"He's disappeared," Falco Lombardi said aloud, almost unable to come to terms with the unexpected circumstances. "I have no idea how, but he's disappeared."
"And nobody's seen any sign of him around the property?" Link inquired in reply. "Not in the woods surrounding the mansion?"
"Unfortunately not," answered Falco with a sigh, shaking his head. "It just doesn't make any sense."
"Unless... he went missing after he went near that weird water that's a short walk away from the front gates to the land," suggested Palutena, who came walking out into the night with her staff in her hands.
Lombardi turned his head to her upon her mentioning this. "What are you talking about?"
"There's this body of water that sits right outside of where the mansion sits," the goddess explained. "From what I heard about it, there used to be one of those green pipes Mario used to get around just in the ground there. Nobody knew where it went to but everybody who tried to get near it or look for themselves never returned. The waters rose higher and higher and eventually covered it up, but it's still underneath it if you dive to it."
"And who told you about this?" Falco wondered.
"Crazy Hand did."
"And you're gonna take advice from him. He's, well, crazy."
"Believe me, it wasn't the first idea of how he disappeared that came to my mind. But I'll admit that it is a bit plausible."
"Plausible how?"
"Well, after he was defeated in that final battle after doing so well in the tournament, Fox did say he was going out on a walk to get some fresh air. Maybe he stepped outside of the gates and happened to go near there, and maybe something that occupies the pipe in those waters got him or something."
Falco sighed at the strange hypothesis, not finding it possible in the slightest. "I don't know what to think," he mumbled despondently.
"I say somebody needs to look for him down by that water," Palutena responded confidently. "I don't know why but I'm struck with this feeling that maybe something is down there."
The blue bird shrugged and said, "I guess we can round people up and look around there."
"No, I was thinking someone in particular needs to do the searching," the goddess replied before pointing to Wolf, who had just come from around the corner of the spacious yard.
Having heard what they were talking about and the plans to send him out to search for the missing Fox McCloud, his eyes went wide. "What am I, some search dog? Why do I have to be the one to go out there and look for him?"
"It was you he lost the battle to before, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, so? If we up and ran off because he got defeated, then that's being a sore loser. So much for him being an asset to these tournaments from the beginning."
"He only lost to you because you cheated, Wolf. Just be honest with yourself and realize that's the only reason you won in that battle."
Wolf laughed at the accusation. "I did no such thing."
"As a matter of fact, you did," Palutena replied. "And you were even bragging to Ridley and Ganindorf about how you cheated after you had won. So if you don't want me to tell that to Master Hand, I'd think it wise to go out and look for him. He'll gladly take that trophy from you and your ability to be in any tournament ever again."
The lupine let out the biggest sigh, realizing that she was being quite serious. "Fine," he huffed before marching back inside the mansion. "I'll go look for Star Fox."
After heading back inside and quickly changing his clothes, Wolf walked the whole to where he was supposed to look. The night had become quite foggy around the body of water that Palutena had told the story of, and the water itself looked murky and not very clean.
"Yuck..." he muttered under his breath.
The lupin had changed into a black diving suit that he had found in one of the wardrobes back at the mansion, knowing that he was going to search that damned water for any sign of something that might have taken Fox. The whole ordeal seemed incredibly stupid in his mind, but it was better to do it and get it over with than let Palutena tattle to Master Hand and cause him to lose the trophy he won. Sure, he truly did cheat in order to win, but he still felt like he deserved that ward he got.
He readjusted the diving boots he wore before taking a few steps closer to the edge of the land where the water was, noticing that it was much deeper than he first thought it was going to be.
Let's just hope nothing is out here and this'll all be over with, he thought. I'm wasting my time out here.
He took another quick inhale of the fresh air, exhaling it slowly before entering the water. He dove in slowly and started to search around for anything out of the ordinary lurking around. Just like he thought it would be, it was mostly dark underneath the murky water. Even if there were something around, he wouldn't have been able to see it.
The wolf carried on swimming forward before he felt himself bumping right into something hard and metallic. He rubbed his head before reaching out and putting a paw on the surface of what he had hit in front of him.
It was the pipe that Palutena's information talked about, sitting in the middle of the water with alage having grown all over it.
Lucky for him, he brought a light that was waterproof from the supplies back at the mansion, which came in handy just then even though he first never planned on actually turning it on. When he shined the light around the sides of the green pipe, he noticed that nothing was there. He swam up just a bit until he came up to the top of it, gazing down and seeing that it was even darker inside of it than it was around him.
Wolf had to admit that he was actually a bit creeped out by it, especially since he knew not where the pipe even travelled to. He knew that Mario used those where he came from to get from place to place, but at least he knew where he would end up on the other side of one. For all he knew, this one could lead to nowhere or to somewhere much creepier than the water already was.
Get a hold of yourself, he thought. You are not gonna get scared over the stupid dark. What are you, a pup?
He reached onto the edge of the pipe before navigating himself around and into the inside of the pipe, letting go and diving into it with his legs first. The last little bit of light left his vision as he felt himself travelling further and further down, the walls of the pipe feeling like they were caving in on him.
How much further down is this thing gonna go?
He grabbed his light once again and went to shine it in front of him, hoping to see that maybe whatever was at the end of this pipe was coming soon. He found the light, however, slipping out of his grasp, falling down into nowhere before he could try to grab it.
Now he found himself one hundred percent without any source of luminosity. The emotions running through him in those seconds were him being extremely ticked off and being actually frightened for a moment.
Wolf reached forward and dug his claws into the wall of the pipe closest to his side, hoping to slow himself down for a moment. He held on there for a moment as he kicked his legs back and forth, trying to assess what to do next.
It was while he was figuring out what to do next, though, when he felt something sharp grab onto his leg, trying to tug on it to pull him further down. It felt like som sort of hand but skeletal.
"You shouldn't have come here..." the source of it hissed.
Wolf let out the loudest scream he had ever uttered in his life. He sunk his claws further into the wall he was holding onto as if his life depended on it, kicking his leg even harder to get what was holding onto him to let go. Forget the mission he was sent to do. He needed to get the heck out of here.
He managed to free himself from the hand's clutches, swimming as hard as he could up to the top of the pipe where he had started his original descension. The panic coursing in his brain nearly made him forget how to swim in the quickest way possible, and so he had found himself reduced to a doggy paddle.
He felt himself reaching the surface of the pipe, paddling harder until he reached the surface of the water. He took the deepest breath in as he collected his thoughts, his heart feeling like it was ready to explode.
What was that thing? And on top of that, since that was what he was out here looking for anyhow, where was Fox?
"I don't think so," the voice from before cackled.
He felt movements in the water behind him and he turned around to see what it was coming from. Several figures started to come out of the water, most of them Koopas and Toads. They all had disheveled looks on their faces and eyes that almost seemed to glow in the dark night. He turned to the right and noticed among them was Fox, only he looked like those other figures that appeared.
What are these things? Zombies of some sort?
"Anyone who passes by my water," that voice said again, "I take down with me and make into one of my minions. It seems that tall one was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Wolf was turning his head left and right, searching for this person speaking to him. It sounded as if he was everywhere but not there at the same time. "Where is it coming from?" he muttered with a shallow voice.
He quickly found out, though, when a murky figure, the one that tried to grab him before, arose from the water, yanking him back down as he shouted for help.
Author's Note: Hello there, everybody! I know I haven't been writing a whole lot about the Smashers for quite some time. But with today being Halloween and all, I couldn't pass up the chance to write a hopefully scary story to celebrate.
I actually had this planned to be a collection of several scary stories being told within a single story, but things got busy and I wasn't able to finish up what I originally had planned. So, I decided to start with this one and plan from there to put on the rest of the spooky stories that we're going to be posted separately, all of which will be different but all happening during this Halloween party the Smashers are having.
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this story of mine and will look forward to the other connected stories I have planned. I'll admit that it wasn't the greatest since I typed it quickly so I could get it on in time for the holiday, but I hope that it was still enjoyable anyhow.
Happy Halloween! :)