Chapter 2

The day finally came for the official sign up for Brawl; a line was formed in the entry hall for sign ups. Roy was in the middle of the line with Marth and Ike, bored with the long wait. After counting the ceiling tiles and losing count three times, pestering Marth about how much longer the wait would be, and looking at Ike's sword for what seemed to be for half an hour; the line moved one foot.

"Aaaaagh, how much longer is this going to be?" Roy muttered to himself. He looked for Lucario and noticed he wasn't in line. "Uh oh, where's Lucario?" Roy started for Lucario's room.

"Roy, where are you going?" Marth called after him. "You need to be here to sign up, or you can't be in Brawl."

"At the rate this line's going, he could circle the world before the last person signs up; poor ROB." Said Ike to Marth.

Roy reached Lucario's room and found the door open. "Lucario, are you in here?" Roy called as he walked in. No answer. He looked around the silent room and saw the closet door ajar. He walked to the closet and peered inside, he thought he saw something. He opened the door. As he saw what was inside, his eyes opened wider with surprise. He then saw a shadow fall across the light on the floor. He turned and saw who it was; his eyes acquired a new light of realization. His heart beat faster in his chest. "What is going on here…?"

"I'm sorry Roy, I had no choice. Now that you have seen this, I can't let you leave…"

One standing in the hall would have heard a struggle from inside the room, and then see Lucario come out to go register.

…………..

Marth saw Lucario coming down the hall without Roy. Lucario got to the line as Ike asked "Hey Lucario, have you seen Roy anywhere? I think he went looking for you."

"No, I haven't. But he should hurry before the registration is over," Lucario answered.

"Team Zelda," said Master Hand, looking at the list.

"Why is it always called 'Zelda'," asked Ganondorf. "When the main person is Link?"

Marth thought of where Roy could possibly be, the Pokémon team was next and Fire Emblem came after. Roy had been gone for nearly an hour now. If Marth cared any more, he would have gone looking for Roy, but he didn't. "That idiot, where's he gone to now?"

"Team Pokémon" called Master Hand. Ike and Marth both started to show signs of concern.

"Do you think he got lost in his closet again?" asked Ike quietly into Marth's ear. Marth pondered a moment before answering.

"No, he's most likely forgotten about the registration itself. Sigh, it looks like we'll have to go look for him."

"Don't worry, I'll go look for him," offered Dr Mario.

"Wait, aren't you going to be in Brawl?" asked Ike.

"No, that experiment on young Link got me disqualified. Besides, I'm just going to stick around as the medic. So where did you last see him go?" asked Dr Mario.

"He seemed to be going to look for Lucario. Shortly after, we saw Lucario come, but he says he hasn't seen Roy anywhere," Ike said.

"I see," said Dr Mario, thinking to himself. "I guess I'll go look for him then." And with that Dr Mario went down the hall.

………….

"Finally, we don't have to wait in line anymore," said Toon Link with relief. Link, Zelda and Toon Link were walking down the hall to the lounge. Then they heard someone around the corner calling out. It was Dr Mario.

"Hey Doc, what are you yelling about?" asked Toon Link as they came around the corner.

"I'm looking for Roy," answered Dr Mario, he must have gone looking for Lucario and hasn't been back to register for Brawl yet.

"Do you think he got lost in his closet again?" asked Zelda. Dr Mario pondered a moment and shook his head.

"I doubt he would have gone looking for Lucario in his closet," said Dr Mario skeptically. "Hey, you wouldn't mind helping me look for him, would you?"

"Not at all," said Zelda. Link and Toon Link both nodded. Link's face then lighted up, he was having an epiphany. He tapped on Zelda's shoulder, she faced him. "Yes?"

Link started doing some simple sign language to try to convey his thoughts to her. He mimed the shape of a box and then crouched down. Seeing Zelda's lost expression, he tried a different way. He moved his hand, wrist and arm in a slithering motion in the air. "…um, a snake?" Link nodded, and then crouched down again, pretending to put a box over himself. "Oh, Snake. Right?" Link nodded again. "What about him?" Link then stood one of his hands on the other and had it walk across it, and then he put the side of his hand on his brow and looked around the room. "Have him come help us look for Roy?" Link nodded again and folded his arms, with a satisfied grin. "Actually, that's not a bad idea Link. Snake's already signed up, let's go ask him and see if he'll help out."

"Is that always how he communicates?" asked Dr Mario, remembering that Link couldn't talk. Which reminded him of the time Mewtwo gave Link a journal with a voice-activated lock on his birthday as a joke. Zelda nodded to answer his question. Still to this day, Link hasn't opened that journal. The doctor then wondered where Mewtwo was, as they walked down the hallway to find Snake. Little did he realize that Mewtwo was closer than he thought.

…………….

Master Hand looked down at Lucario's forms. He noticed the requests made on the form for trophies.

"So, you are requesting there to be Riolu and Mewtwo trophies available?" Lucario's eyes shifted and he nodded. "I see… and how does it feel to have replaced someone like Mewtwo." One of Lucario's ears twitched slightly at the mention of the word "replaced", but he tilted his head slightly and shrugged, looking away.