Chapter 3: Soul-Smash Down

It was night at the SSBM HQ. After an exhaustive day of training, bickering, and trying to get to know each other (once again, the magic word is trying), the SSBM crew and the SCII fighters wanted to do nothing more than sleep.

The smashers slept in their respective rooms—except for Young Link, who was sleeping in SSBM Link's room—while everybody from the Soul Calibur universe was scattered throughout the base. Cassandra, Sophitia, Xianghua, and Seung Mina were sleeping on the couches in the main room; SCII Link was in Young Link's room; Yunsung, Kilik, and Mitsurugi, and Maxi had managed to find suitable sleeping areas in the common area; Raphael, Taki, and Ivy were keeping watch at their posts; and Siegfried and Mewtwo were continuing their research on Soul Edge. Talim was outside on the roof, talking to the wind again.

"Wind, guide Talim," she said, raising her arms gracefully in the air. The wind priestess closed her eyes for a few seconds so she could concentrate on the readings that the wind gave her. Suddenly, she opened her eyes in a hurry. "This look bad. Talim must tell people inside about this! Thank you, wind!" The wind responded by blowing her off the roof—again. "Waahhh … Talim no like wind anymore!"

Meanwhile, in the SSBM library, Mewtwo was reading up about Soul Edge in the book he had found earlier. Siegfried was keeping a close watch on the cursed sword, making sure not to touch it in any way or form, lest he lose his sanity again. The knight yawned and rubbed at his eyes. He was starting to get tired.

Mewtwo suddenly rose to his feet and levitated in midair. "Now that's interesting," he commented and turned a page. "This could definitely help us out."

"Huh? What?" Siegfried muttered groggily, looking at the psychic Pokemon with glazed eyes. "Did you say something?"

Ignoring the former wielder of Soul Edge and slamming the book shut, Mewtwo headed for the door. He placed its paw on the doorknob and turned to Siegfried. "You stay here and watch over that sword. I'll be back."

"Yeah … sure, whatever you say," Siegfried replied tiredly, yawning once again. He sighed and glanced over the sword, which had just blinked. With a shudder, Siegfried guessed that it wouldn't hurt to close his eyes for just a moment.

Unbeknownst to him, however, Bowser and Ganondorf were standing outside the study. As soon as Mewtwo, who hadn't noticed the two villains hiding behind a large potted plant and a statue, had floated by, the archenemies of Mario and Link quietly tiptoed inside and spotted Siegfried with his eyes closed and the sword lying at his side. This would be easier than they thought it would …

"Wake up! Wake up! Talim says everybody wake up!"

Cassandra threw a couch cushion at the young girl's head, screaming, "Shut up! We want sleep!"

"Talim, do you have any idea what time it is?" Seung Mina questioned her irritably. "Can't this wait until morning?"

"Ohisitmorningalreadythat'sgreatwhatarewehavingforbreakfasthuhuhuhuh?" Xianghua exclaimed the instant she bolted up from the couch.

"No, Xianghua, it's not even close," Sophitia told her with a yawn. "Go back to sleep, okay?"

"Oh! Okay!" the Chinese warrior chirped in reply, then she simply dropped down to the couch and started snoring.

"Hey … what's happening down there?" Marth called to the five young women as he, Roy, Kilik, Yunsung, Maxi, Mitsurugi, both Links, Zelda, and Mario made their way downstairs. "It's only two o' clock!"

"Talim, you had better have a good reason for this," Yunsung said to her, annoyed about being woken up by the youngest SCII fighter's loud cry.

The wind priestess crossed her arms stubbornly and retorted, "Talim have a good reason for this, of course! The wind tell Talim that somebody here try to take Soul Edge! Wind also tell Talim that Talim should stop talking to Talim self. Wind mean to Talim. Talim no like wind!" she added.

"If you don't like the wind, then why do you continue to talk to it?" Zelda queried to her, crossing her arms and fixing Talim with a stern expression.

"Talim must talk to wind because Talim is wind priestess," she replied. "Talim controls the wind! Come unto Talim, wind!"

"… That girl has gone cuckoo," Roy whispered to Marth, who nodded in agreement.

"Wait-a, wait-a," Mario interrupted the Asian fighter in mid-rant. "Go-a back. Did you-a just say that-a somebody was after-a Soul Edge?"

"Yep! Wind tell Talim that someone in SSBM HQ want Soul Edge for bad reason!"

Mario turned to the others with a serious look on his face. "Guys, if this is true, then we've got a problem on our hands."

"Shoyah?" SCII Link scratched the back of his head. "Hup! Shaah?"

"Well, while most of us are heroes of our respective worlds, we've got a few non-heroes as well," SSBM Link half translated, half responded. He sank his palm into his chin thoughtfully and went on, "Zelda, who here would want Soul Edge?"

She shrugged. "Let's use the process of elimination. Let's see, our guests know about Soul Edge's true nature, so it wouldn't be one of them … I'm pretty sure that's it's no one currently in this room. The kids? No, they wouldn't, and neither would the Pokemon. Hmm …"

Kilik was getting impatient with Zelda's slow method. "There's too many of us to keep track without writing it down!" he snapped. "Think! Is there anybody here whose intentions are less than pure?"

The smashers all thought about that question for a moment, then Mario and SSBM Link stared at each other in alarm and yelled, "Bowser and Ganondorf!"

"Shaah! Suyah!" SCII Link agreed.

Maxi and Mitsurugi were confused. "Who?"

Siegfried opened his eyes frantically once he felt himself start to nod off. Shaking the last remnants of sleep away from his mind, he sat up and looked at Soul Edge, only to find Bowser and Ganondorf looming over it, getting ready to grab the hilt. Letting out a surprised shout, Siegfried reached for the nearest object—a large, heavy book—and threw it at the villains.

Ganondorf lurched back from the strike, clapping his hands over his face and roaring, "Pretentious fool!"

Without bothering to respond to the Gerudo's insult, Siegfried threw a random umbrella at Bowser and bellowed at the top of his lungs, "Everybody who's awake! Get in the study! We've got a situation!"

"Everybody who's awake! Get in the study! We've got a situation!"

"Huh?" Sophitia's head jerked up and she threw a nervous glance over her shoulder. "Was that … was that Siegfried?"

"I think so," Cassandra answered, looking up at her sister's worried face. "What do you think just happened?"

"Hey, we heard someone shout, what's going on?" Taki called to the people in the main room as she, Raphael, and Ivy ran over to them.

"Talim told us that somebody here is trying to take Soul Edge and use it for their own purposes," Mitsurugi informed the ninja.

"That little girl?" Ivy scoffed and rolled her eyes. "She's crazy, if you haven't noticed!"

"At least she's not psychotic like you are," Seung Mina muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Ivy barked in the Korean's face.

"You heard me!" she shouted at the daughter of Cervantes.

"Ladies, this isn't the time for this!" Raphael intervened, forcing himself in between Seung Mina and Ivy and pushing them apart from each other. "We have bigger things to worry about. Wasn't that Siegfried yelling just a few seconds ago?"

"It was him," Maxi replied slowly, pulling his nun chunks from his boot. "Let's go check it out."

The others nodded in agreement and Mario, the two Links, Marth, Roy, Zelda, Mitsurugi, Cassandra, Kilik, Xianghua, Yunsung, Seung Mina, Ivy, Talim, Raphael, Sophitia, and Maxi hurried over to the library.

"You fools!" Mewtwo snarled at Ganondorf and Bowser. "What do you think you're doing? Don't you know that the sword is pure evil?"

Bowser laughed arrogantly and retorted, "It's the instrument to our plans of world domination! As soon as we get our hands on Soul Edge, nothing can stop us!"

"Excuse me," Siegfried made his way into the discussion. "But technically, you don't even have hands."

The Koopa king stared down at his paws momentarily before he howled in outrage. "Insolent pest! You shall pay for that!"

Mewtwo snorted in disbelief and raised one of his paws. A dark purple psychic energy surrounded the two villains and lifted them into the air. "Not on my watch."

Just that moment, the door to the study flew open and smacked Mewtwo in the back of the head, knocking him out and releasing Bowser and Ganondorf from his hold. Mario and his party of SSBM and SCII fighters were at the door, prepared for anything.

Well, almost anything, at least. Siegfried threw a book at them, which hit SSBM Link in the face, and shouted, "What have you done? Mewtwo had them beat and now you had to go and knock him out!"

"Huh?" Marth looked down at his feet and saw the psychic cat Pokemon lying unconscious. "Oh … oops."

Ganondorf pushed himself off the floor and laughed menacingly. "Fools! You have just sealed your fates!" SSBM Link hit him on the head with a boomerang. "Ow …" SCII Link hit him in the head with a boomerang soon after. "Ow! Would you stop doing that, you fairies!"

"Soyaahh?" SCII Link exclaimed.

"Hey! I'm not a fairy! I'm a Hylian and you know it!" SSBM Link cried out indignantly. He let out a war cry and charged at Ganondorf with his sword drawn.

"Half of you-a, help the-a Links and get-a Ganondorf!" Mario instructed his group. "The rest-a of you, come-a with-a me and fight-a Bowser!"

"Wait, wait! Somebody's got to keep a watch on Soul Edge!" Xianghua reminded him as she waved her arms in the air frantically.

"Yes, that's true …" Sophitia sighed. "I'll do it."

"So will I," Raphael volunteered. "Nobody's getting past me to get that sword!"

"Talim will help, too, so wind will stop making fun of Talim!" she added, grinning from ear to ear like an idiot.

"I tell you, that girl has got problems," Ivy whispered to Yunsung and Cassandra.

"And this is news, because …?" Cassandra replied questioningly.

"Uh, guys?" Maxi called to the rest of the SSBM/SCII team. "I think that we should … run!"

Everybody else looked up just in time to see a humongous potted plant flying his or her way. With a loud scream, all of them darted out of the way and narrowly avoided being crushed. Bowser laughed evilly and picked up the top half of a broken statue, holding it over his head and getting ready to throw it at the heroes.

"Oh-a no you-a don't!" Mario wound back for an attack and released a fireball right at Bowser's gut. The king of Koopas lurched back and almost dropped the statue, but held on to it tightly. "Here-a we go!"

"Take this!" Yunsung shouted, leaping into the air bringing his sword down on the turtle-lizard's head. The broken statue was able to protect Bowser from the blow, but it shattered into pieces and showered the group with fragments of broken marble.

Kilik and Xianghua faced each other and nodded, a silent message to each other that they should team up. Xianghua charged at Bowser with her sword drawn. When she was close enough to him, the Chinese heroine drew her sword back as if to slash him in the stomach. She seemed like an easy target and Bowser slashed at her. But at the last minute, she ducked. "Just kidding!" she said with a giggle and a wink.

"What?" Bowser roared, now off balance from missing Xianghua. He tried to right himself, but Kilik came up from behind and struck the Koopa over the head with his staff. The blow wasn't hard enough to knock him out, but it did irritate him. Bowser turned to Kilik angrily.

The wielder of Kali-Yuga stood patiently, waiting for Bowser to strike at him. But when he did, Xianghua stabbed his tail with her sword, making Bowser roar out in pain. And when Bowser went to attack her, Kilik hit him over the head with his rod again. And because Bowser was too slow to figure out their strategy, the pattern continued.

Mitsurugi and Taki watched the scene in amusement. Mitsurugi glanced at Taki and asked her, "Should we go help them?"

"Why bother? I think that they've got the hang of it," she responded. "Why don't we just sit here and watch?"

"Sure," the samurai said.

Mario burst into laughter when he saw that Bowser was trapped between Xianghua and Kilik. "You-a always-a were slow and-a stupid, weren't you-a?" he taunted his enemy.

Bowser growled at him. "When I get through with these pests, you're next, plumber!"

"Humph, I would like to see that," Ivy replied scornfully and rolled her eyes at the ceiling.

Although the group fighting Bowser wasn't having much trouble with the Koopa king, the half against Ganondorf wasn't faring so well. The two Links and Zelda would annoy Ganondorf enough so that the Gerudo would lose his collected, calculated demeanor and strike wildly, then either Cassandra, Marth, Roy, Maxi, or Seung Mina would attack him with their weapons. But the process was a slow one.

"Roy, I've got an idea, let's team up," Marth whispered to his partner in a low voice. "When he comes this way, let's strike at once!"

"Get ready, then, because here he comes!" Roy answered, his eyes locked determinedly on Ganondorf as Seung Mina sent him flying from a blow with her halberd.

"Ready …" Marth muttered to Roy as the two swordsmen got ready for an attack. "Go!" They struck simultaneously at Ganondorf, their blades flying in the air, as they drove the Gerudo king back with their nonstop hits.

Maxi waited until the Fire Emblem fighters had finished their attack, then he leapt onto the Gerudo's back. When Ganondorf tried to shake him off, Maxi jumped in the air and landed on him again, the force of the impact sending him to the floor. "This is … goodbye!"

Zelda sighed and shook her head. "Give it up, Ganondorf, you will never win."

"Yeah, so you can just forget about your plans to use Soul Edge's power," SSBM Link added, crossing his arms smugly.

But to their surprise, though, Ganondorf started laughing evilly and he rose to his feet, a menacing look on his face. "You foolish mortals! You actually thought that your weak attacks could stop me, the King of Evil? Tremble at my power!" Without missing a beat, Ganondorf drew his fist back and launched a Warlock Punch right at the warriors who dared to oppose him, sending Zelda, SCII Link, Roy, Seung Mina, and Maxi flying back. Maxi and Roy accidentally struck Kilik and Xianghua in their flight and freed Bowser from their blows. Bowser grabbed Yunsung and threw him at Taki and Mitsurugi.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Ivy unleashed her whip and sent it hurtling towards Bowser to stop him from going anywhere. Much to her dismay, the Koopa king dodged the weapon and she ended up striking SSBM Link, Cassandra, and Marth instead.

"Uh, guys?" Siegfried called to the downed fighters. "Guys! Get up!"

Bowser and Ganondorf approached the four SCII fighters who were watching Soul Edge threateningly. Sophitia stepped in their path. "I will never allow you to possess Soul Edge! Its power is evil!"

"Out of my way!" Bowser knocked her aside with his massive claw. The Greek warrior hit the floor, hard, and was unable to get back up.

"No!" Talim jumped in front of the sword with her blades drawn. "Sword evil! Talim no allow you weirdoes pass!"

Ganondorf snorted arrogantly. "And who's going to stop me? You, little girl?" He picked Talim up by the back of her shirt and threw her at Siegfried and Raphael, who were thrown against the wall.

"Oof!" Siegfried and Raphael grunted. "She's heavier than I thought!"

"Waahh! Talim no like you!" she complained.

"Now that the idiots are out of the way, the sword." Ganondorf strode up to Soul Edge easily, now that nothing was stopping him, and picked it up. Dark red bolts of energy crackled from the eye and flowed into Ganondorf's body. With an evil laugh, Ganondorf held the sword up above his head. "Now you will feel ultimate power!" he bellowed.

SSBM Link regained consciousness just then. When he saw his archenemy holding the evil sword, he gasped out, "No! I will not let this happen!" and he charged towards the Gerudo king.

Mario saw what had happened as well. "This is-a bad … I have-a to-a stop this!"

"We all do!" Cassandra, Marth, Maxi, Mitsurugi, Seung Mina, Kilik, Xianghua, and Zelda followed SSBM Link and Mario as well.

But Siegfried was quicker. Shoving Talim off him and onto Raphael, the knight raised his own non-Soul Edge sword. "You shall not leave this place!" he shouted as he ran at Ganondorf with his weapon at his side, ready to strike.

When Ganondorf saw Siegfried coming, it was too late to do anything other than raise Soul Edge in front of his body in defense. Siegfried tried desperately to stop, but his blade pierced the demonic sword right in the eye. Soul Edge shrieked in pain. But instead of shattering into pieces as the SCII fighters had expected it to, a swirling vortex—a tear in the fabric of space—opened up from the eye. Unable to overpower its vacuum strength, those who were closest to the portal were sucked in. As soon as the last warrior disappeared into it, the wormhole vanished.

Mewtwo slowly regained consciousness just then. With a soft moan, he rubbed his head with his paw and glanced around. He saw the SSBM study in a mess, Ganondorf and Bowser nowhere in sight along with half of the group, and Soul Edge gone. "What have I missed …?"