"So," Link asked. "How do we get to the top?"

  He and Samus stared up at the mountain. So high that they couldn't even see the top, and steep enough that trying to climb it would probably be a suicide mission.

  "Maybe if we take it slowly..." Samus mused. "But I don't see how we can get everyone up."

  Peach tapped her on the shoulder. "I think the others are already taking care of it for us."

  Samus turned around. Young Link was pulling a mask out of his pouch and pressing it against his face. He convulsed for a few seconds and began to shrink, as his skin formed a brown bark and a tube-like mouth pushed out of his face.

  "This is my deku form," he explained. He nodded at Game and Watch, whose body clipped and stretched, becoming a low structure similar to a trampoline. Link jumped onto it, and was launched easily hundreds of metres into the air. He grabbed onto the rock, and pulled out a large set of pipes. He played a quick song, and a mass of plants sprouted from the cliffside. They soon covered the entire side of the mountain, providing an easy set of handholds for the others.

  Samus looked at Link. "Can you do that?"

  Link coughed. "I can't do everything that my young self can."

  Falcon clapped him on the shoulder. "Age catches up with all of us, man. Now, let's climb."

  Popo kept struggling upwards. Hand over hand against the slippery rock, checking the line to make sure the others were still with them. He was exhausted. He just hoped that Marth and Zelda would be able to save Nana for him, if he couldn't.

  "I'm leaving it to you, Ren Fair," he thought. "Nana, wait for me."

  The rain was turning into a whine in his ears. Cold water splashed against his face. He was going too fast. He wasn't safe. Light surrounded him. Was this it? Was it the end? Had he failed?

  "Hey!" he heard Donkey Kong's voice call out to him from below. "Stop, Climber Man."

  Popo turned around to see what the problem was, and suddenly understood the source of the whine and the light. Floating just a few feet away from the edge of the cliff were two strange vehicles. They looked kind of like planes, except more angular and pointy, with a design like they were from a science fiction film. He was also sure that planes couldn't stay in place like that.

  "I'm dead," he said.

  The cockpit of the nearest of the vehicles opened. Popo saw a fox wearing clothes in the pilot seat, with a moustachioed man in red and a pink ball with eyes behind him.

  "Definitely dead."

  "Not quite," the man in red said. He stood up in his seat and leant towards Popo, extending his hand for him to take. "I'm Mario."

  "Hi, Mario," Popo said. "My friend, Nana. She was taken by this big hand."

  "Okay." Mario said. "We're heading to the top. Would you like a lift?"

  Popo felt relief flood his system. In his relief he let go of the cliff and fell into Mario's arms. "Thank you," he said.

  "Only a little longer, Nana."

  Marth helped Zelda to her feet. Crazy Hand floated a few feet away, giving them the chance to watching them as they readied themselves to fight again.

  "What's it doing?" Zelda asked. "Why doesn't it just attack us while it can?"

  Marth leant on his sword for balance and gasped for breath. "If I had to guess? It needs us for that Melee machine, or whatever it said it was called. Maybe it can't damage us too much."

  Zelda groaned. "I feel pretty damaged."

  "So do I. Are we going to keep fighting?"

  She glanced at him and smiled. "Was that ever in question?"

  Marth held up his sword. "Of course not."

  Zelda put her hand on the hilt of the falchion and cast a spell. Light energy travelled through the blade, giving Marth a brightly glowing sword.

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  "How about this," she said. "I go high, you go low."

  "This is pointless!" Crazy Hand's voice alone was enough to hurt when they had already taken so much damage, and Marth and Zelda flinched upon hearing it. "Don't you understand? I'm a being of pure darkness. A monster far beyond your understandings. You can't hope to defeat me."

  "Go!" Marth yelled. He ran forwards, keeping his sword close to his body and preparing for an upper strike. Zelda used her light magic to teleport in the air, then released a rain of fire magic that fell on the Crazy Hand like a rain.

  Crazy Hand snapped its fingers and a shield of darkness appeared in the sky, easily deflecting the fire. It then turned the sword towards Marth. "Everything you do against me is pointless!"

  Marth drew his sword back and drove the point into the shield. It stopped it in place, but he kept pushing, gritting his teeth and pushing hard against the ground.

  "It's not pointless!" Zelda insisted.

  Marth nodded. "That's right. Because the job of a ruler is to do everything that they can for their people. So even if we have no chance of winning, even if your power is much greater than ours, nothing we do against you is pointless."

  "And our light can be greater than your darkness!" Zelda insisted. The triforce mark on the back of her hand began to glow furiously, and the light from Marth's sword intensified. Marth screamed in defiance and pushed harder, and the shield of darkness shattered.

  "Impossible!" Crazy Hand said. Marth's blade kept going, and struck the palm of the hand. It bit into the fabric of the glove like butter and kept going, passing through the darkness inside and emerging out the other side.

  Crazy Hand roared in anger.

  Below, in the cells, Nana heard the roar.

  "Connect me again," she told Mewtwo.

  "But..." Mewtwo said. "Nana, look at yourself."

  Nana didn't need to look to know how bad shape she was in. She felt like she could barely stand as it was, and only an intense desire to free herself before Popo arrived was keeping her standing.

  "Do it," she ordered.

  Mewtwo hesitated, but connected her mind to Master Hand's once again.

  She found herself floating in a void that was almost bereft of light. She could feel her body out there somewhere, but all of the pain felt like it was coming at her slower than before. Like she knew that she should be in pain but hadn't fully experienced it yet.

  The tiny light of the Master Hand floated before her. It seemed smaller every time she returned. But that tiny light was the only light she had.

  "You have to fight with us," she said.

  "I won't," Master Hand said. It made as if to remove her again, but Nana wasn't ready to be done yet.

  "Don't you know what's happening?" she demanded. "Somewhere above us, the Crazy Hand is fighting. I don't know who it's fighting against, but that doesn't matter! The only thing that matters is that everyone here is here because of you! You brought them here, and now, what? You're just going to let it all be destroyed because you feel bad about things that have happened before?" She shook her head. "If you're on a mountain, you make mistakes sometimes. And when that happens, people can get hurt. But you don't get to just climb down. You have to help the people who you put in danger, because that's what it means to be on the mountain. That's what life means!"

  "I told you!" Master Hand snapped. "If I fight Crazy Hand, something worse will come!"

  "Then let it come!" Nana snapped. "It was supposed to be impossible to defeat you, and the others won! People told Popo and I that climbing our first mountain when we were just kids was impossible, but we did it. Whatever comes next, everyone will overcome it together. So please!" She held out her hand. "Please fight with us!"

  Marth pulled the Falchion out of Crazy Hand's palm. A fog of darkness followed the sword out, spraying over him like it he had pulled a brick out of a damn. Crazy Hand recoiled, closing its fingers around the hole, but it couldn't stop the fog from leaking out.

  "You... wounded me," it said, sounding incredulous as much as it was angry.

  Marth backed up to Zelda, who wasn't about to let the moment pass. She summoned three orbs of light and fired them at Crazy Hand. All three struck it, and once again it roared in pain.

  "Stop it, stop it, stop it!"

  Marth raised his sword. "No."

  Then Crazy Hand began to laugh. "Then I'll stop holding back."

  Its fingers unfolded, and darkness flowed freely from it wound. Its form flickered, and suddenly it was in front of Marth. He hadn't even seen it move. It slammed into him as a fist, sending him flying back. His sword and shield both fell from his grasp.

  "Marth!" Zelda yelled, and Crazy Hand was suddenly behind her.

  "I told you," it said. "Focus on yourself."

  Dozens of fine lasers burst from its fingertips. Zelda had no time to dodge or avoid as she was struck dozens of times. She tried to summon her magic, but every move was met by another laser. Her body felt like it was on fire.

  Crazy Hand finally stopped its attack, and she fell, spent to the ground. She felt fingers wrap around her and lift her into the air. They carried her over to Marth and picked him up too, so they were both clenched within the giant fist.

  Then Crazy Hand started to squeeze. They both yelled in agony as their bones were crushed by its overwhelming strength. This was completely unlike what they had felt earlier in the fight. This was the full power of the hand, and the only thing they could do was desperately try and survive.

  "Have to... move..." Marth grunted.

  Next to him, Zelda screamed. "Link... I'm sorry."

  Everything went dark. Crazy Hand observed the two unconscious beings in its hand with a sense of satisfaction. They were damaged, yes, but not broken. They would still serve its purpose, it thought, as it brought them to the Melee machine. Two of the fingers stretched outwards at their presence, and he gave them over to it. Thick bindings of any lashed them to the fingers, jamming them in place.

  Only three more. Then it could attend to this wound by finishing them off personally. But first -

  Crazy Hand stopped. Something was moving beneath it. Was that -? No, that was impossible.

  But sure enough, a moment later the floor of the basin exploded upwards, as Master Hand rose out of the prison cell with Nana standing in its palm.