...Enjoy!

In the Announcing Room, waiting for the announcement for the third brawl of the day Sheik spotted Ike glance in her direction. He raised an eyebrow briefly, but she turned away and he did as well.

"Ike versus Peach!"

"Mario versus Bowser!"

"Ganondorf versus Link!"

"Shulk versus Robin F!"

"No," she muttered. "I can't fight Robin F." Then she realized the announcer had said 'Shulk' not 'Sheik'.

"Lucina versus Sheik!"

Sheik turned to stare at the bluenette woman, who caught her eye and gave a small smile. Lucina bumped Marth, nodded at Sheik, and grinned. Her words floated over and Sheik heard them.

"I'm fighting the elusive Sheik."

"Would they stop with this 'elusive Sheik' gig," she snapped to herself, but walked over to Lucina.

"Hi. Looking forward to it."

"Same."
"I saw you run out of the room," broke in Marth, raising an eyebrow. "Was anything wrong?"
It was obvious to Sheik that neither of them knew anything about her. She was not an open person. "Nothing was wrong," she answered calmly. "I think I had a brief bout of nausea, and that's all."

Marth nodded, as if it was natural, and Lucina bobbed her head, copying him.

Sheik waited by them, glad Ike was standing by Peach, his opponent, and Ganondorf wasn't standing by her. Sheik and Lucina's names were called and both stepped forward, Sheik stepping aside and letting the other enter first.

The brawl was long, but not exceptionally difficult. Sheik spent most of her time avoiding Lucina. She would jump to the end of the stage, wait for Lucina, and then jump over her to the other end of the stage. Occasionally she would surprise her opponent and get in a jab or kick or needle, but she didn't want to fight, she wanted to relax. And it definitely helped her relax.

"This is going so long," she heard Lucina mutter, as the sword sliced towards her again and Sheik again barely dodged it and leapt away.

This time Lucina was ready and whirled around, the tip of her blade sending Sheik hurling towards the end of the stage. She picked herself up and calmly waited for Lucina, hopping over her, and then kicking her in the back before fleeing.

"Just fight me!" Lucina finally yelled, her eyebrows knitting. She paused and took a deep breath. "No. I need to settle down. Marth would never yell that at an opponent." She narrowed her eyes at Sheik and bit her lip, sniffing, wrinkling her nose, and readying her sword again

Sheik smiled underneath her mask, happy that she wasn't the only one who talked to herself in order to calm her heart and mind.

Sheik unexpectedly felt herself freeze and she glanced up to see Lucina frozen as well, eyes wide and shocked. The announcer's voice boomed loudly in her ears. "Sudden Death!"

"Huh?" She felt herself be released and realized she felt strangely weak, as if she had been battered for hours. Her legs and hands felt like lead, as if she were sick, and glancing over at Lucina, she saw her opponent looked pretty much the same.

Neither moved, staring at each other, confused and upset by this unexpected damage. Sheik blinked in astonishment as a small black ball dropped from the sky.

"It's a bomb," she whispered, and watched in horror as it exploded. Another dropped down above her and she leapt out of the way. It exploded behind her and she flipped over Lucina, who raised her sword just as a bomb fell between them. Lucina's sword crashed down, hitting the bomb, and the explosion sent her launching off the stage with a scream.

Sheik, in no mood for a victory pose, calmly stood there, breathing hard, as Lucina clapped behind her.

As they dissolved back into the Announcing room she turned to shake Lucina's hand. The swordswoman took it, but her face was unusually red, and Sheik noticed her eyes were glittering with tears. What was wrong?

"Those bombs were surprising," she said, studying her former opponent's face.

Lucina nodded, gave a quick, forced smile, and ran out of the room. Sheik watched her go and turned to see Link standing there.

"Lost to Ganondorf?" she asked.

"I did not. After the first few hits I easily avoided him and got in plenty of attacks, finally knocking him off. You?"

"Won."

"That Lucina girl's cute, don't you think? You know, Saturday being tomorrow, I already heard from that short green man that he's taking the Mii girl out on a date."

"You disgust me."

"You're just jealous," he retorted lightly. He gave a grin and jogged after Lucina.

Sheik followed silently.

"Hey, Lucina."

"Oh, hi, Link." Lucina's voice sounded like hastily controlled tears and Sheik cocked her head and raised an eyebrow, straining to hear more of the conversation.

"I was wondering what you… I mean, you know there are training rooms. I bet it'd be really fun to train with you, because you're such an amazing swordswoman. You could teach me some tricks and I could teach you some too."

Lucina's voice showed she was plainly flattered. "I… uh… Well, I'm an ardent follower of Marth. I don't use any other moves."

"Even Marth knows he has to learn new moves sometimes," argued Link pleasantly. "And I'm sure he'd find it impressive to see that you've learned attacks he's never seen before."

"Oh."

Sheik knew Lucina was blushing and probably looking around.

"Well," she continued. "I guess so. You want to train tomorrow with me?"
"Yes! How about we meet there at ten o'clock after breakfast, okay?"

"Okay, Link. Thanks. Bye."

Sheik jammed herself into a closet as Link walked by and peaked out after him, walking confidently towards the elevators.

"I don't want to run into that tomorrow," she muttered. Dashing to her room she changed into a practice outfit, placed a black mask over her mouth and nose, and put on a smaller black turban.

The training room was large and spacious and the sounds of grunts and metal against metal greeted her ears. Shulk, Bowser, Wii Fit Trainer, and Zelda were all practicing their moves. Sheik moved silently on into the next room and found an obstacle course. Her eyes lit up and she moved forward.

With a light jump she landed on the starting board and then was off, taking the rings two at a time, flipping through the hoop, weaving in and out of the monkey bars, twisting into a crouched land on a platform and straightening as it bounced her up into the air. She pulled out her needles and hurled them into the wall across the way, landing with her toes pointed, and leaping forward to bounce off another trampoline, grab a bar, spin up into the air, and launch into a group of aerial kicks and jabs before landing in another crouch position. She switched into a series of back handsprings over the thin balance beam and launched herself into another group of aerial attacks before landing stiff and strong, her hands up and ready for another jab.

"Wow!" said a voice and she whirled to see Corrin F and Robin F standing by the wall.

"That was good," exclaimed Robin, walking up, her black coat billowing out behind her. Her white pony tails looked like silk.

"Thanks," Sheik returned, panting.

"You're amazing," added Corrin. "Where'd you learn?"

"Different places."

"Wow. Is it hard?"
"Not especially. I've had years of practice."

"Yeah," agreed Corrin. "I was just looking for my brother and had to stop and watch you. Bye."

Robin stayed and sat down on a bench, shrugging off her coat and revealing a rather skinny figure. She smiled up at Sheik, her eyes shrinking to crescents. "I heard you fought Ike. I know he won, but he said you really knew how to use his bad points to your advantage."

"I didn't notice myself doing that," Sheik answered, smirking. "What's with Lucina and Marth?"

"She looks up to him," said Robin F, raising an eyebrow. "Didn't I tell you that already?"

"If you did, I noticed either way. I was just wondering why… I beat her today."
"She was probably really disappointed, huh? She'd heard that Ike had won against you and decided that she should be able to as well. Problem is, she's not as old or experienced as Marth, so she expects herself to be as good as him and isn't and that disappoints her. She knows that if she doesn't do any of his moves as good as he does, he's not… interested. If she does, he shows mild interest at most, but she's always trying to be better because… It's sorta sad, but you can't really explain anything to her."
"Mm," Sheik agreed.

"I can do some athletic things like that too. Wanna watch?" Robin didn't seem interested in the topic of Lucina or Marth anymore, and Sheik nodded, watching with amusement as Robin kicked off her boots and did a back walk over before grinning a little.

"There's more."

Sheik was rather impressed at Robin's back flips and front flips and jumps and hand springs. She was rather good with the bars as well, and she had decent balance.

"It's nowhere near as good as you, but it's still cool, right?"

"Definitely. And you have your tomes, or whatever, and your sword."

"Yeah. But they don't last forever. I can only use my tomes so many times. And my sword runs out too, so I have to practice that stuff," she said, waving her hand at the course, "in order to stay alive if I waste all my great powers." Robin suddenly squealed and ran past Sheik, who turned to see Ike and Roy enter.

"Hi you guys!" exclaimed Robin. "Guess what? I totally beat Marth!"

"You didn't!" exclaimed Ike.

"I did! Now, sure, he was tired from beating up Link before that, and Bowser before that, but it was still awesome! And he's such a good sport, he let me jump on him and hug him."

"That's my girl!" exclaimed Ike, grinning broadly. He held out his arms and she jumped on him, giving him a big hug, and turning to Roy to give him a hug as well.

"That's great Robin!" exclaimed Roy.

"Sure is," added Ike. He noticed Sheik, nodded, and glanced from her to the obstacle course and back. "You did it?"
"Yes."

"Let's see."

"No," she answered, and brushed past him, heading back out and away. Training by herself was one thing, but training with Ike, the burly man who had beaten her and then seen her almost throw up was another. Besides which, she admitted to herself that he was nice and a little good looking.

At dinner that evening Sheik sat beside Mario for the exact reason that he seemed a very jolly sort of fellow. The reason proved spot on and he chatted gaily with her, talking about his brawls, questioning her briefly about hers until he realized she didn't want to talk.

"Just a moment," she finally interrupted. "I have a question."

"Yes?" he answered pleasantly in his Italian accent.

"Do you know anything about that floating hand? Those judges."

He shrugged a little and shook his head. "They're as obscure to me as they are to you, trust me." He gave a small laugh and saluted. "Good night, Sheik."
She nodded stiffly and watched him go, an idea forming in her mind.

As she lay in bed that night, Sheik pulled out her phone and typed in 'Hand' into the search engine. It loaded briefly and then revealed 'Master Hand's Office—Floor 3; Room 64' and 'Crazy Hand's Office—Floor 3; Room 65'.

"See you tomorrow, Master Hand," murmured Sheik, as she drifted off to sleep. It was plagued with nightmares of Wario constantly chewing on her.

Who else agrees that Wario is disgusting!?