Ten o' clock. Again.
Marth groaned as he realized how late he had slept. The party must have been pretty exhausting. Not to mention that they had stayed up until close to midnight. He reluctantly pulled the covers off his bed and began getting ready.
He felt as if he was forgetting something, though, as he was brushing his teeth. Something that had happened just the other night, during the party. He couldn't place his finger on it, but he decided that maybe it wasn't so important if he had forgotten about it. He finished brushing his teeth and went downstairs to have breakfast.
Which reminded him of the incident he had forgotten about, of course. The noises in the kitchen. Somebody was back there who wasn't supposed to be goofing around. He or she had clumsily knocked a pot off a counter and surprised Marth. He decided he'd ask around about it. The first person he asked, of course, was Kirby.
"Hey, Kirby," Marth asked as Kirby came back to his table with a plate bigger than he was. "I'm just curious...I heard some noises in the kitchen last night, where only the cooks are supposed to be, and I was wondering if you were sneaking into something back there." Silence. Then Kirby shook his head--or rather, much of his body. "Okay, just checking," Marth said, although his suspicions about Kirby were still there. He walked over to Roy's table. Roy was drinking yet another cup of coffee.
"You didn't hear anything last night, did you?" Marth asked as he sat down.
"I was out like a light," he answered. "Slept soundly. A little too soundly. I woke up at ten."
"So did I. But I heard some noises in the kitchen after the party was over. I'm positive it wasn't one of the cooks, especially because I saw no one in there."
"It might have been Kirby," Roy suggested, glancing over at Kirby's table. Kirby was currently inhaling everything on his plate and going back for thirds.
"That's what I was thinking," Marth agreed, "but Kirby says he wasn't in there last night."
"Doesn't mean he wasn't lying to get away with it. You say you didn't see anybody in there last night, and he's only eight inches tall. Fits the bill."
An idea came to Marth. "If he really was in there, and he really was eating something, we know he'd take a big chunk out of the pantry. Let me go ask Peach if any food was missing."
Marth stood up and walked over to Peach's table. She was sitting with the two other ladies, Zelda and Samus. "Hey, Peach," he greeted. "I heard noises in the kitchen after the party last night, so I was curious if somebody was getting into the food. Was any food missing this morning?"
"No. It wouldn't surprise me, though, if somebody decided they wanted an extra muffin."
Now Marth was even more curious. The person who had been back there hadn't been there for food. What was that person doing, then? Perhaps it didn't matter a whole lot if nothing bad happened from it. He shrugged, got himself a glass of water, and sat down at Roy's table again.
"What's the verdict?" Roy asked.
"Peach says no food was missing," he responded. "Which begs to ask the question, why was the person back there?"
Roy shrugged. "I guess we'll find out."
--
There wasn't a whole lot to do for the rest of the day. Battles were off for all fighters still in the tournament, so they were left to improvise. Marth decided to play a rather interesting board game called Monopoly: Super Smash Bros. Edition, where several players could attempt to buy various places in the dimensions the fighters came from. Marth got Roy, Fox, and Samus to play it with him. Master Hand had developed this strange version of Monopoly and even shaped the little metal pieces like the twenty-four fighters in the academy. Marth grabbed the piece in the likeness of him, and the other players did the same as him.
Fox went first and bought Rogueport from Mario's dimension for 80 Smash Coins. Marth went next and bought Hyrule Castle for 110. Roy went straight to jail when he got a rotten Community Chest card, and Samus had to pay up to Marth when she landed on Hyrule Castle.
The Smash Bros. version of Monopoly was a very fun game because many jokes could be told at every turn.
"What kind of a name is 'Venom'?" Roy asked with distaste when he landed on the planet from the Lylat System.
"Don't ask me, I didn't name it," Fox replied.
And when Samus bought Altea from Marth's dimension, he groaned and said, "You just enslaved my people again."
Monopoly was an endless game. Samus was in the lead, having taken over Altea, the Kongo Jungle, monopolized Corneria, Venom (which Roy had passed), and Katina, Fourside, and even monopolized planets from her own dimension: Zebes, Tallon IV, and SR388. Roy had gone to jail five times in thirteen turns and was, of course, in last place. It was a game that never ended until somebody got tired.
A loud shout of anger came from downstairs. The voice was unmistakably Falco's, so Fox was the first to get up and head for the stairs. Marth and the others decided to follow him.
"Did he just stub his toe, or what?" Roy asked.
"I don't think he stubbed his toe," Fox muttered. "He takes those in stride and pretends like nothing happened. Something's really bothering him."
The four of them hustled down the stairs. Fox walked into Falco's room and motioned for them to stay behind. "What's wrong?" Fox's voice asked.
"My Blaster is gone!" Falco's voice yelled. "Someone took it!"
"You sure you didn't misplace it?" Roy asked from outside the door. Marth elbowed him in the ribs.
"Oh, great. A search party," Falco muttered sarcastically. Marth and the others walked into the room. "No, I didn't misplace it!" Falco yelled at them. "All the time, it's right here, on this shelf, laid out as plainly and as neatly as can be! When I use it in a match, I return it right here!"
"You didn't take it upstairs or anything?" Roy asked sheepishly.
"Why would I!?!" Falco snapped. "It stays in my room except for matches! Some--one--took--it!!"
"Who might have taken it?" Samus asked calmly.
"Anyone! Ness might have wanted to play with it! Kirby may have thought it looked like candy! Marth may have hid it to avoid our match!"
"I was looking forward to that," Marth responded.
"Whatever," Falco mumbled, his energy spent. "But somebody took it, and when I found out who did, I am going to--"
"Yes," Fox interrupted hastily. "Listen, I'll help look for it. Are you guys gonna help?" he asked, turning around and looking at Marth, Roy, and Samus. They all nodded. "I'm sure we're gonna find it," Fox continued. "At any rate, you still have your Fire Cloak and Reflector."
"You wanna bet?" Falco snapped angrily. "They go on the shelf with my Blaster. They're not exactly there anymore, are they?"
They didn't know what to say to that. After a long pause, Fox turned around to Marth, Roy, and Samus and said, "Let's start looking. Let's go around and ask some people, check in some places, and find his stuff."
--
"Hey, Kirby," Marth said, knocking on his door and entering before a reply came, "I came to ask another question. Did you hear Falco's angry shout downstairs?" Kirby nodded. "He's lost his weapons. Somebody took them. Do you know where they might be?"
A small frown came on Kirby's face. "I'm not a criminal," he said in his high-pitched voice. "I didn't steal any weapons or any food."
"I didn't say that you did," Marth said hastily, "but I was just wondering if you might know who might have taken them. Was anybody afraid of him or something?"
Kirby shrugged. "Not that I know of."
As Marth thanked him and walked out of his room, he started to wonder...were the noises in the kitchen and the theft of Falco's weapons linked? Was the person in the kitchen the one responsible for stealing Falco's items? He decided that he'd better talk to the others about it. He found Roy asking Mewtwo about the missing weapons in the lobby.
"Hey, Roy," Marth said. "I've just thought of something. Wait near the tables over there, where we played our Monopoly game, and I'll go get Fox and Samus."
When all four of them were assembled, Marth sat down in one of the chairs and looked at them all. "First of all, what have you found so far?" he asked. "We'll start with you, Fox."
"I questioned Mario, Luigi, Zelda, and attempted to get an answer out of Pikachu," Fox answered. "I was on my way to Bowser when you found me. They all seem to be genuinely puzzled about this."
"And you, Samus?"
"I asked the Ice Climbers, Ganondorf, and Peach. They don't seem to know anything about it, either."
"And Roy?"
"Young Link, Mewtwo, and Donkey Kong. Innocent like the rest."
"I only questioned one person," Marth admitted. "Kirby. But it was Kirby who made me realize something. You know the noises in the kitchen after the party I was talking about?"
"What noises?" Fox asked. Marth had forgotten that only he, Roy, Samus, Peach, and Zelda, and whoever was sneaking around knew about it.
"Well, I think whoever was back there stole Falco's items," Marth continued. "Our culprit sure was elusive. Didn't want to be caught."
"And maybe those items are in the kitchen," Fox wondered aloud. "Well, let's go look there. It would sure make Falco happy to have his Blaster back."
The foursome went to the kitchen and started looking under tables, in cupboards, behind curtains, and everywhere possible. They found nothing. Marth suggested that since the culprit was in the cooks' room, they should search in there. Marth was also on the lookout for hiding spots he could have missed.
"I'm starting to think maybe his weapons just got up and walked away," Roy groaned, "because they're not here."
"There are still plenty of places we haven't checked yet," Samus reassured him. "And we haven't questioned everybody. We will find it."
"On the bright side," Fox said, "I've found a couple of old Smash Coins hidden under the refrigerator. Now I'm two coins richer."
"And I found a pencil," Roy remarked dryly, holding up a cobweb-covered pencil. "Now I'm one writing-device richer."
"We'll keep looking tomorrow," Marth said. "We may not find it today, but we'll find it eventually, just like Samus said."
"Hey, what are you guys doing back here?" Zelda's voice asked.
Marth could tell she was quite surprised to see four people poking around in every crevice and corner of the kitchen. He stood up, stretched his back, and sighed. "You know how Falco lost his items?" She nodded. "I put two-and-two together and decided that whoever was sneaking around back here before must have stolen his stuff. We've been looking around but finding nothing."
"Except two coins and a pencil," Roy corrected.
"Well, we're about to make dinner," Zelda said as Peach came in. "I suppose you can come back and check later. Good luck finding Falco's things."
--
Dinner felt awkward. Falco was glaring at every individual in the room, apparently trying to use a natural Guilt-O-Sensor to determine who was the criminal. Eventually, Fox's calm reassurances started to become annoyed retorts. There was an uncomfortable silence at their table--Fox, Marth, Roy, and Samus were all sitting at Falco's table. Marth was trying to determine who could have taken his items, but drew a blank each time he tried to come up with a conclusion. He was still pondering the mysterious situation as he eventually went to his room to turn in for the night.
They had found nothing more in the cooks' room. This was frustrating the group, but they were determined not to give up. Marth wouldn't be able to concentrate on it much the next day because of the second round of the Ultimate Tournament, but he was going to find those items, no matter what.