Clash of the Smashers

Chapter Thirty-Two: I like boats!

The Prison

Bowser came tumbling out of the portal that led back to the area where he and his villainous companions were keeping the other Smashers prisoner. He landed flat on his face, but managed to keep his grip on Game & Watch. As he clambered back to his feet a low chuckling entered his ears, a laugh that would usually cause small children to wet themselves. Repeatedly.

"What are you giggling about?" Bowser grumbled, holding the unconscious G&W.

"I'm not giggling!" Ganondorf said, momentarily peeved, but he managed to regain his composure, "I mean, I found your lack of grace with the portal amusing."

"Yeah, yeah. Is the cage ready for this guy?"

"Mewtwo just finished it. You and him are on guard duty for the next shift."
"What? Not done yet?"
"I got Donkey Kong, that stupid ape, now I just need Fox. Andross just called in, says he can help connect the portal right to him."

"Great. Remind me to be happy after I beat the crap out of this guy," Bowser said, squeezing slightly. Not hard, just enough to snap a normal persons spine.

Ganondorf took a step forward from the wall he was leaning on and took a closer look at Bowser. He grinned when he noticed the bruises and cuts on his body.

"Looks like you had some trouble," Ganondorf started to say, before Bowser interrupted him with a hasty "Shut up!"

"Fine, fine. Just having some fun. Andross is really excited about me taking Fox. He says with both him and Falco out his area, he'll have free reign."
"I don't care. Mario and Luigi, and Yoshi and Peach are all technically out of my area and I don't get to have free rampagey fun."

"I don't think rampagey is a word."
"Still not caring."
"Whatever. Just get Game and Watch in there, and watch those prisoners. Once Fox is here M.C. wants us to start the rounds."

"What about Mario and the others?"

"K. Rool just called in. He said that a large portion of his army was just wiped out. In between his shrieking I managed to pick up that Diddy was there, so I would assume they're all there. Hopefully he will be able to stop their foolish quest."

"They're with Rool? What happened to Prime?"

"We've lost all contact with that area. I would have to assume that they killed it."

"And M.C. still says they're not a threat?" Bowser asked, incredulous.

"He claims that taking care of the ones we have here is more important."

Bowser growled at that, then noticed Game & Watch was twitching. Turning his attention back towards Ganondorf, he dealt with the awakening 2-D man with a quick blow to the head.

"He can't believe that. Those guys wiped out a huge chunk of both of our armies, and we're getting nothing from Zebes. Rool won't be able to take them on without us."

"Whether he believes it or not is irrelevant. He's made it very clear that he doesn't want to focus a lot of force on these guys."
"Why not? K. Rool, me, you and Two could take all nine of them out if we tried, and M.C. could probably beat them by himself."

"I can't guess what exactly he's planning, but it almost seems like he wants them to get here, like he wants them to kill all of the guys we're working with…one at a time."
"That's crazy!"
"Maybe. Either way, I better get going," Ganondorf said, abruptly changing the subject.

"Hey! What-" Bowser started to say, before he got the feeling he was being watched. Catching on, he nodded and dragged G&W into the cage room. Ganondorf gave one look around, his gaze lingering on the screen, before jumping into the portal. It made a faint whoosh sound, and the evil warlord was gone.

Kong Island

The Smashers headed back towards D.K.'s cabin, and Funky, the only sane member of D.K.'s family left behind. They were experiencing the slight high that people get after winning a battle. The adrenaline was wearing down, and they were quite relaxed, which was a feeling they hadn't felt in a long time. Link was in the middle of regaling those listening with his exploits, and several others were quietly thinking about their reasons for fighting.

For most of them, the reasons were simple. Link fought because he thought it was the right thing, same for Kirby and Mario. Falco and Samus originally fought for money, but now believe that they too are doing what is morally just. Raichu, Diddy, Meta and Bario can all be classified under the class of doing it because it is right.

But are those the main reasons? Are they even the primary reasons? Perhaps a look beyond the shell, the façade these people put forth could reveal more about them.

Link is clearly the epitome of hero. He fights to save the little man, and rescue princesses, well at least one princess, and now he fights to stop evil from dominating all that he and everyone else knows. Yet, part of him fights because he enjoys the combat, the pain. He works hard at being the best he can be, and he IS the best fighter, or at least, one of them. Fighting and adventures are all he knows. If he no longer entered into glorious battle, what could he do? Be a farmer? Pshaw! No, Link would be lost without his quests. But surely another reason could be found to further support his life-choice.
Revenge comes to mind. Ganondorf is evil, and has set himself up to be Link's antithesis. He has done his best from preventing Link from ever pursuing a normal life. That alone would give Link cause to hate the man, and do his best to defeat and kill him.

Yet, another, perhaps more obvious reason exists. After all, what man, even one as young as Link, wouldn't want a beautiful princess? He can't impress her with riches, or elegance, or even sheer dashing charm. No matter how brilliant his personality is, it would mean nothing to one of the ruling leaders of his homeland, considering he comes from such a meager background. He can however impress her with his exploits, his heroic deeds, and impress her he has. It is one of the cases where the man does get the girl; at least he would if she wasn't being kidnapped all the time. But what about the very knowledge of being a hero?

Link may not even realize how important being a hero is to him. Being a hero has made him an icon, and being an icon has done more good for Link than even he knows…for all it would have taken was a slight push in a different direction…and Link would be the one attempting to rule all worlds…

The group of cheerful heroes reached the foot of the tree where the cabin was…and noticed Meta-Knight climbing to his feet. The others let out strangled gasps of surprise before running towards him.

"Meta! Are you okay?" Diddy asked.

Meta stared at Diddy for a long moment. Link felt a quiver of excitement, certain that Meta would reveal something about Bario that would make his suspicions justified.
"Uh...guys, remember last time, when he went crazy? Maybe we should back off," Falco suggested.

Before the others could agree, Meta cleared his throat.

"I'm fine. Don't we have something to do?"

While the others stared in shock at his nonchalant response, Meta flew up to the top of the tree, and into the cabin.

"What…just happened?" Falco asked.

"I have…no idea," Link said, having not expected that particular outcome.

Before anyone could go up the ladder after Meta, he came flying back down and landed gracefully a few feet away from his companions. His arrival was followed by loud grunting as Funky leapt down from the top of the tree and rolled to a stop, not nearly as gracefully, but at least he managed to stand up afterwards.

"Hey!" Funky said cheerfully, waving his orange grenade launching log at them.

"Uh…hey," Samus said.

"You guys managed to fight off K. Rool's lackeys! Cool!"
"Yeah…now what?" Diddy asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Bario asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Link asked.

"We have to kill K. Rool." Bario responded.

The others paused for a second, but the idea was pretty much the next logical step so they all agreed pretty readily.

"I readily agree with that," Raichu said.

"Where is he?" Samus asked, focusing on their next challenge.

"If you follow the path it will lead to the ocean, and down there is K. Rool's ship. Good luck after that," Funky told them.

"Thanks," Bario said, "I guess there isn't any reason to stay here…let's get going."

"What about Meta-Knight?" Link asked, pointing at the conscious combatant.

"What about me? I'm fine. Let's go," Meta said in an irritated voice.

Link growled, but couldn't think of anything implicating Bario in Meta's new state…maybe he was wrong about him…

"Let's just go," Samus said, noticing that Link was going to cause more problems and without anymore ado, the Smashers left down the path, while Funky watched the empty cabin.

The Smashers talked along the way. They basically grilled Diddy, trying to get an idea of how K. Rool would fight and then they would discuss strategies on what to do on that. Diddy was confident in their success however, since he and Donkey could beat Rool on their own, so all nine of them should be able to annihilate the guy…

Link was indifferent. From what he had heard, K. Rool was like a bumbling baddie, similar to Bowser, but lacking even that beast's competency. No, he was sure they would wipe the floor with Rool…but despite that thought, Link couldn't shake the feeling that something very bad was happening as they walked. Something that was building to some kind of terrible event. This feeling had been growing in Link ever since he signed on to help Mario and the others guard Peach's castle, but it's taken him this long to figure out what was causing the sensation of premonition.

Fear. His stomach clenched with a crippling terror for every moment that passed, and the only reason he wasn't collapsing from the feeling was because of the Triforce of Courage he had. A third of a powerful mystical item, with the other two pieces belonging to Zelda and Ganondorf. The Triforce of Courage obviously gave him a healthy supply of extra courage, and considering he had plenty already made him a pretty courageous guy…and it was probably because of that Courage piece of the Triforce that he was feeling this gut-clenching fear. The piece probably was trying to warn him about something, but he hadn't had enough time to figure it out since the whole adventure started. And before he could figure it out now, they reached the end of the path.

The Smashers were on a long beach that seemed to curve around the entire island. The beach had shiny yellow sand, and tapered off into a clear blue ocean. The ocean was very large, considering it was an ocean and not a pond, the fact that it was large is not very surprising. There were no additional land masses in sight, although there was a rather large ship. The ship was leaning on one side of the beach, its other side floating in relatively shallow water.

It looked like a yacht posing as a pirate vessel. Its light brown boards were shiny and unmarked, and it bore crisp clean looking sails, leading up to a crow's nest that appeared to have some kind of black mass in it, although what it was wasn't very clear.

Deciding to not waste time examining the pristine vessel, the Smashers climbed up a side-ladder and set foot on a rather large main deck. The Smashers stuck close together and readied their weapons, but the ship seemed quite abandoned…until a maniacal laughing was heard.

Following the laughing came a loud banging noise, and the creator of both of these irritating sounds was soon evident when a wooden door inset in the raised section of the ship under the ship's wheel burst open and a large creature came out of a crouching position and stood before the Smashers, laughing like an ill-natured hyena.

The creature was big, larger than Bowser, and towered over the Smashers. He was about double the size of Link or Samus, and his massive girth made him appear much larger. His body shape seemed to be that of a bipedal crocodile, although his was quite fat. His skin was mostly a dark green hue, but his chest and belly appeared to have been coated with a shiny yellow armor. The same material was used to create a tall crown with many pointed tops on his head and thick wrist braces on either hand. Rounding out this strange creature was a long flowing crimson cape and one bloodshot eye that was larger than the other. This than, was King K. Rool.

"So the monkey and his friends dare to confront me?" he bellowed at them, "Well good! I am tired of stealing your bananas, and I look forward to…uh…crushing you! HA! HA! HA!"

Link sighed and shook and his head, causing K. Rool to stop laughing at stare at Link in confusion
"What? Do you no longer wish to battle me? King K. Rool!"

"That's not it," Link said. At Rool's and Link's companions' evident confusion, Link extrapolated.

"See, this is the part where you tell us how we'll never beat you and how you're the greatest guy to ever walk the earth. Believe me, I've sat through enough of those on this adventure so far, and I would appreciate it if you just started fighting."
"But…you will never beat me," Rool said dejectedly, "Do you all agree with him?"
There was a flurry of yes's and nods. Link was actually surprised this was working, he was trying to be sarcastic, but apparently Rool wasn't very bright.

"Crud. That's my favorite part about being evil. Oh well. TAKE THIS!" Rool shouted, plucking his crown from the top of his head and launching it at Link.

Link quickly raised his shield, but the crown was heavier than he expected, and the blow knocked him over. Before the others could react, the crown came flying back, clipping Diddy in the back, which sent him forward a bit, and landing gracefully back on Rool's head.

Rool laughed again as Link scrambled to his feet, considerably upset. The Smashers aimed their weapons at the large lizard, but he charged forward as they fired.
The Smashers fired their weapons, but only Link and Mario managed to deal glancing blows before Rool was upon them, his great bulk belying his incredible speed. He used his size to send Diddy, Falco and Samus all flying, while the others rolled or leapt out of the way.

The Smashers regrouped away from Rool as he continued laughing, and several of them looked pretty battered already. Diddy was clutching his side, and wasn't actually looking at his foe, as he was trying to get over the pain. Rool stopped laughing and stared at them, his right eye twitching and his cape billowing behind him as he stood by the edge of the ship.

He crouched down, clearly preparing to attack again, when a splash was heard and something came flying out of the water behind him. He started to turn, but wasn't fast enough to stop the blue fish-like creature from stabbing him in the lower back with its sword like nose. Rool shrieked and threw a punch at the creature, but it was already diving back into the water. It vanished as quickly as it came.

"What was that?" Falco asked.

"What was what? What happened?" Diddy asked, but Rool was already charging again, despite the obvious pain he was in.

Rather than avoiding him, Mario, Link, Bario, and Meta all raised their weapons and ran to meet him, and they were joined by Diddy who was wielding his guitar.

Rool stopped as Link stabbed towards his stomach, but the glistening armor there deflected the attack and Link was knocked off balance. Before Rool could take advantage of that, Bario swung both swords at Rool from opposite directions, and the tyrant was forced to block them with the golden bracelets on his wrists.

Rool then used his superior strength to push Bario away, just in time to move his head back to avoid a swing from Meta, but Mario's hammer managed to connect solidly on one of Rool's short, stubby legs.

Rool yelped and stepped back, yelping again when he moved his injured foot, and then had his face slammed with Diddy's surprisingly painful guitar. Rool yelped yet again, and then leapt back, causing his attackers to miss with their subsequent attacks.

Samus, Falco, and Raichu started firing their projectiles, while Kirby pulled out his Cutter blade, but Rool suddenly leapt into the air, and his massive weight crashing down jerked the entire ship and the Smashers almost fell into each other.

From the upper deck of the ship seven large cannonballs came rolling down, each one about as large as a full grown human. The Smashers attempted to react quickly to them, but Falco and Mario were both hit quite solidly and ended up nearly pitched overboard. The rest of the group managed to avoid them until they rolled off the edge of the ship.

Link was irritated by Rool being slightly more difficult than anticipated and started to run towards him again, when Rool suddenly leapt forward. Link stopped in surprise, but when the hop ended abruptly he started to move again, until Rool did it again, leaping right over the startled Link's head and landing behind him, where a solid backhand from Rool sent Link tumbling.

Before Rool could continue his assault, Kirby slashed at him with his Cutter blade. The blade, although blunt, still left a slight groove along his arm. Rool grabbed Kirby before the puffball could continue the attack, but Diddy threw an orange grenade that exploded right into K. Rool's crocodilian jaw.
Rool let out a strangled gasp, released Kirby and fell flat to the ground.
"What?" Diddy said, knowing that Rool wasn't that weak.

The others warily gathered around Rool, and were unsure of what to do, until Bario said that they should shoot or stab him a few times, before they could say he was dead. Before they could follow through with that, Rool suddenly leapt up, flinging his large arms outward and sending the Smashers sprawling.

"Ha! You fell for it!" he said, quite pleased with himself, but that satisfaction quickly turned to fear when he saw them getting back up, "Uh…on second thought…bye!" Rool declared before running to the side of the ship that was grounded and jumping off.

"Don't let him run, get that stupid reptile!" Link yelled.

Before the others could give chase to the rapidly running K. Rool, who was dashing through the jungle, there was a rustling from the crow's nest, and the Smashers turned to see something moving up there. They backed away, towards the ocean…only to hear something coming out of the water as well…

So there is Link, Hyrule's savior, the Hero of Time. There he is, stuck with people who, in their own ways are as heroic as him, traveling in a land completely unfamiliar to him, battling against foes who make less sense than the usual ones he faces. There he stands, but perhaps for the first time…he stands not alone against his enemies. The question remains however…is that a good thing?