(A/N (which still means author's note if it doesn't usually): If you didn't figure it out in the last chapter, this story is divided into parts within a chapter. The part has a title and the time frame it took place in, assuming that the first SSB tournament took place about five months ago. If there is no time frame mentioned, it takes place around the same time as the part before it did. If there is a name in parentheses after the title or time frame, it is a first-person part from the point of view of the name. If anyone can't figure that much out on their own, I pity them.)
4. Wandering – One year ago
A box floated through space, completely unaware of her surroundings. The box quickly ran out of things to do in her current dimension, and shifted to another one. When she emerged from her portal, she found herself, unintentionally, in the toy warrior dimension. The place that started the whole mess for her. After her soul had migrated to the cardboard box that the toys had broken out of, she had gone back to her own dimension for support. However, of course, her society condemned those unfortunate people whose souls were trapped inside normally inanimate objects. Compared to her, her son and his father had gotten off lucky. Well, after being kicked off of her planet, she had been forced to wander around for a year, and inevitably, she finally found herself back at the now-infamous dimension. During her travels, she had heard that eight other toys had been stolen, besides Kirby and Samus, and the arenas had been closed for months. The owners of the stadiums had been forced to leave because they weren't turning a profit, and the toys had created a sort of direct democracy. The current "president", it seemed, was Apocalypse, the mysterious mutant of X-Men fame. Upon her arrival, she saw three of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles discussing the thefts.
"I heard it was an inside job." Raphael reported.
"No, dude! It was something else! I've heard a white floating glove!" Michelangelo disagreed.
"A glove? Come on, Mike, gloves don't appear out of thin air." Leonardo said dismissively.
"No, really! They say a glove appeared, stole Kirby and Samus, and pushed the box over!"
Upon hearing that, Mistress recoiled visibly.
"Hey! That box just moved!" Raphael noticed, confused.
Mistress froze, deciding what to do. Finally, she approached the Turtles warily.
"Now listen to me." She said. The Turtles stared at her.
"It talked!" Mike declared.
"Yes, I did. I am of a race unfamiliar to you. I was there one year ago, and I was killed. In my race, when someone dies, their soul goes into the nearest object, and I was next to this box, so…"
"Oh, that would be a bummer." Leonardo sympathized.
"So, you say it was a white glove that did all that?" Mistress probed, ignoring Leonardo's kindness.
"That's what I've heard. Why, did you know him?"
"He was my husband."
"What?" the Turtles asked simultaneously.
"Hey, guys, you talking to boxes again?" Buzz Lightyear came up and teased jokingly.
"Yeah, but this one talks back!" Mike retorted.
"Hello, Buzz." Mistress greeted.
Buzz recoiled, but regained his composure. Leo explained Mistress's odd dilemma.
"Yes, I had heard rumors about a glove as well. And if there is really such a glove around, they could be true."
"They must be. But why did you leave your husband, um…"
"My name, translated to English, is something like Mistress, so that is good enough. And as for my husband, I kicked him out. I told him it was because I was afraid our son was going to be teased, but it was really because I couldn't stand him. He was egotistical and obnoxious and arrogant. It was the perfect excuse."
"Well, that's not very nice." Buzz remarked.
"You have a son? Whatever happened to him?" Raphael asked.
"His soul went into one of the toys. Some kid with a cloak and a gun."
"Oh, yeah, him. No one really knows about him, except that his name is Juvenor."
"What a stupid name." Mistress remarked.
"Everyone thought so, but no one messed with him. He kept to himself, but kicked everyone's asses in the tournaments. How old is your son?" Leonardo reported.
"He is…fourteen now, I guess."
"You haven't seen him since the accident?" Mike wondered.
"Mike, don't be so naïve. It was no accident." Buzz suggested. Everyone contemplated this idea.
"He must have been mad at you, Mistress." Raphael theorized.
"Hey, guys, what's going on? Why are you talking to a box?" A voice came from behind. It was Ness. He was standing next to Captain Falcon.
"Who are you?" Mistress asked. "No offense, but I've never heard of you." Ness and Falcon growled and introduced themselves, then realized they had just talked to a box.
"Wait a minute!" Falcon shouted. "What is going on?"
Ness searched through Mistress's mind and relayed the story to Falcon telepathically.
"Wow, that sucks." Falcon sighed. "Too bad! Show me your moves, Ness!" Ness sighed.
"We fight every ten seconds, and I always beat you! Give up!"
"Never!"
Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash of light. Mistress could not cover her eyes (or whatever she used to see) and she could just barely make out a white glove picking up Ness and Falcon, then disappearing.
5. Following (Juvenor)
My life sucks.
My father is a glove and my mother is a box.
My parents never named me, so I'm stuck with the stupid name of Juvenor.
I'm an action figure.
My dad is wanted for murder and theft.
I haven't seen my mom in a year.
I have no friends.
All that's left of my life is wandering-wait a minute! What is that?
A familiar flash of light, a white figure…it's my father!
I start to shout to him, but he is carrying someone. Two people, actually. They appear to be toys from that dimension, but I don't recognize them. Wait! The Juvenor inside me recognizes them. Weird. Well, their names are Ness and Captain Falcon, which don't mean anything to me, but Juvenor tells me their stories.
Suddenly Master disappears again. I follow him to another dimension, where he picks up an army of purple warriors. Intrigued, I follow him to yet another dimension, where he looks around and finds a desk that is black-and-white checkered with platforms and everything to match something out of a Mario game. He snaps his fingers, and it disappears. He disappears yet again, and I follow.
What is my father up to?
6. Suspicion
"That was definitely my husband." Mistress told the entire population of toys once again. One new toy, Batman, appeared in the back.
"What happened?" Batman wondered. Everyone groaned. Professor X told him telepathically. Batman frowned.
"We must stop him!"
"Yeah, right. He can travel between dimensions!"
"He can disappear and appear in a flash of light!"
"That's not the half of it." Mistress continued, listing Master's expansive repertoire of attacks. All of the toys were visibly impressed, and afraid.
"So we just sit here and see what Master does?" Superman scowled. "I don't like it."
"That's too bad, unless you can track him down and go get him." Knuckles replied sarcastically.
"Children, please!" Apocalypse finally appeared, by rising dramatically up from the ground. "There is obviously nothing you can do. Go back to your lives."
Everyone was upset by Apocalypse's indifferent attitude, but they realized that he was right.
"Well, thank you all for listening." Mistress sighed. "I'll go wander around some more."
"Oh, now I feel bad." An army figure appeared in the back. "I killed you, didn't I?"
"Quite possibly." Mistress replied, her anger rising.
"Yeah, well, sorry about that. The button that fires my missile was pressed by someone…probably your husband."
"Exhusband." Mistress corrected, sighing. "I guess kicking him out might have been a mistake."
The toys murmured their general agreement and sympathy. Mistress said goodbye again, and faded away. As Apocalypse suggested, the toys tried to resume their normal lives, but found it difficult to suppress the sight of the talking box.
"I just hope Master doesn't come back." A timid Aladdin (from the Disney movie, I'm sure he's an action figure by now) said quietly.
"I hope he does." Wolverine growled. "I was really looking forward to fighting Thor."
"Bring it on, Wolvy!" Thor appeared behind the Canadian.
"Yeah, that's more like it!"
And so life goes on.
