Clash of the Smashers

Chapter Fourteen: Terrible twin twosome traverse and travel through the twisting, turning, tumbling, tasty...air. Title: Twinrova.

Following the surprisingly difficult battle with Aganihm, the heroes went into the next area…and were unsurprised to find a spiraling staircase. They climbed it, noting that they have been continuously going up, and several were starting to wonder just how high Ganondorf's tower was…

The first to reach the top was Kirby, and using his pink spherical body, he shoved the door open. He dashed in, followed by the rest. They rapidly spread out upon entering, backs to the wall, as the door slammed shut behind them, trapping them inside. Each raised either weapon or fist and faced the new terror that dared to confront them…

Two beings floated in the shadows of the end of the room. Their shapes were vague and bizarre, and no one present could quite determine what they were…until a distinctive cackle echoed and Link's eyes widened in recognition.

The cackle echoed, harsh and grating and caused several of the Smashers to wince. It seemed to be coming from everywhere. Because of the nature of the laugh, it was difficult to realize that it was not from one throat, but rather two, in perfect sync. Bario narrowed his eyes and shouted out loudly, stopping the laugh as it grew ever more piercing.

"Stop! Reveal yourselves!"

The laughs stopped, but an aura of barely concealed malice still emanated from the shadowed figures. Two glowing lights came out from the top of their strange shapes, banishing the shadows that shrouded them. The figures quickly became visible as two large old, green women, floating on broomsticks. Yes, broomsticks. The two lights were large, almost hair like objects. One of the lights was a bright blue, and looked like a thick pointy ice cone. The other's flickered and twisted, and was seemingly red flame.

Several of the Smashers stared in confusion at the two old hags. One had a red jewel in her forehead, and the other had a blue one. Sure, they were ugly and kind of creepy, but they didn't look that tough…so why was Link, and now Bario, as he recognized them shaking with anticipation…and trepidation?

The two hags laughed again, but quickly stopped and eyed the Smashers with interest, lingering on Link, Mario…and Bario.

"Welcome! It seems you brats managed to get all the way here," started the one with a blue jewel.

"But this is where your journey will end!" finished the other one.

"I am Kotake!" said the blue-jeweled hook-nosed witch.

"And I am Koume!" said the other.

The two cackled again and started flying in a circle in their half of the chamber. Diddy flashed Bario a look, as if to ask him what the heck was going on. Bario caught the look and cleared his throat.

"Uh…those two…creatures…out there are very powerful witches. Kotake wields powerful ice powers, and Koume uses fire spells. They are vulnerable to physical attacks, although it can be difficult to hit them what with their floating and all. They are completely invulnerable to nearly any elemental or magic attacks…except for their opposite. Koume is weak to ice and vice-versa."
At that Bario seemed to pause, as if wondering if he should go on, or just have everyone start attacking.

The witches solved that problem by suddenly screeching and flying at the Smashers. They dodged the attack, and the witches cackled maniacally. They flew towards the top of the chamber. Koume created a large ball of fire in her hand and flung it at Link, while Kotake summoned a similar ball of ice, firing that at Bario.

Link raised his shield, causing the fire ball to dissipate, while Bario dodged. Where the ice hit the ground, it froze, creating a slippery surface. The witches cackled again and charged up another attack…at least until Koume was smacked in the face by a pistol shot. Startled she and her sister looked at Falco in confusion, as if wondering how someone could be brazen enough to attack them.

"Jeez! Don't you ever shut up?" Falco asked, "I've known you for like, two minutes and already I hate you."

The witches hissed and glared at Falco.

"How dare you strike me!" screeched Koume.

"You impertinent brat! I shall freeze your soul!" shouted Kotake.

"And I shall burn you to the bone!" finished Koume.

They unleashed a torrent of magic elemental balls. The Smashers dodged several, and deflected more, but wherever the flaming balls hit, they created patches of burning floor, and the ice balls froze the ground, making it very slippery, and freezing cold.

The Smashers did not just dodge however, as whenever they got a chance, the ones capable of firing projectiles returned the witches "kindness". However, the twins were fast and managed to dodge most of those attacks as well…and their spells had a considerably larger blast radius.

Bario slashed at a fireball heading his way, destroying it and frantically thought of a plan…anything that would stop the sorceress sisters. He ran past Mario, who just shot three fireballs at Kotake. Kotake flew past most, but one smacked her in the arm and her robe caught aflame. Screeching in pain, but more in anger she shot a blast of ice at it, putting out the flame. Mario glanced at Meta…just as he launched himself into the air, wings spreading wide.

Koume was to busy attacking Link, Samus and Falco to notice the winged warrior come up from behind her. She cackled as threw a particularly close shot at Falco, who she decided she definitely did not like. Her cackle was cut short though, when Meta sliced the end of her broom off. She let out a yelp as it plummeted to the ground, and she would have slammed into it if Kotake did not dive and grab her. Koume's broom hit the floor and shattered.

Koume opened her mouth to thank her sister, when Kotake's broom dipped lower. Quickly realizing that the broom was not strong enough to carry both of them, Kotake brought them to the ground where they got off…and were quickly surrounded by the Smashers…

"Alright you scum, surrender!" Bario said.

The sisters looked at each other before laughing.

"Surrender? To you?! So foolish!" Koume said, shaking with mirth.

"We're far from defeated!" Kotake exclaimed, quivering with ill-natured humor.

Diddy looked at Raichu in confusion. Either they were going crazy…or these witches had something up their sleeves. Link looked at Bario, and Bario returned the glance.

"Crap!" Bario said, "Attack!"

Bario and Link leapt before any of the other Smashers got a chance to respond. Before they reached the witches, a blast of magical energy caught them in the chest and flung them at their allies.

"No!" Bario said, scrambling to get out of the tangle of legs and tails he found himself in.

"Now sister!" Koume said.

"It's time for our ultimate attack!" Kotake responded.

"Sorceress Sisters Double Dynamite Attack: Twinrova!" they said together.

The two sisters were surrounded by a blinding light that flashed from icy blue-white, to flaming red-orange. The Smashers covered their eyes as the ground surrounding the area where the witches stood became covered in ice, only to rapidly melt. When the light faded…the sisters were gone…

And a new creature stood in their place. It was easily twice the size of the witches, and they were quite large to begin with…meaning it towered over the Smashers. It maintained the same green skin, but looked very young, like a woman in her prime…and there was no doubt that the creature was a woman. She was scantily clad and clutched two torch-like objects, one flaming, and the other with a large chunk of ice. Her "hair" was split into two ponytail-like parts, one flaming, and one frost. This new creature…Twinrova…tilted her head back and laughed.

"Shoot…I was really hoping that this wouldn't happen," Bario said.

Twinrova raised her fire torch and shot a blast of fire at Falco…not a ball of fire, a large beam of it. He turned on his Reflector, but the sheer power of the attack shattered it. Falco fell to the ground, stunned.

"That will show him," Twinrova proudly stated, seemingly ignoring the fact that she caused no actual damage to Falco.

She raised her ice torch and prepared to fire when Link shot two arrows at her. One hit her stomach and the other skimmed past her face. She yelped and angrily turned her attention towards him, when Raichu hit her with a ball of electricity. She quickly realized that trying to take them on one at a time would not work very well, so she flew into the air.

Samus shot off four missiles but Twinrova used fire magic to blow them up prematurely. She then sent a blast of frigid ice at Samus. Samus jumped to the side and fired again. Twinrova dashed away, and glared at the Smashers.

"Curses, I was hoping that I would be able to defeat you easier like this…but it looks like I have to go into plan B…Flame Mode!"
Her Ice Torch disappeared, and the Flame Torch seemed to be absorbed by her body. Her two hair things merged together into one long flaming ponytail as her whole body took on a red sheen. The chamber flashed red and suddenly small pools of lava opened up, creating a treacherous battle ground.

"Let's see you survive this!"

Twinrova followed her unoriginal statement by summoning a swarm of Fire Keese and sending them at the Smashers. They quickly destroyed the weak creatures, although they had to carefully watch their step, and the chamber was getting uncomfortably hot.

Twinrova growled and proceeded to shoot off several fire beams. The Smashers dodged or deflected, but the attacks were fast and powerful and several suffered minor burns. Diddy almost fell in a lava pool before Mario grabbed him. Diddy tried to thank the plumber but he was already jumping towards the witch.

Twinrova didn't notice Mario, too busy she was in trying to shoot down Meta, the one who destroyed one of her brooms. Meta was flying around her, stabbing or slashing occasionally. Twinrova shot blasts of fire, but since he was so small and speedy compared to her, the attacks didn't even come close.
Mario was soon behind the witch and with one final leap he went high in the air. He almost sent some fireballs at her, sort of to pave the way, before he realized that shooting balls of fire at a red witch with amazing fire proficiency was probably not a good idea. So he settled for slamming her in the back of the head with his hammer.

The blow made a resounding crack as it smashed her skull. She let out a silent whimper and slowly started floating towards the ground. Mario reached the apex of his jump and was coming down when Twinrova suddenly spun around and blasted him with a wave of fire. He flew across the room and slammed into the wall. The flames went out quickly thanks to the speed he was traveling and his fire-resistant clothing, but the power of the impact left him struggling to hold onto consciousness.

"It'll take more than a hammer to stop me!" she cried as large flaming balls surrounded her and flew at the Smashers.
Falco shook his head, finally recovering. He took a look around and was slightly confused as the arena was changed. He quickly leapt to his feet when he realized he was but inches away from a pool of lava. He then had to quickly leap away as several balls of fire landed around him.

Twinrova cackled as she maliciously played with the Smashers, just barely missing with her attacks…until a fully charged power beam blast smacked her in the face, followed by one of Link's bombs. Stunned and severely hurt, she stopped her barrage long enough for Diddy to use his jetpack to fly up to her and slam into her stomach with his head. He then gracefully landed on the floor.
"Agh! You fools...that really hurt…I mean, do you think those feeble attacks are enough to stop me?!"
Bario opened his mouth but Twinrova answered her own question.

"Well it's not! Time for Plan C! Ice Mode!"

A blinding blue flash lit the area, and when it was gone the pools of lava were gone…instead the entire chamber was covered with ice. The floor was freezing and the temperature in the chamber had dropped considerably. Twinrova was now a light blue, and her ponytail had become a large chunk of ice.

The icy floor was slippery and cut back on traction. However the floor was most dangerous for Raichu and Diddy, as they had no protective items on their feet. They were forced to constantly move so that their feet weren't frozen to the ground. It didn't take long for their feet to become quite numb.

"Let's do this fast!" Diddy said.

Twinrova seemed to not like that idea as she summoned three spiky ice balls, which she threw on the ground. Using blasts of ice she sent them ricocheting across the room at a high speed.

"Ha! Let's see you survive this, Icicle Fall!" she cried as dozens of large icicles rapidly grew, and fell from the ceiling.
"Not good!" Raichu yelled as he jumped over an ice ball and slid past a shattering icicle.

As if the area wasn't deadly enough, Twinrova started firing blasts of ice at the Smashers. She froze Kirby in a solid chunk of ice, and followed up by freezing Meta. Link, Samus, Falco, Diddy, Raichu all tried to hit her with projectiles, but Twinrova had learned from previous attacks and moved around the room at a high speed. Also adding to the difficulty of aiming was all of the dangers moving around the room that prevented the characters from standing still long enough to hit her.

Link was soon sent into a corner, holding his arm and leg as one of the spiked ice balls hit him. It shattered, but Link was undeniably injured. Samus was leaping to avoid an ice blast when an icicle hit her in the back, propelling her into Diddy, and causing them to slide into Raichu and the second ice ball. All three were unable to get up.

Twinrova cackled as she picked off the Smashers one by one. At least she was cackling until Falco slammed into her hard with a Fire Falco attack. Screeching she froze him and he feel to the ground. She panted heavily, trying to recover as Bario used his swords to destroy the third ice ball. She turned her attention towards him and raised her hand to fire a blast of ice when five fireballs hit her from behind.
"Woohoo!" Mario yelled as he leapt onto the screaming witch and gave her a swift kick in the face. She fell backwards…right under a large and pointy icicle. She had just enough time to look up before it penetrated her forehead, killing her.
Contrary to how they first met her, she died quite silently, exploding into the pink dust and returning the room to its normal dungeony self, unfreezing everyone and healing all their wounds and physical exhaustion.

The Smashers exchanged little words, but many grins as they knew they were one step closer to the completion of the quest, and they all exited swiftly, anxious to end this adventure, through the now unbarred door. Mario and Samus were the last to leave, and before she left she looked at Mario.

"I heard you say 'Woohoo' back there, and I have to say…it's good. You've been far to quiet since Yoshi died, and it's good to hear you say something again…you are a hero Mario and heroes should be inspirational. I'm glad you're healing."
With that surprising and awkward statement said (She had obviously not had a lot of time to prepare it), she went through the door, leaving Mario blinking in shock, before smiling and joining the rest.