To my fans on I am SO SORRY for taking a long hiatus from writing. I truly do apologize for worrying you all; including RoyalFanatic (does she still go by that name here on I'm so sorry.
Link: Well, think of it as a journey of enlightenment. He tried music, sketching and various other mediums and he found out his only true love was for writing.
. . . that was actually well said, Link. Anyway, this story is actually a bit of an experiment; I'm going to try a crossover (ZOMG) with one of my favorite anime series, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. If you're familiar with it, that's good. If not, I'll try to explain things as we go along (or you could just look it up on Wikipedia. Whoever invented it was a genius.). This chapter should suffice while I rewrite my accidentally deleted ninth chapter of War of the Weirds . . . meanwhile, I'm going to look over some of my other stories; see if I should re-write them or delete them outright. Do PM me if there are any ideas you want to see incorporated into the re-written stories. Also, please PM me your profile if you submitted an OC for my other story, New Smasher on the Block. (Side note: that story will still be around, just totally rewritten.)
. . . and y'all don't want to listen to me, y'all just want the story. Well, enjoy.
Pools of scattered moonlight trickled through the large windows of the Smash Mansion as a figure walked slowly through the empty halls, taking great care to not make any unnecessary noise at this time of night. Doors graced with various motifs ranging from mushrooms to swords stood along the sides of the hall, each being at least 25-30 feet away from each other. Those Smashers who were lucky usually had a room to themselves, or in the case of very few, would share a room with a good friend or a lover. The vast majority of them, though, would have to put up with those they didn't even know, and as a result various conflicts arose involving anything from noise levels to the use of makeup.
In his case, Yoshi was one of the lucky few who had a room to himself. The cute green dinosaur let his steps carry him quickly and quietly through the corridors of the large estate as he slipped out into the grand foyer, bathed in pale moonlight and taking on an ethereal glow, almost magical, as he wandered up and down the stairwell until his eyes spotted a blue door, the door he was seeking. He yawned, and pushed open the door, which squeaked slightly as it closed behind him. The dinosaur shot it a glare as it closed behind him, then glanced around worryingly. He sighed. "Yosh . . . they didn't hear anything. Good for me."
". . . what are you doing up at this hour?" a voice nearby asked him.
Yoshi nearly let out a scream as one of the newer additions to the Smash roster stepped out of the shadows to greet him. The dinosaur let out a sigh of relief, as there was only one person who would wear military-grade armor at all times of the day. "Snake! Don't scare me like that."
The FOXHOUND operative merely let out a 'humph' in reply. "Don't blame me for your lack of alertness, especially in this time of night." If Snake was surprised at Yoshi being up at this hour, he did a good job of hiding it. "For what reason are you up at this hour?"
Yoshi let out a low growl of indignation. "I could ask you the same thing, Snake! Don't tell me you're up just to give people heart attacks!" Ever since Master Hand's announcement that a new batch of fighters would participate in this year's tournament, the dinosaur had his misgivings about the spy standing before him from the moment he laid his eyes on him. At least he was good for keeping those mischievous villains in check; the last time Bowser had attempted to pull a prank on his longtime nemesis by throwing a smoke grenade into his room, the spy had not only destroyed the grenade but also left the Koopa King with a most excellent round of bullet holes that made splendid cracks on his shell lasting a few weeks. That was the end of Bowser's escapades outside of the ring for a long while.
Snake just looked at Yoshi with the same mask of cool collectiveness that he had become known for. "I couldn't sleep." The operative pulled out a cigarette and lit it up, taking a quick drag before dropping it on the ground and stamping it out with his boot. "You?"
"I-I'm just getting a snack before I go to sleep." The dinosaur replied. A stray beam of moonlight flickered onto both character's forms, and Yoshi had to keep from yelping after seeing a glint of moonlight on metal, though his eyes widened and a frown was evident on his face. "Hey, wait a minute! Didn't your gun get confiscated by Master Hand during the orientation ceremony?"
The agent merely frowned as he followed Yoshi's gaze to the occupied gun holster on his leg. "It's a laser gun I acquired from Fox's room. I feel more comfortable if I have something to use if someone attempts to ambush me while I'm completing my mission here." Yoshi found himself nodding at this.
"I see. That's a good idea, since management's been controlling the use of weaponry like pistols and other similar objects . . ." The dinosaur recalled one of Master Hand's lunchroom meetings which announced the ban on pistol use inside the Mansion and its arena. Quoting Master Hand, he said to himself, "'This is Nintendo, no guns anyway . . .' really, it's becoming somewhat ridiculous, this 'no guns allowed' law."
Snake shrugged. "Well, what can you do?" Their conversation was interrupted by a PLOP outside the door. Apparently, someone had taken to sneaking around the foyer at this hour, too. "I guess we will meet again."
"Yes, let's . . ." Yoshi replied somewhat dully as Snake went in the opposite direction of the door. The green dinosaur frowned slightly; why was Snake going the wrong way? He was about to say so when the agent in question returned under the cover of a large cardboard grocery box, which ambled towards the door before disappearing from the dinosaur's sight. All Yoshi could do was sigh as he resumed his course towards the kitchen. The last thing that Yoshi recalled as he turned down the hall was Wario's voice saying, "What on earth . . . ?" before a painful cry was heard, followed by a creepy maniacal laugh.
Yoshi hummed quietly to himself as he rummaged through the fridge, looking for some fruit to help quiet the bottomless pit called his stomach. To his profound disappointment, though, there wasn't much of anything worth snacking on, much less any fruit inside. Groaning in exasperation, he questioned aloud, "Did Kirby take all the snacks again . . . ?" A few minutes later, to his delight he located a watermelon quarter and promptly yanked it out of the fridge. Taped to the skin was a note:
I made sure to leave something for you. Enjoy!
Kirby
Yoshi rolled his eyes and began to chuckle quietly. Kirby always DID make sure to leave something for him. At any rate, he tossed out the note and took his prize over towards the window. His favorite part of eating a watermelon always was spitting out the seeds.
The arena of the Smash Mansion was located in the basement floor, and also happened to be the only part of the Mansion that was accessible to the general public. This also happens to be the spot of focus right now, because something very interesting is about to happen . . .
The space around the arena grew very cold, as if the whole area was turning into ice. A wind blew into the center of the room from each of the four corners, twisting and writhing around the others before the winds combined into a column of air that swirled around the arena. It seemed to grow in speed and intensity, gathering strength with each and every passing second. As it was about to violently sweep chairs and various pieces of rubble into its core, the whirlwind burst apart, and all seemed to be still . . . for only a few seconds.
Above the arena, the cement ceiling began to tingle slightly before it began to suddenly start jiggling up and down, threatening to break loose the large holographic projectors that were attached to the steel beams overhead. The ceiling continued to twist and turn, convulsing violently as the shaking grew in intensity. Finally, the ceiling couldn't take any more of this supernatural pressure as it began to drip downward, melting slowly onto the arena below them. Concrete continued to melt slowly, then faster and faster as the molten rock piled up, forming something like a large raindrop attached to the ceiling, hovering just a few inches above the arena below it. The large raindrop burst violently, sending fragments of dried cement flying in all directions. A fine dust floated along the top of the chairs and the arena itself, leaving a very grey haze to wander aimlessly around the room for a few short moments. When the smoke cleared, four people in strange garb lay in a pile in the arena.
The person on top of the pile was a young girl around sixteen years of age, with short auburn hair and beautiful emerald eyes stunning to behold and as lovely as a pair of precious gems, dressed in pure white clothing that looked suited for a desert princess. The boy she was on top of was around the same age as she, with messy chocolate brown hair and determined amber eyes, and he was dressed in a green shirt and brown dusty slacks. A pair of goggles hung off of his neck. The third person in the pile was an attractive blonde-haired, blue-eyed young man who looked to be in his twenties, dressed in flowing robes of white with azure trim. The last person in the pile was a large, menacing looking man with black hair and eyes of deep crimson, and he was dressed completely in black, with red armor on his shoulders and limbs.
Needless to say, the travelers' rather sudden arrival into this world was overshadowed by much complaining and sore arms and legs.
"Get off, you're crushing me!"
"Aah . . . gomene, Syaoran-kun. Are you okay?"
"Ow . . . I think so, hime-san, but that could've been a better landing . . ."
"Well, this is another lovely mess we're in, isn't it, Kuro-puu?"
"STOP CALLING ME THAT! And get off, your frickin' leg's in my side."
After a few more minutes of the like, the four travelers had managed to disentangle themselves from the pile of bodies they were in. The chocolate-haired boy brushed imaginary dust off of his slacks before glancing around the empty arena. "What's the new world we're in now?"
"From what I can see, it looks like an arena!" the blonde-haired man chirped.
"Ne, Syaoran-kun, where's Mokona?" the auburn-haired girl asked the chocolate-haired boy.
The boy named Syaoran swiveled his head this way and that, looking for any sign of the white creature. "Good question, Sakura-hime. Anyone see him?"
"HERE!" a white meat-bun-shaped creature chirped from atop the black-haired man's head.
"What in the . . . don't get comfortable in my hair!" the black-haired man protested, yanking Mokona off of his head. The man growled as he shot a glare at the blonde-haired man. "Fai, why don't you be useful and get this thing off me, huh?"
"Tut, tut, so violent, are we, Kuro-rin?" Fai chuckled as he held out his palm. Mokona turned towards the wizard and hopped onto his outstretched hand before jumping onto his shoulder. As the black-haired man sighed in relief at having the white creature literally out of his hair, he scolded playfully, "Now, Kurogane, be nice, all right? Not everyone here is as content being continuously angry like you are!"
"Oh, shut up, you idiot wizard." Kurogane muttered, bringing a hand to his forehead and massaging it. As he himself took in the sight of the room before him, an inkling of a smile played upon his lips. "This place is an arena, you said? I think I might like this world . . ."
"You would?" Sakura asked the ninja. She blinked, and waved her hand in front of face. The girl frowned and with great visual difficulty took Syaoran's arm, inching closer to him. "Aren't there any lights in here?"
"I should think there are . . ." Fai responded in kind. "I doubt we'll find anything fumbling around like this, though. One moment, please . . ." His face had a visible frown on his features, but the wizard had convinced himself that this was necessary. He muttered under his breath, "Fiat lux."
A ball of cold, silver light the size of Sakura's hand sprang into being just above Fai's head, casting threatening and sharp-edged shadows all around. Sakura blinked, and yelped as the ball of light moved closed to her. Mokona let out an 'oooooh' as the silver light floated along the side of the arena before stopping in front of a large stone doorway. Fai crossed the arena floor towards the doorway and walked inside, with the other three following him. He stopped a third of the way inside, and discovered the light switch. Flicking it on, the silver light winked out of existence as the group continued farther into the hallway until Fai stopped. Syaoran wondered why until he saw the hallway branch off into two different directions. "Which way?"
Kurogane frowned, before pulling out a coin. He tossed it into the air, and when it landed on the group the coin lay front-side up. "We're going this way." The ninja replied, pointing towards the left hallway. Before anyone could even so much as utter a word, Kurogane started walking down the hallway, forcing the others to follow for now.
Sakura cocked her head to the side. "Do you really know where you're going, Kurogane-san?"
"Not really, but it's better than standing around doing nothing." He responded gruffly. As they rounded the corner, they happened upon another hallway to their left, which led straight back to the arena. Syaoran noticed that another doorway could be seen on the far side of the arena, as well as hallways on either side.
"Hmm. The entrances and exits are positioned in that matter, which must mean that this particular hallway circles the arena." The chocolate-haired boy walked farther ahead and discovered some stairs leading up to a door that was gild in gold and silver. Taking a few steps up, he called, "I think I found the exit!"
"Really?" Sakura cocked her head to the side, walking up to Syaoran. She herself looked at the gold door above them. "I'll admit that the door DOES look out of place here . . . shall we?"
As Kurogane, Fai and Mokona followed the two teenagers up the stairs, Syaoran opened the door to admit himself and the young princess inside. Kurogane was the last to enter as he closed the door softly behind him.
The room they entered was the V.I.P. Lounge, a large ornate chamber where the most privileged of the spectators, as well as the Smashers, would come to watch the skirmishes and brawls that daily provided entertainment to the crowd of businessmen, shop owners, cute schoolgirls, musicians and other cliques that enjoyed either a good fight or enjoyed seeing handsome young men, beautiful young women and squishy huggable creatures waging war against each other. Sakura could see the dim shapes of armchairs and tables scattered all around each of them holding vases of flowers or bowls with fruit in them. On the far wall, there was a large fridge and pantry stacked with all matter of junk food; several TV screens hung above the wall of windows where one could view the fight ringside.
"Wow . . . this is so cool!" Mokona squealed. It wasted no time hopping off of Fai's shoulder and hopping over to the pantry, throwing open the door and grabbing whatever snack it could get its . . . what are those things, anyway? Hands? Paws? At any rate, Mokona proceeded to raid the pantry while the others looked at the white creature, exasperated to various degrees.
"Ne, Mokona?" Sakura asked worriedly. "Perhaps we should maybe save the snacks for later . . ."
"Mokona . . . now is not the time for food." Syaoran sighed, letting his hand hit his forehead out of irritation. "Besides, we don't even know if there's a feather in this world!"
"There is!" Mokona responded as he literally inhaled a bag of potato chips, plastic and all. The white creature frowned, though. "It's just . . . I don't know where it is."
"Typical. Stupid meat bun . . ." Kurogane muttered to himself, suppressing an urge to punch the wall. After letting out a frustrated sigh, he then made his way over towards where the white meat bun was. Whatever protests he was about to make, though, would soon be forgotten as his foot hit a wire that no one had spotted until now. The ninja tried to quickly steady himself, but it was too late. Kurogane fell backward and onto one of the tables in the Lounge, which buckled and collapsed under his weight. Both he and the table landed on the floor in a shower of fruit, broken china and splinters.
"Arara?" Yoshi blinked, and looked around the Mansion's backyard. The green dinosaur had finished the watermelon, and upon finding an orange inside the fridge he had peeled it and was about to devour the citrus fruit when he heard something of a crash from . . . somewhere inside the Mansion?
The green dinosaur frowned, and waddled over to the window. Looking around, he didn't spot anything that seemed remotely odd, other than the dark, blobby shadows that were spread out around the yard from the various shrubbery and flora. Yoshi was about to dismiss it as something from his imagination until he noticed a light streaming out of one of the Mansion's basement windows. 'That's not supposed to be on at this hour . . .' The green dinosaur cudgeled his head in thought as he glanced back down at the light. Should he, or shouldn't he? After what seemed to be a long while (it was actually only five minutes), Yoshi sighed; his curiosity was as insatiable as his appetite.
Popping the orange into his mouth, he quietly left the kitchen and crept back into the large foyer. Yoshi's eyes shot up slightly as he got close to the staircase; lying on the first step was an incapacitated Wario. Upon closer inspection, the green dinosaur saw a green dart stuck in the Smasher's neck. 'Well, good for him,' he thought. That fat-assed idiot deserved it, for all the hell he put everyone else through in the past few days or so. Bothered by Wario's unpleasant odor, Yoshi finally scrambled for the first-floor hallways.
"Ugh, Kuro-puu!" Fai looked at Kurogane sternly, placing a hand over his heart in feigned worriment. "Honestly, can't you be quieter? Your running about like a herd of stampeding elephants isn't exactly helping, you know."
The latter responded with a grunt, followed by sounds of china crunching under his feet as he stood up and brushed wood splinters off of his person. "Don't start with me, you idiot wizard! I'm not the genius who decided to hide a wire in the damned carpet!"
"Well, it's still your fault because you wrecked the poor table, Kuro-puu." Fai pointed out.
"Blame the people who made this flimsy thing." Kurogane gave the wrecked table a casual kick, which only served to make more unnecessary noise. He glowered silently at the object until he remembered why he was crossing the room in the first place. "Oy, white meat bun!" Grabbing Mokona by the ears, he tossed it at Fai, who caught it without mishap. He glanced at the mess of crumbs on the floor and muttered a few too many four-letter words for his liking as he tossed out the bags scattered on the carpet. "There. Now can we leave?"
"Fai-san! Kuro-puu's mean!" Mokona wailed. "He keeps throwing me!"
As all of this was taking place, Syaoran and Sakura stood watching the two argue over the table, and though Syaoran tried his hardest not to laugh a few giggles escaped from Sakura's lips. Finally, the chocolate-haired boy cleared his throat rather loudly, recalling his presence to the other combatants. "Maybe we should see where we are first?" He nodded as he picked up a few stray crumbs off of the floor. "At least then we could gather some idea as to where the feather might be."
Sakura was nodding in agreement. "Hai . . . also, maybe then we could find out what to expect in this world?"
Fai smiled. "Well, Sakura-chan, that's quite a lovely idea." He turned to Kurogane and extended the same smile to him. "Don't you think that's a good idea, Kuro-puu?"
"A more idiotic comment I have seldom heard." The ninja muttered dryly. "I don't enjoy the fact that we're wasting time like this, though; let's move." Kurogane moved towards the door, motioning everyone over. "Syaoran, you and I should be the first ones through in case there are any enemies." The boy nodded in reply as a sword materialized in his right hand. Kurogane muttered a few words himself as another sword, longer than Syaoran's, materialized also in his hand. 'At least Fai's good for something,' the ninja thought.
Cautiously stepping through the door, Kurogane and Syaoran jumped out into the hallway, swords drawn and eyes scanning the landscape for any enemies. After spotting none, both let out a sigh of relief they didn't know they were holding in. Sakura and Fai followed after both of them, their breaths echoing through the eerily quiet corridor. "It's too quiet . . ." Sakura whispered, gripping onto Syaoran's cloak out of reflex.
"You're telling me . . ." Syaoran whispered back. "You'd think there'd be some kind of life in this world, but apparently not . . ."
"You two had better be careful." Kurogane told the teenagers. "They may be planning to ambush us." Both nodded in reply as the group crept towards the door.
As they conversed in hushed tones, Fai smiled as an evil thought entered his mind. Oh, he would have resisted if the opportunity had not presented itself. He looked at Mokona and winked, with the white creature grinning and nodding in response. Slowly, the wizard crept up to Sakura, taking great care not to be heard. With a fit of giggles, he moved as close to Sakura as he could without being seen and whispered a loud "BOO!" into her ear. It had the desired effect as Sakura screamed loudly, which in turn caused the others to jump. Their hands literally jerked open as the swords clattered loudly on the floor.
"What the?! Sakura-hime?" Syaoran gasped as Sakura began to start running from them. "Ack, wait! Don't run away!"
Kurogane turned to give Fai a nice, long glare followed by verbal abuse. "What the hell was that for, you fool?!"
"I couldn't resist, Kuro-wanwan?" Fai chuckled sheepishly, bringing his hands in front of Kurogane's face. "I'm sorry!"
"One, don't call me that! And two, don't DO that! Are you trying to give everyone a heart attack?" Fai only responded with a smile, which left Kurogane frustrated and spluttering various syllables of all the insults he could think of. He threw his hands into the air in defeat. "God, you act like a little kid sometimes."
"Not really." Fai chirped, his smile boring deep into Kurogane's back. It was then that the two of them heard a girl scream, followed by an 'arara' and a door closing. Kurogane groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose, while Fai frowned, cocking his head to the side. ". . . they didn't actually get themselves into trouble, did they?" He quickened his pace, and followed after the two teenagers.
Despite Fai starting first, Kurogane got to the door before the wizard did, and opened it in time to hear Syaoran sigh and remark, ". . . or you'll crash into someone." Both the wizard and the ninja joined the boy and turned to look at the person Sakura landed on in her hurry, only to drop their mouths open in great curiosity as they wondered what the princess actually knocked over.
"Arara . . ." Yoshi moaned pathetically as he felt a body land on top of him. He brought a hand to his forehead to stop the nauseating ache all over his body, and muttered, "Where's the fire . . . ?" He attempted to get up and see who ran into him, only to stare into the most enchanting pair of emerald eyes he'd seen in his life. He blinked, and then saw the cute auburn-haired girl staring at him. "Uh . . ."
Sakura blinked, and yelped as she scrambled off of Yoshi. "Gomenasai! I wasn't watching where I was going . . ." She bowed several times to the green dinosaur, apologizing profusely. Syaoran had to keep her from nearly prostrating herself to the confused Yoshi.
"Arara? Who are you people?"
"Well . . ." Whatever Syaoran was about to say at that moment was completely forgotten as he felt the touch of steel on his skin.
"You'd better explain your business here, or I will be forced to kill you."
And that's the end of the first chapter. Please review! I want to see if this story is worth continuing.
Gamer21