Chapter 6

The Saboteur

Link rushed back to the arena, Pikachu giddy with excitement on his back. "Oh, no! We're late!" Link shouted, looking at the shadows on the ground.

"PIKA!" Pikachu exclaimed. He leapt off of Link's back and, charging himself with electricity, bolted forward. He was fast as lightning.

"Wow," Link said. He sped his own pace up, knowing that Pikachu wouldn't fall off now. Then he stopped. "Oh, yeah..." he said, as he remembered a very important fact. He pulled his Ocarina from his cloak and put it to his mouth. Moving his fingers on and off the holes in the top of the blue instrument, he played a soothing tune.

Epona faintly heard a soft tune playing in the distance. At first, she dismissed it as birds whistling, but when she listened closer...

She knew this tune! She hadn't heard it in a long time, not sense link fought against Gannondorf... Hold on a second...

LINK! He was calling to her with his song! Epona's head shot up from the grass she was grazing in. She turned to the direction of the music and bolted, afraid to arrive too late for what Link needed.

Meanwhile, a shadowy figure skulked through the dorm rooms. He moved silently, hitting the walls in the shadows whenever he heard someone coming, then moving again when they left. It dashed down the halls, turned left, and sprinted for room 257...

He didn't know whose room this was, but he did know that rooms 250-262 were reserved for the Smashers. One of the rooms had been emptied after Mario's defeat, and another had been emptied after Link's victory. The shadow smirked as he remembered that Jigglypuff had also been removed. So, there were now three rooms of the twelve emptied.

The figure pressed the side of his head to the brown wood door, listening for movement. When he heard none, he entered the room.

"Hay! Hay! C'mon, go FASTER!" Link shouted. Epona whinnied in protest, but Link's heels quickly changed her mind. "We're going to be late! I would rather not miss this match!" Link stated, explaining the situation to Epona. It was all Greek to her.

At length, they reached the arena. Link patted Epona on the side for making record time across the forest, leapt off her back, hastily gave her a carrot and rushed to the high walls of the arena. He saw Pikachu standing there, bewildered, one ear up and one ear down. "What's going on! Who's winning?" he shouted. When he looked inside the arena and saw that nobody was there, and cursed loudly. "I missed it!" he shouted, stamping his foot on the ground and removing his hat in anger. His short blond hair was strikingly handsome in the sun. Link took great pride in his presence.

Link looked over at Pikachu. "I'm guessing by your reaction that Luigi won. Am I right in my assumption?" Link asked. Pikachu shook its head. "Then... Jigglypuff won?" Link demanded. Again, the rodent shook its head. "Excuse me?" Link wondered, confused. "What happened?"

"Come inside, I'll explain everything," Marth said, from the waiting room doors. Link plodded over to him, wondering what the answer to all his questions was.

The shadow turned sharply. The Smasher who stayed in this room was coming back! He had to hide. He gave off a shrill shriek and ducked under the bed, where it was dark.

Luigi shouted angrily over his cell phone. "Can 'a you believe it? My match is 'a cancelled!" Luigi shouted. A murmur came from the hearing end of the phone. "Some-'a-thing happened to 'a Jigglypuff, Mario! No, I don-'a know what!"

So, this was Luigi's room? Good. The shadow would be doing great things here. After all, too many people liked Luigi for this to be a big deal. This would be a catastrophe!

Luigi burst through the door of the room. "I can' 'a believe it either!" Luigi shouted. He flung himself on the couch and turned on the T.V. There was a show about Italian foods on. "I call 'a you back, okay?" Luigi said. "Good 'a bye."

Luigi popped a tape in the V.C.R. and pushed the record button. He turned the T.V. off and, making sure his key was in his pocket, stormed out of the room.

The shadow crept out from under the bed. So, Luigi liked T.V., did he? The shadow would give him something to watch that he'd never forget!

"What do you mean immobile?" Link demanded.

"I mean that she wasn't moving at all. She was just frozen there, starring at the T.V. There was a tape in the V.C.R., but when we played it, it was blank. We don't know what happened," Roy responded.

"We think it might have been terrorists," Marth added.

"So, Jigglypuff's out of the game?" Fox asked, casually. "One less person to beat. You've got to feel sorry for the giant, pink Twinkie though."

"You're making progress," Link said. "You didn't hint that you were completely happy she's nearly dead. I think you might just make a friend yet."

"I didn' mean anythin', just speaking my mind," Fox stated.

"I think that's the problem," Link responded.

"I think that's enough!" Marth firmly stated. "You've got to learn to get along. Goodness."

"Agreed," Roy commented.

Link and Fox turned away from each other and faced opposite walls. Captain Falcon thought it was just like watching two children fighting with each other. The whole smasher team had been called together to be told what had happened to Jigglypuff, and everyone was there, save Ness, Luigi and Mario.

Kirby squealed in gibberish. Pikachu understood him to mean, "Jigglypuff has been petrified... Perfect. Just perfect." He couldn't help but wonder what was coming next. Someone obviously didn't want the Smashers there.

It was late now. Luigi came back into his room, almost cooled down. The rest of the evenings matches had been canceled, due to the mysterious petrifying of Jigglypuff, and the rest of the day had been fairly uneventful. Luigi looked on his night stand. A tape lay there. The label read "Important message for Luigi." He figured it must be a message from Marth and Roy, having something to do with the tournament. He popped it in the T.V. and looked in near-amusement as a shadowy figure appeared on the screen and started talking.

That is, if you could really call this talking. The figure made bleeps and honks, speaking only in code. What he was saying was encrypted at the bottom. It read:

Dear Luigi,

If you are reading this, then you are most likely the next victim I have chosen for the sabotage of the Smashers Arena. In a few moments, you will be feeling nothing.

Luigi laughed as he read the words on the T.V. screen, but he was quickly silenced as a needle poked into his back.

The shadowy figure quickly injected Luigi with the serum before he had a chance to look away from the T.V. screen. He would be immobile within seconds. He stepped on the side of the T.V. and started triumphantly mimicking the speech he had recorded.

"The serum you have just been injected with will keep you from moving at all for several years, more then enough to scare everyone away from holding this tournament ever again.

Unfortunately, I can't guarantee your safety over the years in which you are frozen... But wait... We old-timers don't really care about that any more, do we? Ha, ha, ha."

The shadow turned to leave, but found an angry Link of Hyrule standing in the doorway. The shadow bleeped in frustration, then charged at Link, refilling his hypodermic syringe as he ran. He stabbed the needle toward Link, but he stepped to the side and kicked the needle out of the bleep's hand. He then whacked it in the head, if you could call it a head. The thing bleeped in anger, then pulled something in the shape of an oilcan out and started littering the ground with "Oil." Link looked in slight confusion at the shadow, but he immediately saw what it was doing when it pulled out a match.

"NO!" Link shouted, reaching for his bow and an arrow, but he was too late. The oil exploded, and Link flew back, hitting the wall hard and sliding down it. Link quickly got up and ran at the shadow, kicking it hard in the face. The shadow stepped back, then grabbed Link and threw him in the air, if you could call it throwing. It was more of a juggle. Link was on the floor and the bleep was covering him in oil hastily. Link reached for his sword, but the code-speaker had already pulled a match from his black expanse. "I'm dead," Link said.

"Not on my watch!" a familiar voice said from right beside the battling pair. Fox Mc.Cloud stood behind the shadow, holding his blaster to its head. "Step away from the elf!" he commanded. The shadow complied. "Now drop the match!" he continued. The shadow cooperated again, and the match faded as it hit the ground. Footsteps could be heard in the hallway.

The shadow made a long, scratchy groan. He had been caught. The Master wasn't going to like this at all.

Marth and Roy dashed into the room, swords drawn, followed by Kirby, Pikachu, DK and all the other remaining smashers. "What's going... Oh, no, Luigi!" Marth shouted.

"Not another one!" Roy shouted.

"I know what's going on," Link stated.

"What?" Marth said. "But... how?"

"Were you born yesterday? He was here the whole time," Fox stated, coldly, his gun still pressed against the shadows head.

"Um... why 're you cover'd in oil?" Captain Falcon asked.

"That... thing... tried to light him up," Fox said, speaking for Link.

"And where did you come into this?" Roy demanded, looking at Fox accusingly.

"He saved my life," Link told them.

"He... what?" Marth asked.

"Sorry, I was under the impression that you could see. I AM holding this thing at gun point!" Fox shouted, now extremely pissed off.

"Sorry..." Roy stated, blushing. He put his sword away, and Marth followed suit.

"So, what do we do with it?" Samus asked. "Kill it?"

"No," Roy said.

"Pika?" Pikachu demanded. Kirby echoed his question in gibberish.

"We want some answers," Marth explained.

DK grunted in confusion.

"I'm with DK. All he can do is bleep. We can't understand him," Link said.

"WE can't, but I know someone who can," Fox said.

"Who?" Link asked.

Just then, Falco walked through the door, followed by Slippy and Peppy.

"Reporting for duty," Falco said, dully.

"I've got the translator ready, Fox!" Slippy stated.

"My goodness, I never thought I'd live to see something older then me," Peppy stated, "Is that Mr. Game and Watch?"