Chapter 39: Treasure Box

When all the Smashers finally managed to squeeze pass the doors and converge inside, they were greeted with architecture that boggles the mind.

As Wario mentioned before, the casino was way bigger than it appears on the outside. The Smash Brothers were confused on how this could happen when they first understood the properties of the building, but when they asked Jack Grey, he simply replied: "Magical science, now can you please piss off! I'm flicking my coin here."

"Ugh, he says that every damn time we ask." Snake muttered to himself.

"Don't focus on how it works, just admire things the way they are. If all secrets were left unturned, the world would become a much boring place, wouldn't it." Joked Lucario.

The length of the walls were that of the size of two football fields-matching equal in measurement, a perfect square-with red and black hearts and diamonds of the like adding much beloved texture to the surface.

All around were creatures that deify the laws of normality: A monkey in a detective outfit sipping a glass of wine; a pile of pink slime with thousands of eyeballs playing at 4 separate chess tournaments; A female knight doing the I-really-got-go-now dance by the female restroom door, banging on it with such fury; A sentient chocolate-chip almond hiding behind a trash can in fear that someone would eat it; A demon from hell congratulating his friend, an electrician for getting a phone number from a blind Medusa. Every sort of character from the mind of creativity could be found in this very Casino.

"How the hell is this not proof that this place is a multidimensional hot-spot!? I know the readings came up negative but I mean just look at it!" Wolf shouted, earning the perplexed looks of a suicidal clown and miniature Sasquatch. "There is nothing else that could-"

"Will you close those lips of yours, boy?" Scolded Ganondorf. "We're not here to get attention, it'll just make things complicated in our search."

"Speaking of searches, how are we going to find the Newcomer! It'll be like finding a needle in a haystack!" Bowser said gesturing to the various vices around the area: Blackjack: Shock-Therapy edition; pin-the-tail-the-tale dart throwing competition, Russian roulette but with crossbows. The casino was like a jungle, it's appears doubtful that they'll find the Newcomer that easily.

"Hmm, What if we get Jack Grey to help in our search?" Suggested Snake, he didn't like the idea of getting the skeleton along with their plans but without him the rescue may take longer than expected.

Wolf bit his lip in content. "You sure that's a good idea? That guy is wild card. We don't know if he'll even want to help us."

"Yeah, besides." Butted in Bowser. "We don't know where to look for Grey."

"Isn't he always in his office?" Asked Wario.

"He's not always there." Snake scanned the room. "In fact, he's almost never there. Jack is always roaming the casino, either monitoring for any potential cheating around the games or hosting events to the guests. If we're going to need Jack, we need to find clues about his whereabouts."

"Found it!" Lucario said.

Snake was surprised. "Already?!" he tracked the eyesight of his friend to a note that was plastered on a gold pillar; it was attached very recently. It read:

The Ultimate Poker Day Celebration will be hosted at the Ballroom by yours truly, come immediately if you want the chance to receive the ultimate prize.

Jack Grey

"Poker Day?" Questioned Wario.

"Jack prefers to host poker early in the morning." Explained Ganondorf. "Hence Poker Day."

"That's just stupid."

"In any case, we have found our clue. Let's go to the ballroom before we miss our opportunity." Said Meta-Knight.

"Let's take the elevator." Lucario directed the Smashers to a glass cylinder tube that was connected to the floor and ceiling. The king of evil pressed the up arrow; the group waited several minutes before the elevator car arrived. Wario was about to go inside, but Snake blocked his way inside with an extended arm.

"You fart, and I'll punch your eyes."

Wario offended, frowned at the solider as all Smashers went aside. After Meta Knight tapped onto a button, the doors closed and they were sent to the heavens.

The ride was annoying but tolerable; the only thing that was irritating was the soft but repetitive music that hummed though the space of the box. To pass the time, Bowser asked an important question. "So what exactly can Jack Grey do? I know he's a skeleton but what other tricks does he have under his sleeve?"

"We don't the fullest extent of his abilities, despite being quite the charming showman, he's doesn't really 'show off' that much." Said Lucario.

"Unless you piss him off." Said Snake.

The jackal shook his head. "We definitely know he has a form of Pyrokinesis, but that's not the only ability he has: He can generate and manipulate cards and coins, has very dense bones, detect gold, can transform himself into smoke and ash, and lastly alter the structure of his casino."

"Alter the structure?" Questioned Wolf.

"Alter in the sense he can telekinetically shift and move the items and architecture in the building, and that's all we know at the moment."

Before anyone can ask, the communicator was ringing. Meta-knight took the device and answered it.

"[Guys! Something just happened!]" R.O.B. Panicked.

"What's the matter?! Did the mansion get attacked?!" The masked warrior said with conviction.

"[No! Nothing of the sort. It has to do with the vault.]"

"What's wrong with the vault?" Asked Snake.

"[I'll explain. Sometime after you guys left for the mission, Luigi reported to me that one of the Assist trophies was missing!]" The robot announced in disbelief.

"A trophy missing?" The turtle scratched his head. "Why's that such a big deal? We occasionally lose track of our items but we always find them."

"[But it's the way how it got missing that's astounding!]" R.O.B. Said. "[Since we had trouble finding it, I viewed the security feed, and you won't believe it. But the assist trophy glowed into gold light and faded away.]"

The fighters were looking at each other confused, wondering if R.O.B. systems were glitching. "You sure it wasn't activated by mistake?" Asked Snake.

"[I'm certain of it!]" R.O.B. retorted. "[It just vanished.]"

"What's the name of the assist trophy that disappeared?" Questioned Ganon.

"[It's the Little Mac-the boxer from the Punch Out universe.]"

"Hmm." The Pokémon thought to himself out loud.

"Something on your mind Lucario?" Said Meta Knight.

"I wonder if… nah it's seems to far-fetched."

"What's far-fetched?" Snake questioned his friend.

"It's a long shot, but what if-" The blue canine was about to speak, but looked to see the metallic doors open, a nice sight of a clean beautiful ballroom presented itself to the mutt, breaking his concentration.

"We're here!" Lucario announced, politely grabbing the communicator from Meta Knight. "I'm sorry R.O.B., but something important just came up. Let us know if you find the assist trophy at the mansion."

"[Affirmative!]" Obeyed the robot. "[Be careful Lucario, and may luck be with you.]" The Veteran said before signing off.

"Look over there." Gannondorf pointed to a crowd. "I bet the show's going to start over there I'm betting."

"Let's hope you're right." Said Bowser. "I would hate to think we came up here for nothing."

The Smashers walked out of the box, and slowly approached the crowd from behind, waiting for the show to start. Peering over the heads of the guests, the group could see a big wooden stage, with a purple sparkling curtain closing the entire backstage off. The only thing that was visible on the wooden platform was a microphone standing, being constantly shone upon by several multicolored spotlights.

Just then, the surrounding lights of the ballroom dimmed whiles the spotlights got brighter. The speakers built into the ceiling crackled a little bit before a deep but soothing voice spoke.

"Hello there, ladies, gentlemen, and other worldly creatures of the unknown. Are you ready to get this show on the road?"

"YEAH!" Ear-splitting "yeah's" boomed across the room, disorientating the ears of the fighters.

"Who do you want see?"

"JACK!"

"When do you want to see him?"

"NOW!"

"Sorry, I couldn't quite catch that. Can you say it again?"

"NOW!"

"I can hear but you're whispering. One more time should do it."

"NOW!"

"Okay then!" The male voice on the speaker chuckled, getting a thrill of teasing the audience. "Well you asked for it! Give you unbridled love and attention to… JACK GREY!"

Miniature fireworks erupted on stage; rainbow sparkles bursting in darkness. The curtains were rolled backed as fast as physical possible to reveal… nothing. Absolutely nothing. There was not a single sole behind the curtains. This made the crowd confused, which made them whisper among themselves.

"What's happening? Why isn't Mr. Grey on stage?" Wario scratched his head.

"Maybe he's late?" Suggested Wolf.

"No. He's never been late, that guy's always been on time, right on the top."

"Ehh, he probably bailed on this show." Said Bowser. Lucario was about to say how that's not likely, when a charming but mischievous voice stopped him.

"Or perhaps he wanted to surprise you all."

Lucario turned his head to the right to see a skeleton wearing a red suit and a fedora; smoking a cigar.

"Oh my god! It's Jack Grey!" happily cried a depressed cupid, giving the crowd the incentive to clap and cheer.

"Sorry for the anticipation everybody, but I just couldn't resist pulling a twist there at the end." The man joked. "This is a special occasion, and I want to the show to be spectacular, and I want to make it last. Speaking of which, I should probably get back on stage."

Jack Grey body turned to ash, the burnt particles circled around to form a smoky tornado. The tornado floated above the air, and hovered over the audience, right across over to the microphone. Once he got there, he transformed back to his natural form and grabbed the mic with style.

"Well Ain't this a crowd! You all excited to be here today?" Jack incited the guests, getting a loud cheer in return. Now getting a closer look at Grey, Snake could see that the skeleton's tie and shoes were stark white, a clear contrast to his attire. On closer inspection, the solider could see gold plated: hearts, clubs, diamonds, and spades all over the pants legs and sleeves. He never seen this suit before, this was really special.

"I expected that! We all had good times around here didn't we?" rhetorically asked Jack, expecting a reaction.

"Hell yeah! Like the time you crushed a Bowling-sized jaw breaker with your teeth!"

"Or how a tree got stuck in the ventilation shaft!"

"Can't forget about the time when my grandma won three jackpots in a row!"

Almost everyone was speaking their favorite memory, killing the ambiance of the ballroom. The skeleton held up a bony hand to silence the crowd.

"Yes, we all had our favorite experience in this Casino, but I'm going to give you something so big, so awesome. It will shatter your world."

"Wonder what he has planned?" Bowser whispered.

"Quiet, he's still talking." Said Ganondorf.

"You see, I recently discovered a new quirk of one of my powers. It's common knowledge I can change the structure of my home as I command: Moving chairs around, making new doors in the wall, repairing the stairs etc. but now I can go beyond my limit. do something… spectacular." Jack to a heavy take of his cigar before he puffed out the smoke; next he charged his right hand with blue flames, his fingers were vibrating tremendously before he snapped.

The room changed in an instant; out of nowhere the crowd and the Smashers find themselves on a beach: the water was flowing majestically as the sand warmed up the feet of the guests.

"Woah… did we just traveled to Hawaii?" Said a blindfolded surfer.

"Nope, we never left the room." Jack Grey Explained, walking around the stage to add more flare in his speech. "You may have trouble believing this, but I can morph the environment and decor into anything I want. Whether it be the beach, or a forest, desert, arctic, hotel, apartment building, outer space, my closet-doesn't matter! I just take a hit of my cigar, and a snap will make my vision come true."

"So you can change the room into floating pancakes and exploding hamburgers?!" Asked a fat angel.

"Sadly not. I can only shift the room into something that's physical possible; either regions that exist due to nature or anything built by sentient civilizations, essentially environments that can be found on the planet. So nothing too out their unfortunately." Jack frowned as he restored the room back to its natural state.

"Did you see that? Did you know he could do that?" Wario whispered to Lucario.

"Not until right now. He's gotten more powerful over time. He certainly surprised me there. Wasn't expecting that."

"This is bad. If we piss him off-" Wolf said before Snake cut him off.

"Nothing will happen if we follow the rules." The mercenary spoke, turning his head to the stage.

"But let's not fret, this is a very joyful occasion. No reason to dwell on the negative." Grey pressed a button on his mic, and a large glass box rose from the wooden compartment of the floor. "I want to make this pleasurable as possible. So to start…let me show you what you could win, the ultimate prize of a lifetime… THE TREASURE BOX!"

The skeleton gestured his arm to a large glass box containing hordes of gold coins, jewels, and chests.

The crowded howled with happiness upon seeing the "Treasure Box.", clapping, stomping, and whistling good thanks to the owner. Except the Smashers, their jaws wide open in shock. For on top of all the treasure and trinkets, was a life-sized trophy of a boxer with dark skin, green gloves, and black hair.

Hey guys,

I just want to tell you that I'm going to take a 1 week break so I can enjoy thanksgiving with my family. Haven't seen them in a while.

If you have any questions, just message me.

Till next time.