Downfall of a Smasher

I decided that this would be more than a one-shot. I will continue them in a similar vein each time, but not exactly the same. Please review.

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Young Link, Fox and Ness were out of the tournament. Link would have been gone also had the match ended a second later. He went on.

I considered how I felt for each of them. I had played poker with Fox once, that was it. Ness had been an outsider of our little group. I say little and I mean it; we were the short ones, the small ones, the kids. Yoshi, the Ice Climbers, Ness, Young Link, Pichu and I; we were as close to the bottom feeders as it was going to get in Smash Hall. Of course, all of us lived in splendor, but there was a definite pecking order.

Some of us knew the older ones, and we were held in regard. Young Link had never been on good terms with his adult copy. Yoshi knew Mario, but the portly plumber was distant, often with his brother Luigi or his medically inclined friend. Or courting Peach.

The ways of love were not entirely clear to us younger ones, but as we matured there was tension between opposite genders. Although the Ice Climbers were siblings, they seemed to be angrier at each other more and more. Jigglypuff used to be one of us. Then she fell for the romantic advances of Kirby, who had always distanced himself from us, and she was gone. Bah- she wanted to be one of them.

Link and Zelda, Mario and Peach, Captain Falcon and Samus, and now the two puffballs- they were an anomaly to us. I, Pikachu, had no interest in such, but Yoshi could be heard frequently reminiscing in his sleep about someone named Birdo back in the Mushroom Kingdom. With the Ice Climbers feuding more and more, it seemed like they were ready to lose the tournament soon. With Young Link and Ness out, Jigglypuff gone with Kirby and Yoshi showing similar signs, our group seemed to be dissipating like sand thrown to the winds.

When I felt like that I went to one of the courses to clear my thoughts.

I chose the Final Destination for its wide-open space. I drove lightning into the ground, whipped with my tail and hopped frantically.

We were always beneath them. Their treatment of us ranged from condescending patronizing to outright scorn. Mewtwo stuck with the former, although his mind was enough above anyone's that he could patronize their smallest of imperfections as beneath him. It didn't make me any happier, though. My Pokemon friends were slipping away.

The others often ignored us. Once Ganondorf Warlock Punched poor Jigglypuff through a cafeteria table, back when she went with us. But he was always cruel to everyone. That was what I hated. I wished that people's motives and objectives could be laid out, so problems could be resolved. I wished people couldn't lie and cheat and fight outside of the arenas. I wanted harmony.

That was why we had come together under the Nintendo flag, to prove a champion among champions, a hero in their ranks. But we were all Nintendo's, to squabble as we did was not fitting.

I left the field with nothing but my thoughts.

The match that day included me, oddly enough. I was initially happy, then my pessimism returned; Master Hand was hoping to weed out the weaker ones before they could advance too far. He would say he had been trying to help us if I confronted him, to keep us out of too much harm, to not have us get our hopes up and then lose at the critical moment, but I saw through it.

It was another tag-team match. Myself and Zelda were going to face Marth and Pichu. It was fairly even. We met on the battleground of Donkey Kong's jungle raft. The swirling flood howled around us, drowning out our own Taunts.

Begin!

I saw Pichu's reluctance as he sent a bolt of electricity at me; we were best friends, like brothers. Like Link and Young Link could have been… I sighed, dismissing it. We had the same blood relationship, but our emotional one would not fail us.

I grinned with my newfound freedom; ratings had been going down and Master Hand had included a wider list of moves into our arsenals. I flattened myself to the ground, and the bouncing electricity went into my tail like it was a lightning rod. I shot out my front paws, sending the electricity channeling outward and striking Pichu. He was knocked over.

Marth's sword left trails on the air, encasing himself in a hissing cage of slicing steel. Zelda shielded, dodged and blocked, finally teleporting around him and smashing him in the back. He careened away. So far we had the advantage.

Marth and Pichu landed together, the small yellow mouse placing a hand on Marth's sword. It blazed with tendrils of blue pain. He took a chop at me. The sword itself hurt me, but I absorbed the electricity. However, I still went off the raft, but I came bouncing off of a log back to safety.

Zelda had become Sheik, and she threw a hail of darts at Marth. He spun around, his cape shredding, and leveled his sword. The blade was notched from deflecting the missiles. Sheik flicked her whip at Pichu. The mouse caught onto it with his hind legs and sent a jolt of lightning down the chain's length.

It built up until an enormous blast concussed Sheik and sent her flying away. Marth and Pichu had their backs turned to me, trying to avoid Sheik's whip. I grabbed the end of it before it got out of reach, a millisecond of an action, and spread my legs. Both sets of toes struck Marth and Pichu in the back of the head and they crumpled.

I had to let go; Sheik was out of control. Regretfully, I watched her fly out. Link would not be happy, and neither would I, for I had lost my teammate.

I stood under the mast and called down a bolt of thunder. It sent a network of great white sails cascading down between Marth, Pichu and myself. Pichu slipped toward me, his small size allowing him to evade obstacles. I heard Marth grunting as he attempted to cut his way through.

I saw a rage in Pichu's eyes. "What's wrong with you?" I cried over the gushing rapids, dodging a leaping tail swipe by an inch.

"I saw what Young Link had to do," cried Pichu. "He couldn't live, being so closely connected to one of them." We both knew who he meant; the older ones. "He died. Well, I know where you truly lie, Pikachu! I'm-" he sent a blast of electricity the size of a Poke Float at me- "-not going to fail where he did!"

I was dumbfounded. How could he make these terrible accusations? I knew he had been slipping…. "Pichu, get a grip!" I dodged the blast of electricity, taking some of it through my tail. "We're all we have left for each other! I would never do that!"

Marth was steadily carving his way through the canvas.

"You know that our group won't hold," spat Pichu. "It can't. All we can do is leave the tournament or defect to the older ones. I can't do either!"

"I wouldn't do that any more than you could!"

"LIAR!" He sent a shockwave of thunder through the raft. It incinerated the ropes binding the raft logs together and sent them hurtling in all different directions. We barely managed to stand on the rocks that the raft was caught on, but Marth wasn't so lucky. He went hurtling off the falls in a tangle of cloth and wood, screaming the whole way. We were careful, Pichu and I; one wrong move could electrify all the water in the falls and take us both out.

"Pichu," I panted angrily, "don't. We're both going to go down. Who can bring all of us back together?"

"One thing I know," he screamed, "it sure won't be you!"

With that, an enormous current of electricity darted through each water particle, making its way at me. I had known he was going to do it. I performed a Quick Attack, darting with amazing speed onto a log. I clung to it.

Pichu couldn't release the electricity and dodge fast enough. He jumped away, only to land in water surging with voltage. He was blasted away. I knew… I knew it had been my fault. By trying to bind the group back together, I had destroyed the last part of it, besides myself. Pichu was out of the tournament.

I felt no pleasure at my victory.

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Please review, OK? If I get more I might make this an ongoing tale, the rebellion of the little ones against the oppressive elders…