"IT'S LOKI SCEPTER! COME ON, PEOPLE!" I yell into oblivion with disappointment.

"Nobody even bothered to guess about the weapon, hu?" Master Hand asked as he slowly went back behind the display case for cover of what I might do next.

"Not a single soul! Ugh." I slouch over, like standing was hard work. "I sometimes wonder why I even bother..."

"Hmmmm... You should ask one of the friends you finally obtained about that."

"OH, SHUT UP." I scream back to him.

"Oh, great. Now they're arguing. Oh, why must I wait for everything? As if my life wasn't unfair enough." HMS whispered his thoughts again as he rocked back and forth.

I look over at the salesman. "Oh! Right! Redemption arc! Right!"

Kneeling down to his level, I studied the sad little man. He was missing his backpack, so that explained why he was able to run so well earlier. He was also somehow skinnier than before, which I didn't really think was possible. And his clothes were all scuffed up and ripped, yet he didn't seem to mind that, as if the clothes on his back were the only things he owned now...

Oh.

My eyes went big as my mind raced with newfound thoughts. I stood up and took a step back, giving HMS some space. But, naturally, doing so I tripped over my Poofy and fell onto my rear. I accidently drop the scepter while falling and before it hit the ground it popped and disappeared, so I guess that's just how my 3DS-science-powers works. But at that point I didn't care about that. My mind was racing to fast for me to.

Master Hand flew over to tried to help me up, but I wouldn't cooperate. I just sat there, thinking. "Ants, Come on. This isn't funny anymore." he grumbled as he tried to pull me up by my arm. He was able to scoot me forward two inches, but that wasn't what he wanted. "Uuuuuuuuugh." he mourned towards the ceiling. He looked over to HMS, who was still in a sad little ball. "Excuse me, Salesman." Master Hand said as he let go of my arm. "But what did you do this time here?"

HMS looked up in shock. The one time a bad thing wasn't his fault, and he was getting the blame! He squeezed his legs and continued rocking as he tried to mumble a answer. "Oh!... Oh, um, yeah, well, okay, uh, gee, so, ugh, right, huh-"

If Master Hand had eyes right now, he would be rolling them so hard he'd need laser eye surgery to have them work again.

Knowing that the two wouldn't be able to figure this out by themselves, I finally stood up. "HMS had nothing to do with this." I said, still trying to straiten my thought out.

Master Hand turned over to me, somewhat confused. "Uh, with you loosing it for a minute there, this place being a complete mess, or the smashers we came here to find not being here?" he asked.

"Yes!" I declared as I walking over to HMS to help him up.

"Oh. Okay. I have no idea how you suddenly came to that conclusion, but okay."

HMS was so surprised and, well, happy that someone was finally helping him that he forgot to doing or even think anything awful or sabotage-y like he always does. He just broke out in his signature creep smile as I took him by the arm and helped him to his feet.

"You didn't kick the Smashers out of your shop, did you?" I asked him as I dusted him off.

That question made his smile fad a little. He shook his head. "No, of course not." he answered. "They all left by themselves; after, uh, they robbed me broke."

Master Hand shot up at the sound of this. "What?!" the glove exclaimed as he finally floated over.

"Yeah. It all makes sense to me now." I said as I lead HMS to a place to sit. "Ryu, Marth, Lucina, Dark Pit, Mario, Peach, Young Link, Little Mac, Link; I left all nine of them here, at this shop, for over six months. It would of been surprising if they didn't go crazy."

"Uh, well, yeah." HMS interjected. "About five of them just suddenly appeared he at my shop less than a year ago. The whole group, except for Link, was pretty much, um, flat broke."

"Yeah! Right!" I exclaimed. "So that's why they were working for you when Young Link and the others came!"

"Right, ugh, yeah, that's it. And when, well, you went haikus again, I tried to have the new ones earn their keep, too."

"And they refused." I guessed.

"Oh, no. Actually, they almost went with it." the salesman stood up. "They even put on the uniforms and everything. But, right before the beginning of their first day, the crazy blue one who was dating a winged man snapped."

"Uh, what?" I said with a raised eyebrow. "Lucina?"

"Yeah, ugh, well, yeah her. She tore her new apron off and screamed at me. Stuff about being horrible and a waste of a man, nothing I've never heard before. But then the winged man joined her, then the other blue princess. Suddenly all of them were screaming at me and beating me up."

"Whoa! Really!" Master Hand exclaimed as he made a fist. "Man, what I would of gave to see that."

"Oh, hush." I call him out as I walked over and smacked him again.

"So, naturally I tried to fight back, with fire and such. But, um, of course there was nine of them and one of me, so the fight was not in my, well, favor. The pink one actually knocked me out."

"Peach?" asked Master Hand.

"Oh yeah!" I exclaimed as I raised both of my fist in the air. "Atta Peachy! I couldn't be prouder!"

HMS shot a look at me. I notice this and calmed my excitement. "Sorry," I shrugged with a soft smile across my face. "Girl power came over me."

Master Hand mentally rolled his eyes again. HMS just slouched over a little. "Anyway," HMS continued. "When I, uh, came to, they were gone and my shop was like this," he motioned around him. "ruined."

I stared at my feet. I was disappointed in myself again. Sure, HMS is quite the horrible creature, but ruining everything about him was a tad much, even to me. I shouldn't had slacked off, I should of had taken care of all of them long ago. Now, a horrible man was worst off than before, and nine beloved Smashers were running amok.

"I really blew it this time," I mutter to myself as I rested my head in my hands.

Master Hand heard this. "Yeah, you kind of did." he replied as he floated over. "But, you know you can always can fix all of this by just going back and rewriting a few of the chap-"

"What? ARE YOU NUTS? That would require even MORE work!" I exploded at him. "Heck no! You're all lucky I'm writing at all! Don't make me redo my master pieces!"

Not intimated, Master Hand somehow slouched a little. "For about the first eight chapters you called Bowser 'Browser' all-"

"Well, I fixed that! Minor flaws I'll fix, but not full out plot points!" I declared, lifting my fist in the air. "No way! Only way I'm going is up! and forward! So deal with it!"

I pull out my New 3DS and began typing a storm. "Don't worry, HMS." I said over the click click click of my stylus. "After I drop off my stuff and this glove at Smash mansion and save the terrible nine from their selves, I'll come back and help you fix this place up a bit, okay?"

The salesman in question broke out an even bigger smile. "You, uh, really mean that?" he stuttered once more.

"Yeah! Of course!" I declare, but then think better of it. "That is," I added, being quite stern. "only if you promise that when I help repair this dump, you won't use this place for evil."

HMS's smile quickly turned into a frown. He turned away from me. "Then don't come back." he replied, all serious and such. He then, with a huff, walked into the backroom and slammed the door, locking it behind him.

I just laughed. "I'll still coming back, anyway!" I called out to him, not caring if he heard me or not.

I picked up Poofy from the ground and dusted him off a bit. "You've had quite the day already, haven't you?" I whispered to the little pillow face. I held him under my arm as I turned to Master Hand and waved the New 3DS back and forth. "You ready to go home?" I asked Hand.

"What?" he exclaimed in confusion. "But we still need to find those other nine-"

"Yeah yeah yeah, I'm going to take care of that. Duh." I replied as I clicked around with my portable game. "I'm just going to drop you off. I don't need you questioning ever other thing in existence."

POOF!

I can't wait to get back to that dump of a mansion.

I started a poll on my profile if anyone cares to weigh in.

Once again, thank you all for reading! Please leave a review. Did you know that 1 out of every 10 Happy Mask Salesmans recommend reviewing Super Smash Bros. fanfiction in order to keep them from creeping people out? Yeah, I don't know either. But I still would appreciate any and all favorites, subscribes, and reviews!