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“Arghhh!!” Wolf grunted deeply under his breath, experiencing sharp pains on his left side while also clearly frustrated with the situation he was currently in.“Hold your arm still Wolf. If you keep twitching it I can’t stitch it up properly.” Isabelle said as she was currently in the process of applying first aid to his injured left arm. Wolf had received a deep cut from Ridley during a 4-man team match earlier in the day and had refused go to the medical staff for treatment afterwards. He seemed content on just wrapping medical bandages around it which prompted Isabelle to insist on taking care of the wound the right way.“You know if you’re gonna insist on patching me up you could at least be a little more careful in doing it!” Wolf emphasized with a harsh tone.“I-I’m sorry, I’m doing the best I can.” Isabelle responded nervously while continuing to thread the needle through the open gash. “This is a pretty bad cut too, I still think you should have just gone to the clinic with Young Link and Lucina after the match today.”“As if I’d do that, I don’t trust a former plumber to patch up my wounds.”“Um Wolf, you do know Mario hardly works there. In fact, I don’t think he’s allowed to. Not since it’s become common knowledge now that he isn’t licensed…a vast majority of the time certified medical professionals are stationed there.”Wolf merely grunted not even wanting to respond. Taking his eyes off of Isabelle, Wolf began staring in front of him with a scowl on his face. His wound was honestly only a small contributing factor to his sour mood. What was really riling him up was the fact that their team had lost the match, which in addition to giving Ridley a spiteful pleasure over their little feud, the opposing team also had Fox on it. Losing to the person whom he considered his rival was something he had always hated and this was no exception.With this current loss, Wolf and Isabelle’s team was set a little lower on the current team ranking. This unfortunately meant Wolf was now lower on the Smash Tournament’s overall ranking in both tag-team and singles than Fox. Something he was not pleased with at all.“Well in any case, after this incident today, hopefully you won’t feel inclined to be so aggressive when fighting other combatants.” Isabelle said, breaking Wolf out of his little trance.“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Wolf responed, taking great offense to what Isabelle just said.“I just think you might want to be a little more careful in these matches, it’s supposed to be a friendly competition, but you and Ridley really got violent with each other.”“DON’T talk to me on how you think I should fight. I personally have more combat experience than a good portion of the people attending this smash event. I’d wager half of the people here have no idea what a real fight is."“But this tournament isn’t supposed to be a death match Wolf. I don’t understand why you think you need to try so hard that you’d risk serious injury.”“And that’s none of your concern now is it? How I chose to fight within these matches is my own prerogative.” Wolf was now getting more aggravated than he already was. “I’m not gonna sit here and get lectured by someone who stood back only for support. From what I recall you barely pulled your own weight in the match. Don’t think you can tell me how I should fight my battles unless you can do more than set up those stupid rocket mines.”There was a brief silence in the room. Isabelle was taken a little back by Wolf’s words.“… I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to lecture you.”“Good” Wolf huffed.Isabelle just remained silent and continued on. She was just about done, as the formally open cut was now gone with both sides of the wound was now firmly stitched together. The second Isabelle snipped the last bit of excess synthetic medical string from the stitched up wound Wolf immediately stood up from his seat.“So you’re all done I take it?” Wolf said while doing a quick inspection of his closed up wound.“What? W-wait Wolf, I finished stitching it up but I still need to apply this special medical ointment—““No, the cut is all stitched up, you’re done!” Wolf said walking over to the door.“No you don’t understand, your stitches are keeping your cut closed up but it can still get infected, I need to apply this ointment over the wou—““NO! you’re done- now go!”“But—““NOW!” Wolf Shouted opening the door.What followed was yet another uncomfortable moment of silence. The tension in the room was thick due to Wolf’s aggravated mood. Wolf clearly wasn’t willing to listen and Isabelle took the hint. Knowing she wasn’t wanted here any longer, she got up from her seat and walked over to the door.Before she left however, Isabelle turned back to Wolf and said, “I’m sorry Wolf, I really hope your wound heals up well.” And with that she left Wolf’s dorm room and made her way down the hallway.Alone at last, Wolf shut the door and proceed to sit back down starting into space wallowing in his frustrations for the remainder of the day uninterrupted.Later that night well after all the matches of the day had concluded and most smash participants were in their designated dorm rooms sleeping for the night, Wolf was wide awake as he feverishly tossed and turned in his bed. Trying to rest only to be met with throbbing pain from his arm where his cut was. His cut was fairly numb for most of the day so Wolf didn’t think much of it. It was only after the evening rolled around that he started feeling pain.Reality set in as Wolf realized that had he not ignored this problem (or at least given it a little attention) he likely wouldn’t be struggling to deal with this pain. But here he was, drenched in cold sweat with his stitched up wound feeling like it was on fire.“…Fucking shit, this hurts so damn much…” Wolf growled under his breath and clenching his arm. Concluding that trying to sleep in his current condition was a futile effort, Wolf simply got up deciding it wasn’t worth it to still be in bed if he couldn’t relax. Thankfully for him he didn’t have a match for the next two days, so it didn’t matter how little sleep he got.Wolf made his way over to the bathroom to take a look at his wound. As he turned on the light and looked in the mirror, he was a little shocked at how badly his bandages were stained. When he unwrapped the bandages, he saw that the actual cut itself wasn’t much better: covered with dried blood and pus in-between the stitching. “Damn it.” Is all Wolf thought seeing the condition of his arm and proceeded to properly wash it with warm water.
“I swear the next time I face that overgrown newt in match I’m gonna kill him!”
Now fully awake and with the wound cleaned, Wolf decided that he needed a drink, badly. With the night he’s had so far, he just wanted something to calm himself down and take his mind off of things. Unfortunately for Wolf, as he began walking through his dorm room to the mini fridge he banged into the coffee table causing him to let out another curse.What caught his attention however was that the sound of something falling on the ground in front of him. Confused, he picked up what seemed to be a small container and brought it back over the well-light bathroom.It was the healing ointment Isabelle had left at in his dorm. She likely forgot to take it with her when Wolf practically forced her out of his room earlier in the day. Wolf was so caught up in his own attitude since then that he evidently didn’t realize it was still on the table this whole time.Sighing deeply, Wolf unscrewed the cap to the container and began applying the ointment to his cut. He decided that there was no harm in using it since doing nothing obviously hadn’t worked. He had nothing to lose. The process only took about a minute, with the ointment fully applied to his wound and a new set of bandages secured around it, Wolf simply sat down and waited for it to take effect.After about 7 or so minutes had passed, the pain finally started to subside and was replaced with a slight numb sensation. A sense of relief washed over Wolf’s body now that his arm no longer felt like it was being stabbed with a heated iron rod. Wolf just stared at the container thinking about everything that had happened recently that led up to his current situation. About two weeks ago Wolf had receive an invitation to attend the latest smash tournament, it being dubbed the “Ultimate” compared to all the previous ones. Although this wasn’t his first time participating in Smash, Wolf was still nonetheless surprised to be invited back after only participating once before. Naturally, he eagerly jumped at the chance to take part in a fighting tournament, giving him a little break from his usual life as a mercenary. But upon his arrival he had noticed a lot of things had changed about the smash tournament since he had last been there. For one thing, many newcomers had been invited alongside all of the returning veterans. Many people he didn’t recognize or didn’t really care to know about.On top of this, it wasn’t just the number of tournament participants that was different, new rulesets were put into play to give more variety to the standard tournament layout. This really didn’t bother Wolf so much except for the fact that team battles were now a mandatory part of the tournament. Even worse was that teams were chosen at random which meant Wolf had no say in the matter on who he got paired with for the rest of the time the tournament took place… which brings us to how he got matched up with the newcomer called Isabelle alongside Young Link and Lucina.He didn’t have much interest in conversing with any of his teammates. Wolf would usually split off from the group after any matches they had together. Obviously today in particular was not different, except that he had lashed out at his team’s loss even though it wasn’t anyone’s fault in particular.Thinking back on this whole situation, Wolf couldn’t help but feel a little ashamed with his attitude. He was so blinded by his anger earlier in the day that he stupidly brushed off a serious injury that could have worsened considerably had Isabelle not helped him out like she did. In hindsight Wolf was still a little bewildered that she went through with it given his hostile attitude towards here from the very start.Realizing that it was far too late in the night to dwell on things any more than he has, Wolf got up and went to go get a beer from his fridge to settle his mood. After a quick swig of the drink, Wolf headed back to the bed room and crashed on his bed.With only about 3 hours of sleep, Wolf woke up the next day feeling groggy to say the least. After all his fumbling around trying to deal with the pain it was a miracle is was able to get any sleep at all. It was all thanks to that ointment Isabelle accidentally left and because of that Wolf knew what he had to do.After doing all of the mid-morning necessities such as washing up and getting a cup of coffee to fully wake up, Wolf made his way to Isabelle’s room, all the while bracing himself for what he was about to do. It was something he rarely (if ever) did: apologize! Walking through the hallways where the dorm rooms were located was always a pain at this time in the morning as nearly everyone was scrambling to wake up and get themselves ready for the day ahead. Though not everyone woke up at the same time it didn’t change the fact on how congested the hallways got with people walking through them whether they were coming or going. Wolf did his best to keep his head down and maintain a low profile as he didn’t have the energy to deal with anyone at the moment. Aside from catching a few people’s attention with his indifferent manner (Including his other teammates, and even his rival Fox), Wolf managed to make it to Isabelle’s room with little trouble. Now that he was here, Wolf reluctantly knocked on the door in front of him knowing this was going be an awkward interaction. After the knock, there was a faint “Hang on, I’ll be right there.” coming from the other side of the Door.As she opened the door to see who it was, Isabelle was shocked to see Wolf standing in front of her.“Uh…hey.” was all Wolf could utter, still feeling somewhat uneasy about doing this, not knowing how this was going to turn out.“Oh, ah…hello Wolf…I didn’t really expect to see you…at least not until our next team match.”“Here.” Wolf said bluntly as he extended his hand out in front of him, holding the ointment container in his hand. “You left this in my room yesterday.”“Oh, thank you Wolf I—ah didn’t realize I forgot it.“ Isabelle replied.“It worked very well…..I used it sometime after you left”At this point the uncomfortable tension in the air was getting a little too much for the both of them, though unlike yesterday the tension wasn’t born out of hostility but rather the akward nature of the interaction on Wolf’s part due to how he was speaking, as if he was forcing himself to do it. Though Isabelle was doing a good job of remaining calm and patient, Wolf unfortunately could only turn his head to the side as to avoid Isabelle’s gaze.“Here’s the thing…I…didn’t just come by just to give it back to you. I also came here to say…I’m sorry.”The tension settled a little bit as Wolf managed to finally say it. Isabelle was greatly surprised, she was not expecting an apology.Wolf continued. “I was angry over something trivial and I said some very harsh things I really shouldn’t have, this also includes shooing you out of my room when you finished stitching up my left arm. Frankly you weren’t obligated to do even that, but you did anyway despite the way I treated you.”As Wolf finished his sentence, Isabelle simply lowered her head slightly, looking as the floor beneath them and remained silent for about minute or two, likely processing Wolf’s apology. To her credit, no one could really blame her for her stunned response considering Wolf prior actions.What caught Wolf’s attention at that moment was a faint smile appearing on Isabelle’s face.“Thank you for apologizing Wolf, It means a lot. I’m happy you came by and did it.”Isabelle then pointed towards the ointment Wolf still had in his hand “You should hang on to this for the time being and keep applying it. Your wound will heal much faster if you do. As for what happened yesterday, consider it water under the bridge, we can start fresh as a team when our next team match comes up alright?”“Yeah……Sounds good to me….” Wolf agreed. “….So….. I suppose I’ll be going now, see you around?”“Yes, I will see you around Wolf.” Isabelle replied.With the awkward apology having been given, Wolf walked off down the hallway as Isabelle waved him goodbye before shutting her door. At this moment Wolf was a little unsure on how his interactions with Isabelle would be from then on, but he could only guess that based on what just happened that this Smash tournament was going to be an interesting experience.
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Waking up early was something Wolf never really enjoyed doing, it wasn’t impossible for him to do so but it was always a strenuous process that made him wish that he could take his time getting out of bed. This preference for wanting to sleep in was probably a result of the freelance lifestyle he had as a mercenary. If you didn’t complete the jobs you got contacted for, you wouldn’t get paid, plain and simple. And when your livelihood depends on the money earned from said jobs, you have no choice but to restructure your sleep schedule around your work.True to form, it was no different for Wolf as he was often faced with long nights and earlier mornings on various jobs that made his sleep schedule an inconsistent mess. Though as much as he hated it, at this point he was used to it. No rest for the wicked as the old saying goes…Since entering the Smash tournament however, Wolf would often wake up in the later hours of the mid-morning if he was given the chance. Today wasn't any different than usual. With no matches until much later in the afternoon, Wolf gladly took the opportunity to rest up for a few more hours.Once he finally managed to wake up and drag himself out of bed, the first thing that came to mind was getting some coffee. In the blink of an eye, Wolf threw on his clothes and left his dorm room.Walking down the hallways, Wolf casually made his way to the only (at least to his knowledge) coffee machine in the smash mansion and was met with a familiar sight once he got there."Dammit, this line is always here.” Wolf muttered under his breath, rubbing his forehead in annoyance.Just like every mid-morning in the Smash mansion lounge, there was a line for the coffee pot, something that had become a constant sight for Wolf ever since the tournament began and one he wished would cease to happen.Just as Wolf was about to close his eyes and try and tune out everything around him until the line disappeared he heard a voice from behind him say, "Hello Wolf.”A little confused at hearing his name being called out, Wolf turned around slightly to see who had greeted him. It was none other than Isabelle.“Oh…hey…Isabelle” was really all Wolf could reply with, being caught off guard by her sudden appearance as well as still feeling somewhat drowsy.“Waiting in line for coffee I see. Mind if I join you?” Isabelle asked in her usual cheerful tone."...Sure, you're welcome to if you want.” Wolf replied somberly.A few minutes passed by of them standing in silence next to each other in line. The wait was easier for Isabelle as she was maintaining a patient attitude. Wolf however was just getting steadily more annoyed at a certain someone who was holding up the line at the front. Noticing this, Isabelle decided to take the initiative and speak up.“I don’t mean to pry but you seem rather irritated Wolf, are you okay?”“I’m fine, I just wish this line would go faster! I swear this line is here every day and every time it's always Bowser holding it up because he's so anal about brewing his coffee as strong as he can get it.” Wolf huffed. "He needs to learn to hurry the hell up.”“Hey, come on now Wolf, there’s no need to be so vindictive towards him over something relatively minor. Bowser is just trying to brew it to his liking.”Wolf passively glanced back at Isabelle as if to say she was out of her mind, only then to turn his attention back to Bowser who threw out yet another filter and dumped out the contents of coffee pot in the sink to start over….again.Seeing this, Wolf put his hand over his face and groaned, as did most of the other people in line. "I'm just sick of having to wait so long every time I want a cup. I remember the last time I was here during the brawl tournament a few years ago. There was hardly ever a line.""It can't really be helped Wolf. With more and more people attending this smash tournament, the more lines are going to happen while waiting for a turn to use the facilities.” Isabelle replied. In truth she understood where Wolf’s frustrations were coming from. The lines for every facility in the smash mansion whether it was restrooms, the café, or the showers were starting to get longer. Even Isabelle had to admit it was getting annoying feeling like everything was on a first come first serve basis"If that’s the case the staff should have at least gotten a second coffee machine by now.” Wolf argued."Well…It's not really their fault Wolf. From what I understand this smash tournament is the biggest one yet. There's going to be a few oversights here and there when so many people come together for an event.” Isabelle explained.“I guess the staff just didn't see the need in getting a second coffee machine in the lounge. There were far fewer people participating in the previous tournaments. It's only really become a problem now.”“In any case just try and relax a little bit okay Wolf? The line will be over before you know it. No need to work yourself up so much.” Isabelle continued in a soft tone hoping Wolf would take her advice.“Eh. Whatever.” Wolf muttered, clearly over the whole ordeal by now.Thinking to himself, Wolf could only hope that at some point soon he would get a solo match against Bowser. It would be the perfect excuse to give him a good wallop as payback. Wolf actually snickered to himself wondering if all the other participants that usually got stuck behind Bowser in line would cheer him on for the thrashing would give the Koopa.Out of nowhere, a random thought had just occurred to Wolf that piqued his curiosity.“Hey Isabelle, why is it I haven’t seen you in line for coffee until now?” Wolf questioned.“Oh well it's because I usually just come here much earlier in the morning, around 6 or so, and make myself a cup while everyone else is still waking up.”“Even though I don't technically have to most of the time, I wake up so early because I'm just so used to my work schedule back at home. A small unintentional benefit of my job I guess.” Isabelle stated with a somewhat awkward smile."...I see.”Isabelle continued on "The reason today is so different is because I had a late night last night, I was just so tired that I took my time waking up this morning."“You know, now that I think about it, you don’t really strike me as the type of person who even drinks coffee. To be honest you look pretty alert and awake without needing it" Wolf said.Isabelle giggled a little bit upon hearing this "Are you kidding me? I'm practically a caffeine addict. Coffee is something I drink pretty regularly due to my busy work schedule I tend to have back at home. During the few times I manage to get up and start the day without it I still like to have some decaf because I like the taste.”“I’ve never had decaf, I usually just stick to standard caffeinated coffee for energy.”“Really? What’s your schedule usually like that you need all that energy for if I may ask?”Wolf stood there for a moment, thinking about how to answer her question. He wasn’t exactly sure how much he wanted to share about his personal life with her. Let alone with anyone in the tournament. He pondered about his recent work history and state of living. From taking on morally questionable missions against the Cornerian military and remnants of Andross’s armada to flying back and forth between space sectors in the Lylat system. It was a lot to explain and something Wolf didn’t really care enough to do for someone he just met not too long ago."Hectic and never really consistent. In my line of work nothing is concrete because you have to go out and find work on your own. But lately I've had various ... odd jobs that have taken up long afternoons and nights, so I've just been waking up in the late mornings.” Wolf explained."Then again, when you're drifting through deep space for extended periods of time, your sense of day and night kind of get muddled. In the recesses of space, it tends to always feel like night time.”Isabelle giggled hearing this. "I'll have to take your word for it, it must be rough sometimes.”“You get used to it.”“That reminds me Wolf. It’s been about four days, how is your cut doing?” Isabelle questioned as she saw Wolf adjust his left shoulder out of discomfort."Huh? Oh...It's doing fine.” Wolf replied. He lightly swung his left arm around showing that he could move it freely. "I'm not having any issues with it during matches but there is still some itchiness and irritation from time to time. But that usually goes away after I reapply the ointment at night."“That's good, I'm glad you’re still using it. You'll have to let me know when it fully heals up so I can remove the stitches for you.""Yeah….I'll be sure to.” Wolf replied.From one topic to the next, Wolf and Isabelle continued to converse with each other. All the while completely unaware of what was happening around them. For one, Bowser finally finished making his coffee. Once he finished and left, the line practically dissipated as everyone was able to fill their cups up and leave. It seemed like Wolf and Isabelle were just talking in the middle of the lounge for no discernible reason to the average onlooker. Isabelle took notice of this as she saw the vacant space in front of them where the line previously was.“Oh hey Wolf, look!" Isabelle said as she pointed behind him "The line’s gone. The coffee machine is free!”Wolf immediately turned his head almost in disbelief, but true to her words Isabelle was right. A dumbfounded Wolf glanced at the clock on the wall and realized he had been talking with Isabelle for almost twenty minutes. Even more amusing, Wolf didn't even notice that halfway through his conversation with Isabelle he had turned around to face her, sticking his back towards the line, not caring about it.“See? The wait wasn't so bad. It was over before we even knew it!” Isabelle said cheerfully."Eh...I guess.” Wolf muttered in an awkward nonchalant tone as he and Isabelle both made their way over to the coffee machine. Wolf began changing the filters and pouring hot water into the machine.“So, how do you like your coffee Isabelle?" Wolf asked.“Huh!? Wolf you don't need to make my coffee for me, I can do that after you're done.""It's fine, I don't mind. I'm already here and it won't take that long. Unlike Bowser.” Wolf snidely remarked quietly."Oh well, thank you Wolf. If you don't mind, could you make it with Micho beans mix, extra milk, and three spoonfuls of sugar?"“Uh, yeah.” Wolf replied rummaging through all the different pre-mixed coffee blends displayed on the counter."Here it is.” He grabbed the mocha blend and began to pour it into the machine. After about five minutes of waiting the coffee finished brewing and Wolf handed the cup over to Isabelle standing beside him."Thank you Wolf, it smells lovely…and tastes excellent!" Isabelle said taking a sip."Don't mention it.” He began to change the filter again to make his cup.After about another five minutes of waiting Wolf finally got his cup of coffee he had longed for since getting out of bed. A content sigh escaped Wolf’s mouth once he managed to take a long drink of it.
"Would you like it if this became a regular routine?” Isabelle suddenly asked."Huh? What do you mean?" Wolf said looking beside him at Isabelle who was staring off into space in front of her."I mean meeting up for coffee in the mornings and casually chatting with each other while we wait in line. You seemed like you started to enjoy the conversation and it made the wait easier to tolerate right?"“Well…yeah. But don't you wake up at the crack of dawn? That would mean waiting a couple hours until I get up.”“True, but not if we split the difference between ourselves. If you think you can manage waking up an hour or two earlier, I could sleep in an extra hour on my side. And then we can just meet up at the coffee machine.”“Tempting" Wolf teased. "But it sounds like I would be the one getting the raw end of the deal here, having to wake up earlier while you sleep in.”"I suppose that’s true,” Isabelle said with a cheeky smile, “then again it is your choice. Just remember that less people will be in line the earlier you get here."Wolf chuckled and gave a faint smile. "Fine, that sounds like a plan. If it means not getting stuck behind Bowser in line then I guess I could give it a try."With that, the two canines stood there enjoying their coffee and each other’s company.
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During an especially windy day, a 4-man team battle royal was taking place on Icicle Mountain, the borderline hazardous weather however was negatively affecting one smash combatant in particular.
“Gotcha!” Wolf uttered faintly under his breath as he fired his blaster and hit K.rool square in his mid-section preventing him from grabbing Lucina. There was 6 minutes left in the match and Wolf was providing Young Link and Lucina cover with his blaster from across the stage while they fought in the forefront. Before he could make his next shot Wolf’s concentration was immediately broken by a loud sneeze coming from behind him.“ACHOO”Wolf quickly glanced behind him and saw his teammate Isabelle sniffling a little bit from the sneeze that just occurred. “What’s with you?” Wolf said somewhat half-heartedly, still trying to pay attention to the battle.“I-I’m f-f-freezzzing” Isabelle said while shivering profusely, her arms wrapped around her body in a desperate attempt to stay warm. “The An-nouncer said we-e would-d be battling on a c-cold s-stage, that’s why I wore m-my light w-winter clothes, bu-b-but I n-never imagined we’d be f-fighting in a t-tundra.” To Isabelle’s credit she wasn’t wrong, the stage was pretty harsh temperature wise.With no enemies immediately in front of them Wolf paused for a moment to get a good look at Isabelle, she was shaking non-stop with a sickly look on her face. Judging by her current condition it was pretty clear that at this rate she wouldn’t even last until the end of the battle. Wolf let out a calm sigh and unzipped his jacket.“Here” Wolf said giving Isabelle his jacket and wrapping in around her. “Wear this to warm up and just hang back while the rest of the team and I finish the match.”Though it wasn’t winter gear, Wolf’s leather stitched jacket still provided some much need warmth to Isabelle. I took about a minute or so for Isabelle’s breathing to return to normal but when it did she spoke up. “Thank you Wolf, this is very kind of you” Isabelle said warmly.Wolf grunted slightly hearing this “Stop with that nonsense would you, a sick teammate is no use on the battlefield, that’s it” Wolf retorted stubbornly. But despite his rude sounding tone and words, Isabelle could tell he was just putting up a front. “But what about you? You’re only in your undershirt now, aren’t you just risking getting sick yourself now?” Isabelle questioned.“I’ll be fine, I can handle colder temperatures very well thanks to my thick fur.” Wolf replied as he began to realign his targeting scope on his blaster. The match was almost over but thankfully Young Link and Lucina were holding their own pretty well with the enemy team. Now that Isabelle was taken care of, Wolf resumed his position in the battle by providing cover fire to his other teammates. “Thank you again Wolf” Isabelle said sincerely. Wolf just continued firing his blaster with a smirk on his face as he targeted his opponents.
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Break the Targets, a specialized challenge focused around a smash combatant's ability to locate and break targets scattered around an obstacle course that was uniquely designed for each contestant. What was once a highly popular test of skill hosted alongside the main tournament has now since been retired since the 3rd tournament. As of now it has been restructured into a simple target practice shooting gallery located in the lower levels of the Smash mansion for tournament participants to come and practice their aiming skills at their own leisure…
In the blink of an eye, an energy shot was fired from one of the booths in the shooting gallery. Tilted in angle and with uneven trajectory, the energy blast just barely hit the intended target located on the back wall."0ooh shoot" Isabelle said as her grip on the smash tournament regulated blaster tightened out of mild frustration. She had been at this for nearly two hours and only now was she able to hit the targets, but just barely. Her aim was still inconsistent and poor at best.Taking a breath to calm down, Isabelle took a second to reposition herself on her stool after the recoil from the last blast threw her somewhat off balance."Relax, that was a pretty decent shot” Wolf said reassuringly. He was standing in the stall right next to Isabelle also practicing his aiming with his own Blaster. “You're getting better. You’re starting to hit the outer rims of the targets now."“I suppose so…” Isabelle replied meekly.Recently Wolf and Isabelle’s team had been participating in battles where smash licensed items were allowed. Rulesets for matches changed often during the tournament, so it wasn’t unusual to see teams carrying around items from the storage lockers in the practice arenas. Mixing things up every once in a while kept everyone on their toes.Sometimes this made the matches more unexpected, fun even. Despite this, Wolf typically didn't bother with using items as he felt it was better to stick with his own weapons that he was acquainted with. Isabelle however decided to try her hand out on various equipment that was given to them hoping it would help level the playing field between her and some of the more powerhouse members of the tournament. It’s true that what Isabelle lacked in physical strength she made up for in her assortment of unorthodox tools she used. But creative application though it may have been, once Bowser burned her parasol with his fire breath Isabelle realized she needed to try something different.Over the course of the last few weeks in-between an uneven mixture of wins and losses, Wolf had noticed one thing during these item matches. That aside from being inexperienced with most of the weapons provided, Isabelle was having a hard time aiming ranged weapons properly. Being unusually generous and figuring that he had nothing to lose, Wolf offered to help Isabelle practice her aiming which led them meeting here at the shooting gallery."I'm sorry that it’s taking so long Wolf. It's hard using these energy blasters.” Isabelle said“No need to apologize, it’s just a matter of getting the hang of it”“That’s just it though, I'm not too comfortable with using a heavy-duty weapon such as this.”Wolf snickered a tiny bit with what Isabelle said. “You're kidding right? The intensity on these blasters has been set so low that they're practically toys, you'd be hard pressed to be able to harm anyone with these things beyond a slight stun"“I’m SERIOUS Wolf.” Isabelle said sternly as she looked at him with a serious face. “It may not fire any bullets or lethal energy blasts but it’s still a gun and I’ve never used one before these item matches started.”Wolf just closed his eye and sighed. “I suppose that’s fair, in terms of ranged weapons I’ve only ever seen you use that slingshot of yours, anything with more fire power probably would seem “heavy-duty” to you.”“Exactly, it just doesn’t feel right to me.”"You'll get used to it with time. The more you practice the easier it gets." Wolf then fired off his own blaster, hitting the target dead center and shattering it to pieces. Isabelle couldn’t help but be amazed at Wolf’s aiming skills. The entire time that both her and Wolf had been at this shooting gallery, Wolf had hit and destroyed every single one of the targets lined up for him. For someone with only one working eye, his aim was impeccable.“Just give it another go.” Wolf said as he flipped a switch at his booth which caused a new target to spawn in place of the previous one on the back wall.As instructed, Isabelle prepared herself for another shot. With a tight grip on the trigger she fired off the blaster. Just like last time, the shot misses the center and only hits the rim in the same place as before.Disappointed but not surprised, Isabelle thought for a moment and figured it was time she spoke up about something. "I don't think it's just my handling of the blaster Wolf….the targets are a little hard for me to see.” Isabelle stated.“Oh?” Wolf took a quick side glance at the targets on the back wall and then back at their booths, roughly measuring the distance with his eye. “They're only about fifteen or so meters away, it's not that far.""Maybe not for most people but I'm near-sighted.” Isabelle plainly stated.“You are!? Why did you say anything sooner?”“I mean...I can still see the targets at the back of the room, they just look kinda blurry. Also, I guess I didn’t want to make a fuss or seem like I was making excuses for my poor aim.”Starting to feel a little embarrassed, Isabelle turned away from Wolf and simply looked down at the blaster she was still holding. From Wolf’s perspective, he felt as though she was intentionally trying to avoid his gaze. Thinking back, Wolf realized that Isabelle being near-sighted explained a few things, such as why she stuck to using her slingshot in place of any other ranged weapon. It was probably the only projectile weapon she could properly use with her range of vision.Then it hit him, Was Isabelle not open about her condition beforehand for fear of making excuses because she thought she was dragging her team down? Their team had had a few losses recently and given Wolf’s competitive attitude maybe she didn’t want to cause any conflict.Truth be told, ever since Isabelle stitched up his arm, Wolf had tried keeping his harsh attitude for winning subdued. He hadn’t shown any signs of being frustrated (at least in terms of battle results) with his team unlike when the tournament first started. But perhaps Isabelle was still weary of that side of him.“If you’re having troubling seeing the targets from that far away, then let’s make a little adjustment” Wolf readjusted a dial on Isabelle's booth causing the targets at the end of the room to slowly move closer to them. The targets stopped about 6-7 meters away them.“Better?” Wolf inquired.“Yes, very much so.”“If you're having trouble with something speak up, don’t hesitate because you think you’re making excuses.”“Alright Wolf I will, thank you.”With the target now comfortably within Isabelle’s range of vision, she once again prepared to fire off another shot at the target. However, she still looked like she was having difficulty, her balance was off and she still looked like she was holding the blaster nervously. This caught Wolf’s attention and gave him an idea.
“Here, let me help you out a little further.” Wolf said as he got up from his booth and stepped over to Isabelle. To her surprise, Wolf positioned himself right behind her. His body was lightly pressing against her back and tail with his head right above hers, slightly to the side. His arms reached out around her and gripped the blaster with his paws, which laid over her own paws holding the handle. Wolf's body practically enveloped Isabelle.Though Wolf didn't see it, Isabelle began to blush profusely as she was practically nestled in and smothered in-between Wolf's chest and arms, she could practically feel his body heat radiating off of him and onto her. It was a bit of a sudden shock to Isabelle, but it was also oddly comforting being in his embrace. Being so close to him like this, it didn’t really occur to Isabelle until now how much bigger Wolf was compared to her."Okay so what you're gonna want to do is hold the blaster like this.” Wolf said repositioning the gun a little closer to Isabelle's face which broke Isabelle out of her little fluttered daze."When aiming a gun or any kind of ranged weapon it's important that you get a good feel for the scoop, which means aligning your sight with the target."Isabelle tried her best to follow Wolf's advice, though the current Smash blaster model had no aiming scoop, she was still able to line up her sight with the center of the bullseye styled target after about a minute."Keep your arms steady as you hold the blaster" Wolf said as took his left hand off of Isabelle's and firmly gripped the barrel of the blaster to help keep it in place."And lastly, stiffen your body as you pull the trigger to embrace for the little bit of recoil you’ll feel from the shot.”With that in mind, Isabelle held her positioning and pulled the trigger. In an instant, the shot fired fiercely from the blaster and hit the center of the target dead on, breaking it into pieces."I GOT IT!" Isabelle shouted enthusiastically."Well done.” Wolf said in congratulative manner. He couldn’t help but grin alongside Isabelle who looked as if she won first place in a local shooting contest. “now give it a try on your own"Using the advice she was given, along with the hand’s on demonstration, Isabelle geared up for another shot. She flipped the switch on her booth causing another target to spawn in front of her. Isabelle stiffened her body, took aim, and fired. Though a little off centered, the blast still hit the general middle area of the target, destroying it.“looks like you’re got the hang of this now, as I told you it just takes a little practice.” Wolf said earnestly.“It’s all because of your advice. Thanks for the Help Wolf, I really appreciate it.” Isabelle said with a smile on her face.“Don’t mention it.” Wolf replied.As Isabelle continued to practice firing the blaster with Wolf along side her, neither had noticed that they were being watched but someone close by.On the opposite side of the large room containing the shooting gallery, there was a smaller subsection of the target range specifically designed for Bow and Arrows. While practicing his archery, Young Link had also been observing his two teammates for the last 10 minutes or so. Unintentionally at first, but he was made aware of their presence after hearing their voices. To Young Link’s credit, it was hard to not notice a pair like them. Seeing Wolf helping out Isabelle put a content smile on his face."Heh, glad he seems to be softening up a little bit, even if it's only around Isabelle.” Young Link said to himself before turning around and resuming his own target practice.
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[Wolf O’Donnell -[29]-]Wolf scowled as he stared straight at the number next to his name on the tournament rank listing. It seemed to taunt Wolf the longer he looked at it as he compared his placement with that of his longtime rival Fox, who was currently ranked No. 20. The gap between the two wasn’t big, but it wasn’t decreasing very much either. In fact, ever since the Smash Tournament began, Fox had maintained a steady lead over Wolf, managing to stay a good 10-15 placements above him.The likely reason for this constant lead in the rankings was probably due to the fact that Fox simply had more experience fighting against many of the other combatants. After all, unlike Wolf who had only participated in one of the pervious tournaments, Fox had been present for every single one since they first began. A disadvantage Wolf couldn’t really do anything about.It was only just today that Wolf had managed to close the gap slightly after winning two matches earlier that morning. His rank had increased enough to be in the same bracket as Fox, but only just barely. Close, but not close enough in his opinion. Not helping Wolf’s utter frustration was the fact that his current rank was as close to Fox’s as he had so far been able to get.Wolf just continued to stand there in the smash mansion lounge, staring in silence at the rank listing on the wall, totally oblivious to everyone around him until he heard a voice speaking to him from the side.“Try not to dwell too much on your current ranking.”Wolf turned his head slightly to the right to see who was talking to him, it was Meta Knight. The small rounded swordsmen had saw Wolf sulking in front of the monitor for the last ten minutes and figured he could say something to ease the bipedal wolf’s mind.“The tournament is still in its early stages. Initial placements will inevitably change over the course of the competition as more matches take place. If winning is what you desire, you still have plenty of time to refine your skills and increase your win count.”This fell on deaf ears unfortunately as Wolf simply brushed the star warrior’s words aside, not caring to listen.“Feh, Who the hell asked you?” Wolf responded.Wolf then turned around and made his way towards the lounge exit. He had wasted enough time in there as it was, he didn’t need to stay and get pitied by the other smash participants.Feeling hungry, Wolf decided to head on over to the cafeteria. He had another match later in the afternoon and figured he should probably eat something to keep his strength up. If all went well, Wolf could snag another win under his belt before the day was over.About sixteen minutes after leaving the lounge, Wolf had made it to the cafeteria. Much to his dismay however, he was faced with slim pickings as far meal selection was concerned. While there were still leftovers to choose from, most of the food already been eaten by other participants, and what was left was getting cold real quick. In hindsight, 2:50pm in the afternoon is not an optimal time to have lunch, as by that point a majority of the food available will most certainly be gone, and the kitchen staff won’t start cooking dinner for another couple of hours. Not that Wolf cared too much. As a freelance mercenary, he wasn’t too accustomed to the typical three-meals-a-day structure as most other people were.Deciding to make the process easier for himself, Wolf simply picked up one of the leftover steaks and microwaved it, feeling that it would be good enough.Taking his tray of food, Wolf looked around for a place to sit. Surprisingly enough, a decent number of the table and chairs were still occupied even though the lunch rush was over. If Wolf had to guess, it seemed that anyone who wasn’t currently in a match had probably stayed back to casually converse with their friends, teammates, and “Assists” (i.e Individuals not directly participating the in the tournament but were present to give aid to their colleagues when necessary) who were still eating.As he looked around, Wolf spotted his own teammates at a table on the far end of the room. Young Link and Lucina were sitting beside each other and looked as if they were laughing, though it was hard to tell since their backs were facing Wolf. However, Isabelle was strangely nowhere in sight.Wolf quickly scanned the around the room to see if there were any other places to sit. There wasn’t. Not unless he was feeling brave enough to sit in-between King K.rool and Wario as they stuffed their faces in the most uncivilized manner possible. Any other vacant seats were out of the question as they were stationed too close to large groups of people. The noise is was what Wolf hated the most and why he didn’t like eating in the cafeteria.Not wanting to be bothered by anyone else’s company, Wolf let out a sign of defeat as he walked over to his teammates hoping they wouldn’t make too much of a fuss. Though their recent interactions with him haven’t been inherently negative (If only because Wolf intentionally distanced himself), there was still an air of awkwardness between Wolf and everyone in the team aside from Isabelle because of his brash attitude.The metal tray let out a faint clang as Wolf placed it on the table and proceeded to start eating, his head slouched over resting on his left arm. His eye was closed in a deliberate attempt to not make eye contact with either of his teammates sitting across from him."...Well hello there Wolf." Lucina spoke up.No response. Only the sound of angry chewing and metal scrapping against plastic."It's odd seeing you here." She continued."Why’s that? It's a cafeteria isn't it? And I'm hungry." Wolf shot back, his eye still closed."What she means is that it's odd seeing you sit with us at a table. Usually whenever you get food you just take it back to your room." Young Link chimed it.“I have a match in a little while, it’s quicker just to eat here.” Wolf huffed.“Are all the other seats taken?” Lucina questioned, quickly glancing across the crowded cafeteria herself."Is this a fucking interrogation or something? I just chose to sit down here and eat, is that okay?” He snapped. Wolf was beginning to regret his decision."It's fine Wolf. We just thought it was strange is all. That you suddenly want to sit with us." Lucina replied."Well why the hell are you two sitting with each other? shouldn't you be over chit-chatting with your home world companions that are also in the tournament?” Wolf asked."Don't you remember Wolf?” Young Link leaned forward, “Back when the tournament first started and we all got placed on a team, Isabelle had the idea for us all to sit together during lunch provided that none of us were in a match. She thought it would be a great team building exercise.""However, if you recall correctly.” Young Link continued, “You didn't agree with that idea Wolf. You said that the less amount of time you had to spend with us the better. And then you never showed up."Wolf just sat there for a second hazily looking at his food, thinking back to the first couple of days of the tournament. He vaguely remembered saying something like that. Truth be told, back then he was too angry at his predicament to really care.Lucina neatly folded her hands on the table. “Since then, Young Link and I have been regularly talking outside of matches and getting to know each other. As it turns out, we have a lot more in common that either of us would originally have thought." she said, looking pleased."For instance, both me and Lucina have utilized time travel before in an effort to prevent great catastrophes from happening in our initial timelines" Young Link explained. "That’s not an experience many people can claim to go through, and honestly it feels good to be able to talk with someone who understands the hardships you go through in doing so." he continued, emphasizing that last point with sincerity.Wolf had paused eating and looked at Young Link and Lucina with dull, glazed expression on his face as if to convey just how skeptical he was at hearing this. That explanation didn’t really seem to sit to well with him. While Wolf had experienced his fair share of strange events in the vast reaches of outer space, he found it hard to believe that either of them were capable of something as theoretically complicated as time travel.One thing that did catch his interest however was how they mentioned Isabelle.“You two mentioned this lunch room get together thing was Isabelle’s idea, right? Where is she by the way? I noticed she isn’t here, and I know that she doesn’t have any matches scheduled for today.” Wolf asked. He knew something was up, he hadn’t seen Isabelle for a couple of days now. She had even missed their early morning coffee commutes.“Well we don't know the full details, but we think she is handling paperwork in the administration office." Lucina answered."Huh?" Wolf remarked."That’s what Villager told us when we asked about her.""What the hell is she doing paperwork for?" Wolf asked dumbfounded.Lucina rested her head on her hand as if in thought, "Like I said, we don't know but it's been taking up a lot of her time. That’s why she hasn't had very many solo matches lately. And most likely why she hasn't been eating lunch with us.""So what you’re saying is that she's been skipping meals?....""Maybe, though it could also be that she's simply doing what you did and taking food with her so she can eat in the office.""Somehow I doubt that." Wolf grumbled as he stared down at the remains of his food. His ravenous appetite was replaced with a sudden sobering concern for his teammate. Skipping meals when food is available to you is against all common sense. You take what food you can get when you can get it. This was something Wolf had to learn when he first started traveling through space. There had been times when he went a few days without eating a proper meal in-between missions. Thankfully that wasn’t the case with the Smash tournament, but that just served to prove Wolf’s point. Deep in thought, Wolf went for another bite of his steak, but what happened next served to steer the conversation in an unexpected way."You're concerned about her, aren’t you?" Young Link said casually.
Wolf Immediately froze in place, gripping his fork tightly as it was just a few centimeters away from his mouth. He then slowly put his hand back down on the table as he glared at Young Link."What the hell are you talking about kid?" Wolf growled."I'm just saying you sound like you’re concerned about her, there’s nothing wrong with that." The young child responded."What makes you think I am!?" Wolf shouted.“Well, considering how quickly you’ve been willing to help Isabelle out lately whenever she’s having a hard time with something, I’d say that’s a pretty good indicator right there.”Now on the defensive, Wolf’s overall tone changed. What was once mild annoyance had flared up into a simmering anger. Lucina scooted ever so slightly away from the canine’s line of sight, not wanting to get burned by the heat beginning the radiate from his harsh words."Anything I've done with her has only been in the interest of making this team win. You think I want to be dragged down by weaklings?" he argued. “I’m already nearing the middle of the barrel and it’s not helping that I’m stuck with you three!”"Is that so? Then what about a week and half ago when we were fighting on the icicle mountain arena and you gave Isabelle your jacket to stay warm?""I did that to prevent her from getting sick. If she had, then she would have been withdrawn from our team for the next couple of matches, putting us at a disadvantage!"What about that time you grappled Ken to the ground while he was trying to lightly push Isabelle out of bounds in the boxing ring?""That’s called covering your allies, kid! It's basic teamwork. I’ve covered both of your asses on the battlefield before.""And what about you taking the time to help Isabelle practice her aim in the shooting gallery?"Wolf's eye widened a little hearing this, he was caught off guard as he didn't think anyone saw that. "How…do you know about that?""I was practicing my archery across the room from you two. Neither of you noticed because I came in sometime after you two started. It’s also worth mentioning that the shooting gallery is open to everyone here, I’m likely not the only one who saw you." Young Link plainly stated.The expression on Wolf’s face changed from one of belligerence to one of mild astonishment with a hint of embarrassment, he honestly was at a loss for words and didn’t know how to respond to this sudden turnabout. Worst of all, he was backed into a corner by some kid. Probably no older than Twelve by the looks of him.About a couple minutes went by before anyone said anything. Wolf just sat there clenching his fork as if it were a stress-relief ball and looking at his half-eaten steak. He more or less lost his appetite.Feeling a little guilty at his teammate’s change in disposition, Young Link spoke up once more, “Listen Wolf, neither Lucina or I are trying to get on your case about whatever is going on between you and Isabelle. Frankly we’ve just noticed that you two have been spending quite a bit of time together as of late. There’s nothing wrong with that, you shouldn’t feel ashamed of it either.”To Wolf, this sounded like something a seasoned elder would say to a lost youth. Something far wiser beyond that of a child’s years.Wolf was silent. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, but hopefully the Hylian’s words had resonated somewhat with him, giving him a sense of reassurance in how he felt about all this.“You said that as far as you’re aware, Isabelle hasn’t been eating lunch lately, right?” Wolf said in a soft tone, re-railing the conversation back to his initial question.“Yes.” Lucina replied.“And that she’s currently working in the administration office?”“Correct.”“...Well I think I ought to do something about that.” Wolf said as he got up from his seat.Wolf made his way down the hallways of the smash mansion following the directions to the administration department given to him by Lucina. So many turns at hallway intersections, a couple flights of stairs to walk up, passing by miscellaneous storage rooms. It was crazy how complex the inner architectural layout of the building was and this in turn served to remind Wolf just how utterly gigantic the smash mansion actually was. Something that he never quite noticed before given that he had little reason to venture through most of the place beyond going to the cafeteria for food, battle arenas for matches, or occasionally the shooting gallery to practice his marksmanship.As he made his way closer to his destination, Wolf couldn’t help but grunt a little at having to carry a large box in a plastic bag as this way. He didn’t like feeling like a fast food delivery boy.Finally, after what seemed like twenty minutes of walking, Wolf had reached his destination: the administration office in the upper floor of the Smash mansion. Thankfully it didn’t take any time at all to find which room Isabelle was working in. He was led by the incessant clacks of a keyboard and the dull snaps of paperwork being stapled together. Approaching the half-open door of the office, Wolf stood in the gap between the door and the frame to see Isabelle fixated on the computer screen in front of her, clearly so engrossed in the work she was doing she didn’t even notice her fellow teammate standing a few feet away in front of her.“Knock knock.” Wolf said while lightly tapping the back of his knuckle on the door to the office Isabelle was working in. The abrupt noise broke Isabelle’s concentration and snapped her out of her work-related trance.“Ah-a W-Wolf what are you doing here?” Isabelle said, a little shaken up by her teammate’s sudden appearance. Now that she wasn’t staring at her computer screen, Isabelle took a moment to rub her eyes and re-focus her vision. “I could ask you the same question. Word is that you’re back here in the office cubicles doing paperwork?” Wolf questioned as he walked into the office.
“Ah yeah.” Isabelle replied faintly while trying to shift her focus back to all the papers on her desk and organize them. She continued, “At the behest of Master Hand and Crazy Hand, they asked me if I could assist them with the work load, given the nature of my job back home as a mayor’s assistant and city councilwomen, it seemed like reasonable request on their end.” Isabelle was speaking a little slower than usual. The peppy upbeat energy that normally radiated with her voice was gone and instead replaced with an aura of exhaustion surrounding her. This was easy to see judging by the look on her face, she looked beyond tired with slight bags under her eyes and a droopy expression.“Hmm, now that’s strange, now would they ask you that? You’re already a participating fighter in the Tournament. Shouldn’t you be given the courtesy of not having to do any work like every other participant?” Wolf questioned yet again in a sly manner, almost as if he was trying to gauge whether of not Isabelle was despondent over her situation. To his surprise she wasn’t.“Oh no I told them it was okay, I didn’t mind them asking me, In fact I am happy to help in any way I can.” Isabelle smiled and stapled another set of papers together.“You might not know this but there’s a lot of work that goes into organizing these smash tournaments. Getting everyone together, sending out invites, keeping the Smash mansion operating with all its facilities, paying for food to be served in the cafeteria, paying to have any damages made to the stages fixed, paying to have equipment that needs be replaced, and not to mention all medical costs for injuries that can happen in any of the matches.” At this point Isabelle was back to looking at her computer screen typing away on her keyboard as she was talking with Wolf. This was not an act of disrespect to him but rather a testament to her intense ability to multitask with so much work that still needed to be done.“The list goes on, so it’s a little understandable why they reach out for extra help.”Wolf hazily rolled his eyes hearing all this, to him this still felt like she was getting taken advantage of. “Seems a little rude to me that they would dump all this work on you. I mean, you’d think that they’d have the foresight to hire a proper amount of staff to organize this massive event.”Isabelle paused for a second to look up at Wolf with a stern look indicating she took slight offense at what he said. “Please don’t say that. With an event as big as these smash tournaments you can never properly account for how much assistance you will need. Master Hand and Crazy Hand have worked hard to keep making this tournament happen.” In a sense Isabelle spoke from experience. Back home she helped plan and organize town events year-round and as such knew firsthand how much work it went into organizing stuff like this.Breaking the uneasy tension that was just created, Isabelle quickly redirected the conversation with a more positive tone. “In any case it’s okay. As I said before, I honestly don’t mind helping out in any way I can. Not to mention I helped out with the paperwork for the last Smash tournament as well…although back then I was just brought on as an assist for that one so I had much more time to focus on doing the work.”After finishing her sentence, about a minute of silence went by save for the constant clicking noise made by Isabelle typing away on the keyboard. Tired of holding onto what he had been carrying, Wolf wanted to ask one last question before doing what he came her to do. “If you don’t mind me asking, how long have you been at this?”Isabelle stopped typing and paused for a second to think about it, “Umm…” Isabelle muttered and then looked at the clock on the computer screen, “…about….twelve hours.” Isabelle laughed a little bit not realizing what time it was. “That long huh? She just doesn’t stop does she?” Wolf thought to himself as he blankly stared as Isabelle with mild amazement though none of it showed on his face.“Truth is, this isn’t even my record. Back home I almost broke twenty-two straight hours over the course of a weekend.” Isabelle added.“I see.” Wolf said softly.Without warning, Wolf dropped the box he was carrying with him right in front of Isabelle, square on top of her desk with all the paperwork she still had scattered across it, sending loose sheets of paper adrift to the floor.“AAAHHH! WOLF PLEASE DON’T DO THAT! You’re going to mess up my work!” Isabelle shouted as she bent down to the floor frantically grabbing the few papers that fell off her desk.“Eat.” Wolf uttered.“…What?” Isabelle said as if bewildered by what he just said.“I said eat. Lucina and Young Link said that you’ve skipped lunch the past four days now and from what you’ve just told me, you’ve been at this for eleven hours straight.”Isabelle got back up to her desk and opened the box. To her surprise and delight what she found in it was a nicely cooked meal. A baked chicken pot pie with a side of gravy to be exact. It was the last one from the cafeteria line and Wolf had managed to snag it before it was discarded. The steam slowly rose from the open box, bringing in a warm aroma into the sterile, dusty office. Having not eaten for most of the day, this was a welcomed sight to behold for Isabelle, who just started to realize how hungry see was.Isabelle became slightly flustered, being caught off guard by Wolf’s kind gesture.“W-Wolf, I don’t know what to sa—““Then don’t say anything. Just accept the food.” This time it was Wolf’s turn to sound stern.“But Wolf I don’t really I have ti—““Look just take a break and eat would you. That paper work is still gonna be there in another forty-five or hell even fifteen minutes from now so you may as well eat something so you don’t pass out.”Isabelle remained silent as she looked at Wolf. While he remained stone faced as he normally did around his teammates, she could see a faint sense of sincerity in his eye.“Anyway…” Wolf said as he turned around heading for the door “I have a match that’s about to start so I’ll leave you to your work or whatever.”But just as he made it in-between the door frame and the hallway outside the room, Wolf suddenly stopped and without facing Isabelle said “You can do whatever you want on your own time, even if that means burying yourself in paper work. Just don’t do it to the extent that you collapse from exhaustion. That won’t help anyone, especially yourself.”And with that bit of advice spoken Wolf was ready to leave except—“WOLF WAIT!” Isabelle quickly shouted to get his attention before he ran off. Wolf stood in silence waiting for what Isabelle was going to say.“….Thank you, and good luck with your match today. I wish you the best of luck.”“Hmph, thanks but I don’t need luck.” Wolf said with a confident grin on his face as he closed the door and made his way to the battle arena.With Wolf now gone, Isabelle sat there alone in her office processing the interaction she and Wolf just had. It was a very pleasant surprise to her that Wolf went out of his way to get something to eat for her, especially since she hadn’t told him about all the paperwork she had been doing the past week.If she had to guess, Wolf probably found out by talking with Young Link and Lucina…or perhaps even the mayor. Though regardless of how he did find out, it was a sweet gesture, one of many that started to pile up now that Isabelle thought about it. In fact, it seemed that lately Wolf has been acting far less hostile and subtly more altruistic even if in extremely small amounts. It was a lot to think about, but now wasn’t the time for it.Taking a second to clear her mind, Isabelle then put her computer on sleep mode and took off all the paperwork laid out on her desk and put it on the floor right beside her. She opened up the box once again, now ready to take that long overdue lunch break. As Isabelle suspected, the chicken pot pie tasted just as delicious as it looked.“I’ll have to think of a way to thank him properly for this later.” Isabelle thought to herself as she continued eating her meal.The rest of the day seemed to pass by pretty quickly at the smash mansion. Before anyone knew it, nighttime had arrived seemingly without warning and brought the busy day to a close. With the current time being 11:27pm, most of smash participants were heading back to their dorm rooms for the night. Unfortunately, Isabelle was not one of them.There she was, sleeping at her desk with her head rested on top of her closed laptop surrounded by stacks of paperwork. Experiencing a second wind after eating the meal Wolf had brought her, Isabelle went into a self-imposed “crunch time” mindset and tried to blaze through as much of the paperwork as she could by the end of the day.Lucky for Isabelle, her efforts weren’t in vain as she managed to complete all the paperwork she had, even some that wasn’t expected to be finished for the next three days. By the end of it however, Isabelle was so tired and mentally worn-out that she simply plopped down where she was sitting and dozed off into sleep without a second thought.Out of nowhere, the office door began to open slowly with the intention of making as little noise as possible. Young Link, Lucina, and Wolf all carefully walked into the room after peeking inside and seeing Isabelle slumped over her desk.“I must say Wolf, you were not kidding when you said Isabelle was buried in paperwork” Lucina quietly whispered as she walked closer to Isabelle, making sure she was okay while also inspecting the clustered mess on the desk.Wolf could only shake his head "Hmph... looks like she didn't take my advice and passed out. Exactly the kind of thing I was trying to warn her about.""Stubborn to a fault and preferring to do things her way when she knows she can accomplish her end goal. In that way she's just like you Wolf." Young Link said in a somewhat teasing manner."What the fuck is that supposed to mean!?" Wolf said as he glared intensely at Young Link while also trying his best to keep his voice down so as to not wake Isabelle.Completely unfazed at Wolf’s threatening tone, Young Link just smiled earnestly and said, "Easy Wolf, don't take it so harshly, I wasn't saying that like it was strictly a bad thing.”“…Whatever” Wolf muttered.“You really have to give her credit though, it looks like she managed to finish all of this paper work. It's all stamped, processed, and organized." Lucina said quickly flipping through various pages stacked on top of each other. “What my father wouldn’t give to have someone like her in charge of safe-keeping royal documents.”Wolf remained silent for a brief moment before taking off his jacket and handing it to Lucina. "Can you do me a favor and hold this?""I...guess so, but why?" Lucina asked as she took the jacket from his hand, confused at the request.Wolf walked over and carefully picked up Isabelle, doing his best not to wake her up in the process. Considering how light she was, this wasn’t hard to do. Wolf then gently rested her over his shoulder. "So I can carry her without worrying that the spikes on my jacket might accidentally cut her."Curious at his words, Lucina lightly brushed her finger against the brass shoulder spikes of Wolf’s jacket. Indeed, they felt sharp enough to break skin.Wolf now began walking towards the door, “"Come on, let’s get her back to her room.""How thoughtful of you Wolf, I'm sure she'll greatly appreciate this when she wakes up." Young Link beamed."Will you shut up already!" Wolf groaned under his breath as quietly as he could.And with that, the four of them departed from the administration department, making their way back to the dorm rooms.“When we get the chance, we should all talk with Master Hand and see if he'll lessen the work load for Isabelle, this is too much to ask of her." Lucina stated as they began walking down the hallway. Both Wolf and Young Link agreed. Meanwhile, Isabelle was still fast asleep on Wolf’s shoulder.
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"I'm sorry for the inconvenience everyone, this shouldn't take too long." Young Link said as he led his team down a large non-descript hallway, one of many that comprised the layout of the smash mansion."It's no problem at all Young Link. Get what you need to be prepared for the match." Isabelle perked up."This better be quick.” Wolf grumbled from the back of the group. He was deliberately walking slower than everyone else so that he would have a little room to himself."Relax Wolf, we still have an hour before the match starts. We won't miss it." Lucina reassured him. Though it was easy to see that Wolf wasn’t fully convinced judging by the unchanged, deadpan expression on his face. Trying to walk anywhere in a place as gigantic as the smash mansion was always a time-consuming process where you were liable to show up late. In truth, Wolf was still a little on edge due the interactions he had with Young Link and Lucina a few days ago when they ate in the lunch room together. His small outburst at them when he felt as though they were prying too much into his business regarding Isabelle set a sour mood for him since then and put him on the defensive. Even If Young Link had assured Wolf that they were not trying to antagonize him in any way.Still, the distance Wolf tried to maintain with Young Link and Lucina was mitigated somewhat by all three of them going to Master Hand the following day and asking him about lessening the workload for Isabelle. As it turned out, Master Hand was honestly unaware of how overstressed Isabelle had been from all the paper work and sincerely apologized to her. As a thanks for all the hard work she had put in to helping the staff, Master Hand granted Isabelle a full break from any office work for the next three months allowing her to relax in her spare time between tournament matches.This brings us back to now, a full three days later. Isabelle was all rested up and ready for the team’s first match in over a week and half. Something long overdue in Wolf’s opinion (even if he still had his single matches), as this meant the team could start increasing their tournament team ranking again.That is of course if they were going to be able to make it back to the battle arena in time. "Hey kid, how do you even know this is the right storage room? All of these hallways look identical.” Wolf spouted.“I used this room a lot during the second tournament when I was last here, so I remember exactly where it is. Lucky for us it’s on the same floor as the battle arenas so it’s not too far away.” Young Link replied.“Right… and remind me again why we’re all going there?”“Well in case you didn’t notice, I just need to grab a spare deku shield.” Young Link pointed to his back. It was funny to say but without his shield, Young Link’s back looked strangely empty. Naked even, save for his sword tightly locked into its sheath.“My last one broke earlier this morning when I was fighting against Roy. That Binding Blade of his is no joke! Just a couple of hits from it burnt my shield to a crisp. Thankfully I have some spares stored away in this room.”“As for why we’re all going,” He looked back at Wolf with a smile, “We all agreed as a general rule to stick together right before matches begin, remember?”No sooner had Young Link finished his sentence had the group arrived at their destination. Wasting no time, Young Link quickly opened the door and flipped the light switch to reveal the room’s interior. The faint illumination from the old ceiling lights displayed a large rectangular room divided into sections by rows of metal shelves as well as numerous crates stacked upon each other with plenty of other boxes cluttered around the back of the room. As Lucina, Isabelle and Wolf walked in behind Young Link, the first thing that became apparent to them about the room other than its layout was its size. It was particularly big in comparison to the all the other storage rooms the combatants were given access to, enough so that it was almost half the size of the lounge.But what made this storage room truly different however was the fact that it mainly housed outdated and obsolete equipment no longer used for the tournaments. Original model blasters, beam swords, old cracker fireworks launchers, and even cloaking devices that no longer worked were all stashed away in various crates around the room. Some of which were even missing their lids causing the equipment to stick out in the open.“Oh wow, it looks like a lot of stuff has really piled up in this room over the years huh? It might take a minute or two to find the small box with my shields in it." Young Link stated awkwardly.“The sight of so many different kinds of weapons and tools stored together in one place reminds me of my father’s old weapon supply room back at our castle. The only difference with this room however is that it’s severely cluttered and disorganized.” Lucina added as she observed the small layers of dust on everything. The room clearly hadn’t been tended to in quite a while.Wolf rubbed his forehead in slight frustration. "You’ve got to be kidding me. Do you even know if your shields are still in here with all this useless crap!?"“They should be. Master Hand said that he didn't get rid of them just in case he ever invited me back." Young Link said as began to press himself up against the wall and carefully scooted himself between all the large crates.“Just sit tight guys, I’ll be back in a minute.” And just like that, Young Link disappeared from sight amidst all the storage items.Faint sounds of rummaging could be heard as Young Link continued traversing through the back of the storage room when suddenly a loud crashing noise came out of nowhere. “I’m okay! Just knocked a few things over.” Young Link shouted.Exasperated and having no choice but to sit and wait for his teammate to find what he was looking for, Wolf simply closed his eye, folded his arms, and proceeded to leaned against the wall as if to make a non-verbal statement that just screamed “don't bother me until you're finished and we can leave.”Picking up on this cue but not wanting Wolf to completely seclude himself away from the team in his usual habits, Isabelle decided to stand next to Wolf. She hummed quietly to herself to patiently pass the time. She had had enough interaction with him at this point to be able to pick up on some of his mannerisms, including obvious signs of irritation. Even still, she knew Wolf wasn’t nearly as reclusive as he often presented himself. She made sure to stand just far enough to give him some space, but also close enough so he wouldn’t feel alone.This turned out to be a good call on Isabelle’s part as her quirky humming actually tempered Wolf' mood a bit by how adorable it was even if he didn’t show it. Meanwhile, Lucina's curiosity got the better of her as she began to look around the room, inspecting all the equipment and miscellaneous junk that had been abandoned for one reason or another. She couldn’t help but marvel at all of the so called “outdated” technological gadgetry. Most of the stuff that had been left to collect dust would still be considered far more advanced than most weaponry available to people back in her time period.This held true for most of the things she had come across since coming to the smash mansion during the last tournament. Video screens, controlled water systems, artificial lighting utilized by harnessing electricity, automatic weapons, these things were all new to her and unlike anything she experienced back home where all manner of industrial tools seemed archaic by comparison. The prevalence of high-end magic seemed to be the one thing that was closest to the futuristic technology Lucina had been exposed to, but even then, the two things couldn’t be fully compared to one another. She really felt out of her element being here, another thing her and Young Link had in common that they had bonded over.Out of the corner of her eye, Lucina saw something familiar that drew her attention. It was a large wooden bin with metal casing that was filled with swords Lucina immediately recognized. Roughly edged bronze swords with a dulled greenish-grey tint piled out of the casing."So, this is where Robin has been keeping them." Lucina said quietly to herself.She had always wondered where the master tactician of her father’s army kept all the bronze swords they frequently used in battle. It seemed that Young Link wasn’t the only one that used this room to keep spares of less durable weapons. It was funny how everything seemed so replaceable here. With such an ease of access too."I found them!” Young Link shouted from behind multiple crates, breaking the silence between his teammates. While Wolf remained unfazed, Lucina and Isabelle turned their heads in the direction where Young Link's voice was coming from. He managed to come back into view from the opposite side of the room by carefully crawling underneath an open gap between two wooden creates filled with used smoke balls.“Sorry for the delay but it’s far more clustered in the back of the room than it is here in the front. It’s like crawling through a dungeon in there! But I got my spare deku shield, so I’m all good to go!” Young Link said as he stood up and dusted himself off. He then adjusted the shield on his back to make sure it was properly fastened to his sword’s sheath. “Including this one, I only have about four shields left. I should be a little more careful using them If I want them to last the rest of the tournament." Young Link added.Hearing this, Wolf finally got up from his position. "Here's a question kid, why the hell are you even bothering to use these flimsy shields anyway? If they break so easily you should get better equipment. I've seen your counterparts using metal shields that look a lot more durable, why aren’t you using one yourself?"Young Link let out an odd chuckle, he had the look of slight embarrassment on his face and seemed to take the question nervously "Well...you certainly aren’t wrong Wolf. In fact, I agree with you. The truth is I actually do have a better assortment of weapons including shields, I just chose not to bring them with me to this tournament.""Why?" Wolf scoffed. "Who the hell comes to a fighting tournament like this, deliberately using poor quality weapons?”“Well that’s kind of a long story Wolf, one that I’m sure you aren’t too interested in hearing right now given your tone.”“Whatever kid.” Wolf brushed off Young Link’s response. “Just make sure we don’t lose our placement down the line because your equipment breaks, and you can’t fight anymore.”“I’ll be sure to do that. But know this Wolf. I am a very different person than when I first came to this mansion during the first smash tournament. I have my reasons. After all, the weight of your travels can really change your perception of things.”As the team began making their way to the storage room exit, Lucina's cape caught onto to something sticking out of a box on a filing rack near the door. Without realizing until it was too late, her cape pulled the box from its shelving and dropped to the floor with a resulting loud crashing sound. Immediately everyone’s attention was drawn to the numerous miscellaneous items and devices that had been scattered across on the floor.“Oops” Lucina said innocently.“Now what the hell did you go and do that for?” Wolf barked.“Ah sorry. It feels like this cape is just more trouble than it’s worth sometimes.” Lucina humorously joked. Embarrassed, she immediately knelt down to pick up the scattered objects.“Just leave it” Wolf said bluntly. “It’s not our problem, just let the custodian or whoever's job it is to clean these storage rooms take care of it."“Given the state of this room I highly doubt that.” Young Link quietly added in.“It’s fine. This will only take a minute.” Lucina grabbed a couple of old blasters and started balancing them on her arms.“We don’t have time for this.” Wolf argued.“It’s not that much Wolf, calm down.” Isabelle spoke up.“It doesn’t matter, It’s not our problem. We have 30 minutes left before our match starts and it’s a long walk back to the arena. Let’s just go already!” "No wolf.” Isabelle replied. "It's a mess we made, and we should clean it up. It's only a small spill and it won't take too long if we all help Lucina pick everything up.”“You know If you guys would stop worrying about shit like this, we’d start winning some matches.”“This is important! If we can’t clean up clutter together as a team, there’s no way we can fight any other kind of battle and win!”“Hey, you can’t just—"As Wolf looked at Isabelle, he could see the sternness in her eyes. She wasn’t going to take no for an answer.Lucina spoke from her kneeled position on the floor. “Let’s not fight about this. Wolf, you can go on ahead—““Fine…I’ll help.” He spouted.As it turned out, the box that had been accidentally knocked over was the old “lost and found” bin used during prior tournaments for anything that had been left unattended for extended periods of time or had simply been discarded around the mansion. Old Pokéballs with nothing inside them, worn out white gloves, tattered caps, a heavily damaged visor mask, and even some rusted old bolt's and screws that had to have come from either R.O.B or Megaman.“Who’s even supposed to be in charge of this?” Wolf angrily questioned.“I don’t know, but the Lost and Found in the mayor’s town would never get this bad.” Isabelle added in.A few minutes passed by as everyone in the team went silent as they continued the small clean up session. Wolf briefly looked over to Isabelle as she was picking up discarded smash ball logo shirts.“She’s kinda cute when she’s mad.” He thought to himself.In the midst of everyone putting everything back into the box, Isabelle picked up something strange.What's this?" she said holding up what appeared to be head gear. It looked like two metal straps connected to a weird high-tech eye lens that happened to be cracked. The metal casing also seemed to be heavily scratched and partially rusted showcasing its severe wear and tear."Well now, I didn't think I’d ever see this thing ever again." Wolf said."You know what this is wolf?""Yeah, to put it into simple terms it's basically a prosthetic eye and it was originally mine.”Hearing this, all attention was put on wolf as his teammates looked at him with piqued curiosity."...A prosthetic eye? is that even possible?" Lucina questioned in disbelief. being a royal born warrior who grew up on the battlefield Lucina was no stranger to the concept of prosthetics for missing body parts people would lose or have heavily damaged in combat, however this concept would only extent as far as limbs like and arm or a leg. A damaged eye is something that usually cannot be replaced or fixed through normal means.“Hmph." Wolf uttered as he grinned slightly, "Oh it's possible all right, with the right technology you'd be surprised what can be made"."This thing was developed on a planet called Katina located back in my home galaxy of the Lylat system. It’s part of a specialized series of technology made for developing advanced prosthetics and organs. I got my hands this device about four or five years ago to serve as replacement for my left eye I lost a long time ago.Isabelle’s face lit up in excitement. She was clearly interested in the technical specs of the gadget. It was something she had never seen before and wanted to understand more on how futuristic body replacements could possibly function."How does it work!? Isabelle asked enthusiastically.“It's a little complicated but—“ Wolf held up the headgear and pointed at the lens.” This screen display on the lens of the ‘eyepatch’ is meant to go over your missing or damaged eye and acts as a video camera that records what you see in front of you. It then converts that visual video information in electrical signals right here.” Wolf said pointed at the small compartment on the side of the headgear right next to the lens."After that, it transmits all of the electronic signals to the implant the person would have to get inside of their head and bam! You're able to see through what is essentially an artificial eye."As a demonstration, Wolf then put the old headgear on his head to show his teammates how it would fit. "Feels like old times wearing this thing".All three of his teammates were stunned in amazement. Both at the technical explanation of how Wolf’s former gadget worked but more so because It was the first time Wolf had spoken to the group as a whole without a glazed expression. There was a what seemed like a slight gleam in his eye as he reminisced about a time not too long ago."That’s a very impressive gadget Wolf. I never would have imagined something like this could be possible. But I'm confused, you said you got it to replace your missing eye years ago? My question is why did you get rid of it?” Lucina asked."Well despite what I just said, this thing has with some serious drawbacks.” Wolf said taking the headgear off."For one, getting the necessary implant surgically put into and later taken of out my head for this thing to work was a serious pain in the ass. Moreover, it was very difficult to keep maintenance since it is a very delicate gadget. Any minor glitch, error, or damage would cause it to stop working immediately."But the biggest hurdle was the fact that there was generally a second or two delay with the information being sent from the lens to the implant to my brain. other than throwing off my timing often, this inconsistency with the visual information with vision often made me very disorientated and gave me headaches.“By the end of the third tournament I had enough and just discarded this thing. I'm guessing someone on the staff picked it up thinking someone had lost it and put it in the lost and found bin."In the end I just figured it wasn't worth the trouble or the literal headaches. I had to just accept what I had lost and learn to deal with my handicap properly." Wolf said as he lightly threw his electronic eye patch back into the lost and found box. "Maybe in another ten or twenty years when I can get an actual artificial eye that works without any of the issues or problems this one does, I may reconsider it. But for the time being I'm content with how I am."So, are we done here?" Wolf questioned with a slight sarcastic tone.Young Link and Lucina had just finished picking up the last few items and putting the rest back into the box."Yeah I think we’re good." Lucina said placing the box back onto the shelf.And with that the team left the storage room."Well that was quite an informative trip. You have quite the interesting story behind your equipment Wolf.” Isabelle perked up. “Kind of makes me wish I had some special history of my own to share.”"But you do Isabelle.” Lucina chimed. “It’s the same for all of us. We each bring something new to the table. A little part of our worlds to share with others. Things, ideas, experiences we’d never be able to come across in our lifetimes. Even if it’s just crossing our swords on the battlefield, we all share our story in different ways, even if we say nothing at all.” Lucina’s hand loosely moved across the hilt of the Parallel Falchion sheathed on her belt. She suddenly became more aware of its weight.“Not only are we a part of our own worlds, but we are a part of this one, as well as all the worlds that connects through here. Interconnected even through our smallest actions.”“That’s so inspiring Lucina.” Isabelle said in awe at her teammate’s insight. “Wisdom like that must come from a lifetime of adventuring!”“Well for a time, I was so obsessed with securing a future for myself, for my family, for the world. And once I had accomplished that, I realized I didn’t think about what that future would even look like. Now I sometimes wonder if they’ll tell stories about me, a hundred years from now. I even wonder what kind of story I’ll be making for myself tomorrow. Or perhaps I’m just paranoid.”Lucina’s powerful words seemed to stir something up inside Wolf as it made him wonder what kind of story he would end up making over the course of his life. Or if it even mattered at all. Space wasn’t as fond of legends as planet-siders. Its endless scope seemed to have a way of making everything seem irrelevant or trivial.It suddenly occurred to Wolf how little he understood about his teammates and their motivations, especially Isabelle. How much did he really know about her beyond the surface-level stuff they often talked about during their early morning coffee meetups?Out of nowhere Wolf stopped dead in his tracks, His fur stood on end as a chill went down his spine. Wolf could feel a very faint sense of bloodlust in the air, a sensation he hadn't experienced for quite a while. It was hard to pick up where it was coming from, but he could tell it was directed at him.Young Link, Lucina, and Isabelle all turned around as they noticed Wolf's unmoving stature."Wolf what’s wrong? Are you okay?” Isabelle asked.Young Link and Lucina knew something was up as they looked at Wolf's disposition and then back at each other. Being warriors themselves who have been in plenty of life or death situations, they had started to pick up on the uneasy feeling in the air.Wolf turned his head around to look behind him at the empty hallway, only to see nothing. There was no sign of anyone anywhere. Though it was hard to say, he was sure the intense feeling was coming from behind him.He just stood there for a good minute just looking down the hallway as if expecting someone to just walk up to him and reveal themselves, but alas, no one did.Now concerned, Isabelle walked over to his side and placed her paw gently on his arm nudging him a bit, "Wolf what’s going on? What are you staring at?"No response. All three of her teammates remained silent, giving Isabelle the impression she was missing something important.Wolf broke his stance and turned back to face her. "It's nothing Isabelle, I just thought someone was watching me that’s all.” Wolf said in a reassuring tone, though the look in his eye said otherwise. A small detail that didn’t escape the notice of Young Link and Lucina.“I'm just imagining things. C’mon, let’s go, we have a match to get to.”Wolf guided Isabelle to start walking with him as he gestured for Young Link and Lucina to follow suit. As the squad of four walked towards the designated fighting arena disappearing from sight, a strange shadow began to appear on the wall of the far end of the hallway where it split into a two-way dividing path.The shadow's silhouette took on a large menacing appearance as a serrated serpentine-like tail slipped out from around the hallway corner while a large claw gripped the corner of the intersected wall.
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*** Five in one mini-chapter special! ***
[Finally, a Lunch Together]"I'm so glad we're finally able to all have lunch together as a team!" Isabelle happily exclaimed as she, Young Link, Lucina, and Wolf all placed their trays on the cafeteria table and proceeded to sit down."Uh. Yeah." was all Wolf could muster, feeling rather nonchalant about the whole thing. He still didn’t like the idea of eating in the cafeteria around other people, but Isabelle insisted that he give the lunch a shot now that he wasn’t as hostile as before.Luckily for Isabelle, everyone’s match schedule lined up to make today the perfect day to do it. No team battle, no multi-man free-for-alls, and no single match ups for anyone in the group. The team could take their time and enjoy their meals and each other’s company.As all four of them began eating their food, a conversation inevitably started up once Isabelle mentioned how she heard that a home-run contest would start up soon as a side event to the main tournament. While Lucina and Young Link added in their thoughts, Wolf remained silent while continuing to eat his steak. Wolf really had no interest in the topic, seeing the contest as an unnecessary distraction to the actual tournament battles.As the casual conversation between his teammates started to pick up, Wolf began looking around the cafeteria as discreetly as he could, scanning the area of all the other people eating lunch. He was looking for any sign of animosity focused on him.The killing intent he felt the other day near the storage room was something Wolf couldn't forget. He knew it was a threat directed towards him, just not why or by who.Granted, Wolf was very much aware that he was the kind of person who made enemies very easily. His criminal status back at home in the Lylat system was proof enough of that. But few people attending this tournament knew the specifics of his criminal reputation, nor had he gone out of his way to commit any devious acts against the tournament regulations.Thinking about it, Wolf’s first suspicion was the two Belmont vampire hunters. Both of whom had expressed their disgust with Wolf ever since they met during the tournament registry. To Wolf’s utter displeasure, both Simon and Richter were convinced that Wolf was some kind of heartless werewolf hell spawn and minion of Dracula, whoever the hell that was. Though to their credit, Wolf's appearance didn't help dissuade their accusation.It took Master Hand himself to clear up any misconceptions regarding Wolf's “biological classifications” and forbid them from taking action against Wolf outside of the fighting arenas. Not that it helped much. Richter and Simon held on to their belief.As much as Wolf hated them in return and despite all this bad blood between them, Wolf had a feeling that neither of the Belmonts were the person or thing he was looking for. It wasn't their style to sneak around. If they wanted to kill Wolf, they would confront him directly.Taking another bite, Wolf did another quick look around the large room...but to no avail. There was no sign of malevolence in the air as everyone seemed to be acting normally and minding their own business. Then again, there were fewer people eating in the cafeteria compared to the last time. Whoever Wolf was looking for obviously wasn't here.“Hey Wolf, are you okay? You’ve been awfully silent.” Isabelle said nudging him gently.Shaken from his thoughts, Wolf looked at his teammates and then back to his tray of food. “Huh? Uh yeah I'm fine, it's nothing. Just staring off into space.""You've been doing that quite a bit lately. Have a lot on your mind?" Young Link asked."Watch it kid!" Wolf growled.“Well, now that you're back with us, we actually had a question." Lucina chimed in.“And that is?”“I heard from my ancestor King Marth that during the third tournament there was a devastating event that occurred in the middle of it. He spoke of a god-like entity referred to as Tabuu that was warping the land of this world into some sort of void dimension.”"We were curious to know more about what happened and figured we'd ask you since you attended the same tournament in which it took place." Young Link added.All three of them were looking at Wolf with genuine curiosity in their eyes, waiting to hear what he had to say.The question rather surprised Wolf a little bit, he didn’t really expect anyone to ever ask him about the subspace incident considering how rarely it was brought up anymore. The few times Wolf himself had asked about it there was always a hesitation, a look of nervousness that would flash across the room in each fighter’s eyes. A loose retelling that was obviously abridged. You’d have to be there to understand. It’s too complicated to tell. Which was fine by him. Wolf had no interest in learning things that had nothing to do with him.“Well sorry to disappoint you but I don't know much about that whole ordeal. I only arrived at the tournament after all the action died down.” Wolf said in-between a few bites.“How could that be? You were invited as a primary tournament contestant weren't you?" Lucina questioned.“Yeah, but frankly I thought the invitation was a joke at first. I mean, I get a letter addressed to me while I'm traveling through deep space saying I’m invited to an inter-dimensional tournament hosted by two giant disembodied hands. What was I supposed to think? It sounded utterly ridiculous to me at the time and you know what? It still does.""I suppose when you put it that way you make a valid point.""Anyway, a couple months after the fact my curiosity got the better of me and I arrived at the tournament to see what it was all about. But unfortunately, by then the tournament was nearing its end, so I only had a limited time to take part in it."“I see.”“Look I’m very sketchy on the details myself so if you’re really curious you and the kid should probably just ask someone that was there at the time. Though considering how tight-lipped everyone is talking about it, I’d imagine it was a pretty dire situation to fight through.” Wolf stated as he took a swig of his drink.“I kind of got that impression when I heard it from my ancestor. Although I wish to know more about it, I guess it is best that it be forgotten for the time being.” Lucina said swirling the contents of her soup with a spoon. She had begun to lose her appetite with the sinking feeling she started to feel in her stomach.“We should all be thankful something as catastrophic as the Subspace Incident hasn't happened since the third tournament. No one should have to go through the trauma of facing down an entity bent on bringing the apocalypse.”A somewhat depressing mood washed over the table at the call of Lucina’s words. Young Link in particular lowered his gaze with a slight distraught looking in his eyes while tightened his grip on his fork. Wolf and Lucina didn’t look much better.The three of them were well acquainted with world ending disasters. Each of them were suddenly lost in the past, in the battles that had nearly destroyed them. They had each fought with their lives, the weight of their worlds on their shoulders, for the safety of their land, their future, their star system. And yet, even in the safe haven of friendly combat and sportsmanship, a lingering threat of otherworldly forces still hung over their heads. Saving the world was a thankless and never-ending task. If it could happen back home, it could happen here. If it happened before it would happen again. That dread had crept up on them.Meanwhile the only thing Isabelle had ever worried about was making sure the town she lived in was free of weeds and that the villagers were happy. She had only ever known peace. She liked her teammates well enough, but there was always a dissonance between her and them when it came to their histories. The public campaigns for town ordinances and all the paperwork in the world could not compare with the anguish of loss, the destruction of worlds, the strife of fighting against something larger than yourself. She could not understand it completely. So instead she did the next best thing: help them move past it."Hey...let’s talk about something more uplifting!" Isabelle suggested."I know for a fact that we'll be getting some tournament newcomers soon, I helped Master Hand send out the invitations not too long ago. This means we'll be throwing a big welcoming party for the special guest fighters!" "Wait, there’s newcomers entering the tournament after it has started? When did they start doing this?" Young Link questioned."The last tournament actually. It’s a special promotional event implemented by Master Hand himself to gather more fighters that the staff weren’t able to reach in time and give them a chance to battle alongside everyone else." Lucina answered.“It’s very hush hush right now… but… I can tell you that this is a RARE opportunity to have these fighters with us.” Isabelle emphasized.“Oh come on Isabelle! Throw us a bone!” Young Link exclaimed. “Can’t we get a hint?”“Will there be any other sword fighters?” Lucina leaned in, her hand unconsciously ready to unsheathe her sword.Wolf, as antisocial as he had been, had an undying interest in fighters from the worlds outside of his own.“More competition for us to stomp out.” Wolf though to himself as he enthusiastically pounded his fists against each other.And just like that, the conversation seemed to pick back up and resume its initial joyful enthusiasm. From the outside looking in, Wolf found it rather amazing how the mood within the team could shift to a more positive note so easily.The way his teammates all interacted with each other… It wasn't something Wolf was used to. There was something about their shared positivity that gave the team a calming and fun atmosphere, which seemed to subconsciously draw Wolf into the group now that he was slowly lowering his mental walls. A feeling that Wolf had never really felt before with his teammates back home.It was not to say that Wolf despised the Star Wolf team. But it was a business relationship at its first and companionship second. It was just the reality of outlaws and mercenaries not to get too attached to each other.That being said, there were times that Wolf actually missed Leon’s wise cracks, Panther’s failed conquests at romance, and even the amusement of listening to Andrew’s juvenile delusions of grandeur (when he was still part of the team) due to his connection with his late uncle’s former empire. Wolf did not miss Pigma however. Even he realized what a slime ball Pigma truly was by the time the Lylat Wars had ended.With this group however, in this situation, there was no business to be had. Wolf was confounded by the way their optimism kept them going through these peaceful days. Young Link and Lucina, both fountains of wisdom akin to veteran warriors. And Isabelle of course, someone small enough to squish between your hands and even still never gave up despite the competition stacked against her.It was a fondness for them, their company, that he could not describe.Although perplexed at this thought, Wolf decided to say nothing for the time being and just continued eating his steak.
[No Pain No Gain]
"54...55...56...57..." Wolf counted out between huffs of breath. He was lying down on one of the designated bench presses located in the Wii fit studio, lifting a 110-pound barbell weight with the assistance of Isabelle who was currently spotting him as best she could."Wolf...I'm not…sure...how long…I can...keep...this up." Isabelle said while starting to pant in-between lifts, clearly struggling more than wolf was. The most she had ever lifted were her small ten-pound weights she used for her aerobic exercise tapes."Don't quit on me now...You're doing great." Wolf replied, continuing his fitness exercise. The studio in question acted as the smash mansion’s official work-out room for combatants to use in their spare time should they choose to. Whether it was staying it peak physical condition with regular exercises, doing yoga classes taught by the Wii Fit Trainers, or simple short-term training for upcoming matches, the studio received a lot of use by a good portion of individuals within the mansion. On an interesting side note, the Wii-fit dojo studio was actually quite the oddity in the sense that the room was used as a battle arena quite often when other stages were being cycled out for repairs.Lately Wolf had been feeling pent up from staying indoors for so long and decided to burn some of his restless energy with some basic work-out regimens. Not to mention some extra physical workouts on the side wouldn’t hurt his chances at increasing his performance in matches.Which brings us back to now."62...63...65" Wolf continued."Wolf, I don't mean…to complain but…I think this is…too much for me…My arms are beginning to strain!” Isabelle exclaimed."The strain means (71)...the exercise (72)...is working (73)."Isabelle was breathing more and more heavily as they continued. Even though Wolf was taking the blunt force of the weight with each lift, Isabelle could still feel excess pressure.This didn’t go unnoticed by Wolf who tried to shoulder a little more of the weight."Isabelle focus your breathing (77)...between lifts (78), "A little easier said than done but Isabelle complied nonetheless. Every time Wolf pulled the large weight down on him, she would inhale and then release as they both pulled the weight back up. It took a few more lifts but She managed to get a bit of a rhythm going."We're almost (83)...to 100 (84)...keep going (85)...”Seeing Isabelle still struggle with the last couple of sets, Wolf figured some words of encouragement would help her through the last bit."Keep going Isabelle (88)...I've seen you (89)...swing heavier people around (90)...with your fishing rod (91)...you can do this (92)...ALMOST THERE! (93)." He felt a little ridiculous. His yelling was almost enough to rival the Wii Fit Trainers at this point.The last few lifts to Isabelle felt like they lasted forever, but despite this she managed to stick with it to the end."98...99...And 100!" Wolf shouted as he, along with Isabelle, guided the heavy barbell back onto the holding mount above the bench press bench.Wolf exhaled deeply as he sat up and wiped the sweat off his forehead. Feeling how wet the fur around his face had become, he reached down and grabbed his small face towel to clean himself off."See, you managed to make it all the way through. Good job on toughing it out.""Yeah!...you were right…I’m glad I was able to finish the whole set!” Isabelle said still in the process of catching her breath.Beneath the satisfaction, Wolf would could also hear a hint of distress in her voice, he then turned his attention to Isabelle who was rubbing her arms. She had faint grimace on her face though she was doing her best to hide it behind a smile. Wolf found her anatomy puzzling. Her arms looked like tiny pool noodles at first glance, but there was some form of musculature within them that was starting to develop.“You okay?”“Yeah, I think I might have pulled a muscle or two though.”Wolf reached down into the mini cooler he brought with him and pulled out an ice pack.“Here.” he said handing it over to Isabelle.“Use this while we head over to the infirmary to get your arm checked out”“It’s okay Wolf you don—““If you’re hurt then let’s have the medical staff take a look at you. You’re always telling me not to brush off my injuries, right?”Isabelle couldn’t really argue with that, for how much she tried to get Wolf to not downplay his injuries here she was doing the same thing. And for that extra bit of irony, he also reiterated the same advice she had given him before. It appears Isabelle’s common sense has come full circle.Wolf grabbed his stuff and the two left the studio.“It seems this was a little too much for you. I'm sorry Isabelle. I should have started off with a lighter set.”“Don't apologize Wolf, it's totally fine." Isabelle said with a smile.“If you’re willing to spot me again, next time we’ll do a much lighter set.”"That sounds good to me.” She said, still smiling through the soreness.
[Looks Can Be Deceiving]
"Dammit...I need to make these last." Wolf thought to himself, looking at the pack of cigarettes in his hands. He had been running low on his initial supply that he had brought with him to the tournament. Having just two packs left, Wolf was only just now able to buy an extra pack off of Snake who had brought his own reserves.Wolf was in a rather tough spot in this regard because none of the vendors at the mansion sold tobacco products of any kind and smoking was generally not allowed in most of the main areas. If you wanted to smoke, you had to bring your own supply and hope that you don’t run out, which Wolf was getting close to doing.While as a whole, this generally wasn’t a major issue since so few of the smash attendants (if any) really smoked, it was still a huge grievance for Wolf.“Here’s to hopefully making it to the end.” Wolf said as he as he opened the pack up to get a quick smoke. With the cigarette lit, Wolf leaned back on the wall and let out a small satisfied exhale. He needed this.The past couple of weeks, Wolf had been a little on edge from all the matches. Although he prided himself as a battle hardened individual, even he had to admit he wasn't used to this much physical combat even if it was only for friendly sport. This wasn't helped by the fact that his desire to overtake Fox in the rankings put a lot of pressure on him to win as many matches as he could.Obviously, Wolf would never admit any of this to anyone, showing vulnerability in the presence of peers and enemies alike is a foolish mistake that will always come back to bite you. At least that’s what Wolf believed, and he hadn’t been proven wrong yet.Unfortunately, all of this just served to make his quiet smoke breaks all the more appealing as a form of stress relief.Smoke eases the nerves. Makes your breath something you can see. Breathe in, breathe out. The ember at the end burning low, rising like incense. A timer for respite. In the quiet reaches of the edge of galaxies, when time and space and in turn, dullness and boredom, stretches out towards infinity, small things you can hold onto to keep track of the time were often life savers.Just then Wolf’s sensitive ears picked up something, he could hear someone walking up the adjacent hallway close to where he was standing. Not wanting to get caught or snitched on, Wolf quickly hid his cigarette behind his back, hoping that whoever the person was were just passing through. "Hello there, Wolf.” Young Link said as he turned the corner, stopping for a moment to greet his teammate.Now recognizing who the voice belonged to, a sense of relief hit Wolf as he took his cigarette back out.“You know kid, you shouldn't sneak up on people like that. I thought you were one of the staff for a second. What are you doing back here anyway?” Wolf asked."Oh well, I'm actually on my way to go feed Pichu at the request of Master Hand.” Young Link answered. Wolf looked down and noticed the bowl of food Young Link was carrying in his hands."And why are you doing that? Doesn't it get fed by those two kids with the red and green hats?""Well no, Pichu actually doesn't belong to either Red or Green. It doesn't have a trainer. So Master Hand just asked some of us give it food in our spare time.“What about you Wolf?” Young Link inquired. "You do know smoking isn't allowed in the mansion, right?""No shit, but I ain't waking 20 minutes to one of the exits outside. That’s why I'm in these back hallways, hardly anyone comes through them."“Well if you're that concerned about being caught, why not follow me to back room where Pichu is? There’s less of a chance someone will see you there then if you’re just standing suspiciously in the middle of a hallway.”Wolf took another puff of his cigarette and exhaled, “... Might as well."Wolf then followed Young Link for a couple of minutes, neither really talking to one another before reaching the desired destination.As they entered the room, Young Link saw the small Pichu laying on its cushioned bed (provided courteously by Master Hand of course) pressed up against the wall, nearly half asleep. The tiny Pokémon was tuckered out from a match it had earlier in the day. Having used all of its electrical attacks in rapid succession exhausted it immensely. Young Link bent down and placed the bowl of Pokémon food in front of it.“Hey there little guy. You hungry?" He asked the small electric mouse.Immediately Pichu bolted straight up as if on command and gave out and excited "PICHU!" and started munching down on its treats."I guess that’s a definite yes." Young Link chuckled to himself as he scratched Pichu's the fur on top of head a little bit."Such as high-spirited demeanor for such simple pleasures. It doesn’t seem to have much awareness outside of its small base instincts." Wolf mused.“Why must you sound so condescending Wolf?” Young Link asked solemnly."To be frank, I'm just having a hard time believing this thing is in the tournament. It really doesn't belong in a fighting arena.""Come on Wolf, there’s no need to say stuff like that. It's not right to judge things based on their appearance.""Look I get that it can generate electricity but its small anatomy, coupled with the fact that it hurts itself just by moving too much, and its need to be fed by other people makes it look like a glorified house pet." Wolf argued."It might look small and weak at first glance, but cute appearances can belittle a feisty demeanor. If you saw any of Pichu's matches you'd know that it definitely has a lot of power and potential stored deep within itself. It's just inexperienced at handling that power, but that's something it'll learn to how to control with time."Young Link stood up and brushed himself off."You've fought against Lucario and Incineroar in a few matches already, so you should know how tough Pokémon can be."In retrospect, thinking about all the other Pokémon currently participating in the smash tournament, Wolf really couldn't make heads or tails with what Pokémon actually were. Each one of the had such variety in how they looked and acted it seemed absurd to partly classify all of them in the same "species". The fact that Lucario and Mewtwo were the only ones capable of speech made the group classification issue worse."Pokémon are such weird creatures." was all Wolf said. "Well, I can't fully argue with that. But just try not to underestimate Pichu if and when you get matched up with it in a battle. Anyway, I'm gonna head out now so I'll see you later Wolf, most likely for our next team match."And with that Young link left the room, leaving Wolf a little bewildered at the conversation the two just had.Looks can be deceiving. Wolf chewed on those words just as heartily as Pichu was eating its food.He examined the small yellow mouse in front of him. Happily eating each pellet one at a time, its cheeks stuffed with food, letting out small squeaks of pleasure with every bite. This thing was a fighting machine? Maybe Young Link was right, he had to see this thing fight sometime. If it wasn’t a born killer at least he could see a small squishy thing get scrapped around the battlefield, which filled him with a guilty pleasure.“Don’t suppose you have a problem with smoking do ya?” He asked.Pichu looked up from its meal and with a full mouth uttered a, “Pichu, pichu pichu pi.”“Alright then.” He knew that most Pokemon didn’t really understand common language, but they could still get the “feeling” of what you wanted. Regardless of what Pichu’s answer was, he still continued his smoking. In and out. Thankfully a window was open."Something’s up with that kid.” Wolf said to himself. “The kinda things he says don't match up with how old he looks…" He took a long drag. He thought about the bits and pieces of sagely advice Young Link happened to drop on him every so often as if he was some sort of fortune cookie factory. Just who was he anyway?“Pichu Pi Pichu.” Pichu said, obviously some kind of opinion.“I wasn’t askin’ you. Shut up and eat.”He was talking to mice now. Clearly it was time to leave.Wolf looked back at Pichu who was still chowing down its food, and then shifted his sight a little over to the right and saw the Duck Hunt Dog happily chewing on a bone. To Wolf, a traditionally normal dog seemed completely alien to him. He stopped his train of thought before it started thinking about what kind of planetary conditions allowed his species to evolve further than this mutt."That’s not the only thing weird about this tournament." Wolf thought to himself in puzzlement, he took another puff of his cigarette before putting the light out with the tips of his fingers and putting the still half good cigarette back in the packet for later.
[A Delectable Treat]
"Thank you for inviting me to grab a fruit smoothie with you Lucina!" Isabelle exclaimed happily as she took the drink offered to her by her teammate."The pleasure is all mine, I'm very happy you agreed!” Lucina replied taking a sip from her own drink.The two of them then paid for their smoothies at the fruit beverage stall and left, deciding to casual walk down the mansion hallways with no real destination in mind. Simply enjoying their nutritious drinks while talking to each other. "You and I really haven't had much time together just the two of us, so this seemed like a good idea.""Eguhhh..." Isabelle winced after taking another sip of her drink, scrunching her eyes shut.“Ah! Careful there Isabelle, they put a lot of ice in these smoothies.”"Oh, I can certainly tell." Isabelle said rubbing her forehead to warm up a little. This earned a small friendly laugh from Lucina who remembered making the same mistake the first time she tried one of these drinks."You know...I'm embarrassed to admit this but, these fruit smoothies were one of the things I actually missed the most after leaving the last smash tournament.”"Really?" Isabelle asked genuinely."Yeah, they're just so delicious! and good for you apparently. Who would have thought that mashing different fruits together with milk would produce such a delicacy.""Don't you have blended drinks back at home?”“Unfortunately, no. Back in my own time, my original timeline, a delicacy such as these nutritional drinks are not available to anyone. Many resources have been tarnished or outright destroyed. Decent drinking water is the best thing I could hope to get, and that isn't always a guarantee."Isabelle frowned. She thought about the clean waters that always flowed through the rivers in her town and into the sea, sparkling, clear, and blue suddenly polluted by warfare.“That sounds horrible, I'm sorry to hear that Lucina.""You have no need to be sorry Isabelle. The fault is mine for bringing up the unpleasant nature of my background."“Do you…need to talk about it?” Isabelle inquired.“I am thankful for your offer, but it is one I cannot accept. My grief is not yours to bear Isabelle and I would not want it to be such. You needn’t worry. For the time being, I've made my peace with my complicated past. It is best left forgotten by time itself now as it is a future that is no more thanks to the efforts of my father and Robin.“So please, don’t worry yourself.” Lucina said as she turned and gave an earnest smile to her fellow teammate.Again, something hidden. Something Isabelle wouldn’t understand. But she wanted to understand, to know her teammates fully. She had been so used to villagers coming to her with worries, being so open about their troubles that it was a shock that every time Isabelle tried to pry Lucina open she was declined. But not wanting to let her bad memories bubble to the surface, she decided not to pursue it further.“If you say so.” Isabelle replied, taking another sip of her drink.“Anyway, pardon me for overtaking the conversation. How have you been feeling lately Isabelle?”"I'm doing great! My arms are still a little sore from the other day but I’m doing much better after getting this smoothie!" Isabelle happily replied.“I really think Wolf’s workout routine is quite atrocious. Even though I’m not completely versed in this world’s exercise equipment, I don’t think you should work out your arms that much. Next time you’re exercising, come with me. I’ll talk with the trainers and we can develop a better routine that suits you better.”“Oh no, that’s ok. In fact, I prefer Wolf’s workout routine. I think I’ll have to help spot him more often.” She took a thoughtful sip of her drink. “Being near him, it feels like I could be tough like him too.”An image suddenly came to Lucina’s mind as she briefly imagined Isabelle in a spiked leather jacket while wearing an eyepatch as if trying to emulate Wolf. She frowned and cocked her head. “I can’t really picture it. Besides, I think you’re perfect just the way you are!” She reached over and grabbed Isabelle’s cheeks, giving them a squeeze.”“Hey Lucina! Stop that!” Isabelle’s protests falling on deaf ears. Isabelle wasn’t a big fan of people petting her, even though it did feel quite nice. But Lucina was from a ruined future, devoid of anything soft and fluffy, and sounded like she had an unhappy childhood, so she let it slide for her every once in a while.“I can’t help it! You’re just too cute! Sometimes I wish I could be as cute as you Isabelle.” She said, releasing her grip on her.“But Lucina, you’re so beautiful and pretty! And you’re a powerful warrior to boot! I wish I could be more like you! Like everyone on the team!” Isabelle struck a power pose, hands on her hips, eyes to the sky. “Strong and cute!”Lucina’s curiosity got the better of her. “So Isabelle, what do you think about Wolf anyway?”“H-huh?” Isabelle dropped her power pose. “What brought this up?”“Well like I said earlier, we rarely get time to ourselves. Young Link and I sometimes worry about keeping the group together with how abrasive Wolf is and I know he was pretty rough on you when we first started being a team. So I guess I wanted to see how you were doing on that front.”Lucina folded her arms. “Think of this as just Girl Talk.”Isabelle thought for a moment. What did she think of Wolf? There was no denying they had formed some sort of connection over the past month, but what that connection meant to her she was still unsure of. With how close she and Wolf been getting lately, Isabelle was starting to see there was much more to him than the darker persona he was known for. That alone seemed to be what drove her interest in him further.Isabelle was starting to blush faintly. All this thinking about Wolf was getting a little overwhelming for her. Getting put on the spot wasn’t something Isabelle enjoyed, especially if it was a question regarding her personal feelings towards another person.“Well!! Is there someone that’s special to you Lucina?” Isabelle said with all the force of a medieval inquisitor, trying to flip the question back at Lucina in an act of deflection. “Hmm, that’s an interesting choice of words, I don’t remember asking if he was special to you.” Lucina teased.Isabelle blushed even harder at her slip up. Why did she say that?“But to answer your question: yes, there is actually. They’re back at home.” Lucina replied plainly.Isabelle groaned in disappointment. “You’re too honest! That’s not cute at all!”And with that, both Isabelle and Lucina had a nice laugh together as they finished their drinks and decided to head towards the smash lounge to relax. Perhaps they would play a friendly round of checkers now that Lucina learned the rules.
[A Wonderous View]
A large scream echoed through the air and shook the battlefield arena with the sheer intensity of its volume. The ear-splitting battle cry belonged to none other than the dreaded space pirate Ridley taking part in a match between the noble mercenary and radiant hero Ike.Ridley lunged forward towards his opponent with vicious intent, preparing the grab him with his lanky claw like hands. However, with quick and clever maneuvering, Ike managed to dodge the space pirate’s grasp by side stepping the attack and countered with a massive swing of his two-handed broadsword Ragnell to the space dragon’s face. Though not enough to break the skin, the force of the strike was still enough to knock Ridley off-balance for a moment, giving Ike a chance to follow up on another attack.Taking advantage of the opening with a quick downward swing, the mercenary slammed his sword against the space between Ridley’s left shoulder blade and rib cage. A fearsome strike from the swordsmen but unfortunately it was not enough as Ridley grabbed ahold of the blade with his hand and countered with a tail strike to Ike’s midsection, cracking it against him like a whip. This sent Ike flying a short distance across the battlefield. “Ouch.” Lucina thought to herself as she along with her teammates Young link and Wolf, watched the ongoing battle from the monitor screens in the mansion lounge. They were all grouped around one of the couches placed in front of the main TV monitor.“I don't blame Isabelle for choosing not to watch this battle, it's getting to be rather gruesome." Lucina remark.“I’ve been in worse.” Wolf mused unimpressed. He was slouching against the armrest of the couch, resting his head on his arm."Looking back on all of his previous battles, Ridley's opponents tend to receive more injuries from their matches against him than almost anyone else in the tournament." Lucina stated."Except Ganondorf." Young Link mentioned coldly, sitting still as he continued watching the battle with displeasure. He wasn’t the only one either, Wolf narrowed his eye as he watched Ridley trade blows with Ike, hating how much Ridley always looked like he was having sadistic fun when fighting no matter how damaged he got.As the two fighters clashed once again, the timer was running low and the battle was about to come to a close. Ridley had managed to trip Ike at a crucial moment with his tail and grabbed him as he began to fall, slamming him against the floor. With Ike completely pinned, Ridley then dragged the swordsmen against the ground before throwing him far off stage and out of bounds securing his victory."Game!” The announcer shouted. “This game's winner is: Ridley!"“Feh.” Wolf muttered in disgust, displeased with the outcome."That was a pretty close match. Ike really managed to get the better of Ridley a few times during the battle. But my educated guess for what clinched the match for Ridley was stamina and overall aggressive attacks. It's like he's able to take the brute force of so many attacks while keeping on offense.” Lucina posed."And despite his frail appearance, his skin seems to be very sturdy. Being able to act just like armor.” Young Link added.Wolf got up from his position and turned away, he didn't want to hear any of this. Wolf honestly hated seeing the reptilian monster claim victory almost as much as the Starfox crew. Almost."Are you leaving Wolf?" Young Link asked.“Yeah, I'm sick of watching other people's matches. I'm gonna go find Isabelle.""Well if that’s the case I believe she said she was going in the back of the lounge to sit by the windows." Young link said pointing in the direction behind them.Wolf began walking in the appropriate direction, passing by other smash combatants absorbed in their own leisurely activities. Some were also watching matches on other available TV monitors, some were playing simple games like a round of cards, and other were reading miscellaneous books found on the lounge bookshelf. None of this interested Wolf enough to care. As he made it to the back of the lounge, Wolf managed to find Isabelle sitting on a decorative comfort chair facing large bay windows to the view outside. She had the look of utter amazement in her eyes yet her facial expression and relaxed body language gave the impression of total tranquility.Isabelle seemed so content that Wolf questioned if he should even bother her.After standing there for a minute or two and mentally weighing the decision, Wolf figured his presence wouldn’t disturb her (at least he hoped it wouldn’t) and proceeded to walk over to Isabelle."Hey. There you are." Wolf spoke softly."Oh hi Wolf.” Isabelle replied turning her head to face him. “Did you guys finish watching the evening matches already?" She asked."Well I certainly did. There’s still matches going on, but I got tired of watching other people fight.""I see, so then what brings you all the way back here?""I was mainly just coming to see what you were up to.” Wolf said as he sat down in the chair to the right of her while avoiding her eyes, almost giving her the impression he was nervous."Oh well, nothing too grand. I was actually just enjoying the view from the windows." Isabelle said as she pointed forward directing Wolf's line of sight out the windows to the scenery outside.The landscape outside looked to be almost like that of an impressionist painting, with various environments all mashed together in a chaotic yet somehow beautifully cohesive way. A vast ocean far off where the horizon met the sky fractured and broke off into small bodies of water that broke off even further into wall falls separated by different types of landmasses such as rocky mountains and forests."The view from here is something to behold wouldn't you say Wolf?” Isabelle asked."I suppose." Was all he replied with.“There's something so wondrous and other-worldly about the luscious environments here. I can’t help but feel relaxed whenever I sit back here by myself, away from all the noise and excitement from the rest of the mansion. It’s like my own private little corner.”In a way Wolf could relate to this, finding quiet solitude for himself was half the reason he had stayed in his room keeping to himself for a good chunk of the early tournament.Considering how interested she seemed with the landscapes around the mansion, Wolf got a tiny bit curious and decided to ask.“So...I’m guessing you enjoy sightseeing?""Yes, I do!” Isabelle replied enthusiastically. “Though I usually don't have the time to travel back home. My work keeps me pretty busy and tied down to the village I live in."She continued on, “I am however a bit fortunate in that my village is right off the coastline of the ocean, so the beach is within walking distance for me. Sometimes during the evening when I have a day off, I like to sit at the beach and watch the sunset and it's always a gorgeous view!"What about you Wolf? Being a space traveler, surely you've seen some AMAZING sights in space!"Wolf had thought about for a moment, what Isabelle had said was indeed true. During his career as a space mercenary, Wolf he had travelled through many interesting sections of space around the Lylat system.Seeing entire planets and their atmospheres from the view of space, technologically advanced orbital space stations, brightly colored nebulas, and even the chaotic nature of asteroid belts. Wolf had seen quite a lot and all of it was breath-taking. Though to him, it was really hard to describe all of it. He wasn’t one for elegant descriptions or fantastical storytelling of cosmic wonders.Wolf then spoke up, "you could say that, though unfortunately it's a bit hard to put into words exactly how the wonders of space can mesmerize a person. It's just one of those things where the pictures in textbooks won't do it any justice. You need to experience them for yourself.""I can only imagine… Someday I'd like to do just that." Isabelle declared.
Wolf couldn't stop a warm smile from creeping across his face at listening to Isabelle claim as much, it was hard not being impressed by how curious see was about the reaches of space.Wolf and Isabelle sat in silence for the rest of the evening watching the sun set over the horizon, causing the sky to change from a heavenly orange red to the bewitching night sky filled with stars.Another day at the smash mansion had come to a close.But something was amiss. A strange phenomenon was brewing. Off in the distance, far enough that no one could see it, a small light, foreign and alien, gave off a peculiar glow, like a star that should not exist, and moved in a very peculiar trajectory.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Noise.That was the one word Chrom would use to describe the atmosphere of the Smash Mansion. Every morning the lofty silence of the night would be overtaken by the sound of friendly laughter, casual conversation, and the snarky remarks between opponents. With so many people attending and staffing this tournament, there was always some form of noise filling all corners of the mansion throughout the day. The people, more than anything else, are what made the Smash Mansion such a lively place full of enthusiastic energy.None of the noise was typically a problem for Chrom. Far from it, as he was used to being in the middle of some kind of commotion from his time spent on the battlefield and ruling a large kingdom. However today was an exception.Sitting upright in his chair with a studious posture, Chrom was trying his best to pay attention to the match being televised on the monitor in front of him. What made this difficult was the small crowd of people huddling around the area next to him, all shouting in excitement. Everyone present in the lounge was watching a different match play out on all the different TV monitors. It was hard to tell who was watching what.Truth be told, the lounge wasn’t Chrom’s favorite place to be at in general. It always seemed so disorderly compared to other places in the mansion like the Wii Fit studio or the cafeteria. But it was the best place to view the monitors up close and get clear footage of what was going on in any fight.The match that Chrom was intensely watching featured his daughter Lucina and her team in the midst of a large team battle; two teams, four fighters each, one that had been going on for quite a while now.In terms of the ruleset put in place, it was a “first to elimination” match meaning that the first person to be knocked out of the arena or be unable to fight further would be counted as a loss against the individual’s the whole team. This was considered the most difficult ruleset to be put in place for any team battle as it meant even a single tiny mistake could cost a team the match.Since the tournament began, Chrom had made it a point to watch Lucina’s matches at every opportunity he could, which meant anytime he wasn’t obligated to fight in his own team battles. It was his way of cheering on his daughter on from afar as she battled fiercely in this competition.Amongst all the chaos that was happening around him, Chrom heard his name called out behind him. As he turned around, Chrom saw the man he had come to know as Ken Masters walk over to him with Guile and Samurai Goroh close behind.“Hey there Chrom, Ya busy at the moment?” the renowned martial artist asked.“Um, kinda. Is there something I can help you gentlemen with?” Chrom replied.“No, me and the guys just got word that the bar opened up and we’re heading over there. We were wondering if you’d like to join us for a drink.”"I see. Well thanks for the offer but I'm gonna have to decline. I'm not really one for drinking. Plus, I'm in the middle of watching my daughter's team match." Chrom stated respectfully. “It's a bit early in the afternoon to start drinking anyway”, he thought."Well that’s a shame, best of luck to your daughter." Ken said."Aye, she's gonna need it.” Goroh uttered, feeling inclined to add his two cents into the matter. “Her team's going up against Captain Falcon and he’s no pushover. Ol’ Falcon hits as fast and hard in the ring as he does on the track, I know from experience!"Chrom simply turned his head back to the TV monitor unamused while Ken nudged Guile on the shoulder, motioning that they should leave. It was clear to all but Goroh that no one really cared to hear his opinion. Nonetheless, he continued:“Your daughter is the one in the blue right?” Goroh asked pointing to the screen. “She doesn’t look like she has much muscle on her. Sorry to say but she ain’t gonna be able to tangle with the best if she can’t match opponents in power.”“Perhaps. But a battle isn't always won by strength alone. I'm willing to wait until the match is over before I make my judgement." Chrom stated. He was starting to get a little annoyed, quite an accomplishment on Goroh’s part considering how reserved Chrom normally was.The screen cut to Lucina, standing still while catching her breath. Then just as quickly as she appeared, she ran off-screen. A camera from another angle followed her running across the battlefield, sword at her side, ready to make an assault."Hey, your funeral then." Samurai Goroh casually replied as he left to go catch up with Ken and Guile already on their way out the lounge exit. Out of the corner of his ear, Chrom could just faintly hear the rowdy bandit racer whisper to his drinking buddies: “Twenty credits says her team chokes and loses".Chrom shook his head in disappointment. This was typical behavior he had come to expect from many of the fighters and spectators of the tournament. So many people here were focused more on who would come out victorious in a match than what was truly important: self-improvement.This was a quality Chrom knew Lucina had in spades, He knew that no matter what challenges his daughter faced she would always give her best to rise above them and improve herself. That was just the kind of person Lucina had grown up to be in his absence in her alternate timeline.In truth, the outcome of the match wasn’t much of a concern to Chrom as he was filled with pride in his daughter for how far she has improved since fighting alongside her on the battlefield, something that was reflected in her efforts in this tournament.And while it was true that the other team seemed to have the upper hand at the moment, the match wasn’t over and Chrom wasn’t willing to count Lucina and her team out just yet. "Hey Wolf, you need to try and aim your shots lower to the ground around their feet.” Young Link said as lined up his sight using his bow and prepared to fire another arrow. “Remember the plan, we aren't trying to hit them, just restrict their movement while Lucina holds them off and Isabelle finishes setting up her trap.”"Don't tell me how to aim kid.” Wolf barked back.“I’m not, I’m just telling you to stick to Lucina's plan."As he finished speaking, Young Link shot an arrow in front Captain Falcon and Ryu causing both of them to jump back. Wolf then aiming his blaster and fired three shots in-between all four fighters of the enemy team to keep them out of arms reach of each other. Luckily, as Young link and Wolf were high atop a raised platform, that meant they were out of reach of the enemy team and could continue to put pressure on the opponent’s movement.Lucina had Instructed Young link and Wolf to keep the enemy team grouped up on one side of the stage as well as divide them from each other in the limited space they had once the time limit reached the halfway point and the platforms of the stage would rise to their highest altitude.The match in question was taking place on a replica of one of the many training coliseums native to Marth and Lucina's homeland of Ylisse. The stage itself was considered a difficult arena to navigate due in no small part to the ever-changing platforms and walls mechanically alternating their elevation through the use of ancient industrial gear mechanisms housed in the ground below the fighter’s feet. Specific portions of the stage would elevate at timed intervals causing not only unbalanced terrain but walls of machinery to divide the stage up into maze like sections. To the casual spectator, the entire arena was a marvel in ancient technology from the era Lucina was from.It was fortunate that this stage was chosen for Lucina's team as it gave them two main advantages. For one thing, the enemy team comprised of Captain Falcon, Little Mac, Bowser, and Ryu. All four being heavy hitters that excelled in close quarters combat but were lacking in ranged attacks, having no substantial ones of their own with the exception of Ryu's legendary Hadoken. The shifting walls made navigating through the structure risky and the distance between fighters could be easily closed with an arrow or a shot from a blaster.And second: this stage was the one Lucina was most familiar with. Ever since the fourth tournament, Lucina had fought in this arena more than any other. It felt like a home away from home, the days of training with her comrades on her travels brought to life again every time she fought there. Due to this accumulated experience, Lucina had long since memorized the layout of the stage as well as which platform sections would raise and lower and when.All of these factors combined gave for a huge advantage to Lucina and her team. However, this was still not an easy battle. The enemy team proved more difficult to match in strength and keep at bay while Lucina’s plan was put into motion.Out of the four, Bowser was the most problematic to deal with due to his size and durability. With his tough reptilian scales and spiked shell, it was hard to damage him enough to make him stagger or push him back. A feat Lucina was discovering firsthand.Facing backwards and letting his large shell take a few hits from Young Link’s arrows and Wolf’s blaster shots, Bowser managed to sneak out of the corner the rest of his team was in. Lucina rushed in to push him back into it.His arms raised defensively with his hands curled into fists, Bowser was attempting to block all of Lucina’s strikes as she coordinated an assault of swift sword slashes against him. Some made contact but were rendering ineffective while the rest that were aimed at his vulnerable sides caused Bowser to rapidly sidestep left or right but never backwards.With the Koopa King not backing down and holding his position, Lucina realized that she needed to alter her attacks if she wanted to force Bowser backwards, and she knew how she was going to do it.Sword fighting is just dancing with sharp objects between you and your partner. Both of you move across the floor in an ever-changing rhythm, your feet trying to match the other, your bodies sometimes in sync, other times in opposition, reacting to each other in fluid, coordinated movements. If your opponent does not have a sword, the dance is simply between you and your blade. Your sword, a mere extension of your hand, moving when and where you tell it to move. This is what Lucina had learned while trying to capture and replicate the elegant fighting style of the Hero King Marth.Bowser was trying to simply predict Lucina’s attacks instead of relying on his reflexes to block her sword. He’d rather take the brunt of her attacks than move or try to attack. She played along. Up, down, across the shoulder. Down, up, side to side. With the control of an orchestra conductor she swung her blade against the tough skin in a pattern she knew Bowser would pick up on. Each of her attacks a single movement, each of them seamlessly flowing into the next into a flurry of strikes and slashes.As Bowser adjusted the position of his arms to block the next slash he thought would come from above, Lucina pulled back her sword and thrust it forward. Bowser’s scales were tough enough to take grazes from sword slashes, but not a straightforward stab aimed at his unexposed gut.Caught off guard, Bowser jumped back far enough to get out of the reach of Lucina’s attack, unfortunately ending up back in the corner with the rest of his team, still under fire from Young Link and Wolf’s barrage of projectiles.“Success.” Lucina thought to herself.She immediately retreated back to a safe distance positioned below of to the side where Young Link and Wolf were perched at to regain her stamina.With Captain Falcon’s team all stuck in one place, everything seemed motionless as both teams were at a standstill. No one moved, for fear of making an opening for the opposing team. It was now a matter of waiting for the first attack so a counterattack could be set up.Keeping her focus on the enemy team, Lucina could just barely make out Captain Falcon saying something to his surrounding teammates. They were too far away for her to make out what they were saying but Lucina was sure they were devising a way to breakout from their compromising position. She braced herself for what was what was about to happen, but she was not afraid. She still had her plan set in motion. The next move could secure their victory if it was successful.Two more minutes and all the platforms would reset for a brief minute, lowering themselves back down to the ground and causing the stage to have a flat surface. Once this happened, the trap would be complete. It was all a matter of holding out until then.Just then, without warning, Captain Falcon made the first move, sprinting forward to try and close the gap between him and Lucina. Though the path was only a straight line, it was enclosed between two massive walls that held up the platforms above. One of them was the platform Young link and Wolf were standing on. Despite their ongoing barrage, the captain continued running forward at full speed as Lucina took up her defensive stance."Captain Falcon's on the move! Wolf, take care of the other three!" Young link shouted, shooting off an arrow.As Young link began his ranged assault, Captain Falcon took special precaution with his movements, keeping his attention split between Lucina and Young Link above him. The fire arrows aimed around his feet did little to stop the captain's momentum as he alternated between forward and backward short dashes in-between shots, a common speed technique now known as "dash dancing" among most of the fighters. He slalomed and serpentined like a bolt of lightning in a pinball machine.It seemed as though Lucina wasn’t the only one dancing in this fight. Remove the sophistry of battle and camaraderie and dancing just becomes really just fancy footwork.Captain Falcon was able to maneuver around all the arrows shot by Young link, even in the narrow hallways and corridors formed between the walls. Even with all his experience with a bow, Young Link couldn't reload his arrows and aim fast enough.Wolf continued the volley of laser blasts toward the cornered team. While his blaster shot out decent sized laser bursts, it fired almost at the same speed as link pulling back the drawstring, aiming, and then firing an arrow. The loss of support from Young Link was noticeable. He would also not be fast enough.With the break in formation, the other three members of Captain Falcon’s team saw an opportunity and ran in three separate directions as fast as they could."Great..." Wolf huffed as he saw the other team scatter.Wolf lowered his blaster realizing that his role as a sniper was no longer ideal since everyone had split off from one another. Their makeshift choke point in the arena was no longer necessary. His eyes darted to each one of them, gauging their trajectories, assessing their threat level. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Little mac sprinting down the opposite side of the wall Captain Falcon had, the side Wolf was on.He was probably trying to surround Lucina from the backside. But Little mac was unintentionally making his way to where Isabelle was around the corner, trying to complete her part of the plan."Damnit!" Wolf thought.Wolf jumped down from the platform and landed in front of Little Mac, cutting off his pathway to other side and where Isabelle was.“Not so fast there little man. Can’t let you do that.” Wolf said, taunting the boxer into a fight. Around the corner, sandwiched in between large walls from nearly every side, was Isabelle.Due to her small size and the height of the walls created by the elevated platforms, Isabelle was able to remain out of sight for most of the match as she navigated the arena. While remaining hidden from the enemy team, Isabelle had carefully unraveled and placed fishing line down on the ground all throughout the stage in a certain pattern by Lucina’s instructions.The fishing line was practically invisible while placed inside the tiny crevices of the floor tiles and positioned amongst all the dust and dirt on the coliseum floor.“There, that’s the last of it.” Isabelle said as she finished laying fishing line down on the ground. She had used up her entire spare roll that she had brought with her for the trap. Now the only fishing line she had left was what was currently on her fishing rod.“I hope this works. Mr. Tom Nook assured me this fishing line was very strong when I bought it from him. I just hope it’s strong enough to do what Lucina wants it to do.”As she stood up, Isabelle could hear the distinct sounds of an intense battle happening from all around her as her teammates were fending off their opponents as best as they could. Though she couldn’t tell what was happening, Isabelle knew that it could throw off the plan if she were to leave her spot and disrupt the flow of the battle. Lucina played to her strengths after all. Isabelle wished there was more she could do. But the plan…Isabelle simply stayed put and trusted her team to come out on top. Back on the front lines, Lucina was currently struggling against Captain Falcon who was outmatching her in speed. Of course he was. He was a racer. The track was his battlefield. One mistake, one degree off from his intended path was all it would take to send him careening off and into a fiery explosion. Needless to say, his reflexes were finely tuned. Equipped with only his padded gloves, he was parrying all of Lucina’s sword strikes, diverting each one from their intended path.Lucina was on the offensive. Trying to lead this encounter but more and more felt like she was being led instead. Her previous opponent was large and difficult to miss. Due to his much slimmer build compared to Bowser, Captain Falcon had a much easier time side stepping direct attacks at his body. He was watching her fight Bowser, and found that some of her attacks were obviously telegraphed. Series of steps that followed patterns.Lucina pulled back her hand preparing for another thrust, taking aim at him. Captain Falcon rushed forward with a series of jabs in the gaps in her light armor, knocking her out of balance. He charged forward, his fist rocketing towards Lucina like a battering ram. She instinctively pulled her sword in front of her to take the hit but there wasn’t enough time or energy to prepare a counter for this attack.The impact of the punch was powerful enough to knock Lucina backwards a considerable distance. The Captain was strong, perhaps just as strong as Bowser was, that much was clear to Lucina.She tumbled along the stone floor, dust clouds flying into the air. Her feet quickly found their grip again and she stood.“It should be about time for the stage to reset” Lucina thought to herself. Perhaps it was her time traveling habits but she had an innate sense of time. How long does a battle take? How long did it take for her to respond to each rising action and falling comrades and enemies? There were timers in her head, starting and stopping at different intervals; She didn’t need an announcer to tell her when the match timer was half over. She already knew. And she’s fought on this stage enough to hear each subtlety in each gear of the ancient machinery surrounding her. The creaking wood, the scratching metal, the gentle sigh within the walls, just before the platforms mark their descent.She stood her ground and counted down. “3…2…1…”As if on cue, all the interlocking gears and pulleys housed on the mechanical walls began to turn. The raised platforms started to sink back towards the ground. The two minutes had passed by and the stage was resetting itself back to a flat battle arena. In a matter of seconds, the surface of the arena was completely flat, revealing Isabelle off in the corner near the stage's out of bounds line.This was it, the moment of truth.“NOW!" Lucina shouted.Hearing the signal, Wolf broke away from his little boxing match with Little Mac and ran towards where Isabelle was standing. He and Lucina grabbed the ends of the fishing line from opposite ends of the stage. Both Young Link and Isabelle crawled down and hugged the floor as Wolf and Lucina pulled the line as fast and hard as they could.In the blink of an eye, the fishing line ascended upwards from the miniscule ridges in the floor tiles as it constricted around the center of the stage where Captain Falcon, Ryu, Bowser, and Little Mac were standing. All four of them getting caught in the tangled fishing line closing in all around them.Unable to escape, the fishing line started to constrict even tighter causing the four fighters on the enemy team to get pulled closer together at the dead center of the stage.Before the match had even started, Lucina had worked out how the fishing line would be placed in a strategic manner that would cause it to form multiple layered knotted loops around the target when pulled tightly. Taking into account how the stage surface would change throughout the fight and figuring out how to lay down the fishing line accordingly so it wouldn’t be compromised by the raising platforms and walls was a heavy task, but it was one Lucina and her team had managed to overcome.It was finished.The plan had worked, the opposing team were all tied down together. All that was left was to knock them off balance and pin them down or push them out of bounds. Considering the combined weight of all four fighters the former method was by far more practical.Seeing the chance to win the match in front of him, Wolf got a running start to build up speed as he leaped forward in a jump kick aimed at Bowser. If he could just hit Bowser hard enough in the opposite direction, his weight alone would likely cause the tied-up group to topple over.Before Wolf could make contact, Bowser put all of his strength into his arms and with one mighty flex, snapped the multi-layered fishing line, freeing himself and his teammates.Missing Bowser due to a quick dodge on the Koopa King’s part, Wolf tumbled a little bit as he rebalanced himself on the ground.With the trap having failed, both teams froze in place."Split up!” Falcon called out, signaling his team to spread out once again, each targeting a member of the opposite team.Falcon’s plan was a simple but effective one, rush down an opponent before the platforms elevated again and created walls. It was their turn to take advantage of the battlefield.Bowser launched towards Lucina as if to resume their earlier skirmish, Captain Falcon grappled Wolf who was standing close by due to his failed attack, Ryu made his way towards Young Link, and Little mac ran towards Isabelle.Everything was happening so fast. Lucina and Young Link were both forced on the defensive as their opponents charged at them with an unrelenting flurry of powerful blows. Wolf was trying to keep Captain Falcon at a distance with his blaster, and Isabelle could only run away from Little Mac.The platforms began to raise again, though only a few near the south end of the stage, right where Isabelle was fleeing to. Hiding behind it wouldn't help as Little Mac knew her location but Isabelle couldn’t think of any other option. As her nerves were getting to her with everything that was happening, Isabelle didn’t realize she was just cornering herself from her opponent.Pressed against the mechanical walls, Isabelle turned around to face Little Mac. She had hoped to create some distance between him and her so she that had a chance to pull out her slingshot and hit him with it from afar, but sadly Little Mac was too quick for that. Having already caught up to with Isabelle, Little Mac was directly in front of her.Face to face with his small opponent, Little Mac stepped back and took a familiar stance. Isabelle could see Little mac winding up for one of his signature KO punches. With nowhere to go, Isabelle froze up in anticipation of the immediate knockout strike. She squinted her eyes shut in dismay and covered her head bracing for the impact that was about to come."ISABELLE! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!? GET OUT OF THE WAY, YOU'RE GONNA GET HIT!" Wolf shouted across the arena, turning his attention to Isabelle when saw Little Mac had cornered her.SMASH!!!A loud crashing noise radiated all across the arena, that halted the fighting for a single moment.It was strange, Isabelle couldn’t feel any pain. She opened one of her eyes to see what had happened. There was Little Mac hunched over her, with his right boxing glove smashed into the wall beside her forming a small crater.Isabelle just stood there, not knowing what to think as she looked up at Little Mac's face. Judging by his ashamed expression, it was not hard to tell that Little Mac deliberately missed his target."What the hells going on over there?” Wolf thought to himself."Falcon-"That word rang in Wolf's ears, snapping him to his senses as he turned around to see Captain Falcon charging up an attack of his own."-PUNCH!" He shouted, loose a powerful falcon punch straight to Wolf’s chest. Unable to react fully in time, the punch made contact. Nearly getting the wind knocked out of him, Wolf was launched with enough force that sent him flying over the arena boundary line and out thus out of bounds."MATCH OVER! Victory by out of bounds!" the announcer shouted.“Fuck." was all Wolf said as he lay there in the gravel still a in daze from the powerful hit he just took."Wolf!" Isabelle shouted as she, Lucina and Young Link were making their way over to him to see if he was okay.Although well planned and hard fought, their team had lost the match.Mild bruising in the center of his chest, with some slight swelling here and there. As per usual Wolf scoffed at the news from the medical staff, having known full well that his injury wasn’t serious even before he had left the arena. Despite this, the staff still felt it necessary to tell Wolf that he was lucky the injury was as minor as it was, as it could have been a lot worse considering the direct blow he took.When the match had ended, Wolf’s team had made sure to escort him to the medical wing, much to his chagrin. Wolf felt like too much attention was being placed on his injury and by extension, his loss against Captain falcon. But he had promised Isabelle he would be more diligent with seeking medical help when he needed it so his hands were tied in the matter.As soon as he got patched up by the staff, Wolf stood up and left without a word.As he made his way to the waiting room, Wolf noticed that Lucina was the only there left waiting for him. She stated Young Link had to go get another spare shield in the storage room. His last one got destroyed during his bout with Ryu in the match. Isabelle simply left saying she had to go get something.Whatever the reason, Wolf didn’t really think to question it. He was tired after the match and decided to retire back to his living quarters for the day.Currently He was sitting in his dorm room smoking one of the few cigarettes he had left, doing what he could to just unwind. The thoughts of what happened in the match replayed in his mind as he thought of what could have been done differently to secure the victory. Lately the team’s ranking had increased a little bit over the past week, though they were still somewhere in the general middle. Their slow upward climb would probably start to plateau after this loss.Just then, Wolf heard a knock on the door.Although he was not expecting any visitors, Wolf had a pretty good hunch on who it could be.As he got up from his chair to go open the door, his suspicion turned out to be true as it was none other than Isabelle standing in front of the doorway with her small medical kit in her arms."Hello Wolf.” Isabelle spoke up. “I had a feeling you'd be in your room. I left to go get my medkit and by the time I came back to the infirmary the medical staff said you had already left.”"Eh well, it was a quick in and out visit. A slight bruise on the chest isn't anything to worry about so I saw no need to sticking around.” Wolf replied."I see. I guess I was just being paranoid then. I can’t imagine anything keeping you down." Isabelle chuckled with a warm smile on her face. Wolf’s physical stamina was something that continued to amaze Isabelle the more time she spent with wolf in battle.“But there is another reason I came here. It's been about five weeks since I stitched up your cut. It should be about time to take the stitches out and I wanted to check and see how well the wound has healed up since then. Call it a hunch but I had a feeling that even though you were with the medical staff you would probably still be too stubborn to let the look at it."A bit surprised, Wolf turned his head slightly to glance at his left arm, having forgot about his injury a while ago. "...sure, that sounds fine. Come in.” Wolf said as he held the door open for Isabelle.From there, the two canines got themselves situated. Having put out his cigarette, Wolf sat down and removed his jacket and under shirt while Isabelle pulled up a stool and opened her medkit, taking out the necessary tools. Before getting started, Isabelle inspected the cut on wolf's arm and was happy to see that it had completely healed up. His fur had even grown back around where the cut used to be, covering up whatever remains of a scar there was.Wolf still wasn’t used to such a tender touch. Soft paws moving against his fur, revealing the skin beneath."Well it looks like everything’s healed up nicely.” Isabelle said cheerfully."Speaking of, here.” Wolf said as he grabbed the tube of ointment on his nightstand and handed it over to Isabelle. “Thanks for letting me borrow this. Sorry I used most of it up.""That’s perfectly okay Wolf. As long as it did what it's supposed to do then that’s what matters.” Isabelle replied while taking the now virtually empty container and placing it back inside the medkit."Now let’s remove those old stitches, shall we?” With a hot bowl of water set up next to her for sanitation, Isabelle cleaned her paws with disinfectant and got to work. The process would normally be rather quick, but Isabelle wanted to take her time as she grabbed her medical snippers and carefully cut the intersecting wires along the stitch pattern. With each stitch removed, Isabelle would go back and wash over the area with warm soapy water to keep it clean. With how precise and meticulous Isabelle was being, Wolf almost had to wonder if she at one point volunteered as a nurse.Other than a few tiny grunts here and there from having the stitches pulled out, Wolf remained very still and silent. He was doing his best to not disrupt the removal process and let Isabelle do what she needed to do. This was something that was not lost on Isabelle.She noticed that Wolf had a very calm and dare she say it, relaxed posture to him, not at all like the first time when she had put the stitches in. Thinking back, an odd sense of deja vu washed over Isabelle as she was reminded of that day. A day that was still within recent memory yet felt so long ago with how her interactions with Wolf had changed.As she continued removing the stitches, Isabelle couldn't help but be drawn the few bandages wrapped around Wolf’s chest, covering the bruise he received from Captain Falcon. Looking at Wolf now, Isabelle couldn't help but feel a creeping sense of guilt build inside her."I'm sorry..." Isabelle said faintly. A frown had formed on her face as the words escaped from her mouth."What for?" Wolf asked, slightly puzzled at the apology.“For being the one responsible for you getting hurt...and for losing the match.""Don't worry about it. It's not your fault.” Wolf replied.“But it IS! when I got cornered by Little Mac and saw him winding up for a punch I froze up and just stood there. You tried to snap me out of it and got punched by Captain Falcon for doing so. If I would have been able to hold my own, then you wouldn’t have gotten hurt and we might not have lost the match today."“Listen. Don't go being all hard on yourself because of something like that. It's my own fault for getting hit due to taking my focus off the enemy in front of me."“You still got hit pretty badly because you were watching out for me" Isabelle said, looking yet again at the wrapped bandages around Wolf's chest.Now turning his head so he could face Isabelle, Wolf spoke up."LISTEN! It’s fine, really. Like I told everyone when the match ended, this little bruise is nothing. It'll be gone in a day's time, no big deal. Honestly, if Falcon wanted to really hurt me, he wouldn't pull his punches like he's been doing. I can tell he's got a lot more strength than what he’s displaying in these tournament matches.” Wolf sighed.“So. Don’t lose sleep over this. Okay Isabelle?" Wolf said. He looked intently at her.“Okay." Isabelle replied softly.Something was still off though. Wolf couldn’t figure it out but looking Isabelle in the eyes he swore he could make out a small noticeable look of disappointment on her face.“Hey, what’s with that look? Something still bugging you?”Isabelle took a moment to respond, debating on whether or not she should say anything until she finally spoke up. "Yeah, kinda.""Is it something you'd want to share?" Wolf asked, trying his best not to sound pushy.“Well it’s just that...what happened today isn't anything new. I don't know if you saw it as you were getting hit, but Little Mac intentionally missed me when he threw his punch. He hit the wall right next to me instead.“I think…” Isabelle had stopped what she was doing and just lowing her gaze until she was staring at the floor. “…he did it out of pity, thinking I'm not strong enough to take his hits. I mean, I did freeze up in fear just looking at his attack.“I know a lot of people in this tournament think that way about me. Pretty much all of the victories I've had in my solo matches have been because my opponent either forfeits the match not wanting to fight me or they deliberately go easy on me and lets me win.”Isabelle voice was starting to crack a little.“And I understand it to an extent, I really do. I know I'm not a fighter like almost every other person here, but it feels horrible knowing that nearly everyone looks down on me enough to just brush me off like I'm not trying. And it's even worse knowing that on top of all that I'm dragging the team down and getting other people hurt.”“The plan was hinging on my skills. Leaving string around. And I still messed it up.”Her eyes looked wet.“I don’t want to be seen as weak! I want to be seen as myself! I want to be the same as all of you!”Isabelle was now on the verge of tears. She was doing her best to hold them back and remain composed.“I don’t know why I’m even here…”Wolf was silent, He honestly wasn't aware of just how much this had been affecting Isabelle. It actually came as a bit of a surprise to him considering how well she had been able to hide all of this behind her usually cheerful demeanor."Hey." Wolf said putting is left hand on Isabelle's shoulder in gesture of consolation. "Don't be so hard on yourself ya hear? You're doing fine. No one on the team thinks you’re dragging us down.”Isabelle looked up at Wolf as he said this. Behind the all the gruffness the sincerity in his voice put her at ease.She then took a moment to compose herself. She was getting all emotionally wound up and the last thing she wanted to do was to start crying in front of Wolf. Before the tears started to form, she put down the snipping utensils and took a deep breath."I know. Everyone on the team has been so thoughtful. I just wish I could do more to pull my weight." Isabelle said between tiny sniffles."You're doing the best you can do. You may not believe it but I've seen improvement. You’re getting faster on your feet and a little stronger with how you swing your tools around. So don't be so hard on yourself. If you want to do better there’s always the next match." Wolf assured.Isabelle sniffed a little "Thank you Wolf. For the words of encouragement. And…thank you for letting me get this off my chest.""Don't mention it.” Wolf said stoically. Seems like the walls were coming up again.As she cleared her eyes, Isabelle began chuckling a little."And what's so funny all of a sudden?" Wolf asked."It's just that, from all the things I've heard about you, none of them seem to line up with the person I've come to know.Curious on what she meant by this; Wolf flipped back to his usual demeanor. "Oh? And what exactly have you heard of me exactly? And by who?" Wolf questioned in a serious tone. He was a bit worried on where this was going."Well it's a bit of a long story but, you remember when you came to apologize to me all those weeks ago? Well after you left, I got a surprise visit from Fox about a few minutes afterward.”Hearing Fox’s name mentioned, Wolf’s eye sharpened into a glare and his claws curled into tight fists as he started down at his feet. What the hell did Fox have to do with any of this and why would he bring Isabelle into it?"He said he just wanted to have a quick talk with me regarding you.”Wolf snarled. “About what?”“Well, It happened like this…“ It was moments after Wolf’s apology for snapping at her the night prior that Isabelle could say saw him be open and gracious for the first time since meeting him. Though it was sincere, the apology was quick and Wolf had left shortly afterwards. Alone once again, Isabelle had resumed her mourning routine. She was currently organizing her subscription contact lens she had brought with her to the tournament until another interruption occurred breaking her brief solitude. With another knock at the door she got back up to see who was at the door now. My, she was certainly popular today wasn’t she?"Excuse me. Isabelle, right?" Fox McCloud asked politely as she opened the door. "Oh ah yes, hello! What can I do for you Mr. Fox McCloud?”Isabelle had never interacted with him directly before. Though she had signed his paperwork and notarized all his supply requests at the initial tournament registration. She noticed that Wolf always seemed to tighten his posture every time he was mentioned.“Eh, that’s quite alright, you don't have to address me so formally.” Fox said somewhat flustered. “Just Fox is fine.” He then did a quick look around the hall before continuing.“I hope this won’t seem rude but I’d like to have a small talk with you regarding a certain someone. Can I come in?”“Oh um, sure.” Isabelle replied.As Fox walked through the doorway, he made sure to close the door tightly behind him to prevent eavesdropping.“Would you like to sit down?” She asked.“No, this should only take a minute.” He walked away from the door, towards the middle of the room. The amenities in the mansion were nice but the walls carried sound through them easily.“So here’s the thing.” He began. “I wanted to talk to you about your current teammate Wolf O’Donnell.”“Oh, what about him specifically?"There was no easy way to say this. Fox decided to just be straightforward. “Isabelle…has Wolf...threatened or harmed you in anyway?"Isabelle was shocked at the question, she couldn’t imagine why Fox would say such a thing.“W-WHAT? No! why would you think that?”"I'm just making sure. The reason why I’m asking you this is because…well there’s no other way to put it other than Wolf isn't exactly a "good" person."Isabelle started to look a little concerned. “What do you mean by that…?”“Well, you’ve seen the tournament roster right? So you’ve probably also looked through our little bios already while you were working in the main office. We’ve got some famous folks coming here all through the multiverse. Famous, and infamous. Good people and… bad people.”“I have. But like Master Hand said at the opening ceremonies, what happens outside of the tournament is just that. It shouldn’t restrict anyone’s enjoyment here. This is a fun event. For pleasure.”“Oh no, I think you know as well as I do that everyone’s pasts are the reason why we’re here in the first place.”This was true.“Fox, I know that Wolf is a mercenary—““So you know what he’s capable of.” He stopped her.Isabelle turned away. She knew Wolf was dangerous, but had not considered just how dangerous he was. Is. Will be. Why? She was his teammate. That’s all. This was a chance for everybody to meet new people, have new experiences. It was silly to let their reputations get in the way.“I mean, take what I have to say with a grain of salt. I am obviously biased. For as long as I’ve known him we’ve been enemies on the battlefield.” Fox continued. “Wolf is a dangerous person to be around. Without getting into overly complicated details of his exploits, he’s a space mercenary like me, and we've had many violent run-ins with each other."I'm being dead serious when I say this: be cautious around Wolf and just be on your guard. He’s helped me through a couple of tough scrapes, but he only thinks about himself. I don’t know him well enough to know what he’s like on a day to day basis, but I’ve seen what he's like when he gets angry or dead set on getting what he wants.“True be told, I actually wanted to meet up with you and talk about this much sooner back when the teams were first being decided. But I got sidetracked. I just got a little worried seeing Wolf walk over to your room a little while ago so that’s why I’m here now."“Why?” She asked. “What is there to worry about? What don’t you want to tell me?”She crossed her arms and frowned. Stared at his metal boots and her distorted, murky reflection in them.“Has he killed people?” She asked quietly.Fox frowned in turn. His eyes darted away from her for a brief moment.He bent down on one knee and put his hands on Isabelle’s shoulders, face to face with a serious look.
“Promise me this Isabelle, that if anything does happen and Wolf tries something funny, come to me and I'll deal with him. Don’t be afraid.”Isabelle’s mind was racing, this was a lot to take in so suddenly. She wasn’t sure what to make of it either, especially considering her prior encounter with Wolf moments ago.Exactly. It was too soon to tell.Taking a deep breath, Isabelle put an understanding smile on her face as she looked back at Fox.“Thank you for your concern Fox, but it isn’t necessary. I'm happy to report that Wolf was simply returning some medical supplies to me that I left with him yesterday. There have been no threats of acts of violence from him directed at me.” Isabelle stated.“Oh. I see. That doesn't sound like him but so long as you're okay it doesn't matter. I’ll take your word for it.” Fox replied.“I suppose if everything is alright, then I’ll head out and let you carry on with your business.” Fox added as he stood up and opened the door.“Thank you for stopping by Fox.”“Alright. Have a good rest of your day Isabelle.” He began to walk out but stopped and turned back to her. “And uh, no hard feelings on the match yesterday. Your team put up a great fight. He headed out of the doorway.Isabelle was alone once more. Thoughts swirled around in her head. She returned to checking her contact subscription. Thankfully, enough to last the whole tournament.“Well. Guess we’ll see what happens.” “-And then he left.”As Isabelle finished recounting of her talk with Fox, Wolf became enraged at hearing what had transpired. His fur stood on edge, his tail pointing up in the air, and his teeth grinded against each other. The nerve of that runt Fox to go and do something like that right under his nose! Trying to make his team distrust him from the very beginning. Like usual, Fox was setting Wolf up for failure.Though Wolf did his best to hide his rage (and doing a terrible job at it), Isabelle could clearly see he was visibly upset. It was kind of hard not to notice considering his fists were so tightly curled up and his body language was very ridged and tense.“Please don’t be angry Wolf. Fox was just looking out for me. My point in telling you this was to show that the things Fox was saying about you weren’t true.” Isabelle pleaded.“Yeah?! Well that’s just great. I’m so glad I proved him wrong!” He snarled. He saw her flinch at this. It made him consider what he’d do next. Why was he getting so worked up anyway?Wolf took a deep breath and lowered his head slightly, making sure to avoid looking Isabelle in the eyes.“The things he said… aren’t entirely wrong either.” was all Wolf uttered, his tone sounded so defeated which was unusual for him.“The part about me being a mercenary, a wanted one at that, back in my home star system is true. I have engaged in “morally questionable activities” that has brought the attention of Fox and authorities many times before.”“I see…” Isabelle replied.The room became quiet again, though this time for a different reason. For the first time, Wolf was actually afraid of what Isabelle might say next. Getting a bombshell dropped on you like this generally never yielded a positive reaction in the aftermath.“This certainly is a lot to think about. I’ll say it’s never a dull moment with you Wolf!”Wolf ears perked after hearing this; he then slowly turned his head back over to Isabelle out of curiosity. She was smiling. But Wolf knew Isabelle well enough to know that this smile was one out of reflex. Her customer service smile. One of accommodation and uncertainty. To defuse conflict and avoid arguments. He wondered how much had she smiled when he fought with the rest of the team just to attempt to keep things peaceful? Or maybe it was sincere, accepting him for who he is and was? Wolf honestly couldn’t tell in this instance.“With everything that has been said I still think you’re a nice person Wolf. At least from my perspective. I might not know everything that has happened between you and Fox, but I don’t think its right to judge someone solely based on what you hear from other people. It’s important to get to know a person before forming an opinion on them.”A small sense of relief came over him. He let his shoulders relax. “Hmph, such naïve mindset can get you killed.” Wolf retorted.“Well that’s too bad because it is a principle I strongly believe in. And it’s one that I’m not gonna disregard so easily!” Isabelle stated firmly.Wolf couldn’t help chuckle a bit.“Fair enough I guess.”With that Isabelle resumed her procedure and finished removing the last of Wolf’s stitches. She tucked the remains into a small plastic container labelled biohazard, the kind you’d find at a hospital. For health and safety regulations, she insisted. Wolf still thought it was too thorough for a simple medical kit. She packed all of her supplies back inside the container and stood up to leave.“Well It’s been nice, but I have to go. Master Hand wanted to see me about something.”As Isabelle walked through the door frame and was about to leave, she stopped suddenly and quickly turned around to face Wolf."Oh I almost forgot. Before I go, I wanted to give you something."Isabelle then took out a small box from her medkit.“Here." She held out the box in front of her which Wolf accepted. He opened the plastic clasp on it to find a number of white squares each wrapped in wax paper."What's this?" Wolf questioned."They're nicotine patches."Wolf looked completely dumbfounded at her response, it was as if he didn't register what Isabelle said."I don't want to be rude, but I've been able to smell cigarettes on your breath a lot lately. I didn't want to say anything at first, but I figured I could get you something to help kick the habit. So I got these patches while I was at the infirmary looking for you. I'm sure I don't need to tell you how bad smoking is for your health."This was possibly the most passive aggressive thing she’s ever done since he’s met her.It was starting to become apparent that he was changing. And She was the one changing him. Since when did she get a say in what he can or can’t do?"Um, thanks Isabelle.” Wolf said awkwardly staring at the box of patches in his hand.For all the time Wolf has been at the mansion, he had drawn a line in the sand. Don’t get too close to anyone, don’t let anyone influence you. And now, the line had been crossed.“You're welcome. Let me know how they work, and I'll see you later Wolf.”“Yeah. Bye Isabelle.” He said flatly.Wolf gently closed the door and waited until he couldn’t hear Isabelle’s footsteps anymore. He looked down at the box for a few moments thinking about everything he and Isabelle had just talked about. At once, a scowl formed on Wolf's face. His canine snout scrunched up in rage, baring his fangs as he threw the box across the room. It hit the wall and clattered to the floor, the patches escaping and scattering out of the box. Wolf quickly rushed to grab his jacket and blaster. He slammed the door to his room shut as he left running down the hallway.There was a certain fox he knew that was in for a very rude awakening.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
With the current time being 4:30 in afternoon, the day was quickly inching its way towards the early evening. Despite this, the Smash Mansion was still as active as ever. Matches were still being organized, facilities like the cafeteria, gym, and lounge area were still being used, and the official tournament staff were working to keep everything up and running under the direction of Master Hand.As the tournament festivities continued onward at their usual pace, there was something going on within one of the dorm rooms. Specifically, the one that belonged to a certain avian space pilot. What was typically used as an area of rest for fighters to relax or sleep during their stay at the mansion had become a fierce battle ground as a heated duel between two rivals was taking place.“I got yer number this time Fox!” shouted Falco with cocky resolve.“It’s not over yet Falco!”Competitive energy was radiating in the air as both space animals gripped their controllers tightly while staring at the TV screen in front of them. The game in question was a flight simulator created by their teammate Slippy in which players engaged each other in virtual dogfights with the objective to be the last spacecraft active. It was something Fox and Falco played quite often in their downtime back home, with the added excuse they often made to Peppy claiming it was extra practice for space piloting.Ever since the second tournament when Falco first got the invitation to attend, the avian would always bring the game console with him and set it up in his dorm room for situations like this. Because even though Fox and especially Falco were fond of fighting in real battles against actual people at the tournament, sometimes the two members of the Starfox crew just liked to veg out and enjoy playing their favorite game from time to time. This however, by no means stopped either of them from bringing their competitive spirit into it unfortunately.The current game session had been going on for a couple hours now with Fox managing to score a few more wins over his teammate. This made this match all the more important as Falco was determined to even out the scores. Moreover was the fact that Falco was also slightly behind Fox in the tournament rankings as well, so the incentive he had to try and one up Fox in the game to compensate was stronger than it usually was. Falco was aggressively tailing Fox’s ship within the game trying to line up his shot. The room was filled with electricity, the static from the monitor practically sparking from it, with the sound of incessant clicking and clacking of plastic against plastic. If he could land the hit, the match would be over.…Except Falco flew his little digital ship pretty much exactly like he pilots his Arwing. Too close to the sun.As Falco was about to press the trigger, Fox pulled a quick vertical summersault, positioning his ship behind Falco’s and blasting him with a homing missile. Clinching victory yet again."AW, DAMNIT!" Falco shouted as he stood up and threw his controller against the screen in a fit of aggravation."Hey careful there Falco, you don't want to break your controller, especially since we didn't bring any spares with us." Fox responded slyly clearly amused at his teammates anger. Falco's short fuse often made it easy to tease him.“After all, it is just a game. No need to get so worked up over it.” Fox added as he stood up and stretched."SHUT UP FOX! Don't patronize me!" Falco replied glaring at fox.This wasn't the first time Falco made an outburst over losing to Fox at this video game. Falco always had a track record of being a sore loser when it comes to anything competitive, and this was no exception. It didn't help that Fox would typically win a majority of the games they played, meaning that it was getting harder for Falco to back up his trash talk."Look at it this way Falco, at least you pilot your Arwing better in real life than you do in the game, otherwise you wouldn’t be standing here now.""WATCH IT! Don't tempt me or do you want to break out our ships from the mansion garage and dogfight for real?” Falco puffed up his feathers, bristling with a need for vengeance.Ultimately both space pilots knew this was an empty threat as Master Hand had implemented a “no unauthorized flight” rule near or around mansion grounds. On top of this, Slippy wasn’t here to repair their ships if either got damaged in a potential clash.After weighing the options and making the obvious decision, Fox let out a huge yawn and simply said “Nah. I'm good."Falco instantly deflated with a huff.“Anyway, as fun as it is smoking you at video games, I think I'm gonna head down to the showers and afterwards wind down for the day. I have a match tomorrow, so I want to be well rested for it.""Whatever." Falco muttered, not caring as he packed the game system up.“Cheer up Falco, at least you’ve still got your winning personality.”Like a bolt of lightning, Falco grabbed a cushion and flung it at Fox. “Get the hell out of my room!”With an effortless step to the door, Fox dodged the projectile waved to Falco and bid him a “Nighty niiiight!”Making his way down the hallways, Fox couldn’t help but notice how empty and quiet they were compared to the early morning and evening traffic when everyone would either be getting up to start the day or getting ready to turn in for the night.There wasn’t much in the way of décor either, at least in this part of the mansion anyway, just simple support beam structures with the smash emblem imprinted across the walls. The more stylized architecture was reserved for the great hall and other important rooms within the mansion. The afternoon had turned this cozy domicile into almost a labyrinth. Not that fox minded though, he had a keen sense of direction after all.As Fox continued onward, he encountered a couple of doors to supply closets that were common around the mansion. One door was slightly ajar, leaving the hinges squeaking. Was it recently opened?"Hm? It looks like some of the staff is doing some cleaning around here." Fox thought to himself, dismissing it quickly. But once he passed by the open door with his back turned, Fox stopped in his tracks. Something was off, His ear flickered a bit in response to a faint creaking sound.Before Fox could react, the door to the supply closet was kicked wide open and a shadow jumped out of the room and dashed towards Fox at high speed.In an instant, Fox was subdued as a hand gripped his canine-like nuzzle shut preventing him from shouting while a blade attached at the tip of a very familiar blaster was held close to his neck. It was immediately clear to Fox who the individual was.
"Hey there pup, how's it going?" Wolf spoke with a sinister sneer on his face.Sharpening his gaze and without a second though, Fox instinctively tried to grab his blaster from its holster on his leg."DON'T even think about it. " Wolf growled as he moved the blade from the tip his blaster closer to Fox's neck, moments away from making contact. Now aware of his compromised position, Fox relented his guard.“Y’know, now that I think about it, we really haven't had a proper conversation since this whole tournament began. What’s say you and I have a little heart-to-heart chat somewhere private so nobody will bother us?” He grinned with clenched teeth. “Just to catch up."Being heavily restrained and having no real choice in the matter, Fox silently complied. Wolf then slowly backed up with Fox still subdued in his grip, leading him a couple feet backwards to the to the supply closet he had just jumped out of. As Wolf slammed the door behind them, Fox could only curse himself that he wasn’t more vigilant. Without taking his eyes off Fox, Wolf locked the door behind them. Wolf then released his grip and shoved Fox against the metal shelving at the back of the supplies closet. The shelves rattled and shook in response. Before he could fall to the ground, Wolf quickly caught Fox by his shirt.“Alright, now that’s better.”"What the hell is this all about Wolf?" Fox shouted.“Don't fucking pull that shit with me! You know damn well what this is about. I heard you had a little talk with Isabelle regarding me and I'd like to know a little more about that.” Wolf barked.Fox raised an eyebrow. This was the last thing he expected to be almost killed for. He calmly pulled himself up so that he was standing back on his feet again, still wary of the blade that could easily close the distance between him and Wolf. “A bit slow on the uptake Wolf. I had that conversation with her a little over a month ago.""WATCH YOUR MOUTH PUP!" Wolf shouted as he pointed his blaster directly at Fox’s head. Fox had had standoffs with Wolf before. Facing the end of blaster’s barrel. This time was different."I wanna know where you get off badmouthing me to my teammates.”Every sentence wolf said seemed to send Fox into further confusion. Badmouthing? Teammates? Who was this person and what happened to Wolf O’Donnell?“What’s the big deal Wolf? I’ve called you worse things over the comms. The entire galaxy knows about your criminal history. Isn’t being a lowlife your job? What’s another multiverse to the great space pirate?”“I’m the one asking the questions, understand? Now tell me why you did it!”Fox just stood there in silence, but not out of hesitation or fear but rather defiance. His hardened stare seemed to pierce through Wolf's own glare as if he was making a statement of standing his ground against Wolf and would not be intimidated by him. "ANSWER ME!" Wolf demanded."What do you expect me to say Wolf? I only did what I thought was right."“And what exactly do you mean by that? You think you’re justified in trying sabotage my standing in the tournament by spreading distrust among my teammates?”“This has nothing to do with the tournament Wolf, I simply felt Isabelle's safety was in jeopardy and acted accordingly. I felt it was necessary to warn her about you.”"That so? I’d say you've got some nerve there pup!" Wolf sneered.“OH DO I!?” Fox began to shout. “Because from my perspective I think it was a reasonable decision considering the way you have been acting since this tournament began. Assuming she told you, I went to her after I saw you walking to her room that one morning a while ago with that killer look on your face. You looked as if you were goi-”"GOING TO WHAT? Harm her? You honestly think I'd be so low to do something like that?"“Well, I mean, if the past two wars we’ve been in gives me any indication, it does make me think twice! We both know you aren't exactly the nicest guy around. The fact that you’re holding me at gun point isn’t helping your case either.”Wolf snarled impatiently and stuffed his blaster back into his holster.“There. Happy?” Wolf said presenting his open palms in a mocking manner.“Like a clam. That wasn’t so hard was it?”Wolf took a step forward, his eyes burning in the dim lit closet. Fox stood his ground and folded his arms."Answer me this Wolf, exactly how much does Isabelle really know about you and the things that you've done? I’m gonna assume you haven’t told her much have you?”Hearing these words caused Wolf to grit his with enough force to dent a lead pipe. His eyes and snout scrunched up in aggravation, more so than they had been before. Although he didn’t want to admit it, what Fox was saying wasn’t without merit. Wolf had deliberately withheld a lot of information about his past from Isabelle during their numerous conversations.Being the ever-curious individuals that she was, Isabelle would often ask Wolf where he was from or what his family was like. And if she was feeling particularly brave, what exactly did his job as a mercenary consist of? When any of these topics came up Wolf would try to brush them off with simple and vague answers.Where was he from? Just a distant planet of no real importance. His family? He’s had no relatives for as long as he could remember. His livelihood as a mercenary? Contract work for a paycheck that wasn’t guaranteed most of the time. And war? Forget about it. Isabelle could never understand. Why complicate things?He pushed all of those dumb feelings down his gullet and focused all his attention back onto the rotten pup in front of him.“The Truth is Wolf, I honestly don't know what to think about you anymore. Back during the Lylat wars when you were hired by Andross to help destroy the Cornerian military I thought you were nothing but a self-serving scumbag. The fact that you added a slimeball like Pigma to your team solely to antagonize me and Peppy over his betrayal of my father felt like a testament to that-"Fox paused for a brief moment, holding a look of deep contemplation on his face."-But during the events of the Aparoid invasion not long after, you showed a completely different side of yourself I didn't think existed. You came to my rescue, aided me in fending off the Aparoid from Cornerian city, and even took part in taking them down for good.""But after that, less than a year later when you showed up late and participated in the third smash tournament it was just more of the same arrogant attitude, only worse. You looked at me with killing intent and cursed out Master Hand when the match schedule didn't organize any matches between you and me. And then when the tournament ended you simply left without a word."“I know we haven’t seen each other too many times since then, but every time we’ve clashed in a fight it’s always felt like it was fueled by a personal grudge. Like you’re still trying to shoot me into the void of space. I don’t understand you Wolf. You’ve always seemed to have it out for me, and I just don’t know why.”Wolf surveyed Fox, his good eye darting up and down, trying to get a read on the situation. He squinted out of suspicion and then simply sneered at Fox. “You say some very strange stuff, pup. Getting all sentimental when cornered by an enemy is weird enough, but when your back is to the wall and the only thing you do is ask them why they hate you so much…Sometimes I wonder how you’ve lived this long being so naive .”Wolf took a second to compose himself and then spoke very sternly."Okay lets first get one thing straight pup. I don't know where it is in the little head of yer's that you got the idea that after I helped you take out the Aparoids that somehow makes us friends. I told you back then and I will tell you again now, the temporary alliance that happened during the Aparoid invasion was just that: temporary. And it was only out of necessity to prevent those god-forsaken insects from infesting the Lylat system.”“I never said we were friends.” Fox interjected"Second!” Wolf continued.“If we've gonna bring up the Aparoid invasion, let’s talk about some things that actually matter. Like how you soaked up all the glory for the fall of the Aparoid master hive when I risked my neck to help take them out. Or just as importantly, how because of your little quest to find Pigma, Sargasso got ran-sacked by the Cornerian military in my absence."What the heck are you talking about Wolf? I had nothing to do with either of those things. I didn't claim sole victory against the Aparoids, it was a galaxy wide war front where everyone in the Lylat played their part in exterminating those parasites. And as far as your criminal hideout goes, I don't know what happened, but I can assure you I had no direct involvement in it. I have no authority within the Cornerian military to do such a thing.”"DON’T FUCKING GIVE ME THAT NONSENSE PUP!” Wolf interrupted, shouting at the top of his lungs. Out of pure impulse, he had pulled his blaster back out of its holster and aimed it straight at Fox’s head with killing intent. In response, Fox discretely kept his hand hovering over his reflector, ready to activate it if necessary. Luckily Wolf was too blinded by rage to notice.“I know damn well how close knit you are with that flea bag General Pepper. Ever since the Lylat wars you practically lick his boots any chance you get, so don't you fucking try and tell me you didn't have any hand in the Cornerian military storming my base after your little man hunt for Pigma." Wolf shot back."I don't know how much General Pepper must've paid you to scout out my territory, but it must have been a lot. How stupid do you think I felt when after I saved your hid twice over and you took tall the credit with everyone in the Lylat system praising your team's name and I return to Sargasso only to see it under lockdown with most of my underlings arrested or having already fled.”That day was one Wolf could never forget. The feeling of returning to the once familiar space station he thought of as a throne only to stop short once Cornerian military dispatchment starships came into view. The shame at having to take cover behind orbiting astroids to avoid detection by enemy forces as they surrounded his former headquarters and took his criminal comrades into custody.“Since then me and my team have had to relocate elsewhere in order to evade capture. Even now, a couple years later I still haven’t managed to rebuild my empire all because of YOU!”Wolf needed to calm himself, least he would end up doing something he would regret. Unfortunately reopening this old wound that has festered for so long made it difficult to control himself. With his finger still on the trigger and his blaster still aimed at Fox, Wolf was in the perfect position to end this blood feud if he wanted to, and he really did.Wolf had often thought about the day when his final clash with Fox McCloud would occur. Wondering how it would go down and if it would result in one or both of their deaths. Frankly the situation at hand wasn’t how he imagined it would go.One of their dogfights goes wrong. A loss of control over their ships ensuing a fatal crash. A blaster shot that was aimed a little too well. It was a daydream Wolf rarely indulged in, but with how close he was to it bringing it to reality at this very moment, it felt so tempting.But no, not like this. As much as he wanted to repay Fox in kind for his perceived slights against him, Wolf knew this wasn’t the way to defeat his rival. It had to be a grand standing victory in battle, and it had to be in front of an audience. This was after all, Wolf’s main goal when he accepted the tournament invitation. Wolf sniffed and begrudgingly let the air slowly out of his nose as he relaxed his posture.Noticing Wolf’s slight change in disposition, Fox tried to speak up. “Wolf, I give you my word, I had no involvement with that. At the time I was only looking for Pigm-““ENOUGH!” Wolf interrupted yet again, tightening the grip on his blaster. “I don't want to hear any of your excuses. What good is your word to me considering you've spoke behind my back to Isabelle!”And there it was.Both of their eyes slowly widened in surprise. Like a sigh held in for too long, the animosity they felt toward each other faded away, instead being replaced with a feeling of awkward realization as Wolf tried to discreetly cover his mouth over what he just said. A response so obvious, so unbelievable, yet it would be the only thing that would let both of them leave the room alive.Wolf holstered his blaster once more and thankfully that’s where it remained for the duration of the conversation “I’ll say this only once, leave Isabelle out of our unfinished business. She has nothing to do with any of this.”“Why do you care so much about what she thinks?” Fox said, still puzzled by this whole ordeal.“I have my reasons” Wolf replied somberly, Now facing the closet door. He had turned away in embarrassment, unable to look his hated rival in the face anymore under the fear that the little runt might start to catch on to what Wolf himself refused to acknowledge.And just like that as if a switch suddenly flipped in Fox’s head, He froze in place as it donned on him. His stomach dropped. The possibility was just too absurd but…“…Do you—?”“Finish that sentence and I’ll make sure the bucket and mop in the corner gets put to good use cleaning up your remains.” Wolf snarled, turning his head ever so slightly to glare at Fox behind him."You better watch yourself pup, because the second we enter a solo match together I'm not showing any mercy. I'll bring you down in front of everyone and prove you are just a rookie who cruises by on beginner’s luck.""And we ain’t friends. Remember that." Wolf coldly huffed as he opened the door and left.As Wolf departed from the room, Fox simply stood there in contemplation as he held his head high and started at the ceiling, not really sure what to make of things. What caught Fox’s interest more than anything else was Wolf's odd aversion of not wanting Isabelle to know too much about him considering how obsessed he usually is about maintaining a reputation. From Fox’s perspective it was so strange to see Wolf seemingly care about what someone else thought of him beyond his intimidating persona. Did Wolf really value Isabelle’s opinion of him that much?Perhaps there was something more to this, Fox thought. That fact that Wolf reacted in disgust when accused of potentially harming Isabelle was another sign that his moral assessment of Wolf may not be accurate. Perhaps now more than ever, Fox was sure that despite his harsh words and claiming otherwise, Wolf indeed had some shred of goodness inside of him.Meanwhile on the other side of the Closet door, Wolf let out an exhausted sign as he rubbed his temple.I need a drink. Wolf thought.The Smash Mansion Bar: a place where individuals of legal age can go to enjoy an alcoholic beverage at their leisure should they choose to.This facility was added to the mansion after the third smash tournament upon request due the increasing number of individuals being present for the held event, be they competitor, assist, or general staff. Although Master Hand was against the idea at first, he none the less relented on the decision so long as it was regulated to acceptable standards.To prevent any possible incidents from occurring, there were very strict rules put in place. For one, alcohol would only be served between 2pm and 6pm. Second, a strict three drinks-per-person per night. Third, the alcohol itself while being of good quality was rather low-grade, making it very difficult for anyone but lightweight individuals to get drunk. And finally, no children or teens below the age of twenty-one were allowed in. The last thing Master Hand needed was a lawsuit for allowing underage drinking.In any case once Wolf had learned of the mansion’s new addition, he had made a habit of going to and staying at the bar most nights just to wind down and have a couple beers. Drinking away his frustrations, that was something of a norm to Wolf.Behind all this self-pity however, the bar itself simply reminded Wolf of his old headquarters Sargasso back when he used to drink regularly with his teammates and criminal underlings. In essence, it was perhaps the one place in the smash mansion that made Wolf feel somewhat at home.Being a frequent costumer, Wolf sat in his usual place, up at the bar near the back counter and away from any of the tables spread out around the room. Unlike everyone else there, sitting together while gathered around monitors to watch matches, Wolf preferred to sit alone.“Exactly how much does Isabelle really know about you and the things that you've done?”As he sat there on his bar, trying in vain to get drunk off of his second drink, Wolf couldn’t help but replay the conversation he had with Fox minutes prior in his mind. Being called out by that little runt made Wolf's blood boil, something that his current drink session wasn't able to fix. As the old saying goes, you can’t find a solution to your problems at the bottom of a shot glass. Though that didn’t stop Wolf from taking another swig.As if on cue, Wolf heard a voice call out to him from behind."Well hey there! By any chance is this seat right beside you taken?" The somewhat low-gravelly voice was one Wolf knew fairly well, belonging to none other than the king of koopas, Bowser.Wolf remained silent, not even looking up from his drink. He was in no mood to really talk with anyone. Hopefully Bowser would take the hint.Unfortunately, he did not."I'll take your silence as a no." Bowser said cheerfully as he sat himself right down on the bar stool to Wolf's left, it took a moment or two for Bowser to get settled in his seat because of his large frame. He made sure to position himself at a reasonable distance so his arms wouldn't intrude in Wolf's personal space. Unsurprisingly however, this did not stop the tension beginning to form between the two of them, at least on Wolf’s part.Clearly annoyed at Bowser’s apparent lack of ability to read the mood around him, Wolf just dropped his head slowly as stared at drink in his hand. His eye fixated on the last sliver of low-grade alcohol left in his glass, nowhere near enough to numb himself in order to put up with this.What the hell does he want? Wolf thought to himself, continuing to avoid eye contact with the Koopa King. Thankful this was easy to do as Bowser (by sheer coincidence) was sitting on Wolf's blind side and could only see his eye patch.Having been served the drink he just ordered and taking a good swig of it, Bowser let out a nice gentle breath of relief."Ahhh, nothing like a nice cold one at the end of the day to unwind, eh buddy?" The koopa spat out, trying to make small talk.Wolf didn’t respond."Hey come on now, what’s with the silent treatment huh?" Bowser teasingly pressed further."Why are you here?" Wolf said sternly, not moving an inch from his position."To get a drink of course and have a friendly chat with a fellow smasher.""And since when the hell did we become buddies?""Come on don't be like that. What are you still made about losing the team match earlier today? Look you guys put up a really good fight, there’s no shame in that."Wolf clicked his tongue in annoyance."You know I’ve been wondering. What’s with this sour disposition lately huh? Where’s that cocky smirk and the tough take no prisoners attitude you're better known for around here? When this tournament started you acted as if this was your own personal quest for glory, but now you just sulk around with a constant scowl on your face.”Clenching the glass tightly in his hand, Wolf slowly brought the drink up to his lips to finish it off before offering a fair warning.Turning his head to finally face Bowser, Wolf Simply uttered "Do not push me. I'm not in the mood. I've been in more than my fair share of bar fights before and don't think I won't start one now.”Though Wolf’s fur started to bristle up in a threatening show, Bowser was relatively unfazed. He had no intention of starting a brawl here with Wolf. Though he did reconsider his approach as to not push Wolf’s buttons so hard.“Duly noted, although you should lighten up a little bit. Being so wound up ain’t good for ya.”“And maybe YOU shouldn’t take so damn long at the coffee brewer!” Wolf spat back at him.“Well what can I say, I like my coffee a certain way and it needs to be brewed to perfection. But honestly, I'm surprised you're still sore about that considering I don't usually see you in line for coffee pot anymore. Word is that you've started to wake up before most other people here."Wolf froze slightly in posture, that oddly specific phrase got his attention. With the way Bowser spoke he sounded as if he knew something. Wolf didn’t like where this was going."In fact, from what I understand you have a new friend you're having coffee with at the crack of dawn."Wolf was beginning to get agitated again. This situation was turning into a repeat of what happened earlier with Fox with Wolf was reaching his breaking point. This just wasn't his day apparently.Before anything else could be said, Wolf turned to face the Bowser armed with his trademark death glare and said, “Choose your next words carefully.”Bowser let out a modest laugh just loud enough to not drown out all the noise in the room. "GWA-HA-HA-HA, oh boy. If looks could kill I'd surely be a goner by now. No need to get on the defensive there.”"Enough, what's your reason for bringing any of this up?" Wolf demanded."Well, from what I can tell you've grown very smitten with that newcomer Isabelle as of late and I can bet you've probably had a lot of conflicting feelings about the situation, such as not wanting other people to know. I figured I could spare a few words to help you out.”Wolf's eye widened fear, quickly he turned around in his seat just enough to look around the rest of the bar making sure no one was paying any attention to the two of them."Keep it down would you!""See this is what I mean, what you're doing right now. You’re unsure about how you feel about Isabelle and you’re trying to hide it from other people."What is it with people at this tournament not minding their own damn business? First Fox and now Bowser. Who else at this tournament was going try to stick their nose in his affairs?"Listen, I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Any affection you think I have for her is simply a delusion on your part. She's a teammate and nothing more!""You can deny it all you want, and you can probably fool most people here with that indifferent tough guy act, but you can't fool me as someone whose been in your shoes before. It's pretty obvious what is happening?""Oh yeah? and what makes you such an expert on Romance? From what I heard you got stiffed for the 80th time by that princess you always pine after. The plumber crashed your staged wedding and she ditched you."Although taken aback by the rather harsh rebuttal, Bowser uncharacteristically took it in stride and didn’t lose his temper. Perhaps it was because he expected something like this to be said at some point."Well, I won't say that you're wrong. But let’s just say that I've had a change of heart since then." Bowser replied calmly."Here let me explain a little further to give you some context. This will make us even" Bowser continued as he gestured the bartender for another drink.“So for starters, what you said was true. About a year ago, before this tournament started, Mario did indeed crash the wedding that I had planned for Peach and me. Thinking back, so much time, effort, and money went down the drain trying to organize and steal everything necessary so that the wedding would be as perfect as it could possibly be. Expensive wedding dress and tuxedo, a finely crafted wedding ring, a delicious Stew for the reception, and I even reserved the only wedding cathedral located on the MOON!”Wolf rolled his eye in annoyance as Bowser began to prattle on and on about every intricate detail of the ceremony. It was pretty clear that Bowser was still sour about having such a lavish event he planned out go south so quickly. The thing is that Wolf didn’t ask for the Koopa’s life story, if he had a point to make Wolf wanted him to get it over with.“-Anyway” Bowser continued on. “what really got me was what happened afterwards. As I saw Mario and Peach fly off into the horizon on his stupid hat shaped ship, being left in the mostly empty plains of the moon’s surface, I felt my heart sank lower than it ever had before. I genuinely tried to give peach everything I could to make her happy, to finally show her that we could have a great life together. But I guess I was just fooling myself.This time it was Bowser’s turn to sink his head lower and stare at the bottom of his now half empty glass of alcohol. “I remember sitting down on a rock with my head buried in my hands…and that’s when it happened. I met him.”Wolf was starting to get a little curious now, who the hell could he be talking about?“How or why he was on the moon at the time I wasn’t sure, though he told me it was a new kind of side business he was trying to start up. I can remember it so clearly, He looked so dorky floating there with his back mounted suitcase full of balloons and goofy bowtie over his usual overalls.”“Wait is he talking about-“ Wolf thought to himself.“For whatever reason, despite any prior actions I took against him or Mario or Peach or the Mushroom Kingdom in general in the past, he was still compassionate enough to ask if I was okay. After that, we spent who knows how long sitting there talking to one another, enjoying each other’s company.”Bowser looked up from his glass at the celling with a rather happy look on his face.“Since then, things haven’t really been the same. I gave up on trying to win over Peach and any ploy I stake against the mushroom kingdom is now more for shown than anything.”Bowser then guzzled down the last bit of his drink in enjoyment.“I’ll admit, things have gotten a little complicated since the tournament started. We haven’t gone public so we’re kind of in the same boat as you and Isabelle. Frankly I think he’s just worried what Mario would think so for the moment we’re just keeping things rather low key.”“SHUT UP!” Wolf Barked. “Am I really supposed to believe any of this?”“Well, again it’s complicated. As far as I know, they had an on again off again relationship, but they broke it off on good terms a while ago. But that’s not the point, I’m telling you this to let you know you’re not the only one who has recently become involved in relationship you want to keep secret.”“Stop using that word dammit!” Wolf interjected.“Look, if you truly do want to keep it a secret you might want to do a better job of hiding it, is what I’m getting at. You’re honestly not being that discrete about how you interact with her around other people, and someone is bound to notice that. For instance, when you gave Isabelle your coat to keep her warm in that fight on icicle mountain a while ago is what first tipped me off.”Wolf slammed his head on the bar surface in frustration. “People just won’t let that one fucking kind gesture go will they?” Wolf thought to himself.Bowser reached over to give Wolf a consolatory pat on that back.His fur bristled up like spikes coming up from a dungeon floor. Bowser calming relented seeing this.“Hey, did you two mention Isabelle just now?" A sudden voice spoke up.Filled with a seemingly unimaginable amount of anxiety upon hearing those words as if his fight or flight response was activated, Wolf shot straight up and turned to see who it was. It was none other than Ken Masters.Wolf's heart stopped for a second. Did Ken overhear them?"...Yeah, why?" Wolf asked trying to sound as emotionally detached as possible."Oh I just didn't know if you were talking about what was going on right now, she's currently in a match." Ken said pointing behind him to one of the tv screens on the wall."Wait what? Isabelle isn't scheduled for any more matches today. Our team match was supposed to be the last one." Wolf asked confused as he looked over to the battle being televised.Focusing intensely on the one TV screen displaying the match, Wolf could see that the fight was taking place within a replica of the Castle nesting in the Reset Bomb Forrest of Pit and Palutena’s home world. Currently Dark Pit and King K. Rool were engaged in an odd game of cat and mouse as Dark Pit was keeping his distance in the air while trying to pierce the crocodile’s sturdy Belly armor with his arrows. In retaliation, K. Rool was trying to knock down the winged angle by throwing sizable chunks of stone rumble that were lying around.Amongst all the dangerous projectiles being thrown around, Wolf managed to spot Isabelle practically hugging the wall of the castle way off in the corner. Her bright yellow fur contrasted heavily with the dark cobblestone surrounding her making Isabelle hard to miss to any onlooker and an easy target to any potential enemies on the battlefield. It was obvious Isabelle was doing her best to remain out of danger."Apparently, she was a last-minute replacement.” Ken explained.“That psychic boy Ness had to be dropped from the match listing and taken to the infirmary. It seems he overextended his pyrokinetic abilities using PK Fire too much and now his fingertips are severely burned"“Replacement? Is this what she had to go see Master Hand about earlier?” Wolf pondered.This was bad. Being a Free-for-All match with none of her teammates participating, Isabelle was all on her own. Wolf couldn’t jump in and protect her like usual if she got caught up in fighting. From Isabelle’s perspective, she was knee deep in a war zone and all she could to was remain out of sight of the other combatants.On the other side of the television screen, as the volley of arrows and rocks flew overhead, Isabelle only had one thought:What have I gotten myself myself into?