I came up with the story for this fic while I was writing a Mother 3 Oneshot and decided to mention Lucas' time in the Brawl. I just can't help but love the tragic friendship between Lucas and Ness, especially since they are hundreds of years apart timeline wise. It's actually quite sad for all Brawlers, especially those that make close friends.

But, anyway, enough of my rambling, on with the fic.

The Subspace Incident itself didn't actually take all that long. It wasn't such a significant amount of time that the set time for the Brawl needed to be extended. It was actually the cleanup that took more time than anything.

The Brawl itself was supposed to last six months. For the people outside of the Brawl no time would pass. It was only the fighters themselves that would be affected by this time. However, there was a limit to the time and nobody liked the fact they were losing nearly a month of their time for repairs to the stages and other important areas. Of course, everyone knew that wasn't the real reason for the repairs. The veterans knew Master Hand could fix those things with a twitch of his pinkie. The real issue that Master Hand himself.

The whole being controlled by Tabuu thing did a number on the floating hand. It would take him some time to recover. He didn't have the strength to keep all of the fights safe at the moment, so he was forced to delay them. Most people weren't happy with this, but they submitted to the wait. There were many things to do here that didn't involve fighting.

Lucas didn't want to wait. He just wanted to go home and see what had become of the Nowhere Islands. He wasn't even sure they were still there. The last thing he remembered was pulling the final needle, the last thing he needed to do on his journey. After that, everything was a blank. He didn't want to come to this tournament at all. He just ended up there. Master Hand didn't really give him a choice.

Oh what a great 'honor' it was to be there, to fight people who he had never met over nothing. They fed him and put a roof over his head, but that didn't make him want to participate in this thing. He could try running away, but that would do him about as much good as trying to reason with the hand to let him go home. A ruler without limits was always a tyrant. After Porky, just about any form of leadership put a foul taste in Lucas' mouth.

At least he might be able to make a few friends again, though. Lucas closed his eyes and sighed. The first person he met here was a boy in a hat. They hadn't gotten to introduce themselves yet, so Lucas didn't know his name. Next was a boy who commanded strange chimeras called Pokémon. Lucas knew his name. He was Red, but he was registered under the name of Pokemon Trainer, so he could represent everyone in his homeland. Both boys were very nice to Lucas. He could see himself getting along with them during these six months.

The repairs hadn't yet started on the stages, but today was the day they would all be introduced to each other. This was actually the second time they tried to do this. The first everyone left angrily when the giant hand never showed up. Some of the brawlers were missing too, namely the bad guys. Everyone assumed the tournament was off and looked for a way out of this pocket dimension. This time was different. The hand had actually shown up this time.

"Welcome Brawlers!" Master Hand managed to say despite not having a mouth. His voice snapped Lucas out of his daydreaming. "I'm sure some of the newcomers are curious as to why you were brought here. I instructed the staff to give out only the bare minimum amount of information to you."

"Yeah, cause that went over so well…" Lucas muttered in annoyance. He hadn't realized how loud he was. It turned out quite a few people could hear him.

The dark haired PSI user that had saved him gave Lucas a rather surprised look. Of course, he was one of those people that mistook Lucas for someone compliant. Yep, blond boy with a cowlick did what he thought was right and didn't care what anyone thought. Of course, his shy nature caused the young boy to flinch at his black haired saviour's look. However, he quickly found a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

That was Red for him. The boy was good at calming things, including Lucas. Though they hadn't known each other long, the blond boy trusted him almost completely. He sort of reminded him of his friend Duster in that way.

"Ah, yes…" The hand would have looked embarrassed if he had a face. "I do regret that a bit. I wanted you to hear the situation from me rather than anyone else. I apologise for the inconvenience I've caused all of you."

So a tyrant could apologise. It didn't make him any less of a tyrant, though. Lucas refused to think any other way towards the hand. He was hard set in his ways.

"I'll begin with the basics. You are all some of the universe's finest examples of heroes, villain, and things that lay somewhere in between. You come from various worlds and times. I gathered you together because of this. I am rather glad I did now. Had I not, I would still be under Tabuu's rule." Master Hand paused for a moment, as if unsure of whether his should thank them. It seemed as though he decided against it though. "I brought you here to fight in a friendly tournament. Of course, fighting will be the main goal, but I also wish to form friendships across the worlds."

Well, that part had already started. Lucas looked to Ness and Red for a moment. His taller friend was focussed on the hand. His saviour, on the other hand, was more focussed on a preformed a few tricks with his yo-yo. He was so getting a stern talking to later. Well, after Lucas found out what his name was. He hadn't even had time to properly thank the other boy yet.

"Of course, these friendships will have to have a few limitations. This is a tournament with rules. The first and most important of these rules is to avoid breaking the space time continuum. This means that talk of your time periods, important events, journeys, and technology is strictly off limits. You can talk about your friends and families, but be warned, if I catch any of you breaking this rule, I will have to do something about this."

For some reason, Lucas felt like the hand was glaring at him. Perhaps he was glaring at everyone. Nobody could tell, since he had no eyes. Lucas got the feeling that being ruled by this glove was not going to be very fun.

"A second rule is that there will be no fights outside of the stages, and all of those have to be approved first. There will be scheduled fights that you are required to attend, but besides those, you are free to challenge whoever you want. That doesn't mean you can force people into fights, though. Bullying and harming opponents outside of battle also will not be tolerated. As such, I've put in a certain safe guard that you've probably all noticed by now. Mario, please come up here and help me demonstrate."

A chubby man with a mustache and a red hat jumped onto the stage where the hand floated. It was actually quite impressive. Despite what his body shape implied, he could move like he weighted nothing at all. Lucas decided he didn't want to fight someone that strong. Not in the least.

"If your life is in serious danger, your body will be trophfied, as you have all seen." Lucas didn't like that word. Trophified. So they became trophies? Prizes for someone else? It disgusted him to hear. "However, if you feel that you are threatened, you can turn yourself into a trophy. Unlike if your life was in danger, if you change this way, I am the only one that can reverse it. I will be able to sense if you are turned this way, so don't worry that you'll be laying there forever."

Master Hand gestured to Mario for a moment and the red hatted man was engulfed in a white light. In his place stood a trophy of himself. Lucas squirmed uncomfortable. Being an object wasn't very fun. He knew from experience. Regardless, Mater Hand quickly reached over and turned him back.

"Thank you for the display, Mario. You're now free to go." As soon as Master Hand said this, Mario jumped off the stage and went back over to a man in a similar outfit and a woman in a pink dress. "All you are required to do is think that you want to turn into a trophy. However, please don't-"

Too late, there were four flashes of light around the room as four people changed themselves. Lucas hadn't been among them. This gave him the chance to shake his head at those who had acted without thinking. People cleared a path for the giant hand to get to each of them. Lucas didn't know the name of any of these people. There was a large fat man dressed similar to the Mario man, a young boy around Lucas' age with a green outfit, a strange blue hedgehog, and a pair of kids who for some reason shared a trophy. As the hand healed the two kids he muttered something about them knowing better.

"Now that we're over that, I'll continue." Lucas could tell who Master Hand was glaring at this time. "Please don't do this unless necessary. I'm a busy hand. I don't have the time to save you every time you think it's funny. Only use this ability if you are in danger."

The hand gave a sigh. He almost seemed to wobble as he floated there. Even just healing a few brawlers was taking a lot out of him at this point. Lucas was able to pick up a few of his thought vaguely. He decided to wrap this up. Normally, this would have lasted much longer, but the hand didn't have the strength for it right now. As soon a Lucas picked this up, his felt something force him out of the hand's mind. Of course he shouldn't be spying. He didn't normally like doing it anyway. It had just been an instinct to try and find out what was wrong when he thought someone was injured.

"For now, I'll let you all get to your rooms. Veterans, in other words the brawlers that had participated in a multiple tournaments, will have a private room unless assigned to a newcomer. Newcomers and these selected veterans, who have already received their assignments, will room together until the newcomer is comfortable enough with the mansion and rules to live on their own." The hand looked over the crowd. "Remember, selected veterans, this newcomer is your responsibility! If they move to a new room without the proper knowledge, you will be punished. As for the newcomers, listen to your assigned veteran! Everyone was a newcomer once; there is no shame in having a question. Your veteran was assigned to you for a reason. They will know how to help you best."

The hand floated off the stage and down the hall. As soon as he did, the crowd erupted into conversation. Suddenly, Lucas felt very confined. When the crowd was calm and quiet, it felt like he had lots of room to move. Now that they were all talking, he felt like he was stuck in a little box. He just wanted to get out and get to his room. He had to find his veteran.

Assigned to us for a reason… the blond PSI user thought for a moment. It was probably someone he had already met and got along with. Without realizing it, he found himself looking up to Red expectantly.

"Sorry, Luc. I'm just as green as you are." Red gave him a compassion look that was somewhat marred by the fact he was grinning over the stupid colour pun he had made. Lucas got it, he just didn't find it very funny. "I'll stay with you until one of our vets come for us, though."

"Thanks Red…" He felt a little safer with the trainer by his side. It would be better if his other ally was talking to him too. But, no… His hatted saviour was still playing with his yo-yo, completely blocking out the busy world around him. It was truly shocking what a human could block out if they put their mind to it. At least the black haired boy was doing so really impressive tricks.

"It's not a problem. I hope our vets come soon though. I don't want to feel like the last guy picked for baseball." Red gave a little sigh.

Lucas turned when he felt a tap on his shoulder. His hatted saviour seemed to have finally finished playing with his damned yo-yo. Maybe he had an idea of who their veterans were. The room was slowly emptying. Now there were only around ten people in there.

"Did one of you two say baseball?" Of course that was what got his attention. Lucas wished he understood this boy better but some things couldn't be helped.

"That was me." Red raised his hand. "Sorry guy, but we're not looking for a game or discussing players or anything. I was just making a reference. Sorry for getting your hopes up."

The black haired PSI user looked a little disappointed but didn't seem to make a big fuss out of it. "It's fine. I didn't expect you to. I mean, it's still the first day. The baseball game won't be for a few months. Trust me, you don't know baseball until you've played baseball until you've played it here."

This got Lucas' attention. This meant that the other psychic had been here before. The boy had a little bit of hope. Maybe this was his veteran. That would be the best situation. Well, the best situation that didn't involve him going home and finding out everyone was magically okay. Unless one was using the Dark Dragon, praying for the impossible was useless, so Lucas didn't even try.

"You're a veteran?" Lucas asked softly.

The other boy grinned and smashed his fist into his chest with pride. "Yep, I'm one of the original twelve, from the first tournament. That means this is my third. Despite Master Hand's bragging, there really have only been three tournaments."

Lucas nodded to the other boy. "If you're a veteran, would you know who the assigned veterans for all the newcomers are?"

The black haired boy suddenly jumped like he just realised he left some nut bread in the stove. "Right! Shit! I completely forgot about that! I'm supposed to find my newcomer." He looked over Red and Lucas. "One of you wouldn't happen to be Lucas, would you?"

Lucas was starting to feel this boy had some serious personality issues, but he wouldn't bring it up. He wanted to befriend and thank this boy for all he had done, not make and enemy.

"I'm Lucas." The blond boy raised his arm. The other PSI user gave a sigh of relief right away.

"Oh good, it's someone I already know. Last year I got assigned the Ice Climbers, and they somehow managed to make it all the way into an illegal brawl before I found them." The hatted saviour rubbed the back of his neck nervous. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Lucas. I'm going to be your veteran for your stay here. My name's Ness."

Ness… It was a nice name. It sure fit the black haired boy. It was nice for Lucas to finally have a name to go with the face. For the last three days, the amount of time it had been since they all got to the mansion, he had just been calling the other boy his hatted saviour.

"It's nice to meet you too, Ness. I'm glad that my veteran is someone I already know as well. I guess I'm going to owe you more after this, aren't I?" Lucas shyly tipped his head to the side at the end of his statement. This got a little laugh out of Ness.

"I guess you'll have to find a way to pay me back someday," he chimed in a good natured way, as if trying to tell Lucas he really didn't need to pay him back at all. Of course, the other PSI user wouldn't allow that to stop him from trying.

A little cough got the two boy's attention. Red was giving them a slightly annoyed look. Lucas felt bad. He had almost completely forgotten about his friend while he was talking to Ness. The boy had actually fully intended to walk away without so much as a goodbye to the Pokémon trainer.

"If you guys are all fine and good, I was wondering if you knew who my vet was. I mean, there's not many people left and all…" Red rubbed his neck nervously. He gave a look at the thinning crowd of people to prove his point even further.

Ness blinked at the taller boy for a minute. "Well, we all received the list so… What's your name? I probably won't be able to, but I might remember who your veteran is."

"Red," the trainer answered without any hesitation. He saw Ness open his mouth to say something and realized his error. "I was registered under Pokémon Trainer, though. They probably put me as that one the list."

This got a smile out of the hatted psychic. He snapped his finger when he realized who Red's veteran was. "Oh, I do remember that one cause it was so funny. Your partner is Pikachu. I know cause I know he's gonna be all pissy about it. He thinks you're going to try to catch him. Don't, by the way. He can toast you before you get your first Pokémon out."

"So he's a Pokémon, huh… Well, that's gonna be interesting." Read shook his head and smiled. "I hope he's not too mad. It's nice like I brought any extra Pokeballs anyway. I only wanted to focus on the team I have now. Now I just have to find him…"

Without so much as a goodbye, Red wandered off to look for the electric mouse. This just left Lucas and Ness in the room. By now, all the other brawlers had left to go back to their rooms to rest. Even the veterans had to move into new rooms. The ones everyone had been staying in until now were just temporary housing. They all had stuff to move in.

"Well, no use standing around here. Let me show you to our room." Ness offered Lucas a reassuring smile as they headed out of the meeting room. As soon as they left, the door for it vanished, as if it was never there. It was likely it wouldn't show up until Master Hand needed it again. Lucas would have jumped if he wasn't already used to this strangeness. When he left his temporary room for this meeting. it had vanished as well.

They headed down a long hall way. The two boy's passed by an empty cafeteria on their way, but they didn't see too many more room until they reached a set of stairs. It was a long climb. Lucas was hoping they would just be on the second floor. It didn't seem so as Ness passed that door without so much as a passing glance. They passed the third as well, it was only on the fourth that they finally stopped.

"The first three floors are for important public things. All the rooms are on the fourth fifth and sixth floors. Lucky for us, we're on four. Trust me, you'll hate this climb after a long day of fighting," Ness explained casually.

"I already hate the climb," Lucas grumbled back.

Ness gave a laugh and headed down the hall. He stopped at a door with a picture of a blue person on it. He knocked on the door for a moment. When nobody replied, the boy pulled something out of his pocket. It looked like a card. The boy pressed it to the handle of the door. Lucas would have asked what he was doing if he hadn't heard a loud click.

"This is the boy's shower room," Ness began. "We'll have a toilet in our room, but there's no shower. We all have to use the public ones. Lucky for us, there are two more, one on each of the other floors. Cause of this, you should never have to be in here at the same time as someone else. It does happen sometimes, though. It's not a big deal since this isn't co-ed, but it can get weird. Just a general thing, but if a villain is showering when you walk in, just leave. No matter how much you stink, it's not worth the trouble. Things get weird fast."

With that said, the boy opened the door. The room was larger than Lucas expected. Even though it was rare for two people to use it at once, it had ten stalls. In the side of the room, Lucas saw something that caused him quite a bit of relief. A hot spring. He loved those things. Despite the 'modernization' of his home world, he had never mastered showers. He'd tried to us one in Kumatora's room once and ended up spraying himself in the face with ice cold water. Never again…

"Ah, you noticed the hot springs? Those are for people who either can't fit into a shower, like Bowser, or people who don't know how to use them, like Link. Despite that, they're pretty great. If you have the time, you should check them out." Ness paused until he caught movement from Lucas. "But not right now."

"Oh… Okay… Later then." Lucas felt a bit embarrassed. He really could go for a long soak after the stress of the long days. He muttered a soft goodbye to the hot spring. "Can we go to the room now?"

Ness nodded to him. "Yep, that's the next stop. Come on, Lucas. You've got the whole rest of the day for the hot spring."

With that, they left the boy's shower room and headed down the hall. Their room was actually at the end of the hall. It would be easier for them to remember that way. Ness pulled out the strange card again and pressed it to the door. Like before, it popped open easily.

"Well here we are, home sweet home!" Ness pulled the door open and showed Lucas where they would be saying. This certainly got a gasp out of the blond.

It was almost as big as his whole house. The room wasn't all that special, but the space was what was truly amazing to him. There wasn't much to it. It simply contained a desk with some paper and a pen on it, a dresser for each of them, two beds, and final, a wall full of sticks and baseball bats. It felt like something had been taken from the room, but the blond wasn't going to complain. This was the nicest place he'd ever been allowed to stay in.

"Wow… This sure is…" The newcomer couldn't find the word he wanted.

"Empty, huh?" Ness finished for him, though he selected the wrong word. Lucas was looking for huge. "As the fights go on, you'll earn points we can use to fill out the room. I don't suggest you use any of yours until you move into your new room, though. You don't wanna haul all that up to the sixth floor. I'll be keeping this one, so I can use mine whenever I want."

"My room would be on the sixth floor?" Lucas frowned as he said this. "I guess I'll have to stay with you forever."

This got a good laugh out of both of them. Lucas hadn't realized how much he needed this. He was still worried about his home, but he needed to relax. Otherwise the guilt in him would burn him up. Once he finished laughing, he looked at the size of the room again.

"Are all the rooms this big?" the blond boy asked with a curious look over to Ness. He could tell the other boy was enjoying his surprise. It must have been like entering the house for the first time again. Maybe Ness had wanted to come here, rather than being forced like Lucas. He sure seemed to think highly of it.

"Nope. This room is so big because we're sharing it. Then I get to keep it as a reward for showing you the ropes." Lucas didn't know what ropes he was going to be shown, but they had to be something special for this big of a reward. "Yours will be about half of the size of this one. A normal veteran's will be about three quarters. Still, they are all larger than the one I had at home."

"My home only had one room and it was about this size," Lucas said without thinking. He quickly covered his mouth.

"Don't worry, Lucas. Talking about the shape of your home is fine. It's more… Other things, like the state of the world or what you do to get the title of hero." The hatted saviour gave Lucas a little pat on the back. "Don't worry about it, okay?"

"Okay…"

With their talk done, Lucas finally entered the room. He found all his things were placed neatly by the bed. It unnerved him to know someone moved his stuff without telling him, but at least he didn't have to carry it all of the stairs. What he quickly found was more unnerving was the fact that all his clothes had been laid out of in the dresser. He hoped that Master Hand used his weird magic to do that rather than have someone go through all his clothes. He didn't like the thought of anyone touching his underwear.

Lucas sat down on the bed with a sigh. He'd already eaten today. The room he'd been in before seemed to know when he was hungry and would provide him with tasteless food. He didn't need to go down for dinner. More than anything, being around all those people had made his tired. Lucas just wanted to sleep and be sad. He missed his home, even if it was all destroyed now.

"I'll show you around the rest of the mansion tomorrow," Ness offered, going to the other bed. Lucas realized suddenly that he'd claimed the nicer bed, the one by the window. He hadn't meant to claim it just by sitting down.

"Ah, sorry, I should be giving you the good bed!" Lucas jumped up. This caused the other boy to wave his hand wildly.

"Calm down, Luc! You don't have to give up that bed. It was yours anyway. I mean, unless the big sunflower blanket was meant for me…" the other boy trailed off. "Besides, that's the side of the room where all your stuff is. Oh, and this is a good bed. It's closer to the door. Trust me, you'll wish you had it eventually."

This calmed the blond's nerves a little bit. He should have noticed that the bed had a sunflower. He was always around sunflowers anyway. The other bed's blanket had a picture of a baseball bat and a strange white and red ball. He'd ask Ness what it was later.

"So, have you got any other questions for me?" the blank haired boy asked from the other bed. "I figure I should use the first day to answer any questions you have."

Lucas looked down at the bed. He did have a lot of questions, but it felt awkward to ask them. He quickly tried to figure out what would be important enough to ask. "What were the other two tournaments like?"

This got a small hum out of the back haired boy. "Smaller than this one, but they were still lots of fun. We never had a big adventure like we did in this one. It was mostly just fighting and bonding. I made lots of friends. It's a little sad, though. Making those friends and then showing up at the next tournament and not seeing them. One of my friends from last one, Young Link, was told he wasn't going to continue for Brawl. I miss him, but if I'd never gotten in, I'd never have met him."

Lucas furrowed his brows. Ness really was acting like he liked being here. "You like being here?"

"Course! It's fun! I haven't had the chance to really go wild with my PSI since my big adventure." The hatted boy smiled for a moment until he noticed Lucas's frown. "You didn't want to come here?"

"I don't really like fighting. It can be fun sometimes, and my PSI makes me feel really strong, but I don't like hurting people." The blond sighed. "I was really upset when I woke up here. I was in the middle of something really important and I need to know if my friends are okay."

"Master Hand didn't ask you before he brought you here?" The other boy shook his head in disbelief. "He's always been really big on getting your permission before he does anything to you. If you didn't want to come here, you must be something really special for him to not let you get away."

Lucas was right about Ness being a special type of person. It wasn't everyone that could spin something like that into a compliment. The blond couldn't help but let it sooth his frayed nerves a little. At least he'd have a kind roommate. It made him feel a little better about asking one of his stupider questions.

"You and Red brought it up earlier, but I didn't know what it was. I've heard the term before but… What's baseball?"

Lucas didn't need to be able to read minds to know he'd made a terrible mistake as soon as he saw the evil gleam in Ness' eyes. He was in for a very long night.

After Ness' three hour explanation of baseball, Lucas didn't even have the strength to visit the hot spring. He'd simply flopped back over into the bed and closed his eyes. He had no strength to either change clothes or just tell Ness good night. All he could do was think and go to sleep.

Ness reminded him now of a local girl named Nana who was famous for going on for hours over the simplest things. Lucas had once made the mistake of listening to her talk about the piano for hours and it felt something like this when she finally stopped talking. Lucas didn't have the strength to handle the conversation. The boy closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep thinking of pianos and the complexities of baseball.

"Luc?" How did Ness still have the strength to speak? Lucas was nearly in dreamland. He didn't want to have to listen. "Listen… It's about Porky."

Oh, now that got Lucas up. The boy snapped awake and pushed himself up to look at Ness.

"Don't feel you need to owe me over saving you for his statue. He's my problem, not yours…" There was a sudden sadness in the black haired boy's voice. "I can't tell you more than that, but I'm sorry. If it wasn't for me he wouldn't be…"

Ness wasn't able to continue. He just got up and went over to the bathroom. Now he'd gotten Lucas curious though. There was no way that Ness could know Porky unless they came from the same world. Considering they had the same powers, that wouldn't even be a big surprise. If only they could know for sure.

"Damn that rule..."