Chapter 2—Free at Last?
Falco, Luigi, Samus, Mewtwo, and Ganondorf were the first to respond to the scene. When they arrived, the first thing they saw was broken glass in the control room and a heavily damaged door. When they ran down the stairs, they saw scrap metal scattered everywhere, char marks on the floor, and an unconscious Mario and Fox. Luigi quickly ran to his brother's side, while Falco ran to Fox's. Samus, Mewtwo, and Ganondorf started investigating what happened.
"Fox! C'mon, wake up!" pleaded Falco, taking Fox into his arms and shaking him a bit. Fox groaned weakly, then slowly opened his eyes, coughing a bit. "Fox! Are you all right?"
"Where…did they go…?" asked Fox.
"Who are you talking about?" interrogated Falco worriedly. "What happened?"
"We…were attacked…" groaned Fox. "A woman…with two big…robotic spiders…"
"Well that explains where this scrap metal's coming from," noted Samus aloud, scanning the pieces of the metal. "From what my scanners picked up, it looks like it had a self-destruct mode to it, and it was activated remotely."
"Your scanners can pick up all of that from pieces of metal?" breathed Ganondorf in amazement. Samus merely nodded.
"Yes. It comes in handy when I'm exploring foreign planets," she stated.
"So only one of them self-destructed?" questioned Mewtwo.
"Yes…" answered Fox. "The other one…and the woman…they took Link…"
"Mama-mia," exhaled Luigi, frowning. "This isn't-a looking good."
"Yeah, and we have no idea who this woman is or where she took him," spat Falco. Luigi sighed, then quickly turned to his brother, who was starting to wake up. "Mario! Are you all-a right-a?"
"Yeah, Luigi…" coughed Mario. "That-a woman…Ubel…"
"Ubel's the name of that woman?" grilled Ganondorf.
"Yeah…" replied Mario. "She works-a for-a this doctor…Spinne, was-a his name…"
"Sounds like we have enough information to start a rescue mission now," announced Samus. Out of all of the Smashers, everyone considered Mario their leader. But since Mario was unable to do anything at the moment, Samus stepped up to the plate and took charge. "Mewtwo: go report to Master Hand what happened and alert the others. Ganondorf: I want you to come with me to help me pinpoint where exactly Link is. Falco: you and Luigi take Fox and Mario to the infirmary."
"There's no need for that," interrupted a soft voice. Everyone turned their heads to the stairs, where Princess Peach and Princess Zelda started walking down with Heart Containers in their hands. "We'll give these to Mario and Fox; they should be feeling better afterwards." Falco and Luigi nodded. They lay Mario and Fox back down on the ground and stepped back. Peach walked over to Mario and gave him her Heart Container while Zelda did the same for Fox. Both injured men soon started feeling much better as their injuries began to heal. Once they were back to full health, they slowly stood up. Zelda suddenly frowned.
"While we were getting the Heart Containers from the item storage, we overheard what happened," she admitted. "I hope Link is okay."
"The sooner we find him, the sooner he will be," stated Samus bluntly. "Zelda, why don't you come with Ganondorf and me to try and find out where he is? Both of you have pieces of the Triforce, and they do react with one another, right?" Ganondorf and Zelda both nodded. "Alright. The rest of you, alert the others."
"I'll-a go tell-a Master Hand," announced Mario.
"I'll go with you," volunteered Fox. Everyone turned to look at each other, nodded, then walked out.
Once Master Hand was brought up to speed on the day's events, he gathered the remaining Smashers into the lobby for a meeting. Everyone eagerly awaited for Samus, Zelda, and Ganondorf to arrive to tell them where they could find Link. After what seemed like an eternity, the three finally arrived. Samus cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.
"I have some good news and some bad news," reported the bounty hunter. "The good news is we found out where Link is." Everyone's faces brightened up. "He's being held in a robotics factory about twenty miles away from the city out in the countryside."
"What's the bad news?" asked Captain Falcon. Samus frowned.
"All of our means of transportation have been tampered with and are inoperable," she explained. "These guys obviously don't want us to find Link quickly. We're going to have to travel there on foot, which will take us about a day."
"We're going to have to go twenty miles on foot!?" roared Bowser.
"Well…technically, thirty-seven miles," she corrected. "We're about two miles away from the city, which is about fifteen miles wide, and then our destination is twenty miles outside of the city. So…thirty-seven miles." Bowser scowled.
"Count me out!" he shouted.
"Zelda, can't you, Ganondorf, and Mewtwo teleport there?" questioned Marth. Zelda shook her head.
"Farore's Wind can only be used for short distances," admitted the Hylian princess.
"My teleportation works the same way," added Mewtwo.
"I don't want all of the Smashers to go anyway," announced Master Hand. "Mario, I'm putting you in charge of the team." Mario nodded. "You, Fox, Samus, and Ganondorf will be leaving immediately. Good luck."
"Wait, why am I going!?" protested Ganondorf.
"You're one of the most powerful Smashers here," explained Master Hand. "We don't know how strong these two are, so we needed one of our powerhouses to go." Ganondorf grinned.
"Since you put it that way…let's go!" ordered Ganondorf. He walked out the front door with his head held high. Samus cringed a bit as he left. Captain Falcon noticed the change in her expression and walked over.
"What's wrong?" he asked. Samus sighed, shaking her head.
"Other than the fact that the city is in the other direction, nothing," she stated. "I'm going after him." She then promptly walked out, putting her helmet on as she exited through the door. Mario and Fox quickly caught up with her and left as well. Zelda frowned worriedly.
"I hope Link is okay," she breathed.
"Was it wise to send Mario and Fox after they just recovered from their injuries?" questioned Roy. Zelda managed to smile slightly.
"It'll bring Link some joy in knowing that they are alive and well," she answered. She turned to look at the now closed door, her smile fading. "Please come back safely…all of you."
After catching up with Ganondorf and going in the direction, he, Mario, Samus, and Fox started making their way on foot through the city. They chose a bad time of day to travel on foot, since it was rush hour. The city, Smash City, had a rush hour similar to Tokyo, Japan, where most of the traffic is on foot. The city was created specifically to tailor to the Super Smash Bros. tournaments and contestants. It was also a major tourist attraction throughout the different galaxies and dimensions. Unfortunately for the traveling Smashers, a lot of tourists were there, and they were constantly having to dodge screaming fans that wanted their autographs, slowing down their journey.
They finally made it out of the city sometime after the sun set, completely exhausted. Mario suggested they rest for a little while and eat something to regain their strength. They found a group of trees to hide in somewhere off the road and settled down there. Ganondorf managed to snag everybody some food, which Fox cooked over an open fire for everyone. Normally the others didn't condone stealing, but they were grateful for Ganondorf's wrong doings for once.
Once they regained their strength and filled their bellies, they started down the road again. They made it to their destination at Doctor Spinne's robotics factory very early in the morning when it was still dark. After resting for a few more moments, they made their way into the building, disabling any and all security cameras and devices that they encountered. Fox frowned worriedly as they made their way up the stairs, which didn't go unnoticed.
"Fox, what's-a wrong?" asked Mario.
"Doesn't this seem a little too easy to you guys?" questioned Fox. "It's almost like they wanted us to come here." Mario narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Now that you-a mention it," started the plumber, "I haven't seen a single-a security guard-a." Samus looked around at their surroundings.
"For a robotics factory, the security here is way too lax," she noted. Ganondorf nodded in agreement, then looked down at the back of his right hand. The Triforce of Power began to glow, then faded away.
"Link is just up ahead through those doors," announced Ganondorf. Samus readied her beam cannon while Fox took out his blaster. Mario signaled for everyone to follow him as they made their way to the closed, double doors at the end of the hallway. Ganondorf peaked in through one of the windows on the door and looked inside.
"What do you see?" inquired Fox.
"Link is on a medical table, sleeping," described Ganondorf. "The only light coming from the room is over Link. I can't see much of anything else. I don't sense anyone else in the room."
"This is way too easy," hissed Fox. "It's got to be a trap."
"Keep your-a guard up, everyone," ordered Mario. "Samus, keep on the-a lookout. Fox, you-a and I will storm-a in first. Ganondorf, when-a the coast is clear, take-a Link and we'll-a get out-a of here." The others nodded. Fox kicked open one of the doors and went in first, aiming his blaster around the room. Mario joined Fox at his side and looked around. The two slowly made their way around the room to check for any traps and people. Mario motioned for Samus and Ganondorf to enter the room once the coast was clear. From her spot at the door, she scanned Link over for any abnormalities with her scanner.
"There are no physical injuries on him," she announced. "The scanners are showing that he is the same as he was when he left."
"This looks like a medical laboratory in here," noted Fox. "Either they didn't get a chance to do what they wanted to do with Link yet, or what they did to him isn't being picked up on Samus' scanner." Ganondorf held his right hand over Link. Both his and Link's Triforce pieces reacted to each other, glowing on the backs of their hands, then fading.
"He seems to be okay," added the Gerudo. He carefully picked up Link in his arms, then turned to Mario. "Let's get out of here."
"Ah, it looks like someone came for the boy after all," interrupted a male voice. The four Smashers quickly turned around and faced the man that just entered the room. Mario narrowed his eyes.
"You're-a Doctor Spinne, right?" he interrogated. The man nodded, smiling.
"Indeed, I am," he replied. "I heard from my assistant that four meddling Smashers had entered the building." Ubel then walked up beside the doctor, putting a hand on her right hip and shifting her weight onto her right leg.
"I'm surprised you are still alive, Mario and Fox," proclaimed Ubel. "I figured that explosion would take you out." Fox grinned.
"We don't go down that easily," he boasted. "Now if you'll excuse us, we'll be leaving with Link now."
"I'm afraid I can't let you take Link prematurely," contested Spinne calmly. He took out a remote control similar to the one that Ubel kept and pressed a few buttons. A few moments later, a Spider Drone walked up to the room. Ubel and Spinne stepped to the side and out of the room. "If you can defeat this drone, then all five of you may leave. Tah-tah." He then shut the door and walked off with his assistant, leaving the Smashers inside of the room with the Spider Drone.
"Mario, Fox, cover me while I charge up my shot," ordered Samus. Mario and Fox nodded and got in front of her, firing laser shots and fireballs at the Spider Drone, which just stood there. Samus shouted out to the two once her shot was completely charged. Mario and Fox dove out of the way as Samus fired it at the drone, which destroyed it on impact. "Looks like we're free to go now."
"Again, that was way too easy," reminded Fox. "Spinne's got to be up to something if he's letting us take Link out of here this easily."
"Let's-a go back to….Huh?!" cried out Mario as a warning siren started going off and red, flashing lights began to fill the room..
"This building will self-destruct in two minutes," boomed a female voice over the P.A. system.
"Let's get the hell out! Now!" shouted Ganondorf over the siren. The others nodded and darted out of the room, surprised that the door was unlocked. They shot down the stairs and ran out the front doors. They were surprised once they got outside that they saw Samus' space ship waiting for them. Captain Falcon was standing on top of it, waving his arms to grab their attention.
"Get in!" he yelled. Mario and his team didn't have to think twice about that order. They ran over to the space ship and climbed in, with Samus shutting the door behind her once everyone got inside. She ran to the controls and got the space ship to fly off. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief once they were in the air.
"We made it," exhaled Mario. Samus put the ship on auto-pilot and stood up, walking over to Captain Falcon. Falcon simply smirked.
"Before you ask," he started, "I activated your ship's auto-repaid function and it fixed itself. I then flew it out here to pick you guys up." Samus nodded, then promptly slapped Falcon across the face. "Ow! What was that for!?"
"Don't touch my ship again," scolded Samus. She punched a few keys on her wrist pad and deactivated her armor, leaving her in her Zero Suit. She then smirked at him. "By the way, thanks for the lift." Falcon just nodded, then sighed.
"I'll never understand women," he groaned.
"Uh, guys?" Fox said, getting everyone's attention. "It's been over three minutes and the building hasn't self-destructed." Everyone blinked in surprise. "They didn't even try to stop us from leaving with Link."
"Speaking of which, he's waking up," interrupted Ganondorf, who was kneeling next to him. Everyone quickly rushed over to his side. Link stirred a bit and slowly opens his eyes. He sat up and rubbed his head, then looked around at everyone.
"Where am I?" he asked. He then saw Mario and Fox and smiled in relief. "Mario! Fox! You're alive!"
"Did you really think we would die that easily?" chuckled Fox, relieved to see his friend doing well. His smile soon faded. "What happened, Link? What did they do to you?" Link blinked.
"I don't know," he replied. "The last thing I remember was being held on the roof of Smash Mansion and that Ubel woman injecting something into my neck. The next thing I know, I'm here with you guys."
"I don't know what she injected into you," admitted Samus. "I wasn't able to pick up anything in the scanners."
"I'll-a run a blood test on-a you when we-a get-a back," proclaimed Mario. Link nodded slightly, acknowledging his request. "You've been gone-a for almost a day." Link frowned.
"I don't know what happened," he admitted. "I wish I did. Right now, I just want to go back to the Smash Mansion." Everyone nodded in agreement. Samus turned her head to the cockpit once she heard a familiar beeping noise.
"Which is exactly where we are," she announced. She stood up and walked over to the controls and manually landed the ship. Once they were on solid ground, they helped Link stand up. Once they saw that he could stand and walk on his own, all six of them exited the ship and went inside their home.