A/N: Aie... It's been so long... Stupid school...

Ed: Eliwood almost ran away during your absence.

FME: But I caught him! (places a hog-tied Eliwood on the floor) Aren't I good?

Yes, you are! (gives her a biscotti)

Roy: I WANNA BISCOTTI!

Biscotti for all! (biscotti fall from the air)

Roy and Ed: YAY! (chow down)

Matthew: Wait... w-what?

Link: Hey, it don't have to make sense. (munch) Want one?

Matthew: Eh. (munch) Mmm, hey, that's a good biscotti!

Eliwood: Mmmfrp!

Anyway, it's time for the next chapter! YAY!

Dragon Blood: Chapter 7: Evil Summoning

Marth groaned involuntarily as he struggled to awaken. Everything that had happened all seemed like a blur to him, but he seemed to remember that something happened to Roy, and judging by the dull feeling in the air, he wasn't anywhere near the SSBM Mansion anymore.

"Marth... Marth..." Someone nearby was trying to speak to him, but he found it hard to decipher what they were saying. He forced himself to open his heavy eyelids and glance around his surroundings. They seemed to be in a canyon area as he looked out past the cliff he rested on, though the crevasse in the earth was covered by a blanket of mist, making the atmosphere cold and damp. The canyon-side was lush with grasses, moss, and ferns, and a willow tree drooped its thin branches above him like a canopy. He had to admit, the sight looked beautiful, but his brief moment of security ended when he tried to move and found he could not and it hurt to try.

"Marth, don't move!" The same, now familiar voice warmed him, and he slowly turned his head to see Link beside him, tense as he sat in a mess of vine-like weeds wrapped around several places on his body, as if holding him in place. Marth glanced down to find himself in a weed patch of his own, but the vines seemed alive, squeezing him in a steady rhythm like a heartbeat. Any attempt of movement would result in strangulation.

Marth sighed inwardly. I guess this is what we get for pissing off a sorcerer... "So... where are we?" He couldn't think of anything else to do or say at the moment.

"I dunno..." Link glanced around warily. "Call me crazy, but... I think we're in the Flammorian Mountains."

"Say what? I thought those mountains were bare!"

"They used to be. I did a little side research while looking up Vanuto. Apparently, when dragons still existed, this place had a large population of them, so the area was bare during that time. When they were gone, the ashes they left behind fertilized the land, and it re-grew twice as much foliage as before."

"You don't say..." Marth muttered, glancing out tiredly into the foggy sky. "So what do we do now?"

"Who knows..." Link cringed as the vines squeezed a little too hard. "It's obvious Vanuto left us to our death, and it's not like there's anyone out here to help us."

"I'm more worried about Roy," the Alteanian sighed, gaining the elf's attention. "I hope he's okay..."

Link couldn't help but share his friend's feelings. With Roy in such a state with a new body, he was most likely left vulnerable to whatever Vanuto had in store for him. And now the two were half a world away were they could do nothing but wait for their gruesome demise.

Link winced as something seemed to bite into his arm. He glared down at it, and the vine currently wrapped around it recoiled as if intimidated. His eyes widened at the cut left in his flesh, and that's when he noticed the large thorns growing off the vines.

A gruesome demise indeed.

----------

Roy awakened slowly, allowing his weak mind to recollect itself before bothering to open his eyes. As the memories came back to him at full force, his nostrils as strong as a bloodhound's detected a series of unpleasant smells mixed with cold stone, and he swore he could hear bursting and bubbling boils. He tried to move his arms, but found he couldn't, and for some odd reason he tried to flap his wings, but they wouldn't move either, pressing against close walls.

"So, the dragon awakens," a painfully familiar voice spoke to him. "I hope you aren't too uncomfortable."

Finally, Roy opened his eyes to survey his surroundings. He realized he was in a small room with stone walls (obviously not visited in some time), and Roy suddenly felt cramped in these small confines, probably as a result of his slightly bigger body. The single window outside showed the midnight blue skies and twinkling stars of the nighttime. Right underneath the window was a table cluttered with flasks and chemicals, giving off the impression of a lab of some sorts. And there, mixing all the compounds together, stood Vanuto, facing the table. He put down the bottle he was mixing and turned to face Roy calmly, taking a few steps toward him, to which the dragon recoiled slightly in his trapped position, with his wrists tied behind his back, his ankles tied with his tail, and wings trapped against his too-close-for-comfort walls.

"Hmmp." Vanuto frowned in distaste. "You may be a dragon, but you are a poor specimen of one compared to the real thing. But I suppose it's because the human blood is stubborn to reveal itself."

Roy felt a growl from deep in his throat. "Where are my friends?"

"I wouldn't worry about them if I were you. The Deadly Strangle plants of the Flammorians have most likely cut them to ribbons by now."

"You dirty...!"

"But right now I have other things to attend to." He reached down under the cuff of his boot to produce the knife that had cut his flesh earlier. Roy recoiled further, and he would've been sweating like crazy if his skin still had the proper glands.

"Oh, stop it, I'm not going to kill you," Vanuto sighed irritably as a response to the frightened look on the dragon's face. "All I need is a sample of the pure dragon blood, that's all."

Roy shivered at simply the thought. Vanuto stepped up, grabbed his tunic, just above the belt, and forcefully yanked it apart to show Roy's yellow belly. Within the underbody folds was highly noticeable indent with a near see-through membrane coating it instead of flesh. This made Roy think back to the random stories he read or heard, remembering how dragons were slain with a single strike to the weak point on their bellies. It was when he realized that the indent was the weak point of legend in which he began to panic.

But before he could get a chance to protest or try to squirm away, Vanuto stuck him like a pig in that same spot with his dagger. Roy let out a cry of pain as he pushed the tiny blade in as far as it could go, the pain rippling across his skin like a rapidly-spreading infection. He glanced down as Vanuto slowly pulled the dagger out as it dripped green...blood? Was that his blood? It must've been, as Vanuto seemed quite satisfied by his bounty, turning back to the table.

"And relax, you aren't going to die," he noted out of the blue, catching Roy's attention. "That was the only place I could've extracted anything. The wound's not deep enough to be serious."

Roy ignoring the semi-assuring comment and opted to watching the sorcerer closely as he stirred the coated blade in the concoction. When he removed it, it was covered in a sticky green film that almost seemed to glow. With a quite eager look on his face, Vanuto took the knife and stabbed himself in the shoulder, much to Roy's initial surprise. He cringed as an obvious response, but grinned widely as he allowed the substance to slip into his bloodstream, like an injection. With his other hand, he gripped the bone staff that leaned against the wall and concentrated. And once more, the gem glowed menacingly and the electric surge in the air returned.

Roy witnessed in horror as Vanuto dropped to his knees, dropping the contaminated knife with a clatter, but still clutching the staff tightly as if his life depended on it. The scared dragon found himself unable to watch Vanuto's transformation as he quickly looked away, but was still left to the dreadful sounds of clothing tearing and the agonizing screams.

Then, when it was all over, Roy heard a thundering roar of annoyance and felt the ceiling bricks fall onto his face.

----------

"You see anything up there?"

"No... but I've got an odd feeling..."

"I just sent Fox up there with the scanners. He's coming to check out the radiation and such."

"I really don't think radiation caused it, Mario."

"Well, whatever it was, we all saw it. Check back once Fox gets a good view."

"Right." Samus shut off her walkie-talkie and slipped it back on her belt.

Apparently the incident on the roof didn't go unnoticed. Nearly all Smashers occupying various rooms of the Mansion had seen the flash outside, and it was too suspicious to be ignored. Along with the fact that Link, Marth, Roy, and Vanuto had for some reason gone missing since this morning.

Mario handled the situation by sending out various groups of Smashers to different areas around the Mansion to locate the source of the odd phenomenon, if not find the missing Smashers. Samus was sent alone (by request) to the roof, which had seemed the most likely place, as Marth and Link's weapons were found here earlier. As she waited for Fox, she glanced down idly at the rest of the Smashers gathered on the lawn, waiting for answers. From up here, she couldn't catch their idiotic conversations, and she liked it that way. Their half-wit opinions were a waste of her time. Thank goodness they were sending up an intellectual who would gather the facts instead of jumping to conclusions.

Soon enough, the door of the main rear tower opened as Fox excited and stepped onto the roof, checking his wristband computer as he gave her a nod in greeting. "Where were Link and Marth's weapons found?"

Samus smiled to herself. Straight and to the point. She liked that. "Right here." She directed him to the spot that had been chalked up. Fox knelt down and check his scanners on his computer. His brows furrowed.

"Huh. Weird..."

"What?"

"I've got their energy readings, but they're very faint. If they were gone after 9 o' clock this morning, the readings would be stronger than this..."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"...They were here, and then they suddenly weren't. They were moved too quickly from this spot."

Samus rubbed the back of her neck in thought. "Maybe they teleported," she ventured.

"Yeah." Fox stood sternly. "Or they were teleported by someone else."

Wow. And he figured that all out just through the readings. Samus was silently impressed.

But that sense of accomplishment faded when Fox's ears perked up, and he instantly turned towards the far tower, where he must've sensed something amiss. Samus moved to approach the tower, but the kitsune held her back, a silent warning she did not protest to. He looked at his scanners, which were beeping like crazy.

"Fox? You up there yet?" Mario's voice asked through his walkie-talkie.

Fox snatched it off his belt, turning his gaze away briefly. "We've got massive energy ratings from the eastern tower; something's going on over there."

"Um... Fox?"

"What?" He turned back to the tower, and his skin paled underneath his fur.

The tower had been faintly rumbling for quite some time, but now it shook furiously as if something was trying to get out. At last, that something broke through the ceiling, sending chunks of stone into the air in a fountain-like blast. And when the smoke and dust cleared, a giant pair of pale wings unfolded to stretch in the outside air of freedom.

Fox and Samus stumbled over each other, trying to move in the opposite direction as the broken tower, when whatever creature the wings belonged to leaped off its perch and swerved towards them in a silvery blur.

"Duck!" Samus pulled down Fox with her as the blur flew above them with a windy sweep. Having the breath knocked out of him, the vulpine sat up wide-eyed in terror of dodging one close call. But then that horror was met with another one: the image of a colossal silhouette against the full, silvery moon.

Fox gaped. "No...way..."

Samus growled under her breath, noting the screams and shouts from below. Damn... My suit better be charged up for this...

A/N: Ooh, I left you in the most EVIL cliffhanger!

Link: EVIL! (smashes random things with a baseball bat)

Matthew: WEE! ME TOO! (grabs a bat and joined him)

Eliwood: Crazy people... (eating a biscotti)

FME: O.o How'd you get free?

Eliwood: The magic of a plothole.

Ed: Eeeevil plotholes...

Link and Matthew: EEEEVIIL! (smash Eli)

Eliwood: AH! OW! OUCH!

Roy: XDDDD

Haha! Review, people! Sorry for the short update! And I promise, everyone's gonna be ok! Promise!