"What the heck is this place?"

  Marth asked the question out loud even though there was no-one around who could possibly have heard him. This wasn't Altea, nor was it anywhere in Archanea that he had seen before. The land he was standing on now was a flat plateau of rock in the middle of a dry desert. The sky above him was filled with dark clouds, but he didn't have the same sense that it was about to rain like he might have if he was on some sort of military campaign. Instead the clouds felt oppressive, like they were there with the sole purpose of blocking the sun from reaching the ground.

  He took a few steps forwards and peered over the edge. As he had suspected, there was no easy way down - the cliff face was sheer and mostly smooth. He didn't rule out the possibility of maybe being able to climb down, but it was too much of a risk for him to do without at least looking around first.

  The plateau itself was fairly barren, with only a few boulders keeping it from being completely flat. Beyond, he could see other things on the horizon - a forest at the edge of the desert, hills far away in the distance, even a large mountain which pierced through the clouds. But even walking several laps around the edge of the plateau didn't reveal an easy path of descent.

  "I guess I'll have to risk it," he said. There was always the chance that someone could come along looking for him, but seeing that he didn't even know where he was, he didn't think anyone would be able to find him here.

  Well, this side looked the easiest to descend, though only marginally. He made sure his sword was fully secured in its sheathe, then turned away from the edge and slowly shuffled backwards.

  "You don't want to do that, mister."

  Marth whipped his head around to the source of the voice. Two small figures were standing in front of him - a young man in a dark blue coat with the hood pulled up, and a young woman dressed in a similar way, though her coat was pink. He'd never seen clothes like theirs before, and felt compelled to investigate further, but he pushed the thought from his mind.

  "Why not?" he asked. "Will something happen if I try to leave?"

  The girl shook her head. "No, nothing like that. It's just, if you try and climb down without a safety line or any other equipment, you have a good chance of fallin and hurting yourself."

  Marth frowned. "Who are you? Is this where you live?"

  "I'm Popo," the boy said.

  "And I'm Nana," added the girl.

  Then they spoke together. "And together we're the world famous ice climber duo. No peak is too high, no cliff is too steep, and no challenge is too great." The boy punctuated the tagline by pulling a strange device from one of the pockets on his coat and holding it up in front of the duo. It made a clicking sound, and a piece of paper emerged. Nana grabbed the paper and shook it a few times, then handed it to Marth.

  He was shocked. This was some kind of image of the Ice Climbers as they had been standing only minutes before. What kind of strange magic was this?

  "That's proof that you met us," Nana insisted. "You can tell all your friends about it next time you go to the renaissance fair."

  "My... what? Renaissance fair?" Marth asked. He had no idea what to make of these two.

  "Yeah. I mean, it looks like that's where you came from," Popo said. "That's why we were saying you shouldn't climb without any safety stuff. Costume wear like that may seem safe, but it's terrible for practical use."

  "No, this isn't a costume," Marth said, gesturing to his clothes and armour. "These are what I wear into battle. They definitely have practical consideration in mind, or else I need to have a serious talk with a blacksmith."

  "Yeah," Popo said, rolling his eyes. "Look, I get it, stay in character, we all like to have a good time on our weekends off. But you were lucky enough to get up here without hurting yourself, you don't want to start pushing your luck."

  "But I didn't climb up here!" Marth protested. "I just appeared here!"

  Nana and Popo shared a glance. "What a coincidence," said Nana. "So did we? Why didn't you just say so?"

  Marth looked at them, dumbfound.

  "You know now that I think about it, I don't recognise this place at all," Nana said. She pointed to the mountain that Marth had noted earlier. "That mountain doesn't exist anywhere on earth."

  Popo gasped. "So are you saying we're in another world?"

  "We might be!" Nana said, her voice increasing in volume. "You know what this means?"

  "Yes!" Popo yelled. They clasped hands and started to happily jump up and down on the spot.

  Marth raised his hand. "Sorry," he said, "but what does it mean?"

  "It means we have all new mountains to climb!" Nana squealed. "We might even be the first to reach the peak of that mountain!"

  Popo's teeth were almost gnashing with excitement. "We should get started right away!" he said. "Let's see, it looks like it's maybe a few dozen miles from here to that mountain, which means if we really step on the gas we should be there by the end of tomorrow. There's no time to waste!"

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Both of the Ice Climbers started to pull ropes and hooks out of their coat pockets. Marth was starting to think that there was some kind of infinite void in those pockets, with how much they were pulling out. He didn't really have anything to do, so he stared at them.

  Was this really another world? He didn't recognise this place either, and they weren't in their home, which meant they must be in a third location. What could have possibly brought him here? And why? Somehow, he got the feeling that he wasn't here to go climbing with these two, but what else was he supposed to be doing.

  "Hey!" Nana came up to him and handed him a strange belt with loops and buckles all over it. "Do you know how to put one of these on?"

  He was used to putting on his armour, but he couldn't even start to imagine how he was supposed to wear this contraption. He wordlessly shook his head, so Nana coached him through putting on the "climbing harness" while she explained how they would be making the descent climb.

  "We'll definitely help you get to the bottom at least," she said. "After that you can make your own way home. But no more free climbing okay? You obviously don't have the experience for places like this."

  "I didn't climb up here," he tried to say again, but Nana very clearly wasn't listening. She was having far too much fun preparing for this descent climb.

  As she was finishing her explanation, Popo came over to them. "I've finished securing the rope," he said. "We'll take it slow since we have a rookie with us, and since it's this high it could take hours. Do you think you can handle it, Ren Fair?"

  "My name is Marth," he protested, but once again it didn't seem as though either of the climbers were listening.

  "When we're on the cliff, you do what we say," Nana said. "We've done climbs like this hundreds of times, so we'll coach you through the tricky bits. Just remember the most basic rule, only one limb away from the cliff face at once. Trust your rope, it can hold a hundred of you, and we'll make sure you get safely to the ground."

  Marth found himself roped up between the two climbers. Well, if they were the experts on this then he might as well let them take the lead. Once he was on firmer ground, he would be in a better position to start working out what the hell was going on.

  Nana went over the ledge first, and coached Marth on how to follow her. Once he was out on the cliff face, it was easy to see why they had been so against him trying this on his own - the hand and footholds that he was using were far narrower than he thought, and the wind which he had barely paid attention to before now felt like it was actively trying to tear him off the rock.

  "Careful," Nana called. "There's a crack about six inches below your right foot. Just slowly move it down."

  He followed her instructions carefully, making steady progress down the side of the cliff face. Above and below him, Nana and Popo were doing work to attach and detach small hooks from the cliff face which they threaded the rope through - the rope that he became increasingly certain was for him and not them. They moved so easily on this cliff face, despite it being completely vertical, that it seemed to him like they were walking down a shallow incline.

  He had one scare, when a handhold crumbled beneath his grip and he started to fall backwards, but Popo tightened the rope between them and he hung in place for a few seconds before getting back on the wall with their encouragement. For all the excitement they had shown on the plateau, they were excellent at keeping calm during the actual climb, which went a long way towards helping him keep his nerve. Give him an army to fight any day, this was far more stressful.

  They had been going for about an hour when Popo happily announced that they had made more than half of the descent. Marth's muscles were burning from the unfamiliar exercise, which he found strange considering he could usually run or fight for hours at a time.

  "We'll take a quick break," Nana said. "Popo is going to pass you down some water, you don't want to be dehydrated up here."

  Popo lowered a canteen, which Marth drank from gladly. Even that bit of water helped his strength return. As he was handing the canteen back, he caught something out of the corner of his eye.

  "What is that?" he asked, gesturing as best he could with his shoulder.

  Popo followed his gesture, squinting against the light of the setting sun. Then his eyes widened. "Look out!" he yelled. "Nana!"

  Something slammed into the cliff face a few feet to his Nana's right. It had moved so fast that Marth hadn't been able to see it, but whatever it was had carved a deep crater into the stone. Cracks arced outwards across the cliff face, and Nana scrambled to adjust her positioning so that she wouldn't be clinging onto anything unstable.

  Marth waited until the world stopped shaking, then twisted around. A creature was approaching, floating through the air with some kind of magic. It was tall and largely humanoid, though with a head that resembled that of a cat, and a long purple tail that curled upwards behind its head.

  "That was a warning shot." Marth realised that this creature was speaking into his head somehow. Based on the expressions of Nana and Popo, he assumed they heard it as well. "The next shot will not be a warning."

  "Who are you?" Marth yelled.

  The creature turned its focus on him. "I am Mewtwo," it said. "I am the most powerful pokémon ever created. And I am here to kill you." It raised its hand, and an orb of darkness appeared within its three fingers. It threw the ball of shadow, which slammed into the cliff above Marth and the Ice Climbers.

  That was odd, Marth thought. Hadn't it said that the next shot wouldn't be a warning?

  "Ren Fair!" Popo shouted suddenly. "Press yourself against the cliff face now, as close as you can get!"

  The panic in the young man's voice made Marth not care about correcting him on his name. He did what he was told, and craned his head upwards just in time to see dozens of large rocks break away from the wall above them and begin falling in an avalanche of stone.

  Mario picked himself off the ground. All four limbs were here, that was good. Moustache still intact. Cap, however improbable, still on his head.

  He looked around. He was in the middle of a grassy plain, beneath a darkened sky. The last memories of the fight came to him all that once - that other hand, the horrifying grating voice, the falling.

  Behind him, he heard someone move, and spun around. Kirby looked up at him, his wide eyes filled with confusion.

  "Kirby!" Mario said. "Am I glad to see you."

  Kirby nodded, which Mario took to mean he felt the same way.

  "What happened?" he asked. A shrug from Kirby. It seemed that the pink creature didn't know any more than he did. Mario looked around again. No-one else seemed to be here - the other fighters must have been thrown somewhere else. If they were even alive...

  No. He wouldn't think like that.

  "Okay, Kirby," he said. "I think first of all, we need to find the others. Then we need to deal with that other hand somehow."

  Kirby nodded again. Mario felt that he was getting better at understanding the little guy.

  "So, I suppose we just pick a direction then," he said. "Any suggestions?"

  "Poyo." Kirby pointed in a direction that felt random to Mario. No, not random. There was something in that direction. There was some kind of pull of energy, ever so subtle, that was pulling him that way. He didn't even notice until Kirby pointed it out.

  "Right," he said. He took a step with the flow of energy. "Kirby, letsa go!"