Author Note: So excited, so excited… Oh! Hi guys, I think I was writing what I just thought XD. This chapter will be on Matthew's POV, and the countdown has fallen to 1! This chapter will contain quite some action and fights and everything! I hope I made the Judo fight right, I looked for a lot of information about the techniques, but as I'm not in Judo I'm not sure… despite I think it'll be good. I hope you enjoy it and review.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Countdown to the end: 1 (I must be your prey)
"I feel dizzy"
I came to wake up in the morning. I slept more than twelve hours; at 7:00 P.M I drank a can of coke and fell asleep and now 7:00 A.M I was awake. I was given a shutdown, they really didn't want me to go and I couldn't blame them, after all who knew if I were going to fall on Wolf's control again? That didn't make me feel better for being left behind. I stared at Vatra; my beam sword reminded me my many battles on the past. Not participating in this one, a decisive battle, made me feel bad. But Pit was right at one thing; Mario never talked me back. I didn't want to believe it, but somewhere inside me I knew he was somehow dead. He came back to me and I could shape shift to his form, but his voice, his soul, his essence was gone. There was no longer a tray of his life. I shed some tears, Mario was one of the few people who never lost confidence in me, even when Wolf seemed to be able to control me for good, he stood for me and he supported me. Since the beginning, no matter how bad might I have treated him, he was always there for me. I never could return the favor… no, there was something I still could. With my own hands, with my blade, I could end the battle once and for all. I had to do it, no matter if Pit forbade that, even if my mother tried to stop me, I had to go and stop this madness once and for all.
I changed my clothes; I searched for something that would be fit to fight. I wore sneakers, diving trousers, a light cotton shirt and a big black jacket in order to cover my body against the sand of the desert.
I got out of my room slowly and quietly hopping not to wake anyone up. Luckily the house was empty; they probably already left. My only trouble was the mean to get there. The first time I got in the desert was because Gabriel was still on our side. Now, what could I possible use in order to get there and fast? Pit might have already taken everyone there.
I got out of the house hopping that some idea would rush into my head in order to get there, but there was not need of it. I stared at Falco who had his airwing landed in my garden. The house had to be empty to have no one noticing the big plain on our garden.
"Do you need a ride? Lord Wolf is waiting for you"
"And so I am"
It could work. I knew it was a trap, but that would take me there and if I acted according to a protocol I would be able to take Wolf down in a surprise attack. I would act as I was going to surrender myself to him, but in fact I would only wait for the chance to backstab him with Vatra.
Falco seemed suspicious by my attitude; he expected that I would offer some resistance, he was ready to fight, but still he let me in and I took a seat on the co-pilot seat. Then he got in and the airwing got in the air fast as it took off in a matter of seconds. It was even faster than Gabriel's landmaster; it was a ship designed for fast aerial combat, the only vehicle I ever saw matching the airwing speed was Kirby's dragoon.
The ship arrived to the building in a matter of minutes. The atmosphere inside was of deep silence that bothered Falco a lot. We both got off the airwing when it landed on a parking lot for ships. I was amazed by its huge side; inside there were many different battleships like the Halberd and the Falcon flyer, to be able to hold those ships in such a tiny place.
I heard an explosion. Falco sighed.
"Intruders" he commented "Your friends are causing quite some mess"
"They won't be my friends after I do this"
My statement was worth to win some trust by Falco, he had no real experience in reading expressions and he was quite ingenuous. We walked as the battle seemed to intensify, where could they be fighting? The sounds seemed pretty close, but no structure was damaged nearby so that meant that the sounds were a lot times bigger than what we heard, they must have been in some other room or even outside the building fighting in the desert while making a great mess. As I walked forwards I gulped, I could not fail on this, I would be only given a split second chance to kill Wolf and I could not waste it like I did the last time. This time Vatra would pierce his heart and I would end this madness.
"Do you remember this room?" Falco asked me.
"Yes" I could not forget it; the tobacco scent coming from the inside, the blue door that I destroyed last time, the cold atmosphere. It was Wolf's room "Here Wolf and I spoke"
"I think you might be surprised. Something has been changed pretty soon"
When the door was opened I could not believe what I saw. The man sitting in the main chair of the room with his feet on the table was not the anthropomorphic wolf that messed with my mind every five minutes, but my whole life rival Robert, the man covered in a black cape with a wolf's crest, wearing military boots, jeans and a black T-shirt. It was the man that I fought many times when we were little, the same man we always competed with and the man that helped me out on my hardest times. I smiled after processing the image.
"How's that Falco? It seems Robert took care of Wolf before I could deceive him"
Falco stared at me smiling me back, for what reason? Robert was there with a triumphal pose; he obviously found the way to defeat Wolf and he was enjoying himself for that… or so I wanted to believe, but as soon my eyes analyzed his face I discovered that his face resembled a victory, but it was not Robert's usual face when he was victorious, it was different. As soon as he lighted a cigarette I became cold. He despised people who smoked and he swore to never do that as that would make harder to him fight in Judo. He was not the kind of person who would ever do that. Then when our eyes met a feeling crossed around to my body when I realized a faint crimson glow in his eyes. My eyes started burning in anger as my mouth got dry.
"WOLF!" I shouted as I rushed towards Robert unleashing Vatra.
Robert smiled me back. He kicked his desk and it slid back at high speed. The desk hit my waist and I flew backwards crashing with the wall outside the room. For an instance I could not breathe correctly and I immediately turned into Mario to kick the desk back to Robert who just broke it into two with a punch. He stared at me.
"No, no, no" He said as he shook his head "We must fight in our human selves, do you see me as Wolf?"
"What has happened to Yoshi?" I asked.
Robert pointed at a corner of the white room and I could see that there it lied an egg spreading green aura, was that Yoshi's soul? My anger increased as I turned the blade off and headed to punch Robert, but instead Falco's head was the one hit by my fist, protecting Robert from the impact. Then he grabbed my arm and kicked my waist.
"You heard Lord Wolf" he said to me as his kneel clashed against my stomach "Shape shift back to your human self! Lord Wolf is accomplishing Robert's desire!"
I could not understand what that meant, Robert's desire? Did he want to take me down? Of course he wanted to as much as I wanted to do as well, but I knew he would not sell his soul for that reason. No, I knew Robert, being rivals made us to know each other well, he knew me and I knew him, we were not strangers. I stared at Robert's face and for an instance the crimson glow was gone showing a desire for a fight pretty strong. He told Falco to stop and he grabbed my neck to punch my face.
"Shape shift back" he commanded "This is not a smasher battle, but our battle"
"Are those your words? Robert?"
He nodded and I shape shifted back to my human self. It was reckless to do as I was told, if he wanted to fight on his human form I would have advantage on Mario's form, but somehow my pride was bigger than my duty to win, I felt that if I fought Robert as Mario it would only mean that I was acknowledging that he was stronger and I didn't want to do that. You can call me immature or stupid, but my pride and anger burned as hell inside me. Falco walked backwards as I took a fighting instance. Robert smiled.
"This is not a place to fight" he said softly "I prepared an arena just for our showdown Matthew. Let's see who is the strongest"
He snapped his fingers and in a flash we were on a gym like room. It reminded me the dojo we always assisted to. It was huge, like a stadium, it had even terraces for spectators who were not at the place. The floor was made of concrete painted of dark green. It seemed like the Pokémon Stadium stage on Super Smash Bros Brawl. I raised my arms and put them in front of my chest waiting for Robert to make the first move. I had patient enough, I had to watch closely to his move in order to counter it.
He moved fast and head to punch my face. Despite his great speed I was able to avoid the punch by sliding around his arm and in a fast move I both grabbed his right arm with my left arm and I slid my right foot in the air in order to grab his ankle and make him fall. That move was called Osoto-guruma. Then I slid my body to the ground taking Robert's body down with me while my right arm punched his waist and then I threw him backwards with both arms. My arms were strong enough to send him some feet above the ground, but Robert could make an aerial recover and he fell on the ground, but his left handed touched the ground and he flipped backwards a few times until he jumped and landed into the floor standing still. I headed to him next in order to give him a hard kick in his head, but he just bent to dodge my kick and he grabbed it with both hands and he threw me to the right. I rolled in the ground a little bit, while he ran towards me in order to kick my head, but when the kick was about to hit me I rolled once again and then with my leg I kicked his ankle making him lose his balance. He fell down giving me time to stand up and I didn't doubt on kicking his waist. The hit managed to impact him, but he barely felt it as he rolled before it could be severe damage and he got up in no time. His next move was fast and I was not able to read it through. He seemed to be about to punch my head, but when I tried to avoid the punch he changed of tactic and he bent in order to rush for my stomach and he grabbed me with his both arms holding my arms and my both kneels. I forgot that Kata-guruma was one of Robert's specialties on Judo fighting. Know my body was immobilized by his hands that held my only ways to escape as he let himself fall backwards using me as a pillow in order for me to take the brunt of the floor hit, while he would feel nothing. It was a hard hit, my head received the worst of it along with my back, but as soon as I felt his arms relaxed I forced my leg to kick his back freeing myself from his control. I rolled backwards while I stood up a little bit dizzy. Robert wasn't fourth dan for nothing and also he held Wolf's powers with him. He seemed barely tired as I already suffered the worst of a head hit.
But just as Robert had a specialty on Judo I had one as well that I could use as a counter to the next Robert movement. He headed forwards to me and this time I was able to read through his movement. I grabbed his left arm and I took it to my neck while I bent, making Robert's whole body to rise in the air. Then with my left arm I took his cape and I threw him forwards making him to hit the floor. It was a hard hit to his back. I could feel that he was upset for not reading the Seoi-nage I just made. I won most of my Judo battles with that move.
He rolled in the floor as he got up. Then he stared at me smiling. That pissed me off and I headed in order to look for an opening to attack, but he just avoided my punch and grabbed my elbow with his left arm making me roll as he uncovered a beam sword that he had hidden in his belt. He took it and unleashed the edge while I rolled, but I did the same and the light blades crashed making sparks as we both glared at each other. My blade began to spread fire waves, while his blade started to spread green aura that seemed to be neutralizing my fire. We both jumped backwards and headed for another slashed. Each other hit was stopped by each other's blade.
"Since when do you hold a beam sword?"
"If you had Vatra the fight would have not be on equal terms if I did not hold a weapon"
The blades got apart and I made a straight slash to my front, but Robert jumped way higher to what any human could ever do, he must have been using Wolf's abilities. I stared at his jump way too long, because he was going to slash me as he was about to land, but I managed just in time to jump backwards and avoid the hit. The floor was cut into pieces and dust rose in the area, which made me impossible to see when Robert headed forwards to me. His slash clashed with mine, but his was way stronger than mine and he sent me flying backwards. I stopped at the edge of the stadium and he ran fast enough to catch me in a matter of seconds but I just moved to the right in order to avoid his attempt to stab me. Then I started slashing many times; but every slash was avoided by Robert. Then he rolled to the right and he managed to almost hit me in my lung, but our blades clashed and this time both of us put as much flames and aura as we could, which lead to send both blades backwards in middle of the waves. Then I shape shifted to Mario and he shape shifted to Wolf.
I found it funny, one miss step and we could be standing in each other shoes right back then. Just a little mistake and I would be Wolf and he would be Yoshi, I would be fighting to destroy him and he would fight to end the madness. The case was the inverse now, he was Wolf and I was Mario fighting to end the madness. His claws were stopped by my hands.
I glared at him.
"Didn't you want to fight in human shape?"
"I wanted to fight you on equal terms in all kind of battles" he answered "now that we already did the Judo and the sword fight, what is it left than smash battle"
"Ha!" I said as my arms tried to push his claws back "I will only recognize a true smash battle with you when you shape shift to Yoshi"
"Then too bad for you"
"Is that really you talking to me, Robert?"
He did not answer, he just sent a kick in order to hit my face, but I jumped backwards. There was nothing to hold, he was not Robert anymore, and if I defeated him maybe I would find a way to save him. So I let the flames on my body to spread. I didn't prepare the final smash, I gathered as much flames as I could in order to become Fire Mario. I glared at Robert; he was now the Wolf who took the whole Mario life out of him.
Some memories came back to me as it usual when you prepare to kill someone; Robert was always teasing me because I was weaker than him. I hated him, I wanted to become stronger than him, and he always made me feel bad and weak. So why now I feel like I was preparing to kill a friend? Despite I always saw him as a rival I did care for him as I thought he did for me. He helped me out many times despite we despised each other. And now it was the same outcome that came with Gabriel. I felt so much rage; Wolf was taking every people around me! Destroying them! I wanted to kill him.
He didn't either prepare his final smash, nor he spread some kind of aura, he just stared at how I tried to gather the energy to kill him. The flames around me made me strong and fast. I headed towards him at high speed, but he stopped me without moving, his telekinesis was strong enough to stop my body, but he had to jump backwards because the flames covering my body were not stopped and while he had an opening when he jumped backwards I headed forwards in order to impact a punch in his face that spread flames all around his body, but he was able to decrease the damage as he used his reflector with perfect timing. The flames were sent back to me, but they could not harm me. I glared at Wolf as he headed for a hand to hand combat that was very fair matched. I made a super jump punch and I hit his chin while fire spread around his body, but he kicked me on the waist sending me downwards to the floor as he took his gun out and he shot me several times with it. The laser hit me many times paralyzing me and he managed to get back on the floor to kick my face. The zone of his eye patch was quite burned by the fire and my waist held a lot of bruises as I breathe heavily. Then he prepared to unleash his final smash, I could tell as the usual Robert's green aura spread around his body. If I could barely keep a fighting against him in my fire form I had no chance if he unleashed his final smash, so I gave him no time to do so. I sent flames to trap his body and paralyze it, while in my hand I tried to give the fire a sword shape in order to pierce his chest. But what I pierced was not Wolf.
"Why?" Wolf asked; no, it was not Wolf but Robert.
"Because I love you, brother"
My head started shaking as my eyes stared confused and despaired to the shape I stabbed. It was Yoshi; he protected Wolf's chest with his own. He seemed weak as he bled and then his whole form returned to be an egg once again, but the green aura seemed weaker, faint and fading.
"NO!" we both shouted.
Robert got free of Wolf's control when he saw Yoshi dying, but at the same time he got angry at me as he never has. He hit my face with a strong punch and I was sent backwards. He ran towards me and he slashed my back with his claws opening a big injure on my body. Then I was kicked on the waist and in the face several times. I thought it was the end; Wolf had no longer control on Robert and he wanted to kill me.
But something stopped his claws. It was Pit's halberd.
