The Mansion Enigma

Chapter Two

The blue light cleared, and I found myself in a room with pale green walls and a white tiled floor. It was bare, save for a large white cylinder slumped in the center of the room. "Wh-where am I?", I asked out loud, though I knew no one could hear me.

"Hello, Marth. Welcome to the Smash Arena," proclaimed a voice, echoing throughout the small room. I began to ask the voice who he was and what he meant, but he interrupted my thoughts swiftly. "I am Master Hand, the host of this arena. Here, you shall be fighting with the fellow residents of the Smash Mansion in combat. Prepare your weapon!"

"I don't have a weapon," I exclaimed. "That stupid training sword disappeared, and..." I suddenly felt a weight on my back. I reached back there to find a sheathed sword strapped there. I drew it and looked at it. It was silver and reflective, but had a golden hilt with a red gem in the middle.

"Now, let the battle begin!", Master Hand cried out. Another blue light enveloped me, and I found myself in a dark void that looked like the night sky. I looked down to see a blue glassy surface underfoot. This must be an Arena of some sort. Was this the fighting Pit and Rosalina had spoken of? Looking up, I saw Ike had joined me on the field as well, as had Roy, looking shell-shocked and nearly as confused as I felt.

"What are we supposed to do?", I asked.

Ike pulled out a large golden sword that was seemed far too massive for him to wield, yet he easily pointed it at me with one hand. "You heard what he said; this is a battle."

"To the death?", asked Roy, who was wielding a golden blade with a silver stripe down the middle.

Ike shrugged. "I don't think so. I guess they'll stop us once we're done."

I stared at my weapon in shock. Was I really expected to battle these two? Roy was practically a friend, and Ike, while a bit blunt and irritating, was certainly not someone I wanted to harm. Not to mention the fact that I had little to no idea how to use this weapon. However, I felt a cutting slice throw me backwards. Roy had charged me, though he looked like he hadn't truly wanted to. I had no choice, it seemed. Raising my blade, I slashed back, though he skillfully parried it.

"I'm sorry," he muttered as he slashed me once more. I winced as I flew backwards. Roy pointed his sword at my throat. I glanced behind me to see the platform's edge only inches away. With a deadened glint in his eyes, Roy slashed at me once more. Closing my eyes, I braced myself for the fall, but instead heard a cry of "Aether!". I opened my eyes to see Ike slamming his sword from midair down at Roy, who was swiftly sent flying off the stage.

"Have you even ever used a sword?", Ike whispered to me, holding his sword as if he were about to slash at me and a hostile gleam in his dark blue eyes.

"Not really..."

Ike sighed as he slashed at me. I fell over the edge, the black consuming me.

Suddenly, I jerked awake. I was in the glass-lined hall Pit had showed me, lying on the floor. I stood up and turned, to see a mass of different people sitting in the chairs in front of the window, many of them exiting and muttering various things. Pit, along with a green-hatted young man with blond hair, a green-haired lady with a flowing white gown on, and a brown-haired young man with a red cap approached me. Pit put his hand on my shoulder and sighed. "Man, that was pathetic."

The red-hatted young man nodded. "Yeah, Toon can wield a sword better than you, and he's like, twelve."

The woman laughed. "Pit, your choice in friends is certainly odd," she stated.

"Was it really that bad?", I asked.

"Yes," stated the green hatted young man. "It really was. I'm Link, by the way."

"Sorry," I snapped. "But I just hadn't the foggiest clue what was going on?"

"But your friends picked up quick enough," the red-hatted one pointed out. "Oh, I'm Red, by the way. Well, I'm called "Pokémon Trainer" in fights, 'cause I use my Pokémon, but you can call me Red."

"What is a Pokémon, exactly?", I asked. Red smirked and produced a small red and white orb from his belt. He clicked a button on it and threw it. A small blue-green creature came out. It had a leafy flower bud on its back and stood on four legs.

"This is Ivysaur," Red explained. "She's a Pokémon."

"So you just fight using those weird leafy things?"

The creature glared at me, but Red silenced it with a wave of his hand. He sent out two more creatures; a small blue turtle and a large, red draconian beast with wings. "I have these two, as well. They're called Squirtle and Charizard. They're also Pokémon. There are a whole lot of other Pokémon here at the mansion. Usually, they only fight when summoned from a Poke Ball, but some of them are fighters on their own. He gestured to a small, round pink creature with pointed ears. It could only be described as adorable. "That's Jigglypuff. She may look harmless, but her Rollout packs a mean punch."

I sighed. "Alright. I do not believe I need to hear any more on the subject, thank you."

Red nodded and recalled his Pokémon. "Later," he called flatly as he left.

The green-haired lady huffed. "Red is a bit one-note. All he cares about is Pokémon."

"Yeah, but it pays off. He knows how to use them and uses them well," commented Link.

The woman turned to me with a slight blush on her face. "Sorry, I forgot you were here for a minute. I'm Palutena, the goddess of light."

"The goddess of light?", I repeated.

"Yeah. I raise the sun, lower the moon, etcetera," she explained "Or, well, I guess I don't really do that here. Really, it's more of a fancy name for Queen than anything."

"She just, like, a Queen with really strong magic," Pit elaborated. "Got it?"

"I think so."

"Good," Pit stated. "Now, we can get to the important part; your fighting skills."

"You'll be called on for random battles most every day," explained Palutena. "We keep a chart on how well people are doing, and if you don't want to be a laughing stock, you'd better not fail so spectacularly from now on, got it?"

"Hey, might I remind you that Roy was knocked off before I was!", I exclaimed in defense.

"Yeah, but they rank on your knockouts, not on how long it is before your opponent stops taking pity on you," Pit replied.

"He wasn't taking pity on me, he was..."

"Taking pity on you; he could tell you couldn't fight," Palutena said. "But we can help fix that."

Link nodded. "I'm pretty good with swords, and it seems like that's the weapon you're saddled with, so I'll coach you."

"Thanks, I muttered. "This whole fighting thing isn't optional is it?"

"Nope," Pit deadpanned.

"Alright, got it. What do I need to do?"

Link headed to the door leading outside. "We should train out here," he stated.

I walked out the door and followed Link to a tree with many scratch marks on it. "Now, first of all, you just need to get a basic swing down." Link swung a blur of metal at the tree, which made a metallic noise when struck. I drew my sword, which had returned to its sheath while I was out, and struck the tree.

"No, you've got to hold it like this." Link held his sword to his side, pointing slightly upwards. "And then swing it" he slashed at the tree horizontally. "Like this. You try."

I held my sword as he had held his, but it felt quite awkward. "Um, are you sure this is correct?", I asked.

"Wait, are you right-handed?"

"Yes, why do you ask?"

Link sighed. "Sorry, hold it the other way. Like this." Link held his sword to the opposite side and swung it once more. I tried it that way, which felt a lot less awkward.

"Good. Now, let's work on a vertical slash," Link stated. For what seemed like hours, he showed me how to swing the sword in every which way, and then made minute corrections where he saw fit. It was tedious, but it felt as if it were working. By the time he commented that he thought I was done for the day, I felt like I could at least fare a bit better against the others in battle. But, as Link and I walked back towards the mansion, I had a few questions.

"What exactly happened in there? In the arena, I mean. One minute, I was falling, and then I woke up on the floor."

"It was a one-stock match," Link explained, as if it were obvious. "Usually, they're three-stock or timed."

"No, I mean, how did I end up back out there? And how did I not die from falling? Also, I cannot recall sustaining any wounds from those blows, but they sent me flying back. Why was that?"

Link sighed. "You ask a lot of questions. But really, you just don't die in those. Instead, you get knocked out and either sent back into the arena, or in your case, back to the spectator's room. And about the pain, er, I don't really know how it works, but I'm sure Zelda could tell you all about it."

"Zelda?", I asked. "Who is she?"

"She's a really smart princess from Hyrule. Well, technically she's Queen, but we all call her a princess 'cause she doesn't really look old enough to be a Queen.

"An awful lot of royals here, are there not?", I asked, trying to sound inconspicuous. "Palutena, Zelda, and myself, not to mention Rosalina. Are there any others?"

"Well, there's Peach. And Bowser, but I'm not sure if he counts. And King Dedede, but that's really it."

"Seven, then?," I commented. "Out of-?"

"About fourth or fifty, I guess," estimated Link.

"Seems a bit unproportionally high, do you agree?"

Link looked at me oddly. "Whatever you say."

We re-entered the hall, where a young lady in a purple and white dress with brown braids in her hair stood.

"Hey, Zelda!", Link exclaimed. "We were just talking about you!"

Zelda stared at me intensely. I could almost feel her blue eyes slashing into me."You," she cried. "Marth. I need you to come with me."

AN- Yay! More characters! Now, I know Palutena hasn't been confirmed for SSB4 yet, (edit-Well, now she is! GET HYPE!) but I'm fairly sure she will be. Plus, she's in Pit's Final Smash in Brawl, so I think she'd probably be there anyways. Plus, she's a fun character to have around (and ship with other characters...), so I put her in. Speaking of shipping, I plan to have some in here, but only one pair is really set in stone (not telling who...), so tell me what you'd like to see.

Also, thanks to penmaster13 for her kind review! You totally rock! Thank you for reading! -Twilight Joltik

Next Chapter- Balcony monologues