KT – DA: Hey all. We're back!
Roy: Run away! Run away!
Marth: /hits Roy/ Shut up and be nice to milady.
Roy: /rubs head/ okay, okay, sheesh...
Link: Listen, can I go now? I've got a date with Zelda.
KT – DA: Sure, just wait until you've done your part. Roy, start off with the stuff.
Roy: /speaking monotonously/ Kuroi Tenshi – Dark Angel doesn't own SSBM in any way, shape, or form. She does own Sarah Holly.
KT –DA: Okay, Link. Go to it.
Link: Kuroi Tenshi – Dark Angel would like to apologize for not updating yesterday. She was suffering from writers block.
KT – DA: um... right. You can go now. Marth?
Link: Woo hoo! Free! /leaves/
Marth: We would all like to say thank you to SuperSmashGal and Princess of Altea for their wonderful reviews.
KT – DA: Great. Now let's get this show on the road!
Getting Over Our Troubles – The Second Job and What It Led To
Sarah Holly walked into the transport room that connected the Mansion with the Stadium, led by Master Hand. After complimenting her on her superb baking skills after dinner, (he had eaten a slice of cherry pie and a few cookies) He had asked her to come with him for her second job.
He turned to a large closet that was locked with a padlock and began fumbling with a ring of keys at his waist.
"Ah! There it is. Here," Master Hand extracted a silver key from the ring and gave it to Sarah. "That's the key to the Item Closet right here. It's kept locked all the time so the Smashers can't cheat."
Sarah nodded. "So what do we do with the items?"
"In some battles, the Smashers get to use items against their opponents. I used to have to put them up the day before the battle. Happily, I can now hand the job off to you. Here, I'll show you how to do it," Master Hand said, unlocking the closet door with his own key. He pulled out a bag and began stuffing it full of items. Sarah thought some of them looked rather odd. There were long rods topped with stars, gleaming purple swords, large rubber mallets, red and white mushrooms, and many more.
Finally, Master Hand seemed satisfied with what he had gathered and locked the door again. Motioning for Sarah to follow, he headed for the transporter, dragging the bag behind him. He punched a few buttons, telling Sarah he'd teach her how to operate it later, and they disappeared.
When Sarah's eyes cleared, they were standing in what appeared to be a ruined temple.
"Hyrule Temple stage," Master Hand informed her, dropping the bag of items with a thump. Sarah looked around while he unloaded the bag.
"Here," Master Hand pulled her attention away from a crumbling shrine. "Time to learn how to set item traps."
He pulled a ladder from behind a fallen pillar and set it up by the shrine. Sarah could suddenly see the light glinting off of strings, thin and clear like fishing wire. They hung from the ceiling, and no one from the stands behind her could have possibly seen them. Curious, Sarah climbed up the ladder behind Master Hand and sat on the roof of the shrine.
Master Hand pulled on one of the strings, and a small metal box dropped down from the ceiling, still attached to the string. Master Hand grabbed the box and flipped it open.
"Here's what you do. You pull on one of these strings and take the box that falls down. Put an item inside it, and latch the box," Master Hand put an item, one of the glowing purple swords, inside the box and closed it, twisting the screw latch into place. Sarah nodded to show she understood.
"Right. So then, you need to set the counter. If the battle is going to be a many-itemed battle, you set the counter low, but if they only want a few items, you set it higher. The counter counts either times that the string is brushed during battle, or seconds before the item is released automatically," Master Hand set the counter for ten brushes and tugged on the string. The box shot up to the ceiling, and the string hanging down became a darker color.
Master Hand pointed this out. "When you're finished, you tug on the string, and it'll change color so you know that this one has been done already."
Sarah looked at rather large number of strings hanging down over the stage. "Do I have to put an item on all of them?" she asked faintly.
Master Hand chuckled. "No, no! Of course not. They're all there so that you can have items popping up all over the stage." Sarah looked relieved.
Master Hand watched her set one to make sure she did it right. Satisfied, he told her that he still had some paperwork to do, and he left her to finish up. Sarah worked steadily, unfortunately coming across some latches that were a bit rusted. She had a hard time turning those, and her fingers slipped more than once, giving her some scratches.
When she finally finished, she felt surprisingly tired. Wearily, she gathered up the remaining items and slung the bag over her shoulder. She followed Master Hand's footsteps over to a small control panel on the side of the stands and found the transport button. Like before, she was surrounded by light, and when it cleared away, she was back in the transport room in Smash Mansion.
Sarah locked the items in the closet and started to drag herself back to dormitory. A glance at her watch told her that it was very late, getting close to eleven-thirty. She suppressed a yawn and continued down the hallway.
It wasn't long before she realized how lost she was. She had only been down to the transport room once before and now she was in a part of the mansion that she had never seen before. Holding back her mounting panic, she looked around for any sort of hint as to where she had gotten herself. She found nothing.
In her fright, she didn't stay put. Instead, she became curious about her location, and decided to take a good look around. Her weariness seemed to melt away as she stepped into a room to her right. The room seemed very empty. In fact, it only had one piece of furniture inside, a china cabinet that was pushed against the far wall. The room was dark, since it was nighttime, but the curtains were pulled away from the windows, telling her that the room would be bright on a sunny day.
She went into many rooms besides the China Room. Most of them were just as empty, but there seemed to be something interesting about each of them. In one, she found a closet full of beautiful gowns, gowns that a princess would have worn to a ball. Another room was full of dusty bookshelves and books. A few reading chairs were scattered around the room, and most of them had a book or two one them. Sarah spent a long time in this room, hoping she would be able to find it again. She loved books, and these looked like they hadn't been read in ages.
One room seemed to be about the size of two rooms, and its walls were covered in portraits. They were of old people, young children, a few that she would have called 'sullen teens' and some middle aged people. They were all finely dressed, as though they had been very rich. After looking at all of them, Sarah left the Portrait Room for more exploration.
There were many more rooms down this corridor, and she went into most of them. It was almost midnight when she went into her last one. This one was slightly different. It looked somehow lived in. She realized that this was because all of the windows were open, and the slight breeze had blown the dust off of everything. This room also had a few bookshelves, though not so many as her Ancient Library, and some scattered furniture. The sound of the wind and the rustling leaves of the trees were strangely soothing. They were also loud enough that she almost missed the light sniffling sound coming from the back corner of the dark room.
Stepping lightly, Sarah searched for what was making the noise. When she stepped on a creaky floorboard, the sniffling was replaced by a quick gasp, and then stopped. Sarah moved a little faster, and found herself staring down at impossibly blue eyes for the second time that day.
Marth stared back up at her, almost reproachfully, and Sarah felt hypnotized by the stare. Marth gulped and looked away, and Sarah noticed that he had been crying. Biting her lip, she crouched down next to him.
"Um... hello Marth. What... what are you doing in here?" she asked, kicking herself mentally for the stupid question.
Marth shot an ice-blue glare at her. "Trying to get a little privacy," he snapped.
Sarah nodded. "I'm sorry for intruding on you. I, er, got lost going back to the dorms, and I just started looking in all the rooms down this hallway."
Marth sighed, and his anger seemed to dissipate. He wiped at his eyes. "You got lost, Milady? I'm sorry. I shouldn't have... I wasn't thinking about... It's only your first day working, of course you would get lost."
"Does anyone else come to this hallway?" Sarah asked, her explorer's spirit flaring up again.
A small smile formed on Marth's lips. "No. Just me. I found it the first week I was here and just sort of claimed the whole thing as mine. I've never mentioned it to anyone."
Sarah couldn't help herself. She fell in love with the idea of a secret room that only a select few could know about. "Oh! That's wonderful! I've never had anything like that. My family lived in an apartment for a while, but we moved to a small house after I was—"She cut off suddenly, frightened at what she had been about to tell him. This boy, who she had only just met today. She didn't even know him, and she was about to tell him the dark secrets of her past? What was wrong with her?
Marth didn't say anything about the abrupt halt in the conversation, but he had clearly noticed it. He maneuvered away from the topic. "Did you see the library?"
Sarah perked up. "Yes! I hope I'll be able to find it again. I love to read."
"So do I. If you want, I'll help you find it until you con do it on your own. I don't really know why, but I think I'd like to share my hallway with you," Marth offered meekly. If Sarah hadn't been enjoying it so much, she would have laughed at how they were acting like very small children who wanted to share their lunches.
"Thank you. I'd like that very much," She replied with a smile. Suddenly, she felt tired, lulled by the rustling leaves and the wind. She barely stifled a large yawn and glanced at her watch. It was one o'clock in the morning. Marth leapt to his feet and held his hand out for her.
"Milady! I didn't realize how late it was. Let me take you back to the dormitory," he said with concern in his voice. Sarah took his hand, flinched a little at the contact, and allowed him to pull her to her feet.
Marth looked at her. "Did I hurt you?"
Sarah blushed lightly. "N-no. I'm fine."
"But... alright, if you say so. Come on, it's late," Marth said, dropping her hand as well as the subject. He led her out of the room and down the corridor. Sarah was surprised at how far off track she had managed to get. It took them nearly ten minutes to reach the stairs to the dorms. They gave each other a final goodnight, and Marth smiled at her. It was a genuine smile, without a trace of sadness in it. He bowed to her, and then disappeared into the room he shared with Link and Roy.
Sarah closed her bedroom door and collapsed on the bed, not bothering to change clothes or even take off her shoes. Tired out by work and exploration, she fell into an easy, dreamless sleep.
KT – DA: Ta daaaaa!
Marth: Cool! I get a secret hallway!
Roy: It's not really secret. Anyone can get to it.
Marth: Yes, but they don't, so it's all mine!
KT – DA: And Sarah's now.
Link: I'm back! What did I miss?
Roy: Oh, nothing much. Just another chapter.
Link: Oh. Okay then.
Marth: I'm going to play Fire Emblem. See you all later.
KT – DA: Review, please!!!!!!