Ok, so this is a Super Smash Brothers: Brawl fic, so expect all of the usual shenanigans and silliness. There will also be some fun characterization and some romance, so hold onto your hats. This fic was originally on my old account, so if you recognize it, well... that's because you may have read it before. Don't worry, Pen2Sword and Alpheta were both me in a past life.

Anywho, on with the show! Enjoy The Recruits! If you like it, dislike it, or have any thoughts (such as who some fun new characters would be), feel free to review or send me a PM!

Chapter One

"I'm very glad that you were all able to make it to this little shindig," boomed a voice that rang throughout the massive room. The voice, which belonged to none other than the Master Hand himself, paused for a moment as some unseen eye scanned the crowd of Brawlers below. "You see, I've got some exciting news for all of you," he said, sparking murmured conversation throughout the audience. "However," the Hand continued after his physical form cut off the chatter, "There are some other things that need discussing before we get to that. First off, I must request that Kirby keep both himself and his appetite out of Peach's garden; I have already received many complaints…"

The Hand's voice almost immediately started to be ignored at this point, especially by a particularly rowdy group of male Brawlers at the very back of the room.

"Well, I'm about ready to leave," said an already bored Marth, stretching his shoulders as he failed to stifle a yawn. The young Prince's eyes scanned the room, as if searching for signs of danger—an old habit picked up during his time spent at war.

Ike smirked as he adjusted the back-sheath for his massive sword. "If you're in the mood for being flattened by a three-ton fist, then please, do go ahead," he said, getting a small chuckle out of Snake, who was making himself busy cleaning one of his many handguns in preparation for his duel later that afternoon. The ex-soldier, already knowing what the 'news' was, wasn't in the least bit concerned with any of the goings-on around him.

"I think we've all been there at least once," the young Lord muttered. A grin lighting up his face, he then turned to the emerald-clad hero to his left. "Isn't that right, Link?" The Hylian warrior was a bit distracted at the moment, though, his eyes locked on one of the Brawlers on the other side of the room. "Oh, forget it… he's busy," Marth said, sighing loudly before turning back around to see Snake absent-mindedly lighting up another cigarette. "Could you put that out, please?"

Steadfastly ignoring the chaos slowly spreading around him, Link was mesmerized. Across the massive chamber, surrounded by her friends and smiling like an angel, was his own angel, Princess Zelda. He was instantly lost in her flowing brown hair, her elegant face… it took all of his willpower not to run over and proclaim his undying love for her on the spot. Though many of his fellow Brawlers remembered his tragic relationship with Midna, what they didn't know was that his affection was slowly finding a new target.

Link and Zelda had been friends for years, but he believed that he was starting to feel something… more towards the beautiful Triforce-wielder. Whether she felt the same way or not was, unfortunately, unbeknownst to him.

However, Zelda was too occupied at the moment to notice Link's infatuated gaze, her hands full with trying to stop her dignity from being destroyed by her giggling friends.

"I told you already, Peach," she said in a low voice to avoid attracting the Hand's attention, "I do not have feelings for Snake!"

Princess Peach smiled wickedly before saying, "then how come I heard you calling his name in your sleep last night?"

Zelda paled. "Did I really?"

Before Peach could answer, a black-clothed figure jumped in to Zelda's rescue. "Yes, you did," Samus said as she tucked a strand of blonde hair behind one ear, "but the voice was… different." At the two Princesses' curious expressions, the bounty hunter continued, "it was Sheik."

Zelda shook her head with a very pissed-off look on her face; if it wasn't for her privileged upbringing and influence from her Triforce of Wisdom, she would have probably started swearing. "First she becomes part of my body," she growled, "and now she's trying to control my love life?"

"Calm down," Samus said, her face as emotionless as ever. "It isn't your fault; I mean, our love lives are almost guaranteed to suck surrounded by this crowd," she said with a less-than-proper gesture towards Bowser, who was too focused on staring at her curvaceous frame to notice.

"Speak for yourself," Zelda said softly, her eyes drifting off to one side, "the guys around here aren't all bad…" It was at that moment that, as she looked over at Link, their eyes met, and an intense spark almost made her jump. Before she could say anything, though, a resounding boom filled the baroquely-decorated room as Master Hand snapped, sending a shock wave ringing through the brawlers' ears.

"Now that that's all taken care of," he said, "I have some great news! After speaking with one of our comrades," Master Hand said as he gestured towards the crowd, "I have decided-with help from said Brawler regarding the last of the list-that in a week's time, a few new Brawlers are going to be joining us here at Smash Manor!"

Murmuring and whispering immediately sprang up from wall to wall, each Brawler as excited and curious as the next. It had been a very long time since a new recruit had been brought to the Manor, and no one was able to contain their own suspicions as to they might be. However, even more interesting than that was the Hand's first remark, which was immediately questioned:

"Wait just a minute," called out Captain Falcon as he got to his feet to speak, "are you saying that someone in this room other than you chose one of the new recruits?"

There was silence for a moment, and then Master Hand chuckled loudly. "Why, yes I am; I simply couldn't decide on the last of the group, so I showed one of our friends here what I'd come up with so far and he requested someone I saw very deserving of a place on the roster."

"And this person has also seen the rest of the list?"

"Yes indeed."

Falcon grinned. "You gonna tell us who it is?"

There was another, even longer pause as if the Hand was debating whether or not to divulge the information. Just as Falcon was about to ask again, though, the powerful voice once again said, "Oh, why not… it was everyone's favorite gunslinger, Solid Snake!"

The moment the brown-haired man's first name was spoken, every set of eyes in the room immediately turned towards the spot where, only moments earlier, the soldier in question had been sitting. However, confusion broke out as Mario said, "Where the heck did he go?"

Standing up in one smooth motion despite his massive size, the dark sorcerer Ganondorf pointed towards the ceiling. "There he is up there! On that stupid little camera!"

"It is not stupid!" Snake yelled back, now crouching as he landed atop one of the rafters. "Now everyone just leave me alone… I'm not spoiling the surprise, and I promised to the Hand I wouldn't tell a soul!"

Link cupped his hands around his mouth as he shouted, "But Ganondorf doesn't have a soul, so you can tell him, right?"

Snake rolled his eyes, then turned and walked across the metal beam and through the lofty ceiling's service entrance. Leaving the chaos behind, the battle-hardened warrior lit up another cigarette as he started to make his way back to his room.

The next morning, when Snake left his dorm at five o' clock for his five-mile run a small group of grinning maniacs was waiting for him. At the dopey expression on Marth's face and Link's raised eyebrows, Snake sighed and said, "What the hell do you guys want?"

"For you to tell us who the new guys are!" said an excited Pit.

"As I've said at least fifty times to you boneheads, I was specifically told not to say," the hardened soldier growled. "Besides, I don't want rumors about them flying around before they even get a chance for their first impressions."

"What about the one you picked?" Ike asked.

Snake rolled his eyes-which he did often when around this crowd-and said, "I'm not telling you who he is, either."

"Wait, so one of the newcomers is a guy?" Link said, a grin erupting on his face. Snake had to resist the urge to face-palm as he silently nodded, sparking laughter and cheering across the all-male group of Brawlers that had been waiting in the hallway. He remained this way for a few seconds longer, ignoring Link's yell of "One more for the winning team, boys!"

Snake groaned. "I'm so happy for you all," he said in a monotone. "So now that you dogs have gotten your bone for the day, would you be so kind as to let me pass so I don't have to start breaking bones?"

Ignoring Wolf's call of "I resent that!" from the back of the pack, Snake slid through the still-excited throng even more gracefully than his namesake and followed the brightly lit hallway towards the cafeteria for some breakfast before his run.

As he made the right into the non-gender/co-ed hallway, Snake noticed that Link had caught up with him. Though the soldier was only in military-style cargo pants and a sleeveless black shirt, the Hyrulian was in full battle gear and looking a bit nervous. Snake turned to look over his shoulder and asked, "You got a Brawl today?" At the younger man's nod, he added, "Who?"

"Some fangirls from town requested a battle with some of the swordsmen," Link said as he straightened out the hilt of his Master Sword. "It's a free-for-all between me, Ike, Marth and Meta Knight."

Snake raised an eyebrow as he stretched out his left arm. "Meta Knight? Really?"

"Hey, he's got skill," Link said with a small shrug. "And even though his fan-base may be a bit smaller, he's managed to smack us all around more than our share of times."

"Maybe 'cause he's a smaller target," Snake said with a smirk.

Link rolled his eyes. "Whatever… and the only reason you don't have to worry about tasting his blade is all your damn guns, so back off."

"I've got three words for you," Snake said with another small smile as he leaned closer. "Boomerang and Arrows."

"Shut up."

Peach, Zelda and Samus were already sitting in the cafeteria when Snake and Link arrived, and the Hyrulian's companions easily noticed the sudden drop in her attention span. The more wicked of the trio, Peach, leaned over their table and asked, "Which one are you staring at?"

Zelda was caught off guard by the question to say the least, blushing profusely and barely able to string more sounds together than a nervous stutter. "Um… w-well, I guess…." She stopped, and almost hid her head in her small hands before Samus jumped to her rescue once again.

"Jeez, Peach, don't you know when to shut up?" The bounty hunter hugged a now teary-eyed Zelda close with one arm as she turned her icy blue eyes back to the Mushroom Princess and spat, "even an idiot can see that Zelda's been going through a lot lately!"

Zelda sniffed quietly to herself, her face buried in Samus' sweater to hide her face from the other patrons of the cafeteria—most importantly, Link. This is horrible, she thought. First my mind is split, and then my affection is being siphoned into someone only half of me has a care for, and now I can't even look at either of them without bursting into tears.

Though their relationship had been platonic for years, Zelda was slowly starting to feel something different towards the green-clad warrior. Though she, as a Princess, was expected to remain in the court of the wealthy, the ex-farm hand that'd saved her homeland was steadily growing more important to her; unfortunately, her other half's infatuation with Snake kept getting in the way.

As Zelda continued to silently cry, she couldn't help but slowly get lost in a memory of the blue eyes she couldn't bring herself to look over at; however, she had no idea that even as he tried to maintain his conversation with Snake, Link was going through the exact same thing.