Chapter Four
The Prankster stood before the three defenses, prepared for them. It took a whole day, but now the solution was easy. After a bit of a pep talk, The Prankster sped across the booby-trapped hall and avoided the falling ceiling. Next, The Prankster walked through the rows of magnetized blades and came up to the crushing walls. Pulling a sword from behind the cape, The Prankster wedged it straight between the two walls after activating the trap. The walls clamped onto the sword, but it didn't break. The Prankster made it through the last defense, grinned, and entered the Master Control.
Once again, The Prankster switched codes around and then made a new change in one of them. A small slip of paper fell from The Prankster as it melted the tapes again and then it listened carefully. It heard a small sound. Searching the room, The Prankster found another secret recorder, Mario's second attempt to gather more information about the mystery intruder. The Prankster melted that, too. Satisfied with the pranks it had pulled for the night, The Prankster hurried away, laughing.
"It's gone! Someone stole it! It's gone!" Allstar Link was in a panic, racing around the cafeteria and waving his arms, "It's gone! It's gone! Someone stole the Master Sword!"
"By the Programmers, will this madness never end?" SNES Fox sighed. The other Allstars watched him run around a few more times before someone had the idea of throwing a glass of water into his face.
"Hey! Cool it!" N64 Capt. Falcon snapped. Link stood in shock, head tilted to one side and mouth open, still unable to grasp the idea that the Master Sword was gone.
"They're gone! They're gone!" the Kongs all screamed as they poured into the room.
"Shut up! Everybody, shut up!" Allstar Mario screamed out as they raced insanely around, "What's been switched this time?! Link! How did the Master Sword get stolen?! Only you can pull that sword from the stone!"
"Our Golden Bananas are gone!" the Kongs wailed.
"Ah, not this crud again." Final Sonic muttered as he rested his head on the table. Complaints began to sound out from around the room. GC Shadow was talking backwards, N64 Fox couldn't find any of his clothes, Samus' blaster cannon shot Poké Balls, GC Sonic turned red overnight and refused to come out of the bathroom, Banjo's sharktooth necklace was replaced with DK's tie, the N64 Yoshis' Super Happy Tree was growing mushrooms instead of fruit, and the coins from the Mario games were all silver instead of gold.
"The Prankster must either really love to torture us, or hates us enough to torture us." Allstar Luigi muttered.
"I think it's a mix of both." Allstar Peach remarked, "At least he didn't mess with my clothes or things."
"All right for you, princess," Sonic muttered, "but didn't we just get through saying The Prankster could never get past the triple threat defense?"
"Never say never, especially with The Prankster." Peach declared. Mario pulled his hands down his face and made a noise of frustration.
"Arrgh! All right! Let's go see what happened this time! And drag Allstar Link along! He's standing there like a braindead Christmas tree, minus the ornaments." he grumbled and stormed off towards Master Control.
The group found the ceiling didn't stop the intruder so they shut it off. The blades didn't work either, so that was turned off. Then they came to the wall crushers and that's where they found the Master Sword. Allstar Link stared at it. It was wedged between the two walls; the blade on the right, the hilt on the left. Link frowned slightly and called out Robinett's name to shut off the defense. He picked up the sword, examined it, then slid it into the sheath on his back.
"I don't understand it. How did The Prankster steal the Master Sword? And cram it in the defense?" Peach asked aloud. With no answers to the questions, the group pressed on and entered the Master Control.
Once again, the chairs were rearranged and the tapes were melted. Mario sighed as he looked down at what remained of his tape recorder. Allstar Link put in his code, reached up to the controls, and fixed the games and characters, then paused with a frown.
"Mario, take a look at this. According to this, the Donkey Kong games never had Golden Bananas." he called out, looking down at the screen, his hand still on the keys above him. Mario and the gang ran up to see. It was true. The codes in the program for Golden Bananas had been erased.
"Unbelievable. The Prankster wiped out the Golden Bananas from the program." Mario breathed in amazement. Link quickly rewrote the codes and, with Mario's help, put the bananas back into the program. "Everything else okay? Good. The Prankster found my secret recorder and wiped it out. Now we don't have any clues as to what happened."
"I found something." Luigi remarked and picked up the piece of paper, "Weird. It's got five lines and funny black dotes on it." He showed it to Mario. The plumber studied it and scratched his head.
"Looks like music. Hey, Link, you deal with music all the time. Recognize this melody?" Mario asked, handing the elf the paper. Link skimmed it and shook his head.
"This music doesn't make any sense. It's all out of rhythm. There's no pattern or beat." he replied, "I don't even know what instrument should play this. I only have experience with my ocarina, Deku pipes, Goron drums, and Zora guitar."
"Great. Now we have musicians as suspects." Sonic muttered. Peach sighed unhappily.
"That means the two new Links, GB Link, and most of the Kongs are suspects now. They have instruments and play music." she said.
"It's not mine! My ocarina can't play this! It doesn't look like it was written for an ocarina, or my other instruments! The same for GB Link! His instruments won't work with this kind of music!" Link snapped.
"How about the other Link? He's got that harp thing, right?" Sonic asked.
"Leave him out of this! How can you possibly think that Advance Link could do this?" Link barked angrily as the hedgehog held up his hands protectively.
"This paper is our only clue now. Let's analyze the other clues and see if we can find something more to them." Mario suggested and pushed the group out, "Now, come on. Let's also ask the Arcade characters to build a new defense for Master Control. These aren't working."
The characters were back in their normal routine once everything was put back in their rightful places. Diddy and Tiny told the Allstars about Superman and he became a new suspect.
"Face it. Everybody in the Nintendo base is a suspect." Sonic muttered.
"That's enough, Sonic. Now, let's take a look at these clues. What more information can we get from them?" Mario remarked. Peach gave the paper with the code a second look.
"Um, the word Alpha is written with the letters slanting to the left." she remarked. Luigi held out the paper of music.
"There are five notes on this paper." he added.
"And there were five music sounds on the tape recorder." Link put in.
"This red stuff looks like blood, but it might be something else. We'll get it tested too." Mario added, "Now, maybe we can find a pattern in the pranks. Put together a list of everyone whose games were tampered with." The group assembled a list after asking characters to repeat what had happened to them. DK noticed a pattern that didn't make him too happy.
"Hey! My games got hit three times in a row and the elves only got hit once! The Prankster's playing favorites with the Links!" the ape yelled. Link stood up angrily.
"What's that supposed to mean?! Is that some sort of accusation that one of us is The Prankster?!" he snapped.
"If the dorky elf hat fits!"
"Watch your mouth, Dimwit Kong!"
"Quiet!" Mario snapped at the both of them. The two powers glared at each other, then finally sat down. "It is a little odd that the Zelda games have only been tampered with once then remained relatively untouched, but it doesn't give you, DK, the right to accuse the Links or Zeldas of any underhanded actions." he told the ape. Mario stood up with the clues and put them all back into a box. "Now, I'll be taking the red stain sample to be tested. Allstars, dismissed." The group went their separate ways.
Advance Link and the Kong kids watched from a distance, listening with the help of a few inventions. Link cocked his head to hear better. He was at the limit of his hearing distance. With them were some Yoshi kids. The children liked to hang out together.
"DK's right. Our games have been a major target while the Zelda games have been left alone." Dixie said quietly, looking across at Link. He looked back, worried.
"You think they think one of the Links did it?" he asked softly.
"Worse. I think that DK thinks that Allstar Link did it." Diddy pointed out. Advance Link yelped and then looked angry, pink darkening his cheeks as he puffed them slightly.
"You're taking that brainless baboon's side?! Allstar Link is totally innocent! He'd never do anything like that! You're just like DK, always blaming the elves!" he accused and ran off in a huff. The Kong kids stared after him in surprise.
"We didn't mean it like that, Link! Come back!" Tiny cried out to him and sighed sadly. "The Prankster's making us lose our friends. She's breaking up our trust and friendship, the meanie."
Tiny was right. The Nintendo characters began to argue and distrust each other. Friends became enemies, disputes flared over who The Prankster could be, accusations flew, and gossip and rumors spread like wildfire. Sonic did it because he never like Nintendo and wanted them to fail like his company, said one rumor. DK did it just to get attention, said another. Everyone looked at each other with cold eyes and the warm feelings that once were felt throughout the base were replaced by equally cold ones.
Master Control had a new defense put in; a wide, long pit that couldn't be crossed without someone to fly over and press a button on the wall so a bridge could appear. The Allstars reluctantly agreed that the pit would stop The Prankster and maybe even catch him. The pit was fairly deep and would be too high for him or her to climb out of on their own. With it in place, the characters headed off to bed.
Allstar Link watched his trainee practice playing the Harp of Ages in his room. Advance Link looked a little angry and the music sounded that way as well.
"What's the matter, Little Link? Get into a fight with your friends or something?" the elder elf asked as he sat on his bed. Advance Link stopped playing and tilted up his head in disdain.
"They're not my friends. My friends wouldn't say that you were The Prankster." he replied and put the harp down. "They said that you did it. That you are The Prankster." Allstar Link looked at him for a while before answering.
"Do you think I'm The Prankster?" he asked softly and hesitantly. Advance Link looked at him in shock.
"Of course not! No! You're not The Prankster! You can't do any of those pranks! They're not you! You have no reason to do them!" he exclaimed hotly, "You're not The Prankster! I know it!"
"Everyone says I am because our games were only messed with once. Yeah, the guy took my Master Sword, but that was easily recovered and it wasn't messed with too much either." the elder Link reminded him.
"Then they're wrong! They're all wrong! You're not The Prankster!" Advance Link yelled and raced out of the room. Allstar Link stood to go after him, then decided against it. Advance Link looked tired and he went straight to his own room anyway. Better leave him alone to rest and recover.
"You and the other Links are the only ones who think so." he mumbled and flicked off the light so he could go to sleep.
Tiny sat in her room, kicking her legs and frowning. Someone started a rumor that she and Advance Link were 'steady' after someone saw them eating lunch together. DK threw a fit and grounded her. She couldn't play with Advance Link anymore and he wasn't to be allowed in the Kongs' living area either.
"I'm gonna make him sorry he grounded me!" she muttered and began to plan. It would be tricky and hard to do, but if she could pull it off, DK would look like an idiot for a long time.
The Prankster stood at the edge of the pit and looked out across it. Under one arm was a Jiggy, the very object that would help The Prankster cross the pit. The Prankster had stood there for a few minutes figuring out a plan to get across and finally had an idea. It would be tricky, but not impossible. Once it had a plan, The Prankster ran off and stole one Jiggy. One Jiggy was all that was needed.
Using a clever trick and a handy item, The Prankster made its way across the pit and into Master Control. It melted the tapes and the secret tape, then proceeded to pull a new prank. This time, it was just one prank.
It was just one prank, but it was a deadly prank. The Prankster had always played simple tricks, harmless tricks, tricks that were easily remedied and didn't cause any real damage to anyone. That had all changed now. This time, The Prankster wanted more than just to irritate Nintendo. It wanted to be taken seriously....