Chapter 21: VS Shadow Mario Part II
The paint hit Luigi head on, covering him and no one was able to figure out the outcome. Then the hardened paint began to crack. Standing there shaking was Luigi in front of him was a giant shield that towered over him defending him at the last second. Luigi stared at the shield mystified at how it suddenly appeared. "It's a Weapon of Heart!" Pikachu said.
"Weapon of heart?" Luigi muttered to himself staring at the shield aimlessly.
"They take after characteristics of the person wielding it," Pikachu explained. "Just like my lance. Luigi being a coward naturally got a shield."
Link stared at Pikachu for a few brief seconds. "How do you know this stuff?"
"When you were unconscious back in the Mushroom Kingdom I went and researched my lance, I found out that anyone can summon a weapon of heart if their will is strong enough or if the situation is dire. Furthermore it can evolve depending on how it is used!"
"I see," Shadow Mario said intrigued. "Lets find out what is stronger my paint or Luigi's Weapon of Heart!" A spike of paint appeared from the ground and was launched towards Luigi.
"I won't let you do that!" Link shouted drawing an arrow, before he could place it onto the bow some paint appeared and shackled him.
"Sorry, I don't want any interference." Shadow Mario said as more paint shackled the others. The paint spike hit the shield and a dull clang was let off and the hardened spike of paint shattered. "I'll just continue increasing the sharpness, hardness and speed at which the paint will go until you die Luigi!"
"Stop, your fight is with me!" Mario shouted.
Shadow Mario glared at Luigi, "or perhaps I should kill your so called 'trump card' now" he gestured at Rai who was shaking in fear. "Or maybe I should kill the Princess next"
"Leave them out of this!" Mario shouted obviously becoming enraged.
Another paint spike rose from the ground. "Good let the hatred spread, let it control you!" a white light appeared in Mario's hand and he used it to destroy the chains that were bonding him. When the light disappeared in Mario's hands were two chakram. He threw it at the paint spike and it went through it destroying it.
"I'm guessing that is his weapon of heart." Link shouted to Pikachu.
"Yes!" Pikachu responded. "Though I do have to question why it is two chakram, the items normally take after the user's abilities and own personal preferences." At these words the two chakram turned into fireballs they then came rushing back towards Mario who caught them effortlessly.
Shadow Mario didn't seem all to impressed at Mario freeing himself. Pikachu's electric lance appeared in his mouth and he cut off the chains freeing himself and everyone else. "There is one other thing," Pikachu sighed. "Since the weapon of heart was made from your energy, if it is destroyed you will suffer severe consequences such as sickness or death! Ultimately the weapon is only as strong as the person who wields it."
They rushed towards Shadow Mario however Mario stopped them. "I'm going to fight him alone." He said as chakram disappeared, "not even with my Weapon of Heart. I'll just be using FLUDD!"
"But the paint is resistant to water now!" Link protested. Mario just walked forwards ignoring Link's words.
"It doesn't matter," Mario said. "Get to the island."
Shadow Mario looked up at Mario. "Do you think you can defeat me?" he asked. Mario didn't respond he just charged forwards as his body glowed a bright red.
"He couldn't be thinking that!" Luigi shouted surprised at what his brother was doing. "He's doing a suicide attack!"
FLUDD rocketed upwards and sent Mario at least 50 feet into the air. In his hands were two fireballs, he then brought them together creating a bigger fireball. From his hands came a constant stream of fire and it rocketed towards Shadow Mario and hitting creating a large explosion.
Mario landed on the ground exhausted he looked into the smoke. "Pathetic!" a voice said. From the smoke emerged Shadow Mario.
"KITTENS!" Kirby shouted annoyed.
Shadow Mario smiled wickedly standing triumphantly over Mario and FLUDD. "I will consume this pathetic world!" Shadow Mario laughed. Swinging his paintbrush around.
Most of Isle Delfino had now been consumed. There were a select few patches that had yet to be touched. And some of the paint had begun to go across the water to the small Island where Link, Pikachu, Kirby, Jigglypuff, Rai, and Luigi stood. Link look at the giant paint monster. "What could be giving him this much power?" Link asked. "The Smash Shards aren't doing all of this."
Luigi just looked at the giant monster. "He absorbed the Shine sprites… Maybe that could be it…"
"Well what ever it is…" Link gulped in some air. "No matter how much Mario wants to do this alone we have to help him!" Link grabbed his Bow and arrows. Placing an arrow on the bow, he prepared to fire. He released the arrow and it went flying towards the giant Paint monster. It blasted off its right arm.
"You guys are becoming a nuisance to me!" Shadow Mario shouted. He lifted up his paintbrush and a giant paint tidal wave buried them, before a giant beam of light shot out. Link held up his bow. Link grabbed his ocarina and played the song of soaring, wings came out of Links back and he flew up.
"Mario take a breather!"
"Your not thinking of taking on that monster alone are you?" Mario asked.
"What else is there to do…" Link smiled. "I'll end it quickly…"
Kirby rushed across the water and grabbed Mario. "Don't worry!" Kirby said. "Link isn't planning on defeating him just subduing him!"
Link held onto the Biggoron Sword, breathing in deeply, in order to prepare for an attack. Link flew towards the monster and slashed off the left arm, however it was quickly re-grown.
"You call that subduing?" Mario asked.
"Well the arm grew back…"
'This is becoming a harder battle than I thought…' Link thought to himself, breathing in heavily. 'Since he absorbed the NES sword, and the SNES shield. Not to mention with the power of the smash crystals, this monster is evolving, and at a much faster rate than we thought. It is resistant against all of the weapons that we have used against it.'
"Bountiful darkness!" Shadow Mario began to laugh. It suddenly was becoming much darker than normal.
'And if we keep this battle up for much longer, that monster will become so powerful not even Shadow Mario will be able to control it!'
"You better pay attention to the last few miserable minutes of your life!" Shadow Mario shouted. The Paint monster's hand reached towards Link, when suddenly something cut it off. As the paint fell into the ocean and disintegrated, Link looked at who just saved him. Links eyes however opened in shock when he saw who it was.
"GANONDORF!" Link shouted.
"The one and only!" Ganondorf laughed, holding the Dragon Sword at his side.
"And just who are you?" Shadow Mario asked, trying his best to hold in his anger, yet keep control of the monster at the same time.
"It won't matter soon!" Ganondorf said glaring down at Shadow Mario, "Because you'll be dead!" Ganondorf dashed down towards Shadow Mario and swung the Dragon sword diagonally, quickly reacting Shadow Mario used the paintbrush to defend; both of the forces clanging together and trying to push each other back. Yet they were at a stalemate. To add insult to injury Shadow Mario used only one hand to use the paintbrush, while Ganondorf struggled to use the Dragon Sword, with two hands.
"This strength is unnatural!" Ganondorf managed to say.
"That's right Ganondorf!" Shadow Mario laughed. Both Shadow Mario, and Ganondorf jumped back onto the water and their feet floated on the top of the surface. Both Ganondorf and Shadow Mario glared at each other. "Waiting out this battle until I can no longer control the paint monster will be death for you!"
Ganondorf emitted a small chuckle. He was obviously amused with this. "Link! You and the others destroy the paint monster while I fight Shadow Mario!"
"Now then Ganondorf lets get this over with."
"Whatever…" Ganondorf muttered. "Its your funeral!"
These words irritated Shadow Mario a bit. But that was Ganondorf's plan. He knew that he couldn't win against Shadow Mario physically at his current strength, so he was fighting wisely. His current strategy was to get Shadow Mario distracted long enough for him to charge up a powerful attack. Then at that time stop Shadow Mario's concentration and let Link and the others destroy the paint monster. There was small chance that it was going to work, but Ganondorf had to take the chance.
Ganondorf's body was consumed by a purple energy, as he transformed into the pig monster Ganon. "Let us end this!" Ganon shouted holding his two big swords. He brought them down upon Shadow Mario who tried to defend however the shock of the attack was too much knocking him back. Ganon then went berserk on Shadow Mario every attack hitting him and hurting him further. Eventually the onslaught stopped and Shadow Mario was in a crater at the edge of the paint.
"Absorb him!" Shadow Mario ordered the paint. A tentacle made out of paint wrapped around Ganon's wrist.
"What is it with creatures absorbing stuff to get stronger?" Link asked. "Why can't this be like the good old days where you actually had to kill something with your own hands to gain experience and get stronger!"
"Not to mention get enough money to buy the next strongest item at the next town." Mario added in.
"Link reverse my transformation!" Ganon shouted. Link pulled out his bow and arrow firing a light arrow at Ganon. It hit him in the back and in a flash of light he reverted back into Ganondorf with the paint still holding onto him. Ganondorf drew the Dragon sword using his spare hand. He cut off the paint whip but another one attacked this time Ganondorf used the Dragon Sword to defend. He let go of the sword and watched as it was absorbed.
Five paint whips attacked and wrapped themselves around Ganondorf at his wrists, ankles and at his neck. Slowly he was being dragged in.
"Don't fear the paint!" Shadow Mario weakly laughed. "Soon you will be apart of a being that is stronger than the Master!"
"And what if I don't want to be?" Ganondorf sneered back; purple energy began to resonate off of his hands and feet. He used the energy to cut the whips that were binding him and then rushed towards Shadow Mario. Shadow Mario however defended by sending a paint spike about the size of a dagger through Ganondorf's abdomen. A giant paint arm then knocked Ganondorf into the sky where he fell into the sea.
While everyone was watching Ganondorf fall through the sky they saw someone else floating there. "The Master!" Rai shouted out.
"How long has he been there?" Pikachu asked sparking at the cheeks.
The Master glared down at the paint monster. "I see…" He laughed. "Its absorbing the strength of the crystal," He stared at the Smash crystal, as it was now emitting paint, and trying to absorb him. "You want power?" he asked a dark aura appeared around his hand. "Then take it!" Master Hand shot a beam at the paintbrush. "And I'll also give you the power of time!" He flicked the Medallion of Time into the monster. "Lets see what you can do!"
Ganondorf finally surfaced, now seeing that the monster was growing stronger. The badly wounded Shadow Mario walked towards the paint monster. "I give my strength to you!" He said weakly submerging the paintbrush and his body into the monster.
Kirby floated out to Ganondorf's floating body. "I really have to wonder how you are floating while you are wearing that heavy armor," Kirby said. "By all logic the armor should have weighed you down where you drowned to death."
Ganondorf just glared at Kirby. "My magic is keeping me up," he weakly responded. Kirby brought Ganondorf in towards the island. Up from above there was a loud deafening noise The Great Fox slowly descended towards the island. Firing its lasers to temporarily subdue the monster.
Kirby and Jigglypuff inflated and Mario, Luigi, Pikachu and Rai got on them and they floated up into The Great Fox. From The Great Fox came a single arwing that landed on the island.
"How can we defeat this monster?" Link asked picking up Ganondorf off of the ground where Kirby had left him.
"At the moment I'm not sure…" Ganondorf managed to cough out. "It has to be bound by some magical object."
"The paintbrush," Link replied, "We need to find a way to destroy that paintbrush!"
Fox jumped down off of his arwing and helped Link carry Ganondorf. "I suggest we retreat to fight another day!" They got onto the arwing when it automatically began to fly into the Great Fox. After they had boarded The Great Fox, it took off away from the island. Fox was able to lead Link to the hospital wing where they placed Ganondorf. Rob64 immediately began to take care of Ganondorf. Fox then lead Link into the meeting room where Kirby, Rai, Jigglypuff, Pikachu, Falco, Mario, and Luigi were sitting.
Fox sat down in a big black leather chair, in front of him was a keyboard, instantly he typed something and a hologram popped up out of the table. The sudden appearance surprised most of the people in the room. A whole map of the planet had appeared, and Fox pointed out the paint monster's current position.
"It seems to be heading towards the more populated areas of the planet!" Falco pointed out noticing several arms stretching slowly towards the Mushroom Kingdom, and several islands.
"No, I don't think that is the case!" Fox disagreed. "I think that is only a minor coincidence, I think the paint is heading for a warp area, where it can consume more ground."
"Peach's castle…" Mario muttered, realizing all of the warp areas in there. "And the Power Stars 150 of them!"
"There is a bright side," Fox said. "The paint only recently was able to adapt to survive the water, all we know is that the paint can survive tropical climates, our data indicates, that the warps in Peach's castle lead to several different climates, including an artic mountain, a volcano, and a desert! Perhaps in one of those climates lies the key to defeating him."
The door opened and in came Ganondorf. "So what did I miss?" he asked.
The Master was sitting in his castle floating in space, in front of him was his half completed Smash Crystal, sitting on a pedestal. Slowly the paint began to come through the crystal. "So it is evolving at a fast rate… Perhaps giving it the power of time was a bad idea." The Master sighed. He stared at the paint as it slowly began to fill up an invisible jar. Eventually it became a pillar of paint. "Is that all you have?" He said unimpressed.
"Shut up!" A voice came from the pillar. "I will escape from here and surpass you!"
The Master just smiled sinisterly. "Those runes, only I am able to pass. After all they are written in my blood!" Master Hand stood up and held out a black seed. "Now accept my gift!" he threw the black seed into the paint monster knocking out the half of the smash crystal. The Smash Crystal floated over in front of the Master. After a few minutes had passed he threw back in the smash crystal. "Now I'm sure you had absorbed that Dark Seed, take it back to the main body!"
"Why should I?"
"Don't you want to surpass me?"
"I don't need your help!"
The Master just smiled. "We'll see about that!"
To be continued…