Marth put a hand to his aching head and breathed deeply. What happened?
As his vision began to refocus, he noticed he was in a very strange room, a cell of some sort. There was no furniture of any sort, just cold black walls, coruscating with odd green and purple pulses of light that danced across the walls and floor as if alive.
He instinctively reached for his sword Falchion on his back. Still there…
There was someone else in the other corner of the room, also bearing blue armour, but with red hair. Before Marth had time to react, the red-haired figure leapt up and produced a blade much like Marth's own, which immediately shimmered with flame upon being withdrawn from its scabbard.
"Who are you?" The redhead cried. "Where am I?"
Marth chuckled to himself and slowly got up from the floor.
"If I knew where we are, boy, I would tell you. I am as oblivious as you are." He announced, walking across the room elegantly, but cautiously, with hand on hilt.
"I am Prince Marth, of the kingdom of Altea."
He watched the youngster carefully, knowing he could spring at any moment, and prepared a plan in defence.
The redhead's expression loosened, and the flame dissipated as he slowly sheathed the sword.
"Roy, son of the marquess Pherae, of Elibe." He proclaimed.
"You have a hot head and a heart of flame, Roy." Marth responded. "Your blade befits you. Sons of royalty us both, I see we will make a fine team…"
He trailed off and turned his head as he heard a strange noise nearby, like explosions going off.
Presently, Samus was firing all manner of missiles and plasma shots into the transparent wall holding her in the cell, to no avail.
Curses…I suppose I'm stuck in here, then.
She paused as a strange figure appeared out of the corner of her eye – an anthropomorphic cat of some kind outside. She lowered her armcannon so as to appear less threatening…but the other creature appeared malicious.
"Who's there?"
Mewtwo smirked at Samus, waving his tail about teasingly, before floating away.
"Hey! Come back!" Samus growled.
I suppose I'm still stuck in here…
Marth glanced over to where Mewtwo was, gliding across the ground.
"What is that, some sort of demon?!" Marth queried.
"He must be the one behind this!" Roy yelped, running towards him.
"Hey, you there! What do you want with us?"
"Roy, don't! He could be dangerous." Marth cautioned, but it was too late. Mewtwo had already noticed them both.
Marth jolted up suddenly and clutched his head as if in pain. Roy had a similar reaction. They heard a telepathic message resounding through their brain, and to those unaccustomed to such invasions, it can be quite uncomfortable.
It is time for you to see the others. Come with me.
The transparent walls dissipated, and Marth began to approach Mewtwo. Roy, however, was not so passive, drawing his sword and running towards the Pokémon, yelling.
Mewtwo nonchalantly raised a single paw in response, lifting a frightened Roy into the air. The Sword of Seals fell down to the ground with a metal clang.
"Roy!" Marth cried, but he had already been released from Mewtwo's psychic grip and fell onto his stomach.
You will come peacefully. Save your energy for later.
Marth turned from helping Roy up to see a strange human in a large robotic suit coming towards him. He was surprised to hear a female voice emerge from it.
"He'll be all right. I think we should follow whatever that thing is if we want to get out of here." She pointed to Mewtwo, who was already drifting off.
"I'm Samus Aran."
"Wait up, Link! I'm not quite as fast as you!"
Link stopped running and turned back to take Zelda's hand.
"We've got to keep going if we're going to catch up with everyone else." He conceded.
"Right!" Zelda replied.
Presently the two came to a stop in a large hall, decorated with the same black and dancing lights as the rest of the place. It was quite crowded – there were at least twenty different people there of all races and kinds.
Of these, it seemed only Luigi, Mario, Peach and Yoshi recognized each other. The rest were utterly confused. A few were making introductions, and two Inuits were calming down a crying Pichu. A Pikachu nearby looked up to acknowledge Zelda and Link.
"Finally, someone normal!" came a voice from behind.
Link and Zelda turned around to see a red-headed boy in blue armour running towards them, accompanied by a blue-haired man who was in somewhat less of a hurry. Both wielded swords. A girl in a body suit was following behind as well.
"I'm Roy-"
"Roy, we don't have time for this." Marth interrupted. "I demand to know what's going on here and where we are."
"Looks like you'll find out soon enough." Samus interjected, gesturing to a platform above, where Mewtwo had appeared.
"Ganondorf!" Zelda gasped, as the aforementioned warlock also joined Mewtwo on the stand. But something else came into view, too. Something that shocked everyone.
It was a giant, disembodied gloved hand.
"Welcome to you all. I'm sure you all have many questions which will be answered shortly." The gloved hand spoke.
"I am the Master Hand, and this is my realm. I have given you all a few moments to get to know each other, but I'm sure you all want to know why you are here. Well, that is simple. I have gathered you all together from the various universes here today to compete in a tournament."
A collective cry came from the audience.
"What madness is this?" Marth shouted.
Both Ganondorf and Mewtwo seemed to be enjoying the reaction and were chuckling to themselves.
"The majority of you have competed in this tournament before, but you will not remember that. Your memories of it were erased at its closure."
"Now then, the matchups have already been drawn, and each of you will soon begin combat. Rest assured, there will be a grand prize for the final victor."
