Author's Note:

What to talk about first?

To start, this chapter is a bit shorter than the last couple so sorry about that in advance. I'll be leaving for college in two weeks so I might be able to get another chapter but that's a maybe.

Speaking of college, I'm starting college soon so SWOL might go into another month-long hiatus but hopefully not.

And then there was that Nintendo Direct yesterday. It was interesting. I'm not particularly excited for any new games but I liked what I from Fatal Fury was announced as the 4th DLC fighter in challenger pack 1 and more DLC fighters were in development. Also, Banjo and Kazooie got released. I played them for a bit and had some fun but I'm not sure when I'll add them to the story. NINTENDO WHY! I HAVEN'T EVEN PUT HERO IN YET!

I almost completely forgot about this but for the Hero poll, Erdrick from Dragon Quest III is in the lead.

In other news, SWOL hit 40 followers! Thank you to ZenGreatGamer, esonic1, Felipexza, humancreeper, eminutemen18, FireDragonShrimp, and RoomyLEGO101 for being the newest people to follow SWOL! If anyone doesn't want to be mentioned, just send me a PM.

Review Responses:

14shiffna: Trauma for everyone!

Elysium: Don't worry, Oblivion is here with all your exposition answers! Also, I think that I might be rushing the Oblivion sub-plot too much so you won't get much after this chapter for your Oblivion theory for a while.

Bob E: Sadly enough, Banjo won't show up for a very long time at the rate I'm writing this.

Chapter 27: Kid or Squid?

"What do you mean by a fragment?"

"I mean what I said," Oblivion answered. "It's possible that a fragment of my power was affecting Joker."

"Which I absorbed."

"Yes. Although, it might be a while before any such power manifests in you."

"Alright, fine. Then, why did Joker attack us?" I frowned as I thought back at the voice. Piranha Plant dragged Joker back to Gym already, leaving Clarence and I to finish with the city. "And what in the freaking salad bowl is a fragment, exactly."

"A fragment is what it sounds like, a smaller part of a whole. Higher Entities are capable of splitting themselves into smaller fragments," Oblivion elaborated. "Those fragments can have some semblance of free will, and are usually used to fulfill some designated task if the main entity is occupied in some way."

"Don't suppose you can give me an example, can you?"

"Imagine if Crazy created a clone of herself to grab a snack for her while she watched TV. The clone would do that and after the task is complete, Crazy would reintegrate the clone into herself after the task is complete. Naturally, fragments would have less power than the original whole."

The frown grew as I thought. Having a clone of Crazy, even with reduced powers, would help a lot. Then again, I haven't seen Crazy do much with her powers.

"It would be cool if she could just make an entire army of Crazys. Just conquer the entire world like that."

"That's idiotic and a waste of energy."

"I'm just saying, that would be cool. So, why did it attack us?" A thought hit me, regarding Joker and Oblivion's fragment. "And why did it possess Joker?"

"The answers to both depends on circumstances." Oblivion paused. If he had his own body, I could just imagine him posing like the Thinker statue. "The most likely answer besides it having orders to attack us, is that the task it had originally has been completed. Then, due to not being reabsorbed, it could have gone berserk."

"Does that happen often?"

"No, normally fragments just fade away instead of going berserk. But that may be due to the second question. Joker could have found the fragment and accidently absorbed it, which then led to a berserk state."

"Oh, cool."

"Nathaniel, stop talking to yourself befo-" I walked into something solid, landing on my butt. "Never mind."

Clarence sighed as I picked myself up, rubbing my nose. "Ow, ow ow. What did I even walk into?"

It was another Smasher statue:

Smasher No. 64
Inkling

"Inkling, Inkling." I put my hand to my chin, "Which one was that again? I think I fought them before."

Clarence took his turn to look at the plate, "64? How many Smashers are there?"

"At least 70. Don't recall the exact number but it's definitely between one and infinity." Stretching, I hopped over to the statue. "Alright, time to start."

Before Clarence could answer, I slapped the nameplate. As always, the statue fell apart and a wall spread the statue, pushing Clarence from the center.

"A thousand curses upon you!" Clarence shouted as I gave him a wave.

I decided to start the fight with the Fire Bar, watching Inkling hop out onto the field. This one had orange squid hair, a white shirt with black shorts, orange ink tank on the back and a black eye mask.

"I remember you, I fought four of you." I said, "But they were yellow."

Inkling decided to respond by pulling out a big paint roller and charged, spreading paint along her path.

I jumped over, landing behind Inkling. Reversing course, Inkling moved to crush me with the roller.

I shielded against the attack, grabbing Inkling once the roller passed. Pummeling with the butt of my weapon a few times, I threw Inkling to the ground and kicked her away.

Rolling back to her feet, Inkling lobbed an Ink Bomb towards me. The bomb exploded, splashing me in ink.

As I wiped my face off, Inkling ran me over with the Roller, leaving me on the ground. Inkling made a U-turn again but picking myself up, I jumped over, slashing Inkling on the back using the Fire Bar.

As Inkling got knocked away, I smoked dashed while falling, moving to where Inkling would land. Reforming, I slashed again, launching Inkling across the battlefield.

Inkling hit the ground. Instead of simply landing, Inkling shrank and sank into the ground as a puddle of orange ink. Speeding towards me, Inkling swam as if the ground was water.

"Calamari. Of course, the ground can just be treated like water."

Jumping out, Inkling flipped and performed a helicopter kick, striking me in the head. As I stumbled back, Inkling swam through the ground, jumped once she was close enough, and hit me with the helicopter kick again.

As I got knocked back, Inkling swam closer again and jumped to do the same move a third time. Before the attack landed, I smoke dashed, moving through Inkling.

Reforming, I slashed and sent Inkling into the wall. As Inkling fell to the ground, she began to glow rainbow.

"Do we know what Inkling's Final Smash is?" I asked Oblivion.

"No, but on the bright side, you get to find out very soon."

The rainbow glow faded slightly as Inkling pulled out from her inventory, a strange cannon-like weapon. It vaguely reminded me of a bullhorn but this one was much larger, requiring two handles to hold it up, and the back had several tubes.

"That would be a Killer Wail."

"A whale?"

The Killer Wail fired, blasting out a seismic scream concentrated in my direction.

Grabbing my head, I fell to the ground. Someone replaced my brain with rats. Rats that were disease-ridden, mangy and starved to the point where they would cannibalize each other. The pain was second only to what I had felt before Joker arrived.

Something struck me. Launched away, the pain in my head disappeared as I left the Killer Wail's range.

Orienting myself, I saw Inkling charge at me while the Killer Wail slowly turned towards me, floating in the air where Inkling had activated it.

I switched the Fire Bar for the Beehive. Tossing the item at Inkling, I turned and ran to avoid the Killer Wail's onslaught.

Outside the weapon's range, the screech it made got reduced to a more tolerable, high-pitched whine. A whine that grew as it began to catch up to me.

I double-jumped, escaping into the air as the Final Smash timed out. At the same time, the bees attacking Inkling died off, leaving only me and her left.

Inkling began firing her gun, spraying orange ink at me. I backpedaled away, trying to keep out of range as she began to advance.

My back hit the wall. At the same moment, the spray of ink stopped.

Inkling checked the tank on her back. Empty.

Taking the opportunity, I dashed towards Inkling. Drawing the Fire Bar, I cut through the Smasher, finishing the fight with that blow.

Inkling's amiibo dropped to the ground, causing the wall to fall.

"You could have simply told me that you were going to fight Inkling instead of doing so without warning." Clarence walked up as I grabbed the amiibo.

Rolling my eyes, I stared at the amiibo and let the forgotten memories pour into my mind.

One minute left.

Feet pounded the floorboards as players ran across the court.

The basketball passed between teammates.

48 seconds left.

A player held the ball, ready to shoot it in the basket.

The ball began to leave his fingertips, becoming airborne.

31. The number on the player's jersey. He had smashed the ball back into the floor, stealing it from the opposing team.

34 seconds left.

Making a mad dash across the court, Player 31 dribbled the ball, dodging players from the opposing team.

Two players blocked 31's way, halting his advance as he held the ball.

29 seconds left.

31 jumped, passing the ball over the defenders towards a teammate, 74.

74 caught the ball, just in time to see a defender blocking his way.

Moving to the left, 74 reversed courses, moving the ball to the right and passing it to a teammate closer to the basket. Teammate 57.

57 jumped, shooting the ball. He had shot too hastily as the ball bounced off the backboard and back towards the players.

Cheers erupted from one half of the audience and elicited groans from the other.

13 seconds left.

The players made a mad dash towards the ball but one player was faster than the rest.

Player 9 grabbed the ball and threw it overhead to a player who had not joined the rush.

Player 64. Catching the ball, he squared his feet and jumped, shooting the ball in a perfect arc towards the basket.

With a swish, Player 64 scored three points.

5 seconds left.

The ball was given to the other team. Feet pounded the floorboards as the players moved across the court again.

In desperation, a player threw ball from across the court. He missed spectacularly, the ball hitting the wall.

0 seconds. Game's over. Final score is 72-70.

The people around me cheered. My sister nudged me, "Hey, Nate! (_) made the winning shot!"

The teams shook hands as the audience ran down to talk to family on the teams.

"How old were we when that happened?" I asked myself, "I think I was 8."

"Did you say something Nathaniel?" Clarence asked.

"No, nothing. Let's see if there's anything else in the city."

There was nothing else in the city.

"An entire afternoon, wasted." I said. After the Inkling fight, Clarence and I had searched the rest of the city and were now returning to the Gym.

Opening the front doors, I found a tea party. Piranha Plant and Crazy sat at a table, calmly drinking tea.

"Aren't we missing people?" I asked as Clarence accepted a cup from Crazy. "Where's Cannon Girl?"

"Stop calling me that or I will pour coffee on you." A voice behind me said. I turned to see Aimee behind standing in the doorway, coffee mug in one hand and Crazy's Switch in the other.

"Didn't you have a cannon for a hand?"

Giving me a death glare, Aimee said, "I would throw coffee on you but it would be a waste of good coffee."

"So you're not a robot like Mega Man?"

"Crazy, why did you pick this idiot?"

Crazy shrugged, "He was kinda my only option at the time and I was pretty desperate before our party started getting filled out."

Taking a seat, Aimee motioned with the Switch, "This thing is pretty nifty. Shame that it can't access the internet."

"Wait, so she doesn't want to drag me to Galeem anymore?"

"Did you check out the map on it?" Crazy asked.

"Yep." Taking a long sip of her coffee, Aimee pointed to the map on the Switch, "I think we should head here next. I remember Galeem mentioning something about a guardian."

"Why are we taking advice from someone who shot lasers at us?"

"Perhaps you could elaborate more on what you mean by a guardian?" Clarence asked.

"Simple. Galeem put up a barrier around himself. There's three guardians and as long as they're alive, the barrier stays up and therefore, we can't touch him," Aimee explained. "According to Crazy, you guys already got one. Giga Bowser, that's what you called him, right?"

"Can you please stop ignoring me?"

"Is that what you called the giant turtle?" Clarence turned to Crazy, who nodded.

I took a peek at the location Aimee had pointed to on the map. The spot was southeast of where we were, it was some kind of laboratory, past a gorge filled with giant mushrooms.

"Hey, Crazy. Didn't we pass this little area before?" I pointed to a spot along the path we would take.

Crazy peered closer to the screen as realization lit up her face, "Oh yeah! That was where you fought Villager."

"So now that our route has been decided, shall we leave now wait for the night to pass."

Crazy finished off her tea cup, moving to pour herself another one. "We should just leave tomorrow morning. Joker's still out cold but he should be up tomorrow. For now, all of you should get some rest."

The group split, Crazy and Clarence going into the kitchen, Piranha Plant went outside, presumably for photosynthesis and Aimee stayed at the table, drinking coffee.

I started to tiptoe out of the room. Unfortunately, Aimee called me before I made it out of the room. "Hey, it's Nathaniel, right?"

I froze. "Yes?"

"You don't answer a question with a question nitwit."

My face broke into a frown. "My name is Nathaniel. What do you want?"

She peered at me from over the rim of her mug. "Crazy said that you have amnesia, right?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

Aimee shrugged, "Nothing. It's not everyday you meet an amnesiac who's pretty lax."

"Uh huh." I moved to my own question. "So out of curiosity, why are you working with us now? Didn't you say that Galeem was the winning side?"

She shrugged again. "Maybe, maybe not. And the details of the contract I have with Crazy is confidential. It's only between me and her."

"Contract?"

"That's all you need to know. I'm not saying anything else."

Aimee joined your party!

I left the room, calling Oblivion, "Hey, is reading minds part of your moveset?"

"I don't think so. Why ask?"

"Nuggets. Aimee could be lying about working with us. She could just be lying so she can tie me up and drag me to Galeem in the middle of the night and I am not ready to face Doom Lasers yet."

Oblivion sighed, "Do you have any evidence to support your claim?"

"She shot lasers at us and said that she killed people before."

"Sure, but that's not exactly strong pieces of evidence. Why don't you wait a bit and see if you can actually get anything decisive. She mentioned something about a contract with Crazy so maybe you could start there."

I yawned, my eyes watering. "Let's just do that tomorrow. Curse this human body and its needs for rest and sustenance."

Save File 2: Saved

Party: Nathaniel, Oblivion(?), Crazy, Clarence, Piranha Plant, Aimee

Items: Nathaniel- Steel Diver, Fire Flower, Beehive, Fire Bar

Crazy Hand- Staff, Deku Nuts, Green Shell, Bob-omb, Bombchu x3, Smart Bomb

Clarence-Special Flag

Piranha Plant- None

Aimee- None

Smashers: Mario, Link, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Captain Falcon, Jigglypuff, Peach, Bowser, Dr. Mario, Pichu, Lucario, Villager, Little Mac, Inkling

Author's Theater:

Nathaniel: So according to the instructions, we need to screw that part in first.

Clarence: I broke the screws by accident.

Aimee: I say we add turrets to it.

Crazy: That sounds awesome! We should add catapults too!

Nathaniel: I was going to say that sounds insane but I forgot who I was talking to for a moment.

MG: Do you guys mind telling me what you're doing so I know when to take cover when it blows up?

Clarence: A dresser.

MG: Then why do you need turrets?

Crazy & Aimee: Why not?