Chapter 5

The First Morning

Mario looked at the little yellow rat as it tried to lift him from the ground. He picked it up by the head and threw it. The audience seemed thrilled. Mario jumped after the flying rodent, grabbing its tail and throwing it to the concrete. He landed on both feet and spun around just in time to see a bolt of electricity headed straight his way.

Mario tried to jump as the electricity bounced across the arena floor, but he was out of time. His skeleton glowed as the bolt struck him. As the effects wore off, he glared at his opponent. He blew fireballs at Pikachu, one after the other, spreading them out so as to leave no room for 'Chu to run.

So, Pikachu jumped. When he ran out of ground to jump off of, he used electricity to power him. He sped lightning quick at Mario, hitting him square in the chest. Mario felt static electricity coursing through his body, but it was nothing compared to the jolt he had felt earlier. Mario grabbed the Poke'mon off of his chest and slammed it into the ground. The audience went wild as he smacked it repeatedly in its face.

Pikachu was taking the beating of his life at Mario's hands. He let Mario continue, though, because with each smack, his anger was fueled. Finally, Pikachu could hold his anger back no longer. Summoning almost all the strength he had left, he called fourth thunder from the relatively few clouds in the sky. A whole storm struck the arena, and several bolts struck Mario, pumping him full of several hundred watts of electricity.

Mario landed on the floor with a thud. Pikachu was looking very tired after his last attack, and Mario was looking pretty... dead. His shirt was torn at the shoulder, and it would have been bleeding madly were it not for his wounds being burnt shut. He had black marks all over him. He didn't move. Quickly, Pikachu rushed over to see if Mario still had a pulse. He did, but it was weak. "Pika!" Pikachu shouted. The crowd was unsure weather to scream in excitement or murmur amongst themselves in concern.

Link shouted in worry. Was Mario badly injured, or worse, mortally wounded? Then a terrifying thought entered his mind. Had he already stopped breathing? He couldn't just sit here and wait for an answer. He bolted out the doors and on to the arena. He checked Mario's pulse. It was very weak.

Sirens flared, and medical staff jumped out the back of an ambulance almost before it was done parking. They rushed to get Mario on a stretcher, then hurried off to get him to a hospital. "That was a hard hit," Link commented. He could still see steam coming off Mario's body as the MP's packed him into the back of the ambulance.

"What 'a happened here?" Luigi demanded, running out of the bunk house. Sweat began to form on Pikachu's brow.

"It was an accident," Link assured him. "Pikachu accidentally fried your brother." Luigi's face turned crimson.

"I'LL 'A KILL IT!" Luigi shouted, running at Pikachu. Link drew his bow and pointed it straight between Luigi's eyes.

"I said it was an accident," Link said, coolly. "You can either deal with it or you can try to avenge your brother when he isn't dead and there's nobody to get vengeance on. If you try the second option, I'm going to put this arrow through your head, and you'll be indirectly responsible for your own death."

Luigi faltered, almost falling on his face. He stared at the arrow, then at Link, then at Pikachu. The red began to fade from his face, replaced by a bright pink blush. "I'm 'a sorry," Luigi told him. "I got 'a carried 'away."

"Understandable," Samus said, from behind him. "I'd be pretty pissed if this happened to my family too." Pikachu muttered a few words of Poke-talk, then began walking dazedly toward the main hotel room. He didn't mean to fry Mario THAT bad. He had to learn to control this particular attack better before the next match he had.

Pikachu stood all alone in the forests that remained after the gigantic parking lot's materialization. He had set up several blocks of wood as targets. He built up anger, mostly at himself, and, without thinking, used the anger he had to summon lightning from the skies. The storm struck just about everything standing within ten feet of Pikachu. Several trees caught fire, and all that remained of the blocks of wood were ashes.

"Pika pika!" Pikachu shouted, as the fire began to spread. He had to put it out, and fast! He quickly considered his options. He decided that he only had three. One: get water from the nearby lake and throw it on the fire. Two: Burn away an area around the fire before it spread too far. Three: get help. Option one might not be effective enough, and option three would definitely take too long. He would have to make a circle of fire.

Pikachu used controlled thunder bolts from his cheeks to start a ring of fire, then decided the idea was a bad one. How was he going to stop THIS fire from spreading? He quickly ran off to the river to get some water.

At the river, Pikachu found Kirby angrily skipping rocks across the river. Panicked, Pikachu looked around for a bucket.

"What's wrong?" Kirby asked, in gibberish.

"There's a fire! I need to put it out!" Pikachu responded, in Poke-talk.

"I'll help!" Kirby said, determined. He breathed deep, sucking in water. When he was done, he looked like a giant water balloon, and when I say giant, I mean ten feet across.

Kirby began waddling into the woods. He was going far too slow! Pikachu tried to lift Kirby, with no avail. Then, he got an idea. "Stay here!" he shouted as he ran to the bunk house.

DK stood in the bunk house, thinking about how nice it would be if he only had a banana. Suddenly, his chain of thought was broken by the door swinging open. Pikachu stood at the door, sweating. "PI, PI PIKA PIK!" Pikachu stated, urgently. DK grunted in confusion. "PI PIKA PIK!" Pikachu shouted, slowly, pointing toward the woods. DK thought he might understand, but he wasn't sure. He walked over to Pikachu and picked him up. He didn't have to shout if he wanted a piggy-back ride through the woods...

DK sprinted along the river, which Pikachu seemed intent on staying along. Finally, the duo reached the bloated Kirby. A look of realization came over DK's face. This is what Pikachu was trying to tell him. Kirby was bloated and needed popping! No problem. DK set Pikachu down, walked over to Kirby, picked him up, slammed him against a tree, and punched him hard in the side. Water spewed out of Kirby's mouth. He shouted in pain.

"What the hell did you tell him, Pikachu?" Kirby demanded.

"I tried to tell him 'There's a fire!', but the big dumb oaf can't speak Poke-talk!" Pikachu insisted. He got an idea. "Hey... shout real loud in gibberish and point in the direction of the fire. When DK picks you up, suck in more water," he commanded.

"Um... why?" Kirby asked.

"Just do it, there's no time to explain!" Pikachu shouted. So, Kirby obeyed. Before long, DK was carrying Pikachu's own personal fire hose to the fire. Pikachu smiled as he ran behind DK.

DK could feel the heat from the fire as he sat there, staring in awe. Kirby was spraying a steady flow of water on the fire, slowly putting it out. His two companions constantly demanded that he play chauffeur back and fourth between the river and the fire. DK had other things that he could be doing right now...

Finally, the fire went out. A clean circle was burned in the forest, clear of anything but burned debris and ashes. DK grunted, turned around, and headed home. Kirby looked over at Pikachu. "How did this start, anyway?" Kirby asked.

"It's a long story," Pikachu answered.

"I understand," Kirby replied. "Well then, I'm going back to the bunk house. See ya' later!"

Pikachu went to the center of his new training circle to clean it out.

Meanwhile, Ness and Link had started their match. They had given the customary handshake and bow and were going full out at it now. Ness floated in the air, while Link drew his bowstring on the ground. They exchanged fire, Ness shooting PK Thunder at Link and Link returning fire with an ice arrow. Link rolled to the side just in time, but Ness didn't have the same luck. The arrow took his hat off, freezing it solid. "Woah!" Ness shouted as his hat fell to the ground. His eyes narrowed into small slits. "That was my favorite hat," Ness told Link.

Link sighed, then repeated the words he had spoken to Samus earlier. "This is a battle. Things get broken." Ness simply shrugged and swooped down over link, shooting a PK fire at him. As he began his move, he saw Link drop his bow to the ground and draw his sword. Ness didn't have time to react before the blunt end of the Master Sword collided with his face, knocking him to the ground.

Link fastened safety guards to the sharp edges of the Master Sword as he ran toward Ness. They basically made the weapon a thick plate of metal with a curve on the end.

Ness got up just in time. He saw Link charging toward him, so he drew his bat and swung hard. The wooden tool splintered on Link's blunted metal sword. Crimson color added to the angered look of the already-pissed Ness. "That was my favorite bat," he growled.

Link smirked. If he could get Ness angry, he would start acting rashly, as any child would. Then he'd make a perfect target. "This is a battle," he repeated, "Things get broken."

Angry as ever, Ness pulled out his yo-yo and swung it at Link's chest. It was the last thing the Hylian expected. The yo-yo dug in and began spinning. "AAH!" Link said, backing away. Much to his dismay, the yo-yo had a greater length of string. Ness whipped it again, hitting Link in the shoulder this time. Thinking quickly, Link pulled the top safety guard off of his sword and cut the string, then took the yo-yo in his hands and threw it at Ness, bouncing it off his head.

Ness was nearly in tears now. "THAT WAS MY FAVORATE YO-YO!" he shouted.

"This is a battle," Link said, trying to hold back his laughter. "Things get... YAH!"

Link didn't have time to finish. Ness flew straight at Link, nearly hitting him in the stomach with his hard head. At the last minute, Link managed to duck down and kick up, hitting him in the face. Ness continued forward, but he did a back flip in mid-air and landed on his back, skidding a good three feet before he finally stopped. He got up, staggering from dazedness, blood oozing from his nose. Now was as good a time to end the match as ever. Link charged over to Ness and knocked what remained of his senses out of him with his blunted Master Sword.

Ness lay there, breathing heavily, unable to get up. Link panted; the kid had actually been a decent fighter. He examined Ness. He had many scrapes, broken bones, and would probably have the biggest headache of his life when he woke up, but he'd be fine. After all, this was a battle. Things got broken. That included bones.

Link looked over to the trees. Smoke was billowing up from them. "What's going on," he asked himself, as Roy proclaimed him the winner of the match by knock-out. Link stepped off the arena and went to find out what was going on.

Pikachu stood in the center of his cleared out black circle. Blocks of wood stood all around him. He built up his anger again, directing his hate at himself, and, concentrating on the block of wood closest to him, unleashed his anger, summoning lightning from the sky. "PIKO!" he shouted, as a whole storms-worth of thunder blasted the wood block to splinters. That would easily kill a man. He'd have to find a way to lessen the power.

"So, that's what started the fire," a familiar voice stated from the shadows. Pikachu twisted his body around to find out who had spoken. Link stood leaning against a tree. "You might want to focus the energy on one point in the air. I think it'll do the rest of the work for you," he said. Pikachu looked at him, a blank expression on his face.

"Piko pi pik pikachu?" Pikachu asked, a smart-alick tone in his voice.

"Try not to misunderstand me," Link said. "I'm glad you've got the discipline to take time off to modify your technique. I'm just trying to help."

"Pi..." Pikachu said, resentment withdrawn from his voice.

Link looked toward the sky. "It's almost noon," he informed Pikachu. "Jigglypuff and Luigi will be starting soon. You've earned a break. Let's go watch," he suggested.

"Pika!" Pikachu shouted, excitement filling his tone. The two walked back to the bunk house to get the best view they could of the match.