Author's Note:

Wow, I haven't updated in over a month. Just, wow. Sorry for taking so long and thank you for your patience. I'm not sure if this story is going back to weekly updates. Probably not. My motivation gave out in the middle of writing so this chapter isn't as long as I hoped to make up for how long it took. Just, thank you for taking the time to read SWOL.

Review Response:

Guest: No cake. We all know the cake is a lie.

Chapter 21: How Shocking

New Area:

Power Plant

"You sir, are an odd-looking fish." Naturally, the yellow, lightbulb-shaped fish that I just picked up did not reply. I looked around the Power Plant. "Now, what am I going to do with you?"

Inside the Plant were a series of steel platforms that were bolted to the steel walls and separated by large gaps. While the gaps might be able to be jumped over with my double-jump, I didn't want to miss a jump and fall to my inevitable doom.

Across the platform I stood on, were several more platforms, as well as a giant machine that looked like a cone. I don't think I'm giving the size an accurate description. The machine reached the ceiling above me and extended below the platforms and into the black void below, presumably reaching the floor. Attached the machine were a series of Tesla coils, five to be exact. Four coils were set on the sides with the fifth on top.

Of course, what I cared about was the Smasher Statue sitting next to the machine's control panel.

"Maybe this will help." I walked over to a sign that was next to a circular platform. "Attention workers! As a reminder for proper procedure of the use of Zapfish, the directions have been written as follows. Step 1: Get a Zapfish. This step should be obvious. Step 2: Place the fish on a Power Panel as you see to the right of the sign. Make sure that your clothing does not get caught when the panel activates. That is all for the procedure."

I looked down at the fish with its derpy eyes. Somehow, this provides power? I shrugged and tossed the fish on the Power Panel. It bounced into the center which rose up, creating a sphere of electricity that the fish seemed to be providing.

Gears began to whir behind me. I spun, sword in hand. A bridge rose, connecting the platform I was on to another on my left. I glanced back at the sign, "To move Zapfish, remove it from orb and place into another Power panel. That seems a bit simple but okay."

I crossed to the other platform. Once I stepped across, I got smacked across the face with a lemon. Stepping back, I dodged a few more as the one shooting them came into view.

"Mega Man? You look different." The boy dressed in blue armor and an arm cannon ignored me, shooting another lemon out of the cannon at me. I jumped out of the way but something hit my back, knocking me back towards Mega Man.

Another lemon hit me in the forehead and I swung at Mega Man. He jumped out of my reach. I spun to face the second opponent. Best description I could come up with is Mario dressed as a doctor. Why?

I don't know.

The doctor threw a blue and red pill that bounced it's way towards me. I jumped over and kicked Dr. Mario in the face. I threw my sword after the doctor before turning back to Mega Man.

The Blue Bomber stretched out a hand and a buzz saw materialized in it. The saw flew towards me. I knocked it away as I withdrew Death's Scythe. I ran at Mega Man, readying the scythe. Instead, I felt a slash on my back and I tripped, landing on my face.

I rolled to the side and got to my feet in time to block a sword swing from Dr. Mario. "I'm pretty sure that's mine so I'll be taking the sword back."

I kicked Dr. Mario to break the deadlock and spun to knock Mega Man away. Hooking the scythe around his feet, Mega Man fell on his back. Stomping on his chest, I kicked him to the edge of the platform.

A slash drew itself across my back. Stumbling forward, I hurled the scythe at the Blue Bomber's prone figure. I spun, whipping out the Fire Flower and letting out a burst of flames. Dr. Mario kept backing away, outside of the flames' reach. I pursued, pushing to the platform's edge.

The doctor tried to get over me, using his double jump. Throwing the flower up, Dr. Mario collided with it. I leapt up, holding my hands together, and slammed down into Dr. Mario's chest. I angled the blow slightly, sending Dr. Mario into the void beyond the platform.

I landed, realizing my mistake. "Wait! Nononononononon-" My Beam Sword vanished into the void with the Puppet Fighter.

"Well, at least I still have my scythe," I said, turning. Mega Man stood there, armed with said scythe.

A blank look was on his face, while his red, glowing eyes told me to pray to whatever god I have.

I don't think I have one though.

I rolled forward, grabbing the Fire Flower. Mega Man hurled a new saw blade. I shielded, and the blade bounced off. Mega Man dashed forward, twirling like a top to ram into me.

I leapt over, trading the Fire Flower for the Steel Diver. Landing behind Mega Man, I took aim and fired.

Mega Man swept his free hand to the side and leaves began circling him, blocking the torpedoes. I got knocked away by a scythe swing and rolled back to my feet.

The Puppet Fighter followed, doing another spin once I was in range. I hopped out of the way. Pulling the Fire Flower out again, I sprayed another burst of fire.

The flames connected with the Blue Bomber, leading to him backpedaling to avoid them. Weird, since he's, y'know, a robot. And made of metal.

Anyway, I followed, continuing to shoot fire. Mega Man jumped, trying to get over me. I took out the Steel Diver with my free hand and shot upward.

Speeding through the air, the torpedo collided and Mega Man fell to the ground. I tucked the items in hand away and held my hands out.

Death's Scythe clanged to the ground behind me.

I turned and walked over to the item, picking it up with a flourish. Spinning the scythe, I smoke-dashed as Mega Man began to charge his arm cannon. Reforming in front of him, I kicked him away and, with a spin of the scythe, severed the Puppet Fighter's head from his body.

"Finally. That fight felt like it took weeks to finish," I said, capturing the spirit with the controller. The fighter also dropped something else besides the spirit. It was another Zapfish.

I picked the fish up. "Hey! Are we making sushi!"

"BOLOGNA AND SWISS CHEESE OBLIVION!" I dropped the fish and leapt back. Breathing a sigh of relief, "Geez, I thought you were giving me the silent treatment."

"That was my original plan but it got boring. At least you found an interesting place."

"Yeah, there's a Smasher Statue next to whatever that is." I gestured to the giant machine.

"I think it's some sort of generator."

I picked up the fish and walked over to the next Power Panel. Setting the fish down, a bridge connected my platform to the next.

Crossing over, I found the next fight quickly.

"Oh god!" I cried out. "That's so adorable!"

Before me was a yellow dog dressed in a cardigan and skirt stood on its back legs. The dog seemed to be cartoonish, like Villager, and had its hair up into a ponytail.

"I wanna pet it!" I shouted, running over to the dog.

"Nathaniel, are you kidding me?" I ignored Oblivion as I ran up to the dog.

"It looks so fluffy!" I reached a hand to pet the dog's head.

I got interrupted by several slashes to my side. Rolling away, I withdrew Death's Scythe, only to get hit by a slingshot pellet.

"You traitor!" The little dog held a slingshot in hand. Next to it, was a something that vaguely reminded me of Kirby. It had the same round shape and the feet looked similar. That was it though. It was made of metal, had bat wings, a mask and noodle arms that held a sword.

The Metal, Bat-Swordsman, thing. Metal Batblob? Bat Sword Kirby? Regardless, it flew towards me, sword stretched out. I swung, with the blob ducking beath. It slashed several times at my legs.

I fell to my knees before trying another swing. Bat Kirby sped out of range. I stepped forward to chase after it but something snagged onto the back of my collar.

It dragged me back before I got thrown into the air. I twisted, with Bat Kirby jumping up after me. Aiming carefully, I kicked the metal foe, hitting it into the dog.

They slid back as I landed. Dashing forward, I slashed both of them. Bat Kirby got back to its feet and jumped forward to cut at me again.

Bringing the shaft of my scythe up, I knocked it away before turning my attention to the dog. It brought out a squeaky hammer and ran at me. I jabbed, pushing the pooch back and followed with a wide swing.

As the dog flew away, Bat Kirby returned with a vengeance, spinning like a drill towards me. I jumped forward, rolling into a smoke dash.

Only, the dash didn't work and I got skewered by the sword drill. Bat Kirby stopped drilling as it ran out of momentum, instead moving into a spin, creating a mini-tornado. I got caught in it, receiving dozens of more slashes.

After a few more seconds of pain, the tornado ran out of energy and Bat Kirby slowed down. I kicked it away and followed with a slash. Making contact, the swordsblob skidded towards the edge of the platform.

Before I could push Bat Kirby over the edge, I got hit by another slingshot pellet. I turned to face the source, only to receive several slashes across my back.

I fell onto my back, before rolling to avoid another sword swing. The dog swung a fishing rod out to hook onto me as I got back to my feet. I did a smoke dash to avoid the hook.

Normally, when I do the smoke dash, I dash forward or to the side to get closer to the enemy. I decided to mix it up. I dashed up into the air.

As I reached the peak of my dash, a rainbow aura covered me. "Doomed Defense Super Saw!"

The aura turned a sickly shade of purple as it was transferred to my scythe. Taking aim, I threw it, the energy making it spin into a wheel of carnage along its path. Sadly, the dog was the first in the attacks path, the wheel shredding it to pieces.

I braced my feet and used my double jump, landing behind Bat Kirby. My hand shot out, grabbing onto it by the wings. Like a boomerang, the wheel reversed course, coming back towards me. I kicked the metal fighter into the wheel; like the dog, this one was shredded as well, releasing the Spirit.

Stretching out my hand, I caught the scythe. Doing a spin as I put it away, I wondered out loud, "Why don't I use this more?"

"My thoughts exactly," Oblivion said. "It even has that snazzy insta-kill feature!"

The Puppet Fighters this time also dropped another Zapfish, which I promptly tossed onto another Power Panel. Another bridge rose up, granting access to the generator and, more importantly, the Smasher Statue.

"Wheel of smashers, spin round and round. Let's see which Smasher I'll face, um, shoot. Oblivion, do you know anything that rhymes with round."

"Ground?"

"How helpful Oblivion." I said, walking up to the Statue. I pulled out Death's Scythe and read the nameplate:

Smasher No. 19

Pichu

"Doesn't Pichu sound kind of like Pikachu?"

"I think that's because Pichu evolves into Pikachu," Oblivion answered.

"So that means their moves are similar. Got it." I tapped the nameplate and steadied myself for the fight. The Pokemon that popped out of the Statue looked like a smaller Pikachu. Pichu's head seemed to be the same size as its body, with big triangular ears on top.

The Pokemon zoomed towards me, dashing on all fours. I jumped over, throwing out a kick as I landed. Pichu hopped onto my foot and started climbing.

"Get off!" I tried knocking the Pokemon off, only for the yellow mouse to climb onto my arm. It climbed around to my back, clinging on where I couldn't reach easily.

"Piiiiii-chuuuuuuuuu!" Pichu began discharging thousands of volts of electricity throughout my body. I screamed, falling to the ground and trying to reach the Pokemon on my back.

Eventually, the electricity died down as I felt Pichu release its grip. I rolled back to my feet, falling to my knees a second after. Unfortunately, the electricity did a large amount of damage.

Pichu got back to its feet as well, but its eyes had turned into swirls as the Pokemon stood unsteadily.

"You getting tired too?" The Pokemon shook its head clear of the swirls and nodded. "Yeah, me too."

The Pokemon ended the small talk by shooting itself like a missile at me. Taking a step out of the way, I hit the Pokemon like a baseball, using the scythe as a bat. Making solid contact, Pichu was sent flying into the wall.

I ran to the Pokemon as it slid down the wall. In the middle of a scythe swing, Pichu called down lightning which hit both of us. I was knocked away from the Pokemon.

I hit the ground and slowly slid to a stop. Leaping back to my feet, I saw that Pichu was dazed again. "Using electricity hurts it?"

"Yeah. Pichus haven't learned how to regulate their electricity so using it hurts them as well."

"Oh." A thought occurred to me. "Doesn't this mean I'm beating up the equivalent of a toddler?"

"Kind of. Pokemon evolution doesn't always correlate with age."

"So does this mean that Crazy Hand and Master Hand regularly employ children to fight in their tournaments?"

"Yep."

I sighed, "Shouldn't that regulate some kind of labor law?"

"Just wait a moment."

"What do you mean?" Pichu launched another flying headbutt into my gut, sending my back against the wall.

"That's what happens when you don't pay attention during a fight."

"I got it," I wheezed as I pulled myself back to my feet. Pichu jumped into the air, covering itself with more electricity to tackle me with. I hefted Death's Scythe, whacking Pichu again into the air like a Pokemon shaped baseball.

Shifting my grip, I threw the scythe as Pichu landed. The blade connected with Pichu's head, cutting through and into the ground.

I threw myself onto the ground as the wall came down, calming my breathing down.

"Stop being lazy and grab the stuff already." Oblivion chided.

"Alright, alright." Drudging to my feet, I picked up Death's Scythe and the Pichu amiibo. With a deep breath, I looked into Pichu's eyes.

"I move this here and, no, that doesn't work." I was 9, sitting at the kitchen table and scratching away at math homework. I have been doing so for the past hour.

"Nathan, calm down." It was my dad, sitting next to me. Normally, math wasn't a difficult subject for me but I was having trouble with one particular problem.

My dad started writing on the piece of scratch paper he was using. "Let's go over this again."

"Fine." I started writing the problem again. Then I stopped, "Are you kidding me."

I made a quick adjustment to what I just wrote down. Following what else was in my math textbook, I finished solving the problem. The cause of what took me so long was that I added wrong at the second step.

"There we go!" My dad said.

"Alright. Fine." Some irritation crept into my voice. Unfortunately, my dad noticed it.

"Nathaniel. You have such a short temper. You need to understand that no likes someone who gets angry all the time. When you get older, you'll realize that you can't push people away in your life. Humans are social creatures. You can't just live alone for the rest of your life with no social interaction. When you become an adult and go out into the real world, a lot of people will make you mad but you need to hold it in. You have to grow up into a responsible adult. When you become a father and have your own responsibilities, you'll understand more of what I mean. You always have a scowl on your face. You need to smile more. When you smile, you release endorphins. Do you know what endorphins are?"

"Yes Dad." My words slipped out without a thought at another on of Dad's tangents. I stopped listening and kept responding. Eventually, tangent ended as I walked to my room to plop at my desk.

"Why does he always have to give lectures on stuff? He's not even a teacher." I asked my brother. We shared a bedroom and our sister got a separate bedroom. He was on his bed, counting Pokemon cards.

"Grandma's a teacher though," My brother pointed out. "It's not like it matters. In 10 years, we're going to be adults. Then we can do whatever we want!"

"I'm gonna buy the large ice cream bowl when I'm an adult!" I declared.

My brother looked at me. "C'mon! Adults can do more than that!"

"Two large ice cream bowls?"

"Now you're getting somewhere!"

I tossed the homework into my bag before jumping onto my brother's bed to look at Pokemon cards. Somehow, we had too many cards despite not knowing how to play.

Blinking a couple of times, I was back in the Power Plant. "Was I really that stupid?"

"Apparently."

Turning my attention to the massive generator before me, I asked, "Should I break this?"

"What? Why!"

"Because," I hefted my scythe and strode to the control panel, "it's a giant machine and an eyesore."

"Those have to be the worst reasons that I have ever heard for doing something like that."

"I'm not hearing no."

Oblivion sighed, clearly regretting several life choices. "Why not activate it? Clarence was checking out the city, right? Maybe activating the generator will help him over there?"

I sighed, taking a look at the control panel. Lots of colorful buttons and switches that I have no idea what they do. "Sure, let's see if I can turn this on without making it explode."

I stepped outside the Power Plant, shivering slightly at the cold, night air. "We should definitely head back to the Dojo. Crazy and Clarence are probably there already."

"You're not going to explore the rest of the forest?"

"Why? We could check out the rest of the forest later." I pointed out.

"I guess." I continued in silence for a few moments before Oblivion spoke up again. "What do you think is going on in your world?"

I stopped, "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, from your recovered memories, you clearly have immediate family. Two parents, a sister and a brother. It's also likely that your family is much bigger due to cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Just, what do you think they're doing in your world?"

"Probably just what they always do." I resumed walking.

"You don't think they're worried about you?"

"I don't know. I hardly remember them."

"I guess it would be hard for, what was that?"

I stopped again, "Oblivion, what do you mean?"

"Duck!"

I did as the voice said. Just in time too, as a gunshot rang out. I turned my attention to the closest tree. A smoking bullet had appeared in the bark, right where my head used to be.

A figure flipped out from the shadows, landing in front of me. A teenager with curly, dark hair, a black trenchcoat, and a black and white mask which covered his eyes. More importantly, he was armed with a knife and a handgun, the latter of which was pointed at me.

I smoke dashed to the side as he opened fire. Digging through my inventory as I tried to avoid his gunfire, I swore. The Steel Diver sucks, the Fire Flower doesn't have enough range, I don't know what the flag does, and Death's Scythe is my only melee weapon.

Doing another smoke dash to get closer, I swung with the scythe. Holding the knife in a reverse grip, he blocked the scythe, locking our weapons together. We began a staredown, looking for cracks in the other. Then it hit me.

This guy had black eyes. Puppet Fighters have red glowy eyes of death.

My grip faltered, which Gun Nut picked up on. He gave a quick shove, which he followed with a slash to knock me away.

"Who are you!"

"Who we are is none of your business." The voice came from behind me. Before I could turn, something hit the back of my head, hard. Everything went black.

Save File 2: Saved

Party: Nathaniel, Oblivion(?)

Items: Nathaniel- Steel Diver, Death's Scythe, Fire Flower, Special Flag

Smashers: Mario, Link, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Captain Falcon, Peach, Bowser, Pichu, Lucario, Villager

Author's Theater:

Nathaniel: *stretches* Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?

Crazy: Was it turning off the oven?

Nathaniel: I don't even have an oven.

Clarence: Was it washing the dishes?

Nathaniel: No, it's not my turn yet. What's today's date?

Crazy: The 19th of May.

Nathaniel: Does this mean we left MG tied up for over a month?

Crazy: Yep.

Nathaniel: And no one fed him?

Clarence: No.

Nathaniel: Great.

*Theater goes dark. Someone screams (Probably Nathaniel).*

?: This is Joker. I've infiltrated the theater.