddling across the uneven volcanic terrain.
"Yoshi!" Shrieking his own name in a duck-like warble, the green beast threw himself into the air, kicking his small red-booted feet as though peddling a bicycle to carry himself higher into the air, performing a swooping motion to land up on the platform which had been over his head. The platform was instantly vacated of the plumber's stocky form, crimson and gold flames swirling around his hands as he leapt once towards the spiked tortes.
Bowser did not take kindly to having such an abrupt challenge made before him, jumping back from the flaming man until his wide girth was over the frail girl who'd been positioned behind him. Curling his thick legs under himself, knees drawn up against his muscled chest, the koopa let himself drop like a dead weight towards her, letting out a challenging snarl as his eyes were on the approaching man and not his intended victim.
Well, Peach took no better to the attack on her than Bowser had the one on him. Side stepping back with the pink of her skirts swishing in an overtly feminine manner, it was as if by magic that one slim gloved hand vanished behind her back. A moment later, Bowser was howling in outrage as a masterfully swung golf club connected with the soft base of his exposed tail. Twisting in midair as the strike had kept him from landing properly, the beast's limbs vanished inside the protective interior of his shell, the casing spinning menacingly up and away from the two smaller combatants. He'd take out the dinosaur instead.
Smug with how she had dispatched Bowser, Peach let out a startled shriek as the crimson flames of her hero shot up in her face, singeing the ends of her hair and blackening the tips of her gloved fingers before she was able to leap back in surprise. Regrettably, she wasn't swift enough, Mario's adept hands locking around her wrists, and she let out a shriek of her own.
"Don't you dare-!" To late for arguments, the Princess felt the blood rush to her feet as she was roughly swung by her wrists three times, the world blurring before the distinctly sickening sensation of being sent flying overcame her. The edges of any arena in the competition were clearly marked by white lines which signaled the ends of all holograms and stage work, beyond them was always various layers of very safe and secure netting, and needed medical treatment.
Of course, she didn't need any such treatment, not yet at least. Twisting in the air, a sparkle of magic was let loose from the palms of both her hands, twinkling lights spilling from the gold belt around her hips and shimmering down the lengths of her skirt. Pulling her knees up in a seated position, the Princess felt herself lightening drastically, hands out in front and behind her as she began making her return to the spinning platform. When she had arrived so many had expected her to be beyond one of the weakest players, but she'd learned enough over the past season, and so had they. Almost eliminating a floating opponent is not the same as actually doing so.
Regrettably, the distance Mario had flung her was a dangerously long one. But with the current position of the stadium, currently with its widest edges serving as the top and bottom, she'd be just fine.
"Yoshiiii!!" Like a shot, a trail of smoke was visible from where a duel effort from both Mario and Bowser sent a flaming Smasher flying towards the upper arena edge, blinding white tinted with a bit of green rocketing down from his exit point, the crowd screaming in approval as the two remaining began duking it out with flames scoring the ground from both sides.
Peach could feel her face heating at the indignation of being tossed from the battle so easily, but then something more important began to catch her attention. The sparkles streaming from her belt began to flicker off and die, and with a very sharp and bitter curse, the spell ended.
"Not yet!" She blurted sharply, allowing herself to loose a bit of height to avoid an ill-thrown Mr. Saturn from the angered tortes. In a manner similar to how she had summoned the golf club before, Peach found a burst of power at her toes, her form being launched several feet higher in the air as her parasol opened wide, slowing her down to a lazy drift…
…just as the level started spinning.
"No. Absolutely not." But of course, definitly; where there should have been solid stone for her to land and make a comeback, the movement of the level left her with… air. And far below that, elimination.
Straining as well as one can while gripping the handle of an umbrella, the Princess tried to come as close to the volcanic rock as was humanly possible. But of course, the dragon far beyond them continued to shriek and scream, all the automated numbers lining up to keep the level spinning precariously and sending the enraged Bowser scrambling and slipping uselessly from the steep edge towards the boundary.
No where to land.
"Peach!" Looking up, just beyond the rim of her parasol, the blond-woman could see a flash of red and blue, the arena now slowly spinning itself so as to be placed over her head, her form still slowly sinking towards the lower edge of the stadium.
With Bowser bitterly tending his wounds in the locker-room with a dazed and confused green dinosaur, Mario found the ample time to perform one simple act. He smiled in an oh-so-sweet manner, and said.
"You can't escape the inevitable!"
"Mario, you fuc-"
"GAME!"
Peach's Up-B attack HURTS. She rams her parasol up into the air and is very likely to catch you in an unpleasant manner, and after she flies up, the parasol opens and she begins to float back down to the arena. However, if there is no arena to be found, she just keeps floating… floating… floating… GAME!
