Entry Nine
Power Within
Unfortunately, when wake up call happened, I felt as if I had only been asleep for a few minutes. Even Samus's entry hadn't budged me, and for once in my life, my deep need for sleep had chased away the nightmares. The loud, booming voice of Master Hand rang down the halls as he told us to get up, bathe, get dressed, and report into the ballroom in an hour. Dragging myself out of bed, I wandered over to my closet out of instinct, but paused for a moment.
"If they want us to bathe, is there supplies for bathing?" I asked Samus, who was nearly out the door.
"Like soap? Check the bottom of the closet. There should be a bag with soap, shampoo, and that sort of stuff. Don't forget a towel," and before I could ask anymore, she left. I kneeled down and dug around until I found said bag next to a handful of towels. Taking the supplies I needed and my dress, I caught up with Samus in the hall. Surprisingly, she too, was wearing a silk nightgown. I didn't expect something like that from a seemingly calloused bounty hunter.
"Thanks for all of your help so far," I chimed as I followed the rest of the girls into the large shower room.
"Of course," Samus said.
We wandered down the corridor seemingly on the way to where Midna's room was located, but veered right instead of left. What I was met with took me by surprise. There were faucets lined up in rows separated by stall doors that were definitely not tall enough. Thinking back on it, expecting separate private rooms for each of us to bathe in was impractical. In reality, I wasn't sure how it was going to be possible for all of us, but now I see how, and it's not appealing. I stopped dead in my tracks in the entryway next to a few other apprehensive girls.
Samus kept waking, saying, "Oh, come on now you Sissies. Haven't seen a sports shower before? Well I do suppose most of you are princesses. Get used to it because there is no other way."
Midna nearly bumped into us from behind, donning her true form. "Whoah, what? What's the hold up? Wait, what?"
"Come on guys! It'll be fun! Just don't think too hard about it." A woman with long, green hair stepped into the shower and they both started preparing themselves.
The younger, smaller girls flocked to a separate row of showers, leaving the rest of us to follow Samus.
Great.
I wandered into the stall across from Samus, Midna on my right and a blue-haired woman on my left. The stalls were tall enough so that mostly just our heads were visible, yet I still felt violated. Slamming the door behind me, I stripped off my nightgown and tried to ignore everyone, yet of course, some of them just had to make conversation.
The green-haired one spoke, "So ladies, at least in our sector of the showers, I want to know each and every one of your names before I leave. Mine's Palutena, Goddess of Light."
I was startled. This was not the Goddess of Light from my land. In fact, I knew exactly who that was, yet I decided to let this play out and observe.
I fidgeted with the shower knob until I was blasted with cold. Unfortunately it took longer than I would have preferred to warm up.
Daisy started immediately, "Hi! My name is Princess Daisy."
"And I'm Princess Peach."
"And I am Princess Rosalina," The other blonde next to Daisy voiced.
"I suppose I am a Princess too. Call me Lucina," the blue-haired one announced.
"Me as well. Twilight Princess. My name is Midna."
Samus laughed, "Well I most certainly am not. Intergalactic bounty hunter, Samus Aran."
"Robin."
"Lyndis."
"Call me Wii Fit Trainer."
"Phosphora, if you must know."
"That leaves you for this side of the washroom, honey. What's your name?" Palutena asked me.
Swallowing, I replied, "Princess Zelda, reincarnated Goddess of Light."
"Wait. Excuse me?" Palutena asked me.
I simply stood tall, letting the water rush through my hair and down my back, locking eyes with her. "We are from different worlds, no?"
She still narrowed her gaze as if this were some sort of joke.
"You can call me Hylia if you wish. I went by that name in past lives according to legend."
"Legend means nothing compared to reality, you know," she huffed, but then smiled. "Whatever you say, Deary. Just know a goddess has a few more perks than a princess."
"And if one is both?"
"Well we will have to see, won't we?" Palutena cheered.
I wasn't sure what to make of all of this, but I was still trying to figure out how to properly work the showers, so I cut myself some slack.
Soon enough, we were all on our way to the ballroom after returning to our dorms to drop off the washroom supplies. I had hopped back into my dress from the day before, equipping the same jewels and all, so the only thing I returned to it's rightful place was my soaps and towel. My hand hovered over my sword, yet there was something telling me to leave it be, a near whisper in my ear. The Triforce glowed on the back of my right hand and my fingertips glowed. I clearly didn't know how to use a blade as well half of the contestants downstairs.
Once you accept your challenge, even more of the goddess's power will be discovered inside.
From the inside.
I left the blade behind, grabbed the pamphlet of of the nightstand, and scampered to catch up with the other women.
Following the herd through the ballroom, we stepped into a large dining hall opposite of the seating area I had been tricked into entering last night, and a scrumptious scent wafted past my nose. I had never been so excited for breakfast before in my life. Thankfully, I was able to find Link rather quickly this time and Midna soon joined us as well. The hall was different than I had expected, yet it made sense once I realized the amount of people that needed to fit inside. There were multiple dining tables lined with expensive, red-velvet chairs.
I felt something tug on my dress and turned to see one of the little orange servants motioning for us to follow him to some open seats.
"Those things are absolutely adorable," Midna uttered, as it waddled away. "What are they?"
Link simply shrugged, but I immediately whipped out the booklet and flipped through until I found the information under the penguin-like being know as King Dedede.
"Waddle Dees?" I said. "They are called Waddle Dees."
"Hm. Good idea to carry that around with you," Midna voiced.
"May I sit here?"
I recognized the soft-echoey voice as Princess Rosalina from the showers. I nodded and smiled as she pulled out the chair across from me. As per usual, Link sat on my right and Midna on his right so he could speak to both of us.
"Rosalina, correct?" I asked.
She nodded. "And you are Princess Zelda, or uh, Goddess Hylia?"
Link looked at me sideways, but ignoring him, I answered, "Just Zelda."
She smiled, and all of the sudden, there was a tiny 'squee' as a star-shaped creature peeked onto the table from her lap.
"Oh! And this is Luma, or one of them. The rest are still asleep in my room," Rosalina explained.
The little golden star floated up to her eye level and hugged her face, nestling into the hair that covered one of her eyes. My heart melted a little as he 'purred.'
She giggled, placing him back into her lap. "Momma fed you already this morning. Now it's my turn."
"Princess Zelda!" Young Link pulled himself onto the other chair next to me. "You're okay!" He beamed, short legs swinging back and forth over the edge of his seat.
"Yes, sir, I am still here," I cheered. His presence was a good sort of distracting, as it embodied a legendary power in the form of a small child. I trusted my safety with him, for there was something in his eyes that matched the Hero's Shade's. Yes, they were the same person, but Young Link was not quite as… aged… as the Hero's Shade. I had an urge to tell him about his personal legacy and legend passed through the ages, yet with the tragedy included, I decided to let him enjoy himself while he still can.
Once everyone was seated, the Waddle Dees began to bring out our food. I began to study the individuals I didn't know yet. A large, burly man in a red bandana sat on the other side of Young Link, saying nothing, yet devouring his food without mercy. Ryu was his name, and I decided not to introduce myself.
Onto the table crawled a little, pink puffball.
"Hi!" he cheered, waving at me, and in the few seconds it took me to look up his name, which was Kirby, I giggled a bit when he was already peeking over the table, asking for more. Somehow, Ryu was not the fastest eater here.
As I turned to chat with Link, his attention was already stolen by Palutena who was seated across from him, next to Rosalina.
"And who is this handsome thing?" she cooed, twisting her green hair. Midna and I frowned simultaneously and Link turned red as he muttered his name. Rosalina just quietly observed, a small smirk on her lips. "Link huh? Well hello there. I'm Lady Palutena, true Goddess of Light." She winked.
I gritted my teeth.
"Lady Palutena!" A brunette boy called with angelic wings arched on his back. "I found you!" He set his plate next to hers and sat, beaming.
"Pit! Hey my baby. Did you sleep well?" she answered.
He nodded, digging into his plate.
Finally, our rag-tag group was able to settle in and focus on what was to happen for the day once introductions were aside. None of us really knew what to expect, so we hastily ate and gathered into the ballroom once more. The hands waited for us there, hovering next to a large pair of doors, opposite of the entrance.
Crazy Hand yelled, "Mornin' all! This is where things get interesting. I hope you're warmed up."
Master Hand explained, "Through these doors is where we will allow you to interdimensionallly travel to preset destinations we have set aside for matches and training. Today, we will start with a simple, flat lands for the groups we are dividing you into. When I call your name step forward and be apart of Group A: Samus Aran, Little Mac, Yoshi, Ice Climbers, Sonic, and Link."
I frowned, realizing we were to be separated, but he gave me an assuring nod as he went to stand by a shorter, black-haired man with green gloves.
Master Hand continued, "You will all be sent to the Galaxy arena. Good luck and make sure you get a feel for which moves you wish to focus on the most."
A number of groups were called until I was landed in Group F. My members were Kirby, Roy, a fiery-haired swordsman, Lucario, another Pokemon owned by Red, Falco, a bird-like man who hailed from the same region as Fox McCloud, and Donkey Kong, the large ape that had assisted me in the brawl that had taken place yesterday. Once again, I was ever-thankful for the information packet on all of the fighters.
"Your destination is the Bridge of Eldin. Good luck." Master Hand lead us through the large doors, and I was speechless once more.
We stepped through a sort of portal that brought us a familiar area I feared I would not see again if all went to hell. On the edge of the great Bridge of Eldin we stood, overlooking a large trench, and next to the sunset stood my castle. My home.
"WAIT! What? Where are we? Am I-" I stuttered.
"Home? Sort of. We took surveillanced the area for a while and plucked a day where no travelers could be seen for miles of this bridge. Only upon this specific day can you enter this area. Princess, do not get any funny ideas, for if you step out of the boundaries we have set up, you'll be blown into the re-spawn area. Sorry if this is some sort of mental torture for you, but we needed proper, familiar places for all of you to fight in. I promise you home world is not the only area touched on," Master Hand described, and my heart plummeted a little. "Before I call upon the next group, we have set up numerous sandbags for you to practice up and choose some movesets to focus on while you establish a fighting strategy. I suggest you don't pick too many, as many, many split-second decisions need to be made in the style of how we train you to fight. Take some time for yourself." And with that, the six of us were alone.
"This is your homeland?" A light voice asked from behind. I was met with the red-haired swordsman.
I simply nodded.
"So, I assume you're a princess by the looks of you, so that means… that castle over there is yours?"
I nodded again, getting ever so slightly foggy-eyed by looking at the place which called me from too far away.
Roy bowed respectfully, and after wishing me a sympathetic good luck, wandered away to begin hacking and slashing at the self-regenerating sand bags. Lucario and Falco said nothing when they went about their business, and all Donkey Kong did was nod, awkwardly huffing and grunting at me in some sort of greeting as I'm sure he recognized me before following suit. The only one left was Kirby, who tugged at my dress.
"Poy?" he cooed.
"Hm?" I tore my eyes away from the horizon that glittered in the twilight.
The little puff waddled around on the cobblestone, holding his arms up towards me.
"Are you asking me to pick you up?"
His smiled widened and I abided. He must of sensed something was wrong, for his little imp arms wrapped around my neck and he nestled into me for a hug. I somehow instantly felt better. After he sensed a change in my mood, he hobbled away, whipping out a large hammer and fiercely began pummeling the sandbags.
This truly was a strange situation.
It took a lot of concentration to ignore where we were, but there was times I caught myself daydreaming instead of focusing on the new sorts of powers I had to sort out. One important inference made was that the time the hands had picked seemed to be stuck in some sort of loop, as once the sun reached the horizon, it would start to 'back up.' The clouds would start to move in the other direction and even the birds began to fly backwards. Then once it reached a certain point in the sky, time would return to normal until the sun touched the horizon once more. After I began to receive a headache from the peculiar sight, I tried to focus on training.
The magic I was able to produce had to be applicable to replicate. Unfortunately, as I needed to meditate on the power surging within, I felt as if I were falling behinds the rest's progress, but it had to be done. My sandbag received an assortment of frustrated, pathetic, magicless punches and kicks that barely made any sort of dent. I felt useless in the ways of fighting, as per the usual. It took some time until I was able to replicate the flames in my hands that I had felt out of pure anger when used before, yet what was I supposed to do with it? My punches were weak, and glancing at the competition on all sides of me, I knew I could not do much except maybe burn myself if I wasn't paying attention. At least the magic didn't burn my gloves.
What about the shadow knight I was able to spawn? I didn't even know I was capable of any sort of dark spells. Heck, growing up with no guide to any sort of powers handed down to me through blood and blessing really didn't help either, as my mother had passed when I was little, and my father followed her when I was an early adolescent. Running my kingdom was more important than magic study.
I tried to summon the dark feeling that accompanied the phantom knight, yet I only began to feel sad when thinking of the desperate circumstances I had used him for. Crying out in frustration at my time-wasting, I slammed my palm into the sand bag, and an unexpected fire-burst sent it flying into the back of Roy, who picked himself up, looking at me with confusion and concern. I smiled, and after apologizing, retrieved my training tool and focused on the fierce energy such a move required. After a while, I was able to send volleys of fire left and right. I could nearly feel Din smiling upon me from the twilight-ridden sun. Her fire was true power.
I continued my methods of experimentation until I was able to utilize Din's fire somewhat proficiently and use a form of electricity in my hands and feet. I was not finished with my movesets like some of the other Smashers in my group seemed to be, yet I was able to say I had accomplished something.
All too soon, lunch approached and we were delivered food. Exhausted, I sat next to Roy who seemed barely winded. Why did the hand think I was even a viable choice? Even Kirby seemed to know what he was doing. All I could do was throw fire at things and hope to not burn the mansion down.
"Your homeland is beautiful," Roy muttered through his chewing, distracting me from my self-loathing.
"Thank you," I replied, soaking the rays of the forever-sunset, wondering what the past-me was attending to in the castle. Maybe this day they had chosen is in the future. How could I even tell for sure? What if I would wake up in my real bed tomorrow? I had to stop overthinking everything, but I knew that would be impossible as well. I sighed, and tore into my sandwich, defeated mentally and physically without even getting punched.
A/N: Yay finally done with ch 9! Thanks to those who have stuck with me so far and for being patient. 3 What do you all think so far? This chapter was somewhat filler but a lot of important information was needed plus more characters. It is increasingly difficult to deal with like 70 characters at once... oof. Bare with me for I shall try my best.
