Disclaimer: I don't own anything Super Smash Brothers related. Just a fan of the franchise.

Thanks for all the reviews, guys! I love you all!

I was hoping to finish this chapter a little earlier, but I've been swamped with Calculus and Organic Chemistry II exams! D8 I've gotten some down time to finish this though, so I hope you all like it!

"Elizebeth, please come in." Master Hand's disembodied voice floated through the waiting room from the speaker where the dark haired woman sat. It was four o'clock in the morning and Elizebeth was beginning to feel hungry. A headache was pounding through her brain relentlessly. She touched a large bruise on her forehead that was already starting to purple and winced in pain. Her eyes snapped up to Ness who had exited the room. He refused to look at her on his way out, something that she found discouraging. She felt like her heart had dropped a couple of inches. But what else is new? I have no friends so why would this guy even try to defend me?

She tucked her hair behind her left ear anxiously and walked towards the office, her legs feeling like lead. She paused before the door, hesitant, then she opened the door towards the Hand's office.

Master Hand's office was spacious. There were two walls on either side with bookshelves crammed full of books and a large desk in the middle with a couple of plush chairs facing it and a large, leather one with high back behind it. The wall facing the door wasn't a wall; It was a giant window. There was an impeccably dressed man in a black tailcoat with long blond hair which was tied in a blue ribbon staring out that window, his hands clasped behind his back. They were gloved. Upon hearing the door shut the man turned around to face Elizebeth.

"Please, have a seat," he said in a quiet voice. His eyes were black, she noted. He was clean shaven with delicate, fine features. "You must be shocked to not see me as a hand and as a man. This is my true form, but I can only be this way in this office. Perhaps I will tell that story for another more pleasant time."

She took a seat and swallowed thickly.

"I have already interrogated Ness. Now it is your turn to reveal your side of the story. I must caution you though. If you lie to me, I shall know as I consider Ness to be a far more trustful person than you," he warned.

Elizebeth nodded, but she could not speak. There seemed to be something lodged within her throat. She tried to think about what happened after she found Sean.

"S-sean?" she asked, tremblingly. The body just swayed there, its message dripping onto the carpet.

She stumbled away from the body, and accidentally crashed into a tower of chairs, sitting on each other, which swayed precariously.

"No, no, no..." She whispered to herself, trying to stabilize the chairs. But instead they swung backward and with a massive crash, they all fell to the floor.

She winced at the noise. Somebody had to have heard that. She needed to get help, but as she turned around she already found somebody.

It was Ness. He asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I-I..." Elizebeth stammered. Then accusingly she asked, "What are you doing here?" She had a sudden thought that perhaps Ness murdered Sean.

"I had to use the bathroom, when I heard a crash. I thought I should investigate," Ness said defensively. His eyes roved throughout the basement, staring at the mess she'd made critically. "I suppose we should clean this up."

"Wait but..." she said, then caught herself. She was about to tell him about Sean but she stopped, thinking. Was she really supposed to buy that bathroom story? If it were her, she would run to get help, not investigate by herself. Maybe if she acted like she never spotted Sean, he would spare her and not kill her for discovering him. If she drew attention that she knew about the body, he might kill her too, effectively silencing her.

Once the chairs had been stacked Ness turned to Elizebeth. "You know, you guys aren't all that bad." He smiled. "We all didn't want you to come at first," he confessed. "But I think living with you will be bearable. In fact, I'm sure you all will be gone before we all get too annoyed!"

Elizebeth shivered at his last sentence. She couldn't help it. She looked at the corpse.

"What's wrong?" Ness said, following her gaze. You couldn't really tell from where they stood that it was a hung body, but Ness walked closer to investigate and then screamed.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he screamed again, and turned around.

"I didn't do it! I promise!" Elizebeth said, hurriedly, but Ness was livid with fear and disgust. Without warning, he pulled out a yo-yo from his pocket and yanked it hard in her direction. It hit her on the head with a resounding thwack! She cried out in pain, and the last thing she saw before blacking out was Ness's fearful eyes.

The man sighed after hearing her side of the story. "You thought Ness committed the murder, so that's why you didn't tell him? Are you aware that Ness is only a child of thirteen? What possible motive would a highly esteemed Smasher have to commit a murder? He's a first generation Smasher."

"I don't know," Elizebeth mumbled. All of a sudden, her theory sounded really stupid. "He said that all of the Smashers didn't want us here," she mumbled as her last line of defense.

Master Hand paused at that information before delicately lacing his fingers together, covering the bottom half of his face. Then he said abruptly with a frown, "You may leave. I would recommend you not venture outside your room for today. It could raise... Certain unwanted attentions."

Elizebeth didn't need to be told twice. She got up to leave but before she could Master Hand said, "Mark my words, Elizebeth. We will catch whoever is responsible for this. And when we do, this person will pay ten times more than his victim did."

She shivered at his words. "Understood, sir."

The news of Sean's death had already circulated Smash Mansion before Master Hand had given the announcement. Ness had told everybody in the children's room about it, and the Ice Climbers had told the Pokemon who in turn told everybody else. Cammy, upon hearing the news told all the Chosen Few and so nobody was surprised when he floated into the hall at breakfast to give them the grave news. The only person who had not heard the announcement was Elizebeth who was not present at breakfast and there was a lot of muttering going on about her absence.

"The chick's obviously the one who murdered him," Jeka observed, spooning into his scrambled eggs. "What was she doing down in the basement anyway?"

"Yeah, she was pretty unfriendly too," Brandon noted. "But what could she have against Sean?"

"What did anyone have against Sean? Did anyone actually know the guy? Was anybody annoyed by him?" Ri asked. She took a bite of a buttered croissant. "Why would anyone murder Sean? I think he was the only guy that nobody disagreed with because none of us knew that much about him."

There was a silence as everybody pondered Ri's question. Then a hesitant Cammy broke the silence. "What if it's because we aren't wanted here?"

Everybody turned towards Cammy. "What is it that you are trying to say?" Lynn asked slowly.

Zack eagerly responded for Cammy. "Why would we murder people within our group? It doesn't make sense. What if it isn't Elizebeth, but it's actually one of the Smashers? I mean think about it, we have a lot more to lose than they do. If we were killed off, nobody will care because well..." He chuckled darkly, "We're nobody. But," he added. "If it was a Smasher, this would be covered up because they're untouchable. It's bad for press, so our murders would be hushed up."

All of the Chosen Few at their table turned towards the Smasher's table suspiciously. Drey was the only one who was sitting amongst them and she was sitting in between Link and a slightly angry Zelda.

"So, you think it's a Smasher?" Joeb asked, swiveling his eyes back to their own table. "I heard that they weren't in favor of us coming." He frowned, and drained a glass of orange juice.

"That's not a good enough reason," Brandon argued bluntly. "I still say it was Elizebeth. She got caught, so she tried pinning it on Ness. I just can't see any of them doing something this horrible."

"Are you kidding? Bowser, Ganondorf and Wolf are all evil enough to do it for starters," Jeka snorted.

"And Peach," Rio added unexpectedly, stabbing her sausage with venom. She had very little to contribute to the conversation. Her eyes were red rimmed, and all of the Chosen Few knew that she had been crying last night, but nobody knew what to say to console her.

"Still though," Ri pressed, after a dour period of silence as the guests contemplated their situation. "Why Sean?"

Though everybody was keen on talking about Sean's death, nobody had a definite answer to that question.

"They're all staring at us," King Dedede muttered. "I don't like it."

"Just ignore them," Metaknight said calmly.

The Smashers were muttering amongst themselves, not knowing what to make of the recent events. It was Peach who started the conversation.

"Who do you think did it?"

Yoshi responded, "It was definitely Elizebeth. She's on the top of my list at least."

"You have a list?" Kirby asked, amused while he shoveled down food.

"Just as long as they kill their kind and not ours, I don't care," Bowser growled.

"Bowser!" Olimar said, visibly shocked. "Some of them happen to be very nice. That Ri girl seemed really friendly."

Pit and Lucas exchanged an uneasy glance. Lucas chose not to say anything. He still did not know what to make of Ri's outburst. Pit couldn't keep his mouth shut however. "She seems friendly but I'm sure she has her skeletons she'd like to keep in the closet too..." he murmured darkly. With that, he stood up.

"Where are you going?" Samus asked, puzzled.

"I have some business to take care of," Pit said, frowning. He began to leave. Lucas watched his retreating figure, hesitant. He had a good idea where Pit was headed but he didn't exactly know whether or not he wanted to follow the angel or not. He was afraid of what he might find out.

"You gonna go, kid?" a gruff voice asked. Startled, Lucas turned around to see Snake leaning against his chair with a toothpick in between his lips. His arms were crossed across his chest and he was also watching Pit leave the hall. "I know you want to go and whether or not you go, I think I'm gonna go too. Christ, I wish they hadn't banned smoking in the Mansion. I could use a cigarette." With that last sentence, the agent spat out his toothpick and followed Pit out.

Lucas stared at Snake's muscular body and after a second's hesitation, he stood up determinedly and followed the gruff man.

"You don't need more muscle, man," Marth said. They were both at the gym, about to start a work out. "You can wield a two handed sword with one hand. You need to work on your evasiveness."

"You make me sound like a Pokemon. What am I supposed to do? Learn Double Team?" Ike complained.

"No, but as a friend, I'm telling you that your reflexes are a bit off. You'll do a lot better this year in the tournament if you can dodge and run faster. It's a bad weakness," Marth explained.

"My brawn covers for that," Ike said stubbornly. He picked up an extremely heavy dumbbell in one hand.

"It won't if you want to place first. You're a heavy fighter Ike, which means that your jumping skills are awful. But you're also slow too! Do you want to know what Fox, Pikachu, Zelda, and I all have in common?"

Ike sighed, putting the dumbbell back in its respective place. He knew the answer to this question. "They were all the past four champions."

"Exactly," Marth said. "And all of them are extremely quick. The only reason Zelda won was because she switched to Sheik when she was high in damage which was a very smart move. That way nobody could hit her. All of them are quick. People with brute strength like Bowser always place lower."

"Roy wasn't slow," Ike countered. "Neither was Pichu and Mewtwo and they all placed last."

"Yeah, well Pichu practically eliminated himself with all his electric attacks," Marth said. "And Mewtwo did not train as much as the rest of us because he wanted to see more of the world. Roy..." He thought about his best friend momentarily. "He didn't want to be at the Mansion anymore." He thought about at the state he'd last seen Roy. Everybody who had known and lived with the Smashers who had left were forbidden to talk about what really happened to them. The official story was that they had all placed last in the tournament and were fired because of it. Marth hated to lie to Ike, but he privately felt that the lie was a lot better than the truth.

"So what do you suggest we do?" Ike said, oblivious to Marth's deep thoughts.

"The punching bag," Marth said pointing at the punching bag in a separate, glass room. "Every time you punch it, you have to dodge it as well because it will swing right back you. I started off there before I moved on to kickboxing with Link."

Ike shrugged his shoulders and moved towards the punching bag, silently closing the glass door behind him. He saw Marth head off to stretch, before tackling a machine that worked out his abs. Probably working them out for his herd of fangirls he thought to himself.

He strode up to the punchbag, staring at the thing apprehensively. Here goes nothing he thought, putting his fists up to his face and assuming a fighter's pose.

But scarcely had he landed a blow on the punching bag when a girl with long pink hair strode up to the punching bag and began to punch it furiously.

"R-Rio?" he asked, but she had a set, grim expression on her face. He noticed that her teeth were clenched as she struck quick yet furious blows on the punching back and dodged perfectly every time the bag came swinging back at her. She ducked low, and swept upward, kicking at the bag and then sidestepped. It was almost like she was dancing with the punching bag with the way she was sidestepping, ducking and punching and Ike was entranced.

"Wow," he said quietly to himself, breaking her concentration. The punching bag smacked her square in the face. With a cry she held her hands to her face, blocking it from view. "Are you alright?" He asked, worriedly.

Rio took her hands away from her face and though her eyes looked murderous and her lips were tight she answered, "Everything is perfectly fine." But it was not. Her nose was bleeding.

"Your nose," he said, stepping forward to swipe the blood off her nose but she blocked his hand using her wrist.

"I don't need your help," she said. She dragged the heel of her palm past her nose and inspected the smear of blood on her hands. She looked like she was about to cry again.

"What's the matter?" he asked gently. "Does it hurt?"

"Nothing hurts!" She yelled, but even as she said it her eyes were welling up with tears. She turned her face away so he wouldn't see her cry but Ike knew Rio so he placed his hand on her cheek and tilted it so that her face was towards his again.

Gods, why is she crying? he thought to himself. But a part of him already knew ever since yesterday when Peach announced they were dating. "Rio, what's wrong? Come on," he added, whispering. "You can tell me anything."

"I can't tell you," she said, trying to stifle the tears. It was mortifying that she was crying in front of him. Control yourself, Rio! she told herself sternly.

"Why not? You said that you could tell me anything the last time we spent time together. What's changed?"

"You tell me," she said, accusingly. She threw a towel across her shoulders and picked up her pink water bottle.

"Am I supposed to read your mind now?" Ike asked, a little annoyed.

Rio leaned close up to his face. "You don't need to read my mind to figure out what's wrong." Then she realized what she said and amended her statement quickly. "Not that there is anything wrong." She whirled around, and her long ponytail whipped Ike in the face.

Ike stood there confused for one long moment. Women... he thought to himself, annoyed.

I heard that. The voice sounded vaguely familiar to Ike. Then he placed it.

Gah! Lucario, get out of my head!

I cannot if your emotions are always that loud. Be cautious, warrior. I detect a dark aura in that one...

"Wow!" Brandon exclaimed. The short teen was bent over ROB. The robot had been cut open and Jeka, Captain Falcon, Samus and Fox were all peering inside. There were a jumble of wires and circuits. "Look at all of this! I could spend days in here!"

Captain Falcon chuckled. "Yes, it is quite advanced in here. It's actually funny, but this all isn't just pure technology you know."

"What do you mean?" Jeka asked frowning. "This all looks like wires and electricity to me."

"Yes, but have you ever noticed that ROB never needs to charge except at night?" Samus asked. "It was something Fox and I discovered when we searched ROB's insides to see if Tabuu had placed any bugs inside him. ROB isn't just infused with the latest technology. We used NMR spectroscopy and we found a lot of different carbon rings in here."

"Carbon rings?" Brandon said, a little confused. "But what could that mean... Wait are you saying that ROB is... Alive?"

"Wait a second. Time out, I'm confused!" Jeka shouted.

"Carbon is always present in living matter. They're basically the building blocks of life," Brandon said impatiently.

"Precisely," the anthropomorphic fox acknowledged. "I don't know what Tabuu did, but whatever it was he made it so that ROB was sort of alive. He's almost like a cyborg, except he's more technology than he is organic."

"Though ROB is somewhat alive, it is still very easy to shut that part of him down so that only his robot part functions," Captain Falcon explained. "So ROB can function as a robot without the life within him, but if you were to mess up his circuits he could not function which is why he is more robot than human."

At that precise moment, Samus's wristwatch beeped. She pressed a button on it and Master Hand's voice permeated through it. "Samus, you're required down at the lab."

"What for?" Samus asked, frowning.

"Your assistance is required. We have completed Mr. Sean Whitefield's autopsy and we would like to inform you of the results."

Brandon and Jeka exchanged looks. "Right away," Samus said. She pressed another button, ending communication with the gloved hand. She faced the boys and said, "Sorry to cut this short, I will be right back."

Brandon was curious to hear what Master Hand had to say but didn't know how to excuse himself. Luckily, Jeka intervened. "Brandon, that reminds me," he said. "Didn't you have to call your mom before lunch?"

My mom? Couldn't he have come up with a better excuse? But Brandon appeared to act surprised. "I almost forgot! She's going to kill me! I'll be right back!" and saying so, he capered down the hall where Samus had gone. It didn't take long for him to locate the lab room; It was on the top floor of the Mansion - He knew this already from studying the Mansion's blueprints before he boarded the plane. He located a drinking glass that somebody had left and held it up against the door and put his ear against it.

"...I don't understand. You told me he died from being hung," Samus's voice said, her voice muffled from the door separating them both.

"Well yes, he did. Indications show that he was indeed strangled. But it appears that before he died the murderer carved these letters onto his chest before hanging him," Master Hand said. "But there's something even more troubling..."

"What could be even more troubling than that?" Peach asked. Brandon surmised she was in there because she often helped Mario clean up patients.

"It would appear that his heart is missing," Mario said nervously.

There was a silence. Then Samus spoke up hesitantly. "You mean figuratively, right?"

"No, literally. His heart is gone. We realized that there were badly sewn stitches either because the murderer was in a hurry or did not know how to do stitches. Either way, they were running down his chest so we opened them and found that his chest had been cracked and the heart had been violently ripped from its arteries and veins."

Peach gave a groan of disgust. "That's sick," she muttered. Brandon was inclined to agree.

"So why did you call me here then?" Samus asked dryly, cutting the princess off. "I'm no doctor and no expert on hearts."

"No," Master Hand agreed. "But you are one of the most trusted Smashers here. You are also an exceptional bounty hunter which means I'm putting you on the case. Find out who is behind this."

"In order to do that, I'd have to search their files," Samus interrupted. "Something you expressly forbade."

"Dammit, Samus!" Master Hand swore, making Brandon jump. "Do you think I would have asked for you specifically if we could look into their profiles? Anybody can read a stupid file, but we can't actually look into the files. We signed an agreement with each of our guests that we would not pry in their lives unless necessary."

"And you think that an innocent victim doesn't make this very necessary to do a thorough background check?" Samus interrupted. Her voice had lost its calm yet wry tone. Now she sounded frustrated and irritated. "You're making this unnecessarily harder on me when our answer could lie right in those files."

There was a long pause. Then Master Hand said, "My mind is made up, Miss Aran. Try to find out who did this without the help of those files otherwise I won't be a happy person." The last sentence sounded like a dark threat. Brandon shivered at the tone of his voice. It sounded like the conversation was finished, so Brandon straightened himself and put the glass back where he found it.

His thoughts were whirling with theories and suspicions. He was no longer thinking about ROB, but rather about Sean. None of it made sense. Why would Sean's heart be missing? He thought back to Ri's question she'd asked repeatedly at breakfast.

Why Sean?

He felt like the answer was right in front of him, but he lacked the necessary tools or knowledge to figure it all out. He needed answers, he realized. And there was no way he was going to get them by just sitting here.

It was at that moment that he drew this conclusion that Jeka came towards him, panting. "I came as soon as I could," the white-haired teenager said, trying to catch his breath. "Captain Falcon and the others were summoned away for practice, so I ran here. What... Happened?"

Brandon bit his lip, surveying the other boy warily. Could Jeka be trusted? It only took him a second to decide if he could trust the boy or not.

"They did an autopsy on Sean and you won't believe what they found missing," Brandon blurted. He knew he could trust the older boy. After everything that he'd seen the past two days, he felt like he connected with Jeka a lot more than the rest of the Chosen Few and the Smashers.

"What did they find?" Jeka asked, an eyebrow raised.

"They found stitches running down his chest and when they opened the stitches they found his heart missing."

Jeka stopped in his tracks. "Heart... Missing?" he asked. He ran a hand through his hair. "That doesn't make any sense. Why would the heart be missing...?" he wondered aloud.

Brandon shrugged. "Beats me. But I think it's time we found some answers."

Jeka still looked nonplussed. Nevertheless, he asked, "Any leads?"

"Not any good ones," Brandon admitted. "But I figure we have to start somewhere, right? And I think we should start with Elizebeth. She's the only person who we can identify as a suspect."

A slow smile spread over Jeka's face. "Then I say, let's go find this chick."

"We might have to break the door down," Ri sighed. "If that's the case and a Smasher asks us what happened, what should we say?" The girl reached up to touch the white feather that was tucked underneath her ear. Reassured that it was safe and sound, she turned to face her partner in crime - Zack.

"A wounded rhino rampaged through the office?" Zack suggested weakly. Her movements caused him to once again study the feather underneath Ri's ear.

Ri smiled in spite of herself. Even though Zack's jokes were sometimes pretty lame, she had to admit she found his presence comforting. He knew how to lighten a situation and put her at ease. And she needed to relax. Already she was thinking about not going through the plan. However, her desire to figure out what happened easily outstripped her fear. Though she wasn't particularly good at solving mysteries, Ri was the kind of person who loved hearing about them. It was the first time she'd ever been involved in an actual mystery and so even though she found herself in a dangerous situation, she was slightly thrilled at the process of being in the midst of finding out the solution.

They approached the destination of their choice soon - It was Master Hand's office. But they didn't need to worry about getting the door open as Zack soon discovered.

"This door. It's unlocked," Zack announced when he tried the knob. "Somebody's already been here."

Ri frowned. Somebody already beat them here? But who could it be? "Well then," she said lightly. "It looks like they did the hard part. Let's go in shall we? Better be quiet about it. I want to know whose inside."

Zack opened the door carefully and noted that nobody was here. "Nobody's here," he called out, frowning.

"That's weird... I wonder who it was," Ri wondered to herself. She stepped into the office warily. It was really quite a beautiful office. "I guess we should start mmph!"

"Ri?" Zack asked urgently, hearing her muffled scream. He spun around but before he could get a good look at the raven haired girl, something shocked him rendering him unconscious. He blacked out before he hit the floor.

"This is boring!" Cammy whined. "Why are we even here?" She was with Toon Link, the Ice Climbers and Ness. She had bonded with them all overnight, with the exception of Ness who wouldn't say where he was. The Smash kids were hiding in the audience seats that were overlooking the Fountain of Dreams.

"Shh!" Nana hushed furiously. "We're spying."

"What are we supposed to be looking at?" Cammy asked, annoyed.

Toon Link pointed at the scene unfolding in the battlefield. Two Princesses, the Hero of Time and Joeb were on the actual battlefield. Lynn was looking at them in the control room. She was supposed to be controlling what items came on the battlefield and keeping score.

As usual, Zelda and Drey were looking daggers at each other. Joeb and Link on the other hand seemed oblivious to the tension going on between the two girls.

"This is ridiculous," Zelda snapped. "Link has always been my partner when we've done team battles."

"I've never seen Zelda so angry," Popo observed thoughtfully.

"I'll tell you what's ridiculous," Drey said, who seemed to be trying hard to control her own anger. "It seems really unfair to have two veteran warriors pitted against two newbies, like us."

"Is that what you want to call yourself?" Zelda asked icily. "A newbie?"

"Can we stop arguing, please?" Joeb asked, visibly annoyed. "I just want to fight."

"You know," Link said. "Drey's right. We're far more experienced than either of them. We'd be more evenly matched if one of us paired up with one of them."

Zelda glared at Link, but her expression was already softening just by looking at him. She couldn't stay at her Hero for too long. "Fine," she conceded. "Lynn, you can decide whose teaming up with who."

Silently, the Triforce holder of Wisdom was hoping that the Pokemorph would pair Link with Joeb while Drey was hoping that she would team up with Link.

What do I do? Lynn thought nervously. She hadn't been paying attention to the squabble below. Ever since Lucario had approached her, she was thinking about what he'd said and his words were setting her off edge. She only had to look towards Sean's death to see that Lucario's predictions and insinuations were proving true. But what did that mean for herself?

"I do believe I'd like to see Link and Joeb versus Princess Drey and Princess Zelda" she said, speaking over the announcer.

Drey suppressed a groan. This blows. But there are always other ways to get Link... The more troubling situation is how I'm supposed to get along with with this stuck up Princess? We are going to lose if we can't cooperate. But there's no way I'm getting along with her! She glanced at Zelda and could tell that the Princess of Hyrule was thinking the same thing.

"Are we ready to begin?" Lynn's voice echoed throughout the arena.

"Speaking of arenas why does the Fountain of Dreams still exist?" Cammy questioned. "I thought it was removed in Brawl."

"It was," Ness admitted, a little subdued. Cammy noted that Ness had dark circles under his eyes, and wondered why he looked so unwell. She wanted to cheer him up. "But they keep all the battlefields that aren't used as practice stages only."

"Ah," Cammy said, understanding. Cammy herself was not a fighter, but she enjoyed watching the games and Fountain of Dreams was one of her favorite stages. She admired its beauty. She'd been sorry to see it go. She turned her attention back to the stage where the match had already started. Zelda immediately bounded for Link and they circled around each other.

"Zelda, you can't take me on," Link laughed.

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" she asked. "Do you think you're a beater fighter than me?" she teased.

"I don't think I am," Link said. He gave her a cocky grin. "I know I am." With that, the swordsman drew his bow and aimed an arrow and fired. With a quick yell Zelda quickly summoned Nayru's Love which effectively blocked his swift arrow. She laughed. "Is that the best you can do?" Link merely grunted and ran after her, his sword glinting menacingly.

If I can take care of Joeb first, I can go after Link too... That way I can prove to him that I'm a capable opponent! Drey thought to herself. She ran over to Joeb who had suddenly adopted a hard glare in his eyes. This surprised Drey. That's pretty uncharacteristic of him... Drey didn't know Joeb too well, but she'd always pictured him as a lazy, affable person. The glint in his eyes however suggested otherwise and it made her feel downright uneasy. But she wasn't backing out. Not now. In fact, the look in Joeb's eyes made her strengthen her resolve to win.

She unsheathed her sword when she was less than fifteen feet away. It was long, probably as long as Marth's and it was made of dragonbone. She shivered. She loved her sword. It'd been a gift from home and it was a splendid thing to look at. Right now though, she barely had any time to admire her beloved sword. She slashed at Joeb expertly who dodged it with ease and kicked her in the arm. The kick was so swift and so unexpected that Drey had no time to parry it with her sword. She hissed in pain. Dioclopse, this guy is strong! Her arm was stinging, but she ignored it. I am of the Dragons. Dragons don't feel pain. She whipped her blonde hair back and thrust at Joeb with her sword who again dodged it, though just barely. The older man sprang backward and from seemingly nowhere he pulled out a rifle and aimed at her and fired.

This time Drey was ready and she stepped sideways to dodge it, though just barely. The bullet seared past her, cutting off a couple of strands of her blonde hair on its way through. It sailed towards Zelda who was currently trapped by Link's Hookshot and hit her in the back. She cried out in pain. In his shock, Link released her.

"What are you playing at?" she screamed at Drey who looked confused. "You're supposed to watch out for your team mate. You let that bullet come at me!"

"I didn't know you were there!" Drey said, her voice unapologetic. "Why don't you fend for yourself?"

"Fend for myself?" Zelda nearly yelled. "The point of a team battle is to work together! Haven't you seen any team matches?"

"The only teamwork I've seen involving you is the one where Link's always protecting you!" Drey shot back.

Zelda's eyes flashed dangerously. "You're calling me weak?"

"Girls, stop!" Link said, but none of them were listening to him at this point.

"Yeah, guess I am. You were only champion because of Sheik and because you got lucky," Drey sneered, her anger boiling.

"I would appreciate it if the match were more physical towards the opposite team," Lynn's polite voice intervened throughout the serene stadium. Joeb, with the same hardened look in his eye, growled in agreement.

"Joeb seems scary," Cammy commented. "I've never seen that look in his eye before."

"It does look strange," Ness murmured, frowning.

"Yeah? Well I had to work at Sheik. Nothing in life comes free and I learned that the hard way! You wouldn't understand the years of rigorous training I had to get to in order to become her! You on the other hand... You just get chosen by a dragon and all you do is have to get angry and..."

"You think it's that easy for me too?" Drey roared, making Joeb laugh.

"I never thought I'd see the day where princesses talk about how much harder their lives are," he said his voice full of mirth. That did it for Drey. She was shaking in anger.

"I think Drey finally snapped," Nana whispered.

The kids all watched in a mixture of fascination and horror at the shaking girl. She dropped to her knees and panted, looking at the floor, her eyes changing. I tried so hard to stop it... But I can't now. It's too late. She was transforming, growing whiter. She grew bigger and longer until she'd fully transformed into a beautiful yet dangerous white creature. The angry beast roared into Zelda's face who shook in fear.

"I can't believe it," Lynn said softly to herself. "Drey is..."

"A dragon?" Cammy and the other Smashers said at the same time, all astonished.

Ri kicked and struggled against her captor. She'd never been good at fighting though. She'd once taken a self defense class but she hardly remembered what she had been taught. Panic's cold fingers were gripping at her throat, making it harder for her to breathe. She screamed against the hand that bound her but it came out muffled. She noted that the hand was large, masculine and the chest that she was pressed against was also quite muscular and therefore masculine.

Zack! she tried to search for her new found friend but the boy was nowhere to be seen. She'd heard something fall to the floor though and sincerely hoped it wasn't him. "Mmph!"

"Let her go!" a young boy's scared voice said.

Ri tried to say, "Lucas?" in shock but instead it came out as, "Oomphus?"

"Why should I?" a masculine voice at her ear growled.

"Saae?" she asked. She meant to say Snake, but she could barely open her mouth against his tight grip on her.

"She's... She's a friend!" Lucas stammered.

"She's no friend," another male voice declared. It was Pit and he stalked into her view, his blue eyes defiant. "Tell me Ri, what's your real story?" The angel leaned in close to Ri's face. She balked, and sank backward, further into Snake's chest.

"Calm down, angel boy, you're scaring the girl," Snake said. Pit didn't respond. His hand crept to her face, brushing her black hair back so he could grab the feather.

He shivered, closing his eyes.

She struggled violently then with all her might, and to her surprise, Snake let go. She drew her fist back and let it loose, connecting it with Pit's cheek. "Are you crazy?" she yelled.

"Don't make so much noise!" Snake cautioned. "We're all not supposed to be in here."

"Where's Zack?" she said loudly, ignoring his warning.

"Here," Lucas said behind them in a timid, apologetic tone. "Sorry. I accidentally shocked him. I thought... Well... I didn't want to get caught..."

Zack was stirring feebly. He reached for his bug net and drew it to his chest. "What happened? I feel like that rhino really did charge through the door," he said, wincing.

"I'm sorry," Lucas said, timidly. "It was my fault."

"You sure know your PK moves," Zack said, wryly. But he didn't seem mad at Lucas. He turned to face Snake and Pit. Pit was rubbing his jaw, gingerly. A red mark was starting to form there. "Why are you three even here?"

Then his eyes scoured the room to find an answer. His eyes landed on a bunch of manila files that lay behind Snake's feet. "What are those?" he asked, pointing. But it was Ri who answered. They were, after all, the reason that she had broken in the first place.

"Those are our background files."

This was a bit of a filler chapter, sorry guys, not much happened here compared to the last chapter. :\ But things have become a little more suspicious, and everybody's character seems to have a dark side to them with a couple of exceptions that I still need to get to. Hopefully more will happen in the next chapter, eh? Until then, please review with some feedback! I read every review and try to make the story better!

And I must also apologize for not including some characters as much as the others. I sincerely wanted to, but the chapter was already becoming pretty long. All I can say is that each character will get their turn or their time to revel! Until then, stick around!

Once again, I'm sorry that I took forever to update! Updates will be slower though since school's begun! Hope you all can bear with me!