I do not own any of the characters I am using. Samus, Captain Falcon, and everyone else are the property of Nintendo.
Here comes Chapter 2. Enjoy!
High Stakes in Mute City, Chapter 2
Master Hand was not in a good mood.
After the "incident" involving Captain Falcon and Samus, news had quickly reached him that something was wrong. He had been preoccupied at the time, but the other competitors had all been watching the battle via the television screens that always displayed the fights. From what the other Smashers had told him, a bright flash of energy had appeared on the Mute City stage and caused the two bounty hunters to disappear without a trace.
"A bright flash." The giant hand muttered as he floated over the Mute City stage. "That sure tells me a whole lot." He turned back to the investigation currently going on around him. Several of the Smashers had volunteered to help search for their two missing compatriots and were busy trying to find any sort of hint as to what happened. "You guys find anything yet?"
Fox and Falco looked up from the sensors they had brought along and shook their heads. "Well," Fox stated, "we're getting trace amounts of the two's energy signatures, but just the stuff from their special attacks. Nothing out of the ordinary."
"Nothing over here either." Zelda added from the other half of the stage. She and Ganondorf were (reluctantly) working together to try to find something through their magic. "I can tell you this much, though. Whatever happened was contained. Nothing else here was affected in any way by… well, whatever that thing was. Just Samus and Falcon."
Master Hand sighed. It was bad enough that an accident had occurred during what was supposed to be a routine battle. For the two involved to just up and disappear was just plain unacceptable to the giant appendage.
"Well, just keep looking," he told everyone. "I mean, it's not like they just disappeared into empty spa…" Master Hand suddenly stopped talking. The others present all turned towards him in confusion.
"Uh, Hand?" Falco asked. "You okay? You just kinda trailed off right there."
Master Hand slowly clenched into a large fist. The Smashers all knew that he only did that when he was either mad or extremely worried. They backed away a bit and tried to get his attention again.
"Master Hand, did you think of something?" Zelda asked cautiously. In response, the giant hand slowly turned to face the ground as if looking for something. The Smashers moved a little closer to see what was going on. Master Hand slowly outstretched his fingers and just hovered in space without saying anything. After a minute, the sense of dread felt by the others was replaced with impatience.
"Hey, Hand!" Ganondorf bellowed, approaching the floating Master Hand. "Are you going to do something or are you just going to float there and do nothi... aaaggghhh!" The wizard was cut off as a ball of energy suddenly shot out of Master Hand, knocking him back a few yards. Nobody really noticed, though. Their attention was being drawn towards Master Hand and the energy he released.
It had looked exactly like the same energy that had caused Samus' and Captain Falcon's disappearance. It roared out in a sphere shape, the noise almost deafening. Fortunately for the Smashers, it wasn't large enough to reach them.
"Wha…what's going on?!" Fox asked, mystified. None of the others could give him an answer. All they knew was that Master Hand had apparently recreated the accident. It quickly became clear to them, though, that something was wrong.
"Look at Master Hand!" Falco suddenly exclaimed. Fox, Zelda, and a recovered Ganondorf immediately saw what the bird-pilot meant. Master Hand was still in the center of the energy sphere, but he was now writhing as if in pain. This was confirmed as the Hand let out a scream.
"AAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!" he cried. "Hurry and hit me with something!" The Smashers assembled realized that he was talking to them.
"What?!" Zelda yelled over the noise. "You're in pain! Why would you want us to…"
"Less talking, more blasting!" Falco yelled, pulling out his blaster. Before Zelda could react, Falco let out a stream of lasers. All of them made direct hits on Master Hand and provided enough force to knock him out of the sphere. As soon as the hand was free, the energy closed in on itself and vanished. The Smashers ran over to the fallen hand, currently lying on the ground moaning.
"Are you okay?!" Fox asked. Master Hand seemed to glare back.
"Do I look okay to you?!" The hand answered sarcastically. He managed to rise into the air a few feet, though the effort clearly strained him. Master Hand then sighed, both out of exhaustion and frustration. "The important thing is, I know what happened to Samus and Falcon."
This statement confused those around him. "What it is it?" they all asked simultaneously.
Master Hand sighed again. "Well, it's good news, bad news time. Good news, I managed to temporarily recreate the accident."
"How is that good news?" Zelda asked, puzzled.
"By doing so, I managed to follow their trail. It came to me when I said 'space' earlier. The reason that there isn't any trace of them here is because…" he paused. "The energy from their attacks was powerful enough to tear into this dimension, creating a wormhole. They were pulled through; hence, their mysterious disappearance."
"So, they're in a different dimension? Can't you just teleport them back like you do with all of us? I mean, you do that on a regular basis." Fox questioned.
"That's the bad news." was the reply. "They're not just in another dimension. Something else happened. The energies from their attacks actually mixed with the energy of this dimension. Since each of them technically carries an energy signature from their own universe, the accident has actually affected the structure of their universes. That's why it hurt so much when I tried to bring them back just now. I didn't expect this kind of situation, so I wasn't able to fully adapt to the new structuring."
Zelda caught on to what he was saying. "So you mean to tell us that you can't bring them back?!"
Master Hand seemed to grimace. "I can't be sure of that. But when I tried to reach into their homes, it felt like the unique energies normally from each were… fused."
"Fused?!" Falco exclaimed. "You mean…"
"Exactly." Master Hand stated. "I think that their realities have been combined."
End Chapter 2
