(A/N: Well, as promised, this fic will chronicle the war between the Shadows and the Smashers! Actually…no. This fic is actually more of a, well, prelude to the war. I figure I'll start off with an introduction, sort of a history lesson. Then, the smashers will go on an interdimensional adventure while not fighting a war. Don't worry, though, my 6th fic will be the actual war. I promise.)

Prelude to War

by Ryan Myers

Prologue: Shadowy Times (200 years ago)

Emperor Nathaniel Eclipse was the ruler of a booming empire. With a dimension all to itself, people flocked there by the millions. Soon, the dimension of Eclipsia, named for its endearing and enduring ruler, had become a well-known name among interdimensional travelers. Little did Eclipse know that his once-proud dimension would soon give way to evil and despair.

It all started one day in Eclipsia, as Nathaniel Eclipse rose to a bright, sunny day. His mood couldn't have been better. His affairs had been peaceful all week, and his few opponents had been relatively silent.

Suddenly, an official came rushing into the emperor's throne room, his face an utter expression of fear.

"Sire! There's…there's a problem."

Nathaniel sat up, alarmed. What sort of problem could get past his army and security?

"Oh?" he replied, trying to mask his anxiety.

"There's an…anomaly, sire. One of the newborn children is…well, he's different."

Nathan, an experienced public speaker, immediately noticed that his messenger seemed unnecessarily ill at ease.

"What's wrong with him?" he asked, remaining calm.

"You'll have to see for yourself, sir."

For the first time, Eclipse became purely afraid, and he didn't know why.

"Come with you? Why can't you tell me?"

The messenger squirmed and contorted his face. "I can't tell you, sir, please come with me."

Suddenly, Nathaniel noticed a strange feature of the messenger. Although the room was bathed in sunlight, the messenger did not have a shadow.

The emperor was about to point that out, but he decided not to. If the messenger were under some sort of…mind control…

"Sire." Came an urgent whisper behind Nathaniel's throne. "Come here, please. Ignore that messenger."

Eclipse recognized the voice as that of his chief advisor, David Blaze.

The emperor, not reacting to the voice, replied to his messenger, "I'll look into it. You are dismissed."

The messenger looked almost pained at the rejection, but he left. Eclipse turned around.

"What's going on, Blaze? That man had no shadow!"

"Yes. It's happening all around town. There was a child born…a mutant. I haven't seen him, but it seems that this child is completely jet black in color."

"Just a minute." Nathan said, looking over his advisor carefully.

Blaze smiled as Eclipse checked him out. "Yep, you have a shadow." The emperor verified. "Sorry. Continue."

"No problem. Anyway, this child seems to have the ability – whether controlled or not – to, well…suck the shadows out of anyone near him. This increases the child's strength, and the child is already strong enough to break through stone walls."

"Well, that's not a good sign. Shouldn't we try to stop him?"

"Well, that's just it. Whenever he does take someone's shadow, they seem to become subservient to him. Whether the child realizes it or not, his subconscious has control over a great deal of the capital city."

"Hmm. Any suggestions?"

"Well…we could hide."

Eclipse glared at his advisor's fear. "There's got to be a way. Is he really controlling everyone?"

"I'm sure he was controlling that messenger. That's why the messenger wanted you to follow him."

"He wanted to lead me to the child so the boy could take over my mind?"

"That's my guess."

"Makes sense. But what are we going to do about it?"

"Honestly, I don't know. If we do something, it'll have to be fast. The absorbed shadows are apparently increasing the child's growth. The child is already able to walk."

"And you know this because your scouts have told you this?" Eclipse asked, growing suspicious.

"Sire, you already checked me. I still have a shadow. My scouts are more prevalent than you may think."

"I know where your scouts are, Blaze!" Eclipse shouted, growing angry.

"Do you?" Blaze responded, his voice suddenly accented with a sinister inflection.

Before Nathaniel could respond, his throne room became filled with…well, with shadows. The emperor could only growl in anger before an ominous voice sounded behind him.

"Nathan, I knew fooling you would be easy, but I didn't think it would be this easy!" Eclipse turned around to see a large, black figure. Actually, it looked more like a…3-dimensional hole in the air in the shape of a person.

"Who are you?" the emperor asked, although he had a pretty good idea.

"I am the Anomaly." He replied. "It was a pretty good plan, wasn't it? I made you put your guard up, then made you let it down. It was especially clever the way I had one of your 'scouts' pose as Blaze's shadow. Yes…" here the shadow motioned expansively to his gathering army. "Blaze was right about some things. I have been taking over people's minds. And I do gain their strength when I do so. And they do cause me to grow faster. However, Blaze left out the somewhat important detail of how many people I have attacked, which, as you can see, is a very substantial amount. And, as you may have noticed, once I have attacked someone, their bodies, over time, lose their natural color and become a shadow of what they once were."

Eclipse glowered at the shadow, not knowing what to say.

"Oh, don't look at me that way, Nathan. You've been emperor of this dimension for hundreds of years…give someone else a turn."

Eclipse shook his head. "You're a lunatic. What are you trying to gain from taking over this dimension?"

"Well, I think that's very simple. After taking over everyone in the empire, we will wait and reproduce over a few generations, and then we shall begin our interdimensional conquest."

Eclipse was stunned into silence. "You mean to take over every single dimension? You realize that, eventually, there'll be someone strong enough to stop you."

"No, I don't think so. Who could stop us when we have control of them?"

"What if someone doesn't let you close to them?"

"Then I have my warriors, fool! No one can stop us. Enough. This conversation is over."

With that, Blaze abruptly reached up and grabbed the emperor. Helped by a few others, Eclipse was eventually pushed in front of the Anomaly. He reached out his hand ceremonially.

It is said that the screams echoed for days.

Interesting Facts about the Shadows:

Anomaly's plan didn't work out as well as he'd hoped. After about 100 years, the community split into five groups. Anomaly found that shadows grew harder and harder to control after long periods of time, and several shadows organized groups, suggesting their own campaign for dimensional domination.

The first group ended up in a dark dimension, and found a group of pirates. Discovering an innate ability to enter an individual's mind and corrupt it, the pirates became even more greedy and bloodthirsty. The shadow's influence passed on through the generations until the last group of pirates was thwarted by the efforts of a brave fighter named Master.

The second group followed a similar path to the first, except their targets were more evil to begin with. Eventually, these pirates met their doom in their campaign for Metroids, at the hands of Samus Aran.

The third group started in a distant dimension inhabited by barbaric purple polygonal mutants. Their efforts resulted in almost immediate defeat at the hands of the brutal exilees of the toy dimension, but enough of them had corrupted the polygons to ensure that a new, more maliciously resourceful generation would follow. By natural selection, the shadows' inheritable "evil" gene passed down, weakening each time, until their evil tendencies became only a spark, waiting to be reignited…

The fourth group didn't even last long enough to have an effect. They made the mistake of going right to the nearest dimension: the toy dimension. Having expelled an odd group of purple mutants a decade ago, the toy dimension was screened, and only the best fighters remained. The shadows didn't have a chance.

Finally, the fifth group remained in Eclipsia with Anomaly, building up their numbers according to Anomaly's master plan. Having learned of each other group's defeat, they knew that their method was the best, and that they would be successful.

(A/N: Well, that may have seemed weird to you, but if you read my 4th fic, it should make sense as to what I'm talking about. Even if you haven't, you may have noticed something you knew about in the interesting facts. If neither of these applies to you, go read my fics, or something. Anyway, if you still don't know what this fic has to do with SSB, just wait a few days for my next chapter.)