Samus's Theatre (finale): Of the Bizarre and Playful
We're ready to look at the battle against Johan. How will it go down? Read to find out!
Johan: This is where it gets exciting!
I… kinda agree with you on that one, especially since you are the most interesting out of all the captains.
Johan: Yep, the others got nothing on me. Watch me go!
Right, let's start.
The Creator…
It is unclear on whether it actually exists or not, for any knowledge of such is out of reach for mortal beings…
Its form and gender are unknown, its pure appearance not recorded in history…
But deeper still is the mystery of its true intentions…
When considering its position in the universe, the problem of evil and the limit of its power are brought into question…
Many religions have attempted to explain such mysteries, but all have failed due to the reliance on fallacies and falsified doctrine…
Some say that its appearance will be revealed to the departed…
Others say that it will appear at the end of time…
But no evidence of such has been proven…
The answers may be revealed in the future, but until then, the mystery looms…
"Time to kick some ass!" Wolf snorted. No longer at a serious disadvantage, he yanked his blaster from its holster and began firing away with fast laser beams. Johan quickly conjured a shield to block out shots from both the lupine and his vulpine rival, who was also on offense, before firing his pistol at Samus. Despite her fast reflexes, she was unable to defend against a powerful hit that stripped her suit of a few energy units. Snake, after rendering himself invisible to the unaided eye, waited until the captain approached the rest of the group.
"Gotcha," the aging soldier chirped. At a speed expected for someone of his physique, he quickly leaped up and carved a deep gash across Johan's back with the Taser-equipped knife; a subsequent electrical shock delivered painful pulses of energy through the captain's body that were not nullified by his healing factor, but his strength kicked in at the right moment to throw the espionage master over his head.
Thud!
"Let's see if this can nail you down, yes?" the playful captain quipped. While restoring his shield to hold off the other Smashers, he launched an elongated ice shard at his foe for some added damage. The bitter essence of the winter's true power doubled the amount of pain felt by Snake upon being impaled just below the left side of his ribcage, almost as if Mother Nature decided to play a cruel trick on him with sheer coldness. His initial attempt at fighting back was through his pistol, and such an action was fruitless when the weapon was shot out of his hand by its seemingly older predecessor. Then, on the next shot…
Click…
"Huh," Snake grunted, "I guess you forgot to bring some extra bullets with you. Not very smart."
Johan could barely suppress a snicker. "Oh, you're about to find otherwise, my friend. There's a reason why many people call me unpredictable."
"Unpredictable? And what do even mean by-"
BANG!
"DAMN!" The soldier was unprepared for the delayed shot fired into his right shoulder. Briefly ignoring the bleeding after barely dodging a kick to the gut, it was now clear to him that he would have to be careful in dealing with the young captain, for if he was careless for even a few seconds…
"Here we go!" Fox yelled. Leaping over the shield with his smoothly executed jumps, he charged right into Johan with a faster version of the Fire Fox that, perhaps as a trade-off, covered less distance. Nevertheless, he was still able to leave his target with serious burns, burns that left more than a few holes in the black robe. Meta Knight followed this up with an upward swing of his light sword.
"Fighting me with fire, huh?" the captain chirped. "Well, I am certainly not as vulnerable to dismemberment or burns like my good friends in the Orm's Lords, for I have something greater than the usual brand of Återuppliva."
"And what on earth do you mean by-" Samus started, but her sentence fell short of completion upon noticing his burns and black-colored cuts heal immediately, which disturbed her greatly as she remembered what Lillian stated about the captains.
"I should've known what she said was true… You are using something stronger than Återuppliva, right?"
"She?" Johan muttered semi-confusedly. "Are you referring to that Lillian girl? I guess she's done prep work for you all after she and the other prisoner escaped from us, which is all gonna be for nothing in the long run. And yes, I do have magic stronger than Återuppliva."
"Doesn't matter," Wolf grunted. "If we can't put a permanent end to you, then we can at least lay down a good pummeling to temporarily keep you out of commission."
"Okay then…" Johan attempted to launch another ice shard, this one aimed at Fox, but Pikachu's Iron Tail split his attacking hand in half, resulting in black blood staining both the floor and the Mouse Pokémon's tail. Before they were sent back with an emergency burst of electricity, Wolf and Snake added on to the assault with their blaster and handheld grenade, respectively. Narrowly avoiding a magically enhanced shot from the wooden gun, Olimar tossed his blue Pikmin, which suffered the fate of getting ruthlessly swatted away.
"Not gonna work, pal," the captain taunted. While firing his pistol at Samus's incoming missile, he gathered a form of strange energy in his free hand before thrusting it into the ground with a sudden motion, resulting in an orange energy wave that was easily avoided by the vigilant Smashers. However, in the split second that followed…
CRACK! CRACK!
"What the?!" Wolf yelped with the maximum amount of air in his lungs. His vision was nothing but an orange canvas of swirls as the shockwave from before suddenly traveled in the reverse direction, leaving him and the rest of the distracted Smashers at the mercy of an extreme pain rarely experienced. Not even Samus could sustain herself for a while, especially when her Power Suit lost a good portion of its energy and nearly locked itself up. Given from the unexpectedness of the sudden change, the Smashers felt like Death was playing a cruel trick on them to ruin their mission in one of the worst ways possible.
"Okay, I wasn't… expecting that…" Fox groaned. While the shock was working in tandem with his earlier injuries to restrict his movements, he was still able to bring his reflector into play when a barrage of shots, some delayed and others immediate, angrily soared at him and Olimar. Wolf and Snake utilized the opportunity to sneak up on Johan with surprise attacks, though only the latter was successful via a shot from his retrieved handgun; when Wolf attempted to rush forward with Wolf Flash, he was nailed in the gut by Johan's right foot and then stomped into the floor. Samus wasted no time in firing off her superheated Plasma Beam and eventually earned a hit after most of the rounds were blocked. Johan, having healed up his various injuries with powerful magic, teleported out of plain sight and did not reappear for the next few seconds. The Smashers twisted their heads in all directions as they struggled to pinpoint his location.
"Where the hell did he go?" Wolf grunted. The darkness's essence placed a suffocating strain on his good eye, squeezing the organ with a strong force that was barely below the threshold required to make it burst with agony. Samus switched over to her visor's thermograph to detect Johan's heat signature, an effort that ultimately proved to be fruitless when she could not detect a single abnormality in the cold room. Maybe he was not in the realm of physical space, she believed.
Whoo-POW!
"Surprise!" the captain shouted. His sudden reappearance was marked by him delivering a mighty punch at the huntress's visor to send Samus herself flying backwards. And despite the two Lylatian mercenaries, Snake, and Pikachu all attacking him with their respective projectiles, and Meta Knight with his blade, he was far too quick to be caught in their line of fire. In fact, after attacking Samus, he began abusing his teleportation skill to chip away at the other fighters, little by little. Fox and Wolf were nearly cursed with a concussion after taking repeated blows to the head. Pikachu was thrown into the ceiling after being grabbed by its tail. Meta Knight was unable to raise his sword in time and was swatted out of the air by a shot to the right wing. Olimar was dragged across the room and then thrown into a locked door, which resulted in the earlier crack on the Hocotatian's helmet expanding into a jumbled assortment of young glass deltas. Snake dodged some of Johan's hits, but he also fell victim to the playful yet dangerous man's assault upon taking a fist to the ribs.
"Ugh…!" the soldier yelped. Even when removing the fact that his aging body was weaker than in years past, his chest was ravaged by a stabbing pain that was commonly associated with needles or even knives piercing warm skin. The pain only worsened when he was kicked in that same area, with said kick easily launching him into the glass ceiling, almost as if he were nothing more than a mere football.
"Having fun now?" Johan taunted. His ability to teleport kept out of harm's reach for an extended length of time, and it was only when he was blown back by a missile did he actually receive any form of damage, his ability to heal notwithstanding.
"I think you blew up my spleen," the captain slowly muttered, taking note of the bloody hole in his torso. "That sorta hurts, but give me a few minutes and I-"
BOOM!
"Good riddance," Samus, having fired off another missile, grunted. "This man is even more annoying than I initially thought. I can only hope that things with him don't get any worse."
"Pika!" an angry Pikachu snarled. Now fully recovered from its earlier injuries, it launched an Electro Ball at its opponent, with electrically spectacular results. A burst of yellow and white created a field where the darkness could not stay rooted to the room, while electrical currents zipped in all directions, striking all walls and the ceiling. Some of the Smashers, Samus and the Lylatian mercenaries to be more specific, had to roll backwards to avoid getting zapped. Meta Knight took an electrical shock to his left wing, but he was otherwise unscathed. Johan let out a short but silly-sounding squeal that sounded exaggerated to the Smashers, but it was one that still spoke volumes in regards to pain.
"I know this is unlikely, but I hope that knocked him out," Fox commented, shielding his eyes to avoid blindness from the attack's intense light. Strong as it was, however, Pikachu's high-powered shot failed to incapacitate the young man, only leaving behind burns that ruined his youthful appearance, however temporary they were. For whatever reason, his flintlock pistol appeared to be unfazed.
"That'll sting in the morning…" he coughed. His healing factor kicked in once more, restoring flesh and organs by the seconds. "Good thing it won't hurt afterwards!"
"I beg to differ," Meta Knight retorted. After avoiding another orange wave, which differed from the first in that it only crawled forward, the swift warrior produced a cutting tornado with nothing but his sword, with a loud, metallic noise to boot. While sending out a blast of electricity that left more than half of the group unable to move, Johan conjured a shield to block both the tornado and an incoming Skull Bash.
"I know you want to get the piece and all, but I gotta say, you folks really gotta try harder," he chirped with a smirk. "Now, here's one for the people behind the screen, big and small!"
"Pika-" the Pokémon muttered, but no sooner did it speak than it received a blinding flash from Johan.
SHEEN…!
"PIKA!" Pikachu felt extreme discomfort as it was nearly rendered blind by the sudden burst of light. Unable to remain standing, it collapsed into the ground with a faint thud, and its head injuries from before came back to crush its skull. Now lost in a sea of blackness, it was not able to catch the sight of Johan kicking Meta Knight into the air and shooting him with an instantaneous bullet.
"Good thing my visor protects me from intense lights," Samus quipped as she stood back up. Converting into her Morph Ball form, she began circling around Johan to distract him from the other Smashers, excluding the almost-unconscious Olimar. Several delayed shots were fired at her, but proper bomb-assisted jumps gave the huntress a way to avoid damage. Snake and the mercenaries fired away, with Fox occasionally throwing out a charged shot for good measure. Most of the shots were avoided, and the few that did strike the captain were nullified by magical healing; the charged shots, however, took a longer time to completely heal. In return, Johan froze all three solid, but in doing so, he left himself open to a Boost Ball-augmented strike from behind, which imposed a small headache upon him.
"Hey, now that's not fair!" he moaned in his playful voice. He responded to the bounty hunter's attack by teleporting to her location and then kicking her down with both feet. Samus did not feel a heavy amount of pain, although her suit was now down to about two-thirds of its maximum amount.
"Must… get up…" Meta Knight groaned. The shot had left behind a nasty two-way hole in his body, with his heart almost included in the sickening pathway. Combined with his earlier injuries, this potentially fatal form of damage began sapping him of his energy; such an event was marked by his vision slowly falling into blackness, muscles experiencing a stabbing pain when he devoted his efforts to rising from the cold ground, and shakiness that could not be ignored. His tattered cape did not help the situation, as it struggled to keep his levitation steady.
"Can't give up… now…" Once on his feet, it became clear to him that his cape would not last very long during flight, leaving him with the sole option of battling on foot. Even though his speed on the ground was far less impressive than what was exhibited in the air, there was no other alternative available. Besides, his blade was still powerful, even when not bolstered by aerial momentum. He proceeded to approach Johan at dashing speeds…
"Want to play some dodgeball?" the young captain asked of Fox and Wolf. Having captured Samus in her Morph Ball form, he tossed her right into the opposing mercenaries with absurd strength. Fox was freed from his icy prison, but not without taking a massive jolt of pain to the stomach; Wolf suffered a similar fate after a short delay. The bounty hunter herself was about to return to normal when the approaching Johan, in an acrobatic maneuver so fast that the fur-covered pilots almost failed to notice it altogether, executed a flip kick to launch her into the opposite direction. This time, Wolf could barely activate his reflector in time, leaving his vulpine rival to attack with repeated bursts of the Illusion. Meta Knight was within striking distance by the time Johan was left battered by the assault, and he, without giving any second thoughts, carved a large vertical gash into his light-haired foe's back. One horizontal swing later…
SHINK!
"I hope being headless keeps him down for good," Snake, having been liberated from his icy confinement by a heat wave from Fox, groaned hopefully. His eyes caught the sight of the Lord's head dropping to the floor like a stray item from an overfilled bag, and the way it bounced a very short distance from the ground reminded him and a few of the others of a ball striking a force-absorbing floor. Black blood sprayed from the newly-created stump, with a few of the drops splashing onto Samus, who was no longer in her Morph Ball form. All seven Smashers, including the recovering Olimar, felt a small wave of relief splash over their bodies; if decapitation was enough to leave the prankster-style captain down for an extended period of time, they could now retrieve the piece and return to the Smash Mansion in minutes.
Tik…
But they were about to be proven seriously wrong…
"Pika-pika?" Pikachu squeaked. Confusion scrambled into every available millimeter of its mind as it struggled to comprehend the sight of Johan's body standing right back up after receiving what should have been a fatal blow. Maybe the knight's attack was not enough to knock him out for long, it believed, and it would only take something far more powerful to get the job completed. As the rodent-like creature remained lost in its thoughts, the severed head vanished into thin air, only to reappear on the top of the stump. Once the wounds were completely gone, the playful Lord gave out a soft sigh of relief, all in the face of annoyed and beaten fighters who still could not put him down for good.
"Well, that took slightly longer than expected," he chirped. "I thought the spell had failed me for a moment, but anyway… Let's keep on dancing, shall we?"
"I guess you're wrong after all, Snake," Fox complimented in a tone that was angered yet honest. As the ex-FOXHOUND operative attacked with grenades, Fox activated his Fire Fox to score a rushing tackle. This was ultimately fruitless, for he was suddenly stabbed by a knife pulled out from under Johan's robe.
"What!" With shock leaving him paralyzed, he was outright helpless against an uppercut that sent him flying into the ceiling…
SMASH!
…and past it. Some of the broken glass shards painted the unfortunate pilot's body with bleeding cuts that further discolored both fur and uniform. To him, it was almost like several unseen creatures from Hell had just clawed into his flesh, and the fact that the cold winds were exacerbating his pain only burned that perception deeper into his mind. After landing on the ceiling with a loud thud, he slowly stood up to avoid sliding off from the curved roof, but the glass surface rendered the task easier said than actually done. At one point, he even came dangerously close to plummeting to an unpleasant end when his left foot, wracked by fatigue and the inability to hold its ground, took a large skid.
"Yikes!" the furry Smasher yelped. Friction produced by his gloves was all that saved him. "Can't fall down now… Gotta get back up…"
"Okay, now that little fella did give me quite a sting," Johan grunted. Before it got harshly slapped away, Olimar's yellow Pikmin had left behind a few electrical burns when it repeatedly smacked itself against him. Of course, this was of little concern to him.
Try this one for size, Johan, Snake mentally pondered as he prepared to bring out a tranquilizer gun from one of his pockets. Now being prepared for battle after the soldier initially forgot that he had it with him, the M9 was pointed right at the base of the captain's neck, ready to incapacitate. Its subtle laser sight was helpful in aiming inside a dark room while avoiding detection associated with bright lights. In a heartbeat, Snake fired off a round just a mere second before Johan could smash Olimar's helmet open…
Pik!
"Hm?" the young man muttered. "Who's demanding my attention?" Upon touching his smooth neck, it came to his realization that a needle-like object was buried partway into his body.
"Trying to poke a needle into me, eh? Whoever did this must be very sneaky, but that still won't help." The needle was yanked out almost immediately and then thrown into the floor, and this event was only seconds before Wolf took his opportunity to attack with his signature Fire Wolf. While the kick was blocked in time, the aggressive Wolfen pilot unleashed a thrusting motion with his blaster to stun his opponent for a moment.
"Bingo," grunted the Smasher. With fast reflexes needed for an intense battle, he simultaneously avoided a retaliatory ice shard and pulled off a flipping kick that pounded his foe at the jaw. Samus sprayed a swarm of Plasma Beam shots to assist the lupine in his unrelenting attack. Fox, now dropping down from the ceiling, landed right on the top of the captain's head, sending the latter flying down to the floor.
"I'd like to call that move the Pouncing Vulpine," the heroic mercenary jokingly commented with a smug grin, much to the chagrin of Wolf and, to a lesser extent, Snake. He continued to land on his opponent's body until a shot to the arm forced him off. As soon as he fully recovered, Johan sent out another powerful wave of dangerous energy that reversed directions, but this time, most of the Smashers were prepared for the move; Olimar was the only one who was still caught off-guard and suffered as a direct result.
"Ow…" the Hocotatian moaned. Just like before, he was unable to move a single muscle. Meanwhile, Samus fired off her Grapple Beam to ensnare the captain from a distance. The tether was extremely close to capturing its target, but its mission was mired by Johan teleporting across the room in a very unpredictable manner.
"Not again…" Wolf moaned. Pikachu's sparks of electricity failed to make their mark, and even its long-lasting Thunderbolt could not touch a skin cell or a strand of hair. A thrown grenade from Snake missed at the last possible moment and almost got the nearby Fox killed, who was forced to somersault away from the incoming blast. Ice Beam shots were thrown out at a very quick pace, but none were successful. In return, all seven Smashers received a very vicious pummeling.
POW! POW!
"Motherfucker!" Wolf yelled. His snout now felt like it was completely smashed into his skull, with blood dripping out of his nostrils and onto the floor. He was sent flying into one of the doors and collided right into it with a painful thud.
WHOOSH! CRACK!
"Pika!" the rodent-like Pokémon squealed. An ice shard nailed it with enough force to send it flying into a wall. Besides allowing huge amounts of pain to ravage the creature's small body, the icy projectile left it pinned several meters from the ground, almost within touching distance of the glass roof.
CRACK!
"Arrgh…!" Samus groaned. A more focused version of the orange shockwave was so tall and wide that even the quickest of acrobatic motions were not enough to prevent her Power Suit from losing more energy. At this point, there was only one extra reserve remaining alongside the base power supply, and if the situation ever reached the point to where the Chozo-crafted piece of technology failed…
BANG!
"Son of a-!" Snake growled. His attempt at firing off another tranquilizer dart was cut short in a horrible manner when he was shot right below the heart.
CRACK!
"Owwwww!" Fox shouted. His ribs were cracked when he was unable to defend himself against a flying, two-footed dropkick to the chest.
POW!
"…!" Olimar gasped, feeling intense pain in his gut. He was sent soaring into a wall, resulting in the exacerbation of his helmet's cracks.
WHOOSH! CRACK!
"Damn, not this again…" Meta Knight, who was unsuccessful on the defensive, gasped. Inserted into his earlier back wound was an ice shard identical to the one tossed at Pikachu. Unlike the lovable Pokémon, the mysterious warrior was not pinned to any part of the room, but his bleeding problem was now much worse than it was during the last few minutes. The pain was too much for him to ignore, so he was forced to briefly drop out of the battle to remove the shard.
"Well, this is very fun for the audience," Johan chirped with a smirk. "And it certainly is fun for me too. Too bad you won't live for much longer, however, which is quite a damn shame. Now I really wish you folks weren't exposed to Igel..."
"Fun?" Fox furiously interjected. His voice stood strong despite the injuries draining him of energy. "You call this crap fun?! How is tormenting us for the sake of us struggling to earn the piece enjoyable?!"
"You seem like very determined people who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals, and trust me when I say that I've witnessed your battle against my pod of bugs. Any lesser person would have been torn to shreds in seconds, but not you fellows. Besides, battling a weaker foe is no fun at all, so-"
The sentence came to a screeching halt upon the captain himself realizing that he was starting to feel sleepy. Recalling his memories over the past few days, it was true that he stayed up during the night when his foes were unconscious from the poison or, in Snake and Samus's case, extreme electrocution, but he was never the type of person to doze off completely, especially in the middle of a heated battle. Even stranger was the fact that he was not feeling like this a mere minute ago, so something recent had to be the cause behind his newfound drowsiness. As he collapsed to his knees, a sudden realization struck him like a ton of bricks.
"Did someone hit me… with a tranquilizer round…?" yawned he. But even with his condition rapidly undergoing an alteration, he was not ready to let the Smashers snatch away the piece. Seconds before he completely blacked out, he sighed the following words to his army via telepathy:
"Can you fellows… back me up here…? I'm in… a little… trouble…"
"What the heck did he just say?" Fox muttered, unable to translate the last comment.
"No idea, but at least he won't give us more crap for now," Snake replied. However, the soldier's claim was refuted almost immediately, for within the next few seconds…
Voop-WHOOSH! Voop-WHOOSH! Voop-WHOOSH!
"Shit!" Wolf yelped. Newly-created portals began vomiting an undiscernible number of Lords, most dressed in robes, very few in specialized suits. The Smashers were forced to huddle up into a compacted group because of the sharp decline in the amount of free space. Olimar was forced to snatch up his injured Pikmin before they were crushed by the hostile cultists, but while trying to rush back into the group, he nearly tripped when his right foot executed an incorrect stepping motion. Had Fox not assisted him at the right time, he certainly would have been ripped to shreds by the ravenous opponents. Pikachu dislodged the icicle from its body before it was truly surrounded, but not without experiencing a bout of nerve-shattering pain.
"Whew… That was a close call," Fox muttered to himself. His extended right hand was quick to yank the Hocotatian into the relative safety of the group.
"Protect Captain Eriksson at all costs," one of the Lords whispered. "These beings must not steal the piece away from us."
"Okay, remember what Lillian said about Återuppliva," Snake grunted. "We have to either rip apart or scorch the Lords if we want to put them for good."
"Hey, we already got the basics down," Wolf replied, "So let's just cut the BS and fight 'em off already."
"Point taken," Samus agreed. With nothing else to say or think about, the Chozo-raised fighter fired off two missiles in rapid succession. Each explosion resulted in several limbs being blasted off from their respective owners, something that was clearly visible despite the dim lighting. Like Death himself striking from above, Pikachu defeated the wounded foes with a raging Thunderbolt, which also inflicted minor paralysis on a few more opponents. Wolf rushed in topple over a dark row, but as he approached his would-be targets, he was grabbed by the leg and then slammed into the floor with a loud thud. Fox's own rushing attempts fared even worse; not only was his Fire Fox derailed from its intended course, but the icy fist responsible for such also inflicted a major headache upon his skull.
"Ow…" the galactic pilot moaned. Unable to stand up for a while, he was at the mercy of several Lords who were seeking to strip all the flesh from his body. Two of the closest foes impaled him in the gut with energy-formed knives conjured out of thin air, resulting in damage to both flesh and underlying intestinal tract.
SH-SHINK!
He was unable to scream upon receiving the painful treatment. In fact, the sheer pain of his most recent injuries drained him of the strength required to rattle his vocal cords in an abrasive manner; it was almost as if the essence of death was locking his throat in a stranglehold, one that was neither loved nor enjoyed. The vulpine attempted to stand up when a third foe stomped on his chest, drawing more blood via mouth.
Well, I guess I'm screwed… he pondered. But fate suddenly executed a turn for the better when Samus relentlessly incinerated the potential killers with a few charged shots of her Plasma Beam. Some of the Lords were instantly killed when their heads were blown off, but others slowly perished as their robes caught fire, much like demons being scorched for their heinous crimes.
"Thanks, Sammy," Fox groaned in a semi-slurred manner. Now free to continue his contributions to the grueling battle, he proceeded to dash back and forth with the fast-traveling Fox Illusion, defeating a few foes and injuring several more. On one pass, the dash did not inflict any damage, but as soon as he came to a grinding halt…
BOOM!
"Pika?" Pikachu squeaked, having just witnessed an explosion from its fellow Smasher's location. It was unable to obtain a clear view because it was busy beheading several foes with Iron Tail, but there was no doubt in its mind that the Arwing pilot executed something special with his signature speed-boosted attack. There was no time to ponder over this matter, however, for the Lords were quickly surrounding the Mouse Pokémon, ready to kill.
"Pika-chu!"
ZA-WHOOSH…!
The electrical whirlwind conjured by Pikachu spinning rapidly across the ground dragged in a quarter-score of Lords who were unlucky enough to be caught within the move's radius. Electrical currents tore Återuppliva's defensive utility to shreds in a few seconds, complete with horrifying yet appropriate screams of sheer pain. Meanwhile, Wolf held active his back-mounted reflector when a combination of ice shards and electrical bolts began advancing onto his position.
"Is that your best, suckas?" the lupine taunted. After the last projectile collided with his energy-fueled shield, he immediately assumed the offensive position and pushed forward with a deadly mixture of laser beams and vicious swings with the tipped bayonet. With support from Snake's grenades and gunfire, Wolf left several cultists ripped to shreds. During the fast and brutal assault, the sleeping Johan was blown up by a stray grenade; even while unconscious, he regenerated his way back to a healthier state, although his clothes appeared worse than before. His once-clean uniform was now marked by black blood, burn marks, scratches, and holes scattered throughout.
"Help…" Olimar croaked. He was lifted off the ground by a single Lord with just one hand, and with the Hocotatian's minimal strength in comparison to even smaller Smashers like Kirby or Pikachu, his hands were ineffective at helping him break free. The three Pikmin were quick in their efforts to rescue him, but all of them were launched into the room's farthest corner with a single kick. As his air flow was cut off, his head felt much lighter than usual, almost as if his brain was torn out from its resting place. His eyes slowly rolled into the back of his head, leaving him staring at a ceiling that was slowly transforming into an even darker version of itself. All sounds entering his ears were even dimmer, gasps and wheezing inside the helmet notwithstanding. This was a suffocating hell, he barely pondered to himself, and if this was how he was going to drop out of the perilous adventure…
SLASH!
"Pika-pika!" Pikachu chirped. Its tail, temporarily glowing white to hide the still-present stab wound, was soaked in blood as it beheaded Olimar's attacker in less than a second. Bulky hands sluggishly loosened their grip on the rescued space pilot as all source of bodily command died, allowing him to roll away from the battle to recover large amounts of lost breath.
"Ready, McCloud?" Wolf grunted to his longtime rival. The canine-like fighters were at the now-locked door from whence they emerged from, and a row of Lords was slowly closing in on them.
"Ready when you are, O'Donnell!" the Arwing pilot yelled back.
"Then let's tear these fuckers a new asshole!" No significant portion of time even used the opportunity to soar into history before the Fire Fox and Fire Wolf were penetrating no less than two foes per run. The floor, once dry and gray, became drenched and black, stained with what oozed out of each corpse. Pieces of singed robes from Fox's attacks and organs spilled by both aggressors also littered the floor, and despite magical spells being thrown at a rapid-fire pace, the two pilots were nearly unstoppable.
"Not like this…" Meta Knight groaned. His injuries were still preventing him from reaching the apex of performance. Worse was his ability to swing Galaxia at breakneck speeds, now reduced to only half of its full potential. Adding on to the problem was his cape, which was far too damaged to allow extended flight. Despite all this, he had not received one scratch since Johan's incapacitation.
"Taste this…!" With a mighty yell, he leaped into the air and horizontally cleaved an approaching foe in half, decapitated three more, and hacked apart a fifth before a bolt of electricity removed his mobility for a few seconds. Snake rushed to his defense by stunning a few would-be attackers with the M9, a far safer alternative to a grenade that would have accidentally killed off his fellow fighter. Like Johan before them, the targets collapsed as a direct result of sudden drowsiness, although they fell asleep far quicker than their group leader. Samus, seeking to provide support, froze two enemies who were about to impale the soldier with energy-based spears with her Ice Beam, then shattered both with a well-placed missile.
Glad you could help, Sam, he pondered. Rushing over to the fallen knight's position, he could easily notice the amount of fatigue experienced; the Kirby-like warrior's eyes were droopy, a property easily noticed despite the mask, and his arms were wobbling by an amount that was clearly noticeable. The way his breath, raspy and unsteady, was paced just screamed exhaustion.
"Don't worry… about me…" Meta Knight groaned. "Just go… help the others…"
"Not a chance, pal," the ex-FOXHOUND member retorted. "You look very exhausted right now, so I might as well give all the support you need."
But the reclusive fighter of Dream Land was unwilling to yield. "Trust me, I can handle… myself…"
"Are you sure-"
BZZZZZZZ!
"What the hell…?!" Such were the words of a stunned Snake after witnessing Meta Knight taking a near-fatal blast of electricity from a cloaked Lady, who was now among the few foes invisible to the unaided eye. Snake, after several strikes, beheaded the woman with his knife, primarily since the woman had alerted him of her position, but it was already too late to prevent the damage.
"Damn…" Meta Knight coughed. His cape appeared even worse than before thanks to new holes from being set alight, while his eyes sank even further into the bottom of his mask to where he almost appeared eyeless. Galaxia slipped out of his weakened hands, hitting the floor with a soft tap obscured by loud noises. His body was so weakened by an unpleasant mixture of pain and fatigue that he had no longer the strength to remain standing, and only Snake prevented him from slamming into the floor and being thrown into complete unconsciousness.
"Woah, not gonna let you fall," he could hear the soldier mutter. The blasts, gunfire, and loud buzzing sounds from Pikachu's attacks suddenly sounded so distant, so faint that it almost seemed like he was no longer in the heated battlefield, and his lack of clear vision only added fuel to the perception. Snake was right; maybe some assistance would be necessary after all.
"Pika!" an Electro Ball-launching Pikachu shouted. The executed attack left five of the few remaining Lords dead and ten more injured, including three cloaked foes. However, on the attempt to power up its Skull Bash, it was stabbed from behind by another cloaked Lord. After blood was drawn from its body, the small rodent struggled to roll away for good measure, but struggle led it not to success as much as it did to failure when it was punted in the face. Like Wolf, it could feel the sensation of having a part of its skull smashed inwards, though its far shorter nose spared it from being as greatly affected as the hot-tempered mercenary. On the other side of the field, Fox was barely able to raise his reflector in time for an incoming ice shard thrown by an invisible threat.
A second later and I would have been dead meat, he internally spoke to himself. In conjunction with Wolf and Samus firing off their own projectiles, with the latter being able to easily strike down cloaked Lords with her helmet's visual aid, the Arwing expert began firing off his blaster again; however, thanks to being configured to a different mode, the weapon unleashed charged shots that wreaked far more havoc upon the dark Lords.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Each shot completely blasted apart part of an unlucky victim's body. Some cultists could quickly conjure projectile-blocking shields, but it was not enough in stopping the sinister group's size down to a mere seventeen members, which was noted in a scan by Samus.
"I can't wait to kick back and relax after this," the huntress sighed. With a reserve of charged energy in her cannon, she fired off a vicious Super Missile into a group pummeling the life out of Pikachu.
BOOOOOOM!
The Mouse Pokémon was pushed back by the large blast, but it was otherwise unharmed. The four Lords, on the other hand, were left without an upper body and became blood geysers that sprayed a decent portion of the room, including the door opposite from the one previously used by the Smashers. Pikachu's fur was spotted with some black dots, albeit slightly due to the corpses falling backward.
"Pikachu!" it chirped. After utilizing Iron Tail again, it was unhesitant in defending Fox and Wolf with a Thunderbolt, frying three Lords in the process. The Wolfen pilot himself blasted the heads off two more.
"You're mine now," Samus whispered with a slight smirk. Since her missile reserve was beginning to diminish, she allowed her Plasma Beam to incinerate half of the remaining Lords. As robes were reduced to ash and skin was roasted to the bone, Snake tossed one of his few remaining grenades after narrowly avoiding an energy-formed spear, thus erasing the evil group from the room's perimeter.
"Well, I guess that's the last of 'em," Wolf sighed, now letting his body free itself from the state of tension. Now that the Lords were out of the picture, and with Johan still unconscious from the M9's dart, the piece could now be obtained without any further hassle. "Now let's just pick up the piece and get back to HQ…"
"Right, let's do that," Snake muttered, now carrying the immobile Meta Knight to Olimar's corner. "Besides, some of us here are still carrying that poison Johan's bugs injected into us. Maybe Lillian-"
"Damn, I totally forgot about that," Samus grunted in slight frustration. "I'll contact her right now, see if I can find a cure for the poison."
"But didn't Johan mention the use of something called Hjärta? That's probably what's slowing down the death timer for most of us."
Upon remembering the captain's comment about the valuable cure, the bounty hunter's mind was struck with one important thought; maybe Lillian harbored the knowledge and possibly the ingredients in creating this Hjärta, so contacting her was now the most important of priorities. It mattered very little to the huntress if it was currently midnight.
"Lillian, you better wake up for this one…" she sighed as a telepathic link was constructed.
"Samus, you must have a good reason for contacting me in the middle of the night," the maiden sighed after a minute of silence. Her voice, gentle as it was, emitted a tone of underlying annoyance. It was obvious that she desired an uninterrupted period of rest, and the fact that Snake had woken her up with his call a few minutes before only boosted what she was expressing. After all, who could blame her for her tone of voice?
"I need you to help us out with one thing. Most of us, except for Snake and myself, have been poisoned by bugs planted inside the Chozo Ruins by Johan, and we need a cure as soon as possible."
"Bugs? You mean the Helvetingar? I thought my kingdom's army wiped out the last of their nests…"
The bounty hunter cocked her head upwards before continuing. "Apparently, Johan and his group must have created one behind your back. I'm not sure how the nests are created, but thanks to my encounter with one, I understand why your kingdom wants to exterminate all of them. Anyway, do you have the resources necessary to create what Johan referred to as "Hjärta"?"
"I do. Vit Hjärta is a cure developed by the kingdom's top scientists in response to the increased usage of Igel, the poison your teammates have in their bodies, by the Lords. I will have a batch ready in the next half-hour."
"Okay. Oh, and get Master Hand to create a portal for us. We have the staff piece in hand."
The maiden's voice brightened with satisfaction upon hearing those words. "Well done, Samus. We now have two pieces so far, and once the remaining groups complete their respective missions, we will have the opportunity to vanquish the Lords for good. Master Hand will have the portal ready in just a few moments."
"Thank you." As the link was closed, Samus noticed Pikachu attempting to search for the Pikmin, who were far away from their larger companion.
"Pika-pi?" Pikachu called out to the Pikmin, still in the corner that they were launched into. Miraculously, they had remained undetected throughout the majority of the skirmish, and it was all thanks to their small size. The blue and yellow ones appeared visibly beaten up, though the red one also had its fair share of injuries. All three traveled to their leader, who had been forced to remain in the opposite corner during the fight, while avoiding the carcasses that ruined the cold, unmoving purity of the room. They also made sure to avoid the black blood that stained the floor. To them, the dark substance appeared… corrupting and foul, for a lack of better words, traits which served as the complete aesthetic antithesis to the source of their energy. Squeaks emerged from their forms as they shook from the morbid thought of even absorbing such a dirty liquid, which could more than likely have adverse influences on their delicate health.
"Gotcha," Samus sighed upon removing the staff piece from one of Johan's pockets. As she was about to distance herself from the captain, however, her ears suddenly overheard a few comments from him. With the translator in effect, the following words were spoken:
"Not now… Five more… minutes… Want to… go home… No fun… People… across screen…"
"Strange," the huntress mumbled as she sent a signal to her gunship via her suit's integrated computer. "Eh, whatever. Let's just go before he-"
Voop-WHOOSH! Voop-WHOOSH! Voop-WHOOSH!
"You have got to be shitting me right now," Fox groaned. More portals formed to send more Lords into play, but that was not what captured the attention of each Smasher. In fact, while there were only twenty cultists summoned for this round, all of them were dressed with specialized stealth suits.
"They're wearing stealth suits," Samus grunted, handing the piece over to Snake. "I can use my helmet to sniff them out, but do any of you have something that can aid the naked eye?"
"I have a scouter, but it doesn't have anything like X-ray vision or anything like that," Fox answered.
"It's a good thing I still have my new Solid Eye with me," Snake commented. Removed from one of his strapped-on pockets was a high-tech, monocle-like device with a strap long enough to be wrapped around the head of any normal person. It was dark in appearance and had a light attached to its anterior, and while it was not too visible due to poor lighting, the words "Solid Eye System" and the line "OTC-0017/03" were printed on its light chassis. Wasting no time at all, he placed it on his scarred left eye and activated it.
"Well, this is gonna suck," Wolf moaned. While Snake could bring his own veil of invisibility into play once again, and Samus was able to activate her helmet's thermograph just before the impending attack, most of the Smashers were now at the mercy of foes who were nowhere in clear sight and could strike without being detected. Fox and Wolf had their blasters ready to fire, but both were instantly disarmed and sent right into the glass ceiling with heavy blows. The lupine particularly was struck with enough force to launch him straight through the ceiling and outside of the room, but his rival's fate was no less unpleasant.
WHAM!
Fox could only assume that his ribs were shattered upon striking a part of the steel frame. Besides feeling the sensation of something very large stabbing his back, there was now an assortment of invisible knives tearing through the upper part of his torso that, while not forming visible cuts, inflicted unbearable pain. Blood shot out of his mouth and mixed in with the blackened substance polluting the once-dry floor. The landing was softened by the vulpine extending his hands and feet out, but this action did very little to stop the knives from further tearing into his body.
"I hope Krystal… doesn't yell at me… for being too reckless…" he coughed. As his foes were still unable to be seen, he was left with no choice but to assume a defensive approach via reflector and dodging of projectiles. The cloaked Lords were too quick on their feet to be hit, so blaster fire was ineffective at the current moment. On the other side of the roof, Wolf extended his claws out to anchor himself down, for the glass was far too slippery for him to safely stand on. Cracks immediately formed on the breakable foundation, extending out from the slit-like holes arranged in two loosely defined arcs. The leader of Star Wolf felt serious pain shoot through one of his fingers when, while preparing to penetrate a portion of the roof closer to the hole, a claw became stuck and bent itself backwards.
"Fuckin' A!" he painfully yelped. No blood, not even a small drop, was spilled from the sharp tool of nature, but the nerves inside the flesh still suffered from an overdose of painful sensations. Not one to easily succumb to pain, he managed to approach the hole despite the pain and fatigue, and after inhaling as much air as possible, he soon found himself back in the fight. Sounds of magical attacks and yelling from Pikachu and Fox flooded the room with a tide of painful noises, while Snake was nowhere to be found. Five Lords, now uncloaked, were on the floor in an unconscious state; a closer examination revealed that there were darts pinned to their necks, which, to Wolf's knowledge, was only possible with Snake's M9. Samus was in the process of guarding the fragile Oilmar and the unconscious Meta Knight, but just as she incinerated two of the Lords with her Plasma Beam…
ZA-BZZZZZZZ!
"HRGH…!" The bounty hunter felt her strength being drained from her as the Power Suit lost the remainder of its energy. Individual pieces dropped to the floor with loud clanging, her helmet's visual assistance was now lost for good, and she was unable to defend herself against an energy spear aimed right at her torso.
"Hope I don't miss with this one," Snake grunted. Pulling out one of his two remaining grenades, he gave one deep breath before performing a grand toss. Time slowed down for the soldier as a wave of tension washed over his beaten form. There was a good chance that the Lords could evade the powerful explosive, regardless if they were aware of its placement or not, and worse still was the possibility of dismembering Samus and the two fighters she was protecting instead. If even one thing decided to go awry at the last moment…
Ping…
"Hmm?" a Lord muttered. "Did something just touch me-"
BOOM!
The cultist was unable to complete his statement, for he and his partner were partially dismembered by the ear-piercing blast. Despite the pain bursting through her body like there was no tomorrow, Samus broke free from the spear's grip and finished off her opponents with an energy pistol designed for situations without the Power Suit's involvement. While she was at it, she noticed Fox, Wolf, and Pikachu all taking a brutal beating from all sides. Snake silently incapacitated some of the attackers with his M9, but while firing away, his weapon's clip ran dry. The process of discarding the old clip was marked by the soldier slowly removing it to not draw any attention to him, placing a new one with only five darts in, and then pulling back on the slide to prepare the weapon.
"Pika…" Pikachu moaned. The agony from its injuries was so great that it collapsed to the floor in seconds. It was too beaten to fight any longer, and that strange sensation was regaining a strong grip on its body. There was no doubt that Johan's poison was tearing through Hjärta's temporary protection. As its fur soaked up the blood of the Lords and mixed in with its own oozing fluid, one of only eleven active enemies approached it from behind with the intent of slicing its body in half.
"You will perish for defying our glorious organization," his voice whispered in a sinister tone. But just before he could swing his ethereal blade down, a dart from the M9 pierced the left side of his head and knocked him out almost immediately. Following this, Snake quickly took down four more foes with the remaining amount of ammunition in the gun.
"Samus, behind you!" the so-called "hero" of Shadow Moses yelled to the Chozo-raised fighter. The Solid Eye detected two Lords who were dangerously close to attacking with powerful magic; the combined attack was only averted when Samus exposed both foes with a sweeping kick before annihilating them.
"I'm gonna be sick…" Fox croaked. He and Wolf were literally being tossed around like ragdolls, and with their blasters separated from their respective owners, their only option for self-defense was using their reflectors, but even that failed to create any impact outside of the short burst of electricity. To worsen the situation, Igel's stranglehold was slowly returning, the poison itself seeking to choke the life force out of both mercenaries.
I just can't take this crap any longer, the fallen lupine's mind slowly spoke. While struggling to reactivate his reflector, he was stabbed in the left hand by a vicious ice shard, effectively pinning him to the ground. Despite how close he was to its position, his blaster was still out of his reach, leaving his defensive options few and far apart. A lucky sweeping kick was helpful in knocking down his two enemies, and that gave Samus enough time to blow them apart with her weapon. But just as the ice shard was jerked out of its resting place…
SHINK!
"Wolf…?" Fox, also on the floor, croaked. In an ironic twist, the lack of a scream profoundly heightened the horror of watching his rival and temporary ally take a furious-looking energy blade to the chest. Eyes were wide with agony as they glared at the weapon responsible for drawing blood. Breathing was reduced to a series of arrhythmic gasping so quiet that it was virtually unnoticed by any of the other fighters. Arms trembled as their strength began to wane. The mind was filled with, for the first time since Wolf's career as a mercenary, fear: the kind of fear that would appear when faced with the threat of a horrible death. His foes were still invisible, but it was safe to assume that they were simply ready to make his last few seconds of life a living hell for him. As soon as the blade disappeared, hope seemed to fade away with each passing second, replaced by that same fear, until…
"NO!" Snake screamed. With the Solid Eye's assistance, he grabbed one of the cultists and knocked the other away with nothing but his raw strength. While the second was quickly zapped by Samus, the first was punched in the face so hard that his visor was reduced to tiny glass shards, each one cutting his face. With the red eyes and the upper half of the face exposed, a final grenade was placed inside the suit to ensure that the foe did not survive another day.
BOOM!
"Well, that takes care of that," Samus muttered. As the gunship slammed into the ceiling to create a hole far larger than what was already present, she and Snake gathered those who were unable to move on their own before placing them inside the comfortable interior; fallen weapons belonging to the Smashers were also moved into the vehicle. Fox and Olimar, each of them carrying at least one Pikmin, climbed aboard on their own, but their aching wounds imposed some degree of strain on them. When the portal leading back to the Smash Mansion opened, the huntress immediately sent her vehicle into maximum speed without any regard for the shaking that was to follow. Seconds later…
"Um…" the drowsy Johan groaned. "I must admit, that really made me sleepy. Now, where were we?"
But the Smashers were nowhere to be found. In fact, all that remained were an assortment of corpses, unconscious troops, and pieces of glass and metal scattered throughout the floor. The place around him was nothing more than a huge mess, and if only he could locate the troublesome fighters to deliver swift and painful retribution…
"I guess they're not here," he sighed. "Well, at least I still have the piece. It should be okay-"
But the pocket he had stored the piece in was now empty. He double-checked to make sure that he was not experiencing any sensory illusions, but such a scenario was not to be.
"Ugh, damn it… Now the boss is gonna be pissed at me for this! I have to go and search for those pesky fighters, but first, I need to wake some people up." His lips tightened and two of his right-handed fingers mimicked the action of holding a small object. With the fingers then escorted to the opening between the lips…
"To all people in the audience, cover your ears."
HOOOOOOOOOOONK!
"What?!" one of the now-awake cultists yelped. Her ears, though shielded by her uniform, were bludgeoned with the screeching soundwaves of a horn blaring out a loud note.
"Hey, we need to find the people who were fighting for the staff piece," she heard her commanding officer mutter.
At the Smash Mansion…
"Here's the staff piece, Lillian," Samus whispered. By this point, the other Smashers in her group were inside the medical wing to receive treatment for their injuries and, in the case of all except for Snake, poisoning.
"You can keep the piece," the maiden sighed. "I will not be needing it until later. Now, I must be heading to the medical wing to heal your companions…"
"Hey, what happened to you when we were trying to discuss the tactics of the Lords?"
Lillian froze upon hearing the comment. The bounty hunter was obviously suspicious about the earlier situation, and while it was safe to assume that she would not commence an investigation on what may seem like a trivial matter, the headache was more than likely an indicator of something very sinister. The answer would have to be carefully worded to avoid any major attention…
"I was experiencing a migraine. It was probably caused by the stress of this whole situation…"
"A migraine, huh? Did it make you vomit or anything like that?"
The maiden yawned silently before continuing. "No, not at all."
Samus proceeded to her room without uttering another word. So, that was the reason behind the interruption. A simple migraine, nothing more, nothing less. And for a second, she was worried that Lillian was experiencing something far more serious…
At noon…
"Hey, where the hell is the Great Fox?" Fox, now clothed in a uniform identical to his old one, gasped. The garage was no longer housing the mothership of Team Star Fox, which could only mean that something had happened to it. Falco had brought the McCloud family and the two teammates to the Smash Mansion, so why not the vehicle?
"Falco better have a good explanation ready for me…"
Pain… overwhelming…
-Olimar
And Samus's theatre is finally done. You know, Johan, I was kinda expecting you to harass the Smashers for a little longer than what was shown this chapter.
Johan: I used to hate Snake a lot for what he did. If he hadn't TKO'd me with that dart, I certainly would have gotten the piece. But now-
Not yet, Johan. We don't want to spoil things too soon. And to be fair, if you weren't knocked out, you probably would have slaughtered the Smashers in the long run. Anyway, Marth's theatre is the only one left. Once his is done, we'll be ready for the next part.
A/N:
-"Helvetingar" is a portmanteau of "Helvete" (Hell) and "bålgetingar" (hornets, "bålgeting" being the singular form).
-For those who have not played MGS4, Snake's old Solid Eye explodes when he goes into a hall of microwaves (which is why he has the burn on his face).
-I really forgot this for who-knows-how-long, but Johan's surname is derived from comedian Anders Eriksson. Like Magnus and some of the other original characters involved, this choice in surnames will tie in with Johan's background.
Anyway, stay tuned for Marth's adventure.
Johan: And R&R, if you want to.
Yeah, what he said...