A.N. And the Brawl arc begins! Sorry for the delay guys on the bright side I'm pretty ahead of the game I have up to chapter 24 done I'm just really slow at editing. I think I'll upload the next chapter sometime this week I don't want keep you guys hanging for the duration of this part of the story. With that enjoy the chapter guys!
Chapter 18
"Careful Zelda you're frowning so much your face might get stuck like that." The Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom teased the hylian, but the frown remained ever presence. Zelda's ears twitched the royal scanning every inch of the stadium they were currently in the stands of.
"Something doesn't bode well, I can feel something is wrong." The Master Hand claimed everything was fine this tournament, but Zelda had her doubts. As soon as the hylians made it back to Subspace Zelda had a bad feeling running down her spine. This time around, the fighters were not brought to the city they stayed in last time, but way out in the outskirts to a stadium in the sky. While there was lodging for the fighters within the stadium, and it seemed reasonable to hold the tournament away from the damaged city. All of it seemed suspicious to the Queen.
"I think someone is just tense since they haven't seen their favorite metal friend yet." Peach teased walking with Zelda up to a box where they could watch the upcoming fight between Mario and Kirby. Zelda wouldn't lie and say she wasn't worried about Samus, but it wasn't just her. She hadn't seen most of the fighters since coming. Even Link had disappeared shortly after they arrived, all the fighters were still on the roster so they had to be around somewhere though.
"Aren't you worried Peach? This all seems very suspicious." Peach didn't answer for a moment, as the two had arrived at the box that overlooked the stadium. A rare frown crossed the blonde's face.
"I suppose I am a bit worried, but I've seen both Mario and Luigi, so I guess that helps calms me down. Besides Ganondorf isn't here this time to cause trouble. Everything should be fine." Zelda couldn't believe Peach's words, not with the dark feeling that something bad was happening. It didn't help matters either that practically every day after Samus left Hyrule the Queen was bombarded by nightmares. None of them made any sense to the royal, and the lack of proper sleep left Zelda with a headache keeping the royal on further edge.
Then there was the fact that she had yet to see any sign of Samus. She saw the hunter's name on the roster so she had to be here, but Zelda couldn't find any sign of her. Zelda rubbed the back of her hand anxiously. None of this was good, if it wasn't for the fact that Zelda couldn't find the hunter she would be dragging Link and herself right back to Hyrule. However the royal wouldn't leave until she confirmed that nothing was going to put her friend's life at stake.
"Zelda, calm down dear." The Queen jumped when Peach placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"Sorry, I guess I am rather on edge." Looking down at the stadium it looked like Mario and Kirby had already made their way onto the arena.
"Considering what happened last year….All of us should probably be a little on edge." The shout of the announcer stopped the two royal's conversation as the battle began.
Elsewhere high, high in the clouds another watched the fight with excitement.
"Come on left punch! Yes!" The young man with pure white wings watched the fight through a clear pool of water that showed the battle like a television screen.
"The smash tournament has begun already Pit?" Looking away from the fight the young man grinned hearing a woman's voice come from nowhere in particular.
"You bet Lady Palutena! Mario and Kirby are opening, this is so awesome!" Pit yelled out in joy his fist pumping in the air. He turned his gaze back at the screen.
"I hope they do team matches again this year. Those fights were the best!" A laugh came from the unseen woman while Pit continued to watch the fighting.
"I think Master Hand's priority this time around should be keeping the tournament from ending up like last year's." Pit mumbled something akin to "stupid Ganondork".
"Oh hey look! In the stands it's Princess Peach and Princess Zelda." Excitement was clear in Pit's voice having seen both women fight amazingly in the last tournament.
"I believe it's Queen Zelda now." Lady Palutena corrected in a matter of fact tone.
"Really? She's a Queen now, I thought they just stayed Princess forever." Another laugh sounded out from the goddess.
"How ridiculous Pit, of course a Princess becomes a Queen eventually." Pit huffed at the goddess' tone.
"I'm just saying, Peach has been a Princess for a long time…" The angel waited a moment for some clever comeback from the goddess, but nothing came.
"Lady Palutena?" The goddess was silent when she finally did speak her voice was cold.
"Something's wrong."
The fight was going in Mario's favor, the pink hero of Dreamland was losing ground fast. Kirby was sent flying across the stage by a sharp kick from the plumber. Zelda watched as Mario went dashing across the stage to capitalize on the dazed hero, but as he did the air shook.
Zelda's head snapped up watching in horror as the sky was swallowed up by blood red clouds. Out of the clouds a metal monster of a ship tore through the sky, its engines roaring like a beast.
The hylian saw a hatch open on the bottom of the ship, and black sludge almost like snow fell from the sky. Mario and Kirby were soon surrounded by the sludge that quickly took form into strange puppet like creatures with red eyes and purple skin.
The royals' shared a glance before jumping from their seats. Zelda used Farore's wind and teleported herself to stand next to the two heroes. Peach landed next to her, gently floating down with her parasol.
Two creature dashed forward, one Mario intercepted punching the monster back. The other Peach blocked its approach with her parasol. Then Zelda blew the creature away with a blast of magic fire. The defeated creatures fell, and melted away back into the sludge that formed them.
"What in the goddesses' name are these things?" Zelda jumped out of the way as one creature tried tackling her.
"They're certainly not from the Mushroom Kingdom!" Peach answered, twirling around Mario allowing the plumber to blast a fireball at a monster.
Kirby opened his mouth taking a deep breath swallowing one of the monsters whole. Then to the other heroes shock the pink puff ball spat the creature back out making a noise of disgust. While Kirby reeled at the bad taste Zelda hurried to the hero's aid using her magic to reflect back an attacking creature.
Quickly recovering Kirby jumped up high before landing on the monster in the shape of a pink rock. When he reformed, the pink hero gave Zelda a friendly wave in thanks.
The stadium shook as something large came from under the arena's platform. Out of the darkness below a creature of emess size jumped onto the stage. Mario was swatted away like a fly in the confusion as the stage shook.
"Mario!" Peach cried out watching the red clad plumber disappear into the distance. Peach yelped when the monster snatched her up while the Princess was distracted.
The monster was large taking up half the stage. Plant-like with leaf hands and a green body. Its red and white spotted head had a mouth that put Kirby to shame. The monster roared showing off its huge teeth. Zelda remembered Peach once telling her about Piranha Plants in the Mushroom Kingdom, but she never mentioned one of this size. It held two cages in its hands one already held Peach within its iron bars.
Zelda dodged as the creature slammed the empty cage down where she once stood. There was no way she was going to let that creature touch her.
"Kirby! Get its attention I'll free Peach!" The pink hero's face became determined. He ran at the monster jumping high and giving a it a swift kick to the face. The Piranha Plant roared in anger swinging the empty cage about trying to hit Kirby.
While the other cage was still Zelda sent a blast of magic fire hurling towards the creature's hand. The smell of the monster's burning plant like skin filled the air. Yet it didn't release the cage. It turned its gaze back to Zelda, swatting away Kirby with the cage holding Peach. One could hear the royal yelp as she was thrown around the small cage.
Zelda dodged another swing of the cage, then another. Frowning, it would be a blessing to have her teammate by her side. They could defeat the monsters together, Zelda knew.
Samus wasn't here though, and Zelda soon found a metal cage slamming painfully against her body. The next thing Zelda knew those iron bars were inclosed around her, and she was looking down at Kirby who faced the monster alone.
The monster swung his caged victims at the hero, not letting either royal think long enough before getting their skull bashed against the iron bars. Kirby fought the Piranha Plant using quick movements he avoided each swing from the beast, and at every opening he took a strike at one of the cages trying to free the royals.
Eventually, Zelda's cage gave way to Kirby's attacks. The Queen landed gracefully as the cage fell apart. The monster stumbled, not expecting the pink hero to be able to break the cage.
A blast of magic fire and another blow from Kirby made the beast drop the other cage, before he fell back into the depths of the stadium. Peach's cage had broken just enough, and the pink clad royal was crawling out of her prison when another new face entered the ring.
Zelda spun around as a large thud sounded out behind them. A large fat man with a mustache similar to Mario's laughed. In his hands he held a strange device, it looked almost like a gun but was more akin to a small cannon. Lights flashing on the device with a flash a black energy fired out of the gun heading right towards Peach.
The Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom was still tangled in the cage, and Zelda nor Kirby could move fast enough. The blast nailed Peach, breaking her free from the cage. The royal was enveloped in a black sludge for a moment. Then when it fell away, Zelda's eyes widened.
No longer was Peach the bright happy Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, but her skin was like stone frozen. She was a statue not blinking, her skin pale, and even a small stand was planted under her feet like a trophy.
The fat man let out a laugh of triumph, running over he grabbed Peach around her waist with one hand lifting up the frozen Princess like it was nothing. He sent a smirk Zelda's way, and the royal bristled. Magic fire ignited in Zelda's hands, but before she could send it something else dropped from the ship.
Two robots exactly like the ones Zelda and Samus found under Ganon's control in Hyrule circled a bomb that was dropped in the middle of the stage. They connected their hands into slots in the circular bomb and extended it into a cylinder shape. Inside a timer became apparent, it ticked down with barely a minute left on it.
Zelda's head snapped back to Peach who was gone, the fat man disappearing while their eyes were on the bomb.
"Kirby! We have to go!" The Hero of Dreamland summoned his warp star, and with barely seconds left the two flew out of the stadium. The bomb went off with barely a sound only a ripple in the air, as dark purple energy expanded out consuming the stadium. Zelda's eyes narrowed looking back at the destruction. It was just like the mass of energy that Ganon had used to destroy Subspace before. However Zelda didn't want to find out if that was truly a portal or not.
"Holy cow! Lady Palutena we have to do something!" Pit yelled his hands gripping the sides of the pool of water watching the scene before him unfold. He heard the goddess hum in thought.
"This doesn't seem right, I've meet Master Hand, and he's not the kind to let chaos go on his watch. Crazy Hand maybe, but not Master Hand. Something else is at work here." Palutena paused, then a ray of light appeared at the far side of the room. Out of the light stepped a woman with emerald green hair, wearing pristine white robes.
Pit rushed over to the goddess bowing down respectfully. Palutena's hands glowed and formed Pit's weapon out of seemingly nothing.
"Go Pit, they're going to need all the help they can get for this." Pit nodded rushing over to the large double doors on the other side of the room.
"I can give you the power of flight just long enough to catch up to Kirby. Don't waste it, that warp star of his is fast." Pit nodded giving the goddess a grin.
"Don't worry, I got this!" With that Pit jumped out as the doors opened revealing nothing but open skies. Pit stretched his wings catching the air speeding down to catch up with the hero and Queen.
"Above us!" Zelda cried out, Kirby reacted jerking the star before the two could be impaled by a bird monster's sharp beak. It missed opening its wings out to stop its descent. The bird let out an angry squawk glaring at the heroes above.
Two more bird monsters converged on them. Zelda let out a blast of fire at the one below, but a jerk of the star trying to avoid another divebomb from another bird caused her to miss.
The third monster went spiraling towards them, but before it could a blue arrow came from above nailing the creature. The bird disappeared dissolving into black sludge that floated away in the wind.
Zelda looked up to see a figure approaching them. Another arrow hit the other bird, using this distraction Zelda sent a blast of magic towards the last one finishing them off.
"Hey! Thought you guys could use a hand!" A young voice yelled, out of the clouds flew in young boy looking no older than thirteen. Zelda's eyes widened seeing he had pure white wings on his back that flapped hard trying to keep up with the warp star.
"Could you slowed down please, it's harder than it looks to fly this fast!" Zelda blinked breaking out of her surprise. She tapped Kirby who had been so focused on getting them away from the bomb that he had been focusing on flying solely.
"You can take us down now Kirby. I think we're safe." The determined look left the pink hero's face and he grinned happily taking the star down.
They landed in a canyon of sorts with great red stone as far as the eye could see. Though to the north Zelda could see lush green covering the ground, there must be a forest over there she mused. In the other direction Zelda could see buildings, but they looked old and decrepit even at a distance. Kirby hopped over to the boy who landed next to them sweating from the effort of flying so fast.
"Whew! When Lady Palutena said the warp star could go fast, I didn't think she meant that fast!" He laughed scratching the back of his head. He perked up though seeing the pink hero in front of him.
"WOW! You're Kirby right? Hero of Dreamland? It's great to meet you!" Kirby smiled, bouncing on his feet the boy's excitement rubbing off on him. It was then the boy turned his gaze to Zelda letting out another excited gasp.
"And you're Pri..sorry Queen Zelda. I watched the tournament last year, you and Samus Aran made a great team." Zelda smiled softly, the boy was so excited he sounded like he was a fan meeting their favorite celebrity for the first time.
"There's no need to call me Queen, just Zelda will do. Thank you for the help, may I ask your name?"
"My name's Pit, the Goddess Palutena sent me down to help you guys." Zelda crossed her arms, she'd never heard of such a Goddess. Though since this was a world made up of others from many different dimension. It was highly possible there were other gods out there. Perhaps it was just the hylian in her making her automatically skeptical of any deity that wasn't one of the golden goddesses of Hyrule.
"You know I've met Nayru, she's a little too boring to be around though." Zelda jumped, Pit didn't say that, and certainly not Kirby. It was a woman's voice, coming from nowhere yet Zelda could hear it as if she was right next to her.
"She's very good at riddles, as you probably already know with your prophetic dreams and all." Zelda's eyes narrowed, only a few close members of her staff, Link, and Samus knew about the dreams the Triforce of Wisdom gave her. Who was this woman and how did she have this knowledge.
"I am the Goddess of Light Palutena! Sometimes it's fun to go see what the gods of other worlds are up to. I'm still not wild over the human form Hylia…" Before Zelda could snap at the woman for speaking in such an insulting way about her lands gods, Pit spoke up.
"I didn't know you knew gods from other dimensions Lady Palutena, that's amazing!" Zelda's ears twitched, deciding already she didn't like this Goddess. It didn't help matters that now that they were relatively safe. It was starting to sink in that yet again the tournament was becoming a death trap, and Zelda had no idea where Samus or Link were. They were no doubt in danger though, and Zelda felt herself enraged that Master Hand allowed this to happen twice.
"Don't worry Hylia, the hero and your lover are both alive." Zelda would have snapped at the goddess for calling her Hylia again. If she wasn't too busy blushing over the name she called Samus by.
"We're just friends," Zelda stated coldly, not letting the goddess get a rise out of her. She heard Palutena laugh, and the royal rubbed her forehead sighing.
"We have more important things to worry about right now. What's going on?" The goddess stopped laughing once Zelda asked her question. Her voice became serious losing the playful tone it once had.
"I can't say I'm sure myself. That bomb you avoided sucked up that entire area into a deeper part of Subspace. From what I can tell bombs like that are being set off all over the place." The goddess explained, Zelda looked off into the distance even as far as they were she could still see the black and purple mass of energy.
"Whoever is doing this has to stop. It's making the lines between everyone's worlds too thin, rifts between dimensions are popping up everywhere." Palutena's voice was stern, perhaps a bit angry.
"Too thin? Is that why Samus was dragged into Hyrule?" Zelda had a feeling Ganon's attack last time was part of something bigger. Pulling apart dimensions was a little too large scale, even for Ganondorf. The man may be greedy, but he wasn't foolish.
"Most likely, she probably stumbled upon an area where the line between her world and yours was breaking….Pit are you following all of this?" Pit jumped upon being addressed, he scratched the back of his head.
"Of course, all our dimensions are kind of like bubbles, and if one bumps into the other then there's a chance air or in our case things could be exchanged between the bubbles uhhhh right?" Pit waited for Palutena to confirm his answer.
"Yes, normally all the different worlds can exist and bump into each other with no issues. Whoever is dropping the bombs is trying to pull bits of different worlds into Subspace."
"Thus making everything unstable, and if your bubble analogy has any merit. Our worlds will 'pop'." Zelda finished for her, and there was a grim pause from the goddess. Even Kirby who Zelda wasn't sure if he fully understood what they were talking about was frowning.
"This can't just be Ganondorf behind this. Hyrule doesn't have the magic or technology to rip worlds apart like this." That was odd, Zelda knew Ganondorf would never ally with someone more powerful than himself. The dark lord always had to be on top, be the stronger person in command.
"He certainly is helping though, so are the other villains. I can't tell who's pulling the strings though." Palutena sighed, frustrated that she didn't have all the answers.
"Whoever is behind this doesn't matter though, they must be stopped." Zelda nodded, agreeing on that. Not just Subspace was being threatened now, but every world across every dimension.
"Hylia, stick with Pit I can only communicate when you're around him. I can lead you to the other fighters scattered through Subspace." Zelda's eyebrow twitched at being called Hylia yet again. It was told in legend that the royal family were descendants of the goddess Hylia, but that was a legend. It was arrogant to put oneself on the same level of a god. That was the kind of thinking that created people like Ganondorf.
"Very well, where is the closest fighter, and don't call me that. My name is Zelda." Though Zelda wished to demand where Samus and Link were. She knew that it was selfish to ignore everyone else that was dragged into this mess.
"Two over in that abandoned town." Zelda looked to the abandoned buildings before nodding. They weren't too far it wouldn't take them too long to reach the abandoned town.
"Let's go the sooner we find everyone the better." The sooner she found Samus the better.
A.N. First I'd like to apologize last chapter I'm a liar when I said I wouldn't be including any of the smash 4 characters, because Palutena will be around. Though I'm not including her in a fighting sense, so technically I didn't fully lieXD. I don't know how it came about but I really like her and Zelda's dynamic since Zelda is more reserved and calm about things and Palutena is sassy Palutena. Plus the idea of Palutena knowing Hylia before she reincarnated as a mortal came to me while writing and i've fallen in love with it. I can definitely see Palutena hanging out with the gods of other worlds when she's not taking care of business in her own dimension.
Anyway this first chapter followed the beginning of Brawl mostly until the end. Like I've said before there's no fun in it if I followed the events of Brawl to a letter, so be ready for things to be a bit different. On that note I'll see you guys next chapter^^.