Hello again, children. This is Herr, as you all know.

Sorry for the delay, but I haven't heard from BabyG, and since K.T.E. is nearing the completion of his next chapter I thought I'd post this anyway. Sorry, man. I know I shouldn't have. :(

But anyways, that's besides the point.

So here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 18

Fox, Bowser, and Mario ran down the halls as fast as they could, searching for one of the rooms that the murderer used.

The koopa's heart was beating wildly as the three of them ran down the hallways in their frantic search for Zelda. Nobody could blame him, actually; Peach's plea seemed dire and urgent.

And finding Zelda alive was the only thing that Bowser felt would help the princess. Not only was it a plea from a friend to a friend, but if Zelda was somehow alive the koopa felt that it was the only way he could apologize to the prince for his reaction to Ness' death.

So far, however, their search was proving useless. They had checked all of the old spots to see if the portals there would lead to the new room, but they had no idea where to go.

But the possibility that Zelda would somehow be alive was still very real, so the group ran as fast as they could.

Fox stopped abruptly at one point in their chase, though, and Mario tripped on the carpet as Bowser grinded to a halt and faced his vulpine companion.

"Fox!" shouted Bowser. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I think we're too late…" said Fox. "I can smell it."

"Smell what?" asked Mario.

"Fear," said the fox. "Death. I don't know. It's coming from in here."

He pointed at the door to what the other two people realized was Zelda's dorm.

Bowser wasted no time in running to the door and turning the knob, and when he found it to be locked he took a few steps back and rammed into the door. When the door fell from the force of Bowser's ramming into it, Fox and Mario stepping in the room after him.

The three of them found Zelda laying on the bed, her eyes wide open with a kind of shock that the three people that were looking on no doubt found terrifying. Her body also had the appearance of having a horrible death, with blood running from the princess' gaping mouth and her limbs bent in strange angles even for a contortionist.

When the three of them saw the princess of Hyrule, nobody moved.

Finally, Bowser punched the air hard.

"Damn it!" shouted the king. "We never make it on time!"

Fox and Mario didn't say anything; the two of them too busy staring at the blood running from Zelda's mouth.

"Fright," said Fox. "She died of fright. Look. Blood's running down her mouth."

"Meaning her heart exploded, right?" asked Mario.

"Yes," said Fox. "Damn it!"

The three of them were united in their frustration, and when they finally decided to leave the dorm they had their heads hanging from a subtle combination of frustration and grief.

Mario sat in the match lounge, with Isolde, Bowser Jr., and all of the remaining smashers sitting in a circle around a table. Bowser stood in front of the table, a somewhat paranoid stare beginning to show in his eyes. Isolde's arm wrapped itself around Marth's neck, but it was not like the swordsman knew what to do next.

"Okay," said Bowser. "I think we need to come to a decision here. This murderer isn't playing around anymore; he's pulling all the stops, and no matter what we do to try to save people he keeps coming back."

"Yes," said Marth. "And now we have to decide on something to do, right?"

"Indeed, Marth," said Bowser. "Now, first things first; no matter what happens, we're all that remains of the Super Smash Brothers, and we need to stick together. First thing I wanted to suggest; we will all trust each other with our lives. The murderer has framed several already, and I am not about to let it happen again. We will trust each other no matter what. Is this understood?"

People's reactions varied, but there was a general consensus of agreement in the group.

"Second," said the king. "We need to find a way to get to the victims sooner than we've been getting. In light of this, I do not think anybody should sit and watch the matches when they go on. We need—"

"But Bowser, they could suspect us of something," said Fox.

"Good point," said Peach, nodding towards the vulpine. "I say we have at least three people watching the matches, and then we do a rotational system where certain people hold on to a walkie-talkie and wait for a cue when they are not watching a match."

The king laid a hand on the table, humming a drone note as he stood.

"You have a point, actually;" stated the koopa. "Yes. I think that is a good idea. Anybody else agree?"

Another consensus of approval went around the group.

"Good," said Bowser. "Now, Marth, did you check the roster?"

"Yes," said the prince. "The next match… is Mario versus the Ice Climbers…"

"What?" asked Bowser. "But—!"

"I know, Bowser," said the plumber. "But honestly? I don't think we can make any more choices about who wins and who loses, because at this point only the valuable people are left."

"So why bother with the choices is what you're saying?" asked Popo, anger and fear glaring out in his expression. "But I want to live!"

"We all want to live!" said Marth. "But honestly, it is not much of an option for us to decide who dies and who lives anymore, because in the end, only one of us will make it out alive…"

"Who knows?" asked Isolde. "Some of us might get out of this alive. I only wish my father would let us out of this nightmare!"

"Forget it," said Pichu, the little mouse climbing onto Roy's hair. "At this point, your father can't do anything. Let's face it; we're trapped…"

"Indeed," said the prince of Altea. "By now, though, that has been established. So what can we do?"

Nobody said anything for a while.

And then, for the first time in the meeting, the prince of Pherea stood up.

"I think we should just do what Peach and Zelda did in the last fight; see who the better fighter is…" said Roy.

"I think so too…" stated the king. "At this rate, we can't choose who we want to live, and we certainly can't figure out how to save everybody, so let's see what we can do…"

"So, it's whoever the better fighter is, then?" asked Nana, shivering behind her older brother as the thought that she could die scared her to an obscene decree. "Popo, I'm scared!"

The older Ice Climber turned to his sister, patting her on the head.

"There, there," said Popo. "Being frightened never saved anybody's life…"

"So, do we battle to the death?" asked Mario, walking up to the two climbers and holding out his hand.

The young Ice Climber looked at his sister for a few seconds before turning to face the plumber and taking the older man's hand in his.

"Deal," said the child.

"I think we know what to do," said the king of the koopas. "This session is adjourned."

Mario stood on the teleportation pad, waiting for it to take him and the Ice Climbers to their next destination. For one of them, it would be the last thing they would see.

He pondered on plenty of things surrounding the match, and none of them were pretty. If the Ice Climbers were sentenced, it would mean that the children would be dead, and that Pichu would be all alone in the mansion. If Mario was killed, the investigation would be robbed of one of its key players. The plumber had a hard time deciding whether he should let the climbers live or if he should just let the fight play out.

In the end, Mario decided that the children needed to live; it might delay the inevitable later, but he knew that he could not forgive himself if he let the children die.

Finally, he felt himself warped to the arena.

It so happened that the arena was Mute City.

Mario prepared a fighting stance before rushing at the Ice Climbers, who were also ready.

The fight went on a long time, the plumber throwing a few punches here and there while letting himself take the brunt of the attacks from the Ice Climbers. Occasionally he would send the Ice Climbers flying, as he did not want to make it look like he was violating any promises at all.

And eventually, both fighters were at their last stocks, with the Ice Climbers somehow having taken the higher damage total over the course of the final stock. Mario knelt, panting as the racers continued their mindless race as the plumber knelt on the platform above the race. He knew that the Ice Climbers would put up a very good fight, but he had no idea that they would relent as much as he had. The plumber figured that perhaps the children wanted the plumber to live.

Whatever logic they used, Mario would not buy it.

And so, as the last of the races flew beneath them, Mario jumped down from the platform he was on onto the slippery surface below, the Ice Climbers following.

However, at this time the slim platform that would deliver the competitors from place to place had just risen, and Mario was unable to react before he felt the ground throw him up.

His world spun, and he finally landed on the central platform.

When he got up, he could not see his competitors from any angle he looked, but when he looked behind him, he noticed two children flying high in the sky.

"Shit…" muttered the plumber as the two children suddenly became stars.

"GAME!"

Isolde wandered the basement, the anger just beginning to fade.

During the match, the German had engaged in a heated argument between herself and her father, and unfortunately she was not able to do anything. She had basically tried to plead to cancel the tournament, even getting on her knees at one point to make her case. But in the end, Albrecht would not budge, so Isolde got angry at him and began yelling at him.

After they had yelled at each other for basically the rest of the match, the girl stormed out of his office, and she was now walking around in the basement, wondering if walking around in there would take her mind off of things.

She walked forward for a little, and then she came to rest on the wall that was there, leaning against it for support.

She had to think quite a bit; she had tried her best to get Albrecht to change his mind on keeping the tournament running, and yet he would not budge.

Isolde knew that it was not like her father to do such a thing. She pushed this out of her head, as she knew that it was the Super Smash Brothers and that it was a big tournament. But even though she pushed that thought out of her head, she could not help but linger on whether it actually was Albrecht that was running the tournament or not.

She had no time to ponder on it further, though, for she then felt herself fall through the wall, landing hard on her buttocks.

Isolde barely had time to think before she heard an ear-splitting crash right behind her.

The young German turned her head quickly, and then the lights came up in the room.

The sight that greeted her was not pretty. A car had somehow found its way into a room, and it had just crashed against the wall.

Crushed in between the wall was Nana, her blood beginning to form a huge pool on the ground beneath her. Off to the side lay Popo, who seemed dead enough to Isolde.

The German screamed and ran over to Popo, kneeling down by his side as she began to hyperventilate. She then looked at Nana, and she started crying.

She had not cried for one second before she heard a cough at her knees, however. When she looked down, Popo's eyes were open, and it was then that Isolde noticed that Popo was breathing weakly.

"Help…" said the young Ice Climber weakly.

Isolde celebrated to herself, but she knew that Popo could die if she delayed any longer.

Thus, she picked up the young boy and started for the white screen that she saw in the room.

When she walked outside of the white screen, she found herself in the hospital wing.

Even better… thought Isolde. At least with this we can be certain that he will be treated right away.

And so Isolde laid the young Ice Climber on the bed, and then she ran to the lobby of the hospital wing to inform somebody that there was a boy in desperate need of treatment.

A few hours later, the chaos that had taken hold of the medical wing with Popo's arrival in it had subsided.

All of the remaining smashers stood by the bed in which Popo laid in. Bowser was simply standing there shaking his head in untold anger, the others not even daring to say anything until Popo woke up.

Isolde had gone back to get Nana, but by the time she had returned the young girl was dead. The murderer had claimed one of the Ice Climbers, and maybe it would pacify the murderer's thirst for blood. But until they knew for sure, the smashers knew that they could not take their chances; Ness had survived his match, after all, which increased the likelihood of the murderer doing the same to Popo.

And it was a frightening prospect, actually; if Popo survived, he would be the only child in the organization left alive. The poor kid would have been through everything if he made it out alive, and while that was kind of the point of the investigation, the smashers found themselves wondering if there would not be scars afterwards.

They had been so concentrated on keeping the smashers alive that they hadn't really thought of the repercussions of what might happen if they actually survived. They could be left horribly disfigured, or they could be haunted for the rest of their lives. Nobody really knew what would happen, though, so it was a minimal worry in all reality. Still, it was not very far from the smasher's minds.

So the smashers stood in front of Popo's bed. The heart monitor beeped steadily, but all eyes were on the monitor, everybody expecting Popo to flat line at any time. Some also watched the steady rise and fall of his chest as he lay in the bed, but all attention was on the heart monitor.

Finally, though, Peach, who had been looking at Popo's still form, noticed the boy's eyes beginning to flicker open.

"He's waking up!" she exclaimed excitedly.

All eyes instantly averted from the heart monitor to the boy himself, all of them wearing expectant expressions on their faces.

And then, Popo's cerulean eyes opened out to the world once more.

The excitement that went through the room at that moment was somehow contained, but the energy was felt throughout the mansion at how relieved and excited everybody was that Popo had cheated death. It was through a miracle that everybody kept their composure, Bowser looking down at him.

"Are you okay?" asked Bowser.

"Yeah…" said Popo softly. "I'm fine."

"Great," said Bowser. "Welcome back to the team, man."

"I'm glad I'm still alive…" said Popo. "I guess you have questions?"

"Yes," said Bowser. "Now, firstly, did you see the murderer?"

The Ice Climber's brow furrowed a little before he looked up at the rest of the smashers.

"No…" he responded. "I think the windows of the car were painted black. And then Isolde came in from a different direction, and that's all I remember before she picked me up."

The king of the koopas swore inwardly, and then his gaze went back to Popo's.

"Why?" asked Bowser. "Why didn't you run faster?"

"I couldn't," said the Ice Climber. "That murderer is more intimidating than you think. Nana was rooted to the spot, and if she had budged when I tried to pull her we would both be alive."

"I see…" said Bowser. "That will be all."

The king walked out of the room rather slowly, Isolde, Mario, and Fox filing out after him as the other smashers began to ask some questions to Popo.

Bowser stopped outside of the room that Popo had been admitted in.

"Have we won?" asked Isolde. "Have we finally gotten somebody to cheat death?"

"It's probable," said Bowser. "You walked in before the murderer had the chance to make sure that Popo was dead, so he probably doesn't know he's safe."

"Which means we've won!" said Fox, raising his arms up in triumph.

"Yeah," said Mario. "But there's something odd about this."

"And what's that?" asked Bowser.

"Isolde, you said you found them, right?" asked the plumber.

"Yes," said Isolde. "I assume you're going to ask how I got there so quickly?"

"Yes, actually," said Mario.

"I don't know…" said Isolde. "I was walking in the basement, and I was leaning on one of the walls to rest when…"

The girl stopped mid-sentence, her train of thought getting a very rude interruption.

"What?" asked Bowser. "What's up?"

Isolde's expression of shock turned into one of great jubilation.

"I found it!" she shouted. "I know how we can get there faster!"

"What?" asked Fox. "How? Tell us!"

"I was leaning on a wall of the basement when suddenly it gave away!" shouted the German excitedly. "That's it! There's a wall in the basement that takes a person to the nearest murder room! I know how we can get there faster!"

"So we send people to the basement and walkie-talkie them there just before the murderer kills someone?" asked Mario.

"Why didn't we think about that before?" asked Bowser.

"Because we didn't know there was that wall," said Isolde. "But you have to see it for yourself. Come on!"

The girl skipped along merrily, the other three struggling to keep up with her as she ran to the basement.

Popo sat up in bed later that day, enjoying a nice little cheeseburger prepared by Isolde. They decided to go against the celebration this time; it was what ultimately killed Ness, and besides the young Ice Climber still needed a long time before he could get out of bed.

But that did not stop Bowser, Mario, Fox, Isolde, or Marth from sitting around the bed eating with Popo. Everybody else treated themselves to a celebratory dinner, but the five of them simply settled with dining with Popo.

A pretty lively conversation had been going amidst the group; everybody was pretty confident that they had finally found a way to outsmart the murderer and save all of the remaining smashers, and plus they had managed to save one of their own in finding out exactly how. It was pretty easy for one to get confident, and while they knew that they still had to keep their guard up it would be easier to do so.

So they sat, merrily eating and conversing, and while Nana was not far from their minds they had to keep in mind that if they managed to save anybody else, then her death would not be in vain.