Clash of the Smashers

Chapter Thirty-Nine: The King, the Birdy, and the Ball of Puff

The journey through the portal was quick. The Smashers had little time to take in their surroundings, which hadn't changed much since their last portal jump, before they were dumped rather rudely at the foot of a large hill.

They landed in a jumbled mess, and it took several minutes for them to untangle themselves, at which point the portal had vanished.

They took a moment to look around in the hopes that they would be able to figure out where they were now. They were on an expansive green field that went on for miles in either direction, with decent sized trees breaking up the monotony of the endless grass. Yellow, plant-like lumps were stationed at various points on the hill. The hill started a few feet in front of them, went up quite a ways, and at the top was what looked like a fortress of some kind.

It was far smaller than K. Rool's fortress, and it was a light brown color. The somewhat impressive front doors had a circular face-like symbol above them, although what it was supposed to be was unclear. Black, circular things rested on the roof. After they got a chance to look around, both Kirby's and Meta Knight's eyes widened in recognition.

"This is Pop Star!" Meta stated.

"Kirby's and Meta's home?" Bario said, confused, "But why would Master Hand send us here?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Link asked. When the others just looked confused, Link sighed and continued, "Clearly this is another place that the Hands have managed to recruit villains, and they're hoping to stop us here."
"Oh. Well, we better get going then," Raichu said, as a silent Diddy nodded.

"Going where?" Samus asked.

"To kill whoever is waiting for us here," Falco said, looking eager to keep moving.

"What? Why?" Link demanded.

"Do you even have to ask?" Bario said, surprised that Link seemed to be against killing more "bad guys."
"Obviously," Link stated, "Why would we waste time killing these guys, especially if it's what Master Hand wants us to do?"

"Because they're bad!" Raichu said, "Why wouldn't we take care of them?"

"Because I don't think we should waste any more time. I think we should go to where Master Hand, Crazy Hand and all the rest are…I think we should go to the Smashing Realm," Link said.

"What?!" everyone shouted, with the exception of Mario and Kirby, who just looked surprised.

"Where's that?" Raichu asked.

"It's this place between dimensions where we battled the hands previously," Link answered, "And I'll bet that's where they are now."

"How are we supposed to get there?" Falco asked.

"Simple," Samus said, "Bario will make a portal."
"What?" Bario said again, more surprised by Samus's approval of Link's idea than by her suggestion.

"You can do it can't you?" Link asked, warming to the idea.

"Well, yeah, but…I don't think we should places like this unattended. Who knows what damage the villains will cause if we leave!"
"And who knows what they'll do if we stay!" Diddy said, seeing the other side of the argument, and trying to push the events that happened in the final battle with K. Rool to the back of his mind.

"I do not want to leave my home in the control of whatever monstrosity is terrorizing it," Meta said, rather coldly.

"Yeah!" Raichu said, "We cleaned up your worlds! It's only fair we keep doing it!"
"It's not about fair!" Diddy said, "It's about the bigger picture, and there are a lot more people than just us involved in this!"
"I do not want to leave!" Meta said.

"Well I think we should!" Link responded.

Everyone started talking and yelling at once, and it might have blown into a fist-fight, if a yell from Bario didn't shut them all up.

"Be quiet!"
They stopped and stared at Bario. Before any of them could start arguing again Bario made a suggestion.

"How about we take a vote?"

"A vote?" Link said, surprised by the idea.

"Yes. This is a big decision, and I think everyone deserves to have a say in what we do…so should we go…or stay? Link?" Bario asked.

"I think we should go."
"One for leaving…Meta Knight?"
"Stay."
"Leave," Diddy said.

"Stay!" Raichu said at the same time.

Mario indicated that he would like to stay.

"Leave," Samus said.

"I think we should…leave," Falco said, surprising several of the others, "I really do want to finish this."

Kirby indicated that he would like to go to the Smashing Realm, leaving the vote at five for leaving and three for staying.
"Well…I would like to stay…but it looks like it's already been decided," Bario said in a defeated tone, "I'll try and make the portal."

Bario raised his hands and a purple light started to emanate from them. Link and Diddy's eyes widened as they made a connection with the light…and something else they had seen. Before either could say anything, a loud screeching sound shattered Bario's concentration.

The ball he was creating melted back into the ether and the Smashers turned around just in time for a huge metallic looking bird with rainbow-colored feathers swoop down…and grab Samus in its talons. Shrieking again it flew up and away towards the fortress at the top of the hill, with Samus yelling more in anger and frustration than anything else.

The Smashers stared in surprise and shock for several seconds before Meta Knight whispered "Dynablade," in a stunned voice. Without another word the group charged up the hill.

In the clutches of Dynablade…

"Let me go you stupid bird!" Samus yelled smacking one of her hands on the leg that was holding her…and immediately regretting it, as her unarmored hand struck the distinctly metallic leg of her captor.

She struggled for a bit after that, attempting to reach the Paralyzer on her belt but the way she was being held made that impossible. Resigned she decided to wait out the short journey.

And short it was, as within minutes Dynablade had carried her to the top of the fortress. Dynablade started to swoop down as the dark roof began to retract, revealing a single large chamber. Dynablade dropped Samus several feet above the ground, and she hit it rather roughly.
"That does it, you're dead!" Samus said, pulling out her Paralyzer…but Dynablade was already flying out of reach, near the roof of the fortress. Samus watched it for a minute, squinting as the sun hit her eyes over the top of the fortress walls. She heard a light shuffling behind her, and started to turn…when something big hit her in the stomach hard enough to make things go dark…

On the hillside…

"Samus! NO!" Link said, firing an arrow uselessly at the retreating Dynablade. It didn't even come close.

"Link! Calm down! All we have to do is follow the bird!" Bario said, putting a hand on Link's arm.

Link was a second away from giving Bario a sharp rap in the face with his bow, but he remembered their conversation on the boat and restrained himself.

"Fine. What's your plan?" Link asked, hoping Bario had a more complete plan than just "Follow the bird."
"Simple, we go up the hill, break in that fortress and kill Dynablade and rescue Samus…although I'm not sure she'll really need rescuing, she's pretty tough," Bario started to trail off when Diddy shouted.

"Hey guys! We've got company!"

Link and Bario turned towards Diddy and saw him staring behind the group. The others quickly turned as well…and saw a horde of foes charging at them.
Well, more kind of waddling at them. A shout from Meta revealed the slow-moving stumbling Kirby sized creatures to be Waddle Dee's. They were very round and had stumps for legs and arms. Although they had no visible weapons, there were dozens of them so the Smashers opened fire.

The creatures died easily, and scores were falling to the Smashers weaponry…but that wasn't enough. Coming to the forefront of the group were creatures that were considerably more dangerous than Waddle Dee's.

The first indication that there was more to these enemies than clumsy balls with no mouths was when a Waddle shot a beam of energy forward far enough to hit Mario. The power of the attack was negligible, but surprising and a closer look revealed that the Waddle Dee was not in fact, a Waddle Dee.
Mixed in with the Waddle Dee's were Waddle Doo's, similar looking creatures with one large black eye for a face and antennae. Several more beams shot towards the Smashers, but they were easily avoided.
Meta Knight used his speed and sword skills to cut a wide swath through these familiar enemies, killing four in as many seconds.

The Smashers were making progress. Despite the huge horde of enemies, none of the Smashers were in any way seriously hurt, and they were killing tons of these feeble foes.

Bario was reasonably confident of their success and was starting to become quite cocky, until his head was almost taken off by a whirling metal disc.

It skimmed past his hair, trimming a few, before whirling back towards its owner, a small round creature with mitten-like hands that was the size of the Waddle Dee's. The blade was the headpiece of its yellow armor, and the thing looked significantly more vicious than the other enemies.

Before the Smashers could react to this new foe, several more started popping out of trapdoors in the ground, revealing how this many enemies managed to sneak up on the Smashers.

Many of the new enemies were different and dangerous. Several were swinging swords around wildly; others were flinging punches, one of which caught Falco pretty hard in the chest. He retaliated by throwing out a trio of kicks that put the being's punches to shame, and the creature fell to the ground and died by vanishing.

"Pretty weird huh?" Falco shouted out, avoiding a stab from a small sword wielding foe.

"What is?" Diddy asked.

"How all the enemies from different worlds die differently," Falco said, Falco Illusioning through some Waddle Dee's.

"What do you mean?" Raichu said, shocking three armored warriors into oblivion.

"Well, like how some just vanish, or explode into pink dust…it's just weird."
"Now is not the time to be worrying about this," Link said angrily, penetrating a Waddle Doo through the eye.

"Curses!" Meta said, twirling to create a small orange tornado that destroyed several enemies. He stopped and looked back towards the fortress, "More enemies are coming!"
The others stepped back from the continuing to emerge foes to see scores of pink ball creatures with gossamer wings emerging from the roof of the fortress, and dropping from their feet were parasol clutching Waddle Dee's and Waddle Doo's

"There's too many!" Raichu said, as the Smashers were being pushed back.

"He's right…let's get out of here before those reinforcements join them…Smashers, to the fortress!" Bario said, throwing back several magic balls to keep the enemies back.

The other Smashers laid down some last-minute attacks and then ran as more and more enemies appeared. Several of the pink creatures dive bombed the Smashers, but Mario blasted them out of the sky.

Diddy considered using his guitar…but the enemies were too low to the ground, it would probably miss most of them, and he wasn't even sure if it would work now, it might still need to recuperate from the battle against K. Rool. He turned his remaining popgun to the sky and shot several parasols from the hands of descending enemies causing them to plummet to their death.

Falco picked up on Diddy's strategy and joined in the firing, but an order from Bario made them stop.

"There's no time! Just run!"

Not bothering to question, the two holstered their weapons and ran full speed up the hill, jumping over enemies and dodging attacks…and that's when the cannons on the top of the fortress started firing.

"Agh!" Raichu said, dodging a ball.

As soon as the cannons started firing, the yellow lumps on the hill opened up their eyes and began firing white projectiles from openings on their tops.

A few of the Smashers fired some attacks at the cannon, which didn't seem to do any damage, but since the devices couldn't move, once they got far enough up the hill they were no longer capable of hitting the Smashers. The yellow lumps were easily destroyed, but there were quite a few of them.

The hill wasn't that steep, nor was it that high, so fortunately it wasn't very difficult to get up it …there was only one problem.

"The doors are closed!" Falco said, adding an expletive that had little to do with kittens.

"Just give me a second!" Bario said, reaching the door first. He put his right hand on it; having sheathed both swords during the run up the hill and a faint purple glow was oozing from it. "Hold them off!"
"Gotcha!" Diddy said, glad that this combat was getting his mind off…recent events. He pulled out an orange and turned around, the other Smashers having reached the top and turning to aim their weapons…and they almost dropped them.

Over a hundred enemies of all kinds, some with swords, a few big monkeys with hammers, skull things with axes, tons of them were swarming up the hill.

"How did they all get here?" Diddy yelled, throwing down an orange.

"Dedede must have set up tunnels!" Meta called back, flinging down several energy balls.

The orange exploded, killing several of the enemies and pushing others back.
"Dedede? Who's that?" Falco asked as fired laser shots.

"The local baddy, I'm guessing," Link answered, calmly firing bomb arrows.

Mario fired eight firebombs in quick succession, causing the enemies to be pushed back a little. The Smashers were holding them at bay, but only just, and more enemies kept appearing.

"We're good!" Bario said, as a pulse of energy flashed from his hand. The fortress door opened, and Bario quickly stepped back to avoid being whacked by the large double doors.

The others each got off one more attack before diving into the fortress. Bario fired a few magic balls at the encroaching horde and then jumped in himself, the door slamming shut behind him.

"That was close, huh?" Bario said cheerfully.

When no one responded he looked at the others and saw they were all staring at something in the middle of the chamber they were in. He followed their eyes…and was quite surprised.

"Well…that's not good."

The Prison…

"Luigi? Luigi?" Peach said, attempting to rouse her green companion.

"He's not going to wake up, honey," Zelda said, attempting to console her princess.

Luigi, Captain Falcon and Ness were all still unconscious, having been brought in by Mewtwo after being taken away rather abruptly several hours ago.
"Well, it's been four hours…you'd think they'd have woken up by now," Peach said rather haughtily.

"Give it a break, Peachie," Fox said, still pretty bruised and battered from his battle with Ganondorf, "They'll wake up eventually…and then we'll find out what's going on."

He looked over at the three Pokémon, who had been dragged away similarly a little while after Luigi and the two that went with him. They were unconscious now too, and judging by the burn marks on all of them…something bad went down.

"And where are Marth, Roy, Popo and that sister of his?" Peach asked, looking at their empty cages.

Well, those four were currently on what appeared to be a large stone square, about forty feet by forty feet. They were given a similar command by the voice as Luigi, Ness and Falcon, and while Marth and Roy were reluctant to start fighting, Popo and Nana had no problem initiating combat.

The square they were on seemed to be floating in empty space, and it was slowly turning, so the fighters had to watch their footing. Additionally the square had large protrusions in various shapes and sizes, so they had to be careful not to get whacked as it turned.

"Stop this!" Marth commanded, his floppy blue hair billowing, kind of like his cape, but less impressive, as he narrowly evaded Popo's hammer.

"No! We want to get out of here!"
"You don't know whether or not the voice was telling the truth! We should be working together, not fighting!" Roy said, slashing a small glacier like thing Nana flung at him into tiny ice chunks.

"What other choice do we have?" Popo demanded, throwing out a trio of powerful but slow hammer strikes, the last of which Marth managed to deflect slightly with the flat of his sword. Marth then followed that up with a strike to Popo's head…with the flat of the blade that knocked the squat parka wearing mountaineer back.

"We should work together!" Roy declared, jumping over a large section of raised flooring, "I'm sure we could figure something out!"

"Ha!" Nana said, "Working together with people in the same mountain as us? What could we possibly do?"
"I'd rather have false promises that might deliver, than empty ones," Popo said shooting a frigid blast of ice at Marth.

The ice bit into Marth, his thin armor not providing him much protection…but the true pain stemmed from Popo's words. Truly, what could they offer the Ice Climbers? Nothing.

"Roy!" Marth called, after leaping away from the attack.

"What?" Roy said, flames leaping from his sword as he batted away Nana's hammer.

"Surrender…just surrender," Marth said resignedly, before sheathing his own sword and standing, hands open and empty in front of Popo.

"What are you doing?!" Roy demanded.

"I want to see if that voice was telling the truth. Popo, you win, and Nana, you will too if Roy stands down. Let's see if your promise was any less hollow than mine!" Marth called out at the sky as Roy lowered his weapon.

A deep laughing was only answer…and then the square shattered, leaving the four stranded in empty blackness…then they began to fall.

In the Penguin's Lair…

Greeting the Smashers was a most unwelcome sight. The inside of the fortress was bland, but brightly lit thanks to the sunlight streaming in through the mostly open ceiling. The brown stone floor was undecorated, and if it weren't for the many thick cylindrical pillars stationed around the walls, the massive room would have seemed empty, with the exception of the people in it.

And what people they were. The first one that Link noticed was Samus, still clad in her skin-tight "Zero" suit. She was unconscious and was lying in the middle of the floor, but there weren't any obvious wounds or bruises on her body.

The second "person," and that word is used loosely, was Dynablade. The massive multicolored metallic bird was standing in the back of the room, its strangely extendable neck was jerking all over the place, and its short beak was opening every once in a while to make a threatening noise.

The final figure, as Meta Knight said, was "King" Dedede, a fat large blue penguin, bigger than Samus or Bario, both height and width. He looked quite imposing, although that was mostly because of his size rather than his physical appearance. He had a massive wooden hammer that made Kirby's look small and he was dressed in strangely fine red robes.
Oh, and Dedede was holding his hammer over Samus's head.

"You get away from her right now!" Link snarled, aiming an arrow at Dedede's head.

"Alright den!" Dedede said placatingly, his deep voice sounding vaguely like he had a cold, but the evil look in his eye as he slowly moved away from Samus left nothing to the imagination. This guy was bad news.

"Why'd you have that thing get Samus?" Bario demanded, gesturing towards Dynablade.

"Why? Well, you're all going to be dead soon, info can't hurt…hmph. Dat hand told me to make sure you stayed here. Said something about holding you up. Dynablade was looking for a fight, and well, I was looking forward to squashing dat dere Kirby."
"But Dynablade is friend of Kirby's!" Meta said, startled by the ferocious bird glaring at them.

"Not since Dynablade is convinced that Kirby is the one that killed her babies," Dedede said, smirking at Kirby. The puffball's eyes narrowed as he pulled out his hammer.

"This talk is accomplishing NOTHING!" Link shouted, firing his arrow. Dedede easily batted it aside with his hammer.

"I was hoping for dat," Dedede said, "Leave Meta and Kirby to me…you get the rest!"
Dynablade squawked her agreement before sweeping towards the Smashers. Meta and Kirby ducked under her and ran for Dedede who grinned as they approached.

The other six Smashers scattered as Dynablade charged through their midst. The bird stopped and landed heavily on the ground, her massive body creating a minor shockwave. Link was the first to respond with a sword strike to her chest. The sword made a metal clang and then bounced off. Dynablade then swatted him away with one powerful wing swipe.

Link clambered to his feet, pretty irritated, as Dynablade looked disdainfully at the Smashers.

"That's not going to work, we need some kind of plan," Link said.

"Falco, Diddy, you stay back and keep it distracted, everyone else, attack on my mark!" Bario commanded, having the "heavy hitters," so to speak leading the assault.

"Your mark? What's that?" Raichu asked.

His question was answered when Bario yelled something and charged for Dynablade

"I'm guessing that," Falco said, as he and Diddy pelted the bird with minor projectiles.

Bario's twin swords clanged off a wing, as did Link's single blade. Raichu let fly a small bolt of lightning, which judging by the shriek from Dynablade, caused the metallic bird some measure of pain.

She swept her wings out, knocking both Bario and Link to the floor and as Raichu jumped towards her, hoping to leap on and cause more damage, she shot her large head out, slamming him to ground.
Her wings beating frantically she started to become airborne…when Mario jumped over her head and smashed her in the face with his hammer.

That did what none of the other attacks managed to do…seriously hurt her. She let out a strangled yelp and crumpled to the ground. The others started to regroup but she suddenly kicked out a taloned foot, catching Mario in the side and opening up a duo of painful slash marks.

Meanwhile Kirby and Meta ran on opposite sides towards King Dedede. Kirby swung his hammer and Meta slashed with his sword, but simple attacks like that were nothing. Dedede jumped back to avoid the short range sword swing, and blocked the hammer with his own. Grinning Dedede applied some force to Kirby's temporarily pinned hammer and sent the weaker cotton ball back several feet.

Meta dashed forward, hopping over the still unconscious Samus and unleashed a flurry of sword swipes before Dedede could press his attack. Dedede managed to block or avoid some of them, but a few cut through his guard, creating some minor wounds and ripping up his fancy robe.

Dedede growled at Meta Knight, and seeing Kirby running towards him as well he decided to try another attack. He leapt high in the air, just as Kirby and Meta swung again, both attacks missing, and coming very near to hitting each other.

They looked around, confused for a second until they heard a whooshing sound. Looking up they saw Dedede coming down and they both dived away from the impact zone.

Both Kirby and Meta managed to avoid getting squashed, but the shockwave sent both sprawling and with a gleeful laugh Dedede pulled his hammer back, parts of the head of the mallet opening up to reveal the mechanical inner workings. The hammer started to shake as Dedede, having pushed a switch on the side charged up a powerful blow…and he was aiming for Kirby.

Mario almost dropped his hammer as he reached down to clutch the cuts on his side. He started to back off, hoping to recover, but Dynablade swept her wing again, catching Mario in the side and tossing him roughly into one of the pillars.

Bario and Link stayed out of reach of her wings and talons having decided to try hitting her with projectiles. Diddy and Falco were aiming for her head, and now Bario and Link were shooting arrows and magic balls at her. Dynablade covered her head with her wings, but the four were firing from different angles and with different attacks, allowing several to slip by her guard.

The clincher was when Raichu managed to get his wits together long enough to shoot a bolt of lightning at Dynablade. Like before the attack looked like it seriously hurt her…but now Dynablade was mad.
Opening her beak she spat out ten blue balls of energy. They hovered in front of her for a second before they started flying towards the Smashers, creating blue trails behind them, so they looked like little comets. Two energy balls flew towards each of the five Smashers still standing…

Dedede let out a grunt as he swung his hammer towards Kirby. Kirby saw it coming and tried to dodge, but he knew it would hit. There was a slight whooshing sound as it flew towards Kirby…and then it stopped.

"GREEEAGH!" Dedede said, as tiny sparks traveled up his body.

"What the?" Meta said, Dedede's body obscuring whatever hit him.

"Who dares?" Dedede demanded, turning around.

"I do," Samus said, kicking him in the face.

Dedede fell back, and before he could retaliate Samus kicked him again before whipping him with her Paralyzer. Dedede yelled and swung his hammer at Samus, but evaded it easily.

"You're not going to hit me again!" Samus yelled, just as Kirby slammed his hammer into Dedede's side, and Meta hit him in the stomach with several energy balls. They were about to continue their assault when Dedede dropped his hammer and rose his hands in surrender.

"You give up?" Meta asked suspiciously, sword raised.

"I'm no match for all three of you, even I can see dat," Dedede said dejectedly, "Just, don't kill me."

"We won't…but I at least would like some answers," Samus said, still angry about being knocked out.

"Anyting!" Dedede said, his strange accent becoming more pronounced as his fear grew.

"Why did you have that bird grab me?"

" De hand ting came to my fortress and told me dat Kirby and some of his friends were coming here. He wanted me to keep you here for a while, so I told Dynablade to grab one of you and bring you here. De hand was very insistent…he dought dat you guys would leave."

"Good answer. It leads to this second question," Meta said coldly, "How did you get Dynablade to assist you?"

"I grabbed her kids and hid dem somewheres. I figured I could use her help against Kirby."

"Great. You're a scumbag. Final question, and this one is deadly important," Samus said, her emphasis of the word deadly causing Dedede to shudder, "Where did the hand go?"

Bario tried to dodge the energy balls, but while he managed to avoid one, the second caught him in the leg, knocking him to his knees. Diddy managed to avoid both coming at him, but Raichu got skimmed by both, burning parts of his fur.

Link blocked both with his shield and Falco deflected them back with his Reflector, although Dynablade didn't seem to notice. The bird screeched and started to take to the air. The Smashers tried to recover in time to fire when Dynablade's head snapped to the right, pointing right at Dedede.

She seemed to quiver for a second, her whole body shaking and then without even a sound she shot towards him like a missile.

She zoomed past Kirby and Samus and grabbed Dedede on the shoulders with her talons…right before he could answer Samus's question. Screeching in fury she dragged the heavy and sputtering Dedede out of the opening in the fortress, and out of sight.

"Damn!" Samus said.

"Well that was…surprisingly anticlimactic," Raichu said…before squinting and turning to Diddy, "Hey…haven't I said that before?"

"Well what do we do now?" Falco asked, as the Smashers started to group together.

"I think Dedede's been taken care of. We should go to the Smashing Realm," Link said.

"Are we sure this area is taken care of yet? What if there is something else we should do here?" Bario asked.

"I don't think it matters," Samus said, "We can come back…after we finish off those accursed hands."
"Alright…fine," Bario said, starting to summon a portal.

"Hey wait a second," Falco said, a thought coming to him.

"What?" Bario asked, a purple ball growing in his hands.

"How do you know whe-" He was suddenly cut off as a massive force blasted through the fortress. The Smashers could literally feel an invisible energy wave pass them by…missing them by inches.

"What was that?" Diddy said.

No one answered, and at first it seemed like nothing happened…until the fortress literally crumbled to dust. It shattered. It was vaporized. Basically, it was annihilated. Before the Smashers could act, they saw a large dark figure flying up the hill…and then a pulse of power shot through them and all nine Smashers fell to the ground, unconscious.

Only one problem…the pulse that knocked them out…didn't come from the figure.