Chapter 7: The Battle Begins
Mario found himself on a huge flat area. As far as he could see, there was nothing there. The entire dimension seemed to consist of an eternal black plane. It was even gloomier than Zebes. Mario turned to his friends warily.
"Everyonea watch youra step." He advised, looking around him cautiously.
"Oh, please." Ness sighed, and shut his eyes. He began concentrating, and soon, his eyes flew open. "This way."
Mario and Luigi glanced at each other, confused. They shrugged and followed the boy.
Samus suddenly stopped walking. "Shh! I heard something…up ahead…"
"Told you."
The entire group stood completely still for what seemed like forever, until they heard a low, rumbling laugh. Up ahead of them stood Andross.
"Twelve of you instead of eight? No wonder it took you so long. Oh well, no matter. You will all be destroyed." Andross paused to laugh evilly. "Star Wolf, attack!"
Four ships suddenly flew over Andross's head. They performed flips and loops, in a very impressive way of showing off. Eventually, they leveled off.
"Why, hello, Fox." Wolf grinned, his voice as smooth and cocky as ever.
"Fancy meeting you here!" Pigma added, his squealing voice as obnoxious as ever.
"You can't stop us without your ship." Leon pointed out, his monotonous voice filled with logic.
"Uncle Andross will have revenge!" Andrew shouted, his nasal voice incensed with his uncle's anger.
"Not good." Fox muttered. Out loud, he said, "You can't beat us!"
"Yeah, right!" Wolf retorted. "Fire!"
All four ships began flying around erratically shooting at the smashers. Captain Falcon was fast enough to dodge the lasers, but he was unable to retaliate. Samus charged up her gun and fired, but Leon dodged the huge projectile easily. Link stared at the ships in awe, before tossing a bomb at one. Pigma laughed and fired at the bomb, detonating it harmlessly in mid-air.
"Nice try, little boy!" Pigma shouted, firing wildly. One of them hit eventually, and Link went down.
Yoshi tossed eggs into the air wildly. Andrew avoided most of them, but was having trouble staying on target. Just before he was about to fire on Yoshi, an egg hit his wing, sending egg fragments through the glass. Andrew shielded his eyes, not noticing that he was losing altitude quickly.
"No! Uncle Andross, help me-" An explosion reduced the number of opponents to three.
"Nicea work, Yoshi." Mario complimented, running desperately from Pigma. He couldn't really retaliate, but Kirby floated up above Pigma and used his brick attack onto the ship.
"My controls! They're smashed!" Pigma screeched, desperately trying to save himself. Kirby taunted Pigma aboard the ship and jumped off just before it crashed.
Pikachu tried his thunder attack, but Leon easily avoided the bolt of lightning. Jigglypuff was absolutely helpless because they couldn't hear her song over the roaring engines. Luigi was as helpless as Mario, and DK was in the same position. Soon, Leon flew past and shot DK squarely. He collapsed, as Leon closed in on Ness.
"Bring it on, lizard-breath!" Ness goaded.
"What is he doing?" Samus whispered to Mario. Mario shrugged.
"He probably knows." Mario replied. "But Fox looks like he's in trouble."
Fox was being chased mercilessly by Wolf, but Fox seemed to be smiling.
"Maybe not." Samus whispered. "Look at how confident he looks."
Mario shrugged again. Leon opened fire on Ness and Ness grinned wildly.
Suddenly, a blue field of some sort appeared over Ness. All of Leon's lasers were dramatically absorbed by the field.
"What?" Leon shouted, and fired harder at Ness. "That shield's got to break!"
But it didn't. Ness just sat there and took all of Leon's attacks with a grin. Suddenly, the blue field dissipated and Ness closed his eyes.
"PK THUNDER!" he shouted, and a bolt of electricity surged up from his head. The bolt went straight up to Leon, who was too dazed to move. Suddenly, electricity surged through the ship, and the controls. Leon reached for the controls to find another target, but he was shocked by Ness's attack. Leon crashed soon afterward.
That left only Wolf to deal with. Fox was running out of breath, but as soon as his friends were far enough away he could carry out his plan safely.
"What's wrong, Fox? Getting tired?" Wolf asked. "It's time to finish this foxhunt."
He fired. Fox stood still for a moment, then summoned a group of hexagons to cover his body. The reflector shield worked perfectly, and Wolf's powerful lasers bounced off of Fox and hit Wolf.
"NO!" Wolf shouted. "It can't be!"
But it was. Soon, Wolf crashed. Fox ran back to the others.
"Sorry, I had to make sure the lasers didn't hit anyone when they bounced off of me." Fox explained, then, motioning to Link and DK, "How are they?"
"Well, they'lla be finea, but they're outa cold for a while." Mario answered, before anyone else could reply.
"Thank you Dr. Mario." Samus replied sarcastically, not realizing that Mario had, in fact, been a doctor. Mario chuckled.
"Well, great job, everybody." Fox congratulated. "Those guys are tough."
"Don't party just yet!" an electronic voice sounded across the desert. "It's time to try our new weapon!"
"I hate to tell you this, but this weapon is no longer new. In fact, I destroyed it a while ago, in Sector Y I believe." Fox retorted, realizing the source of the voice.
He was right. A large, humanoid robot started darting around the air, firing lasers randomly.
"Ah, but then you had your ship!" the robot pointed out. "You're way too slow to catch me now!"
Fox realized the truth of the robot's statement. "Hmm…" he thought to himself. "Yoshi! Egg Barrage!" he shouted to his dinosaur-like companion.
Yoshi complied, and fired egg after egg at the rapid robot. Meanwhile, the robot was firing into the crowd.
"Pikachu, summon the thunder!" Fox commanded. "Ness, you too."
Understanding, Ness shouted, "PK Thunder" as Pikachu tried to maneuver so he was directly under the robot. Ness's bolt eventually fizzled into nothing as he lost concentration trying to catch the elusive opponent. Pikachu grew tired quickly, running around under the robot. Eventually he just tried his attack, but the robot darted out of the way and blasted Jigglypuff.
"One more down!" Samus reported unhelpfully.
"Samus, fire your grappling beam!" Fox suggested.
Of course, that missed as well. Samus then tried to fire her energy ball, but that missed by far. The robot fired inaccurately because it was moving around so much, but some shots came dangerously close.
"I feel bad…I can'ta do anythinga…" Mario mused. "Wait, I'vea got it!"
He whispered his idea to the others quickly, just before a poorly-aimed laser broke up the meeting.
"Let's hear it for stormtrooper aim." Samus muttered.
"Huh?" Ness asked.
Samus shook her head, then Falcon lifted Mario high into the air. The robot closed in on the easy target, and fired. Samus ducked and rolled into a ball as Mario leapt into the air and landed on the robot's back.
"Hey! Cheater!" the robot protested, trying to shake Mario off. Mario grinned. "OK, Samus, now use your grappling beam!"
Samus's beam shot out and Mario grabbed onto it. As Samus reeled Mario in, Mario held on tightly to the robot. Soon the robot was grounded. "Falcon, he's all yours." Samus said with an arrogant smile in her voice.
"Falcon…PUNCH!" he shouted, using his powerful blow to send the robot flying into oblivion.
"So Link, DK, and Jigglypuff are down indefinitely." Ness reviewed the situation.
"Yeah, anda that wasa just one ofa our opponents." Luigi groaned pessimistically.
"Well, here is your next one." Giovanni's voice rang out behind them. "I have a team of six for you to deal with."
"Why don't any evil people fight by themselves?" Kirby wondered tauntingly.
Giovanni ignored Kirby. "Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Dugtrio, Rhydon, Kangaskhan and Persian! GO!"
Giovanni disappeared as his warriors appeared. Nidoking, Nidoqueen, and Rhydon resembled a sort of lizard that stood up on two legs. Nidoking was pink, Nidoqueen was blue, and Rhydon was grey. Dugtrio looked like nothing more than three brown heads sticking out of the ground. Kangaskhan looked a bit like Rhydon, but it was tannish and it had a small pouch where a baby Kangaskhan was sleeping. Persian was an uninteresting white cat with a red dot on its forehead.
"Interesting army." Samus commented. "Well, Pikachu, Pokemon are your specialty, right?"
Pikachu stepped up to face the army, as Kangaskhan and Persian seemed to hide behind the other four. "Pi…Ka…CHU!" Pikachu shouted, as electricity surged out, attacking all four menacing Pokemon. Pikachu shocked them for a full minute, then ran out of power.
"Nice try, Pikachu." Giovanni said arrogantly. "But you forgot that my ground Pokemon are immune to electricity. Now it's my turn." He turned to Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Rhydon, and Dugtrio. "Earthquake, NOW!"
The four Pokemon complied instantly, creating a massive earthquake. The fighters were shaken, but none the worse for wear. Except for Pikachu…
"Ha!" Giovanni jeered. "Ground attacks are strong against Electric types! Pikachu is finished! Now, Persian, Fury Swipes!"
Persian pounced onto Kirby and started slashing Kirby, well, furiously.
"Kangaskhan, Comet Punch!"
Kangaskhan wound up and used Luigi as a punching bag.
Persian wound up for a final slash, but suddenly hissed in pain and collapsed. Samus stood behind the feline monster, waving her gun tauntingly.
"Thanks, Samus." Kirby grinned.
Mario glared at Kangaskhan. "Only I cana beat upa Luigi! Takea this!"
Mario wound up and hit Kangaskhan with a smash hit. Kangaskhan recoiled and turned to fight Mario. Mario grinned and used his Mario Tornado. Luigi launched fireballs, too. When Kangaskhan was launched into the air at the end of the Tornado, Luigi jumped up and did his Super Jump Punch. Kangaskhan lit afire dramatically and flew high into the air. When he landed, it was clear that he was out of the fight.
"Dugtrio, dig!" Giovanni shouted. "Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Rhydon, just go fight."
Dugtrio dug furiously underground. Everyone looked around for it, but suddenly it popped up under Samus, sending her flying into the air.
Rhydon prepared to jump up and Seismic Toss her, but Yoshi stopped him with an egg. Then, Falcon came up from behind with a Falcon Dive. "Yes!" Falcon shouted as Rhydon collapsed alight.
Dugtrio disappeared underground again. Ness closed his eyes and concentrated.
"Falcon, jump!" Ness shouted. Falcon jumped just as Dugtrio popped up.
"PK Fire!" Ness yelled, lighting Dugtrio on fire.
"It's not enough…" Falcon reported, using his downward kicking attack before Dugtrio disappeared.
"Falcon, look out-" Samus shouted, but it was too late. Nidoqueen came up from behind Falcon and punched Falcon hard. He went down.
"Grr…" Ness glowered at Nidoqueen. He focused his mind and grabbed Nidoqueen. Nidoqueen floated in a circle, then was fired far away by Ness's psychokinesis.
"Nice Ness, but Nidoking is really annoying me." Samus's muffled voice came from under Nidoking.
"Oh, that's Nidoking's body slam." Giovanni explained, sighing. "He's supposed to get up after the attack, though."
Fox was just about to shoot Nidoking with his laser when Dugtrio popped up and knocked Fox over.
"Stupid mole…" Fox groaned and smash hit Dugtrio. Dugtrio fainted finally.
"No! My Pokemon! That's impossible!"
In reply, Persian stood up and hissed angrily. Mario rolled his eyes.
Yoshi crept up behind Persian. He tapped it on the back. Persian turned around, confused, and Yoshi kicked it in the head. Then he ate it and turned it into and egg. Then he kicked it a lot. Finally, he did a Hip Drop on it and Persian collapsed again.
"No! My Pokemon! That's impossible!" Giovanni repeated, sighing. "Return!" The six fainted Pokemon returned to their Pokeballs. "Oh well, there are only seven of you now. Ganon, they're all yours!"