Chapter 18
I Am

Despite being outnumbered by a huge margin and most of his subordinates having been taken care of, I Am remained undaunted and confident that he was still on the winning side.

Speaking to his watch, he contacted the remaining subordinates who were still aboard the Smash Pros' airship. "Initiate airstrike."

BGM: Final Destination (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)

Under his command, the airship that had been floating above Piriodo all this time launched a large amount of missiles aimed for the general location where I Am and the good guys were. Seeing the missiles approaching, everyone ran for his or her lives, and the projectiles created a large amount of explosions when they struck the ground.

In the midst of the chaos, Bowser ran towards I Am to get a hit on him, but when the former swung his claws at him, the latter swiftly jumped out of the way and kicked him in the side of the head hard to send him flying.

Wario tried to ram into I Am from behind afterwards, only for the latter to get behind him in a blink of an eye and kick him away by the head. Falco ran towards I Am while firing from his gun, but I Am created an energy reflector to bounce the beams back to him. Falco dodged the homecoming beams while still closing in on I Am and tried to kick him, but I Am countered with his own kick that was so strong that Falco's leg was in pain, and then the pheasant was kicked away afterwards by his other leg.

More Smashers continued to close in on him to get a hit, but I Am moved at such a speed and attacked with such ferocity that nobody was able to do anything to him. As I Am continued to fight against his opponents, he unknowingly made his way close to the mouth of the volcano.

Looking into the mouth of the volcano and seeing the magma down below, he decided that it was time to accomplish what he came here for. He was going to contact his airship when he got interrupted by Master Hand in his beast form pouncing at him. I Am jumped out of the way, and Master Hand landed close to the edge of the volcano's mouth and turned to him before stomping the ground to make black spikes grow in his direction.

The moment I Am landed, Jim leaped at him with the giant figure he previously summoned still behind him. Pointing his sword at I Am, Jim commanded the giant figure to throw a punch at I Am, who held up one arm and hardened it with armament haki for maximum defense. However, the punch was so strong that a crater was still created when I Am was smashed against the ground, though he wasn't hurt.

Moving away from his attackers again, I Am hurriedly spoke into his communication watch. "Fire the Dyna Stone now!"

More missiles were from the airship, an action that surprised I Am, as he didn't tell his subordinates inside to fire the normal kind of missiles. He was expecting them to fire a different kind of missile, one that contained a Dyna Stone. What was even more surprising was that the missiles were fired at him. I Am dodged the missiles and got to somewhere safe. "What is the meaning of this?" he said to no one in particular.

The airship then fired another missile, this time a larger one, that had a hatch on one side. It was a hatch for storing the Dyna Stone, and I Am knew it was the right one this time, though he still told himself that he was going to question those onboard the airship for their actions earlier.

The others saw that the missile was being aimed at the mouth of the volcano, and they knew at once what it actually was. "We have to stop that missile!" shouted Fox.

"My job here is done," said I Am. "You cannot stop what is happening! One more island left after this, and then the world you know it will end!"

He began to use to air jumps to get out of the way, but then Master Hand jumped at him. I Am was going to counterattack him, but then the black beast suddenly "exploded" in purple light that caught him off guard. Master Hand, back in his original form, emerged from the purple light almost instantaneously and grabbed I Am, carrying him in the direction of the volcano's mouth.

"You want to set off this volcano so much? How about you go up close and take a good look while you're at it?!" Master Hand said to him.

At the same time, Jim commanded the giant figure to fly over the missile and grab it. The giant figure did as he said, and after wrapped his massive arms around the missile, he carried it over to Master Hand, who was still holding onto I Am.

Realizing what they were both planning, I Am struggled to break free from Master Hand and was able to do so with relative ease. He was able to move out of the way avoid the missile, which went past him at quite a close distance. Looking down, he saw the missile hitting the magma and beginning to sink into it.

I Am looked back up and hurriedly tried to escape before the volcano erupted. He would have to be a fool to stick around and get caught in the eruption, something which would surely kill him.

However, that never happened, as Master Hand suddenly punched him with all his might.

SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

I Am was caught off guard by this completely and got sent flying into the volcano. At the same time, the missile containing the Dyna Stone exploded.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BGM Ends

In an instant, a massive explosion tore apart the volcano. All those on the island were instantly sent flying by the powerful force. Master Hand hardened himself using haki for protection against the explosion, though he had already tried his best to escape the farthest he could in the short period of the time.

As for I Am, he failed to protect himself in any way. He didn't even have the opportunity to scream when the fire and lava caused by the forced eruption consumed him, burning him down to bones and ultimately into nothingness.

All those still on the island and not affected in any why by the explosion ran for their lives as fireballs and lava rained down from the sky. "Dang it! We failed!" cried Falco.

"Actually, I'm sure Master Hand intentionally allowed this to happen," said Ridley as he caught up with him while flying close to the ground. He was also carrying underneath both his arms Arthropa and Equastrina, both of whom were unconscious.

Chaos was all over the place as everyone hurried to scramble off the island. The soldiers rushed back to their ships docked at the island, while the Smashers got onto the Final Destination, which had landed close to the island. The remaining Smash Pros also rushed onto the Final Destination, but some ended up running up the battleships. They were in such a hurry to get off the island that they didn't care that they were boarding alongside their enemies.

Eventually, everyone was able to get away from Piriodo, which was slowly getting consumed by the lava flowing out nonstop from the volcano, which showed no signs of ending its eruption at all. The sky above the island became dark red in no time due to the smoke and flames.

The Smashers and everyone else who got onto the Final Destination watched in awe from the edge of the floating platform as it hovered a safe distance away from the island. "Is… is I Am dead?" asked Kirby.

"Let's hope so," said Master Hand. "I figured that since there is still one more island left after this, I might as well sacrifice this one in order to defeat him. I doubt even someone like him can survive an explosion at point blank…"

Jim was also on the Final Destination, standing close to Master Hand. "Thank you," he told the Hand. "I feel like my ancestors have finally been avenged. Still, the guilty feeling of me being responsible for all this in the first place…"

"Everyone makes mistakes," Master Hand told him. "It's true that you created Gamfax, but you intended it for good in the first place and never thought that it would end up going down a disastrous path that ultimately led to this incident. There is no use crying over what has already happened. The best we can do now is to move forward and prevent things from getting worse than it already is."

Katsura and Kouchou approached Jim and stood close to him, letting him know that they will always support him. "Let's hope things will get better from here on forth," he said with a nod.

As they continued to watch the island burn down, the Smashers sighed with relief that it was finally over. Though three of the four Endpoints ended up getting destroyed, they were finally able to defeat I Am, the leader of the Smash Pros and one of the most wanted people in the world who had managed to evade capture for years.

That day, the world was on the verge of being destroyed, but in the end, the crisis was averted. All that left was to keep the final Endpoint protected for a week, which is how long it takes for the erupted Endpoints to calm down.

While all this chaos went on, the Smash Pros' airship was able to slip away without anyone realizing.

The airship was currently flying across the sky, and inside it was… several dead bodies.

Standing in the corpse-filled navigation room was a particular man.

The man had somewhat egg-shaped body and lacked a neck, thus his head was basically fused to his body. He had relatively skinny legs compared to the roundness of his body, and the legs were spread open in manner similar to a pair of parentheses. His feet were also pointing completely sideways rather than forward like a normal person.

His attire was a military uniform, complete with a green beret hat.

Other than his oddly-shaped body and also oddly-positioned legs, the man was also notable for an extremely grumpy-looking face.

With his arms placed together at his back while looking out the windshield of the airship, he said to no one, "The world is rotten and needs changing? Humanity has gone mad? Destroying this world and rebuilding it from scratch? Fools! If anything, the world is currently going down the right decision! That fool I Am is out of his mind! This world does not need changing!

"The moment he said he was going to do this, I realized that I have been looking up to the wrong person all this time! I thought he was going to be the one to change the world for the better and make it so that everyone gets what he or she wants, but no! He's just a false hero like all the Smashers and the government!

"Now that the Smash Pros are out of the way and I Am is dead, the world can continue the way it is! I, the Good Man, shall lead the True Fans to victory!"

Looking up slightly at the sky, the man known as the Good Man proclaimed loudly, "Hail Pompus Rath, our lord and savior! We will not let your death be in vain! Customers are always right! Fans are always right! I shall lead the True Fans to victory! The world shall give us everything we want!"

TO BE CONTINUED

Phew… The final battle is finally over… The Smash Pros, after having being introduced several years and stories before, have finally been defeated! It feels like a long-running saga has finally come to an end!

But… is everything truly all right now? Read on and see! The Good Man is an OC, BTW.