The world looked a lot smaller from Anna's vantage point. Everything seemed more peaceful when one was looking down on problems and seemed more removed. Numerous creatures and oddities passed by without her being noticed. If her life depended on it, she could have sworn a Koopa just waddled by no more than half an hour ago. This island just seemed so unnatural, like it was a dream created by the realms of her nerdy mind. A stiff wind blew through the area, a strong coastal breeze carrying with it the smell of salt and surf. Leaves rustled gently by Anna's ears, the tree she was taking refuge in provided excellent cover from whatever deviants await her below. She couldn't even recall how long she had been in this tree; suspended above the forest floor for what seemed like an eternity now.

Camelia had spoken of others on this island. As of yet, Anna had not witnessed another human soul nearby. Everything was eerily quiet, yet it wasn't at the same time. It was the absence of what many call 'artificial' noise that was the worst. After becoming so accustomed to the noises of city life: cars, planes, trains and television; nature by itself almost felt...unnatural. Ever since Camelia had imbued her with these 'abilities', Anna felt different somehow. Solid Snake wasn't what she considered super powered, yet, her senses felt more attuned, her body felt faster and stronger. It almost felt like her body was trained for things that seemed formerly impossible for her. This tree she was in for example; Anna had never been successful climbing trees in the past, her previous attempts as a child usually ending in disaster. Yet here she was, far above the forest floor laying in wait. For what exactly? That she didn't have an answer for. Maybe it was time to move on again, see if anybody was in the area?

Anna slowly and cautiously made her way down the tree. Each one of her steps practiced and precise as she landed with a soft thud on the leaf covered ground. The crunching of the leaves beneath her feet felt like it echoed in her ears. She cursed herself for making such a racket, even if it only felt that way to her. All of her moves felt like they had to be stealthy lately. Any unwanted noise was a beacon for unnecessary attention. Quietly, Anna began to walk from tree to tree, her slim form taking cover behind their trunks. Before she moved on to the next, she would cautiously stick out her head and survey the area. Once satisfied that all was clear, she stepped lightly and with purpose to her next refuge.

The leaves above rustled again, but this time, there was something different about the sound. Almost as if a background noise was mixed in with it. It was hard to peg, but it sounded like footsteps. Lighter than her own and shallower in depth, but footsteps nonetheless. Anna braced herself against the tree, her body contouring with her back against its curvature. The noise stopped just as quickly as it came. After a few more seconds of silence, Anna peeled herself from where she froze. Her eyes searching for whatever lay in wait on the other side of the tree. For all intents and purposes, it looked devoid of life. Trees, leaves and what looked like a sizable fungus but a few feet away.

The mushroom seemed odd in some way. Larger than any Anna had ever seen before. About a foot high, thick and stumpy in stature with what almost looked like feet for a stem. She approached it cautiously, her hand outstretched to touch it. Just as her hand was about to make contact, the mushroom turned on a dime and two large eyes with protruding snaggleteeth presented themselves to her. She knew what it was as soon as she saw its face. Many hours had been spent in her youth leading Mario through a harrowing obstacle course of these devious Goombas. If she had to guess, they were never friends to Mario and they probably wouldn't be friendly with her. The little shiitake lowered its head and plowed towards her at full steam. Anna recovered from surprise quickly, her pirouette just letting her dodge the blow. The Goomba turned like a raging bull and charged again, this time she was ready for him. Her hands on the ground, Anna dropped to her knee and spun her left leg around to catch the monster square in the brow. The blow sent the creature flying, his limp form smashing into a tree and falling unconscious into a pile of leaves.

Brushing herself off, Anna hoped the noise from her kerfuffle didn't attract anymore unnecessary attention. This forest could be even more dangerous than she thought. Goombas were easy enough to manage. But what lay ahead? There was no point going back now. The only thing she could do was to keep calm and carry on.​

"This sucks. Yep, totally," James muttered as he walked through the seemingly harmless forest. "I still haven't woken up yet!" he whined, then stopped still. He looked behind him, at the bat wings attached to his jacket, then grabbed one of them and pulled it abruptly. The wing would certainly be ripped off if it was made of paper, and it didn't seem like paper to the touch. "This feels real... oh, man."

Suddenly, something hit him on his back full force. "Motherf--," he didn't finish as he fell on the ground and rolled to face his opponent, a Goomba. He quickly adopted a shocked expression which wasn't visible behind the Meta Knight's mask. "This is real, alright!"

James shot himself up and drew the golden sword from his back. In the second that followed, he evaluated the thing that was standing before him, ready to launch another attack. Aren't these things in the Mario games? Goombas... they should be called Potatoes With Eyes instead. That sounds more catchy, too... The opportunity seemed perfect for him to test the powers Camelia supposedly gave him. He quickly thought of Meta Knight and the hours he spent playing as him in SSBB - but he couldn't see himself pulling those off. Meta Knight was literally a twister of death, while he could barely swing his sword around. He would have to learn to fight in his own way, if he was to survive this, dream or reality.

Some moments passed. Seeing as the Goomba was still readying to charge, he extended his sword towards it and got his body into a battle stance which seemed most comfortable to him; he had seen it in various games with swordsmen. If he was to fight like a swordsman, might as well act as one as well.

"Come at me, bro," he shouted at the Goomba, grinning slightly. He seemed oblivious to the fact that not only he was failing to act like a swordsman like Meta Knight, but he looked ridiculous too. At least to the global standards of the world.

The Goomba decided to resume its assault on him, and James thought it was because he taunted it. However ridiculous he may have looked, he was ready for his enemy. His wings left a vibrant shadow on the spot as he sidestepped to avoid the Goomba that launched itself at him like a bullet. After hitting on a tree with its hard head, it instantly changed direction for another attack, but James was much too close and his golden sword sliced through the being. The blade had been stuck between its eyes, and although the being was a creation of a virtual game, the sight disgusted James. He quickly put the blade with the Goomba against the ground, then pressed on its face with his foot in order to unstuck it with a terrible sound.

"Yeah! That's what happens! Yeah, that's what happens, when you try'na mess with the big boy!" he shouted at it, after he got over the shock that he'd just killed a supposedly virtual being, and therefore an animal bigger than a chicken. He had killed a chicken before. Many chickens, actually. By simply removing their heads.

Just as he was brushing himself off of the dirt, he heard a shuffling noise from above. He jerked his heard upwards to see somebody running from branch to branch with ease and security. His eyes widened in surprise to see Mario, or simply somebody who was dressed like the italian plumber. That guy was tall, taller than himself as far as he could tell, and he was wearing a fake mustache - James could tell it was fake from where he was standing. Who the heck has mustaches these days, anyway?!

In any case, if that somebody was dressed as a video game character just like him, that meant that there were other humans Camelia shared her powers with on the island. Mario could be proven a useful ally - his stomp was deadly, somehow. Probably because of his weight. But that guy didn't seem fat...

"Yo, Mario!" His voice sounded as if he was grinning greatly behind the mask. "You missed a Goomba there!" he said, pointing at the Goomba on the ground with his sword.

"... or should I say, 'Punching Bags'?" he chuckled.
​

BACKPACK

​

When the turtle creatures known as Koopas first began to swarm around her, Mimi dived behind the tall apple tree that their brethren had been using for food in an attempt to hide from their sight, but the damage was already done as they came circling around to nip and smash into her armored legs. The long-limbed woman made a leap over the first row of Koopas that surrounded her, swinging the heavy cannon adorning her arm into a few of their faces as she went and landing on the other side of their circle, tumbling into a roll before she could stand steadily on two legs.

The swing of Mimi's cannon only managed to bash a few of the Koopa squad as the rest turned to face the leaping woman, leaving her with no time to begin a weave through the trees. Raising her already well-used cannon, she let loose a burst of fire that cascaded energy on the ground before her, before she nimbly leaped away with to use the trees as a pattern for her attacks. If she would be able to contain the Koopas within a certain area, hit and run would be her best bet of eventually grinding them all down to nothing.

Mimi sprinted around the trees an an irregular pattern ton confuse the Koopas as she was one moment beside them, or between them the next, but the method left her unable to do much damage to them by herself. With a beep of her HUD, another figure was detected approaching from behind. As she span round, she charged her arm cannon with a warning hum to frighten the closest Koopas as she tried to spot the newest arrival to her little brawl, only to see him leap swiftly through the trees and take down a Koopa in place of her. Though her HUD marked him as human, and that was good enough for her to not waste her charge on the fellow.

Instead, Mimi sought to keep the horde of turtles at bay with a few sweeping kicks as she moved between the trees, but at this rate, the two of them would never be able to take down the group without becoming exhausted first. Instead of choosing to prolong the fight, she lets out a burst of her arm cannon to stagger their gathered enemies and looks to the boy dressed like a Pokemon, shining a light on the side of her helmet to catch his attention and gesturing with her thumb to the river, in the hopes that the young man would understand their need to flee.
​

Drew began to tread his way from the shoreline to the outer-forest, wondering what creatures were indigenous to the island. He jumped over a fairly large sized log and he landed earlier than he expected, stumbling forward, almost running dead-on into a tree. He knew then and there that he was going uphill. He knew for a fact that he wouldn't be given any charity when it came to survival but he had been almost entirely trained to survive in the wilderness. He was hungry and thirsty but hopefully he'd be able to find area where he could set up a camp.

He paused and looked for an area clear enough to set up a camp, examined a nearby tree to see if it was dry and then , inhaled then exhaled, and slowly unsheathed his sword and pointed at a nearby tree. He dashed at it almost without notice and, with almost finesse, he cut the tree trunk and all the remained was a stump. He carried his firewood and piled it in the clearing. He sat down for a moment, legs crossed, and if anyone were observing they'd wonder what Drew was doing but he was listening to see if water was nearby. Sure enough there was a small stream not to far away. Drew shuffled through his pockets until he found an empty bottle and soon enough he had a fair amount of purified water and a fire going with a plentiful amount of firewood.

Drew suddenly panicked and put out the fire. What if someone Cammy was talking about was to come here? He questioned himself and then he decided not to worry as he only had the fire going for a few minutes. As if it was a response to his thought, Drew heard rustling nearby that seemed to come from a bush.
​

Anna cautiously approached the spot where her fallen victim lay. The sight was quite unlike what she had anticipated. The little Goomba's body lay there of course, but something else was nearby. It looked quite like a gun, no, a rifle. Her hands twitched in anticipation and fear as she squatted to pick it up. The weapon felt reassuringly heavy, but not overly so as her fingers curled around it. Anna had never held a 'real' gun before and it was her suspicion that she still hadn't. It looked familiar of course, it was the super scope. An item drop quite common in the smash brothers world. If she was being honest with herself, she never used it much in the game, preferring other options like throwing a fan.

Something seemed to take over her body in that instant. She snapped the rifle into position, the butt against her right shoulder, finger hovering and tensing over the firing mechanism. She swept the forest around her with practiced and perfect precision. Precision she never had before, it looked like she had been holding weapons her whole life. Her eyes looked to the weapon, her hands shaking with fear at how quickly she had brandished it and at how comfortable and at home she felt with it. Hell broke loose as she was stuck in her dazed stupor. It was as if the forest had erupted into a cacophony of racket and chaos.

Battle, it was definitely the sound of battle. For some reason, it reminded her of Star Wars. She could have sworn that something had sounded like laser fire, but different than the kind in Star Wars. Heavier and with more "oomph". It was soon joined by the sound of another attack, another sound of an energy type weapon. Her feet carried her into a break neck sprint, all pretenses of stealth now gone as she chased after the sounds. Any noise she made now would pale in comparison to the noises that stemmed from the ongoing battle. Curiosity pushed any relevant thoughts of fear from her mind. Maybe these were the others mentioned before?

The noises grew louder as she drew nearer and nearer, her agile and acrobatic steps carried her over a log as she lunged into a clearing and dived behind a tree. A horde of Koopas were converging on one location, their attacks focused on something she couldn't quite make out. "Samus?" she asked herself under her breath, not even believing her eyes. So she really wasn't the only one in costume then?

Anna jumped out from behind the tree, her posture dropping to one knee as she pulled the super scope to eye level. If there was one thing she remembered from the game, the super scope had a charge function. When the fire button was held down, a large ball of energy would build and shoot clear across the stage. She tried doing so now, her finger depressing the fire button and holding. Electricity began to crackle in the air, light and energy gathered inside the weapon and peeking out from the muzzle. Her hair and bandana tendrils began to gust behind her in a tempest. The weapon sucking up the air around her and expelling it in a peculiar way. Targeting the Koopas, she loosed her finger. A monolithic ball of energy shot forth from the scope and raced towards the enemies. Anna flew backwards from the kickback, she had severely underestimated the weapon's strength. Her body flew backwards as the ball continued its raging course. Just as her body hit a thick tree and her vision began to go dark, the energy ball bowled over the Koopas, taking a large chunk of them out before it dissipated and released its energy back into the world.​