Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story.

Samus paused in the hall to catch her breath. Summer brawls were the worst, because of the heat. It had been one tough fight with Meta Knight; she hadn't thought she would win that one, and it was difficult to care about winning when you were so sweaty and miserable.

Brawling was quite a job she smirked to herself. You either beat other people up, or got beat up yourself. But the hours were good ( it was a nine to five job with plenty of breaks) and the pay was decent, considering that room and board were provided. Plus, as far as Samus was concerned, it was just the right job for a tough bounty hunter. Besides, summer was only a few months long. She headed for the lunch room, looking forward to the blast of air conditioning that would greet her.

When she entered, she noticed that there was a small cluster of smashers around Ike. That was strange in itself; Ike wasn't the type to organize meetings. But what really made her do a double take was the fact that Link and Gannondorf were right next to each other listening intently to Ike and paying no attention to their close proximity. Samus hurried over to hear what it was that Ike was saying that was making Link and Gannondorf forget their worst enemy status.

"Wouldn't you all agree that he seems rather out of it during brawls?" Ike was saying.

"Nah," Pit shook his head. "During the brawls, he's fine. He runs and fights and yells and all that. It's afterwards that it gets weird."

"Yeah. He won't look me in the eye. It's really creepy," complained Zelda, twirling a strand of her hair between her fingers.

"He doesn't talk," growled Bowser.

"It's true," Link and Gannondorf chimed in at the same time. They suddenly realized that they were next to each other and began poking and pinching, trying to get the other one to move. (Link moved eventually, because he could neither poke nor pinch as hard as Gannondorf.)

Ike looked up and noticed that the bounty hunter had joined the group. "What do you think Samus? Has Marth seemed kinda disconnected during the brawls lately?"

Samus shrugged, she was good at that. "I dunno. I haven't fought with Marth lately, which is fine with me." She didn't mention why it was fine with her: because she hated having him try to stay away from her, which naturally happened during brawls.

"Any idea why-a he's like that?" Mario took off his hat and fanned himself with it.

"Marth's always kinda of quiet y'all. No need to make a big fuss. Just leave the guy alone. And it's stupid hot too." For once, everyone listened to Snake, who headed over to the cafeteria counter to order a Bloody Mary.

The crowd around Ike dispersed, and the mercenary sat down with a sigh. "I guess he's just going through a phase. It is hot. I hope he not depressed, or mad at me, or something."

Samus went to order her lunch, leaving Ike looking a little depressed himself.

Just as she was biting into her tuna sandwich, Marth entered the cafeteria and everyone turned to stare at him. He sauntered unconcernedly to the counter, ordered, and was served. The eyes of everyone were on him as he took his tray and headed over to where Ike and Pit were sitting and staring at him. Samus was pretty sure Marth had noticed the stares, he wasn't really the oblivious type. But he ignored them, sat down, and everyone went back to their lunches.

Samus tried to chew quietly so she could listen to the conversation going on at Ike's table which was right behind her. Snake came to join her so he could eavesdrop too.

"So, Marth, how were your brawls today?" That was Ike doing a bad job of being casual.

"Good." Marth spoke English when people other than Ike, which in this case was Pit, were part of the conversation. But his English sentences were always as short as he could make them.

"What places?"

"Five firsts, two seconds, one third, four fourths. You?"

"I got four firsts, six seconds, and one fourth. I think fighting for my friends distracts me."

"Beat me by three points."

"Yeah, but I'm sure you'll improve when you feel better."

"I'm not sick."

"Yeah, yeah. I mean feel more cheerful. You're down in the dumps. You know?"

"No." If there was one thing that Marth couldn't seem to get a handle on, it was remembering what the figures of speech were in English, and when they were used. Link teased him mercilessly on this point.

"Okay." Ike took a frustrated breath. "Pit thought that you seemed a little out of it-disconnected from life-like you weren't paying much attention, and didn't care much about what was going on around you, when you finished brawls."

"Why?" Marth raised his eyebrows with his small smile as he looked from one to the other with interest.

"B-because," Ike spluttered. "Listen, we just were worried about you and wanted to make sure that you are okay."

"Okay. Thank you." Marth smiled, and turned his attention to his lunch.

"So you are okay?" Ike wasn't fully certain that he'd gotten an answer.

Marth's mouth was full, though, and while they were waiting for him to finish chewing and swallow, the Master Hand's voice came on over the intercom system reading out the afternoon match ups. Samus had mixed feelings about her 3:45 match with Marth. On the one hand, she disliked fighting him. On the other, she might have a chance to see what was this strange behavior that had the different smashers worried.

3:50 and Samus was clapping for Marth who had beaten her with a luckily timed Critical Hit. "I almost beat you, you know," she said. As much as she hated having Marth lose, she hated having herself lose even more. She was known to stay mad at a victor for up to a week, depending on how badly she had lost.

Marth merely nodded. Samus instantly remembered what Bowser had said about Marth's odd taciturnity after a match. He didn't look very tired, which was strange. And he wasn't sweaty, which was upsettingly unfair. He smiled a little, though, and waved as they were both transported out of the stage, all without making eye contact.

As soon as she stepped out of the portal she ran to Marth's room to demand that he tell her why he didn't talk after brawls. She got to his room and found the door locked. Of course. He probably was off to another match, and she had another one coming up in ten minutes.

She turned to go when a sound from behind the door stopped her. She put her ear to the door and listened intently, hardly daring to breathe. The sound came again. It was the sound of crinkling paper. Then there was an angry word in Japanese followed by the sound of a wad of paper falling into a wastebasket. Marth was in there.

She pounded on the door and then heard Ike's voice yell, "Stop pounding! I'm trying to concentrate! Arrrr! Zelda just exploded me off the edge! Aether!" Ike was very serious about brawling.

Then the door opened and Samus was face to face with Marth. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, when he had been in his red outfit a few minutes before at their brawl and surely had another match coming up. Not even Marth is that fast, she thought. "What's going on?" she demanded.

Marth smiled. "Come see. But yours isn't ready yet."

She pushed past him into the room and then looked around in shock. She didn't realize that Marth liked TV enough to have three Panasonic sets in his room. Ike was sitting on a beanbag in front of one of the sets playing some kind of video game with what looked like a homemade controller. She moved closer to watch; she had never seen Ike so concentrated.

It took her a few seconds to realize what was going on. "What the..."

Her sentence was cut short as Ike yelled "Great Aether!" and watched himself use his final smash on Zelda and Meta Knight. But before he was done, the time ran out, so he and Zelda were left clapping for Meta.

"Alright, Marth." Ike stood up, "Thanks for letting me use this. I've got a fight with Cap. Falcon though, and I definitely want to do that in person. But I'll be back. It's nice to take a break once in a while. The only thing you're missing here is snacks..."

"No one is eating in my room," Marth folded his arms.

Ike shrugged, "Okay then. Can you set something up in my room?"

"We'll see."

Ike waved and hurried off to the portals.

Samus turned to Marth, "So virtual clones as replacements?"

"Yes. I nerf them though, so they don't fight as well. It's just so you can sometimes take a break. Or if you're sick, but want to brawl."

"You made all this? You're smarter than you look."

"The blonde is talking?"

"Hey!" She punched his shoulder. "So where's mine?"

"It's not ready yet. But I'll let you know."

"K. I got a match to get to. See you around."

"Okay."

When Marth entered the cafeteria for dinner he was instantly mobbed.

"Where's my clone?"

"How much did you nerf me?"

"When is mine going to be ready?"

"How long have you had your clone?"

"When can we try it?"

"Does the Master Hand know?"

"Is it just for summer?"

Marth's eyes widened. He glared at Ike who was across the room. Ike pointed frantically at Samus. Marth shifted his glare to her.

She shrugged, "You didn't say it was a secret." She sipped at her iced frappé.

"That was implied!"

"Hey, I'm blonde."

Marth sighed. "I'm working on everyone. I'll say when it's ready. Master Hand doesn't know."

"He's in the dark?" Link asked innocently.

"I don't know." Marth went to get his dinner.

Master Hand consented to the system on the condition that his clone remain un-nerffed. Then he made a list of rules for the use of the system, including how many times you could use it in a week. With everyone in on the 'secret' now, they worked together to make the clones and controllers even better.

Now really hot summer afternoons would find the smashers in the lounge created especially for the purpose of clone brawling while snacking.

"Pass the chocolate popcorn."

"Gannondorf, you're making the controller greasy!"

"Feel that AC."

"Hey! We can't both be Donkey Kong!" (One of the most popular system features was the one that allowed you to brawl as other smashers.)

"Yes I can. You don't own DK."

"No one owns me."

"Stop arguing or you all are banned for the rest of the week." That was the Master Hand.

Everyone quieted down. Marth, waiting by the doorway for his turn, smiled.