So, this will count as the final chapter of Twenty Warriors.
And it's decided. I will do a sequel to this, where more shit happens and everybody's happy. Of course, I won't get to it until I finish my Legend spinoff, but you know how things are. Here's the chapter that I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 24: Herald of a New Twenty
The rather large group of twenty then found themselves landing on hard ground in the middle of a swirl of colors, the colors rapidly changing orientation as they looked around them.
"Where the hell are we?" asked Raph as the group slowly began to stand.
"Beats me," said Vyse, jumping up into a standing position. "Where are we...?"
"This..." said Bowser, looking around.
"This looks like some alternate dimension of some sort," said Link as he stood up slowly.
"Is-a this where-a they took-a Crazy Hand?" asked Mario softly as he looked around him.
"Crazy Hand?" asked Aika, casting a confused glance at the plumber.
"Wait, let me guess," said Serene as she looked around her. "He's the guy behind all this."
"I guess," said Vyse with a shrug. "I'm still wondering about that woman, though..."
"Her?" asked Ryu, suddenly sensing a presence nearby. "I would not worry about her just yet. I sense somebody coming."
"Ah, well then," said a voice from very far away. "I was hoping to make my appearance more subtle, but that's apparently not the case."
From within the strange colors zoomed the familiar gloved hand, and as it twitched nervously everybody prepared their weapons quickly.
"Crazy Hand!" cried Bowser angrily. "Why are you doing this?"
"Why do you think?" asked the gloved hand as he twitched violently. "I've had enough of standing in the back, taking things as they come."
"I don't see your point," said Don, bo staff being held resolutely in his three-fingered hand. "Elaborate."
"Very well," said Crazy Hand. "When Master Hand and I opened our little Smash Brothers society or whatever, we had both agreed to get equal shares of the pie. We get that, but what happens then? He starts dwindling my influence, such that when we held our first tournament I was not even mentioned. So when he finally does mention me in the second tournament, I had enough. So whether he wants it too or not, I will get him, and I will be more well known than he is!"
"This is what this is all about?" asked Largo. "I don't even know most of what you've done, but you tricked all of us, just to get attention?"
"Precisely," said Crazy Hand. "Master Hand will learn what it is to ignore me later once I take this universe!"
"You're crazy!" cried Genis angrily.
"That's my name," replied the gloved hand.
"That's besides the point!" cried Leo. "One should not have to go this far for revenge!"
"I think it's far enough," said Crazy. "Those satanic rituals? All in the hope that I could seal Master away. This? Just another method of obliterating him."
"But why go to these lengths?" asked Fina. "You're even worse than your own brother!"
"Talk against me is useless," said Crazy Hand, twitching in an angrier fashion now. "Now give me those artifacts or I will destroy you!"
"Lina isn't giving you anything!" cried the orange-haired girl.
"And don't expect the rest of us to give you anything either!" cried Raine. "This is the end for you, Crazy Hand!"
"Ah is it?" asked the gloved hand. "Prove it."
The group looked to themselves before nodding, Genis raising his kendama in the air as the final battle commenced.
From underneath Crazy Hand came a barrage of stones that the glove managed to dodge in its twitching. However, in its twitching he did not manage to dodge Raph jumping up and plunging his sais into the gloved hand.
This was swiftly followed as Vyse jumped into the air, slashing into the glove with his cutlasses as Leo leapt on his back, Fina's magic working its way around his katana. When the blow connected with the gloved hand, a large clump of moon-based energy shattered into the gloved hand. Link followed up quickly with another attack from the Master Sword, and only then was Crazy Hand sent backwards.
He barely had time to recover before the two human ninjas descended on him like a blur, and before he knew it the hand was feeling pain like never before as Kasumi's tanto and Ryu's katana made painful intrusions on his figure. When this was done, Largo and Serene bore down on him with their axe and scythe, sending the glove plummeting to the floor. Before the glove could get up, the Koopa King had slammed onto him, and Bower jumped off of the glove for Donatello and Michelangelo to land a barrage of blows on the glove. This cycle was only broken when two bands of light surrounded the glove, but even then Crazy felt a great pain in his body before light exploded from his being. Just as he rose, he found himself getting nicked by a card before a boomerang and an arrow hit him at the same time. This was amplified all the more so by a fireball from Mario that was sent in his direction, and he barely had time to get his bearings before he found himself get stuck to the ground by Enrique's rapier.
This was followed by more slashes from Ryu and Kasumi, and then the Valuan Prince let him go. Mario kicked the glove into the air, Link slashed him farther away and the gloved hand was slammed to the ground with a jump kick from Leonardo. Everybody that had taken part in the fight then jumped up, and within a few seconds they had all dealt a finishing blow to the glvoe, Crazy Hand having gone down with almost no fight at all.
"That was it?" asked Vyse as he looked at the destroyed Crazy Hand. "I hate to be negative, but that was actually pretty..."
"Well, he barely held his own against eight people," said Bowser as he shook his head vigorously. "I figured he'd get owned by twenty, but not this badly..."
"W... why...?" asked Crazy Hand, twitching just before he fell still.
There was a great silence as people saw the glove stop moving before them, everybody pondering on what had happened in their lives.
"Is... is that it?" asked Aika incredulously. "We did all that, for this?"
"Oh, you think it started with Crazy Hand, huh?" said a female voice.
Everybody turned in the direction of the voice, Vyse wearing a frown as he saw who it was.
"You!" cried the Blue Rogue angrily. "You were the one behind this mess, weren't you?"
"Ah, so you survived..." said the female figure as she approached, black hair rolling down her shoulders as he gave the pirate a sultry glance. "I was hoping that rubble killed you..."
"So you're the one who killed his friends!" cried Serene, grabbing her scythe. "I won't forgive you!"
"Serene, wait!" warned Leo, setting a firm hand on the arc's shoulder. "Who are you, and what do you want with us?"
"I want the ultimate power," said the lady with a sultry tone in her voice. "And you can call me Carmen."
"Ultimate power?" asked Link.
"Of course," said the lady with a smirk. "Don't tell me I didn't seek those artifacts for no reason."
"Those artifacts should not be used in the wrong hands!" cried Snake angrily.
"And you think my hands are bad?" asked Carmen as she floated down to the level of the warriors. "I must say, I reject your notion that I am the one who is wrong here."
"Well, you're intending to use those things for yourself, and--" Fina pointed out.
"Silence!" roared the woman angrily before glaring at them. "I'll show you who is the selfish one here!"
"We'll prove you wrong!" replied Serene angrily before charging at the woman.
"Serene, wait!" cried Vyse.
But by then, it was too late, for Serene had jumped up, preparing to land a scythe blow on Carmen. However, the woman quite quickly grabbed the neck of the weapon and quickly spun it around her, black hair flying around her as she sent Serene flying away with such force that it was through sheer luck that she landed on her feet. Ryu and Kasumi then both went for the woman, but when Kasumi landed a tanto blow Carmen held her hand out and erected a temporary barrier around her that blocked the blow and sent the knife ricocheting into Ryu's left arm, the blood flying out quickly.
Wasting no time, the evil lady quickly gathered a strange kind of energy around her, and with this she created a whip of pure energy that suddenly cracked into the group, the whip hitting almost everybody there. It inflicted such excruciating pain on them that they were barely able to counter. Vyse stood, shocked at what was going on around him as he found he was the only one spared the whip's judgement.
After several minutes of eerybody being whipped, the female finally stopped the assault, the whip dissolving into air as the group laid down on the ground, crying and moaning in pain, most of them barely able to stand up after the onslaught. Vyse was the only one who had been spared Carmen's treatment, and he found himself getting teary-eyed at the sight around him. Before he could comment, Carmen shot her hand out, and the artifacts that she had yet to find came levitating to her
"Why...?" asked Vyse.
"Because I do whatever it takes to earn the power!" said the female.
"That's not what I meant!" cried Vyse. "Why didn't you do that to me, too?"
"Why didn't I?" asked Carmen, black eyes gleaming with a strange kind of zeal. "You were the only one who was not underestimating me."
"But nobody else said they could beat you!" said the air pirate angrily.
"It can be assumed from the exchange that they felt I could," said Carmen. "Now, since you didn't underestimate me, I'll give you this proposal; from the time I say 'go', you'll have twenty seconds to select up to two people to save by picking up their arms and turning to me. Once you select your two people, I'll warp you out of here, and you'll be spared my wrath. How does that sound to you?"
"What?" asked Vyse. "You expect me to choose?"
"Of course!" said Carmen. "Go."
Vyse would have contested with this decision if not for the fact that Carmen had said go. Slapping his hands to his sides in defeat, he looked around frantically, running over to Aika the first chance he got and picking up her arm.
"That's one," said Carmen. "You have fifteen seconds to find your other person. And if you cheat, the deal's off."
Vyse looked around frantically, Aika weakly moaning behind him as he looked around frantically, a drop of sweat rolling down his brow as he tried to figure out who to save next.
"Ten seconds," said Carmen suddenly, jolting Vyse out of his careful thinking. "Nine. Eight."
Vyse frantically looked around, his eyes suddenly falling on somebody.
"Seven. Six. Five. Four."
The air pirate trudged over to the spot that he saw his friend on, being careful not to drop Aika's arm as he sped his way over there.
"Three."
The air pirate, desperate, lost himself in the pressure, and picked up the hand of the person next to him, only to discover that he had picked up Ryu's arm. Mortified at his error, Vyse turned to Carmen, wanting to bargain with her to change her mind.
"And that's two," said Carmen, holding her hand out in front of her. "Farewell, good sir."
And with that, Vyse, Aika, and Ryu were teleported out of the dimension in a flash of light, one so bright that the people that were writhing on the floor slowly turned their heads to see the commotion.
"And now, that leaves me with the rest of you," said the female condescendingly, the artifacts surrounding her, a wicked smile appearing on her face as a great beam of light came up from the 'ground' of the dimension.
When the light dimmed, one was able to make out the figure of the most beautiful woman a person had ever seen, the woman almost naked as she gazed on Carmen with hooded gray eyes. Her long silver hair flowed around her like it was in a wind, and when she looked at Carmen she seemed almost to be in a trance.
"What is it you wish...?" asked the woman simply with a slightly subdued voice.
"I wish, to have all the powers of the universe!" cried the woman ecstatically, voice ringing out in the alternate dimension.
"It shall be granted..." replied the goddess of wishes in a subdued tone of voice.
In the Smash Mansion things had calmed down quite a bit ever since the dissapearance of the select few that were sucked in by the black sphere. However, there was still quite a bit of tension within the mansion as to whether something else would happen.
It was with this mindset that Princess Peach Toadstool was walking down the hallways in the middle of the night, slowly walking around so as not to wake anybody up. The princess had jolted up in the middle of the night after her stomach began growling loudly. She quietly stepped out of the room, making sure not to wake up her roomate Samus, as she snuck to the kitchen to prepare herself a little snack.
As she walked along and looked out the window, she suddenly saw what looked to be a black sphere racing towards the mansion. She gasped lightly, and ran back the way she came, avoiding her stomach.
However, before she could even open the door to her dorm to warn her roomate, she suddenly felt a great force collide with the mansion, breaking it down the middle of the mansion so that a hole was left that was large enough for people to be sucked into. As she suddenly felt a great force pull on her, she saw the people in the dorms past hers get sucked into the black object. She could not count them as they went by too quickly, but as she held on to the doorknob a great fear perpetrated her being.
And then, she let out a scream as she felt her grip loosen on the doorknob, and then she was knocked out cold as she too was sucked into the black object.
Vyse found himself kneeling in the middle of a vast mountain range, holding on fast to Aika and Ryu as he looked around to see valleys and mountains from his vantage point on the top of the peak.
As soon as he saw this, the tears began flowing down his eye to the point that he had to take off his eyepatch just so that his righ eye would be functional. As he loked around, he wondered why he had not been able to bargain for Fina's life as well.
As he looked around, a wave of negative emotions flooded his mind, and then he got down on his knees, finally letting go of Ryu and Aika as he clutched his head in his arms, trying not to think of what was happening around him.
He suddenly shut his eyes tight, face pointed to the heavens as he let out a cry of anguish at how hopeless the situation seemed.
There was no hope. He had survived, for what? To be stranded in a place where they would die and the remaining seventeen warriors would be in mortal danger?
As he thought of this, Vyse fell forward, hitting his forehead on a rock and suddenly losing consciousness as the last of his tears flowed down his cheeks.
A/N: And that's the end. Stick around for the sequel, which will be up as soon as I can manage!
-Herr Wozzeck