Synopsis and Subspace

The Nintendo World: undefined, unexplained, incomplete. From the majestic rainbows of the Mushroom Kingdom to the rolling hills of Hyrule; from the colorful critters of the Kongo Jungle to the ghostly terrors of the Twilight Forest; from the flashing lights of Fourside City to the arid deserts of Akaneia. All of these and other Nintendonian lands were pieces of the Nintendo World, but did not quite comprise it. No, there was something more; some essence to its identity that went beyond geographical or even planetary boundaries. Yet no inhabitant of the Nintendo World could put a finger on that essence, for they were as ignorant of their own place in this hybrid world as they were of what that world really meant to them.

That began to change when Master Hand arose from the shadows of the Battlefields. The giant white glove brought heroes and villains together for the first time—to fight each other. But when he took his manipulative game to the next level, when he sought to collect his chosen warriors like trophies, the Nintendo World truly came together to battle not each other, but a common enemy. Strangers became friends, and foes became—at least temporarily—allies.

Some time after the second Smash Tournament, Master Hand employed metal clones he'd created from the Smashers' DNA to imprison several of the world's most eminent fighters: Mario, Link, Pikachu, Ness, and so on. He did this to provoke the rest of the tournament participants (the Original 25)—and the rest of the world, for that matter—into going after their friends.

Clusters of Smashers gathered to journey to Master Hand's Room, where they knew not what challenges awaited them. Some were driven by nobility, such as the parties headed by Luigi and Red. Others were drawn in by necessity, like Samus and Fox who suddenly found themselves without transport. And a few—particularly Bowser and Ganondorf—were fueled by a thirst for revenge.

Regardless of their motives, the Smashers slowly but surely made their way toward the Room, with the occasional unexpected delay caused by besieged allies, traitorous Nintendonians, or even unfortunate carelessness. At length, all the Smashers (minus two) converged in Fourside City. There, they were deceived into entering an ill-willed tournament whose strings were being pulled by the great puppeteer himself, Master Hand—just as he had carefully manipulated many of their journeys' events.

The tournament proved to be a conspiracy to capture the Original 25, and it nearly succeeded in ensnaring not only those on their way to the Battlefields, but those who had escaped the Room and united with the resistance group, the Smash Brothers, who had come to meet their friends in Fourside. They suffered heavy losses—including the death of their leader, Impa— because of the duplicity of individuals such as Wario, Waluigi, and Shadow the Hedgehog, but the Seven Star Spirits of the Mushroom Kingdom saved them from certain destruction with a splendorous shower of shooting stars. Still, the Wire Frames led by Crazy Hand (Master Hand's left-handed counterpart) left Fourside devastated and nearly destitute.

From the ashes of the city, the remaining Smash Brothers reemerged, brushed off their shoulders, and got to work. Led by Professor Elvin Gadd and Meta Knight, they recruited Nintendonians far and wide to their cause, found the two missing Smashers (Mewtwo and Dr. Mario), instituted a rigorous training program, and even sent a party to a different dimension—The Dimension Conflux—to seek out the five Dimension Relics. These relics, along with the Original 25, had been prophesied by a ghostly fortune teller named Madame Clairvoya to be essential to the Smash Brothers' ultimate victory. But with the intervention of the metal doppelgangers, the heroes were only able to retrieve three of the relics (the Reset Button, the Life Shroom, and the Pencil), while Master Hand's minions made off with the Superstar and the Smash Ball.

Once the diverse armies of the Nintendo World had congregated in Fourside—many of them setting aside deep-rooted grudges and animosities to pursue a common cause—the united Smash Brothers had nothing left to do but to take the fight to Master Hand. With the help of Shadow, who had shown remorse for his mistakes and was anxious to help the Smash Brothers rescue his friend Sonic, they were as prepared as they could have been. They launched their assault on the Battlefields; they fought in the skies; they fought on the flashing purple plains; they fought in Master Hand's Room and in his fortress. The Boos, the Aparoids, the Starmen, the Pokémon crime lords, and the Space Pirates had all defected to Master Hand's side, but nearly everyone else fought the Wire Frames for the freedom of their world.

Professor E. Gadd fought his way to the lair of his evil cousin, Professor Ulysses Reeka. In that monstrous laboratory, he triumphed over the mad scientist with his opponent's own Magic Paintbrush, even with Gadd's Poltergust 3000 turned against him. Having slain Master Hand's fiendish servant, Gadd put an end to Reeka's perverse experiments, perhaps the worst being his five mutated hybrid creatures: The Shadow Hand (Shadow Queen + Floormaster), Piranha Gohma (Petey Piranha + Gohma), Mr. Dragon Patch (Mr. Patch + Dogadon), Krackorock (Kracko + Regirock), and Aparidley (Ridley + Aparoid).

The Smashers triumphed over the rest of Master Hand's pawns only for Master Hand to come down himself and activate the Smash Ball. Using this power, he and Crazy Hand subjected the Original 25 to a perilous fight to the finish in which only five of them could face the Hands at a time. Eventually, the Smashers came out victorious, but their enemy wasn't done with them yet.

Their true enemy was Master, a being known to Kirby as the Cloaked Nightmare who had gone under the guise of Master and Crazy Hand in his pursuit of world conquest. Nightmare had once belonged to a different dimension, part of a team of humans that were responsible for the Nintendo World's creation. However, he had wanted to change the rules to cause evil to triumph over good, and as a result, he had been banished to that very world he'd failed to change. Because of this curse, Nightmare dedicated himself to spreading fear and chaos wherever he went, creeping from the shadows and introducing evil into the hearts of many.

After telling his story, Nightmare used the Smash Rod to decimate the Smash Brothers' armies, leaving everyone as trophies—or corpses. But the Hand of Fate had other plans, for Mario, Link, Kirby, and Ness were inexplicably revived from their immobilized state and stood to face Nightmare once and for all. They defeated every monster and twisted form Nightmare threw at them with the additional aid of Dr. Mario, Meta Knight, Gadd, and Mewtwo, but then faced certain doom as Nightmare filled the Room with his destructive whirlwind and fell upon them. Yet at the last second, Kirby found himself saved by a stray Warpstar, which he rode into Nightmare's core, banishing the supervillain from This World forever.

The Nintendo World was left with a third of its population lost, but also with the promise of a united future. The Smash Brothers became a provisional interregional government. As they began to recover, they reached a state of peace and prosperity like none of them had ever experienced.

But within that first year of reconstruction, evil reared its ugly head once again. A new threat showed its face: the Subspace Army. Made up of a variety of hostile creatures, these forces sought to fulfill the will of their master, the Ancient Minister. Aided by Wario, Bowser, and Ganondorf (who had been released from the Sacred Realm by the enemy), the Ancient Minister directed a calculated plot to transform the Nintendo World's heroes into trophies once again; not only that, but he employed Gadd's own R.O.B. robot units to activate Subspace Bombs that would draw the world into the nether region of Subspace piece by piece.

The Smash Brothers, scattered across the world, gathered in small clusters once more to deal with the Subspace Army. With new Smash Tournaments taking place and Madame Clairvoya's prophecy fulfilled, the Original 25 were no longer the exclusively chosen heroes of Nintendo; many others joined them on this quest. Banding together, they defeated Wario, Ganondorf, and Bowser. They discovered that Mr. Game & Watch's essence had been manipulated to extract Shadow Bugs, fuzzy purple dots that formed the moldable substance of the Subspace Army.

The Ancient Minister was revealed to be Gadd's original R.O.B. prototype, who had been enslaved along with his brothers to serve what appeared to be a resurrected Master Hand. R.O.B. nearly sacrificed his life in order to help several Smash Brothers escape a particularly large Subspace Bomb.

At last, the Smashers converged on the gaping portal to Subspace left behind by the bomb. They dismantled the cannon that would have enveloped the rest of the Nintendo World and entered Subspace itself to confront the source of their troubles. They found that Master Hand was indeed behind the campaign—but not in the way they expected.

It was some kind of reanimated—though not entirely self-willed—version of Master Hand. But each of the white fingers were controlled by a golden chain, all of which were held like puppet strings by a strange being that looked somewhat like a neon blue Wire Frame.

Tabuu.

The immaterial man unfurled what appeared to be two radioactive butterfly wings and unleashed his secret weapon: the Off Wave. This transformed all of the Smashers back into trophies, reminiscent of what Nightmare had once done with the Smash Rod. Then, a few of the Smashers who had been wearing King Dedede's peculiar badges were revived. They traversed the Great Maze—a conglomeration of the various pieces of the Nintendo World that had been taken into Subspace—and freed the rest of the Smashers.

They would have fallen to Tabuu's devastating Off Wave attack a second time had not Sonic the Hedgehog intervened, shattering the being's luminous wings and giving them a fair fight. The battle that followed was terribly close, but finally, Tabuu was defeated and destroyed.

It was only afterward that Kirby and Professor E. Gadd realized who this Tabuu had really been: He was none other than Nightmare (or what was left of him), who had been trapped in Subspace after his first defeat and had sought to bring the rest of the Nintendo World down with him.

And so the greatest threat within the Nintendo World was vanquished twice, never to trouble them again. Yet to a select few, there was a threat at least as great as Nightmare—if not greater—without their beloved mainland. Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Banjo & Kazooie, Sonic, and all of their closest friends retained a memory of a war which, for some reason, everyone else had forgotten. A war that had ended in survival, but had not ended well and had left many loose ends to tie up. A war that had drastically changed the world they lived in—and not just the Nintendo World, but the entire Smash Planet.

The Copyright Wars.

Prologue

Shadow Moses Island

A Long Time Ago

Snake glanced quickly from behind the oil barrels he was using as cover.

"It's no good; there are too many of them. We'll have to find another way inside."

"That's a negative, Snake. There's no time."

"Meryl, wait!"

But his friend, who had been crouching behind another line of barrels a few yards away, was already running toward the helipad, behind which loomed the imposing steel walls of the compound—a nuclear weapons disposal plant that was really a façade for a secret facility that did quite the opposite. The metal surfaces glinted off of the floodlights with a tinge of silvery green, blurred by the pouring rain that hammered against the building like muffled machine guns.

Meryl Silverburgh dove behind the helipad ledge and raised her two pistols. The red flashes that flared with each shot almost matched her shoulder-length hair, which was really her only identifying feature within her special-ops camo suit. Her fearless eyes burned with the same flames of her firearms as she picked off the men grouped in front of the garage-sized door. The enemies possessed weapons of similar power, but they were dressed like a bunch of cowboys who had just taken a swim in the Mississippi and were rearing to round up some buffalo for supper.

Well, the girl's got guts, Snake thought. But someday she'll realize that I won't be there to bail her out every time her blood starts to boil.

Snake sighed as he stood up and shook out some of the water dripping through his short beard and straggly brown hair, which was also on the long side but was pulled back with a gray headband so that it wouldn't get in his face. His muscles bulged within his camo suit as he aimed a sniper rifle. With a single pop, three Pandorans fell in a row.

Snake leapt over the barrels and around the left side of the helipad, somersaulted, and simultaneously kicked two more gunslingers in the face. One tried to get up, so he used his fist to convince him otherwise, then began to punch his way around the line.

Just when it looked like they were going to win, the steel door opened to permit a dozen more Pandorans to burst onto the scene. At the same time, several Hayabusa ninjas appeared from behind metal crates and platforms to their rear, and a number of burly COG troopers began raining fire from the top of the walls on either side. They were boxed in.

"Agh!" Meryl winced as a bullet grazed her shoulder. She and Snake holed themselves up in a corner behind a metal crate that gave them the best possible cover. "Where are those guys? They were supposed to rendezvous here two minutes ago."

As if waiting for her cue, a spinning orange blur sent two of the black-robed ninjas into either wall, winning the attention of the rest of the clan. Crash Bandicoot, a bipedal fox-like creature wearing blue jeans and running shoes, engaged the warriors with poorly concealed enjoyment.

At the same time, a cloud of fire engulfed one of the COG troopers on the roof, and another screamed as a small purple dragon tore him from the top of the wall and flung him past the opposite end of the compound. Spyro's regal yellow horns and steaming nostrils alarmed Microsoft's forces as much as any nuclear weapon.

Even so, Snake and Meryl had their hands more than full with the seemingly endless flow of Pandorans, which were pouring through the door like irritated red ants swarming around their prey. Snake yelled as a bullet lodged itself inside his right leg. He could still shoot, but even ignoring the pain, his hand-to-hand combat skills wouldn't do him much good at this point.

A ball of bright blue energy shot across the helipad and seared through several Pandorans. Megaman dropped onto the helipad by releasing his hold on his robotic bird friend, Beat, ran forward in his blue armor, and began firing small laser pellets at the oncoming gunmen.

Another spinning blur, this one a deep sapphire, soared over both the ninjas and the helipad and bowled through the door, taking down any Pandorans in its way. It rolled in a few circles to clear away any straggling foes and then uncurled itself.

"Come on," Sonic the Hedgehog said with a smile. "We've got a base to take back."

Leaving Spyro and Crash to occupy the remaining enemies, the four Sony heroes dashed inside, finding themselves in a long, dark hallway with a few flickering fluorescent lights illuminating every fifteen feet.

"This way."

There were any number of branching hallways and rooms they could turn at, but Snake knew the command center would be where this thing would end—one way or another. He limped as fast as he could, his hand pressed against his thigh, with the others following close behind.

"Snake, you should stay here and treat that wound." Meryl noticed his injury with a concerned expression.

But the spy just shook his head, ignoring the cold and the pain. "I'll be more likely to die if we don't keep moving. The Chief's men could be patrolling anywhere."

Snake's point taken, no one made any further objections as they pressed on, finally ascending a single flight of metal stairs to an ominous door with heavy bolts.

Snake nodded at Megaman. "Do it."

Megaman nodded back and turned to the door. He fired a flashing red Grappler Bomb from his arm cannon. The steel spike on the other end dug into the door, flashed for a few seconds, and exploded, blasting the door open.

They braced themselves for a fight, but nothing came out of the resulting smoke. Snake cautiously motioned for them to proceed up the stairs and into the command center.

Computers. Radar scanners. Audio equipment. A panoramic window that looked out upon the dark, mournful forest outside, the ocean visible a few miles away even in the black of night.

A single figure stood before the window with its hands clasped behind its back, appearing to be admiring the view. It turned around to reveal its thick, sophisticated green battle armor, the helmet visor glinting with an amber sheen.

His electronically amplified voice was powerful; commanding; subduing.

"I admire your boldness, soldier…but you were foolish to come here."

"We'll see about that."

Snake raised his rifle to his shoulder, but as he did so, a pair of armored arms wrapped themselves around his arms and his throat. Several similarly armored Spartans overpowered Meryl, Megaman, and Sonic, their superpowered grips impossibly strong.

"Bring the woman."

The Spartan holding Meryl dragged her forward without much effort despite her struggling. He forced her to her knees.

"It doesn't have to be like this, Snake." The Master Chief drew a black gun whose design outmatched anything Snake or the entire Sony World possessed. "We only want your allegiance. The Nintendonians must pay for their insubordination. You will help us…willingly or otherwise."

"Never!" Snake spat.

"Have it your way, then." Master Chief held the gun to Meryl's head. Her eyes widened as they made contact with Snake's.

Snake's brain felt like it was about to implode. "Wait—"

"Too late," the Chief said.

He pulled the trigger.

Author's Note: As indicated in the title, this story is indeed a direct continuation of The Trophies. While this sequel will certainly be found most meaningful to those who have read its predecessor, the synopsis provided here should be sufficient for anyone who wishes to jump aboard. If you are interested in learning about the events in the synopsis in greater detail, however, I highly recommend reading The Trophies first.

Also, I have created maps for aid in visualizing the geography of this story. Among the maps include the global map of Smash Planet, the Nintendo World, the Sony World, and the Microsoft World. Although I cannot directly link to them here, all you have to do is search for the user Bob_Snicket on Photobucket, where you will find the maps easily accessible and, I hope, useful and interesting.

As of today, I am about 2/3rds done writing this story, which will have an estimated 20 chapters (not including the Prologue). I would greatly appreciate feedback both positive and constructively critical so that I can continue refining my craft.

Thanks for reading!