Chapter 5: Secret Base
Everyone was enjoying their short break at the edge of the lake, where they also shared out some of their rations to recharge themselves before continuing on their journey.
During this time, Sora being the energetic social butterfly he was was getting to know everyone during their break.
"So that's called the Master Sword, Link?" Sora asked the Hylian who was busy cleaning his blade with a scrap peice of cloth.
"That's right. They say that only those proven worthy by the Master Sword have the honor of wielding it." Link told the brunette.
"That sounds sorta like the Keyblade. The Keyblade chooses its wielder or at least that's what I've been told."
"Huh, that really does sound like the Master Sword, interesting." Link raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"I'm not the only one with a Keyblade though, there's others too! Like my best friend Riku!" Sora added.
"Well, there's only one Master Sword as far as I know. Unless you count my other versions of me...then things get weird." Link noted.
"Other versions of you? You mean you have more than one Nobody?!"
"A...what?"
"...Never mind. I have to remember that I'm in a completely different world right now." Sora then recalled something about Kirby earlier while saving Ryu. "Oh yeah, I remember Kirby being able to swallow that Hadoken attack, how was he able to do that?" Sora suddenly recalled and turned to Marth who was sitting not far from where he and Link was.
"Oh right, I never got to explain before did I? Well...Kirby is special-he has the ability to copy moves of his enemies by swallowing them once and them spitting them back out. But he can also cancel attacks completely by eating them as Kirby's stomach is-quite literally-bottomless." Marth explained.
Sora turned to Kirby who was sitting innocently next to him. "Wow...I never would have imagined it just looking at him."
"Poyo." Kirby tilted himself.
"Well, Kirby is clearly very fond of you, Sora. So I don't think you ever have to worry about being on the receiving end." Marth laughed.
"Kind of like how Piranha Plant seems to have attached itself quite firmly to Joker here." Link smirked as he turned over to Joker who was currently sharing a few of his snacks with the plant that was still on his shoulder.
"I think it's really cute looking at them together like that." Sora smiled.
"Don't let Joker hear you say that," Link snickered. "But I agree."
They spent another hour and half like that until Mario got up. "I think that's enough resting for now, we need to move on." Mario got up.
"We need to go back over the lake right? But that boat won't fit all of us. We'll need to take turns." Olimar noted.
"Well I can glide across if needed and Kirby can fly too." Sora offered.
"Poyo." Kirby agreed with Sora.
"Why didn't do that earlier if you could glide?" Marth noted.
Sora blinked a few times before realizing Marth was right and face-palmed his face.
"Oh well, it doesn't matter. We did save Ryu and meet Kazuya using by the boat and going to that airport so it did work out for the best." Marth shook his head.
"I refuse to go on any boat with this guy." Kazuya glared at Ryu.
"I doubt both of us could get on the boat without sinking it anyway," Ryu scoffed.
"Well how-a about this?" Mario started to explain how they work out who goes on the boat first and who rows back to get the others, this went on for quite some time.
After much negotiating when it came to using the boat to go back and forth to pick up the other fighters, everyone had safely arrived on the other side again.
Sora and Kirby flew over to save on time, Sora offered to carry Olimar and the Pikmin across to which the small space captain was very appreciative of since some Pikmin didn't do very well in water. He also carried Villager across to since
"Thank you for carrying us over, Sora." Olimar thanked the Keyblade wielder.
"It's no problem."
"That was so cool, I didn't know you could fly Sora!" Villager excitedly said being able to experience gliding over the lake thanks to Sora carrying him over.
"Heh heh...wish I remembered I could have just glided over the lake eariler. We could have met up earlier." He laughed nervously.
"We did save Ryu though by taking the boat so like Marth said, it did work out." Olimar reminded.
"Yeah, you're right. We were lucky to find Ryu, we might have missed him if we didn't go visit that airport." Sora agreed before placing his hands behind his head.
"So, where do-a we go from here?" Mario asked.
"Follow us, we're quite familiar with this part of the world now." Marth told the plumber as he guided everyone over the giant mushrooms once more.
They finally took the path that they previously ignored before since they were still trying to reunite with Mario and Joker at the time and found themselves at the entrance of a large jungle.
"This must be the jungle Link was talking about." Joker stated.
"Wait, I see something walking around within the trees." Captain Falcon warned everyone.
"Is it a Puppet Fighter?" Ryu braced himself to fight.
When the shadowed figure appeared through the shadow of the trees, they could see who it was. Their eyes glowed with the same sinister red that they had seen with nearly every other fighter now.
"It's Pac-Man!" Mario realized.
"Where's the Master Hand clone controlling him?" Olimar panicked looking around frantically to spot it.
"There it is! It's hiding in the trees." Sora pointed to a familiar shape of white that was currently using the trees as a way to keep it hidden.
"This calls for action. Worry not, Captain Falcon shall answer the call. Hang in there Pac-Man, help is coming!" Captain Falcon stepped in to fight Pac-Man on everyone's behalf before diving in and started lock into punches and kicks with the yellow being.
"How do we get to his puppeteer though?" Villager wondered.
"Hmm...A Hadoken should do the trick." Ryu started to charge a Hadoken attack, and aimed it straight for the treeline where they saw the Master Hand clone hiding.
"Uhh...maybe we should take a few steps back?" Marth grew concerned.
"Huh? Why?" Sora asked innocently.
"Just trust us on this," Mario gently grabbed hold of Sora's arm and tugged him a distance away with everyone else.
Captain Falcon was fighting Pac-Man and keeping the possessed fighter busy, therefore the Master Hand clone being distracted to not notice the incoming attack from Ryu.
The attack grew bigger and bigger until Ryu finally unleashed it upon the unsuspecting hand. "HADOKEN!" A massive wave of blue made direct contact with the hand and obliterated it upon contact along with at least a good quarter of the trees in front.
Pac-Man grew lax and the glowing red faded as Captain Falcon delivered a 'Falcon Punch', causing Pac-Man to fall and revert back to his trophy form.
"Whoa..." Sora could only say.
"I see now why you wanted us to move back a bit." Joker realized. The Piranha Plant latched itself on to Joker's leg in fear of Ryu's attack.
"...Oh...Maybe I charged my attack a little too much." Ryu scratched his head sheepishly. Seeing the damage fully once the smoke disappeared, while the Jungle wasn't completely decimated, the entrance of the area certainly looked like a disaster site with smoldering charred trunks where trees once stood.
"Well...at least you defeated that Master Hand clone really fast." Villager looked optimistically about their situation.
"Hmph, how pathetic. The one that we fought before at least made some effort. Is this the best that so-called 'lord of light' can muster?" Kazuya scoffed.
"It seems these hands have a varying amount of experience when using fighters. Could this be a result from Galeem mass-producing so many copies of the real Master Hand?" Link wondered.
"It's-a possible. We still don't know what happened to the real one." Mario nodded.
"Good work, Ryu! You certainly showed that thing...uh...maybe go easy on the hadokens next time though, we don't want to destroy the entire jungle." Captain Falcon patted Ryu's back.
"How is Pac-Man? Have you awakened him?" Ryu turned to the F-Zero pilot.
"Take a look for yourselves," Captain Falcon crossed his arms with a bold grin and turned his direction to the now awakened Pac-Man.
"Ugh...that felt awful. What happened?" Pac-Man shook his head and rubbed his head with his hand.
"Good to see you awake, Pac-Man. How do you-a feel?" Mario asked.
"Much better now that I don't feel like I've been possessed by some ghost. Wait, Mario?! You're alright! How did you escape Galeem when he attacked us-"
"Ahh...it's a long story buddy." Mario calmed Pac-Man down.
He then proceeded to explain everything that has happened to the yellow ball.
"Well, that's just embarrassing. Thanks for saving me, everyone." Pac-Man thanked.
"Glad to have helped. By the way, would you happen to remember anything while still under Galeem's control? Anything that could pinpoint us towards more of our captured friends?" Captain Falcon questioned.
"Sorry, I really don't remember a thing." Pac-Man shook his head.
"That's unfortunate, but that's-a okay. We'll just explore the jungle as planned." Mario reassured.
"Poyo." Kirby started walking towards the entrance of the forest until they felt the entire ground shake beneath them.
"An earthquake?" Joker picked up the Piranha Plant in case the ground started any fissures and cracks.
Not long after they heard a thunderous roar that spanned across the whole world. The fighters all turned to see the Galeem who if it had an actual visible eye they could see, they would have sworn it was glaring at them with anger and indignation.
"...I think it's angry." Sora gulped.
"Poyo..." Kirby hid behind Sora's leg.
"It must have realized what we're doing." Marth brought his his Falchion ready to fight if needed.
"Heed me well you winged parasite! Enjoy lording over this little world of yours while you still can because when I come up there-the great Kazuya Mishima-will tear your wings off one by one. You will rue the day you dared to bare your fangs against me!"
"Kazuya!" Everyone whispered harshly.
Galeem let out a loud screech which made everyone cover their ears.
They saw Galeem spawn something out from him and it went over them like a shooting star as it landed not far from them. Even worse, it seemed that Galeem's screech also seemed to beckon the puppet fighters that were hiding in the jungle to come out in large numbers and slowly walk towards the group.
"Oh way to go, genius! Now you just ticked it off!" Pac-Man yelled at Kazuya.
"I regret nothing." Kazuya scoffed gruffly.
"Oh you won't regret nothing alright, because there's no way we can fight off this many! We'll all be turned back to trophies before we can even put a dent in their numbers." Pac-Man argued back.
"Pac-Man's right, there's too many puppet fighters, we don't have enough right now to defeat them all." Marth gritted his teeth, realizing that they were outnumbered.
"But we can't fall here-if we all get captured again who will save the other fighters?" Ryu asked.
"Poyo poyo!" Kirby pointed in another direction they could go.
"Guys! Let's follow Kirby, I think he's found somewhere we can go." Sora called out to the others.
Everyone knowing that they can't this many Puppet Fighters decided to take their chances and follow Kirby to where he was guiding them all.
They took out the puppet fighters that were blocking their way forward, thankfully they were much less in numbers unlike the horde of puppet fighters that Galeem summoned behind them.
Eventually, they saw some kind of facility as they got further away from the jungle.
"Poyo poyo." Kirby pointed earnestly towards the base.
"Wait, I see what Kirby's trying to say. Maybe we can hide out here until that horde passes by us." Joker stopped mid-way just as the path leading to that hidden base.
"Poyo." Kirby nodded to Joker confirming he was right.
"That could work, c'mon!" Sora nodded, with that everyone diverted towards the base only to find that the entrance to it was closed.
"Oh c'mon! Seriously?!"
"There's a computer panel, I'll see if I can hack our way in. I'll admit, I'm nowhere as good as my friend Futaba when it comes to this." Joker started trying to bypass the security in hopes it can trick it into opening its doors.
"Wait I have an idea!" Sora clicked as an idea came into his head. He summoned his keyblade and pointed towards the door.
"Sora, I really don't think that's going to work, it's not a normal door. It's controlled by-" Joker tried to reason with Sora but was stopped mid-way when a bright light from the weapon Sora always carried started glowing.
With that a keybeam appeared from the tip of the keyblade and shot out towards the door, a few seconds after, the automatic doors opened by themselves without needing any input from the panel.
Everyone else was amazed and dumbfounded at what they just saw. "...Oh my god it actually did work." Joker could only manage to say.
"What?" Sora blinked in confusion at everyone's silence. "I wasn't exaggerating when I said the Keyblade could unlock any lock."
"...I can see you were telling the truth. I'm not gonna question it, this is our chance! Hurry, before it decides to close on us!" Joker grabbed hold of Sora's arm and pulled him along with the phantom thief.
"Whoa!"
"Poyo poyo." Kirby dashed behind them.
The other fighters followed suit quickly running through the doors and just as the last fighter made it through, the horde of puppet fighters just started to arrive before the doors shut firmly on them.
"Whew...Boy I am-a tired." Mario sighed in relief, falling flat on his rear.
"Sorry I startled everyone, I just thought it would be easier to use the keyblade to help open the way forward faster." Sora apologized.
"Are you kidding? Don't be sorry, you've just saved us all." Joker nudged him. "There's a chance I wouldn't have been able to hack into that thing in time or at all so your timing couldn't have been better. I was just amazed that it really can do what you said it could." Joker told him.
"You didn't believe me did you?" Sora puffed his cheeks.
Joker shrugged. "Okay I admit, I doubted it. Can you blame me though? Either way I'm sorry I didn't believe you. Now I want one of my own-would make exploring palaces way more easier with one of those things."
"Next time Kazuya, don't antagonize Galeem! It's good that you're confident in your skills but there's a time and place for everything." Pac-Man scolded.
"I don't need to take this from you, ball-boy."
"Do you have to make an enemy of everyone?" Ryu sighed and shook his head.
"I wonder why there's a base like this in the middle of nowhere?" Link wondered, looking around the machine-dominated base.
"Ugh, computers, the bane of my existence." Sora groaned.
"I take it you and machines don't do well?" Joker teased.
"I don't even want to talk about it." Sora shook his head.
"Since we're here. Why don't we check this place out? It's not like we can go anywhere until the puppet fighter horde outside leaves us alone." Villager suggested.
"Good point. There's gotta be a way inside." Pac-Man agreed trying to look for a way inside the base.
"Wait...do you hear that? I think something's coming this way." Ryu warned.
Just as Ryu feared, they heard the sound of clanking feet that came slowly closer to them until they were face to face with a certain familiar blue robot.
"It's Mega Man! Mega Man I'm so glad to see you-" Villager started to come over to greet him but Mega Man raised his gun arm and started shooting.
"Villager!" Captain Falcon quickly jumped in and grabbed Villager and dodged just before the first of the projectiles hit.
"What are you doing, Mega Man? It's us!" Pac-Man panicked.
"He must be possessed just like we were. That means his puppeteer must be hiding nearby."
"But how do we even get pass him?" Olimar pondered.
"I'll handle Mega Man you guys hurry and find the punk that's controlling our buddy and knock them into next Tuesday." Pac-Man told them.
"Alright, I'll let help out too." Ryu came side by side with Pac-Man.
"Not that I need the help but I appreciate it." Pac-Man spoke in a bit of friendly rivalry.
With that both Ryu and Pac-Man charged and kept Mega Man on his toes as he was distracted with fighting the two of them that everyone else slipped past.
Just as they turned the corner, they spotted their foe.
"Found it!"
The Master Hand clone tried to escape but Link intervened, "No you don't!" He jumped up and using his spin attack which when made in contact, caused the hand to fall to the ground.
It didn't take very much to cause the hand to explode since everyone was working together to deliver damage to the hand.
"Good riddance." Joker fixed his glove as Piranha Plant stood next time him, proud of their handiwork.
"Let's go check back with Pac-Man and Ryu. Now that we've taken care of the one controlling Mega Man, he'll be back to normal." Link told the others.
Everyone returned to where the left Pac-Man and Ryu to fight Mega Man while he was still being controlled. They saw that Ryu and Pac-Man were just about to tap on Mega Man's trophy to awake him.
"I hope he didn't give you two much trouble?" Marth asked.
"Nah, you guys took down his puppeteer so fast, I don't think we ever had a chance to bring out the big guns." Pac-Man joked.
"We were just about to awaken him-hopefully-he may remember much more than we do. Since you know...he's a robot."
"A Robot? Cooool." Sora went starry-eyed.
"I thought you didn't like computers, Sora." Joker teased.
"Don't make fun of me. Besides, robots are totally different, at least he's not a deranged master computer CPU that went mad with power and tried to take control everything. Besides, I have a good friend who so happens to be a computer program." Sora retorted.
"...This world of yours sounds like a really bizarre place. Suppose I can't talk considering my world has the Metaverse where shadows exist and some can even create Palaces with their desires if they are twisted and distorted enough." Joker admitted.
"Oh that was just one of the worlds I visited." Sora grinned and placed his hands over his head care-freely.
"...You scare me sometimes Sora."
"In any case," Mario tapped on the trophy to awaken Mega Man.
Mega Man seemed a bit disoriented at first but soon gathered his bearings and recognized his friends. "Guys? You're all okay! How did you escape Galeem's attack? I thought all of us got devoured in that light save for Kirby." Mega Man asked.
"We did get captured, Mega Man. Most of us were still under Galeem's control, but thanks to Kirby and the people he-a met we were freed from his control." Mario explained to the Blue Bomber.
"I see...so that's how it is. Thanks a lot Kirby and the newcomers as well. You've really helped us out."
"Poyo~" Kirby cheered.
"Don't mention it, Mega Man." Sora beamed brightly.
"Oh! I forgot! Is Villager okay?! I remember that when I was still under the control of Galeem, I attacked him!" Mega Man panicked.
Villager came out and approached him. "I'm okay, Mega Man."
"I'm so sorry, Villager. I could have seriously hurt you!"
Villager shook his head. "It wasn't your fault though."
"But even so...I'm so glad Captain Falcon jumped in and nothing serious happened." He sighed in relief.
"So you remember quite a bit from when were you possessed by that Master Hand clone, right?" Pac-Man asked.
"So that thing really was a clone. I had a feeling it wasn't the real Master Hand. Sure they could be controlling and strict at times but never this bad. To answer your question though, yes, I do remember what I was doing. Although I honestly wish I didn't."
"Can you tell us anything that could help us find the other fighters?" Captain Falcon asked.
"I know Snake is here as well so we'll need to save him too. I don't know about the locations of the others though." Mega Man started.
"Well that is-a start at least." Mario placed his hand over his chin.
"I do know somewhere that could have the information we need though." Mega Man softly smiled.
"Really? That would be great! Where do we find it?" Sora chimed.
"Poyo poyo!" Kirby also earnestly pressed for answers.
"I was ordered to patrol his base by Galeem and I assume Snake was assigned here as well. Galeem seems to be using the master computer here to constantly update and keep an eye on things within this region and we're suppose to be his eyes and ears."
"Well you two would certainly be the best suited for this kind of role." Marth nodded slowly.
"I can try to download that information and use that as a way to track down the fighters within this part of the world, so basically the jungle north of us and maybe even further if I can get that information.
"Oh ho...So we're gathering information huh? Sounds like my kind of element." Joker smirked proudly.
"Oh yeah, you said you were a Phantom Thief didn't you? I'm kinda excited to see how you work." Sora remembered.
"Indeed I did. I can sneak into the base if you need help."
"Joker, correct? I appreciate the offer but it might be better if we work together on this. Not that I doubt your skills in what you do, but there are puppet fighters inside as well-not to mention the base inside has a very confusing layout with all kinds of numbered gates that require access codes. Thing is...some of these gates have a particular way in opening them." Mega Man explained.
"Oh..." Joker felt deflated, Sora patted his back to try cheer him up.
"That's not all. Just not too long ago, Galeem created this big brute called Galleom. I don't think one person would be enough to take him down, so we might need everyone's help for that." Mega Man also warned.
"I wonder if that was the thing we saw Galeem spawn out when it had its 'rage moment'." Joker wondered.
"If that's the case, then it could have been a response to what you guys were doing. Maybe it's worried that the information here will be compromise and..." Mega Man trailed off when he realized something shocking. "We'll need to hurry, Galeem could be planning to delete all the information on the master computer and if that happens, we'll never get the information we need."
"Of course, Galeem will try to stop us anyway it can now we've got its undivided attention. That would certainly be a way to impede our efforts." Joker agreed.
"Let's not waste any time then, our friends our counting on us to help them." Olimar spoke up.
Mario nodded. "Can you lead us through the base?"
Mega Man nodded. "Of course, leave it to me."
"Say uhh...Mega Man, this mother computer doesn't have an advanced computer program that would go rogue and start attacking us?" Sora asked.
Mega Man blinked before laughing. "Oh no, it's nothing that advance. Rest assured, it's mostly just used for storing large amounts of data and nothing more."
"Oh good, just wanted to ask." Sora sighed in great relief, he certainly didn't want relive his experience the last time he was inside somewhere that had a master computer.
"First thing first, we save Snake, then we'll worry about getting the access codes from Galleom and then download the data we need." Mega Man went through their whole plan.
"Now that sounds like a good plan." Joker concurred.
"Okie dokie. Just lead the-a way, Mega Man." Mario gave a thumbs up.
"Alright, follow me." Mega Man took the lead as the rest of the fighters followed since Mega Man was the most familiar with this base out of all of them.
The Smash Fighters along with the newcomers entered inside the base, just as Mega Man told them, the layout of the base was a complete mess, it was a good thing that they let Mega Man take the lead since he knew exactly where he was going. He activated the first switch that opened all the number 1 doors and proceeded to continue.
They soon came to the second room that four buttons in front of them. "This is one of the rooms I was talking about, those buttons takes four people to press at the same time."
"I see. So it really would be impossible for one person to infiltrate this place." Joker realized.
"We could just bash them." Sora offered.
"..." Everyone gave a few moments of silence looking at Sora.
"Well it's an option," Sora added.
"No Sora, we're not trashing the machines. If you do that we might not even be able to make it further in." Joker facepalmed.
"Poor Sora, it sounds like he had a really bad experience with places like this." Villager voiced.
"You're telling me. How about you, I and some of us go find Snake while Mega Man and the others take care of the gates? It'll keep your mind off the computers." Link offered.
"Uh...sure, I can do that. Thanks Link. I guess these places puts me on edge for some reason." Sora thanked.
"You clearly experienced quite an ordeal back where you came from. If it helps, I'm not much help in this place either, it all feels so alien to me. I've seen Sheikah technology but this definitely isn't it." Link comforted Sora since it was quite obvious computers and Sora don't get along. Not that Link was any better since he had no idea how any of this kind of technology worked, it was far different from the one he's used to in his world.
"Sounds good. I'm needed here to get the gates open, so maybe Kirby, Ryu and Olimar can go with you to find Snake."
"Is that okay with you guys?" Link turned to Kirby, Ryu and Olimar.
"Oh yes, I have no problem with that."
"Poyo." Kirby jumped on to Sora's head.
"I have no objections. Let's go find Snake." Ryu gave a small nod.
"I'll go too!" Villager offered.
"Okay sounds like we have a good team, we'll leave the rest of you to take care of the gates."
"No problem, stay safe you guys." Mario fixed his hat before giving them a thumbs up.
"Okay, everyone I'll need your help to work the gates since this will take timed presses."
With that, Link and his group went off to look for Snake while everyone else took care of the gates.
Link and his group waited for the first of the gates to open and while they waited, they noticed that another had joined their small group.
"Kazuya? Why did you come with us?" Olimar was the first to notice.
"I'd rather be punching my fists into things that messing around with those computers." Kazuya simply stated.
"So long as you punch our actual enemies and none of us, then that's fine." Ryu warned.
"Hmph." Kazuya crossed his arms.
"Poyo popo poyo?" Kirby spoke which Kazuya had no idea what the pink thing was saying to him.
"Kirby said could it be you were actually worried about us?" Sora translated.
"Silence little pink thing. It is no such thing, I can't stand being bored out of my mind so I'd rather be fighting things rather than waiting around twiddling with freaking buttons."
"Poyo..." Kirby looked sad.
"Don't let him get to you, Kirby." Sora encouraged.
The first gate opened before them allowed them to go through.
"Alright, stay close everyone, if you see any Puppet Fighters try to sneak by them if you can-our goal is to find Snake."
"Gotcha." Sora saluted.
"Poyo." Kirby mimicked Sora's action.
"Tch, forget that, I plan to demolish every Puppet Fighter I see." Kazuya scoffed.
"Kazuya...don't let your blood-lust get the better of you. Don't forget that the spirits that possess these puppet fighters are just as much victims of Galeem as we are." Ryu scolded.
"...Fine. I'll only destroy the shells but not the spirits." Kazuya grunted.
"That I can accept." Ryu was satisfied with that response.
"Now if I know Snake-and I like to think I do by now-he should be hiding somewhere in a cardboard box." Link informed.
"...Why a cardboard box?" Sora asked.
"We don't know either. Maybe it's a comfort thing for Snake?" Villager offered an answer.
"He once told me that it's his preferred method when infiltrating enemy bases." Ryu enlightened everyone.
"Huh...I can see that. I mean would you suspect a cardbox?" Link shrugged.
"Not me." Sora shook his head.
"Poyo." Kirby nodded.
"Heh, you're more observant than us then, Kirby." Sora snickered.
"I think Kirby sees it more of a game of hide and seek with Snake rather than how we see it." Olimar noted. "Still, Kirby can be quite observant when he wants to be."
As they continued searching for Snake, they took care of any Puppet Fighters that they couldn't avoid until they came to a number 5 gate.
"I guess we have to wait again for the others to unlock it."
"Poyo?" Kirby hopped over to button on the side that had the number three.
"What did you find Kirby?" Sora went over and picked up Kirby from where he ran off too. "Hey isn't that one of those buttons that Mega Man told us about?"
Kirby being the ever curious ball of pink he was, decided to press the button. "Wait Kirby don't press it, we don't know what-" Sora panicked but to their surprise, they heard a door open in the distance but also the number 5 door that blocked their way before opened up.
"Oh, it opened! What did you two do?" Link glanced over to the duo.
Sora pointed to Kirby who was still in his arms. "It was all him, I didn't do anything."
"Poyo." Kirby smiled and cheered.
"Good job Kirby,"
"Snake must be here-if not then it's possible he could have been moved somewhere else." Ryu went inside to see if they could find the fighter anyway, the others followed suit with Sora and Kirby entering last.
"The room seems empty..." Olimar looked disappointed. "I had really hoped he'd be here."
"Galeem probably moved him to another part of this world without Mega Man knowing." Ryu crossed his arms.
"Mega Man's going to be so sad." Villager said glumly.
Kirby jumped out of Sora's arms and went to a corner of the room as if drawn to something.
"Kirby?" Sora noticed this behavior and followed him.
Kirby went to a stray cardboard box in the room and picked it up with it's tiny arms. It was there that he saw Snake who was hiding underneath. "Poyo!" Kirby called out.
Snake upon being discovered and his eyes having the red glow, he got ready to attack Kirby by grabbing hold of him.
"Whaaa!" Kirby was taken by surprise and was unable to get out of Snake's grip. Thankfully, before Snake could do anything with Kirby, Sora whacked him with his keyblade, breaking his hold on Kirby.
"Poyo poyo!" Kirby floated down into Sora's arms who caught him and thanked him.
"Are you okay?"
Kirby responded with a simple nod.
"Sora! Kirby! Are you two okay? We heard loud sounds coming from over here." Link along with the other fighters came over to see what was going on.
"It's Snake, Kirby found him. He's got the same red glow like all the others we've seen."
"So he is possessed...Wait! Where's the puppeteer then?" Link tried to scan the room for the Master Hand clone assigned to Snake but couldn't see them anywhere.
"But it has to be here, they're clearly controlling Snake." Villager grew fearful, how can they fight Master Hand clone to free Snake if they couldn't even see where it was.
"It must be using something to disguise itself." Ryu went on the defensive, all the while Snake fought back attacking anyone that came close.
"If only we had Young Link here, he'd be able to use the lens of truth to spot them."
"Young Link?" Sora repeated.
"One of the other versions of me I told you about." Link reminded.
"Oh."
Snake attempted another attack on everyone by using a rocket launcher.
"Where did he get one of those?!"
"Move away quick!" Everyone dodged out of the way as Snake fired a rocket towards them, however, the rocket seemed to have hit something else which for a brief moment was made visible before camouflaging to the background of the room again.
"So that's it, the coward is hiding itself." Kazuya growled.
"That's it!" An idea clicked in Link's head as he brought out a bomb of his own.
"Someone needs to distract Snake while I start throwing these bombs around, if I'm right, they'll cancel whatever they are using to camouflage themselves. That will be our chance to strike when they appear."
Ryu nodded. "Very well, leave Snake to me. He is a martial art expert like myself, I'll buy you the time you need."
"Got it, leave that impostor to us." Villager brought out a gyroid and jumped on it ready.
"What do you plan to do?" Olimar asked.
"We need to get on the back of the hand and start attacking it right so maybe if I stand on it, we'll be able to still find it even if it goes back to hiding." Villager explained his idea.
"That's a really good idea." Sora praised.
"Marth also said cutting the strings off them works just as well." Olimar added.
"As soon as you guys see it, show it no mercy." Link told everyone.
Ryu went ahead to fight Snake, grappling and locked in a fight that involved more of their fists and legs rather than Snake's weapons which was Ryu's idea.
Link started throwing bombs all over the room in hopes of getting a glimpse of the Master Hand clone. Eventually Link struck gold as the camouflage was once again canceled out as the bomb had hit them directly-giving them the window they needed.
"Now!" Villager activated his Gyroid and fired it so it would head directly for the hand. Once he was close enough, he jumped off and landed on the back of the Master Hand's back.
The Master Hand impostor tried to shake Villager off but he kept hold tight by wrapping his arms around one of their fingers. "Okay guys! Now's your chance!"
Villager using himself as marker so the others could see where the Master Hand was, they all attacked at once with Kazuya delivering one powerful blow that caused the camouflage device that the hand was using to hide itself to fall off, making them completely visible for everyone to see.
"Can't run and hide and now. Now you'll feel the true might of my wrath." Kazuya cracked his knuckles with a malicious smile.
Link used his spin attack to cut through a large chunk of the strings connected to Master Hand's fingers while everyone else just whaled on the impostor, including Villager who was still on the back of the giant hand.
With everyone working together, it didn't take long until the hand finally exploded, Villager who was on the hand at the time, starting falling since the hand was no more. Lucky for him though, Link grabbed him mid-fall and landed safely back on the ground.
"Thanks Link, I kinda forgot to think ahead on that part." Villager thanked while laughing sheepishly.
"Don't mention it. Marth and Mario really weren't kidding. Those copies of Master Hand don't take much effort to defeat do they? Still, they seem to have different ways of fighting."
"I wonder if the others we'll find will be more difficult like this one was." Sora wondered.
"Perhaps. We'll worry about that when we come to it. The important part is that we've saved Snake."
"Oh yeah! Let's go awaken him, he'll be back to being a trophy right?" Sora realized.
Ryu brought over Snake's trophy who seemed to have successfully managed to distract him long enough for everyone to get rid of Snake's puppeteer.
"I had forgotten how strong Snake was, he gave me some trouble but nothing I couldn't handle." Ryu then placed the trophy carefully back on the ground.
Kirby came over and tapped on the trophy to awaken Snake.
Snake shook his head and rubbed his head as he came to his senses upon being awakened. "Ugh, that felt awful."
"Welcome back, Snake. How do you feel?" Ryu greeted.
"I've felt better, but I'm glad you guys came when you did. Thanks." Snake answered. "By the way, I've noticed there's new faces here. I take it you guys are newcomers?"
"Yup. I'm Sora." Sora beamed and introduced himself.
"The name's Snake. Pleased to meet you, Sora. Who's the other guy?"
"That would be Kazuya. You'll have to forgive him if he comes off rude, he's one of those fighters, you see." Link warned.
"Right. Got it. Any other newcomers I should know about or are these the only two?"
"There's two more with us. Joker and Piranha Plant." Villager answered.
"So, Sora, Kazuya, Joker and Piranha Plant, interesting crew. Still...how did you guys get here then? I thought only Master Hand could summon new fighters to this place. Wait-before that-how did I end up becoming controlled by Galeem? I don't remember anything that happened after that light-show."
"Snake don't you remember we fought Galeem and lost? You were there too." Link reminded.
"Uhh...I think I was hiding in my cardboard box at the time so I didn't actually see how the fight ended. So that's how it went down-explains how I ended up being under Galeem's control now."
"...Seriously?" Link gave a look of disbelief.
"Hey! I thought it would work! I thought if Galeem couldn't see me, it wouldn't notice me." Snake defended.
"Well that backfired for you, didn't it?" Link sighed.
"Yes...I've noticed. Don't need to remind me." Snake grumbled.
"Well...we really don't know either. We all seem to share one thing in common though: A bright light and then finding ourselves here without knowing why." Sora interjected, answering Snake's question from before.
"That's mysterious. I wish I could say welcome but considering how it sounds you guys got dragged here without any warning-it just sounds like the wrong thing to say."
"It's okay, Snake. It hadn't been so bad. We saved Mega Man earlier as well, he was the one who told us you were here." Sora mentioned.
"Mega Man huh? I'll have to thank him when I see him then. In any case, I bet you guys are planning on saving the others so count me in as well. I'm done being used as a puppet for Galeem."
"We're happy to have you, Snake. Now that we've taken care of what we were tasked to do, we should reunite with the others and take down this Galleom that Mega Man mentioned."
Everyone started to retrace their steps back to where they came while Kazuya stopped in his tracks when he saw the the camouflage device that the Master Hand clone dropped. He picked it up and crushed it in his hands. He brushed off the destroyed remains of the device before leaving the room and following the others.
Back with Mario and the others who were helping Mega Man with the buttons, they finally came to the last room that looked like a computer hub room.
"This is where the Master Computer is, I can try and enter the current codes I have if it will allow me access but I bet they've changed it since the last time I was here." Mega Man informed everyone as he headed to the nearest keyboard and started tapping in various numbers and letters at an insane speed.
"Whoa, you could give Futaba a run for her money with the way you are typing those keys." Joker commented. Piranha Plant was on Joker's shoulder but just looked completely baffled by all the technology around it.
"Is that a friend of yours, Joker?" Mega Man asked.
Joker nodded. "Yeah, she's an amazing hacker. If she was here, she'd probably get the information we needed without needing to go into the base." Joker continued.
"She really does sound amazing. I hope that when this is all over, you and the other newcomers will find a way back home too. Maybe you could tell her all about your adventure here when you do."
"Thanks Mega Man, that means a lot. Although I don't think anyone would believe me if I told them about this crazy adventure."
Mega Man ended his typing with pressing the enter key to see if it accepted the code but the screen came back with a big 'invalid' plastered in front of it. "No good, it looks like they really did change the codes."
"Welp, guess we're beating up this Galleom to get the updated codes then." Pac-Man stated.
"Shouldn't we wait for the others to come back though? Galleom isn't like the Puppet Fighters we're used to seeing by now." Mega Man warned.
"He's got a point. If we act too recklessly we'll end up putting ourselves in danger-or worse-get trophified." Joker agreed.
"But surely it can't keep an eye on all of us." Captain Falcon noted.
"Okay, let's look at this logically. Right now we have Mario, myself, Mega Man, Pac-Man, Captain Falcon, Marth and Piranha Plant. If we're clever about this, we could get away with beating Galleom with just the group we have now." Joker counted off all the fighters in their group right now.
"I suppose you're right. Now we just need to find-oh wait a minute!" Mega Man went to another keyboard on the right side and used one of the security cameras of the base to zoom in on one of the rooms they haven't seen yet.
"That's Link and the others that went with him! It looks like they've saved Snake too...Wait...Oh no! They've must have gotten lost and ended up in the room where Galleom is!"
"That's-a bad!"
"Even with Snake with them, they have no idea what they're walking into." Marth became concerned, especially since they probably had just fought Snake and they were about to fight an enemy that was potentially stronger than anything they've faced so far.
"Mega Man, how do we get into that room?" Joker asked with urgency in his voice.
"I know the room they're in. C'mon, we've got to catch up with them before Galleom ambushes them."
Everyone hurried out of the computer room and made their way to the room where Galleom was lying in wait.
"I think we're lost guys...Every where looks exactly the same." Sora was completely lost looking at the same-looking hallways.
"I think Sora's right. We've lost track of where we were going. I don't remember being in this room before." Link confirmed.
"Me neither. It looks much bigger than any other room we've seen so far." Olimar noted as well.
"I'm surprised you don't remember the layout of this place, Snake." Villager asked.
"Wait...everyone stay exactly where you are." Snake became alert and warned everyone to not move a step further.
"What's wrong? Do you remember something?" Ryu pressed for answers.
"I don't remember much from when I was under Galeem's control but I know there's something dangerous in this room."
Kirby accidentally lost his footing and face-planted on the ground while touching an inch further than intended.
The lights of the large room lit up like a flare, causing everyone to shield their eyes from the brightness along with loud alarm noises going off in the room.
They heard loud clanking noises that came further and further in until it revealed itself in the light before them.
It was grey and purple armored with an axe-like face mask and a pointed helmet.
"Damn it. That's Galleom! I knew there was something dangerous here!" Snake cursed.
"Kirby!" Sora quickly picked up Kirby and jumped back in time before a large fist came down smashing the metal floor right where Kirby had been standing.
"Poyo..." Kirby looked apologetic for accidentally waking up the 'brute' that Mega Man warned them about.
"I'm just glad you're safe Kirby. That was close." Sora reassured his pink friend before placing him back down.
"What do we do? Do we try fighting it now?" Link asked the others in the group as Galleom glared down at them menacingly.
"Shouldn't we find the others first before tackling this thing?" Villager told Link.
"Ha! I say let it try to take us down if it can, the great Kazuya Mishima will-" Kazuya was unable to finish as Galleom delivered punch so strong that it sent the man flying into the one of the walls and even causing a dent upon impact. Even knocking out Kazuya hard enough to change him back into a trophy.
"...Okay I think we're in trouble." Snake warned.
"Guys! Are you alright?" Mega Man's voice called out to them, they all turned to see that the other group had arrived.
"Good timing," Link was relieved to see everyone was together again to fight Galleom. "We got lost by accident."
"No kidding, but never mind that, we've got a minion of Galeem to take down."
"What happened to Kazuya?" Captain Falcon noticed Kazuya had been turned into a trophy.
"He got too overconfident and ended up getting punched in the face." Ryu simply stated.
"...Why am I not surprised?" Pac-Man sighed.
"Leave Kazuya to us, you concentrate on the bigger problem." Villager offered and Olimar willing to assist.
"Alright, it's time put this brute down for good." Mega Man got ready to charge his Mega blaster.
"Feels good to be fighting alongside everyone again." Snake armed himself ready with his rocket launcher.
"Yeah, this is only the start though. There's still others that need saving just like we were rescued." Mega Man told him.
"You'll hear no arguments from me. Oh yeah, thanks for not forgetting about me, the the others told me you were the one who told them I was brought here too."
"I'm slightly hurt you thought I would." Mega Man joked lightly. "Of course I wouldn't forget you. And we'll save all the others too before taking the fight to Galeem itself."
"Sounds like a plan to me. Let's do it." Snake grinned.
The whole gang united were ready to take on one of Galeem's own created servants Galleom.
The first thing it did was change into a tank like form and charged towards everyone.
Everyone dodged out of the way and Ryu tried a spinning kick on Galleom only for the attack do little damage.
"That armor is getting in the way, we need to find a weak-spot." Ryu informed.
"Mega, can you see anything that we can exploit?" Snake asked just as he fired off his rocket launcher.
"I'll try scanning for an opening, keep him busy." Mega Man activated his scanning systems to try and find any sort of opening in Galleom's body behind all that armor. It almost reminded him of one of Dr. Wily's Robot Masters. Almost.
"Whatever you do, don't get hit by its punches. That's what happened to Kazuya." Link warned everyone.
"Noted." Joker acknowledged.
Piranha Plant had increased it's size so it was fighter-size and starting whaling on Galleom with it's head.
Galleom backed up before transforming back to it's original form and was about to attack by bringing both of his hands together in attempt to pound the fighters in front of him.
"Everyone out of the way!" Pac-Man realized this and alerted everyone to move just as the two colossal hands came down.
Pac-Man changed to his 8-Bit form and tried to deal damage that way but the armor was still blocking their attempts.
Meanwhile Villager and Olimar awakened Kazuya.
"Are you okay? That sounded like it hurt when Galleom punched you." Olimar asked.
"Tch, that thing just got a lucky hit on me, nothing more." Kazuya growled. "He's just made his worst enemy today." Kazuya got back up and was about to join the fight until Villager and Olimar stopped him.
"Wait! You've just awakened back from trophy form, at least give yourself time to recover!" Villager panicked.
"As if that will stop me, now get out of my way." He picked up Villager by the back of his shirt and pulled him aside before charging into the fight once more.
"Oh dear...he tends to be tunnel-visioned when he fights doesn't he?" Olimar noted.
"He's so stubborn. Since he's awake, let's help the others fight too." Villager told Olimar before running back into the battle with the small space captain quickly running after Villager.
Kazuya delivered a punch so strong to Galleom's face that it made a small dent in the axe-like face mask it had.
"Kazuya! You're awake already?"
"You will regret making a fool of me! I'll make sure there's not even scrap metal left when I'm through with you." Kazuya yelled at Galleom while pointed accusingly at him.
"He sure knows how to hold a grudge. Just like a certain other fighter I know." Link rolled his eyes, especially when Ganondorf came into mind.
"Okay, I've found something. Apparently Galleom is a machine with heavy armor so conventional attacks aren't going to be much help. He's armed with rocket launchers and strong enough to change us back to trophies if he gets a blow on us. We need to take it down fast." Mega Man reported after his scanning had finished.
"How? We can't even get pass the armor right now." Marth asked as he blocked another attack with his counter move.
"There's a core in his chest area, if we deal enough damage to it, the rest of Galleom will fall apart." Mega Man pointed to a orange circle that looked like a power button turned sideways that was right in the middle of Galleom's chest.
"Leave this to me. I have just the thing for the job." Snake pulled out an grenade.
"Can you get close enough, Snake?" Marth asked curiously.
"Heh, you're talking to an expert of infiltration and stealth here, kid." Snake smirked.
"That's the-a plan then. Let's-a go!" Mario fixed his hat before firing a fireball at the giant machine, getting Galleom's attention.
Snake took this opportunity to sneak past Galleom to try and get behind him to try climbing up Galleom's back.
Everyone kept Galleom's attention on them to so Snake could get close enough to Galleom's core and managed to pull the lid of protecting the core open before throwing a grenade in. "Someone's about to experience some heartburn." Snake rubbed in before jumping off as the grenade went off inside Galleom's chest, causing a chain of explosions that forced Galleom to take a few steps backwards.
"This is what happens when you humiliate the great Kazuya Mishima!" Kazuya gave a powerful kick to Galleom's chest, since he was greatly weakened from Snake's grenade, it didn't take much effort for Kazuya's leg to smash through his chest.
The core was damaged enough for Galleom to suddenly start falling to pieces until he crumpled into a heap of scrap.
"Whew...I don't know how but we managed to pull it off." Sora sighed in relief as he sat down exhausted.
"Good job you two." Mario gave a thumbs up to Mega Man and Snake.
"Trust Mega here to pin-point our problem right away and find a solution." Snake patted the Blue Bomber's back.
"Heh, I'm just glad we managed to defeat it. At least that's one of Galeem's creations put down." Mega Man shook his head. "I'll go get the codes from Galleom's body, then we can access the master computer and get the information we need."
"Hmph, that's one of the Galeem's creations? If that's the all Gallem can offer then fighting the actual god will be a pushover." Kazuya glared at the remains.
"But you were the one who-" Sora was about to say before Joker covered his mouth.
"Just let it go, Sora. He's really not worth it." Joker intervened to spare Sora from Kazuya's wrath.
"Joker's right. Just let him think what he wants. He's got some serious issues and I don't think he's the type to take constructive criticism." Pac-Man agreed with Joker's words.
"Poyo." Kirby jumped on to Sora's head. While Piranha Plant changed back to his pocket-size and jumped back on to Joker's shoulder.
"Heh, you two have become inseparable." Sora teased Joker.
"Calling the kettle black, are we?" Joker teased back, pointing to Kirby.
Mega Man went ahead to the master computer to use the access codes he got from Galleom's corpse while the others took this chance to take a quick reprieve from their non-stop fighting.
Half an hour had passed when Mega Man returned to the room where the other fighters had been waiting for his return from the master computer room.
"So how did it-a go?" Mario was the first to ask upon Mega Man's return.
"I've got good news and I've got bad news." Mega Man sighed.
"Oh dear, that doesn't sound good." Olimar grew concerned.
"Give us the bad first." Captain Falcon suggested.
"Galeem has deleted nearly everything by the time I got there. I was worried it would do something like this."
"That disappointing, that was our best chance of getting information on where our friends ended up in this world." Marth sighed sadly.
"There is good news though. It didn't delete everything. I was able to get information on the jungle area and a small village further north from here. I bet we'll find some of our friends in these two places." Mega Man instilled some hope in the group by sharing the information he was able to salvage.
"So Link was right, there is probably some fighters still in the jungle." Villager recalled.
"That's not the only good thing I learned. I found out something very interesting about our enemy, Galeem." Mega Man smiled.
"Oh? Intel on the enemy huh? Do tell." Joker was intrigued.
"It looks like when Galleom was destroyed, the shield that Galeem uses to protect itself from any incoming attacks was weakened. This gives rise to a theory of mine." Mega Man started to explain his theory to the rest of the fighters.
"Every time Galeem creates a servant to fight on it's behalf to try and stop us, it uses up a huge portion of its power, so that means the shield protecting the so-called 'Lord of Light' will start to wane and decline as a result of every defeat we deal to his creations. So if we keep fighting these minions of Galeem, we'll eventually weaken Gallem to the point where its shield will reach a breaking point and crack open, giving us our window of opportunity."
"I see. So if we get rid of Galeem's shield by taking down Galeem's creations-like Galleom-that will give us a better chance of fighting him than we did before." Link clicked together what Mega Man was saying.
"Exactly. When we fought it the first time, we didn't know anything about Galeem. Let alone about this shield, I bet even if we did go to fight Galeem right now, we wouldn't have been able to do anything to it so long as that shield is in place." Mega Man confirmed.
"Then our path is clear. We have to get rid of Galeem's creations whenever it creates a new one and save our friends along the way. Once we've weakened Galeem enough for its shield to break open, that's our chance to take the fight to the enemy itself." Marth understood what needed to be done.
"We were kinda doing that to begin with, but good to know we're on the right path." Sora shrugged.
"So we're all in agreement of Mega Man's plan."
Everyone except Kazuya nodded.
"Tch, I bet I could beat that 'god' even with its shield still up."
"...Yeah okay buddy, keep telling yourself that. You weren't even there when we fought Galeem the first time." Pac-Man didn't look the slightest bit convinced.
"Don't aggravate him further Pac-Man. But he is right, Kazuya-like it or not, we can't beat Galeem as we are right now. We must get stronger and find our fellow fighters first. We stand stronger together than alone." Ryu cautioned.
"Spare me your speeches, but fine...if this is how we have to get close to that 'God of Light' since its too cowardly to come fight us directly, then so be it." Kazuya grumbled.
"Is there a way to get-a to the jungle? Last time, there was a horde of Puppet fighters chasing after us." Mario questioned.
"We might be able to sneak into the jungle another way if we take the right path out of this base. I have noticed when I checked the security cameras that the Puppet Fighters you were running from seemed to have left the area. This is our best chance to sneak by them." Mega Man reported.
"Or," Snake chimed in. "We could find a bunch of cardboard boxes and hide inside of them while sneaking our way into the jungle."
"..." Everyone was completely silent and gave Snake a judging look.
"Well we could,"
"That's just dumb." Joker face-palmed from the sheer stupidity of the idea.
"I dunno, I think even Puppet Fighters would find it weird if they saw a whole army of cardboard boxes slowly moving around at once." Villager pictured the idea in his head and it just came off as weird.
"Sorry, Snake. Maybe next time?" Mega Man comforted his friend by patting his back.
"Then we should take this chance to sneak out of the base while Puppet Fighter activity is low." Captain Falcon told everyone.
"Then what are we waiting for? To the jungle! Here we go! Wahoo!" Mario lead the way as the team made their way out of the base and carefully went around the right path where the jungle awaited them all.
Whew, finally done this chapter at last, this one is probably my longest one yet. Now I'm up to date with my play-though and can continue it!
I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far and thanks to everyone who has shown their support so far. The base section was probably the hardest chapter so far for me so I'm glad I finally got over this hurdle. =3
I hope you all enjoy the chapter. =D
I had two questioned asked from two readers. The first one from unknownnights asked if the spirits of Min-Min and Pyra/Mythra mean if they would start out as puppet fighters or be their own fighters from the start. The answer to that is they will be their own fighters when they do finally appear, for the sake of the narrative and saving a headache for readers, we'll just pretend the spirits of those characters aren't there. XD
CasualFictionWriter asks will Cloud and Sephiroth remember Sora or will they be their FF7 counterparts? The answer to that is yes, they're going to remember Sora. =3
However like how Sora was reverted back to his fourteen year old self and given his old clothes back when arriving in the Smashverse, Cloud and Sephiroth would be the same too. If that makes sense. ^-^
And so Mega Man and Snake has joined the fight and they discovered that Galeem weakens every time he creates a minion to try and stop the fighters, so they now have another goal all the while saving their remaining friends still trapped in captivity in the process. And now they head to the jungle to save more of their fellow fighters, just who will they meet and just what will they encounter there?
So until the next chapter, happy reading everyone. Moogle Empress out!
Moogle: Kupo!