Chapter Seven: Coming of the Calvary
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Tiny wasted no time in rushing over to Blaze. Upon hearing Tiny's outcry when he saw her, Blaze snapped her head up and saw him coming over. She tried calling out to him, but the cloth tied over her mouth muffled anything she said.
The first thing Tiny did was yank the cloth off of Blaze's mouth, undoing the knot tied behind her head. "Blaze okay?" He asked, gently holding Blaze's shoulders.
"Oh, Tiny. I didn't think you actually come." Blaze said.
"Tiny no let anything happen to Blaze." Tiny assured. He was about to start untying her when a thought suddenly came into his head. "Blaze control fire. Why not she burn through ropes?"
Blaze sighed and jerked her head over her shoulder, where her hands were tied behind her back. "That creep put gloves on me when he tied me up." She explained. "I can't summon flames when I'm wearing gloves."
"Tiny get Blaze free quickly." Tiny said as he grabbed one of the knots keeping Blaze tied to the chair, starting to untie it.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A new voice warned.
Tiny turned towards the door, where the new voice had come from. Standing at the doorway, holding a futuristic gun in his hand, was a purple alien standing at about a foot shorter than Tiny.
"Who you?" Tiny asked as he slowly stood up, knowing that any sudden movement could prompt the newcomer to fire the gun.
"That's the creep that kidnapped me." Blaze replied, narrowing her eyes.
"I go by the name of Tatanga." The alien replied. "I come from the Mario node."
Tiny's eyebrow lifted. "Uh…Tiny no know who alien is."
Tatanga's smile dropped. "I…Was a villain."
Silence.
"Super Mario Land?"
More silence.
"For the Gameboy?"
"Oh! That you? Alien look thinner in game." Tiny said.
Tatanga growled. "Get behind the captive, you buffoon." He ordered, pointing the gun at Tiny. "I don't need her getting released, now."
Seeing no alternative, Tiny stepped back behind Blaze. However, glancing to his left, Tiny noticed that the gloves on Blaze's hands were over the ropes on her wrists and not under them. This meant that if he could manage to, Tiny could get the gloves off of Blaze.
"What alien need Blaze for?" Tiny asked Tatanga as he discretely reached for one of the gloves on Blaze's hands.
"For years, I've been in the shadows of Mario games. Ever since that one game I was the villain in, I've been overlooked." Tatanga explained. "Bowser I can understand, because he's the franchise's main villain and all. But Wart and even Captain Syrup had more appearances than me!"
"Them more memorable." Tiny replied as he softly tugged on one of Blaze's gloves.
"But in later games, did the companies remember me and make me the villain? No! They create brand new villains! Cackletta, the Shadow Queen, Princess Shroob and now Count Bleck! I get tossed aside like some old-fashioned puppet in favour of some new, fancy ones!"
"Alien no answer question." Tiny explained. By now, one of Blaze's gloves was almost off. "What need Blaze for?"
"The lady there possesses more firepower than I've ever seen in my life." Tatanga replied. "Her natural ability to control flames exceeds that of the Mario Brothers by at least a hundred percent. With her firepower at my disposal, everyone will fear the name of 'Tatanga'! Soon, the company will see my pure evilness and make me a main villain in the Mario franchise!"
"That's a stupid plan." Blaze pointed out. She had noticed that Tiny was removing her gloves and knew what he was planning. She knew that he needed more time and thought that it was best to stall for time. "For a villain, you're not all that good at coming up with ideas. It's no wonder the companies aren't using you anymore."
"You should be thankful that I need you, lady." Tatanga warned. "If not, I would have shot you by now. Face it. You are now in my grasp and you are unable to do anything about it."
Tiny yanked the glove off of Blaze's hand.
Blaze smirked. "That's what you think." She said as she ignited her uncovered hand in flames, quickly setting the ropes binding her to the chair on fire. Within seconds, Blaze was free. Seeing his captive free, Tatanga backed up until he finally turned tail and made a break for the door.
He didn't get very far, because Blaze hurled a burning ball of fire into his back, stalling Tatanga long enough for Tiny to run up and tackle him, knocking him outside.
The two fighting figures rolled on the ground for several feet before Tatanga managed to kick Tiny off of him in midair. Tiny flew through the air for a second, but quickly uprighted himself while he was flying and landed gracefully on his feet, staring down Tatanga, whom was getting to his feet himself. Blaze ran from the building that had once been her prison and stood beside Tiny.
Tatanga smirked. "This could be interesting." With that, Tatanga snapped his fingers. More brainwashed guards appeared, quickly forming a large circle around Tiny and Blaze. Within moments, there were almost two-hundred guards in the area, the two felines directly in the middle.
"Tiny I don't care how strong you are or how powerful my magic is." Blaze said. "There's no way we'll be able to fight them all off by ourselves."
"Tiny aware of that." Tiny nodded as he looked at his watch. "Anytime now…"
"Hey, Tiny!"
Tiny and Blaze looked up and saw Bowser, Eduardo and Vivian on the roof of a nearby building, looking down at them.
"Um…I don't doubt your skills or anything, pal." Bowser said with a smirk. "But it looks like you need a little help."
"Bowser read Tiny's mind." Tiny said, smirking back.
"Okay, guys!" Vivian shouted aloud. "Let's get'em!"
Scattered around the rooftops, many figures rose from hiding, standing straight and looking down at the army of brainwashed soldiers. The soldiers still outnumbered them greatly, but their chances were a lot better.
Suddenly hearing some loud and rapid footsteps coming from the left, Tatanga looked and saw a man wearing a bright pink gi leaping over the heads of the guards.
"OYAJI!!!" Dan Hibiki screamed as he landed a hard kick to Tatanga's face.
Everyone else seemed to take this as a starting bell, because once Dan attacked, most of the people on the rooftops jumped down and started attacking. The guards tried to counter-attack, but before they could, the fifteen Goombas that were with everyone rained down from above, pelting them with their bodies.
Tiny grabbed a guard and threw him away as he looked at Bowser, whom had head-butted another. "Bowser, where Namine?" He asked.
"Namine isn't much of a fighter, so she went to get the cops." Bowser replied. "We're supposed t hold that reject alien off until they arrive."
Tiny nodded in understanding. "Tiny got it." He said as he swatted another guard away.
Blaze threw a ball of fire at a guard as she saw Vivian stretch out from a shadow on the ground. "Good to see you alright, Blaze." The Shadow Siren said with a smile.
"Thanks, Vivian." Blaze replied as she kicked a guard in the stomach. "Anything interesting happen while I was gone?"
"Meh. Nothing out of the ordinary." Vivian shrugged as she gave a guard a hard punch to the face. "In fact, aside from your kidnapping, it's been a pretty normal day."
"Well, at least I haven't missed anything." Blaze nodded.
Tatanga, seeing all of the chaos around him, backed away a couple of steps in an attempt to get away. However, he ended up backing into a building, which brought an abrupt end to his escape.
"Look up, reject!"
Tatanga indeed looked up and saw Lucky Glauber (from the King of Fighters node) standing on the roof with the kids from the Megaman Battle Network node. They each held a basketball in his or her hands.
"You kids ready?" Lucky asked.
"I'm ready!" Lan Hikari said eagerly.
"Bring it!" Dex laughed.
"I hope your lessons pay off, Mr. Glauber…" Mayl mused.
"Let 'em have it!!" Lucky shouted as everyone standing on the roof threw his or her basketball down at Tatanga. On the way down, each basketball became engulfed in a strange energy, which made it that much stronger when the first one struck Tatanga square in the forehead. Tatanga felt himself getting pelted with basketballs, and once the last one hit, Lucky jumped down from the roof and gave him a hard kick to the face.
Eduardo was never one to like getting into a fight, but when he got mad, there was no stopping him. He was definitely proving that right now, throwing wild punches and hurling guards in every direction.
Seeing several guards running towards him, Eduardo narrowed his eyes. "You are really asking for this, senors." He warned as he grabbed an unconscious guard by the legs and swung him like a club, most of the oncoming guards and knocking them away. Any guard that wasn't hit fell to Eduardo's following flurry of punches.
"I am sorry, but you must know that if you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us, senors!" Eduardo shouted as he continued to attack. Never had he felt this angry before, because never had one of his friends been in this type of danger.
Tatanga looked up in time to see Eduardo's rampage. "Focus all of your attacks on the purple one!" He ordered just before Dan Hibiki and Lucky Glauber continued using him as a punching bag.
Most of the guards nearby turned their attention towards Eduardo, but a good amount of them thought they were to go after Vivian, so that's what they did. Vivian saw that several of the guards were homing in on her, so she quickly snapped her fingers, creating some fire.
"Blaze, I think I might need your help on this one!" Vivian called out.
"Got it!" Blaze nodded as she held up a hand and created a ball of fire in it.
Both girls cast their magic at the same time, sending a huge wave of fire at the oncoming guards. The power from the attack alone was enough to knock the guards out.
Tiny had just finished knocking out the last of the guards attacking him. Looking around, he saw that all of the guards in the area had been knocked out. Tatanga was the only one left standing, and Lucky quickly pushed him to the ground, where he was too exhausted to try to get back up again.
"How could this day get any worse?" Tatanga wondered.
His question was soon answered, as twelve Rabbids poked their heads into his view, forming a circle around his field of sight. The Rabbids stood in silence for a few seconds before screaming psychotically.
As the group of Rabbids beat on the downed Tatanga with blunt objects, Tiny saw Blaze standing over another unconscious guard and made his way over.
"Blaze." Tiny said once he reached her side. "Blaze sure she okay?"
Blaze looked up at Tiny and smiled. "Never better."
"There he is, officer!"
Everyone turned towards the voice and saw Namine storming through the crowd with several policemen with her. She quickly arrived at the group of screaming Rabbids, whom were still whacking Tatanga with whatever they had.
"Boys, could you step aside, please?" Namine asked.
This made the Rabbids stop what they were doing and leave Tatanga.
"This creep kidnapped one of my friends." Namine explained.
"We appreciate your help, ma'am." One of the policemen said as several other apprehended Tatanga.
The Tatanga was hauled away, Blaze chuckled and looked at Tiny. "Boy, some day this has turned out to be, eh?" She asked.
"And it only lunchtime." Tiny added.
To be continued…
