Post by bobsnicket on Feb 2, 2009 23:55:38 GMT -5
Chapter 18: Secret of the Room
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{2} Master's Challenge
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A silence had come upon the land greater than all those before it, for this time, there was no held breathe waiting to be released. When the scene finally cleared, all chaos concluded, there didn’t seem to be anyone from which a breath to be released.
Total devastation. Within the room, the table was strewn with numberless forms piled like Holocaust victims. Not a single person rose up from the annihilating blow, but they were not all dead, strictly speaking.
Some, instead of having the life smitten completely out of them, had been frozen during the white flash, and now appeared as silent trophy witnesses. Slippy and Krystal were the primarily noticeable remainders, but several other trophies (which had not already been there before the room had first been breached) dotted the near-absolute carnage. And each one was different; not one of the trophies was a repetition of another…
Were one to then extend one’s gaze to the vast Battlefields around the room with transparent walls, the same sight would have been beheld. Completely leveled except for the occasional trophy, the armies of the Alliance had been massacred. There was no blood or gore at all, but no mistaking the state of the corpses for sleeping bodies: as previously mentioned, not a breath had been held. Huge heaps of technology comprised of the scraps of wrecked aircrafts had started many fires, which slowly began to spread to consume the new kindling surrounding it. The expressions of the trophies, from Gadd’s toothy smile to Dedede’s puffed-up smirk, were unbefitting of the tragic, silent environment, forced to pose as if they had not, in fact, been forced to.
It was like the very worst of nightmares, the kind that even a dark, brooding Luigi would have laughed at the possibility of, the kind that Professor U. Reeka would have always hoped for. The wind had stilled abruptly, as if the planet itself had died.
The area with the highest amount of trophies was, for some reason, the Pokemon. Most of the elemental creatures had not been left as a field of dead remains, unlike the thousands of Toads, Koopas, soldiers, animals, baddies from Dreamland and Hyrule, Kremlings, Yoshis, and every other species of less variation. The Pokemon, on the other hand, were made up of hundreds of rarely repeating beasts, and were like an outdoor museum of statues compared to the single Koopa who had transformed or the solitary Muffin-headed Toad. There was some pattern to this.
The Original 25, arrayed as they would be on the character selection screen, were all trophies, facing the collector who now owned them.
Master laughed as no other villain has ever done; for no other villain has reached the point where he has entirely succeeded in his plan and has then gazed at the legion of dead enemies who had dared to stand against him. No other villain has managed to follow all the way through without letting out some last witty remark or making some mocking gesture which then proved to be his downfall. Yet Master was unique, for he had challenged the very law assigning ultimate superiority to good over evil, and had won.
But, as happens with every perfect plan, something had ended up turning out contrary to the mastermind’s perceived result. Something not even the omniscient Master had foreseen.
Four trophies among the twenty-five shook, and then, with the shattering some kind of plastic coating, they rocked back and forth with their trophy stands, and an encircling ring of blue light screened down them from head to toe, reanimating each hero.
Mario, Link, Kirby, and Ness, stowing away any and all repercussive grief for a later time, knew there was only one thing left to do. They stepped down firmly from their floating Trophy Stands, the world black around them save for Master’s purple aura, the Room and Battlefields over a thousand staggering feet below. As expected, the four survivors found footing on the glowing violet shrouds, and in a line of unspoken unity, strode purposefully toward their true enemy (Kirby, although dwarfed in sized compared to Link, proved the most vehement among them). Mario walked next to Link, to whose left was Kirby, and Ness moving forward beside him. Master watched them approach impassively, his right hand still gripping the rod and his left hand in his pocket.
Without previous rehearsal or spoken communication, the four heroes came to a simultaneous halt before Master, all hands balled into fists except Kirby’s stubs and Link’s sword arm, which had drawn the Master Sword with a seemingly loud scrape among the silence, the blade glinting confrontationally against the gleam of the blue orb and the sheen of Master’s sunglasses. They all knew somewhere deep inside themselves that this was what was meant to be, that fate had conducted their actions to this point. No further explanation was felt to be necessary.
Master’s smile did not change, but it was very hard now, icy and cold. He gestured toward them with an inclination of his staff. “…Impressive. Let us take this dispute to a more suitable venue, shall we?”
Not waiting for an answer, he silently and without motion bade the purple swirls envelop them, and they were borne up and away to a place scarcely seen by mortal eyes.
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81 - World of Nothing.mp3
Final Destination was as it was before: the metal grates overlapped by crossing purple strips, and the shining black sphere appearing to be maintaining the platform’s suspension from below. But the background was no longer speckled with bright, encouraging stars: it was just blank, eternal, empty darkness. And as Mario, Link, Kirby, and Ness materialized out of Master’s dark-hued energies, the sense of unquestionable finality was even more strongly present. Each took their place on a separate quarter of the platform, glaring up at the formally-dressed man hovering in the center above.
Master no longer spoke as if reciting a long-prepared speech; at this point, while his facial expression was still perfectly under control, an almost unintelligible tinge of marvel was layered thinly in his voice. “So…Mario…Hero of Time…Pink One…Ness…you have shown you possess something beyond that of all other creations…something even I had not expected.” Then, a look of sudden comprehension came upon the godly outcast’s face as he inspected each hero, looking for the connection. “Yes…even the perfect plan cannot accommodate the hand of fate…there is no other explanation for it. You four have a will, a strength of mind, an implacable courage, an internal endowment, which has empowered you with the ability to withstand the magic of the Smash Rod. Others may equal or exceed you in intellect and wit, but there is a definite resistant spark in your minds which I neglected to notice until now. Curses…my former colleagues must have envisaged my endeavors, and chosen you out of the rest to be made impervious to my powers…
“I was going to let you live as part of my collection, but it is unfortunately clear that this can no longer be the case. Now, at last, we shall bring this game to the final test. I give you all one simple challenge, and if you prevail, the kingdom is yours. Here it is: DEFEAT ME!” With that, Master brought up the Smash Rod with both hands, and plunged it downward, driving it all the way into the center of the stage.
At that moment, a tremendous rumbling shook the platform, four rays of blue energy flowed from the bottom of the Smash Rod in separate directions that formed a plus-sign, and with a metallic crack, Final Destination split into four identical corners, one hero upon each segment. The black sphere remained where it was, as did Master, but the corners spread farther and farther apart, steadily and mechanically, until a veritable football field separated each Smasher from the others. To each one, the rest vanished into the thick blackness, and they appeared to be alone.
None of them needed to wait long before Master’s voice sounded once more, but to each individual, a different message was given.
www.imeem.com/lightningblade20/music/nAxQFu8A/smbz_smbz_bowsers_theme/
“It is time, Mario…that you meet an old acquaintance of yours…however, he may not be the same as you remember…”
From within the endless abyss surrounding the plumber, a sizable object rose from below the platform and smashed onto the surface before him. It was a trophy, depicting a being Mario knew all too well: Bowser. The Koopa King’s features were frozen in a perpetual snarl, his claws extended viciously at either side of his face. But the eyes were solid and lifeless.
Until, that is, a ring of light encircling the beast descended gradually from the top of his horns to his spiked tail, just as had happened to the four chosen survivors. Only this ring was purple, the same sickly purple which seemed to mark everything associated with Master and his designs.
Once Bowser had been completely screened, however, he did not immediately become reanimated. The figure instead continued to glow a purple that shimmered as it made terrible changes to the life inside. The villain’s scales and shell began pulsing and bulging strangely, and then seemed to crack and shrivel as the beast within emerged.
An enlarging mass broke through the shell of the Bowser Mario knew, abandoning the small trophy stand, and unleashed an earsplitting roar as it reached its full size. It was very similar to Bowser in shape and manner, but horribly mutated.
For starters, it was about eight times as large as the original beast. Its skin was a darker, grayer hue, the claws sharper and several inches longer. The jaw was bonier, a jutting double chin protruding beneath two huge rows of razor-sharp teeth, the gums pulled back in a nightmarish snarl. The spikes on its metal armbands and collar were larger, those on the shell exceeding a foot in length. The legs, arms, and belly were more muscular and tightened. The shell, as well as the space around the eyes, was a paler, bluish green, and the mane of red-orange fur on the head and eyebrows was thicker and deeper.
As it roared, the monster leaned forward toward the minute Mario, opening its mouth wide to reveal a blood-red mouth glistening with saliva, and two unnatural white sparks flashed in its eyes, the will of the original Smasher lost.
Mario gulped as he readied to fight.
It was Giga Bowser.
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“Hero of Time…your test will be an intriguing one to me, for you have already met your opponent in battle—and fallen to him. Let us see just how well you can match…your own strength…”
Link jumped back in alarm as a metallic figure, gleaming all over, dropped from the darkness above and landed directly in front of him. Metal Link drew its own Master Sword, its body language seeming to convey to Link that it had killed him once, and would now easily do it a second time.
But Link’s challenge wasn’t quite as simple as it appeared. Materializing out of the darkness like ghosts, three shadowy silhouettes became present to Link’s left, right, and flank. They were the exact outline of the Hero of Time himself, brandishing the exact same sword, and, most troublingly, were prepared to mimic his every move, making it near impossible to strike at Metal Link without suffering terrible wounds simultaneously.
Link refrained from trembling or showing any sign of weakness, forcing himself to act boldly, even though his confidence inside was not at its best. Eying the Dark Links with his peripheral vision, he commenced the clash of light, darkness, and steel.
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76 Marx.mp3
“You seem to have a certain knack for bringing back old enemies, Kirby…it would impress me exceedingly if you manage to fare well this time around, however; you shall find he is more than he was the last time you met…”
Two chains of large rocks grappled onto the puffball’s platform one after the other, and pulled up the monstrosity they were attached to onto the surface with a rocky crash that on any normal ground would have caused shaking of tremendous magnitude. Kirby’s eyes widened; the arms composed of rock chains were only the beginning.
Two equally rocky legs kept upright the sturdy, massive creature. Composing the bulk of the body was a thick, fluffy, elliptical cloud. Sharp yellow spikes studded its perimeter, and embedded in an H-shape at the center of the cloud were seven big blue eyes, protuberant and disturbingly watchful, each eye moving independently unless they were all focusing on the same thing—which they were now. Between the lowest points of the rocky arms and the beginning of the cloud, two reddish slabs of rock resembled exaggerated shoulder armor, their jagged top edges reaching the height of the cloud portion.
It was as if the earth had met the sky and decided to combine.
Kirby immediately recognized what at least part of this foe was. It was Kracko, the belligerent, electrically charged cumulonimbus cloud complete with spikes and a single bad-tempered eye. But this was most certainly not the same Kracko he had faced many times before; he could have sworn that he had never seen the enemy with multiple eyes or rock chains for arms and legs…
And then it hit him. This was another mutant, yet another of Professor U. Reeka’s foul creations, despite the fact that the said scientist had recently met his demise. This monstrosity had been left behind, a living reminder of the horrid ways the power of creation could be abused.
The other half, the other specimen which had become the victim of Reeka’s experimentations, was a special Pokemon called Regirock. This legendary creature matched the rocky limbs and the arrangement of the eyes perfectly. It looked like an alien from one of the many sci-fi horror films, something so far from familiar that many would be terrified by the mere sight of it.
Kirby, however, was not among the many. He stared face to face with the many-eyed mutant (henceforth named Krackorock), frowning in determination, and then sprung into a true David and Goliath encounter.
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55 - Scales Theme.mp3
“Time and space have their ways of coming back to haunt their meddlers, boy. Intriguing it will be, then, to match you up, a human child with intergalactically potent gifts, against the lowest, the most corrupt of space creatures. The last of my servant’s pets will unleash its wrath upon you, Ness!”
This time coming into view from the thick blackness in front of Ness’s platform, great, powerful wing-beats could be heard before the actual mutated creature came into view. It came airborne, releasing a shrill, ear-splitting screech as it came to a halt in the air only a few feet out from the corner section. Ness flinched, covering his ears to protect them from the high-pitched wail. Then he took a step back in automatic fear and revulsion as his eyes took in the ferocity of the thing he was supposed to defeat.
It was, of course, still another Reeka abomination, the fifth and final one. But this one was less obviously anatomically dissected. The entire outline, body, head, wings, and tail, was that of Ridley, the notorious Space Pirate leader killed several times by Samus, but having an illogical tendency to come back from the dead. It was shaped like a thin, skeletal dragon, the scales being bluish purple. The head was akin to a pterodactyl, only with short, very sharp teeth, and the skin stretched tightly across the bones like a starved zombie. The ribs were unhealthily visible along the torso. The two bat-like wings were spread, revealing orange segments of webbing in between the skeleton of the wing. The arms and legs were exceedingly thin, but pointedly muscular all the same, and the claws were long, knife-edged tools of death, made for raking through flesh and metal alike.
The mutations were less conspicuously noticeable at first, but after a couple seconds of inspecting, became the most frightening aspects of the beast. The scales, rather than being indistinct and tiny, were composed of hundreds of perfectly shaped, slightly elongated hexagons, visible to even the weakest of eyes. Ridley’s tail, while barbed and tipped off with an arrowhead-like point as usual, shone with an unnatural pinkish-white luminescence. The rest of the Space Pirate’s figure flashed from the bluish-purple to a deep, mixed green to a dangerous, heated red, and then repeated the cycle. Finally, the eyes were not the bloodshot yellow they had been known to be formerly, but instead glinted a fierce, absolute, malicious red.
Evidently, Ridley had been combined with some essence of the Aparoids, and now, before Ness, the result presented itself in its full hideousness, enraged by its own lack of control over its current state, and the cruel treatment forced upon it by the mad scientist. But it did not matter to Aparidley who paid for it.
Ness narrowed his child-like eyes and prepared his mind for the forthcoming ordeal.
TO BE CONTINUED...
