Dr. Mario stormed in master hand's office. Both of them looked at each other, the doctor expecting an explanation, the hand waiting for a request. The Italian took the first step.
"I'm out?"
"Yes."
The doctor slammed the door behind him and walked toward the hand.
"You'd better have a good reason."
"First of, you're not the only one, Mewtwo is out too. You have to know that-"
They heard a knock on the door.
"Come in!"
Mewtwo hovered in and gently closed the door contrarily to the other smasher. He hovered next to Dr. Mario, facing the hand.
"May I know why I'm out?"
Master hand nodded.
"As I was about to explain to Dr. Mario, I had to do changes for the next tournament. We didn't need a third Mario, counting Luigi, or a second Lucario."
Mewtwo slightly raised his hand to stop the Master Hand.
"Who's Lucario?"
"A newcomer that has the same fighting style than you."
"Then why replace me by him?"
"He's almost the same as you but he's stronger and some attacks are different which make the fighting easier."
The Pokemon turned to look at a pot at the corner of the room. His eyes flashed and the pot exploded as he turned back pointing what he just did, losing his cool.
"Why couldn't I do that?"
"Each character has to be beatable, if I would have let you with all of your powers, there would be some death smashers, which I don't want. Now, if you would leave me, I have some important work to do..."
He took a peek at the broken pot.
"...And a pot to fix."
Mewtwo crossed his arm, forcing himself to stay calm, and hovered silently throughout the door. Dr, Mario, however, did not leave. The hand was getting annoyed about this.
"What is it, again?"
"Could I stay as a doctor?"
"We have already hired a good team of doctors but I'll think about it."
The doctor nodded and left the room, a lot calmer than when he entered. He walked throughout the corridors hoping that the Master hand would hire him in the team but for now, he had something important to do.
Mewtwo hovered to his room steaming in anger. Him, replaced by a clone of him supposedly more powerful! He couldn't use all of his power in battle and now, he was paying for the hand's mistake. He went to his room without a word and closed the door behind him, he had to think.
Pichu walked toward the game room. She had to meet the other young smashers to play a game of soccer. She was early but it didn't really matter, she just couldn't wait, it's been a while since their last game of soccer. She jumped on the couch before closing her eyes, calming herself by the silence of the empty room.
Ness and Young Link entered the game room. The others would meet them when they would finish eating lunch. For now, it was the two of them in the room. They sat on the couch and Ness turned on the T.V. As they began to watch a ghost show, Young Link noticed that the bottom of the cupboard had a darker color than the rest of it. He stood up and crouched in front of it before touching the darker color. It felt wet. The Hylian opened the doors and gasped by the sight of the thing in front of him. He placed his hand on his mouth to contain himself from screaming as tears streamed down his eyes. Ness stood up and joined his friend to see what the blonde boy saw. Right in front of them lay Pichu with her tongue cutten, an arm and a leg next to her head. Both of her eyes were open with apparent fear in them. Ness turned and exited the room quickly. He ran to the common room hoping to find someone but nobody was in. He ran to the dining hall where some smashers were finishing eating or just chatting. His first reflex was to run toward Pikachu that was talking with Fox. He shook the Pokemon as he felt his eyes become watery. The rat turned to him, looking annoyed to be disturbed during a conversation but when he saw that Ness was crying, he decided to let his annoyance aside for now. He waited for Ness to talk but when the boy didn't say anything, he put a comforting hand on his shoulder. The young human finally managed to say something.
"Pichu is..."
He wasn't able to finish his sentence as he let out a loud sob. Pikachu grew worried as they walked toward the game room with Fox that decided to follow them seeing Ness's state. When they entered, the boy joined the sobbing Hylian as Pikachu looked at the yellow animal the boys were facing. His heart sank when he recognized Pichu. Fox put a comforting hand on the startled Pokémon's shoulder.
"I'll get the doctor."
Pikachu didn't react as Fox left the room. The rat didn't move. How could it happen? Why would someone murder Pichu? She didn't do anything wrong, who would hate her by the point of killing her? It just wasn't fair! He approached her limp body staring at her just like if she was playing a bad joke, he wished it was but nothing happened. A tear rolled down his cheek as the doctor entered with the Master hand and Fox. The two of them stood still, staring in awe at Pichu mutilated body. Dr. Mario shook his head as he approached the little Pokemon.
"Who could be cruel enough to murder Pichu?"
He then took the little rat and her separated parts.
"I'll try to find some clues to find who would've killed her."
The doctor exited the room a Master hand followed him. The remaining one didn't say a word, making a silent goodbye to their friend until the other young smashers entered. Fox walked toward them and rested a hand on Popo's shoulder.
"I think the game is cancelled."
The ice climber was about to ask why, but when he saw Ness and Young Link crying, he thought it was better for him to ask anything right now. Fox confirmed his thought.
"You'll know more soon."
Popo made a signal to the others, saying to go away. It's with an enormous curiosity and a bit of worry that they left the game room.
Marth walked in the auditorium. He's been told that Master hand had to say something important. He sat next to Mewtwo and looked around to find Roy but no red-haired warrior came in his sight.
He's probably still training... I didn't even see him today. Jeez, he's taking this really serious...
Everyone stopped talking as Master Hand and Crazy Hand entered and cleared his throat.
"Is everyone here?"
The hand looked around just to be sure everyone was present but found out that Roy wasn't there right now.
"Marth, will you pass the message to Roy?"
"Of course!"
"Good."
The hand took a deep breath.
"My fellow smashers, it is with a broken heart that I tell you that Pichu has been murdered."
Gasps and whispers travelled across the auditorium until Crazy spoke up.
"SHUT UP! He's not done yet!"
Master hand continued his speech as Marth noticed that Mewtwo looked weird.
"Are you okay, Mewtwo?"
The legendary Pokemon shook his head.
"I'm dizzy..."
He then stood up.
"I think I'm going to throw up..."
"Need help?"
"No, thanks."
He hovered away as Master hand finished his memorial of Pichu's best moments. Marth stood up and exited the auditorium rapidly followed by the other smashers.
Kirby walked in the kitchen. He was going to make himself and Jigglypuff a banana smoothie. He took the fruit and headed to the "fridge room". He called it like that since it was a refrigerated room. When there's a whole group of smashers, an ordinary fridge is far to be enough. He took out the milk and the yogurt and headed at the end of the fridge, where the freezer part was. This part was locked, which was unusual. The pink star warrior removed the lock and opened the thick door before entering the dark and cold room. He reached to the light and the room lighted up. He screamed when he saw the corpse in front of him. It took only seconds before Jigglypuff ran at his side. She gasped by the sight of Roy's limp body. Some ice had form all over him. The Pokemon approached the red-haired boy and shook him a little. She shivered; he was so cold. She walked back toward Kirby.
"We have to tell the hands!"
The star warrior nodded but didn't move. Jigglypuff exited the room, heading toward the hand's desk. She knocked on the door, hoping that Master hand would be there. Happily, she heard the hand telling her to come in. She opened the door and stared at him for a moment.
"Roy's dead."
Master hand stormed in Dr. Mario's office while he was checking Pichu's body. The doctor frowned.
"I hope it's important, I'm in a full examination right now."
"Roy died; we need you to do a quick examination."
The doctor removed his gloves and exited the office, closing the door behind him. He followed the hand with a concern look. Once he arrived in the kitchen, he stopped and stared in awe at Roy's frozen body. The doctor approached the red-haired boy and knelt next to him to observe the body carefully. He winced in disgust when he saw that his mouth was sewn. He looked at Kirby.
"How long has it been since you got him out?"
"Not more than a minute."
"According to the quantity of ice, he could've spent the whole night in there."
The doctor pointed some long scars on Roy's arms.
"The murderer surely wanted him to die, if he had managed to survive the night in there, those injuries would've killed him anyway."
He then looked at Master Hand.
"I think we have a murderer problem here, we'd better be more careful from now on."
"Yes, you are right. I'll soon communicate with the smashers for a safety plan."
The hand looked at Roy again. He felt it had been a long and painful death. He took his body and hovered toward Dr. Mario's office with the doctor.
"You're in, doctor."
"In what?"
"In the healer team."
He gave a sad smile to the hand.
"Thank you..."
Fox entered in the auditorium, worried. Maybe someone else died today. He hoped by all of his heart that the reunion wasn't about that. Once he was seated he searched all over the place for his friends. He noticed Falco, Link, Pikachu and Roy were missing. He sighed in relief when Falco and Link entered followed by Pikachu. He noticed that Mewtwo that was seated just next to him had yellow eyes, a sign of pain.
"What's wrong, Mewtwo?"
"I just have a huge headache today."
The vulpine frowned.
"Did you ever have one of those before?"
"No, but I'm sure I'll be okay this evening."
The two of them stopped talking as the hands hovered in the room.
"Attention, please..."
The smashers went silent when they heard Master Hand's deep voice.
"I know it's unusual to be called here twice a day but this is really important. We have to take precautions. After this reunion, I'd like you to find a partner. I don't want to see anyone walk alone in these corridors until I tell you that you can. During the night, I want one of you to stay awake during the night to alert your partner if something happens."
Captain Falcon raised his hand.
"Why do we have to do that?"
Crazy Hand spoke up without even thinking about it.
"Because he found Roy dead an hour ago!"
Some exclamation of surprise came from every corner of the room as Crazy spoke again.
"SHUT UP!"
Master hand sighed.
"It is the truth. We found Roy frozen in the fridge. It wasn't an accident; the door was locked from the outside and he was also injured badly. Now, find your partner and try to not worry, as long as you're not alone, the murderer won't attack."
The hands hovered away as Fox still stared in front of him he turned to Mewtwo that just stood up brutally.
"Something's wrong?"
It was easy to feel the Pokemon's anger.
"I felt him die, Fox. I had that feeling that someone was dying but I didn't do anything about it! I just went back to sleep like if it was nothing! I could have saved him but I messed up!"
Fox stood up and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"We cannot do anything about it, the past is the past, there's nothing you can do about it. At least, you can recognize those feelings and that's good right?"
"Yeah..."
The Pokemon rested a hand on his own head.
"I think I should get back in my room now, I don't feel really well..."
"I'll follow you; we have to be always with someone for now anyways."
The two of them exited the auditorium and headed for Mewtwo's room. After a minute, the Pokemon stopped hovering and almost fell but Fox caught him just in time. Mewtwo stood up as Fox assisted him. The vulpine realized that his frien wasn't hovering anymore, he was actually walking.
Something tells me it's not normal...
So, here's the first chapter! As always please review!
Who do you think is the murderer? I'm curious :p
