Origins: Subject Zero

Smash Mansion: Portal Room

When Shulk walked into the Portal Room, he noticed an Alloy, one of the Kirby-shaped attendants, waiting for him, holding a lanyard with five keycards attached to it,

"Your recruit will need these," droned the Alloy, "We've got the place you need to go pre-loaded into the portal generator, also the location of the girl he's taken in as his ward, who is currently kidnapped. Your recruit will likely want to resolve that business before returning here."

"Ah yes, the little girl. I read the dossier," grimly remarked Shulk, "Alright, fire 'er up!" he said, his voice now suddenly full of vigor.

The Alloy stood frozen as the computer that controlled the Portal Room flared to life, seemingly imputing commands on its own before the portal fired to life. Wordlessly taking the lanyard from the Alloy, Shulk stepped through.

The Third District

His heart beats at a million miles an hour. His face is cold with sweat, dry with tears. His teeth are grit against one another. Through the polluted, heavy air of the slums, from which he runs, the government building on the edge of town being his only reprieve. His ears perk up at the slightest wale of a police siren, but he wonders if the police will even touch him, especially after the incident in Chinatown. He slows time, blinking in and out of his neon other world to bolt past lumbering pedestrians and to quickly skitter across a nearby street. Another block, then another. Running, running, ducking in and out of allies. He knows he can't go through the front door, so he dashes along the grimy, disgusting backs of buildings, hoping the government's card keys were universal as he slowed his pace, jumping up a fire escape. He swipes the card key. The machine that reads the card beeps a merry beep, and he can open the door! He steps into the room, a sterile, blank, metallic room. Lining the wall to his left were several compartment doors, all guarded by a keycard. On the opposite side of the wall from him, another door, exiting the room but leading deeper into the building. He tried the first compartment door, "ACCESS DENIED," blared the machine.

Another compartment door.

"ACCESS DENIED"
Another.

"ACCESS DENIED"

Another.

"ACCESS DENIED"

Another.

"ACCESS DENIED"

The final compartment door.

"ACCESS DENIED"

Growling, he strides to the door to the next room. Surely this must work?

"ACCESS DENIED"

Slamming the door, he breaks into silent sobs,

"Elizabeth, damn it!" he cries, sinking to his knees.

Punching the door. That's all he could do. Pretend that they were the bastards who took Elizabeth, the neighbor girl that had enriched his life so, giving a killer a window into innocence, and hope for a miracle.

A portal opens and out steps a blond man in a red vest, black pants, and sneakers, carrying an oddly mechanical sword on the hilt on his back. In his hand, he idly swings a lanyard full of keycards. The portal closes, and the man speaks to him.

"Subject Zero?"

Subject Zero shots a glance over his shoulder, "What's it to you?" he growled,

"My name's Shulk, and I've got a job for ya!"

"Oh?" sneered Subject Zero, "What kind of job?"

"First of all," Shulk began, flashing the lanyard to Subject Zero, "Help me figure out what these do," said Shulk, throwing the lanyard to Subject Zero.

Subject Zero caught the lanyard, opening each of the five keys. They were all connected to the compartment doors, of course. But each door contained a sword, swords unlike those he had ever seen before.

"Ah," Shulk said, "You might want to take all of those."

Subject Zero raised an eyebrow, "Take them where?"

"To get the little girl back!" Shulk declared

"Elizabeth," growled Subject Zero, "Her name is Elizabeth"

Shulk nodded. Subject Zero immediately tensed as Shulk spoke into a gaudy red digital watch he was wearing on his wrist, "Shulk to Control, send us to the second location. I repeat, Shulk to Control we're ready to go to the second location."

Another portal opened. As Shulk went to step into it, Subject Zero cleared his throat, causing Shulk to pause.

"We can't go in guns blazing. The people I've been dealing with lately have either been expert marksmen or experts at hand to hand combat. One screw-up, and we're both dead," explained Subject Zero

Shulk simply nodded, and the two entered the portal simultaneously. The room was dark, the roof low hanging. The only source of light was a single hanging lamp on the other side of the room. As the two approached closer, they could see in the center of the light, a red-clad little girl with raven hair. Shulk reasoned this was Elizabeth. On either side of her were two men in masks, one in a golden mask representing the Greek symbol for comedy, the other with a silver mask, baring the Greek symbol for tragedy. Subject Zero went to strike, but Shulk held out a hand, "Wait," he whispered.

In a vision clouded by an ethereal blue, Shulk saw Subject Zero leap forward, only for the golden-masked one to pull out a gun and shoot him in the heart.

"The golden masked one has a gun," whispered Shulk

Subject Zero nodded, pointing two fingers at the one in the golden mask, tapping Shulk on the shoulder, and pointed to the one in the silver mask. Shulk instantly understood, scooting over to the other side of the light so that he was facing the man in the silver mask directly. After a moment's pause, Subject Zero jumped up, Shulk following his lead. As predicted, the golden masked man shot at Subject Zero, but, faster than his eyes could process it, Subject Zero deflected the bullet with a swipe of his sword. At the same time, Shulk landed a Manado slice directly through the silver counterpart's shoulder. Both men were down.

"Ah, it seems as though the plot thickens Comedy?" said the silver masked man.

"Indeed Tragedy," shouted Comedy, "But no matter! A divergence in the plot will not deter us! Until we meet again, O' Wayward Heart."

Suddenly, the lamp flickered off. A second later, a light that lit the entire room powered on, with Tragedy and Comedy nowhere in sight, but Elizabeth stood under the lamp completely unharmed.

Immediately, Subject Zero engulfed Elizabeth in a hug,

"Zero. You came," Elizabeth said through sobs.

"Yes," said Subject Zero, "And I'll never leave again."

Shulk felt a warm smile overcome him. What he wouldn't have paid for someone to swoop in and save Fiora when he thought her dead.

"Now that that's sorted," Shulk said, "I need you to do something for me."

"I owe you my gratitude, I think we both do. Elizabeth, say thank you to Mister Shulk,"

"Thank you for helping Zero save me Mister Shulk," chirped Elizabeth

"So you'll participate in a tournament with me? We also double as a peacekeeping task force, which gives you an excuse to fight the folks that've been givin' ya trouble," Shulk said with a smile.

"Yes. I owe you that much."

Without a word, Shulk punched in a code to his communicator, and a portal opened up. The two stepped through it, Subject Zero holding Elizabeth in his arms. As the two walked, Shulk was thumbing through another application on his device.

"So it looks like you and Elizabeth's new roommate will be…" Shulk paused, his smile turning into a worried frown, "Oh no."

"What?"

"YOUNG MAN!" screeched a hoarse voice from across the lobby, "YOU SHOW UP HERE IN A BATHROBE! HOW INDECENT OF YOU! HOW MANY POWERUPS DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR CABINET AT HOME YOUNG MAN!?"

As Subject Zero came to his senses, he saw a paper-thin, black humanoid ambling across the lobby at him.

"MISTER SHULK, IT'S LIKE I'M SAYING, THE MORE POLYGONS THE HEROES HAVE TODAY, THE MORE CORRUPT THE YOUTH GET," screamed the two-dimensional man.

"Game and Watch, please do mind your volume, there's a little girl here." Shulk scolded him

Game and Watch ambled closer, seeing Elizabeth, now cowering into Subject Zero's arms. Immediately, Game and Watch's tone softened, "Oh, hello young lady, what's your name?"

"E-Elizabeth," Elizabeth responded in a shaky voice,

"Well, I'm Mister Game and Watch. Are you staying in school and eating your vegetables?"

"Y-yeah. Zero eats vegetables all the time." Elizabeth said, a little less afraid now, "And I do like to read."

"What a good young lady!" Game and Watch said with pride, "And you're this young lady's father figure, judging by the way she clings to you?"

"In a sense yes, that's me. I'm Subject Zero."

"Subject Zero…Subject Zero…hmmmm," Game and Watch pondered, mulling over the name, "Ah! We're roommates, aren't we? Come, let me show you the suite."

Game and Watch led Subject Zero and Elizabeth up the stairs. As Shulk was observing the scene, Link appeared next to him, a fish sandwich in hand, "Holy shit, did you calm Mr. Game and Watch down?"

"I think you'll have to thank Elizabeth for that," Shulk said with a smirk.

"I'll be damned," said Link, "Dreams really do come true."

(AN: So, I know that in Katana Zero, Comedy and Tragedy are rumored not to exist, same with The Little Girl, who I'm calling Elizabeth because that was her name in the alpha build and I'm not calling her "The Little Girl" all fic, but I like the characters/plot so much I'm going to avoid as much hallucinogenic stuff as I can with Subject Zero.)