Chapter 8: VS Popo and Mr. Game and Watch

Nana and Ness had regained consciousness. "Marth I'm sorry!" She instantly apologized.

"Its all right," said Marth. "You weren't yourself." Everyone nodded in agreement. "You were infected by a virus named Kai."

"I only have one request." Nana cried. "I want to fight against my brother!" Everyone looked at her in shock. "Ever since that battle we've both been shaken and our team work has suffered. Had Kai had both of us together against you it probably would have been a completely different battle."

"Should we set out to find your brother?" asked Marth.

"That won't be necessary!" a voice laughed. Silently Marth cursed knowing that Nana wouldn't be able to fight at 100 after she had used up most of her energy fighting Marth. Marth faced Popo, along side him was Mr. Game and Watch. In Mr. Game and Watch's hands was a glass cube. He threw it onto the ground and the next thing that Marth knew was that Mr. Game and Watch, Popo, Nana and himself were inside it.

Marth held on tightly to his sword. "Nana we have to be careful here!" Marth shouted. However Nana didn't hear him and charged forwards towards her brother. They had both engaged in combat. Their hammers clashed. Marth stood perfectly still and thought over the situation. 'This cube is a problem.' He thought. They all knew how these cubes worked since they used them for the tournament. They would create an artificial dimension for them to fight in; this was a precaution to protect the spectators, and the Smashers. It was heavily customizable and because of this they could tinker with the time that passed in the dimension. One of the key features of the cube was a safety that allowed for them to receive mortal wounds but not be injured. For some reason Marth knew that it would be turned off. 'Seconds may have gone by in here but out there minutes or hours could of passed.' It was clearly evident as to why this disturbed Marth. Any minute both Popo and Mr. Game and Watch could fall down dead.

Mr. Game and Watch jumped down towards Marth. Mr. Game and Watch also brought out a hammer, Marth quickly countered with his sword but felt his body freezing over with ice. Marth broke free of the ice and slashed at Mr. Game and Watch, however he disappeared. The Smashers had learned a lot over the past few months about each other. But perhaps the most mystifying of them all was Mr. Game and Watch. He had the power to travel dimensions, and when he would travel from 2d to 3d he would disappear completely. No one really knew why, but they had learned that he could only stay there for about 7 seconds. During those 7 seconds Marth had increased his guard and readied himself for nearly anything that could attack him.

Mr. Game and Watch reappeared in front of Marth and brought down his hammer at him. Electricity suddenly went through Marth's body and he fell to the ground. Mr. Game and Watch jumped into the air and brought down a giant key upon Marth. Marth however blocked with his sword. Marth jumped up and into the air at Mr. Game and Watch, however Mr. Game and watch opened up his parachute and knocked Marth back against the wall of the cube.

'This battle isn't going all that well.' Marth thought to himself. 'I've never really fought Mr. Game and Watch either, all of his attacks seem random.' Mr. Game and Watch attacked Marth once again this time using a turtle. 'Anything can be used as a weapon.' Marth had to remind himself noting the various unconventional weapons that Mr. Game and Watch was using against him. Marth narrowly avoided a chair trusted towards him.

Interested in how Nana was doing against Popo, Marth looked over. Both Nana and Popo brought their hands down onto the ground and caused spires of ice to appear all over the place. None of the spires were able to hit the other. Marth dodged an attack from Mr. Game and Watch. And jumped into the center of the cube. Marth shifted his position and sheathed his sword. For a split second if a fly entered Marth's range it would have been cut.

'What was that?' Marth asked himself. 'For a second it felt like all of my senses were increased!' Mr. Game and Watch jumped towards Marth who drew his sword and knocked Mr. Game and Watch away. One thing that they had learned about Mr. Game and Watch was that he was a glutton for punishment.

Suddenly Marth remembered a lecture that Master Hand had told them. "In battle, when you are faced with a life and death situation, or you are fighting seriously, you will be able to do things that you wouldn't normally be able to do. Your adrenaline will help you perform rather difficult tasks. So if you are able to use one of your abilities with out the adrenaline rush than it should be rather quick and easy to perform with it." Very few of the Smashers had understood what Master Hand was talking about. But they learned quickly enough that one side effect of this was their energy shields, what was hard to summon casually would become almost second nature on the battlefield.

Marth exhaled and stared at Mr. Game and Watch. He noticed that Mr. Game and Watch was open and rushed towards him knocking him out of the way. Marth then looked towards Nana and Popo.

Nana was encased in a block of ice. Popo was standing triumphantly over her. "Nana!" Marth shouted. However Popo raised his hammer.

"In this form she is very brittle and if I shatter her she will die! Besides you better pay more attention to Mr. Game and Watch."

Mr. Game and Watch brought down a torch upon Marth who blocked with his sword and tossed Mr. Game and Watch over to Nana. The torch melted the ice. Marth rushed over to Mr. Game and Watch and hit him over the head with his sword knocking him unconscious. Marth turned to Nana and pulled her out of the remaining ice. She was still conscious. Marth constantly kept up his guard knowing that this would probably be an opportune time for Popo to attack.

"Tell me do you know why the safety was turned off in our tournament match?" Popo asked. "Just like today I intentionally turned it off."

"What!?" Both Marth and Nana shouted out surprised.

"The attack was meant for you Marth!"

"The official statement was that it was an accident that the safety got turned off!" Marth shouted. "And you are telling me that you nearly killed your sister because of this grudge that you held against me?!"

"No," Popo replied emotionlessly. "The attack was meant to sent your ego down and scare you. Not kill. Your first match was incredibly reckless and it showed that you trusted the safety."

Marth didn't know what to feel at the moment. Afraid that a fellow Smasher would try to take his life. Confused as to why Popo resented him. "A lot of questions must be rushing through your head right now." Popo laughed.

Marth stood up and sheathed his sword. "I know when an opponent isn't worth dulling my blade on." He said disgusted. "That was an accident, the official statement said it was an accident. Kai is making you say that." With that Marth turned his back to Popo and stared at the glass cube that they were incased in. With out hesitating Marth slashed the cube into two and destroyed it. All four of them fell onto the ground.

"How dare you turn your back to me!" Popo shouted, an icicle came out of his hand however Roy jumped in the way and blocked it melting it in the process.

The Melee Master rushed up to Mr. Game and Watch and healed him. He then stared at Popo. "You have to defeat him." He reminded Marth.

"He isn't worth defeating." Marth said walking away.

"Please heal him!" Nana cried. "We need to know the truth!"

"Did something happen in the cube?" The Melee Master asked.

Marth realized that they were unable to see and hear what happened inside the cube and that must have been one of the customized options.

"Yes." tears were beginning to go down Nana's face.

"Maybe a crybaby like you should of died on that day!" Popo shouted. The Melee Master just teleported behind Popo and knocked him unconscious. He then began to heal him.

"Get up!" The Melee Master ordered. Instantly Popo regained consciousness. Everyone was staring at him.

"Tell us what you said in the cube, was it the truth?" Marth asked harshly.

"No it wasn't!" Popo shouted. "Kai forced me to say it!"

"Ness." Marth sighed. "Is he telling the truth? Was the safety breaking in the second round an accident or intentional?!" Everyone let out simultaneous gasps of surprise. "Save it for the verdict." Marth sighed.

"He is telling the truth, Kai forced him to say it." Ness replied. "Besides anyone who was close to him knew that he was devastated."

"How so?" Marth asked.

"After the tournament was over and you went on your vacation, Popo suffered a mental breakdown." Nana replied. "He was clearly devastated. Ness said he nearly considered suicide! Since he was still weak Kai could easily control him. Unlike the others there wasn't a strong resistance."

Everyone was silent as they reflected on Popo's actions.

"There is just one thing left to be considered. Why would he want you to say it?" Marth asked.

"I don't know!"

"Can I interrupt?" Mario asked. "I think that he might wanted Popo to say it in order to try and break up the Smashers."

Silence went across the room. "Why would he want that?" They all wondered.

"Perhaps it has something to do with Kai's origins." Peach pointed out.

"We better continue on then." Marth muttered walking into the next room slightly depressed. "By the way Melee Master, are you happy that I didn't get scratched this match?"

The Melee Master just smiled, comforting them. However telepathically he was communicating with Marth. 'You aren't fully convinced are you?'

'There is no reason for Popo to act the way he did unless he intentionally turned off the safety.'

'You think Ness would lie for Popo's safety?'

'They are friends after all. We would need someone else to extract the truth. Is Ness reading our minds and listening into this conversation?'

'Not that I can tell. Why?'

'I think that would do more than confirm my suspicions.'

To be continued…

Uh… Popo and Mr. Game and Watch can both use ice attacks… they both have hammers? Really there was no pattern to this one… I'd like to thank personally thank the people at Nintendo for putting Mr. Game and Watch in SSBM. Thank you Mr. Game and Watch for the exploitable long name... mind you with only every instance only adding 4 words they do quickly stack up. The whole flipping thing from Mr. Game and Watch came from Super Paper Mario.

The whole glass cube things was an idea taken from the first set of Gamecube commercials... One of them (the advertisement for SSBM) had people fighting in the cube.

I wasn't able to expand this chapter to the lengths that I wanted to... (Mainly because I'm studying for an Accounting midterm that I have in 2 days... But I think I got it down... Just as long as I don't panic I should be able to pass)

On a side note… this chapter was stupid typo land for me… I somehow managed to misspell the word "Sword" Mind you I write the chapters in Wordpad as TXT files and then copy paste them into word to check for all of that stuff… It's a lot easier for me… Because the moment I see the stupid red or green lines my whole train of thought is sadly derailed. Ok that's enough shameless extending of the chapter…