Here is the sort-of awaited chapter three. Things are getting pretty tense in Smash Mansion! What shall the six heroes do? Eat pizza, of course!

Chapter Three: Riddles

The six heroes walked steadily up the stairs leading into the musty attic, blowing away cobwebs and dust as they proceeded further into the stairway. Once they had reached the doorway, they held their breath as Roy slowly approached the door.

"Man, this is dramatic." Roy grinned over his shoulder at the other Smashers, who let out their breath in a sigh.

"Just open the dang door, Roy."

"Yes, Miss Peachy."

"And shut up, while you're at it."

"Kay."

Roy opened the door and peered inside. "Ew. How long has it been since you've cleaned this thing out, Zelda?"

"Why do I have to clean everything?!"

"Well, I have to cook everything." Peach frowned.

"Samus doesn't do anything."

"That's cause I don't feel like it." Samus turned and, if looks could kill, Zelda would be dying a slow, painful death. "I'm a cold-hearted and ruthless bounty hunter. We DON'T clean and cook."

"Yes'm." Zelda's eyes were saucers.

Roy pushed the door open for everyone to see. The room was dark and dirty, and filled with cobwebs. The things were practically swarming in the room. As they walked over to the larger boxes, dust scattered under their boots and shoes and floated into the air around them, sending a chill up their spines. Thunder boomed overhead and lightning lit up the window. The lights flickered.

Bzz.

Bzz.

Bzzzzzz . . .

The lights went out.

"What time is it?" Roy looked at Link, the only one who most likely had a watch on him.

"Hmm . . . 8:23 p.m."

"Okay then, thanks."

"Oh, darn! That was my foot, Girly-Boy."

"Harrumph. Move your foot then, Samus. What was it doing by me anyway?"

"Uh, nothing."

"Hey, guys, I think I found something." Zelda peered over her shoulder at the other heroes. They all walked slowly over to her, desperate to a clue or a riddle. "Look, its ROY AS A BABY!"

They others chuckled at Roy in a diaper. "Z-Zelda!" He scowled at her. His face was as red as his hair.

Peach pinched him on the cheek. "You were so cute!" Roy was too happy and embarrassed by her words to hear the next part she said, which was, "Too bad you don't look like that anymore."

She called me cute, were the only words going on in Roy's head.

"Hey Peach! Here's a picture of Ike in a bathing suit!" Zelda sniggered as Peach swooned over the photo of a shirtless Ike.

Roy stole the picture from her and grimaced, tearing it to pieces. "There's no need for that."

"I told you he was jealous," Samus whispered in Marth's ear. He blushed a bit, but he assured himself it was because of the hot, muggy room. He stepped away from her.

"Don't get so close to me, Aran." He spit the last word out as if it were poison.

"Sorry for talking to you, Girly-Boy." Samus turned her nose away, hurt. What did she ever do to him? He was such a jerk. "You are such a jerk."

Marth just turned away and muttered something that sounded like 'mucking pass bowl'. Samus chose to ignore this.

Marth squatted down on his knees, narrowing his eyes at the lack of light. He pushed a few boxes out of the way and peered in a box titled, "Past Information-Hidden Files". Curious, he picked up an envelope and looked at the title. "Samus Aran".

He tucked it into his tunic and got up. "I don't see anything over here."

"Hmm."

A few minutes passed as people were looking everywhere for a piece of paper with a riddle on it.

Zelda lost her balance while trying to get a better look at a small box and fell to the floor. Her rear end hit something sharp and hard. She anxiously got up and looked at it. A handle?

"Link, guys, I think I found something," she murmured quietly. The other Smashers gazed over her shoulder, interested.

"A trap door?"

"No, you idiot, if it was a trap door, she would have fallen in."

"A passage? Maybe the riddle's in here."

"Let's go in."

The room was so dark that the heroes couldn't see anything, and the door made a loud clunk as it shut behind them.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Roy looked around nervously at everyone.

"Hey, Zelda, do you think you can give us some light?" Samus ignored Roy's question.

"Yeah, sure." Zelda lit the room dimly with Din's Fire, holding it in the palm of her hand and raising it to examine the room.

The room seemed eerie in the dark red light. Cobwebs piled the corners and caught onto old furniture, and old rotten books were in stacks on the floor. A tall bookshelf was covered in dust in one corner, and a treasure chest was in another corner. A small, cracked light bulb dangled in the middle of the ceiling, begging to be repaired.

Peach walked ahead and squatted down at the pile of books. "Strange," she muttered, squinting. "All of these books are about . . ."

Everyone held their breath, urging her to continue.

"Butter knives."

The five other Smashers sighed and rolled their eyes. "Butter knives? You're kidding, right?"

Peach giggled. "Yeah, they're actually about 'The Art of Dark Magic'."

"Sounds like something Gannondork would do." Link said, annoyed.

"Hmm. Oh well, let's move on." Marth grumbled as he stumbled towards the chest. It opened easily, and he peered inside. "What the heck?"

Samus shoved him aside and looked into the chest. "What the fluff?"

Marth rolled his eyes and looked into the chest beside her. "It's a note." He picked it up and looked at it. It was too dark to read, even with Zelda's light, but he knew exactly what it was. "We found our riddle."

"That's great and all, but how are we going to get out of here? I'm hungry again. What time is it now, Link?" Roy huffed and leaned against a wall, clutching his rumbling stomach.

"Uhh . . . 10:04."

"You mean we've been in here for two hours?!"

"Yeah."

"Augh! I'm hungry! Let's hurry up and get out of this place so I can eat some food!"

"Alright."

The six Smashers walked up the stairs leading to the passage, and opened the door. They arrived in the oh-so-familiar attic and breathed in deeply, enjoying the sort of fresh, less-musty smell. "Ah. Home sweet attic." Peach sighed.

"I'm hungry."

"I know that, Roy."

After they made their way down the stairs that led into the kitchen, they noted that the power was still out. "Maybe we can order takeout."

"I want Chinese!"

"They won't accept Chinese takeout at 10:00 at night."

"How about . . . Outback Steakhouse?!"

"Psh. That's dumb. Let's just get pizza and call it a night."

And so the heroes heroically called Pizza Hut (on Peach's cell phone) and ordered pizza heroically. Heroically.

"Uh, yes, I would like to order a large-"

"NO MAKE IT AN EXTRA LARGE!"

"I'm sorry, an extra large pepperoni-"

"I WANT MEAT LOVERS!"

"Make that an extra large meat lover's pizza-"

"WITH CINNAMON STICKS!"

"Hang on just a moment." Peach pulled the phone away from her face. "ROY! WOULD YOU JUST SHUT THE #&! UP! I'M TRYING TO ORDER THE #&! PIZZA!" Peach pulled the phone back to her face. "I'm sorry. Yes, I would like an extra large meat lover's pizza with cinnamon sticks."

Peach hung up and turned to Roy, her face twisted in a horrifyingly ugly sense of torturing anger. Roy cringed and smiled nervously.

"Uh, I-I have t-to uh, use the uh, b-bathroom," he stuttered nervously.

Peach pulled him close to her face by his collar and whispered in his ear menacingly. "I hope you can't have children." With that, she kicked him hard in the 'spot'. The worst part for Roy was that she was wearing heels.

Roy crumpled to the floor, crying like a little boy. "GO TO THE BATHROOM BEFORE I DO IT AGAIN," Peach yelled. Roy scurried off to the bathroom.

Peach turned to a wide-eyed Samus and Zelda, smiling smugly. "That felt good."

Link and Marth were looking sympathetically towards the bathroom door. "Poor, poor, Roy."

"I'm never getting Peach mad in my life."

"I think it might be that time of month for her."

"Not a smart move, Roy."

Ding-dong.

"Pizza's here." Peach scurried off to the door. A handsome young man with spiky black hair, dark eyes, naturally tanned skin and a crooked smile held a pizza box in one hand.

"Hello there. My name's Zackary." He leaned in, looking Peach over. "What's your name?"

"U-uh, my name's Peach Toadstool." She smiled nervously, leaning back, away from the strange teen.

"Really, now," Zackary cooed, taking her hand and kissing it tenderly. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Peach giggled nervously, trying to pull her hand away. It wouldn't budge.

"You have such beautiful eyes."

"Um, that's really nice, t-thank you."

"Perhaps you would like to go out sometime?"

"No, she wouldn't." Peach turned around to the new voice to see Roy standing there, a deadly glare on his face that would make Marth proud.

"Uh, sorry, I didn't know, here's your pizza, bye!" Zackary was gone in a second.

"Roy! What was that for?! He was a nice young man!"

Roy frowned at her. "He was way too young for you. He had to be, at the most, around fifteen."

"So? We're only seventeen! It's only two years!"

"I don't care. Just come on, and let's eat the dumb pizza." Roy walked into the kitchen, leaving a slightly angry, confused Peach in the doorway.

Roy . . . why did you do that?

"ALRIGHT! PIZZA!"

Peach shook her head and walked into the kitchen, putting on a fake mask of happiness to hide her confusion.

"Let's look at the riddle while we eat." Everyone nodded to Zelda's idea.

Samus opened it and read it aloud.

"You wonder not; you think you've got it, well, you can't catch me without the power. I want only one thing: the Smash Ball, if you please. Not the cheap ones, the one that lasts forever. To find me, bring the loot to a room that's plain I'll take it and give you what you want. The woods are where I lay. I look forward to your arrival.

Samus looked around. "What the heck was that supposed to mean?"

They shrugged. What was it supposed to mean? Whoever wrote this seriously sucked at poetry. (A/N: I know. XD)

"Well, let's figure it out. We're not dumb."

"It practically gives it away anyway. We have to give him the Master Smash Ball, obtain Ike and Master Hand, and then we can go live happily ever after. He's in the woods. Where are the only woods in Nintendo City? Behind Smash Mansion. It'll be a piece of cake." Link smiled to himself.

"But . . . should we really give away the Master Smash Ball? Someone could take over the world with that thing then destroy us with a fingertip. It gets us in our most powerful mode for as long as we 

want it to. We aren't even aloud to touch the thing; most people who touch it go insane with power. There's no telling what this guy will do with it." Peach looked around at them, nervous.

"But what about Ike and Master Hand?" Roy frowned.

"Roy has a point. He'll keep taking our friends until we give them the Master Smash Ball. Eventually, we'll be picked off too. Really, our only choice is to give him the Smash Ball."

End of Chapter