Hey guys I'm back, amazingly, as Aero gets things sorted. Things in my life decided to throw me for a loop, I've been about half of the last two weeks in hospital with a collapsed lung, and I have to try and get my uni exams and assignments sorted out after missing all that uni. Sorry for the delay but I hope you guys enjoy what comes next.
Chapter 20
The First Move
The hands had decided that even with Cybuu bearing down on the mansion the tournament would continue, it would give the smashers a chance to hone their fighting skills. Crazy Hand was expressing his doubts to Master Hand.
"Are you sure that they are going to be enough? I mean they struggled against Tabuu when he invaded, and some of them hadn't beaten Cybuu in Boss Battles before it closed. He is the strongest opponent they have ever had to face, what if they aren't enough?" Although he couldn't keep still while he was talking the steadiness of his voice unnerved Master Hand, Crazy Hand had never spoken like that, flat and even. It was this more than anything that scared Master Hand.
"I don't know, but we had best be prepared if they are not." Master Hand turned to watch the Tournament battle between Gold and King Dedede. "I don't know what will happen if we aren't enough though," he muttered as the match began.
In the Battledome...
Gold released his Bayleef and waited for his battle against Dedede to begin. It was the first battle of the second round and Gold was determined to win it. Despite the circumstances surrounding the mansion the tournament was still going. The rules for the second round were a little different, this time it would be three lives for each match and most of them would be one-on-one. Their battle would be taking place on the Rock Field, a large flat arena strewn with boulders to block projectile attacks.
The announcer shouted "GO" and the battle began. Bayleef immediately leapt into the air and launched an Energy Ball at Dedede who blocked it by throwing a Waddle Dee; Bayleef's attack exploded, sending the minion flying away. Bayleef continued applying pressure by launching a series of Razor Leaf attacks; the penguin was forced to retreat back towards the barrier under the relentless assault.
Dedede's retreat allowed him to recover a Laser Sword: a stronger, more defensive form of the Beam Sword. Twirling it in a defensive pattern the leaves were shredded and the Penguin King attacked.
Dedede threw a Gordo, forcing the dinosaur to dodge, straight into a follow up Waddle Doo. Pressing his advantage Dedede proceeded to bring the battle back towards the centre of the map. Bayleef launched a Vine Whip attack to try and slow Dedede's momentum; the attack was cut to ribbons by the Laser Sword. Bayleef failed to dodge the sword swipe.
Gold, watching from his vantage point gritted his teeth as Bayleef lost the advantage and ended up on the defensive. Choosing his moment carefully, Gold recalled his Bayleef, choosing to change to Cyndaquil for his speed to try and regain the advantage.
When the fire mouse came into play the battle changed once again. Dedede, despite swinging the sword for all his might couldn't hit the small, fast fire mouse. Cyndaquil launched an Ember attack, sending several daggers of flame into Dedede's belly, knocking him back and leaving him open for a Flame Wheel, sending the penguin flying into a large boulder.
Pressing his new advantage Gold ordered Cyndaquil to use his Element Harnesser to add the power of wind to his already potent firepower for a super powerful Flare Blitz attack. Dedede struggled to his feet only to find a monstrous fireball screaming towards him. The penguin squawked as Cyndaquil closed in, knocking him out of the ring and down a life.
In the mansion's ventilation system…
Snake, wearing a cowboy outfit was sneaking silently through the vents of the mansion, disabling several booby traps as he went along. Reaching an intersection he glanced at a screen on his wrist. The screen was covered in graphs and figures but he obviously understood it because he turned down the left hand passage without hesitating. Snake was following the strongest signal of power on his screen and it was leading him to the Battledome. Looking out a grill in his current shaft he saw into the kitchens. He placed a tiny beacon there as he passed by.
Reaching the lower levels of the Battledome he proceeded to follow the signal up, higher into the stands. At first he thought his spirit tracker was guiding him towards the Spirit of Creation again, but he followed it anyway. His mission was to locate the Spirit of Destruction. Even if he was discovered he had to complete the mission.
About halfway up he noticed a much weaker spirit, but stronger than any of the power levels given off by any of the other smashers. Looking out a vent he saw the readings were coming from Mr. Game & Watch.
Reaching the top box he saw the Hands there watching the battle below with interest. Looking down at his tracker he saw that Master Hand was giving off a powerful reading but it was not the one he was looking for. Crazy Hand was giving off a massive power reading. Snake smirked, realising he had found the Spirit of Destruction. He turned and left, eager to report to Cybuu.
As he crawled through the vents back down the stadium, Lucario, watching the aura of his surroundings noticed a slight glitch. There was an area in the vents that produced a strange, faint aura, nothing like any of the inhabitants of the mansion, or the usual members of the crowd. Lucario slowly followed this strange aura into the lower levels of the stadium. When he reached a tunnel leading out of the Battledome Snake dropped from the vents. He was wearing a cowboy outfit, and was the one emitting the strange aura.
Lucario; after living with Snake for so long knew his aura well and instantly knew that this was a cyber clone, and as such was not surprised when the Snake clone raised a red Battle Gauntlet and pressed the button.
Back in the Battledome…
Dedede was struggling. Gold had him clearly outmatched with his Cyndaquil, the fire mouse was just too quick, Dedede hadn't been able to land a single hit and Cyndaquil, under Gold's instructions was launching a relentless series of powerful attacks. Dedede had a high damage level and Cyndaquil launched another super powerful Flare Blitz.
Without thinking Dedede charged his Jet Hammer, waiting for the large fireball to come into range he was taking damage from holding his hammer in place with full power. Dedede swung his hammer at the right moment and it collided with the fireball that was Cyndaquil. The two attacks collided at full power, causing a massive explosion of fire.
Dedede was flung to the far side of the arena. He dragged himself to his feet, smoking. Cyndaquil was unable to get to its feet so Gold was forced to recall him and bring out his Feraligatr.
"Damn, Cyndaquil is too tired, almost took down two of your lives though. You don't stand a chance." Gold gloated on his brilliant start; Dedede would struggle to get back into this match.
"I was going to save this but I need to get back into this battle, I think I'm going to need the new one as well." Dedede thought to himself as he lined up Feraligatr to unleash his brand new Final Smash: Waddle Dee Gate. Activating the Smash Ball he raised his arms and swept them to the floor. A large purple door rose out of the ground and opened.
From within the door poured a literal tide of Waddle Dees, Doos and Gordos. Feraligatr stood little chance against the tide of them; he was forced backwards, taking a large amount of damage in the process and eventually knocked into the barrier. The crowd cheered at the improvement Dedede had made to his Final smash.
Gold grunted in frustration, his lead had disappeared and Dedede might gain some momentum from his Smash. Choosing Bayleef to try and take Dedede down, Gold pressed what advantage he had. Bayleef started leaping from rock to rock, dodging the minions the plump penguin was throwing at her.
Bayleef launched an Energy Ball at Dedede, who threw himself to one side, straight into the path of a ferocious Razor Leaf attack. Dedede was unable to move as his damage built up and up, until the point where Bayleef sent the penguin flying with a Headbutt, bringing Dreamland's ruler to one life.
Dedede returned to the battle and launched his new attack at Bayleef; it was a condensed ball of air, which the plant dinosaur easily dodged, to reply with an Energy Ball attack. Dedede opened his mouth and swallowed the attack, ignoring damage from the attack. Dedede tried to regain a chance in this battle, throwing his minions as fast as he could. Bayleef was too fast for Dedede's slow moving projectiles to hit.
Bayleef was using hit and run tactics to slowly build Dedede's damage. Cyndaquil was tired from the sheer intensity of the battle and Feraligatr would be down for a short time after being knocked out leaving Bayleef to fight on her own for a while. Bayleef didn't have many moves that had much knock out potential, and with Dedede's weight it would be a struggle.
Dedede grabbed the nearby Silver Hammer, another new item that had similar properties to the Hammer and Golden Hammer although this one allowed smashers either to have a double jump or no jump at all. Dedede had been lucky enough to get a double jump hammer and closed in on Bayleef.
Bayleef picked up another new item: the Copy Goo. When the Copy Goo is used it changes into an item that is currently in the possession of another smasher, and for the moment that was Dedede's Silver Hammer. The two closed together and the hammers impacted on each other repeatedly. The hammers collided with loud clangs and the damage of both smashers was rising. Dedede's hammer ran out before Bayleef's leaving him open for one final strike, giving Gold the victory.
In the lower areas of the Battledome…
The Rattlesnake was staring at Lucario, waiting for him to make a move. Lucario knew that this fight was far more dangerous than the usual arena battles, the stakes were much higher. This was a life or death battle. Lucario stood back and waited for the cyber Snake to make its move.
The Rattlesnake grew tired of waiting, he pulled out his Remote Rocket and launched one at Lucario, the Aura Pokémon easily dodged the first shot and the returning missile. He charged an Aura Sphere to save for later and closed in for melee combat.
Ducking under a punch Lucario used Metal Claw to rip through the Rattlesnake's outer flesh coating revealing the metal beneath and confirming Lucario's earlier thoughts. The cyber tried a sweep kick, straight into Lucario's double team, leading to an easy counterattack. Lucario backed away quickly.
The aura Pokémon was being cautious, Snake was a powerful opponent at the best of times and here he was facing a cyber clone; a far more dangerous version; and Lucario hadn't even seen all of Snake's new moves yet. The Rattlesnake lowered himself to one knee and launched another remote missile at Lucario.
Lucario dodged the attack with ease once again, only to see the missile detonate below him and his opponent pull out a flamethrower and shoot several fireballs at the immobile, airborne Lucario. The fireballs struck Lucario, burning him as he fell back to the ground. The Rattlesnake came running over and planted a wad of C3 on the prone aura fox.
Knowing from his time with Snake that a butterfly stuck to him was a bad idea, even more so for this battle. Ripping it off Lucario abandoned his steady approach for a full offensive, Rattlesnake was ready for this though, blocking each of his initial strikes and knocking him back with a kick to the chest.
Grunting in pain Lucario got back up and launched an Extremespeed, ending up behind Rattlesnake who instantly snapped a kick out to meet the aura fox, who countered with a Double Team. The counterattack gave Lucario the chance he needed to place the C3 onto his opponent and get away, moments before it exploded.
The cyber body of the clone was all that remained from the explosion and Lucario remembered just how damn hard it was to take one of these things down. His opponent was now raising a knife in one hand and reaching for its hip with the other. Coming at him, Lucario prepared to Double Team the obvious knife slash, but in waiting for his moment fell into the trap. The cyber had thrown a smaller knife from its belt, lodging itself in Lucario's stomach. Blood flowed freely from the wound and the Rattlesnake followed it up with a quick slash across the arm of the fox.
Lucario dropped to his knees and pulled the knife out of his stomach, allowing him to roll out of the way of Rattlesnake's knife stab. Lucario straightened up enough to see his enemy draw out a machine gun and attempt to riddle him with bullets. Combining his greatly increased Aura powers with Force Palm Lucario was able to make a shield that blocked the barrage, sparing him for another few moments.
The cyber clone closed in, preparing for yet another potentially fatal attack. As he got closer Lucario struggled to stand, appearing as though he would rather face his death on his feet than on the ground in a bleeding heap. As the Rattlesnake slashed with its knife one final time Lucario pulled out the Aura Sphere he had charged at the beginning of the battle. Blood flecked fur, a great gash down on arm and a bleeding hole in his stomach, Lucario was a mess but that only increased the power of the attack. The attack was strong enough to blow the Snake copy to pieces. Lucario watched as its eye faded from red to black, confirming his victory before he collapsed to the ground.
In Cybuu's lair…
Cybuu watched as yet another cyber double fell to the determined smashers, growling in frustration. His cyber clones were powerful for certain, just not powerful enough. The day he could achieve a victory over a smasher would be a great day and the next phase of his plan depended on just that: a defeated smasher.
Looking at the data received from the Rattlesnake's mission he saw that the Hands each had one of the spirits he needed. More of interest to him at the moment was the fact that Mr. Game& Watch seemed to have traces of both spirits in him. Bringing up a route through the mansion's ventilation system Cybuu downloaded it into his next creations and sent it on its way to capture G&W, accompanied by some alloys.
In the mansion…
After Lucario had been discovered, battered and bleeding and rushed to the Medical Wing, the Hands had called a meeting with Snake, Raiden, Fox, Falco, Wolf, Samus and King Dedede. The smashers were wondering why they in particular had been chosen for this meeting as opposed to the others.
"Smashers, these Cyber attacks are becoming more frequent, you have been called here today because I believe that the seven of you are the best suited to creating a permanent perimeter around the mansion. This does not mean you will be missing any tournament battles, as I was thinking more of an automated patrol on your vehicles, and layers of booby traps with minions patrolling the area. This a defensive measure while we try to find Cybuu's lair. When we find that we can think about our next move." Master Hand explained to the gathered smashers.
The smashers raced to set up this defensive perimeter to prevent any further attacks; several of the smashers on the group had been victims of these attacks and did not wish such a battle on anyone. Once they had left Crazy Hand turned to Master Hand and expressed his doubts, after all they had not faced a threat like this ever. This threat was in a whole other league to the subspace invasion that had taken place a few years ago.
"What if we aren't enough?"
There we go, only took me a little longer than I hoped for but I hope you guys all enjoy it, me and Aero both have holidays coming up so you should get another couple of updates then. Sorry about the delay hope you guys all enjoyed it. Serenity