Mario and his own teammates stood in front of the base that sealed them outside before, with Faker standing beside Joker as he cuddled Pichu in his arms.
"Well, we're here," Marth said. The Hero-King then looked to the laptop that served as a way in if they had figured out the passcode, noticing the gate itself was already opened by none other than the Susie Spirit, who was leaning next to the computer this whole time. The passcode itself vanished before any of the fighters managed to catch a good glimpse at it.
Noticing the new change to the base's entrance, Mario and his gang instantly knew that getting into the base was their next step. The red plumber then walked off, followed by Marth, Donkey Kong, Olimar, PAC-MAN, Lucas, Duck Hunt, and Isabelle. Pichu woke up cuddled next to Joker's chest, and the small mouse Pokémon quickly hopped out and ran in with the Phantom Thief of Hearts following him. Faker was about to join them too, but first she turned to Susie.
"What… was the passcode?" Faker asked.
"Galeem's brother," Susie answered. "Turns out the answer was Phoenix before it… glitched all of a sudden and spelled something different… I've got to tell you before it vanishes from my memory. Rigging the computer's system would do minor things to your head so that your mind forgets what they're talking about…"
"What did the passcode say then?" Faker asked. The Master Legendary Spirit was just about to answer before she was interrupted by Faker's friends calling.
"Hurry up!" Joker called out. "We haven't got all day!"
"C-Coming!" Faker responded before turning back to Susie. "I'm so sorry. I have to go…"
"That's alright, considering you'll probably learn about your identity in time," Susie sighed. "See you later, if there ever would be one." The brown-skinned warrior glad in dragon armor ran into the base, trying to catch up to her friends.
Walking through the secret base, the group of fighters looked around for any surveillance cameras hidden in plain sight, only to find out there weren't any. Usually, a base would be showing military troops hiding powerful equipment, but it seemed empty like everywhere they had currently been. The group was just near the door, ready to walk into an open base. All of a sudden, a large blade beam attacked the fighters out of nowhere. Joker managed to grab Pichu and Isabelle as he jumped out of the way, but the other fighters were knocked back from the collision. Riding on jetpack-like boots was none other than Mega Man himself.
"Spies have intruded the base," a different voice spoke from Mega Man's body. "Do I have the right to attack?"
"Permission granted," King Bulbin spoke over the speaker attached to the Mega Man Primary's face. "Make sure not a single one of them lives." The transmission ended, and the captured fighter pulled out a katana beam sword, which gleamed turquoise under the sunlight.
"Gemnu Zero!" the Mega Man Primary shouted, unleashed a powerful beam down onto the ground, targeting first Olimar and then moving on to Marth.
"I'm betting it's that Zero Assist Trophy with the Z-Saber we've forgotten about, huh?" Marth asked. The Hero-King recognized the Ryuenjin as his fiery slash, the Kuenzan as his spinning move, and even the Kuenbu and Hienkyaku as his jump and midair dash as the Mega Man Primary closed in on the other fighters.
"We've got to take Mega Man down in order to proceed!" Marth exclaimed, countering the powerful beams from the captured fighter's Z-Saber.
"On it!" Mario answered, dashing as fast as he could towards the blue bomber. Mario quickly pulled out his golden cape, reflecting another Gemnu Zero attack back at the captured fighter. The Mega Man Primary was quickly knocked back onto the concrete ground, bruised and broken with bits of wires sticking out of his possessed body. Mario quickly landed in front of the malfunctioning Mega Man Primary. Mario then threw his cap on the captured fighter's head, managing to avoid the fiery uppercut from the Mega Man Primary as Mario himself was sucked into the blue bomber's body.
"What the…?" Joker asked, a bit confused as to what happened. From what both the Phantom Thief and his friends could gather was that Mario managed to use his Cappy companion to capture the Mega Man Primary with the red cap and moustache still present on Mega Man's face. Not even Zero's Master Legendary Spirit could be able to control the body which he has taken over for now. However, before Mario could use the Z-Saber to stab Mega Man's body with it, the Galeem Lock instantly pushed the red plumber out of the blue bomber's body. Feeling mocked, the already-captured fighter kicked his own right heel to activate his only-functioning jet thruster. Though it had slow startup, the jet send the Mega Man Primary dashing faster than the group of fighters could react. Standing calm and collected, the team of warriors stood their ground as the captured fighter approached closer. Once the Mega Man Primary unleashed his Z-Saber again, Joker pulled out his dagger and stabbed the captured fighter right in the painted-titanium chest, instantly killing the Mega Man Primary.
Once the blue bomber dropped dead, a bright light flashed on Mega Man's body. Even if the light was blinding enough, the group of fighters saw that the Zero Spirit was floating off with the white mist that was supposedly the Galeem Lock broken. As soon as the light faded, Mario slowly approached Mega Man's fully-healed body, tapping the metallic skin to wake the blue bomber up.
"Pichu…?" Pichu asked as he hopped next to Mega Man's head, jabbing lightly with his delicate paws. The friction of Pichu's scratching managed to wake Mega Man up, and the red glows in his pupils were gone. The android pushed himself off the concrete ground, with Lucas helping him up.
"What happened?" Mega Man asked in his normal voice.
"There was the usual possession by Spirits mostly from your home world... mumbo-jumbo," Joker answered before Mario could speak. "The point is: we saved you from potential doom and that is that." Just then, an alarm was blaring all over the secret base, alerting the military troops hiding inside.
"Alert!" a robotic feminine voice spoke from the speakers. "Intruders have infiltrated the base."
"Follow me," Mega Man said, running off to the side of the base. Mario, Marth, Joker, Olimar, PAC-MAN, Donkey Kong, Lucas, Isabelle, Duck Hunt, and Pichu with Faker all shadowed behind the blue bomber, climbing on a ladder up the walls as King Bulbin rode out on Lord Bullbo with Bokoblin troops.
"They can't have gone that far," King Bulbin growled, turning to his men without even noticing the group of fighters climbing onto the roof. "Make sure the Mii Fighters and the Subspace Army defend Galleon at all costs. We can't have the Galeem Void broken."
"But we don't know who told them about this plan," one Bokoblin objected. King Bulbin then approached the Bokoblin that spoke and slapped the creature hard on the face. Meanwhile, Mega Man on the roof managed to open a small emergency exit into the base.
"Don't give me that bullcrap!" Bulbin snarled, not aware of Donkey Kong stretching the metal on the roof wide enough so that he and the rest of his friends could get in.
"One of Galeem's followers has betrayed him in order to foil his rules!" Bulbin continued. "Once we find him, we'll give him the horrible treatment he deserves! Until then, it's up to the armies and Supporters we sent out to keep this world in check! Now let's ride off!" The Bokoblin King then lashed his steed Bullbo, and the mutant pig galloped off with the Bokoblin troops following after him. By that time, Mega Man and his companions had already jumped into the secret base, ready to look for Galleon, the Purple Giant.
With Mega Man in the lead, the blue bomber quietly began sneaking around for a way to Galleon, for the gates to where the Subspace Cyborg was waiting for them was sealed off by futuristic gates. Afterwards, the fighters managed to find what they were looking for as they snuck through the halls: computers to override the gates, guarded by Mii Fighters, Shadow Bugs, and Supporters.
"We need to find a way to get the gates open without getting caught," Mega Man explained, hiding behind a wall with his friends.
"Uh… just a quick reminder: we're already targeted so it wouldn't matter if we go in stealth or in plain sight," Joker objected. "However, if you want to find a way through here… just look up to me. I'm the definition of stealth." The Phantom Thief began hopping behind the three kinds of troops, undetected. Before any of the Supporters, Subspace creatures, or Mii Fighters in that small group managed to catch Mario and the gang hiding behind the wall, Joker began slashing from behind with his dagger, shooting any witnesses with his pistol shortly after. The Phantom Thief then ran towards the computer marked "1".
"Override… manual… gates…" Joker typed as he literally said those words. A browser folder then appeared on the screen, with a shutdown button at the bottom-right. The Phantom Thief dragged the computer mouse over the icon and double-clicked, with a window appearing just as he was finished.
"Are you sure you want to shut down? This computer will be permanently disabled if you do so, granting access through gate no. 1," read the window. Sighing with annoyance, Joker clicked the yes option. The screen on the laptop went black, and the futuristic laser gate with the number 1 glowing on its surface vanished.
"Now's our chance!" Faker whispered, dashing towards the next computer that was right in front of her. There were Supporters and Primids present, and they somehow avoided Faker as she went right to the computer and began attacking the other fighters. While the group of companions engaged in a short battle, rescuing more Spirits in the process, Faker managed to get the second gate open, calling her friends to advance.
After Mario and his friends managed to emerge victorious in their small battles with their enemies and two more gates were opened, the group was almost to the final gate where their main target was waiting for them. However, when the warriors arrived at the main computer system, they noticed it was already dark with the futuristic gate labeled "5" providing the only illumination here. Even then, there were still a lot of computers to browse through and see which one the key to their current objective is.
While the small team of fighters began typing away on the keyboards and clicking the override icons with the computer mice, Joker heard some sort of scuttling noise. The Phantom Thief stopped his work as the rest of his friends carried on without him, slowly approaching the source of the noise. As soon as Joker was about to give up, his leather jacket snagged on a cardboard box. Marked with the Smash Ball symbol.
That's strange, Joker thought. …What's a box doing here? Growing a little suspicious, the Phantom Thief grabbed ahold of the cardboard box, lifting it up to see who it was underneath. Surprise to behold, it was Solid Snake, with the white mist that signaled the Galeem Lock, red pupils, and everything. Even the Master Legendary Spirit that had possessed his body – Liquid Snake – seemed to prove it.
"You know… you should really pick a better hiding spot rather than a simple cardboard box left out in the open," Joker teased before Snake kicked the Phantom Thief down to the metal floor. Joker's friends instantly stopped what they were doing and caught Snake pinning Joker down, pushing the Phantom Thief's pistol from his face.
"Leave him alone!" Lucas cried, grabbing the Snake Primary with help from his Rope Snake. Tossing the captured fighter into the air, Lucas managed to combo his throw with a little bit of his PSI abilities. Joker quickly got up and grabbed the Snake Primary from behind as soon as a grenade was pulled out. The rest of the fighters were about to team up with Joker before they were stopped.
"Stay away, guys!" Joker snarled, attempting to choke the Snake Primary from behind. "This is a fight between me and the mercenary!" The Phantom Thief then tossed the captured fighter with the grenade into a row of computers, with the explosion destroying them in the process. Before the Snake Primary could get up, Joker grabbed ahold of the captured fighter and began swinging him into different computers.
"Figured if we can't browse through every single one of these doohickeys, we might as well break through them!" Joker growled, slamming the Snake Primary into the central computer. The electrical blast instantly rigged the last of the gates to open and shocked the Snake Primary to death in the process. After the smoke cleared, Faker pulled away the rocks that she used to protect the fighters. The dim lights in the base went back on, and in the wreckage was Joker, battered and bruised, attempting to wake up Snake.
"Snake-a!" Mario exclaimed, running towards the unconscious mercenary. Isabelle dashed next to Joker, watching as the Phantom Thief slapped Snake back to awareness. With a powerful smack, the mercenary quickly woke up, free from the Galeem Lock and back to normal.
"What the… Where am I?" Snake asked, groaning as he was hoisted up by Joker. The mercenary saw the familiar faces of his friends right in front of him, but he did not recognize the Phantom Thief that had just saved him.
"Who the hell are you?" Snake continued in question. Faker walked up to the front of the mercenary, trying to explain in a brief sentence.
"It's a long story, and I probably won't have enough time to explain what's happening," Faker answered. "Let's just say that I'm Faker and this is Joker. Unlike me, the Phantom Thief is one of the only people who has survived Galeem's attack."
"Survived?" Snake said.
"Like Faker explained, it's complicated," Marth finished. "Now do you think you can help us in our mission to defeat Galleon? We've got a plan that just might save us all and this is one of the many steps in doing so."
"Why wouldn't I?" Snake refined. "I've been waiting to kick that seraph's ass for as long as I was probably under possession." Faker then rushed to the opened gate, heading down to a large, empty room. The recruited fighters caught up to join her, seeing nothing but metal walls and flickering lights.
While the team was slowly walking down the place, Lucas seemed to be the only one completely nervous about this whole situation. He began trembling as he thought he heard the sounds of metallic grindings to the point that he began sparking up PSI powers in his fingertips. Joker was the first one to notice Lucas's knees buckling.
"What's the matter, kid?" Joker asked.
"Yeah," Snake replied. "I'm sure a few of us have faced against that robot monkey before… well, Marth with two of his friends anyway. It's no big deal." Lucas shook his head from that response.
"It's what happens after you defeat Galleon," Lucas noted. "Red and I noticed it when we went searching for his Pokémon, deep in an ancient temple. I'm quite positive Marth noticed the explosion too, and even without admitting it is too afraid to go-" Before the PSI boy could finish, a large slam echoed through out the empty room, instantly startling the group of recruited fighters.
A deepened robotic roar blasted through their ears, proving that the monster they are right now facing against is Galleon, sentient of the Subspace Army. The monstrous cyborg gazed down upon the fighters, completely obeying the orders of Galeem. Slamming down with both of his fists, Galleon attempted on crushing the warriors, but they all quickly jumped out of the way. Marth and Lucas backed away with Faker, completely aware of what would happen next but knew that Galleon's defeat is necessary for the plan to work… if the rest of their friends have survived.
"Why are Marth and Lucas backing away?!" Mario asked, reflecting the explosive rockets with his cape. "Do they know something we don't?!"
"Probably," Snake answered, using his RPG to fire his own rockets at Galleon's metallic body. Joker began climbing onto Galleon's body, slashing rapidly with his dagger. The purple giant then grabbed ahold of the Phantom Thief, pummeling by clenching his fists. Lucas saw the other fighters trying to free Joker from Galleon's grasp and ran towards his friends. Marth knew what was going on too and left Faker behind for her to throw rocks and fireballs from a safe distance. While the fiery blasts and crumbling stones scratched Galleon, the purple cyborg felt his hand cut from Joker's knife. The Phantom Thief quickly pulled out his pistol and began firing shots. Donkey Kong and Olimar quickly jumped onto Galleon's body as the cyborg shifted into a tank and started shooting missiles. PAC-MAN, Marth, Mario, Lucas, Duck Hunt, Isabelle, Pichu, Mega Man, and Joker jumped behind Galleon and began attacking from behind, unaware that he was releasing steam from the holes in his mask and pulsing red.
Galleon began stepping rapidly, slamming his feet into the ground and attempting to bury the fighters, unaware of Faker still attacking him from a distance. Marth and Lucas both started using their special abilities, with the Hero-King dancing with his blade and Lucas spamming PK Fire. Galleon then began spinning in place, powered by the rockets on his feet. It created a tornado-esque vortex around himself and began drawing in the fighters. Joker then began taking off his mask, coated in blue flames once again and summoning his main Persona: Arsene. Both the Phantom Thief and his Persona began spinning around Galleon, digging deep into his metallic skin faster than the Subspace Cyborg could react. Eventually, Joker with his mask intact on his face and Arsene gone swiped harshly with his knife as soon as the tornado vortex was gone. Joker then landed in a perfect pose as soon as bits and pieces began falling around the fighters, glad that their little mission was over.
"We did it!" Mega Man cheered, hugging Joker's legs.
"Thank god that's over," Snake sighed, rubbing Isabelle's head. The team was just calming down before they began hearing a familiar beeping noise. Lucas began panicking and grabbed Marth's hand, quickly running away.
"What's wrong with that kid?" Joker added.
"I think it's something familiar that we REALLY wanted to forget…" Mario frightfully answered. Hidden in Galleon's head, there was an activated Subspace Bomb, counting down through 10 seconds. Joker, Mega Man, Isabelle, Duck Hunt, Pichu, and PAC-MAN had no idea what a Subspace Bomb really was, so there was no time for them to react as Donkey Kong, Snake, Olimar, and Mario quickly grabbed ahold of them and started running with Faker. As soon as the countdown finished, a violet explosion of Subspace occurred.
The fighters and Faker were running away from the fast-expanding explosion, clearly not having enough time to attack the incoming enemy. Subspace Army troops, Mii Fighters, and Supporters were trying to keep Mario and his team from escaping the secret base, even if it meant their deaths themselves. Neither side had time as they started pushing against each other for survival. The Subspace explosion was closing in fast, and it seemed like just the end for both sides. Faker, being the slowest of them all so far, was starting to lose her friends as the explosion was taking up everything and she was starting to be sucked in.
Luckily, the brown-skinned warrior began sparking up little charges of electricity through her fingertips, which grew in size the faster she ran. Lightning bolts sparked up in her eyes, and she ran faster until the bolts grew to an enormous size and caused her to zip faster than the speed of light. An electrical current passed through Mario, Marth, Joker, Olimar, PAC-MAN, Donkey Kong, Lucas, Isabelle, Duck Hunt, Pichu, Mega Man, and Snake, instantly picking them up and carrying them out of the base.
Faker appeared in front of the base from a safe distance, carrying all of her friends on her back with as much strength as she could muster. After she dropped them onto the ground, the team ran behind a large rock and took cover as the explosion from the Subspace Bomb covered the entire secret base. The group looked north to see the glowing-blue UV sphere barrier covering the Galeem Void being stripped away from the Subspace explosion's powerful vortex. Hexagon-shaped pieces began flying from the forcefield, changing its color to a bright yellow and causing it to blink slightly. It seemed like the pieces wouldn't stop flying into the violet colors until the Subspace explosion waned as fast as it emerged. Once the spherical blast closed in on itself, there was nothing but a barren area where the secret base once stood, completely void of grass and other vegetation.
Mario was the first to walk out, not even able to question how Faker managed to rescue everyone on their team so far. Joker, Mega Man, Isabelle, PAC-MAN, Duck Hunt, and Pichu then walked out behind the red plumber, surprised by what they had just witnessed.
"Now you know what-a Subspace is?" Mario asked. Joker nodded, realizing this was the very first Subspace explosion he and some of his friends had just witnessed. Once Faker, Donkey Kong, Olimar, Marth, Snake, and Lucas knew it was safe for them to come out, they walked onto the desolate region.
"Acted a little differently than when we first came across the Subspace Army," Marth remarked. "When they occurred, they would take pieces of this world for its former leader. Now it seems like it's weakening Galeem's barrier…"
"We better get a move-on, then," Joker explained. "Our next step is to travel around the world and stabilize Galeem's ever-spreading army of these… Light Puppets. We probably don't know who these new enemies are, so I guess we'll call them Light Puppets…"
Deep in the Galeem Void, the Seraph of Order sat on his crystal throne, peering into the magical mirror that showed what Mario and his team accomplished. Floating from his resting place, Galeem began to fear that his captured slaves were beginning to revolt thanks to the six survivors of his attack and Kirby, the one who started it all. Just then, King Bulbin rode in on Lord Bullbo, dragging the Werewolf on a muzzle, the lycanthrope's hands bound in front of his chest with thick cuffs of rope.
"Lord Galeem," King Bulbin explained. "We've found the traitor." King Bulbin then tossed the Werewolf in front of Galeem. You probably could not tell because of the bright light illuminating his humanoid form, but the Seraph of Order had enragement written on his face.
"…You know what you did," Galeem calmly said, with a little bit of a dragon growl in his voice. The seraphic being levitated down to the Werewolf's eye level, causing the lycanthrope to shield his eyes as best as he could due to Galeem being half as bright as the sun itself.
"Because of your sympathetic feelings towards the Smashers, you know the consequences," Galeem continued. The Seraph of Order then pulled out his humanoid hand, slapping so hard he left a glowing-white scar on the Werewolf's face, closely resembling dragon claw marks. The lycanthrope then snarled underneath his muzzle, threatening to attack and maul Galeem on the spot if it wasn't for two Bokoblin that quickly grabbed his leash.
"Unlike your monstrous friends over here, I am growing sentiment," the Werewolf answered. "They may not have it now, but King Bulbin, Balder, everyone that is forced to serve you just to have their bodies back, will start to have the urge to rebel and turn against you. Both the Mii Fighters and the Subspace Army will turn against you for they know what is right… The Super smash Brothers WILL end all this, and you will come crawling back to the Light Dimension from where you escaped." Galeem, knowing he is not afraid of anything, floated back to his crystal throne. The seraphic being then pulled on the Chains of Light, only this time they were not imprisoning Tabuu. From the shadows of the Galeem Void emerged Arcadia's Master Core, with golden threads woven into his silky Hand shell to identify him from all of the other Master Hands.
The black Swarms mixed with yellowish specks surrounded Galeem, with the seraph's wings outstretched. Gleaming blue, the Swarms then were absorbed into Galeem's body, generating another black hole. With one blast, the Seraph of Order used his beam attack to instantly reduce the Werewolf to a Spirit form. As soon as the beam curved back towards Galeem and instantly formed Arcadia's Master Hand again, the Werewolf appeared in the form of a glowing-green Spirit, free from his bondages. Galeem returned to his current form afterwards.
The Master Hand then used Galeem's light to summon the Crazy Hand from his shadow, and the two went behind the Werewolf Spirit. With Bulbin and his troops stepping back, the two Hands ripped open a hole in midair, instantly sucking in the lycanthrope. The Werewolf had been forever banished to the Dark Dimension.
Once the Crazy Hand instantly vanished, the Master Hand of Arcadia floated back to Galeem's side. As soon as the black hole vanished, King Bulbin and his Bokoblin soldiers walked up to the Seraph of Order, a little terrified.
"Get out of my sight," Galeem commanded. "And don't come back until you've finished every single one of those awakened fighters." King Bulbin then kicked the side of his steed Lord Bullbo, and the wild boar galloped off with the Bokoblin. Tabuu, who was watching this whole time, appeared on Galeem's right side.
"You sent the Werewolf to the Dark Dimension?" Tabuu asked, rubbing his aching wrists bound by the Chains of Light.
"It had to be done," Galeem answered, placing one of his wings on the Construct God's shoulder. "You know what punishment I bring to those who disobey, and I only need the help of Arcadia's Master Hand and his brother."
"But you know what happens once you do so," Tabuu objected. "HE might notice your intentions of multiversal domination and plans to put an end to your domain…" Galeem then grabbed Tabuu's Chains of Light, pulling the Construct God close to himself.
"At least you dare did not speak his name," Galeem sighed with relief. "I will make sure none of the Super Smash Brothers defeat me and the curse upon the Dark Dimension isn't broken." Once the Seraph of Order adjusted his posture to be more comfortable on his crystal throne, he continued watching Faker with Mario, Marth, Olimar, Donkey Kong, Lucas, PAC-MAN, Joker, Duck Hunt, Mega Man, Isabelle, Snake, and Pichu travel from where the secret base once was to east, heading to who-knows-where.
Deep in the Dark Dimension, the Werewolf began looking around, seeing nothing but pitch-black all around him. Terrified, the lycanthrope tried to accept the fact that this is his prison from now on. Just as soon as the Werewolf turned around, a booming sound occurred right in front of him. The anthro-wolf then saw a gleaming, pale-green eye with a black, vertical slit pupil right in front of him, the exact same size as Galeem's orb-like body; it was also providing the only light in this empty void.
"A new guest in my humble home," the eye spoke in a slightly deepened, calm voice.
"I didn't come here intentionally," the Werewolf stuttered. "Galeem banished me here."
"…Did you say Galeem?" the eye asked. A slight chuckle came from the stranger, confusing the Werewolf quite a bit.
"Wait until the Seraph of Order is overthrown," the eye continued. "I have been watching time itself through here and have been waiting for this moment…"
