Chapter 5
Rosalina stared at Luma's body laying on the bed. Others had already been informed, and Mario was now desperately trying to bring Luma back to life. Peach was trying to comfort Rosalina, but Rosalina wasn't paying attention. Luma was the only thing she cared about. Others that had come were Luigi, Link, Trainer, Samus, Pikachu, Donkey Kong, Sonic, Marth, and even Bowser. None of them knew how to react to the loss. First it was Olimar, now Luma.
Rosalina took a deep breath and said, "Where is the twentieth smasher? Why isn't he here?"
The smashers that had gathered looked at each other. They didn't know who should speak and what they should say. Samus eventually spoke up. "Something appeared in the mansion the other day. We think it might have gotten the other smasher. We didn't want to say anything because we thought it wouldn't attack again so soon."
Rosalina took deep breaths. She was now angry that they would try to cover up what was happening. "So because you didn't tell me about this thing, Luma died."
"We didn't think this would happen," Peach said.
Rosalina glared at her. "Go away." She turned to the rest of them. "ALL OF YOU! Please leave me alone!" Mario looked up from Luma. He sighed and walked out of the room with the rest of the smashers. Rosalina closed the door and began to cry after a few seconds.
Mario looked at the others. "We should-a be ashamed of ourselves."
"We had no way of knowing it was going to strike," Samus said.
"Still, if we had told her she should leave, or even about the thing with red eyes, Luma wouldn't have died," Marth said.
"He's right," Bowser said. "I wish I could find this thing and rip it apart."
"Well we need to find it first," Samus said.
"I-a agree, and this-a murder might actually be-a the first clue," Mario said.
Everyone turned to him. "Why?" Marth asked.
"The-a wound came from something sharp, probably a type of-a blade. That-a eliminates a few of-a us as suspects."
"Then that would narrow it down to the Links, Marth, Pit, Mega Man, and Bowser," Trainer said.
"Yes, and-a I would like to-a suggest we temporarily confiscate-a them," Mario suggested.
"What?" Link said. "No."
"The-a murderer had to have-a done it with a sharp-a weapon."
"Then we should have bukis to defend ourselves," Marth said.
"This might be the solution," Trainer said.
"We're all fighters," Pikachu said. "We can fight this thing, but we can't last if we don't have a way of doing it."
Luigi turned to his brother. "He's-a right. If-a this thing can kill, then-a shouldn't we be prepared to-a fight a killer."
Mario sighed. "Fine, but-a if there is another death like-a Luma's, I will-a make sure we take the weapons."
The rest agreed and headed off to sleep. Some of them fell asleep, some tossed and turned and battled nightmares. Others, such as Marth, didn't even try. Marth kept on thinking about Luma. There had to be something about Luma that would give away the killer. He thought hard about it, but the only hint was the type of injury. One thought, however, came to his mind. Luma may have been stopped from making noise once the fight began, but why didn't anyone here the noise coming from the telescope, wardrobe, and other things being knocked over. It may be a big mansion, but someone would have had to have heard all the movement and falling objects. How did the murderer do it so quietly. He puzzled other the thought trying to come up with an answer. He was so focused on it that he was startled when his alarm woke him up the next morning. He turned to his alarm, turned it off, and left his room to get breakfast.
He sat at the same part he had for the last two days, but this day was different. By the time he got there, most of them had heard about Luma's death. No one talked, no one looked at anyone, and hardly anyone actually ate their food. Some of them were crying, others looked depressed. Some of the weathered warriors were angry.
Marth looked around for Rosalina, but quickly discovered she hadn't come. He went back to staring at the toast he had grabbed. He still couldn't believe a murder had happened right under their noses. Someone shouted, "Stop it!" Everyone's head shot up to look at Toon Link standing on the table and glaring at them. "All of you." He paused before asking, "What are we doing? Luma's dead, and all we're going to do is mope about it."
"You don't seem to understand we're responsible," Fox said.
"We are, but some of us are familiar with death. Fox, what about your father? Those of us who have lost someone did used it to motivate us on our quests. Whatever did this has killed one, maybe two people. If we're just going to do nothing, then we might as well commit suicide." Everyone stared at him for a few more seconds before turning back to their food. Toon Link stared at the group. "Please, we need to fix this." Only Marth bothered glancing up. He stared at the others and looked at a sad Toon Link.
Toon Link started climbing down when Marth stood up and said, "He's right. We need to do something about this."
"What can we do?" Samus said. "We don't know what we're dealing with."
"You're right, but whatever it is, it isn't done. We only have a few choices. We can leave and abandon our friends that have already died, we can stay and share a fate similar to theirs, or we can fight back and avenge those we have lost. I'm fighting and so is Toon Link. Who else will help?"
Marth watched at them. Toon Link smiled and joined him. The smashers seemed divided. There were some who didn't seem to know what they were going to do while others had already turned back to their food. Link stood up first. "I can't be outdone by myself. I will."
Mega Man smiled and stood up. "I will."
Marth smiled, thinking the others were going to follow their example. However, many of them continued staring at their food. "Please,"
His last word only got Sonic to stand. "I guess I'll help," he said. "It might help things seem less gloomy."
Marth smiled and nodded. "Then we should come up with a plan. We can go to the roof and talk about it there." The others agreed and they headed towards the roof.
When they got onto the roof, Link asked, "So how do we isolate this virus?"
"It travels through the wires, so maybe if we turn the lights off, it will be stuck in its host," Marth said.
"Yeah, there aren't any problems with that plan at all," Sonic said. "Except for the fact that we have no idea who the host is. Plus, We'll have a hard time gettimg around when we can't see anything."
"I'm saying it as a teian," Marth said.
"Just when I thought you were cured," Mega Man said. He received a glare from Marth.
"What about Master Hand?" Toon Link said. "He still isn't back yet. Neither is Crazy Hand."
"I can find them," Sonic said. "I can have this whole world searched in a few minutes."
"You may want to get started," Link said. Sonic smiled and ran off.
The remaining four continued talking. "So if we can keep the virus from traveling through the wires, how do we identify which one of us it is?"
"We look for clues." A voice from behind them said. They looked to see Rosalina. Her smile was gone, and her eyes were red. "One clue is that Luma was stabbed. There's another one downstairs."
Marth quickly ran to her. "Is someone else dead?"
"No. There's something on the wall." The four of them ran past Rosalina and down the stairs.
They stopped to see black marks on the wall. The marks were burn marks that actually made the sentence, "ThE viRuS iS…" Where the name should have been, the wall had been shredded, and the message was impossible to finish.
Others had already gathered. Among them were Pikachu, Samus, Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Fox. They looked at them. "Did-a one of you do-a this?" Mario asked.
They shook their heads. Marth began examining the wall. "How is this a clue?"
"The wall has been slashed again. And we can still learn something from the wall. We can at least guess the size of the name."
Marth began looking at the shredded part of the wall. "Yeah, it's about the same length as 'virus,' maybe a little longer."
"What does that mean?" Pikachu said.
"Whoever it is has to have a name the same size," Samus said.
"But how do we determin a name that is 'the same size'?" Peach asked.
"We-a have to guess," Mario said.
"From what, anyone with a five letter name?" Mega Man asked.
"No, the letter size is too inconsistent," Fox said.
"Three to seven?" Pikachu asked.
"That would be too general," Link said. "Toon Link, Rosalina, Villager, and Donkey Kong are the only ones who have longer names."
"Then four to six," Toon Link said.
"Sounds good to me," Fox said. Once he said that though, his ears began twitching. He turned and looked down the hall. "Someone just entered the mansion." Everyone turned towards the stairs that lead to the lobby. Link and Marth pulled out their swords and approached the stairs.
As they continued approaching, they began hearing the voice as well. Marth stopped when he finally heard, "Is anyone here?" He recognized the voice. Link clearly heard it as well. He ran down the hall jumped down the stairs. Marth followed after him, along with the rest of the smashers. Marth soon joined Link's side and saw Zelda from the stairs standing in the lobby. Zelda spotted them and smiled. Marth turned to see Link's reaction, but he was focused one something else. Marth soon spotted what Link was watching. Pit standing there with an arrow ready, pointed down into the lobby.
Link pulled out his sword and charged forward. Pit seemed to hear Link's footsteps. He turned and quickly let the arrow go. Marth ran forward as Link began swinging his sword at Pit. Pit continued evading Link's attacks, but he didn't fight back. Marth grabbed Link's arms and pulled them back. "His name has three letters," Marth said. "That's not enough."
Link glared at Pit before he dropped his sword. "What were you doing with that arrow?"
"I was watching for the virus," Pit said. "I was hoping it would try to attack and reveal itself."
Link continued glaring at Pit, but he finally relaxed. Satisfied, Marth let go of his arms. After a few seconds, Link took a quick swing at Pit, knocking him over. Link said, "Don't ever use her as bait again," before walking into the lobby and reuniting with Zelda.
Zelda glared at him, "Why did you do that?"
"We've had problems here," Link said. He began telling her about the virus, the disappearance of the Hands and Olimar, and Luma's death. When Link was done, he said, "You shouldn't be here."
"By the way it sounds, you need me here," Zelda said. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."
"Excuse me," Mario said. Everyone turned to him. "But-a we have been talking." He pointed to a group of smashers behind him. Toon Link, Pit, Rosalina and Mega Man weren't with them.
"What have you been talking about?" Pit asked as he joined Marth. Mario whispered something to Fox. He nodded and left. He soon returned with Toon Link and Mega Man.
Mario sighed. "We-a have decided that the five of you should give up your weapons."
"What!?" Toon Link shouted. "You can't do that."
"I'm-a sorry, but it is likely that the virus has taken over one of you."
"But what about the message," Link said. "Marth and I are the only one with names that would fit in that."
"We don't want to take that chance," Trainer said.
"We even want-a you to give up-a your bombs, boomerangs, grappling hooks, cannons, claws, and hammers."
"What about me?" Mega Man said. "My weapons are a part of me."
Mario looked down at the ground. "We-a talked about it. We are-a hoping we can turn-a you off until we figure this out."
Mega Man stared at them. He slowly began to back away. "No."
"Then-a I guess it's going to-a be the hard way." The smashers rushed forward and tackled Mega Man. Marth, Toon Link, Link, and Pit rushed forward to help him, but a few of the other smashers left Mega Man to keep them busy. Marth bashed Luigi's head and dove to help Mega Man, but he was intercepted by Donkey Kong.
Bowser held Mega Man's arms down to the ground as Fox and Samus began examining him. "How do you turn him off?" Fox asked.
Samus didn't get to respond as Link smashed his shield into her head. He hit it again into Fox before others pulled him off. Mega Man tried to kick at the people gathering around him, but eventually Samus recovered and grabbed the middle of Mega Man's chest. She ripped it off and watched his eyes dimmed. Samus then turned her attention to Marth and the others. "Now we need their weapons," she said.
Bowser let go of Mega Man's arms and charged Pit. Pit turned and sliced two red lines across his chest. He was quickly tackled by Mario, Peach, and the Trainer. Mario began pounding away until a bomb blew up above them. Pit tried to get up, but he laid back down. Link had just barely managed to get Donkey Kong off of him when a charge slot slammed him into a wall.
Toon Link and Marth looked around as both Pit and Link were disarmed. Fox looked at them, "Please just stop," he said. "We're trying to make us safer."
"All you're doing is weakening us," Marth said. He charged forward and got a good swing at Fox. He dodged the swipe and began shooting at him. Toon Link threw his boomerang and hit Fox. However, Donkey Kong grabbed him and slammed him into the ground. Marth kicked Pikachu as he tried to hit Marth. He made a quick turn and grabbed Mario. He threw Mario at Luigi and rolled out of the way of a kick from Trainer. He got back up only to leap away from Kirby's attack. He tried to find away to escape, but all the smashers rushed him. He tried holding on to Falchion, but it slipped away. He was soon held down.
Mario approached with his sword. He muttered, "I'm sorry," before bashing him in the head.
Ta-da. It's been a while since I've updated. I should tell you a few things about this chapter. One: I have no idea if there is a way to turn Mega Man off, I'm not too familiar with the games. Two: With losing the weapons, they are only doing it with swordsmen, so Fox and Samus won't lose theirs. Three: I know King Dedede was confirmed, but this chapter was planned to only include Zelda. As always, tell me who you think is corrupted and also give me advice on how I can improve my writing. Thanks for reading.