Author's Note: It's still finals season so that could impact uploads. Well, I guess they're more like midterms now that I think about it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Nintendo and/or Smash. I only own the Ocs. If I did own Nintendo, I would have a copy of Smash signed by Masahiro Sakurai.

Chapter 11: A Pokemon and a Racer...

"Falcon… Punch!" Unfortunately, a burning fist collided with my face. I was sent falling until I hit the wall and slowly slid down, my body wracked with pain.

"Falcon punch, falcon kick, falcon SHUT UP ALREADY!" I yelled at the muscled fighter before me. Wearing a blue racing suit and yellow bandana around his neck, Captain Falcon had been beating me up for the past 5 minutes. Admittedly, I still distracted by the dream. Did I just challenge some eldritch abomination to a fight? Oblivion had shut up again so I would get no answers on that front.

While I was still distracted by my thoughts, Captain Falcon dashed at me, slamming a knee into my stomach. My back hit the wall when I heard Captain Falcon cry out, "Falcon Kick!"

I rolled to the side, just in time to avoid Captain Falcon's flaming foot. His foot collided with the wall, completely stopping his momentum and I took the opportunity to slash at his side. It was intentionally weak, only budging him slightly, and I jumped at him, kicking Captain Falcon in the helmet.

Rolling away, Captain Falcon rushed back at me with his hand preparing for an uppercut. I shot at him, interrupting his attack and pushing him further back. Shooting a few more torpedoes, I tried to keep pushing him back but Captain Falcon bobbed between the shots until he was right in front of me.

"Falcon…" he began cocking his arm back, building up explosive energy in his fist. I swung at him with my sword but not fast enough, "Punch!"

The flaming fist struck me in the chest this time, and I flew back. "Come on Nathaniel!" Crazy called out from the sidelines. "Keep out of his range!"

"It's a bit hard to that when he can dodge my main projectile," I muttered. Reaching into my inventory, I swapped the Steel Diver for the Boomerang. I threw at the captain's head but he caught it and threw it back. Rolling under, I came up and slashed at the captain's midsection. I made contact and began slashing several more times before I launched him.

I rushed at him as he hit the ground, dodging a kick as the smasher jumped back to his feet. I tried slashing at Captain Falcon in the chest again but he threw out a kick before my attack could land. His foot landed on my stomach and I slid back.

"Falcon…" Captain Falcon managed to dash in front of me before I realized and was preparing another punch.

"Punch!" For the third time, a flaming punch flew towards me. I ducked under Captain Falcon's arn, dodging the fist and charging up a slash. I released the attack and it was a direct hit. The smasher before me crumbled into smoke, leaving behind an amiibo of Captain Falcon.

My stomach rumbled as I picked up the amiibo, "Did I really have to fight the smasher first thing in the morning?" I turned to Crazy. Less than 10 minutes ago, Crazy had shaken me awake and while I was still rubbing the sleep from my eyes, she grabbed my hand and activated the statue for me before leaving to let me fight by myself. "I hadn't even had breakfast yet."

"Well, think of breakfast as your reward for rescuing Captain Falcon." She pointed back at camp, "Come get it when you're done with the memory recover thing you do."

I watched her walk back to camp. Sighing, I tried to get Oblivion to answer but he had no response.

"Great." Muttering, I began to ask myself, "Is this what a relationship is like? Just one person trying to talk to the other but they never answer and so-"

"Hello?" Oblivion asked.

"Thank the great potato in the sky!" I thought. "I needed someone to annoy."

"Exactly what happened in your childhood that caused you to start worshipping potatoes?"

Ignoring his question in favor of the more pressing issue on my mind, I asked, "Did you see my dream last night?"

"Same tent, same guy in a cloak and Crazy and Master Hand?" Oblivion asked, "Or are you worried about picking a fight with that eyeball?"

"Eyeball," I confirmed. "In hindsight, that might not have been my best move. I don't even know who that was but it did seem like they were not friendly."

"Who knows?" Oblivion said. "Maybe you should just focus on Galeem for now?"

I paused for a moment, "Hey, Oblivion? Could you listen to all my thoughts?"

"Only the ones directed at me. Why?"

"It kinda seems like an invasion of privacy if you could hear everything I think." Ignoring his complaints, I began to think. Why am I even getting these dreams? Why am I even trusting Oblivion so much anyway? For all I know, he could be the demonic eyeball. But that would mean he could have just lied about listening to my thoughts.

"I give up trying to sort this all out." Sighing, I raised the Captain Falcon amiibo at stared at it. Within moments, memories began to well up to the surface of my mind. One rose up in particular and I began to focus on it.

"So, you finally got your driver's license?" My sister asked.

"Yeah. Third time's a charm, I guess." I took another bite of pizza. Our parents were having dinner with friends so they bought us pizza to eat for dinner. Currently, we were lounging in the living room, watching TV. "Now I can make up all those times you had to drive me to school."

"Looking forward to getting some more sleep," she said. A commercial began airing, much to our dismay, and my sister gave me an odd look. "I will never understand why you like pineapple on pizza."

"Because," I began, "I like how juicy the pineapple is. What I don't get, is why you like olives on your pizza."

"I like olives on my pizza because I like olives," my sister shot back. "That's all it is to it."

Our brother came back from getting pizza and we sat in silence, watching a commercial about some kind of duct tape. Finally, it ended and we got back to watching the episode. I got up to get more pizza from the kitchen, but my elbow knocked a glass of water of the table we were using. Thankfully, the glass didn't break but water spilt onto the carpet.

"Oh great going Nathaniel." My brother commented.

"Shut up. It was an accident. I'll go get towels." As I left, I heard my brother mock me, "Meh. It was an accident. Meeh."

I sighed. Half of whenever I talk to him, I either want to tear my brother's throat out or stab him with the closest sharp object. At least (_) is still pleasant to talk to. But it is somewhat embarrassing to have to be driven everywhere by my younger sister. I came back with the towels and we wiped the mess up before continuing to watch our show. When it ended, we decided to head to bed. Unfortunately, my brother had something else in mind, "Hey! How about a game of Magic: The Gathering before bed?"

"Sorry," my sister apologized. "Lizzie and I were going to have brunch early tomorrow."

"No," I bluntly stated.

"Oh come on. Please Nathaniel."

"No."

"Please? It's not like you have anything planned tomorrow."

"No."

"Please?" He tried giving me puppy eyes but it really doesn't work when it's used by an 18-year old with facial hair. Despite that, I gave in, in part to shut him up and in part to get to bed quicker.

We sat down and began a game. After half an hour, it ended in defeat for me. "Come on Nathaniel, you could have done better." My brother began lecturing on what I could have done better or this or that.

"Yes, I understand." I answered to one of his questions on what I did.

"Are you getting mad?" He questioned.

"No."

"Really? Because you always end your words with more emphasis when you're mad."

"No, I only do that when I'm talking to you," I thought.

"If you keep getting mad, I'm gonna punch you." He began wiggling his fingers at me.

"No. Just shut up." I glared at him.

"Geez, I was just joking. You don't have to get all that upset about it."

"That's it. I'm going to bed." Despite protests from him, I left table went to my room, shutting the door.

"Nice to know that I have a jerk brother and an okay sister," I commented. "Still kinda bugs me that I don't know their names."

"There's over 70 smashers," Oblivion said. "You only have 5. You'll remember their names eventually."

"I guess," I muttered as I walked back to camp. After eating breakfast with Crazy, we left the racetrack and continued north. We walked on, mostly in silence, as we followed the path. Eventually, I decided to break the ice, "Hey Crazy?"

"What is it Nathan?" She asked.

"Knock knock."

Crazy sighed before giving me a look that said she wanted to punch me. "Who's there?"

"Who."

Without another word, Crazy punched me in the shoulder, hard. "Ow! What was that for?" I rubbed my shoulder tenderly. It definitely felt like it was going to bruise. "All I did was try to make a joke."

"It was a dumpster fire of a joke Nathan. You seriously need better jokes." She held out a gold coin to me. "Here, buy some with this."

"Crazy, that just hurts." I crouched down and covered my face. "You say some of the meanest things sometimes."

"Nathan, I'm not gonna fall for it if you start fake crying." Crazy walked back before staring me down. "I am over a few thousand years old. I can see through your cruddy acting."

"Yeah, you probably can." I choked out between sniffles. "You're just that much better than me at jokes."

She sighed, "Alright, fine. I'm sorry that I called your joke a dumpster fire and I shouldn't be so hard on your sense of humor."

"Yay!" I shouted, jumping up. Immediately, Crazy decked me again, this time in the face, and I fell to the ground in a pile of pain as she walked off. "Fudge balls!"

"Come on Nathan!" Crazy called to me, "We need to make some progress today!"

"Alright, alright." As I got up, I heard a familiar sound behind me. "An engine?" I wondered, "It sounds a bit different though."

I turned to see a motorcycle charging at me. Rolling aside, I yelled out a warning to Crazy before shooting at the rider, knocking him off. As the rider got up, brushing the dust from his fall off, I was able to get a better look at him. He was shorter but looked sorta fat as well with a pointed nose. Wearing biker gear, his most prominent feature was a zig-zagged mustache on his upper lip. In short, he looked like some sort of gremlin Mario.

Gremlin Mario ran back towards his bike but I fired a torpedo at it, making it blow up in his face. He changed directions to me and I shot another torpedo at him. Braking, he opened his mouth, and ate the torpedo. "Oh goody, another enemy that can make my projectiles USELESS!"

I swapped the Steel Diver for my Boomerang and threw it at him before dashing. Truthfully, I don't know what I expected but Gremlin Mario opened his mouth and chomped down on my Boomerang, chewing for a few seconds. During those seconds, my foot slammed into his right eye and he was launched away. Before he flew too far, he was hit back towards me by Crazy shooting at him. I slashed at him, knocking him to the side as I regrouped with Crazy. "I really hope you didn't expect me to give that Boomerang back."

She turned to me, "Why exactly are you asking that now?"

Kicking at the ground a bit, I muttered, "He ate it."

Shaking her head at my foolishness, Crazy only said, "Let's just focus on Wario for now, and watch out for his farts."

"Farts? You didn't say something like darts and I just misheard you, right?" I asked as she jumped away. A second later, I got hit by Wario's bike.

I hit the ground and rolled for a bit before stopping. Looking up, Wario was on his bike again, making peace signs. I heard a Crazy's Staff firing and Wario was knocked off again. "So he can respawn the bike?" I thought as I pulled myself up, "Great, just another thing to deal with."

I ran towards Wario, aiming to combo him with my Beam Sword when he waddled over to his bike. I stopped, if he tried ramming me with the bike again, I was prepared to counter. Instead of getting on the bike like before, Wario opened his mouth, and ate the bike.

"Crazy! He ate the bike!" I screamed.

"Why does that matter?"

"Oh yeah," I muttered as Wario charged me. I sidestepped and slashed his side. Wario landed on his feet afterward, only for a torpedo to blow up in his face. I kept shooting at him and after the first couple exploded, he began to make his way towards me, dodging my shots. Wario jumped over me when I swung at him again and grabbed me by the hood. After a few jabs to my stomach, he threw me back.

Before he could keep attacking, Crazy began shooting at Wario. Leaping back onto my feet, I charged a my sword to the max and swung, aiming for the head. The attack connected and Wario crumbled into smoke, leaving a spirit to wander about. "Hey, where's my Boomerang?" I questioned. "Shouldn't it have been in his stomach?"

"That's not how the move works," Crazy said as she walked past. Pulling out the Switch, began the process of recovering the spirit. "Wario's Chomp destroys the item. It's not like Villager's Pocket where the item can be brought out and used again."

"In other words," I slowly said, as her words sank into my mind. "There's no Boomerang."

"There is no Boomerang."

"Perfect." We walked north a bit more before stopping. The path became a crossroads, going east and west as well as north. To the west, a gate sat shut, probably to a town, and to the east was a bridge, spanning a chasm.

I opened my mouth, intending to ask Crazy which way we should go, when the choice was made for us. The ground began rumbling, not enough to make us fall over, but enough for me to almost lose my balance. As the ground shook, a light began glowing from the chasm and kept growing until, the ground stopped and the light covered the bridge. Within a half a minute, the bridge was blocked, with the light acting as a wall.

"Well," I began, "I guess we can't go that way anymore. C'mon Crazy, unless you have a really big ladder so we could jump the gate, it kinda looks like we keep going north!"

Instead, Crazy just stood there and stared at the wall of light, "Hey Nathaniel? A quick rhetorical question but what do you do when you don't want people to do something?"

"Murder them?"

After a very concerned look, Crazy admitted, "I guess that would technically work but I was referring more to what just happened. Galeem probably didn't want us going this way so keep this spot in mind, we will be going this way at some point."

We continued following the path north after that short moment when we hit another bloody crossroad. The path we were on intersected with a stone bridge that ran from west to east. This time, we couldn't keep going because someone had the bright idea to place a statue right in the middle. "Wait, it's a Smasher Statue."

"Stop stalling and get to it already!" Crazy called out as she sat down.

"Hurry up and fight it," I complained under my breath, "Why don't you fight whoever it is then?" I checked the nameplate on the statue:

Smasher No. 41

Lucario

"Uh, Crazy. Do you mind telling who Lucario is?"

"Lucario is the Aura Pokemon. As he takes more damage, his aura increases as well as his damage output," she explained. "But he is a glass cannon to balance it out so just try to avoid getting hit late in the fight."

I moved to activate the statue before a question popped into my head, "Quick question: what's aura?"

"Aura? It's this life energy that everything gives off. The ground, plants, people, they all give this energy off. I heard Lucario mention that everyone has their own unique aura but I don't know much. Master Hand was more into mysticism and magic."

I shrugged at this at tapped on nameplate, readying my Beam Sword in my right hand and and my Steel Diver in my left. Once the walls went up, a blue dog(?) jackal(?) on two legs with a spike in it's chest stood before me. We ran towards each and I got the first hit, swinging the Beam Sword as soon as it could reach him. As he flew away, the blue flames around his hands seemed to burn stronger and grow a bit. I'm guessing that was Lucario's aura.

I shot a torpedo and followed it, charging at Lucario. The pokemon sidestepped the torpedo, only to get caught when I grabbed him by the neck. Striking a few time with the pommel of my sword, he managed to wiggle out of my grip and kicked me away. At the same moment when his foot hit me, I shot at his chest, knocking him away as well. Rolling to my feet, Lucario was holding a blue ball, made of the same aura that was around his fists, and it kept growing.

When it got to the same size as him, Lucario stopped charging the ball and ran at me, the ball dissipating into his fists. I swung when he got into my range, but Lucario merely ducked to dodge the attack. Grabbing me by the collar with one hand, Lucario drove his other into my stomach, releasing a massive burst of aura at the moment of impact. The attack launched me but Lucario jumped up and shot the ball he was previously charged. It exploded in a blue, fiery explosion and I was launched into the wall.

I slid to the ground before getting a familiar feeling. My Final Smash was ready. Pocketing my Steel Diver, I prepared my Beam Sword as Lucario began running towards me. "Brave Blade Big Buster!"

The Beam Sword grew to a massive size and I swung at Lucario. I felt the attack make contact on the Pokemon and the blade shrunk to its normal size. "Is that it? Did I get him?"

My question was answered with another blue ball being shot at my face. I got hurled into the wall again as I watched Lucario walk out of the smoke and dust from my Final Smash. Like everything, there was a pro and a con to this. The pro is that my Final Smash did, in fact hit Lucario. The con is that it was Lucario that my Final Smash hit and now I was in fear for my life.

Lucario seemed to disappear for a second before I felt something grab my back. Driving his hand into me again, Lucario did another burst of aura. If the previous one was a hand grenade, this attack was a warhead.

I got launched again, eventually sliding against the ground as I slowed to a stop. I started shooting at Lucario as he ran he jumped over all of them and landed behind. Dodging a kick, I jumped to my feet and swung at him. Lucario ducked again, aiming for my stomach with another palm strike but I shot at the ground between us, the resulting explosion hitting both of us.

However, I was the only to get blown away. Lucario instead crumbled to the ground and dissipated into smoke, leaving behind another amiibo. I layed on the ground for a few moments, waiting for my body to stopping being in pain. "Crazy, why does it feel like my body's fire?"

"Because with each attack, Lucario is literally driving his aura into your body, dealing damage to your organs." She explained, grabbing the amiibo and walking over to me. Looking down at me, she dropped it onto my chest. "You could take a break tonight. Hurry with your memory so we could go."

Picking up Lucario's amiibo, I began to remember a particular event.

"Po-ke-mon! Po-ke-mon! Po-ke-mon!" My brother and I chanted, watching our sister, (_) mash the down and B button at the same time. It was a weird ritual that we came up with. When one sibling was trying to catch a Pokemon, if the other siblings are in the room, the sibling playing has to press those two buttons while the other two starts chanting. We almost got kicked out of restaurant before because of this.

Unfortunately, getting kicked out of a restaurant was nothing compared to what was happening that moment. My sister shook me awake five minutes ago and she interrupted (_)'s basketball practice to do the chant. We sat together in the living room, watching her screen.

I was 6 years old, my brother was 8, and my sister was 5. Two months ago, my sister finally got her own DS for her birthday as well as Pokemon: Diamond. My brother and I had our own DS and we let her take turns playing our games but since she got her own, (_) has been playing it constantly, leading us to now.

Apparently, this was her third attempt at trying to catch the Pokemon, leading to her resorting to the ritual. I was a still a bit sleepy so I wasn't paying attention to what my sister was trying to catch.

"Po-ke-mon! Po-ke-mon! Po-ke-mon!" We kept chanting as the Ultra Ball shook once.

"Po-ke-mon! Po-ke-mon!" The ball shook again.

"Po-ke-mon!" Shaking one final time, stars flew out, signaling the capture's success. We cheered. The Pokemon was revealed, asking if she wanted to give him a nickname.

"I think he should be Billy," she said, inputting the nickname for the Bidoof.

"Why'd you wake me up for a Bidoof?" I asked her.

She showed me the Bidoof, "Because he's shiny."

"Oh." I kept watching her play as my brother went back to practice. After a minute of her walking around, she stopped as a text box popped up.

"Oh?" the text box asked. An egg popped up onto screen, shaking a bit. The egg started to crack and glow, eventually revealing a new Pokemon.

It was a Riolu. My sister squeed, "He's adorable, like Neko!"

I sat, pocketing the amiibo. Sighing, I muttered, "So, I remember Billy but not their names. And what the heck is a neko?"

"C'mon," Crazy said, pulling me from my thoughts, "We could still make some more progress to-" She got cut off by a fireball streaking across the sky. It headed north and disappeared into a dark castle north of us, shaking the ground and knocking both of us to our feet.

There was a moment of silence before I spoke, "Are we going to investigate that castle?"

She leapt to her feet and took off. "Yes! Now come on!"

"At least wait for me to make a comeback before running off," I muttered before chasing after her.

Save File 2: Saved

Party: Nathaniel, Oblivion (?), Crazy Hand

Items: Nathaniel-Beam Sword, Steel Diver

Crazy Hand-Staff, Deku Nutx2, Green Shell

Smashers: Mario, Link, Kirby, Captain Falcon, Lucario, Villager

Author's Theater:

Nathaniel: Something feels off.

MG: *sips tea* What do you mean?

Nathaniel: *walking around* I'm not sure. Something just... doesn't feel right.

Nathaniel: *falls off stage* AAAAHHHh. HOW LONG HAS THERE BEEN A STAGE HERE?

MG: What are you talking about? We've always been on a stage.

Crazy: Hey guys, what's up? *trips on the stage*

Nathaniel: What do you mean there's always been a stage? There has never been a stage!

MG: The stage just wasn't mentioned, I mean, this is Author's Theater. What do you think we have been standing on?

Nathaniel: *starts pacing* I can't take this. I don't even know my surrounding until- *stubs pinky toe on coffee table* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

MG: You seem fine so I'll take my leave. *walks over to side curtain and begins to wrap self in them until he is no longer visible*

*Crazy and Nathaniel are left alone on stage. Crazy laying face-first on the ground while Nathaniel clutches his toe and rolls on the ground screaming.*