A/N: Hi everyone! I hope you guys like this story, so without further ado, let's get started!

Prelude

The short, red-capped plumber clenched his fists as the echoing voice counted down. His opponent, who stood across the field, showed no sign of preparing for battle. But that didn't mean the slender, spiked Darkling wasn't ready for a battle. The moment "Fight!" Was yelled, signaling the start of the round, the figure flipped into the air, dodging the Italian's classic fireball attack. It came down behind him, a sword appearing in its hand...

Chapter 1

Master Hand floated in front of the gathered Smashers, the mic pushed off to the side, unneeded. His booming voice echoed throughout the large room, coming from no viewable mouth or source. "Here we gather to welcome in the new year of Smash, but also to prepare for the new arrivals, and remind ourselves of our purpose. Can anyone tell us what that purpose is?"

The oldest Smashers respectfully kept quiet, knowing that the question was directed at the newest Smashers, those who had been only recruits the previous year. Sonic, over-confident as usual, burst out an answer first. "To show who's the best fighter, and stop those annoying baddies that try to take over multiple worlds!"

Master Hand sighed, slightly exasperated. "Close enough. We're here to stop extradimensional threats."

Sonic shrugged. Master Hand couldn't have expected him to remember such a big word, right? The over-sized floating hand continued, pushing on toward the end of his speech. "As in the past years, we have invited new, promising fighters from other worlds to train with us. However, this year will be far different from past years. As you all know, our Universe is one of many. Sonic and Snake are both from other Universes, but both of these are neighbors, and relatively close by. Due to Sonic's friend, Tails, assisted by our other technological gifted fighters, we have been able to send out the message to Universes much farther away. Due to this, none of you may recognize the new recruits. But I do promise you, they are the best fighters from their worlds. They should do well."

Mario spoke up. "And just-a when are they arriving?"

"They should be arriving in the Smash Kingdom throughout the next week."

The Smashers nodded, thoughts and fantasies racing through their minds. Who might these new recruits be? What would they look like? Master Hand interrupted them with his next words. "We need to prepare though."

Immediately, Bowser spoke up. "You don't mean clean, do you?" His eyes were wide. Cleaning was something all the Smashers hated, since they never did work together quite well enough to avoid smashing at least one hole in the wall.

Master Hand formed a thumbs up, since nodding was impossible without a head. "I do. The list is already posted on the Message Board."

All the Smashers groaned, and trudged off, knowing that the meeting was over. Even though they had to do it every year before the new recruits came, they kept hoping that maybe, just maybe, they wouldn't have to do it this year.

The next day...

Sonic stumbled slightly on the slippery surface, and quickly scrambled to his feet, staring wide-eyed at the water below. "Nobody even comes down here anymore!" He wailed through his hand to his comrade, Captain Falcon. Falcon just grunted, more excited about being able to hold the torch than watching Sonic's obvious discomfort. The blue-furred hedgehog poked the walls of the cavern, noting the amount of moss and mildew growing upon it.

"Fine. Pass me the rag. If we have to get it clean, then we will." Sonic grumbled, mostly talking to himself. Falcon tossed the freshly cleaned and moistened rag to Sonic, wetting down another for himself. Sonic caught it and began scrubbing the walls, still complaining to himself. Finally, Captain Falcon had had enough.

"Would you rather scrub the bathrooms?"

Sonic paused, the thought processing itself in his mind. After a moment, it clicked. "No way! At least there's less of a stink down here!" Falcon laughed, and they both continued scrubbing in a much happier mood, now that they'd thought about how much worse it could have been.

Meanwhile...

Kirby grinned slightly, his chef's hat perched on top of his round head/body. He'd been assigned to cook, since Princess Peach was the only one willing to clean the bathrooms, and he was excited. With a quick bounce, Kirby was on top of the counter, opening every cabinet and drawer that contained food. In moments, he'd assembled an impressive pile of very random ingredients. Taking a step back to examine what was available, Kirby pondered what to make. There was plenty of lettuce, carrots, broccoli, celery, and other various vegetables. He could make a salad. But with what? There was a full ham he'd pulled from the freezer. Or there was hot dog packets. Kirby grinned slightly as he remembered when he'd used extra-spicy bratwurst. The rest of the Smashers probably wouldn't trust him if he used any hot dogs. An idea popped into his head, and he pulled out the flour. Adjusting his hat, Kirby set to work.

Link, who had been on his way to clean up the extra bedrooms, paused as he heard the humming from the kitchen. Peeking in, the tall Hyrulian quickly had to dodge a few eggs that were flying around the room. His eyes widened as he saw why. Kirby had created a sort of vortex using his 'swallow' ability. Quickly, Link exited the kitchen before his hat got blown off and into the other ingredients sailing around the kitchen.

And on the 'less cooperative hand'...

Bowser's eye twitched slightly. The piles of bricks and lumber were intimidating enough without the size of the holes he was supposed to patch. By his side, Mario let out a stifled sigh. Why Master Hand had chosen for the pair of arch-enemies to work together to repair the castle was unknown to him, but Bowser was fairly certain it wouldn't end well. With a growl, Bowser grabbed the hammer that sat on top of the lumber pile and thrust it at Mario. "You hammer, I build."

Mario frowned. "How can I-a be-a sure that you won't burn the wood? You do breathe-a fire after all."

"I won't. Your too weak to carry those heavy bricks. So you hammer."

"You think I-a am too weak?!" Mario pulled out a mushroom, and quickly gulped it down. After a moment, he grew taller than Bowser.

Bowser glowered at Mario, which was still surprisingly intimidating despite the fact that he was looking up at the plumber. "Just. Let. Me. DO IT!" He roared, sending Mario back a step in surprise.

"How about you carry-a the bricks, and I carry-a the wood?" Mario reached out his hand, offering a deal. Bowser sighed, but decided to just let it go. He grabbed Mario's hand and shook it.

"Let's-a go!" Mario tossed the hammer to Bowser, who caught it with ease. Then the over-sized plumber picked up a pile of wood and began walking toward on of the holes. Bowser tucked into his shell and spun over, dodging ahead of Mario. Mario began stacking the wood, reassembling the wall. Bowser pulled a nail from the bucket nearby and began hammering the boards together. After a few hole-patchings of doing this, Bowser accidentally missed, and hit Mario's thumb with the hammer.

"O-o-ow!" Mario smacked Bowser across the stomach, sending him tumbling to the ground. Bowser got up and roared, charging at the still over-sized plumber. Just as Bowser was about to send a powerful punch into Mario's stomach, the mushroom effects wore off, and Mario shrank. Bowser sailed overhead as Mario ducked to avoid the large turtle. Bowser smashed through a wall, tumbling into the kitchen where Kirby was busy mixing up dinner.

The pink puffball stared at the large, spiked shell that had suddenly crashed through the wall and into the pile of ingredients. He began to puff up, and Bowser's eyes widened. "SPIKY TURTLE SHELL NOT GO IN QUICHE!" Kirby grabbed a large skillet from above the stove and began bashing Bowser's head in. Mario watched the whole incident with wide, surprised eyes. Then Kirby tossed the skillet out the hole in the wall, having smacked Bowser into 'La La Land', and knocked Mario out as well.

When Master Hand made it to the scene to figure out what the commotion was, he was quite surprised to see an unconscious Mario lying on the ground next to the jumbled mess of wood. And then he saw the large hole in the wall, with a cheerful Kirby using an unconscious Bowser as a stool while he cooked. Master Hand sighed, and floated away. Mario and Bowser would wake up soon enough to finish fixing the walls.

That night...

The Smashers all gathered around the table, their stomachs growling from the delicious smells. Finally, Kirby emerged with Zelda and the two Ice Climbers in tow, all carrying multiple pie dishes. Link blinked, slightly surprised. After all, who had heard of pie for dinner? But then, Kirby had been the one cooking, so...

Kirby set his pile of pie dishes on the table, and proclaimed with a large smile: "QUICHE!"

The Smashers each grabbed a pie dish, looking skeptically at its contents. It wasn't pie, that was for sure. But, they decided it smelled good enough, and went to go sit down at the tables scattered throughout the room. Kirby watched them go happily, having already eaten his fill while cooking.

The Smashers talked cheerfully as they ate, complaining about their jobs for the day, or sympathizing with their friends. Zelda laughed as Link told her the curious thing Kirby had been doing while cooking, and then told him a story of her own. Bowser griped and complained about having to work with Mario while Ganondorf just sat and ate, silently listening. Everything was going along smoothly, or as smoothly as possible with a bunch of Smashers, for Fox and Falco had ended up starting a wrestling match in the back corner. Master Hand watched them from his office, which was situated above the cafeteria. He let out a soft sigh of relief, satisfied that everything had gone relatively smoothly today, and picked up a pencil, writing in a large book.

A loud crash was heard, like the sound of shattering glass. The Smashers turned in surprise, their gazes automatically falling upon the two fighting pilots. But Fox and Falco were also looking around, confused. After a few moments of tense silence, a loud "HI!" jolted the Smashers back into reality. They looked around wildly, searching for the source of the sound. At last, their gazes rested upon the figure who now stood in the center of the room.

A/N: Due to the overpoweredness of Tails' portal creator, anything can be a new recruit. I've already got some that I'll be using, as evident from the Prelude, but if you guys have anything you really want added, let me know! And it can be from a video game, a book, TV show, some random dude's imagination, you name it! But these new recruits aren't the center of the story, so just remember that.