The fighters made their way down the rocky path, and it wasn't long before they came across a three-way route, all of them leading to a crumbling concrete road several feet away. It was too far away for the Smashers to make the jump, and they knew about that.
"We better be careful, guys," Samus spoke, going ahead of the group before she stopped. "King Dedede, you said you know this Marx demon before. What can you recall about him?"
"There ain't anythin' horrible he can't do," King Dedede answered. "Back in Dreamland, everyone called him the town clown, and I hired him to be my court jester when I heard of him. However, the Galactic Nova arrived thanks to that Kirby, and Marx became the demon you see him as of right now. Even I tried to stop his plans of world domination."
"Galactic… Nova?" Rosalina asked. "I'm quite sure I heard of that before…"
"Anyone who's traveled to different universes pretty much knows about the comet," King Dedede continued. "This Marx is a clever one indeed. That little runt has a snappy sense of humor, but you better not underestimate his jokes. He quickly loses his temper due to impatience of certain things as well as failures of plans going on in his head we might as well never know the secrets of. If we continue down that path, there could be a chance where that little hellion might as well lead us into a pit with sharks, blending blades, lasers, or whatever horrible, gruesome death you can imagine." Just as the King of Dreamland finished, Marx himself appeared right before the group, laughing with a witty sense of humor.
"What's going on, Triple-D?" Marx asked while he rested his chin on his folded wings. "You lecturing the flesh sacks you call friends about my history with you? Puh-lease. The only thing you should worry lecturing about is your first quiz!" The galactic ambition snapped his claws like they were fingers, and different teams appeared on each end of the broken three-way fork in the rocky path, each one made out of different tiny Supporters with violet eyes. The team on the group's left side had purple Donkey Kongs, the middle had Pichus with white flowers, and the path on their right side had Jigglypuffs with red flowers.
"First question is rather simple: which of these Pikmin can fly?" Marx asked. "Answer correctly and you advance down the path. Answer incorrectly… well..." The spherical demon chuckled as he thought of an idea for their punishment. "Thank Triple-D for the idea of a pit of sharks with laser eyes and blending blade fins, because you'll fall into it if you fail…" The ground remained transparent for a while to let the group see that swimming in a pool of acid were great-white sharks that cut into each other's skin with their sharp fins and lasers shot out of their eyes.
"Try to think of which Supporter team holds the right choice," Marx finished. "The ground will collapse underneath you and make you fall into that pit unless you pick a question." The galactic jester vanished from sight, and the Smashers looked at each other.
"Pikmin?" Isabelle asked. Just as soon as Isabelle said that, different images of the Supporter teams flashed above them. For the Donkey Kongs, it was a Purple Pikmin, the Pichus had a Yellow Pikmin, and the Jigglypuffs had a Flying Pikmin. The tiny Jigglypuff team was exactly what Samus went after.
"Well that was easy," Samus answered, approaching the tiny Jigglypuff team. "Even if we haven't visited the planet Olimar crashed on, we can obviously tell this is the correct choice simply by the bug-like wings." The ground started rumbling underneath the armored bounty hunter as the tiny Jigglypuff team surrounded her, with Marx appearing in front of the group once more.
"She chose her answer," Marx spoke, getting in front of the group and preventing them from getting to Samus. The piece of land that broke off from the path wasn't even a few feet off the ground before Samus swatted down Jigglypuff Supporter after Jigglypuff Supporter.
"Now let's see if it's the correct- Well, that was short," Marx sighed with mild annoyance, noticing that Samus had knocked out the entire Jigglypuff team within the span of a few seconds before a UV sphere formed around the land piece. The other two Supporter teams vanished into Shadow Bugs from the rocky path, leaving Samus to fall down back to her group alongside the piece of land.
"They were nothing more than pesky bugs," Samus reassured her friends, brushing off her arm cannon. "Kinda easy, if you ask me." The Cosmic Jester floated down to the Smashers, honestly surprised. Even for a Mii Fighter that entered his realm as stated before, none of them knocked out an entire team of tiny puppets that fast.
"Y'know, I'm impressed with you guys," Marx spoke, folding his wings across his nonexistent chest. "You're awfully persistent for a bunch of meat toys. You're free to move on to the next quiz. But the next one'll be a bit more difficult than those pathetic teams…" Marx snapped his talons like fingers, vanishing as soon as he created a path of light from the group's right side to the crumbling concrete road.
The Piranha Plant slid down the light path, safely making it to the other side. The carnivorous flower waved his two leaves like hands, alerting his pals that he was alright. Rosalina held on tight to her Luma as she went down the light path, with Bowser and King Dedede following. Once all the fighters made it onto the concrete road, they continued down that route. The different land piece they stepped on was of a grassy hill, with large roots wrapped around nameless tombstones in front of them. Looking to their right from the main path to their left, the Smashers could see the roots were connected to a humongous tree, its branches unstable to climb to the big junkyard sitting on top. Lucario's eyes widened as he saw a red aura and violet eyes at that junkyard, obviously a Primary watching them from above.
"It's one of our friends!" Lucario exclaimed, running towards the large tree. Bowser and King Dedede followed behind the Aura Pokémon, with the rest of their friends staying behind. Marx, however, appeared in front of the group, stopping Lucario by pressing his talons against the tip of the Pokémon's face.
"Not so fast," Marx objected. "You want to rescue one of your many friends here, you better solve all the questions I ask you in certain locations before you advance." Two Supporters arrived behind Marx this time: one was a puppet of Fox McCloud with lime clothing with the Spirit of a fox with a blue apron wrapped around his waist, and the other was a Mario clone with his Builder outfit and the Spirit of a mustached man wearing a white apron and brown clothing.
"Question two: which Spirit usually sells furniture?" Marx asked, floating behind the Supporters. "Is it Redd inside a Fox puppet or the Maruhige Shop Owner within the Mario one? Your choice… oŗ̵̵̕ ͏̸͘y͘͘͝o͏̀́͜u̴̢̧͡͠ŕ̴̛͡ ̢̛̛͢d͘ę͠á̵̡͜t̡͘h̡̀́͝!͜͝͏̸̸" With those last three words in his sentence, Marx flashed those slit eyes and enlarged smile, terrifying the group with his demonic voice before he shifted back to his normal-ish self and vanished. Bowser, Lucario, and King Dedede went ahead while the other fighters stood back.
"I think I know the answer!" Isabelle called out, considering she knew who sells furniture. "It's Redd! Try doing that!" Lucario, upon hearing the mayor's assistant, approached the Fox Supporter, stretching his fists.
"Let's get this over with," Lucario sighed, using the move Force Palm on the puppet with the Redd Spirit.
"Hope your puppy's right," Marx's voice echoed throughout the Mysterious Dimension. "How unfortunate that would be if this was the wrong choice." The ground rumbled underneath the Aura Pokémon and the lime Fox Supporter, with the Town & City stage forming around them. The UV sphere closed around the two warriors, creating the background for the stage before the Fox Supporter began dashing towards Lucario in a fit of rage.
Lucario, upon blocking the incoming attacks, watched as crates filled with wacky items spawned in midair and dropped onto the stage, gravitating towards the puppet fighter. The Fox Supporter picked up the crates one by one, throwing them at Lucario. The Pokémon took advantage of this and dodged them on by one, keeping in mind of the items that dropped out of the boxes. There was an Ore Club, Beetle, and Pitfall all moving towards the lime Fox Supporter. Lucario quickly grabbed ahold of the Pitfall and threw it onto the ground feet ahead of the puppet fighter before holding onto the Ore Club, not having enough time to get the Beetle from the Fox Supporter.
"Why don't we just talk about this?" Lucario asked, swinging the Ore Club at the Beetle flying towards him and breaking it. "How do you feel of how Galeem and Dharkon have been treating you all these years? What do you have to go through to end up in a body you are most uncomfortable with?" The Fox Supporter simply did not answer as it matched towards the Pokémon, unaware of the Pitfall set down before as it buried the puppet fighter in the ground.
"Guess you leave me no choice…" Lucario sighed, swinging his Ore Club at the vulnerable puppet's face, knocking it into the blast zone surrounding the Town & City stage. The UV sphere dissolved into thin air, and the terrain of the battlefield merged with the ground in front of the tree. Lucario made a soft landing, hoping that the Redd Spirit he rescued was the correct choice to go up to the junkyard. Much to their surprise, a path of light streamed up next to the Builder Mario Supporter, which disintegrated into Shadow Bugs while taking the Maruhige Shop Owner Spirit with it. Marx appeared again, rather surprised by this.
"Okay, you guys win this round thanks to that small mutt of yours," Marx sighed, folding his wings behind his body. "Now just rescue your friend up there and we'll get going with the more difficult challenges. I'm not gonna bother you until you rescue your friend up there." Bowser, King Dedede, and Lucario all looked at each other before they turned around to their group.
"You guys wait right here," Bowser said, letting his claws latch onto the path of light before it automatically took him to the junkyard atop the branches. Lucario and King Dedede followed after him, already prepared to rescue one of their many friends trapped within the Mysterious Dimension.
The three fighters looked around the junkyard, starting to feel worried about the Spirits trapped in this realm as they searched for one of the Primaries. What would ever happen to the Spirits that were the incorrect answers? How would they try their best to escape from the draconic gods? Is there a way for the Spirits to obtain their bodies and return home if they finally defeat Galeem and Dharkon?
As King Dedede and Lucario were looking through the junkyard to find the Primary, Bowser heard something scurry through the trash. The Koopa King looked around and saw a figure creeping around behind the garbage piles. At first, Bowser thought it was Marx playing another one of his tricks again, but the figure was a different shape from the jester. Eventually, the noise stopped, and Bowser crept up to a small pile of where he believed the mysterious guest was hiding.
Once Bowser lifted up the trash in one clean scoop with both of his clawed hands, unable to hear the sounds of the stranger running away, he suddenly spotted Marx hiding behind the pile. In his talons, the demon held some sort of crown with eyes, and he shoved it onto Bowser's red hair. A cloud of pink glitter engulfed Bowser, and his transformation changed completely. What remained of the Koopa King now stood a Peach look-alike with golden hair, pale skin, a black strapless dress, spiked bracelets, and horns on the sides of the crown resting on her head. The transformed Bowser screamed in horror while Marx laughed hysterically, gathering the attention of Lucario and King Dedede.
"Ah! Get it off me!" the Bowser-Peach hybrid cried in a voice similar to Peach, her face beaming red as she tried to adjust to the situation. When King Dedede and Lucario heard Marx laughing humorously, they attempted not to laugh.
"GET IT OFF ME!" the transformed Bowser squealed, grabbing ahold of the crown on her head and pulling it off. Bowser turned back to normal, filled with relief, and threw the crown at Marx. Once the power-up hit the demon's face, Marx could do nothing but hold in his laughs.
"You said you weren't gonna bother us!" Bowser snapped, growling in his usual voice.
"I'm sorry…!" Marx snickered as he hid his mouth behind his talons. "I just couldn't resist. You were pretty gullible enough to fall into that trick."
"You sure looked cute when you looked like a gal," King Dedede chuckled, causing the Koopa King to sweat nervously.
"Okay, okay," Marx sighed, trying to calm his laughter down. "No more bothering you like that. Y'know, before I put that crown on Bowser's head and turned him into a gothic princess, there was another fighter hiding behind that pile. The challenger has been stuck in my realm for quite a while, and they know all about my tricks and traps. They're not even a Primary. They left before I appeared and pulled that prank on Bowser."
The three Smashers could not believe it. Had they just missed contact with the sixth warrior to survive Galeem's attack? Not much was spoken about the mysterious figure as soon as it hid behind one of the piles, vanishing without a trace.
"Oh, by the way, the pal you're looking for is right behind you," Marx continued. "Sic 'em, Regigigas!" The demonic entity vanished without another word. Lucario, King Dedede, and Bowser turned around to see none other than the R.O.B. Primary, who was possessed by the Colossal Pokémon. King Dedede charged straight for the captured fighter, but the R.O.B. Primary simply used his robotic arms to block the massive hammer swings. He then picked up the King of Dreamland, flinging him into a pile of trash.
This left the R.O.B. Primary open to Lucario's powerful kicks, and he began dodging the gray arms swinging over his head. The captured fighter's torso moved down the spine, and it spun around in a circle down at the base. Lucario flinched from the attack and jumped back, but Bowser was basically indestructible as he charged a forward smash behind the R.O.B. Primary. King Dedede jumped out from the trash pile and started thrusting his mallet in front of him, hitting the possessed ex-Ancient Minister and knocking him into the ground. Once the R.O.B. Primary stood up, he kept an open mind of a Gordo flying straight for his face. He used his side special, spinning his arms around his body and reflecting the Gordo at Bowser. Lucario got in front of the Koopa King and used Double Team, sending it back at King Dedede. The King of Dreamland inhaled his own Gordo and spat it behind the R.O.B. Primary, creating enough damage to knock out the captured fighter.
As R.O.B.'s unconscious body fell to the ground, the red mist surrounding his robotic body broke off with the Dharkon Lock, the Regigigas Spirit flew off in the red cloud, freeing R.O.B. from the control of the Seraph of Chaos. R.O.B.'s camera eyes slowly adjusted as he looked up, the shutters adjusting his vision as he got back on the wheels below his base.
"Looks like you're safe now," Lucario sighed with relief. "Come on. We have no time to waste, and who knows what kinds of tricks Marx has in his grimy claws?" The Aura Pokémon got to the edge of the light path, sliding from the junkyard down the tree back to the group. As R.O.B., King Dedede, and Bowser followed after him, the mysterious figure watching before peeked out from one of the garbage piles in the junkyard, still keeping their face hidden. Marx appeared right behind the hidden fighter, standing on the dirty ground and wingless.
"I suppose you're waiting for a chance to show up, huh?" Marx asked the stranger. "You think combining your strength with these guys can stop what I have planned? I suppose I can kill you right there and now, but where's the fun in that?" Marx then floated into the air, his golden wings with hexagon scales appearing as he vanished, leaving behind the hidden stranger and his echoing laughter ringing throughout the Mysterious Dimension.
