(A/N: First of all, as Link said in chapter 8, "This is war. People die." That's just the way it goes. Second of all, this is not the last chapter. The final showdown, maybe, but not the last chapter.)
Chapter 12: Thirty-two to one
The remaining smashers gathered together to face off with Anomaly. Apocalypse stood behind the eager group of thirty-one.
"What are we supposed to do?" Luigi wondered.
"Attack his feet, or something," Clyne replied.
Juvenor pulled out his gun. "Not for me," he said confidently, and began firing at Anomaly's face.
"Arrgh!" Anomaly roared in anger more than pain. "Stop it!"
With that, a small fist of land extended and grabbed Juvenor's arm, immobilizing it. Clyne rushed over to try to break it, but Anomaly created a pillar that shot straight up just in front of Clyne, knocking him backward.
Wolverine glared and extended his claws. He raised his arm and stuck his hand into Anomaly's foot, then followed with the other. Anomaly growled and shook his leg, which only caused the claws to move around inside. Wolverine began to climb up Anomaly's leg, vigorously pushing his claws in each time. Anomaly even tried to use extensions of land to knock Wolverine off, but the Canadian was strong enough to swing himself out of the way from the leverage in his arms.
Meanwhile, most of the other smashers were pounding enthusiastically at Anomaly's feet. Anomaly shook his foot, annoyed, but that always invited Apocalypse to punch. Anomaly shook his head and attacked Apocalypse with a huge chunk of land. Apocalypse blocked it, but Anomaly punched him. Apocalypse stumbled, and Anomaly raised the land behind the mutant so Apocalypse would trip. Before falling, though, Apocalypse swung his leg up, kicking Anomaly in the chest. Anomaly staggered back, bent over.
Bowser grabbed Pichu and threw the tiny Pokemon as far into the air as he could. Pichu flew high into the air, then flipped and used his Quick Attack to just make it onto Anomaly's head.
Nana watched her friends fight sadly. She knew that she couldn't do anything without her brother. She just wished she could go home.
"Hello, Nana," a voice came from behind. Nana turned around, not knowing what to expect.
"Popo?" Nana gasped.
Clyne recovered and attacked the "arm" that held Juvenor. However, he was not quite as strong as Apocalypse, and couldn't break it. He called for Balendin and Gerick to help.
Balendin charged his shortsword with spirit magic, and Gerick held his sword firmly with both hands. The three attacked simultaneously, and the land finally shattered.
"Thanks, guys," Juvenor sighed, massaging his wrist. "Look out!"
A huge wave of land rose up, threatening to squash the four fighters. Clyne grabbed everyone and pulled them close to him just as the wave crashed against the ground.
Shadow and Knuckles ran around Anomaly's feet, avoiding the attacking land. Knuckles then ran far away from Anomaly and charged forward. Using his momentum, he leapt into the air and planted his knuckles firmly into Anomaly's knee. He began climbing up, like Wolverine. Meanwhile, Shadow charged his energies for a Light Attack. When he rocketed forward into Anomaly's ankle, the giant shadow actually appeared to have felt the attack.
A blue portal appeared, and Clyne stepped out of it, followed by the other fighters.
"That was close," Gerick sighed in relief.
"Good thing Clyne has such quick reflexes," Juvenor said admiringly. Clyne shrugged modestly and charged forward, staff extended to block attacking arms of land.
Apocalypse, meanwhile, was fending off a veritable army of limbs of land. In his precious moments of rest, he grew, to increase his strength advantage over Anomaly, who was vastly amused by the futile attempts of the smaller smashers. He scowled as Juvenor's onslaught of laser returned to torment him. Anomaly extended his arm, repeating his erstwhile strategy, but Apocalypse punched his foe in the face. Distracted, Anomaly glared at Apocalypse, summoning a huge surge of land that reached a greater height even than the Egyptian mutant. The quick wave left Apocalypse no time to react except the instinctive raising his arms to protect himself. The wave came crashing down with a deafening crash.
"No!" came the reasonably simultaneous cry of the smashers. The shadow emperor laughed evilly.
"Your leader is defeated, fools. You are next." Anomaly sneered.
"Yeah, right!" Mario cried. "You don't stand a chance!"
Anomaly shook his head. "I've been holding back, saving some energy for Apocalypse," he grinned. "Now, you will enjoy no such luxuries." Then he began laughing uproariously, typical of overconfident emperors.
"Bowser," Juvenor whispered, "Throw me up there as high as you can."
Bowser shrugged and complied. Anomaly, his head thrown back in insane laughter, failed to notice Juvenor's flight. Once he achieved a reasonable height, Juvenor began firing rapidly into Anomaly's mouth. Anomaly screamed in pain, and just then, Wolverine and Knuckles reached Anomaly's chest.
"Hey, kid," Wolverine whispered, "On three."
Knuckles grinned and nodded.
"One,"
Pichu used his Thunder atop Anomaly's head. Anomaly barely noticed, but swung his arms up in annoyance, whereupon Gerick fired his crossbow at Anomaly's unguarded chest. Pichu jumped over Anomaly's left arm, but was hit by his right. No one saw Pichu fall to his death behind Anomaly.
"Two,"
Popo replied to a very confused Nana, "Not exactly…I'm the action figure version of Popo. I saw your brother killed…my sister was killed too. I figured we could join up."
Nana's face lit up. "I'd love to!" she shouted.
The two of them belayed upward until they reached Anomaly's face and tossed ice blocks into his mouth, which was still open due to his screaming. Juvenor stopped firing, since he was beginning to fall back to the ground.
"Three!"
Wolverine and Knuckles both leaned back and rammed their fists into Anomaly's chest. Anomaly roared in actual pain and tried unsuccessfully to shake the smashers off. Anomaly staggered and seemed about to collapse.
Suddenly, another loud crash came from behind Anomaly. The sun was immediately blocked out, and a huge shadow once again appeared.
"Apocalypse!"
"What?" Anomaly bellowed. "You're dead!"
"Unfortunately for you, not quite," Apocalypse replied. Larger than ever, the huge mutant raised his fist and delivered a crushing blow to Anomaly's face. Anomaly was sent spinning into the air, and landed on his back several feet away.
"How did you survive?" Balendin shouted.
"I was able to shrink just in time," Apocalypse replied. "I would have regrown earlier, but you were doing fine on your own."
The smashers laughed.
Anomaly shrieked. "You may have defeated the shadows this time," he said, unable to move from the pain, "but you haven't heard the last of evil in this dimension!"
Apocalypse rolled his eyes. "Do us all a favor and die,"
Eyes flashing, Anomaly shot back, "Oh, I will. But not alone."
With that, Anomaly's hands began to emanate a black glow. Suddenly, a beam of light shot from his hands, hitting Apocalypse squarely.
"Arrrgh!" Apocalypse cried.
The beam became brighter and brighter, and Anomaly's hands became darker and darker.
"No!" Mario shouted, rushing toward Anomaly. However, when he jumped up to tackle Anomaly, he went right through. "Huh?"
Apocalypse was down on his knees in pain by now. Anomaly's back became almost translucent, then completely invisible.
"He's channeling all of his life energy into this attack," Clyne explained somberly. "Neither one will survive this."
After a few more moments of watching helplessly, only a determined face and a pair of hands remained of the once powerful emperor. Apocalypse was lying on the ground. As the face and hands disappeared completely, so did the beam, and its target.
"No!" Zelda said quietly, sobbing.
Juvenor, Balendin, and the other toys looked the most depressed.
Well, Mario thought bitterly, we won.
(A/N: First of all, it's random who dies, remember? No one should yell at me for killing Pichu. Second of all, our Internet connection is going down for hopefully no more than a week. This means that you'll all have to wait with great anticipation for…the…epilogue. Anyway, r&r, I know it's long.)