There he stood in the distance, his gaze wary on the star warrior approaching him. The fell god of light made its hold on him known clear by the lights of his blood-red eyes, and that was not all—surrounding him was a single strip of two wings that glowed between red and blue wrapped around from back to front while two halos of light orbited his frame in an x-pattern, with the smaller of the two circling under his left arm while the larger one went over his right shoulder. Finally, a white flame of an aura with hints of blue and gray tightly enveloped his body. If this Galeem being was trying to make a statement, it certainly had done more than was necessary. Much to Kirby's curiosity, he did not move toward him in aggression like the other enemies he had faced prior had done, rather being content to stay in one place and wait for the boy to approach him instead. Kirby eyed the man cautiously, considering if he was being led into a trap by the fighter, and he wondered if there was a spirit pulling at the man's strings much like the false fighters he had fought before.
'…!' Kirby's spirit friend displayed a spike in tense emotion, and Kirby could understand the thoughts flowing from it: before him was the true, one and only Marius Gonzales Mario—better known simply as "Mario". This shell was what Galeem had stripped him down into, his spirit being a prisoner in his own body—unable to control it but able to feel all that it experiences. Though Mario's eyes could see Kirby, they felt less like they were looking at him and more like they were looking into him. Dead and dull-looking as they appeared, they were deceptively focused beyond focused, and Kirby knew he couldn't pull a fast one on Mario with his exceptionally trained eyes. Kirby was only marginally relieved in that Mario's facial features bore no ill will towards him, only a stoic gaze as Kirby found himself slowly drawn towards his friend. For a moment they only stared into each other's eyes, looking for something deep within the other fighter; while Kirby looked for any signs that his friend was inside and was fighting against Galeem for control, he didn't know what to think of what the soulless man before him could have been searching for.
"…" Almost without warning, Mario raised a fist looking as if he was ready to fight Kirby, putting the star warrior on guard. What happened instead was that he slammed his hand behind him without removing his gaze from Kirby's, seemingly hitting some invisible wall. The next thing Kirby knew, the very environment itself around them was shattering, the cracks spreading until they engulfed the entire area surrounding them, and finally it gave way as pieces of the sky fell away like glass around them. Kirby had shielded himself in case any debris would fall on him, and when he uncovered his eyes he saw that the environment had changed once more, this time into an all too familiar arena; the sky was in a perpetual twilight of chaos, the ground glowed with energy streaming from a mess of machinery and meta crystals, and there was nowhere for any fighter to run or hide—only to fight for glory: Final Destination.
"…" Mario continued to say nothing as he held his fists in a defensive combat stance, waiting for Kirby to make the first move; there was honestly not much to say in the first place, and all the plumber could do was hope for the best as his body prepared to do battle with his friend in what was potentially a death match for either of the two.
'Alrighty kiddo, let's-a see what'cha got…' Mario watched as Kirby came charging at him, and from what he could see the star warrior was going for an unira toss; his body reacted with swishing his cape out from his back to deflect the spiny item, followed by a rolling dodge toward Kirby when the lad jumped over the projectile. Then he grabbed him, bashing his head into Kirby's face a few times before tossing him away. Mario himself could feel how much damage he was doing to Kirby, being a frightening amount more than usual—and furthering the man's worry was that he could feel it hurting him too. It was as if Galeem had set his body into suicide mode to harm himself as he attacked Kirby, because he could feel excessive force being thrown out in every attack—his leg takedown noticeably burned through some of the denim on his overalls and his foot was left somewhat sore from popping Kirby into the air. His lead headbutt similarly powered through Kirby's drill kick yet if left Mario with the feeling that he almost threw his own head off from the sheer force of the swing, not to mention the headache he had gotten from the blow.
'Yeesh, this Galeem-a fella really wants to end-a our games eh?' Bitter thought as it was, it was nothing compared to some of the more morbid thoughts that had been invading his mind as of late. It felt so alien, yet it was stoking some part of him and brought some of those feelings up to the surface for them to bubble over. Thoughts about that simpering little thing thinking that it could possibly stop Galeem as things were now, ignorant and defiant in his course to stop the lord of light. Images that came to mind were that of various little Goombas marching toward him, so cocksure of themselves in that they'd mess Mario up so easily. Those traitors that readily sold out their fellow fungus folk and princess to the Koopa Kingdom only got a disgusted sneer out of him at best and filled him with rage on his off days. He would never shy away from admitting the sheer number of those little bastards he done stomped in his day (unless he was traveling through the rare friendly Goomba communities), and he'd keep stomping them until they quit. Even outside of Bowser's Koopa Troop, there were still quite the deserter Goombas who thought far bigger of themselves than what was warranted, especially for their "smallest of fries" status, and sometimes it was so hard to tell the difference between a good shroom and a rotten one at a glance. Come to think of it, Kirby kind of looked like a Goomba didn't he? With his stubby feet and round-ish shape, he could actually pass-off as a pink Galoomba of sorts. Kirby really was like a lot of Goombas wasn't he? For something so tiny so thoroughly outmatched by something far stronger than himself, he sure held on defiantly to the fading hope of opposing the lord of light…
'No, stop that!' Mario violently tried to throw the bad thought out of his head so he could refocus himself on the fight he was having with Kirby. Now having been updated on the uptake, Mario had noticed that he fully charged his F.L.U.D.D. partner to the maximum for use against an off-stage Kirby; Mario knew that it wasn't all that effective against someone who could fly back to safe ground with ease, especially since Kirby was nowhere near badly damaged for it to work all that well. The next thing he knew his hand was reaching for some knob on the gadget he didn't even know was there, and once he turned it all the way to another direction he could feel something different about the water stored up; it had somehow heated up to high degrees, something Mario thought impossible in the current tournament with the Fighter Customization fad from the last tournament having been promptly dismantled. Perhaps the intense remnant energies of Galeem's recent conquest of the universe were starting to warp some of the established laws of reality in small ways.
Either way, he watched as his body unleashed the blistering torrent of high-pressure of scalding water upon Kirby, blowing the shocked star warrior far away from the ledge. It was quite hot for even him to merely hold the nozzle of F.L.U.D.D. as it blasted out its torrent. His body seemed to ignore this sensation of pain and charged at Kirby apparently having seen an opening. Leaping off the battlefield with suicidal fervor, Mario's body attempted to smash Kirby down into the spatial abyss with a meteor knuckle, only to fail as Kirby's final cutter sword hit him with extreme rising power, launching back onto the stage flat on his back. Mario knew that Kirby's final cutter sword did not hurt that much, vaguely remembering a variant Kirby had used which forsook the falling slash in favor of a stronger and higher rise, leaving the star warrior helpless afterward. Even so there was no denying that Kirby had grown a good deal stronger since they last squared off (which was not too long ago). Sure enough, Kirby had made it back no problem, and a feeling of relief washed over Mario at the boy's survival. The feeling was unexpectedly replaced by a sudden surge of rage that was not of his own, bubbling up to the surface and marring his facial features into a fierce snarl. Mario was no longer seeing Kirby anymore, his vision clouded by a glare of murderous red light that made him see yet another insignificant little thing trying to test him. That damnable cretin was mocking him he was sure—him, the undisputed superstar hero of the mushroom Kingdom who's been across galaxies and realities and always made it back in one piece all to rescue one princess from a mutant of a turtle monster who just would not die, and this little shit was mocking his skill?! Oh, he was sure to make it pay with interest…!
'…?!' The spirit within Kirby sensed the massive spike in rage from their foe, and in a surprising burst of mobility used its power to propel Kirby out of the way of a meteor knuckle—merely fighting Mario wasn't working.
"Get back here so I can stomp you into star bits!" Mario roared. He didn't sound entirely like himself, his voice howling out with countless other souls it seemed and without his classic Italian flair. The change was disturbing to say the least, showing just how much Galeem was messing up Kirby's erstwhile friend. And if hitting him really hard only made the hostile takeover worse, what else could Kirby do? He didn't need to do much else to free the spirits from within their prisons, but having to awaken a trapped fighter whose consciousness was sealed away within their own body? That was something Kirby was so used to doing during the whole Dark Matter fiasco by literally beating the demons out of his possessed friends, but it wasn't working here so Kirby was at a loss. Until he could see some crack in the tough shell Galeem had built around Mario, Kirby had relied on primarily dodging Mario's onslaught, only throwing out weak attacks meant to disrupt the man every now and again with their distance and to gradually tack more damage upon him then wait for an opening to free Mario. Eventually and unfortunately for Kirby, Mario had grown way past tired with the star warrior's seemingly aimless shenanigans.
"Oh ho, you must think you're sooo smart eh, but lemme teach ya' somethin' you might not know, and pay attention: S. Piss. Me. Off." Mario charged at Kirby once again and did something Kirby did not expect him to do; he took the wing wrapped around his body and swung it full force at the star warrior like he would do his cape, having the razor-sharp feathers slash across the boy's body and draw blood. The boy reeled from the feeling and frantically set to dodging Mario's wrath. "You know what you and those rotten Goombas have in common?" Mario asked whilst whipping out the wings again. "You pipsqueaks don't know when to call it quits!" Again Mario assaulted Kirby, this time with fireballs enhanced by the two halos now shrunk and circling his hands, all the while continuing to spew out a hate-charged rant at the star warrior. "You think you're so big and tough for a couple o' smallfries, marching and stomping through everything in your way as if not a damn thing can stop you!" Mario got in close with several short-ranged punches, finishing with a strong rising kick to knock Kirby down on his face. "You types disgust me you know? Why can't ya' get it through your thick, pea-brained skulls that you're clearly outmatched?!"
Kirby really did not know how much more of this hateful bile he could take from Mario. A part of him wanted to believe that it wasn't really him, that it was all a ploy by Galeem to weaken his resolve, but it all sounded like something Mario actually would say—just not necessarily directed towards the star warrior, and he knew that Mario held a great deal of respect for Kirby in spite of the very things he was calling him out for. The worst part was that on some level Mario wasn't wrong; Kirby had his fair share of scuffles where he brazenly charged into the fray of whatever battle was ahead, sometimes way out of his league, so he couldn't say that he never acted that way before.
Kirby silently pleaded with Mario that this wasn't the real him; the man he and many others knew and loved as a close friend was still inside of this monstrosity made in his image and with his memories. Just as Mario was about to land a finishing blow on Kirby, something inside the star warrior had finally shattered, like the last restraints bolting his true power shut away, and raising his hands high he exploded with radiant energy that began to surround them both. Mario found himself stopped in place out of wariness as to what had just happened; Kirby was now surrounded by a multi-color aura and his eyes shimmered with a brilliant gold sheen—plasma-like energy crackled all around the pink puff, and though he was woozy from the experience his senses started returning to him. He knew this feeling quite well—the power of an ancient Smash Ball, artifacts created during the earliest halcyon days of the World of Trophies under Master Hand's playful whims, coursed through the star warrior's small body and filled with determined hope. Inside each one was the power to unleash truly powerful techniques known as Final Smashes, and the power exerted by one was so great that others refused to manifest within the vicinity, but Kirby did not recall ever breaking a Smash Ball open. Perhaps it had something to do with his spiritual friend of whom he could feel was also bursting with boundless energy. It wasn't as outright strong as that granted by a Smash Ball itself, but Kirby was not complaining; now he had an edge over Mario, and he planned to take full advantage of this turn of events.
"You dare bare such wretched strength against me?!" Mario bellowed, his voice more distorted than ever from Galeem's chokehold on his body. "You will rue this day star warrior!" Now the man had taken the wings around him and cracked them at Kirby like a whip, but Kirby finally found the opening he was looking for and let the power inside him explode. A massive ultrasword materialized in his hand as a familiar green cap plopped onto his head; Kirby had transformed into Ultra Sword Kirby, a greatly enhanced variant of his normal sword form, and it was as though it had given him the answer to free his friends from Galeem—with a renewed confidence he took his ultrasword and channeled all his heart into it, lighting it up in a noble blaze with the shock of its power eruption causing Mario to finally snap out of his haze of hate, only able to stare deep into Kirby's golden eyes. Gone was the fear or apprehension, replaced with burning hope and strength from the bonds the two had forged with each other—or rather strength from all the many friendships Kirby had made in the World of Trophies, the world they all called home.
'K-Kirby…?' Mario said, back to his old self again and astonished by the change that had happened in the young star warrior before him. 'What is this…?'
You may have stolen the universe from everything and everyone…
With his sword enlarged, Kirby was ready to take his swing at Mario. Though his body had done its best to evade the attack, somehow Kirby had gotten through to Mario at last, and though the man knew he had no control over himself he did not mentally challenge the oncoming attack nor could his damaged body truly escape it; he felt that Kirby was full of righteous power and was about to strike him down with all his might, realizing right then and there that it was all finally over for him. And thus, somehow his body had stayed rooted to the ground, as if momentarily in Mario's possession once more.
…But I'm here to set it all right again!
Kirby's blade finally fell upon the man, locking him in place so that Kirby could finally purify his tainted friend with a torrent of strikes charged by his emotions. Mario felt every slash across his body, and though it hurt him greatly he knew that he was feeling less and less under the thrall of the eldritch light god. The raw emotion spilling into him from Kirby's every slash was overwhelming; his love for life and hope, his anger towards Galeem, and his sorrow over his friends singed away at the possession of his captor just as alcohol burns and stings against an infection. Consciousness was slipping away fast, but Mario was not afraid. Whatever fate had in store for him now, he'd accept it without further complaints.
Your reign of terror is coming to an end!
With one last slash, Kirby threw all that he was into the blow, using the light of his life to overpower Galeem's flare as he launched Mario far into the distance. Kirby for his part was hoping to hope that this had finally done the trick, finding it surprisingly hard to watch as Mario became a twinkle in the distance before a large explosion appeared, despite the sight being a common occurrence given the Smash Tournaments. Suddenly, the ground began to give way and Kirby saw that there was nowhere to run, so he braced himself for what was likely a long fall; instead, light erupted from the cracks around Kirby, signifying an impending explosion from Final Destination itself. With little time left to escape, Kirby took to the skies with his balloon hover and flew as fast as he could—there may have been nowhere else to really go, but Kirby would rather not get caught up in the blast. Soon it was all for naught, as the arena where he and Mario battled finally shattered, and boundless light energy poured out from within to devour everything in its path. All Kirby could do was simply hold his breath and close his eyes as the light was catching up to him, bracing himself for the white out…
Hmm…It appears that Marius Gonzales Mario has failed me…
'Hate to break it to you pal,' Bowser started, 'but of course he was going to lose. I've fought him countless times and I knew right off the bat that that wasn't even remotely close to his best effort. You stripped him—and all of us—of free will, putting his body on autopilot which is basically the same as letting a newbie into the elite leagues on day 1.'
What you speak is that my disallowance of freedom in one's own body precipitates failure…
'Precisely,' Ryu said. 'Refusing a warrior's mind access to their own body cuts off their potential and hinders effective strategy. It is a common mistake villains such as yourself often make.'
Common mistake as it may be, Kirby's victory as a result ultimately means nothing…
'Such a common mistake shall be your undoing,' the Metroid Prime—better known as "Dark Samus"—clicked and hissed in response. 'Universal conquest demands far more foresight and attention to detail, characteristics you seem to lack entirely.'
And I plan to rectify this…
'Tch, how exactly?' Falco asked. 'You've already screwed up, what, five times now? Kirby surviving and his subsequent wins over three spirits and Mario? Not a very impressive track record if you ask me.'
You forget that I still hold dominion over your bodies. As the battle has demonstrated with my influencing of Marius Gonzales Mario's will, Hoshi Ryu's words hold merit: allowing more direct emotional input from you will hasten my victory…
'So that was you manipulating Mario's heart…' Yamato Kamui said, not liking where this was going.
'As…"effective" as this little plan of yours is,' King K. Rool started, 'you majorly mess up just once during your schemes and it will fall apart as fast as any dumb monkey's banana hoard being disturbed. Any homespun idiot can easily see that, and speaking from personal experience you would have to be incredibly stupid not to.'
You dare refer to my intellect being vastly inferior to your mentally challenged generals, King Keith Rool?
'"Keith"?That's what the "K." stands for?' Donkey Kong asked in disbelief at the stunned king's expense.
'Wahahahahaha! Oh, wait to Dixie hears this one!' Diddy laughed, adding more fuel to the steaming Kremling king's fire.
'Now listen you incompetent cretin; no one, not noone, dares utter that name in my presence—!'
*SSHHHIIIIIINNNNGG!*
Just like that the room was brightened to blinding degrees for a few seconds, catching everyone off guard and cutting off the sheer mire that would have spewed from King K. Rool's mouth at their captor.
I grow weary of inferior lifeforms not learning their place in this world. I have half of a mind to save Kirby the trouble of fighting you and erase you all from existence permanently myself with what little power in reserve I still have available, and it will be unimaginably painful—that I will promise you.
No one else had dared say anything to the enraged lord of light, clearly not wanting to get on its bad side any further considering that it completely wiped out the rest of entire universe with impunity, leaving the planet they were on as the only one left in the vast nothingness of existence.
You will all fight and ensure that Kirby will not succeed, and you will assist me in reshaping the new world. It will not be over soon. You will not enjoy it.
'Oh no, he's quoting 300…' Mackenzie Dolittle griped. 'This is going to suck hard…'
Now begone to wherever you will. I tire of so many presences.
Before anyone could protest, many of their bodies were blinked out of the room faster than light itself. The transported fighters soon found themselves either stranded far out of anyone else's conceivable reach from what they could see or placed on roads should Kirby draw near. Their only hope for freedom now lied with the star warrior, and only time could tell if he would survive the ordeal or not, assuming they wouldn't somehow kill him or vice-versa thanks to Galeem's influence over their bodies. What little company some of them had left were the duplicated bodies of themselves and their friends possessed by unwilling spirits. Pit Icarus for instance was made to guard some sort of blue crystal in some sort of divine temple based on what he could see, and guarding him was a dour spirit of a mage trapped in Lucina Lowell's body, muttering all sorts of curses she would have liked to inflict on her transgressor. He could feel his old buddy Simon within the temple from quite the ways away, much further beneath the area he was stationed at. David Hayter on the other hand found himself almost completely alone in a dark room, sitting in a cardboard box waiting to ambush any unsuspecting visitors. While he could sense several spirits in the many different rooms, what bothered him most was the powerful spirit he could feel a few rooms past him, and it was a malignant beast of a machine he had not seen since his last tournament outing. He could also barely make out Rock somewhere outside of the building and a powerful spirit guarding him, though who it was he couldn't say. Bowser, for his luck, ended up being stationed in a lava fortress very much like home; it would have put him at ease had it not been for the circumstances at hand, and even when Princess Peach was within his reach off in the distance he could not go to her. Further worsening matters was that he couldn't sense his son or the Koopalings anywhere, only spirits with tangential resemblance to them. Strange as it was, Bowser could feel some feral beast burning inside of him, threatening to explode to the surface, and if he wasn't crazy he could have sworn that it felt very familiar to him. All in all, the one thing everyone could place their faith in was Kirby, the young star warrior who was braving the world to rescue them all and stop Galeem's twisted schemes. They knew he was still out there somewhere, and all they had to do was patiently await his arrival. He had to hurry soon, though, as Galeem made it clear that time was running out for them all before it regained enough power to truly stamp them all out once and for all…
At the crossroads leading deeper into the cloud-covered world, Kirby began to stir from his stillness. Memories of the previous battle were still fresh in his mind, and in the blink of an eye he shook the daze of drowsiness from his mind, searching around frantically for the man he had done battle against. He didn't have to look for long, as he found a body laying off to the side of the road from where he stood. Hurrying over to them, he found a grown man—not necessarily a tall one—draped in a bright yellow cape that covered most of his body. Kirby rolled the body over and found that it was indeed Mario's unconscious body, but his attire appeared slightly different from how he last saw it; the adornments from Galeem were gone, but Mario's outfit appeared to have some protective padding on it, most prominently on his overalls and gloves. Concerned for his friend, the star warrior tried rousing the man from his stillness, with each passing second instilling more worry into Kirby. Finally, after what felt like a minute, Kirby got a reaction in a groan escaping Mario's mouth, followed by Mario clutching his head in pain and wincing from it. Eventually, his eyes had finally opened, meeting with Kirby's bright blue ones that were about to burst with joyful tears, and Kirby's smile couldn't be any bigger. Though barely awake, he managed to let his lips curl into a relieved smile of his own, happy to be right where he belonged.
"Hey there… Missed me, little buddy?" he said, earning himself a relieved hug from the happy star warrior and returning it in kind. "It's-a good to be back."