Super Smash Saga: The Master Crown [CW/Feedback/Discussion]

Bok Choi · April 16, 2018

This is a story of how the multiverse came together. As with any massive change, some people came out better, and some people came out worse. New bonds were forged between time and space, that would remain unbreakable for eternity. Other bonds were shattered. Completely and irreparably.

But the seeds of the events you see before you were sown long before these beloved heroes were brought together. In fact, you may come to find you don’t know these beloved heroes at all. You may come to find that the heroes and the villains are one and the same.

They all have something to hide.

And they all have everything to lose.

Hi everyone! I want to just say have fun (hopefully) reading, but I should probably put a few introduction tidbits.

1. This is kind of inspired by Smash brothers. Long story short, the new game is coming out (it came out!!!), so I replayed Subspace Emissary and thought "If I were to write a crossover event, what would I want it to be?" Well here we are. Sorry if your favorite characters aren't in a spotlight at some point, but I don't want to overcrowd the story.

2. I don't claim to follow the lore, backstories, or mechanics of these games 100% at all. I've taken a few liberties in changing a few things, so don't expect things in this story to follow every bit of history from these games. THAT BEING SAID, I don't want characters to be unrecognizable. They are still the video game characters you know and love, just with a small twist. (Think Once Upon a Time but with Nintendo characters)

3. Feel free to give feedback, thoughts and discuss in this thread, no need to PM, and I don't think I'm going to make a separate thread for feedback. As you will see a few chapters in, there'll be plenty to discuss.

If you're still reading, wow I'm impressed, and thank you. Without further blabber from me, here we go~

Chapter Links

Spoiler

Do I really need to link Prologue 1 and 2? It's right there. You can see it.

The Fall of the Millions

Promises Made

Prologue 1: The Sorcerer

Spoiler

“It’s time”. The sorcerer floats towards the computer before him. “All these years. All my patience. It will finally pay off”.

A raspy, cackling voice boomed over the holo-transmitter in the middle of the room.

“Make us proud. If this works, we may be able to get what we want. Victory”.

Circular portals flicker on around the room, illuminating the area with a calming blue and gold glow. The circles each show a place across the multiverse, all essential to the plan. It’s the first time everything he needed has lined up exactly the way they needed it to, in exactly the way they wanted.

The sorcerer turn towards the window, and watches as the machinery spreads over the land once again, controlled by the crown in his hands. Someone else has tried this before, and failed. This time though, the machines would stay. This time, he would win.

He focuses on the circular hoops and concentrates his power, placing the crown on his head.

And with one snap of his fingers, the sorcerer brings the multiverse together.

Edited December 18, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · April 16, 2018

This one's a doozy.

Prologue 2: The Mushroom Kingdom

Spoiler

The two brothers chase after the airship, leaving the castle behind and dashing across the picturesque green plains. Impossibly held up by large metal propellers, the wooden galleon sails through the sky barely faster than the two brothers and their allies can run.

Yet again, the brothers find themselves catching up to the same large airship before them. Yet again, they find themselves chasing down the same princess, kidnapped by the same neighboring king. The older brother, whose name is Mario, calls out for some special help, as he usually does nowadays, and on command, a number of large star shapes appear before them.

Drawn towards the stars, the brothers and their allies are enveloped in energy, and in an instant, the four of them are shot at an astounding speed towards the ship sailing through the sky. Shooting high above the land, the green prairies shrink as the team of friends land with a powerful thump on the stern of the airship.

Each of them sets down a small magical token on the floor under them, and begin making their way inside. As always, they’re met with the king’s army. As per the usual, the fighting begins.

The two brothers fight with machine-like precision and accuracy. They’ve done this countless times before, each time more successful than the last. No matter what tricks the Koopa King will throw at them this time, they can handle it.

The same can’t be said for their two allies. The green dinosaur, Yoshi, holding his own against the hordes of attackers, forgets to watch his back, and the Captain of the Toad Guard forgets to cover him. Good thing they have their magical tokens. Right as they’re both about to fall, they’re enveloped with a blinding flash and appear back on the stern of their ship where they started, without a scratch.

By the time the two have made their way back, The brothers have cleared out the room of enemies.

“You gotta be more careful”. Luigi, the younger one, smiles as they run across the now mostly empty room. The downed enemies have disappeared, much like how Yoshi and the Captain did.

It’s another routine rescue that shouldn’t take longer than it usually does. The four of them aren’t worried.

However, they should be. Little do they know their whole universe is about to fundamentally change.

For the umpteenth time, the four of them burst through two large red double doors to the room where the princess is always being held. From the back of the room, beside the king, Princess Peach calls out from a large metal birdcage.

“Mario! Luigi!”

“Yer getting better at this,” Bowser, the king, remarks with a deep laugh. “But this time I’ll beat you”.

“You say that every time”. Luigi smiles as he takes out his large wooden hammer. This has become more of a fun little regular fight at this point, the king with new tricks, but never being able to beat them properly.

His son the prince (aptly named Bowser Jr.) beside him, accompanied with a new crowd of soldiers, they charge towards the four allies.

“Watch your left, Captain!”

Luigi yells as he jumps onto Yoshi, who is trying to attack with his signature egg shaped bombs and his quick moving kicks. The Captain, fending off the young Prince’s brush sword with his pickaxe, is pushed back towards the door, while Mario pushes Bowser backwards towards the cage where the princess is being held.

Then Luigi notices something strange. A bright, glowing hoop, floating in the corner of the room, up near the ceiling. Spinning, the circle is pulsating with energy and in the middle… A figure. It’s draped with a regal blue robe, and holding a bright golden-

Without warning, a beam of energy shoots from the center of the hoop towards the back of the room, right where the princess’ cage sits. Energy engulfs the cage with a near blinding blue-red glow, and the princess shrieks, trying to endure the blast. Everyone in the room freezes.

“Dad?” the prince shouts, “What are you doing?!? Stop that thing!”

“It’s not mine!”

With astounding speed, Mario crosses the room and reaches up towards the ring, the source of the beam, attempting to pry it away. As he aggressively grabs on however, Energy courses through his body, nearly dropping him to the floor. However, he keeps his hold and pulls with all his strength.

Across the room, the Princess Peach cries out again, unable to resist the magic coursing through her, reaching into the very depths of her soul. She feels it. It’s looking for something, something deep inside her being.

Bowser, desperate, approaches the cage and winces, feeling the energy emanating from it. Releasing heat and fire from his mouth, he decides to try to heat up and melt the bars of the cage.

He grabs onto two of the bars.

At the same time Bowser grabs onto the bars, A blast of darkness goes from the cage up towards the hoop.

At the same time the blast is up towards the golden ring, Mario, with all his strength, nudges the ring just the smallest amount, and loses his grip, stumbling directly between the cage and the ring, interrupting the beam of energy.

As the blast of darkness slams into Mario’s back, the immeasurable amount of energy contained in the narrow beam between the ring and the cage simultaneously explode outwards, blasting Luigi, Yoshi, and the captain violently out the door they came in through. On the other side, the wall to the starboard side of the ship is blasted outwards, sending the young prince flying out and towards the ground below.

Up above the planet, Rosalina, protector of the cosmos, in her light blue gown, sees the shockwave wash up from the planet under her, and shakes her flying observatory ass it passes. As it disappears into space, Rosalina is caught by surprise for one of the only times in her life. She and her Lumas watch as across her field of vision, all across the vastness of space, hundreds of thousands of stars and planets simply blink into existence.

At the same time that Rosalina’s observatory shakes under her feet, Princess Peach’s elderly aid jumps as he sees the ship, off in the distance, careen towards the ground.

And at the same time that Toadsworth turns to organize a search party, Mario, Peach, and Bowser disappear without a trace off the face of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Does he ever wonder?

Wonder what?

Why you keep letting yourself be taken. We both know you can take care of yourself.

Can I though? I feel trapped. There’s no way I can ever have what I want.

You can. And you can be free. I’m here after all.

Bok Choi · April 19, 2018

Now we can start getting into this~

Luigi: Aftermath

Quote

His whole body hurts. Groggily stumbling to his feet, Luigi looks up, seeing a large purple Luma standing over him.

“Luigi!” He seems more flustered than usual. “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!”

“Lubba? W-what happened?” His eyes sway in and out of focus, and all he sees around him are bits of wood and metal debris. The field in the immediate area is scorched beyond recognition and rubbing his head, he tries to take a healing mushroom out of his pocket.

“Hold still, give me just a teensy second,” Lubba says, concentrating some magic in his purple nub-like hands. A pulsating heart shape appears and lands on Luigi’s head, refreshing his energy and healing his wounds. “There. Now where are Mario and the Princess? We need to leave pretty much right now”.

As Luigi’s vision clears up, he freezes in his tracks at the horror in the distance.

Hundreds of mechanical ships are pouring out of a hole in the sky, descending on the castle, Toad Town, and everything in the distance. He hears screams quietly echo across the sky.

“Hey, Luigi! You listening? It’s not long until the robots get here,” Lubba gently shakes Luigi, snapping him back to reality.

“...Robots?”

“Yes. Robots. Where is the Princess and your brother?”

“I-I-” Luigi looks around, not catching sight of them. “I don’t know”. He looks back towards the hole in the sky. “How long was I out?”

“The airship blew its top an hour ago? So that probably means you’ve been out for an hour”. Concerned, Lubba scans the area again and points towards Bowser Jr. He’s scratched up, and digging through the rubble, with a distressed expression on his face. Surprisingly, Bowser Jr. lets Luigi approach.

“Um. Where’s-”

“They’re dead”.

“W-what?” Luigi, taken aback, doesn’t know how to respond.

“It don’t work no more”. Bowser Jr. holds up a small token, similar to the ones that kept Yoshi and the Captain safe, but is engraved with King Bowser’s insignia. The token seems to have lost its luster. “They ain’t coming back. I’m only here ‘cuz I have a shell, and you’re only here because the big purple Luma saved you”.

“I didn’t know that-”

Before Luigi can finish his thought, Bowser Jr, seemingly blinking back tears, turns and runs off away from the wreckage, clutching his father’s coin.

I didn't know those could turn off.

Luigi feels Lubba grab his shoulder. “He might not be wrong”. Lubba is holding Yoshi’s token, and it too has lost its glow, looking dull and grey.

“Is Yoshi good?”

“He’s fine. The captain is too. I got to them early. But we have to go now. If he’s okay, your brother can take care of himself. Let’s not keep Miss Rosalina waiting”. Lubba points towards the Comet Observatory and Starship Mario, both of which have landed not too far away.

“What about the townspeople?” Luigi asks as he watches more and more of the robots pour out of the hole, descending on the kingdom. Screams rise from the distance, and he sees mushroom shaped spaceships, rise against the robots.

“The Toad Brigade and all your friends are trying to get as many of 'em out as possible. We can’t help much from here”.

“We have to fight back. Rescue them, right? That’s what Mario would do”.

“I was hoping you’d know something, but sorry to say, Mario ain’t here. Not a trace of him. The Princess too. Good thing is, that means I can hope they're perfectly fine”. Lubba’s eyes widen as he sees robots begin to appear in the distance, crossing the plain towards the observatory. The citizen’s screams continue rising eerily across the sky. “Rosalina firmly believes we have to leave. It’s now or never”.

Tearing his eyes away, Luigi nods and begins heading towards the observatory.

I have to thank you. I had fun today.

No problem.

You don’t get it. This meant a lot to me. I don’t ever get to get out like this.

… I really should get going.

…

Wait.

What is it?

Would you like to come in for a few minutes?

Edited April 24, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · April 24, 2018

Fun times, fun times.

Marie: Invasion

Spoiler

Marie opens the door of the studio, wondering what was going on. She’s not the only one who felt that, right? It felt like for a second, the whole world just wavered, one tiny bit. A crowd seemed to have gathered outside in the plaza, looking… up?

“... Callie? Come out and take a look at this”.

“What is-” Callie slows as she approaches the door, looking outside.

A huge golden ring floats directly above Inkopolis, high in the air. There’s nothing but darkness on the other side, contrasting the light blue of the sky.

“What do you think it is?”

“I don’t know. Has it done anything?”

“No. I don’t-”

Without warning, hoards of metal figures appear from the ring, nearly blotting out the sky, and begin to fly down towards the city, approaching from the sky. Everyone seems frozen in shock for a second.

Then, Callie, swinging her performance mic over her head, pushes a button on her headset and yells for all the city to hear. At the same time, Marie lifts a cover and slams a button on the side of their wall, causing loud sirens to echo through the city.

“Inkopolis, grab your weapons, we’re under attack! Gather at the studio if you can! Blue ink everyone, BLUE INK!”

Callie marches inside, Marie at her heels. Right by the door, Callie grabs her cousin’s scope and tosses it to her.

“Thanks,” Marie replies as she straps on her tank of ink. “Do you think it’s the Octarians?”

“I’ve never seen them with such strange tech before,” Callie replies, holstering her dual ink guns and grabbing a large paintbrush. “But it doesn’t matter. We’ll fight like we always do when the Octolings attack. Buzz grandpappy and the other two agents”.

“Already done”. Marie slips her phone into her pocket and turns back towards the doorway, stepping out onto the balcony above the main plaza. The metallic figures - robots, Marie assumes - are already making landfall in the city. Pointing her scope upwards, Marie zeroes in on one descending robot and unleashes a powerful bolt of ink upwards. Slamming into it with the force of a truck, the robot plummets towards the ground, and shatters with a loud crash of metal.

“I don’t think these are octarians, Callie”.

“You don’t say”. Callie says, putting one foot up on the railing of the balcony, and strapping on a cool round pair of purple goggles. “Stay safe, Marie. I don’t know what’s happening this time”.

Callie launches herself high up over the edge of the balcony. Twisting and morphing in midair, Callie’s humanoid form, along with all her clothes and weapons, transform into the shape of a squid before she begins to fall. With a wink at her cousin, Callie disappears over the edge of the balcony and plunges into an ink puddle on the plaza floor.

Marie pulls the scope yet again up to her eyes and concentrates, slamming bolt after bolt of ink into the robots descending onto the city, gumming them up and toppling them to the ground.

Then, right as she’s about to unleash one more, Marie notices something strange. A little squid shaped ghost, called a squid spirit, floats past Marie and into the studio. Looking around, she sees squid spirits everywhere, which meant lots of inklings had already needed to escape their bodies to regenerate elsewhere. The thing is, the spirits aren’t teleporting to the nearest regenerator like they usually do.

Now that Marie thinks about it, shouldn’t the city-wide regenerator be on? This squid shouldn’t have to float all the way over to the studio to regenerate their bodies.

Dropping a hidden ink mine on the floor to protect the studio’s entrance, Marie turns and runs inside, following the squid spirit. Usually inklings don’t have to come all the way to the studio to regenerate.

As they approach the back of the room, Marie spots the mechanical regenerator sitting at the back. It looks like it’s… off.

“Ugh”. She gives the large circular pad a strong kick, hoping to jolt it on. This hasn’t happened before. Marie taps on the meter standing beside the regenerator, but it doesn’t move.

Concerned, Marie taps the headset that’s over her ears.

“Callie? Are you there?”

“Yeah. What’s up?”

“Is the plaza's regenerator on?”

“... It should be”.

“Check”. Marie turns to the small squid spirit, who’s looking at her ruefully.

“Sorry. We’ll get you your body back soon”. Tapping her headset a couple more times, she makes an announcement to the whole city.

“Please try not to leave your bodies and turn into your squid spirit forms. the body regenerators around the city may be down. If you find yourself stuck in your spirit forms, make your way to our studio”.

“Marie!” An explosion of ink behind her startles Marie, and turning around, she sees a fairly large flying robot fall to the ground with a crack, inches away from her head.

“I told you to watch yourself! Mines are only for grounded enemies, you know?”

“I- Sorry Callie”.

“Head back to the balcony and make sure nothing else gets up here”.

Embarrassed she forgot to watch her back like she usually does, Marie turns to head back outside.

But before she can, something about the downed robot catches her eye. In fact, it doesn’t quite look like a robot at all.

Rolling the robot over, Marie sees a pair of insect-like wings on its back. Its face only looks half robot. Its right eye is large and glass like a camera, while its left eye looks quite like a normal eye, open and staring blankly. Metal surrounds the back of its body, at first like a suit, but on closer inspection, it appears the metal pieces and the wires are going in and out of this poor creature’s back. Callie seems to have noticed too. They both look at each other, dumbfounded and confused.

“... At least it’s dead and doesn’t have to suffer anymore”.

“I don’t know what’s going on. But we have to fight. Make sure the Agents and Grandpappy get here safely, and I’ll send distress calls from inside. Be careful. I have a feeling this is bigger than we know”.

I’m tired of this. It’s just the same thing again and again. Is it wrong I want to spice things up a little?

Of course it isn’t. Why would you say that?

He won't get it, and I don’t want to hurt him. He’d be devastated.

I’m sure they’ll understand. We can go together. We can go and never come back.

… It’s not you, you know that right?

What?

… I like this

... But it was never you.

Edited April 29, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · April 29, 2018

If you haven't noticed, colours are important

Rosalina: Escape

Spoiler

“Quickly now, let’s go”. Rosalina waves a couple Piantas quickly off the small Toad Ship as her observatory lifts slowly and surely off the ground of the mushroom kingdom. The robots are starting to cloud the sky, and the lumas are beginning to have trouble holding them back.

“Delfino Isle has been evacuated,” Captain Toad says. “but Toad Town’s been overrun. There’s nothing we can do”.

Rosalina’s heart sinks. She should have seen this coming. She should have been protecting the galaxy like she was supposed to. Why didn’t she see something of this magnitude coming? She begins to head up towards the control center with Captain Toad in tow.

“Make sure the evacuees are comfortable. The observatory should be large enough for a couple more loads. Afterwards, reroute overflow to Starship Mario”. She turns, noticing the Captain has stopped.

“I need to head to Bowser’s Kingdom with the brigade”.

“Why?”

“To find more help. And to steal an airship. We need one”.

Rosalina thinks for a second, then nods.

“We’ll keep the observatory on the edge of the atmosphere. You have half an hour”.

Before the captain has time to respond however, the observatory’s shields go down with a flash, and a powerful laser blast slams into the north section of the observatory.

The observatory shakes threateningly.

“Go. Don’t delay”. Rosalina nods at the Captain and he goes running off towards his signature red spacecraft.

Taking a slim star shaped wand out of a pocket in her dress, Rosalina gives it a couple twirls as she begins making her way towards the top of the observatory where the blast hit.

“Don’t overexert yourselves. Rotate”.

Simultaneously, all the lumas defending the observatory switch with reserve troops, none of them missing a beat. With another wave, dozens of blasts emanate from her star wand, bringing dozens of bots plummeting towards the ground. All while this happens, the observatory rises ever so slowly away from the planet, and Rosalina floats quickly but calmly to the top of the observatory.

The observatory has concentrated most of its defenses on the bottommost of its three floors, which is the largest, and is holding most of the Kingdom’s escapees. Rosalina floats past Luigi and Yoshi, who are quickly ushering people into the large but magically guarded interior of the second floor. When she rises to the third and final floor, Rosalina waves her wand, opens a set of ornate blue doors, and gently glides into the expansive control center of the Comet Observatory. A couple of the blue monitors are flickering concerningly.

“How’s the damage? Nothing too bad?”

The wizard sitting at the magical control panel turns around

“Things’ll hold for now, but repairs will have to be made when we get somewhere safe”.

The wizard takes off his hood, revealing a head of light gold hair, which he runs his fingers through, a little irritated.

“The Observatory can’t take many more direct hits. We have to get the shields back up”.

Rosalina nods, waving her wand again aggressively and turns to head out the door again. However, the magic seems to take too much out of her, and she has has to brace herself against the wall. Her face pales, as if she is overwhelmed and exhausted.

“Rose-”

The wizard quickly runs over to Rosalina and puts an arm around her for support.

“Don’t strain yourself. You know this kind of magic takes its toll”.

“Merlon”. Rosalina struggles to her feet. This time though, she keeps her feet planted on the ground. She shakes her head.

“I have to protect as many souls as possible. I don’t have a choice. It's my job”.

“Then recover here for a minute or two. I’ll go out for repairs”.

“No. You still have enough energy to get the shields back up. I’ll do the repairs”.

“Rose, I don’t-”

“End of discussion”.

Without waiting for a response, she gently pushes away the arm around her, and walks back out the door, taking a deep breath. The cloud of robots have thickened as the observatory rose higher and higher into the sky, and now, their attacks all seemed to concentrate on the observatory. Everybody on board was fighting their hardest to repel as many as they could, but alarmingly, the fight was beginning to make its way onto the main decks of the observatory.

“Do not let them get to the core!” Rosalina yells. Nearly all the Power Stars Mario’s ever collected, contained in the brightly glowing center, powering the entire Observatory. If the robots get to there, they could bring down the Observatory - or worse if they managed to take that energy.

Rosalina flicks her wand, sending a large blast into the closest group of robots, and almost instantaneously feels a sharp pain in her side. However, she ignores it, pushing forwards. She would not let the observatory fall. Everybody was counting on her. She flicks her wrist once, then again. She sees a toad ship in the distance blow out its bottom, and begin spiraling the long distance back to the ground. Starship Mario, not too far away, is being valiantly defended by Lubba, and the tribe of Yoshis. Rosalina concentrates her magic yet again, giving the Toad ship an extra boost of magical help, and brings a couple bots around Lubba down around him. They needed to get out of here, or they won’t last another few minutes, let alone long enough to make repairs. Rosalina grasps her wand tightly and closes her eyes, directing all she has towards the spaceships that are all around her.

As the Observatory and the surrounding starships begins to rise faster and faster, they break through a thick cover of clouds, and white fog rolls over the battle.

Flicking blast after blast of magic, Rosalina’s head begins to spin. She’d never gone this far, used this much magic at once before. Looking beside her, Merlon has also stepped out of the control room, and is concentrating his magic on the top of the observatory. A slow continuous wave emanates outwards from his hands as the magical shield slowly begins to re-form around the entire structure.

"I'm here, Rosie". Despite the strain on him, he smiles effortlessly

“Thank you,” Rosalina whispers with great difficulty. Her hand trembles ever so slightly as she continues sending blasts hurtling towards the bots.

Off in the distance, Rosalina sees another craft burst above the cloud cover, moving much quicker than the observatory is. It’s a large wooden airship, much like the one that went down earlier, except it seems built for outer space, having magical propellers instead of ones built for the surface. At the helm on the top of the ship is none other than Captain Toad.

The Observatory is now almost level with the large golden ring in the sky, and the vastness of space is quickly approaching. As Merlon finishes regenerating the shield, the Captain’s airship shoots out a volley of bullets, sending a wave of robots crashing the long distance down towards the surface.

Then suddenly, everything freezes. The robots stop in midair. With a shiver, they all begin to fly simultaneously towards the ground.

At the same time that all the robots freeze, the Comet Observatory rises above where the golden ring floats in mid-air.

At that exact moment, Rosalina, overwhelmed by the magic coursing through her body, collapses to the ground.

And as Rosalina’s unconscious body hits the floor, the legendary hero Mario wakes up, 7.5 billion kilometers away.

W-what happened? The ring… And the-

Not now! We’ll talk about it later. Stay quiet and follow us.

What do you mean? We-

Watch out!

We have to lose them!

Come down this way!

And who is this?

Introductions later.

… Where are we?

… Welcome to Dreamland.

Edited May 7, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · May 7, 2018

We won't be returning here for a while, so soak in the Kirby while you can. Even though there's not a whole lot of Kirby in this one.

Waddle Dee: Underground

Spoiler

Waddle Dee peeks around the corner, tightening the bandana on his head. He darts quickly across the length of the hallway, and with a quick jab of his spear, punches out the lock on the door.
A split second later, he sticks out his stubby yellow hand and catches the chuck of metal before it can hit the floor. Quietly, Waddle Dee pushes the door open and peeks inside. He nods at his King, who’s still trying unsuccessfully to hide his rather large stomach from poking out of his hiding place.
Waving him over, the King clumsily runs across the length of the hallway and into the room. Nodding, Waddle Dee stands guard discreetly, watching the three hallways. Once the King finds what he needs, they would have a chance. Once the others rescue - Or rather *steal* whatever Magolor needs, they would have a chance.
His short-wave walky buzzes quietly, alerting him to a call, and without skipping a beat, he flips it open.
“I have the two of them, and we're on our way back to the hideout now. The troops are spread thin, but they won’t be for much longer. Move quickly”.
“We’re in the archives. As soon as we find the file, we’ll come”.
Waddle Dee shudders as he thinks of the implications if they fail. He’s just imagining the legions and legions of cyborg troops descending on countless worlds, taking them so that there could have more and more robotic troops.
He feels a tap, and turns around. The king is waving a file around excitedly.
“I have it. We can go”.
With a nod, Waddle Dee slowly shuts the door while the King tries again, unsuccessfully to stay flush to the wall.
Slowly but surely, they begin to make their way back the way they came. He has no doubt Magolor knows where they are, so they must move quickly. Taking the front, he leads the King down hall after hall of identical hallways, passing row after row of identical doors. But as Waddle Dee heads down the final hallway, he freezes. There’s someone in the way. The unmistakable red hat. That simple but deadly ruby scepter.
Waddle Dee is overcome with anger when he realizes that he's blocking their path. “... Daroach. What are you doing here? You’re not helping that turncoat, are you? I thought you valued loyalty”.
“...” Daroach simply stares, not responding. His large mouse ears don’t even twitch.
Looking closer, Waddle Dee is struck with horror as he realizes what’s going on.
His large red hat nearly completely obscures his face, but it’s unmistakable that his right eye is glowing. Almost as if someone replaced it. The scepter is also fused painfully with Daroach’s hand
Suddenly jerking into action, he raises his staff and shoots off two blasts of ice from the large, round ruby at the tip, which Waddle Dee and the King barely dodge by pressing themselves to the wall.
“Daroach, please don’t do this”. Waddle Dee tosses a spear, which Daroach deflects back at him effortlessly.
With a flick of his wrist, a metal bomb grows out of Daroach’s left hand, and before anyone can react, he tosses it with terrifying speed towards Waddle Dee.
“Be careful!” The King’s large wooden hammer punches through the air between Waddle Dee and the bomb, shielding him from most of the blast, but nonetheless throwing the both of them to the ground, knocking the spear out of Waddle Dee’s hand.
“I know there’s some of you still in there. Daroach, please!” Waddle Dee begs as Daroach stands ominously over them. Scooting back, Waddle Dee and the King are trapped up against the wall.
He lifts his red cape and pulls out a golden cane with a large trapezoidal prism on the top. It glows as he holds it over Waddle Dee.
“HYAH!”
A yell sounds out behind Daroach as an explosion sends him flying down the hallway and obscures Waddle Dee’s vision.
“Wha- Who-” He brushes off the stuff that’s on his face, and sees the hallway covered in… Flower petals?
In front of them stands a round, pink creature in the cutest purple ninja garb.
“Kirby! You adorable, amazing thing!” The King bellows loudly, and wraps Kirby in a bear hug. “How did you know we were here and we needed you?” He frowns, looking around. “Where’s Meta Knight?” The only other figure down the lengths of the hallway is Daroach, who seems to be knocked unconscious.
Waddle Dee’s phone rings, and immediately, he picks up.
“I sent Kirby out there because I was afraid your cover was blown. Turns out I was right. Get out of there before Magolor shows up”.
“How do you-”
“Look up”.
Above Waddle Dee, a metal ceiling panel has been slid open, and Meta Knight is on the other side.
As quick as they can, Waddle Dee grabs his dropped spear and the three of them: King Dedede, Kirby, and Waddle Dee file up into the ceiling. Not a second later, Meta Knight slides the panel on the ceiling closed. Besides the carnage in the hallway, it’s like they were never there.
Just like the hallways, the vents are an endless series of mazes. Single file, making as little noise as possible, the four heroes crawl down the large vents the circulate air all throughout Magolor’s Dreamland base. Light peeks in eerily through the vent openings, casting the vents in a dark blue aura. They take a turn down one vent, then down the other, reaching a ninety degree drop straight down.
Breathing in a large gulp of air, Kirby and King Dedede begin floating down the vertical drop while Waddle Dee and Meta Knight ride them down. As they float down, almost like an elevator, The blue metal sheets of the vents expand outwards and shrink back, exposing yellow stone and masonry behind. Widening slightly into a large chimney-like structure, they continue to float down until they exit the vent, reaching an expansive decorated living room. That room led into a couple other smaller room, each decorated in soft shades of yellow, orange, and red.
The four of them settle down and sit around a simple yellow coffee table, treating the small wounds they have from the fight, but Meta Knight’s impatience soon gets the best of him.
“Did you find what you were looking for?”
The King smiles in response. “We know what he wants now”.
Reaching into his fluffy, colourful fur coat, he takes out the brown manila envelope that he pulled from the archives and lays it on the table in front of them. There’s a small white label at the front of the envelope, marked simply with ‘Nova’. The King opens the envelope and pours a bunch of papers out onto the table for the group to look through.
Waddle Dee squints in confusion. “What’s-”
“It’s Galactic Nova”. Meta Knight holds up a labelled sketch of some kind of face. The face is on a pocket watch, and has seemingly random objects coming out from behind it, such as a weathervane, lightbulb, and a telescope. “Another one”. He sits back, defeated. It's one of the greatest sources of pure power they've ever come across. It took nearly all of Dreamland's forces to subdue the power of one last time. And now the file says that it's back? How?
“What do you mean another one?” Wasn’t there ever just only one?” Waddle Dee asks, although he already knows the answer.
“He has the essences of two of them already,” Meta Knight sighs as he absently shuffles through some more sheets. He lays blueprints of two very familiar objects on the table.
He points to the first one, a golden crown with a magical blue gem at the center. The one that nearly always sits perched on Magolor's head nowadays. “The Master Crown”.
Meta Knight points to the second object, a large spacecraft with two wing-like appendages. It would be like any other exotic spacecraft, except for the same pocket watch face at the helm. “And the spacecraft Star Dream”.
“I didn’t know there were two of them”. Waddle begins looking through the papers faster, hoping to figure out what Magolor wants with these artifacts. His eyes settle on a document with dozens of small illustrations of objects and shapes he’d never seen before.
“These look like ancient drawings”.
“What are they?” King Dedede shoves his head into the way, looking at the document.
“I know what that is”. Turning around, Waddle Dee sees a young woman with flowing blonde hair, standing behind him in a pink dress that’s much too impractical for the situation they’re in.
“Peach. Are you alright? How's Bowser?”
“We’ll feel better when we get back to the Mushroom Kingdom”. She gently brushes King Dedede aside, and points at one of the illustrations on the page. It's of an orb with a strange star shape in the ceter of it.l Waddle Dee notices that despite her outward appearance, Peach seems a bit frazzled and impatient close up. “That’s an artifact that sits in my kingdom's vault. How would you all know about it?”
“We don’t. Magolor does”.
Waddle Dee sits in silence while everyone else continues sifting through papers, but before long, Meta Knight speaks up.
“We’re left with more questions then we had yesterday, then we had last month, then we had when this whole thing began!” He drops the papers he was reading onto the table, frustrated. “We need to end this, it’s been too long, and we’re running out of time”. Meta Knight looks towards the other room, where their magical allies are working tirelessly to keep their hiding place hidden. They can’t do it forever, though. “We’ve lost too many people. Adelaide, Susie, Ribbon, Fluff… And now we know what became of Daroach”. He sits there sadly, turning away from everyone at the table.
“Halcandra”. King Dedede puts down the papers he’s been reading. “Everything points to the planet of the ancients. Halcandra. That’s where we’ll find the answers to our questions”. He gathers the papers up and puts them back in the file. “Where did Galactic Nova come from? Where did the crown come from? Heck, where did Magolor come from? They're all from Halcandra”.
“But that means we have to leave. How will we get off Popstar and all the way to Halcandra?” Waddle Dee frowns. “Is our force strong enough to even do this?”
“We’ll steal Magolor’s ship. He’s distracted with cleaning up after Daroach right now. This our last chance to get ahead of him, and there’s no way we’re passing this up”. He looks around, and sees Meta Knight, not reacting. “We’ll take back the world, and we’ll save the universe”. His voice is quiet but confident. “Don’t let the loss of our friends mean nothing”.
Meta Knight sighs, and looks over at Kirby seriously. “What do you think?”
Smiling widely, Kirby nods quickly, and with gusto.
Meta Knight sighs. “I expected as much”. He takes out his sword and stands up, pointing it to the air. “This is our last stand! We’ve been one step behind him this whole time. But now? Things will start to change”.

So. Finally awake, eh mister?

…

Where’re you from?

…

You’re not big on talking, are you?

…

Face it Oli, we’re not gonna learn a thing about this guy. Just be thankful he’s not not huge like everything else on this damn planet.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · May 11, 2018

A bit of a setup for the next section, but action will happen, i promise

Captain Toad: Visions

Spoiler

“We’re not the only ones in trouble”. Captain Toad scans from planet to planet using his long distance telescope. Nearly every single one he could see had a single golden ring above it, and was glossing over with metal. He points the down towards the Mushroom Kingdom, seeing something that makes him weak at the knees. Metal is spreading across the land in a magical wave. Trees becoming contraptions of metal and glass, grasslands becoming sheets and sheets of metal, crudely lain on top of each other.

Captain Toad didn’t sign up for this. He slips the telescope into his pocket, and watches as the large stolen airship he’s on pulls up to the Comet Observatory. Not skipping a beat, Merlon magically levitates the Captain over to the deck of the Observatory, leaving the airship in control of the rest of the brigade.

“Good job, Captain. Thank you for the help”.

“Where’s Rosalina?” Looking around, Captain Toad doesn’t see the woman on the deck of the observatory.

Merlon shakes his head, looking towards the floor. “She’s exerted herself too much. She needs rest”.

Captain Toad nods. He’s heard stories about the powers of Rosalina, and seen himself how she’s used her powers to save the galaxy… Multiple times. No doubt that kind of power has a huge strain on her entire being. “What now? We can’t go back”.

“The thing is… We’ve been getting signals from all these planets before us”. He makes a sweeping gesture to all the new planets and systems that have been laid out before them. “They’ve seen the new worlds that have popped up and are looking for help”.

“Are y-you suggesting we-” Captain Toad stutters.

“Help them? Yes”.

“How? We’re outnumbered and outgunned. We barely escaped the attack on our own planet, and you want to go help the others?” Captain Toad’s voice raises as his panic grows. “Not to mention Mario and the Princess are who knows where!”

“We have a whole fleet,” Merlon points out calmly. “Starship Mario, Bowser’s space airship, the Observatory, the Toad crafts”. He smiles, keeping his cool like Rosalina. “And I want you and Luigi to lead rescue efforts from the deck. All these resources are yours to commandeer”.

“Wha-”

Without another word, Merlon turns and begins walking away.

He may be cool headed, but he’s no Rosalina, Toad thinks to himself. Looking around, he sees Luigi staring at the large console on deck dumbfoundedly. As the Captain approaches, he notices that Luigi’s normally bright green hat is scuffed, and there’s a tear in his pant leg that has been crudely taped together on the left side.

Luigi glances over, seeing Captain Toad approach, but then fixes his eyes on the huge display once again. “Merlon is working on a-getting Rosalina back up so she can help. Where do we go first, Toad?”

“You’re not seriously considering doing this!”

“It’s what’s right. We have to save as many people as we can”.

“The observatory’s not even at a hundred percent yet! How will we warp out if we get into trouble?”

“We have other ships, and it will be at a 100 by the time we carry out the rescue”.

With a sigh, Toad points towards the nearest planet with a distress signal. “Might as well go planet by planet”. Not waiting for Luigi’s response, Toad steps back from the display and heads towards the top of the observatory. No doubt Rosalina’s up there in the control room. As he makes his way up stairs and ramps, Captain Toad feels the observatory shudder and begin to move beneath his feet. Maybe Rosalina can change their minds before Luigi and Merlon get everyone killed.

As he approaches the main area - the cockpit, if you will - of the Comet Observatory, he passes masses and masses of refugees, crammed together, barely fitting on the combined room of the observatory and the other starships they had. These people aren’t fit for combat, and yet they’re rushing towards the action anyways.

He sees Yoshi approaching him quickly.

“Yoshi! Yoshi!” Despite all the stress and exhaustion, the cute green dinosaur seems as cheerful and upbeat as he usually is. “Yoshi yoshi!” He points towards the people that are awkwardly huddled together on the floor of the ship.

“Good idea. Move them quickly though. Luigi’s already heading towards a nearby planet”.

“Yoshi?” He tilts his head and frowns.

“Exactly. I only hope Rosalina can change his mind”. Waving, Toad approaches the large decorative doors to Rosalina’s room. The knocks echo deeply, almost as if the Captain was knocking on the doors of the Princess’s castle.

“Come in”.

Hearing Merlon’s voice, Captain Toad gently pushes the door open. The grandeur of the room never ceases to amaze him. Purple silk-like banners hung from the ceiling of the room which curved up into a dome, painted with stars that made the room sparkle just a little. At the back of the room is the large control panel that Merlon and Rosalina use to control the entire observatory. On the left side of the room is Rosalina’s bed draped in luxurious purple bed sheets.

“She’s not awake yet, if you’re wondering”. Merlon is looking disheveled, sitting by her bedside. Rosalina’s lying there, as if she’s peacefully sleeping. “She won’t be back up for a couple days at least”.

“You know you and Luigi are sailing us right where we need to get away from, right?”

Merlon looks up, his gaze unusually cold. “It’s our - no, it’s MY fault we’re in this situation”. He gets up and starts towards the main console. “I should have seen this coming. We both should have seen this coming”. He presses a button on the Observatory’s control panel and a small hole opens in front of Captain Toad. Up out of it rises a beautiful crystal ball sitting atop a thin orchid-coloured pedestal.

“My sister’s old crystal ball. The orb of vision, she used to call it”. Merlon steps up to the orb across Toad, closes his eyes, and begins to concentrate. His dark blue cloak flutters around him, and the young wizard lifts slightly off the ground. As Toad watches the crystal ball, countless images flash by inside it, too quickly for him to see.

In only a couple seconds, Merlon touches back down onto the ground. Looking away from Toad, his voice falls to a barely audible whisper. “So much death. So many worlds I haven’t seen before. So many people who will change the course of so many lives”.

“What does this have to do with protecting our people? We need to stop the observatory before you get us all killed”.

“Don’t you get it? The rules of our universe don’t apply anymore. Rosalina and I worked so hard to keep order in the Mushroom Kingdom. And it’s all undone. Just like that”. He turns towards Captain Toad, a fire brimming in his eyes. “I can only see glimpses of the future, and glimpses of the past. My point is, we’ll be caught up in this war whether we want to or not. The whole universe, no, the whole multiverse will”. The crystal ball and its pedestal lowers back into the ground. “There’s no escaping it. The only way we’ll have a chance of surviving is to fight with more people on our side”.

“A war? What do you mean, a war?”

“A war is exactly what I mean. We are already caught in the midst of a conflict that’s beyond my understanding. War”.

Captain Toad falls silent. If there’s no escaping it, there’s not a whole lot to do.

“We must succeed in rescuing as many people as we can. If we don’t, they’ll be turned against us. I’m counting on you”. He looks away. “Luigi’s not showing it, but he’s not doing well with Mario suddenly gone. You have to make sure he makes the right decisions”.

Captain Toad frowns but doesn’t say anything. Nodding, he begins to head back out towards the front of the Observatory to prepare for the rescue. As Captain Toad’s about to shut the large ornate doors though, a thought occurs to him, and he turns back towards Merlon.

“You can… change the futures you see, right?”

Looking towards Rosalina, Merlon's face clouds over with worry. “I sure hope so”.

How much longer can you keep us hidden?

… Not long.

And then the ones from the other world will find us?

Most definitely. But I see visions. Visions of others that will come to help.

Then why the somber expression? They will come to help, will they not?

They will definitely arrive. But they will arrive too late.

Edited May 18, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · May 18, 2018

Sorry, but it had to be done

Callie: Exodus

Spoiler

“Oh thank goodness! Who are you? Send help!” Callie yells into the microphone when she hears a voice on the other side of her headphones.

“We can’t hold them back much longer!” She hears screams as the inklings on the front lines are pushed back farther and farther, closer to the entrance of the studio.

“We’re coming down to your planet for a rescue. I have your signal, so I know your general area, but you need to get somewhere really high up”.

“I don’t know if we can safely leave!” Callie winces, gripping the table as an explosion rocks the studio violently.

“Are you all ok?” A different voice asks.

“NO!” Callie racks her brain for a solution, drawing a blank, but Marie snatches the microphone from her.

“There’s a large parking-lot type garage a little bit north of where we are. It’s the tallest building in our city, and we only have one city. You can’t miss it”.

Callie smiles at Marie in thanks, and she sticks up a thumb in reply.

“We’ll be there as a-soon as possible, but we’ll only wait there for as a-long as we can. Try to get there as-” The voice on the other cuts off as another explosion rocks the ground, the most violent one yet, and to Callie’s horror, she see Inkopolis Tower, their main communications tower, begin to bend and fall towards them.

“Everyone fall back! The back exit where the fire escape is! Quickly!” Diving into her squid form, Callie swims as quickly as she can towards the back. Behind her, the large metal radio tower slams into the roof of the studio. The concrete ceiling holds for only a second before it caves in. The area nearest the entrance of the studio falls first, the roof slamming into the second floor where the studio is. The second floor then also gives way, falling towards the ground floor.

Callie barely reaches the back exit before the doorway collapses. As the fire escape comes off of the building, she turns back into her inkling form and grabs on tight as the whole thing plummets towards the ground below her. At the last second, Callie jumps off and rolls to the left before it hits the ground, narrowly missing being crushed under the metal rails of the fire escape.

Springing to her feet, Callie whirls around to see her beloved studio in ruins. In fact, the whole city is in ruins, smoke rising up into the air.

“Marie!” She frantically scans the wreckage, seeing others still fighting in the wreckage all around her.

“Over here!” Callie sees Marie waving at her from the wreckage. “I’m stuck!” Rushing over, Callie sees her foot trapped under steel beam.

“I got this. You pull when I lift. One”.

“Two”.

“Three!” Callie puts her back and her legs into lifting the beam. Only moving it a little, Marie just manages to slip her foot out from under it.

“Behind you!” Alerted by Marie’s yell, Callie pulls out her ink gun and shoots a pressurized spray into the robot behind her, dropping it to the ground. Only after does Callie realize what it is.

“Holy-” She stares for a second at the robot. It looks exactly like an inkling, and nothing like the robots they’ve encountered so far. However, just like the previous robots they’ve encountered, Wires and tubes snake in and out of his body, and robotic parts replace some of his external features.

“Why- Who-”

Before she can say anything else, the inkling’s body dissolves into an ink mush, sinking past the metal to pool onto the floor.

“What is this?”

“Don’t worry about that right now, Marie. We need to go”. Callie glances at the next approaching wave of robots, which now include the modified inklings, and points towards the large parking tower.

“Grandpappy never made it here, Callie”. Marie stares at the dead inkling while thoughts dash through her mind.

“Grandpappy will be fine. We won't be if we stay here!” Callie tries to shake Marie back to the present.

Marie continues staring at the inkling’s remains, which are pooling ever larger into a more and more liquid state. Callie looks at Marie, then the approaching wave of robots. Her eyes land on the ruins of their old studio. She grits her teeth.

“We go NOW!” Grabbing her cousin’s wrist, Callie pulls her along as she makes a run down the couple blocks to the parking tower. “Everyone!” Callie yells, hoping to catch the attention of anybody still fighting, “Head to Moray Towers! We are getting the hell out of this city!”

They are joined by a couple citizens, and as they head down the streets, yelling into buildings and trying to hold off the robots, a slow trickle of people joins them. Street by street, block by block, the group of survivors inch closer and closer to Moray Towers, to them, the towers of salvation. As they turn the last corner, Callie glances up, seeing some kind of flying wooden galleon circling the top of the tower. Even this far away, she can see robots around the wooden ship, probably attacking it.

“Everyone head inside! Quickly!” Walking in, Callie sees others have taken refuge in here as well.

“We’ll be able to defend ourselves better in here, right?”

“They can’t come from above us, so yes. Watch our backs and our fronts, and watch for ones flying in at the sides”. She pointed at the sides of the parking garage which were open to the air.

“What about the ones that… Look like us?”

Callie avoids eye contact. “You mean the ones that are us?”

Marie bites her lip, brow furrowed, and looks towards the entrance. “Yeah”.

“Don’t take them down if you don’t have to. We’ll find a way to save them. I know we will”. Callie wraps her cousin in a hug. “Let’s focus on getting up top first”. Pulling away, she shouts out to the people around her. “Our ticket out is the very top of the building. We go carefully but as quickly as possible. We have to get there before our rescue is forced to leave”.

The group moves methodically, as a team. All those public for-fun ink battles paid off. The two cousins lead the pack, Marie picking off enemies from afar with her sniper while Callie takes out the ones that get too close. Going up the car ramps, they go up one floor after another, weaving their way past parked vehicles and around concrete columns. However, as they reach the top, the inklings hear explosions, and the sound of fierce fighting.

Coming onto the roof, the inklings see a scene of complete chaos. The rescue ship is being swarmed with hundreds of flying robots. Onboard, Callie sees countless people fighting them off. Watching in horror, she sees a robot push a figure off the airship, and it plummets from the ship down the city floor below.

“This is the final push, everyone! We get onto that ship and get out of here!”

Inkopolis is in ruins. The screams that had echoed through the city are no longer audible. Fires have petered out, leaving just rising columns of smoke. Any noise of fighting can now only be heard at the very top of Moray Towers.

A blast of magic flies past Callie’s head, barely missing. It slams into a nearby car, the explosion causing the floor to rock and the survivors to stumble.

“Keep going!” Callie shoots a quick burst of ink over to the robot that shot the blast. She begins to approach the flying ship, which is now hovering not far above her.

“Over here!” A figure waves to them from the airship, and multiple rope ladders unroll from one side of the ship onto the roof. “Get on! Quick!”

Reaching forward, she begins to grab the ladder, then stops. Stepping away, Callie begins to wave people up, helping them climb aboard.

“Slow and steady, everyone! I’ll watch your backs”.

“I will too”. Marie stops next to Callie, and readying her rifle, begins to shoot bolts and bolts of ink at the flying robots closest to the ladder.

She looks up, seeing a man in a blue robe, keeping the robots away from the ladders with a flick of his wrist. The person who waved to her earlier is just as amazingly shooting bright green fireballs from the palms of his hands.

Her heart pounding, Callie waits as the last of them begin to head on up, then grabs onto a rung of the ladder. She holds a hand out to Marie.

“Finally. Let’s-”

With a deafening boom, an explosion rocks the side of the airship and it jerks suddenly, the ladder pulling Callie off her feet and away from her cousin, swinging her back and forth. An inkling climbing up the ladder loses his grip, falling past the edge of the tower to the ground below.

“We need to go before we take too many hits!” She hears a voice call above her.

“Marie!”

“Callie!” As the ladder is pulled away, closer and closer to the edge of the roof, Callie reaches out to her cousin as she reaches forward to take her hand.

Their fingers just graze each other.

“NO!” Callie is pulled over the lip of the roof while Marie freezes in her tracks, just stopping herself from going over the edge.

The world around Callie seems to slow down. The robots close in around her, and one, carrying a large device on its back, steps out from the crowd of robots.

Callie sees Marie smile sadly, mouthing one final message.

I love you.

Callie sees the robot plunge its metal device deep into her cousin’s back.

She sees Marie’s eyes go wide, and a glow envelopes her. The metal device seems to unwind, wiring and tubes burrowing their way painfully into Marie’s body, causing her eyes to grow dull and grey. Not a second later, Marie simply stares straight ahead, blankly at the airship that’s flying quickly away.

Callie doesn’t hear herself scream.

She doesn’t see anything else as the ladder is slowly reeled up, with her on the end, as the airship pulls away from the surface, past the clouds, and into the darkness of space.

She doesn’t hear Luigi’s questions as she collapses to her knees on the deck of the airship.

She doesn’t feel the tears running down her face, dripping onto the lifeless wooden planks under her.

I can’t do it anymore. We’re no longer hidden like we were.

Can we stop it? Fight back?

The Sorcerer will come. And he will destroy us.

No! He will never get his hands on it. Not now, not ever.

We can’t fight back. You’ll all die. He will crush you all like bugs.

But we have to. We have to-

I’ve seen it, Princess.

No. Not all of it. You couldn’t have. I will come up with something.

Edited May 30, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · May 29, 2018

I swear I didn't plan this with Daroach in Star Allies being a thing. I'm not that on top of things.

'Tis a short chapter, but an interesting spotlight on our villain.

Oh and warning: May be a bit scarring, so read at your own risk.

Magolor: Shadows

Spoiler

“Ruhhhhhhggggh”. Magolor’s blood boils. The scene before him makes him want to tear someone to pieces. And he will, no doubt about it. The cherry blossoms litter the hallway, covering the floor and the walls in a nauseating pink colour.

“RrrrrraaaAAAHHHH!” Magolor can’t hold it in. His entire body tensing up, he throws his arms up and scorches the hallway with the most intense blue flame his powers can conjure up. Screaming and sweeping his arms back and forth, the fire fills the hall, and the pink flower petals shrink and wither, turning black, then crumbling into a fine black ash. With a final burst of energy, he sends that blue flame hurtling down the length of the hallway, the ash spiralling after it and hitting the opposite wall with a loud bang.

“And YOU!” Magolor turns around, his blue cloak spinning around him, and sees Daroach slumped against the wall, eyes fixed on Magolor. “You failed me… But somehow you’re still alive. Your will is strong”. He approaches and grabs Daroach by the neck, lifting him up off the floor of the hall. Eyes digging into Daroach’s soul, he sees something interesting: Fear.

“You let them get away on purpose, didn’t you?”. Magolor smiles, the corners of his mouth reaching upwards to almost impossible angles. "Despite what I've done, some part of you is still in there". His white teeth shine outwards at Daroach. “All the better. I’m going to enjoy this”.

With terrifying power, Magolor throws Daroach into the wall, grinning with pleasure. The impact seems to have partly freed Daroach from the machine’s control, and agonizingly, Daroach tries to push himself past Magolor, reaching past him with his hand. Maybe Daroach was trying to bet his luck one last time. Maybe he was hoping someone would save him.

Nobody will.

“AGH!” Daroach yells in pain as Magolor brings his foot down hard on his hand.

“Good. You can think and feel again. I want you to sense and experience everything I do to you”. Wielding the power of his crown, Magolor levitates Daroach up off the ground and in front of him. “I’m going to break every bone in your body… ”

“UrrrAGGH!” Daroach screams in agony as the crunch of splintering bones fills the hallway.

“Then,” Magolor sneers, “I’m going to tear apart your organs from the inside”.

“ARRRGGH-G-G-H--H… A… G… G…”. Daroach’s screams become gargles as blood bubbles up out of his mouth, spilling onto the hallway floor.

“Then, I’m-” Magolor pauses as he sees Daroach’s eyes lose their light. “Pity. You didn’t hold on as long as I thought you would”. With a wave of his hand, Daroach is released from the magic, and his body collapses to the floor with a dull thud. A pool of blood grows under his body. The only sound left is the faint buzzing of fluorescent lights.

“Someone clean this up”. Turning away from Daroach’s body, he waves his hand and disappears in a wave of energy.

When Magolor reappears, he’s back in his large, scantily lit room, overlooking the now mechanized fields of Dreamland. It pains him a little to see all the natural wildlife gone, but in the end, it will be all worth it. In the end, he will finally be able to take back what is his, no matter the cost. Magolor grabs the little locket around his neck, and closes his eyes, trying, and failing yet again to recall the memories that have escaped his mind. He’ll bring things back. Back the way they once were. Before that wretched little puffball ruined his life.

Magolor waves his hand, bringing down a cage from the ceiling. A small creature sits inside, eyes closed, exhausted from working so hard.

“I’m terribly sorry. But I’ll need your powers just once more. A hoop just big enough for me to get through”.

The little creature is exhausted, but it still shakes its head in fear, the red tuft of hair on its head bobbing back and forth.

“I need you to take me somewhere new. Somewhere I or my troops haven’t been. I need a replacement for that useless mouse”.

The creature continues shaking its head, clutching the magical golden ring to its chest.

“What more can I do to convince you that you can be on the winning side? You can build your life back to what it once was”.

Amazingly, the small creature, barely half the size of Magolor, squeaks back in defiance.

“I burned your planet to the ground!” Magolor’s patience begins to strain. “What MORE do you have to lose? I even crushed your precious gods with my bare hands!”

The poor creature shrinks back against the side of the cage, as Magolor’s shadow falls over it.

Taking a deep breath, Magolor shakes his head, trying to calm down. “No matter”. He holds up a hand, preparing some magic. “I’ll just have to force you again”. With a twitch of his hand, Magolor envelops the creature in a dark aura, and the creature squeaks in pain. In front of Magolor, a circular portal begins to grow out of thin air, framed by a thin golden ring, and on the other side, a green, peaceful planet. A medieval castle can be seen in the distance. Magolor grins. This planet is just ripe for the picking. “I like this. Planet AF-H if I remember correctly. I wonder how it’s avoided my troops”.

Smiling and nodding back at the small creature, who’s still writhing in pain, Magolor steps through.

Quick! We cannot delay! You have to hide!

He’s here?

He’s here! You and the others have to-

I can’t escape this, Lana. But you can. Take it. Hide it. I will fight as long as I can.

But Princess, you can’t-

All three pieces are here. Take them to the ends of the continent. Do not come out until our savior comes.

But Princess, we need you. The whole kingdom needs you.

Exactly... Goodbye Lana.

… Goodbye Zelda.

Edited June 14, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · June 14, 2018

It's been a couple weeks, but we're baaacck. And with a special chapter too~

Notice the green that hasn't been seen since the Prologue

Intermission: The Fall of the Millions

Spoiler

Luigi and Merlon’s fleet sail off, away from Inkopolis, with the survivors on board. Some of them rejoice, thankful and grateful for surviving this disaster. Others mourn for friends and family, lost forever.

However, any way you look at it, they are the lucky ones. They found a way off their planets, away from the pieces of the ancient world that Magolor was hunting for.

Other worlds aren’t so lucky.

At the same time as Callie and her fellow survivors are moving from Bowser’s airship onto the Comet Observatory, Alfonse Gustav, the prince of the Kingdom of Askr, is fighting back with all his might against the waves and waves of robots. The thing is, they’ve now made their way into the castle. As his army is pushed deeper and deeper, back into his throne room, he knows this fight will ultimately be in vain. Known to Magolor only as Planet FH-E, Alfonse Gustav and his sister Sharena fall to Magolor’s forces exactly twenty-four hours after the invasion began, and the robots take control of the fiercest warriors that their world has ever known.

At the same time that Alfonse and Sharena are being converted into mindless killing machines, bounty hunter Samus Aran is trying to outmaneuver Magolor’s space forces. Dangerously close to Planet Popstar, Magolor’s defense forces automatically kicked in when she got too close. Ducking and weaving, Samus, flying her orange gunship, tries to outmaneuver the best pilots she’s ever come across.

She will be unsuccessful. Samus Aran, bounty hunter extraordinaire, is shot down not ten minutes after she enters Magolor’s airspace. Plummeting towards Planet Popstar, she loses consciousness as she enters its atmosphere, where Magolor’s next general, Suzie, is waiting.

Another one of Magolor’s robot generals, Adelaide, is leading the assault on the Mushroom Kingdom. As Adelaide enter’s Bowser castle however, Bowser Jr. is ready. His very own resistance, much like Meta Knight and King Dedede’s, retreats far underground, into the vast network of pipes and sewers crisscrossing the entire planet. With all of his father’s remaining troops, he vows to kill every single invader on this planet if it’s the last thing he does. It very well may be.

The planet Magolor himself has gone to, AF-H, is alternatively known as Hyrule. Even the combined forces of all the Hylian Guard is no match for Magolor and the power of his crown. Barely breaking a sweat, Magolor decimates the forces in his way single handedly, looking for someone that can last longer than just a couple of seconds. He plows forward, thinking he won’t ever come up against someone worthy to serve him. Yet, before he enters Hyrule Castle, he sees one lone soldier in his way, dressed in a very different bright green uniform. His name is Link, and he is surrounded with a strange and peculiar aura. Magolor smiles. He’ll do just fine.

Meanwhile, the little creature in Magolor’s cage decides it’s had enough. If he waits any longer, he will no longer have the energy to escape. And since Magolor was gone, it was the perfect opportunity to do so. A new, primal energy flows through its body, and finding a new, untapped well of strength, it bends the metal bars of the cage outwards, making it just big enough to squeeze through. It can’t believe it. Home is in reach. The little creature, whose name is Hoopa, hangs on to a little shred of hope that his home is intact, that Magolor hasn’t destroyed it as completely as he said he had. Conjuring a small golden portal, it doesn’t notice Magolor’s guard, Ribbon, flying around the corner, alerted by the sound of bending and creaking metal. However, Ribbon doesn’t fly fast enough. Before she can grab Hoopa, the little creature ducks through the golden ring and closes it behind him.

What Hoopa sees breaks him down to tears. His home, where grew up, it’s simply no longer there. In its place is hot, scorching lava, stretching as far as the eye can see. Thick smoke and toxic gas clogs the air and blots out most sunlight from getting through the atmosphere. There are only small islands of stone and rubble visible above the ocean of lava, small remnants of the bright and busy world that was once here. Sinking down onto one of the stone islands, Hoopa cries. For him, all hope is lost.

And all the while, Rosalina’s Comet Observatory presses onwards, away from the ruins of Inkopolis, going deeper and deeper into the heart of this new universe Magolor has created, with Planet Popstar at its center. The only way Merlon can hope to win is by saving the most people as possible, while Magolor’s forces are spread thin. Their next stop? Planet AF-H: Hyrule.

However, there is one more obstacle in their path. Between the Comet Observatory and Planet AF-H lies a galactic battlecarrier known as The Great Fox. Crippled, and drifting through space, the mercenary group Star Fox has tech that was just able to repel the advance of General Fluff, one of Magolor’s top aces. However, with reinforcements on the way and no more fuel, they are slowly drifting towards a little world that has been long wiped off the face of the multiverse by Magolor, and right towards Hoopa.

Is this… How…

Heeheeeheheheh. Will you help me? It’s the only way you'll get what you want.

I’ll do it. I’ll do anything.

Edited June 24, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · June 24, 2018

It's a short one, but enjoy~

Captain Toad: Dissension

Spoiler

“I told you!” Captain Toad storms after Luigi as he walks away, ignoring his yells. “We weren’t ready! We never were ready!”

They’ve moved almost everyone back onto the observatory, and are slowly

“And when would we have been a-ready?” Luigi turns around, countering. “Be thankful we saved as many of them as we could”.

“Sure we saved people, but just enough to replace the people we lost!” Toad huffs. “The airship took heavy damage too. We don’t want to lose one of our ships!”

“Except we didn’t”. Turning around, Luigi calls for someone else. “Yoshi! How are the new people?”

“You know you could just ask us”. Callie stands stiffly, arms crossed, glaring tightly at Luigi and Toad. “And no, we’re not great, thank you”.

“And you are?”

“Callie Cuttlefish. You could say I’m the leader now”.

“What can we-”

“I’m going to go first,” she says, marching right up in front of Luigi. He’s taller than her, but her sudden approach still makes him reflexively take a step backwards. “I need an explanation as to why my planet was just invaded, and my city torn to the ground”.

“I know as little as you do”. Luigi shrugs, almost dismissively.

“That’s a load of sh-”

“But it’s true. Our planet was taken over just as yours was. And there’s more people we have to rescue”.

“What about rescuing the people who were left behind?”

“We don't. Not yet”.

Captain Toad just manages to catch a glimpse of tears swelling in her eyes before she turns away and walks off stiffly.

“Should I go after her?”

“No. She’ll cool off enough to talk to us rationally soon”. Luigi’s expression is cold, and he stalks off towards the holo-board, displaying distress signals and planets that are under attack. One by one, the coordinates that are sending distress signals have slowly been blinking out. “We should head for the next one before it’s too late”.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Rosalina to recover?” Captain Toad once again tries but fails to hide his annoyance. “We’ll have much better chances with her helping out”.

“Do you think the invaded planets have time for Rosalina to wake up?” Luigi looks peeved, and points towards the holo-map on the deck of the observatory. “Have you seen the distress signals blinking out one by one?”

“If we keep pressing forward, soon we're going to be one of those distress signals”.

Luigi shakes his head. “We’ll take Starship Mario, then, if you're worried that the airship is too damaged. Merlon will repair it while we’re travelling”.

Captain Toad frowns and takes a deep breath. There's no point arguing like this. Not when Luigi is being like this. “Fine. But we're going to be much, much more careful this time”.

Instead, Captain Toad heads off, in search of the girl who approached them earlier. Callie something-or-other, Toad thinks.

He spots her sitting at the age of the landing pad, her feet dangling off the edge, and staring off into the vastness of space.

“Callie, right? How are you doing?”

“How does this-,” she gestures to the darkness of space in front of her. “-work? I could just fling myself off the edge of this spaceship and into the void of space. How can I breathe up here?”

“Magic. And if you fling yourself off, the magic will just bring you back up to where you were standing”.

Callie looks over, skeptical, while Captain Toad takes a seat beside her.

“It’s true. Everything you see around you is being kept like this by the power of stars. It's the most powerful spacecraft out there”.

Callie nods, as if that answer seemed to appease her curiosity. However, a single tear still rolls down the side of her face. “Where are we going?”

“To save as many people as we can. And then, we fight back against whoever is doing this”.

“And you’re here to ask for my help?” She avoids eye contact, still looking off into the distance.

“No. I just came to talk to you. Do you want to help?”

“Are you going to help save my cousin?”

Captain Toad hesitates for a split second. He shouldn't make promises he can't keep. “Yeah. Of course. Were they captured?”

“No. She was turned”

“Turned?”

“Into one of those robots”.

“Was she the one with the green hair?” Toad remembers just as they were escaping, a lone figure standing atop the roof of the tower, and then brutally stabbed by one of the troops. He thought the girl died then.

Callie nods slightly. “They were turning our people into robots, and then making them turn against us”.

Captain Toad’s heart drops. The invaders weren't simply taking over planets. They were taking over people.

Callie stands up, and turns towards Captain Toad. “I'll help. You'll need it”.

Captain Toad nods. “First and foremost, take care of yourself”. As he’s about to turn away however, Merlon calls out while approaching them.

“She's awake!”

“Rosalina?”

“Who else?”

Callie smiles. “I'll stay out here”.

As quickly as they can, Toad and Merlon run off towards Rosalina’s bedroom.

AHHH!

Are you done, princess? Where is it? The triforce?

No… I won’t… I cannot…

And you still try to overpower me? You can’t. You won’t ever.

… I will never tell you.

Then I have no reason to keep you around. Kill her.

Wh- What have you done to him? No… Please… You wouldn’t...

Farewell, princess.

Nooooooo-

Edited July 1, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · July 1, 2018

Not everything is as it seems...

Callie: Clandestinity

Spoiler

Callie smiles wearily as she watches the Captain and the strange wizard hurry off. Are they sincere? Are they really on her side? Callie guesses they might be genuine, but what can this ragtag group do against a seemingly endless army? What can they do to save everyone that needs it? The short answer is, they can’t. Callie will have to save her cousin herself.

Callie looks off into space and sighs. Marie needs her. And the best way to get their help saving her is to get to know the people at the top. A light bulb goes off in her head. Just pretend this is a press conference. Or an interview.

She watches as the two of them head up to the very top of their flying craft, joined by the man in green from before. Getting up, she brushes off her pants and follows. Watching and following a safe distance behind, she sees the three of them enter the very tip of the structure through a large set of fancy double doors. As soon as she hears the double doors swing closed, she spreads some ink on the floor and dives in as her squid form, remaining flush to the ground and slithering right up to the door, listening in.

“You’re okay?” the wizard’s deep, smooth voice seems to echo outwards.

“I felt it… The fighting… It came to me in my sleep”. A woman’s voice this time sounds. It must have been the one they were talking about who woke up.

“I used the crystal ball. I saw glimpses of the fight. The man who looks… Kind of like me”.

“It’s not you. But I did see one thing”.

The voices inside fall silent awkwardly, as if some unspoken message is being passed throughout the room.

“I saw it too,” the wizard says.

“Stop speaking so vaguely. What is it?” The other man’s voice sounds, the one in green.

“I don’t make it through this”. The woman’s voice is strangely calm, but quiet. “It is my destiny. To give myself and end this conflict”.

She can see the future, Callie thinks. Like one of those mythical oracles. She wonders whether or not it would be a blessing or a curse to see the future so clearly. Callie waits for more dialogue, but the silence makes Callie think they left through another entrance. Callie is about to slink off when the woman’s voice sounds out again.

“We’ll deal with that when it comes. First of all, how long have I been recovering?”

“A little more than a day”. The Captain replies.

Callie hears a sudden rustling of bedsheets.

“Prepare our defenses. We have to get ready for the next battle”.

Suddenly, a bright light suddenly bursts from the cone-shaped tip of the observatory. Callie watches in awe as a spherical energy field envelopes the entire spacecraft, from the top to the bottom. It shimmers like a soap bubble, rainbow lights flickering up and down the shield. As she looks towards the other aircraft, like the flying wooden galleon and the other ship that looks like a head, similar bubbles also grow around them.

“Callie right? Come in. Quickly”. The woman's voice startles her, and she does a double take, making sure there weren't any windows they saw her from. One of the doors open, the wizard on the other side looking straight at Callie.

“You do know she can see you right?” The wizard says, amused.

Callie smiles in embarrassment as she gets up off the ground, transforming back into her humanoid form. “Is it her magic?”.

“No. We have cameras”. The wizards chuckles as he waves Callie into the room. Everyone is standing around the woman's bedside, but she is now sitting up. For someone who had been sleeping, the woman was dressed impeccably. Her flowing blue dress shimmered in the light, and her hair looked like she just spent hours at a salon getting it done.

“Is she allowed to be here?” The green man's voice hides a small hint of annoyance.

“She leads her group of people,” the woman says. “She has just as much of a right to be here as you all do. I do believe we're not yet acquainted. You may call me Rosalina. This is Luigi, Merlon, and the Captain”. She gestures and nods towards each person respectfully. “And this is my observatory”. Smiling, she gestures all around her.

“I'm Callie, from Inkopolis. I've met Luigi and the Captain already”. She resists the urge to bow in respect.

Rosalina nods politely and gets up. Callie watches, amazed, as the woman doesn’t walk, but floats over to the computer-like console at the back of the room.

“I saw one other thing as I slept. Our next destination”. She points towards the holographic screen. It zooms in, showing some sort of spaceship, made out of metal and completely enclosed. It has a pointed tip, but not for efficiency. Instead, the front of the ship resembles a snout of some kind of animal. “They need our help”.

“That’s some primitive tech,” Luigi mentions. “It looks the ship runs on a limited fuel resource”. He points towards the large burners on the back of the spacecraft.

“It’s quite big though, almost as large as the observatory, meaning it could hold a lot of people,” Toad points out. “If we save them and the tech they have, we could begin fighting back against this robot army”.

“We are definitely fast approaching,” Rosalina says. “Be ready for-”

An explosion suddenly sounds from outside, and the Observatory trembles.

“Something hit our shields,” Luigi says.

The Captain presses a communications unit to the side of his head and yells. “Everyone to their assigned stations!” With a nod to Rosalina, he and Luigi rush out of the room.

“You should stay here. You haven’t recovered yet, and we’re more prepared this time around”. Merlon puts an arm around Rosalina. “You’ll be able to do more at full power”.

She nods, albeit reluctantly, and lets herself be helped back to her bed by Merlon. Rosalina is much more exhausted than she lets on in front of Luigi and Captain Toad.
Callie shuffles awkwardly from side to side, and begins to head towards the door. “I’m going to go out to help”.

“No”. Rosalina holds up a hand. “Merlon, you go. I would like to speak to Callie”.

“What about?” The wizard asks, confused.

“Just about how she can help”. Rosalina nods towards the door, telling Merlon to go.

Reluctantly, Merlon slowly leaves Rosalina sitting on the bed, opens the big double doors, and leaves.

Rosalina beckons Callie over, and she slowly approaches, intimidated, until she’s standing in front of her. Rosalina rises from her bed, the exhaustion from when Merlon was here instantly disappearing. The woman is tall, towering over Callie’s head, and her glare reaches deep into Callie’s soul.

“Is there something you aren’t telling me?” Her voice is quiet, but firm.

“Of course not,” Callie says, nodding at Rosalina. “You can ask any of my people here”.

“Remember that we’re your allies. We want to survive just as much as you do”. Her face is serious, and her tone is powerful and assertive.

“That means you’ll help save as many as you can, right?” Callie replies, as if challenging Rosalina.

“That means we try our best to help if we need to”. The tension in the room feels suffocating, and the large spacious room seems somehow too small.

Both of them look at each other for a couple seconds, as if trying to see into each other’s minds. Then, as quickly as it appeared, the tension dissipates. Rosalina, looking content, sits back down.

“Your intentions are pure. Go out to help where you can. If you want to save your cousin, that’s where we start”.

With a nod, Callie heads out. As soon as the double doors close behind her, she breathes a sigh of relief.

That was close, she thinks. Callie clutches a small golden pendant that hangs around her neck.

He’s gone? Were you not watching him?

…

Good thing I have a replacement for you as well. Goodbye Ribbon.

A-A-Aaaa-...................

Bring in the one that was shot down earlier. And the gag. Take it off.

Wha- Who are you? Let me go you-

Feisty. You and your armor will make an excellent addition to my collection.

Get your hands off me! I will stop you! And I will ki-

Shhhhh~

Edited July 5, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · July 5, 2018

And with this, you've met all the major players.

Enjoy!

Fox McCloud: Star Fighters

Spoiler

“Do we have an idea of where we are yet?” Fox frantically taps away on the monitor of the screen in front of him. “Has anybody gotten a message out to Pepper?”

“Negative, sir!” Slippy yells from behind him. “I don’t think we’re in the Cornerian system anymo- AHH!” He screams as a shower of sparks explode above his head.

“How does this even-” Fox stops as he feels a rumble beneath his feet. They were under attack. Again.

“I can’t find Peppy either. He was supposed to be in the convoy, but they disappeared after the energy spike”. Worriedly, Slippy runs diagnostics on the damage. “Should I keep trying to contact him?”

“No time for that now. Stay here, Slippy”. Fox slaps on his helmet and jumps out of his seat on the bridge of the Great Fox. “I’m going to suit up”.

“Repairs to your Arwing aren’t finished yet!” Slippy points at a diagram of Fox’s spacecraft, which is only operating at around sixty percent capacity.

“I don’t have a choice,” Fox says, strapping on his large metal boots. “And call Falco down in the hanger bay. Tell him to get all our fighters ready to go”.

“I am one of your fighters…” Slippy says, annoyed.

“Which is why I need you here manning the Great Fox. We can lose a couple Arwings, but if this goes down, we’re done for”. He runs to the door of the bridge, and slapping a button on the wall, the large metal doors slide open with a hiss. “Be careful, Slippy”.

“I should be the one saying that to you,” Slippy yells, but Fox can barely hear him as he runs the length of the corridor and down the stairs to the Great Fox’s hanger bay. Falco is already sitting in his own Arwing, ready to go.

“You’re slow!” He chuckles and pressing a couple buttons, the roof swings over and encloses Falco in his Arwing while Fox climbs into his. Flipping the roof down over him, and making sure it’s sealed, he looks around the hanger to make sure the ground crew is in a safe place. Finally, he gives a thumbs up to Falco and the rest of the pilots. All at once, almost every Arwing in the hanger blasts out into space.

The outside of the Great Fox somehow looks even worse for wear than the inside. There are large holes in the body of the spaceship, and the entire area is cast in a creepy red-yellow glow by the planet below them.

Immediately, they can see things approaching from both sides of the Great Fox. On one end, a swarm of space robots are approaching at quick speeds, and laser blasts are already chipping away at the Great Fox’s energy shields. On the other side of the Great Fox, still in the distance, there are multiple large spacecraft, with one very abstract structure even larger than the Great Fox itself.

Fox gulps. Everyone is in for one heck of a fight.

To check that everything’s working, Fox taps the earpiece on his helmet, turning it on. It beeps to let him know he can be heard.

“Roll call, everyone! Fox McCloud, Arwing Ace One, ready to go!”

“Slippy Toad, Arwing Ace Three, but manning the Great Fox!” the frog, ironically named Slippy Toad cheerfully states.

“Falco Lombardi, Arwing Ace Two, ready to kick some fucking a-”.

“Language, Falco”. Fox interrupts.

“Well you’re no fun,” Falco huffs.

“Peppy Hare, Arwing Ace Four, cannot be reached,” the system’s automated voice kicks in, responding when the radio signal cannot be found.

“Okay,” Fox says. “Falco will lead groups B and D towards the robot forces on the Great Fox’s starboard side, while I will lead groups A and C towards the forces on the Great Fox’s Port side. Move out, and be careful!” Falco’s group of six Arwing fighters peel off towards the swarm, while Fox’s eight fighters peel off towards the large structures that are quickly approaching the crippled Great Fox.

The screen on Fox’s dashboard crackles and flickers on, showing Slippy’s face.

“We have a transmission coming in from the large craft you’re heading towards”. Slippy looks a little tense. “They want to speak to you”.

“Me specifically?” Fox fires some warning blasts, but the structure’s shields seem to absorb his lasers effortlessly.

“They asked to speak to our leader, and that’s you”. Slippy turns to tap away on a keyboard off the screen to the right. “You’re patched through”.

“This is Fox McCloud. Pull back your forces”.

“Mr. McCloud? We are here to help you”. A woman’s voice sounds on the other side. It’s smooth and luxurious, like the embodiment of all of space itself.

“I- er”. This woman didn’t sound like a threat, but Fox knew appearances can be deceiving. “Who are you?”

“My name is Rosalina, but introductions can come later. Right now, you have a horde of robots approaching from the opposite side of where we are. They will outmaneuver your spacecraft and bring you all down if you don’t allow us to help”. Even with the imminent danger and urgent wording, she sounds calm and collected.

“How do I know to trust you?”

“Watch”.

Flashes of light burst forward from the center of the structure before Fox, and soar over his Arwing towards the Great Fox. “What are you doing?” Fox, spinning his arwing around, tries to shoot the orbs of light down, but his lasers just pass through.

“I’m trying to bring down the enemy. Trust me”.

“Well, I don’t”. Bringing a hand down onto the dashboard, he cuts off communication with Rosalina and speeds after the orbs of light. The thing is, Rosalina’s magic moves much faster than Fox’s fighter. Fox can do nothing but watch helplessly as the flashes of light soar away towards the Great Fox. “Slippy! You have to get out of there!” He yells.

“Their trajectory though. It’s gonna go…”

The flashes of light fly right over the Great Fox to where Falco and his fighters are embroiled in a difficult fight.

“Fox? What are these?”

The orbs of light slow themselves down, stopping right in the middle of the dogfight. With a flash, the orbs explode with a blinding light, and bolts of electricity and magic jump between the robotic creatures. Fox only catches a glimpse before having to look away.

“Falco!”

“I-I’m… Okay?”

Opening his eyes, Fox sees only Falco and his fighters as he flies up. All the enemy bots are just… Gone. Vaporized.

“Are you ready to trust me now?” Rosalina’s voice echoes again through the dashboard.

“I… Severed your connection”.

“You could say we have connections. You have little time. There are more coming”.

Almost as if on cue, a large portal opens up in front of them, but different from the golden ring Fox saw the first time they were attacked.

“Yes. Yes. We need help”.

Are we going?

It’s now or never. His forces are focused on getting Hoopa back.

… Have you heard anything from home?

Nothing. Not a word.

As much as I’ve fought them… I hope they’re okay.

… Me too.

Edited July 15, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · July 15, 2018

This was really fun to write. Enjoy the cliffhanger!

Link: The Hylian

Spoiler

Looking closely, it’s not hard to tell the hero in green is not himself. His green cap is overlaid with wires and metal chips, and half his face looks replaced with metal and machinery. Even his sword has a metal brace-like object around the handle, controlling its power. Smartly though, Magolor seems to have hidden the rest of the metal behind Link’s clothing. It’s hard to see even a sliver of the young hero that was behind his eyes.

On the plus side, he can now breathe in space.

Holding his sword in front of him, Link seems to glide through the darkness, leading similar robotic troops.

It still has flecks of dried blood on the hilt.

He only has one mission. Find and retrieve Hoopa.

But these pesky flies are in the way, somehow wiping out wave after wave of troops. Not this time. Just let them get down to the planet.

Magical orbs float down towards the newest wave, with Link at the front, but they won’t be a problem. Flying forwards at blinding speed, Link raises his sword, and glowing with magical energy, bring it down through one of the orbs. It bursts and shatters, energy dispersing evenly into the sword and into the space around him. He darts to the next one, then the next, slicing them all clean in half before they can do any damage. He won’t be able to get anywhere if he’s busy getting rid of these attacks.

New objective.

Find and stop the source of these attacks, then go grab Hoopa. Good thing all magic has a trail. He holds up his sword, pointing it like a compass needle, and senses the magic flow back towards a craft that’s approaching from behind The Great Fox. He senses a very powerful woman, concerned as to why her attack didn’t go through.

She reminds him of someone.

Link accesses the recent records. The spacecraft appears to be the Comet Observatory, harboring extravagant amounts of intergalactic power.

All led by the guardian of the cosmos, Rosalina.

This could be a threat to the empire he now serves.

E-e-empire? Magolor? Or Zel-

The thought vanishes. Flying forward, Link flies faster than the arwings and the other troops, over the Great Fox, and straight towards the Comet Observatory. He stops on a dime, just outside the shield around the observatory. He ignores the mushroom shaped ships passing through the shield, led by Merlon, flying towards where most of the battle is taking place. Instead, Link focuses on the woman standing there, watching him, from across the observatory.

She is his target.

Raising his sword above his head, Link plunges it through the magical shield, sending sparks of energy flying in every direction. Slicing through it, the sword manages to open a gap in the shield, and in a flash, Link is through, letting other robots in around him. Slowly, he floats down towards the floor of the observatory, met with a legion of Toad, Yoshi, and Luma forces on all sides.

“Stop right there!” The Toad in front yells, watching Link’s every move. Link doesn’t stop. He begins to walk forwards, sword at the ready, while Captain Toad readies his pickaxe.

It’s a bloodbath.

Link cuts through the forces like a knife through butter, flinging the troops aside as if they were nothing more than ragdolls. They get flung off the side of the observatory, where Rosalina;s magic encapsulates them, and brings them somewhere safe to recover. If they can recover.

His sword meets Captain Toad’s pickaxe. They lock blades and for a second, their eyes meet. Link sees the fire in Toad’s eyes that seems so famil-

Captain Toad breaks free and swings in an arch downwards, trying to take out Link’s legs. In a flash, Link swings his sword downwards, blocking his strike, and raises his other arm. With a whirr of machinery, a metal shield seems to appear out of Link’s arm, and lunging forward with astonishing power, Link smashes the shield into Captain Toad’s face, sending him reeling backwards. Link raises his sword to bring it down on Toad’s head, but the Captain recovers. Trying and failing to dive out of the way, the sword slashes into Captain Toad’s side. Link winds up for another strike.

Suddenly, something powerful impacts Link’s shoulder, forcing him to brace himself against the floor. His shoulder smokes with the scent of charred flesh.

“Toad! Get out of there!”

Link turns around to see Luigi standing atop a far platform, readying another fireball to fling in his direction. Link slices his sword through the air and a blade of energy emanates out of the sword and hurtles towards Luigi.

Luigi yells out as it he dives off his platform, dodging the blade, which carves a groove through the floor, narrowly missing him. Luigi in turn fires off another fireball, just missing Link before he’s knocked out of sight by another robot.

Turning back around, Link is met with Rosalina, a couple feet away. Captain Toad had used those precious couple seconds to make his escape.

“Leave. Now”. Rosalina looks calm as ever. In her left hand she holds a small slender wand, ending in the frame of a star, sparkling with a golden shine.

Link readies his sword, holding it up, ready to fight. The two of them stare each other down. Screams of battle echo around them, fueled by the hole that Link’s sword punched in the shield. The hole that’s not closing. Behind them is the quiet hum of the core of the Comet Observatory, its glow casting long shadows over the Observatory's structures.

The two of them rush towards each other, Link swinging his sword, while Rosalina blocks it with a wave of magic.

He swings, parrys, lunges, ducks, jabs. All of Link’s moves are perfectly calculated and executed. Slowly but surely, he pushes Rosalina back, maneuvering between her and the core of the observatory.

Rosalina can feel herself being pushed back, and can feel herself slowly losing speed and power. She’s not at her full power. She’s not as fast as she could be.

She’s not a robot.

And this sword. It has a magic of its own, unlike anything she’s ever felt before. It knows the exact way to slice through her magical waves, like it’s alive.

Rosalina knows before long that she doesn’t have a chance. She desperately tries to connect with her allies. Captain Toad is injured. Luigi is swarmed with bots. Merlon is protecting the Great Fox. Lubba is defending Starship Mario.

Nobody can help her.

Link swings down his sword, driving it into the ground and blasting Rosalina backwards with a burst of energy. She flies backwards, hitting her head hard against a wall, and her wand falls out of her hand, skidding out of reach.

Rosalina is cornered.

Link walks up to her, sword raised, and ready to strike. He looks at her.

He's looking straight into her eyes, and her expression is… Resigned. She knows this is coming. She knows that this is it.

No.

He can’t do this. Not again.

A flash goes across Link’s eyes and he freezes up for just a fraction of a second. And that fraction of a second is all Rosalina needs.

Concentrating all her power in the palms of her hands, Rosalina dives forward, blasting Link with everything she’s got. He flies backwards, slamming to the ground nest to the core, and once again, the thoughts disappear from his mind. Looking up, he sees Rosalina dusting herself off. Beside her is Luigi. Next to him stands Yoshi.

Link is powerful, but he knows fighting all three of them at once yields a small chance of success. He feels the energy emanating from the core of the Observatory.

It’s time for Plan C.

“No! Stop-!” Rosalina realizes what he’s about to do just a little bit too late.

Link plunges the Master Sword into the heart of the Comet Observatory.

Oli… Is he still like this?

He hasn't moved. He’s just… Staring.

His eyes… They have a glow…

We can't just leave him here.

We won't. We can keep him safe. We have to, after what we’ve seen.

Let's move him to the Dolphin.

Edited August 18, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · August 18, 2018

It's been a while, but I'm baaack~

Meta Knight: The Starcutter

Spoiler

The motley group of survivors sneak down Magolor’s hallways for quite possibly the last time. They know that if they want a chance to discover what's going on, they have to take this chance.

So, everyone is going. Every single person.

Leading the charge is Meta Knight, peeking around each hallway, sensing forward, making sure each path is clear. He's lost too much to give up now. All the friends and allies who have gone missing, disappeared, or worse, they were who he was fighting for.

Behind him is the king, and his ever faithful servant Waddle Dee. They’re the ones guiding the way forward, with the collections of maps and files they've been stealing over the past weeks. They're the ones left from the original castle. They watched as their beloved kingdom was taken over, by the one they trusted the most, but this time, they couldn't take it back. They're fighting for all the people of their kingdom who have been taken, and converted into Magolor’s soldiers. The people that they failed.

Behind them are Marx and Kawasaki. Using their magic to keep the band hidden, they are drained of energy. It's a strain for them to simply walk. It's all they can do to keep the small group hidden for just a couple minutes longer.

Behind them are the new rescues. Princess Peach and King Bowser. Hardly adjusted to this new world, they only want answers. How did they get here? Are the people they care about okay? And how do they get home?

Finally, bringing up the rear is the endlessly oblivious, yet immensely powerful Kirby. Although he doesn't know it, his fight is only going to get a hell of a lot harder.

They approach Magolor's hangar bay, stopping before a giant set of double doors. Turning around, Meta Knight nods at Bowser and the King.

Stepping forward, they grab the large sliding doors.

“Everyone knows what to do. Once the alarms go off, we will not have much time until Magolor's forces arrive”. Meta Knight sees nods all around him.

“Let's do this”. With a snarky smile at King Dedede, Bowser and the King force the hangar doors open.

As they all rush in, the alarms begin to blare over the facility's speakers. They weave between the countless metal ships and vehicles, looking for the one that can get them all the way to Halcandra.

“Over there! The Lor Starcutter!” Waddle Dee points with his spear towards a large blue spaceship in the shape of an old-school sailboat. Its mast, with large solar sails, towers above the nearby vehicles. The nose of the ship however, is pointed away from the large hangar doors.

Its colouring is entirely sky blue, while glowing lights of blue and gold adorn the ship. Red alarm lights flash all across the hangar, casting everything in a light shade of red.

“Quick everyone! Inside!” Meta Knight runs forward, and grabbing Marx’s arm, jumps up onto the top of the ship.

Marx puts his hand on the surface of the ship, and with a mechanical whirr, a ramp slides seamlessly out onto the hangar floor, creating a way into the Lor Starcutter.

“Everyone in!” King Dedede waves everyone in just as two figures storms through the hangar door. It appears to be Suzie, Magolor’s robotic secretary, followed by an unfamiliar orange humanoid mech.

“We still have to get the hangar door open!” Bowser and Peach are behind the Lor Starcutter, near the doors of the hangar, trying to get them open. Princess Peach is tapping away on an electronic panel while Bowser is trying to pry the doors apart with sheer force.

“Kirby,” Meta Knight nods at him, then towards the hangar doors. “We have to help them”.

Kirby nods, and both of them head over to help Peach and Bowser with the hangar doors.

At the same time, Meta Knight spies Suzie and her troops, rushing to attack both Bowser and Peach. As Kirby rushes off to help Bowser, Meta Knight intercepts the mysterious humanoid before it can reach Peach. He holds his sword out as he stands between the robot and the Princess, who is still tapping away at the door’s controls.

“Don’t take another step”.

The Robot barely misses a beat, firing off a blast from its arm, which Meta Knight deflects with his sword. It rushes forward, and begins fighting close up, firing off hard, rocket-powered punches which Meta Knight just manages to deflect.

“Just hold it off for a little longer!” Peach yells from behind him.

“I’m trying!” Despite Meta Knight’s agility and speed, the sheer power of the robot’s strikes are forcing Meta Knight back towards Princess Peach.

A loud electronic beep sounds from the Princess’s location.

“I got the hangar door unlocked! Bowser! Get it open!”

As Kirby trades blows with Suzie, Bowser digs his claws between the gaps of the door, trying to pry it open.

“Use your fire!” The princess begins to run back towards the Starcutter, but seeing Meta Knight struggle against the orange figure, Peach stops and brandishes her parasol.

“Get back, Princess!” Meta Knight yells after seeing Peach approach.

“I am not your princess,” Peach replies, striking at the orange figure from the side with her parasol. “And I can take care of myself just fine”. Spinning her parasol around and gracefully dodging a strike, Peach slams the handle hard into the side of the figure’s head, and it spins and falls, bracing itself against the hangar floor, facing away from Meta Knight and Peach. A large chunk of orange armour breaks off and skids across the ground.

At the same time, King Dedede dashes past them and grabs onto one side of the doors, helping Bowser pull them open. The metal groans, but the hangar doors begin to slide open ever so slowly.

Behind Bowser, Kirby lands a powerful kick, sending Suzie flying away from him. She hits her head with a loud crack on a nearby car and falls to the floor, still.

The orange figure stands up, and for a split second, Meta Knight can see a glimpse of blue-green eyes behind the hole where the chunk of armor was. They seem feminine, but lifeless. He sees the dullness of this person’s eyes, and for a second, wants to stop fighting. Yet again, here was another person here that Magolor was using. A person that should be on their side.

However, not another second later, they’re embroiled back in the fight as the armoured woman sends a roundhouse kick flying, which Meta Knight and Peach narrowly avoid.

“Did you see that? There’s somebody in there”. Peach says as she blocks a strike with her parasol.

“I saw it. But she’s not the only one, Peach. All the robots we’ve been fighting have someone inside of there”. With a powerful tackle, Meta Knight sends the woman staggering backwards.

A loud clang sounds from behind Meta Knight, and he hears the yell of the King behind him.

“We got it open, let’s go!” King Dedede grabs Meta Knight, and begins dragging him towards the Lor Starcutter. “We have to get aboard!”

Craning his body, Meta Knight looks behind him as he runs toward the Starcutter, seeing Peach and Bowser right behind him, while Kirby single-handedly pushes the armoured woman backwards, away from the Starcutter.

“Come on, Kirby!” Meta Knight yells urgently. He shakes off King Dedede’s hand as they board the ramp, and yells back at Kirby. “We have to go!”

Trying to shut down the fight, Kirby materializes a wooden hammer in his hand, and with a powerful and unexpected swing, sends the figure flying across the room to the entrance they came in from. Without missing a beat, the hammer disappears into thin air, and Kirby dashes with breakneck speed towards the Lor Starcutter.

However, the second Kirby enters the Starcutter, a figure steps into the hangar from the far entrance.

“Must you all be a thorn in my side?” a voice sneers. Magolor steps into the hangar, with nothing more than a look of annoyance on his face. “You should know better than to try to steal my ship”. Raising his hands, Magolor begins mumbling, and the space around him glows.

“He’s casting a spell!” Meta Knight says. “Start the ship! Now!”

“Got it!” Kawasaki, at the control panel of the ship, cheers as the ship lights up around them. “Let’s get out of here”.

“Everyone up to the deck,” Meta Knight urges. “We have to hold Magolor off as long as we can while Kawasaki turns the ship”. He can already see blasts of magic from the deck of the Starcutter towards Magolor. Hitting a button to close up the Starcutter’s ramp, Meta Knight runs as quick as he can through the interior of the ship, and up a flight of stairs to the deck of the Starcutter. As he bursts onto the deck, he sees Marx and Bowser already hurling magic and fire respectively, trying to keep Magolor at bay, and slowing down his advance ever so slightly with their attacks.

“You are not leaving Dreamland!” Magolor is enveloped in a dark blue aura, glowing with power that Meta Knight has never seen before. He notices something new, a bracelet with a black star shape that he hasn’t seen Magolor wear before. Kirby takes a place beside Bowser and begins to hurl giant pillars of fire at the wizard. Feeling a rumble beneath his feet, the Lor Starcutter begins to lift off the ground.

“We have to go to maximum speed and jump out of the hangar,” Peach informs Meta Knight from the stairs. “It’s the only way we’ll get out in time”.

Slowly, the ship begins turning its nose towards the large hangar doors.

“You will never get us”. Meta Knight yells back. “It’s only a matter of time until you pay for all that you’ve done”.

“I don’t need to pay anything,” Magolor scoffs. “I just need to bring down the ship”. The orange figure from before stands up beside Magolor, and he smiles. The aura that was around Magolor channels into the woman beside him. The armoured woman raises her arm, and points directly at the ship, which is still slowly turning to face the large double doors of the hangar. A crash of metal echoes through the room as the large spaceship plows other smaller vehicles out of the way.

“We have to go!” Bowser says urgently. The armour on the woman’s arm begins to morph, extending and transforming with a whirr. Plates of metal slide over each other, forming what begins to look like a large energy cannon.

“We have one chance!” Peach yells. “If we miss the door opening, we’re dead!”

The woman’s armour begins to glow, and a bright light begins to concentrate at the opening of her arm cannon.

“We have to go now!”

“Not yet!” The Starcutter continues turning, trying to get square with the opening.

The arm cannon begins to shake, and the bright white light nearly completely obscures the woman in the armour.

“I win”. Magolor says as he grins from ear to ear.

“NOW!” Peach yells down to where Kawasaki is piloting the ship.

At that exact moment, Samus Aran, half robot bounty hunter, lets her giant laser loose. It’s sheer power would’ve torn through everything and everyone in its path, ripping the Lor Starcutter to shreds. It would have killed or incapacitated everyone on board.

Except it doesn’t.

At the same time that Samus Aran unleashes the deadly blast, Marx jumps off the Starcutter, and with every ounce of his remaining energy, plants himself between Samus and the ship, pushing all his power towards the laser. The full force of Samus’ blast slams into Marx, and splits into multiple directions, slicing clean through the walls of the hanger.

And at the same time Marx intercepts the laser, Kawasaki slams the gas of the Lor Starcutter.

The last thing Meta Knight sees is Marx’s body, engulfed and being torn apart, before the Starcutter launches at warp speed, into space, and away from the planet of Dreamland.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

You want her safe, don’t you?

…

She’ll be free when what I need is in my hands.

Edited August 26, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · August 26, 2018

What could come of this, I wonder?

Rosalina: Vivication

Spoiler

The Observatory shakes. This is it. Rosalina stands at the helm, commanding it forwards.

There’s no going back now.

“Please. You don’t have to do this”. A voice says.

“I have to, dear”. She sees Merlon out of the corner of her eye. “Sacrifices have to be made. You’ve known this”.

The Observatory hurtles towards the spacecraft in front of them.

“What about us?" Tears well up in his eyes. "We were going to spend our lives together. We promised”. His voice cracks. He takes her face in his hands, gently turning Rosalina towards him. "I love you. So much".

“I know. And that is why you must let me go”. A single tear rolls down her cheeks. "You know this is how it must be". She brushes his blonde curls back into his hood.

Merlon nods solemnly and turns away, hiding his emotions.

“I do know. And you’re right". He turns around to face her one last time. "Goodbye”.

A bright light engulfs the world around her.

She feels the Observatory crash. It is no more.

Then, an echo.

“Ro…”

“Ros…lina….”

“Wak… p…”

“WAKE-”

“Wake up Rosalina!” Opening her eyes, Rosalina, turns her head, seeing Callie and Luigi hovering worriedly above her. Her power feels drained, like the observatory is.

“I… What happened?” Rosalina sits up, and immediately feels the heat on her face.

“We went down on this scorching-hot planet,” Luigi states. “I don’t know if we can get the observatory back up”.

Looking around, Rosalina can barely see the lights of the Observatory through the smoke. She tries to stand up, but the entire Observatory is on a slant.

“Is everyone okay? Where’s Merlon?” Rosalina struggles to her feet and looks around, squinting, trying to see through the smoke.

“Merlon was helping Fox’s crew when we went down, and most people here are fine,” Callie replies. “Are you okay? You kind of… Blacked out when that guy stabbed the core”.

“I’ll be fine,” Rosalina says. “Speaking of, where is he?”

“He is also blacked out,” Luigi answers. “We locked him up in your room”.

Rosalina gives Luigi a funny look.

“There’s not a lot of room with all the refugees aboard, okay?”

“First order of business”. Rosalina brushes some soot off of her dress. “Let us clear up some of this air, shall we?” She looks at Callie. “My wand, please?”

“Oh, I… uh… here”. Callie pulls Rosalina’s star shaped wand out of her pocket and hands it to her.

Rosalina takes a deep breath, concentrating on the smoky air around them. As she exhales, she uses the wand, projecting her breath all around her, and pushes all the smoke away in a spherical shape. Slowly, the smoke dissipates, blown back in a circle around the Comet Observatory. Immediately, Rosalina can see the Observatory perched dangerously on an island of rock. Below them is a sea of lava, peppered by other rocky islands above the lava, some bigger than others. On a couple of the larger ones, Rosalina can make out ruins of what appear to be structures of some sort.

She turns around, facing the center of the Observatory. The core is dull and small, barely able to power the Observatory. Walking forwards, Rosalina stands where she and Link were fighting.

“Where’s his sword?” Rosalina asks.

“I have it,” Luigi replies.

“Let us go then”. She turns to Luigi. “We are going to pay him a visit”.

As soon as Rosalina enters her room, she can see the large control panel of the Observatory flashing alarmingly, and electronic beeps fill the room with warnings and alerts. A sound of static fills the room. Machinery seems to be going haywire all over the place, and the pedestal with Merlon’s crystal ball has risen out of the floor.

Waving her wand to lower the crystal ball back into the ground, she turns towards the boy that attacked the observatory. He’s unconscious, slumped on the floor, and has been trapped in a makeshift cage.

Rosalina kneels down to get a closer look. His green clothes seem to hide machinery, machinery that has been painfully inserted, by the looks of things. His face has been partially transformed into metal, and one of his eyes remain open, ominously blinking red.

“He’s uhh… Not going to blow up, is he?” Luigi asks.

“This is not his true self,” Rosalina says, standing up.

“What?”

“Where is his sword?”

Luigi reaches behind him, pulling out a beautiful metal longsword. The hilt is a brilliant shade of blue, and the guard curves up sharply, as if acting like wings. In the center of the guard is a golden diamond, while a trio of triangles endorn both sides of the metal blade. The whole thing glows with an otherworldly aura. “Here”.

Rosalina faces the longsword. “…Talk to me. Who is he?”

The sword pulses with light, and a chime resonates in the air around them.

She turns towards Luigi. “His name is Link”.

“What do we do with him?” Callie asks, nervous. “Is it safe for us with him here?”

“It will be. Because we are going to fix whatever happened to him”. Rosalina turns towards Luigi and Callie. “I can still sense his soul inside, but we are running out of time. Move Link onto my bed, quickly”.

As soon as she gives these orders, Rosalina turns towards the main console, and begins to tap away at it. Almost immediately, a voice starts to become clear over the static that filled the room.

“R-r-rR-Ro- Rosalina!”

“Merlon, is that you?”

“Thank the stars! You’re okay!” She hears a laugh through the static on the transmission.

Rosalina smiles slightly, relieved.

“We’re coming down to get you”.

“No,” Rosalina says immediately. “Focus on defending against the attacks”.

“The attacks are gone for now,” Merlon replies. “They retreated when the observatory went down”.

Rosalina looks towards Link, then back towards Merlon.

“We’re coming down. We’ll hold out better as a team if anything comes back”.

Rosalina nods. “There is someone we have to talk about when you get down here too”.

“Someone?”

“You will see. Ending transmission”. She turns back around, where Callie and Luigi are standing worriedly over Link.

“What do you plan on doing?”

“Reverse what happened,” Rosalina says, she raises her wand and levitates it between her two hands. “This machinery isn’t entirely… Mechanical. If I can tap into the magic that’s holding this machinery to him, I should be able to reverse it without doing too much damage”.

“Too much damage?” Callie asks.

Ignoring that remark, Rosalina concentrates, trying to feel for the magic that has woven its way into Link’s soul. Each tendril of magic winds into nearly every part of his body, originating from a mass of metal implanted into Link’s back, to a mass of magic in his throat. Winding her own way inside, Rosalina reaches her magic towards the mass to remove it.

As she touches it however, a shock runs through her body, and she nearly drops her wand to the floor.

“Is something wrong?” Luigi asks.

“I need something that originates from his world… Something that he can respond to”. Rosalina eyes the sword that is now leaning against the wall. “Hand me the longsword”.

Luigi grabs it, and hands it over to Rosalina.

She grabs the handle and holds it upright in front of her. A conscious, more aware energy flows through Rosalina’s body, and immediately, she can see the magic from the sword surround Link. Her own magic, the power of the stars, intertwine with the power of the sword, reaching through Link’s body, and begin dismantling the mass of magic at Link’s throat. Link’s body lifts off the surface of Rosalina’s bed, while the sheer force of magic begins to fill the room with a strong breeze. Rosalina feels a presence aiding her, a being of magic. A being of the sword.

Slowly, the metal all over Link’s body begins to glow, and dissolve off of his body. They create shimmers of silver in the air, before dissipating completely as blue-black smoke.

When she’s done, Rosalina lowers Link back onto her bed, and the wind that was sweeping through the room disappears.

“Woah”. Luigi’s mouth is agape. “That was cool”.

Rosalina smiles. “That was only the first step. We still have much to do before the Comet Observatory is back in the air”.

Luigi nods. “Anything I can do?”

“Check on the Captain,” Rosalina says, levitating her wand back into her hand. “He was wounded during the last fight, but see if he is able to lend a hand”.

Nodding, Luigi runs out the door.

Callie however, is looking at Link, a worried expression across her face. “Is he going to be okay?”

“Link is a fighter,” Rosalina says, looking at the sword. “He will be fine”. She eyes Callie curiously. “Where were you when we were fighting him?”

“I was fending off the other bots,” Callie replies. She sees Rosalina looking for a place to put down the sword. “Someone should hold onto that until he wakes up”.

“I think…” Rosalina lays the sword next to Link on the bed. “… I will leave it right here”. She looks at Callie again.

“I’m going to go… help Luigi”.

“You dislike Luigi”.

“We’ve barely interacted”.

“Yet it is written all over your face”.

Awkwardly, Callie makes her way to the door, and opens it to leave.

“For future reference, Miss Cuttlefish,” Rosalina calls out. Callie stops, glancing backwards. “Please leave my wand where it is if you find it”.

Callie exits the room and closes the door, leaving Rosalina inside.

Did you see that? His bracelet?

I thought I was the only one.

You remember, right?

Too well.

The Dark Star. He has it.

Edited September 3, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · September 3, 2018

Where are the rest of our Pokemon friends?

Hoopa: World of Fire

Spoiler

Hoopa can barely see through the smog that’s choking the air, but he has to fly through it. He has to warn the people that have landed here.

Hoopa remembers the robots that no doubt were trying to take him back. He almost went with them too, before he sensed the spacecraft fall through the atmosphere. These people may be his only chance of escape.

Or they could die along with him. Either could happen.

He begins to see an abstract craft in the distance. On a tilt, the spacecraft vaguely resembles the spire of a church, with large platforms around it, acting as walkways or platforms.

As Hoopa approaches, he notices the entire craft is balancing precariously on the edge of a cliff, dangerously close to plummeting into the bubbling lava below. The whole thing is protected by a field of magic, albeit a weak one.

No worries. Generating a golden portal, Hoopa effortlessly bypasses the magical shield into the smoke-free atmosphere of the spacecraft. Hoopa takes a deep breath, and tries to remain inconspicuous as he explores the spacecraft. The largest rooms in the spacecraft are full of various creatures and species huddled together. The highest room is a control room, and inside sits a woman, alone, wiping tears from her eyes.

Flying past, Hoopa begins to descend back to the lowest area of the spacecraft. That woman probably leads this merry band of travellers, but she looks busy. Might as well find someo-

“Hey!” A voice calls out.

Turning around, Hoopa sees some people running towards him.

“Who are you?” A mushroom shaped creature with bandages around his body limps up to him holding up a pickaxe. “You don’t look half robot”.

A small-ish green dinosaur also approaches, right behind the creature.

Hoopa smiles and flies playfully in a circle. Concentrating, he projects his thoughts. “I'm Hoopa, nice to meetcha”.

“Yoshi?”

“It didn’t move its mouth,” the mushroom replies to his friend. “How does that work?”

“Telepathy!” Hoopa answers. “And I’m a ‘he’, not an ‘it’, thank you very much”.

The mushroom is a bit taken aback at first, but shakes it off. “Yeaaah okay. I don’t know who you are, but you gotta leave”.

“Fat chance! You’re the ones who landed on my planet”.

“Your planet?”

“Well, I mean, obviously I don’t own the planet, but-”

“You live here?” Startled by the voice coming from behind him, Hoopa turns around, face to face with the woman he saw in the control room before.

“Oh, hello, and I used to. But umm… Clearly I can’t live here now”. Hoopa gestures towards the lava on the outside of the ship. “Also you guys might all die soon so we gotta get off this planet”.

“What?”

“I beg your pardon?” The three of them look at Hoopa, doubtful.

“Seriously? Don’t believe me?” Hoopa makes a tsk sound. “Lemme show you”. With a wave, Hoopa opens a window to another part of the planet, looking just as hot and scorching as any other place. Smoke seeps in through the portal ever so slowly.

Through the smoke is a large, lumbering creature. It looks like some sort of dinosaur, but made out of rocks and magma.

“It’s coming right this way”.

“How long until it gets here?” The woman, although stoic, lets a bit of worry seep into her expression.

“Around an hour and a half, based on how far it is from here,” Hoopa answers.

“What do we do, Rosalina?” The mushroom asks.

“I should have seen this coming…” The woman, whose name seems to be Rosalina, replies. She closes her eyes for a couple seconds before saying more. “Gather Luigi and Callie in my room. We need to debrief as soon as Merlon and the others get down here in half an hour”.

~~~

Hoopa floats around the room, trying to remember the band of people before him. Rosalina, the protector of the cosmos, the fortune teller. She walks in with Merlon, the good wizard. Also a fortune teller, Hoopa thinks?

Then there’s Captain of Starship Mario, Lubba, with the dinosaur Yoshi at his side.

The wound was caused by a once robotic Link, still lying unconscious on Rosalina’s bed. Hopefully he wakes up soon. Hoopa can sense quite a formidable amount of power coming from his sword. That power could be big help pretty soon.

Sitting beside him is Callie, another rescue from a distant land. She looks quite absorbed in her own thoughts, until Captain Toad sits down next to her, striking up a conversation, and trying to distract himself from the nagging wounds.

Lubba, the big purple Luma, has come off of Starship Mario to join in the meeting as well.

Hoopa circles impatiently. They gotta hurry it up. Only a little under an hour left.

The final group makes their way inside Rosalina’s bedroom. Fox McCloud, Slippy Toad, and Falco Lombardi.

“Sweet ride you got here, princess,” Falco says, greeting Rosalina. “I don’t got a clue how it works though”.

“It’s powered by stars,” Rosalina answers, a tad impatient, like she’s said that same thing multiple times before. “I trust Merlon has refueled your ship with that same power?”

“Of course,” Merlon answers. “Made some quick magical additions to the engine and fuel tank so it can process the stars, but other than that, their engine will have no problem keeping up with ours”.

“Thank you, Merlon”. Rosalina smiles at him before turning to address the room. “We do, however, have more pressing matters at hand”. She nods at Hoopa, and he opens a hoop, showing the lumbering creature on the other side. “It’s a little less than an hour away, which means we need a plan to either take it out or get us out before it destroys the observatory”.

Hoopa closes the golden hoop.

“So,” Merlon adds. “We work on two fronts. Half of us will work on getting the Comet Observatory up and running enough to get us off this planet, while the other half of us take down the creature that’s on the way here”.

Rosalina nods. “Merlon will take team Star Fox, Luigi, and Lubba, and will intercept it as soon as you can”. She meets everyone’s eyes, making sure they’re all paying attention and understand. “I will take everyone else. We have many repairs to make and not a lot of time to make them”.

Erm. No.

“Actually,” Hoopa projects to everyone. Rosalina turns to him while some of the others look in his direction, confused. “I may not look it, but I can fight. Just let me at ‘em. I’m sure all of us together will be able to take him down”.

Rosalina nods. “Okay”. She turns to address the room once again. “Head out now. Be careful. If it is too much, fall back. Immediately”. She looks to Luigi, then Callie, to Captain Toad, then to the still unconscious Link. “I do not want to lose anybody. We have all been hurt enough already”.

Merlon steps forward, hugging Rosalina in full view, and Rosalina hugs back.

“Good luck”.

“You too”. With those words, Merlon spins around and waves for his team to follow, and Hoopa floats after them.

It seems Rosalina forgot about Magolor’s troops. For all anyone knows, they’re still after him.

Hoopa knows that there’s no way he’ll be able to help with his power handicapped like this, especially if Magolor’s forces unexpectedly show up.

Hoopa concentrates, honing in on the massive amount of energy that Magolor locked away when he kidnapped Hoopa. Hoopa knows that Magolor is using that energy to power his invasion of other worlds. Taking that power won’t stop him, but it will slow him down, and give them a chance to escape.

Discreetly, he opens a portal, looks in, and frowns in disappointment. Magolor has trapped Hoopa’s power in a strange jar, which is hooked up to countless wires and devices. It’ll be too time consuming to unhook them all discreetly.

Or maybe he doesn’t have to unhook them all discreetly.

“Hoopa!” Merlon calls. “Let’s go!”

Later. He’ll grab the jar later. He can’t alert Magolor. And having his new friends ask questions now won’t do at all. Closing the portal and leaving the jar where Magolor put it, he follows Merlon onto the wooden airship.

We’re almost there.

Halcandra?

Yes. The planet of the Ancients.

Do you know if Magolor is on our tail?

Oh, I have no doubt that he is.

Edited September 16, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · September 16, 2018

The mystery deepens...

Olimar: Visitors

Spoiler

TWEEEEEET! Olimar scrunches up his face as he blows into his whistle. On command, the little plant creatures around him scurry forwards, inspecting the opening to the cave in front him, partially blocked by sand.
“Okay, Pikmin. Dig!” Olimar yells, hoping they understand.
The little bulb shaped creatures stare back blankly.
“I gotta find another way to teach you all how to understand me”. Putting his whistle into his mouth, he points at the sand-blocked opening of the cave and blows.
Tweet TWEET tw-EEET!
Immediately, the Pikmin scramble to the sand and begin digging a path into the cave, using the little leaves and flowers on their heads as makeshift shovels.
Olimar sits back, waiting. Tilting his head back, he looks up through the towering trees at the sky. He and his crew had this planet almost entirely mapped out before two days ago. It was some kind of cosmic storm unlike anything Olimar had ever seen before.
When it swept through, the very space around him seemed to bend and break, and Olimar almost completely lost consciousness. He felt the world shifting, and objects he's never seen before came crashing down from space. When he regained his composure, it was just him, these Pikmin, his ship, and Brittney.
The others were nowhere to be found.
He did find, however, this man in red, but the blank stare in his eyes just creeped him out to no end. Trying to wake him from his blank stare did nothing, so he and Brittney just put him in stasis and zapped him into the S.S. Dolphin.
The area they were in looked similar, but exploring out further, Olimar realized entire mountains had been rearranged. Forests had been moved, rivers had rerouted themselves, and entirely new caves had opened up. Not to mention new treasure. Lots and lots of new treasure to bring home.
There's no doubt it was the same planet, with the same wildlife and everything, but different, like some small child had picked things up and forgot their original places.
“Olimar! Where are you?” A voice calls from through the trees.
“Here! Near the entrance of the new cave”.
Brittney comes out of the forest, with her own band of Pikmin. Her pink bob cut looks a little messier than it usually is through her helmet.
“I’ve finished re-mapping the southern path of the river, up until a waterfall that wasn’t there before”.
“Great. I’ll go do the northern part after I’m done opening up this cave”. He points towards his Pikmin, who are continuing to dig out the cave entrance.
“I also need to show you the waterfall”.
“The waterfall? What for?”
“It’s like… Nothing we’ve seen before on this planet”.
Olimar stands up, interest piquing up. “How so?”
“Red. As far as the eye can see”.
Olimar looks back at his Pikmin, who aren’t close to digging out the entrance, then back to Brittney. “Take me there”. Were they rubies? Valuable ore?
The two of them head back to the river that passes through the forest, making their way around the gigantic trees of this planet.
It only takes the two of them an hour to make their way there. As Olimar winds his way around the final tree trunk and approaches the top of the waterfall, he feels a wave of heat wash over him. Past where the waterfall drops off is an endless sea of red stone, interspersed with decaying metal buildings and lakes of magma.
“Well this is new,” Olimar states. Looking down where the waterfall leads, he sees that the lake at the bottom is small, likely because of the heat. “Can we get down there safely?”
“We can scan for a landing site and see if we can land down there tomorrow”.
“That’s a good plan”. Olimar, continuing to look, points down to a clear area near the lake. “What about there?” He continues looking around the new area, mind racing. It was strange, sure, but think of all the treasure that could be down there. He pulls out a small camera and snaps a couple pictures of the landscape.
Besides, they still needed to find Alph and Louie somewhere over there before heading home.
“Hey, Brittney? Wasn’t the S.S. Drake’s last distress signal from there?” He says as he slips the camera back in his pocket.
“Um, Olimar?” He feels a tap on his shoulder.
“What?” Turning around, he sees Brittney staring into the distance, at some kind of ship in the distance. It’s big and blue, landing right near where their S.S. Dolphin was parked.
“We should head back”.
Without another word, Olimar and Brittney begin to rush back to their ship.
As they follow the riverbank, Olimar blows into his whistle loudly, calling back the Pikmin that were digging at the cave opening.
Before long, Olimar and Brittney burst into the clearing where the new arrivals are roaming around.
“Who are you?” He picks up a Rock Pikmin and holds it threateningly at the intruders, who are inspecting the S.S. Dolphin. “Step away from my ship”.
“Sorry, sorry”. A round, masked individual steps forwards towards Olimar. They’re around the same size, not huge like many of the things on this planet. “I’m Meta Knight. We were wondering where we were. Our navigation seems to have been fried at some point”. He waves at the people behind him to move away from the S.S. Dolphin.
“We named it PNF-404, but it’s not inhabited by intelligent life. We’re just explorers”. Brittney answers, pushing down Olimar’s hand, which is still holding the Rock Pikmin. “I’m Brittney. This is Olimar”.
“We’re looking for a planet named Halcandra, have you come across it while you’ve been exploring?” He scans the treetops, taking in the oversized nature of this new world.
“Halcandra…” Olimar thinks. He seems to recall hearing about it in some old space exploration books, but he can’t quite place his finger on it. “What’s the geography like?”
“Geography? Uhh…” Meta Knight looks to the people beside him. “It’s red and mechanical, with lakes of magma. Almost apocalyptic looking. Very rocky. I’ve been there only once”.
Brittney nudges Olimar. “Doesn’t that sound like the new area we stumbled across?”
Olimar takes out his camera and holds it out to Meta Knight, showing him the pictures he took of the area past the waterfall.
“It looks exactly like that,” Meta Knight says. “Where is this planet?”
Brittney looks from Olimar to Meta Knight. “You’re standing on it”.
A couple people behind him look confused, but Meta Knight’s expression is impossible to decipher behind his mask.
“Then we have to hurry,” A woman in a seemingly unwieldy dress behind Meta Knight speaks up. “We have no clue when Magolor will catch up with us”.
“But this can’t be Halcandra! There’s no greenery on Halcandra! There’s barely any life on Halcandra!”
“We’ll take you tomorrow, but right now, we have to take off”. Brittney looks to Olimar, who is thinking the same thing. The sky is starting to turn shades of yellow and orange, and the sun is setting. “Dangerous wildlife roams the land and even the air at night, so we have to get into orbit. We can’t risk cracking our helmets”.
“We’re a big group of people. And besides, the air here is perfectly breathable”. Meta Knight brushes the warning off.
“Not to us. Oxygen is poisonous for our species. I urge you to get out before dark, but if you must stay, good luck”. He quickly herds the Pikmin towards their own ship, the Onion, and the little creatures crawl into the craft of the ship. “You only need to follow the river south to get to the place you’re looking for. We’ll be landing down there tomorrow, so if you feel the need to look for us, that’s where we’ll be”.

Meta Knight nods. "We will if we need to".
Olimar and Brittney, standing beside the S.S. Dolphin, are beamed inside while they wave at the newcomers. The interior is much bigger than the outside looks.
Sitting down at his captain’s chair, he flips a few switches and prepares to take off.
“They’re totally dead, aren’t they?” Brittney says.
“Hopefully they’re smart enough to run”. He pushes away the thought of a giant Snagret bursting out of the ground and swallowing them all one by one, impaling them with its sharp beak.
“Should we have asked them if they knew this guy?” She gestures towards the man in red, slumped over in a corner, and is still staring blankly in front of him.
“What are the chances they do? Even so, we’ll ask them tomorrow”. The ship rumbles as it blasts above the treetops into the atmosphere. The oranges of the sunset light up the room spectacularly, and Olimar spies the Onion flying with its strange propellers alongside the S.S. Dolphin. “If they’re still alive, that is”.

We can’t keep this up, it’s too strong!

It can’t reach the Observatory, not yet.

I’m sorry, Fox, I have to pull back.

… Dammit, we’re never going to keep it back long enough.

Edited September 22, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · September 22, 2018

Who's right? Who's wrong?

Rosalina: The Core

Spoiler

Rosalina concentrates, trying to hone in on the core of the observatory, trying to figure out how much more power it needs to escape the atmosphere. She looks over at the people around her, catching eyes with Luigi.

“What do we need?” he asks.

“Too much. The damage that Link inflicted on the core of the Observatory is not going to be easily repaired, and to even begin fixing it, I must power down the Comet Observatory”.

“You haven’t powered down the observatory in years...” Luigi states.

“We don’t have a choice,” Rosalina replies. She turns around, facing her crew. “Luigi and Captain Toad, you two must repair the physical ship, especially the areas that took the full impact of our crash. Getting the Comet Observatory powered up is not going to help if we break apart on takeoff”.

“But we can’t do that on our own,” Toad says.

“Take anybody that’s able to help. Ask Piantas, Yoshis, Toads, even the Inklings. We need the physical repairs done as fast as possible”.

Nodding, they both run off as quickly as possible.

“What about me?” Callie asks.

“You stay with me. I will need help restarting the core when repairs are done. Wait here for now, but be ready”.

Callie nods.

Floating down next to the powerful core, Rosalina locates three large levers, connected to the core’s mechanisms, which are distributed evenly under the core in a circle.

“Not everything here is magic, Callie,” Rosalina says. “In the beginning, I had to build these mechanisms myself”. She continues, grabbing one of the handles, and unlatching it from the core. The sparkling energy of the core immediately begins to filter upwards into the body of the observatory, like an upside down funnel. “Every crank, handle and funnel was made by me. And until Mario and his friends began contributing, every Power Star for the core was collected by me as well”.

Hearing no response from Callie, Rosalina continues talking.

“It was back-breaking work, but it’s a small price to pay for the safety and stability of the world”. She grabs the second handle and pulls it, sending more of the core’s magic up into the body of the Observatory.

“What’s your point?” Callie asks, arms crossed.

“I’m saying that there are no shortcuts”. Rosalina floats over to the last handle. “There are no easier ways to get what you want”. She bends down and grabs ahold of the handle. “Especially when it comes to saving your cousin”.

Flipping open the handle, the last of the magic in the core filters up into the Observatory.

“What do you know about anything?” Callie snaps. “You have it made in your world, sitting atop your magical throne in the sky, gazing down on everyone like some all-knowing deity”.

“I’m fairly certain tha-”

“And the others look at you like a god. They worship you. You never have to worry about family, because everyone treats you like their goddamn mother”.

“Now, Callie, don’t-”

“I never knew my mother!”

They both look at each other, Callie blinking back tears.

“...And neither did Marie. For the longest time, it was only me, Grandpappy, and Marie. They are all I have”. She looks away, wiping her eyes, but keeping one arm wrapped tightly around her body. “And it’s not like they’re dead. I'd honestly be at peace if I knew they were. More than likely they’re trapped as one of those machines, hanging on by a thread, not because they want to, or because they need to, but because they’re being made to”.

Rosalina floats back up from the core next to Callie. “Callie, I think-”

“No. You don’t have the authority to console me. I’m going to do everything I can to save her, with or without your help”.

“You will have our help, and we will do everything we can. All we need to do is get off of this planet and make our way to where the invasions originated from”. Rosalina puts a hand on her shoulder from behind.

“All we have to do…” Callie scoffs. “By then, it’s going to be too late”.

“Don’t do anything you’re going to regret, Callie”.

“Is that a threat?” Callie turns around, brushing off Rosalina’s hand.

“No. No it isn’t,” Rosalina says, looking into her eyes.

“I won’t,” Callie says, meeting her eyes. Rosalina can tell Callie is being sincere. “Now get this machine fixed so that we can get off this planet before we all die”.

Rosalina nods. “I need you here, not just because I wanted to talk to you”.

Callie raises an eyebrow, unconvinced.

“When I’m done fixing the parts of the Observatory that’ve been fried, I need you to flip back one of the handles that I flipped down earlier. I may be magical, but I can only flip one of these heavy handles at a time”.

“What about the third one?”

“Yoshi should be coming down in a couple minutes. He’s watching Link at the moment”.

Callie nods. “All I need to do is flip the… switch?”

“Yes. And it needs to flipped right around the time the other two are flipped, or the start-up will fail”. Rosalina begins examining the mechanisms surrounding and within the now inactive core. “I trust you can do that?”

“If you don’t think I can flip a stupid switch…”

“I never said that,” Rosalina says, voice as patient as ever.

“Yes. I can do that”.

Rosalina is about to turn back around when a sudden burst engulfs her mind like a popping balloon.

“Rosalina? Are you okay?”

“Merlon’s signalling me”. Immediately, Rosalina makes her way to the top of the observatory, leaving Callie on the main deck. Bursting into the main room, Yoshi jumps in surprise, nearly toppling over backwards at Rosalina’s sudden appearance.

Floating over to the console, she taps a couple of keys and opens an audio connection to Merlon.

“What is it, Merlon?”

“We can’t hold it in place, let alone defeat it. We’re falling back right now”.

“Yoshi, yoshi!” He says to Merlon, walking up next to Rosalina.

“He’s right. We don’t have enough time to make the repairs we need”.

“You have to find a way. Fox and his team are already falling back to the Observatory”.

“Stay safe, I’m heading back down now”.

Ending the transmission, Rosalina turns around and begins heading back.

“Yoshi?” The dinosaur asks.

“Yes. Quickly,” Rosalina answers. Yoshi follows Rosalina back outside, running as fast as his legs can carry him. With a jump and a flutter off of the top platform, he lands sturdily with a thump, back towards the core, and facing Callie.

“Impressive,” Callie says, a hint of acid in her voice.

“Now then,” Rosalina says, floating up and levitating various magical stars, “Let us get to work”.

You’re not going to go after them?

No. Not yet.

I thought you needed him for your side of the plan.

They’ll come to me. You should worry about your task. It’s almost time to strike.

Then you’ll release her?

Your service for her freedom. That was his deal. And I honor his deals.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · September 30, 2018

Curious-er and curious-er...

Captain Toad: Kindred Spirits

Spoiler

“Guys! Hurry it up!” Captain Toad tries to lift another piece of metal to Luigi, but a sharp pain runs through his side, forcing him to bend back down.

“You can rest, you know?” Luigi says, taking the piece of metal and passing it up to the Lumas above him. “You shouldn’t be working as hard as you are”.

“I’m the Captain of the Toad Brigade,” he answers, forcing a smile. “I have to help”. It hurt, sure, but every hand is needed right now.

That, and dying on this fiery planet is not a good way to go out.

A feint rumble vibrates through the observatory. Over the past half hour, the tremors have gotten steadily harder and steadily more frequent.

“You really should rest,” Luigi says, inadvertently looking at the Captain’s wound.

Captain Toad frowns and grabs another piece of repair metal. “I told you, I’m f-YEOW!” Captain Toad clutches his side, and drops the piece of metal with a clang. “I think… The wound opened up again”.

“Mamma-mia, you are not fine. You want to help, sure, but go get that looked at first”. Luigi waves Captain Toad away and grabs the piece of metal himself.

“... Fine. I’ll see what Rosalina is up to”.

Captain Toad backs away, looking at how a couple of the Observatory’s structures are being held together by their metal sheets.

It kinda looks like it’ll fall apart at any moment.

Shaking his head, Toad turns away and slowly begins to make his way down to the main level of the observatory next to the core.

He sees Rosalina tinkering away at the core’s mechanisms, tracing intricate patterns in the air with her wand.

“Hey! Rosalina!” He lifts his left arm, keeping his right arm pressed against his injured side.

She finishes casting her magic before responding. “Captain. How is your side?”

“Not great. I’m pretty sure the wound opened up again”. He can feel something seeping through the bandages.

“I would heal you, but I need to save all my magic at the moment. I don’t know how much of my energy the Observatory will need for us to take off”. She looks over at Yoshi. “Do you have a mushroom on you?”

Yoshi thinks for a second, then reaches into his mouth, pulling out a shiny red mushroom, glistening and dripping with saliva.

“Yeaahhh, no”. Toad’s face scrunches up upon seeing the mushroom.

“You are welcome to head up to my room to grab one though; I should have multiple healing mushrooms under the main console”. With that, Rosalina turns back to the core, concentrating heavily.

“Thanks!” Not wanting to bother Rosalina any longer, Toad begins heading the long way up the ramp to Rosalina’s room, forgoing the stairs. He sees people running about the Observatory, carrying supplies, barricading and reinforcing important areas, and he can’t help but feel scared.

What if this is all for nothing? These people have already lost all but their lives, they cling onto the hope that the people in charge will get them to safety, and what are Rosalina and Merlon doing? They’re charging straight into the fray. And it’s not going well.

He watches as The Great Fox pulls up beside the Observatory, battered even more than it already was. It looks like Fox and company have already had too much.

Captain Toad turns and looks into the Observatory’s library, seeing a purple Toad hugging her daughter against her, swaddled in blankets, trying to comfort her amidst all the other refugees.

They’ve all been through so much. What he wouldn’t give to make things back the way things were.

He once again feels his injury seem to drive a spike into his side.

You know what? Maybe it’s time. If- no, when he gets through this, maybe it’s time for Captain Toad to hang up his pickaxe. Live the good life in Toad Town. Sure, he used to be the greatest adventurer the world had seen, but that time has passed. Robots? Magic? Ink guns? Sentient swords? He can’t compete with that, especially not with an injury that will definitely leave a mark.

As Captain Toad reaches towards the door of the Rosalina’s room while contemplating his rocky future, the door swings open, and he comes face to face with Callie Cuttlefish.

“Oh. Hi,” Callie says, surprised. “What are you doing?” She holds her left hand behind her back, while her right hand stays on the door, somewhat blocking Captain Toad’s path.

“I’m grabbing a healing mushroom,” Captain Toad says, gesturing to his wound. “The wound opened up, and I need something to help it”.

“I-uhhh,” Callie moves awkwardly, blocking Captain Toad as he tries to walk past her. “I’m sure I can grab it for you”.

The Captain frowns. “You don’t even know where it is”. He continues trying to sidestep Callie, but his injury slows him down too much to be able to twist around her.

“You can tell me where it is”.

“Why… Are you keeping… me out?” Toad tries to forcefully push against her.

“I’m helping… Rosalina!”

With one final heave, putting his whole body into it, Toad forcefully pushes past her, and a more powerful rumble than usual trips her up just enough to stagger backwards.

As she staggers backwards, her left hand flies up to balance herself, and she loses her grip on the object she was holding.

The second after Toad pushes past Callie, a small jar-like object with rings around it clatters to the floor, and the lid pops right off. A whoosh sounds from the jar, but in the commotion, neither Callie nor Toad hear it.

A couple kilometers away, Hoopa feels his long stolen power enter his body. He doesn’t know how, or why, but he knows now, the fight can truly begin.

Captain Toad sees the jar as Callie scrambles to pick it up.

“What. Is. That?”

“Nothing, nothing”. Flustered, Callie picks up the jar, puts the lid back on, and sits it upright on Link’s bed.

“Holy mushrooms”. Toad backs towards the door, a realization dawning on him. “Is that Rosalina’s?”

She reaches towards him. “Captain, please, don’t-”

“I have to tell her,” he says, injury forgotten. He grabs Rosalina’s door, pulling it open.

“You don’t have to-”

“What else have you stolen?”

“Captain-”

“We can’t trust-”

“Toad, please!” She yells. “It’s for my cousin, please!” Tears roll from her eyes. “I have to save her”.

Toad stops only a moment before he’s about to run down to the main deck of the Observatory.

“Please, I have to save her. I’ll do anything”. She looks at Toad, eyes begging.

Toad lets the door close.

“You have to understand. There’s no other way. I need this to save her”. She sobs, sinking to her knees.

“How about asking Rosalina?”

“She wouldn’t. She would never. She would insist to do things her way. Always”.

Toad thinks for a second. Then, he bends down beside her. Not that he needed to do much bending, Callie was quite taller than him in the first place.

“I get it. You want to save her”. He wanted to save the people of the Mushroom Kingdom too, Toad thought, but he didn’t say that aloud. “But you can’t do stuff like this. You can’t steal”.

Callie looks away, nodding. “Don’t tell her. Please”.

Toad sighs. Is this any different than what he would do under this kind of pressure? Wouldn’t he do anything he could if he had the chance?

“Fine. I won’t”. He pauses for a second. “But don’t do this again”.

Callie smiles, and wraps Toad in a hug. “Oh, thank you!”

“Ow ow ow ow,” Toad says, wincing. “My side”.

“Oh my- I’m so sorry”. She immediately lets go. “I’ll get you a mushroom”. She runs to the console, reaches under, and pulls out a bright red healing mushroom, tossing it to Toad.

“Thanks,” he says, catching it. He takes a bite. “Promise me something,” he says, after swallowing.

“Yeah?” Callie says, sitting down next to him.

“If you’re going to save your cousin…”

“Don’t try to talk me out of it”.

“I’m not. I just want to say… Don’t hurt yourself. You're no good to your cousin if you’re dead”.

“Then help me. Help me save her”. Callie looks at Captain Toad, a question sitting plainly in her expression.

Captain Toad knows what he wants to answer. He knows what he wants.

But he knows he cannot. Toad shakes his head

“I can’t. I have to protect the people that I have dedicated myself to”. He looks towards the door, thinking towards the Toad and her daughter he saw earlier. Just like Callie has dedicated herself to her cousin, he has dedicated himself to the people of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Callie nods, understanding.

They both sit there quietly for a couple minutes while Captain Toad finishes his mushroom. Rumbles occasionally shake the room. They sit, taking in the relative silence. They sit, waiting for the inevitable fight that’ll come, for Rosalina to call for them. They sit, listening to the quiet breathing of Link, blissfully unaware of the tragedy that will soon come crashing down upon them all.

They sit, relishing their newfound bond.

But it won’t last.

None of it will.

Princess! How…? Wha…? You’re alive!

Why… Did you come… Back?

For you. Link would have wanted that.

… Thank you. But I am injured. We must make haste.

Right away. After all, we have visitors to expect

Edited October 7, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · October 7, 2018

This is the longest chapter yet *sweats*

some music

Fox McCloud: Primal Unbound

Spoiler

Fox steps out of the Arwing, sweating. The dashboard is flashing all kinds of alarming colours, and smoke is leaking out of the left wing.

The Arwing was definitely not built for these kinds of temperatures. He watches as the lights in the hanger flicker again. It doesn’t seem like the Great Fox can take much more of this either.

“Yo! Fox!” Falco’s voice catches his attention as he swings out of his own Arwing.

“How does your Arwing look so put together?”

“Because I’m better than you,” Falco responds.

“Har har,” Fox says sarcastically.

“But real talk,” Falco says, his expression serious. “What do we do now? We can’t fight like this”.

Fox begins making his way to the exit, Falco following behind. “How’s your ship looking? What percent?”

“Systems say it’s at around sixty percent,” Falco answers.

“Damn, you are better than me”.

Falco laughs.

“Take your Arwing when the creature gets too close, and make one last effort to keep it back from the Observatory as long as you can”.

Falco nods. “Should we get the Great Fox out of the way?”

“Tell Slippy to take it higher, but bombard it with the cannons”.

“And what if it gets too… close?”

“Don’t let it,” Fox answers. They approach the door of the Great Fox, about to exit to the Observatory.

“That’s… Not what I mean,” Falco stops walking and puts a hand on Fox’s shoulder.

“What do you mean?” Fox asks, turning around.

“The Great Fox can escape. The Observatory can’t. What if their efforts aren’t enough to save them?” Falco’s thought hangs like molasses in the air.

“Are you suggesting we leave without them?” Fox asks quietly.

"We both know that they'll stay here to the very end. We won't have enough time or room to get everyone out if they suddenly decide to evacuate".

The silence is thick as they both think things over.

“We can’t leave. Not until the very last moment. They endangered their lives to save us when they could have just passed us by. It’s only fair that we do the same”.

Falco nods reluctantly. “I’ll see what Slippy and I can do”. He heads back through the hanger towards the interior of the ship. “And for the record, you said I’m better than you”.

“Quick!” Fox shouts. “We only have a couple minutes! Unless you’re too slow”.

Falco gives a thumbs up that becomes a middle finger as he disappears around the corner.

Smirking, Fox opens up the exterior door, which opens onto a shimmering rainbow-colored bridge, leading down to the deck of the Observatory.

“Let’s go Mr. McCloud. Your help is very much going to be needed”. Merlon’s voice echoes from above him. Looking up, Fox can see him floating, his hands glowing with energy.

“Impressive bridge, Merlon,” Fox says as he makes his way down.

“This is nothing. However, we may need help holding Groudon back”.

“Groudon?”

“Hoopa tells me that is what it is called”.

“Is Hoopa okay?” Fox asks as he steps onto the Comet Observatory.

“He’s fine,” Merlon answers as he floats down beside him, rainbow bridge disappearing into thin air. “He seems to have been reinvigorated, actually. Hoopa has entirely changed forms”.

“Changed form?” Fox asks. He needs to get used to all this otherworldly lingo.

“Take a look for yourself”. Merlon points towards the side of the ship as The Great Fox moves out of the way, to somewhere safer like Fox wanted.

Behind the Great Fox, he can see Groudon towering over the magma, moving ever so slowly towards them, and a smaller figure whizzing around it like a bug. It’s still relatively large, and has six arms, but still somewhat resembles Hoopa in both colour and the unmistakable golden rings around its body.

“Is that Hoopa?”

“You can’t tell from here, but he’s putting up a pretty impressive fight,” Merlon says. “But it’s moving ever closer despite his efforts”.

“It’s too close”. Each step Groudon takes shakes the ground, and its attacks are beginning to just fall short of the Observatory.

“Yes. Which is why now that you’re safely down here, I have to put up a shield”. Merlon raises his hands, and a shimmering clear layer of magic appears between the Observatory and where Groudon is coming from.

“How do you do that?” Fox watches in awe as the shield slowly becomes what looks like a large pane of glass.

“With… A lot of effort,” Merlon strains. “I’ll be here a while, since the Observatory is powered down and can’t yet produce its own shield”.

“Will you be okay?”

“Getting the shield up is much more difficult than keeping it up”.

As if on cue, Groudon lets out a roar, spitting lava at Hoopa. While Hoopa is able to successfully avoid the projectiles, a stray bolt of lava slams into the newly created wall with a bang. The Observatory shakes with the impact, and although Merlon tries to stand strong, he noticeably winces from the pain of weathering the blow.

Fox looks around at the people who are beginning to gather around, watching the fight between Hoopa and Groudon. Luigi approaches Merlon from behind.

“Is this one-way or a wall?” Luigi asks.

“One-way,” Merlon replies.

“I’ll stay here to help if it gets too close,” Luigi says.

Merlon nods in reply as Luigi rubs his hands together, gloves glowing with a brilliant green flame.

“Won’t attacking a monster made of fire with fire be a bad thing?” Fox asks.

“This isn’t just fire, it’s-a magic fire,” Luigi responds. “It should work”.

“Should”.

“I think”.

Just as Luigi says, that, another fireball hurtles towards them, smashing into Merlon’s wall with a bang. As if he was holding back the blast physically, Merlon skids backwards a couple centimeters.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Merlon?” Fox asks.

“I’m fine. The wall is simply connected in spirit with my body,” he responds, voice obviously strained.

As they approach, Hoopa shoots blast after blast of magic with his golden hoops, one in each of his six arms. Hoopa lets out a roar, stark and frightening compared to his small, huggable demeanor from before.

Each blast strikes true, causing noticeable distress to Groudon, but the monster seems to be learning. With one swift swipe, Groudon slams his flaming, rocky hand into Hoopa, sending him spinning backwards, nearly falling into the lava below.

Immediately facing Groudon yet again, Hoopa holds up two of his rings, and blasts of water shoot outwards towards Groudon. Slamming into it, Groudon roars in pain as the entire battle is obscured in steam.

Everything goes quiet.

Fox can hear the lava under him sloshing and bubbling, like the boiler room in the Great Fox.

A bright light shines, followed by a massive explosion. Fox staggers backwards as the whole Observatory is rocked, but Luigi catches his arm before Fox can fall to the floor. Chunks of rock and magma slam repeatedly into Merlon’s wall, exploding in firework patterns. Merlon steps backwards as well, the shimmering light of the wall sparking in the air. Steam and smoke billow around Merlon’s wall, engulfing the area and obscuring Fox’s vision.

“Is everyone okay?” Luigi yells.

Before anyone can respond, the smoke billows outwards again, past the Observatory, just as Rosalina did hours earlier.

“Essential repairs are complete,” her voice echoes, Fox assumes magically. “We are taking off soon, Merlon, hold the wall”. Merlon nods, sweat moistening his forehead, and face pulled up into a grimace.

Fox looks around, then climbing up a couple steps of stairs, finds a vantage point where he can see both the core where Rosalina is working, and Merlon. Looking towards the Great Fox, he signals with an invisible location beacon, letting Slippy and Falco know where he is. Fox turns around just in time to see something gigantic start to emerge from the smoke.

“It’s Groudon!” Fox yells. His red eyes glow brightly against his skin, which seems to wave and bubble just like the lava he stands on. Across his skin seem to be what looks like rocky and metal plates, refracting the light so that it looks even larger.

A close range blast of fire slams into Merlon’s wall, but he keeps his hands up, magic coursing ever so strongly into the wall.

Another yell sounds from the core.

“Where’s Callie?” The yell sounds like Rosalina’s. She and Yoshi are standing on the small platform around the core mechanism, holding what looks to be large, heavy handles.

Groudon winds up a punch, no doubt trying to break through the wall, when a smaller figure darts in front of it, taking the full force of his fiery punch. The figure flies in an arc over Merlon’s wall, slamming into one of the Observatory’s upper decks with a sickening thump.

Looking back to the core, Fox sees Yoshi grabbing onto one handle with his hands and the third handle with his tongue. However, despite his pulling, his tongue is simply not strong enough to flip the third handle.

Groudon winds up for another strike, and this time, his flame-engulfed fist connects with Merlon’s wall. A shockwave shakes the entire Observatory as Merlon lets out a yell, miraculously holding back the punch. At the same time, Luigi lets out a continuous beam of fire from his hands, passing through Merlon’s one-way barrier and hitting Groudon on the other side. However, it’s inconsequential. Groudon barely flinches.

Groudon does flinch however, when a laser shoots down, slamming into his head. Looking up, Fox can see that it’s coming from his own ship. Groudon takes a step backwards, the continuous laser carving marks into his hard exterior. Opening his mouth, he fires a single fireball at the Great Fox. Swerving, the fireball manages to just graze its wing, and the Great Fox immediately retreats.

At the same time, Rosalina lets out another yell. “Somebody help us!” She flips her handle, but because only a single handle has been flipped, the magic flowing down into the core fluctuates erratically, nothing like the usual smooth undulations that were in the core before. Seeing the distress, Captain Toad begins running towards the core from the deck above the core.

Groudon winds up for another punch, his fist collecting much more fire than the first time. Merlon braces, but he’s much too strained to hold the wall any longer. Slamming into the magical wall, Groudon’s fist shatters it with a blast of power. Shimmering shards of the shield blast in every direction, intermingling with the smoke and the fire.

Fox would say it’d almost be beautiful if he wasn’t scared he was going to die.

It knocks Fox over, and his arm slams into the stairs with a painful crunch. Looking up and clutching his arm, Fox can see both Merlon and Luigi have been launched back nearly ten meters, and are lying on the floor, hopefully just unconscious.

It looks like it’s over. Falco’s Arwing pulls up next to the stair. He flips open the hood, beckoning with a solemn expression. Fox jumps in, and immediately, Falco begins piloting the Arwing away. Looking behind, Fox sees Groudon charging up a giant fireball that will no doubt engulf the whole Observatory. He sees Captain Toad jump down onto the core, about to pull the lever.

But before he can, Groudon lets his attack loose.

There’s a bright light.

And the Observatory is still standing.

The fire from Groudon’s attack is swirling around a lone figure who is standing where Merlon was only a couple seconds ago.

He’s clad entirely in green.

Pointing his sword forwards, Link sends a blast of fire back at Groudon, as strong, or even stronger than the one before.

Captain Toad pulls the final lever.

Knowing that there won’t be enough time to get up to the control room, Rosalina’s entire body begins to glow with the power of the stars, most likely trying to kick-start the Observatory. Her body glows almost as bright as the core itself.

Link and the Master Sword are powerful, but even they have their limits. Concentrating, Link uses all his power to send beam after beam of energy at Groudon, driving it back.

But despite this, Groudon is yet again able to charge up enough power for another punch. Link holds up the Master Sword in front of him, hoping that the Sword will be able to withstand the force of the strike.

It does, but Link doesn’t. Link is launched backwards and loses his grip on the Master Sword, and it goes skidding across the deck, out of reach. Link’s head hits a wall on the Observatory, and he falls unconscious yet again.

But Link buys just enough time for Rosalina. With a motion of her entire body, the energy she was charging up engulfs the Observatory, shooting it upwards faster than it ever has before. It shakes and rattles, as if on the verge of falling to pieces. Before Groudon can process what's happening, the Observatory is out of reach and shooting past the smoky clouds into the atmosphere.

“They did it, Falco! They did it!” Fox turns to Falco excitedly, shaking his shoulder. “I was worried they wouldn’t, but they did!”

“Jeez, calm down. I had no doubt they would”. Tapping a couple keys on his dashboard, Falco patches in Slippy, at the helm of the Great Fox.

“Did you see that? That was AMAZING!” Slippy says immediately.

“We saw that. Now let’s get out of here before that thing sets its sights on us”. Falco says.

~~~

Fox and Falco jump off the Arwing onto the deck of the Observatory just a minute later, while the Observatory and the other ships slowly orbit the planet. The Comet Observatory looks like a train ran through it. There are scorch marks and ash all throughout the Observatory, and pieces of the platforms seem to have cracked and chipped away. The shield that usually surrounds the Observatory in space is flickering, and the core is dimmer, even more than before. Merlon, Luigi and Link are still lying unconscious on the floor while Yoshi and the Captain are tending to Rosalina. She’s slumped over on one knee, barely keeping herself conscious. She looks up when she notices Fox approach.

“Rosalina, are you-”

“Callie”. Rosalina says.

“I’m sure Callie is fine, We’re more worried about-”

“Find Callie”. She struggles to her feet, looking Fox in the eyes. “Now”. Her voice drips with hatred, and she gives off a vibe darker than anything Fox has ever come across.

“O-okay, miss. But where is she?”

“Up in the control room. Bring her down here. Now”. Her hair is frazzled, face pulled back in a sneer. “She’s going to pay for this”.

The Captain speaks up. “Should I-”

“No”. Rosalina says, knowing the question before it’s even asked. “You stay here”. Rosalina takes a power star out of her pocket, and dissolves it with a snap of her fingers, the dust filtering into her body. “I’m done being nice. The only way to keep order is by force”. She turns to Fox. “Bring her down in the next five minutes, or else. Don't think I didn't notice you all about to abandon us”.

Biting back an angry retort, Fox nods, and waves for Falco and Yoshi to follow him. As they reach the top, they come across Hoopa, laid out across the floor, unmoving. He has reverted back to his smaller form.

“Is he…” Falco’s question hangs unfinished in the air.

Fox bends down, lifting Hoopa up. “He’s breathing. Barely”. Carrying him, he approaches the large double doors, the only thing that still looks as grand and elegant as before. With one arm carrying Hoopa, Fox pushes open the door with his other hand. It’s completely dark inside, the once luxurious purples more menacing than comforting.

“Is there anyone there? Callie? Rosalina’s looking for you”. Fox enters the room with Hoopa. Falco and Yoshi enter behind him.

“Thanks for telling me”.

The door slams shut behind them.

… No more tries. No more second chances.

I-I’m sorry! I’ll do better! No more mistakes!

All your mistakes have caused nothing but chaos.

I’ll try harder! I’ll make you proud!

No. I have to keep order. And I'm the only one who can do it.

Edited November 25, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · October 14, 2018

This is going to be important for a long time onwards

Waddle Dee: End of Day

Spoiler

“Hopefully we’re safe here for now,” Meta Knight says, breathless. Waddle Dee pushes a large boulder in front of the cave opening. The whole lot of them have been running and fighting near-blindly through this forest, which is full of countless dangers and huge predators. Waddle Dee knew they should have taken Olimar’s advice.

“Can we get some light?” Waddle Dee asks. “I can barely make out any of you”.

“I got you,” Bowser says. The cave lights up with a warm light as Bowser exhales a flurry of fireballs into his hand. Holding his hand up, Bowser keeps the flame lit in his hand.

“Wasn’t there a rule that you shouldn’t light fires in caves?” Peach asks.

“Pffft”. Bowser snorts.

“It seems to be quite a big cave,” Waddle Dee replies, pointing further inwards. The cave descends into the earth like a corridor, quite a long way in, but not a very steep angle. It goes so far, in fact, that Waddle Dee can’t see the end of it, not even with the help of the fire’s light.

“Well the only way forwards is down,” Peach says.

“Shouldn’t we just wait until the sun comes up?” Waddle Dee asks.

“No, she’s right,” Meta Knight responds. “We don’t know when Magolor will catch up with us, so we have to move forwards when we can”.

“But what if it’s a dead end?”

“Then we turn back. We do have all night, after all”. Meta Knight looks over at Bowser. “After you”.

"What am I, a torch?" Bowser huffs.

Waddle Dee follows directly behind Bowser and Peach, who are leading the way, whispering quietly to each other. He’s expecting them to just trudge downwards for ages in this dark cave, but he soon begins to notice their surroundings change as the get deeper inside. Eventually, he begins to see remnants of wires and pipes embedded into the cave walls, but they look much too fragmented to even begin to look like they’re used for something.

“You’re all seeing this right?” Waddle Dee asks.

In front of him, Peach and Bowser nod in reply, taken in by this curious looking cave.

As they continue forwards, the metal pieces begin converging all over the walls, and the rock begins to disappear.

“It’s like we’re going backwards or forwards in time,” Peach speculates. “I wonder if this design choice was intentional”.

“More likely it’s from when Magolor brought our worlds together”. Meta Knight says. “Halcandra existed outside of normal time and space, almost like a crossroads, or even a dumping ground between realities”. He runs his metal glove over the wall, brushing off some of the dust. “It makes sense that when Magolor combined all realities into one, that this planet would be the most affected”.

“How do you know this stuff?” Bowser asks.

“This is where we first fought Magolor,” King Dedede responds from the back of the pack. “Me, Meta Knight, Waddle Dee and Kirby”. Looking behind him, Waddle Dee can see Kirby riding on the King’s shoulders, staring wide-eyed at the walls around them.

“Were you able to beat him then?” Peach asks.

“We were able to trap him here,” Waddle Dee answers. “But somehow he managed to escape and get the jump on us”.

“Can’t you just beat him the way you did last time?” Bowser asks.

“It’s not that simple…” Meta Knight says. “When he attacked us the last time, he brought everything he had and more.” He looks to the side, avoiding eye contact. “He had new powers from new worlds, not to mention power from our own world that we thought had gone long ago”.

“He bided his time,” The King says. “Then wiped us off the map in less than a day”. He shakes his head sadly. “Not a lot of us were able to get into hiding”.

“That sounds terrible…” Peach trails off. “I wonder if the same thing happened to my kingdom…” She falls silent, and Waddle Dee can see her expression cloud over with worry.

“Ha!” Bowser slaps Peach on the back with his not-on-fire hand. “If they can beat me repeatedly, they’ll be totally fine”.

“How did we get here anyways?” Peach asks Meta Knight.

“When Magolor tried to bring the worlds together, something went wrong”. Meta Knight says. “It was supposed to go smoothly, but it didn’t. Many of the worlds that appeared near Planet Popstar were trashed, and debris from foreign worlds rained down everywhere. It threw Magolor’s forces into chaos”.

“That’s when we obtained info that not only things, but people had appeared too”. King Dedede adds. “While Magolor was busy carrying out his initial invasion, Kirby and Meta Knight rescued you two”.

“I wonder if Mario and Luigi landed there as well…” Peach whispers quietly, but nobody else seems to hear her.

Bowser and Peach give each other a knowing look. “We know it didn’t go smoothly…” Bowser says. “But why did he need these worlds together in the first place?”

“That’s what we’re here to find out,” Waddle Dee says, pointing past Peach and Bowser with his spear. “Look up ahead”.

In front of them, the cave hallway becomes much more rectangular and manmade, and there’s a rusty metal door just in view.

Waddle Dee takes the lead. “Be quiet, everyone”. Everyone slinks forwards as quietly as possible. Waddle Dee squints at the door, trying to make something out, and them looking at Bowser, points to the flame in his hand.

Bowser revs up his hand about to throw the fireball at the door.

“Nononono!” Waddle Dee whispers, waving his hands anxiously.

Bowser looks confused for a second, then looks as if a lightbulb goes off in his head. Nodding, Bowser extinguishes the fire, and the cave goes dark.

But not entirely dark. There’s a small amount of light coming from behind the two metal doors, just enough for everyone to see each other. Waddle Dee approaches until he’s right behind the door, and waves for everyone to follow right behind him. He can hear two voices behind the door, but can’t make out the conversation.

Lightly, Waddle Dee pushes one of the doors to see if it’ll move. It swings ever so slightly with a squeak.

The voices fall silent, and after a quiet whistle, the lights go out.

“Ready?” Waddle Dee whispers. “One…” He takes out his spear. “Two…”

“Three!” The king yells before Waddle Dee does, and with a swing of his giant hammer, blasts the two doors off their hinges and charges into the room. Bowser charges a fireball in his hand, lighting the way

“Dedede!” Waddle Dee stumbles after him into the room, followed by everyone else.

“It’s Olimar!” The king points, excited. “Is it Olimar?”

Waddle Dee just manages to glimpse a flash of someone with a helmet before they duck out of the room through a door on the other side.

“Wait! Do you know Olimar?”

“How do you know Olimar?” The voice says. It’s higher pitched than Olimar’s but unmistakably male.

“Olimar said he’s an explorer?” Bowser answers. “Pasty, pale, not a lot of hair, kind of a big nose - hey!” Peach punches Bowser on the shoulder before he can continue.

Nothing responds on the other side.

“I promise, we’re not going to hurt you, we just want to talk, share our… findings, if you will,” Peach says smoothly. “As fellow explorers”.

The door opens, and two people in similar spacesuits as Olimar and Brittney walk in, followed by some of the little leaf creatures that they saw with Olimar and Brittney

“We just had to make sure you weren’t dangerous creatures or something,” the one with blue hair and wide eyes says. He looks to Meta Knight, then to Bowser, clearly unconvinced. “I’m Alph. This-” he gestures towards the one behind him. “-Is Louie”.

Louie gives a half wave, hiding somewhat behind Alph.

“We’ve noticed this place is really messed up,” Bowser says. “Like time was warped or something”.

“We know. We crash-landed outside this entrance of the cave,” Alph gestures towards the door he and Louie were about to leave from. “But that’s not it. Look at the walls”.

Bowser lifts his fireball close to the walls, and Waddle Dee sees all sorts of mechanisms cover and overlap each other. The metal shows none of the rust that was apparent on the door or even behind the door.

“How did you turn the light on before?” Meta Knight asks. “We could use it now”.

“Got it, mister”. With a shrill whistle, five of the yellow leaf creatures break from the group behind Alph, moving towards the side of the wall. There, they find two ends of frayed wires, and joining their small arms, the little creatures complete the circuit and are all electrocuted.

The lights come on at the same time.

“Oh my goodness!” Peach yells.

Waddle Dee is about to intervene, but the yellow creatures are barely reacting. In fact, they look like they’re enjoying the shock, chittering excitedly to each other.

“Don’t worry, they like the electricity,” Alph confirms. “Now wait a coouuuple seeeconds”. Alph says, drawing out his words.

Suddenly, an almost inaudible whirr sound comes from the wall, and one of the walls of the room opens without noise to reveal another, much larger room, bigger than even the King’s throne room. Looking in, Waddle Dee can make out shelves of what looks like books or scrolls, but many sections look destroyed or ruined from age.

“We were about to go in when we heard you all outside,” Alph says.

“Well let’s go then,” Meta Knight suggests. “Maybe we can find our answers in there”.

“Answers? I knew you didn’t seem like explorers,” Alph says, looking from Kirby, who’s still on King Dedede’s shoulders, to Peach, who is still in her dress.

“I’ll explain while we look around,” Meta Knight says. “Let’s get to work, everyone!”

The search actually doesn’t take long. Turns out a lot of these scrolls and books are damaged and falling apart, most of them to the point where they can barely be read, let alone understood.

“Here’s the last of the okay ones,” Waddle Dee says. “These seem to have information on Nova and the crown”. He places a couple books onto a dusty wooden table in the middle of the bigger room, which he has to stretch to reach. The table is round and stands tall, closer to a height which is more comfortable for Peach and the King.

Kirby stretches to try to glance at the table, but almost knocks a bunch of scrolls off of it.

“Careful, Kirby,” King Dedede says, pulling Kirby back a little bit.

“These ones had symbols I recognize,” Peach adds, placing a few scrolls down on the table as well. “A lot of these have designs like the old books in the Kingdom’s archives”. Kirby once again tries to get a good look at the table, giving a grunt of effort before knocking one of Peach’s finds onto the floor.

“Hey, little pink dude,” Bowser says, picking Kirby up by the head with a single hand. “This table is too tall for you”.

Kirby huffs in annoyance.

“Well aren’t you adorable,” Bowser says sarcastically, putting Kirby behind him.

“Now we comb through them,” Meta Knight says. “It’ll take a while but-”

“HYAAAAAH!” As Kirby yells, a giant gust of wind tears through the immediate area, nearly knocking everyone off their feet and blowing everything off of the table in an explosion of dust.

“Kirby!” Meta Knight yells as he tries to stop his cape from covering his face. “What was that-”

“Look!” Peach points at the table, surprised. Kirby’s gust of wind not only cleared the scrolls and books off the table, but the thick layer of dust is now gone as well.

The table itself is covered in intricate etchings and designs.

In the center of the table is a circular depression that had been filled with dust, as if it used to hold something round, like a ball or a sphere. Surrounding the depression are regular outward lines to the edges of the table, diving the circle into what appears to be eight sections. Four of the sections have a very specific carving, while in the other four sections have carvings of an ornate heart-shape.

“What do you think this means?” Peach asks. She looks at one of the sections close to her, the largest heart on the table, and runs her hands over the pattern engraved in it. “This…” She continues brushing some remaining dust away. “There are words”.

Waddle strains to get a good look at the four sections with symbols other than the hearts while people read out the inscription.

“The first is a star, black and dull”.

“The second is Nova, undamaged and full”.

“The third is three triangles, winged and bold”.

“And the last is five orbs in an emblem of gold”.

“That’s not it,” Bowser says. “Look in the middle”.

“I can’t see,” Waddle Dee strains, but can’t see into the depression in the middle of the table.

“Here. Lemme give you a hand”. King Dedede hoists Waddle Dee up onto his shoulder, and he looks down into the circular depression.

It’s an engraving of the Master Crown, sitting atop a sphere. Inside the sphere are all the aforementioned objects and the four hearts, floating inside.

“It’s Magolor’s crown,” Waddle Dee states. "With more words".

Bowser leans forwards, reading the words in the middle. "I of the hearts call forth the crystal window of the ancients".

A slight breeze picks up, and grows more and more violent, picking up dust and loose pieces of paper. A bright glow shines from the middle of the table, so bright that Waddle Dee has to avert his eyes. With a final blast of air, the wind dies down, and Waddle Dee turns back around.

There's a shiny crystal ball in the middle of the table.

For the next couple seconds, they all stand there, trying to process the significance of the find in front of them.

“Well,” Meta Knight says, finally turning around and beginning to put the books and scrolls back onto the table. “We know a little bit more now”.

"But we're left with more questions than answers," Peach points out. "Like what is that? What does it do?" She gestures to the crystal ball.

“And we still don’t know why,” Bowser grumbles.

Meta Knight tosses a scroll to Bowser, which he catches.“Then it looks like we’ve all got some reading to do”.

… What is this?

Star Dream. I’ll finally be able to avenge my family, my *life*.

Keep in minding the goal, Magolor.

I don’t give a crap about your goal. You promised me revenge.

HeeeEE heEE HEEee… heh. I did, did I not? But only if you follow *exactly* my instructions.

Edited October 21, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · October 21, 2018

"Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten".

- Lilo and Stitch

Link: Betrayal

Spoiler

A shrill ringing in his ears is the first thing Link notices. He tries to struggle to his feet, but can’t. His vision is nothing but a blur for a couple seconds, but he blinks it away. Somewhat.

He remembers waking up. Hearing the commotion outside. Being thrown into a duel with the lava creature. And then a shattering explosion, the most intense pain he’s ever felt. Second only to probably when he was literally stabbed in the back. And then he woke up here. Link tries to think back, but trying to figure what happened before that time only makes his head pound harder.

Link tries to struggle to his feet, but topples over before he can. For the first time since regaining consciousness, Link takes in his surroundings.

This definitely isn’t Hyrule. He looks around, seeing bodies scattered around him. A man in a blue cloak, and another man dressed in green with a pair of overalls. Looking up further, he sees an abstract arrangement of stairs, platforms and buildings. In the center of all of those is a large glowing sphere. Like a fireball, or a star.

What the heck is going on? Was he dead? Because that’s what it looks like.

The large sphere is glowing dimly, and he can see the narrow path to where multiple mushroom-shaped structures are docked.

A woman in a large, flowing dress is floating shakily nearby, an uncomfortable looking toad person beside her. She looks… angry.

This is not what he imagined the goddess Hylia looking like.

Link opens his mouth. Excuse me!

But nothing comes out. Instinctively, Link brings his hand to his throat. He tries to make a noise, any noise, but all he hears is his own breathing.

What? What’s happening?

“YOU! Callie!” the woman’s yell startles Link to full consciousness as she points towards another girl in purple, who is running down the stairs urgently.

“Rosa-” Callie can’t even greet her before the woman shoots a violent bolt of magic towards her. Callie immediately stops in her tracks, and the blast just grazes her arm. “Ow!”

“I should have gotten rid of you when I had the chance”. She shoots bolt after bolt of magic, which Callie manages to deftly avoid, moving towards the docked Toad Ships. One bolt of magic hits a docked pod, blasting a hole straight through the middle.

“R-Rosalina, you’re-” The mushroom creature tries to interrupt, but she doesn’t hear him.

“I had a hunch you weren’t being truthful. But I trusted you. Because the others trusted you”. Rosalina’s floating is no match for Callie’s legs, and the distance is quickly closing. “Now I know I shouldn’t have”. She winds up a large blast that will no doubt tear down the narrow path they’re going down, taking Callie and the mushroom structures with it.

“STOP!” The mushroom jumps between the two, and both Callie and Rosalina freeze.

“Move, Captain,” Rosalina says.

Link forces himself to his feet, grabbing one of the walls as support, trying to get a better view of what’s happening.

“Rosalina, Callie is just-”

“She almost got us all killed, Captain Toad. Get out of the way”.

“Maybe she didn’t mean to, she-”

”MOVE!” Rosalina’s voice sends shivers up Link’s spine

The Captain stares Rosalina down. “No”.

“Don’t you get it?!? We are not safe here with her!”

“That’s why I’m leaving!” Callie yells, backing towards one of the docked ships. “What are you going to do, stop me?”

“No”. She steps forwards, pushes Captain Toad out of the way, and charges up one final blast. “I’m going to kill you”.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that”. At the moment Rosalina is about to fire, Callie takes a small jar out from behind her back and pops its lid, pointing the open end towards Rosalina. Turning some of the rings on the jar, a hollow, suction-like whoosh emanates throughout the entire area. The violent, sparking magic of Rosalina’s blast suddenly goes still, and a blue, water-like aura is sucked away from Rosalina, flowing into the jar like the tide coming into a beach. Callie caps the lid back on. Link notices, even from a distance, that the tan orange coloration of the jar shifts slowly to a pale blue.

Rosalina drops to the floor.

“W-w-what did you…” Rosalina looks up, hatred burning in her eyes.

“This is such an interesting jar,” Callie says. “It’s called the prison bottle. Traps the power of anybody who has some”. She moves the jar in front of her face, inspecting it.

“Y-you’ll… Pay…” Rosalina’s voice sounds weak and exhausted.

“Will I now? Everyone saw how you just threatened to kill me”. Callie shrugs. “It was self defense”.

“Nobody saw that. If I killed you, only we would know”.

Captain Toad takes a couple steps back towards Callie, shocked.

“Those cameras you all told me about? Everyone locked in your control room can see and hear exactly what’s happening”.

“But Callie…” Captain Toad says, torn. “Was this really the right way to do things? How are you going to save your cousin now?”

“Don’t you get it, Toad?” Callie yells, exasperated. “I’m saving my cousin from her!” She points at Rosalina.

“What? Saving people is all Rosalina has tried to do”.

“But what about my cousin, huh? Luigi and Merlon were the only ones who went out of their way - to my planet, no less, to save people. What has she been doing? Taking us right to where she wants to go. This planet was just in the way!”

“Rosalina’s just getting us ready! Saving as many people as we can so we'll be able to take down whoever's behind this”.

Callie scoffs. “I’m not asking you!” She looks towards Rosalina. She’s been strangely silent. “Did you ever intend to help me save my cousin?”

“What I intended was to end this and get everyone home”. Link’s breath catches in his throat as he watches discreetly from behind.

“And if my cousin was in the way, fighting you? If she was standing between you and ‘ending’ it? Could you promise she'll be safe?”

Rosalina doesn’t answer.

“You know she’s going to be used against us like Link was”. Callie asks quietly, afraid of the answer. “Would you kill her?”

“Yes,” Rosalina says without hesitation, without elaborating. There’s no need to.

The silence is deafening as Callie tries to figure out how to respond. "I-I knew it. After you woke up, I knew. When you flicked your wand and took out hundreds, thousands of Magolor's prisoners without a second thought..."

"Callie, I had to".

“And Link?” Callie’s voice cracks. “If he didn’t knock himself and you out, would you have killed him too?” Callie points in Link’s direction, and looking around, he can see that Luigi too has woken up, and is now propped up against a wall, listening in intently. For the first time, Rosalina sees Luigi and Link awake, paying attention. Merlon is still on the floor, unmoving. Rosalina doesn’t say anything, not even with Link watching. “Why save him then?” Callie’s eyes water up. “Your image? Showing everyone your heart is not as black as it actually is?”

Rosalina can’t seem to find the words to respond to that.

“Rosalina, is she-”

“Be quiet, Luigi”. She stays still, pondering the situation. “A few lives…” Rosalina chooses her words carefully. “...are a small price to pay for order and stability in the universe”. She stands up, and Link notices Rosalina holding something behind her back. Looking beside him, it seem Luigi hasn’t noticed.

“The universe doesn’t bend to your world’s rules anymore”.

“I am the only one one with the mind and the will to set the rules”.

“Magolor said that was exactly what you told him”.

“Magolor?” Rosalina’s voice catches, but she doesn’t seem shocked. “He’s behind this?” Her voice grows into anger. “That’s why you were never here! That’s why I couldn’t sense your presence while we were fighting! You were off with him!” She takes a couple steps towards Callie, but she doesn’t step back. “He promised to let Marie go, didn’t he?”

“He told me what you did. How you banished him, killed everyone in your way for the sake of the world”.

“That’s…” Rosalina trails off.

“He told me how you’d only be concerned with order, and that you’d do anything to keep things the way they were”.

“That was a long time ago,” Rosalina snaps.

“Except you haven’t changed. You’re still what he said you were. Psychopathic. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. Look at the way you decimated the troops when they first attacked us above this planet. They didn’t *choose* to be there. They didn’t have a say in what they were doing. But you,” Callie points her finger right at Rosalina. “You destroyed them”. She takes piece of bloody metal out of her pocket. Flinging it, it falls to the floor with a clang and slides a short distance, stopping at Link’s feet. “Everyone except him”.

Picking it up, Link’s heart drops.

It’s Zelda’s brooch, in the shape of the Hylian emblem. There’s a spatter of blood on it, and one of the wings on it are cracked.

“Some of them retreated…” Rosalina says, as if trying to make Callie and Link feel better. Luigi looks away. He can’t bear this argument anymore.

“I’m going, Rosalina. Don’t stop me”. Link’s heart races and his breathing quickens as he takes in what’s happening. He can’t speak. He’s in space. Zelda’s…

“Please Callie, let me explain”. Rosalina reaches out with one hand, keeping the other behind her. Something glints in her hand, catching Link’s attention again.

Captain Toad tries to step between them again. “If she wants to go, let her. What’s she going to do?”

Link has to say something. He tries to yell out, but can’t. Instead he reaches over, pushing Luigi on the shoulder. He looks over. Link points at Rosalina.

At the same time, Captain Toad is pushing Callie away, trying to get her to leave, but Callie stubbornly tries to stare Rosalina down. Rosalina is quickly closing the difference, only a few steps away.

At that exact moment, Rosalina slides her other hand out from behind her, and Luigi notices. He yells Callie’s name.

Rosalina’s blade catches the light as she raises it in an upwards slashing motion.

Captain Toad notices the light too.

In a split-second decision, Captain Toad pushes Callie out of the way, towards the ships.

And before anybody knows what’s happening, Captain Toad is on the floor.

We have visitors, Princess.

Again?

They’re not friendly this time. And we know what they’re here for.

… I can’t take another fight.

Is everyone else here okay? They can take care of th-

The door!

…

… Bring it on, assholes.

Edited October 31, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · October 31, 2018

I'll give you some time to soak it in

Intermission the Second: Promises Made...

Spoiler

They let Callie leave. She didn’t know how, or why, but she did it. She was going to save Marie. Then, they could go home. They would be okay. Grandpappy would be okay.

Then why does she feel like crap? Was it worth it?

This is what Callie thinks as she flies away from the Comet Observatory in a Toad Ship, straight towards Planet Popstar. Magolor said he would keep his promise, his promise that once they win, Marie, and all the captured inklings would be alive and free.

It’s a promise that Rosalina couldn’t make. So that promise is what Callie has to believe. She has no choice but to believe that Magolor would honor his word.

Because her other option is now gone.

Her other option, Rosalina, walks over and sits quietly on the floor, watching Merlon, locked in her in her Observatory. What had once been her sanctuary, her home, her lifeblood, is now her prison. She’s failed. She tried so hard to keep order in the universe, yet all she’s managed to do is make it worse. Grabbing Merlon’s hand in both of hers, she holds back tears, replaying her final vision.

The rumble of the Observatory.

Commanding it forwards.

Her and Merlon’s final words.

The bright light.

How will this come to be? How is she going to save the universe now? She can’t feel the faintest glimmer of the stars through her veins.

But she has to try. There must be *something* she missed in that vision. Determined not to be defeated, she marches over to the main console, and presses the button to bring up the crystal ball.

The ball’s platform rises out of the ground.

But it’s gone.

Collapsing over Merlon’s still comatose body, she sobs, apologizing repeatedly. To herself, to Callie, to Merlon, to Toad. To Luigi, to Mario, to the Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Rosalina, the guardian of the cosmos, doomed them all, yet despite her failure, she makes one promise.

Rosalina will make this right, no matter what it takes.

On the first floor of the Observatory stands Luigi over a body. The body of the great Captain Toad.

He’s dead. No amount of mushrooms or stars can bring him back to life now. No more extra lives. Luigi remembers the promise he made years ago, to serve the mushroom kingdom, to protect it from its greatest threats.

Alongside his brother, he’s fought countless monsters and creatures, helped an unfathomable amount of villagers about everything from lost children to disease outbreaks.

He would never have guessed one of their greatest threats was supposed to be the one watching over them.

Luigi smacks the little respawn token in his hand, hoping that something, anything will happen. What would Mario do? How would he handle Rosalina? How would he handle this crisis? He knew Mario would find some way to bring him back. It’s only when Link pulls Luigi away does he realize that those days were over.

Callie was right. The universe doesn’t play by their rules anymore. And because of this, Luigi decides that he only has one choice: Press onwards. Save as many people as they can. Because that is what Mario would do.

Luigi points everyone towards what Magolor calls planet AF-H. Link’s planet.

As Luigi takes the helm of the Comet Observatory, Fox and Falco make a decision. For the time being, they will stay with this ragtag band of heroes. They make a promise. As long as they are needed, they will fight for the greater good. No more running. They follow close behind the Comet Observatory, towards wherever Luigi may lead.

Little do they know Magolor is there, trying to take the last piece he needs. Magolor is obviously not going to put his life on the line this time, so leading the charge is the new and improved Alfonse Gustav, former leader of the Order of Heroes.

He prided himself on keeping the artifacts across time and space safe, recruiting the most powerful individuals in their world’s history.

But that seems to have backfired. He’s still fighting alongside his allies, but instead of defending, he’s doing a whole lot of invading.

Alfonse’s mind is just like Link was, watching what’s happening through a foggy, blurred, window, and as such, he can’t stop what he’s doing as he locks his blade with this woman’s magic.

Beside him is Lyndis Lee, slashing at some strange looking creatures. Plucked from the plains, battled in a war, plucked from that, battled in another war, there’s not a lot that Lyn hasn’t seen.

This pink floating thing though, is one of them. Despite Lyndis’ speed, she can’t seem to get close to it. The last thing Alfonse will ever see is an explosion of pink light.

Exasperated, Magolor sneers. Always, he has to do it himself. Every time, his generals fail him. Daroach, Ribbon, Link, Alfonse, even Samus to some extent. He storms through the crowd of battlers, coming face to face, yet again, with Zelda, and for the first time with Lana. He looks at Alfonse and Lyndis on the floor.

And before anyone can intervene, Magolor sends a bolt of magic straight through Alfonse's body.

But Magolor is distracted. A little pink castaway by the name of Mew slips past and out the door unnoticed.

Elsewhere, on Halcandra, Olimar hobbles forwards, dragging an unconscious Brittney across the floor, while his Pikmin carry Mario down the long, winding cave hallway.

The S.S. Dolphin was just shot down over the skies of PNF-404. And now, the three of them are being pursued. As explosions go off behind them, he sends any Pikmin that aren’t carrying Mario to try to hold their pursuer off, knocking over pillars and blocks behind him.

This is just like the Plasm Wraith, but worse.

As Olimar bursts through another set of doors, he stumbles into a slightly lit room, hearing a murmuring of voices on the other side, stumbling through, heads turn.

Alfie and Louie run up to greet him.

And when Mario is carried through the door, Princess Peach and Bowser nearly fall off their feet.

Nice to finally meet you, Magolor.

The great Lana. You know what I’m here for.

And to get it, you’ll have to get past me.

Edited November 25, 2018 by Bok Choi

Bok Choi · November 25, 2018

Life has been busy, but here I am!
Btw, you guys seemed interested in thematic music, so from this chapter onwards, I'll share what was playing in my head as I was writing and editing it. ~~Who knows, I may retroactively add some to older chapters as a little bonus.~~
For instance this

Peach: Fragmented

Spoiler

“... Mario”. Immediately, Peach drops what she’s reading and runs over. With sheer strength, Peach picks Mario up, dragging him the rest of the way through the door. “Mario, wake up”.

“Um. Peach,” Bowser interjects, puzzled. “The guy looks awake”.

Bowser’s right. His eyes are wide open, staring forwards.

“I was so worried about you, Mario,” Peach grabs his hand in both of hers, smiling. “I thought I’d never see you again”. She forces a laugh. “You can’t believe what’s been happening”.

Mario doesn’t respond. At first, Peach thinks he’s being his normal, speechless self, but Mario doesn’t so much as blink.

His expression is blank, glossed over like a ceramic figurine.

“Mario?” Peach pleads, still gripping his hands. “Are you okay?” Panic begins to grip Peach as she realizes something is very wrong.

“Peach…” Bowser tries to approach.

“Mario, please…” Peach buries her face in the back of his gloved hand. “I can’t lose you too”. Tears begin running down her face as she squeezes his hand tighter and tighter. “I lost my kingdom… My people…”

Bowser stands beside her awkwardly.

“I don’t know where anybody is, or whether or not they’re alive…”

Behind them, closer to the front of the door, Alph and Louie help Olimar in while King Dedede carries Brittney through as well. With a shrill whistle, the yellow Pikmin that had been lighting the previous room run in, and the metal wall closes with a creak, hiding them and the scroll room behind the wall, the way it was before.

Faint mechanical lights still shine within the room they’re in, but it is noticeably darker.

“Please Mario…” Peach’s body shakes, and she drops his hand to the floor, where it stays. Her tears beginning dripping straight onto the cold stone floor. “I’m all alone”.

Bowser bends down slightly beside her. “I’m here, Peach. You’re not alone”.

Peach turns around, eyes moist and red. “Go to hell”.

Heads turn towards them.

“In what kind of convoluted way are you there for me? I never asked for you to be there”. She stands up, facing Bowser, and he takes a small step back “You just inserted yourself into our lives, and look what happened”.

“I’ve helped saved the Kingdom more times than you can count,” Bowser grumbles. “And you’re the one who keeps running back to me for help!”.

“Excuse me?”

“Everybody knows you’re more than capable of taking me on if you wanted to”.

“I-I-” Peach stutters. “So what?!”

“So why do you let them think I keep kidnapping you?!?” Bowser roars.

The room is deathly silent as everyone else watches the argument unfolding in front of them.

“Errr… Guys?” Olimar speaks up, but Peach and Bowser ignore him

“I don’t know, Bowser!” Peach says, running her hand through her hair. “I don’t know”. She looks back at Mario, then at Bowser. “You know what?” She laughs sarcastically. “Call me crazy, but I felt more *alive* this past day than I ever have before”. She wipes a tear from her eye. “Maybe I like getting away once in a while. Maybe I want a little bit of excitement in my life sometimes”.

“Guys?”

“Maybe I’m tired of having to always be Princess Peach”.

“GUYS!”

Everyone turns towards Olimar.

“Do you have to have this discussion now? There’s a deadly missile launching psycho coming straight towards us, so shut up”. Olimar shuts down both Peach and Bowser with a hard glare.

Peach presses her lips together, and doesn’t keep talking.

“Here’s what we’re going to do. The metal door looks thick, so we have maybe a minute from when it gets here to when it blasts its way through”. Olimar looks to each person, taking the lead. “I told some of my Pikmin to bring down the cave ceiling and hide, so that buys us another minute at most”. Looking around, Peach can see the wheels turning in his head. “I think we can use all these bookcases to our advantage… Like a maze”. He points at King Dedede. “You”.

“Me?”

“Take Brittney, Alph, and Louie to the back of the room. If their helmets crack, they’re dead”.

“But boss, you’re also-”

“Not now!” Olimar looks at Louie, who falls silent immediately.

“Princess Peach, right?” Olimar looks directly at her. Despite Olimar’s somewhat goofy look, he holds a commanding air about him, like he’s an instinctive leader.

“That’s me,” she replies.

“Take the guy… Mario, right?”

Peach nods in reply.

“Take him to the back of the room too. He can’t do anything”.

Peach nods, looking back at Mario, who hasn’t moved a muscle from his spot leaning against the wall.

“Who can fight?”

“HYAH!” Kirby jumps off of King Dedede’s back, flipping in the air, and landing with a thump in front of Olimar, striking a pose.

“... Anybody else?”

Peach tunes the rest of their plan out as she grabs Mario’s shoulders, trying to drag him to the back of the room.

“I can help, y’know?” Bowser stands, arms crossed, watching Peach try to pull Mario. “He’s a pretty pudgy guy”.

“I… don’t… need… help…” Peach strains.

“Yeah right”. Grabbing Mario with one hand, Bowser slings him right over his shoulder.

“… Thanks”.

"I went too far. Sorry," Bowser mumbles almost incoherently. “But all I do is try to help you, Peach”. Bowser says as they make their way to the back of the room. “I come when you ask me to. I help when the kingdom’s in trouble”.

“I know, Bowser”.

“I even pretend to be the bad guy because you need me to”.

“I know, Bowser”. Peach repeats.

“Then why are the brothers always the ones at your parties? Why do you act like you value them more than me?” He puts Mario down behind a bookshelf. “Because ya know their company is absolutely suffocating”

“Not always…” Peach murmurs to herself.

“What?” Bowser doesn’t hear.

“I said I don’t know, Bowser,” Peach lies. “What would the kingdom think if I just up and said ‘oh, the turtle monster you’ve been fighting? He’s actually saved your behinds more than once when I've been a completely incompetent ruler. And he’s a great guy, too”.

“The kingdom would listen to you. It’s your kingdom”.

“It was never my kingdom”. Peach says, exasperated. "I'll never be the ruler my predecessors were". She watches the group gathered near the front, preparing for battle. “Assuming we ever get back there”.

“The kingdom is fine, Peach. I don’t get the worry”.

“I’m not there. Mario’s not there. You’re not there. Who knows if Luigi can hold down the kingdom himself”.

“I’m sure he c-”

“But Luigi was on that airship too, don’t forget!” Peach interrupts, pointing a finger at Bowser. “What if he got dumped somewhere in space too?”

“If anything, I’m sure Toadsworth can handle things for the time being”.

“Toadsworth has probably lost it by now”.

“Rosalina?”

“Rosalina’s no doubt more concerned with the ‘otherworldly causes’ of this,” Peach rolls her eyes. “She doesn’t care about the kingdom. Never has". She sighs. “I need to get back there. The people need me”.

Bowser raises an eyebrow. “No, we need to get back there. There’s an army in my castle that has no leader”. He looks away. "and... I need to find my son".

Peach looks again, back to the door. There’s rumbling in the distance, likely explosions going off from the missiles Olimar hinted at. “We should help. It’s the only way we might have a chance of finding our way back home”.

“I’ve got your back, Princess”. Bowser cracks his knuckles, grinning.

“… You always do”. She smiles, taking out her parasol. “Let’s pound this person into the ground”.

You’re done for! Give. It. To. Me.

Never. You can kill me, but I will n-

It’s over here.

Zelda! W-Why?

I’m sorry. Spare our lives and I’ll hand it over. All three pieces.

No...

… Thank you, Princess. I knew you’d come to see th-

Hee hee~

Where’d they go?!?

Edited December 2, 2018 by Bok Choi

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