Isabelle patiently waited in front of the door to Master Hand's office. About a minute after she had knocked the door opened. "I'm so sorry Isabelle, I was too caught up in my work," Master Hand apologized.
"I understand. Sometimes I get so focused on my work that I forget to sleep or eat," Isabelle said.
"You have that problem as well? I'm not sure if this is fortunate or an ill omen. Anyway, how has your first day as a Smasher been so far?" Master Hand asked.
"It's been wonderful, the mayor and Daisy helped me set up my room, then Ace helped me work on my aim, and I promised to go shopping with Link and Zelda tomorrow," Isabelle said.
"That's good to hear," Master Hand said. He ushered Isabelle in, there was a large table in the back corner with a computer and large stack of paperwork, nearly identical to the one in the center of the room. "As you can see, I already prepared your desk. I'm loathe to force this upon you on your first day here, but I have multiple urgent matters demanding my attention. King K. Rool, fighter number sixty seven, was recently arrested in another world. I want you to fill out the paperwork for his release," Isabelle said.
"Oh no, that's terrible. What was K. Rool arrested for?" Isabelle asked.
"Possessing an unregistered racing machine and racing in a restricted area. They threw him into one of the most secure prisons in that world, full of some of the worst criminals. Apparently they knew right away something was wrong about his very presence in their world," Master Hand said.
"Well don't worry, I'll get him out and back here quickly," Isabelle said. She sat down at her desk and went right to work. The relevant paperwork had been put on top of the decently large stack. "So what's the other thing you need done?"
"You don't need to concern yourself with that, I'm handling it as we speak," Master Hand said. He was looking between three monitors on his desk which all displayed various graphs and maps. "Actually, considering the Subspace incident and your role here… can you keep a secret Isabelle?"
"I'm great at keeping secrets," Isabelle said. Master Hand took a deep breath and turned to face Isabelle.
"We may be in danger soon. For quite some time I've noticed that something has been leaving a trail of mass destruction through multiple worlds. I've recently confirmed there are in fact two entities responsible for all of that devastation. And Crazy Hand was able to gain footage of one of them. This is from a world called Grastea," Master Hand said. He turned to the central monitor and opened up a video on it.
Isabelle held her breath as she watched the video. It showed a world that seemed peaceful at first glance, with clear green plains and a bright blue sky. Then a hole was thrown open in the sky. A single large eye could be seen on the other side of the hole, covered by dark thorns. The thorns rushed into the world and enveloped it entirely. Then the screen went dark. If it weren't for the sight of that single eye floating in the sky Isabelle would have assumed that the video had already ended. It ended right as the eye turned to look directly into the camera.
"What… what was that thing?" Isabelle asked.
"For now we have decided to deem it 'Dharkon.' It appears to have some form of connection to the other entity, who has been given the name 'Galeem,' whose form of destruction utilizes light. At this stage it's hard to determine what that connection is precisely, for our sake let us hope they are not allies," Master Hand said.
"The people in that world, are they…"
"I don't know. What little data we were able to get suggests both that the people of that world were killed and that they were spared, despite the obvious fact that those are contradictory. What's truly concerning is that this is a world two Smashers, Marth and Mega Man, have paid visit to before. It's difficult to describe, but there is a certain 'geography' when it comes to worlds and their relative distance. Because of this we can get at least a vague idea of Dharkon and Galeem's trajectory. They're set to strike worlds that while lacking in Smashers have been visited by them before," Master Hand said.
"I'll send the warning letters right away. We need to evacuate those worlds. Just tell me where," Isabelle said. Master Hand curled up his fingers and turned to look back at his monitors.
"We can't. Crazy Hand had to take a long detour in order to return without letting Dharkon know our location. If we go into those worlds now the risk of being detected is unacceptably high, it would reveal our location and we would be targeted next. We must bide our time and uncover some form of weakness in Dharkon and Galeem. Otherwise there will be nobody left to fight, and those two will have free reign. You saw what Dharkon could do in that video, I currently have no way to counteract such power," Master Hand said. Isabelle slammed her hand on the desk.
"There has to be something," she said.
"That's why I'm looking. I need your help to keep things running and uncover how we can save all those worlds. And, in the event that I am… eliminated, you need to carry out my contingencies. Inform Peach that she is the acting leader of the Smashers until the resolution of the crisis, give her all of my files, and send out these." Master Hand snapped his fingers and a compartment opened in the back wall. Inside the compartment were five letters sealed in envelopes that had the symbol of the Smashers on them.
"Got it," Isabelle said. She wanted to say more, but she knew there was nothing more to say. She reminded herself that it was just a contingency Master Hand had gone over, a backup that wouldn't actually be used. The work for K. Rool's release from prison seemed trivial compared to what had just been discussed, but Isabelle tried to sink herself into it and all the minor things that needed to be done. Dharkon couldn't be fought if they didn't have the funds for good weaponry.
As usual Isabelle lost track of time while working, but for once she was thankful for it. Solving problems always made her better no matter how minor. Things that couldn't be solved always haunted her, even before those problems abruptly escalated to the world destroying kind. It was dark out when Master Hand pulled himself out of his work just long enough to tell Isabelle that she was done for the day.
Isabelle made her way out of the mansion and called for Kapp'n's taxi to take her to The Roost. She wasn't in a mood to talk, but Kapp'n talked so much that before she knew it she was talking about all sorts of minor, trivial things. The fact that she hadn't been able to go for a walk in the garden became the worst thing that happened that day. When they arrived at The Roost she left a tip and got out of the taxi.
Most of the other regulars had already arrived for the night. Simon, Mega Man, Pit, and Richter had taken one of the tables in the corner for themselves while Falco and Wolf were seated at opposite ends of the bar, in contrast Olimar and Robin had claimed the centermost seats and were deep in discussion. Isabelle placed her usual coffee order and took one of the open tables by the window. Another patron came into the shop. "Oh hello mayor," Isabelle said.
"Hey Isabelle," V said. He got his usual order from Brewster and joined Isabelle at the table. "Sorry we couldn't talk more at the mansion, I promised Little Mac we would have boxing practice then." V took a sip of his coffee.
"Oh it's no problem, I have quite the busy schedule too. Master Hand has some important work he needs help with, so I'll probably spend most of the day in his office anyway," Isabelle said. V frowned and looked Isabelle in the eyes.
"It's okay to take it easy, you know. I'm worried about how much work you do, your house looked like it had been barely used when I came in to help you pack. And while I was there, I realized you've never visited my house or had me over to visit yours. I was hoping being in the Mario Kart races and now Smash Mansion would help you relax, but you still seem as busy as always," V said.
"I'm not bothered by it. I like making it so that everything runs smoothly," Isabelle said. She looked down at her coffee, her hands remained motionless at her side.
"Please, just promise me you'll spend enough time in your room to unpack everything. With all the work you've done you deserve some time to yourself. Actually, I should apologize. I was a bad boss, you did most of the real work for me. But now I'm actually going to put in work to make sure Smashville continues being a great town, and so you can afford to do less work. Master Hand is going to be a better boss than I ever was for you," V said. He looked out the window at the star filled sky. Smashville had expanded greatly since Smash Mansion had been relocated there, but the light pollution laws kept the night sky the same.
"You're a great mayor," Isabelle said.
"Only because I had you as my secretary," V said.
"Well if you ever need help with something you can just come to me. Oh, but I do think that you'll do just fine on your own," Isabelle said. They both took a sip of their coffee.
"I've been working with Peach to arrange a little vacation to Wuhu Island a few months from now. Anybody who wants to come along can join, are you interested?" V asked. Isabelle wondered what the situation with Dharkon and Galeem would look like in a few months. There was a chance she would be needed to help Master Hand with something related to it, a vacation then would be irresponsible. Though it wouldn't be too hard to bring her work with her, and it wasn't like she would be of much help dealing with that problem anyway.
"That sounds amazing, I'm looking forward to it already," Isabelle said. From there the conversation went into less serious subjects. V talked about his experience fishing with Chrom and Mario, then shared some tips with Isabelle on which worlds had the best shops. Eventually he left to go back to the mansion, Isabelle remained at the table by herself.
Mega Man walked over to Isabelle's table and introduced himself. "Doctor Light sent me a message telling me to thank you for your email. He said it was very polite," Mega Man said.
"Thank you. I just hope those new supplies will help him with rebuilding the R. ," Isabelle said.
"He's been working on it for a while now, I hope he has a breakthrough soon. I was also wondering if you could pass along a fighter request to Master Hand for me," Mega Man said.
"Of course. Who is it?" Isabelle asked.
"His name is Euden, he comes from a world called Grastea. Marth met him too, and we both agreed he would make a great fighter here," Mega Man said. The name Grastea sounded familiar to Isabelle for some reason.
"I'll tell Master Hand for you," Isabelle said.
"Thank you," Mega Man said. He went back to the Belmonts and Pit right as Isabelle remembered where she had heard of Grastea before. She nearly spilled her coffee.
"Oh no, this is terrible," Isabelle said to herself. She had promised Master Hand to keep what she saw secret, so she couldn't tell Mega Man what had happened to his friend. Just like she couldn't explain to the mayor why she couldn't afford to truly relax for now. And since she was done with work for the day there was nothing she could do about it. As V's secretary she had been able to work non-stop, she had never realized that V had a problem with how much she worked.
Seeking some company Isabelle picked up her coffee and took the seat next to Falco at the bar. He ignored Isabelle's greeting and continued drinking coffee. "You've been a Smasher for a while right? Do you have any advice for a newcomer like me? I'm not really much of a fighter, but I want to do my best," Isabelle said.
"Then stop bothering me and get practicing," Falco said.
"Please, if some kind of emergency happens tomorrow there won't be any time to practice. We're not just fighting in some tournament, if something like that Tabuu person shows up again we have to beat them back," Isabelle said. Falco took a sip of his coffee.
"Guess you have a point there. Alright, I'd say the most important thing to keep in mind is that you can't afford to be predictable. If the enemy knows what you're doing next, you're getting shot down. And make sure you get in some actual experience before shit goes down," Falco said.
"Thank you. Could you help me practice sometime?" Isabelle asked. Falco sighed.
"Fine, just so you don't screw up too badly in your first real battle," Falco said. After taking another sip he turned to look at Isabelle. "You're Master Hand's secretary now, right? I've got some ideas on how to improve the hangar if he's interested."
"I can get work started on it the moment I get to his office tomorrow," Isabelle said. She listened carefully as Falco outlined his complaints with the current hangar. Those were the kinds of problems she was used to. The solutions were already starting to come together in Isabelle's head before she gave any response to Falco. Eventually the conversation shifted to some of the other Smashers. Isabelle finally found herself able to keep her mind on the things she could handle, and let the distant threats remain distant.
"So, how was your little vacation K. Rool?" Ridley asked. They were in one of the Space Pirate's most fortified ship. After being released from prison K. Rool had made his way to it as quickly as he could. It was just him, Ridley, and Dark Samus in the dimly lit and small room.
"The food there was terrible. You should thank me for putting up with all of that nonsense just to make a few friends. Not to mention all of that teleporting. When we make our own way for traveling through worlds, can it be something that doesn't make me dizzy?" K. Rool asked.
"Mission success?" Dark Samus inquired.
"Obviously. Captain Falcon's clone and I had a nice little chat, after nearly breaking his pathetic neck he agreed to tell Black Shadow about our offer. Also got some Zolorkians to give up where to find the leader of that coalition of theirs," K. Rool said.
"Ridley, finalize negotiations. Show Phazon and teleporter data to scientists," Dark Samus ordered. Ridley muttered some kind of complaint under his breath as he began the recall to Smash Mansion. Above them in the air vents, Greninja waited patiently for his chance to return undetected with the information. He had a feeling even further escalation was only a matter of time.
A/N: And with that we only have two more base game newcomers left to go, then it will be DLC time. Actually, there's something else planned too, but I'll talk about that in another chapter.
This chapter is fairly short compared to some of the others, but I hope you appreciated the content. There's a good amount going on here after all, both with Isabelle and the larger state of Smash Mansion. I'm also excited to finally have an appearance from my main, Falco was actually a little hard for me to write at first, but as I wrote his scene with Isabelle something just fell into place. And for those who didn't get the references, Grastea is the world of Dragalia Lost, which has had collaboration events with both Fire Emblem and Mega Man. Hopefully one day I'll write a chapter in this fic for Euden. Also a shout out again to the people in Super Smash Prose for letting me talk about my ideas for the story with them. Ken's chapter is up next.