Ash-Greninja vs. Metal Gear EXCELSUS... excuse me, I'm just giddy from getting to write what basically equates to "cool vs. awesome."
Back to your regularly scheduled programming!
Greninja leapt off a floating landmass and dived straight at Metal Gear EXCELSUS, driving one of his kunai into the robot. Seeing Raiden zip around on the hind legs of the robot, Greninja pulled the shuriken off his back and tossed it at the cockpit, causing the pilot to use one of the recently installed flamethrowers to try and cook him where he stood. Greninja had already leapt out of the way, however, and he shot a Dark Pulse from one hand before flinging a Night Slash-imbibed kunai from the other towards the cockpit. Landing on one of the Metal Gear's six legs, Greninja used Water Shuriken to cut a chunk of metal off its leg before using Fling to draw the attention of one of the robot's blade arms by throwing the hunk of metal at one of the blades that Raiden was fighting.
The blade swiveled over to Greninja, who took the shuriken off his back and held it like a sword, preparing for the robot's sword to come down on his head. However, Greninja looked at the shadow that the Metal Gear was casting over him, and, formulating a plan, he melted away into a pool of shadow before materializing on top of the blade arm. Curling up one of his webbed hands into a fist, a crimson glow came over it and Greninja used Power-Up Punch, actually leaving a small dent in the Metal Gear's arm. Greninja used the move again, and the dent became even deeper. Feeling stronger than he had been before, Greninja then jumped down and drove another kunai into one of the Metal Gear's legs, which caused it to emit a high-pitched screech and shake Greninja off its leg.
Landing on the ground in a three-point stance, Greninja looked up and saw that a plate on the Metal Gear's leg was beginning to slide off, revealing several cannons that then proceeded to fire a swarm of Bull's-Eye Bills in Greninja's direction. Creating another pair of pressurized water kunai, Greninja threw them at the incoming bullets, slicing two of them in half, before jumping up into the swarm of Bull's-Eye Bills with another loud croak.
Jumping off one Bull's-Eye Bill, Greninja then made a chain and sickle out of water to slice up several more before using Rock Slide, causing a small avalanche to crush several more of the bullets, and Greninja climbed up the falling boulders before shooting himself back towards the Metal Gear's leg with two powerful bursts of Hydro Pump. Landing, Greninja noticed that the word 'Desperado' had been scratched off EXCELSUS' leg and replaced by 'Property of the Smithy Gang and Kremkroc Industries.' Paying it no mind, Greninja generated two small shurikens in his hands and threw them at the cockpit, but one of the robot's sword arms blocked the stars of compressed water before swiveling towards Raiden, who was too busy dodging his way around the plasma cannons to notice that the sword arm was swinging towards his head.
Greninja flung the shuriken that resided on his back in Raiden's direction before vaulting over two of the Metal Gear's six legs and flicking one of his webbed fingers away from himself to use Hydro Pump and blast himself towards the cyborg ninja with the recoil. Once he landed, he looked up to see that his shuriken had made contact before jumping away from a blast of searing hot plasma. Raiden, meanwhile, was caught off guard by the Metal Gear's sword arm suddenly changing into a hand, which then picked him up and scraped him jaw-first on its leg as if it were scratching an itch, causing Raiden's jaw to glow white-hot before he broke free and chopped off the hand with his HF Blade.
Meanwhile, Snake reluctantly took out one of his five flare grenades and examined it before asking, "Hey Hal, d'you think we could end up making this work or something?"
"Well, with the stuff that we've pulled off over the last several years... I'd say there's a fifty-fifty chance of this working."
"Perfect." Looking at Wolf, Snake asked, "You think you could give me a ride to that Metal Gear over there, buster?"
Wolf looked at the battered body of his ship, still sporting damages from the clash with Miracle Matter, and reluctantly nodded, but not before wagging a finger at Snake and saying, "I'm warning you, Plissken, any additional damages that happen to my ship are coming out of your pocket once the tournament starts up." Running a claw along the chassis, the lupine mercenary continued, "These parts aren't exactly cheap, mind you..."
Snake smirked before replying, "No promises," before hopping onto the left wing of the Wolfen. Punching the ignition, Wolf hacked out another cluster of spores into his hand, still feeling the effects of the Shroobs' experimentation, and with a roar, the Wolfen achieved liftoff and flew towards Metal Gear EXCELSUS.
Wolf, looking through the cockpit, blanched upon seeing that there were laser cannons on the robot, which, from the looks of it, had been recently installed, and he opened the glass dome that protected the cockpit, where he saw that Snake had the same expression present on his face. Looking at Snake, Wolf, with a bit of a false bravado present in his voice, said, "Better start saving your funds, then," before closing the glass dome.
After a bit, the two of them were able to see just how big the Metal Gear was.
Metal Gear EXCELSUS was humongous, being nearly triple the size of Metal Gear REX, and with every step it took, trees toppled, Keese scattered, and even the stratospheric tower of what appeared to be human flesh and other miscellaneous parts seemed to be shaking off in the distance. Pointing one of the plasma cannons towards the ship that had just flown into its general range, the pilot fired, and a bolt of searing-hot plasma raced towards the ship, Wolf barely managing to swerve out of the way.
Snake gradually eased himself back up, having clung onto a part of the Wolfen as best he could to avoid getting thrown off when Wolf swerved. Knocking on Wolf's cockpit, he waited until the lupine mercenary opened the glass dome, and once he did, Snake ignored the irritated look that Wolf was shooting him before explaining, "Look, we clearly can't stay in that thing's vicinity for too long because we're eventually going to get shot out out the sky. We just need to get our big hits in and then we can try and assist those two from a distance."
A slightly impressed look present on his face, Wolf remarked, "Not a bad plan, Plissken. You've got that grenade launcher from last time, right?" Snake pulled out a grenade launcher and nodded, and Wolf mockingly saluted, saying, "Bon voyage, captain." Punching the ignition again, the Wolfen sped towards Metal Gear EXCELSUS, which was trying to slice apart Raiden and Greninja with the use of its retractable blades, but the two ninjas were simply too nimble for the big blade. Another round of Bull's-Eye Bills came from below, and Greninja began charging a Power-Up Punch in response, however, the homing Bullet Bills flew away from the two of them and towards something flying above them, much to the two's confusion.
The pilot inside the Metal Gear took advantage of the distraction by swinging one of the blade arms towards Greninja and Raiden, knocking them off the EXCELSUS' leg and onto a nearby floating island.
Snake looked down and tossed his flare grenade, and the Bull's-Eye Bills began chasing after it instead.
Greninja growled a little upon recovering from being launched onto the island and was about to hop right back into the action until Raiden moved his HF Blade in front of Greninja. The Ninja Pokémon gave Raiden a quizzical look, but the cyborg rasped, "Look at the smoke... that's a flare grenade." Keeping the same perplexed look on his face, Greninja waited until Raiden continued, "It's likely that someone's signaling an airstrike. It's best that we don't get blown up in the crossfire."
Sure enough, seven missiles flew in from different locations, each of them homing for the Metal Gear. One by one, the missiles struck, and the Metal Gear actually appeared to be staggered by the bombardment.
Meanwhile, up above, Snake tightened his bandanna, pulled out his grenade launcher, and said, "It's showtime!" before firing an entire round, which consisted of half a dozen grenades, at the reeling mecha. After another ear-splitting screech, Snake jammed another six rounds into the barrel and let loose, drowning the Metal Gear in a sea of explosions. Waiting for the smoke to subside, Snake peered over the edge of the Wolfen's wing in curiosity, and cursed at what he saw when the last of the smoke had cleared.
A massive crater had been created by the massive amount of explosives, with several Gekkos surrounding said crater, but EXCELSUS was nowhere in sight. Snake, from up above, began closely looking for any signs of the Metal Gear, as he knew from experience that no Metal Gear, not even RAY, could vanish in such a fashion. Noticing a gaping hole on the crater's side, Snake turned to the cockpit and yelled, "It's tunneled under!"
Growling at what he had heard, Wolf flew towards the ground, his ship transforming into its Hunter form while Snake jumped off and used his Cypher to fly over to a nearby island. Once Snake landed, he was confronted by both Raiden and Greninja, the former asking, "Was that you up above?"
Snake nodded before asking, "How are we supposed to take that thing down?"
"I used the sword arm to destroy it. Shame I didn't kill the pilot as well the first time around..."
"Who was the pilot?"
"Senator Armstrong."
Taking in a sharp inhale, Snake mused, "Well, I can't say that nutjob didn't get what he deserved with his death..."
Raiden nodded, his voice trailing off with a quiet, "Yeah..."
As the conversation went on, Greninja noticed that the cliff where the rest of their allies were was shaking, and Snake and Raiden looked at the cliffside upon hearing a massive rumble that caused some rocks to tumble. Greninja scaled the entire cliff in a single bound, while Raiden hopped off of several small islands to reach the top of the cliff, leaving trails of lightning in his wake. Snake eyed a patch of sparkling particles on one of the islands that Raiden had jumped onto, and he used his Cypher to fly to that island, remembering what Hal had told him about the particles when they had first arrived at the Mysterious Dimension. Landing on the island, Snake stepped onto the particles, which slowly began to lift him off the ground and bring him up.
Looking down, Snake muttered, "Life finds a way to surprise me every time..." before grabbing onto the edge of the cliff and pulling himself up. Looking around, he saw that everyone except Matthew was staring at the ground warily, expecting something to emerge and attack them, judging by how the tremors had gotten louder and closer.
Looking in front of him, Popo noticed that the ground near himself and Nana was getting uncomfortably warm—even for them—and he and his girlfriend backed up slowly, holding their Squall Hammers in front of them as a defensive measure. Snake and Bayonetta also noticed the fact that certain parts of the ground were glowing white, and all of a sudden, two beams of white-hot plasma shot through the ground, knocking almost everyone to the ground.
For a few more seconds, there was absolutely no sound, save for metal scraping and crumpling underneath something, and then all hell broke loose.
Several Gekkos jumped out of the holes that had been made by the plasma lasers, causing both Snake and Raiden to curse before utilizing their experience to take down several of them. Snake, upon shooting a Gekko in its legs with a tranquilizer dart, immobilizing it as a result, looked at the others and said, "Go for the legs, head, or underside and you'll be fine. Just watch out for any stray kicks or bullets," before taking out his SOCOM and shooting a small orb on the Gekko's head to demonstrate, causing it to thrash and spew black lactic acid in its death throes before collapsing. Once that was done, Snake began pulling out his grenades and throwing them at the Gekko swarm to lure them towards him.
The group, now armed with the knowledge of how to take down the robots, leapt into action.
Joker slid underneath one Gekko before using his grappling hook to tie its legs together, and, with an assist from Captain Falcon, brought down the robot before destroying it with a combination of Falcon Punch and Odin's Wild Thunder.
Dr. Mario, with some effort, heaved Incineroar onto his shoulders with a fireman's carry and flung him as hard as he could, right onto the head of the Gekko, and, Incineroar, after a gruff laugh, stomped on the orb before jumping off and landing on the ground, while behind him, the Gekko was smashed to bits courtesy of King Dedede's Jet Hammer. As he raised a finger in celebration, he heard a stomp behind him, and turned around to see that a Gekko had a gun pointed right at his face.
Out of the corner of his eye, Cloud saw that Incineroar was staring down a Gekko that had its gun pointed at him, and he quickly used Big Guard before sliding underneath another Gekko and using Climhazzard to cut through its body, emerging from its top covered in black gunge. Wiping some of it off the Buster Sword, he pointed the oversized blade at another Gekko and blasted it with Thundaga, blowing up the orb that resided on its head and causing it to spew the same black gunge all over the floor.
Meanwhile, Incineroar had come to his senses, and destroyed the machine gun with a Fire Punch once it fired a few bullets that harmlessly bounced off thanks to Cloud's Big Guard, before going underneath the Gekko and charging his hands up with Electric-type energy right before leaping up into the Gekko's underside with an electrified Cross Chop, and then emerging out from the bottom again, standing underneath the Gekko as lactic acid poured out of its body.
From behind a rock, Fox was acting as the group's sharpshooter, picking off Gekkos by using his sniper rifle and occasionally lobbing grenades and Smart Bombs to cull the horde. Jamming another cartridge into his rifle, Fox shot a Gekko that was right about to stomp on Kirby and the Piranha Plant, causing it to spew... something before collapsing. A disgusted expression forming on his face, Fox then swiveled his rifle to his right and was about to shoot another Gekko before hearing something land right next to him. Taking a look, Fox panicked upon seeing that it was a grenade, and he quickly scooped it up and threw it as hard as he could. The grenade exploded in midair, and Fox turned his attention back to the Gekko he had his sights on, only to see that Popo and Nana had already crushed its orb.
Corrin catapulted herself onto the head of a Gekko using her pin before running its orb through with Dragon Lunge, and then launching herself onto another Gekko with the pin. Nearby, Solo ended up shattering a Gekko into bits of metal and organic muscle with a simple upwards sword thrust to its underside, his Zenithian Sword emitting a noise that sounded a lot like bones shattering as he did so. Stepping through the black puddle of sludge that the Gekko had left behind with cautious trepidation, Solo used Kaswoosh to propel himself into the air and used Magic Burst, managing to blow up several Gekkos before falling back to the ground, his magical energy being completely exhausted.
Mega Man, surrounded by Gekkos that all had machine guns trained onto him, threw up the Star Crash and the Jewel Satellite just as they opened fire. The gunfire shredded the stars and shattered the diamonds, but the Blue Bomber kept replenishing them, taking a few bullets every time he did so. Fighting through the pain, Mega Man used the last bits of ammunition he had for both weapons, managing to hold back the last of the bullets. Equipping the Acid Barrier, Mega Man ran under a Gekko and melted its underside before climbing in, causing the Gekko to moo in pain as he worked his way to the top of its robotic body. Switching back to the Mega Buster, he took aim at another Gekko and shot the orb on its head with a well-aimed Charge Shot, causing it to spew black lactic acid before collapsing.
To the Blue Bomber's right, Matthew, still in a stupor from the previous day—time was relative in the Mysterious Dimension—snapped to his senses when he heard a Gekko stomp up to him, and in a panic, he reached for his sword and thrusted it towards the Gekko's underside, getting out of the way of the lactic acid that spilled shortly afterwards. Preparing to unleash Megiddo to finish the job, Matthew raised up his sword and swung it forward... but nothing came out. Confused, the Adept looked down at the sword, which, unlike the Sol Blade, was silver and tainted with blue splotches along the blade.
Meanwhile, Snake noticed that a dark aura was beginning to form around Matthew, but he was quickly sidetracked by a Gekko mooing right in front of him before jumping up in an attempt to stomp on him. The Gekko never touched the ground, however, because Bayonetta caught it with an Afterburner Kick before dragging it off the cliff with continuous strikes. Once she did that, she used Afterburner Kick to get back to the cliff, where she strode past Snake, twirling Love is Blue in one hand while cheekily asking, "So, where's my thank you?"
Snake did not answer, and instead planted a landmine where he stood, intending to trip up any Gekkos that came near his 'zone,' while nearby, Popo and Nana smashed a Gekko's orb before using Belay to hop onto another and repeating the process, clearing the field for the other Smashers.
While all that was going on, Greninja and Raiden were at the epicenter of the chaos, Greninja constantly having to plug the holes that EXCELSUS had made earlier with Rock Slide every time another squadron of Gekkos exited from them, while Raiden sliced and diced most of the Gekkos that came his way, the stragglers being picked off by both Greninja and Fox.
Eventually, Greninja managed to plug up the holes for good, the previously massive Gekko horde being reduced to roughly a dozen or so that were either being sniped by Fox or handled by the others.
Once the last Gekko was felled by Raiden, who sliced it up into bits, the group stopped to catch their breath while Raiden stalked over to a Gekko that was still relatively whole before using Zandatsu to cut it open and retrieve its fuel cells with expert precision. Before they could get too comfortable, however, the group heard a metallic screech, causing them to go into high alert, surveying the area for any signs of EXCELSUS.
Another plasma laser burst through the ground, and once it died down, something red and silver was flung out of the hole. Raiden snarled a little and prepared to charge at the object, but Snake held a hand out to his former trainee to tell him to wait. Something sounded from inside the wreckage, making everyone else freeze up in alarm, and Snake cautiously walked forward, where he saw that the object was heavily crumpled and metallic. Hearing another scratching noise, Snake pointed his SOCOM at the thing, and then he heard glass shatter, followed by a liquid spilling out from the back. Snake took a step back, coolly keeping his pistol pointed at the object.
A brutally beaten Wolf O'Donnell stumbled out from behind his utterly wrecked Wolfen, covered in the purple liquid while clutching at his head. Looking up, he saw that Snake was pointing his pistol at him, and he weakly drawled, "You're paying out of pocket when we resolve this, Plissken," before collapsing to the ground.
"Wolf!"
Fox ran up to his rival and dragged him over to Solo, asking, "Look, I've seen the stuff that Cloud and Matthew have done, you can heal him, right?" When Solo didn't answer, Fox asked again, "Right?"
After a small delay, Solo responded, "Oh, of course!" before reaching into his satchel for a pouch full of medicinal herbs.
Nearby, Snake asked, "That's not what I think it is, right?"
Solo looked at Snake with a look of utter confusion present on his face before cramming a couple of herbs into Wolf's mouth and forcing him to chew and swallow. After a bit, Wolf's eye flew open, and he scrambled back, pointing his gun at Solo with a shaky hand before lowering it once he realized who he was aiming it at. Looking at Fox, Wolf growled, "We're out of options for that thing," gesturing towards his wrecked Wolfen to emphasize that fact.
Before Fox could ask anything else, the ground began to rumble, and from out of one of the plugged up holes, a huge robotic fist smashed through the boulders and snagged Solo in its grasp.
Metal Gear EXCELSUS burst out of the ground and let out a metallic roar, causing Greninja and Raiden to spring into action, while Dr. Mario sprinted after the others, thinking, "I really wish Mario told me more about his space travels..."
Matthew, having switched back to the Sol Blade, unleashed Megiddo, and the miniature sun exploded right in front of EXCELSUS' cockpit, blinding the pilot inside, which allowed for Raiden and Greninja to begin their assault. Resheathing the Sol Blade, Matthew took out the sword that he had been holding before that and looked at it closely, noticing the streaks and splotches of blue and black that were running across the blade. Holding the sword in front of himself, he noticed that a familiar aura was beginning to pool at his feet, and in a panic, he quickly sheathed his sword before tripping over a rock and stumbling backwards into a tangle of thorns.
Groaning in pain, Matthew, upon sitting up, found himself still surrounded by that same black aura, and he sheathed the sword while picking several thorns out of both his jacket and hand.
It might've been a figment of his imagination, but Matthew swore he heard a voice that said, "Thou must not succumb to the Abyss' pull, traveler, lest thou suffer the same sorry fate as that knight..." Pushing the thought out of his head, the Adept ran towards the humongous robot, where he saw that most of his allies had already begun fighting it.
Mega Man switched to the Metal Blade and let loose with four of the buzzsaws, managing to leave several deep cuts in the Metal Gear's armor, giving it a new target. Raising up its damaged arm, EXCELSUS revealed that the sword underneath had not been hacked off, and it swung the sword in Mega Man's direction... only to find that he was not there. The Blue Bomber then deactivated the Chroma Camo before using the Sharp Knuckle to get a grip on one of the Metal Gear's legs.
Metal Gear EXCELSUS then began to back up to where its severed hand lay, and, upon shaking Mega Man off, grabbed the appendage and reattached it to its stump of an arm, giving it two hands once again.
On the ground, Raiden growled, "You've gotta be fucking kidding... that thing has nanomachines?!"
Snake took out his RPG-7 and fired a rocket right at the Metal Gear's cockpit, but when the explosion cleared, the cockpit appeared to be no worse for wear, causing the mercenary to curse while, to his right, Bayonetta asked him and Raiden, "You need that thing to be completely destroyed, right?" Raiden nodded, and Bayonetta, a cheeky grin having worked its way onto her face, continued, "I'll be sure to show that hunk of metal a good time!"
Snake, with a slight smile on his face, replied, "Whatever you say, Sex Pistols..."
Activating her Panther Within, Bayonetta transformed into a sleek-looking panther that had her jewelry adorned upon its neck, and she bounded over a volley of Bull's Eye Bills, before running up the Metal Gear's body, disengaging from Panther Within as she did so. EXCELSUS fired its plasma cannons before trying to swat Bayonetta out of the air with its reattached hand, but she narrowly dodged the gigantic fist, activating Witch Time as she did so.
Taking advantage of the fact that she could move at regular speed in the slowed time, the Umbra Witch lunged at the reattached hand with Afterburner Kick, and just as time began to move normally once more, she used a kick amplified by Wicked Weaves, causing the arm to do a full rotation from the force of the impact, while in the other hand, Solo used Kaswoosh to blast himself out of its grasp.
The sun blazed brightly over the Smashers' heads, but they paid it no mind, the humongous robot in front of them having the preoccupied.
Banjo leapt off a Shock Spring Pad before using Wonderwing to hit the Scorpion Sentinel once more, its tail not being up that it did not retaliate with its laser. As the robot staggered, Sonic rushed in and blitzed it with a scissor kick before using a spring to jump up in the air and get a foothold on the wall. Sprinting down to the ground, Sonic kicked the Doc Robot before coming to a screeching halt and dashing back in with a sliding tackle, causing Quick Man, from inside the Doc Robot, to exclaim, "I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG!"
Chuckling, Sonic thought to himself, "I've heard that one way too many times..."
Sonic then Spin Dashed away from the Doc Robot upon looking at what was behind it, and before it could react, it was stabbed through the chest with a barbed point, and a voice roared, "GET OVER HERE!"
Ridley yanked his tail backwards, pulling the Doc Robot into his waiting grip. With a vicious snarl, the former Space Pirate placed both of his hands on the Doc Robot's head and began to press down, the metal beginning to crumple the harder he pressed. The Doc Robot raised its arm cannon and aimed for Ridley's head, but with an annoyed snort, he bit the arm cannon clean off and spit it aside before driving the claws on his thumbs into the eyes of the Doc Robot, resulting in sparks flying out of its eye sockets.
"Back to the scrapyard with you." Ridley crushed the Doc Robot's head, causing it to shut down, but he still kept the body skewered on his tail before taking flight, having formulated a plan against the Scorpion Sentinel, who had just flung Ryu up into the air. With another screech, Ridley did a front flip while descending, slamming the Doc Robot's body onto the Scorpion Sentinel's head.
K. Rool, meanwhile, watched as Donkey Kong charged up a Giant Punch, and he quickly came up with an idea to both hit the robot and humiliate his archnemesis at the same time. Pulling out his Blunderbuss, K. Rool adjusted the dial on the side to the 'Suction' setting and vacuumed DK just as he finished winding his arm up. Taking aim, he ignored Diddy's indignant shouts before firing Donkey Kong right at the tail of the Scorpion Sentinel.
DK, after a slight panic, reared back his fist and punched as hard as he could, blasting the tail right off the Scorpion Sentinel... and being launched right into the wall, muttering to himself, "I am getting that overgrown lizard back if it's the last thing I do," before fainting. Nearby, Meggy and Evan zipped right underneath the underside of the robot before turning around and jamming Splat Bombs down its gullet. After a moment, the explosives detonated, causing the robot to hack out a mixture of blue and orange ink.
Evan then flung a Squid Beakon onto the metallic beast's back, and Meggy Super Jumped towards the Beakon, activating a Splashdown mid-jump. When the massive explosion of orange ink subsided, it was revealed that there was a massive dent in the Scorpion Sentinel's back.
Roaring, the Scorpion Sentinel raised its claws and swung them inward towards Link, but the Hylian Champion backflipped and lunged in for a Flurry Rush with the Master Sword before sliding underneath it and smashing its underside open with both a shield bash and a trio of swings from a Savage Lynel Crusher, revealing circuitry and several ruptured vessels of oil, which began pouring onto Link.
Banjo then pulled Kazooie out of his backpack, and she cricked her own neck, saying, "We'll show you something, you nutty bucket of bolts!" as Banjo began to wield her like a shotgun, firing several Grenade Eggs at the robot, some of which went down its mouth and exploded, weakening the Scorpion Sentinel even further. Finally, the Luminary lunged forward with Metal Slash while Geno launched a Geno Whirl right at the beast's neck, lopping the robot's head right off.
Zelda then made sure the Scorpion Sentinel would stay down by using the Triforce of Wisdom to seal away the body, her hand glowing with a gold light as she summoned the triangle.
Ridley shook the Doc Robot's body off his tail and stomped on it, crushing it to bits before stalking towards the door, where he saw King K. Rool—now in his Baron K. Roolenstein disguise—punching an access code into the door and saying, "There! That should do it!"
K. Roolenstein punched in the code—which was 1996—and the door slid open, revealing another dark room.
Eleven raised the Supreme Sword of Light, and it emitted a golden glow, giving him a small level of visibility. Holding the sword in front of him as if it were a torch, the Luminary led the others through the room, only stopping when he heard a booming metallic laugh which came from nowhere in particular. The voice said, "So, you have finally reached me..."
The voice seemed to be getting closer, and it continued, "Dharkon gave us free reign to work with weapons, technology, and tools from all sorts of universes! But you've exhausted most of our precious resources..." Something slammed into the ground with a loud thud, and one of the guns on Geno's arm clicked, followed by him shooting an explosive round towards where he thought the source of the noise was. The voice let out an exclamation of pain before shining a lantern in their direction.
The glow coming from Eleven's sword died down in response to the harsh source of light, and the voice continued, "I can see that Mad Jack's operation worked well, Geoform 187."
Ridley's teeth whirred as he snarled, "I'll fucking kill you when I see who you are."
The same booming laughter sounded once again, before continuing, "Ah, but unfortunately for you, Mad Jack isn't completely off his rocker. He left a contingency plan just in case you happened to get past him."
Ridley suddenly clutched at the chestplate that made up what was formerly his organic torso, and he began to hack and splutter gibberish before collapsing over, his body twitching and convulsing as his robotic eyes rapidly brightened and dimmed at an uneven rate.
"He designed the armor to be an excellent conductor of electricity, especially given that it was tightly fitted around his organs after Mad Jack cut off most of his skin. It unfortunately won't kill him, given that it was specifically geared to kill humans, but no heart can take such a shock and come out completely unscathed."
The source of the voice stepped forward, and Geno also took a step forward, saying, "You."
Smithy's tone darkened, and he said, "I should've made sure that Exor destroyed the stars themselves when I began my plot. You and your new group of friends won't be making it out my factory alive, I'll make sure of it... your precious Star Pieces are no longer a factor!" before driving his hammer into the ground and causing a humongous metal pillar to slam down from the ceiling. Ryu leapt backwards, while Sonic raced over and scooped Red away from the incoming pillar. Sliding to a stop, the Blue Blur looked back to see that not only did the pillar have the face of a Thwomp on it, there were multiple pillars coming down from entirely random locations up above.
Meanwhile, Smithy swung his hammer at Geno, but the puppet leapt backwards before firing another explosive round. Smithy batted it back at Geno as if he were playing tennis, and Geno ducked it, causing the bullet to sail over his head and explode once it embedded itself in the wall.
Throwing his hammer at the wooden puppet, who dodged it, Smithy waited for his weapon to boomerang back to him, and it did, clobbering Geno in the head on its return journey. With his hammer back in his hand, Smithy pounded it into the floor and commanded, "Smithy Gang, ATTACK!"
Mack, Bowyer, Yaridovich, and the rebuilt Axem Rangers burst out of the floor panels, Axem Yellow lugging a miniature version of the Blade Breaker behind him.
Banjo looked at the horde of metallic creatures in front of him and whispered to his back, "Hey, Kazooie, d'you mind passing me that wrench of yours?"
Kazooie had just finished re-stitching a golden 'R' onto the backpack, and once she heard Banjo's request, she began rummaging through the bag, sifting through the repaired pieces of Samus' Power Suit before finding the wrench that she and Banjo had used to construct a sickeningly large amount of vehicles for that nutcase who went by the 'Lord of Games.'
Handing it to Banjo, she turned around to see that there were five colorful figures that were fighting the Kongs, and Kazooie quickly flipped over, catching Banjo off guard as she used the Talon Trot to swiftly make her way to where Donkey Kong and Diddy were. Once the two of them made it over there, she let Banjo take the wheel once again, and the bear went to town, clobbering the green figure with his wrench until a final smack sent it hurtling into a wall.
Eleven found himself facing the deranged bow and arrow, who let out a high-pitched laugh before firing a volley of Aeros, some of which managed to strike the Luminary in his sword arm. Plucking them out and using Heal to seal the wounds, he attempted to raise his right arm, only to find out that his arm would not move from the position it was currently in.
Letting out a cackle, Bowyer boasted, "My Aeros are the best, nya! Tipped in neurotoxin, they are!" Shooting an Aero at Ridley's twitching body, only to miss because of Eleven using Woosh to blow the arrow off course, Bowyer simply laughed again and snapped his fingers, casting Static E! and causing a bright flash of blue electricity to arc all over the room, electrocuting any target it touched, regardless of whether they were friend or foe. The Luminary, a look of frustration having come over his face, shot a Frizzle in Bowyer's direction using his good arm, intending to burn him up where he stood, except Bowyer shifted his body so that the fireball zipped in between his body and the drawstring before careening into the wall, missing Sonic by mere millimeters.
The Blue Blur slammed on the brakes and peeled out in the opposite direction with a Spin Charge, leaving behind a small trail of fire as he did so. Running over some of Smithy's lesser minions, Sonic turned back to blitz a walking spear, who turned to face him before jamming his spear into the floor, causing hissing bursts of steam to erupt from the ground and chase after Sonic, who then ran up the wall before running back down, jumping up, and nailing Yaridovich in the head with the Sonic Eagle. Looking back, Sonic blew a raspberry before sliding underneath a laser that came from the miniature Blade Breaker and Spin Dashing into Axem Black, who angrily shoved an explosive into Sonic's hands in retaliation before pressuring him with several swings from his halberd.
Sonic struck back with a kick and began to run away, only to accidentally fumble the bomb and drop it next to Donkey Kong, who had Axem Yellow slung over his shoulder. Donkey Kong hurriedly kicked the bomb away from him and towards Charizard, who, after letting out a snort, grabbed it and threw it right at their main target: Smithy, who had just thrown his hammer in Ryu's direction, forcing the World Warrior to jump over it before using Focus Attack to soak up the return hit, as he had seen the hammer boomerang back to its sender just then with Geno.
Smithy caught the bomb and his hammer just as the fuse on the former ran out, and it exploded right in his face, obscuring him in a cloud of smoke. Mack looked over and yelled, "Lord Smithy!" which earned him an overhead slash from Link.
R.O.B. nailed a Puppox's strings with his lasers before shooting a Gyro at the metal puppet's actual body, decapitating it.
Meanwhile, Pichu bounded off R.O.B. and used Skull Bash, driving herself into Mack before shooting an Electroweb from her tail to trap him.
The smoke cleared from where Smithy was standing, revealing that a hole had been made in his head as a result of the explosion. Undeterred, the metallic monarch raised his hammer and waved it like a wand, casting Meteor Swarm.
A shimmering barrage of stars flew in and struck everyone on the field except Geno, who dodged the assault by bobbing and weaving in between the stars before firing a Geno Beam at Smithy's head in an attempt to shatter it. The laser hit Smithy, causing a small crack to run down his damaged head, but he simply hit Geno aside using his hammer.
Banjo, meanwhile, pulled Kazooie out of his backpack and slammed her downward onto Axem Pink, and, after a startled squawk, Kazooie shot a Fire Egg from her mouth and ended up unintentionally melting the Axem Ranger down to her endoskeleton. Banjo cautiously slipped Kazooie back into his backpack and tiptoed away from the mess before bumping into Yaridovich, who, after smugly kicking the bear away, pointed his spear at Banjo in challenge while also creating multiple copies of himself.
On the other side of the room, Falco charged his pistol's laser cartridge before firing a shot, which ended up going through the head of the trapped Mack, killing him for good, while nearby, King Krusha K. Rool heaved Smithy's Smelter off the wall before unleashing a brutal flurry of punches, all while glass shards flew from the arms of the reptilian monarch.
Smithy waved his wand/hammer, and several of the tiles on the floor began to glow with a sinister purple hue just as he pounded the ground with his weapon, upending the glowing tiles and revealing several Spirit Orbs that dispersed across the room, capturing Link, Diddy Kong, Meggy, Evan, Eleven, and a still paralyzed Ridley.
Geno jumped over a Spirit Orb before shooting another away, and, upon landing, he took aim at the hole in Smithy's head and fired.
Wario's zombified body decomposed, leaving behind his yellow hat... and his body suddenly reconstituted, showing almost no damage at all.
A hollow-sounding rattle came from Death, and he flung several smaller scythes at the treasure hunter, who began running towards a window before ducking underneath it, watching as the scythes flew out the window. Once he was sure that they were gone, he ran back into the fray, only to almost fall into a dark void, the floor having been partially chewed up by Mattermouths that Death had summoned. Jumping up, Wario then landed butt-first on one of the skulls, stunning it and causing it to begin chomping in the opposite way.
Placing one of his hands on the floor, a black aura began to materialize around Death, and several revenants rose from the floor, each of them possessing eyes that glowed gold along with black veins running along their gaunt faces.
Robin shot a Thoron towards one of Death's revenant servants, and the humongous bolt of electricity completely pulverized their body, causing them to explode in a spray of blood and organic matter. The Levin Sword materialized in her hands once again, and she joined Ken in fighting against a revenant SWAT officer who was surprisingly crafty, utilizing a nightstick and a flashlight in conjunction with a riot shield. Slashing her sword overhead in an attempt to catch the zombie off guard, the revenant blocked the blade with his nightstick, his gaze slowly lowering to the tactician's level before he blinded her by shining his flashlight in her face and then following up with a bash from his riot shield, which was tipped with some blunt spikes.
Stumbling backwards, Robin wiped some blood off her face before shooting an Elthunder in the direction of the zombie, who simply held up his riot shield to block the spell before pulling out a taser and lunging towards Ken, aiming for the martial artist's neck.
Ken faded back before firing a Hadoken, forcing the revenant to throw up his riot shield while reloading the taser, giving the martial artist the perfect opportunity to rush in and use a Nata Otoshi Geri followed by an Inazuma Kick, managing to crack the polycarbonate that composed the shield. The revenant, an angry look coming over his face, tossed the battered riot shield aside and pulled out his UV flashlight, shining it at Ken's face in order to blind him.
Ken staggered, white spots swimming in his eyes, completely oblivious to the fact that the revenant was slowly walking towards him, flashlight raised above his head.
The revenant brought his flashlight down on Ken's head with a brutal amount of force, fracturing part of Ken's skull and then following up by shattering his jaw with a hard swing from his nightstick. As Ken fell to his knees, blood pouring down his face at an alarming rate, the revenant pulled out his taser and put it right underneath Ken's busted jaw, causing a high-voltage burst of electricity to discharge through his body.
The revenant kicked Ken's body aside with a displeased expression present on his face, and Robin shot an Arcfire in the revenant's direction before throwing her Bronze Sword at him, while behind her, Isaac began tending to Ken's injuries, first by using Cure Well to patch up his fractured skull and then Potent Cure to repair Ken's shattered jaw to the best of his ability. Switching to the Beast Lord class, Isaac snapped his fingers, casting Phoenix, and the mystical fire bird materialized before shedding one of its own feathers onto Ken's body and disappearing in a blaze immediately after.
Isaac watched as the Phoenix Down glowed with a bright red light before sinking into Ken's body, and the martial artist suddenly sat back up... before clutching at his head and groaning, "Ow..."
Isaac kneeled down next to him and cautiously pulled him away from the carnage, where Robin was fighting one-on-one with the same revenant from earlier, before holding up three fingers and asking, "How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Uh... Six?"
Isaac's eyes widened out of concern, and he hauled Ken onto his shoulders before walking over to Rosalina, who was sending an apricot-colored one of her Lumas out of the castle while whispering something to it, and the Adept asked, "Can you watch over him? I'm one hundred percent sure that he's got a concussion..."
Rosalina replied, "Of course," and created a barrier around Ken, allowing the martial artist to recuperate after the simple, yet brutal beatdown he had just received.
Pulling Goodstyle out of his overalls, Wario transformed himself into Arty Wario and painted himself a coin sack, which, upon turning back into his regular guise, he picked up and began to use to try and smack around Death with, all while laughing maniacally.
On the other hand, Luigi was jumping over several of the revenants with the help of Yoshi and his Flutter Jump, and Yoshi then bucked Luigi off his back, giving the plumber an extra height boost as he yelled in a panicked fashion before using his Poltergust to latch onto a curtain, which he clung onto for dear life as he fired a Thunderhand burst at Death.
Villager was frantically digging holes in the floor and cramming Pitfalls into them at an alarmingly fast rate, given that a horde of revenants were making their way towards him at a not-so-sluggish pace. Pikachu, standing on his tail, spun into a costume that resembled an archaeologist's outfit, allowing him to use Bonemerang on some of the revenants that were coming after Villager. Once Pikachu was done using the move, he switched back to his regular appearance, and Villager thanked him before pulling one of his many tools out of his pocket. Now armed with the golden slingshot, Villager said, "Pikachu, Electro Ball!"
Pikachu nodded, a smirk having worked its way onto his face, and he began to charge the move up on his tail before flinging it into Villager's slingshot, where, upon releasing the orb of electricity, it split into three smaller, but equally potent orbs that traveled into the horde and blew up some of the revenants.
Mr. Game & Watch smacked a revenant with one of his hammers before lighting them up with a torch, quietly watching as the zombie burned to ashes. Meanwhile, Pac-Man nailed another revenant that had snuck up on Game & Watch with his own bell before using a manifestation of Blinky to launch it across the hallway, and the two veterans shared a high five just as Game & Watch landed a 9 on another revenant.
Simon slid underneath one of Death's scythes before swinging the Vampire Killer outwards, aiming for Death's spine with the purpose of pulverizing the reaper's skeleton. Death floated backwards, but ended up eating a sack of coins to the back of his skull courtesy of Wario. Whirling around, Death flung a scythe at the treasure hunter before noticing that Luigi was still clinging onto the curtain for dear life. A low rattle sounded from his ribcage, and Death swung his scythe at Luigi with the intent of reaping his soul.
The baby Luma raced out of the vicinity of Dracula's Castle and towards the location where his Mama had told him to go, her words echoing in his head:
"Find Mario and aid him in his efforts to end the primordial conquerors of the cosmos... he is at Shroob Castle."
Concentrating, the baby Luma transformed into a white ball of light before flying to Shroob Castle as fast as he could.
Lucas healed Lucario's more prominent wounds with PSI Lifeup while Mario looked through his humongous supply of power-ups, looking for anything that would assist his allies in climbing up the tower that would lead to the throne room of the Shroobs. Meanwhile, Arvus was trying to use the strongest healing magic he could find to rid Marth and Jigglypuff of their Shroobification, but even Omniheal was not working, causing him to clutch at his hair in frustration while Marth and Jigglypuff could only exchange helpless looks, resigned to the fact that they were basically going to stay in that appearance for the foreseeable future.
Terry was sparring with Bowser, and the Koopa King, much to the Southtown native's surprise, was actually capable of outpacing him and breaking through his ordinary techniques through sheer durability. However, every time Bowser landed a hit, Terry would retaliate with an attack that was just as powerful, if not more, culminating in Terry launching Bowser into a nearby column with, "Are you okay? BUSTER WOLF!" causing Mario to drop a Super Bell as he watched Bowser fly into said pillar with extraordinary speed.
Prying himself out of the column, Bowser looked back to see that his shell had made one hell of an imprint in the column, and after looking back at his shell to see if there were anymore damages, he acknowledged Terry with, "Not bad, shrimp," before trudging over to Mario, who had pulled out a Propeller Mushroom and a Boomerang Flower and was debating which one of the two would be better against Princess Shroob.
Mario, upon hearing Bowser stomp up behind him, pulled out the Super Bell he had dropped earlier and turned around, showing it to his rival. Bowser realized what Mario was asking him to do, and he quickly shook his head, saying, "Not this time."
A look of mild amusement came over the elder Mario brother's face, and he put the Super Bell away before pulling out a Frog Suit and asking, "Now how the heck did-a this thing get into-a my pocket?" Putting it back, Mario pulled out a Cape Feather, staring at it contemplatively, only to look up (they were on the observatory) and see a Wingull get blasted to bits by a swarm of Shroob UFOs.
Mario and Bowser exchanged startled looks as the former slowly pocketed the feather and called for the others to come over to the two of them. Once everyone was gathered, Mario began, "Okay, so it-a appears that we can't go through the sky, considering that-a the Shroobs have air traffic on lock."
As if to prove Mario's statement, the Shroob UFOs suddenly formed into a cloud that occasionally chattered with alien laughter.
Lucario watched as Mario pulled out... something from his overalls, and upon getting a closer look, he asked, "Is that a Wingull?"
Mario nodded before putting it on the ground, saying, "It looks like that-a our only way to the castle's top is-a through the inside."
Walking up to the front of the hollow bust of Princess Shroob, Mario noticed that there was a keypad that would open the door. Remembering all the information that he had accessed when he had Captured the computer in the basement of the castle, Mario typed in the code—2005—and the doors at the bottom of the dress slid open. Mario called for the others to come over, but before they could step in, a bright white light intercepted the group before dying down and revealing a Luma, who waved to the group and said to Mario, "Mama told me to find you and help you!"
Mario, though slightly taken aback, said, "Eh, I-a don't see why not," before looking up to his hat and saying, "Cappy, you're-a going to have a new friend!"
"Huh?"
The Bonneter let out a surprised yelp as the Luma plucked him off of Mario's head before taking residence beneath the hat, and he said, "Er, hello... I'm Cappy."
"Hi, Cappy! Let's be friends!"
As Mario chuckled at the exchange, he asked, "How did-a you get through the Shroobs' air patrol, though? I can't-a imagine them letting a ball of light fly past unchecked..."
"I went low when I got to the castle's area to avoid the scary saucers! Then I flew up to where you guys were!"
As Mario nodded, Bowser huffed, "Okay, enough with the explanations, let's crush some alien heads!" before stomping into the insides of the tower, the rest of them following suit as the door slid shut behind them.
On the outside, a Shroob UFO reported in the Shroob language, "Your Highness, the red mustache man and the demon turtle have reached your tower. Not only that, it appears that they broke into our dungeon laboratories, given how three of our four escaped experiments are with them. What should we do to stop them?"
Princess Shroob almost crushed yet another goblet of Vim out of sheer rage, but she composed herself and sat back in her throne before taking another sip. After a bit, she snarled, "Tell the tower operatives to commence Operation CT Squared right this instant."
Surprised, the pilot said, "But Your Highness, that's still in the experimental phase-"
"I don't care. Commence Operation CT Squared. NOW."
I've actually been slugging at this for over a year now, huh? Time sure flies...
For the record, I don't hate Nuts & Bolts.
Also, thank god that Star Fox: Assault exists, because that means an expanded arsenal for the spacies.
Hopefully you guys remember that Mega Man/Sonic crossover from all those years ago, otherwise you're gonna be confused by the last two weapons the Blue Bomber uses...
Join Super Smash Prose, a Discord server where Smash Bros. fanfic writers can discuss their stories and get ideas and feedback (permanent code is gDK48ua)! If the code doesn't work, then send me a PM for the link or visit r/Fanfiction and search for "Super Smash Prose."
Group 1 (Dracula's Castle): Luigi, Ness, Peach, Villager, Rosalina, Simon, Daisy, Isaac, Samus, Wario, Yoshi, Pikachu, Pac-Man, Mr. Game & Watch, Eight, Ike, Ken, Robin
Group 2 (Frantic Factory/Smithy's Keep): Link, Banjo, Ridley, Toon Link, Ryu, Zelda, Inklings (Meggy, Evan), Mii Swordfighter, Red (Squirtle, Ivysaur, Charizard), Falco, Sonic, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, R.O.B., Pichu, King K. Rool, Luminary, Geno
Group 3 (Mysterious Dimension): Matthew, Joker, Snake, Kirby, Dr. Mario, Cloud, Fox, Greninja, Mega Man, Little Mac, Pit, Piranha Plant, King Dedede, Captain Falcon, Ice Climbers, Wolf, Incineroar, Bayonetta, Solo, Corrin
Group 4 (Shroob Castle): Mario, Bowser, Erdrick/Arvus, Marth, Jigglypuff, Lucas, Terry Bogard, Lucario
Group 5 (Puppet Fighters with known whereabouts): Meta Knight, Young Link, Mewtwo
Apollo Sanctum key pieces: 4/13
P.S.: To that "anon" who's asking about when certain Puppet Fighters will be freed... you really think I'm gonna give away more story details for free?