Chapter 11: The Persistant Hedgehog

Location: ?

A door slided open, and Ganondorf walked into the room. The king of evil was greeted by a room full of computer monitors.

"I presume you are wondering about the status of Operation Genesis," a voice from the computers asked.

"That is always welcomed, Beta," Ganondorf said, "but that isn't why I'm here."

Beta is an hyper advanced AI fragment, being half of an original. It had been Ganondorf's most trusted ally since the beginning, and persuaded Ganondorf into turning on the Smash Bros. However, no matter how much of Ganondorf's trust he could obtain, Beta refused to reveal anything about it's origin.

"What do you need?" Beta asked.

"A location," Ganondorf replied. "Bowser failed to take down the Mario Bros at Pi'illo Island due to the interfierence of the Super Smash Bros. I need a universe to attack next."

"Very well. Give me a few days."

"You can't do that any faster?"

"Multitasking is difficult, especially for an AI."

"I thought you were advanced."

"I am, but you also know that I'm half of an AI. Have some patience."

Ganondorf crossed his arms. "I will." He then stormed out of the room.

Beta then focussed back onto it's work, recalling someone else it had despised. (Just you wait Alpha.) it thought. (Soon, I will show everyone just how much better I am than you. I will be complete, and I will erase you.)

Location: World of Trophies, Smash Mansion, Command Room

"We're home!" Alex said in an enthusiastic mood.

"I see you came back in one piece," Master Hand noted. "You even got Shulk to rejoin us."

"It's great to be back," Shulk said."

"Not only that, but we also have an idea of what happened to the other captove Smashers."

"What do you mean?" Lucario said.

"Well, they're probably brainwashed like Shulk was."

The six Smashers were confused for a bit. "How the heck do you know about that?" Sonic asked.

"Simple." Master Hand pointed towards the screen. "That screen shows everything you're doing in a world. In other worlds, I'm watching your every move when you go on a mission."

Alex's eye started to twitch. "Let me get this straight. You made me fix that screen for an hour just so you stalk us when we go on missions."

"Pretty much."

Right there and then, Alec would have tried to tackle Master Hand had Fox not grabbed his shirt.

"Just calm down!" Fox said to Alex.

"How can I calm down at a time like this!?" Alex yelled. "He knows about my arm now, something I like keeping PRIVATE!"

"Yeah, about your arm," Master Hand started, "I may or may not have created a Smash move that uses it."

When Alex heard this, he stormed out of the Command Room and up to the fourth floor. The Smashers heard a door slamming shut a little bit later.

Fox and Sonic gave Master Hand a look. "What?"

"And you wonder why most of us don't like talking to you," Fox muttered as he and Sonic headed for the fourth floor.

Location: 4th Floor Hallway

"Hey, buddy!" Sonic said. "Could you come out of there now?"

"Go away!" Alex yelled. It was faint, but one could tell that he was crying a little.

"Just come out!" Fox responded. "We're here to help you out!"

"You're just saying that!"

"No I'm not!"

"Just leave me alone!"

Location: Alex's Room

On the other side of the door was Alex's room. The entrance to the room had been shut and locked. Alex could be seen on his bed. His face was burrowed into his pillow.

Alex wasn't crying because of what Master Hand just did. It wasn't because he wanted to be alone. It had to do with the horrible truth behind his cybernetic arm.

Location: Dark Pit's Room

(Lucky bastard.) Dark Pit thought as he closed the door behind him.

The dark angel didn't hate Alex; he was jealous of him. If that guy were to die at any given moment, people would miss him.

What would people do if Dark Pit died? Nothing.

Nobody would miss him. Nobody would probably even notice a difference.

Location: Library

"I almost forgot how this room looked," Shulk said.

For the first time in a year, Shulk had stepped back into the library. This was the room he spent most of his time in this room during that first month.

Shulk placed the Monado down on a nearby table and went to look for a book to read. He passed by the fiction and non fiction sections before finally finding the history section. It didn't take long before Shulk found the book he had been reading before the raid. It was titled The Civilization of the Ancients.

Pages flipped until he found the chapter labeled, "The AI Era." Shulk began to read in his head.

Chapter 2: The AI Era

In year 100, a meeting among the most respected members of the Ancients took place. While life was doing fine, they needed something that could manage certain tasks. They decided that the best solution to this problem was to construct a super advanced AI.

In year 101, the program was completed. Unfortunetly, it only lasted for ten seconds before shutting down. Apparently it had too many functions that were too advanced for a single AI. The Ancients had the program undergo fragmentation, a process that would divide one AI into two halfs.

In year 102, the process was completed. Each half, or fragment, were given the same functions, but with half the magnitude. Each fragment was also supplied with their own personality and name. Their names were Alpha and Beta. The two were responsible for many successful projects that occurred during the rest of the century.

(That's good enough for now.) Shulk though as he closed the book.

"Sup bookworm."

"Ah!" He turned to see Sonic standing at the door. "It's just you. Never thought you would ever step foot into this room."

"I did," Sonic said, "just now."

"Hilarious."

Sonic walked towards Shulk. "Whatcha reading?"

"A book."

"About?"

"The Ancients."

"They're the guys that made the Smash Gauntler, right?"

"Yes."

"Cool." Sonic was about to exit the room when he remembered why he originally entered the library in the first place. "Say, just out of curisosity, would you say you're somewhat introverted?"

"I guess," Shulk replied. "Why?"

"Well, I think Alex might be introverted just like you."

"Where are you going with this?"

"I'm saying that maybe you should talk with him sometime. You know, get to know him a bit."

"I'll think about it."

"Awesome!" Sonic opened the door. "See you later!"

Location: Roof

On the roof of the mansion, Lucario could be seen meditating.

Every day during the Brawl era, he would head up to the roof to improve his aura. Lucario would meditate without moving for at least a half hour, sometimes more than that.

Meditating was something Lucario did since he was a Riolu. It kept his aura in check. It gave him peace.

At least it would have given him peace if a certain blue hedgehog hadn't shown up.

"What do you want?" Lucario asked. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Hey buddy!" Sonic said. "What makes you think I want to do something right now?"

"Do I need to remind you who you are?"

"Nevermind." Sonic looked at Lucario. "So whatcha doing?"

"Meditating."

"For what?"

"Multiple reasons."

"Sounds interesting," Sonic lied. He had actually came to the roof for a different reason. "Mind if I join you?"

"I don't see why not."

The hedgehog stood next to the Pokémon and replicated his pose. He stood on one leg and put his hands together at his chest. "So what am I doing this for?"

"That depends," Lucario responded. "For me, I use meditating as a way to keep my aura in check."

"Okay." (Weirdo.) "Say, do you talk to many people here?"

"My only real friend here is Greninja, so no."

"Would you say you need more friends?"

"No."

"Sure?"

"Can you please leave me along right now?"

"What if I don't want to leave you alone right now?"

Lucario turned his head towards Sonic. "You two options. You either get away from me, or else."

"Or else what?"

The next morning...

Location: Kitchen

"And then he punched me in the face," Sonic finished. He was holding an ice pack up to his right eye as he talked to Fox, who was sitting right next to him and drinking a cup of cofee.

"That sucks," Fox said as he took a sip of his cofee. "Why did you even talk to Lucario in the first place?"

"I was trying to see if he wanted to be Alex's friend."

Fox spit out the cofee that was in his mouth. "What!?"

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"You can't just go around asking people if they want to be someone else's friend!"

"I guess now would also be a bad time to mention that I also asked Shulk."

"Sonic!"

"You can't really blame me! We're the only friends Alex really has here!"

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe you should let him make friends ON HIS OWN?"

"I'm sorry, alright! But just you wait! Pretty soon, he'll be as social as me!"

"That's not a good comparison at all! You're too social!"

"There's no such thing as too social!"

Fox put his hand on his head. "Look, the point here is that there is no way your methods could possible work."

Out of cue, Alex and Shulk came walking into the room, engaged in a conversation.

"You like building stuff too?" Alex asked Shulk.

"On occasion," Shulk answered. "I prefer examining advanced technology. For example, I was at one time attempting to figure out the secrets behind the Monado."

"Sounds hard."

As the two countinued their conversation, Sonic gave Fox a look. "You were saying?"

Fox's mouth was wide open in disbelief. "Did you actually do something that works out in the end?"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Absolutly nothing." Fox got up from the table and headed to another room in the mansion.

"Hey Sonic," Alex said. "You won't believe this."

"Shoot."

"Out of the blue, Shulk came up to me and started a conversation. I think I have a new friend!"

Sonic did a silent "Harah" in his head.

"Anyway, I'm going to check out the rest of the mansion. See you later!" As Alex walked off, Sonic had an expression of victory on his face.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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Saving...

Location: Smash Mansion

Party Members: Alex (lvl 3), Fox (lvl 2), Lucario (lvl 2), Shulk (lvl 5), Dark Pit (lvl 3), Sonic (lvl 4)

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