Issue 2: The Ultimate Fight
Battleworld
BGM-Final Fantasy VII Advent Children: One-Winged Angel
"Cloud… I'm so glad to see you here." Sephiroth teased in a gleeful yet sinister tone, "And you brought your new friends along it seems. Even better."
Cloud glared daggers at his old enemy, his black trench coat blowing in the wind the darkness storm was creating, "I should've known you'd get yourself involved in this, Sephiroth! Why revive Galeem if you were just going to kill it?!"
Sephiroth grinned, "To lure you Champions here of course. Hook, line, and sinker."
He descended and wasted no time in fighting. The Spider-Men rolled out of their way of the attack, leaving Ruby to block his sword with her scythe, "Get away!" Ruby shouted at the villain.
"Not until you're all put down." Sephiroth chuckled.
"Get away from her!" Yang bellowed, punching the former soldier in the back and knocking him down. The man turned around and was ready to drive his sword into her, however, Peter webbed up his arm and stopped him.
"You won't lay a finger on her as long as I'm here!" Spider-Man declared.
Sephiroth lunged at him, "That won't be for much longer then!"
Miles suddenly appeared behind him, using camouflage to surprise him with a Venom Blast. He briefly shocked Sephiroth, but all that did was upset him, "...Oh no." the younger Spider-Man gulped in fear.
Link used his Sheikah Slate and activated the Stasis Rune, freezing Sephiroth in place, "Hurry! Give it all you got!"
Ruby slashed at Sephiroth while Mega Man blasted him with pellet shots. Unfortunately, Sephiroth broke free from the stasis earlier than they anticipated, no worse for wear, "I'll have to repay the favor." he darkly quipped. He lunged forward and slammed Link down by the throat, creating a small crater.
"LINK!" Spider-Man yelled, leaping up and web-zipping towards Sephiroth and delivering a powerful right hook onto his cheek, "I'm not letting him or anyone die on my watch, Seph!"
"Don't make empty promises, Spider-Man. You and Cloud have that in common." Sephiroth mocked the wall-crawler. He cut Spider-Man's webbing and raised Musamune, intending to kill once he was grounded.
Before he could however, something hit him in the back. He turned around, seeing that Pac-Man threw a key onto his back. "Hmph. How childish…" he taunted. He went after Pac-Man and slapped him aside with ease.
Pac-Man rolled on the ground, then tossed a few dots to chew on, getting a bite on Sephiroth before getting pushed aside again, "Enough of these foolish games!"
"Sorry, Sephy! That's just what we do best!" Sonic quipped, hitting him with a Homing Attack. Sephiroth deflected the next attack with his sword and again and again. Sonic uncurled and stomped, shaking the ground enough to disorient the super soldier.
Iron Man shot repulsor blasts at him, managing to stagger him briefly, "Well that got your attention." Tony quipped.
Yang threw a punch, getting blocked by Musamune swiftly. "How are you this fast?!" she questioned, "That sword is bigger than you!" she tried to kick him, only to get shoved.
Mario curled a fist, "We-a have to stop him now! Come on-a Bowser!"
Bowser smirked… grabbing Mario's leg as he jumped and slamming him down, "Mama mia! What?!"
"Sorry plumber, this time we ain't on the same side!" Bowser revealed, jumping to do a ground pound on the confused plumber. Mario backflipped out of the way, causing Bowser to hit the ground and make a hole.
Mario's eyes widened, "No! But we were-a allies for this!"
Ganondorf grinned and swung both of his swords at Link, "You were fools to trust us! It has always been your weakness!"
Link brushed one of the Gerudo's swords down with the Master Sword, "I should've known you'd backstab us. You bear the same name of the Calamity of legend's past, it was inevitable!" he declared, swinging back at Ganondorf.
"Calamity hm? I like the sound of that! I will remember it!" Ganondorf taunted. Link's Hylian Shield blocked Ganondorf's sword swing, the latter performing a magic-enhanced sweep kick to surprise the Hero of the Wilds.
Zelda summoned a Phantom to elbow shove Ganondorf, knocking him on his stomach, "Are you well, Link?" she asked.
Link nodded, "I am. I should tell my Zelda of this spell."
"When we're done. Right now we have the King of Evil on us." Zelda told him.
Dedede held up his hammer, "Hold still now, Kirby! I need'ta clobbah ya!" he smashed down his hammer, but the pink puffball rolled away from the attack. "Grah!" he grunted again, only to be met with an upside-down spin kick from Kirby. He threw a Gordo into the air once he got his bearings, hitting Yoshi, who yelped in pain.
"WAH!" Wario screamed, his rear getting lit on fire by Bowser. He jumped in the air in pain and bounced on the ground as the flames were put out, "Grr… You will-a pay!"
Shadow dashed towards Bowser and kicked him before looking at Wario, "I am surprised you haven't betrayed us."
"It is not-a worth the effort." Wario admitted, spinning and hitting Bowser with his attack. He was about to follow with a belly flop but he was knocked down by Sephiroth, "D'OH I MISSED!" he shouted in pain, landing on the ground stomach first.
Eggman started shooting at Sonic with his exo suit, "So Egghead, let me guess, you planned this to throw us off huh?" he questioned, dodging the scientist's lasers.
"Of course! As if I'll work with you AGAIN!" Eggman snarled his nemesis.
Mega Man slid under Wily's capsule's projectiles, "Always a snake…" he muttered, performing a Mega Upper on the capsule, making it shake briefly. He jumped and hit Wily with a Charged Shot before following up with his Metal Blades, striking the scientist. Wily fell out of the capsule and got to his knees.
"Please forgive me!" Wily begged, lowering his head in fear.
"You ALWAYS do this Wily. You're going back-" he stopped, something protruding through his chest. He looked down, seeing that it was Ridley's tail. The space dragon pulled it back and allowed Mega Man to collapse. Wily stood there and laughed as the Blue Bomber was incapacitated.
"ROCK!" Mario, Spider-Man and Sonic shouted.
Samus blasted Ridley back with a charged beam and a few power missiles. She quickly looked down and scanned him, "He's functioning, just undergoing a reboot!"
"Someone get him to safety!" Spider-Man ordered.
Iron Man hovered down and carried him, "I got him. I'll take him to the Iron Nation, they should be able to fix him! I'll be back fast!"
"We'll cover for ya, Tony!" Sonic told him.
"Touched a nerve didn't I, Aran?" Ridley taunted.
"You made it personal now…" Samus growled, shooting Ridley with her ice beam.
"One by one the heroes already start to fall, fascinating." Sephiroth chuckled, casually dodging Sonic, Spider-Man and Mario's attacks.
"You'll pay for what happened!" Spider-Man told him. Sephiroth kept hovering around, his arms kept behind his back, not getting hit once.
Sephiroth smiled manically, "Is this all you have to offer?"
"What?" Sonic asked.
Sephiroth swung his arm, tossing a Gigaflare orb at the heroes. The trio ducked out of the way of the large explosion, leaving them distracted so that Sephiroth could continue his battle. Greninja and Bayonetta appeared from the smoke to blindside him, but they too were cast aside with a swing of his blade.
"Pathetic." said Sephiroth, revealing his one wing.
"That doesn't look good…" Peter gulped.
"Hulk smash long hair man!" Hulk shouted, slamming both of his fists down as he landed, raising the canyon up a bit.
"Now what does a brute like you think you can accomplish against me?" Sephiroth asked, dodging Hulk's punches.
"SMASH!" Hulk roared, giving the soldier a powerful jab that slid him back a few feet.
Sephiroth smirked, "Impressive."
He dashed after Hulk, sword in hand and ready to slash. However, Kaine jumped in and used his stingers to block Masamune, "Too slow, asshole." the clone mocked.
"Another spider. Feh." the super soldier grunted, swinging his sword.
"Hey Scarlet! Mind if I join in!" shouted Spider-Man, webbing up the hilt of Sephiroth's sword and yanking back, making the godly being stop swinging long enough for Scarlet Spider to stab him.
"Hehehe… That accomplished NOTHING!" he laughed, snapping his fingers and creating an aura of darkness that launched Kaine back. He turned around and glared at Spider-Man, who used his Spider-Sense to avoid Sephiroth's attack. He grunted, "Just accept your end, Spider-Man!"
Spider-Man kept moving, never stopping for even a second, "No can do, Sephy. I got a whole multiverse counting on me!" his Spider-Sense blared differently as he jumped back, a unique frequency as he could point out, "Sorry! Gotta check something!" he webbed up Sephiroth's eyes, blinding him momentarily.
This allowed Meta Knight to get a slash on Sephiroth, who managed to yank the webbing off of him, "Oh, well this is a surprise."
"Face me, if you dare." Meta Knight taunted.
"As you wish!" the soldier swung swords with Meta Knight, the latter able to keep up with each blow swiftly. That is, until Sephiroth swung hard enough to knock his sword out of his hand, "See? Even your skills are lacking."
"I wouldn't say that now!" Weiss quipped, combining Dust and magic into a powerful offensive spell mimicking Sephiroth's Flare, able to knock him back while he slid on the ground.
"Hm. Impressive…" Sephiroth dashed and appeared behind Weiss, saying, "...But still not enough."
Weiss blocked his incoming attack with a barrier, and managed to push him away. Blake then used her Shadow Semblance to distract Sephiroth. The soldier merely slashed all the illusions apart, unaware that it was a ruse to let Hulk crash down on him.
"GAMMA CRUSHER!" Hulk snarled loudly, dropping down on Sephiroth, who managed to easily cut through Hulk's attack, "RRAAGGH?!" he roared out in confusion. Sephiroth cut the Hulk, causing him to bleed green. Hulk tried to retaliate but Sephiroth only cut him down more, his speed matching that of the green goliath's.
"Pitiful." Sephiroth mocked.
Meanwhile Spider-Man swung to one of the Master Hands, calling out, "Hey Spidey! You feel that too right?"
Miles nodded, "Yeah! I was about to check this out too!"
The Spider-Men observed one of the Master Hands, noticing it fade in and out, "That's weird…" Miles muttered.
"Yeah…" Peter got closer to the hand and reached into it, feeling something metallic, "...Wait." he pulled out a destroyed drone, "A drone? The hands were never real!"
Miles looked at the device as well, "Huh. But who would do that?"
"Who do you think, Spider-Men?!"
Miles felt his Spider-Sense ring and he shoved the older Spider-Man out of the way of a trap, numerous spikes appearing below the wall-crawlers. Green smoke appeared and stepping out of it was Mysterio.
"Right, should've known you'd be behind this, Mysterio…" Peter grunted, "Why work with these clowns?!"
"I will not stop until I deliver the act of a lifetime! You've gotten in the way of my ambitions before, but this time, these likely allies have given me the chance to one-up you at last!" Mysterio proclaimed proudly.
"You can't one-up us with that fishbowl." Miles quipped.
"Oh the other Spider-Man. This will make our victory all the sweeter!" Mysterio laughed.
Spider-Man webbed up Mysterio's helmet, "Yeah keep dreaming, Misty!" he quipped, delivering a web-strike to Mysterio.
Mysterio retaliated by launching a spiked net at Peter. Miles tackled Peter right before he shot a web-ball at him, Peter asking, "Dude? What was that for? I had it covered!"
"I was trying to help!" Miles replied.
"It was a net, I could handle it!" Peter explained.
Mysterio shook his head under his helmet and summoned a sword, slashing Miles with it. Peter's Spider-Sense blared in his head and he pulled Miles back, "WHOA! Warn me next time, Spidey!" Miles grunted.
"Well geez, I was trying to keep you away from his sword!" Peter yelled.
"Perhaps I do not need to intervene." Mysterio joked about their bickering.
"Guess that's my cue to jump in!" Green Goblin cackled, throwing pumpkin bombs at the Spider-Men.
"We'll talk about this later, just follow my lead, kid!" Peter said.
"R-Right!" Miles nodded, flipping over Peter's shoulder and kicking Mysterio, making a crack in his round helmet.
Peter webbed up Osborn's glider and yanked him down, leading him to his fist. Green Goblin backflipped in the air in pain, landing on his back with a thud. Spider-Man ducked under Mysterio's drone assault, kicking one back to shoot the others.
Miles picked up another drone and threw it at Mysterio, who blocked it with a sudden barrier. The younger Spider-Man then used his Venom Blast to short out another drone and directed at the Master of Illusion, this time electrocuting him successfully.
"Yes! Awesome!" Miles pumped a fist.
"Grr… I will be back for you, Spiders!" Goblin grunted, hovering away while the Spider-Men were busy with Mysterio.
"Yeah sure, alright Beck, it's over!" Peter declared.
"Or is it?" Mysterio questioned before summoning more smoke, covering the Spiders' line of sight and allowing him to escape their grasp.
"DAMN IT!" Peter yelled.
Meanwhile Ruby and Yang were fighting Eggman, the former deflecting his beams, "We should've realized your team-up was too good to be true!" she grunted.
"And yet you didn't! How idiotic!" Eggman mocked, hovering around and shooting the sisters.
Yang uppercutted Eggman, making him spiral around a bit, "Oh we'll make up for it! We can tell ya that much!" she drove her fist down and caused Eggman to hit the floor.
Mario backflipped onto the field, dodging Bowser's fire. "Mama mia! Luigi are you-a close?!" Mario asked his brother.
Luigi nodded, bashing his hammer onto Roy Koopa, who was launched back, "Y-Yeah, bro!" he assured his older brother. "WAH!" he gasped, noticing Piranha Plant puff out purple smoke, making him cough. Mario jumped on top of it to stop it before Yang gave it a powerful hook away from Luigi, "T-Thank you…" he coughed, holding his chest.
"How many enemies do you have?!" Ruby asked, trying to hold back the Koopalings and Bowser Jr with her scythe.
"Too many!" Mario admitted.
Wario drove in on his motorcycle, hopping off and munching on Piranha Plant, spitting it out before doing a shoulder charge to Morton Koopa, "Grr… these-a clowns… This is-a why I stay in Diamond City…"
Peach performed a hip check and punted Ludwig away, "At least they aren't kidnapping me…" she sighed in slight relief.
"Oh Princess, that'll come AFTER this!" Bowser replied in glee.
Daisy stood in front of Peach and swung her golf club at Bowser, knocking him into the air, "Nah, not this time!"
"Thanks…" Peach said to her old friend.
"No problem, Peachy!" Daisy replied happily, taking another swing at Bowser Jr.
However their brief victory fell short when Eggman and Green Goblin appeared, the latter throwing pumpkin bombs. Mario drove his fist onto Goblin's fist, jumping on Larry Koopa's head as he landed. Luigi used her Poltergust to suck in some of Eggman's lasers, distracting him so that Ruby could blast through his exo-suit, her managing to do so. Wario headbutted Wendy Koopa, digging her into the ground and stunning her. The biker plumber turned around and slammed both of his hands onto Piranha Plant, stopping him before he could attempt another attack.
Bowser got his bearings and used his shell to spin around and attack the heroes one by one. Hulk, despite his wounds, grabbed the shell and tried stopping it, "HULK STOP TURTLE!" he roared, still in pain. His efforts seemed fruitless, until Donkey Kong and Knuckles joined his side.
"We got your back, Hulk! Don't stop!" Knuckles proclaimed, Donkey Kong making noises as if he agreed.
Eventually Bowser's momentum was cancelled, allowing Donkey Kong to toss him around and hit Eggman and Green Goblin, who were both knocked down. DK roared proudly and Knuckles gave him a high five. Hulk smiled, then collapsed, his wounds from Sephiroth and exerting his strength catching up to him, "...Oh no." Knuckles gulped, "HULK IS DOWN!"
"He IS?!" Tails asked in disbelief, helping Samus fight off Ridley and Dark Samus alongside Banjo & Kazooie and Blake.
Ridley swooped down and grabbed Samus, dragging her along the ground and pinning her to a wall. "Oh this will be glorious… just like your parents!" Ridley mocked the bounty hunter, opening his mouth, ready to devour.
Banjo held out Kazooie like a gun and shot at Ridley, distracting him, "Hmm… MORE fresh meat. Ah well!" he mocked, flying towards the bird and bear.
"GWAH!" Banjo screamed, unaware that Blake stepped in and already shot at Ridley, the projectile actually causing him to get launched back.
Tails used a Spin-Jump to strike the space dragon's chin, bouncing and jumping off Dark Samus next. The fake counterpart of Samus went after Blake, who blocked her arm cannon with her own weapon. Dark Samus said nothing, merely moving her arm to catch up with the Faunus' own movements. Blake ended the clash by shooting her ribbon behind Dark Samus, launching herself so that she kicked the Phazon-made clone down. Banjo jumped and dove head-first so Kazooie could use her beak to dig the clone into the ground to keep her out of the fight.
Samus got up and shot at Ridley, her attack getting followed by Wolverine, who used Berserker Barrage on the space dragon, "Were you waiting the whole time?" she asked.
"Saw an openin' and I took it." Wolverine replied, driving his claws into Ridley. The space dragon cackled before slapping Wolverine and driving his sharp tail into him, "...Heh. Hurt like hell, but I ain't goin' down." he chuckled, yanking his claws out and pulling the tail from the impalement wound, making Ridley stab himself.
"RAAAAAGH!" Ridley roared in pain as Wolverine dug the appendage in deeper. His advantage came to an end when Green Goblin threw a pumpkin bomb in their vicinity, Wolverine dove out of the way, but the explosion left him with burns all over his body.
"You…" Ridley growled at Green Goblin.
"Oh please you survived worse! It got him out of the way didn't it?" Osborn quipped.
Wolverine stood up and grunted, "The hell…"
"Something's not right here…" Samus realized, scanning all the villains while Ridley was distracted, "All of us should be able to counter them…"
Byleth shot her bow at Ganondorf, who merely swiped the projectile. He lunged and grabbed Byleth by the throat, using his dark magic to slam her down. The teacher got up and slammed him with one of her weapons, getting him to stumble to the side. The King of Darkness retaliated with a punch, a punch that was blocked and canceled out with Captain Falcon's own.
"WHAT?!" Ganondorf asked.
"Hehe… Come on Ganon, show me your moves!" Captain Falcon quipped.
"Hmph. Very well." Ganondorf said, reeling his arm back and charging magic into his next punch.
"FALCON…" said Captain Falcon, preparing his own attack. Ganondorf jabbed with the captain at the same time, dark magic meeting flames, "...PAWNCH!" Falcon finished, their colliding fists creating a powerful shockwave. The two bashed each other faster than most could react, unfortunately Ganondorf got the upper hand and punched Falcon to the other side of the canyon.
Rosalina waved her wand to counter Sephiroth's spells, also trying to understand why this battle was becoming more grueling. She watched as the Champions were overwhelmed and was proving herself Sephiroth's equal, that is until he used Shadow Flare. Rosalina tried to protect herself from the dark magic but was only pushed back instead.
Sephiroth chuckled and threw another Gigaflare at the heroes. An explosion ensued, and flying out of it was Thor, who swung mighty Mljnoir at the god. He grunted, "You dare not strike down the Son of Odin this day!" he boasted, hammer meeting blade in a mighty clash of gods.
"Ah the God of Thunder. I have heard tales of you. You may be powerful…" Sephiroth started to say, dodging Thor's lightning strikes. The Prince of Asgard swung his hammer onto Sephiroth's chin, the latter merely recoiling his up… then back down with only a scratch. Thor flew back and delivered more lightning blasts, the villain being able to counter with ease. Sephiroth lunged forward and drove Masamune right through Thor, the God of Thunder's stabbed body being held up with the long sword, "But I am your superior this day." he finished bragging.
"NOOO!" Spider-Man shouted, watching as Thor's body fell, their best shot at winning was down for the count.
"Any others?" Sephiroth questioned.
"SEPHIROTH!" Cloud shouted as he dashed forward, his Fusion Sword clashing with Sephiroth. The villain smirked at the sight of his old nemesis and met his sword.
"Ah it's about time." Sephiroth teased, eager to start fighting his foe.
Cloud swung his sword and clashed with Sephiroth. Hero and villain were at odds with each other once more as war waged. The two leaped into the air, giving it their all in a battle that would determine the fate of all. Cloud grunted, his large blade colliding with Sephiroth's once more. Sephiroth chuckled, not putting any effort into his movements but still keeping up despite that.
A blue aura covered Cloud, the man activating his Limit Break. He performed a Cross-Slash on Sephiroth before following up with Triple Slash. Then he did his Omnislash Ver. 5, his sword splitting apart, he attacked Sephiroth from every angle as hard and painfully as he could with each strike, grabbing more swords. He managed to kick Sephiroth down to the ground, the One-Winged Angel standing up almost immediately.
"You have improved since our last encounter." he admitted.
"I don't need your praise." Cloud growled.
"Oh I know." taunted Sephiroth, noticing an assortment of heroes come his way.
Peter did his Spider-Cannon on Sephiroth, making him fall back yet again. Mario jumped on his head and gave Luigi an opening to bash him with his large hammer. Shadow used Chaos Control to slow down Sephiroth's movements. Sonic used the Light-Speed Attack to hit Sephiroth while Ruby used her Semblance to help the hedgehog. With one powerful swing of Masamune, Sephiroth managed to take all these heroes back and force them to start back at square one.
Carina watched what happened and said, "We have to use the emeralds!"
"And play god?! Um…" Sonic hesitated.
Peter yelled back, "Sonic, THIS is the moment I was talking about! We have no choice!"
Sephiroth appeared in front of the hedgehog, "You mean THESE emeralds?" he taunted, holding the seven Cosmic Emeralds. Mysterio launched a net and trapped Sonic while he was distracted.
"What?!" Carina blurted out in shock.
The One-Winged Angel readied his sword and aimed it directly at Sonic, who was held down by Mysterio, "You were too slow, hedgehog… Now you will pay the consequences."
Miles appeared behind Sephiroth and used a Mega Venom Blast to daze him long enough for Cloud to stab him with his Fusion Sword, using his Limit Break to take him out of the fight more.
The younger Spider-Man collapsed to a knee, saying, "Did… it…"
"You did good, kid… It was stupid but… STRANGE! WEISS! GET US OUT OF HERE!" Peter ordered his friends, realizing the battle was hopeless.
Weiss and the Sorcerer Supreme nodded, using their magic to focus and warp the Champions out of the battlefield. Sephiroth got his bearings and merely huffed in response to their absence.
"Hm. Seems they eluded us…" Sephiroth said.
"And just when I wanted to end them too…" Eggman grumbled.
Sephiroth held up the Cosmic Emeralds, "It matters not, we can still enact our plan with these. The fall of the heroes shall come soon, first we must obtain godhood."
"Bwahaha! I like the way you think, Seph!" Bowser laughed.
"Yes yes, I am aware. Now let us return to our base." Sephiroth said, Wily using a teleporter signal to take the league of villains away. Away to fight the Champions another day.
MJR: And with this, the real battle begins. The Cabal is a legion of some of the Champions' greatest foes as well some villains from Battleworld that will be introduced soon. I wanted to make Sephiroth and the Cabal an imposing threat and I hope I succeeded.
Jacob9594: Thanks. I wanted to adapt the trailer for this battle.
Spider-Sonic 123: I knew I was forgetting someone. Rest assured, he's here too. No Smash character gets left behind.
Next Time: Recovering from battle! The Cabal's schemes!