Clash of the Smashers

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Reptilian Wrath

Luigi ducked under Captain Falcon's high kick and struck out with a fireball to the chest, knocking him off balance. Taking advantage of that momentary loss of focus Luigi dashed forward, hitting Falcon with several fast, but weak punches.

Falcon took the hits though, and countered with a powerful elbow to Luigi's chest, sending the plumber sprawling. Luigi rolled with the blow and managed to get to his feet with a skilled flip, but that sent him right into the path of a shoulder ram from Falcon.

Ness meanwhile crawled away while the two were fighting and grabbed his bat. Watching them carefully he managed to leap to the platform with his yo-yo. Armed with his weapons again, Ness stayed on his slowly moving platform and decided to watch the show.

"Falcon! Don't do this!" Luigi cried, barely recovering from the shoulder ram and was now dodging a flurry of punches that made his appear weak.

"Sorry Luigi, but we have to stick together…and if I have to beat some sense in you to keep you from attacking helpless kids, then so be it! Falcon Uppercut!" Captain Falcon said, his voice oozing self-righteousness, and with his fist oozing flames he slammed Luigi high into the air.

He dove up after him, hoping to trap him in a Falcon dive, but Luigi countered first with a Luigi Tornado, an attack very similar to Mario's Tornado in that they spun around quickly with arms outstretched. However while Luigi's was less powerful, the speed of the attack allowed him to travel upwards during the spin. Falcon was trapped in the attack, and Luigi finished it with a powerful midair karate chop that knocked Falcon out of the air and onto the ground. Luigi dropped to the ground next to him, but stumbled and fell.

Falcon took advantage of that mistake and aimed a powerful kick from a level position at Luigi's prone body. The blow knocked the wind out of him and sent him rolling. Falcon leapt to his feet, but Luigi managed to pull through in time to get to his feet as well and the two faced each other, fists raised, but both reluctant to continue the contest.

"Well Luigi, are you sorry now?" Falcon asked.

"I didn't do anything! Ness attacked me!"
"Sure he did! And that's why he's lying there in pain!" Falcon said, gesturing to where Ness had laid, but not taking his eyes off Luigi.

Luigi glanced over, and then turned back as Falcon started to rant about justice. Suddenly his eyes widened and he realized something.

"And with my Fist of Falcon Might you will realize that we can escape and that we will beat the Hands. My amazing Falcon Power will guide us and-" Falcon was cut off by a loud shout from Luigi.

"Hey! Falcon!"
"What?" Falcon asked, irritated by his Falcon Speech being interrupted.

"Where's Ness?"
"He's right…where?" Falcon said, surprised to see Ness not where he thought he was, "Where'd he go?"

While Falcon and Luigi looked frantically around for Ness, a large green pulsating ball slowly floated in between them.

"What's that? Is it some kind of non-Falcon thing?" Falcon asked, attempting to sound more manly than he normally does.

"I'm not sure…it looks kind of familiar-AGH!"
Luigi and Captain Falcon were both startled, and in serious pain when the ball exploded, zapping both of them with strange tendrils that shocked them with psychic power. The two fell to their knees.

"Ha! That worked perfectly," Ness said, hopping off his platform, "My PK Flash took care of you two like that!" he finished, snapping his fingers.
"Luigi," Falcon muttered, gathering his strength, "Why is Ness attacking us?"
"Why don't you ask him?" Luigi said, irritated that only now was Falcon starting to doubt Ness's innocence.

"Hey uh Ness…why are you attacking me?" Falcon demanded, staggering to his feet.

"Because if I beat you two, I will be freed from this stupid prison place!" Ness said, a slight tic appearing on his left eye.

"Says who?" Falcon asked, as Luigi stood up as well, although both were smarting from the injuries they've received.

"Says the ambiguous voice that can't be trusted," Luigi answered.

"It's the only option open to me!" Ness shouted.

"It is NOT! If we work together we can figure something out! You just have to be patient!" Luigi pleaded.

"I will not wait! I want to get out NOW!"
"You won't! That voice is just tricking you!"
"You don't know that!"
"Neither do you! You're taking a huge risk!" Luigi answered.

"I don't care; I have to take the chance! This could be my ticket out of here, and if you big meanies won't let me go, I'll just have to fry you where you stand!"
"FALCON JECTION!" Captain Falcon shouted, pointing his index finger dramatically at Ness.

Ness and Luigi stared at Falcon.

"What did you just say?" Luigi asked.

"It's not important," Falcon told him, "What is important is that despite the fact that I have no idea what either of you are talking about when you mention a voice, and the fact that I don't particularly like either of you because of your lack of manliness, Luigi does have a point, and together we stand a better than average chance of stopping our captors. A Falcon Chance! What do you say Ness?" Falcon asked, placing his hands dramatically on his hips.

"I say…PK FIRE!" Ness shouted, jabbing both hands forward.

What looked like a multi-colored miniature lightning bolt shot out of both hands at Falcon and Luigi, who both rolled away from the attack. Where the bolts hit the ground, six-foot high columns of flame erupted.
"Looks like I'm going to have to beat some sense in you. Falcon Sense!"
"Falcon, stop talking about beating sense into people…and just do it!" Luigi said, charging for Ness.

Ness rolled under Luigi's initial punch, but Falcon's leg caught him in the face, snapping his head back. A side kick from Luigi then knocked the diminutive psychic forward again, right into an elbow from Falcon.

Ness flew far from the elbow, but in midair he managed to use some of his psychic abilities to straighten himself out, and with a cry of "PK Thunder!" Ness shot out a blue line of lightning that ended in a glowing sphere that crackled with psychic energy. Slowing his fall Ness directed the bolt to hit him from behind, the psychic energy temporarily turning Ness into a powerful missile that slammed into Captain Falcon's chest, sending him flying towards the edge of their floating platform.

Before Ness could revel in his success, Luigi shot into him head first from the side, like some kind of green missile. Ness was launched towards a charging Falcon and was hit by a…well, Falcon can describe it better.

"Falcon Punch!" Falcon shouted, thrusting his fist forward, a flaming falcon appearing around it, and smashed Ness in the chest. The mighty blow drove Ness to the ground where he lay struggling to move.

"No…I…must…recover!"
"No, we must restrain," Luigi said, grabbing Ness and holding his arms down…although Luigi knew if Ness had any fight left in him that holding him down wouldn't stop him from fighting back. However, the beating he took seemed to have drained him of energy, and indeed, several of his facial features looked like they would be drained of their current appearance as large bruises were already starting to form.

"Well, that'll teach him," Falcon said, quite proud of himself.

Luigi ignored Falcon and turned his head towards the sky.

"The fight's over! No one won! It was a tie! Are you happy now?"

"Luigi…I'm over here, not in the sky. Pay attention to the one who Falcon Punched the way to victory! My moves were showed! Ha ha ha!" Falcon said, still reeling with self-pride.

Before either could say anything else, the mysterious…yet familiar voice boomed again.

"Oh yes…I am very happy. And since it was a tie, well…"

"I know, no one wins, right? So we're still trapped?" Luigi asked sarcastically.

"On the contrary. Since it was a tie…everyone wins. And you get to be free. From here," the voice said, before laughing maniacally.

"Wow…there really is a voice," Falcon said.

"Yeah, I know. But what does it mean by," Luigi started to say before the ground moved beneath him.

"What was that?" Falcon said, struggling to stay on his feet as the stage jerked to the right.

"I-if I knew I would-"

The stage suddenly flipped upside down, dropping the three shrieking into the bright, blue abyss…

In the Endful Pit…

"We need to get out of here!" Diddy shouted.

"We know, we know!" Samus said, attempting to stay calm.

"There's no exits, no escape, no nothing!" Raichu yelled, after a frantic search by everyone revealed that they were indeed trapped.

"Samus, is there any way for you to call your ship down and get us out of here?" Meta Knight asked.

Samus paused for a moment, as if considering the request, but with another unpleasant lurch the platform they were on dropped several feet. Samus shook her head.

"We don't have enough time…and it couldn't blow its way in here anyways."

Link suddenly spun towards Bario.

"Bario! You can get us out of here!"
"I can?"
"Yes! Make a portal! Fast!"
"Make one? Where?" Bario asked, off-put by the demands.

"It doesn't matter! Just do it!"
"But if I don't know where to send us, we could end up anywhere!"
"Like that matters NOW!" Link said, gesturing to the lava.

"Oh…right," Bario said, abashed.
The others backed off as he clasped his hands in front of him. In seconds a purple sphere started to appear in front of his hands. Before it could grow however, there was a tremendous scraping noise…and a massive metal object crashed through one of the rock walls, its pointed front enabling it to shatter the rock easily.

"HOLY H-KITTENS BARIO-MAN!" Falco said in complete and total pants-wetting surprise.

"What did you just say?" Bario asked, the sphere dissipating as he lost his concentration.

"What is that?" Raichu asked.

His question was not answered as gallons upon gallons of icy, cold ocean water came pouring through the massive crack the object had created. It splashed into the magma seething only a few feet beneath their feet, and the entire chamber soon filled with steam.

"No way," Diddy said in shock, "That's K. Rool's personal submarine-the Knautilus!"

"What's it doing here?" Link demanded as more and more water gushed into the chamber.

"I have no idea!"
There was a loud whirring noise as the Knautilus attempted to pull out of the hole it created, but the awkward downward angle and the gallons of water pouring in from the sides made it difficult.

"Well," Bario said, as the steam started to fade, "Looks like we don't have to worry about the lava anymore."

The others followed his gaze and saw that while the platform was still dropping slowly, water was coming up over the sides. Hot water, but at least it wasn't lava. All the lava appeared to have had solidified when it came in contact with the cold water.

"Well, that's great…but we still need to get out of here, so what do we do?" Link asked, looking pointedly at Bario.

"Well…," Bario started to say, before a creaking noise sounded and the Knautilus jerked forward several feet, widening the hole and allowing more water to gush in.

"If you have any ideas, now would be a great time to TELL US!" Falco shouted.

"We have to get on top of the Knautilus!" Bario said as water reached up to his knees and was rising fast.

"How? It's too high," Samus said, as indeed, the bottom part of the Knautilus was about twenty feet over their heads.

"Simple. We swim." Bario stated.

Inside the Knautilus…

K. Rool frantically yanked at the controls but no matter what he did he couldn't move his sub out of the hole he created.

"Krap!" K. Rool said, slamming his mighty fist down on the panel, "I just wanted to stop them from dying, not trap my vehicle here! YOU!" K. Rool shouted pointing at one of his trembling minions.

"Y-yes your Kruddiness?" The Kremling asked respectfully, lowering his head.

"Get us out of here!"
"I'm sorry your Kingliness, but this vehicle was not designed for crashing through sixteen feet of solid rock and then removing itself afterwards. It's not possible!" the Kremling said, nearly quaking in fear.

"Not the answer I wanted to hear!" K. Rool said, grabbing the Kremling by its throat and hoisting the hapless creature up.

"Please sir, there is not-nothing I-I c-c-can do!" the Kremling squeaked.

With a growl of rage K. Rool flung the Kremling at a glass case on the floor. The glass shattered and the Kremling flopped onto a red button that had been inside the glass. There was a bright flash and K. Rool smiled.

"Let's hope that does what it's supposed to."
The other Kremlings stared in horror at their unconscious companion, but a glare from K. Rool sent them flying back to work.

"Get this thing out of here!" K. Rool said, storming towards a door in the back of the chamber.

"Where are you going sir?" One of the braver Kremlings asked.

"I'm going to pay a visit to our friends," K. Rool said, his grin widening.

In the rapidly growing lake…

With the continued downward motion of the platform, and the rapidly increasing water growth the Smashers were soon paddling frantically to stay afloat.

"I hope this fills fast, because this gear is not making swimming very easy," Link said, struggling hard to stay swimming.

"Okeydokey!" Mario said, clasping his cape on and floating out of the water.

"What are you-hey!" Link shouted as Mario grabbed him and carried him towards the Knautilus.

Falco was also having difficulty staying afloat, as his body was not designed for sustained swimming.

"Help!" Falco yelled, before bobbing beneath the surface.

"Remain calm," Meta Knight stated, flapping out of the water and towards Falco.

"Easy for you to say!" Falco spluttered, paddling his way back up.

"Hold on," Meta said, flying low enough for Falco to grab onto his body.
"Are you sure you can-AGH!" Falco said as Meta easily lifted the bird into the air.

"You have hollow bones," Meta stated, "So your weight is quite low."
"Uh…thanks, I guess."
Diddy grinned at Raichu.

"Will it work wet?" Raichu asked, nervous about the idea Diddy had in mind.

"Here's hoping," Diddy said, paddling towards his friend and wrapping his tail around him. With a quick leap Diddy was in the air, and activating his jetpack…which apparently worked fine wet.

Kirby floated up after them and the seven Smashers dropped down in various stages of grace on top of the Knautilus. Momentarily frightened that the occupants of the submarine would try to shake them off Diddy made sure to grab on quickly to the slick wet metal surface of the sub. That fear quickly vanished soon though as nothing happened. Apparently the occupants weren't interested in removing their "passengers."

Bario and Samus were the only ones left in the water now, and while Bario was an adequate swimmer, Samus was clearly an exceptional one. Her Zero-Suit allowed a range of movement for her that enabled her to easily stay atop the now warm shifting waters, while Bario had to struggle to avoid getting water in his mouth.

"Come on," Samus said, gesturing towards the Knautilus, which was rapidly approaching, and raising her Paralyzer.

"What…oh!" Bario said, splashing towards her.

Link leaned over the side to see if Samus needed help…only to see Bario wrap his arms around her waist as she shot her yellow energy whip up towards the Knautilus. It grabbed on and pulled the two up and over the side. As soon as they were safely on the ground, Bario let go with a vaguely embarrassed look. Link glared at him, but a sudden lurch from the Knautilus prevented any kind of communication.

"We need to get moving!" Bario said, taking charge, "We'll have to try and swim through the hole on top of the ship!"

"Agreed," Meta said, his wide feet easily finding purchase on the treacherous ground.

The others nodded, and with varying degrees of success the Smashers plodded up the top of the Knautilus as water poured in from all sides of the hole.
As they neared the hole the force of the water became greater, and it took all their strength not to be blown off the Knautilus, although with another lurch the sub jerked up, essentially plugging the hole…and allowing the water to shoot through the bottom that much faster.

"Great! Now what do we do?" Falco asked, as everyone dropped to the top of the Knautilus, grabbing onto some of its grooves and rivets.

"I don't know," Bario said, a look of concern on his face, their only escape completely unreachable.

Suddenly the Knautilus jerked back, and with the sound of a thousand angry kittens rubbing their tails on sandpaper, it screeched back through the opening it created.
"Oh crud…everyone jump!" Diddy said, realizing that they would be scraped off by the top of the hole.

Following his lead they all jumped back into the water that was now halfway up the hole. They weren't in the water long before the Knautilus put on an extra burst of speed and shot backwards out of the hole…dragging the Smashers with it.

The force of the sudden vacuum sucked the Smashers through and soon they were completely submerged in the ocean, and their momentum quickly placed them a few feet over a rapidly sinking Knautilus.

Apparently the force required to get it out of its prison caused it to scrape on the rock walls, opening up several shallow tears in the submarine, and filling with water it was quickly dipping deeper into the ocean.

However the Smashers cared little about the state of the sub as they paddled frantically to reach the surface. They were easily more than sixty feet below the ocean's surface, and while Samus and Mario were powering through the water, several of the others were not doing so well…and Link and Falco were actually starting to sink.

Things looked bad for them until a hatch opened up on the top of the Knautilus and a green…something, came shooting up at a ridiculous speed. It slammed into all nine of the Smashers and propelled them upwards. The force of the impact was lessened because of the impact, but they were still all stunned as the large green vehicle carried them to "safety".

They reached the surface in seconds, and with a quick shake, the vehicle dumped its passengers back into the water where they frantically swam towards solid ground. Before any of them could do anything, the vehicle flew to the top of the fortress and vanished from view as it set down on the roof.

The Smashers reached the edge of the island the fortress was on, and with everyone helping they managed to get even the poor swimmers onto dry land. They took a minute to catch a breather, but a loud cheering from the roof caused them to turn their attention to that.

"Diddy…what's that noise?" Raichu asked.

"I don't know…but it sounds really familiar," Diddy said, straining to remember.

"There has to be some way up there," Bario said, looking at the wall of the fortress.
The gray stone was smooth and solid, and the fortress itself was far too high for most of them to jump…even Kirby wouldn't reach the top. Bario started to walk to see where the fortress looped…and that's where he found it.

"Hey! Everyone! Over here!" Bario called from just out of sight.

Startled everyone ran over and saw Bario…staring at the fortress wall.

"What?" Link asked, still apparently angry with Bario.

"Look!"
They looked.
"A ladder?" Samus said, surprised by the convenience.

There was indeed a ladder that appeared to be attached at the top. Link walked over to it and ran his fingers over its wooden slats.

"No dust. This was just dropped down."
"What's that mean?" Falco asked.

"It means K. Rool wants us to climb this ladder. He wants us up there," Meta said, staring at the roof of the fortress.

"Should we?" Raichu asked.

"This could be our chance to finish off another tyrant," Bario said.

"Yeah, but that's not really what we're trying to do," Link said.

"It isn't? What are we trying to do then?" Diddy asked sharply.

"I thought we were trying to take down Master Hand," Link said, surprised by Diddy's vehemence.

"We are…and the best way to do that is to get rid of his support," Bario said, "and I'm betting K. Rool is one of his biggest supporters."
"I say we go for it," Samus said.

"What? Why?" Link asked, surprised.

"I think we can take him…and one less villain is one less thing to worry about later," Samus said.

Link seemed upset about the prospect of fighting K. Rool, but he acknowledged that his feelings against it existed mostly because Bario wanted to do it. But if Samus wanted to do it too…

"Fine."
"Let's go," Diddy said, clearly anxious to finish this.

Without another word he leapt up the rickety ladder and began to climb, closely followed by the others. One by one they climbed…and one by one they reached the top.

As soon as they reached the top the cheering stopped. Diddy immediately leapt forward and pulled out his peanut popguns, and everyone else upon seeing what was waiting for them followed his lead. They formed a tight circle, weapons ready, but reluctant to make the first move.

The roof was covered with dozens…no, more than a hundred of K. Rool's minions. Kritters, also more broadly known as Kremlings were the standard minions and they were numerous, their man-sized bulk and sharp claws gave them a menacing appearance.

There were also Klaptraps, which were low slung blue alligator like creatures, with a mouth full of sharp teeth that was literally half of the creature's body.

A few Klumps, huge brown Kremlings boasting a distended belly and an army helmet were scattered around as well.

Rounding out the swarm of baddies were dark coated blue Kremlings that had a wide variety of hair colors…the mere fact that they had hair was surprising. These ones were called Kasplats, keeping up the tradition of "K" names.

Easily one hundred of these creatures were visible on the roof, and more might have been hidden from view by the massive boxing arena set up in the middle. Yes. Boxing arena.

The Kremlings made no motion to attack, and the Smashers relaxed their guards. By about an inch. Raichu may have stopped producing a volt or two! That's how relaxed they were! A piece of hair on Link's face shifted, and he didn't bother to react! EXTREMELY RELAXED!
Anyways their attention was drawn to King K. Rool who was standing in the middle of the boxing arena, cloak discarded, apparently replaced by his idea of boxing shorts and shirt. Rounding it off were the bright red boxing gloves on his hands. He might have looked silly…if he wasn't so frighteningly big.

"Welcome to our final arena," K. Rool said, his booming voice echoing around the fortress walls.

"What are you doing?" Diddy demanded.

"Isn't it obvious? We're going to have our final showdown, and I will get rid of you bothersome pests like I would get rid of…something else that is bothersome!" K. Rool said, having apparently not thought out his similes.

"So what's up with the arena?" Falco asked.

"It's simple. I'm going to take you all on one at a time. If any one of you manage to beat me, my loyal subjects will stand down, and we'll all go our separate ways."
"And if one us loses?" Bario asked.

"Then you're all dead," K. Rool said with a grin. His lackeys snorted and chuckled at that, as if that was the funniest thing they had heard from their boss. The sad part was that it probably was.

"What's to stop us from all attacking you now?" Link demanded, pointing his sword at K. Rool.

"Then my minions will attack…and you will all die anyways."
At that the Kremling horde snarled and gnashed their teeth.

"If that's true…then I guess we have no choice," Bario said, lowering his weapons.

"That's right, you don't!" K. Rool said gleefully.

"But we're going to take our chances anyways!" Bario finished diving towards a pair of close Kritters and slicing their heads off.

Following his lead the other Smashers charged forward attacking in a tight-knit group, killing several of the Kremlings before they could even retaliate.

"What?" K. Rool roared, his voice causing the arena to shake, "How dare you?! KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL!"
With a collective roar the Kremling army ran to the nine Smashers, determined to rip them limb from limb.

The Smashers retaliated by beating the crap out of them. Meta's sword strikes, coupled with Link's and Bario's kept the Kremlings back as many lost limbs and lives to the dangerous weapons.

Samus, Kirby and Falco danced through the Kremlings, their attacks more damaging than deadly, but they helped prevent the Kremlings from swarming. Their speed and physical prowess had more than one foe on their knees.

Most of Diddy's attacks weren't strong enough to finish off the Kremlings, but he distracted them long enough for Raichu to blast them with powerful bolts of electricity.

Mario was in his own class, possessing great speed and strength it seemed he didn't even need his hammer as with one great blow he crushed a Klump's skull, helmet and all and followed that off by scorching three Kritters with firebombs.

The Kremlings were not without their own resources however. The Kritters weren't much good for more than being meat-shields, but their enthusiasm and numbers made them dangerous.

The Klaptraps sharp teeth were bad, but the true danger came when they took enough damage. They appeared to die, but in reality their body disintegrated, leaving behind only the quick-moving snapping teeth. They were fragile, but Link already had one take a bite out of his leg, and more were appearing as the Klaptraps literally threw themselves at the Smashers.

The Klumps could take a lot of damage, and not only did they attack with powerful punches and kicks, but they also threw a weaker green version of Diddy's orange grenades, and Kirby was already slightly burned from coming to close to one.

The Kasplats were easily the most dangerous of the Kremlings. They were strong and fast enough to at least trade a few blows with the Smashers, and they often attacked by slamming their large gloved fists into the ground, creating a large shockwave.
Fortunately the Kremlings did not work very well together, and more often than not they ended up hitting each other with grenades or shockwaves…but there were enough of them that it didn't really matter.

The Smashers on the hand, worked together fantastically. All the fighting, both alone and together had transformed this group from a handful of powerful warriors to one of the deadliest teams in this world…and the next. Each one looked out for each other, and when Diddy was about to be stomped on by a Klump, a high kick by Falco prevented it. When Samus was battling a Kasplat, Kirby jumped over and smacked it with his hammer. They were unstoppable…and winning. And K. Rool knew it.

He roared again and started stomping towards the ropes of his arena, determined to join the fight, when Diddy and Raichu hopped up in front of him.

"Sorry K. Rool, but you were right. This is the "Final Showdown", and I'm going to finish you once and for all!" Diddy stated, holstering his popguns and pulling out his guitar.

"You'll try…but you'll fail and meet your final destiny!" K. Rool declared, before throwing a fist at Diddy that was as large as the chimp.

Diddy easily side-stepped the slow attack and slammed his guitar into the fist. However, while K. Rool may be slow, he was also tough and with the added protection from the gloves, he didn't even feel the blow.
He did feel the bolt of lightning Raichu shot at him from his cheeks. K. Rool shrieked in pain and dashed forward, his bulk sending both flying.
They recovered quickly and landed on their feet, although they were shaken by the power K. Rool possessed. They faced each other on opposite ends of the arena, shouts and grunts from the battle taking place around them caused none of them to flinch. With a grin K. Rool leapt into the air…and dropped down hard, creating a massive green shockwave.
It shot out in all directions, quickly crossing the expanse of the arena. Diddy and Raichu managed to leap over it…but the second shockwave following immediately afterwards knocked both flat.

With a wide grin K. Rool stomped towards both felled combatants. They tried to get up, but knew they wouldn't be able to avoid his next strike and they would be crushed. Diddy and Raichu braced themselves…and a flaming meteor slammed into K. Rool's face with enough force to send him leaning back.

Well at least it looked like a meteor. A second later it was revealed to be Falco using that fire ability of his. He back-flipped off K. Rool's face and started pelting him with weak, but painful laser bolts.

"GRAAGH!" K. Rool yelled, swinging wildly, but Falco dodged it easily.
Raichu and Diddy both got up, but a shout from outside their arena drew their attention.

"AGH!"

Turning towards the shout they saw Samus holding a bleeding wound on her arm, Paralyzer forgotten beside her. The shards of teeth beside her made it obvious that a Klaptrap managed to get to her before she destroyed it.

A quick glance revealed the situation wasn't good. While the Smashers had managed to kill or incapacitate at least sixty of the Kremlings, a good chunk of the more powerful ones remained, and with Diddy, Raichu and now Falco preoccupied with K. Rool the other six were surrounded.
Diddy evaluated the situation in an instant and leaped over the ropes and towards the Smashers. Hopping over the heads of the Kremlings he joined them in the circle and said only a quick command.

"Stay DOWN!"
He then leapt into the air…and started playing his guitar. Realizing immediately what he was doing the Smashers dropped…as a massive sound wave emanated from the guitar. The force of it was so great that it was actually visible as a red star that swept through the Kremling ranks, taking them apart. Fortunately the attack missed the Smashers, with it not quite reaching far enough to hit those in the arena, nor low enough to hit the others.

In moments the attack was done, and with the exception of a few to low to be hit Klaptraps all the Kremlings were dead, having had their bodies literally beaten by sound waves. A few magic balls from Bario and an arrow from Link finished off the Klaptraps and in one swift stroke all of K. Rool's army was gone…although now Diddy's guitar was smoking.

Realizing he wouldn't be able to use it for a while as that attack seriously drained its power he pocketed it and pulled out his popguns. He turned back to K. Rool who was attempting to hit the agile Falco and Raichu, and failing miserably. The sound of Diddy's guitar caused him to look up, and see that his army was gone.

"What? Impossible!" K. Rool said, quite shocked.

"Give up K. Rool, we beat your minions, and we're going to beat you!" Diddy said, leaping back up to the arena.

"Oh really?" K. Rool answered, a toothy grin appearing on his face.

Without another word he pulled out a remote with several buttons on it from his shorts pocket. Still grinning he pressed one of the buttons with relish.

A loud whirring noise drew the Smashers attention to a large vehicle on the far corner of the roof. A cursory glance revealed that it was the green, vaguely crocodilian shaped vehicle that had propelled them out of the ocean.

The whirring was the result of a hatch opening up on the side of the ship. And out of the hatch poured out ten of K. Rool's deadliest minions…Krusha's.

They were about the general size and shape of Kasplats, although their muscles were more visible as they had replaced the black coats with sleeveless camo muscle shirts. Each one also carried what looked like a hollow log.

"This isn't even close to being over!" K. Rool stated, "Now ATTACK!"
The Krusha's grunted in acknowledgement, and began firing exploding oranges from their weapons.

"Ah!" Bario said, barely avoiding an explosion.

K. Rool laughed as the Smashers on the roof frantically attempted to dodge the dangerous attack, but his laugh was abruptly silenced when several peanuts hit him in the face. Growling he turned towards a defiant Diddy. Several small balls of electricity and laser bolts pelted him too, but he ignored them and threw a mighty punch at Diddy.

Diddy easily dodged it and flipped away from K. Rool, firing the whole way. K. Rool snarled and threw another punch, which Diddy didn't even attempt to dodge as he was too far away to be hit…or so he thought.

Diddy realized too late that K. Rool had thrown his glove, and the massive red object slammed into the chimp hard enough to send him skidding across the arena. He managed to hear Raichu cry out his name…before all went black.

Somewhere that is not where the place that was mentioned before is…

Diddy felt like he woke up almost instantly. A quick look around revealed that he had no idea where he was, but it felt really familiar.

The trees around him were like that of his home, but he was in a clearing that he knew he had never been in before. The sky was as dark as night, but there wasn't a single star or moon in the sky…yet Diddy could see everything around him quite clearly.

He could see clearly enough to see something standing at the far end of the clearing. Blinking his eyes, not daring to believe he started to run towards the figure, holstering his peanut guns so that he could dash on all fours.

He reached the figure in moments, but he knew long before he reached it who it was. It was her.

"Dixie?" Diddy said, staying a few feet away, not daring to believe.

"Diddy?" Dixie said, sounding even more startled than he was to see him, her high voice cracking with stress, "What are you doing here?"
"I thought…I thought you were dead," Diddy managed to say.

"Diddy! You can't stay here! It's not safe!"
"I'm not leaving you! Not again!"

"Diddy! He's coming! HE IS COMING!" Dixie screamed.

"Who?"
With a roar a massive creature tore out of the jungle and stomped towards them. It was Bowser, but he seemed even grumpier than usual. Diddy stepped between Dixie and Bowser and pulled out his guns.

"Out of my way monkeys! I'm not here for you!" Bowser stated, his words sounding frighteningly familiar to Diddy.

"No way! You aren't getting past me!"
"Like you can stop me?" Bowser said.

"I'm going to try!"

Bowser grinned at that, and then with a roar of frightening power…he began to grow. His horns lengthened and curved, his visible scales grew more armored sections, his tail elongated and his snout became more bestial. In a matter of seconds he was as tall as most of the trees, and a good deal bigger. This was Giga Bowser, second only to Master Hand in power.

Dixie let out a small shriek at the sight, and Diddy shook in utter terror…but he managed to aim his guns at Giga's head and open fire as he stomped towards them again.

As Giga ignored the attack he heard Dixie doing something behind him. Turning around he saw her readying her weapon…a crossbow that fired red feathers. It was the same kind as the one Dixie's sister Tiny used, just slightly bigger. The feathers were even weaker than the peanuts, but they fired faster, and because of their pointed tips, they actually stuck inside their victims, causing more pain if they tried to brush them out.

Dixie began shooting her weapon, but in a single quick movement Giga leaned down and knocked Diddy aside with one massive claw as he wrapped his hands around Dixie.

Diddy was sent twenty feet away by Giga's brush-off but he managed to turn himself around after hitting the ground. He saw Giga raise Dixie to his mouth with a casual strength as she frantically fired red feathers at Giga and without even a roar he tossed her into her mouth.

Her shriek fell silent as she disappeared down the monster's gullet, and her name died in Diddy's throat. With a shake of his head, Giga sent the crossbow that was stuck in his teeth flying. It hit the ground by Diddy and shattered, leaving behind a few scattered red feathers.

Diddy grabbed one, and aimed his peanut guns at Giga, determined that this time, he would get Dixie back…but before Diddy could open fire, Giga turned towards Diddy, and he froze in terror.

"What now? You still dare to challenge me?" Giga Bowser asked disdainfully.

Diddy struggled to come back with some kind of witty retort, but the same fear that had prevented him from giving chase to Giga the first time this terrible ordeal happened held him back now.

"I didn't think so," Giga said.

Diddy groaned with internal disappointment. He knew that now Giga would leave, his task complete, although Diddy had no idea why Giga Bowser wanted to kill Dixie.
However Giga surprised Diddy by letting out a sharp grunt of surprise…and pain.

Giga slowly turned his brutish head down and stared at his stomach. Diddy harbored a brief hope that Dixie had somehow survived and was now attacking the inside of the monster that swallowed her…but that thought was quickly dispelled when a silver shard of metal burst through his armored stomach in a spray of crimson blood.
The object appeared very small, but Diddy soon realized that was only because Giga's massive girth dwarfed it. The object looked familiar, but Diddy couldn't quite place it. And the thing trailing behind it was definitely not familiar.

It was a thick dark purple tentacle tinged with streaks of black. The tendril of dark energy appeared to be controlling the shard of metal, because after wriggling around a little bit it retracted back through Giga, causing him to groan in pain.

Angry now, Giga started to turn around, determined to face whatever dare hurt him so, although his stomach was leaking vital fluids. However when he saw what had damaged him he let out a frightened shriek and started to back up.

He wasn't fast enough though, and soon more shards of metal, connected by the strands of dark energy whipped through his body. Dozens appeared, originating from a point blocked from Diddy's view by Giga's massive body. Like kittens insane with a violent rage they tore through Giga, creating a whirling mass of silver shards and twining tendrils.

Giga Bowser let out a few more yells, but he was silenced, and in seconds he was nothing more than a bloody pile of meat.

Diddy stared at his fallen foe in shock, and as he watched, the tendrils and shards were absorbed into a shapeless purple mass about the size of a man. The mass sent out several tentacles that began to disintegrate and absorb what was left of Giga. In a short while, even the pile of gore had vanished.

Frozen by more than just fear, Diddy could only watch as the mass moved closer, rapidly covering the ground between them. As it progressed forward, the upper portion of the mass began to slowly fade away, revealing a human-like face.

Despite being able to make out the eyes, nose and mouth the face was shrouded in shadow, and Diddy knew he did not want to see who it belonged to. He struggled to turn, to run, to scream, but some mysterious power held him fast and soon the being stood before him.

It raised a tentacle that flowed back to reveal a hand obscured by darkness, and as it reached towards Diddy the being spoke three words that sent an unholy dread through Diddy.

"I AM KIDAR!"

Now back to the location this was set at previously…

Diddy snapped awake with a start, to see that K. Rool was squaring off against Falco, Raichu, and Mario, while the rest were battling the Krusha's. Diddy, covered in a cold sweat, struggled to get over the nightmare, while Link skewered a Krusha.

Raichu spotted Diddy's consciousness quickly, and stopped his attack long to ask Diddy if he was alright.
"Yeah, yeah…Yes!" Diddy said, pulling out his guns.

K. Rool frowned at this development, and after swatting away a punch from Mario, he pulled out his remote device and hit a button. Immediately the green air-based vehicle the Krusha's had come out of lifted into the air and turned towards those battling the Krusha's.

"Let's see how you handle several tons of Kremling Kraft slamming into you," K. Rool muttered with a touch of glee.

The Kraft hovered quickly, its massive size becoming quite apparent, and it soon was almost directly above and behind K. Rool. Diddy, Raichu and Falco all seemed paralyzed by the fear that as soon as they moved K. Rool would launch the Kraft and extremely maim, if not kill their friends who were battling the Krusha's, completely oblivious to the threat literally looming over them.

Mario, however was not paralyzed. With a small grin, he gathered his hands together, almost as if he was holding something. K. Rool sent a small glance in Mario's direction, but not sure what was going on, he failed to act. Big mistake.

Mario began to glow a fiery red and a fireball started to appear in his hands. Soon he wasn't glowing, but was actually flaming, and the ground he was on began to smoke. In one quick movement he shot his hands forward…and all hell broke loose.

"Here we go!" Mario shouted, his yell attracting the attention of the five battling the remaining Krusha's.
Out of his hands massive twin tongues of flame flew out, swirling around each other, each the size of Mario and a lot wider. The air around them was scorched and the entire cylinder of flame was surrounded by sparks of fire. The attack slammed into K. Rool, sending him flying insanely far…and then it crashed into the Kraft.

The blast caused the mighty Kraft to shudder and shake, and for several seconds it seemed like it would be able to resist the forces pummeling it…but then it just seemed to fall apart.

Blackened and smoking from the damage from Mario's Firestorm the pieces of the Kraft fell towards where the engines were about to send it…to those battling the Krusha's, and it seemed as if Mario's tremendous show of strength would do nothing to save his companions.

However, Mario's yell had given them enough time to get out of the path, and the only things that were hit by the Kraft were the surviving Krusha's. Those that weren't Krushed instantly were dragged screaming and resisting by the sliding chunks of the Kraft off the side of the fortress and to their watery grave.

The Smashers quickly regrouped on the boxing ring, and it didn't take long for them to start congratulating Mario.

"Nice!" Falco said, quite impressed.

"I didn't know you could do that!" Link said, surprised.

"Thank you for that," Samus said, grateful.

The others echoed similar words of praise and gratitude. They were all a little bruised and banged, but overall they seemed to have come through the battles mostly unharmed. They should have known it wasn't over.

With a roar of rage K. Rool leapt up, his skin singed almost black, and chunks of his clothing were still burning. His boxing gloves had melted off, leaving deep red grooves on his clawed hands. He started to stomp forward, but stopped when all nine Smashers aimed their weapons at him.

"This is it!" Diddy said, all memory of the nightmare shoved to the back of his mind.

It seemed as if K. Rool was finished, as he was too weak to really put up much of a fight…and he knew it. He looked about to surrender…when he began to laugh.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ah aha ha!" K. Rool said, his belly quivering from the force of his maniacal cackle.

"Your actions…don't make any sense," Meta said, confused.

Unfortunately for the Smashers, they did. Five bursts of blue lasers suddenly shot at the Smashers feet and they jumped back. With a laugh that made K. Rool's seem puny a massive white object, easily the size of the tyrant floated over the Smashers and stopped behind K. Rool, before turning and revealing itself as…

"Master Hand!" Bario said, quite surprised.

K. Rool's laughing continued, but it was more confident now. The Smashers recovered quickly, but they looked reluctant to begin a battle against both K. Rool and Master Hand.
Before they could attack, Master Hand made a decision for them. With a loud expulsion of energy he created a massive portal that was directly behind him, and a little farther behind K. Rool.

"You tried, you really did," K. Rool stated with a self-satisfied smirk, "But it looks like we'll have to call this one a draw. Bye!"
K. Rool turned and started to walk towards the portal, confident that the others would be unable to stop him. Master Hand floated down a bit, still facing K. Rool and the Smashers, and it appeared that it would be using the portal first. K. Rool stopped to let his boss continue ahead of him.

"No!" Diddy said, "I'm not letting him get away! Not now!"
Diddy put away one of his peanut guns and placed both hands around the other. Flipping a small switch on the side, the gun soon started to shake. In a few seconds the gun was vibrating like crazy. Diddy pushed the trigger…and the gun exploded, shredding Diddy's hands with shards of wood, and nearly impaling Raichu in the face with a four inch long piece of the destroyed peanut gun.

"AGH!" Diddy cried, falling to the ground and curling his bleeding hands together.

"What?!" Raichu shouted, a cry that was echoed by many of the others.
However that wasn't the only thing that happened. With the speed of a missile powered by kittens on strength-increasing drugs a single peanut flew from the gun…straight at K. Rool. Unfortunately the vibrations from the gun had thrown Diddy's aim off slightly, and the attack looked like it was about to miss.

It didn't. Its movements obscured by K. Rool, Master Hand stretched its fingers forward and gave K. Rool a small nudge, sending him into the path of the attack.

"What was-" was all K. Rool managed to say before the peanut slammed into the back of his thin and small cranium, and plowed out through the other side, spraying blood, bone and pieces of brain. K. Rool was dead in an instant.

Before his massive carcass hit the ground it exploded into pink dust, which was powerful enough to heal all the wounds, even Diddy's, although it did not restore his weapon. Samus thought she glimpsed some dark purple dust, but it vanished too quickly for her to be sure.

"Looks like things are a little more even now," Bario said, as refreshed as everyone else from the healing energies.

"Let's finish it!" Raichu said, eager to take on Master Hand.

Master Hand was in no mood for battle though, and with a laugh it pointed at the portal, causing it to vanish. Before the others could attack, the Hand pointed at the ground beneath them…creating another portal beneath their feet.

They didn't even have a chance to shout out. The Smashers fell into the portal…and as they fell, Master Hand's laugh deepened…