Downfall of a Smasher

The events are always changing… I'll make a list of who is out of the tournament and who is still in.

OUT:

Young Link

Ness

Pichu

Zelda

Marth

Fox

IN:

Everyone else

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I strode across my empty dorm. The bed that Zelda usually occupied was empty, as was the one she occasionally occupied, mine. What with Marth and her gone, the only one I had left was Roy. I didn't even know him that well.

But yesterday he had come to talk to me. The redhead sat next to me in the armory and began to speak. The armory was the room in Smash Hall where we could stock additional copies of our weapons, ammunition, or even craft new ones. I was running the Master Sword along a spinning grindstone, sparks spitting everywhere. I was waiting for my new Bombs to come out of the forge. Roy sat on the other side and talked.

"You didn't have any right to do that to him, Link."

I looked up sharply. "Oh?" We both knew who he was talking about.

"He's a kid, Link. You can't go against him in rage every time his moods fluctuate."

"I'm the teenager, Roy, I'm the mood-swinging one," I said. "He had no right." But I knew the redhead had a point.

"Marth told me something he heard the day he lost. When he was leaving, this is what he said. Pichu acted like Young Link had, talking to Pikachu. He ended up losing. So did Young Link."

"And?"

"There's a fissure, Link. We all have another version, and one of us is the inferior and the other the superior. It's not always as obvious, like with you and Young Link, but it happens everywhere. Fox and Falco… me and Marth…"

"They keep to themselves," I said angrily. "Why rebel now?"

"Because they've taken all that they can or are going to endure," Roy said. "We need to start correcting that. I know who you're fighting today."

"Hmm?"

"It's you and Yoshi versus the Mario Bros."

I knew what he was getting at.

"You are going to convince Yoshi that he does not need to lash out and that one of us is trying to change it all."

"No, I won't!" I slid the sword sharply on the grindstone, sending sparks at Roy's face. He stepped back, and I moved toward my Bombs. "They know their place. This kind of anger can be channeled- used- harnessed for the use of this tournament. If they devoted it to the fighting-"

"They are, Link, but they can't!" roared Roy. He grabbed a poker off of the wall and began to wave it angrily. "What's going to happen next year? How can Young Link ever come back, knowing how he feels about you? He can't. Nintendo can't crank out a mascot for a dime a dozen. Best-case scenario, the tournaments end. Worst case, Nintendo goes bankrupt!"

His words rang around the armory.

I thought about his words later, in the arena. We were in Termina Bay, my course but strangely separate from me. I knew he was right. I had to make an effort.

"Yoshi," I muttered as the dinosaur emerged from his egg.

He looked at me, not with the admiration that he might have last year but with brewing defiance. "Yeah?"

"I know how you're feeling," I told him.

"No you-"

"OK, I don't, but I know what's going to happen," I said. "We cannot have this happen. You can make an effort. If you try to make an end of it now, that's all well and good. What about next year, though? It'll never be the end, not unless the tournaments end, and that cannot happen."

My words seemed to drive through him. He did not speak. The announcer did.

Begin!

Luigi let off a burst of fireballs, while Mario fanned the flames into colossal infernos with his cape. I slid around and under them. Yoshi swallowed one whole, trapped it inside a scarlet egg and threw it. Luigi was blasted off his feet, onto the giant turtle. His feet hit a palm tree and he pushed off.

I neared Mario and swiped at him. I was not going for a kill, it would set a bad example. Mario didn't worry about that. He sidestepped my sword and performed a devastating punch enhanced by flames. I ducked away, thrusting toward his exposed ribs. He went back as well.

The two brothers formed a brief plan and came at us. Mario swept the air with his cape. It flew at Luigi, who spun so fast with his fists out that the wind was churned into a gale-force storm. I jammed my sword into the ground for an anchor, but I let go by accident. Yoshi caught on. His long tongue snagged me just in time. But he had lost his best weapon.

I let go, grabbed my sword, and went after the brothers with Yoshi at my side. I jumped into his mouth, came out in an egg, and burst out, slicing them with fragments of shell and then coming in with a Hookshot burst.

Mario was grabbed, and I nodded at Yoshi, hoping for him to attack Luigi. But instead, the dinosaur jumped over me and drummed Mario with his legs. This wasn't good.

I threw Mario, but then Luigi pulverized me. The green plumber locked me in a full nelson and began to do as much damage to my arms as he could. I laughed, flicking a heel up behind me. It hit the end of the Master Sword. It flew out of its sheath, the broad pommel smacking Luigi in the jaw. My sword fell into my hand, and I threw it at the coming Mario.

It was turning slowly but going fast. Even so, it was easy to judge how it was going to hit Mario. The plumber jumped forward into the air, intercepting it and kicking its handle. The sword hit Yoshi, sending him flying.

The two brothers joined arms, grabbing hands tightly while facing each other. After a few seconds of becoming coordinated, they bent like one form, standing on Luigi's legs while Mario's kicked at the air.

Suddenly, their backs arched, and Mario landed. Luigi's feet swiped at us sideways. I was blasted into the water, saving myself by using my Hookshot at the last second. Yoshi ran and jumped every which way, but the brothers together would soon have him.

My Bombs blew the pair away from each other. Their forms left each other. Yoshi enclosed Luigi in an egg and nodded at me. I lay more bombs around the egg. Luigi burst out and was blown off the stage by the shockwave of fire.

Mario jumped high into the air, locking his ankles around my head. He then grabbed Yoshi's tongue and twisted with his body. My neck was almost wrenched a full 180 and I flew onto the turtle, barely able to see, much less get up. Yoshi was being spun around in a circle.

And then the dinosaur's feet touched down on the ground. A huge amount of dirt was kicked up, and then it was Mario who lost his footing. As he was swung around, he desperately cast a fireball at me.

In my weakened state, I was blown almost off the map. I was just clinging to the edge of the turtle. I could see Yoshi. He was brutally and efficiently destroying Mario. I saw the vindictive fury in his eyes. He thought he was doing the right thing.

"No!" I shouted.

As Mario took his last hit, he desperately flung a fireball at me. It was enough to loosen my grip on the turtle and send me to the ocean depths.

I knew that my team had won. But now that the little guys were winning for a change, what would happen?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Oooh, review. Hey, that rhymed.