What was Tabuu doing here? Master Hand said that Tabuu had been completely destroyed! Were they in cahoots somehow? But Tabuu killed Master Hand! What was going on!?
"Silence" ordered Tabuu. The words flowed through his lips, reverberating around the whole room, and sounding like a melody of different voices. Of course Sonic couldn't keep quiet.
"What the hell is going on here?!" he yelled.
"SILENCE!" bellowed Tabuu. The ballroom fell into complete silence. And Tabuu explained.
"I was going to have a wonderful new world, constructed by me, for me. A fantastic multitude of different places, all comprised into one world. My world".
"Hurry up and get to the point!" yelled Link impatiently.
"I said SILENCE"!
Tabuu fired a laser beam from his eye randomly into the crowd. Everybody backed away from the smasher who had been hit. R.O.B clunked to the ground. Earlier on, when he was known as the Ancient Minister, he had seemingly died, only to burst out alive and well. Unfortunately, this time R.O.B really was dead.
Even the smartest minds in the room were having trouble keeping up with these events.
"That was just a small view of my unstoppable powers. You see, I wasn't defeated; my essence poured into an abyss. I bided my time. Soon I was alive and well but I waited. I got stronger. Even I could not realise just how much more powerful I was going to get".
"And just how much more powerful did you get?" asked Lucario.
"Ah, now ordinarily I'd kill you for interrupting me but that question was a great lead-up for what I am about to say. Brace yourselves. With my mind, I can do anything".
Most people's brains were too confused to even make any sense out of the situation but Sonic piped up.
"What d'ya mean, anything?"
"I mean anything. I could make the Eiffel Tower collapse right now. I could make every single one of you drop dead. I could make the whole universe and everything in it, just... disappear. My skills are second only to God! I could treble the amount of humans in the world, just by thinking it! I can do anything! But I don't want to. I want revenge; I want to hold... a little competition."
"What kind of competition?"
"You interrupted. Now let me give another demonstration, on you for interrupting; just to impress upon all of you exactly what I am capable of."
Red gulped.
"I'm sorry for interrupting..."
The apology fell on deaf ears. Then the most random event in history took place. It went something like this. Captain Falcon walked over to Tabuu; a table appeared out of nowhere which Falcon teleported onto; the table levitated over to Red; Falcon's arm detached cleanly from the shoulder joint and touched Red on the shoulder. Red exploded, showering the onlookers with ice cream and matchsticks. Everyone turned away from the gruesome display except for Falcon who snapped out of whatever trance he had been put in and whispered "oh my..."
Tabuu continued calmly.
"As you can see, I can do anything I want. And I want you all dead. But not yet. I'm entering you all in my little tournament, per se. You see, the thing that enrages me is that I only lost because it was 33 against 1! I could have taken any 10 of you, or even any 20, and come out on top. So I'm initiating a contest: you all go in, only the best survive; and then I battle the winner or winners head to head, using only the powers which I possessed back then before you defeated me. Any questions thus far?"
"Me, Wolf and Jigglypuff weren't even there, what's happening to us?" asked Toon Link.
"Well, you see, you are closely entwined with the other smashers here, and it was just pure chance that you weren't in on the whole thing. I will not be lenient, you three are going in too."
"Hey, what about us?!" yelled Wario. "Me, Bowser and Ganondorf were loyal to you!"
"Hmm, I suppose you were. Before you joined everyone else in attacking me! You three will be going in as well. In fact, no more questions regarding whether or not you're in it. All 36 of you, well 34 now, are going in."
There was a stunned silence.
"Well let's get on to business shall we? In Round 1 you will all be put into a random arena. Two of you will be in each arena. The two will be selected randomly. All you need to do to get past this round is to kill your opponent."
There were a few scattered gasps.
"Let me phrase this differently. When one dies, the other will continue. So if your opponent trips and breaks their own neck then you still proceed to Round 2. Oh, and one more thing: if any of you try to make some stupid childish pact not to kill each other then you will both die. If you kill yourself to let the other win, then they will die too. Simply kill your opponent. Are you ready to begin?
Not a sound was heard as the smasher's brains struggled to grasp all this information.
"Well, then let's begin.
The 34 smashers found themselves in a huge stadium. The stadium had hundreds of seats and the smashers were all on one row. Each seat in front had a miniature TV with 17 channels. Each one however had a plain white screen. Tabuu's voice came from nowhere.
"This is the Waiting Room. While you're waiting for other people to finish their battles, you can kick back, relax, rest and watch their miserable demise in high definition. It's great! Each channel tunes in to a different battle. Now, we've wasted far too much time. Although I could just make a day last 50 hours or something. Anyway, in a moment you will all be teleported randomly to your random arena to face your random opponent... randomly. Well, when I say in a moment, I actually mean now. So if you have any loved ones who you wish to exchange last words with then... you'll just have to hope the both of you win your respective battles. Begin."
And with that, Round 1 began.
"Woah"! yelled Marth.
He'd teleported right on top of an underground bullet train. Now he was half-falling, half-rolling along the top. About halfway along he managed to stab his blade through a section of the roof. Judging from the screams coming from within, Tabuu had just dumped him on a completely random train. Then the screams stopped abruptly.
"I've altered their brainwaves so that nothing that either of you do will be noticed by anyone. Even if you were to stab them they wouldn't notice."
"Well that's just fantastic. I love killing innocent civilians!" cried Marth slightly deliriously.
"I'm not supposed to be talking to you. Just turn around, face your opponent and fight!" Tabuu's voice came seemingly from nowhere.
"Yeah, I'm working on it!" yelled Marth.
"Oh holy Bulborbs..."
Even when faced with danger, Captain Olimar never raised his voice to more than a mutter. He had located his opponent instantly, due to the fact that they had both been put on the highest observation deck of the Eiffel Tower. Just Olimar's luck that he'd been put against a huge wall of pure ape muscle. Of course Donkey Kong simply flicked the captain and knocked him off the side. His nimble fingers managed to grab the railing as he fell. Now he was dangling from the railing without enough upper body strength to climb up. Maybe it was partly because of the purple Pikmin. He had brought 3 of them, a purple, a blue and a red, all of which were presently clinging to his legs. Donkey Kong approached the railing; there was a twinkle of sadness in his eyes before he attacked with all his strength. Olimar had no choice but to let go. Donkey Kong ploughed right through the side instead. Olimar freefell for a moment, then all the breath was driven out of his lungs as he slammed onto another deck halfway down the tower. The Pikmin however, went without a scratch because something broke their fall... Olimar. The little strength left in the captain was crushed by the purple Pikmin. Donkey Kong landed on his feet, perfectly fine. The Pikmin whimpered and hid in Olimar's pockets. With his last vestiges of strength Olimar desperately tried to crawl away, to buy himself just one more second of life. A furry ape hand closed around his throat. Donkey Kong lifted the captain up to face him.
"Sorry for this" grunted Donkey Kong. Olimar felt the hand close tighter, his vision blurred and he was in the worst pain he'd ever experienced. The Pikmin fired themselves out of makeshift slingshots fashioned from the lining of his pockets. The red and blue did next to nothing, bouncing off of DK and back onto Olimar. The purple however dealt a powerful blow. Still holding the captain (though no longer choking him) DK staggered backwards and his sheer size and weight took them right off the edge. He lost his grip on Olimar who landed in a tree. He fell through the many branches and finally hit the ground unconscious. His suit put him into critical life support. He was alive, but even the smallest blow could finish him off. DK hit the ground with enough force to crush a tank like a tin can. He climbed to his feet, fur matted with blood. Pikmin are known for their lack of emotion, but what they were feeling now was pure rage. The red and blue swung the purple like in a hammer toss. DK had no time to react before he was knocked into a pond. Then, a miracle occurred. The one blue Pikmin, completely alone felt fury flood through him and he channelled this seething rage. The whole pond was thrown into a frenzy. The ape struggled to keep above the churning water as it tossed him to and fro. A miniature whirlpool formed and kept DK under. At the last second he burst up and in one hit, killed the red and blue Pikmin. The purple spun around in the whirlpool gathering speed, before launching at full power. It slammed into Donkey Kong's head- there were dual cracks. Two skulls were broken on impact. The purple landed next to its dead brethren. Each Pikmin was glad that they had protected their saviour, and died happy. Donkey Kong did not.
"Well, that was unexpected..."came Tabuu's voice.
"But I suppose your performance wasn't without its merits, so well done Olimar. Oh yes, you're out cold. One moment."
Olimar's eyes opened instantly and he was fully conscious, feeling strong and refreshed.
"All with my mind" gloated Tabuu. "Healing the contestants is the least I can do."
"Well thanks" muttered Olimar. "Where are my Pikmin?"
"Ah, you see...they died. They killed Donkey Kong for you though.
Olimar gulped.
"So it's just me as an individual from now on."
"I'll take you to the waiting room. I recommend channel 6, it's particularly exciting."
Meta Knight threw his sword at Marth, who was distracted while talking to Tabuu. Meta Knight was using his powerful wings to fly above the train, therefore having his hands free. The tip of the blade scraped a thin layer of skin from Marth's cheek as it flew past. Marth yelled. Meta Knight flew past Marth at the speed of light and caught the sword in midair, then twirled around to face his opponent.
"Take this!" called Marth.
He got to his feet, managed to run a few steps and promptly fell over. He tumbled head over heels and dropped down out of sight between two carriages. Meta Knight hesitantly flew closer. Marth was somehow hanging on by pushing his feet against one carriage and his back against the other.
"I apologise in advance for this" muttered Meta Knight before swooping in to seal the kill.
"Not today!" cried Marth. With both hands he thrust his sword upwards. Only Meta Knight's amazing reaction time saved him from getting impaled. MK decided to fly above the train again and throw his sword. As he ascended, Marth jumped onto him. Before the bat knew what was happening, Marth was comfortably clinging to him. Blades were useless now. Meta Knight could hit himself and Marth was in no position to be drawing his blade. MK decided on a more effective way. Marth cursed as he realised his opponent's plan. Meta Knight flew towards a horizontal stone support column in a straight line so that he would go under but Marth would hit it. At the last second Marth performed a powerful jump right over the obstacle and right back onto Meta Knight. However, he was just clinging on by his fingertips now.
"How did you make that jump?" cried MK.
"Oh, no reason, just that my jumping skills improved in the Subspace Emissary incident when I was forced to jump down a canyon with Ike and a certain circular flying bat thing!"
Meta Knight groaned. It would have been hard enough to kill him without any prior knowledge of him. But now the idiot had to bring that up? And in that tone? As if he, Meta Knight were a traitor? And with these thoughts flying through his head, it's no wonder what happened next. The train had gone into a tunnel which meant that instead of being above the train, they were now on a beeline for a solid wall. Marth was paying a lot more attention and decided to make the crash a lot more advantageous in his own favour. He pulled back with all his weight so that Meta Knight took the full brunt of the impact and dropped like a stone. He hit the ground with Marth still on his back. Before either of them could do anything, bright headlights burst into view.
"Tabuu, what's going on?! How can there be another train so quickly?!"
"Remember, I'm doing this for my own entertainment. It's boring if you just stab Meta Knight now. But another train makes it a lot more... interesting."
"You little..." the remainder of Marth's statement was drowned out by the thunderous roar of the train's engine as it approached.
Olimar watched the dramatic events of the Marth and Meta Knight battle unfold with bated breath. He closed his eyes as he heard the train engine. He heard a deafening slam. The captain didn't dare open his eyes. The train had clearly hit someone. But who? Olimar opened his eyes and saw...