"I can't believe this," Fox says, eyes closed, pinching the space between them with his left index finger and thumb.
"Unbelievable," Sheik says crossing her arms.
"Okay," Bowser Jr. pleads with his arms extended. "I get where you're coming from but
hear us out…"
Fox stomps his way over to Bowser Jr. and hunches over to get in his face, making
Jr. flinch.
"Do you even realize the magnitude of what you've done? Do you know how many people
have died because of your lame sense of humor?!"
"I-I-I-I-I…" Jr. stutterers. "We didn't think it would get this out of hand."
"Exactly. You didn't think."
"Fret not Fox," Sheik exclaims. "We can revive them with the 1-Up Mushrooms among
many other means of sorcery. All is not lost."
Fox stands up straight and sighs. "Yeah, but that doesn't make it right. Besides,
there's still the matter of the giant killer dragon-turtle-thing we need to neutralize first." Fox
swings his pupils towards Jr. who stumbles back and squeals in response. He
returns to his former hunched over position. "Well, you brats got us into this
mess so you're gonna have to get us out. Start talking."
Roy scoffs. Fox stands back up and turns to him while Sheik fixes her visible eye
on him without even subtly moving a muscle.
"Is there something you'd like to share with the class?" Fox snarkily asks.
"I thought you were supposed to be smart, space fox," Roy scoffs.
"It's Star Fox, runt but go on."
"Oh, my bad Star Fox runt." Fox snarls but Roy continues as if he said nothing. "But you think we'd be here in this rut if we knew how to stop him?"
"Yeah," Lemmy says. "Because we're cowards."
"Statistically," Larry adds, adjusting his battered glasses with his right index finger. "Cowards are far less likely to pursue dangerous activities."
"Shut up Larry," Roy says. Immediately, he gasps and falls into silence. The Koopalings all look to their sides, distraught.
"Larry..." Wendy sniffles.
Sheik studies the Koopalings behavior. In spite of the malice they have shown they are capable of, they are still children, she thought. Sheik drops her arms to her side and walks over to Wendy. She stops for a moment and crouches to her level, placing her right hand on her left shoulder. Wendy looks up making eye contact, her eyes moist.
"Wendy," Sheik says softly. "What happened to Larry?"
Wendy rubs her eyes with her forearm but in the process contracted dirt in her eyes. She winces, biting her lip as she frantically rubs her eyes with her hand, making the problem worse. Sheik takes off her scarf and places it on the little girl's left cheek. Wendy finds it and begins rubbing her face and eyes with it. After she finishes, she extends her arms to hand it back to Sheik.
"Thank you," she says with residual sadness in her voice. Sheik lightly pushes it back to her.
"Keep it," Sheik responds with a smile. "Now, you were saying?"
She's very pretty, Wendy thought.
Wendy closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.
When we fell into the lower level, daddy was ready to incinerate us. Lucky for us, the koopa night guards were there to slow him down for us. Unlucky for us, he was mowing them down without breaking a sweat. Even more unlucky, Larry was trapped under a piece of debris from the ceiling. To make things worse, his glasses got knocked off, making him blind as a bat. I can't speak for my brothers, but as much as I wanted to, I didn't have the courage to go back and save him. We all just gawked in terror. Well, all of us except Larry who dashed ahead of us in his clown kart, destroying the debris with twin drills. He picked up Larry with a pulley and tossed him over to Morton.
"Go!" He told us.
"B-but what about you?!" Jr. shouted back.
"Me and the guards'll hold him off for as long as we can!"
Then, daddy landed right behind him, shaking the entire castle. Larry looked at him for a sec then turned back to us. I'll never forget the look on his face at that moment or what he said. It looked like he was angry but scared at the same time. But there was something in his eyes that reassure me for a moment.
"GO!" He shouted at us. I couldn't help but look back as we ran away. Larry was kicking daddy's ass for a second with a hammer but daddy was too strong. He spat out an immense flame that swallowed up the room...and Larry.
"LARRY!" Morton screamed.
"N-no way…" Roy said lowly.
"W-w-w-w-what's happening?!" Iggy asked. "Someone tell me what's going on!"
The door was a few feet in front of us but the fire was catching up faster than our clown karts could go. We would have been toast if Kamek hadn't teleported us out of the way at the last second. We were about 500 feet away from the castle but from our point of view, strong flames blasted through the castle like knife through butter. Kamek wasn't fast enough to avoid some of the fire and his back was scorched. In seconds, the castle came crashing down, flaming bits spreading across the meadow below it. We were lucky enough to narrowly avoid getting hit. We hid ourselves from daddy as he stomped his way past us.
Wendy wipes her eyes with the scarf in her hand. The rest of the Koopalings bawl. Tears were flowing from behind Roy's shades like a waterfall. He looked to the sky and grit his teeth in a wide frown.
"He had more guts," Morton choked out. "Than all of us put together. He was the real MVP…"
Fox looked to the side feeling a bit of remorse from his earlier convictions.
Damn, he thought. Now I feel bad. Again.
"This is all that stupid Mario's fault!" Jr. pouted, throwing his arms in front of him.
"Yeah!" Ludwig joined. "He's supposed to be the hero of Mushroom Kingdom! Where the heck was he when we were getting our shells kicked?!"
The other Koopalings joined in a chorus of "Yeah!"
"Now hold on young ones," Sheik intervenes. "Let's not forget that you are all the cause of this catastrophe."
The Koopalings fall silent for a moment.
"If only," Roy begins. "We didn't watch that stupid video...none of this would have happened."
Fox's mouth drops slightly. "Video?" He inquires. "What video?"
"Somebody," Iggy exclaimed. "Sent us a video of the last time dad wrecked havoc in giga mode."
"Who?" Sheik asked.
"It was anonymous."
A brief silence surrounds the troupe.
"Well regardless," Fox says, swinging his arms in the air forming the letter Y with his body. "With Dr, Mario decommissioned, we've got no means of solving our Giga Bowser problem. And that's just great." Fox folds his arms.
"Well," Kamek says weakly, coughing afterwards. "I wouldn't say that exactly…"
Mega Man, draped in scratches and dirt marks, his right eye blinking with static like a TV without reception, is laid stomach down on the ground. Must have blacked out again, he thinks. With an expressionless face, he turns to his left and spots the unconscious body of Donkey Kong with his left arm lazily draped over his torso. His tongue hangs out of his mouth as if he was thirst. Mega Man shifts his attention to Falco and Marth, both littered in bruises and dirt. Falco dashes as fast as he can and double jumps, wielding his own laser gun in his right hand and the Smash laser pistol in his left. He fires blue and green lasers while shouting, diverting Giga Bowser's attention to himself.
Giga Bowser fells needles clawing at his left leg. He turns to Falco, leaving his back wide open to attack. Marth, holding his sword and a laser sword, flips into the air, exchanging swipes with both blades mid flight on Giga Bowser's right rib cage. Giga Bowser looks down at Marth, seemingly shifting his attention. Samus ceases the opportunity and fires a fully charged Plasma Cannon that goes flying, becoming nothing but a purple and green blur. However, with surprising preemptiveness, Giga Bowser takes heed of a sneak attack and does a mighty leap to the left, knocking Princess Peach and Kirby out of the air.
"Impossible!" Samus yells, sweat dripping down her forehead, shifting around and between her eyes.
In the confusion, Giga Bowser grabs Princess Peach while slapping Kirby with his free hand, sending him flying into the bleachers. A large puff of smoke appears with bits of broken seats scattered in the puff of dust.
Giga Bowser brings Princess Peach close to his mouth and grins widely, showing off a display of long, thin needle like teeth wet with drool. Princess Peach winces and closes her eyes, flinching at the smell of charcoal, dead flesh, and burritos. He opens his mouth.
Peach's face freezes. Her pupils slowly dilate as the inside of the demon's mouth becomes a lit in an orange light. In that instance, everything goes silent except for the beating of her heart. She could feel the blood in her veins speeding through every artery of her body. She looks up and gasps, closing her eyes as she takes her final thought.
Mario, she thinks.
As if God Himself answered her prayer, sort of, a blue fist jets down right into Giga Bowser's snout, forcing his jaws shut. He rotates his pupils up. Mega Man slowly descends in front of him, making direct eye contact. Giga Bowser goes for a furious swipe with his left arm but is intercepted by a devastating golden knee, sparking up lighting upon contact. His head flies backward, his claws missing Mega Man by a mile.
Peach continues to fall, unsure whether she was alive or not. All she can see is the blue sky decorated with clouds getting farther away. Before she realizes it, the clouds take the form of white streaks and she is under another set of them. She stares blankly at the sky for a few heartbeats before the sound slowly comes back. She blinks for a few seconds before looking around and makes eye contact with the confident smirk of Sonic the Hedgehog. He sets her down as Mega Man and Captain Falcon land in front of them. Mega Man surrounds himself in four large leaves and runs ahead.
"M'lady," Sonic says.
"Thank you Sonic," Princess Peach replies, dusting herself off. "Thank all of you."
"No thanks needed," Captain Falcon interjects.
"But appreciated," Sonic adds. "Say, you think you could loan us some stuff? I don't think Giga Bower's had his daily intake of veggies."
"Of course," Peach responds, pulling out a turnip with a smiley face before handing it to Sonic. Then she pulls out something else and hands it to Captain Falcon. The two sprint ahead.
"Yo Falcon," Sonic says, jogging at what he would consider a snail's pace with Captain Falcon. "Trade."
"But-" Captain Falcon begins but Sonic refuses to let him finish.
"I've got a plan. Trust me."
The two toss each other their items. Sonic speeds around Giga Bowser too many times to count before skidding to a stop on his right. He jogs in place, slowly turning to his right.
"Hey Google Browser," Sonic shouts as he bends over to spank himself with his left hand. "How many gigabytes does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"
"That doesn't even make sense…" Samus notes.
A giant yellow hand forcefully grabs Sonic, bringing him directly to his face. He roars, making Sonic's quills dance in the wind. Sonic looks utterly unimpressed. He squeezes his right hand out, holding a Bomb-Omb rapidly blinking red. Giga Bowser sweats.
"Surprise," Sonic says, winking with his left eye.
A cloud of black and orange covers Giga Bowser's face. A black streak jettisons a few meters before unraveling Sonic flying backwards, his limbs limply dangling in the air. Ike and Falco observe him jet above him
"I'm okay!" Sonic yells. Then he crashes into a section of the bleaches, inducing a puff of smoke and broken sections. "Mostly!"
Ike and Falco run ahead.
"I'm completely convinced Sonic is a masochist," Falco says.
"Maybe," Ike replies. "But a brilliant one. He just gave us all an opening to strike. Probably the best set-up we've had this entire fight. SMASHERS! DON'T HOLD ANYTHING BACK!"
Captain Falcon tosses the winking turnip into Giga Bowser's stomach, bringing his head down. He runs as hard as he can before bringing his left arm back behind him, seemingly hovering above the ground. He joins Mega Man for a combined flame covered uppercut, propelling his head along with much of his upper body back up.
Shulk, glowing green, leaps several feet from where he was standing and swipes at Giga Bowser right between the eyes. A black, spiked ball comes crashing down on his head, burying it into the dirt beneath him. Ike runs a few feet, positioning himself in on Giga Bowser's right while Little Mac positions him on the left. Ike charges his Up-Smash, bringing his heavy sword to his left side. He releases after three seconds, making contact with the side of the beast's head at the same time Little Mac fires a KO-Punch on his left, rocketing the beast's heads back up.
"Aw yeah," Shulk proclaims. "We're nailing him!"
In a split second, an enormous yellow blur comes chopping down on Shulk, which launches him up into the air because hit boxes are screwy. Shulk plateaus right above Giga Bowser, who seeks the opportunity to up-smash him with his tremendous shell. After momentary contact and an incredible smack, Shulk grunts as he jettisons into the air. His cry is heard until he becomes a glimmer in the sky.
Giga Bowser looks down at Ike, Falco, and Little Mac, all who seems to have been hit with a stun potion, with indifference.
"So that just happened," Little Mac says.
Giga Bowser leans into Little Mac's face and smiles. Little Mac puts his hands up instinctively as countless drops of sweat dash across his face. His pupils dilate.
"Uh…" Falco says in the form of a question. "Run?"
Giga Bowser roars, sending the hairs/feathers on the three warrior's heads shaking in the wind. Ike squints his right eye while closing his left, holding on to his head band with his left hand.
"Run." Ike concludes as the three of them bowface and dash away, screaming at the top of their lungs.
Ike takes long but slow strides as Falco steadily surpasses him. Little Mac dashes ahead of the two in practically no time.
"Is this how you treat your general?!" Ike shouts as a fireball flies past his left shoulder.
"Self-appointed general!" Falco screams back. "No one elected you!"
"Screw you Falco! At least Mac's got my bac-"
Little Mac is but a spec, only a few meters away from the bleachers. He huffs and puffs as he runs.
"Sorry!" he yells. "Every Mac for himself!"
"BASTAAAAAARD!" Ike shouts back as a fireball goes right over his head.
"Hey, you can't blame him," Falco responds. "He's got the right idea!"
Falco's pace slightly picks up, noticeably increasing the gap between him and Ike.
"Go to hell!" Ike yells belligerently, shaking his his sword at him.
"Already there pal!"
A fireball finally hits Ike from behind. He grunts as he is launched directly into Falco, sending the two of them rolling for a few feet. Falco is pinned under Ike's stomach, his head right under his left arm pit.
"Geez," Falco complains. "Have you ever heard of deodorant?"
"A true warrior," Ike says weakly. "Takes great pride in his natural musk."
"Get offa me." Falco does a push-up and turns his body only to be pinned back down by Ike's weight. He struggles to lift Ike, mostly due to a lack of adequate leverage.
Giga Bowser stands six feet away from them. Ike and Falco stare at him with period sized pupils. Giga Bowser drops his jaw and expels a chain of brilliant flames. Ike and Falco scream as their sight turns to orange.
"Oh noooooo," Little Mac says pleadingly, barely audible from where he took cover behind a broken section of seats.
"Fools," a deep and somewhat Spanish sounding voice says.
In an instant, the orange light cast by the flames is blocked by an endless void of blackness. In the span of a heartbeat, Ike and Falco are right between Little Mac and Princess Peach. They regain their sense of reality and look around to see where they are. They look at Little Mac who responds with a nervous smiles.
Meanwhile, Giga Bowser observes his immediate surroundings for his prey. He cocks his head back and clenches his arms, roaring at the sky. With his guard down, a spiked ball with two angry eyes hits him in the gut, making him hunch forward in pain. Winded, he sets his sights on a platoon of six Waddle Dees, one wearing a blue bandana, and the jolly King Dedede. He smirks, patting his belly twice with his fist, hammer resting on his right collarbone. Mario takes his fighting pose while Luigi puts both hands up like he's about to perform a dual karate chop.
"If you've got time to talk," Meta Knight says, gathering the attention of the four of them. "You've got time to fight."