"Popo, I feel it getting tighter…! Can't you go any faster?" Nana panted. Her attempt to wipe her glistening face was a waste of energy; the rest of her was so saturated, the action only seemed to add sweat.

"You're the one…huff… setting the pace, woman! I'm not a…puff…a machine, you know!" Popo wheezed in response.

"If you don't move that body faster, neither of us is gonna finish; do you want to live with that frustration!?"

"Fine!" A couple seconds later, and Popo's ragged breathing was all but blasting into her ear as he picked up his pace. They were both tired, but they also needed to see this activity done. They had done nothing but talk about doing it, and they finally worked up the nerve to commit to the act. Nana initially felt embarrassed about performing in a public setting, but people needed to know just how deep their bond went.

"Almost…almost there. Keep…hngh…going!" She grunted.

"Nana, I…I'm gonna—" Popo groaned, his voice strained with effort.

"Don't you freaking dare!" Nana snapped.

A sudden, loud beeping brought them both to a dead stop. Nana fumbled in the pocket of her parka for a moment before fishing out a digital stopwatch, the source of the beeping, and pressed a button on the side to silence it. Afterwards, she beamed down at a collapsed Popo, feeling rather proud of their accomplishment. "Look, Popo! We went at it for an hour!"

Her jogging buddy merely laid there, apparently far too occupied with filling his lungs to form a coherent response. He took a moment to untie the length of rope that was tethering his wrist to hers, before weakly offering a thumbs-up. Nana eventually flopped down next to him, the consequences of the exercise suddenly catching up with her. "Okay, maybe we should have taken a gradual approach to this." She sighed at an answering grunt from Popo, though she reached over and tousled his hair regardless. "Look, we were doing so well on the treadmill—twenty minutes without issue! I thought we could go for an hour, and we did. So there."

He grunted again.

"Popo, I'm gonna need you to use actual words if we're gonna have a conversation here." Without preamble, Nana withdrew her hand from his scalp and immediately channeled a blizzard spell, point-blank, directly into his face. Popo spluttered and flailed during the first couple seconds of the onslaught, but eventually went limp with a sigh of relief.

"Ahh…much better… Thanks for that." Popo quickly lowered his hood and opened the front of his parka, as the residual snow from the spell rapidly melted in the heat. The black undershirt he wore beneath his parka was made of a material allegedly designed to draw in and absorb moisture, and he seemed eager to test it out. Nana declined his silent offer to return the favor, simply content to catch her breath.

Nana pressed her hands onto the ground and leaned back to look to the sky. Off in the distance, she could see a mass of somewhat darker clouds coming in from slightly southwest of their position. First bit of weather she'd seen so far since they'd arrived. She plucked a few blades of grass, let them fall to the ground, and determined maybe five to seven hours would pass before some rain would hit the area.

A little less than a week had passed since that first day at rehearsals, and they had been alternating days between rehearsals and conditioning training ever since. Slowly, but surely, there were improvements in both fields; their timing in the entrance routine was getting tighter, for sure. In theory, it shouldn't take more than a good few days of routines to get everything figured out, which would free up more days for their body training sessions. That was where the real improvements were needed. If those changes Ness mentioned were true, they would have to really step things up in order to remain on an even footing.

Nana had pitched a few ideas to expand upon their combat repertoire over the past few days. Despite their more chaotic nature, Popo was quite receptive to her ideas. However, he expressed some concerns about not being able to reliably practice them, and they would probably have to improvise during their actual matches. He didn't want to clue people in on what they were planning, which made sense. In the meantime, he had stressed the importance of sticking close to one another, hence the idea of tethering their wrists together for exercises like the marathon they just ran.

Taking a moment to divest herself of her end of the tether, Nana clasped her hands behind her head and laid back in preparation for a short nap; Popo's even breathing suggested he'd already dozed off. She was worn out, sore, and very warm; perfect conditions for falling asleep herself when a sudden grunt from Popo brought her back to the waking world. Apparently someone wasn't quite ready to be down for the count…

"Hey, Nana?"

And that someone seemed insistent she be up as well.

"Yeah, Popo?"

He fell silent for a few moments. Nana assumed he'd fallen asleep again before he spoke up.

"What do you think Wolf was talking about yesterday?"

Suddenly wide awake, Nana quickly sat up and attempted to look casual as she looked around. While the route of their little fun-run had taken them well out of the Housing District in the last half, there was always the possibility of someone milling around at the worst possible moment. She couldn't see anyone. Popo was still lying down, staring at the sky. He either didn't think the topic was a sensitive one, or he figured they were secluded enough to openly talk about it.


~Twenty-Two Hours Earlier~

They were watching Wolf perform his entrance routine.

Nana and Popo were ensconced in what quickly became their usual seats in the Primary Arena, when they were available. They'd started to use the awning seats over the entrance that went unused during rehearsals, as they provided an excellent vantage point for both the ring and the side door everyone used to enter. Popo felt the need to keep an eye on the second one, just in case there were repeat performances of their conversation with Peach; the extra walking distance would afford the waiting partner just that much more time to formulate responses to queries about their exclusion or their relationship.

Fortunately, their companion in conversation during today's rehearsal was Snake, who only focused on the former subject.

"Huh, looks like everyone in here was missing in action last tournament," Snake muttered as he sat down behind them, leaning on the backs of their chairs.

Nana grunted, while Popo nodded with a sigh.

"Yeah, the gang's mostly here. Maybe we should form a secondary faction," Nana grumbled, simultaneously tired of talking about it, yet also wanting to discuss it with Snake, as he was a kindred spirit. At least he was easy enough to talk to; he and the Ice Climbers hailing from colder climates laid an interesting foundation from which they could easily get along. Hearing Snake talk about the annual competition between the indigenous tribes around his home turf was always an interesting topic, and they would answer with stories from their own inter-village contests.

"How about 'The Screwed Squad'?" Popo suggested, gesturing with his hands as if he were unfurling a banner.

Snake chuckled for a moment, before clearing his throat. It didn't make his voice any less gravelly. "It's not a pretty subject, so I'll spare you guys from talking too much about it. You've probably been repeating your story a lot since you got here."

Nana nodded after a moment. "Yeah, we got asked about it a few times. All we really know now is that Master Hand said he's investigating things. But with all the tournament prep-work he probably has to oversee he's probably being pulled in a lot of different directions. So who knows how long it's gonna take?"

"Maybe we'll hear something after the Opening Ceremonies and things calm down. Let's talk about something else," Popo stated, seemingly unconcerned with his borderline commanding tone with Snake.

She could hear Snake's smile in his voice. "Alright, alright…so what should we talk about? Whatever it is, I don't think it should be about Wolf's prancing, though," the soldier added in a considerably louder tone, which made the bipedal, lupine man stop and sneer up towards them. "What? You've got to be prepared for hecklers in the crowd!" Wolf snorted derisively and went back to his practice. Snake sighed. "He really needs to lighten up, which says a lot coming from—"

"Wait a minute, look who's coming," Popo interjected, pointing towards the side entrance everyone was all too familiar with at this point.

Something was off the moment Fox and Marth stepped into view; Nana actually looked up to see if Crazy Hand or some maintenance worker Mii was messing with the lighting system for dramatic effect. When she brought her gaze back down to the ring, she could see Popo lean forward and curse under his breath. Snake made a quick gesture to silence them both while tapping behind his ear with his other hand. He then quietly stepped over their row of seats to sit next to Popo. She couldn't understand what the mercenary was doing; a quick glance shared with her partner could only elicit a shrug from Popo.

Wolf stopped his routine, swaggering across the ring to drape himself over the top rope to better stare at Fox and Marth's choice of seating. She couldn't see Wolf's face from this angle, but judging by the open hostility on the bipedal, vulpine man's face it couldn't be anything other than the dirtiest scowl.

"Well, well, well…" Wolf crooned, and Nana could barely see one corner of his mouth curl up in a rare smile. "If it isn't Fox McCloud, in the flesh; I expected you to keep avoiding me until the Hands teleported us onto Final Destination or something."

"Well, Wolf, I can't exactly be everywhere to greet everyone. I'm only one guy, and there's looking to eventually be at least seventy-four of everyone else." Fox shrugged, sighing with more than a hint of exasperation. "Shouldn't you be getting back to your little song and dance? You're wasting your time slot," He added, rotating his hand in that nigh-universal 'get on with it' gesture.

"No, I think this is something a little more important. It's not often I get a chance to have a chin-wag with the man who sold me out." In one fluid motion, Wolf leaned hard on the ropes, using them to flip his body out of the ring and land on his feet, before stalking towards the two. Marth had reached for his sword, but halted when Fox put a hand on his arm. "Yes, stay your hand…this is between us, after all."

Nana quickly turned away to risk a glance at the other two beside her. For the most part, they kept low and still. Snake seemed far more at ease in his role as observer, while Popo seemed to be fighting the urge to fidget. A quickly lost battle, as his leg began an incessant bouncing that refused to stop, even when she placed her hand on his knee. This only earned her a look of apology, and the tiniest shake of his head.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Wolf." Fox's words brought her focus back to ringside. He was now standing, arms folded across his chest, and his nose almost touching Wolf's. She wouldn't have been surprised to see one of them reaching for their blaster. If Nana wasn't so concerned about what might happen next, she would have bet money on Wolf being the first to draw.

"Of course you don't," Wolf spat, his stance firm. "It was nearly two years ago, and you were probably having so much fun that you'd forgotten about it. I only hope that when all is revealed, you'll at least have the courtesy to grovel—"

Wolf's tirade was suddenly cut short when he was suddenly shoved by Fox, and all hell broke loose.

As Wolf fell backwards, he'd grabbed the collar of Fox's jacket and pulled him over the barricade. They landed in a tangle of thrashing limbs, both parties landing hits before and well after they'd hit the ground. There was no finesse or science behind these strikes, a stark contrast to how Nana had seen them fight in the past. Even when they somehow scrambled to their feet, the fighting remained ugly.

Popo started to stand, only to be pushed back into his chair by Snake's firm hand. "Don't get involved, kid; you'll only find yourself in trouble too," Snake commanded. After a tense moment, Popo nodded and simply leaned forward to watch the altercation unfold.

For twenty long seconds, the brawl went on. Wolf eventually tackled Fox back onto the ground, where they exchanged blows via whatever means while rolling. Wolf managed to drive his knee into Fox's midsection, and Fox paid him right back with an elbow to the jaw. All throughout, Marth was shouting orders for the two to cease fighting, but neither showed any sign of stopping. Just when Nana thought the altercation would only end when one or both fighters were unconscious, Pat the Mii zipped out from the side entrance. His stormy expression was evident, even at this distance.

His amplified voice reverberated throughout the arena. "SECURITY TEAM; WE HAVE AN UNAUTHORIZED FIGHT AT RINGSIDE! TWO ARE INVOLVED!"

Immediately, the doors opposite from the side entrance flew open with a startling bang, and ten strong-looking humanoids surged into the arena. Of the ten, six appeared unarmed, but she could see that two were carrying swords with metal dowels for blades, and the last two were equipped with some kind of high-tech arm cannons, not too different from Samus' weapon of choice. Silhouetted against the light of the open doors, those were the only details about these newcomers she could initially make out. Once they swarmed into the well-lit portion of the arena, however, Nana spotted two interesting attributes; their blocky hairstyles, and their telltale digitized faces. These were actually Miis! These bulky combat models were so far removed from their floating, capsule-bodied, spindly-limbed counterparts. They even had actual hands!

What also set these models apart from the common Mii was how they completely bypassed what might have been a dialogue phase to stopping a fight—they went straight for brute force. Separating into two teams of five, the three unarmed models were in charge of pulling the belligerents apart, while the two with the cannons hung back. Even though they were more than ten feet away from the main action, the cannon-clad Miis leveled their weapons at the struggling charges of the unarmed. The ones that were carrying the swords stood at the ready between both groups, electricity now arcing off of the surfaces of the dowel-blades. Marth, wisely, raised his empty hands and slowly stepped back from the barricade until his full body was completely visible to the combat Miis.

Pat's expression flickered over to something resembling disappointment, spherical hands resting on his hips. "Get these two to Master Hand's office," he snapped. While Wolf looked rather surprised at the arrival of these newcomers, neither of the canines seemed to care about their impending sentences, nor their present conditions. Fox sported some swelling around his left eye, and Wolf had a nasty split in his lower lip. The latter grinned, unflinchingly exacerbating the oozing wound while allowing the Miis to shove him towards the exit.

"This isn't over yet, Fox! Not by a long shot!" Wolf's words and laughter echoed through the arena as the two were herded out.


~Current Day and Time~

Nana was in thought for a while before responding; she wanted to make sure she recalled the memory as perfectly as she could. After a beat, she sighed and shook her head.

"I really don't know what he's getting at. I remember Wolf getting a bit…dramatic in the past, but I've never heard him airing dirty laundry between the two of them like that before…" She trailed off with a shrug. "At least Snake was there to keep you out of trouble. You had me scared when you suddenly got up to jump in."

"You know, I still have no idea what I woulda done if Snake didn't stop me. Those two were acting like…like…"

"Like animals?" Nana offered.

Popo laughed, rolling over onto his belly to look at her. "Yeah, though I hope I never slip up and say that to their faces. I also hope we never get caught in a scrape where someone could rat us out. I do not want to deal with that…Security Team." He shuddered.

A small shiver ran down her backbone before she replied with a cringe. "Boy, tell me about it. I can understand some of them carrying those nasty-looking swords, but are those arm cannons really necessary?"

With a tilt of his head, Popo somehow managed a shrug from his prone position. Nana suspected he wasn't going to be moving anywhere of his own volition anytime soon. "Who knows what goes on in the head…palm…fingers—whatever!—of Master Hand, these days? With apparently so many Smashers and with crowds as big as they are, he probably just wanted more muscle behind the scenes to compensate. I wouldn't be surprised if it took big fights in the past to encourage Master Hand to make these new models." He nodded with an air of authority, rolling over onto his back once again.

"You know, Popo, I'm so glad these aren't our good parkas. The way you're rolling around, that gray's gonna become just as brown as mine is." She began giggling, which immediately evolved to full-on laughter when Popo suddenly schooled his features into his best impersonation of Harasen's lecture-face and began to roll more, never once breaking eye-contact.

Eventually he stopped, looking like he came to a realization. "I…think my legs aren't working anymore. Hold…hold on a second." He sat up, and started to do some stretches.

Nana rolled her eyes with a shake of her head, rising to a standing position. "If I have to carry you back, I'm gonna swaddle you up for being such a baby about a teeny little jog." Looming over Popo with arms folded, she continued. "That might make a wonderful addition to someone's scrapbook and—"

"Hey, whaddya know," Popo leapt to his feet, staggering for a moment on wobbling knees. "I think I'm feeling better already!" A few tentative steps were taken. "I can at least make it home, anyway…"

"Good!" Nana enthused, doing a complete one-eighty from her previous threatening tone. "After we shower and eat lunch, we need to restock on supplies. I don't wanna get caught in that rain on the way back." She took a moment to gather up the rope, and coiled it around her shoulder before running over to support a tottering Popo for their walk home.


Popo's hammer connected with the sandbag, and he felt no small sense of satisfaction when, despite Nana's best efforts at holding it in place, it flew backwards. She quickly retrieved it and dragged it back to where he stood. As she settled back into position, he saw her dig her crampons into the ground for better purchase, before bracing the bag with her hands.

"Again," she barked out.

Popo didn't give her time to prepare; he immediately did an about-face, and hopped backwards to deliver a backhanded swing at the sandbag. The mallet swung true, impacting a mere half-inch above where Nana's right mitten was holding it.

"Good! Do that again," Another aerial strike landed, this time just below her hand.

Nana continued issuing her commands, and Popo would answer with the appropriate swings of his hammer.

Yesterday's visit to the Primary Arena turned out to be a total bust for rehearsals; there were just too many Smashers present who were also waiting to practice. It wasn't too surprising, since a brief consulting of their computer's messages that morning showed that there were currently over sixty competitors on-site, but still sort of an annoyance to see such a long line. For their physical training, however, it wasn't a total loss. They'd settled for exploring the Arena—after seeing that there were enough Smashers ahead of them to last at least eight and a half hours—and eventually found a tattered sandbag in one of the storage rooms. After a quick patch-job and refilling, it was ready for use again, and they carried it out of the building via an underground vehicle ramp. After some deliberation, they brought their prize to a rather secluded area at the top of a wooded hill overlooking the Housing District, with the intentions of practicing their attacks after a jogging regiment up said hill.

A few minutes came and went, and Popo found himself somewhat winded during his controlled assault on the sandbag. Time between his attacks increased, and the power behind his swings just weren't quite holding up. Still, he soldiered on, because he hadn't been swinging for nearly as long as a match would theoretically go on.

Nana noticed this, and he could see a mischievous spark in her eyes as she peered at him from behind the sandbag. "Starting to fade, my dear? Left side, high."

He sighed, his hammer thwacking the sandbag in the designated area. "Not really? I could probably go for a few minutes more."

"Doesn't feel like you can... If you're not that tired, why not pretend the sandbag is somebody? Left side, go for the middle."

His aim was true, even though he had to wait for her hand to move. She was quick, but he wanted a clear shot. "I don't think I have the imagination for that, Love. There isn't anyone here I hate enough to go all-out on…right now, anyway."

Nana's eyes once again peeked out from behind the sandbag, one eyebrow raised. "It doesn't have to be anyone here. What about…Kallik?"

"Kallik!? That…that arrogant little…" He then let out a wordless shout of frustration, and his swings connected with the bag with full force once again. High swings, low swings, overhead swings, jumping swings; you name it, he did it. Maybe a few more head-height swings than he should have used in a row, but there was enough variety in his other strikes at least. All throughout this renewed intensity, a litany of cusses filled the air, which in retrospect made for a fine duet when combined with Nana's melodic giggling as she constantly circled around the bag to keep it upright throughout the barrage of swings.

Popo's wrath peaked when he grabbed the sandbag out of Nana's hands. It felt particularly good to envision the smug bastard's face on the thing's surface, as he reared back and delivered a couple of quick head-butts, before turning to throw it in the opposite direction. The sandbag actually bounced off the ground before flying right into the tree-line. He couldn't help a self-satisfied grin at how far he managed to throw the dang thing.

That grin was wiped right off his face when he heard several startled shouts of alarm emanating from where it disappeared in the trees.

"Well," Popo blandly drawled, planting the head of the mallet onto the ground and leaning on the handle. "Looks like we're gonna have some explaining to do."

"Hey, what're you just standing there for?" Nana huffed. "You threw it, you get it."

"Yes, Miss." Popo heaved a sigh that hopefully was too dramatic to be taken seriously, and marched towards the tree-line. At least she was taking today's role as Lead Climber seriously.


"And you're sure they came this way?" Young Link was asking as they picked their way through the woods. It was the third time Ness heard the query, but he was too determined in following their only lead to get mad about it.

It stung a little, admittedly; Ness, Lucas, and the Links had a wonderful little reunion a little less than a week ago, but the conspicuous absence of a certain couple definitely marred the occasion. Compounding the issue was his apparent inability to properly give Nana and Popo a piece of his mind, because they were somehow never home whenever he rounded up this little posse and came knocking on their door. They also weren't found sating their burger addiction at that one eatery, and finding them in the department store would be a nightmare in logistics with just the four of them. They couldn't even catch them at the Primary Arena for rehearsals, but at least other Smashers reported seeing them there. Ness finally caught a lead when he'd spotted them running through the streets of the Housing District a few days ago.

Now, Ness was well aware that he could have simply showed up on their doorstep during the evenings. But with their lights shut off so early, he'd decided it would be super weird to wake them up just to tell them off. Not that organizing this little hunting party to locate and tell them off was any less weird…

He'll address that issue when it came up.

"Absolutely sure; I'd seen them jogging this way the other day." He pushed aside a branch, wondering if their little quartet should have stuck to the main pathway. Staying off the beaten path might have suited them if they were tracking a wild beast, but these were two goobers in parkas. Why didn't anyone take over leading the group when they got to this area anyway? Surely one of the Links would be more adept at taking point in this formation. Maybe they just deferred to him as the de facto leader because he was the first young Smasher? That still didn't make sense, because Kirby was younger…maybe? Just how did that little puffball's kind age, anyway?

Maybe he was just reading too much into it. He just happened to be in front. That's all.

"What do you think they're doing, anyway?" The other Link—Toon Link—wondered, a shuffling sound suggested he was scratching his head. At least he and Young Link were getting along, something Ness was very worried about initially. At the outset, there were a number tense and awkward moments between the two as they ironed out some misunderstandings. Fortunately, once they'd figured out their places in the whole temporal tapestry that served as the backdrop for all of Hyrule's representatives, they became fast friends.

Ness's own efforts at figuring out the timelines quickly left him with a massive headache. Big Link, who was yet again a different Big Link, let him borrow a book about it once. It only slightly helped. When he'd returned the tome, days later, Link's comment about how 'nobody was accepting it' had left Ness scratching his head.

There he went, getting lost in his thoughts about the past again.

"I'd really like to find out, whatever it is," Ness muttered, before adding, "They better not have been running off just to make out or something. They can do that at home."

"No, that's not like them," Lucas quietly stated. When everyone turned to look at him, he blushed a bit from the extra attention. Still, his expression was resolute and he nodded firmly. "Hey, I might not have known them for as long as…" He started to point at Young Link; he then seemed to think better of it. "As long as…" A repeat performance with their cat-eyed companion followed. "Okay, as long as Ness has, but we've hung out enough. I know how they are. We all—"

"Wait, shut up a second," the young Hero of Time(?) interjected curtly, leaning forward with a hand to his ear. "I think I hear someone shouting."

Lucas looked chagrined for a moment, but confirming Young Link's discovery quickly overwrote the emotion. Before long, Ness could also hear it. It was definitely Popo's voice, and boy did he sound ticked.

"What's got him so wound up?" Ness pondered aloud, and he started to move on with greater urgency. Faint thumps were now punctuating a litany of increasingly audible swearing as they zeroed in on the yelling. "Guys, I think he's fighting someone!"

The four boys dropped all pretenses of stealth and forged ahead as fast as they could. Ness and Lucas struggled a couple of times, but luckily they were able to at least keep from losing sight of the two Hylians, who definitely did have a lot more experience in moving through this kind of terrain. Ness could see a clearing up ahead, though he couldn't quite tell what was happening. Whatever it was, though, it definitely involved a beat-down of some kind.

Lucas was able to reach the Links a few seconds ahead of Ness, who had snagged his clothing on a thorny bush. While he was unharmed, he wanted to be careful in extricating himself; he liked this shirt. As Ness drew near, he crouched low to match the stances of the other three. Toon Link was peering through a small telescope, humming thoughtfully.

"You see anything?" Lucas was asking.

"No," replied the part-time sailor. "There was movement, but that was a sec—Incoming!"

The sound of rustling leaves and snapping branches was the only herald that something was hurtling their way, as Toon Link had no time to identify it. The four boys scattered, diving out from each other with startled shouts as the pinwheeling object crashed to the into the dirt somewhere near where Young Link had just been standing. The heavy thing then skipped along the dirt, end over end, before sliding to a stop near the bush Ness was previously ensnared in.

"What the hell was that!?" Ness demanded. He picked himself up, dusted the dirt and twigs from his person, and took a look at the others. Apart from some minor scrapes, everyone appeared okay. Lucas was already at the 'crash site' of whatever the object was, and he looked confused. Carefully, Ness picked his way through the undergrowth to come up alongside Lucas, only to sigh when he saw familiar eyes blankly staring up from a canvas surface.

It was a sandbag.

Well, now he just felt stupid.

Ness barely registered the other two coming up alongside him. Pieces of an overall puzzle were appearing in his mind's eye, and he began to slot them into place. Absences explained, avoidance maybe debunked, and he felt his previous hurt feelings dissipate. Didn't mean he wasn't still annoyed about the whole thing, but he understood a bit more.

On closer inspection, it definitely looked like this thing had seen better days. There were new patches sewn into it, and many of the non-crucial seams were coming undone. There was considerable fraying around the edges, and a couple of the loops for the mounting chains had been torn off long ago. It was hard to tell, but Ness could only assume this was a relic from either the second, or maybe even early third tournament.

"So uh, any chance I'm gonna be able to get that back or…?" A new voice asked from directly behind Ness.

He whirled around with a yelp of surprise, fingertip ablaze with a PK Fire, before he realized he was just about to light up a grinning Popo. The two Links had reacted similarly; they'd reached for their swords before stopping to awkwardly hover their hands over their left shoulders. And Lucas…Lucas was trying—and failing spectacularly—to fight an oncoming grin, and was covering his mouth with one hand to poorly hide the fact.

"I saw him sneaking up on you three. I wanted to see what he'd do," Lucas admitted with a shrug, once he'd realized the jig was up. "I didn't even think he'd be able to do it."

Ness looked back to Popo, who simply held an index finger to his smiling lips, and let the PK Fire dissipate from his fingertip with an exasperated sigh.

"We've been trying to find you guys for a while, you know," Ness grumbled. "Also, you look ridiculous in that parka."

"Really? I've always been told lavender brings out my eyes." Popo fluttered his eyes to emphasize his point, before assuming an unnaturally serious expression. Slowly, he swept his gaze to meet the eyes of the other three boys. Eventually he nodded, his expression softening into a sheepish one. "I guess we have been kind of scarce lately. Sorry about that, guys."

Wait a minute…

Ness blinked in surprise. What did Popo just do there?

While he never discouraged the other Smashers from believing otherwise, Ness was no mind-reader. Letting that common exaggeration go sometimes afforded him the occasional edge in matches from time to time—at least against the more superstitious opponents who believed in things like precognition, anyway. What Popo just did was exactly what people often accused Ness of doing, Popo included among them, and it left the PSI-user perplexed.

"Hey, it's alright," Lucas said in an assuring tone. "Looks like you've just been trying to train more, that's all."

"I appreciate it, but no. We could've easily made time to hang out with you guys, but we were too preoccupied with trying to…I don't know, catch up or something," Popo frowned as he stepped past Ness, and hoisted the sandbag across his shoulders. "C'mon, let's go meet up with Nana; she'd have my hide if I hogged all you guys to myself, you know?"

Popo led them back to the clearing, where Nana was doing some test swings with her mallet. Every couple of swings, she would jump back or put up her hands to guard not unlike a boxer. She was wearing an equally ridiculous orange parka. She spotted them easily enough, and waved them over with a big smile on her face.

"Hey you guys," She gave everyone an appraising look. "I hope Kallik didn't land on you when Popo launched him your way."

"I never agreed to that name," Popo immediately retorted.

Young Link shook his head, holding up a hand "No, we managed to avoid—wait, Kallik?"

"It's a bit of a story," Popo muttered, flinging the sandbag to the ground with more than a little bit of force. "Several stories, actually, from both of us. He sucks."

Ness smirked a bit, stroking his chin in thought. They never spoke much about their home life until recently, so he found this to be a nifty change of pace. Usually it was Nana and Popo who were learning about everyone else's home life. Except when they talked to Snake, anyway; that man seemed incredibly adept at getting anyone to open up.

"So uh, why were you guys lurking out in the woods and tracking us?" Nana asked with a neutral expression, stepping past Popo to address the four. From his position behind Nana, Popo threw them an apologetic look.

Ness winced; Nana wasn't wasting time in getting to the point. Of course, when she phrased it like that, it certainly sounded like a weird thing to be caught doing. Regardless of how it made his party look, though, he had to press on. He took a deep breath, clearing out most of the choice phrases he had on the tip of his tongue.

He must have cleared out more than he thought, because he didn't know what to even say now.

He rubbed at the back of his head, choosing his next words as best as he could. "Listen, I…I got the wrong idea, I guess. Lucas showed up, we got together with Link and Link, and we were trying to find you so we could all hang out together, you know? But we couldn't find you." He paused to rub at his temples with the thumb and middle finger of his hand. "I somehow got it in my head that you guys were avoiding us or something, and I don't know how."

He lowered his hand to see Popo looking away and rubbing his arm. Nana looked similarly guilty, with her hands clasped behind her back while she toed at the dirt with her boot. He quickly held out his hands and shook his head. "No no, this is mostly on me. Anyway, I didn't really think about why you guys were so scarce."

Neither of the climbers spoke for a while. Ness almost felt like he was under the gaze of a disapproving teacher, and he barely fought down the urge to fidget. Finally, Popo broke the silence after a look of dawning realization crossed his features.

"Why uh, didn't you just send a message from your computer thing?"

Ness was stunned, his mouth hanging open with one finger raised. And he stayed like that for a good minute, until Nana approached him and clapped her hand onto his shoulder.

"It's okay. Let's just skip to the part where we're cool with each other again, because me and Popo want to do some catching up." She grinned and gave him a light shake before stepping past him to greet the others. Popo followed along behind her, shrugging when he caught Ness's eye.


Nana was reclining against the base of a tree some time later, taking a long pull of water from her canteen. She then doffed her hood so she could pour a good deal onto her hair and face. Her portion of the workout was done, and she was content to relax while watching Lucas and the Links have a go at the sandbag. Popo was holding the bag in place while everyone took their turns practicing on it.

It was really nice to have met up with everyone—especially Young Link. Out of everyone, it had been the longest since she and Popo had seen him, and his appearance was the most surprising. It was nice to see that neither of the Links had really changed much. If anyone in the group had changed, it was Lucas. Somewhere in the middle of the last tournament's broadcasts, they'd noticed a change in his demeanor. While they couldn't figure out exactly what the change was, it was definitely for the better.

She'll have to ask him about that sometime.

Ness flopped into a seated position to her right, breathing hard from a recent session of bag-work.

"That sandbag was a good find, Nana! The others thought they'd never get a chance to actually practice anything until the actual matches," he exclaimed, once he'd caught his breath.

"There's probably a lot of unused things in storage closets all over the place," Nana hedged. "We could probably find everyone here their own sandbag, and maybe an assortment of other items. Whatcha guys think about bringing back that one game we all played back when we had access to the sparring chambers?"

"Oh god, Pit-Ball would be so fun to play again. Not out here, though; who knows how many teeth we'd knock out of each other, and I'm pretty sure you and Popo prefer each other…you know, intact."

"Yeah, we definitely do," Nana said after a brief hum of contemplation. "Our bond helps, but we can still be shallow sometimes." She grinned, watching Popo taunt Toon Link from behind the safety of the sandbag. He kept poking his head out to make faces or say some quip, then ducked back behind to avoid a slash. "I probably wouldn't mind if he had a heroic scar, though. You know, like over his eye or cheek? Give him a little authority when he starts staring someone down."

Nana turned her head and saw a hint of a frown crease Ness' forehead. Her smile waned. "Hey, sorry about that," she mumbled softly. "We're gonna try to tone down our...well, everything."

Ness shook his head slightly, as if snapping out of a reverie. "Hmm? Oh, no, don't worry about that. Not now, anyway," He added with a soft laugh. "No, you just reminded me of something that I wanted to ask one of you about. When Popo came out to get the sandbag, I sorta got up in his face about how you guys were so hard to find. He then just sorta…just stared at us for a moment, like he was confirming how we felt. I uh, couldn't get a reading on him."

Nana raised an eyebrow, and brought her gaze back to Popo's antics. The Links now had him in some sort of wrestling hold, but Popo was defiantly trying to break out. He even had a hand outstretched towards Lucas, like he was trying to tag him in for help. Lucas was too busy laughing to take up the offer.

"Well, the Elder's been trying to groom Popo to be Chief someday, but I don't think he wants to. Whenever anyone asks him about it he just gets all grumpy. Not to say he didn't still learn a thing or two, though." She paused, looking skyward with a finger tapping at her chin. "I know he sat in on a bunch of disputes between our own people, and sometimes people from other villages. He was probably using some trick he picked up from that."

"When you say it like that, you mean like your cryomancy?" Ness asked, a note of concern coloring his words.

"No, no, nothing like that." Nana waved dismissively. "He just got really good at reading expressions, and some people are like open books to him. Like Link there—" She pointed to Toon Link, who had released the hold on Popo to keep the sandbag steady for Lucas's turn. "—he definitely wears his heart on his face. I wouldn't worry though, because it's just as easy to read Popo sometimes."

"Really?" Ness sounded more interested than that warranted. "What sort of tells does he have?"

"Ah-ah, that's a secret." Nana turned to wink at Ness and waggle a finger. "A secret learned only through living together for as long as we have." She paused, to haughtily toss her hair. "I don't think he'll let you swap places with me though. You wouldn't look good in pink, and stripes just aren't my style."

Ah, that was the reaction she'd been fishing for; Ness was all but choking, caught between laughter and gagging. The outburst was loud enough to where Toon Link and Lucas had stopped to take a look, but Popo and the other Link were still wrestling each other on the ground, unconcerned. In a one-on-one scenario, perhaps grappling with Popo wasn't the best idea, but the Not-Kokiri was holding his own alright enough.

Ness calmed down to speak his mind again, but it took a bit of time. "I'm gonna go with 'no' on that. Spend enough time cramming three guys onto a hotel bed and you find yourself glad to be sleeping alone. Of course, I don't think you two ever had that problem, right?" He drew out that last word, smirking with a brashness Nana had been quite familiar with over the years.

Nana may have said she and Popo were going to tone it down on the relationship stuff, but now Ness was just asking for it.

The natural blushes she and Popo featured on their cheeks often did them no favors when they were trying to be taken seriously, but in moments like this…

"Oh, so that's why your face looked like a tomato when you left our place, huh?" She took on a scandalized tone, combined with a slightly darker flush of the cheeks. The second bit wasn't planned, but it didn't hurt. "If we had known you'd be sneaking around, maybe I should have locked the bedroom door!" She rested her hand on her chest, a hint of a glare crossing her features.

"What—no, nothing like that! I just picked the wrong door, that's all. You see, the bathroom's at the end of the hall in my—" Ness started to explain.

"But if you absolutely must know, Ness," Nana interrupted, refusing to give him space. "The answer is no, we don't have any trouble sleeping together. Of course, we only did it before for survival; sharing body heat and all that. Now it's just how it is. I don't think we can go back to separate rooms, though; I'm too used to waking up to find Popo stroking my—"

"Oh god, please stop! I'm sorry!" Ness's shriek sounded so desperate, and he looked like he wished to be anywhere but here right now.

"—hair." She finished without missing a beat.

"…Hair." Ness repeated with a blank stare. His lips were locked in a frown, but his eyes were comically wide. Nana mimicked his face until he finally noticed and slumped forward with a huff.

"Sometimes I really hate you guys," he said, the smile on his face taking all of the edge out of his words. "But I did walk into that, so well played, Nana."

"I think I'm just gonna do that whenever people bug us about our private lives," Nana groused with gritted teeth. "Just gush and gush, until they get tired of it and leave. Maybe I can get Popo to help come up with something saucy just to overwhelm people." She gave Ness a little side-eye, a lopsided frown twisting her lips. "You think that would work?"

"Man, I don't know," Ness bit out after a moment. "I mean, it definitely worked on me, but you might try it on some creepazoid and then you'll get a stalker wanting to know more." He shook his head. "I'd just ignore it, if it were me."

"Hm, good point," She finally conceded with a soft growl. "Why do people care about this so much, anyway? Don't they have matches to worry about?" She looked out towards the other boys, and felt a stab of pride—or maybe it was just a muscle cramp—at seeing Popo escape from Young Link's hold with relative ease. The two then stood, and caught each other in one of those 'I'm still punching you' kind of boy-hugs. Toon Link and Lucas had also stopped working over the sandbag. "I think everyone's ready to stop. Hit the showers and then meet up for food?"


"So Popo's stuck in bed with this…this fever that has him all loopy; which means our village wouldn't have our best representative in the event," Nana took a moment to take a bite out of her burger. Popo just had an odd little smile on his face, lidded eyes focused intently on his partner while he sipped his chocolate shake.

Lucas was listening intently. He'd wanted to know about the origins of the sandbag's namesake, and Nana seemed incredibly eager to spin a yarn for them.

"What happened next?" He asked.

"So we're scrambling to try and find a replacement, but no one's feeling confident at all. This is well before we'd started training villagers to do what we do, and as much as I hate to praise the iteq, he's a good grappler." She paused to take a sip of her soda. "So while the Shaman's trying to find someone—anyone—who's feeling froggy enough to try this guy, Kallik's happy as a clam. He's going on and on about how we'll either forfeit or he'll win, because then he'll have his pick of the girls to be his arm-candy for the evening's festival."

"That's…awful," Toon Link murmured, and took a bite of his chicken sandwich.

Lucas nodded his assent, folding his arms across his chest with a glare. "I…know I'm not from there, but I still don't think it's right for your girls to be treated that way." He wasn't too surprised at the pangs of anger surfacing in his thoughts. He forced back some of the Ness-isms that were forming on his tongue, because he had a feeling the story wasn't over yet.

"It's a purely ceremonial thing, these days." Nana clarified. "Sit up together at the Guests of Honor table, have a dance or two…we're slowly moving away from it, though. If it makes you feel any better, most of the boys are actually pretty good about it. But then you get some of them reading the old stories about how it used to be, so long ago, and they make a huge deal out of it."

Lucas used the minor distraction of eating his meal to tamp his anger back down a touch more, and motioned for her to continue.

"This event took place…maybe two, three months after we got back from our second time here?" She stole a quick glance at Popo, shrugging.

"Two months, Nana," Popo replied.

"Two months, thanks. So we're still relatively hot from our tournament run," Nana said with a wry grin. "So I run to Popo's half of the cabin, and I steal his blue outfit. Then I mess up my bangs a little bit, and then I just sorta…stagger out to answer his challenge."

"No way," Young Link exclaimed incredulously. "That actually worked!?"

"Sure did! He'd never met either of us before that, and I know now that the broadcasts from here weren't crystal-clear images, so he genuinely believed I was a sick Popo who was braving a fever. So the rafts take us out to the floating platform that's anchored in the middle of this super-cold lake. It's a square wooden thing, about three or four yards across, and unstable as heck to stand on. But the event dictates that we wrestle on it."

"So on the way out there, he's mean-mugging me and saying how it'll be my fault that he'll steal one of our girls. At this point, I'm just about ready to kick him where it counts just for that, but I'm pretending to be Popo, so I gotta be patient and boring, so I let it slide." She ignored Popo's raspberry. "Then they give us the signal and we start grappling. Now in this event, you're not winning by pinning someone, or getting a submission, or even a point system like some martial arts thing; you win by throwing the other guy into practically freezing water. Discomfort and humiliation, all rolled into one neat package!"

Popo simply snorted and took a big bite out of his burger.

"And while I match Popo in strength, we both have little techniques that let us beat each other, and this guy's not falling for mine real easily. I get him off balance a few times, he gets me off-balance a couple times; there's a lot of back and forth." A rather disappointed look crossed her features for a moment; Lucas figured that she probably felt the match should have been easier.

"It takes a while, but I get him real close to the edge of the platform." She held her hands about six inches apart from each other. "But somehow the hood falls off my head. And because I've still got the rest of my hair in the traditional braids, he easily sees that not only am I not Popo, but also a girl!"

Nana sat back and took a long pull from her soda, and set the cup down on the table. Without a word or a glance shared between the two, Popo had grabbed it and left to get her a refill.

Lucas was patient while he waited for Popo's return. The other three boys were not; they were quite literally on the edge of their seat throughout the sudden intermission.

Popo was nothing if not efficient though, as was Nana when the cup was placed before her. She continued after a short drink.

"Sorry about that. Telling this story always gets me parched. Anyway, Kallik is now flipping out, screaming about how we're not taking him seriously because a girl is his opponent. Even though this girl—" She pointed at herself. "—went move-for-move against him and still had him reeling. So I look back and nearly all the spectators from both villages are laughing, and the Elder and the Shaman are both facepalming. Buuuuut, no one technically said to stop the match, so I push him off."

Popo leaned back in his chair and covered his eyes with his hand, and shook with laughter at this. It was infectious, as Lucas and the other boys soon joined in. Ness composed himself first.

"That can't be where it ends. What happened next?"

Nana's smile shrank for a moment, but suddenly got wide and toothy. "Well, I got handed a punishment detail for bucking against tradition, officially. But the women pretty much covered most of it for me." Her face all but glowed for a moment. "Popo took care of the rest of the chores when he got better, and he got into a hell of a shouting match with the Elder on top of that."

"It was the first time I'd ever raised my voice at the man," Popo grunted.

"You really got punished for that, Nana?" Lucas queried after a pregnant pause. "You provided a challenger; it shouldn't matter if it's a man or woman."

"Tradition," They deadpanned simultaneously. Lucas sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Believe me, we're starting to get tired of it ourselves," Popo stated with a wave of the hand. "As Nana said earlier, we'd started training people to do what we do, and that includes the women. Initially it was because we needed something to do when we learned we weren't coming back here. But then we started looking at the volunteers, and noticed an even split between boys and girls that showed up. So we started getting everyone building trust amongst each other, and encouraged partnerships."

"Like Peach?" Ness asked sardonically.

"You make that comparison again, and it'll get tragic for you," Nana declared in cheery singsong.

Toon Link finished off his meal and wiped his hands with a napkin. "You said something about there being several stories about this jerk. What else went down with him?"

"Aw, c'mon you guys," Nana whined, thrusting her hands wide. As she did, she'd plucked a few fries off of Popo's tray and deftly popped them into her mouth. Popo didn't seem to care. "We've already said so much about our lives; let's hear some more from someone else."

"Link—" Popo pointed at Young Link. "—start talking. We got a lot more years to hear about from you still. Surely you had more quests or something since you've been gone..."

Lucas smiled as the conversation went on, drifting from subject to subject with little in the way of intermissions. He was worried about an awkward tension springing up from Ness's method of finding Nana and Popo, but fortunately the moment had passed. They'd probably resolve any remaining issues on their own time. The important part was that everyone was getting together, and he got a crisp ten dollars from Ness!

If only he had a use for money where he came from…


Author's Note: (12/02/2019) I liked how…most of this came out, actually! Couple notes about the last chapter: I experimented a bit, to see if I could write decently while keeping the word count to a specific number (6,666 including author's notes, for Chapter 6, and releasing it on Halloween? I couldn't resist.), and I feel like I'd succeeded in that endeavor. So I figure I'd reward myself by letting the word count for this chapter go nuts.

This go-round we get a little test to see if I could write out Lucas at all, and I feel like I'd just thrown out a bunch of tips my friend had given me to do just that. At least I didn't fall into my first trap of just making him "Sad Ness". I'll refine his characterization as I go along, since I kept it pretty light. I couldn't resist referencing another story I like that features the kid.

I dunno how long I can make each post-chapter thank-you note unique, but at least know I'll never copy/paste a previous thank for your attention and feedback. Simply put, thank you for everything!