Author's Note: WHAT'S THIS! Another 2018 chapter? Yeah that's right. I lied, in a sorta good way I guess. I didn't mention this last chapter but we got 10+ favorites and followers for this story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Nintendo, Super Smash Bros., or any characters and franchises represented or appearing in this story. *screams*

Chapter 8: SO. MUCH. ITALICS.

"Go down already you giant monkey!" I screamed, shooting several torpedoes at an ape with a rather fashionable tie. About five minutes of walking since the sign, we got ambushed by a puppet fighter, which we've been fighting for about 15 minutes. Where's Crazy you ask?

Brushing the explosions off, DK charged through and tossed Crazy at me. I ducked, hearing Crazy crash into something behind me and I threw the Steel Diver at Donkey Kong, aiming for the head.

The monkey caught the gun.

The monkey caught the gun.

The monkey caught one of my only two weapons. Which it began to use against me.

"The monkey has a gun and refuses to take his medication! Heh heh, you really are not having the greatest time right now," Mr. Jerk, the voice in my head commented as I ran, trying to dodge the torpedoes that Donkey Kong fired. "By the way, Mr. Jerk is quite unoriginal."

"Well I can't just keep calling you the voice in my head!" I mentally shot back, as I tumbled from actually getting shot.

"Maybe you could call me Oblivion. That sounds cool," Mr. Jerk said.

"How edgy," I muttered as I looked for Crazy. She was lying on the ground some distance behind DK.

She wasn't moving and she was laying on the ground, bleeding from the head. "Great, I can't rely on her for a deus ex machina."

"You don't remember your siblings names but you remember what a deus ex machina is," Oblivion commented. "How does your brain work?"

"You should know, you live in it." I rolled to escape DK's headslam and pulled out my Beam Sword. "For a product of my imagination, you run your mouth quite a bit."

I was met with no response so I decided to focus completely on Donkey Kong. There was several problems when it came to the puppet fighter. The first was that none of my attacks were strong enough to make DK flinch. The second was that he was immensely powerful, probably because it looked like he was under the effects of a Mushroom. The third is that Crazy is knocked out so I'll get no support.

"What do you mean no support? I'm here."

"You're a mental voice, you can't even be a distraction for the giant monkey." I sidestepped a punch and slashed the ape's side. Just like with the torpedoes, DK was barely fazed.

"How about a hint? Did you know deus ex machina is Latin for god from the machine?" Oblivion said,

in a somewhat distracted manner.

"HOW IS THAT A HINT!" I screeched as one of DK's punches came a little too close for my liking.

"Crazy's basically a god. That's all I'm going to say for now." And with that, I felt that Oblivion wouldn't talk until the battle was over.

"You think he would have more concern since he's in my body," I muttered. The hint that Oblivion gave me was that Crazy's a god and what deus ex machina means, "god from the machine." The only connection there is god.

I don't know why I'm focusing so much on the hint but I glanced over at Crazy. "Are you kidding me."

I charged a quick smash attack, pushing DK back slightly, and ran towards Crazy. I shoved my hand into her messenger bag. I felt something and grabbed it, right before I was blown away by a torpedo. Looking at what I grabbed while rolling away from DK, it's a banana.

Item Acquired:

Banana(?)

"I could use it to distract him," I thought as I got back on my feet and dodged another torpedo. Something told me I wasn't supposed to use it like that. The banana didn't seem like a banana. Part of it seemed angled.

Holding it by the stem, I pointed the banana at DK like it was a gun. Squeezing my hand a little, it turns out the banana really is a gun. The banana shot out and in an explosion of potassium and pain, collided with Donkey Kong's face. The ape was launched back and dropped my Steel Diver.

Item Acquired:

(Definitely a) Banana Peel

"Revenge Time!" I shouted, running at the ape to exact revenge. I'm just gonna leave the exact details out and to put it simply, it was overkill.

Being thankful that Puppet Fighters do not bleed, or have any organs, I pocketed the banana peel and turned to Crazy. "I should definitely do something about the bleeding."

"Check her bag for medical supplies," Oblivion spoke up. "She should have something for wounds."

"No, I was just going to leave her for dead," I muttered sarcastically as I rummaged through bag.

"Some nuts, a Green shell, a boomerang. Here!"

Pulling out a Fairy Bottle, I popped it open and let the fairy out. After circling around Crazy a few times and spreading magic sparkles, the fairy popped out of existence and Crazy's head healed.

"She's not waking up," I stated, poking her face a couple of times with my finger. "I guess I should make camp then."

I decided to get busy with that, simple as it was. Remembering the leaves in Crazy's bag, I pulled them out and threw them on the ground. The result was a tent and two log benches around a campfire. Seeing that Crazy wasn't going to wake up soon, I decided to take a nap.

I was inside a tent. It was pretty big, big enough to accommodate an enormous table with enough space on the sides for people to walk comfortably. On the table was an unfamiliar map and on it were figurines of all kinds of things. Ships, soldiers, catapults, all things for war.

As I watched, a group of soldier figurines clustered on a mountain range crumbled to dust. "Dammit!"

I wasn't the only one there. At one end of the table, a cloaked figure stood. Previously, he was sitting but he knocked over the chair when the figure crumbled. He began muttering to himself, "This is bad."

I opened my mouth to speak, to ask what was happening, why the soldiers crumbling was bad but no voice came out. I couldn't talk.

I heard someone behind me open the tent and rush inside. Before I could move out of the way, the person simply passed through as if I'm not here. "I guess I'm a ghost."

The person looked like a messenger, a hood pulled over their head, dressed in military attire and a messenger bag at their side. Kneeling in front of the hooded figure, the messenger announced, "More news from the war front! Squa-!"

"Squadron 13 has been decimated. No survivors," The figure interrupted with a wave of his hand. "Any news of what attacked them."

Unfazed by the interruption, the messenger answered immediately, "No sir! The enemy forces in the mountain ranges are unknown. The current possibility are demon squirrels, the Risen or Heartless."

"Demon squirrels?" I wondered as the cloaked figure dug around in what looked like a jewelry box before pulling out a figurine of a zombie. He placed it on the mountain range, brushing away the dust from the soldiers.

"I believe the most likely possibility is the Risen. Please report this to the Hands." The messenger left after hearing this. As soon as the tent flap shut, the cloaked man fixed the chair and collapsed onto it with an enormous sigh. "This is so stressful."

The figure then turned to look directly at me in the eyes. As his eyes glowed a shimmering gold, he asked, "So Nathaniel, can you guess who I am yet?"

I woke up, screaming my head off.

"Oh. You're awake," Crazy said, unfazed. She had a bowl of soup in her hands and she handed another bowl to me as I walked to her. We sat in silence, enjoying the soup. Eventually, the silence was broken by Crazy.

"Please stay out of my bag." She bluntly stated.

"In my defense, it was an emergency." I finished the soup and placed the bowl down. "Anyway, what about that whole floating hand thing?"

"I told you it's complicated."

"Please just tell me. The readers need some answers for all the questions that have built up," I pleaded.

In response to the look that Crazy gave me, I elaborated, "I'm just joking about the reader part. There's no readers (cue laughter from the author that slowly deteriorates into crying) but I do have a lot of questions."

"I'll only answer one," Crazy glared. "Then I'm going to sleep."

I took a moment. I could keep pushing on the whole hand thing or ask something else. A question I could ask is to explain to me the whole hand form thingy but she has been really hesitant about it. If I try to force an answer, she'll just skimp out on a full answer, completely wasting this opportunity so I should ask that another time. However, what should I ask then?

"Since you've been staring off into space for the past five minutes," Crazy said, breaking through my thoughts. "I'll ask a question. Why would you want to join the Super Smash Bros. tournament?"

"Huh?" Since I was a bit distracted from thinking of a question, it took a moment to remember what she was talking about. "Oh, you mean that part of our agreement. Well, from how you talked about it, it seemed really amazing."

"That's it?" She definitely seemed underwhelmed by my response so I tried to elaborate further.

"You said how even entering the tournament was a mark of skill right? I could become famous if I entered. Crowds of people chanting, "Nathaniel! Nathaniel! Nathaniel!" It would be glorious."

"What about your memories? You make it seem like you're prioritizing fame over recovering your memories." Crazy pointed out.

"The answer to that," I answered, holding a finger up, "is that I'm going to get my memories back in the process anyway. I join the tournament by defeating Galeem, I defeat Galeem by rescuing all the Smashers and by rescuing all the Smashers, I get my memories back. Easy as pie."

"Let your actions speak instead of your words," Crazy scoffed. "If defeating Galeem is as simple as you make it out to be, I wouldn't need your help. How about that question you were going to ask? I would like to go to sleep soon."

"Oh yeah! How does the whole worlds business work?"

"You see, all mass have a force called gravity which planets exert on each other and-"

"Not that," I interrupted. "You said I came from another world or something to that extent. Explain how that works."

She sighed, as if Crazy hoped I wouldn't ask this. Oh sure, you don't want me asking about you being a giant hand so I try to be polite but you complain regardless. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask a question with a long answer but you did. Buckle up because it might take a while."

She cleared her throat before beginning her tale, "No one knows when the multiverse began. It had existed for eons upon eons even before Master Core, my and my brother's creator, was a mere thought. How it began was largely debated, rising from the end of a previous multiverse like a phoenix to an even higher being creating the multiverse on a whim. How the multiverse worked, however, was quite clear.

The multiverse was divided into worlds. Within each world was a whole universe and within those universes were entire lands of people and more. Worlds would come into existence from nothing while some would fade into that nothing. Sometimes, several worlds would fuse into one or a single world could split into multiple. Regardless of what happened to all those worlds, the multiverse grew as more and more worlds began to be "born."

Soon, a pattern was noticed. There would be worlds like yours, full of people. That in itself was ordinary but it was what those people did that was astonishing. Despite no communications between worlds, those people somehow knew of events that happened in other worlds. They would write those events as fictional stories or ignore them but nonetheless, those people somehow knew of other worlds.

It was undetermined if the reason those worlds existed was because those people created them from their thoughts or if the people knew those events because of some effect other worlds had on them. Eventually, those worlds came to be known as Origin Worlds. Your world is one of those.

Galeem wants to fuse all of the multiverse into a single world but so far, has been unable to fuse any Origin Worlds into what it has so far. If it does, the results could be catastrophic."

I stared blankly at her for several moments, trying to digest all that information. "What you just told me leaves me with more questions!"

Sighing, Crazy rested her face in her hands, "Fine, I'll answer a few more. Just make them quick."

"First, why does it matter if Galeem adds an Origin World to his mishmash collection? Second, why does Galeem want to fuse the worlds together? Finally, how frickin old are you? You don't look older than 20!"

"First, Origin Worlds have never fused or split before, naturally or artificially. While it could be smoothly integrated like how other worlds have, with the possibility of a connection between Origin and regular worlds, the likelihood of consequences are significant. Second, I don't know why Galeem is doing this, ask it yourself before killing it. Third, you don't ask a woman her age." She got into her tent and shut the flap after calling out, "I'm tired of Q&A. Just go to sleep."

Grumbling to myself, I walked over to my sleeping bag and laid there. I couldn't sleep so, at Oblivion's suggestion, I got up to practice my sword skills a bit.

"Aim your sword a little lower!" Oblivion called as I swung, "If you swing that high, you opponent could dodge by ducking a little. Aim for the body, a head wound is nice and all but the body is where the organs are."

He kept making minor corrections like those to how I usually fight. It would take me several tries to fix what Oblivion wanted me to but it was no problem once I did. Throughout the entire practice, I was thinking a little on not only what Crazy told me, but also about the dream I had. Why bother telling her about? I kept making arguments why I should have asked about it and counter-arguments why I shouldn't have.

"The dream isn't relevant for dealing with Galeem."

"First, you hear a voice in your head and now you have random dreams. You might have some mental condition that requires urgent treatment!"

"You shouldn't bother Crazy with your problems."

"Dreams could sometimes be warnings."

"The dream might just go away on its own."

"Don't extend your arm so much! The enemy could sidestep and use it to pull you off-balance." Oblivion said, snapping me from thoughts before I could spiral down into self-doubt. "Stop worrying about the dream already!"

I paused, letting my arms fall to my sides as I sat down to take a break. "Hey Oblivion?"

"What? If it's about your swordsmanship, you still got quite a long way to go but you've made a good first step to improvement."

"You're not just a voice in my head, are you?" I heard nothing from him for several moments, as if he seemed to be collecting his own thoughts. Finally, he began to speak.

"It seems you're a bit genre-savvy, aren't you?"

"It was kinda obvious," I admitted. "I know nothing about swordsmanship because y'know amnesia, but here I am, taking lessons from a voice in my head. So, what are you?"

A rather long pause followed my question. "Let's just say that I'm the reason you're here in this world."

"That's it. I'm getting Crazy to help me deal with your cryptic nonsense."

"Nonononononono that is a very bad idea. Look, I just can't tell you a lot right now. I lost some of my memory too, but not as much as you. When you get your memory back from rescuing a Smasher, I get some of my lost memories back too. What I do remember isn't stuff you should know now. I'll tell you at a later point but you'll just have to trust me."

"Alright," I said. "I won't tell Crazy, as long as you can answer a question. Why isn't Crazy a giant floating hand?"

"What?"

"Okay then, I'm gonna go get her now then." I began to walk to her tent before Oblivion stopped me.

"Okay okay, I'll tell you. Just, please don't get her." Pausing to sigh a little, Oblivion answered my earlier question. "All I can say is that the hand form was the result of a curse from a war a long, long time ago. She most likely has broken the curse by this point but she can change into it whenever she wishes. The same would likely apply to her brother, Master Hand, as well."

"Was that so hard?" I asked, "I'll trust you, for now at least. The moment I don't though, I'm asking Crazy for the brain opener to deal with you."

After hearing a weak sigh of acceptance, I decided to head to my sleeping bag. While I laid there, another question came to mind which I shot at Oblivion. "You said that you were the reason why I'm here. Why is that?"

I heard another mental sigh then Oblivion's response, "Because of a promise I made a very long time ago."

Save File 2: Saved

Party: Nathaniel. Crazy Hand, Oblivion(?)

Items: Nathaniel- Beam Sword, Steel Diver, Banana Peel

Crazy- Staff, Deku Nutx3, Green Shell, Boomerang

Smashers: Mario, Kirby, Villager

Author's Theater:

MG: Hello there! It's not 2019 yet but here's a chapter anyway. I wrote this one a lot faster because I was kinda having fun with the DK fight. There were some nice resolutions for next year in the reviews so I thought we should share ours! Nathaniel, you're first!

Nathaniel: Why do I have to go first! Fine. *pulls out a note card and begins to read it* My resolution for 2019 is not get hurt as much.

Crazy: Press X to doubt folks. Mine is to rescue at least 40 more Smashers.

Oblivion: And my resolution is to be more mysterious!

MG: For 2019, I would like to keep writing more chapters for SWOL! Anyway, before we end the chapter here, there's some stuff to say beforehand.

Nathaniel: Thanks to Artorias132, Lovingh3art, Pikminfan, The Nexus Warrior, TrimusicaDrag00n90 and Zeroprime-000 for favoriting this story!

Crazy: And thank you to Alias8SB, Antex-The Legendary Zoaroark, Oops..exe, TheCrampyGoat, aidanator800, ringenki and sonofneptunem for following.

Oblivion: Finally, major thanks to AkouriHades 2.0, Dylan Ballesteros, Jacob Fairclough, The Toad Soldier and kingjustin1019 for doing both!

MG: Lastly, thanks to those who have reviewed: Lovingh3art, Knight Clarence, Akarenger, Guest, Elysium, and Antex-The Legendary Zoroark!

Everyone: Thank you to everyone reading and happy new year!