The Master of Games?
The being that calls itself Master Hand liked to believe he was a patient being. He put up with his brother for millennia upon millennia, he broke himself off from his creator, and even created his own universe. But if their was one thing that could set him off more than anything, was when the people he invited were threatened. He grew to care for the contestants of the now named Smash Tournament immensely. In some extreme cases, such as with Dark Samus, Sephiroth, and especially Ridley, he was significantly more strict and firm with. He still respected them, but also understood how dangerous and unforgiving they were and could be. He also pitied them to an extent. He pitied Dark Samus for being so corrupted by Phazon. What she did was horrible, but before all of that she was just another metroid. The phazon corruption is what turned her into such a sadistic monster. Sephiroth was very similar as well. He was only like this due to that freak Hojo. If it wasn't for him, Sephiroth would have most likely been a large supporting figure to both Cloud and Zach. They would have been like brothers, along with Angeal and Genesis. Ridley however, was another story. Ridley's entire life was kill or be killed, which he took to heart at an early age. This eventually spiraled into the Ridley of the present. A cruel, sadistic, murderous monster, who cares more about his kill number than the kill itself.
Despite hosting company like this, he still cared for them. He brought them here, so it was his responsibility for what happened to them. He tried his best to do so, even building them a mansion to stay in. However, he was by no means omnipotent. This was shown on several occasions. The incident with Tabuu was bad enough. Paraded around as a puppet to convince his own contestants to attempt to murder each other! Even when released he could do nothing, and was thrown aside like a used dish-rag. After that, he became corrupted by a very ancient light, forcing his contestants to battle and defeat his very Core, that had gone out of control due to him resisting. Which leads us to now. His creator, Galeem, had returned. He was stolen away before he could even blink. He was powerless as she placed him back under her control. His weakened state and soothing words made it all to easy for her to turn him, but she would take no chances this time. He had broken free before, he could to it again. She made sure to shackle and bind any essence of resistance he could possibly muster. He felt dead in his own mind. He could feel nothing, sense nothing, do nothing. Everything just felt dead. A prisoner in his own personal abyss. Yet still he fought. He tried, even if he couldn't feel it, to will his body to hold back. To shackle any power, even if it was but a fraction. Anything he could possibly do to make up for being too weak once again. He knew he would be forced into combat against someone who didn't deserve it, and he wanted to help them to victory as much as he possibly could.
Then he felt something. First was his sense of being. He felt his mind slowly bring itself to the surface, and he could faintly "see" what was around him. Next was pain. The pain of bullet wounds, burns, scortch marks, slash and stab wounds, and an almost uncountable amount of bruises. After a few seconds, he started to get feeling back into his nerves and muscles. He felt the ground he lied upon, and his fingers attempting to stretch. Eventually, Master Hand was able to gain enough recollection to activate his levitation, and rise. He shook the rest of the fuzz and last remnants of her control from his mind, and peered at the ones before him. Before him was Mario, Pit, Sonic, Samus, Bayonetta, Sora, Sephiroth, Shulk, Joker, and Palutena. He was about to approach them and question them on the situation, until he stopped and used his senses seriously. He saw how battle damaged some of them were, before Palutena proceeded to start healing them. He could recognize those serration patterns and bruise marks anywhere, as well as the wounds on himself, all for the same reason. All the times he had challenged them. He had had the privilege to challenge each and every Smash Fighter at least once since starting the tournaments. So he would recognize the signs of their attacks on himself instantly and easily. And to his horror, he felt all of them. At least one battle wound on his body matched up perfectly with at least one attack from EVERY fighter he had come to meet and challenge. He dared to look beyond the small party before him, and barely held back a gasp. Each fighter was either on their knees, being healed, or taking a defensive stance against him. He could not blame them. All signs clearly stated one thing. Even though he knew he'd had been forced to battle someone undeserving of it, he did not think his efforts would be so pointless.
"I tried to murder them all again," He said to himself, failing to say it quietly enough for the group of 10 to not hear him. He first noticed Samus, Palutena and Bayonetta looking at him in a mixture of annoyance and pity. It was as if he was an X-Parasite, Underworld Monster, and an Angel of Paradiso respectably in their eyes. Joker even still had his gun aimed at him. He then noticed Sephiroth gain a mocking grin before speaking to him.
"Yes you did. You fought oh so valiantly for your goddess. You should be proud of yourself. You have served your role to the letter, puppet," He finished with a grin. That struck a nerve so deep he didn't even know he had it before then. Master Hand couldn't move. The one winged angel's statement, along with the fearful and even hateful looks of so many he had come to care for shook him to his literal core. He could feel the core within him still, for once in eons. He couldn't bring himself to speak. To his shock, it was Pit who stepped up to defend him.
"You shut your mouth Sephiroth! We all know this wasn't Master Hand's fault. All of you should know that! You all saw it!" The flightless angel shouted. Master Hand was baffled. It was painfully clear Pit took a large amount of the brunt of Master Hand's attacks, due to him not being healed yet, but he was the one who spoke up for him. Next, Sonic spoke up next.
"Pit's right! I see how most of you are looking at him. Keep in mind pretty much all of us were in his same exact position that he was!" Sonic yelled as well. Samus, Joker, Palutena, and Bayonetta all looked shocked at the two boys statement, before looking away in thought. Sephiroth just chuckled before looking away as well, further angering Pit, who decided to just ignore it for now. Snake then came forward with a stern expression.
"You two make a good point, but keep in mind this is the third time this has happened. On top of that, each of the other two times were not nearly as brutal as this," he stated, gesturing to the rest of the fighters. This started a mass discussion between the fighters, all while Master Hand was left confused.
'How did I damage them this much? I know I did not enter my Master Core state due to the status of my body, but how did I have enough strength to give so many warriors this much of a fight?' He asked himself. Sonic noticed the creation god's confusion, and decided to shed some light on the situation. He walked up to the giant hand and placed his own hand comfortingly on Master Hand's pointer finger.
"Galeem shot you with some weird rainbow blast once you were summoned. It made you glow as if you had a final smash. I saw your body thrashing quite a bit even after she hit you. It's dead clear that what she hit you with gave you a massive power boost," He explained to the now shocked hand. That explained how he had given them so much trouble. And why his efforts meant nothing.
"Wait, thrashing?" He asked. Pit was the one who answered next.
"Yes. Even during our fight with you. You would randomly spasm and allow us to get big damage on you. Usually Captain Falcon, Ganondorf, Donkey Kong, Byleth, Min-Min, Dedede, and Sephiroth," Pit explained. That made sense. They all had powerful attacks that required time to charge. Then Master Hand picked up on much of the talk happening around him. He could even make out who was saying what.
"What if Galeem controls him again when we attack her and Dharkon?" Mythra questioned.
"The hand is clearly not immune to the command of his goddess. He has much more of a chance to being a danger than help," Cloud spoke with certainty.
"It might be better to try and keep Master Hand out of the way so he doesn't cause more trouble. He's shown he can't be trusted," He heard Red say.
"The bloody thing has already done this in the past, might as well find a way to be done with him here and now," Bayonetta said fiercely.
"Even if he doesn't try to kill us here, who's to say he won't do it again even if those two are beaten?" Samus questioned.
Master Hand couldn't even argue. They all made excellent points. How could they believe in his loyalty when he couldn't even control himself! Pit and Sonic sensed the hands distress, and simply patted his fingers to help calm him down, to minimal success. Master Hand then noticed a pink orb waddling towards him. It was Kirby, one of the only beings here that could defeat him single handedly. The pink puffball walked up to hand with tears in his eyes, before hugging his two front fingers. Kirby had sensed how sad and horrified Master Hand was at what he had been forced to do, and couldn't bare it along with what everyone else was saying about him. Pit and Sonic backed away to let Kirby do his thing. Master Hand was stunned for a few seconds, before opening his palm and softly clutching Kirby in his own hug. This helped him more than even he realized. Both then released each other, with Kirby tearfully smiled up at him, with Master Hand giving off the feeling of his own smile. Kirby then frowned again, before pointing to another end of the battlefield. Pit and Sonic gasped before looking at Master Hand sorrowfully. Master Hand's dread grew as he slowly turned in the indicated direction, only to gasp in horror. Everyone heard the god gasp, and turned to see what was wrong, only for their moods to drop once they saw where the hand was staring. On the ground, about 10 ft away, barely moving, was Crazy Hand.
"BROTHER!!" Master Hand shouted as all feeling of pain became numb and void as he rushed towards his brother, with most of the fighters following closely, but keeping their distance out of respect. The giant hand quickly cleared the distance between himself and his brother, but what he saw made him wish he hadn't. Crazy Hand was in bad shape. He had significantly less wounds than Master Hand did, but it was the fact that he wasn't moving that was the problem. He was also horrified to see that he had the same wounds that every other Smash Fighters did. Said Smash Fighters had quickly caught up to Master Hand, and Pit, Sonic, Sora, Mario, and Kirby, all now fully healed, walked up and did their best to comfort the Hand of Creation.
"W-w-w-what did I d-do?" Master Hand asked, for once not talking in his normal voice and instead in a trembling voice, so soft and filled with despair it touched and/or broke the hearts of most of the people behind him previously questioning whether or not the hands presence was still necessary.
"It wasn't your fault, but Crazy Hand was the first to lead the charge against you. We think that's why Galeem shot that power booster at you. Since he was first, aside from Pit, you did the most damage to him," Sora explained while patting the hand on his wrist. Master Hand then noticed Palutena, Luminary, Erdrick, Solo, Eight, Zelda, and Pac-Man walk past him, each giving him an assuring smile, and proceeded to start healing Crazy Hand. Pac-Man continuously generated pellets that Zelda and Palutena used to speed up the process, while Luminary, Erdrick, Solo, and Eight continuously casted Heal over and over again.
"He is-a still alive, but in pretty bad condition. Please don't-a blame yourself. It was painfully obvious, especially-a now, that you did not want this," Mario kindly spoke, patting the other side of Master Hand's wrist. This did reach the 'ears' of Master Hand, but did very little to stop his trembling. He then floated forward slowly until he reached his unconscious brother, and lowered himself to cup his brothers knuckles. The healers had done all they could for now. Master Hand, didn't know what to feel yet. He could still feel how most of the fighters felt about him. They were no longer saying anything, but he could tell. They all felt he was a burden, not a help. They were right. He had attacked and attempted to murder them all three times now! On top of that, he had almost killed Crazy Hand!
'What kind of a caretaker, protector, and even brother am I?!' He screamed at himself in his mind, forgetting that Mewtwo, Ness, Lucas, and any other psychics or empaths in the vicinity were paying acute attention to his thoughts. He had noticed the second he had woken up, and purposefully made no effort to block out his thoughts. He wanted any scrap of trust he could claw back from them. Mewtwo and Palutena felt the brunt of his pain the most, due to understanding it the most. Mewtwo understood the pain of causing something you did not perceive or want, so he sympathized with the hands situation. He wanted to protect the people he admired, and instead had been forced to do the opposite. Palutena felt even worse. How could she judge this fellow deity when she had once done no better? She had trapped her most trusted friend's soul in a ring for heavens sake! Under the influence of another's will as well! Galeem to Master Hand was just a more powerful Chaos Kin. Only for him, it was the goddess he had served, like Pit served her, but unlike with her and Pit, their wasn't some evil force controlling his goddess. His goddess wanted this, and he had refused to just stand by and let it happen, just like Pit did.
'That's why Pit defended him so much. This is just like when Pit's body was used to attack the humans before he managed to take it back,' the green haired goddess pondered while watching said angel now fully embracing Master Hand, who still had refused to let go of his brother. They all then heard a large explosion behind them. Everyone turned and saw Galeem and Dharkon's fight had gotten even more destructive, and stray and deflected blasts of cosmic energy exploded near them.
"As sad as this is, we need to forget the hand for now. Those two's fight is gonna get worse and worse if we don't do something," Dark Pit spoke firmly. Sonic and Sora briefly wanted to strangle the dark angel, but decided against it knowing he was right.
"He's right, hopefully Master Hand will join us soon. However, we still need a way to get past that barrier," Roy spoke, drawing attention to said barrier. Once Galeem and Dharkon had engaged each other, a cosmic barrier had formed in a large spherical area around them, keeping the rest of the Smasher's out, but not keeping their stray attacks in.
"I doubt he will be of any use in that state," Bayonetta stated, jabbing a thumb at the seemingly frozen hand.
"The witch speaks the truth. It would be wiser to push on and leave the hand and his brother to their fates," Simon stated firmly, with everyone else, most reluctantly, nodding in agreement. Pit and Sonic decided to give one last goodbye to Master Hand, with Sora and Fox glaring at anyone who tried to stop them. Everyone had moved away from the two hands once the first few stray shots landed near them, so Sonic and Pit had to approach the giant gloved hand once again. However, once they got closer, they noticed Master Hand was not still anymore. In fact, he was now glowing. All of the other fighters now noticed the giant hand start to float slightly upward, glowing a familiar rainbow hue, and shaking. Immediately, most of them got into fighting positions, anyone with ranged attacks preparing to fire.
"Great. Looks like we need to teach him a lesson again," Bayonetta scoffed, prepping her guns to fire.
"Look's like he's still under her control," Cloud spoke grimly, heaving his Buster Sword.
"We can't handle another beating right now, but he did just take one. We may need to put him down this time though," Samus stated, raising her arm cannon.
"Looks like I was right, he is still just a puppet," Sephiroth spoke with a smirk. What they all did not notice, was the fearful expressions on several of the people present at the words being spoken, especially Palutena, Mewtwo, Lucas, and Shulk. Before any of them could warn anyone to silence themselves, Master Hand did so himself.
"Be silent." He spoke firmly and quietly, as if he was talking to children. This caused all of them to widen their eyes in shock and slight fear. Master Hand slowly turned to them, still shaking, before speaking slowly, barely containing the rapidly growing emotion he felt.
"I greatly appreciate all of your comments and notes, especially yours Sephiroth, but I can assure you, with utmost authority, that you are all most certainly wrong" He stated, forcing even a still grinning Sephiroth to step back from the force now emanating from the god. Everyone now felt the sheer power, and more specifically raw rage now emanating from the hand.
"Take this however you wish, but I suggest you listen carefully to what I say next. I will fly up their, and destroy everything connected to those two waste's of existence. I will not stop until every pawn and beast they are hiding behind are a mountain of broken bodies. You do not trust me. For very good reason. But for this brief moment, I do not care. Try and stop me, and I will respond in kind. I will reap justice for what has happened here, even if I have to die by their hands or yours." Master Hand finished with a snarl, terrifying most of those present. They had never seen the master of smash angry at all before, let alone the sheer and literal force of his rage they were feeling now. The only small comfort was that it was obvious it was not directed at them, at least at the moment, but at the two deities fighting above them. Before anyone could even respond to Master Hand, they witnessed him tilt himself upward, before shaking even more violently in rage as his gaze fell upon his old master, with a disturbingly familiar black mass starting to appear in specks around him. Several of them then noticed rapid breathing, and finally took notice of how pale and deathly frightened several of their members were. Specifically, the mental manipulators/viewers. Bayonetta, Sora, Pit, and Sonic moved towards Palutena, while Red, Samus, Cloud, and Dark Pit moved towards Mewtwo.
"Lady Palutena?" Pit asked in concern, placing a concerning hand on his goddess' waist.
"You okay Mewtwo?" Red asked, gently holding the pokemon's shoulders. This shook both mind readers back into the real world. Mewtwo and Palutena both looked to each other, exchanged a shuddering nod with each other, before turning to those gathered around them.
"We can both assure you," Mewtwo started.
"Master Hand's target is certainly not us," Palutena continued.
"GGGGGGGGRRRRRRAAAAAEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Master Hand screamed to the heavens in increasing volume, before rocketing towards the battle of light and dark, knocking several of the fighters over from the sheer force of his departure. Everyone who fell slowly picked themselves back up, and turned their attention to a slowly approaching, terrified Lucas.
"I-i-i-i-if h-h-he w-w-w-w-wanted t-t-to h-h-hurt us," Lucas started, before Ness placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"I don't even want to try and describe what he would potentially do, but let me just say we would not be alive long enough to tell what." Ness finished, barely managing to not stutter like his fellow psychic. None of the psychic's had felt such a strong combination of feelings of desperation, failure, and pure rage either at all, or in a very long time. They understood better than anyone that Master Hand did not want to hurt them, he wanted the blood of someone else. Someone currently battling her darker counterpart just above him.
What scared and/or shocked EVERYONE even more, was that it didn't sound like one voice. Now Master Hand sounded like, from what they could gather in their few seconds outside of fear and panic, at the very least millions of voices screeching and screaming in rage and fury. Not just comprehensible one's either. It also sounded as if thousands of nightmarish beasts and monsters were screeching in fury alongside the rest of the voices.
Princess Peach screamed in fright as the top half of a light copy of herself fell in front of her, it's face stuck in an expression of panic and pain. She screamed even louder when the same liquid flowing out of the bottom of the torn half fell on her face. Samus and Roy flinched when a dark copy of Dark Pit crashed in front of them, only this one had it's right arm and half of it's face torn off. They all then noticed glowing gold and/or dark red, what they now recognized as blood, raining down all around them. This had the unfortunate effect of scaring anyone who could be considered a child, with the exception of Young Link, who alongside Rosalina were doing their best to console the younger members of their group under an astral shield the Cosmic Goddess created. Everyone else started having to dodge the increasing number of falling corpses. Pit, Sephiroth, Samus, Bayonetta, and even Ridley were becoming increasingly shocked at the amount of bodies dropping before them, all already knowing who the cause of this was.
"Well, we can't let the hand have all the fun," Ridley stated hungrily, the sight of so much blood, death, and corpses getting his own blood pumping and working up his appetite. Sephiroth, Kazuya, and Ganondorf were also getting in the mood to start dropping some bodies as well. Other slightly-better minded individuals such as Dark Pit, Bayonetta, and Mythra were getting a little battle hungry as well, but that all stopped when the charred, vertically bisected, and very efficiently crushed corpse of the Dark Beast Ganon crashed a good two feet away from them, dark blood pooling out of each of the sides of the large beast. Rosalina luckily was able to shield the children from the view, but everyone else was not so lucky. Anyone deemed a princess seemed to be about to puke, Luigi already did, and anyone who was getting battle hungry, found themselves suddenly quenched of that hunger. Especially Ganondorf.
"I think we better wait this out for now. I know pretty well what the rage of just seeing, let alone causing, a close friend or family member to get hurt can do to you, and a good amount of the crap out of some of your mouths didn't exactly help." Sonic stated, glaring at a select few individuals. All of them but Sephiroth looked away either stubbornly or guiltily.
"Sonic's right," Ness said, stepping next to him. "I know Lucas, Palutena, and Mewtwo already know this, but I saw into Master Hands thoughts. The only way I can describe what I felt in a way you all will understand, is that he feels that he has nothing to lose." He stated, getting a gasp out of most of them.
"Wait, but I thought Crazy Hand was ok? What about him?" Asked Samus. Palutena stepped forward to answer that.
"He's in a coma." She stated grimly, getting a much larger reaction out of nearly everyone. They all instantly understood the giant hands rage now. He had been forced to brutalize his own brother, and now.
"He thinks he killed him." Snake stated, getting a nod from Palutena.
"But why? If he's just in a coma, isn't their still hope." Zelda asked fearfully, getting a comforting hug from Link and Toon Link.
"Their is. But to Master Hand, who had the fact that he caused it, as well as what happened to all of us, for the third time, shoved back into his face all at once, he probably didn't notice or care. In his eyes, he basically killed someone close to him, and almost killed all of us again." Link explained somberly.
"I'm understanding it better now. He feels worthless, but not in the way you'd expect. He thinks that all he can do is cause harm to people close to him. Made even worse by what some of us have been saying about him. So he wants to use everything he has left to cause some harm to someone that isn't. And would gladly die in the process of doing so." Robin explained his view on it, getting a nod from Ness and Palutena.
"Two birds with one stone," Snake said with his fists clenched. That hand didn't deserve this. Being under those thing's control was hell for him, so he knew it was the same for everyone else. And that hand was the first to be captured.
"Make up for what he blames himself for, and remove what he believes is nothing but a curse upon our lives here," Bayonetta stated firmly, causing everyone to solemnly and frighteningly look up towards Master Hand himself, fighting above them in a manner that could only be described as brutal. Master Hand tore through anything in his way quicker than any of them could believe. All the times they all had beaten him in a one on one match, as well as the rest of Master Hand's defeats had blinded them to one simple fact. He was ALWAYS holding back. This could not be more accurately shown then right now. Both Galeem and Dharkon had proven they could summon almost exact copies of each of the fighters present. This also includes the extra power Master Hand granted to many of them. Fighters like Olimar, Isabelle, Villager, Duck Hunt, and a few others would not have stood a chance against anyone else in smash on their own. It was Master Hand's power that raised everyone to equal footing with each other. He also did this by slightly restricting some of the more powerful and destructive members of Smash, such as Palutena, Dark Samus, Kirby, Meta Knight, Ganondorf, Bayonetta, Rosalina, and Sephiroth. Due to how much extra power he gave the weaker smashers, he did not have to expend much effort to restrain the stronger smashers due to the gap being bridged so much already. This fact however, was often overlooked by a few of the stronger contestants, notably Bayonetta, Palutena, and Sephiroth.
'It is so easy to forget the hand has more power than he shows. Despite not even having a typical face, he wears a rather convincing mask,' Sephiroth pondered to himself, pleased at the raw power he was observing from the god of creation. Despite not liking being 'under' anyone, he was pleased to see the master of this realm exercising his power like he should. It always infuriated him how he would let weaker beings walk all over him at times, such as, despite his grievances, himself, anything else in this real calling itself a deity, and that infernal witch.
'To think I had thought this same being was a minimal threat at best not even a week ago. He is rather good at hiding the fact that he could eviscerate anyone he brings here with minimal effort. I guess it can't help that he no doubt has noticed me mentally comparing him to the blowhard fools of paradiso. Doesn't help that he's controlled by something similar to them as well,' Bayonetta thought to herself conflictingly. Truthfully, she did not like Master Hand much at all when they met. Similar to when she first met Pit actually. He himself was polite, but the feeling he gave off was far to similar to the angels for her liking. Specifically, their subservience to a "higher power" like the Auditio, Jubileus, or Loptr. Although she had to admit, she was naturally rather rude to anyone who tried to tell her what to do, and since he owned the mansion, and this world, she at times purposefully either ignored or disobeyed him for her own amusement. All he would do is reprimand her, which would end with her scoffing, halfheartedly agreeing to his terms, or both. She never did anything too heinous, so Master Hand was never actually too upset with her. But if she was being honest, she didn't think he could have done anything before. Now, however. She is just grateful she never angered him enough to do so.
'I can't believe someone as calm as Master Hand could be like THIS! I know it makes sense, but still. The closest being I have seen have rage like this was my sister! It's scary to think that I used to think this same god was harmless before. He is truly a master at keeping up a proverbial mask. Even seeing into his mind did nothing to reveal even a fraction of this! Although I can't say I blame him.' Palutena thought in fright and pity. She was greatly frightened by the incredible level of power Master Hand was now making no effort to conceal. What frightened her even more was that this strength seemed to far exceed Master Hand during their battle against him as the Master Core, which confused her. She, like everyone else, thought that was his true form, or more specifically, his full power. What was right in front of them blew that hypothesis completely out of the picture. Now seeing how powerful and viscous Master Hand could be when pushed far enough, she felt rather foolish for acting like she could do what she wanted around him. She, along with Bayonetta, Sephiroth, and a few others always overlooked Master Hand as a lesser god due to his typically passive nature, as well as annoyance for whenever he legitimately tried to kill them. During all of those times however, Master Hand was relatively easy to defeat, with the exception of this singular time. Everyone just chalked it up to Galeem powering him up, but they were wrong. That was NOT Galeem giving him more power, but instead was just Galeem forcing Master Hand to further loosen his restraints. The fact that Master Hand still forced himself to hold back was astonishing to Palutena in and of itself since he wasn't being drained of energy like she was with the Chaos Kin.
Master Hand himself was proving just WHY everyone was so shocked and frightened at the moment. The massive hand normally would lose to just one fighter. Now? He was quite literally ripping thousands of fighter copies of themselves apart with seemingly minimal effort. It didn't help at all that every single corpse that he left would all land in front of them. What frightened them even more was his mannerisms. They could still hear his howls and screams of rage and sorrow even from their distance from him. Master Hand sounded more like an angry eldritch mother than a person, and that technically wouldn't be far off. Just swap out mother for brother.
Daisy flinched when Master Hand effortlessly crushed a copy of her into a pulp before dropping the corpse in front of them.
Sonic cringed when a copy of himself was sliced into seven different pieces.
Red, Charizard, Ivysaur, and Squirtle all shivered when Master Hand took a copy of each of them and eviscerated them with rainbow colored lightning lasers before crushing them all at once with a boulder-sized spiked smash orb he summoned.
Samus swallowed a lump in her throat as Master Hand burned/melted two versions of herself, with and without her armor, to an unrecognizable crisp.
Dark Samus actually flinched backwards when Master Hand flat out disintegrated a copy of her with a large singular beam from his palm.
Ganondorf was already disturbed at seeing his stronger form bisected by the hand shaped deity, but was now widening his eyes in shock when Master Hand blasted a copy of himself into literal pieces with his finger gun attack.
Mewtwo was shocked when Master Hand incinerated a clone of him with five separate fireballs.
Link flinched and Zelda covered her mouth in shock when Master Hand grabbed a clone of Zelda, crushed it into a pulp in one movement, and threw the spinning corpse so hard at a Link clone it bisected it, both corpses falling to the ground soon after.
Everyone gasped and/or flinched in shock when Master Hand summoned hundreds of mirrors all over the air around him, and tore apart anyone in his vicinity once he fired his Satellite Cannon attack. Sonic especially remembers getting caught by the old version of this attack a lot when they defeated Master Hand previously. Seeing an enraged Master Hand performing the move made him sweat bullets, especially since he couldn't even recognize his puppet fighter after the move.
What Master Hand specifically did not notice, is that all of the freed spirits were viewing his carnage as well. The fighters neglected to tell him this due to it not being a major factor for the situation at hand.
Simon and Richter, along with Alucard, Trevor, Soma, and anyone else from their universe were amazed and horrified at how Master Hand punched a hole through Dracula after forcing him into his Second Form, and the hole did not heal. Some of them had seen Dracula survive a meteor strike and recover almost easily from it, yet this oddly shaped deity had almost one-shotted the vampire lord. Although, since this creature was clearly a high-level deity of some kind, it did make sense. He had been able to make a literal dog closer to the level of an typical god, so it certainly wasn't out of the question. Still, seeing the god-level vampire be brought down so quickly was astonishing and terrifying at the same time.
Practically everyone from the Legend of Zelda universe either saw first hand, or through other means learned of the power of Ganondorf on a normal basis, let alone his transformed state. Seeing the mutilated corpse of Ganondorf in his second form was alarming enough, but to also see Master Hand blast two clones of the Gerudo Warlock into oblivion in one blast of light was both amazing and horrifying.
Kirby and Meta-Knight noticed something both new and disturbingly similar once Master Hand forced Marx to be crushed in his own black hole. What was new was the fact that his entire body seemed to be slowly become covered in smash orb symbols, all glowing a bright rainbow hue. What was also new, but disturbingly familiar was a certain smash ball like orb in the center of Master Hand. What was disturbing about it was the black and gold swarm that was flowing out of it.
"Uh oh," Pit said in worry, flashbacks of a brutal battle coming to his head as he recognized the particles.
"Oh no, not again," Sonic gulped in fright, also having unwanted flashbacks.
"Oh dear," Bayonetta said nervously, remembering how brutal Master Hand was in that state.
"This should be entertaining," Sephiroth spoke with a grin.
Then Master Hand exploded into a incomprehensibly large swarm, only unlike last time, the swarm was not all completely black. In fact, it barely had any black at all. It looked to be made up of trillions of significantly smaller orbs. These orbs bore a striking resemblance to another powerful orb-shaped artifact created by the very being currently transforming.
Princess Celestia, the immortal ruler and defender of Equestria, motherly figure to all who will allow it, fearsome terror to those who threaten her subjects, and self-proclaimed supreme cake connoisseur, was not easily surprised. She had faced a towering centaur quite literally out of the depths of Tartarus, a demonic ram lich whose creativity and cruelty combined knew no bounds, and a literal god of chaos in the form of a mismatched amalgamation known only as Discord. She even has had to face and banish her own sister, overcome by jealousy and the influence of a parasite. Despite all of this, even she could not hide her confusion and shock at what she had witnessed.
She was currently in her bedchambers, and it was close to when she was required to raise the sun. This was unknown to her however, due to her currently slumbering. She was currently having a melancholy dream of her and her sister, who she missed dearly. It was nothing complicated. Just both of them enjoying a relaxing snuggle with each other watching the night sky. Celestia always regretted not doing this more with Luna more than most things. Something even as small as this could have helped prevent what happened.
'If only. If only I ha-,' Celestia's thoughts were interrupted when she was suddenly struck with an incredibly powerful vision. The Princess appeared above what looked like a end of the world battlefield. She looked down and saw what seemed to be a small army of assumed warriors if the weapons were anything to go by. She then sensed something to her right, and turned to see what could only described as two eldritch deities. They had looked to have been previously in combat with each other, but were now more focused on something before them.
"What is going on? What is all of this?" She asked herself, utterly confused and in aw at what she was witnessing.
That's when Celestia heard it.
The scream.
"GGGGGGGGRRRRRRAAAAAEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
A powerful, rage and sorrow filled wail punched and shredded it's way into her eardrums with no remorse or mercy. Even her own Royal Canterlot Voice paled in comparison to the terror inducing roar. What made it even worse, was it sounded like millions of voices screaming and eldritch monsters screeching all at once. The alicorn desperately tried to block out the sound with both magic and her own hooves, but to no avail.
Then, it got worse.
Once the fury stricken wail had finally ceased, other noises caused Celestia discomfort for an entirely different reason. The volume was much softer in comparison to it's successor, but it was the number theorized reasonings behind the sounds that unnerved the pony princess. More screams, but not screams of rage, but of pain and terror.
The strange and warbled screams, as if creatures, with their voices immensely warped and altered, were being utterly slaughtered. The horrible sounds made her feel as if she had been punched a metal boulder had struck her gut. She slowly turned to the still screaming voices, and saw she was almost dead right. To her horror and bafflement, a giant, white, rainbow glowing creature was utterly decimating white and red what she assumed to be soldiers due to how many their were, while also swatting away, as well as quite literally crushing, several larger monsters in what was clearly a massacre filled by rage. But not blind rage. Oh no. She could tell from the creatures calculated attacks and dodges. This was focused and concentrated rage, but so much of it it looked as if it was blind rage.
The creature causing the screams looked similar to the white gloves used by minotaurs and sometimes griffons when at formal gatherings. The filled-out form of the glove suggested it was actually a sentient giant gloved hand or claw. But how could a disembodied limb be so powerful? Or brutal? She could tell simply from the destruction it's missed shots caused, as well as the shock waves from it's physical impacts. As the princess looked closer at the soldiers the giant hand was brutally slaughtering, she noticed they looked similar to the smaller army down to the ground. Some of the white ones looked similar to about half of them, while the dark red ones looked similar to the other half of the group.
"Are they clones? If they are, they are clearly in the service of the angelic and demonic beings in the sky. Their coloring makes that simple enough. It seems though that this hand is significant enough a threat to both of them to form a temporary ceasefire. They clearly aren't trying to help the other, but they are at least trying to stay out of each others way." The princess correctly theorized. She was curious on why the giant hand was so furious. This type of fury reminded her of an angry Ursa Major protecting it's young. She did not know how close she was to the truth. She cringed and looked away when the giant hand forced an equally comical and terrifying bat-like jester, who had just split itself in half to form a black hole, to become crushed in it's own vortex it created. She observed all of the strange creatures that made up the small army below the hands onslaught. What looked like several strange hairless apes, animals such as the falcon and the fox standing on their hind legs, a terrifying skeletal dragon like creature, a more friendly orange dragon with a flame on it's tail, and surprisingly enough another giant hand laying further above them. From the looks of it, it was badly injured. That got her thinking.
'Could the two hands be friends? Is that why the other one is so enraged?' She thought to herself. She did not get long to think before the other hand drew her attention back to it, due to it glowing with a rainbow aura that continued to get brighter and brighter. She also noticed a black and gold swarm like mass start leaking from it. Before she knew it, the hand burst in an explosion of bright light. Out of reflex, Celestia braced herself with her forelegs to protect herself from the explosion, but it never hit her. Instead, it caused the princess to be ejected from the vision. Little did she know, she wasn't the only one.
Nightmare Moon was waiting.
She could feel it. Her imprisonment was nearing it's end. It was all she could think about. Finally, she could return, and claim vengeance against her blasted sister.
She knew Celestia could not use the elements again. Even if she could, all Nightmare Moon would have to do is get to her before she could get the chance to use them. She overpowered her sister last time, the reason she was here in the first place, so she knew she could do it again. As the corrupted princess was further contemplating her inevitable victory, she felt an incredible amount of energy from the Dreamscape, the area she would appear in to enter other beings dreams. Something had just entered, or more specifically based on how large the energy felt, forced it's way into the Dream World. She could only contemplate this for a few more seconds, before she heard a sound, made up from millions of other sounds, that made her feel a way that even her own pride would fail to keep her from admitting to.
"GGGGGGGGRRRRRRAAAAAEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"