Greetings and good evening... Yes, good evening even to you, you early riser who bathes in youthful sunlight, and even to you, who spends the afternoon on their computer/cellular device in the post-lunch hours of the day, and especially to you tired folk who cannot for the life of them spend the night time sleeping. And I guess a good evening to those who are currently experiencing the evening time as well. Enjoy the last part of Chapter 6, then its on to 7, because counting is fun!

Chapter 6 Part 7

Preportal Preamble

Giga Bowser opened its giant maw and a gurgling noise came from the deep within its throat.

"End of the line, Mr. Jumpsalot." Mr. L grinned darkly from his place on Giga Bowser's shoulder.

Link struggled to his knees and looked up defiantly. "You… you scoundrel. I won't let it end like this!"

Mr. L sighed. "Poor delusional Mr. Green-Dress. You are not currently in a position where you have the power to let anything happen. I hold the cards, and I'm afraid you've all had to say 'Go Fish.'"

Kirby grimaced. "That was so bad, I'm somewhat more okay with being fried to a crisp."

"Well!" Mr. L thrust his hand outward, a single pointed finger extending towards Kirby. "If you've the moxie to mock me even in this dire situation, I now see that I was dealing with simpletons from the very beginning! Enough stalling! Giga Bowser, finish them!"

The gurgling from Giga Bowser erupted into a roar as the flames inside its body ignited. Sonic tried to get to his feet, but the shaking of the castle's floor forced him back to his knees

"Hold on." Sonic looked down. "Why is the ground shaking?"

The tremors grew in violence at an exponential rate. So strong were the vibrations that even Giga Bowser snapped its mouth shut and looked down, confused.

"What!? How is this possible!?" Tails was staring at his computer in utter amazement. "There's no way!"

Kirby looked at the ground nervously. "What's happening Tails? Should we be happy? Scared? Confused? If it's the latter two, I've got you covered in spades," he called to the fox boy.

"There's something beneath the castle… Something as big… no, bigger than Giga Bowser! I… I don't even know what to say… we're finished."

"What!?" Sonic cried. "You mean Mr. L's got another pet that's bigger than flame-breath here? We can't catch a break, can we?"

Mr. L, however, seemed just as clueless as the hapless heroes, and was promptly taking out his fear and frustration on Giga Bowser.

"What are you doing, you stupid beast?!" He shrieked. "They're helpless, ready to be liquefied, and you're concerned about a t-tiny tre-tremor? End their game! End it now!"

Giga Bowser shook its head and opened its mouth again, and Mario could see the burning flames bursting forth from its gut.

CRACK!

The ground between the heroes and Giga Bowser split open, a red light pouring forth from the now gaping chasm.

GRROOOOOOOOOH…!

A giant, red, clawed hand extended from the depths of the pit and slammed down in front of Sonic. The blue hedgehog gawked at the behemoth of an appendage before him. The hand alone was almost 10 times bigger than his entire body.

GRROOOOOOOOOH…!

Another clawed hand extended and grasped the other side of the pit. The two hands then proceeded to pull their host from the crack in the floor. Emerging from the eerie light was a massive, bipedal creature covered in red segmented plates of thick armor. It had a gray underside, and great, white ivory spikes ran along the length of its body. Glowing yellow eyes stared menacingly from out of its head as it turned its gaze down upon the heroes.

Link gulped visibly before rising to his feet and standing before the great beast before him.

"Excuse me, great, er… great red being. Are you friend, or are you foe? If the latter, I and my colleagues are perfectly willing to enter into diplomatic negotiations with you so as to avoid any unpleasant, um… unpleasantness, if you understand my meaning."

The red giant swung its head downwards until it was positioned right above the green hero and glared at him menacingly.

GROOOOOOOOOOOH...

Link took a shaky step back. "I-I see. In that case," Link turned to Sonic, "perhaps we should make like a tree and-"

GROOOOOOOH!

Link's clever worldplay was interrupted by a furious roar.

"That's it Giga Bowser, make it pay for disturbing your dinner time. Claw it to bits!"

Behind the beast, Giga Bowser began clawing and ripping at the armored plates on its back, with little visible effect, other than making the giant angry. It shifted its stance until it was glowering down at the mutant Koopa.

"Now, now, let's play nicely. We are civil… people, aren't we?" Mr. L adopted a chastising tone. "We wouldn't want anyone getting hurt, now would we?"

The beast snorted, as if in amusement, and then swatted at Giga Bowser, smashing him into the wall. Mr. L was sent tumbling through the air until he landed in a heap a few paces away from his fallen steed. Much to his credit, however, he immediately stood and dusted himself off.

"Alright, I warned you, but now we shall be playing the game of hardball." He raised his gloved hand and snapped his finger. "Giga Bowser… Have at him!"

Mr. L vigorously pointed his finger at the red giant and waited for his pet to unleash its fury.

Grrroawwnnn.

A low moan came from behind the masked man, causing him to turn and his vigorous stance to whither. Upon hearing his snap, Giga Bowser had made an effort to rise to its clawed feet and engage in carnage. However, as it tried to push itself up, its scaly arms failed it, and Giga Bowser collapsed to the ground, letting out another pitiful moan.

Grrrroooooaaaawwnnnn.

Mr. L paled and even his mustache seemed to droop in fear.

"Oh dear."

He turned his head slowly back toward the red beast, with a smile that seemed to contradict the rest of his trembling countenance.

"N-now, I am a generous man, and though you refused civil action just a few moments ago, I, in my generous way, am willing to offer you a second chance at a non-violent solution. If, and only if you- YARGH!"

The beast had decided it had heard enough of Mr. L's sniveling and had let loose a small burst of flame flying straight at him. With a yelp, Mr. L leaped – in an ungainly fashion – out of harm's way, only for the beast to fire another ball of fire at him, resulting in a deadly game of "Dodge-the-Fire-Ball-Lest-You-Become-a-Roasted-Green-Man."

As the beast played its game, Kirby took the chance to examine the back of the red beast. He spotted something odd around the beast's head and nudged Sonic standing beside him.

"Hey, doesn't it look like there's something on that giant's shoulder? Something… or someone?"

Sonic raised his head to where Kirby was pointing and squinted to see a red figure gripping one of the creature's spikes.

Sonic's eyes widened in recognition. "Hey… is that…"

The red figure turned around and seemed to pause for a moment before sliding down the beast's back and leaping off of its curled tail. The figure landed before them and grinned smugly as he saw the dumbfounded guffaws of his companions.

"Did ya miss me?"

"Kn-Knuckles!"

The group of friends huddled around the red echidna, bombarding him with merriment and relief, temporarily forgetting the red giant beside them.

"Are you crying, Sonic?" Knuckles chuckled good-naturedly.

"What? No!" Sonic blinked a few times and shrugged. "I just-uh… It's the heat. From the flames. M-makes my eyes water," he muttered unconvincingly.

Tails, in an outrcry of juxtaposition, was weeping tears of joy as he leapt from his Cyclone and hugged Knuckles. "Oh Knuckles, I thought you were a goner! I-I didn't see life-signs on my computer, and I didn't detect any-" he hiccupped, "any sonic displacement anywhere in the castle! I thought you were d-d-d-d-waaaaah!" Tails's sentence blubbered into hiccups and sobs.

Knuckles tried to struggle out of the fox-boy's embrace. "Ger'off Tails! You're gonna get my gloves all wet from your silly crying."

Link raised an eyebrow. "The young boy has a point though, Knuckles. The last we saw of you, you were buried beneath the gargantuan mass of Giga Bowser. How in Hyrule did you survive being pancaked and then proceed to remain undetected by Tails' fanciful instruments? It seems a miracle if you were to ask me."

Knuckles laughed. "It ain't no miracle pretty boy, just me and my two fists." Knuckles punched the air to demonstrate his point.

"I beg your pardon?"

Knuckles sighed and shook his head. "Maybe I'd better show you."

He then bent down and started to tear at the ground with his fists, quickly forming a hole in mere seconds, which he promptly disappeared into. In a matter of moments, he popped out of the ground behind Link.

The green-clad warrior turned around, a look of genuine surprise on his face.

"Wow, Knuckles, I didn't know you could do that!" Kirby smiled. "That digging power might even rival the sharp claws of Animal Kirby."

Tails nodded. "And you evaded my instruments scanning the castle because you weren't even in the castle! You were digging underground! I can't believe I never thought of it!"

"I, for one, am extremely impressed," Link began. "To think that-"

Mario tapped the green hero on the shoulder and spoke a bit of Italian to him.

Link shook his head. "I'm sorry, Mario, I'm afraid I don't speak the native language of the Mushroom Kingdom. Did you want to commend Knuckles as well?"

Mario slapped his forehead and made a flapping motion with his arms.

Sonic scratched his chin. "Nah, Knuckles can't fly. Not without the 7 Chaos Emeralds, that is. He can glide though. Sort of like a flying-squirell."

"Hey!"

Mario shook his head and flapped again, this time scratching at the ground like a bird.

Kirby rolled his eyes. "C'mon guys. Mario's obviously trying to say that Knuckles is like a burrowing owl that has trouble flying."

Mario collapsed to the ground in exasperation.

"Speaking of birds, what happened to Chatot? Did he escape with you down the tunnel?"

Knuckles grinned even further. "What happened to Chatot?" He looked behind him at the massive red giant. "See for yourself!"

"You mean that thing is our little birdbrain!" Sonic stared in awe. "That's awesome!"

Knuckles nodded. "After I dug our way out of being flattened, I was ready to get right back in and start fighting that oversized turtle, when Chatot turns to me and says that fighting Giga Bowser would be hopeless. I said that we had to fight, that we couldn't just give up, and Chatot's eyes lit up suddenly, and he sorta squawked. He told me he had just thought of a Pokémon that could put Giga Bowser and Mr. L in their place; a Pokémon that he had in his brain thanks to Mr. L, something he called Groudon."

Kirby laughed. "So that's Groudon, huh? Quite the spectacle."

"Alright! Alright! I concede! Stop with the fire-balls! My classy clothes have been cremated!" Mr. L's withered surrender brought them back to the reality of the situation. Peeking around Groudon's massive form, they saw Mr. L, singed and blackened from his near scrapes with Groudon's flame breath. He was waving a white flag in defeat.

"You win! I might work for the boss, but I gotta look out for number one first, and right now number one needs an ice bath." Mr. L panted.

Groudon began to glow and shrink until Chatot was flapping where the red beast was a moment before.

"Giving up so soon, squawk?" Chatot cooed mockingly. "And I was just getting the hang of breathing fire, squawk! What a shame."

The tropical bird fluttered down to where the group of heroes was standing.

Mario gave him a thumbs up.

"Good on ya, birdbrain." Sonic smiled.

"Couldn't have done better myself." Link stated.

"You gotta remember that one for the big bad later on, alright?" Kirby remarked

Chatot bowed gracefully, soaking up the praise of his friends. "What would you guys do without me? No need to thank me for saving your hides though, squawk. I already know how incredible I am. Speaking of incredible, did you see my claws! Squawk! As long as five times my body, maybe even more! And the height! Towering above you all, you should have seen your faces when I first popped out of the ground. Cowering like Wurmple amidst a flock of Taillow. Squawk, priceless." The small bird giggled to himself giddily.

Sonic frowned, and Kirby narrowed his eyes.

"Happy feelings gone," he muttered.

Knuckles cracked his neck and smacked his gloves together in anticipation. "Alright, enough talking. The party's not over yet. We've got this 'boss' to take care of before we can restore our homes to the way they were."

"Yah-huh! But with a team like ours, I'm sure we can conquer any foe that stands in our way." Tails chimed in as he climbed back into his Cyclone.

Kirby cringed at these words. "Must we say things like that? Does anyone have some wood I can knock on?"

Link strode forward towards Mr. L, who was now blowing on his burns in an endeavor to alleviate the pain.

"You! Mr. L! Where can we find this 'boss' you are constantly referring to? And do not lie, lest you feel the edge of my sword." Link brandished his blade menacingly.

Mr. L scoffed haughtily. "Enough with your quibble, you fool. There's only room enough for one sir in this castle, so don't go around using words like 'lest' all willy-nilly, or I'll have to call you Mr. WannabeMr. L butishopelesslybelowamanofmystatur-"

Link swung his sword threateningly close to Mr. L's brow.

"Alright, alright! Through the doors that Giga Bowser appeared from is a portal that will take you to the boss. He's in a place called Dimensional Castle, tucked in a crack of space that's commonly referred to as Distortion Valley by the fellows who research that type of thing, though in my opinion, it resembles nothing like a valley. I'd say it's more of a-"

Link looked over his shoulder and called to the rest of his friends.

"Come, our final destination awaits!"

The group of heroes marched by Mr. L, promptly ignoring his scorched personage as they made their way for the portal. Mr. L's eyes glinted with damaged pride, and he promptly ignored them straight back. That is, he ignored them until they had passed him by. As soon as the group started through the doorway to the next room, Mr. L pulled out a gun and pointed it at the heroes.

"Mock me and perish, you fools. Have at you," he whispered as he fired an electrified netting from the barrel. It opened up and spiraled through the air, it's crackling tendrils reaching out to grab the heroic gang.

Hearing the shot of the gun, everyone turned around.

"Woah!"

"Squawk!"

"Look out!"

"Tails, no!"

Tails slammed the joystick on his Cyclone until he was positioned between the netting and the group of heroes. He pressed a button on his console, and a metal arm extended from the front of the walker. A blue, bubble-like wall started to quickly inflate itself from a pocked positioned at the end of the arm, until it formed a shield in front of Tails.

"Take a look at my bubble shield, now with a special insulator function!" Tails yipped victoriously.

The netting slammed into the shield, embracing it in a deadly electrified embrace. Unfortunately, the netting was too large, and one portion of the net did not wrap itself around the back of the shield, and instead, hooked on to the left leg of Tails's Cyclone.

"Uh-oh."

Lightning zipped through the machinery, fried the circuitry, and popped the sprigs of the Cyclone as the electric current ran from the net, through the walker, and into the ground. With a mechanic moan, the Cyclone toppled to the ground, Tails tumbling out onto the ground after it.

"Stupid Fox-Boy!" Mr. L stomped, scrunching up his face in fury, then straightening suddenly. "Luckily, I've got more than one net! And I won't miss this ti-Ack!"

Before he could fire another shot, Sonic ran up and disarmed the masked man, with Knuckles close behind him. The echidna tackled Mr. L to the ground and held him helpless with his superior strength.

Link, Kirby, Chatot, and Mario ran up to Tails, who was already on his feet, dusting himself off.

"Are you okay?" Link questioned concernedly.

"And how come you don't look like a fried fox? That looked like a whole lot of volts that ran through your machine." Kirby gave a sidelong glance to the smoking Cyclone.

"I'm alright, I'm fine." Tails assured. "The seat's insulated, so there wasn't a danger of me being electrocuted. The rest of the Cyclone though…" he trailed off as the main console suddenly burst into flame. "Well, let's just say it's toast."

Chatot shook his head worriedly. "That was a brave thing you did, squawk! If it weren't for you, I'd be a fried bird right about now."

"Yeah, Tails, that was really something. Great work little buddy." Sonic had walked up from where Knuckles was holding Mr. L and gave Tails an appreciative pat on the back.

Tails blushed and rubbed the back of his head shyly. "Aww, you guys would have done the same. I just did what anyone with a machine that had an extendable arm with a portable, insulated bubble shield attached would have done."

Mario tightened his cap upon his head and nodded to the rest of the group.

Link brandished his sword. "Mario is right, my friends. The time for camaraderie and congratulations is now behind us. We must venture on, to the plateau of our journey, so that we might right the wrongs of this mysterious evildoer behind the mess our worlds are in."

Kirby rolled his eyes. "Let's get going before Mr. Hero here starts talking in prose."

"You guys go on ahead." Knuckles shouted from where he was detaining Mr. L. "I'll keep this trigger-happy nut-job from following you through the portal. Go and save the world."

"I'll stay behind too." Tails walked over to his smoking Cyclone. "I'll keep Knuckles company just in case something happens on this end. Also," Tails glanced toward the immobile form of Giga Bowser, "I'll need to tinker with the Cyclone so that we'll be able to pacify Giga Bowser in case he wakes up. Perhaps if I could increase the potency of the tranquilizer by adjusting the Truman Knob…" Tails pulled out a wrench and began the repairing the Cyclone.

"Will you guys be alright by yourselves? If you need big ol' Groudon to stay behind-" Chatot began to protest.

"Nah, they can handle it." Sonic smiled. "We'll see you when we return from Distortion Valley."

"Sure thing Sonic. Be careful." Knuckles smiled back.

The heroes once again made their way for the portal to Distortion Valley, and to Dimensional Castle, ready to tackle whatever lay beyond.

Mr. L lifted his head from the floor and spoke to Knuckles under his breath. "I should warn you, he's way too powerful for them. They'll be clipped and hedged before they can even walk through the front door. Anything they can throw at him, he'll be ready for."

Knuckles tightened his grip on Mr. L's arms and laughed grimly. "Oh, and how do you figure that?"

Mr. L's voice darkened, and his eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Because I have this feeling that the boss never really counted on me stopping you all. I feel that he never really counted on any of us to stop you. Darkrai, Eggman, Ganondorf, Dedede… They were pawns, pieces in a game. He's mad, you know. Absolutely off of his rocker. And he's got some vendetta against your red plumber friend Mario, I can feel it."

Knuckles frowned. "What exactly are you trying to say?"

Mr. L turned to look at the echidna from where he was on the ground. "Do I have to spell it out for you, you simpleton? I'm saying that the boss wanted to deal with Mario personally from day one. He counted on our failure, and has been ready for you all from the moment you started this inane crusade.

"I'm saying your friends are as good as dead."

Here's the part of the show where I say "Guess what Pokemon Chatot was," but since I already told you, let me ask you this instead. What game was Animal Kirby first introduced in. And don't you dare Google it, because I'll know... I think.