Chapter 4: First Strike
Clyne, surprisingly, was the first to regain his composure. The original twelve smashers, and Master Hand, were too shocked to react, but Clyne ran forward eagerly.
"Juvenor, I don't believe it! How did you survive? Where have you been? It's so good to see you!"
Juvenor stood with an odd expression on his face. "I'm sorry…do I know you?"
Clyne's amazed smile froze. He stared at Juvenor. "Come on, stop fooling around," he said, not knowing what to think, his smile completely artificial now. "It's me, Clyne."
"I'm afraid you have confused me with someone else." Juvenor replied.
Clyne stood there unmoving for what seemed like forever, until Apocalypse broke in.
"We…made an action figure of him to honor his bravery. I…didn't realize he had any friends…"
Glaring darkly, Clyne whirled around to face Apocalypse. "I'm sure he's very grateful."
Before anyone could say anything, Clyne turned around again and started walking away.
Mario moved forward to stop him, but Master Hand blocked the path.
"Let him go," Master Hand whispered.
"I don't get it," Marth said slowly. "Who was that?"
"That was Clyne's former best friend." Samus replied. "He must have been devastated when Juvenor died, and then to see him alive again…"
She shook her head sadly.
"I'lla go witha him." Dr. Mario volunteered. "I ama a doctor, buta I also tooka some psychology classesa."
"Gooda idea." Mario replied, and the doctor went to follow Clyne.
Master Hand was the first to bring everyone back to reality. "Any more volunteers?"
"You said you wouldn't ask anymore." Mario whispered. Master Hand laughed quietly and shrugged as best as a glove could.
Three days later, the group of Mario, Sonic, Pichu, and Maska found themselves with guard duty at 3 a.m. in the morning.
"I hate this." Sonic groaned. "I need my beauty sleep."
"That'sa for sure." Mario grinned.
"Not funny…" Sonic replied with mock warning.
"Pichu." Pichu sighed, looking very tired himself.
"If you all want to go to sleep, I'll take over…" Maska suggested.
"No, that's," Sonic began, then yawned heavily, "OK."
"It's been a week, Sire."
"Will you be patient? I was just about to give the order! It's best that we attack at night anyway. This way everyone will be tired out."
"Finally…"
"Attack!"
"Pi!" Pichu shouted, pointing at the sky.
"Yesa, Pichu, starsa." Mario sighed, trying to keep his eyes open.
"Pichu!" Pichu insisted loudly.
"What do you w-" Maska stopped, seeing a hole open in the sky. "They're coming."
Mario bolted upright, and Sonic opened his eyes fully. "Sound the alarm, Pichu!" they cried simultaneously.
Pichu dashed over to a nearby microphone and squeaked into it. Just then, shadows began to fall out of the dark portal.
As the shadows landed, the dark buildings became alive little by little, as Pichu's squeaking slowly won everyone's attention. Master Hand was the first to actually come out, and he started barking orders to whichever half-asleep fighters he could find. Within minutes, the entire group of front-line fighters had assembled, and they grouped together to block the onslaught of shadows. Pichu stopped squeaking, out of breath, as thousands of toys poured out of their homes to fight.
"Why did it have to be so early…" Fox whined. "I was having such a nice dream…"
"Get over it." Falco shouted to his shipmate. "They obviously planned to attack when we were all weak and tired. We're going to prove them wrong."
The smashers realized the truth of Falco's comment, and began attacking shadows mercilessly.
"The battle is joined, sire."
"It's about time," another shadow put in. "Why can't I go down again?"
"I want them to think that our entire army is down there already to get their hopes up…hello, what's this?"
"Go away, doc. Nothing you say will bring him back for real."
"Ia know, but-"
"And quit with the goddamn accent!"
Dr. Mario stopped suddenly, surprised. "How did you know?"
"I heard Mario talking to Master Hand without an accent. I figured you'd be the same."
"You're very perceptive, Clyne," Dr. Mario said, impressed. "Now, about this problem…"
"I told you, I don't want to talk about it."
"I want you to talk about it. Maybe I can help."
"You can help by leaving-" Clyne began, but stopped short, looking behind the doctor and holding up his staff.
Sonic curled into a ball and fired himself at a group of shadows like a bowling ball. He grinned, and stood up. "Sonic wind!" he shouted, sending a tornado-like attack at another group. He darted away just in time to avoid a shadow's deadly punch.
"Look out, Sonic!" Knuckles shouted. He had just battered an unfortunate shadow into pulp, and looked up just in time to watch Sonic dart carelessly into the waiting arms of another shadow. Suddenly, the shadow fell over inexplicably. Balendin stood behind, holding his shortsword proudly.
"Thanks." Sonic muttered.
Captain Commando was using his friends to the fullest, but they came a bit too slowly. Soon, he was caught by a shadow's punch, which sent him reeling.
Shadow turned around just in time to see the captain collapsed. He rushed over at the same time as Sonic.
"Get out of here," Sonic hissed, "You spy."
Shadow glared back. "Watch your back, hero."
Sonic turned around just in time, and Shadow shouted, "Disappear!"
A bolt of lightning dispersed the shadows around the captain's unconscious figure. Shadow pushed him aside, out of the way.
Sonic felled his opponent with a fiery somersault, then turned back to confront Shadow again. But he was gone, off to find more targets.
Juvenor was firing mercilessly at the shadows with his usual pinpoint accuracy. Unfortunately, he was not very good at hand-to-hand combat. Although his accuracy was superb, there were just too many shadows. Luckily, Gerick arrived, swinging his sword valiantly.
Suddenly, Samus stopped short, and ducked as a shadow leapt over her head. "Wait a minute! What about Clyne?"
Juvenor shouted, "I'm going after him."
"I'm coming too." Shadow put in. Everyone stared in shock, but the black hedgehog was already skating away.
"Let me accompany you, Juvenor," Gerick suggested. "Just in case."
"Thanks." Juvenor replied, and started running.
Shadow was quite far ahead, but he turned around just in time to see another hole opening behind him.
"Go!" Gerick shouted. "Get Clyne. We'll take care of this and be right with you!"
Shadow reluctantly ran ahead.
"This is working well, Sire."
"It is, isn't it? And we still have huge armies to go! And I like this divide and conquer strategy. Let's try it again."
Anomaly laughed evilly as he watched the fierce battles. The remaining shadows joined in.
"This dimension is as good as mine!"
(A/N: There, you happy now? The war started. Will Clyne and Dr. Mario be OK? Will Shadow reach them in time? Will Juvenor and Gerick get to them? Who will be the next target of Anomaly's divide and conquer strategy? And just how many more shadows are there? Dun dun dun….)