Chapter 11: Chaos
"Zelda!" Samus shouted, watching the tank barrel forward mercilessly.
Suddenly, a blue figure dashed past, carrying Zelda away just in time. When he stopped moving, the smashers recognized Marth. Samus gasped in relief.
"Thanks," she said.
"No problem," Marth replied. "After beating Giga Bowser, we decided to see how you were doing."
"Where'sa Popo?" Mario asked, looking at Nana. She lowered her head and started to sob.
"Ah," he murmured. "I'ma sorry."
Samus reached out and hugged Nana soothingly. Mario was very impressed by her gentleness, despite her armor.
"Y-your armor's cold," Nana sobbed.
Samus looked up in despair. "Sorry,"
"We should get moving, though," Roy pointed out. "Seems like whatever caused this is coming back."
Indeed, a black portal in front of the fallen torture victims indicated the return of Aelali.
"Oh, more toys to play with," he grinned, noticing the new arrivals. "Shouldn't some of you be taking care of Morphshadow?" He pointed up in the air.
Morphshadow had transformed into a hawk and began circling above the smashers like a vulture, preparing to strike.
"Leave that to me," Master Hand suggested, flying up to Morphshadow.
Wolverine glared at Aelali. "You'll pay for this," he growled.
"You wish," Aelali laughed, shooting a beam of black magic at Wolverine. The beam hit him squarely in the chest, and a black spot appeared there. Wolverine grinned even as the telltale smoke rose from the wound and sizzling sounds filled the air.
"Wha-"
Wolverine extended his claws and slashed at the unsuspecting assistant. Aelali fell backward, clutching his side.
"What are you?" Aelali gasped.
Wolverine smiled bestially. "The best at what I do."
Clyne, Juvenor, Gerick, Falcon, DK, Commando, Young Link, and Pikachu emerged onto the main battlefield just in time to see Anomaly clobber Apocalypse.
"Heya, guys!" Mario shouted joyfully. "Gooda to see youa all OK. Wherea are Sonic anda Shadow?"
Juvenor shrugged. "They went off on their own. Hopefully they're not killing each other."
Mario laughed half-heartedly. "I hopea not…we needa them."
He looked up to see Master Hand punching Morphshadow. Turning, he watched Game & Watch smash his opponent. Then, he turned to Aelali.
"That'sa our maina problem ata the moment," he said.
"OK," Clyne said, charging forward.
"No-"
Clyne dashed forward, preparing to knock the assistant out. However, Aelali recovered from his shock and pain just in time to turn around and send Clyne flying backward with a quick spell. Then, he summoned a group of shadows.
"Whoa," Commando, having missed almost the whole fight, had no idea what was going on, but he was happy to avenge his early knockout. Young Link had the same idea.
"Yay, more shadows," Falcon groaned, Falcon Kicking forward.
"Hey, look!" Ness shouted, pointing up.
Emerging from the roof of a nearby small building were Sonic and Shadow. Ignoring all pleasantries, Shadow turned to Knuckles and whispered something in his ear. Knuckles gasped knowingly and pointed to a small spot on the ground. Sonic and Shadow dashed over it, noticing a gem-like polygon inscribed in a circle on the ground.
"Hey Aelali," Roy shouted tauntingly. "Why don't you make that shadow over there talk?"
"Oh!" Aelali gasped. "I forgot!"
He pointed to the brutish shadow and muttered a few magic words.
Sonic and Shadow stood still, and seven gems shot up from strategically placed holes in the ground. They began to spin around the hedgehogs dramatically, and flashes of light began to appear.
"Whoa…" Ness said, reading Knuckles' mind. "The Chaos Emeralds?"
Anomaly noticed the flashes too. He tried to step on them to avoid any problems, but Apocalypse took advantage of his poor balance on one foot and punched him powerfully. Anomaly had to stop his fall with a plate of black land.
The light was now so bright that no one could see Sonic or Shadow, and the emeralds were spinning too quickly to see them. Suddenly, they stopped. The light remained for a moment as the gems returned to their proper hole.
Everyone gasped as the light died down.
Sonic had turned a bright yellow, and Shadow had become white with some red stripes.
"Thanks, Knuckles," Shadow said, and there was a distinct echo to his voice now.
The large shadow roared as Aelali's spell took effect. "Finally! I can talk!"
"Great. Who are you?" Ganondorf rolled his eyes.
"I am Super Shadow!"
Shadow turned his head, hearing this. "Super Shadow, huh? There's only room for one Super Shadow in this dimension. And that's me." He charged forward, and a yellow shield appeared in front of him as he picked up speed. The shadow charged at the smashers again, but Shadow arrived just then. His path took him directly through the opposing shadow. The shadow screamed with its newfound voice, and exploded.
"Wow," Game & Watch remarked.
"Wow is right," Knuckles replied. "Those Chaos Emeralds are a real kick."
Meanwhile, Super Sonic was investigating the large group of unconscious smashers.
"Come and get me, pretty boy," Aelali taunted.
Wolverine was on the floor by now, but his healing factor was still fighting the full effects. The other smashers had maintained a strategic distance from the powerful sorcerer, fighting the shadows, but Super Sonic showed no such inhibition.
"Bring it on!" Sonic taunted.
"You asked for it," replied Aelali, firing a blast of energy at Sonic.
Sonic stood immobile as the size of the blast grew steadily, until the smashers couldn't even see Sonic through the beam.
"No!" Peach gasped.
Aelali stopped his attack after a few moments. Super Sonic stood there undaunted, and flew at Aelali with a blue shield in front. Aelali tried to summon a shield to protect him, but he was far too slow. The impact sent him flying backward. Super Sonic scowled at the mage. He wasn't going to let him get away that easily.
"Super Sonic Wind!" he shouted.
Instead of a blue tornado, a bright yellow one appeared on top of Aelali. Aelali screamed in pain as the tornado pounded him, lifted him up, and flung him even farther away.
Anomaly, hearing Aelali's cry of pain, looked down to see Super Sonic standing triumphantly. He glared and started assaulting the hedgehog with land. Apocalypse was held at bay by a huge terrestrial prison.
"Whoa!" Sonic shouted, as a huge pillar erupted from the ground and fell on top of him. He chuckled and broke it open. He ran up to defeat the small shadow army, as he charged through various land patterns that tried to hurt him. A spike came up in an attempt to stab Sonic, but it broke on his invincible chest.
"No!" Anomaly gasped.
Sonic ran through all of the shadows, then looked up to see Master Hand being attacked by a large bird. He flew up and used his supersonic wind to send Morphshadow flying. Then, he charged at the falling bird to ensure its demise, breaking through several barriers of land on the way.
That does it, Super Sonic thought, abandoning Morphshadow.
Anomaly saw Sonic turn around and head right for him.
"You annoy me." Super Sonic shouted angrily.
Apocalypse gasped as Anomaly raised his fist behind him. Super Sonic, oblivious to the impending attack, flew at the emperor shadow. Anomaly punched mightily and connected soundly. Although Super Sonic did not feel any pain, the mere force of the blow was enough to send Super Sonic soaring away.
"Sonic! We're running low on rings, don't-" Shadow began to warn, then looked up. "No!"
There's no way he has enough rings to make it back, Knuckles thought at the same time as Shadow. Ness picked up the strong emotion.
"Can't we do anything to help him?" he asked.
"The only flier here is Master Hand, and he's sort of unconscious," Ganondorf explained.
"Oh, that's right!" Shadow remembered. He skated forward.
"Disappear!" he shouted.
Whatever consciousness Morphshadow had been retaining did, indeed, disappear.
Anomaly turned to see Apocalypse breaking out of the barrier. "Here we go again," he thought.
Shadow looked around to verify that every possible opponent to the toy dimension was defeated, besides one very big exception. He saw a flash of blue light coming back, but he knew that Sonic would be too slow. Just as he thought this, he felt his body losing power, and he became Shadow once again. He looked up, and saw the blue flash die out.
"Sonic! No!"
Anomaly looked around angrily. "You were lucky. But you can never defeat me!"
(A/N: Wow. They really made some headway here, huh? Only Anomaly remains to oppose the toy dimension. Will even all of the remaining smashers be able to defeat this shadow who has total control of the land?)