Chapter Fifty-Three: The Smash Run

"Ready, GO!" Phantom Hand shouted.

High in the air over the Smash Run maze, a timer began counting down from five minutes. Jazz stood in the middle of the grassy field atop the maze, looking around clueless as to what to do. Small burst of light appeared all around her as monsters appeared from thin air. Closest to her, a bright orange Waddle Dee popped into existence, while a strange humanoid figure with gray armor and a purple face appeared a short distance away. On the other side of her, a small, brown, chestnut-shaped Goomba showed up, jumping in alarm when it spotted her and started running toward her.

Jazz jumped quickly, hopping off the head of the Waddle Dee and leaping onto the Goomba's head as well. As the gray thing, which she believed had once been part of the Subspace Army, charged at her, she struck it in the chest with a strong kick. Even as it disappeared in a bright flash, leaving only a cluster of strange stickers behind, even more enemies started appearing out of the air behind it.

"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered.

Below her, Villager was facing his own problems as a gang of Kremlings descended on him from above. As the bulky crocodile-men grabbed at him with their beefy arms he jumped up onto the massive wheel above him, letting the turning platforms carry him up and away from the enemy. One leapt and snagged the edge of the platform he was on, and Villager retaliated by dropping a bowling ball on his head. He thought he was in the clear until he was whipped from behind by a pink, fleshy eyeball floating in midair.

At another end of the Smash Run, Rock fought off a swarm of small robots that looked a little like construction helmets. He knew them as Dr. Wily's Mettaurs. After vaporizing several of them with a fire blast to the ground, he turned to find himself face to face with a hulking polar bear wearing sunglasses and pink swim trunks.

Little Mac and Greninja each faced their own battles deep in the depths of the maze as hordes of enemy creatures ranging from Koopa Troopas to Eggman Robos to Octoroks appeared. Only Rosalina seemed to be untouched so far as she stood in her tiny cave on the far right side of the battleground. She and her Luma crept to the edge of the cave to see nothing but a thousand foot drop to the ground below.

"What do you think, Luna?" she asked.

The Luma squeaked in response, giving her a shrugging gesture. The little star zipped down into the hole and looked around. In a few seconds, it popped back up and chirped a brief description of their surroundings.

"Okay, so, there's a group of platforms a little bit below us, and two more caves up the wall above us. Do you think we could make it up into those caves?"

The Luma waved its nubby arms in the air as if to say that it wasn't sure. Rosalina nodded. "Okay, we'll go for those platforms below us then. Ready?"

Luna puffed out its chest.

"Jump!"

Rosalina and Luna dropped into nothing. After falling through a brief tunnel, the cave wall disappeared, replaced by open air. The group of platforms Luna had told Rosalina about was visible a few yards below. Rosalina directed her fall so that she landed gracefully on one of the platforms.

"Okay," she said, "now what?"

Luna squeaked at her, pointing at three strange stickers on the ground. Rosalina bent down and looked at them closely. One was yellow and shaped like a wing, another was orange and shaped like a fist, and the last was green and resembled a boot.

"What do think these are, Luna?"

Extending her hand, she touched the green boot hesitantly. As soon as she made contact with it, the sticker seemed to disappear, absorbing into her skin and sending rolls of energy down her body.

"That was weird."

She reached for the fist sticker, and it too vanished on contact. The sticker imbued her with energy like before, but unlike the first which filled her with a strange manic energy and made her feel hyper, this one seemed solid and fiery. She felt stronger, as though she had been lifting weights recently. The third sticker reacted to her touch in the same way the others had, only this time, it gave her a light feeling, like she had just dropped ten pounds.

Rosalina turned to look at Luna. "These feel like power-ups," she said. She stood up and looked around. There was nothing below her or in front of her. The only ground she could see in the nearby vicinity was the massive cliff face behind her. As Luna had said, two caves sat open above the one that they had just come from, but the nearest one seemed too far away for her to reach.

She stepped up to the edge to attempt a jump. She looked at the cave high above, and then at the ground far below. "Here goes," she said. Seconds before she jumped, something slammed her in the back, knocking her over the edge. Reacting quickly, she waved her wand and summoned a star-shape around her waist that launched her back up onto the platform. In the center of the platform floated a small pink bubble, like Kirby, but with gossamer wings and an irritated look on its face. She recognized it as one of the citizens of Kirby's homeworld. She couldn't quite remember what it was called, but she did seem to remember thinking that the name didn't quite make sense.

The small flying creature sneered at her, pulled backwards, then dived at her again. Luna jumped in the way and pelted the creature with star bits. The creature stopped, shaking its face. It scowled at Rosalina and Luna again and stuck its tongue out at them. It lunged for them again, again getting pummeled by star bits and receiving a swift backhand from Rosalina. The creature disappeared in a flash of light, dropping two more stickers, one shaped kind of like a star, and another shaped like a fist. Rosalina grabbed and absorbed them both.

"Great job, Luna," she said. The memory finally clicked in her mind. "Oh, they were called Bronto Burts. I knew their name didn't make sense somehow. Come on," she said to Luna, "Let's figure out a way up the cliff."

Luna squeaked merrily as the two attempted to jump up to the nearest cave.

Scene Break

"Yes, sir, the first run started a few minutes ago. The one-on-one battles should be starting soon."

The metal-controlled Fox and Donkey Kong sat together in the control booth overlooking the Smash Run arena. A small monitor on the control panel before them displayed a shadow-obscured face.

"Good," the person on the monitor replied, "I just have a few things to finish up here, and then I'll be joining you shortly. Tell me, how are our competitors doing?"

"A little underwhelming at the moment, sir," Fox said. "So far, they're still struggling with the first waves of enemies. Only two of them have figured out the power-up system yet."

The shadow man laughed. "Well, they will catch on in time. What about the Wii Fit Trainer? How is she faring?"

"Not well, sir. As you requested, she and the boy named Villager are both receiving double the amount of enemies as the other, and they are both currently overwhelmed."

A cruel smile spread itself across the face of the man on the computer screen. "Very good."