Clash of the Smashers

Chapter Twenty: Samus Aran's Betrayal

The second trip through a portal was much the same as the first. The Smashers experienced an experience that seemed to last forever, and take no time whatsoever. Each visual experience was different, and while the shifting ride through a technicolor light show wasn't exactly pleasant…it wasn't terribly unpleasant either, as it was a nice lull between the fighting. A lull…that didn't last very long.

Like a nap that someone was rudely woken up from the Smashers were deposited rather roughly on the ground. However this ground was a strange grayish color, and seemed to almost glow…but it was an eerie and faint gray glow. Bario and Mario were the first to be dropped to the ground, and they were the first to see the chamber they were in.

It seemed to be small, about ten feet wide, and five feet long, with a ceiling that was shrouded in darkness a few feet above their heads, making its height indeterminable. There was no visible door, but there was an opening in the wall that seemed to branch off in two different directions, after hitting another wall.

Bario and Mario looked at each other and nodded before heading towards the opening; in the dimly lit chamber…when from the right path came a missile. Bario rolled to the side and it just missed him. Mario and Bario glimpsed a character in orange armor, before avoiding another missile. They dodged again and ran down the left path, trying to get some distance and figure out what was going on…

Shortly after them, Diddy and Raichu popped out of the portal. They had about three seconds to look around before they too avoided a missile. They looked at each other, and wordlessly ran down the same path as Mario and Bario…which soon turned into another fork, upon which they went left.

Meanwhile on the right path, Mario and Bario stopped in a small alcove to catch their breath.

"So Mario…" Bario started.

Mario looked up at Bario, his large brown eyes narrowing.

"Yes?"

Falco, Kirby and Meta were the next three to pop out of the portal. Not seeing the others…or anyone else they turned and looked at each other.

"So uh guys…where is everyone…we definitely weren't the first or the last in the portal…" Falco said.

"Okay!" Kirby cheerfully responded.

"You're first mistake…was having BONES!" Meta said in an intentionally spooky voice.

"Oh yeah…you guys aren't big on conversations," Falco said, rubbing his head, "Well I guess we better get going, maybe we'll find the others."
Nodding the other two followed Falco…down the right path…

The last straggling Smashers, Link and Samus were the next to pop out of the portal, thirty seconds after Falco and the other two left. When they climbed to their feet, the portal closed, making it very clear the Smashers weren't leaving any time soon.

Samus looked around, and upon realizing where they were, gave a start.

"This…this is…" She stammered.

Link looked at her, confused.

"What? What's wrong?"
"This…is Zebes…" Samus said.

Raichu and Diddy paused after they realized no one was behind them, and they had run for a bit. They took a seat and looked around them. Now that their eyes had adjusted they could see better, but the dim glow still only illuminated ten feet around them. Keeping their ears open for any sign of their mysterious, but strangely familiar attacker they turned to face one another.

"Well that was not very fun." Diddy said.

"I agree…do you know where we are?" Raichu asked him.

"No…this definitely isn't Kong Island…or well like anyplace else I've ever been."

"Well, if that thing that shot at us is gone, we should probably go back and find the others."

"Okay," Diddy said, turning around.

Unfortunately, in front of him were three different paths, each shortly vanishing into darkness.

"That's not good," Raichu said, who, like Diddy did not know which one they had come out of.

"Well…I know where we are now," said Diddy.

"What? Where?" Raichu asked.

"We're in a maze."

Mario and Bario were walking through the maze, attempting to find the others. The maze was quite large…potentially as large as some of the rooms in Ganondorf's Tower…but because most of it was covered in darkness, it was difficult to ascertain its true size.

After a few minutes they came to a junction of two other paths…and coming out of the one directly across from them was…Falco, Kirby and Meta!
"Guys! Hey! Over here!" Bario said, waving his arms.

Seeing him Falco and the other two smiled and started running. Falco stopped at the sound of a light clanking noise, which was oddly familiar. Turning towards the third pathway, his eyes widened as he saw something that Mario and Bario did not.

All Bario heard was a loud FWOOSH, and something whizzed through the third pathway, before it hit and exploded right on Kirby. A second and third came towards Falco and Kirby, who managed to avoid most of the blasts.

"Stop!" Bario called to them, "Go back! Grab Kirby and go back!"
The junction was too dangerous apparently to cross. Nodding, Falco and Meta grabbed Kirby and ran/flew back down their tunnel. Mario and Bario walked into central area, which was rather large compared to the small path, hallway things, and got their first real look at their pursuer. They both let out gasps of surprise, as their attacker leveled her weapon at them…

Samus and Link were well and thoroughly lost…but seeing as everyone else in the maze was also lost, this wasn't exactly breaking news. What WAS breaking news however was the fact that the Smashers had apparently reached the underground tunnels of Zebes, a planet that Samus knew quite well…

"We ended up on a planet that you've been to before?" Link asked, as he and Samus walked cautiously through the maze.

"Multiple times…but I thought it was destroyed, after I wiped out the Space Pirate presence here…twice. Something's up…and I don't understand how you're breathing, I was led to believe that Zebes was uninhabitable by human standards…but then again, I never tried to take my suit off, so I could be wrong."
"Speaking of suit, why don't you take it off…This whole journey you've been wearing it…and I'm kind of curious to see what you look like." Link said, and despite the suggestive words he used, his tone made it clear that he was just feeling honest curiosity, and all he wanted was to see the face of one of his traveling companions.

Samus looked away, and in a loud voice said, "We should keep going."

Link sighed and shook his head, but before he could respond, he heard several loud explosions from a good distance away.

"Come on! That's got to be the others!" Link shouted.

Samus nodded, and the two ran off in the general direction of what sounded like an intense fight. They were not anywhere near it however…

Diddy and Raichu, who also heard the noises, were nearby, and they soon stumbled upon Mario and Bario engaged in combat with…

"SAMUS?!" Raichu yelled.

"What's going on?! Mario, Bario!" Diddy shouted.

"Sorry, love to chat, but fighting for our lives here!" Bario said, deflecting a missile and attempting to slash the speedily strafing armored heroine.
"Stop! Stop fighting!" Raichu yelled, running towards them.
In the blink of an eye, Samus turned her arm cannon on Raichu, and fired a missile. Stunned that she was attacking him, he didn't move…until Diddy dived in and hit Raichu from behind, knocking him over, and taking the full force of the attack.
Severely injured, Diddy lost consciousness.

Mario looked over, shook his head and fired some fireballs at Samus, distracting her long enough for him to jump over and scoop him up. He dashed down the central path, with the injured chimp secure in his arms.

"Damn!" Bario said, rolling away from a blue beam shot by Samus.

Raichu, still completely bewildered staggered to his feet.

"Why Samus?! Why?" he asked, shaking slightly.

"Raichu! Don't worry about that, and help me incapacitate her!" Bario commanded.

Confused, Raichu nodded and decided to do the simplest thing…obey Bario.

Samus looked hesitantly from Bario, who was mostly unscratched, to Raichu, who was starting to crackle with electricity. Not liking her chances she backed up to the left path…and rolled up into her Morph Ball form.

"What?" Raichu said, temporarily ceasing his charging.

Bario peered intensely at Samus…as she dropped a small glowing yellow ball that began to pulsate rapidly. Quickly Samus rolled down the left path.
"Oh…no…" Bario said quietly, eyes widening, "RUN!"

He dashed towards the right path, it being the farthest from the ball, grabbing one of Raichu's short arms and half-carrying, and half-dragging him along. Raichu soon caught on, and started running on his own. They were about ten feet down the path…when the ball exploded.

Samus and Link were knocked to the ground by the Power Bomb explosion, and even through they were a good distance away, the explosion seemed to seep through the walls…creating large cracks.

"What was that!?" Link yelled, not expecting his question to be answered.

Samus quickly scanned the walls with her Visor.

"That was…a Power Bomb…" she said, with a slightly stunned tone.

"A what?"
"A Power Bomb. An extremely powerful explosive that I gain the ability to use in my Morph Ball form."
"You mean those little blue balls? Those aren't that bad." Link said.

"NO!" Samus responded with surprising vehemence, "These are different. I haven't used them up until now to prevent any of you guys getting injured…and one was just set off."

"What does that mean?"
"It means…that someone else has at least one of the capabilities from my weapons…and perhaps more…"

Falco was trying to figure out what was going on. Kirby was injured, he was running…and Samus had just tried to attack them.

Samus. The nine Smashers had by now spent approximately three days journeying, and battling, and it was only the energy boosts that they had been getting from their foes that had kept them from keeling over from sheer exhaustion. Falco thought he knew all of them reasonably well, even the mysterious Samus…but apparently not.

It really made him mad, when people betrayed others. He never liked that Pigma guy, and Samus trying to kill them all… her intentions were especially obvious with her assault on Kirby…really pissed him off.

He looked up, as Meta said some random gibberish…and saw two people down a side passage…and one of them was…

"SAMUS!"

Diddy slowly opened his eyes…and closed them slowly, as gray lights flashed by his face. He let out a low groan, and immediately Mario stopped running.

Mario gently lowered Diddy to the ground and took a quick look through their surroundings, verifying that they were not in danger.

"Mario? What's going on?"
Mario looked carefully at Diddy, but didn't respond.

"Oh right…you don't say much do you?" Diddy said, disappointed/

"No. I don't." Mario said, in a surprisingly calm voice, without a hint of his normal good natured cheer.

Diddy raised an eyebrow, and stood up, his head reaching Mario's stomach, forcing him to look up quite a ways.

"What-"

"Now is not a good time for discussion. We have to find the others."

Diddy nodded and then had to jog a bit, as Mario started walking without waiting for a response. There was much more to this plumber…then meets the eye…

Bario and Raichu managed to turn a corner, and avoid the majority of the explosion. They stopped temporarily to take a rest, as all of their energy reserves were getting low, since the last time they got energy from a foe was Vaati, and that was a while ago.

Raichu was still in shocked bewilderment, and after mumbling for a minute, he turned to Bario with a question on his lips…but Bario answered before he could say anything.

"Yes. From what I can see, that was Samus. It looked like her armor, moved like her, and used her weapons quite proficiently. I just don't know what could cause her to turn on us..."
Raichu cleared his throat and tried to speak again.

"Wh-where are we?"

"Where are we? I don't know…I tried setting the portal to follow Ganondorf and Crazy Hand…but I think I messed up…or…someone tampered with it…"
Raichu looked at Bario in confusion, as Bario unhurriedly looked over his swords. Tampered? Who could do that? It couldn't be one of the Smashers…could it?

Before the conversation could continue, they both heard several loud voices, and a few shots of some kind of weapon, further down the path.

"Let's go." Bario said, running down the path, quickly followed by a still shocked Raichu.

Samus turned to see who called her, when she got hit in the chest by multiple small laser shots from Falco.

"Die traitor!" he yelled, running at Samus, shooting his pistol like crazy, with Meta Knight flying behind, firing energy balls from his sword tip, one of which hit Link.

"What are you-AGH!" Samus yelped as Falco snap-kicked her midsection, knocking her to the floor.

"I'm not taking any chances!" Falco said, leveling his pistol at her helmet.

Before he could fire, Link threw his Boomerang, and it slammed into Falco's head, knocking him off balance enough for Samus to knock his legs out from under him with a sweep of her feet.

"So Link's in on this too eh? Meta! Get them!" Falco said trying to get back to his feet.

"Oh no you don't," Link said trying to hit Meta with the flat of his sword, before he could presumably attack.

Meta deflected it and rapidly circled around Link, who back-flipped and tried to stab at Meta, a strike which the armored knight blocked easily.

"OMFKK!" Meta said, blocking another strike from Link, before retaliating with a vicious overhead slash.

Meta's larger sword allowed him to push down Link's, before he had to fly back to avoid a blow from Link's shield.

"OMFKK?" Link asked, panting and walking carefully towards Meta.

"Oh My Fudge-muffin Kandy Kittens!" he gleefully stated before flying behind Falco, who was trying to kick Samus, and smacking him in the back of the head with his sword.

Diddy and Mario were the first to reach the scene, having heard the commotion. Kirby, who was still unconscious, had been moved to next to the unconscious Falco. Samus and Link were watching Falco, while Meta flapped around and spoke nonsense.

"Samus!" Diddy said, starting to pull out his peanut pistols.

He had them out in under a second, which was long enough for Samus to train her Arm Cannon on Diddy, and for Link to ready his bow. They were at a stand-off until Mario reached over and gently pushed down Diddy's guns.

"Mario?! What are you doing! She tried to kill us!"
Before Mario could respond Samus interjected.

"What are you talking about?! Why did Falco attack me? Why is Kirby unconscious? Why were we separated? AND WHY DO YOU THINK I TRIED TO KILL YOU?!" said a clearly upset Samus.

Link nodded his approval of the questions.

Diddy opened his mouth to respond, when from their left they heard a loud and clear, if slightly high voice.

"SAMUS!"

Raichu immediately charged at Samus, crackling with electricity. Before he could hit her, Bario tackled him from behind, knocking him to the ground.

"Wait!"

Raichu struggled to get up, and bright sparks flew out of his body, causing Bario to wince, and eventually get off of the mouse. Before anyone else could say anything however, a large wooden hammer slammed into Samus from behind, sending her sprawling.

"WHAT?!" Link yelled, turning around to get a faceful of Falco's foot, knocking him into Diddy, and sending both of them to the ground.

"Kirby! Raichu! I don't know what's going on, but I know at the very least, Samus, Link and Meta are TRAITORS!" Falco yelled, pulling out his pistol.

"You little-" Samus said, punctuating her sentence with some choice words, and aiming her cannon at Kirby.

"STOP!" Bario commanded. The authority in his voice made everyone unconsciously stop moving.

"I think we need some explanations here," Falco said, still quivering with rage.

"Agreed. But I don't think everything is as it seems here," Bario said with a controlled calm, "You see…I think there are TWO Samus's."

Slowly she walked, scanning everything, watching everything, trying to find her prey. Although "she" isn't entirely accurate…rather "It" would be more appropriate.

This maze was built for it, it knew the twists and turns most intimately…it had spent enough time here for that. But the plan was failing, and the usefulness of the maze was nearing its end…the Smashers were far cleverer than its masters had anticipated…or at least some of them were…

Moving into the appropriate position it prepared to end this farce, and reveal itself.

The creature that wore Samus's armor and face…was close, and soon, very, very soon…it will make its final assault…

"Two Samus's?! What are you, crazy! That's impossible!" Falco shouted.

"Oh please!" Link yelled back, "After everything we've been through and seen on this adventure, you can't honestly think ANYTHING'S impossible now, can you?"

"Perhaps…you want to explain?" Raichu said, struggling to control his temper after being tackled.

"Well, honestly, the person who I think could explain this best…is over there," Bario said, pointing at Samus.

As one, all the Smashers turned and faced Samus. She looked slightly nervous, but pulled herself together and began to talk.

"Okay, I'm not sure as I haven't seen it…but what I think is going on…is that we are being attacked by a SA-X," she said, "It's a…well, perhaps it would be easier if I described the X.

"The X are parasitic organisms that infect and kill their hosts…which is essentially any living creature, and then, from absorbing their DNA can transform into their hosts. One managed to infect me, but thanks to some scientists removing chunks of my suit, and injecting me with Metroid DNA, which is a creature that hunts these things, I managed to avoid death.

"However the X that infected me managed to integrate itself into my suit and turn into a copy of me, with a large portion of my weapons, including my Ice Beam, Missiles, Power Bombs and Screw Attack. There were ten of them at one time, but I killed one and I assumed the rest died when the Space Station they were on exploded. I guess at least one survived…"

Everyone looked very surprised by this information, until Bario cleared his throat.

"A lot of that doesn't make sense…mostly the abilities of the X…but it's not a big deal, and I believe you for the most part."

Samus looked at him, and if her face was visible, it would have shown a large quantity of gratitude. With Bario on her side, the rest of the Smashers agreed, however reluctantly that Samus was not to blame. Raichu had one question however…

"Uh…do you have an Ice Beam?"
"No…I lost that before I got here…why?"
"Just hoping…" Raichu said, oddly cryptic.

Before anyone could do anything else, there was a series of explosions all around them…and the walls of the maze crumbled into dust. Surprisingly unhurt the Smashers looked wildly around the room which was lit by the grayish glow of the walls, floor and ceiling, but not lit enough to reveal where the SA-X was…The Smashers strained their eyes to try and pierce the gloom

"Oh forget this! Mario! Raichu! Give us some light!" Bario yelled.

Nodding Raichu charged up a large ball of electricity and shot it up in the air. Mario followed suit with four fireballs aimed at parts of the wall…parts that were revealed to be flammable fungus. The fire spread over the upper walls, bright, but not particularly hot…and then Raichu's ball exploded upon touching the ceiling, illuminating the entire chamber…including the Ice Beam shots that were fired at Samus…

And were dodged by Samus. A flurry of projectiles from the Smashers flew at the SA-X, which was a mere fifteen feet away. It turned into a ball and rolled away, leaving behind a Power Bomb.

"Oh…EVERYBODY! Hit the dirt!" Samus yelled, diving, as everyone else did in the opposite direction from the explosive. It exploded, raining dust on them, but leaving them reasonably unharmed. At least until Diddy stood up and was hit with an Ice Beam and frozen to the spot.

"DIDDY!" Raichu yelled, running to his friend.

"Raichu! He'll be fine! Just attack that thing!" Bario said causing Raichu to stop in time to miss the second Ice Beam shot aimed for him.

Suddenly streams of missiles erupted from Samus's Arm Cannon, and were met in midair by missiles from the SA-X. Getting up and charging she continued firing missiles that were matched by the SA-X as it charged at her. Finally, when they were only a few yards away from each other they both leapt into the air and curled up into a large ball, not a Morph Ball, but the kind a person becomes when they fold up their legs and arms and hold them close to the body. This created a yellowish sparking field around both of them…the Screw Attack.

Both slammed into each other high in the air, fell to the ground and did it again. They repeated this for about three more times before Samus slammed the SA-X in the midsection with her Arm Cannon. From there it turned into a hand-to-hand fight. The other Smashers were reluctant to join in as both Samus and the SA-X were moving very fast, and they weren't sure which was which.

Eventually one of the combatants was knocked to the ground.

"Samus?" Falco ventured, unsure which one was standing.

"DIE!" The standing Samus said, kicking the other one in the helmet as she charged up her…Power Beam.

"All right! Everyone, lock your weapons on the one on the ground!" Bario said.

The SA-X tried to get up, but an energy ball from Meta's sword knocked it back down. It looked right at Samus, as she pointed her fully charged Power Beam at the SA-X.

"Goodbye, bi-"

The rest of what Samus said was cut off by the sound of her firing her Power Beam. The shot slammed directly into the SA-X, and carried it up, off the ground and straight into a wall, where it fell to the floor and lay there, twitching.

"Is it dead?" Raichu asked, as Mario flamed up the frozen Diddy.

"I don't think so…" Samus said, keeping her weapon trained on the SA-X.

The ice around Diddy melted reasonably quickly, and he was reasonably upset to discover that he was frozen.

"That sucks! I can't believe that thing froze me!"

That thing decided to take this moment as an opportunity to start growing.

"I was afraid of this," Samus said, backing away.

It was becoming some kind of massive monster. The orange armor was becoming orange skin, although it was as thick as any armor, and it sprouted many greenish eyes and a long red tongue from its large fanged mouth. Its legs and arms thickened and lengthened until at the end of it, this new, monstrous SA-X stood about twelve feet high.

It let out a high pitched screech and then jumped into the air, quickly vanishing because the limited light did not illuminate much near the ceiling, as the electric ball was gone, and the small fires on the wall were getting smaller.

"Everybody, move! It's going to come down FAST-" Samus said, before it came crashing down near Mario and Diddy.

Diddy was sent flying thanks to the force of the impact, but Mario managed to smash the thing in the leg with his hammer. It screeched again, this time in pain, and then punched him so hard he was sent skidding into Kirby.

Before it jumped in the air again, a missile, an arrow and an energy ball hit it from all three sides, as Samus, Link and Meta tried to keep it occupied. It screeched and then jumped over to Samus, who it tried to squish, but she managed to avoid it by rolling away.

Catching on to the plan, Raichu started shooting electricity at the thing. Its armor protected it from most of the attacks, but it was obviously taking some damage. It tried to jump over to Link and kick him, but he blocked it with his shield. The force of the blow knocked him down, but at least he was unharmed.

The SA-X turned to jump over to Meta who was flying towards the SA-X, but Link leapt up and stabbed it in the leg. It squealed and tried to hit him, but a sword slash to the face from Meta halted that. Then Bario ran over, leapt in the air and made two deep slashing cuts down the front of the creature.

It spun around, knocking all three sword fighters away, but before it could leap, Samus shot it dead in the face with another fully charged Power Beam blast. The creature let out one final scream, before crumpling to the ground.

"Is it dead?" Link asked, keeping his distance.

The crumpled body of the SA-X formed together into a large floating spiky transparent sphere. It was about six feet in diameter and was vaguely blue. On the inside of the ball was a bright blue…organism, which twisted and pulsated.

"I really wish people would stop asking that." Samus sighed.

"What is this?!" Falco asked.

"This is its true form, the Core-X. It can only be damaged when its "eye" is open, but this one will try and hit us with the Ice Beam, so watch out!" Samus said rolling away from the Core-X as it moved slowly at the Smashers.

"Eye? What eye?" Diddy asked, as the creature turned to face him.
A small eye-like protrusion appeared on the creature and it started to glow blue around that area.

"Oh. That eye."

Diddy tried to run, but he wasn't going to be fast enough to avoid the shot…so Meta flew forward and slashed at the eye. The Core-X grunted, shot out an Ice Beam blast and closed its eye. Meta was frozen solid.

"Uh…it also shoots one out when you hit the eye," Samus said.

"Thanks for the info!" Bario said with a touch of sarcasm, as the Core-X turned to him.

It started charging its Ice Beam again. Deciding to try ranged combat, Bario flung both of his swords at the eye. They both hit, almost exactly in the same spot and as the Ice Beam blast shot out of the injured creature, Bario dashed to the side and avoided it.

As the Core- X turned to Mario, the swords dropped, and seizing the opportunity Bario grabbed them and ran to Diddy and Raichu, who with Falco, Kirby and Link, were pelting the creature with ranged attacks. The thick armor caused it to take little damage, but at least they were doing something.

The creature prepared to fire, but Mario hit it with three fireballs before jumping out of the way of the retaliatory strike. Nearing death, it turned to Samus…who slammed it in the eye with a missile.

The outer shell of the creature shattered into pink dust, giving everyone a complete healing, and removing Meta from his icy prison, leaving only the blue inner mass. Samus started, and then slowly, walked towards it.

"Samus? What are you doing?!" Link demanded, getting worried as she drew closer to the thing.

"I just want to see if this works," she said.

"If WHAT works?" Falco asked.

"This," she said and walked into what was left of the SA-X.

Immediately it was absorbed into her body. After a bright flash, she slowly raised her Arm Cannon.

"What just happened?" Raichu asked.

Samus suddenly shot an Ice Beam blast from her Arm Cannon.

"Cool. It worked. I absorbed the Ice Beam from that X, so now I can use both the Power AND Ice Beams now!" Samus said with an edge of excitement.

A glowing blue door appeared on the wall opposite the Smashers.

"And I assume that is the way out?" Bario asked.

"I guess so," Samus said.

The Smashers started to walk towards it, when Diddy ran up to Bario.

"Hey! Bario! Did you finish with my Orange Grenade thing?"

"What? Oh…yeah! I got that done during the maze…here," Bario said, handing Diddy his Ammo clip, which was now mystically granted to produce powerful Orange Grenades.

"Awesome!" Diddy said, taking it and wrapping it around his waist.

"The Grenades are so volatile however, that it is only able to produce them one at a time, and not continuously. It CAN make infinite, but it's no where near as fast as the peanuts, so use them wisely," Bario said.

Diddy nodded, and said his thanks, as Samus shot a Power Beam blast at the door. It was a hexagonal door, and it opened by each of the six triangles it was formed from sliding up into the doorway. The Smashers all walked into the next room, and prepared for their next challenge…