Angelo! What happened? Where is Samus?
Angelo didn't–couldn't–register the fact that Mewtwo was yelling at him. He was barely aware of the fact that he was in the grand hall of the Smash Mansion, on his hands and knees, staring at the ground with an emotion unlike anything he'd ever felt before.
Samus. Samus. Samus. Samus.
The sight of the hunter pulling their sword out of Samus's body played in his head over and over again. He saw the lack of light in her eyes as she fell to the floor, dead. Dead. Dead. DEAD!
He finally snapped back to reality when he felt a tiny hand on his arm. He flinched and looked at Pichu.
"Pichu?" the Tiny Mouse Pokémon asked him.
Angelo growled and stood up, holding his sword so tightly he thought it might break. "Samus…She…That guy…It was…It happened so…"
Meta Knight sighed. "Samus has…fallen. She was slain by our pursuer right before you brought us here."
Mewtwo lowered its head. I see. So this…mystery hunter has taken another one of us. That is…tragic.
"She died defending me!" Angelo cried, turning on the other Fighters. "That guy almost killed me, and Samus…Samus knocked him out of the way. And I sat there, on the floor, not doing anything until she…sh-she–"
He sobbed and fell back to his knees, unable to grasp the fact that Samus was now gone. The one he felt closest to had been ripped away from him in one of the cruelest ways possible.
He needed to make sure she hadn't died in vain.
"We need to get ready," he said, shaking his head and standing up. "We gotta…We gotta prepare. That guy's probably gonna be here any second now, and when he does come, he's not leaving alive."
Chrom stepped forward. "I…admire the drive to avenge your love, Angelo, but…are we not safe here? Can your…hunter even follow you here from another dimension?"
"More importantly, how did you all manage to bring us back here?" Meta Knight asked.
Palutena stepped forward, holding her staff. "It was the combined effort of Mewtwo, Zelda, and I. We channeled out power together to pierce the barrier between dimensions and bring you here. I am sorry that…we could not get there in time to save Samus."
Angelo shook his head. "That guy can…I don't know how, but he managed to follow us into…Wait, where did we end up in the Warp Star?"
"I believe we ended up in the Mushroom Kingdom dimension. There was a lava moat around a castle, if I remember correctly."
Bowser grunted from somewhere in the crowd. "I hope you punks left the place as you found it!"
If Angelo's mood hadn't been somewhere around totally angered, he would've laughed at that. "Whatever. Somehow, he followed us there. I can only assume that he'd be able to chase us here."
Then we will be ready, Mewtwo said, producing a small orb of Psychic energy above its right hand. When they show themselves, that is when we will strike.
Angelo nodded. "Let's do this."
They waited.
Every Fighter in the Smash Mansion waited in the grand hall, waiting for a chance to take down Angelo's hunter. Meta Knight had insisted that Angelo stay in the center of the crowd to be in the least amount of danger, but the Mii Fighter quickly disagreed.
"I'm gonna be the one to kill him for what he did," he said. "No more running away."
And so, the minutes quickly passed, turning into an hour. Angelo wasn't feeling the least bit tired. He was too wired and too angry to have fallen asleep.
He flinched when he felt a hand tug on his pants. He looked down to see Isabelle.
"Hey," she whispered. "I'm really sorry about Samus. You too were really close. I…don't know what it's like to lose someone, but you can talk to me about it…if you want. I won't mind."
Angelo couldn't help but smile. Isabelle was always looking out for the needs of the other Fighters. The fact that she was offering her own form of counseling was enough to warm his heart.
"Thanks, Isabelle," he said, patting her on the head.
She huffed. "You know I hate it when you do that."
Before Angelo could respond, an explosion sounded off behind the group of assembled Fighters. Inside the Smash Mansion.
"What!?" Angelo said, instantly holding his sword at the ready.
Then he was grabbed from behind.
He yelped as he was once again thrown through the front doors of the Smash Mansion, rolling to a stop in the grass. This time, he was ready, and he rolled to the side to avoid the jumping strike from his hunter. As they stood back up, the other Fighters then became aware of the situation.
Angelo lunged forward to strike. He was shocked when the hunter grabbed his arm once more. The thrusters flared to life on their feet, and they lifted off with Angelo in tow. They flew right over the other Fighters and through the giant window in the front of the Mansion. The hunter crashed through it and proceeded to toss Angelo again.
Angelo flipped mid-air and landed on the second-floor balcony. His hunter was still hovering in the air via thrusters.
"You're gonna pay for what you did to Samus!" he shouted. "I'll make sure you feel what it's like to be skewered!"
The hunter tilted their head slightly, like they were scoffing, and flew at Angelo. The Mii Fighter blocked the strike and jumped to the side, trying to flank the hunter. They turned and slashed again, only to get blocked once more.
It was then that the other Fighters ran back into the Mansion, ready to fight the hunter.
Alas, the hunter clearly had different plans.
They started going on the offensive, slashing repeatedly at Angelo and not giving him a moment to breathe. He couldn't do much more than block the attacks, and he was being pushed back further and further down the hall leading up to the balcony he was just standing on. He heard the other Fighters rushing up the stairs and knew he only had to hold off the hunter for a few more seconds before–
Instantly, the hunter whirled around and pointed their sword at the ceiling. Their sword opened up instantaneously and shot a blast of energy above the entrance to the hallway. The ceiling collapsed, blocking the other Fighters from reaching Angelo and the hunter.
"Wow," Angelo said. "I was genuinely not expecting that."
The hunter then turned and ran…
…right past Angelo.
"Hey!" he said, immediately giving chase. "I'm not done with you yet!"
The hunter continued running through the halls of the Mansion, leading Angelo on an extra convoluted path. He was vaguely aware that he might be running into a trap, but he figured he would be ready for it.
The hunter disappeared into a room and quickly slammed the door. Angelo opened the door and rushed in.
He recognized the place, of course. It was one of the rest areas in the Smash Mansion. There were multiple, but Angelo wasn't worried about that at the moment.
He cautiously navigated around the couches and chairs, wondering if the hunter was going to strike out of nowhere.
Then he heard something land at his feet.
He instantly switched his sword for his arm cannon and activated his Echo Reflector. A millisecond after that, the small thing at his feet exploded, rupturing a hole in the floor. Angelo cried out and activated the thruster on his arm cannon, hovering in the air near the ceiling of the room below him. He looked down and saw portals leading to…
"Wait, this is the Stage Select room. How did that guy know–"
His sentence was cut off by a mechanical foot slamming into his back. He yelped as he was sent into a portal.
A second before he went through, he heard someone say, "They're over here! Guys, this way!"
Then he was teleported to Prism Tower.
He gasped as he landed on the hard concrete, groaning in pain. He then felt himself get grabbed by the arm and lifted off the ground.
He shook his head and looked up to see the hunter slash their energy blade in front of them. With a shimmering sound that Angelo felt in his soul, a portal opened right in front of them.
Holy crap, Angelo thought to himself.
Then he was thrown through the portal.
He gasped as he landed on a couch in one of the rest areas of the Smash Mansion. Immediately, he got to his feet and ran towards the portal.
Then a mechanical sword suddenly came out the portal, aimed right at his face.
He gasped and tried to stop his momentum, but he was moving too fast. He managed to veer to the left, but the sword–which was closed, thankfully–sliced the right side of his face. Angelo cried out and immediately covered his injured cheek. Then the rest of the hunter stepped through the portal, and it was then that the severity of the situation dawned on Angelo.
The Fighters were now in the Pokémon dimension. They thought they were looking for Angelo, but they were now in the wrong place.
If they didn't see Angelo get tossed through that portal, then they would have no idea where he was now.
Angelo was now in the Smash Mansion…with no one else but the hunter.
"I'm all alone.
There's no one here beside me."
-Donkey, Shrek