Clash of the Smashers

Chapter Seventeen: Vaati's Vengeance

Following the defeat of Majora's Mask, the nine Smashers ran through the door and up the spiraling staircase that was a staple of Ganondorf's Tower. On the way up Falco tried to ask some questions pertaining to their journey.

"So…what'll we do after we kill Ganondorf?"
Bario stumbled on a step, but was able to maintain his balance and answer the question.

"I would assume we'd go back to the Mushroom Kingdom, and see if we can find Master Hand, and Giga Bowser from there. Link, where's the portal to leave here?"
Link looked at Bario as they reached the top of the stairs.

"Gone," he said.

"Gone?! What do you mean GONE?!" Falco asked, or rather, screamed.
Before anyone could answer his question Mario opened the door, and they discovered their next challenge, in a room nearly identical to all the others. Much to their disappointment, the being who greeted them was not Ganondorf. It was however, quite nearly as evil.

The figure was not overly big or menacing, about the size and build of an older child, with a mostly dark purple cloak, comparable to the abnormal color of Bario's hair. This being, known as the Wind Mage Vaati, had on a purple cap, similar to Link's with a red jewel on it. He had long light purplish gray hair…and was surrounded by ten large dark knight-like creatures.

Each one was very large, at least seven feet tall, and was covered entirely in thick, dark armor. Each one held a massive sword, about six feet long and very thick and wide. Each one also had a second sword in a scabbard, but since they had big shields in their other hands, they could only wield the one large sword.

"Crap." Bario said.

"Ha ha ha! I am Vaati, the Wind Mage…and you have overstayed your welcome."
The Smashers lined up, most of them wary, but more focused on the big scary knights, also known as Darknuts, then the small Wind Mage.

"I see you've noticed my Darknuts," Vaati said, in a high-pitched voice.

"Well, duh, they're not hard to miss, Vaati," Bario said in a sarcastic tone.

Vaati looked at Bario in confusion.
"Do I know you?"

Bario looked startled, not as if he was surprised of that fact, merely as if he had forgotten.

"No, I don't believe you do. I've studied you though!"
Vaati smiled at that.

"Well, that's sweet. But enough talk about my greatness. You shall not travel any farther. Ganondorf lies above me, but my Darknuts shall easily kill you. Ten Darknuts for ten Smashers. Sounds fair."

"But there are only nine of us!" Diddy said.

Vaati looked taken aback, and counted quickly.

"What? Where is that annoying green dinosaur Ganondorf told me about?"
Mario twitched in anger, but Bario was the one who replied.

"He died. You haven't been keeping watch on us?"
Vaati shrugged indifferently.

"Not really. Whenever Ganondorf started telling me stuff, I just tuned him out. That guy can get really boring, what with his obsession with killing Link and getting the Triforce."

Bario looked at him confusion.

"But wait, don't you want to kill Link, and aren't you obsessed with getting a mystical Picori power source?" In response to the interested glances Bario rapidly answered, "I read about it somewhere."

"Possibly, but still, I mean come on! I'm way more interesting. Besides, if you guys are strong enough to get here, than you should have no problem fighting an extra Darknut. Attack!"

The Darknuts moved before the Smashers could even react to Vaati's rapid change of focus. They raised their swords over their heads and held their shields in front of them, and charged!

"Crap!" Falco yelled, before pulling out his pistol and firing. The shots were mostly blocked by their thick shields, and what actually did manage to get through seemed to cause no damage because of the thick armor.
Samus fired as well, and her missiles didn't even slow them down. The Darknuts were rather slow to begin with, but they picked up momentum and were moving quite fast by the time they covered half the distance. Mario started firing fireballs, Raichu shot electric balls, Diddy fired peanuts, Kirby was using shockwaves and Link was firing arrows like crazy, occasionally throwing his boomerang or a bomb.
The Darknuts however seemed mostly unaffected by the sheer wave of power being thrown at them, and they soon reached the Smashers with only minimal superficial damage. They reared back…and swung! One sword per Smasher, with the final Darknut hanging back.

The preparation for the swing was slow enough for the Smashers to easily get out of the way, but the actual attack was very fast, and Falco got nicked before rolling behind his attacker and kicking it squarely in the back. The blow loosened some of the armor, but almost knocked Falco over as the Darknut slowly turned around…

Mario ducked under the sword swing and kicked out at the Darknuts legs. The creature wobbled and fell to its knees, and Mario slammed it in the chest with his hammer. The Darknut tried to stab him, but he was to close for the massive sword to be effective. Mario reared back to attack again…when the Darknut slammed him with his shield, sending him flying back…

Kirby heroically sucked up massive quantities of air and used it to float over the Darknut that was trying to recover from missing him with its sword. He turned into a large rock and slammed on the creatures head. It made a loud cracking noise, and Kirby slid off and fell on the floor. He changed back and saw that despite the crack in the armor he just created, the Darknut was swinging its sword again…

Link raised his shield and blocked the attack of the Darknut in front of him. The size and weight of the sword, coupled with the massive strength of the Darknut almost made him fall over, but he held firm. Link used his other arm to try and slice at the creature's chest, but it intercepted his sword with its shield. Again the power almost knocked the sword from his grip, but he held strong. Both Link and the Darknut seemed to be at an impasse…but Link was being slowly but surely beat down as the creature was considerably more powerful than him…

Diddy cart wheeled away from the Darknuts sword, and it slammed hard into the ground, the small quake almost knocking Diddy over. He managed to keep up however and flipped back into a standing position and opened fire with his peanut guns. The Darknut however seemed not to even notice as it slowly turned and raised its sword. Diddy gulped and prepared to move…

Raichu decided to be different, and rather than avoiding the sword swing, he ran under it and leapt up on the Darknuts chest. He shocked it repeatedly, the metal armor amplifying the attack. The Darknut started groaning and grunting, as it got its shield in place and…BAM! It smashed Raichu in the back. He lost his grip and fell to the ground in a daze…as the Darknut readied its sword…

Bario intercepted the blade aimed at his face by crossing his swords over his head and catching it between them. He then used all his strength to push up and using that momentum he brought his legs up in a double kick that slammed into the creature's chest. Enraged the Darknut brought its oversized sword down like a massive axe…which Bario again blocked. Confused at the apparent durability of the swords, the Darknut faltered…which allowed Bario to smash it with the flat of one of his blades. The Darknut stumbled…but recovered in time to swing again…

Samus rolled into her Morph ball form and rolled away from the attack, laying bombs at the feet of the Darknut. They exploded, causing minor damage, but otherwise not really affecting it. She returned to her normal shape, and charged up her Power shot, hoping that she would get a chance to use it…

Meta parried the attack of the Darknut, flying too close for it to get any decent power shots at him. It tried to smack him with its shield but Meta Knight just flew around it and slashed repeatedly at the Darknut, causing sparks to fly. The armor was weakened, but still there, and the Darknut was still trying to hit him. Sooner or later he would make a mistake…

Falco backed up rapidly from his Darknut, and called out to the others.

"Yeah, I don't know about you guys, but I can't kill this thing!"

Bario ducked under the sword aimed at his head, and answered Falco.

"Okay! What do you say guys? Teamwork time?"
There was a loud flurry of yes's, Okays, okeydokeys, and a head nod from Link as he rolled away from the Darknut that was trying to overpower him. Bario nodded, and together they backed off from the Darknuts, which were too slow to keep up with them.

"Alright guys! Focus on Kirby's Darknut, the one with the big crack in its helmet!" Bario told them.

It didn't take long for them to attack, and with the Darknuts spread out throughout the room, they were able to single this one out. Bario, Meta, Link and Mario all charged forward, ducking, rolling, flying, or jumping over and around its attack. It managed to block Link with its shield, but the other three managed to hit it hard, loosening its armor, and expanding the crack.

The other eight Darknuts, and the tenth one, the one that held back, and was completely unharmed started walking towards them, but the five other Smashers held them back with ranged attacks, or at least distracted them, as many of the ranged attacks, such as Diddy's peanuts or Falco's lasers didn't serve to do much more than irritate.

Vaati watched the proceedings with a cool glare. He smiled at first, when each one was battling there own Darknut, but he started to frown as they tried to take out one at a time. But he wasn't worried…there were a lot of tricks left up his sleeve.

The Darknut that Mario and the rest were attacking was trying to attack and defend itself, but up against four skilled fighters, with each one moving around and staying to close for it effectively attack, it was being worn down. It'd block a hammer from Mario with its shield, and a sword or two from Bario, but at least two other attacks would hit it. It would try to smash Meta with its shield, or slice at Link with its sword, but while it did that, the other two would attack. Soon, the armor just fell off, as it was designed to take a beating, but not one that bad.

Vaati smiled when he saw the armor fall off. Now things will get interesting…

Beneath the armor was…more armor. However, this was chain mail armor, as in it had numerous silvery links, that rattled around. It wasn't as protective as the other, thick battle armor, but it was considerably lighter, and allowed for a broader range of movement. The helmet had also collapsed, as it appeared that the entire outer armor was designed to fall apart after a certain amount of damage was dealt. Beneath that helmet was another, rounder, more human head shaped helmet, than the other one, which was long and had large horns.

The armor-less Darknut suddenly leapt back, considerably faster now. It threw its sword and shield at its attackers. Mario dodged the sword, but the shield slammed into Bario. It then removed its second sword. A thinner, longsword, that was still far too large for any human to wield, but in the Darknuts hands, it looked extremely dangerous.

"Ugh," Bario said upon getting up and rubbing his side, where he envisioned a large bruise was forming, "this is really not good."

Meanwhile the other five Smashers were starting to get nervous as six Darknuts came for them while the other three branched off and headed for Link and pals. Despite the barrage they were throwing, they couldn't get either group to back off. Samus charged a Power Beam shot.

The armor-less Darknut leapt forward and sliced at Meta, who barely managed to catch the sword on his. The Darknut struck again, from a different angle, blindingly fast, and Meta was just a shade to slow now. The sword caught him on his metal mask and sent him flying.

Bario dashed forward and tried to strike at the Darknut, blocking the creature's attack with his sword. However the Darknut had a longer range and Bario couldn't quite reach the creature with his other sword. So before it could react he threw it like a large dagger.

Vaati watched the fight, and decided that things had gone on long enough. He charged up a ball of blue electrical energy and threw it at Link. It skimmed past Link and slammed into the ground, scorching it. Link snapped his head back and looked at Vaati, who merely grinned and fired another, which Link deflected with his shield.

Samus fired her Charge Shot at the nearest Darknut, breaking its armor. Quickly it tossed its sword and shield at Diddy, who more on instinct than anything else, turned on his jetpack to dodge them. The Darknut then broke out into a full run yanking out its second sword on the way.

Bario's second sword flew the short distance and cut right through the chain-link armor. The Darknut grunted, and then shot its long leg straight up and out, catching Bario in the chest, and knocking him back. He let out a strangled yelp as he barely ducked under the swing of the Darknut, and tried to back off a bit.
Mario jumped over, and while Bario was keeping the Darknut distracted, he rolled next to the Darknut unseen, and yanked the sword out. The Darknut grunted again and looked down at Mario as he tossed the sword back to Bario who caught it and used it to help deflect another attack. The Darknut let go of the sword with one hand and attempted to backhand Mario, when he back flipped and hit it in the face with a fireball.
While the Darknut tried to bat out the fire, Bario ran up…and used both swords to cut in through opposite sides of the creature's neck, severing its head…and causing it to collapse in a puff of black smoke.

Bario than glanced at Link who was having difficulty batting aside Vaati's attacks. Vaati, seeing the Darknut dead, started shooting more attacks, at the other Smashers. Most missed, but one hit Falco, and he hit the ground twitching…as a Darknut reared over him. Unable to move temporarily, Samus had to shoot the unarmored beast in the face with a missile for it to back off.
"Link! Distract Vaati! We'll never be able to take out these Darknuts with him taking potshots at us!"

Link nodded, and followed Bario's orders, despite the suspicion he had shown before. Link charged for Vaati. Although Link was a good deal away, he covered ground pretty fast, so Vaati charged up a weird dark brownish-black ball of energy. He shot it at Link right before Link got in sword range. Link dived to the ground and the attack flew over his head and hit a fully armored Darknut. The creature immediately turned to stone and froze in an instant. Mario ran past and after staring at it in puzzlement for a moment, he smacked it with his hammer, causing it to crumble.

Link leapt to his feet, and jumped to the side to avoid another attack from Vaati. He then swung his sword with all his might at Vaati's head. Vaati had no time to dodge, and he knew it. However instead of the faintly disturbing squelching noise of someone's head being removed, Link heard a metallic clang. Instead of seeing his sword pass through Vaati's neck, he saw Vaati block the attack with a grayish-purple longsword of his own. It glistened with an eerie malice, and the color seemed to shift and change. The sword left an impression of great fragileness, as it appeared to be made out of air. It was obviously not fragile however, considering it stopped Link's sword.

Link looked in Vaati in confusion as both lowered their three-foot long swords and backed away from each other.
"Ah yes…you're not the Link that fought me before are you?" Vaati said smirking, thinking about Link's ancestors, who he had fought three times before.
Link shook his head, but stayed wary.

"But I'm sure you read about me! There's an entire book all about me! I think it is in the Hyrule Castle Library. Isn't that just great? Aren't I fantastic?"

"No," Link said, startling Vaati, "And Ganondorf has an entire section."
Vaati growled a bit, before biting off an answer.

"That's not important! You…you are different from your ancestors! They never spoke…but it matters not. I shall kill you, as I would have killed them."
Link raised his sword and shield, but glanced pointedly at Vaati's sword.

"What? Oh this. I've always had it. After all, as I'm sure you know when I broke the Picori blade I had first won a sword fighting contest. I have just chosen not to use it before. But I think it would be fitting that instead of me being sealed inside a blade, or impaled by one, I shall use my own sword…to kill you!"
And the battle began.

While the climactic showdown was commencing the other eight Smashers still had eight Darknuts to worry about. Darknuts that were becoming rapidly more dangerous as more of them lost their armor. As Mario, Bario, Meta, and Kirby dealt with the up close and personal attacks, the other ones did their best to distract, and damage the Darknuts. Soon only five Darknuts still had their armor, and Bario was locked in combat with one of the armor-less ones.

The five armored Darknuts pressed on, trying to get to the shooters, while the other two armor-less Darknuts tried to keep Kirby, Meta and Mario busy. Raichu saw that their attacks were not being effective, and so started to charge up. While the Darknuts plodded…Raichu began to glow with electricity…

Link deflected Vaati's simple stab with his shield, and then followed up with a stab to his heart. Vaati jumped back amazingly fast, and then used his sword to bat away Link's and punch him in the face. Link fell back from the blow, which was slightly charged with electricity, but managed to regain his balance and kick out at Vaati.

The kick hit him in his right leg, and he fell to his knees. Link raised his sword, but had to move it down to block the stab Vaati threw at him. Both the Master Sword and Vaati's Wind Blade were held tightly by their owners as they pushed against each other, trying to gain an advantage over the other. Suddenly Link shot out his shield arm, smacking Vaati in the head. Vaati fell back, and before he could recover Link stabbed, opening a cut on his left arm. Vaati let out a small yelp…before focusing again on Link…

Raichu suddenly flew off, using a technique called "Skull Bash". He slammed headfirst into a fully armored Darknut at a very high speed. The armor immediately collapsed, but Raichu fell to the ground dazed. The Darknut threw its sword and shield at Mario and Meta, who dodged, and yanked out its second sword, which it prepared to skewer the tiny electric mouse with.

Diddy saw his friend about to be made into a mouse-kabob, so after a dramatic "NOOOOOOO!" Diddy threw one of his few Orange Grenades at the Darknut. The Grenade hit it in the face and it instinctively caught it. While it did that, Diddy dashed forward and grabbed Raichu with his tail, flinging him out of harm's way and then cart wheeling to avoid the Darknuts swing, just as the Grenade exploded, destroying the unarmored being.

Vaati shot his sword forward, shooting a blast of wind at Link, who struggled to maintain his footing. Vaati then teleported behind Link and sliced, opening a wound up on his back. Link fell, and rolled over, now that the wind was gone and threw his boomerang at Vaati. Vaati deflected it with his sword and opened up with a punishing series of overhead blows that were meant to drain Link's strength.

Link blocked three of them, and then kicked out at Vaati's legs. Vaati leapt over the attack, but that allowed Link to stand up and slice again. The two then got into a series of parries and ripostes, strikes and counterstrikes, jumping and weaving, dodging spells and bombs, both fought ferociously while the others struggled against the Darknuts…

Bario managed to kill the Darknut he was fighting, but not without some cuts and scrapes, while the other Smashers had managed to knock the remaining six Darknuts out of their armor, which made them faster…but now at least they seemed to notice their attacks.

Kirby used his massive hammer to slam a Darknut in the chest. It flew backwards, but flipped over onto its feet and leapt forward again at Kirby. He tried to block it with his hammer, but he didn't have enough time…so it was a good thing Falco Fire Falco'd the creature, vaporizing the already weakened Darknut. The numbers were definitely in favor of our heroes.

Link groaned as Vaati let loose another wind attack, and the small chips of rocks and debris in the floor flew at him, getting embedded in his injuries, and just generally making a difficult fight more difficult. He would not give up though. Vaati teleported again, this time to his left and tried to hit him with an electric ball. Link deflected it back with his sword, and Vaati was hit by his own attack

Seeing an opening Link charged forward and slashed, but Vaati barely managed to deflect the strike. Vaati did not manage to block the shield as it slammed into his face again. Vaati fell hard. He clambered to his feet, panting heavily, matching Link's exhaustion…but then Vaati began to glow with energy and screamed.

"ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! I will not be defeated by you AGAIN!" Vaati shouted before driving his sword into the ground. Link took a step back as the ground cracked, shooting up blasts of air, while electricity circled around him and Vaati in a large round arena.

"You will DIE!" He shouted as a vortex of wind surrounded the two, whipping their clothes and hair around and sending bits of debris around in temporarily blinding gusts. The two combatants charged.

Samus finished off the last Darknut with a Charge Shot. With those annoyingly difficult creatures finally defeated the Smashers turned to see Link and Vaati locked in combat and barely visible through the thick wall of swirling air. Falco moved as if to assist, when Mario grabbed his arm, with enough force to almost dislocate.

"Ow! What was-," Falco started to say, before Bario interrupted.

"You can't pass through that…Vaati probably made that to keep us out, anyone who tried would be shredded!"
Samus looked at Bario in puzzlement, before examining it with her own technology.

"He's right," she said, "But how did you know that?"
Bario shrugged, with slightly emphasized casualness.

"Like I think I said before, I know some basic magic, and I can occasionally interpret some spells effects."
"Neat," Diddy said.

"Yeah, neat, but what do we do now?" Raichu asked.

"Wait…and hope Link wins." Bario said.

Neither Link nor Vaati was winning. Swords were being clashed and both were being worn down, but both seemed to be relatively well-matched. About equal strength, although Vaati would occasionally use magic to augment his physical abilities, and Link's wide variety of weapons matched Vaati's powerful magic.
Vaati fired several blue balls, which Link deflected. Link then pulled out three bombs which he threw around Vaati. Vaati teleported from the blast range, but just barely avoided a swing from Link. Link over-extended himself and Vaati clocked him in the jaw with his sword's hilt. Link jumped back, pulled out his bow and fired. Vaati blocked it…but didn't block Link's Hookshot.

It penetrated his stomach. Vaati looked down in surprise as Link drew him back…and stabbed him in the chest. Vaati looked at Link in shock…and unrepressed rage. Link withdrew his weapons and Vaati fell to the ground, on his knees. He coughed blood once…before croaking out a single sentence.

"It's not…over…Link."
He then collapsed face-first on the ground. Immediately the wind vortex vanished. Link sheathed his sword and walked smiling back to the others, who all greeted him with whoops and whistles…except for Mario, who was staring at the door with a frown on his face, and Bario who was studying Vaati with a look of intense displeasure.
Raichu was the first to notice Mario's attention.

"Mario? What's…oh," Raichu said as he noticed the door. The still LOCKED door.

"What's going on?! Are we trapped here?!" Falco demanded.

His question was soon answered…but not in a way he, or anyone else there liked.

Vaati slowly rose to his feet, laughing in that annoying high-pitched laugh of his, glowing with dark purple power.

"What?!" Bario yelled, confused anger evident in his voice.

"What's going on?!" Falco demanded.

No one answered his question as Vaati became wreathed in purple energy, laughing…and his laugh deepened. The energy was absorbed into his body, revealing the transformation that had taken place.
"I'm going to take a wild guess, and say that this…is not good," Diddy said.

Vaati had become a tall, seven foot tall being, with a black and red cloak that appeared to be on a fire on the edges…fire that never spread. He had golden horns, attached by means of a red jewel on his head, and while his skin was still the same grayish-purple, his eyes were red and he looked like some fair demon…a demon with serious anger.

Topping the creepy eeriness of Vaati's new form was what appeared to be an EYE on his torso. A very LARGE eye. It looked like an eye on its side, with reddish pupils.

"I told you it wasn't over…," Vaati said, in his sinister new voice, which still carried enough of the undertones of the old one that it was obvious that he was the same person.

"Vaati! How is this possible?! Don't you need some kind of power source to transform?" Bario asked, at which both Vaati and Link jerked their heads rapidly to look at him.

"Yes…but how did you know that? I don't think that's in the book about me...?" Vaati inquired.
Bario shook his head, and answered…or at least responded.

"I have my sources. Answer my question!"
"I don't see why I should bother to answer yours, since you didn't answer mine…but oh well. Master Hand has granted me this power, and he, in junction with Ganondorf is the reason I and many of the other, supposedly dead foes that Link has killed before, have come back, and intended for one final chance…for one last time …FOR VENGEANCE!"

At that Vaati raised his arms and shot out a stream of fireballs. The Smashers were caught off guard, and Samus and Meta were both hit, not hard, but painfully. The others managed to avoid the attack.

Vaati used his eye to create four small floating eyes, with black and yellow backs and a black and red pupil from inside itself, and then spat them out. The four eyes rapidly spun around him. His large eye then closed.

Bario tried to get close to Vaati so he could stab the annoyingly resistant being, but the eyes were making it difficult. Bario ran forward, but one of the eyes slammed into his stomach, knocking the air out of him, and knocking him back. Vaati laughed and fired more fireballs at the other Smashers, focusing on Link.

Bario growled at the lack of interest Vaati was giving him. Deciding to show him what, Bario dived under the eyes and stabbed repeatedly at Vaati's torso. The swords seemed to be hitting some kind of impervious armor, and the only reaction Vaati gave him is to kick him with enough force to send him flying fifteen away.

While dodging the fireballs, the Smashers tried to fire ranged attacks at Vaati, but either they missed, or they just couldn't cause him any damage, it didn't seem to matter which.
"How do we hurt this guy?!" Falco yelled, while firing rapidly and dodging more fireballs.

"I'm not sure!" Bario yelled back, trying to get off the ground.

Vaati cackled again, as they had no clue how to defeat him in his new powerful form.

"Now is when the winds shift, when I at last have my vengeance upon Link, Hyrule and the world! DIE!"
He raised his hands and out from each of the eyeballs floating around him shot a red laser beam, considerably thicker than Falco's laser shot. The Smashers moved fast to avoid them, but as Vaati moved side to side, they had some serious difficulty, and Mario was smacked by one hard. Vaati was only able to keep it up for a few seconds however, and the beam soon died down.

"Dammit Vaati! Why can't you just die?!" Bario yelled.

"Because I must still complete my mission!"
"What mission?" Bario asked.

"Killing all of you!" Vaati answered with another stream of fireballs.

"Why am I not surprised?" Bario said, as he ducked under one.

Link fired an arrow at Vaati. None of them had any reason to expect this arrow to cause any more damage than previous attacks…and technically to Vaati, it didn't. It did however penetrate one of the four eyes, causing it to explode into a cloud of smoke.
"What?!" Vaati said.

"Of course! I don't know if it will do any good, but aim for the eyes!" Bario said.

Samus immediately responded by firing a missile at another one, destroying it as well.
"Oh no you don't! I'm not going to make this easy for you!" Vaati said, before waving his arms…and shrouding the two remaining eyes in a dark blackish purple sphere of darkness.

Mario fired two fireballs, one at each eyeball…but the sphere seemed to absorb it, undamaged.

"What the…?" Diddy said, as he avoided another fireball from Vaati.
Vaati raised his arms again, and shot the red laser beam from each of the two remaining eyeballs. The attack caught both Falco and Bario by surprise, and the two were sent flying back, severely injured.

"How do we destroy those eyes?" Samus asked of Bario, avoiding the lasers, until they faded and firing a missile that appeared to cause no damage.

"I don't know…," Bario said, as he looked at the spheres, at the way the color shifted, how the sphere shifted, like air, if it was solid and evil-looking…wait air…that's it!

"Kirby!" Bario yelled, "You need to suck up the spheres!"

"What?" Falco yelled back.

"That's right! They're made out of black solidified air…and Kirby can suck that up!"
"That's crazy! It's impossible!" Samus said as she tapped her helmet, while avoiding some attacks, "That's…okay yeah you're right!"
"It is so…wait what? Why did you suddenly change your mind?" Bario asked as he and Falco got up.

"I used my Scan Visor!"
"Why didn't you just…never mind, we'll worry about that later, just GO Kirby!"

"Okay!" Kirby said, before running at Vaati.

"What?" Vaati said, as he shot numerous fireballs at Kirby.

Kirby managed to avoid them, long enough to get close to the eyes. He used his suction ability to suck up the dark air rapidly, but before he could do anything else he got blasted by a laser beam.
"Now! He's vulnerable!" Bario said, as he and Link charged.
Falco nodded and fired three shots, one managing to hit one of the rotating eyes.
"No!" Vaati yelled, trying to hit either Link or Bario with a fireball, just as Mario used a fireball of his own to destroy Vaati's other eye.
With all of the small eyes gone, Vaati's main eye on his torso opened up. He may be powerful, but all beings, regardless of form, must be vulnerable or have a weak point…and that was Vaati's.

"I will not die!" Vaati yelled as he teleported away from Link and Bario. He reappeared behind Samus, Diddy and Raichu, and hit all three with fireballs. His large eye created four new eyeballs.

"No!" Bario yelled, throwing one of his swords.

The four new eyes rotated around Vaati, and his large one began to close. The sword flew, spinning, like a pointy fan blade. It seemed to go faster the closer it got, crazy as that may seem.

Vaati didn't see the blade until it was too close for him to move, but even then his large eye closed. Time seemed to slow and everyone watched as the blade cut through the air, sliced right through one of the new eyes…and stabbed into the very center of Vaati's eye on his torso, an instant before it shut.

Vaati let out one loud cry…before yanking out the sword and throwing it back at Bario, who caught it a second before it pierced his face.

"Damn you…you force this upon yourselves. I'll have you know that I was going to make your deaths quick and relatively painless…but now, you shall have to define a whole new word for suffering to describe what I'm going to do to you!" Vaati yelled as he was enshrouded again by dark power.
His central eye opened, breaking through the cloudy sphere, and it shifted from a vertical eye to a normal horizontal one…becoming completely red, except for the iris. The dark air was absorbed into the eye…revealing…an eye.
Vaati had become a massive floating eyeball, and the two golden horns were attached to the top of his new eyeball shaped body, having fused into one base, but splitting off at the top. Golden eyelashes were around the actual eye, and the entire body had become a dark purplish black. The three eyes in front of him expanded and separated, until they formed into eight purplish larger eyes that surrounded him, two in the front, back, and sides. Each of the eyes were closed. A dark mist emanated from beneath him as he hovered a foot or two off the ground.

"I'm detecting an eye theme here," Falco said.

"How many forms does this thing have?!" Diddy asked.

"More than enough…to kill all of you!" Vaati shouted before shooting a trio of electric balls from his horn, thing.

The Smashers dodged them, except for Raichu, who was getting really sick of Vaati. Raichu used his tail to absorb one of the electric balls, and then fired a more powerful blast back. It impacted harmlessly on Vaati's side.

"Well…crud. I thought that would work." Raichu said.

Vaati floated slowly around, shooting electric balls three at a time from his horn thing-a-ma-bob. Bario dodged a couple and swung at Vaati, hitting two of the eyeballs on the left side. The one on the bottom of the side turned red and opened up; the second became blue and stayed close.

"What?" Bario said, before he was slammed by Vaati.

"Bario! What happened?" Falco yelled, while shooting back at Vaati, hitting one of the right side eyeballs. It turned blue, but other than that nothing happened.

"I think that's his weak spot…hit the eyes!" Bario yelled.

"No! I won't let you!" Vaati said, falling heavily to the ground, before floating up again.

Chunks of the ceiling fell down, which the Smashers barely avoided. Compounding the problem was Vaati shooting out dozens of small purple spiky objects that stuck to the floor and limited the areas in which they could move. Mario hopped over a few and smashed one of Vaati's upper eyes, and hit the other with his foot. Both turned blue. Vaati then blasted him with three electric balls in quick succession

Mario fell to the ground.

Link and Samus then fired arrows and missiles at Vaati, and were helped by Falco and Diddy firing as well. Meta flew at Vaati as the four eyes in the front turned red and vanished, leaving his central self unprotected. He didn't have a chance to do anything as Meta stabbed him in the eye, his two-foot long sword sinking all the way in.

Vaati let out a great bellow and shook himself so hard that Meta's sword, with Meta attached to it were sent flying into a wall. As Meta sank to the ground, he said only one thing, quite faintly.

"Spider kittens are allergic…to cheese."

Vaati let out another yell, and the four remaining eyes shrunk and moved to the front, protecting his eye. Two massive tri-clawed arms erupted from his sides, and he seemed to grow, just a little more.

"Oh come on," Bario said, "How much longer are you going to fight on?"
"Until you all-" Vaati started.

"Die, I get it," Falco said, "But come on man, give it a rest! You won't win!"
"Won't I? Let's find out!"
At that Vaati raised his arms and shot orange energy balls from them, and added to that by shooting electric balls from his horns. The Smashers dodged and fired back but this form, like many of the previous, seemed invulnerable.

Bario used his swords to cut through one of the orange balls and then charged for Vaati, jumping over an electric ball. He sliced out, but before his swords reached Vaati, one of his arms came down and smacked him so hard and so fast that the arm actually swept him off his feet and dragged him a bit, before he was brutally thrown into a wall. He fell, struggling to recover.

Vaati laughed and dug one of his arms into the ground, creating a pool of shadow where it entered. Confused, the Smashers momentarily stopped…just as the arm reappeared, sticking straight up from a newly created second pool of shadow right in their midst. It shot orange balls rapidly, and that close Falco and Kirby were hit before anyone could react.
As Falco fell he noticed that there was a small opening on the bottom of the arm.

"Hey! There's a small opening on the bottom of the arm!" Falco noticed.

Link looked, nodded, deflected an energy ball and threw a bomb in it. Vaati yelled and shot several energy balls at Link, most missing, and those that didn't he blocked with his shield, and the bomb exploded, destroying the arm and making Vaati cry out…however inside the arm and apparently surviving the explosion were several small pointy orange and black eyeball things.

They swarmed the Smashers, and as Mario, Link and Samus tried to destroy them, Vaati brought his second arm up through another shadow pool. Before it could do anything, Diddy threw one of his four remaining orange grenades in the hole. It exploded, and since his grenades were significantly more powerful than Link's endless bomb supply, it vaporized the little creatures as well.
Vaati growled as Mario crushed the last of the creatures. Armless, but definitely not defenseless, Vaati had one final trick.

The Smashers regrouped, as Bario rejoined them, with Meta still lying on the ground. Vaati sprouted six small bat-like wings, three on each side of him, which lifted him up a bit higher off the ground, and allowed him to move faster.
Vaati charged up his horn…and fired a stream of electric balls, similar to his previous stream of fire. Raichu absorbed two, and the others mostly dodged them, with the exception of Samus. Falco fired laser shots and Diddy added peanuts, with Mario's fireballs and Link's arrows, but the ones that Vaati didn't dodge, bounced harmlessly off the four eyeballs in front of him.

The four eyeballs opened and fired four blue energy blasts, one from each eyeball, at the Smashers. Most dodged, but Bario reflexively struck out with his swords, hitting two of the balls, and sent them flying back to their source. They hit two of the eyes, and caused them to vanish…but they quickly reappeared.

"Wait…I think I got it! Link, Mario, stand with me!" Bario said.
They nodded and ran and/or jumped over to where he was, avoiding the electric attack. When the three of them lined up, Vaati saw his chance…and fired the blue energy balls again. Quickly realizing what they had to do Mario hit one with his hammer, while Link slashed one with his sword and Bario sent two flying back.

They flew straight, and each one hit one of Vaati's protective eyeballs, causing them to disappear. The force momentarily stunned Vaati and knocked him to ground, with his large eye wide open.

Mario, Bario and Link all charged, with first Mario's hammer smacking the eye, followed by Bario's swords cutting into, and finally with Link's sword driving into the pupil. Vaati let out his final shriek and glared at the Smashers as he began to collapse in on himself.

"You…may have defeated me…but Ganondorf…shall kill you all…I really hate you."
What was left of Vaati then exploded into the cloud of pink dust, which not only healed everyone, restoring Meta-Knight, but also repairing the damage to their clothes, such as the big slash on Link's back. Quite happy that their most difficult fight was over, but worried about Ganondorf, who appeared to be next, the Smashers left, heading for the newly opened door.

However, they were not even close to finishing their journey…and what waited at the end would change all of their lives…forever.