Page 143: Deals with the Devil
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Super Smash Brother: ONLINE LOGIN #6: Deals with the Devil
--
-Mushroom Kingdom-
"Alright, so explain yourself!"
The three party members had been warped out of the spooky area by Link's item and found themselves infront of the fountain in the middle of Mushroom Square. Link was sitting on the edge of the fountain, trying to avoid eye contact with Marth, while Marth himself was leaning over into Link's face. Jigglypuff stood over on the side, watching timidly, not too sure of what was going on.
"Erm, well..." Link rubbed the back of his neck, trying to search for the prefect answer to give. "It's hard to explain... But, you see, when a boss kills a party, it becomes a Wandering Monster. At that time, anyone could jump in and kill the monster, not just party members."
Marth whacked Link on the head. "You idiot! Thats not was I mean! That move you did... what was it? I may be new to this game, but I sure do know that damage shows up in numbers, not symbols."
Link's face quickly changed from nervous to panicy, as he waved his hands to try and silence the swordsman. "Shh! Not so loud." He glanced around to make sure none of the other players who were hanging around the fountain had heard. "Switch to party chat please."
A brieft pause and the group had done just that. "Okay. So tell me, what did you do?"
"It's hard to explain right now, Marth." Link said with a sigh. "But its a secret move only certain people can preform... There is no way of learning it in the game, unless you have the character required for it."
"So... your character can use it?" Link nodded. "And mine can't? ...How weird." Link looked down at the ground and mumbled something. "Hmm? Whats that?"
"I never said you couldn't..."
Marth looked stunned. "You mean, I could use such a powerful attack?"
"I... think you can. I also think..." He began to turn his face towards Jigglypuff, who was seen yelling, but no sound was coming from her mouth. "Um... does she know about party chat?"
Marth took off his party chat and suddenly was slapped with the loud screaming voice of Jigglypuff. "MARTH! LINK! WHY CAN'T I HEAR YOU!? HAVE YOU PUT ME ON INGORE! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY FOR-"
"Shut up." Marth muttered, crossing his arms and giving the pokemon a glare.
"Oh. I'm sorry. I just..."
"F4." Jigglypuff looked over at Link confused. "Hit F4 to enter party chat mode. It's a chat mode so that only the three of us could hear what each other is saying."
Shortly after saying that, the three switched to party chat mode. "Like this?" Jigglypuff asked.
"Yes, very good!" Link said with a smile.
Marth quickly changed the converstation. "So what did you mean, Link? Is there a way that I could use that move too?"
Link didn't answer at first, but then nodded slowly. "I'm pretty sure you should be able to use some sort of move like mine. What it is, or how you'll go about using it... I'm not sure. Or if you even have one, I might be wrong... but still..." He looked over at Jigglypuff, who quickly blushed and looked away in embrassesment. "...I wonder." He shook his head, stood up and smiled. "But enough of that! Marth! I'm very pleased to see you found such a good healer."
"Who? M-Me?" Jigglypuff asked timidly.
Link smiled and nodded. "Yup! This is great. We have a full party for this server. Let's head off to the area I wanted to power level you in, Marth!"
--
I watch as the Hylian turned and began to walk towards the portal. "Hey wait! I wasn't done!" I called out, watching Link pick up speed as he apporched the portal. "...Geez."
"Mister Link sure is a happy person..." I heard Jigglypuff muttered to herself. I couldn't help but share a little grin at this statement. So I wasn't the only one who noticed. Hehe. "Do you know where we are going, Marth?"
I made Marth shrug. "Not really." I answered. "But knowing him, it'll be some super high level area, where he'll have to do all the killing and we just stay in the background." Jigglypuff let out a light 'Oh' sound as I continued, "But you're lucky. Link will be relying on you to heal him so he doesn't die. Me on the other hand... I just stand in the back and look pretty."
"He's... He's relying on me?!" Judging by the tone of her voice, I quickly regret ever making that statement. But before I could retract my comment, my screen went black along with the words: Party Leader is selecting an area. Oh well... Whatever new area awaits us, I hope its not as scary as the other one.
--
-Bowser's Castle-
Sheik and Pit stood in a dark corridor, facing down one of the games strongest PKers, Dr. Mario. "No games." Sheik spoke firmly. "What's the offer?"
"Right to the point I see. Heh. Well... as of right now, you have two choices. One, you can continue on. I won't stop you." Dr. Mario took a step to the side and pointed into the darkness that was the hallway. "You might even make it to the chamber where Bowser keeps the Stone of the Void before he even reaches you. That's why you've come, is it not?" Neither answered. "Hehe... well, let me just tell you this. If you do choose this choice, and you do make it out of here with your characters in one piece, you will become the newest target of Bowser's spiecal attack force... The Warlocks."
Sheiks' eyes began to widen. "The Warlocks?" She asked, her voice still strong despite her obvious shock.
Dr. Mario nodded and Pit just rolled his eyes. "The Warlocks? Pssh, what kind of guild is that? Sounds like a bunch of nerds who haven't gotten a date in years."
The doctor gave a small growl and glared at the angel. "I'm afraid you're wrong there, my friend." He said calmly.
"The Warlocks is the name of Bowser's speical elite attack force." Sheik explained, cutting Dr. Mario off. "They are his top six hackers... some of the strongest players in the game. They are so infamous, that they are only behind Bowser is priority to the admins. Although they are just as deadly... and even harder to find then Bowser himself."
"Really?... You know, I never understood this. When we sign up for the game, we're required to give our real name, adresses and phone number." Pit said, folding his arms in confusion. "Why can't the admins just look up their data and stop them?"
Sheik continued, "Well... besides the fact that they hack their character data, they also hack their personal data. They give fake names and adresses, to keep themselves safe. But thats not all..." She paused to see if Dr. Mario was preparing to attack while she spoke.
"Don't look at me, I'm just watching..." He muttered, looking away, somewhat innocent.
"...its said that The Warlocks is such a secret guild, that memebers of the guild aren't allowed to know who the other members of the guild are. The only player who knows complete one hundred precent who The Warlocks are... is Bowser." Dr. Mario gave a little smirk at the end of Sheik's sentance. "It's a safty messure. Although Bowser supposdly trusts all of his Warlocks, he still doesn't want to take the risk of one of them betraying him. If that happens, he can send the other Warlocks after him or her and finish the traitor off without his or her knowing..."
That explination just brought more confusion on Pit's part. "Huh? If no one knows who they are... even the guild itself... how do we even know they exsist?"
"A while back, Bowser, or someone close to him, made a post with the birth of The Warlocks. It included six names." Sheik explained. "These names are, acording to the post, the nicknames of the five Warlocks. They were... The Wise Deciever, The Cunning Serpent, The Lonely Devil, The True Blade, The Deadly Maiden... and, well..." Sheik looked over at Dr. Mario, who's grin had grown to nearly the size of his face. "For more tangable proof, you can look infront of us. The sixth name was The Euthanasia Warrior... Dr. Mario."
Dr. Mario began to giggle as Pit's jaw dropped. "You mean that... he's one of them?" Sheik nodded. "But that would mean... we'd have six people as strong as Dr. Mario chasing after us?!"
"Pretty much..." Sheik balled her first. "Now, I can take that jerk over there no sweat. Maybe two of him. But six? We'd have a problem... And as far as I know, Dr. Mario isn't the strongest of the five."
"Now, hold on there." Dr. Mario butted in. "There is something you should know about The Warlocks. Our ranking is not based on levels, but on deeds. In the past, I have not fully been able to complete Lord Bowser's tasks, which earned me the postion I am in in. But, level wise, I must say I am near the top."
"Regardless... it's still a scary thought of having to pumel six Dr. Mario's into the ground..." Sheik whispered. "Whats the other choice?"
Dr. Mario gave a cackle and shrugged. "You leave." Pit and Sheik's faces filled with anger at the assassin, who just laughed again. "I'm sorry, but its really that simple. I'm giving you the choice to leave with your characters... or continue on and have your characters become deleted. I'm really being too nice, you know."
Pit gripped his bow. "What an ass..." He said to Sheik, who nodded in agreement. "So, what are we going to do? We didn't come all this way to get our characters deleted, did we?"
Sheik shook her head. "We didn't. But we also didn't come all this way to return to Zelda empty handed..."
"Well? What's your answer, my friends?"
Sheik smirked. "Here is your answer."
With that, Sheik jumped into the air, her arms folded across her body as the sound of needles clanking together filled the room. Dr. Mario stood there, his eyes and close and shaking his head as the woman came closer and closer to him in range. "Bad choice." He muttered just as Sheik flung her arms forward, sending a large amount of needles soaring towards the Doctor. He didn't move, but instead took out his white cape and flicked it about a few times, deflecting any of the needles that were about to hit him. Once all the needles finished firing at the doctor, he dropped his cape and smiled. "Was that it?"
Sheik charged at Dr. Mario once more. "I haven't even started yet!"
--
Link, Jigglypuff and I warped into a grass feild, with trees scattered across the landscape. This area, which I believed was called Donut Hills, was much like the first area that I had ever adventured in. It's grassy plain went on forever, and in the distant, a building could be seen. Beyond that building were rolling hills, each with their own set of eyes. The only major difference about this area was that, unlike the first which was set in day time, this feild was covered in an orange glow. It was a feild forever in twilight, the orange sun forever setting behind the mountains with eyes.
"Mis-Mister Link!" I heard Jigglypuff muttered. "Why are we on a level thirty field?"
I couldn't help but smirk at that. Covering the microphone, I let out a slight giggle and spoke to myself, "She reminds me of me. How scary."
--
"Don't worry!" Link said with a smile. "Just make sure to stay behind me and heal me as best you can, okay? This is called Power Leveling. Or PL in game terms. Its when I take a low level, like yourself, and kill high EXP monsters."
Jigglypuff shook her head. "I... don't really understand."
"You level up faster this way." Marth explained, stepping up. "So, Link, any chance of you needing my help in this area?"
Link smiled, then shook his head. "Not likely!" He chimed. "I'll need Jigglypuff's help more then anything though!"
Marth bit his lip after hearing Link's statement, then quickly looked over to Jigglypuff, whos gaze has turned downwards. "I don't think she needs the pressure." He muttered very softly to Link.
"What do you mean?" Link asked, tilting his head slighty. Marth sent Link a load of whispers, explaining the events that had taken place prior to the Hylian showing up at the battle. "I see... Well, just so you know, Jigglypuff, if I die, it's no big deal. Really. I haven't died in a while... I forget what happens when you do..."
"I'll be glad to show you!"
The group turned around to see another figure standing behind him. He was small, a hylian and wearing a green tunic - just as Link... infact... it looked EXCATLY like Link... only smaller and holding a wooden shield. Marth and Jigglypuff stared at this new boy with puzzled looks as Link just gave a sigh. "What are you doing here, Little Link?"
Character: Young Link Race: Hylian Level: 30 Class: Swordsman/Archer HP: 200 MP: 100
"It's YOUNG Link, first off." The boy exclaimed, crossing his arms. "Secondly, I came here to level up. I do have to get stronger then you, so I can destroy you in the upcoming PVP Tournament!" Young Link gritted his teeth and growled. "Just like how you destroyed me!"
"For someone who looks up to me, you sure do have alot of hostility..." Link muttered, looking away from the younger version of himself.
This statement seemed to send Young Link over the edge. "YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHY THE HELL I LOOK LIKE THIS!" He screamed, thrusting his fist up at Link's face. "It's YOUR fault I look like this!"
Link rolled his eyes. "I didn't tell you to delete your character..."
"SHUT UP! HMPH!" Young Link crossed his arms and looked away angrly. "Well, I don't know why the hell you and you're fan club are here, and neither do I care. But don't bother trying to level up here. I've been in this field for atleast an hour and a half and have yet to find a single monster. Some bullshit rumors about a rare monster in this field... how stupid!"
"No monsters?" Jigglypuff muttered.
Marth may have picked up on that intresting bit, if he wasn't so ticked off about being called Link's fan club. "Hey there, you little runt." He said, walking up to Young Link. "I don't know about you, but I'm not the one who's trying to look like a cosplay version of Link. If anyone here is in a fan club, its YOU."
Young Link snapped his head around and glared at Marth. "WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU NO GOOD TIARA WEARING PRISSY BOY!?"
Marth bent down and yelled right in Young Link's face. "YOU HEARD ME YOU LINK WANNABE!"
"GIRLY MAN!"
"COPY-CAT!"
"LIMP WRIST!"
"POSER!"
Slice.
Link sighed and withdrew his sword as he watched the damage he just inflicted be tallied. Marth's body fell to the ground with a thud and began to change into it's death stage. "Sorry about that..." Link muttered.
"MARTH!" Jigglypuff called out in horror.
"What a jerk..." Young Link huffed, turn away again. "You sure do pick the best friends, Link." Link gave a nervous laugh.
"Uh, anyway... Young Link, you do know that I stopped taking part in those PVP tournaments, right?"
"Hmph... Well, whatever you say. I'm out. Good luck with whatever you came here to do." And with that, Young Link's warp pipe came up and swallowed the boy, transporting him out of the field in an instant.
Link quickly bent down and revived the fallen Marth. "Ugh... Hey... What happened?" Marth muttered, standing up. "One second I was dissing that brat and then... bam. Did a monster get me?"
The Hylian didn't answer, but instead gave a nervous grin. Jigglypuff, being the good player she was, felt the need to tell Marth. "Link did it to you."
"He WHAT?!"
Link looked over at Jigglypuff with a worried expressing, sweat running down his face. "Jig-Jigglypuff..." He spoke worried, feeling the shadow of his friend approaching him from behind. "Erm... well..."
"So... Link..." Marth said, cracking his knuckles and taking out his saber. "Before I cut you down, may I ask why you did it?"
Link turned and faced Marth with his same dopey grin on his face. "Well... honestly, you were annoying!" He said with a laugh.
The sheer shock was enough to make Marth drop his sword. "Uh... Wow, okay?"
"It was just easier to PK you, since you're a lower level." He explained. Before Marth could make a comeback, he quickly turned and pointed off in the distance. "COME MY FRIENDS!" He shouted over dramatically. "Our goal awaits beyond the horizon!"
"Hey, wait, I'm not done with you!" Marth called out. But, once again, Link had charged off. "MAN! That guy can't sit still, can he?"
Jigglypuff was at a loss of words. "I... uh, are you sure you two are friends?" She whispered.
Marth smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure. You can tell who your real friends are, since nine times out of ten, they're the biggest jerks to you in the world!"
"That... doesn't make much sense."
"HEY! Are you COMING?" Link shouted from a distant. The two other players looked at each other, smiled and ran after Link, ready for whatever danger awaited them on their adventure... if any.
--
-Bowser's Castle-
Sheik charged forward at Dr. Mario, charging up her needles for her next strike. She flung her arms forward and launched another wave of needles, which flew towards the doctor. But he didn't show any concern, as he simply jumped into the air and out of the way of the needles. Sheik skidded to stop and watched as he flew through the air. She turned around expecting to get him as he landed, but her face was met with one of his boot. The kick to the jaw sent the assassin onto the ground, dealing around 60 damage.
Dr. Mario landed and brushed off his coat. "Heh. Clos-" He had to cut his sentence short as he made a quick sidestep to the left, barely avoiding a beam of light that shot past him and smashed into the castle wall. "I almost forgot there were two of you..."
Pit gripped his bow and gave an angry glare at the warrior. "You better not forget about me!" He yelled, snapping his bow in two. But instead of breaking the bow, it turned into two daggers. Flapping his wings, Pit charged at Dr. Mario and began to wildly slash at the healer. But Dr. Mario's speed was much higher the Pits', and he was able to dodge almost ever slice given by the angel. The one or two slashes that did strike hit for damage well below normal.
Dr. Mario watched and waited for Pit to leave an opening, and when he saw it, Dr. Mario quickly acted. He elbowed Pit in the gut, causing his character to keel over. While Pit was grabbing his chest, Dr. Mario delivered a powerful upper cut to the archer, sending him flying into the air and bring his HP down to about half. His victory was short lived, as Dr. Mario had to quickly spin around and take out of his daggers to block Sheik, who had jumped at him with her fingers filled of her needles. "Eh..." Dr. Mario muttered, being pushed back slightly by Sheik's strength. "You've been leveling? No... must have used some strength bonus items."
"Shut up." Sheik hissed, pushing harder down on the knife protecting Dr. Mario. "I haven't been doing anything."
"I see. That must be why that even with two people..." Dr. Mario put all his strength into one great push, which not only send Sheik's needles soaring upward, but his own knife. While Sheik was in shock, Dr. Mario fell to the ground and did a round house kick, knocked the assassin to her feet. "...you still can't beat me."
Just as Sheik regained her balance, Dr. Mario disappeared in a flash of white. As he did, however, a beam of light shot right into Sheik's chest. "ARCK!" Sheik's character called out in pain as she flew backwards and took a decent amount of damage.
"Sheik!" Pit called out, worried. He was holding his bow in the position of having just fired an arrow. "I'm sorry! He dodged it!"
Sheik stood up and growled at Pit. But before she could say anything, she was kicked in the back by the healer and took a few points of damage. "Hahaha!" Cackled Dr. Mario. "You're really not doing too well today, Sheik."
"SHES NOT THE ONLY ONE YOU'RE FIGHTING!" Pit called out, pulling back on another energy arrow. But instead of a clear color, this arrow was glowing green. "MEDUSA'S ARROW!" He called out, sending the green arrow bolting across the room, at a higher speed then the others.
Dr. Mario saw the arrow soaring towards him and tried to dodge, but even with his high speed stats, he couldn't avoid the arrow. It struck his right arm and pushed him back a few feet. But not only did Dr. Mario take around 60 points of damage, but his right arm began to crackle and harden. Within a few seconds, his entire arm was stone. "My, my... condition causing arrows." He muttered. With his left hand, be brought his palm over to the stone, chanting a spell and a blue aura surrounded the arm. As it did, the stone disappeared and Dr. Mario's arm returned to normal. "You are truly one of the games bests archers. Shame you can hit anything to save your life."
Sheik jumped off the floor and swung her arm at Dr. Mario. It took him by surprise, but he was able to dodge, jumping into the air and disappearing. "Where did he go now!?" Sheik yelled, looking around the chamber.
There was a sound of two feet lightly hitting the stone. Sheik spun around to see Dr. Mario standing in between herself and Pit, laughing his head off. "You two... you guys really are pathetic, you know that, right? I haven't even started to fight yet and you guys are already getting nervous."
"Shut up!" Sheik yelled, charging forward.
"You heard her!" Pit screamed from the other side.
Sheik began to dash towards the healer but as she reached half way, she outreached her right hand. From her wrist shot out her linked chain, which flew towards Dr. Mario's stationary body. The chain was about to make direct contact with him when he simply jumped into the air and moved away.
"Damn..." Sheik muttered.
"Sheik!"
Upon seeing where her chain was heading, Sheik let out a gasp and grabbed the still extending chain, to try and stop it from hitting its current target. Pit, who was also charging at Dr. Mario, saw the chain flying towards him. He quickly lifted his bow and pushed it out forward, allowing the chain to hit and warp around the bow instead of himself. The two stood there for a few moments, Sheik pulling on her chain and Pit yanking on his bow, trying to get the other to let go. "Pit, just back down! You're only getting in my way!" Sheik yelled.
"Me? You've fought this guy tons of times and yet you STILL lose." Pit said back. "You obviously can't do it alone!"
The two were so busy glaring that they didn't even notice Dr. Mario falling from the ceiling with his dagger pointed downwards towards the chain. "Lover's quarrel." He spoke quietly as he thrusted his dagger through the chain, snapping it in two. The tension between Pit and Sheik was broken and the two began to fall backwards. But before they could hit the floor, Dr. Mario grabbed the two ends of the chain a pulled them towards him. Then with all of his strength, he crossed the chains and thrusted them in opposite directions. The result was quite funny, with Sheik and Pit, who were still connected to the chains, slamming face first into each other and falling to the ground with a thud.
"HahahahahaHA!" Dr. Mario cackled, taking a few steps back. "If only you two could see yourselves... oh wait, you can!" His laugh slowly died down as an evil smirk came across his face. "Now, lets finish this." Dr. Mario did one final jump into the air and took out his dagger once more. He did a flip in the air and his body began to glow yellow. Once the glowing stopped, Dr. Mario began to fall towards the earth at a alarming speed, his hands grasped around his dagger tightly. "DEATH FROM ABOVE!" He called out, approaching the two fallen warriors.
But there was a flash of white just as Dr. Mario reached the bodies and a large smoke screen shot up. "What the-" He shouted as he disappeared into the smoke. There was the sound of metal priecing flesh, but the smoke was so thick he couldn't see just what or who he had hit. All Dr. Mario knew was that he had made a direct hit.
As the smoke cleared, Dr. Mario saw that his dagger had make it's direct hit into Pit's left shoulder. Sheik was no where to be seen, obviously using the smoke screen as her means of escape. MAJOR HIT! 345 DAM! floated above the angel's body as his HP bar dropped. "Heh. Oh well, good enough I suppose." Dr. Mario said, standing up off the body.
Pit, who was not yet dead, tried to get up. But as he did, a yellow current of energy shot through his body, causing him to fall back to the floor. "Am I... Paralyzed?!" He shouted, trying to move his character to no avail. "DAMN IT!"
"Haha, I must have hit a nerve on that one." Dr. Mario cackled, lifting his dagger once more. "Oh well. I hope you enjoyed your time in Bowser's Castle."
The angel closed his eyes, expecting the final blow to come within seconds. And then he heard it. The sound of metal piercing flesh and a loud programed yelp of pain. But it wasn't from his character... "What the..."
Dr. Mario stood there, his body froze with the dagger still in his hand. From his chest, four needles stuck out. Behind him, Sheik was standing with her hands thrusted into the healer's body, obviously with a smirk on her face which was hidden beneither her armor. "Nice one, Sheik." Dr. Mario said weakly as the damage floated over his head. MAJOR HIT! It said. 600 DAM!
She withdrew her arms and dropped the useless needles, which disappeared before they could hit the ground. "Heh. Nice? Thats all you can say?" Sheik said, watching Dr. Mario's body fall to the ground.
But the healer wasn't dead yet. He crossed his arms across his chest and called, "Life Up Omega!" Within moments his HP returned to a safe color and he stood back up. "Hehe, you got me. Perhaps you're tougher then I though?" Shiek gave him an angry glare. "...So, my friend, how bout we make a new deal?"
--
The three made their way through the orange field very easily. Although they paused to look left and right once in a while, for the most part the field was as empty as Young Link had said. No monsters as far as they eye could see. But there wasn't another oddity about the level... there didn't seem to be any other players around, either. "Is it normal to get an area like this to yourself?" Jigglypuff asked, trying her best to keep up with the nimble swordsman infront of her.
"I don't think so..." Marth said, jogging alongside Link. He looked over to his Hylian friend in search of an answer.
Link shook his head. "No, not really."
Jigglypuff looked around confused. "So, if you don't mind me asking, why are we staying on this field if there is no reason to be here?"
Marth too wanted to know the answer to that question. Link never answered. He instead kept runnig and running, heading straight towards the building, which began to take the shape of a jail cell. "He knows something..." Marth spoke to himself. "Something is going down. It can't be luck that we wind up on such an empty field with no monsters, no players, find a Link wanna-be and are still heading for the Boss battle. This game is too weird for this all to be one big coincidence."
"What's that, Marth?"
Marth turned and smiled at Jigglypuff. "Nothing. Just talkin' to myself! Hehe."
The trio continued to run until they ran right up to the edge of the huge prison cell. There were about seven, large white bars keeping whatever beast behind the cage within it. Behind the bars, there was only darkness, and no beast could be seen awaiting. But the sounds of chains clanking and things growling gave hint to it being a big monster. Marth was about to charge in when he was stopped by Link's arm. "Wait." Link said, staring at the huge prison.
Marth took out his sword. "What's wrong?" He asked, ready to charge into battle.
A few moments past and Link had yet to give an answer. "As I thought." He finally said, walking closer to the cage. "This is the cage of the Chain Chomp boss. A powerful boss, but one who would burst from the cage and try to attack us after we got close enough. We're pretty much ontop of the cage... and it's not here."
"Well, that boy did say all the monsters were gone..." Jigglypuff said quietly.
"Yes, I know. Which is why I don't think it's here."
"But those sounds..." Marth quickly added.
"Just programmed into the game."
Link's gaze continued to stay upward, staring at the large white bars. Marth stared at the Hylian confused, then turned and looked into the darkness of the cage himself. To his surprise, he thought he saw a flash of purple. "What the..."
"Alright guys, how bout you two head back to town?" Link said, turning around with a smile on his face. "See, I'm gonna enter the cage thing to try and find if there is a monster in there. If you two enter, you won't even get past the first room if the boss's minions spawn." He gave a dopey laugh. "And what would be the point of trying to level you guys if you died!"
"Hey, WAIT! No, you're not running away!" Marth screamed.
Link smiled again. "Oh, but I am. Sorry! Just go back to town, kay?"
Before Marth or Jigglypuff could respond, Link cut and left the party. The two quickly shut off their party chat mode to hear Link's final parting words. "Isn't it time for bed yet? Go to sleep!" He commanded, running into the darkness, but not before waving one last time before his character vanished.
"Marth..." Jigglypuff spoke softly. "Are we going back to town?"
"Uh..."
--
I couldn't answer her yet. My mind was too busy trying to think of many different things. Trying to remember where I saw that purple flash from. Wondering why Link would suddenly rush off, even if he KNEW there were no monsters here. And alone, without the people who he came to power level? Infact... why did we even stay in the level in the first place? I had my own questions to answer, and just wasn't ready to answer Jigglypuff's yet.
"If you're not going... well, I am."
I felt my eyes widen in shock at Jigglypuff's remark. I turned Marth's face to look at the little pokemon and asked, "Are... Are you serious?" She nodded.
"Like you said, you can't help people by just running away. So, let's help Link!"
Wow. So she took my advice to heart? That's a shock. Although it made me feel good... with that statement, I shook away any confusion I had left in my head. She's right! No matter how weird this situation is, we should be focusing on helping Link. Besides, this game is weird enough as it is. How could I get any weird? Will we run into walking noses with red bows in their single strand of hair? Unlikely.
"Alright then!" I said, moving Marth towards the cage. "Let's go, Jigglypuff!"
I heard Jigglypuff give a sound of agreement as the two of us ran into the cage, not at all knowing what we were going to see...
--
Sheik showed no signs of backing down as Dr. Mario put his hands into his coat pocket. A few moments past and neither had said a word. Dr. Mario gave a confident smirk and shrugged. "Oh well? I guess you don't want to hear it?" He said turning away.
Pit, who was still frozen on the ground, began to whisper to Sheik.
>PIT: Heal me! DX >SHEIK: Shut up... >SHEIK: Can't you see I'm trying to think here? >PIT: GOSH, Just listen the crazy guy. We'd have him beat (if you'd help me up -.-) so don't worry bout it :D >SHEIK: ...-sigh-
"Hey, don't you walk away." Sheik said, taking a few steps towards Dr. Mario.
He gave an cocky smile, although Sheik couldn't see it with his back turned to her. Dr. Mario turned around and clapped his hands. "Haha. You really are a smart woman, huh? Or did Pit have to convince you?"
"Just tell me the deal before I harpoon you like a roasted pig again."
"Hehe. Here is the deal. You leave..."
Sheik quickly took out her needles again. "Not funny. Be serious, or else!"
Dr. Mario began to wave his hands with a slight look of panic on his face. "No, no! You didn't let me finish!" Sheik lowered her weapons, causing the healer to sigh. "Impatient girl. Now if I may... You leave... and you leave without the stone." He could tell Sheik was getting angry with this current deal, to which he couldn't help but smirk. "Hold on. But you're not leaving empty handed." Dr. Mario reached into his pocket and pulled out the blue stone. It floated a few inches above the palm of his hand as he held it up for Sheik to see. "We will hold onto the stone. But in exchange for you leaving, I will give you my GID."
"Why would she want that!" Pit screamed, trying to move his still paralyzed body.
"Because, dumbass, it's a way for me to keep in contact with her."
Sheik raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I got you attention now, I see. Well... Bowser hasn't been known for keeping his promises. With this stone, he promised me that I'd get my due reward once we figure out what the stone does." Dr. Mario put the stone away. "But alas, I don't trust him as far as I can throw him. So I doubt he'll keep me completely updated on the information on the stone. So here is where you come in. We exchanged GIDs... and keep each other informed about what the other side has learned about the stones."
"We'd never give information away to the likes of YOU!" Yelled the little angel.
"Shut it, Pit." Sheik brought her hand to her chin and began to ponder the situation. "...Well... I see where you're going at. We share information and work to a common goal... but what do we get out of it? I mean, we have no insurance that what you're telling us is true. And you're still holding onto the stone, so it defeats the purpose..."
Dr. Mario giggled. "You don't really think I'd let that big oof in the other room get all the power, right? When our hackers find out what makes this rock tick... I'm going to steal it."
"So you could take the power, correct?"
"Yes... But afterwards, you'd get the stone."
Sheik growled. "Thats just as bad as Bowser getting the power."
Before Dr. Mario could reply, the echo of people marching and shouting could be heard in the distance. The healer turned around and noticed that there was a shadowy mass heading down the hallway, still very far away though. "Look, we don't have much time." He said, turning back to Sheik. "Do we exchange GIDs and exchange information or will you fight off Bowser's army of hackers? I'll even throw in a free pass to get into Bowser's Castle whenever you need too. Deal?" The doors of the castle began to creep open as Dr. Mario face took a pleading look.
A pop-up asking Sheik if she would exchange Gamer IDs with Dr. Mario appeared. However, the assassin looked very reluctant to accept. "Working with my worst enemy..." She muttered as the marching grew louder. "...That's something I wouldn't expect." She said as she accepted the GID.
Dr. Mario gave a smile. "Good, good! Now, you and Pit get out of here before his cronies show up. I'll be in contact with you later." Dr. Mario bent down and cured Pit of his paralizesis.
Pit stood up and punched Dr. Mario on the head. "Hmph!" He stormed out of the castle, his arms crossed.
"You're welcome..." Dr. Mario muttered, rubbing his head.
"There has got to be some other reason you're doing this." Sheik said as she began to walk towards the door.
"There is." Dr. Mario confessed with a grin. "I'm the only person who can destroy your character data. Not these lowly hackers. So, wait till that day to get your data corrupted, okay?" Sheik didn't have the time to respond, as the army of Bowser's minions was nearly ontop of her. She simply nodded to Dr. Mario, picked up speed and dashed out the front doors of the castle, having them slam shut behind her. "And thats that."
Dr. Mario said, vanishing into the darkness with a flash of white just as the army arrived at the scene, followed by a large amount of "'Where did they go" from the troops.
--
Link ran through the dark hall by himself, his sword and shield at the ready. Dashing around corners and nearly tripping down a few flights of stairs, the hylian slowly made his way down, deeper into the earth, searching for the final room in the dungeon. "I hope its near..." He muttered, rushing along.
At long last, he came to a flight of stairs which lead downwards. At the end of the stairs was an opening, to what Link thought was the final room. But unlike the rest of the tunnels, which were pitch black, there was an eerie purple glow emitting from the room. It seemed to flicker between brighter and darker at random times. "Finally!" He smiled, beginning to descend the stairs.
Link entered the room, showing no signs of fear. The room was very plain, no windows, not lights, no nothing. Just three walls, a ceiling and a floor. But there was one thing out of place in this room - a giant floating circle with an off-centered cross marking in the middle. "Is this the right place?" Link asked no one, taking a few steps closer to the rift. He walked right up to the mysterious circle and was captivated by it's glow. "Wow... it's really very pretty."
The swordsman began to lift his hand towards the rift. But just as Link was about to touch it, the sound of static shot through the room and the rift began to fluctuate. Link jumped back, lifted his sword and readied his shield. The rift began to corrupt the area around it, causing ones and zeros to appear and the texture of the game to peel back into nothing by black and white snow. "So Zelda was right..." Link said, taking a step back. "This area is part of the 'Event'!"
The purple light began to shine brighter and brighter as a creature began to emerge from the rift. Link had no idea what creature await him, or what danger he was about to race. But still, the hylian stood strong, his sword ready to chop down anything that came from the rift. And with a smile on, he said, "Well then, let's get this battle started!"
