Hand of Vengeance
"Cloud!" Corrin shrieked, tackling the swordsmen excitedly.
"what have I told you about hugs?" Cloud demanded, removing himself from his friend's eager grasp.
"I forget," Corrin responded with a big mischievous grin.
"You always do."
"It's not my fault that we rarely see each other. oo! Shulk is here!" he exclaimed, running to meat his other friend.
"Hey Corrin," Shulk cried, embracing him. "And Cloud too. How are you both?"
"I'm all right I guess," Cloud answered, flinching away from Shulk, who pressed forward and hugged him anyway's.
Corrin broke into laugher and joined their embrace.
"Oh man!" Cloud cried as he started blowing blue.
"Woe woe, man," Shulk said, backing away. "No need to use your limit break on something as simple as a hug.
"I do when you two refuse to cease."
"Buzz kill," Corrin mumbled.
Shulk chuckled.
"Anyway's we need to get inside and get our nametags," Cloud informed them.
"Ok. Let's go then," Shulk said, starting for the castle-like structure.
"Hey guys!" Link called, running to catch up.
"Oh, hey, Link!" Corrin exclaimed happily.
"The gang's all here," Shulk said, hugging Link.
"Have you guys gotten your roommate assignments yet?"
"Nope," they all answered.
"Me neither. I hope I get Zelda, or maybe peach. Not Samus though. She's a real drag."
"I had Marth last time I was here, and he was pretty quiet, and I didn't mind that," Cloud stated.
"I had Yoshi, which was pretty cool. He ate all the bugs out of our room, and he laid eggs all the time. They made great omelets," Corrin said with a laugh.
"That's pretty awesome. Sure was better than my roommate," Link told them, rolling his eyes.
"You had Wario didn't you?" Shulk asked.
"Yep I did. I thought I'd need an oxy gin mask. He's gross. I couldn't show you guys how awesome my side of the room looked because of it I had a dadongo skull on my wall."
"You couldn't kill those even if you had a broadsword," Cloud snapped.
"Shulk burst out laughing.
"Good one, Cloud," he comp lamented, patting his back appreciatively.
Cloud allowed for a tiny smile to play across his lips. They entered the familiar house, and waited with the rest of the smashers. Once they had their roommate assignments they went into the courtyard to relax.
"I think crazy hand made the arrangements this time," Shulk fumed, showing the card with his roommate's picture on it.
"Ouch. Looks like you got Wario this year," Corrin sympathized.
"Who did you get, Cloud?" Link asked.
"I got Kirby. I could not be more irritated right now. He is so annoying. I'm pretty sure his voice can shatter glass."
The rest of them nodded.
"Mine's not too bad. I got Mario," Corrin informed them.
"Well aren't you lucky. Look who I got," he demanded, displaying Gannondorf's visage.
"Ouch," Corrin said simply.
"Yeah. This is going to be a disaster."
"I agree," Shulk and Cloud both responded.
"I say we get revenge," Cloud suggested.
"Yes!" Shulk and Link both cried, hifiving each other.
"I don't know guys. that might be a bad idea."
"Come on. It'll be a harmless prank, and besides, you're the one who got the least annoying roommate, so you have no room to talk," Link pointed out, jabbing an irritated finger at Corrin's chest.
"Oh fine. Did you guys have any ideas?"
"As a matter a fact I do. I say we creep in to Crazy Hand's room in the middle of the night and give a couple of his fingers quick paper cuts. Annoying, but virtually harmless," Shulk suggested.
"Seriously? Paper cuts? That's all you had?" Cloud demanded moodily.
I thought it'd be a funny idea, but if you have something better than go ahead."
"I do. I say we get master hand and crazy hand in the same room, and put their fingers in Chinese finger traps."
"Seriously?" Link exclaimed.
"Yeah. That's just asking for a death wish," Corrin added.
"Not if we all fight them together and get their fingers in the traps."
"It could work. I love every opportunity to use the Manado's power. It's pretty awesome."
"It is," Corrin agreed.
"And don't forget about my limit break, guys. This could really work out if we all do this as a team."
"I guess," Link answered.
"I say let's do it," Shulk advised.
"Ok," Corrin added.
"Yeah. I'm in."
"Awesome! Let's meet up after dinner," Cloud announced.
"In our usual place?" Shulk asked.
"Yeah," Cloud responded.
They all nodded in agreement and went their separate ways.
"Cloud was the first to the brick wall in the courtyard. He couldn't help but curse his punctuality, seeing as he was the only one who cared about such things. He fidgeted with his scabbard impatiently. After a couple minutes of this, Shulk and Corrin sat on either side of him.
"You wait long." Shulk asked.
"Not more than five minutes. Where is Link?"
"Talking to Zelda I think," Corrin responded.
"For god's sake," Cloud thundered. It's almost as though he's tardy all the time just to annoy me."
"Nah. Just to annoy Zelda," Shulk said with a chuckle.
Corrin grinned, but Cloud certainly did not look amused. Cloud's face turned deeper crimson with every passing minute. Once ten minutes had passed, he leapt angrily to his feet, and drew his blade.
"Cloud, what are you doing?" Corrin asked tentatively, standing to join him.
"I'm going to find him, and teach him a lesson he'll never forget," he hissed, striding forward.
"Now now, Cloud. Don't go doing something your mum wouldn't do," Shulk warned.
"How do you know my mother wouldn't cut off one of his girlish hands," Cloud spat.
"Good point."
"Look! There he comes!" Corrin called hurriedly.
"Perfect. Now I can amputate his hand right here."
"You don't mean that do you?" Shulk questioned.
"No," Cloud stated with a sigh, taking his place back on the bench.
"Sorry I'm late. I was talking to the princess, and then I had to go to the bathroom."
"Cloud rolled his eyes menacingly."
"You're lucky, Link. Cloud was about to come and find you to cut your hand off" Corrin informed him.
"Well excuuuuuuuuuuse me, Cloud."
"Don't you dare say that to me, amateur," Cloud snapped.
"All right guys come on. Let's talk about the manner at hand," Shulk commanded.
"All right. so I brought the finger traps in this bag. I was thinking we could just ambush them at midnight. Because I think they share the master bedroom."
"I Think you're right, Cloud," Corrin stated.
"How are we going to get the traps on their fingers and connect them though?" Link asked.
"We'll have to defeat them of course," Cloud responded. Once they're incapacitated we use the traps."
"Sounds good to me, but what do we do while we wait for midnight?" Shulk asked.
"We could go look at princesses," Link suggested.
"You can go look at princesses," Cloud muttered.
Link opened his mouth to speak, but Cloud covered it with a hand before he could begin.
"Well, I'm going to go unpack I guess," Shulk answered.
"Have fun with lardio!" Corrin called at the receding figure.
Shulk shot him a scathing glance before heading back inside. Before long, the others went their own separate ways, to await their exciting revenge.
Once Cloud noticed that the clock in his room said 11:50, he got up to head out.
"Where you going?" Kirby shrilled, making him cringe.
"Out," he answered, slamming the door behind him.
He made his way down the familiar twists and turns until he reached the vacant, dark conference room, where they had eventually agreed to meet. He couldn't help feeling nervous. Master hand and Crazy hand were amazing fighters, and seemed to get better over the years rather than worse, and as much as he liked his friends, he worried they wouldn't be up for the task at hand. He wished he had recruited Robin as well. Robin was a powerful practitioner, and more serious than himself when it came to his craft. He would have thought every tiny detail through, and while that annoyed Cloud normally, Fighting the two hands required that kind of intense thinking. When he heard footsteps coming down the hall towards him, he nearly jumped out of his skin.
"I startle ya?" Corrin questioned cheerily.
"No. Not at all. I'm fine."
"Sure you all. I thought you were going to fall out of your chair.
Corrin giggled and slapped him affectionately on the shoulder. "It's true," Shulk added, joining the pair.
"So I take it Link's late again?" Cloud asked with a sigh.
"It's only 12:00 right now," Corrin protested.
"He's not here yet."
"Here!" Link called, running to meet them.
"Shhhhhhhhhh," Cloud hissed under his breath. "We don't wanna be detected, and you were both yelling and letting your sword hit your shield as you ran."
"Well excuuuuuuuuse me. It was either be really quiet and late, or be loud and on time. You can't please him," Link stated, turning to Corrin and Shulk.
Cloud scowled.
"Less fighting, and more storming the room of the hands," Corrin said impatiently.
The others agreed, and they began to trek down a series of hallways. They were all really nervous, but were determined to get their revenge.
"So what do we do here? Do we knock or burst inside or what?" Link questioned.
"Um, that's a good question," Cloud responded, looking around at the others.
Shulk and Corrin shrugged.
"What are you doing here?" Master Hand barked, opening the bedroom door. Corrin and Link jumped. Shulk and Cloud unsheathed their swords.
"What are you doing here at this time of night, and why did you pull your weapons on us?"
"Revenge!" Shulk called, rushing forward, Cloud following behind.
Master hand flew up into the air and soared down towards Shulk, all of his fingers extended. Shulk rolled out of the way just in time to avoid Master Hand smashing into the ground, where Cloud struck him with his limit break. The hand smacked at Cloud, who couldn't dodge in time, and was thrown against the wall. Fortunately however, Shulk struck with a backslash, which caused blood to explode from his pinky finger, dripping on the shocked Cloud.
By this time, Link and Corrin rushed into the bedroom to fight against Crazy Hand. Crazy Hand started cackling manically, and dealt his cards at them. Corrin jumped from card to card, but fell on the floor with an outburst of breath. Link slashed through the cards and charged. Crazy Hand shot beams of electricity over the ground, striking Link, who flew backward into the wall. Corrin roared in fury, and shot a blue ball of energy at the adversary. While the hand was temporarily stunned, he stabbed him with a downward slash. Blood from the top of the hand dripped down his fingers and onto the white carpet. Crazy Hand shook himself, spraying crimson onto the walls and grasped Corrin, and began to squeeze him as hard as he could. Link could here the choking sounds coming from the hand, and stabbed Crazy Hand right in his middle knuckles. Crazy Hand cried out, and dropped a very frazzled Corrin on to the floor in a heap.
Outside in the hallway, Shulk and Cloud were soon being joined by a Cloud of sleepy smashers, who were grumbling angrily at them.
"Oh shut up," Cloud hissed, jumping out of the way of the hand falling from the ceiling.
They both stabbed at the hand, tearing at it's fingers. Eventually, the hand fell limp, and they were able to drag it into the room where Corrin and Link were still battling Crazy Hand. When they all joined in the fight against Crazy hand, it didn't take long to bring him down.
It only took a couple of minutes to put their fingers in the traps. Then, they found the keys to their room, locked it and left, taking off down the hall. Everyone looked after them in confusion before shrugging their shoulders, and trudging grumpily back to their rooms.