After the announcement, the Mansion exploded into chaos. The residents were trying to make heads or tails of what it meant. "The Hands are in danger? How? Aren't they supposed to have godlike powers?"
"Are they gods? If that's the case, what could put them at such risk?" "Did Tabuu revive himself?" "We're all gonna die!" "Shut up, Luigi."
The room filed with panicked voices, it was impossible to tell who was saying what.
After a few minutes of pandemonium, a group of fighters that included Zelda, Palutena, Marth, Robin and others got together to find a way to deal with the chaos.
"We need to find a good way to see how we can help the Hands in their plight." commented Marth.
"I agree, but first we need to calm everyone down and organize ourselves. We aren't going to help anyone with the current chaos." added Zelda.
"I think I know a way" said Robin, with a smile.
"The auditorium should be a good place to gather everyone and hold our impromptu reunion" suggested Shulk, thoughtfully, to which everyone nodded in agreement.
Afterwards, Robin got Donkey Kong's attention with a banana and told him to get as many people's attention as he could. He achieved this by slapping the ground as hard as he could making such loud ruckus that everyone's panic was drowned. They looked at the monkey in confusion.
"Thank you, Donkey Kong." Robin said as he handed the gorilla his coveted banana.
"Alright, listen up, you lot! We're moving this madness into the auditorium so we can discuss this thing rationally. Let's get moving." Shulk yelled.
Everyone awkwardly shuffled into the Smash Mansion auditorium so that they could collectively decide on what to do about the message the Hands had sent out.
Link was sitting nearby "the other sword guys" as some of the other fighters were calling him and the other teenagers with swords. Not that Link minded.
He had a lot of time to self reflect on his being here at this massive mansion. There were a lot of strange people here, but Link knew better than to judge and ask questions. Hyrule had fish, bird, and rock people after all.
Rosalina stated that most everyone move to the location shown at once.
"Wait, why most?" asked Wii Fit Trainer.
"Because, if we all go, the mansion is completely vulnerable to attack. If someone destroys it, or discovers the secrets within, it could spell great danger to the Universe, no, all universes."
"Also, we're not going to force anyone to go, so if there's anybody that wants to stay and not fight, they're free to do so. After all, whatever's out there was able to capture and retain someone as strong as Master Hand, so it's reasonable to be hesitant" added Robin.
Many of the Smash Mansion were hesitant. Master Hand on his own was fairly powerful. So the thought of a being taking down both him and Crazy Hand put many of them on edge. Whatever did take Master Hand had to have godly levels of power.
Then again, a number of them had fought and defeated gods before. Those who realized this suddenly got a little more confident.
"Let's-a go!" Mario yelled. "I'm-a ready to take on whatever I have-a to in order to save-a the world and all of-a you!"
"Slow it down there, plumber boy. It's not going to be that simple." Cloud stated.
A map of the planet suddenly appeared on the large screen at the front of the auditorium.
"Cloud and I have been looking at this map, and we determined that Master Hand's coordinates are there, a floating island many, many miles away from the Smash Mansion. It's not a place many of us could readily get to." Samus said, pointing to an area of the map.
A couple more Fighters rose up: Kirby, Ike, Bayonetta, Chrom, Lucina, Palutena, Pit, Corrin, Pyra, Link, Young Link, Meta Knight, and the four Dragon Quest Heroes.
One of the heroes, Eight then said, "Then we'll just have to hit them with everything we have!"
His rallying cry inspired even more of them: Fox, Falco, Mega Man, Pikachu, Sonic, Roy, Joker, Steve, the Inklings, Simon and Richter Belmont, Terry, Captain Falcon, Snake, Yoshi, Greninja, and Lucario.
"Yeah, for the mansion, and the universes!" The crowd roared in excitement.
"Now that we're all on the same page, we need to work on a winning plan!" announced Shulk, while the others worked on quieting the room down and setting a semblance of order.
When Sora rose up, Robin called him over. Looking at her quizzingly, he did as told.
"We're going to need you to stay here." said the tactician, putting her arm on his shoulder.
Sora was baffled. "Why? You know I'm strong enough to take on whoever's taken Master Hand."
"I know you are. That's exactly why you need to remain behind. We need someone who can protect the weaker fighters in our absence. In case we fail."
Sora looked at her in shock.
"Yes. There is a chance -albeit a small one- that we might get defeated out there. So we need a few fighters to stay so we don't all suffer the same fate."
"This is a big responsibility we're entrusting you with. Understood?" ordered Robin.
Sora lit up and nodded. "You got it!"
"Great!" replied Robin, surprised at his lack of hesitation.
In the meantime, male Byleth was already contemplating a strategy, one that could use the abilities of those that volunteered. "First, we should send a scouting party. Fox and Falco, we could use your spacecraft for that purpose, since they're small and fast and should be able to get out of trouble in case something happens."
"Don't forget about me!" chimed in Captain Falcon. "I can use the Falcon Flyer to get me there as well!"
"No offense Captain, but we need small and fast, the Flyer might be too big for the job. Besides, us two are more than enough to get the job done!" boasted Falco.
While all of this was happening, Mario's younger brother was listening in on them just out of sight. The thought of going somewhere responding to a call for help from Master Hand daunted him, yet since his brother was going, Luigi thought at least hearing them have a well-established plan would make him feel better before they left.
He couldn't help clenching one of his fists listening to yet another example of Falco's arrogance. The two already had plenty reason to dislike each other, and this was one of them. So instead, he continued to primarily focus on the others. He also let out a small grunt that was picked up by Pikachu, but the latter dismissed it as coming from one of the other assembly members.
"So it's settled!" announced Robin. "Fox and Falco will scout the place that the Hands directed us and report back. That way we'll be able to tell how safe it is."
"In the meantime, we'll be working out how the rest of us will get there." followed up Shulk.
Kirby suggested that they take Meta Knight's Halberd, an idea to which Meta Knight himself was disgusted by. "I prefer you not."
Rosalina raised her hand next. "I believe I can take us. The Observatory has several launching points that can send Fighters to the desired location from quite away simultaneously. What do you say we split, Meta Knight?"
The lone knight rolled his eyes and agreed with her begrudgingly. "Alright. fine, as long as you deal with the especially childish ones."
In the meantime, the StarFox duo gathered the necessary items, got into their spacecraft, inputted the right coordinates and took off, just like they've done dozens of times.
While they flew, they didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Nothing to denote that the masters and creators of this planet were in any danger. Fox was getting worried.
"Who do you think could be responsible for this? It's not like anyone could be able to take the Hands so easily, without any of us even noticing." asked Fox through the comms to his partner.
"How should I know? I'm just as in the dark as you. For all we know it could be Tabuu all over again." responded Falco.
"It's just so frustrating not knowing who our enemy is." declared Fox with a worried tone.
"Hmph."
The rest of the flight went in silence.
Meanwhile, Link was staring across the table at Cloud. "So… you're telling me that you stopped giant metal things from destroying the world?"
"Yeah. It wasn't easy, but the guys at Avalanche and I managed to pull it off with little fuss." Cloud responded.
Before the conversation could go on any further, a buzzer went off across the room, grabbing everyone's attention.
"It's Fox's communicator." Samus stated.
Shulk pressed a button and an image of Fox from inside his cockpit appeared on the screen of the auditorium.
"Oi, Fox, what do you see?" Shulk asked.
"Not much. Just a floating island with nothing on it. No sign of any kind of threat. We'll make one more pass, and if we don't see anything, we're gonna head ba... Wait. What is that?"
"What do you see?" Robin asked.
"Not sure. But it's bright, whatever it is. It's almost like looking at the sun." Fox replied.
"This might be the threat Master Hand was warning us about. Think we should attack it and see what happens?" Falco asked.
"No. We don't even know what it is yet. Let's just get close to it and see what it does." Fox ordered.
"From experience, getting close to bright lights is the worst idea ever…" Link off handedly remarked. He was still having trouble believing there were moving pictures that you could communicate with, even after two weeks of being here.
Mario asked Robin if he knew anything about such a force.
"I've never seen or heard of such a thing. I'm at a loss." responded the tactician.
He sighed, waiting for the rest of the transmission to play out.
The voice of Falco was heard again. "We're approaching the target. I don't see what- Wait, what's it doing?"
"It's heading for us! Prepare to evade!" ordered Fox.
For a few seconds there was silence. Then the channel opened up again.
"They're chasing after me! How can they do that?" asked Falco with an uncharacteristic level of anxiety in his voice.
Silence.
Then Fox's voice was heard again. "That was close... Wait-"
"No! Fox!" screamed a haggard Falco. Then there was silence once more.