Clash of the Smashers

Chapter Eleven: Big, Bad Boss…things

Following the defeat of the enemies at the old Hyrule Castle Town, the Smashers took a short hike to Ganondorf's Tower. The building floated over a deep chasm with bubbling lava boiling beneath. However, unlike like last time Ganondorf took over Hyrule, there was a wooden bridge connecting the ruined ground to the evil place.
"Well…that's convenient," Falco said.

"No. It just means he's confident that he can kill us," Bario told him.

"Oh," Falco said.

The Smashers silently walked across the thick wooden bridge. There was no door to the tower, merely a large rectangular opening, leading to inky blackness. The Smashers took a deep breath before entering the hole.

Inside was a long hallway and Link immediately saw that the Tower had changed. He didn't say anything of course and the Smashers walked along the lengthy hall. After a while they came to a door. Seeing no other features in the mostly gray-stoned hall lit only by whatever feeble light came in through the door and a few flickering torches, they went in.

As soon as all the Smashers went through the door, thick bars came across it, preventing it from being opened. At the other end of the room was a similarly barred door. The chamber was reminiscent of Bowser's rooms…but larger, perhaps one hundred feet long and wide. Although there were no obvious sources of light, it was bright and easy to see. Three large creatures stood between them and the way out…and they looked ready to rumble.

One creature looked like a massive reptile. It had scale-like armor and a large mouth filled with sharp teeth. It had a short tail and big three toed feet. It stood at least ten feet tall…and quite a bit longer. Surrounding it were smaller, less dangerous looking versions of it…about six. There were also ten bright green, legless creatures around the beast. It growled menacingly and opened its massive mouth, as if to threaten.

The second creature, although not as gigantic was still quite big. A plant creature with four different colored flower things, one blue, one red, one green, and one was purple. Each of the flowers had what appeared to be a mouth…but that's crazy!

The third one was about the size of the plant. It was a massive, insectile crab beast. It had one giant eye, several scuttling legs and one large claw.

The Smashers and the beasts stared at each other, neither wanting to make the first move. Falco finally asked a question that was bugging him, Raichu, Diddy, Samus and Kirby.

"What the heck are those?!"

Bario looked at Falco in surprise before answering.

"I'm surprised you never heard of them…but whatever. The large reptile is called King Dodongo. He has nearly impervious armor, and the ability to shoot large waves of fire from his mouth. The smaller versions of him are regular Dodongos, also with a fire ability but not as strong. The little green things are Baby Dodongos. They can burrow under the ground and come up with surprising speed. All the Dodongos are prone to explode before they die, because they lose control of the fires in their belly, so watch out!"

"What?! Fire shooting enemies that explode! That's crazy!" Diddy yelled.

"Crazy it may be but the other two are pretty bad as well. The plant is called Manhandla. The central green section is impervious to most attacks, but the flowers are very weak. For some reason, if the flowers are attacked by someone either wearing the same color on their clothes or same hair color etc…the flowers will vanish, but if attacked by someone WITHOUT the colors the flower will shock the attacker, and recreate the destroyed flowers. Ganondorf put some hefty magic spells on that creature. Plus, it shoots fireballs from the flowers and speeds up as each one is destroyed so be careful!"

As Bario was telling the Smashers to watch out they didn't notice that several of the Baby Dodongos were burrowing into the ground…

"As for the crab thing…well that is Gohma. She is very powerful, watch out for her claw and she can create small larvae to defend herself, so look out for that…"

Bario trailed off as he noticed four…no six bumps in the ground moving fast towards the Smashers. Strange…he thought that the floor was stone…must be weak stone for Baby Dodongos to burrow through it…wait…BABY DODONGOS!
"Look out!" Bario yelled as three Baby Dodongos erupted from the ground and tackled Falco and Raichu.

Falco fell to the ground with two on top of him. They weren't really hurting him, just flailing wildly. He growled and kicked them off, jumped up and pumped a few laser shots before they could escape. He smirked as they squealed…and twitched. Huh. Weird. Suddenly Mario jumped over and punched them away, and then grabbed the one on Raichu and threw it at the other two. They exploded, creating a sizable dent in the floor. Bario shot an angry look at Falco.

"Dang it Falco! Don't you listen?! I told you that they exploded before they die, and then you go on and almost get us killed!"
"Sorry…I wasn't thinking, no need to get mad," Falco said sheepishly.

Before they could continue the argument three more Baby Dodongos erupted from the ground. The Smashers all jumped back and the Babies didn't tackle anyone, but moved rapidly towards Meta. Meta sliced each one once, blindingly fast, and then with a flick of the wrist sent the Babies flying back. As they plummeted through the air, screeching and twitching, Link fired his Boomerang at JUST the right angle, sending them farther…and causing them to land right by the other Dodongos. The three Babies exploded, damaging the remaining four enough to cause THEM to explode, and severely damaging the six Dodongos.
"Ha! That should take care of them," Diddy said.

However, when the smoke cleared the six regular Dodongos were shaking their heads, and apparently suffering no lasting effects. King Dodongo appeared untouched.

"What?!" Raichu asked, "How can he be unharmed?!"

"I told you that he has pretty much invincible armor!" Bario said.

"Well how are we supposed to kill him then?" Falco asked.

"Worry about that later, we have company!" Bario told him as the six Dodongos charged forward at a nod from their King.

The Smashers readied their weapons, but the Dodongos stopped twenty-five feet away. They opened their mouths and light flared inside.

"MOVE!" Bario ordered as he and all the Smashers except for Mario ran to the side to avoid what was coming. The Dodongos then unleashed a cone of fire, missing their intended targets…except for one. One fire wave flew straight at Mario who looked at it, unmoving.

"MARIO! MOVE!" Raichu yelled.

At the last second, Mario's cape flashed, sending the cone of fire shooting back at twice the speed it was going. It flew into one of the Dodongos mouth, and licked at its face, its eyes, shooting into the nostrils. The Dodongo let out one…small…screech, before exploding, in a blast far greater then that of the Babies. The blast sent the other five Dodongos rolling away.

"Wow…Mario, that was pretty cool," Diddy said.

"It's-a me-a Mario!"
"Great, but let's not just stand here! Kill those Dodongos before they can recover. Their tails are vulnerable!" Bario said.

The Smashers nodded and dashed for the Dodongos, who were all struggling to remain conscious, as they were already weakened by the explosions from the Babies.

Bario slashed rapidly at the tail of one of the Dodongos as did Link to another. All the Smashers attacked the creatures, and as the Dodongos flashed they dashed away. All the Dodongos then exploded, leaving a blackened crater in the ground. King Dodongo, Gohma and Manhandla have not moved…

Falco looked over at the three massive monsters.

"What are they waiting for? What, are they like testing us or something?"
"That's exactly what they're doing," Bario told him, "They're seeing what it would take to bring us down…or rather Ganondorf is. I have a feeling that he's watching this somehow and is just waiting to see our weaknesses and strengths. These creatures aren't here to kill us…they're here so he can kill us."
"Well that's kind of creepy," Diddy said.

Before anyone could respond Gohma charged forward with an unexpected burst of speed. She scuttled rapidly across the floor and was three quarters of the way there before Samus raised her weapon and fired off a missile. Gohma raised her claw and deflected the explosion. Her claw shuddered and she shrieked and then she was upon them. She dealt Samus a vicious backhand that sent her flying and then tried to grab Kirby. Kirby slammed her claw with his hammer and Gohma squealed and dashed forward, hitting Kirby and Link with her armored body.

"Agh!" Link shouted as he was thrown roughly to the ground.

Gohma again reached out and tried to grab someone…Diddy. Before Diddy could be grabbed Raichu jumped in the way and fired a wave of electricity at Gohma. The electricity appeared to focus in the claw, before sizzling out. Gohma screeched and in one smooth motion with her damaged claw, grabbed Raichu and SQUEEZED.

"OW! OW OW OW OW!" Raichu yelled as the serrated edges dug into his flesh. Before he could be torn in two, Bario dashed up and in one smooth stroke with both swords, removed Gohma's claw. Gohma let out her loudest screech yet as her claw fell to the ground and vanished, releasing Raichu.

Bario raised his swords, prepared to deal the death blow, when Gohma opened her mouth and a stream of larva came out. They were small, clawless versions of Gohma, about the size of a fist. They had little stingers and they leapt onto Bario and began stinging him. Gohma scuttled backwards, nursing her injured claw.

"OW! Shoot, I forgot she could do that!" Bario yelled as he fell to the ground and rolled, squishing most of the larva. One tried to escape but Falco shot it.
Before any one could recover from Gohma's surprise attack a cone of flame flew from King Dodongo's mouth The Smashers were only hit by the tip of it, but its sheer power was enough to send them all flying back. Before they could stand up Manhandla had charged forward and attempted to bite Kirby with one of its flowers, the red one, as Kirby looked the tastiest. Kirby ducked and struck the flower with his hammer, which sent a powerful shock through him.

"Shoot…Mario! You can get the red flower! You're wearing red!" Bario yelled.

Mario nodded and jumped at Manhandla, which was slowly spinning. Mario tried to jump over the creature, but it shot fireballs from each of its four flowers. One caught him in the chest, and he fell to the floor. Link then leaped forward and sliced off the green flower.

The flower fell to the ground and vanished. Link flashed a smile at the surprised Smashers who didn't see him sneak up on the plant, but then Manhandla spun and slammed its blue flower into Link's stomach. The flower was surprisingly strong and he was knocked to the ground.

"Link! Uh…I think I got it, Falco! Attack the blue flower, Mario get the red one!"
"What me?" Falco asked as he ducked a fireball from the notably faster Manhandla.

"Yes you! You're blue…ish….so you can kill the blue flower!"

Falco nodded and charged his Fire Falco attack. Mario readied his hammer and at the same time, both Falco and Mario struck from opposite sides, destroying their respective flowers. Manhandla suddenly went into overdrive, as most of its weight was gone and it spun the purple flower around so fast it was a blur. Mario jumped over it, but Falco was knocked back.

"Great…only one part left, but who's got something purple?" Raichu asked as he looked at the Smashers…Samus…orange armor, Kirby…pink, Meta…blue…Bario…red clothes and…purple hair!

Bario grinned and slid under Manhandla's whirling flower. Figuring it moved to fast for him to accurately chop it he just raised his swords. The flower chopped itself off as it rammed right into Bario's blades. Manhandla gave a screech before vanishing.

Before the Smashers could congratulate themselves Gohma had charged forward again, forcibly slamming into Bario. He flew back and landed roughly on his back. Gohma opened her mouth and a stream of larva came out again…but before she could close it Link threw a round object inside. Gohma's eye grew wide as the bomb exploded, severely damaging her, but before any of the Smashers could follow through with the attack the larva were upon them, stinging. Following Bario's lead they fell to the ground and rolled, squishing many a larva, but then Gohma used her large armored body to slam Diddy and tried to hit Mario, before he jumped on top of her. She looked around wildly for the little red man, before discovering he was on top of her as his hammer slammed into her eye.

Gohma let out a vicious squeal and spun about crazily, trying to remove Mario. Mario hunkered down low on Gohma, right behind her eye and didn't move…

The rest of the Smashers had just finished with the larva, and were watching Gohma freak.

"We gotta help him!" Diddy said, pointing to Mario who was hanging on with what appeared to be everything he had.

"No…wait," Bario told them, "I think he's got this…"

The rest looked at Bario in confusion, before deciding that maybe he was right and they'd wait…for a little bit.

Gohma stopped spinning. She slowly opened her eye, trying to see if the man had fallen off. Not seeing him anywhere she fully opened her eye and started to turn…just as a hammer slammed into her eye again. She tried to close her eye, but the hammer prevented her armored lids from shutting. Mario, who was still on her back, then fired three fireballs into her eye. The fire charbroiled her eye, and Mario jumped off, just in time to watch her explode. Enemies, always trying to impress.

King Dodongo struck right then, while they were distracted. His powerful flame attack would have, if not killed then surely would have severely damaged the Smashers if Kirby didn't jump in the way and become a rock, greatly lessening the power as a large portion of the fire was deflected. Mario and Falco used their cape and Reflector to stop the rest and turn them back, although none reached the King.

Seeing that his flame assault was ineffective he growled and curled into a massive ball. He rolled forward at an astonishing speed and might have crushed our heroes…except for Kirby. Kirby was still in rock form and when the King went over him He lost control as the rock screwed up his balance. King Dodongo wobbled and turned…and slammed into a wall.

His massive body caused the wall to shake, but he was knocked to the floor and struggled to get up. Diddy fired several peanuts at the fallen creature, and was assisted by Falco's laser shots and Samus's missiles. King Dodongo shrugged off the attacks and got to his feet again. Raichu fired a bolt of electricity, but it fizzled out upon touching his apparently non-conducting flesh.

"How do we kill this thing?!" Raichu asked.

"As I said before he has practically impervious armor…we need to get him when he opens his mouth!" Bario yelled.

"But the only time he does that is...," Diddy started.

"Right before a fire attack," Raichu finished.

"Yep," Bario agreed.

By this time King Dodongo had recovered. He slowly turned around and looked at the Smashers. Kirby had returned to his original form and walked over to Meta and the others.

"I love you Mr. Potato Chip!" Meta told his sword.

King Dodongo decided to quit fooling around. He wasn't sure how they stopped his last flame attack, but he figured they wouldn't do it again. He opened his mouth wide and charged up the flame…

"Now's our chance! FIRE!" Bario commanded.

The Smashers heeded his instructions. Samus fired off three missiles, Mario shot off a pair of fireballs, Falco sent a few laser shots at his mouth, Raichu fired an electric ball, Link threw in a bomb and Diddy threw in an orange grenade. The sheer force of the attacks caused King Dodongo to stagger back. He closed his mouth to stop the pain, which amplified the explosions from the bombs. He let out a low moan, and started to shake…

"I think…he's going to blow!" Bario yelled, "RUN!"
The Smashers ran. King Dodongo exploded just as they reached the far corner. His explosion put all the other explosions to shame, as it severely blackened one entire wall and left an enormous crater in the ground. As the explosion slowly died, a pink dust filtered through the room, healing the Smashers.

They got up and looked around, hardly daring to think that they finally won. The bars over the door they had not entered disappeared, but the other ones remained.

"Looks like there's no going back," Falco said.

"Right! It looks like Ganondorf is going to be throwing everything he has at us…but we can take him! Right?" Bario asked.

"RIGHT!" The Smashers yelled, or at least the ones that spoke in coherent sentences. In unison they walked towards and through the next door, and their next challenge…