Captain Falcon's Theatre (finale): One Final Race
Time to race.
Show me your moves!
The effects of excessive isolation are undeniable…
Souls who are stuck in a dangerously long period of reclusiveness will be plagued with damaged relationships and the inability to call upon others in times of crisis…
Both the self-imposed and forced variants hinder a person's ability to connect with others, and the former is seen also as a sign of fear, hatred, and apathy…
Regardless of type, this can prevent those around them from giving out any help…
While short periods of seclusion can help relax the mind, isolation should not be performed indefinitely…
Some even go insane due to negative thoughts that arise from the mind…
Furthermore, the mind-breaking dark beliefs can force a person to turn to horrible acts…
"Show me your moves, Magnus!" Captain Falcon grunted as he and Magnus Hedin launched their vehicles across the opening portion of the track. Within seconds, the metallic frame that ominously loomed overhead vanished as the cavern's height was sharply reduced to a mere fraction of its original measurement. A strange, yellowish glow also started to emerge from the track when the two racers were far enough from the starting line, almost as if something luminescent was buried within the metallic frame. Magnus, now free from the restrictions that had plagued him, immediately resorted to attacking Falcon with brute force.
WHAM!
"Looks like you're not holding back this time," the bounty hunter sighed. Indeed, Magnus's behavior was noticeably more violent and discriminating than before, even when ignoring the fact that he and Falcon were the only racers in this grueling battle. Slams and spins were being tossed out at a greater frequency, which was appropriately coupled with increased power.
"The piece will be mine, Falcon," Magnus growled sinisterly, "And you will not stop me or my leader." While entering a larger part of the repurposed mine where separate portions of the track almost touched each other, the dark captain proceeded to continue his violent behavior, but Falcon was quick to fight back with his own arsenal of offensive maneuvers. With all its strength, the Blue Falcon attacked at a rhythmic pace that was unaffected by the track twisting onto its side, which seemingly altered where the lava's characteristic glow was emerging from. The Unbound Serpent then attempted to throw out a heavy blow that could cripple or even outright destroy smaller vehicles, but this was avoided by the bird of prey's swift movements.
"You'd be surprised on how difficult it is for someone to put me down," Falcon sighed. Sweeping in fast, he attempted to shove Magnus against the railing spanning the right side of the track, but the Lord utilized his vehicle's bulk to resist the blow and even force the longtime Smasher into a stalemate. The track returned to the orientation it had assumed at the very beginning, but this was marked by the introduction of a new obstacle: superheated panels of steel that shined a dangerous white and added more heat to the cavern.
"Shit, nearly forgot about those things," the bounty hunter grunted. His efforts to avoid damage from extreme temperatures were mired by Magnus's aggressive attacks, which had now chipped off about a third of the Blue Falcon's total energy.
"You guys are just asking to get smashed, big time," Dedede puffed. His hammer was plowing through row after row of Lords, of which there were close to several hundred, creating a mess of blackened blood and smashed innards. Against a steel floor as polished as the one he was on, the overall amount of gore created a sort of duality that was seldom noticed, though the contrast between the two elements was as clear as day and night. The greedy king then launched a Gordo at a single foe, but the projectile was magically reflected with ease. Just a few meters away, Peach was in the process of demonstrating her wrist-mounted cannon's devastating potential.
I've only been a cyborg for a few hours, but I'm already beginning to see the benefits, the princess pondered to herself. Spheres of white energy zipped out of her weapon at breakneck speeds, which ensured that no cultist would escape annihilation. Limbs and heads were vaporized at a rate that would surprise even the other Smashers, if they were not being harassed. Further fueling the flames of brutal death was Charizard's powerful Flamethrower, which successfully reduced robes to ashes and overwhelmed Återuppliva's power to rapidly regenerate most body parts. Two Lords attempted to strike the Flame Pokémon with crossing bolts of electricity, but a simple roll was all that the latter needed to remain safe. Kirby and Jigglypuff were about to team up for a powerful attack when a swarm of icy spheres began to pummel their air-filled bodies with intense ferocity.
POW! POW!
"Puff!" the Balloon Pokémon shrieked as its nerves were filled with pain. While Kirby also yelped loudly, he was quick to shatter the harmful hail with his hammer. R.O.B. contributed to the resistance by firing off lasers from his mechanical eyes.
"Poyo," Kirby chirped.
"You are welcome," the robot responded. He then proceeded to eviscerate a few more foes with a combination of lasers and thruster-produced fire. One foe executed a surprise attack with a dark sphere, but this move was quickly punished by R.O.B. utilizing his arms to swiftly tear her head off.
"Heads up, Peach!" Dedede shouted, having noticed a Lord ready to attack the cyborg princess. With lightning-fast reflexes made possible by technology, Peach launched herself into the air and retaliated with a fist that penetrated her aggressor's torso; as she pulled away, her cannon changed into a narrower shape as it entered a mode designed for close combat. Before the Lord could even discern what was about to happen…
SLASH!
The green energy blade that suddenly extended from the gun tore through the evil man in an instant. His upper body slowly slid off the waist and onto the floor, where it was subsequently stepped on by its owner's comrades.
Falcon and Magnus were still in a hot struggle for dominance, with neither side holding a decisive advantage. The near-endless cycle of stalemates seemed to repeat quite frequently, with the reset trigger coming in the form of energy strips placed at certain points on the track. In fact, it was not uncommon for one of the drivers to be saved by pure luck when he was about to be destroyed by the other. The equal standing in terms of skill was also a major factor, primarily because it prevented the two opposing captains to keep harassing each other for long. The traps, as deadly as they were, failed to cause significant damage to the Blue Falcon or the Unbound Serpent because of infrequent exposure, which was the final nail in nullifying all advantages. Falcon, taking note of all this, conjured a simple question inside his mind:
Will this end in a tie…?
CRACK!
The world around the bounty hunter shook harshly as he was shoved against a rail separating him from a fiery end. Now guided back into reality, he shattered Magnus's tight grip by spinning much faster than normal. With each hit, the Unbound Serpent lost a good amount of energy and was rattled to the point where the dark captain simply could not keep his path straight. Seeing red again, he knocked the back of the Blue Falcon to send the bounty hunter spiraling out of control, but Falcon adamantly held his ground via drifting. Subsequent attempts were marked by failure despite the sharp turns granting a perfect opportunity to destabilize and even kill Port Town's renowned guardian.
"It's time to make this race a little more… explosive," Magnus sighed forcefully. Forcing the top of his cockpit open, he launched several white spheres ahead of his position, much to the confusion of Falcon.
"What is he doing?" the bounty hunter asked himself. At the beginning of the second lap, Magnus's projectiles zipped ahead and soon fell out of sight. Shrugging the event off as just a minor distraction, he engaged his boosters to soar ahead and win the battle for the piece. The distance between heroic bird and sinister serpent increased as time passed by; even the latter's boost power was not enough to catch up. Falcon passed through the cavern with no problem whatsoever, but as he approached the area filled with sizzling metals, a dreaded surprise was ready to catch him off-guard. The Blue Falcon unintentionally approached one of the planted spheres…
BOOM!
"What the?!" the good captain yelped. In seconds, his vehicle was suddenly shoved into a hazard zone by an explosion from the left. As Falcon struggled to regain control, the extreme temperatures started eating away at the Blue Falcon's energy to add more fuel to the problem. To make matters even worse, Magnus was slowly catching up; if Falcon could not break free from his current predicament, the dark captain believed, then the piece was almost guaranteed to be in possession of the Lords. Within the next few seconds, the Unbound Serpent quickly reduced the distance between the Blue Falcon and itself by remaining at a higher speed due to the avoidance of traps. Falcon regained his composure in seconds, but by then, the Lord was already within striking distance.
"Better make a quick getaway," the Port Town denizen puffed. The boosters were immediately engaged to make a quick escape, but Magnus also started speeding up to remain in close contact.
"Run into one of my spheres," the Lord sighed. "It will make the race so much easier for me." But the bounty hunter, having noticed the traps ahead, indirectly responded by utilizing evasive movements that were both fast and precise.
"I won't fall for your trick again," Falcon proclaimed.
"Charizard, use Flare Blitz!" Red ordered, shoving a nearby Lord into the lava as he did so. At its owner and friend's command, the draconic Pokémon coated its body in flames before furiously charging right into several Lords who were distracted with Peach.
BOOM!
"Woah, that nearly got me," the princess gasped. The impact of the fiery attack resulted in a large explosion that engulfed no less than approximately twenty cultists, with loud screams and uncontrolled body motions following immediately thereafter. Some of the victims, blinded by the searing flames, unknowingly dashed off the battleground and into the bubbling lava. Meanwhile, Charizard felt pain tearing through its physical form as it bounced backwards from the earlier collision; its limbs temporarily felt too heavy to move due to the nerves in each being overloaded, and its brain pounded relentlessly against its cranium, almost as if the former was struggling to break free. All this was enough to let two foes earn a free hit via lightning bolts.
ZAP! ZAP!
"ARRGH!" the Flame Pokémon painfully yelled. It attempted to rise back up, but a darkness-fueled kick to the gut forced it to once again topple over. It was not until a sudden blur decapitated the dark Lords that it was freed from its short-lived but hellish torment. With limbs still weakened from the recoil damage, it slowly stood up to receive a glimpse of its savior.
"Gotta love the good ol' upgrade I made to this thing," Dedede sighed. The back of his hammer had split apart to reveal a jet engine constructed from state-of-the-art technology. White flames emerged from the exhaust port and reached distances of approximately a few centimeters. Sparks zipped around the outer casing, giving Charizard the perception that the mechanical device was absolutely bursting with raw energy. And that was not too far away from the truth. The wood-forged front was stained and even outright dripping with a heavy amount of black blood, especially when considering the sheer force utilized in the king's most recent attack.
"Rargh!" Charizard grunted out of appreciation. Wasting no time at all, it then continued to scorch enemies with its fiery breath. Nearby, Kirby leaped into the air and immediately transformed into a pink, semi-symmetrical stone with closed eyes. Within a split second…
CRACK!
The impact of the skull-cracking move reduced an enemy's head into small chunks that soared into the steel floor. Immediately after this violent scene, Kirby leaped out of his stone form to pulverize a few more Lords with his hammer, now ignited with yellow flames. Loud cracks rang throughout the area as solid wood shattered bones into small pieces, standing out over all the other noises of the current battle.
"Let's shake things up!" Dedede announced. With a short but powerful yell, the self-proclaimed ruler of Dream Land executed his signature move, soaring into the air and then landing with a loud thud that nearly forced the floor to vibrate; a single foe was crushed underneath his massive bulk, and most of the others stumbled backwards as they failed to hold their ground. However, two Lords resisted this earthquake-inducing event and quickly fired spheres of ice from their hands.
CHINK!
"Oh, no way," the king groaned. The attack left most of his lower body frozen within an irregular formation of ice, and a stinging sensation, which almost felt like a burn, subsequently overtook him. His hammer was effective enough to break the solid form of hydrogen dioxide to tiny bits, but by the time the job was finished, a spear composed of pure energy impaled him right in the left shoulder.
CRACK!
"YOW!" The injured king could feel something, presumably a bone, snapping inside his body. The affected area immediately became a deeper shade of red thanks to the bleeding, although it was not too noticeable due to the existing hue of Dedede's robe.
"Puff!" Jigglypuff yelled as it knocked a foe into the lava. Utilizing its ability to remain in the air, it leaped off the platform to distract some of the Lords long enough for assisted kills; the Balloon Pokémon was, by this point, already aware that it would not be able to directly defeat the Lords outside of Rest or environmental hazards, so creating an eye-grabbing scene was one of its best attempts at contributing to the battle. Attacks were thrown out at a frequent rate, but Jiggypuff's excellent mobility in the air rendered them useless.
"Just my luck," Peach sighed to herself. With her bionic eye locking on via the use of reticles, she dived into her distracted targets like an angry, mechanized hawk and proceeded to slice through all of them with her extended blade. Most of the slaughtered Lords fell off the platform, with their bodies splitting apart halfway between cold steel and molten rock.
"Jigglypuff," the Balloon Pokémon chirped, floating back to the battle's center.
"No problem," the princess replied. As she once again soared into the air, her cannon changed back into its original shape before firing more shots at the cultists.
"The final lap's approaching," Falcon grunted to himself. Indeed, as he continued to evade both the explosive traps and the Unbound Serpent, the starting point zipped into view for the second time, now acting as that one gateway to the most intense part of the race. Also within clear view was the battle between his allies and Magnus's troops, complete with black blood soaking the floor and the two sides exchanging serious blows. This simultaneously interested and worried the captain; the interest stemmed primarily from the valiant fighters, especially Peach, being able to hold off against a horde of foes that they had never encountered before. Aside from Lillian revealing their weaknesses, nearly everything about the Lords was shrouded in complete mystery, especially the full extent of their magical powers. While the adventure so far was not an easy one, what those sinister cultists were currently using seemed unable to hold the Smashers back for good. If the conditions were right, Falcon believed, then the Smash Brothers would successfully destroy the enemy in a matter of days, effectively keeping Lillian's home and the Staff of Björn safe.
But the mysteriousness of the Lords was still a major cause for concern. For all the knowledge that was available to Falcon and the others, there could very well be at least one deadly weapon hidden within the dark organization, and if it was ever encountered by a stroke of soured luck…
As the Blue Falcon passed up the starting line, Lillian's mentioning of a hostile encounter that drained her of energy zipped back into the racer's memory.
"Most of my energy was consumed in an earlier battle, and whatever was left was focused into the signal that I summoned earlier." This statement left the Smashers wondering just what sort of enemy had confronted Lillian. If it was the Orm's Lords organization, especially if it was in possession of a deadly foe, then that could mean that they would be facing a powerful group of enemies that they were unaware of until now. Some of the Smashers were chilled by this very thought alone, while others tried to suppress it to not have their confidences weakened.
"I hope I don't get to see the thing that attacked Lillian," Falcon sighed. Refocusing on the race, he narrowly avoided a damning blow from Magnus, who was quickly closing in.
"Count yourself lucky that you've been able to withstand my wrath so far," the dark captain growled, activating his vehicle's boosters in the process. "But let it be known that you can only take so much before you begin to crack."
"I better start boosting my way to the finish," the bounty hunter, having noticed Magnus's most recent action, muttered. The Blue Falcon's engaged boosters carried the captain all the way to the large area of semi-intertwining course segments, which was far more than what could be said about the equivalents present on the Lord's bulkier machine. The explosive spheres, which had not dissipated at the start of the lap, were avoided with relative ease despite the superheated metals limiting all possible maneuverability options.
"Maybe this deal is just a way of cheating my group of victory…" Magnus snarled. Even in the mere timespan of a few seconds, the dark captain already began to interpret Falcon's challenge as a way of keeping the staff piece out of his hands. If only he had taken care of his foes earlier, preferably in a way that did not involve racing, then he would already be relishing in his victory. There was only one other way to ensure that Falcon did not triumph.
"The deal is meaningless to me now," the Lord puffed. "I can just abandon it altogether and relieve Falcon of his burdens by executing him myself." Harmlessly passing through his traps, which did not explode due to a mechanism that allowed recognition of their owner, he forced his cockpit open to get ready to jump out at the right time. A loud blowing noise instantly entered his ears as warm air pressed against his hulking form.
"…?" Falcon gasped. As he forced his machine to slow down due to its energy reaching critically low levels, a rear-facing mirror revealed to him an image of his rival preparing to exit the Unbound Serpent, which began to glow purple after magic was subsequently cast on it. The finish line was only a few meters away, but the bounty hunter did not immediately realize this because of his attention being diverted towards Magnus. It was only after he passed through the course's last energy strip did he shrug off the strange event.
"Can't get distracted now," he grunted. Using one final boost, he soared past the finish line and instantly felt a wave of relief soak his body. Now that he was the victor of this grueling race, the staff piece was now his, meaning that he could help complete the Staff of Björn and put a permanent end to the Lords…
WHAM!
"Hitting me again, huh?" the captain sighed as his vehicle recovered from the hit. "It's not going to help you now."
CRACK!
"Damn!" Falcon could barely shield himself from the flying glass shards that used to make up the cockpit's hatch, and not one second had passed before Magnus, now armed with his combat hammer, leaped into clear view. The expression on the bald man's face was comparable to that of a vicious wolf ready to claim its prey, with teeth bared and eyes alight with murderous intent. Furthermore, the skin was bright red with rage, the veins began to shed their subdued appearance in favor of darker coloring, and the month appeared to be frothing slightly.
"I will not stand being denied the piece anymore!" Magnus roared. "It's time that I showed you my true potential!"
"What the fuck are you doing?!" Falcon fired back. He proceeded to swerve the Blue Falcon back and forth to shake the Lord off. "Get off my vehicle now!"
Magnus's anger only increased as the demanding words entered his ears. "Never. I have sent the Unbound Serpent back to the factory hideout, but I do not need it to finish you off! Now, DIE FOR ME!"
WHOOSH!
"Okay, that's it," the savior of Port Town grunted. After setting his vehicle to auto-pilot, he soared out of the cockpit and onto the rear. "You want a true battle? Well, I'll give you one in a second!"
"Geez, how many of these guys are there?" Red muttered. A left-to-right sweep of the terrain revealed that there were still dozens of Lords remaining on the battlefield, even after the heavy casualties they had suffered through. Flames and cutting maneuvers were keeping them at bay, but the Pokémon Champion from Pallet Town was still worried that his allies, except for Peach, would eventually run out of energy and succumb to a gruesome fate, one that would mentally rattle even the most seasoned of fighters.
"Wargh!" Charizard snarled. Flying into the repurposed mine's ceiling, it tore off a part of the rusted frame with its claws and began utilizing it as a way of battering and impaling multiple foes at one time. When combined with Peach and R.O.B.'s high-tech weapons, this new strategy left many Lords dismembered, with some even getting parts of their bodies thrown into the lava. The hammers of the Dream Land duo also contributed to the chaotic violence, although they were less efficient in regards to their raw killing power. Jigglypuff continued to throw foes off the field, and Red was forced to defend himself on several occasions.
"Charizard, catch this!" Peach called out. With superhuman strength, she tossed an unlucky foe right into the sharp end of the Flame Pokémon's new weapon, which was held upwards in preparation…
SPLACK!
"Rrgh…" the fiery creature grunted as black blood sprayed onto its orange skin. Within seconds, its natural appearance was ruined by the extreme contrast of the two colors, which was very likely to give an outsider the impression that it got dumped into some contaminated liquid. This detail was not focused on for long, however, and the assault on the Lords resumed like nothing ever happened.
"Jigglypuff… Jigglypuff…"
"Hey, cover your ears!" Dedede announced. His eyes caught the glimpse of the air-filled Pokémon singing a sleep-inducing song, which caused some of the Lords around to collapse very suddenly. Peach and R.O.B. temporarily deactivated their hearing ports while the rest of the group placed hands over ears.
"What is this…" a single Lord yawned. His arms wobbled as they struggled to support him, but such resistance to sleepiness would be in vain when the elbows suddenly entered a bent shape, causing the man's head to strike the blood-soaked floor. Most of his surviving comrades also suffered this fate as each musical note of Jigglypuff's song impacted their ear drums.
"Routing power to laser projectors," R.O.B. beeped. While most of the cultists gradually succumbed to the mist of drowsiness, the robot's eyes inherited a reddish glow that only grew more intense with each passing second. Some of the Smashers, particularly Dedede and Charizard, were forced to roll out of the way when they noticed just what he was about to perform.
ZAP-WOOOOOOO!
"Glad I wasn't in the way," the greedy king gasped. In front in him was a new assortment of corpses that were missing their upper halves. Due to the extreme power of R.O.B.'s overclocked laser beams, there was absolutely nothing that remained above the waist, not even a shred of flesh.
"Projectors overheating; entering cooldown mode," the robot chirped. As his eyes slowly lost their dangerous glow, he launched one of his signature Gyros to attack a distant foe.
"Come at me, Magnus," Falcon taunted. He was now standing on the side of his vehicle because of the track's current orientation. "Show me what you have in store."
"I will," the Lord replied, his form glued firmly to the Blue Falcon because of his anti-gravity magic. Reaching out with surprisingly quick reflexes, he attempted to shove the good captain against the road. This was almost successful…
POW!
…until he received a flame-fueled jab to the gut. Rapid swings of the hammer were also very close to striking the intended target, but despite the battle area having very limited space, Falcon swiftly avoided serious damage by tapping into his acrobatic prowess. The Falcon Kick was brought into play to launch Magnus off the vehicle, but a sharp swing of the hammer caused the fiery blow to fail in its endeavor. A loud cracking noise rang throughout the cavern as Falcon's right ankle was damaged from the blow; the bounty hunter was forced to squeeze the broken area with one hand, with the other holding onto the cockpit in response to the track briefly assuming an upward path.
"That's more like it," was the dark captain's sneering remark. At this point, the track quickly reassumed its regular orientation, forcing both fighters to leap back onto the Blue Falcon's topmost surface. Magnus launched an icicle right at his foe, but the attack missed and struck one of the explosive spheres instead. In response, Falcon engaged his unwieldy but powerful Raptor Boost. On impact, the bald man was thrown a short distance into the air, with his bearded chin sustaining the full damage inflicted by the fiery fist. Several more rounds of the attack were executed, with each one burning a different part of the Lord's obese body.
"You should've upheld your part of the bargain, Hedin," the bounty hunter slowly remarked. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this."
"Why should I follow your deal when I can just rip you apart and save myself the trouble?" Magnus puffed. As he prepared to his swing his weapon, his burns were healed up by the same magic present in his higher-ranking comrades, which Falcon quickly noticed.
"How could I've forgotten about that..." the pilot muttered, recalling what Lillian had told him. "You are using something greater than Återuppliva, aren't you?"
"Correct," Magnus replied. "The captains of the glorious Orm's Lords are enhanced with healing abilities more advanced than what Åtreuppliva alone can provide. This means that burns and dismemberment will not work against me or anyone else who leads a segment of our organization. You must face it, Falcon; you have no hope of stopping me."
The heroic captain cracked his knuckles together. "If I can't kill you, then I can at least keep you down long enough to get the staff piece first."
"You may try it, Falcon. But I must warn you; it will not be an easy task." The Lord quickly proceeded to freeze his foe's legs with icy magic to ensure that subsequent hits were not evaded. The dark hammer was raised into the air, then…
CRACK! CRACK!
"AGH!" Falcon yelled. He could feel his ribs crack like rocks during an earthquake, which was accompanied by a painful throbbing that almost felt like an inner parasite attempting to break free. This pain was something that he had rarely encountered during his forty-plus years of living; even the worst of bounty hunting missions, including those that involved the dreaded Black Shadow, did not necessarily involve injury of such a high magnitude. As much as danger enjoyed sneaking up on him due to his reputation as a bounty hunter, his lifestyle of relative solitude had kept him out of situations that involved serious harm.
But this was no longer true. And now, he was going to perish unless something was done…
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
"Giving up already, dear savior of Port Town?" Magnus taunted, his wide grin dominating his facial expression.
"I will… never go down… without a fight," Falcon coughed. Igniting his fists, he transformed his icy prison into a mere puddle of water that dampened the top of his vehicle. Magnus attempted to strike again, but his hammer was halted at the very last moment by opposing hands.
"You think you can take my hammer away from me?" the dark captain asked. "Don't make me go insane with laughter." However, Falcon did not verbally respond. Instead, a bright glow began to envelop the pilot's right fist, and before there could be any reaction to this event…
"Falcon…"
BOOM!
"PUNCH!" On impact, the Falcon Punch launched Magnus right into the cockpit. A huge burn spot was present on the obese captain's chest, and his legs were cut up by the glass that remained stuck to the hatch. These injuries were quickly healed, but the attack provoked deep-seated anger to rise from inside the darkest parts of the mind.
"He tricked me…" the Lord snarled. "I will personally make sure that he suffers slowly and painfully for his actions! I WILL TEAR HIM APART, LIMB BY LIMB!"
"Ride's over, Magnus!" Falcon announced. His Falcon Kick was engaged again, and this time, it brutally nailed his rival square in the gut.
"I need to try something a little more effective," Peach sighed. Her laser cannon's frontal ring rotated halfway to the right, a sign that the energy being used to fire shots was being changed. Following this, a blue glow slowly emerged from the weapon, which contrasted with the dark interior witnessed in the standard mode. Determined to test the beam's full potential, she targeted several Lords before raining a hail of shots upon them.
CH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CHINK!
"That's better," the princess sighed. The attacked cultists were now completely encapsulated in sheets of ice that stretched across their entire bodies, effectively preventing them from even twitching a muscle. While soaring to the other side of the field, she noticed Kirby and Dedede shattering frozen bodies with their hammers. What she did not catch, however, was a lightning bolt quickly approaching her from behind like an airborne snake.
ZAP!
"Damn it," she grunted painfully. The electrical overload forced her thrusters to temporarily shut down, and because she was a few meters off the ground, a quick fall was essentially inevitable. But the impact was not too painful; given the information from Stewart's document, her body could withstand anything that was incapable of causing noticeable damage, and her pain receptors were modified to not feel anything unless she sustained an absurdly powerful blow. A few Lords began to surround her to deliver the killing strike, but she froze all of them in a split second.
"You guys thought I was defenseless, didn't you?" she remarked. A few seconds later, Charizard shattered the frozen foes with its melee weapon. As pieces of ice and organic tissue scattered into the air, the draconic Pokémon noticed black stains embedded on each. But this sight was short-lived, for the bits fell into the blood-soaked floor and, in the ice's case, quickly melted due to their small mass.
"Charizard, fly up and use Flamethrower!" Red ordered. After deflecting a shadowy projectile with its weapon, Charizard soared into the air and rained furious hell upon the very foes who sought to revive a monster from the depths. As most of the others watched the fiery Pokémon perform its job, screaming echoed throughout the cave and overwhelmed all other noises produced by the skirmish. The shrill, chilling property of each Lord's scream was comparable to that of a demon being relentlessly and rightfully punished for its vile actions, permanently subjected to the nightmarish environment of Hell itself. The burning bodies were also very symbolic of damnation, as it represented the truly sinister receiving all the pain they had inflicted upon others in a much stronger form.
"I think this battle's close to being over," Dedede remarked. "I'm not seeing a whole lot of Lords left."
But the comment did not comfort Red, for something else had just entered his mind. "Hey, where is Falcon? He should be finished with the race by now."
The king gently scratched the back of his head. "I don't think he's finished ye-"
"No, Dedede. While I was keeping Charizard in check, I saw his vehicle pass through this area three times. That means he should already be done."
"Yeah, but why-"
WhoooOOOOO…
"Poyo! Poyo!" Kirby chirped, his right arm pointing at the incoming Blue Falcon. As the others rotated their bodies to witness Falcon's return, the vehicle suddenly halted with assistance from the emergency brakes and launched Magnus, no longer inside the Unbound Serpent, clean out of the now-damaged cockpit.
"Puff?" Jigglypuff squeaked confusedly. The absence of the Unbound Serpent was… too odd to be a normal occurrence, so to speak, for there was supposed to be race in progress. So, what…
"Finally, we can demonstrate our full potential outside of a race," Magnus grunted as he slowly stood up. "The loss of my troops will not deter me from destroying you and your persistent group."
"That's very true," Falcon sighed, stepping out of his vehicle. "But do you want to know what else is true? Not counting your troops, we have you outnumbered seven to one. We can easily beat you down with our combined strength."
A snarl stretched across Magnus's face. "Such a serious error in judgment… I will show you why the captains of the Orm's Lords are feared by many."
"I'll be the fair judge of your potential. Now let's get started with this, shall we?" As Falcon and his co-Smashers compacted themselves into one group, Magnus ordered the remainder of his troops, having been spared from the vicious incineration, to attack with all that they were given. Without a second left for slower moments until the end, the battle resumed. Laser beams, shadowy spheres, flames, and other deadly projectiles soared throughout the warm air, with some eventually striking their intended targets and others causing minor damage to the barren environment. Some of the Smashers, including Peach and Charizard, returned to the air and continued to deliver death from above. But even through all the chaos, the two opposing captains were focused only on each other, ready to square off in a battle of physical dominance.
"Taste this!" Falcon yelled. In one swift motion, he extended a flaming elbow out to launch Magnus across the field, but while burns were inflicted, the Lord only suffered moderate flinching. His opponent responded with a far-reaching swing that managed to graze the front of the pilot's chest. The pain from the earlier hammer-inflicted strikes reignited and left Falcon unable to move for a short length of time, despite it being noticeably less severe. As with the previous occasion, the imaginary parasites threatened to burst out.
"You are growing weaker with each second," Magnus snarled. His hammer ruthlessly struck Falcon right in the grazed part of his chest, causing the latter to stumble backwards. "Well, I will make sure that you never recover!"
"Wrong," Falcon coughed. As the dark hammer attempted to batter him again, he rolled across the floor and, with precise timing, grabbed Magnus by the chin. The follow-up toss forced the dark captain to land on his bald scalp…
CRACK!
…which inflicted a short period of deep dizziness. Even with his advanced healing abilities and great resilience, it was inevitable that the world around him would be momentarily reduced to an assortment of dull blurs. In fact, he was not able to notice the Knee Smash, bursting with electricity, flying towards his chest until it was too late. Magnus toppled over quickly and was left unable to stand back up, but by a stroke of luck, a single thrust of the hammer, even if it was slightly weaker than normal, successfully pounded Falcon in the abdomen.
"You cannot… defeat me…!" Magnus groaned loudly. After being winded by the hammer, Falcon was forced to roll backwards to remain safe. But the injuries from minutes ago slowed down the rate at which he could move, enough to the point where he barely avoided another concussive hit.
"Anything's possible, Hedin," the bounty hunter replied. An icicle was thrown at him by the dark captain, but the mighty Falcon Punch simultaneously melted and shattered the frozen harbinger of destruction. Yelling loudly, Magnus slammed his hammer into the ground to create an earthquake that harshly rattled the steel track and, in doing so, toppled over some of the ongoing battle's participants, including some of his own followers. Falcon leaped over the attack and was thus spared from the vibration, albeit at the cost of worsening the pain to his right ankle. A shadow ball was launched at the good captain by a single Lord, but it failed to hit its intended target.
"Die already!" Magnus roared. Now freed from his bout of dizziness, he rushed at Falcon with a sort of bravado that could only be matched by few. Falcon, being the more agile of the two captains, leaped over his opponent's head and quickly attacked with a backhanded strike.
POW!
"That feels good, doesn't it?" the bounty hunter quipped. Predictably, Magnus's fury continued to intensify upon hearing the comment, forcing him to attack in a far more erratic manner than usual. Icicles were hurled at a quick pace and hammer swings were faster and stronger, effectively placing a greater strain on the injured Falcon, whose pain still lingered. Despite this, evasive maneuvers were still helpful in avoiding greater damage; on some occasions, they even caused Magnus to unintentionally slaughter his own troops. Offensively, Falcon battered his foe with several rounds of the Falcon Kick in the hopes of knocking him off the track.
"Peach, we need some help here," Dedede called out. Most of the remaining Lords began to close in on him and Kirby, who was starting to show signs of fatigue. The puffball's arms wobbled, his breath was becoming shorter with each second, and his speed began to drop by significant increments. If this battle kept on going, he believed, then there was no telling what would happen in the end. Wooden hammers knocked off some heads and Dedede's Gordos left foes incapacitated long enough to be taken down by a subsequent blow, but the cultists still pressed forward like a swarm of dark insects.
"Poyo!" Kirby cried out, desperate to receive help from the cyborg princess. Since most of the other Smashers were too busy fighting off their opponents, as the puffball noticed in his observation of the field, Peach was the only one available for assistance. A single Lady grabbed him by the forehead and tossed him right into the greedy king, who accidentally smacked him while attempting to reduce an enemy's head to blackened paste.
"Oh, shit!" Dedede gasped. Realizing his latest error, he twirled his hammer along the floor to keep the puffball safe, with some success. But while getting his jet engine ready to charge, he was nailed in the face by a shadow sphere.
"Sonuvabitch…!" he yelled, tightly clenching his face. Since his eyes were blinded by the attack, darkness was all that he could stare at. His temporary blindness was so serious that none of the scenery was available for him to look at…
CRACK! CHINK!
…nor did it allow him to defend against an icy blast from the left. A frozen sheet rapidly stretched across most of his body and left him unable to move. During this, the king also lost his grip on the one weapon that he was infamous for.
"Peach, where are you?!" he yelled again. As Dedede regained his vision, he could hear Kirby screaming in bloody pain, presumably from being brutalized by the Lords. Adrenaline began to course in his bloodstream more than ever before; even though he and the puffball were not always on good terms with each other, mostly due to the former's greediness, they did get along on certain occasions and would even team up to fight off common foes. Also, there was never any desire from one side to have the other killed, even if there were serious injuries involved in a fight.
Regardless of the past conflicts, Dedede believed that it was his duty to protect his co-Smashers in times of darkness, including his on-again, off-again rival.
"Gotta break free…" he grunted. Since his precious weapon was out of reach, the king proceeded to pound his gloved fists against the chilling ice. The pain commonly found from striking a hard surface ensued almost immediately in the king's knuckles, for the ice was extremely durable against unaided blows, and the blood-freezing chill only worsened this problem. All the while, Kirby was being tortured by the Lords with dark magic and physically powerful blows. It almost seemed to the puffball that the pain would never end, until…
BOOM!
"Yikes!" Kirby could hear Dedede shout. Upon the primary protector of Dream Land opening his eyes, he noticed right in front of him a large spot of bloody messes that were once several Lords, complete with a burnt coloring added to the steel floor. While he slowly stood up, a reddish sphere of pure energy landed right into another group of cultists and exploded in the split second that followed afterwards. The puffball slowly rolled his eyes upward to catch the sight of his savior.
"Poyo," he chirped in appreciation. Floating a few meters away was Peach, whose cannon was now set to a fourth mode designed for more explosive power. The cannon itself harbored a reddish glow emerging from within and its outer ring was separated into four segments of equal length.
"Sorry that I couldn't get here earlier," the princess remarked somewhat slowly. "I had to pull Charizard out of a tricky situation since it was paralyzed by a pretty strong thunderbolt. If I hadn't stepped in at the right moment, it would have been torn apart in seconds."
"Hey, you think you can give me a hand?" Dedede suggested. At the king's request, the augmented princess shattered the ice with a single punch, although she also hammered him in the stomach by accident.
"Ugh… Thanks…" the penguin-like being moaned. While retrieving his hammer, he was forced to lower his upper body because of the dull but persistent pain that plagued his large stomach. Nevertheless, his efficiency in battle remained as strong as it ever was, demonstrated by his swift attacks tearing enemy bodies apart.
"Charizard, use Shadow Claw!" Red ordered. On cue, the Pokémon's right hand was surrounded with a purple-black glow that contrasted with the orange skin. No longer bounded by the moveset restrictions witnessed in Smash battles, Charizard rushed ahead with a loud roar and sliced off several heads with its darkness-fueled talons.
"This fight is almost over," R.O.B. commented to himself. A sweeping analysis aided by his advanced technology revealed that there were approximately less than thirty Lords remaining, which greatly contrast from the hundreds, if not thousands of Lords that were present at the beginning. Several more lasers were fired from the robot's eyes to drop the number even further to a rough estimate of twenty.
"Puff," Jigglypuff chirped as it smacked two more foes into the lava. With Charizard's help, it swiftly eliminated the remainder of the troops, officially leaving Magnus all on his own.
"Here comes the big one," Falcon remarked. Tossing his larger enemy into the air, he leaped upwards and quickly latched on with the far-reaching Falcon Dive. Magnus felt minor burns as the bounty hunter's hands sank into his chest, but such injuries would only be the prelude to something far more damaging.
BOOM!
"YES!" Falcon shouted. The attack's resulting explosion launched the dark captain right into the track's finish line, all while leaving him with serious burns on his thick skin. By this point, his clothing was badly damaged from exposure to flames, leaving large parts of his body exposed to the cave's warm air. Getting up at a slower speed than normal, he was about to smash Falcon's head with the metallic hammer, but stopped when he noticed the rest of the Smashers, still kicking and ready to finish their mission.
"What amazing skills you and your group have, Falcon," he sighed. "I guess I must have underestimated you after all; if we were on more… cordial terms, I would have asked you to join the Lords in the quest to revive the Svärtad Orm. But that ship has sailed a long time ago…"
"Doesn't matter away," Falcon replied bluntly. "I wouldn't even consider joining your dreaded group, even if you threatened Lillian."
The obese man temporarily paused upon hearing the maiden's name. "The young child of the Åkerfeldts, eh? Well, my leader has something in store for her, but that is for another time. Now, prepare to die!"
"Let's go." Falcon prepared to hammer his enemy in the gut, but a quick hammer strike sent him falling into the floor. As a way of providing backup, Charizard attempted to swing its tipped battering ram and nearly succeeded in earning a clean hit, except that Magnus tapped into his raw strength to avoid any injury. As the two opposing warriors entered a stalemate, Peach rushed in with her energy sword and delivered an impaling strike that would have downed any ordinary being, but the Lord's healing ability kicked in almost immediately and prevented death from being a strong possibility. Realizing that Charizard was about to be dominated in its ongoing struggle, the cyborg princess then resorted to swift decapitation.
SLASH!
"That should take care of him," she sighed. As the bald man's head soared across the metallic track, a trail of blood, far separated from the carnage of the earlier skirmish, dotted the steel surface in a way that closely resembled an artist splashing paint with a flick of his paintbrush. Except for Falcon, a wave of relief washed over the bodies of each Smasher, who were more than ready to take a long rest after sustaining noteworthy injuries and heavy fatigue.
"Well, I guess we can go-" Red started, but his statement cut off by a hand motion from Falcon.
"Not yet," the bounty hunter grunted. "Do you know what I've just remembered about Magnus and his fellow captains? Apparently, they are using a magical spell that is stronger than Återuppliva, meaning that burns and dismemberment can't kill them."
"You're joking, right?" Dedede groaned. "Please tell me that you're... Oh..."
The captain turned his head to the sight of his foe's body, which was still standing. "Sadly, it's true. And I have reason to believe that this spell, the specific origins of which are still unknown, is also what helped Magnus revive himself after he was roasted at Fire Field."
"I'm detecting some vital signs in Magnus's body," Peach added. Ignoring the fact that a dark fluid was assuming the shape of the captain's head, she noticed via biometric scan that the dark captain still had an active heart rate when a normal being would have shown a flat line after the fatal blow. Meanwhile, Magnus's original head began to decompose into a black, tar-like liquid that closely resembled the dark blood of the Lords in all ways except for viscosity. Red and Jigglypuff cringed slightly at this rather disturbing sight, primarily due to the decomposition reminding them of a body part rotting away.
"Die already…" a revived Magnus growled loudly. He began to summon lightning bolts from the palm of his free hand. "Just die for me!"
"Try and make us die," Falcon sighed. The Falcon Kick was used to remain low, which certainly helped in avoiding the vicious bolts that threatened to fry him. Most of the others were not as lucky; Charizard and Peach were pulled down to the track as electricity removed their ability to fly around the area as they pleased. R.O.B., for the second time in the adventure, suffered from electrical overload. Jigglypuff's Rollout was sent careening off-course to the point where the Balloon Pokémon almost fell into the pool of lava. Red and Kirby, the luckier ones, attempted to assist Falcon in disarming Magnus.
"You dare attempt to take my precious weapon away from me?!" the dark captain snarled. His strength, as great as it was, was evenly matched by the combined forces of three Smashers. Falcon was the main opponent due to his leaner physique, but the Pokémon Champion and the puffball also posed a significant threat with their combined contributions. Lactic acid invaded the muscles and all four belligerents felt a burning sensation throughout their bodies, which almost exacerbated their existing pain. Faces turned red as the strain of extreme exertion began to take hold. Falcon and Magnus grunted loudly as they struggled for dominance.
"Go down… already…" the bounty hunter forcefully groaned.
"Poyo…" Kirby squeaked, albeit in a slower manner than usual.
"Victory will not… be yours!" Magnus growled. With a loud snarl, he successfully kicked Kirby and Red away, forcing them to yelp loudly, and would have done the same thing to Falcon…
WHAM!
…had the latter not executed a two-footed kick to his jaw. The damage was relatively minor, but the side effect of disorientation was just enough for Falcon to steal the hammer from his foe's thick hands. It was at this point that the tide clearly began to turn; with fast reflexes, the pilot began to pummel his foe with the hardened weapon while simultaneously avoiding counterattacks magical and physical. Red assisted with the assault by sweeping one of the obese man's legs from behind.
"Huh?!" the dark captain gasped. As he helplessly toppled over, he and Falcon rolled to the right side of the track, close to the edge where only a single step was needed to fall into lava. In a desperate effort to protect himself, Magnus electrified his body with magic.
ZAP!
"YAGH!" Falcon yelped. His nerves were nearly fried by the potentially crippling attack, leaving him unable to move by the time he was subsequently grabbed by the neck. The pain that he endured also forced him to lose his grip on Magnus's weapon. In seconds, he was left hanging over the very same lava that consumed Deathborn's life many years ago.
"Now, there is no escape for you…" he could hear his overweight opponent growl. To ensure that none of the other Smashers interfered, Magnus conjured a shield capable of blocking almost any attack. Falcon struggled to break free from the crushing grip, but even his strength was inefficient in helping him achieve any success. Faint banging noises were heard as his co-fighters attempted to break through the barrier.
"Die…" the Lord growled. Falcon was dropped into the lava below, but at the last possible moment, the good captain extended his hands to cling onto the ledge. This was not immediately noticed because of the meager amount of space his hands covered; even Peach and R.O.B., two beings who harbored enhanced vision, initially believed that Magnus had earned his long-awaited kill. Some of the Smashers stopped attacking the barrier, struck with the shock of Falcon's supposed death.
"Is he dead…?" Red gulped. Heaviness gripped his heart as he adamantly attempted to deny the possibility of Falcon's death.
"There's no way he could've survived that," Dedede sighed mournfully. By this point, his arms were tired from constant swinging, for lactic acid made them far too heavy to be lifted.
"And now is the time to take out the rest of the trash," Magnus growled. He attempted to disable his barrier to garner more kills, but this action was interrupted by a snagging feeling on his left leg.
Wait a minute. A snagging feeling? What could possibly be pulling him at his…
"You're going down to the fires of Hell," Falcon announced, his arms latched onto his foe's closer leg. With all the strength that was left, his lower body began pressing against the track to pull the heavy Lord down. The cracked ankle now ached more than ever before, almost to the point where it would break if subjected to further pressure.
"He's still alive?" Dedede gasped.
"YOU!" the Lord roared. His free leg attempted to smack the bounty hunter in the face, but each hit was avoided with relative ease. In the process of having to focus on Falcon, his concentration on the barrier was broken, now allowing the Smashers to push him off the track with their moves.
"Gotcha," Falcon grunted. As Magnus grabbed onto the ledge, he felt the bounty hunter attempting to pull him down, and since his legs were held in place, it was very difficult for Falcon to be kicked off. It was at this point that a thought entered his mind; for the first time in his career as a Lord, he truly felt nervous. With the current situation, he could be easily stopped from obtaining the staff piece and then face the wrath of his leader immediately afterwards. In his own experiences, the leader was the type of man who did not take very kindly to failure, even though most of his punishments were not violent by any means. There were some occasions where second chances were given, but…
The leader was a feared man who was not to be disappointed.
"So long, Hedin," Falcon muttered. He leaped up to the track and, with the help of his teammates, delivered one final strike that knocked the dark captain into the lava below. For what seemed like a few seconds, there was near-absolute silence that contrasted with the earlier battle's noisy environment. In fact, the only audible sound remaining was the flowing of the cold, fiery streams that Magnus was falling into. But it was not long until a distant splashing echoed throughout the cave, continuously repeating for an unknown but presumably long stretch of time. This time, true relief was felt by everyone in the party, including Captain Falcon himself. With no more threats in the way, the mission to obtain the staff piece could now be completed with relative ease.
"That takes care of him," Red sighed. As he spoke, he proceeded to hop onto Charizard's back. "Let's get outta here."
"We better take of one more thing before we leave," Falcon added. "In a few hours, we need to head over to the F-Zero office to obtain the piece."
The beaten Smashers proceeded to leave the ominous cave, departing from the very area of dark scenery…
At the F-Zero office in Downtown Port Town, seven hours later…
"So you want to purchase the Platinum Cup's trophy, huh?" the corporate head asked. The blue-eyed official was an older man, presumably around his sixties, and was dressed in a white suit complimented by a gray undershirt and a striped tie. His hair was a smooth black, something that was strikingly uncommon for someone his age.
"Yes," Falcon replied. In the gray room filled with photographs of F-Zero courses, a few college degrees, a coffee machine, several lights, and a wooden desk, the captain was the only other living occupant; the other Smashers were waiting outside the towering skyscraper. "And even though this may sound ridiculous to you, I actually need it for an adventure that I'm currently stuck in."
"An adventure, eh? Is that why you have all those injuries on your body?" The official took a closer look at Falcon's battered form.
"You're right. Anyway, the trophy apparently contains a piece to a magic staff from another dimension known as the Staff of Björn, which is the only object that can defeat and seal an otherworldly demon called the Svärtad Orm. Until recently, there has been a group called the Orm's Lords, and the people within said group have been attempting to get the piece so they can revive their so-called savior. Some Lords have been sent to other dimensions to get the other four components. Should they complete their mission… Well, you can figure out what happens next."
The official stood up from his chair and slowly paced towards a window revealing the dawn-soaked sky. "Y'know… I've heard about some pretty insane stories in my lifetime, including one where Black Shadow is claimed to be some otherworldly sorcerer, but what you've described to me simply takes the cake. I mean, who in Port Town is going to believe that demons exist? And the trophy containing a piece to a magical staff? That seems ridiculous, don't you think? Finally, I don't think that a cult like the Orm's Lords would even exist, much less attempt to revive their "savior"."
Falcon shrugged his shoulders slightly before continuing. "You should know that the Lords are responsible for murdering the people that went missing over the past few weeks."
"Really, now? And I've heard that Mister Adrian Landon, one of my workers, was one of those unfortunate victims. Before he disappeared, he said to his wife that he saw some strange lights coming from an old building at the city's edges."
"So will you let me purchase the trophy?"
The official regressed back to his chair. "Well, in normal circumstances, I can only hand over the trophy after the Grand Prix's conclusion. But since the stadiums at Mute City and, given from a news report at around midnight, Silence are destroyed, and because you have the most points out of any racer… I'll let you have the trophy for the cost of five-hundred thousand dollars. Besides, there's no way we can continue with the Platinum Cup due to other venues being reserved for future championships, and if you do have a large adventure to complete, then I certainly won't be stopping you."
"You got a deal." Falcon connected his helmet to the Internet to proceed with the online payments…
At the Smash Mansion…
"Leave me alone…" Lillian whimpered tearfully. Despite morning approaching quickly, the maiden was stuck in yet another nightmare that she could not free herself from. This time, the voice inside her head was more haunting, more sinister than before.
"You should have kept your knowledge to yourself…" it spoke. The harshness in its tone of voice was far worse, enough to where it almost sounded like a demon was speaking to the maiden herself. Inhuman it was, and it once again sought to torment her mind with horrible thoughts.
"You cannot stop me from helping the Smashers…" Lillian muttered in a weak tone. Just like before, her body could not move, but there was now a suffocating, death-inducing feeling to top it all off. Something was squeezing at her throat, and whatever it was, there was no physical representation of it whatsoever due to the darkness.
"They cannot stop the Svärtad Orm from being revived… No one can. While we, the Orm's Lords, are still in existence, there is no way that you or anyone else can prevent the inevitable."
The maiden's face began to turn a deep blue. "Let me go… Release me!"
"Never… Lillian… Lillian…"
"No! STOP!"
"LILLIAN… LILLIAN…"
"Lillian, get up-a!" a third, Italian-accented voice shouted. Within seconds, the maiden was forced back into reality, only to notice Mario shaking her by the shoulders.
"Mario…?" she gasped. Before she could let the plumber reply, Lillian proceeded to wipe the salty tears off her face.
"You were-a having a terrible nightmare there," sighed he. His current attire consisted of a plain red T-shirt, dark jeans, and black ankle socks. "What was it about-a?"
Lillian placed her pair of white flats on her feet. "It's that voice again… It keeps trying to burn terrible thoughts into my mind…"
"Again-a…? You-a mean to tell that-a this has happened before?"
"Yes, it has. My initial nightmare happened on the midnight before your team returned, and had Falco not been in this area at the time, I would have gone insane from the sheer terror. I am still unable to identify the speaker; in fact, its voice has gotten raspier than before."
The plumber remained silent as he turned away from the maiden. The fact that the same nightmare had occurred more than one was speaking volumes to him now, and there was little chance that both instances were mere coincidences. Something major was behind this problem, but what was it exactly? Was it a traumatizing event? Or was it something more sinister, even if he was not yet exposed to said source? Hoping to find the answer, he reassumed eye contact with the green-eyed woman.
"What's-a causing your nightmares?"
Lillian's face tensed slightly at the question. "I… have no idea. I do not have information on the source."
"If there's-a anything I can-a do to help you-"
"That will not be necessary. Hopefully, this problem will fade away, but I will let Master Hand know about this… just in case." The maiden prepared to leave the living room when she was halted by Falcon's voice.
"This is Captain Falcon," the bounty hunter spoke. "I have the piece with me; tell Master Hand to get a portal ready."
"Thank you for your efforts, Falcon," Lillian sighed. "I will inform Master Hand right away."
A few minutes later, after the arrival and dispersion of Falcon's group…
"Lillian, can you remove the piece from the trophy?" Falcon calmly demanded. Within his hands was the first-place trophy of the Platinum Cup, shining and exactly how it appeared on the promotional poster.
"As you wish," the maiden whispered. Using her powerful magic, she lifted the trophy out of the captain's hands and proceeded to slowly extract the staff's left wing. During this, a blue glow surrounded the entire object, which contrasted with the warmer colors of the Victorian era-styled hall. It was not long until the process was completed, which also resulted in the rest of the trophy being dissolved.
"Thanks," Falcon sighed, catching the floating staff piece from the air. "Now, where's Mario? Is he around here?"
"I'm right-a here, Falcon," Mario answered, stepping out from one of the hallways as he spoke. The plumber did not appear to be angered in any way, which seemed odd to the bounty hunter. But… maybe Peach's love interest was just trying to keep a calm façade for the sake of conversation. Meanwhile, Lillian began her travel to one of the bathrooms; maybe a warm shower could help relive her of existing stress, she believed.
"Look…" Falcon began. "I'm sorry that I allowed Peach to fall into a dangerous situation. I didn't directly cause her injuries, but I allowed Dedede to lead her and the others into a deadly trap."
"Don't-a sweat it," the plumber sighed with a smirk. "You were-a able to preserve her life in the end, and that's-a all that matters to me. If there's-a anyone that I should-a be pissed at, it's-a Dedede. I will-a deal with him later."
"Um… Do you want to see Peach now?"
"Sure, why not?" By request, Falcon led Mario to the mansion's snow-covered front, whereupon the latter was introduced to a new sight, one that he would have never anticipated.
"Peach?" the plumber gasped. In front of him was indeed the Mushroom Kingdom's crown princess, albeit as a high-tech cyborg. Gone was her traditional dress, and much of her skin was replaced with an alloy that could withstand almost anything. She was clearly altered by her new cybernetic beauty, but she was still Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. Out of relief, he strolled over to hug her.
"Mario!" Peach exclaimed. Her heart rate appeared on the right side of her retinal screen, which was revealed to be rising due to the feelings of excitement that were overtaking her. Such a detail was ignored, however, for her mind was solely focused on the one person she had hoped to be with for the rest of her days. As the two hugged each other, Mario could feel cold steel press against his face, which worked with the frozen climate to chill his skin. But he could also feel warmth upon hearing a thumping noise inside Peach's chest… a sign that she was still among the living. Also worth nothing was the sound of quiet whirring that accompanied the movement of cybernetic limbs.
"I'm-a so glad that you're okay," the plumber spoke, trying to hold back tears of joy. "And I-a know you're-a glad to see me as well, especially since I-a also had a near-death experience, albeit from being-a poisoned."
"At least you're still alive," Peach replied, also fighting back tears. "Now, we just need to wait until Marth's group gets back, but… now that I'm here, I think I should leave a little surprise for Bowser."
"And-a what do you-a mean by-" But the plumber froze upon noticing a cannon emerging from Peach's right forearm.
"I'll be entertaining the Koopa King with my new equipment. I won't kill him, but I'll leave him scarred for life."
A smile stretched across Mario's face. "Really now? If that's-a what you want, then let's-a go entertain him."
The duo stepped back into the warm confines of the Smash Mansion, hoping to fall through with their plan…
Poyo… Poyo-poyo.
-Kirby
And cross Captain Falcon's theatre off the list. There's only two more left to tackle. Next up will be Samus's theatre, followed by Marth's. Then, we can enter the next part of the adventure.
Falcon Punch!