Chapter 10

So 42 might have told a tiny lie. He'd spent three months in a cell. He had seen barely any of the facility; in fact he had only known the armoury was beyond the arena because he'd been dragged through before on the way to Hojo's laboratory.

In truth, 42 knew nothing about the underground lab. Hell he hadn't even known it was in Bowser's Citadel until Sonic had told him. Yet in that moment, when he and the heroes were told a 50 megaton bomb was going to go off he knew they couldn't be wasting time looking for it. The heroes needed to at least get the princess out of the castle; they could forget the king of the Koopa. Bowser would burn along with the rest of his forces still inside, but the princess? From what he knew she was innocent, pure. The heroes, Cloud, Sora, Mario, Sonic and Luigi needed to survive along with her. 42 might survive the blast, maybe. He wasn't sure how well Hojo's experiments would hold up. If he didn't that'd be fine, it scared the hell out of him but if they survived and he didn't? That would be enough, but if he did survive though? Maybe he could join up with them. ShinRa had wronged him and that wasn't going to stand. Right now though, before he could even think about the future he had to deal with the present.

The brit flew down the corridors, over stone floors and trailing wires. Passing over bodies and spilled tank fluid, he didn't even stop to open doors instead smashing through them with relative ease. No-one was going to stop him, he needed to find that bomb and fast. Breaking through back into the first room of the lab he stopped noting the corridor leading back to the stairs out of there. Instead he took off down another corridor that led out of the room, deeper into the facility to where he might find a Tsar bomb.

As he pelted down the lab corridor, SOLDIER's came the other way with swords drawn and at the ready. 42 never faulted, from his jacket he produced a pair of black leather gloves and pulled them on. The faintest smile pulled across his face as the brit collided with super soldiers and with fists flying drove them back. 42 blocked incoming strikes with his steel right arm pushed the blade away and with a single punch launched the SOLDIER into his fellow comrades. With them knocked down, he leaped over their sprawled bodies and continued on with his mission at the forefront of his mind.

Deeper in and through a set of doors he came to another laboratory, robotics. Grunt gauntlets were in pieces on the stainless steel worktops and scientists cowered as he swept in. Noticing them he stormed over with purpose in his now crimson orange cat slit eyes. "WHERE'S THE BOMB!?" he demanded.

Clearly they were too scared to answer and 42 couldn't blame them, a man in black bursting into the room during an attack? Yeah, if it was six years ago he'd be scared witless too. Yet right then he didn't have the time to piss about. 42 calmed his mind, letting the anger and urgency leave him whilst taking deep breaths. He kneeled down to their level. "Please." He urged, "I need to know where the hydrogen bomb is, if I don't de-activate it we're all dead. I know you people didn't sign up to die for ShinRa, so tell me where it is."

They all looked at each other, worry and fear written across all their faces. Eventually one of them spoke up, a woman in her mid-thirties. "T-the professor had the bomb placed two f-floors below. He didn't want p-placed down any further to…to maximise the effect of the explosion."

"How will I know where to look?" he asked, trying to get as many details as he could.

"Red doors. They should have large red doors into the bomb chamber." Another said. "They should be marked with the word 'purge'."

42 stood up, he got what he needed. "Alright, you all should leave. Get as far away as possible in case…well you know." He immediately began for the door back out but stopped before, "Thank you," he said. "Really, thank you."

He had no hatred for the scientists. It wasn't them that had order the experiments, it wasn't them that had created what he was now. 42 knew who was truly to blame and he'd save his anger, his pain, and his hatred. He'd save it all for Hojo. He made a promise to himself than when he saw the old man again. He'd put a goddamn bullet through that motherfuckers brain. Upload that to the world wide network.

Whilst he made his way further down, the other heroes had made their way back to the garden fountain. Surprisingly, there was no-one there to meet them. Cloud figured the alarm was isolated to the labs only which in retrospect didn't seem that surprising at all. Hojo's pride wouldn't allow him to get help from Koopa's soldiers. After how he had spoken about how the koopas were only really useful as test subjects, letting them deal with Hojo's problems? The old scientist would never let them in a million years. Yet despite all that, there was no way of telling if the ShinRa infantrymen above ground knew if they were there or not.

Cloud surveyed the courtyard, the guards from earlier were unconscious on the ground but no-one else was in sight. He motioned to the others to follow as they moved to the adjacent hallway, still no-one. It was a little worrying. "Where is everyone?" Cloud wondered aloud.

"Lunch break?" Sonic suggested, shrugging his shoulders.

"We should be so lucky. So, we need to move fast. There's no telling if 42 will be able to shut off that bomb." Sora said.

"You're right, but we need to have some faith in him. Mario, Luigi, which way to the throne room?" Cloud asked.

The brothers conferred with each other. "Typically, he builds it to the rear of the castle which should be this way." Mario pointed, running headfirst up the way with the rest following behind.

They followed the corridor up the castle, till it came to a grand hall. It was as large as the train station with portraits of the koopa king and his children hanging from all the worlds. Statues of Bowser dotted the room at regular intervals as well as red carpeting lining the floors, covering the black stone flagstone floor. At the back of the room was a staircase leading up to a double set of massive red doors reinforced with dark iron bars. A collection of Koopatrols and infantrymen littered the bottom of the stairs. Some patrolled, others stood guard but from what the heroes could see they were all in the business of protecting the door what looked like the throne room.

"Don't suppose there's any way of getting around them quietly is there?" Luigi asked.

"If the past few hours have shown me anything it's that, as a team, we don't do quiet." Cloud said, once more thinking over the events that had led them there.

"Don't or can't?" Sonic wondered.

"One of the two, that's for sure." Sora replied, "So, plan?"

"You heard 42; he'll be following our 'trail of destruction'. We move hard and fast. Got it?" Cloud planned.

The others nodded and prepared themselves. Two patrolling infantry men came close enough then the fireballs flew. Both infantryman were caught off guard and knocked to the ground trying to pat out the flames. Sora and Cloud charged and jumped over the flaming bodies, keyblade and fusion swords in hand. The Koopas came back in force, spinning into their shell's only to be sliced and diced. Little yellow turtles in shorts flew out of them, hitting the floor and running off in panic. More infantrymen came down from upper walkways shooting at the heroes with honed reflexes both swordsmen deflected as best they could. From behind Sonic came fast and furious, dodging bullets and up the stairs knocking down the soldiers and stealing their weapons before using the butt end of a rifle to knock them out.

The koopatrols guarding the throne room door left their post to attempt to take down the blue blur but as they came up the stairs Sonic grabbed the carpet under their feet and gave the carpet gave it a very fast pull. Both koopatrols fell backwards and dinged around inside their suits of armour as the bounced off the hard black stone floors and landed at the bottom dazed and unconscious.

Whilst that was going on, Mario and Luigi joined the battle going toe to toe with more incoming infantrymen. Before bullets could be fired Mario kicked the barrel of the rifle away as Luigi grappled with the other. Mario delivered a body blow to his opponent and they stumbled back a step and retaliated with the butt of his gun. Despite the fact it connected the plumber grabbed the gun and they tussled with Mario getting a sort of win. The rifle tumbled away from their hands and quick on the uptake the plumber gave out a swift uppercut. He went to bring his other fist around for a second blow but was blocked by the infantryman and received punch to the face.

Luigi was in enough trouble of his own. He struggled with the infantryman each of them not giving in until the soldier threw the plumber around, his back towards his brother, and lost his grip. Luigi panicked and ducked with the ShinRa soldier correcting his aim. Sora, from across the way, saw the situation and cried out, "Luigi, move!"

In an instant, Luigi fell to the side as the rifle fired. Instead of hitting Luigi the bullet travelled through the air and straight through the kneecap of the infantryman confronting Mario. He screamed in pain, dropping to one knee clutching the other in agony. With his vision clearing the red plumber took initiative, his foot flew through the air and socked the soldier straight in the face and sent him sprawling. With his partner down, the second soldier quickly took aim once more but this time he was grabbed from behind by green clad arms. "Mario!" Luigi yelled, "Now brother!"

Mario didn't need to be told twice, in quick succession Mario assaulted the infantryman with a series of straight punches and hooks before finishing with a firey uppercut that sent the soldier, and Luigi, flying onto their backs. The soldier wasn't getting up anytime soon, but Luigi seemed fine if a little winded. The green brother rolled the unconscious clone off of him and accepted his brother's hand in getting up. "Nice save, Luigi." Mario complimented.

His brother, being ever modest, wiped his nose with a single finger. "Well you know Mario. Who else is gonna save your butt?" Mario smiled warmly at his brother.

"Come on, there's still a princess to save." Mario patted Luigi's shoulder.

With the guards at the door entrance taken care, and more most likely on the way, the heroes gathered before the throne room door. "Okay before we go in, what do we need to know?" Cloud asked the brothers.

"Well he's a giant koopa with a spiked shell." Mario said.

"Like the monster in the laboratory? We got this." Sonic confidently crossed his arms.

"And he breathes fire." Luigi finished.

"Oh. That's different." Sonic reinstated, shoulders drooping.

Cloud took out his materia pouch. "Plus we don't have 42 to tear off his shell. This is nothing like the laboratory, but if it's fire then we'll just have to fight fire with fire." He held up the green crystal.

"I've got some fire magic too, plus ice if we need it. Should be a cinch right?" Sora smiled.

"Not how I've ever thought of it, but sure. Let's make turtle soup!" Mario punched the air and began to push open the giant red door.

Below them, still in the labs, 42 had pounded his way down to the lower levels. Nothing but more SOLDIER's. These guys were annoying that was sure, they were talented fighters but compared to the monsters he'd killed in the arena, ShinRa really should've saved them for something else. Didn't they realise he was trying to stop a bomb? Sure he was killing too, but that was only because they were stopping him from stopping something else that'd kill them. That made sense right? Probably not, but there was a lot at stake here.

It was funny really now when he thought about it. 42 had spent his childhood, and the majority of his adulthood, playing video games. He'd seen the heroes; Cloud, Sora, Sonic and Mario fight a vast array of various monsters, robots and other strange creatures but now here they were in front of him fighting alongside each other. It was strange and almost jaw dropping the first moment he'd seen them, but he wasn't going to play the fool, the 'Oh my gosh you guys are real?!' guy. There was a job to be done and revenge to be gotten and if it was the last thing he'd do, he would finish the job and get his revenge. It was strange enough to him to begin with when he'd first seen the ShinRa emblem for the first time painted on the wall of the laboratory. Stranger still when he'd come face to face with Professor Hojo for the first time.

Stripped of his suit, his weapons, and freedom he'd listened as the old doctor had droned on about the list of experiments he'd be performing. It probably should've been terrifying but that old bugger made it boring as hell. 42 had simply rolled his eyes, muttered some kind of sarcastic curse and fell asleep on the bed in his cell. At first it simply seemed like a bad dream, it couldn't have been real. Hojo was a fictional character in a video game no less and 42 was tired of mad scientists. He'd already spent the four years of his twenties dealing with one and now here was another one? Fuck off.

After a while though, the idea that this was a dream faded. As time wore on he realised that Hojo was real, that ShinRa was real though he didn't know how they were still operating. To 42's knowledge the head of science was long dead, both in body and mind, so how was it possible he was here? More to the point how was ShinRa here? Hadn't someone dropped a meteor on their headquarters? Hadn't their influence been scattered and their name cursed in disdain? 42 had wondered if he would ever find out. That was at least until Sonic had walked into his life.

Before the hedgehog had arrived however, 42 had undergone all of Hojo's twisted little experiments. A little advanced healing here, a little super-human strength there and all very painful experiences. Apparently no-one had never told Hojo the joys of putting someone under for an operation. He was happy when he blacked out mid surgery though, although trying to figure out what had changed before he would be thrown into the arena proved to be a challenge. Then there was the arena itself. 42 had pretty much faced every beast on Gaia in that room and ripped them apart like some kind of superhuman gladiator. Once 42 had done his very best Russell Crowe and yelled "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!" at Hojo in the observation room.

That was when he learned Hojo either had no sense of humour or no idea who Russell Crowe was. 42 figured it was both, but didn't dare test his Javert in case Hojo didn't appreciate musicals either which was probably for the best since he was a horrible singer.

Then a blue hedgehog came into his cell one day and everything became clear as summers cloudless sky. A machine designed to revive the dead and the former president recruiting dead villains into his syndicate? Sounded like the beginning of a really bad fan fiction, yet despite that in that moment with everything explained, he knew then what Hojo had planned for him, to become a super soldier for ShinRa's army. He had become someone else's soldier once before, used like a puppet against an opposing force but if what Sonic said was true, 42 would break out of his cell and if the heroes let him, he would join them in their quest or mission or whatever to stop ShinRa.

Now here he was an unstoppable force, rifle in one hand and other fist clenched bearing down on what remained of the SOLDIER forces. Bullets ripped through cloth and flesh whilst some pinged off steel longswords. The gun only took down a couple of the ShinRa but what bullets wouldn't kill, he himself would. Steel fist turned helmets to scrap and faces to mush. "Clones," 42 thought, "If they're just clones, they're no better than the cyborgs in London."

Killing was pretty much second nature to 42 at this point, as grim as that seemed. Any enemy that had stood before him was dead, only one man had been eager enough for round two. That man was dead now, a bullet through the forehead had seen to that. At the time, 42 hadn't thought twice about doing it, at the time it was second nature as much as it was now.

It made him think though, was Mario killing? Was Sonic? Was Sora? 42 knew it might be hard for Sonic and Mario, but Sora was an odd case. From the brit's perspective Sora had taken lives many times before, but did the kid see it that way? He'd have to ask later, if there was a later, and see what the response would be. 42 didn't need to wonder about Cloud. If he knew anything about Cloud, he would have no problems ending these clones. He may not like it, but he'd do the deed either way.

With all these thoughts going through his mind, 42 eventually came to the door he had been seeking. Apparently the way down had been so boring and the fights, bloodbaths really, had been so uneventful that he was able to switch off his brain and think about other things. Was that bad? Maybe.

Here he was though, steel doors painted red with the word 'Purge' printed in bold sans serif lettering. If nothing, ShinRa was direct. With little time to waste, he summoned what strength he could and tore open the door. The koopa monster above had drained a good amount of his energy; the small fights with SOLDIER on his way down hadn't helped either. Through the doorway was a cylindrical room with a stainless steel column at the centre. It was a plain room, no distinguishing features other than the column. The floors and walls were still stone brick whilst wires hung from the ceiling, covering it in a network of grey cables. A compute monitor was embedded into the base of the column with a simple QWERTY keyboard jutting from the pillar. "This is far too easy…" 42 spoke aloud as he briskly walked over to the keyboard, shouldering his rifle, and began to input commands trying to find the abort command or something to stop the damned bomb.

On the monitor was a countdown, less than five minutes remained, and 42 couldn't waste a single moment. Yet as he worked, he could hear faint tapping noises, metal on stone. 42 stopped his hands and looked around. There was nothing he could see, but he knew he heard something; something other than SOLDIER. If it was them, he'd hear their jackboots on the floor stomping his way but this was different. It was a distinct tapping that boots didn't make on stone.

42 decided he was just being paranoid and returned to the keyboard. Figures, he gets to where he needs to be and finally his mind starts acting up. Of all the times to do it too, stress was finally getting to him.

Tap, Tap, Tap

There it was again, that tapping noise. 42 ignored it further though, the bomb was his current priority and that timer was counting down at a rapid rate. 2 minutes. So further he went, through window after window, line after line of code, trying to find the all-important abort command.

Tap, Tap, Tap

"I'm ignoring you…" 42 said aloud to whatever was making the noise.

Finally, lo and behold, there it was in neat script on the monitor.

Purge Deactivation -ShinRa Executive Password Required-

Shit.

Tap, Tap, Tap

42 scratched the back of his head. Well it wasn't like he didn't expect it. After spending enough time with Hojo, he knew the old scientist's ID from his ID card that hung off his lab coat. That was the easy part, but the password was really stumped him. 1 minute. Systems like this only had a set number of tries before the computer would lock the user out until Tech Support reset the password too. So he had to be careful, but what was the password?

Specimen *FAIL*

Okay, so Hojo's favourite word didn't do it. What else was there that Hojo would use as a password? What other part of his life might he have used? Maybe his son? Hojo had seemed vaguely proud of his creation so maybe…

Sephiroth *FAIL*

The brit had hoped that maybe, there was some kind of sentimentality embedded in Hojo that maybe he would've made his son's name as his password but nope. There was only seconds left and 42 had to be quick. "Okay then," he thought, "If not the son then what about…"

Lucrecia *PASSWORD ACCEPTED - BOMB DEACTIVATED*

42 checked the countdown, only 3 seconds had remained. He laughed a manic, relived laugh. "Oh Hojo, you are sentimental aren't you, you old bastard." He breathed.

TAP, TAP, TAP

That was quite loud now, as if was right behind…

42 dodged left quickly as rapid fire plasma blasts pulverised stainless steel column. He rolled and as he came up, he slung the infantryman rifle from his shoulder and into his hands ready. What had taken the shot at was dressed in a form fitting blue jumpsuit with exaggerated limbs, Shoulders as big as giant basketballs and arms as thin as a man who'd never seen a pair of weights in his life. Yet at the end of those arms were steel clawed gauntlet. They seemed heavy as anything yet whatever this was, certainly not human anymore, had no problem keeping them up. Its face was obscured in a steel mask with but a red visor.

It was clear to 42 what these were, grunt's, two of them in fact, ShinRa's bio-engineered infantrymen. Not as strong as SOLDIER but designed to handle situations not tough enough for them and too tough for Infantrymen. 42 hadn't actually faced one of these before, but given he'd torn his way SOLDIER on his way to the bomb room he wasn't worried, although those plasma weapons might be a hindrance.

Before they could get another round of plasma blasts in, 42 opened fire on the grunt's who in turn jumped and dodged their way past the incoming hail of lead. They closed the space on 42 and attempted to slash and claw their way through his body, in return the man countered by using his rifle as a makeshift guard. This proved useless as the gun was torn up by the multiple attacks from the two incoming enemies.

The brit flipped the gun around and swung it like a bat into the head of one of the Grunt's and brought it back around for the other. It broke off on the seconds steel plated head so 42 threw the remainder away and bright up his fists. Again they charged, slashing and clawing once more and 42 tried his best to stay out of the way of incoming attacks, even going so far as to block the claws with his own fists. 42 slipped past one and brought his right leg up to kick the other in the chest, it knocked it back onto the floor. He then tried to switch feet and high kick the other but his leg was blocked by the gauntlet.

Just as he willed himself backwards to fall, a storm of plasma managed to tear up his face as he fell. 42 hit the ground with a thud screaming as he clawed at his own face until he found the strength to pick himself up. It was agony as felt his skin bubble, corrode and burn. It almost looked the inside of a grilled cheese sandwich except didn't smell as nice. It was even more pain as the skin reformed and healed itself. Burned flesh un-charred, malformed skin reformed and crispy eyeballs softened. In a matter of moments his face was normal again.

"That was rude." He said rubbing his face, an angered scowl crossing his features.

42 clenched his left fist. The effect of the sedative in his former gauntlets was wearing off more and more. Then he clenched his right and from under his sleeve and a steel blade shot forth. The grunt's seemed un-phased. He noticed the other one picking itself up from the stone floor and tried to gauge distance, he sucked at that. He wasn't a very good judge of distance and instead waiting to see what would happen if he stuck around he charged.

Grunt the first was on the ball, firing with a barrage of plasma bullets, and 42 pushed himself through and an instant zipped from one place to another. This confused the grunt long enough for the brit to close the distance between them and plunged the blade deep into the grunts abdomen. Using his strength, 42 pushed the blade deeper and pushed the grunt backwards with him. With force he threw the grunt away and watched as it clanged to the ground.

He was about to turn his attention to the second grunt when it came up from behind in some vague attempt to restrain him. It held back his arms and tried to worm its right arm up to 42's face. Clearly it hadn't seen his face reform itself earlier and he wasn't too eager to demonstrate that again. So as the metal gauntlet was coming around, 42 rammed his elbow as hard as he could into the ribs of the blue suited soldier and the hold loosed enough for the man to break free. He wheeled around as soon as he could and returned with a full force steel fist. The grunt was sent flying out of the bomb room doors and into the wall outside. He was embedded with a very loud smashing sound and remained unmoving.

42 wasn't about to wait for the other one to get up nor was he about to wait for re-enforcements. Instead he smashed the monitor and tore out a few key components of the computer and left the room. Now that the bomb had been deactivated he had to back up to the surface where was certain his help might be needed.

Bowser had an impressive throne room to say the least. It was massive, roughly the width of two football pitches and the length of three. Stained glass windows depicting the koopa king ran the length of the room at even intervals and the same with black stone pillars which supported the roof which was about five storeys above them. A long red carpet led the heroes up the hall towards the rear where the biggest stain glass window stretched from the nearly the top of the room to the floor with Bowser's insignia painted in black and red across it and in front, a black marble throne. It was polished to a perfect shine and in the seat itself was the koopa feared above all others. King Bowser Koopa, the tyrannical turtle.

He sat with his head propped on one hand whilst his other drummed on the marble throne. Quite clearly he was unhappy. Dozens upon dozens of his minions littered the throne room floor, it was fairly apparent someone had, had a temper tantrum. Beside the throne, hanging in the air was a cage and sitting inside the cage was a beautiful young woman with striking blonde flowing fair in an elegant pink dress. A golden crown topped her hair and a brilliant cerulean gem adorned the front of her dress. Upon noticing the red and green plumbers she jumped for joy or would have if she had the space so instead she cried out their names. "Mario, Luigi!" she yelled elatedly.

Both brothers beamed, but their moment of happiness was soon taken by the thundering sound of the king. His drumming hand had slammed down onto the marble thrown, slightly cracking it, and he roared at them. "YOU! YOU'VE RUINED MY CASTLE! AGAIN!" the voice reverberated all over the throne room. Luigi began to shake, but stopped when Mario nudged him.

The heroes were confused though, what was he talking about? They hadn't done anything to his castle. They may have caused more trouble in the lower levels but they hadn't done anything topside. Mario, having the most experience with Bowser stepped forward. "We didn't do anything this time, Bowser." He said, summoning all of his courage. Despite having faced him so many times, actually stepping up to the koopa king required a hell of a lot of bravery.

"THEN WHY IS MY CASTLE CRUMBLING?!"

An explosion shook the room, distant but there. Dust floated down from the ceiling rubble following not too far behind. "WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?!" Bowser asked again, his patience fading fast.

"Why don't you ask your friends at ShinRa?" Mario suggested, "They're the ones who planted a massive bomb to wipe out your castle, and you, off the map entirely. These must be plan B for them."

Bowser crossed his arms, "And why would they do that? We have a deal, an agreement, a syndicate. They wouldn't dare cross me."

"What use are you to them now? We took out their laboratory underneath the castle; Hojo has fled and taken his research with him presumably. What else can you give them?" Mario gestured to emphasise the question.

The king of the koopas sat back in his throne thinking, a low grumble escaping his lips. "Fine then," he said, finally standing up. "So President ShinRa has abandoned me and our deal, but you're the ones who caused all this. I'll smash and char you all, and then I'll get my payback on that fat slimeball. No-one betrays King Bowser Koopa and gets away with it! NO-ONE!" as he roared fire spewed from his mouth, setting fire to the carpet.

Bowser then began into a run and spun up into his shell and began skidding down the throne room as speed, the heroes barely had time to jump out of the way before his smashed through the throne room doors behind him and out into the hall. Sora, Cloud and Sonic had gone right while the brothers Mario fell left. Not wanting to wait for the next attack Cloud cried "Fall back up the throne room." And they began to run, Sonic staying at this teammates speed.

"Okay Mario, action plan time, how do we stop this overgrown turtle?" Cloud asked.

"We need to throw him through that giant window at the back!" Mario cried, "This is the very back of the castle beyond that should be the lava lake that surrounds the castle."

"Sounds kinda brutal for you, Mario." Sora laughed, "So how do we throw him?"

"Well he's big so we need to tire him out first." Luigi said.

"Once Bowser's tuckered out enough I can grab his tail and launch him." Mario finished.

From behind, Bowser bounded back into the room snarling. Flames danced out his nostrils. Cloud wasn't sure how Mario was going to throw the koopa but he couldn't really argue at that moment, instead he decided to trust him. "So we just survive sounds good to me. Let's go!"

At once the heroes split apart, spreading to all corners of the room as the koopa king came once more, teeth bared and spewing fire. When he roared huge licks of flame tore through the hall. Cloud, who had ducked out left along with Sora and Luigi just barely made it to cover behind a pillar along with Sora, meanwhile Luigi was fighting Bowser's intense flame with his own green fire. The guy could hold his own but even under the pressure of the heat; Luigi looked like he was putting up one hell of a fight, and quite possibly loosing.

With fire materia in hand, Cloud looked at Sora, letting off a few small sparks to gain an understanding. The teen nodded and together they jumped out behind the green plumber and added their fire magic to Luigi's own flames. For a moment they held their own against Bowser's flames, then he turned up the intensity and even the combined strength of all three of them became too much.

Mario and Sonic came around from the other side of the room. Sonic spin dashed through the air and smashed into Bowser's great maw and knocked it away from their companions. Mario grabbed Bowser's tail and yanked. The great koopa then felt himself move without his own will and felt himself flying through the air, smashing through one of the black stone columns and tumbling across red carpet. Bowser slammed down his fist on the ground, "That old cheap move, plumber?" he growled. "I thought you'd have come up with some new gimmick to beat me, you usually do."

The red plumber cracked his knuckles, "What can I say? I like the classics."

From above, the princess clapped giddily, cheering Mario and Luigi's names.

Bowser's growl became deeper and louder. "You've humiliated me for the last time, plumber. You and your friends are gonna burn!" he roared.

"Can't even begin to tell how much we've heard that before." Luigi muttered.

The king of the koopas dragged himself up and gritted his teeth whilst flames licked through them. Bowser readied himself as did Mario, and they charged toward each other. A mass of muscle, sharp teeth and fire against a plumber. Thunderous steps beat down whilst tapping came from the other, and just before they clashed, Mario slid through the Bowser's legs and grabbed his tail once more. This time Mario spun him around, and around, and around. "NOT. THIS. AGAIN." Bowser cried with each revolution. When he was sure, Mario let the giant turtle-dragon hybrid go and he shot through throne and out of the stain glass window. Marble crumbled and glass shattered as Bowser tumbled through and into the darkness of beyond. His screams could be heard as hit the lava and as he sunk deeper into the red-hot magma.

"SO LONG BOWSER!" Mario shouted.

Cloud and Sora jogged up to a winch, and began to lower it. As they did the princess' cage slowly lowered. When it reached the ground the teen opened cages lock and released the trapped toadstool princess. "Thank you, so much. All of you." She said, gesturing to all the heroes.

"Happy to do it, princess. Even better, we're all still here." Sonic said, hands on his hips.

Luigi wiped his brow with his cap, "I guess that 42 guy did it then since we're not all blown to smitheroons?"

"Where is that guy anyway?" Sora wondered, looking around.

In the distance, the faint tapping of shoes on stone could be heard pounding up the stairs outside and through the doors entered a man in a black suit with a grey trench coat. 42 jogged up the way to meet his new comrades. "One nuke disabled, and you guys fucked this room up!" he announced looking around at the carnage around them. "You throw him out the window? Dare I ask what's even out there?"

"Lava moat." Cloud replied.

"You threw him into the lava? Bloody hell, you guys are brutal when you want to be, I love it."

Mario took the princess' hand, "Shall we leaving now?" he asked.

"Yes, I'd very much like that. I don't want to be here a second longer." Peach said, beginning to walk down the room with the red plumber.

Before they got any further the throne room shook again and chunks of stone began to crumble and fall from above. The explosions became much louder and seemed much more devastating than before. Cracks started to splinter through the floor, walls and ceiling. "We gotta move!" Cloud yelled. "Sonic, take the princess and run. We'll be right behind you."

Sonic hesitated for a moment, but nevertheless took the princess up in his arms and disappeared off down the hall and out the double doors. The rest started off down the room and just as they made to the door and massive spine chilling roar reached them from the broken window. A massive clawed hand, thinner and weathered reached up and pulled in a monstrous beast. More muscled than before, his spikes a lot sharper and horns bigger and more menacing. The monster was also a lot bigger than before he fell into the lava. With little effort he swiped the partially broken throne aside and each step shook the room even more than the explosions. "PLUMBERS, HEROES, YOU'RE ALL DEAD, DEAD, DEEEEEEEEEAD!" it cried, its roar deeper, and much more horrific.

"Is…is that Bowser?!" Cloud asked.

"What happened to you?" Mario asked, genuinely worried.

"A FINAL GIFT FROM HOJO. THE POWER TO CRUSH YOU MEDDELERS AND EVERYONE YOU EVER CARED FOR INTO THE DUST!" Bowser spoke, and when he did it was that same monstrous roaring sound.

"We can't take him here, not when ShinRa's bombing the place." 42 urged, as the castle shook once more.

At this point pillars began to crumble and ceiling began to collapse due to the lack of support. Part of the rubble fell on Bowser who became mildly annoyed by it. The heroes wasted no time in running whilst their now, mutated adversary was distracted. They leaped down the stairs and whisked themselves down the corridors of the castle.

It was clear from the absence of any kind of ShinRa presence they had seen fit to evacuate before commencing their purge of Bowser. There was not a SOLDIER or infantryman to be seen and even Bowser's own forces had seemingly run away. The hallways and passages were completely clear as rubble and debris lay on the floors instead. All the heroes had a time trying to dodge falling stone with Cloud and 42 smashing their way through the larger pieces.

Yet behind them, roaring and raging his way through with ease, Bowser charged with no problems, screaming bloody murder as he did so. He had his sights set on his targets and would not be stopped until he killed them.

When they eventually reached the foyer of the castle much of the entrance hall had been destroyed. Great big pieces of rock and stone lay in their way, much to their dismay, it also blocked the entrance. 42 set about destroying it, whilst the others prepared to hold off their transformed enemy. They held their ground and unleashed all the magic they could when he crashed into the room. Fire spells, ice, thunder. Everything they had was launched at the monstrous Bowser.

"RAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Bowser cried, as the magic genuinely seemed to work, until the koopa king powered through and sliced through them. Luigi was knocked sideways, Sora backwards, Mario was sent flying and Cloud was smashed into 42.

42 hit the stone he had been punching away and pushed off when Cloud had apologised and moved. He turned to face Bowser, adjusted his tie, cracked his neck and politely uttered. "Okay, fuck this guy."

Cloud took over 42's job and breaking through stone as the brit charged towards the larger enemy. Metal arm raised, he went to straight punch the mutated king and their fists collided sending a shockwave through the room. They retracted and Bowser spun around to use his new, overly spiked, tail as a weapon. 42 ducked as it came overhead in an instant, appeared in front of Bowser is he came back to his starting position. The brit then started to whale on Bowser's exposed belly with quick jabs and powerful punches. Bowser's eye twitched and brought a clawed hand around to swat the man away. 42 back flipped away before he could get hit, "You ruin this suit, you big bastard, and I'm turning your arse into a pair of shoes with a matching handbag!" he roared.

Bowser took a deep breath but with quick reactions, 42 grabbed Cloud and pulled him away as even more powerful fire blast shot forth from the mutated maw and destroyed the rubble and doors blocking the heroes escape from the castle. Mario and Luigi sprinted outwards with Sora in tow, whilst the brit and the older swordsman dashed out behind them. Sonic and Princess Peach eagerly waited at the opposite end of the bridge that crossed the lava moat beneath. The plumbers and the teen reached them safely and turned back with fire magic ready, as the two other mean continued their run meanwhile behind them the mutated Bowser smashed through the stone visage of himself that adorned the entrance of the castle. It crumbled to rubble as his new, menacing, roar cut through the now gloomy mid-morning daylight.

Beneath Cloud and 42's feet the bridge began to crack under their feet as the pillars holding it up were bombarded from above by a ShinRa vessel. Behind, Bowser charged after them, spewing fire balls through the air and just barely missing them, singing hair perhaps thankfully no direct hits. Yet just as both men reached safety one of the fireballs struck the ground at their feet and sent them flying through the air. 42 recovered but found Cloud struggling, he dragged up the swordsman to his feet and urged him on, "Come on," the brit said, "Your name's not Jessie now is it?"

The monster was closing in behind them fast, getting closer and closer whilst they were almost to solid ground. Under them, the bridge was just beginning to wobble and give way. In a moment of, perhaps poor judgement, 42 muttered the words, "Screw this." And threw Cloud to safety. The swordsman hit the ground just beyond the bridge and rolled away and cried at his teammates, "Cover 42!"

Fireballs flew from the brothers and the teen, as well as Cloud who had switched out to his fire own fire magic. The barrage of magical energy slowed the mutated Bowser and gave 42 enough time to get to the other heroes but just before he did so he turned around, raised his left fist and smashed into the bridge as hard as he could and destabilised it. The strength behind the punch as well as the already uneasy structure caused the bridge to fall away in a kind of domino effect. The koopa king knew no fear though, or maybe he was just too stupid to know when to quit, as he braved the collapsing bridge and leaped through the air to reach his prey.

Both Mario Brothers caught on quickly and using their combined strength summoned a massive fire ball that seemed to suck in all the heat from around them, when it was ready they let loose ball of red and green fire blast and watched as it shot through the air and consume Bowser. The combined efforts of the brothers sent Bowser flying back and down into the pit below. The koopa king screamed, and yelled, cried in vengeance and pain. The lava burned away skin and flayed flesh. Hair caught alight and exposed bone charred as it sank deep into the moat.

King Bowser Koopa died, once more in a pool of lava and once more at the hands of the plumbers who had caused him so much pain over the years.

One member of the ShinRa Syndicate down, three to go.

There you have it, death of a koopa and in even better news, I've finally finished my college course. Not only that I've finished college entirely, I am free from the shackles of education to wonder the world and try and find a job. Shit.

Upside is, more time to work on this and other personal projects I guess.