We are in the homestretch. Only 3 chapters left plus epilogue. (Not counting this chapter.)

Chapter 29: Sacrifice

The Smashers were surprised to see Mario, Luigi, Peach and Bowser at the end of the first day of training. Each of them thought that in their heads their task would take much longer. Each of them seemed surprised that they had brought the Star Rod to the Smash Planet. In all honesty it was potentially the worst move that they could have done. Even Sui and Tei were rather harsh about them bringing an item of high omnipotence, let alone the very item that started this whole adventure.

"Well I thought that Giga Bowser would fear the power of the Star Rod!" Mario explained.

"Yes like he would fear the very item that gave him his power first." Tei replied. "Fear for we can give you MORE POWER! That sounds so threatening! Remember he was made through selfish wishes and if we carelessly use the Star Rod we will give him more power."

"In any case you are a day behind in your training. You have two options, the first is start tomorrow, the second is to start right now and do the training through out the night and day to catch up." Sui replied. "We will give you a few seconds to think about it."

With that Sui walked away. Mario, Peach, Bowser, and Luigi however didn't need to think about it. "The Star Rod can be used to stop us from being fatigued."

"Then it's agreed." Peach said. "We will catch up to the others. We can't drag them down."

Tei seemed to smile as though they knew that they would do such a thing. "I expected Bowser, not all of you." He laughed. "Then lets begin."

The training through the next few days was brutal. Yet somehow the Smashers continued along. Each of them breathed a small sigh of relief when their breaks came along. They could feel that they were becoming stronger. When any of them came close to collapsing Tei or Sui would just use the Star Rod to restore them. Slightly inspired by this they changed the training regimen so that they would be training nearly non-stop. The only breaks that they got would be for washroom breaks and food. The Smashers were torn between hating Mario for bringing it back or thanking him.

On the last day the Smashers were exhausted. Sui and Tei had removed the weights and they collapsed onto the ground. "All right." Tei smiled. "Your training is done! Rest up because we are going to have an all out assault tomorrow."

Tei however glared at Pichu. "You should have evolved by now." He muttered

"No," Pikachu replied overhearing Tei. "You see when Pichu was born he went on an uncontrollable eating spree and pretty much ate everything in front of him. Sadly this included an everstone."

"Wow that sucks," Tei sighed.

"It also doesn't help that evolution from Pichu to Pikachu is happiness based, and to be completely blunt this training has been anything but." Pikachu replied.

"Complain all you want but you will be thanking me soon enough." Tei smiled walking away.


It was the morning and across the horizon several people were running as though as several lives relied on them. In reality this was the truth! Link, Rai, and The Melee Master were running as fast as they could while Master Hand and Crazy Hand were flying as fast as they could. "Damn Giga Bowser," Crazy Hand said. "Attacking now when they wouldn't be expecting it."

"Worse they would be too exhausted from training to properly fight." Link added on. It wasn't long before they reached the camp; so far Giga Bowser's forces hadn't touched it. "How far away are they?"

The Melee Master closed his eyes and focused. "They are about 30 minutes away." He replied. "If they don't move this place will become a battle field."

"A battle field?" Tei laughed sneaking up on them. "Almost sounds fun."

"Wake them up," Link ordered. Tei stared a bit baffled. "Unless you have an idea to defeat an army of 10 000."

Master Hand threw a bag down on the ground. "Give them each 1 of whats in the bag. And what ever you do, under any circumstances, don't say its from me! It would take too long to explain these issues."

"You better disappear," Tei responded walking away. "I'm barely resisting the urge to kill you after what happened last time." With that Master and Crazy Hand ascended into the sky.

Link and The Melee Master just stared at the horizon expecting them to come. "What are you going to do?" Link asked.

"Was there ever any doubt?"

"Be careful then," Link replied walking away. "Knocking them around is easy, killing them though, that is a whole different story. Don't die."

The Melee Master didn't respond. He just faced forwards and stared at the oncoming army. He closed his eyes readying himself for the storm, feeling little comfort in his friend's words. Link began to walk away. "Don't hesitate Link." The Melee Master said. Link turned around and faced his comrade. "We came this far. And remember even if Giga Bowser's prophecy is true it means that you will be victorious! Even if you have to use that technique." Link's eyes widened and his body began to shake. "You won't hesitate. Will you?"

"I can't use it." Link replied. "With out you there to stop me, there is no telling what can happen! Even you received a few serious wounds from it."

The Melee Master faced Link. "As it stands right now, you only have one third of your true power. It may not be today but one day you know what will happen! It's inevitable! Now go!"

Link ran through the camp. All of the Smashers were all ready evacuating the area. It was almost as though Tei and Sui had anticipated such an attack as Link suddenly noticed that several of the tents had explosives in them. Tei was sitting patiently on a crate just staring off into the distance. "I don't know what to classify him under," Tei muttered. "Extremely brave, or extremely stupid." With that he got up and began to walk away. "You better warn him, the explosives will leave a pretty big crater."

"He'll be fine," Link replied. "They won't even get to the explosives."

"We'll be leading you to Giga Bowser's castle." Tei muttered. "After that we will just have to watch from the sidelines."

"You won't be joining us?" Link replied.

Tei glanced at The Melee Master who was standing perfectly still. "As much as we would like to there is too much of a risk that Giga Bowser will get the real Smash Crystal. We'll follow you and watch from a distance and interfere if it's necessary. Besides I think this is only the beginning."

"What do you mean?" Link asked.

"Have you ever heard of The Smash Wars?" Tei asked. "Probably not, it was a time in history where everything was nearly destroyed due to the Smash Crystal. People did whatever they thought necessary to try and obtain the limitless power that this jewel contained. Even trying to create their own." Tei closed his eyes. "This is the only time in history that there are no documentation of. And there are only 4 items left in this universe that proved it even existed. The Smash Crystal, The Revolution, The N-Sword and its four pieces."

"But thats only 3," Link pointed out.

"Yes there was one final item: The Genesis!" Tei stood up looking serious.

"The Genesis?"

"Something that can reset everything to the beginning of time itself." Sui said walking over glaring at her brother. "Don't worry about the Genesis, as we have obtained it and are planning on destroying it!"

Link looked at them confused. "Why?" he asked

"The Government. They have been more active recently than in the past." Sui sighed.

Link was no stranger to The Government, they had gone after Samus for disobeying their orders to terminate the 'world hoppers' and even burned down a library filled with priceless documents about different ages in hopes to catch them. After the 12 had returned to their respectful worlds The Government seemed to show no interest. Link and The Melee Master on the other hand for the past three years had been pursued by the Government almost obsessively. Each time they managed to get away with only a few scratches. They had concluded that the Government were super human.

"We want to avoid confrontation with them the most, they would probably destroy us." Tei sighed. "We don't know their exact numbers but it's probably in the millions"

"We have a theory," Sui began. "We think that this group that calls themselves The Government wish to initiate another Smash War."

"We've talked far to long." Tei interrupted his sister. "We have to get out of here."

"Agreed." Link replied glancing at The Melee Master. With that they ran and rejoined the Smashers. Tei and Link took one last moment to look behind and see The Melee Master. Despite trying his best to hold back the mindless army he was having difficulty and about 7000 hand all ready passed and were charging for the Smashers. Tei snapped his fingers the next second a large explosion had covered the ground and spread out incinerating the 7000 wireframes that had gotten past The Melee Master. The force from the blast sent the Smashers flying over the side of a cliff.


Giga Bowser sat atop of his throne and could sense the Smashers coming towards him. "Master and Crazy Hand, why have you betrayed me?" He asked the air. "My visions they never showed you. Why?"

He closed his eyes and clutched the black jewel that Crazy Hand had delivered to him. In front of him on the pitch-black floor several insignias glowed. "It's time," he muttered getting up. "They will be here in a few hours." On the ground lay an empty male Wireframe shell. Giga Bowser just placed his hand on the chest of the Wireframe. "Before they get here I'll create someone to execute my revenge."


The Smashers landed in water. Each of them could suddenly float and walk on the water. "This river will lead us eventually to Giga Bowser." Sui said. Everyone ran down the river until it entered a cave. They stared at the dark entrance and hesitated to go in.

"Wimps" Tei muttered while snapping his fingers. Suddenly a path of flames appeared out of thin air leading them into the caves. "If you're afraid of the dark how will you fare against Giga Bowser?"

"Its not exactly the dark but more of the feeling of the impending and highly clichéd waterfall." Pikachu retorted.

"The sarcastic peanut gallery can shut up." Tei snapped. With that they all entered the cave.

To be continued...

Sigh this chapter brings up one thing that urks me... specifically with Pichu (And now the confirmed Red... I mean "Pokemon trainer" DO WANT!), no matter HOW MUCH EXPERIANCE they get the pokemon cannot evolve for story purposes (Or in Pichu's case they all ready have a Pikachu in the cast). Of course Pichu is miserable this was one way to counter it since his evolution is happiness based... The other way for when Pichu eventually does get happier is the tragic fate that Pikachu explained. And although a rock will pass through the digestive system Pichu absorbed the properties from the rock. (Since I know someone would point it out)