Disclaimer and Notes: The Smash Brothers universe and most of the characters belong to Nintendo. Guest fighters belong to their respective companies. Concepts specifically related to The Hunger Games belong to Suzanne Collins.

This is to be yet another story-series to the National Anthem universe – a fan fiction world I created as a fusion-fic between Super Smash Bros. and The Hunger Games. So far, the series consists of the original National Anthem and a side story series detailing events around specific characters titled A Gathering of Sacrifices. This side-series is primarily about the pomp and circumstance and the audience / characters watching from home. As always, I "write what I know" and "who I know." Some characters are, unfortunately going to be glossed-over due to my not knowing them well enough to write them effectively. Reading the original National Anthem story-proper is required to understand this, being that this is a continuance. It takes place under specific circumstances and in a specific timeline that is an alternate universe of Brawl / between Melee and Brawl.

Come Morning Light

"Don't you dare look out your window

Darlin', everything's on fire

The war outside our door keeps raging on

Hold on to this lullaby, even when music's gone. Gone.

Just close your eyes.

The sun is going down.

You'll be alright; no one can hurt you now.

Come morning light you and I'll be safe and sound." _ Safe and Sound, Songs from District 12 and Beyond, Taylor Swift

Story 1: The Interviews

For some, the terror started with the flicker of a television set. Every aspect of the Brawls of Honor was mandatory viewing for the people of the disparate and desperate worlds of Ninten. For a great many, particularly those in Smash City, it was entertaining viewing. For those watching their friends, family and heroes – doomed to fight and so many doomed to die, it was agony.

It was a colorful agony under lights and makeup and cheery music.

The host for the "Getting to Know the Fighters" broadcast was a slimy little man from New Hyrule (though some suspected he was actually from the long lost Termina), Tingle Purlo. He had a certain jauntiness to him, something childlike about him that was disarming. The way he had of making the fighters he interviewed highly uncomfortable greatly amused much of the Smash City crowd. Some said that he was more evil than Ganondorf, but lacked his power (and that it was precisely why the sorcerer had spared him from the fate that had befallen the rest of Termina).

The chubby little man in green tights and glaring red outer-underwear ascended the interview stage upon a red balloon. He deflated it, sat in a chair and greeted the audience both in the Smash City studio and at home with his usual smarmy smile. He shuffled cards in his hands and chose to bring out (since these interviews had no particular order) the single fighter from a newly subjugated world.

"Our first guest is Pit Icarus of Skyworld! Everyone give him a koo-lim-pah!'

The young boy in the white toga and sandals was highly confused. He sat down in the chair opposite the strange little man and tried to make his wings comfortable. He made a little wave for the crowd.

"Oooh!" Tingle cooed, "Such magnificent wings! Do you mind showing them off, Mr. Icarus?"

"Uh…I…" Pit struggled, "My name is Pit. Please call me Pit."

"You got it." The little man made a gesture with his hand indicating that he wanted Pit to get up and to show off for the studio audience. Pit stood up and turned his back to them, flaring out his wings to various gasps and sounds of awe.

"You may sit back down now. I can't say we've ever had an angel on my stage before." He smiled a drunken uncle smile. "You are very pretty."

Pit wrinkled his nose at this. "I'm not pretty!" he protested. I'm manly. I am a warrior!"

"You don't say. Now, we have heard that you are a military captain, is that correct?"

"Yes, Mr. Purlo…"

"Call me Tingle."

"Tingle. I serve the Goddess Palutena – the Goddess of Light! I'm the Captain of the Guard."

"You do look awfully young, my pretty little angel."

"Stop calling me that!"

"What, pray tell?"

"Pretty!"

Tingle shared a hearty laugh with the studio crowd.

"Don't underestimate me!" Pit said, standing up. "Lady Palutena trusts me. I've faced countless dangers! I've fought my way out of the bowels of the Underworld!" Pit then paused. "Wait a minute, did I just say 'bowels?' Ew. Anyway, I will do anything to get back to her! I will return to Skyworld victorious!"

The angel pumped a fist in the air, eliciting a roar of enthusiasm from the audience.

"How do you feel about the… rules… of the Brawl?" Tingle asked him, leaning forward as he sat back down in his stage-chair. "You really do seem like such a good boy."

Pit's eyes grew sad. "I don't like them," he said honestly. "But, I will survive any way I can."

"Do you have any special skills that will help you do that, Mr. Pit?"

"I'm an archer," Pit said seriously. He did not wish to give away all of his secrets. "And, of course, there's this."

Pit called up the flight-blessing that his goddess had given his wings in lieu of her being able to be there. He did not wish to let on that it had a limited range. It was good to let the audience and those waiting for their own interviews to think that he had a greater ability than he did. That way, his fellow fighters would be looking up rather than down when seeking him out for a kill. They might also operate under the fear that he could swoop down on them at any time. The generally kind-hearted angel couldn't help but smile slightly at this, immediately feeling slimy for doing so. He launched into the air until he was perching on some of the studio-light fixtures.

Everyone was clapping. Tingle looked on curiously.

"Oh, you cannot stay up there forever," Tingle teased. "I have more interviews to do."

"Coming down." Pit tried to acrobat his way down, only to slip up and fall right into the interview-chair, shedding a small explosion of feathers upon landing hard.

"Mr. Icarus?"

"I'm okay," Pit assured, getting up. He flashed his wings for the audience one last time before exiting the stage.

In the darkness beyond the stage, he breathed a sigh of relief and nervously looked back at the clapping crowd.

He did not know that, in his home, his goddess was sitting beside her scrying pool, using it as a television set. She was weakened by her chains and biting her fingernails until her fingertips bled.

"A good performance," she sighed. "Keep them guessing, Pit."

She tried to keep her sight upon her captain as the music swelled for the next introduction.

Lady Palutena lost Pit in the shadow of the stage.

"Alright! Alright!" Tingle said. "Our next fighter trades in the angel's wings for the devil's horns! The fiery terror of the Mushroom Kingdom, let's give it up for King Bowser Koopa!"

The stage thundered as the large turtle-dragon ascended the stage. He snorted smoke and destroyed the chair when he sat down.

"Oh, my, such a big fellow," Tingle said in surprise. "So, we hear that you are the King of the Koopas?"

"I will be the true ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom!" Bowser thundered, "And I shall have Princess Peach to rule at my side!"

"Yes, she is a lovely girl, isn't she?"

"Careful where you step, obnoxious little man!"

"Isn't it true that you are family man? Will you be fighting extra hard to get back to your children?"

"Those useless brats? Oh, sure. But I really want to impress the princess. They'd better be keeping my armies on their toes! I'm bringing home Mama!"

"Perhaps you should tell us of your skills?"

Bowser responded by roaring and pounding his chest. He slashed the air with his claws and sent a jet of flame into the air with his breath, stopping it just short of it catching anything flammable.

"Ooooh! Impressive!"

"I have no fear!" the dragon growled. "Heroes hold no candle to me! Trained monsters are hopeless! Swords and laser-blasts will only break against my impenetrable scales! I shall pluck angels from the sky with my mighty claws!"

The studio audience was in a frenzy. The previous interviewee cringed in his seat in the dark part of the studio. Miss Peach sat next to him and tried to make him feel better by rubbing a wing.

Somewhere in the Mushroom Kingdom, a gaggle of Koopalings was hooting and shouting, eager for the coming bloodletting.

Other guests were brought out after the stage crew cleaned up the broken chair and brought out a replacement.

The small black knight with dark wings and a mask was noncommittal. He grunted and asked for things to move along. The blue-haired man with the massive sword spoke of his skills as a mercenary in his home-universe and when asked if there was anything he liked about Smash City, he replied "the food" and talked of roast Hyrulean cuccoo as being the greatest discovery about the shared nexus of worlds.

When it came to the two Pokemon that were to compete, a young female trainer was brought out to speak about them. That segment of the Fighters' Interviews became, temporarily, a nature-segment with a "zookeeper" explaining the natures of creatures.

Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong knew enough sign-language to communicate without help. The audience cheered when the larger primate beat his chest in a classic alpha-male fashion. Diddy swung from the light fixtures by his tail, doing his best to appear cute and charming.

Cranky Kong, watching from their hotel suite in lieu of coming to the interview, well, he threw something unspeakable at the screen.

Tingle couldn't stop sneezing when Mr. Fox McCloud took the stage.

"I'm sorry, I am… allergic to dogs."

Fox scowled and corrected him as to his species. The rest of the interview had him as stoic and polite. He rolled up a pant-leg and showed off a prosthetic only after he was pressed.

"Falco will get me through this," he said before exiting.

Tingle continued to sneeze when Link D'Ordon took the stage.

"I know someone like you back home," Link sneered. "He was a swindler. Now that I think about it, I do wish he were in the arena with me so that I could tear his throat out."

"Achhooo! Acchoo! Such a dark sentiment."

"I am a dark hero," Link replied. "I am part wolf, after all."

"Did you change into one just before you got here?"

"Why yes, how did you know?"

"Choo!"

Link laughed and Tingle squeaked. He found himself with a small knife to his throat. Sheik was standing behind his chair, pressing one of her many small weapons to him.

"You do know that it is unseemly to kill your interview host, don't you? Lord Ganondorf shall have you both killed! You will not even get your fight!"

Sheik took the knife away from Tingle's neck and used it to pop the budding balloon that was forming on his back. "You are unworthy prey," the Sheikah said as she retreated.

"It is true," Link added.

"That ASIDE," Tingle said, brushing himself off, "since time is rupees, I'll be brief. You are one of the favorites to win, being that you have a multitude of skills, Mr. Hero. In fact, I, myself, do hope to see it come down to you and the nice, muscley guy with the big sword or perhaps the fierce armored lady. However, do you think that your being a hero will hinder you?"

"Not at all," Link D'Ordon said with a sinister smile. "When I fought the Twilight Invasion, I learned that I had to do what it took to survive. I had to – quite literally, I might add – throw off my humanity and become a beast. That beast has caught a scent of blood. This time, I am not holding him back."

"Very well and good, Mr. D'Ordon. There is a rumor of love in your life, and that it has changed you."

"My mentor," Link responded. "Midna."

"If you win this, you have a chance to be with her, perhaps, at least in mentoring future Brawls together. Will this aid your survival?" Tingle craned his neck forward and winked at the audience. "This will make him more inclined to be a killer, no?"

"The beast in me already has the scent of blood," Link laughed. "A life with my Twilight Princess is a fine prize, but since I've arrived for this little game, I've decided that I'm in it to win."

"I'm sure it will be a spectacular Brawl," Tingle left off with. "Link of Ordon, everybody!"

As the crowd roared, another crowd was gathered before a drawn sheet in one of Ordon Village's pumpkin-fields. The sheet served to screen the projection that served as "television" in Old Hyrule.

"Link," moaned Rusl, his mentor and friend. His son sat next to him on a picnic-table bench. The mayor of the town, Bo, sat next to the distraught man.

"He's okay," the boy, Colin offered. "Look at how the crowd is responding to him!"

"But what he's saying," the father groaned. "It's like he's lost his heart."

"Don't worry about it," mumbled Bo. "I am sure that he is using the art of deception on the enemy."

"He's just playin' pretend!" Colin said.

"Yeah," Rusl said, brightening up. "He's still our Link. He has to be. He's still my boy."

Tingle attempted to secure a proper interview with Sheik, but the shadow-warrior kept slinking and hiding around the studio. When he brought Samus upon the stage, he was most disappointed.

"I thought that you are coming out in your famous Zero Suit, Lady Aran."

He squeaked when he got a canon in his face. "Although, the Varia Suit is perhaps more famous and quite impressive in its own right."

Tingle had her show off her gear, after which he coaxed precious little information about her life out of her. He – and the crowd – learned something about the destruction of planets and a "duty to wipe out dangerous species."

Some talk came up of the previous non-lethal tournaments of the days before Ganondorf's reign. By the end of it, the studio-audience was shouting "Genocide Samus! Genocide Samus! Genocide Samus!" and she exited with grace, the roar after her.

"Our last guest is our youngest fighter, Link Outsetter!" Tingle shouted. "Come on out, darling boy!"

Little Link came out with scowl firmly planted upon his face.

"Oh, my, what a sweet little thing! Are you, by chance, a forest fairy?"

"Huh?" Link asked.

"You have green clothes and the classic fairy-child look! We could be brothers!"

"No, we couldn't," Link groused.

Tingle was looking him up and down uncomfortably.

Somewhere, in a house on Outset Island, upon a magical portal that served as the television, a small girl gripped her grandmother's wrinkled hand. The old woman sniffed and dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief.

"I was supposed to protect you," she whispered. "I'm your grandma… I was supposed to take care of you."

"Don't let that bad man touch you!" Ayrll shouted at the screen. She then turned to her grandmother. "Hey, wasn't he that guy that used to be in jail on Windfall Island? I heard they were keeping him for something terrible."

"I do think you're right, dear," Grandma said. "I have seen a wanted poster. That dratted Ganondorf would choose such a villain to torment our boy and all those poor other people for the cameras!"

Link did not know what to say with his host eying him as if he were food. "What… what am I supposed to say, Mr. Tingle?"

"Hmmm. Not as much of a pretty, lighthearted fairy boy as I thought… You volunteered. You are like the angel. You are both very brave, you know that?"

"Not really," Little Link said, swinging his legs over the chair. "I just did what a big brother is supposed to do. She's too young for this."

"Too young? And you are not, child?"

"Well, I am, too. We all are. Even the adults! Even the people who are really seven-hundred years old!"

Link stood up and looked at the audience. "Can't you people see how wrong this is? You want to watch me die and I haven't even lived yet! You want to take angels from the sky! A father away from his children! Warriors away from the universes they are sworn to protect! You've made men into beasts! You do this year after year just because Ganondorf commands it?"

A shout of "Shut up, Tiny!" sounded from the place that his mentor, Toki, was sitting.

Little Link calmed down and sat down. "I'm sorry," he said, his head hanging. "Yes, all I had on my mind was protecting my sister, that's it."

"The odds are not in your favor, sweet fairy-boy," Tingle said. "I am afraid that is the honest truth. I could create a life insurance policy for your loved ones if you have the rupees."

"No thank you. I'm going to survive as long as I can. I have my sister and my grandma to get back to. I have to try."

"Do you have much in the way of skills?"

"I am a swordsman and, if it's needed, an expert sailor and fisherman. My home is an island."

The last interviewee was dismissed with claps. The crowd actually did like him – for his courage.

"Tiny" found Toki and they headed back to their quarters as the pomp and circumstance wrapped up. The national anthem of Ninten echoed in the sound stage behind them. They passed by other fighters.

For a moment, the younger Link locked eyes with the eyes of the weary angel. Pit gave him a look like a deer caught in headlights before going back to his suite. The instant they shared between them told them that they were two of a kind: They were each here because they had someone they had desperately wanted to protect.

It almost made this exercise in parading in front of the cameras and the world worthwhile. It also meant that coming face to face again when in the arena was going to be the most painful thing Link expected to ever experience.

And, later, it indeed would become one of Link's Outsetter's most painful experiences in life, just not in the way that he'd expected.

End First Story.

A quick thanks to 23Blenders for giving me the idea of having Tingle as my universe's Ceasar Flickerman.