Author's Notes (A/N): Another story from me? Wow, I have an active mind. The problem with that is that it tends to jump from one idea to the next before I can finish the first. Because of that, we'll see how far I get with this thing before something else pops in. And before I get any gripes, I do intend to go back to my other stories and work on them, once I get the mindset to do so.
So, about this story. Obviously, it's an SSB fic, loosely based on Brawl. I'm somewhat going for comedy with a few of the characters, though some will also be serious. I had a few ideas for this story once upon a time, but I'm not sure how many, if any, I'll implement here. I do know that managing over 35 characters and giving them all decent time would be damn near impossible, so I'm going to focus on a few of my favorites, specifically Link, Zelda, Mario, Luigi, Pit, Samus, and the other characters associated with them.
Oh, one thing before I start: THIS WILL NOT BE A STORY VERSION OF SUBSPACE EMISSARY! I do intend to have ROB show up, but as a fighter, and his story will be different than in the game.
I need to thank Ian/Digi for reading this stuff for me, and letting me know what I can improve on. OK, I actually more or less force feed this stuff to him, but still, I appreciate him reading it.
Disclaimer: Brawl is a kickass game. Sadly, the rights to it are owned by Nintendo, not me.
Chapter 1 – Invitations Part 1
Link sighed as he stared at the mirror. He had come up here with the final pieces of the shattered mirror that led to the Twilight Realm, attempting to reform it so that he could see his friend, Midna, once more. Though Link wouldn't admit it out loud, he had secretly grown extremely fond of her, possibly even seeing her as more than a friend.
As he placed the last piece of the Mirror in it's place, he stepped back, waiting for something to happen. Minutes passed, and nothing occurred. Link looked up at the statues of the ancient Sages who once held Ganondorf imprisoned within the mirror. "Dammit, what do I have to do to repair the link?" He knew he wouldn't get any response from them, but he had to try.
Sighing, he dropped to his knees and started sobbing, the memories of his last visit with the Princess replaying in his mind.
"Just as day and night cannot coexist, neither can Hyrule and Twili. I am sorry, Link. Good bye." The princess wiped away a tear that had begun to fall, tossing it into the air. Link realized too late what she was doing.
"Wait, Midna! No!" He rushed toward the mirror, but the tear struck it first, shattering it into hundreds of pieces. Link was heartbroken, and fell to his knees, crying tears of grief over his lost friend.
The sound of footsteps brought Link out of his memories. Spinning around, he grabbed the sheathed Master Sword that had been laying next to him, pulling it out and getting into a ready battle stance. "Who's there?"
A flash of red and white caused Link to ease up his stance. A man approached, dressed in a red cap and shorts, a whit t-shirt, and a red backpack and shoes. "Hi there. Are you Link?"
"I am." Link recognized the Hyrule Postman, he'd seen him several times during his journey to save the world with Midna.
"You're a hard person to find, all the way out here. I'm surprised that the directions were accurate." The postman looked around, suddenly realizing where he was, and began to become more than a bit nervous. This didn't go unnoticed by the warrior.
"What do you want?"
"Oh, uh, I have a letter for you. It just... appeared, out of nowhere." The man pulled the letter out of his backpack and handed it to Link. The letter was addressed specifically to Link, and said he'd be found at the top of Arbiter's Grounds. "Well, my job's done. Bye!" And before Link could respond, the man turned and ran off.
The green-clad warrior didn't even acknowledge the man as he turned the letter over. On the letter's seal was a circle emblem, with a line going down the right portion of the emblem and another going horizontally across the bottom. The symbol of a tournament the young man had heard one of his ancestors had once competed in. He had many of his ancestors' memories, and as such, he recognized the symbol immediately. Smiling slightly, he broke the seal and opened the letter.
Link:
I am aware that you are not the same one that competed in the previous tournament. However, I am also aware that you know of the tournament, and the prize that the winner receives. As such, you have been invited to compete in the Brawl tournament that will be starting in one week. Your portal will be in Ordon Province, outside your house, one week from Friday.
If you wish to compete this year, you must bring this letter and use that portal within the 24 hours it will be active. Once you have done so, arrangements will be made so that you can return home and come back to the Smash Mansion as you wish. Good luck, Link.
Master Hand
"Finally, a way to get to you again, Midna. I'll see you soon." Smiling, Link put the letter in his pocket and hurried from the Grounds, the entire time unaware that he was being watched.
The blonde haired woman sighed as she poured over several papers on her desk. As she worked, several small humanoid creatures with polka-dotted heads ran around doing various chores. Occasionally, she would stop working to watch the Toads do their jobs, before realizing she had her own.
"Princess Peach!" An older Toad burst through the door, panting as he ran up to the desk. "A letter came for you today!"
"Oh, for me?" Although she was the Princess, she didn't directly get many letters. She took it and looked at it, realizing immediately the symbol on the back. "Another Smash tournament already?"
"Your Highness, surely you aren't going to compete again after the embarrassment of last year."
"Embarrassment, Toadsworth? I lost to a woman who had spent most of her life fighting just for the right to survive. There is no embarrassment in losing to someone who's better than you. Besides, I've been training, so I should do better this time." As she read the letter, she added. "Besides, someone needs to make an actual decent wish when they win this time, rather than an unlimited supply of pasta." The annoyance on her voice was quite clear, and Toadsworth nodded.
"It was a stupid wish, but it was his to make. You would have preferred he wished for Bowser to leave us alone?"
"It's what I would wish for, yes." Peach sighed as she finished reading the letter. "This year, hopefully I'll be able to wish for it."
Mario sighed as he woke up. Stretching his aching body, he looked around his room. There were several items scattered about the place, he was not a very good housekeeper. Groaning slightly, he got out of bed and headed for the kitchen. As he did, he passed a shelf which held two trophies, one gold, one silver, for his victory in the Melee tournament, and his second place finish in the original Smash tournament. He smiled as he looked at them, then continued to the kitchen.
Once he was there, he pulled out a bowl of spaghetti from the refrigerator, sticking it into the microwave to warm it up. He chuckled a bit at realizing that he'd had his wish granted for his victory the previous year, and he knew the new tournament would start soon. He would have to defend his title, and win another wish.
His meal was interrupted by the flapping of wings outside. Sighing in annoyance, he got up and looked out the window. He saw a taller, thinner man dressed just like him speaking to a winged turtle who had a bag strapped over his shoulder. The turtle handed two envelopes to Luigi, saluted, then flew off. Luigi looked at the letters, before running into the house.
"Mario! The invitations came today!"
"Mama mia! It's time to Smash again already?" Mario smiled and took the letter addressed to him, reading it over. "Friday? That doesn't give us much time! I need to get back into shape!"
"Round is a shape, you know, Mario." The red plumber glared at his brother for a few minutes, before running off to his room excitedly, leaving Luigi to watch. "Well, hopefully I have improved enough to win this year, then I can finally have the spotlight all to myself for once."
Samus's ship approached the Federation frigate slowly. She knew they were expecting her, she was going to be staying on board the ship for a few days in between missions, in order to repair some damage done to her own gunship.
"You're cleared to land in dock 3 on level 10, Samus."
"Thank you, Captain." Samus sighed as she steered her ship toward the dock.
"Oh, by the way, a letter arrived for you about an hour ago via a runner."
"A letter?" In her time, it was unusual for a paper document to be sent unless it through any sort of delivery system. "Who's it from?"
"Don't know, all it says is your name, this ship, and has an odd seal on the back."
"Have it sent to my room."
"Yes, ma'am." The captain was silent after that, and Samus expertly landed her ship. After exiting, she was escorted to her room, where the letter was waiting on her bed. Once she bid farewell to her escorts, she grabbed the letter and began reading it.
"That doesn't give me much time." She continued reading. "Though, the location of the portal will be easy to get to." She put the letter away and decided that she needed some rest.
"Princess Zelda?" Impa knocked on the door to the woman's bedroom before entering. Zelda had retired for the evening and was in the process of changing into her nightgown when Impa arrived.
"By the three, Impa, shut the door! I don't want everyone to see me naked!"
"Sorry, your Majesty." Impa quickly shut the door and approached. "The postman dropped this off for you ten minutes ago." She handed over a letter, which Zelda took and examined. At the expression on the Princess's face, Impa began to speak once more. "You recognize the symbol?"
"I have never seen it before, Impa, yet I do recognize it." Zelda sat down on the bed, despite being half naked, to read the letter and speak to her guardian. "It is the symbol of the Smash Mansion, a place which exists outside of time and space. Once a year, the owners of the Mansion invite the best warriors from the various dimensions and across time to compete in a tournament. The winner of the tournament gets one wish granted by the hosts, as long as that wish is within the hosts power to grant it."
"That doesn't sound like much of a prize."
"The hosts of the tournament are essentially gods, Impa. There is really not much they cannot do."
"How do you know so much about it?"
"My ancestor was invited to the last tournament." Impa began to say something but Zelda smiled to her. "Yes, I know, that was far more than a year ago, but as I said, they can reach across time as well as space to give out the invitations. Although the last tournament was a year ago for them, hundreds of years have passed from our point of view. And it's entirely possible that in the next tournament they hold, they will pull a Link or Zelda from somewhere in our distant past."
"You think the Hero is invited too?"
"I imagine he will be, if he can be found." Impa wasn't sure about Zelda's words, and the princess realized this quickly. "Link has always been a bit of a free spirit. After Midna left, he hasn't been the same. He became obsessed with repairing the mirror and seeing her again, being with her again. I tried to console him, but he wanted nothing to do with it." Zelda looked back at the letter. "This tournament will give him hope, it'll give him a purpose, and hopefully, win or lose, it'll help him heal."
"Forgive me, but you do not seem to be upset about Midna's leaving. I thought you two were close as well."
"I am still able to communicate with her." Zelda sighed and shook her head. "Midna knows what Link is doing, she knows how much he's hurting, and she regrets that she destroyed the mirror. However, she firmly believes that she did the right thing by resealing the Twilight realm away from Hyrule."
"You don't seem so sure."
"She did what she thought was best, as I did when Zant appeared before me. Though I regretted the decision when I saw what he did to Hyrule, I still believed that I had saved many lives by doing it. We were both put in a situation where there was no good outcome, so we tried to take the best of the bad ones."
"Forgive me, Princess, but you aren't seriously considering competing are you?"
"I am going to compete, Impa." Impa looked shocked and upset at her words. "The tournament is designed to keep its competitors safe and unharmed. The dimension where it takes place exists outside of time and space. Nothing that happens there will affect Hyrule, and no harm will come to either myself or Link."
"What if Ganondorf..."
"He will be at the tournament as well, probably." Zelda cut off her bodyguard before she could finish the question. "And he will have restrictions placed on his appearance in the tournament by the hosts to keep him from attacking Link or myself outside of the tournament matches. In the Mansion, outside the tournament, the mandate is peace. We won't be friendly toward each other, but we are prohibited from fighting each other outside the tournament matches."
"And if the rules are broken?"
"The hosts have the power to grant wishes. They also have the power to take things away. If Ganondorf attacks us, he could be stripped of the Triforce of Power, or trapped for eternity in some desolate realm with no hope of ever returning to Hyrule."
"So the fear of repercussions by the hosts prevents him from taking advantage of the situation. Good to know, I suppose. But what of Hyrule while you are gone?"
"While I am gone, you will be in charge. I will be able to communicate with you, and if necessary, return to Hyrule to attend to my normal duties. The tournament makes allowances for such things."
"How long will you be gone?"
"I don't know." Zelda shrugged slightly. "As far as I'm aware, this is the third tournament, and last year's format varied greatly from the initial one."
"And the hosts? They will keep their word and let you return?"
"From what I know of them, they have no desire to directly interfere with the realms outside their own. They have no reason to keep us there, and plenty of reason to let us come and go as we please. They have never broken their word as of yet, and I have no reason to suspect they will any time soon."
"Very well, Princess. Get some rest. In the morning, we can go over details of your trip."
Zelda smirked at Impa's words, though she already knew she wouldn't need much. Most things would be provided on-site. "Good night, Impa." As Impa closed the door, Zelda finished changing her clothes and got ready for bed.
In a strange void, where only a single platform floated in nothingness, two giant, disembodied hands descended toward the land. The right one spoke first. "I am impressed, brother. Many of the fighters have already agreed to participate."
"Yes, Crazy, but there are still many more invitations to hand out. Some of them I must do myself."
"Indeed!" The hand laughed a bit, which drew an annoyed sigh from the other.
"What is it?"
"I've been watching that Link you invited, and I think I could have some fun with him."
"Normally I would prefer you to not interfere in the tournament, you know that. However, to test one's strength of character as well as his ability is one of the facets of this tournament, so go ahead and mess with him. Just don't do it too blatantly."
"Of course, Master." The hand laughed maniacally as it floated away. The other, left behind, glowed for a few seconds as it transformed into an older human. The man was dressed in a blue and white robe with an intricate, regal design. He gave the appearance and aura of someone very important. Smirking slightly, he opened up a portal and stepped through it, heading off to hand out more invitations to the tournament.
A/N: I don't know where I'm going with the plot on this one yet, It's going to feature Tabuu causing trouble for the characters, but beyond that I just don't know. As you noticed at the end of this chapter, I intend to have the Hands able to take a human form. This serves two purposes: First, they can wander around the realms without sticking out like a sore thumb, and Second, much of the story takes place in a Mansion designed for humanoid characters... how the fuck is a giant hand going to get through the doors?
And before I forget, for the most part, everyone gets the same letters, obviously the portal locations would change, as would some of the wording in the letters, but the gist of them is the same for everyone.
So, next up, some more invites are handed out. No, I'm not going to show EVERY character getting an invite, though many returning ones will. And I'll also explain the absence of a few characters as well as the story progresses (Mewtwo and Pichu specifically).
As always please leave a review and comment.