Blues: Hello everyone. A new day. A new chapter. I'm glad you guys are enjoying so far and I hope you guys will continue. Let's begin again!

Lucina and the Gentleman Thief
Chapter Three: A Dashing Chase

"You done eating Captain?"

Captain Falcon groaned as he looked up at the amused eyes of Min-Min through the stack of three towers of ramen bowls.

He was utterly stuffed with ramen.

If his eating buddy Kirby wasn't sleeping in the corner of the Mintendo Ramen Shop and sucked him up, the pink friend would adopted the Ramen Punch instead of his patented Falcon Punch. "I-I think I'm done…" Falcon said with an exhausted tone as Min-Min let out a small laugh.

"Whew, I was concerned. I was running out of ingredients," Min-Min said but as she reached for one of the towers of empty bowls, the door to her shop opened and Joker flipped over the bowls and landed on the counter beside them. "Oi! Joker! What are you doing?!" Min-Min exclaimed as Joker ran down the counter and leapt off.

"Sorry Min! Angry Princess chasing me!" Joker yelled as he rushed through the back door.

Min-Min sighed and with a shake of her head, she reached towards the bowls again but once again, the door was thrown opened and Lucina rushed past, knocking over the stool that the stuffed Captain sat at, sending him down to the ground.

"Please forgive me!" Lucina shouted.

Min-Min watched as Lucina ran out the back door and let out a deep sigh and waited a moment before she muttered "I'm so going to shout at him later…" She then successfully grabbed the tower but as she turned around, Kirby popped up with a "Hiiii!" from behind, which caused her to shriek and drop the tower of glass bowls.

Joker ran out into the street and looked around.

He truly underestimated how fast Lucina was. It was impressive and it only made the thrill of his challenge greater.

"Okay…Onett street so that means the cars should be coming in a second…" Joker muttered to himself. The second he saw a car in the distance, Joker pulled out his grappling hook and shot it to the roof across the street and shot up into the air while several cars rushed down beneath him.

It was then he saw Lucina across the street from the alleyway he had just came from. He gave her a salute and motioned for her to follow before he ran off.

Lucina frowned and looked around before her eyes lit up. There was a power line that connected from the roof to her left to the roof where the thief had just been on. Lucina ran towards the smaller building and flipped up to the first roof and then the second before she ran across the power line as quick as she could.

She landed on the roof and saw the black blur of the thief skipping from roof to roof and grinned before she followed suit, going from roof to roof at a speed she was impressed that she was able to reach.

She needed to catch him.

Joker looked back and almost shrieked in alarm when saw Lucina right on his heels but as always, he played it calm, cool and collected and said "Wow, I never knew you wanted me so badly!"

"I want to know this challenge thief!" Lucina countered as she leapt forward to tackle him but Joker avoided and leapt down off the roof onto a parked van. Seeing a bus coming, Joker leapt off the parker van and rolled onto the roof of bus and stabbed his knife into the roof to slow his sliding body down.

Joker rose to one knee and it was then he felt his pocket jingle as the familiar chime of his phone went off. He pulled out his phone and asked "Everything set Morgana?"

"Ren! You really have me in the dog house!" Morgana exclaimed. "But I was able to get into her room and set it up!"

"Great, meet me back at the Café. I think I owe Min-Min a free cup of coffee. She seemed a little ticked that I nearly made her drop her bowls," Joker said.

With a quick affirmation from Morgana, Joker leapt from the bus onto a moving RV and seconds later, Lucina leapt onto the bus and stabbed her blade into the roof to avoid sliding off the moving bus.

Lucina stood up and pulled her sword from the bus and grinned, ready to continue their chase and duel.

"Hey Princess, I had a blast but I think its time for us to part for now," Joker yelled against the rushing wind around him.

"There is no way thief!" Lucina said as she pointed her blade at him. "You issued this challenge so don't let up because I'm close to victory!"

Joker grinned.

What a tenacious woman.

Joker felt the RV begin to slow and realized he was at a red light. Lucina took this chance to leap onto the RV and charge forward to resume combat with a lunge at his chest. Joker swiped his knife to deflect the lunge then leaned back to avoid the lunge to his head.

He deflected two more strikes from her sword before he kicked Lucina in the chest, which caused her to skid backwards from the shot before she ran forward.

However, Joker quickly leapt off the RV and shouted "Arsène!" And with a flourish of ethereal blue light, his persona appeared behind him, his black wings flapping as his arms wrapped around Joker's form. "Catch you later Princess!" Joker said with a wave.

Now, Joker expected a lot of things after he had leapt and Arsène began to fly but Lucina jumping and grabbing his foot was not one of them. "You aren't going anywhere thief!" Lucina shouted as she held onto his leg for dear life.

"You really are bold!" Joker yelled as Arsène flew higher into the air with a little bit of struggle due to not expecting to carry two rather heavy humans. "You really are the type that always catches their man!"

"I only catch when my attention is peaked!" Lucina shrieked back.

"So you're saying I peaked your interest? Haha! Good to know!" Joker yelled.

"Forgive me for interrupting the flirting. However, my time is up," Arsène said as he began to fade away.

"What?!" The duo yelled as Arsène began to fly lower to the ground before vanishing in a plum of blue flames.

Mario had invited Pauline out to lunch at riverside restaurant known as "Zoras Luncheon" to admit his feelings for her and after some small talk, he finally said it. "Pauline-a, I really like-a you," Mario admitted softly as the Mayor of New Donk City stared at him with surprise. "I have for some time-a."

"Mario…Why did you wait so long to admit it?" Pauline asked him gentle. "I mean, we've never shied away from the what-ifs of the past before…what made you say it now?"

"I…" Mario paused, trying to gather his thoughts. "Ever since my adventure with Cappy, I had thought-a about us a lot. How we grew up-a together. How I saved you from DK a few times and how you moved away while I was whisked away-a to the Mushroom Kingdom with Luigi….I've always missed you and reconnecting with-a you made me realize that I haven't been happy in a long-a time unless I was with you."

"What about Peach? She and I have grown to be good friends and I know you two were in a relationship for a while," Pauline said.

"We mutually decided to end our relationship-a a month ago," Mario said sadly. "W-We were strained for a long-a time and after Odyssey, we realized-a we wanted different things for our future. I will always care-a for her and rescue her when she is in danger as she is my friend but I want-a you…Do you want me too?"

"Oh Mario…That's all I've ever wanted to hear for years…" Pauline said with reddened cheeks. "I do want to talk with Peach…I don't want to lose my friendship with her and if there aren't any hard feelings…Then I want to give us a shot too."

"R-Really?" Mario asked with an excited tone.

"I made a whole song about you Jumpman," Pauline teased. "I think it was pretty obvious."

"Oh! Right-a…" Mario replied as his cheeks reddened.

The two shared a smile but their moment was ruined when two large figures crashed into the lake in front of them in front of them from the sky above, causing a large wave of water to come up and crash into them.

As the water fell, Joker sprang from the water and leapt over Mario and Pauline with a flourish spin and landed on the table behind them. "Hey Mario! Sorry about that," Joker said as he pulled out his knife.

"Joker, wh-" Mario was interrupted as Lucina sprang from the water as well with her sword and lunged it at Joker, who blocked the tip of the blade with the flat side of his knife. Joker kicked himself onto another table as Lucina chased, swiping her blade at him only to grow more agitated when he performed more elaborate flips to avoid her weapon.

Joker landed on the ground swayed against each attempt at a swipe from the princess before he lunged his knife out at her but she blocked and immediately countered, nearly catching him in the chest with her attack had he not danced backwards to avoid it.

Joker finally gained enough distance to end the chase and pulled out two smoke bombs and said "Thanks for the game!"

Lucina leapt out to grab him but with a toss of the small black orbs on the ground, a plume of black smoke exploded. Lucina fell to the ground and began to cough as she walked through the smoke back into clear air.

When the smoke cleared however, he was nowhere to be seen. Confused, she looked around and then finally looked up to see Joker on another moving bus but it was too far for her to continue the chase.

Lucina gazed at the retreating figure and felt a grin form on her face. 'He got away again…' Lucina thought to herself before she walked away in a confused mess of annoyance and excitement, leaving the befuddled and wet Mario and Pauline behind.

It was night time when Lucina finally made it back to her room. She was sore and wet from her chase that all she wanted to do was curl up into a ball and sleep before resuming her battle with the thief.

But as she touched her doorknob, she noticed something on the ground.

It was a rose petal.

She opened her door fully and on her bed was a huge bouquet of roses with a note sitting on top of a box of chocolates shaped in a heart. She walked up to her bed and plucked the note from the roses and read it.

"Hey,

Thanks for exercise last night (and today if everything went well). I can't wait to see how this game between us will play out tomorrow princess. That is, if you're still up to the challenge. If so…I'm game.

Love,
Joker, The Phantom Thief of Hearts."

Lucina let out a snort but a tender smile formed on her face.

She didn't know why the thief was doing what he was but she knew one thing.

If he kept it up, she wouldn't want him to stop this little game.

Blues: And that is all she wrote for this chapter. What will happen next I wonder? Well, we'll see now won't we?