A/N: Ok, so heads up, this is the one chapter that ended up being kinda short compared to the other ones. Probably didn't help that this is the chapter I did Alph's Smasher Bio for either. Oh well.

Alph of Koppai

Threat Level: 2

Alph is Captain Olimar's assistant. As such, he also fights with Pikmin. Anything that can be applied to Captain Olimar can be applied to Alph, such as his environment suit, his Pikmin, and his scientific focus. Alph is a biologist by trade but also is a competent pilot and a skilled mechanic.

In terms of Alph's combat style, there's very little to add on top of what Olimar does already. However, Alph has been seen in battle less than even Olimar, and it's extremely unclear how much combat experience he even has. He's clearly more of a support Smasher rather than a combat Smasher.

It should be very easy to defeat Alph should he be encountered. I do want to mention that Alph is one of the Smashers who could be recruited to our cause. He is clearly quite intelligent and seems capable of becoming a valuable asset on his own, separate from Olimar.

Again, everything I said in the section above about Olimar is 100% applicable to Alph. To avoid repeating myself too much, I've tried to avoid regurgitating all of the exact information here. Alph really isn't a threat at all, the only reason he's even listed here is because he is a Smasher and may be encountered.

Act 9: Murphy

Chapter 2: Formidable Oak

Murphy glanced at Mario, who was crouched low behind the tall swaying grass of the hillside, trying to avoid being seen. Mario turned his head and nodded. The plumber held up his hand, with three fingers up. A moment later, he closed his hand and held up two fingers, and a moment later, he closed his hand and held up one finger. A moment later, he held up his fist and pumped his arm.

The Smashers rushed out from around the bend, running at full speed. Murphy kept pace with the others as they rushed down the path down to Summerstone Castle. Murphy could hear Bowser, Wario and K Rool thundering behind him as they neared the Primids, who had just noticed them, and were starting to turn around. Their ranks parted to reveal Sephiroth striding out to meet them. Mario lunged at him, Septic Annihilator in hand. The metal toilet plunger was blocked by the villain's sword. But there was no time for any other reaction as Murphy and the other Smashers plowed into the Primids at maximum velocity.

Murphy crashed into two metal primids with his baguette of Fightness Bread, and smashed them with enough force to send them flying. A split second later, DK came barreling through, plowing through swathes of Primids as he went. Murphy quickly smashed a nearby Primid, before pivoting on his heel and blocking the boomerang of a Boom Primid. With mighty strikes he lunged forward and smacked down several Primids in his vicinity. The Primids around him backed off a little and began to approach more cautiously. Murphy paused for a moment as he was surrounded by a moderately large group of Primids, and took a brief look around. Some distance away to the left, DK landed a powerful Giant Punch to the face of a strange, shaggy sheep looking monster with horns. DK quickly turned around and caught a second one by the horns as it charged at him, while the first disintegrated into Subspace particles. A little bit away from him, Wario rushed around, shoulder bashing his way through a group of Metal Primids with little effort. To his right, Mario, Bowser and K Rool seemed to be holding their own against Sephiroth, while Yoshi, Luigi, Carrie, Alph and Daisy did battle further away.

Murphy quickly sized up the Primids in front of him. He'd needed to do his part too. And he had no intention of shirking his duty.

And with that, Murphy raised his loaf of Fightness Bread and charged back into the fray.

Alph slowed down to a stop as Yoshi, Luigi, Carrie and Daisy crashed into the Primids in front of him. In just a moment they were swallowed in the masses as they pressed forward. Alph swallowed nervously. Captain Olimar had always been the more confident fighter of the two, and even the good captain wasn't really what one would call a "dedicated fighter".

His loyal Blue Pikmin, Jake, patted his leg and pointed to the side. Alph looked up to see a small handful of Fire Primids walking at him. Alph clenched his teeth as he resisted his urge to run away and picked up a purple Pikmin.

He chucked it with all his might at one of the Fire Primids. It struck it in the chest, causing it to stagger back, before disintegrating into particles. Jake cheered beside him.

Alph quickly whistled, alerting the rest of the primids, who quickly split into color-coded columns.

Alph whistled once, and the Red Pikmin massed behind him. He then gave a long, drawn-out blast of his whistle. The Red Pikmin let out a cheer and rushed forward to swarm the Fire Primids.

Alph waited in fearful anticipation as the Fire Primids and his Red Pikmin duked it out. What if the Red Pikmin weren't enough? Sure, he could throw a punch or two, but was that even going to matter? He was a scientist, not a fighter. He should be safe in a lab somewhere, working on paperwork at a desk, not fighting Subspace Armies.

The Red Pikmin returned with a cheer, causing Alph to sigh in relief.

Suddenly, a boomerang whizzed by his head. Alph whipped around to see a boomerang Primid catching its homecoming boomerang.

Suddenly, Carrie came barreling through from the side, and executed a quick Dancer Pose attack, defeating the Primid with a single hit.

"Alph! How are ya doing!?" came Daisy's voice from behind Alph.

"Oh…. Uh…." stammered Alph as he whipped around to face Daisy.

"Daisy, don't bug him, he's more of a support fighter!" said Luigi, as he jumped closer to Daisy. "Alph, we'll cover you!"

A massive wave of relief washed over Alph, as the stronger Smashers began fighting the advancing Primids.

He was saved. For the moment, anyway.

Murphy began charging his baguette of Fightness Bread with Solar Energy. As the Primids closed in he slammed it into the ground.

"Salutation Slash!"

Upon hitting the ground, the Solar Energy released from the baguette, sending out a powerful pulse of light around him, hurling the Primids back, knocking many over. As they tried to get up, Murphy rushed in and began swatting them with his baguette, defeating them all with a single blow. In short order, the Primids near him and DK had been all defeated.

Murphy glanced down at his baguette with pride. Sure, it had taken him a while, and Fightness Bread was a repurposed failed experiment, but it was something uniquely his. That and he'd eventually cracked the recipe for Fitness Bread that people would actually eat. A win-win in his book.

Murphy heard a strange noise and looked up to see some strange looking creature with a massive black ball for a body, two wheels on the sides and two massive scythes in front of it, connected together with long petal pieces.

Murphy stepped back as the scythe creature rolled towards him. It jumped into the air and began spinning the connected scythes around itself in a circle. Murphy jumped back as it soared towards him, just outside the range of the scythes. Quickly grabbing a bun of Fightness Bread, and quickly charging it with a little Solar Energy, Murphy chucked it at the scythe creature, knocking it back a little but seemingly leaving it unharmed.

Murphy grimaced. He was going to have to do better than that. Murphy quickly began charging Solar Energy in his core as he rolled away from the scythe creature's swing. As the scythes buried themselves into the ground, Murphy rushed up, channeling the solar energy into his hand until it glowed white.

"Salutation Warrior!"

Murphy forcefully struck a Warrior pose, slamming his hand into the scythe creature. The creature exploded into Subspace particles, collapsing to the ground.

Murphy stepped back. That was a Subspace creature? He'd have to do some more reading on what Subspace forces actually looked like.

Suddenly, Murphy heard the sound of a blade whistling through the air behind him, and rolled to the side to avoid the strike. He quickly got to his feet and stared at his new opponent. It was some sort of shadow like creature that floated above the ground, with a vaguely humanoid body made of black particles, a red core in its torso area and large metal blades for arms. It was quickly joined by two identical creatures. Murphy narrowed his eyes as he tried to remember what they were called. Those were… Shadiyas, right?

Murphy quickly stood tall and charged a Sun Salutation, before shooting it at the red core of the first Shadiyas. The creature attempted to dodge but was hit in the side. Murphy lunged forward, Fightness Bread poised to strike, but it blocked his swing with one of its blades. It began spinning its blade arms quickly as its fellows began to advance on Murphy one on each side. Murphy jumped back and reached into his satchel, and pulled out a bun of Fightness Bread. He quickly took a deep breath, followed by another, charging solar energy as the creatures continued to close in on him.

Murphy took one final deep breath, and channeled his solar energy through his Fightness Bread bun, before jumping back again and chucking the Fightness Bread bun. The Shadiyas slashed at the bun, and blocked it midair, but the strike caused the energy Murphy had charged the bun with to pulse strongly, pushing the three creatures back.

Murphy lunged forward and smacked one in the middle straight in the core with his loaf of Fightness Bread. The creature recoiled, but did not fall, so Murphy quickly followed up with several more strikes, till the Shadiyas dropped to the ground and disintegrated into Subspace particles.

However, the two Shadiyas were floating back towards Murphy, swinging their blades. Murphy quickly blocked the strike of the one to the left, pushing it back with a forceful shove, before jumping out of the way of the slash of the creature to his right.

He reached into his satchel and hurled another Fightness Bread bun at his opponent. It struck the creature in its core, seemingly stunning it somewhat. Without a second of delay, Murphy rushed forward, charging his loaf of Fightness Bread with Solar Energy.

"Salutation Strike!"

The strike impacted the Shadiyas, knocking it back, and causing it to crumple to the ground and disintegrate.

Murphy turned sharply on his heel and blocked the incoming strike of the last Shadiyas. It swung its blades aggressively at him, as Murphy blocked, being forced back step by step. Suddenly, it began spinning quickly and hurled itself at Murphy. He tried to block, but his Fightness Bread loaf was sent flying out of his hands. However, as the creature stopped spinning and got its bearings, Murphy lunged forward, and landed a powerful Warrior strike to his opponent's core, causing it to disintegrate into Subspace Particles.

Murphy quickly turned around and scanned the area. There were a dozen remaining Primids off to one side, and Sephiroth fighting Mario, Bowser and K Rool on the other. Murphy looked over to DK, who had just turned around from defeating a small group of Primids.

"Go and help them! I've got the Primids!" shouted DK. Murphy gave a thumbs up and turned back to the fight.

"Get back here punk!" yelled Bowser some distance away from him, as he lunged at Sephiroth. The swordsman merely sidestepped him with a half smirk on his face and let him charge past him.

"Bowser! Stop being so reckless! He's toying with you!" shouted Mario.

"I'll get him eventually! This pretty boy isn't any match for us!" shouted Bowser.

Mario shook his head as he simultaneously hurled fireballs and fired lasers from his Septic Annihilator. Next to him, K Rool was shooting cannonballs, aiming down his blunderbuss's iron sights.

Sephiroth just chuckled as he casually deflected and dissipated the projectiles with his sword.

Suddenly Mario pressed a button on his belt, and FLUDD deployed suddenly on his back. He pressed a button on the handle and water began blasting out of the back at high speed, rocketing him off at Sephiroth.

"Turbo Rush!"

Mario jumped off the ground and swung his Septic Annihilator but Sephiroth quickly moved to block with his sword. The strike landed with tremendous force, causing Sephiroth to take a step back. However, the villain suddenly shifted the angle of his sword, causing Mario to lose his balance and fall forward. However, before Sephiroth could capitalize on the opening, Mario pressed another button on FLUDD's handle and he rocketed off to safety with another burst from the Turbo Nozzle. Sephiroth quickly scanned the area and locked eyes with K Rool, who holstered his blunderbuss and bared his claws. However, before either could move, a series of large fireballs rolled towards Sephiroth. He turned and dispelled the fireballs with a quick flick of his sword, as Bowser came rushing at him again. However, as Bowser drew nearer, he jumped into the air, and breathed a powerful stream of fire from his mouth. Sephiroth jumped back but had to roll to the side as K Rool lunged for him, narrowly missing the SOLDIER. Bowser grit his teeth and dove for Sephiroth, who was just regaining his balance, and narrowly missed as Sephiroth jumped back.

Bowser got to his feet quickly, and took a guard stance as Sephiroth raised his sword, but a jet of water suddenly slammed into him from out of nowhere and knocked him off balance.

Mario rushed back in, Septic Annihilator at the ready. He lunged for Sephiroth, but his opponent was faster and slashed at him. Mario ducked just in time, rolling past Sephiroth, and was fast enough to block the followup strike. Before Sephiroth could do anything, though, Bowser took a deep breath and blasted a large stream of fire at him. Sephiroth jumped back, but as he landed, Bowser rushed at him again.

"Bowser! Stop!" shouted Mario, but it was too late. Sephiroth took a quick step aside, and let Bowser rush past him, right over the cliff behind him.

Murphy grit his teeth. That wasn't good. Mario wasted no time and quickly began rushing at Sephiroth again. Murphy quickly grabbed a Fightness Bread bun and another Fightness Bread loaf and began charging it with solar energy as he ran. Mario and Sephiroth traded strikes with their weapons, before Sephiroth kicked Mario in the chest, knocking him back a few steps. However, before he could follow it up with an attack, Murphy chucked his Fightness Bread bun. Sephiroth attempted to swat it away with the back of his hand, but it released the Solar Energy on impact, sending him staggering back. Murphy ran up to him, loaf of Fightness Bread raised.

"Salutation Strike!"

Sephiroth blocked the attack, and Murphy glared at him. Sephiroth glared straight back at him. Murphy attempted to kick Sephiroth in the gut, but the SOLDIER jumped back in time, only to eat a surprise laser to the side, followed by a glowing projection of somebody in a yoga tree pose. Both combatants looked over to see Luigi, with his Septic Annhilator in one hand and his Poltergust in the other. Next to him stood Carrie, in a tree pose.

"Back off!" Luigi shouted, as the Poltergust began to spew fire from the nozzle.

"Salutation Warrior!" shouted Carrie, as she struck a warrior pose. As she did, a projection of herself made of solar energy shot forward from her body forcefully.

Sephiroth quickly jumped out of range as Luigi fired up his flamethrower and dissipated the follow up Salutation Warrior with his sword.

Sephiroth took a look around him as Mario and K Rool, now backed by DK, Wario, Daisy, Yoshi and Alph rushed up to fight.

"Well, you Smashers certantly live up to the tales I've been told. I'm impressed, you actually made me try. But I need to get going. Farewell for now."

Sephiroth snapped his fingers, and a large Subspace bird swooped past, grabbing him by the hand with its talons and whisking him away.

The Smashers stood in silence for a moment.

"Well, at least he's gone. I'm sure everybody in the castle has to have seen us by now," said Carrie.

"Wait, what about Bowser?" asked Mario.

"Still over here!" shouted Bowser from some distance away. "I need hand!"

The Smashers looked over to the cliff and saw Bowser's hand clamped to the ledge tightly. The Smashers quickly rushed over. DK and K Rool offered their hands, and together, the two pulled Bowser over the cliffside.

Mario shook his head. "Bowser, you need to be more careful than that! Your recklessness is going to get you killed!"

Bowser grunted as he pulled himself to his feet and looked Mario in the eye. "Red Stache. You've thrown me into lava, blown up my airships while I was still aboard, and nearly threw me into a sun. It's gonna take more than that to kill me."

"Gotta be careful still. I pull my punches when I can. These guys aren't, just like Tabuu."

Bowser just grunted and shook himself off.

"HEY" shouted a voice from across the chasm. The Smashers looked up to see somebody waving from across the narrow bridge. "Hold on a moment! We'll come out to get you!"

The Smashers quickly walked over to the bridge entrance and waited.

"Coming to us? What does that mean?" asked Mario.

"You'll see, it might take them a minute to get it in the air," said Carrie with a grin.

After a few minutes had passed, a large floating platform levitated out of the middle of the castle's keep, before floating over the walls and towards the side of the chasm.

As the platform drew closer, several people in combat gear could be seen. They were wearing military gear with pilot like helmets, and were armed with swords and rifles. In the middle of them stood a bald, dark-skinned man with an imposing circle beard. He was dressed and armed similarly to his compatriots, but seemed to be wearing the uniform of a higher-ranking soldier. He stepped forward as the platform neared where the smashers were standing.

"Hello, Smashers! Welcome to Summerstone Castle! We apologize for the riff raff, they've been giving us some problems."

"Matt! It's good to see you!" said Carrie.

"It's good to see you too! Glad you brought some friends!" said Matt.

"Of course we did!" said Carrie as the Smashers stepped onto the platform. "How are things going?"

"Good and bad," said Matt. "Good in that we spotted them early and were able to evacuate the town quickly. Thankfully, we didn't take any losses despite the huge numbers disadvantage. The bad part is how quickly we were pushed back into Summerstone Castle. I took on that silver haired guy briefly, he's no joke."

"You fought Sephiroth?" asked Mario in surprise.

"Is that his name? Yeah. That sword gives him a lot of reach, and he's got a lot of skill to back himself. He's strong."

"Stronger then even you?" asked Murphy.

"Yeah. Tough as nails and very fast."

Mario nodded. "We'll deal with him when the time comes. For now, let's just regroup and figure out a plan."

"Sounds good!" said Matt. "Let's get you all into the castle then!"

It was a short trip over the moat, and Murphy's heart soared as he looked during their descent into Summerstone Castle's keep. The castle was packed with large crowds of people milling around. Murphy's spirits rose as he saw people he knew walking around the crowd. He could spot the old lady who ran the café across the street from the studio. He saw the guy who jogged past the studio at around 9:30 every morning. There was even the lady who ran the shaved ice stand that Murphy passed every day on his way home from work. It seemed like everybody was safe.

He looked over to Carrie. The look of relief on her face was totally worth it.

"Everybody's here! Oh, I'm so glad!"

Murphy felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked over to see Yoshi.

"See! Things aren't so bad after all!"

Murphy grinned. "I guess they weren't. Thanks Yoshi."

Yoshi grinned back at him. "Anytime!"