Everyone watched, paralyzed with anticipation, as the Bob-omb got to it's feet. It lit it's fuse and began walking. Everyone's eyes grew as they saw where it was headed. Peach shrieked at the screen and covered her face. Samus and Zelda tried to comfort her, but still couldn't break their gaze. The entire room tensed up, in particular the group that orchestrated the idea. They made the plan and they had to watch as it backfired in their faces. The tension in the room was so thick it felt as if the sound from the explosion barely made a crack.

But the screen lit up a bright white as it happened. And when it returned to normal, everyone saw him futilely fall of the stage. A brilliant ray of light erupted from below the stage and GAME! was called. His fighter picture appeared on screen with the message:

Luigi:

ELIMINATED

The Spectator Room was silent. Samus and the others didn't dare move, almost as if they were afraid that doing so would get them punished. The door opened and the Ice Climbers slowly walked in. They were visibly uncomfortable, not knowing what to expect from the crowd. There were a few moments of silence before yells erupted in the room.

"What was that!?" Falco yelled.

"What's wrong with you?!" Captain Falcon shouted.

The Ice Climbers were being bombarded by accusations from the others in the audience. Everyone demanded to know what they were doing by just sitting there and getting Luigi kicked out of the Mansion.

"It was just something we were trying out!" Popo tried telling them.

"What could have possibly come from that?" Fox asked.

"Hey! Lay off 'em!" Ike yelled. "It was our plan, quit yelling just at them!"

"What were you thinking?!" Snake yelled.

"We wanted to see what would happen if nobody fought! We didn't know what Tabuu would do?" Pit told them.

"And you gambled with my brother?" Mario asked, furious.

"We thought that if something good came of it, it'd be better to find out sooner!" Link said.

"But why didn't you bet on your own lives?! Your little motley group should just risk your own lives, not everyone else's!" Falco yelling.

"We're sorry." Zelda sad. "It was just an experiment gone wrong."

"Yeah, you can say that again." Fox sneered.

The crowd began leaving, giving irate looks when passing by the Ice Climbers. The two kids just kept their heads down, trying to block the others out. As Sonic was leaving, he turned around and said, "Don't worry guys. They just need time to cool down. It was a pretty good idea to try out." He left with a small wave. Samus and the others sat down in there chairs, with Popo and Nana joining in the back row.

"Damn…" Ike muttered as he leaned back in his chair.

"Luigi…" Peach said, sniffling and failing to hold back a few tears.

"Hey." Link said, trying to get everybody's attention. "It was a good idea, one we were right to try. It's unfortunate that we lost Luigi, but it would've been the same scenario had it gone the other way."

"I'm just glad you two are safe and with us." Samus said, trying to cheer them up.

"We all are." Pit added. They only nodded.

"We need to think of a new plan." Ike said. "We can't just sit back and wait 'til there's only one person left. We have to stop this as soon as we can."

"We could try to find Tabuu, but I'm guessing, that won't happen." Red said.

"Where would he even be?" Popo asked.

Red shook his head. "No idea. Like I said, it won't happen."

"We need to think of something though." Link said.

The group moved to the cafeteria to get something to eat and discuss ideas. There were thoughts of moving around while still not fighting, breaking the transporters, and simply leaving the Mansion, but none of them lasted very long. Everyone felt exhausted and defeated trying to come up with different ideas. Before they knew it, the next match was announced.

"THE NEXT MATCH IS ABOUT TO BEGIN."

Everybody glanced up at the ceiling

"WILL THE COMBATANTS —SAMUS — AND — SNAKE — PREPARE TO FIGHT."

Samus felt nerves take a prominent place within her, but nevertheless, she stood up. "Ok, I'm ready."

Peach grabbed her friend's hand, giving her a soft smile. "Good luck out there. I know you can do it."

"Indeed. I have full faith in you." Zelda agreed.

"Thank you." Samus said. She hadn't thought she doubted herself, but even so there words of encouragement helped give her a little more confidence.

She went to the Transporter Room and after about half a minute, Snake walked in. Samus nodded as he came in, prompting him to speak.

"I know what happened isn't their fault." He said. Samus assumed he was talking about Popo and Nana. "It wasn't even a bad idea. But the end result just sucked."

"We know. It's regrettable what happened to Luigi." She said, trying to remain stony and confident.

"After the embarrassment of the last match, I'm prepared to make this one count." He said, with a hint of a smirk.

"Bring it on." Samus replied, materializing her Power Suit. And the two were sent to Final Destination.

She had hoped the others would see the situation as Snake did. It was simply a test run to try out anything that might stop or slow down Tabuu. It was a bit of a gamble, but something that the Ice Climbers and Luigi had all agreed to. It wasn't impossible for something to go wrong, they knew that going in. Would everyone even be as upset if Popo and Nana had gotten eliminated instead? How was the group seen by everybody else? They had people like Link, Pit, and Peach who were liked by almost everybody, with a few exceptions. But the rest of them never really branched out, especially Samus herself.

Samus brushed the thoughts aside as the countdown began.

As GO! was called, Samus saw Snake charge after her. She leapt over him, flipping the other direction midair. She charged up her Power Beam, but had to be cut short as Snake had turned around and tried to tackle her. She went into her Morph Ball and went below him. She felt his hand seem to push her forward as she rolled. She stood up and turned to see him launch a missile in her direction. She shot one of her own and blew it up in the middle of the two. She picked up where she left off with charging her beam, but noticed that her opponent just stood there. He smirked at her, holding a walkie talkie of sorts. He pressed a button and yelled "NOW!".

Samus felt a heated explosion come from her shoulder and she was shot forward into the ground. He must've attached it when she rolled underneath him. She tried to get back to her feet, but Snake ran over and was pointing an RPG right at her as she lay there. She quickly spun her body around and used her leg to kick the weapon in a different direction. She rolled backwards and got to her feet. She shot her Grapple Beam at him as he put the RPG away. He was sent towards her and she quickly punched him once before throwing him behind her, towards the edge of the stage.

She shot a missile to distract him before charging up her beam again. Snake crouched down to have it shoot over him, but hadn't realized it was a homing missile. Samus was able to fully charge her beam, the ran towards her opponent and ram her shoulder into him. Snake was sent back a bit, but quickly regained his footing. He quickly tried burying a land mine, but was sent flying off the stage by Samus's Charge Beam.

This is my chance. Samus thought.

She ran to the edge and looked down to see Snake pull out his Cypher and begin flying up. Samus pointed her Arm Cannon not Snake, but at the machine, and launched a Super Missile. She held her breath and saw the explosion destroy the device, making Snake fall and disappear in a blinding display of lights.

GAME! was called and Samus felt herself being teleported back. During the teleportation, Samus saw something for a split second. Usually the teleportation was near instantaneous, lasting a few seconds at most. But for a small moment during it Samus saw a dark, almost black, room she didn't recognize. She thought she could make out an outline of a square shape. But above that square shape was unmistakably a counter with red letters saying: 22 fighters remaining.

Upon returning to the Transporter Room, she saw Peach, Zelda, and Ike.

"Great job Samus!" Peach said, going in for a hug.

"Thanks Peach." Samus said. She turned back and looked at the transporters. The counter left her thinking. Was Tabuu really trying to get down to the best fighter?

"Samus?"

She turned around and saw the girls looking concerned. "It everything ok?" Zelda asked. "I know it must be hard coming back alone, but it had to be done. Don't blame yourself anymore."

Samus was slightly confused, but realized what they were talking about. "I know, thank you. But that's not it." She turned to the swordsman. "Ike, after your match, did you see anything?"

"What do you mean?" Ike asked, head tilted.

"After you left the match, but before you came back to this room, did you see anything?"

He thought for a moment, but shook his head. "Nah, nothing really stood out. It was just the usual bright white light you see when you teleport."

"Did you see something Samus?" Peach asked.

Samus thought for a second. "I thought I did." She took off her helmet and gave them a smile while dematerializing her Power Suit. "But I was probably just a bit dazed from the fight."

Ike nodded his head. "Makes sense. And maybe I'm going crazy, but it seems like since that thing took over the teleportation goes even faster. Leaves me with a sick feeling in my gut."

"That doesn't sound very pleasant." Peach said, slightly worried.

"Eh, it's for a split second, don't worry about it." He said, leading them out of the room.

They were walking to the lobby and the other three were talking about Samus's match and future matches for the princesses, but Samus couldn't stop thinking about what she saw. What was the room? Had others seen it? Ike hadn't but maybe he just missed it.

In the lobby were Pit, Red, and the Ice Climbers sitting on the couches. Pit waved to the group, calling them over. Upon joining them, Zelda asked, "Where did Link go?"

"Oh, just to grab a water from the kitchen." Red said, shining his Poke balls.

"I could use one myself, I'll be right back." Samus excused herself. Link already had his match too, she could try asking him. Entering the cafeteria, she saw Link leaving the kitchen area. He saw her and gave a nod.

"Hey Samus, glad to see you're still around!" He said, grinning as usual.

"Thank you Link." She nodded. "I have a question. What happened after your match with Lucario?"

Link was caught off guard. "What do you mean? I came back to the Transporter Room. You saw me in there."

Samus shook her head. "Not what I meant. I'm sorry, I should've been more specific. Did you happen to see anything while you were transporting back?"

"Like, in between the match and arriving in the room?" He asked.

"Yeah."

Link thought for a minute, taking a sip from his water bottle. "Nothing that really stands out, no. Just the bright light. Why, did you see something?"

Samus sighed. "I'm not really sure. I thought I did, but neither you nor Ike saw anything, so I'm starting to doubt it."

"Well, you never know." Link shrugged. "It seems like the teleporting has been going faster, so it could've been messing with you. But at the same time…" He began walking towards the hallway. "If you really think you saw what you saw, don't doubt yourself. You could be on to something. The only thing doubt does is get in the way."

Samus thought about it and went to grab a bottle of water.

So hey! At this rate, I should be able to get this bad boy done before the new Smash game comes out for 3DS! So that's pretty cool.

Anyhoo, hope you're still enjoying What's Been Missing!