"LLOYD! WAKE UP! TODAY YOU HAVE SOME CHALLENGES! YOU HAVE TO GET MOVING!"
Lloyd's eyes shot open as Red screamed in his ear. He sat up quickly and gave a glare to his roommate. He watched Red back up a step before handing him a folded sheet of paper that had writing all over it.
"Good morning! These are the challenges from some of the Smashers here, and they told me to wake you up so you could fight them. I just made a list of them, and you have to head over to the arena soon before somebody gets impatient."
Lloyd opened the paper and began reading the names. 'Toon Link, Mario, Meta Knight, Samus, Ice Climbers, Sonic, Pit, Falco, Pikachu, Captain Falcon, Ike, Ness, and Snake? I have to fight ALL of them?'
"It may seem like almost everyone is fighting, but some of us do nothing but fight every few minutes, so you've got a small group with a lot of variety." Red told Lloyd. "But you might want to get started soon, so go now!"
Lloyd quickly made his way to the Sage Selection room after grabbing his chigiriki and flung open the door. Inside he saw all of the ones who challenged him, and some of them looked annoyed at having to wait for him. He noticed that Toon Link stood up and motioned for him to step on the platform so they could pick a stage and fight.
"I will select where we fight." Toon Link said softly as both of them stood on the platform.
Lloyd just nodded and watched as his opponent held a hand up toward the wall and a screen appeared. A bunch of pictures popped up on the screen and a circle followed the movements of Toon Link's hand. The cursor was placed on the Delfino Plaza stage and the image zoomed in to show what the stage was like as it moved.
As the image flickered from scene to scene, Lloyd prepared himself for the moving stage. He had to quickly get on the platforms before they got too far away if he wanted to not get flung off of the stage again.
The image flickered to black before a warning in red letters began to cover the screen. It gave a brief description of the stage and the characters associated with it before asking if the Smashers were ready. Lloyd followed Toon Link's lead once he nodded, and the platform began to glow. It then transported them to the Delfino Plaza stage for the challenge.
As soon as Lloyd was transported to the stage, he prepared himself. He was on the main platform on the far left side, and Toon Link was across from him. The platforms were moving slowly, but if he gave them too much time then they'd go too fast for him to keep up. He tensed when he heard the announcer shout 'Go!' and kept toward his side of the platform when Toon Link charged at him.
Lloyd dodged and ducked at each of the sword swings and tried to avoid the surprises like the Hurricane Spin. He landed a punch or a kick whenever there was an opening, slowly pushing Toon Link back to his side of the platform and getting himself away from the edge.
Once the platforms descended to a small island and disappeared, Lloyd got away from Toon Link and swung out his chigiriki. The chain rattled as it swung through the air and was spun in a circle above his head. He flung the spiked weight at the end toward Toon Link, dealing a bit of damage due to the fact that his aiming hit an eye.
"Ow!" Toon Link quickly yelled before holding up his shield over his face. "We need to add a new rule, 'No poking the opponent's eyes out'."
"Sorry!" Lloyd called out to Toon Link. "I didn't mean to do that!"
"It's okay, I'll just have to spend a few hours in the medical ward. It's a good thing we have a spell in place in the arena though. It prevents injuries, letting us live forever and making sure we don't get fatal injuries. I'll be fine."
Lloyd relaxed after hearing that. But he didn't have much time to talk, because the platform began to rise out of the sand. He jumped onto it before it got out of reach and faced Toon Link on that platform again. This time, he charged toward his opponent first with the power of ice forming at his fingertips. He shot a quick burst of ice at Toon Link, freezing him in a block of ice that didn't seem likely to melt.
Lloyd took a few seconds to recover a bit before running and jumping above Toon Link. He focused on his earth energy and smashed into the block of ice, destroying it to flecks of ice crystals and dealing major damage to both his opponent and the platform. The platform didn't break, but it had a large crack in it with dirt packed inside. Rocks were littered around the area, making it a bit harder to run carefully.
Lloyd looked around for Toon Link and saw him barely able to hold onto the side of the platform. He ran up to the disadvantaged opponent and was prepared to kick his hands off of the stage. But before he could do that, Toon Link smiled. He held up one arm, and the item in it made him want to get out quickly. It was a bomb, and it was ready to explode. He backed up as far as possible before the bomb could get thrown, but he was just a few seconds too late. The bomb landed on his back and stopped sizzling, but only for it to explode and give Toon Link time to get back on the platform while he went flying.
If there was one thing Lloyd learned to hate after that, it was any kind of bomb. But he noticed that he was very lucky this time. The bomb didn't send him off the stage, but it came close. He used his earth powers to quickly get closer to the ground before Toon Link could attack and landed on the main platform. But he had no time to recover, because Toon Link quickly jabbed him in the stomach with his sword, sending him over the edge and bursting him into light.
Lloyd woke up to find himself in the medical ward, again. But this time there was a note sitting on top of him. 'Lloyd,' He began to read. 'Because this is your second time here, I have surgically put a special machine that heals you inside of your body. You may feel a bit tired, but other than that you are free to leave. Toon Link however, is not. He still needs to recover from that blow to the eye. –Doctor Mario.'
Lloyd folded up the note and put it in his pocket before jumping out of the bed. He located the door before running through it to go and find the stage selection room again.
Because he was used to the path, Lloyd found his way back fairly quickly. As soon as he walked in he could see Mario standing on the platform with the Lylat Cruise stage ready to go. He ran up and stepped on the platform to the stage so they could fight.
As soon as he got teleported to the stage, Lloyd got ready to charge. He seemed to do better at fighting when he was the one running toward his opponent. When he heard the announcer shout 'Go!' he ran toward Mario and shot bolts of lightning at him. That seemed to stun Mario for a bit, giving him another chance to attack. He sent searing flames toward his stunned opponent, which made him jump and run toward the other side of the stage.
Lloyd knew that Mario had some decent long-ranged attacks, so he swung out his chigiriki to try and deal some damage from afar. As a response, Mario began to charge some fireballs. They both sent out their attacks at the same time, the spiked weight sailing over the bouncing fireballs. Both attacks hit their targets, sending them back a little bit on the already small stage.
Lloyd felt that he was too close to the edge for comfort, so he jumped onto one of the floating platforms for some higher ground closer to the center of the stage. Although that made it easier for him to get attacked, he preferred to be flown up rather that sideways. What he seemed to have forgotten though, was that Mario was the master of jump attacks, and because he was on higher ground, that left his VERY vulnerable to the Jumpman.
The first thing Lloyd felt about the jump attack was coins falling out of him. He was being pushed upwards by the power of Mario's fist and for some reason it gave at least three coins to his opponent. He wasn't keeping track. He was just trying to recover before he could get blown off of the stage again.
Lloyd had a chance open up when Mario's attack died down. He quickly sent his earth abilities to the surface to make himself heavier and he pounded Mario into the ground. He had to recover for a bit though, because his health was getting fairly low. Once he had a chance to catch his breath he activated his Spinjitzu and spun over Mario with a gold and green tornado.
Lloyd used Spinjitzu a few more times before Mario escaped from the attacks. Because he was still spinning when Mario got out, he couldn't stop himself before he was hit by the force of F.L.U.D.D's water. The water itself didn't do that much damage, but it knocked him over the edge of the stage. He was falling for only a few short seconds before he noticed that he could still get back and fight. He quickly whipped out his chigiriki and threw the chain over the platform so the spiked weight could find something to latch on to. He was lucky and it grabbed the platform, giving him the ability to swing back up.
Lloyd safely managed to get back onto the stage to face Mario. They were both low on health, which meant that one final attack could decide the whole outcome. Both of them charged toward each other, their powers in their hands and ready to release. One was charging up ice, the other fire.
Lloyd got close to Mario and released the ice power before the fireball attack could release. Mario was then frozen in a block of ice, unable to move, attack, or try to get out. He took the moment to begin getting ready to swing his chigiriki and started up the attack. He swung the spiked weight around in a circle, building up momentum, and let it fly towards Mario, smashing the ice and sending him flying off the stage.
Lloyd took a few minutes to get back to the stage selection room from the medical ward. He was grateful that he was learning how to get around the Mansion, but it was still annoying to run from place to place just to have a few battles.
The next challenger for Lloyd was Meta Knight. He was already standing on the platform, but he motioned for him to pick the stage. He stepped onto the platform and held up his arm, unsure of how to move the cursor and pick somewhere to fight. To his surprise, the cursor followed the movements of his hand. He moved it over to the Spear Pillar stage, and it enlarged to show what the stage was like.
The Pokémon in the picture of Spear Pillar were listed at the bottom of the screen with their picture and abilities. Dialga slowed time for certain characters and could destroy the stage and attack, Palkia destroyed the stage as well along with attack and flip the stage, and Cresselia could just attack. Lloyd felt a pulse travel from his head to his fingertips, and the stage was selected. The teleporter then started up and teleported them to the arena.