AN: Hey there! So this is my third chapter now and I'm really enjoying writing so there maybe quite a few updates coming up soon. I also wanted to say thanks to my lovely reviewer mightygamer64 for boosting my confidence :) Anyway, let's get on with the story!
"Rise and shine Commander! We have a big day today." I squeezed my eyes closed and dug my head further into the pillow, ignoring any attempt to wake me up.
"Come on Link, you have to get up too." The sweet voice reminded the other inhabitant of the room. I heard an unhappy groan and the sound of two feet hitting the ground.
"Alright, you have an hour to get ready and then there's a parade." The voice said excitedly and left the room. I felt a hand on my shoulder and got gently shoved.
"You heard her, we've got an hour." Link told me in a dull tone. I sat up slowly and yawned. Why we needed a parade was beyond me.
"And I thought this was supposed to be a competition about skill." I said sarcastically. Link nodded in agreement and threw his hat on. I got out of the bunk and stretched, I was far from a morning person. Looking at my watch on the bedside table, I sighed when I read the numbers. I grabbed some fresh clothes out of my suitcase and left the room. As I reached for the bathroom door I heard very girly giggling from the room across the hall.
"This is so exciting! Can you believe that you're going to be in a parade?" The first voice said with much enthusiasm.
"Yeah, whatever." The other voice said, deeper but still feminine. I chuckled, she seemed as excited as I did. I entered the bathroom, took a very quick shower and got ready. The door swung open as I was fixing my scarf and a young boy with a red and blue cap strolled in.
"Hi." He said happily. "I'm Ness." He stuck a friendly hand out and I shook it in return.
"Fox." I replied with a smile.
"Oh I know. You're super famous now because of that stunt you pulled. Amazing by the way. I've got to get some of those boots." The kid said. "Reckon you're going to do it again at the parade?"
"No, I think I have had my fair share of fire to last a lifetime." I said and straightened my jacket.
"Aw, I was kind of looking forward to a bit of excitement. All we've done so far is smile and wave for the audience. I feel like a super model." Ness said.
"Yeah." I murmered. "Well, see you later." The boy waved and I left. I started to head back to the room but stopped. The hallway led further into what seemed to be stairs going up, to where I didn't know. I looked down at my watch that told me I had another half hour before I was due to leave on the parade. Silently, I stood debating whether or not I should risk snooping around. I really couldn't help it, life as a mercenary meant I had to know what surrounded me. Yeah, that's the excuse I'd use. I rushed down the hall before anyone could see me and flew up the stairs. I quickly found it was a fire exit. At the top was a door. I slowly opened it and smiled at what I saw. It was a sunrise, but not any sunrise. A sunrise with two suns. I walked over to the edge and stared in awe at how amazing it looked. The door opened again behind me and a woman with long blonde hair done up in a ponytail, wandered over to me.
"Two suns. Not bad." She commented. I cocked an eyebrow at her.
"You've seen more?" I asked.
"Maybe." She replied.
"Did you follow me up here?" I asked, facing the horizon again.
"No. If I were you'd already be dead." She said calmly. After she received a strange look from me she explained. "The only reason I have to follow someone is to kill them, it's what I do."
"So you're a hit man." I asked with callous.
"I guess you could call me that." She said and glanced at me. "And I don't think you can really judge, mercenary."
"I don't murder innocent people." I spat.
"Neither do I." I narrowed my eyes at her.
"What is it you want?"
"Just enjoying the view." She replied with a small smile. There was a silence, in which I looked down at my watch.
"I guess it's time for me to go. Will I see you at the parade?" I asked.
"In a way." She said. Although confusing, I decided to leave the conversation at that and made my way back to my room. I was hoping to see Link there, but he'd already gone. I switched to my regular boots and grabbed my headset, placing easily over ears. I walked back out of the room and down the hall to the entrance. I swung the big wooden door open and found that every competitor was gathered in the courtyard. It was strange seeing all the different faces of the people I was going up against.
"Ah, Fox, we were waiting for you. Can you stand behind Luigi please and we'll get started." A young woman with blonde hair told me. She wore a long frilly pink dress and quickly ran over to the front of the now formed line of competitors. I took my spot behind the skinny Italian and patiently waited for something to happen. Behind me, was a giant ape. He gave me a goofy smile and I gave him one in return.
"Alright everyone. Just stay in formation, smile and wave. Once we get to the end we'll be getting on a bus to take us to the Smash Mansion." The young woman told us, pattered her hair down and led the long line of twelve down the street. Crowds of people shouted and whooped at our appearance. There were so many people watching, expecting great entertainment from us. I didn't understand why. Why was I invited? I'm just a pilot. I haven't done anything of great importance that would make me stand out. It was my team that helped me take down Andross, I never took any credit for it and I still don't want any. If anyone should be here, it should be my father, and I'm sure if he were still alive, he would be. Maybe that's why I'm here, I'm as close as they're going to get to James McCloud.
"Hey-a Fox, you may-a want to look a little less-a glum." The younger Italian whispered to me.
"Right, thanks." I muttered. "Doesn't it seem wrong though?"
"What does?"
"Everything. Like, what did you do to get here?" I asked quietly, sending a faux smile every now and then.
"I support my brother." He replied.
"But what have you done?" I asked. He remained quiet before shaking his head.
"Nothing."
"Exactly. Why are people like you and I here?" He opened his mouth to reply but got stopped when I received a shove from behind me.
"Shut up Merc, people are watching." Captain Falcon warned me. I growled slightly but heeded his words and continued to walk like the puppet I was becoming.
***
I sat quietly staring out of the bus window, my mind miles away. Link had taken up the seat next to me and had slowly started to drift off as soon as we got on board. I could feel the urge to sleep as well, but knew that I couldn't, not when all these people that I didn't know surrounded me. Thoughts of home kept tugging at my mind and I already missed the familiarity of it.
"Link, do you miss your home?" I asked. He lifted one eyelid groggily.
"I miss my horse." He said after much thought.
"You have a horse?"
"Yeah, her name's Epona. She goes everywhere with me." He smiled. "And I miss other stuff." He muttered under his breath, but with my excellent hearing I heard it anyway.
"Like?" I pried with a smirk.
"A friend." He said vaguely.
"They wouldn't happen to be a girl right?"
"Maybe. I don't see how it matters though." He said although he knew he was fighting a losing battle with a struggling smile. I laughed and we chattered for the rest of the trip, which thankfully wasn't too long. The bus stopped eventually in front of a huge eclectic mansion. Gardens and ponds circled the walls and I was sure I saw a pool at the back.
"This is cool." I heard Ness say.
"Welcome to the Smash Mansion everyone! My name is Princess Peach and I'll be giving you tours and all sorts of interesting stuff throughout the next twelve weeks. Now I know it's very exciting but first you have to unpack all of your belongings into your new rooms. Ready?" The blond in pink asked. Without waiting for a reply she led the way up the paved walkway to the magnificent steel and wooden doors. The doors swung slowly open upon her placing a delicate footstep on the welcome mat and we were given a full view of the stunning marble walls and halls. I looked over at Link whom had gone a little pale. I raised an eyebrow, signalling my concern, but he shook his head with a smile. We were taken further inside and up a majestic staircase to what seemed to be a foyer. There were six doors on both sides with small golden plaques to the side of each.
"Ok, so here is where your rooms are in which your bags and belongings are already waiting for you. You will each have your own room and others will not be allowed to enter unless under expressed permission. So find the door that belongs to you, unpack and meet back out here in about twenty minutes." Peach said with a brilliant smile and wandered off. I trailed away from Link and went in search for my name. It didn't take long to find the plaque with the word 'McCloud' written in fancy writing and I found that I was in between Pikachu and Captain Falcon. Great. I reached for my door but received a scowl from the good Captain.
"What? I'm not allowed to open my own door now?" I snapped. He sniggered and entered his room. I mentally scolded myself. After all those years of dealing with Falco and I hadn't learnt a thing about tolerance. I shook my head and opened the door. If I were to be honest, I was very shocked at the room I'd been given. A huge king-sized bed off to the left, a desk to the right, a door to what I assumed was the en-suite in the left hand corner and a balcony right at the back. I whistled at its impressiveness. My bag was as promised, placed neatly on the end of the bed and I did as I was told and unpacked. It didn't take me long and I had at least another ten minutes to investigate the rest of the room. I headed towards the bathroom and laughed.
"Oh no." I grinned. Right in the middle was a spa. I hadn't been in a spa since I was about twelve and spending the night at a Bill's. His parents were very well off. The rest of the bathroom was just as magnificent and I decided to check out the balcony before I left. The French doors swung open with ease and the view I had was nothing but the word amazing. I was right when I thought there was a pool, along with many deck chairs and various other outdoor furniture. "Wow." I muttered.
Although I tried to shake it, the feeling of everything being too perfect kept harassing me. The perfect room, the perfect accommodations, the perfectly inscribed door label, everything seemed so perfect. If this was supposed to be a competition, why were we being treated like royalty? I chose to ponder this question later, my extra ten minutes were up and I headed back to the main foyer. Only about half of the other competitors had returned and Link was not one of them. I stood quietly, looking down at my watch every now and then, slowly becoming more worried when all of the competitors were assembled and he still had not shown himself. I walked over to Mario, whom was conversing with his younger brother.
"Hey, have you seen Link?" I asked them. They looked at each other and shook their heads.
"Sorry Fox. Not since we left to our rooms." Mario replied.
"He's only a boy, maybe he got over excited at the hot tub." Captain Falcon interrupted in which he received an irritated 'hey!' from Ness. The sound of high heels clicking on stone was quickly followed by the appearance of Peach.
"Alright, are we ready to get on with the tour?" She asked sweetly.
"Link's missing." I said. Her fixed smiled flittered away briefly.
"I'll just go and check on him." She said and entered his room. A few moments later she returned and closed the door quietly behind her.
"Ok, let's go." She said.
"What about Link?" Ness asked.
"He's not feeling too well and will skip the tour. Shall we?" She said and sounded almost desperate to get on with the schedule.
"Thought so." Captain Falcon muttered right next to me, but I chose to ignore it. Peach showed us all around the mansion, the training centre, gaming room, dinning room. It wasn't until we were shown the kitchen that I heard my name. I looked left and right but couldn't find where it came from.
"Down here." The voice whispered and I looked down at my jacket pocket. The little blue fairy showed herself and flew up to ear, efficiently hiding herself in its curve.
"What are you doing here Navi?" I asked in a hushed tone.
"Link told me to tell you that he has food poisoning." She said. By this time, I'd fallen to the back of the group so I could talk to the overactive fairy without receiving any strange looks.
"Food poisoning?" I repeated. "Did he say where from?"
"No, but he did tell me to make myself useful and get him something to make him feel better. I think that the root ginger would be a good one because it's very efficient in getting rid of nausea."
"I've never heard of it, can you even get it here?" I asked.
"I don't know and it's quite frightening." She said quietly.
"What do you mean?"
"It's my job to help Link out with hints and tips throughout our travels, but this place is so different and alien that I can't figure out what I should do. What do I do Fox? I never don't know!" Navi panicked.
"Ok, calm down. We'll ask Peach at the end of the tour for some ginger or the closest thing to it alright?" I said. She acknowledged me and hid back in my pocket for the remainder of the tour. It was ridiculous at the amount of luxuries we were given and again that feeling kept nagging me. The tour concluded in the yard and Peach then dismissed us for the rest of the day. As everyone trailed off, I pushed my way through the mass and over to where the blonde was walking away.
"Princess!" I called out. She turned around and gave me a lovely smile.
"What can I help you with Fox?" She asked, clasping her hands in front of her.
"I was wondering if you had any ginger?" I asked her. She gave me a funny look and laughed nervously.
"What's ginger?"
"It er apparently soothes nausea." I replied becoming unsure of myself.
"For Link right?" She asked.
"Yes."
"I've already sent him something to make him feel better but it may take a bit of time." The princess told me, spun around and walked away. I stood still, a little surprised. Peach seemed quite reasonable until I mentioned Link.
"Hey, did you see the way Peach acted?" Navi asked me, reappearing from my pocket.
"Yeah." I replied absentmindedly. Something strange was definitely going on here.
"Listen, can we go back to Link? I've never been away from him for this long before." She asked again.
"Sure." We left the garden and followed the map Peach had given us to the foyer. I knocked a little hesitantly on the door and it opened to the ghostly pale boy. "Wow, you don't look good." I said, hiding the chuckle at his hair that was sticking out in every direction.
"I don't feel good either." He slurred.
"Look at you! You do look awful, I wish there was something I could do but I really don't know this place well enough and – " Navi began but got cut off when he raised a silencing hand.
"Navi, you did what you could and I appreciate your concern." He told her, but I could see he was quickly running out of energy.
"Well I just wanted to check on you. By the way, what did Peach send you?" I asked. He tilted his head to the side.
"She sent me something?" He asked, genuinely confused. I looked at him for a moment before putting on a smile.
"Don't worry about it. I'll come by later ok?" I said. He nodded and went back into his room.
"Are you going with him?" I asked Navi.
"No, I think I'll stick with you for a bit." She said and I heard a laugh from behind the door. I ignored it and looked around the foyer as if to find something. "Didn't Peach say she sent something for him?" Navi asked.
"Yes she did. Feel like a little recon?" I asked with a sly smile.