Author's Note: School's picking up a bit. Not sure if it will affect updates but it definitely has been hurting my focus on writing these chapters.

Disclaimer: I do not own Nintendo, Super Smash Bros. and/or any franchises or characters that may or may not appear in this fic. I only own the story and a handful of characters. If I did own Nintendo, we would have had a January Nintendo Direct.

Chapter 14: Clarence Cuts In!

I turned to look at Giga Bowser, then back at Clarence. "Fine," I muttered. "You could help."

"Very well," he answered. We ran at Giga Bowser. The boss spat fire and we dodged to the sides, Clarence went left and I rolled right. Giga Bowser turned to face Clarence but turned to me when a torpedo blew up on the back of his head.

Giga Bowser charged, and Clarence slid out from between the monster's legs, slashing at them as he did. Giga Bowser fell onto his back and I ran to Clarence. He crouched and cupped his hands together, giving me a boost to jump and plunged my sword into Giga Bowser's stomach.

Roaring, Giga Bowser spun back onto his feet. I was flung away, losing my grip on my Beam Sword in the process. Thankfully, my fall was cushioned.

"Oof!" Crazy yelped as I slammed into her. She fell onto her back with me on top. "Why? And who's that?"

"Some guy named Clarence," I groaned, rolling off of Crazy. Getting back to my feet, I looked at how the fight was going. The new guy was surprisingly still alive, moving out of the way of Giga Bowser's fire breath.

As he slashed at Giga Bowser's leg, the swordsman began to glow with a rainbow aura. Crazy shouted, "Use your Final Smash!"

Clarence backflipped away from a claw swipe. He did a few swings as the rainbow aura began to coalesce around the blade of his sword.

"Final Edge!" He announced. Beginning to slash rapidly, Clarence began shooting multi-colored sword slashes from his sword. The crescents flew towards Giga Bowser in a red/green/blue flurry that began to cut the boss to shreds. Giga Bowser fell apart, ending the battle with the sound of the amiibo and Beam Sword dropping.

"Fudge," I muttered. I walked over to pick my sword and the amiibo. Picking them up, I turned to eye Clarence, who promptly began to leave.

"Hey, wait!" Crazy ran after him. Meanwhile, I just looked down at the Bowser amiibo in my hand. After fighting Giga Bowser, regular Bowser didn't seem to be anything special. Wait.

"Aren't you supposed to get your memory back?" Oblivion asked what I was thinking.

"I don't know. It's usually starts coming back when I look at the amiibo." Panic began to rise in me. Wouldn't this mean that I won't get all my memories back? What would I do then? On the other hand, I did say that recovering memories wasn't too much of a priority. Now, I can just focus on fighting Galeem. Yeah, that would be fine. Everything is fine. No need to worry.

"Nathaniel, Crazy Hand and that new guy are leaving without you," Oblivion said, snapping me from my thoughts. Pocketing Bowser and the memory issue, I chased after them.

"We would have been dead without your help," Crazy said to Clarence. I managed to catch up to the two as they exited the fortress.

"I know, as you have said for the fourth time already," Clarence answered.

"What's this? Excessive gratitude time?" I commented. Upon hearing my words, both of them turned to me with a pleading look.

Crazy sighed before gesturing at Clarence. "I'm trying to get this guy to come with us to help fight Galeem but he keeps refusing."

Clarence huffed, "And as I have told you already, I have already sworn an oath to my kingdom. I must return home as soon as possible to Laoth. Who knows what sort of evil has befallen my homeland?"

"And as I have said before," Crazy fumed, "Returning to your kingdom won't help when Galeem fuses your world with this one!"

The two began to argue as I began to think. Crazy wants Clarence to come help us. However, Clarence instead wants to go home.

A rumble cut through the two's bickering. I apologized, "Sorry about that. I'm pretty much running on fumes after that fight."

"How about we at least camp together for tonight?" Crazy suggested.

"But-" Clarence began before Crazy cut him off.

"As I have said, we owe you our lives, at least let repay with some dinner."

"I had that fight under control," I muttered as Clarence reluctantly agreed.

As we set up camp, Clarence began to share a bit of his life. He comes from the Kingdom of Laoth, one of twelve kingdoms in his world. After a war between the kingdoms, he was orphaned as his father died in combat and his mother died during childbirth. And so, Clarence was raised at an orphanage that a noble started to care for the orphans left by the war.

Due to how the orphanage works, he was able to enlist in the army and worked his way up. Currently, Laoth was in a war against several other kingdoms, led by a conqueror from the Amuria kingdom. I stopped listening after that, instead brainstorming with Oblivion about the Bowser amiibo.

"I think we can agree that the only two remaining is possibilities is that the Bowser amiibo didn't restore your memory is either due to Galeem making Bowser a boss or the memory you recover is just delayed," Oblivion theorized.

"Of course," I argued, "we don't even know the cause of my amnesia. It's possible that not all Smashers will give me back my memories. For all we know, recovering my memories when I defeat Smashers could just be coincidence in timing."

"True true." Oblivion admitted, "Should you tell Crazy about this? She might be able to help."

"That is out of the question. I made it clear to her that my memories weren't a priority. If I tell her about this, it'll make me seem like the type of person who changes their mind a lot."

"Are you really that worried about your self-worth in her eyes?" Oblivion questioned.

I thought about it before affirming my intention, "Well, that is maybe 5% of why. I just don't want to worry her. Like I said, my memories aren't a priority and it's not like they're absolutely needed to take down Galeem. If I don't have all my memories back after we beat Galeem, I'll worry about it then."

"Alright then," Oblivion wavered, then I felt his presence receding from my mind.

"Hey." Something tapped me on the shoulder.

"HOLY CHEESECAKES!" I yelped, jumping from my seat. Turning, Crazy was looking with a dismayed look on her face.

"Nathaniel, I'm heading to bed," she gestured for me to move closer to her and she whispered, "Could you keep trying to convince Clarence for me? I've been having no luck at getting him to join us."

I gave her a thumbs up and she headed into her tent. Finishing my soup, I began to stare at Clarence, who sat across from me and was sharpening his sword.

"Soooooooooo, how's life?" I asked.

Clarence looked up and gave me a blank stare. He gestured with his head towards Crazy's tent. "That woman. Who is she?"

"Her name's Crazy."

Giving me a worried look, Clarence questioned me, "You're trusting a woman named Crazy?"

"In my defense, I'm pretty sure that's a nickname." I paused, letting that sink into my own head. "Not sure how that's better but still, she helped me not die."

"Well," Clarence set aside his sword, giving me another worried look, "Crazy asked you to convince me to join the two of you, right?"

"Yep." I brought the bowl up to my mouth, only to put it down in disappointment as I realized it was empty.

"Shouldn't that be what you're doing?"

"Honestly, I don't care too much," I admitted, setting aside the bowl of disappointment soup. "Crazy and I have been doing fine so far so, I don't see much reason for you to join us."

"What are you two even doing? All Crazy told me was something about a guy named Galeem."

"Galeem, our enemy, is trying to fuse the worlds of the multiverse together for reasons unknown. In order to accomplish that goal, he has already fused several worlds into the one we're currently on." Telling Clarence about our situation, it felt like I was just reading it off a script. "In addition, Galeem has captured several of the multiverse's greatest fighters and imprisoned them. So now, we want to kill him for that."

Clarence continued to stare, "And why did you join her? You don't seem like you care too much about what happens."

I shrugged, "If I help, I get to join the tournament that all the fighters Galeem has were in. I guess there's the side-benefit of recovering from my amnesia by rescuing those fighters as well."

"So you have a personal stake in this as well," Crazy murmured, finally breaking eye contact.

I jumped up to my feet, "Alright, my turn to ask questions!" Before he could protest, I shot my first question at him, "Question 1! You introduced yourself as Sir Clarence O'Leary last chapter. Why did you add the sir?"

"What do you mean by last chapter?" He questioned, before getting silenced by a glare. "I told you, I'm a knight of my kingdom. It's faster to introduce myself with sir rather than a list of my achievements. I suppose I could introduce myself as Knight Clarence O'Leary, royal champion to Her Royal Highness-"

"I'm just gonna stop you right there," I interrupted. "Next question! How'd you get to this world?"

Looking slightly miffed that I interrupted him, Clarence answered. "I'm not sure. I was sleeping one night and I heard a voice. The voice introduced himself as some being named Master Hand and he was asking for help. I answered and I woke up here."

"So, you were sent here after accepting a plea for help but now you want to go home," I raised an eyebrow at him. "Seems like a jerk move, right?"

"Regardless of it being a jerk move or not, my priority is to my kingdom, not-" he gestured with his arm at our surroundings, "-the entire multiverse. I must return to Laoth to protect my people."

"Alright then. Anyway, if you're a knight, where's your stuff? I thought knights had shining armor, equipped with a sword and shield, riding a horse and mowing down enemies like weeds."

"An image of knighthood like a child," Clarence whispered to himself. His voice rose to answer my question, "My clothes were different when I woke up here and I had this sword. Any other equipment was gone. My guess is because of that Master Hand."

"Okay. Wha-" Clarence raised his hand, cutting me off.

"I asked four questions and you asked four. Now, we're even." In my response to my bewilderment, he clarified, "Seems like a jerk move, right?"

"Dang it."

Clarence got up, grabbing his sword, before walking away and gestured for me to follow.

I followed until he stopped a good distance away from camp. The knight spun around to face me and lifted his sword. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Why don't we spar?" Clarence said, doing a few practice swings. "I would like to see what you can do with that peculiar sword of yours."

"Fine, but I get to ask one more question after." I dug through my pockets, pulling out my Beam Sword and I clicked the button, the blade shooting out. I adjusted my stance as I prepared to fight Clarence, focusing on his sword.

A comment broke my concentration however, "Come to think of it, I never got your name."

"Oh yeah" My eyes shot up to Clarence's face, "It's-"

I got cut off by a sword flashing up to my face. I stumbled back from the ambush. Clarence kept the pressure up, advancing with precise sword strokes as I kept hopping away. He lunged, sword aiming at my stomach. Sidestepping the blade, I swung at his face.

Clarence rolled under and got to his feet. "Decent reflexes. As far as I can tell, you're mediocre with a blade."

"Ow," I muttered. Focusing my attention on his sword, my eyes widened as it was covered in a blue aura. Clarence dashed forward as the aura encased him, lunging out faster than he did before. I jumped to the side, but not quick enough as pain flared up in my side. Falling to a knee, my hand came away with blood after I touched my side.

"Great," I thought. "He could kill me."

"Shouldn't you just plead for mercy?" Oblivion commented. "He has you outmatched."

I stared at Clarence, who had been standing there after the lunge he did, my eyes narrowed. "No."

I ran at the swordsman, swinging my sword as hard as I could in an overhead strike. His sword flicked up, blocking my strike. I fell into mindless rage as I began to swing randomly at Clarence. Like my first strike, Clarence blocked all of them with ease, his sword stopping all of them.

Eventually, I stopped, gasping for breath. Watching me, Clarence spoke, "None of your attacks had much technique to them."

"Shush already," I managed to get out.

"Let's get you back to camp. I've seen enough." Clarence lent his shoulder to shoulder to help me walk back to camp. He handed me some of his soup to heal and I dropped onto my sleeping bag after eating it.

"He could have easily kicked your butt. I'm pretty sure he went easy on you," Oblivion goaded.

"Shush."

"He only did, like, three attacks. The rest was just you sucking enough to tire yourself out. That only took about three minutes."

"Your point is?" I grumbled.

"Why not ask him for lessons? You could learn more from him than you can from me," He pointed out.

I turned, looking at Clarence. He sat against a rock, eyes shut, and a spare blanket was draped over him. "What's the point? He's going to be leaving soon anyway."

"You don't know that."

"What, and you do?"

"Well, if he does stay, you should ask. You're kinda garbage compared to him." Oblivion left after those wonderful words.

"Freakin' voice in my head," I grumbled. "Says what he wants about my sword skills. Can he wield a sword better? No. Because he's just a voice. Doesn't even have any arms."

I shut my eyes and continued complaining about Oblivion. Eventually, the complaints dried up and I drifted off into sleep.

The cloaked man had changed clothes. He sat on a bench across from me, wearing a black jacket, dark blue jeans and black sneakers. Like my previous dreams, his face was obscured by the hood. Looking down, he played with what looked to be a phone.

I took a look at our surroundings. The previous dreams had taken place in what seemed to be stuffy war tent but this one was far different. We stood in a modern park, surrounded by rising skyscrapers that stretched into a bleak sky. The air was filled with honking cars, people talking, and something else.

I took a deep breath, only to recoil at the smog in the air. Covering my mouth with a sleeve, I made my way over to hooded guy as he began talking on the phone.

"Crazy, the target is exiting the building," I heard as I got within earshot. I sat next to him and followed his eyes to see a middle-aged man in business suit walk out of one of the skyscrapers and hurry down the sidewalk. The target carried a briefcase in one hand and spoke on the phone held in the other.

"Who's Crazy? Over."

The hooded guy looked at his phone and sighed before putting it back to his ear. "Chansey Tango, the egg has hatched. I repeat, the egg has hatched. Over."

"Roger that Sharpedo Waltz. Engaging now. Over."

"The whole purpose of this was to avoid attention," Sharpedo Waltz said. "Codenames like these will just attract attention."

"You think you have it bad?" A new voice came from the phone. It was Master Hand speaking.

"This line is only meant to be used for serious business Macarena Magikarp. Over," Crazy admonished.

I chuckled as Sharpedo Waltz got up and began to cross the street. Moving to follow, I gazed to see where the target went. Crazy spoke again from the phone, "The pokemon is in the ball. I repeat , the pokemon is in the ball. Over."

The hooded man ducked into an alleyway and I followed, only to stop as I saw him jump into an ice cream truck. "Perfect," I muttered, "The guy I'm dreaming about just kidnapped a guy. In hindsight, I should not be surprised by this."

Passing through the front of the truck, I passed Master Hand in the driver seat and went to the rear of the truck to find Crazy on a laptop. Sharpedo Waltz was rifling through the briefcase that the target had when he was walking earlier. As for the man in question, he was lying on the floor with a black eye.

"Did you really have knock him out?" Sharpedo Waltz asked, pulling out a manilla folder and dropping the briefcase.

"The guy works as Tabuu's lackey. He wouldn't just hand his stuff over nicely," she answered before snapping her fingers. "Think I got it. I now have access to all the data on this computer."

"Perfect. Let's dump this guy as soon as possible then." The hooded guy flipped through the folder a bit more, taking out some papers that seemed to catch his interest. Meanwhile, Crazy plugged a flash drive into the laptop and kept typing away. I moved closer to take a peek at what the hooded guy was looking at, only for him to shut the folder.

"I got everything we need," he said as he put the folder back into the briefcase. I moved over to Crazy to look at the laptop. Unfortunately, she shut it before I could look.

"I'm done on this end as well," she handed the laptop to the hooded guy, who stuffed it into the briefcase. Crazy bounded up to the front, "Hey bro, do you remember where the guy lives?"

"Yeah, let's get on our way." Master Hand moved the shift to drive but something started beeping.

I turned to see that Sharpedo Waltz pulled out his phone and was busy tapping away. "We got an incoming from another world. I'll take care of it."

"Are you sure?" Master Hand asked. "One of us could take care of it."

"No, I'll be fine. Besides, you don't need me for going through the stuff we just got." He jumped out of the van and walked to the main street. A crack in the sky appeared and through it, dark spores began to flood through, like water flowing through a cracked dam. The spores gathered once they landed, forming a humanoid shape with gloves, an army green body and hat with red eyes.

As people began to run past, the hooded guy confidently strode towards them. "Primids, huh? You would think that Tabuu would throw more than the standard mook at us, right?"

He cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled, "My name is Markus Grem! This will be your one and only chance to surrender! Refusal to do so will be met with a violent and painful end! Why am I doing this, you guys are not going to listen anyway!"

Markus was right. The Primids charged to attack him.

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, Bowser, Lucario, Villager

Author's Theater:

MG: Anyone up for a fun fact?

Clarence: I'm interested.

MG: Apparently it's bad luck to say Macbeth in a theater.

Nathaniel: WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

MG: Telling you guys about a cool fact tha-

Nathaniel: LOOK AROUND YOU! WE ARE IN A THEATER!

MG: Macbeth was only believed to be bad luck because it was typically used by low-budget acting companies. It's not actually cursed.

Crazy: Wait for it.

*crickets start chirping*

Crazy: I guess you may be ri- *part of the ceiling breaks and crushes MG* and I stand corrected.

Clarence: Is it like this every week with you people?

Nathaniel: Sometimes.