The second day Rock failed to show up for school, they decided to pay him a visit. Toon Link found himself walking along the city streets with his friends, curious about why his friends were so concerned. Wasn't it normal for students to miss some school every now and again?

"Rock has like, perfect attendance. He never skips unless it's something important, and even then it's not for more than a day. The last time he missed school was when Samus disappeared." Nana had explained, which left the hylian even more confused. How did Rock know Samus?

The girl must've seen his bewilderment clearly on his face, as she was quick to elaborate. "Oh, Samus is the lady who built Rock. So she's kind of like his mom, but we've never heard him actually call her that. She disappeared a little more than a month ago, though, and no one knows where she went. They're thinking it was a kidnapping."

Toon Link stiffly nodded, and their one-sided conversation ended. As far as the blonde knew, the Samus from his timeline had no children. But now, not only did she apparently have one in this timeline, but the hylian had just so happened to befriend him. What were the odds?

Eventually, their little group walked through a number of neighborhoods before making it to Rock's street. Toon Link followed as they passed by a few houses before arriving in front of the one they were looking for. It looked average enough, with a plain front lawn devoid of anything but grass and a single tree, a beaten up green minivan in the driveway, and a satellite on the roof.

They all marched up to the front door as Ness knocked. Only a few moments passed before a teenager opened the door. He was quite short, with dark hair and a very muscular frame, and Toon Link was surprised by his presence. The hylian didn't recognize him, and didn't remember his Samus saying anything about him. Who was he?

"Hi, Mac." Ness also looked a little thrown off by the teen's presence, but Mac didn't seem to mind.

The teen stepped aside to let everyone in the house. "Hey, you guys. Nice to see you. Come on in." Their group did just that, making their way into the living room and scattering among the couches and armchairs available. A rather old-looking robot wheeled into the living room, examining the house's new guests, and Toon Link was thankful to recognize it as an R.O.B. that was fully functioning. The robot whirred and clapped its hands together in an attempt to express joy for its new guests; after all, it was probably a lot harder for something like R.O.B to communicate with just body language or beeping.

Mac was the last one into the room, shutting the front door before joining them in the living room. Silence was quick to fall onto the room, but Ness was just as fast to break it. "Is Rock home? He hasn't shown up for school in a while, is he ok and everything?"

The teen frowned. "Rock's ok, but I guess he hasn't told you what happened." Toon Link couldn't tell if it was because the robot was uncomfortable or not, but R.O.B. had taken that moment to leave the room. The hylian had little time to ponder the reason before its presence was replaced with Rock and Pikachu, who had just entered through the hallway.

Pikachu, like R.O.B., was pleasantly surprised to see guests in the house, and was quick to nudge its way onto the couch while Rock took an empty seat elsewhere. "Did you guys all come just to see me?" The brunette asked, a small smile on his face.

"Yeah, we were worried when you didn't show up for school. Mac just told us that something happened?" Popo said.

The robot nodded, his face solemn. "It's Shulk. He's gone."

Dread ripped its way through Toon Link. Granted, the blonde wasn't familiar with who Shulk was, either, but he feared that what had happened most certainly had to do with why he traveled to this time; after all, if they lived in the same household, they most certainly had to have a connection.

"Gone? You mean, like…" Lucas trailed off.

"He didn't come home from his last shift. He's not at the shop, and he won't answer his phone. It's been two days." Mac confirmed, the grip on his seat tightening.

"Did you call the police?" Popo piped up.

Rock and Mac only shook their heads. "I don't know, something about this just doesn't sit right with us. First Samus disappears, and now, a little over a month later, something happens to Shulk? It can't be a coincidence." Mac sighed. "And considering how helpful the police were the first time around, I guess we're not too excited at the idea of calling them in again."

A heavy silence fell over the room, nobody quite knowing what to do. R.O.B. wheeled back in, carrying a tray of water glasses. The robot made a circle around the room, offering the drinks as they thankfully took them. Toon Link sipped his own water thoughtfully, the hylian almost certain his suspicions were true. Mac was right; there was very little chance of these two disappearances being unfortunate coincidences.

If that was the case, then the blonde was concerned, both for his friends and the people who had already become victims. He had to do something, even if the only thing he could do was warn them of what was to come.

Toon Link stood up from his spot on the couch, careful to set his glass down on the floor before he screamed and slapped his hands on the table. It was an effective way to get everyone's attention, as they all jumped and looked at him, Pikachu even releasing a few sparks from its cheeks in surprise.

"Uh, Link?"

The hylian withdrew his hands from the table, mimicking the act of writing to get his message across. Mac stood, leaving the room and returning a few moments later to give Link the items he had requested. The blonde was quick to start scribbling his words down, leaving the room in more confused silence before handing the paper off to Lucas.

"Does Shulk have supernatural powers? He was probably abducted for them, and any one of us could be next!" His friend read aloud, his voice increasing in both volume and shock as he processed the words.

"What?" Mac stammered. "How'd you guess that he has powers?"

Toon Link didn't answer, instead urging Lucas to continue reading his note. "I'm from the future. In my time, people like us were captured for your abilities, and used as living weapons."

"Us?" Ness cut in. "You have powers too? Is that how you got here from the future?" Toon Link shrugged, unable to give a straight answer. To demonstrate, he pointed a finger at Ness, allowing a sudden gust of wind to blow in the boy's face, nearly knocking his cap off.

Nana crossed her arms. "If that's your power, it doesn't explain or prove that you time traveled here."

At this point, Toon Link reached out for the paper again. Lucas didn't hesitate to give it back to the boy as he started writing a more detailed explanation.

In the midst of his writing, Rock gripped the edge of his seat. "That part about the living weapons; is that what's going to happen to them? Shulk and Samus would never agree to something like that. There's no way." He mumbled.

Toon Link's frown deepened. The hylian wasn't sure if he had the heart to tell the robot that the way Shulk and Samus felt about their fates would do little to change their reality. He slashed out what he had started to write, re-wording his explanation before handing the paper back to Lucas.

"Maybe so, but where they are right now, they don't get to have a choice. I'm sorry, we couldn't come in time to help Samus, and Shulk wasn't in our timeline, so we didn't know he'd be involved. I really don't know why that is, maybe my friend Lucina might. She's the one with the time travel powers." Lucas finished reading, then shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"So then, if everything you're saying is true, what do we do about it?" Popo asked. Toon Link, instead of writing an answer, pulled his hat over his eyes and ducked under the coffee table, as if to mime "keep a low profile."

They understood the hylian's message, but Ness wasn't happy with it. "Okay, but can we really hide forever? You said you're from the future, do you also happen to know where they're keeping all the people they've abducted?" Toon Link nodded, and the other boy continued. "Then why don't we just go and rescue them?"

"Because," Nana cut in, "you tend to forget that we're only kids. There's only so much we can do, and this sounds like it's out of our league. If you really do know where they've taken these people, we need to warn the authorities."

"Yeah, because the police are really gonna believe this kind of story," Ness said, the sarcasm obvious in his tone. "I'm not saying we have to fight whoever's behind this, but I bet we could at least sneak into their hideout or whatever and try to help the people they've caught."

Nana wasn't deterred. "Well, maybe they won't believe us, but we should at least try on the off chance they do!"

"Wait a minute," Lucas cut in, halting their growing argument. "Shouldn't we be listening to Link here? He's the one that knows the most about all of this. If him and his friends haven't told the police or haven't tried to actively stop them yet, it's probably for a good reason. Right?" He said, looking to the hylian in question.

Toon Link slowly nodded. It was true; there was no way the police were ever going to believe a story as far-fetched as theirs. On the other hand, Lucina was adamantly against launching any kind of straightforward attack, and for good reason.

But now that he'd told his friends, and they seemed willing to help, would it be appropriate to go through with Ness' idea? They wouldn't actively be picking a fight, and they had strength in numbers.

Toon Link hummed in thought, reaching for the paper that had been abandoned on the coffee table. He wrote one last response, and handed it to Lucas.

"I'm not sure if a rescue mission is a good idea, but I'll talk to my friends about it. For now, just stay low and don't go outside at night."


"Something's not right here," Marth declared as he stepped into the dorm. Roy swung his chair around, tearing his eyes away from his laptop to look at his roommate. Similarly, Ike looked over from his spot on his bed.

Marth hastily unslung his backpack from his shoulder, dumping it next to Falchion's place in the closet. His roommates always thought it was weird that the bluenette had brought a family heirloom with him into a dorm, but at that point, that was the last thing on their minds.

"A lot of bad things have been happening recently, and it's weird," Marth started, crossing the room to take a seat in his own desk chair. "First, there was that whole bank robbery or whatever, then we just so happen to catch someone the night we broke into the art museum, and after that Ike meets Pit because the kid's being attacked, and today Meta Knight told me Lucario has gone missing."

Ike hummed, sliding off the bed and bending down to open their mini fridge. He grabbed a drink, closed the fridge door, then uncapped the lid. "Lucario? Really? There's no way," he shook his head, taking a sip. "Maybe it's just not talking with Meta Knight because it wants to be alone. I wouldn't be surprised." Ike knew all too well how overbearing his former mentor could be at times, and Lucario was already a fairly reserved pokémon; the idea that it would "disappear" for a while wasn't too far of a stretch.

Marth, however, was adamant. "But would it really go far enough to cut off all communication? Because that's what happened," the bluenette said, fingers tapping against his desk in thought. "I mean, I can't find any outright correlation between everything that's happened, but I just can't shake the feeling that something abnormal is going on."

"I can," Roy spoke up, his roommates looking at him in confusion. The redhead had been abnormally quiet during Marth's explanation, and the two were curious. "Find a correlation, I mean. Bank robbery aside, every other event has involved someone with superpowers, hasn't it?" He stood up, pacing the room in thought. "Lucario has its abnormally strong aura, Pit has those bird wings; Ike, you said the thing that attacked him wasn't normal either. And I don't know for sure, but I highly doubt that thief we found didn't have powers. I mean, there's no way an average guy could make a bite wound that ended up as deep as Link's."

Ike and Marth were silent, contemplating their friend's words. "Wait, you're right," Marth said. "We all know how rare it can be to find people like us; there's very little chance that this is all a coincidence."

Ike frowned. "Yeah, but we still don't know what it all means."

"We could try going out again tonight," Roy offered, stopping his pacing and going back to rest in his desk chair. "I mean, let's not break into any buildings this time. We can just walk around the streets, see if we find anything suspicious that could serve as a clue."

Marth's face remained impassive, but he still nodded. "Alright, but no superhero costumes this time. You still haven't replaced the curtains." After his agreement, the two of them looked to Ike for confirmation.

"This sounds like a huge waste of time, and I have an 8am tomorrow." Ike took a swig of his drink and smirked. "Count me in."


Perhaps his student was not yet suited to the task of being a superhero, but Meta Knight was more than capable. Of course, that particular term was only a loose definition; the batamon would never actually call himself such a thing. At first, he had scoffed at the idea when Marth came to the previous training session, full of complaints when his friend had gotten him into trouble with the authorities. The bluenette had received a good scolding from him for it, but other than that the topic was not brought up again.

When Lucario disappeared, the batamon started to get paranoid. He doubted there was a connection between the thief in the art museum and his friend, but Meta Knight knew for a fact that there had to be something else at play regarding Lucario. Even if the pokémon was one who spent a lot of time to itself, there was no way it would purposefully detach itself from any forms of communication. Furthermore, Lucario was strong; whoever had caused Meta Knight's friend to disappear was in no way an ordinary threat. The batamon feared that there was something sinister hiding among the city streets, and he did not want to wait until it was too late to find out what it was.

During the night, Meta Knight had taken to doing patrols around the city. But since the batamon hadn't been doing it for very long, he had only been able to stop the occasional mugging attempts.

Now, he sat perched on a rooftop, wearing his signature mask and cape. Of course, this was only so he could have a better view; Meta Knight would forever deny the notion that he did it to look cool. Nothing had happened for the night, and he was quite thankful for that, but the batamon's thoughts froze when he spotted movement from the corner of his eye.

Three figures were stalking through the alleyway, the darkness and distance making it difficult for Meta Knight to notice anything other than the fact that they were humanoid.

The batamon sprouted his bat wings, gliding down into the alleyway and blending in with the shadows. However, his presence did not go undetected. "I think I just saw something," one of them hissed, the sound throwing Meta Knight off guard. The voice sounded like he'd heard it before, but the batamon couldn't remember who it belonged to.

Regardless, one of the three figures was slowly approaching his hiding spot. When they were close enough, Meta Knight quickly unsheathed his sword and jumped from the shadows, only to have the tip of his sword met with the edge of another blade.

"Marth?"

"Meta Knight?"

"What are you doing here?" They both said at the same time. The other two figures were quick to come out of the shadows to stand beside Marth, and Meta Knight quickly identified them as Ike and Roy.

"What are you three doing sneaking around out here?" the batamon asked once again, more than prepared to give the three a scolding.

Marth rolled his eyes, sliding his sword back into the sheath around his belt. Roy huffed. "We could ask the same thing about you," he said, and Meta Knight realized the voice he'd heard before had belonged to the redhead.

He paused, choosing his words carefully. "I've been… investigating."

"You mean, about Lucario?" Marth asked, the batamon nodding in confirmation.

"That's why we're out here, too." Ike explained, crossing his arms. "Part of the reason, anyway. We've been noticing some weird stuff going on."

Meta Knight narrowed his eyes. Weird stuff?

"It's true," Roy piped up. "Like, a lot of bad stuff's been happening lately, and we wanted to see if we could catch anything suspicious tonight, like we did when we went into the art museum."

The batamon scoffed. "And risk getting yourselves arrested again, or worse? Your other friend already had to go to the hospital for his arm." Meta Knight shook his head. "All of you, go back to your dorm at once; it's too dangerous for you to be snooping around like this."

"No!" Marth grit his teeth. "I know you're worried, but we can take care of ourselves. I think we were all just caught off guard when we broke into the art museum, but I promise we know how to handle ourselves."

Meta Knight paused, taken aback at Marth's resistance to his request. Still, the batamon was too stubborn to concede so easily. He would not allow his student, ex-student, and their friend to be put in danger if there was something Meta Knight could do to stop it. "I nearly cut you open just now, Marth."

"But you didn't, because I stopped you." Marth insisted. "Besides, even if I hadn't stopped you, you still wouldn't have done it. I know you always go easy on people unless you know for a fact they've had formal training and can handle themselves in combat."

A heavy silence hung over them. Meta Knight took the time to finally re-sheath his own sword as he contemplated his options. It was obvious that even if the batamon escorted the three back to their dorm, they would just sneak out again.

"Fine, we'll split up and look around together." He sighed. "Ike, Roy, you can take the south side of town. Marth and I will look around the north. All of you, keep your cell phones on hand at all times."

Marth smiled, satisfied that he won the argument, as Ike nodded and began his walk to the south side of town, urging a now grumpy-looking Roy to come along. The redhead complied, and the two took off down the street. Meta Knight could only faintly hear Roy mumble, "Who made him the boss?"


When Shulk awoke, it took him a moment to realize he was not in his own bed. The homs shot up, eyes frantically scanning the room for anything familiar. To his dismay, he recognized nothing; the bedroom was completely plain and unidentifiable. The only pieces of furniture in the room included a chest of drawers, a desk with a complementary chair, and the bed Shulk was currently sitting on. The cream colored walls were bare of anything, including windows, which only increased the homs' sense of panic. Only two doors were present, one of them slightly ajar to reveal a small bathroom. The other one was closed.

Shulk sat for a moment, piecing together what had happened before he woke up in this place. He knew he had made it home from his last shift, and was walking up the driveway when he remembered something slamming into the back of his head. That must've been what knocked him out. The Homs reached up and brushed a hand through his hair, thankful that he felt no bandaging or signs of severe injury.

He slid his feet off the edge of the bed and stood up, curious to see that whoever had placed him in this room had also removed his shoes before putting him in bed. Regardless, he slipped the boots back on, making his way over to the closed door.

Before he could try to see if it was locked, the knob started to move on its own, and Shulk stepped back as the door swung open and a stranger stepped into the room. The man was particularly tall, with sharp features that unintentionally made him look intimidating. He carried no outright threatening expressions or body language, but the fact that he closed the door behind him and leaned against it told Shulk everything. There was no way the homs could escape from this room without going through this stranger first.

"I see you're awake now. How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Who are you, what is this place, and why am I here?" Shulk shot back; he was not interested in any kind of small talk this man had to offer.

The stranger, however, was not deterred by Shulk's attitude. "My name is Ganondorf." He explained. "You're here because I have a proposition for you."

The homs frowned; there was no way someone would go through all the trouble to knock him out and lock him in an unknown location just because they wanted to ask him something. Furthermore, the fact that Ganondorf was discreetly blocking the exit implied that Shulk wasn't actually going to be given the freedom to make his own decision.

"If my information is right, then you have the ability to see into the future. Quite a talent, if you ask me." Ganondorf said, undeterred by Shulk's wariness. The homs in question scowled; this was what he'd been kidnapped for? What did Ganondorf want, the winning lottery numbers? To predict the outcome of whatever kind of risk he was thinking of taking? The man was going to be severely disappointed when he found out Shulk's powers didn't work quite like that.

The blonde stayed silent, but Ganondorf continued. "You see, I'm part of a little organization. All of us here also have unique abilities, just like you. And I'm sure that if you joined us, you'd not only be welcomed with open arms, but you'd be a great help in achieving our goals."

Shulk raised an eyebrow, noting that the man had conveniently failed to elaborate on their "goals" as the pulled something out from his pocket and handed it to the homs. He wasn't inclined to take it, but Ganondorf had practically shoved the small case into his hands. Still, the blonde didn't bother opening it until the other man insisted he did.

The object inside confused Shulk. His eyesight was fine, why was he given a pair of glasses?

"We had these specifically made for you. The rim is made of a special material known as xenoite. We've found that whenever people like us make contact with it, it enhances our natural abilities. Perhaps if you wore those glasses, you could gain the ability to see further into the future, maybe even control when your visions occur and what you see in them. Quite beneficial, yes?" Ganondorf explained. "Consider it a gift from us."

The homs' eyes widened. He'd certainly heard of xenoite before, but never about its effects on those with powers. More often than not, he'd just heard about how rare the material was to obtain; it must have not been an easy or cheap task to get these glasses made.

Regardless, Shulk was not interested in bribery; especially if Ganondorf was not going to provide any details on what exactly he wanted the homs to do. He closed the lid on the glasses case and handed it back to Ganondorf. "Sorry, this is very generous of you, but I'm going to have to decline the offer to work for you."

The other man's stoic expression subtly twisted to show his irritation, and Shulk's stomach dropped. He pushed away Shulk's hands, leaving the glasses case with the homs. "You keep it. Like I said, it's a gift. It's too bad, though," the larger man sighed, tapping his foot against the carpet. "You're being quick to deny quite an opportunity, you know. Why don't you spend the night here and think a little more about it. I don't want you to make any rash decisions."

At this last words, Ganondorf turned around and left the room; an audible click from the other side of the door letting Shulk know that he was locked in here.

Still, the homs couldn't help but be thankful that the exchange could've gone a lot worse, but didn't. The other man had made no blatant move to harm him, and had remained quite civil when Shulk refused to cooperate.

The blonde sighed, placing the case on top of the dresser before settling back onto the bed. Ganondorf could not keep him locked in a room forever; but Shulk also couldn't see the man just letting him walk away unscathed any time soon. How many more times could he decline Ganondorf's offer until the man felt inclined to take drastic measures?


I've been hit with what I like to call the "fanfic curse": something happens to the author that's either really bad or starts to take up a lot of time, and the end result is that they become discouraged to continue writing. In my case, my laptop (whom I have now named Old Man Jenkins) finally broke down earlier this week. Of course, the thing's around seven years old so I'm not too surprised, but I was also dumb enough to not back up about 95% of the files I had on there- including my original writings for this chapter and chapter 6. I had to hastily re-write this one, and to my almost-dismay I've done minimal proofreading on this chapter because I'm getting impatient and I wanted this posted. It's kind of a shame; I was really happy with how the original chapter five turned out, but I guess that's in the past. Old Man Jenkins had his hard drive busted; there's very little chance of me getting that writing back; especially any time soon.

Thankfully, my discouragement has only been temporary; I'm not quitting this fic. In a ridiculously fortunate twist of events, my birthday is only about three weeks away, and my family was nice enough to gift me with the early present of a new laptop, which should arrive in a couple of days. My updates might slow down or chapters might be of lesser quality for a short period, however, because I'm gonna need some time to catch up to the pace I was originally keeping with this fic.

As always, thanks so much for your patience, taking the time to read this long AN, and for just reading this fic in general. Have a nice day!