And the big fight...

As soon as they were in the Announcing Room Link turned on her.

"What were you doing? Wasting time and energy yelling at me when you could have been fighting her!" he gestured at Zelda.

"Who's talking, Big Yeller!" she shouted back. "You could have stopped arguing with me and gotten her or let me do so while you took down Ganondorf, especially for all your bragging that you beat him last time you two brawled!"

"I can't beat both of them alone! You jumped down after Ganondorf! Craziest move in the record!"

"I spiked him to a loss, dopey!"

"You didn't know Zelda would be waiting to knock you to your death? Just when I needed help!"

"Oh? Who were you fighting, huh, Link? While I spiked Ganondorf, who were you fighting? You should have been keeping her occupied while I got back up so we could have fought together!"

"She'd knocked me down with fire that you could have prevented, if you'd just let Ganondorf fall! He didn't need to be sped up in going to the abyss!"

"Ganondorf would have regained the ledge, Link! I was making sure we would win, except my partner didn't think I was important enough and tried to catch his breath instead of jumping over her stupid fireballs! She used them the whole brawl! You should have known you could dodge them!"

"Not when I'm sweating and panting because I didn't get enough help from my partner!"

"How about vice versa? You boast about your fighting skills and don't even have enough presence of mind to try to make me want to help you, even though I tried."

"You tried to solo it! You can't work in team brawls like that!"

"You were soloing it yourself, Link!"

"I was not! I was trying to win, Sheik! And just because you wanted to make yourself a hero doesn't mean that you should forgo the obvious decision to try to work with your teammate, no matter what he yells at you!"

"Don't try to fool me into thinking that you were trying to make me help you by calling me a terrible fighter and the worst kicker and stupidest brawler and all that jazz!"

"Why don't you shut your big mouth, Sheik! What was it you said, huh? Worst swordsman! Useless shield if I don't know how to use it! Clumsy!"

"Well you are!"

"Well so are you!"

Sheik stopped, panting from all her yelling, and realized the Announcing Room was filled with brawlers coming in from their recent battles and all were watching them chew each other out.

Link was looking around too; face red, hair hanging limply into his eyes. He jerked off his green hat and stomped out of the room. Sheik tore of her turban and stomped out after him.

"Stop following me! Now you have to embarrass me!"

"I did half the yelling and you did the other half," she answered calmly. "You should apologize. I never blow up like that."

Link stopped short and she skidded back to avoid slamming into him. "That's crazy."

Sheik smirked and Link unexpectedly chuckled. "There may not be a next time, but…"

"You wanna finish this?"

"Huh?"

"Training rooms," she finished.

"Huh? Fake brawl?"

"Yes."

Link returned his hat to his head and raised an eyebrow at her. "Bring it on, Sheikee."

"Link-eye," she retorted.

Both stalked into the training rooms, but Sheik found she wasn't as angry anymore. And she definitely didn't want to do another brawl, fake or not. She was exhausted, and she knew Link was too.

As they walked down the hall Link suddenly stopped at the water fountains and took a long drink, swallowed, and combed his fingers through his hair. "Limber up. Tire yourself out. I'll be right back."

Sheik walked into the training room and slipped off her suit, exposing her cotton t-shirt and black leggings underneath. She kept her shoes on and placed her turban, along with her suit on the bench with her weapons. She tightened her mask, stretching and then doing a few practice back handsprings. She did two forward handsprings followed instantly by a backflip, and spun her feet around, one hand supporting her weight, before landing in a crouch, hands in a ready position.

Sheik straightened as Link entered the training room, two ice-cream shakes in his hands, the straws poking out. Unexpectedly her mouth watered. He sauntered towards her, slurping at one straw and she clenched her jaw at the provocation.

"Here." He held one out.

Sheik stared, blinked, and a grin suddenly spread up one side of her face, her eyes forming crescents as she took it from Link and plopped down cross legged on the mat. He sat down as well and both sucked contentedly on their drinks.

"Where'd you learn the trick of following the opponent off the stage to get in your win? It may not work as well for team brawl, but for one on one, that could be really good, as long as each only has one life, or if you can get back up."

"Yeah," she answered, leaning back on one hand and sipping more vanilla deliciousness up through the straw. It was cool and seemed to relax her high strung nerves and burning muscles. "Ike did it to me."

Link chuckled. "With that sword of his? Yeah, you don't need a second swing to kill you."

"It's not death," she contradicted. "Just… a loss."

"True. It's a good thing we have the portals. Anywhere else and every sword slice would be real. I wonder who would win in that case, you know."

"Bowser. He's… strong."

"Yeah. But slow."

"That fire would burn in real life. There's no way anyone could get past it."

"Well, if we teamed up one would get killed and the other could get on his back and cut his head off."

"That's violent," she said, trying not to giggle nonetheless. "You think Wii Fit Trainer is strong?" She brought it up, wondering if he suspected her at all, and decided if any cameras or bugs caught it they would assume it was a natural question.

"Wii Fit? She's okay. Packs a punch for someone so slim." He smirked. "Like you."

"I lost against you," she reminded him.

"But you were just out of sorts. Sheik, you've won quite a few brawls and if you keep your single brawls up the way you have been and work on the team brawls… you could be one of the best."
"Interesting that you're giving me that advice," she remarked. "Because you're already one of the best."

"Yeah, but there's nothing wrong with having more than one 'one of the best', you know. Besides, what if we needed to fight some big monster or something."

Sheik stiffened and glanced sharply at him. He was sipping the last of his shake and staring cross eyed at his straw. She'd have to assume, for now, that the comment was a red herring and had nothing to do with the hands. But the probability that he suspected something was going on was hopeful. A thought struck her and she stood to throw her empty cup away. Maybe he was working for whoever was against her in this case and was warning her. If he was, it was a strange way to do it, but she was happy for his backwards offer of friendship.

"You know," he said, as he tossed his cup, from where he sat, into the garbage, "it's not healthy to do physical exercise one to two hours after you've eaten."

Sheik winked at him. "You're right. And that shake was thick enough to count as food, so we shouldn't brawl."

"At least not right now," he added.

Link stood and walked over to her. "By the way, I've gotten a few people together and we're going to watch the televised brawls tonight in the lounge."

"The lounge?"

He smirked. "Didn't know we had one? Look it up on your map."

Sheik nodded, gathered up her things, and waved as she left, controlling herself to fast walk instead of skipping down the hall to the elevators.

Sitting in her room alone was scary as she retrieved the threatening note and reread it. Then she tucked it into her drawer and put a small book on top of it, glancing briefly at the title. 'Trust.'

"Yeah," she muttered. "That's what I need. Someone I can trust for crying out loud. I'm dying here." She sat down on the bed, sighed, and kicked off her shoes and socks, stretching her toes and sighing contentedly before hastily stiffening and glancing around, wishing she could see any cameras that might be hidden in her wall.

She lay back on her bed, clicked on her phone, and typed in "Lounge". It was the room two doors down from the dining room and Sheik realized she hadn't actually explored very much of the Smash Mansion. But with this mystery hanging over her ears, maybe it would be a good idea to start. She might find a clue.

"You're acting like a regular Sherlock Holmes," she scolded herself. "Don't go walking blindly into danger. Obey the note and leave everything alone. What could possibly happen if you don't do anything?" She couldn't answer her own question because she knew anything could possibly happen.

She sat up and found the app named "Smash Social". Tapping on it she found she had to sign in.

Name: Sheik

Age: 23

Bio (300 words or less): I am a female. I wear a mask. I'm not your friend.

"That should be good," Sheik muttered, smirking.

In Relationship With: …Mr. Its A. Secret

Hobbies: Karate. Gymnastics. Being ALONE

"I'm being such a jerk," she murmured, and grinned. "This is great."

Favorite Food: NOT garlic.

Sheik erased that a moment later and put in 'tea; that's a food because I say so'.

Then she tapped 'Submit', and carefully took out her tea cup, turned on the sink, and returned to her bed, waiting for hot water. She began scrolling through the recent random submissions by other smashers. Link and Zelda were both avid posters apparently and so was Robin F. The others posted a lot as well and Sheik rolled her eyes, but read eagerly.

Link: "Shakes with Sheik. Yum, yum, yum."

Her eyebrows rose and she deftly tapped the heart button, showing her approval of the post.

Zelda: "Won in team brawl! Me and Ganondorf rock!"

Peach: "Who thinks team brawls are harder?"

There were numerous comments, all in the affirmative except for Lucas', which quietly explained he liked being able to have a teammate.

Ness: "Those hands are… floating, talking, seeing, hearing?"

Comments went along the lines of 'creepy', 'ya, I know', and 'don't judge backpack boy'.

Sheik saw that two people had already commented on her bio and she tapped on them.

Marth: Wow… Intriguing…

Zero Suit Samus: At least sound amiable, girl! But hey, glad to see you've joined Smash Social.

Another comment popped on suddenly and Sheik grinned as she realized most everyone was on their phones right now, relaxing after the brawls.

Ike: You're not my friend? Why not? I fight for my friends. ;)

Ike's a sweetheart too. I certainly think he is. Ike4ever. :)