This story is going to be more serious than my other work. Lucina is cheerful, but (hopefully) not goofy. Please let me know if you find any grammar/spelling errors.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story.
Lucina shivered with excitement. She was now part of Super Smash Bros! She would get to live in the Smash Mansion and fight with her sword and make friends outside of her game. She could hardly wait.
She looked around the aftermath room expectantly. She had just been defeated by a nice looking fox with a gun. She couldn't wait to meet him and tell him how well he'd fought. He could be her first friend and introduce her to everyone else. There were sure to be other girls. Maybe they also liked to paint their nails.
Just then, the door to the aftermath room opened, and a giant hand floated in. Lucina watched it intently, her hand stealing down to her sword hilt. Then the hand cleared its throat. "Greetings, Lucina. I am the Master Hand. Follow me to your room."
Her room! Lucina practically skipped out of the door behind the Master Hand. "Do I have any roommates?" she asked.
"No. But there are several other females who have rooms right by yours."
"Awesome! When will I get to meet them?"
"You are most likely to meet people in the dining hall during mealtimes. Everyone needs to eat."
"And what kind of food is there?"
"You can order whatever you want."
"Sweet! How long will it take me to find my way around?"
"You will be assigned a guide who will show you the ropes of living in Smash Mansion."
"Great! Who was the guy who defeated me?"
"Fox."
"Yeah, the fox. What's his name?"
"Fox."
"Yeah." Just then Lucina realized that the fox's name was Fox. "Okay. Is he nice?"
"To each their own tastes."
"Of course." By now Lucina was hoping that everyone was not as dry as the Master Hand.
They reached a door that had a wooden sign on it reading 'Lucina.' My room! Lucina thought with a flutter in her stomach. The Master Hand opened the door and Lucina followed him in, and smiled a huge smile.
The room was spacious, with lots of room to practice leaps and sword attacks. There was a screen on one wall, like what she had seen the stats displayed on in the aftermath room. There was the furniture that she had picked out: a four poster bed with blue curtains, the little oak coffee table with two matching chairs, and the large oaken wardrobe where she would keep all her gear. There was a bathroom with a combined tub and shower. She could see the shampoo and conditioner that she had ordered; cherry blossom scent. And there was a tiny kitchenette with a mini fridge, a sink and counter, a microwave, and an oven. Lucina was already planning the cookies she would bake for her new friends. And there was a totally empty closet with a strange white light fixtured in the ceiling and a number pad.
"Come here," the Master Hand was motioning her to come to the screen. "You will watch this orientation video. When you finish, your guide will be waiting outside to tour you."
"Okay," Lucina cheerfully complied, seating herself cross legged on the floor before the screen. The Master Hand left the room, closing the door behind him.
The screen lit up with the Master Hand on some stage. "Welcome to Smash Bros Four!" came the Master Hand's voice. "You will compete on various stages with various opponents. The daily match up list can be accessed on Channel One of your television, which is what you are currently watching this video on. Your remote is hanging on the wall beside your television."
Lucina looked at the wall beside the television and saw a plastic thing with buttons on it, that she guessed was the remote, because it looked exactly like the plastic thing in the picture that had appeared beside the Master Hand.
"If you want, you can schedule matches between yourself and willing opponents. Just go to the office with your willing opponents and fill out a match up form. Your guide will show you where the office is.
"You can watch matches between other brawlers by tuning into the channel of the stage that they're fighting on." There were different scenes cut from brawls now being displayed. Lucina was glad to see that she was not the only sword fighter. "The list of stages and their corresponding channels can be found in the drawer under the television.
"To get to your match, you enter your white closet," (the white closet was now shown on the screen) "punch in the channel number of the stage where your match will be," (the camera panned to the number pad) "press 'enter,' and you will be transported to the stage. At the end of a match, you will be transported to the aftermath room for that stage." (An aftermath room, that was identical to the one she had come from, appeared.) "From there you can transport to your next match or back to your room.
"There are currently forty five smashers in residence." The camera panned across a long line of smashers too quickly for Lucina to catch any faces. "Now that you have joined, there are forty six. The list of smashers is also in the drawer under the television. There is the name of each smasher, accompanied by their picture and a three sentence bio that they have written about themselves. Before the day is over, you will need to write your own three sentence bio, and turn it in to the office.
"Meals are held in the dining hall." The screen now showed an overhead view of the dining hall filled with happy smashers eating. "Breakfast and lunch are both an hour long, and dinner is an hour and a half long. There are no assigned seats, so you may sit where you please. The mealtime schedule is also in the drawer under the television.
"The rules are," (they were back at the Master Hand scene), "no brawling outside of scheduled matches, no destroying any property, no bullying of anyone, no pranks that could hurt or scare anyone, no leaving the mansion grounds without permission, and ask permission before doing something out of the ordinary. These rules are listed on paper in the drawer under the television.
"There are plenty of activities to participate in at the mansion." The scene was now of smashers playing tennis and having an art class. "There is everything from training rooms to bowling alleys to card tables. The complete list is in the drawer under your television.
"If you get sick, notify the office by pressing the 'sick' button on the telephone beside your bed." (A picture of the telephone appeared on the screen). "We will take the necessary steps to get you well as soon as possible.
"Now your guide is waiting outside your door. He will take you on a tour of the Mansion and its grounds. There is also a map in the drawer under the television. Welcome again to Super Smash Bros Four."
The screen went black, and Lucina headed for the door. Who would her guide be? She hoped it would be a girl.
It was a large but very skinny blue dragon. "Name's Ridley," he said in slightly scratchy voice. "Welcome to the Mansion. Climb on my back, and I will take you on a tour. It's about two hours long."
"Hi, Ridley," Lucina replied brightly as she climbed onto his back. "Are you a brawler?"
The dragon chuckled. "Nope. I'm the boss of the Pyrosphere stage."
"Oh. Should I call you 'Boss Ridley' then?"
"Nah. Ridley works fine. Are you ready?"
"Yes!"
"Hold on!"
Lucina grabbed one of Ridley's spikes as he began running down the hall.
Two hours later, Lucina had seen everything in the mansion except her fellow smashers. She had made friends with Ridley, however, and he had promised her a bowling match. Now she was back in her room, writing her three sentence bio.
"I'm Lucina, and I love to make friends. In or out of matches, I look forward to meeting the awesome people that I will brawl with. My friends will receive cookies, because I like to bake." There. Now she had to take it down to the office. She consulted the map, and then headed out the door.
After walking for a while, she began to doubt her sense of direction. Surely she should have reached the office by now. All the doors looked the same on either side of the endless hall. She should have brought the map with her. Now she would be lost in here forever. She wanted to turn around, but she couldn't quite remember how many turns she had taken, or where they had been. She kept going, but she had sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Then she heard voices from behind one of the doors. Male voices. She snuck up close to the door and put her ear to it.
"You have to help me. It's your fault already that Zelda isn't falling for me. Give me some kind of suggestion."
"Zelda doesn't like me because I give her great birthday presents or take her on romantic dates. I've never done either of those things."
"Then why does she like you?"
"Why don't you ask her?"
"Because that's awkward."
"And you think it will be less awkward if I do it?"
"Well, I won't be the one being awkward. Then maybe she'll dump you."
"I'm not making a fool of myself to cater to your love life."
"That's because you like her!"
"I neither affirm nor deny."
"Admit it!"
"Never."
Lucina decided that this conversation was going nowhere, so she knocked on the door. It was opened by a young man with wild blonde hair spilling from under a long, green nightcap. He smiled when he saw her, his blue eyes twinkling. "You must be Lucina. That was a good fight with Fox, huh?"
She smiled back, encouraged by the welcome in his manner. "Yup, I'm Lucina. I got lost trying to find my way to the office. I have to turn in my three sentence bio."
"Well, we can show you the way. But first, can we hear your bio?" He opened the door wider and stood aside to let her in.
The eager 'sure' died on her lips as she saw who else was in the room. She recognized his face from her history books. Those deep aquamarine eyes, the windswept, but neat, blue hair, the firm yet gentle mouth that looked like it could laugh or shout orders as the need arose. Lucina felt a little dizzy. She subconsciously knew that the blonde fellow had grabbed her arm and was leading her to a chair. Then the perfect face was close to hers, those deep blue eyes were filled with concern as they looked into hers.
"T-the Hero King," she managed to stammer. "Are you the Hero King?"
"He's Marth," the blonde interjected, clearly confused. "And I'm Link, the Hero of Hyrule."
"Marth, the Hero King," she murmured. "This is the greatest day of my life."
"I'm pleased that you know me, lady. But where did you hear of me?" So that kind, smooth voice was the voice of Marth. Lucina felt her head begin to clear. Marth had asked her a question. It would never do to not answer.
"Forgive me," she began. "I am the Princess of Ylisse..." She trailed off, suddenly realizing that she couldn't remember much beyond that. She knew that she had a father, Chrom, but she couldn't remember anyone else in her family. She knew that she had read that Marth was the Hero King, but she couldn't remember what he had done, except that it involved a dragon and saving the world, and of course, the Fire Emblem. She knew that she had a future version of Falchion, and she knew that she had gone under Marth's name in an attempt to save the world. She was pretty sure that her quest had also involved a dragon (or was that two?) and the Fire Emblem. "I am afraid that I cannot remember much more. I pretended that I was you for a time, while I was on my quest to save the world. You are a revered hero in my country, though it has been two thousand years since your exploits."
"Don't worry. No one can remember much of their pasts. Link here, is positive that he was a great hero and that he saved Princess Zelda. And Zelda agrees with him, which a very rare thing. But neither of them can remember who Link fought or why Zelda was in trouble. We asked the Master Hand about it, and he said that we are to forge new destinies here, as this is another world."
"Okay," Lucina nodded as she slowly grasped what Marth was saying. "So here, I'm not a princess and you're not a Hero King?"
"Sort of. But if you had a title in another world that you want to be known by, most people will respect that. Most of us have overcome trials in our other worlds."
"That's okay. Just Lucina is fine with me. What do you go by?"
"Just Marth. The only one who really goes by a title is King Dedede."
"Okay," Lucina smiled. "As long as I'm not getting early amnesia. Although that would explain why I can't find my way to the office, even though I looked at the map and Ridley took me there."
"Like I said, we can take you," Link cut in. "It's not too far from here. But first, let's hear that bio."
"Alright, here it goes: I'm Lucina, and I love to make friends. In or out of matches, I look forward to meeting the awesome people that I will brawl with. My friends will receive cookies, because I like to bake." She looked up at them expectantly.
"Can I please be your friend?" Link was looking at her with puppy dog eyes.
She giggled, "Sure!"
Link pumped his fist in the air. "Let's head down to the office, then." He opened the door and Lucina and Marth followed him out.
After turning in the bio, Link asked Lucina if she wanted to play basketball, and Marth asked her if she wanted to meet more smashers.
"I want to meet more smashers," she replied without hesitation.
"Hold on a sec, then. I'm going to see where Peach is at. She's the social life queen around here." Marth pulled out a pocket sized rectangular screen. "It's my iPhone," he explained in response to her questioning look. He tapped out a message on the screen. In a few seconds, he received a reply. "They're at the pool." He looked at Lucina, "Do you have a swimsuit?"
"You bet," she replied. "But I'm not sure if I can find my way back to my room."
"I have the map app on my phone," he replied, tapping the screen. "Let's see. L. U. C. I. Oh, Lucina. There we go. Okay, follow me."
Twenty minutes later, Lucina was doing a cannonball off the diving board. She swam across the pool to where Marth and Link were beside three lovely girls who looked about Lucina's age.
"Lucina," Link said as she came up to them. "Meet your new friends."
"Hi! I'm Peach," a girl with golden hair and luminous blue eyes said. "I'm so super excited to have another girl join Smash. Zelda, Samus, and I have been feeling a little overwhelmed by the testosterone levels around here."
"I'm Samus," the other blonde introduced herself.
"I'm Zelda," the girl with light brown hair said. "Most people feel like we three are a click, but to be honest, we could use another friend. Just, don't feel like you ever can't join us."
"Nice to meet you all," Lucina said. Inside, she was thinking, Is this 'Zelda' that girl that Link likes and Marth maybe likes? She didn't know why, but she felt a sudden twinge of jealousy. She wanted Marth to like her.
Suddenly Marth's watch started beeping madly. He quickly climbed out of the pool and wrapped himself in a towel. "Sorry I can't stick around. I'll see you guys at dinner."
"That's okay," Link said. He sounded sarcastic and Lucina wrinkled her brow. Was something wrong? "Don't run near the pool!" Link called after the retreating form of the Hero King. Marth instantly slowed to a brisk walk, but was still soon out of sight.
"Cuz we all know that money is so much more important than friends," Peach muttered under her breath.
"Is everything okay with Marth?" Lucina asked.
Peach pressed her lips together in a hard line.
"Not really," Zelda said slowly.
"It's like this," Peach burst out. "For the past like eight months, Marth spends every moment that the challenges are open playing Classic mode or completing some stadium game. He has almost no time to spend with anyone anymore. His best friend is his sword. And the worst part is, he's not doing it to practice his moves, he's doing it to earn coins."
"He admitted it himself." Samus shook her head. "It's such a shame, because he used to be such a sweet, friendly guy. He was the life of the party and he worked hard to maintain good friendships with everyone. Now he's left it all in the dust."
"Too be honest," Zelda cut in, "I think this whole business is more mysterious than sad. Marth is just not like that. He's always been super generous, but now..."
"Now he's hoarding," Link snapped. "He's earning all that money, but he never spends a cent. If you're curious, you can talk to Ike. This topic makes me sick."
What is wrong with Marth? Has he undergone a massive personality change, or is it something else? Hopefully I will have the next chapter ready soon. Sorry for this one being so slow.