Downfall of a Smasher
A short one-shot describing Young Link's feelings. Please review.
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There were four of us. I and my teammate, who happened to be Fox McCloud this time, were standing off against my older version, Link, and Ness. Ness and I were pretty good friends, having shared a dorm for a while in Smash Hall. Fox and I didn't know each other well. He mostly hung out with Captain Falcon, Mr. Game and Watch, and his bird friend. I didn't much like Link, though.
Begin!
I jumped into the fray. We were fighting on Kanto Poke Floats; balloons passed under our feet in a storm of color and texture. Fox performed his dash move, disappearing in several insubstantial blue replicas of himself. Ness repelled him with a flying yo-yo. Link and myself did not move immediately.
He got here first. He was in the first tournament. So what? Without me, he wouldn't be here. Without me, he wouldn't have his girlfriend Zelda or his friends Marth and Roy. He wouldn't have all the glory. I did just as much as he did.
I jumped, the balloons flickering under my feet, and cast the Hookshot at him. It was his weapon, and I didn't like it. He easily dodged it, air dodging while flying past me. I turned as fast as I could, Ness hurtling over my head and wreathed in flames. But my adult counterpart was faster. He sliced my chest, a buffeting blow. I went flying into an inflatable Psyduck and I did not get up right away.
He followed, dodging my Boomerang. He was faster, more adept. He had the physical advantage. But there was a difference. He wasn't used to his body yet. He was still me, in a way.
And I can see your fear, Hero of Time. You know who you used to be. You can't kill me. But you are no part of me. I've never known you.
Our swords were a ringing cacophony of sparking metal, meeting in all types of angles. We ducked under each other's blades, dodged around backs, and sheared at bodies, missing by the breadth of a hair. I jumped over his Blade Spin, throwing a Bomb from on high. A miniature explosion, a cresting wave of fire charring his body, blew him sideways. Nearby, I saw Fox being smacked by Ness' bat.
He drew his sword- our sword- from its leather sheath, a slithering noise resulting from the tight leather and a mild keening from the metal joints in the sheath. It was then that I saw moves that had not been assigned to him.
I will give a preliminary explanation. Anything goes in a Smash fight, apart from using status items beforehand or rigging the match or such, but we are given a certain move list, so to speak. It covers a lot, but a true exposure of some of our powers would cause more harm than good.
I nocked an arrow, Link's face grinning at me through the flame, and let loose. Two more hummed off. Link bent his knees, raising his shield- my shield- over head, shoulder and part of his back. The first arrow glanced off of it, flipping like a thrown knife into the blue beyond. He swung his shield, batting the second arrow away, and then dodged the third, cutting it out of midair. Then he threw the shield at me.
I grew enraged. He was worse than heartless. How could he strike at me? But I was striking at him. Still, I had broken no codes. Until now.
The shield came flying like a Frisbee, its edge blurring with speed. The float passed from under us, and Link took a small hop to the next. The shield kept coming.
I jumped to the next float, in the process flying over the shield. I did a forward flip in midair, taking my sword and sliding it with precision toward my destination. The blade flew under and through the leather handgrips on the concave surface of the shield, anchoring it firmly to my sword.
I completed my flip and swung at him. The shield bounced off his head, stunning him. He fell in an alley of sorts between two floats. The only way was down, to death.
Improbably, he wall-kicked between the two until he was on my level. He dashed at me, sword held over his head, and I raised mine flat in a horizontal block. He stepped on my blade and vaulted away. I blinked. Where was he going? Was he getting an item? I decided to go help Fox; he was losing.
A green flash erupted, and in mid-jump I had to flatten myself to avoid PK Flash. Fox was weak, and unable to dodge. I grabbed him by the collar and began to run along the side of a long Onix float. He shot off a long sequence of blaster fire, followed by a kick as I released him. Ness was sent flying back. He grabbed a Poke Ball and threw it. Fox was sent flying into the horizon; a burst of electricity had appeared under the Zapdos.
I dodged tendrils of lightning, reaching Ness at last and taking an enormous chop with my sword. Both of them, my teammate and my friend, disappeared as winks in the sky. It was just me and my counterpart… my clone… my replica… but I was alone. I was a Hero.
I heard a familiar rasp of wood on leather, the scrape of smooth oak, and then a noise of tautness and tension. I turned.
Far above me, on an Unown float the size of Bowser's behind, stood my inferior. I was not afraid to call him that, but a burst of nervous wonder came over me. I saw what he had in mind.
The arrows came, going high into the air before descending with a whistling finality.
I ducked under a Poke Float and heard a sad whoosh of releasing air. The pressure of so many arrows at once was popping them! He hoped to leave me with no ground to stand on. The Poke Float above me, a Weezing with a gloomy look, was draping downward toward me like a circus tent. I drilled a hole through it with my sword, dodging and shielding from arrows.
Link was still riding on an Unown storm. If I could get on one, I would be too close for him to attack with arrows. The problem was getting there. I would have to make a great jump from my current position.
I leaped, sword swinging. Arrows parted like the waters of the oceans before my dazzling blade. They swarmed around me in any way possible, like the tide over a large rock. I grabbed a long, woody tendril emerging from a Sudowoodo and began to swing. I built up some momentum and then released. I went flying sideways past Link's position.
As we glared at each other, time seemed to stop. An arrow hissed past me, finally getting to me and searing a line across my cheek. I lashed out with my sword. He was too far, but it felt good.
The copycat faced me as I stood on equal ground as he. He was not ready. How could he ever face someone on equal terms? I was younger, and he'd tried to pick me off from a distance.
I began to run at him, pelting an incredible number of objects. He kicked a Bomb out of the way, the fuse running out just as it went out of reach. Arrows and my Boomerang were likewise dodged, but he was tiring and I was closing in. We were on a short disc of an Unown.
He was exhausted, and I took a huge, sweeping cut with my sword at him, screaming in my head, You're not me, you could never be, you're the wrong one-
He began to bend his back until it formed a U positioned upside down, his fingertips reaching to the level of his toes. But what would he do? His hands touched the edge of the Unown. As soon as he came up, I would kill him.
Then, with abdominal strength that I could only guess at, he transferred his weight to his arms and lifted up his feet, striking me in the chin. I was sent knocked away, and I realized, he might be stronger but he can't be-
He was still grabbing the edge. Link swung his body- perpendicular to the edge, then in a continuing line as his legs went out straight, then perpendicular again. He clung, with arms and legs, to the bottom of the Unown. I reached down to pull his fingers off of their handholds.
"You lose," I told him, hearing my voice for the first time in a while.
He was busy at work. His brow was furrowed with the concentration and anger of a martyr. His face was illuminated by a spray of sudden sparks. I wondered. What was it-?
He dropped.
A succession of Bombs went off at once, all on the underside of the Unown but rocking me to the core. They had been wedged in the tight angles formed by the float's structure, and I was blasted off the screen. It was a proper metaphor.
In my own voice, I heard what I knew he was thinking.
"No. You lose."
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