An SSBM Fan Fic, by Smoke_Rulz
srssbm.cjb.net
Mario journies through the bright light, his eyes squinted. He looks around for the others, but sees no one. As he looks, the light disappears. Finally able to fully open his eyes, he looks around at his surroundings. He's on a large stone pathway. On either side of it is liquid magma. It extends quite far out, to the volcano mountain range that extends in a complete circle the size of several metropolis. The sky is blood red. In front of him, Mario sees a towering castle of stone, shrouded in dark smoke and thundering rain clouds. Huge spikes extend up the side of the cylinder towers on the corners. Mario crosses his arms and smirks. "I'd-a recognize this place anywhere." He says.
Mario begins trekking down the stone pathway toward the castle, which is obviously Bowser's. As he advances, he feels a presense around him. He glances around the sky, but sees nothing. Upon looking into the lava, he sees a pair of eyes. The eyes go wide, realizing Mario has spotted them. Then up comes a giant snake-like lava creature. Mario rolls out of the way, as it launches over the pathway and into the lava on the other side. "I hate Blarggs..." Mario mumbles.
Mario backs up a bit, waiting for the Blargg to strike again. He spots its eyes lingering above the surface. It jumps toward him. Mario jumps into the air. The Blargg lands on the stone platform, missing an obvious attempt to crush Mario. From the air, Mario fires down a large ball of fire, striking the Blargg's head. The Blargg's jaw slams into the stone pathway, dazing it. Mario lands next to it, his fist surrounded in fire. Just as the Blargg regains composure, Mario clocks it with a big punch. The Blargg lets out a painful roar and topples backward, falling unconscious on the stone. It slowly slides into the lava. Mario smiles, and gets ready to continue his trek, when he begins hearing muffled roars. He turns around, and spots many more Blarggs rising from the lava, all of which heard the cry of the unconscious one. They all eye Mario. "Crap." Mario states.
He turns around and books. The Blarggs launch themselves forward in attempt to catch the fast plumber. Mario reaches the entrance to the castle, which has a downed drawbridge. He swings a punch with all his might and strikes the end of the drawbridge, causing it to fly upward with him clutching on. The drawbridge hits the top of it's entryway, launching Mario over the top and into the courtyard. Mario lands on his feet. Sounds of the Blarggs striking the metal drawbridge can be heard as he begins his advance toward the recesses of Bowser's Castle. He sees the entrance to the castle at the end of the courtyard. He begins to run toward it, ready for Bowser. As he nears, a massive Thwomp comes slamming down in front of him, knocking him off balance. Several more come crashing down further behind it, all in front of the entrance. A loud voice comes booming throughout the courtyard. It's Bowser. "Almost got you there, plumber! Dare you trek through my castle? I've got many more deadly challenges for you, if you can even get past these Thwomps! Bwahahaha!"
Mario looks forward at the big blue Thwomps slamming down. One is directly in front of him, and is moving left and right as it slams down every 3 seconds. Three more are behind it in a line in front of the castle entrance. Mario smirks, and dashes forward under the first Thwomp. He dashes to the left as the Thwomp in front of the doorway crashes down. Not wasting any time, he rolls right underneath that Thwomp as it rises, and the one he was under slams down. He dives forward off his knees and charges through the door, the slamming Thwomp grazing him. He lets out a heavy sigh of relief and slams the door shut. He stands and dusts himself off. He glances up, and sees a long pathway of concrete, a red carpet running through it. It gets darker toward the end. "Well this castle has-a surely changed." He says.
He begins walking slowly down the red carpet path, waiting and watching for anything to come out and strike. As he gets about halfway to the next doorway, a massive faced fireball comes flying at him. He quickly moves. That was a Hothead! He thinks to himself.
He glances toward the doorway. He spots several contraptions sticking out in front of it. Out of the floor, several small machines with small slit openings. Out of the ceiling, what appear to be curved pipes, quite wide. That must be where that Hothead came from.. Mario thinks.
Sure enough, another Hothead comes flying out of one of the pipes. Mario dodges easily. Then, he spots none other than 2 Grinders flying at him, that came out of the slit machines. He jumps the speeding saw blades. Once again, Bowser comes booming in. "Haha! Another close one. At this rate, you'll never make it to me! You should just give up and let one of the Grinders make you into TWINS!"
Mario, now quite annoyed, continues advance, dodging the Hotheads and Grinders. He then notices, as he gets closer, more of them come at him. He franticly somersaults left and right, dodging at all costs. But finally, he's struck by one of the Hotheads, on his shoulder. He jumps to the side and grips his shoulder, looking back at the fireball. It's bouncing around. It's bouncing is then ceased by a Grinder, which tears through it like a hot knife through butter. Mario turns back toward the machines, now a tad worried. He still continues forth, braving the onslaught as it thickens. He then notices a blue magic field forming in front of the doorway, coming from a weird crystal ball-like object above the door. It forms into a Banzai Bill. Mario goes wide-eyed as the massive bullet comes at him. He moves as far right as he can, allowing it to pass. Up against the wall, Mario quickly notices a Grinder coming at him, and he jumps it. Another Banzai Bill begins forming. There has to be a way to get rid of these machines... He thinks.
Off in the distance, the previous Banzai Bill explodes, as the new one launches off. Mario hears it, and gets an idea. He jumps another Grinder and ducks a Hothead, waiting for another Bill to begin forming. It does. He then spots another Grinder ready for launch at him. Timing his jump, Mario leaps up and outstreches his hand, catching the saw blade mid-flight. He then lands on the ground, ducking a Hothead. The Bill completely forms. Mario then flings the saw blade as hard as he can like a frisbee. It glides toward the massive bullet and strikes it, causing it to detonate. The force of the explosion decimates the machines and the crystal ball object. Mario stands up as the smoke clears. He walks up toward the door, stepping over pieces of the destroyed machines. He opens the door, enters, and closes it.
Mario walks into the next corridor of the castle. As he does, he notices his hand bleeding. The grab of the Grinder sliced it. He makes a motion of his other hand, and gauze appears. He begins wrapping it around his hand as he continues down the hallway. The hallway ends in a circluar room. Mario walks to the middle of it and looks around, but nothing is happening. Suddenly, the floor under him begins traveling up. Ah, it's an elevator. He thinks.
The elevator travels slowly up for about 20 seconds before coming to a slow stop. Mario turns around and sees an entryway into a huge circular room. He walks into it. On the far end, a metal door. As he leaves the elevator, he hears a large slam behind him. A metal door has sealed the entrance to the elevator. He's now trapped in this room. He stands and waits, expecting Bowser to drop another challenge. No sooner than he thinks that, a flashing green energy ball appears on the far side of the room. It forms into a humanoid shape and disappears, leaving behind a skeleton. It wears torn up blue pants, old shoes, and metal red-trim spiked shoulder pads. It also holds a metal red-trim shield and a massive red sword. It stares at Mario, two red lights glowing from within it's empty eye sockets. Mario prepares a fighter stance as the skeleton beast begins to slowly advance, chuckling. Where have I seen one of these before...? Mario wonders.
Bowser's voice booms in again. "HA! This Mario is a Stalfos! Your friend Link can tell you exactly what they are. You may have got through the previous trap of mine, but this one has a mind of it's own, and it always kills what it wants to kill!"
The Stalfos holds up its big sword and points it at Mario. Mario stands ready, fearless. The Stalfos suddenly zips forward and slashes. Mario backflips, and the sword strikes the stone floor with a loud thud. The Stalfos quickly gets back on Mario, slashing a few times, but hitting nothing but air. Mario rolls twice down the wall of the circular room. He rolls onto his feet and stares down the Stalfos, who ceases its fast attack for a moment. It comes at Mario again, jabbing his sword forward. Mario jumps it. The sword sticks into the wall. Mario lands on the sword and launches forward in a kick. The Stalfos brings its shield up and blocks it. Mario launches himself upward off the shield. The Stalfos look around and doesn't spot Mario, so it begins to pull its sword out of the wall. Up above, Mario launches down a large ball of fire. The Stalfos looks up and is struck by the fire, which shatters it to pieces. Mario lands on his feet, the bones all around him. The bones and all the Stalfos gear disappears in green fire. Mario then hears a door slide open. He turns around a sees the now open doorway, which is opposite the way he came in. He begins walking over. On the other side, he can see a stone pathway leading to a large circular platform. Everything is surrounded in red lava: A particularly rare and deadly form of the liquid magma. Boy, I wonder who waits here. Mario thinks.
He walks through the doorway and into the massive stadium-like area. The blood red sky is visible above. Mario begins his trek down the stone pathway, when he hears the metal door slam behind him. He turns and looks, expecting it to happen. He then notices a piece of the stone pathway break off and disintigrate, right in front of the doorway. The path begins to continue disintigrating rather fast. Mario makes a break for it and dashes down the pathway as it disintigrates just inches behind him. He then makes a large leap and lands on the massive circular platform, the last of the pathway disappearing. He's now trapped on the huge platform, surrounded in the red lava. And not a moment too soon, a portal of fire appears on the far end. None other than Bowser steps out of it. "Just as I thought." Mario says.
"You surprised me with your quick trek through all my obstacles." Bowser states, his portal disappearing behind him.
"Well you're-a just another one." Mario says, self-assuring.
This strikes Bowser's nerve. He stares down Mario with a serious look. Mario slowly advances toward the middle. Bowser follows suit. "I'm sorry I have to do this to ya, plumber." Bowser says.
"And what woulda that be?"
"End your existence in this lava. What else?"
"Now you know very well thata you will not succeed."
Bowser stops advancing. Mario does as well, expecting a move. Bowser cracks a smile, and becomes engulfed in flames. Mario goes wide-eyed, not expecting this. Before he can react, Bowser flies forward and strikes him, his flames shooting off. Mario falls backward and brushes the fire off himself. He sees Bowser approaching. He rolls backward onto his feet and charges forward with a punch, which Bowser catches. Bowser attempts a slash with his other arm, but Mario jumps upward. He comes down with a large kick to Bowser's face. Bowser steps back, grabbing his face. Mario lands and immediately hops forward. Bowser looks over, only to get hit with several punches. Mario lays out a combo of punches, ending with a powerful jab forward to Bowser's lower jaw. Bowser jumps backward, reeling from the punishment to his face. Mario doesn't advance. Bowser looks over to him. "Why you little bastard..." He says.
"Are you not surprised?" Mario snaps back.
Bowser growls, and suddenly fires forward with a huge jet of fire. Mario barely sidesteps, and doesn't notice Bowser coming at him. Retracted in his shell, Bowser comes flying forward in a fast spin. Mario is struck several times before hitting the ground. Bowser pops back out and lands, seeing Mario lying motionless. "Figures. Weak as ever." He says.
He approaches the fallen Mario, when Mario suddenly springs to life and swings both his legs upward, striking Bowser's big koopa jaw with both feet. Bowser retreats backward. Mario jumps to his feet and flies forward, smashing the Koopa King in the chest with a thunderous uppercut. He follows up with a few more uppercuts before stopping and stepping back. Bowser falls to his knees, clutching his midsection. He drops one hand down for balance, and coughs up some blood. "This... is impossible!" He says.
"You are a fool for-a challenging me alone!" Mario says.
Bowser jumps forward, blinded by anger. Mario begins spinning in his tornado move, striking Bowser several times and mid-air, and sending him flying backward toward the edge of the platform. Bowser rolls over onto his stomach and attempts to get up. Mario runs forward. Bowser looks up at the approaching Bowser, and realizes there's nothing he can do. Mario strikes Bowser with a drop kick, sending him flying off the platform. Bowser splashes into the red lava. His roars of pain can be heard echoing as he sinks. Mario backs away from the lava, and lets out a sigh of relief. He then looks around for a possible way off the floating platform. He spots something he didn't expect: The unmistakable dark mist ascending over the walls of the big roofless corridor. He spins around and sees the mist coming from all directions. The mist lowers down the walls and floats over the lava, coming straight for Mario. Mario stands still and closes his eyes. He feels the mist pass over him, and he blacks out.
THE END
Next: Chapter 28 - Final Battle?
NOTE: Chapters 25, 26, and 27 happen simultaneously.
