Author's Note: Midterms are over. This might be the longest chapter yet.

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Disclaimer: I don't Nintendo and/or Smash Bros. I only own the OCs.

Chapter 13: A Challenger Approaches!

New Area:
Molten Fortress

"Too easy!" I shouted. I hooked the scythe blade around the legs of a muscled man with a chain and a headband, then pulled. He fell onto his back and I stomped on him before kicking him to the edge. Rolling to his feet, he pulled his arm with the chain back but I moved faster than he did. Before the man could whip the chain at me, I dashed forward and jabbed him in the stomach with my scythe, pushing him off the edge. Muscle Guy tried to use his chain to grab the edge as he fell.

"Not this time!" I shouted. Swapping my scythe out for the Steel Diver, I shot at him. The torpedoes hit him dead on, knocking him farther away from the ledge. He fell, and sank into the lava. Did I mention the lava before?

There was lava everywhere in the castle (I guess it's more like a fortress). Currently, Crazy and I were on one of several stone platforms that stood like islands in the lava sea. We had entered a while ago and this was about the fifth fight with Puppet Fighters that we had.

I turned to check on how Crazy was doing. Like always, she finished her fight faster than me and was already capturing the spirit she fought. She turned to me, "I see that you finished Richter, by pushing him into the lava. Again."

"Can you blame me?" I said, watching a spirit float out of the lava and come to us. "The lava makes it ridiculously easy to get kills."

"For all we knew, the lava could have destroyed the spirit," Crazy pointed out as she began to capture the other spirit.

"But it didn't."

Once the spirit was captured, we began to follow the path forward. A thought popped into my mind as we crossed a bridge to another island. "Where does all this lava come from?"

"Maybe there was a sale at Villain Mart," Crazy joked. "But in all likelihood, this might just be connected to an underground reservoir of magma. Make some holes and use some magic, you could make it rise to form this ocean."

"Well, regardless of how it was made, all this lava makes the place too hot," I said, trying to cool myself down. As I did, something caught my eye. I ran over to a green pipe, sticking out perpendicular to the ground. "Hey Crazy! What's this?"

"That would be a warp pipe," She explained. "You jump in and -what are you doing!"

I looked over at her with one leg already in the pipe. "You said jump in."

"What if I said you jump and have all your skin horribly removed? You should wait until I finish."

"I don't see why you're so worried about this." I said, removing my foot.

"What happens if we get split up?" She poked me in the chest. "Having to fight Puppet Fighters by yourself doesn't sound fun, does it?"

"I get it but can we go in now?" After Crazy nodded, we jumped into the warp pipe. My vision went dark before a light appeared in front of me. I jumped into it and came out of the pipe. Glancing around, it looked like we went to a different island. The new island was a bit smaller, with us on a larger circular platform that was connected to a smaller one by a bridge. Said bridge was being guarded by a sleeping dog with two heads.

"Orthrus?" I asked. On further inspection, the dog did not actually have two heads. It just looked like an average brown dog. I couldn't tell what breed though. The second head came from a duck that was sleeping on its back. I turned to Crazy, "Is that just a random dog and duck or is the dog a Puppet Fighter?"

"The dog and duck make up a Smasher. We just refer to both of them as Duck Hunt." Crazy pointed her Staff at them. "Get ready to fight."

I pulled out my Beam Sword in one hand and the Steel Diver in the other. On the count of three, Crazy and I shot at Duck Hunt. Both of our shots hit them and the dog and duck went flying. Grabbing onto the dog, the duck flapped its wings and righted the pair as they landed on the bridge.

The dog spun, pulling out a frisbee with its mouth and threw it. I ran towards Duck Hunt, hitting the frisbee away. However, as soon as the blade touched the frisbee, the disc burst apart and I was flung back. I jumped to my feet, running back at the duo.

The dog pulled another object out, a red can. It kicked the can at me. I brought the Steel Diver up, shooting at the can when something happened. A reticle appeared on the can and it jumped over my torpedo. More reticles showed on the can, each one knocking the can further and further up in the air until they let it drop. The can landed at my feet, blowing up.

I was knocked off my feet again, landing on my back, and I slid across the ground. My slide was finally stopped by Crazy. She quipped, "You're not having the best of luck with this, are you?"

Before I could retort, I was interrupted by a frisbee landing on my face. A reticle appeared on it and it shattered with a gunshot. "Ow!"

"Yeah, Duck Hunt is a bit tricky to fight if you don't know what you're doing."

I jumped to my feet, "Well, I think I know what I'm doing now! Sorta."

I ran back at Duck Hunt, shooting another can and ducking under a frisbee as I approached. I slashed at the pair, knocking them back before they dashed to me. The duck pecked me in the leg several times but I knocked them away with another slash.

"Duck!" I did so and a bullet flew threw the air, striking Duck Hunt. I turned, seeing Crazy do a cowboy spin with her Staff.

"Show-off," I muttered before focusing again on the fight at hand. Duck Hunt decided to not be a camper and began to run at me. I put the Steel Diver away and tossed my Beam Sword at Duck Hunt. It bounced off the dog's head, halting them for a moment, and I dashed forward, Death's Scythe in hand. A dark purple aura surrounded Duck Hunt and I swung the scythe at them. The blade made contact and they disintegrated into smoke.

"So that's the insta-kill feature," I wondered as I went to go pick up my sword.

"Nathan, why do you keep throwing your sword?" Crazy went to collect the spirit and gold that the spirit dropped. "One day it's going to fall into lava or something and get destroyed."

"I throw it because it's unexpected," I explained. "I threw it this time because I need both hands to use the scythe. It feels too awkward if I use one hand. The sword stopped Duck Hunt long enough for me to use it."

"I guess it's nice to see that you have the skeleton of a plan." Crazy walked past me, "Let's see what on the other end of the bridge."

We crossed to the smaller island and found a switch. I stepped on it, causing blocks to appear and connect the island we were on to several others. We moved along, to a surprising lack of Puppet Fighters. I found another switch that brought more block bridges into existence, reaching the final island.

"Nathaniel, I am getting a very bad feeling from this." Crazy said, as we walked off the bridge. We crossed onto a rather plush velvet carpet that ran up stairs to a higher level of the island. Torches were set to the sides like some kind of flaming rail guard in case we fell into lava. Crazy pulled out her Staff, preparing to fight at anytime.

The lack of Puppet Fighters on the island meant one of two things: we had killed all of them in the first 10 minutes of entering the fortress or, there was something else here that made the presence of more fighters unnecessary. The tension we felt in the air was so thick, you cou-

"Will you stop that driveling monologue? It's pretty boring after listening to it for 10 minutes."

I let out a scream before clamping my hands over my mouth and Crazy shot me a glare. I thought to Oblivion, "By the name of grilled cheese, you scared the daylights out of me! And how are you hearing my thoughts? You said that you can only hear the ones directed at you!"

"Well, I can eavesdrop. But only on surface-level thoughts! That's just it." Oblivion responded. "By the way, check out that island to your right."

"Hey! Crazy!" I started slapping her on the arm to get her attention. "Look! Look! Another Smasher Statue!"

"Stop hitting me!" she hissed. Crazy turned her head to the island that Oblivion had pointed out. On it, sat another Smasher Statue. "Oh. Well, let's get to it then."

"Shoot, more back-tracking."

We went back to the first island in the castle before making our way to the one with the statue on it. We hit another switch to make a bridge of blocks to connect to the island and I ran across, eager to see who's next. I was greeted with a lightning bolt to the face.

I flinched before scanning for who shot it. A white-haired man with a black cloak, wielding a sword in one hand and a book in the other stood before me. He dropped the sword and flipped through his book, the sword levitating at his side. I sidestepped a fireball he threw out. The fireball passed me and hit the bridge, bursting into a pillar of flames.

Crazy shouted from behind the pillar, "You're fighting Robin! Just keep pressuring him!"

"Come on Robin, let me hit you," I said, pulling out my Beam Sword and slashing him away with it. "All of the cool fighters are doing it."

"What in God's name are you doing?" Oblivion questioned as I duck under another lightning bolt. The flame pillar blocking Crazy had died down so she ran onto the island, shooting at Robin as he jumped away.

"Peer pressure," I explained as I shot at Robin while he was in midair with the Steel Diver. The torpedo hit him head-on and he was flung into the lava. Before he sank into it, Robin flipped through his book before shooting a gust of wind down, pushing back onto the platform.

"You're a moron."

I jumped over a fireball and swung at Robin again. We locked the blades together. Robin let his book float and put both hands on his sword, trying to overpower me. I decided on a different approach. Reaching over, I shoved the Steel Diver into his chest and fired.

The explosion blasted him away and I followed quickly, grabbing onto his collar. I spun on one foot and kicked Robin towards the edge. Crazy fired at him, knocking him into the lava. I ran to the edge and fired at Robin before he was able to use his magic, forcing him to sink into the lava.

"Yay for lava being an easy kill," I said.

I walked to check the Smasher Statue but Crazy stopped me. "Nathan, you knocked Robin into the lava, right?"

"Yes? Why?" She pointed to the spot where Robin fell in. The patch of lava in question was bubbling softly. "Oh come on! How do you survive lava?"

"Bowser does it all the time," Crazy commented. The lava began to bubble quicker and quicker until they suddenly stopped. I took a few steps away from the ledge and pulled Crazy back as well.

A giant shadow shot out of the lava and landed behind us. Dripping in swiftly cooling lava, the creature let out a ferocious roar, blowing the lava off its body. With a hideous maw and wicked talons, I recognized the new fighter before us.

"Oh, it's just Ridley again. I was actually scared for a moment there." I sighed. "I thought we wouldn't get any repeats for a while but this is fine."

"But you already fought Mario twice though," Crazy pointed out. I ignored her and ran towards the new Ridley. This one was a purple instead of green but was the same size as the one I fought outside the castle. Ridley tried to fly at me, his arm outstretched but I jumped over and swung at his back. The momentum from Ridley's charge ended the same moment I landed, and I did a short hop towards Ridley, stabbing the blade of my Beam Sword into his foot.

Roaring in pain, Ridley swiped at me with a claw. I withdrew my sword from Ridley's foot and hopped outside of Ridley's reach. Countering, I struck at Ridley's shoulder before rolling out of the way. The counter wasn't enough to launch Ridley but Crazy fired at Ridley several times which was enough to.

I fired at the dragon while he was in midair but he righted himself using his wings and dodged the torpedoes I shot. Ridley began to gather a breath as he fell and began to shoot a series of fireballs at Crazy and I when he landed. I got hit by a few but was able to put out the fire that spread to my clothes while Crazy dodged all of them. The dragon dashed towards me but I jumped over him again. I landed behind Ridley but I was launched off my feet by a slash across my back.

Rolling to my feet once I hit the ground, a shadow loomed over me. I yelped and looked up to find Ridley standing over me, a claw outstretched to tear me apart. I raised my arms to block but Ridley flinched once I heard Crazy's Staff ring out. I stabbed with my sword while Ridley stopped and aimed for his chest. The sword drove through and Ridley stopped. Slowly, Ridley crumbled to smoke and my sword dropped to the ground.

"Is Ridley always that big?" I panted out. I fell onto my butt as I tried to catch my breath. "I think I lost a few years off my lifespan when Ridley read my landing."

"Ridley's actually bigger." Crazy collected the spirit that popped up from where Ridley was.

"What."

"Yeah, we actually had to shrink him down a bit to be in the tournament. But the two you just fought looked like they were affected by a Mushroom." As my brain tried to comprehend just how big Ridley could be, Crazy peered over at the lava. "I think that Robin and Ridley were from the spirit. What's the statue?"

I walked over to the statue and checked the nameplate:

Smasher No. 13
Peach

"I'm fighting fruit now?"

"That's just her name," Crazy hissed. "She's the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. She shouldn't be too much trouble as long as you stay on your toes."

"Yes ma'am." I gave a salute before activating the statue. The wall set itself up and before me stood a woman with a gold crown atop her blonde hair. She wore a pink dress with a blue brooch and was armed with a pink parasol. I gave a quick bow, "Milady. I do apologize but I'm going to beat you up now."

"Why are you like this?" Oblivion sighed as I ran at the princess, readying my sword. I swung but Peach pulled something out from behind her. It was a short guy with a big white mushroom cap with red dots on his head. My blade struck the guy and he shot spores(?) out at me.

I was sent reeling back which Peach used to her advantage. She sent me flying with a frying pan, pulled from her inventory. Peach jumped after me, pulling off her crown and swiping me with it.

I flew into the wall and fell to the ground. On the other side of the wall, Crazy sat there. "I said stay on your toes. Are you doing that? No."

I glared at her before turning back to Peach, who was sipping tea, from a porcelain cup and a saucer. Pulling out the Steel Diver, I shot at her. The princess dodged the first torpedo but got hit by the second one. After getting back to her feet, Peach got better at dodging my shots, weaving between them. Once she was a few feet away from me, Peach lunged her entire body at me, butt-first.

I jumped over her and slashed at her in midair. She slammed against the wall and I shot at her once I landed. The torpedo hit her dead on. Rushing through the explosion, I grabbed her by the collar and threw her the ground. Peach bounced off the ground and I charged a slash before letting it go at her. The blade cut cleanly through Peach and she collapsed into smoke, dropping another amiibo.

"Told you that Peach wouldn't be too much trouble," Crazy said as the wall fell. I picked up the amiibo and stared at it, ready for my next memory.

"5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Ready or not, here I come!"

That was Brandon. I was about 4, and playing at my church. There about 5 of us playing hide-n-seek. I was currently in the hallway, desperately looking for a hiding spot. My brother went into the gym, my sister was hiding in the office, and Jason ran into the bathroom. I spun around the room, looking for a spot to hide.

Maybe under the chairs? No, they could still see me.

I heard footsteps coming from the hall. I thought quickly. Next to the office door was the closet. As fast as I could, I opened the door and shut it behind me.

I sat down among the cleaning equipment and tried to suppress my giggles. They would never find me in here!

I listened carefully to what was happening outside the closet. I heard footsteps closeby. A door creaked open and I heard someone cry out. My sister was found.

The footsteps sped up and faded as they moved away from my hiding spot. I held my hands over my mouth, not even risking the slightest sound.

Minutes continued to tick by into what felt like hours. I kept the closet light off for fear of it giving away my position. Sitting in the darkness, I began to imagine it move.

The darkness clung to me. I couldn't move my feet.

It made its way up from my feet, traveling slowly up my legs.

Reaching my knees, I decided to turn the lights on. I reached my hand out for the switch, only hitting cold wall as I felt for it.

I realized the problem. The switch was outside the closet, next to the door.

"T-that's not a problem," I told myself. "No one will be outside."

My hands crept along the wall, finally reaching the doorknob. I gripped it, preparing for the burst of light that would come from outside. No such thing happened.

The knob refused to turn. I was stuck in the closet with a darkness that had reached my waist and continued to climb my body. I fell to the ground, crying.

Five minutes later, my siblings had found me sobbing on the closet floor.

I stood quiet. I never liked small places.

"Nathaniel, are you okay?" Oblivion asked. "You usually have some kind of comment after you see a memory."

"I'm fine," I whispered to him, choking back a sob. I'm 18, why would a childhood memory of being stuck in a closet bother me so much? I turned to Crazy, "You ready to go back to the main island?"

I tossed her the amiibo and we made our way back to the final island. We walked up some stairs to find a black void with eyes sitting atop a throne.

"Is that the boss?" I questioned. The void grew, forming arms and legs. The eyes shaped itself into a head and the darkness faded. Standing in front of the throne was a bipedal turtle with a spiked shell and red hair that had two horns sticking through them.

"Bowser? But there wasn't a Smasher Statue so that means," Realization dawned on Crazy. "Oh no."

Dark energy began to spark around Bowser, wrapping around his body. He got on all fours and there was a flash of light. Once the light died down, Bowser stood before us. The turtle had become even more monstrous easily dwarfing Crazy and I. The spikes on his back became dangerously sharp, the horn developed a wicked curve to them, and fangs sprouted out of his mouth like a cave of daggers.

I took a step back as he roared. Bowser, Giga Bowser now I guess, was bigger than anything I had fought so far, how could I beat him? My weapons would barely scratch him.

I turned my head to look at Crazy. She stood her ground, unfazed by the monstrosity before her. I stepped forward beside her, gathering my courage.

"We'll just have to do everything we can to take this guy down. Right?" I wondered out loud, withdrawing my Beam Sword and Steel Diver. Crazy looked at me from the corner of her eye, smirking. Giga Bowser charged at us.

Crazy dodged and I did the same. Although there was a problem. Giga Bowser targeted me and followed. Despite the immense size, Giga Bowser was pretty quick on his feet. Swiping with his claw, Giga Bowser grabbed onto me and jumped. As I tried to withhold my nausea, I felt the world flip and I looked up at the floor. I flew into it, sandwiched between the stone ground and Giga Bowser's massive body.

Giga Bowser soon got off as I layed on the floor, trying to see if the pain would subside. I raised my head, pain shooting through my skull. There was no blood and Bowser is a Smasher so the fight looked like a fight from a Smasher Statue with no walls. Good. I looked for Crazy to see her dodge flames that the boss spewed from his mouth. Unfortunately, she stepped too close to Giga Bowser and he withdrew into his shell, spinning to create a blizzard.

Crazy got flung to where I lay, frozen in a block of ice. I shakily got to my feet and hobbled over to her as the ice broke. "Any ideas?"

"One of us will have to distract him so the other could hit him." She managed to get out as her teeth chattered.

"I'll distract him." Before Crazy could respond, I made a mad charge at Giga Bowser, shooting torpedoes to get his attention.

Good news: I did get his attention. Bad news: I got his attention.

Brushing off the explosions, Giga Bowser tried swiping at me again. I rolled under his arm, slashing at his belly and jumped away before the turtle could react. I slid between his legs as fire was shot to where I was seconds ago. I heard Crazy's Staff go off several times and Giga Bowser roared in pain. I turned to see that he turned his attention to Crazy and was now charging after her.

I started shooting at Giga Bowser's head but he ignored them. Crazy charged at Giga Bowser and slid between his legs as he breathed fire down where she stood moments ago. She ran to where I was and knocked me on the head with a knuckle. "That was stupid of you."

"Criticize me after the fight," I shot back. We turned our attention back to Giga Bowser, who was standing over us. The boss had closed the distance between us as Crazy and I talked. Opening his maw, fire spilled out and Crazy and I split up.

I backpedaled, trying to stay out of Giga Bowser's reach. I was successfully as Giga Bowser swiped at me several times, only to come up empty-handed. My feet then tripped over the edge of the velvet carpet and I fell to the ground, hard. Bowser pulled his arm back, preparing to punch me. Fear shot through me. If getting punched by this monster didn't kill me immediately from impact, the punch would be enough to launch me over the edge of the platform and I would fall into the lava.

"This isn't over yet!" a voice cried out. Someone dashed out in front of me, armed with a sword. I tried to yell at them to move as the fist came at us when the guy waved his sword in front of him. A rainbow lingered in the air from the swordpoint. As soon as, the rainbow touched Giga Bowser, the monster instantly spun around, with his back now facing us.

The swordsman walked over to me, reaching at his hand. I grabbed it and he pulled me to my feet. He looked to be a little taller than average, with a plain-looking sword in a gloved hand. Wearing a blue tunic, he had blond hair that had a small ponytail at the base of his neck. From his grip, the swordsman was definitely well-muscled. I asked in amazement, "Who are you?"

"I am Sir Clarence O'Leary," he replied. "I believe you require some assistance in this fight."

Save File 2: Saved

Party: Nathaniel, Oblivion(?), Crazy

Items: Nathaniel-Beam Sword, Steel Diver, Death's Scythe

Crazy Hand- Staff, Deku Nuts x2, Green Shell

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

Author's Theater:

Nathaniel: What the heck was that?!

MG: *flipping through a book* What do you mean?

Nathaniel: I'm getting my butt kicked and then this guy comes out of nowhere and saves me. Then the chapter just ends! He's not even here!

MG: It's called a cliffhanger. *turns to audience* About the new summary, I'm still working on it so I'll probably change it next week.