Change in the Kingdom of Roses

Let's bring our focus back to the Smashers as they resume their journey to save Rosträdgård (and other possible areas) from their cult-like opponents. They and their allies in the Black Guard will split up to reclaim different parts of the kingdom, so expect a lot of action on their part in time. Andiamo!

Something happened to her, I know it. Just when it seemed that I would be able to reunite with her kind soul, her telepathic line with me was severed. I fear for the kingdom's squadron that was rescuing her from the dreaded cultists… and especially for her innocent life. I cannot give up on my search; I must find her by any means permissible. My mother will doubtless be worried sick by my absence, but Lillian's life is a higher priority.

-Prince Stefan, personal diary entry

Midnight, following Magnus's departure…

"…" the tired Lillian sighed. As she stared out the only window of her room, her mind turned to the moment in which she and her brother were cornered by that pale monster and its robed owners, the very day when she almost died—and when he was forced to flee at the sound of her shrill voice. She had been almost dead when the masked man, who was now supplying her with the bare minimum of sustenance necessary, recaptured her and tried to return her to the Isola del Inferno. The unexpected rescue by royal forces was a blessing to her tortured heart, healing her body with medicinal equipment provided by the kingdom's military and almost saving her from the Lords.

But that sudden downturn in luck…

It all unraveled so quickly for her or anyone else to comprehend in that time. That dreaded, unstoppable monster of metal showed up at the worst possible time, decimating the lands of a city that was now permanently lost. She could still remember, so vividly, the destruction that swallowed the besieged skyline and its unfortunate inhabitants, for the memory had never fully exited her mind…

"Get her out of here!" one of the airmen commanded. His nearest partner proceeded to escort the recovering princess into an escort-type vehicle while the most powerful airship of the Orm's Lords was charging its most ferocious weapon. Battle-ready machines of the Rosträdgårdian kingdom's air force were pummeling the mechanical behemoth with everything they had, but their weapons were generally like pebbles thrown at a mighty, unstoppable monster, failures in their attempt to save the city. As Lillian was escorted to the older pilot's vehicle, a dangerous glow—painted with the brightest shades of blue—emerged from the airship's main cannon. She felt her body temporarily increase in perceived heaviness as her pilot did his best to soar away from the doomed city. Just as they were starting their journey, however…

BzzzzZZZZZ-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The blue laser struck the center of the city to unleash a massive explosion of blue flames, and it was so powerful that it created an aerial shockwave that was more than enough to batter all machines out of the air, including the one containing the princess. Even worse, this shockwave contained an electromagnetic effect that immediately disrupted the ship's engine and sent the entire system plummeting into a forest that was at least several kilometers away from the center of the laser's impact. Lillian, while ignoring the pilot's yells of distress, was paralyzed in fear as she felt the spirit of death approaching her tortured mind with his darkened presence.

WHAM! CRACK!

She was lucky enough to have survived, albeit with several injuries that could barely be treated by her magic. But the pilot was nowhere near as lucky, for even healing magic could not save him from a slow death. And if that was not enough, she encountered a group of Legionärer and Jord-Marodörer after nearly a month of hiding, and the subsequent battle pushed her magical and physical endurances to their limits. She still knew the details of that fight even now, but the parasite had prevented her from revealing the unpleasant details to the Smashers. Perhaps she could tell at least one person in private…

"I must tell a Smasher about what happened that day," she sighed. Her mind tried to establish a telepathic link with the Smasher that held the most authority, Mario. This was fruitless, for an unknown factor stunted the formation of such a link. Repeated attempts failed to produce satisfying results.

"…" With nothing to say, she patiently waited for the day of her rescue, however distant it was.

The morning after Magnus's defeat…

"Can't-a wait to get-a going," Mario sighed under his breath. Having rested in a hotel room with a lofty bed colored with shades of red and gold, and after a warm bath to clean himself up, he was ready to continue his adventure. His room had many items that were typical of a hotel: a television set, a brewing machine for hot coffee, small lamps, and a lavatory with a shower stall. His small item bag, which he had been carrying under his coat during the entrance into Terramythica, was on the floor and now partly filled with the uniform that he had been wearing last night. Even after what the plumber had experienced, the bag was quite stable aside from a gash created by the Legionär that fought Mario—when it scratched him in the back.

"I hope it's not-a too late for Lillian already." As he placed his bag into a nearby cabinet, a sudden thought burrowed into his mind; since the Rosträdgårdian princess's kidnapping, he and the other Smashers did not bother to contact her through telepathy. Granted, she was incapacitated by her condition when he or anyone else last observed her, but maybe her body had recovered after the operation to remove that parasite from her head. To verify that she could respond to incoming calls, he proceeded to establish a telepathic channel with her. He waited for at least a minute for a response, but nothing presented itself to his mental faculty. His hopes began to dwindle when he waited even longer, perhaps nearly five times the original period, and still failed to hear her gentle words.

"Well, the only way we'll-a find about her status is-a heading out to the volcanic island." Abandoning his intent to alert the princess about the rescue mission, he exited his room to gather some breakfast before resuming his journey with the other Smashers.

One hour later, following breakfast…

"I'm ready to take off and finish off those cultists," Falco sighed under his breath. He was inside a hidden airbase within the palace's lowest floors, the same place where he and his allies in the air parked their vehicles prior to joining the feast inside the dining room. He was joined by every other available Smasher, several members of the Black Guard, and members of the royal family—excluding Lillian and her deceased father. Many elements of the palace's architecture were present, albeit diminished to accentuate the sleeker style of the base and its high-tech elements. There existed a handful of ships ready for launch, and each unit resembled a standard Drake used by the Lords, only with different colors and an insignia of the kingdom to affirm its alignment. The Smashers were once again divided into groups, this time in three. Mario retained many members that were with him during the task to shut down the barrier, as did his green-clad brother. Fox, Rosalina, members of Captain Falcon's group, Snake, Meta Knight, Young Link, and both Mouse Pokémon had coalesced into a third group, which—like the other two—was supported by members of Rosträdgård's elite stealth force; Svante oversaw this third group. As for the airborne Smashers, Falco, Red, Olimar, Peach, Samus, and Diddy were with Mario, while everyone else stayed with Luigi.

"My dear travelers from distant lands," the queen announced, "You are now ready to reclaim the kingdom and help to save it, along with its neighbors, from crushing peril. The fate of this land now truly rests on your shoulders, so failure is not an option. Each group will go out to save a specific portion of this kingdom before we can advance. Mario, your group will head to Vindfält to save the aerial base there, while Svante's group will travel to the Northern Plains to reclaim the base by the border."

"What about-a me, Your Majesty?" Luigi asked.

"Your group will stay here to defend this city while it is under repair. The palace's defense system is almost fixed, so you will have a chance to dismantle enemy vehicles if they will come here to attack." Not long after Luigi received his response, the two groups that were about to depart filled the ships with their presence, ready to start their efforts in directly saving the kingdom of roses. Samus and Falco entered their own vehicles.

"Good luck," Stefan announced, his voice being diminished relative to the startup of each ship. At the far end of the long corridor, an ascending path was illuminated with the dim brightness of the rising sun as two giant doors slowly slid open. All ships immediately soared from their resting spots and soon disappeared from clear sight. Meanwhile, Ingrid and her son escorted the remaining Smashers into the palace's defense system.

With Mario's group…

"Not-a bright outside…" Mario remarked. Owing to the current day's proximity to the winter solstice, the sun was aligned at an angle below the position for the greatest brightness and had a warmer hue, almost resembling the sunset. The cold lands outside the city were warmed slightly by distant rays, but the winter was still dominant in the realm of climate. The southward trip had its share of forested land, complete with native fauna lurking underneath, and was mostly flat. The River Solen, located east of the flying ships, traveled downward in the few areas where there existed inclines, though nobody noticed major rapids along the way. The skies were mostly devoid of clouds and filled with radiant colors, especially in the darker portion out in the west. All three of Terramythica's moons were faintly visible to peering eyes, even in the daytime's brightness.

This natural view contrasted with the ship's interior, a metallic room complete with every detail typically of a ship designed to carry over ten passengers. Mario was seated alongside several members of the Black Guard, DK, Marth, Roy, Peach, Pit, and Diddy. Everyone else except Falco and Samus was seated in the other ship. Those who had weapons kept it close to their bodies, while Peach had already disabled the holographic field around her outer body to reveal her cybernetics again. The bounty hunter and the avian pilot were driving their own vehicles.

"Can't wait to start kickin' some ass again," Falco quipped eagerly. He was fiddling around with his blaster while maintaining his grip on the steering handles. His sniper rifle was also inside the cockpit, seated to his left. He was almost enamored by the beauty of the three moons, something that was halted only by his duty to keep a clear head during a trip in his Arwing.

"I hope this mission is a short one, although fate might suggest otherwise," Samus muttered under her breath. She was wearing a different model of her Power Suit that wielded slightly different weapons from the original model destroyed at Glacier One. As she and her comrades continued their travel to the southern city of Vindfält, the countryside became increasingly dotted by blue lakes—some of which were connected to each other by the Solen's widening trail. Winds gently rattled the green leaves of the few trees blessed with enough luck to maintain their distinct color throughout the year. Additionally, the trees displayed a trend of slowly decreasing height and frequency, simultaneously introducing a biome that more closely resembled a marshland when the Smashers and their allies were close to the city of Vindfält.

Such was the beauty of the natural scenery that, kilometers to the east, the group failed to notice a dangerous threat that was approaching Björnstad from another route: a group of smaller ships with accompaniment by a larger beast of aerial war. All these distant figures were too far away to discern their exact characteristics, much less know what they are, and blended perfectly with the colored horizon. Even worse, they had cloaking fields on their metallic bodies and would not deactivate them until they were well beyond the opposing group's range. Accordingly, they continued forward without interference from the Smashers or their allies.

At the city itself, the Smashers noticed the damage dealt to the once-beautiful skyline as well as the smoke rising from the besieged airbase. Falco and Samus ready their ships for battle as they noticed hostile ships ahead, with the former having a short flashback of the skirmish in Macbeth as he did so. The other ships settled down to drop Black Guard members and Smashers on the ground.

"Let's-a go!" Mario ordered. With nothing restraining him, he and his group prepared to fight the cultists and reclaim the base, with all Black Guard members assuming their invisible status before they entered the field.

With the third group, traveling north…

"…" Young Link kept to himself as he dusted his blade and stared at its wooden surface. While calling to mind the argument over his older self's possible involvement in Lillian's kidnapping and the theft of a crucial item in the Smash Mansion's vault, he considered the scenarios that could have befallen Courage's wielder. Ganondorf was among the six fighters who accompanied Marth in Altea, and if he had any intent to betray the Smash Brothers, then aligning with the Lords was a viable option to further imperil Rosträdgård and strike at the Smashers. And ridding himself of Zelda and Link would have been a very logical step since the princess and her valiant fighter would have been connected to the archfiend via their pieces of the mighty Triforce. While technically possible, the young swordfighter could not imagine that his adult self would willingly betray the group, but one surefire way to corrupt his mind was through the magic of vampires—as was mentioned by Ike when he described Princess Elice's transformation. In either case, Young Link felt chills on his skin when he acknowledged that the Smashers would likely have to battle a demonic version of Hyrule's strongest hero, however slim that possibility apparently seemed.

Even worse, the older Link and Zelda could already be dead…

The young Smasher felt his face drop slightly at the sight of that last thought, which did not escape the glare of Captain Falcon.

"Hey, are you alright?" the bounty hunter asked.

"Oh, I'm okay. I was just getting a bit lost in my own thoughts, that's all." He refused to reveal the real reason for his change of expression, fearing that doing so would lead to embarrassment. Despite this, nobody else seemingly paid any attention to him after his reply. As the group traveled on a northbound route, the environment experienced a transformation into a subarctic biome, largely resembling that which was experienced by Johan Eriksson when he was fleeing from an enraged Magnus Hedin in a Rosträdgårdian jet. However, there were fewer creatures on the ground compared to the other trip, and the origin of the River Solen could be witnessed on the top of a slanted hill with a lake on its top. The clearness of the water was more apparent in the light of Terramythica's sun.

A gentle change in direction towards the east placed the group on a more direct path to the base. As the base fell under the eyes of pilots, the ruin which had been inflicted upon it was far more visible. Blood of both colors stained the snow-coated ground, although the red color was far more prominent. Many war machines were in ruins, some of which had stopped ejecting smoke hours ago. Thick puddles of the black liquid were present, but they were so hidden within trails of black blood that such objects were almost invisible. Corpses of fallen soldiers in the kingdom's service were present in great numbers, dwarfing any casualties experienced by their robed enemies. The barrier created by the mysterious figures under Lina Lindqvist's command was still present, but its creators were not visible, nor were their allies.

"It doesn't look like anyone alive is there," Falcon noted, observing the bloody scenery from the nearest window. Adding on to his belief, the aerial squadron which had been present in the night was now gone. Nevertheless, he and his allies kept their guards up as they departed from their ships and approached the barrier. Many members of the Black Guard tapped into their natural magic to render themselves invisible as a precaution, with some also granting a temporary cloak to as many Smashers as possible. The few fighters who were not cloaked maintained vigilance while approaching the barrier. Snake utilized his Solid Eye to check for enemies inside the base, but he could find nothing.

Sounds like nobody's home. Maybe the thermograph can fetch some answers.

As the aging soldier switched to the thermograph, he noticed a large batch of dim heat signatures near the outer perimeter, and none of them were traveling around inside. This latter detail worried him a bit, for it implied that something—or someone—had torn through the base and slaughtered every inhabitant within. He maintained his silence despite this growing fear, hoping to avoid drawing attention from possible unseen hostiles. Near the barrier, the invisible Svante removed a silver knife from one of his pockets and, tapping into his magic, slowly carved a circle in the magical wall before quietly removing the cut area. The air inside the barrier was colder, having been trapped by magic and not warmed by the sun's rays.

"Cold…" Young Link muttered under his breath. He was currently invisible thanks to the Black Guard's magic, but his mind was still filled with pure tension and was worried about possible ambushes.

"Pika…" the older Mouse Pokémon sighed. Its body remained close to the ground to keep a lower profile than it already had with its limited invisibility. Pichu remained next to its more experienced cousin, behaving the same way as it.

Click…

Fox kept his blaster ready for confrontations, maximizing its power for lethal intent. As he approached the base's control center, he watched Svante and his process of gently removing a broken door from its entrance to clear a path for the group.

"It's awfully quiet here," the mercenary whispered. He slowly ascended the stairs with his groups, expecting the worst, yet hoping for the best as well.

Inside the royal palace…

"What exactly are the weapons that-a we'll be using?" Luigi questioned. His mind was curious to witness what the palace possessed as far as defense operations were concerned. He and Ingrid were inside an elevator with an option to travel up to the desired floor of defense weapons. Every other Smasher to stay in Björnstad was using either another elevator or a stairway to catch up with the duo.

"The palace has a variety of weapons for your group to use," the queen responded. "There are anti-air flak guns, missile systems, and energy weapons to take out enemies in the skies or on the ground. However, there is a special asset that I will show in just a minute." When she and the younger plumber arrived on their selected floor, they traveled through another hallway of rich architecture before encountering a room with what was unarguably the palace's deadliest weapon.

"This, Luigi, is the palace's leader in defensive weaponry, the Guld-Falk." As Ingrid introduced him to it, Luigi examined the weapon in front of him. At first glance, it bore some resemblance to the railgun utilized in Altea, but major differences were significant to the point where it could assume a unique identity of its own. The backside had a seat wherein an operator could sit down and move the gun freely without needing to stand. A set of four wings was present on the middle section and had pointed tips at the end of each one. Instead of two particle accelerators, there was a grand total of eight smaller ones and a larger unit at the center, arranged in a three-by-three pattern. Amid the more vivid gold was a series of lines that moved only in straight patterns and led to the operating system in the back. A nearby computer was connected to the weapon, though it was not active. To complete the list of differences, the top of the open cockpit was marked with the kingdom's coat of arms.

"This looks-a very powerful." Luigi sat on the Guld-Falk's seat and waited for Ingrid to activate it. While she activated the computer, the other Smashers suddenly arrived in the room from one of its entrance to notice the plumber in his selected weapon.

"You are here," Ingrid announced, turning her attention to the group. "I'll have palace security escort you to your assigned locations in this division." After having telepathically alerted several guards, she waited for them to arrive and send her foreign guests and defenders to their stations. The wait only lasted for a minute before her task was completed.

"Good luck, Luigi." She turned to address Luigi one more time before leaving to resume a critical conversation with her son regarding Lillian's kidnapping. Stefan had already retreated to his personal room after two groups of Smashers had departed from the city, so the queen knew where to locate him. Ascending to the top floor via elevator, she passed through a hallway like a quiet specter and quickly found the lonely prince. He was sketching a picture of a red rose for his missing sister in preparation for her return, but his hands froze when his mother entered the room.

"My son, we need to continue our conversation about your sister's disappearance."

"What would you like to know? I am privy to different kinds of information from that event." The prince slid his picture into a drawer on his wooden desk, a lone creature that stood opposite of his iron-framed bed.

"Can you specify on what happened to her at the location where she stayed?"

"After Svante had rescued me from death and allowed a period of rest, the Black Guard pinpointed her location and allowed me to take a portal directly to a place known as the World of Trophies. In that world, I found the mansion of the Smash Brothers. I found Lillian there, but she was unconscious due to the damage dealt by the Plågoande in her body. Had the kind pheasant named Falco Lombardi failed to discover her in time, she would have died. Thankfully, he directed me to Master Hand and escorted Lillian to the mansion's medical wing. On the next day, Mario worked with me to conjure the Guld-Hjärta serum to kill the parasite before he could remove it via surgery."

"How was your sister infected with the parasite?" Ingrid sat on her son's bed while her ears listened to the story.

"The leader of the Orm's Lords was responsible for infecting her after the enhanced Legionär nearly killed her. Back to more recent times, Mario requested my assistance to accelerate Lillian's recovery with my healing magic once he was done with the surgery. I was hoping that the night would mark her first steps towards recovery, but therein resided the kidnapping by Captains Johan Eriksson and Lina Lindqvist—along with their mysterious servants. They also stole a crucial item from the mansion's vault, which led to a fierce argument when the innocence of a certain Link was called into question. He was supposedly the only person who could access the vault room from which this item was robbed, and his key was located by Mario in the main hall. He had already disappeared with three others when I finally arrived at the mansion."

"Was this Link person a traitor of sorts?"

"Nobody knows yet. Some Smashers assumed that Ganondorf, his archenemy, was working for the Orm's Lords." Stefan kept his head up and ensured that his voice did not falter during the last sentence.

"My son, I would like to apologize for losing my temper with you during the previous night. If Lillian truly asked you to flee from the Lords when you had the chance, then it was unwise to assume that her disappearance was entirely your fault. And Eriksson is notorious for bypassing conventional defenses with his ability to teleport, more so than his cohorts. Still, I am concerned that it took you so long to find her."

"My telepathic channel with her was severed just as she was about to be rescued by a squadron in another city. Now that I have clarified everything, what are your plans for rescuing her?"

"Once major places of importance are reclaimed, we can begin driving the Lords out of this kingdom and from other countries. A gradual rebuilding of military strength should allow us to send our foreign guests to the Isola del Inferno when the time is right."

"That is true." Stefan exited his room, leaving his mother in quiet solitude.

In the room with the dreaded Guld-Falk, Luigi patiently waited for hostile units to arrive, but nothing arrived within the next handful of minutes. He had a radar on the weapon's display, so his eyes could easily discern when an enemy was approaching.

"It's a bit-a boring around here without-a enemies to fight against-a," he sighed. At this point, he removed his sweater when it started to feel too warm for his skin. A light sneeze exited his mouth when the urge overloaded his nose, with its noise suppressed only by the Eternal Understudy's willpower. The sun's rays maintained his warmth despite the cold winds and even without the sweater to assist him.

"I might-a fall asleep from-a boredom…" Indeed, he was about to daydream when a swarm of enemy vehicles were detected by the Guld-Falk's long-ranged radar. Many incoming vehicles were variants of Drakar, obstacles which Falco had conquered on his journey to Macbeth, and those were already highly threatening to the battered city's life. They, the same army that evaded Mario's group, were rapidly approaching to finish off their target, once and for all.

Ooooooooo…

But an even greater demon was present among them. This new entity was crawling at a highly sluggish pace compared to its smaller and speedier cohorts, but its mere presence was enough to send any ordinary person into a bout of paralyzing fear. Luigi, of course, was far beyond the limits of ordinary; nevertheless, his jaw dropped at the mere sight of the mechanical beast in the air. He needed to eliminate it as soon as possible.

"Oh, damn…"

Inside the palace of the Orm's Lords, earlier in the morning…

"Yo, can you folks give me a hand here?" Johan Eriksson demanded. He was struggling to balance the unconscious Magnus Hedin, disabled by Igel, after dragging him from his assigned cell in the lower levels. Lars Isberg and Lina Lindqvist were also present, and they offered their assistance to escort the bulky killer to the leader's chamber. Having lost his added muscle, Magnus was easier to carry around, though his mass was still great and needed more than one person to transport it into a higher location. The necromancer and his vampire cohort held him by the limbs while Johan lifted the torso.

An elevator to the upper floors was mostly enough to carry all four captains through the stone-coated headquarters, and one last stairway leading to the chamber was all that the group needed to traverse afterwards. Johan opened the doors to his leader's main room in the same moment when Magnus was slowly waking up from what Agnetha Lindgren had used to curse his strength. Underneath the mask without expressions, the mysterious man was seething with rage over his obese subordinate's latest act.

"This is the last straw, Hedin," he snarled through his teeth. "It is clear to me that you cannot remain in this organization any longer. You are no longer fit to be a faithful servant of the Svärtad Orm. I will have you executed by tonight!" Upon hearing of his future fate, Magnus tried to escape from the room by breaking free from the combined grip of the other captains.

Snap!

This effort failed when the cloaked man snapped his fingers to create a golden chain around the disgraced captain's body. Then, without a moment of warning, he formed a violet portal on the rug to seal away the target before there was even a chance to escape.

"So long, big guy," Johan muttered sarcastically. "You will be missed." As the portal faded away with Magnus's furious roars, the leader directed his attention to the three captains in front of him.

"I will be sending my strongest weapon to Björnstad today. For now, you should continue your normal activities, Lindqvist and Eriksson. Make sure that your bases do not fall under enemy control."

"Gotcha, boss," Johan exclaimed. "I'll be rejoining our guys at Vindfält."

"My servants are already proving themselves in their service to us, but I will help them in maintaining their claim to the base," Lina affirmed. She and the prankster immediately left the room, leaving Lars to face his commander.

"How are your studies with your captured subject, Lars?" the leader questioned.

"I must admit that she is providing far more magic to our arsenal than I have previously expected," the elderly man responded with a quiet tone. "She is not willing to participate, of course, but her efforts to resist me have been futile. With her at our side, our mighty arsenal will become even stronger, especially with Eriksson's expertise in play. As for the boy, he will be placed as bait in due time."

"Where do you wish to place him?"

"I have not finalized my plan yet, but I prefer that he be placed in an obscure location, one where he is isolated from any area associated with the Rosträdgårdian military. Now, regarding Lina's servants, our bulkier friend has experienced a greater increase in power since taking a special artifact from the woman in the laboratories, and the other has a set of armor designed by Agnetha that increases magical and physical powers in addition to what Lina has provided. With all things considered, perhaps not even the Smash Brothers can stop us if they do not pull upset victories against our group."

"We shall see, Lars." The leader retreated to Lillian's room to check on her status, leaving Lars to resume his works elsewhere.

I hope there's nothing inside the base that would kill us instantly if we fell into its grasp. Also, it doesn't look like there's a survivor in sight, and if it's true, I might end up weeping after today.

-Young Link

And we're back to skirmishes with the fanatical cultists. The next few chapters will focus on the struggles of each group—one per chapter—before the adventure continues. Stay tuned for the rest, and I need to get back to The Moveset Trouble…