Post by bobsnicket on Mar 2, 2008 1:39:40 GMT -5
Chapter 10: Shadows and Stars
PART 5
profile.imeem.com/YkIC6eD/music/l8v6MDZ9/a04_underground_theme_easton_kingdom_super_mario_land/
“Mama-mia,” Mario said.
“Dang it,” Young Link said.
They watched as Crazy Hand flew with his cargo above the tallest building in the city, not far away. His voice was so loud anyone could hear it. But it was directed to the three of them, after another fit of manic laughter. “To the roof, you fools! Or I’ll leave!” He was facing them again, and they could see Zelda’s head and shoulders and the end of her dress poking out of the giant gloved fist.
Of course they had no choice but to comply, so they fought their way to the base of the tall building, climbed hurriedly up the large winding staircase inside (the city’s power was out, so the elevators were not available), and finally exited out the uppermost door to the flat roof outside.
Remarkably, this building had avoided being struck by lightning, even though it towered over all the other ones, giving a spectacular but horrifying view of the destruction and chaos around them. Above, the purple clouds loomed as threatening as ever. But fortunately, the acid rain now appeared to be letting up, as if nature could sense the tension on that roof. Some ways off, Diddy Kong was flying his jetpack (strangely repaired) and taking on airborne Wire Frames in a rather interesting dogfight, but he was too busy to notice them. Pit was actually on a neighboring roof nearby, but he was unconscious. And of course, Wire Frames swarmed through the streets below them, clustering around the tiring rebels.
So Mario, Luigi, and Young Link stepped out onto the large square cement roof, and glared at Crazy Hand, who was hovering a few yard away and above the roof.
“Release me!” Zelda was struggling against Crazy Hand’s grip, but he was just too big.
“What do you want?” Young Link shouted, drawing his sword.
Crazy Hand laughed. “What do I want? I want everything! I want the Nintendo World; I want to capture every blasted fool who dares stand against me! Especially those of the Original 25, those who have the potential of defeating Master Hand and me. I even want Master Hand to stop calling me Lefty. But which of those things can I get from you? The way I see it, the best choice to get what I want is to capture you three and add the four of you to Master Hand’s collection. After all, as of the last time I was informed, four out of the 25 are already… solidified, with at least two more on deck! Of course, I will also capture the rest of those still in this city, still fighting, presumably. The other fighters will be either killed or added to the collection as well, of course. It was a very foolish thing they did, standing against my army. I truly wonder why they even hoped to withstand the sheer numbers standing against them. Perhaps you know why? Anyway, that’s enough blabbering. It’s time for me to watch you suffer my wrath… indirectly!” Crazy Hand laughed again.
Then suddenly, a medium-sized metal form leaped over the side of the building onto the roof, sword in hand. Metal Marth. Crazy Hand grew still in the air, with Zelda still wriggling in vain, soon giving up.
Mario and Luigi simultaneously fired red and green fireballs at the metal clone, which leaped over the projectiles, and landed in front of Young Link, knocking his sword out of his hand and off the roof. Metal Marth kicked Young Link in the chest, sending him sprawling to the ground. It then turned to Mario and Luigi, who were both in fighting poses. The metal character then charged straight for where they were standing, a few feet apart. But as it drew near, Mario and Luigi both ran inward, collapsing into each other and falling to the cement ground. Metal Marth advanced slowly now, fist raised. And then…
“Maybe we could call upon the powers of the Star Spirits, just like Princess Peach did when Bowser lifted the castle into the air, and just like Mario and Luigi’s recent incident at Beanbean Castle (Toad had been told along with several others by Mario how many Beanbeans had wished for the kingdom’s safety while the Hammer Bros. were attacking, and how the seven Star Spirits had saved Queen Bean from an anonymous enemy).”
“Hmm,” Dixie Kong pondered. “It could work. But the problem is there are not enough people here for our wish to work.”
“Puff!” Jigglypuff objected, which meant something along the lines of, “Who says we need a certain number of people to join in the wish? And everyone who is hiding right now is probably wishing for the city’s safety anyway.”
“I agree,” said Toad. “All we need to do is specify the city’s wish and direct it towards the Star Spirits. So let me teach you how a proper wishing is done…”
…a cylindrical beam of green energy shot from somewhere and blasted into Metal Marth’s chest. The ray gun beam’s purpose was not to melt or destroy him, but rather to push it away a large distance. And the distance this particular beam sent Metal Marth was enough to send it toppling off the roof.
Everyone then turned to the source of the ray gun blast, and this part surprised everyone. Banjo and Kazooie, with Kazooie flapping her red wings furiously in effort, flew over the opposite side of the roof, and clinging to Banjo’s foot with one hand was Bottles, who was holding the guilty ray gun in his other hand. Kazooie hovered over to where she could drop them, and the three residents of Spiral Mountain joined a shaken Mario, Luigi, and Young Link (who were all getting up). Bottles, Banjo, and Kazooie smiled at each of them reassuringly, who smiled back in relief, and then they all turned back to hear Crazy Hand speak again.
“Grrr!” Crazy hand growled. “That was my only Metal Marth, you know!” But while still gripping Zelda, Crazy Hand wagged his pinky finger, and almost instantly three more metal characters leaped over the sides of the roof and landed in a triangular formation around them. Their identities were Metal Roy, Metal Fox, and Metal Pikachu.
Mario, Luigi, and Young Link went to tackle Metal Roy, while Banjo, Kazooie, and Bottles focused a barrage of grenade eggs and ray gun beams at Metal Fox. Crazy Hand and Zelda continued to watch, but Metal Pikachu simply ducked its head while standing on its feet and balled up its tiny little fists, not drawing any attention with its diminutive form.
Mario, Luigi, and Young Link surrounded Metal Roy, but it was avoiding or deflecting their attacks with its sword effortlessly. It laid a hard blow with its fist on Luigi’s cheek, and the green man fell unconscious. Young Link tried to fight with a deku stick, but it broke on the first hit against Metal Roy’s heavy sword, knocking it out of Link’s hands and jarring them painfully. But while Metal Roy advanced on the currently weaponless Link, Mario jumped above Metal Roy and brought his fist down upon the metal clone’s head mid-leap, knocking it down. Mario then quickly landed, turned around, and grabbed the flailing clone’s legs. With a heave, he began swinging Metal Roy around and around, faster and higher each time.
But before he could send it off the nearby roof edge, Metal Roy used his heavy sword to smack the side of Mario’s head, sending him to the ground to join his brother. The Metal Clone furiously got up and advanced on Young Link swiftly, but it was at that moment that Kazooie noticed their dilemma, and used her unique bird abilities to eject a grenade egg from her other end. The grenade egg bounced towards the unsuspecting clone, and exploded on contact, sending Metal Roy off the edge and falling fatally to the ground far below.
While Mario, Luigi, and Link were busy, Banjo and Kazooie had been attacking Metal Fox. Banjo moved around so Kazooie’s aim would be as accurate as possible, and Bottles fired his last shot into Fox’s chest, making it slide to the very edge of the building. But then Metal Fox pointed his blaster at Bottles and fired.
The laser traveled towards Bottles’s head, and Banjo, Kazooie, Bottles, and Metal Fox watched in bewilderment as the laser came into contact with Bottles’s right goggle lens, bounced off, and sequentially backfired on Metal Fox, melting the clone to the ground (By this time Kazooie had already had already ejected her grenade egg).
“And that,” Bottles concluded, “is why you must always wear safety goggles when dealing with high-intensity light projectiles.” He, Banjo, Kazooie, and Young Link, began to laugh, when the unthinkable happened.
Metal Pikachu unleashed its fully charged Skull Bash, slammed into the goggle-eyed leader of the Resistance, and both it and Bottles tumbled over the edge to their dooms.
Shock and grief filled the hearts of Banjo, Kazooie, Young Link, and Zelda, and it showed terribly on their stricken faces, as they stared at the edge where Bottles, their beloved leader, had made the ultimate sacrifice for the welfare of their world. But as Crazy Hand spoke for the final time that night, they were forced to focus their attention once again on the nefarious commander.
“Hwa he haa! Well, well! It looks like the Resistance will need to be having another election soon! But that’s enough fun and games. If you won’t come quietly, then perhaps--” but he, along with the others, was distracted by a bright shape of light falling from the sky.
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It began as a tiny speck of light, continually growing brighter, but as it drew nearer, it was obvious that it was no wandering fairy. The massive bright shape came down with great speed into the square where the main battle of Fourside City was commencing, revealing to be a Shooting Star, a falling projectile of great power. The huge star of light fell upon this spot, exploding into hundreds of smaller stars, which each fell down upon the terrified Wire Frames, but avoided all the ones who had been fighting them. As each smaller star landed on a Wire Frame, the Wire Frame itself turned into a star and rose, rotating, to disappear into the sky. Some of the smaller stars, that did not hit anyone, just disappeared upon contact with the ground.
Crazy Hand yelled in rage and fury as he avoided dozens of Shooting Stars, and yelled in even more rage and even more fury when he saw that across the cities, other Shooting Stars were descending, eliminating all of the city’s purple enemies. Everyone who had been saved from the army cheered with joy, shaking fists into the air and embracing the person next to them. The purple clouds and the storm had been chased away to reveal a beautiful night sky with thousands of shining stars.
Then, when the last of Crazy Hand’s army had been removed, the Seven Star Spirits themselves gracefully descended, rotating in a circle, their five-pointed shapes bright and the area around them sparkling dazzlingly. The septet halted in the air near where Crazy Hand was. The city’s residents who were there to see it watched in awe.
“Crazy Hand!” Eldstar, the leader of the Star Spirits and the oldest, had a voice that echoed forcefully and loudly throughout the city around them. “Leave this world at peace or we shall destroy you and Master Hand with one swift stroke!”
Crazy Hand, as powerful as he was, seemed slightly subdued by the authority of Eldstar’s voice. Still clutching Zelda, he turned to those on the roof and whispered rather loudly, “This isn’t the end!” Then the great white hand ignited some sort of rocket on the end of his wrist, and one second, he was there; the next, he was zooming into the horizon, Zelda’s scream echoing behind him. Young Link had rapidly fired a fire arrow as Crazy Hand took off, but it missed the white glove by inches and plummeted down to the street below, ripping through the cover of a hot dog stand and extinguishing itself on the wet counter surface.
Young Link and the others looked at the Star Spirits expectantly, but they did not make a move to follow. “Well, what are you waiting for?” Young Link yelled desperately. “Use your powers to stop him!”
But Eldstar, with his large white mustache, and the other Star Spirits, shook themselves sorrowfully.
“I’m afraid,” Skolar, the white Star Spirit with glasses and a brown mustache, replied sadly, “we only said that to Crazy Hand to get him to leave. There was nothing we could have done to destroy even one more Wire Frame, much less save your friend.”
“But you just destroyed his entire army!” Young Link shouted angrily and tearfully.
“Ah,” Muskular, a blue Star Spirit wearing a blue hat, said, “but that, young one, was the most draining effort we have ever given, even with the power of the Star Rod. We are terribly sorry, everyone, but after tonight, neither us seven Star Spirits nor the Star Rod will be able to assist you for a long time. We have become incredibly weary, and the Rod is almost in danger of never regenerating its powers again. You will be on your own from now on.”
“But know,” Misstar, a pink-tinged Star Spirit with a ribbon wrapped behind her middle point, said in a soothing, heavenly voice, “that the heavens shall always be watching, wishing for your success. Our brightness shall always come as a comfort in the sky on dark, hopeless nights.”
Eldstar spoke again through his great bushy white mustache. “But before we leave, there is something you must know. This enemy, Master Hand, is unlike any foe we Seven Star Spirits have ever seen, nor have you faced. Not only does he seem to have control over the power of creation, but if the Nintendo World falls, there is no hope of redemption. Skolar has foreseen it: darkness will reign supreme forever, eliminating hope, destroying eternally the trait we call similarity. Everyone will be so horribly different from one another that the world will not exist in unity or cooperation, but in breakable tolerance. Imagination will be abused to the point where--”
“Anyway,” Misstar cut in impatiently, “life will never be the same. You must defeat Master Hand and Crazy Hand. You must keep imagination within the bounds of sanity. More is at risk now than there perhaps ever has been. We wish you good luck, and have faith in your success. Farewell, and remember: the heavens are always watching…”
And with that, the Star Spirits ascended back into the sky, leaving the city in ruins.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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Character Locations
Fourside City: Slippy Toad, Peppy Hare, Bowser, Yoshi, Roy, Prince Peasley, Young Link, Donkey Kong, Lanky Kong, Mr. Game and Watch, Popo, Kirby, Fox, Ganondorf, Bomberman, Diddy Kong, Falco, Nana, Goombario, Banjo and Kazooie, Professor E. Gadd, Pit, Metaknight, Pichu, Jigglypuff, Toad, Tiny Kong, Dixie Kong, Mario, Luigi, Young Link
: The Shadow Sirens, Shadow, Rito Postman
[glow=yellow,2,300]Trophy:[/glow] Pikachu, Princess Peach, Samus, Chunky Kong, Sonic, Wario, Waluigi, Captain Falcon[glow=purple,2,300]Captive:[/glow] Marth, Ness, Goombella, Toadette, Princess Zelda
[glow=gray,2,300]DECEASED:[/glow] Bottles
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END OF CHAPTER 10 (finally... :
