Trapped in the Brawl

by pgasniper

Someone buys SSBB on the first day, unfortunately he is unable to play the game as he is too busy living it! He's now trapped in an unknown world trying to regain his memory and return to his previous life. But it's never that simple...

29. Day 28: The Reaper, The Observer

Welcome to a long chapter, 40,000+ words, before this site's inflated word count! I regret nothing! (And it still feels small compared to many of The Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest chapters.) I probably could have split it up into four chapters, but that would have broken the formatting, and my obsessive-compulsive side won out... He apologizes profusely.

Microsoft Word, Times New Roman: Font Size 12: Page Count: 100

I promise none of the remaining chapters will reach this length.

And I figure, I might as well give you an F-Bomb warning. I figure with the T rating I can at least get one in…

Otherwise, welcome to Reveals and plot!

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Day 28: The Reaper, The Observer, and The Beginning

I was floating in the air. I just looked around me, a blue sky, clouds, below was a road where there were plenty of vehicles at a stand still. I could see the after effects of an accident. The main part of it was a truck that had gone through the median on the highway, and collided with a car. Miraculously, or maybe not, it was only that single car that was hit.

"So, welcome to my death." A voice said.

I turned to face the Reaper who was also floating in air.

He just pushed off of the air and rushed towards me as he swung his scythe. I pulled out the beam sword and blocked his attack.

We both flew through the air and plummeted down to the world below.

---

I woke up, gasping for air. I braced for the impact, and then just froze. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was just a dream. Breathing a sigh of relief I got up and did my morning routine, and then began to make breakfast. There was suddenly a knocking at the door. I opened it, and then standing there was the Reaper. Behind him Smashville was in flames.

I was suddenly stabbed through the stomach by his scythe.

I woke up and did my morning routine…

The same sequence continued for at least ten times. Each time I was thinking that I was awake, but only realizing that it was a dream after the Reaper had stabbed me.

When I finally woke up, I looked at the ceiling wondering if this was just another dream, or if this was actually reality. After it actually took effort to get out of bed, I guessed it was reality.

I got up, strangely where I was stabbed in the dream, it hurt. As though I had stretched the wrong way in my sleep. I did my best to ignore it, and did my morning routine, eventually making my way into the kitchen. I decided this time I wasn't going to crash anyone's home for breakfast, and just went through the fridge.

It was now stocked with a bunch of eggs, milk, bacon, and some other things. I was about to reach in when there was a knocking at the door. I froze, thinking that it would once again be a dream.

I used aura to see a group of people behind it. Letting off a sigh, I went to the door and just opened it. Standing there was the kid Smashers. "Nugai!" they said rather excited. "Can you make us breakfast?"

I cringed. "Aren't you guys fully capable of doing that yourselves?" I wondered.

"Weren't you the times you leeched off of us?" Ness countered.

"Fine." I muttered. "Come in."

They entered and I just said that my plan was to make some bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast. They all just nodded and began to make themselves at home. They wandered around my house, noting the various things that I had done with the place. "Where did you get this couch?" Ness shouted.

I didn't exactly have the heart to tell them that my house was all ready furnished.

"The dump." I joked. "I was surprised at the stuff that was there."

I used aura to watch their reactions. They suddenly seemed to jump off the couch and looked at it rather nervously. "It was a joke!" I shouted back. "You're probably not going to believe this, but I lived in this town before, and this was my house from back then." Of course from that time, I really did get it from the dump, but that's just a minor detail.

"What? Really!?" Ness said surprised, rushing into the kitchen.

"Well, that explains all the nice stuff." Popo said.

I just let off a sigh. "Can you guys help me make some toast and then butter it?" I wondered.

The two of them just nodded, and I returned my attention to the food that was cooking in front of me. Soon I had made what I hoped was enough bacon for everyone. "All right, how do you want your eggs?" I asked. "I was just planning on scrambled, but I can make others if you want."

"Scrambled is fine." Ness said.

"Same." Popo added on.

Lucas just looked at me a bit nervous. "I'll have an omelette if that's not too much trouble." He said.

I just nodded. "That will be fine." I said. "Anything in it?"

"Um… cheese, any fresh vegetables." Lucas said.

Toon Link and Red also wanted their eggs sunny side up.

Can't you all just have decided on one type of egg… Ah well, I guess that's my fault, I did ask them.

I just began to make the various orders. I had called them as they were ready so some of the Smashers were all ready done and just waiting for the others to catch up. I had finally sat down at the table and was ready to eat when I saw that everyone was just looking at Lucas. "Is something wrong?" Ness wondered.

He had only cut off a single piece of the omelette. Tears were beginning to well up in his eyes. He could then no longer hold it back and he just began to bawl. He ran upstairs, and everyone could only just look at each other confused.

"I'll catch up with you guys later." Ness said. The others all just nodded, and left the house. We went up to the washroom. The door was closed. Inside we could just hear some sobbing.

Ness looked at me a bit confused. "Do you know what just happened?"

I just nodded. "Omelettes." I whispered.

"Omelettes?" Ness said confused.

"Like steak is your favourite food, his is omelettes." I said.

Lucas just opened the door and stared at the two of us. "I can hear you." He sobbed.

I just let off a sigh. "Lucas, what happened?" I asked. "It's just the two of us now, you don't need to worry."

He just took kleenex from the washroom, and blew his nose. "It tasted just like my mother's omelettes. It was so nice and fluffy…"

Our faces just suddenly drained of a bit of color. "Oh." We said shocked.

"And all of us eating together, at a table, it felt like we were a family for a few minutes." Lucas sobbed.

What came next was just natural. I just embraced Lucas and patted him on the back. "It's okay Lucas, let it all out." I said, not even caring that my shirt might be used as a kleenex. "Listen, Lucas. Living is not just the good times. There are also the bad times. But with every experience, we grow into a different person, hopefully for the better."

If there was anything holding him back before, he let go and just began to cry. Soon he had finished crying. "Okay just wash up, compose yourself and then come back downstairs and finish your food. It would be a waste." I said.

He nodded, and Ness and I made our way back down.

We just sat down; I looked at my food and tried to eat it. The eggs had lost some of their heat, but it didn't really matter. Food was still food.

"I can't believe something like that triggered him." Ness said.

I just nodded. "Everyone is different." I replied. "I'm sure if you lost your mother things would cause you to tear up. Memories can come back at any moment, without any warning."

Ness just nodded.

Lucas made his way downstairs and began to finish his omelette. When he was done, tears were still welling up in his eyes.

"Now then." I sighed. "Just stay here until your ready." I just took the plate into the kitchen and began to do the dishes. I left Ness and Lucas alone for several minutes. I heard them talking over some stuff, but I was only getting bits and pieces.

"I heard that the stadium is built."

"Let's have a fight later." Ness said. "There is also a new exercise room."

"I wonder if they have the Olympic sized swimming pool filled yet."

"What do you want to eat later?"

I eventually finished the dishes and went back. Lucas was just still sitting at the table. Ness had now moved down to a couch.

"All right." I said. "Lucas, do you still need some alone time?"

"No." He said. "I'm fine."

"That's a lie." I replied. "We're staying with you today."

Lucas just cringed. He walked over and just sat down on the couch and we turned on the TV. And once again, there was absolutely nothing on that was even worthwhile to watch. As we scanned through the TV shows, we tried to find something to cheer Lucas up. But there was really nothing.

Ness just sighed. "How about we play those games again?" He asked.

I cringed. "Sure." I said. Not really wanting to play and rather just look for a way out or something...

We turned on the Wii, and began to play some Brawl. I was just constantly thinking about how surreal this whole experience was. I was playing SSBB, with actual characters from the game in real life. They were playing as themselves.

After several rounds it became apparent that Lucas was having a hard time constantly focusing on the game. "Nugai." He said, probably taking several minutes to actually build up the courage to speak. "Can we switch to something else?"

"Sure." I said.

Ness also seemed to agree. "What else is there?" he wondered.

"Not much." I replied. "I've got Wii Sports, and WarioWare I think that's it for three player multiplayer games."

"Well, let's go outside then." Ness sighed. "There's got to be something we can do out there."

We nodded. I couldn't help but feel that I was betraying everything I stood for. Not playing video games, instead going outside and getting fresh air!? Blasphemy!

It also probably didn't help that there wasn't all that much to actually do out there either. We just ended up walking around Smashville, until Ness began talking about the snow fort that they were making. "Nugai, you've got to come and see it!" Ness said.

"I don't really want to." I said.

"Come on!" Lucas said. "We've all been working hard on it, you should see it too, before the snow melts."

"It's changed so much since you were there yesterday." Ness added on. "Popo decided to stay up rather late to work on it."

I was eventually dragged to the snow fort that they were making. I was honestly just expecting a bunch of boulders lined up against each other to make a giant wall or enclosed space. But rather it was just a giant pile of snow, and several boulders blocking a hole. Ness, Lucas and I all entered the hole, having to crawl on our hands and knees. We eventually came to a single large room. "Welcome to our fort Nugai." Ness said.

I looked around the room. It was just a hollowed out snow bank. There seemed to be what appeared to be benches carved out of the walls. I went over to the walls a bit concerned if this was actually safe. I tapped the walls, and was rather surprise that it was coated with a bit of ice.

It wasn't long before we heard more voices. Entering into the snow fort was more of the kid Smashers.

"I thought you said you were going to catch up with us." Toon Link said a bit annoyed.

"I did." Ness said. "I just figured you guys would be here."

They rolled their eyes and just sat down on either the benches or the ground. With all of them in here, it was also quickly getting much hotter. We found ourselves removing our heavy winter jackets. "We need something else in here." Ness said.

"We should get a TV." Popo suggested.

I was going to question how they would get it in, and protect it from the elements, but they have proven to be resourceful in the past, so I thought this would be the same.

"How about a board game?" Toon Link suggested.

I must have looked a bit confused.

"Yeah, that would be great." Red said. "I'll go get one."

He quickly rushed out. The other Smashers also were getting ready. Popo placed has hand on the ground and made a giant chunk of ice to act as a table. We all sat around it, just sitting on our jackets. Soon Red came back with some towels and a box. Inside the box was the board game. They quickly began to set it up.

"Um, what's the game called?" I wondered.

"Dokapon Kingdom." Red replied.

"How do you play?" I asked.

"You're about to find out." They were setting up a board, and began to take out several figurines. I guessed they were the pieces. There were 8 colors, and multiple figurines of the same color, but wearing different clothes. The board just looked like a map of a world. There was different kind of spaces; Red just began to put cards down on allocated spots. And then they all rushed for various figures. I was told that at the start of the game you could only choose between 3 figures and you got the others later. The end result was this:

Popo - Yellow Thief

Red - Red Warrior

Toon Link - Green Warrior

Lucas - Blue Magician

Ness - Black Magician

Nugai - White Thief

I can't say I really understood the rules. We were going around to various towns on the map, beating monsters and then putting a token on them to claim it as our own. I couldn't keep track of what was going on, but I was pretty sure I was losing.

The others all seemed to be getting frustrated. "Popo, you jerk!" Ness shouted out loud. I quickly learned that when a thief passes another person they get to steal an item in their hand. Soon the game devolved into shouting insults at the top of their lungs. I was thinking it was a wonder that the board game wasn't just tossed aside in frustration.

"Well, sorry Ness, but you gotta be careful."

"I'll show you careful. You're going to get burned really quickly!" Ness snapped back.

There was suddenly a loud explosion, followed with what sounded like glass shattering. All of the kid Smashers just looked around with both an expression of panic and confusion.

"What was that?" Ness asked.

I tried to use aura to see, but the snow just acted as a block. All of the Kid Smashers rushed for the entrance. I'm pretty sure, Toon Link 'accidentally' knocked the board game off of the table in the process.

I was the last one out of the snow fort. It was actually rather difficult to get out since, they all froze and stopped moving forwards as soon as they got out. After forcing my way out, I could see why. Up in the sky there was a projection of the Reaper, just over looking Smashville.

"I want you all to know, no matter where you hide, or where you go, I will always be able to find you!" The Reaper shouted. It echoed through out every corner of Smashville. "Don't think you can elude me! I will hunt you each down and kill you all!"

And then the projection disappeared.

I was shaking. I thought I was used to this feeling of fear, but it was unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was like I knew beforehand that he was always holding back, and always not putting forth any actual effort. It was like I knew that this time he was dead serious.

I could feel the guillotine fall. The wind whistling as the slab of iron came down right by my neck.

The next thing I knew was that I was on the ground and the Reaper's scythe was in the snow bank.

Was it pure luck? Did my body instinctively react on only the desire to survive, or did I slip on ice? Did he actually push me to do this as a warning? It was at that moment that I knew, he was no longer holding back.

Everything played out in slow motion. The kid Smashers all turned slowly back to see the Reaper standing over me with the scythe stuck in their fort. "Nugai, it ends today!" He said. "I have to kill you, it's my only choice."

Perhaps it was just dumb luck, but the scythe was somehow stuck in the snow bank. Not that it lasted long, the scythe let out a pulse of energy that caused a chunk of the snow bank to explode. What was left of the hollowed out fort underneath had collapsed on itself.

Popo was the first to react; he grabbed his hammer out of somewhere and jumped into the air. "REAPER! YOU WILL PAY!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. He swung his hammer down, but the Reaper blocked the attack with his scythe. There was suddenly a strange ripple in the air. The next thing I knew was that the Reaper was encased in ice. Popo landed on the ground, not at all looking amused. "Sorry, but for what you just did, I won't hold back, not even for a second. We slaved away on that fort and for you to just destroy it is unforgivable!"

Everything about Popo had changed. The ice that the Reaper was encased in began to crack, and he quickly broke free sending the shards towards us.

"It's going to be our last stand!" Toon Link shouted, jumping in front with his shield blocking a good portion of the shards.

"I see, so you all wish to die protecting Nugai." He said. "Very well, I can grant you that wish."

Popo swung his hammer. Once again the ripple in the air appeared, this time an ice bolder appeared, and just flew right for the Reaper. It hit him and sent him flying back. "Sorry, but out here during the winter, I'm at my strongest." Popo said. "I don't need Nana to tear you apart!"

Ness ran for the Reaper with his baseball bat out. He swung it towards the guy who could only block with his scythe. He just looked frustrated at the kid psychic.

I didn't know what was going on. Why was the Reaper allowing the attack to hit him again?! In theory none of us should have even been able to scratch him...

The Reaper jumped into the air. He just began to rapidly spin his scythe. "Festival of Blood!" he shouted. Blades of air began to rush out towards everyone, they did their best to avoid them, but it was quite clear what was going on. The blades of wind would immediately cut up the ground upon touching it; it would cleanly take off a limb if it hit one of us.

I just activated my awakened aura state and jumped towards him. The blades of wind that hit me, only made minor scratches against my enhanced defences. I managed to get up close to him and just put my hand on his chest. And then, I sent a force palm right through him. He flew down into the ground and skidded across it. He then began to get up, coughing. He glared at me, before finally beginning to throw up. Mixed in with the vomit was some blood. I made sure to quickly deactivate my awakened aura state. Considering what happened the previous times I used it, it probably was a good idea.

"Nugai." He laughed. "You really are a pain in the ass. It was the right choice to bring you here! You've made everything so interesting."

A stream of fire suddenly rushed towards him. The Reaper just quickly grabbed his cloak and used that to shield himself. I glanced over to see Red with Charizard out. The look in Red's eyes was a rather serious one. There was no softness that I had seen previously, it was only the eyes of someone who had seen countless battles. When the flames died down, the Reaper just jumped out of the fire, his cloak didn't even have a singe on it.

"Now, Solar Beam!" Red ordered.

A beam of light shot towards the Reaper. It hit his cloak blasting through it, and hitting his hip. The Reaper fell down onto the ground and began to struggle to get back up. His cloak began to also magically repair itself.

Lucas suddenly attacked the Reaper, using his wooden stick. He actually managed to hit the Reaper on the side of the head, and there was a rather loud crack sound. Lucas quickly jumped back and The Reaper tried to stand up. He was clearly having great difficulty keeping himself oriented. To him, the world must have been spinning.

"It's quite a different story when we're outside, isn't it?" Ness said.

No enclosed space, we had all the range, we didn't have to worry about tripping over each other. Popo said he could fight at full strength, I guess with his ice attacks at room temperature they would begin melting or something when he fought normally.

The Reaper just began to laugh. His hand reached up to where Lucas had hit him, and then he just looked at his hand for several seconds. On it was blood. "No, nothing is different." The Reaper said. "I've been letting you hit me! Just to feel the satisfaction, to think that you idiots would be capable of taking me down, so you could think you could make progress, just so when you begin to despair and realize how hopeless it really is, it would be much sweeter!"

He placed his hand on the scythe. Suddenly it began to glow with a red aura. "Besides, I needed to bleed a bit to unlock my scythe's true power."

Whatever aura was emanating from that scythe, it was a cursed one. It was evil. It felt like that in a moment it would come and consume us all. "Today, the Smashers die!"

There was a sudden burst of his aura. He was letting off a great amount of bloodlust.

Popo swung his hammer once again, however the Reaper just blocked the attack. This time hitting the head of the hammer with the wooden stick of the scythe. Suddenly two ripples in the air collided, and Popo was sent flying back by an explosion of ice.

The Kid Smashers looked in shock and confusion. "What just happened?!" Ness said.

I could only look at it in shock. "It's music." I said. Everyone just glanced at me confused.

"Care to explain?!" Ness said, jumping over a slash from the scythe.

I didn't exactly know what I was trying to say. But it made sense to me. "Think of it like hearing a complicated song on the radio, and then being able to play it perfectly within a few tries." I said. "That's the best way I can think of explaining it, but he used to have a musical talent, where he could play the exact notes after hearing it once. Think of that applied to fighting techniques!"

Lucas just looked rather shocked. "No way." He muttered.

"So, he could copy nearly any attack?" Toon Link said. "Well then, in that case, let's see him copy this!"

He pulled out a bow and arrow, and attacked a bomb to the end of it. He then launched it towards the Reaper. He swung his scythe, and upon impact it exploded. "Don't be stupid." The Reaper said. "Of course I can't copy any attacks that require items unless I have them too."

"Charizard!" Red shouted.

A torrent of fire rushed for The Reaper, he just jumped up into the air and then rushed for Red. "My first victim!" He shouted swinging his scythe.

I jumped between them, drawing, and activating my beam sword.

I was able to block it with the beam sword, but it quickly became apparent that he was much stronger. I was suddenly sent flying away. The few seconds I had stalled the Reaper was enough for Red to have Ivysaur unleash a solar beam at point blank. This one actually hit the Reaper and forced him back. Squirtle followed up with a skull bash when Ivysaur's solar beam was over. The Reaper just looked at Red.

"PK Fire!" Lucas shouted. The Reaper was suddenly hit by the PK Fire. The attack began to burn him.

I got back up off of the ground and just began to rush towards The Reaper. I knew he couldn't keep track of all of us at once; right now we had the complete advantage. I jumped into the air and brought down the beam sword to try and cut him in two. He however quickly brought up his scythe to protect himself. I landed on the ground and we begun to try and overpower the other. Both of us just glaring at each other and not wanting to give up. "What's wrong, Nugai? Where is that spark? Weren't you going to try and kill me, or something? I'm fighting with everything I have, so should you! Or do you still think that there is someway to resolve this without violence?"

No, I wasn't that naive. All I knew was that something had changed since the last time we had talked.

"What happened?" I asked. "You said you would wait for me to find a solution."

"I never said that, I said that I would continue going about my own way until you found another sure fire way." The Reaper said. "I was watching you though, I saw you got rid of 'Dave' but yesterday you practically squandered everything! If you won't go out and find this so called way on your own, I'll force you to!"

"Stop this." I said. It was clear that the chance for that had ended a long time ago. But, I was still hesitating. I still couldn't bring myself to hurt him; he used to be my friend. Any time I tried to attack, I would just remember things from years ago, the times we spent together, the good, the bad. I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

And for that reason, I was forced back.

"FALCON PUNCH!" A voice shouted.

Rushing towards the Reaper was Captain Falcon. The Reaper turned around only to be greeted with a Falcon Punch sending him flying and skidding across the ground.

Everyone stared at him a bit shocked.

"Captain Falcon." The Reaper said, getting back up. "That really hurt!"

"That was kind of the idea." Captain Falcon replied.

The Reaper suddenly rushed right to Captain Falcon and swung his scythe with the intention of cutting off his arm. I stretched out my hand and caught the blade of the scythe with my bare hand. Even though it was reinforced with Aura, his blade still cut into it.

"Please stop." I said.

"Do you really want to lose your hand? Don't you have video games that you want to play with it, once you get back to the real world?" The Reaper said.

An ice boulder suddenly went for the Reaper. He was hit by it and went flying back. He just looked frustrated. I grabbed my hand to try and assess the damage. There was just blood. I couldn't see the cut underneath it, but I could still move my fingers.

"This is getting annoying." He said. "I know more will arrive..."

As if on cue more and more Smashers had arrived. "Good, you're almost all here." he laughed. "That will make everything so much easier!"

Pikachu was just glaring at me "I thought you said he wasn't going to bother us for a while!"

"He didn't, yesterday." I muttered.

"That's not funny!" Pikachu said.

"I wasn't trying to be..." I replied. Soon all of the other Smashers had arrived.

The Reaper just began to laugh. "This is going to be great!" He laughed. "Welcome to your deaths! All of you in one little area just to watch each other die one by one."

Link, Marth, and Roy all rushed for the Reaper. A smile just crossed his face. They all quickly slashed their swords at him, but he did something to block the attack, and then all three of them passed him. It took a few seconds for them to react, they suddenly were cut down, and lying on the snow. Their clothes were cut, and blood was pouring out.

In the Reaper's hand was a pure red sword. "Three down, whose next?" He wondered.

I froze. Was he intentionally getting hit, just to buy time so that everyone was gathered here?

"I was getting tired of trying not to kill you all." He said, as though he could read my mind. "Have you ever tried fighting someone while simultaneously trying to not reveal that you're acting and you could kick their ass in a second? It's really freaking hard."

Pikachu and Pichu fired off their Thunderbolts. However they seemed to hit a barrier, and were stopped at least 3 meters away from him. Captain Falcon quickly rushed towards him, passing through the spot where the barrier was, and towards him. He pulled back his arm to ready himself for a punch. But the Reaper just quickly cut off his right arm.

It took everyone a few seconds to realize what had just happened. Captain Falcon just kept on going, and then froze. He looked at where his arm was supposed to be and then at his arm on the ground. He then reached for the gun on his holster and fired it rapidly at the Reaper. However each bullet was hit by something in midair from the Reaper to stop it. When he had emptied his clip he rushed for the Reaper, however he was quickly cut in half!

"Captain Falcon!" I found myself shouting.

The other Smashers were all in shock. "No way!"

The Reaper just went over to Roy, Marth and Link, and stabbed all three of them with his red sword. "That's four of you Smashers dead." He said.

I just rushed for the Reaper. If I was holding anything back before, it was now gone. That kid in my memories was brutally murdered, just like the four Smashers in front of me. I swung the beam sword right at him, and he blocked with both the scythe and the strange sword. For this single attack I used all the strength that my body could muster to try and push him back.

"It looks like I finally got you to snap!" The Reaper said with a rather twisted smile. "How many more do I get to kill, or are you actually going to be able to stop me?"

He was teasing me. This asshole was teasing me, using all of the Smashers lives as bait. Just dangling it in front of me like some cat toy.

I'll kill you!

"I won't let you!" I unleashed a burst of aura, tossing the Reaper up into the air. He just laughed and suddenly seemed to push off of thin air and rocketed towards the area behind me. I turned around to see him cut through Toon Link, Mario, and Pit in one single swing.

"Seven."

Peach and Zelda began to scream in terror, and then they were suddenly shot. All anyone saw was just red spots on their dresses, and then the red spots began expanding. The two of them fell down dead.

"Nine."

Bowser was furious and rushed for the Reaper, suddenly growing several times his size and curling up into a spiked ball. He rushed for the Reaper as fast as he could, and the Reaper just stood there, simply stretching out his arm and stopping Bowser in his tracks. There was suddenly electricity coming from the Reaper, shocking Bowser. Soon Bowser uncurled, and just remained a smoking husk.

It was apparent how he had gained the name Reaper. Bringing death upon anyone and everyone. The Smashers knew this. I should have known this.

Ganondorf had transformed into Ganon and rushed for the Reaper. He slashed his scythe, but Ganon jumped into the air and suddenly appeared right behind him, charging into him and knocking him up into the air. The Reaper turned around and tried to cut him, but Ganon used his tusks to block the scythe. The Reaper tried to send his sword right into Ganon's skull, but Ganon quickly vanished once again. It took the Reaper several seconds to readjust. Suddenly Ganon came crashing down on the Reaper. The Reaper managed to roll out of the way, but it was clear that he was rather nervous.

Then he just smiled. Something about it was like he was taking it as a challenge. Ganon charged for him again. This time the Reaper ran for Ganon, and when it looked like they were going to collide, he just slid underneath him. Ganon fell to the ground and began to let out a cry of pain. Everywhere underneath him had been cut up by the Reaper's sword and scythe.

"And that's another one gone." The Reaper said. "Are we at eleven now?"

"What are you? Two?" Ness taunted. "Don't you know how to count?"

"I know how to count." The Reaper said. "It's just getting a little difficult with ten fingers now. And I didn't want to take off my shoes since being in the snow barefoot would be a bit stupid." He went over to Captain Falcon's cut off arm. "Ah, this will do until we reach 16."

The Smashers just all were getting upset. He was taunting them.

Ganon transformed back into Ganondorf. "I'm not gone yet!" Ganondorf said, drawing a sword. The Reaper just looked rather bored at him. He stepped forwards and disappeared; only reappearing behind Ganondorf a second later. Ganondorf then fell down dead.

"You were doing much better when you were all attacking me at the same time." The Reaper said. "Just attacking me one at a time is stupid, and you should know this. Or is this just the fake chivalry that you've been programmed with? Idiots."

I ran for the Reaper. My beam sword and his weapons clashed once again.

"Programmed?" I snapped. "They are real, just like us!"

"Is that what you believe?" The Reaper wondered. "This must be really painful for you…"

"How many more do you have to kill?" I shouted.

"Until you're all dead." The Reaper replied. "Until each and every last one of you is gone, or until one of you manages to kill me."

"Why!?" I shouted.

"With my blood, I made a pact with my weapon." He said. "That I kill all of you Smashers, or I die! Now Nugai, watch as one by one all of the Smashers die!"

"I won't let you!" I shouted back.

"You're all ready too late for several of them!" He laughed. "Now, are you actually going to try and stop me, or are you just going to continue to spout generic lines. Or are you just going to run away and cower in fear?"

I was forced back by a wave of energy. He looked around at the rest of the Smashers, it was quite clear to tell what he was thinking, who was going to be his next target. I just ran to him, trying to stop any more of this senseless slaughter. He looked at me rather surprised.

"You're getting weaker." The Reaper said.

"Stop it!" I pleaded.

"I can't." He replied, hitting me with the wooden staff part of the scythe, the snatch. "I want you to see how hopeless it is, how much of a slaughter it will be if I don't do this my way."

"You'll murder millions!"

"It's the same result." He said. "It's our side, their side, or a combination of both. What is going to be your choice?"

"I'll fight for this side!" I shouted.

"How unfortunate."

Several lasers shot at us. Up in the sky were Fox, Falco, and Wolf in their ships, two Arwings and a Wolfen. The Reaper just let off a rather bored sigh. "Looks like we have our next volunteers." He laughed, jumping up into the air. There were suddenly three explosions. The remains of the ships rained down upon us. We were able to dodge most of the major stuff, but there were still a few Smashers who got hit by a bit of shrapnel.

Dr. Mario had rushed over to Ike who had a giant chunk of the Arwing in his leg. He reached to help him, but The Reaper quickly killed both of them.

"No, no!" I muttered. This was so unceremonious. Everything was instant. They were just being slaughtered. I didn't know what to do. Everyone was just dying.

Meta Knight flew towards the Reaper. Sword and scythe clashed, but it was easy to see that Meta Knight would eventually be overpowered by the Reaper. The Reaper brought down his sword, however Meta Knight used his dimensional cape to appear behind the Reaper and slash him across his back.

The Reaper actually cried out in pain. He swung his scythe at Meta Knight who blocked the blow and was sent flying away. But Meta Knight came rushing right back, constantly dodging each and every one of the Reapers attacks and attacking various spots on his body. But no matter how clean the hit, the Reaper didn't actually seem hurt. He was always ready to continue battling.

"How?" I questioned. "He shouldn't be able to do this."

The other Smashers were equally nervous. Each of them just hoping that Meta Knight would be able to do something before The Reaper claimed any more casualties.

"Meta Knight, let me help you!" Kirby said getting a sword out of nowhere. He jumped up to clash with The Reaper as well. King Dedede also jumped up into the air and brought his hammer down upon The Reaper's back, with enough force to send him down into the ground.

The Reaper was shocked, and didn't expect what was coming next. Before he even had a chance to recover, King Dedede landed on his back. He let out a cry of pain, as King Dedede stomped up and down on him. I had to admit, it was brutal, but it seemed to be effective. Meta Knight and Kirby had their swords ready, and pointing down. They then began to spin around in a circle so that it looked like the two of them were a drill coming down, aiming directly for the Reaper's head.

They landed and there was a large explosion of snow, blocking all of our views. There was just silence, and then the snow that was stirred up quickly began to settle. The Reaper had moved his scythe to knock King Dedede off of him, move slightly, and block the sword attack from Kirby and Meta Knight. But it was quite clear that it took its toll on him. The metal blade of his scythe now had a crack on it.

The Smashers were clearly trying to hide their joy that his precious weapon had been damaged. The Reaper however just looked at the crack, running his fingers over it a few times. "Kirby, Meta Knight, and King Dedede. You three are the next I'm dragging into hell!"

I rushed for him with my beam sword; I attacked the scythe where the crack was with the intent of breaking it. He however blocked the attack with his sword. "Are you getting tired of this, Nugai? Because I certainly am! You're the last one I'm going to kill!"

He delivered a kick into my side with enough force to send me flying. I skidded across the snow, a few rocks also cutting me a bit. When I stopped sliding, Ness and Lucas quickly rushed to my side. They helped me get back up.

I saw the Reaper rush for Kirby, Meta Knight and King Dedede. The three of them were going all out against the Reaper. The Reaper was doing his best to keep all three of them in his vision at once, so King Dedede didn't get behind him once again. "He's strong." I muttered.

"Yeah." Ness said. "It's hard, but we can definitely beat him."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Positive." Ness said.

King Dedede swung his hammer, and it hit the Reaper's scythe. The tip of the blade then got stuck in King Dedede's hammer. Nana and Popo quickly saw this as an opportunity to attack. They brought their hammers down upon The Reaper's back, causing him to lose grip of his scythe. King Dedede quickly backed away from them and quickly tried to detach the scythe from his blade. The Reaper knocked the two kids off of him and just looked frustrated at the five of them. He suddenly let off a paralysing aura. He looked around at all of the Smashers.

"You've all made one mistake in fighting me." He said. "You thought that without my scythe I would be defenceless. But that isn't the case."

He stretched out his arms. And then, from his arms came two more blades, curved like the scythe blades, these were red. "No way!" Mewtwo shouted. "Everyone get away from him!"

"It's too late." The Reaper said. "You should have noticed sooner with the sword that I was able to summon out of nowhere."

I was trying to figure out what those blades were. Where they came form? They couldn't be concealed, not even in his cloak. That color of red too was also disturbing me. It looked exactly like blood... No, it was blood!

"No way! His blood is a weapon?" I said

Ness and Lucas glanced at me.

"That's correct, Nugai." The Reaper said. "To achieve my goals I made every part of my body a weapon and capable of killing. I learned how to control my blood, and solidify it so that it could become a blade. So that if I was ever disarmed, it wouldn't mean anything. If someone shot me, I could just quickly harden my blood so that it would act as a bulletproof vest. You get the idea."

"So your blood has been acting as armor." I said.

"Precisely." The Reaper said. "I figured, once I returned to my world, there would be those who were against me for what I did to this world. Zenith, and yourself included. While I was ready to take your scorn, I was going to make sure that Fantasia would never be possible by destroying those behind it. I went everywhere across this world searching for any techniques that I could learn. Aura, fighting, even manipulating blood. To just transform my body into a weapon."

I was shaking. He was determined; he was ready to do whatever it took. And meanwhile, I was just here trying to enjoy my times with the Smashers.

"Oh, well." The Reaper said. "I guess it's time to continue our battle." He rushed for King Dedede and cut through him using his two blood scythes. "Long live the king." He muttered. He looked at his scythe and just picked it up off of the ground. One swing of it was able to get the hammer out. He just swung the scythe around several times, this time he put it into King Dedede's body. The scythe actually seemed to be drinking the blood, and the crack that was on it healed.

Meta Knight rushed towards the Reaper frustrated. The Reaper also charged for him. The two clashed and the Reaper began to walk away, fully expecting that Meta Knight was dead. However, all the damage that the Reaper had done just cut Meta Knight's mask into three parts.

Not expecting it, Meta Knight was able to slash the Reaper's back. He let out a cry of agony and just turned to face Meta Knight. Without his mask, he looked just like a blue Kirby.

"You will pay." Meta Knight said.

"Killing me won't bring back the Smashers, or will it Nugai?" The Reaper laughed. "Tell me do you think the Status Quo will kick in and erase any memories of the slaughter that happened, and just replace those that fell today?"

Meta Knight swung his sword right at The Reaper's head. He blocked the attack with his scythe. Much to Meta Knight's shock.

"It will be just like last time!" He laughed. "Where is that Lucario anyways?"

He looked at Lucario and just rushed for him. Lucario tried to create something out of aura, but it was quickly cut through and he was cut in half.

"How many more?" The Reaper laughed. "They're dieing like animals, and it's all your fault Nugai."

I was shaking in anger. I was ready to charge at him, however Ness and Lucas still were holding on to me, making sure I didn't budge. "He's trying to get you to react." Ness said. "Stay calm."

"I can't." I said.

"Endure it." Ness said. His grip was tightening. He was frustrated as well. He was doing his best to hold back some tears.

"I'll try my best." I said. "But I can't make any promises…"

Nana and Popo were constantly sending ice boulders at the Reaper, he however was just cutting through them like they were nothing. Meta Knight and Kirby were constantly attacking him, dancing circles around him. Pit was beginning to fire light arrows at the Reaper. All of them hitting. When the Reaper tried to weave away, either Kirby or Meta Knight would attack him causing him to go back to where he was originally, or the light arrow would actually move to hit him. Pikachu and Pichu were also throwing thunderbolts at him.

The Reaper just looked at all of the Smashers that were attacking him at once. The twisted smile on his face made it clear that he was enjoying it. Probably wondering who would slip up first. Him or someone else.

Ivysaur unleashed a solar beam at the Reaper. It had completely disrupted the rhythm that he was used to and the results were devastating. He was hit with the attack, followed by Meta Knight and Kirby going all out with their swords at him. Nana and Popo then summoned a giant iceberg to smash him with, and Pit's barrage of light arrows didn't stop.

It seemed that no matter how overpowering and destructive as the Reaper was with one versus one; against a bunch of Smashers he was no match for their teamwork. Kirby finished off the attack with pulling a giant sword out of thin air, and then he swung the sword down. The ground now had a rather noticeable cut through it, and the Reaper was standing there with his scythe in front of him, it had blocked the majority of the attack. He was breathing heavily, but his cloak was tattered.

"That hurt." He finally said.

"That was the idea!" Kirby replied. "I don't think you're going to be able to withstand another ultra sword!"

"You're going to have to be able to use it." The Reaper said.

"Oh, don't worry about that." Kirby smiled.

The Smashers were monsters, I don't think there was any nice way to put it, even though their comrades had died, they kept on fighting. To me, it seemed like I was the only one having rather human emotions out of all of them.

The brief moment of peace that the Reaper had was, well, brief. ROB fired a laser at him, and the whole dance of moves began once again. I could only watch as he weaved in and out of the constant barrage of attacks, only being hit by at least Pit's moves.

But with every passing second it was becoming more and more apparent that everyone was getting tired. Yoshi threw an egg at the Reaper and it exploded. It caught him off guard, and the combo happened once again. A solar beam from Ivysaur, several sword slashes from Kirby and Meta Knight, a giant ice berg from Nana and Popo, Pit's arrows and then everything was finished up with another ultra sword.

This time however The Reaper blocked the Ultra sword with his scythe and two blood scythes. He just ran up the sword cutting it constantly with all three and then he reached past Kirby. He stopped, and just began to breath heavily. Several seconds later the ultra sword began to fall apart, and Kirby was cut through. But the Reaper's blood scythes and his scythe shattered. He fell on the ground and began to gasp for air.

Meta Knight saw this as an opportunity to end the battle. He rushed for the Reaper once again, but his movements were far too sluggish due to fatigue. The Reaper just took the remains of his scythe, and swung it down. The chipped part of the blade hit Meta Knight and forced him down into the ground. The Reaper just pulled out the remains of the scythe and quickly cut up Meta Knight. With each strike, it seemed like the scythe was growing bigger, and repairing itself.

All the other Smashers just looked horrified. Now not knowing what to do. If the Smashers were monsters, the Reaper was something much bigger, stronger, and more terrifying than a monster. His levels of endurance were unreal. I had thought that because of the blood he was using as a weapon, he wouldn't of been able to get oxygen to his system fast enough, and it might of been a way to beat him but those hopes were quickly dashed.

Several more ice boulders rushed for him. He just cut through them and began to make a slow trek for the two Ice Climbers. They kept unleashing the ice boulders, but it quickly became apparent that they were spending a great deal of energy on all of the ice attacks. They made no effort to move, and what had started out as boulders their size, had now just became about the same size as a human fist. The Reaper just rushed for them and cut right through of them. Both Ness and Lucas recoiled upon seeing their friends being killed.

I was wrong. They were all human too.

Mewtwo rushed towards the Reaper. "RUN!" He shouted. "I'll hold him off as long as I can!"

And with that Ness and Lucas began to take me away. The sounds of battle rang out. With each explosion all three of us cringed. "Where can we go that's safe?" Lucas asked.

"I don't think anywhere is safe." Ness replied.

"Let's try the town hall." I said. "We might be able to barricade ourselves in or something."

They glared at me, wondering if that would even work. We made our way into the town hall. And quickly barricaded the doors. We just began to catch our breaths. "This is crazy." Ness said.

Lucas nodded in agreement. Tears were welling up in his eyes. He was doing his best to not cry, but was failing miserably. We didn't know how many had died out there while we waited.

But I couldn't help but wonder, did any of us even have a plan? As far as I could tell we were just delaying the inevitable.

"From what I could tell, the Reaper has us beat in nearly every single way." Ness said. "I don't even think we can get close enough to hurt him without dying. Still, I want to know why he didn't want to kill you, Nugai."

"He said he wanted me to despair." I replied. "I think he wants to break me or something."

"That would make sense." Ness said. "I guess he thinks that by breaking you, and your spirit that maybe you will join him."

"No, I don't think that's it." Lucas said. "I think he wanted you to be outraged so your judgement was fogged. If you just rush in attacking him, he might be able to kill others when they try to correct your mistakes. You also aren't as strong when you're angry."

I cringed. "He likes toying with people." I replied. "That's what he's doing with me. Toying with everyone's lives."

I looked around the town hall, noticing a doorway that went to some stairs that went down into a basement. We all decided to go there, and slowly made our way down the stairs. Once we reached the basement we just looked around. There was next to nothing that would work as a weapon. Just a bookcase, which might have worked as a barricade for all of 3 seconds.

I found a nice corner and just collapsed in it. I wanted to close my eyes, go to sleep and just wake up in my bed, thinking this was another bad dream.

"I found something!" Ness said.

I got up and made my way over to him. He was holding a book, it wasn't much but it would at least help us pass time. He just handed it to me. Inside were photos of the town and the citizens helping build the place, planting trees and flowers. And there I saw a few photos of me in there, or at least that villager who had appeared in a dream previously. But that cinched it. I was definitely here in this village once before.

"Hello!" A voice boomed out. "This is just a friendly reminder to all of you Smashers who are still living, that congratulations, you made it to the final five. Run, try to fight back, or just wait until I find you and kill you, it's your choice. Nugai, once these five are taken care of, you're next!"

Ness and Lucas just looked afraid. Ness just looked at us. "When he gets here, Lucas, take Nugai and flee." He said. "I'm going to go all out against him, and I won't be able to fight if you guys are here."

"Where to?" I asked.

"Anywhere but here." Ness replied. "The farther away the better. I can't guarantee the safety of the town."

"What?" Lucas said.

"I'm going to have to unleash everything I got." Ness said.

We heard explosions, and what seemed to be buildings collapsing. Each of us was probably wondering the same thing. How many remained.

We just waited. And waited. And waited.

"Where are Master Hand and Crazy Hand?" Ness muttered. The question lingered. "Aren't they supposed to watch over us? Aren't they part of the Smashers' too?" He pounded his fist against the ground.

I then noticed something else on the bookcase that Ness had been investigating. I reached out and pressed a switch. Suddenly, the bookcase swung away revealing a secret passage. Both of the kid Smashers looked at the passage in awe.

"Let's go in there." I said.

The two of them nodded. We made our way in and made sure that the bookcase closed behind us. We began to go deeper and deeper into the earth, until we came to a giant room. There were several other stairways and passageways, but dirt seemed to be blocking all but two. The one we used, and one that led to who knows where.

"What is this place?" Ness asked just looking around.

"A shelter from the looks of it." I replied.

"This was underneath Smashville?"

"Congratulations, there are now only two Smashers plus Nugai left! And you seemed to of hidden yourselves quite well! But don't worry, I'll soon find you and put you all out of your misery!" The Reaper's voice boomed out.

They both tensed up. "Everyone else is dead." Ness said, taking it the hardest. I guess it was only natural, since he knew them better than us. He had been apart of the Smashers since the beginning, Lucas and I were just newcomers. We hadn't even been with them for a month.

I just looked at where we came from. The passage leading back to the town hall.

"I think we should destroy that tunnel." I said.

They looked at me like I was crazy. "Why?"

"So we can wait this out." I said. "He made a blood pact. There seems to be a timeline on it. If we can stall long enough that the time line runs out, he will die."

Ness smiled liking that news. Lucas just put his hand on the wall and suddenly spires shot out of the wall and through the ceiling. They disappeared and dirt began to flow in. However, Ness quickly ran through trapping himself on the other side. "Sorry." He said. "But I'll make sure that the Reaper dies!" And then he ran off.

Lucas just looked frustrated. He wanted to chase after him, but the passage was now sealed.

"Damn it, Ness you didn't have to be a hero!" I muttered.

I just looked at the only other clear passage. I didn't know if we just trapped ourselves in here completely, or if there was a way out, but I figured we had to take it. "Let's see where that path leads." I said.

Lucas nodded. We ran into the passageway, and back up into Smashville. It was quite clear that Ness and The Reaper had met each other, as now everything was shaking. Ness probably felt that he could go all out with us in the safety of being underground. But with the shaking and dirt coming off of the ceiling, I was beginning to fear that we were actually in danger of being buried alive if we had stayed there.

We eventually found an exit. We pushed open the door, and were greeted with lots of white tiles. Just by glancing at the white tiles gave a good indication of where we were. The train station. I was quite concerned about how I didn't notice this part previously. But as the passage closed and I used aura, I soon found out why. Somehow the stones blocked aura.

We could hear the sound of battle, and a good indication that Ness was still alive. But so was the Reaper. We found a window, and looked outside to try and see what was going on.

Everything in Smashville was levelled. It seemed like the only thing standing was the train station, and unfortunately, that made it incredibly obvious where the next spot that he would look would be. I couldn't keep watching, I just sat on the ground and leaned against the wall. Lucas also followed.

"Smashville is in ruins." He cried.

All but two of the Smashers were dead. Smashville was in ruins. Master Hand and Crazy Hand were either dead or somewhere else. And tomorrow... would the status quo revert everything to what it was before?

"Damn it, it shouldn't be like this." I said pounding the wall.

I suddenly felt a pulse of energy. It was that feeling from before, something inside of the train station calling me. I just cringed, and shook away the feeling.

"Not right now." I muttered.

"Did you say something?" Lucas asked.

I glanced at the kid. "No." I managed to say.

We just continued to sit there, waiting, and then the fighting stopped. There were no more deafening explosions, and the ground stopped shaking. We both just froze, fearing for the worst.

I didn't want to use aura, I didn't want to find out the outcome of the battle, even if Ness had won. Just the slightest possibility that the Reaper was still alive, and now Lucas and I were the only Smashers left was terrifying. I wasn't even sure if the status quo would work anymore.

"We need to find out what happened." Lucas said, getting his stick ready. "Let's go. If it's the Reaper, I'm sure Ness would have weakened him to the point that we could beat him."

I nodded, and got up. We made our way to the entrance of the train station. There was no one as far as the eye could see. Suddenly the Reaper dropped down from the roof.

His scythe just went right through Lucas' stomach. Lucas let out several screams of pain before he was tossed aside, dead.

All of the Smashers were dead. Killed by one man. I didn't believe it was possible. And yet, he just stood there in front of me. "It's over. The Smashers are dead. You're all that remains, Nugai. No one else can interrupt us, and no one will save you. It's just you and me!" he gasped for air as he said that/ It was quite clear he was also at the end of his ropes.

I ignored him and walked over to Lucas' corpse. I just hugged the body. "I'm sorry." I cried. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you or any one else. This should have never happened."

The Reaper just stood there, waiting for me to finish. I placed Lucas' body down and closed his eyes. I then glared at the Reaper. "You've killed children."

"I'm doing what's necessary." The Reaper said.

"You've killed my friends."

"If Fantasia comes to pass, and they attack, both worlds will suffer. How can you even be sure that the Smashers won't side with their universe, and see us as the enemies?"

"How can you be sure that Fantasia will lead to fighting?"

"Greed." The Reaper said. "I told you all of this. Zenith wants power. They want the technology for weapons. They want to sell it, patent it, they will effectively rule the world."

"You've killed my family."

"Nugai, it's time you faced reality. These people weren't your family..."

"Reaper, I don't care if you were my friend in the past. That person is dead now! All I see is a monster!" I shouted.

"I expected you to not agree with my path, I didn't expect it would hurt this much." He said. "I did die so long ago."

"I know." I replied. "And you can stay dead! If this is just to resurrect yourself like this, I will never accept it! This is wrong! You should have just died in that accident!"

"Nugai, it was never an accident." The Reaper muttered. A smile suddenly crossed his face. "But that's fine, you don't have to accept it. You just have to die."

He swung his scythe down. I was barely able to dodge it. I just stared at him like he was crazy, then again, he probably was. I activated the beam sword and pushed him away.

I activated the Awakened aura state, ready to fight him at full power.

It was quite clear that him killing all of the Smashers had taken its toll. He wasn't as fast as he used to be. His attacks all seemed to be fatigued, and carried a great weight behind them. I imagine that was the main reason he took out Lucas in a sneak attack; he probably feared that Lucas was another Ness. He tried to hide it, but he was clearly limping. With everything at my disposal I think I had a chance.

But that didn't exactly mean that he was going to make it easy for me. He was clearly well aware of the awakened aura state's power. I lunged at him, and he swung his scythe, but he was going much slower than he had moment's prior. The awakened aura state had heightened my senses. I was easily able to dodge it and appear behind him. I swung down my beam sword, but it went right through him. He had made himself intangible at the last moment. He delivered a punch directly to my jaw sending me away, and making the room spin around me. Any advantage that I seemed to have over him with the Awakened aura state seemed to vanish instantly. I imagined he was using Dialga and Palkia's powers freely to either slow me down, or speed himself up.

And then, suddenly all of my aura was gone. I lost the awakened aura state. "What?" I said surprised.

The Reaper had a smile across his face, he rushed towards me.

He swung his scythe, and managed to knock me away. I quickly dashed for inside of the train station hoping to ambush him inside, and he followed.

Several blades of wind rushed for me, and I rolled out of the way. He fired some energy shots that barely missed. I occasionally turned around only to have to hit back an energy ball back at him. I just ran through the train station, hoping whatever was calling me earlier would decide to call me again.

"Please!" I shouted. "Show me the way!"

"You've lost it!?" The Reaper said. He jumped right behind me and swung his scythe. I quickly blocked the attack. "Just let me put you out of your misery, I know you don't want to be like this. And you'll be with the Smashers soon enough."

I kicked him away, I hoped winding him, and I got some distance between us. I took a few seconds to take a break and then I could sense the train station calling me once again. I quickly began to run to where I thought it was, but I only came to a dead end. I was about to turn around and flee when unfortunately the Reaper had cornered me.

"So, this is it, a dead end." The Reaper said.

I imagined this is what it must feel like to be cornered by the monster in horror movies. I just berated myself silently for being so stupid. Any attempts to call forth any aura had quickly ended in failure. I turned and faced him and soon found myself with my back against the wall and him slowly approaching me.

I was absolutely terrified. With every step he made I tried to push further back into the wall, hoping it would break, or it was made out of foam or something, so that we would always be an equal distance apart and he would never reach me. But it was solid.

In a last ditch effort to defend myself, I just activated the beam sword and held it in front of me. "I'm not going down easily." I said trying to make myself as intimidating as possible. The Reaper however just laughed. He could see my bluff for what it was. A worthless bluff, meant to only prolong my life for a few more pitiful seconds.

It was quick. He just ran forwards cut through the beam sword's hilt, cutting off the energy, and then stabbed me with the scythe. I felt it going right through me. I retaliated, hoping to bring him down with me and also stabbed him with what remained of the beam sword. Which was right now, just a pointy metal stake. I don't even think I made him bleed. I was just tossed right through the wall and into darkness.

"No, it can't end like this... I won't let it!" was the thought that was going through my mind. It was a rather optimistic thought. Somehow I would get up once again, like I had time and time before. But this time there was no one left to help me... It was me and this black abyss.

I, Nugai, the last Smasher was dying and would soon be dead.

I landed on the ground with a thud. It was stone floor, and unlike the nice flat stones of the train station, this stone was round, and rough. I felt myself lying in a pool of my own blood. It was slowly growing bigger and bigger, and my vision was growing much more faint.

And then I could only assume I died.

Everything went black.

---

"Andrew, class is over, wake up!"

I opened my eyes. I expected to still be in the train station. In front of me was my laptop. It just had a black screen; it had long since gone to sleep. I looked around, extremely confused. I was in a mostly empty classroom. Standing in the front of the room was a college professor. He was a middle-aged man, I imagined in his early thirties.

What? What the hell is going on? A dream?

I looked around confused, at the desks and the chairs that lined them. I was in a classroom, a classroom that I know I took a course at college in. I also knew my name now. Andrew. Yeah, the professor was addressing me. Everything had come back to me now.

Oh crap, I'm dead and I went to my personal hell of eternal schooling…

"Sorry, Mr. Northriver." I said, quickly putting the laptop monitor down, and putting it in a nearby bag. I looked in the laptop bag and saw my agenda, along with my cell phone; I quickly opened up the agenda and looked at the date of a page that was marked with a bookmark.

December 4th.

The day before I had a giant "SSBB Released" written over it. I glanced up at the professor who was still in the room. Honestly I expected him to leave by now. He must have caught my confusion as to why he was still here.

"As a professor, I'm a bit nervous, exams are next week, and here you are falling asleep in class." He said. "I know it's been a hard semester for you, and you've had to deal with quite a bit. I was also quite nervous when you didn't show up for class yesterday. But I guess Super Smash Brothers Brawl did come out, and you were playing that instead."

Close, but I was actually living it…

"Something like that." I laughed

I just sighed. I wanted to say something. I was really confused now, was it all just a dream? Everything seemed so real, all the days were so long, and yet, no it couldn't possibly be a dream. All the pain was real. My hand went to my stomach where the Reaper had stabbed me with the scythe moments prior. I put pressure on it, but didn't feel any pain. I put my hand underneath the desk and away from his view, and tried to send out a bit of aura. Some of the blue flame appeared. I did my best to not react, but a smile must of crossed my face.

"I'm sorry." I said. "I haven't had any caffeine in my system. I'll go to the nearby coffee shop and get something to drink, it won't happen again."

"That's good." He said.

I looked around the room. The doors were oddly shut. I know Mr. Northriver had them closed when he was having his lessons, but he didn't really close them after students left at the end of the lecture.

"Still, I'm worried about you, I was talking with a friend last night. He works for a company, and if college isn't working for you, you can go there. They are willing to hire anyone, as long as you're passionate about video games, and out of all of the students I teach, I know no one else more passionate than you. So, I figured I would pass on his business card."

He handed me a business card, and then walked back to his desk and bag. I just looked at the card for a few seconds. It honestly took me a few seconds to comprehend what I was holding. I was just staring at it. I was reading the words, but for some reason my mind just didn't process it until about the fifth time I had read it.

It was a business card for Zenith.

All that I had heard about Zenith just rushed into my mind all at once. I could only imagine I went white. I felt almost like I wanted to throw up. I felt a sharp pain in my stomach.

"Are you okay?" Mr. Northriver asked.

I just placed the card down on the table, and pushed it away from me. I looked up at Mr. Northriver and just looked him in the eyes. "Why would I want to work for those murderers?" I said.

Mr. Northriver pulled out a gun from his bag and aimed it at me.

I don't know if it was because of exhaustion, or something else, but it wasn't that shocking and I wasn't afraid of the person with the gun in his hand. It felt like he was just some person who was standing there. Just another normal human being. He wasn't anything like the Smashers, or the Reaper. I could always tell with them if they were going to do anything. But him? He couldn't pull the trigger with it aimed at me.

"I was sent here to observe you." he said. "To make sure you didn't do anything stupid after that idiot was killed. You were either supposed to just live normally, always under our watch, work for us, or die!"

I looked at the gun. His hand was shaking. I understood now, he was afraid. He wasn't capable of killing. He wouldn't be able to pull the trigger. "You can't fire that in here." I said.

"Of course I can. I just need to kill you and then shoot myself in the arm or leg. You'll just be seen as that quiet student that finally snapped." he laughed.

I just sighed. "Until the doctors actually look at the wound and can tell from the amount of gunpowder how close it actually was…" Him holding the gun wasn't even slightly intimidating. My hand reached for my stomach, where I remembered the Reaper stabbing me. The fear I felt a few minutes ago, the hopelessness of that situation, this was nothing like it at all.

"You can't kill me, or rather you won't." I said. "You don't have that aura around you, or that look in your eyes."

"Shut up!"

"You can't pull the trigger." I said. "Look at you."

"How do you know Andrew?"

I just looked around the classroom. "Because of Zenith killing my best friend, I spent 28 days in a video game. Experiencing hell, seeing people die, and the look of those who are determined to do what's necessary, even if they know that it means they will die. You don't have that look. You don't have the look of someone who's ready to kill, even when you know it will be covered up. Besides, your safety is on, rookie."

It didn't need to be the truth. I just needed him to look away for that split second. That and I always wanted to say that line... In that split second I had kicked the table that was in front of me up into the air and then towards him.

He avoided the attack, but it was only meant to be a distraction. In the meantime I had managed to run right next to him and grabbed his wrist, and hit a pressure point, causing him to drop the gun.

"People will come now. They heard that."

"Yeah." I said. "They would have come too if you were actually able to shoot."

"And who do you think they will believe? If you try to explain anything, you'll be seen as someone who's crazy."

"Yeah." I replied. "I think I'll fit right in with this mad world."

He suddenly pulled out a hidden knife from the arm of his dress shirt, and swung it at me. I jumped back, and quickly kicked the gun to the other side of the room. My body felt as light as a feather here, it was like nothing was an obstacle. I had perfect control. I could land on the top part of a chair, and it wouldn't even wobble.

I glanced towards the door. I was expecting people to actually rush in by now after hearing the giant crashing sound.

"The doors are locked." He said, noticing my glance. "And besides, anyone who's left here at this hour are members of Zenith. No one would be coming to your aid."

I just cringed. "That's good then." I managed to say. I looked at all of the desks. "Then I won't be afraid to go all out!"

"You're bluffing." He said.

"You know, I was wondering how The Reaper could kill all of the people on the other side."

"The what?"

"The Reaper, that's his name, at least the one that everyone called him but never mind that's not really important." I sighed. "Anyways, I was wondering how he could kill so many people. I think I now know why. I guess I just had to meet some Zenith employees, besides Rai, Tei, and Sui."

Mr. Northriver just looked a bit frustrated. "Those three brats... Did they betray Zenith?"

"I'd say it was more like I just found them and beat them before they could kill me." I said.

"They like to toy with their targets a bit too much." the professor laughed. "Seems like that was their downfall. That must be why they came back yesterday with their tails between their legs."

"So, since the odds are stacked against me, what's this about targets?" I asked. "Then again, I guess I can guess myself, The Reaper told me most of it. How Tei came and watched over him, forced him into the world, and tried to get information from him, about me. Going by you, there are others out there looking for people like me who have the potential, but haven't allied themselves with Zenith. You are to get close, and decide whether or not to offer an invitation to join, or to die, or in some cases you just kill them."

"But all of those who have the potential are just screwed up little brats like you. Those who are shut in, and just want to play video games all day long." the professor said. "Day after day, I get sick and tired of watching over brats like you. And now you've gained the abilities of that world. Just great... I thought this would be easy."

He pulled out a cube like object. I immediately recognized it as the thing that had stored furniture, in the other world.

Oh shit...

Suddenly a giant sword appeared in the room, it looked like it was made out of bones. He just picked it up with both of his hands and swung it a few times. "Like you, I also can go between the worlds, all members of Zenith can, we are then trained. Some don't survive the training since it's so brutal. Tell me, have you ever played Monster Hunter."

You have got to be kidding me...

I reached for my belt where the beam sword was normally holstered, but it wasn't there.

Just great, against some psycho with a giant sword completely unarmed... This can only end well...

"I've heard of it." I said.

"Good, because that's what I've had to go through." He said.

"Can't say I've played it though." I figured I'd have the advantage; after all, he had a big and bulky sword, in a relatively closed in space, with a bunch of obstacles. I would be able to dodge rather easily. I kicked up a table and sent it flying towards him once again. He just swung his sword, and even though he was pushed back slightly he was still able to knock the table down to the ground. He at least had the physical strength to go with that sword.

But, his reaction speed wasn't as fast as mine. He didn't have Aura or anything else to give the boost in performance. I also figured he wouldn't have the endurance either. With a job as high profile as a college professor, I didn't think he would of been able to constantly train himself against monsters. He wouldn't want to risk any giant easily noticeable wounds. At the best he might have had something like track, and weight lifting at the gym as a hobby.

He smashed several desks in. I just went to a leg of a desk and quickly pulled it off. I held it in front of me like it was a sword. At the very least I had a weapon now.

"So, you're going to fight me." Mr. Northriver laughed. "Oh, boy, this should be interesting. Tell me Andrew, why do you fight?"

"I fight because this world is way too screwed up." I said. "I just want everything to be the way it used to. None of this Zenith crap."

I rushed towards him and swung the desk leg. He swung the sword, and the two collided. Much to my surprise the desk leg didn't break.

"The world was never the way you imagined it to be." Mr. Northriver said. "You don't understand why he had to die. He was a threat, and was going to try and destroy our company."

"And that requires killing someone?" I asked, jumping back.

"He had gotten access to top secret files. It was the most logical choice." He said.

"Logical, yeah right." I scoffed.

"If he jeopardized what we worked towards, then his death was inevitable. Everyone who opposes us will meet with a similar fate. And that includes you."

"And why's that?" I asked.

"Its simply evolution. They are walking against human evolution." Mr. Northriver said.

"No, there is nothing about evolution for this." I snapped back. "It's just some impossible childish fantasy that someone is trying to fulfill!"

"But it's not impossible, you yourself is living proof of it. How a human can become stronger. After all you just displayed that!" Mr. Northriver said. I had used aura to send that desk towards him. "And what if it can be used for medicine? Cancer, AIDS, and other diseases that don't have a cure yet in this world could be a thing of the past. Don't you think that's a noble goal?"

"As noble a goal as that is, people can't be trusted with that power." I said.

"And why not?"

"People will use it to hurt others. After all you just displayed that!" I replied, taunting him. "Criminals could use abilities such as aura to commit crimes, kids could bully others."

"So, we can regulate those who evolve, who has the right to power."

"It will just be a dictatorship." I said. "You'll just be separating people into classes. Those who are privileged, and only get there by supporting you, and those who aren't!"

"And how is that different than the current world?" Mr. Northriver asked. "Aren't people all ready separated into the rich, the poor?"

This guy was beginning to piss me off.

"But, it appears to me that we agree, that not everyone should get the powers."

"We don't agree!" I snapped.

"And what makes you different than what you're saying? Aren't you using your abilities to try and intimidate me? Didn't you attack me with your abilities? Aren't you just trying to be a bully?"

"That's different!"

"How so? It wasn't self-defence. You didn't need to attack me. You could have simply used your aura to move away." he said. "You could of used aura to stop every attack from hitting you."

"And didn't you attempt to kill me with the sword and strength you obtained from over there?" I asked. "Don't you realise the hypocrisy and double standards that's coming out of your mouth?"

"Don't you?" Mr. Northriver asked. "And what makes you so much better than me? Or Zenith? What gives you the right to look down from your high pedestal and decide who can and can't grow stronger?"

"You don't know the hell I had to endure. What I had to do to survive while over there!" I snapped. "Because of someone evolving and sending that world in to chaos!"

"Isn't evolution just people adapting to survive their environment? What's the difference?"

"There is no difference." I said.

"Then why do you oppose us?"

"Because, I was forced into the situation that forced me to evolve. I speak as a survivor. Not as someone like you who might as well be brainwashed! I speak because I know just what your close-minded thinking will unleash upon the world! That world is constantly at war because of influencing from our world! We're not going to get some happy go lucky world where everything is sunshine and rainbows! We're going to inherit all of their problems! All the monsters that they have to deal with! All of the people who live there!"

He began to twitch; his cool demeanour had been cracked.

"How do you not know that the Reaper of yours wasn't some double agent, sent over by us, to kill everyone to prevent that from happening?" Mr. Northriver asked. "All while giving the guise of an innocent person, just trying to escape."

I was getting quite tired of this. I just rushed towards him and swung down the table's leg with all of my strength. He blocked with his sword, but with an explosion of aura I was able to smash through the sword.

"Because, I know when he's lying." I replied. "You have Tei and that life flame to thank for that little stunt. He could only tell the truth." I sent a blast of Aura to send him flying into the wall right behind him. He let out a pained cry, and I just walked to the door, still holding the table leg.

"You've decided to oppose Zenith, how unfortunate." Mr. Northriver said. "I thought you were an intelligent person Andrew."

"Well, quite frankly, you can get really tired of everyone saying that." I replied.

"You're not going to be able to escape this school alive." He said.

"I think I will." I said. "Good bye."

I kicked the door off of its hinges and just rushed out into the maze that was the college.

They hallways were empty. I was honestly expecting a large crowd to be at the doors to see what was all that noise. But, there weren't any people. All classroom doors were closed, and locked. I looked through the windows, and despite the lights being on, they were empty. I made my way to a stairwell and quickly looked at the two sets of stairs, one going up, and the other going down.

I just froze. I looked at the stairs going to the first level, and it looked like it was submerged in water. I stretched out my hand and put it in the liquid. It was cold. I was honestly a bit confused. How could the entire first floor be submerged underwater?

I just looked around, and quickly made my way up the other set of stairs. All of the lights were off on this floor. I quickly went into another classroom, and just leaned back against a wall. I didn't know how everyone was gone from the school, how it was completely abandoned, but somehow, it was. Even at night there were night courses. And it would only be a matter of time before he found me.

"I need to get back..." I muttered.

This was all real, I was positive of that. I wasn't quite sure what had happened, or how I got back after being stabbed by the Reaper, but somehow it happened.

Wait... He brought me there, then maybe he also sent me back...

It made just as much sense as anything else. The best thing I could do in this situation was remaining calm; I assumed that anyone else I would meet up with would most likely be with Zenith, so I decided that I should avoid them at all costs.

I placed my hand on the ground and used aura to see the whole school. There were a few other people there; I assumed either custodial staff, Zenith members, or both.

If I could sneak outside, I could probably lose them. There was the forest, the pond, and those roads that passed by.

There would be plenty of spots to hide. Of course, there was the whole issue of the first floor being underwater somehow. I just closed my eyes and tried to concentrate, but then I heard some steps walking around on this floor. I pressed myself against the wall as best as I could.

"I can't find him." I heard Mr. Northriver say. "He shouldn't of been able to disappear, and I know he's still in the building." there was silence, I figured he was calling someone on his cell phone. I reached into my bag, and found my cell phone, however I wasn't getting any signals.

"What, are you sure?" He said shocked. "Very well then."

He walked away, and I breathed a sigh of relief that he didn't find me.

I remembered there being some arcade cabinets in the school. It was in the student lounge. They were purchased for the students to enjoy their time between classes. They also had Wii Wednesdays at noon... but that's not really important right now. If I could return back to that world, someway, somehow, I could at least gather my thoughts.

The hallways were empty. And then I heard a loud explosion. Soon fire alarms were going off. Using aura I saw that someone had started a fire in one of the further wings, I imagine it was started with a bomb.

No one else in the building seemed surprised by it. There was no panicking coming from them. They just all turned and began to calmly walk towards the wing that currently wasn't on fire.

I found a door that led outside, and wondered why no one was escaping. I just opened it up and soon a bunch of other alarms went off. I felt extremely stupid it was so obvious. Of course he would know I was still in the building if the alarm was set…

I rushed back towards the student lounge. None of the Zenith members were there yet, which was strange since I thought that they would be guarding that place like a hawk since I would be able to open a portal to the other world. But, with any luck they would at least be taking a few minutes to regroup and figure out if I actually left the building or not.

I made it to the student lounge. It was just a large room with numerous sofas scattered though out the room. I found the light switch and flicked it. Soon lights came on. I made my way to the two arcade cabinets. Both weren't plugged in, so I found the plug of marvel vs capcom 2 and well, plugged it in.

Please work, please work, please work…

The power came on and I put my hand on the screen, hoping to be dragged in, but nothing happened. I just stood there with my hand on the screen.

"Crap." I muttered. It didn't work.

Using Aura I could see the Zenith employees making their way up the stairwell. I then noticed the storage closet. It was open a crack. I quickly rushed in and closed the door.

I collapsed and waited. The Zenith members all just looked frustrated. "Damn it, he jumped into a game!"

"Crap!"

"We better get out of here before the fire gets here." Another voice ordered.

And with that they all began to vanish. I just breathed a sigh of relief, and exited the storage room.

For the time being I was safe I figured I had a few minutes before the fire got here. If it even did.

I returned back to the arcade cabinet. I laughed at the irony. Wanting to escape the past few weeks, but now that I'm out I want to go back in.

"Damn it!" I shouted pounding my fist against the arcade cabinet. "Why won't you work..."

I placed my hand against the screen once again, but it didn't work.

"I need to go back. I need to stop the Reaper. I need to stop Zenith." I cried. "Damn it! Damn it!"

There was silence. I just stood there alone trying to enter back into a portal. Using aura, switching hands I did everything that I could imagine, and yet nothing worked.

Soon the smoke and fire had reached the room. I just made a barrier of aura to keep it away. But I had all ready accepted that it was inevitable. "Crap, I didn't want to go out like this." I muttered.

I looked at the storage closet. A thought flickered into my mind. Why was it open? It should have been locked and only a student with a key, or custodial staff would of opened it…

I suddenly used aura to look into it, and sitting in there was someone. "Who's there?" I asked.

Stepping out from the storage room was Tei. He just waved his hand and the fire vanished. "Andrew." He said.

"What are you doing here?"

"Helping you." He said.

"What?" I said confused. "Why?"

"My real name is Cody." He said. "I was like you once. I was given the power to go into the other world, and I brought in my best friend, along with my family, which you know as Rai and Sui. The four of us enjoyed the world, but it wasn't meant to be. Our cat stepped on the turbo controller when we were inside. And as a result we stopped aging. Eventually, as you might imagine word got out. The four of us were approached by what would eventually become Zenith."

I just was confused. "Zenith approached you? How long ago was this?"

"1989." Cody replied. "Zenith is a relatively new face of the organization, and it's at least the public face, the four of us were discovered due to the ability to not age, and they were a little less bold with approaching others back then. They offered us a job, and explained what we had to do. In return, they would pay us, and do the best to cover everything up. We would have to go around the country to find those who also had the potential. Due to our lack of aging we could infiltrate schools, and reach kids much easier than they could. Every time we infiltrated a school, we would stay there for a year or two, getting the trust of the targets, and hearing the choice of the target. If they joined us they lived, if they refused they would 'disappear', and then we would be transferred to another school somewhere else in the country so no one noticed that we didn't age. The four of us did that until my friend found out about Project Fantasia. He was killed as a result."

I felt my insides jump.

"Project Fantasia is supposed to be confidential. Those that know about it are told that it's for the betterment of mankind, to obtain technology and medicine that isn't present in our world, and I'm sure you know why that would never work."

"If they brought over the medicine from there, you know it wouldn't free here. It would go to the highest bidder." I replied. "Same with technology, it would be monopolized to make the people of Zenith rich. They could finance a war to the highest bidder. Bringing over weapons. In the end despite the casualties, they would win."

"Correct, and that's all ready happening." Cody said. "Zenith gets the technology, patents it, does whatever it can, and keeps up the front as a research and development lab. They get funding for their main project through that. But back to my main story, my friend, he found out the truth."

"The truth?" I asked.

Cody just let off a heavy sigh. "To be honest, I don't know their real goal. It was never written down in his diary, but if he had to be killed because he knew the truth I can't imagine it being anything good."

I nodded.

"Although, part of me says that if I'd have to guess then your guess of weapons can't be that far off." Cody said. "Get the weapons that other countries don't and then rule the world."

"Of course." I said.

"Still, I have a feeling that it's just not that. It seems far too generic, far too stupid. It would have to be something else." Cody said. "Not to mention, they practically all ready could with medicine and technology and other things they have brought over, and distribute through their little subsidiaries."

"So, why are you still with Zenith?" I asked.

"I want to find others to fight with me against them." Cody said. "I figured this was the easiest way."

To be honest, I was a tad wary of him since, well considering how he had treated The Reaper, and myself in the other world, he could just be lying.

"It's also the most dangerous." I said.

"Yes, but this way, I could remain close, I'd also be able to live." He said. "Zenith doesn't exactly let their members walk free. You know too much, or you know too little, if you know anything about them, you're employed for life."

"So, if you just quit, you'd be killed." I said. He nodded.

"You can be a powerful ally." Cody said. "Please join me."

"And that won't do you any good." A voice said. We both turned to see Mr. Northriver. He was standing through the doorway. "I was wondering why the fire hadn't done anything, and now it seems like I know the reason." He held out a gun and just aimed it at Cody. All the hesitation that he had beforehand was gone. He pulled the trigger, and Cody got hit with the bullet. The control that Cody had used over the fire vanished instantly, and the room was set ablaze once again. For a few seconds Mr. Northriver was surprised, and just stood there with a dumb look on his face. Cody suddenly turned into flames and disappeared.

"Tei, Cody!" I shouted out. I didn't know if he was alive or not. I glanced over to Mr. Northriver who had turned the gun to me, and fired.

Before it hit, time froze. I just blinked a few times looking at the bullet suspended in midair. I tapped it with my finger, and it moved a bit. "What's going on?" I asked

"Andrew, Nugai, wake up from your dream, and wake up and accept your destiny." A voice said.

"A dream?" I muttered surprised.

---

I opened my eyes. I was trying to get my bearings.

But I saw a blue light right above me.

"CRAP!" I heard the Reaper shout. He seemed so distant. And yet, despite not even looking at him or using aura, I could somehow see everything that he was doing.

He was swinging his scythe and making noticeable grunts. His scythe was clearly hitting something. I turned my head towards him, my vision had nearly disappeared, and so I couldn't see what he was attacking.

But I felt a warm light. I just closed my eyes, expecting to breath my last.

"Do you wish to live?" A voice called out to me.

"Yeah." I weakly whispered.

"What would you do with your life when we save you?" It asked. It seemed so familiar.

That voice, is it my voice?

"I would fight The Reaper, stop him, and then go and stop Project Fantasia. I would try and stop the worlds from fusing." I said.

There was just silence. "This pact you make, you will carry until the day you die. From this point on, you must dedicate your life to stopping Fantasia, you know that right?"

"Yes, I know that." I said.

"Then we will bind ourselves to you." the voice said. "You just have to touch the Akashic Point."

"You're the ones who've been calling me all this time, right?"

"Yes."

"What is your name?" I asked.

"We are just simply known as an Akashic Point although, you probably know us better as the Smashville Train Station, the Center of the Universe'."

"I guess if you look at it that way, it really is the center of the universe." I weakly laughed. "And here I thought it was some overly pretentious title."

I opened my eyes. It was still blurry. I reached up to where the wound was, but it was gone. It had somehow been healed healed. The blood was still all over my clothes, and all over the ground. I was still missing a great deal of it, but my wound had instantly closed, and that was a start I guess.

I just looked around, wondering what had caused the wound to heal. The Reaper's frantic attacks against a barrier drew my attention. I couldn't quite see it, but I could tell he was unleashing everything he had to try and get into where I was. Something was telling me he didn't expect wherever I was to be behind that wall.

I slowly began to struggle to get up. The Reaper's attacks were getting more and more desperate.

"Come." The voice said.

I walked forwards, tripping and falling back down to the ground. "You're exhausted." The voice said. "That is most unfortunate."

"Nugai! STOP!" The Reaper shouted. He had summoned the big guns too. Dialga and Palkia were attacking the barrier. Something told me it wasn't going to last. The remains of the beam sword was still in my hand but it began to under go a transformation. It had transformed into a currently sheathed two-handed long sword. Strangely, wrapped around the sheath were some chains, stopping me from opening it. I just used it as a crutch and made my way forwards.

In front of me appeared this strange bar code like structure; it was constantly rotating around a sphere of much smaller barcodes. I stretched out my hand and touched it. Suddenly a bunch of information suddenly went into my mind. It was as though by touching that barcode, I read it. I know knew what this was, it was data; this was part of the Akashic Point.

I placed my hand on it again, and more and more information went into my mind. The history of Smashville, and the history of this land.

I pulled back my arm, gasping for air; it was too much information to absorb all at once. But all of the information felt familiar. I had been here in this town before? Somehow...

In my mind's eye I was once again in a darkened room, a strange person was on the screen, a vaguely human person, he was talking with animals. It was that boy who had appeared in front of me, the one that claimed to be my subconscious. Although he was wearing a hat with two horns.

He was buying stuff from Tom Nook. I then saw myself reaching for the TV and teleporting into the game world. Enjoying time at the beach, or building snowmen, or just lying on the ground and looking up at the stars.

I had been here before.

My memories of this town began to come back. And so did the reason why I stopped coming to these worlds of my own free will.

Much like the Reaper, I had died once before.

While his death was in the real world, my death was here in this world.

I had used this world to run away, to escape from my own problems. When I was frustrated, or needed time away from the world, I would go in, but time went by noticeably faster in this world. When I returned, only minutes had passed.

During one of my more explosive episodes, I sought refuge in this world and had no intention of returning to the real world. Somehow, I had never stayed in this world for a full 40 days. This time however, the threshold was passed.

I remember feeling fine one minute, and then the next I was down on the ground in pain. A completely unbearable pain. I could look at my hands and they were dissolving, and I felt each and every little piece be torn off of me. If I had to describe it, imagine being that kid who was tearing up paper to throw around confetti and just consonantly trying to get the smallest pieces physically possible. Now, imagine you were that paper, feeling every little tear, with the pain only getting worse and worse. And even though those pieces were separated, against all logic you still felt all the pain from the separated pieces. And at the same time, you were still somehow conscious, and not knocked out or anything. It just kept happening, like you were slowly being grounded up, and then it decided 'no, you're not a fine enough meat, we're going to ground you up again.' I was screaming in pain, even just recollecting it.

It scared the shit out of me back then. It was scaring me now.

Back then; I somehow managed to get back to my world. It took me several seconds to calm down. But what had happened terrified me, and clearly scarred me. I never returned to that world. And I forced myself to forget all about it. I had willingly chosen to never return out of the fear that it would happen again.

I pulled my hand away from the barcode and just looked around. I felt my chest. I could feel my heart pounding. I was gasping for air. The Reaper was still attacking the barrier. A crack began to appear.

I still needed to defeat the Reaper. I looked at a giant sphere of bar codes. With out hesitating I jumped into the sphere.

I don't know how to describe what happened next. It was as though I had just simultaneously experienced anything and everything that had ever happened in this world. Far too much information went through my head. I wasn't able to process it all, yet at the same time I knew…

I fell out of the sphere and collapsed on the ground.

The Reaper had made his way through the barrier and was now standing in the room with me.

"You really don't have the ability to fully understand the Akashic Points." The Reaper said, somewhat relived. "It took me a long time trying to figure them out, and unfortunately, you're time is up!" He began to rush towards me and swung his scythe.

"That's all right." I laughed, struggling to get back up. "I learn quickly." I moved my hand and a wall appeared separating us. For the time being, that would stop him. I had come to realize the power I had in here. In this room, I had the power to alter reality. In here I could defeat the Reaper.

I looked at the Akashic Point, and just put my hands in it and then my whole body fell into the light.

So, here I was, one with the source code. The Akashic Records.

I wanted to know what my limits were in here. The best place to start was reversing the Reaper's damage here in Smashville today. It was rather easy; I could just simply restore each of the Smashers back to life. And I did just that. With a wave of my hand my will was done.

Knowledge, power, I had it all. The very foundations of the world were at my fingertips. I could do anything.

And it was time to finish this; I was going to destroy him once and for all. Time had frozen outside. I was now just observing the frozen world as an astral projection. I went behind the Reaper, and stretched out my arm. I just closed my fist, hoping that would do something, but his body just stayed there.

I stared at it for several seconds. "Why can't I edit his body?" I asked out loud.

"It is because he also has bonded with an Akashic Point." The voice that was calling me here said. "Once you have bonded with an Akashic Point, no other Akashic Point can edit you out of existence since it is out of it's range and power."

"So, can I only alter reality here in Smashville?" I asked.

"No, as long as you have your weapon that you got from the Akashic Record. For you, it is that sword. For him, it is that scythe. However, it's powers outside are rather limited compared to what you can do in an Akashic Point." The voice said. "Also, you can go into other Akashic Points, however, you won't be able to bond with more than one. And if the Akashic Point is destroyed, you will lose your power, and quite possibly your life."

"Okay." I said.

Before I got out of this place, and returned to reality, there was one last thing that I wanted to try. I wanted to make sure this power was real. I cringed; just having the Smashers being alive would be more than enough proof. But, not to me, there was something else I had to do to determine that this power I had.

There was something that I thought was always wrong. Something I wanted to always prevent but couldn't. There was always something I wanted to change.

I just stretched out my arm. "Lucas, you deserve this more than anyone." I said to myself, reassuring myself that I was doing the proper thing.

Of course I am. Who's going to look after him once I'm gone…

With that done, I fell out of the Akashic Point. The Reaper had broken through the wall and looked at me down on the ground. "You idiot!" He shouted. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?!"

"I have a guess." I said. "I reversed the damage that you did today."

"You fool!" He said. He swung down the scythe at me, and I blocked it with my sword's sheath, enough to at least divert it away from me. I kicked at him, and he quickly backed away. I got up, feeling a bit of my energy restored.

He was just growing more and more frustrated. "I was stupid." He muttered. "Shit, no, I shouldn't have done this!"

"Reaper!" I said. "Speak up!"

"Do you have any idea what you've just done?!" He asked frustrated.

"I told you, I reversed all of the damage that you did!" I said.

"You did a lot more than just that!" The Reaper shouted. "Power comes at a price, and you've cut of 39 years off of your life!"

The words echoed in my head. I was just backing away rather shocked.

"What did you just say?!" I said, partly confused, and partly out of desperation that I wanted to believe that I had misheard him.

"You cut out 39 years off of your life." He repeated. "Editing the Akashic Records comes at a price. For every change you make, there is a portion of your life taken away. Restoring someone back to life requires a year taken off"

I didn't know, should I trust his words? After all he knew enough to know what it was. He was planning on reviving Lucas' mother.

I just backed away into the Akashic Point. "Is this true?" I asked, hoping the voice would respond.

"Yes." The voice responded. "However, various edits have different prices."

Did I really just waste 39 years of my life? The feeling I had in my stomach was one of absolute dread. Just that knotting, heavy feeling. That blunt realization of what just happened in an instant, and knowing that your life would never be the same again. That moment where your mind practically was just shutting down due to shock. That your body couldn't move even if you wanted to.

"And how much did I waste?" I asked.

"Due to most of the ones that you restored back to life, only being dead for less than a day, each edit only took a month off of your life."

"So, that would be 3 years and 3 months then." I said, slightly more relieved. "I can live with that."

"Incorrect." The voice said. "4 years, and 3 months. The 40th person you restored back to life, has been dead for a while."

"I see. That's fine."

"That's fine?! Why did you do that?! You knew that Status Quo would have restored them! Who is this 40th person!?" The Reaper shouted, clearly growing more and more frustrated. I just looked at the Reaper, a bit surprised that he could hear the voice.

"I think you all ready know that. Now all that remains is to finish you off, and make sure that my changes actually took effect." I said. I reached for the sword, and tried to pull the sword out of the sheath, however, it just stayed stuck in there. I paused and looked at the chains that were wrapped around the sword and it wouldn't let it out. The Reaper seemed to of notice my predicament and just rushed towards me, swinging his scythe with the intention to kill.

I decided that at least with the sheath the sword could be used for blunt force trauma against him. I rushed into his range of the scythe and got up close to him. I dropped down, and then used the sheath to hit his jaw with all of the strength and momentum I could muster. He was sent flying, and landed on the ground unconscious.

I looked at both Palkia and Dialga, who had stayed around for some reason. The Reaper was in between them, on the ground unconscious. His cloak was badly tattered, and there was a great deal of damage on him. I just looked at a red chain that was wrapped around his two hands. I took the sword, and just smashed the sheath down upon the red chains causing them to shatter.

The red chain which ensnared the two legendary Pokemon had also broke. I faced the two legendary Pokemon. The two of them were glaring at me and then focusing on the Reaper. Both of them weren't too pleased about being enslaved. They just began to charge up attacks.

"Stop!" I shouted. They both stopped and looked at me. I imagined I only had their attention for a few seconds before they started charging up another attack to kill the Reaper, and this time I probably wouldn't be able to stop them. "This might be selfish of me to ask, but can you please lend me your strength! Five minutes is all I need to alter reality and make sure that the Reaper never existed in this world! Please give me those five minutes to go back in time and across dimensions! Please, if your power can do that, please let me borrow it!"

They nodded, and sent two attacks towards me. Dialga sent a Roar of Time, while Palkia sent a Spacial Rend. Using the abilities of the source code, I grabbed the two attacks and shaped them into two giant balls. They then went into my body. I could feel the energy just surging through me. I reached down and grabbed the Reaper's cloak, a swift wave of my hand restored it back to it's original state, and quickly draped it around me. I figured that I should at least be cautious.

Immediately, I used the Spacial Rend to warp me partly back into my world, while I used the Roar of Time to go back to the day of the accident.

I pulled out my cell phone and began to dial the Reaper's number.

Five minutes, that's all I need!

It began to ring. He picked up his phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, bud!" I said. "How's it going?"

"Good, I think." He laughed. "I was just about to head out of the door. You sort of caught me at a bad time..."

Well, that's the understatement of the century...

"Actually, I just called because I'm having a little bit of trouble with my router." I lied.

"Can this wait?" He asked.

"No not really." I sighed. "Unfortunately, my sister won't stop bitching at me until its back up and we have the Internet again. You know how she is..."

"Yeah." He laughed. "Well I can try and help. What's wrong with it?"

"It just currently say's 'Local Only', I can't access the Internet and can only do things on the network. And I'm getting really sick of resetting the router." I had experienced this problem so many times before I knew it like the back of my hand. I'd easily be able to fake it. Honestly, I didn't need his help, but I needed to stall him, someway, somehow… and it was really the first thing that came to my mind. It was either that or "Do you have that chocolate chip cookie recipe that you gave me, I lost it?" And I'm pretty sure his response was going to be something like "USE THE INTERNET!"

"Have you tried turning it on and off."

"Of course, captain I.T." I said. "The problem still persists."

He walked me through several steps. "Okay thank you, I'll call you if it stops working." I said.

"Well, no problem, I'll be around." He said. "Is that all?"

I froze. I didn't think I had stalled him long enough. "Actually, there is one other thing, recently, I've been thinking about when we were younger. Do you remember Project Fantasia?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Do you think it was stupid?" I asked.

"In many ways, yes. We were stupid for thinking it would be that easy, just opening a big portal. And I think we were ignorant, we didn't know the workings of the world. It wasn't all black and white like we were thinking it was."

"I envy us from back then. Things seemed much simpler."

"Indeed." He said.

"Thanks, I'll talk to you later." I laughed. I felt reassured, that this person wouldn't become the Reaper, at least as he was right now. "Tell me when you're down again, we need to hang out some time, maybe have a few drinks."

"Yeah. See ya!"

I hung up the phone. Using some more of Dialga and Palkia's power I watched as he made his way out of the house and down the highway where the accident, was supposed to happen.

But right now, it hadn't occurred. Suddenly I heard a truck's horn go off. I could only watch in horror as it began to drive through the guardrail. And then time froze.

I realized that his death was all a set up. That he was murdered in this world, and it was no accident.

I teleported myself down onto the highway in front of the truck, and time resumed. The truck rushed for me, and cars were stopping, the people inside were all probably looking on in horror, or confusion as to where I came from. I just had the sheathed sword in front of me, for a moment the chains disappeared, I removed the sheath, and underneath it wasn't a blade, but rather a beam of energy. I swung the sword into the truck, and used aura to stand my ground. The truck pushed me back, it was at least five tons, and I was what, 170 lbs or so at the most, with an average build. Had I not had Aura, this would have been no contest, and I probably would have been road kill.

But eventually I stopped the truck from moving. It was now just blocking all three lanes of the one side of the highway.

I looked back at the now stopped cars. People were getting out, and looking at me rather confused and afraid. I took a few seconds to note that my hair was still white, and I hoped that The Reaper wouldn't recognize me.

I just jumped on top of the hood of the truck, and just looked at the clearly very terrified driver. I stretched out my hand and a wave of aura shattered the windows. I placed the beam sword right by his neck. For a second, I thought about ending his life. But I just withdrew the beam sword and began to walk away back to the Reaper's car. I was also using aura to keep an eye on him in case he did anything.

People were screaming as I approached and quickly tried to hide in their vehicles.

"He isn't human!"

"What the hell is that person?"

"This isn't possible!"

"He's coming near here!"

I could hear people locking their doors. Honestly, it wouldn't have done them any good.

I then stopped in front of the Reaper's car.

"Freak, now I'm going to be late!" He shouted frustrated. "Who do you think you are!? Are you another person sent after me?"

"In one sense of the word, maybe." I said, making no effort to disguise my voice. His eyes suddenly flared up.

"What the hell man!?" He shouted. "I was just talking on the phone with you, freak, what's going on!?"

"For you, it must be a shock to see me like this. It's only been a week since we last talked face to face. For me, it's been months." I replied. "Right here, right now, you are supposed to die, in an accident. I've traveled back in time to try and stop your death, here on this highway. Listen, when I leave here, your first instinct will probably be to go into that world. Don't. Never return there. I will seal up the gateways, so that no one can ever enter into it again."

"What is this about?"

"You all ready know, don't you." I said. "Project Fantasia. Zenith. You're an obstacle to them, and so am I. Unlike you, they were never able to find me."

"Then how do you know all this?" He asked.

I paused trying to think about how to answer that one. "You told me, in the other world." I eventually replied. "That's all you need to know. When you get back, call up the real me, and have a drink. But never speak of this. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go make sure that they leave you alone."

He nodded.

I began to walk away. For the first time I realized how much my body ached. Perhaps trying to stop that transport truck wasn't a good idea. Or maybe it was all the stress that was catching up to me.

"What did he say to that person?"

"What the hell is going on!?"

I didn't care what they said. I just made my way back towards the transport truck.

"You!" The driver of the transport truck finally shouted. He was now on top of the truck, and in one hand was a gun, while in the other was what appeared to be a switch. "You just made a big mistake! Don't move, or I'll blow up my truck! How many do you think will die!?"

I just raised my hands up into the air. "Is this how you view everyone?"

"They are necessary sacrifices so some idiots don't jeopardize our noble goals." The Driver said.

"And you're willing to die as well?" I asked.

"Of course, our goals are worthless if we don't believe in them." He replied. "You must be from the other world! I don't know who you are, but you're a threat that must be eliminated no matter what."

Being a physical god right now, and having the power to stop time before the explosion, and then warp space so that there were no casualties from the explosion, and it exploded in space or in a barrier or something, the only reason I was even letting him speak was in the event that he spilled more beans.

"So if I surrender, I'm just captured, and then practically tortured." I sighed.

"Why don't you drop your strange weapon, cloak boy?"

I just dropped the beam sword onto the ground. And then I just waited. I closed my eyes, and I saw a vision. I would be arrested, and then blamed for this. My eyes opened and I just grabbed the beam sword and stood up.

"Hey, don't you care for their well being?" He shouted.

"You don't have the balls to do it!" I shouted back, just walking towards the transport truck. I held out my hand. He tried to fire his gun several times at me, but his aim was pitiful, I didn't need to do anything special to dodge. I jumped onto the top of the transport truck and just stared down at him. He was shaking.

"I'll do it!" He said.

"Tell me, do you know what it means to live as though you could be killed at any minute?" I asked. "I've seen so much death, and so much destruction over the past 28 days that your threat is worthless. It's just a fruitless threat."

He suddenly fell down. All aura had disappeared from him. He was now dead. In the back of his head was a bullet hole. The switch that he had was now down on the ground. It was flashing. Horror must have crossed my face as I quickly deduced that it was a dead man switch, set to go off at any second after he died.

I just pounded my fist down against the transport truck. Instantly, a barrier appeared around the truck, and five seconds later it exploded. The barrier sustained itself for several seconds, and then when I was sure that everything was clear, I dismissed the barrier. The smoke escaped. People who were still watching everything were absolutely terrified. Had it not been for Dialga and Palkia's powers, I wasn't sure how I was going to make it through that one. Then again, if it wasn't for Dialga and Palkia's powers, I wouldn't have been here to begin with, so that's kind of a stupid thought.

I closed my eyes to find the sniper. It didn't take long. He was quite a distance away, but did next to nothing to actually conceal himself. He was on top of a building that could see the highway. I assumed that he thought no one was going to actually go after him, and even if someone saw him, he would be long gone by the time anyone got there. I just teleported to where he was, within an instant I had cut through the sniper rifle and had him down on the ground with the beam sword.

"You've got some explaining to do!" I said.

However, he soon fell over dead. I stared confused at the corpse. He had taken a cyanide pill with out me noticing. And then I heard a beeping. I quickly put up a barrier, and an explosion engulfed me.

When the smoke cleared, his body was completely gone. Incinerated to leave no proof.

These guys… They were serious. Did I really actually stand a chance against them?

For the first time I was shaking. This was the threat that I would be facing in trying to stop the worlds from fusing? Death meant nothing to them. Neither to their own men, or the innocent people who weren't involved with this.

They were determined to do this no matter what the cost. And I was just a single person… I was naive, I was foolish. I was an idiot. I wanted to run away. Now more than ever, I just wanted to run away, and live my life in ignorance that I was now going to be caught up in something far bigger than I was prepared to ever fight against.

There was suddenly a bunch of fully armed swat members that had surrounded me on the roof. With them was an all too familiar face. "Don't shoot him, we want this person alive." He said.

Part of me felt relieved that the person standing there ordering the mooks around was Tei. The other part of me felt nervous. That vision that I saw of him, where he explained about his friend, did that actually happen? Were his goals real? Was he actually working against Zenith? Regardless, all my doubt had just been washed away by his appearance.

"Agent Tei, so we meet in this world." I said. "Then again, I guess we haven't met in the other world yet either."

"You're not our target?" Tei said confused. "Just who the hell are you?"

"My name isn't important." I said. "Then again, you called me Nugai back in the other world."

"Nugai?" Tei repeated. "I'll remember it. Now, why did you interfere with our operation?"

"Go back, and tell everyone that I'm making a stand against Project Fantasia, and Zenith. Actually, I doubt that you need to, they probably all ready know. They're listening to this conversation." I took the hood of the cloak and used it to cover my hair. "Until we meet again. Also, I've made sure to stop Project Fantasia for now. You'll be finding it really hard to cross over soon so don't try."

They suddenly began to shoot at me. I imagined that they had received orders to kill me no matter what the cost. It was worthless for them to try. The bullets just hit a barrier. I just laughed and snapped my fingers. Soon, I disappeared.

I watched the world from the Reaper's perspective for a while. He didn't go back into the world. He was not being followed around by anyone from Zenith. They also seemed to be diverting their energy in trying and figure out who I was and where I was hiding. They came nowhere close to me in the real world. Even though Mr. Northriver was still watching me in classes, they didn't seem to make the connection that I was Nugai.

But there were some slight changes.

"And the search for the terrorist who identified himself as Nugai, is still going on." A news report said. Nugai was branded a criminal, blamed for the explosion of the truck, and an attempt to murder hundreds of people. "It's unknown why the bombs didn't fully explode, and how the explosion was contained. But if people see this person, it's believed that he is extremely dangerous, and shouldn't be approached."

I looked at the drawing of me. It thankfully looked nothing like how I actually looked at the time. My hair was longer. From the battle with the Reaper I had several cuts across my face. From stress I had lost a bit of weight.

The Reaper did take my advice and went to me in the real world and we had a drink together. He didn't say anything.

The tragedy had been averted!

I then looked at my hands. Dialga and Palkia had given me far more power then what I had asked for.

Now that I had changed everything, I wondered if I would fade out of existence. If that was the case, I decided that there was one last thing to do before I returned back to the other world.

It was time to go back to the day this all began.

I was in a video rental store. And a younger me had just entered the store followed by my father.

I went over to the Sega Genesis section to find the copy of Gunstar Heroes. My younger self would look at several other games, and then eventually decide on this. And then everything would begin.

I picked up the case in my hands. Everything then went black and white. Time had suddenly froze. "What's going on?" I asked puzzled. I knew I hadn't used Dialga's power. It was the same as when time froze with the truck.

"I call moments like these 'decision points.' a moment for someone such as yourself to make a crucial decision that will forever alter history." A voice said. I looked around the store, and my eyes focused on the cashier, as he was the only other person in the store capable of moving. He just approached me. The atmosphere around him was quite different, it was cold, inhuman. I recognized him as that strange man that had appeared in front of me at Smashville. He had a rather amused look on his face. "So, you've come back here to the point where I gave your younger self the ability to crossover into other worlds."

"You?" I said shocked. "Who are you?"

"You can call me The Observer." He said. "Now please, there is much to discuss."

He snapped his fingers and suddenly we were teleported into a room that was covered in a black and white checkerboard pattern. The man was also now wearing a black and white checkerboard suit. He just sat down in a chair and another chair also appeared for me to sit.

"All right, Observer, who or what are you?"

"I am someone who observes all of the parallel worlds and can interact with who I please." He said. "I guess in your words I would be considered someone with godlike powers. But really, I'm just a machine that was constructed by far more advanced aliens, and sent out to gather information on other life forms."

"Wait, aliens?" I said surprised.

"You're surprised by that?" The Observer said a bit confused. "I mean, you have the ability to go to another universe where fictional characters are real there, and you are surprised by other life existing in your universe?"

"Well, it's just we've never really confirmed life anywhere else." I managed to say. "And my mind has been more or less preoccupied with living the past 28 days to never really fully think about that somewhere out there, there are other life forms."

The Observer smiled. "Fair enough." He said. "Now then, I'm sure you have plenty of questions."

"Yeah, why did you give me these powers?" I asked.

The Observer just laughed. "I thought you would never ask." he waved his arm and all of the white tiles suddenly became like TV screens. All of them were just showing earth completely destroyed. Buildings were in ruin. Corpses were scattered across the streets. "I was not alone, the species that developed me, and launched me into space could see the future. And they saw the end of all existence, and the end of the multiverse, an endless darkness that would consume and destroy everything. They knew not where it came from, only that it would one day strike and the irreversible destruction of all reality would begin."

And then, the planets on the screens all exploded.

"This is why I gave people this power. In the hope to find someone who would be able to find the cause and then prevent the destruction. However, ironically, it seems that my giving away of this ability is the catalyst that will lead to the destruction."

Huh?!

I didn't know what to say. The Observer decided that he was going to talk again.

"Not all acted like you, when they found out about the other world, they got others in as well. Unlike you and The Reaper who decided to keep it a secret, others didn't. Others told others and brought them in indiscriminately. This power has one big downside, just bringing someone into the other world, gives them the ability to go freely between them too."

"So, I did give the Reaper the ability to go through the worlds." I said.

"Yes." The Observer said. "But, someone else got that ability just like The Reaper did. That person, I don't know who it was. So, we'll just call him Mr. X. Mr. X, unlike many others was an adult, and had a very different view of the world, and saw a great opportunity. Technology, and medical science. Things that hadn't been invented in your universe was there in the other. To Mr. X, I can only assume he was doing the logical thing in his mind. Trying to get those for the betterment of mankind. And that was the origin of Project Fantasia."

I just looked at him a bit surprised.

"Mr. X brought his theory and the ideas of Project Fantasia to the Government to get funding. It, worked out better than he imagined, and he got the funding he desired, and forming the company you know as Zenith. But those within the Government were also wanting this power for their own gain. I guess you could say that it's all politics."

I laughed at the rather stupid joke.

"People want power for their own gain." The Observer said. "If Fantasia was ever pure, it has mutated into something else now. If it was just for medical science, and the cure to diseases, it's now about the military and gaining new weapons for your wars. You know Nugai, this isn't the first time I've talked about Project Fantasia to you."

I nodded. "I figured that out a while ago. You were the one who warned me about Project Fantasia, or rather gave me the idea."

"Indeed." The Observer said. "I wished to make it known. I was also curious in what a child would do. I was amazed that you thought it was possible."

"I guess you could say I was ignorant." I said.

"Indeed." The Observer said. "But as you learned that it was impossible, and that there would be grave consequences, you grew. I knew that I could trust you to oppose Project Fantasia, the real one, not your childish theme park version."

"I'll stop Project Fantasia, no matter what the incarnation." I said.

"I like that spirit. But I don't think it will break so easily. You know you're going up against the world, society, you will probably be seen as a villain for trying to stop the next bit of human evolution." The Observer said. "For your little stunt and saving the Reaper from his assassination, you were practically made into public enemy number one here…"

I just sighed. I knew the lengths that they were willing to go to stop me just from stopping their assassination of The Reaper. "You're probably right." I said. "But, if I have to bear that burden, I will."

"I can't quite figure you out." The Observer said. "Why would you sacrifice yourself to stop Project Fantasia?"

I just looked at the ground and weakly laughed. "Well, I guess I met myself who told me the world doesn't need Andrew, they need Nugai."

The Observer just nodded.

"Still, you gave me power to stop everything from being destroyed, how can I stop that?"

"You can't." The Observer said. "The truth is, I don't even know if there is a way to stop what has been placed in motion. If I knew how to stop it, I'd gladly tell you, but I don't think the answer is just going to magically appear either. I've been observing other people, and universes for a long time. Not once have I found a hint."

"Earlier you said People! There are others right?" I asked. "So we can all work together, right?"

"You wish it was that simple, don't you?" the Observer laughed. All of the monitors displayed people. I looked at several of them. I saw one with someone with a Lucario. I saw another where someone was with Ike and the rest of the Greil Mercenaries. There was one where it looked like someone was stuck in a Smasher's body. Another world where there were people who were transforming into the Smashers and another human was leading them, he seemed to have the power to draw in spirits into his body. There was one where it seemed like the world was bending around a girl, and the Smashers had been replaced by several normal people.

All these other worlds that were displayed kept on having a seemingly normal human interacting with the Smashers, or with other video game characters. It just went on endlessly.

"They are parallel for a reason. They can't intersect unless something warps time and space. All of the universes are destined to die."

"So, you mean to tell me that in with an infinite amount of parallel universes and possibilities, you haven't found one that can prevent this destruction?" I asked.

"Correct." he said.

"So, doesn't that mean that there is something outside of the universes, some outside force that hasn't been involved?!" I questioned. "Where am I through out all of this?"

"Mostly dead." The Observer said bluntly. On the screen I appeared, leading the Smashers fighting against several monsters crossing over into my world. "You fight valiantly to send those that cross over back into their world. However, you are eventually struck down."

I watched the footage until eventually, a monster had killed me.

"This is the beginning of the end. Without you to send back the monsters, or anyone one else to take up your sword more and more come into this world, unable to return. The destruction continues. And then, eventually all is destroyed." The Observer said.

"But what if I gathered others who were like me and could transport the monsters back into the other world?" I asked.

"Pretty much the same result." Several more screens appeared I fell, and one by one the other humans fell.

"This isn't possible." I said. If it weren't for the fact that I was sitting on a chair, I'd probably be on the ground in shock.

"This is but one of the many futures I have seen. There are others, but the jist is, if no one can send back the ones who cross over to their world, then it quickly becomes a losing battle. But that isn't what destroys the multiverse."

"Then what is?" I asked.

"Eventually the parallel worlds crash." He said. "They collide, and fuse, but where a combination should happen, it just becomes a wave of destruction that leaves nothing standing…"

"I think there is still a way to prevent this." I said. "I think it's possible."

The Observer smiled. "Good. And how do you propose we prevent this disaster?"

"I don't know yet." I said. "But, I'll show you the world where I live and open an infinite amount of new possibilities."

The Observer just laughed. "All right, then show me this new future. You who have all ready deified fate once!"

"What?!" I said.

"You have continued to defy expectations. And I must say, this was never your story to begin with." The Observer said. "You were just always supposed to be some side character."

I just laughed; the stress was finally getting to me. "Is that so?"

"In fact, you were supposed to be dead all ready." The Observer said. "Divine protection, or your will kept you going. And you are now somehow alive."

I just looked at him confused. "I'm supposed to be dead?"

On a monitor appeared a rather familiar room. It was a basement. There was a TV on a homemade shelf and a bunch of games, and in front of the TV was a mangled corpse. Mine. The arms and legs were twisted the wrong way. "You tried to escape from the world when your 40 days were up a while ago."

"So, this was back when I initially decided to stay and live in Animal Crossing." I said.

"Correct. You tried to get out, but you were too late." The Observer said. "This is what should have transpired. And did, initially."

"What?" I said.

"In this parallel world, the Reaper was stricken with both grief and fear. It transformed him into something else. He swore revenge on people who weren't even involved, wishing nothing more than to destroy them." The Observer said. "He craved the power to destroy the world."

"What?"

"And he eventually got that wish. Learning dark magic from the Twili, and eventually coming across Dialga and Palkia." The Observer said. "He now had the power to alter history, and make sure that you survived and got out just in time. And that gave birth to you, and your alternate history."

I just looked at The Observer rather shocked. "No, none of this can be true."

"But it is." The Observer said. "People are linked by invisible chains, and effect others in ways that they don't know how. Hearing that his friend, the one person he shared the secret of crossing over into other dimensions, was dead, shook him. Even though for several years the two of you hadn't even talked, it still shook him, to the point that he irrationally thought it was murder. Likewise, his death in this universe shook you."

"What happened to that other universe?" I asked.

The Observer smiled. On screen was just endless devastation. "He learned that in his timeline, he couldn't bring you back, and just saving you merely created an alternate universe where you lived. He went insane, and became something far worse than the Reaper. Destroying both worlds and slaughtering billions."

What was scary about The Observer was that despite all of the footage of death and destruction around him, he was still perfectly calm. My guess is he had watched the footage countless times, or seen millions of events just like it to stop being attached and just accept it as something that happens.

"And despite this never being your story, I think you now have the power to save everything." The Observer said.

"With the Akashic Record and the Akashic Points?" I asked.

He laughed. "It's not that easy. If that was the case, I could of simply done it myself, but it isn't. Your power is something much greater than being able to alter reality."

"I don't exactly see how something can be greater than that." I muttered. The Observer just ignored me.

"You exist outside of the Passage of Fate." The Observer replied.

Passage of Fate?

"And that means what exactly?"

"Having survived when you were destined to die, you are free. You aren't linked to any fate, only what you choose for yourself!" The Observer said. "I believe the one who can save all existence's destruction is someone who simply exists outside of the passage of fate. I guess the real question is, what will you do?"

"I will do everything in my power to protect everyone." I replied.

He smiled. "Good. But your power may not be enough."

"So, I will need the help of others." I said. "How can someone exist outside of the Passage of Fate?"

"As far as I know there are two ways to exist outside of the Passage of Fate."

"And they are?" I asked.

He smiled. "The first is being able to go through the worlds. One can go through these worlds and very easily become stronger, fight, or gain abilities one that normally wouldn't have. Your aura is a fine example. You are no longer bound by your world's rules, and at least in theory, no longer bound by the passage of fate."

I smiled.

"The second way is to avoid death, or rather to die, and come back to life, like you have." The Observer said. "It was your fate to die, yet you were reborn. But like all things it's still an uphill battle."

"But we have the power of all of those who are able to cross over now." I said. "We should be able to work together and figure something out, right?"

The Observer just shook his head. "That is unknown at this point. They might not be willing to join up with you. They also might side with the others. They might not share your views on why the worlds should be separate, and then you might have some powerful enemies, those that dwarf The Reaper in power."

He was right; I could only assume that Rai, Sui and Tei were only the beginning of Zenith and the Government's forces. And quite frankly, I feared what would happen if there was an individual out there who would side with neither of us. "Still, it's a start." I said.

"A necessary start." The Observer said, "After all, the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step."

"So, what should be my next step?" I asked.

"What were you going to do if I didn't talk to you like this?" The Observer asked.

I was a bit shocked by the question. "Um, well… I was planning on temporarily closing the passage between the two worlds to buy time."

"In that case, I'd say continue with what you're doing." He said. "A temporary seal is better than nothing, as long as you remember that it's temporary, and work on trying to find a better solution."

"Right." I said.

"Now then, let's talk about something else. If you do join the fight, in your current state, you might be a liability." The Observer said.

"What do you mean?" I asked shocked.

"As strong as you may be in the awakened aura state, it has one fatal weakness." The Observer sighed. "Aura is your energy, all you're really doing is just using that energy faster. You will only last about 2 minutes tops at your current rate, possibly a bit longer if you don't actually fight and just stand there. That is why you were next to unable to use aura after achieving that state. It had simply used up a great deal of aura, and your body subconsciously stopped you from using any more aura to save your life."

I just stood there a bit shocked. "That was worthless then?" I said.

"Unless you can beat any opponents who may be stronger than the Reaper in under two minutes, and then stall long enough for all of your aura to return to normal levels. Which I currently estimate to be at least two days." The Observer said.

Crap… so I shouldn't of gotten that power…

"As a normal human, who has only just learned how to control your aura, your container isn't very big. For illustration, imagine a single 355mLcan of pop. While decent, it quickly runs out. For a single person, a 2 liter bottle lasts much longer than a can."

"Is there a way to retain my aura, or quickly gather more aura?" I wondered.

"There is. Lucario's spikes aren't just for show, or a constant reminder that tackling him is a really bad idea." The Observer said. I just glared at him. "They are constantly drawing in aura from the surrounding area, so he can use it."

"So, I'd need a spike or something in my body to constantly use aura?" I said.

"Yeah, though I recommend against it." The Observer sighed. "Especially if you are to return back to your planet, something like that would be rather hard to hide. And I'm sure you don't exactly want some metal rods sticking out of your body."

"I could always say it's just a fashion statement."

"And I will say it looks incredibly stupid." The Observer said. "Although there may be another solution."

"Such as?" I wondered.

"I'll find one for you." He said. "But don't expect it to be free."

I just cringed; I didn't exactly expect whatever payment choice he had to be all that pleasant. "Very well then." I said. "If it's necessary to save the universes."

The Observer just looked at me. "You're interesting. I'm not sure how others would of reacted to all that I have told you, but you just seem to be accepting it. It wasn't the first reaction I thought someone would have though."

"I just know this has to be stopped no matter what." I said. "I can't let it go on for much longer."

"Fair enough." He said. "You're also the first person I've ever really talked to. Is this what it's like to have a friend?"

"I guess." I said a bit nervous.

"My real name is Unit 745." The Observer said.

"Andrew." I said.

"Strange, to me, it looked like you secretly didn't want to know your name. You've been trying to find a way to forget who you are." The Observer said.

"Maybe that was the case." I said.

"And now you've got your name back." The Observer sighed. "Do you have your other memories back yet?"

I paused for a few seconds. "I think there might be a few of grade school that I still don't have. But I don't particularly care about them."

The Observer just nodded. "It's funny, all this time I've wanted to experience school, and other things." The Observer said. "While I can be there and watch it. I can't interact, I can't answer questions, play games, or go out for recess."

I was rather confused. The Observer said that he was nothing more than a machine, but at the same time, he seemed to be human.

"But your body..."

"It's just a hologram." The Observer said. "It's not all that much. Please, shake my hand." He stretched out his hand. I grabbed it and shook it. It was solid, but it certainly didn't feel like a hand. It was just like I was grabbing plastic or porcelain, a moving version of one of those display mannequins that clothes are on in a store.

"That's the most I can do, and I don't even feel anything. I would just be found out extremely quickly." The Observer said. "They never intended for me to come out and interact with humans. The only reason I have this is to in theory kill who ever will create the catalyst."

I nodded. I thought it was rather tragic.

"Well, once I get back to my place, in my world, you can drop by any time." I said. "We could play some Smash, or anything else."

"Nugai, thanks." He said. He seemed to be smiling. I didn't know, was the Observer genuinely happy about that? Or was it just a pre-programmed reaction? Maybe wherever he came from, they had created an advanced AI that could emote realistically. "I'm glad I met you."

"Same." I said.

"It looks like our time together is just about up. So, even if it was by chance, you do exist outside of the Passage of Fate." The Observer said. "However, one person can not do very much alone. And fighting against fate is still a giant undertaking. Fate is cruel, and will always try to steer its course back the way it's supposed to be. Return back to your world, and reflect on what you must do. I may appear in front of you again..."

I blinked and I was transported back into the store. I looked down and saw my younger self-looking up at me. It was almost as if he was about to cry. It took me several seconds to get my bearings. Had I just been standing there looking at the case? I imagined at most it had only been ten seconds. I just looked at the case in my hand, and then again at my younger self.

"You wanted this game didn't ya?" I asked.

"Yeah." he said. "My best friend is coming over tonight and I wanted to get it since it's two players."

I just smiled. I didn't want to deny him or myself of the game. "I've played it before." I said, putting it back on the shelf. "You can have it kid. I'll find something else to play this weekend."

He seemed overjoyed. I walked away but something was nagging me in the back of my head. I glanced back at my younger self, and then said. "By the way, kid, it's called Gunstar Heroes."

He looked at me a bit confused. And then tried to read the words. Back then I didn't know the name. I just memorized the box art and had seen it plenty of times before. For some reason I was pretty sure I called it some thing else.

I walked towards the Observer. "Have you found anything you want Sir?" he asked.

"Even if I did, my debit card wouldn't work in this time."

"Indeed." he said. "I look forwards to meeting you again."

"And I look forwards to showing you a future that isn't destroyed." I said.

I walked out of the store, and teleported away.

I returned back to the other world.

I immediately collapsed on the ground and looked up at both Dialga and Palkia. It was suddenly much harder to breath. "Thank you." I managed to gasp out. The two of them vanished. I looked at the Reaper who was beginning to fade away. "It's finally over." I laughed, trying to gather strength to stand up again. Somehow I managed. I walked over to the Reaper. He was conscious, and also struggling to get back up. I just extended my hand. He grabbed it and then we walked to a wall and both collapsed against it. And then the Reaper began to glow.

"You saved me." He laughed. "Just like you said you would."

"Yeah. Sorry it took me so long to come to your rescue." I said. "I guess now, everything is going to correct itself..."

"So, that's how you did it, you altered the records back there. You stopped my death..."

"Yeah. Freak, my body hurts all over from doing that." I laughed.

"I don't think anyone else would be crazy or stupid enough to jump in front of a truck." he laughed.

"It was the first thing that came to mind. Okay." I said rather annoyed. "I didn't know how else to stop a truck speeding towards you…"

He stretched out his hand and suddenly a bullet appeared in it. "These are the memories of the time I spent as the Reaper. There may be a time when you need to restore them in the other world. If that time ever does come, please do it, by just shooting me with this."

I looked at the bullet rather shocked. Eventually I reached to take the bullet, however three more appeared in his hand. "And these are Rai, Sui, and Tei's memories that I had removed. They had come after me in this world to finish the job. They served under me for a time, to try and get close, but when I figured it out I was able to remove their memories. There might be a slim chance, but you might be able to use them to your advantage."

"Thanks." I said.

He had a smile across his face. "Nugai." He managed to say. "If we meet again, let's just fight in Smash Bros, just like the good old days. No Nugai, no Reaper. Just us."

"Yeah." I said.

He stretched out his hand, and I grabbed it. His grip was firm. "To be honest, I'm afraid. Is this what it's like to die? Will I just return back to that previous state? Will this person be erased from existence, and the new one start at that point?" He said.

"I don't know." I said.

"Well, whatever. I'll be waiting for you. If you ever need help to stop Fantasia, and Zenith." He said. And then, all the strength began to fade from his grip, and he completely disappeared. "Beware the mole, he's still in Smashville, and he is still bitter."

I fell back, gasping for air. The Reaper was finally gone from this world. All was well. My eyes were looking at the spiralling sphere of energy and bar codes. Slowly I pushed myself up, and walked back to the source code. My body was glowing and beginning to disappear much like the Reaper. I figured it was only natural, he was the reason why I was brought into this world, if he never came in, I would never of been dragged in. I'd soon be back at my house, ready to play some Brawl...

My eyes focused on the sphere of barcodes and energy. I was determined to reach it before I fully disappeared. There was only one other thing I had to do before I also disappeared. I needed to make sure that the worlds are truly independent from each other, so that no one would be sucked into this world once again.

I reached out for the source code and began to alter it to create a new order. One to close the link between the two worlds, and stop Project Fantasia, at least for now. When I was done, I collapsed, and blacked out. I assumed I soon dissolved like the Reaper did moments before.

---

"I found him!" A voice shouted. I opened my eyes and looked around. It was dark. I couldn't quite make out who the person standing in front of me was.

Did I make it home? No, I couldn't of. I lived alone. Maybe I'm outside, and someone filed a missing person report...

"Damn it, it's too dark, I can't see anything." I muttered.

"Oh, sorry, it looks like the fight with the Reaper knocked out the lights here." the voice replied. A plume of fire suddenly appeared in the palm of his hand and I could tell that it was Lucas.

I haven't vanished? What, why? I thought the Reaper dragged me into the world; I made sure that he never came to this world! What's going on? Could this just be a delayed ripple effect? No wait I had moved to someplace else... what's going on?

Tons of different thoughts rushed through my head. I was extremely confused.

I took a look around my surroundings. I was in a giant crater against the wall, and damn, did my back ever hurt. I struggled to get up, Lucas seemed to realize what I was doing and quickly helped support me. I was slightly afraid that I was going to be too heavy for the young kid. But, he actually was rather strong despite his appearance.

That's right, he grew up on a farm of course he would be strong...

We slowly walked out of the train station where several Smashers had gathered.

"The Reaper was fended off!" Ness laughed, having his baseball bat rest upon his shoulder.

"Yeah, you did a good job Nugai!" A voice said. I certainly didn't recognize the voice. My vision was kind of hazy too. Not to mention everything was still far too bright since I was in the darkness.

"Please, I really did nothing." I admitted.

Well, if you count altering the very fabric of reality as nothing... Why am I still here? Is there actually going to be a giant fading out of existence tearjerker scene where I have to say goodbye and thank you for everything?

I looked at the person who had just talked. My altering of reality was successful. Standing there was Lucas' twin brother Claus. He wore his blue and yellow striped shirt, and brown pants. He also had messy orange hair. However, on his wrist was a strange watch.

"Well, I don't think the Reaper will be bothering anyone from now on." I said.

"Are you sure, because it looks to me like you got your ass kicked!" Captain Falcon pointed out.

Yeah, that's only a small price to pay for erasing him out of existence...

A nearby tree fell over, having been sliced through by a bladed weapon. Everyone quickly jumped away. "Who's not going to be bothering anyone?" A voice asked.

Much to my, and all of the Smasher's horror, standing there was the Reaper.

"Okay, what the fuck!?" I shouted outraged. "I erased you out of existence. I removed you from the timeline. I changed the event that and stopped you from coming into this world and adopting the Reaper persona! I saw your body fade away! Why are you still here?"

Lucas and a few other Smashers looked at me rather confused at my rather colorful language.

"You don't get it do you?" The Reaper laughed. "Any human, no matter who they are, leaves behind a signature in this world. You met your previous signature, what makes you think that the Reaper would of been any different? I'm no longer the Reaper, but his digitized signature."

"That makes absolutely no sense!" I said. "Only I could see my signature previously!"

"True, normally the signature is a lot weaker, but I was able to retain the body by using the sacrifice that I had originally intended to bring back Lucas' brother and mother. Now, I am just a fragment of his legacy left behind. And unfortunately for all of you, I have none of the softness that he had! Watch as Smashville is baptized with your blood!"

I grabbed my sword, ready to fight him once again; this time to make sure that the slaughter wasn't going to repeat itself.

Not again. Not this time.

A blue blur rushed for the Reaper and delivered a punch that sent him flying, and skidding across the ground. He had essentially been hit with the power of a sonic boom. The Reaper however got back up and looked frustrated at Sonic. The other Smashers also all began to pull out some weapons. Varying from Super Scopes, to Smart Bombs.

"If the real Reaper isn't in you, I won't be holding anything back anymore." I said.

"Good." The Reaper laughed. "I look forwards to our final battle. Since it doesn't look like you will actually be capable of fighting right now."

The Reaper then teleported away. "Survive, if you can! My mole is one among you. I think it's time for you to kill some of them. If you don't, I won't hold my side of the bargain."

Everyone just looked at each other suddenly paranoid. It was quite clear what the Reaper wanted to do, sow the seeds of distrust between us. "A mole?!" Claus said.

"Mewtwo, can you tell us who the mole is?" Dr. Mario said.

"I'm afraid not." Mewtwo said. "Whoever is the mole, he has somehow blocked that memory from being read by the psychics..."

"So, I guess the best option is to not be alone." Dr. Mario said.

The Smashers all nodded. And it wasn't long before they all began to walk away in at least groups of three.

"Hey, let's get going." Ness said to me.

"Just a second." I said. I just rushed towards Mewtwo.

"You said you knew who the mole was previously, right Mewtwo?" I asked.

Mewtwo just nodded. "Yes, but all I'll do is stop him from trying to kill any Smashers. I won't out him."

"Why not?" I asked.

Mewtwo just looked at me. "Because, I think you need to do that."

"Why me?" I asked.

"Why not?" Mewtwo replied.

"That' isn't exactly a suitable answer." I said rather annoyed.

Mewtwo just sighed. "Okay, listen Nugai. It's all politics, it has to be you, if another Smasher tried to out the mole, then-"

"But, I am a Smasher."

"You're just a temporary fighter." Mewtwo said. "You were just given the Smash pendant, and everything else due to our situation. If it's anyone else but you, the mole can weasel his way out of it. It will just become the blame game and it may destroy the Smashers. That's why it needs to be, no, why it will be you who reveals the mole's identity."

I was a bit shocked. "But, I don't even know where to start!" I said. "I mean..."

"The Mole has left tons of clues. You just need to find them." Mewtwo said. "Now then, I need to get going." And then he teleported away.

"So, if you don't reveal who the mole is the Smashers will destroy themselves." Ness said.

I just jumped up in shock. All of the kid Smashers began to burst laughing. "Jeeze, don't sneak up on me." I said. "You almost took off four years off of my life."

"Sorry, sorry." Ness said.

"Ah well, whatever." I said. "Let's go to somewhere else."

We made our way around Smashville. However, now I noticed that everything was practically in ruins. There was nowhere to really go. Every house was destroyed, every building except for a majority of the town hall, the train station, and the stadium that was outside of Smashville. Some of the Wireframes were gathering up any remains. While others were now rebuilding houses and other things.

We made our way back to where the kid Smashers' house used to be. "Even our snow fort is gone." Toon Link cried.

"Of course it is," Claus said. "He attacked here first."

"Still." Toon Link said. "We spent all that time on it, and now it's gone."

"It would of melted eventually." Popo said.

They all seemed to go to investigate the scrap pile that used to be their house, trying to see if there was anything salvageable. I looked around Smashville, most of the other Smashers were doing the same thing. Sonic on the other hand was alone and walking down to the beach.

Slightly curious I rushed over to Sonic. I figured that even if I wasn't with anyone, the mole wouldn't attack with everyone now being able to see most of Smashville having no obstructions.

"Sonic!" I shouted.

He just turned and faced me. "Oh, hey Nugai. What brings you here?"

"Well, it's just with the mole, I thought you would be cautious." I said. "That and I was wondering why you weren't assessing the damage on your house like everyone else."

Sonic just laughed. "Well, first of all there was nothing that valuable in my house. Just the default stuff we got at the Smash HQ. Secondly, I figure I'm fast enough out run the mole. And besides, if he was somehow able to catch me, I would just need to use Chaos Control to get out of there."

I blinked at Sonic confused. "Chaos Control?" I asked.

"Yeah." Sonic said. "I can teleport from spot to spot. It's using a Chaos Emerald for time and space manipulation. Even if I was in a sealed rocket, with Chaos Control I could easily escape."

"Right, now I remember! It's in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle!" I said.

"That's right." Sonic laughed. "So, I don't think the mole would be a problem, if he was somehow able to corner me, I'd be out of there faster than you could say Chaos Control. Then I'd be with someone else and able to quickly reveal their identity. So, as long as they know about that, I don't think I'll even be a target."

I just nodded. "Well, that seems fair enough." I said. "But what if it's Captain Falcon, or someone steals his racer, and just tries to make you road kill?"

"I didn't know you were that twisted Nugai." Sonic said.

"I just thought that would make sense. Anticipate your speed, and plan for it. I think any half competent mole would do that. Either that or some sneak attack, that you can't react from, like wait until night time when everyone is sleeping." I said.

"Well, thanks for the warning, I'll be on the look out then." Sonic said. And with that he ran off.

I slowly made my way back to the kid Smashers' house. I passed by each and every house that I could. They were pretty much all the same. Just a wreck. If someone was lucky, they might of had a dresser, or some silverware, but it was mostly just complete destruction. I made it to my house. It was rather pointless to go through the wreckage. My time in here was drawing to a close, and I didn't think I could bring that much back without raising suspicion.

I turned around and then just paused. I looked at the wreckage and then at my hand. I wondered, did I still have some of Dailga's power? I raised my hand above the wreckage, and nothing happened. I just sighed. I looked at my hands and tried to summon forth some energy. Soon two spheres came out of my hand. One was blue, the other was pink. They were glowing rather weakly. "So, that's the remains of Dialga and Palkia's powers." I said. I could tell I had a little bit, but not enough to actually do something big. I might have been able to slow down time for a second or so, but not reverse the damage on the house and Smashville like I was planning.

I made my way back to the kid Smashers. They all looked up at me rather confused at where I had gone. "I just wanted to check out some of the other damage." I said. "Also dropped by the remains of my house."

They all glanced at the general direction.

"Nothing was there that I thought was worth getting out."

"Well, make a seat, and wait a while. We're going to be here all day." Ness said.

I just nodded. I quickly when to the remains of the snow fort and just sat on a boulder that hadn't quite been fully destroyed.

I looked at the kid Smashers. I was positive none of them was the mole. Claus was immediately out because the Mole existed in the previous timeline, so it couldn't be him. Lucas, while he previously worked for the Reaper, made it quite clear that he quit. And besides, even if he was still planning on bringing back his mother, he kind of used the one sacrifice he had to keep himself in existence. I think if that was the bargain that the mole had been talking about it was voided by default.

Ness, Nana, Popo, and Toon Link, didn't seem like they had a motive. Ness was with the Smashers since the beginning, and I doubted wanted revenge or anything. Nana and Popo, quite frankly, maybe it was because I didn't know them that well, but they didn't exactly seem like the two who would want revenge on the Smashers either. Toon Link, he joked around a lot, but he was never malicious. I doubt that even someone like him could of held malicious feelings towards the Smashers.

"What you doing?" Claus asked.

"Just thinking about stuff." I said.

"Oh?" Claus wondered. "Such as?"

"Who the mole is." I replied bluntly.

Claus just leaned in close and whispered into my ear. "I'm the mole."

"No your not." I said.

"How do you know?"

"I just do." I replied.

"I'm a psychic as well, I could easily block those moments from Mewtwo probing my mind." Claus said. He had a rather sly look across his face.

"This isn't funny." I muttered.

"Still, you were thinking that we were all innocent." Claus said. "I think you should be more cautious with lowering your guard. Any of us could be the mole."

I was a bit confused. Could Claus read my mind? Or was it just that obvious with what I was thinking.

"Someone has to be." I said. "But I don't think it's any of you. I can't think of any motivation you would have for wanting to kill the Smashers."

"Our mother is still dead." Claus said. "Lucas and I could want her back, and then leave the Smashers and just live as a family once again."

"No," I said. "That wouldn't happen." I knew Lucas had grown up. He had accepted his mother's death, and didn't want her brought back like that.

"Who really needs a motivation?" Claus said. "The mole could just be doing it just because."

I looked at Claus. I was concerned. How did editing him into reality work? Was he there with us for the past couple of weeks? Did everyone else's memories get edited? They all seemed familiar with him. So, I guessed it was okay. I couldn't just ask him outright with out bringing suspicion on myself. But, I still wanted to know.

"Claus," I said, "Sorry if this seems like an odd thing to ask but ever since the Reaper smashed me into that wall, my head's been kind of foggy. You were with us in the storage room right?"

"Yeah." Claus said a bit confused.

"How can you forget something like that?" Ness asked. "He was with us when that metal crate tried to squish us. He cut through it with his sword faster than Lucas and I reacted trying to knock it away with PK Flash and Love."

"Sword!?" I said a bit confused. They all just looked at me a bit strangely. There was some strange cylinder connected to his belt, but, it didn't look like a sword or anything. Just a metal cylinder. "I don't know." I lied. "It's almost like the Reaper did something to me. I remember the past 28 days clearly, it's just that the only thing I don't remember is Claus."

"That is weird." Claus said.

"Yeah." I said. I made a mental note for in the future. That I was unaware of the edits that I made, in that if I just made someone up and inserted them into existence, while everyone else's memories were edited to accommodate, mine weren't. Though with the heavy price of removing time off of my life for editing the Akashic Records, I doubted that I would be doing it again.

And then another thought crossed my mind. If, Lucas betrayed the Smashers in the other timeline to get his brother and mother back alive, what happened in this timeline? Did he still betray the Smashers just for his Mother?

"Still, now that Nugai said that the Reaper edited his memories of just me," Claus said. "I can't but help wonder if the mole doesn't know if he's a spy. Lucas, when you were with the Reaper did you see any other Smashers talk with him?"

I just looked horrified at Claus. He knew, he was somehow reading my mind. What was going on?

"I don't think that's the case." I was able to spit out. They were all now looking at me. "The Reaper did mention something about a deal. Seems like a conscious decision to me. Not something he would want to hide..."

They all were nodding in agreement. "Yeah, that's right."

"But what if it was a code word, or something." Toon Link said. "Like you see with people being hypnotized. They don't react until a certain word or phrase has been said."

"Yeah, he could have been sleeping up until that point." Popo said.

This was beginning to get a bit too scary. Knowing that he also had the power over the Akashic point, and anything would be a possibility made it that much worse.

"Or it could be something like this." Toon Link said. He quickly made a snowman and then pulled out a baton. He did some movements in the air, and then suddenly he began to assume a position much like that of a puppeteer. The snowman began to move of it's own free will, and then, it stopped.

"What was that?" Ness asked.

"The command melody." Toon Link replied. "I can control a body, basically. Normally it's just inanimate objects, like the snowman, or statues. For people it's a bit harder, since I have to be within a certain distance, and have to have their consent, but, what if the Reaper was acting like that. A Smasher is basically just a hollow shell, and the Reaper is using that to his advantage."

"But you said that they would need to be close." Lucas pointed out. "I wouldn't say that the Reaper has been really close to activate it."

"We probably have thought about this too much." I said. "I'm just going with it being a fully conscious decision by someone. That someone is willingly betraying the Smashers. But why? What would be their motive, and what would they have to gain?"

They left me to speculate alone, and they returned to going through the wreckage of their house. Eventually, Claus came back over to me.

"Can we talk, Nugai?"

I just nodded. "Okay, where?" I asked.

"Away from here." Claus said. "Somewhere where we can be alone."

"Let's go to the stadium." I said.

Claus just nodded. We walked towards the Stadium. Both of us were just looking around, trying to see if any of the other Smashers were following us. It must have looked really suspicious.

"You know, no one is actually following us." Claus said, having given up on looking around, and just had his hands on the back of his head. "We're perfectly safe."

"I just want to make sure." I said.

"Then use aura." Claus said.

I did that, and it was quite clear that no one was around us. We got into the stadium, and to be extra cautious, we found a super secluded place deep within the labyrinthine hallways.

"Looks like this place is as good as any." Claus said.

"Yeah, thanks. I wanted to talk to you too." I said.

"That's good." Claus said. "About what?"

"Have you been reading my mind?" I figured it was just the best option to come out straight.

"Yep." Claus replied.

What?!

I was genuinely shocked. This shouldn't have been possible. Mewtwo wasn't able to read my mind for a while now... If he was one of the most powerful psychics, this kid shouldn't be able to read my mind.

"Although prior to your fight with the Reaper, I couldn't. It always seemed to be broken, and shattered, and then covered with a thick fog. It was just impossible to read. Although I'm sure Mewtwo has realized by now your mind is practically an open book once again."

"Oh great... this can only end well." I muttered. "And what about Ness and Lucas."

"No idea about Ness, but, Lucas he's far too kind and will respect everyone's privacy. He won't read minds unless it's absolutely necessary." Claus said. "Now then, I answered your question, I think it's time you answered mine."

"Let me guess, it's either: Why did you bring me back to life, or what do you mean by altered reality?"

Claus smiled. "You're good. I'll take both."

I held out my sword. "I can now edit reality." I said. "I bonded with an Akashic Point. I brought you back to life because of things that happened in the other timeline. I was selfish. Lucas was in pain, and I wondered what would have happened when I vanished."

Claus just rushed and pinned me to the wall. I was actually surprised by the strength. For his age, he was certainly strong. He looked rather frustrated. "So, you just thought that I would replace you?"

"Nothing like that. The Lucas from that timeline was suicidal. He was willing to do anything to get you back." I shouted. "I was afraid of what would happen once I vanished. If he had another shock would he succeed in killing himself? Stuff like that."

"Lucas is a lot stronger than you think!" Claus said. "He has other friends in the Smashers besides just you! They would have helped him through it!"

"So you're saying you would have preferred to stay dead?!" I asked.

"I don't know. But does that give you the right to play with our lives? You're no better than the Reaper!" Claus snapped. "No, you're worse."

"What?!" I said.

"You're toying with our lives too. Don't think you're any different than him just because you brought us all back." Claus snapped. He grabbed a cylinder that was holstered on his belt. And then it began to spark with electricity, until it eventually formed a sword.

I held out my sword and got ready to fight at a moments notice. "I don't want to do this Claus."

We were probably going to fight. But I suddenly heard something. It was like a far away door that was opening. "Someone's coming." I said.

Claus just went back, and looked at the hallways. He quickly hid his sword. "What are you guys doing here?" Claus shouted down the halls.

"We wanted to see where you two had headed and what you were doing." A voice shouted back. It was Ness.

They followed us? Why?

"Well, Nugai and I just wanted to talk privately. That's all." Claus said. I had to hand it to him, he was a good actor, you wouldn't of been able to tell that a few seconds ago he was probably ready to rip me to shreds. "We're not quite done yet, could you just wait for us outside."

"Come on, no secrets between friends, right?" Ness said.

"Sorry." Claus said. "It's a private conversation."

"Fine, fine..." Ness said. "We'll wait outside."

I couldn't help but think that Ness saved my skin. There was no telling what Claus was going to do if left unchecked. We both watched as Ness disappeared, and we waited a few minutes, to make sure he wasn't just outside of the door waiting, and trying to listen in.

"Listen, Claus, what I've done I've done. I can't really change that fact. In that timeline, all of the Smashers were dead. I couldn't let the Status Quo revive them. Not again..."

"Sorry, I let my emotions get the better of me." Claus said. "You made the right choice. Still, was it worth the price?"

"I don't know." I said. "Maybe I acted selfishly, and just revived you so that Lucas had a replacement."

"If I was dead in the other timeline, maybe Lucas is a bit happier now..." Claus said. "Maybe it was worth it."

I just nodded.

"Zenith." He said.

"What about them?" I asked.

"It was the other thing I wanted to talk to you about." Claus said. "It seems like you're not aware of the different changes in the time lines."

"That's right." I said.

"Zenith showed up at the Smash HQ one day, it was when Lucas was kidnapped or defected, or whatever you want to call it." Claus said.

"And?"

"Nothing too big happened." Claus said. "The manager just greeted them, and they went up to the office to talk."

"What did they talk about?" I asked.

"No idea." Claus sighed. "Still, I think that maybe a similar meeting happened back in your time line."

I just nodded. "Possibly. I was looking for Lucas, so I didn't really notice that much else. But if I had to guess, Zenith was probably looking on the status of their little experiment."

"What experiment is that?" Claus wondered.

"The program that made me lose my battle against Marth." I sighed. "It was planned to be used on the Reaper to make sure he could be killed by the people of this world."

"Oh, I see." Claus said.

"I was just going to be the test run." I sighed.

"You should start trusting others Nugai." Claus said.

I just glanced at him a bit confused. That came completely out of nowhere.

"I was wondering why you were only really hanging around us." Claus said. "But, now I see why, you don't really trust anyone else. You thought that us kid Smashers were innocent."

"Something like that." I sighed. "Figured you guys were the least likely to betray me, and back when everyone was looking over me, I just guess I got used to hanging out with you guys that I never really looked for anyone else. Especially with me disappearing so soon."

Claus laughed rather amused. "Okay then. Now what?"

"Can we have a Smash match?" I asked.

Claus nodded. "Okay."

We made our way to the fighting room. Only making a brief detour to tell the other kid Smashers that we were going to have a quick fight. "Can I join?" Toon Link asked.

"Sorry, it's just us two." Claus said. "A man to man fight."

"Kid to teen fight you mean." Ness snarked.

Claus shot a rather dirty glare at Ness, and we departed for the fighting room. When we got there, Claus went to a computer and typed away. "Any stage?" He asked. A hologram appeared displaying all of the stages. I just looked through each of them. I didn't want to fight on final destination again.

"Temple." I said.

He paused for a few seconds. "Okay, fine." he eventually said. "Any items?"

"Smash Ball." I said.

"I'll put on Curry."

"Beam Sword."

"Super Scope."

I paused. Something was telling me that I should really be careful against him. I realized what he was doing. Both Ness and Lucas had attacks that Absorbed energy, I was positive Claus was the same.

"Bumper." I said.

"Ray gun." Claus added.

I was positive that was the last of the Weapons that could fire projectiles. If we kept going, he would probably add in the fire flower next.

"That's it." I said.

"Okay, same." Claus smiled. "Five stock sounds good?"

"Yeah." I replied.

We both stepped on a platform and a bright light teleported us away.

---

Nugai VS Claus

Stock: 5

Stage: Temple

Items: Smash Ball, Curry, Beam Sword, Super Scope, Bumper, Ray Gun.

We landed on Temple, and I was perhaps the first to react, not in the expected way of rushing to Claus and starting to fight though. I just began to gasp for air. The air was much thinner up here than what I was used to.

What the?!

Claus just glanced at me. "I guess you haven't had that many smash battles. Some places have a different atmosphere, such as the temple. There is a two minute adjustment period." Claus said. "You'll probably need it." He just went and sat down on a platform. I did the same.

"What about stages in space?"

"It's a simulation, in those a barrier is around it to keep the atmosphere that we're used to." Claus replied. "You should stop talking, and get used to the air now."

I thought about it for a few seconds, I wondered why he was currently unaffected. Not to mention, I was pretty sure that 2 minutes wasn't a very long time to get adjusted to the thinner air.

I just began to look around. The Temple was much bigger than I was expecting it to be. Then again, from the other side I always saw it as a 2D battlefield. I never really saw inside the temple. I reached for one of the areas that wasn't accessible, however a barrier just appeared, stopping my hand.

The temple also looked like it was ready to fall over at any moment. I placed my hand on a pillar and tried to break it, but nothing happened.

I looked at the watch. There was currently a countdown, I was guessing this was the adjustment period. And now only 30 seconds were left.

When 15 seconds were left, Claus jumped off of the platform and just got ready to fight. I looked at him. I also got ready to fight.

"Three, two, one, go!" A voice shouted.

Claus immediately rushed towards me. The kid was much faster than I thought. The next moment he was right in front of me. He sent a kick that knocked me back several feet.

He's stronger than Ness and Lucas? With that absorbing ability, wouldn't that be broken?

"Don't think!" Claus said. "Just focus on the match!"

He had appeared in front of me again. There was something terrifying coming from him, a certain overpowering aura. His movements were quick, and accurate. I could feel multiple attacks on my body.

"Don't disappoint me Nugai!" Claus said.

I retaliated with a kick aimed towards his head. It hit him, and he just glanced at me, a smile crossed his face.

"Weak, weak and pathetic."

This kid... he was someone completely different in battle.

I just delivered an uppercut, sending him a few feet into the air. "Stop talking, you don't want to bite off your tongue." I said.

Claus landed on the ground and just smiled. "You're right. PK Fire!"

He began to shoot several PK blasts towards me. I dodged the plumes of fire and tried to get close, but he kept on running away, only to face me again and fire several more blasts. His range was bigger than Ness and Lucas'.

"You should know something." Claus said. "In that game, the range of our attacks is different than in real life, so if you're thinking about that, and thinking at what range you would be safe at, you have another think coming. Not to mention, I can actually do things like move around, and attack in real life, instead of stopping and attacking."

I delivered an uppercut once again, sending him flying into the air. "You really need to shut up." I said, charging up an aura sphere. I threw it at him; he however kicked the aura sphere away. "Because evidently, you can't talk and walk at the same time."

"You're not supposed to attack when some is talking!" Claus said. "Isn't that just common courtesy?"

"No, that's stupid." I replied. Claus rushed towards me to try and attack, I however heard the sound of an item dropping. Quickly I began to run to where I thought it was.

It was actually quite easy to find. Using aura I was able to perceive the entire stage. The item had fallen in the middle area. I quickly entered into the cave.

"PK Thunder!" Claus shouted.

The ball of thunder rushed towards me, and hit me in the back. It didn't go through me and left me stunned for a few seconds. Claus quickly ran past me and got down to the item first. He came back up wielding a super scope.

He began to charge up an attack. I just struggled to try and break free, wondering why I was paralysed for so long, but I figured it was because of all of the damage he had given at the start of the battle.

The super scope had fully charged, and then the ball of energy hit me. I went flying back into the wall and bounced down towards him. Claus just smiled, and began to rapidly fire the super scope. Each shot hit me, until I activated my beam sword and began to cut through them.

The super scope onslaught had ended, mainly because he ran out of shots, I slashed my sword towards Claus however he jumped backwards to avoid the attack, only having a childish grin across his face to taunt me.

He just disappeared into the lower parts of the stage. I paused and thought about pursuing for a few seconds, but decided against it. I glanced at my watch, and noticed my damage was rather high at 180 percent.

A PK Thunder came out of the ground and rushed towards me. I just jumped away. "Unlike Lucas' and Ness' PK Thunder, mine can go through obstacles. However, much like Ness' it will end once I hit someone."

"How is that even remotely fair?" I wondered, doing my best to jump away from the attack. It eventually disappeared. I figured that his attack had reached the end of where it could go.

"Psychic abilities aren't fair." Claus replied. "They are based upon the creativity of the user, and what the users can think. In this case, in exchange for losing all of it's knock back and most of the damage it could deal, my PK Thunder stuns anyone for a while. In exchange for it being much faster and difficult to control, it goes through obstacles. But on a big stage like Hyrule Temple, that's not a problem."

"Interesting." I said. Another PK Thunder came up from behind me. I just jumped over it to avoid it. "But with aura, I can see wherever your attacks are coming from, even if you conceal them within the stage."

"I wonder, is that really the case?" Claus said. His voice was really close, I turned around, and he was right behind me.

What the hell? When did he get right behind me?

He placed his hand on my abdomen, and sent a PK Thunder just stunning me. "Against aura, I have one other ability." He smiled. "I can completely erase my presence. You're now down one stock."

He kicked me up into the air and I was sent flying. The stage kept on getting further and further away, and I just kept on spinning. Soon there was a bright flash of light, and I was on a platform right above Hyrule Temple. I looked at my watch, and it showed that I only had 4 stock left. I looked around, and Claus was nowhere to be seen.

I landed on the stage itself, and quickly tried to use aura to find Claus. However the stage was completely abandoned.

If he was telling the truth about being able to erase his presence, then, this must be that ability...

I grabbed my beam sword that was holstered on my belt and just got it ready. I quickly jumped down the hole to the lower portion of the stage. Claus was waiting down there for me. I just rushed towards him and slashed down the beam sword.

He got hit several times, however he put his hands in front of himself. "PK Fire!" he said shooting a plume of fire. It exploded on contact with a lot more force than Ness' or Lucas' attack. Instead of sending out a pillar of fire like theirs, it was just an instant explosion.

But, I noticed that Claus had also been hurt by his attack. At that close of a range, the explosion didn't discriminate. I just smiled and rushed for him. "PK Fire!" He shouted once again. This time I activated my barrier. It hit, and exploded. The barrier barely withstood the attack, while Claus was sent flying backwards.

I quickly rushed towards him and kicked him away from the stage. "Let's make this game even!" I shouted.

There was an explosion of light, and Claus came back to the stage on a platform. I quickly made my way up to the upper levels of the Temple so I didn't lose sight of him when he respawned.

I heard an item drop. I glanced over to see a ray gun. I quickly grabbed it only to jump into the air and throw it off of the stage. I was positive I couldn't use any energy weapons against him, he would just absorb it.

"So, we both have four stock now." He said, just landing on the ground.

"I could do basic subtraction." I said.

"Good, I was worried that you had hit your head too hard earlier." Claus said.

"Let's just get this over with!" I said.

The two of us rushed for each other and began to punch at each other. Our fists began to rapidly collide, but no matter what, neither of us stopped punching.

My hands began to go numb, but I didn't care. If I stopped punching, I imagined I would be hit, and he would score another KO. I glanced at both of our watches, with each punch our damage percentage was going higher and higher. Both of us had now surpassed 100 percent of damage.

I threw a kick, and he quickly jumped away from the attack. Both of us just stared at the other waiting for the other to make their move, and then Claus realized something.

"PK"

I realized what he had realized and quickly rushed to get up close to him. I used aura to strengthen my legs.

"Fire!"

He let it go, and I made sure to be at point blank so both of us were caught in the explosion. We both went flying and lost our second stock.

"You're crazy, you know that!" He said as we both respawned.

"Yeah." I said. "I figured it was worth it. We're still even."

Claus just flinched.

"In fact, I'd say I'm in a better position now, since I have the same damage percentage as you, instead of being higher." I said.

"I'm just getting started." He said.

He just reached for his watch and suddenly pressed it, the next moment he was covered in different clothing. He had transformed. I think I then realized my error.

Crap, I've been avoiding the items because I thought his Down B was an absorption shield. But it was a transformation! He's been playing this mind game since the beginning!

His new costume was, orange pants, black boots, a black vest, and a helmet on his head. He had transformed into the Masked Man.

A sword made out of energy appeared in his hand and he rushed towards me.

I swung the beam sword, and it clashed with his. The two of us just struggled, trying to overpower the other. Quite frankly, I was frustrated. I wanted to know how a kid like him could match my strength.

While we were struggling he put his arm cannon right on my stomach, and then fired. I realized what was happening and quickly jumped back to avoid the point blank attack. This time there wasn't an explosion; the bolt of PK Fire that rushed out just shot forwards, and after going a certain distance it disappeared. It was much faster, but I could tell it didn't have the same strength as the previous PK Fire. I'd have to link it to something similar to Fox's blaster.

He flew towards me with his beam sword ready. And once again we clashed. The two of us were just glaring at each other.

"Is this all you have Nugai?" He wondered.

"I'm just getting started!" I said.

"Good, so am I!" Claus laughed.

We swung our swords and they collided several times. Each time neither of us were giving in. We were both enjoying the match way too much.

"I think we're similar." Claus laughed. "We both enjoy fighting. Admit it Nugai, you're having fun."

"Yeah." I said.

Our swords clashed once again. I tried to send an aura sphere towards him, but he quickly jumped back and cut through the attack.

I quickly rushed for him; I swung the beam sword down, and cut off his arm.

There was silence. Both of us just froze. He looked down at his arm, and then at his watch.

"End battle." Claus said. "Override code 76716."

We were teleported back into the normal room. His arm was still on the ground. He just reached down and picked it up with his other arm.

"Claus, I'm sorry." I said in shock. "I didn't mean to."

"I know." He said.

"But I just cut off your arm..." I said.

"Yeah, don't worry about it." Claus said.

"How can you tell me not to worry about it?" I asked.

"It can be replaced." He said, just throwing the arm at me. I caught it on pure reflex and then began to panic tossing it up into the air. I didn't want to touch it. Claus just grabbed his arm in the air and just let off a heavy sigh.

"Look, we can go to Dr. Mario..." I said.

"Would you calm down and look for a few seconds." Claus said annoyed. I paused, and looked at him. For someone who just lost his arm, there was a surprising lack of blood.

I looked at the arm, and for the first time I noticed, where the arm had been cut was in fact robotic parts.

"I lost a leg, an arm and an eye years ago in an accident." Claus said. "I'm partly robotic."

"Oh, I guess I'm quite lucky I cut that one off then." I said, trying to lighten the mood.

"No, you're not." Claus replied.

The door swung open. Lucas, was there, his nose was running, tears were coming out of his eyes, he was gasping from air either from running here or crying for quite a while. He just ran over and tackled Claus to the ground.

"Claus." he just cried. "You're okay."

Ness, Popo, Toon Link and Red followed. They glanced at Claus and Lucas and then turned their attention to me.

"Nugai." Ness said, walking over to the computer that Claus had used to set up the match. "Answer me honestly, did you mess with the match settings?"

"No." I said.

"I set it all up." Claus replied. "Someone else must of disabled the safety."

"So, the mole just tried to kill you both in a battle..." Ness said. "Red, Toon Link you stay with Lucas and Claus. Nugai, Popo, you come with me. There is only one other area where the mole could have done this."

Popo and I followed Ness as he ran through the hallways. We eventually came to a door that was written extremely clearly on it "Keep out." Ness just went to it and pushed the door open, or at least he tried to. The door was locked. He just responded with a kick that sent the door flying off of its hinges and into the room.

Alarms began to ring, and Ness just walked inside.

"Should we be doing this?"

"Someone disabled the safety, this is the only other spot besides the terminal in that room that could change the rules of a match." Ness said. He made his way to a computer monitor, and a keyboard. After several seconds, he just let off a heavy sigh. "The mole was somehow here..."

"Somehow?"

"This room, if anyone enters it, then it's supposed to immediately stop your match as a no contest." Ness said, to avoid any serious injuries or death. "Someone got in here without leaving a trace..."

"Intruders, identify yourself." A voice said.

We turned to see two white figures. It was the Wii Fit Trainers. The female and male versions.

"Ness,"

"Popo."

"Nugai." I quickly said.

"Identify your reason for coming here." The female Wii Fit Trainer said.

"The safety failed during a match." Ness explained. "We came to see if this had been tampered with."

"Due to damage of the property, you are to be restrained immediately." She said.

They were both fast. They had moved in front of all three of us and immediately began to hit us at random spots. Suddenly, all three of us fell down to the ground rather limp.

"An investigation will be launched immediately." The Male Wii Fit Trainer said. "Your punishment will be decided upon the completion of the investigation."

We couldn't do all that much to resist. The three of us were quickly tied up and restrained. Slowly movement was restored to our bodies. Within a few minutes, Master Hand had made his way in front of us, along with the other kid Smashers. "Nugai, Ness, and Popo. Just what's going on here?" he was clearly frustrated.

"The mole struck while Nugai and Claus were having a Smash match." Ness said. "He disabled the safety during the middle of the match."

"I see." Master Hand said. "Well then, let's look at the footage."

We all looked at the security footage, but it quickly became clear that the mole hadn't entered into the room through the door. The footage from inside the room had all ready been deleted.

"The mole was a fool." Master Hand laughed. "In order to delete this you'd need an over ride code, every Smasher has an individual one. We now just need to determine that code."

After several seconds of typing, the override code 76716 was displayed on the monitor.

"Claus is the mole." Master Hand said.

I questioned how Master Hand saw that. Was he actually lying about being blind and could see things just fine and only used it as an excuse to get out of work. I didn't press it because of other reasons though, mainly trying to prove Claus innocent.

"But... that's impossible." I said. "Claus was in the match with me. He couldn't of over rode it then and there. And why would he set it to cut off his own arm..."

"I don't think its Claus either." Ness said. "He had to use voice commands, and actually say his over ride code since his arm had been cut off and he couldn't input it. The mole could have also heard it, and used it to frame him."

The other Kid Smashers were also joining in the defence of Claus.

"It could have just been a front." Master Hand calmly said. "He could of just done all that to make himself seem like the victim of the Mole's attacks."

"What!" Lucas shouted. "No, Claus is innocent!"

"Not to mention there are other ways to do this. You're just thinking that the mole was here at once." Master Hand said. "This could of been all predetermined. He could of easily set the DVR to not record at this time frame, and he could control everything else from his watch."

Several Wireframes grabbed Claus, he began to struggle. "Hey let me go!" He shouted.

I just froze. "Claus is innocent." I eventually said.

"And what proof do you have?" Master Hand asked. "Do you know the identity of the mole?"

"No I don't, but I'm positive it's not Claus." I said. "I'd trust Claus with my life, I'm that certain it's not him. Besides, he's innocent until proven guilty."

"Sadly such an idealistic thought won't work here." Master Hand said. "If he strikes again, and kills someone this time, it would be disastrous. Unless you have some sure fire proof that he's innocent."

"I do." I said. "But, can we talk about it in private."

Master Hand just floated there. "Very well then." He said. He began to float away, and I followed. Several more Wireframes appeared and restrained the rest of the Kid Smashers, so that they wouldn't try and free Claus, or follow us. We got to a few rooms down, and Master Hand just stopped.

"And what is your proof?" Master Hand asked.

I stretched out my hand and suddenly a barcode structure appeared flying around the room. "Can you see this?" I asked.

"Yes." Master Hand said. "You can edit reality now. You merged with the Akashic point."

"Then that's my proof." I said.

Master Hand just let off a heavy sigh. "I can't really explain that to everyone else you know that, right?"

"Yeah." I said. "Claus knows about it, and I'm sure Ness does, since they were reading my mind. But I'd rather not say what really happened today in front of the others. I can trust them to at least keep that a secret."

"So, this is the crisis that you prevented." Master Hand sighed. "You've gained a great and terrible power."

"I know." I said.

"And do you know the burden you will have to bare?"

"Unfortunately." I said.

"So, do you have any questions?" He asked.

"Where were you today?" I asked Master Hand.

"Watching to see how everything would transpire." Master Hand said.

"Watching!" I snapped. "You were watching everything?"

"Yes." He said. "I'm sorry that I couldn't step in. But as strong as I was, I can't deal with the Reaper. He is not a member of this world, and outside of my jurisdiction, if that makes any sense. If I fought him the aftermath would be disastrous. It's not one of the few affairs I can meddle with."

"You can't meddle?!" I was just growing more and more frustrated with the hand.

"But, I thank you for bringing back all of the Smashers. What you've done is priceless." Master Hand said.

"And why are you thanking me?" I asked rather annoyed. "The Status Quo would have revived them!"

"No, not really." Master Hand sighed. "The Status Quo was a divine law that was made a long time ago, and while it did bring back a Lucario, in an event such as today's, where all the Smashers died, the Status Quo wouldn't work like that, it would have gone on to the next cycle. Made a completely new batch of Smashers a hundred years down the line or so."

"What?!" I said.

Master Hand just floated there. "Yes." He said. "A new bunch of Smashers would be made. The next Mario, the next Luigi, the next Peach, the next Lucas, the next Mewtwo, you get the idea."

I just nodded. "I see."

"And then you brought back that boy... why?" Master Hand asked.

I looked at him confused. "Claus?"

"Yes, him." Master Hand said.

"Because, I felt Lucas deserved it."

"I wish you hadn't done that." Master Hand said.

I was a bit confused. "Why?" I managed to ask.

"His is a cursed existence. It always ends in tragedy." Master Hand said. "Every cycle he's involved in, he has died. You've brought him back just so he can get killed again."

I just looked at the hand in a rather threatening manor. "No, he'll live." I said.

"You can't be sure of that."

"I can make sure that he lives. I'll stay here"

Master Hand let off a small chuckle. "If that's what you think. You closed the two worlds, remember? And while it will take a while for the gateway to fully close, might take weeks or months, but when that time comes you'll have to make a choice to stay here, or go back home. And you can't stop Zenith on this end..."

I flinched. I knew he was right. Honestly, I didn't want to go away now. I wanted to stay in Smashville, grow old here with everyone else. I imagined this is what it must feel like to move away to a different city, or country. Leave everyone you know behind for hopefully a better opportunity, or life, only having the memories of your time together to cherish.

"Claus will be fine." I said. "I know it. This is one cycle that I guarantee will have a happy ending."

"For your sake, and the four years and three months you gave up, I hope so." Master Hand said.

I was a bit shocked. "How do you know what I gave up to edit everything?" I asked.

Master Hand just floated there. "Nugai, I was watching everything from a distance." Master Hand said. "I saw what transpired here. Now then, I think we've wasted enough time. We should go back to the kids, and you can take Claus to Dr. Mario to get his arm reattached."

I just nodded.

We walked back, and the kid Smashers were still restrained by the Wireframes. Ness had apparently gotten pretty violent and was now pinned down on the ground by several. There was a different aura around them; it was much crueller and stronger.

"Nugai has told me his proof. You're innocent, Claus." Master Hand said. Suddenly the Wireframes all disappeared. Ness got up off of the ground. Everyone was looking at me a bit shocked. I didn't have to be psychic to guess what they were thinking.

"What was the proof you showed or told him?" Lucas asked, rushing up to me.

"Sorry, it's a secret." I said.

They all looked a bit disappointed.

"Now then, you should go to Dr. Mario's." Master Hand said. "That arm isn't going to reattach itself."

Claus just nodded. "I'll go alone." He said. "It's bound to take a while."

He began to walk away. "Wait, I need to go check something at Dr. Mario's too." I said.

Everyone just looked at me confused.

"Maybe we should go with you." Popo said. "You might be the Mole's first target."

I hadn't thought about that.

"I think the mole may try to avoid me from now on." I said. "I want to think that the Reaper has decided that he will personally take care of me. Then again, with all that has happened, I don't know."

"Still, we shouldn't leave Claus alone either." Red said. "He's only got one arm right now, if the mole went after him he'd have a pretty good advantage."

They decided to follow us to Dr. Mario's just to be extra safe. We exited the stadium and then walked to a small clinic. Sitting behind a counter was Dr. Mario. "Why are you here?" He wondered.

"I need a hand." Claus said.

Dr. Mario's eyes widened, and he quickly rushed out to us. He took Claus' robotic arm and just looked at the two spots where it had been cut. "You'll need a new arm." He said. "I have a few spare ones."

I questioned why Dr. Mario would have a few spare robotic arms, but I didn't bother asking. I just assumed it was a bulk deal or something.

He directed Claus and Lucas to a single room. "Claus, have Lucas help you take off your shirt, and sit on the table, I'll be with you in a few minutes." He returned out to the lobby area and just glanced at us. "This will be a while, so I suggest you actually go wait elsewhere. I might also want Claus to stay over night so that I can double check to make sure there is no mistakes with the installation."

"Okay." Ness said.

Ness, Popo, Red, and Toon Link began to walk out.

"Actually, Dr. Mario there was also something I wanted to ask about." I said.

He glanced at me a little confused. The other Kid Smashers also froze and looked back at me. "About?" Dr. Mario said.

"I would like a scan once again." I said.

Dr. Mario looked at me a bit confused as to why. "Why?" He asked.

"Can we talk in private?" I wondered.

Dr. Mario just nodded. And we made our way into a room. I just sat down in a chair and looked at him. "Claus, Lucas and Ness can read my mind again." I said. "They had stopped being able to read my mind when it had deteriorated, but now, I wonder if the time has been reset, or if it was something else."

Dr. Mario just nodded. "I see. Very well then, in that case, please follow me, I'll take you to the scanning machine."

We went into another room, and several seconds later, I was hooked up to the scanning machine. He walked away, probably to go check on Lucas and Claus. I could hear a nearby printer constantly printing off new pages. And then, ten minutes later my report was done. Dr. Mario had made his way back into the room and he just looked at the results rather surprised. "Nugai." He stammered out.

I began to fear the worst. "Just give it to me straight, Doc." I said.

"You're perfectly fine. Your body is no longer degrading... it's as though your time here is now infinite."

At first I was shocked. I just stood there absorbing the words he had said and repeating them a few times in my head. Then once I was positive he had said what I thought he said a large rush of emotions just overcame me. I didn't know how to react. First it was a smile, and then the next I was crying with tears of joy. I didn't know if I should collapse, or just sit down on a chair, or start jumping for joy. "Thank you doctor!" I said.

He just nodded. "Should I inform the others?" Dr. Mario asked.

I suddenly came back to reality. The thought of how suspicious it was that I suddenly was no longer going to die in a couple of days crossed my mind. I could only imagine that this would put a large amount of distrust upon me again, along with the whole thing of my lie of telling them that the Reaper had removed my memories of Claus. "I don't think so." I said. "Although I imagine that they will quickly know. It will only be a matter of time before Mewtwo realizes he can read my mind again. And I doubt the kid Smashers would be able to keep a secret."

Dr. Mario just nodded. "Then, can I ask you what may of brought about this change, do you know anything that could have happened?"

I froze. "It might have been editing the Akashic Record." I said.

Dr. Mario just nodded. "So, those things do exist." He said. "Interesting."

"I think that's also where the Reaper got most of his power." I said. "He seemed to know what it was."

Dr. Mario's hand went up to his chin and he began to rub his jaw. He closed his eyes and just began to think things through. "I see. Still, Nugai, power comes at a price."

"I know that too well." I replied. I glanced at my hand. "4 years, and 3 months in this case."

"A heavy toll." Dr. Mario said.

"But, I think it was worth it." I replied.

"Well, you can stay here for a few minutes to compose yourself. I need to go check on the other patient." Dr. Mario said. "Lucas is probably going to be in the waiting room in a few minutes, so you can wait there."

I just nodded. Dr. Mario walked out of the room, and I followed, making my way to the waiting room.

It was as though a miracle had occurred. I was finally safe. I wasn't going to die here like this! I could spend as much time as I wanted!

I was finally calm. I just put my hands in my pockets and then froze. I felt something unfamiliar in them. I reached in and pulled out a bullet. I began to look at it, my eyes were going over every single little nook and cranny of the shell. It had Reaper etched into it, in small rather neat writing. It was his memories. I don't know why he gave it to me; after all, he would still be dead when I returned back into my world. Like what had happened with me, I had merely just created an alternate universe like he did. He wouldn't exist, and I wouldn't be able to meet up with him and play that match of Smash Bros.

I began to fiddle with it, just seeing if I could do numerous coin tricks with the bullet. I then heard someone walking towards me. I quickly hid the bullet. Entering into the waiting room was Lucas. He just looked a bit nervous.

"How's Claus?" I asked.

"Crying like a baby." Lucas replied.

"What? Really?!" I said shocked. "He seemed so tough and... I mean he didn't even really flinch when I cut off his arm..."

"Yeah." Lucas said. "The artificial limbs are painful to replace. If they are removed or a new one is put on, stuff has to be done so it functions like a normal limb. Claus always has said it's been painful, and he never wanted me to see him like that."

I just nodded. "How did he lose his arm?"

Lucas just flinched. "I'd rather not talk about it." He said. "It's not something I like to recall."

"I'm sorry." I apologized.

"It's not the only part of him that's robotic though." Lucas said. "He also doesn't have an eye, and a leg."

I flinched. "I'm sorry."

I recalled how it happened in Mother 3. Claus went to fight the Drago that killed his mother, however, he was killed in the process. I wanted to know how it had happened in this world, but I decided to respect Lucas' privacy and not prod him further.

I wonder, I saw the history of this area; can I do it with other spots?

I closed my eyes, and just concentrated. Suddenly I envisioned a book appearing in front of me. I reached out and grabbed it.

"What are you doing?" Lucas asked.

I opened my eyes; I was also reaching out for a rather non-existent book here. "Just trying to get used to something." I replied back. "If I drift to sleep, can you wake me?"

I closed my eyes once again. This time only in my mind's eye did I do any movements. I began to investigate the book. It was labelled Mother 3: Claus Lives Edition, it was just a simple faux leather red cover, with the words on it embossed in gold.

A novel?

I opened the book, and just speed read through the pages. Most of it, at least at the beginning, played out the same. The major exception being when Flint and Wes were fighting the Mecha Drago, after they had finished the fight they made their way to Tazamily village. Perhaps by chance, they saw a crow flying into a valley. Their eyes followed, and there they saw the badly wounded Claus.

They brought him back to Tazamily village, where he was barely able to survive. With their limited technology, and medical care, he probably wasn't going to survive for very long. Lucas and Flint were told to expect the worst.

"He's just hanging on by a thread Flint." Someone had told his father. "I'd give him at least a month. It really depends on his sprit."

And then there was Lucas. He was there with Claus, who was covered in bandages. His arm was gone. His one eye was covered with bandages. His one leg was gone. Lucas constantly was crying over his brother's bed. A boy from the village, Fuel was also there looking over them.

And then one day a boat arrived at the island. On board it was Master Hand disguised as a human, a younger Ness, and Doctor Mario. "Why did we come here?" Ness asked.

"Strange people have been reported here." Master Hand said. "They wanted us to investigate it, and there might also be a Smasher candidate. I want to see if you can find him or her."

"Okay." Ness said.

They just walked through the village. Dr. Mario visited several old people and checked up on their health. And then the three of them were approached by Flint. "Doctor." He said, instantly getting on the ground and begging. "Please, you have to save my son."

"What happened?" Dr. Mario asked.

"Please, follow me." Flint replied.

They followed him to their house on top of the cliff. Claus had been returned back to the house. Lucas on the other hand was currently tending to the sheep.

"It would probably be for the best if he stayed out here." Flint said, motioning towards Ness. Unknown to Flint, Ness had all ready read his mind and seen the person that Dr. Mario was going to look at. "Lucas!" Flint shouted. "Come here, can you entertain the guest."

The little blonde boy rushed up and just looked at his father and then at Ness. "H-h-hello." Lucas stuttered out. "I'm Lucas."

"I'm Ness."

"I'm just doing my chores right now." Lucas said. "I'll be done them quickly."

"I'll help you." Ness said.

They made their way to the animals, and Lucas went to some bushels of hay. He lifted one up and dragged it towards some horses.

"Here, let me help you." Ness said, rushing over to another one. He tried to lift it up, but much to his surprise it was actually heavy. He glanced at Lucas, surprised at how he carried it.

"It's probably too heavy for you." Lucas said. "Unless you're used to it."

"Just give me a second," Ness said. He widened his stance and moved around his arms before spitting in his hands and then rubbing them together. Ness then lifted the hay and moved it over to another stall for another horse. During all of his rather showy and excessive movements he had used Offense Up to boost his strength a bit.

Lucas just smiled. "Good job." He said. "With you here, maybe my chores will only take half the time."

"What else do you have to do?" Ness wondered.

Lucas began to list off several things. When he had finished, Ness just said. "That's a lot for just one person to do."

"I've recently had to take over all of my brother's chores too..." Lucas said.

Ness' face went white.

"I see." Ness said. "What happened to your brother?" he all ready knew the after effects, but wanted to know what had caused it. Flint's mind was far too focused on the present, and Ness really couldn't dive in deeper without giving himself away.

Lucas just flinched. "He was hurt." Was all Lucas said. "I'd rather not talk about it. I've got some chores to do."

Ness helped Lucas. Occasionally, Ness glanced up at the house. He was expecting Dr. Mario to have come out by now. After a few hours of working in the blazing sun the two of them had worked up a sweat. "And we're done!" Lucas said.

Ness had collapsed on the ground. He didn't know how Lucas was still going. His endurance was kind of unbelievable. "I need to cool down." Ness said.

"How about we go to the river then." Lucas suggested.

Lucas just led Ness through the village and into a forest, until eventually they came to a river. Lucas just removed his shirt and then quickly jumped into the water. Ness decided to follow suit. The river was so refreshing for Ness. After some time they made their way back to the house.

Lucas just invited Ness in, and Master Hand was waiting in the kitchen for them. "Where's Dr. Mario?" Ness asked.

"Still upstairs." Master Hand sighed.

Lucas just went to a fridge and began to get out some stuff. He quickly began to make some food. He pulled out a few bowls, and then passed the food to Ness and Master Hand. "Please eat up." Lucas said.

On the counter there was a tray with four more bowls. "Let me help you." Ness said.

Lucas seemed hesitant. "No, please just stay here." Lucas quickly said. He took the tray and began to walk upstairs. Ness stood up, however he felt Master Hand's hand on his shoulder.

"Have you all ready read his mind to see what condition the boy is in." Master Hand asked.

"I read Flint's mind. Not Lucas'." Ness said.

"Then you know what you're about to get into." Master Hand said, removing his hand. Ness just followed Lucas up stairs, and caught up with him outside a room.

"Ness, why are you here?"

"Well, you couldn't get the door by yourself." Ness said, quickly rushing over to open it. The door opened and Lucas walked in.

Flint was on a chair. Dr. Mario was over the bed. And there was someone on the bed, currently covered by a bunch of blankets. "I brought some food." Lucas said.

The person on the bed turned his head to Lucas, but his singular eye looked at Ness. Ness just froze. He could sense this person reading his mind. The boy in the bed was a psychic as well. "Stop that." Ness said.

"You're psychic?!" The boy said. A smile seemed to come across his face.

"Yeah." Ness said.

"That's great, I finally can talk to someone!"

"Lucas isn't psychic?" Ness thought.

"No, I only got my powers right before they this happened... Lucas hasn't had his awakened yet."

Their telepathy conversation was unfortunately cut short. Flint just grabbed Lucas and began to cry.

"What's wrong Dad?" Lucas asked.

"Nothing's wrong. The doctor said that they could save Claus!" Flint said.

Dr. Mario just stood there. "Yes, we can do things to help him. It will require a few sessions and treatments and him coming with us."

Lucas smiled and dove for Claus hugging the badly wounded boy.

They moved to a city, where the operation took pace and Claus was given mechanical limbs. In the beginning they were just basic prosthetics, then they became mechanical, but rather visible. There was nothing trying to disguise them as normal limbs. They were just robotic arms. Eventually, he did get robotic arms that looked almost realistic.

So, that's how it happened...

"Hey, Nugai, are you awake?"

I opened my eyes. "Yeah." I said.

"Come on, Dr. Mario called us."

We walked into the room where Claus was. He was fully dressed, and now had his arm back on. Currently he was stretching it and just doing a bunch of exercises to make sure that it moved in every which way. His eyes were a little bit red, I imagine possibly from tears.

"Well, I'm ready to go whenever." Claus smiled. "Just lead me to the mole, I'll catch him, and gut him for this one."

"Okay." I said.

We walked outside, and it quickly became apparent that we had spent a lot of time inside Dr. Mario's office, as it was now dark out. I had made it to the other Smashers, there was a giant mess tent set up in front of town hall and several tables of food. Someway along the lines of picking food, I lost Lucas and Claus. I just decided to sit down at a table alone. When I was done eating I looked around.

Sadly with the entire town practically in ruins, we were homeless. Master Hand just summoned a bunch of sleeping bags, and those single person, roll up, foam mattresses that are only about an inch thick. "Everyone can go into the town hall to sleep." He said. "Peach, Zelda, Nana, and Samus, I hope you four don't mind sharing a room."

"Considering the circumstances, not at all." Peach said.

"I'll sleep in my ship." Samus said walking away.

"She has the right idea." Captain Falcon said. "I'll be in the Falcon Flyer."

"I'll be in the Great Fox." Fox said.

I actually thought it was a wonder that despite all of the destruction everywhere else, the vehicles were perfectly fine. Then again, much like the stadium, they were located outside of Smashville.

Ness, Claus, Popo, Toon Link, Lucas, and Red came rushing up to me. "Hey Nugai!" Ness said. "We decided which room in the town hall we're going to stay in." Ness said. "Come join us."

I was quickly pulled along with them. We got to what looked like an emptied out storage room. There was only a single window. I wouldn't say that the room was small, but it wasn't all that big either. We could all fit in there comfortably.

"Okay!" Ness said.

They pretty much crowded together and began telling some stories about their lives back at home. To be honest. I felt like I was going to miss these little guys. Through the past 28 days they've been like little brothers to me. Annoying little snots at times, but they've been like family.

I lied back on the mattress and just closed my eyes. Tomorrow would be just another day...

---

Notes:

Holy NaNoWriMo Batman! I was half tempted to see if I could reach 50,000 words for a single chapter, but sorry, not today or in this story. Definitely wouldn't have been able to extend anything else for any longer.

Once again, I promise nothing this long for the rest of this story. In the future though, who knows.

As mentioned above, I was thinking of splitting this chapter into 4 parts, this is what I probably would have called them.

Day 28: Part 1: The Reaper, and a friend

Day 28: Part 2: The Observer, and the observed

Day 28: Part 3: The End, and a beginning

Day 28: Part 4: Nugai and Claus

I decided against it just mainly because that would screw up the formatting, and probably spoil a lot if someone just looked through the chapter titles before reading.

Due to popular demand I revealed (Read as: decided on/made up on the spot) Nugai's real name: Andrew. Initially, Nugai was just supposed to be a shameless author insert, but he's kind of grown into his own character, so I decided to not just give him my name. I was originally planning on not revealing his name. But... Meh...

Dokapon Kingdom: It's a party game on the Wii, and it was originally a PS2 game. The PS2 version is also available in North America. It's sort of a cross between Monopoly, Mario Party, and Dragon Quest. It's also surprisingly valuable on the Wii... It prides itself as the Friendship destroying game. I really can't vouch for that, I haven't had a game last long enough for any friendships to be destroyed. And I haven't played with anyone that would be in a position of having that friendship destroyed. (Sibling... cousins...)

Time for: Name that Cameo! The parallel worlds were all cameos of other stories.

I saw one with someone with a Lucario. Pretty obvious, The Subspace Emissary World's Conquest I'm slowly making my way through it… I think I'm at chapter 156… I think the only thing that's keeping me from being totally intimidated by the word count is that I know how inaccurate the word count is occasionally on the website, and those 100's of words quickly add up. That and there is a lot of author notes which add to the word count… Kind of like this…

I saw another where someone was with Ike and the rest of the Greil Mercenaries. Not a SSB Series story, but a fire Emblem one, Spellbinding Radiance. I'm sure there are a bunch of other Fire Emblem fics where someone is sucked inside Path of Radience, and play through it...

There was one where it looked like someone was stuck in a Smashers body. An old story that is no longer on this site. I'm not even sure if it's still on the Internet. 26 Days in Melee Land. The twist on the person from the real world interacting with video game characters was that for the majority of the fic, he wasn't in his own body and was jumping between the Smashers as a punishment. It was because of that fic that I made the 40 days a human could be in the virtual world. I think it was either originally going to be 39 to reference the amount of playable characters in SSBB but I just rounded up, or I counted Pokemon trainer as 4 characters as opposed to 3. The 35, the reduced time that Nugai has being the reference to the selectable characters without transformations or pokemon.

Another world where there were people who were transforming into the Smashers. We are the Smashers.and another human was leading them, he seemed to have the power to draw in spirits into his body. We are the Smashers 2: The Spirit Master. Um... also deleted off of the site... Sadly because of the author dieing. I was reading it though, and was only at the Luigi's Mansion chapters in the beginning... I was sort of liking it... There were some things such as The Runaway Guys being sort of out of place, and finding that just weird... Hopefully there is a mirror somewhere out there on the Internet so I can finish reading what was written... although my initial searches have failed miserably since it seems like someone with access to the Element Commander's accounts decided to delete the fic, and stuff on his Deviantart…

There was one where it seemed like the world was bending around a girl, and the Smashers had been replaced by several normal people The troll fic Supper Smash Bros: Missonh from God.It was a good laugh while it lasted, and it's now on a different site and completed. But yeah. (I think I did see 2 MST's of the fic here, if they last. Since last time I checked MST's were against the site's rules... but meh, I'm too lazy to report it, and I really don't care.)

And Since I wasted so much space all ready on notes, what's a few more:

"Weak, weak and pathetic." I believe is a line from Xenoblade Chronicles. I don't exactly have the time to play through it to find the one instance of it…

Overide code 76716 has no significance. It was just on a barcode near me when I was writing. I tried to think of a number, and I just turned and faced that, and took some of the digits and it was close enough.

Sometimes, when I type Reaper, I start randomly singing the song "Philistine" from No More Heroes 2. "Reaper, Reaper that's what people call me, why cause they all die..." And then I stop myself because I imagine that if I continued singing that and the Reaper was real he would kill me for some of the other lyrics and associating it with him.

The other note, well, I forget what my original thoughts on were with this story, and how it was originally going to end. I think it was just supposed to be a standalone story, but now it's building into something much, much, bigger with Zenith.

That's it for all of these notes. See you when I update again.