The man didn't seem to notice that Ike was awake, so he had time to leap out of bed, stumble over a chair, and quickly scramble to his feet. At this point, the man had his gun trained on him.

Somewhere behind me is my sword, Ike thought, feeling the shelf behind him. I don't dare turn around and look for it, though.

"Who are you?" Ike demanded, stalling for time. The man didn't answer.

It was too dark to see who it was. He couldn't tell if this was a bad prank from one of the other members or if some stranger had honestly sneaked into his room and attempted to shoot him. Then again, if his goal was to shoot him, he'd have done it by now. So what did he want?

"This isn't a game," Ike said firmly. "Turn on the light. Let me see your face."

Instead, the man stepped forward, raising his right hand, which was clenched around something. It looked like one of those medical tools down at the Recovery Room. A tube filled with liquid that had a long, sharp needle at the end of it. According to Zelda, those things were typically used to drug people or inject them with strange things. Ike didn't want to know what would happen to him if he got injected.

Ike sidestepped the tool as it came down and gave the man a backfist to the face. Now facing the shelf, he could see Ettard. As he reached for it, the man stepped in the way and stabbed at him again. Ike jumped back at the last second. He felt the needle only just puncture his skin, but hopefully not deep enough to inject.

Angry, Ike grabbed the chair he had stumbled over and swung it at the man's head. He blocked it using both his gun and his needle, then kicked Ike in the chest. More close-combat-trained fighters, Ike grumbled inwardly. The moment I get back home, I'm going to demand more self-defense training sessions.

The man seized on Ike's vulnerability and dove for a third strike. He kicked the man in the gut with both feet, sending him hurtling to the bed. Wasting no time, Ike rushed to the shelf, grabbed Ettard, and faced the man once more. Now that he had a huge sword in his hands, the man seemed to think twice about diving in to stab him. Ike swung the flat side of the blade against his head. He didn't want to kill him-he could use the information this man had. Besides, the law could deal with him...wherever the law was. The man was too slow to dodge it and was knocked onto the floor. Readjusting his grip on Ettard, Ike jumped over him, sat down, pressed the hilt against the man's throat, grabbed the other end with his free hand, and squeezed, choking the life out of him. The man struggled to stab him with the needle-Ike kicked it out of his hand.

"Tell me who you are!" growled Ike. The man showed no sign of giving in, so he continued his choking. After a few more suspenseful seconds, the man went limp. Ike cautiously withdrew the hilt from around his neck. He didn't know if he killed him or not. Killing him wasn't his intention.

Master Hand needs to know about this, he decided. He grabbed the needle and, knowing he didn't have a whole lot of time before the man woke up, ran for the door and opened it.

As soon as he opened it, he realized his danger and closed it to a mere crack. All around the hallway-going up the stairs, sneaking into rooms, lurking about-were more strangers. Since the hallway was lit, he could catch a glimpse of what they looked like. Men and women alike were dressed all in black, wearing black jumpsuits, black boots, and black leather gloves. They made no effort to disguise who they were, Ike noted. And they were certainly not academy members.

What is going on here? he wondered.

When he decided it was safe, he stepped out of his room and made his way down the hall. He wasn't sure where he was going, or if it was even a smart idea, but he had to get to the root of the problem and put a stop to it.

The door on his right opened, and another garbed man stepped out. Seizing on his surprise, Ike elbowed him in the face, hit him in the gut with the hilt of his sword, and finished it with a fist to the back of the neck. He kicked the man back into the room he came from and shut the door. He would check on the man's poor victim later.

He cautiously tiptoed down the stairs and peered around the corner. Not as many people were in the lobby-maybe two or three. As they weren't doing anything important-looking and had somewhat haughty expressions on their faces, he guessed they were people of higher rank. Perhaps he could wrangle a few answers out of them...

There were two men and a woman. The first man looked a bit older and had graying hair. The second man was fairly young, had brown hair, and looked too smug with his position for his age. The woman looked to be in her mid-to-late twenties and had long red hair kept in a ponytail. All were garbed in the usual black, but had badges on the upper-left part of their chests.

Taking on all three would be a suicidal idea, so Ike concluded that he would have to distract some of them somehow. There was nothing handy that he could use to lure them somewhere else without giving away his own position, though. Was there? He looked at the needle in his hand. Yes, it might work. One wrong move, though, and he was dead. When he thought nobody was looking, he threw the tool against the wall of the stairway in front of him.

"What was that?" the younger male said.

"We won't know until we check," the elder replied. "Could be one of ours. Could be one of theirs. Could be nothing at all. Ignoring things like this often proves fatal."

"I'll go check it out," the redheaded female told them. He could hear her walking towards his spot, although the sound was faint. Evidently, their boots were created to be rather silent. Ike readied his sword.

As soon as she came around the corner, Ike clapped a hand over her mouth and dragged her behind the wall with him. Yes, the other two had doubtlessly seen it, but he could use her as a hostage. Doing so went against his nature, but he could see it as his only way to survive at the moment.

"I want you to answer some questions for me," Ike whispered into her ear. He took her gun and placed it on the floor. Removing his hand from her mouth and replacing it around her arms to restrain her, he pressed Ettard against her throat. "For starters, what are you guys doing in here? What do you want with us?"

"You honestly think I'm going to answer?" she replied sarcastically. "You're as good as beaten at this point, anyway. Disturbing a room with three Admins in it...do you want to make things worse for you and your friends?"

Before Ike could answer, the voice of the elder male called to him. "Whoever you are, you had better come out from behind that wall with our Admin. Disobedience will not go unpunished, you know."

Pressing Ettard even more firmly against her throat, Ike stepped out and held her in front of him. "Listen, I don't know who you guys are," he began, "but I need to know why you and your guys are sneaking around a place that doesn't belong to you and threatening the wellbeing of the members here. It goes against my nature, but if you force me to, I'll execute the girl here if you don't cooperate."

The younger male laughed. "You're ordering us around? How stupid are you?"

Before Ike could respond, the female Admin kicked him in between his legs, removed his sword from around her neck, and threw him to the ground. The other two Admins were now on the ceiling from his perspective.

"Well, if he's going to walk straight into our hands," she said, "I won't compain. He makes this interesting, anyway."

The two other Admins walked towards him. The female Admin put a foot on his chest and another on his sword hand. The younger male bent down, grabbed him by the hair, and examined him.

"Having a huge sword doesn't make you invincible, buddy," he mocked. "The members of our organization, Horizon, are promoted to Admins based on their abilities in certain areas. Hand-to-hand combat, marksmanship, research...it doesn't matter. Picking a fight with one is suicidal, and you picked a fight with three. Congratulations; you've won the Idiot of the Year Award." His expression became more serious. "Well, I guess it'd be smart to drug him and put him with the others. Tina? Fred?"

The redheaded female, who was probably Tina, heaved him onto his feet as the elder, probably Fred, pulled out another needle. Tina reached for his sword to take it away; however, Ike had already made up his mind. He swung Ettard horizontally, giving Fred a minor cut across his belly but cutting deep across the younger Admin's chest. With a look of surprise and a spray of blood, he fell backwards. Before Tina could react, he elbowed her hard in the face, knocking her off of him. Fred was still up and reaching for his gun. Ike stabbed him through the shoulder, then turned and smacked Tina across the head with the flat part of his sword. He darted as fast as he could from the room, heading for the Meeting Room. Behind him, he heard Tina shout, "Kreta! Are you alright?"

So Too-Smug-For-My-Britches is named Kreta, Ike thought. I don't think Master Hand will be there, but the Meeting Room is the best thing I have to go on right now. I wonder just how much damage has been done so far?

A laser burned a hole through the chair he just ran past. Thinking the Admins were firing on him, he looked back. Instead, he found some of the grunts shooting at him. He had been spotted.

Acting on an impulse, he threw his head back and screamed. He didn't know how many people were drugged and captured, but he wanted to wake up those who weren't. He couldn't free the academy on his own.

The Meeting Room was dark, as before. He jumped over the ledge separating the seating area from Master Hand's area and looked around. "Master Hand!" he shouted. There was no response. Dang it, this was useless.

Knowing some grunts were tailing him, he turned back to the doorway. As soon as he reached it, the first woman came through. He slashed Ettard forward, incapacitating her. He slashed again and cut the next man who came through. Aware that there was a third pursuer, he raised his sword and brought it down where he thought the next man would come around. He was successful and cut the man from his right shoulder to his chest.

Back in the lobby, he heard more shouts and screams. His "call" a moment ago had woken up more fighters. He could already hear more slashing, shooting, and striking going on both upstairs and downstairs. The Admins were gone, presumably for medical care. A grunt near the bottom staircase raised her gun to fire at Ike, but before she could fire, she was zapped with electricity and crumpled. Pikachu landed lightly in front of her.

"Thanks, Pikachu!" Ike shouted. "Are the others okay?"

The mouse Pokemon gave him a somewhat sorrowful expression. Ike got the message.

"That's too bad, but we can't quit!" he called. "No matter the odds, we will win! Fight with everything you've got!"

Pikachu's red cheeks crackled with electricity itching to be released. He spotted an opponent up the next staircase and darted after it. Concluding that looking for Master Hand at this point was futile, he followed Pikachu upstairs to help.

On the next floor, Meta Knight and Bowser were battling a handful of grunts. Bowser was protected by his shell and tough hide, and Meta Knight was too quick to hit. Ike disarmed two nearby grunts who didn't notice him as Meta Knight, Pikachu, and Bowser all one by one felled the rest.

"Well, if it's not Blue Hair Number 2!" Bowser growled, obviously riled up. "Who are these weirdos, anyway? I didn't invite them!"

"Neither did I," Ike replied. "I'm wondering how they even got here. We can figure the details out later, though. Let's get them out of here for now!"

As Bowser and Meta Knight ventured downstairs to face new opponents, Ike and Pikachu began searching the rooms for stragglers. Ike would open the door, and Pikachu would bolt in. For the first five rooms, they found nobody. On the sixth, two men were busy loading Luigi onto a floating stretcher. Pikachu paralyzed them while Ike took them out.

"Luigi, are you okay?" he yelled, leaning over him. The man in green didn't respond. "Hey, Luigi, wake up!" He must be drugged. It'll be useless trying to wake him up. He picked up Luigi, slung him over his shoulders, and continued searching the rooms. Fortunately, the remaining rooms were empty.

Back downstairs, an all-out war had broken out. Meta Knight, Pit, Lucario, Snake, R.O.B., and Sonic were all fighting off another wave of grunts (Will they never end? Ike thought). Bowser, Mario, and the younger Link were all either unconscious or too wounded to fight. Although it was clear the enemy didn't want to kill any of them, seriously injuring them didn't seem to be off-limits. Pikachu dashed to a grunt about to inject Pit, whose back was turned, and electrocuted him. Ike joined the fray, taking out one man before he noticed anything and injuring another woman as she shot at him. He hissed as the laser bit through his shoulder.

After awhile, it became apparent that the lasers also had paralyzing qualities. He had trouble moving his upper left arm and shoulder, which didn't hamper his ability to fight much, but still concerned him. Besides, they were still outnumbered, and Luigi was getting heavy on his back. After they had a brief respite from enemies, he set Luigi down gently behind a chair to shield him from danger. Rubbing his semi-paralyzed shoulder, he continued the fight.

To his left, he noticed a man and woman carting Peach out on a floating stretcher. As the heroes all turned one by one to look, the grunts pulled out their paralyzing guns and fired on them. Meta Knight flashed forward, too fast to keep track of, and slashed at them. Sonic and Pit ran to the academy entrance to deal with more enemies. Pit readied his bow and shot three arrows faster than should be normal, knocking three grunts off their feet. Ike, meanwhile, ran to the unconscious Peach's side, lifted her off the stretcher, and looked for a safe place to put her. He didn't think there would be enough room by Luigi. Snake gave him cover as he found a spot underneath a table and set her there.

Lasers tore through the air behind him, so many that he wondered if there was a whole platoon of grunts that had just arrived. He turned to see what the commotion was and was shocked to find that there were only about two grunts left, but four robots, which were the source of the lasers. He was unable to stop two from tearing into his right thigh and left side. He crumpled to the floor. He didn't see what happened to the others, but he hoped they had been luckier than him. The lasers continued to fire over him. One of the grunts ran forward, apparently unafraid of being shot himself. Sure enough, the robots adjusted their aims to avoid him.

Although the lasers hurt, Ike found that they weren't incapacitatingly so. He suspected that their main goal was to paralyze enemies and cause them some pain rather than actually killing them. If that's the case, I should be fine physically.

When the grunt came in range, Ike forced himself up. The grunt stood where he was and held his gun in front of him. Apparently, he misjudged the distance between them, as Ike swung his sword quickly, cut his hand, and disarmed the man. He pressed his attack and cut him across the chest. As soon as the man fell down, he dropped to his belly himself to avoid being shot and crawled to the stairway. He saw Snake and Pit hiding behind chairs for cover. Without any projectiles to fire, Ike was useless behind a chair. He needed to recover either upstairs or downstairs. As the downstairs had more room, he decided he would go there. A laser hit the ground next to his hand, and he crawled quicker.

When he reached the stairway, he stood back up with some effort and lumbered down. He lost his balance halfway down and tumbled the rest of the way. Great, now more of me hurts. That's just what I need.

The only person in the wide room was a blonde-haired woman who looked like she was watching for any academy members to show up. When Ike arrived, she raised her gun and fired at him. Putting his faith in his sword, Ike held Ettard in front of him and blocked the laser. Just as he suspected, the laser was strong enough to easily sear through flesh and clothes, but still too weak to penetrate metal. He blocked two more in this manner before reaching her and cutting her down.

He put the point of his sword on the ground and leaned on it, panting. He needed healing, time to cure his injuries and paralysis. And by the looks of things, they were fighting a losing battle. We can't lose here, Ike thought desperately. Not two days after the Super Smash Bros. starts back up. How can this be happening?

Footsteps came down the stairs. Ike slowly turned and faced them. Five or six grunts all piled down, guns trained on him. Although he didn't want to admit it, there was no way he could defeat them. He was weakened, outnumbered, and morale was low.

"This is the guy who's been the proverbial thorns in our butts this lovely evening?" one of the male grunts said lazily. "The one who shouted his head off and woke up half the place? The one who turned our quiet operation into a nightmare?"

"The very one," a female sighed. It surprised Ike, the sheer number of females in Horizon. They rivaled the number of men. Ike was used to armies full of men, and it still caused him to twinge inwardly to have to hurt a woman. Still, he had done it to a few pegasus knights in the past, and he knew he had to do it to stay alive now.

"You know, after all this," the same male said, "I say we just shoot him and be done with it. It would be proper punishment after all he's done for us."

"Hey, you know that's against our orders," the female admonished. "We'd get in serious trouble for that."

"We could just say he was killed by accident in the skirmish," he suggested. "Admit it, don't you find it tempting? He's the reason some of us have even died. I'm pretty ticked at that, so I say screw our orders."

With that, the man adjusted a switch on his gun and aimed it at Ike's head. He's not kidding, either, Ike thought. And my body won't move. Is this really the end?

The look in the man's eye told him he was serious. He grinned slightly as he pulled on the trigger.

"I believe my orders were explicit," said Pane.

He was there. Pane. Before the man could even fire, Pane had put a hand on the grunt's gun and lowered it. Even Ike, who had been facing the stairway, hadn't seem him enter. It was as if he had blinked and suddenly he was there.

"Your...orders?" Ike repeated slowly. "Pane? You're the leader of Horizon?"

"I see somebody spilled information early, as well," he added. Despite the situation, he seemed as polite and happy as ever. "Yep, that's me. I'll get back to you in a second." He turned his head slightly to the grunt who had just tried to kill Ike. "As I was saying...my orders were pretty clear, as I recall. Ms. Renee, at least, seems to remember. Were you dozing off during the briefing, perhaps?"

"No, sir!" the grunt replied, clearly scared.

"Ah, well. We shall have a talk when this is all over."

"What do you want?" Ike asked, still leaning heavily on his sword.

"What do I want? Well, currently, I have my sights set on taking this building. I'll set another goal after that."

"Why?" demanded Ike. "What could you possibly want? What would you gain from it?"

Pane shrugged and looked thoughtful. "More power. More knowledge. More technology. Basically, just more."

"I don't get it. Back in Samus's dimension, when you offered me that job, you seemed so..."

"Trusting?" Pane finished, raising an eyebrow.

"That's it," Ike admitted. "That's it exactly. How did you...?"

Pane grinned slightly and closed his eyes. "I used a deceptive tactic there. It's called The Deceiver's Scent. Consider it a special kind of cologne. It's illegal except for a few select government groups...and for organizations like mine who can acquire it. Those who smell it instantly trust the one who wears it. The scent somehow messes with their mind and makes them more trusting of even ridiculous offers. I wasn't 100% sure I could persuade you on my own, so I tried it out. It worked, too."

Ike remembered back to the dinner at Samus's dimension. He remembered how he felt like how he could trust Pane without having a reason why. The Deceiver's Scent had taken effect.

"Furthermore," Pane continued, "I had to choose someone hopelessly ignorant of modern technology. Ms. Aran probably would have picked up on the scent for what it was instantly."

"Ms. Aran?"

"That would be the last name of Samus."

Oh, yeah.

"You also seemed rather polite and easily persuadable, so when you left to do your thing, I took the opportunity. All this to get here." He stared at Ike for a moment. "You really have been a bother. You've either directly or indirectly led to some of my agents' deaths; in fact, the majority of the fallen died by your blade. Still, I'm not going to kill you. Everything can just glaze over if you come quietly. I can forgive you, but my men may not be able to so easily. Turning yourself in really would be the best choice."

"You really think I'm just going to give up?" Ike spat. His limbs trembled-the paralysis had worsened a bit. "While I can still stand, I won't let you or any of your grunts run this place."

"Coming quietly and giving up are not the same thing," Pane responded. "Believe me, I have no qualms about resorting to violence to get you to submit. After all I've seen and heard of you, coupled with your weakened state, it wouldn't be hard for me to beat you."

"I'll repeat myself," Ike said forcefully. "While I still stand-"

"While you still stand?" Pane repeated.

Ike didn't even see it happen. All he knew was that pain exploded in his right leg, and he fell to the ground. Pane stood behind him.

"Oh, look," Pane said mock-surprisingly. "You're not standing anymore."

"How do you move so fast?" Ike wondered aloud. "What did you do?"

"Trade secret, and not one that I'll share with anybody anytime soon. As for that last part, I hit a nerve in your leg. Nearly pushed it to the other side of your leg, I guess you could say. So, since you won't be able to stand for quite awhile, are you going to make the wise decision and come quietly?"

"No," Ike said simply.

"Wow, you're very troublesome," remarked Pane. "I didn't think you'd put up this much of a fight. Not much you can do, though."

He pulled something out of his pocket. It looked like a bomb of some sort. Ike's eyes widened as he saw it.

"Don't worry, this isn't meant to hurt you," Pane assured him. "It'll knock you out and make you come quietly. You've impressed me so far. I guess I've developed some sort of respect for you." Lighting it, he dropped it by Ike and walked back to the group of Horizon agents. "If you had just taken that job I offered you, this wouldn't be happening to you," he concluded.

The bomb exploded, sending lights flashing rapidly before Ike's eyes. He instantly felt lightheaded. A strange noise sounded behind him. Struggling to stay conscious, he looked backwards.

The Teleporter was glowing brighter and brighter. The bomb must have done something to the Teleporter, and Ike didn't like it. He had been told that it utilized a great deal of the Linking Dimension's dimensional energy and harnessed it to travel between worlds.

And all that energy was about to come bursting out.

The light exploded in a giant hurricane from the Teleporter, wrapping the entire academy in light. It even sounded like a hurricane, roaring and drowning out everything else. Ike felt his molecules begin to leave the world, but this time painfully. He screamed as the light enveloped him and sealed his fate.