Shameless Word count padding AKA: Answering questions and stuff. If there is a question you have, please look through the start of the chapters to see if it had been answered all ready.

Statement: "Happy go lucky world of Nintendo!" I just had to roll my eyes at that.

Response: Actually I didn't explain this in the notes, but, it was a complete the quote title. Where, the important/relevant part is the part that isn't quoted. The full quote being: "Something's gone wrong in the happy-go-lucky world of Nintendo" from the SSB64 North America commercial. The important part being the "Something's gone wrong."

Question: If nugai is in an asylum, how'd he go to master hand?

Answer: I actually originally had his spirit inhabiting the body of a wireframe, so that his physical body would still be there in the Insane Asylum, just in a meditative pose, or it would look like it was sleeping or something. If you've seen The Legend of Korra, it's just like when she goes into the spirit world by meditating, her physical body is left behind, but she keeps her appearance. But for some reason I changed it (I don't remember why...). In that instance, I'll say it was Nugai's spirit, the moments that required him to be physical, he used his powers over space to make that happen.

Statement: Your chapters are really long, which causes them to take a long time to write and publish online. I suggest you write shorter chapters that can be put up more frequently so readers don't forget what's happened so far.

Response: Trust me, I know my chapters are long. But making shorter chapters wouldn't help, I imagine I'm kind of infamous for my long breaks and taking forever with my stories *COUGH365&SHADESOFSMASHCOUGH* my writing process involves more jumping around than Super Mario Bros. But, I'm going to be putting in a Story so far summary on certain chapters.


Chapter 3: Peaceful days died. Let's survive!

At the Smash Mansion the Smashers and Wireframes were doing their best to rebuild it. Master Hand had also asked for help from Dr. Light, who let him use his robot masters, that had also managed to greatly help with speeding everything up.

Despite the attack, very few had actually managed to sustain injuries. The worst physical injury was probably a sprained ankle. A few Smashers had bruises, but beyond that they were okay. After the attack, Master Hand had informed everyone else that Saki and Isaac had departed on a secret mission, however he left the bit about Lucas running away a secret. He imagined all of the kid Smashers had figured it out by now, but adult Smashers probably hadn't caught on just yet.

Fox and Falco were currently working on repairing the communications systems.

Right now, Fox was sitting at a computer and was constantly typing away. Master Hand was at the other end of the room, waiting as Fox had all ready grown frustrated, and had snapped at the giant hand for looming over him, which was making him nervous and screwing up everything.

"Any luck yet?" Master Hand asked.

"Nothing has changed in the past 10 minutes since you last asked!" Fox said rather annoyed. He couldn't really blame Master Hand for being anxious though, all of the Smashers were worried about Saki and Isaac. They saw them being attacked before warping, but their communications were damaged during the attack. They couldn't even confirm if they were still alive.

The damaged communications had also delayed the other part of the mission and having the other Smashers go out to find the 12 humans that were chosen. As a result, their morale was at an all time low. Fox and several other Smashers had been working with very few breaks to try and get everything working, and as a result, they were growing more and more frustrated, and irritable.

"This is beginning to look hopeless." Fox said.

"Keep working." Master Hand sternly ordered. He didn't want to send out the other Smashers like this, but it was beginning to look like he had no choice. He couldn't help but think that the attack served a greater purpose, to help conceal something else and that the Smashers would be so distracted that they wouldn't notice until it was too late.

But what? He couldn't think of anything that their unknown enemies would do. He just sighed and began to float out of the room.

"I'm going to check up on everything else." Master Hand said.

Fox also breathed a sigh of relief, maybe now he could actually get some work done without screwing up every few seconds as the giant white glove just continuously breathed down the back of his neck, making him a nervous wreck.

As Master Hand floated through the ruins of the mansion, it only became clearer on how much the morale of the Smashers was affected. They all seemed drained and lifeless. They were all uncertain about everything.

The attack had left them confused. They didn't know who their opponents were; they had barely even had seen the monsters. The attack made next to no sense either. As soon as Saki and Isaac had left, the monsters disappeared. But it couldn't be something like preventing them from going to the other world and they realized after they had failed.

Master Hand wished he had some news to broadcast to everyone. A simple message from Saki or Isaac would suffice, a simple 'we're okay' would work. But he doubted that they would get that. There were the others though. He made his way into his office and closed and locked his door. He then floated above a circle that was in the middle of the room. Suddenly an aura burst off of him. And the area transformed.

Master Hand now floated above a marble tower. There were twelve small numbered platforms that were connected by a walkway to the tower. Each platform was over an abyss. And on each platform there was either a person occupying it, or it was empty. Each person occupying it was currently hidden; their bodies were made out of shadows to obscure any defining feature or anything else about them.

"Where are we?" One asked. Its voice was digitized to hide the tone.

Master Hand just floated there. "I am currently communicating to you in your dreams." Master Hand said. "There are 12 of you, but it seems that a few have not fallen asleep yet."

"Who are you?" One person asked.

"I am Master Hand, and I wish to avoid repeating myself. Can we wait until the others are here?"

There was currently 3 empty spaces. Within five minutes they were filled.

"About time you three got here." One said.

"This is just a dream, right?" another said.

"No, this is real." Master Hand said. "My name is Master Hand,"

"AHHHHHHHHH!" One person screamed. "Your the final boss of Super Smash Bros! I'm dreaming that I'm in the game right?"

"No." Master Hand said. "This is real, I am communicating to you telepathically, and what I'm about to explain is of great importance, so I suggest listening very carefully. 2 days ago I sent out an update to only your 12 3DS's, if you had access to multiple 3DS's either through a sibling, or owning multiple consoles for whatever reason, you may have questioned why only one unit had received this mysterious update. I assure you, only you 12 are the only people on the planet to receive this update."

"And what was this update?" Another asked.

"You are the last hopes for both of our worlds." Master Hand said. "Our worlds are parallel, never actually meeting except through extremely rare circumstances. In theory, our worlds were never supposed to meet again, however now there is a crisis where the worlds will come together and fuse with possibly destructive results."

"And why us?" Another asked.

"Because you are 12 humans that have the rare ability to be able to travel through the two worlds at will, if the gateway hadn't been sealed previously."

"Wait, so basically we could travel into a TV world like in Persona 4?" One said.

"Yes, I guess that's an extreme oversimplification of it." Master Hand said.

"Interesting." Another said.

"Do you all understand this?" Master Hand said.

"Yes." They all replied.

"We currently do not know who our enemies are who are forcing the worlds to fuse, and we can imagine that there will be monsters who will cross over into your world. The job I have for you is to team up with a group of two Smashers to fight any of these monsters and send them back into our world. To aid you in your quest I have given your 3DS several powers that have now been unlocked. I suggest reading though the instructions to fully understand how to wield them." Master Hand said.

They all nodded, and Master Hand continued his explanation. "However, you must guard your 3DS with your life, if it was to be broken, your memories will be erased, and you would be returned back to your normal life beforehand."

They all just nodded, accepting Master Hand's warning.

"That is all for right now, when I call upon you again, the Smashers will have hopefully crossed over into your world."

Master Hand reemerged in his office. He let off a heavy sigh and looked around. He didn't know what else to do. Everything seemed so bleak. "Tomorrow is another day," he eventually said deciding to go to sleep


Elsewhere, others were meeting up. "Mugen, San has escaped." A person dressed as a scientist said. "You must hunt him down."

"Yes sir!" The other said.

"Use whatever means necessary to kill him."

"Yes sir!" Mugen replied, emotionlessly.


The school day was boring, and Alex was glad that it was over. Tei/Cody/whatever he was supposed to go by was practically his only interaction with anyone else, and that was painfully annoying.

"I see your brother isn't here today." Cody said. "Did you heed my advice?"

"He's just sick today." Alex replied.

"Is that so?" Cody laughed, it was quite clear to Alex that Cody didn't believe a single word that he just said. He was debating about telling him about Saki and Isaac, but wondered if that would further complicate things. Just as they had discussed the previous night, Zoroark stayed at the house to watch over San. He wouldn't be able to do it every single day, but they felt that at least for the first week it was doable, then as long as they found him trustworthy, he could be left by himself. Or if Saki and Isaac actually began to look after him.

"Listen, can we talk somewhere privately?" Alex asked.

Cody just shrugged, and the two of them walked out of the cafeteria, and made their way outside. They got to the far side of the field. "Tell me are there any snipers currently aiming at me?" Alex wondered.

"No." Cody replied, doing his best to hide back a laugh. "They still think I'm only investigating you."

Alex just glanced at him. "Whose side are you on?" He asked.

"Listen, I'm just trying not to jump the gun here." Cody said. "I think you would make a powerful ally. We're supposed to register anyone who has the potential to cross over. It's been so long since we've had to track anyone down."

Alex just glared at him. "Why's that?"

"It's because well, stuff happened and the gateways between worlds were closed down for the longest time. That, and we can't actually act without any proof of people being able to crossover..." He sighed. "This may be a bit too complicated for you to understand but..."

Alex just looked rather surprised at Cody. "Wait, won't you get in trouble if you explain everything?!"

"Not really." Cody sighed. "The thing is, there is some magic, or something. Those who don't have the ability to crossover into the other world, forget about it within 24 hours. Anything that crosses over here, and anyone who sees it, and any damage that will be done will be forgotten within 24 hours. For some reason, the reverse is also true, if we were to eliminate someone who could cross over, everyone would forget about them within 24 hours. If you aren't actually someone who can cross over, you will forget within 24 hours if I say anything about the other world."

Alex just nodded. "Okay then."

"Or that contact has been made with someone, such as the Zoroark." Cody finished. "But, right now, I'm trying to do my best to protect you."

"And why's that?" Alex wondered.,

Cody just gritted his teeth. He looked around nervously and eventually said. "Once again, I think you would make a powerful ally. If your Zoroark could be used with us, we could quickly contain fights of any monsters in illusions, or lead anything that crosses over away to a safe area where nothing will be severely damaged. We can continue to keep the masses ignorant. That's why I see you and Zoroark as a valuable asset. And, as someone who can crossover, and has many times in the past, I know what is waiting for us on the other side..."

Alex could see that Cody was speaking truthfully. But his aura was still letting off a scared state. He looked around, trying to see if anyone else was watching, and then his hand went into his pocket.

The next thing Alex knew was that his ears suddenly popped. It suddenly was much quieter. He could no longer hear the wind, or any birds, or any passing by cars. It was just silent until Cody spoke up once again. "You can't trust the people who sent me, but you can trust me." He said.

Alex didn't know how to take this. Was this person just an experienced liar? He wished that he had observed his aura more carefully prior to this moment so he knew for sure.

"I've seen what they plan to do, and I'm working against it." Cody continued. "I want you to be with me in this rebellion."

All sound suddenly returned, and Cody just began to walk away. "I'll see you in class." He said.

The rest of the day was boring and uneventful. Occasionally during class, Alex would pull out his cell phone and text Zoroark, Zoroark would gladly let him know if anything interesting was going on there, which wasn't much. They were going through the various games in the basement, playing them.

"We're erasing everything and starting over." Zoroark had teased. At least, Alex hoped it was a tease, if his game's save files were erased, there would be hell to pay, and Zoroark knew that.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Much to his surprise, Cody didn't attempt to follow him home. But, there were other things that were bothering him, right now, a storm was coming. The skies were gray, and the air had that feeling just before a storm would come. There was no wind, at least not yet, it was also eerily quiet. Yes, the first big storm of the season would be here soon, washing away any snow that remained, which at this point just amounted to what was left of giant piles in mall parking lots.

He made his way up his driveway, and to the front door. As he stepped in to the house he was surprised to see Zoroark was waiting for him rather eagerly. "Whats wrong?" Alex asked.

"Everything." Zoroark said. "Something strange is in the air today."

Alex just glanced around. "Really?" He wondered.

"Yes." Zoroark replied. "I don't like this scent."

"Smoke, or gas?" Alex wondered.

"Neither." Zoroark replied.

Alex just stopped to think about it for several seconds. "What does it smell like?"

"I don't know." Zoroark replied. "But it's nostalgic"

Alex just nodded. "Nostalgic?"

"Maybe a bit of countryside air..." Zoroark said. "Yeah, that's it... foreign air..."

"Not to mention a storms coming." Alex said.

Zoroark just shuddered afraid. He nodded his head several times. "I've heard the thunder in the distance." He said. "It's coming much closer."

Alex just sighed. "Well, I'm going to find Saki and Isaac."

"We're here." A voice said, walking up the driveway. They walked into the house as rain began to fall. Soon, loud deafening claps of thunder occurred. Zoroark had run down into the basement, as he was afraid of the loud sounds. Much to his surprise, San followed, also shaking in fear.

Saki, Isaac, and Alex just enjoyed some hot coffee and tea, while waiting for the storm to pass. The power went out, and they just sat there in darkness. "I'd hate to be out in this weather." Alex sighed.


Inside the cave, Lucas was terrified. The loud claps of thunder, the bolts of lightning. After every strike, they were followed by a cry from the young psychic. "Why did I leave..." Lucas muttered.

Noah hadn't come yet. He was figuring that the kid wouldn't make it out of the house today. He'd have to be crazy to come out in this storm.

"Hey!" A voice said. Lucas looked up. Much to his surprise Noah was standing there with an umbrella. "Listen, you can come to my house for a while." Noah said. "My father isn't home right now and won't be back until later, so... it should at least be drier than this..."

Lucas just nodded a few times.

"You can also take a shower too..." Noah said.

Lucas just suddenly froze. "Do I stink?" Lucas asked.

"I didn't mean it like that, but you must be rather dirty and..."

"Ah, I see…" Lucas said.

The two just began to walk, the violent winds however had quickly torn apart the umbrella. "Let's make a run for it." Noah said. Lucas just nodded, and the two began to run, eventually getting to Noah's house.

The two just began to gasp for air, and then they began to laugh. "We made it." Noah said, unlocking the front door. "Well, welcome to my home."


In Saki's hands was a device. To Alex it looked almost like a smart phone. From the occasional glance he got from Saki moving the device around, he was able to make out a map. "Well, I've got some bad news." Saki sighed. "Something is emerging into this world."

"Something in this weather?" Alex said rather annoyed.

Suddenly on Saki's screen appeared a countdown timer starting at 10 minutes. "I'm afraid so." Saki said. "And in 10 minutes, it will be fully in this world."

"Where is it?" Alex asked.

"Nearby..." Saki replied. He tossed the device to Alex and he just looked at it. The map was of the nearby area.

"This is by the river, right by that forest that you're lodging in."

"Okay, Isaac, let's go!" Saki said.

"Wait, you're really going?!" Alex said confused.

"We don't have a choice." Isaac replied. "Whatever appeared, we have to return it back to our world."

"But won't you get sick?!" Alex said.

"I'll be fine." Isaac replied. "I've got a Mercury Djinn that will keep the water away from me. And Saki is too stupid to catch a cold."

"What was that!?" Saki snapped.

Alex just looked at Isaac a bit confused.

"Saki won't get a cold no matter what. His biology is too different from normal humans such as yourselves." Isaac replied. "His immune system is practically unbeatable."

Alex just nervously laughed. "I wished I knew what that felt like."

"Anyways, you can stay here, we're going to go fight that monster." Saki said.

The two ran out of the house brandishing their weapons. Alex only hoped that no one saw them. Odds were that no one would be looking out the windows during this storm. And even if they were, the rain was coming down, and was far too heavy to see more than 5 meters in front of you. They wouldn't be recognized, and if anyone did see them, they'd just think that they were crazy, or something. He glanced at the device in his hand, and then at the door as they had gone out.

"Crap. You guys forgot this!" Alex shouted. But they were all ready gone. He just rushed down to the basement where Zoroark was currently under a bunch of blankets and pillows.

"Master?" Zoroark asked.

"Sorry Z, but a monster is emerging, and Saki and Isaac just ran out. I think we should follow them."

"It's still raining and there is thunder and lightning..." Zoroark protested.

"I know, I'm sorry..."

"You'll owe me something big." Zoroark growled getting up. "And what about San."

The boy was also cowering underneath some blankets. "I think we don't have to worry about him running away during this weather." Alex replied.

They rushed out of the house. The streets were flooded with water. The two just ran towards the destination. A clap of thunder happened, but they kept on going. Zoroark had cut off some of his hair, and chewed it, to make a makeshift earplugs for himself. They had eventually caught up with Saki and Isaac at a small fenced off steep hill, although it was probably more accurate to call it a cliff, that was over looking the river. "What are you doing?!" Saki shouted back.

"Making sure you guys are okay." Alex replied.

"You know this is going to be dangerous." Isaac said.

"Don't worry I'll stay a safe distance away." Alex said. The two of them nodded.

"Are there any other ways down?"

"At least a three minute run from here." Alex said. However he held up the machine. "But we don't exactly have that time." They now had less than a minute and a half before the monster emerged.

"That will take too long!" Saki said, jumping over the fence. Isaac followed. They began to rush down the hill, not once losing their balance. Alex just watched in shock. A smile began to cross his face, his heart began to pound. These guys were the real deal.

"Zoroark, follow them, I'll catch up!" Alex said, deciding to take the long way.

Zoroark just nodded and also jumped the fence. Alex however ran to get to the part of the trail that would allow him to go down to the river. There was a bit of relief when he got under the cover of the trees.

Saki and Isaac had stopped at the bottom. Zoroark soon caught up. "My master is taking the long way." He said.

Both of them just nodded. "Well, I guess he is only a normal human after all." Saki said. "He doesn't have any training like us."

"Now we just need to find out where this monster is emerging." Isaac said.

Saki began to feel for the device, however, he quickly realized that he had never gotten it back from Alex. He just looked horrified. "Oh no."

"You didn't." Isaac said rather annoyed.

"It looks like I did." Saki replied.

"Crap."

Thankfully, whatever had emerged decided to be rather loud, as there was a sudden roar. They suddenly felt the ground shake, and then saw a wave in the river go downstream, followed by another ferocious roar. They quickly followed the bank until they saw what was emerging. A rather large green dragon, unicorn fusion was there.

"What is that!?" Zoroark asked.

"A monster from our world that just crossed over." Saki said.

"It's called Aquamentus!" Alex shouted, having caught up. They looked at him rather shocked.

"Aquamentus." Saki said.

Alex just tossed the device back to Saki who looked over it. It now currently had a page of information on Aquamentus. "Despite it's size, all the data available just says that it's rather weak." Saki laughed. "Geeze, are our enemies just taunting us?"

"Maybe they didn't expect any resistance on this side..." Isaac replied.

Saki just raised up his cannon sword and began to fire in the face of Aquamentus. Aquamentus however just fired three fireballs towards them. They landed on the shore, and quickly were extinguished from the rain.

Isaac drew his sword and rushed for the dragon. With a single strike Aquamentus went down and began to cry out in pain. "Well, that was pathetically easy." Alex muttered. "Are all of the enemies from your world this weak?"

Isaac just sheathed his sword. He glanced back at Aquamentus. Something was way too weird about it just going down in one hit. "No, this one should of been at least a bit stronger than that..."

Saki pulled out the device to scan Aquamentus. "This is way to weird. It's saying that Aquamentus is practically dead."

Alex was just trying to stay calm. "It's aura, I sensed it two days ago... What if it was trying to emerge since then."

"He may be onto something." Isaac said. "While we were protected from the gateway between the two worlds by the ship, Aquamentus wasn't and suffered a great deal of damage. And if he's been trying to emerge for the past two days... the seal is still partly in place, but it's a lot weaker than it used to be, still Aquamentus had to make his own hole to escape out..."

"I think this wasn't the first spot that he tried to escape out either." Alex said. "The train tracks, that were uprooted... Did it try there?"

"I see." Saki said. "So, it's weakened because the barrier between the worlds is still partly up. Well, I'm a little disappointed, but let's just take this lucky break." He aimed his cannon sword right at Aquamentus and fired. The energy bullet hit the dragon square on the nose. It let out a cry of pain. "Geeze, I'm so mad that my clothes got wet now." Saki said. "Talk about a waste of time."

Suddenly behind Aquamentus appeared a portal. From it a dark energy that began to shock it, causing it to cry out in pain. Aquamentus also began to get more energized, as it stood up on it's feet, and began to flap it's wings to fly. "Aquamentus, I order you to destroy those Smashers!" A voice shouted from the portal.

Aquamentus' eyes now glowed with a red color. It stared at the four people in front of it. "This isn't good." Saki muttered. He began to fire shots with his Cannon Sword, however they quickly became ineffective.

Isaac quickly grabbed his sword and ran towards Aquamentus. This time also slashing it, however, his sword didn't cut the beast. The scales just protected it now. "What!?" Isaac said shocked. He was suddenly knocked back by a strong gust of wind and into the water.

It's eyes focused on Zoroark and Alex. "Get out of here!" Saki shouted. "This monster will tear you apart!"

Aquamentus began to fire several fireballs towards Zoroark and Alex. The two of them however dodged the attacks. Alex had picked up a stone off of the ground and quickly threw it at the beast. It just bounced off of it's head, being ineffective. Isaac tried to jump up, however he was suddenly pulled back down to the ground. The scarf around his neck, was now stuck under water, it had been caught by a rock. He just looked up at the dragon frustrated.

The dragon just spun around, and hit Isaac sending him flying with his tail. Saki quickly rushed for Aquamentus, and jumped bringing his cannon sword down upon the beast's head. However it did next to no actual damage.

"That surge of energy..." He muttered. Aquamentus began to take flight. Saki realized how dangerous this was and quickly jumped up to it's wings slashing them to cause Aquamentus to fall down onto the ground. The ground shook and it let out a cry of pain. "Sorry, it's bad enough you managed to come into this world, but I'm making sure you're staying here!"

Isaac rushed for Aquamentus, now that his scarf was no longer caught under rocks, he was free to attack. He quickly jumped up to strike him, but once again his sword did nothing. Isaac just landed on the ground and looked rather frustrated. "Looks like I'm going to have to use Psynergy." He muttered.

He placed his hand on the ground and suddenly a spire shot up. It hit Aquamentus, but immediately broke upon contact with Aquamentus' hard scales. "Crap, that didn't even work!?" Isaac muttered. He began to walk forwards however suddenly fell down. Isaac's eyes flared open in pain, and he let out a cry.

Alex quickly rushed over to him. "What's wrong?!"

"All these rocks... I must of twisted my ankle." Isaac said. He looked at Alex and suddenly realized that he was within range of Aquamentus. "What are you doing here, get back!"

Alex just went under Isaac's arm and helped support him up. "I'm getting you out of here."

Isaac cringed. "You shouldn't put yourself in danger." Isaac said. "I'll be fine. You on the other hand could be killed."

"That's just a risk I'm going to have to take to help you." Alex replied.

They began to walk away. However Aquamentus breathed a fireball towards them. Isaac just raised his hand and from his hand a giant golden hand appeared to protect them. The two just canceled each other out.

They got into the cover of the forest. Isaac just leaned against a tree. "Zoroark is currently maintaining an illusion, to keep the battle hidden." Alex explained. "Just as long as no trees catch on fire, we should be safe. Now, sit back, and I hope you don't mind me taking this."

Isaac's eyes widened in realization that while Alex was helping him, in the process he had stolen his sword. He just took the sheath and tied it to his belt. "You idiot!" Isaac shouted, grabbing Alex's ankle in a desperate attempt to try and stop him. "We can't do anything, what does a normal human such as yourself hope to accomplish?"

Alex just glanced at Isaac and effortlessly broke his grip on his ankle. "Isaac, you made one mistake. Assuming that I was a normal human. There is a reason why I was chosen as Nugai's Successor."

"What?!" Isaac said rather pained. "You... were acting like you didn't know."

"I didn't know whether or not to trust you just yet." Alex replied. "Nugai did choose me for a reason. I can probably fight on the same ground, as you two."

And with that Alex ran off. Isaac could only watch. He held his Smash Pendant and clenched it tightly. "Are we condemning him to his death, or are we opening up a new future?" He muttered.

Saki was flicked by Aquamentus' tail and sent skidding across the ground, hitting several jagged rocks and eventually slamming into a tree. He cried out in pain. "Crap!" He muttered, struggling to get back up. "I may have to go all out..."

Alex just stood in front of Saki. "Can you stay back here and support me?" He asked.

"What!?" Saki said rather surprised. "Just because you have a sword now doesn't mean you can fight that thing! Have you ever wielded a sword before?"

Alex just closed his eyes. "No, not a real one. Although I have played video games, and swung sticks around pretending that they were swords."

This comment annoyed Saki to no end. "That is absolutely nothing like using a real sword! You don't even know the weight of a sword!"

Alex just nodded. "This may be true." He said. "But I think I can beat it. No, I know I can beat it."

Saki reached out to grab Alex to stop him, however, he missed. Alex just turned around and began to walk towards Aquamentus. He reached the water and continued walking forwards. Much to Saki's amazement, he didn't stop, or sink. Alex was walking on water.

At that moment, Saki could only look at him in shock. The person in front of him, he knew he wasn't a normal human. Hell, he wasn't even sure if the person in front of him was a human. It terrified him perhaps more than any other thoughts. Alex drew the sword and just continued walking forwards.

"Aquamentus," Alex said. "Its time to end this!"

The dragon just looked down at the person, perhaps it was questioning why a mere human thought it was even capable of opposing it. Aquamentus just let out a roar, in an attempt to scare him, but Alex didn't even flinch. The two just continued to stare at each other. Neither wanting to admit defeat, even in a simple staring contest.

Alex readied his sword. In his mind he was remembering everything he could about Aquamentus. The first boss of The Legend of Zelda, and The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons. Considered to actually be the weakest boss in the entire Zelda franchise.

Alex adjusted his grip on the sword, and then jumped up to attack Aquamentus. Aquamentus was ready for the attack and countered by breathing a giant single fireball. Alex however grabbed the sheath of the sword, and crossed the two like an X to create a barrier as he went right through the fireball and up to Aquamentus' head.

"Aquamentus, your weakness is your horn!" Alex shouted swinging the sword at the horn, however, the sword just bounced off the horn like many of Saki and Isaac's attacks on it's scales. Alex began to fall, his eyes flared up in anger realizing that his attack was just as ineffective as the others.

Aquamentus also attacked Alex now that he was falling to the ground and next to defenseless. It fired another fireball towards him, however a barrier of aura appeared around Alex dispelling the fireball.

"Humans here can use Aura?" Saki said shocked. "What's going on?!"

"This is my master's power." Zoroark replied.

Alex landed on the water, and just looked up at Aquamentus a bit frustrated. He suddenly dashed to Aquamentus' tail. It flicked it towards Alex however he just jumped on top of it and began to run up the back of the dragon, increasing his speed and readying his sword once again. He swung the sword at the horn, this time with all of his strength while also reinforcing his arms with Aura. He jumped off Aquamentus and looked back to see not even a scratch had been done on the horn.

The sword in his hands on the other hand now had a giant crack through it. Alex just looked rather frustrated. Aquamentus began to breath another fireball at him, however Saki shot at it several times with his cannon sword. A few shots hitting it in the eyes, and causing it to stop it's attack to cry out in pain.

Alex landed on the ground and looked at the sword. He just cringed. He imagined that he only had 1 more attack before the sword would reach it's limit and would completely shatter. Deep in his his head he was muttering something to himself. "Wasn't breakable weapons Fire Emblem, not Golden Sun..."

He looked up at Aquamentus, it just appeared that all he had done was succeeding in pissing it off.

Aquamentus began to rapidly fire fireballs at Alex. He just dodged in between the attacks. It was quite easy to tell where each attack was going to land, and since they were still on the water, there was no worry about the trees catching fire, not to mention there was still the heavy downpour of rain. Alex made sure to only barely miss a few of the fireballs, and put the sword in them, in some hope that he could quickly reforge it to get rid of some the cracks, and make it solid again, however that didn't actually seem to work very well.

"So much for that improvised plan." Alex muttered. He stretched out his arm, and aura began to cover the sword. "Here's hoping plan b works." his plan was to use aura to strengthen his sword, and to hopefully cut. He didn't know if it would work, but at this point in time, it was the only thing that he could do, and he only had one shot, so he might as well go for that crazy idea.

He quickly began to run away from Aquamentus, and then did a 180 turn, and run back towards him. Aquamentus began to fire fireballs at him, however he swiftly dodged each and everyone, and then Alex jumped up into the air and rushed towards Aquamentus' horn.

He swung the sword and then landed on the ground. The sword had completely shattered from the impact, so now all he was holding was a broken hilt. He just looked at the broken weapon in shock. He then glanced up at Aquamentus. "It's over." Alex said discarding the hilt. Aquamentus' horn suddenly fell down into the water, and a surge of dark energy went through it's body. It let out a cry of pain, before erupting into flames and dying. Soon, not even it's body remained. Alex just approached the horn and dragged it to shore. Saki was actually still staring in shock at what Alex had just done. "Who the hell are you?" He asked.

Alex glanced at Saki a bit confused. "No one special, really!" Alex said.

"No one special? You say that after you just did that, and you want me to believe you?"

"Yes." Alex said. "I learned how to control aura from Nugai. I am his successor after all."

Suddenly Alex fell forwards exhausted. Zoroark quickly rushed to in front of his Master and caught him. "Are you all right Master?" Zoroark asked.

"Yeah, I'm just tired. I've never used that much aura before." Alex laughed.

Isaac had made his way over and looked at the remains of his sword. "Well, there are plenty where that one came from." He sighed, rather grateful that it was just an old plain sword and not one of his several magical swords that Alex just totaled.

"Well, we at least managed to escape with our lives." Saki said.

"Still, what powered up that monster?" Isaac wondered.

"Can we talk about this back at my house?" Alex asked. It was getting much harder for him to keep his eyes open. Even when perfecting that walking on water technique he had never used that much aura.

"Agreed." Saki said. "There is no telling how much attention that fight garnered."


Lucas stepped out of the shower, his blonde hair was currently draped over his eyes, he took a nearby towel and just began to dry his hair.

The water was so nice. After how many days outside, in rather cold weather, it was nice having actual warmth on his body again.

Noah had left some spare clothes for Lucas, and was currently washing Lucas' dirty clothes. It was a nice gesture, but kind of pointless, when he'd be stepping outside and the now dry, clean clothes would be drenched once again.

He glanced at himself in the mirror. His work as a Smasher had actually given him a lot more muscle build than someone his age would have.

Noah suddenly walked in. He just stared for a few seconds, and just shouted out in shock. "I'm sorry!" He said. "I forgot I had someone here and..."

"Don't worry about it." Lucas said. Quickly getting changed. As a Smasher, he had gotten used to changing in front of the other kid Smashers, not to mention where he came from, the Nowhere Islands, there were always the public mixed bathing hot springs, and people really weren't embarrassed about their bodies. He got into the shirt and just looked at himself once again in the mirror. He tried to style his hair, but without gel, it just went down once again.

"I want to show you some more games." Noah said. "Come on!" Lucas was suddenly dragged up into Alex's room. It was messy. Clothes were thrown across the floor with no actual regard that someone else could be here. Noah suddenly realized how much of a mess the place was and acted quickly, grabbing the clothes and quickly stuffing it into an already overflowing laundry hamper. "Sorry." He quickly apologized.

"I'm used to it." Lucas laughed, Toon Link was actually quite messy, Red's stuff was always everywhere, yet he could always find it easily, and when tired, Ness really didn't care where anything was either.

Noah just turned on a TV, and then a black box. "This is my Xbox 360." Noah said. He just smiled and began to laugh. "Here, you've got to see this, this is Minecraft! You've got to have heard about this, right?" Lucas just looked at the screen. Noah had all ready loaded up a game, and he was currently in a house. Everything was just extremely blocky. "It's just the coolest thing ever!" Noah said, not waiting for an answer from Lucas. "You get to do nearly anything you want, you get to build, and…"

Lucas just occasionally nodded in response. He was paying attention. Between this and a Link Between Worlds yesterday, he was beginning to grow curious. The games looked so different… and then Lucas began to wonder, what did his world look like from his side. What did Ness', and Red's look like?

"Here's this cave that I've been mining in." Noah said.


They had made their way back to Alex's house. When they got there, they all let off a heavy sigh. They were all exhausted; their clothes were all drenched in water. Alex just quickly handed out new clothing to each of them, and they changed into it. He also put on a kettle and got several mugs so that they could all have a warm drink to warm themselves up.

"Okay..." Saki said as they had all regrouped down around the dinning room table. "You have a lot of explaining to do. Start by explaining the walking on water."

Alex just nervously laughed. "Um well, the water was really shallow in a few spots with some giant rocks..."

"You're lying." Saki said.

Alex just raised his hand up. A ball of aura appeared. "I can control aura." Alex replied. "Have you ever seen the show Naruto?"

The two of them just stared blankly at him. "No." They both said.

"Okay, it's about ninjas, and one of the first major skills that they learn is the ability to control their chakra, their energy, to walk up trees, or walk on water." Alex said. "It was basically just using aura to do the same thing."

"How did you learn how to control Aura?" Saki asked.

"Nugai taught me." Alex replied. "Before he was locked up." From the kitchen the kettle began to whistle. Alex just got up. "Tea, coffee, hot chocolate?"

"Coffee's fine." Saki said.

"Tea." Isaac added on.

Alex just nodded and made his into the kitchen.

Saki just turned to Isaac. "There was something strange about him too." Saki said. "As soon as he started fighting it was like he was a completely different person."

"That's because Master refuses to lose." Zoroark said.

"No." Saki said. "I've seen people like that fight and he let off a completely different aura. Those who struggle and refuse to give up until their body's give out have a very different fighting presence. Watching him fight gave me goosebumps, and stirred several emotions in me. If I had to say it, it was almost like he was born to fight and battle."

Isaac just looked down at the table. "So, there are monsters like that in this world too. Nugai definitely chose someone interesting to be his successor."

Saki just nodded in agreement.

Zoroark however was sitting at the table rather confused. "I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you mean by that. Could you explain it?"

"Explain what?" Saki wondered.

"You said it was almost like he was born to fight." Zoroark said.

"Well, in our world, there are people like for example... Hmm... who within the Smashers would be a good example... Ah yeah, Red the Pokmeon Trainer, or Lucas." Saki said. "Before you get to know them, they're shy, quiet, kind of dorky, and just give that impression of they would never be good in a fight, even when you know them, they're just two kids having fun but still quiet, shy and kind of dorky. But when that fight, they change. They are suddenly different. I wouldn't say ruthless, but to a casual observer watching them fighting you'd be hard pressed to believe that they were the same person. That quiet person who just kept to themselves, just suddenly became alive. That a fire was lit deep within them, and they awoke to their passion."

Zoroark just nodded. "I think I understand now." He said.

"Although, I guess it's not just limited to fighting." Saki said. "Artists, musicians, cooking, anything really... you can see someone change when they find their passion. Well, I'm going to try and contact Master Hand now." Saki reached down into his pocket and pulled out the device. He then just stood there, looking horrified. "No way!" He said.

Isaac just looked at it and cringed. "Crap." He said.

"What's the matter?" Alex wondered, walking into the room with the tray of drinks.

"Our communicator. It was damaged in the fight with Aquamentus." Saki said. "It must of been when I was hit, and slid across those rocks and smashed into the tree."

"Without this we can't contact the other Smashers." Isaac replied.

"Can it be fixed?" Alex wondered.

"I might be able to do something." Saki said. "It won't be a lot, but it will be something. If I could at least get it to display the signal so that they know we are still alive then maybe... Once this storm let's up, I'm going to go back to the ship and see if there are spare parts there that I can borrow."

Isaac just nodded. Time passed, Alex went downstairs to play video games, while Saki and Isaac just stayed up in the dinning room. Eventually Alex came back upstairs, in tow was San.

Alex just let off a yawn. "Sorry, I'm going to bed." He said.

"Okay, see ya." Saki laughed.

"If you're still going out, just make sure you lock the door behind you."

"Yeah, of course." Saki said.

Alex went upstairs, and Saki turned to Isaac. "The storm doesn't feel like it's going to let up any time soon." He sighed. "I'm just going to go to the ship."

Isaac nodded. "I may join you later." He said.

With that Saki departed, it was now only Zoroark and Isaac sitting at the table. Their drinks had been finished long ago. Yet, Isaac felt like Zoroark was trying to say something. After several minutes of silence, he just turned to the pokemon. "Is there something on your mind?" Isaac asked.

"Yes." Zoroark replied. "It's about what Saki said..."

"The passion for fighting?"

"Yes. Is master's passion really fighting?" Zoroark questioned. "I've always known him as a kind person. I always thought he disliked violence. And now, it feels like I'm beginning to not know who he really is. So, is master's passion for fighting?"

"I don't think it's for fighting, per se." Isaac said. "Saki is always thinking about fighting, so I think he failed to properly explain something, or he didn't see it himself since he only knows how to fight for the sake of fighting. But, I wouldn't say that Lucas' passion is fighting like Saki said it was. If anything, I'd say Lucas' passion is for defending. Protecting those he cares about. I think Alex's passion is the same. He wants to protect those he cares about."

Zoroark just smiled. "I see. Thank you." He said standing up. "I'm going to bed now..."


It was now dark, and the rain hadn't let up. Noah just looked outside. He didn't want to send Lucas back out, since well it was still raining, and the cave must have been a mess by now. He just let off a sigh. "Lucas, you can stay here tonight if you want." He said.

"What about your family?" Lucas asked.

Noah just glanced around. "My dad isn't back yet, he's probably out at a bar somewhere. If he comes home, I'll just say that you were a friend from school, and that we had to do a project, and due to the weather you couldn't get back to your house."

Lucas just nodded a few times.

"You can stay in my bed, I'll sleep on the floor." Noah said.

"Okay." Lucas said.

Noah had lent Lucas some pajama pants and an old t-shirt that he had, soon the two were asleep.

Throughout the night, Lucas was woken up by Noah tossing and turning. The kid was having a nightmare. Lucas just closed his eyes, and began to use his psychic abilities to give him a more peaceful dream.


The next morning, Alex had a bit of trouble getting out of bed. He heard the alarm ringing, it was just he didn't want to turn it off. He was too exhausted to do that. And then if he did turn it off, after that he would have to go to school... the day would begin once again.

"It's Thursday..." He muttered to himself, forcing himself up. "Almost the weekend..." He looked around, but it was actually hard to focus. The room felt like it was spinning. He turned off the alarm and stepped onto the cold floor.

He stumbled forwards a few times, and he quickly caught himself, using a wall to support himself. He took a few more steps, but it became clear that, he wasn't feeling all that well.

"Was it all the aura that I used up yesterday?" He thought. He made his way to the washroom. Having a hot shower, making his way down to the kitchen and eating breakfast, nothing was helping him from not being dizzy. He was hardly able to keep his ballance.

He just collapsed in the chair at the table. Zoroark came down the stairs a few minutes later, and San had followed. "Master." Zoroark said. "Is everything okay?"

"I think so." Alex said. "Are you staying here again today Z?"

"Yes of course." Zoroark replied.

Alex just stood up and began to walk away. "I'm taking the bus today." Alex said. "Driving is probably a bad idea..."

Zoroark was a bit confused and afraid. He saw Alex begn to fall. He rushed to his side to quickly catch him. "Master, you're not all right..." Zoroark said.

"I'll be fine. I must of just slept baddy, or it was the use of aura, or it was something else like the weather." Alex weakly laughed. "Don't worry. I'll take the bus, I'll be fine."


Lucas was suddenly awoken by an alarm. He looked around confused, and then out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow move. Suddenly the alarm stopped, and a light came on in the room.

"Morning." Noah said.

Lucas just looked at Noah. "Morning."

He glanced out at the window. For the most part the heavy rain had stopped. There was still a light drizzle.

The two of them got up. Noah rushed out of the room for a few minutes and then came back in with the clothes that were in the drier. "Here." He said. "Also, it seems like my dad didn't come home last night! So, I guess I don't have to explain you to him."

Lucas just took the clothes. "Thanks for everything then." Lucas said.

"Hey, you still need to eat breakfast." Noah said.

The two just did their morning routine. And then, they went down into the kitchen. "We've got some cereal, and some waffles that just are heated up in the toaster, there's also milk, and orange juice to drink, what do you want?" Noah asked.

Lucas just looked at Noah a bit surprised. "Um… do you have eggs?" he asked.

"Yeah, in the fridge." Noah replied.

Lucas went to the fridge and opened it up, inside there were a few eggs. He grabbed them, and just began to break them and put them in a bowl, before whipping them together. Within a few minutes, he had made omelets, for the two of them. Noah actually looked rather surprised. "You didn't have to…" Noah said shocked.

"Well, I need some way to repay you for everything you did." Lucas replied.

Noah just nodded, and took the one omelet. When it was done, Noah just put the dishes in the dishwasher and then grabbed his backpack. "Well, this is where we have to part ways." He sighed. "Unfortunately I've got to go to school."

Lucas just nodded. "I'll be at the cave." He said. "Come see me after schools done."

The two walked out, and quickly went their separate ways. Lucas made his way back into the forest and then found the cave.

As he looked into the cave, his heart began to sink and his stomach turned. The water had gone into it, and made a rather big pool. As a result, the food that he had brought from the Smash Mansion was ruined. He just looked rather devastated. "What do I do now?!" Lucas muttered.


At a tower, a portal appeared, Mugen floated out of it and landed gracefully on the tower. He just looked down at the unsuspecting city below. "Searching for target..." he emotionlessly said.


"Another monster is emerging!?" Saki said surprised.

"What?!" Isaac said shocked.

"We have to go confront it now." Saki said. He just looked at the monitor on the ship. "No, this thing... It's super strong..."

"Well, let's go!" Isaac said.


Alex had his head down on his desk. The school day so far had been boring. Not to mention, he was also still exhausted from yesterday. And then, suddenly it was as though the world went silent.

"Hello, humans." A voice said, it was cold and emotionless. He looked around confused. Several other students were looking around confused as well, Alex just breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn't going crazy.

"What was that?" The teacher said.

"I am talking to you all through a psychic link. While you can hear me, I can't hear you." The voice said. "I am looking for someone, who had escaped and I'm positive is somewhere in this city. San, I'm looking for you... if you can hear this, turn yourself in. You should be able to find me... I'll give you an hour. If not, well, I guess I'll just have to hunt you down. And then there might be a lot of collateral damage. If one of you is protecting San, turn him in right now... You have one hour!"

Alex just stood up, and gathered his stuff up. Some were looking at him confused, others were just trying to figure out what happened.

"Alex, what's wrong?"

"I feel very sick." he replied. It wasn't a lie. Deep down he was cursing himself for even coming to school this day.

He walked forwards but suddenly stumbled, and fell forwards. He caught himself on a desk and just looked surprised. Other students were also looking at him rather surprised.

"I'll walk him out of class." Cody said, standing up and walking towards him.

The two left. "What was that?" Alex said, breathing a bit heavily.

"Your body seems to of reacted to the psychic waves, that whoever was talking to us was using." Cody said. "We've seen in some experiments that nearby scientists suddenly feel very sick and lose their balance after some telepathic communication, but they quickly get used to it."

"Must be my weak immune system..." Alex sighed.

"I don't think psychic waves has anything to do with the immune system..." Cody replied.

"No probably not." Alex made it to his locker and began to get everything out. "You said I could trust you, right?" Alex said.

"Yeah..." Cody replied.

"That person, San, I may know who he is." Alex said.

"Are you going to turn him over?" Cody said.

"The reason that Z has been away these past two days..."

"Zee?" Cody said confused. "Oh you mean Zoroark..."

"We found him in the forest, near death..." Alex said gasping.

"Hey, are you all right?" Cody asked. "You're condition has gotten worse."

Alex just began to fall forwards, where Cody caught him to make sure that he didn't smack his head against the floor. "Hey!"

"You've got your license, right?" Alex gasped.

"Yeah..."

"You've got a car here, right?"

"Yeah." He said pulling out a pair of keys.

"Can you drive me home..."

"Yeah." Cody said.


Zoroark was looking at San, and currently just standing between him and the door. "What are you doing?" San asked.

"I'm stopping you."

"You can't do that. You have to realize that if I don't go, people will no doubt die!" San said. "That person... if they sent him, they desparately want me back."

Saki and Isaac came in through the front door. "We heard that psychic broadcast." Saki said. "All right, brat, we're here to take you to him."

Zoroark however turned to the two. "You will do no such thing."

"Sorry, but our mission is to ensure the protection of those in this world." Isaac said. "We're not going to let Zenith's infighting kill a bunch of people here! We'll be taking him."

"I won't let you!" Zoroark said, getting his claws ready.

"You have to know you're outmatched..." Saki said.

Zoroark just cringed. Of course he knew it. Suddenly his cellphone went of. He reached for it and saw that it was Alex. "Master," Zoroark said.

"Z..." Alex said. "I'm coming home. Can you hold San there until I get there. It should be about 10 minutes..."

"Of course." Zoroark said. He faced them. "Alex will be here in 10 minutes. Let's at least wait until then..."

The three seemed to agree on that. 10 minutes later, Alex and Cody had arrived. Zoroark rushed over to help Alex out of the car, while Cody finally began to take some phone calls that he was getting from a cellphone.

"All right." Cody said after hanging up. "The current situation is that they are preparing to act and find whoever sent the message. Now then, you said that there was the actual San here in your house?"

"Yes." Alex said, as he drank a cup of water. "That's him."

They looked at the rather terrified child.

"And are you going to turn him over?"

Alex just sighed. "No, I'd like to avoid that, but that person sounded like he was going to do some major damage if he didn't turn himself in. I think we can beat him."

"You can't." San said. Everyone just turned to face him. "You really can't... He's beyond a normal human... He's beyond a Smasher's capability... The only way to make sure everyone lives is if I turn myself over."

"You'll die..." Alex said.

"I know..." San replied.

Cody nodded. "Very well then." He said. "If that's his choice..."

"Cody, can you help us?" Alex asked.

Cody however shook his head. "I can't." He replied. "If I'm seen with you guys, that could be disasterous for my family, and the plan. There will be a time when I will help you, but right now, its not it. All that I can do is drive you to the destination."

"Okay then, I understand." Alex replied. "I think it might be possible, if we can get rid of this guy, we might be able to keep San alive."

"I keep telling you, it's pointless..." San whimpered.

Alex however shook his head. "No, I don't see it like that. No one is invincible. We just need a plan..." He glanced at Saki and Isaac, "Can I ask you two to go all out?"

"I guess." Saki sighed.

"Good, then we might have a chance." Alex said. "Now, we just have to find him. Where is he?"

"That I don't know..." San said. "At least not yet."

"Is there a way to hunt him down?" Alex wondered.

"There is, I just can't do it." San replied. "I'm not proficient in the sensing abilities."

"Well, what can we do then…" Isaac said. "This city is huge, we can't exactly just travel around it in the remaining time. And we don't exactly have our scanner repaired yet. It showed that he was emerging, but it couldn't get a general location."

"I could try something." Alex said. "By using Aura, I might be able to find him."

Saki just nodded. "Then, let's try that." He said.

Alex just closed his eyes and began to concentrate. "I think I can do this…" He said. "Let's find him now…" He began to use aura to try and see everything, slowly expanding his range. But soon he reached his limit. He couldn't see any further, no matter what he did. "I'm sorry, I can't see any further."

"Now what?" Saki asked.

"Hello everyone." The voice said. "It's been 30 minutes, and I'm beginning to grow impatient. San, if you can hear this, people will die if you don't come and hand yourself to me. I haven't even felt you try and find me..."

"You know, he really isn't bringing up the option or possiblity that you can't actually move..." Alex said.

"Now then, thirty minutes before people start dying San!" He finished off. "Of course, I realize that for you, this is a worthless threat since you don't care about anyone's lives... You were always weak too... If you can't find me by sensing it, then I've got something new for you. I brought with me a monster. It's currently in a containment field... but it's still visible... I even see a bunch of weak looking humans gathering around down there staring at it. Maybe I could release it… Thirty minutes San…"

Saki just stood up, and began to walk outside. "What are you doing?"

"It's my turn to try and find them." Saki said, after he got outside, he jumped up onto the roof. He just looked off into the distance. "Found them!" Saki shouted.

Everyone rushed outside and looked up at Saki. He just jumped off of the roof and onto the grass. "Okay, good." Cody said. "I can still drive you guys."

San just changed into his uniform, and they all drove off. It was quite easy to find the giant sphere that was containing an orange monster inside it. Much like the person had said, there were people who had gathered around looking at it. It was currently above a parking lot, Cody dropped them off. "Take my car back." Alex said. "Sorry, but you're going to have to find your own way back."

Cody just smiled. "Yeah." He said. "Don't worry about me. I'll just take pleasure in knowing that you'll be walking back to your house from here, so we can be even in that regard."

"Yeah."

"Good luck." Cody said, before driving off. The five of them walked towards the crowd.

"How are we even going to talk to him?" Saki wondered.

"5 minutes San." His voice started playing through their heads. "I'm growing bored and tiered. And you stupid humans are annoying me. I think I'm going to release this creature now!"

"Stop!" San shouted. "I'm here!"

"You're here..." he laughed. "Well then, come onto the roof of this building..."

Zoroark had used an illusion to make them disappear, where Isaac was able to make a giant hand appear, and it lifted them all up to the roof of the mall. Saki and Isaac, just hung onto the wall of the mall and made their way around, waiting for their chance to ambush the person. They walked over to see someone in a similar uniform waiting there, just looking down at the parking lot.

"Welcome, San, and four guests." He said, not even bothering to look back. "You two can come out of hiding..."

The two jumped onto the roof and just stared at the kid. Saki raised his gun, while Isaac drew his sword.

"Now, now," he said. "You wouldn't want to do that. I still hold all the chips in this negotiation. Hand him over to me. Or I will release the creature."

"How can we be sure that you won't release this creature once we hand him over to you?" Alex asked.

The person didn't reply.

"Answer me!" Alex snapped.

The person just turned to face them. Much like San he was a kid, Alex estimated about only a few years younger than him, at 14 or 15 at the most. He just looked over the Smashers and then at Alex and Zoroark and San.

"So, you went to the Smashers... I changed my mind." He said. "I'm releasing it right now." he lifted up his arm and shot an energy beam right at the barrier, it hit and exploded, suddenly the creature fell down into the parking lot. People began to scream, and run away. From up on the roof, all that they could see were red spheres suddenly flying everywhere, and the sound of several explosions. They rushed over to see the monster and the destruction it was causing.

In the parking lot there was a giant orange lizard like creature. On it's back was a machine and a bunch of tubes. It had a black underside, and then there were it's back legs which just seemed to be two flippers.

"The Biolizard!" Alex said shocked.

"What?" Isaac said.

"It's called the Biolizard, it's the prototype to the ultimate life form." Alex replied. "Why did you release it?" Alex shouted turning to face the person, but he had vanished. He turned his attention back down to the parking lot. He was afraid. he was hoping that the people had gotten away safely, but... the flaming wreckage of the parking lot begged to differ. He placed his hand down and looked inside the shopping mall. It had been mostly evacuated, he imagined back when the monster appeared in the sphere...

"I'll let you all live if you can beat this monster." His voice rang out.

They all jumped down to the ground, each of them looking at the giant lizard. "Well, looks like we have to take care of this thing." Isaac said. "It should be easy."

"Yeah." Saki laughed. "All right... here I go!"

He ran towards it, not even afraid as it towered over him. The creature snapped towards Saki, who just jumped out of the way and slashed at it with his cannon sword, he also fired the gun. However his attacks seemed to do next to nothing, as though they were hitting a barrier.

The Biolizard began to spit out energy balls towards Saki who just dodged them.

"Saki, you have to attack the life support system on it's back!" Alex shouted.

Saki just nodded, and began to run for the Biolizard's head. He jumped onto one of the tubes, and began to run up it, however, the Biolizard was easily able to move and cause him to lose his footing. He fell towards the ground and a pink ball shot towards him. It hit and exploded sending him flying away. He landed on the ground and began to skid for a few feet, before he recovered and rushed back to the Biolizard. However a sudden beam of energy shot out from what looked like metal disks that were attached to the Biolizard's body.

Saki was able to dodge, but where the laser had hit caused a large explosion, made out of an expanding sphere of energy.

"What's going on?" Alex said surprised.

"What do you mean?" Isaac asked.

"The Biolizard... It shouldn't be able to do this. That attack was from it's next form, when it was attached to the Space Colony ARK, and could draw in power from that." Alex replied.

Isaac just nodded. "Okay..."

Saki had gotten close to the Biolizard once again. However the beast let out a roar and suddenly everyone began to float up into the air. The pink spheres began to rush for everyone, Isaac and Zoroark began to cut through them, to protect Alex and San. Saki on the other hand was constantly getting pelted by them. Through out all of this Saki was able to shoot at the life support system on it's back. The blast was enough to cause damage to the Biolizard, and they all fell towards the ground. Zoroark had quickly caught Alex, and Isaac had caught San.

Saki on the other hand just landed face first. He got up and just looked rather annoyed at the monster. "I'm going to kill you, then grill you, and eat you for the next month!" Saki said annoyed.

The Biolizard just let out a roar, and fired another beam of energy right at Saki, he jumped out of the way, however the beam of energy rushed into the mall, exploded, and destroyed a good portion of it.

Alex just stared in disbelief. In an instant something that had been there all of his life had vanished. "We have to stop it, before this thing causes any more damage." Alex said, walking forwards.

"Master, wait!" Zoroark said. "You're not strong enough right now!"

"I can't let this thing destroy everything!" Alex replied. "Saki can't fight this thing alone."

"Master, please, you're sick!" Zoroark said. "Leave this to Saki and Isaac."

Isaac just quickly punched Alex in the stomach winding him. He fell to the ground, the next few second several spires shot up from the ground, trapping both Alex and San inside. "Sorry." Isaac said, "But Zoroark is right, right now you're just a giant liability."

Isaac just ran off. Alex just began to gasp out. "What if a laser comes our way. We can't run or defend ourselves like this..." But Isaac didn't hear him. He had drawn his sword and several red spheres rushed towards him. He quickly began to cut through them, but every time he cut one they suddenly exploded, sending him flying back. Zoroark was rushing towards the Biolizard. He thought about using illusions on it, however the lack of eyes, or at least organic eyes, would make them worthless.

It slammed it's tail down, which caused the ground to shake. The spires that San and Alex were under shifted so that they could get out. Alex wanted to rush towards the Biolizard and fight it with the others, but San was leading him away from the battle.

"Stop." Alex muttered.

"I have to get you away from here." San said. "You're in no condition to fight..."

"No stop." Alex repeated. "There's a barrier in front of us..." He shot a weak aura sphere and it collided with a barrier.

"He must of put it up." San said. "To trap us in and make sure I didn't run again..."

The two of them just turned to watch Saki, Isaac and Zoroark fight the Biolizard. It let out a deafening roar, that seemed to stun the three of them, suddenly they were all knocked back by the red balls. They flew towards them, and upon contact they exploded, sending them flying back. Saki just quickly began to run forwards, if any red ball came towards him he just immediately shot at it, there were a few that he wasn't able to shoot down, but he quickly figured out the pattern. The red balls would flash white before flying towards someone, otherwise, they would just remain stationary, floating around the Biolizard. Isaac on the other hand stopped attacking the balls with his sword. Instead he raised up his hand. "ZYPHER!" He shouted, a purple djinn appeared, and suddenly his speed had dramatically increased, he was able to dodge each and every red sphere that was sent his way.

Zoroark was also using his agility to avoid the attacks. Soon all the red spheres were gone. Saki breathed a quick sigh of relief, however suddenly a bunch more appeared around the Biolizard. "How can they stop that thing!?" San asked.

"I don't know if they can..." Alex replied. "San, move!" He quickly pushed San away and jumped away, one of the red balls had rushed towards them. Alex just looked at the Biolizard in shock. It was now targeting them too. Or was it attacking indiscriminately? Saki, Isaac and Zoroark were distracted by the Biolizard attacking Alex and San, several of the red balls rushed towards them and exploded, sending them flying away. Several laser beams then rushed in all directions.

Saki and Isaac were hit by the attack and sent flying back, hitting the barrier. Zoroark managed to dodge a beam. San on the other hand was frozen in place. A laser rushed right for him and all he could do was put his hands in front of him and try to counter.

The attack hit, and there was a large explosion. He went flying back and right in to the barrier. Alex quickly rushed to San's side. "San!" He shouted.

San just looked up at Alex. "I'm sorry." San weakly said. "This is my fault. I shouldn't of ran away."

"San." Alex just said shocked, the boy in front of him, wasn't in good condition. He just lost a good chunk of his arms blocking that attack. "Save your strength, we'll get you some help."

"I won't last that long." San said. "I know I'm going to die soon."

Alex just cringed.

"You're afraid, but it's only going to get worse." San said. "As the barriers between the two words weaken, more and more creatures will cross over. They will send more over just like this too. This is only the beginning. If the first San is out there somewhere, he might be willing to help."

"What? But you said that he was long gone..."

"He might not be... there is a small chance he is still alive." San replied. "I felt his presence briefly on this planet earlier..."

"How?" Alex asked. "I thought you said you weren't good at sensing things."

San just nodded. "I don't know how either. But he is somewhere, and somehow I could sense him."

Saki got back up and rushed over to the two of them. He glanced at San, but didn't let it distract him.

"Hey, Alex!" Saki said. "How was it beaten in the game?"

"Sonic and Shadow transformed into their super forms and fought it... together they managed to kill it." Alex replied. "Saki, can you transform?"

Saki's eyes widened in shock. "No, I can't, sorry. Not even in this barrier. I'm not even sure how much longer this barrrier will hold up."

"Then it might all be over." Alex sighed.

Isaac and Zoroark were trying to attack the Biolizard once again, however everything began to float once again. Saki just quickly fired his canon sword right at the Biolizard's life support unit. The attack hit and the normal gravity returned. Saki landed on the ground and just smiled. "I don't think he's going to be trying that any time soon." Saki laughed. "Giving me a clear shot of his weak point even a dumb monster can't be that dumb."

Zoroark and Isaac just nodded in agreement.

Saki just began to run towards the Biolizard, constantly firing at it with his canon sword. The red balls rushed towards him, but he began to dodge them. Saki actually manged to get close enough to cut through a tube that was connected to the life support system.

A white gas came out of the tubes, and the Biolizard let out a cry of pain. It then faced Saki, and was very clearly enraged. The red balls increased their speed, a few even managing to hit Saki, suddenly Saki was right by it's tail, which it flicked and sent him right into the barrier. The red balls continued their assault, actually keeping him pinned to the barrier. If that wasn't enough, the Biolizard was constantly sending beams of energy and some energy spheres right at Saki.

Saki was able to withstand the assault, however, he suddenly heard the sound of several things cracking. He assumed that a few were his bones, but he glanced to the side to see the barrier beginning to crack as well. But throughout all of the attacks he also saw something else, something that absolutely terrified him.

Outside of the barrier there was a kid watching. With the constant assault, and the barrier weakening, Saki was beginning to fear the worst. "Get the hell out of here kid!" He shouted. The kid just looked up at Saki. "Go, scram! Get lost!" The kid was terrified and quickly jumped on a bike and began to pedal to get away.

Saki just breathed a sigh of relief. Throughout that assault, Isaac had gotten closer to the Biolizard and managed to cut off another one of it's tubes. For a few seconds the Biolizard took it's attention off of Saki and turned to Isaac. The assault of constant attacks were now going against the adept.

Saki was unable to get back up, his body was too baddy beaten. Isaac tried using some psyenergy to form giant hands to stop the attack, however they were immediately pierced through.

Within a few minutes the Biolizard stopped it's attack, and Isaac fell onto the ground defeated. After that onslaught, had ended the barrier finally let out and shattered. The Biolizard just looked at San, Zoroark, and Alex. Zoroark was quick to act, quickly rushing towards it, several red balls flew towards him, however he just jumped into the air, where it seemed like the Biolizard had anticipated that and several more rushed right to Zoroark and exploded, sending him flying back and lying on the ground.

Alex just did his best to stand up, and walk towards the Biolizard. It was constantly keeping it's eyes on him. However a few seconds later Alex collapsed. The world was once again spinning. He was in no condition to fight.

San just walked in front of the downed Alex. "San, run!"

"No, I can't." San replied. "This thing has killed enough people today... It's destroyed enough..."

"Run!" Alex repeated.

"Running was what caused this tragedy." San replied. "Then again, running was what led me to meet you... I've given you no shortage of trouble... I'm sorry, this is goodbye."

"What?!" Alex said shocked.

"My time is up. This is the only thing I can do to repay you for your kindness." San said. His body began to glow. "It's outside might be tough, but it's interior is extremely vulnerable."

"Wait what?!" Alex said surprised.

The Biolizard breathed another energy beam. San just flew towards the attack and then the two collided. San persevered, using his body as a shield as he got closer and closer to the Biolizard, until eventually the attack had stopped.

Alex looked up and only saw the Biolizard there, the attack had either vaporized San, or San had actually gotten inside the Biolizard's mouth. Neither was preferable.

"You idiot!?" Alex shouted out frustrated. And then someway, somehow, San's memories began to flow into his head.


"This one is pathetic."

"We should kill it."

"It's useless. It needs to die."

"Let's run a few more tests."

"You're worthless."

"It's so creepy. They don't act like normal people at all. They're listening and waiting for any orders, but they don't show any signs of listening."

"You're new here. You'll get used to it in a month."

"It might prove to be of some use after all."

"At least for the next generation."

"It was only a fluke."

"Don't get sentimental, they are worthless, the lot of them. They are just tools."

"Of the 4 that were sent out, somehow San was the only one to survive."

"How is this possible? Everything states that it should be a lesser soldier."

"He's supposed to be the weakest."

"Time and time again, San has proven our numbers wrong."

"What's so unique about him? It shouldn't be like this!"

"San restrain him!"

"Attention everyone, your mission today is to invade the Smash Mansion!"


Alex just gasped for air. He felt a cold sweat all over his body. What he saw he felt was just a bunch of disjointed memories from San's past.

"Hey, are you okay?" Saki asked.

Alex just looked confused. "Did I black out?! I thought they were all down for the count…" Saki, Isaac, and Zoroark were standing above him, they appeared to be in a bit better condition, however, they still had a few scratches over them.

Isaac put his hand on Alex's forehead. "He's burning up." Isaac said. "We need to end this now... You might have to transform."

"I'd rather not." Saki replied. "If I do the end result would be even more damage."

"Still, we don't have a choice, I can restrain you..." Isaac said.

Saki just nodded. "Very well then. Zoroark, get Alex out of here!"

Zoroark just lifted up Alex and began to run away. After they had gotten at least 100 meters away, and Alex was realizing what was going on, he turned to Zoroark.

"Zoroark, put me down." Alex said. "They can't fight it on their own."

"You can't fight it either. In your current state you're going to get yourself killed!" Zoroark said.

Alex just looked at his hand. "You're right. But, I can't stand back and watch anymore, I can't let anyone else die in front of me!" Alex said.

Zoroark just nodded. "I understand, Master."

Alex just ran forwards towards the beast. However, he just collapsed in exhaustion. Zoroark just grabbed him and began to carry him in his arms. "You understand, don't you Master, this is out of your league..."

Suddenly the Biolizard began to let out screams of pain. Light was beginning to pop out of it's body, and it began to rapidly bloat up. Saki and Isaac quickly began to run away. And then, it exploded.

The four were tossed across the ground from the force of the explosion and just laid there for several minutes.

"What the hell just happened?" Saki asked.

"San... he forced that attack into the Biolizard, and exploded within the beast..." Alex replied. "That's the only thing I could think of... It's over... sorry San, I wasn't strong enough to save you..."

"And what a sad and pathetic end that was." A voice laughed. Alex just cringed, even though he was losing consciousness fast, he recognized the voice, it was the person that had come to hunt San down. "That idiot died trying to protect someone!" he laughed. "He forgot who's side we were actually on!"

Saki and Isaac just forced themselves up. They had their swords ready and aimed at the kid. "Well, looks like we get to kill you next."

"Please you can barely stand." the person laughed. "And you could barely scratch the Biolizard. But if it's a death wish you want, you can get it!" The two of them were blasted away by a burst of energy, and then he walked towards Alex, and then lifted him up by the shirt collar. "Why did he try to protect you?"

"Master!" Zoroark shouted, rushing towards the assailant. However Zoroark was also sent flying several feet back.

"You really piss me off!" The kid said, as he kicked Alex up into the air. Alex landed painfully on the ground and just glared at the kid.

"You know, I don't know what it is, but all of a sudden, I don't want to lose to you." Alex said struggling to get up.

"I don't think you have to worry about losing! You should be more worried about not dieing!"

The kid began to rapidly punch Alex, there was nothing that he could do to fight back in retaliation. Each and every hit just landed on him, and felt akin to getting hit by a truck. After a few minutes of the relentless assault, the kid stopped, and Alex fell onto the ground. The constant barrage was the only thing that had been keeping him up earlier.

Alex could only lie there as his entire body was screaming out in pain. "I thought you humans were much more frail than this. I wonder how many bones had I broken in those last few attacks..."

The kid just lifted up Alex by the neck. However suddenly some giant claws pierced right through the kid. His eyes widened, and he dropped Alex. Alex just glanced back to see the source of the attack. It was from Saki. His arm had changed dramatically, and was that of a monsters. Isaac quickly rushed up to Alex, slashed the kid's arm with his sword, grabbed Alex, rushed several meters away and began to heal him.

"What?" Alex said confused.

"Thanks for keeping him occupied." Isaac said. "We were able to heal ourselves."

"Still..." Alex muttered. "How?"

"Pure Maxim Tomato capsules..." Isaac replied. "They healed up most of our wounds."

"You have any others?"

"Sorry, we only had 6, we used 3 earlier, and just now Zoroark got the last one. There are a few more on the ship, but you probably won't last that long..." Isaac said.

Zoroark began to attack the kid. However it quickly became apparent that even with both Saki and Zoroark at full power and not exhausted from the previous fight, were no match for him. He was effortlessly dodging each and every attack that they made. Zoroark even used his illusions to to hide his real attacks, but the kid just saw through them.

It was also quite clear that Isaac wasn't used to healing people, but Alex was feeling a bit of relief, and was finding that the pain was slowly vanishing. After several minutes, Isaac just stretched out his hand. "Can you stand now?"

"Yeah..." Alex said, slowly getting up. His body was screaming in pain, trying to tell him not to move or do anything. The kid just looked up from his battle and glared at Alex. Saki and Zoroark quickly rushed to Alex and Isaac's side.

"So, you're back together." he laughed. "I guess I can kill you all then."

"Who the hell are you?" Saki asked.

"My name? You can call me Mugen."

"Infinite..." Alex muttered.

"Ah, good, so you know what that means." Mugen laughed. "Then let me show you my infinite power."

He stretched out his hand and suddenly an energy ball appeared in it. It grew bigger, and expanded until finally it shrunk down into a small size, about the same as a tennis ball. Alex just shaped his hand like a gun and shot an aura bullet right at it, causing it to explode. Mugen quickly jumped away from it, avoiding the explosion, however the force of the blast was still enough to send Mugen, and the four that he was fighting back several feet.

"You can use Aura?!" Mugen said surprised after recovering. "I thought you were just a worthless normal human?"

"I'll show you worthless!" Alex snapped.

Mugen just laughed. "Is that so? Listen, now that you've seen my strength, and know what I'm capabale of, why do you oppose me and fight for a doomed future."

"We're not fighting for the future, we're fighting for the now." Alex replied.

"You really should of just continued being a good little human." Mugen laughed. "You knew nothing about San. Had you not been involved, maybe then he would of just disappeared as suddenly as he appeared, but then you also got yourself involved with the Smashers. So, sadly all four of you have to die!"

Alex just glared at Mugen. "I won't let San's sacrifice be in vain." Alex said.

"Sacrifice? Ha!" Mugen laughed. "He didn't heroically sacrifice himself to save you. He just decided that he better die, than let me kill him! He knew what was in store. He knew I lied about sparing everyone if you beat the Biolizard. Let me show you the true infinite power that I hold."

Mugen just snapped his fingers and all four of them went flying backwards. Saki, Isaac and Zoroar got up almost immediately and ran towards him. They attacked, but he vanished, reappearing a few seconds behind them. They all fell down to the ground.

Alex just struggled to get up. How was this kid so strong? Why was he so strong?

Mugen just appeared right in front of Alex and kicked him up into the air, he landed painfully on the ground.

"And it looks like your tale is over." Mugen said. He reached down and pulled Alex up by the shirt. "In the end, you're just a foolish human, who stuck his nose where it didn't belong."

Alex just laughed. Was it the shock? Was it the stress finally getting to him? He just laughed. In this situation, it was all he wanted to do.

"What's so funny?" Mugen asked.

Between the laughing, Alex was able to say. "Before you kill me, I at least want an answer."

"Sure." Mugen said. "But that knowledge won't help you in the next life."

"What are you and San?" Alex asked.

"Oh," He said. "We're warriors, who are supposed to fuse the two worlds together."

"That's not what I meant." Alex said. "You're human, arn't you?"

"No. We're genetically engineered to be superior to humans." Mugen said. "We're the evolution of humanity."

"Why did you have to kill San?"

"I thought you only had one question." Mugen said.

"Sorry." Alex said. "Just really curious."

"For one reason or another, he disobeyed orders. And then disappeared. We exist and live to serve, and so one who has become aware, and tries to escape, must be eliminated, as that would be dangerous if they fell into enemy hands, as it almost looked like San did. I do have to admire him though, being the second person to escape." Mugen said.

"The First San... he said he was looking for him."

Mugen just laughed. "The first San is probably long gone by now. Now, this conversation has gone on for long enough..."

Mugen suddenly stabbed Alex through the stomach with his bare hand. Alex screamed out in pain and then he was tossed aside.

"I guess a normal human such as yourself would fear death..." Mugen said beginning to walk away.

"Mugen." Alex weakly said.

Mugen just looked over his shoulder to see the dying human. "Beg human…"

"San said that the first San was still alive…" Alex muttered.

Mugen just suddenly looked absolutely terrified. "What?! That's impossible… how could he still be alive…" Mugen grabbed Alex by the hair and lifted him up. "Tell me, where is he!?"

"How am I supposed to know." Alex laughed. "He just said that he sensed him…"

Mugen just tossed threw Alex right down to the ground. "Just hurry up and die." He muttered.

Alex just had a smile across his face. "So, the first San knows something that might end up being disastrous to you." Alex weakly said. "I'll keep that in mind…"

San walked over to Zoroark, Saki, and Isaac, ready to deliver the final blows.

"It was an absolute defeat." Saki thought, he looked over to see both Zoroark and Isaac not even conscious, and Mugen approaching. "Guess I really don't have a choice..." Saki was consumed by the desire to live, the desire to survive, and was willing to do anything to do just that. His blood began to boil, and any wounds on his body began to heal. He sprung up and lunged right for Mugen.

Mugen was able to dodge the attack, but was taken aback, and was rather surprised by Saki's sudden recovery. "A cheap trick..." Mugen said. "Nothing more..."

Mugen began to approach Saki, however he froze. He wasn't sure why, but he was positive that if he took another few steps Saki would rip him in two. The person in front of him wasn't human, everything about him was reminding Mugen of a cornered animal, ready to do anything to survive. Saki's arm was slowly being covered in scales.

"You're so desperate that you would lose yourself and risk killing everyone else here to beat me." Mugen laughed, he just turned away. Saki however took this as the chance to attack. He pounced right for Mugen and slashed his arm. Mugen had jumped out of the way, rather surprised by Saki's speed. He quickly jumped into the air, but Saki followed, attacking Mugen once again. He slashed right down Mugen, and all he could do was block. When Mugen landed on the ground he looked at his arm and noticed the claw marks and the blood.

"I'm bleeding!" He shouted out, both surprised and outraged. "You worthless scum made me bleed!"

Saki lunged for Mugen once again and slashed at where he was. However, Mugen disapperaed. Saki just cut through air, he just froze for several seconds, trying to find where Mugen went, however he was suddenly hit by a blast of water.

Saki just blinked a few times confused. Isaac was slowly getting up, right at his side was a blue mercury djinn. "Let's get out of here..." Isaac said. "Alex needs medical attention."

Zoroark was also beginning to get up. The three of them struggled to over where Alex was. He was somehow still alive, but clearly weak, and on his last legs. Saki just lifted him up and put him on his back, while Isaac's djinn began to quickly try and heal him.

"Are you okay?" Saki asked.

"What do you think?" Alex replied.

"Sorry, that was a stupid question."

"I've been in worse shape before..." Alex weakly said.

Somehow, Saki doubted that, but he wasn't ready to argue that. He was just ready to return to the ship and help heal Alex.

"Freeze, and put your hands up!" A voice blared. Everyone just froze. For the first time they paid attention to their surroundings. Besides the rubble of where the mall used to be, their only means of escape was covered by a group of police officers.

"Crap." Saki said rather annoyed.

"We took too long." Alex muttered

"Put that person you're carrying down too, beast." a person said.

"We have to get out of here." Isaac said.

"Stop talking!"

Saki just placed his cannon sword by Alex's neck. "We will kill him." Saki replied. "We can leave him on the ground in exchange for safe passage. I'm sure he's the only one that knows what's going on and will be able to fill you in."

"We saw him fighting that monster too, he's with you guys." The one officer said.

"Why didn't you idiots actually jump in and help, if that was the case!?" Saki just removed his cannon sword from Alex's neck, while cursing under his breath. "Crap, got any ideas?"

"Transform." Alex weakly muttered.

"If I do that..."

"Stop talking! If you don't surrender, we will fire."

"Jeeze, we're protecting you dumbasses, and doing your job, and now you want to kill us." Saki said raising his hand right up to his mouth. "Well then, just you try it." He suddenly bit down on his hand. What came next was a near instantaneous transformation, into a large scaly humanoid creature.

The police began to just open fire. But the bullets did nothing to Saki. Zoroark and Isaac jumped into Saki's hand. And then Saki began to run away. Zoroark quickly made an illusion so that it appeared that Saki had disappeared into thin air. During all of this Alex blacked out.


Mugen was on top of a building, gasping for air. He was afraid. For the first time in his life, he realized that he was going to die. Saki would have been able to kill him in that situation.

"Are you Mugen?" A voice asked. Mugen just turned around in shock to face a cloaked figure. He was afraid, he didn't know when this person had snuck up behind him, how long he had been there. Could that person also of been able to kill him too? Would he have just been suddenly slain without knowing what hit him?

"And who wants to know?" Mugen asked.

"That doesn't matter. I watched your battle and I'd just like to inform you that the person you thought you killed survived." The cloaked figure laughed. "You also could have killed Saki back then, but you left the Smashers alive. Is there perhaps some doubt in your heart?"

"I just simply wanted them to know my name and fear it." Mugen said. "I wanted them to go back to the other Smashers and explain."

"So, you just wanted them to be messengers." The cloaked figure laughed. "Amusing. So, this is the world that you are trying to destroy. What are your thoughts?"

"This backwater place." Mugen laughed. "it's nothing compared to our world. The two universes fusing will be a good thing."

"Do you say that as yourself, or as a puppet." The cloaked figure asked.

Mugen just looked at the person rather shocked. "You're trying to spread the seeds of doubt in me."

"Sadly, I'm not. The seeds of doubt are all ready in you. I'm just cultivating them." The cloaked figure laughed.

Mugen was just in shock. He rushed for the cloaked figure and attacked. However the kick just passed right through the cloaked figure. "You should have known, this is only a projection."

Mugen just faced the projection. "I just felt like hitting something." he said.

Nugai just smiled. "You, much like San have free will, do you not? Just unlike San, you're actually good at hiding it."

Mugen just froze. "Get out of here." He said.

"Well then, Mugen, I hope we meet again and you aren't replaced."

"I won't be replaced any time soon." Mugen muttered. "And besides, shouldn't you be giving me your name?!"

"Oh, it's Nugai. Until we meet again, Mugen." the figure disappeared. Mugen was just left alone on the top of the building.

"I won't be replaced any time soon." Mugen repeated, this time he just collapsed. He was shaking in fear. He knew, if they found out he would be replaced, the perfect soldier shouldn't know fear.


Alex woke up, and just looked up at his ceiling. He was in his bed, and some sunlight was peaking in from the window.

"A dream?" He said a bit drowsy. "Yeah, that's what it was, just a dream." He tried to convince himself. He looked at his arms, where he was attacked, there were no wounds. There was no marks anywhere. His back hurt a little bit, but that was a semi normal occurance, he would toss and turn, and ocasionally twist the wrong way in his sleep.

He got up, and walked down past the washroom, where the door was closed and the shower was running. "Zoroark is probably just taking a shower." He muttered, walking downstairs into the living room. There was no one there.

He reached for the remote, but then paused. His stomach was growling. He got up and walked to the kitchen. He looked at the clock. 8:00 PM, he must of fallen asleep while studying, and Zoroark checked in, and had put him in bed. Yeah, that's what must of happened.

He just began to cut up some vegetables, and then boil water. He figured a nice soup would fill him up and would make him feel better. And then the water stopped running.

Zoroark would take a few minutes to fully dry himself, and then blow dry and brush his hair. But, he didn't hear the blow dryier, and then, the door opened.

Instead of Zoroark, out walked Saki. Alex just suddenly felt the realization that everything was real, hit him like a brick.

"You're up." Saki said rather surprised.

"Yeah." Alex said, deciding to make more food. "Where's Zoroark and Isaac?"

"They went out for a few things. I stayed behind to wash off the crap." Saki said.

"Oh." Alex said.

"In the future, my transformation is only a last resort." Saki said.

"You can control it, right?" Alex asked.

"Sort of." Saki said. "I can lose control at times, mainly when I'm exhausted and have to do multiple transformations. I at times need someone else there to remind me that I'm a human, and not a ruffian. Although, I do have to ask, how did you know about my transformation?"

"It's in your game." Alex replied, his attention turning back to the soup he was making. The soup finished, and then several minutes later Isaac and Zoroark came in through the front door, carrying some supplies Alex assumed that was from the ship. They both looked at Alex rather surprised that he was out of bed all ready.

Soon Alex just served the soup at the dinner table. The meal was mostly spent in silence, and then, when it was over, the two Smashers faced him.

"So, I guess this would be the best time to ask." Saki sighed. "After today's events, do you want to do this?"

Alex just looked at the two of them in shock. "What do you mean?!"

"You know it's dangerous, and now seems like the best time for you to back down. We can always return to Master Hand and tell him that Nugai's successor backed down." Isaac said.

"There is no shame in saying that you're afraid." Saki said. "You're life is on the line, and no normal person would willingly be doing anything this crazy."

"We can erase your memories too, you'll forget everything that happened..." Isaac said.

Alex just sat there. "Can you give me a while to think about it."

"Of course." Saki said.

"Thank you." Alex replied. He got up and walked downstairs. "

He's actually thinking about it?" Isaac said a bit shocked.

Saki just nodded. "He's just a kid, isn't he? I think it's the first time he's really experienced death."

Zoroark just looked down grimly at the ground. "Master..."

"If he decides to back away, will you come with us Zoroark?" Saki asked. "It might be for the best. You would make him a constant target since you're from our world."

"I will stay by Master's side." Zoroark replied. "Without me, he would be rather lonely. Without me he doesn't have anyone…"


Downstairs in the basement, Alex was looking at all of the games he had. His fingers were currently on Sonic Adventure 2 Battle.

"Is this why you gave me all of your games?" He asked nobody.

He sat down on a chair and just looked up at the ceiling. His mind was going back to the day he had inherited all of this.


A bunch of people were gathered in a room around a long table. At the head of the table was a lawyer. In front of him was a bunch of papers.

Everyone just had a glimmer in their eye. Nugai had become super rich, by playing the lottery, gambling, playing the stock market. Almost over night, he had rose up from nobody to a financial giant. And here were many of his relatives, from cousins to his aunts and uncles, and finally there were a few of his friends. They all wanted a piece of that pie.

A few eyes focused on Alex, wondering why he was there, especially since he was only discharged from the hospital a few days earlier. He was still weak, and had to have some help to get around.

"You've been called here today for the distribution of his belongings. He has hired me, and given me the instructions on who gets what."

"This seems way to much like a reading of a will." One said.

"Yes." The lawyer said. "He told me to do this. His words were, after the verdict, Andrew is no more, he is dead, this is my last will and testament, please make sure everything is distributed through out the people here."

The words weighed heavily on some of them. On others, they just began to talk amongst themselves. "Maybe he really was insane..."

Alex just remembered being incredibly bored. He went over everyone's face, and soon returned to his DS playing some Pokemon.

"I Andrew, of sound mind and body-"

"Ha, that's a laugh." Someone shouted out.

The lawyer just ignored the person. "I Andrew, of sound mind and body, on Setember 1, 2008 write my first, and last will and testament."

"September 1st?" Alex said a bit shocked.

"That was right after the summer he spent at the cottage with him? Right?" One whispered.

Alex just nodded, he remembered those times so clearly.

"His successor..." another whispered.

Alex just froze, he tried his best to remember those two who were whispering to each other. No... it wasn't two... there were three of them. Two boys and a girl. They weren't relatives, and it didn't seem like any one else knew who they were. They just appeared to be friends of Nugai. But no matter what he tried, he couldn't put a face on any of them.

The lawyer just continued to read through a bunch of different things.

"All cousins get 100,000 from my fortune to finance school." the lawyer read. "Those of you who have finished school, put it towards something else. A future kid's nest egg, or your first house, I really don't care you can squander it on booze if you wish."

The cousins just began to nod.

The next one was the next big shocker of the night. Alex didn't catch the name, after getting the 100,000 to go towards school he had just returned back to the pokemon game he was playing.

"You used to talk about building your own nightclub when we were playing The Sims together, so, I'd like to see that be built. I'm giving you 10 million to start financing it."

"What!?"

The entire room was in shock. Each of the people were staring at the one who just received 10 million. He had lit up a cigarette and just looked around at the glares. "Oh, sorry," he said. "I guess, there was someone who just came out of the hospital here, I'll put it out."

"Ten million?!" One said shocked.

"No way..." Another muttered.

They all looked frustrated, Alex could somehow tell that in each of their minds that they had the mental image of the person who just got that money over them and laughing. The look on his face was rather smug, he just glanced down at the table. "I can't believe that guy remembered that." He muttered.

More and more items were just listed off, everyone had regained their senses, and logically thought that there would be no more big bombshells.

"Finally, Alex. I'm giving my entire collection of video games to you." the lawyer read.

Everyone was staring in shock at Alex, perhaps more than they were at the other cousin for receiving 10 million.

"He willingly gave up his video games?"

"What's going on?"

"Are we really here for the same person."

They all knew that Nugai was extremely possessive of his possessions and didn't part with his stuff lightly. And even then, his entire collection going to one person!?

It was crazy!

It was madness!

"Maybe he really was insane."

The lawyer just began to read. "I had a premonition, one night, that you would need them sometime in the future. Play them, live them, love them as I have loved them."

"He is crazy."

Alex probably would have glared at the person, but he was still recovering from that announcement. He himself couldn't believe it.

"Finally, I've also hidden the rest of my money somewhere." He said. "If you can find it, it's yours."

That was the end of the reading. Slowly people exited out of the room. All Alex could remember was some of the cousins coming up to him, rather frustrated.

"Why do you get all of his games?"

"I don't know." Alex replied.

"I could understand maybe the handhelds for when you're in the hospital, but all of them?"

"Guess we know who his favorite cousin is now."

"I wouldn't be too harsh on the kid." A voice said. Alex looked up to see the one that was smoking earlier. The one who had gotten 10 million.

"Oh yeah, like you have a reason to complain." They scoffed. "Ten million."

"100,000 isn't a lot to scoff at either." he said. "Maybe if you had a dream or something, and told him, he might of supported that too."

They eventually left Alex, and as Alex and his mother were exiting out of the room, the lawyer stopped them.

"He had also given me this letter for you..." the lawyer said. It was in an envelope. Alex just took it, and then opened it up.

Hey, cousin, sorry I disappeared like that, but well, some stuff suddenly came up. By now, if you're reading this, you've probably got some big questions on your mind, and I've probably put a big burden on you. But, I believe in you, and that I've made the right choice.

I'm not perfect, no person is. I'm sorry.

What was strange about the note was that there was suddenly a bunch of blank space and then his signature.


"That note..." He muttered. He began to go through several cases of games, until he found where he had stashed it away. He looked at it again. It was strange. He remembered something else in a game...

He rushed over to some NES games, and found the box containing StarTropics. He opened that, and found the letter addressed to to the main character, Mike Jones. The letter was a physical object and at a certain point in time it was supposed to be dipped in water to reveal a hidden message to proceed in the game.

"Would he of..."

He rushed up to the washroom and just put his letter from his cousin underneath the tap. Much to his surprise, more writing appeared. He just walked out of the washroom and sat down in a chair, and began to read the rest of his cousin's message.

I wonder how long it will take you to figure out the secret of this letter. Ah well, sorry, I did it like this in case it was intercepted. Of course, I had my own little touch to it, so that even if they knew the secret, they wouldn't be able to actually read it. I'm not insane, what I said is real. And, I believe that you are the only hope humanity has for getting through this crisis.

There is so much I want to tell you, but I can't really do it, without raising suspicion about why there was a bunch of blank pieces of paper in this letter. I fully suspect it was also inspected before it was handed over to you. Sorry, despite all the time I spent researching the crisis, I haven't found any clues on how to prevent it.

I guess the only other thing I have to say, is if anyone ever approaches you with the name Cody, and their 3DS streetpass Mii is named Tei, trust that person with your life. He is a colleague of mine, and is working inside to try and figure everything out.

The letter was over. But he just continued to read it over again and again.

"What am I supposed to do if you don't know how to prevent it?" He muttered. "Damn it, things seemed so much simpler back then…"

Alex was brought back to reality by a noise upstairs.

He just got up from the chair and made his way up. "Is anything broken?" He asked.

"No." Saki replied.

"What was that sound?"

"Just Saki tripping over his own two feet." Isaac replied.

"Okay, I'm going to try and clear my head with a walk." Alex said.

He walked out of the house and towards the trail. When he got there, he just looked down at the river, where he fought Aquamentus. He walked along the trail to the spot where he had met San.

He just stood there for a few minutes in silence. He went deep in thought. Thinking about how much easier everything used to be, back when he just thought that his video games were just simply that, video games.


Saki glanced at the clock. "It's getting late. Maybe, we should go looking for him."

Zoroark however just shook his head. "Master will be fine, he's probably just doing extra laps around the trail."

"I don't know about that, I mean, he kind of had a giant hole through him a few hours ago." Saki pointed out. "By all means, he shouldn't actually be conscious and moving by now."

"Don't worry." Isaac said. "I had a Djinn follow him out. If he collapsed, the Djinn would have come back to me."

The door suddenly opened, and Alex walked through the door. He faced the three. "I've made my decision." he said. "I'm not going to run away. I will keep fighting, I won't let San's sacrifice be in vain."

"Very well then." Saki said.

"We will do our best to protect you." Isaac added on.

He nodded. "Thanks."


Elsewhere, the Smash mansion had been fully repaired. Through the tireless work of the wireframes, alloys, Dr. Light's Robot Masters, and the Smashers themselves they were able to get everything back up to normal.

"And I've finally got the communications fixed!" Fox said. Master Hand breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Fox." He said. "Now then, has there been any news from Saki and Isaac?"

Fox began to type on the keyboard and then he just froze. He stared at the monitor in horror. "No way!" He said.

"What?!" Master Hand said terrified.

"The communicator was destroyed. It's no longer sending out a signal."

Master Hand just floated there, his fist clenched. He was shaking in frustration. After things began looking up, it suddenly began to look much worse. "No." He said. "This isn't good."

"What should we say to the others?" Fox wondered. "They will want to know."

"I know." Master Hand said. "However, just because their communication device was destroyed, doesn't mean that they were killed. They might still be alive. We'll just tell them we lost communication."

"They will assume the worst then." Fox said. "In fact I imagine Pichu is in the vents right now, and is about to relay the information to everyone else…"

They turned to the vents, and sure enough Pichu was sitting there. The little mouse pokemon looked a bit nervous. "Hello…" He said. He tried to run, however Master Hand had all ready snapped his fingers, and Pichu had been teleported in front of Master Hand, the little mouse Pokemon was floating in the air, and was desperately trying to run away, but it was pointless.

"Pichu, listen, this is one of those things that need to be handled carefully." Master Hand said. "If you just inform everyone, the message could easily get lost in the shuffle and everyone could think that Saki and Isaac are dead."

"We're going to try and see if they sent out any messages before their communication devices went down." Fox said.

Master Hand just floated there. "Very well, I will call together the Smashers." He said. He floated over to a microphone and pressed a button. "Attention Smashers, please all meet in the briefing room. There will be no exceptions."

"What about us?" Fox asked.

"You two stay here. You all ready know what I'm going to say, besides you can see what happens in this room. Pichu, you're staying in here too. I don't want you to ruin the message." Master Hand said.

Master Hand floated out of the room, and made his way down to the briefing room. He felt terrififed. He just made his way out to the garden for a few minutes. "The Smashers won't mind if I'm late, right?" he asked himself. "No, they would probably be frustrated… they would also probably assume with the longer they have to wait the more bad news I'd be delivering…"

He just took one quick trip through the garden before making his way back into the mansion and then into the briefing room.

"Geeze, why didn't you just teleport in here!" Captain Falcon shouted.

"You're too slow!" Sonic shouted as well. "You call the thing, and you bore us half to death by making us wait!"

"Sorry, I was just doing some quick inspections on the repairs." Master Hand lied. "Now then, the reason why I called you all here. We have restored communications. And we will be ready to send you off in your groups tomorrow."

"What about Saki and Isaac?" Ness asked.

Master Hand cringed, he was expecting it, but he was kind of hoping that it was a later question. "We don't know. The communication device was destroyed, however we don't know when. It could have been destroyed while they were under attack while escaping, or it was destroyed more recently. We can't just assume that they are dead."

"So, they are essentially the Schrodinger Smashers." Dr. Mario sighed. "We don't know if they are alive or dead until we open the box."

"Seems that way." Mewtwo said. "Well, we'll find out eventually. Maybe they are trying to communicate with us at this very moment."

"We will be acting under the assumption that they are still alive." Master Hand said. "The groups will be going into the other world to find the ones that I have chosen. If you see them contact us immediately."

"That seems reasonable." Ness said.

However it was quickly evident that a few Smashers were all ready shaken and jumping to the worst possible scenario. Luigi was quite terrified. Master Hand could only just float there. He hoped that in the end, everything would turn out okay, but he sincerely doubted it. He could all ready tell this was something that was going to take a long, long time.

"I just hope we have a lot of coffee for the sleepless nights ahead." Master Hand sighed. He half expected a Smasher to question how he even drank coffee, but that never came.

As the Smashers were preparing, Master Hand just floated back to the communications room, despite the fact that Fox and Falco would be going to the other world, they were working tirelessly at the computers. "You two..." Master Hand said. "You need to prepare."

"Not yet!" Falco said. "We can't go like this."

"Besides, we have everything packed all ready." Fox said. "I had it packed the day we were attacked. Falco too, we've been itching for some action, so we kind of jumped at the call."

"Still, perhaps you should rest."

"No, there is still something we have to do."

Walking into the room was Wolf. He just looked at the two still working away on the computer. "What are you trying to do?" Master Hand asked.

"Well, it's we can't let everyone else go out on a mission like this." Fox said. "We need to raise everyone's morale somehow. If we can find even the slightest bit of proof that they got there safely, everyone will hopefully feel better."

"Do you really think it's just that simple?" Wolf asked.

"Yes!" Fox said. "It's possible."

"You're too much of an optimist Fox." Wolf said.

Fox just ignored Wolf, and continued to type. Until… "I found something!" Fox shouted excited.

Master Hand just immediately flew over to right behind Fox. "What?!"

"It seems that before the device was destroyed, it sent out several messages to us. Including this video." Fox said.

Fox played the video, of Saki, Isaac, Zoroark and Alex fighting Aquamentus. Master Hand just floated there. "So what do you think?" Fox asked.

"I especially loved the cat batting yarn and then falling off of the table." Master Hand said, clenching his fist in anger. "What does it take for you to all remember that I can't see things on TV screens due to a complete lack of eyes!"

"Oh... sorry." Fox said. "But, Saki and Isaac are alive, the machine must have been broken in this battle! This is footage of their battle, and the person that they found fighting Aquamentus."

"I see."

"But why is there a Zoroark there?" Falco said confused.

"A Zoroark?!" Master Hand said confused.

"Yeah it's right there on the screen, fighting with them against Aquamentus."

"And you're not lying or anything, right?" Master Hand asked.

"No, of course not!" Fox said.

Master Hand just placed his hand on the monitor, a few moments later he floated away to a microphone. He pressed some buttons and broadcasted out a message. "Attention everyone, we have video footage, Saki and Isaac are alive!"

Somewhere in the mansion, Ness just let off a sigh of relief. If they were alive, then Lucas must of been too.


Elsewhere:

"The assault on the Smash Mansion was mostly successful. They had delayed their plans and are only now departing."

"That's good."

"It get's better. The communications systems were heavily damaged, and it seems like they lost their morale for not knowing the well being of their comrades who tried to go over during the invasion."

Laughter broke out. "That's great. But what about Aquamentus?" Hades asked.

There was then silence.

"He was slain."

"What?" Hades said, in shock.

"Aquamentus was slain. Even with the power up afterwards, it seemed like the transfer through the dimensions severely weakened it."

There was silence. Fear was in the air. True Aquamentus was weak when compared to the big guns that they had. All they could think about it though was how badly it was going to end for them.

"And who slayed it? Was it one of those two Smashers?" Hades asked. There was just silence. People were shaking in terror, not wanting to know how he was going to react if he knew the truth. "Well, I'm waiting."

Several just closed their eyes and hoped that someone else would say something.

"Anyone?"

Someone had finally gathered up some courage. "It wasn't the Smashers." They managed to say.

"So, it was someone from that side? Do they have weapons? Was it tanks, how much destruction did Aquamentus cause?" Hades asked.

"He barely caused any destruction, sir." The person said, now fearing for his life.

"Continue..."

"It was a single human. It seems like they were expecting us."

"Was it him? Do we have a visual?"

A monitor appeared, and on it was a picture of Alex. "Oh, it's not him. How disappointing. And at the same time. How exhilarating. That world if it's filled with a bunch of strong and interesting people like that I'll be happy. This might actually be a challenge. But of course, the challenge makes the food that much tastier. Aquamentus was just the beginning..."


Peaceful days died.
Let's Survive.

~Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor Overclocked, the COMP "Communication Player", before summoning demons the first time.


File 1

Do you want to save

YES

Party: Alex, Zoroark, Saki, Isaac.


So, more Smashers are crossing over, to help our heroes fighting the others, but are things really that simple?

Notes:

Actually depending on the version of Devil Survivor. Either the original DS, or the 3DS remake… The saying is different. "Peaceful days are over. Let's survive" in the original and "Peaceful days died. Let's survive" in the remake. I like the died version better, I think it just rolls off the tongue much easier.

Going forwards, I'll have a quote that the chapter title appears in, or the quote that it comes from.

Deep in my mind, I was wondering how Noah wouldn't recognize Lucas as a Smasher. My solution. He doesn't have a Wii, and hence, no Brawl! (In the back of my mind this just raises more questions since… well how can he be a Legend of Zelda fan… maybe he only recently got into the legend of Zelda… I mean on 3DS you can play a good chunk of them… The DS ones, 1 and 2 from the eShop, Minish Cap if you've got an ambassador 3DS... And Ocarina of Time Remake)

More of what happened with Nugai, and Alex in the past.

Mugen… After that, the super soldiers are being put on the backburner, so I can focus on the Smashers.

So... yeah introduced San in the last chapter just to kill him in this chapter... Actually should of been the next chapter where he died, but... After the Aquamentus battle the chapter felt way too short... Aquamentus just came across as a warm up boss.

I was looking for something Final Bossish in strength... and that's where the whole thought of using Biolizard came from

The dimensions of the Biolizard, from Sonic X are 85 meters long, 30 Meters wide, 19.5m tall, and a weight of 87.5 tonnes. I didn't actually know until I began to look it up because I really couldn't remember the battle that well, and the attacks it used... but those pink things are apparently eggs...

The next chapter will have a lot more of the Smashers in it.