Chapter One: Existence

Mr. Game and Watch

Deep black flecks poured onto the pale dirt ground. They shuffled themselves into a pile of sorts, which rose up and became a two-dimensional caricature of a man. This man was none other than Mr. Game and Watch, though that name would not be given to him yet. With abrupt, jerking, motions, he stood up and looked around. Beeps accommodated his every motion, which then echoed across the landscape with a strange hollowness. It was as if his beeps did not touch the air at all. Then, he knew. He was artificial, a mere construct of dark matter.

He looked down and saw that he was standing atop a golden disk, with some sort of insignia etched into it. He carefully walked off of it and picked it up. Bizarrely, it turned black – just as black as the rest of his body. With a jolt, he let it go. It turned golden and clattered to the ground, with a very real clang, one that belonged. He still had a lot to learn about this world, it seemed. All around him, the majesties of color echoed. Deep blue sky overhead, lush green grass to his sides, and earthen brown underneath. Yet he was nothing but a deep lonely black. Where did he fit in this wonderful world of color? And just why was he formed, anyways?

Just then, a creature rose up above the horizon. It was yellow in color, but had a green shell. More colors! But he could not identify what it was. Then, he blinked. Suddenly, everything was black to him. The creature continued to walk, and he knew that it was a Koopa Troopa, from the seemingly random bits of information he was somehow able to perceive. He blinked once more, and color returned, but the information left him. No. With a bit of effort, he was able to remember that it was indeed a Koopa.

A beep unconsciously rang out to indicate that he had indeed memorized the Enemy Data, whatever that meant, and then the man was curious. It walked closer, and the Koopa seemed to take notice of him at last. It reared back, and unleashed a spinning attack, straight at the man. They made contact, despite the man being supposedly intangible. As he sailed through the air, he supposed that he was at least a part of this world, if only in a way he did not understand. It seemed he could only feel the trophy stand and the Koopa. He landed on the grass, which did not feel like grass at all. It felt like hard flat plastic.

He felt something. It certainly wasn't something he was used to feeling, but then again, he had never felt anything. This something was bad, and he didn't like how it felt. It had started when the Koopa collided into him. The Koopa must have caused it, he decided. He leaped, turned back, and produced a turtle much like the Koopa, but it was black – just like him. It opened its mouth and bit down on the Koopa's head hard, sending it reeling off into the distance. Pity. He would have loved to analyze it further, learning more about this odd world.

It was nothing like the world he had come from. Nothing at all.

His memories flickered for a moment, as he remembered a simple life, working many jobs and making everybody happy. He blinked and tried to recollect just what it was, but it was not easy. Too late, it slipped through his confused mind. Having nothing more to ponder, he set out once more, trophy stand in hand. This golden thing was valuable, somehow. But it wasn't long before he ran into the Koopa from before, not quite knocked out. It charged at him with a furious look in its face. Panicking, he brandished whatever he had in his hand. The wild shell connected with the stand and an immensely bright light poured out of the Koopa. The man had to close his eyes. When he opened them again, the world was black, and he could definitely hear a congratulatory beep. The stand now had the Koopa Troopa, precariously perched in a happy-go-lucky expression, seemingly frozen in time.

Trophy get!

Koopa Troopa: Super Mario Bros (1985)

A Henchman of Bowser. In the old days, they'd retreat into their shells for a short while to protect themselves after being stepped upon. Recently, however, some have begun to immediately pop back out. You'll often find them marching straight ahead – if the path ends, they'll just march into the abyss. Surely there are no braver turtles to be found.

The man blinked once more, and he was back in the colorful world, sans trophy. Startled, he blinked, and the trophy was there again, floating in a vast void. He supposed this was how he could keep all that information, then. With no more obstacles, he was once more on his way. He wandered aimlessly for a good while, before finally chancing upon a huge blue lake. It was perfectly clear, so he could see the sky reflected off of it, white clouds and all. Grey mountains jutted out in the distance, and he stopped, admiring the view once again. He continued to stand, thoughts turning from color admiration to total confusion. Just where was he anyways? Parts of this land felt familiar…

An electric crackling filled the air, and forced him to turn around. He blinked, feeling safer with information at hand. Nobody was there, but another one of his "compatible objects" filled his view with a lot of interesting factoids. It was an Arwing, apparently. He examined it closer, pushing a lot of buttons, and it beeped along with his beeps. He felt a kinship with this machine. However, it seemed it was broken, which was evident from the sparks and smoke coming from the front. It still did a number of funny things, such as change the look of the window HUD, dim the lights, and most importantly the beeping. Sometime later, the beeping started to take a life of its own, beeping even when he didn't press anything. Was it… yes, it was. It was definitely trying to communicate with him, in the simplest video game code available, beeps. If one were fluent with the code, the conversation would go something like this:

"Hello, oh strange machine. I wish to understand your purpose."

Mr. Game and Watch? Is that you?

"I have no name, none that I know of."

Ah, so you've lost your memory. That is not a problem. Listen up, wise one. Your name is Mr. Game and Watch. You are one of the Smashers, and, if I'm correct, you are the last one. Please, save the rest. I think I saw someone fall this way.

A map appeared on the window, showing his current location, and the nearest Smasher. Once again, that word evoked strange memories in the man, newly christened Mr. Game and Watch. But they fell through the cracks before he could grasp even one of them. He ignored that and focused on what he could remember: his name. Mr. Game and Watch. He had not a clue what it meant, but it felt good to finally have a presence.

"Thank you, kind machine. I will be on my way."

Make haste. And do be careful.

Mr. G&W turned around and left, completely failing to notice the polygonal face forming on the HUD. Red eyes narrowed, diagonal mouth opened, and Andross let loose a diabolical laugh. One that only he could hear, of course.

He trudged down the path circling around the lakeshore, beeping a little tune to himself. He was much more confident than before, and he felt like he could take on the whole world, even if he didn't know most of it. An enemy trudged around the corner, blinked, glared, and ran at him. Immediately, G&W activated his black vision, and saw that it was a Primid. Certainly one of the weakest enemies, according to his enemy data. However, the game origin display was left blank. This was puzzling but not a big deal. He simply pulled out that turtle from earlier, and it chomped down on the Primid, which collapsed into a mass of dark specks that seemed very familiar, before disappearing. Huh. He supposed that was what happened when he actually killed an enemy. Quickly, he blinked. He saw a solitary trophy, the Koopa he had gotten from earlier. So, he needed another trophy stand if he wanted more trophies.

Hmm. He took the trophy out, and set it down. The Koopa had a happy smile plastered on it, much unlike what he truly knew it to be like. He looked closer, and accidentally bumped it on the nose. It made an audible whoosh, then light started emitting from it. It had come back to life. It peered about in shock, and that familiar angry face was back. It reeled back and started spinning, but Mr. G&W was faster. He took the stand from underneath it and tapped it against him. A blinding light spilled out again, and Mr. G&W simply put it back in his inventory.

Whistling a beep-filled tune once more, he set out on his way. An ominous ripple echoed in the lake, but he was too busy admiring the green-ness of the trees. Wow. They were so green. He continued in this manner for a bit, while the ripples grew larger and larger. Finally, he took notice. Wow. So blue. He especially liked the way the light rippled off the concentric waves. It was all very… geometric. He turned, just as a huge green monster rose up from the lake, and started circling the skies.

Mr. Game and Watch strode into a large clearing. The Smasher should be somewhere around here, he mused. A golden glint peeked at the corner of his sight. He turned, and saw a trophy! It had some wolf-looking guy who was also humanoid in shape? Hm. He reached over, turning on his black vision, and touched i- BOOM. The green sky serpent crashed down, whipping Mr Game and Watch far away from the trophy with its tail. As he flew through the air once more, he took the time to actually look at the serpent. It was called a Rayquaza, and it looked tough. He didn't like the feeling the tail gave him, though. Wait, it was coming back to him. Pain. A result of countless battles. Tough battles, that hardened him into a warrier. A Smasher. He was here to fight. Ugh. He blinked, and only just barely caught bits of the memory. Namely, that pain was bad and that he was a Smasher, just like the lupine trophy. Was he a trophy? Well, when he came here, he was standing on top of a trophy stand, right? So… if he ever got a stand thrown at him, he'd become a trophy? That doesn't sound like much fun. Neither did pain. He ran away.

Rayquaza followed him, razing paths of destruction through the forest, missing Mr. Game and Watch entirely. Being two-dimensional had its perks sometimes, so it would seem. Its cons too, apparently, as he got lost really easily. He ran around right back into the clearing, next to the wolf trophy. Unfortunately, the serpent chose this moment to turn around, and unleash a Hyper Beam. Some instinctual response made him take out an oil bucket, giving him just enough time to tap the trophy. Doing so, however, allowed Rayquaza to hit him with his tail, hard. He zoomed out of sight.