Author's Note: Remember when I said I hope SWOL doesn't go on hiatus?

Yeah, I don't remember either since it's been so long.

Since the last chapter, I started college and it hasn't been easy trying to adjust to my new schedule. From the looks of it, updates will now be at least monthly but who knows? I'm not the best at keeping track of this stuff.

In other news, SWOL has over 35 favorites now! Shout-out to eminutemen18, FireDragonShrimp, RoomyLEGO101, Blargg888, mortiz555yahoo com, and croninjonathon0! If you don't want to be mentioned, just shoot me a PM and I'll do so.

Review Responses:

Elysium: Thanks for reminding about that typo with Aimee! Sadly enough for me, the party is going to grow even more!

The Normal Mage: I'm pretty sure that everyone is going to want to tear Galeem apart by the end of this.

Chapter 28: Questions with Forgotten Answers

"Please?"

Crazy sighed, putting down her pencil. "Nathaniel, for the 152nd time, no. And you're doing some very terrible puppy eyes."

"Well, how do you do better puppy eyes?"

Crazy thought for a moment before answering. "Think Bambi."

"Crazy please," I said. "Amnesiac here."

"Fine. Think adorable small deer that just saw its mother get shot by hunters."

"Oh my cheese, that's horrible."

"How much meat did the hunters get from the mother?" Clarence asked.

"Clarence, what the heck man?"

"There is nothing wrong with me asking," Clarence took a bite out of a biscuit as he answered. "For all we know, the hunters needed to kill the mother to provide food for their families so they would avoid starving in the winter."

"Well, sure but orphaning a baby deer is just sad."

Aimee entered the room, naturally, with a mug of morning coffee. Glaring at us with dark bags under her eyes, Aimee turned her attention to Crazy. "So, do I want to ask?"

"They're just talking about a baby deer in an animated film." Crazy answered.

Nodding slowly, Aimee threw out her own opinion. "I hope it gets shot by the hunters."

Clarence and I just stared at her.

"What? First off, it's a baby deer. It wouldn't make it past winter by itself. Secondly, it'll be a faster and less painful end for the hunter to end it than have the deer starve to death or die from the cold. Third, at least it can reunite with its mother in," Aimee threw her free hand up, gesturing at the roof. "Whatever deer heaven there is."

We kept staring at her.

Frowning, she rolled her eyes and took a seat.

As a silence began to grow, Crazy cleared her throat. "Just to be clear, we're talking about a fictional movie. It never happened."

"That still doesn't mean that Aimee didn't say something pretty messed up."

"Zip it before I do decide to waste my morning coffee on you."

"That reminds me," I turned to Crazy, just for her to cut me off.

"No, I am not telling you any details about our contract. It's confidential info between me and her."

Clarence's head perked up at this. "What do you mean by a contract?"

Crazy shrugged, "Basically, Aimee sticks with us, I help her with some stuff on her world."

"Isn't that illegal?" I asked.

"Pssh," Aimee scoffed. "Nothing's illegal as long as the cops aren't around. Or if you're fast enough."

"Why do I feel like you mean more than speeding through a red light?" I muttered before explaining. "Well, if you bring stuff from other worlds to Aimee's world, doesn't that upset the natural balance or something? Like, if I took an atomic bomb to Clarence's world."

"Nathaniel," Crazy said, locking eyes with me. "I assure you, the natural order of things is already severely messed up and has been for a good long while. So don't think about it, and eat your bagel."

I huffed, taking a bite out said bagel. I bit into air instead, as my bagel had vanished.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself." A voice came from the corner of the room. Undeniably, the voice belonged to Joker but he had changed his clothes. Instead of a mask, he wore glasses and a school uniform consisting of a black jacket and tan pants in place of his trenchcoat. He loosely held my bagel in one hand, and in the other Aimee's mug of coffee.

"Give me back my coffee before I shoot you." Aimee growled.

As Joker returned the coffee and my bagel, I took a good long stare at the bagel. Turning my attention to Joker, I only had one question to ask. "Are you magic?"

"No, I'm a phantom thief." He smirked and gave a bow. "Codename's Joker."

"A thief, huh? And what is it that you steal?" Clarence asked, narrowing his eyes.

"The corrupt desires of the masses," Joker answered with a shrug.

"How about we all pretend we know what you mean by that for now so we can get to other business," Crazy said. "Once we finish breakfast, we'll be heading south to awaken Sheik and Marth. Then, we'll continue west, pass through Mushroom Gorge, enter the facility where Galeem's second guardian is and kill it. Any questions?"

"Why did you say 'second guardian'?"

"Is it necessary to go west?"

"Why do we have to rescue a bunch of people?"

"There's a Mushroom Gorge?"

Piranha Plant chomped in the air a couple of times.

"Joker, we already took out the first guardian so we don't need to worry about that. Clarence, we can't go east because there's a giant wall of light blocking the way so we just have to keep going until we find some way to take down the wall. Aimee, we have to rescue the Smashers because we don't know if there are any repercussions to getting vaporized and being stuck in a statue. Nathaniel, yes, there's a Mushroom Gorge. Thank you for being a voice of reason Piranha Plant." Crazy drew out a sigh that lasted until I finished my bagel. "Why do I have to be the answer part of Q&A all the time?"

"That's because you're Ms. Exposition," I said. "I mean, look at that giant paragraph you just said."

"Just ignore him when he says something such as that," Clarence answered a questioning look from Aimee.

"Was that really necessary?" I pointed Joker. "Look at him! He took it in stride!"

"That's more because I'm friends with a talking cat that can turn into a car, regularly journey into a world made of the perception of the masses and craft bombs in my classroom for a school year without the guy behind me telling the teacher despite being on probation." He finished with a shrug. "I can handle an odd comment or two."

"Speaking of odd, that reminds me," Crazy chipped in. "Yesterday, Piranha Plant dragged you in here and said something about getting into a fight with you."

"Yeah, he was scary."

"Scary?" Crazy raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Glowing eyes, dark ominous aura, um, what else Clarence?" I asked, turning to the knight.

"The way Joker behaved yesterday reminded me somewhat of a Puppet Fighter," Clarence said.

"Yeah, that. Especially the demon eyes."

Putting a hand to his chin, Joker answered. "The last thing I remember before waking up here, was the forest. It was a bit after Nathaniel got away."

"Oh yeah, screw you guys for tying me to a tree."

Ignoring me, Joker continued. "I was on guard duty while Aimee slept. I heard something so I went to check it out."

"Meh, I just thought you ditched me."

"Then, well." Trailing off, Joker held a hand to his forehead. "I don't remember anything after that."

"That's it?" Crazy asked. "That's a rather lackluster story. But it may be possible that whatever happened may have also affected Joker's memories."

"Hey, Oblivion, is that possible?"

"That's certainly a possibility. With biodiversity in the multiverse, unseen side effects could always happen."

I shrugged, "At least this means that I'm not the only one with memory problems."

"Unlike yours, Joker's memory problem may be extremely significant," Aimee said. "What happened to Joker could mean that there's a third party in this world."

"If there is," Crazy said, putting a hand to her chin. "They may pose a significant problem since we don't know what they want."

Piranha Plant bit into the air, then gnashed it's teeth.

"The plant is correct." Clarence sipped his tea. "We waste energy thinking about a potential third party since their identity and goals are unknown."

"So, I still can't tell them?" I asked Oblivion.

"No."

"Well." I rose, stretching my arms. "No point in staying here and talking. Let's get a move on."

"Wait!" Doc came out from the doorway, dragging something behind him. "Before you guys leave, I wanted to give you guys a good luck present."

Plopping it down, the good luck present turned out to be a Sandbag. "Just a way for you guys to keep your skills sharp while you're on the road."

"Why does it have eyes?" Aimee asked, leaning away from the item.

"Oh, it has eyes because it can see into your soul," I said, walking over to the Sandbag.

"What."

"You heard me." I grabbed the Sandbag and pulled it over to where Aimee sat, turning it so it looked at her.

"These eyes see into your soul. They see every sin you committed. Every crime you have ever performed. They know what awaits you once you have passed from this world. No lie, no misdeed, shall go unnoticed. Everything is laid bare before these eyes." I tilted the Sandbag into Aimee's personal space. In response, she leaned further back, only staying on the chair by holding it. "And from these eyes, there is no escape."

Aimee narrowed her eyes. Grabbing her mug, she threw the contents into my face.

"AAAAHHHH!" I threw myself to the ground, rolling as I clutched my face. "IT'SSSsss actually lukewarm."

"That's because you're not worth fresh coffee."

"I think getting stabbed would hurt less." A towel hit me in the head.

"Dry off with that so we can get going," Crazy said.

I did so and we began heading towards the door. After a few steps, I stopped, turning to Doc. "Hey, Doc?"

"Yeah? What is it?" Doc had turned his gaze to the pictures on the wall, of Little Mac and him celebrating their victories.

"Thanks for putting up with us. And don't worry," I gave him a light hit to the shoulder, "we're gonna get everything back to normal. Then you can see Mac again."

A small smile grew on Doc Louis's face. "Thanks for the reassurance kid."

Item Obtained:
Sandbag

Joker joined your party!

"If I remember correctly, the two of you said that there was nothing left to do in the city," Crazy said.

"Yeah."

"So, what's right in front of us?"

"A Smasher Statue." Taking the south road out of Console City, we came across another Smasher Statue. To be more precise:

Smasher No. 47
Wii Fit Trainer

"In my defense, the author forgot about a couple of Smashers. Like Yoshi." I said. Stretching my arm, I pulled out the Fire Bar. "Time to beat up a fitness trainer again."

"Wait, Nathaniel." Crazy held me back, grabbing my hood.

"But why?"

"How many times have you fought Wii Fit Trainer? Why don't you let someone else take care of this?"

"Fine."

"Joker, you feel like showing off your skills?" Crazy asked the thief. "This is a good time for the rest of us to see what you're made of."

He pushed up glasses, giving a smirk. "I suppose I can."

Blue flames flared up around his glasses, consuming them and leaving behind his mask. The rest of his clothes followed suit as he advanced to the statue. Once the flames died down, he was left in his black thief's clothes.

"Hot," Crazy commented.

Slapping the nameplate on the statue, Joker climbed to the top of the statue within several bounds, using the statue to leap into the air.

Several seconds later, the statue crumbled, leaving Wii Fit Trainer in the open.

Orienting himself in the air, Joker began firing downward, raining bullets down on Wii Fit.

"Why'd you let Joker fight Wii Fit? What about your memories?"

"Hush, I'm watching the fight."

"Are you serious right now!"

I blinked a couple of times, the realization setting in. I groaned, "Right, I forgot."

"What'd you forget Nathaniel?" Crazy asked, her eyes still locked on Joker's graceful form as he dodged a strike from Wii Fit.

"His brains, obviously," Aimee said.

"And you clearly forgot how to be polite." I snapped back.

She shrugged at my words. "Can't forget something that I've never been."

I ignored her as I turned back to Oblivion. "It doesn't matter now since the fight already started anyway."

"Sure, but it bugs me how you didn't even put up much of a fight!"

"Well excuse me for forgetting!"

"Persona!" Joker shouted. His mask burned off and the red demon appeared behind him. Joker grabbed Wii Fit, slamming her and she bounced off the ground. Moving in sync, Joker and the demon leapt, slashing down to send Wii Fit crashing into the ground again.

Wii Fit Trainer only had enough time to get back up as Joker landed on her, firing away.

The fight ended, and Joker tossed Wii Fit Trainer's amiibo to me. "Yay, one more down."

"Joker," Clarence said. "What was that thing fighting with you?"

"Oh, that was my Persona, Arsene."

"Really?" I interjected. "I thought they were called Stands."

"Nathaniel, stop." Aimee pressed her hand to the bridge of her nose. "For the love of whatever god you have, stop talking."

I looked at the amiibo in my head. Then at Aimee's head. Such an easy target. Just use the amiibo as a distraction and then wail on her. I could take her. C'mon Nathaniel, fight her. Just punch her in the face.

Nah, too much effort.

"What exactly is a Persona?" Clarence asked Joker.

"Personas are the embodiment of a person's psyche," Joker said. "They're who the person really is beneath the mask they put on in the face of society."

"A person's psyche?" I asked as we began to continue on the path out of town. "That sounds pretty cool."

"The problem is," Joker said. "I thought that I couldn't use my Persona anymore."

"Oh right!" Aimee said, backpedaling so she face Joker. "Something about the Metaverse?"

"Yeah," Joker nodded. "I could only use Personas while in the Metaverse, a world made of humanity's subconscious desires. But, the Metaverse should have disappeared."

"I knew I was forgetting something." Crazy turned around, backpedaling as well. "Since we can't just have an ordinary high school student fight space dragons and swordsmen, we also modified the letter to give Joker some of his Persona abilities back."

We kept making small talk as we headed down the path, reaching the same pavilion with pillars scattered around. There was a problem since a Smasher Statue blocked us from entering the center of the area.

Smasher No. 21
Marth

"I call dibs!" I lunged towards the statue, only for Crazy to cut me off.

"Wait a moment Nathaniel." Crazy grabbed my hood, choking me a bit as I was forced to stop. Turning to Aimee, Crazy asked, "Do you want to take this one and show off?"

"Why does she get to fight?" I whined.

"Because we haven't seen everything she can do."

Stepping up, Aimee tapped a watch on her right wrist. Within seconds, it had expanded into her arm cannon, "Look on the bright side," she said, glancing towards me. "You get to see what else I can do."

Pressing the nameplate, Aimee walked back, keeping her eyes on the statue as a swordsman emerged.

Marth had blue hair, adorned with a gold tiara. He wore a blue tunic and cape, carrying a thin sword in his right hand. I didn't get a better look as Aimee knocked him away with a missile.

Tumbling away, Marth twisted, landing on his feet and dashed towards Aimee. She fired two more missiles which Marth twisted out of the way.

"Marth is light on his toes," Clarence commented.

"He's the prince of Altea. The sword he wields, the Falchion, is made from a fang of the dragon goddess Naga," Crazy explained. "He focuses the strength of his swings towards the tip of his blade so he's a meticulous type of swordsman."

"You have a prince fighting for you?" Joker asked, watching as Aimee tried to get some distance from Marth, only for the swordsman to keep closing the distance each time.

"We have a lot of people," Crazy answered. "Also, technically they don't for us, they fight each other."

Aimee sidestepped a swing, then aimed her cannon and fired a flash of green energy to knock Marth back.

Firing a missile to push Marth back further, Aimee began charging a green ball of energy at the tip of her cannon, which began growing in size. Marth dashed back towards her, making her stop charging to dodge.

"Why did you give up so easily about fighting Marth?" Oblivion asked.

"I was in Crazy's choking range," I muttered, keeping my eyes on Aimee as she shot at the ground, using the recoil to launch herself into the air to dodge a stab.

Landing behind Marth, she put the tip of her cannon to the ground, letting a ball pop out. She jumped away as the ball exploded, launching Marth into the air.

Twisting her body and aiming, a giant ball of green energy launched from Aimee's cannon. Shooting through the air, the energy shot collided with Marth, breaking the swordsman apart into smoke.

"No sweat," Aimee said, landing on the ground.

I picked up Marth's amiibo from the ground, staring at it. No memories.

Would the memory from defeating Marth ever come back? Is it gone forever? Why would freeing the Smashers return my memories? Is there even any point in recovering my memories if I can't go home? Do I even have a home to go back to?

"Nathaniel!" Joker's voice broke me from my thoughts. I turned to look, seeing that everyone else was already at the next Smash Statue.

No use for pointless questions I guess.

"Stop whining and get a move on," Oblivion said.

Smasher No. 16:
Sheik

"Next time, you start spacing, I'm going to hit you," Aimee said. Ignoring her, I held an open hand out to Joker.

"My scythe," I said.

"What?"

"Give me my scythe, I'm taking this one."

Crazy jumped in, "I was actually thinking of letting Piranha Plant take this one. He hasn't had much to do recently."

I glared at Crazy, "No. I'm in the mood for destroying something. So I'll take this one."

She matched my glare. A few seconds she huffed and threw her hands into the air, "Fine. If you insist."

Joker passed me Death's Scythe as I activated the statue. The standard affair of the statue collapsing and the wall of energy being set up occurred as what emerged from the statue looked like a ninja, in dark purple tights that had a red eye symbol on the as well as bandages wrapped around their head. I couldn't tell whether Sheik was a guy or a girl.

I stood still as Sheik dashed towards me, shooting in a straight line. I took a simple swing with the scythe as soon as Sheik was in range.

Before the blade connected, Sheik flipped over me, landing a kick on the back of my head. I stumbled forward, slipping out the Steel Diver.

Twisting, I fired a torpedo at Sheik which the ninja hopped over as she made another dash at me. I decided to just throw the Steel Diver at them, watching as the item bounced off of the ninja's forehead and hitting the ground.

Stumbling from the hit, Sheik resumed their dash as I threw Death's Scythe this time. Sidestepping, Sheik grabbed the scythe as it passed through the air, just in time for me to land a hit with the Fire Bar. The hit knocked Sheik back, dropping the scythe in the process.

As Sheik got back to their feet, I tossed the Fire Bar and leapt into a roll to pick up Death's Scythe. Ending the roll on a knee, I caught the Fire Bar as it bounced off Sheik's head. Jumping forward, I threw the Fire Bar again and swung with the scythe, planting the blade in the ground and leaving the handle parallel to the ground.

Sheik caught the Fire Bar as I jumped off the scythe, copying Joker as I pulled out the Steel Diver, raining torpedoes down on Sheik. The explosions pushed Sheik towards the scythe that was still planted in the ground. A toss of the Steel Diver knocked Sheik over it.

I walked slowly, grabbing Death's Scythe as I approached Sheik, who was now glowing with a rainbow aura. As I flourished the scythe, the sky grew dark and the moon rose in the sky.

Sheik brandished a knife before shooting forward, as the eye on Sheik's chest flashed. Everything became saturated, with the colors of everything becoming dull. Everything except for Sheik's knife, which seemed to grow brighter and brighter as they approached.

I sidestepped, letting Sheik zoom past me.

"My turn," I said as my own rainbow aura flared up around me. "Doomed Defense Super Saw."

Lifting the scythe over my head, I threw with both arms, aiming for just above Sheik's head. The scythe spun, becoming a deadly wheel of purple energy as it cut through the air, just in time for Sheik to jump and get caught in the attack. The wheel cut through Sheik but it wasn't enough to end the fight.

Sheik ran forward, aiming to strike me as the wheel made a U-turn, curving back towards me like a boomerang. It struck Sheik's back, pulling them towards me as I grabbed my scythe. The blade was positioned perfectly around Sheik's neck.

I pulled the scythe, ending the fight as the blade cut through.

"One down, who knows how many left to go." A sigh slipped out of my lips as I picked up Sheik's amiibo.

"SO, you done destroying stuff?" Crazy said.

"Yeah, sorry about how I said it."

She shrugged as I inspected Sheik's amiibo more closely.

A black rectangle with gold details sat in my hands. I saved up my allowance for months, sold my old games and traded in my old DS. What sat in my hands was the next generation of portable gaming.

"If you're just going to stare at it, then could I play it?" My sister asked.

"You're just going to play Nintendogs! At least let me play some Legend of Zelda first!"

Sadly enough, I also sold some games that my siblings didn't play anymore so I had to share custody of my 3DS: Legend of Zelda edition with my siblings.

"Then stop staring at it and play!"

Since it was a special edition, it also came with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, a game I have not played but was excited to do so.

"It has gold on it! Can't I just look at it for a while?"

"You've been looking at it for 5 minutes!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-uh!"

Our arguing quickly devolved into more bickering that lasted until our mom called out from the next room, "Quit arguing! Am I going to have to ground you two!"

"No Mom!" We answered in unison.

Acting quickly, since we didn't know when Mom would just decide to confiscate the 3DS to avoid future bickering, I booted it up and started playing the game.

Another sigh.

After all the memories I had gotten so far, I still don't remember any of my siblings' names. Not just them. Surely, I had at least one childhood friend, why don't I have any memories about them? Would I have remembered them in one of the other Smashers that someone else awakened?

"Come to think of it, we could go north as well," Crazy said, checking out the path that just opened up.

"Or, we could just stick to our original plan," Aimee said. "Go east to fight the guardian before moving north."

"But there could be Spirits and maybe more Smashers there to rescue," Clarence said.

"Or, there could not be and we would have wasted our time if we took the path north," Joker pointed out.

Piranha Plant snapped his teeth.

"Let's just go," I muttered.

Save File 2: Saved

Party: Nathaniel, Oblivion(?), Crazy, Clarence, Piranha Plant, Aimee, Joker

Items: Nathaniel- Steel Diver, Fire Flower, Beehive, Fire Bar, Death's Scythe

Crazy Hand- Staff, Deku Nuts, Green Shell, Bob-omb, Bombchu x3, Smart Bomb

Clarence-Special Flag

Piranha Plant- None

Aimee- Sandbag

Joker-None

Smashers: Mario, Link, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Captain Falcon, Jigglypuff, Peach, Bowser, Sheik, Dr. Mario, Pichu, Marth, Lucario, Villager, Wii Fit Trainer, Little Mac, Inkling

Author's Theater:

Clarence: Why is there a cake with a giant candle on it?

Aimee: Pretty sure that's a fire hazard. Like, a really big one.

Nathaniel: Crazy?

Crazy: Not me for once.

MG: That's actually my doing. Why? Because this chapter marks SWOL's one-year anniversary! It's really weird to think that a year has passed for me working on this. And also kinda sad since I'm nowhere near finishing this. Anyway-

Clarence: STOP MONOLOGUING AND GET WATER! THE CANDLE SET THE STAGE ON FIRE!

*The cake had toppled over, letting the candle set fire to a side curtain and a rug. Both of which caused the fire to start spreading across the stage and onto the roof.*

MG: Meh, see you guys next time for Chapter 29 and more of SWOL in the future!