January? Damn procrastination.

But now good ol' ISK is here to ruin your post-holiday euphoria with a Rebuilding clip show! And a musical chapter extravaganza! Bah, humbug.

YAY FORTY!

Rebuilding

Chapter 40: Three Reunions and a Breakdown

Dear "Overlord", from none other than the Ancient Minister,

This matter of the Aura is not just your business, Overlord! Quite frankly, it's everybody's business! Destroying the Super Smash Brothers is fair enough, but I refuse to rebuild the Aura once more!

Maybe you don't realize this, Overlord, but I have given up far too much for your cause! My home, my friends, my beliefs and principles...it's not worth it for the hell Complete Aura will bestow on this world!

This has gone on for too long, Crazy Hand. I hereby swear that while I will exterminate Wolf O'Donnell, the Super Smash Brothers, and all who support them, I will never bring the two halves of the Aura together for you.

It's not worth what I have lost.

Light brightly shone through a gap in the trees of the Distant Planet region.

It seemed like a long time before the Smashers were able to burst through the foliage and pull themselves away from the jungle's grasp. But at last they made it, and the open plain was more than suitable for them after that, even if they were still Hocotate-sized.

Suddenly there was a noise from above. Shadow Bugs came pouring down from the sky suddenly, materialising into a twisted and petrified trophy shape. All of the Smashers groaned as soon as they saw what had happened.

A trophy of Pit had formed, with a note around the trophy's neck. Mario reached out and took the note.

"This-a was just a warning-a," read Mario, looking at the damage done to Pit. "Your friend-a put up a terrible fight-a. We shot-a him with our Dark Cannons-a, and dropped off a souvenir as soon as the Overlord-a told us where you had gone-a."

"Should we revive him?" asked Link.

"I 'unno-a," shrugged Mario. "Might as well-a."

Mario touched the bottom of Pit's trophy, and the groggy angel collapsed in a heap.

"No! No more!" spluttered Pit, his hair matted. "I don't know who Walter Donald is! Please! No!"

"Pit-a! It's over, I revived you-a!" called Mario.

Pit weakly looked up. "Mario, it was terrible! Why did you leave me there?"

"Uh...Snake was-a flying..." said Mario sheepishly.

"Yeah, so did you get tortured?" asked Zelda excitedly.

"Oh, they beat me horribly!" whined Pit. "And not even in the fun way where there's safety words and Latino lovers!"

Pit blinked, and looked down at his tiny companions.

"Why are you guys so small?" asked Pit.

"The overlord of the Subspace Army shot us with a size altering ray so we'd get eaten by caterpillar predators in some jungle of Olimar's," answered DK. "We don't know how to get rid of our size issue."

"Ah, but you see, sometimes even I'm helpful!" grinned Pit. "I stole stuff before they shot me! Look!"

Pit pulled out a small gun, and fired a ray at the group of tiny Smashers. At once, they were all full-sized.

"Wow, Pit...thanks..." said Kirby, struggling to thank Pit.

"And I got a Smash Ball so we can go attack them!" smiled Pit.

"I'll take that," said Zelda at once, stealing the Smash Ball.

"No, Zelda, don't! We can't handle power like that! Those things turned everyone evil, remember?" asked Sheik desperately.

"Shut up, you! Er, me!" shouted Zelda. She cracked the ball open with one of her knives.

Purple Smash Ball energy floated into Zelda, turning her eyes purple. More importantly though, the power possessed Zelda in the same way it had done for every Smasher who had performed a Final Smash.

"Aw, this sucks!" complained Zelda. "I don't even feel a little different!"

"I feel way different!" cackled Evil Sheik. "Let's start the killing!"

"Now you're talking, me!" grinned Zelda. "Pick your target!"

A magic bow appeared in Zelda's hand, and she drew the bowstring.

"Go for that damn angel!" encouraged Evil Sheik. "He's got some serious pain coming to him!"

"Gee, Zelda!" smiled Pit. "I'm awfully happy to see you too!"

"DIEEEEE!" shouted Zelda and Sheik at the same time (?!), firing an arrow.

The beam of light went right through Pit, ripping out some of his precious organs. Needless to say, Pit died.

"That was incredible!" cheered Zelda.

"Needs more violence!" demanded Evil Sheik, loading another arrow.

"Don't get carried away," said Zelda, worried.

"Well this is new," noticed Samus dryly, jerking a thumb over at Zelda's role reversal.

"Mmm-hmm," agreed Peach, not surprised in the slightest.

"Well, ladies, if you're bored, why not let ol' Ike show you a good time?" asked Ike slyly.

"Kill him too! Kill him too!" chanted Evil Sheik , turning Zelda's body to face Ike.

"No! Stop! I already got my fix!" panicked Zelda. "Don't kill someone! Who do you think I am? I mean, we are?"

Evil Sheik shot Ike through the heart, killing him violently.

"This is insane!" cried Zelda helplessly.

"You're useless, me!" bellowed Evil Sheik, forcing her way out of the Zelda disguise. Sheik appeared before everyone dressed as herself again.

"How did you do that?" asked Zelda, cluelessly. "Stop!"

"I'm killing as I see fit!" raged Evil Sheik, aiming at herself. "And you can't stop me any more!"

Another blindingly bright arrow, and Zelda screamed. Eventually the scream died out.

"Guess who the dominant side is now, bitch!" laughed Evil Sheik. "In fact-"

All of a sudden, the Smash Ball's power ran out and Sheik returned to normal.

"Hi guys, what's going on?" asked Sheik.

Everyone stared at Sheik.

"You killed Pit and Ike, then you killed your Zelda half," replied Meta Knight indifferently, as Peach gave Team Healers to the dead bodies.

"And really, we're beginning to run out of these little Deus Ex Machinas," scolded Peach. "Here, give one to Mr. Snake as well! Why we didn't think of that earlier I'll never know!"

"Wow, I'm sorry," apologized Sheik, taking a Team Healer to revive her other half. "I guess those things bring out the worst in everyone!"

The Smashers chuckled merrily. Ike, Pit and Snake gingerly stood up, then began chuckling merrily too.

"Seriously, don't you dare ever kill me again," snarled Zelda angrily from within.

"Sorry ma'am," whispered Sheik in a resigned tone.

Watching the steady ascent of Wolf in his Wolfen, Lucario knew the time to move up was now. He knew because Wolf told him to move up last chapter, but that's not the point. Or maybe it is.

"Hey, you!" urged Ganondorf, climbing up a small dream cloud. "Lucario!"

"What is it?" asked Lucario, as the three began the long climb.

"Can I ask you stuff about the Subspace and the Smash Brothers?" asked Ganondorf worriedly. "Wolf knows stuff that we don't, and I want some answers!"

Lucario considered this, and sighed.

"Fine," replied Lucario slowly. "Jigglypuff, you have to promise not to tell any of this to Wolf, okay?"

Jigglypuff nodded, out of breath already.

"Why did Wolf get all pissed off when you were talking about joining the Aura together?" asked Ganondorf.

"He's convinced that if you found out what would happen, you would both panic and mess things up further," replied Lucario. "I can tell from his emotions. He may hide it, but Wolf is just as scared about this ordeal as you two are."

"Scared? I'm not scared!" yelled Ganondorf irritably.

"Of course you aren't," sighed Lucario, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, it must be particularly hard for Wolf, seeing somebody from his home planet become manipulated by Subspace forces as Krystal was."

"What does that have to do with the Aura?" scoffed Ganondorf.

"Everything," replied Lucario wisely. "When Master Hand and Crazy Hand split us, Master Hand got the Benevolent Aura, which if you remember, is me. He prefers to create, so he did not take any of my powers for himself. This is why I remember everything about the splitting. Crazy Hand prefers to destroy, so he took much of the Malevolent Aura's power for himself. He used the power to manufacture devices that can reverse time, change size, brainwash, create Subspace bombs, and much more. All of those are powered by Malevolent Aura, so the Malevolent Aura itself must be severely damaged."

"So Krystal wasn't really brainwashed, she was just overpowered by Aura?" asked Ganondorf, a lot less cockily than before.

"Correct," sighed Lucario. "The same is true for Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog. They eventually repelled the Aura due to their close proximity to me. My benevolence destroyed their malevolence, you see. Do you remember how the bomb's effects negated when I arrived in New Pork City? You were not killed, but you were sent to Subspace, correct?"

"Yeah..." replied Ganondorf slowly.

"As a result, the only way to fully restore the Aura is to unite myself, Crazy Hand, every Subspace device, and the original source of Malevolent Aura," said Lucario. "Wolf is worrying over nothing."

"Doesn't the Ancient Mi-I mean, doesn't ROB have Aura stored as well?" asked Ganondorf. "Is that how he managed to molecularly separate himself?"

"That's true," said Lucario. "However, I can tell you that he is not the source of Malevolent Aura. The source is-"

Lucario was stopped by a scream. Both Lucario and Ganondorf looked up to see that they had already climbed to the edge of the fountain, and Jigglypuff had nearly climbed up to the fountain itself.

Duon, Galleom and the Ancient Minister were all looking up at the Wolfen, which had overshot the ascent.

Wolf looked down at the three for a moment, and then noticed the other Smashers on the other side of the fountain.

"There's Walter!" gasped Jigglypuff.

"What do we do now?" asked Ganondorf, worried.

Without any warning, Wolf jumped out of his Wolfen.

"Jigglypuff! Ganondorf! Lucario! Get them!" bellowed Wolf, hastily pulling out his Blaster.

"Retreat to New Pork City, boys," sneered the Ancient Minister. "This is between me and the wolf."

Ganondorf climbed up, but was immediately pulled down as Duon and Galleom dived off of the fountain, both morphing into aeroplanes.

"Only me and Wolf," finished the Minister, getting ready to begin the one-on-one confrontation.

Onward and onward and onward the Super Smash Brothers walked, as they searched for more than just empty plains. Everyone was getting bored, and fast.

Eventually the Smashers began to slow down, not even noticing three red ships fly overhead. All the way alongside the plain's trails, small creatures were looking at Mario, completely horrified. The plumber was at the head of the group, and was about to collapse of extreme boredom when he spotted something.

"Isn't that a Pokeball-a?" asked Mario listlessly, pointing at a half-buried Pokeball in the sand.

"Yeah, it is," replied Pokemon Trainer. "Keen eyes, Mario! That's the way to a successful life!"

"I'll see what's inside, I guess," shrugged DK, throwing the Pokeball.

A small, blue Pokemon appeared. It seemed to be made of a viscous, water-like substance. A red gem shone on the middle of its chest.

"What?" snapped the Pokemon at everyone.

"That's a Manaphy!" gasped Pokemon Trainer. "It's another legendary Pokemon!"

"Yeah, I've heard of that!" nodded Pikachu. "It's unique in that it has the Heart Swap move!"

"Heart Swap?" scoffed Zelda. "What kind of stupid move is that?"

"Oh I'll show you, you stuck-up bitch," replied Manaphy.

"What did you call me?" demanded Zelda, lunging at Manaphy. Before she could successfully stab it however, Manaphy disappeared.

"Why can't I stab it?" demanded DK, who was standing at Manaphy's other side.

"Zelda, stop stabbing everything for a damn minute," scolded Zelda. "We need to see what attack this thing can do."

Everyone else stared wide-eyed at DK and Zelda.

"What?" asked DK angrily, pulling out a gun. "You better all explain what happened, right now!"

"Yeah, uh, what are you looking at?" asked Zelda.

"Oh, oh, me! Pick me!" grinned Ike.

Ike jauntily skipped over to Zelda and squeezed her chest.

"Let go of me or I'll run you through with your own phallic sword, you perverted cretin!" shouted DK in his new, feminine snarl.

Donkey Kong covered his mouth, realising what had happened.

"See?" asked Ike gleefully, one hand still on Zelda's chest. "You guys switched bodies!"

"Wait...you mean, I'm her and she's me?" asked Zelda in a deep baritone. "Oh, and get off."

Zelda casually batted Ike's hand off. Ike sadly walked away.

"So who has Sheik?" asked Zelda worriedly. "I hope she took her with her, I don't want to have two minds."

"Hi there," said Sheik's voice through Zelda's body which was being inhabited by Donkey Kong's mind. Wow.

"Dammit," lamented Zelda.

"Hehe, this is great," grinned DK, who was now stabbing his own stomach.

"Ow," grunted Zelda. "Quit it."

"You'll go back to normal soon enough!" reassured Pokemon Trainer. "It's all part of the magic of Manaphy!"

DK and Zelda both twitched, and were restored to their proper bodies.

"Even that was boring and uneventful," sighed Zelda, in her old body.

"OW! OW! OW! OW!" screamed DK, covered in bleeding gashes.

Everyone looked at DK.

"We really need more of these thingies," sighed Peach, giving DK another Team Healer.

"Things always seem to go wrong for us!" panicked Nana. "Why do we have to keep hurting each other?"

"I agree," agreed Popo. "Somebody has to do something to stop all of the bloodshed!"

Nana punched Popo in the face, breaking the latter's nose.

"What the hell?" demanded Popo. Nana shrugged.

"Let's...just...keep walking-a..." said Mario, thoroughly disturbed by all of the events.

As Wolf dived out of his ship, the Ancient Minister pulled out a Dark Cannon and began opening fire. Star Rods and other objects around the fountains were turned into trophies behind Wolf.

"This is over, O'Donnell!" snarled the Minister, trophifiying nearly everything except Wolf.

Wolf quickly fired shots from his Blaster, attempting to stun the Minister. The robot moved through all of the shots unaffected however, and Wolf was forced to pull up his Reflector.

The small red shield pushed the Minister away, and Wolf ran backwards, firing wildly.

At once, the Ancient Minister's arms began rotating wildly, pummelling Wolf with several small hits.

"Stop him, someone!" shouted Wolf.

"Nobody's stopping me," gloated the Ancient Minister. "I'm killing you here, Wolf. Nothing you can do about that."

And with that, the Ancient Minister fired a Robo Beam at Wolf, knocking him against the edge of the fountain.

"You lose, Wolf," smirked the Minister as Wolf dangled from the edge.

"Don't just stand there!" demanded Wolf, ignoring him. "Get him!"

Ganondorf bemusedly stood up and ran at the Minister, attempting to tackle him.

"You keep such idiotic company," sighed the Minister, moving slightly to the left.

Ganondorf charged comically off of the fountain and grabbed Wolf's hand.

"Good one, idiot!" berated Wolf.

The Ancient Minister sneered, and shot Wolf's hand. Wolf screamed in pain, and let go of the edge, plummeting to Green Greens below with Ganondorf in tow.

"Wolf!" shouted Lucario from the fountain. "I'll take Jigglypuff and try to-"

"I don't care!" shouted Wolf. "Just kill this robot!"

Lucario shrugged, and grabbed Jigglypuff's hand. The two Pokemon ran away as the Ancient Minister hovered down onto the Green Greens.

"Die, Wolf!" shouted the Ancient Minister.

"Ganondorf, quick, use that attack of yours!" shouted Wolf.

"Really?" asked Ganondorf, unsure.

"Kill it!" demanded Wolf.

Ganondorf sighed, and began to charge a Warlock Punch.

The Ancient Minister backed slightly away as Ganondorf let loose.

"Dammit!" cursed Ganondorf, missing the Minister.

Ganondorf's fist hit the Whispy Woods, knocking an apple off onto the Minister.

"I got him, look!" called Ganondorf, taking all credit. "I am so cool!"

"Lucky shot," scoffed Wolf, watching sparks fly from the Ancient Minister.

"Up yours," snarled Ganondorf.

"Looks like I'll have to take what I came for and leave," sneered the Ancient Minister. He molecularly separated once again, leaving Wolf and Ganondorf confused.

"Look, he's on top of the Fountain again!" noticed Wolf. "Get back up there, quickly!"

"Whatever," sighed Ganondorf stoically, getting on a dream cloud again.

"Wait a minute, do you see that?" asked Wolf, pointing in the distance.

"No. Wait, yeah. Nope. Yes, I do," noticed Ganondorf, squinting. "Bad day to be you, huh?"

Three red, suspiciously Wolfen-like ships were flying towards Wolf and Ganondorf, with every target locked on to Wolf himself.

After a long period of simply walking, the new Smashers had finally stumbled upon something once again.

"You are now entering Mushroom Kingdom," read Fox.

"Fox, you can read now?" asked a shocked Yoshi.

"No, I just got the nice people to read it for me!" chuckled Fox. Behind him, DK and King Dedede were restraining Bowser from punching Fox.

"This is what's happened to the Kingdom?" asked Peach fretfully.

"It used to be all hills and happiness and crap," gasped Bowser, shaking free of his captors.

"The Subspace got to it-a," reasoned Mario. "They've either killed or-a enslaved all of the Goombas-a..."

"Those bastards!" shouted Bowser. "Stealing my henchmen, eh? I'll have something to say to that Minister douchebag the next time he shows himself!"

"Look at the sign-a," said Mario mournfully.

The sign now read "Welcome to Mushroomy Kingdom". A round symbol was painted underneath the welcoming, and the 'y' had been sloppily added to the name. A sole Shadow Bug was resting on the painted letter.

"All the color-a has been drained out of the blocks-a..." noticed Mario sadly. "And the Warp-a Pipe...wrecked..."

Bowser cursed under his breath, and Peach began to sob softly.

"Yo, let's just keep goin', dawgs," said King Dedede, gently urging Peach forward. She nodded tearfully, and the Smashers continued a harrowing walk through the wastelands ruined by the Subspace Army.

"How long have you guys been gone?" asked Pit.

"M-mr. Bowser and I got called out seven-" began Peach, still holding back tears.

"It's 2009 now," observed Pit, looking at his sundial watch.

"-eight years ago for the second s-Smash tournament. But Ma-Mario and Luigi left nearly ten years ago! I was so alone!"

"Bowser-a, did you...uh..." began Mario hesitantly.

"Big difference between me and the Subspace, kid," replied Bowser, waving a hand. "I don't attack people unless they have someone with them who can put up a good fight."

Mario looked confused, but understood when he saw a small smile on the Koopa King's face.

Olimar, who was scampering on the ground ahead of everyone else, came to a halt.

"There's a flag up there!" cheered Olimar, intoxicated. "A flag! Get it, get it, get it!"

Olimar hopped up and down in place, until he landed on Kirby's foot. He fell over and began bleeding quietly.

"That's right, you stay down there," smirked Kirby.

Mario led the others to the flag, and gave it a small tug. A feeble firework appeared in the air, and burst in a weak, green explosion.

"Ruined-a..." sighed Mario. "It's-a all ruined..."

Link nodded sympathetically. "Don't worry Mario, if they can take down the Mushroom Kingdom, I'm sure all our other homelands don't stand a chance."

Everyone else glared at Link angrily.

"Well, think about it," continued Link nervously. "Subspace guys drove us out of the Pokemon Stadium, remember? We had to leave on the Halberd, which is now destroyed! And Lucas, you told us New Pork City was completely evacuated! A huge frigate crushed the Mario Circuit, am I the only one who remembers any of this? We've been on the move for ages, and we've barely found anybody who wasn't one of us!"

Slowly, everyone began to nod, agreeing as well as worrying about their homelands.

The worrying was cut short however, as there was a cry from deep within a warp pipe.

"Help! Someone! Get me out of here!"

"Someone's in trouble!" noticed Sonic.

Everyone clapped slowly, except for Fox, who was figuring out that somebody was in trouble.

"Let's go after them!" decided Ike. "It sounds like a chick in there!"

"Mario, what do you think?" asked Bowser, clapping Mario roughly, yet affectionately (for Bowser) on the shoulder.

Mario grinned up at his former enemy. "Let's-a go save a life."

The three Wolfen ships quickly increased their pace once they had Wolf in their sights. Unfortunately for Wolf, it was none other than Falco, Luigi, and the deceived Mr. Game and Watch.

"Yeah, finally found him!" cheered Falco enthusiastically.

"Shoot him! Kill him!" ordered Mr. Game and Watch furiously, opening laser fire towards Wolf.

Wolf ran out of the way, but Ganondorf stared, transfixed, at the ships.

"Is that Falco? Luigi? And Game and Watch, too?" Ganondorf asked nobody, squinting to get a better view.

"W-we're going to getcha, Wolf!" stuttered Luigi, behind the other two ships. Luigi was flying his Wolfen reluctantly and slowly.

"Thought you could kill our friends, didn't you, you Subspace asshole!" bellowed Mr. Game and Watch, firing Smart Bombs at Wolf, who threw up a Reflector.

The reflected Smart Bomb bounced back and immediately engulfed the Wolfens in a powerful explosion.

"OW!" screamed Falco's voice. "The hell with this! Bail!"

Falco jumped out of his Wolfen, deploying a parachute.

"You're a coward, bird!" spat Mr. Game and Watch.

"At least I'm not on fire!" shouted back Falco, slowly descending.

Mr. Game and Watch screamed, dragged Luigi out of the third ship, and plummeted to the ground.

"Who are they?" asked Wolf, panting.

"They're three more of the Super Smash Brothers!" grinned Ganondorf, waving at the ships. "Guys, it's fine! Wolf's a good guy!"

"Good guy?" repeated Mr. Game and Watch, standing up. "Master Hand told me personally that he's with the Subspace Army!"

"He must have got Ganondorf too!" panicked Luigi. "He's brainwashed!"

"Where's Jigglypuff?" asked Mr. Game and Watch angrily.

"You guys are idiots," scoffed Ganondorf. "And that's why I've missed you!"

"Quick, run!" cried Wolf, seeing Falco land and pull out a Blaster.

Wolf grabbed Ganondorf and sprinted into the Whispy Woods, as Blaster fire from Falco peppered trees behind them. 2-D sausages and green fireballs joined soon afterwards.

"Wait, I met that guy before!" remembered Wolf as he ran. "Mr. Game and Watch! Yeah, it's him! But he had a good point...um, where is Jigglypuff? And where's Lucario?"

At the top of the fountain, blood ran along with the dreams of Dream Landers.

Jigglypuff was lying, completely motionless at the top of the fountain, bleeding from the side. A single arrow was sticking out of her deep gash.

Lucario stood helpless in front of Jigglypuff's body, protecting it from further harm. It seemed as though the Ancient Minister had taken a human mind once again, and it was none other than Duon and Galleom's Port Town prisoner.

Toon Link stared blankly from pupil-less eyes at the Aura Pokemon, and raised his hand. Three blank, ghostly figures appeared from the Triforce mark.

The equally blank and pupil-less faces of Mewtwo, Pichu and Roy joined Toon Link, all four staring almost hungrily at Lucario.

"Lucario, help us," droned Pichu's ghost.

"Come to the Subspace Army," added Mewtwo's ghost.

"Join us, Lucario!" chanted Roy's ghost.

"We can make you join us," said Toon Link blankly.

"Lucario....Lucario..." chanted Toon Link and the ghosts. "We need you Lucario...one of us, Lucario..."

Lucario looked helplessly from one blank face to another, as more and more of the Fountain of Dreams was stained with Jigglypuff's blood....

Happy 40th, Rebuilding. May your bounty of plot twists and re-addressed plot points never be forgotten.

Have fun reading, hopefully you'll review and I'll reply and OH CRAP I FORGOT THE CLIP SHOW MUSICAL EXTRAVAGANZA.