Chapter 9

"I told you, I didn't kill her!" Bowser said. He banged against the bars of the cage he had been thrown in. He was joined in the room by Marth, Mario, Luigi, and Pit. "Peach said she needed to-"

"Shut up!" Mario shouted. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! You've-a gone too far this time. I have-a put up with this for decades because whatever you-a did, there was always a way to fix it. This time, there isn't. Now I'm-a gonna make sure this is-a it for you."

"Mario," Marth said. "You need to calm down."

Mario turned to Marth. "There are more cages."

"The last time you tried locking me up, it didn't seem to be all that effective."

Mario clenched his fist. He was about to strike when Luigi grabbed his arm. "Please, don't."

Mario jerked him arm away. Pit glanced around the room. "Well, maybe we could hear Bowser's story. It couldn't hurt."

"It'll be a waste of time," Mario said.

"There isn't much to do with our time since we lost power."

Mario glared at everyone in the room before he walked to the door. "I don't need to hear this crap." He left the room and slammed the door.

With him gone, Marth directed his attention back toward Bowser. "Alright, this may be your only chance to explain yourself."

Bowser took a deep breath. "Okay. We were looking for somewhere safe where we could hide. Peach said that she needed to get a few things in case we were attacked. We went back to her room, but she told me not to come in. As I was waiting, I heard her scream, and the door closed behind me. I clawed at it until it broke open, but once it did, I was hit and knocked out. Then I woke up to Mario shouting at me."

Marth looked at the others in the room. "Alright, we'll need to talk to the others. Once we've decided, we'll let you know."

The three others left the room. Toon Link was standing outside of the room. "Has anything happened yet?" He said.

"No, but we need to talk to everyone. See if you can gather everyone together. We need to talk about Bowser."

Toon Link nodded and left. Marth turned to the others. "So what do you think?"

"I don't-a know," Luigi said. "I know Bowser is an awful person who has done many awful things, but he isn't a villain that-a would go this far. If he-a was, Mario and I would've died a long time ago."

"But this isn't something Bowser would have chosen," Pit said. "That virus thing would be in charge, and we already proved how psychotic that is."

"Then why didn't Bowser act like a psycho when we talked to him," Marth said. "Whatever this thing is, we don't know much about it, so we can't make any conclusions about what it can do."

"Then how are we supposed to get anywhere," Pit said. "We'll need to make a few assumptions if we're going to make progress."

"Then we better make the right assumptions if we want to make progress as well."

"And how-a do we ensure that?"

Marth turned to Luigi and tried to answer, but he couldn't seem to come up with an answer. He finally just said, "I don't know. We just have to."
They all fell silent and tried to think of some way to ensure they would find the virus, but they came up with nothing. "Marth." They turned to see Toon Link and all the other smashers behind him. "We're ready to meet."

"Okay. We need to talk about what we're going to do about Bowser. Let's get out of this hallway." They ended up in a large room to talk. Marth looked around the room. Mario still looked furious about everything, Link seemed to be keeping close to Zelda, Rosalina looked like she was going to crack, and the younger ones seemed terrified. Once everyone had found a place to sit, Marth began speaking again. "More people keep dying, and we haven't been able to make any real progress in stopping or slowing down these deaths."

"Bowser has been locked up," Mario said. "All we need to do is kill him and then this is finished."

"It isn't Bowser's fault," Pit said. "Bowser never went that far when he kidnapped Peach in the past. We have to deal with the real culprit. The virus is the reason for these attacks on us."

"Then how do we deal with the virus?" Fox said.

"That's our main issue," Marth said. "We don't know what this thing is, and I'm hoping we can figure things out if we talk about things we noticed."

"The virus hasn't given us much though," Trainer said. "No one has seen him and come back to tell us."

"That means he can act like us to blend in," Zelda said. "No one seems to display any differences from brawl. I don't know if any of the new guys have changed."

"The only new guys left are Trainer and Rosalina," Donkey Kong said. "Rosalina is innocent because the virus made its first attack before Rosalina arrived."

"Trainer doesn't seemed to have changed either," Samus said.

"Well we also know that Zelda and Rosalina are both innocent," Link said.

"We also know that Mega Man and Olimar's Bodies never showed up," Zelda said. "If what I've heard is true, then that doesn't fit with the others. Everyone else who died had their bodies show up."

"They may still be alive then," Kirby said.

"Or one of them could be corrupted," Samus said.

"Someone has been leaving messages," Fox said. "It's most likely Olimar."

"Someone with a blade has also been cutting them down," Samus said.

"It doesn't necessarily have to be a blade," Link said. "Just something sharp, like an arrow, a pair of scissors-"

"Or claws," Mario said, interrupting Link. "Bowser is still a prime target for suspicion."

"It isn't him-a necessarily," Luigi said.

"Well then let's-a make this simple. If you were-a with your partner the entire time, raise-a your hand." Everyone in the room raised their hand. "Then-a who else could have done it."

"Fine," Marth said. "Supposing Bowser did it, what is your solution?"

"We-a kill him."

"No," Link said.

"It's the most likely thing that will work."

"And what if it doesn't, or what if you're wrong about Bowser?" Pit said.

"I'm-a not! Look, we can't-a wait for more victims to be claimed. That cage won't hold Bowser forever."

"You caged Bowser?" Kirby said.

"We couldn't let him stay free. We need to do what it takes before more of us die."

"He may be right," Samus said.

"We could find another way," Pit said. "You or Fox have to have something that could get it out."

"I don't think so," Fox said. "I'm not familiar with this."

"We have to try something else," Link said. "There has to be a solution that doesn't involve murder."

"How long could that-a take?" Mario said. "Long enough for Bowser to break out and Zelda die."

Link reached for his sword and glared at Mario. Mario just stared back. They remained like that for a few seconds before Link took his hand off his sword and said, "I'm not going to let that happen."

"I said that about Peach."

"So we're just going to kill Bowser," Trainer said. "We barely have any evidence against him."

"And none to support him," Samus said.

"What about Bowser's story?" Toon Link said. "He had something that proved he was innocent, right."

Marth thought about Bowser's story. While it might have made sense, since no one had their partner go missing, the answer was, "No."

Mario gave a small smile. "I did want him dead just out of-a revenge, but I have calmed down. I'm not fond of it, but it's the only way we will get closer to ending this."

"You're not actually going to kill him," Pikachu said. "Right?"

Samus looked down at the yellow mouse and knelt by him. "I'm sorry little guy, but this is to make sure you're safe. You understand, right?" Pikachu nodded, but he just got sadder.

"Innocent 'til proven guilty!" Toon Link said. "We may not have proof he's innocent, but our proof he's guilty isn't that strong either."

"Alright," Mario said. "What about his other crimes? What about him-a constantly kidnapping Peach, or hurting the other citizens of the kingdom. How about his constant attempts to-a kill me, Luigi, and anyone else who tried to save his victims, or when he-a took the grand stars from Rosalina?"

"His crimes go beyond the mushroom Kingdom as well," Fox said. "The things he did when Taboo first arrived hurt a lot of people. Zelda, Peach, Dedede, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong. He even tried to kill me, not to mention his actions contributed to the destruction of all the ROBs."

"Well then we should've done something then," Marth said. "It isn't our fault you never stopped Bowser from coming back."

"Don't-a put this on me," Mario said.

"Maybe we should-a all calm down," Luigi said. "We need to remain focused on our problem."

"The-a problem is-a Bowser!" Mario said.

"I thought you said this wasn't about revenge," Pit said.

"What's the matter?" Samus said. "Would you prefer to die?"

Marth groaned as he sat back in his seat. He began regretting bringing everyone together. They continued to argue, and didn't seem ready to stop. As he sat there, he thought he heard something. "Hey," he said. "Could everyone be quiet?" A few glanced at him. Marth tried to identify the noise, but it was so quiet that he wasn't even sure if it was real or he was making it up. "Quiet." They all continued to argue.

Marth grabbed a nearby chair and flung it against a nearby wall right by Donkey Kong's head. "Shizukani!" Everyone turned to him, startled at what had happened. Marth began listening again. It was still faint, but he knew it was real. It sounded like someone was bending metal. "Something's wrong." Marth bolted out of the room. Others followed him as Marth made his way to where Bowser had been locked up.

As they ran, Marth could hear Mario shouting, "I-a knew it! We can't-a trust a villain!"

Marth groaned a little. He grabbed the door handle and threw open the door. Marth looked forward at the cage shocked. The bars had been bent or torn off, leaving a large hole in the cage. In the middle of the cage was Bowser's body, with both of his arms torn off and embedded in his chest. A note hung from the top of the cage. Marth took it off and read, "I am Judge, Jury and Executioner. I have found Bowser guilty, judged him worthy of death, and carried out his punishment. His crimes, betrayal and murder, but not of Peach. She was guilty of murder as well, most of you are. Those who are not are dangers to everyone else. You have all been found guilty, and have been judged worthy of death.

"It's just a matter of time before your punishment is carried out."

Well, I'm still alive…hi. Okay, I think the drill should be familiar by now. I would appreciate any comments on ways for me to improve as well as any mistakes I may have and probably made. Also, I am still interested in who you guys currently think the killer is. Hopefully there will be more soon.