Forgot to put the world name back in Chapter 33… I did it just now. If you are curious, I've updated my profile with a new upcoming story, though I'm not sure if anyone of you are interested in it.
Chapter 34: A Ride on the Raging River! The Trial of Life and Death!
The 5 Smashers are walking through the pitch black hallway. It isn't all that dark, thanks to Young Link's lighter.
"When will we ever reach the end of the tunnel?" asks Pikachu. "I'm tired of seeing darkness…"
"I really hate the darkness!" cries Luigi. "Something creepy may creep onto you unnoticed! I remember the time when I had to rescue Mario from a ghost mansion… That was the worst time of my life!"
"Me see light ahead!" says Jigglypuff, pointing to a small speck of light that's ahead of them.
"You're right!" says Luigi. "Now we can get out of this darkness!" The Smashers quickly run to that light, and sure enough, they found themselves outside the tunnel! "Yay! At last!" says Luigi in joy. Before them is a river with wild currents.
"Is this the ride where you go aboard a small boat and travel across a raging river?" asks Yoshi.
"Sure looks like," says Luigi. "This trial doesn't look so dangerous after all!"
"Still, we shouldn't let our guards down," says Young Link. They got onto a small boat that is tied to a dock. YL cuts the rope that's bonding the boat and the dock together and Luigi steps on the pedal, and the boat starts moving.
-
Fox wakes up and rubs his hand against his head. "Oh… What happened…? I remember falling down a hole that was in the haunted house…" He looks around to see where he is, and is relieved to see Falco, Samus, and Mario with him, all coming to their senses.
"Where are we?" asks Falco.
"Wherever we are, we cannot hope to get out of here…" says Samus. They are all on top of a large circular platform that is supported by a metal pillar and surrounding it are razor sharp spikes!
-
The boat is moving along smoothly on the river, despite its wild currents, the boat did not turn over. Luigi is steering the boat while humming the overworld tune of Super Mario World.
"Better not let your guard down, guys," says YL. "Enemy may strike any second."
"There aren't any enemies at all," says Yoshi. As soon as he said this, a fish-like Darkling jumps out from the water behind him and opens its mouth, ready to swallow Yoshi whole. Young Link whips out his bow and arrows and fires a Light Arrow at the Darkling while it is in midair, killing it. The dead Darkling falls back into the water.
"That was close, I told you not to let your guard down," YL says to Yoshi.
A question mark appears over Yoshi's head. "What do you mean? What were you shooting at just now?" Apparently, he had no idea that he could have died just now.
More fish Darkling jump out from the water and starts attacking their boat! "We're under attack!" screams Luigi. "Jump overboard fast!"
YL begins shooting Light Arrows again, taking out the Darkling while they are in air. Pikachu, who has his Electric Harness on, zaps the Darkling into bits with his enhanced electric. Yoshi and Jigglypuff just sat there, trembling in fear. Luigi steps hard onto the pedal to zoom the boat forward as fast as he can. Because of the rough current, the boat tosses and turns, but YL and Pikachu are able to keep hold of their feet.
Suddenly, a spot next to their boat gushes up water! "Someone is on cliff shooting us!" says Jigglypuff, pointing to the cliff on the side. Sure enough, on the cliff are auto-controlled cannons, firing REAL bullets at them! Every time the shots hit the water, it gushes up the water with an explosion. Luigi steps on the pedal like no other to make the boat zoom even faster, and he's screaming his head off. YL and Pikachu are still busy taking down Darkling.
Suddenly, the current before them goes even wilder. Slowly, a large black tentacle rises from the water! "AHHHH!" screams Luigi. "It's the Lock Ness monster!"
The tentacle that rose from the water is actually the body of a giant eel! Its pitch black skin and purple eyes indicate that it's a Darkling. The Darkling measure about 20 meters (66 feet) long from head to tail! It lets out a roar and dives down at the boat. Thanks to Luigi's quick reflexes, he is able to steer the boat away just before it hits.
When the eel Darkling lifts up its head again, YL shoots a Light Arrow into its eye, making the Darkling scream in pain. "Can you release a powerful lightning attack?" YL asks Pikachu.
"I'm sure I can," replies Pikachu. He charges up energy and lets out a loud cry, shooting a large thunderbolt into the air. The thunderbolt drops back down on the Darkling, zapping it. Because water conducts electric, the Darkling suffer huge electric shock and then explodes! The explosion rocked the boat and sends it skipping through the river at high speed! Everyone hanged on for their lives to avoid falling off.
-
The 4 imprisoned Smashers are discussing what to do.
"This definitely isn't part of the game," says Falco. "What kind of an amusement park game would put deadly traps that can kill people?"
"It must be that Dr. Wily guy who did this to us," says Fox. "He found out that we are the Smashers and used the Darkling to lure us into the haunted house and then trap us."
Samus looks around the place, looking for a place to escape. She took notice of a heating vent on the wall. "I'm sure we can escape through that heating vent."
"But that-a eez too far!" Mario tells her. "The distance from here to da vent-a eez about-a 30 meters!"
"Maybe my grapple beam can reach it," says Samus. She walks to the briefcase she was carrying all along (and I never told you this), opens it, and presses the button inside it. The beam shoots out from the briefcase and zaps her, and in a blink of an eye, she has her full armor on! She walks to the edge of the platform and aims her arm cannon at the heating vent. She fires the grapple beam at it, but unfortunately, it's not long enough… "Dang! It's still too far!"
Falco looks up onto the ceiling and notices there are several sharp spikes on it too. "I wonder what those spikes on the ceiling are for."
Samus points her arm cannon down at the spikes below the platform and fires at it, hoping to destroy the spikes and clear a way. It didn't work though, as the spikes did not break into pieces when shot. "What kind of metal are these spikes made out of...?"
-
Back on the river, the current is getting better and better, until it starts moving very peacefully.
"I'm glad there's no more Darkling," says Luigi. "Now we can enjoy the ride."
"I don't think so…" says YL, pointing ahead. Ahead of them are giant swinging pendulums of doom, hanging from an arc built over the cliff, swinging back and forth!
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" screams the four, and YL isn't one of them.
"Luigi! Listen to what I have to say! Approach the pendulums slowly, and when it swings to the side, quickly zoom across it!" YL says to Luigi.
Luigi follows as he said, but it didn't went as he expected, for arrows are shooting out from the sides of the cliff!
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" scream all five of them.
Luigi steps on the pedal and speeds the boat forward at maximum velocity. An arrow is able to scrape through Young Link's shoulder, making a small cut on it. Miraculously enough, the boat evaded all the arrows and pendulums and got to the other side in one piece!
"Phew… I thought we're going to be dead…" says Yoshi with a sigh of relief.
"You all right?" Jigglypuff asks YL, concerning the cut.
"Nah, it's no big deal," replies YL. "But thanks for your concern."
The path afterwards has nothing dangerous at all, and everything seems to be going fine.
-
"They are coming… Which way will the wind take them?"
"The language of flower speaks of their arrival… A battle is going to blossom between one of us..."
"Whoosh! Will their battle heat up the place or will I freeze their souls first?"
"They are nearing… A strong flame of passion burns within their hearts…"
-
A large dome-shaped building appears before the boat. In front of the dome are four doors, and on each of the doors are written these texts, from left to right:
Trial of Wind
Trial of Flower
Trial of Snow
Trial of Fire
"Which one should we choose?" asks YL.
"Snow!" suggests Jigglypuff. "Snow is fun!"
"Well, snow does seem to be safest among those four," says Luigi. "I wonder what kind of trial wind is…"
Luigi's mind starts wandering off. He imagines that the trial of wind consists of giant tornadoes and strong gales blowing them around.
"How about flower?"
He imagines that there are monstrous man-eating plants attack them.
"And fire?"
He imagines fire burning everywhere and burning them.
"And I wonder about snow…"
He imagines giant snowballs being rolled at them.
"Let's just take snow," says Yoshi. "It looks the safest among those four!"
"Oh well, if you say so…" says Luigi. He steps on the pedal and steers towards the entrance of the Trial of Snow.
When they went inside, everything is dark. "Not more darkness!" cries Luigi. "I can't see!"
The current of the river seems to be moving by itself, so Luigi doesn't have to touch the steering wheel, as the boat is being carried through the dark tunnel automatically. After a while, the boat emerges from the tunnel, and before them is a water slide!
"Water slide!" shouts Yoshi. "I love it!" The boat slides down the water slide at very fast speed, and they are enjoying it. Well, except Luigi…
The boat hits the bottom of the slide with a great big splash. When the splash cleared, they are amazed at the sight before them—a snowy wonderland! Some strange harness thing rises from the waterway and hold the boat tight, preventing it from moving.
"I wonder what's over here?" wonders YL. "What kind of trial do we have to face?"
Yoshi, Jigglypuff, Pikachu, and Luigi jump out from the boat and starts playing the snow happily. Jigglypuff and Pichu are happily building a snowman. Yoshi and Luigi are having a snowball fight. Yoshi scoops up a snowball and throws at Luigi. Luigi didn't catch the snowball and it splats into his face and… EXPLODES!
BOOM
Luigi falls back onto the snow, all burned up. "Waaaaaa…"
Yoshi runs to him and lifts him up by the head. "Luigi! Are you all right? How did the snow explode?"
"That's because the snow you scooped up happened to have a mine inside," replies a voice.
The Smashers got into defensive position and looks around. "Who's speaking? Show yourself!" demands YL.
A large snow hill bursts open and a figure shoots into the air. The figure drops back onto the snowy ground and reveals itself to be a fat, round robot with ski boards on his feet! "Welcome to the Trial of Snow!" says the robot. "I am the master of this place, Blizzardman!"
TO BE CONTINUED…
Yep, it's Blizzardman from Megaman 6. I know I'm ripping off ideas, but this trial thing is copied off One Piece, the part in Skypiea where Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp had to choose between the Trial of Steel, String, Orb, or Swamp.