It Came from Lucina's Head

Chapter 14: Meeting in the… Laundry Room?

"Pause. Rewind. Replay."

Master Hand snapped his large fingers, R.O.B. reacting instantaneously on his command. In the darkness of the security room, the Robotic Operating Buddy fiddled about with the controls, rewinding the recorded tape of the mysterious assault that took place in Lucina's hospital room less than an hour ago.

Apparently, Robin had taken the liberty of sleeping in the same room as the girl without asking for any kind of permission from Master Hand. The giant floating glove watched patiently as he was shown video footage of Lucina getting up from her bed in a somewhat hypnotized state. It was hard to tell what she was feeling or thinking from the grainy image of the camera (weren't they supposed to get new ones installed?), but it was definitely given that her movements were mostly mechanical. Slowly, she stared at the Smasher lying in the bed next to hers, freezing on the spot momentarily before reaching for the short sword on the nightstand and lifting it high into the air. Robin seemed to have woken up two seconds too late, as he soon found himself with his own sword plunged deep into his body.

Lucina looked to have almost lost her balance before she started screaming.

After the alarm had gone off, a group of Waddle Dees were on the scene, as were some other Smashers who just happened to be previously sleeping nearby. The timestamp on the video read around 2:15 in the morning.

"Again," ordered Master Hand as he began rapping his fingers rhythmically in the air.

"Affirmative," replied R.O.B. compliantly. "Your current view count for this video is 6."

"There's no need to keep a count, R.O.B.," said Master Hand seriously. "Just play the video."

And so R.O.B. did, but not once did he dare to question what on earth Lucina was apparently doing. This horrifying event only enforced what R.O.B. was suspecting in the beginning, and that Lucina was starting to lose her mind. First she was sent to the hospital wing due to an "accident" she supposedly had with her sword. Then, in the following night, she was caught on camera trying to strangle herself. Finally, as of last night, she took it upon herself to harm another Smasher almost to the point of death! The video footage didn't lie, but it was confusing to R.O.B. how someone with such a perfect track record could falter so significantly.

"What are we to do with Lucina?" asked R.O.B. seriously. This of course was one of several questions he needed answers for in his memory banks, but he also knew very well that Master Hand was the type of individual who hated being asked too many questions.

The hand was hesitant to reply, as he found himself too engrossed in the creepy video.

"You are to do nothing," he said straightforwardly. "I don't want anyone to come in contact with Lucina. Until we determine what's wrong with her, she is to be considered a danger to us all. She will temporarily be suspended from the tournament until further notice."

Tuesday morning was probably one of the most depressing mornings any of the Smashers' had ever experienced while living at the mansion. For starters, Robin had become the hospital wing's newest resident, but his condition turned out to be much worse compared to Lucina's. He had suffered some minor sword wounds, as well as a large gash over the middle of his stomach, which would have killed him had help not arrived when it did. Mario just so happened to be one of the first Smashers to investigate and was able to tend to Robin before things got too severe. Lucina had more or less broken up into tears, the rush of guilt and hatred becoming quite overwhelming for her. By the time most of the Smashers had shown up, Lucina was long gone. The girl had mysteriously vanished, though some of the Smashers claimed to have seen her running down the halls, likely getting as far away from the tragedy as she could. She had dripped a trail of blood through the halls of the mansion, pretty much forcing the Waddle Dees to work overtime in order to clean it all up.

Now it was a new day, and the tournament was still up and running. Master Hand had informed the Smashers that both Robin and Lucina had been temporarily excused from the brawls, and that whatever matches were originally scheduled with them would be postponed. This didn't stop most of the Smashers, however, from wondering what really took place in the hospital wing of Monday night. And while this set of Smashers was conversing and discussing this sensitive topic at breakfast, there were a select few tournament participants who avoided meeting in the dining room altogether, preferring to gather in a more secure location.

"Seriously Falcon…" muttered Ike as he shook his head. "This was the best place you could come up with?"

"Hey shut it!" retorted Captain Falcon as he plopped himself down on a pile of dirty clothes. "You know as well as I do that no one ever comes to the laundry room! And the Waddle Dees are only in here once a week!"

Indeed, of all the rooms in the mansion, the laundry room was one of the least visited locations on a daily basis. Captain Falcon had taken the liberty of choosing today's secret meeting room, and naturally brought along Ike, Shulk, and Marth for good measure. Incidentally, there were a few other Smashers who had hastily joined up with them out of curiosity and concern, namely Pit, Luigi, Lucario, and Kirby. It was surprising how they were able to sneak everyone into this small room without any of the others noticing.

The Smashers were seated about in various parts of the cramped area, though admittedly, there was no real place for them to sit. Most of them were either sitting on (or in) piles of random clothes on the floor, while the two Fire Emblem swordsmen were both stationed on some overturned laundry baskets. Lucario was leaning upright against an upturned ironing table, whereas Shulk was actually sitting on top of one of the few washing machines.

You would think that for a mansion with more than fifty residents, Master Hand would have invested in a bigger utility room.

The room itself was pretty dim, the only real source of light being a single lightbulb dangling on a piece of wire in the middle of the ceiling. Interestingly enough, if anyone were to walk in at this moment, the lights from the hall would fully illuminate the entire room. Needless to say that it was hard for any of the Smashers to get a good look at each other, especially for Falcon since he was wearing his crash helmet.

"Enough of this nonsense," said Marth as he kicked some dirty clothes out of his way. "If it's alright with all of you, I'd like to know what's been going on with Lucina as of late."

"Yeah, me too!" chimed Pit, ruffling his feathers to knock some stray overalls off his back.

"Can it, you pixie!" replied Falcon obnoxiously. "This is supposed to be a secret meeting!"

"Poyo! Poyo!" responded Kirby happily, throwing an oversized pair of tighty-whities into the air (definitely Kind Dedede's).

"Not much of a secret now, is it?" muttered Shulk from his perch on the cube-shaped machine.

"Well if people would stop sticking their noses where they don't belong then maybe I'd be able to officially call it that!" said Falcon in annoyance.

"I think he means that everyone in the mansion pretty much knows about Lucina now," said Ike from the side. "We should all be thankful that Robin didn't die."

"You said it," replied Pit with a cheery smile. "I can't imagine how scary that must have been for him."

Falcon just rolled his eyes, but no one took notice of it with it being so dark in the room. He was honestly pretty irritated that Robin was all people wanted to talk about now. They had good reason for doing so, but that still didn't stop it from bothering him.

"We're all thankful for that," said Marth. "But we need answers right now. I've noticed that Lucina has been acting awfully strange since her accident with the Falchion. I've tried approaching her several times on the subject, but I feel like she's just making excuses for me."

"Hmm…" muttered Luigi. "Maybe she-"

"I don't feel comfortable talking about this with these guys," said Falcon to Ike, but it didn't really matter as his voice was clearly audible by everyone in the room. "Lucina told us to keep this all a secret."

"What?" asked Marth in surprise.

"It doesn't matter anymore," replied Ike. "Like Shulk was saying, everyone in the mansion knows about what happened last night. Even if they're not sure what's going on, it won't take them long to figure it out." He paused momentarily. "There are at least a few other Smashers in that dining room who know about her nightmares."

"Okay fine, I'll give you that," said Falcon unenthusiastically. "But does she really need to be here right now?"

The racer gestured towards the pink Pokémon sitting next to Shulk on the washing machine. Jigglypuff had a half-eaten piece of toast in its mouth, with a plate full of delicious breakfast foods like eggs, bacon, hash browns, and beans in front of it.

"Jiggly!" exclaimed the balloon Pokémon in defense.

"She said she always eats breakfast in the laundry room," said Lucario telepathically from the side. He seemed to be the only one who wasn't getting all riled up from this crazy conversation.

"Really?" replied Shulk as he stared down at the pink puffball. "Since when?"

"Since that 'Singing Incident' last year."

None of the newcomers knew about it, but Jigglypuff had actually been the one responsible for shutting down all activity in the mansion for an entire week during the Brawl tournament. At the time, she had been obsessed with watching online videos of the popular Disney movie, "Frozen," and found herself wanting to sing "Let It Go" just as Queen Elsa had so magnificently demonstrated in the film. Jigglypuff practiced and practiced for three days straight, learning every note, every verse (in Pokémon language of course), more or less everything about the song. Then one day, she decided to perform in front of the entire mansion. Now, all of the Smashers at the time knew about Jigglypuff's most infamous ability, so no one in the right mind would have agreed to listen to something like that. Therefore, the Pokémon had taken it upon herself to get a hold of the mansion's PA system and sing "Let It Go" into the microphone. It goes without saying that every creature within a mile radius with ears fell victim to Jigglypuff's voice (even R.O.B. the robot curiously enough). As punishment for this ridiculous act, the Smashers were given a choice of voting between replacing Jigglypuff with the Sandbag for a month or forcing her to eat breakfast by herself in the laundry room until otherwise stated.

Needless to say, Jigglypuff wasn't particularly happy with the final results.

"Oh yeah, I remember that," said Luigi as he sat obediently in his pile of clothes. "Wasn't that-"

"It's not Jigglypuff, it's the food!" exclaimed Falcon. "Why the hell did you have to bring that in here? None of us have eaten yet!"

Jigglypuff closed her eyes and continued eating nonchalantly, muttering a few words under her breath, but who understands Pokémon nowadays anyway?

"Poyo…" muttered Kirby as he eyed her plate of food in sadness.

Fortunately, Jigglypuff didn't have a cold heart whatsoever, and was more than happy to toss Kirby a few strips of bacon and a hash brown.

"Falcon, there are more important things at stake here," said Ike as he crossed his arms, showing that he had enough willpower to resist something as insignificant as a fried meal.

"Talking about this will get your mind off of the food," chimed Marth. "I would greatly appreciate it if you could tell me everything from the beginning."

"Well don't you sound concerned Mr. 'Fancy Pants,'" said Falcon with a snort. "You must really care a lot about Lucina." He gave the Altean prince a glare from across the room, but Marth seemed rather unfazed.

"Of course I am," he replied casually. "She is my descendent after all."

Falcon tripped over his own words a few times as he tried to come up with a response, but truth be told, that last statement was news to him.

"W-Wahut!?" he spat. "You mean to tell me you're related to her!? Since when?"

"Um… Birth?"

"Falcon," said Ike as he put a hand to his head, "she's been living at the mansion for almost half a year and you're just figuring this out now?"

Falcon seemed somewhat flabbergasted by all of this; his reaction was quite funny to say the least.

"Hang on," he said. "If she's related to you and you're a prince… does that mean…"

"Yes, she is a princess," replied Marth seriously. "But that's not important right now."

"Says you! All this time I've been trying to get to know her better and now you tell me she's a princess?"

"I thought everyone knew that though?"

"I did," replied Shulk as he put up a hand.

"Same here," chimed Pit with a smirk.

"I hate you people…" muttered Falcon as he leaned back in his "seat" and crossed his arms.

"Descendent or not," said Luigi from the side. "All of us still care about-"

"I'll get you up to speed on everything that's been going on then," interrupted Ike, though it was not intentional at all. Truthfully, he didn't even hear the green plumber try to speak up in the first place.

The mercenary began informing all of the Smashers in the room about what's been going on with Lucina ever since she started having weird dreams last Friday night. Apparently, she had been visited by several entities over the course of four days, all of which tried to kill her in her sleep. What was even stranger was the fact that whatever wounds she suffered in the dreams were somehow carrying over into reality when she woke up. No one quite knew how to explain it, and now to make things even more confusing, Lucina had been caught trying to kill Robin in the same night!

"Honestly, we should have just listened to Shulk," said Ike at the end of his explanation. A few of the Smashers turned to the Monado-wielder on the washing machine who gave a sheepish nod. "Had we done our best to prevent what was foreseen, Robin would probably be here with us right now. We won't make the same mistake again."

"Poyo!" exclaimed Kirby as he threw another pair of underwear into the air and caught it again.

"Unbelievable," replied Marth. "So you mean to tell me the reason why she's been acting so strange is because she's in danger?"

"She was afraid to tell anyone about it," said Shulk. "I actually just found out about this yesterday."

"But I don't understand. Why didn't she tell us sooner?"

"She thought that no one would believe her," replied Ike. "I mean, it's easy to believe it now after seeing what's she's been through. But even when she told Falcon and I about it in the beginning, we thought it was a joke."

"Humph," said Falcon with a raised chin. "I always knew she was telling the truth. I just… didn't want you to feel like you were being left out."

"Interesting…" muttered Lucario quietly with his eyes closed. "For the past few days now I've been sensing a darker presence among the Smashers in the mansion. There was another source of aura emanating from somewhere, like a candle in a forest…"

"That must have been Lucina," said Marth. "If it's true, then it only solidifies the fact that she wasn't fully aware of what she was doing to Robin last night."

"We should go see her," replied Pit worriedly. "Maybe there's something we can do to help?"

"Yeah," chimed Luigi. "Or maybe we could-"

"Master Hand said that no one was to disturb her," replied Shulk. "I think she's locked up in her room right now."

"That poor girl," muttered Marth. "This just isn't fair to her."

All of the Smashers in the laundry room sat there in silence as they contemplated what the best course of action was. In all honesty, they weren't one hundred percent sure where to begin. They found themselves caught between deciding if they should find a way to stop the nightmares, or figure out a way to cheer up Lucina. Chances are she wasn't feeling very well after enduring that horrific event in the hospital room, not to mention that she's more or less been on an emotional roller coaster for the past few days. With Robin being temporality out of the picture, they were going to have a hard time finding the next piece in solving this complex puzzle.

Perhaps a little down time was exactly what Lucina needed in order to get her mind away from all of this madness.

"I've got it!" exclaimed Pit as he patted his fist into his palm. "Let's make her a giant get-well card!"

Kirby raised his hands up in agreement, showering himself with a bunch of dirty clothes, but the other Smashers in the room didn't seem very amused.

"A get-well card, really?" replied Falcon in disappointment. "Where were you when she was lying half-dead in the hospital a few days ago?"

"What, you guys don't like my idea?"

"It's not that we don't like it, Pit," replied Marth reassuringly. "It's just that… we need something a bit more creative than that."

"Aw, well I thought it was a good idea…"

"Jig, Jig, Jigglypuff!" said the pink Pokémon.

"Hey keep it down you cheeseball, I'm trying to think here!" replied Falcon rudely. As a side note, why the hell are Pokémon voices so damn annoying?

"We should make her a trophy for herself," said Ike all of a sudden. "She's been missing out on the tournament because of these nightmares. Maybe a little victory sign would help boost her morale?"

"That kind of makes it look like we're taking pity on her though," replied Shulk.

"Does it?" Ike put a hand to his chin as he tried to imagine how the scenario would play out. All he could imagine was Falcon waltzing up to Lucina's room and presenting her with some half-assed kindergarten papier-mâché monstrosity. "On second thought, let's not do that."

The Smashers went back to thinking and brainstorming an idea. In truth, they were looking for something that represented genuine friendship and caring for their fellow brawler without making it look like they were feeling sorry for her. In actuality, Lucina probably wouldn't mind it either way, but even Falcon had certain standards that he felt he had to meet when he hung around her.

"Hmm," thought Luigi out loud. "What if we-"

"I know!" shouted Falcon suddenly. "Let's all-"

"Falcon, Luigi's trying to say something," interjected Lucario.

The racer frowned as he turned to the mustached plumber, who sheepishly averted his gaze upon making eye contact.

"I was going to say," continued the green man. "What if we throw a party for her?"

The Smashers turned to one another, some of them nodding their heads, while a few others mumbled something along the lines of, "Yeah, that could work," or, "I don't see why not." It was a good idea, and it would also be a good opportunity to get the other Smashers involved. Plus, it would be a nice break from all of the mystery-solving. Trying to figure out what the hell was going on was hard enough without Robin to provide support anyway.

"A party!" exclaimed Pit. "That's a great idea, Luigi! We could decorate the mansion, and play games… and think of all the food there would be!"

The white angel began daydreaming about sweet cupcakes and other colorful pastries, causing Kirby's mouth to water at the mere thought of such delicacies.

"Sounds good to me!" chimed Shulk as he gave a thumbs-up. "I think we all could use a little pick-me-up."

"We could do it today," said Marth as he tried to plan out the event in his head. "It's still morning after all. We could spend a few hours getting everything set up and have it all ready by dinner time."

"I think it'll work," replied Ike with a nod. "And if the others can help, then we should be able to get this all done in no time. Of course, anyone who needs to attend to their daily matches can do so, but that shouldn't be too much of a hindrance."

"I've actually got a match today," said Lucario. "But I will do my best to assist whenever I can."

"Jigglypuff, Jiggly!" exclaimed the balloon Pokémon as she raised a fork triumphantly into the air, which Lucario was able to interpret as, "Count me in too!"

"So that settles it then," said Falcon with a smile as he raised a fist. "We're going to throw Lucina a surprise birthday party!"

"Um, not for her birthday," replied Ike. "It's just a surprise party to make her feel better and to let her know that we're here to support her no matter what."

"Pfft, same thing."

The conversation soon built back up as the Smashers began discussing about the plans for Lucina's party. They didn't know how big it was going to be, but they definitely wanted as many people involved as they could, and there was certainly going to be some form of a cake. It looked like they were going to have to ask Princess Peach for a favor.

In the midst of all of this excitement, however, Lucario's animal-like ears picked up the sound of footsteps making their way towards the laundry room door.

"Shh! Quiet everybody. Someone's coming."

The Smashers all froze in the sanctity of the laundry room as the door opened wide. The light coming from the hall illuminated every inch of the cramped room, taking a certain zero-suited bounty huntress by surprise as she peered inside.

"Um…" started Samus awkwardly. "What are you all doing in here?"

Her gaze darted from one Smasher to another. Lucario was lying casually against the upright ironing board in a pile of what appeared to be white undershirts, while Pit and Luigi were both sitting cross-legged in separate piles of darker clothing. The angel also had a few stray pieces of attire hanging from his wings. At the same time, Kirby had somehow made a nest of his own out of various types of underwear, whereas Marth and Ike were both sitting up straight on some laundry baskets. Shulk and Jigglypuff were sitting together on top of the washing machine, along with a finished breakfast plate. Lastly, she noticed Falcon sitting against the dryer on a pile of shirts, with a piece of bright blue undergarment wrapped securely on his helmet. Samus' face turned a pitch red as she recognized the panties on the racer's head as one of her own.

"That's it, Falcon," she said through gritted teeth as she pulled out her arm cannon from seemingly out of nowhere. "You're a dead man."

"Wait Samus! I swear I didn't know these were yours!"

Samus took aim and began charging her signature beam shot, causing the other Smashers in the room to immediately back as far away from the F-Zero racer as they could. Falcon could only stare helplessly into the notorious death-glare of Samus as he waited for the inevitable train of hurt he was about to endure.

"Ahhh… crap."

Author's Note: Just thought I would brighten the mood from the dark and depressing stuff of last chapter. I wanted to bring in some more character interactions as well since last chapter hardly had any dialogue at all. Also, I love how Falcon says his second-last line as if it were any other female Smasher's undies, his actions would be totally justifiable. Did you like my jokes? Like, how everyone was cutting off Luigi, or how Jigglypuff has to eat breakfast in the laundry room every day. That's funny right? Guys? guys…