Chapter 1: Second wave of Smashers

Ike Greil of the Greil Mercenaries stepped off the bus at the Super Smash Stadium (or SSS as it was commonly referred to as) and almost immediately he was blown away by the sight of it. Everything that he had expected this place to be was not what he saw before him. Everything was a lot to take in for him: the site of the building, being selected to come here, the very idea of being here was giving him chills of excitement. He grinned to himself, remembering his good friend Marth joining the SSS 5 years ago as part of the first wave of new Smashers. It would be good to see him again. It was a shame Roy had left a few months earlier: it would have been nice for the three friends to all meet up together.

"Oh well," Ike thought to himself. "A shame it may be, but you can't have everything. Besides, I'll make plenty of new friends there."

Realising nothing more was to be gained by just standing around doing nothing, he picked up his suitcase, checked Ragnell, his indestructible broadsword, was in place, and walked towards the building.

As he walked through the open gates, Ike began looking at his surroundings. Either side of the marble path he was walking on were lush green gardens, where some of the Smashers were reading, talking or just relaxing. He was so busy taking in his surroundings he accidently bumped into another Smasher.

"Oops, sorry," Ike apologised, but the second the words were out of his mouth, he realised there was nobody there.

"Don't worry, its fine," a deep voice replied, but again, Ike couldn't see who had spoken.

"Down here," the voice said again. Ike looked down to see a character about half the size of the mercenary. He was a purple and black creature with a golden sword, bat wings and a metal mask.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't -" Ike began, but the creature raised one of his small hands and cut him off.

"See me down there," he finished. "You couldn't begin to imagine how many times I've heard that."

"Ah, sorry," Ike replied, sheepishly.

"Don't be, you have no need to be. My name is Meta Knight."

"I'm Ike Greil of the Greil Mercenaries."

"Well, Ike, I presume you are part of the second wave of Smashers?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Well at least we have one thing in common."

Ike raised an eyebrow. "I've heard of you as being an experienced fighter. I thought you'd have been here as part of the first wave of Smashers."

Meta Knight shrugged. "As did I, but it's not important, I'm just happy to have been accepted at all. We're here, by the way."

Ike looked back at the Stadium and was surprised to see that his conversation with Meta Knight had bought them both to the main doors. Both of them looked at the building for a while before Meta Knight looked up at Ike.

"Aren't you going to go first?"

"Well, I must admit, I'm a bit nervous," Ike confessed to Meta Knight.

"I understand the feeling, but you'll feel better once inside. Come on, let's go."

And so, the two friends walked through the front doors into the Super Smash Stadium.