Bow Before Your King

Chapter 4 - The Fight Is On!

Yeah, this chapter ended up getting released a few hours later than usual, but not too mad. I had a couple things to do, but at least the chapter is here now so you all can enjoy. And the fight is on! Incineroar and Pit vs Bowser and Ganondorf. And based on the reviews, it seems to be a tie on who will win, so it's officially a showdown! But before we get to the actual fight, we're gonna get a little more screen time from Dedede, since he's the last king to appear, he has some screen time to makeup.

Are you guys ready for it?

~KF

The automatic door from the Teleportation Room lifted with four fighters walking out one-by-one. Upon it closing, the same heavyweight anthropomorphic penguin from before ended up being the first to speak.

"Okay." He started with a large grin. "How. Fun. Was. That!? Possibly one of the best four person battles I've had since this era started! Seriously! ...I mean, okay, even though I was out second and Snake ended up winning, he was clearly not expecting that Gordo to come out of nowhere to take his first stock! I mean, I first tossed that thing; something he was already not expecting. I quickly inhaled it, spit it out, and knocked him off. Hahahaha!"

"Hmph..." The high tier player from Brawl rolled his eyes to his point. "It still astonishes me that Master Hand allowed you to only use Gordos for now on. You're already a strong competitor and he lets you only use those of all your minions."

"Yeah, I actually requested that to him and I got away with it! I was very surprised back in the day!" Although keeping his grin initially, a brief moment of silence was enough for his face to nimbly changed to a worried expression. "...Wait a minute... One of you did save it, right? ...I have to watch that fight again so I can show everybody at lunch..."

"I thought you were going to do it since you said you were before we fought..." Bayonetta recalled with a blank.

"Same." Meta Knight agreeing to her words proved that it was more likely that his fellow Brawl veteran messed up.

With Snake glancing at him as well, it caused Dedede to enlarge his eyes greatly, realizing that they were in fact right, especially when he himself volunteering prior to stepping into the teleporter. "Oh no... Oh no! What have I done?"

"You mean, what have you not done." Bayonetta giggled a little folding her arms. "Silly penguin."

"Great!" The King of Dreamland said in obvious sarcasm to complain. "Just, flipping, great! Not only do I need to see that fight again, but between the time I was out and the time I was back in that room, I missed up to five seconds of what happened in between and now I will never know! Unless..."

The robed hero from the Subspace Emissary decided that it was a pretty decent idea to pick up Meta Knight of all puffballs. "You were out first, weren't you? You have to tell me what happened! Save me!"

"Put me down... Now."

Dedede simply could have ignored his command, but he hesitantly obeyed and let Meta Knight talk. "First of all, how many times must I remind you not to do that? And second, all that happened in those five seconds were simply shielding and side-stepping. Even if it was anything major, the entire fight will never be seen again, anyway. If it was a tournament match, of course it would have been a different story. Every last one is uploaded to SmashTube."

"But this is not a tournament. It is just a match!" Kirby's rival reminded. "It's a match! A Saturday morning, 1v1v1v1 match! And since we didn't save it, we will never watch it again and it will be forgotten forever and it's all my fault! GAH!"

"Aw, don't worry, Triple D." Bayonetta watched the panicked penguin's hands holding onto his hat out of frustration. "It will come back. Maybe we can do it all over again sometime."

"Well, we can't fight again, now." Snake shook his head. "We have to wait for at least thirty minutes in case other brawlers here want to have a turn."

"Speaking of taking turns..." Bayonetta tapped him on the shoulder, and the two, plus Meta Knight and King Dedede all looked in the direction she pointed in to find Bowser, Ganondorf, Incineroar, and Pit approaching with Palutena and Shovel Knight right behind.

"...I assume you all had the desire to come here, too?" Meta Knight guessed.

"It's a long... painful story." Bowser summarized. "Now move along so we can get in."

"Oh, I'll tell you what happened." Incineroar's finger raised. "Palutena took me to ShineSpriteBucks for breakfast so I can have my first cup of coffee, which was delicious by the way. Bowser couldn't get what the word 'patience' means and decided to be outright disrespectful to the cashier! Marth and Roy tried to call him out but he kept going after I've had a word with him, and so he got kicked out."

"Uh..." Pit assumed that it was his turn to speak. "So, I guess that's where I come in. Bowser told me and Shovel Knight that he wanted to fight Incineroar as some sort of 'revenge' or something, so we told him, and he said that it'd be better to have him and Palutena fight Bowser so he could humiliate him in a 2v1. I thought it was wrong for Palutena to be involved in something she didn't ask to be apart of, so I took her place."

Obviously, seconds of silence had to be taken place. Stares, exchanged glances, and questionable looks all came into play all the while. Meta Knight sighed under his mask, thinking that both Bowser and Incineroar's reactions to the coffee predicament to be petty and immature. He even thought that Palutena did not even need Pit to defend her, since she was the powerful Goddess of Light for a reason.

Snake put the silence curse to an end after pointing at Dragmire. "So why is he here, then?"

"For my own personal reasons." He answered him. "I will be fighting alongside Bowser in this team battle. It will be a two stock battle lasting up to four minutes. The Pokemon here had the desire for it to be a one stock, two minute battle, but with a little negotiation, there's going to be a second chance at life in the match in this case scenario."

"Anyway," With an eye roll, Bowser gathered the attention back to him once more. "if you all would move out of the way, we need to enter. Now."

"Before we go,..." Incineroar shifted his eyes to his left to see Pit. Grinning, he reached out and brought him closer, much to the angel's discomfort. "anyone wanna watch me and my pal Pit kick Bowser's tail?"

"Oh, can it, why don't ya!?" Koopa's patience was wearing thin. "I think we all know who's tail is really gonna get kicked. Might as well run away like a little girl already!"

"Bring it on!" Pushing Pit away, he ended up being literally in his face. "I don't have anything to prove!"

"Neither do I, but I wanted to fight someone, anyway!" Bowser's snout was now pressing against Incineroar's small nose. "We'll really see who's right here. I'll make sure you are out within zero point two seconds!"

To prove that he was bigger and badder than him, the cat-like Pokemon stood taller. "Do you actually think it's a good idea to test me?"

"You were the reason to why I was kicked out in the first place!" Bowser did the same.

"Um, can we fight already?" Pit asked the two.

With silence shining over them once more, Dedede turned to Snake, Bayonetta, and Meta Knight. "You guys wanna watch? This argument is intense! All over a cup of coffee!"

"Well, you did threw that tantrum over a movie you and K. Rool were supposed to watch..." Meta Knight reminded him. Speaking of the humanoid crocodile, he suddenly shifted his eyes in different directions. "Where is he, anyway? I was surprised when he of all fighters didn't join in."

"Oh. He's at some interview right now about him fighting the Kongs in the tournaments. DK fans can't get enough of him."

"Well, then..." Palutena made a complete rotation to beginning her walk to the auditorium. "I'll be in the auditorium to watch, too. Pit, if you lose, Dark Pit's going to mock you for the next week when he hears about it."

"Oh, I'll make sure I win!" Pit's punching fist of confidence proved his optimism. He glanced at his ally in the fight with a nod of reassurance. "We'll win this. I know we will!"

The auditorium of the Smash Mansion was used for a variety of purposes, and in the year of 2019 for Smash, it was clear that it was going to be used quite often throughout, especially when the Ultimate era was barely a month old at the time. Smash battles being showcased, movies on a Saturday night, and special announcements that were made by the two hand creators of the universe. Obviously for this case scenario, Snake, Meta Knight, King Dedede, Bayonetta, Palutena, and Shovel Knight were here specifically for the first reason. Upon entering, they noticed Ike, Link, Donkey Kong, Ryu, Ken, Little Mac, Red, Wolf, Lucario, Knuckle Joe, Alucard, Zero, Phosphora, Zoroark, and Bellossom sitting in various locations.

"Where are we gonna sit at?" Snake stared around.

"Ooh, let's sit front and center." Palutena suggested. "I don't mind front row seats and I see Phosphora over there. Come on."

The Kid Icarus Assist Trophy in question rotated her head to see the big group coming her way. "Oh, I got company over here! Awesome!"

"Hi, Phosphora." Palutena greeted. "Guess what, Pit is in a team with Incineroar and they're going to fight Bowser and Ganondorf. They gave us enough time to come here, so they should be on the screen any minute."

"Ooh, Pit? Fighting Bowser and Ganondorf... with Incineroar?" Phosphora repeated with a somewhat surprised tone of voice, which was actually expected. "Ooh, this is so juicy. I wanna hear the story."

"We'll talk about it later." The green haired Goddess halted the discussion, not paying attention to everyone else that was involved sitting around them. "The fight's getting ready to begin soon."

"I think we got a couple dozen seconds to spare." Snake informed. "I told them to give us up to four minutes. They're probably arguing in the Teleporter Room."

"Ooh!" Dedede suddenly clapped his hands rapidly. "Speaking of which, I heard that they're gonna make adjustments to it. From what I heard, there are going to be a multitude of arenas in the Teleporter Room so that groups of Smashers can fight at the same time! If this is true, then it's about time they do it! I'm tired of waiting because of other people being in the Teleporter Room."

"I do agree." Meta Knight nodded. "Me having to wait constantly is sort of an inconvenience. Now, Palutena, if I may ask, why is Incineroar so... infuriated on Bowser's actions in ShineSpriteBucks."

This made her closed her eyes with a sigh. "Okay, quick story time. So I told Pit that Incineroar's good with kids, right? When I asked him on why he got involved in the situation, he told me that growing up, he always hated bullies. When he was a Litten, he used to see young Pokemon Trainers getting bullied all the time by older Pokemon users. And so, he thought that Bowser was bullying the Mii cashier so that his food could be served to him quickly. It rubbed him the wrong way, and that was enough to motivate him to intervene. I can't imagine what he thinks when he sees little kids getting picked on when they go to school... Ooh, the fight's starting now!"

"This is gonna be fun!" said Dedede.

Music: Final Destination (Super Smash Brothers Ultimate)

3...

2...

1...

GO!

If one knew anything about team battles in Smash, no matter what era a Smasher originated from, a little bit of cooperation went a long way, as it was the number one unofficial rule when it came to team battles. To stand at any chance at winning, the group of four had to be aware that there was something called teamwork. As long as it went through their heads, all they had to do was perform at their best.

Based on the events that occurred that day, it was very clear that the match in particular was not meant for anyone to have a personal victory, even if all Bowser Koopa wanted to do was to get back at Incineroar, pinning him as the reason to why he was banned from of ShineSpriteBucks. Nevertheless, he had to work with Ganon, a fighter that was known by Smash fans since the Melee days. He hated to admit it, but he was clearly the stronger fighter in comparison, especially when he discovered that he was able to use his sword at long last.

Yet, perhaps it could have worked to his benefit knowing that they were on the same side.

"You're strong." Bowser managed to state a few words during the countdown. "You go after Pit. I got Incineroar."

Without even waiting for a response, the match had already begun. Dragmire thought that what Bowser said seemed logical. Pit was clearly the weakest of the four, so it made sense for Ganondorf to make him an early target, even though Incineroar was more of the immediate threat that needed to be dealt with. That being said, he could not simply focus exclusively on Palutena's servant. At least a couple attacks on Incineroar would not have hurt.

Unfortunately for the duo of kings, Incineroar's hypothesis that they would use that exact strategy was correct. A brief whisper to Pit was all he needed in between attacks. "Ganon."

That one word was more than enough for Pit to set his priorities straight. Using his side special, he zoomed along before grabbing Ganon for a pummel. To avoid Pit being attack from behind by Bowser, Incineroar shielded by using his own side special to launch him offstage for a bit, giving Pit more time to throw Ganon on the ground.

With all this occurring, it meant that Bowser and Ganondorf were on the hot seat right out of the gate. Long ranged attacks should fix the problem temporarily, which was why Bowser decided that using his fire breath was a good move to use, even though given its history, he could not have used it for a long period of time. After all, one could not have breathed properly by exhaling alone anyway.

Much to his annoyance, the Pokemon grabbed him from behind and threw him to Pit, who then used his side smash to increase him damage percentage.

Even though everyone knew who had the most damage from that point, one thing about Smash was that the more people who fought at once, the less opportunities there were for one individual. For example, half the attacks one would use against the opponent on 1v1 battles would not be as reliable, given that there was another person to ruin it in any way he or she could. So as stated before, everything was more about team strategy; it needed to be used as an advantage.

As for Bowser and Ganondorf, the heavyweights quickly made a comeback that made Pit lose his first of two stocks with a series of combos that worked in their favor, even with Incineroar intervening for about one second.

"Be careful!" He warned Pit upon him returning, with a direct glare at the two Smash veterans. "And don't give up hope! We're still in this!"

"Not giving up, yet!" The brown-haired hero glared as well, shooting a series of arrows to stall the villains' attacks, granting him enough time to land hits first. Using the Guardian Orbitars to block Ganon's aerial punch, he retaliated with his Smash 4 Upperdash Arm move to send Ganon flying away.

With Bowser looking above to see the poor Gerudo, he knew this could have potentially meant trouble, knowing the score was now basically tied up. Say Ganondorf was out first, he at least needed to survive as long as possible without losing a stock.

Yet luck was not on his side at the time as the opposing team ganged up on him while his ally was busy returning to Final Destination. The man was too little, too late to defend as he soared through the sky horizontally.

Now the only fighter that had both stocks remaining was Incineroar. Of course.

With the realization, Bowser suddenly did not care whether his Plan B was heard out loud or not. Panicking a little, he got into his shell to spin around the place. "Ganon, change of plans! Take down Incineroar!"

To increase his chances of winning, he had no desire to be told what to do twice. To make up for his lack of speed, he used Wizard's Foot as a faster to approach to Incineroar, yet if one did not know already, Incineroar was a Pokemon that was not to be messed with, for he used quick thinking to react in time. He already had the idea that being able to predict moves were crucial when it came to competitive play, and any competitive, professional Smash gamer from the real world knew it all too well.

Ganon was planning on performing a down smash, since he presumed that his side smash would a little slower, but thanks to Incineroar's 'Revenge', it did not matter what the orange-haired king had in store for him at the end of the day.

"No!" Bowser placed hands on his hand in complete frustration. His worst fear was now letting Incineroar used one of his powerful moves to send someone flying off. But there was no way the Koopa King was going to lose against some Pokemon that wanted to make a name for himself at the coffee shop. Groaning loudly, it sparked a fire under him to start playing even more aggressively, which was always a double edged sword for anyone, especially if a Smasher was already infamous for being a strong player.

Despite that, Mario's arch-nemesis used his quicker moves to make sure he was in the same position as anyone else. And he was. One stock now remained for each of the four.

"Oh cheesecake..." Pit mumbled under his breath. "Now we have to work even harder."

The next minute happened to be the most intense minute of all. Strategies were constantly changing, people were now outright yelling at each other, and most of all, all four of them were receiving damage fast. No matter who the person a fan desired to root for, he was at his own risk of losing the match. Best thing to do was to hope that if somebody from a certain team was going down, at least have the other team member do the rest of the work so that he could be victorious in the end, whether he had to fight two players or not.

"I NEVER LEARNED HOW TO READ!"

Unfortunately, all the Pit fans would have been upset. An up smash from Bowser was enough for Pit to zoom off, too far for him to recover. Oh the foreshadowing for Incineroar, who happened to be the one that requested a 2v1 battle in the first place, yet it was obviously not what he meant given his situation.

Conveniently, Dark Lands's leader just so happened to be thinking of it, causing him to roar with great laughter. "Karma! Karma written all over you! Now you're gonna get it!"

"Shut up!"

It became very clear that Incineroar's bag of insults to throw at Bowser already ran out, becoming desperate to win more than ever since it was technically him against the world at the time. The spiky shelled turtle was in fact right about the karma thing, since had Incineroar not suggest the battle to not be a 1v1, things possibly would have been different.

In a series of powerful attacks made by each of them, it came to the point to where the both of them somehow were sent offstage flying together near the blast line. Times like those did occurr whenever two or more Smashers attacked simultaneously. Sure, said attacks would have blocked each out, but for that case, it was not it.

With experience, Bowser used it to his advantage, as soon as both of them neared the stage, he took the opportunity to spike him. Yes, this would have been big danger for him, as his downward aerial proved to be too fast for him to recover back to the stage. In spite of finding it out the hard way, Bowser became well aware of the consequences afterwards. After all, as stated, he performed the trick with experience. Something told him that because of Incineroar now being at high damage, it was likely that the spike attack was going to be a Game Over for the red-furred newbie.

It was a good thing that Incineroar's recovery was not the best.

BLUE TEAM WINS!

Sorry Incineroar and Pit fans. But for once, not only the villains were victorious, but Bowser did get his way after all. Nonetheless, he can't get his way forever, so it's only a matter of time before he does something else.

Something I forgot to bring up last chapter: what has me confused in the Smash fandom as of late is how tournaments are handled. I feel like people act like there can be only one tournament per era. If that were the case, then there would be basically one tier lists. I'm pretty sure there can be more than one, two, or more than even a dozen tournaments at a time. So that's why I had that bit with Ganon with him thinking of team tournaments.

Anyway, let's move on with the questions. (This time, two questions in one.)

1. On a scale of one to ten, how ticked off is Incineroar right now? Was it really a bad move for him to get involved in the first place with Bowser back of the coffee shop?

We'll see what everybody does next week on Monday!