The Forgotten

by The Forgetful Authoress

Welcome to the Smash Kingdom! A place where you can kick back, relax or have a friendly battle to the death with other fighters! You have a ton to choose from, Marth, Mario, Sonic, Shulk, Soild Snake, Pichu- wait a second, Pichu isn't in Smash Four! And neither is Snake the Box Solider! What are they doing here!

6. Chapter 6, Aliens, Spiders and Revenge

Why can't Fanfiction allow cool fonts T_T I had an Hyrule font just for the sign dude. Also I own nothing. Sadly.

---

"They're going to love this." Mask grumbled as his point the finishing touches on his sign. Glacier giggled as she watched Vaati and Scourge chase Geno around for ditching them for over an hour.

"Not as much as I'm loving this!" Glacier adjusted the monitor volume and leaned back in her polar bear shaped beanbag. Mask shook his head and studied his sign for what felt like the 10th time.

He had been put in charge after Father had rage quit trying to find the people he had more or less summoned into their world and into the Forest Maze to give them their hint.

Everyone else who had been watching quickly voted Mask to write the next signs since they claimed he was older and wiser than all of them. Even though Howler grumpily voted for himself.

"Anything coming up on the magic eye thingies Hammer?"

Hammer absently corrected Mask with a bored, "Their called cameras." Before Glacier answered for him, "So far, no one besides Ness and Lucas have tried to board the train and no one has entered."

Mask glanced at the many security monitors and tried to focus on one, he hated the computer room mainly because it had a bunch of glowing objects and weird clicky buttons.

He tried to avoid the computer room as much as possible since he wasn't used to this much energy in one room. Being able to wield magic items for a long time and then being throw into a place where magic and something called 'electricity' both coexisting had thrown Mask off balance and gave him frequent headaches from the two energies.

Plus, the ability to function perfectly fine without 72 hours of rest had also messed him up a bit since there was no danger to propel him through the day. He sighed and closed his eyes, trying to ease the eye throbbing pain that was slowly creeping up on him and focused on trying to send the sign he made to the adventurers.

"Mask, we may have to get Father to come back." Hammer pointed to a screen which showed a picture of what used to be a cheery picture of oddly shaped planets floating in space to a distorted mess of darkness and sharp yellows and reds.

Mask groaned and tossed his sign away, "They aren't going to join the party peacefully. Are they?"

"Nope." Glacier zoomed in a bit using a controller and studied the three figures who were quietly plotting something, "It looks like they're going to war."

"Lovely." Mask glanced back at his monitor and quickly wrote on a new sign that had appeared. "Yup, they're going to hate us for this."

---

"We are out of the woods, right?" Shadow hovered around Geno nervously as Scourge once again did a lap around Mole Mountains that they had ended up at, fruitlessly searching for the door which never appeared.

"Yes, after this we went into the mountain to find the next star piece but the entrance seems to be sealed off." Geno frowned slightly and looked around.

Drawcia ignored all of them and pointed to the clouds which had slowly changed back to a cloudy white, "Yes Drawcia, we can see that the clouds went back to normal."

Vaati ignored the angry glare Drawcia was giving him since she wanted to know why they went back to normal and focused on Mallow who was happily jumping around for no real reason.

"Will you stop that?" Vaati snapped, "It serves no purpose and it's annoying!" Mallow happily landed besides Vaati and grinned, "I know, but it's fun to do!" and went back to jumping around.

Vaati was about to say more when Geno stopped him, "Let him have his fun, its better if he's in a neutral state than angry."

"What does that even mean?!"

Geno pointed to the sky which was completely clear and only showed the shining sun, "Let's just say that's Mallow has a very strong connection with the weather, to the point that it reacts to his emotions."

Vaati blinked and looked ready to murder everyone when Scourge came back, gritting his teeth at the fact that he had found nothing.

"Maybe the guy in charge of the door expects us to do more?" Shadow offered, he summoned a giant bomb and prepared to hurl it at the mines, "Like… Blow up this dumb mountain!"

Mallow was about to point out that might make the sign guy mad when a sign attached to an arrow lodged itself into to stone wall.

Sorry for the long wait, the original sign

Dude rage quit after he got lost. So your stuck with me

For the time being until he comes back, the door shall appear shortly, but the other three members are planning for war.

They all started at the sign full of gibberish before Shadow started laughing, "How could the person in charge of this place get lost!" Shadow asked.

Vaati snorted and grumbled something about wanting to go back to his palace, while Mallow frowned and asked, "You two can read the sign?"

Vaati snickered, "What? You mean that you can't? How pathetic. It plainly says that the original person in charge of the sign left after he got lost trying to find us!"

Geno frowned but said nothing deducing that it was probably written in their language. Drawcia joined them and frowned when she realized that she couldn't exactly read what it was saying either.

"Really? Are you all blind? I never knew you all excelled in idiocy!" Vaati sneered, Scourge growled and was about to give Vaati a second knuckle sandwich for mocking him when they heard a faint distorted sniffle. Scourge stopped and looked at Drawcia who was slightly shaking, trying not to cry.

"Is she about to-" Vaati began to ask when Drawica let loose an unearthly screech and started bawling. Everyone quickly took step back as paint dripped to the ground and started twisting and withering as the world around her slowly turned into a painted mess.

"You just enjoy making the ladies cry, don't you Vaati?

If you haven't realized the reason why they don't understand what I'm writing is because I'm writing in our language Hylian. Which they can't read. Now go say sorry to Drawcia :(

Scourge glowered at the second sign that had appeared and watched Vaati's and Shadow's reaction,

"What!? I didn't do anything wrong!" Vaati protested while Shadow muttered, "Ohhh."

Geno glared at Vaati and tried to comfort Drawcia who was still wailing, "There, there Drawcia." Geno patted her head and pulled her into a hug, "He's just annoyed at the world because we can't find the next door that's all. He's not really calling us idiots because we can't read he's just venting." Drawcia blinked at him and pulled out her paintbrush and started painting the air sniffling slightly.

"See!" Vaati pointed at Geno who glanced at Mallow who was watching Drawcia paint, "He fixed the crybaby's problem!" a third sign fell from the sky and smacked Vaati on the head,

"I'm guessing that's the sign's way of saying you still have to do it." Scourge snickered.

Vaati gave him a glare full of venom and was about to call Scourge something when Shadow tapped his shoulder, "What! Now what is it!?" Shadow pointed to Drawcia who had finished painting and was beaming a hopeful look at Vaati.

"Did she just… Change the way Mole Mountain looked?" Mallow rubbed his eyes and looked around the now lilac sky and purple dirt floor which had ruby red flowers somehow growing out of the ground, where the mountain used to be a shiny metal purple and black door was there.

"Wow. She's a lot more powerful than I thought." Scourge mused, Drawcia smiled and nodded her head before looking at Vaati who was trying to figure out why there was so much purple. "I wonder what she's waiting for…" Geno mumbled.

Scourge frowned for a moment before he recognized that glint in Drawcia's eye, she was waiting for Vaati to give his opion on the world she made just for him.

And judging from the clearly baffled look on Vaati's face, he didn't see it. Then again, he could still be blinded by the color purple. Scourge bit back a sigh and said "Wow! What a lovely picture you painted Drawcia!"

Drawcia humbly blushed and wrung her hands, Scourge glanced over at Vaati and prodded him, "Wouldn't you agree Vaati? After all she painted this just for you." Vaati scowled at Scourge but managed to plaster a fake smile on his face, "Yes, it's very… Purple, Drawcia." Drawcia squealed and hugged Vaati who cringed and carefully hugged her back.

"Now can we please move on?" Vaati demanded when Drawcia let him go, a fourth sign fell from the sky and once again landed on Vaati's head.

Drawcia giggled and clapped her hands in amusement while Vaati silently seethed, "I think he's still mad at you since you didn't say sorry to Drawcia." Mallow guess.

"I've already apologized!" Vaati snapped, Drawcia frowned and shook her head no, "That complement was an apology Drawcia! And that's the closest thing you'll ever get from me!"

Drawcia thought that over for a while before she started to cry again. Mallow gave her a hug and gave Vaati a scolding glare.

"What!? I didn't do anything this time!" Vaati protested, "Not my fault she's a crybaby!" Geno glanced up at the sky which was quickly turning into a mess of black thunder clouds shooting sparks of electric."

"Vaati. say sorry to Drawcia. Right. Now!" Mallow ordered, Vaati sneered and smacked Mallow in the face with a gust of wind, "Oh please, now that I know what magic you use I can easily-,"

Vaati's crude remark was cut off by a bolt of lightning that hit Vaati head on. Turning him into a charcoal mage. Drawcia looked at Vaati and giggled, then she started jumping up and down pointing and laughing at Vaati's fate.

"I. Hate. This. Place." Vaati groaned, Shadow snickered as Drawcia started to paint a cartoon about what happened to Vaati, "Well. At least we know how to cheer her up, blast Vaati in the face with lighting."

"Shut up moron."

Shadow ignored Vaati and Geno hurriedly suggested that they should set up camp since it was getting dark, everyone grumbled in agreement and started looking around for somewhat helpful supplies to start a campfire.

Mallow had the bright idea of making it a game, whoever got the most wood would win. It shortly turned into a disaster after Vaati used his magic to trip Scourge who was using his super speed to explore the outskirts of the Forest Maze to get the most branches.

They got into an argument and broke most of their collected wood trying to murder each other, Drawcia ended up winning since she claimed that Geno was a piece of wood that she collected.

Her announcement focused Scourge and Vaati's anger on her claiming that Geno was a living being and didn't count and tried to beat her up instead. Their plan failed since Drawcia quickly painted a small landscape on the stone wall and jumped inside, protecting herself from their attacks.

By the time they finally got the fire started Shadow and Mallow were trying hard not to laugh at Vaati and Scourge's state since Drawcia had finally gotten feud up of having her pretty landscape getting destroyed by them and swapped their colors with her paintbrush.

Drawcia happily beamed a smirk at the now lilac hedgehog and the light green wind mage who were giving her the evil eye.

For a while the only sound was the logs slowly burning and Geno's joins creaking as he shifted his position trying to figure out a way to break the uncomfortable silence, finally Shadow broke it by asking "Sooo… does anyone have anything edible to eat?"

"No- oh wait!" Mallow picked up a random picnic basket that had appeared behind him he opened it and pulled out a bag of marshmallows, thin sticks and chocolate squares. "Does this count as food?"

"It would be if I could figure out what the heck it is." Shadow snatched the bag away from Mallow and tried one of the marshmallows. Scourge watched for a moment before saying, "It's edible, just put the white square on the stick and some chocolate squares together and put it over the fire."

"Really?" Mallow tried it and yelped when his poor marshmallow fell of and melted, becoming a slowly burnt mess on the ring of stones, Scourge snickered and demonstrated the proper way to do it after watching Shadow try to use his sword as a stick.

"Watch and learn noobs, this is how you roast a marshmallow." Scourge sneered, he created a s'more and stuck it in the fire, grinning as Mallow and Shadow watched with interest.

"Ta-da-ow!" Scourge dropped his s'more and fanned his tongue, trying to recover from the intense heat of his cooked s'more. Shadow howled with laughter while Mallow asked if he was okay.

"So, I presume that we let it cool first before we eat it?" Geno asked, trying not to laugh at Scourge's attempt to show off, Scourge grumbled yes and Mallow passed around the s'mores supplies.

Vaati huffily accepted his and used his magic to summon a small fireball in his hand, grumbling something about not in the mood to share or something dumb.

"Hey I think I got it!" Mallow pulled his stick back and blew on his s'more which was dripping gooey goodness, "See? Not that hard." Scourge snickered,

Mallow ignored him and took a bite out of his s'more. Geno hummed a little tune while cooking his carefully sitting behind the log he was using as a bench in order not to catch fire.

Shadow watched and gasped as Geno took a careful bite out his s'more. Geno sighed and gave a short explanation, "I'm still a living being, even if I am possessing a wooden body. Stars eat food too you know."

"Oh…"

Vaati sighed and put out the fire ball he had in his hand, probably to blast Shadow with, "Do you have any other brilliant questions, Shadow?" Shadow grinned and spun his sword in a circle, "Nope! But I bet you have the urge to strangle me right now!"

"How did you ever guess?"

"Your eye's twitching."

"It is?" Scourge examined Vaati who glowered at him, his right eye twitching contently, "I'm guessing you're still upset over earlier?" Geno questioned,

"Ohh no, me getting struck by lightning isn't anything to worry about." Vaati grumbled he fixed his hat and glared at a random tree as if he was trying to will it to burn.

Geno sighed and focused on Drawcia who was making random gestures to her paintbrush as if she was holding a conversation with it. Geno frowned trying to decide if she was treating it as an imagery friend because she was lonely or because it was truly alive.

"Drawcia, would you like me to make you a s'more?" Drawcia jumped and rapidly shook her head no. Surprising Geno slightly at the negative response.

"Aw come on! There yummy!" Shadow leaned forward and slowly waved his s'more back and forth as if trying to hypnotize her. "You know you want it."

Drawcia sadly shook her head no and gently pushed the s'more away, winching when some of the marshmallow stuck to her hand. She wiped it on the stump she was sitting on and went back to talking to her paintbrush with odd gestures.

Vaati studied her for a few moments before asking, "Drawcia, can you even speak?" Drawcia mournfully shook her head no and pointed to her bandana, "You're a mute?" Mallow asked, once again she shook her head no.

"Maybe it has to do with her title?" Scourge suggested, "Remember how the sign called her the forgotten painting?" Vaati and Shadow nodded while Drawcia looked away, "Maybe she could talk at one point but once she was forgotten she forgot how to?"

"Maybe… And maybe that's the same reason as to why we're all here." Vaati mused, Geno frowned and questioned Vaati's theory, "But how could we all be forgotten? Mallow and I still remember everything from our journey and you all seem to remember your past lives since you still know your skills and powers."

"I meant it in an object sort of way, Drawcia was a painting, and people forgot about her, I was sealed away in a sword for generations at a time and Shadow wasn't even known until Gannondorf rose to power." Vaati looked to the starry skies and murmured, "Perhaps in a way, people we once knew forgot about us."

They thought about this for a while before Scourge barked an uneasy laugh, "Oh please! I'm quite sure that my phony of an anti couldn't forget me! I turned both of our worlds upside down! Broke out the high classed jail and ruined his love life a couple times!"

"Scourge has a point, we've all done something memorable." Mallow argued, "We've saved the world, broke the world-,"

"Turned a powerful princess and an entire city into stone!" Vaati added, "Made a promise to never be forgotten!" Shadow interjected,

"And we all played an important role in a way." Geno murmured.

They all looked at Drawcia who had simply painted a picture dictating her argument, it was bleak, a simply painting of important looking people who were standing above a horrific monster, castle or basking in the glory of others and one by one they slowly faded away.

"Gee, that's awfully cheery." Shadow grumbled, Geno sighed and prepared for bed, "We should focus on the positives, like the fact that none of us have murdered each other yet and prepare for tomorrow."

"Agreed." Vaati muttered, Scourge halfheartedly put of the fire before copying the others and using the forest floor as a bed listening to the faint sounds of nature and examining the stars, "We can't ALL be forgotten. Can we?" he risked a glance over to Shadow who was hugging a bow and arrow like a teddy bear, he was mumbling something in his sleep, probably about that promise he mentioned.

Scourge sighed and fell asleep joining the others in restless sleep and heavy hearts at the thought of being forgotten. None of them heard the faint sounds of footsteps as a ninja like person slipped into their little camp examining all of them before sadly fixing Drawcia's makeshift blanket.

The figure glanced to the sky trying to decide what to do next, before they slipped away playing gently on a lyre, "Although you all seem to have a heart of evil, perhaps this shall ease your slumber."

---

"Alright, did anyone else besides me have a dream about someone playing some weird instrument?" Scourge looked around and frowned when everyone nodded in agreement.

"It was a lyre…" Vaati yawned, "Perhaps someone else from our world is here?"

Geno frowned as he helped Drawcia up, she had accidently trapped herself in her blanket in the middle of the night, "If that's true, then shouldn't we have met already?"

"He has a point," Shadow did a couple practice swipes with his sword before resting, "I don't think anyone can come from the other side of the door besides us."

"Maybe they used magic?" Mallow offered, "And we can't sense it for some odd reason?"

"Unlikely." Vaati grumbled, he glared at the oddly shaped door which was in the shape of a star and gestured toward it, "So should we start exploring?"

"Yes, let's press on." Geno moved to open the door but Drawcia stopped him, shooting scared glares at the door, "Is something wrong Drawcia?" Geno tried to move past her but once again she stopped him, "Drawcia, you know we have to go through that door if we want to move on." Geno gently squeezed her hand promising, "I won't let whatever scares you hurt you. Okay?"

Drawcia whimpered but nodded in agreement, "Alright then, to adventure!" Mallow happily pulled the door open and yelped when a vortex pulled him inside, "Mallow!"

Geno lunged forward to try and save him while Drawcia tried to use a nearby tree as an anchor, Scourge watched as the swirling dark hole consumed Mallow. "Aw man!" Scourge watched as his favorite red sunglasses joined Mallow.

"My magic!" Vaati gasped as if whatever he was trying to do was draining the energy right out of him, "It's not working!"

"Is it me? Or is the swirling dark hole getting bigger?" Shadow paused in his attempt of using his sword to try and get away from the hole to yell back an answer to Scourge's question, "It's also getting more powerful!"

"I'm… Slipping!" Geno grunted. Drawcia screamed as the tree she was grabbing onto was uprooted and pulled into the hole, knocking Scourge and Vaati into hole as well, "Oh come onnnnnn!" Scourge shouted as Shadow quickly joined them screaming, "We're all going to dieee!"

Geno somehow managed to yell a warning as the entrance to the black hole abruptly appeared, sadly none of them heard and Geno was the only one who didn't nearly tumble off the edge of where they were.

"This is turning out to be a lovely morning!" Scourge grumbled as he held onto the red and yellow edge of land, Shadow and Vaati nodded in agreement as they held on for dear life. "I guess I didn't yell loud enough." Geno muttered, he helped them up before looking around,

"Where are we?" Vaati asked, "In the middle of nowhere?" Scourge offered. Geno nodded in agreement, there were barely any lights besides the looming darkness and the oddly colored floor which were red and yellow see through hexagons. Drawcia shuddered and hugged her paintbrush which was seemingly trying to break free of her grasp.

"Be careful where you step," Geno warned as he nearly fell through a floor panel. Drawcia nodded in agreement and carefully made her way to the front of the line gesturing for them to follow her.

Having no other choice in the matter they carefully followed her movements as she carefully walked around fake floor panels and painted rails for them to walk on.

"Hey look!" Shadow pointed up ahead where the color was slowly changing to a mess of greys and blacks, Mallow was lying on the floor. They quickly rushed to his side only to regret it when two walls closed down and the wall and floor started moving.

"It's a trap!" Vaati snarled, angrier at himself for not noticing than the others. "Great! Just great." Scourge kicked the wall in anger only to yelped and jumped back when his foot caused a ripple effect.

Geno shook Mallow awake and careful checked his surrounds, "Is something suppose to happen?" Geno questioned.

Drawcia nodded and tensed as if waiting for something, or someone to show themselves. Scourge looked up as a distorted giggle floated down toward them.

"Great, this person might be mute as well." Shadow grumbled,

"Is that a… Demon!?" Scourge gawked at the teenager who seemed to have dumped a can of white paint and other shades of color onto herself float down to them. She had black irises with a bright red background, her hair was short yet oddly styled being completely white with some touches of colors.

It was if she was posing as different elements all at the same time, with smooth jagged edges with icy blue colors to a fiery bang that seemed to be alive, or her electric styled ends with faint yellow and blue sparks or her earthy tips which seemed mostly normal.

Even her clothing seemed to mimic her hair, being pure white except for the ended of her dress, her right sleeve was a watery forest green which slowly changed to a pointed dark green while her left was a combination of spiky orange that seemed to be real spikes, pointed to the point of doing real damage.

The ends of the dress which was slit open near the waist mimicked her sleeves as well her boots. Scourge couldn't help but feel that her dark red silk belt seemed out of place of her entire outfit of rainbow colors. But said nothing to the possible demon.

"Well, well!" she floated toward Drawcia who winched and took a step back terrified of the strange lady, "The forgotten painting has come back to life, without my Masters power." She leaned forward an amused smile on her snow white face. "Interesting…"

"Back it up demon lady!" Scourge attempted to spin dash her but she playfully floated away, allowing herself to bounce into the wall before she spoke again. "I suggest you surrender now~! I'm untouchable!"

"We'll see about that!" Vaati hissed, he sent a downward gust in hopes of knocking her to the ground but she didn't even seemed bother by it, her dress and hair didn't even move. "Demon!" Scourge yelped, Vaati glared at him and snapped, "She's not a demon!"

"Then what is she then!?"

"A proud servant of the Dark Matter!"

Vaati and Scourge glared at the woman who simply giggled and happily bounced around the room some more, as if she was a rubber ball on slow mo.

"Alright, anyone got a plan?" Geno glared at Scourge and Vaati who opened their mouths to suggest something but were shot down when Geno added, "A plan that doesn't include everyone hurling attacks at the same time."

Shadow snickered and focused back at the enemy who was looking and bored and hover in one spot, Shadow noticed this and grinned, "I have an idea." He quickly melted into the floor and became a black blur as he sped up and the wall jumped at, prepared to slash down.

"Yes!" Shadow cheered, Vaati smirked and was about to complement Shadow on being somewhat useful when his sword bounced off and knocked him off balance, "What?!" Shadow yelped as he crashed to the ground

The girl giggled and spun around in a lazy circle while Geno rushed to catch the dazed warrior, "I told you~! You can't touch me~."

"You're really annoying!" Scourge growled, "Also, who the heck are you?!" the girl huffed and crossed her arms, she glanced down at Drawcia who was trying to nudge Mallow awake before answering, "I, am Miracle Matter but you may call me Miracle."

"…Miracle… Matter?" Vaati repeated, then he started laughing. Miracle frowned and lowered herself to the ground, "What's so funny?"

"Your name!" Vaati gasped, "There's nothing miracle about you!" Miracle sighed and floated back into the air, "Tsk, I'll have you know that my Masters named me this for a special reason."

"So they could make ridiculous puns about it?" Shadow asked, "Because, I'm pretty sure I can make a couple using your name."

"…You guys are jerks." Miracle spun around and happily chirped, "Which is why I get to get rid of all of you!" With a slight flourish of her hands a couple boulders appeared above her and dropped to the floor, they scattered as the rocks broke apart and bounced on the floor for a while before disappearing.

"Anyone got a plan?" Scourge asked as he dodged a couple remaining boulders, "Besides shooting her?" Shadow offered, Miracle laughed and encased herself in a glowing electric circle,

"I told you~ I'm untouchable!" she spun around and fired three lasers which lazily bounced around the arena, she laughed once more and joined the lasers. Shadow gritted his teeth and stepped into the shadows trying to avoid the bright lights.

Geno scowled and prepared a spell, "Geno Beam!" Miracle smirked and was about to taunt them once more by not moving out of the way when the beam sent her crashing to the ground, "Dogpile!" Scourge ordered, Vaati gave him a blank look before snapping, "How about we just hurl attacks at her!"

"That's what I- never mind."

Drawcia summoned a ball of paint and smacked it with her paintbrush while Vaati summoned a trio of fireballs and aimed them at Miracle who was trying to recover from the powerful beam attack, Shadow and Scourge took this opportunity to try and pin her down between magical attacks while Geno tried to wake Mallow up.

"I think we killed her!" Vaati said after a couple volleys, Shadow and Scourge stepped back to admire their defeated opponent when Miracle happily opened her eyes and giggled, "I think you guys need to chill out!" Scourge yelped as she encased herself in an ice cube and skated around the room while sending pointed ice spikes at them.

"How is she not dead?!" Vaati demanded as he floated above the death cube, "See! Demon!" Scourge yelled Geno frowned and picked Mallow up, trying to prepare himself to get out of the way when Miracle decided to go after him.

"Nope! No escape~!" Geno grunted and used his cloak to defend himself against the flying ice shards and Miracle as she destroyed her ice shield, "Geno! Look out!" Geno opened his eyes to see what Shadow was warning him about and froze when he found himself making eye contact with the grinning monster, she formed a fireball and happily said "Good bye." As two columns of flames appeared, one of them hitting Geno square in the chest.

"Oh come on! I was supposed to get a rematch!" Vaati threw his hands in the air and sent a tornado at her in hopes of dampening the flames, it didn't work as Miracle simply laughed and skipped toward him ignoring the fact that he was still in the air she simply rearranged her attacks to spin in a slow circle.

Scourge took this as an opportunity to search Geno's grave and to make sure that Mallow was alright. He frowned when he noticed that the entire area was scorched, not a single clue to show were Geno was.

"Up here!" Scourge looked up to see Geno holding onto Drawcia for dear life as she floated above the battle field a look of annoyed anger shining in her eye. Miracle slowed and gave Drawcia an amused look, "So you've finally decided to stop hiding and make yourself useful."

Drawcia scowled at her and slashed the air with her paintbrush creating a small rift in the moving dimension, "Tsk, it's a pity you sided with fools like these instead of obeying your masters." Miracle happily tilted her head and snickered, "Then again we could always… Persuade you with the gift of life."

Drawcia's answer to that was to paint a fireball and hurl it at Miracle who yelped and tried to defend herself with her flame shield. Geno was about to tell Drawcia that using the same element against each other didn't work when Miracle fell to the ground dazed.

Drawcia teleported to ground level and started waving her arms trying to tell them something, Vaati sighed and pointed to her paintbrush, "If you want to tell us something then you're going to have to paint it out moron."

Drawcia scowled at him and quickly painted a moving picture on the wall, Shadow poked his head out from the shadows long enough to watch a pink little ball creature walk around, inhale an enemy attack, copy it and then use it against whatever he was fighting.

"Is that the goody two shoes in your world Drawcia?" Scourge asked, Drawcia nodded and pointed to Miracle who was rubbing her head. Shadow grinned and jumped out of the shadows understanding what to do, "So we just use her own attacks against her. Shouldn't be too hard."

Vaati scowled and folded his arms reminding his minion with one important fact, "We can't copy powers like that puff ball can moron."

"Maybe we don't have to…" Geno mused, "We could just use our own attacks against her if there the right element, after all Drawcia and I managed to get a couple lucky hits on her already." Scourge nodded in agreement and gave Miracle a wicked grin who was glaring at them.

"Ready to surrender?"

Miracle stuck her tongue out and summoned to black blobs in her hand, she hurled one at them, forcing them jumped back as it bounced around for a bit before exploding.

"You know that would be a pretty devastating attack if we didn't know your plan!" Shadow jeered as he summoned a giant bomb and hurled it at Miracle who tried to get out of the way.

Only to be sent flying into the wall from the explosion, "Keep her down Shadow!" Vaati ordered as he focused on Mallow who was slowly coming to, Shadow obeyed and summoned smaller bombs and rapid fired Miracle with them who was screaming trying to avoid the onslaught.

"Annoying pests!" Miracle rolled away and made a slashing gesture with her hands, summoning a spikey shield that encased her, Shadow and Drawcia quickly backed away as the ball prepared to roll them over.

"I got this!" Scourge spin dashed toward Miracle who happily accepted his challenge and charged toward him.

"Ugh…" Mallow sat up and rubbed his forehead, trying to sooth the ranging headache he had, "Where are we…?"

Vaati looked around before answering, "In the middle of nowhere." Mallow was about to ask how they were in the middle of nowhere when Miracle launched some spikes toward them.

"She just doesn't know when to surrender." Geno murmured as he sidestepped out of the way, Drawcia nodded in agreement and teleported above Miracle to drop spike shaped projectiles.

Shadow slipped out of the shadows and snickered, "Think we should tell her to give up soon?" Vaati watched the battle of what appeared to be ping-pong before saying, "I give it a couple more minutes."

Geno nodded in agreement and prepared a spell while Mallow asked, "Is there any way we can help?" Shadow shook his head and leaned on his sword, "We can't attack her unless we use the same element that she's using."

"That… Doesn't make any sense."

"We know." Shadow yawned as Scourge pulled out of the fight yelling, "She's changing attacks!"

Vaati summoned a small tornado in his hand and evilly grinned, "Hopefully it will be a wind element."

"Wrong~!" Miracle summoned a chainsaw like sword and swing it in the air, summoning smaller green chainsaws that quickly charged toward the group. Geno and Mallow blasted it out of the air while Vaati unsheathed his sword and charged forward with Shadow by his side.

"I'm not losing that easily!" Miracle declared she took a swipe at Vaati who jumped back while Shadow charged forward, phasing right past her attack. Miracle gasped and tried to defend herself but failed.

"Annnd that's game." Scourge dusted himself off as Miracle crumpled to the floor, quivering as Vaati and Shadow took a couple cheap shots before deciding that she was done.

"Now then, how about you take us to your Master so we can beat the stuffing out of him." Scourge said, Miracle glared up at him and muttered something under her breath before glaring at Drawcia who was happily painting a door and some rope.

Geno offered her a hand to help her up. Miracle accepted it and grumbled something as Drawcia happily tied her up and lead her to the door like a dog. Scourge grinned and followed them, "Now we're getting somewhere!"

"Yea, but where is here?" Mallow asked, he shivered when he noticed the drastic change in scenery, now the landscape was pitch black with faint glowing stars forming faint outlines of something. He couldn't even see the floor beneath him.

"We are now entering the Dark Star, one of my masters' arenas." Miracle explained, "Don't worry about falling off, Master deiced to place invisible walls to see how long it would take you to find the exit."

"Why would he put invisible walls up?" Geno asked, Miracle smiled and tilted her head toward Shadow who had just ran into one, "Not… Cool!" Shadow grunted as he tried to pull himself off the wall.

"Master also made it stick to fabric. Just to enjoy your misery." She giggled and jumped up and down as Shadow glared at her, or tried to since he was still stuck to the wall.

"Nice to see that your boss has a sense of humor." Scourge grumbled. Miracle gasped in horror and angrily demanded, "You take that back right now rat!" Scourge glowered at her and snapped, "I'm a hedgehog! Not a rat!"

"Don't care! You're a rat until you take that back!"

"What?! I would totally pull a prank like this if-,"

"Rat! Rat! Green dude's a rat!"

"Shut up!"

"Ratty rat, rat! Scourge is a rat!"

"Why you little!" Scourge tackled her while Geno and Vaati gave them a disapproving glare.

"How about we ignore Miracle until we reach our destination." Geno suggested, Miracle happily kicked a foot in the air and chirped, "I like that idea!" before Scourge attempted to strangle her with the rope.

"Hey, when did your colors go back to normal?" Mallow asked, Vaati glanced down at his outfit which was indeed back to normal and frowned, "Not completely sure."

"Scourge is still a rat!" Miracle sang earning an annoyed glare from Scourge, "Why the fudge won't she die!?" Miracle happily answered his question with, "Because I am immortal!" And started to hum.

---

Mask watched the scene unfold from the glowing screens and laughed as Shadow finally unglued himself and offered to use his sword to shut Miracle up.

"I'm back!" Mask glanced back at Father who had finally deiced to reappear and do his job, "So? Whadda I miss?" he leaned forward and quickly examined the pictures showing before snapping his gaze back to Mask, "Well, the Dark Matter Trio managed to twist your world into their own and set up their own rules. So far Team Data has defeated Miracle Matter."

Father nodded and giggled as Scourge once again tried to strangle Miracle after she had lead them into an invisible wall, "Nice to see that there all getting along." Then he frowned when he noticed a slight hint of movement behind Team Data, "Who's that?"

Mask frowned and studied the glowing screen before he had to rub his eyes. "It looked like… Sheik." He quickly checked the data log that Glacier and Hammer had left for him and his frown increased, "There's no sign that she came on the train. Or when she entered."

Father sighed and was about to force Sheik to appear in the monitor room when he stopped and gave Mask a knowing smirk, "Well then, looks like we're going to need an extra setting for her. Or him. Never can figure out Sheik's gender."

Mask nodded and got up from the desk chair to prepare for their surprise guest, Mask couldn't help but feel a wave of unease from Sheik's appearance.

Sheik had helped him out on his journey and they had battled a couple times in Melee but now… Now he couldn't help but wonder why Zelda would put herself at risk by following two known and dangerous villains of Hyrule.

Surely she remembered his story of battling his own shadow or the myths of the dreaded wind mage that had been passed down in the royal castle. She had even explained it to him after he accidentally discovered a book about the four sword.

Mask sighed and pulled out the bunny hood and placed it on his head, he wasn't in the mood to bump into Howler who was growing more and more agitated that he hadn't been sent out to the field and had been picking fights with everyone, including Reptile who was also itching for battle and considered a friend toward Howler.

Then again, everyone had been on edge. Dying for a chance to attack their replacement or copy. Mask hated to admit it but he couldn't help but feel a pang of cold anger that he was forced to spend his time reliving three days of saving the world only to find out that you couldn't save anyone.

"You've met with a terrible fate. Haven't you?"

"Shut up." Mask shook his head and changed his course to the training arena. Claus and Lucas were already there practicing on a black sandbag in the corner. Mask ignored them and focused on a second black sandbag and mercilessly began slicing it into pieces.

---

"We're here~!" Miracle happily jumped around, ignoring the angry glares that everyone was giving her, "Alright. We're here. Great, where's that dumb master of yours?" Scourge growled.

Geno was about to suggest that they take this opportunity to rest before fighting once more when a monotone voice dully answered Scourge's question.

"I'm up here."

Scourge looked up and snorted, "So you're a demon, just like Miracle."

Vaati glared at Scourge and hissed, "He is not a demon!" Scourge ignored him and focused on the teenager who seemed to be Miracle's age standing on a sharp vine that was serving as a pillar, he had a similar get up like Miracle only less colorful.

He wore a simply white shirt and white pants, the only colors being a crimson red for the v neck and tattered pant leg which moved gently in the stale air.

He wore a long white and red robe which was being held together with a loose red belt with small crystals being used as belt buckles, the ends of the robe curved in to form a dull spike.

A small ragged red cape lay flat on his shoulders, also being held together with a crystal, his completion was like Miracle's, pure white skin and an eye slightly swollen with the color of blood. Scourge couldn't make out the second eye since it was covered with grey bandages.

"Who are you?" Geno asked, the figure gave a smile that seemed bored, "I am 02,second general of the Dark Matter." He summoned a small dull halo and pointed it Miracle's face, "And once again Miracle, you have failed." Miracle nodded in agreement and tried her best to look upset. 02 frowned and lazily tossed his halo in the sky before catching it.

"Then again, that was your purpose in life. At least someone accepts it." 02 focused his gaze on Drawcia who tensed and tried to hide behind Mallow, "Unlike some paintings…"

"What the heck are you talking about punk?" Scourge cracked his knuckles and did a couple of quick stretches, "I suggest you shut up and get ready to fight before I lose my patience!"

02 ignored him and jumped down summoning a pair of oddly shaped wings that looked like tiny foam ovals with even smaller red tear drops floating above the ovals. He landed gracefully and gave Scourge a bored look, "Funny, the sinner wishes to add more to his list of tragedies."

"What are you talking about?!" Scourge took a step forward and raised a fist to his face, "Alright pal I'm giving you the chance to surrender now instead of getting-," with a bored 'tsk' 02 took a step back and hurled his halo at Scourge.

Sending him flying into the wall. Scourge wheezed and slid to the floor, "Feel free to start helping." He coughed,

Vaati snickered and summoned a fireball in his hands, "Prepare to die fool!" Vaati shouted as he sent a trio of fireballs at 02, Geno watched to see what he would do and was surprised to see 02 sidestep and return fire with five small glowing crystals which blew up and separated.

"Geno Whirl!"

"Thunderbolt!"

02 frowned and encased himself in a spinning crystal, which easily nullified Mallow and Geno's attacks, "Interesting," 02 mumbled, "The same thing that brought my downfall is now protecting me."

"Well can it protect you from this?" Shadow swung his sword and unleashed a wave of dark energy which slightly damaged 02 shield.

"Keep at it Shadow! He seems to have a lower defense then Miracle does!" Geno advised, Miracle frowned but said nothing.

Drawcia nodded in agreement and tried to mimic Shadow's attack with her paintbrush, only she unleashed waves of paint instead of dark magic. Vaati and Scourge worked to pin 02 down on the floor or tried to, since Vaati would send gusts of wind to knock Scourge off balance whenever he tried to use his homing attack.

"Knock it off Vaati!" Scourge snarled after he had nearly crashed into a spike covered vine, Vaati gave him an innocent look and asked, "Knock what off?"

"You know what I mean wind dork!" Scourge tackled him and they began rolling around on the floor hurling insults and punches at each other. 02 watched with interest before glancing at Geno who was shaking his head in disgust. "Do they always act like this?"

"50% of the day." Geno replied with a sigh. He studied 02 who seemed to enjoy watching Vaati and Scourge roll around on the floor, Geno couldn't tell since he barely had any expression besides a dull smile and an interested glint in his eye.

"Mallow, do you know any of his weakness?"

Mallow shouted, "Psychopath!" then frowned saying, "I can't see his health but he seems to be worried about something getting in his eye or someone aiming for his eye."

Geno frowned and examined 02 much closer, taking in the puffiness around his eye, as if it was irritated or was swelling from a past injury.

Geno glanced at Miracle who seemed to be biting her lip, as if trying to stop herself from warning her master or cheering him on as he resumed the fight, firing multiple explosions at Drawcia who teleported away from them as quickly as she could.

"Alright then," Geno pointed at 02 and shouted, "Geno Beam!" he watched as 02 turned around to see what the attack was only to realize that the beam was aiming straight for his eye.

"NOOOOooo!" Geno and Mallow cringed at 02's screech of pain and then winched when his body nearly became a shish kabobs on the platform he had appeared on. "Master!" Miracle rushed to his side and nudged him, whimpering softly as 02 clutched his eye moaning from the pain.

"Oh I see!" Scourge shoved Vaati off of him and threw his hands up, "The one time something bloody happens I'm busy dealing with the stupid witch!"

"Witch?!" Vaati summoned a fireball and grabbed Scourge's jacket pulling him closer to the flames, "Call me a witch one more time and I'll burn your stupid smug grin right off your face peasant!" Scourge growled and the fight resumed.

"Bloody?" Geno frowned and bent down in an attempt to examine 02's eye, 02 flinched but willingly moved his hand away. Drawcia made a strangled choking noise as she noticed how much red liquid was dripping off of his hand. Geno paled and felt his wooden joints go numb as he realized that 02 was bleeding. And losing a lot of blood fast.

Geno turned to Mallow who seemed sick, probably never seen anyone else lose blood before "Mallow-"

"On it." Mallow used Hp rain while Miracle attempted to sooth her Master with comforting words, "There, there Master. You'll feel better in no time-," KABOOM!

Miracle fell backward and scrambled away from 02 who had endured the agonizing pain of getting shot in the eye long enough to fire an explosion at Miracle.

"How many times have we told you," 02 hissed, "Not to comfort others?"

Miracle sat up and cheerfully said, "Over eight thousand times master!" then she flinched and tried to frown, "I'll… Face the wall now." 02 gave her a hard glare before he winched and went back to nursing his eye.

"We? Who else is there besides you two freaks?" Geno jumped, and turned around to see a bruised Vaati and Scourge glaring down at 02, who bluntly refused to answer Scourge's question.

Vaati scowled at him and glared around the room, trying to find Shadow who had vanished after Geno had used Geno Beam. Vaati founded him examining a door and carefully poking the handle which was shaped like a black star.

"Well at least we can leave this place." Vaati grumbled, he started to move forward when Drawcia stopped him and gestured to 02 who had finally allowed Geno to manually heal him after he summoned a crystal shield to hide from the rain. Vaati scowled but waited for them to tie up the drama king and clean up most of the blood before he swiftly went to join Shadow.

They entered the next room which seemed outside since a dark blue sky with twinkling yellow stars greeted them, Drawcia tensed and hide behind Geno while Mallow went to examine some odd flowers that were growing nearby.

"Uh, is there anything here?" Scourge asked, "Since all I see is a random meadow and a random mountain." 02 scowled at Scourge and gestured toward the nearly invisible stairs. "Our master is waiting at the top of this 'random' mountain."

Vaati groaned and put a hand to his forehead, "Whoopee, more climbing." Miracle giggled and tried to clap her hands, "Climbing's fun!"

02 glowered at her and ordered "Shut up Miracle." Before examining the night sky. "Well, we might as well get started." Geno said.

"Or, we could simply blow up the mountain!" Shadow offered, he summoned a giant bomb and hurled it at the base of the mountain before Geno could say no.

It exploded and forced everyone to hit the floor as debris flew over their head. When everything had quieted down Vaati coughed and glared at Shadow who was happily laughing at the mayhem he had caused, "Why is the answer to everything bombs!?" Vaati demanded.

Shadow grinned and summoned bombs the size of a cherry tomato and tossed them in the air, "Because, they solve everything." Scourge and Mallow glowered at Shadow who were unlucky enough to get hit by smaller pieces of rock when an emotionless voice droned, "Really. Perhaps Miracle Matter should have used more bombs against you."

Shadow looked up, squinted past the dust and screamed when he managed to make out a single red eye with red markings that looked like a child version of the sun painted above and below his eye. Shadow scrambled away as the figure stood up and tilted his head.

"What's wrong." The figure took a step forward, wobbling a bit before he fell to the floor, landing on his hands and knees. "I thought you enjoyed jokes."

Shadow nervously laughed before he melted into the shadows, terrified by the childish and empty attitude the man had.

And it didn't help that he was just as pale as Miracle and 02 and had similar clothing to 02, only his robe was a bit longer, covering his hands completely, and his satin edges were a brighter red. If it wasn't for the aura of emptiness Scourge felt, he would have laughed and joked about his long white hair.

"Master." The man slowly got up and glanced at 02 who was attempting his best to bow while being tied to Miracle. "Oh, 02 you and Miracle have failed." 02 nodded and gestured toward Scourge who was trying to stay calm even though he felt like he was being watched by Crazy Rosie.

"So the never ending circle of despair continues, thanks to these brutes."

"Hey! We are not brutes!" Mallow protested, the man ignored him and drifted toward Scourge who was really wishing that Geno was picked to be the chosen leader.

But he still stuck his hand out in an attempt to seem friendly, "My name's Scourge." The man studied his hand before glancing at 02 and Miracle who seemed to be confused by Scourge's gesture.

"Oh for crying out loud. It's a handshake!" Scourge grabbed his robe sleeve and shook it before using it to slap him in the face.

"…Oh… I'm Zero."

"Well it's nice to meet you Zero!" Mallow chirped, Zero made a hissing noise and glowered at Mallow who made a squeaking noise and joined Drawcia. "So ignoring the fact that you all have no ideas what a hand is." Scourge gestured toward his group and gave a brief explanation of what they were doing.

"So… In order to find answers. We need to join your party." Zero said after a moment of considering Scourge's story. "Yup!" Shadow jumped out of the shadows and jabbed the air a couple times with his sword. "We're all lost at the moment so getting answers is the only real way out."

Geno nodded in agreement and gave his two cents appealing to Zero's villainous side, "You might also get a chance to get revenge on whoever defeated you." Zero thought for a moment before glancing at 02 and Miracle before making his verdict.

"No."

"No!?" Vaati jumped up and tried to strangle Zero who happily didn't fight back, "What do you mean no!?"

"I mean no." Zero folded his arms and gave the group a disgusted look, "A party sounds too happy."

"Well, that's what people call a group of adventures, a party since everyone is usually on good terms with everyone." Geno clarified, Zero made a small scowl and scooted away from them, Miracle and 02 following him closely like obedient puppies.

Scourge threw his hands up and was about to use his best tactic since smooth talking wasn't working, when Mallow beat him to the punch by asking, "What's wrong with being happy?"

Zero shuddered at the word happy and 02 gave Mallow a look as if he has said a curse word, "Everything's wrong with it. Why look positively on a bleak outlook." Zero shudder once more and looked up at the night sky, "Negativity solves everything. Especially Dark Matter."

"Dark Matter?" Shadow frowned, "You guys aren't from the shadows."

"Of course not, we're from up there." Zero pointed up to the night sky and a small growing orb of darkness appeared covering the twinkling stars. Drawcia whimpered loudly and pulled her hat over her eyes as large clumps of darkness drifted toward Zero slowly forming an eye and circle.

They hovered obediently over Zero and 02 waiting for an order. Zero glanced back at Mallow with a bored look and gave a dull explanation, "I am the first in command of the Dark Matter, 02 was the second in command/leader after my death and Miracle Matter was simply a decoy to halt the annoying pink ball from ruining our plans."

"Well that explains how Miracle has two masters." Scourge grumbled, Shadow nodded in agreement and warily eyed the black circles, "If we're getting into a fight then we're going to have some trouble." Miracle laughed and chirped, "Of course you're going to have some trouble! We're unstoppable!"

"Miracle what have we told you about being happy." Miracle cringed and looked down at her feet, ashamed that she had once again disobeyed her masters will. Zero made a small half smile and nodded his approval.

Mallow frowned and took a step forward, "You know, it's not that bad to feel happy or any other positive emotion."

"It's not." Zero tilted his head, a flicker of confusion crossing his blank face. "Nope! You need a hug!" and with that Mallow jumped forward and tackled Zero in a hug. Zero shuddered and looked at Mallow with horror before he tried make him let go. When that didn't work Zero started screaming for his comrades' help.

Vaati rolled his eyes in disgust, "It's just a hug, he'll let go after a couple seconds." Zero ignored him and screamed when Drawcia noticed something and decided to join the hug fest as well.

Scourge snickered then started laughing as the Dark Matter frantically tried to pull off Mallow and Drawcia who were holding for dear life, "Pathetic!" Vaati sneered, "It's just a hug!"

Shadow snickered and pointed at Zero who was thrashing around like a desperate fish. Geno was about to scold them and force Drawica and Mallow to stop when he noticed something.

"Is he… Taking damage from the hug?"

Scourge followed Geno's gaze and giggled when he saw the damage counter slowly turn into 55%, 56% then it jumped to 60% when Drawcia tightened her hold on Zero. "You have got to be kidding." Scourge wheezed,

"Get them off! Get them off! Get them off!" Zero wailed, Scourge sighed, shooed the Dark Matter crowd away and pulled Mallow and Drawcia off of Zero who curled into a shivering ball, whimpering slightly. Scourge sneered down at him and poked Zero with his boot, "Now do you wanna join our party?"

Zero whimpered and eyed Mallow and Drawcia carefully, "If you don't then I'm quite sure that Drawcia wouldn't mind giving you one last hug." Scourge added, shaking Drawcia a little who nodded in agreement and made a hugging gesture.

Zero's eye widened in fear and he quickly nodded and made a feeble squeaking noise which could have been a yes, but he passed out before Scourge could get him to repeat what he said.

"Well at least we can leave." Vaati grumbled, displeased that he hadn't gotten the chance to torture Zero himself. Geno glared at him and untied 02 and Miracle who quickly pulled their unconscious master to his feet.

"And now the fun part!" Shadow pointed to a golden door which was labeled exit, "More walking!"

Everyone groaned while Miracle happily asked, "What's does the word walking mean again?"

After what felt like hours the ragtag group finally made it to something that wasn't complete darkness, and stepped into a gleaming foyer, which looked extremely welcoming with its many fluffy throw pillows and blankets, a dull fire crackled a bright orange then a soothing blue. Scourge couldn't help but relax and collapse on a beanbag which happily accepted him, he heard Vaati give a moan of pleasure as he collapsed on a pile of pillows.

"This place even has cookies!" Mallow squealed, he grabbed a couple and offered one to Miracle who carefully took it and bit into it. Zero and 02 ignored her and began poking the fire with pillows, curious to see what would happen.

Geno examined a shiny oak bookcase and grabbed a book labeled, "Smash Bros History." And made himself comfortable in a sitting chair with a steaming cup of mint tea.

Drawcia happily raced around the room examining random paintings while Shadow studied an odd picture of butterflies before he stabbed it with his sword.

"Why couldn't the moron just summon us all here instead of having waste our time?" Vaati mumbled as he happily hugged a satin violet pillow. "Because he enjoys suffering." Zero reasoned.

Geno looked up from his book and gently chastised him, "Not everyone enjoys pain and suffering Zero, plus he could have done it to see our reactions to meeting everyone." Zero gave a small scowl and went back to setting pillows on fire.

Scourge adjusted his shades so he up at Drawcia who was hovering over him, "What is it Drawcia?" she gestured toward the other door which was rather plain compared to the golden and teal door they had entered.

"We'll check it out later, after everyone's rested." Scourge grumbled, he was really in the mood for a nap and Drawcia hovering over him wasn't helping.

"Miracle! Stop hogging all the cookies!" Mallow desperately chased Miracle around the room who was happily attempting to set the tray on fire, "Neh!" she stuck her tongue out and hurled the tray into the flames. Taking pleasure in Mallow's distraught expression.

"Don't worry, I brought extra."

Scourge groaned and looked at the door to see a kid wearing a green tunic with two random belts place a tray on the coffee table. Scourge couldn't help but stare when he noticed the green hat that resembled Shadow's.

He also couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated by the older glint the boy had in his tired blue eyes or the unkempt style of his dirty blonde hair as if he was too busy acting older than his age to take proper care of himself.

He managed to pull his gaze away when Vaati made a sound between an angry gurgle a hiss before he pointed at the boy and managed to snarl, "You!" while Shadow glanced at the boy and gasped, "Green?"

The boy showed no emotion at the fact that he was surrounded by an old enemy and possible a friend and calmly said, "I would prefer if you would call me Mask, for the time being."

"Mask?" Vaati stood up and unsheathed his sword, a look of crimson hate burning in his eyes, Drawcia uneasily stepped away from Vaati's pillow pile since his eyes seemed to be glowing red.

Mask nodded and casually pulled out his own sword, which seemed perfect for someone his age but dramatically put the odds in Vaati's favor since own sword was much longer in reach.

"You don't fool me for a second child!" Vaati spat, Geno glanced up and froze when he saw the icy cold hatred which slowly grew in Mask's eyes as Vaati kept talking, Scourge grinned and rubbed his together as they slowly circled each other,

"You aren't going to take me down for the third time!"

"Third time?" Shadow mumbled then he realized what he meant.

Mask carefully chose his words saying, "Although you have met me eons ago, it wasn't me in a sense, it was a different timeline version of me."

"Oh really? You share the same color and height! Don't think you're going to get away with this!" and with that Vaati lunged forward and slashed at Mask who easily sidestepped and tripped Vaati with his foot.

Vaati somehow managed to recover and hurled a gust of wind at Mask who pulled out a mirror shield with a terrified expression etched into the glass. Scourge whistled when Mask braced himself until the winds had passed and easily deflected Vaati's attack once more,

"Ha!" Vaati swiped again and sneered at him, "You weren't expecting me to play by your rules, now were you?"

A bitter smile appeared on Mask's face as he counteracted and kicked Vaati square in the chest, "I was expecting that. Since I'm with the very same person who gave you that sword."

Vaati growled and slashed the air, summoning tornadoes that ravaged the room, "Aim at him moron! Not us!" Scourge yelled as he dove behind his beanbag for cover.

Of course Vaati ignored him and continued fighting. Mask easily blocked and counterattack each of Vaati's attack inching forward after each blow. He soon managed to trap him in a corner with his shield. Vaati snarled and forced the winds to push Mask away and attack him mercilessly.

"Would you like to beg for mercy now?" Vaati grinned maliciously and spat, "Child?"

Mask laughed, startling Vaati since the laugh sounded so childish and out of place for a being who was being tortured. Vaati dropped him on the coffee table and tried to regain his composer.

Mask giggled and swapped his small sword for a longer, and sharper sword that was decorated with golden diamonds, "You've met with a terrible fate. Haven't you?"

Vaati yelped as Mask charged forward attacking with new strength.

"No." Vaati realized, "He was holding back all along!" he ducked and encased himself in a tornado of winds, hoping that Mask would back off long enough for him to fire a couple fireballs at him.

But Mask didn't back down, he whipped out a bow and a glowing arrow that sent danger chills down Vaati's spine as he recognized that holy light. "Light arrows." He jumped to the side and summoned some sentorarions to use as shields, they were pretty annoying since they could hover around and fire laser beams at whoever Vaati was mad at.

Mask easily shot them down before switching back to his sword and lunging for Vaati. Vaati tried to move out of the way but tripped over a lounge chair and managed to defend himself a blast of wind. Mask jumped back, earning a silent curse from Vaati once realized that he was agile as well as strong.

"Do you surrender?"

Vaati stubbornly glowered at Mask and snapped, "Not in your life child!" Mask said nothing and allowed a flicker of ice cold hatred to dance across his face before he pulled out the light arrows. Vaati snorted and was about to taunt him for using a bow n arrow when someone shoved him off the couch.

"Ah-ah-ah~" A voice gently chided, "There's no need to kill anyone." Everyone tore their gaze away from Vaati who scrambled away from the couch to glower at the person who had so nicely shoved him off the couch.

Mask growled slightly and put his sword away, muttering loud enough for the man to hear, "We wouldn't be killing anyone if you would stop being dramatic."

Zero frowned slightly, "But… Killing bring pain and suffering." The man sighed and took a cookie from the tray, "But drama makes everything exciting!"

"And annoying." Vaati grumbled, then he glared at the man and snapped, "Who are you anyway! And why are we all here!"

"Yea!" Scourge jumped up and shoved a fist in front of the man's teal blue eyes, "Start talking before I give you a knuckle sandwich." The man laughed and pushed Scourge's hand out of the way, "Now, now. The answers shall come shortly."

"Can the first answer be your name?" Mallow asked, the man thought for a bit before saying, "Well I can't tell you my full name, or the titles I usually go under since you would kill me, so you may call me Ta, for the moment."

"Ta?" Geno repeated, Ta nodded and waved his hand, "Pleasure to meet you in the digital code." Everyone expect Scourge gave Ta dumbfound expressions which Ta quickly waved away, "Never mind, you'll figure it out after a few days here." He snapped his fingers and everyone was quickly sitting on one side, Ta and Mask sitting across them on a smaller couch.

Scourge tensed when he realized he was sitting in-between Shadow and Vaati, but loosened up slightly when he noticed the uncertain glare Vaati was giving Ta.

"Good. He's being cautious as well." Scourge glanced back at Ta who was offering Miracle a cookie and frowned slightly, recognizing the obvious signs of smoozing.

He tensed when Ta spoke, "Well, long and overly complicated story short, you are all forgotten characters and villains" For a brief moment the only sound came from the fireplace before an outcry of protest shattered the stunned silence. Ta waited for them to calm down before he continued.

"Or to be more informative, your creators have forgotten you, you all still have a small fan base."

"Fan base!? Creators?! Speak English!" Shadow demanded.

Ta sighed and a wall of images appeared behind him, slowly spinning in a circle as brand names and their pictures below certain brand names appeared.

"You see, I have chosen you eight since you were the oldest forgotten characters from video games or in Scourge's case, comics, that I could bring here safety without a mess of glitches." Ta explained, "Which is why a couple of you seem different than the pictures displayed behind me."

Scourge studied the Dark Matter trio's original form and shuddered, he also found Drawcia's to be a bit creepy as well.

"I gave you redesigns thanks to a happy fan-girl who so seemed to find all of you interesting characters and used your old coding to bring you here." Ta waved the coding part away and hurriedly continued. "I also tweaked your battle style to be more balanced for the upcoming battles."

Geno frowned and questioned "Upcoming battles? What battles?" Ta grinned and jumped up from his seat with a flourish and pointed to a new wall of photos which appeared in front of the fireplace, the villains growled slightly when they saw the person who had so easily defeat them onscreen.

"You see, I too am a forgotten character, or a forgotten boss who was forced to rot away in the data codes and numbers." Ta pointed to a photo showing a teenager wearing a similar tunic to Mask and Shadow only a shade dark posing with a princess with long brown hair.

"Those are only a couple of fighters who defeated me. And after being permanently 'erased' I thought up a plan which would redeem other forgotten fighters who weren't allowed to join and myself by taking back which was rightfully ours."

"And that's where we come in." Zero guessed, he frowned and folded his arms, "And your using the bait of getting a second chance at defeating our heroes as the prize."

"Yup!" Ta pointed to a pink little puffball who was chasing around a dog, earning a slight growl from Drawcia and some graffiti. "And of course the chance to be recognized as the truly great heroes and villains you are."

"And if we say no?" Ta glanced at Scourge who was giving him a bored glare trying not to seem interested, "Then you can simply wander about my little castle since I can't return you back to your home worlds."

"And if we were to accept, then what would be out first mission?" Shadow asked, Ta grinned and with a snap of his fingers the pictures disappeared and were replaced by a title written in bold, "Attack of The Clones."

"Sadly this first plan only requires five people since we're just giving them a taste of our power." Ta clarified when he noticed the excited glint in Miracle's eyes, she deflated slightly and crossed her arms.

"As the name states, I'll be sending in people who are called 'clones' by the fan base and company who created the 'clones' based on their skill, attack style and appearance." Ta pushed the first picture away revealing the lucky soldiers who were going to partake in the mission.

"Scourge, Mask, Shadow, Vaati and Howler will go, Vaati however has a slightly different mission which requires you retrieving a gun I used to turn people into trophies and capturing Mr. Game n Watch." Ta pointed to a flat black stick character who was attacking someone with random meats from his frying pan.

Vaati snorted and pointed to himself, "In case you haven't noticed, I don't look like anyone in that place and I am no clone of that failure of a dark wizard!"

"Yes, but you will have a somewhat easier time sneaking around thanks to your… Original homeland." Ta pulled Vaati forward and placed him on the table, "Don't worry!" Ta reassured, "It won't hurt! You'll just feel a murderous rage toward me."

"That didn't make sense Ta." Mask mumbled.

Ta ignored him and waved his hands, Vaati was about to protest when he suddenly vanished. "Don't worry! He's still here." Ta pulled out a magnifying glass and placed it over the spot Vaati once was.

Geno and Scourge looked and gasped when they saw a purple mouse like creature wearing a tiny version of Vaati's outfit jumping up and down angrily screaming.

"Is that Vaati…?" Shadow asked, 02 confirmed Shadow's thoughts with a simple, "He still has that aura of smugness around him, so I'm guessing yes. Although I can't really see him…"

"Vaati was originally a Minish, which are tiny mice like humans, only children can see them since they still believed in the folktales. Vaati is different since he was learning magic as an apprentice and was entranced by the evil in the hearts of men, which made him still a magical hat which can grant wishes and attempted to become the most powerful person ever."

Ta took a breath and waved his hands once more to return Vaati to his normal size.

"I. Hate. You." Vaati spat, he was trembling badly and looked ready to strangle Ta who happily waved hello.

"Is that all?" Miracle asked, Ta opened his mouth, paused as if thinking about something and glanced at Mask who sighed and pointed to Scourge, "You didn't inform Scourge his part in the mission."

"Oh right." Ta beamed a sly grin at Scourge who placed his muddy boots on the table as an act of rebellion, "You Scourge get a job I would rather do myself,"

"So why don't you?" Mallow asked, he flinched from the cold glare Ta gave him and quickly tacked on, "Since you seem to know a lot about us and those things you call codes, how come you just can't waltz in and mess everything up?"

"Because my dear Mallow, I was never a playable character, unless someone hacked the game and even then I was extremely glitchy and unstable since I was only supposed to be used for a couple moments." Ta paused and showed a picture of an extremely HD stage from Smash 4, Drawcia made a cooing sound and tried to touch it, frowning when her hand went through it.

"Plus, the creators have upped the graphics and data along with their new system which is a complete maze than the one I appeared on, it's hard enough changing everyone's coding to prevent any major damage whenever they step foot into the battle field or the living quarters."

Ta finished, he sighed and once again ignored the confusion looks he got from his tech speech and went back to focusing on Scourge.

"Now then," Ta grinned and rubbed his hands as a picture of Sonic appeared on screen, Scourge flinched but quickly recovered, trying his best to ignore how happy his counterpart was showing, that he was the strongest as he battled a wolf like creature with glowing palms.

"You see I have a slight grudge against that blue pest." Ta said, his voice dripping with hatred.

Mask sighed and glanced around the room as the warm colors melted away. Scourge sneered and said "So? Everyone has a grudge against Mr. Hero."

Ta laughed but it wasn't too hard to notice that the playfulness from before was gone, replaced with bitter hatred.

"Yes, I'm quite aware of that, but my grudge is a bit more… Permanent since I have consent reminders of what he did to me." Ta laughed again and drifted around the room, until he was standing behind Scourge. Scourge glared up at him but didn't bother to hide his interest in his story this time.

"You see, I was gifted with lovely wings, they were chaotic, multi-color and gave me the power to make everything sooo much easier." Ta glowered at Sonic and hissed, "That was until that little pest happily shattered my wings freeing everyone from their trophies and weakening me greatly."

Drawcia frowned and Miracle pointed to Ta, "Did he break your wings off entirely? I don't see anything." Ta laughed and playfully flicked Miracle's hair, earning a slight hiss from Zero and 02.

"That's because I'm hiding them silly!" with a flourish of his hands, a pair of wings appeared, gently moving back and forth as Ta floated upward.

Drawcia oohed and awed while Shadow frowned slightly, noticing how different his wings seemed, his left wing was a darker color than his brightly yellow and cyan blue right wing.

It had glass cracks dotted around the tip and distorted peeling effect, colors and faint outlines of his wing trying to move away from the rest of the wing as if trying to break free.

His right wing was simply blurred around the edges and twitched as if it was in pain. Ta angrily stroked his wings and glared down at Scourge, "You have no idea how much I would love to tear you apart thanks to your look alike genes!"

"Gee, thanks." Scourged glowered at Sonic and stood up, "Alright butterfly man."

Ta!"

Scourge rolled his eyes and kept talking "I'll join your little mission plan," Ta grinned about shake Scourge's hand to conform the deal, "If. You bring back my girlfriend, Fiona Fox. Not totally sure how the forgotten thing works but consider it payment for me having to play nice with pretty boy over here." Vaati gave him the evil eye but stayed quiet when Mask sent him a warning glare.

"I can't do that." Ta landed and summoned a video clip of what appeared to be Scourge standing in front of a floating palace, next to a results screen, "I had a hard enough time pulling you into this realm since I had to use fan coding and practically rebuild you from scratch with the help of Sonic's data. You and Fiona are comic book characters who don't exist in the digital world, and the fan base is split between liking her and hating her guts so there aren't any recolor hacks of her being in any game."

"Well, then no deal."

Mask groaned and slid of the couch, knowing what was coming next. Ta blinked at Scourge before he echoed what he heard, "No deal?"

"Nope!" Scourge turned around and threw a smirk over his shoulders, "Why should I be working with a person who is happily showing off his powers when he can't even bring back a simple comic book character without leeching off of someone else's work?" He laughed and started for the oak door, "Sounds pretty pathetic if you ask me."

Ta gawked at Scourge as he tried the door knob to see if the door was unlocked, "See ya later losers!" Scourge yelled as he prepared to walk into the next room.

"Oh yea well!" Ta stuttered a bit before finally yelling, "I don't need your help! Your dumb girlfriend sounds like a better replacement anyway!"

Scourge waved Ta away saying, "Good luck with that."

While Vaati and Shadow tried their best not to laugh at how easily Scourge was manipulating Ta, Geno and Mallow shook their heads and joined Mask on the floor, who was counting down from ten.

"I'm serious!" Ta screamed, he stamped his foot and waved his arms around, "I control this whole place! You can't leave without me knowing!"

"Didn't you give me the option to stay here and not work for you?"

"Yes- well… Shut up! Stop twisting my words!"

Mask groaned and held onto the couch, "And here comes the tantrum." Zero perked up and watched as a level seven earthquake started, Mallow yelped and covered his head as everything flew around the room.

Scourge managed to fall from the falling debris and land next to Mask who watched his Master act like a two-year-old.

Scourge groaned as he caught what Ta was saying over the pounding thunder in his ears, "He's not going to calm down until I join his dumb mission." He glanced at Mask who nodded 'yes'.

"Fudge." Scourge shakily got up and was about to yell to Ta that he'll join when Ta's screeches of anger and incoherent rage speech was abruptly cut off by something falling from the ceiling and landing on him. Ta screamed, shoved the person or thing off of him and scrambled over to the oak door which was promptly kicked open by a snarling grey wolf.

Ta screamed and cowered by the wolf, pointing behind the couch while babbling nonsense about a spider person trying to kill him. The wolf snarled and snapped, "And what would you like me to do!? Kill it?"

"Yes! You have that pew-pew thingy!" Ta made a finger gun and pretended to shoot the couch while yelping, "Pew-pew!"

"It's a gun! And it doesn't make that sound." The wolf snarled.

"Don't care! Kill it!"

"Excuse me, but aren't you the one who can control this place inside and out!?"

"Yes, but I don't want to get my hands dirty!"

The wolf huffed and stormed around the couch he looked around for a bit before he snapped, "There's no one here!"

Ta frowned and joined him to make sure he wasn't lying. He finally scowled and ushered everyone into the main hall, which had a random card table in the middle of the marble floor, and a random solider inspecting his cards sitting at the random card table. He didn't bother to look up when he gruffly asked, "What happened now?"

"There was an invisible spider attacking Master." The wolf grumbled,

Ta scowled and grumbled, "It was real." Before he gestured for Vaati and Scourge to follow him. "Mask, show the newbies to their room and around the place."

"Is the place going to stay still?" Mask asked.

Ta glared at him and stormed off gesturing for Scourge and Vaati to follow him, they did but they quietly pinched each other, which then scaled to punching, then finally a brawl outside a purple and green door. Ta sighed and used his magic to shove them inside.

"Hey! I was winning!" Ta ignored Scourge's complaints and closed the door behind him, locking it for good measures since he figured they would immediately try and get out once they realized who the room was for.

"So? Where and why are we here?" Vaati demanded, he wrinkled his noise as he saw how much black and green was on the left side of room. His frown deepened when he noticed just how rebellious it looked.

Scourge however grinned and jumped on the metal bed and kicked his feet up on the rotting metal chains, "This… Is perfect." Scourge declared.

Vaati gagged and turned away. Then he brightened when he noticed how regal the other side was, it reminded him of home, or his second home, the Wind Palace. He drifted over to a classy bookcase and studied a book written in old Hylian runes.

Ta snickered as he watched Scourge discover a magazine about woman's fashion (Ta had a hard time convincing himself that it wasn't too inappropriate when he designed the room) and rolled under the bed to read in peace, while Vaati partially melted into an old fashion easy chair that was a royal purple and start mumbling about spells.

Ta slowly walked down the middle of the room and examined them for a moment before he sweetly asked, "Do you find your room to be enjoyable?" He got a half interested mumble from Vaati as he ignored the world and an annoyed grunt from Scourge. Ta giggled and waited for his words to sink in.

"Wait a second." Scourge scrambled out from under the bed, nearly tripping on a random cardboard box full of old jackets and posters and looked at where Vaati was. "I'm sharing a room with the girly girl!?"

Ta nodded and sat down on a comfy beanbag he had summoned, enjoying every second of his master plan, Vaati glanced up and choked when he saw the problem. He jumped up from his chair and pointed at Ta, "What is the meaning of this!"

"It's simple." Ta started,

"Simple?! How is this simple!?" Vaati snarled, Ta frowned and waved Vaati away, "What I mean is that you two would make excellent team mates and possible friends-Oh come on! Friends isn't a bad word!" Ta snapped, Vaati and Scourge ignored him and recoiled away from each other, even though they were still on their side of the room.

Ta threw his hands up and summoned a white board that had pros and cons on it. "Fine! Then read the stupid bored I so nicely made for you and see for yourself."

When they didn't budge Ta sighed and mimed that he was yanking them forward, Scourge yelped and Vaati gave a howl of rage as they were pulled forward and landed on each other, Ta giggled as Vaati and Scourge tangled and untangled themselves before angrily glaring at the board.

What you both have in common

1.You both had Father/Caretakers who you were either ignored or being held back for greater heights

2.You both longed for power in hopes of getting noticed by said Caretaker

3.You both enjoy boasting about your power and using force to achieve your ideals in gaining more.

4.You both aim to prove to someone/race that you were right and the strongest

5.You both had a burning passion for why you wanted to murder your rivals (Scourge because of how much better Sonic seems to be in both family life and skills, Vaati because your master happily offered to help the hero.)

The Things which are different about you.

1.Scourge excels when it comes to hand to hand combat and isn't afraid of taking deals to screw someone else over

2.Vaati is powerful in both planning his goals and strategy for gaining more power and creating roadblocks but ignores his past mistakes, relaying on his final form and magic.

3.Scourge approaches females with fake charm and flattery words while Vaati kidnaps maidens and laughs at how pitiful they are when they beg for his mercy.

4.Scourge can rally a team using past mistakes of others and smoozing while Vaati is a loner, using his minions as throw away pawns.

5.Vaati knows his magical boundaries and doesn't take risky chances to defeat the hero unless he loses his temper. Unlike Scourge who solely relies on himself and doesn't think ahead even when he has a team.

"Ya done yet?" Scourge glowered at Ta who was munching on a gingerbread cookie. "Yes, we're done." Scourge spat, he glared at the board silently hating the fact they really did seem alike besides fighting.

Ta jumped up and shoved the board out of the way, "Would you two like to explain why you might be different?" Vaati glowered at him but said nothing while Scourge fiddled with his sunglasses. Ta grinned and skipped toward the door.

"Well, I'm going to leave and let this sink in, since I'm quite sure I'm needed elsewhere." He paused and looked at Scourge, "Now probably isn't the best time to mention this, but your role is to act like Sonic until caught."

"What?!"

"Seeyabye!"

Scourge glared at the closed door in disbelief before he looked at Vaati who was burning a hole in the stone floor.

"Sooo…." Vaati looked up from the floor and started glaring a hole in Scourge's head, Scourge scowled and glanced at the discarded board.

"You have… Issues with your dad?"

"He's not my father!" Vaati looked away and muttered, "He was my teacher. Who treated me like an idiot who could only help out with basic spells."

"Well, on the bright side at least you weren't ignored for the peace of the idiotic people." Scourge grumbled.

Vaati snorted and sneered slightly, "Let me guess, your kind were a weak race who happily let everyone stomp all over them, not caring that they were a child's folktale and never getting anything in return from those ungrateful giants."

"Uhh… I guess you could compare them to your kind, the only difference was that my dad was a political leader who created a world where everyone was happy and there were no wars."

"They sound pathetic."

"They were, until I took over and knocked seem sense into them. I ruled the city until I bumped into Sonic, decided to prove that I was better than him by taking over the world and giving it a wake-up call. And came back to get him to join the party."

"How'd that work?"

"I got thrown in jail, my girlfriend helped me break out after I formed a gang in hopes of beating Sonic to a pulp." Scourge silently decided not to mention that before Fiona got there he was a wreck from losing his only defense and attack, his speed.

Vaati noticed the hint of uncertainly but said nothing and fingered his hat, "It's ironic." He took of his infamous wish cap and stroked the red gem, smirking slightly when it glowed faintly, "I stole the Wish Cap, from my master when I heard he was giving it to the winner of a sword contest and used its power to turn him into a hat."

"A hat?" Scourge snickered as he imaged a tiny mouse creature as a mouse, "Correct, the very same hat that Link wore to defeat me, and the very same hat that he insists on using."

"Guessing that green isn't a favorite color then."

"However did you know?"

Scourge chose not to answer that and looked up at the ceiling,

"So, what was your team like?"

"Meh, first team was basically everyone on Sonic's team only they were from my world, second team was basically everyone from my group counsel season from when I was still in jail. Fiona used to be on Sonic's team but I won her over."

"Oh, lovely."

Scourge snickered and poked Vaati, "Aww." Scourge teased "Is the mage upset because he doesn't have a girlfriend."

Vaati growled and snapped his fingers, summoning the one eyed bat like creatures from before, "Does the annoying rat wish to be barbecued?" Vaati hissed, Scourge frowned and poked a bat, earning a squeal of pain as it fell to the floor and rolled around for a bit before Vaati squashed it.

"Huh, that what he meant by pawn minions."

"There spies, they are not pawns since I made sure to give them strict obedience to obey me. They also help out in blasting annoying heroes."

"So there a laser shooting camera?"

"…Huh?"

"Never mind."

"…So… Do you have a plan for tomorrow?"

"Does running in, kicking Sonic in the face and beating him to a pulp count?"

"No. You're going to get us all killed and treated like fools."

Scourge huffed and kicked a metal pipe, "Well do you have a better plans?"

"Why yes, I do. Since your posing as Sonic and I'm quiet Shadow wouldn't mind pretending to be Green we could easily whittle there forces until we can easily overtake them."

"What would Wolf and Mask do then? They can't shape-shift or anything." Vaati thought about this before he gave a shrug,

"We could have them hang back, and have them deal with the smarty pants who could tell who we really are." Scourge suggested, Vaati nodded in agreement and dragged the board over, "And if that doesn't work?"

"Brute force and me going Super could work."

"…Super?"

"Explain later. For now, let's work on humiliating that annoying Blue blur and greenie."

Vaati chuckled at the nickname Scourge had given that pest of a hero and started drawing out possible plan out comes, both of them obvious to the fact that Shadow had entered the room and was watching them or that an enemy spy was currently being interrogated.

---

"Breath in… Breathe out… Breathe in… Breath out." She heard a door open, and muffled footsteps enter the lavish room she was being held in, she guessed it was Ta, the person she had landed on during his tantrum. Sheik opened her eyes and watched him, like a silent, meditating statue.

"Having a nice stay?" Ta chirped, he inched an easy chair closer to her position and sat down in the one across it, with the boy called Mask, who had discovered her.

She silently scolded herself for hesitating, she could have easily slipped away until she had figured out who everyone was, she was sure that she had met or perhaps fought the boy before.

"Well?" Sheik glanced at the man wearing the friendly mask, and ignored his prompt, choosing to stand up and hold her hands out, fists facing the ceiling.

"Er.. That's not answering my question." Ta chucked, he studied her and once again gestured for her to sit down smoothly saying, "We're here to talk, not arrest people." He attempted to lighten the mood by joking, "Besides! If everyone here is a prisoner then what are you?"

"An enemy spy who is currently trapped in a hostage situation." Ta winched at how quickly she replied and looked at Mask who was fiddling with his Ocarina.

"Well Princess Zelda," Sheik inwardly flinched at the title but said nothing, letting Ta continue. "We like to treat royalty like people here, not spies."

"Of Course." Sheik briskly said, she glanced at the easy chair and recently sat down, Ta offered her a cup of tea which she took, but didn't drink. She had seen the man called Reptile prepare the tea tray, and she could sense the hidden scars of undercover work. She had witness drugged tea before thanks to Doctor Mario carelessly preparing Princess Peach's tea while chatting with Luigi. And she didn't want to be pranked when she came to.

Ta fidgeted a bit and took a sip of his own drink, glancing at Sheik then back at the drink as if to say "It's not poisoned." Sheik ignored him and settled on Mask, who seemed to be incredibly confused. Sheik frowned slightly when she saw the harden blue eyes, eyes that Link had from being thrown into the hero's role and turned into a wolf but these were different, these were the eyes of a grown man who had seen the worst of mankind and the afterlife.

And judging by those dark badges under his eyes he probably had recurring nightmares from whatever he had done. "Soo…. Lovely weather we're having." Ta said, Sheik gave him a blank stare since there was no weather indoors, Ta laughed and nudged Mask who ignored him.

"Why is everyone ignoring me…" Ta whined, "I'm trying to be a good host here!"

"Maybe there ignoring you since you seem extremely childish and not worthy of the power you posse." Ta flinched from the empty statement and glowered at Sheik who simply looked back, not phased.

"Oh and of course you're talking big!" Ta grumbled, he threw his hands up and the air and increased the glower to a glare, "I bet your just waiting for the chance to sing that awful song again!"

"What… Song?"

Ta snorted, not believing Sheik act of playing dumb even though she was truly confused, "That song that those two annoying girls sang every time they kept getting destroyed!"

"Sorry…?"

Ta ignored her confused apology and slumped in his seat, angrily fuming over unpleasant memories. Sheik wished she remembered that part since it did seem funny, if unfamiliar. Sheik was glad that she had her bandana on to hide her amused smile at how childish the all-powerful Ta was acting.

"Sheik, what is my name?" Sheik slowly looked at Mask who was now examining her closely, meaning that he had seen the brief flickers of confusion or possible doubt. Luckily before she could answer the door was kicked open and the angry wolf called Howler.

"Are you done playing cops and robbers!?" Howler demanded, "How about you stop beating around the bush and start needling for answers!"

Ta sighed and gestured toward Sheik, "Well first I want know what's she or he's doing here before I start poking her."

"You're an idiot."

"Am not!"

Howler rolled his eyes and stormed over to Sheik, prepared to teach his dimwitted Master how to get answers without treating them like royalty, Howler grabbed Sheik by the scarf and was about to order her to give answers when Sheik broke free, kicked him in the face, jumped over the couch and crouched using the surprise as a chance to swiftly pull out five long needles.

Ta looked around, stammering as he tried to figure out what happen, "She- then, jumped over the couch- how?!"

Howler groaned and muttered something about ninjas being jerks while Mask buried his face in his hands.

"At least I have a valid reason for freaking out." Sheik decided when Ta finally found regained his composer maybe he was finally going to drop the act and- "So does this mean that you don't want tea?" Scratch that, he was still trying to figure out what was going on.

Sheik ignored him and focused on Howler, paling slightly when she saw that he had her scarf, her favorite scarf to be exact.

Howler glared at her and glanced down at her scarf, "Aren't you supposed to change back now?"

Sheik chose not to answer that question and stood up slowly, scanning the room for any more attackers, "Well, if the princess isn't going to change back willingly," Ta grinned and waved his hands, indicating that he was about to use a spell, "Then I'll just make it easier for of all us." He grabbed an old looking controller out of the air and pointed it at Sheik.

She tried to duck behind the couch but quickly find that she couldn't move her legs, Ta pressed some buttons and grinned, "No more disguises for you Princess- ACK!" Sheik winched as she bounced off of Ta and landed back behind the couch, Ta sat up and huffed, "Let's try that again- Oh come on!"

Once again Sheik jumped in an arc and bounced off of Ta's head, this happened five times before Ta finally stopped and forced Sheik to sit down, "Why isn't this working!?" Ta whined, "I'm hitting the right button!"

Howler snickered and gave unhelpful advice, "Maybe you didn't press the button right?" Ta thought for a second before he tried his advice, Sheik groaned as she once again jumped in the air and hit Ta in the head.

"Or maybe, you should stop trying to do that." Sheik suggested, she didn't bother to hide the annoyed hiss in her voice since she was annoyed, and convinced that Ta was a moron and possible had brain damage from being hit in the head so many times.

Ta glared at her and gingerly rubbed his head. Sheik was about to resume mediating when she heard a familiar tune, a tune that sounded… Haunted, as if composed by the shadows themselves. She twitched and reached for her harp, wanting to play along but couldn't seem to remember the notes, frustrated she watched Mask, who was playing the song with ease not evening looking at what he was doing.

He played the song again, but at a snail's pace. Sheik bit her lip as the frustration of knowing yet not knowing song snaked into her mind. Where had she heard this before? And when? Zelda never played such a haunting yet soothing melody before, and neither had she.

She was about to ask Mask where he had learned that song when she found herself playing along at normal speed.

Mask nodded encouragingly and continued playing, Sheik obeyed and let her thoughts drift away, focusing solely on playing her beloved harp. The only thing that gave her a feeling of nostalgic and stirred memories of an old adventure.

When they finished she was surprised to see a small gently smile on Mask's stony face or the gently tone he took when he asked her the name of the song they had just played.

"I… Don't know." Mask frowned and looked at Ta, who grumbled and shooed them out of the room, "She can stay in your for the moment." Ta said, he glowered at Howler and summoned a pointed chain, Sheik felt her heartache slightly, and perhaps she had once used chains instead of a bomb.

She barely heard the threat Ta happily gave Howler as Mask ushered her out of the sitting room and down a hallway.

He led her to an oak door that reminded her of a forest, a living forest since two branches curled to form doorknobs once Mask had approached it.

Sheik touched a branch and quietly yelped when the branch touched her back, Mask quietly laughed and lead Sheik inside, who quickly tried to break free of Mask's grasp since the oak tree door slowly grew sharp brambles.

"It's okay, they won't hurt you." Mask said, Sheik ignored his attempt of reassuring and sat down on the floor to quickly study her surroundings.

The room was simple compared to the two sitting rooms she had been in. It looked like her room, only a lot neater since Mask didn't have a roommate, he had a faded oak desk which was covered in papers and a ragged journal, a light green dresser which had a dozen bottles, each containing either a liquid or a living creature. And a giant poster board which was covered in masks and weapons.

Sheik frowned and slowly examined a white mask with red markings, it formed an outline of an eye crying only it had a wide smile, Sheik glanced down at her outfit and froze when she saw the similar markings on her shirt.

"That's the mask of the Sheikah, the Mask of Truth, it's one of their powerful artifacts." Mask explained, "It allowed people to read the gossip stones and read animals minds."

"It… Did?"

"Yes, I stumbled upon it twice in my journey, both times I used it to gain clues for my adventure."

"I see…" Sheik gently stroked the mask, trying to figure out what it was made of, Mask watched her.

Studying her as if she was an experiment exploring a new testing area for the first time, Sheik ignored him and tried to answer the buzzing question that bounced around her head.

Why did she have that symbol? And why did she feel sad from touching the mask? Her questions briefly vanished when Mask cleared his throat.

Sheik faced him, trying to keep her face blank but serious as Mask invited her to sit on a rug. Sheik joined him and studied the ancite scribbles before she quietly heard Mask say something,

"Sheik," She looked up and unwillingly gave him her full attention, "What is my name?"

Sheik didn't bother to let her thoughts go into panic mode and breezily stated, "Mask, your name is Mask."

"No… What is my real name?"

"It's Mask."

Mask studied her sadly and shook his head no, "Sheik, my name is Link." Sheik thoughtfully looked Mask, or Link over once more frowning slightly as she compared the Link she knew with the 'Link' right in front of her.

They could have been the same, wearing the same color only a shade different and the blue eyes of a person thrown into the role of a hero but Mask's eyes had an edge of hardness mixed with a somber glint that never faded from his eyes, Link had a friendly yet stern gaze, and sometimes had the glint of wolfish anger from his times of being a wolf.

Even the hair was different, or at least the color. Link had the dirty blond which seemed more like a brown than blond at times while Mask's was a sunny yellow.

"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" Sheik jumped, not because of being sent back from blurred thoughts but from the almost mournful and regretful whisper Mask had uttered. Sheik uneasily prompted Mask who now seemed… Depressed? Or at the very least emotionally scarred from the words he had spoken.

"What do you mean I've met with a terrible fate?"

"You don't remember, do you?"

"Remember what?"

Mask grimaced and gently placed his hand over hers ignoring the death gripe that Sheik quickly put him in, "You don't remember anything. You don't remember our adventure, or battles in Melee or in Brawl do you?"

"I do too!" Sheik winched when heard her voice angrily echo in the tiny room, Mask ignored her outburst and pressed on, "Do you even remember the name of the song we played?"

"Of course I do!" Sheik winched once more when once again her voice echoed, why was she getting so upset? It was just a simple question, perhaps it was because he was invading the secret she had so desperately hidden.

"Then what's it name? Who taught me that song?" Mask growled, Sheik hesitated leaving an opening for Mask, "Sheik, you taught me that song! You taught me the Nocturne of Shadows so I could go to the Shadow Temple in order to free the sage of Shadows to defeat Gannondorf!"

"I did…?" Sheik winched as a crystal clear image appeared, it showed an older Link listening to her instructions as she taught him Nocturne of Shadows.

She staggered back as she also remembered a vivid image of her bluntly saying to Gannondorf that he made her race noticeable, and pulled them from hiding in the shadows.

If Mask noticed her pained look he didn't bring attention to it he was on a roll, and Sheik couldn't stop him. "Yes! You did, you went undercover for seven years, pretending to be a member of the Shekiah serving Gannondorf, you waited until I had complete freeing the sages before you reveled yourself!"

"Shut up…"

"Something happened didn't it? Something that caused you to stop being Princess-,"

"I said shut up!" Mask paused and raised his shield as Sheik flung seven needles at him, "I'm not Zelda! I'm just a broken fighter!" Sheik jumped up, not caring that she was yelling or that tears were slowly threatening to spill onto her cheeks.

For the moment, she just wanted Mask to shut up. Or at least tell her how he knew her. But for now she was content with ranting.

"And no! I don't remember anything! I don't remember this place you call Melee! I don't remember Brawl or these so called adventures! I have no memory! I have no standards! I'm simply an extra fighter from the realm of nothingness! And- And-!"

Sheik faltered and collapsed, letting her pent up feelings of being character who was important yet not remembering any great deeds she had done create rivers as she cried. She cried even harder when she remembered that Mask was still in the room.

"There, there." Mask soothed, "Perhaps you remember this." She heard a familiar tune played, as if time was slowing down and locking her forever in time with its soothing melody.

By the time the song had finished Sheik had managed to more or less calm down, and wiped away some of the proof that showed her crying.

"Mask, what song was that- Who are you?" In the place of Mask was a man, he looked seven years older than Mask and was wearing his outfit. The man laughed and playfully poked Sheik, not noticing how tense and twitchy she became, "Well from the looks of it you don't remember me either."

Sheik blinked, frowned then grabbed his arm and flung him over her shoulder, "Where's Mask!" Sheik whipped out her stealth bomb and slowly swung it in the air, making a clear point that she wasn't to be messed with.

"Relax Sheik," the man groaned, "It's just me."

Sheik scoffed and flung the bomb, "Sure, and I'm the King of Evil."

The man yelped and rolled away, "It's really me! I was sealed away for seven years so I could wield the Master Sword and defeat Gannondorf!" He pulled out his sword which was the Maser Sword, just like he had said and handed it to Sheik, who flinched at the memory of meeting Mask in an old temple surrounded by three colorful stones.

"Okay… So if you really are Mask."

"Which I am." Sheik ignored him and continued, "Then why did you age up seven years if you already have the Master Sword?"

"Because I learned the Song of Time to go back in time to make certain events happen."

"Oh."

Mask sighed and sat up warily glancing at the clock which read midnight, "It's getting late, we should head to bed."

"But… There's only one bed."

Mask blushed and looked away, "I meant that you should head to bed, I have trouble sleeping."

Sheik frowned and crossed her arms, "You aren't saying that because you really just want to sneak back to your master and report." She leaned forward and gave him the evil eye, or tried to she never did get the point of giving someone the evil eye. "Are you?"

"What? No!"

"Surrreee…"

"I'm telling the truth!"

Sheik gave him a look of disbelief, Mask scowled and threw his hands up in the air, "Fine! I'll head to bed, just not in the same bed." He quickly added. Sheik smirked and made herself comfortable on the floor.

"That means that you can use the bed."

"I prefer the floor." Sheik mumbled, Mask sighed and crawled in the bed grumbling something about her being stubborn. The lights turned off and Sheik winched, she wasn't used to being drowned in complete darkness when it was time for bed.

Usually Samus turned off the lights pretending to go to bed when she was really fiddling with her gun, Sheik remembered how annoyed she would be each night as she tried to ignore her roommate's flashlight but now it seemed so different not to have the annoying pinpoint of light gently moving under the covers.

"Having trouble sleeping?" Sheik jumped but said nothing, Mask chuckled and dropped a pillow on her head. "I know you're not asleep."

Sheik ignored him and focused on closing her aching eyes in order to sleep, "You're worried about someone. Aren't you?"

Sheik stubbornly clamped her mouth shut, she did want to ask Mask to leave Samus alone since she did owe her but she also wanted to contain some information, just because Mask was friendly and seemed slightly traumatized by something didn't excuse the fact that was working for some force of evil.

"Sheik, if I have nightmare could you wake me up?" Mask hesitated and quietly added, "Please." Sheik frowned at the quiet please but decided that was his way of trying to seem humble. Sheik sighed and quietly asked "Why would you have a nightmare?"

"I'm not used to sleeping on any day that's not the fourth…" Mask shuddered and Sheik could hear him uneasily turn away from her, "It just reminds me that I couldn't save everyone."

"…Fine… I'll wake you up, I would have done it anyway."

"…Thanks."

---

Wondering why the Miracle Matter villains treat Drawcia like a minion or why Zero is the leader? Because I had a theory, a Game theory! About most of the Kirby end bosses being related to the Dark Matter group, like Drawcia, Magolor and Dark Nebula, who is probably a official member of Dark Matter.

my reasoning behind this is because each boss had a single eye in their boss form and/or soul form and had negative thoughts toward something or someone, It would also explain how Drawcia came to life despite being around for a long amount of time to the point of being called a 'Forgotten Painting' slightly putting the theory of Drawcia's creator being Kirby's artist friend from Kirby 64, since everything she painted came to life right after she finished painting it.

Plus, it sort of explains why only Marx had left a corpse behind when Kirby first defeats him while every other villain Kirby faces that imposes certain doom to his home plant just explode. Since Dark Matter is supposedly made up of matter, once their form reaches their limit, they explode, leaving nothing behind but colorful stars.

Also, I see Zero as the head of the Dark Matter group, or rather first in command since they do seem to have some intelligent, having Miracle Matter being the 'fake' boss of Kirby 64 While 02 focused on destroying the crystals, Zero came to see why his forces were falling and payed the price by being defeated at Kirby's hands, 02 and Miracle Matter picked up the pieces and continued working.

Writing theories are fun :D (Hopefully this makes sense since I went for a shorter version of the theory _)