Issue 7: The King's Throne
The Chimera
The War Table was blinking, catching Carina's attention. She pressed a button, opening a hologram of Baroness Panther, who appeared to be struggling, "What's the matter, Baroness?" the young Elder asked.
Shuri swiped her claws at something obscured by the table, her saying, "It appears the Cabal has struck our nation! While I can tend to the false kings-"
A loud roar cut her off, causing Carina to cover her ears at the sound. Once the noise subsided, she replied, "Duly noted. I'll uh… there's a team already out, I'll tell them to head to Wakanda fast!"
"Much appreciated!" Shuri replied before ending the call.
Carina sent a signal, getting a message from the adult Spider-Man, who said, "This is Spidey. Oh, what's up Carina?"
"The Black Panther called. Said the Cabal's attacking Wakanda, think you can head there ASAP?"
Sonic interjected and answered, "Did ya forget who's here? We'll get there in no time!" he quipped, ready to make a dash for New Wakanda, but stopped once he realized he had no idea where it was, "...Um… Where's it at exactly? I kinda missed out on exploring this place." he scratched his head, earning a shake of heads among his group.
"And THIS is why I'm Summoner." Peter joked at Sonic's expense.
Sonic grumbled something Carina couldn't hear, prompting Mario to playfully nudge him.
New Wakanda
Shuri dodged into a roll, avoiding the flames of the large orange and black beast. "This beast again? Surely there was another you could have summoned." The Black Panther grunted, revealing her claws ready to strike.
Bowser laughed, "You kidding? This is AWESOME! Always wanted one of these bad boys to tear kingdoms apart!" he held up the Cosmic Emerald, revealing that this was how he was able to control the beast, the Rathalos.
King K Rool hopped from the back of the Rathalos and threw his crown, intending to daze the Black Panther, but Shuri slashed it back at him, causing the crocodile to stagger backwards, "As if such a small attack could deter me." she growled at K Rool.
"Oh yeah, we know that'll do nothin'!" yelled Killmonger, tackling the Queen of Wakanda and pinning her down. He was back in his "Golden Jaguar" armor.
"You! I thought we were rid of you!" Shuri grunted, kicking the false heir off of her.
Killmonger chuckled, "I won't stop until I'm sitting on that throne! It's time to take back what's rightfully mine!"
"A wannabe king? Boring!" quipped Miles, webbing up Killmonger's hand before he could strike the Black Panther. The false heir turned around, spotting the Champions arriving to save the domain. Peter, Miles, Mario, Sonic, Ruby, Blake, Yoshi, Knuckles, Banjo & Kazooie, Snake, Lucina and Young Link had appeared.
"We knew you'd come! Bowser, K Rool, let's show them what we got!" Killmonger cackled.
"With pleasure!" Bowser proudly bellowed, unleashing Rathalos upon the heroes.
"Holy crap!" shouted Miles.
"Let me guess. These are the bad guys?" Pyra asked.
Peter nodded, "Yep. Go nuts."
"How the heck are ya?!" Bowser asked, never seeing Pyra before.
"I'll show you!" Pyra quipped, transforming into Mythra to attack Bowser before changing back, catching him off guard and distracted so that Mario could kick him.
Pyra smirked, "A large beast? I have slain many like it before, this should be no trouble!" she jumped in the air and reared her sword back but was pushed back by K Rool's cannonball, causing her to fall on her back.
"Whoa, getting rusty there?" Mythra quipped.
"No… just warming up." Pyra replied in her head.
Mario crouched down to charge a jump and hopped as high as he could, evading Rathalos' flames. Bowser frowned, "Of course you'd find a way to do this, plumber!" he reared his arm back, ready to smack Mario aside.
But Mario threw his cap, it spun around and hit Bowser in the chest, causing him to stagger for a second. The cap was flung back to Mario, eyes popping out of where the 'M' was, "That was cool, Mario!" shouted Cappy, going back to looking like Mario's hat.
"I-a agree!" Mario smiled, holding out his cape and spinning Bowser around right as he spat fire, causing him to turn around and burn Rathalos, causing the monster to roar.
"Your hat talks now?" Spider-Man quipped, shooting a web-line underneath Rathalos to gain enough momentum to swing to the top of its body.
Sonic charged a Homing Attack and hit the head of the beast, saying, "Yeah I'm not surprised." he quipped, knowing how Mario's adventures rival that of his own in scale.
Bowser stomped his foot, shouting, "Darn that thing! I thought you were gone!"
Peter quipped, "Oh well! Looks like you have an extra enemy to deal with now!" he kicked Bowser off of Rathalos, the monster now completely out of control in rage.
Yoshi gulped, with Shuri saying, "Oh no… the beast is untamed once more…" she got into a fighting stance and was ready to strike Rathalos down once more.
Young Link pulled out his sword and a bunny ear strap to his head, before anyone could question it, the kid was moving faster than they had seen him before, evading Rathalos' flames with ease, "What the heck…?" Sonic muttered, turning his head briefly to spot Young Link.
Lucina thought it over while slashing the dragon, saying, "Hm… it must be what is on his head. Perhaps the child has an arsenal we were formerly unaware of."
Miles hopped over K Rool's fist, "Kinda wish he showed that off earlier! Yikes!" he slid underneath the crocodile and shot a webline to his back, bringing him closer and spin-kicking him, launching him away.
The Black Panther was ready to strike Rathalos once more, but was hit by Killonger, "Oh no, we're not done with this family feud!"
"You're like a child…" Shuri grumbled, slashing holes onto Killmonger's armor. Killmonger grinned and struck Shuri, catching her off guard.
"Hey buddy look over here!" yelled someone, before Killmonger could react he was getting sliced by a green and white blur, "Wow, you actually fell for it," quipped Mythra.
"This doesn't involve you, woman." Killmonger growled.
"Well that's rude," Mythra grunted, jumping up and hitting Killmonger with Chroma Dust, a series of lasers hitting the armored Wakandan. Killmonger's armor withered down with each blast and Mythra smirked, "Heh, guess even you can't handle all this."
Snake prepared his weapons and aimed his bazooka at Rathalos, "Grr…" he aimed carefully, able to land a shot directly at the monster's head, stunning it. Rathalos roared in pain as its head flailed about.
"Darn it!" Bowser snarled.
With his Kokiri Sword in hand, Young Link sliced its leg. Miles used a Venom Blast to daze the monster, using a web line to zip up to the top of its body. His Spider-Sense went off, but he was too late to react to a punch from Bowser, "What the-" gasped the younger Spider-Man, getting to a knee as he looked up at the Koopa King.
Bowser was ready to stomp down, but Miles got his bearings and uppercutted the king, causing him to reel back, "Too slow!" quipped the younger Spidey, covering his fist in a Venom Shock. Bowser grunted and was ready to punch back, but recoiled in pain and fell off Rathalos.
Banjo held out Kazooie and performed the Breegull Blaster technique, loud yells made with each egg being spat out. Killmonger was being pelted with them, not in pain but rather in annoyance, "Freakin' bear…" the false heir muttered in disgust. The Golden Jaguar lunged forward and was ready to attack Banjo.
But Snake shot at his shoulder, the bullet bouncing off his armor. Killmonger turned his head and glared at the soldier, "You're a soldier right?" Snake asked.
"Damn right." Killmonger replied.
"Hm… ripped straight out of Outer Heaven," grunted Snake, putting up his fists. Killmonger started attacking Solid Snake, the latter using his mastery of CQC in order to remain the Golden Jaguar's equal.
Leaping from a tree, the Black Panther tackled the Golden Jaguar and they rolled on the floor, "That is enough!" she yelled, revealing her claws, ready to tear through the armor, "You and the Koopa King have brought nothing but danger to this throne!" she was ready to strike Killmonger down, but the Golden Jaguar used all the kinetic energy he absorbed and caused a burst that launched everyone near him away.
Killmonger laughed, "Think a small tackle like that can stop me? In this armor, I'm undefeatable!"
Snake held up a button, yelling, "NOW!" as he pressed it. A mine went off underneath Killmonger, launching him into the air.
Spider-Man webbed up his body from a distance, quipping, "Extra thick webbing. You won't be going anywhere anytime soon!"
Banjo flipped and lunged down, breaking through the Golden Jaguar armor with Kazooie's beak. He fell on the ground and bounced right back up thanks to the momentum given from the previous attack, "How dare you-"
"Silence!" Lucina yelled, slashing her sword down on Killmonger, "False leaders like you disgust me…" she grunted, landing on her feet.
The Golden Jaguar tried to fight back but was slashed by the Black Panther, who forcibly removed his helmet, revealing his scarred and bruised face, a result of all his fighting, "See me now?" he mocked, "Your former 'king' did this to me. See why I should be up there?"
Shuri narrowed her eyes under her cowl, "T'Challa was a noble man unlike you." she punched him clean in the face, knocking him unconscious for the fight. She stood over his unconscious body and called the Dora Milaje, ordering them to contain him.
Meanwhile Yoshi flutter-kicked King K Rool, he tried jumping and hitting him with his stomach. The dinosaur yelped but Peter webbed the crocodile king back down, causing him to slam his face onto the dirt, "Darn spider…" K Rool muttered as he picked himself up.
Blake shot at K Rool, his belly deflecting the projectiles aimed at him, "Please! You surely must've seen this coming!" he mocked, unaware that Blake had created a duplicate of herself to wrangle him from behind.
"I did!" Blake quipped, restraining K Rool.
Ruby aimed Crescent Rose at the crocodile, blasting him with petals hard enough to pierce through his armored belly, "Booyah! Told ya that would work!" she cheered while pumping a fist in the air.
Once Blake released K Rool, Knuckles charged forward and reared his fist back. He punched K Rool so hard it created a small shockwave that launched the crocodile up, hitting Rathalos and briefly grounding it.
"Whoa. That aim puts Hawkeye to shame." Spider-Man quipped, noticing the crocodile get back up.
"...That was totally on purpose." Knuckles lied, not expecting that outcome.
"Gwah! Darn it! I really liked that thing!" Bowser threw a brief tantrum and spat fire, nearly hitting Miles, who avoided it.
Bowser hid in his shell and started spinning, he dashed and hit Mario, the plumber getting knocked into the air. Sonic hit him with a Spin-Dash, cancelling the Shell Dash, "You're really tempting me, aren't ya?" Bowser snarled.
Sonic smirked once he uncurled, "Heck yeah. Messin' with you is almost as fun as Eggman."
"I'll burn your quills off for that! And for giving Junior an owie!" Bowser snarled, ready to spit a burst of flames out of his mouth. That is, until Miles webbed up his muzzle, "MMMM?" the Koopa King muttered, trying to detach the substance from his mouth.
Miles' fist was covered in his Venom lightning, "I was getting bored of the fire act so I thought this would cool you down!" he quipped, punching Bowser. Bowser tried punching back, but was met with a delayed Venom Blast and was stunned.
Mario got his bearings and uppercutted the Koopa King, coins appearing from his fist as he did the attack. "Yahoo!" Mario cheered, watching as Bowser fell to his back.
The koopa landed next to K Rool, who said, "Use the gem." he glared at Bowser.
Finally removing the webbing, Bowser said, "Oh right!" he held out the Cosmic Emerald and an aura covered him. The two kings stood up and were ready to keep fighting.
"Oh no…" Spider-Man gulped.
Young Link dug through his bag, getting Peter's attention, "What do you have in there?" he wondered, noticing the child's earlier weapon.
The young kokiri put on a different mask, taking the appearance of what seemed to be a rock creature. "Is that supposed to scare us?" K Rool taunted. Young Link started rolling like a boulder towards Bowser, yet was kicked aside by his cosmic power.
"Not gonna work, kid!" Bowser laughed.
Young Link was launched back and was caught by Ruby, watching him take off the mask and transform back into his old self. The kid nodded as did Ruby, the two of them preparing to blast the villains.
Bowser shot a fireball out, canceling their petal blasts and fire arrows at once. Ruby ran and placed her weapon down blade first to vault over the Koopa King, hitting him with the handle of Crescent Rose, "Take that!" she yelled, blasting him right in the face.
The Koopa King held his now sore head, "You're going to pay for that, kid!" he snarled, punching the air and creating a small energy wave that nearly hit her.
"Oh yeah!" Mario cheered and jumped in at the last second, using his cape to deflect the wave back at Bowser.
Eyes widening, Bowser got into his shell to shield himself from the backfired attack. It worked and the wave fizzled out once it reached him.
"Not a good plan, big guy." Mythra quipped, dashing and using Lightning Buster to hit the shell, causing Bowser to pop his limbs out. She changed to Pyra and used Blazing Edge, throwing her blade so that it spun in a wheel of flames and juggled Bowser in the air.
"Graaah!" Bowser screamed, getting burnt with each blade turn.
"Shocked and burned, not your day buddy." Peter quipped, jumping and hitting Bowser in the stomach so that he fell flat on his back, his shell spikes stuck to the ground.
"N-No! I gotta use this!" Bowser tried using the Cosmic Emerald, but Yoshi used his tongue to nab it from him.
"WHY?!" Bowser whined, getting to his feet to attack in a fury.
Mario leaped and kicked the koopa king, Lucina threw her sword at Sonic, who caught it and sliced through Bowser's fireballs with a Spin Slash, he threw the blade back at the blue haired soldier, who smacked Bowser with a powerful fire-enhanced slash.
"Is this normal for you, Mario?" Miles asked as he used a Venom Punch to hit Bowser.
"Yes! It's-a even better here!" Mario joked, landing one last attack to knock Bowser out. Mario opened his palms and put his energy to performing the Mario Finale, blasting Bowser with a burst of flames, hurting him. The Koopa King tried going for one last punch after the attack, but collapsed from all the pain.
Yoshi kept the emerald in his mouth, but forcibly spat it out when K Rool stomped on him, "I will be taking that now!" he cackled, grabbing the Cosmic Emerald and covering himself in an aura.
Mythra appeared and used Photon Edge to catch K Rool by surprise, putting him in the air. Snake shot a missile at K Rool, piercing through his supposedly armored stomach and resulting in some bruises.
"How?! This is supposed to work!" K Rool said in complete confusion.
"You don't know how to use it! Ha! That's great!" Sonic laughed, hitting the crocodile with a Homing Attack.
Kazooie popped out an egg grenade that Banjo threw, damaging K Rool more. Peter's eyes widened under his mask when he saw that, "Excuse me what?!"
"Uh… I dunno." Banjo shrugged, not wanting to question his friend's abilities.
Shaking his head, Peter said, "Okay okay…" he muttered as he and Knuckles punched K Rool.
Blake used Gambol Shroud to restrain K Rool's arm, allowing Miles to grab the Cosmic Emerald away from him. She then shot at the crocodile from the back, dazing him momentarily. The Faunus released the crocodile and dashed towards him, striking him with a strong kick.
The younger Spider-Man tapped him with a Venom Shock, causing K Rool to get electrocuted and be stunned. Yoshi got up from the sudden attack and threw a few eggs alongside Kazooie, who was spitting them out thanks to Banjo.
Sonic smirked, "What's wrong, kingy? Got nothin' left?" he joked, grabbing K Rool's crown and throwing it, actually managing to hurt him by doing so.
Spider-Man flipped in the air and kicked it back at K Rool once it bounced off him, hurting him more. Snake aimed a bazooka at him and blasted him, launching the crocodile king back. Mario stomped on K Rool and bounced off his head, watching as Pyra slashed him, giving Sonic the opportunity to poke him and watch him collapse.
"Okay… I think that's everyone…" Miles panted, worn out from fighting.
Rathalos twitched, getting back up and roaring loudly, no longer controlled by anyone, "...Should've seen that coming." Peter sighed, getting ready to fight once more.
The Champions all dodged Rathalos' mid-air attacks, trying their best not to get fried. Mario tried bouncing on it to no avail, Sonic tried a Homing Attack but that barely pierced it, and Miles' Venom Blast did nothing to affect it. Even Pyra and Mythra couldn't stall it.
"Great… now what?" Snake grunted in frustration, his missiles not working.
Sonic looked at the Cosmic Emerald, then at Young Link. He sighed, "I don't like it, but we might as well try…" he asked Miles to give him the emerald, which he did, "Yo, kid! Use this however you want! I think you got somethin' that can end this for us!" he suggested, throwing the emerald to Young Link.
The kid nodded, catching the emerald. He looked into his bag and pulled out a strange mask. He put it on, screaming loudly as if he was in pain. "Kid!" Peter shouted in concern.
Young Link's body was enveloped in a white light, once it faded his new form was revealed. He appeared to be an adult wearing a white tunic, his face pale and pupils missing. He held a large sword and glared at Rathalos. He had become Fierce Deity Link.
"...That's new." Sonic admitted, having never seen the form before.
Fierce Deity Link yelled at the top of his lungs, raising his sword back and going for Rathalos. The monster could not do anything to Young Link's new form. The boy slashed at Rathalos with powerful sword swipes that would surprise even his adult counterpart. The masked child kept attacking Rathalos and eventually drove his sword through the monster, putting it down.
The boy landed, the mask removed from his face. He panted, clearly worn out from the assault but he managed a smile, handing Sonic the Cosmic Emerald back, "Not bad, Link," the hedgehog complimented, giving Young Link a high five.
Spider-Man asked, "So what should we do about these two?" he gestured to K Rool and Bowser.
Black Panther appeared, saying, "We shall hold them prisoner, make them answer for their crimes to New Wakanda-" a loud burst of wind made itself known, a figure standing near their bodies.
Shuri took notice of Sephiroth, glaring at the kings' bodies, "They may have failed, but I still seek use in them." he mocked.
"What's your game here, Sephiroth?" Spider-Man grunted.
"My game? I merely wish to reacquire my assets. They still haven't fulfilled their purpose to me," Sephiroth admitted.
Sonic scowled, "Not much of a team player are ya? And here I thought the Cabal was your thing."
Sephiroth glared at the hedgehog, "Please. They are a means to an end, nothing more. As if they believe otherwise anyhow." he threw a Giga Flare at the heroes to distract them, the Black Panther using her suit to absorb the sudden attack at the last second.
"Take cover!" Peter yelled to everyone to dive as Shuri released all the energy absorbed by the suit, creating a wave that nearly fell trees with ease. When the chaos ended, they noticed Sephiroth, Bowser and K Rool were gone, "Damn it!" yelled Peter in anger.
"It seems-a we will-a be seeing them again…" Mario shook his head.
Miles scratched his head, "I dunno. Something tells me this whole Cabal thing won't last longer anyway."
"No kidding. Sephiroth sounds like the usual bad boss we've come to expect from villains," Peter tapped his chin, "Maybe we can use that to our advantage, have the Cabal fight from the inside."
Pyra reappeared crossing her arms, "If they believe us, anyway."
"That'll be the hard part," Snake admitted.
"But it is a sound plan," Lucina admitted.
"Then we'll try it," Sonic decided.
Spider-Man cracked his knuckles, saying, "Then we'll tell the others-"
"Champions? Can you hear me?" called out the Ancient One through a telepathic message.
"Ancient One? What's up?" Peter asked.
"We have reason to believe one of the Cabal members has invaded the temple. We could use your expertise in properly detaining them," Ancient One admitted.
Miles shrugged, "A temple of sorcerers and magic? I got a good guess on who's behind this."
"He really makes it obvious," Peter quipped, "Yeah, we got this."
"Another-a mission already?" Mario asked.
"Hey at least I can make up for what I missed," Blake commented.
"Kaine will kill me if something happened to ya… but it's not like I have to worry about that," Peter quipped.
"You may go on ahead, Champions. I have a prisoner to keep a close eye on amidst this chaos." Shuri told the Champions.
Sonic said, "No problem, Black Panther. We got this!"
"Let's-a go!" Mario shouted.
"Onwards, heh, I think I'm gonna like it here," Mythra chuckled, joining her new allies to their next destination.
MJR Here: Been a while, lots of personal stuff happened, but I'm back. Had a lot of fun getting back to writing this. Anyway, this was a big one, Bowser and K Rool joined forces with Battleworld's Killmonger and Rathalos. Sephiroth's dialogue was to shed some further light on why he would join a team as I felt it needed more justification, he has his own motives, and for once they don't revolve purely around Cloud like his post-FF7 appearances have been.
Jacob9594: Oh the tension will stay between them. Time will tell if Mythra will let go of that grudge.
Nexus240: Unless Sora himself gets revealed for Smash, nothing from Kingdom Hearts will appear here.
Next Time: Webbed up in Spider-Island! The Spider-Queen's Coup!