Chapter 1

Fighter stance

The alarm sounded next to Roy's head. "Ugh..." he grunted. He frustratedly flung his hand over onto the clock, stopping the incessant buzzing. It wasn't the morning that bothered him. It was the alarm. He really needed a new one.

He sat up on the side of his bed, and smacked his big, red lips. Looking at his long sword, which was leaning against the plain, white wall, he ran his hand through his fiery red hair. He could already feel the heat of the day. It was a phantom sensation, really-he just knew that it would be. Taking a shower felt like a waste every morning, but it had to be done.

After his cleansing, he walked out of the bathroom, donning his green towel still. His giant set of red, titanium armor stood hollow by the motel room door. His mother had warned him of employment that required such a uniform. Of course, she wouldn't care now...it had been a long time since she had cared about him all.

This moment of lamentation ended suddenly, when he realized that all of his pondering was making him late for work.

Marth, who was in the next hotel room over, a suite, sat up the second his alarm went off. Being the more popular one in his family, and life in general, he already had a girl. He also still held the respect of his mother. Roy held no grudge against this, being somewhat pacifist-and numb to rejection.

Unlike Roy, Marth wasn't one to make hard decisions. With his kind of self confidence, he never had to. He took his shower, then, coming out, he combed his flowing blue hair. He walked by his bed once again to straighten the picture of his sweetheart, and of course, his mother.

Marth was not as tall or even close to as muscular as Roy, but he WAS very good looking, and made up for his lack of muscle with an outstanding amount of endurance. He was very agile, and could have just as easily been an acrobat, but he saw it as being a "girly" job. Plus, he loved to beat people up and get paid for it.

At 8:00 AM sharp, Marth and Roy met in the hallway.

"Good morning, little brother!" Marth said, happily giving Roy an unexpected arm hug. "Little brother" being only true in that he was older than Roy.

"Whoa! What's got you so happy this morning?" Roy said, suddenly cheerful(or more than he had been) himself. Marth didn't usually come out of his room smiling.

Marth put his hands behind his head, grinning wildly. "Oh, I'm just excited to see a certain someone today."

Roy waited for Marth to tell him.

Marth looked puzzled. "What are you staring at me for?"

"Oh my gosh…Who are you meeting?!"

Marth realized he hadn't told Roy about his sweetheart yet. "Oh, right! I haven't told you about her yet, have I? She's my girlfriend, Emily!"

Roy suddenly started to laugh.

"What?" Marth asked confusedly.

Roy's laughter died down to a chuckle, and he wiped a tear from his eye. "I thought you said you had a girlfriend!"

Marth painfully hit Roy in the arm. Painfully for Marth, that is. "Come on, you clown. We'll be late."

Roy continued to chuckle as they walked down the hall. "How long have you known her?"

"A day, I guess. I met her last night at the awards ceremony."

"Wow, you're fast."

"Well, when you're a guy like me…" Marth pointed at himself with both hands conceitedly.

Roy shook his head as they started out of the hotel doors. "Dude, you have issues."

In the car, Roy wondered why he still hadn't found a girlfriend.

As if reading his thoughts, Marth said, "You're seventeen."

"What?"

"If you're wondering why you don't have a girlfriend, you lack many attractive qualities. First, you're too young. Second, your voice just isn't low enough. Third…" Marth thought of a way to put it lightly. "…I'm way better looking than you."

"Thank you for THAT evaluation…"

Driving up to the coliseum, Roy noticed it wasn't very crowded. There were only around 150 cars in the massive parking lot.

"Not much of an audience today, bro. I'll bet Emily didn't show up," Roy said playfully. Marth's brow creased at the thought.

"No…no, she's here," Marth said, pointing to Emily's Spyder in the third parking row.

Roy smiled for a second, but then saw a car he just...didn't expect to see. His expression died down to a serious stare. Just next to the Spyder, a dark hot rod Rolls Royce was parked also.

"Hey Marth, look who else is here," Roy said, pointing to the Rolls.

Marth's eyes slowly widened as he realized who the Rolls belonged to.

"Ganondorf?! I thought he retired!" Marth said furiously.

"Well, he either doesn't pay attention to the parking sign," Roy said, referencing the "employee parking" sign, "or he's competing again."

Marth parked, then got out, ready to see what Ganon was up to. Roy followed. The employee entrance was not as impressive as the massive double doors of the customer entrance. It was just a small metal door with an "employees only" sign. Through the low, cold, concrete halls, they entered a relatively large employee room. To the right was a cafeteria, and that was where they went first. They ordered their breakfast to go and ate as they walked to the arena. When they got to the large rectangular matching room behind the arena, they sat down in their respective seats and awaited fighting assignments. The room was designed much like an auditorium, with a small circular platform at the bottom. On that platform stood a bald guy with the stubble of a man who hadn't shaved in days. This man was Ed, the match caller.

When Ed got to Marth, he had him come up and draw his opponent. Drawing a random opponent was only done for high ranking warriors, as they were open to a wider range of difficulties. Of course, high rank was mostly given based on your success rate along with how long you'd been there.

If Roy had been competing as long as Marth had, he would likely have been the same rank, if not higher.

Marth walked up to the mounted plate of papers and took one.

This paper so indicates

that you

will face Brian.

Marth smiled. Brian was his favorite opponent. They weren't what you'd call "friends", though. In fact, Brian hated Marth. He could never beat Marth, but that only drove him to train harder.

"Marth will fight Brian!" announced the caller in his Irish accent. "Gentlemen, if you would please get to your gates, the fights shall begin."

"Wait!" Roy shouted. "Sir, I didn't get picked."

The caller stroked his five o'clock shadow. "It appears you were not…" The caller looked over the seats. "Ah, yes. You may fight that one." He pointed to a tall, robotic figure sitting in the back. Roy looked over his shoulder.

The figure stood. "Finally…" it muttered. It walked over to the right through a red door. Roy stood and walked to a blue door on the opposite side of the room.

Roy jogged through the tunnel toward the arena. He finally filed into the line in front of the gate. Marth noticed him catch up.

"Where were you?" he asked.

"Finding an opponent…" Roy said, panting slightly from jogging down the hall.

"Hm," Marth grunted, turning his head back toward the gate. As the man directly in front of him went through, Marth wished him good luck. The man turned toward him for a moment. His determined look was hindered by the long red scar across the bridge of his nose. He blew a lock of shoulder length brown hair away from his eye, then unsheathed his massive sword.

"Don't need it," he said confidently, running out into the field.

"You ready, little brother?" Marth asked.

"Born ready," Roy replied, though he wasn't sure how ready he really was. He'd never seen his opponent before.