Clash of the Smashers

Chapter Forty-One: The Ends Justify the Means

"Get in there and shut up," Ganondorf growled, throwing Marth into a cage. Roy and the Ice Climbers were already in their respective holding cells.

Marth merely groaned.

"Oh my! What happened to them?" Peach asked, small cuts and other evidence of battle visible on the four combatants.

"Nothing you need to worry about." Ganondorf growled.

"Ganondorf! I demand you let us go!" Zelda said, firing a blast of useless fire at her bars.

"Come on Princess, you know that won't work," Ganondorf answered with an evil grin.

He spun around, his cape billowing behind him and stomped out of the prison.

"GANONDORF!" Zelda yelled as the metal door clanged shut.

"Sounds like the prisoners are getting restless," Mewtwo said as Ganondorf continued stomping towards the center of the chamber.

"I don't know if we can really keep holding them here, I'm not used to imprisoning more than just the one princess," Bowser said.

"I am certain the cages will hold," Mewtwo said.

"Actually, I'm rather hoping they don't," Ganondorf said with a smirk.

"What? Are you saying you want those guys free? It took forever to catch them all!" Bowser said.

"I don't want them free now, but perhaps if those cages break we'll be able to turn them on M.C.," Ganondorf said.

"I wouldn't count on it," Mewtwo said, "They're already reasonably weak from the combat they have endured against each other…at best they'd be a minor annoyance to him, at worst they'd try to attack us."
"So you're saying my plan is stupid?" Ganondorf asked angrily.

"No. I'm just informing you that it is not as good as your previous plan. However I would recommend not wasting energy reinforcing the cages…we'll probably need it all."
"Hmph," Ganondorf grumbled.

"Well, on a different note, I've looked into the K. Rool situation," Bowser said, his words gathering the interest of the other two, "I got suspicious after he didn't report back."
"That's right…he said he was going to take care of the nine," Ganondorf said.

"Right, and after that he was supposed to contact one of us. Since you and Mewtwo were busy, I was stuck waiting for the idiot's call...and it never came."
"Do you think he's decided to turn on us?" Ganondorf asked, his expression darkening.

"More likely he's dead." Mewtwo stated calmly.

"What?" Both Bowser and Ganondorf said.

"Don't be so surprised. Those nine are tough, and they've already cut a swath through both your armies, as well as our reinforcements on Zebes. It's hardly surprising that they've beaten K. Rool…he was hardly up to any our levels."
"But still…he was tough, and his army was big. If they killed him, then they're stronger than we thought." Ganondorf said.

"I know Mario and Link are good, and if their skills in the prior tournament hold true, than Samus, Kirby and Falco are all decent warriors," Mewtwo said, "But what of the others?"
"Why are you asking us? Didn't you fight them?" Bowser asked.

"I did, and while Raichu and the monkey is of no concern, I wish to know more about the masked knight, and the violet haired swordsman."

"Well, both are…adequate. The knight is nothing special, and the purple haired man has some fancy tricks, but his fighting skills are not very impressive," Ganondorf said arrogantly, "But honestly, you know about as much as we do."

"Interesting. Has M.C. told us when he wants us to fight them again?"

"No…do you know why we are having them fight?" Ganondorf asked.
"I'm not sure…but I'm guessing it is to break them," Mewtwo said.

"Do what?" Bowser said, as a small chime sounded. The noise was overridden by Ganondorf's next words, and it went unheard.

"Break them? Is he sure that can be done? These are the greatest heroes of their worlds."

"Well, in case you hadn't been paying attention," Mewtwo said, his tone an inch away from scorn, "there has already been some success with four of the captured Smashers."

"We've succeeded in breaking people? When did that happen? I like breaking things" Bowser asked in confusion, his loud voice obscuring a second, louder chime.

"But in case you haven't noticed, the ones that have turned on their companions are the weaker ones. Hardly impressive, and I wouldn't classify them in the same league of strength as the ape, or the fox," Ganondorf said, his sharp tone clearly in response to Mewtwo's subtle rebuke.

"Physical or mental strength?" Mewtwo asked, "Or did you mean perhaps their heroic status in comparison to their peers?"

"Don't mock me!" Ganondorf said, as a third, loud chime sounded, "And Bowser check that thing," Ganondorf commanded, pointing to a keypad with a small screen by the large screen, where the chimes were coming from.

"Looks like I don't get to break anything," Bowser grumbled, stomping towards the machinery.
"What's that?" Ganondorf asked.

"Some kind of messaging machine. Apparently M.C. has decided us so beneath his notice he doesn't want to waste time talking to us in person," Mewtwo said, a rare touch of anger in his normally emotionless voice.

"He'll get what's coming to him," Ganondorf said, "What does it say?"

Bowser's large claws made using machinery, especially ones that involve pushing buttons, like this one did, awkward to say the least. He was forced to carefully and slowly touch the buttons with the tip of his claws.

"Well, it confirms what we thought. They killed K. Rool," Bowser read, "And then it says that Master Hand sent them to…Pop Star?"

"What? Why not to Corneria?" Ganondorf asked, "Andross has been wanting a challenge ever since M.C. got the Queen to work with him."
"According to this, M.C. planned for Pop Star to be a stalling point, and they're going to be on Corneria soon. After that, they're coming after us," Bowser said.

"What? M.C. plans for Andross to lose?" Mewtwo asked.

"He doesn't say, it just states that they'll be coming after us shortly."

"It just serves to verify what we thought…he's using them to get rid of all those who might threaten him," Ganondorf growled, his fists clenching, "That…that…GRAGH!"

Ganondorf shot off a ball of dark magic at the wall. The ball exploded, leaving a sizable dent.

Bowser, his attention on the screen in front of him jumped, not having realized Ganondorf was destroying chunks of the room.

"Calm down Ganondorf," Mewtwo said.

"Yeah, save it for Link," Bowser said.

"Fine," Ganondorf ground out, his teeth clenched, "Is there anything else I need to know?"
"Just be patient. Our time will come," Mewtwo said.

Popstar-ish…

The sky was a dark purplish black, the ground a ruined brown. No trace of the charming green field, nor the ruins of Dedede's castle were in view…just a blank and empty wasteland. Thick clouds blotted out the sun, and let an eerie gloom emanate through everything.

"Where are we?" Samus asked, as the other Smashers looked around their new surroundings.

While Kirby and Meta racked their brains to see if they could remember this place, the laugh continued echoing, becoming louder…but its source was still not visible.

Something stirred in the distance. At first it appeared to be nothing more than wind, and the light whooshing sound coming from it seemed to support that theory…but as more of the Smashers turned towards the only moving thing in sight, it became clear that it was far more than merely "wind".

Whatever it was it had the appearance of a tornado. The swirling winds were a dark blue, and in the short time it took for it to reach the Smashers, it became clear that it was quite small, perhaps a few feet taller than Samus.

The Smashers watched it carefully as it approached, their weapons raised, ready for anything…except for what was revealed when the tornado dissipated.

Meta Knight.

Meta Knight was staring right at them…which was clearly impossible, because Meta Knight was also standing next to them, staring at himself.

"Who are you?" Diddy asked, confused.

"Isn't it obvious? I am Meta Knight!" The being declared, its voice identical to Meta's.

"That's impossible!" Raichu said.

"We're not going to fall for that!" Falco said.

"Are you sure?" the "new" Meta asked.

"Definitely, we know Meta, and he's not you!" Bario said.

"Agreed…although you do seem like I should know you," Meta said, his voice darkening, perhaps in anger over being mimicked like this.

"I didn't think it would work again," the being said, its voice deepening slightly.
As the Smashers watched, its silvery mask and blue skin darkened to a gray tone. With a mighty flourish it pulled out its orange blade and faced the Smashers.

"I am Dark Meta Knight," he stated, laughing quite evilly.

"Hmph," Kirby said, his hammer poised to strike.

Dark Meta noticed that, and he seemed to grin.

"Ah, you remember me. I assure you Kirby, I won't be as easily beaten as before."

"Kirby…you've beaten this guy alone?" Link asked, keeping his gaze locked on the new foe.

Kirby nodded, his arms quivering in anticipation.

"Than what hope do you have of beating all of us?" Link asked, a touch of confusion in his voice.

"What makes you so sure I am alone?" Dark Meta asked mockingly.

On those words another laugh echoed, although this one was high-pitched and tinged with madness. In an instant a second creature appeared, with no fanfare or special tricks…he just seemed to pop out of the air.

"What the…what is that?" Samus asked, taken aback by this new creature's startling appearance.

It was definitely far stranger than Dark Meta. It wore a jester hat, which was split in half, one side crimson, the other cobalt. It had large eyes that could only be described as "googly." It had tiny little feet with red shoes, connected to its gray head. The thing had no body to speak of. Its arms were wing-shaped, yellow and thin. They were bat-like, but instead of a thin membrane there were swirling hexagons of color between the wings. It was big, but not huge. Its wing span was around eight feet in length, and its actual body wasn't much bigger than Kirby.

"This is Marx," Dark Meta said with a chuckle.

Kirby tensed and gripped his hammer tighter.

Bario stared at both enemies, and was about to issue orders, when Meta Knight stepped forward and spoke.

"Allow me to take on this imposter…alone. The rest of you should be able to take on that creature."
"What? Are sure you can beat it?" Diddy asked, surprised by Meta's determination.

"What duplicate can stand against the original?" Meta asked in answer.

"I like the sound of that," Dark Meta said, a grin evident beneath his mask.

Kirby seemed to frown, but he nodded in agreement with Meta's plan.

"Marx…take them out," Dark Meta said, as he suddenly wrapped his cape around himself and vanished.

Meta repeated the action and vanished as well. Before the others could react in any way, Marx folded his wings…and dived at them.

Dark Meta appeared a good distance away from where Marx was attacking the Smashers. He started to smirk, pleased with his cleverness, when Meta suddenly appeared in front of him, sword stabbing forward.

Dark Meta barely managed to catch the attack with his own blade, and the force still pushed him back. Before he could retaliate Meta pulled his sword back and shot a fast swipe towards Dark Meta. Dark Meta moved his sword to block, but to late he realized the attack was a feint as Meta suddenly reversed the direction of the attack and landed a solid slice on Dark Meta's mask…where the sword made a sharp clanging noise and bounced back.

"Psh," Dark Meta scoffed, "Is that the best you got?"
"Not even close," Meta responded, before spinning drill-like straight into Dark Meta.

The Smashers jumped back and shot off their weapons towards Marx, but he pulled out of the dive early and flew over their heads, dropping off numerous green balls with small thorns sticking out of them around the Smashers. The balls burrowed into the ground…and almost immediately shot up in massive pillars formed out of the green balls.

Several of the Smashers were almost skewered, but they managed to dodge the attack, although Mario and Diddy both suffered minor cuts from close calls.

Marx than seemed to split in half, with both parts of his body going in a different direction.

"What the?" Raichu said, startled by the unorthodox attack.

The parts of Marx centered near the ground…and then seemed to fly towards each other, with Falco in between the two. He jumped up at the last second, and as the parts combined to restore Marx Falco landed a powerful kick to the top of Marx's head.

Marx shook off the attack and flew upwards, knocking Falco to the ground, where he stood up quickly, brushing off his tumble.

Dark Meta had no time to dodge the attack as Meta was far too close. Meta's drilling sword slammed into Dark Meta multiple times. Most of the strikes hit harmlessly on the mask, but a few slipped past and opened up several small wounds on his foe. Meta finished off the brutal barrage with a powerful strike that sent Dark Meta into the air.

Meta had no time to enjoy his minor victory as Dark Meta performed the exact same move on Meta, drilling into him just as painfully. When Meta was sent back he glared at his duplicate. Dark Meta glared back, both bleeding slightly from their wounds.

Meta surrounded himself in an orange wind, creating a miniature tornado and flew towards Dark Meta, who countered by surrounding himself in a gray tornado and flew right back into Meta.

The two attacks canceled out and the two opponents found themselves with their blades locked, sparks springing off from the blades as they grinded against each other.

Marx flew rapidly several feet above the Smashers, his relatively small size and quick speed making it difficult for them to land a solid blow.

When Marx was over Diddy he opened his mouth and dropped what appeared to be a black metal ball. Diddy rolled out of the way, but when the ball hit the ground it exploded into a shockwave that knocked Diddy off his feet.

Marx took advantage of this opportunity to dive at Diddy, but Mario managed to jump at Marx and slam him hard enough with his hammer to force him to break off the attack. Diddy uttered a feeble thanks, to which Mario responded with just a nod.

Marx seemed unperturbed by the powerful blow Mario gave him, and merely started flying around again. Samus flung her whip at Marx when he flew near her, but the attack just seemed to harmlessly skim past his wings.

Marx didn't look as if he was anywhere close to out of tricks. Spreading his wings out farther than normal, four sharp crescent blades erupted from his body and flew at several of the Smashers.
Link managed to block one with his shield, a feat Bario repeated with his swords. Falco managed to deflect a third back at Marx with his Reflector, but he appeared to barely notice the attack. Samus was forced to barely dodge the fourth with a quick roll, the blade left quivering in the ground behind her. Marx was not making this easy.

Meta and Dark Meta both jumped back at the same time. Meta wrapped his cape around himself and teleported right behind Dark Meta, his sword slashing sideways….and missing as Dark Meta was doing the exact same thing.

Meta rolled out of the way, the tip of Dark Meta's sword catching him on the foot, opening up a small cut. Meta Knight turned back towards his foe and swung his sword rapidly, shooting out several balls of energy.

Dark Meta flapped his wings, taking to the air where he managed to stay above the attack. Meta growled and fired several balls at Dark Meta in the air…where they were met and countered by Dark Meta's own energy balls.

Meta than stabbed his sword forward, firing a large, sword-shaped projectile that flew towards Dark Meta. Dark Meta dodged it and fired his own version of the attack, forcing Meta to take to the air.

Both opponents flew several feet over the ground, staring at each other. A few times they'd fire one of their two projectile attacks, but neither managed to land a solid blow. Getting tired of the impasse both were at they flew towards each other, swords pulled back to strike.

The time Marx needed to unleash his blades allowed several of the Smashers to land a few good hits on him, and Marx was beginning to weaken. Diddy and Falco's peanuts and laser were hitting very often, and while they were weak, the damage was building up. Realizing that his current strategy was ineffective, Marx decided to switch things up.

He started to fly even faster, becoming a harder target, and as he flew over his eight combatants he dropped several of the black balls. They shot out their shockwaves, knocking everyone down with the exception of Kirby and Samus, both of whom managed to leap over the attack.

But Marx wasn't done yet. He turned back around and before the prone Smashers could stand, he dropped several of the thorny seed bomb things, which planted themselves into the ground near each of the Smashers.

They soon erupted into their thorny spear towers. Kirby and Samus managed to avoid them completely, but everyone else, thanks to the quickness of the attacks suffered at the very least some cuts…and Link and Bario were both bleeding profusely, Link from a deep gash along his right arm, and Bario from a similar wound along his chest. Neither were done fighting yet.

While Marx enjoyed his handiwork, Link fired off a bomb arrow surprisingly quick, the attack slamming into Marx's face and exploding hard enough to knock him off balance.

He managed to stay in the air, but all that did for him was make him an easy target for several firebombs, lightning bolts and magic balls from Mario, Raichu and Bario. The attacks created a pretty big smoke cloud, so the Smashers held back on their attacks to see the result.

When the smoke cleared…Marx was gone.

Meta Knight unleashed a blinding fury of three insanely fast sword strikes, one aimed at Dark Meta's middle, a second slashing from high in the left, and the last a brutal stab forwards…and Dark Meta managed to block or avoid all of them.

The first two strikes were barely deflected by carefully placed sword swings and the last was dodged by Dark Meta suddenly dropping in altitude.

Dark Meta than attempted to strike at Meta's underbelly, but the masked Knight dropped as well and parried the blow.

The two went back and forth like that for quite a while, with neither landing a truly solid blow, although both were bleeding from many wounds. They dived and rose, slashing and spinning but both were essentially equally matched.
They realized at the same time that this was getting them nowhere, so they both dropped to the ground and prepared for one final strike.

The Smashers frantically looked around, hoping to spot Marth…when he suddenly popped out of the air behind Kirby. Before any of the others could react he stretched out his wings, making a slight creaking sound and several dozen fast, pointy arrows came shooting out of him…straight towards Kirby.

Kirby was skewered several times, the points of the arrows easily penetrating his soft body and showering the other Smashers with his blood. The arrows tore his vulnerable insides apart. Kirby tried to let out a piercing cry of agony, but his lungs were shredded before he could even breathe. Kirby died a slow painful death while Marx grinned cheerfully.

Oh wait…that didn't happen.

When Marx opened his wings, Kirby heard the sound, and reacted to it by turning to stone. Most of the arrows missed him entirely, and those that didn't bounced harmlessly off of his stone body.

The Smashers immediately fired at Marx but he was already teleporting away. He appeared again, in front of Diddy and rammed him, knocking him to the ground, but vanishing before retaliation could take place.

That continued for a while, with Marx continuously teleporting and unleashing an attack. None of the Smashers were seriously injured, but the wounds were building up and they were so far having no luck actually doing some serious damage to Marx. Link was the first to think of a solution.

"Bario!"
"What?" Bario asked while leaping over another one of Marx's shockwaves.

"Can't you stop teleportation?"
"What…oh!"
Raising his hand Bario reached towards Marx. Marx didn't even notice, so focused he was on killing the Smashers, one at a time. Bario released a pulse of energy and…Marx was stopped in his tracks.
It was obvious the attack worked because Marx was suddenly not zapping around all over the place. Confused he didn't even attempt to do anything…which gave the Smashers plenty of time to slam him hard with their attacks.

Marx didn't let them do that for long though, because after taking a few hits he shot straight up, flying high into the air…and then he came flying straight back down.

Meta thought about saying something. Something heroic and just, something about how good would triumph evil; the honorable would beat the vile. Normally he would…but he didn't. He felt a strange urge to just end this fight, to finish it. He felt a…pushing in his mind, a pushing towards…what? He thought about fighting it, but just as soon as that thought came into his mind it was immediately squashed. Soon all that was in his head…was the desire to destroy this Dark imposter.

With a cry of rage Meta Knight raised his sword high and then slammed it point-first into the ground, while a mere ten feet away Dark Meta Knight copied the action.

As soon as Meta's sword hit the ground a tornado started to form around it. Rapidly growing, its powerful gray winds soon encircled not only the blade, but the sword master as well. Meta stood still as mighty winds buffeted him, and when the tornado was over twenty feet high he yanked his sword out of the ground and pointed it at Dark Meta. The tornado shot towards him immediately…and was immediately vaporized.

Dark Meta's "tornado", rather than being a large cylinder of wind, was a large cylinder of multi-colored wind-based energy. It slammed into Meta's tornado and barely slowing down it continued right into Meta.
He was brutally knocked around by the cruel winds, the energy carrying him up to the top while bashing him around itself repeatedly…and then suddenly it died, leaving Meta to crash hard into the ground, where he lay, barely able to move.

Dark Meta slowly started walking to his beaten foe. "Looks like this time…the imposter was the better knight."

Marx hit the ground, his face facing the majority of the Smashers. None were behind him. Samus aimed her weapon, but didn't fire.

"What's he-?"
Before her question could be finished Marx shot out a massive white beam of energy from his mouth that had such great recoil effect that it sent him flying back quite a ways.

The energy beam was about two-thirds the size of Samus's Zero Laser, but a good deal faster. None of the Smashers, not even Kirby, who was half-expecting it, were able to avoid it. Only Diddy and Falco, the two not directly in the beam's path managed to escape unscathed.

"Raichu!" Diddy cried out.

Before the energy beam even finished dissipating, a bomb arrow, a Cutter blade, a firebomb, a magic ball and a yellow shot from Samus's Paralyzer all flew out of the powerful blast towards the still attempting to recover Marx.
All of the attacks hit, and with a cry of pain he finally seemed to notice the damage. He started to fly up but a massive bolt of lightning came shooting out of Raichu and straight into Marx, sending him back down to the ground twitching in the electricity's power.

The Smashers were revealed after the glare from the beam vanished, all considerably worse for the wear. Their clothes were torn and several of them were bruised considerably. But all six of them had the same look of determination. Kirby started to walk towards the seemingly beaten Marx, but something caught his eye, and with barely a pause to scoop up his Cutter blade he ran off.

"Where are you going?" Link demanded.
"Let him go," Bario said his tone seemingly compassionate…but there was a hint of command there that Link did not miss.

Raichu was still quivering from the massive output of energy he had let loose. He took a shaky step towards Marx, but then his legs gave out and fell to the ground.

He didn't stay there long though. In an instant Diddy was at his side.

"Don't Raichu, it's going to be okay. We got him."
"Really? That's good."

As if in open defiance of Diddy's words, Marx shot up in the sky, somehow still able to move blindingly fast despite the amount of damage he had taken. The standing Smashers took aim but he shot off his hailstorm of arrows at them. At that distance they were easily dodged, but they bought Marx the time he needed to unleash his final attack.

Dark Meta raised his sword, about to bring it down and finish off Meta, when a crescent-like blade flew towards him from behind. He spun around just before it hit, and it slammed into his mask, knocking it off. He had a similar face to Meta's, although Dark Meta's was slightly…darker.

He raised his sword in an attempt to defend himself, but Kirby's hammer arched over the block and slammed down hard into Dark Meta. So hard in fact, that combined with his prior wounds, he couldn't take anymore…so he puffed out of existence in a small cloud of gray dust.

After Meta and Kirby finished coughing, Kirby held out a hand for Meta. Meta stared at for a second before taking it.

"Thank you for your help, Kirby."
Kirby just smiled and make a cute…noise…thing.

"I'll take that as a 'you're welcome'."

Kirby turned around to see if any trace of Dark Meta was left…and there was.

Marx flew back towards the center of the group, and split in half again. This time though, a round, dark circle appeared in the center of the halves. Each half was the same distance from the hole, as it shot out sparks of energy.

"What the heck is that?" Falco asked.

"I don't…hey, Falco, what's your Reflector doing?" Raichu asked, having recovered enough to stand up.

"What?"
Falco looked down and saw that his Reflector on his belt was moving on its own. It was fluttering as if it was trying to escape. Falco put a feathered hand on it to stop it, and noticed his feathers were starting to point in the same direction as the Reflector.

"Agh!" Diddy yelled clapping his hand down on his hat before it flew away. Raichu caught a glimpse of a red feather shoved beneath it, before Diddy managed to plaster it back down tightly on his head.

"What's that feather?"
"It's the same to me as that is to you," Diddy said quickly, pointing towards Raichu's chest.

Raichu looked down and saw his normally hidden pendant being dragged away from him. With a yelp of surprise he grabbed it and shoved it back into his fur, holding it tightly.

"That hole is pulling us in!" Bario said, as all around them the Smashers had to grab onto their various items and clothing to prevent them from flying off.

"Kill that guy!" Link said, firing off an arrow.

The arrow flew towards Marx, but as it neared him the incredible gravity of the black hole-like object curved it, and sucked it in harmlessly. The other attacks repeated the same actions, none landing more than a glancing blow on Marx…and bit by bit the Smashers were inexorably drawn to the hole.

There was a sword. Kirby looked at it. It was virtually identical to Meta's short, pointy sword, only instead of a golden-yellow it was considerably darker. Kirby stared at it for a moment before opening his mouth…and swallowing it.

Using his strange copy power thing, Kirby managed to make a sword appear in his arm. It didn't look like Meta's though, this one was more similar to Link's or Bario's, but shorter and thicker. Kirby looked at it for a moment before grinning.

"Nice. Looks like you just got a new ability," Meta said.

"Okay!" Kirby said cheerfully.

Meta suddenly shot around and looked back towards the others. It was pretty obvious something bad was happening.
"That's not good! Let's go!"
"Okay!"
Several of the Smashers were resorting to grabbing the ground, its soft soil providing a good grip…but they were still being dragged, and the pull was getting stronger. Link and Bario had jabbed their swords in the ground and were holding onto those, but it was taking all of their strength not to get swept up.

Only Mario continued to attack, firing firebomb after firebomb, his massive strength clear as he took long slow steps back from the hole, only to be dragged forward a few more inches. Sooner or later though, one of the group would slip.

It was Samus.

With a cry of terror she lost her tenuous grip on the ground and flew towards the hole, shooting past Link. He tried to grab her, but he missed.

"Samus!"
Samus is not just some damsel in distress though. She can take care of herself…and she did, unfortunately for Mario. She shot out her energy whip as she flew past Mario, and like it was supposed to, it attached to him and shocked him.

He got over the pain fast though, and managed to grab it and pull her in, wincing with every new shock that passed through his body. Fortunately his rubber gloves prevented a similar treatment for his hands. Once she was close enough to actually hold onto him, she cut off the whip.

"Sorry about that," Samus said sheepishly.

Mario glared at her for a minute, but then smiled and held on tight.

Samus suddenly grasped how close she was to Mario, and realized parts of her body were being held to another in ways she had never felt before, especially given how tight her suit was.

Struggling to hold down her blush Samus whispered furiously to herself, "First chance I get, I'm getting some kind of suit that doesn't make me feel naked."

Marx continued holding open the hole, and it seemed all was lost…until, given extra speed by letting themselves go with the force of the hole, Kirby and Meta slashed right through both halves of Marx, splitting him into fourths.

Instantly he exploded, his attack fading, and covering the Smashers with a healing pink dust.

Mario let go of Samus and she backed off, looking at the ground and pushing her hair back. She glanced up at Link, but when she saw him looking back she quickly looked back at the ground.

"Is that it?" Link said.

"What?" Samus asked, looking back up.

"Are we done here? Can we go finish this now?"
"Oh…thought you meant…," Samus trailed off.

"I guess so," Bario said.

However, they weren't done yet. With a startling pop something big and weird suddenly appeared in front of them.