It's been a long time since I made a story, and the longest I went without writing one since I started out in 2003! Guess I deserve a long break for writing almost nonstop for about two decades...
I've been playing Goddess of Victory: Nikke since the day it was released and really like it, so have been wanting to write a crossover story with it for a while already, but I couldn't decide on what series to cross over with.
After brainstorming several ideas, I decided to settle with Smash Bros., a series I've been writing about since day one, albeit not THE Smash Bros. series I always make…
I've decided to use a similar format to my Touhou and SSB crossover, Journey to the Smashing Beyond, but so that the concept isn't completely the same… You know what? Just read and find out for yourself…
Please note that this story does not entirely follow Nikke canon. It's just my own interpretation of the Nikke universe so that I do not have to bind myself to storyline restrictions.
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The commander and his usual team consisting of Rapi, Anis, and Neon entered Anderson's office room, where Anderson himself was standing front of some computer screens. Turning to look at the folks who entered his room, Anderson displayed his usual expression, one that resembles a look of seriousness and also a bit of boredom. Having to attend "meetings" all the time does that to a person...
"What did you call us here for?" the commander asked Anderson.
The latter let out a short sigh before saying, "I'll just cut to the chase. It's D-Wave again."
Hearing this, the group of four widened their eyes a bit as surprised came over them. "Again?!" said Anis, sounding almost annoyed.
"So more people from another world have appeared in ours again? I wonder what kind of people we'll meet this time!" said Neon, who displayed the opposite expression compared to Anis, one that of excitement.
Knowing his previous experiences with D-Wave, the commander asked Anderson, "So you want us to find the source of the D-Wave and also the people who appeared in this world, right?"
"That much is obvious, but there's something different about this particular D-Wave…" said Anderson as he began turning to one of the computers. "See this. It's a recorded footage from about thirty minutes ago, recorded by a mass-produced Nikke when she was scouting on the surface. She saw this."
After a few seconds of tinkering on the computer, Anderson showed the group a footage of the sky on the surface. Rather than the usual blue sky, it was instead of glowing rainbow-colored sky, and with, oddly enough, cracks spreading across the atmosphere.
"What… What is that…?" asked Rapi, surprised.
"Whoa… Trippy!" commented Neon.
"It's the sky out there at the moment," Anderson told them. "It has been like this for the past 30 minutes. Whatever is happening with the sky, a large amount of D-Wave is detected in it."
"This is the Gatekeeper's doing? What sort of thing did he bring into this world this time…?" said the commander, sounding and looking worried.
"We're not sure, and I have the feeling that things won't be as simple as the previous times…" said Anderson, who also sounded equally worried.
"Yeah, I get the feeling it's going to a huge pain in the ass to deal with this time as well…" said Anis in agreement.
The commander asked Anderson, "How do you want us to start looking into this?"
"Honestly, I'm at a loss at what to do to," replied Anderson. "The previous D-Waves could be easily pinpointed to specific things, but this time… It's literally coming from all over the sky! For all we know, what we're looking for is up in the sky somewhere."
"That means we'll need a plane to get up there!" said Neon.
"The Ark does not have any planes," Rapi told her.
"Still, we need to start somewhere," said the commander. "So Counter and I will head up there and see what we can find."
Anderson nodded in agreement. "That's something, I guess. Very well, use whatever method you can to find the exact source of D-Wave. Be on your toes. There's no guarantee that whatever Gatekeeper brought in this time will be friendly."
…
With a powerful blast of energy to the body, Snow White was able to destroy the Lord-class Rapture Stout. With its destruction, all the smaller Raptures around the place collapsed as well due to their hive-minded functionality.
Snow White sighed with relief, having won another battle in this seemingly endless war against Raptures. After looking around to make sure that the coast was truly clear, she looked up at the odd rainbow-colored sky that had been lingering around for over thirty minutes already. "What on earth is happening in the sky?" she wondered. "I've never see anything like that before… Does it have anything to do with Raptures?"
This weird phenomenon was seen by everyone on the surface, from Pilgrims wandering around by themselves out in the wilderness to the citizens of Eden to Crown's "kingdom."
But not a single one of them could explain what was happening. It was a new phenomenon completely unheard.
Snow White then noticed something. The cracks that accompanied the oddly-colored sky… They appeared to be widening. This made her curious as well as nervous, thinking that something serious was going to happen.
Then it happened… without a warning…
Almost the entirety of the sky shattered, and in an instant, bright flashes of light shot out like laser beams in every direction possible. The amount of beams was so much that the entire atmosphere might as well be completely engulfed in a blanket of light.
Before Snow White could even make a sound, the light engulfed her completely, disintegrating her.
In a split second, the light engulfed the entirety of the surface, wiping literally everything and turning the entire atmosphere into vast whiteness.
Not even the Ark and the Outpost were safe. The light blasted through the layers of earth and into those areas, immediately wiping everything from existence. It came so suddenly that many people were unable to react or even realize that something was wrong.
The commander and Counter were getting ready to enter an elevator that would take them to the surface when bright light tore through the place, disintegrating them like everything else.
The light spread all over the place, engulfing everything…
Absolutely everything…
Then there was nothing…
Nothing at all…
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GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE
X
SUPER SMASH BROS.
SMASHING VICTORY
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Chapter 1
New World
Rapi slowly opened her eyes. Her head was spinning, as if she had been forcefully awakened from her sleep. She sat up and rubbed her eyes and allowed a few seconds for her head to feel better. "What… What happened…?" she asked as she looked around. She remembered entering an elevator with her group, and then everything turned white.
She had no idea what happened, even more so now that she was currently sitting on a sandy beach with the sea behind her. Confused, she stood up to get a better look at the place, and then she noticed some other people around her that turned out to be familiar faces.
Walking over to one of them, she shook that person by the shoulder to wake her up. "Helm! Wake up! Are you all right?"
The blue-haired Nikke dressed like a marine slowly opened her eyes and sat up. "What happened…?" asked Helm. "I felt as if some kind of explosion just blasted right into my face…" As her vision and thoughts cleared, she looked around and was surprised by her surrounding. "Is… Is this a beach?!"
"Seems to be the case," Rapi said with a nod.
"How did I end up here?! I was standing on the Admire at the harbor previously!" said Helm in surprise. She also noticed that she had her gun with her. "And what is my Honorable doing with me?! I had it stored in my room!"
"I'm as confused as you. My squad were entering an elevator to go to the surface for a mission, and then I remember bright light filling up the place… Then we're at this place…" explained Rapi.
"Ugh… What the hell just happened…" said another person on the beach. Drake rubbed her head as she looked around the place. "What is this place? Is this a beach?"
"Where… Where am I?!" said a lost and confused Noir. "I was practicing our dance moves with Blanc when suddenly… Blanc? Where's Blanc?!"
Both Drake and Noir had their guns with them.
"Where the hell am I?!" shouted Syuen as she looked around in shock and also panic. "I was in my office just now! How did I end up at this place?! Where is this place even?! And is that a gorilla wearing a necktie over there?!" She pointed in the direction of such an animal sitting on the sand, rubbing his head.
"Whoa… Did something just blew up in my eyes?" said the gorilla.
"And it just spoke!" gasped Syuen. The Nikke were equally surprised to see a gorilla talk.
The gorilla turned to the girls and waved at them while grinning. "Hey girls! Mind if you tell me where I am?"
"Donkey Kong," said a portly man in red and blue overalls as he walked up to the gorilla. "I'm surprised to see you!"
The gorilla referred to as Donkey Kong looked at that man and said, "Oh hey, Mario! Didn't expect to see you here either."
"Yeah, Wario and Bowsa are here as well," said the man called Mario, pointing in a certain direction.
Suddenly, a turtle-like creature with a spiked shell grabbed Mario by the collar and yelled into his face, "I know this is has something to do with you, Mario! I was in my castle cleaning my Clown Car when I suddenly found myself here! Explain! What have you done?!"
Mario waved his hands at him and said, "No, theez haz nothing to do with me!"
"I don't care! You're taking responsible for this!" said the turtle angrily as he hurled Mario in a random direction, but he did a flip and landed perfectly on his feet like a gymnast.
"I was counting money at my office, and now I'm here with you losers," said an annoyed fat man in a biker's outfit as he walked up to the group.
Offended, the turtle turned to him and said, "Who are you calling loser?!"
"For all I know, you're probably to blame for this!" the fat biker said to him, sounding angry. "What stupid trick did you pull off to try to get rid of Mario again?"
"Guys, let's not fight," the gorilla said as he got in between them and pushed them away with his large hands. "I'm just as confused as you are, but I think we should act like gentlemen at times like this."
"What do you know about being a gentleman?" the turtle asked him. "I thought you're always about smashing things with your fists and throwing barrels?"
All the while, the Nikke and Syuen were watching at those group of people bickering from the side, rather confused, or in Drake's case, amused. "Heheh… Look at those stooges!" said Drake with a chuckle.
"What the hell am I looking at…?" said Syuen in disbelief.
"We're just as lost as you are…" said Helm.
They spotted Mario walking up to them, and he asked them, "I take that-a you folks found yourselves here all of a sudden?"
Rapi nodded. "Indeed. We were in a different place, but then there was a flash of light, and the next we knew, we are all here."
"That-a sounds just like-a what happened to me," said Mario. "I was fixing da sink when suddenly a flash of light happened, and the next thing I knew… Looks like-a we are in da same boat, so maybe we should-a work togetha to find out what happened."
"That does seem like the most plausible solution," said Rapi in agreement.
"By da way, my name eez Mario," Mario said to her, and then he pointed at the other three. "Those three ova there are Bowser, Wario, and Donkey Kong. I'm sure they'll come around to introducing themselves more properly soon…"
Rapi then introduced herself to him. "I'm Rapi, from the Counter squad."
"I'm Helm of the Aegis squad," Helm told Mario.
"I'm… Noir… I'm from Lucky 777…" Noir introduced herself nervously.
"I'm the one and only CEO of Missilis Industry! Surely you've heard of it? After all, my company is responsible for several stuff in the Ark!" boasted Syuen.
"I'm Drake! The greatest villain of all time from Matis! Fear me!" boasted Drake.
Mario nodded with a smile. "I can't-a say I understood everything you said, but nice to meet-a you all!"
"What part of our introduction do you not understand?" Syuen asked him.
"Um… Terms like Counta and Missilis? They don't ring a bell…" replied Mario.
"How can you not heard of Missilis? We're one of the Big 3 in the Ark!" Syuen told him. "If you're a civilian of the Ark, then there's no way you can't not know my company!"
"Mister Mario, have you heard of the term Nikke?" Rapi asked him.
Mario shook his head. "Can't-a say I heard of eet."
"Then I guess this settles it. This must be another world," she said, causing the other girls to turn to her in surprise and also confusion.
"Another world? What do you mean?" Helm asked her.
"Right, information about D-Wave and Gatekeeper are top secret and barely known by anyone…" said Rapi in her head. "I think I have no choice but to tell them all I know if we want to get out of this mess..."
"Another world… Well, that-a may be da case for you, but apparently not-a for us," said Mario.
"What do you mean?" asked Rapi.
Mario pointed to some buildings visible in the distance. "I recognize theez place as Isle Delfino."
Bowser, Wario, and Donkey Kong, who had stopped bickering and joined up with the others, looked at the buildings up ahead, and Bowser said, "Isle Delfino? How on earth did we end up here?!"
"At least we get to have a vacation!" said Donkey Kong, sounding enthusiastic.
"So you know this place?" Helm asked them.
Mario turned to her and nodded. "Yes. I've been here before for vacation, though I didn't enjoy eet as much as I wanted to…" As he said this, he narrowed his eyes while looking at Bowser, who looked smug for some reason.
"Well, if this is your world, then you should guide us around, since we're new here and all," suggested Syuen, crossing her arms.
"Sure! I'm sure we will find a way to send-a you all back to your own world too!" Mario said to them.
"You seem to be taking this whole another world thing quite well," Rapi said to him.
"I've seen a lot in my lifetime, so nothing really surprises me anymore," replied Mario with a shrug. "By da way, you were saying you're a Nikke? What-a eez a Nikke?"
Rapi nodded and then explained, "Nikke are, simply put, cyborgs with real human brains, as we used to be humans. There are only female Nikke, however, as all attempts at creating male Nikke failed."
"Oh wow," commented Wario, sounding not too overly impressed.
"Cool!" commented Donkey, sounding rather impressed.
"Okay," commented Bowser, sounding… so-so.
"I see," replied Mario with a nod.
There was a few seconds of silence among them all, and then Noir asked, "This sounds normal to you all...?"
"As I said before, I've been throughout a lot in my lifetime, so nothing really surprises me anymore," replied Mario. "I'm sure the same can be said for them."
"Huh, your world must be really batshit insane if we people don't surprise you even a bit," said Drake, sounding interested.
"And before we go on any further… Why are a gorilla and a… monster turtle able to talk? What are you? Lab freaks?" asked Syuen, pointing at Donkey and Bowser respectively.
The two animals raised their eyebrows, and Bowser asked, "What's wrong with you? You living under a rock or something? Of course we can talk!"
"Yeah, it's normal for gorillas to talk," Donkey told her.
"There's nothing normal about talking animals or the fact they behave like humans!" said Syuen a bit loudly in frustration.
Helm nodded. "I agree… It's not normal for animals to be talking…"
"I guess our worlds are different. Here, animals are capable of talking," explained Mario. "Well, not-a all of them… There are some that-a don't talk and are feral, while some are intelligent and capable of speech, like Donkey Kong and Bowser here."
"Wow…! That's odd…!" commented Noir.
"You said this place is actually your world?" Rapi asked Mario.
The latter nodded. "Yes, eetz Isle Delfino, a popular vacation resort. Eet seems we have all been transported to theez island for some reason, but since eet eez a place we are familiar with, you girls stick-a with us. We'll see eef there eez a way to get-a you back to your world!"
"By the way, what is your relation with those three?" Drake asked Mario while pointing at Bowser, Wario, and Donkey with her thumb. "I'm getting the impression that you're not on the friendliest terms."
Mario looked at them and said, "Donkey Kong is a good friend of mine, even if we had our differences at times, but he's a nice guy! Wario claims to my rival. He may cause a bit of trouble, but he's mostly harmless."
"Harmless? You better be sleeping with one eye open tonight, because I'll show you just how harmful I am!" Wario said to him, sounding offended.
"And there's Bowsa, my archnemesis and Mushroom Kingdom's greatest villain…" said Mario, eyeing Bowser.
"Villain, eh? What sort of nasty things have you done?" Drake asked Bowser with a look of interest.
Bowser replied in a smug tone, "All sorts of terrible things you can think of! Kidnapping, stealing, torturing, taking over kingdoms, destroying things, turning people into stone! Might have commit murder before, but I can't remember. They're probably insignificant people who don't matter in this world anyway. I'm the worst of the worst, and I like it!"
The girls stared at Bowser with wide open eyes of horror when they heard him state all his crimes. Rapi then asked, "Why isn't he in prison yet?"
"I'm a king! My people love me! I can do whatever I want and get away with it, and my people will come rescue me if anyone dares imprison me, assuming it's even possible to contain me in the first place!" said Bowser.
Mario shrugged. "He just-a has a way of getting away with things one way or the otha… I'm used to dealing with this shenanigans, and so does everyone else in Mushroom Kingdom..."
The group that appeared at the beach were now traveling through the bustling and noisy streets of Delfino Plaza. The population around them consisted mainly of Pianta and Noki, though other species such as Koopa Troopas, Shy Guys, Yoshis, Goombas, and more could be seen as well.
While the sights of these strange creatures were not anything new to Mario and his "friends," it was completely new to the Nikke and Syuen, even alien. They have never seen such creatures before. "What is this place…? What are all these strange creatures…? There's not a single human… Save for this Mario and Wario guy, even though they a bit out of proportion…" said Noir rather nervously.
"You don't have anything like Goombas and Yoshis where you come from?" Donkey Kong asked the girls.
"No, nothing of the like," replied Helm. "Though this Yoshi thing you said looks rather similar to dinosaurs…"
"They are a type of dinosaur, I think," replied the gorilla.
As they were walking, Mario looks like he is deep in thought. Wario asked him, "What are you frowning about?"
"Even though theez is somewhere familiar, I still get da feeling that something eezn't right…" replied Mario. He then pointed at a tall structure in the distance that had a Shine within it. "I don't-a rememba da Shine Gate having long ledges at da side."
"Probably just a new addition," said Wario.
"Maybe, but I feel like da arrangement of theez place eez somewhat different from last-a time…" said Mario.
"You probably just don't remember everything in detail. I don't even remember every single floor plan of my office! What makes you think you can remember the layout of an entire town! Remember that your brain is inferior to mine!" Wario said to him, slipping in the opportunity to insult him, though the latter didn't seem to care.
They eventually came across some cleaners cleaning up brown and white slime-like substance from the ground. A number of people were gathered around those cleaners, who were telling them to keep their distances while doing their job. "Huh, that looks familiar…" commented Bowser when he saw the slime.
Mario was going to say something when he heard someone shouting, grabbing all their attentions. They looked at the source that came from nearby and saw what appeared to be Pianta in police outfits trying to subdue a person. "Looks like some dastardly villain went and got himself arrested because he's not talented enough," said Drake.
"That-a voice…" said Mario, finding the voice familiar-sounding. He rushed towards the crime scene, and the other followed suit. When he got close to that place, he was surprised to see the police trying to subdue a man in blue and green overalls. "Luigi?!"
"I'm innocent! Trust-a me! I don't-a know anything about theez!" cried the man referred to as Luigi in fright as he tried to break free from the police's grasp.
"Eyewitnesses have proven that your appearance is a match for the person polluting this place with the brown slime!" said one of the police Pianta. "Come with us quietly, and we can talk details there!"
"But I'm serious! I didn't do theez!" cried Luigi.
Mario then noticed at the side, a blonde woman in pink royalty dress was watching with a shocked and nervous face, and she was surrounded by a bunch of Toads, short people with mushroom cap for heads. Rapi, on the other hand, noticed that one of the police officers was someone she knew.
Mario went up to the police and tried to get their hands off Luigi. "Get-a your hand off my brotha!"
"Who are you? You're interfering with police work! And that can get you arrested!" said a human policewoman with pink twintails.
"I'm his olda brotha! I can testify to him that-a he did not do anything wrong!" insisted Mario.
"You are my brotha? But I don't-a have a brotha!" said Luigi, a response that surprised Mario.
Mario said to him, "But I am your brotha, Mario! Have you forgotten, Luigi?" Luigi kept on insisting he didn't have a brother nor did he know who he is. Confused, Mario turned to the blonde woman in pink at the side and approached her. "Princess! What-a eez happening here?"
However, the Toads got in front of him, preventing his progress forward. An elderly Toad with a mustache said to him angrily, "No coming near the princess so casually! She is royalty, you know? Show your respects!"
"But-a we know each otha! Toadsworth! You're acting like you don't-a recognize me!" Mario said in surprise. Toadsworth looked at Peach and asked her if she knows who she is, but she shook her head, much to Mario's shock. "What…?!"
Bowser scratched his head and said, "Normally I'd laugh at Mario being treated like a fool by others, but I'm also confused about what is happening. Maybe Peach still remembers me?" He approached Peach and was also told to back off by the Toad guards, though they backed away themselves when Bowser growled at them fiercely. He asked Peach, "Hey princess? You know who I am right? Your soon-to-be husband, the great King Bowser!"
"Um… I don't remember getting engaged nor do I know you…" said a rather freaked out Peach, and understandably so.
"You disrespectful fool! How dare you proclaim yourself the princess's husband out of the blue! You ought to be arrested for such harassment!" Toadsworth angrily yelled at Bowser while pointing his cane at him.
Luigi was still getting dragged away by the police, and Mario was at a loss at what to do due to him and even Peach not recognizing him. Meanwhile, Bowser was in tears because Peach didn't recognize him.
Donkey scratched his head as he watched the scene unfold and said, "Everyone's acting strange today…"
"True, but I find it amusing in a way. Hehe!" said Wario with a slight chuckle.
As the police were taking Luigi away, Rapi went up to the aforementioned pink-haired policewoman and asked her, "You're Quiry from A.C.P.U, aren't you?"
The policewoman turned to her and asked, "How do you know my name? Who are you? And I don't know what you mean by A.C.P.U."
Rapi was surprised to get this response. "We've met each other before. How can you not recognize me?"
"Yeah, I remember having a run-in with you in Halloween once," Drake said to Quiry.. "Maybe she just can't see us clearly and needs glasses?"
Rapi continued to talk with Quiry, trying to remind her of times they were together, but the latter denied any of those happening and didn't even recognize names like Poli, Miranda, and Ingrid when Rapi brought them up. "I'm busy here! Stop interfering with my work!" Quiry said to her in annoyance before turning to follow the other police.
As the police left, the group was left completely confused at everything that went down. "What… What-a eez happening…" said Mario in disbelief.
"By the way, ladies," one of the police Pianta said to the girls. "You do realize you are armed with weapons, don't you? You'll have to come with us to explain yourselves!"
Syuen looked at the gun she had with her, the same one with used when the commander tricked her onto the surface during Aprils' Fool, and said, "Darn it…"
Luigi was locked up behind bars at the police station. Peach and her guards were there, trying to provide evidence that he is innocent. Mario and his group went to the police station as well, wanting to get to the bottom of what is happening.
"It's you people again!" one of the Pianta policeman said. "What do you want?" Looking at Mario, he asked him, "You were insisting that you're his brother, right?"
"Yes," said Mario with a nod.
"Then why doesn't he recognize you and even say he doesn't have one?" the policeman asked him, to which Mario was unable to reply.
Meanwhile, Rapi and Drake were talking with Quiry, trying to get her to remember something. "You really don't remember any of us?" Rapi asked Quiry.
"I know you're shortsighted, but I don't recall you having short-term memory!" Drake said to the policewoman.
"Look, I really have no idea what you're talking about!" said Quiry in annoyance. "Raptures? Nikke? Ark? What on earth are all those!"
"For starters, you're not human," Drake told her. "Your a robot with a human brain because you used to be human. Now you're basically 90% machine!"
Looks of confusion appeared on Quiry's face as well as police officers who heard this. "What on earth are you talking about? I'm human!" Quiry said to her in frustration.
"Used to, but no anymore!" Drake told her, becoming frustrated herself.
"Are you making fun of me?!" Quiry angrily said to her. "I can have you arrested for messing with a police officer!"
"I'm a villain, so getting arrested is part of my villainy after all! Try it if you dare!" Drake angrily said to her, inching her face towards her, but then Rapi pulled her back by the shoulder.
"Enough! It's clear you've got the wrong person. Don't get into any more trouble than this!" Rapi told her, and she reluctantly complied.
Wario and Donkey watched from the side what happened, and the former asked, "What on earth is happening?"
"Seems like their friend don't remember them. Luigi and Peach don't remember us as well, so maybe these are just lookalikes that we confused for people we know," theorized Donkey.
Rapi and Drake went to one side, and Rapi said to her, "It's obvious that this Quiry doesn't know who we are. Let's not get her angry any longer and try to find out what exactly is happening first."
"Geez… And I thought dealing with Laplace's stubborn hero antics is frustrating…" grumbled Drake.
Syuen went up to them while looking at Quiry. "Seriously, what the hell is wrong with her? Is her NIMPH faulty or what? If so, then it shows just how shoddy Elysion's Nikke quality is!"
"Don't be surprised if we run into your Nikke who don't recognize you," Rapi said to her in an offended tone.
Meanwhile, Mario continued to get permission to talk to Luigi. The police wasn't letting him at first due to the supposed lack of relation with each other, but Peach interfered and told the police to do so. "If the princess says so," said the police officer, sounding annoyed.
Peach turned to Mario and said to him, "I don't know who you are, but you seem genuinely concerned about Luigi. Perhaps he reminds you of your brother that you feel the need to help him. Whatever the reason is, I'm grateful that you believe he is innocent."
By now, Mario had accepted that the people here he knew weren't remembering anything about their relationships, so he said, "Don't-a worry! I can definitely prove his innocence!"
Meanwhile, a Pianta policeman was interrogating the girls regarding their weapons. "We're part of the military," Syuen lied to him, trying to look as calm as possible.
"Which military branch?" asked the policeman.
Syuen began to sweat nervously. She didn't give much thought when she came up with that answer, and the Nikke behind her were staring at her, almost as if criticizing her for being hasty with her response. "Um… Missilis Army…"
"Never heard of it," said the policeman. "I'll see the computer if I can find anything."
This made the girls even more nervous, because there was no way the policeman would be able to find anything related to Missilis or their world on his computer. They prepared for the worst as the policeman searched through his internet browser on his computer. Then what he told them came as a surprise. "Oh, here it is."
"What?! For real?! Is this a coincidence or what?!" Syuen said mentally in shock and with her mouth wide open.
"Says here Missilis Army is actually a private military group, though a small and recent one," said the policeman. "Maybe that's why I've never heard of it before. There are even pictures of you here, so I guess you're telling the truth."
Though the girls didn't know how this was possible, they still sighed with relief, knowing that they managed to get away with this. "I don't know what happened, but I'm glad things got resolved for now…" said Helm quietly.
"It's strange that there would be information on us in this world, including a name Syuen just came up with…" said Rapi with skepticism. "There's something strange going on…"
"I guess we really are lucky…" said Noir, sounding relieved but also a bit nervous.
"Who cares? As long as we're not in trouble, it's all good! It's the villain's style to get away with problems!" said Drake.
"I'll let you off the hook for now for carrying weapons. It's not something you should be carrying around freely," the policeman, who didn't hear what they said because they weren't speaking loudly, told them.
"Yes… Yes…! Thank you for understanding us!" said Syuen, trying her best to look calm. Her heart was still beating rapidly from nervousness.
Mario went to see Luigi in the latter's cell, telling him that he was going to help him. "Why are you so concerned about me? I have no idea who you are at-a all!" Luigi asked him.
"But-a I know you very well," Mario told him. "I'm still a bit-a confused on why you don't-a know me, but what-a you're going through now, I've experienced it myself too, so I understand how you feel."
"So you've been accused of a crime you didn't commit as well?" Luigi asked him with interest.
Mario nodded in response. "Yes, and I will not-a let anotha innocent people go through da same thing as me, especially not-a my younga brotha!"
"You're calling me your brotha again! I don't-a have one!" Luigi said to him, sounding confused.
"Maybe not-a in theez world, but in anotha world, we are siblings," Mario told him.
"Anotha world?" asked an even more confused Luigi.
"I'm pretty sure that I am currently in anotha universe," Mario said to him. "Theez likely explains why you don't-a know me."
"Okay… Guess this isn't the strangest thing I've heard-a about…" said Luigi, still having a bit of skepticism. "If you really are my olda brotha in anotha world, then I guess I can understand why you want to help-a me."
"Yes, I am helping you becuz of theez," Mario told him. "I will do everything I can to prove your innocence!" He then grabbed Luigi's hand. "Trust-a me! I always get things done!"
Soon afterwards, the group left the police station. They learned that there was going to be a trial tomorrow regarding Luigi's fate, so until then, they decided to find a lodging place. "How are we going to get cash?" asked Helm.
"Eef theez world is da same as ours, then it shouldn't be too hard," said Mario.
"What do you mean?" Rapi asked him.
"We'll just have to look-a for coin blocks," replied Mario.
"There are no coin blocks in Isle Delfino, as much as I hate to say it," Wario reminded him while picking his nose.
"Oh right… I forgot…" said Mario, sounding disappointed.
"Excuse me," said a woman's voice. They turned around and saw Peach standing there with some of her servants. "I would like to thank you for willing to help Luigi, even though we are complete strangers."
"No problem! I'm willing to do anything to help others!" Mario told her.
"I overheard you having financial problems? Then let me offer you this!" said Peach. A Toad then brought forth a yellow block with a question mark printed on it. "You can have this coin block! It should contain enough coins to help you last several days here!"
"Oh nice! Thanks for the gift!" said Wario with glee as he snatched the block away from the Toad.
"Thank you very much, princess! Theez eez a great thing that-a you gave us!" Mario happily said to her. "I will definitely do everything I can to prove Luigi's innocence!"
"I wish that he will be proven innocent as well," said Peach with a nod. "I've known him for a long time, so I know he's definitely not the kind of person to do something like this. There's a reason I chose him as my future husband!
"WHAT?!" gasped Bowser in shock, his colors draining away from him.
Even Mario was surprised to hear this. "Congratulations…!" he said, trying to look composed.
"What's wrong with him…?" asked Peach, looking at Bowser with a confused face. The turtle was now frozen stiff, not moving an inch or making a single sound, and Drake was poking his shoulder.
"Uh… Don't-a worry about him… He's always been a big fan of you, so eet came as a surprise…" Mario told her.
"Hmph! The princess has good taste and would never marry someone looking like him!" said Toadsworth, sounding unimpressed.
"Well… We'll be on our way now… I hope everything turns out well for you. Good-bye!" said Peach before leaving with her servants.
"That was nice of her for willing to help…!" said Noir.
Syuen looked at the coin block Wario is holding and asked, "What's that thing anyway?"
"You don't have coin blocks in your world? Too bad! You're missing out the greatest thing our world has to offer!" said Wario with a large smile on his face. Forming one hand into a fist, he used it to struck the bottom of the block at a fast speed, causing a seemingly endless amount of gold coins to fly out from the top.
Needless to say, the girls surprised to see this. "Coins are flying out of it?!" gasped Noir.
"How is this possible?!" asked Helm.
"That's a coin block for you," Mario told the girls.
"Incredible! What manner of technology is this?!" said Syuen in disbelief.
"And you can find it floating around in the air randomly in Mushroom Kingdom too," added Mario.
"You mean these blocks are just floating around in the air like no one's business, waiting for you to loot them?" asked Drake.
Mario nodded. "Yep! Coin blocks are all over da place, keeping people from being penniless!"
"Even though we occasionally find random credits lying on the ground on the surface, this is still unbelievable…!" commented Rapi in disbelief.
The group were able to obtain themselves rooms in a hotel to turn in for the night. Mario and Donkey Kong shared one room, and the latter said while looking out the window at the night scenery. "I'm wondering… If your friends don't recognize you at all, does the same apply for my family and friends? I assume there is no me in this world either…" he said, sounding worried.
"That-a may be da case, but who knows? Maybe you should try and see eef there eez anyway to contact them?" Mario suggested to him.
"Our kind isn't big on technology, so I don't think I can get in touch with them from here..." replied Donkey.
Bowser was in the lobby room, using public telephones there to get in contact with his army. However, he only received a voice telling him that the number he dialed doesn't exist. "Argh! Are you kidding me?! Are you telling me that the Koopa Clan doesn't exist in this world?"
Next to him, Wario had been trying to get in contact with someone as well, but got no luck. "My company doesn't exist?! I thought I would be famous enough that different worlds will still have a version of it!"
"If you don't exist in this world, then there wouldn't be any WarioWare," Bowser told him. "Use your brain!"
"Any worse than you thinking your turtle homies exist because you don't exist?" Wario said to him angrily.
Syuen and Drake were together in the same room, and a high-class suite to boot. The former was trying to get in contact with the rest of Matis on her smartphone, but to no avail. "Argh! Why can't I get in contact with those two?! What the hell is going on?!"
"I can't sense them or any other Nikke either," Drake told her. "Looks like Rapi was serious about us being in another world."
"If Laplace and Maxwell are transported here as well, you should be able to detect them!" said Syuen. "Did they not come along? Ugh… I can't believe everything that happened today! D-Wave? Gatekeeper? A Rapture that can travel through different dimensions? I'm only hearing about this today, and after I got into all this mess! My company better not fall into ruins while I'm gone…"
"That's assuming your company it still around, or the Ark for that matter," said Drake.
Rapi, Helm, and Noir were sharing a room together. Rapi looked at her smartphone, trying to get in contact with anyone she knows. Despite having the usual contacts, she was unable to get in touch with any of them. None of the messages she sent out received any responses. "It's no use… Nobody's reading my messages… Either they are not in this world, or they are in places where they can't receive signals," she said, shaking her head.
"I hope they're all right… I'm worried by my sister Blanc…" said Noir, who almost seemed like she was going to cry.
"What a strange day today is… I'm sill having a hard time trying to wrap my head around all this… Are we really transported to a different universe?" said Helm.
"After all that we've seen and from what I know about Gatekeeper, it's the only conclusion," Rapi told her.
"I see… Still find it hard to believe…" said Helm. She looked out the window at the lights out there, coming from street lamps and various stores. "I have to say… This is the surface world, right? I mean their surface world… It may not be our world, but seeing a surface world that is brimming with life and people that are living in peace… It almost feels unreal!"
"I get what you mean," said Rapi as she went up next to her to look out the window as well. "It does feel unreal, seeing a surface world that is bustling with activity and people being at peace… This is what we are fighting for, and seeing a scene like this before our eyes, it almost feels like… we've succeeded in taking back the surface world!"
"I hope we can do the same for our world. To see everyone living happily on the surface and for not only the Admire to sail on the sea, but for all ships to do so as well… I cannot ask for a better thing than that!" said Helm in a hopeful manner.
At the same time, Rapi was thinking about another thing and said in her head, "The Gatekeeper doesn't actually transport people to different worlds… Instead, it dreams up copies of people from another world, ones with the originals' memories and personalities, and if it wakes up, they disappear, the copies never knowing they are not the originals and so they cease to exist… Does that mean… We're not the originals…? Am I not the real Rapi…?"
Luigi's trial was underway the next day. The usual cast was there, trying to see what will become of Luigi. A video was shown to everyone, supposedly showing Luigi was responsible for polluting Isle Delfino.
The video showed a dark blue figure running around with a paintbrush and firing colorful slime all over the place and even onto people.
"And that is the evidence we have on Luigi being the culprit," said a lawyer hired to deal with this case. "While it is true the person in footage does not have the same colors, you can still see that his shape and details are indeed the same as Luigi's, such as the overalls and the mustache. He must have hid his true colors somehow, but his shape doesn't lie!"
As people talked among themselves about this, Bowser proudly said, "Ha! Brings back memories! My son did a great job screwing up your vacation that time, Mario!"
"Yeah, he did a great job…" grumbled Mario in frustration as certain memories came flooding back to him.
Observing the footage, Helm asked Rapi, "What do you think?"
"I don't think we can make a proper conclusion from that alone… It could be some sort of disguise," replied Rapi.
"A real villain shouldn't be afraid to let anyone know who he is, so assuming this isn't Luigi, then this person is a coward who thinks he can get away by framing other people! How villainous! He knows nothing about being a villain! A real villain shouldn't be afraid to expose his true self!" said Drake, sounding angry.
The court session went on for a while, with different people providing different evidences that both support and hurt Luigi. Eventually, the judge came to a verdict. "I have decided that this case is still inconclusive. The supposed evidences, while convincing, cannot be one hundred percent used against Luigi."
Hearing this, Peach, Luigi, and Mario sounded hopeful. The judge continued, saying, "However, Luigi will still remain a suspect until more evidences can be found. Until then, he will be kept under strict surveillance, and at the same time, he will be sentenced to community service in locations that he supposedly polluted."
"Isn't the same thing as judging me guilty?!" protested Luigi.
Seemingly ignoring what he said, the judge kept on speaking. "The CEO of Casino Delfino has requested for your presence there, likely wanting you to clean up that place after you ruined it yesterday."
"I told you already I didn't do it…" said Luigi, almost wanting to cry.
"Yeah! He didn't do it!" one of the Toads serving Peach said loudly. "Luigi likes gambling, even though he's bad at it, so he would never ruin that place! Just because he lost Toadsworth's shoes in a bet that time doesn't mean he's angry enough to pollute it! His shoes were wet and unwearable that time, so he took Toadsworth's shoes without asking because he was in a hurry!"
"Can you not bring that up?!" Luigi said to him in embarrassment.
"So that's what happened to my lost shoes?!" said Toadsworth in shock and anger.
Things unfolded as the judge said. Luigi was being escorted to a place called Casino Delfino. The protagonists were following them, wanting to see what would happen.
"At least he doesn't need to be in jail," said Donkey.
"Still, it's not really a good thing he's not-a in da clear yet…" said Mario. "We need-a to find da true culprit behind theez. Eef things are da same as before, then it's likely Bowas Junia again."
"But if I don't exist in this world, how does Junior exist? He's my son by blood! He can't exist without me!" Bowser remind him. "Are you telling me that my wife married a different person here?"
"You have a wife?" Donkey asked him in surprise.
"Well duh! Where else do you think Junior comes from?" Bowser said to him.
"But I've never seen or heard of her before…" said Donkey.
Before Bowser could answer that, they all arrived at a large, flashy-looking building with a sign saying Casino Delfino placed close to the roof. "Whoa! Nice place!" commented Drake.
"Huh, theez eez new… Da Casino Delfino I knew was part-a of da hotel, not a standalone location… Guess things are different here…" said Mario.
The group entered the casino and were greeted with a luxurious space decorated mostly with the color gold. Slot machines and tables with various forms of gambling matches going on could be seen all over the place. "Wow…! This place reminds me of Coin Rush!"
A flamboyant-looking person then stepped forward to greet them. "Welcome to Casino Delfino!"
The eyes of the girls widened as much as they could when they saw the person standing before them, and they said out loud simultaneously, "MUSTANG?!"
TO BE CONTINUED
You get what I mean when I said things would be different, even though it takes inspiration from Journey to the Smashing Beyond now? Mario, Bowser, Wario, and Donkey are not recognized by any of the characters they know. Because of this, not only do the Nikke have to get used to being in a different world, but the Nintendo, or Smash Bros., characters will have to learn how to adapt to a world where they seemingly do not exist. This makes the story more interesting and not just a simple "Nikke in another world" crossover. Of course, why Nikke characters like Quiry and Mustang are behaving differently and have no memories of people they are already know is also part of the mystery.
I can't guarantee fast updates, as I'm not enthusiastic as I am in writing stories compared to before, but rest assure that I won't update only once a month. I will still try my best to update within 10 days, usually within a week.
And Mario mentioning that the Shine Gate having ledges at the sides is a reference to its design in Smash Bros., as the Mario Sunshine version didn't have ledges.