Holy crap I haven't updated this in a long, long time. But I got a random surge of inspiration for this today, and went to my notes. Only to find...I had lost my notes. So I basically wrote down ALL the plot points I think will eventually come up in the story (some in more detail then others) and hopefully that will persuade me to move forward with this. All things considered, I am going to continue to keep this in the realm of Melee despite Brawl being out for a while, and a new SSB being in development.

So...enjoy!

PS: I suck at chapter titles.

Chapter 2: State of the World

It took Marth a few moments to adjust to the dim cave lighting. This was made no easier by the fact that the version of the Warp Staff that Zelda used went hand-in-hand with a brutally bright flash of energy that surrounded him before whisking him here. If it was as bright to outsiders as well...it was hardly something to be used for stealthy movements. At the very least it could transport them far distances; this cave was carved into the side of a mountain that the lord had been quite a way away from moments ago.

Either way, he was met with the sight of Zelda and the unnamed archer upon regaining his proper sight. As this cave had no furnishings, Zelda had seated herself down on a somewhat larger stone. It was an interesting sight to see one so regal sitting in such a place. Clearly she didn't care about such things. The archer was standing at the cave entrance and looked over Marth. On his back was a quiver of arrows and a scabbard. And there was even more than that on his person; multiple small bags filled with an unknown substance, some sort of chain weapon, and even a boomerang. The last was hardly something Marth expected to see on the battlefield though; a boomerang would hardly do any damage against even basic armor.

Whatever the case the unnamed warrior turned his gaze to Zelda, who nodded at him wordlessly. With that, the man left the cave in no particular hurry.

"Warp Magic...that's fairly advanced." Marth began approvingly, "Though if you do not mind me asking, where is he...?"

"Link is going to scout the area to make sure it's safe. This isn't somewhere we have been personally, so precautions seem to be in order." Zelda prematurely explained. "Don't mind if he doesn't speak much with you. Link is not very talkative lately..."

"Understood." Nodding at her words, Marth turned his gaze away from where Link had left and began searching the area for a similar stone to Zelda's to be seated. There was one just a few steps to his right, so the lord pushed back his cape and took it. "Well it is hardly an officially planned visit, but saving me from those creatures makes me more than grateful for being accepted into Hyrule. Thanks again."

The woman chuckled a little at his words and raised a hand to her mouth before folding both back down into her lap. "This is hardly Hyrule. No, this isn't even the same world that Hyrule is located on. And I take it your kingdom of Aritia is somewhere else as well. No, Link and I were warped here not too long ago."

"Ah, my mistake. But I'm in the same situation it appears." Marth smiled as he brushed off the mistake, "Though...another world? That seems a little difficult to believe."

"I thought so as well at first. It should make more sense when I explain everything." Zelda decided, "It was at least one month ago that Link and I found ourselves in this world. We awoke quite far from here in a desert of sorts. There is a rather famous desert where a powerful enemy of ours hails from in our world, so we initially wrote it off as his doing and prepared for the worst. Even when the strange frame creatures appeared, we believe they were just new soldiers of the villain's army and thus fought them at every turn. It wasn't until we met up with another wanderer who was clearly foreign from our world that we realized just where we were. It was a fully armored woman who seemed to have access to explosive weapons from something built into the armor itself. She introduced herself as Samus and explained she had been dropped into this world some time ago. We eventually came to realize this was an entirely different desert and even an entirely different world from our own as we continued further on. Unfortunately we knew little else except that whatever commanded these framed warriors was trying to kill us."

"So where is Samus now?" Marth questioned. Framed warriors were certainly strange, but armor equipped with explosive weaponry? Such a thing could easily turn the tide of a war. And it was clearly foreign to anything he had seen as well. Was it infused with magic of some sort? He presumed Zelda did not know, and did not break her train of thought right now by asking.

"A few days back, we caught sight of a dragon pass over us. I could not get much from it, but Samus was determined to track it down. It was about the same time that I could feel something calling out for help in this direction, so our group parted. I'd like to think she's alright, but the framed warriors have been growing more aggressive lately..."

"Hm...people called from different worlds and waged war upon by these frame creatures. This dragon may be connected as well. This certainly won't be as simple as using a Warp to reach home. Let us hope there was a reason we were called here." Marth sighed.

"I hope so too. There's enough trouble to deal with back home." the princess smiled, raising herself off the stone seat. Marth quickly followed suit.

"Well, shall we be off? Link may need our help out there."

Zelda had no idea just how true her words would be.