Master Hand was brilliant.
He had created the Teleporter. He had created a large "academy" for many people to stay and train at. He had worked alongside his "brother," Crazy Hand, and made technological miracles. There was no question that he was unfathomably smart.
But for once, Marth thought he had made an extremely stupid decision. Invite a villain who likes to take over the world, Marth thought furiously as he ran. Great idea. Now we all get to suffer panic attacks as we realize we have minutes left to live.
He knew that the tunnel they were fleeing through was really not all that long, but it felt too long to him. It angered him that he couldn't see very far through the darkness, and an image of Ganondorf's evil, sneering face kept appearing in his mind and talking to him. "You have failed. I have won. It is not that you are too weak, it is that I am too strong. You fought well, young hero, but perhaps now you will understand that the powers of darkness overcome the powers of light."
"Sounds like just the thing he would say...." Marth muttered.
"Are you alright, Marth?" Samus's voice asked.
Marth snapped out of his haze and looked at Samus. He held her gaze for too long and ran full steam into a wall. He felt the wind get knocked out of him and landed on the ground with a thud. The torch rolled out of his hand, and Link hastened to catch it again. Samus extended her hand and helped him back up. He rubbed his head, unsteady on his feet.
"Sorry," he mumbled. "What do you mean, 'am I okay'?"
"You've been muttering to yourself nonstop," she explained. "I know we're going through a tough situation, but...relax." A small smile crept onto her face. "As hopeless as this looks...I know it's going to be okay. And I know that sounds melodramatic, but it's the truth. We're going to be okay."
Marth stopped rubbing his head. "You're right. In everything we've done, we've won, right? I was being stupid. Sorry."
For a moment, nobody said or did anything, despite the urgency of the situation. Samus was about to break the silence when she stopped, adopted a curious expression, and let her gaze drift to the cave walls. Her jaw clenched slightly.
"What is it?" Roy asked.
"I hear something," she said slowly. "Footsteps."
"Help?" Link asked hopefully.
"I would doubt it," Samus replied bitterly. "Help would be calling for us. Whatever this is probably isn't friendly."
Link, who was now in possession of the torch, held it in front of him to illuminate as much as he could. Marth readied his sword and stepped forward slowly.
"Wish I still had my sword," Roy muttered, adopting a fighting stance.
There was silence for a few seconds. For a moment, Marth thought Samus had heard wrong. But then he heard it, too; a distant sound of something flat landing repeatedly on a rock, like someone was beating a shirt against a cave floor. It wasn't the sound of boots or of ordinary shoes, and for a moment, Marth thought it was some wild beast Master Hand hadn't warned anybody about. It didn't sound human....
"What's that?" Link asked, holding the torch even further.
What looked like glowing purple wires appeared around the corner. It was still a good distance away from them, but it was closing that distance rapidly. The wires were strung together to form the shape of a human, and a crude red heart was beating inside of it....
"Wire Frames!" Marth shouted. He dove forward, sword held in front of him. The others followed, preparing to fight with whatever they had. A ball of fire zoomed over Marth's shoulder and exploded in front of the Wire Frame, igniting it briefly. Marth turned in mid-run and swiped the Wire Frame--which, this close to him, appeared to be female--knocking it backward into the cave wall. It stood back up as if nothing had happened and continued its assault.
"Definitely not an ordinary Wire Frame," Link said, swinging his torch at it. It knocked the torch out of his hands and planted a kick in his stomach, which sent him flying back with more force than usual. The torch clattered to the ground, plunging much of the cave into darkness.
Marth felt a whoosh of wind beside him and knew that Samus had sprung into action. He heard her foot collide somewhere on the Wire Frame and watched the Wire Frame go soaring back again. It got up like the previous time, but a little more unsteadily.
"Are they from Cruel Melee?" Marth asked, fearing the answer.
"I don't think so," Samus said, panting. "They seem...normalized. There's no other word for it."
Marth prepared to attack the Female Wire Frame again but stopped when he heard another noise behind him. He turned and look at the source of the noise and felt his stomach drop. Three more Wire Frames were rushing in their direction from the way they had just come from.
"We can't fight them all!" Samus yelled, flip kicking the female Wire Frame and dashing for the torch. "We don't have the time! We'll just have to fight them as we go!"
The five heroes burst past the Wire Frame, who hadn't gotten back up, and didn't look back at the three chasing them. Wire Frames weren't necessarily known for their speed, so perhaps they would just have a chance. Nonetheless, Marth picked up his pace.
Another three Wire Frames appeared from the front. Marth met one head on, ducking his head and thrusting his sword forward. He felt the blade penetrate through the Wire Frame's hollow body and come out the back. He pulled it out, spun around, and swung the sword at the neck of the one Link was fighting. It would have decapitated any normal enemy, but Wire Frames simply weren't normal. It was knocked over, allowing Link to escape easily.
"How far until we get out of this place!?!" Roy shouted.
"It probably shouldn't be far," she said, though it sounded more like she was just trying to convince of it.
One more Wire Frame appeared straight ahead, two more from a tunnel to their left, and another two from one on their right. Their situation was looking worse and worse.
"Hand me the torch!" Link yelled. Samus slowed down slightly, gave it to him hastily, and dispatched two of the Wire Frames in a couple of smooth, athletic moves. Marth swung his sword forward, knocking two more out of the way, and Link set the core of the last one on fire by stabbing it with his torch. Marth chanced a glance behind him and saw that the three Wire Frames from behind were not only catching up slowly, but two more had joined them. Are we even going to make it out of the caves? he wondered with a jolt of panic.
The panic left suddenly. Up ahead, there was light. Not light from fire, but sunlight. Feeling relieved and strangely refreshed, he put on another burst of speed.
And then they were out. Roy and Zelda yelped in pain as the sunlight burned their eyes. It had been so long since they had seen daylight. Even Marth was squinting. He looked behind him, hoping to see the Wire Frames standing at the cave exit, looking at them angrily, longing for more violence...but the sunlight hadn't perturbed them at all. They were still chasing them, even out of the cave.
"They're still there!" he yelled. "Which way do we go from here!?!"
They were somewhere in the woods surrounding the academy. He never ventured into the woods much, so he hadn't the faintest clue where exactly he was or which direction to go in. Six Wire Frames poured out of the cave exit, and Marth saw even more far behind them.
"We need to block them off!" he shouted. He entered combat with two of them. He stabbed one through the chest but couldn't block the other from giving him a rough kick to the back, knocking him over. That Wire Frame was soon being assaulted by Roy, who had found a very formidable looking stick and was making good use of it.
"Hold this," Link panted, handing Zelda the torch. She took it in her gloved hands, surprised at the flaming object suddenly thrust at her. To Marth's relief, she didn't drop it. Link picked up a large collection of big branches, carried them to the slope leading back down into the cave, and hurled them down. He held his hand out to Zelda, silently requesting the torch. She gave it back to him, looking relieved that she didn't have to hold onto it any longer, and Link pitched it into the pile of branches, setting them aflame. Once the Wire Frames outside with them had been taken care of, Roy added his own branch to the mix.
"Nice work, Link," Samus remarked, wiping her brow. "Let's get out of here before more trouble picks up."
"Where's 'out of here'?" Roy asked, looking around him. Marth silently agreed with him; everything looked the same.
"Can you see the academy way off over there?" she replied, pointing to an area over a hill.
"No," Marth said flatly.
"Well, that's where we're headed," she finished, ignoring Marth's response. She took off running, and the rest followed, trying desperately to keep up with her.
"I think I'd just like to say," Roy stated as matter-of-factly as he could while running at full steam, "that I hope Master Hand makes the intro to the final battle extra long. Used to bore me, but it may come in handy now."
Marth looked into the sky as if expecting to see a mass of purple hurtling towards the academy. To his relief, there was hardly anything in the sky, even a cloud.
As they dashed over the hill, a building in the distance came into view. Samus was already well ahead of them, not bothering to slow down. Marth couldn't understand how she could run that fast and not ram straight into a tree. It would be funny if not for the current circumstances.
After what seemed like an eternity, they arrived at the doors of the academy. Samus was waiting for them, not even appearing to be out of breath. In comparison, Marth and Roy were panting heavily, and Link was carrying Zelda in his arms. He set her down and bent over, supporting his weight by putting his hands on his knees.
"All we have to do," Samus said, "is teleport to Final Destination, tell everyone to evacuate, and let Master Hand deal with Ganondorf," she said. "If we're lucky, it'll go easily and smoothly."
They all entered the academy and ran for the basement. As far as they could tell, they were the only ones in the building. It was eerily quiet. Almost calming. What Marth would have given to sit down in one of the comfy chairs provided at the outskirts of the lobby, tilt his head back, and relax. It was a tempting thought, and the knowledge that he would be doing it soon enough was comforting.
They arrived at the bottom of the basement stairway and stopped.
"Uh-oh," Link said, staring at the sight before them.
There was a Male Wire Frame. A huge one. The top of its head scraped the ceiling. It leered down at them all. And, inconveniently enough, it had stationed itself right in front of the Teleporter.
There was silence. Then Roy broke the silence with two words that described the situation perfectly:
"This sucks."
The five of them stepped off the stairway, staring cautiously at the red Super Smash Bros. logo that made up its face. It wasn't moving. It had been put there by Ganondorf to guard the Teleporter.
"We're going to have to fight it," Samus muttered. Even she looked frightened of the hulking fiend.
"Zelda, you attack it from the back," Marth instructed. His old days of giving troops orders and leading them to victory had returned. "Link and Roy, you protect her."
"With what?" Roy asked, jaw still dropped at the sight of the Wire Frame.
"With whatever you can find. Just don't let it touch her. Samus, you attack it directly with me. Use your speed and athleticism to your advantage."
She gave a small nod and walked cautiously towards the Wire Frame. At first, it remained motionless. But when she got even closer, it lifted its foot and aimed a kick at her, a foot as large as Samus herself. She avoided it with a jump to the side, then kicked off a nearby wall and returned the favor with a kick of her own. Another ball of fire roared past Marth and exploded on the Wire Frame's torso. The swordsman jumped and prepared to stab it through the chest, but a large hand smacked him back. It hadn't been very powerful or very quick, but it still knocked the wind out of him, and he still got the gist that it was only a fraction of the Wire Frame's power.
We are seriously wasting our time here, Marth thought. He gritted his teeth angrily. They were so close to ending all the madness, all the mayhem; why did this great ugly thing have to get in the way? He got back up and approached it more warily, sword in front of him. Samus was already leaping around it, not even touching the floor, and aiming all sorts of attacks at it. However, Marth could see that it could easily have been compared to a fly bothering a man. It wasn't doing a whole lot, if anything. Now was the time to act, now that it was distracted.
Dodging another ball of Din's Fire, Marth stabbed the Wire Frame in the knee, hoping to bring it down. It jerked its head down toward him; it had clearly felt it, but Marth didn't think he did much damage. Before the giant could retaliate, he pulled his sword out and gave another great swing at the side of its electronic-looking thigh. It raised its foot above Marth, now angered. He leapt out of the way just as it came crashing down on the spot he had just stood on. He got back to his feet quickly and renewed his assault on the right leg, hoping to weaken the beast.
He let his guard down for too long. He had been concentrating on the lower part of the Wire Frame's body and not the top; he didn't see it reaching down to pick him up. It wasn't until giant fingers clenched around him and he dropped his sword in shock that he realized his mistake. The fingers were crushing the lower half of his body. He couldn't even move his legs to try and squirm his way out. He looked to his right and saw that Samus had been caught similarly. Another fireball blasted into the Wire Frame's feature-less face, but it seemed useless. The Wire Frame's fingers began to tighten. He was being squished.
"Do something!" Marth choked out. He was suffocating. He pounded at the giant's hand, trying to force it to let him go. If only he hadn't dropped his sword....
The sound of something extremely heavy hitting another something extremely heavy filled the room, and the Wire Frame dropped both its prisoners. For once, it looked like it was really in pain. A white, dirty, patched-up object landed on the floor in front of Marth. Even stranger, it was staring at him...it was Sandbag. What was Sandbag doing here?
And what was Roy doing behind the giant Wire Frame, clutching a Home Run Bat and wearing a triumphant grin on his face?
The Wire Frame turned on Roy, furious, and lifted a foot to stomp him. Roy dodged it, jumped over the foot, and helped Sandbag upright. With another almighty swing, Sandbag hit the Wire Frame square in the face. Seizing his chance, Marth rushed forward and grabbed his sword. He jumped from its bent knee and then to its torso. He raised his sword high over his head, and, shouting a war cry, swung it downwards.
Marth's sword had cut a path straight through the surprisingly sturdy exterior and found its way right into the center of its heart. The Wire Frame froze, hands lifted halfway towards Marth as if to grab him. The hands drooped down slowly back to its sides, and it fell backwards. Marth pulled his sword out of it and jumped off of it, shaking head to toe.
"Is it dead?" Zelda asked nervously.
Marth examined it. Its heart was still beating, but slowly and irregularly. "No. But it won't wake up for some time." He looked at the Teleporter doors. Fortunately, only an arm blocked the way, and that was easily cleared by stepping over it. "Let's get inside the Teleporter. We can deal with this thing later."
He pushed a button on a panel beside the Teleporter, and the doors slid open. The five clambered inside, careful not to get too close to the Wire Frame.
"Thanks, Roy," Marth said after pressing a few more buttons. "What exactly happened? Where'd you go?"
"Home Run Stadium," Roy answered, proud of his success. "I knew what you were doing wouldn't work, so I started up a Home Run Contest but never actually played. I just...took the bat and Sandbag for a stroll."
The doors opened again. Before them were the floating stands, occupied by the fighters. Marth wasted no time. He ran forward and bellowed, as loud as he could, "Stop!!"