Author's Note:

Only one chapter away from the big 300! But before we reach this plateau, we'll have to get through this chapter, which contains characters from two recently released games - WarioWare: Get It Together, and Life Is Strange: True Colors. A funky combination on paper, but I made it work. Guest reviews? Guest reviews:

"Well, folks! We finally got ourselves a release date for Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl! It will be released on October 5! I have a suggestion on a chapter inspired by that. How about you made a chapter like the Marvel episodes, where you got the mansion residents cosplaying as Nickelodeon characters! I know that sounds ridiculous, but hey, might as well try."

I could do that, but I don't know who would be cosplaying as who. Some cosplay decisions might be easier than others. Another anonymous review:

"REVIEW MY STORIES OR I WILL VIOLENTLY RAPE YOU! REVIEW MY STORIES OR I WILL VIOLENTLY RAPE YOU!"

But I don't want to be violently raped...uh, one last anonymous review:

"A reminder that Tora is a fricking Nopon. Don't pair him with any humans."

Good to know. On to An NFL Fan:

"Dude, I hope you'll make an NFL opening week chapter next week. Last year, there is no NFL chapter, thanks to that bad man Brio. If you can't, it's fine. At least just a shout-out. Last year, there's not even a shout-out at all."

Sorry, my man, but I couldn't do a shoot-out. Not in this chapter, I'm afraid. David's got more questions:

"Has Mario fully grown back his mustache? Is Popo gonna get back at the Turks for destroying his ice cream business? Will the Gunvolt cast show up when Gunvolt 3 or Luminous Avenger iX 2 games comes out next year? Are Shantae and Bolo a couple? Have the other Shantae characters shown up yet? And finally, how do you feel about Vince McMahon taking over NXT from Triple H and the mass firings that are ensuing again?"

His mustache has fully grown back. Popo might seek some revenge. Small possibility the Gunvolt cast will appear. Shantae and Bolo are a couple. No other Shantae characters have shown up. And I'm curious as to how this new NXT will turn out. Dreading who will be released, though. The Reader has a question about a certain Sonic character:

"Where is Mecha, anyway? Still with Candy Kong?"

Yup, still with Candy Kong. TIME TO GO has got something about the potential Tales of Arise chapter:

"Still hellbent on making a Tales of Arise chapter, huh? Suit yourself. But if you want to know my opinion, wait until Arise got announced for the Switch first. THEN, you can make an Arise chapter. Thanks for listening."

I just might do that. When is Arise coming to the Switch, we'll just have to wait and see. Last is Romance Enjoyer, with some...well, romance:

"Instead of that stupid (Noctis-Luna-Lightning) love triangle, you could focus on the actual romance for FFXIII, Serah and Snow! It's been a while since Serah appeared, and an appearance from Snow sounds nice!

I like both characters...so yeah, I would love to do that. Moving on:

"Speaking of stupid romance, how about some from mine? I actually have some pairing for the Awakening kids, and it might sound stupid, but I think it kinda makes sense to me.

1. Marc/Cynthia
2. Inigo/Severa
3. Brady/Kjelle
4. Gerome/Morgan
5. Yarne/Nah
6. Laurent/Noire

What do you think? Stupid, right? And if you ask, where's Owain? I think he could be paired with a character from FE: Fates (as Odin, of course). Which one? Honestly, I don't know! I don't really care about Fates as much as I do about Awakening and Three Houses. I leave that to you."

To be honest...they don't sound THAT stupid. I can see most of these pairings work. But I do think that Owain would work well with a Fates character. He just fits the vibe.

Episode 299: Aura

In the last episode of Smash Life, Sonic and his friends spent most of their time hunting down the Wisps. These Wisps, which all hail from the planet known as, well, Planet Wisp, were one day discovered by Dr. Eggman's robot lackeys, Orbot and Cubot. Eggman didn't feel like keeping the Wisps around, and so he brought them to the mansion.

Unfortunately for the Wisps, staying at the mansion was simply not ideal. Sonic and Tails were both aware of the trouble that the colorful aliens would cause and figured that returning them to Planet Wisp would be the best choice in mind. But until Tails manage to make contact with Mother Wisp...where would the Wisps even stay at?

Luckily, one certain green plumber had the perfect place in mind. Luigi suggested that the Wisps should stay with a good friend of his until Mother Wisp arrived on earth. This particular friend of Luigi's would make haste to the front door of the mansion, while he heard the doorbell ringing constantly.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" shouted E. Gadd as he hustled his way to the door, nearly out of breath once he reached it. The professor opened the door and was delighted to see Luigi, with a bunch of folks flanking him.

"Howdy, professor!" Luigi greeted E. Gadd, who was happy to have some familiar company over. Standing behind Luigi were the guys and gals that played a part in finding the Wisps - Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Crash, Coco, Crunch, Aku, and Mechanica. Zelda and the ninja pals were present as well - even including Ninjara.

"Such a waste of my time..." grumbled Ninjara, sulking with his arms folded as he was looking away. Simmer down, buddy - it wasn't like you were doing anything important anyway.

"Welcome everyone!" E. Gadd greeted Luigi and company, as Yacker flew over to the professor and was floating at his side. "Didn't expect to have so many guests over today."

"Hey, Yacker, what's up!" Sonic called out to his Wisp friend, who flew over to the hedgehog and gave him a fist bump. "Good to see ya, man!"

"What do you mean, professor?" Luigi asked E. Gadd, as a bunch of Wisps soon appeared and gathered in the foyer of E. Gadd's mansion. "You have-a plenty of guests already!" E. Gadd would see that Luigi was right, as he turned around and saw the many Wisps behind him.

"Eh, I guess you're right..." E. Gadd responded with a shrug, as a few of the Wisps flew around the professor in an embrace. "...guess what I meant to say was that I wasn't expecting social guests. These Wisps sure aren't good for conversation.

Sonic: It was Luigi's idea to let the Wisps stay at E. Gadd's mansion. Nobody really took objection to it. Sucks for the Wisps that they have to stay with a crusty old fart, but at least it's better than being with Dr. Eggman!

E. Gadd: The Wisps have stayed with me for about a week, and I've grown to appreciate them over time. They're almost like children to me... my sometimes ugly, totally unresponsive, and hard to keep still children. It's a good thing that the Wisps don't have feelings, right? Right...?

"Professor E. Gadd, do you mind if we come in?" Zelda asked the professor, as she and the others were getting tired of waiting outside. They also didn't want their trip to the mansion to go for naught. "We wanted to see how the Wisps are handling themselves."

"Of course, of course! Come right on in!" replied E. Gadd, moving out of the way as he let Zelda and company inside his mansion. The only person that hadn't entered the mansion yet was Luigi, who remained on the doorstep.

"Do you mind-a coming outside?" Luigi asked E. Gadd, as he pointed his thumb at his green Dodge Charger. Still holding up after five years. "It has to do with-a my Poltergust."

"Ah, yes, my beloved Poltergust 3000! Sure thing, Luigi." So E. Gadd followed Luigi to his Dodge Charger, smiling and rubbing his hands with anticipation. "Looking for an upgrade, I assume?"

"Not quite - I need you to fix-a the Poltergust." Luigi, unlocking his car brought E. Gadd to the back of his Dodge Charger and opened up the trunk. Inside the trunk was the Poltergust, which was slightly damaged. "Popo messed around-a with it, and I've been trying all-a week to get it repaired. Yet nothing seems to work."

"So you just need it fixed? Easier said than done." E. Gadd pulled the Poltergust out of Luigi's trunk, as Luigi closed the trunk and locked his car. "Though for a genius like me, it's easier done than said."

"Hehe, don't get too cocky now, professor!" Luigi laughed, placing his hand on E. Gadd's back as he and the professor returned to the mansion. With the Poltergust now in E. Gadd's caring hands, Luigi had nothing to worry about.

But as Luigi and E. Gadd returned to the mansion, with Luigi closing the door behind him, a robot emerged from behind some shrubbery. It was Metal Sonic, who darted out of the shrubbery once the coast was clear. He ran over to E. Gadd's driveway and saw Sonic's corvette parked next to Luigi's Charger.

"Your demise is coming soon, Sonic..." vowed Metal Sonic, as he poked a hole in one of Sonic's front tires. The robot only had one thing on his mind...and that was killing Sonic.

Metal Sonic: My plan to kill Sonic was foiled by those small aliens. I somehow allowed myself to be afraid of them, but that is now in the past. Sonic better start saying his prayers, for his time is winding down. Tick, tock...

Due to the damage done by the yellow and pink wisps, Mr. Game and Watch had spent most of his weekend repairing the mansion floors. He also had to repair most of Cafe Leblanc, since there was considerable damage done to it. Speaking of which, Pit and Joker were back to running the cafe, while Sans was back to being a regular customer. That said, Sans was quite a popular barista among the residents, and he was relishing in all the praise.

"Your curry was so delicious, Sans!" Iris said to the skeleton as she, Shantae, Cortex, and Uka were gathered around at the cafe counter. "And the coffee was great as well. Tell us your secret!"

"guess you could say that I had a wisp-er in the wind guiding me," Sans casually shrugged, before giving a wink to Pit and Joker. Joker was doing his best to hold in his tongue.

"Well, your curry was horrible, and I never even had curry a day in my life!" Uka angrily offered his two cents - probably being negative just for the sake of being negative. "Honestly, I don't know how people can eat that garbage."

"Do you ever have ANYTHING remotely positive to add to any conversation you're in?" Cortex asked Uka; at least the evil genius was assured in knowing that Uka wasn't negative in just matters that involved him.

"Maybe if I wasn't associated with a pest like you, I'd have a more positive outlook on life." As Cortex grumpily folded his arms, his roommate Wario came running inside the cafe, nearly banging his head against the counter.

"I need to ask you boys a question," the fatso said to Pit and Joker, leaving both baristas worried about what this question entailed. "Is there by any chance that you offer catering?"

"We are a cafe, Wario..." Joker stated to the fatso; unless Wario wanted his catering to be nothing but curry and coffee, then he was bound to find himself a very disappointed man.

"Well thanks, captain obvious...but that still doesn't answer my question. Do you and Pit offer catering services? This is a life or death emergency!"

"Uh, what exactly do you need catering for?" asked Pit, hoping to gauge what kind of stuff Wario wanted - and also determine if said stuff was even worth entertaining in the first place.

"My employees want to have a meeting at the mansion today. I don't know what kind of mood they'll be in, so I need some grub to keep them placated!"

Wario: My stupid idiot employees (and Mona) won't stop bugging me about having some quarterly sales meeting. Basically, we talk about stuff that doesn't even matter, like raising WarioWare's bottom line. I'm still getting rich despite not working a day in my life, what kind of bottom line are they even talking about? Stupid idiots, all of them... *pauses* ...except Mona. Mona gets it.

"How many folks are you expecting to be at this meeting?" Shantae asked Wario, as she was dying to meet some of WarioWare employees - even though she already met a few of them, in Kat, Ana, and Ashley.

"Not much, just a bunch of chumps that will sometimes work for cheap," replied Wario, before a certain lady came to his mind. The very thought of her even brought a smile to his face. "And then there's Mona..."

"Do you still like Mona?" Pit asked Wario, as he was relatively aware of the fatso's romantic life. He even helped Wario with trying to score with Palutena, despite the odds being against him.

"I'd...I'd rather not say. I like to think that we're good friends, on very good terms." Wario didn't sound that confident in his response, which left Pit and the others to wonder.

"Just good friends? So you decided that falling for a girl who's still in high school is not that ideal?" asked Cortex, as he quickly drew the ire of Wario. He loved to pick on Wario about his relationship with Mona. "Well, it's about time!"

"Ew, Mario, you were chasing after a high school student?" Iris cringed at the fatso, now imagining him to be even creepier than she originally imagined. "That's so gross, even for you!"

"Mona isn't in high school, okay?!" Wario snapped, having to set the record straight with everyone. Even the briefest mention of Mona was enough to make the fatso emotional. "She's...she moved on, and on to bigger and better things. Like fashion design."

"Fashion design?! Does she specialize in designing dresses?" Iris was more than excited about Mona's career choices, smiling with her hands on her face.

"Yes, I think designing dresses is her biggest specialty. She might even lend you a hand with designing Zelda's wedding dress!" That was all Iris needed to hear, as the swooned former champion fainted unto the floor.

"...so, Wario, you still want some catering?" Joker asked the fatso, as Sans poked Iris' face to see if the former champion would respond. "Pit and I can work something out for you."

"We are?" Pit asked Joker as he furrowed his brow, only for Joker to look at him and give him a wink. Pit changed his tune in a hurry to appease Joker. "Uh, I mean, yes we are! You can count on us, Wario!"

"Great! I just knew you boys would come through," responded a now satisfied Wario, grabbing a cup of coffee off the counter as he left the cafe. "Meeting doesn't start until an hour and a half, so that should give you some time to prepare."

"Thanks for the heads up," Joker gave Wario a thumbs-up as the fatso left the cafe; soon after Wario was gone, Joker convened with Pit. "Just follow my lead, Pit, and we'll make Wario happy in no time..."

"Since we're doing catering, can I ask Kirby and Incineroar if they want in?" Pit asked Joker; he would want nothing more than to serve food and drink to the WarioWare employees. "Also, should I call Dingo's Diner?"

"We're not calling anyone." Joker made Pit put his cellphone back in his pocket, right before the angel could even pull it out. "We'll be handling catering ourselves. No one else involved."

"yup, she's totally knocked out," Sans stated after inspecting Iris, as he returned to his stool. The skeleton soon saw something missing on the counter. "where did my coffee run off to...?"

Mario was chilling in his patio on a lawn chair, as he finally got around to playing that "Lonely Space Vixens: Reloaded" game that Peach mysteriously downloaded on his tablet. It was a very unique game, for sure...and for all the wrong reasons.

"It's a good-a thing that I have the volume turned-a down," Mario said to Spyro, who was sitting in a lawn chair next to the plumber as he watched the Lonely Space Vixens game in action. "The stuff that's playing out on-a my screen has me feeling violated!"

"You do realize that you can delete that game, right?" Spyro asked Mario, seeing how greatly disturbed the plumber was from playing. "It is your tablet..."

"It's Princess-a Peach's tablet too. She bought it with some-a of her money, so she has equal ownership." Mario kept on playing the game, as he couldn't help but cringe with every action that he took. Spyro even had to look away, at one point. "Why, Peach, why?!"

"Mario, you got a minute?" Olimar asked the plumber as he showed up at the patio, while Mario mustered all the strength to keep on playing. "There's a group of friends stuck on the..."

"SAVE ME!" Mario shouted to Olimar as he tossed his tablet at the astronaut, accidentally hitting him in the head. Mario gasped and covered his mouth, as Olimar saw a crack in his helmet. "Olimar, I'm-a so sorry..."

"What in the world..." Grabbing the tablet that landed on the ground, Olimar picked up the device and frowned in disgust at what he was seeing. "...Mario, what kind of sick tablet games have you been playing?"

"It wasn't me, Peach downloaded it." Mario did his best to express his innocence, but Olimar refused to buy it. Gently holding the tablet away from him, Olimar placed the device on the lawn table next to Mario.

"Yeah, sure. Likely story. As I was saying, there's a group of friends stuck on the road. I think their car broke down."

So Olimar led Mario and Spyro over to the roadside. Three individuals were gathered around a car - two ladies, one with the glasses and one wearing a beanie, and a guy with a beard who was trying to get the car's engine revved up.

"Anything yet, Ryan?" the girl with glasses asked the bearded guy, who was using a bunch of cables to rev up the engine of his car. Nothing the guy could do seemed to work.

"Nope...it looks like the engine is still shot," the bearded guy responded with a defeated sigh, giving up all hope as he stopped working with the cables. "We might be stuck here for a while."

"Pardon me, friends - are-a you having car trouble?" Mario asked the bearded guy and his lady friends, willing to lend a helping hand. The presence of Olimar and Spyro put the three friends on edge.

"Is that supposed to be Mario?" the girl with the beanie whispered to her friends, as she was trying to hold in a laugh. "He looks kinda short."

"I mean, he'd look weird if he was around six feet..." the girl with the glasses whispered back, as Mario was anxiously waiting for a response. The bearded guy saw how patient Mario was and wanted to end the awkwardness.

"Oh! Sorry about that, we should've introduced ourselves," the bearded guy apologized to Mario as he stepped forward, designating himself as the alpha male. He even looked the part as well. "I'm Ryan. And these are my friends, Alex and Steph."

"Hi," the girl with the glasses greeted Mario and company with a wave; she would look towards the girl with the beanie, Steph, who was still sizing up Mario.

"Hey, how's it going," Steph greeted Mario, finding herself in slight disappointment; she had wished that Mario was slightly taller in person. Only slightly.

"Ryan, Alex, Steph...it is nice-a to meet you all," Mario said to the three friends, as Spyro was about to quietly retreat to the plumber's house. Mario stepped on the purple dragon's tail to prevent his getaway escape. "I take it that you're all visiting?"

"Yeah, we traveled here from Haven Springs, Colorado," explained Alex, mentioning a town that Mario had never heard of before. Mario was gonna spend his entire evening searching the U.S. map vigorously for Haven Springs. "You could say that we're on a road trip."

"I don't mean to brag, but I used to live here in Seattle," stated Steph, flashing a smile as she rested her elbow on Alex's left shoulder. "Just for college. Majored in video game design, no biggie..."

Steph: I didn't stay in Seattle just to get my degree - this is the city where I also started a punk rock band with my partner. Spent a huge chunk of my life after college touring before settling down in Haven Springs. You just can't beat the small-town feel, you know?

"Is this an actual dragon?" Alex asked Mario as she curiously ran over to Spyro, squatting down to get a better look at him. Spyro wanted to retreat so bad. "Is he like your pet?"

"Not this crap again..." moaned Spyro as he shook his head in dismay; this was the exact reason why he wanted to leave the premises. "...please don't tell me that you have some creepy obsession with dragons."

"Watch it, Dribble, you nearly crashed into that car!" a certain yellow cat shouted, as Mario saw a yellow cab drive past by. Driving the cab was Dribble, with Spitz in the passenger seat yelling his butt off.

"Well, how am I supposed to drive if you got your hands on the steering wheel?!" Dribble barked at Spitz, before eventually parking the cab in the mansion's driveway. He bumped into the mansion's garage door as he slammed the brakes, leaving behind a small dent.

"I was literally trying to prevent you from making a huge mistake!" Spitz continued his shouting match with Dribble, as the two cab drivers exited the vehicle. You know that we already lost our insurance with that last company. So why do you wanna put us back in hot water again?"

"What are you even talking about?! You were the very reason why we even lost that insurance in the first place! Said that it was too 'cheap'! Bah!"

"Any chance that you know those guys?" Steph asked Mario, Olimar, and Spyro, as she watched Dribble and Spitz shouting at each other angrily. So much shouting going on, that it sounded like unintelligible garble between the cab drivers.

"Yeah, that's Dribble and Spitz - they're actually friendly, once you get to know 'em," replied Olimar, as Steph and her friends refused to take the astronaut's word for it. "They're cab drivers who work for WarioWare. It's a gaming company."

"Sounds like something right up your alley," Ryan smirked at Steph, believing that the girl could put her video game design experience to good use. That is if Wario would even take a chance on her.

"Why is there a random UFO in the sky...?" questioned Spyro, as he and the others looked up and saw a small red UFO coming down towards the mansion. Riding in the red UFO was Orbulon, who was delighted to see the crowd below him.

"Friends! Have no fear! For Orbulon is..." Orbulon was about to make his grand introduction, only for his red UFO to start wobbling around. The UFO crashlanded on the ground upside down, as the others laughed at Orbulon's misfortune.

"If Dribble, Spitz, and Orbulon have arrived, then that only means-a one thing," stated Mario, as a now embarrassed Orbulon pulled himself up out from his UFO and dusted himself off. "Wario must be holding a meeting with-a his employees soon!"

"The meeting?! Don't tell me it's already started!" Orbulon said to Mario, suddenly panicked as he was on the verge of freaking out. "I made extra sure to end my power nap thirty minutes early so I wouldn't be late!"

"Coming through!" a voice shouted to Orbulon, who had little time to react as he was suddenly knocked down by a motorcycle that pulled up to the mansion. Riding the motorcycle was Mona, and she had a passenger with her in Jimmy T. "Here we are, Jimmy T!"

"Much appreciated, sweet cakes," Jimmy T. thanked Mona, taking off his helmet and hopping off the motorcycle. A certain hero-king around here better be wary of Jimmy T.'s presence - and speaking of whom...

"Do I hear people congregating outside?" Marth asked Mario and the others as he joined them outside, having left his house after hearing Dribble and Spitz shouting at each other. And yes, the cab drivers still had their shouting match.

"Hey, hey, hey! Look who it is!" Jimmy T. instantly beamed up when he saw Marth, as he spun around, struck a pose, and pointed at the hero-king. Marth was beyond disappointed. "Macho Man Marth! Shake what your momma gave ya!"

"You don't even know my mother, now leave me alone!" Marth hurried back to his house, not wanting any business with Jimmy T. whatsoever. But Jimmy T. had some unfinished business with Marth, as he was on the chase.

"C'mon baby! Just show me what you got!" Jimmy T. chased after Marth, following the hero-king into his house. Seconds later, the dancer was sent flying out of the house, landing on the ground and getting a faceful of dirt.

"Did my husband not tell you to leave him alone?" Caeda shouted at JImmy T, as she was standing at her front door. "Now stay out!" The princess slammed the door, as Jimmy T. slowly lifted his head and spat out some dirt.

Jimmy T: So, Marth is married...but I knew that from the get-go. There has to be a reason why Marth still has no rhythm, even after all these years. His wife is obviously to blame. Stop holding my man back! Free Marth!

"Hey, Mario!" Mona happily greeted the plumber, knocking Orbulon down and accidentally stepping on Jimmy T. on her way to Mario and company. "I haven't seen you in like what, three years?"

"Almost three years," corrected Mario, being all technical with Mona as Spyro just had to roll his eyes at the plumber. "But it's still good-a to see you. Have-a you met my new friends? Alex, Steph, and Ryan?"

"We're friends with Mario now?" Ryan asked Alex and Steph, as the latter frowned and nudged Ryan in the side. "I mean, yes, we're good friends with Mario! We clicked super fast."

"Golly, Mario! You sure are good at this whole making new friends thing," Mona commended the plumber, who was smiling proudly with his arms folded. Spyro, seeing how smug Mario was, shook his head. "How has Wario been?"

"Wario?" Mario perked up, as his smugness went away in a snap. He wasn't expecting Mona to inquire about Wario, at least this soon. "He is handling himself well. He's been consistent with, um..."

"His weight is consistent," Spyro said to Mona, causing the young woman to giggle. Poking fun at Wario's weight was a sometimes easy way to get laughs. "Don't think he can get any fatter!"

"Say, Mona, WarioWare is a video game-a company, is it not?" Mario asked the young woman, who nodded her head; Mario walked over to Steph and grabbed her with both of his hands. "Steph here said that she majored-a in video game design."

"Can you let go of me?" Steph asked Mario, feeling uncomfortable with Mario having his arms wrapped around her legs. "Your hands are too close to my thighs..." Mario immediately released his hold.

"Oh really? I think that Wario would like to have you around!" Mona said to Steph, giving her an open invitation to come to the employees' meeting. "You should totally stop by our meeting later."

"That sounds pretty cool," replied Steph, partially open to showing up. "Though I'm not sure how my friends would feel about that." The young woman looked towards Alex and Ryan, hoping that attending the WarioWare meeting wouldn't mess up their plans.

"You can go on ahead, I'll get our car trouble sorted out," Ryan said to Steph, before turning his attention to Dribble and Spitz who were still shouting with each other. "Any chance those two can repair my car, Mario?"

"They did repair my broken can-a opener," replied Mario, as Ryan furrowed his brow wondering what Mario's can opener had to do with anything. "But yes, they can get the job-a done. When they're on the same-a page."

"You said that auto insurance was for 'imperfect' people who lack confidence," Dribble continued his bickering with Spitz, who was getting heated with every word that came out of Dribble's mouth. "Does that mean everyone on his planet lacks confidence then?"

"Not the good drivers, you dolt!" Spitz fired back, as Ryan calmly approached the two cab drivers as peacefully as he knew how. "Would call you a good driver, but sometimes I wonder..."

"Ahem..." Ryan cleared his throat, garnering Dribble and Spitz's attention as he ended their spat for good. "...are any two any good at starting up cars?"

"You betcha!" Dribble grinned confidently, placing his arm around an also grinning and confident Spitz. Leave it up to Ryan to end some bickering between two cab drivers so handily. "Where's your car at?"

"Right over there." Ryan pointed over at his car, and Dribble and Spitz were dying to get to work. "She's a little rusty around the edges...so go easy on her."

Spitz: In case you ask me in advance, I still stand by what I said about insurance. And insurance companies, in general. They only exist to prey on the clueless cowards who would shelve out their money for any other scam! They'd forfeit their entire bank account for a popsicle!

"So what do you do, Alex?" Mario asked the young Asian woman, as Ryan led Dribble and Spitz to his car and Steph went over to the mansion with Mona. Alex was now a lone ranger, with some small company.

"I prefer to keep this a secret, but..." Alex started, before looking around and leaning in close to Mario and company as she whispered, "...I have the ability to see other peoples' emotions."

"Oh, so are you some-a kind of therapist? Or clairvoyant? A clairvoyant therapist?" As Mario tried to guess what exactly Alex was, Spyro facepalmed.

"Um, no, I'm not either one of those things," Alex giggled at Mario, although deep down she probably thought that Mario was the biggest nincompoop she had ever encountered. "I just see emotions. That's it."

"So you're not a therapist or a clairvoyant..." Mario sounded very disappointed, but he would ease up seconds later. "...you're still pretty young, so there's time-a for you yet. How about we put-a your powers to the test?"

Lloyd had done it. He finally did it. He successfully managed to remove Samus from the sauna. The swordsman declared victory last week when Samus had left the sauna and went to the gaming room, bringing the ivory Wisp with her...though technically, nobody really forced her to leave in the first place. But that didn't stop Lloyd from bragging about his self-acclaimed victory.

"We did it boys...we got Samus out of the sauna for good!" Lloyd said to Link and Cloud, as the three swordsmen were strolling down the hallway to the sauna. Lloyd had a little strut in his step. "It was all thanks to you, Cloud."

"To be honest, I didn't force Samus to leave," stated Cloud, who had yet to forgive Samus for electrocuting him with the ivory Wisp. "She left the sauna on her own accord."

"Twist the narrative all you want, the fact remains - I am victorious!" Link and Cloud were both getting tired of Lloyd, who made an impactful step as he reached the sauna. "Nothing can stop me now, not even..."

Lloyd entered the sauna along with Link and Cloud, and to his shock, he saw Samus inside. What made the swordsman especially upset was that Samus wasn't the only woman present...his girlfriend, Colette, was in the sauna too, along with the female Inkling.

"Hi, Lloyd!" Colette smiled and waved to her boyfriend, who was trying his hardest not to snap on her. He wanted to reserve his anger towards Samus. "You were right about the sauna - it really does make you feel like you're sleeping on a cloud!"

"Wh-What is the meaning of this?!" Lloyd frowned at Samus; he hadn't seen the bounty hunter in the sauna all week, which further made him believe that he had reigned "victorious". "Samus, you already admitted defeat, why are you back here?"

"I didn't admit 'defeat', you doofus," retorted Samus as she was stroking Pikachu - had to get the mouse Pokemon conditioned to unleash a devasting Thunderbolt on Lloyd. "I left because I wanted to."

"Tried to tell you," Cloud said to Lloyd, who put his hand up to silence the swordsman. Stepping further inside, Lloyd would turn his frustration to another female in his sauna.

"And why are you here?" Lloyd questioned the female Inkling, who was chilling in the sauna along with the male Inkling, Banjo, and Kazuya. "Isn't this sauna bad for your health?"

"I dunno, Kazuya invited me and my friend," the female Inkling shrugged; Kazuya had claimed two more members of Popo's ice cream gang, which Popo obviously won't be pleased about.

"As long as we don't use the showers, we should be fine," the male Inkling stated to Lloyd before he felt a burning sensation on his arm that made him panic. "The air might be too moist for our comfort, though..."

Kazuya: Since Dante's van is still in the repair shop, that gave me an ample amount of time to invite the Inklings over to the sauna. Just to keep them away from Popo. And it seems like the Wisp situation has Sonic and Crash preoccupied. Here's hoping that this so-called Mother Wisp that I've heard about takes forever to find her way to earth...

"Just don't know when to give up, do you Samus?" Lloyd asked the bounty hunter, wanting to understand what her end goal was. "Even after you lost, you're still pining for a win!"

"For the last time, Lloyd, I didn't admit defeat, I just left," stated Samus, wondering what was so hard for Lloyd to comprehend. Out of everyone in the mansion that tested her patience, Lloyd was at the top of the list.

"Also, why did you bring my girlfriend into the fray?" Lloyd pointed at Colette, fearing that his girlfriend was being manipulated. "Did you brainwash her?"

"I wasn't brainwashed, Samus asked me to join her in the sauna and I said yes," Colette explained to Lloyd, who refused to believe her; her response just didn't line up with the swordsman's narrative.

"You may have gotten a hold of my girlfriend, but you won't get a hold of my principles, Miss Aran!" After making his vow to Samus, Lloyd turned his attention to Link and Cloud. "Link, Cloud, I want you to unite together, and use your authoritative powers to..."

"Nope, don't count on it buddy," responded Link, as he and Cloud both left the sauna. Lloyd was left highly disappointed, as Samus almost felt the sudden urge to laugh at him.

"Guys, wait! I'll reward you for your efforts this time!" Lloyd ran out of the sauna to chase after Link and Cloud. Those two swordsmen were his only hope of getting Samus out of the sauna for good.

"Should we step in and do something?" the male Inkling asked Kazuya, wondering how the businessman felt about Lloyd's feud with Samus. "He seems way in over his head."

"I'd say let things play out," replied Kazuya, keeping a laissez-faire approach to the situation; he much preferred to watch stuff go down as a spectator, rather than engaging said stuff himself. "In the end, Lloyd will make the right decision..."

Dribble and Spitz were reliable taxi drivers, but they were just as reliable when it came to starting up cars. The dog and cat duo worked together to get the engine of Ryan's car working again.

"Give it a whirl!" Spitz commanded Dribble, after using some of his cables on Ryan's engine. Sitting inside Ryan's car, Dribble inserted the keys into the ignition and to his and Ryan's delight, the car came on.

"We're finally in business, baby!" cheered Dribble, letting the engine run for a couple of seconds before turning the car off. The taxi driver got out of the car, handing Ryan back his car keys. "You should be good to go now."

"I don't think I can thank you boys enough," Ryan said to Dribble and Spitz after accepting his car keys, putting them in his pocket. "Can't wait to tell my folks back home that a dog and a cat fixed my engine!"

"We have plenty of interesting tales to tell our folks ourselves," Spitz said to Ryan - his and Dribble's tales were usually on the more extraterrestrial side of things. For better and for worse. "Like this one time, where we were traveling through outer space..."

"Aren't you boys supposed to be at some meeting?" Ryan wasn't in the mood for hearing space stories, so he asked this question to save himself from trouble. Dribble looked at his watch along with Spitz and freaked out after seeing the time.

"Sweet mother of pearl! We're gonna be late!" the taxi driver panicked, as he and an equally panicked Spitz ran to the mansion at blazing speed. Ryan watched as the duo left, laughing and shaking his head.

"Well, Ryan...looks like you're all alone." Ryan walked over to his car, resting his elbow on the hood as he looked around. "Alex and Steph ran off to the mansion to do whatever, so...it's only me."

"Sup bro, nice car," Fox greeted Ryan, complimenting the man's car as he and Falco came over for a little chit-chat. "I take it that you're out of town?"

"Yeah, I'm out of town - drove all the way from Haven Springs, Colorado." Now Ryan could tell his folks back home that he had a genuine conversation with a talking fox and bird. "I work as a park ranger over there."

"A park ranger, huh?" asked Falco, as he took a sudden keen interest in Ryan. It wasn't often that he encountered park rangers out in the blue. "You must be some kind of outdoorsman."

"What can I say...I'm your average rugged mountain man. I even enjoy listening to CDs of bird calls in my downtime. Really gets me in the mood."

"You may not know this, but my friend Falco and I love the great outdoors too," Fox said to Ryan as he and Falco walked over to the park ranger, before placing his hand on his shoulder. "How about the three of us go out on an excursion? Us wilderness experts?"

"I'd love to, but...I can't go." Ryan's response gave Fox and Falco all the more reason to change the park ranger's mind in a hurry. "Don't wanna leave my two friends behind."

"Forget your friends, you got us now!" Fox wrapped his arm around Ryan, trying to get the park ranger in the groove. "We'll do all sorts of fun things in the wilderness, like setting up campfires, wearing bearskins, hunting down grizzly bears..."

"...and panda bears, too!" added Falco, leading to weird stares from Fox and Ryan that the avian pilot apparently didn't understand. "Y'all hate panda bears?"

"Panda bears don't live in the pacific northwest, you goof..." As Falco took the time to realize that very fact, Fox turned his attention back to Ryan. "...so what do you say my man? You in...or you in?"

"You are both making a very pressing offer..." replied Ryan, before his mind was soon made up. "...I guess we can take a trip to the Pacific Northwest wilderness. Just for a while."

"My man!" Fox did a fist pump, as he and Falco followed Ryan to his car. Ryan and the pilots got inside the car, as Ryan turned on the ignition. Sure felt good to hear his engine up and running again.

"Fox, where are you?" Tom Nook called out to the pilot, hustling his way over to the road; by the time he showed up, Ryan had already taken off down the road and off to the brave wilderness. Tom Nook moaned in defeat, as he lowered his head.

"Need a lift?" Kapp'n asked Tom Nook as he crept up on the tanuki. A spooked Tom Nook screamed and turned around at Kapp'n, who was giggling to himself. "Works every time..."

Tom Nook: I've been meaning to give Fox some advice ever since we were in Tokyo for the Olympics. Meant to do it sooner, but my brief "investigation" into Master Hand took up most of my time, among other things. Better late than never, I suppose.

While Olimar returned home (mainly due to his nagging wife), Mario and Spyro went over to the mansion with Alex. The former was interested in seeing Alex use her emotion-reading powers and brought her to the gaming room to test it out.

"Use it on-a them," Mario whispered to Alex as he pointed at Bowser and Ryu; the Koopa King and fighter were standing near a billiards table, arguing.

"What do you mean, a hot dog is a sandwich?" Bowser shouted at Ryu, holding in his tongue so he wouldn't have to school his opponent too hard. "It doesn't have two slices of bread!"

"But a sandwich needs bread to be a sandwich, does it not?" Ryu questioned Bowser in an interrogative mood, putting him on the spot as Alex drew closer to the two bickering residents. "Is a hot dog bun not considered bread?"

"Technically it is, but it's not bread SLICES! When will you get that through your thick head?" Once she was close enough to Bowser and Ryu, Alex held out her hand to sense their emotions.

"I see nothing but red aura emitting from these two..." the young woman analyzed, as Mario and Spyro came over and watched Alex do her thing. "...but it's not as red as those quarreling taxi drivers earlier."

"That's cool, but how can-a we see this aura for ourselves?" inquired Mario as he looked around Alex, wanting to see the aura for himself. He had to make sure that Alex wasn't pulling his and Spyro's tail.

"I think only she can see the aura..." Spyro pointed to Mario, as Alex sensed a purple aura in her vicinity. She went over to the source of the purple aura and saw Yoshi using a laptop...that wasn't his.

"Hope that Coco doesn't mind me using her laptop..." said a nervous Yoshi, as he was using the laptop to check his fantasy football team. Mario and Spyro came over to Alex. "...still think I can win this week 1 matchup. Hopefully..."

"He has a purple aura around him," Alex explained to Mario and Yoshi as she took her hand away. "Which means that he has a lot of fear inside of him."

"Can you also determine-a if he's about to throw up from nervousness?" Mario asked out of curiosity, with a slight giggle; Spyro smacked his forehead.

Yoshi: In case you were wondering - no, I didn't hack into Coco's laptop. Not yet, at least. Sonic just told me the password in passing one day. You wanna know what it is? Sure! The password is... *pauses, then starts choking* ...sorry, some fly flew down my throat. Or maybe it was just dust.

"Lucina, did you enjoy your gift?" Chrom asked his daughter as he hurriedly ran inside the gaming room. He saw Lucina sitting on the couch, with Pichu keeping her company. "Never seen you enjoying it."

"Oh yeah, the gift has been fine," replied Lucina, as she was reading the latest issue of Swordsman Weekly while she stroked Pichu's back. "I sure do appreciate it, Father."

"Really? I can't tell. I haven't seen you play with your gift since!" As the conversation with Chrom and Lucina persisted, Alex ventured over and used her powers to sense the aura readings.

"It's not really a gift that you can play with, I'll say..." Confused as to what Lucina meant, Chrom furrowed his brow as he scratched his head. "...but it still meant a lot to me. So thank you."

"You're welcome...I guess." Still confused as ever, Chrom turned around and walked away as he started speaking quietly to himself. "A gift that you can't play with...hope I didn't get her the wrong thing. Or being. Or whatever it was that I found."

"The aura around him is blue..." Alex said to Mario and Spyro, who came over to the young woman as they saw Chrom leaving the gaming room. "...he must be very sad."

"What about-a her?" Mario asked Alex as he pointed at Lucina, who kept reading her magazine. Alex pulled her hand closer to Lucina, seeing that her aura was different from Chrom's.

"Her aura is yellow, which means that she's in a very happy mood. It's almost depressing how her aura contrasts from her dad's..."

"There has to be a reason-a why Chrom is sad, while Lucina isn't," stated Mario, as he wanted to get down to the bottom of things. Wasn't gonna let a supposed rift between a man and his daughter happen under his watch.

"Eh, it's something worth looking into. I'd say the dad is the more pressing issue at the moment; we should see what's going on with him."

"Well, I didn't plan on stalking other people today..." Spyro remarked with a sigh, before seeing that Mario and Alex had already left him. "...but it's better than being bothered by Poochy, I suppose." The purple dragon followed Mario and Alex out of the gaming room, now on the hunt for Chrom.

Meanwhile, Metal Sonic was on the hunt to kill Sonic, and he had departed from Eggman's lair without giving a warning. Therefore, Eggman sent out Orbot and Cubot to search for Metal Sonic's whereabouts. Using a tracking device, Orbot traced Metal Sonic's current location to E. Gadd's mansion.

"According to my radar, this is Professor E. Gadd's mansion," Orbot informed Cubot after the two robots arrived at the mansion. Cubot had his back turned away from the mansion, hands over his head as he shivered in fear. "What is wrong with you?"

"Th-This mansion might be haunted..." fretted Cubot, well-aware of E. Gadd's experience with ghosts. Eggman had told him and Orbot all kinds of stories - some of which were fake. "...some ghost might eat us alive!"

"It's daytime, you nincompoop - no honest ghost would come out during this time of day!" Unless that ghost was King Boo, that is. "Even if one did appear, it wouldn't have the appetite for..."

Orbot would stop speaking, as he turned around and gasped when he saw a hole in the wall of E. Gadd's mansion. He and Cubot went over to said hole to inspect the damage.

"Who do ya think could've done this?" Cubot asked Orbot, who looked at his fellow robot companion as if he was born yesterday. "Gonna bet ten dollars that it was some girl scouts."

Inside E. Gadd's mansion, Sonic was hanging out with Yacker and a few of the Wisps in a separate room, while Tails was using his trusty Miles Electric to try and reach Mother Wisp. Metal Sonic poked his head inside the room, keeping his eyes peeled on Sonic.

"Don't you two have a meeting today?" Sonic asked Kat and Ana, who were also in the room along with the ninja pals. Ninjara was noticeably absent.

"We can afford to skip out on it, no biggie," replied Ana as she gave out a shrug, knowing how terribly lax Wario was with attending meetings. He was like the anti-Master Hand, in a way.

"Yeah, Ashley can just fill us in on what we missed," added Kat, as she was resting her head on a green Wisp. One that felt soft like a pillow. "Wario won't be too mad about our absence..."

"If only there was a way to get rid of the others," Metal Sonic quietly discussed with plans, as he was formulating his murder plot in his head. "I can't afford any distractions this time around."

Metal Sonic: It was wrong for me to confront Sonic the way that I did when he had company around him. That orange furball would've been easy picking, but Knuckles and that muscular friend of his could've been my only resistance. If I want my plot to kill Sonic to go well, then it must be only me and him, and no one else...

"Move out of my way," Ninjara commanded Metal Sonic as he showed up, grumpily holding a glass of apple juice. The poor ninja looked like he was almost done with life. "I have to deliver this stupid glass of..."

"Worthless peon, do you have any idea who I am?" Metal Sonic questioned Ninjara, letting him know who was boss around here. Ninjara didn't care to know. "I am Metal Sonic, Dr. Eggman's finest creation!"

"I know who you are, I'm not stupid...now move. Before Yuffie starts her complaining..." Ninjara tried to enter the room, but Metal Sonic stopped him. "...what is it now?"

"You look like a very worthy accomplice..." Metal Sonic took the time to analyze Ninjara, getting a top-down look at the ninja. "...how would you like to assist me in killing Sonic?"

"He does get on my nerves a lot..." While Metal Sonic was annoying him right now, Ninjara found Sonic to be on a whole other level of annoying and wanted it to end. "...sure, I'm game."

"Excellent. Would've gone about this alone, but having a sidekick should raise my chances for success. Before I leave this wretched mansion, Sonic will finally be a dead man..."

"Ninjara, where's my drink?!" Yuffie shouted from outside the room, causing Ninjara's ears to sting ever so slightly. "If he sneaked his way outta here, he's gonna be in so much trouble..."

"We'll discuss later," Ninjara said to Metal Sonic, entering the room so that Yuffie would stop her complaining. Left in a satisfied mood, Metal Sonic walked away, hoping to speak with Ninjara soon.

The last of Wario's employees to arrive at the mansion for the meeting were Master Mantis and his protege, Young Cricket. The duo was heading down the hallway to the ballroom, where the meeting would be held.

"Wonder if there will be any spaghetti served," Young Cricket said to Master Mantis, reminiscing over the spaghetti he enjoyed at the last employee meeting. "That spaghetti we had last time sure was delicious!"

"Best not to have too high expectations," Master Mantis reminded his protege, as the ballroom was in his and Young Cricket's sights. "The higher expectations you have, the more likely you are to set yourself up for failure!"

Young Cricket and Master Mantis arrived at the ballroom, where to their surprise they saw Joker, Pit, Kirby, and Incineroar present. The four were standing in front of carts of ice cream of different flavors.

"Is that ice cream?!" exclaimed Young Cricket, doing his best to hold in all of his excitement as he put his hands on his head. "This is even better than spaghetti!"

"And it was all made by yours truly!" Popo said to Young Cricket and Master Mantis as he appeared, while Young Cricket checked out all the flavors. "Mechanica helped too, I guess..."

"So many different flavors! Vanilla, chocolate, butter pecan, and even birthday cake!" Young Cricket felt like a kid at the ice cream store, seeing so many ice cream flavors on display. "And even peanut butter..."

"We'll have some ice cream later," Master Mantis said to Young Cricket, grabbing his protege and pulling him away from the ice cream carts. "We have some catching up to do with our fellow employees!"

Popo: Most of my ice cream that Mechanica's ice cream maker had to be salvaged after those annoying Wisps went ham. Dante's van still isn't fixed yet, so I'm letting Joker and his friends serve the remaining ice cream to Wario's employees, as a part of catering. Then once the van's out of the shop, it's back to square one...

Joker: I'm not just serving Popo's ice cream as a favor for Wario - I'm also doing it to teach Popo a bit of a lesson. You could also say that it doubles as Popo's punishment, after that whole purple Wisp debacle. Ice cream is simply too expensive to throw out anyway.

"I must say, serving ice cream was a genius idea!" said Dr. Crygor, in a conversation with Wario and 18-Volt, as he and the few other WarioWare employees were chilling out before the meeting began. "It's all-you-can-eat, is it?"

"Eh, help yourselves - I won't stop you from getting fat," replied Wario, as Cortex, Uka, Shantae, and Iris entered the ballroom. Only one out of those four individuals irked Wario to the point of being singled out. "Cortex, why are you here?"

"Don't mind me, I just wanted to attend the meeting and see you fail," replied Cortex as he took a seat in a folding chair, folding his arms behind his head.

"So you can learn how to fail even harder than you usually do?" Wario's retort cut in deep into Cortex, who couldn't think of a comeback fast enough as he kept his mouth shut. "Yeah, that's what I thought..."

"Hey, Wario, where is Mona?" asked Iris as she and Shantae came over to speak with the fatso. Dying to meet Mona, the former champion looked around the ballroom like an eager puppy at a dog park. "Where is she hiding?"

"Slow your roll, Mona isn't here...yet." Wario had his fingers crossed that Mona wouldn't be a no-show. "The meeting won't start until she arrives."

"But what about Kat and Ana?" Shantae asked Wario, hoping that he hadn't forgotten about the ninja twins. "Do they not work for your company?"

"Yeah, where are those girls anyway?" questioned 18-Volt, as concern about Kat and Ana began to grow. "They're usually not this late!"

"I dunno, they both died or something," shrugged Wario, showing how much he cared. He only cared for Mona. "May they both rest in peace."

Tom Nook wanted to speak with Fox so bad, and so (reluctantly) agreed to let Kapp'n take him to Fox and Falco's whereabouts in his taxi. Since Tom Nook didn't know exactly where Fox was, he had to text the pilot for his current whereabouts.

"Fox responded; said that he and Falco are in the wilderness," Tom Nook notified Kapp'n, checking his phone as Kapp'n was driving his taxi down the road. "They're with some...Ryan fellow. 'A wilderness man'..."

"Used to be a wilderness man myself," reminisced Kapp'n, reliving some vivid memories in his head as he kept his mind on the road. Or at least he tried to. "Loved every single minute of it."

"Yes, yes, that's good to hear, Kapp'n. Now can you please focus on driving? I've been in too many near-accidents to count on this ride alone..."

"One day, when my food source got dire, I had to kill a wild bobcat with my bare fists." Not a single person on earth would believe such a tale, not even Tom Nook himself. "Tore him apart from limb to limb, and ate his carcass whole."

"TMI, Kapp'n, TMI...car!" Heeding Tom Nook's shout, Kapp'n quickly swerved over as he narrowly missed an oil tanker. Close call. "That's a very interesting story nonetheless, Kapp'n."

"But that's not all - I also skinned a kangaroo alive, and drank its blood to keep myself hydrated." Couldn't Kapp'n have just drunk water from a pond instead? "Right in front of its entire family."

"Wait, you drank a kangaroo's blood? After skinning it alive? Are those things even legal in Australia? Where you even in Australia to begin with?!"

"No...it was in Great Britain. Close to the Scottish border, I'll say." That was the definite final straw for Tom Nook, as the tanuki kept his mouth shut for good. But Kapp'n wouldn't do the same. "Let me tell you about this one time I saved a lion from a bonsai tree..."

Lloyd was annoying Link and Cloud about having Samus removed from the sauna, and even requested that Link outright banned Samus from the sauna altogether. Wanting Lloyd's annoyance to end, Link ultimately decided to grant the swordsman's wish.

"Just ask her kindly to leave the sauna," Cloud said to Link as he accompanied the Hylian to the sauna. He was supposed to provide backup just in case Link lost his cool or fumbled his swords.

"Got it..." Link nodded his head, as he and Cloud entered the sauna, their eyes set upon Samus. The two friends went over to Samus, who along with Pikachu gave Link and Cloud their attention.

"Back so soon, huh?" Samus asked Link and Cloud, knowing from the jump what brought the swordsman duo back to the sauna. "Pikachu and I were just having a great conversation..."

"Samus Aran, as the man of the mansion, I ask that you leave the sauna forever," Link commanded the bounty hunter, who refused to move a single inch. She wasn't going to let someone tell her to leave. "I am asking you nicely."

"And what if I don't leave, what would you do then?" Samus was testing Link, seeing how many of his buttons she could push.

"Then I'll have no choice but to ban you from the sauna outright. We can either do this the easy way...or the hard way."

"Weird, I thought that only Master Hand had the power to ban people. Bet you didn't even talk it out with him."

"You may be right, but if you don't leave peacefully, then I'll have Master Hand to deal with you. Your choice, Samus."

"This is so sad..." Samus shook her head at Link, as she giggled at the Hylian. "...look at you, Link. Lloyd's got you doing his bidding."

"I-I'm not doing his bidding. I'm only doing this so he'll shut up and leave me and Cloud alone." Link was beginning to falter, as evidenced by his stammer.

"Be cool..." Cloud quietly encouraged Link, who was withholding a lot of anger. Link snapping on Samus would easily be a worst-case scenario.

"But you can still show some backbone, you know," Samus stated to Link, who was tightening his fists to control his growing temper. "You're the man of the mansion, for crying out loud!"

"I know, I'm just...I'm only looking out for Lloyd," stated Link, finding the right words to say, as Samus smirked in response. "He cares a lot about this sauna."

"Maybe Eggman was right about what he told me...you really do let Zelda boss you around. I mean, I see Lloyd already taking the same approach..."

"Link?" Cloud warily asked his friend out of caution, knowing that Samus had brought Link to his boiling point. Just like in the last episode, there was a vein popping in Link's forehead, meaning that the Hylian was ticked.

"I'll deal with you later..." Link vowed to Samus, saving himself from bursting into a rage as he angrily marched out of the sauna. Cloud chased after Link, as Kazuya watched along with Banjo and the Inklings.

"...yeah, I think that we should totally intervene right about now," the male Inkling suggested to Kazuya, worried about the potential fireworks that would spark after Link's exchange with Samus.

"Now is not the best time to step in," Kazuya advised the male Inkling, and the others as well, while he maintained a cool head. "Give it some time..."

Mario, Spyro, and Alex found Chrom in his room, sitting on his bed as he was speaking with his wife, Raven. The three were peeking through the doorway, as they saw Raven having a comforting hand on Chrom's back.

"...I don't think she liked the gift," Chrom discussed with Raven, before shaking his head in dismay. "Could tell just by her body language."

"What kind of gift was it?" asked Raven, as Alex discreetly stuck her hand through the doorway. "How much did it even cost?"

"It was priceless, to say the least; it was a blue alien creature that I found alone in the foyer. It was too adorable for me to resist!"

"Blue alien creature...?" Raven furrowed her brow, as she couldn't help but feel that the description provided felt oddly familiar. "Did it have multiple eyes?"

"Yes, three eyes to be exact! I stuffed him inside a gift box and delivered it to Lucina. Now I don't know if Lucina appreciated her new friend or not."

"Chrom, I don't mean to alarm you or anything but...that alien creature you speak of is gone." That was hard for Chrom to believe, as he did a double-take. "He left along with his other alien friends. Saw it with my own eyes."

"So does that mean I didn't actually give Lucina that little alien guy? I gave her nothing?!" Chrom was left in shambles, as he buried his face in his hands. "No wonder she reacted the way she did..."

"I don't think that's the reason, sweetie..." Raven patted Chrom on her back, as Alex extended her hand far into Chrom's room. Alex got an aura reading from both Chrom and Raven, before retracting her hand seconds afterward.

"The aura is more intense than it was before," Alex whispered to Mario and Spyro, as she felt some very bad vibes washing over Chrom. "His daughter must be making him so sad...not even his wife can cheer him up!"

"Is there a way that you could, I dunno, manipulate-a Chrom's emotions?" Mario asked Alex, as Spyro gave the plumber a questionable look. Little did Spyro know that Mario's question had some actual merit to it.

"I would, but that would require me to enter the room. Blowing our cover wouldn't exactly be too ideal." But it sounded ideal to Mario.

"Well, that's a chance-a I'm willing to take!" Mario tried to open the door wide open, but Alex would stop him. "No, we must go in-a side!"

"But we can't just barge in unannounced! And besides, they're having a moment. We should just leave them alone until they're done..."

"Screw-a that, Chrom deserves-a to be happy. You're the only person around-a who can do that!" Mario tried to push past Alex, but Alex was holding her own.

"Can you two keep it down, you're making too much noise," Spyro said to Mario and Alex, as the latter was trying to prevent the former's progress. "This is why I should've gone back home..."

With enough oomph, Mario pushed through as he and Alex went through the door and into Chrom's room. Chrom and Raven both got up, as they saw Mario and Alex lying on the bedroom floor.

"M-Mario? Why are you here?" Chrom asked the plumber, who along with Alex got up and dusted himself off. "You weren't eavesdropping on us, were you?"

"And who's your new friend?" asked Raven, as she was staring at Alex. Alex had to check the headphones around her neck to make sure that they weren't damaged.

"Better be glad my headphones weren't broken..." Alex frowned at Mario, while Spyro quietly entered the bedroom without bringing much attention to himself. "...they aren't cheap, you know."

"Chrom, Raven...I'd like for you to meet Alex Chen," Mario introduced the couple to Alex, who gave a simple smile and wave. "She's from Radiator Springs, Colorado!"

"Haven Springs, Colorado," Alex corrected Mario, having no clue as to how Mario managed to screw up the town name. Must have watched a lot of Cars movies with his family.

"...yeah, same-a thing. Anyway, Alex heard about-a your dilemma, Chrom, and she wanted to help you. Because she's a therapist!"

"Isn't she supposed to be a..." Spyro was about to ask Mario, who quickly covered the purple dragon's mouth. Spyro was one second away from spilling a secret Alex didn't want to be shared.

"I know she may not look-a as much, but she's an excellent therapist. If you wanna be on the same-a page as Lucina, Chrom, then you must trust-a Alex."

"Should I trust her?" Chrom asked Raven, looking for a second opinion from his wife - as he did with most things. Raven was Chrom's go-to gal for the most important (and least important) questions in life.

"She seems trustworthy enough to me," shrugged Raven, as she saw nothing wrong with Alex - thought of her as a sweet young woman. "I'd say go for it!"

Raven: Lord knows how much I try to keep Chrom in line. Sometimes I feel like a therapist myself trying to solve all his problems! The ladies from the war have NO idea what I have to go through.

"Alright Chrom, all I need for you to do is to stay still," Alex said to the prince, as she held out her hand towards him. "This won't hurt a bit..." Chrom, who clearly had no idea what was going on, eyed around his room.

"Am I...supposed to do something on my end?" Chrom asked Alex, with Raven backing away so that she wouldn't be in Alex's way. "Do I have to think?"

"Don't think...just feel," Mario said to Chrom in a soothing tone, sounding like some kind of new-age hippie. Which totally didn't make Chrom feel any better.

Thanks to his intellect, and some new technology he crafted, E. Gadd was able to repair Luigi's Poltergust 3000. He brought Luigi to his room, where he revealed the new and improved Poltergust to the plumber.

"It's...beautiful," Luigi proudly smiled, almost shedding a tear as he kissed his Poltergust like it was a newborn baby. E. Gadd gave the plumber a judging look. "Thank you so much, professor!"

"You're welcome, but I wouldn't kiss the Poltergust if I were you," E. Gadd advised Luigi, who looked at the professor curiously. "I might've sneezed on it a few times during its repair..."

"Blegh!" grimaced Luigi as he started hacking; E. Gadd's hygiene sometimes wasn't the best, which only made Luigi even more grossed out. "Thanks-a for nothing, E. Gadd..." Wiping his mouth off, Luigi left E. Gadd's room with the Poltergust.

"Hey, Luigi! Got your Poltergust fixed?" asked Sonic, the first person that Luigi ran into when he exited E. Gadd's room. Yacker was accompanying Sonic.

"Has some germs-a all over it, but yes, it's fixed." Luigi looked lovingly at his Poltergust, and he couldn't wait to use his trusty vacuum again. "Now I can clean-a out my man cave, just in time for game-a day!"

"Luigi, there's a bunch of rogue Wisps that escaped this mansion," Ninjara informed the green plumber as he dashed down the hallway, running at the speed of sound. Or somewhere close to it. "Saw them gathered in the backyard."

"Oh snap, that's not good!" exclaimed Sonic, as he and Yacker were worried; didn't want to go through the events of the last episode again. "Should I come too, or what?"

"The Poltergust 3000 is fixed, isn't it? I don't think your involvement will be necessary, Sonic. Luigi's got it covered."

"Don't know why you're putting words-a in my mouth," Luigi said to Ninjara, arming himself with his Poltergust as he felt like the man once again. "...but I'll get the job-a done regardless." The plumber ran down the hallway, wasting the opportunity to let out a battle cry.

"Look at that Luigi go..." Sonic smiled proudly as he watched Luigi run down the hallway - and almost trip along the way. Sonic laughed. "...ha! Wish I got that on camera."

"Okay, Metal Sonic, he's all yours," Ninjara called out, as Sonic was both confused and concerned when Ninjara uttered Metal Sonic's name. Sonic took a few steps back, looking at Ninjara like he was crazy...

...before he was suddenly ambushed by Metal Sonic. Sonic and Metal Sonic were in a struggle with one another, each of them having a hold of the other's hands as they skidded down the hallway.

"You may have been spared last week, Sonic..." Metal Sonic said to the hedgehog, using his strength to overpower his target. "...but this time around, you won't be so lucky!"

"That's what you think!" responded Sonic as he tried to push back against Metal Sonic. The hedgehog would look towards Yacker. "Yacker, go get some help!" Yacker saluted Sonic, as he flew off.

"Ninjara, after him!" Metal Sonic commanded the ninja, who made chase after Yacker. Seeing that Metal Sonic and Ninjara were working together, Sonic glared down at Metal Sonic.

"So you asked Ninjara to give you a hand...I thought you were better than that, Metal Sonic! Thought Ninjara was better than that, too!"

"Look around, Sonic...there's nobody around but us." Indeed, there was nobody present within the vicinity...just as Metal Sonic preferred. "For that reason, I'll be able to kill you without any..."

"Oh dear, I forgot to check on my microwaved popcorn!" squealed E. Gadd as he exited his room, only to see Sonic and Metal Sonic getting physical in the hallway. The professor was staring at first, and then cleaned his glasses to make sure that he wasn't seeing things.

"Sup," Sonic greeted E. Gadd, as he and Metal Sonic were looking at the professor. With Metal Sonic momentarily distracted, Sonic kicked the robot in the stomach, before breaking free and speeding away.

"Wretched hedgehog! Get back here!" Metal Sonic shouted as he chased after Sonic. E. Gadd just stood there, perplexed by what just went down.

E. Gadd: *adjusts glasses* ...was that a fusion dance I almost witnessed, between Sonic and Metal Sonic? Knew my conscience told me to stop reading so much Sonic fanfiction...

Elsewhere in the mansion, Tails was trying to get a reading from Mother Wisp, so that the Wisps could return home. Looking over the yellow fox's shoulder were Zelda and Aku.

"Any progress yet?" Aku asked Tails, who was tapping away on his Miles Electric to make something happen. And soon enough, a eureka moment occurred.

"Yes! I finally made contact with Mother Wisp," cheered Tails, holding in his excitement as he kept his mind focused on the task at hand. "All I have to do now is send her a message."

"Better send it soon," Zelda encouraged Tails, who was about to start a message. Soon Yacker came inside the room, and Ninjara came in soon after. "I think Yacker wants to speak with you, Tails."

"What is it, buddy?" Tails held the Miles Electric up to Yacker, who started speaking as the Miles Electric translated the Wisp's speech. "Ninjara is conspiring with Metal Sonic to have Sonic killed?!"

"Wait, it's not what you think!" Ninjara tried to plead his innocence to Tails and company, who were now looking at him like he was public enemy number one. "Let me explain!"

"I have to admit, Ninjara, that is pretty low of you..." Zelda scolded the ninja as she folded his arms, looking very disappointed. She was bound to punish Ninjara later, once everyone returned to the mansion. "...killing Sonic, really?"

"Whoever said that I was killing Sonic?" With a response like that, Tails and company softened on Ninjara. Yacker included. "How about I just explain myself..."

A cameraman or two managed to catch up with Fox, Falco, and Ryan, as they found the trio hanging out in the Seattle wilderness. They were chilling in front of a lake, near Ryan's car.

"Isn't this the life, boys?" Ryan asked Fox and Falco, sitting on the hood of his car as he took out a can of beer and cracked it open. "Nothing but nature all around us..."

"Do you ever listen to anything other than bird calls?" Falco asked Ryan, as he and Falco were forced to listen to the bird calls CD playing from Ryan's car. Ryan remained silent. "You must have terrible taste in music."

"Says the guy who says the only rap he ever listens to is from SoundCloud," snorted Fox, as Falco looked ready to throw some hands with the pilot. Before Ryan could intervene, he saw something emerging from the water.

"Uh...guys?" the park ranger alerted Fox and Falco as he pointed at the strange figure in the lake. Feeling scared, Fox and Falco huddled together in fear.

"Watch this thing be a baby Loch Ness monster or something..." Falco said to Fox, while Ryan shook his head at how afraid the pilots were. Soon the figure fully emerged from the lake...revealing himself to be Kapp'n.

"Oh crap it's Kapp'n, that's even worse!" panicked Fox, as Kapp'n stepped out of the water and walked towards the pilots. Fox and Falco screamed as they turned around and ran away...only to run into Tom Nook.

"Hello, boys - I've finally found you," Tom Nook greeted the pilots, who screamed once more as they turned back around and ran away, only to run into Kapp'n and trip on the ground.

"Is it just me, or have we been followed?" Ryan asked the pilots, who were both backing away from Kapp'n. Who knew that a sea turtle could strike so much fear in someone?

"'Followed' isn't the right word to describe it," Tom Nook informed Ryan, as the pilots let go of their fear of Kapp'n and stood back up. "Kapp'n and I have been tracking Fox and Falco down for a good while."

Tom Nook: Mount Rainer National Park...yes, that's where Fox and Falco have been all along. Apparently, that's also the place where Kapp'n claimed to have helped a sasquatch give birth.

"What's good, Tom Nook, you wanted to be a fourth wheel?" Fox asked the tanuki, with Kapp'n wondering why the pilot didn't ask him if he wanted to be a fifth wheel. "Could've just asked, you know!"

"I had no interest in going into the wilderness," confessed Tom Nook; that one trip he took back in episode 222 was enough for him. "I just wanted to see if you were luring your friend into signing with Star Records."

"Star Records? As in like, a record company?" inquired Ryan, before he looked at Fox and Falco. "So you guys aren't 'wilderness experts', as you claimed?"

"Far from it. I'd say they're more akin to business CEOs. Not that there's anything wrong with that." Thanks to Tom Nook, Ryan now saw Fox and Falco in a different light - but not in a negative way.

"Look, man, Falco and I weren't wasting your time," Fox cleared things up with Ryan, showing that he appreciated the time he had with the park ranger. "We just needed a break, that's all."

"I feel ya; I kinda needed a break, too," admitted Ryan, able to see where Fox and Falco were coming from - especially since they ran a record label together. "That's why my friends and I drove up here from Colorado!"

"Your friends might be missing you," Tom Nook said to Ryan, who began to think about Alex and Steph and wondered if they were both feeling homesick.

"You're right! Bet they're probably wondering where my car is." Ryan hopped off of his car and opened the hood, checking to see that his engine was still working. While he did that, Tom Nook went over to Fox.

"We never finished that conversation we had back in Japan," Tom Nook said to Fox, as Falco hopped in on the conversation just because. Kapp'n as well. "You're not signing folks to Star Records after being their friend, are you?"

"Nope, Falco and I learned our lesson," replied Fox, as Falco nodded his head in confirmation. Kapp'n, not knowing why he even inserted himself in the conversation, just scratched his head. "Someone else had to teach it for us."

"That's good. Hopefully, you won't be so eager to sign any more talent. You have enough talent at Star Records as it is...use them!"

"Engine's still running smooth," Ryan notified Fox and Falco after he started up his car and got it running. "Ready to head back, fellas?"

"You both better get on your way," Tom Nook said to the pilots, as he and Kapp'n both left the premises. "I will be doing the same...poor me..."

"Wanna hear the story of how I saved a horde of giraffes from an avalanche?" Kapp'n asked Tom Nook, who moaned in despair as Fox and Falco hopped inside Ryan's car. "It's my best wilderness story yet!"

Metal Sonic chased Sonic throughout E. Gadd's mansion, and soon he had the hedgehog cornered in the foyer. Sonic rushed to the front door, but Metal Sonic was one step ahead as he reached the door before him.

"Think you could escape so easily, hedgehog?" Metal Sonic asked as he stalked after his prey, making him step away. The robot had been waiting for this moment his entire life. "This is where you will meet your end..."

"...at E. Gadd's mansion, really?" questioned Sonic, believing that the location made his death feel somewhat anti-climatic. "Couldn't have picked a better place to kill me?"

"Beggars can't be choosers, you know. You will be dead either way, so the location is irrelevant." Metal Sonic held up his hand, ready to fire a plasma beam. "Any last words?"

"Can I at least call Amy? Gotta let her know what's going on." Sonic wasn't taking his impending death as seriously as Metal Sonic wanted, much to the robot's chagrin. "Hope it doesn't go to voicemail."

"Forget that hedgehog! This is where you die, Sonic." Metal Sonic charged up energy in his hand, as he was ready to fire. "Prepare to meet your..."

"Metal Sonic! You're still alive!" a certain robot shouted, as Metal Sonic stopped charging up energy and put his hand down. Cubot showed up along with Orbot, and the robot lackeys' presence made Metal Sonic groan.

"Why would Metal Sonic not be alive, you buffoon?" Orbot asked Cubot, who was happy to see that Metal Sonic was in one piece. "Who would've possibly killed him?"

"The girl scouts that made the hole outside." Cubot was convinced that the girl scouts were eviler than Metal Sonic, as Orbot facepalmed. "Metal Sonic probably killed them all. Such a good fella!"

Orbot: Ever had that one friend, who oftentimes makes you question your very existence? Cubot is that friend.

"Stay out of my way, you two; I'm finally about to kill Sonic," Metal Sonic informed Orbot and Cubot, who were both cheering and whistling for their fellow robot companion. "I don't need your sucking up, either."

"So this is how it really ends, huh..." said Sonic, almost ready to accept his fate; he wanted to call Amy, but he knew that Metal Sonic wouldn't give him the time to do it. "...to think Ninjara played a part in this, too."

"Yes, Ninjara has been a huge help. Maybe he was a worthy sidekick, after all." Metal Charged held his hand back up, charging up energy once again. "If he were right now, I would thank him for..."

Metal Sonic wouldn't get to finish his sentence, as a light green shuriken and a few smaller shurikens were thrown at his hand. Wincing in pain, Metal Sonic grabbed his hand as Ninjara arrived along with the ninja pals.

"What?! You betrayed me!" Metal Sonic hissed at Ninjara as he held his hand in pain, while Orbot and Cubot came over to inspect any wounds. "How could you do this to me?"

"Got a confession...I never really wanted Sonic dead in the first place," Ninjara confessed to Metal Sonic, who felt even more betrayed now. "I only agreed to help you if it meant keeping myself away from the ninja creeps."

"Yet you couldn't keep away from us now," stated Sheik, as Ninjara grumbled; no matter what he did, Ninjara always ended up working with the ninja pals no matter what. "Guess you can't ever win, can you?"

"Grrr...you ruined my golden opportunity," growled Metal Sonic, directing most of his vitriol towards Ninjara rather than the ninja pals. "Now I know better than to trust anyone but myself..."

"Your hand appears severely damaged," Orbot informed Metal Sonic after inspecting the robot's hand, seeing that its function capability wasn't up to par. "Let's head back to Eggman's lair, so you can get patched up."

"I'll be back for you, Sonic...just you wait and see!" Metal Sonic vowed to the hedgehog, as Orobt and Cubot escorted him out of E. Gadd's mansion. No point in him destroying Sonic if he wasn't at 100 percent.

"Keep on trying, bud," responded Sonic, watching as Eggman's robots left E. Gadd's mansion. Once the robots were gone, Sonic turned his attention to Ninjara and the ninja pals. "Thanks for the save, you guys!"

"Really, you should be thanking Ninjara," Sheik said to Sonic, as Ninjara frowned and looked away so he wouldn't be acknowledged. "Nice to know that he was secretly playing double agent."

"Now will you join our crew?" Yuffie eagerly asked Ninjara, who chose not to answer the question as he darted down the hallway. "Aw, don't be like that Ninjara!"

"Leave him alone for now, Yuffie. There will always be next time. Always next time..."

The WarioWare employees meeting had yet to start, as Wario was still waiting for all of his employees to show up. More importantly, he was waiting on Mona. While the fatso was waiting, the others were helping themselves to some ice cream.

"I want some vanilla! And some chocolate!" 9-Volt said to his mom, 5-Volt, who was fixing some ice cream for her son. "Don't forget the strawberry too!"

"All you had to do was ask for Neopolitan, sweetie," 5-Volt smiled at her son, as she finished fixing the bowl of ice cream. Before she could walk away, 5-Volt was stopped by Popo, who held his hand out.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Popo asked 5-Volt, who furrowed her brow as she looked at the ice cream in her hands. Perhaps she was missing a spoon...but she already had one in her hand!

"Popo, once again...no one is paying a single penny," Joker reminded the Ice Climber, who backed down in a hurry. Popo was letting Wario's employees eat his ice cream for free, and it ate away at his soul.

"Hehe, I keep on forgetting! You're free to go, ma'am." So Popo allowed 5-Volt and 9-Volt to leave, and he took a deep breath after the mother and son left.

Popo: First time in years I gave away ice cream for free...who knew that it would be so hard?

"Where on earth is that Mona?!" wondered Wario as he glanced at the clock in the ballroom, not caring if Kat and Ana never showed up. "She can't keep me waiting like this!"

"She's probably over you," Cortex smirked at Wario, who wanted to give the evil genius a black eye. Cortex was asking for one for three years now. "Maybe now you'll move on from high school girls!"

"Mona...is not...in high school anymore!" Wario boomed, unleashing his unbridled fury upon Cortex. Instead of backing down like he usually would, Cortex kept on smirking away. "When will you get that through your thick head?"

"Aw, don't let Cortex get under your skin like that," Shantae assured Wario, stepping in front of the fatso so he wouldn't put his hands on Cortex. "Who knows - Mona might even show up right now!"

"Gotta admit, this mansion has some pretty rad arcade games," remarked Steph, as she and a certain admirer of Wario's entered the ballroom. Wario's face brightened up after he saw Mona, while Cortex's smirk faded away. Iris should probably be a psychic-type trainer, from now on.

"They sure do a lot of upkeep in that arcade room," Mona discussed with Steph, as Wario came running to the young woman. Ran up to her like he was the Flash - it was quite a sight to see.

"Mona! Oh, how I missed you..." Wario said to the young woman, taking her hand and kissing it. Mona was so flattered. "...the meeting just wouldn't have been the same without you!"

"Missed you too, Wario," smiled Mona, before noticing that Steph was giving her a judging look. "He's not that bad of a guy, Steph. Loosen up a bit!"

"You let him kiss your hand...?" Steph asked Mona, hoping that the young woman would disinfect her hand later. Twice for good measure. "Gross..."

"Wario, this is Steph Gingrich. She majored in video game design in college!" Mona would introduce Wario to Steph, and Steph made extra sure to keep her hands away from the fatso.

"You say that like you want me to hire her or something." Even if an offer was presented, Steph wouldn't sign with WarioWare Inc. in a million years. As long as Wario was around. "Don't think I have enough money in our budget to..."

"Out of the way!" shouted Iris as she ran over to greet Mona, knocking Wario to the floor in the process. The former champion was all smiles, as she was face-to-face with Mona. "Hi I'm Iris I'm I heard that you like designing dresses, I like designing dresses too!"

"Easy there, tiger!" Shantae soothed down Iris, putting her hands on the former champion's shoulders to cool her down. "Let's take a deep breath..."

"Someone sure is eager to see me," smiled Mona; Steph began to think that she was surrounded by weirdos. "Wario, are these some of your friends?"

"The one with the ponytail isn't, but the other chick is," responded Wario, his voice muffled by the floor. Too lazy to get up. "Her name is Shantae..."

"...and her hips do not lie!" Cortex would finish for Wario, leading to weird looks from everyone nearby. "What's with those looks? It's the truth!"

Steph: ...I'm really starting to miss Haven Springs.

Once he got over his temper, Link returned to the sauna along with Cloud. But the Hylian didn't plan on dealing with Samus a second time...instead, he had an announcement to make.

"Attention everyone, I have an announcement to make," announced Link as he got the attention of everyone in the sauna, including Samus. "From this day forward, the sauna will be closed."

"Closed?! What?" shouted Banjo, as there were a bunch of people speaking out. Pikachu looked up at Samus, who eyed around as she found herself to blame.

"For the record, I tried talking Link out of it," Cloud announced to the bickering crowd, absolving himself from any blame for the decision Link had made. "Didn't work."

"I'm hearing a lot of crowd noise," said Lloyd as he showed up at his sauna, hearing all the commotion from down the hallway. "Did someone accidentally drop their towel?"

"Samus refused to leave the sauna forever," Link explained the situation to Lloyd, who hoped that the Hylian got the job done. "So I decided to have the sauna closed from now on."

"Ha! Take that, Samus!" Lloyd pointed at Samus, and once the words were registered in his mind, he looked at Link out of disbelief. "Wait, what?"

"Spoke with Master Hand about it, and he approved of my decision. I'm so sorry, Lloyd." Link then directed his attention to everyone else in the sauna. "Everyone, out! You too, Samus!"

"But it wasn't supposed to end like this..." Defeated, Lloyd looked like he was on the brink of despair as Link left the sauna. Cloud, however, stayed behind.

"Between you and me...this was a very emotional decision on Link's part," the swordsman quietly told Lloyd, before he left the sauna too. Lloyd's despair turned into anger, as he turned towards Samus and frowned.

"This is all your fault..." Lloyd pointed accusingly at Samus, before running out of the sauna while holding back tears. Samus kept her lips pursed, while Colette comforted the bounty hunter by patting her on her back.

"I know that it wasn't your fault," Colette said to Samus, letting her know that she had no reason to feel guilty. What a good friend Colette was...

"This was not the result that I imagined playing out..." Kazuya said to Banjo and the Inklings, left shocked while everyone else prepared to leave the sauna. "...hopefully cooler heads will prevail later on."

Chrom had a, erm, "therapy session" with Alex, and now the prince was confident enough to speak with Lucina again. So he returned to the gaming room, with Mario, Spyro, and Alex accompanying him there.

"You got this!" Alex whispered encouraging words to Chrom, who nodded his head and took a deep breath as he made his way over to Lucina. Lucina was playing a game of darts with Mythra, who saw Chrom coming over.

"Watch out - here comes your bumbling dad," Mythra gave a heads up to Lucina, who turned and saw Chrom walking over to her. Right before she could throw the dart, too.

"What is it now, Father?" Lucina asked Chrom, who was now standing in his daughter's presence, as she lowered her hand. "I'm kind of in the middle of something here."

"First, I'd like to apologize for how I may have been acting earlier," apologized Chrom, holding himself accountable, which caught Mythra by surprise. But not Lucina. "About that gift...what exactly did you receive? Just jog my memory a bit..."

"How did you forget? You gave me this letter you wrote." Lucina dug into her pocket and pulled out the letter she got in the last episode. The one written by Joker (and proofread by Pit).

"Ah, yes, the letter! Silly me. Can you just summarize the letter for me? I somehow forgot the contents." The way Chrom was acting had Lucina think her dad was playing mind games.

"Well, you said that you held yourself accountable, and you wanted to make things up to me." As Lucina summarized the letter, Mythra took a peek. "Basically, you wanted me to give you a second chance."

"Yes, I did say those things, didn't I?" Chrom couldn't help but take credit for words he didn't even write. "So you are giving me a second chance...are you?"

"I have to admit, you have embarrassed me in the past...a lot...but, you're only human. I should know better than to fault you for it."

"I'll take that as a yes!" Chrom felt as if he achieved a small personal victory, as hearing Lucina's response made him all happy inside. And Mario, Spyro, and even Alex couldn't be any happier for the prince.

Alex: Guess you could say that my "therapy session" with Chrom worked to perfection. If what I did worked, Chrom's relationship with his daughter will be much improved.

Mythra: No way Chrom wrote that letter. That handwriting looked too decent.

"What's-a their aura looking like?" Mario asked Alex, who got a bit closer to Chrom and Lucina so she could get a more accurate reading. The results brought a smile to Alex's face.

"They're both yellow...which means they're both happy!" replied Alex, seeing this as a highly encouraging sign. "My manipulation of Chrom's emotions must have done the trick."

"Hope this means Chrom won't embarrass his daughter anymore," Spyro said to Mario, who shared the same sentiments. Leave it up to Alex...and Joker, to fix a father-daughter bond.

Mother Wisp was on her way to earth to pick up her children, and so everyone was gathered outside E. Gadd's mansion along with the Wisps. The only person that was missing, however, was Luigi.

"Come out, come-a out, wherever you are..." chanted Luigi, armed with his Poltergust as he made his way to the front of the mansion...only to be surprised when he saw the Wisps. "...oh, there-a they are."

"You spent all that time outside looking for some Wisps?" Sonic shook his head at Luigi, who sheepishly giggled as he scratched the back of his head. "Nice going, Ninjara..."

"Not my fault that he fell for it," responded Ninjara, who was keeping a very strong distance from the ninja pals. Treated those ladies (and Greninja) like they were the plague.

"Guys, I'm getting a strong reading from my Miles Electric!" announced Tails, seeing a lot of activity on his trusty device. Which only meant one thing. "Mother Wisp is coming!"

Mother Wisp came sooner than Tails and company expected, as the giant alien slowly descended to E. Gadd's mansion. As expected, the Wisps were elated to see their mother.

"Man, she is ugly..." Crunch commented on Mother Wisp's looks, only for the Wisps to turn their ire to the burly bandicoot. "...uh, ugly is the new pretty!"

"Well, Yacker, looks like this is it," Sonic said to the Wisp, who shared one last fist bump with the hedgehog. And one with Crash, who offered his fist. "Safe travels, my man!"

"Thanks for stopping by, Mother Wisp!" Tails thanked the Mother Wisp, who was surrounded by all her children, the Wisps. Yacker joined the other Wisps, as he gave one final wave to Sonic and company.

"Goodbye, my sweet children!" E. Gadd waved to the Wisps, watching as they flew up into space with Mother Wisp. Once he was done waving, E. Gadd noticed the others staring at him. "What?"

"You need a family..." Knuckles said to E. Gadd, sensing how lonely the professor was at his mansion. Dr. Wily would happily disagree with Knuckles.

Sometime after the WarioWare meeting was over in the ballroom, Iris asked Mona to help her with designing Zelda's wedding dress. Mona came through, and now she was ready to head back home.

"Thanks again with the wedding dress!" Iris thanked Mona, waving to her from the mansion porch. "Hope to see you again at Link and Zelda's wedding!"

"I hope so too - if I get an invite," Mona smiled...Link and Zelda never gave Mona an invite? That's messed up. Mona went over to where her motorcycle was parked, and she saw Alex, Steph, and Ryan about to leave.

"You're leaving too, huh?" Steph asked Mona, as she and Alex were gathered in front of Ryan's car. Ryan was inspecting the engine with Dribble and Spitz, just to be on the safe side.

"Gotta make it back home so I won't be late for my new job tomorrow!" Mona and getting a new job, name a more iconic duo. "So what did you think about that meeting?"

"I'll be honest, I dozed off three minutes in." Dozing off that quickly meant Steph would never sign with WarioWare, Inc. "Wario just seems like such a lousy boss to have."

"Mona, wait!" Wario shouted to the young woman, as he came running to her. Steph grumbled at the sight of the fatso. "I just wanted to show my appreciation for attending my meeting."

"It was no problem, Wario..." replied Mona, only for Wario to take her hand and kiss it repeatedly. Mona smiled as she blushed. "Oh my...

"She lets him kiss her hand...?" Alex asked Steph as she cringed; Steph was cringing even harder. "The blushing makes it even worse..."

Wario: Mona is no high schooler, not by a long shot. She's a strong independent woman who doesn't need any man! *pauses* Except me.

Done kissing Mona's hand, Wario said his goodbyes to Mona before heading back to the mansion. On his way back, he was stopped by Pit, Joker, and Popo.

"How did we do with the catering, Wario?" Pit asked the fatso, eager for some feedback. Any positive feedback from Wario would be huge.

"Mona liked the ice cream, so you boys did well," Wario critiqued the caterers' performance, as he continued his way to the mansion. "Two thumbs up."

"See, Popo? You made others happy without making them pay for your ice cream," Joker said to the Ice Climber, who was almost shaken from giving away so much ice cream for free. "That's one way to gain appreciation from others."

"Gain appreciation, huh?" said Popo, as he almost cracked a smile. "I'm all out of ice cream now, but...I probably did the right thing today."

Could Popo possibly turn over a new leaf? He did say that he was going back to square one. Might be hope for him yet.