Thank you to all who nicely reviewed! I am so glad that many people like this game! Hope it gets as many reviews as Darkling!

Chapter 19: A Battle of Gallantry! Marth vs. Cassmon!
Samurai Goroh and the Sonic Team are in lead and fighting each other, trying to get first place. Goroh steers his Fire Stingray towards the Tornado and rams into the side hard, setting off sparks.

"Hey! Stop that!" Sonic shouts at him.

"This is part of the race, so why is there a reason to stop?" says Goroh. He continues to push against the Tornado, trying to crush it against the cliff wall on the side.

"Sonic! If this keeps up, the Tornado won't be able to hold any longer!" cries Tails.

"I'll handle him!" says Sonic. He jumps off his seat and spins furiously in midair, and then launches himself at the Fire Stingray very hard and pushes it all the way to the cliff wall on the other side!

The Fire Stingray hits the wall with a hard impact and receives scratch on the outer covering. "Wha! How can you have so much strength to damage my car!" gasps Goroh. He pulls out his katana and swings it at Sonic, but the blue hedgehog quickly kicks off the car and jumps back his seat in the Tornado.

"Miss me, sucker!" laughs Sonic.

"Why you! I'll get you for this!"

-

Ness is in the third place, but he is quite a long way behind the other two. "Boy, they sure are fast…" says Ness.

Suddenly, the L33T Nerd shows up besides him again, and this time he is riding on top of a hoverboard! "j00 n00b! I L33T!" says the nerd loudly and horribly.

"Not you again!"

"I PWN j00! j00 sux0rs!" The nerd takes out a thick book entitled The History of L33T Speak and hurls it at Ness. Ness stops the book in midair and hurls it back at the nerd, smacking him in the head and also knocking him off balance of the hoverboard. The nerd falls onto the ground and tumbles away.

"That should do him," says Ness, continuing his race.

-

At the theater, the audiences are watching the race with great excitement as the monitor shows Goroh and Sonic Team racing across Rocky Valley. "Those two sure are moving fast," says Roy.

"It's no surprise either," says Captain Falcon.

"By the way, we haven't seen much about Ness," says Young Link.

"The cameraman usually focuses on the ones in lead," says Talko, who popped out of nowhere.

"Whoa! You're popping out like that again!" Peach tells him.

"Go Sonic! Go Sonic! You're my hero! You can beat him and win!" shouts Amy Rose, Sonic's number 1 fangirl, while jumping up and down with pom-poms in her hand. She also wears a shirt with a picture of Sonic on it.

"Who's that noisy girl?" asks Ganondorf annoyed.

"Oh, that's just Sonic's supposedly girlfriend," explains Fox. "I didn't know she was here, until just now…"

-

Somewhere in Rocky Valley…

Marth and Cassmon are confronting each other. "Are you going serious on me?" asks Cassmon.

"If I have a friend to protect, then I must!" replies Marth.

Cassmon smiles sweetly and says, "Your friends sure are important to you, right? I understand, but my mission is important to me also. I'm afraid I have to take you seriously also."

"I know that too, it's something inevitable."

"Now that you understand, let us begin. I promise that I'll end this fast and painlessly." After saying this, Cassmon dashes at Marth really suddenly and swings her giant saw blade at him, but Marth is able to use his sword to block it in time.

Then they begin clashing their weapons at each other, hitting both high and low and parrying each other's attack. Cassmon swings the blade around the side to hit Marth, but he quickly back flips into the air to avoid it and lands behind her. Almost immediately, Cassmon turns around and strikes hard, but Marth blocks it with ease, but the force of the hit pushed him back a bit, and then they get into a fierce close range combat.

After much clashing, they hop back to their starting positions again and then dash at each other again. Like just now, they begin their seemingly endless sword clashing and smashing. The battle is so furious that even sparks are sent flying whenever the two blades hit! During the midst of the battle, Cassmon thrusts her blade forward to hit him, but Marth avoids it by quick stepping aside, and then he thrusts the tip of his sword towards Cassmon's face.

Cassmon was in shock and prepares for the worst to come, to Marth immediately stops the tip of the blade right in front of her about a few inches. They stop there and stare at each for a while…

And then Cassmon swings her saw blade and hits Marth in the face with the flat part of it.

CLANG!

"Ack!" Marth got hit hard and flies backwards a bit. "Darn! How can I let my guard down!" He jumps back up and dashes at Cassmon and begins their usual swordfight again.

Cassmon brings the saw blade down at Marth, but he quickly counters it and then, quick as a flash, lifts up a foot and kicks her in the hand and sends the saw blade flying into the sky. "I'll disarm her!" he thought to himself.

The saw blade hits the ground a few yards away and lands with a hard thud that also left a crack on the ground. Marth quickly rushes to it and grabs the saw blade by the handle. But when he tried to lift it, he cannot lift it! "Wha! Why won't this thing move?" he wonders. He tries to lift it with both hands, but it just won't budge. "Just how heavy is this!"

"Oh, not much," replies Cassmon. "About 2 tons, I remember."

"WHAT THE HECK! 2 TONS! How can you swing it around so easily like that!"

"Perhaps I've been working out a lot?" Cassmon runs to Marth and kicks him away, and then grabs the saw blade by the hilt and lifts it up with one hand easily.

"Bowser was right! She really has amazing physical strength!" thought Marth. "I never saw a woman this strong before!"

"Please don't go easy on me," Cassmon says to Marth while pointing the blade at him. "In a fight, you should never give your enemy any mercies."

"All right, if you insist…" says Marth as he gets into fighting stance.

Cassmon hops into the air and drops back down towards Marth with the saw blade pointing downwards. Marth quickly hops back and the blade slams into the ground really hard and immediately creates a large crater! "What the!" gasps Marth upon seeing it.

Cassmon quickly pulls up the blade and swings it horizontally at Marth, who blocks it with this sword. Though he blocked it, the force of the swing sent him flying backwards.

Marth flew back and hits against a rock, and without a warning, Cassmon dashes at Marth to hit him. When she got near, Marth quickly performs a leg sweep that knocks her to the ground. Having pinned her to the ground, Marth stands over her and lifts up his sword, and then plunges it down towards her head.

But instead of giving her the fatal, instant kill blow, Marth lands the sword into the ground besides her. "I can see that you're not wanting kill me," says Cassmon.

"I can't…" mutters Marth. "I just can't… lay a hand on… you…"

Cassmon lifts up a foot and kicks Marth in the bottom hard, making him reel in pain, and then she gets up and swings the saw blade at him, cutting him in the side of the waist.

SLASH!

"GAAAAAA!" screams Marth from taking the painful hit.

"In a battle, there is no distinction made between man and woman or friend and foe," says Cassmon. "Please take me as an enemy and fight me."

"But… I just can't bring myself to hit you…" says Marth painfully.

"Then you are not qualified as a true fighter. A true fighter never distinguishes his enemy."

"Argh…"

Then they both hear zooming sounds coming from main road. Cassmon looks to the road and sees Samurai Goroh and Sonic Team passing by. She goes to the side of the street and looks into the distance, and then she sees the figure of Ness approaching. "Looks like the target is here," she says.

"No…" says Marth.

Cassmon lifts up the saw blade and then slams it onto the road really hard, causing a large crack to split the road apart!

Ness, who is approaching the place, sees the crack and says, "Wha! What happened there? But Fox assured me of something in the bike that can take me across chasms like that." Ness bravely zooms towards the crack on the earth, and when he got near, the back wheels of the bike emits fire and the bike flies into the sky. "Yahoo!" The bike lands on the other side of the fault and continues moving.

Cassmon looks at Ness driving off and says, "Looks like I failed to stop him."

"Ness isn't the kind that would be stopped so easily!" Marth tells her.

"That may be true, but he cannot escape our leader Gungamel's ambush." Cassmon begins to walk away. "I have to go help our leader. It was nice knowing you, Marth. Farewell…"

"Wait! Don't go!" Marth tries to go after her, but his wound stops him from moving. "Ugh!"

-

Near the finish line, Gungamel is sitting there. "Hmmm… Even Kazena isn't answering her phone," he says to himself. "I wonder what's with her and Lee? Let's try Cassmon's." He dials Cassmon's number and soon enough, there was an answer. "Cassmon, where are you? I see… Okay, I'll handle it from here." Gungamel ends the call and stands up. "The target is approaching fast. Now is the time."

He takes out a binocular and looks through it. He can see Goroh and Sonic Team approaching at a very fast speed, and behind them he sees Ness coming too. "It's about time."

There are several bombs attached to the ground and cliff sides near the finish line. Gungamel takes out a remote and presses a button on it, and the bombs explode.

KABOOM! BAM!

The explosion rocked the entire place and several boulders and rocks fell down, totally blocking the way to the finish line! "Whoa! What happened?" gasps Talko, who is flying above the finish line. "Someone has set off a bomb and blocked the goal! It must be the work of an interferer!"

Goroh and Sonic Team come to this place and stop their cars. "Sonic! There's something in our way!" says Tails.

"Hey! Why did you do this?" Sonic asks Gungamel.

"What's the big idea of blocking the road, idiot!" Goroh shouts at him.

"I'm sorry if I got in your way," replies Gungamel. "But I was doing my orders. My target is neither two of you, but the third one that is approaching."

Goroh and Sonic turn around and see Ness approaching. When Ness comes into the scene, he stops his bike and says, "What happened here?"

"So you are here," says Gungamel. "You are the one Mr. Minch spoke of. You are very good to escape my fellow members, but I will eliminate you here."

"Oh no… Must be the Mercenary 4…"

Cassmon runs into the scene and says, "Leader, I'm sorry I let the target escape."

"Don't worry, Cassmon, I have successfully stopped him," says Gungamel. "Now let us do it."

Cassmon brandishes her saw blade and says, "Yes, leader."

Just then, Marth quickly runs to the scene and yells, "Cassmon! Don't!"

"It's Marth!" exclaims Ness.

"Oh hi, you're still alive?" says Cassmon.

"Ness! Watch out! These people are after your lives!" Marth shouts to Ness.

"I knew it already! I encountered one during the race, but this guy named Pit saved me."

-

At the theater, everybody is shocked at what happened. "What the heck is happening?" asks Wario.

"It appears that interferers have started to cause havoc," explains Carlos.

"Isn't that a bit too overboard?" asks Luigi.

"It does seem like, but as long as nobody gets hurt, it's fine."

Yoshi took notice of Cassmon, and says, "Hey, isn't that the girl Marth was flirting with in that fast food restaurant?"

"She is!" says Kirby. "What's she doing there? And why does she have a big sword in her hand?"

"She's one of the Mercenary 4," explains Samus. "They are a band of 4 people who are paid to do all kinds of missions that includes stealth, assassinations, ect. But I wonder who hired them this time?"

Pokey is smiling to himself. "Hehehehe! All is going well! They sure are doing their jobs! Let's see how Ness handles this!"

Eggman is quite surprised by this sudden outcome of events. "That was unexpected," he thought. "But still, that hedgehog made it there anyway. I can still eliminate him!" He takes out a remote from his pocket and presses a button on it. "Come out, Eggstroyer!"

-

Back at Rocky Valley…

"What's all this jibba-jabba about?" asks Samurai Goroh angrily. "What's this stupid reason for blocking the path to the finish line just to stop one people? Do I have to get involved in this too?"

"Yeah! The finish line is just ahead!" says Sonic.

Goroh turns to Ness and says, "You! They say they are targeting you! Whatever you have done, apologize to them now so we can get this race going!"

"I haven't done anything!" says Ness. "It's my rival wanting to do away with me! It's his fault!"

"Right, I will clear open this path once I'm done dealing with you," says Gungamel, loading bullets into his pistol. "Our primary goal is to stop you from reaching the finish line. But since you were able to escape my other fellow members, it proves that you are a more dangerous person than I thought. If you wish to fight back, then do not blame me for being unkind."

"I will never miss this opportunity to win the race!" says Ness. "Who cares if I have to fight?"

"Then you are asking for it."

Suddenly, they hear a cracking sound and also the sound of machine. "What's that?" asks Tails.

Suddenly, the side of the cliff begins to crack, and it grabs everyone's attentions. "Wha! What's happening?" wonders Marth. "Something is coming out of it!"

Then two giant hands reach out of the crack and tear the cliff apart, and then a large robot emerges from! The robot is about the height of an average house and has a round head and a box-like body, with circuits all over it, and its arms are very long.

"WHAT IS THAT!" they all gasp.

TO BE CONTINUED…

That was quite a twist. The battle between Marth and Cassmon didn't turn out like many of you would expect, right? I want to make several interesting plot twists and avoid those old clichés like when two people meet, they will battle until one of them falls. Ha! Got you this time, eh?

So how will things turn out? It's all chaotic now. The finish line is blocked just to stop Ness from reaching it, but Goroh and Sonic got involved and they aren't happy, and then Eggman deployed a giant robot to exterminate Sonic, but everyone there got involved in it too! Gotta solve this madness fast!