Chapter 3

Finding out

Smash Mansion

Samus's POV

As soon as Cloud walked out of the room, and the chattering commenced, I went over to the nearest group chattering. It consisted of Pit, Palutena, Roy, and Captain Falcon. Falcon's glowing eyes were round, and he wasn't speaking for the longest time. But Pit was blushing a bright red, glowing out of his wings. "Ahh, I might be in love…" Pit said dreamily. I laughed, looking at the angel.

"why? Did the little angel get love-struck by The angel hunter? Wow, what a little twist!" I said, ruffling Pit's hair. Then I turned to Palutena, saying; "you got your hands full with this little lovebird." But Palutena's eyes were far gone from our conversation and directly on the newcomer, Bayonetta, who was talking to Ryu. Pit looked over to Bayonetta, waving shyly. Bayonetta looked over to him and blew him a kiss, winking afterward. Pit basically became pudding and sank to the ground, murmuring 'She loves me' over and over.

Palutena then glared at Bayonetta, and sank down to help the love stricken angel. "Palutena, can I have a word?" I asked to her. Palutena then looked to make sure pit was ok, then walked with me a little farther away. "ok, what's going through your mind right now?"

Palutena is the type of person who can't keep a secret from her friends for the life of her, and once I became her friend, I have heard constantly on how much she adores her little angel. That is one of the only things that she ever talked about. I keep wondering why she constantly puts off the little angel, since she knows that the angel likes her. Palutena sighed, and said; "I am feeling something selfish. I don't like how that woman keeps pursuing Pit. It angers me for some reason."

"so your jealous."

"I'm not jealous! I just am feeling something different is all. It's nothing to worry about."

"So…Your jealous."

Palutena sighed. And looked at pit, who was now laughing alongside Roy. She sighed, and replied; "I guess I may have that emotion. But enough about me, what about you staring at that newcomer, Cloud? I have to admit, I didn't think you'd go after the silent yet deadly type, Samus."

Blood rushed up to my face. "Who are you kidding? I only want to see who my opponents are. And speaking of which, why was everyone so surprised about Cloud?"

"fighters normally originate from the 15 galaxies closest to the Tournament, right? Even Ryu Came from one of these galaxies. But Cloud came from a distant planet, an uncharted territory, you could say. Where fighters exist in a much more brutal world. Cloud exists in one of these worlds, and his sword is said to have killed thousands of people. So naturally, I think people have the right to be a little wary of him. Although…" Palutena looked to the doors. "he is a little cute."

"Shut up. Like I would ever." It still intrigued me though. I've never heard of this, even though I have competed inside of the tournament ever since the beginning. I guess I've never really cared about anything else except for winning. I guess that when you get too sucked up in training, you could forget to actually live.

Roy walked over to us, and stated blatantly, "hey, if you want your angel, you better get him. Because he is going to ask out someone, besides you Palutena. That means get to suppressing him." Palutena then walked over to pit, who was on his way to go to Bayonetta, with a rose inside of his hand, along with the silliest face anyone had ever seen. She grabbed Pit by his arm, and dragged him out of the room, with him pleading his protests. Me and Roy then also walked out of the room, him saying to me all the while; "Hey, you should be getting to bed. I know, a little snarky of me, but tomorrow we have practice starting. I will be taking on Cloud; from what I've heard. But afterwards we are heading to the betting stages, since I want to get acquainted. You want to come?"

The betting stages are where people come from far over to see the fighters before the actual competition starts. If they grow a liking to a certain fighter, the people can form together and get the fighter an ability, that they could use in battle. A fighter can only have 2 abilities, and it depends on the fighter what type of ability the fighter will have. In the end of the tournament, the last three contestants fight the final boss, and whoever gives the effort in defeating the boss wins, but the other two will have one extra boss to face, one from each of their universes.

The tournament itself is very simple, being that there is a first, second, and third place winner. But simple doesn't mean that it will be easy. The contestants participating are the best of the best fighters from around the world. The contestant's skills will be uploaded as soon as the Tournament starts, and their past too. I don't know how it happens, and the makers of the tourney have that capability, I guess. I never really looked into it too much, but it never really concerned me, only the thought of winning kept me pressing on.

"hmph. Why not. It would be good to judge how much better you got, Roy." I said, like it was a casual thing. But I really wanted to see what Cloud was made of. I didn't even consider him agile with that huge sword that he carried, it must weigh a ton. He must be like Shulk, who was a slow, but powerful hitter. It still peaked my curiosity, though. Because of the way that he held it, with the little time I saw him, I decided it must be the case.

Roy looked at me deeply, and then sighed. "Fine then, let's go see him. You obviously have had your mind on him since his arrival. And besides, he might be nice."

I looked back at Roy with contempt in my eyes. "Just so you know, I haven't had my mind on him, I was just wondering his skills. What do you think his sword type is?"

Roy looked off, Wondering. A good second or later, he responded; "He must be a double handed sword wielder. He has the muscles for it, but that sword looked too heavy to carry with only one hand. But the way that it was slung on his back, made it look like a one handed sword. It just puzzles me, really. But hell, we are already going to see him, right? Let's go say hi." Roy said, as he grabbed my arm and practically waltzed out of the room, with me trailing behind.

I sighed. He was just like this when we were in the second tournament. Persistent, yet calmly collected. I walked with him, until he went up to the reception desk, who was an automated hologram of a man, about in his thirties, named Sakurai. I don't know when he arrived here, but he's been the reception ever since the beginning. Very weird, but maybe it was just an AI that the creators of the tournament put in.

"What room is the newcomer in, named Cloud?" Roy asked Sakurai. Sakurai merely pointed in a direction, and a trail of light beamed from out of his finger, leading up the stairs. "Room 228, Room of Cloud Strife, also Romana suite."

"Thanks Sak." Roy merely stated then dragged me up the stairs, and at that moment, I thought that Sakurai actually smiled.

The trail stopped dead at one of the doors, to the far left, and to my knowledge, that room had the best view in the building. I instantly grew jealous, because after all, I had been there for all the time, but I've never gotten that room. I always wanted it, but I could never have it. Those thoughts instantly stopped when Roy knocked on the door, jolting me from my thoughts. I was still in my armor, but only my helmet was off, and it was back at my room, up one more flight. I had no way of concealing my face now.

The door opened, and there stood a man only a little shorter than me, at about 5 foot 8 inches, fully clothed just like when he arrived, with a toothbrush still inside of his mouth, and the huge sword held by his right hand was leaned against his shoulder, pointing upward. He stopped brushing and looked in surprise at me and Roy. I actually got a better look at him, he was much more built than I gave him credit for, but it was lean muscle, like mine. But to my view at the time, I was stronger in muscle aspect. His hair was spiky, like it was angled a certain way. But to me, that made his appearance all the more alluring. But I can't be attracted to him… can I? I've only met him.

"holfph uph, can uh hold dis?" Cloud said to Roy with his mouth muffled with toothpaste. Cloud took his sword off of his shoulder with the flick of his wrist, and held it to Roy with the tip facing the ground, the long handle extended for Roy to grab, and by the way that Cloud was holding it, it looked like it weighed nothing.

I could tell that Roy got a little too full of himself, and grabbed the sword with one hand as well, and told Cloud "Don't worry, piece of cake, right?"

Cloud smirked at him with a grin on his face, even with the toothpaste, and let go. Roy instantly fell to the floor, the huge sword pinning his hand to the floor by the sheer weight. Cloud then dismissed himself to finish with his mouth cleansing, and I started balling. I've never seen Roy like that, pinned, and seemingly helpless. I almost passed out from laughter, when Cloud came back and looked at Roy. "hey, I thought this was a piece of cake! What happened to that determined grace you had?"

Roy laughed along with us and then he finally asked; "um…any help?" Cloud leaned down and picked up the giant sword with his left hand, and flung it onto the hook on his back. "Here, come inside. Make yourselves comfortable."

I walked into the room and I got swarmed with jealousy yet again. It was my perfect dream apartment, with a view of the training grounds, along with a Huge holo TV. The bathroom was large, and it was lavished even with another holo TV. The gold look that the room even gave off was incredible.

"Honestly, I hate it. Yet I Love it." Cloud interrupted my thoughts. He walked over to the two of us, who were both gawking at the room. A question kept running through my head, and I accidentally blurted it out.

"Why did you get such a great room? And why do you hate it?" I said, looking him straight in the face. He looked down, shy at my attention that I just gave him. He looked at the room and sighed.

"for starters, I've never really liked lavish stuff for myself. I would rather give it to someone else, but yet again, I guess that I should enjoy it, since I'm only gonna be here once, right? And I don't know why I got it, it was just there. Do you guys want it? I'm willing to trade, there are four beds, and I don't know what to do with all this space." Cloud looked at us with curiosity peering out of his eyes.

Neither me nor Roy could admit that we wanted the room, but from what Cloud just told us, we were extremely guilty for wanting it. "But why do you hate it? That seems like a cop out, to me." Roy said inquisitively.

Cloud's face then darkened, his face growing a gloomier look. "I guess…" Then he looked up, hiding the invisible pain in his face. "I guess you will all find out sooner or later. So what'll it be? You want the room?"

I was about to respond with a polite no, but then Roy said something that made me smile and cringe at the same time. "how about we all bunk together? I mean, right now, I am bunking with Ryu, and that guy can sweat really bad. And you have four queen sized beds. Sounds good to you? And Samus is always a loner in the first place, so it would work out for all of us."

I was half hoping that Cloud would reject the offer, and save us all the trouble, but after a while of thinking he said the words that I hoped he'd say, but never all the same. "Alright, It's a deal."