I own no Mario Tennis Power Tour characters, the plot of the game or any dialog in the game. Credits to Camelot.

I've been playing Mario Tennis Power Tour (for the nine millionth time) and suddenly, I decided to write a novelization of the game. If the game had a TV adaptation, I'd imagine the doubles route being shown, but not singles, so that's what this story will follow.

Also, this story will have a few aspects of the actual game changed, so bear with me.

Enjoy!

Ace's POV

"Good morning Clay!" I called as I knocked on the door. There was no response. "You'd better be awake," I warned. " 'Cuz I'm coming in!"

I barged into the boy's room to see him asleep in his vest and boxers.

"Still out like a lamp..." I sighed. "I sure hope he's not dead. He just arrived at the academy yesterday. Looks like the Welcome Workout conked him out cold."

After hearing Clay groan, I smiled at the realization that he was still alive. He gets points just for surviving the workout, but gets a score of zero when it comes to being tidy. I turned around to see the boy's room in a complete mess. His yellow t-shirt with blue sleeves was just lying there on the grass green carpet, along with his backpack and his putrid shoes, which were also blue.

"Look at this mess!" I remarked, shaking my head. "Did they just drag you out of your tennis duds and toss you into bed?" Knowing that Clay wasn't gonna get up and do it himself, I gave in and cleaned up for him. "I'll pick them up for you. But just this once!"

I couldn't bear the thought of touching (let alone, holding) such smelly clothes. I quickly hung his sweaty shirt on the shirt hanger and dropped his shoes on a shelf. After wiping my hands on Clay's bed, I pushed the shelf underneath the table in front of his couple of tennis posters. Luckily, the weights were on a table. Who knows how long it would take me to rest it there?

"Seriously," I started. "I oughta brain whoever thought of the academy's 'trademark' Welcome Workout. I had to go through the same thing on my first day. I'll never forget it, but you did all right out there. You'll make an okay partner."

I just stepped towards the boy's bed and just stared at him. I grew more impatient every second until I finally lost it and yelled, "MOVE it Clay! Get outta bed RIGHT NOW!" He jumped in surprise, scratched his head and glanced at me.

"That's better," I said calmly. "Quick brain check. Do you remember where you are?"

"Uhhh... The academy lodge?" he groaned.

"Right," I told him. "You wanted to get good at tennis, so here you are." I took a pause before asking him, "Now, do you know who I am to you?"

After taking a moment to think about, he answered, "Your name's Ace, right?" I nodded. "And you're the... uhhh... lodge guy's daughter. No, no. That's not it." He shook his head before correcting himself by saying, "You're... my partner!"

"Bingo! You remember!" I was surprised when I heard his answers. Someone in his shoes might have messed up. "You made quite a scene yesterday when you passed out in the middle of practice," I said.

Clay took a moment to take it in before replying, "Oh yeah... Don't remind me..."

"That's okay," I told the brunette boy as I sat on the bed. "Well, I was kinda worried that we'd bury you out behind the courts." After another moment of waiting, I jumped out and asked him," You hungry?" Then, I heard his stomach rumble. I couldn't help but giggle slightly.

"That pretty much sums it up," Clay commented with a smile.

"Well, I'd be starving too if I'd been knocked out like that," I said after calming down. "Get dressed and we'll hit the restaurant."

I stepped outside and waited until Clay came out with his shirt and shoes.

"This is the academy dormitory," I told him as we stared at it. "But we call it the lodge because 'academy dormitory' sounds kinda stuffy." As we could see, it had three floors. Our rooms were on the ground floor, but in the middle of the first floor, a balcony with a red railing stood out. The second floor was nothing special.

"It feels a little small," I said. "But it gets the job done. Taking a closer look at it now, are you surprised at how big it is?"

"I guess I'm taken aback by it," Clay replied. "But I didn't have any 'grand tour' or something, so what could I expect?"

"No wonder. Well, all of the students here live in the lodge," I explained. "So it has to be pretty big. Anyway, let's hit the restaurant." I turned around and began to lead the way, but Clay had an idea.

"Hey! Why don't I lead the way?" the boy suggested.

"Why? You don't even know your way around."

"I'll learn along the way," he explained. "Besides, if I mess up, you can correct me. Onwards!"

Clay's POV

I sprinted ahead while Ace was just lagging behind. Following the yellow brick road, I eventually came across a brown building with bue chairs and a table outside.

"Is this it?" I asked Ace.

"Yep," she smiled. "We're here. To be honest, I didn't think you could find it, but the road was a straight shot. Well, let's hurry up and eat."

As we enterd the restaurant, we were greeted with a saffron floor, chestnut tables and chairs on baby blue carpets and a carmine counter. However, the only people present were me, Ace and the chefs.

"That's weird," the girl stated. She walked around to find no one eating at the tables. "The restaurant's totally deserted. Never seen that before... Why isn't anyone here?"

"Maybe no one eats here this early," I said.

Ace ignored me and walked up to one of chefs.

"Excuse me? Where is everyone?" she asked.

"There's been a challenge!" the man announced. "Some punks marched in and challenged the whole academy!"

"At tennis?" I asked.

The chef nodded, but the woman next to him declared, "You should've seen them! They all had masks! I guess Alex beat them once because now, they want revenge!"

"Who's Alex?" I asked Ace.

"The best tennis player at the academy," she answered. "Why were those guys wearing masks? What are they, wrestlers? Seriously, what's with the masks and the revenge thing?"

"They've already worked their way past Kevin and Mark, right up to Alex!" another chef by the counter reported. "And he agreed to the match!"

"When did this happen?" my partner asked.

"Not too long ago," the chef behind her replied. "Everyone took off to watch the match."

"Gotcha," Ace said. "Thanks." The, she turned to me. "If Alex is stepping up, this'll be a great chance to see him play. I bet they're at the Center Court! I'm going on ahead. Come by if you wanna watch!"

"Wait!" I shouted. But it was too late. She already took off.

After leaving the restaurant, I first checked were the red clay courts. I walked around to find no one there, so I checked the blue hard courts next to them. No one was there either, so after leaving, I finally checked the courts to my left and of course, no one was there. After leaving those courts, I turned to my left and walked down the road.

A group of four friends was making their way oppposite my direction when I heard the news.

"Alex lost!" the blond one spoke. "That's insane! Who is that masked man? He must be an amazing player."

The brunette boy right in front of him responded, "What if these masked yahoos enter the Island open? how are we supposed to win?"

Behind him were two girls. One was a brunette and the other had blue hair.

The blue haired girl commented, "Alex seems to be handling his loss pretty well, all things considered. Or maybe he's just in shock..."

"Did you see the veils those girls were wearing instead of masks?" the other girl added. "They looked more like princesses than tennis pros."

I gave way to those four before making my way down the road. I came across a crossroad before I heard a voice call my name. I turned around to see Ace in front of a red and white building. Running to me, she told me that Alex and the coaches lost to the masked players.

"I heard that somewhere," I replied. "But I didn't see it."

"You must have missed the match, huh?" the girl said. "I never thought I'd see Alex lose with my own two eyes, but still, those guys... They play like nobody I know! Their shots were just incredible!"

"What's going on here?" we heard a deep voice ask. We dived for the nearby bushes and listened to the conversation that took place between a man in blue, a woman in red and another woman in a suit.

"You think maybe he told Kevin who they are?" was the last thing the man asked.

"Right! Of course! Good point! Let's go see Kevin right away!" the woman in red suggested.

"Tell us everything you find out!" the other female told them. "And no skimping on the details!"

Ace and I just watched as the two with sunglasses left for a building to our left.

"Let's go the the headmaster's office," the girl suggested. "Maybe we can find out who those player really were."

"Or, we could go in the buildig those guys just went in, hide somewhere and listen in on their conversation with Kevin," I replied.

"But what if he doesn't tell them?" Ace asked. "Besides, Kevin might see us and we could get in trouble."

"We didin't get in trouble for snooping a few seconds ago," I said.

"They aren't as important. It's better to just ask the headmaster. Now let's go. It's in the main building up ahead."

I sighed before the brunette girl led me to the main building. She asked the elderly man in there if the headmaster was in his office upstairs, but he said that he was outside near the academy's entrance, so that's where we were headed.

This is only the beginning. Get ready for my first attempts at a novelization of a sport and a novelization of a game.

For those who are new to reading my stories, I'm currently working on a Sonic story that'll be finished soon, so this story's downgraded to a side project until my Sonic story's over. In other words, don't expect this story to be updated regularly until further notice.

~Have a great day, week, fortnight, month, whatever~