Look, at first, I wasn't planning on continuing this because of the plagiarism incident (if you're going to try and to look for them, don't bother, the account is deleted), but I ultimately decided that it wouldn't be fair to the people who want to see this be continued just because that one person ruined it all for them.

It's gonna be awhile before I can get back into form though, just be warned.

Anyways, here's chapter 40 (I'd normally be a lot happier about a milestone like this, but that plagiarism incident made me lose a lot of enthusiasm about writing for a while).

Mandatory plug incoming... join Super Smash Prose, a Smash fanfic Discord server where writers, artists, and readers can share their work and get all sorts of help! (code is gDK48ua)

Mario and Bowser led the others into Princess Shroob's throne room, where they saw the alien monarch sitting on her throne with a goblet of what the two Star Children assumed to be Vim in one of her hands. Staring at the two, she hissed, "So, the Children of the Cosmos have returned to my castle..."

Snarling, Bowser cracked his knuckles and replied, "We're here to finish the job properly," snorting steam out of his nostrils as he did so, while next to him, Mario silently took out his hammer and let a ball of fire crackle to life in his other hand.

"We echo the same sentiments, once we kill you, we will properly raze your pathetic kingdom to the ground and rule on a throne of your skulls!" At that, Princess Shroob's throne morphed into a spider mech that, once she flicked a lever on one of the armrests, surrounded the throne in a blue force field.

Lucario quietly snarled before lunging at the force field and attempting to drive the spikes on his paws into the barrier, which, while it didn't reach Princess Shroob, visibly caused the shield to flicker and turn green. Princess Shroob grimaced from within her shield and pulled out a customized Shroob Blaster, which she set to the 'ray' function and shot at Lucario, who opted to take the hit in order to power up his Aura. Once the laser made contact, Lucario felt a surge of energy course through him, but before he could capitalize, he was shaken off the spider mech and narrowly avoided a descending leg that came close to crushing his head. Standing back up, Lucario began charging up an Aura Sphere while Jigglypuff floated above him, dodging laser bolts and retaliating with Tri Attack occasionally.

Marth weaved around underneath the mecha, slicing at its legs in order to damage the robot's necessary mechanisms, while Arvus launched himself into the air with Kaswoosh to hit the barrier head-on with Zapple, causing it to change from green to yellow. Once he landed, Arvus, much to his shock, saw that the mecha had jumped up and was casting its shadow over Lucas. Before he could say anything, however, a flash of blue raced by him and scooped Lucas away just as the throne mecha made impact, creating a small crater upon impact.

The blue blur slowed down, revealing itself to be Lucario, who said, "I've got the kid, don't worry," before zipping up and away with Extreme Speed. Facing Princess Shroob, Lucario's hands began to glow with a silvery sheen as he used Double Team to give himself a short burst of momentum forward, and he unleashed Bullet Punch on the shield covering Princess Shroob's throne, changing it from yellow to red. Just as he was about to perform a pivoting single-leg kick on the barrier, however, Princess Shroob caused her mecha to lurch forward, slamming into the Aura Pokémon and causing him to lose focus.

It was at that point where the alien monarch decided to withdraw the spider legs from her throne and float up and away from the intruders, floating away just as the tip of a geyser of energy licked at the bottom of her shield. Down below, Terry cursed underneath his breath for not firing off Power Geyser earlier.

Mario and Bowser both noticed that Princess Shroob's throne was steadily getting further and further away, and Mario turned to Bowser before asking, "Is-a it tossing time?"

Bowser grumbled and reluctantly nodded, allowing Mario to grab his tail. With relatively little effort, Mario heaved him up and spun him around three times before launching him towards Princess Shroob, who was caught off guard by the sight of the Koopa King seemingly flying through the air in an attempt to get her.

Bowser then performed a Ground Pound on the shield, shattering it once he made contact, and then grabbed Princess Shroob from off her throne. Bowser ignored what he assumed to be curses coming from the alien as he spun around in the air before throwing her as hard as he could into the ground, doing another Ground Pound as he himself began to plummet in order to maximize the damage that he did.

Mario watched as Princess Shroob made impacted with the ground, wincing as he saw her make impact. Before he could raise his hammer, Bowser came crashing down on her bottom first, and Mario was struggling to not laugh from just how sudden that particular attack had been. Standing from the small crater he had made, Bowser saw Mario with a hand over his mouth, trying—and failing—to hide what was clearly laughter, and he asked, "Hey, what's so funny, Mario?"

Through a couple of small snickers, Mario said, "I'm sorry, the way you-a just landed on her was too funny," before quickly recollecting himself and asking his rival, "Is-a she dead?"

Looking back, Bowser saw that Princess Shroob was beginning to pull herself back up, and quickly tried to torch her with a burst of flames. However, she teleported out of harm's way before firing a bolt of energy from her hands at the Koopa King in retaliation.

Mario said, "I'm-a gonna take that as a no," before swinging his hammer at the energy bolt with a tremendous amount of force. The blast was bounced back to Princess Shroob, who deflected it with a simple flick of her hand before teleporting behind Mario and pointing her Shroob Blaster at the back of his head. Before she could fire, however, Jigglypuff barreled right into her with Rollout, causing her to be driven into a nearby wall, compounded with Arvus launching a Kafrizz in an attempt to burn her up.

Princess Shroob teleported away and launched a spread of energy orbs towards the group, but Lucas leaped forward and used his PSI Magnet to draw them all in, effectively rendering the attempted attack useless. Snarling, Princess Shroob teleported above the Smashers and swept her hand in a downward arc, launching what appeared to be a corrupted Starman at the group, and the Shroobified Starman slowly began to rotate around them as the purple glow around it grew brighter. Once it had become nothing more than a humongous purple globe of light, it began to home in on the nearest person, that being Terry.

"TRIPLE GEYSER!" Terry punched the ground, and three large pillars of energy erupted out of it to intercept the orb, but the orb managed to punch through the geysers and continued heading towards the Southtown native. Before it made impact, however, Mario jumped in front of Terry and smashed the orb right back, and Princess Shroob batted it right back with a backhand, setting up what looked to be a long and arduous game of tennis.

However, Marth had managed to sneak behind Princess Shroob undetected, as she was too focused on trying to repel the globe of energy, and he reared back before thrusting the Falchion forwards, managing to stab through her with the tip of the blade. Pulling the Falchion out of her chest, Marth looked at his blade, seeing the reflection of his disfigured face, and he pondered to himself, "If what Mario said about those things being weak to baby tears is true, then I can't wait until I find Kirby again so he can fix up Jigglypuff and I."

Mario saw Marth pull his sword out from Princess Shroob, and he capitalized on the distraction by smashing the globe back at her with all the strength he could muster, causing a tremendous explosion that he and the others shielded their eyes from. When the explosion died down, Princess Shroob was lying on the ground belly first, some parts of her face having been blasted off to reveal her skull. The two Star Children could only stare at her with bated breath, while everyone else stared with a mix of horror and surprise. Mario was watching her every move vigilantly, while Bowser was anticipating some sort of last-ditch attack from her.

Turning her head up to stare at Mario and Bowser, Princess Shroob hissed, "Now it's your turn... sister... DESTROY THEM!" before collapsing to the ground and exploding in a starburst of pink energy.

Mario whispered to Bowser, "Guard up, now," and the Koopa King did so as Mario turned to the others and said, "Don't let your guard down."

"But why-"

"Don't ask!" Marth was surprised at Mario's sudden outburst, but obeyed as Mario began looking around for something.

His curiosity refusing to die down, the Hero-King looked at Bowser and asked, "What's going on?"

Bowser said nothing as he waited for Mario to make a move, but before the latter could do so, the ground trembled from a loud stomp. Mario began looking around frantically for the source of origin, but Lucario sensed something moving in the far back of the throne room, and telepathically communicated to Mario, "Look at that archway," gesturing to a pair of blood-red eyes just lurking in the shadows.

"I LAUGH AT YOU... FOOLISH CREATURES." The figure stepped out from the dark part of the room, revealing themselves to be a stocky, big-headed Shroob with a crown on their head. Mario grit his teeth as the grip on his hammer tightened, and Bowser's mouth slowly began to build up heat as he cricked his neck and cracked his knuckles once again. From there, Elder Princess Shroob continued, "YOU THOUGHT THAT YOU HAD EXTERMINATED THE SHROOBS FOR GOOD... BUT I PROMISED THAT WE WOULD ONE DAY DANCE ON THE ASHES OF YOUR PATHETIC LITTLE KINGDOM... IT IS TIME FOR ME TO FINISH WHAT MY DEAR, SWEET SISTER STARTED."

"No, Mario, Bowser, seriously, just what is going on?"

"SO THE EXPERIMENT CAN TALK. HOW AMUSING." After another pause, Elder Princess Shroob looked at Mario and Bowser, saying, "THE RED MUSHROOM HEAD AND THE IDIOTIC KOOPA WANT TO STOP ME ONCE MORE." Taking a look at the other four creatures of varying species behind them as well as the two Shroob-hybrid experiments, after noticing that none of them were the man—or baby—in green, the princess laughed and asked, "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR USELESS BROTHER, MARIO? IS HE SOMEWHERE CRYING IN A DITCH-"

Mario had finally reached his breaking point, and he ran up to her, smashing his hammer into her face as hard as he possibly could. However, the attack seemed to do almost nothing to the senior Princess Shroob, and she laughed before pulling a lever that was next to her late sister's throne. The roof to the Princess Shroob statue opened up, revealing a sky of purple clouds that occasionally flashed with black lightning as the floor began to rise up and out of the castle's general vicinity. Once the platform stopped rising, Elder Princess Shroob proclaimed, "I WILL DESTROY ALL OF YOU!" before charging at Bowser shoulder-first in an attempt to knock him off the platform and send him to his doom. However, Bowser braced himself once the evil monarch made contact with him, and he dug his heels into the platform, shredding metal as he approached dangerously close to the the edge of the platform.

Letting out a ferocious roar, Bowser opened his mouth and let loose with a roaring gout of white-hot flame, leaving severe burns on Elder Princess Shroob's face and forcing her to retreat. Bowser chuckled before leaping back to the center of the platform, where he saw that Elder Princess Shroob had summoned a pair of Shroob UFOs to assist her.

Elder Princess Shroob raised her hand, and the two UFOs rose higher before unveiling their blasters and opening fire on the platform, forcing the Smashers to perform some deft dodges in order to avoid the laser storm. Lucario used Extreme Speed to fly above the UFOs, and as they focused their turrets onto him, he then used Double Team, spawning two copies of himself to take the lasers as he lunged underneath the UFOs and ripped off their blasters. Using Double Team once again, Lucario warped onto the top of one of the UFOs and impaled one of the Shroobs on his paw spike before ripping it out of the UFO's body, which crashed onto Elder Princess Shroob on the platform below. Looking at the alien's corpse, Lucario blasted it off with an offhand Force Palm before focusing on the second UFO, stabbing his paw spike into the slit where the Shroob's eyes were and blasting it with Aura, blowing the top of the Shroob pilot's head clean off, and he grabbed the UFO before tossing it down at Princess Shroob like it was a discus before rushing down with Extreme Speed to get a good strike in on her head. However, in doing so, Lucario's paw made contact with Elder Princess Shroob's crown, which shot a jolt of electricity from its gem at the attacker.

The senior Shroob princess turned around and laughed at Lucario's failed attempt in attacking her, taunting, "MY CROWN CANNOT BE OPERATED BY ANYONE BUT MYSELF... A PITIFUL EFFORT!" before firing a pink energy bolt from her left hand at Lucario. Before the attack could make contact with the Aura Pokémon, however, Jigglypuff quickly used Ally Switch to make Lucario and Lucas switch positions, and once the deed had been done, Lucas activated his PSI Magnet to absorb the blast. Elder Princess Shroob snarled out of rage before summoning three Shroob UFOs.

The trio of saucers emerged from behind Elder Princess Shroob, the three of them struggling to hold up a large Shroob Meteor. Waving an arm forward, Elder Princess Shroob signaled for the UFOs to release the meteor, which they did, sending the meteor hurtling towards the Smashers. However, Mario pulled out his hammer and smacked the meteor upwards while at the same time, Terry leapt upward and performed a Power Dunk on the rock, sending it back towards Elder Princess Shroob.

Undeterred, Elder Princess Shroob smacked it back at them with a mere backhand, and the meteor began flying towards Mario at a faster speed and a more horizontal trajectory, giving him no time to react. Before it could make contact, however, Bowser shoved Mario out of the way and shattered the meteor with a single punch, before unleashing a salvo of fireballs at the Shroob UFOs up above, shooting them out of the sky.

Letting out an almost bestial roar, the elder Princess Shroob screamed, "YOUR KINGDOM WILL NEVER LAST AS LONG AS WE STILL EXIST! THE SHROOBS WILL DANCE ON THE DESECRATED RUINS OF YOUR CASTLES AS WE DRIVE YOUR WORLD TO EXTINCTION!"

Chuckling, Bowser snarled, "Nice try, but that kinda talk doesn't work on ME! You're saying you'll drive the Mushroom World to extinction? NOT ON MY WATCH! I'LL MAKE SURE YOU STAY DEAD THIS TIME WHEN I KILL YOU!" before unleashing a roaring torrent of flame at Elder Princess Shroob. Once he was done, Bowser fired another burst of fireballs, except that time, they were blue and began homing in on Elder Princess Shroob, who summoned another trio of Shroob UFOs to take the hits for her. Bowser then followed up with an utterly relentless barrage of poison-tipped claw slashes and electricity-infused punches on the Shroob leader after seeing Elder Princess Shroob summon her entire armada of Shroob UFOs. After one particularly hard scratch made its mark, Bowser turned to the others and yelled, "Take care of those!" before being shoulder tackled by Elder Princess Shroob.

Mario began by taking out a Red Star, and once it activated, he took flight, giving the Shroobs UFOs a target to focus on as Jigglypuff, Lucario, and Lucas also took to the skies, the latter using PK Thunder 2 to launch himself up on top of a Shroob UFO. The Shroob UFOs that were not focused on Mario began to concentrate their aim on Lucas in response, but he pulled out the Franklin Badge he had worn in his final showdown against the Masked Man and put it on while pointing his hand to his back so that he could cover the laser fire that would be aimed at his back, all while sporting a determined expression on his face. Pointing his free hand at a Shroob UFO that was in front of him, Lucas shot a burst of PK Love towards his front, and the Shroob UFO exploded.

At the same time, Jigglypuff let loose with Thunder, the lightning bolt jumping from saucer to saucer until she let up with the assault, while at the same time, Lucario zipped up to her level with Extreme Speed and yelled out, "AURA BOMB!" before hurling a gigantic Aura Sphere in front of himself. The humongous globe of Aura obliterated the few Shroob UFOs that came into contact with it, and after that, Lucario mused to himself, "Not my smartest use of an Aura stockpile," before going on a more physical offensive, one that consisted of using Blaze Kick on one Shroob UFO to send it careening into another, freezing one solid with Ice Punch before using Extreme Speed once again to blitz right through it, shattering it in one go. Whirling around, Lucario shot a Flash Cannon burst at one UFO before headbutting another one that had tried to ram into him with Iron Head.

Arvus looked up to see Mario attracting the Shroobs' line of fire, and he turned to Terry and Marth as he ran to the edge of the platform, calling out, "You two go help Bowser! I got an idea!" as he jumped off the platform, Terry and Marth gawking in shock at his seemingly suicidal move before the two of them ran to where Bowser was, the Koopa King once again forced into a brawler lock by Elder Princess Shroob.

The wind whipped around Arvus' face as he fell towards the ground, and once he was sure that the aliens could no longer see him, he used Zoom, launching himself so high up that he passed through a large purple cloud just after seeing Mario spin through a couple of UFOs. After being sent into a small coughing fit due to the toxicity of the clouds, Arvus began his descent, and upon breaking through the clouds once more, he saw that he was right in the center of the Shroob UFOs. Looking over at Mario, Arvus called out, "Hey, Mario!"

Mario stopped mid-flight and pulled out a Super Star to give himself a reprieve from the constant fire he had exhausted himself from dodging before looking up, where he saw that Arvus was levitating with the help of a pair of tornadoes—Swoosh, as Arvus had called the ability—and he asked, "What-a is it?"

"I'm going to need you to catch me after I do my part!"

"Wait, wha-"

Arvus dispelled his Swoosh and landed on top of a UFO, and a purple glow began to surround his body as he yelled, "Here it comes! MAGIC BURST!"

A rapidly-expanding purple globe of pure mana exploded from Arvus, and every single Shroob UFO that had been firing at Mario was caught up in the explosion, near single-handedly obliterating the entire fleet of Shroobs. Once he was done, however, Arvus began to fall towards the platform, and Mario quickly pulled out a Cape Feather, swooping down and catching him just before he made impact. A series of explosions made the two of them look up, where they saw Lucario holding on to a fully puffed up Jigglypuff while holding Lucas in his other arm. Once the three of them were low enough, Lucario jumped down and let go of Lucas.

Terry caught a Shroob Chomp that Elder Princess Shroob had sicced on him, Bowser, and Marth by grabbing its chain, and, with a loud grunt, he swung it over his head and flung it at Elder Princess Shroob, who caught it and hurled it right back at Terry. Before Terry could react, however, Bowser slid in front of him on all fours and performed a spinning shell-first leap, launching the Shroob Chomp away from the platform altogether, while in front of them, Marth had fenced his way through Elder Princess Shroob's wild, unfocused strikes, before very narrowly—and deliberately, given how he had seen Lucario's failed attempt to strike her in the head—missing her crown with his final thrust and managing to stab her in the head, quickly retreating before she could do anything to him.

Elder Princess Shroob roared in pain before activating the jewel on her crown, which began to glow and emit a gas, surrounding her in a green-and-black fog of what appeared to be some sort of toxin or stimulant, and everyone shielded their faces as the glow from her crown grew brighter to the point that it was blinding.

After a little bit, the light died down, and everyone let their guards down just as the last of the fog subsided, giving themselves a good look at the monstrosity that stood before them.

Elder Princess Shroob had revealed her true form with the activation of her crown, but the toxin that had resided within had given her body additional, drastic alterations. Her skin had transformed into a sickly shade of acid green, her dress had changed from magenta to black, and just above her crown was a crack in her head, which split open like some sort of mouth to reveal a small inner mouth surrounded by wriggling purple and green tentacles. Elder Princess Shroob then let out a horrific roar that forced Mario and Bowser, the two closest to her, to cover their ears to blot out the sound. Once she stopped roaring, Elder Princess Shroob revealed six arm tentacles from the places where her sleeves used to be, three on each side, and stabbed two of them at a terrified Lucas, who, despite his obvious fear, blasted both of them with a burst of PK Love, causing them to retract.

Lucario was similarly shocked, but he kept his composure and grabbed onto a tentacle that had sprung from the maw on top in an attempt to skewer him and ripped it off, tossing it to the ground below them in disgust.

Mario, being the only one of the eight Smashers present to have fought the elder Princess Shroob in the past (in a literal sense), pulled out an Ice Flower and hurled two powerful blasts of ice at her legs before grabbing his hammer. The weapon's head gradually became frosted over as it was slowly imbibed with the power of ice, and after letting out a chilly puff of smoke from his mouth, Mario swung his frozen hammer as hard as he could at the two spots of ice he had created on the Shroob leader's legs, shattering both of them in a single swing and dealing a heavy blow to her legs, causing her to roar in pain. Turning back to Bowser, Mario asked, "You-a think you can reach that-a crown from down here?"

Rolling his eyes, Bowser replied, "Of course I can! What's with the question, Mario?"

The crown emitted another harsh glare, and Mario answered, "Because destroying that-a crown was the only way Luigi and-a I were able to defeat this creature," smacking aside a tentacle that was creeping towards him.

Bowser sprung off the ground in one effortless bound and landed a hard slash on the crown's jewel, only to get snared up by the tentacles from the maw on top of the Shroob monstrosity's head, while the maw opened up even further, revealing the inner mouth; a small, rounded piece of flesh that had a set of razor-sharp teeth, and perhaps most disturbingly, it seemed to be able to think on its own, given how it began searching around for any prospective targets to eat, a slimy green drool dripping from its fangs. Eventually, it found Bowser, and the maw began sliding its way towards the Koopa King, who was clearly startled by the alien-looking 'creature.' Regardless, Bowser snarled and shot a burst of fire straight at it, which caused both it and the alien abomination that was Elder Princess Shroob to screech in pain, and the tentacles released Bowser, who gave one final parting shot of fire towards Elder Princess Shroob's crown, shattering the jewel just as he landed on the ground in a three-point stance, while next to him, Marth parried away a trio of arm tentacles as Terry delivered another hard blow to Elder Princess Shroob's legs in the form of a Crack Shoot followed by a Burning Knuckle, which proved to be the tipping point.

Elder Princess Shroob let out another roar as her legs flashed between a sickly green and an ashy black before exploding in a burst of black energy. Generating a humongous ball of energy in her mouth, Elder Princess Shroob launched it at Mario, who smacked it back at her. Elder Princess Shroob then batted the energy ball at Bowser, who snarled and punched it right back at her face, causing a massive explosion that disoriented the Shroob monarch. Bowser looked at the other six Smashers before roaring, "ATTACK!"

Lucario grabbed a pair of arm tentacles that were making their way towards Lucas and ripped them off, causing them to spurt purple blood everywhere. Snarling, Lucario rushed upwards with Double Team before using Bullet Punch on Elder Princess Shroob's chin and following up by hurling an Aura Bomb into the alien monarch's upper maw, blowing apart part of Elder Princess Shroob's head once it went off inside. Down on the ground, Arvus put away his sword before taking out no less than three vials of magic water and downing them in rapid succession to restore his mana due to him having exhausted nearly all of it with the Magic Burst from earlier. Rolling out of the way of a tentacle that had tried to crush him, Arvus used Kacrackle, sending a wave of icicles into the Shroob princess' body and resulting in yet another ear-splitting roar of pain.

While the Shroob monstrosity appeared to be incapacitated, Mario looked at Bowser, who nodded and shot a humongous ball of blue fire up into the sky. Everyone looked up and got clear from what looked to be the impact zone, which was where the immobile Elder Princess Shroob was standing. Mario jumped up, his hands blazing with white-hot flame, and with a yell, he spiked the blue fireball down onto Elder Princess Shroob, causing a massive explosion that, once it cleared up, left a deep indent in the platform that was surrounded by scorch marks as well as the charred body of Elder Princess Shroob's true form, which glowed with a purple light before transforming back into her regular form, albeit with a deep crack in her head, in addition to the severe burn wounds her true form had sustained from Bowser and Mario's tandem attack. Staring at the two Star Children, she snarled, "FOOLISH CREATURES... THOUGH YOU MAY HAVE BESTED ME, WE SHROOBS WILL LIVE ON... WE WILL RULE OVER THE RUINS OF YOUR PATHETIC LITTLE KINGDOM..." before exploding in a wave of black energy, leaving behind a little mushroom as the only trace of her.

Folding his arms, Mario looked at Bowser and said, "Burn it. I'm not going to deal with someone accidentally eating that thing and getting possessed like you did." Bowser did so, and the mushroom let out a ghastly wail as it burned to ash. Once the deed was done, Mario kicked at the ash, sending it off the platform, letting out a sigh of relief at the fact that she was gone for good. Next to him, Bowser did an uppercut and roared in triumph.

Before anyone could get too comfortable, however, Marth saw a large shape out in the distance that had a familiar visage on its front, and he muttered, "Is that...?" The shape parted a cluster of clouds, revealing that it was indeed the Halberd, Meta Knight's imposing battleship that had played a significant role in the Subspace debacle back during the aftermath of the third tournament. Marth frantically tugged at Lucario's shoulder to get his attention, and the Aura Pokémon turned around before letting out a quiet exclamation of shock.

Within the Halberd, its pilot, Meta Knight, noticed an airborne platform that seemed to originate from Shroob Castle, given how the humongous effigy of Princess Shroob on the castle's roof was split open. Pulling up a scope on his control panel, Meta Knight began spying on the platform floating above the castle to get a closer look at the people and creatures that could possibly be on it. Upon getting a closer look, the masked swordsman saw that all but two of them were among the many targets that Dharkon had commanded him to be on the lookout for, with the two that were not included in the briefing seeming to solidly be on their side. Narrowing his eyes as he retracted the scope, Meta Knight pushed another button on the console, activating the ship's laser. The laser began charging as smaller targeting lasers swiveled around before zeroing in on the platform. Once the laser had finished charging, Meta Knight coolly watched as the laser fired at the platform, scoring a direct hit.

Meanwhile, the Smashers were resting on the platform until something struck it, causing an explosion that rocked it and knocked everyone off their feet, Bowser in particular sliding to the edge and nearly falling off, with a timely save from Mario being the only thing that prevented him from falling to his doom, albeit only barely. The platform then righted itself, and Mario was quickly beginning to struggle in helping Bowser back up. Mario began to open his mouth to call for the others to help him, but Bowser shook his head, looking down at the ground and back up at Mario before winking to let him know what he had planned. It took Mario a second, but he understood what Bowser had in mind, and he let go of Bowser's hand, watching as he fell to the ground.

The wind rippled in Bowser's face as he fell, and with full knowledge of what was to come, he didn't even bother bracing for impact as he smashed into the ground, his vision going black the moment he did so.

Up above on the platform, everyone else was slowly beginning to get back up, and Marth quickly began to take a headcount to make sure that no one had fallen off the platform. Once he was done, the Altean prince looked at Mario, who was staring over the edge at something. Marth, remembering that Bowser was not present in the headcount he had taken, frantically asked Mario, "What are we going to do now?"

Mario casually replied, "I-a wouldn't be so worried if-a I were you."

"What?!"

"It's-a Bowser, he's survived far worse, this-a fall is basically nothing to him."

Marth was about to protest, but he saw something rising up to their level from the ground and quickly fell silent. Mario looked to where Marth was staring and nonchalantly said, "Yup, that's-a Bowser," and everyone else also looked to the rising shape with reactions similar to that of Marth.

The worryingly large amount of times Kamek had infused Bowser with magic throughout his life, in addition to the four times Mario and Luigi had to resuscitate him during the Blorbs pandemic, had left some sort of side effect on the Koopa King where his body would grow to an enormous size whenever it was threatened with a traumatic, potentially fatal situation, which was exactly what it was doing at the moment.

Bowser continued to grow and grow until the Halberd was at roughly where the upper half of his chest was, and he roared, the sound echoing all across the Dark Realm. Looking down, Bowser kicked Shroob Castle, his gigantic foot completely pulverizing the castle and leaving nothing but ruins. To make sure that the Shroobs would stay gone, Bowser turned around and breathed a constant stream of fire from his mouth at the pile of rubble that was once Shroob Castle, torching any survivors in a hellacious rain of fire. Once he was done, Bowser turned towards the Halberd, which had rose up to the level of his chin, and he boomed, "It's gonna take a LOT more than that to take down the king of awesome, buddy!" before winding up and punching the Halberd, causing an engine to explode, swiftly putting the battleship in a disadvantageous situation.

The Halberd let loose with a maelstrom of lasers, all of which only irritated Bowser, who, after letting his guard down, breathed a stream of fire that washed over the whole ship, torching the top deck and making its insides uncomfortably hot. Taking advantage of the situation, Bowser grabbed the Halberd in his hand and snapped it in two just by tightening his fist. Watching dismissively as the front half of the ship dropped to the ground near a realm that resembled the Triforce, Bowser threw the back half onto the ground and stomped on it, ignoring what was likely explosions going off underneath his foot as he walked over to the front half of the ship to finish the job. Before he could do so, however, he began to rapidly shrink down to his normal size, and when said process was done, he found himself standing in front of the half of the Halberd that he hadn't destroyed.

Up in the sky, Mario looked down at the ship's remains and thought, "Wait... that's the Halberd..." The realization hit him with the force of a ballistic Banzai Bill, and Mario turned back to the others and said, "We-a need to get off-a this platform. Get down to what-a remains of that ship in-a whatever way you can." With those words, Mario pulled out a pair of wings and tossed Cappy up into them, giving the Baby Luma that had resided beneath his hat some time to catch his breath. Cappy fluttered down onto Mario's head, and the Bonnetor blinked to shake off some of his dizziness from being tossed up like that. With a series of three jumps and a flip, Mario had taken flight, and was quickly beginning to make his way to Bowser.

Jigglypuff simply walked off the platform and followed Mario's lead, slowly floating down, and Lucario zipped off the platform with Extreme Speed, before turning back to face it and using a combination of Flash Cannon and Dragon Pulse to propel himself even further with the recoil the two moves were giving him.

On the platform, Arvus was thinking of something to do without having to use Zoom, given how if used incorrectly, the spell would end up warping him and the others to somewhere undesirable, and he absently summoned a Woosh in his hands while mulling over his dilemma. Seeing the spell gave him an idea, and he tested out his theory by summoning two Woosh spells, one underneath his feet and another slightly above his head. The spell underneath his feet catapulted him upwards into the other Woosh, and that one vaulted him up even higher. Upon landing, Arvus looked around and saw that much to his surprise, the two tornadoes were still active, and that detail was all he needed to set his plan into motion. Looking at Marth, Arvus said, "I have an idea..." Watching as Marth raised his hand and opened his mouth, Arvus hastily added, "No, it does not involve us taking a wild risk like we did down in the castle," and the hero king lowered his hand, waiting for Arvus to continue. Back on his train of thought, Arvus said, "What if I used Woosh," generating a small tornado in his palms and throwing it on the ground before jumping off to demonstrate before continuing, "And we jump over to that ship that Mario was talking about by using these tornadoes as platforms of some sort?"

"You know what... that's not such a bad idea, Arvus," Marth said, smiling at him in approval. Looking back at the others, Marth said, "Let's go!" as Arvus jumped off the platform and propelled himself up with Woosh, before creating another that was slightly below the previous tornado and repeating the process as he went towards the ship. Marth looked at Terry and Lucas before motioning for them to follow him as he jumped off the edge of the platform... and sprung back up into their line of sight thanks to Arvus' spell. Marth then began following Arvus' trail, and Terry and Lucas were quick to follow, the Southtown native letting out a whoop of joy as he jumped from tornado to tornado, while Lucas, despite initially being uncomfortable with the idea of jumping in tornadoes, soon came to enjoy it, using his PSI to give himself an extra boost when coupled with the height the spell was giving him.

Down on the ground, Bowser punched through another sheet of metal he had found in the ship's wreckage to kill some time and practice his punches, as he had no idea what to do at the moment, until he heard someone land behind him. Turning around, he saw that it was Mario, the plumber plucking the wings off his hat and storing them somewhere. Mario then asked him, "Hey Bowser, can-a you help me with getting into this-a ship? I think that-a Meta Knight is buried somewhere inside..." Bowser complied, ripping the front of the Halberd off the ship's body bit by bit, eventually creating a pathway large enough for the two Star Children to squeeze into to access the cockpit. Once inside, the two of them found a pile of rubble with a jagged golden blade sticking out of it, and Mario ran over before beginning to pull the pieces of the ship off Meta Knight, with Bowser assisting him for the heavier pieces, until they eventually found Meta Knight unconscious underneath.

Picking up Galaxia, Mario and Bowser (the latter holding Meta Knight by the cape) exited the Halberd's interior, where they saw Lucario and Jigglypuff come in for a landing, followed by Arvus somehow tripping over a miniaturized tornado and falling face-first on the ground, before pulling himself back up relatively quickly and dusting himself off. Just as the remaining three Smashers landed, Meta Knight woke up and used his Dimensional Cape to get out of Bowser's grip before smacking Galaxia out of Mario's hands and teleporting to catch it. Once he had glided over to the wreckage of his ship, Meta Knight, his eyes flashing red to indicate that he was mad, calmly began, "Now tell me... what in the name of Nova happened here?! The last thing I remember was getting hit on the head by a metal sheet and before that, Kirby getting away from all those light beams..."

Mario explained, "Well, we-a defeated the ball of light that-a caused that humongous massacre... and then something else came out of-a the sky... literally tore right through it, and took control of-a everyone we hadn't rescued yet, including you."

"I see..."

"But-a since we just finished with something, we're considering taking a break for now. Want to-a join us?" Mario finished those words just as Bowser finished lighting a fire on... something.

"Sure... I guess." Meta Knight, at a loss for what to do, simply opted to join Mario and company in laying low for a while.

"Get clear!" Everyone did as Snake commanded save for Raiden, who zipped away from the path of Mewtwo's Hurricane and hopped off several floating structures in an attempt to catch the Genetic Pokémon off guard. However, Mewtwo, still unmoving from its elevated position, used Psychic, its eyes flashing blue as it held Raiden in place. Idly flicking its three-fingered hand, Mewtwo sent Raiden careening off into the distance, the cyborg ninja being flung into some far-off sect of the Mysterious Dimension. Snake cursed while next to him, Cloud began readying a Limit Break and Solo cast Zoom, the latter rocketing up into the sky while the former began to glow with a blue aura the moment it finished charging.

Cloud then jumped onto a small floating landmass before using a Limit-boosted Climhazzard to propel himself up to the next one, and then charging his Limit once again for the mobility boost it provided him. Next to him, Mega Man sprung up from seemingly out of nowhere, confusing the ex-SOLDIER until he saw Rush warp to where the Blue Bomber was. With a dry tone of voice, Cloud asked, "What are you doing up here?"

"We've got to save our friends and by extension the universe, and I think Mewtwo will be a really big help in that regard."

Cloud did not react to the obvious deduction Mega Man had stated, and instead unleashed another Limit-boosted Climhazzard, breaking through the ground of the landmass that Solo and Mewtwo were fighting on. Mewtwo turned towards him to assess the threat, and Cloud entered his combat stance while thinking to himself, "I hate mind readers..." before channeling Thundaga along his Buster Sword and swinging at the Genetic Pokémon with an overhead slash that was followed by an inward and then an outwards slash. Mewtwo dodged the first two, but got clipped by the last one, causing it to softly growl before generating a fireball in its hand and pointing it to Cloud. With an almost instantaneous flash, the fireball became Flamethrower, and Cloud ended up taking the blast head-on. However, he activated Big Guard within a second of the flames making contact with his skin, managing to avoid any particularly nasty burns that would've occurred had he not used that skill. After taking a moment to thank his lucky stars for slotting his bracelet with an Enemy Skill Materia, Cloud snapped his fingers, casting Bioga.

A humongous blob of sickly green poison began to form around Mewtwo, and when Cloud squeezed his fist, the bubble began to close in on the Genetic Pokémon, exploding the moment it touched its tail. When Cloud saw Mewtwo stand up, he saw that its face was tinged with a pale shade of green and its eyes were narrowed in fury, shooting Solo with a point-blank Shadow Ball after pulling him in with Psychic. Mewtwo attempted to do the same with Cloud, but was stopped by something hitting him from behind, presumably an explosive. Whirling around, Mewtwo looked around for the attacker, but found nothing, only for something to hit it from behind once again. Pointing its hand behind it, Mewtwo shot a Shadow Ball towards its back, and it hit nothing. Turning back around, Mewtwo saw that Cloud was tending to Solo, while next to the two heroes was...

"The walking arsenal." Mewtwo regarded the Blue Bomber with a hint of contempt in its voice, and Mega Man said nothing in response, instead opting to cock his Mega Buster in preparation before merging with Rush with the help of the Super Adaptor.

Running in, Mega Man charged a Hyper Rocket Buster and let it rip, the metal fist striking Mewtwo in its face. Once his arm returned to him, Mega Man switched to the Slash Claw and let loose with a trio of slashes, all three of them striking the Genetic Pokémon, causing it to stagger. Growling, Mewtwo charged both of its hands with electricity and let loose with a dual Thunderbolt, but Mega Man, summoning Rush, used Rush Coil before calling on Beat to get him above Mewtwo. Once Beat let go and he began falling to the ground, Rock switched weapons to the Knight Crusher, and a chain with a spiked ball on the end extended from his Mega Buster, creating a makeshift mace for the Blue Bomber. Mega Man then swung his weapon down on Mewtwo with all his might, throwing up several large chunks of rubble as he did so. When the dust cleared, however, Mewtwo was revealed to have teleported away at the last second.

With a small snort, Mewtwo idly flicked its hand, casting Cloud and a recovering Solo off the landmass using Psychic and then turning around to face Mega Man, who was struggling to pry his weapon out from the deep imprint he had made in the ground. A small smirk creeping up on its face, Mewtwo clenched one of its hands into a fist of sorts, and a large current of electricity began crackling along its arm, turning into a ball once it reached Mewtwo's knuckle. Holding the golden globe of electricity above its fist, Mewtwo then hurled the Electro Ball towards Rock, who ended up taking the full brunt of the blast. Hovering forward, Mewtwo doubled over slightly, a result of the Bioga spell Cloud had cast earlier.

Mega Man's eyes were slightly dimmed from the Electro Ball, and he had trouble moving his right arm, due to that one being the part of his body that the move had hit first. Gritting his teeth, Mega Man, using his left arm as if he were a gunslinger, switched to the Crystal Eye and fired a rather large chunk of crystal, before switching back to the Mega Buster and shattering it with three shots, turning the Crystal Eye into a buckshot of crystalline chunks that was headed straight for the Genetic Pokémon. However, Mewtwo stopped the spread of shrapnel in midair with Psychic before flicking his hand to his right and sending the crystals to parts unknown.

Rock summoned Eddie with a flick of his hand, and the small robotic helper warped in and provided an E-Tank for the Blue Bomber before warping back out. After taking a quick swig of the drink, Mega Man saw Mewtwo clench its fist and rip a large amount of pointed stones out of the ground before sending them towards him. Gritting his teeth, Mega Man switched to the Junk Shield and activated his Power Gear at the same time, and the Stone Edge harmlessly bounced off the-now supercharged chunks of scrap metal, which Mega Man reacted to by charging at Mewtwo and dispersing his entire ring of junk right at the Genetic Pokémon's face.

Meanwhile, down on the ground, Cloud was helping Solo back to his feet to continue the healing process, and under his breath he muttered, "I hate Mewtwo... that psychic freak almost broke my mind in our final match at the previous tournament."

In his head, Aerith's Spirit gently chided, "Cloud..."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it..."

Greninja, however, had heard what Cloud said, and looked at Incineroar and whispered, "He said that it's Mewtwo up there..."

"Mewtwo? You mean like the one that was involved in the New Tork City incident?"

Nodding, Greninja replied, "The one and the same. My Trainer also told me that it was the same Mewtwo from the Mount Quena incident too." A thin smile having worked its way onto his face behind his tongue scarf, Greninja turned to Incineroar and said, "Want to head up there? Considering that we're Dark-types, we have an innate advantage over it."

Incineroar flashed a cocky grin and nodded, and Greninja transformed into his Ash-Greninja form... proceeding to leave Incineroar in the dust as he used Bounce to hop onto the landmass that Mewtwo was on in a single bound. As the Heel Pokémon stared dumbfounded, Snake slapped something into his hands and advised, "Hold onto that and don't look down until you've reached where you want to go." Incineroar was then slowly lifted into the air by Snake's Cypher until he reached the landmass where Mewtwo was fighting Mega Man and Greninja.

Letting go of the Cypher, Incineroar touched down on the ground in a three-point stance, his fist creating a small web of cracks in the ground around him. As Mewtwo turned around to face him, Incineroar let out a roar before beckoning at Mewtwo with a finger, saying, "Alright then, show me whatcha got, you overgrown Skitty!"

Mewtwo did not appear to be fazed by the insult at all, and its tail began to glow with a blue sheen as a swirl of water surrounded it, and it swung its tail at Incineroar, who blocked the Aqua Tail attempt with a Thunder Punch before attempting to strike back with Throat Chop. Mewtwo caught Incineroar's other hand (one was still occupied with blocking the Aqua Tail), and his eyes flashed green, indicating that he had used Disable. The hand that Incineroar had used for Throat Chop suddenly stopped glowing purple, and he forced Mewtwo to retreat by successfully stopping the Aqua Tail from hitting him and rearing back his now-free hand for another Thunder Punch. Once Mewtwo had retreated, Incineroar tried to use Throat Chop again, but to no avail thanks to the Disable. With his belt, Incineroar created an aura of fire around himself and charged forward to where Mewtwo was with Flare Blitz.

Greninja, having blocked a point-blank Thunderbolt with his shuriken, stole a quick glance to his right and saw that Incineroar was rapidly approaching the two of them with Flare Blitz. Taking initiative, Greninja gestured at Mega Man before tripping Mewtwo with Low Kick and then binding its legs together with Grass Knot. Greninja quickly used Shadow Sneak to warp over to Mega Man and whispered, "Think you can shackle his arms too?"

Mega Man replied, "Yeah, I can do that," switching to the Concrete Shot and shooting two globs of the substance onto Mewtwo's arms, where they quickly hardened and left it shackled to the ground, leaving Mewtwo to watch helplessly as Incineroar performed a rather high leap before coming down with a flaming elbow drop, his body still cloaked in flames.

The moment Incineroar hit the ground, the air around Greninja and Mega Man got uncomfortably hot as superheated gusts of wind were being blown around by the force of the explosion that had occurred, and Mega Man quickly switched to the Tundra Storm and blew a weak version of the attack in his face to cool off, slightly blowing his helmet askew in the process and revealing some of his hair.

Looking at Mega Man, Greninja asked, "So why did your creator give you and your sister hair, anyway?"

"Well, he was looking to make a replacement for his original creation, Blues... my brother. I guess he designed us with human children in mind for that reason, but I can't be too sure... my memories of the time around my activation are pretty hazy." Greninja nodded and made a noise of acknowledgement while the two of them waited for the firestorm to die down. Once the heat had mostly subsided, it was revealed that while Incineroar had managed to score quite the blow on Mewtwo, it was still not down, and with its eyes narrowed, it fired a pair of Aura Spheres from its hands, one aimed at Incineroar and the other at Greninja. The latter's eyes widened in alarm as the super effective attack hit him head-on, launching him back a good distance, while Incineroar tried to move, only to realize that Mewtwo had bound his legs to the ground by using Psychic to construct shackles from the ground he was standing on, most likely while it was feigning injury.

Before the attack could make contact, however, Rock switched his weapon to the Black Hole Bomb and detonated it almost immediately, causing the attack to be sucked into the event horizon and disappear before the black hole closed just as quickly. Incineroar then began to strike the shackles on his feet with Brick Break in an effort to free himself, while Mega Man called for Tango. The robotic cat warped in and affectionately snuggled up to Rock, who petted it in return, before turning towards Mewtwo and letting out a hiss.

The Genetic Pokémon had a look of slight surprise on its face as the cat charged forward and scratched its face before warping away, preventing Mewtwo from getting any sort of retaliation attack on it. Mewtwo then clenched its hand, creating a ball of fire in it, and then it shot a Flamethrower at Mega Man, who switched to the Ice Wall and created a temporary shield. Not to be deterred, Mewtwo increased the intensity of the heat, and the Flamethrower punched right through the Ice Wall, forcing Mega Man to dodge. However, Mewtwo failed to notice that Incineroar was standing behind it, and it ended up receiving a hellacious Darkest Lariat to the back of its head, knocking it unconscious.

Incineroar dusted off his hands in a satisfied fashion before flexing and letting out a triumphant, "Oh, YEAH! Suck it!" Looking at Mega Man, the Heel Pokémon folded his arms and asked, "So... what do we do now?"

Mega Man offered, "Well, we can wait for him to wake up." Looking to his right, he saw a weary Greninja charging up Dark Pulse in his hands, and he asked, "Wait wait wait, what are you doing, Greninja?!"

"Can't be too safe, especially not with Mewtwo..."

Mega Man took a moment to mull it over before saying, "Yeah, that's a good point," switching over to the Black Hole Bomb and pointing his Buster at Mewtwo, while behind Mewtwo's prone body, Incineroar's arms began to glow with Dark-type energy as he took on a wrestler's stance.

After a bit, Mewtwo's eyes opened, revealing that his sclera had turned back to normal and indicating that he was indeed free of Dharkon's possession. Mega Man switched back to the Mega Buster once he saw that, however, Greninja and Incineroar both kept their attacks at the ready, the Ninja Pokémon saying, "Your card. Where is it?"

"Yeah, show it or we're gonna have to kick your ass again-"

"Not now, Incineroar."

"Hm... I guess I don't have an option here, do I?" Mewtwo then extended one of its hands and its Fighter Pass materialized from seemingly out of nowhere, a grey and purple card with the number 24 marked on it. Greninja and Incineroar stopped preparing their attacks, and Mewtwo then asked, "I assume that we've got a new problem on our hands now, don't we?"

"How did you know about Dharkon already?"

"Because, Rock, I've seen his seeds everywhere in the Dark Realm. And on another note, I think you may want to contact our other comrades, considering a Shadow Regigigas is heading towards Dracula's Castle..." Mega Man tilted his head in confusion as he took off his helmet to polish it, while Greninja and Incineroar exchanged incredulous glances.

"We haven't been able to communicate with the others at all within this... pocket dimension."

"I see."

Incineroar then asked, "Hey, if you don't mind me asking, what's so bad about a Regigigas? Ain't it saddled with Slow Start?"

"That Regigigas has Pressure because Galeem forced me to use Skill Swap on it."

"Oh... but doesn't that mean that you're the one with Slow Start now?"

"I copied another Pokémon's Ability with Role Play. I'm not sure what it does exactly, but it seems that moves with increased effectiveness will be even stronger from what I've tested it on..."

Wincing as he turned back to his normal appearance, Greninja said, "Yeah, that Aura Sphere you hit me with hurt a whole lot..."

Mewtwo then looked Greninja up and down before asking, "Wait. Are you Ash Ketchum's Greninja?"

Squinting, Greninja looked at Mewtwo suspiciously and asked, "What does my Trainer have to do with this?"

Shaking its head, Mewtwo said, "Nothing. Forget that I asked."

After an awkward silence, Mega Man butted in with, "Hey, I hate to be a bother at this time, but I think our friends down there could use a lift up here..."

"Of course." Mewtwo's eyes flashed purple, and the rest of the group was transported up in an instant. Looking at the rest of the Smashers it had transported up to where it, Rock, Greninja, and Incineroar were, Mewtwo noticed that the soldier was staring at him with apprehension clearly present on his face, which left him confused.

Popo casually mentioned, "Snake doesn't trust psychics or mind readers at all, just in case you're wondering."

"Is that so?"

Nana nodded, finishing, "Something about a 'Psycho Mantis,' from what I remember hearing in the third tournament..."

"Unfortunate."

Mewtwo was about to go mind its own business until it felt someone tap its shoulder. Turning around, it saw that Mega Man had a sheepish smile on his face, and the robot asked, "I hope you don't mind doing this other thing, but... we also had another friend of ours who got catapulted into..." Taking a moment to remember where he had seen Matthew fly, Mega Man then finished, "That forest over there," pointing to a forest with wispy black curls of smoke creeping out of it. Nodding, Mewtwo began to concentrate in order to pinpoint the exact location of the person Mega Man had asked for it to locate, and it managed to get a quick glimpse... only for its mind to be overwhelmed by a dangerously large amount of dark energy that was exuding from them, with the last thing it saw before severing the connection being Dharkon's eye. Mewtwo's eyes flew wide open and it almost doubled over, clutching its head, causing Mega Man to look at it with concern and ask, "What's wrong? What did you see?"

"I think your companion's in very, very close proximity with Dharkon... the last thing I saw before I was forced to stop looking was Dharkon himself."

That last bit caught Mega Man by surprise, and with a commanding tone of voice, he looked the Genetic Pokémon right in the eye and said, "Take us to him. NOW."

"Very well." Mewtwo began concentrating before remembering something and asking Mega Man, "Tell Greninja and Incineroar that they need to get to us as quickly as possible. I can't teleport the two of them as they're Dark-types."

"Right..." Mega Man quickly ran over and relayed the news to Greninja and Incineroar, the latter facepalming while the former morphed into his Ash-Greninja form and nodded, before turning to Incineroar to discuss something. Once that was done, Mega Man turned to Mewtwo and gave it the thumbs-up, signaling that the Teleport was ready to go.

Mewtwo began concentrating, and when it opened its eyes, it saw that it and the others were at the place where it had seen Matthew, just at the outskirts of that dark forest he had seen. Next to him, Greninja and Incineroar landed while Mega Man was telling the others, "Matthew is somewhere around this place, if we split up we can-"

"You looking for me?"

Mega Man and the others turned around to see Matthew leaning on the Sol Blade with a confused expression on his face, and Mega Man and the others bore relieved expressions on their faces as they approached the Adept, glad to see that he was alright after being launched so far away from them. Snake then noticed something shiny on Matthew's hand that definitely wasn't there the last time he saw him, and he asked, "Hey kid, what's with the new ring?"

Matthew took on a more somber expression as he said, "You remember Artorias from earlier?" Snake nodded, and Matthew halfheartedly continued, "I had to kill his companion for this," flashing the Covenant of Artorias at Snake, who grimly nodded before taking a look at the group's surroundings.

Joker had also noticed something about the area they were standing in, and he asked the others, "Is it just me, or is the only way out of this forest through that building over there?" pointing towards said building to let the others know where he was looking.

Once the group started walking towards the building, Bayonetta activated her Bat Within, playfully calling out, "Last one there is a snack for my beautiful demons!" as she began to race towards the building. When she looked back and saw that no one was even bothering to race her, she transformed back into her normal form, muttering, "Killjoys..."

Meanwhile, Matthew was lagging behind the rest of his companions, and he noticed a small puddle of surprisingly clean water next to him. Taking a moment to rinse his face, once Matthew lowered his hands, he saw, much to his horror, that his left eye had become electric blue with slitted pupils much like that seed of Dharkon he had encountered in the Abyss-tainted woods, but when he blinked, his eye had turned back to normal. For a moment, the Adept could only stare at the water with shock, only to be interrupted by Mega Man calling out, "Matthew?"

"Coming!" Matthew sprinted back up to the others, trying to forget about what he had just seen. When he got there, he saw Mega Man switching to a brown-and-white color scheme before effortlessly ripping apart the door to the building, revealing a dark room with no lights to speak of whatsoever.

Undaunted, the Blue Bomber switched to the Flash Stopper and activated it, illuminating the room. From there, he led the others inside, with him holding his Mega Buster at the ready just in case something was looking to attack them.

I think the opening and closing notes are going to be silent for the foreseeable future.

Group 1 (Dracula's Castle): Luigi, Ness, Peach, Villager, Rosalina, Simon, Daisy, Isaac, Samus, Wario, Yoshi, Pikachu, Pac-Man, Mr. Game & Watch, Eight, Ike, Ken, Robin, Richter, Byleth

Group 2 (Frantic Factory): Link, Banjo, Ridley, Toon Link, Ryu, Zelda, Inklings (Meggy, Evan), Mii Swordfighter, Red (Squirtle, Ivysaur, Charizard), Falco, Sonic, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, R.O.B., Pichu, King K. Rool, Luminary, Geno

Group 3 (Mysterious Dimension): Matthew, Joker, Snake, Kirby, Dr. Mario, Cloud, Fox, Greninja, Mega Man, Little Mac, Pit, Piranha Plant, King Dedede, Captain Falcon, Ice Climbers, Wolf, Incineroar, Bayonetta, Solo, Corrin, Mewtwo

Group 4 (Shroob Castle): Mario, Bowser, Erdrick/Arvus, Marth, Jigglypuff, Lucas, Terry Bogard, Lucario, Meta Knight

Group 5 (Puppet Fighters with known whereabouts): Young Link

Apollo Sanctum key pieces: 4/13