IMPORTANT:

Well. If you hadn't noticed before, this fanfic was in crappy quality, excuse my harsh self-criticism, but it's sadly true. As a treat to all my readers, I have decided upon fixing it up a little to fit the character's needs. It went a little wayward with all the irksome character qualities that didn't exist, and it took uploading them on Deviantart and re-reading them to realize just how much I butchered them. xD;;

My deepest apologies. But I have never played a few games. such as F-Zero, Starfox, and Metroid. Well, I have played Metroid a little, but not enough. :3 So I suppose it's either I do my research or get off my lazy butt and go play me some.

On with the upgrade. Please don't hesitate to smile.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

An icy wind chill flowed past the half-open window in Falco's room. On his bed, he sat down at the edge kicking his feet for some kind of amusement.

"Ugh... I can't get to sleep," Falco complained. I can't believe it's already 12:30 in the morning," he grumbled, glancing at the digital clock on his bedside table, its companion a small touch lamp. He sighed impatiently. Here he was so bored, he was talking to himself.

"Worse yet, I'm so tired, but I can't sleep somehow." He lay down on the scattered sheets of his bed. He never seemed to make his bed, or clean his room even. But he didn't care. To him, it was a waste of time.

"And I'm curious why the wind is so cold and drafty. It's July 15th! Oh, wait, it's past midnight. July 16th." Falco felt kind of hot in his room, so he felt that opening his window halfway and letting the mysteriously cool air get into his dark room would help. It felt relatively refreshing to him. He lay there, placing his wings behind his head, losing himself in thought.

The annual tournament for the smashers had been occurring ever since July 6th. He had recently defeated Donkey Kong yesterday, and felt confident in himself for the next upcoming fights.

"Oh yeah, I'm gonna win this one for sure," he declared to no one in particular. "Nothing's gonna stop me."

A strange voice coldly spoke. "Or will it?" Falco quickly bolted upright. The sound was coming from the interiors of his closet. It was icy and sharp, yet it seemed to spell death. Ganondorf? No, too quiet. Mewtwo? Nope, the voice sounded too much like the grim reaper. "The hell?" When there was no repose for quite some while, Falco stopped his breathing, and begun to feel his heart pound deep within his chest. On this cloudy moonless night, it spontaneously started to rain.

"Alright, who's there?" Falco inquired boldly, irritated by his prickly fear, which felt like an itchy rash on his ego. "Show yourself!"

The voice cackled, sending a wavelength of chills down Falco's spine. There was something strange about this presence, something Falco didn't like. "Why don't you come over here instead?"

Falco thought a moment. Then he grabbed his blaster, which was also on his bedside table. "No. You come out. I've never heard your voice before; I don't know you, and now I'm positive you're not Ganondorf or anyone else who might like to hide in my closet. I'm warning you, I'm armed." His throat felt dry as he spoke.

"Trying to threaten me, hm? No. You're not as strong or brave as I thought. You're not a falcon. You're a mere chicken."

"How dare you insult me like that?"

"Coward. You're too afraid to come over here yourself, I bet." The strange voice never seemed to change it's expression at all. "I'm not afraid of you. I know who you are. I know what you're thinking. I can sense your motions, and I can already taste your blood. There's no escape, Falco. I've got you." With that, the closet door slowly began to open, making a creaking sound as it did, and Falco thought his heart could explode right through his chest in a messy slop of red pulp. He held his blaster poised to the direction the man was coming out from, ready to shoot for his life's sake, his wings shaking madly due to the stress. Beads of sweat covered his feathered face.

"I hate people who walk around at night! Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"And shouldn't you? It's obvious you fear me. Poor you. This is the last of your time you've even got alive. There is no running away now." The closet was fully open. An exceptionally black figure in heavy clothing appeared. Falco could not decipher his face clearly, but he was positive it wasn't any normal human face. And in his hand, which was also concealed in more black clothing, glinted the shine on a blade of a knife. Falco gulped, about to pull the trigger of his blaster.

"What the hell do you want with me?" Falco demanded, his voice trembling with slight fear. It began to feel like some dramatic action or horror movie, perhaps even one of those dark soap operas he caught Mario watching one time. It was something to laugh at, but not now. He was too curious about this bitter presence who tried to disturb his lack of sleep with death threats.

"You'll soon find out," the figure said, laughing coldly. With one sudden lunge, the figure had Falco pinned to the ground. He knocked the blaster out of his hand immediately, and Falco struggled with all his might to get away from this dark, evil creature. There had to be something he could do to counter this beast, but whenever he attempted to move against him, it was nullified. This was soon evolving into just about the scariest thing that ever happened to him.

Falco gasped in horror as he saw the knife pointed straight at his heart, high up in the air. "Time to say goodbye," the dark figure said evilly, and for a second, Falco caught a glimpse of his face. It was like nothing he had ever seen... so terrible. And that was just about the last he ever could see, because the next second the knife had penetrated deep within his chest. He could feel the cold pain of steel ripping at his insides. A blinding pain struck him. He let loose a bloodcurdling scream, and watched as his entire life literally flashed before his eyes. The cloaked figure dug more into his insides, sawing at his chest hard. There was another type of deep impact, for something electric swirled inside his preys' dying organs, and when he was satisfied, he ripped the knife right out, and began stabbing various other areas on Falco simply for the fun of it. Blood splattered all over the room, and feathers flew. His jacket was stained with his own blood, and Falco gasped his last breath, before rolling his eyes near the back of his head, dying.

Contented, the wicked figure turned around, fawning over his blood covered knife. "Pathetic bird." He then disappeared into thin air, smoke filling the room.

Meanwhile, in Yoshi's room, he had awoken to the death cry of Falco Lombardi. He was up in an instant, but realized he had been asleep on his desk writing crappy pieces of poetry out of boredom.

"What the heck was that?" Yoshi pondered in his acute voice. Curious, he left the safety of his room and went towards the location he heard the scream.

"Sounded like Falco. I wonder what kind of bad dream he's having now?" He remembered the last one Falco had rudely awoken him up to, their rooms being close together.

-FLASHBACK-

Yoshi was sleeping soundly in his freshly made bed, when all of a sudden, he woke up to someone screaming like they had just lost their head or something.

"Falco..." Yoshi groaned. He arose and went across to the next room, Falco's. He found Falco in a fetal position, murmuring words Yoshi couldn't make out.

"What is it this time?" Yoshi questioned impatiently, made into an angry dinosaur due to his desire for peace in his clean room.

"He's come..."

"Who's come?"

"Him..."

"Who?"

"The fat purple blob..."

"Which one?"

"Happy Meal..."

"Um..."

"Gr.."

"Wha?"

"Grimace." He shuddered violently.

"Uh-huh." Yoshi remembered the giant, fuzzy, purple booger that scared all the little kids away just by smiling. He was one of the McDonald's mascots, one of the scariest.

"Scary, isn't it?"

"Um... yeah. Please don't give ME any nightmares, either." He left.

-END FLASHBACK-

His room was right across from Falco's, so it wouldn't take too much effort to get there. "I'm gonna tell that old crow to shut up," Yoshi said. When he wasn't a happy, cheerful, ridiculously eccentric creature, he became a wet cat when he was in the middle of a watermelon dream. He tried to open the door to Falco's quarters, but it seemed jammed somehow. "What the..." Yoshi tried harder to open it. The hallways were pitch black, so he couldn't see. Yoshi cursed under his breath, and dragged his red-shoed feet back to his own room to turn on the light so he could see what was going on with Falco's door.

"Finally... Some light!" Yoshi said in relief. He gasped and switched face when he saw the doorway oozing out a small amount of green jello-like slime.

"Something weird is going on around here," Yoshi said to himself with a gulp. He attempted to open the door once again, the beam of light from his room shining on him. After 5 more tries, he finally managed to push the door open. He switched the light on, and what he saw made him shriek for a quick second, his face turning a pale green.

On the ground lay Falco, a dark pool of blood escaping from the body. His white jacket was stained with his blood, and a hole was cut through his chest and various other places. Yoshi could see more blood splattered around the room, and his jet-blue feathers littered the area of where he lay. Yoshi covered his eyes, and turned off the light again before rushing back to his room, and slamming the door shut. He breathed deeply, not one to work well with trauma. In the morning, he would tell Master Hand the terrible news. Yoshi was in for a sleepless night.

The next morning, Yoshi had told Master Hand.

"Master Hand!" Yoshi yelled. "Master Hand!"

"What?" the white gloved, giant hand asked grumpily. "I just woke up."

"No, this is serious!" Yoshi pleaded. "Listen to me!"

"You look as if you have seen a ghost," Master Hand commented, not knowing half the story. "What's the problem?"

"I doubt you'll believe me, but Falco is dead!"

"WHAT?" Master Hand boomed. "You can't be serious! I expected something more plausible from you, Yoshi." The dinosaur's voice was the most irritating thing to hear in the morning, to top it off, and Master Hand was not pleased in the least.

"Yes I am," Yoshi said. "Come look yourself! Please please please, I'm not even kidding!" His eyes were large pleading plates, demanding that the owner of the Smash Mansion would follow him into the perplexing sight.

"Fine. I'll go, but if you're just BSing me, you're in for it, and I may have to disqualify you. You know I'm not happy with you for losing the last fight..." Master Hand and Yoshi raced across the mansion like they were hightailed by wolves, mainly due to Yoshi's frightened speed, which caught a couple of stares from some of the smashers. They then reached the second floor.

"Go inside," Yoshi ordered.

"I know," Master Hand said. He floated gently inside, Yoshi following slowly behind. Master Hand couldn't believe what he saw.

"Oh my..." He never finished. Yoshi's eyes began to water, even though he wasn't all that fond of Falco himself. Seeing someone dead is still bad enough, especially someone you at least know. Master Hand sighed and shook his head, which was actually himself. "I'm going to have to tell the rest," he admitted mournfully. Yoshi sniffed, grabbed one of Falco's bedsheets, and covered the body so that nobody else could walk in and see it, lest they were even more sensitive than poor Yoshi.

"Good job," Master Hand said. "He did look very creepy with his eyes wide open and stuff." Yoshi nodded in agreement, not able to say anything.

"I'm gonna have to announce it in the great hall," Master Hand said in an upset tone. "Right now. Try to get everyone into the hall. I know some may be asleep still, but when they wake up, they'll catch on pretty soon. This is pretty bad." Yoshi obeyed, and headed out of the room to go inform everyone.

About twenty minutes later, everyone except Mr. Game and Watch, Ganondorf, Jigglypuff, Marth and Luigi were assembled into the Main Hall. It was the biggest room in the Smasher's HQ. Sometimes, parties, dances, celebrations and other events were held in this great room. Everyone usually ate their meals in here as well. Most smashers were eating their breakfast right now.

"I wonder why Yoshi wanted us in here so suddenly," Peach said to Samus after swallowing a bite of her pancake.

Samus, who was out of her suit at the moment, nodded. "Me too. He told me Master Hand wanted to tell us something important."

"Now I'm very curious," Peach said. Master Hand abruptly glided onto the stage. He got everyone's attention immediately, since he was a giant floating hand. Everyone became silent.

"All you smashers down there," he started in a loud voice. "Listen to me. I have some incredibly bad news."

"What's it about?" Roy interrupted, his eyes big pools of curiosity.

"Silence, and I will tell you." He took a deep breath. "Anyone see Falco around today?" The group of smashers all shook their heads, and some murmurs of no were heard. Master Hand continued.

"Well, he... He died last night." Everyone exchanged shocked or disbelieving glances towards one another, and some more quiet murmurs were hard around. Fox spoke up.

"That's a big lie," he said flatly. His face showed that, in a way, he denied it, but at the same time he was just a little more determined to get through to the real truth of the matter. Afraid that his friend could actually be dead, but he didn't want to believe it. They had gotten into a small frustrated scuffle over a small detail in their winnings, but had eventually made it up by playing a game on Falco's computer he made dedicated to shooting Slippy. It completely changed the outcome of their disdain, and now Fox and Falco were on better terms. It awed him to consider Falco a dead bird, but the information he was about to receive would eventually change his attitude in a way he did not like it.

"It's true!" Yoshi blurted. "I saw it myself!"

"Yes, that is right, Yoshi was the one to find him in the first place. Falco is surely dead, because he was stabbed in various spots, especially hard in the chest. Puddle of blood surrounded him as well. His eyes were wide open and glassy, but had no life in them. He's gone." The great hall suddenly became alive with talking again. Words of "Falco's dead?" or "This can't be!" or "Is it for real?" were mostly heard.

"SHUT UP!" Master Hand boomed. Everyone was quiet again. "I've closed his door and placed a sign up. I don't want anyone in there unless they get permission from me. Got that? I locked it expecially for your incovenience, just like the cookie jar. Now I want Samus, Zelda, Fox, Ness and Mewtwo to investigate further at the crime scene. Then, they'll bring the body to Dr. Mario for a closer look at the body. I have no idea how or if a funeral is acceptable, but well..." He stopped there.

"Hey, will this affect the tournament in any way?" Link asked bluntly.

"Yes. We may have to switch things around. In fact, I may also have no choice but to cancel it if things go awry." A few groans were cast around.

"That is all I have to say." He floated away, leaving the smashers at suspense, shock and amazement, yet sorrow.