Clash of the Smashers
Chapter Twenty-Four: Plot Twists, Space Dragons and Villainous Scheming? It can only mean one thing…Ridley's here!
"Mario! Mario! You have to do something!" Toad shrieked, running around Mario in a panic.
It's been five minutes since Toad came through the mysterious portal, revealed that Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom and Luigi Mario, Mario's younger brother was missing. After that interesting tidbit of information was given, Toad spent the next several minutes running around in panic, ignoring everyone. Eventually Diddy and Raichu decided to go talk privately, as did Link and Samus. The rest stayed by the Toad, to try and get him to calm down.
"Toad! What's going on?" Bario yelled.
"I'll tell you what's going on!" Toad shrieked, not ceasing his running, "EVERYTHING! Everything has gone wrong! Oh! Oh! It's AWFUL! HOW? How can this be? No! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! N-Agh!" Toad said, as Mario smacked him in the face with his hammer.
There was a brief moment as Bario, Kirby, and Falco stared at Mario in shock. Before anyone could respond, the Toad shook his head and got up.
"Thanks Mario. I needed that."
After a minute Bario shook his own head, and tried to focus on the current problem.
"Okay…now that you're calm, maybe you can tell us what's going on," he asked, commandingly, but not threateningly.
The Toad looked nervous again, and was wringing his hands…but seemed to muster up enough courage to talk.
Meanwhile, Diddy and Raichu were deep in their own discussion, off to the side, but careful to avoid the thorns and debris left behind in the massive battle against Kraid.
"Diddy…we need to calm down," Raichu said, before Diddy interrupted him.
"What do you mean?! I am calm!" he yelled angrily, before a look from Raichu made him catch himself, "Oh…yeah, maybe you're right."
"It's frustrating, this journey we're on," Raichu started, "We're fighting constantly and we don't seem like we've made any progress. Sure we stopped some bad guys, but the major villains of both worlds we've been to, Bowser and Ganondorf, have escaped with those stupid hands."
At Bowser's name, Diddy's eyes narrowed.
"That stupid overgrown lizard! I don't care how powerful he is, I will get vengeance!"
"Diddy! That's exactly what I'm talking about! We can't go blind with fury every time Bowser/Giga Bowser or…Mewtwo is mentioned! That almost got you killed when you saw him before Hyrule!"
"I could have taken him!" Diddy said vehemently, "Besides, you don't see me rocketing off in anger every time we fight do you?"
"No! That's not the point! If we're going to fight and beat the people that destroyed our loved ones, we have to be realistic. You could not have beaten Giga Bowser. Heck, there's no way you could beat Bowser, just like there's no way I can beat Mewtwo. It's just not going to happen!"
"So what?" Diddy said angrily, "You just want to give up then?"
"NO!" Raichu said, "Just the opposite in fact."
The conversation shared between Samus and Link was not quite as loud, but just as heated. Link made sure that he and Samus were a good distance away from everybody before talking.
"Samus! I can't stand that Bario!" he said, before she had a chance to ask him what it was about.
"What? I know that. Why are you telling me again?"
"Because it's important that you know!" Link said, looking at Samus with a strange look in his eye. She didn't know it, but he was thinking about the time she took off her helmet to eat, way back when they first arrived in Hyrule. Her long blond hair, beautiful eyes, unbelievable face…almost made him forget Zelda. He wasn't sure what to think…but he knew he felt something. The only question was whether or not it mattered…
Samus thought she saw a glimmer of…something, in Link's eyes and she felt immediately uncomfortable so she tried to move the conversation back on track.
"Alright…uh…Link, why is it important that I know about Bario?"
"Okay," the Toad said, "After you guys left, nothing happened for awhile. All the Koopas and other guys who worked for Bowser seemed to vanish for a little while. All the areas they guarded were suddenly empty."
"That must have been when he called them all to his castle to try and kill us!" Falco said, before he was quickly shushed by Meta-Knight, who was telling himself the value of a good day's cheese. Yeah. Cheese.
"Anyways, nothing seemed to happen for about a day, although someone did see a giant hand floating around Bowser's castle," Toad continued, "But shortly after that a swarm of Bowser's minions, a concentration we've never seen, swarmed out of every entrance and met up with Bowser outside Toad Town," Toad said.
"What?!" Bario said, the same surprise in his voice evident in Mario's face, "He was there?! How?!"
The Toad seemed even more nervous, almost as if he blamed himself for the next part of his account, but kept going.
"I-I-I don't k-know," he stammered, "I just know what happened, not why or how," he said, apparently afraid of punishment for his lack of knowledge. He sent a pleading look at Mario, who nodded, which seemed to give the Toad new strength, as he continued on, without the frightened tone.
"They went on, ignoring Toad Town, and Peach's Castle, although we still all…hid. They didn't come back, and after a while…days, we came out…just as news came of Bowser's humongous army sweeping in on Peach and Luigi. They fought back, but Bowser turned into some giant…thing, and took them both out. All three of them vanished, and his army scattered back to their posts," Toad said, relieved that he managed to get all of that out.
"What do you mean, opposite?" Diddy asked hesitantly.
"I mean that we should try harder!" Raichu said vehemently, trying to get Diddy to understand.
"But if we can't beat them…" Diddy said, not seeing the point.
"We can't beat them alone!"
"What, do you think the two of us can honestly kill Mewtwo, let alone Giga Bowser?"
"No!" Raichu said, frustrated.
"Then what's your point?!" Diddy asked, equally frustrated.
"I'm trying to say that we're not alone! We have seven other people, who from what I've seen will be more than willing to help. I can at least guarantee that Mario at least will help you kill Giga Bowser, and I'm sure the others will be willing to help out me and you, no questions asked!" Raichu said, with a smile on his face.
"If that's what you wanted to tell me, then how come you started this conversation telling me that we needed to calm down?" Diddy asked in confusion.
Raichu looked blank for a little bit, as he gathered his thoughts, but soon he responded.
"Well, two reasons mainly," Raichu explained, "Reason number one is that when we're angry, we don't think as clearly, and that could screw us up in a fight, and number two…I'm sure they'd help us, but they will be a lot more willing, if we aren't furious all the time."
"Are you saying we should…manipulate the others?" Diddy asked, not quite as shocked as he could have been.
"Not manipulate…just make sure," Raichu said.
"I don't know…hey! I think something is happening!" Diddy said, as Toad appeared to be finishing his tale, "We should head over there," Diddy told Raichu, who agreed.
"I'm telling you this because I want my suspicions to be known. If something happens to me, I don't want you caught off guard." Link said.
"Why would anything happen to you?" Samus asked.
"I don't know, Yoshi died abruptly…you just never know what could happen…," trailed off.
"Fine. Just tell me your suspicions, and let's have this all out in the open," Samus said, slightly sick of the whole thing.
"Alright, I'll clarify it," Link said, angry that she wasn't taking his thoughts more seriously, "We don't know where he's from, we've never seen him before this, we don't know what he's capable of, and in case you haven't noticed, he's leading our little group!"
"So?" Samus said, "Have you ever asked him about it?"
"No! Something about him seems off! He's dangerous!"
"Yes! To our enemies! He's saved both our lives, admit it!"
"Yes, but-"
"But nothing! If he was evil, he wouldn't do that, would he?"
"I didn't say he was evil," Link said, "Just…not quite right,"
Before the argument could continue, they both noticed Diddy and Raichu rejoining the main group.
"We'll finish this later," Link said, as eager to end the conversation as Samus was. He needed time to think. Samus nodded, and the two headed back to the others.
"Alright," Bario said, "Bowser seems to captured Peach and Luigi, and he's working with the Hands, who we know are also working with Ganondorf. Link," Bario said, as the Hylian joined the group, "I gotta say, this doesn't look good for Zelda. Chances are she was captured before we got there."
Link nodded his head, upset, but not surprised by that inference.
"From that I guess we can determine from when Bowser let it slip that the Hands are also employing the villains of multiple worlds…Samus, whoever is in charge here, is probably working for Master Hand. We'll discuss that after Toad leaves."
Samus also nodded, not happy at all about what was happening.
At the mention of his name Toad perked up.
"Leaves? To where?"
"You should go back through the portal to the Mushroom Kingdom, and let everybody know that…hey wait…how'd you get through this portal?" Bario asked.
"Huh? Oh some weird resident wizard guy, Merlon made it. He and some of his relatives managed to track Mario through the dimensions so they sent me through and figure out what to do about Bowser. It took this long for them to find you guys. Who are you?" Toad asked suddenly.
"Oh." Bario said, "Well then you-wait what?"
"Well, I know Mario and the other guys, and I vaguely recall seeing you at the castle, but I don't know you," The Toad said, seemingly more comfortable, and less panicked now that he was sure something was going to be done.
"Oh. Well I'm just a traveling swordsman Mario enlisted to help him. But back to you, I need you to go through the portal, get the wizard to close it and tell everyone that its okay, we're going to stop Bowser and get Peach and Luigi back. Okay?" Bario asked.
After Bario said he was a traveling swordsman, Link mumbled something that only Samus could hear. Samus let out a shocked "Link!" and clocked him in the back of the head roughly with her Arm Cannon. Link yelped, but didn't retaliate, and Bario pretended to ignore the two of them.
"Wait," the Toad said, starting to sound more panicked, "Mario's not coming back?! Why isn't he coming back?! Mario needs to come back! We need Mario! We need HIM! HE HAS TO COME BACK! HE HAS-agh!"
Mario lowered his hammer after hitting Toad again, and waggled his finger.
"Oh no!" Mario told him.
"Toad," Bario said, "If we come back now, we won't be able to do anything. From what you said, Bowser isn't even there anymore. We need to keep traveling and eventually we'll find Bowser and get the others back, okay?"
Toad slowly started to calm down…it seemed that repeated blows to the head from his hero was the only way for him to chill.
"But…but…we need him," Toad said, in a state of shock.
Mario sighed, walked over, grabbed Toad and threw him soundlessly into the portal.As everyone stared at Mario, the portal snapped shut.
After a moment Bario clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention towards him.
"Well…uh…thanks Mario, I guess. Guys, we better get going. If whoever runs the show here on Zebes is working with Master Hand then I don't want to give them any more time to prepare, so Samus, open the door please, and I'll fill you all in on the information that Toad gave us, okay?" Bario said.
Before Samus could give her approval, Falco raised a question.
"Nice plan…but uh…how are we all going to get over that?" he said, pointing at the pit of thorns, that while Kraid did crush them, were still spiky and deep.
"Huh…that's a good question," Bario said, as he looked across the pit to the ten foot square area, where the doorway to the next chamber stood. The walls around that area curved slightly inward, a fact that wasn't apparent when the massive lizard beast was standing there.
"Oh come on," Link said scornfully, seemingly eager to have a chance to show up Bario. Link ran for the edge of the pit, leapt into the air, did a Spin Attack in midair to gain some more momentum and shot out his Hookshot, barely covering the distance to the edge of the wall.
"Well, I guess that's one way," Bario said, with an uneasy look on his face.
Samus jumped and used her Screw Attack, while Kirby floated across. Mario jumped, hit a wall and leapt off that to easily cover the distance. Kirby floated across, the pink puffball surprisingly graceful…for a round creature that floats by inflating himself to ridiculous proportions and then bobbing in a meandering, yet purposeful way…which should be impossible, but Kirby does it.
"Uh…there's no way I could make that…unless," Raichu started, before Diddy whipped his tail around him and jetted off.
"Don't worry about it." Diddy told him.
"This is going to be close…" Falco said, before leaping off the edge, and then using his Fire Falco to cover the majority of the distance…but not quite enough. He fell short by about ten feet. He was about to plummet painfully to the thorns, when Samus shot out her Grapple Beam, latched onto his chest and yanked him onto the platform.
"Ow!" Falco said, rubbing his chest where the beam zapped him, and also his face where he hit the ground.
"You're welcome." Samus said.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm just glad Link didn't decide to help."
"What? Why?"
"Because that stupid hook of yours would hurt!"
"Oh shut up," Link told Falco, but his voice lacked the same venom it always possessed when discussing Bario.
"Okay…" Bario said, "There's no way I can jump that far…Meta?" he asked of the only other Smasher on this side of the platform. Meta was cheerfully and brainlessly flapping around near Bario, but perked up at his name. Bario grabbed onto Meta, who flew both over the thorns, showing considerable strength as Bario was a few inches taller than Link, and had a muscular, albeit slim body shape. He wasn't as solid as Link, and no where near as much as Mario, but he wasn't soft either. Of course, Meta didn't even seem to notice his passenger.
"The personal airlift of Me-ness is making its arrival! Next stop, land of the spiky SPAM! SPAM! SMAP! ME! ME! ME! EM!" Meta said as he deposited Bario near the others.
"I really think we should do something about him," Diddy said.
"Oh, I don't know. He seems happy," Bario said.
"Yeah, but he's freaking annoying," Falco said.
"Well again I tell you that I have no knowledge of how the human brain works, let alone his, so unless you want me to potentially kill him, I think we should leave him like this for now, all right?" Bario said shortly.
"Let's just keep moving," Samus said, opening the door. All of the Smashers piled into the elevator, and Bario filled everybody in on the information received from Toad. This elevator was moving slightly sideways as well, so it didn't cover the vertical ground very fast, and it seemed to have a long way to go. After Bario finished summarizing everything, he took a moment to let everybody digest, but before they could respond, he asked Samus a question.
"Samus…who is the leader of the villains here? That's who we need to watch out for."
Samus nodded, seemingly thinking about that as well, and answered quickly.
"I would have to say Mother Brain. It's a computer that is hooked up to the planet, and is part electronic, part biological. Basically, it looks like a big brain in a tank."
"Ew!" Raichu said. Apparently he found brains gross.
"And this brain is the leader?" Bario asked in surprise.
At that Samus seemed to pause. After a moment she started talking again, slowly but with a hint of reflection.
"No…it isn't. It coordinates and organizes the dominant evil force in my dimension, the Space Pirates, and is incredibly important to them…but it's not their leader."
After an awkward pause where Samus appeared lost in thought, Link poked her, who started and continued speaking.
"Oh! Uh…actually I think their actual leader is a Space Dragon called Ridley. He seems to be controlling the Space Pirates. I mean…think of Ridley as the president of an evil community of thieving citizens…and Mother Brain is the foundation that the community is built on," Samus said, struggling to explain a concept she wasn't entirely to sure of.
"So…which one is it?" Bario asked, trying to be polite, but just as lost as everybody else.
"I don't KNOW!" Samus said, clearly upset.
"Samus! Relax!" Link said, startled.
"What?" Samus said, confused.
"Is everything okay Samus?" Bario asked.
"Yes! Yes! It's just…I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something incredibly important…"
"Well, you'll have to worry about it later…we're here," Diddy said, pointing to the door as the elevator came to a stop, and the door snapped open. The room was completely black, although they could here something moving in there.
"Samus," Bario said carefully, "Who's on the other side of that door?"
"Ridley," she said confidently, before leaping into the room, as lights flared on all around it.
The Smashers took a step back, covering their eyes as a bright reddish glow emanated from the floor, ceiling and walls. The glow subsided soon, although whether it was because the glow weakened in brightness, or the Smashers eyes adjusted was undeterminable. They were inspired to enter the room when the sound of shots and screeches reached their ears.
Mario was the first one in, followed closely by Link. The others piled in soon after, but immediately halted as they saw Samus exchanging missiles for fireballs from the great Space Dragon, Ridley.
Ridley was large, but nowhere near the size of Kraid. Ridley was maybe fifteen to twenty feet in height…maybe. He was hunched up slightly, although his wings were massive, easily reaching thirty feet from end-to-end. He was a light reddish color, and had a long neck with a joint in the center, that seemed designed to allow him to pull back and strike quickly. His head was long and pointed, with eyes under bony ridges, and a long pointed snout, with a large mouth, and plenty of pointy teeth.
His arms and legs were curled in close to his body, and so their length was difficult to determine, although they looked like they were also designed for quick strikes, and had sharp claws and talons to assist in his combat skills. Rounding out this massive beast's deadly arsenal was a long, coiled tail, which had approximately seventeen small sections, granting it a large range of movement, and the ability to extend it significantly, allowing him to skewer things with the pointed end.
Samus was dodging large fireballs that were spewing from his mouth, while he hovered twenty feet in the air. A good look around the arena showed it to be large and open, perfect for this massive flying creature. In between dodging Samus pelted Ridley with missiles, but he barely reacted, as if they were almost harmless.
"Guys! Start attacking!" Samus yelled, dodging a jab from Ridley's tail.
They started attacking. They immediately did their customary projectile attacks, except for Bario who just watched Ridley carefully, seemingly ready to attack if Ridley got close.
The familiar rain of projectiles hit Ridley, and hit him hard. He was a big target, and didn't seem to have any armor or invulnerable spots…except for his tail which looked like an armored snake. He screeched and took off high into the air. Samus fired some more missiles at him, but at that height Ridley was able to easily avoid them by flying to the side. He seemed quite speedy in the air.
"Ugh!" Samus said, switching to the Ice Beam, trying to save missiles, and hoping the chunks of ice would have better luck hitting Ridley.
Raichu was firing what looked like small lightning bolts, and they did manage to home in and track a bit, so Ridley was getting hit by those, despite his attempts to dodge them. Everyone else's attacks were too slow or didn't have enough range. Samus's Ice Beam attacks did even worse than the missiles, and cursing, she switched to her Power Beam, which thanks to its quick rate of fire was at least able to hit the flying beast, although it did little damage.
After a bit of flying and avoiding the attacks, Ridley started retaliating by opening his mouth and firing multiple fireballs at the Smashers. Link and Bario got hit while the others scattered.
"This isn't working!" Link said, "Samus do you have an idea?"
"No!" Samus said, "He seems to be moving much faster than he used to, I got nothing!"
"Looks like he does!" Falco said, pointing at Meta who flew up screaming about babies.
"Babies ate my Dingo!"
See?
"Can he do it on his own?" Raichu asked.
Diddy responded by activating his jetpack and pulling out an orange grenade.
"I don't care if he can. If we want these guys to really fight for us, we need to do the same for them. Raichu, if you can, charge up a BIG lightning bolt, like you did against the evil Links. I have a feeling this guy is going to be tough to take down."
Raichu was taken aback by the logic and calm in Diddy's voice. It seemed like he was actually thinking ahead for a change. But rather than questioning his friend, he just nodded and started crackling with electricity.
Diddy activated his jetpack and flew up, just as Meta intercepted Ridley. Meta slashed a few times at Ridley, who shrieked and raised his arms up to defend himself. Meta paused for a second in his flurry of sword strikes, and that was when Ridley's head lashed out and slammed into Meta's helmet.
Meta staggered and dipped lower, and Ridley extended a claw, obviously intending to grab the masked warrior, when Diddy took advantage of Ridley's distraction and lobbed his grenade at Ridley's face. It exploded and Ridley shrieked again…but before Diddy had a chance to react, Ridley shot forward and grabbed the chimp. He lowered his head, intent on removing Diddy's, when three missiles from Samus slammed into the slowed down Ridley.
Ridley dropped Diddy, clawing him a bit as he slipped from his clutches and spun around in midair, sending numerous fireballs back at the Smashers, who were forced to scatter again.
Diddy plummeted to the ground, struggling to activate his jetpack, as it seemed damaged from Ridley's manhandling.
"Oh crud…this is going to HURT!" he said, curling himself into a ball and aiming himself back first, hoping the two barrels that formed his jetpack would take the brunt of the blow.
Fortunately there was no blow to brunt. He hit…something, something that grunted and then stopped moving. His first thought was that he had hit the rather solid ground, and that it was taking a while for the extreme pain to reach his body. He then realized that no matter how solid the ground is…it doesn't usually grunt. He looked up and saw that a blue feathered bird-man had caught him.
"Uh…thanks Falco," Diddy said, grateful but slightly embarrassed.
"Don't worry about it. Glad to help," he said with a grin as he put Diddy down gently.
Diddy smiled back, and then clicked a button on his jetpack that caused it to fold up and all but vanish in his short brown fur. Man, that doesn't even seem physically possible.
Ridley shot forth another stream of fireballs, this time hitting Kirby and Samus. This fight was getting interesting. If it went on much longer he would have to activate the arena's "special" little trick…
Meta recovered from the blow to the head, and stabbed at Ridley's chest. Ridley screeched and swung out his pointed tail, which Meta blocked. Ridley positioned himself around the metallic knight so as to avoid projectiles from below and to allow him to get all of his deadly limbs within range.
"Samus! What do we do?" Bario yelled.
"I don't know! He wasn't this quick before! We have to wait for an opening!" she called back, unknowingly contradicting herself, and began charging up her Power Beam.
Meta used his considerable skill, speed and smaller size to dart around the larger Ridley, although Ridley was moving around fast enough to avoid getting hit by attacks from below. The two were exchanging numerous blows, with Meta blocking or avoiding Ridley's tail, his claws and his head. Since Ridley had four different ways to attack, Meta was having a hard enough time protecting himself, and he had no time to strike back.
After about thirty seconds of this stalemate, Ridley got sick of the fight and grabbed Meta's sword. Fighting against the pain the sword caused as it dug into his scaled flesh he yanked Meta closer and slammed him with an open hand…claw…thing. Meta struggled to stay conscious, when Ridley's tail flew straight at him, not penetrating the metal mask but hitting Meta hard enough to send him crashing down to the ground. No one caught Meta.
Ridley had little time to celebrate his victory though as in the time it took for him to knock out Meta, Samus had enough time to aim and fire her Super Missile. The massively powerful attack flew at Ridley, and before he even had a chance to react the missile crashed into him with stupendous force. He shrieked and jerked his head, sending fireballs flying at Samus.
She rolled to the side and leapt up, prepared to fire again, when she saw Ridley, letting out his loud high-pitched shriek, flying straight at her. She fired several missiles, and everyone else did their best to halt him, but Ridley continued, seemingly uncaring of their attacks and slammed into Samus with his side as he spun near the ground and flew back up.
Ridley's massive body sent Samus flying into a skid, and when she came to a stop she could barely stand, let alone aim her weapon. She staggered up and her suit tried to repair its damaged functions. She didn't have a lot of time…
During the combat Diddy had managed to get near Raichu, who was practically glowing with pent-up electricity.
"Raichu…I don't think you're going to have a better time…"
"Okay…that's…good…I can't…hold it…ANY MORE!" Raichu screamed, releasing the electrical energy from his body in a massive blue-white lightning bolt that crashed into Ridley at a speed so fast, he couldn't even see it coming.
The sheer power of the attack was so great that Ridley was frozen in place, quivering as the lightning traveled over his entire body. He actually started to smoke. After ten seconds the lightning dissipated. Ridley slowly flapped his wings, floating in place.
"Diddy!" Falco yelled, as he and everyone else turned eyes towards Diddy who was staring stunned at Raichu, who was looking up at Ridley, apparently frozen, "What the hell was that?!"
"That," Diddy said, "Was Raichu."
"Wow," Raichu said, before fainting from energy loss.
"Is it over?" Link asked, walking over towards Samus, who was shaking off any damage done to her.
"I…don't think so," Samus said.
Ridley suddenly let out a loud piercing shriek that reached to all corners of the room…and farther. He spread his wings out wide…and the chamber began to change.
The glow that lit it up brightened…and chunks of the floor started to vanish…as a reddish orange liquid ate away at it.
"Bario!" Diddy said, standing by Raichu, who seemed unable to be awakened, "What's going on?"
"It's lava!" Bario said, leaping over a widening pool.
"Oh…crap," Samus said, pushing Link and her away from pieces of lava-eaten ground.
"What do we do?" Link said, as Ridley turned his attention towards the grounded and panicking Smashers.
"Mario!" Bario yelled.
Mario looked at Bario, paused in his moving to escape dangerous sections of the floor…and nodded.
Ridley spun around in the air, shooting fireballs off at an incredible speed. Kirby and Falco were both hit multiple times, but when one fireball came flying towards Mario he ducked…and pulled out his cape.
The golden cape flashed brightly, bringing Ridley to a stop as he watched one of his foes that seemed relatively harmless...become his worst nightmare…or at least not a very pleasant one.
The lava ceased rising up from the ground, and although it covered about half of the arena, it was in sporadic pieces, so as long as there wasn't anything distracting, it would be easy to avoid. There were plenty of distracting things.
Mario swung the cape over his head and it seemed, almost as if by magic, to attach itself to him. Mario pulled out his hammer, and with the golden cape flapping behind him…began to run.
Everyone watched Mario with an unexplained fascination, even Ridley. It was like they were all expecting something amazing to happen…and it did. With a sudden great leap he was in the air…and managed to avoid the falling back down part.
To clarify, he was flying. The cape seemed to give him the ability to defy gravity, and while everyone looked at Mario awestruck, he rocketed straight up into Ridley and slammed his head with his hammer.
"Wow," Samus and Link said at the same time.
"I had no idea he could do that!" Falco said, as Mario smashed one of Ridley's claws that he raised to defend himself.
Ridley opened his mouth and let out a torrent of fireballs, but Mario flew over the attack and then came down hard on Ridley's head feet-first. Ridley shrieked and flipped over in midair, arms and tail flashing blindingly fast, but Mario used his smaller size and agility to sneak under Ridley and blast him with a stream of fireballs. Ridley tried to turn over again, but Mario then caught the Space Dragon in an Aerial Mario Tornado…with his hammer. Mario spun rapidly around Ridley, hitting him with his iron-hard hammer and the cape, which seemed to have gained the consistency of steel.
"Mario is really good," Samus said, to which Link nodded his agreement.
"Diddy!" Bario said, "Grab Raichu and get over to Link and Samus! I'm heading over there too!"
Diddy pulled his gaze away from Mario's ass-kicking of Ridley and nodded.
"Come on buddy," he said, picking up the still unconscious electric mouse and started running over the lava patches, "Geez, you're light."
Falco, who had moved near Kirby during Mario's fight, heard Bario and saw Diddy running towards Link and Samus. Deciding that Bario had some kind of plan, Falco and Kirby exchanged a look before running to meet up with the others.
Bario managed to maneuver his path over towards unconscious Meta, who he scooped up before meeting up with the others.
Ridley was faltering. He had taken massive damage so far, and this flying man was just putting the nail in the coffin. It was time.
Mario blocked a tail strike with his hammer, but before he could retaliate Ridley dove for the ground, screeching, louder than he had before. Mario attempted to follow, worried since Ridley was heading for the area where Falco and Kirby were, the largest section of the floor not touched by the lava…but several green lasers that flew past his face brought him to an abrupt and surprised halt.
Pouring in from hidden hatches around the chamber were six-foot tall humanoids. They appeared to be wearing light armor, and had thin lanky arms and legs, with a crustacean like face and an out of proportioned thick chest. Instead of hands they had large claws that opened up and revealed that some kind of laser gun was positioned there, which was what they were using to fire at the Smashers.
"Samus?" Link said, shooting a bomb arrow at one and killing it instantly.
"Space Pirates! Just hit those guys! Don't ask questions" Samus yelled, shooting off two missiles at one, killing it and damaging another nearby.
About a dozen and a half poured in, firing wildly with their weak and poorly aimed weapons. They appeared unprepared for the arena as three ran straight into lava and died burning and screaming. They served their purpose though…to buy Ridley time. While the Smashers were fighting the inadequately trained, but very enthusiastic Space Pirates, Ridley flew at the ground where Falco and Kirby were standing, his tail whipping past Falco's face.
With a resounding crash Ridley slammed into the floor…and the floor collapsed in massive chunks, revealing a deep, black, sloped tunnel. Ridley dove down it, not halting, while Falco and Kirby struggled to get back to relatively safe ground. As more pieces of the floor fell apart though, that seemed impossible.
"Falco!" Diddy said, dropping Raichu carefully, but quickly. Diddy began to run towards the expanding pit, but a Space Pirate leapt in front of him.
"No!" Mario said, charbroiling a Space Pirate with a particularly powerful fireball, as he dove for Falco and Kirby, arms folded in to increase his speed.
"Guys," Falco yelled, as he and Kirby ducked an attack from a Space Pirate, "It was fun."
Both Falco and Kirby leapt up for an attempt at a final escape, just as three Space Pirates, apparently trying to flee ran into them, knocking them off balance…and all five plummeted into the pit. Mario flew on; heedless of the attacks from the Pirates that the others were trying to finish off…as metal disks came out of the side of the pit and folded over it.
Mario slammed into the newly covered pit with a massive crash…but the disks didn't shatter. More noises indicated that beneath them more and more disks were folding into place, so as to make following Ridley…and their fallen friends, impossible.
Diddy leapt over the Space Pirate attacking him, and then wrapped his tail around its neck, spinning back to the ground, his momentum carried the creature backwards, and with a casual flick Diddy snapped the thing's thin neck…just as he saw Falco and Kirby plummet to their seeming demise.
Seconds after the closing of the pit the rest of the Smashers finished off the Space Pirates. Turning their attention towards Mario, and the pit that swallowed up two of their friends, they were at a loss.
"AAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!" Mario screamed, punching the ground, but the solid metal did not give. So he kept punching, until his white gloves were stained with his blood, and he discovered that there was no more merciless foe than the immovable floor, as beneath them dozens upon dozens of the disks snapped into place, making it impossible for anyone to follow.
"Now…what do we do?" Diddy said, on the verge of collapsing from emotional and physical exhaustion.
Bario stared, shocked at the loss of the two companions, and for once, had no answer.
Meanwhile…
In what can only be described as a dimensional prison, evil stirred.
Well, actually it kind of moved around with a purpose. Stirring implies awaking from sleep, and this thing was by no means sleeping.
It stomped through row after row of locked cages, many inhabited by crying or stubbornly silent, "prisoners", more cages were empty then not, and there was a dark purplish light flashing through from an unseen source, breaking up the piercing bright white light brought forth from glowing panels all over the fifteen foot high ceiling.
It was dragging two unconscious people quite easily behind it. One was tall and wore a scratched and cut up pair of blue overalls and a green shirt. His face and body were similarly injured. There even looked like a burn on his side…
The other was surprisingly pretty, with similarly torn pink clothing, although the obvious fact that it was once a beautiful dress seemed to make the torn clothing more sinister.
Carelessly the evil monster tossed the two into separate cages and then slammed the iron doors shut, after which they automatically locked with a quiet clang.
After staring at the new prisoners for a minute, to make sure they wouldn't wake up any time soon, the entity moved on, to meet up with another.
It exited through a large door, leaving the gloomy and depressing prison behind, although the new room wasn't much better. It only had three things that stood out from its bare, concrete gray walls. A large screen, like that of a television, a portal that was light-blue and a man.
"It's good to see you finally arrived, Bowser," the man said to the evil turtle.
"Those two were tough to track and take down, Ganondorf," Bowser said, "I bet Zelda didn't give you much trouble," he grumbled.
"On the contrary, she was surprisingly difficult. Her magic skills prevented me from sneaking up on her, and she kept trying to teleport away. It was very frustrating. I am surprised you found those two difficult, what with your transformation," Ganondorf said, with an air of amusement.
"Yeah, well, using that Giga Bowser form outside of the Smashing Realm is exhausting, so it took me forever to work up enough strength to get here."
"Fine. At least you figured out how to do it without the Hands. I can't speak for you, but I hated relying on them."
"Whatever. Any word from M.C.?"
"Actually, he just contacted me," Ganondorf said, looking at the screen with a hint of fear, "He told me that the eight Smashers…and the one are on Zebes now."
"That onestill with them? From what he's told me I thought they would have abandoned him by now."
"Ha!" Ganondorf laughed, the noise harsh and more like a hateful growl than a sound of cheer, "They've actually made him their unofficial leader!"
"Really? He must be good," Bowser said with surprise.
"Of course he is, why else would M.C. be so interested in him?"
"I do wish M.C. would tell what exactly is up with that guy, he's so evasive about the subject…and I really don't like to press him for details," Bowser said with a shiver.
"Yeah, good way to lose your head. Anyways, M.C.'s representative on that planet reported that they're making good progress…but they're having problems. The group isn't getting along so well."
"Let me guess, your buddy Link?"
"For the most part. He doesn't do well working with others, and it looks like that one is making him suspicious."
"Interesting. Anything else?"
"Just that Mewtwo finally managed to capture his three. M.C. is sending Master Hand down to pick them up."
"What? Why not just let him come here like us?"
"Well…it turns out that M.C. wants him to pay a little visit to the Smashers, so…" Ganondorf trailed off.
"Ah. I'm hungry. I was planning on picking up a few Toads for lunch, do you want any?"
"Uh…no. I'm good. I'll watch the prisoners. Once Mewtwo's three get here, I think the fun is going to start…"
"Your loss," Bowser said, walking over to the portal, "Mushroom Kingdom!" he said, loudly and clearly.
The portal changed color, and the vague image of a large castle overlooking a populous town appeared. Bowser grinned and licked his lips before jumping in.
Ganondorf folded his hands around himself and started walking towards the door.
"The fun is going to start very soon," Ganondorf said, his evil laughing causing many of the occupants in the next room to whimper and moan…
AN: For any news, please refer to my profile.