Mortem omnibus qui contra iustitiam

Those words were painted in red, desecrating the white wallpaper that decorated the walls. Each character was perfectly drawn, no wasted ink at all. Sonic stopped and reread the text several times before deciding he couldn't understand Latin. He looked closer at the message written on the wall and paused when he noticed the characters were written in blood.

"How...cliché," Sonic sighed, "I wonder who wrote this though."

The blue hedgehog continued to run, going up several flights of stairs and finding himself in an empty area. It was dark, so much that you couldn't see any walls or judge how big this floor was. The mixture of metal and wooden beams indicated that the attic-like area was still being renovated. Somehow small cracks of light found their way into the room, illuminating the dust that fell from the ceiling; a soft faint colour like the first snowfall of the year.

Sonic walked forwards, annoyed that he couldn't tell where he was going. He'd already decided that he wouldn't turn back, finding his friends plus the others was his first priority. He also thought that he couldn't go back; not only did he forget the exact route he took, he also came to the conclusion that the roads behind him were changing. Whether it was magic or some sort of advanced technology it didn't matter, but he still needed to get help.

"Hello!" Sonic shouted, his voice echoing several times before fading away.

As he expected there was no response. He looked at the ceiling and thought about attempting to break through it, but he feared the repercussions more than the seriousness of the situation; Master Hand may have seemed tamer than the smash competitors to the public but he was frighteningly strong behind the scenes, something some of the tougher combatants had found out the hard way.

Taking two steps back Sonic looked to the nearest metal pillar and ran towards it, using the momentum to travel against gravity and reach the ceiling. What the blue hedgehog wasn't ready for though was the rigidity of the boards on the ceiling. He simply couldn't break through.

"I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing," Sonic muttered aloud after several failed attempts.

Sonic shrugged, deciding to give up and go back and search the hallways again, hoping to run into hotel staff. He turned around looking for the low illuminated glow of the path he'd taken but was surprised to see nothing.

"Wasn't it just there?" Sonic asked himself, "Geez, this place doesn't give up. I want fresh air not dead air."

The blue hedgehog started sprinting, not caring if he broke the floor any more. As he was running Sonic noticed that the wooden floor, as old as it looked, didn't creak or crack one bit. He carried on running, hoping that he would break free of this area soon enough.


Samus groaned, she hated waking up from a forced state of sleep.

Noticing that her head was at an angle, she darted her eyes around, quickly trying to scope out the situation. A large soft object obstructed most of her vision, the cream, red and green colours gave Samus only one thought and the faint smell of whiskey confirmed her suspicion.

Without thinking she quickly raised her head, looking at the man known as Snake who was still under the sleep effects of Jigglypuff. She quickly scanned the table, checking to see if anyone was awake. This was one thing that Samus didn't anyone having over her, especially as Snake wouldn't let her live without reminding her every day.

In the few seconds it took to confirm that no one was awake, Samus noticed that several people were missing from the room. She got up, her legs still feeling numb, taking it upon herself to scan the room and check everyone.

"So…Mewtwo's dead, Ness, Nana and Young Link are off somewhere, Popo went to find them, ROB and GW left for some reason, Sonic's also not here…..is that all?" Samus asked aloud.

"Ughh…..I think so," Snake muttered, making Samus jump slightly.

"Then we need to account for the missing people now." Samus responded in turn, trying to spot the pink balloon like Pokémon that had forced them to sleep.

"What! People are missing?" Snake's eyes widened, his voice was loud enough wake up some of the others earlier.

It was true that several warriors were missing. Yoshi, Diddy Kong, Olimar, Luigi, Lucario, Lucas and the Pokémon trainer who was often mistakenly called Ash were not at the table.

"What happened?" Ganondorf groaned, wiping off some exotic fruit from his beard.

"We were ambushed by that Pink Puff Ball," Wario muttered seemingly annoyed.

"Kirby?" asked Sheik quietly.

"No….he means Jigglypuff," Zelda answered. The two had fallen asleep next to each other and woke up at the same time.

Ganondorf raised an eyebrow, looking between the two Hylians.

"I thought you two wer-"

"AGH!" King Dedede Screamed.

"What?" half the room asked at the same time.

The blue penguin pointed at the space across him where the pink Pokémon lay, dead.

No.

Not only was it dead, its body had been mutilated in such a bizarre way. Rolls of pink skin circled the body of the Pokémon, the faint blue lines of a vein network could be seen around patches of blood.

"That's not right…..at all," Toon Link said, backing away from that area. He had sat next to the Pokémon only to wake up to that sight.

The body of the Pokémon had been split like an orange, dissected into 6 slices. The innards were nicely cleaved, preventing the juices from flowing erratically.

"Woah….that's nuts." Bowser spoke, gagging slightly.

"Each slice seems perfect, cut with the precision of a surgeon. Only an expert blade wielder or Dr Mario could have done this. At any rate I give it an A+ for creativity." Ganondorf spoke, nodding in agreement to his own words.

Even Bowser who was known to mistreat his minion looked at Ganondorf like he was crazy.

"Did Dr Mario do this?" Wario asked.

"Stop instigating conflict Wario," Zelda spoke, standing up, "We need to think about this carefully, if we don't treat this seriously someone else will die for no reason."

Bowser stood up, slamming his fists on the table.

"I'm leaving!" Bowser announced, he pushed his chair away and walked towards the door.

However before he could reach the handle a familiar sound stopped him. The repetitive ringing sound echoed throughout the room and Snake brought out his phone.

"That's your ringtone too?" Wolf asked, slightly disappointed at the mercenary.

"Who is it?" Toon Link asked, trying to avoid looking at the dead Pokémon.

Snake looked at his phone, his face immediately paled.

"What's wrong?" Captain Falcon asked.

"It's Master Hand…. "Snake choked out.

The smashers tensed.

"We can't tell him," said Fox.

"I agree, that guys is not someone I'd mess with," Ganondorf agreed, already shaking.

"Wait a minute, why can't we ask him?" Pit asked.

"Do you want to die?" Captain Falcon looked directly at Pit, the angel could tell he was serious, "Okay Snake, make sure to play it cool."

The mercenary nodded and answered the phone.

"Yes…sir," he spoke, listening to what was being said, "okay…..sure…..I understand,"

The others waited impatiently, looking at Snake with curious eyes. When Snake closed the phone they bombarded him with questions.

"QUIET!" the man shouted, his voice louder due to the spacious room.

"Master Hand placed some sort of protective magic over the hotel, the staff were told to leave in advance after putting away our bags. In basic terms….we can't leave."

"Great!" Bowser complained, "So we're stuck here with a psycho until you guys find out who it is and I can't even leave,"

"Says the mutated turtle with over 10 counts of abduction." Snake responded.

"He just can't take no for an answer," Peach sighed.

Bowser bit his lip and growled slightly.

"I can protect you, I'm completely capable." He argued.

"Yea….it's a shame you're not capable of keeping a wife." Falco sneered, "I mean what kind of female would mate with you? You know, the one that gave birth to them koopalings?"

"I thought Bowser did that himself," Toon Link spoke, "Wario told me all Koopas lay their own eggs."

Some of the smashers sniggered after hearing that, Bowser himself was flustered.

"Wario! Why would you say something like that?" he roared.

The man still seated at the table shrugged and continued to eat.

Snake sighed, massaging his temple and standing up.

"I'm going to look around, if you do anything to make me suspicious I'll consider you the murderer. Hopefully we can resolve this before Master Hand comes back."

Samus also stood up. As much as she'd hate to admit it Snake would be the best partner in this situation. Without any words she stood up, following Snake. He made to attempt to stop her, most likely thinking the same thing. Pikachu quickly jumped onto Samus' shoulder, snuggling up to the bounty hunter.

"Well with the A Team gone what now?" Fox asked.

"I'm off," Olimar announced, he hopped off his chair and walked away.

"Anyone else?" Fox looked around as the others shifted uneasily.

"Well I want to do some sleuthing myself, Master Hand is bound to give away a good prize to the person who catches the killer." Falco decided, stretching his arms. "You with me Fox?"

"Sure," the leader of the space team nodded.

Wolf then jumped up, intercepting the two.

"Can't let you do that Fox….not without me, if anyone's getting that prize it's me!" he growled slightly, hands resting on his hips.

"Sure….Wolf, let's go," Fox said as all three space animals left the room.

"I'm going too," Captain Falcon said, "bounty or no bounty, it seems I have a job to do."

The Captain got up and left, followed by the Fire Emblem Trio, Meta Knight and Kirby.

"Hey! Don't leave without me!" King Dedede shouted, running after them.

"I'm content with staying here," Wario spoke between mouthfuls of food, "It would be a shame to waste all this food."

The treasure hunter swiped his finger across the centre piece cake and licked it. Peach looked at him in disgust before speaking.

"Maybe there is still someone left in the hotel, we could go and look for them." She spoke, grabbing Mario's arm and walking off.

Mario and Dr Mario were carrying Luigi who was still unconscious, followed closely by Bower.

"You don't have to follow us," Mario spoke, avoiding eye contact with the Koopa.

"I know that! I'm just here to protect the princess!" he argued.

"Sure….." Dr Mario replied as they walked through the twin doors of the dining hall.

A few seconds after the mushroom group left Wario dropped the scone he was about to eat.

"Wait a minute…..there might be a bounty. That includes gold right?" he asked aloud.

"Yea…what's your point?" Zelda asked.

After confirming his suspicions Wario vaulted over the table with the skill of a gymnast, running out of the room faster than the speed people thought he was capable of.

"Hmm….he really is motivated by money." Zelda murmured to himself.

Link who had been sitting beside Zelda this whole time raised an eyebrow and chuckled slightly, he looked at the open corpse of Jigglypuff then at the sliced head of Mewtwo.

"Shouldn't we clean this up?" he asked.

"Sure," Zelda agreed, "Then after that the rest of us can go out and look ourselves,"

The others nodded, getting up and picking up food and throwing in in bin bags that were conveniently left behind for them. After a while Link noticed that no one had touched the bodies.

"Um….what about there?"

Zelda paused, looking at the others than back at Link, giving the hero an anxious smile.

"Sorry Link, it looks like you're going to have to do that for us," she said chuckling nervously.

Link groaned, picking up several bags and using them as makeshift bags.


Author Notes

If you're still here, thanks for reading. From now on if there are any questions that get asked about the story I'll do my best to answer them at the bottom of each new chapter. I'll also be responding to reviews here as well. Future updates will be much slower, there are a lot of things in the way right now (including a whole lot of school work but I have already mapped out most of the plot.

Reviews and Questions

Team Sonic Forever 4910 - Thanks for the kind words, I'm going to make sure that every character gets mentioned within the story or has some role. Don't worry you haven't annoyed me. ;)

LilacFoxGirl1 - Haha...I'm blushing here, thanks for the message though. The latin bit does roughly translate to "the death of our battle continues", I try to make sure that the words make sense when translated through Google.

Ringo's Twin Brother - Thanks, I do hope to continue this. I like when games use Latin, especially the intro for Brawl.

Twilight Joltik - Thanks, I'm hoping to keep a consistent level of quality with the story (no matter how hard that may be).

redwalrus12 - More Toon Link? Sure!

Thehobkinauthor - That's what I intended to do, so mission accomplished. :)