Chapter 58: Nintendo Switch Finale

The past two days had been terrible. Mario (in Link's body) could barely swing his sword without swaying to the left or right. His arrows kept curving to the right. Whenever he tried to do a spin attack, he couldn't stop himself and spun until he was dizzy. Link (in Mario's body) could only shoot fire from his feet. Whenever he tried to use the F.L.U.D.D, he would blow himself back instead of the opponent. When he used his cape turned himself around.

"No! Your-a hands, Link! Your HANDS!" Mario (in Link's body) yelled.

"Oh for goodness sake! We're goners…" Mario cried.

"Yeah, we're goners." Link sighed. "Wanna take a lunch break?"

The two went out to eat at the Roost Cafe, run by Brewster. Sitting down at the tall stools, they ordered two coffees.

"I just don't get-a why we can't do-a what the other one can. I mean, it's the same body." Mario (in Link's body) said. "Just a different-a mind. Well, at least we didn't dropped out of the tournament like the rest of the original smashers."

"Different mind…" Link (in Mario's body) said. "Hmm…"

"Hey." Brewster said, handing them their coffees. "I heard about the whole thing with the body-switching."

"Yeah…" Link (in Mario's body) said. "We have to compete in this competition soon and we can't get any of each other's signature moves down. It sucks."

"Well," Brewster said, looking at him. "If you don't mind me saying this… I don't think that this would be that bad. I mean, it's a chance to do something new. A little change goes a long way. But at the end of the day, you're still you, and nothing's going to change that. You're body isn't what makes you special. It's your mind."

"I'm still me…" Link said, sipping his coffee.

Suddenly, a loud booming voice emanated throughout the city: Attention, Smash-City: The tournament will begin in fifteen minutes. Spectators can now enter the audience, and all smashers must be at the stadium in five minutes.

"Well, I guess time's up." Mario said, chugging down the rest of his coffee. "Let's a go, huh?"

Link nodded solemnly. "Yeah."

Meanwhile...

Toon Link was feeling good. After departing from Yoshi's Island in the morning, they had managed to get all but one of the necessary ingredients in just a couple days. Red and Blue had decided to join them on their adventure. It's not like they had anything better to do.

They were discussing how well things had been going over a pizza.

"If we keep up the pace, we'll manage to make the potion before the tournament ends!" Toon Link exclaimed happily.

"This pizza is good." Gary said, stuffing three pieces into his backpack. "I'll definitely be smelling these later."

Ashley smiled and took out her potion book. "Ok… the last item we need is the… oh no…"

"What is it?"

"We need a claw from… Ridley."

Red spit out his drink. "Ridley? THE Ridley?"

Toon Link shuddered. "It's hard enough dealing with him when I'm NOT trying to rip off one of his claws."

"He's being held in captivity at Smash-City to be used in the Metroid stage." Ashley said.

"Could we sneak in while he's sleeping?" Blue asked.

"Nope. His senses are razor-sharp. He's hear us instantly." Toon Link said. The good feeling he had earlier was gone. Sure, he could take on Ridley in a smash battle, but when he can't just beat him up for fear of actually killing him outside smash battles and when he has to purposefully get close to his claws to rip one off…

"Well, it's no use prolonging it." Ashley said. They had touched down on Smash City. "If we do, we'll only get more scared. Let's go."

The four of them walked to the Stage Hazard Pen, where all of the creatures used as stage hazards in the stadium were held. Whenever the stadium called for one of them, they were instantly teleported from their own and into the colosseum to do their thing, and then they were instantly teleported back. The pen consisted of two large metallic buildings. One of them was for Ridley alone, while The other held the rest of them. Ridley's building consisted of a small door for people to get through, and a huge door, which is how they got him in there in the first place. The latter was permanently locked nowadays.

"Alright." Ashley said, unlocking the entrance. "Here's the plan: I'll fly in in my broomstick and distract Ridley. While he's chasing me around, Toon Link will hookshot onto his foot. Red and Blue will provide further cover with their Pokémon to try to prevent him from catching me. My broomstick is fast, but he's faster."

"And if something goes wrong?" Blue asked.

"Then it was nice knowing you." Ashley said, opening the door.

"Good luck." Toon Link said, hugging Ashley.

She shone bright red, hopped on her broomstick, and flew in without a word. The other three charged in after her.

Meanwhile, at the Smash City Stadium…

"HELLOOOOOOOOO EVERYONE AND WELCOME TO THIS YEAR'S ANNUAL RANDOM DOUBLE'S TOURNAMENT!" The crowd erupted in applause as the announcer kicked off the tournament.

"OUR FIRST MATCH HAS MARIO AND LINK AGAINST PIT AND WARIO! C'MON DOWN, CONTESTANTS!"

The plumber and hero walked onto the stage, waving to the fans.

"Are you sure we can do this?" Link (in Mario's body) asked.

"Honestly, no." Mario (in Link's body) said. "But I want to go down-a fighting."

Link smiled. "Same here, buddy."

Warriors and Pit entered from the other side.

"I've waited a long time for this!" Wario said, laughing maniacally.

Pit nodded and smiled confidently. "You know what they say; if you can't beat them, destroy their body while someone else is trapped in them!"

Link gulped. "I don't like the sound of that…"

"3…" Mario straightened Link's cap on his head,

"2…" Link's feet sizzled from the heat emanating from them.

"1…" The two warriors looked at each other nervously.

"GOOOOOOOO!"

"AHHHHH!" Pit flew towards Mario (in Link's body), slashing at him mercilessly. "I'll show you for making a fool out of me in front of Lady Palutena!"

"Eep!" Mario (in Link's body) jumped out of the way. "That was Link, not-a me!" Pit didn't seem to hear him. That, or he didn't care. Mario held up his shield and blocked a flurry from Pit. Rolling to to the side after another flurry, Mario swung his sword at Pit and missed completely, swinging the air in front of him.

"Ha! Do you even know the reach of your sword? How could Lady Palutena be impressed with you?" He unleashed another barrage of attacks, which Mario barely managed to block without falling over. Taking a quick glance behind him, Mario saw that he was near the edge of the stage.

"Haha, not so impressive anymore, are you?" Pit said, smirking at him. "Who's the campfire (A/N: yes, "campfire" isn't a typo. Look up the easter egg between Pit and Palutena about Link) now? You are!"

"Calm down!" Mario gasped. "I'm not actually Link, remember?"

"I know, but that won't make this any less satisfying!" Pit said as he unleashed his most powerful flurry yet.

Mario's heels were now off the edge of the stage. Any more pushing and he's be a goner.

Pit stopped briefly to charge the final blow. "You're nothing compared to the underworld army! Good bye, Link!"

As Pit swung his weapon at Mario (in Link's body), Mario instinctively swung his sword forward. A huge cloud of flame erupted from his hand, sending Pit back towards the middle of the stage. "AHHHHH!"

Mario looked at the master sword in amazement. Tiny flames danced around it. His mind raced back to the coffee shop, and Brewster's words echoed in his head: "...at the end of the day, you're still you, and nothing's going to change that..."

"I'm still me… I can still control the powers my original body had!" Mario gasped.

He looked towards Link, who was running away from Wario. "Link!"

Link glanced towards Mario in between dodges. Mario made a shooting-an-arrow thing gesture. Link looked at him in doubt, but Mario edged him on.

Link reluctantly made held an imaginary bow and shot an imaginary arrow. Except, to Link's surprise, the imaginary arrow wasn't imaginary at all. An arrow made of fire shot from his imaginary bow and nailed Wario right in the stomach, sending him flying backwards.

"What just happened?" Link asked Mario in amazement.

"I'm not-a sure, but it's working! Now, let's-a go! Before we lose this-a chance!"

Mario and Link charged forward towards their respective opponents. Mario slashed at Pit, and although his slashes were slow and inefficient, the fire emanating from the sword made it almost impossible for Pit to dodge everything. "Haha! I don't have to worry about-a hitting you with precise sword swipes when the flames are-a enough!"

"H-hey! This isn't fair!" Pit yelled.

Meanwhile, Link pursued Wario, shooting arrow after arrow from his imaginary bow. Every one of them hit their target. "Why try to hit you with big but slow fireballs when small but fast fire arrows will do?"

"Wah! This isn't good!" Wario muttered to himself. The yellow Mario-rip off got on his bike and charged straight at Link. "CHAAAAARGE!"

"Uh oh." Link jumped out of the way, shooting a fire arrow at Wario's tire as he did so. Wario veered off course, crashing right into Pit and knocking both of them onto the ground.

"Now!" Mario said. The two of them stood side by side and started charging up. The Master Sword was enveloped completely in flames at this point, and Link's fire arrow grew to be bigger than either of them.

"HYAH!"

The audience didn't know exactly what happened because the explosion that followed was was so bright. But when the light finally did clear, Wario and Pit were sitting on the loser's bench.

"AND THE WINNER IS…. MARIO AND LINK!"

Cheers erupted from throughout the entire stadium as Mario and Link paraded back into the locker rooms.

"Wow, we did it!" Mario cheered.

Link nodded happily. "I can't believe that worked… For a second, I actually forgot we had switched bodies. It all felt so natural."

"Yeah, it-a did." Mario said. "If we can keep on doing that...!"

"Hey, good job out there." Pit said, bowing to both of them. "Good luck on your next match!"

"Hey, who are we fighting next?" Link asked. "I didn't bother to look at the bracket past the first round since I thought we were gonna get eliminated."

"Hmm…" Mario looked at the screen showing the current bracket. They were the last of the group to fight in the first round. "It looks like we're fighting Lucas and Marth next."

"Alright. I'm beginning to think we can actually do this." Link said.

Mario nodded. "I do too. Let's-a go win this thing."

Meanwhile, at Ridley's enclosure…

The inside of the huge building consisted of only one room. The 20 foot thick concrete walls were reinforced with steel beams running all throughout the room. That wouldn't be enough to hold Ridley on its own, so the metal was further reinforced with a thin layer of disintegrating lasers.

As soon as Ashley flew into the building, Ridley's eyes shot open. With a deafening roar, he flew into the air, shooting fireballs at Ashley, who deftly weaved around them.

"Come get me, you oversized lizard!" Ashley yelled, sticking her tongue out. Ridley didn't understand the insult that was just thrown at him, but he could understand the raspberry perfectly. Roaring even more loudly, he started chasing Ashley through the air.

"Now, Toon Link!" Ashley said. "Your hookshot!"

"I-I can't get a lock on his foot!" Toon Link yelled.

"They'll never get that claw without our help! Let's slow him down!" Red yelled. He and Blue looked at each other and nodded.

"Charizard, go!"

"Get em, Blastoise!"

The two Pokémon emerged from their poke balls. They, like Red and Blue, looked at each other and nodded in respect. Then, Charizard flew into the air, shooting fireballs at Ridley while Blastoise shot geysers of water.

One of Charizard's fireballs forced Ridley to slow down, which allowed Blastoise to shoot him with a thick stream of water, stunning him briefly.

"Aha!" Toon Link used this moment of opportunity to aim his hookshot.

CLINK!

"Got him!" Toon Link yelled triumphantly. He rode his hookshot onto Ridley's foot. After taking a few seconds to celebrate to himself, he finally realized what he had just done, and that he was now on the foot of a giant space lizard he just enraged.

"Oh no…" Toon Link said in horror as Ridley looked at him. The overgrown lizard opened his gigantic mouth and screeched right into his face, plastering Toon Link with spit. After failing to reach Toon Link with his arms to throw him off, Ridley started flying around in a frenzy, fully bent on shaking this annoying boy off of his foot.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Toon Link held on for dear life. He could feel his fingers slipping. "I'm not gonna make it!"

"Toon Link!"

He felt his fingers let go of Ridley's foot and his vision rapidly rocketed towards the steel wall. The G-Force caused his vision to blacken, but just as his vision closed on the wall and he was disintegrated by lasers, he felt a small, attractive hand grab him by the arm.

When his vision returned, he was greeted with Ashley's face. She was closing an empty bottle of purple potion. Behind them, Charizard and Blastoise were busy battling Ridley.

"Thank goodness you're ok." Ashley said. "I need you… to, uh, get the claw, I mean."

Toon Link rubbed his head. "Thanks for saving me…"

"No problem, that potion I gave you should get you back to tip top shape right about… now." Instantly, Toon Link's headache went away and adrenaline rushed through his boy.

"Woah, I feel great! I feel like the king of the jungle!" Toon Link said. He shrieked like a monkey while banging his chest.

"That's the last of those I have, so you better make it count." Ashley said, dropping Toon Link back onto the ground. "Now, let's go get that claw."

"Glad to see you're ok, little dude!" Blue said, giving Toon Link a thumbs up.

"We gotta act fast! Charizard and Blastoise can't keep this up for long!" Red said through gritted teeth.

Toon Link nodded, aimed his hookshot with deadly accuracy, and hit Ridley right on the foot. Overflowing with adrenaline, Toon Link latched into his foot so hard that Ridley roared out in agony. Toon Link climbed onto Ridley's back and started hitting him with everything he could: arrows, bombs, his sword, his bare hands, etc. Ridley scratched and bit him to try to get him off, but Toon Link shrugged it off as if it didn't affect him.

"What the heck did you put in that potion?" Red asked, watching Toon Link in fascinated horror.

"Hmm.. I may have put an extra lion heart in that potion." Ashley said.

The beating continued until Ridley couldn't take anymore and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Ripping the claw out King Arthur style, the little hero held the claw above his head, roaring savagely. "ARRRRRRRGHHHHH!"

"Yeah, I definitely put too many lion hearts." Ashley said.

"Well, it doesn't matter!" Red said. "We got the claw! Let's get out of here before he regains consciousness!"

The four quickly rushed outside. Once outside, they cheered, hugged, and pat each other on the back.

"And let's hear it for the MVP, Toon Link!" Blue said, hoisting the boy onto his shoulders.

"I couldn't have done it without that performance enhancing potion!" Toon Link said, beaming. "How does it make me so strong, enduring and resistant to damage?"

"Oh, it doesn't." Ashley said. "It just temporarily stores all of the damage you sustained and energy you used and puts it on you after the potion wears out. Which should be… now."

"Wait. Wha-"

Instantly, Toon Link yelped and fell off Blue's shoulders. Blue examined the knocked out hero. "Unconscious."

"He'll be fine." Ashley said. "Now, let's get back to my house. It's time to brew a potion."

They headed for home, and in the distance the loud cheers coming from the smash stadium could be heard…

"WELCOME TO THE FINALS OF THIS YEAR'S RANDOMIZED DOUBLE BATTLE TOURNAMENT!" The announcer belted out. The cheers from the crowd were deafening.

"I can't believe we-a made it to the finals!" Mario (in Link's body) said.

"We've gone too far to turn back now." Link said.

As the two kept competing in the tournament, they slowly stopped trying to imitate each other's style and just did what felt natural to them. Aside from emitting flames from the master sword, Mario stopped using the Master Sword as a melee weapon and instead started using it to shoot projectiles. He managed to shoot water from the F.L.U.D.D out of it too, pushing Lucas off the edge. Link, meanwhile, realizing that his blade is just an extension of himself, created a beam of fire that extended straight out of his hand, acting as a blade. Think of it as if he had a lightsaber for an arm. He dueled Marth with it, eventually using his prior knowledge to gain the advantage and parry him directly off the edge. In round three, they faced Charizard and Little Mac, and in round four they fought Shulk and the Duck Hunt Dog, somehow managing to best them as well.

"ON THE RIGHT SIDE WE HAVE MARIO AND LINK, WHO, ALTHOUGH HAVING SWITCHED BODIES, MADE IT TO THE FINALS!"

Mario and Link walked onstage. The stadium was completely full and everyone was cheering. Mario noticed Pauline and the band waving at him. Link saw and waved at Prince Sidon and the rest of the four new champions.

"Who are we fighting?" Link asked.

"Us."

Link and Mario spun around and were met with Cloud and Sheik.

The two pairs looked each other over. Cloud pointed to Link (in Mario's body), then said, "I'll take Link." Sheik nodded quickly.

"We've studied every one of your matches today." Cloud said. "You won't have the advantage of being unpredictable here."

Link gulped. "We may have a problem. I can barely beat him even with my normal body."

Mario nodded silently.

"3, 2, 1, GOOOOOO!" The crowd erupted as the two pairs of fighters ran towards each other.

Cloud leaped at Link, slashing at him quickly and ferociously. Link got his fire-sword ready and swung back.

The blades clashed and sparks flew. Link leapt backwards, but Cloud leapt forward, keeping up the pressure.

Clever. He's keeping the fight close. He knows I'm not as mobile at close quarters with this hand-sword. Link thought to himself.

"I will exploit every weakness I see." Cloud said. With tremendous effort, he swung at Link, who barely managed to block it. "That body doesn't have as much physical strength as your original one, am I right?"

Link fell to the ground, breathing heavily. Cloud loomed over him and was about to thrust his sword at him. Link quickly shot an arrow at him, but it barely managed to make him flinch. Still, it created a window just big enough for him to roll out of the way.

"Gosh dangit!" Cloud yelled as he struggled to pull his sword out of the ground. "Hey, get back here!"

"No!"

"Grr…."

Meanwhile, Mario was not faring much better. Mario shot fireball after fireball at Sheik, and even started to mix some streams of water into the mix. Sheik was too fast to hit though. Still, she did not seem to want to advance towards Mario, merely dodging whenever an attacks came her way.

"Hey, what's wrong? Too much-a fire for you to-a handle?" Mario said. "Link's arms are really strong, so I can keep doing this all day!"

Sheik scoffed. "We'll see."

Eventually, Mario noticed that his fireballs weren't as big. A few more swings together they stopped completely.

"Aw, what's the matter?" Sheik asked. "Link's body isn't as magically strong as yours?"

Mario swung a couple more times. No fire. The fire had stopped dancing around the Master Sword. Looking above his head, he finally saw what Sheik was referring to. There was a green bar above his head. Mario remembered from playing the games that this was his magic bar. It was completely empty.

"...OH NO!" Mario screamed. Sheik sped towards him, and he turned in the other direction and started running away.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT LOOKS LIKE SHEIK AND CLOUD ARE CHASING DOWN MARIO AND LINK! THIS BATTLE'S PRETTY MUCH OVER!"

Mario and Link met up at the center of the ring. Sheik and Cloud surrounded them. They turned, their backs against each other, in one last stand against the two other warriors.

"What do we-a do? They have a counter for everything we throw at-a them!" Mario asked desperately. "I can't use my fire anymore, and you can't use your sword!"

"I know! In a 1v1, they can read us inside and out!" Link said, panting. "Wait a minute, all of our battles so far haven't been 2v2, they've been two 1v1 battles!"

Mario nodded. "Hey, you're right. But so-a what?"

"If we work together, we might be able to turn this around!"

"You're right!" Mario said. "Let's do this! 1… 2… 3… NOW!"

Link turned around so that he too was facing Sheik and the two of them charged her together. Mario swung the Master Sword at her while Link shot fireballs out of his feet at her. Separately, Sheik would've been able to dodge each of these attacks in her sleep. But together, the attacks were so wild, so random, that she made a mistake and got caught by one of the fireballs.

"NOW!" Link shot the biggest fireball he could and Mario swung the Master Sword as hard as he could.

"Not so fast!" Cloud yelled, sliding in and blocking both attacks just in time.

"No, we were so-a close!"

"I'll admit, that was clever." Cloud said. "You might be able to beat us in a 2v1, but there's no way you can win in a 2v2!" Cloud and Sheik charged forward.

Mario and Link met them head on, with needles from Sheik, sparks from the sword clashes, and fire from Link being sprayed in all directions.

"Behind you!" Mario yelled right as Sheik was about to punch Link. Without looking, Link moved to the side, dodging the punch entirely.

"To you right!" Link said. Without even checking, Mario rolled to the left. Surely enough, Cloud swung at Mario, but thanks to Link's warning, had missed.

"Watch out from below!"

"Needles from the right!"

"Duck!"

"Jump!"

Mario and Link were on full-out defense mode, dodging every attack from every angle.

"ARGH, JUST GET HIT ALREADY!" Cloud yelled, swinging wildly. "Aha, got you!" Cloud said, swinging with all his might. Unfortunately for him, he did not bother to check who was in front of him, for it was neither Link or Mario, but Sheik. She was sent sprawling across the stage.

"Now!" Link yelled.

Quick as lighting, the two attacked cloud as fast as they could. Slowly, Mario's swings become more effective and Link's fireballs grew in intensity and heat. They attacked from every angle, and Cloud eventually slipped up and allowed himself to be hit by a stray swing from Mario.

Upon seeing this, the two charged up their respective attacks again, and this time they felt the attack go through. Cloud was sent flying off the stage.

As immediately as Cloud was eliminated, they rushed towards Sheik, who had just managed to recover from Cloud's hit. She barely stood a chance.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE A WINNER!"

"MARIO, WE DID IT!" Link yelled as he pumped his fist into the air.

"Yeah we-a did. Through the power of-a teamwork, anything is possible!" Mario said.

"Pfft, how cheesy." Cloud, who had returned to the stage for the awards ceremony, said. "Still, that was very impressive. Good fight."

"Thanks." Link said. He shook hands with Cloud and then took his place at the top of the podium with Mario. They held the trophy up together as the crowd applauded.

After the awards ceremony, Toon Link, Ashley, Red, and Blue went to the stadium, where the 12 original smashers decided to meet.

"Well?"

Ashley held up a glowing pink vial. "The potion is complete! Just have you and the person you switched bodies with sip on this and you'll instantly return to your original body."

Toon Link passed out shot glasses for all of them, yelling out "SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS!" the whole time.

Now that everyone had their shot glasses, Mario decided to make a toast.

"A toast, to friends. May they-a never leave us!" Mario closed his eyes gulped down his shot glass, as well as everyone else.

When he opened them, he looked down and saw… Link's gauntlets.

"Hey, what gives?" Mario looked at Link, who still had a full shot glass in his hand.

"Mario, before we switch bodies, I just want to say… thanks. For everything. You're one of the best friends I've ever had."

Mario teared up and pulled Link into a hug. "You-a too, buddy."

Link smiled at Mario and gulped down his shot glass. Mario's vision faded, and when it returned he was looking not at his own body, but Link! The potion was a success!

"Wahoo! I've finally got my body back!" Link yelled in happiness.

"Wahoo? Looks like you might have inherited a bit of Mario's accent." Corrina said, laughing.

Mario jumped in place a couple times. "Oh yes! This is definitely my body!"

"Hooray! Everything's fixed!" Toon Link said, cheering as everyone started celebrating.

"Yes, and you made it happen." Ashley said.

"Haha, thanks. To be honest, I had a lot of fun hanging out with you these last few days, even if my life was in danger for most of it." Toon Link said. Shyly, and hesitantly, he continued, "Do you maybe wanna hang out together again sometime?"

Ashley was taken aback with such a statement. Nobody had ever asked her to hang out before. It was kind of a art of being a witch. Still, she wasn't too opposed to the idea.

"Perhaps." She said, hopping onto her broom.

"Call me." Ashley said before flying off. Toon Link watched her until she disappeared in the light of the full moon. In front of him was a card with a phone number on it: (666)-666-6666

"Yeah, yeah i definitely will." Toon Link said, pocketing the card and heading back home.

A/N: Whew, I thought this chapter was never gonna end! I had an absolute blast writing this one, and I hope ya'll liked reading it! As for what the next arc is gonna feature, here's another hint: Splat!

Until next chapter!