Clash of the Smashers

Chapter Seven: Didn't he die already?

Following the defeat of the frighteningly easy Koopa Kids the Smashers had ran into the next room which was the same as the Koopa Kids room. Inside they were confronted by a creature that looked exactly like Baby Bowser but his neckerchief had a mouth drawn on it and he was carrying a large paint brush that was about three feet long.

"Didn't he die already?" Diddy asked.

"Yeah…I think Kirby killed him," Raichu said.

"Grrr!" growled the miniature Koopa, "I did not die already you big meanies! You killed my daddy…or at least the young part of him and…AGH! My brain hurts!" he said as he clutched his head and made small moaning sounds.

"Bario! Who is that?!" Falco demanded.

"That I believe is Bowser Junior, the eighth and youngest child of Bowser. He has all the classic Koopa moves, sharp claws, shell spins and fireballs…but he also can wield that technologically advanced paintbrush with considerable skill. He uses it mostly to create weak goopy minions, but I believe he can use it with decent melee combat ability. He can also transform into Shadow Mario, which gives him Mario's jumping ability…but not too much else," Bario told the Smashers.

At this Bowser Junior stopped moaning and started laughing.

"Oh! You're a clever one aren't you? But my paintbrush can do so much more than mere goop summoning now…Petey…come forth!" he cried as he made several rapid paintbrush moves and created a glowing paint circle on the floor. Bowser Junior stepped into the circle and vanished.

"What? Where'd he go?" Diddy asked.

Suddenly the glowing multicolored paint started to flow together…it grew taller and taller until it was a good twelve-feet high and as it grew it took on the shape of a strange creature…as color flowed into the beast that was emerging, what it was became immediately apparent. It was a Piranha Plant, but one with tiny legs and medium sized green serrated leaves for "arms". It had a massively oversized head with the classic red and white dots. Its mouth was large and it had numerous yellow flowers around it. The strangest thing was that because of the red and white design around its legs the creature appeared to be wearing a bikini like thing.

"Oh…dear…that's Petey Piranha, one of the more powerful Piranha Plants. It can fire goop from its mouth, which can create goop creatures that explode on contact which creates more goop which creates more creatures and so on. He can also create small tornados and fly with those tiny leaf arms of his. He may have other abilities that I'm not aware of as well…," Bario said.

Before any of the Smashers could respond or attack Petey opened his mouth and a large amount of brownish-white goop shot out and landed on the ground in front of him. Out of the goop formed five goop monsters also known as Goopies. The Goopies started slowly moving toward the Smashers while Petey Piranha flew into the air.

"Samus! Take him down!" Bario yelled.

Samus nodded and started charging up her Power Beam. Link shot several arrows at Petey, who dodged them but at least they kept him distracted. Unfortunately they also made him angry and he spat out another goop pile that landed only ten feet away from the Smashers. Five more Goopies appeared.

"If we don't do something about Petey, that goop will just keep coming! Guys! Take out the Goopies! Samus…FIRE!" Bario commanded.

Samus shot her charged blast but Petey saw her shoot it and dodged. Falco started shooting at Petey and although his shots were weak they kept him distracted while Link shot at him too. Diddy was getting an idea and began firing his peanuts at Petey. While the attacks were weak, they were numerous and Petey was getting hit a lot. He tried to shoot more goop but the shooters quickly fired into his mouth which caused him to close it abruptly and make some weird noises.

"Samus!" Diddy called, "Charge it up again! We'll keep him distracted!
Samus again charged her Power Beam. Meanwhile the other Smashers had moved forward to keep the Goopies off the shooters. Bario pulled out his swords and sliced a Goopy into tiny pieces…which wasn't very hard as the tiny creature was soft and squishy. Mario slammed one into the ground with his hammer and Kirby just punched and kicked them away. Raichu fried them and Meta well…

"Spiders! Spiders! Spiders are my favorite food!" Meta yelled as he slashed several Goopies.
However with every Goopy they killed more goop was spattered and Goopies were still coming out of the big goop piles that Petey created as well as the small ones being created by the Goopies.

"Come on Samus…we need to take out Petey!" Bario said.

Bario's command came at a good time. Samus had just finished charging and aimed at the hurt and frantic Petey. Upon hearing Bario Samus fired and this time Petey didn't doge. The massive blast hit him in the side of the head which caused Petey to fall out of the sky and slam into the ground. Petey struggled to get up as Mario shot fireball after fireball at him. Petey began to burn and shot a tornado at Mario. The miniature whirlwind flew towards Mario and the other four Goopy battlers, destroying most of the goop and the Goopies. Mario jumped over it and Raichu quickly dashed out of the way as did Bario but Falco and Kirby were caught in it and swept away a couple feet. Petey then opened his mouth to fire more goop but Mario landed a fireball in his mouth. Petey squealed as the collective damage proved too much for the plant and he burned up from the inside. The other Smashers watched as he crumbled into dust and all the goop oozed away as its creator died.

"So…did we win?" Diddy asked.

"I don't think it's over…," Bario said.

The glowing circle of paint appeared again and Bowser Junior popped out of it.

"Agh! You killed Petey! Curses! Oh well…Gooper should be able to take care of you! Come Minion #2!" Bowser Junior said as he made numerous paint symbols before disappearing again.

"Dang it! He moves so fast!" Raichu said.
Yet again the symbols and paint flowed together creating a large pointy creature with four tentacles. It was a massive white Blooper! A squid-like being it had a circular mouth and long tentacles that waved about the creature as it looked at them.

"Uh Bario…maybe you could tell us what that squid thing is?" Falco asked.

"Well…that is Gooper Blooper, one of the more powerful of the Goopers, a squid like race with multiple abilities. He can pretty much only attack with his tentacles which extend, but once those are gone he shouldn't be too hard," Bario told them.

"Great! Then all we have to do is attack!" Raichu said as he dashed forward…only to get swatted away by a tentacle.

Gooper Blooper then reached out incredibly far and grabbed Falco with one of his tentacles.

"AAAAAGHHHHHH! Help!" Falco said as Gooper Blooper held Falco in front of itself.

"Grrr! I'm going to shoot it!" Diddy yelled as he pulled out his peanut guns.

Link and Samus nodded and pulled out their respective weapons but before they could fire Bario commanded them to stop.

"STOP! I believe Gooper Blooper is trying to use Falco as a shield! If we attack now we may hit him!"
The others grumbled a bit but lowered their weapons.

"What? I'm a shield now? I don't want to be a shield! Tell him to let me go! SAVE ME!" Falco yelled as he struggled to free himself.

"Chill! We're coming! Raichu…your electric attacks will probably do major amounts of damage to the Blooper, since he's watery-" Bario started before Raichu interrupted.

"Great! Then I'll take it down!" Raichu said as he ran up to the Blooper.

"No! Raichu if you attack it then you'll damage Falco because he's TOUCHING the Blooper!" Bario yelled at Raichu who stopped and turned around right when Gooper suddenly slammed a tentacle down where Raichu would have been if he kept going.

"Sorry, I was just kind of excited. I like being useful." Raichu said quietly.

"It's fine. Now I was going to say, wait here until we free Falco and then dash up and zap the Gooper Blooper when we back off. Kay?" Bario asked.

The other Smashers all nodded their heads except for Meta who just ran into a nearby wall.

"Planning is great and all…but could you just shut up and rescue me!?" Falco yelled as the Gooper Blooper waved him around.

"Right! Smashers…ATTACK!" Bario ordered. Eight of the nine Smashers ran up to Gooper Blooper and tried to hit him. Gooper used three of his tentacles to bat away Samus and Diddy and tried using Falco as a club on the others.

"AGH! Stop swinging me around!" Falco yelled as Mario barely jumped over him.

Bario and Link both sliced at a tentacle as it was flung at them, immediately slicing through the soft substance. Mario grabbed the third and quickly yanked it off. Gooper looked frightened and pained as it was missing three of its tentacles.

"Great job guys…but you didn't get the one I'M IN!" Falco yelled.

"Shut up! We're trying to save you!" Diddy said as he and Samus got to their feet.

"Right, we're doing good but-" Bario started before Raichu interrupted.

"Hey…guys…the tentacles are doing something WEIRD!"
"What?!" Bario said as he and several of the other Smashers turned around to look at the tentacles.

They were writhing and shifting and changing. After several seconds of the strange tentacle behavior three new creatures appeared. They were similar to Gooper but smaller and had very short tentacles.

"I didn't know he could do that!" Bario said.

"What?! More enemies?!" Diddy exclaimed.

"Those are Bloopers! We can't have those guys breathing down our necks…Kirby and Meta, take them out!" Bario told them
"OK!" Kirby said.

"Mmmm…chairs." Meta said.

"Yeah sure…chairs…just kill them or at least cause severe harm to them!" Bario said.

Kirby and Meta nodded and charged for the Bloopers. However the Bloopers fired some ink at them and they both got hit by the small black balls.

"Agh!" Kirby said.

"Tasty muffins!" Meta exclaimed as he shook off the ink and sliced a Blooper in half.

The creature let out a cry and exploded in a puff of ink, which blinded Meta to the second one that tackled him.

Meanwhile Bario, Mario, Link, Diddy and Samus were trying to get a good shot in but Gooper skillfully waved Falco around preventing it from taking any more damage. Bario called all the Smashers around him.

"Alright…we need to get close enough so he can't use Falco as a shield so let's attack from different directions-" Bario started before Gooper Blooper, detecting their plan threw Falco at the five and since they were clustered together it knocked all six down.

"Well that wasn't very smart of you guys!" Falco said.

"Oh be quiet! At least you aren't captured anymore!" Diddy scolded him.

"Ugh…Raichu this is your chance, take him out!" Bario yelled.

"I'm on it!" Raichu said.

Raichu ran past Meta and Kirby who were trying to finish off the Bloopers and hopped over the pile of Smashers who were trying to untangle themselves. Gooper, seeing the attacking mouse swung his last tentacle at him but Raichu met it in midair and clung to it. Gooper, confused that Raichu wasn't flying into a wall had to take a moment to realize where he was.

That moment was all Raichu needed as he then unleashed a powerful electric volley. Gooper shuddered and shaked as volt after volt hammered into it. When the massive Blooper could take no more…he exploded sending Raichu flying into Samus who just managed to get up and knocked her down…again. With their parent dead the regular Bloopers faded away as well.

"Good job Raichu!" Bario said as all the Smashers staggered to their feet.

However before they could celebrate Bowser Junior showed up again, this time on the very end of the arena.

"What!? You killed Gooper Blooper?! That does it! I'm summoning my ultimate minion…Manta Storm!" He said. He made more of those weird paint symbols before disappearing again.

"What? Manta Storm? What's a Manta Storm?" Diddy asked.
Both Bario and Mario had gone very still as the paint symbols merged and grew.

"Bario? What's wrong?" Raichu inquired.

"If he is bringing out what I think he's bringing out…well…it'll be bad. Real bad," Bario said quietly.

"How bad?" asked Falco.

"Bad like…oh please, oh please, don't hurt me before you vaporize me with electric goo, bad."
"Oh," Falco said, "What can it do?"

"Manta Storm? You mean besides vaporize you with electric goo? Well let's see…it is completely electrified so it can only be damaged by projectile attacks, it leaves behind a trail of electric green goo, and every time it takes damage it splits in half, creating two smaller Manta Storms. Did I mention the electric goo?" Bario said to him.

"That doesn't sound good," Diddy said.

"Wait…this Manta…is electrical?" Raichu asked.

"Yeah…," Bario said.

"Well that won't affect me! Remember? I'm an electric mouse…I'll just absorb whatever electricity it has and zap it back!"
"But won't it absorb the electricity you shoot at it?" Diddy asked.

"Oh yeah…," Raichu trailed off.

As the Smashers were talking the paint had slid together creating a massive white manta-shaped silhouette that easily took up a third of the room. But that's all there was. A flat paper-thin Manta thing.

"Is that it?" Raichu asked.

"Yep…get ready guys…this might get bad…remember! Only projectile attacks and don't get close to it, or the goo or you'll get electrocuted!" Bario told them all.

They nodded and watched as Manta Storm slowly moved forward, with only about five feet on the sides of the Manta and its massive size, there wasn't a lot of room. A trail of goop appeared behind it as it slid forward. Link shot several arrows at it, while Samus, Diddy, Falco and Mario all fired their respective weapons and or fireballs.

Manta Storm shuddered from the sheer weight of the assault and it noiselessly separated into two small Manta Storms. These two moved faster and started to slide forward even more. They continued pummeling the creatures as they got closer and closer and they separated again, ten feet from the Smashers, creating FOUR even smaller but still large Manta Storms.

"Great guys…but you need to MOVE!" Bario said as the Manta Storms slid toward the cluster of Smashers.

All of the Smashers dodged and jumped, although Falco landed in some of the goop and was shocked badly and Link brushed up against one of the Mantas and was also shocked. They regrouped and continued firing with Kirby now using his shockwave. The three not firing, Meta, Raichu and Bario stayed behind the shooters trying to stay calm as the Mantas kept separating and separating into smaller and smaller pieces…but they also seemed faster.

The only reason the Smashers weren't completely overrun was because the Mantas seemed largely unfocused and not very aggressive. They mostly just wandered around in the general direction of the Smashers who kept moving and firing…but they were quickly running out of moving room as the Mantas kept laying down their goop and continued to multiply.

"Ugh! Why won't they just DIE?!" Falco yelled.

As if on cue the now dozens upon dozens of Manta Storms suddenly turned bright red, clustered together and charged as one towards the Smashers from the other side of the arena.

"I should have just stayed quiet," Falco said.

"Yeah. You should have," Diddy told him.

"It's not your fault…they do this when they are on the brink of death, their final charge. I hoped to save this…," Bario said.

Falco and Diddy paused from their shooting to look at Bario.
"Save what?" Falco asked.

"You'll see. Mario! Light my hat!" Bario said, ripping his hat off his head, revealing his medium length dark purple hair.

Mario didn't hesitate. He shot a fireball at the hat, lighting the end. Bario then threw the hat and it landed right in front of the Mantas. They paused for a second in confusion as the flame slowly moved down the hat.

"Bario…you okay? Why'd you light your hat on fire?" Raichu asked.

"Just wait. Stop firing!" he commanded.

The other Smashers, startled, did as he said. The Mantas decided to dismiss the hat as harmless and moved past it when the flame reached the middle of the hat. The following explosion sent all the Smashers careening into the wall. They were otherwise unharmed. The Mantas were completely annihilated and with them gone the goo disappeared as well. After the Smashers recovered the other eight all looked at Bario in shock.

"Okay…do you mind explaining why your hat just EXPLODED?!" Falco demanded.

"Chill!" Bario told him, "It's quite simple really."
"Simple?" Diddy scoffed, "Yes one's hats often decide to go boom!"

"Look, my hat was loaded with powder…like the ones in powder kegs…," Bario trailed off noting that only Mario and Link seemed to have any idea what he was talking about.

"What's a powder keg?" Raichu asked.

"It's an explosive device in Hyrule. It's mostly used by Gorons…local rock people and it is approximately 10-100 times more powerful then say…Link's bombs. They use it to blow up rocks. I put some in my hat because I figured it might be useful…okay? Any more questions?" Bario asked in a harsh tone of voice. He had liked that hat.

"No…sorry, it's just it was kind of scary when that explosion happened, freaked me…probably all of us out," Falco said as several other Smashers murmured agreement and apologies.

"WHAT?! You defeated Manta Storm as well?! That does it…I'm going to take you guys out myself!" A shrill voice said.
The Smashers twisted around to look at Bowser Jr. who had appeared near where the hat had exploded (The floor was blackened there.) He had his paintbrush in a fighting stance and looked ready to battle.

The Smashers on the other hand were quite weary. They had taken on three progressively more difficult enemies and a fourth fight was not what they needed. But they correctly figured that Bowser Junior wasn't going to let them take a break and they formed up into a group, with Mario, Raichu and Kirby in the front and Falco, Samus, Link and Diddy in the middle of the group facing Bowser Jr. and the others behind them.

"What are you guys doing? Do I have to come over there? Man…that's so annoying," Bowser Jr. started to say before multiple fireballs, arrows, shockwaves, electric balls, peanuts and missiles flew toward him. He let out a curse and waved his paintbrush around which batted away most of the attacks, except for a peanut that slipped through and hit him on the face.

"Grrr…you guys stink!" Bowser Jr. said as he ran forward, using his paintbrush and some impressive dodging skills to avoid the attacks. Right before he reached the front line he used his brush as a pole vault and flew over the Smashers, landing right behind the row containing Bario and Meta, the only two that don't have any distance attacks. Before any of the Smashers could react Bowser Jr. slammed Meta-Knight with his paintbrush knocking him into Samus and Falco.

"Whee! I love rides!" Meta said.

Bowser Junior then attempted to whack Bario but he caught the paintbrush with a blade.

"Heh…you're fast…but not fast enough!" Bowser Jr. said as shot a blast of fire at Bario, who moved both swords to intercept the blast. However that caused him to lose control over the brush and Bowser Junior knocked him flat.

"Fool…you can't beat me-" Bowser Junior started before a boomerang from Link smacked him in the face.

"What?! Ow! Don't do that-"

"Hammer!" Mario said as he leapt over and punched the paintbrush out of Bowser Junior's hand. He then smashed it with his hammer.

"NOOOOO! My paintbrush! That does it…time for my Shadow Mario form! Hi-ulk!" Bowser Junior made a strange noise as Bario's sword appeared in his neck.

"No. It's over. No more forms, you stupid miniature Bowser…thing," Bario said in a surprisingly cold voice as he removed his blade and sheathed both of his swords. Bowser Junior exploded into pink dust, which washed over the Smashers and gave them a much needed healing. The door to the next area appeared as well. Before entering it though the Smashers gathered outside of it.

"I think that Bowser's up next…I don't believe he has anything left to throw at us," Bario said.

"I certainly hope so, because although we're getting healed all this constant fighting is a little draining," Diddy said.

"Agreed. Let's just go in, and take Bowser out," Raichu asserted.

"All right! We get to take down the big bad guy around here…cool," Falco said.

"Yeah, yeah…'Cool' but you need to be careful! As Mario knows Bowser is tough, and he probably will have some minions with him! With that out of the way…let's finish this!" Bario said.

The other Smashers all nodded and together they entered the door.