Author's Note: Welcome to the new and improved version of Super Smash Bros Origins! I've been working on this rewrite tirelessly for a while now and it took WAY longer than I thought it would, but I'm glad I'm finally able to give it to you. I knew that I needed to improve upon what I already wrote, and so I, with great discomfort and frustration, combined the old Prologue and the First Chapter into one definitive Chapter 1. I've upgraded the story to flow better and explain everything that's happening in a much clearer way and I'm really a lot happier with this edition of the story. Anyhow, I present to you: Chapter 1: Genesis. Enjoy!
It was a long time ago in a world, no, a universe far removed from our own, and it was beautiful. This was a time in this great universe when heroes dominated their respective worlds, protecting their people and greeting everyone they met. These heroes were some of the greatest warriors to ever set foot on the battlefield, and yet most of them were humble and caring. These heroes left their allies feeling warm and peaceful, and left their enemies with an overwhelming feeling of dread. These heroes were strong, and many of them had already dominated their own dimension, and thus the next logical step was to dominate the entire universe. The first two great warriors to establish inter-dimensional glory through combat and companionship were two marvelously caring brothers by the name of Mario and Luigi.
These brothers were establishing themselves, a time when millions didn't know them as the greatest heroes, the protectors of beauty, the conquerors of space, or the greatest journeyers of the universe. These brothers, however, were renowned in their own world for their daring adventures and magnificent feats of strength and bravery. Day and night the two would be out in the wilderness, protecting the Mushroom Kingdom from all sorts of villainy and disaster, and though their work was tireless, and often unsung, they protected and saved anyway, because it was their duty. But there came a day when they started to become famous all across their land, and they were finally given a resounding celebration in response to their noble deeds.
A few days after a brutal and tiresome battle between Mario and his greatest rival, Bowser, the Mushroom Kingdom decided to celebrate the great hero's astounding victory. By many accounts, this was considered the greatest accomplishment the red-capped hero had under his belt. Mario had journeyed through several worlds on a grand adventure to stop Bowser, and he accomplished this by traveling through paintings hanging on the walls of the seat of power of the Mushroom Kingdom, Peach's Castle. He had saved the ever-grateful Princess Peach once again from his greatest enemy, and most everyone was happy.
Mario, just like the rest of the party-goers at this celebration, partied all day long, deep into the night, and early into the morning. Once attendees began to either go home or fall asleep on the floor of the castle, Mario, who was extremely exhausted himself, decided to begin the long trek to his bedroom in the castle and call the day a success. He started to walk through the halls of the stone fortress, glancing at paintings of worlds he'd previously traveled to and stepping quietly over sleeping party-goers on the floor. He was nearly to his room when he suddenly tripped over a sleeping party attendee on the floor. The guest, who turned out to be Luigi coincidentally enough, jumped up from shock and began to look around quickly before relaxing after realizing it was just his older brother who committed the blunder.
Luigi then looked at Mario with droopy, sleepy eyes, and then suddenly his face lit up as if he'd just remembered something.
"Hey bro, I've been-a looking for you all during the party, there's something I've been wanting to show you." Luigi said, while gesturing Mario to follow, then continued, "So there's this-a room that's at the end of an unused-a hallway; I use it for reading or sleeping when I need quiet. It seems-a to be an old storage closet filled with things from-a the princess's past. There's one thing in particular I really have been-a wanting to show you."
Mario was instantly curious about this room now, especially since Peach never really talked about her childhood. Despite every part of his body telling him to just ignore his younger brother and go to bed, his brain was now locked onto seeing this place. Mario was also especially interested in whatever Luigi wanted to show him; what could his younger sibling have found that was so strange? The red-capped hero didn't know yet, but was ecstatic nonetheless.
The two brothers then journeyed through the halls, stepping over people, and making small talk with certain conscious guests along the way. After what felt like hours of walking through the labyrinth of corridors, the two finally turned a corner to a hallway with a few doors, extra boxes, and tables filling up the space. At the end of this rather short hallway was a door. As the two ventured closer to the door Mario began to take note of it's appearance. It was brown, with a golden doorknob and what looked to be at one time a pristine finish, however the door was splintered beyond repair, and was by far the dustiest thing in the castle. The doorknob was tarnished and the frame around the door was even more splintered than the door itself, for whatever reason. But despite all these issues with the door, a nonchalant Luigi turned the old doorknob and pushed the wooden portcullis open.
Behind this wooden gateway was set of winding, equally dusty, save for a few footprints, spiral stairs that led down. Mario immediately realized that this room the brothers were traveling to was actually a basement or cellar of some kind. Luigi began to descend the stairs, and thus Mario followed suit. The two siblings loudly, and with an echo, stepped down the dirty stairs for several long minutes before coming to another dusty, albeit less splintery, wooden door. This doorknob was silver and in good condition, and the younger brother of the two turned the knob and pushed it open to reveal a room within.
Upon entering the room, Mario immediately noticed that this room was unwaveringly dusty, just as the two doors had been, and messy, with things like books, paintings, and chips of wood strewn about the floor. On and against the wall opposite the door were several miscellaneous things, such as a rusty rack with what appeared to be child-sized dresses, a stack of old crates and boxes, one of which was open with paintings and pictures inside, as well as several, unrecognizable flags that hung on the wall. To the right of the door was a well-used but still sturdy table with several lazily stacked books on top, as well as two rather well-built looking chairs surrounding said table. To the left of the siblings was a very clean, and obviously new, mattress that Luigi apparently slept on when his room wasn't quiet enough. But after looking at all this, though it was very interesting, Mario couldn't imagine what Luigi wanted to specifically show him.
Luigi had waited a second to let Mario observe his new surroundings before piping up, "You see what I mean, bro? Dresses, old paintings, and flags we've never-a seen before. But that's not the weirdest-a part; here, let me show you." Luigi then walked over to the box of paintings, which sat on the floor next to the much larger stack of crates and boxes in the corner, and picked it up. The younger brother brought the box to the table, threw the books that were there previously off, and began to spread paintings out across it as if to get a better look at each painting. Some of these painting caught Mario's eye and piqued his curiosity, specifically a few that looked like buildings or perhaps vehicles in outer space. Then Luigi pulled out the last painting from the box, and it was by far the most bizarre.
The painting was larger than all the others, but it was a picture of mostly black, save for a very strange white symbol centered in the middle, which appeared to be a circle, with two intersecting lines running though it. The red-capped hero knew that these paintings were warp portals to other worlds, but even he couldn't imagine what kind of world this particular painting would send them to. Upon even closer inspection, he observed a very small red dot located where the two intersecting lines met. Mario then picked up the painting and turned it over, examining the back of the portal with a careful eye, and in the bottom right corner, scrawled pristinely was a series of weird symbols that appeared to be a language the young hero had never seen before.
The older brother then set the painting on the ground and looked at Luigi, who returned this confused look with an equally confused shrug. The brothers then decided without words what Mario had to do. The younger brother knew that no matter how insistently he begged his older brother, the two were going on a late-night adventure to a place they'd never been before. Luigi accepted his fate silently and gestured, with a mix of sad and tired in his face, Mario to go into the warp painting first. The red-capped hero then readied himself before leaping into the portal without hesitation. Luigi then, with much hesitation, hopped into the painting after Mario.
After this hasty jump into the painting, Mario's body felt as if he was falling for a few seconds before landing on a hard surface. He groaned and held his head, which he hit rather forcefully on the ground under him, but despite this pain he raised himself up and looked around. It was then that the young adventurer realized that he couldn't see anything, as if his eyes weren't working at all. He tried his best to make his eyes adjust to the darkness, but no natural light existed, and Mario stayed blind to his surroundings.
Suddenly, the blind hero heard a loud and obnoxious screech from above, which he knew from experience was a timid and afraid Luigi. Only a moment after this scream had echoed far, the younger brother landed on Mario and both ended up on the cold ground. Mario then jumped up onto his feet, head still dizzy, and began to help Luigi up. Then Luigi spoke, "Thanks a lot br-", but stopped mid-sentence abruptly, as if he'd just realized something. Mario knew that his younger brother was afraid of the dark, especially when neither had no idea where they were or how to get back to their home, but the red-capped hero stood firm and courageous and quickly picked his frightened brother up off the ground and the two put each other's arms around another. Mario then led Luigi in a direction that his gut told him had to be right.
So the siblings trudged along in the dark world they found themselves in, both trying to find something, anything, that would lead them to believe there was a chance out of this horrible nightmare. But as they walked for what seemed like hours, Mario was left in deep thought as he trekked; he thought about his adventure thus far and everything he'd accomplished: the countless savings of his princess, the defeating of Bowser over and over, the leading of the great Mushroom Kingdom after ever victory. Mario felt that he'd done it all, and that there wasn't much more he could do, and deep down, despite his great fear, this small adventure through the pitch black of this painting was a breath of fresh air for the weary man who carried his equally weary brother on his right shoulder, but Mario knew that Luigi was tired of adventures and just wanted some rest and the red-hatted hero wondered when he would tire of great journeys himself.
But Mario was suddenly jerked from this slightly scary thought by his brother who had taken off running. This scared the older brother at first, until he realized why Luigi was running. The hero then took off after his sibling towards the light they now both saw in the distance. The two ran tirelessly, sparked now by new hope that they could finally leave this dark place. After a minute of running the two brothers arrived at their coveted destination but were greeted with something much different from a simple exit.
The light shined from an unknown source from above onto the white ground below, creating a strange symbol that seemed oddly familiar to Mario, but he didn't know why. The two examined this icon for a minute; it was a circular symbol with two shadowed intersecting lines running through, but not centered. In the middle of this intersection there was a dimly lit grey pole with a big red button placed on top. It then occurred to both brothers almost simultaneously that indeed they had seen this oddity before in the very painting they'd jumped into to travel to the world they were now in.
But after realizing this Mario's curiosity was piqued about the big red button in the intersection and what exactly would happen if it was pressed. Mario looked at Luigi, who, obviously wondering the same, gave him an unsure shrug about the whole situation. The two then huddled around the button and examined it. On this button was etched yet again the same symbol they'd seen and neither sibling were quite sure what this meant yet, but they'd soon find out, as Mario finally gave in to anxiety and curiosity and he pressed the button. Almost immediately after this the two brothers were completely blinded and deafened, and both were left unconscious.
Mario awoke with a throbbing head, severe dizziness, intense nausea, and regret that his decision was so poorly thought out. He opened his eyes slowly and painfully and was greeted with a gorgeous sight. Above him was an expansive and beautiful blue sky with snow white clouds that felt almost as tangible as the crisp green grass the hero found himself laying upon. He slowly sat up and beheld a sight he'd only dreamed of: a magnificent field that stretched as far as the eye could see, with strong trees sprinkled in along with many other dynamically amazing landscape features. Truly Mario had never seen something so enchanting in his entire life.
He hoisted himself up and stretched, realigning his shoulders and spine with a satisfying pop. He then looked around and was immediately confronted with an unsightly and large metal box that appeared nearly alien to the hero. He then approached the box and examined it closely, and it appeared to be some kind of complex control panel. Mario then chose the only interesting button, another big red one coincidentally, and pressed it, this time without hesitation. Suddenly an ear-rattling voice boomed all around him and woke a shocked and terrified Luigi, who had been knocked out on the ground a few feet away from where Mario was.
The voice then told the heroes in a even louder voice, "WELCOME to SMASH, the greatest invention the Universe-Man's ever created. He made an entire world, so that the first to find this great and sacred place would be able to call it home. This place has lain dormant for hundreds of years, and you, Mr. Mario and Mr. Luigi, have now claimed this place as your own. You two, as the new owners, will have full control of this world and everything in it. If what you want has ever existed, exists currently, or will exist, you can have it with the utterance of a few words. Please remember that with a power this great, you must be absolutely and undeniably dedicated to it's existence as a positive creation. Good luck and remember that I will always be here."
This vague and confusing exposition left the brothers with more questions than answers but before they could elaborate on these questions in their brains the panel they'd observed earlier warped out of reality, and in it's place, on the ground, were two small devices with microphones attached. Despite never having seen or heard of these small items, both siblings knew exactly what they were and their function. They each took up their respective controller, which they somehow knew to be called Port-a-Panels, or PaPs for short, as if someone or something had implanted this bizarre knowledge into their brains. Mario and Luigi then stared at each other, not knowing what they should do with this godly power they'd been gifted. Mario then decided to test this for himself and spoke into his mic, "Bring-a me the paintings from our-a storage room." and suddenly a box warped into reality, containing all the paintings they'd left in the room before. The brothers realized at that moment a rudimentary idea of what they should do, but it would take a lot of work, but without hesitation they began to jump into paintings.
Little did they know, they were about to change the fate of the entire universe.
Author's Note That May Change (ANTMC): I'm currently going through the chapter and making sure to fix grammar and spelling mistakes. The next chapter will probably take me quite awhile, since I'm currently debating in my head where to take it from here. I'm not sure if I want to change character, or stick with the brothers for another chapter. Basically the story will either stay on its current path and explore the building of the Arena, or it will take the other route and explore them meeting the original twelve. Help me out and tell me what you think.