A/N: Now like I said, this is a rather old story. It's complete but it takes time for me to chop up the chapters for uploading, mostly because I tweak the dialogue a little here and there. I didn't have the greatest vocabulary back when I wrote this, so I update words when I find an outdated phrase. Aside from those changes, what you are reading is original to the story back in the mid 90's. Back then, I did as much research as I could to keep things cohesive and accurate. Projects Dolphin and Atlantis were two names that I managed to uncover from my early, feeble attempts to stay in the know. Everyone knows them now as GameCube and Game Boy Advance. nn
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Chapter Four
Breakfast was light, no one wanted to feel heavy and full before a fight and, as Link described so vividly, no one wanted to throw up if they got punched hard enough in the gut. The group walked around the mountain, dropping characters off at the appropriate doors. Link paced before going in his room.
"First red, then gold. Why was it red if they knew I was blonde?" he had muttered, then went in before anyone could ask him what he was talking about. Soon, only Captain Falcon and Yoshi were left. They stood before the door with the egg symbol.
"Stand aside, little dino. I, the great Captain Falcon, shall enter this tournament and defeat the evil scoundrel who kidnapped us in the name of my beloved Samus Aran!" the race pilot declared with a swoop of an arm and a booming voice.
"Dude, you're not in the competition. You were just bait. Now get out of my way before I get mad." Yoshi grumbled as Captain Falcon knocked on the door and took on a fighting stance. "All right, that's it. MOVE IT!" the dinosaur yelled and stuffed him into his mouth. He pooped him out inside a huge egg, then knocked on the door to go in. The egg wriggled and Captain Falcon's voice was heard yelling and raging angrily.
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The egg exploded on the top of the Great Fox mother-ship and Yoshi jumped out, ready to fight. An Arwing swooped down and the Fox copy dropped from it, waiting for further instructions. High above them a scoreboard appeared with Yoshi's picture and Fox's picture. Below the images were the damage meters.
"Third battle for Yoshi! Yoshi versus Fox!" the announcer called out, "Three, two, one! Go!" Fox raced forward in a blur of speed and delivered a kick that sent Yoshi flying. The dino recovered quickly and used a Ground Pound on the pesky critter.
"Bad! Very bad! Fox is fast! I forgot about that!" Yoshi wailed and turned to hurl eggs at him from a distance. Fox pulled out his blaster and fired a few shots, then put up a strange blue shield that bounced Yoshi's eggs off. "What?! What is that thing?!" the dino yelped and ran when Fox gave chase.
"You can't defeat me! Master Hand will take control of your games!" the copy laughed, catching up quickly. An item dropped and Yoshi looked back to see what it was. Fox chose that time to attack and sent him flying again. Yoshi strained to Flutter over him and get to the item. That was when he noticed a strange band on his arm. It had one button on it. Yoshi grabbed the item, a green shell, and hurled it at Fox as he came running back. The fox was knocked backwards, recovered and fired a few more blaster shots. Yoshi pushed the button on the band and a pink bubble shield surrounded him. The shield blocked some of the hits, but as it got hit, it began to shrink. Yoshi looked down at the band and saw that a green meter was also on it. It was slowly turning red but each laser hit made a section of green turn red faster.
"Oh! We get shields when we come into battles? Now I know when to use these!" he exclaimed and rolled forward to avoid Fox's attack as he ran up to try to grab him. Yoshi grabbed the shell again and threw it at him before running to find another item. A capsule fell onto the tail end of the ship and Yoshi dropped down to it, barely dodging an Arwing that swooped in and began to fire on the arena. Fox put up a shield to block the hits before following.
"Give it up, dino-dummy! My speed is enough to knock you out! Then Master Hand can take control of you and the games you star in!" Fox laughed evilly and began to glow a bright red, flames dancing around him. Yoshi grabbed the pill and gulped. He had never seen an attack like that in Fox's list of abilities.
"Forget it! Yoshi's Story is mine!" Yoshi yelled and hurled the pill. It hit Fox, throwing him out of the attack and sent him sailing over the tail and out into space. The capsule revealed a star wand with pink and white stripes. Yoshi grabbed it and held it ready. He had fifty points of damage and Fox had thirty, so he might come back. Yoshi was right, Fox tried the flaming attack again and it boosted him through space and back onto the ship. "No way! What was that?!" he cried.
"Fire Fox! I told you that you couldn't defeat me! I'm more powerful than your previous opponents!" Fox declared and charged at him. Yoshi swung the wand and a star shot out, smacking Fox and sending him back a little. He swung again, and again. Over and over, Yoshi cast the star spells on Fox, knocking him back further and further and racking up hits. Finally, the wand ran out of stars. Fox got to his feet and charged again. Yoshi charged back and slammed him head on. He turned and gave him a quick double kick, then stuffed him into his mouth to plop out into an egg.
"That ought to keep you in one place!" Yoshi declared and began using Bicycle Kicks on him to score more points. An Arwing swooped in and lined up to fire. Yoshi gulped and jumped, Fluttering hard to avoid the lasers. The egg with Fox in it finally burst open and the copy leaped out, furious.
"I'll destroy you, you blasted bonebrain!" Fox screamed in rage just as the Arwing opened fire. The fox was hit hard, slammed into the back of the ship, landed on the Arwing and was flown out of the arena. "Nooo! This isn't over!" Fox howled as he fell into the sky and became a bright star in space. Yoshi dropped the wand and sat down hard, gasping for air as the exit portal appeared.
"That was the hardest fight I've ever been in that I knew there would be no extra lives or continues to fall back on." he grumbled and walked through it.
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Surprisingly enough, Link was already out, the first to beat the Fox copy. He was lying on his back on the ledge, dozing. Yoshi walked up to him and sat down, watching his face. After a moment, Link made a face, then slowly opened his eyes.
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to sleep when you have the feeling someone is staring at you?" he griped as he sat up.
"Sorry." Yoshi muttered and cocked his head, "So... how was your fight?" Link looked evasive.
"I learned something new. It wasn't really too hard. Once I learned Fox's shield turned my boomerang and bombs back on me, I found a different way of beating him." he replied and then tightened his mouth, a sign that he wasn't saying anything else. GB Link had a habit of pursing his mouth when he knew something he didn't want others to know yet. By keeping Trainee Link from learning things expert characters knew, GB Link had inadvertently taught him the art of the 'Link Lock', the tight-mouthed look that the Nintendo mascots recognized instantly. Yoshi backed off on the subject and waved to Pikachu as the mouse came scampering up to them.
"Ha! The guy didn't stand a chance! Fox couldn't do a thing against my Thunderjolt! And my Zap Jumps made me almost untouchable!" he laughed and leaped into Link's arms, "Hey! Buddy! You made it out in one piece! That's great!" The two friends laughed together as they waited for the others to emerge. Over the course of a few hours, the other mascots slowly began to come out of their rooms and join up with the group. All of them had a few bruises, but Fox steamed the most of all.
"How could that freak do that to me?! He stole some of my latest attacks! I never even had a chance to field test them in the Star Fox 64 game!" he yelled. Samus pat him on the shoulder, then went to get a canteen of water from Captain Falcon. The ledge lifted up to the next level and once again the group looked up to see who they would fight next. Instead of a symbol over the doors of a battle, however, they found individual symbols and a circle.
"I don't get it." DK muttered, scratching his head as he stared up at the doors.
"Ooh. Big shocker. DK doesn't get it." Pikachu said with a grin. Mario gave him a look.
"Knock it off, Pikachu. You don't get it either." he scolded. Pikachu shrugged.
"Yeah, but at least when I say 'I don't get it' I don't sound like my brains are in my butt." he retorted and laughed again. Link rubbed the spot between his ears and the mouse cooed happily.
"We'll find out about this new challenge in the morning. Let's get some rest, people." Samus told the group, "We have a realm to save."
As the mascots slept peacefully, Link went back to pondering the hair strand. More pieces to the puzzle were in his head now, and a plan was starting to form. However, there was still the identity of the mistaken character to unveil.
"As far as I know, there are about five Marios, three Samuses, three DKs, two Foxes, two Yoshis, and three Kirbys. There are also four Links, NES Link, SNES Link, GB Link, and me. There's only one Pikachu. Pikachu can't be the wrong character because he's popular and he's the only form he has." he muttered and shook his head. "Ah, I'll figure it out later. Right now, I need to think about this baby of a plan." Link leaned against the wall and thought hard.
When he fought the Fox robot, Link had slashed him hard with the sword blade. A huge gash opened in Fox's chest, revealing the robotic body beneath. In the center of the tangle of wires and circuits was a small, round object that had a flashing blue light emanating from it. It looked suspicious to Link so he threw a Motion Detector Bomb at it, then hurled his boomerang at Fox. The hit made the bomb explode and throw Fox to the force field. What startled Link was the announcer's call. It said Fox was defeated before the robot hit the force field.
"The blue thing must be some kind of signal. It lets Master Hand know which robots are alive and which ones were thrown off. But if the blue thing gets destroyed before the robot body, then the computers controlling the robots would think that the robot was destroyed." Link realized, "So why didn't it work with the copy of me? Wait a second. The eyes. They were blue and glowing when I activated the head and asked it my questions. The transmitter must have been in the robot Link's head." He closed his eyes and thought hard about how he could use this knowledge against Master Hand. "The robots look exactly like us. They were meant to trick us. Pikachu was fooled by the Link robot. Could Master Hand be tricked by his own robots?" Link wondered as he drifted off to sleep.
Morning brought renewed strength and confidence in their quest as the Nintendo mascots began to check out the new challenge. One by one, they entered their individually marked doors. Captain Falcon had to wait outside again, still grumbling over having been stuck into an egg the first time.
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"Break the targets!" the announcer yelled as Pikachu was dropped onto the ground for the target game. "Break all the targets to advance to the next level! Fail, and you are disqualified from the Master Tournament!" Pikachu grumbled as he looked up at a giant map of the area.
"Oh, sure. Squash us for missing one stupid target." he grumbled as he raced to the left and fired a bolt of electricity to destroy the first target. The light for it faded on the map. Pikachu ran back to the star, jumped and kicked another target, continued to the right and hit another one. Three down, seven to go. One target was way down near the bottom of the ground. Pikachu looked up at the map to check its position. "Aw, come on! You expect me to hit that? With what? Link's boomerang?" he griped and thought about his attacks. He had seen his electric attack bounce across the ground like a Slinky. "Well. I guess it'll work." he sighed and fired the attack. It snaked down and Pikachu listened for it to hit the target. There was a crash and the light for it vanished. "Cool." the mouse remarked and looked up at the fifth target. It was higher than the other one. He jumped up, flipped for an extra mid-air jump, then gave it a kick to destroy half the targets in the arena.
"Okay. There are platforms up there, so I guess the rest of the targets are up there, too." Pikachu muttered and jumped up again, followed by a mid-air jump, and a Zap Jump when he still couldn't reach. He landed on the platform to the left and checked the map. There was a target in the 'well' thing next to him. If he jumped in to hit it, he wouldn't be able to jump back out. "I can try the sneaky Slinky attack again." Pikachu decided and fired another electric burst. It snaked up the wall and down the other side to smash the target. The light vanished. He laughed as he jumped over the gap to the platform on the right. "This is gonna be easy! Even that banana-brain, DK, can't possibly screw this up!" Pikachu fired another attack to destroy the next target down the side of the gap.
"Then again, that may be asking too much of a miracle." he added as an afterthought and checked the map. "Hmm, three left. Better jump over the well." he remarked and backtracked to the well. Once there, he jumped over the gap to the other side and then did a double jump to reach the high platform, grabbing on with his arms when he slipped. He scrabbled for a bit, then pulled himself up.
"Whoo! Close call. Pika!" Pikachu remarked in surprise and blushed, "Oh! I said 'pika'! I haven't said that in a while!" He turned and hit the target with a tail attack, "Pika!" He dropped down and hit the target that floated in mid-air with a reverse side kick, "Pika!" Pikachu landed on a grassy platform and looked down at the target floating down in the gap. The electric attack couldn't slink down there, there was no wall. "Hey, my Thunderjolt can hit ledges above me. Maybe it can hit stuff below me if I'm not on the ground." he murmured and decided to give it a try. Pikachu took a deep breath and jumped over the gap. Once he was over the target, he called for the lightning bolt to come down. "PIKACHUUU!" he cried. The electric bolt shot down and slammed the target, destroying it.
"Perfect!" the announcer cried as Pikachu landed on the opposite side. He strutted proudly into the exit portal that appeared before him.
"I'm good! I'm tough! I can take on anything!" he declared and exited the arena.
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Outside, the other characters were emerging from their break the targets challenge. Pikachu looked for Link and jumped into his arms when he appeared.
"Link! You did it! I knew you could hit all the targets! Wasn't that the easiest thing in the world? There were three of them just out in the open! A kick left, a kick right, a jump and a kick up above and you had three of them down!" he exclaimed. Link looked confused.
"No, it wasn't. Mine was different. There was only one easy one, the rest needed some strategy to get." he replied as Pikachu blinked in surprise.
"Oh, so these non-fight challenges are different for each of us, huh?" he asked. Link nodded. "That's a new one on me." Pikachu muttered and spotted DK. He grinned. "Hey, Link! Guess who actually managed to use his empty head for once! It's our old pal, Dummy Kong the All-fart!" he said aloud. DK beat his chest and roared at them.
"All right, that's it! You just lost your eligibility for being an Allstar, hairball!" he bellowed. Pikachu stuck his tongue out and blew a raspberry at him as the other characters looked shocked. Pikachu was a popular new mascot! How could he have lost his Allstar eligibility?! Now Pikachu didn't have the ability to be picked out to become a new Allstar!
"Ah, you can keep your stinkin' Allstar paperwork! As long as kids are singing my name and learning all about the hundred and fifty-one Pokémon in the games, you can use my eligibility papers as tissues for that snot factory you call your face!" Pikachu snapped back and laughed again. DK fumed angrily, turning bright red as the other characters began to snicker. Pikachu had to be crazy to insult a Nintendo Allstar like that! Talk about brash and bold! The ape needed something to make the others give him respect again. Taking Pikachu's eligibility didn't work, it only made him seem more of a rebel hero. He need to hurt him another way. It came to DK in a flash. The perfect point to score.
"My 'snot factory' needs more papers than yours, Pika-poop! And I think Link's eligibility will do the job just fine!" DK declared with a grin, "Ya hear that, Sunshine?! Thanks to your buddy, you lost your eligibility to be an Allstar!"
"NO!" Link cried in despair, "Not that! Anything but that!" In one fell swoop, Link's dream of gaining any kind of respect from the other Nintendo characters and Players was utterly destroyed. Pikachu leaped down and shrieked angrily.
"Are you insane?! Why'dya do that for?! You can't do that to Link! He never did anything to you! You keep picking on him and this is the last straw!" the mouse screamed at DK, "You give him back his eligibility right now!" The ape just grinned and held out his hand. A glow appeared over Pikachu and Link, then collected into two small glowing circles. Pikachu's circle and Link's circle both flew to DK's hand and formed two bright silver coins the size of a medal. One coin had Pikachu's image engraved on it. The other had Link's face carved in it. "Give that back!" Pikachu snapped and ran up to snatch at the coins. DK closed his hand over them, covering them in a tight fist.
"Come and get it! Come on! Grab it!" he teased Pikachu. Link stood stone still, despairing over the loss of his Nintendo eligibility coin. Without that coin, he could never be chosen to become an Allstar.
"Don't make me use perfectly good electricity on your ugly butt just to get those coins back!" Pikachu threatened. DK laughed at him and shook his fist above the mouse's head.
"Yeah! I dare ya to shock me!" he taunted and Pikachu began to gather up his electric powers.
"Don't do it, Pikachu!" Fox called out fearfully, "If you use a Thundershock on Donkey Kong, you could destroy the Nintendo Coins! If those coins are destroyed, you and Link will lose all connections to Nintendo forever! You'll be cut off from the Nintendo Power Core and die!" Pikachu eased up on the electricity and growled angrily as DK laughed and held up the Link Coin. The Pikachu Coin had already vanished into some mystic pocket DK carried around with him.
"Aw, poor little mousey can't get his buddy's coin. Now who's the dummy?" he teased and taunted as Pikachu growled and grumbled angrily over the situation.
"Please." Link said suddenly. Everyone looked at him, even Pikachu and Donkey Kong. Link opened his mouth, closed it, then spoke again. "Please. Give the coins back to us. Please." he repeated. DK made the Link Coin vanish and gave him a look. "Please, DK. Give us back the coins." Link repeated.
"You can call me Donkey Kong. Only other Allstars call me DK." the ape told him.
"That's a lie, you big, fat, hairy oaf!" Pikachu snapped at him. DK wagged a finger at him, snickering as he showed him the Link Coin for a split second.
"Please, Donkey Kong. Give us back the coins." Link replied softly. The Nintendo fighters shifted uncomfortably. Sure they all picked on Link at one time or another, especially when he was a kid in training for the Ocarina of Time game. But this was going a bit too far.
"Mr. Donkey Kong." DK corrected. Pikachu hissed again, growing angrier every moment Link had to plead for the coins.
"Please, Mr. Donkey Kong. Give us back the coins." Link amended, still speaking softly. He looked about ready to cry.
"Ummm. I'm not convinced." DK remarked, snootily, "Beg for the coins. That might win me over, Sunshine." Link winced and looked down at his boots. He stood for a long time, mouth pursed in the 'Link Lock' the others knew so well. Finally, he looked up at DK with the sheen of tears in his eyes, but the tears did not fall.
"Never. I carry the name of Link and I will not humiliate them or myself by getting on my knees and begging for that which is rightfully mine and Pikachu's." he replied coldly, "I will have those coins returned to us on my terms." The fighters looked stunned as he turned his back on them and looked out at the horizon of the Realm of Neutrality. Pikachu stuck his tongue out at DK again and ran to Link's side, also turning his back on the others.
"Then, uh, then you don't get your stupid coins. Nyah!" DK retorted weakly and turned to watch Mario exit his room and join them.
"That was weird. Oh well." the plumber remarked, "So, what have you guys been doing?" The characters looked at each other, debating whether to tell him DK stole the Nintendo Coins from Link and Pikachu or not. They decided not to say anything. If a war broke out between Donkey Kong's game characters and Link and Pikachu's game characters, it would be extremely ugly and they didn't want to be caught in the middle.
"Um, nothing really. Just waiting for you." Yoshi replied with a slight squeak in his voice. He cleared his throat and forced a grin. Mario looked doubtful. Something was up and they weren't talking. Well, he would find out what the trouble was soon enough. The ledge lifted to the next level and the sun was beginning to set again. The tournament was far from over and Mario couldn't afford to lose any of his teammates, especially rookies like Link and Pikachu, who were barely getting settled into the routine.
"Let's get some sleep, everyone. A tired character is an easily defeated one." Mario sighed and began to pick out a sleeping spot.
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"What do you mean, 'they disappeared'?!" the three Links all shrieked together as Arcade Mario announced the news of the missing Nintendo mascots, "Where's Trainee Link?! Don't tell us he was one of the missing characters! We want our N64 Link back right now!"
"We're getting reports in from Players around the world!" NES Zelda called out from the base computer's monitors, "They all say the major stars of their games have disappeared!"
"Was our Link among them?" GB Link demanded of the characters checking the scrolling entries.
"We've confirmed the MIAs of N64 Mario, N64 Donkey Kong...." NES Ganondorf called back.
"SNES Kirby never reported in after his game was completed by a player, GB Pikachu, N64 Fox...." SNES Fox added, "Man! Don't they have any idea how long it took to train that guy?! It's always 'Daddy' this and 'Father' that. No offense, James."
"None taken. Confirmed reports of MIAs on N64 Yoshi, SNES Samus, N64 Captain Falcon...." N64 James McCloud called out.
"Standard characters are also missing! We've got confirmation of GB Jigglypuff missing in action! NES Ness also missing! N64 Luigi disappeared halfway through Mario Kart 64!" GB Kirby added.
"We've got the Zelda website overrun by Players on a rampage! N64 Link is a major MIA, everybody! Nintendo's losing the audience again! We don't get that guy back, we've had it for this season!" N64 Princess Peach declared. The three remaining Links began yelling and shouting again as Arcade Mario called for order.
"All three Links, cool it! We'll find a way to get them back!" he shouted. He paused and took a deep breath. "Is the transmitter still working?" he finally asked the group of characters standing before him.
"He hasn't found it. Yet. It should still work as long as he isn't too badly damaged." SNES DK replied.
"All right then. Start scanning for the signal. If we can lock onto him, we might be able to find the others with him. Then we can beam them all back here." Arcade Mario declared and the characters rushed off to start searching. The three Links huddled together and whispered things over, plotting.
"Let's see if we can use the items from the Capcom/Nintendo projects to help out our new addition." GB Link said.
"It's going to be tricky. N64 Link wasn't designed to use those items, and the GBC Link is still under construction. He doesn't even have a personality, memory, or program in yet!" NES Link pointed out.
"It's not like we have much of a choice. I heard that one of the new items makes the GBC Link look like you, GB Link. Maybe that can help N64 Link. If he looks like us, then he can move among the others much easier and not run into the problems he's had here at the base." SNES Link remarked.
"Then it's settled. We'll borrow the First Gen Ring from the GBC vault and send it to N64 Link. Come on!" GB Link declared and the three elves raced off to the vault.