Post by bobsnicket on Feb 14, 2009 16:58:44 GMT -5
Chapter 18: Secret of the Room
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{4} Love and Peril
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A white-clad figure alighted next to Mario on one knee and adjusted the circular medical object strapped to his head. He turned his face to look at the discouraged plumber with a smile.
Mario gaped. “Dr. Mario! Thank a-goodness! But…how did a-you survive?”
The doctor winked. “Well, technically, I am a-you, so my will’s a-just as strong as yours. So…” He glanced at the vicious Giga Bowser before them. “Let’s a-go and finish this a-fight together!” Noticing Mario’s weakened condition, the Overseer of the Dimension Conflux tossed a specific bicolored Megavitamin which bopped into the plumber and seeped its energy into his body instantly. Mario shook his head, slightly dazed, but no longer at the point of collapsing.
Mario stood up straight; the two identical Smashers nodded to each other and turned to face their greatest challenge yet.
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266 SSE Battle.mp3
Giga Bowser sent another widespread stream of flames gushing across the platform, flickering forward like a tidal wave. Mario and Dr. Mario simultaneously jumped toward each other, rebounded off one another’s shoulders, and then soared across the surging flames below. Each tossed several of their specialized projectiles at Giga Bowser’s head as they veered off to opposite sides where they were safe from the fire. Megavitamins and Fireballs alike plonked onto the pale green head, the former having the greater effect; the flow of flames was cut off as Giga Bowser bellowed in rage and turned to face the original Mario to his right.
Dr. Mario grabbed the spiked tail firmly with his sanitarily gloved hands, and with a heave, made to force the hulk in a clockwise direction. It would not budge because of its great weight, but it certainly got the titan’s attention, who roared again and spun to face the doctor as fast as his heavy legs would allow. Mario sought to distract their enemy by leaping onto the mane of red fur and delivering basic punches to the head, but Dr. Mario made the mistake of trying to hold his ground and onto the short tail swerving along with the tail as the monster attempted to turn.
Enraged by the multiple nuisances climbing around and tugging on him, Giga Bowser let loose a wild Whirling Fortress, retracting his limbs and head into his giant shell and spinning ferociously, throwing off both Marios. Mario was sent flying across the platform, but Dr. Mario, being closer to the shell, got the worst of it; his body was caught up in the whirling current, and was pulverized multiple times by the spinning spikes, icy purple flames scorching his face and doctor’s outfit.
Coming to a stop, Giga Bowser popped back out of his shell; springing into the air at an angle, crossing most of the small platform with the jump, he executed a colossal Bowser Bomb on top of the still-falling doctor, pounding him into the ground.
Mario rolled and stood up, shocked at what had become of his medically trained self. He balled his fists in contempt, and then, decidedly, waved to Giga Bowser to attract his attention.
“Yoo-hoo!” Mario toss his red cap in the air, jumped and spun in an elaborate dance, caught his hat mid-jump, and landed back down, pulling his cap over his head in a challenging gesture as he knelt.
Taking the bait, Giga Bowser’s voice boomed as he prepared to execute the same move which had flattened Dr. Mario. Acting fast, Mario rushed forward and dived at the Koopa King, yellow cape extended in his hands. Just as the massive opponent began to lift off the ground a second time, the yellow cloth flapped across the very tip of one of the monster’s giant toenails—the result being that the beast’s direction was completely reversed in an instant about face.
Not realizing the trick that had been played on him until halfway through the Bowser Bomb, Giga Bowser let out another earth-shattering, guttural roar as he was forced by his own momentum to cast himself off the edge, and plummet much faster than 9.8 meters per second into the depths of endless darkness.
Mario rushed to the doctor’s crushed form, fearing the worst. At the very least, being smashed by the backside of a giant turtle would leave considerable bruises afterward. Fortunately, as he kneeled by Dr. Mario’s side, he saw his own eyes flutter open and look back at him with a faint grin.
“Get…pill…blue and red…”
Mario nodded, and dug around through the interesting contents of the white coat until he found the requested medicine. Tossing it at the injured hero, the pop of the Megavitamin appeared to miraculously repair and revitalize Dr. Mario’s bones, causing him to leap up with renewed energy. The doctor put a companionable hand on Mario’s shoulder. “Thanks, a-Mario. I suppose that a-makes us even…”
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195 Golden Sun Battle.mp3
A winged blue warrior swooped down and sliced incredibly rapid strokes at the three Dark Links, cutting across the dark substance using the element of surprise. The silhouettes of the legendary hero flinched from the effective strikes and rolled away from Link, staring warily at the unexpected newcomer. Link and his metal rival looked up to behold the masked swordsman Meta Knight, his two penetrating, beady yellow eyes connecting meaningfully with the real Link’s.
Metal Link, seeing the trouble an airborne opponent presented, motioned with its sword for its allies to take care of the newcomer and leave the two of them alone. Turning to Link, it resumed their interrupted swordfight, only now it was one-on-one, an evenly matched duel.
Meta Knight bounced up and down with each beat of his bat-like wings and maneuvered expertly from place to place, dodging the Dark Links’ swords skillfully and landing jabs of his own. With a smooth cut, one of the Dark Links’ heads fell off, and the figure vanished into purple smoke. However, as he did this, another of the black swords clipped Meta Knight’s wing, almost tearing through the webbing. The Star Warrior winced, but endured the pain, and continued sparring with a distorted flight pattern.
Intense blows, right and left, above and below, took every bit of concentration the Hero of Time had. It was fierce and difficult, for since Metal Link’s sword had been broken to about a third its original length, it was like dueling a knife-wielding assassin: one faulty move could be fatal for him. From every angle, were a camera to be rotating epically around the clash, evidence of great skill was seen—perfect dodges, stepping, and counterstrikes from both sides.
One straight jab from the dagger-sized blade pierced Link’s already-reduced shield, bringing him into close contact with the clone. The metal was jammed in the shield, as he realized upon attempting to remove the enemy’s weapon with a tug. In that brief moment of distraction, Metal Link brought back his unoccupied iron fist and smacked it into Link’s cheek with an extremely heavy punch. The green-garbed Hylian staggered back, almost falling over, but by pulling up with his shield arm, propelled himself back upright. Before his killer could react, Link swung the shining Master Sword down onto the metal wrist holding the jammed sword, cleaving straight through the iron flesh; Metal Link was left with one hand. Link smiled in triumph; his enemy was weaponless.
Not even glancing at its severed hand, the relentless clone shook its head, as if dismissing the thought that this fight was by any means over. Its remaining hand flicked out, grabbing the blade of the Master Sword. With an effortless bend of its wrist, the metal minion twisted half the blade upward so that the tip was now pointing at Link’s face; it then released its grip and stepped back, as if waiting for Link to do something.
It dawned upon the Hero of Time what this had come to. Feeling vague remorse for his marred weapons, especially the Master Sword, he hesitated, then dropped the fated sword to the side; letting go of the Hylian Shield (still with Metal Link’s blade and wrist sticking out of it), he flexed his fingers and rolled up his sleeves, hoping his hand-to-hand skills would be sufficient to defeat this metal monster.
Meta Knight chopped off another of the Dark Link’s heads, the headless body dissolving into purple shrouds. The last silhouetted swordsman suddenly charged at him and leaped up, bringing its black sword down from above its head.
Allowing the injured wing to sway his figure to the left, Meta Knight spun past the Dark Link and drove his yellow flame-shaped blade into its back with a majestic grace. He then turned his attention to the Link-Metal Link duel, which had just progressed to the swordless stage.
Link gasped as, despite his best effort at agility, he found Metal Link gripping the front of his tunic and lifting him up with its one remaining hand. He struggled, but the iron grip was just too solid, too immovable—after all, he was basically dealing with a living statue here.
He was liberated spectacularly when a small orange twister forced Metal Link to relinquish its grip as the twister revolved swiftly about the helpless clone, delivering innumerable scratches. Meta Knight spun out of the small tornado lithely, and with a sweep of his Dimensional Cape, seemed to vanish from sight—only to reappear behind Metal Link and strike with a quick, forceful swipe. The clone was pushed across the platform—only to be met by Meta Knight again, who had teleported once more to swipe at his enemy another time. This process continued, Metal Link flying across the small stage with the inscrutable Star Warrior flashing in and out of appearance many times: across, above, or below. At one point, the Franklin Badge clattered onto the ground, unable to take all the abrupt movements or having been dislodged by Meta Knight’s sword, for either reason. Finally, with the masked warrior’s last slash, Metal Link careened off the edge, gravity working against it as it fell.
Acting quickly, Link aimed a bomb downward and chucked it precisely; both he and Meta Knight watched as the small explosion signified the metal creation’s utter (yet unnecessarily overdone) obliteration.
Link turned to eye his companion with respect. “You’re very skilled with a blade, friend.”
“Yes?” Meta Knight’s round yellow eyes seemed to twinkle and then roll. His voice was deep and sagely. “Well, you’re not half bad at stealing kills yourself.”
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77 Zero Two.mp3
Professor E. Gadd and his hovercraft zoomed overhead and came back around beside Kirby a couple feet above the surface. The leader of the Nintendo Alliance grinned toothily at the puffball.
“Greetings, Kirby! It’s good to see that I am not too late. So...what’s the predicament?”
“That.” Kirby motioned with his stubby arms at the impregnable Krackorock mutant before them.
Gadd nodded, rubbing his chin. “I see…you can’t touch it because of the electric field it generated around itself. Hmm…” The scientist thought rapidly, as they had only the time it took before Krackorock recollected itself enough to attack again.
The professor snapped his finger. “Got it! Watch this, and be ready to swallow some really jittery food with that mouth of yours. Ready?” Kirby nodded anxiously. “Well, here goes…”
Gadd started fiddling with the control panel on his hovercraft covered with a complex array of switches, buttons and lights. The floodlight switched itself off and folded itself mechanically into the yellow-black stripes. Gadd entered another sequence of indecipherable commands, and folding out of another spot on the front of the hovering vehicle appeared a tall, thin strip of metal which ran through several closely-spaced metal disks and narrowed about six inches from the top into a ballpoint. Extending up from that point was an even thinner, needle-like point, which was topped off with another smaller ball, this one being glassy and red. It was like a laser from a sci-fi movie.
At that moment, Krackorock found the time ripe for continuing his rampage. A single huge beam of green electricity burst forth from the eye-dotted center of the cloud, intent on decimating Kirby.
However, partway through its journey, the thick beam veered off course, and, with a zap, was absorbed into the red point of Gadd’s device. The special lightning rod (for that was what it was) transferred the electricity into blue waves of energy which coursed back down the rod, over and around the disks, and disappeared into the hovercraft.
The professor nodded to Kirby and pressed several more buttons. As a result of this, the electricity ran back up the lightning rod, and from the red ballpoint, a concentrated jet of the same green electricity shot straight into Kirby’s open mouth.
The Smasher swallowed quickly, and with a dramatic spin, transformed into Thunder Kirby. Electric currents of light green strands flowed atop his head like energized hair. Now, he knew, Krackorock’s barrier would not affect him.
The said monster, infuriated by the lack of pain caused by its beam, started up a constant barrage of rocks toward its oppressors. Big and small, a volley, no, a virtual rainfall of boulders and rocks began to descend upon the heroes.
Thunder Kirby shattered most every projectile coming his way with flashing green sparks and set out puffing and bouncing up the larger boulders on a quest to reach Krackorock. Sometimes he found a gap which allowed him to suck in a rock and spit it out as a bright star in the direction of the seven eyes embedded in the cloudy torso.
“Gadzooks!” the bespectacled scientist cried as a basketball-sized stone crashed against the side of his hovercraft, shaking the entire vehicle and everything in it. He dashed to the controls and caused it to back up away from the Rock Slide and upward to where he would be safely out of range. Seeing Kirby’s hazardous endeavors down below, he fired red lasers from the guns now unconcealed at the underside of the mechanism, which helped dissolve many of the obstacles in Kirby’s way.
The Star Warrior reached the desired position above Krackorock and, once again, transformed and plummeted toward the eye formation. This time, however, he had changed strategically into a spiked ball. Spikes. Eyes.
If it were capable of making sound, Krackorock would have been producing a very loud, agonized one when the spike-studded sphere struck the eye formation, unaffected by the electric barrier and piercing most of the eyes. The bombardment of rocks ceased as Krackorock shook itself furiously side to side, attempting to disconnect the thing impaling its vision. Kirby stuck to it like a leech, determined to drive his enemy to its final desperate measure. Which he did.
A debris-filled Self-Destruct blasted apart the Reeka experiment, catapulting the spiky sphere in a steep arch which came to Gadd’s attention. Amidst the destruction, the professor pressed the buttons to make a spring-hinged claw shoot out of the hull, catch the object out of the billowing air, and place it gently into the craft beside him.
Kirby shook himself out of both combative forms, Spike and Thunder, and looked up with a dazed smile at his kind leader.
Gadd smiled back wearily. “That…was…”
“FUN!” the puffball blurted out.
www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/150960
The swarming Mini-Ridleys all darted at the solitary psychic boy at once. Ness closed his eyes, expecting a quick and painful death.
The spawn of Aparidley suddenly froze in midair, rotating slowly, completely immobilized. Next to Ness flashed into being his powerful personal mentor: Mewtwo. The artificial Pokemon’s eyes glowed with a fierce violet glint as he maintained thorough control over the vile, rasping creatures. Ness looked at him in awe. The white head, tinged the faintest shade of purple, nodded ever so slightly, and then the psychokinetic kid knew exactly what to do.
Leaping from creature to creature, Ness smacked the lives out of each and every one of the Mini-Ridleys by means of his baseball bat, yo-yo, and PK Fire. The last batch of five he saved so as to disintegrate with a massive green PK Flash, executed with shuddering effort. He finished his task and sought eye contact with the now-relaxed Mewtwo, who returned the connection with an approving light that seemed to say, Well done, young one. I am impressed… Ness beamed, but they had no more time to congratulate one another, for with great, heaving wing beats, Aparidley had reentered the playing field, more hot-tempered than ever, displeased to find not only the human still intact, all its foul creations extinguished, but another being beside him as well.
The two masters of the mind confronted the final Reeka experiment with a confidence bolstered by the strong connection between their minds, invigorating their senses and their drive to succeed.
Aparidley bared its teeth, and without warning, assaulted both Smashers from a completely different, unexpected angle. A high, buzzing screech filled their minds and their ears, even though the mutant was not emitting any actual sound from its mouth.
“Aaahh!” Ness yelled and fell to his knees, holding his head. The droning was overwhelming his mind, destroying his sane mentality. It was like a concentrated swarm of bees buzzing through an extremely loud microphone placed directly in his ear—only worse. He couldn’t concentrate; he didn’t know how. Beside him, Mewtwo was evidently suffering similar mental attacks, the Pokemon’s eyes tightened strenuously, vibrating like he was, if a bit less.
Through the deafening, commanding drone, Mewtwo managed to convey one brief, harsh message. Something that he had taught Ness before in Fourside City—what to do when your mind was under attack…
DISTRACT…YOURSELF!
Before Ness could attempt anything, Aparidley seized upon their moment of weakness to lunge forward and, with a real screech, snatch the cat Pokemon with its sharp claws. Both heroes had been caught off-guard. The mutant spun as it came back around, ascending into the air with Mewtwo in its grasp.
Mewtwo…NO!... Ness struggled ever more desperately against the maddening drone, desperate to aid his mentor. Trying to follow Mewtwo’s instruction, he attempted to focus his mind on other things: victory against Metal Samus in the fortress, his first escape from Master Hand’s room, the defeat of the evil alien Giygas…
The buzzing lessened ever so slightly, but then grew louder again. Those memories weren’t working. Through his unfocused eyes, he glimpsed Aparidley smashing Mewtwo onto the platform mercilessly…
He shook his head. He needed to find stronger memories. Mewtwo had few positive memories to recall if any; his life had been so miserable and isolated, it was no wonder he had a hard time now. So it was up to him. He strained his mind, delving deeper into his stash of recollections: his friends Paula, Jeff, and Poo… The droning lessened a lot more this time, allowing him to think a bit more clearly. The good times they had all shared…his home on Onett…his fellow Smashers, who had recently become his close friends as well… The noise had dropped to about half its original loudness. It was working! The time he’d thought Bomberman was imitating a constipated butterfly…the lessons Mewtwo had taught him about the power of emotions, especially love... Fainter and fainter, the parasitic Aparoid assault was nearly gone. His love for everyone he knew: his family, friends, and everyone in the Alliance…his love for the peace in the Nintendo Universe—its marvelous beauty, its wondrous phenomena, its freedom from corrupt rule… Then it was over.
Ness stood up straight, completely revitalized. He gasped as he beheld Aparidley crushing Mewtwo beneath its claws against the ground, preparing for a final plasma breath to finish him off. The PSI-trained boy knew there was no time left; no physical or magical attack on his part could stop the abominable thing in time. So, in a spurt of wild improvisation, Ness did the only thing he could think of: reverse the process.
Focusing his mental strength on the head of Aparidley, he pushed with all his might, concentrating every ounce of power he had on sending the horrible droning back at its host. Ness had only barely survived the mental assault. This monster looked remarkably like a pterodactyl, and from what he knew about dinosaurs, he recalled that they were supposed to have very small brains.
Nothing was happening. Mewtwo was going to die. Ness groaned and redoubled his efforts, if that was possible, willing with every fiber of his being for his impromptu retaliation to work. His fiery hope began to dwindle.
A sickening explosion splattered mutated purple flesh as well as bits of bone throughout the vicinity. Ness’s face and clothes caught a fair amount of it. A huge thud resounded as Aparidley’s body tipped over backward, the head completely gone. The neck bone stuck out of the headless corpse, odorous steam rising from it. Ness wrinkled his nose, nearly gagging from the putrid stench. The same inhuman screech from when the Black Rose was destroyed sounded again now. Ness then realized what Ridley and the Aparoids had in common, what perhaps had attracted Ulysses Reeka to the idea of biologically combining these two particular specimens.
Both seemed to require being vanquished several times before truly dying.
But fortunately, the last of the mad scientist’s abusive experiments had been brought to an end.
Remembering his maimed mentor, the boy rushed forward, filled with panic and worry as he came upon Mewtwo’s injured figure. Several bones appeared to be broken including his right shoulder, a few ribs, and left leg. A deep gash on his head and another one on his chest looked very severe, not bleeding, although that was most likely because he didn’t have blood. Not in the natural sense, anyway.
“Mewtwo!” Ness cried, leaning over his psychological trainer and touching the Pokemon’s chest tenderly with his fingertips.
Mewtwo breathed forcefully, but had the strength to push himself off the ground and put a paw on the boy’s shoulder. His voice was weaker, but still steady. I’ll survive…
Both master and apprentice looked toward the center of the darkness, where their ultimate enemy waited.
…for now.
TO BE CONTINUED...
