Chapter 8: The Battle Continues
Mario glanced around suspiciously, looking for signs of trouble. After he and his friends defeated Andross and Giovanni, losing almost half of the group, he knew that he needed to be careful in case Bowser or Ganon attacked.
"How do Link, DK, Pikachu, Falcon, and Jigglypuff look, Mario?" Fox asked anxiously.
"Abouta the same." Mario replied, sighing. "Which doesn'ta bode well. Except Link isa a lot better."
Fox shook his head sadly. Ness sighed. "This is stupid. Why am I here? I don't even know who any of these guys are and I'm risking my life for them!"
"I'll tell you why you're here, little boy." Samus replied angrily. "Because you can't leave! And even if you wanted to, I'd stop you."
Link suddenly moved. He stood up quickly and almost fell over.
"Link! Are you OK?" Kirby asked.
"Um, well, not really." Link replied, gripping his chest in pain. "What hit me?"
"Star Wolf. They fired at you." Fox replied.
"Fired what? Arrows?"
"No." Samus sighed. "Lasers."
"What?"
"Hey, how dida you wake up beforea the others?" Luigi asked.
"I don't know, I just heal faster, I guess."
"Maybe, but that won't save you!"
"Ganon!" Link recognized the voice, turning around to face the evil tyrant again.
"It is time for you all to die!" Ganon announced, lifting his arms into the air.
Suddenly, a black cloud rose up from Ganon's fingers. Spreading out, the cloud suddenly became an army of bats!
"Keese!" Link identified the opponents.
Some Keese lit on fire, and others froze. The entire army attacked the eight fighters.
"That's not all!" Ganon motioned to the ground, and lifted his arm up. Suddenly, a zombie rose up from the ground carrying a sword and shield. Many more followed.
"And those are Stalfos!" Link informed everyone, watching the bats approach.
"And for the grand finale…" Ganon grinned, raising his arms again. Two huge lizard warriors leapt into the air from behind Ganon.
"Lizalfos too?" Link sighed.
"Yoshi!" Yoshi pointed to the bats worriedly.
"Here they come!" Samus announced.
The Keese dive-bombed the eight fighters, even as Stalfos approached. The two Lizalfos were close behind. Link bravely went up to challenge the Lizalfos.
"Link, you'rea too weak!" Mario cautioned.
"You need me!" Link replied weakly.
Mario had no further time for conversation, as two Stalfos approached him. He did a Mario Tornado which hit both of them, but they landed and swung their swords angrily. Mario dodged their attacks and finished them with smash hits.
Yoshi found himself surrounded by Keese. He fired an egg, but the Keese avoided it easily. One Keese fired itself at Yoshi kamikaze-style. Yoshi couldn't avoid it in time, and fell back, weakened. Suddenly, a Stalfos came up from behind Yoshi and knocked him out.
Samus ignored the Keese; they couldn't penetrate her armor. She focused on the myriad Stalfos that attacked her friends. One Stalfos was right behind Fox, and she blasted it. Another crept up behind Luigi, but she used her grappling beam to fling it into oblivion. Two Stalfos tried to sneak up on her, but she was prepared. Her screw attack sent them flying to the ground, and her bombs kept them there. Another Stalfos joined to try to help, but she ducked and spun her leg around in a circle, knocking out all three.
Kirby sucked up a Stalfos, but didn't gain any ability. So Kirby just used his Final Cutter, sending a Stalfos high into the air and knocking out some Keese in the process. A swarm of Keese approached Kirby from behind, but he saw it coming and Final Cuttered again, taking them all out.
Fox was having trouble with the Keese until he discovered that his Reflector could easily keep them at bay. Keese were flying all over the place, electrocuted, even as Fox annihilated the Stalfos with his smash hits and his Fire Fox attack.
Ness's PK Fire attack was working quite well against the Keese, and his yo-yo dealt with the Stalfos perfectly. The only problem was that once Keese identified him as a threat, they attacked him in a huge swarm. Luckily, Samus dispersed the swarm with her energy ball long enough for Ness to take them out with his bat.
Luigi's Cyclone was dealing with both Keese and Stalfos quite well, but Keese learned to avoid it. Finally, Luigi realized that fireballs could melt the ice Keese, and they did. As for the fire Keese and regular Keese, he just smashed them. Stalfos were also overwhelmed by his Super Jump Punch which lit them ablaze.
Link was having a lot of trouble with the Lizalfos, who didn't seem to want to let Link hit them. Link, in his injured state, barely managed to eliminate one, but the other was jumping around so much and attacking so often that Link couldn't deal with it. He swung his sword once more, weakly, and collapsed. The Lizalfos bounded over to Fox and knocked him out with a powerful swing.
Then, the Lizalfos hurdled over to Samus, who failed a few times to hit it with her grappling beam before she distracted it enough to blast it with full power. As it collapsed, Mario felled the last Stalfos and Ness barbequed the last Keese. Ganon shrieked and retreated.
Suddenly, Ness stiffened. "Something evil is coming this way." He warned.
The others looked around nervously but didn't see anything. All of a sudden, Ness fell down, holding his head. "A small hammer hit him on the head." Kirby reported, confused.
Mario and Luigi weren't confused. They stared at each other and nodded. "Hammer Brothers!"
Sure enough, the turtle-like Hammer Bros. appeared in the distance. Dozens of Koopa Troopas, Goombas, and Lakitus followed.
"Uh oh." Luigi said. "Looksa like familiar territory, Mario."
Mario grinned and nodded. "But ofa course!"
Ness groaned. "I'm OK. Whoa!" He noticed the armies approaching.
"This'll be a tough one." Kirby predicted.
"Nota really, if youa know what you'rea doing." Luigi replied arrogantly, flexing his muscle.
"Oh, please." Mario grins.
A group of Goombas approached the group. Mario and Luigi launched fireballs at them, solving that problem easily. Suddenly, the Hammer Bros. charged forward, tossing hammers at their opponents. Try as he could, Ness could not avoid the hammers, and he was taking a lot of damage.
Samus felt the hammers, but they didn't hurt her. They just bounced off of her armor, not even leaving a dent. It was annoying, though, and she shot both Hammer Brothers until they died. Satisfied, she suddenly saw a Koopa Troopa with wings flying at her! It collided with her and the wind was knocked out of her.
"Samus, youa OK?" Mario asked while barraging a group of Koopa Troopas with fireballs.
"Yeah, sure." Samus replied. "Look out!"
A yellow figure on a cloud was dropping red objects onto the ground, dangerously close to Mario.
"Oh, that'sa just Lakitu." Mario replied. "His littlea red pets area annoying, but-"
Mario never got to finish because a charging red Spiny knocked him off his feet. Getting up embarrassed, he continued. "But theya pack a punch sometimes."
Samus laughed to herself. She fired at the red opponents, but they seemed to be immune. Sighing, she kicked one and it turned up onto its belly. Then she kicked another one into it and they both died.
The flying Koopa Troopas were still bothering Ness and Kirby. A Lakitu flew over to attack Ness. Ness used his PK Thunder to send himself flying into the air toward Lakitu, but Lakitu threw a Spiny at Ness before the attack hit. Kirby hit a Koopa Troopa until it hid in its shell, and Ness landed on the shell, falling unconscious. The shell rocketed forward and knocked Kirby out.
"Hmm, not good." Samus mused, as she blasted the last flying Koopa Troopa.
"Ifa that shell goesa forever until ita hits a wall…" Mario thought aloud as he Super Jump Punched the last Lakitu.
"And ifa this place isa completely empty…" Luigi prolonged, fireballing the last Goomba.
"And ifa this isa a rounda planet…" Mario continued.
"The shell willa go all the waya around!" Luigi finished.
"Well, either way, we've got company." Samus said, pointing ahead of her.
Bowser, Ganon, Andross, and Giovanni were assembled in front of the three remaining fighters, and they did not look happy.
"Very good, Mario." Bowser growled.
"Well done, Luigi." Ganon scowled.
"Impressive, Samus." Andross grimaced.
"Notable work, all three of you." Giovanni concluded with an odd smile. "Soon to be two."
"Wha-ouch!" Luigi was interrupted by the shell that had gone all the way around the planet. It had just knocked him over, and he fell unconscious.
"Great." Samus sighed. "Two against four."
"Five." A familiar voice corrected. Behind the four villians, a white shape appeared in space. Soon it took form, and Bowser, Mario, and Samus recognized it immediately.
"Master Hand?" the three asked simultaneously.
"Well, whaddaya know?" Ganon remarked. "He was telling the truth after all!"
Giovanni and Andross laughed.
"Well, you four, I hope you're happy." Master Hand sighed. "You knocked out all of the fighters except THE TWO I WANTED REVENGE ON THE MOST!"
"But there were twelve of them, not eight." Bowser explained.
"Don't give me excuses. Oh well, you four can leave."
"I'm not leaving!" Bowser replied. "I haven't had MY revenge yet."
"Fine." Master Hand replied. "Anyway, I've recovered enough to fight Samus, and you can fight Mario. The rest of you can leave."
"But-they're only unconscious." Ganon objected.
"Well go kill them!" Master Hand advised, sighing.
"No thank you. I'll be perfectly content to leave, thank you very much." Giovanni disagreed. "I don't want to kill Pikachu, I want to steal him."
"WELL GO STEAL HIM THEN!" Master Hand shouted impatiently. "Damn, are you all stupid!"
Giovanni started to disagree, then shrugged and headed for Pikachu. Ganon charged up his dark magic and headed for Link. Andross got a laser gun and headed for Fox. And Master Hand and Bowser closed in on Samus and Mario.
"This looksa bad." Mario remarked.