"Run."
Doctor Mario could only see darkness. All around him could see nothing but-wait. His friends-chased by eyes.
Running.
"They have blockaded us; cut us off from the outside. They've destroyed our weapons.' Their goal is unknown…"
A sealed gate.
The clones banged on it to no avail, fear evident in their faces.
A mischievous jester
A cloaked wizard
Mewtwo?! No-someone similar.
Falling platforms-voiceless pleads.
Falling
Falling
Fading…
Dr. Mario woke up in fright. He calmed himself down. No, you're not falling to your demise- You are on a raft, with your friends, nearing Congo Jungle. Get a grip.
The raft was mostly calm at the moment. Pichu was napping peacefully in the corner, Young Link was fishing in the river, and Roy was previously engaged in thinking over what happened that day when he noticed the doctor wake up. The look on Roy's face asked Dr Mario the obvious question. In response, Mario sighed.
"Alright, alright. Young Link, Pichu, come on over here." Once the group had gathered, he began. "If what I (supposedly) remember is true, then the Subspace incident was a bad time. I'll explain in greater detail in a moment, but I should at least tell you why I'm worried: The Subspace Army, lead by their emissary The Ancient Minister and their ruler Tabuu, launched an attack on our world. He wanted to drag all of the World of Trophies into his world, and came shockingly close to doing so. He did this by taking control of Master Hand and manipulating Ganondorf, Bowser, Wario and King Dedede. No one knows how he did this or why. Part of the reason I'm concerned is because King Boo was neither seen nor heard from during that incident. Petey Piranha was there, but King Boo wasn't. Not only that, but Subspace was sealed off when Tabuu was destroyed, meaning he can't be behind King Boo's appearance."
Young Link, Roy and Pichu glanced at each other with confusion, unsure of what to make of the story Dr. Mario was telling them. They sat, listening intently as he told them everything of the Subspace Incident. High above them, watching rather than listening was a turtle wizard on a broomstick. The blue cloaked figure made sure that his prey was the correct ones before pulling out a crystal ball.
Meanwhile, back in the Mushroom Kingdom, Bowser was cruising in his purple car, modified so that Ludwig, Wendy O. and Bowser Jr. could fit inside as well, when his Bowser Phone started ringing.
"Oh Kamek! I expect you have news on our little 'problems'?"
"Yes your Expectantness, I have them right where I want them."
"Good job! Cause them some ruckus and try to stop them. Otherwise we'll rendezvous at Hyrule. Got it?"
"Yes King Bowser. I'll give them a meeting they'll never forget! Hehehehe!" A dial tone can only be heard as Kamek laughed. Ludwig then got his father-commander-stepfather-uncle-cousin-person's attention.
"Herr Bowser, why are we bothering to chase after those pests? The princess is open for the taking, what with the castle taken over and the kingdom shrouded in darkness. Instead you purposely chase after the plumber and his useless friends!"
"Ludwig, I'm only going to say this once; there is a purpose for my dodging the princess. You see-" Just then, the Bowser Phone rang again, this time Master Hand.
"Bowser! This is an emergency! Have you seen Crazy's pills?!"
"Er, no. Why are you calling me about it?"
"It's just that, without those pills, Crazy becomes stupid chaotic rather then twisted chaotic. Meh, I'll deal with it later. By the way, you seem to be very desperate for a match against me Bowser.
"Well, you know me- I need to fight a physical god every Tuesday. It's part of my exercise regimen."
"Anyway, how is your progress on stopping the clones going?"
"It would be much easier if I wasn't attacked by the allies I supposedly had!"
"What are you… oh no, I forgot to tell everyone about the Adventure Tour! Too late to warn Donkey Kong… Crazy, go tell Team Zelda of what's happening!"
"YeS MaStEr $$$$" *Crash*
"Can you improvise for a bit? Just until you get to Hyrule."
"Actually-"
"Smashing!" *Click*
Bowser looked furiously at the phone, angry with his employer. His anger, and paranoia, increased further when he picked the phone a third time. With an angry and scared "Leave me alone!" Bowser threw the cursed communication device into a nearby lava lake.
"Papa?" Bowser Jr. intoned. "Who was that?"
"Just your mother Bowsy."
Wendy O's curiosity was intrigued causing her to question her father further.
"Who is the brat's mom King Dad?"
"She's no one Wendy."
"Well from the way you-"
"She's no one Wendy. Now that that's out of the way, let us continue on to Casa De Bowser." And with that, Bowser popped the brake and gunned the engine.
Chapter 3: Donkey Konga
In this chapter, the clones meet Kamek, Bowser's stepfather, and Cerebus Syndrome starts to kick in.
Everyone sat in silence, letting the doctor's tale sink in as the raft continued to float gently to the next destination.
"Yeesh…All of that happened while we were gone?"
"Yes, all that and more. Again, my knowledge is limited to what Mario remembers, but that's basically it."
"And it was really that serious?" Roy said whilst somehow keeping a straight face. Before the doctor could interject, Young Link added his own two cents.
"Ganondorf helped. It was that serious." Pichu at least tried to dissolve the heavy feeling settling on the raft.
("Don't worry guys! Maybe the mean ghost was only joking! He is probably trying to scare us away from beating Master Hand's challenge!")
A bump and a quick scan around the perimeter told the team that they had arrived at their destination.
"Well, whatever is going on, we can talk about later. Right now, let's just focus on getting the badge from Donkey Kong." Dr. Mario then cracked a grin and leapt onto the raft. "Oh Donkey Kong!" He shouted, "We're-a here to collect a badge!"
"Hehehehe… I'm afraid your monkey friend is not here right now." Everyone's eyes turned to the sky where a certain Magikoopa was riding a broomstick. The magikoopa, nicknamed Fang amongst his peers, laughed sharply at them as he readied a magic wand. "Well Mario, sorry for being late, but you know changes in plans- so unexpected. You're still as bothersome as usual I see." Kamek adjusted his glasses and smirked even more. "I also recognize your friends." Kamek giggled slightly, still wondering how two certain low tier failures still managed to win that mini-tourney. Meanwhile Dr. Mario motioned for everyone to be careful of Kamek's magic.
"Well let's begin shall we?"
"Indeed, but first…" The wizard turned to Roy and Young Link and studied them. He recalled hearing about one of them winning several tourneys and he definitely remembered the other. "Nice swords." He complimented bluntly. The prince and the Kokiri looked oddly at each other.
"Thanks?"
"It would be a real shame if they were to turn into flip-flops!"
*ZAP*
Roy and Young Link looked flabbergasted at the objects in their hands. Where, once, the Sword of Seals and the Kokiri Sword were held were, in their place, two Bowser monogrammed sandals. Roy stood shell-shocked while Young Link started fishing in his pack for something…
Meanwhile Kamek turned his attention to his newest foes-The same annoying baby turned adult and-
Kamek stared at the baby Pichu for a good thirty seconds before bursting out into laughter. He almost pulled himself together in fifteen, but broke down again. Pichu confusedly looked to Dr. Mario but, having long since known how to navigate that minefield of questions, the good doctor simply shrugged and came up with a lie involving a "vibe scepter." At least, that seemed like the easier option.
"(Hehe) I-I think th-thatI… should (hehehehe) give-Give! You a fi-fi-fi-AHAHAHAHA-Ch chance." And so the hipster unloaded some magic and created two, smaller than usual, Donkey Kong copies. "ge-Get them my min-min-mi-OHOHohohohoh!" before scampering high in the sky.
Dr. Mario leapt in, fists flying ala Bruce Lee, punching and kicking the ape. The tiny monkey was on the receiving before finally getting a headbutt in and deciding it was better to give than to receive. As this was going on, Pichu was running away from his opponent, attempting to counter with a nonelectric move as often as possible. The mini Donkey Kong, on the other hand, seemed rather eager to make the lighter-than-Jigglypuff Pokemon use the key to his downfall. From the sky, Kamek watched all this.
"As expected, Mario is doing rather well for himself. Well we can't have that. The fun has gotten stale so I guess I just turn him into a trophy right-OH MY!" before he could react, a bomb blew up in the magikoopa's face. Adding injury to even more insult to injury, Young Link used his hookshot to climb up onto Kamek's broom.
"Very cleaver you amusing child, but I'm afraid it will take a lot more than mere bombs to convince me to undo my curse." Link prepared another bomb, but halted when he realized that it would be extremely suicidal to do so. Then he looked at the sandal in his hand…
Back on the ground, the doctor and the monkey continued to struggle to gain the other hand with the primate. Doing a super uppercut, Dr. Mario found an opening in the form of a Bob-omb.
'Wait!" He shouted to the approaching monkey. Dr. Mario checked his clipboard, made tsk tsk noises and continued. "It seems you are overdue for a check up. First, let me check your pulse." The monkey was confused but did what he said. "Good, now I need to check your eyes." Mini Donkey Kong number 1, feeling more relaxed, opened his eyes wide and allowed the good doctor to inspect them. "Finally, I need to check your mouth." Mini Donkey Kong number one happily complied. Seconds later he was blown into the sky.
"Don't forget to eat plenty of vitamins!"
Pichu was also very fortunate. The baby pokemon managed to stumble upon a most powerful weapon.
("Look a shiny pidgey!")
The mini Donkey Kong turned around and-
*CRACK*
Was slammed out of the park by Pichu.
"Stop that this instant you child!" Kamek commanded to Young Link who was smacking him with the sandal in his hand. Kamek's wand waved all around until he fell off his broom… and into the flare blade that the recently and accidentally returned to normal Sword of Seals was in the middle of doing.
Our heroes watched as the magikoopa spiraled into the sky, disappearing with a *twinkle*. Mario jumped off the raft and gestured to the road leading further into the jungle.
At the arena the celebrations of the fourth cycle were forth coming. Despite Sakurai's comments that this tournament would see a similar amount of participants as to the previous one, the turnout of auditions still successfully caused a blockade of Master Hand's office. For most, this wouldn't be a problem; the only reason anyone ever really saw Master Hand was to use the arena's complicated portal system to hop from one end of the trophy world/one world to another. Not coincidentally, that was not why Toad, on behalf of Princess Peach and Luigi, was asking to see Master Hand.
"But ma'am please! It's a critical emergency!"
The receptionist (whom looked like one of the many Nurse Joys from the more Pokemon inhabited regions) looked wistfully at the small panicking fungi.
"I'm sorry, but Master Hand is currently looking at auditions for new smashers and is very busy."
"B-but I have to see him! A curtain of darkness has fallen over the Mushroom Kingdom and Bowser isn't responsible for it!"
"Really? Oh my. First the two over-confident smashers vanish without trace, and then the Skyworld vanishes in a black cloudy mass, now this? Things are looking much creepier these days huh- Oh my goodness are you okay?!"
An exceptionally white looking Toad nodded slowly. "Could you please repeat that?"
In the meantime, a blue swordsmen and a blue hedgehog were locked in a cell in a location neither of them knew of and were currently going through the seven stages of despair. Well technically one of them; Marth was still on anger while Sonic had moved on to acceptance.
Marth slammed the Falchion against the bars of the "jail cell" the two of them were in. Unfortunately, his sword made nary a dent and he was pushed to the back of the admittedly nice "cell". Truth be told, the jail cell was less of a cell and more of a bedroom, furnished with two beds, a few windows, an in room bathroom and also a nice comfy sofa, all in a room colored primarily black and red with hexagons to make up part of the flooring. It was almost as if their captors were humane, wanting them to be comfortable. For Marth it would have been enjoyable, had they not been kidnapped.
"Made any progress yet?" Sonic called from the bed he was lying on. Marth made a gesture to signal that he could really use some assistance, and Sonic replied by gesturing to his ankle that was wearing a metal bracelet. The kidnappers, somehow finding out of Sonic's speed had taken his sneakers and, in their place, put an ankle bracelet designed to shock the hedgehog if he bends in any way slightly resembling a ball. Thus, Marth was forced to hack away at these bars himself, to no avail.
"This is so frustrating! What are these bars made out of?!"
"I dunno. Something hard."
"You seem extremely calm considering you can't use your speed and you're locked up in a mysterious place."
"You are right about one thing: I really don't know where we are. But I've been thinking…"
"And?"
"I think there might be something sinister going on."
Marth gave a "You don't say" look to Sonic before sighing.
"Explain please."
Sonic sat up, his face full of thought.
"Now bear with me okay? I want to explain everything from the beginning. Now-"
"Wait, how far are we talking?"
"During the Subspace Incident, right when I saved your butts. You might want to get comfortable there pretty boy."
Marth grunted but sat down, adjusting his sister's tiara as he did.
"Okay so, that day, I had barely heard of this whole 'Subspace Army' thing. Station Square was safe, Tails and the rest of my friends were fine, the only thing happening that day was that Eggman had found yet another creature that he planned to control, or something like that. I went over and kicked his butt and the creature, one that looked like either a wisp or that alien eye squid (long story, don't ask), broke free and fled. I chased after but lost it when it flew up in the sky and outta sight. It did lead me to a large void in the planet though, so I went in, looked over a pass and-well you know.
"So after we saved the world, I didn't give much thought about the alien. It disappeared after the incident and it lead me to you guys so it's definitely a good guy right? But then I got here.
In my section of the world we have this floating island right? Kind of like the Isle of the Ancients, if that's what it was called? Well at one point, McNosehair decided to use the Chaos Emeralds to warp reality. Most places weren't hit too badly, but the island wasn't one of those places and the reality warp resurrected some ruins that seemed to act as Buttnik's center of operations. We stopped him but if we did, why did I enter this place through those ruins that shouldn't exist?"
Sonic looked up from his talking to see that Marth had a tremendously distraught look on his face.
"Sonic," He started. "I will admit: I do recall one memory of this place. I had explored this world briefly and very little I could remember of it. There is one memory I do remember and I'll most likely remember it for as long as I live. At one point I managed to visit this world's counterpart to Altea: my kingdom.
"It was heartbreaking; there is no sun on this world like there is on ours. The sky stays as it is; no rain, snow or sun, only a eerie red sky. The only difference between days was a seemingly poisonous black fog hanging in the air. Those who breathed it changed; There was one man who would steal food for his family, but once he inhaled the black fog, he turned them in to a strange, black, spherical creature!
"To say there was a famine would be insulting. Even the earth, already near useless from lack of water and nourishment, seemed poisoned as well! My people were suffering! And all I could do was watch. Some sort of force field kept me from going, and just as well because what could I do?!"
Marth quieted down after that, allowing Sonic to take a better look at him. He had heard that (apparently) Marth used to be an innocent and kind prince in his actual world, but now that was suddenly made much more apparent here.
"Who or what would be that messed up?"
"I wish I knew…"
The steampunk setting of the Kremling hideout loomed on top of a mountain overlooking Jungle Japes. A dark factory, colored rusty iron with multiple leaky, creaking pipes, cast an ominous nature throughout the entire structure. Amongst the many mechanized sounds were the sounds of footsteps as The Shadow Queen walked alongside a giant frog. The frog's eyes were perpetually closed and he wore a regal cape along with a gold crown atop his head.
"Again Ms. Shadow, everyone is doing excellently at their posts. The tower is still unnoticed; Giegue is overseeing construction of the parts and of course King Boo succeeded in gaining us a tool for creating anything we need easily. Yes, everything is going according to plan!"
"Oh really?" The ruler of darkness had an unconvinced look on her face. "Wasn't there another one in your plans?"
"Ah yes. Bellum is a bit preoccupied right now. His goal is to lure at least one of Hyrule's heroes out for us to control. Just a precaution." The Shadow Queen seemed pleased with this answer.
"And you are certain this superweapon of yours will function properly?"
"Well, to be honest, it's not our design. We simply modified it to suit our needs. However we are planning of going through with their original purpose of being mass produced. With the wizard's ability to control dreams and my new dream machine we will be able to produce all sorts of Dreamy equipment!"
Ah Dreamy Equipment; King Boo had mentioned that in his explanation. The shadowy Peach took a look at the scepter King Boo had given her. First Dreamy Bombs, now custom equipment. This dream material was very fascinating. It made her wonder why any of those samurai preferred the Dark Energy. Speaking of…
"Wart?"
"Yes?"
"Where are those soldiers now that Skyworld is cut off?"
Wart snickered.
"Honestly Mario: Why are you going soft!? Do you know how easy New Super Mario Bros 2 was?! And Link! If defeating Ganon was as easy as pulling out a fishing rod, than any self respecting fisherman could be a hero!"
The clones sat, annoyed, inside the shack of Jungle Japes as Cranky Kong (Donkey Kong Senior) continued to rant about how soft "Mario" and Link were getting. The old simian was disappointed with how his former rival was "going casual" while Link was being chastised for "constantly taking the easy way out."
"And another thing! You tell those children of Bowser to actually put up a fight every once in a while!"
"Listen Cranky" Mario interrupted hoping to get a word in edgewise. "As … interesting as it has been catching up, we need to know where Donkey Kong is."
"Donkey? Oh yeah, that turtle on the broomstick came by and took him round back. Now then, can you tell that bigwig Shiguru to stop nerfing the Chucks?! Two hits?! Shameful, shameful…"
The team ran outside and, true to Cranky's word, the smug magician was standing behind a giant sized ape. The ape was wearing a monogrammed tie and had swirling eyes.
"So Mario, you and your friends finally made it here. And it only took you four hours." Mario and Roy made a motion towards the wizard only for him to wave them off. "Oh no, you won't be fighting me. Instead, you will be fighting your friend here. Of course, with his size, it will be near impossible. Ehehehe!" Kamek made a motion with his wand and Donkey Kong growled antagonistically. Dr. Mario, Young Link, Roy and Pichu prepped themselves as the monkey stepped forwards…
…Slipped on a banana peel, tripped and fell into the rapids. Everyone stared, completely stunned and mouths agape, at Kamek.
"Huh. Would you look at that? I guess I'll just have to report back to King Bowser now. What are the odds? If only Kammy wasn't on vacation…" Still in a daze, Kamek left, muttering under his breath.
"…Did that just happen?" Link asked.
"Yes it did." The doctor cracked a huge grin. "Guys, it seems like Lady Luck is smiling down on us today!"
A simian roar of approval filled the air. Donkey Kong pulled himself effortlessly back up onto the floating boards of Jungle Japes, now free of Kamek's mind control and held up a hand for a high five.
The team felt proud as they watched DK hand Dr. Mario the second badge they needed. Even Cranky Kong, no doubt caught up in the moment, said something rather good-natured.
"Yes, me, Donkey Kong and Mario go way back. Sometimes extremely far back. But, it's touching to see those two still good friends. Friends, especially best friends, need to stick together. Hey you okay kid?" Link's eyes darkened before he realized that he had stopped halfway to reaching for the ocarina of time. He shook himself and gave a stepford smile.
"Yeah, I'm okay! Don't worry about me!" Cranky grunted, allowing the boy to pull out the instrument and play the Song of Soaring.
"...And that is why I messed with the emotions and thoughts of the swordsman and his ladyfriend!"
A swordsman that appeared to be made of pure darkness looked at a being that was shaped like a star and made of the same material.
"And you almost blew our cover just for that."
"Sure did!"
The swordsman made no movements, although a noise and a slight billow of the red bandana it was wearing suggested that it was sighing. Despite its appearance of a dull greenish rope lacking holes suggesting a lack of arms, the swordsman still produced a purple grey sword.
"Nebula, did you destroy those Light Arrows?"
The star, Nebula, looked abashed
"Well, I kinda-sorta-maybe got a bit out of control in the armory-"
"Did you do it?"
"Oh sure!"
"Then that is all I require of you at the moment."
Nebula looked despondent, but did as requested (No doubt flying back to Iceberg to find someone to yell at). The swordsman sighed. As useless as Nebula usually is, he did destroy the weapons of light and give a rather good idea on what to do with the intruders. Speaking of-
It turned to the three unconscious bodies on the ground. The eye of the creature, dressed blue via its visor inspected the prisoners closely. The red haired one reminded it of the blue human captive, the small one appeared to be an optimistic child (something that will have to be taken care of in some way) and the last intruder- he was important. He held the information that the core seeks. Then, the core will have a way of spreading its influence more directly.
The swordsman of darkness suddenly heard footsteps and arrow slings. No doubt the Hero of Time, back from looking for the guards. It was easy to subdue him: Just wait for him to notice his friends and pick him off in his moment of horror.
As expected, the boy came running into the courtyard of the castle, found his friends and stopped dead in his tracks for a second. Alas, even that second managed to cost him a whack to the head, not enough to turn him into a trophy, but painful none the less.
So, the ghost and the puppets were right. A bunch of clones going on a tour around the multiverse eh? The swordsman knew from experience that someone running "incidentally" into a scheme laid out by someone else was not incidental in the slightest. It would have to either kill them, or break their resolve so badly that they won't want to continue. Before it could though, one of those blasted Hylian guards came running onto the scene.
"Brilliant, my fellow! You've captured five more trespassers? Come along and we'll bring them before the king himself."
The swordsman wanted desperately to kill the guard and the intruders, but that would create a risk of blowing its cover and making its leader very unhappy. The swordsman had one comfort though: It already had most of the parts to break the Hero of Time in place already...
Author's Notes:
If you didn't get the joke: Sometimes the giant computer players have horrible AI that causes them to self-destruct and Giant Donkey Kong proves that point very clearly.
So, this chapter was rife with plot developments, yet it still is loosely based on the original Kongo Jungle stage. This will probably fail to hold true for a few stages that I've planned out (especially Pokemon Stadium) but for the most part I'm trying to keep as true as possible to most of the stages. (Compare with The Epic Quest of Pichu where there was so much crack humor and subplots that it got confusing really fast.)
As some may notice, the plot point of Wart's involvement was changed slightly and King Boo's appearance was cut. This is partially laziness and partially to make Wart a credible threat.
Meanwhile, the reason that (so far) the Koop Troop appears to be minor annoyances will quickly be revealed in thee next chapter. Also, Dr. Mario's nightmare at the beginning of the chapter is more significant than what one might think.
Lastly: I did pre-write most of chapter three/four by the time this is uploaded… But due to a section being A. ripe for much needed development for the conflict of that chapter and B. an anticlimax I'm going to be adding to it. And since there is still a lot of that chapter to go before it is finished, it might take a while.
On that note: Next Time-
The plot of the story begins to pick up as the clones head for Hyrule to retrieve the third badge and they find themselves at the mercy of Link, Zelda, the koopa royal family and a mysterious swordsman…
Fun Fact: Bowser was the Big Bad/ Main villain of The Epic Quest of Pichu. He was meant to show up at the end of the story (after Master Hand was defeated) and turn into Giga Bowser, despite not appearing beforehand.