While he intended to head straight back to homebase, Snake ended up getting sidetracked after he spotted a building in the distance. A factory more specifically. He didn't know why, but he became very curious as to what was inside.

"Hey Bayo? Look!" He said and pointed to the factory.

"Yeah, it's a factory. What about it?"

"I don't know. It just feels…familiar somehow."

"Really?"

The Umbra Witch took a moment to straighten her glasses.

"Well we have time to spare. You want to go have a look?" She asked.

"If it's no trouble."

"Of course not. Let's go!"

The two quickly approached the entrance door. They were suprised to see a pile of corpses near the entrance.

"Well now we know this place won't be boring." Bayo thought.

"We need to find out what happened."

Snake grabbed the knob and opened the door. But before they could step in…

"Snake, wait!"

"I know."

"So you see them too?"

"Yeah. Booby traps."

Snake stepped over a tripwire and then went to the base of the trap.

"Okay I disarmed it." He confirmed.

"What would've happened had we tripped that wire?"

"We would've been in pieces and spread out across this factory." He answered as he pointed her attention to a bag of motion sensor explosives that were placed above them.

"I see. I guess we're not alone here."

"Yeah, we're not. And looking at all these traps in this room, whoever set them up is pretty crafty." Snake groaned.

"What do you think their doing here?"

"If I had to guess, somebody is using this place to hold-out or to hide. I guess the corpses stacked outside is meant to scare away any would be intruders."

"I agree. Let's be careful." Bayo suggested.

"You don't have to tell me twice. Stay sharp."

So they ventured on, staying alert to spot any incoming traps.

"By the way" Bayo said. "You said that you felt this place was familiar to you. Have you found out why yet?"

"Actually, I think we're about to see." Snake answered as he approached one of the factory machines. The side was covered in dust, obscuring a symbol marked on it. He brushed away the dust and looked at the symbol. It was symbol they were both quite familiar with.

"I knew it!" Snake muttered.

"Is that…"

"Yep. It's the Smash Brothers symbol."

"So this is a Smash owned factory."

"More specifically, it's a Smash Ball production factory. They were a few of these just before the Catastrophe happened."

"Well now I want to investigate this place as much as you do, but first we have to deal with whoever is up here."

"I hear you. Let's go."

They made their way to a staircase that went up a floor. It too had traps set.

"Watch out! Frag mines!" Bayonetta warned.

"I see them."

"We could shoot them from a distance to set them off, but then that'll let our friend know that someone's home."

"Don't worry, I'll handle them."

Snake went into a crouch and slowly walked forward so that his movements would not be easily detected by the mines. He got close to the first one. The light on the mine started to blink, indicating it was about to explode. Snake snatched the mine and disarmed it just in time. Slowly but surely he repeated the process with the other mines until the staircase was clear.

"All right, we're good."

They went to the upper floor. Across the hall was a shut door, a lable next to it indicating it led to the managers office.

"Bets are that our trap-loving friend is in there." Bayonetta guessed.

She took a step forward and unfortunately onto a pressure plate. Across the room a device shot a dart at her. Thankfully her quick reflexes allowed her to sidestep away from it. The dart missed her and got stuck in a wall. Snake pulled the projectile out and examined it.

"That wasn't an ordinary dart I'm assuming."

"Nope. It's coated with some serious poison. The kind that kills you in minutes." He answered.

"And it almost hit me. That bastard." She joked. "Alright let's see whose behind door number one."

The two took the standard "breach-and-clear" position, standing one standing on a side of the door. They readied their weapons while reading to breach the door.

"I'll take the lead. We don't know what to expect behind here so stay on your toes." Snake advised.

"Don't worry, I got your back."

"Okay…3…2…1…GO!"

Snake kicked the door open, and almost immediately afterwards, a blaster shot went off in the room. The energy bullet hit Snake square in the stomach. It knocked him back, and he and Bayonetta immediately went back into cover as a few more shots flew by.

"Oh god! Snake are you all right?!"

Snake patted his gut down, and discovered that somehow he was not wounded. No sight of bleeding anywhere.

"Surprisingly I'm completely fine!" he reported to her.

Damn Rosalina. You did a good job with this body armor. I owe you one.

The two put their focus back into the situation at hand. The shots from the office had ceased for now.

"I must say, I'm impressed. No one's ever managed to make it past all my traps." A rugged man's voice said from within the room. "But unluckily for you, your prize for making it this far is to fight me. And you're not going to live through this fight."

Why does that voice sound so familiar?

"Wait a minute! We're not looking for trouble." Snake attempted to reason.

"Oh that's a good one. If you weren't looking for trouble, then you wouldn't have fucking come here!"

"We just wanted to look around we didn't think anyone would be here." Bayonetta told a half-lie.

"Didn't you see those corpses outside?! That's my sign! And that sign says no Committee assassin is going to fuck with Wolf O' Donnel!" Wolf roared.

"Wolf?!" Snake muttered in shock.

"Committee? You think we're Committee assassins?" Bayonetta asked.

"I don't know anyone else who's looking for me."

"Well then you must've missed the news. The Committee is history! And the man with me is the one who put them down!"

"What?! Who?!"

"Wolf! It's me, Snake! Solid Snake! Remember me?"

The grip on Wolf's blaster began to falter.

"N-No! You're lying! Snake is dead!"

"No Wolf! It's really me!"

"Then prove it!" Wolf challenged.

Snake thought of a way to prove his identity. He thought against sticking his face out, that was a sure-fire way to get his head blown off. So he thought of a way to prove it in a way only Wolf would understand.

"We're Dogs of War right to the core." Snake recited. "Not snakes, not wolves…"

"just mercenaries, nothing more…" Wolf finished for him. "Our old team motto." He smiled, reminiscing of those old times. He holstered his blaster, knowing that this truly was Snake. "All right come in."

Snake and Bayo entered. The two mercenaries looked at each other for the first time in years and smiled.

"I'll be damned! It is you!" Wolf laughed as he and Snake shook hands. "Man you look like shit!"

"You look pretty terrible yourself." Snake joked back.

Wolf turned his focus over to the Witch. He didn't know her, but he wasn't completely unfamiliar with her.

"Hey I think I remember you?" He said.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah! You're the lady that was added to the fourth tournament by a ballot, right?"

"That's right. I'm Bayonetta, a pleasure to meet you Wolf." She kindly responded and shook hands with him.

"What you said back there about the Committee…is it true?"

"It's very true."

"When did this happen?"

"About a month ago." Snake answered.

"Well I'd been bunkered down here for at least three months."

"Then I guess we'll fill you in on what's been going on in the world."

So Snake and Bayonetta sat down with Wolf, informing him of the important events the occurred while O'Donnel was off the grid. The defeat of the Committee, the establishment of the United Republic, all of it.

"You sure as hell have been busy haven't you?" Wolf chuckled. "Fighting the good fight and all that."

"It definitely never leaves me bored." Snake grinned. "So what are you gonna do from here?"

"Well to be honest I didn't really think about what I was going to do when I was done here. I had assumed I would be in hiding forever. Since I don't know what to do now, I guess I'll just tag along with you. Try to get integrated back into society."

"Sounds good."

"By the way, why did you come here?"

"What's that?" Bayo asked.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that you did, but I'm sure you didn't come here looking for me. So what made you two come here?"

"Well this factory used to be a Smash Ball production factory. I thought it might be a good place to go to get some pre-Catastrophe information." Snake explained.

"Hmm…now that you mention it, I think there are some documents in that desk right there. I didn't bother to read them, so I'm not sure if they're helpful."

Opening a drawer in the desk, Snake began looking through the papers. One of them immediately caught his eye. It was a journal entry of some kind. Bayo looked as well and was shocked at what she saw.

"Is that…"

"Yep." Snake answered. "Written by Crazy Hand himself."

"When was that written?" She questioned.

"About three months before the Catastrophe."

"Well let's give it a read!"

Crazy Hand Reports

Entry 1

Snake came in today to talk to me and Master. He told us of his concerns that our new line of Smash Balls may be having some unintended side effects on the roster. We asked him what he meant, and while he wasn't to specific he explained that he believed that some of the fighters were showing rather odd behavior. One of the other side effects he mentioned was people becoming more prone to violent outburst.

Brother did his usual routine when it came to odd complaints. He thanked Snake for his concerns, assured him that they were likely unfounded but we'll look into it regardless. But I know my brother. That was a lie, and I could tell that Snake knew this too. Replying with "Yeah, like hell you will!" before storming out of the room.

It's strange…I thought I would also not think much of Snake's complaint, but it's been bothering me. Why is Snake the one who brought this up? He's not on the roster, so something like this would not have any impact on him. It seems like he was legitimately concerned for the people on the roster. Some of them are his friends after all.

In fact, I don't believe I would be thinking so much about this if anyone else brought this up. Not once during his time in Smash Brothers did he come to us with a complaint. He strikes me as the type of guy that would only make a complaint if it was serious.

There has to be some truth to what Snake is saying. Since my brother isn't going to, I've decided to investigate into this matter. I do hope Snake is wrong about this, or that the situation isn't too serious.

"Here's another one." Snake said and flipped the page.

Entry 2

I've begun monitoring the activities of the fighters, both on and off the battlefield. It feels wrong…it is wrong I know that. I shouldn't be spying on them like this. But if there was a chance that what Snake was saying was true, then I had to do it. And my God was he right.

Thankfully this…effect…hasn't gotten to everyone. But the ones who are suffering from abnormal effects show that it makes them into completely different people, doing things that they normally would be appalled by.

The normally friendly, jovial Mario looked void of any positive emotions. He just went straight to training and that was all he cared about. When somebody would tell him to take a break or lighten up, he would furiously berate them out of the room. He even did this to his brother Luigi. I know Mario, and I've seen him when he was going through some tough times. He would NEVER act like this. He may be sad or upset, but he never took his frustrations out on anyone else. Something is definitely wrong.

Then I noticed something different with Sonic. We all know Sonic can be a little cocky sometimes, but that's his thing, and he always does it in good fun. But suddenly he's been verbally volatile. He's not taunting people, he's insulting them outright, trying to hurt people on a personal level. Sonic never acts like a bully. Hell, he's an anti-bully. His best friend, Tails, was bullied constantly as a child because he had two tails. But Sonic never said anything about it. He treated Tails like a person, an equal. So what the hell changed that?

There are many others, but to name them all would take a while. But they all seem to have had their personalities take a complete 180. What's just as concerning is that these changes don't just show through people's personalities, but through their fighting styles as well.

Certain fighters are starting to become unnecessarily aggressive during battle. It looks to me that they care more about inflicting pain on their opponent rather than actually winning the match. Fighters that would normally rely on agility, technique and finesse to fight throw all of that away and just start relying on brute force. They're acting more like Bar-room Brawlers than Smashers!

And finally, Snake was also right about this being traced due to the Smash Ball. The one thing all of these affected fighters have in common is that when a Smash Ball appears on the field, they go berserk. They start acting like animals fighting over food, looking like they're ready to kill anyone who gets in the way of them and that ball.

But now I wonder, what is it about the Smash Balls that does this? And how am I going to get my brother to believe this?

Anyway I'm going to be transferring to another one of the factories. I'll keep logging this while I'm there. Hopefully I don't forget to bring the pages back.

"So he actually listened to me." Snake muttered after finishing the pages. He folded them neatly and put it in his survival bag.

"And it sounds like he was trying to do something about it." Wolf deduced.

"And if we can gather all of these pages, we'll find out what he was doing. Our best bet is to search the other abandoned factories. He must've forgot to bring them back from there." Snake explained.

"Well that sounds like a plan then." Bayo smiled.

"Let's get going." Wolf insisted.

"Wolf, wait!" Snake stopped him. "There's something I need to give you."

Reaching in his bag, he pulled out a weapon and handed it to Wolf. It wasn't just an ordinary firearm though. This was Wolf's personal blaster he used back then. He smiled as he grabbed his beloved weapon.

"Where the hell did you find this?"

"Fox kept it. He wasn't sure what happened to you, but I think he assumed the worse and had it as a keepsake. Then he gave it to me…and now I'm giving it back to you."

"McCloud? Huh. I never thought I'd say this, but I'll be happy to see him again."

Gathering everything they needed and disarming the traps in the factory, the three made haste to their next destination.

"I'll admit, Crazy seemed very intellectual from his writing. I never thought of him as a smart fellow because…well you know?" Bayo finished knowing the two understood what she was implying.

"It's understandable. His behavior never showed his more rational side. But Snake and I always had a feeling that he was more than he seemed."

"Yeah. He wasn't present at most events. And it was never made clear what he actually did for the Smash Brothers organization, aside from being a boss fight. When I made my complaint, he was there but he didn't say anything. Master Hand did all the talking, so I didn't see why Crazy should be there. His true purpose was always a mystery to me. Now it looks like we have a chance to solve it." Snake explained.

"So the whole "crazy" part of him that we would usually see…do you think that was all an act?" Bayo questioned.

"No. I'm sure he is actually crazy. But crazy doesn't make you stupid. If anything, it makes you unpredictable."

"How long until we get there, Snake?" Wolf cut in and asked.

"It's about two days of walking. I think it's best we find a place to camp for the night."