Chapter One
It took the group a few days of walking, but they finally reached the base of Tournament Mountain. Along the way, DK continued to pick on Pikachu, calling him all sorts of names and getting shocks in return. Sun had set when they reached the mountain and it was agreed that they would start the tournament in the morning. Mario started up a campfire with his Fireball attack and everyone picked a spot to sleep for the night. Pikachu sat far from the group, grumbling and muttering angrily. Watching him, Link got up and sat next to the mouse.
"Hi, I'm Link. Um, well, the new version at least. I was introduced to Nintendo a couple of months before you." he introduced himself. Pikachu gnawed at a piece of grass and glared at him.
"Yeah? What do you want? You gonna call me 'rookie' and 'newborn' like that oversized chimp?" he snapped. Link shook his head.
"Actually, I'm a rookie, too. I'm new to this whole thing." he replied, "The Game Boy Link, NES Link, and SNES Link have been around for ages. They have the popularity and the fame. I'm just trying to eke out a little recognition, but I don't think I'm catching on." Link sighed and looked away at the fire. "Maybe I should have my hair dyed red and change outfits to look like them. Then the N64 games would be more recognizable to the old Zelda players."
"Are you nuts?!" Pikachu exclaimed and jumped to his feet, "Don't listen to that bunch of baloney! The reason why you were made to look differently was because Nintendo wanted to bring a fresh new spin to a classic! And you were designed to add color and style, look fresh and young and new!" Link propped an elbow on his knee as he sat Indian-fashion and rested his cheek on his hand, sighing.
"But I don't feel fresh, young and new. I feel stupid, inexperienced and unknown. I have the name Link, but not the feel of it. Nobody feels that I'm Link. They look at me and say, 'Who is that? A Link wannabe? You're no Link! Get a life, Joker!'" he berated.
"Hey! Keep it down, Sunshine! We're trying to sleep!" DK yelled from near the campfire. Link sighed again.
"See?" he muttered, "The Link they respect is the old one, the guy with fire colored hair and the button-looking nose. Me? They stuck a 'Kick Me' sign on my back when I walked into the base computer the first day." He made a face. "Do you know how many times King Bowser Koopa and his little runts-for-kids kicked me around like a soccer ball? A lot! Then they used me for spitwad target practice." Link pulled off his hat and ruffled his hair, letting Pikachu take a closer look at the golden yellow strands. "See all this? My hair looked like a Q-tip head by the time they ran out of paper! It took ages for Game Boy Link to wash all that crud out and even then all that Koopa spit made my hair stiff and spiky and it stuck out everywhere! Somebody called me 'Super Sonic' when I went into the cafeteria!"
"You had it worse than me. At least I had my electricity to shock the geezers with. What about you?" Pikachu asked softly. Link shook his head and pulled the hat back on.
"Nothing. Nada. Zip. I was a kid! I didn't have weapons yet and I was still training!" he cried, "The words 'Fresh Meat' were practically stamped on my forehead!" Pikachu held out a hand to him. Link blinked down at him in surprise.
"You and me, we have to stick together, pal. We're the new guys and we have to show the Nintendo mascots that we have what it takes to be big, big, big!" Pikachu told him. Link grinned and shook his hand with his thumb and index finger.
"Thanks. You're a real Pika-pal. Maybe we'll wind up Allstars just like Mario and Donkey Kong." he said with a snicker. Pikachu laughed, then looked up at the mountain with a grim expression. Link followed his gaze with a determined look. "But to do that, we have to keep Master Hand from taking over our games. If we can beat him, Pikachu, you and I may finally earn some real respect!" he whispered.
"Yo, Blondie! Didn't I tell ya to shut up?! Go to sleep!" DK yelled again. Pikachu sniffed.
"How'd a monkey on Miracle-Gro wind up a Nintendo Allstar?" he muttered as Link stretched out and drifted off to sleep. Pikachu blinked at him, then curled up next to him, snuggling close to his chest to share warmth.
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"Heeeyaaahh!" Link's voice startled everyone awake. Pikachu jumped up and his hair stood on end. The other characters jumped to their feet and looked around as Link's screams continued to sound out. Finally they turned to the mountain and gasped. There was Link! The group of Nintendo characters raced up to the mountain and paused at the edge of a ring that glowed around the entire mountain. Link was standing in it, lifted just above the ground with his arms pinned to his sides and his head craned back. A beam of light shone down on him and suddenly, Link vanished!
"Link! Link, come back!" Pikachu cried and looked down at the grass where Link had been standing before he was taken away. A strange symbol was burned onto the ground, three triangles joined together. "Huh? What's that?" he asked aloud.
"That's the Triforce symbol, the same symbol that's on Link's left hand. It shows he carries the Triforce of Courage in him." Mario replied, "But, what happened? Why did Link disappear?"
"This can't be good. We're supposed to go up the tournament together. That was our plan. Why did Link start without us?" Samus asked aloud. Pikachu turned on the group, angry.
"It's all that overgrown hairball's fault! He kept teasing us new guys and now Link's got it in his head to take on Master Hand all by himself to prove he can be just a good an Allstar as the Game Boy Link!" he snapped at them. "If he winds up a mindless slave to that Master Hand guy, I'm blaming all of you! He's my new friend!"
"How the heck do we get up the mountain? There's no terrain to grab onto. It's perfectly smooth." Fox replied and pointed out the fact that he was right. "Take a look. This mountain is a cone, a perfect cone. There's no way we can climb up it to rescue him."
"We have to find a way!" Pikachu yelled and began to shout up at the mountain. "Hey! Master Hand! You weren't supposed to kidnap my buddy! Link wasn't part of the deal! Give him back to us!" the mouse screamed out in a mix of rage and sorrow.
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Link slowly opened his eyes, feeling groggy and disconnected. He lay on his stomach, his cheek resting on cold stone as he focused slowly on his hand, which rested right near his face. He groaned slightly.
"What happened? Where am I?" he whispered softly to himself. Link got to his knees and shook his head to clear his mind, looking around in shock. "This place! It looks like Hyrule Castle!" he exclaimed.
"First battle! Link versus Link!" a voice declared and a giant scoreboard appeared over the castle. One side had a picture of Link in his green tunic. The other side had an exact same picture. Beneath both pictures were 0% signs. Link was startled and stepped back.
"What?! Me against me? What are they talking about?!" he cried as a beam of light shone down onto the stone arena and an exact duplicate of Link dropped down, unsheathing his sword. "Hey! That's me! What kind of a tournament is this?! They make us fight ourselves?!" The clone Link charged at him, sword ready to slash at him. Link cried in shock and leaped over him to get away. The clone slashed upwards with an Air Swipe, hitting Link and knocking him aside. Link cried in pain and scrambled to get away. The clone raced after him, slashing continuously with many of the moves Link himself came up with to use against Ganon's evil minions in the game he had been stolen from. The damage meter went higher, up to forty percent. Link kicked out and threw off the clone.
"Okay! I don't know what sick, twisted joke is being played on me, but if that's the way you're gonna play, then I'll make sure you pay!" he yelled and fought back, slashing at the clone and building up his damage. Something fell from the sky behind the duplicate. Link reached behind him, felt the hookshot and pulled it out. He fired it at the clone and it latched onto the copy's clothes, pulling him towards Link. With a yell of rage, Link pulled the look-alike close, twisted him around and kicked him towards the back, throwing him off of the ledge of the castle. The clone's damage meter was at fifty-five percent.
Link raced forward and grabbed what looked like a small, pink and white capsule. He turned and threw the capsule at the clone, who had leaped up to attack him. The capsule exploded on contact, throwing the duplicate backwards and into a cyclone that suddenly popped up on the scene.
He took the time to check the scoreboard. His clone had eighty points of damage now while he still had forty. Link checked his equipment and found himself still equipped with the hookshot, bombs, the boomerang he used as a kid, his shield and the Master Sword's sheath. Everything else had been taken from him. He looked back in time to see the tornado rush towards him and suck him in. Link shrieked as it spun him around and around.
"Let me out of this thing!" Link wailed as it finally spit him up high into the air and added more damage points to his score. Link tumbled through the air and the clone leaped up to give him a hard kick that sent him flying across the stage. He landed on his back and lay still, exhausted, pained, and barely able to move. The clone dropped down beside him and stood over him, lifting his sword up to finish Link off. Link stared up at him, terrified. Was this how he was going to die? Killed off by some copy?
"I just wanted to be an Allstar...." Link whispered and closed his eyes, wishing someone else was in his place. Something dropped down from the sky above him. Link blinked and looked to his side. A small gray object lay on the stone. He grabbed it, threw it at the clone so it latched onto the front of his tunic and rolled away quickly. The clone looked down at the object on his chest.
"On second thought, I won't go down so easily! I'll prove to everyone I can be an Allstar!" Link yelled and threw the boomerang at the gray object. The object exploded and the clone Link was hurled off the platform and into an invisible force field just beyond the castle's area with one hundred and twenty points of damage.... and without his head. Link blinked at the vanished clone and waited for the smoke to clear. The black smoke dissipated and revealed the clone's head lying on the floor. Link screamed and scooted backwards, backing up against the wall of the main castle ledge.
After a few minutes of shaking and screaming, Link calmed down enough to crawl forward and examine it. Hesitating a few moments, Link reached out and picked up the disembodied head. It still had its emotionless eyes open. Link shuddered, it had the exact same royal blue color.
"What is this?" he murmured and lifted the head up a little. Sparks flew from the neck and Link grew suspicious of the head. "There's something fishy going on here." he grumbled and grabbed onto the head's cheek. He pulled hard and tore the flesh off and gasped. Underneath the cream-colored covering was a metal head, mechanical with gears and computer bits. "It's a robot? An android?" Link whispered and played with the parts on the head. The mouth moved and the eyes rolled around. "This thing's kind of funky looking." he muttered and shrieked when the head began to speak. He dropped it and stared as it repeated his words. "What the-?" Link muttered and picked the head up again.
"Android. Android. Android." the head rattled off in an imitation of Link's voice, "Master Hand's plan consists of androids replacing the Nintendo characters and returning the androids to the games. Once the androids are in place, they will spread a virus throughout the Realm of Humanity, possessing everyone who comes in contact with the games. The true Nintendo characters will then be enslaved here in the Realm of Neutrality." Link gasped and scowled at the head.
"So that's the creep's plan. And the Nintendo character that was a mistake? What happens to that one?" Link asked the robotic head.
"The Nintendo character that does not belong with the group of eight will either be destroyed once its identity is found, or possessed by Master Hand himself, depending on if the character has a potential for use elsewhere." the robot head replied.
"Breach in security! Deploy the Polygons!" the announcer suddenly shouted and a group of strange, purple-metallic creatures dropped down from the sky and grabbed Link.
"Hey! Get away from me, you metal freaks!" the elf yelled angrily as the robot head was taken away and thrown against the force field to be destroyed. Link was held down as the Polygons attacked him, punching, kicking and beating him to unconsciousness.
"This character began the tournament too soon! Throw him out, keep him on this level, and make sure he doesn't tell his friends outside what he has learned!" the announcer raged as the Polygons dragged him out of the Hyrule Castle stage and out onto Tournament Mountain.
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"Shooting it isn't going to bring Link back." Mario remarked as Fox and Samus continued their barrage of gunfire on the cone. Pikachu watched them, hoping they would be able to strike a door to take them up to another level. The two stopped and sighed.
"That thing's taken a lot of blaster power. Not a scratch." Fox grumbled, "This mountain is not a normal mountain. How the heck did Link get up into it?"
"I'm not sure, but I think it had something to do with that ring...." Samus started to say when the mountain began to shake. Up above them another Triforce symbol appeared on the wall of the cone. The group looked up at it and watched as a square of mountain containing the symbol turned around and revealed Link chained to the wall, bruised and beaten. A ring of rock spread out from underneath him, cutting off the group's view of Link.
"Hey! Hey, my pal's up there! What happened to him?!" Pikachu shrieked, "What did that Master Whatchamacallit do to my buddy?! Link! Link, can you hear me?! Are you okay?! What happened?!"
"He can't hear us. Or he can't answer us." Yoshi muttered, "We'll find out what happened to him once we go up to his level. What were you saying about the ring, Samus?"
"Link must have stepped onto it and it carried him into the mountain. The symbol left behind is the stamp that identifies who we are, so whenever we find a door or whatever with a matching stamp, that means it's something for us." she replied.
"Oh, so that means the chains on the wall were meant for Link to wear so he can dangle there like a Christmas ornament?!" Pikachu snapped, "Forget the talk! I want to fight that Master Hand thingy and save my buddy!"
"We won't reach his level until we fight the first round of opponents. Now, on the count of three, we'll all jump into the ring. Ready? One...." Samus remarked and began the countdown. The Nintendo characters all prepared to jump. "Two...." Pikachu had a few sparks fly from his cheeks, angry by what had happened to his new friend. "Three! Jump!" Samus cried and the group all leaped into the glowing ring at the same time, transporting into the mountain for their first challenge.