Chapter 5

The Battle

Noirfair

Samus's POV

To be honest, being back on Noirfair didn't help me. But neither did this scenario that I was thrust into. Cloud was staring at me with almost dead eyes, and his words he told me beforehand didn't help. No matter how I get attached to you, I'm not going to go easy on any of you. EVER. He smiled afterward, and ruffled my hair as we entered the lobby. But it didn't help. The loud "GO!" didn't help out either.

I rushed at my nearest opponent, who was Zelda. At the time when I was about to dash attack her with my knee, Zelda teleported above me about 7 feet, getting ready an attack that was about to hit my head. Then above her, I saw a shadow, and a flash of green, as Zelda literally slammed down on the ground next to me, bouncing back up as if a ball. Then Cloud landed next to me, and smirked. He brought his sword down on me, in three fluid motions, and to me, they felt like someone was punching me three times. I got knocked off my feet for about a meter, until I regained my footing. "Huh," I muttered to myself. "So green's your color."

I didn't let it phase me though, as I jumped in the air, using one of my specials, to judo flip and land on top of someone, literally Hitting them into a laying motion. Cloud seemed to anticipate that, and rolled out of the way, only to be interrupted in his roll from a "Falcon Kick" that came from out in the air, from where Roy just knocked the Capitan. Then Cloud, once recovered, jumped to the far side of the stage, where he started to glow blue, and held the Buster sword out in front of him.

I disregard this, as Jigglypuff, in all her cuteness, tried to punch me with her little stubby hands. I simply grabbed her with Paralyzer, the whip extension, and tossed her into the incoming Link, who was about to bring his sword down on the both of us. Then I turned onto the fight in front of me, leaving Link, Captain Falcon, and Jigglypuff to fight each other.

Roy was in a fierce battle with Zelda, with Roy using his fire magic, and Zelda using hers. She summoned a twilight knight to fight for her, but Roy easily took that one out, and it fell to the floor, a worthless piece of armor. It dissapitated into shadows soon after defeated though. Then from above me, a shadow loomed over me. When Roy hit Zelda off of the edge of the platform, and all that was below Zelda was Lava, and the Border to the Arena, Marked with a thin Black outline. Then Cloud Came Literally out of nowhere, and practically slammed Zelda into the border with the front of his sword, Almost dunking Zelda, Making a deafening roar, and then came an announcement "Zelda, Princess of Hyrule, Defeated!"

First fighter defeated. Great. Now only seven to go. I heard roy then yell at Cloud; "Hey! That was mine!" Cloud then looked down one platform to where Roy stood, and swirled his sword twice, putting it on his shoulder. "Then you're gonna have to be faster than that. Now, I'll get to you two later, the others need my attention." Cloud said, jumping off to fight the others. I then noticed that Cloud was letting a blue aura out of his body, almost like you'd picture that smells fumigate around someone, if you could see the smell. But it was more like fire licking his body.

Then I saw Roy heading straight to me, with a grin on his face, and his sword raised to strike by his side. Unprepared, I got launched by the orange gleaming sword, and just when Roy was going to lay another one on me, Marth came from behind, and grabbed Roy by his collar. "Sorry Samus, you can have him afterward, but I still need to get back at this little bugger for not telling me he was leaving me alone for you guys." Then he threw Roy behind him, and then swung his sword downward on the recovering Roy.

There was then another Boom, just like a roar. "Jigglypuff, the balloon Pokémon, Defeated!" Then I saw that captain falcon was taking the same hit that I took, a swift three hits with the sword, the Buster sword glowing bright green. Then link came from behind Cloud and used a grappling hook that almost materialized out of nowhere, and grabbed cloud, slamming the butt of his sword into Cloud's face. Then he tossed cloud into the air above him and slashed him with his sword, his sword turning a teal. I rushed over afterwards, and was assaulted by Captain falcon's elbow.

Captain falcon had then taken the liberty to grab me in a hold by the neck. Being the loud obnoxious flirt that he's always been, he'd naturally taken a liking to me. "Next time I do this, could it be in the bedroom, at least?" he said, with a smirk as usual.

I kneed him in the stomach, and then I grabbed my gun and paralyzed him for a good two seconds. Then I grabbed him, and whispered eerily; "Not on your life." And threw him off into the end zone. Another Boom, along with; "Captain Falcon, the F-Zero Pilot, Defeated!"

Another boom went off, and the Voice boomed yet again; "Marth, the Hero-King, Defeated! I looked behind me to see that Roy climbed up the stage, apparently wiped from battling with Marth, bruises all over his face and arms. "Finish me, I am no good now. My Percentage is so high; the slightest hit will do me." He said with that sincere impish grin that he almost always wore.

I actually had pity on him, and hell, it was one more point to me. "ok, we'll have a ball afterward at the Betting stages, ok?" He simply nodded and stood there, awaiting his defeat. Once you go through the portal, if you focus hard enough on the top right of your vision, then you will see your percentage, as well as others. My percentage at the time was 64%, and Roy's was at 156% Cloud's was at a steady 40% and Link's was at 97% and rising. So I started to crank up my most powerful attack, and finish Roy off. But as soon as my attack was in motion, Roy smirked.

As soon as my attack hit Roy, he changed his position to a guarding stance, and with me right beside him, I already knew what was coming. The blast that came from Roy's blade onto my body sent me sprawling across the arena, and I was able to recover, but felt extremely drained. Roy's counter brought me from 64% to a startling 94% I was just like Roy in a way, being able to be knocked off easily now. Roy was smiling at me, with his sword sliding into his sheath, as link brought his sword down on him. The next thing that I knew was that I heard another loud roar, saying "Roy, the Young Lion, Defeated!"

"Damn, he always liked that sword better than he liked himself." I thought as I sat down on one of the platforms, watching Cloud advance on Link like a bat out of hell. I decided that I should just watch until one of them wiped the other one out, and it would give me a strategical advantage against the victor, because I'll have seen their movements.

Cloud advanced onto Link with almost a vengeance. Link, startled by this onslaught, back away, with his sword and shield in a defensive position. Cloud then jumped over cloud and swiped his sword over link, raking his head, creating a rip in the fabric. Then Cloud swung his sword, 5 times in the shape of the Japanese word, KYO, meaning death and destruction. So that was one of Cloud's specials, then. The Indicator to my right of my eyes said that that move was called Cross Slash. Then, Cloud slid on the floor, knocking Link's feet out from under him, and brought his sword high up, stabbing Link and bringing him up along with Cloud, and then Cloud brought them down, with a red hue on his sword instead of his original color, green. Climhazzard.

Link: 130%. He couldn't last much longer if he kept this up. Link then tried to get away from cloud, and drew his bow and arrows, and cocked an arrow and shot it at Cloud. Cloud then shot a beam of energy that looked like a blade, that came out of Cloud's buster sword. He didn't even hesitate, and Link flinched when the blade cut through the arrow, and both sides of the arrow didn't even reach Cloud. There was a faint dinging and then Cloud was enveloped in light, and then when the light went away, Cloud was glowing a blue hue, just like the flames that surrounded his body before.

Link tried frantically to get to cloud, but to no luck. Then cloud, in a burst of speed, swirled his buster sword all around himself, and caught link in the swing. Link then flew high into the sky, and then hit the border and another roar commenced. "Link, the Hero of Time, Defeated!" Then the move analysis that he used showed up; Finishing Touch.

Cloud then looked up to where I was standing. Cloud's percent was only at 52%. How in the world was I supposed to defeat this guy? Cloud and me looked at each other for a while, in a standoff. Me, with Paralyzer in hand, Cloud with the Buster sword in his hand. We both had determination in our eyes, not a single blink.

"Heh." Cloud said, as he swung his sword around himself, and stuck half of the 6-foot-long blade in the ground. "Now, isn't this funny?" I glared at cloud, remembering his words he said before. He sighed. "I'm going to bend the rules a little. I noticed that you aren't a regular human being, like others like Marth, Roy, etc. Your stronger and more agile. You've mastered almost all fighting there is to know on your planet. So I challenge you. Put down your weapon and fist fight me. One on one. The better fighter gets the win. Or, you can just shoot me, and that will be that. I won't fight it if you choose that way. But I have a feeling that you aren't like that. What'll it be, Samus?"

I grunted. As much as I wanted to hit the little putz, I couldn't. My honor wouldn't let me. I put down my gun, and jumped down to his level. I adjusted a strand of hair that kept falling on my face, and I didn't keep my eyes off of Cloud though. "So how will we start this? Just say go?"

Cloud then thought about it and then he turned to me, his sky blue eyes burning into mine. "You count it off. It's not like we will get a go from the omnipotent voice from above, right?" he then turned serious. "Make sure you go all out on me. I want to know how strong you really are."

I swallowed, and nodded. Normally, I would come up with a snarky remark, but the ways ive been feeling about Cloud recently make me think differently around him. I keep denying my feelings toward him, but they keep nagging me. Am I really falling for this dolt?

"Alright. 3…2…1…" I said wearily, plotting my attack. "Go!" I rushed him with a punch I aimed directly in the face. He couldn't possibly avoid the attack, I thought, as the punch whiffed through the air about to make contact with skin. But the only part is, is that it didn't. I saw that Cloud had dodged, his face almost inches from my fist. "C'mon, your making this way too easy." And with that, he punched me in the gut, and sent me sprawling a few feet.

Once I regained my composure, I lept at him and tried to kick him with a skyward kick, but only to see he maneuvered out of reach. I started to grow angry at this, and I ran up to him, trying to grab him into a lock. But alas, to my dismay, he didn't get a scratch on him. Still at 52%. While mine was at a 106%. I then surprised Cloud with a knee to the Stomach. Cloud staggered a few feet back, and gasped. I took this as my opportunity to take him out. I slammed him in the jaw, and he staggered back a few feet. Then I hit him a few times with my feet, slamming him down onto the floor, smirking.

Now, I expected to lay a few more hits on Cloud, but I was interrupted by him knocking the feet out from under me. I was pummeled one punch after another, and I didn't even have time to get back on my feet. I was his punching bag, at that moment. I didn't think that I would be taken over that easily. The moment when I was able to recover, I was knocked right back down.

Finally, I was knocked off the edge of the stage, without my gun, my skill alone couldn't help. So as I was falling, I saw Cloud, knock my stuff over the edge with me, and looked down at me. The last thing I heard was "Good game" coming from Cloud's mouth. Then another roar, but this one ended with the simple words, "MATCH SET!"