Author's note: Years have passed since I worked on this story. To this day I cringe at the the fact that I wrote this, and its feedback because I am spineless and unable to take criticism. After years of silence, I don't expect anyone to care about this story anymore, but I feel posting these unfinished chapters may bring peace and closure, give an idea to where this story may have went if I didn't give up on writing.
-Nightmare Realm
Meta Knight stoically marched out of a portal of blinding light. He was almost surprised upon seeing the dreamworld and how corrupted it has become.
'Looks like the web has advanced far more than what I have expected.' Meta Knight thought to himself.
"Whoah! Coming through!" Yoshi mumbled as he came stumbling out of the portal and landed on his big, round nose.
"Why you gotta so pushy?" Yoshi said irritated towards the portal.
"Well it's not my fault you were in the way!" A female voice bickered out of the portal, somewhat surprising Yoshi when he figured out that the voice belonged to Jigglypuff, who just jumped out of the portal with puffed cheeks and an angry expression. Yoshi stood there somewhat dumbstruck for a few seconds.
"Why is he looking at me like that?" Jigglypuff asked, unsettled by Yoshi's stupefied expression, oblivious to the fact that she is speaking English.
"I can fully understand what you are saying now!" Yoshi exclaimed.
"I'm not speaking any different, am I?" The Balloon Pokemon asked confused.
"Well... most of the time you are all like JIGGLY JIGGLY JIGGLY!" Yoshi widened his eyes to Jigglypuff proportions and waved his arms mockingly.
"They understand me... THEY UNDERSTAND ME!" Jigglypuff squealed in joy at her realization. Moments later, her face stood dumbstruck and quickly changed to an angered expression after another realization.
Jigglypuff suddenly tackled Yoshi to the ground and began to hold him by the throat with one of her little nubs and pummeled his face with another.
"Stop..! Falling..! Asleep..! Every..! Time..! I..! Sing..! THAT'S..! JUST..! RUDE..!" Jigglypuff spoke everytime she punched the dinosaur's face with pink fury. Meta Knight broke up the brawl (or slaughter, rather...) by standing between the two Smashers.
"You can save your anger for the possible threats we might encounter, or you can go back into the portal and leave this mission at once!" Meta Knight sternly scolded, Galaxia withdrawn in his hand. The intimidated Smashers stood up firmly looking ashamed.
"We're sorry sir! Forgive us sir!" Both of them bowed apologetically.
Meanwhile, ROB and Link who emerged from the portal not too long ago, stood watching the scene that happened before them.
"Unidentified terrain..." ROB droned monotonously, it was basically his way of asking Meta Knight where they are and what this place is.
"This is the dwelling of the inceptor, a nightmare realm."
The portal stood on top of a floating platform made of a dark-turquoise rock material. the world around them had an unsettling blue fog shrouding the horizon. In front of the portal was a bridge constructed by a black, sludge-like material. The bridge's texture looked like a sticky substance, but was actually hardened like cement.
They crew proceeded to walk through the bridge. The bridge has proven to be of great length when the platform to the portal behind them was consumed by the dark-blue fog and no longer visible.
From the fog ahead of them emerged a gargantuan object. It had the spherical shape of a planetoid, the surface was mostly black from the nightmare matter that it was made of. Upon closer inspection, the outer surface had objects stuck onto the black, hardened goo. The head and neck of a giant, six-eyed dragon stood in place with it's gaping maw as the black substance grew over it's body in clusters of black bulging warts and spikes. On another side, there were the recognizable remains of the mighty Great Fox, the ship's hull was overrun with the same black growths and it's frontal cannons were leaking with the foul goo.
The crew was heavily unsettled by the grotesque cluster of black mass. The wind gave a ghostly bellow as it flowed past them.
"I suppose we have to go into the scary black planet of death to save the others?" Yoshi asked, reluctant to enter the tunnel into the planetoid's core. Meta Knight nodded, causing the dinosaur to sigh.
The crew descended into the tunnel, the light behind them became less visible. The wind gave a spectral bellow the deeper they ventured into the hive. At the end of the tunnel was a light, upon reaching it, they stood above a bridge made of black nightmare matter that went across a vast ravine. The crevice was lit by the light of the surface above. To their left was a pegasus wrapped with nightmare matter, like a fly trapped in a spider's web. The creature's face was overrun and distorted by the black substance, it's lifeless eyes gave an unsettling glow of cyan. It's chest seemed to be gouged open, there were a multitude of tentacle structures which resembled spider legs which twitched erratically from it's exposed rib cage.
Link watched in horror at the unending suffering of the poor pegasus, reminded of his dear mount Epona. Whoever this inceptor was needed to be stopped.
"We must move forward." Meta Knight spoke, startlling Link when he realized he was being left behind since the crew were already on the other side of the bridge.
It was dark again, the crew were at their edge, feeling that some malformed abomination could appear from the darkness at any moment.
"Eek!" A voice squeaked behind them followed by a thud. The crew instantly turned around in a defensive stance.
"ROB, flashlight." Meta Knight commanded. The robot did as instructed.
The light revealed a brown, silver haired woman. She wore silver armor plating and her tunic varied from purple and pink. She looked up innocently at the crew staring back at her.
"I'm sorry, I-I-I didn't mean to scare you like that!" She pleaded, with her arms behind her back nervously.
"Who are you!" The spherical swordsman interrogated the projection, pointing Galaxia's sharp end towards her.
"Sumia, m-my name is Sumia!" She stuttered, disoriented by the knight's natural intimidating glare.
"I'm Yoshi! And this is Jigglypuff, Link, and Meta Knight!" Yoshi introduced himself along with the crew. Sumia gently stroke her hand to pet Yoshi at the back of his head, normally Yoshi would enjoy that, but he had no idea why her touch gave him nasty chills.
"Pardon me, but I couldn't help it. You are just too cute!" Sumia smiled, leaving a flattered and embarrassed Yoshi.
"I am ROB Unit #002, successor and carrier of memories of the Ancient Minister, Unit #001 (RETIRED)." ROB said, as he was programmed to introduce himself if his allies were to greet an unknown party who have not been registered to his database.
"Pleasure to meet all of you! I figured you were going somewhere specifically, so I am more than happy to guide you around this place." Sumia said happily. The crew followed her lead into a dark cave-like tunnel that seemed to not be there before as it was near the ravine that they came from.
"No." Meta Knight growled, refusing to follow. The group stopped confused to why their team leader would refuse such convenient assistance.
"Come on Meta Knight! It's nice to have someone in here willing to help us in such a scary place!" Jigglypuff protested.
"Please have trust in me sir, I just want to help." Sumia pleaded with a sad tone.
"We can't trust her, she is not real, she is just a projection." Meta Knight said harshly. Sumia gasped, hurt by his words.
"Oh pegasus poop! I just can't do anything right can I? I try so hard to help and please everyone b-b-but... Am I so incompetent that I can't get a whole group of people to trust me!?" Sumia began sobbing, instantly getting the sympathy of the other Smashers when Link allowed her to cry in his shoulder, ignoring a strange feeling when she touched him. Meta Knight glared unaffected by her emotional breakdown.
"How dishonorable..." Link said subtly.
"What's your problem!? Does anything get through that mask of yours and into your head?!" Jigglypuff snapped, the others looked at him in the same antagonizing manner.
"You might not think she is real, but her feelings are more real than yours could ever be!" Yoshi barked.
Without another word, the crew entered the dark tunnel with Sumia. Meta Knight stayed behind, he looked down to question his choices. The projection seemed so sincere but..
How and why does she know her way around this nightmare realm?
The crew followed the lit path of ROB's flashlight vision, it looked like exploring down a ghostly cavern infested by black spider webs. At the end of the tunnel, they ran into a large chamber with a circular floor that led to multiple narrow passages.
"Sumia, do you remember which way it is?" Yoshi asked the young knight.
"Sure, I uuhh... It's umm.. this way? No wait... How can I be so forgetful!?" Sumia scolded herself.
"Don't be too harsh on yourself..." Link patted her back.
"You're right Link! We can split up and find the real exit like a real team!" Sumia said with newfound confidence.
"Shame Meta Knight is missing out though." Yoshi said.
Each Smasher went into a pathway, Sumia hesitated on entering a tunnel once everyone else were deep enough that they were beyond each other's line of sight.
"Yes... shame indeed, but don't worry. I'll make him catch up, very soon." Sumia whispered ominously.
THE DREAM ENDS HERE