"Mario!" Luigi cried, for the third time.

  This time there was something of a response, as Mario's eyelids began to flutter. They slowly opened, looking upwards without any clear focus.

  "Luigi..." Mario whispered. "Is that... you?"

  "Yeah, bro." Luigi tried to let Mario rest against his arm, so that it would be more comfortable for him. "I'm here, bro. What happened?"

  "We... made a mistake," Mario said.

  "What happened?" Luigi asked. "What did you do?"

  "No." Mario reached up and grabbed his brother by the arm. "We made a mistake... when we chose to fight the Master Hand."

  Luigi went quiet as the sound of Mario's words seemed to cut off even his ability to breathe. "Bro... what are you talking about?" he asked.

  "We thought that whatever came after the Master Hand, we would be able to fight against it," Mario said. "We were so wrong. The Crazy Hand, Luigi. Its power is beyond anything we've ever seen before."

  "But..." Luigi said. "You're alive. Surely that has to count for something."

  "Only because of Kirby," Luigi heard Fox's voice say. He turned and saw that Ness had gotten him into a sitting position. "When Crazy Hand attacked us, Kirby was able to swallow a huge portion of the attack, and because of that we didn't die." He gestured towards Kirby's prone form. Luigi realised he had never actually seen Kirby take damage before - how powerful must this attack have been if it was able to lay out Kirby like this.

  He looked down to confirm this with Mario, but his brother had passed out again. He was about to rouse him again when Ness called him over. "I need help with the others," Ness said. "I have a some healing magic, but I can't fix all of this."

  Luigi wanted to help Mario, but he realised that everyone was injured here, and started helping Ness to make everyone as comfortable as possible while the boy started healing their wounds. Luigi watched as flesh knitted itself back together and bones snapped back into place, once again in awe of the people he had met in Smash. Soon though, Ness fell to one knee with sweat soaking his forehead.

  "Sorry," he said. "I've used up most of my energy already."

  "It's fine," Luigi assured him. "It looks like they're stable, at least."

  They got everyone out of the crater and laid them out next to a small fire that they built up. They spent the next few hours using their limited first aid skills, and hoping that the chance to rest would fix everyone.

  "Was it the right choice?" Ness asked finally.

  Luigi hesitated. "I don't know. We wouldn't be here if we hadn't decided to fight against Master Hand. But we don't know where we'd be now if we'd stayed as its playthings."

  Ness nodded. "I thought once I went home everything would be okay," he said.

  Luigi furrowed his brow. "Went home?"

  "After I saved the world, I thought I could just go home and that would be the end of it. But then I got a letter, saying that someone who I once thought was a friend wanted me to find them. But before I even knew what to do with that, I got the letter that brought me here." Ness sighed. "That was why I was so determined to get the chance to go home some day. Because if I'm here, there's no way that I could ever find Porky. But, now that I see what's happened to everyone else, I'm wondering if I was selfish to choose the way that I did."

  Luigi listened to the story carefully, and only spoke when it was clear that Ness didn't have anything else to say. "I don't think it was selfish," he said. "I don't think you have the ability to be selfish, Ness. Everything that I know about you tells me that you're a good kid."

  He looked over the unconscious faces of the others. "I don't know what happened here exactly, but it seems like they're scared. If I'm honest, I don't know what I'm supposed to do with that." He looked down at his hands and saw that they were shaking. "My brother has always been the compass that I followed, even if it felt like I was just chasing his back. If this has gotten him to be scared of what's to come, and to doubt his choices, I don't know how I'm supposed to keep fighting."

  Ness didn't answer. They listened to the crackle of the fire until the sun came up.

  "Cannonball!" Popo threw off his coat while in the air, flinging himself into the river and gasping as the cold water hit his body. Marth followed him more slowly, leaving his clothes and armour by the edge of the river and carefully wading into the shallow part of the water. It really was refreshing, after being in the desert for what felt like years.

  "Do we have time for this stop?" Sheik asked, watching them both from the river bank. "I thought you were desperate to save Nana, Popo."

  Popo nodded. "I definitely am, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be stupid with it. We've been walking through a desert, so we need to rest before we start climbing the mountain. If we're exhausted, we're more likely to injure ourselves during the climb. And even if we do make it to the top, we'll be far less effective if we're all exhausted."

  "He has a point," Marth added. "On a military campaign, it's a foolish commander that marches their men longer than they can handle it. It's better we take a break now, while we have the opportunity."

  He stood up, exposing his naked body to the elements. Sheik shrieked in alarm and spun around so that he wasn't looking at them.

  "Are you okay?" Popo asked. He climbed out of the river as well.

  "Yes," Sheik said, his voice noticeably wobbly. "I just... I'm not all that comfortable with nudity."

  Popo frowned. "Sure, but we're all guys here. No need to be so modest - it's not like Nana is here with us. Come on, you should wash off as well. Don't want to be carrying that desert sweat with you."

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  "No, I..." Sheik paused, and turned back towards them, with his eyes closed. "I'll have you know that I'm well accustomed to staying in my armour for days at a time. I can handle a small amount of desert sweat. Now, as you both clean yourselves, I'll scout the area to make sure it's safe." He leapt forwards, over both of their heads, and landed on a large rock before disappearing behind it. Marth and Popo exchanged a confused glance, before returning to cleaning the grime from themselves.

  Sheik pressed himself against the rock, gasping for air. That had been... stressful. He didn't want his true identity to be revealed just yet, not when he wasn't sure if he really trusted these people.

  He looked around. This area was at the base of the large mountain, and was mostly boulders and streams, with a few trees dotted around. It made for far too many potential hiding spots, so he moved across the mountainside, looking for any sign that someone else - friend or foe - could have been here recently.

  He didn't like this world. It felt wrong to be here - the clouds that blotted out the sky felt like a rash crawling over his skin, and there was something else too - a history buried here whose desire to examine he was pushing to the back of his mind. Still, he would stay in this world as long as it was necessary to find Link. And if he knew Link at all, this mountain would probably be where he was headed.

  Sheik was about to head back to the river, and his hopefully dressed companions, when he heard a snapping sound. Something nearby had stepped on a twig - something big if his instincts were anything to go by. Even more alarming was that the sound was directly behind him.

  He turned and saw a monster filling his vision. It was some kind of ape, easily twice his size, with brown fur and a jaw that was set in a snarl. It was also, for unknown reasons, wearing a tie.

  "Hello," the ape said.

  Sheik yelled in shock and jumped backwards, pulling one of his kunai out to prepare to fight.

  The ape held up its hand. "Sorry to scare," it said. "Didn't mean to sneak up. I Donkey Kong." Sheik lowered his kunai the smallest percentage of an inch. He couldn't help but be interested in a talking gorilla - nor in the companions that were with him. On the gorilla's shoulder was a small pink creature about the size of a ball, with a curl of pink hair on top of its head. And hiding behind Donkey Kong's legs there was a green creature that resembled a dinosaur. Both of them were looking at him with curious, but not unfriendly eyes.

  "You probably confused," Donkey Kong said, walking slowly towards him. "This world called Smash -"

  "Get away from him!" Sheik turned and saw Marth and Popo running towards them, sword and hammer raised respectively. And, for some reason, they were both still in their pants and nothing else.

  "Wait!" he tried to say, but neither one of them were listening. Popo jumped into the air and came down on Donkey Kong, swinging his hammer. Donkey Kong shrugged the pink thing off his shoulders and raised his hands to block the blow - he did so, but the force of it pushed his feet an inch or so into the ground.

  Marth ran at the pink thing, and started swinging his sword at it. It danced away from him, effortlessly dodging Marth's practiced blows. Sheik realised how it was dodging so effectively - it was letting the wing that came off the sword push it aside. Marth drew his arm back for a stab that might have hit the creature anyway, before he gave a yelp of surprise. Sheik saw that the dinosaur thing had attached its tongue to Marth's back, and with one swift motion pulled him into its mouth.

  Sheik decided he couldn't stay idle any longer. He ran forwards, dodging beneath a swing of Donkey Kong's giant fists, and sunk his foot into the dinosaur's chest. It made a coughing sound and something emerged from its mouth, but it wasn't Marth. It was a large egg, about the height of Sheik's thigh, which shook violently on the ground.

  "Is that..." Sheik muttered. He leant closer to the egg, and heard a muffled screaming from inside. "Oh, Goddesses."

  Popo was still fighting against Donkey Kong, jumping around the ape's body and landing quick blows with his hammer that he couldn't dodge, and avoiding the wildly swinging fists. A moment later, the egg cracked open as a sword pierced the inside, and Marth came out swinging at the dinosaur and the pink creature.

  "Hey!" Sheik yelled. "Enough! They weren't trying to attack me!"

  No-one was listening to him. Fine then, he would take more direct action. He grabbed three small devices from his waist, and pulled the fuses on all three at the same time. "All of you wait a second!" He threw them into the air the moment before they exploded. A moment later the rocky terrain was covered in thick clouds of smoke, forcing everyone to stop fighting and cover their mouths. The wind blew the smoke away quickly, but by then everyone had stopped their fight.

  "Okay," Sheik said. "Now let's talk."

  Half an hour later, everyone was fully clothed and sitting in a circle. Sheik had been properly introduced now to Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and Jigglypuff by way of the ape's slightly broken speech, and in the same manner he had explained the reason why they were all in this world of Smash.

  "So, this Crazy Hand is the enemy," Marth said, stroking his chin. "And it's using Nana to lure me to it. You have any ideas on why, Mr. Kong?"

  "Donkey Kong," he said. "Mr. Kong my father." He showed off his large pearly teeth so that they knew it was a joke. "But no. I not the ideas one."

  Popo looked up at the mountain. "Master Hand, Crazy Hand, it doesn't matter. I'm still getting Nana back."

  Nana didn't know how long she had been here - she suspected a couple of days at the most. All she had to go on to keep track of time were the whisperings of her cellmate, which didn't make things easy. This Hand thing would repeat itself over and over, and sometimes it appeared to be in conversation with another, unseen being. Twice now she had been woken from her attempts to sleep by a shout of excitement, only for it to continue talking to itself in the same hushed manner as before.

  Attempts to talk to it were largely fruitless. The Master Hand only seemed to be aware on occasion that she was even there, with her attempts to speak to it largely going unanswered. The only time since their introduction when she had gotten any kind of direct response to a question was when she had asked what the Crazy Hand wanted.

  "This and that from all over, a little nip and a tuck and the seam comes apart," had been the response that was supposed to be directed towards her, but she didn't have a clue what it meant.

  She missed Popo. No-one understood her like he did - in the way that she could only have to think of something and he would recognise the slight changes in her face that told him what she needed.

  "Hello!" she yelled again, for the billionth time. "Let me out!"

  Only this time, something actually happened. The Crazy Hand appeared and, without acknowledging her, threw Mewtwo in the cell opposite to hers. Then it vanished.

  Nana pressed herself against the wall of her cell. It was hard to see Mewtwo through the red screens that made up the walls, but he looked badly hurt from the way he was crumpled on the ground. What had happened? Hadn't be been working for Crazy Hand?

  Five minutes later, she got the beginnings of an answer when Mewtwo got into a sitting position with the help of a good deal of groaning. He looked around and seemed to realise where he was, and looked at the ground in resignation.

  "Hello?" Nana asked. "Why are you in here?"

  Mewtwo didn't respond at first, and she thought he was ignoring her. "I failed," he said. "A tool that has no use has no business being kept. My master has seen fit to place me here, and here is where I will stay."

  "What is that thing?" she asked, because this was at least someone to talk to.

  "It is a Crazy Hand - a soldier in the forces of darkness and chaos that exist across the multiverse. It has been charged with conquering this world for darkness, and it created me as an underling in this fight."

  "Oh." That all seemed like a lot to Nana - she was starting to suspect that Marth hadn't just been dressing up as a knight for a festival. "So, why try and kidnap that guy?"

  Mewtwo stared at her, clearly considering what he should say. Then a decision was made. "It is the great plan of the Crazy Hand," Mewtwo said. "A plan that will cover not only this world, but all worlds, in total darkness."

  Nana gasped. "Why would you want that to happen?"

  "Because my master ordains it," Mewtwo said. "I owe my creation to my master. That is a debt I shall repay in any way that it chooses."

  He leant forwards suddenly. "Though I admit, the deeds weigh heavily on my heart. My I tell you of them, in order to relieve the burden I hold of carrying them alone?"

  Nana nodded, and he told her everything.