A Super Smash Hallowe'en

The day was drawing to a close, the moon was beginning to rise and nightfall was approaching. It was the 31st of October, and some the Smashers were preparing for a fun evening. The leaves from the tree lay scattered across the grass and pavement leading to the Smash Mansion. Peach stood on the porch looking out to the front garden and fountain, which had been decorated with carved pumpkins, cobwebs hanging from various places, even bats hanging from the trees. Lucario stepped out onto the porch. "It's looking like it's going to be a good evening tonight" he said. Peach nodded.
"Yes, it looks pleasant out." A small gust of wind blew. "Could do with being a bit warmer, though." Lucario peered up into the sky.
"Yeah, it's a clear night, it's gonna get cold later on."
"Oh! You can see some stars over there!" cried Peach, pointing. The pair continued to marvel at the clear sky above them.

Up in the various rooms, Ness was peering out the window. "Wow! It looks great put there! This is gonna be a great night!" he said excitedly. He watched a few remaining leaves flutter to the ground from the trees outside. "Doesn't it look great, Luke?" He turned round and scanned the room. "L-Lucas?" he asked again. The room seemed to be empty. Ness didn't hear him leave the room. He walked over to the door, opened it and peered out into the corridor. The corridor was empty. He closed the door. Ness furrowed his brow, trying to figure where he could have gone. At that moment, the wardrobe doors to Ness' side flung open and a wolf sprang out.
"Raaaaaaaaaargh!" Ness fell over.
"Aaaaagh!" He squealed in complete surprise. He lay there on the floor staring up at the figure, mouth agape. The wolf began to laugh. Ness recognized it instantly, his fear fading into a scowl. "Lucas, what the heck? We're not even outside yet and begun doing any spooky stuff."
"And?" he asked, removing the mask. "If I'd waited 'till later, you would be expecting scares from everyone; how would I ever find the right chance?" Ness couldn't help but smile.
"I'll get you later."
"You can try." Lucas extended his arm and helped him up. "There we are."
"Wow, that fur is so soft" commented Ness, rubbing Lucas' arm.
"I know right? This outfit is awesome, and warm." Lucas smiled.
"Good, you're gonna need it; I reckon it's gonna get chilly out."
"So what are you planning on dressing up as?" asked Lucas.
"Hm, I'm not sure yet.

From the west wing of the mansion the sounds of screaming and wailing could be heard. Noises blared from the TV in the living room. On the left side of the couch opposite it sat Little Mac, with Kirby nestling into his arm for safety. Falco sat in the middle, watching intently. Marth sat on the right, resting his head in his palm. "Why is it appealing to these films?" he asked.
"Uh? Cuz they're awesome?" replied Little Mac.
"I've seen plenty of death in my life; I don't exactly see the appeal of watching others suffer."
"It's fiction, Marth, relax" replied Falco.
"A scare can be thrilling, and it gives you that feeling of comfort knowing you're not there" continued Little Mac, cradling Kirby gently.
"You start rooting for the hero, hoping they survive" added Falco.
"Can you guys shut up? I can't hear it!" cried Dark Pit. He was lying sprawled out on the floor in front of the couch, resting his head on his fist with his other arm in a bowl of crisps.
"Dark Pit, you're not even enjoying this film!" cried Little Mac.
"No, the effects are crap."
"Well why are you here?" asked Marth.
"Bored." Marth shrugged. He hopped off the couch.
"I'm going find something more interesting to do."
"Good luck with that" replied Dark Pit. Kirby hopped off the couch onto the floor beside Dark Pit and ran over to Marth by the doorway. The duo exited out to the main foyer. Dark Pit nicked Marth's seat.

Marth surveyed the foyer, with skeletons on the walls and cobwebs on the ceiling. Kirby nestled into Marth's leg.
"Are you OK, Kirby?" Marth knelt down to comfort him. It was then that he heard the sounds of laughter coming down the stairs. Ness and Lucas sauntered down the stairs, dressed as mummy and a wolf, respectively. They were followed by Toon Link, Villager and the Ice Climbers. They clad in outfits too: a ghoul, a ghost and a duo team of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. "Good evening. I assume you are off out?"
"Yeah!" said Ness excitedly. Kirby smiled eagerly.
"Hi!" He waved and ran over to them.
"Oh? You wanna come too?" asked Popo. Kirby nodded.
"Woo! The more the merrier!" cheered Nana. Villager walked up to Kirby and took his hand.
"C'mon, buddy, let's go." They walked towards the doors, followed by Toon Link and the Ice Climbers.
"Ness, Lucas, can I ask a favour? Kirby was watching that silly horror film with us; he really should've left before it was put on. I'm not sure how much it unsettled him. Keep a close eye on him, would you?" Ness nodded.
"Okay."
"Can do."
"And take of yourselves out there too" added Marth.
"Oh don't worry" came a voice, "That's why they're going. They're the supervision." Marth turned his attention to the kitchen doors where Pit and Link stood waiting, with Palutena urging them forwards.
"I see" remarked Marth.
"These guys'll keep 'em safe." Palutena smiled. "Now I have something else to take care of." She headed for the stairs. Marth wondered what she was up to. He followed after the group to the porch where Peach and Lucario were chatting. Marth, Peach and Lucario waved off Ness' group as they ventured off to the nearby town for the evening. "Wow, it's quite dark out now" commented Marth.
"Yes, I do hope they're careful" said Peach.
"They'll be fine" replied Lucario.
"Have you got everything, Luke?" asked Ness.
"I believe so" he replied.
"I have stuff in my pockets if you need 'em" added Villager. He pulled out a glowstick. "Glowstick, anyone?" Pit took one.
"Thanks, this is going to be great." Link also took one from Villager. Ness put his bag on the grass.
"I have my torch in here, and my basket."
"Sounds like everything" said Popo.
"Shall we be off then?" asked Villager.
"Indeed" responded Nana. Pit and Link snapped their glowsticks on, shook them and led the way, the children following in their outfits. Marth squinted into the darkness.
"Ah good, their glowsticks are working."
"Marvellous!" exclaimed Peach. She made for the doors. "It's time to play some party games!" She darted inside.
"That could be entertaining" commented Marth.
"I do enjoy a little competition" said Lucario, entering the mansion. Marth smiled and followed.

Most of the Smashers were avoiding the dining room. At one side of the table was Bowser, roaring menacingly and breathing fire on marshmallows, on the other side was King Dedede gorging his face with food. Ganondorf stood to the side, laughing and watching as the pair eye balled one another, looking for a tussle. He and Wolf were making snide remarks regarding the two. From the kitchen Wii Fit Trainer watched. "I hope Bowser doesn't eat too many marshmallows."
"I'm sure it won't ruin his figure" replied Rosalina.
"Just wait 'till those kids come back with bags of sweets. Their bodies and teeth won't thank them. "
"It's one night" replied Rosalina. "Relax. Have some fun." The duo turned around when they heard a voice. It was Peach. She had been preparing a basin by filling it with water.
"Who wants to go dooking for apples?" she asked.
"Apples?" questioned Wii Fit Trainer. In a flash, she had her hair pinned up and darted over to the middle of the room where there was a basin on the floor with a towel underneath it. Peach was filling it with apples. Marth and Lucario entered the room. Rosalina looked over to the table which had been pushed to one wall.
"Lucina, will you be joining us?" she asked. Lucina was carving out her first pumpkin, along with Chrom and some help from Mario. She looked up.
"Oh, that sounds like fun! Let me just finish this." Rosalina smiled.
"Delightful." Peach turned to Marth and Lucario.
"Will you two join us?" Marth pondered.
"I suppose this could be fun. Do I get so many attempts?"
"You can try and grab any apple you wish and your turn lasts for as long as you can keep your face in the water. " Lucario smiled.
"And the winner is the one with the most apples, right?"
"You could say that, they'll score some big points anyway. You might even nab a few peanuts too" Peach explained. Lucario peered passed her to see Rosalina emptying a bag of peanuts into the basin.
"Hm, I better not tell Greninja or Squirtle about this. They'd win in no time" said Lucario.
"Or Corrin" added Marth. "Is everyone ready?" asked Rosalina. Wii Fit Trainer, Peach, Lucario and Marth gathered. "Strange, I could've sworn Palutena said she wished to play."
"She'll be off yakking to Zelda no doubt" replied Peach.
"Done!" cried Lucina. "What do you think?" She spun her pumpkin round for them to see. It had triangular eyes and a zigzag nose with a smiling mouth.
"Wonderful!" cheered Peach, "your first pumpkin." Lucina smiled.
"So" she started, pulling her hair back, "who's going first?"

Villager and Ness were standing under a streetlight. Ness smiled. "Wow, we've got a lot of sweets already." Villager nodded.
"Well when you know the townspeople like I do – and what they're scared of – getting yummy goodies is a breeze."
"Yeah, they sure didn't like my mummy outfit." Pit, Lucas and Toon Link walked over.
"How you doing?" asked Lucas.
"Very well" replied Villager.
"This is a lot of fun!" said Pit, happily.
"Wait up guys!" called Popo. The Ice Climbers, Link and Kirby approached from the darkness, lit by Link's blue glowstick.
"Hi!" called Kirby.
"Heya, Kirby, enjoying yourself?" asked Pit. Kirby smiled and nodded. He clutched his little basket of treats.
"We should make a little game out of this" said Ness smiling slyly. "Who can get the most loot?"
"Ooh!" exclaimed Lucas.
"We can split into pairs and see which team can amass the biggest stash." Ness' eyes drifted over to Villager, who knew all the best tricks for scaring the townspeople to get lots of treasures and who knew how to get Jack to stall the others. Villager raised an eyebrow. Kirby smiled, liking the sound of this. The Ice Climbers high fived.
"Except" began Villager, "we have an uneven number of people here so pairing up is out of the question." Ness' smile faded.
"F-fine, three groups of three then!" he suggested.
"Only two other teams to compete against?" asked Nana.
"I'm liking the idea of trying solo" added Villager grinning.
"Then it'll be really intense!" said Pit cheerfully.
"Sounds good" said Popo.
"Yeah… we can go solo too" said Ness quietly.
"Oh yeah! It's on!" cried Nana. She charged off into the night towards her next house.
"Let's do this!" cried Lucas. He made his way into the darkness, illuminating it as he went with his torch
"Woo, I hope I can impress Lady Palutena! Everyone'll give sweets to an angel like me!" Pit ran off, green glowstick in tow.
"Good luck, everyone" said Popo, calmy walking off. Link said nothing as he ventured into the wilderness. Kirby waved and skipped away, wanting yummy goodies. Toon Link rushed off into the black. Ness turned to Villager.
"Nice try, Ness" he said, sticking his tongue out. "These secrets are mine. Find out yourself who's scared of what." Villager set off in search of his next house. Ness smiled as he vanished from sight.
"Alright. Guess I'm doing this on my own. It'll be more rewarding that way." He grinned. "You're on, Villager."

Palutena climbed a ladder leading up to the ceiling. She knocked on a door. There was a small hook which she pulled on, pulling the door open. She clambered up and into the dusty attic. "Hey" she began, closing the door behind her. "How's it going, Luigi?" Luigi was in the middle of the room, poised with his Poltergust.
"Not well, I still haven't found where it's hiding, and there's so much junk to search through up here." Palutena sighed.
"Well, thank you for trying."
"Can't you just some of the others to help us out?"
"No! I'm not about to let the others know I accidently brought some of the decorations to life up here!"
"You're a goddess! How can you not solve this yourself?"
"Well I-"
"How do you get anything done?"
"I send Pit out to do it…" Luigi facepalmed.
"All I need is a gadget that'll detect where the ghosts are hiding. Professor E. Gadd could help."
"Where is he right now?"
"I don't know."
"I've got an idea!" Palutena made for the door again. Luigi watched her go. "I have someone else in mind who could help, and they're a lot closer."

Lucina lifted her head from the basin, an apple between her teeth. Her dripping hair stuck to her neck. "Woo! Go, Lucina!" cried Peach. Lucina removed the apple from her teeth and smiled.
"Thank you."
"That's your fourth one!" cheered Rosalina, "you're a natural at this." Lucina blushed slightly, and then looked over at her main rival: Wii Fit Trainer. She was sitting opposite, clutching her six apples in her arms.
"I'm going to win this battle, young lady." They glared at each other.
"My-a turn!" cried Mario, dipping his face in. Peach and Rosalina watched in anticipation. There was a thud from above somewhere. Marth's eyes were drawn to the ceiling.
"Anyone else hear that?" Lucario's ears twitched.
"I did. I'm sure it's nothing." Their attention returned to the game at hand. Chrom was holding Lucina's other apples and peanuts. Peach was cheering Mario on. Rosalina was calculating points. There was another thud. Marth made for the door.
"I'm going to investigate."

There were horrible screams coming from the attic. "Is that supposed to happen?" asked Palutena.
"Well they're sure as heck not getting out of this room now!" cried Shulk. He was holding a small cube that was projecting out a green net that laced the walls of the room and shone like alarm beams. It was designed to alert them should a ghost become entangled in them. The ghosts were not happy about this. "They are going to have a tough time sneaking around now without us spotting them."
"Thank you" replied Luigi, returning to his hunt.
"Why can't you just turn them back, Lady Palutena?" asked Shulk.
"I can't find the ghost to turn it back."
"Can't you sense it?"
"No, it's suppressing its energy."
"Ooh, sounds like a delightful little party up here. Room for one more?" Palutena and Shulk turned to see Bayonetta emerging from the door.
"How'd you know we were up here?" asked Palutena.
"If you want to remain conspicuous, remove the ladder from sight." Palutena's face reddened. "What's with all the delicious noise up here anyway?"
"Luigi is hunting down some loose ghosts for Palutena" replied Shulk.
"Ooh, they're playing hard to get; how fun. I see Pit's not here to do your dirty work."
"They never go down without a fight either" added Luigi.
"Oh, so we need to rough them up, do we? I sure I can help get them soft and tender and ripe for the picking." Baynetta clambered up. Palutena moved to the door to remove the ladder, where she was greeted by Marth.
"There you are, Palutena, what's happening?"
"Oh this is a nightmare!"

Villager rummaged in his pocket to find his watch. "Hmm. Getting late, we should wrap this up pretty soon." He decided it was time to fetch the others and go home.

Lucas was muttering to himself. "Lousy Jack, he tricked me. Tell me I can get more sweets, and I end up with furniture?! Gah!" All he had were some leaves which he couldn't even do anything with. He was fuming. Still, he looked at his burgeoning bag of booty. He smiled. He was confident he would win.

Ness knew from Villager never to give Jack his sweets, else he'd come away with furniture; which was only really all that handy for Villager. He hoped nobody else had fallen victim to it.

Time progressed, the clouds began to gather and it began to rain lightly. The grass began to dampen. Popo rendezvoused with Nana. "I think it's time we went back to the mansion" said Nana.
"Agreed" replied Popo. The adventurers made their way back to the fountain in front of the mansion, a natural meeting point. The rain was getting heavier. Link arrived, his position spotted by the others from his fading glowstick. They moved to hail him.
"Hi, Link" greeted Pit. Link smiled.
"That just leaves Villager to arrive then" said Popo.
"There he is there" said Lucas pointing. Sure enough, there was Villager walking down towards them, umbrella in tow. He waved.
"I see everyone made it back then."
"I got lots of yummy food!" cheered Kirby.
"As did I" replied Ness, flashing a smile at Lucas. Lucas walked over to Villager and hand him the leaves that would become Hallowe'en furniture.
"These are for you."
"Thank you, Lucas." There was an awkward pause.
"Shall we head inside now?" asked Nana.
"Yeah, I'm quite tired" responded Villager, yawning. The group made their way up to the porch, which had several pumpkins sitting on it, including the newly carved Lucina Pumpkin. There was a little Brand on the back of the pumpkin. The group entered through the big double doors and set their things down. Villager yawned again.
"Hey, we haven't got round to the good bit yet" said Ness.
"Seeing who won?" asked Popo.
"Playing horror games!" cried Ness.
"Then let's get the TV booted up!" cheered Pit.

Ness heard noises coming from the attic, so he went to investigate. Villager and Lucas were in Lucas & Ness' room. "Thanks, Villager." Villager had arranged the Hallowe'en furniture for Lucas in one corner of the room: a pumpkin TV, sofa, chair and hanging lampshade. "Perhaps it was worth it after all." Villager nodded.
"Alright, let's play!" The Ice Climbers, Pit, Link, Toon Link, Kirby, Villager and Lucas settled to play.
"Wait, where's Ness?" asked Pit.
"Strange, I could've sworn-" began Nana. There was a rumbling at the ceiling, followed by loud clatter, then some shaking.
"What on…?" started Villager. Suddenly the ceiling gave way and Smashers began flooding into the room and the corridor.
"Aaaaaaargh!" cried Lucas, diving out of harm's way. The others followed him to the window to safety as Ness, Palutena, Shulk, Luigi, Bayonetta, Marth, ROB, Game & Watch, Pikachu, Yoshi and Diddy Kong plummeted from the attic. There was an enormous crash. Ness hastily got to his feet and looked around, noticing Lucas' surprise.
"Ha! I told you I'd get you. Not quite what I had in mind, but it'll do." Lucas sighed, calming down. Various Smashers from downstairs came pelting along to see what was happening. Lucina came charging in, clutching her 1st place badge, followed by Wii Fit Trainer, Peach, Rosalina, Chrom, Lucario and Mario.
"Luigi? What's happening?" asked Mario.
"I was asked to catch a ghost" he replied, being crushed under the weight of others. At that, he caught sight of the ghost in question. He turned on the Poltergust and aimed at it. It fought back, but was kept in place long enough for Palutena to concentrate and change it back.
"Lady Palutena? What on heck have you been doing whilst I've been out?" asked Pit. She smiled weakly at him.
"Long story, Pit" she replied sheepishly. Villager held back a laugh. Ness stammered over to Lucas.
"Are you guys OK?" asked Popo, looking at the hole in the ceiling and the pile of crumpled fighters on the floor.
"Yeah, we'll be fine" answered Shulk.
"Honestly" began Lucas, "you guys fret that we need looked after. I think next time, you guys need some help."
"How many people does it take to catch some ghosts?" asked Nana.
"Lots" said Ness briskly.
"Well this will certainly be a memorable Hallowe'en" said Peach.
"Come on guys, the night's still young" added Ness, "and those games won't play themselves." They got up and laughed as they dusted themselves off and began cleaning up the mess.

Before long, everyone had headed to bed or was joining in on the horror game action. Villager was in a zombies survival challenge with Pit and Popo. Ness and Lucas watched from Lucas' new sofa.
"Well you certainly scared me earlier" Lucas admitted.
"I only went up to investigate the noise, then got embroiled in it too; for all of a few minutes." Lucas laughed.
"Sweet?"
"You sure?"
Yeah, I did win after all."
"I know, even with the furniture."
"Don't know how I beat Villager. Anyway, go on."
"Thanks." Ness looked at him. "I'm sorry you lost some sweets for some furniture."
"Hey it's fine, it's a sweet suite. Comfy too." Ness nodded.
"That it is." They looked over at Nana and Toon Link who were cheering from the sidelines; with Kirby and Pikachu lying asleep among some sweety rappers. Lucas adored this new stuff he'd acquired now that it was set up.
"Happy Hallowe'en, guys."