Author's Note:

Super Smash Flash 2 is based on the popular fighting franchise by Nintendo and is currently going through its beta stages. This story, which is based on version 0.8a, takes the characters, unlockable and otherwise, and the stages as they are to form the map of the imaginary world of Smash Flash. Each update twists the story drastically.

Have you ever traveled faster than the speed of light? Nothing is faster, you know. At least that's what others would have you believe. After all reasoning is given, is there a greater reason to believe that nothing travels faster than the speed of light, other than the fact that someone told you so? If you never knew you couldn't travel faster than light, would you value the ability to do so? Hyperspeed is just another function of the ship as The Great Fox launches itself through existence. Not exclusively through space. Not exclusively through time. Only through existence itself. Adrenaline flows almost as fast as the vessel. Inside The Great Fox, Fox McCloud struggles to keep self upright.

"Keep shields high, ROB!" Fox yelled.

"Shields are operating at maximum efficiency. No more precautions can be taken for The Great Fox." ROB 64 assured his supervisor. Fox looked to his camera monitor that monitored the ships deployment chute.

"Captain, are you ready?" Fox asked the pilot on board the vessel within the Great Fox's chute.

"Fox McCloud, I am always prepared." The F-Zero Pilot responded from within his vessel.

"It's possible that you and your ship will be ripped apart by your momentum if we launch you now. Are you sure?" Fox questioned.

"Fox, I am entirely too powerful for this brave new world to allow me into it with no restrictions. I must travel even faster than possible to have a chance at life here. If I can slip past this world's loose definition of reality, I will be able to thrive, given enough chaos. You know what you must do for me, McCloud. And do not question me again."

"Yes sir. Launch it out the bottom ROB."

"Initiating."

What would mankind be like without the existence of pain? If there were no such thing as a physical warning system. Everything comes down to survival. And if your body had no immediate alarm to survival threats, would you live differently? Would you live without inhibitions? Would there be such thing as fear, without pain? A thundering rumble strikes Hyrule once again, shifting the stages about. Link and Lloyd are taken by surprise, with experience. The earthquake interrupts their sparring bout. Link begins to fend for himself and run to safety. Lloyd is not agreeable.

"Rising Falcon!" Lloyd's blade cuts downward through the air toward Link. Link rolls clear.

"Watch it, dunce!" Link shouted, still trying to clear himself of the shaking castle ruins.

"Who said we were done sparring? On your feet elf-boy!" Lloyd continues to charge toward Link.

"You're fucking crazy!" Link jumps up to the ledge that lies near the few remaining standing pillars among the ruins. He climbs up next to them.

"This situations more realistic!" Lloyd shouted before clearing the ledge, bringing his body closer to Link in mid-air. "Tempest!" Lloyd's shouted.

"Shit!" Link blocked with his sword instead of his shield. Lloyd's sword clanged against Link's several times. When Lloyd finally landed, Link got close to his opponent, grabbing both his forearms. "Hiya!" Link headbutted Lloyd and kicked him the gut, following with a rising knee to the face. Before hitting the ground, Lloyd stuck his larger sword in the ground and used the leverage to swing his body back toward his foe. The resulting kick knocked Link on his back. Link looked up from his downed position. "What the hell?" He said softly to himself looking at the approaching Lloyd. Link watched as a stray boulder came flying for Lloyd. Without looking, Lloyd short-hopped, and did a 360 in the air, slashing the rock to bits before it could hit him. Impressive. Link thought to himself as he tossed a boomerang at Lloyd and stood up quickly, drawing his bow and arrow in the process.

"Huh!" Lloyd grunted as he deflected the boomerang back at Link.

"Shit!"

Mortals are inherently ignorant of many of the things that make life possible, anywhere. But if you had the choice to perceive beyond normal restrictions, to see the forthcoming, to sense the invisible. Would you really want that ability? Everything comes with a price. As the earthquake calms in intensity, Kirby calms down enough to come to his senses.

"Impossible. This cannot be why I was put here. This is not happening again and I am not here to be a built-in alarm! Damn it!"

Weakness is an invention of the imagination. So too, is power. In this way, weakness can be converted into power. But this feat, is only accomplished, by the strong and the strong willed. Megaman discovers a small yellow rodent at the central highway. He approaches it with caution at first, as he would with most things in this world.

"What's this?" Megaman lowered his cannon as he got closer to the rat.

"Pi-KAH!" The rat had a happy expression on it's face. It was a face even Megaman couldn't aim a cannon at.

"I'm almost sure I'm gonna regret this, but-" Megaman knelt down next to the rodent and petted the creature. The animal responded with a calm fidget. "Now what's your name, little creature?"

"Pi-KA-chu." The animal replied with the most appropriate sound it knew.

"Sounds good enough to me."

The shaking had since ceased at the Green Hill Zone and it made Tails anxious.

"How does an earthquake happen in a world with no tectonic plates?" Tails questioned.

"Ya know, just because I've been here longer doesn't make me an expert on this place. You'll go mad trying to make sense of things here." Sonic answered

"But is this what you usually do? Just go with it?"

"Or die. Either way."

Genetics is not a good way to run a government. It is an inherently flawed system of politics. Bad for the subjects. Perhaps worse for the members of the royal families. The clothing they wear, though now associated with riches was originally made to be inherently crippling. As in: Clothes built to hinder any activity. Clothes fit for nothing: tailor-made for those who have everything done for them. For what good is a straw hat to one who never sees the sun? Only the glove separates Princess Toadstool's hands from the dirt of her tasks. She takes a look at her hands before looking down at her newly-appeared castle as she stood on its rooftops.

"My castle. As I remember it. It, it's-" She heard a noise behind her down below. "Infested. Who are you?"

"WAAAAAAAHH." The ape responded. He wore a red tie with the letters D-K. The gorilla was big even for his species. "GHHHHGHHHM" The animal snarled as he stormed off into the Eastern Nexus.

The comet observatory distorts Mario's head as he too senses the disturbance. It makes him paranoid.

"Who's that coming?" He heard something moving about beneath his upper platform.

"It's me." A voice said from behind as it landed on the platform with him.

"Tails? What do you want?"

"Well I was talking to the taller Asian and he made a point that we never got to do a one on one."

"Goku?"

"Look I'm not here to fight." Tails clarified. "But I am missing some closure here."

"And what am I supposed to do about that?" Mario asked apprehensively.

"I just think you've been too much a key player in all this to not know more than you let on."

"Couldn't I say the same about you?"

"You don't much about me beyond my name."

"Well if you're anything like your blue friend, I have nothing to fear." Mario's last sentence got to Tails.

"Alright, you got me. Now I do want to fight you." Tails said casually drawing his electron cannon. He pointed it at Mario and squeezed the trigger.

"Bring it." Mario raised both hands and launched a pair of fireballs back. The resulting explosion knocked them both off of the uppermost platform. As the two fell Mario reoriented himself in the air while Tails used his famous appendages to propel himself toward his opponent. He pulls out his cannon and fires downward as he gets close. He misses wildly, bringing a smile to Mario's face as he cocks his right hand back. "Hi-YAH!" A quick strike sends Tails crashing down. "Hm?!" Mario notices the electron blast heading where he was falling. Tails wasn't aiming for him. Mario landed with the blast and was sent back skyward.

"Got him." Tails rushed to his feet and got beneath his opponent. As Mario came down he was rebounded skyward by a rising robotic fist from the ground. "This really it? I can't believe I had tro-OGHN!" Tails flew face first and forward. His forehead banged against the ground as he landed. "Owww."

"HUMMMMMMMMMMMMM!" A groaning whine sounded behind him as he tried to push himself up. HYYYYYYE-HA!" A driving weight landed on Tails back. He was sure it was broken. Peeking his head up from the ground, he saw his attacker land gracefully. A green dinosaur. Not one he'd seen before, not much bigger than him. There was a red saddle on it's back and on it sat Mario of the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Good boy, Yoshi." Mario petted the creature. "Impeccable as always." He hopped off the creature and approached the downed Tails. When he got close enough, he gave a swift kick to the fox's face. Blood ran down Tails' nose instantly. "You come here of all places and challenge me? This is MY fortress of solitude. This is not where you come to cause trouble!"

"Sonic may be out of his wits right now." Tails said. "But he was right. You are an asshole." At that sentence, Mario raised his foot to strike again, but lowered it.

"I'M an asshole? Without me he'd probably be dead. Hell a lot of us might be." He turned and walked away from Tails. "And who the hell said I was a hero anyway? Or even a good person? You know as much about me as I do about you. I'm not some goodie-two-shoes hero, always fighting for the greater good. I'm just good at saving lives. And damn it, that should be enough for you people!" He stopped to pet Yoshi once more. "Just ask the dinosaur, I'm no hero, just something close to it."

"So I've heard." Tails said getting back to his feet. "Hm".

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Mario asked.

"My friend Sonic, he's fast. Word travels faster. But me? Nothing escapes me. I've had a chance to talk to Princess Toadstool. Nice lady. Might be missing a few screws here and there, but who here isn't? Of course, like you said, I don't know you well either. I don't know everything, but I know a real hero doesn't let the same woman get kidnapped over, and over, and over, AND over. So I guess you're right. I shouldn't assume you're a good p-"

"I've heard enough of your mouth!" Mario said launching a fireball. Just after he launches it, a lightning fast force takes him and Yoshi off of their feet. Mario lands on his back but lifts his head to see the offender. He can barely make out a darker colored fox before a blue aura lights up and bounces his fireball back at him. As the fireball heads toward him, Tails rises into the air and fires another electron blast. The two projectiles meet again, this time in Mario's face, immobilizing him into the ground and temporarily blinding his pet. As Tails landed, the darker colored fox roundhouse kicked him backwards to knock him down.

"Now that I've got everyone's attention," the brown fox piped up "Hey, Fox McCloud, nice to meet you all. Now, from what ROB says, you all may have heard this line before. But I've got a proposition for you.

Concluded: End of Chapter 1