Welcome all. Though this is not my first fic, it is the first fic I've worked on in awhile (I do hope to get back to my other ones soon, though .). So this is, of course, a Super Smash Bros. fic. The first series of several. This is just "Season 1" based off of the very first Smash Bros game. Though I did like Subspace Emissary, I kinda thought that the whole tournament angle (which seemed to be an implied storyline in every fighting game) would be something interesting to do. Judging by all the fics here with "Tournament" in the name, I'm not alone in that thought. But I hope I can bring an interesting, unique story focusing on character development as much as fighting. And though it is based on the whole tournament angle, there will be some storyline hooks and twists to come in the future.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the first chapter while I work diligently on the second one!
Super Smash Tournament!
Episode 1: The Combatants!
"Mario! Mario!" Toad bounced his ways up the stairs, yelling the red and blue garbed hero's name. "Mario!" Upon reaching the top, he jumped up, grabbing the doorknob while in mid-air, and turned it open. After successfully opening the door, he fell down and walked into the room, proud at himself for getting it the first try. The last few visits to Mario's house, he had to jump several times before grabbing hold of the knob.
Mario was sound asleep in his bed, his alarm standing uselessly beside him on his night stand. The alarm sounded just as Toad stepped in. Without waking, Mario slapped it, pressing the snooze button. Normally, Toad would find it fascinating that Mario had somehow trained his subconscious self to auto-snooze. But Mario would be late if he did not get up now.
So Toad did what any normal anthropomorphic mushroom-person-thing would do when presented with such a situation: he jumped up on the bed in order to shake the plumber awake. Or at least... he tried. His jump wasn't high enough to reach the top of the bed. He jumped a second time and grabbed hold of the bed sheet to pull himself up. However, the sheets just fell on top of the poor little mushroom as he fell back to the floor. Mario, still asleep, reached down and grabbed the sheets to pull them back over him.
"Mario!" Toad was getting furious. Then he had an idea. He looked at the alarm clock. The alarm would come out of snooze within the next minute. He tried grabbing the clock, but it was too high up. So he grabbed the night stand instead, using all the strength he could muster to pull it away from the sleeping Mario. When the alarm sounded, Mario reached his arm out to hit the alarm. But there was nothing but air for him to grab. He reached further and further, still in his mostly sleeping state, until he fell off the bed completely.
Toad jumped up and down in excitement, for he saw Mario's eyes open wide. He had succeeded in doing the impossible: Waking the Mario.
"Wha..." Mario started to say.
"Mario! Do you remember what today is?"
"Uh... Yeah?" Mario nodded enthusiastically, though in his half awake state he really had no clue.
"The tournament!" Toad said, jumping over and over. He tended to do that when he was nervous. "It's today!"
Mario snapped completely awake. He jumped up, higher than Toad could ever dream to jump, and rushed down the stairs to get ready. Toad ran down the stairs behind him and headed to the door. "I'll be waiting for you in the bus, Mario!"
"I thought you would be escorting Peach," Mario said after he had situated himself in his seat. Mario and Toad were in Toad's "Royal Mushroom Kingdom Bus." Really, it looked like any other bus. Except for the big red and white polka dotted mushroom painted on the room. And the red and white polka dotted wheels. And the red and white interior royal cushioning. Oh and the red and white polka dotted steering wheel set in front of the booster seat where Toad was sitting.
"Oh no," Toad said, starting the bus. "Her Royal Highness is being escorted by the Nintendo Committee." There was a hint of annoyance in his voice. Toad had always been Peach's assistant. Why wasn't he allowed to be with her on her way to the tournament? And he wasn't really happy about her agreeing to going on a date with the tournament champion being one of the possible prizes. What if DK won and wanted Peach as his prize? That would be... awkward. Or that quiet green garbed guy from Hyrule? Or that mysterious power armored bounty hunter? What if he took Peach to space with his ship? Then Peach would be the furthest away from Toad she has ever been since he became her assistant... and even before that.
Then again, they could always ask for one of the other prizes. But he hoped that Mario won the tournament. He was someone Toad could trust, whether he chose the date as his prize or not.
The bus had not been on the road long when they stopped at a house that looked quite similar to Mario's, but with a green colored roof instead of red. Mario's brother had tried his hardest to get a house as close as possible to him. But the best he could do was one a few blocks down.
"Wait, I'll get him," Toad said just as Mario was about to get out of his seat. "I won't be long!"
The little mushroom guy jumped out of the bus and scurried to Luigi's house. He jumped up to grab the door knob, getting it the first try. But... it was locked. "Luigi!" he yelled. He held on to the knob with one hand as he pressed the doorbell with the other. No answer. He pressed the button over and over. Finally, the door cracked open. Toad saw a terrified Luigi through the crack. "Ah-whoa!" The look on his face scared him off of the door knob.
"What's wrong?" Toad asked.
"I... Don't want to enter the tournament."
"Oh come on!" Toad grabbed Luigi's hand and, surprisingly, brought up enough strength to pull him outside. "No joking around! We're gonna be late, and we still gotta pick up Yoshi and DK!"
Toad started pulling him to the bus, Luigi being able to do nothing but follow him. "But I don't want to fight! I don't want to get hurt!"
"Oh don't be a wimp!" They were at the door of the bus now. He was trying to push Luigi through the doorway, but he was not quite strong enough. Luigi held on to the sides of the bus, pushing back. "You'll be fine!"
"But... but...!" Luigi could not find the words to use. He had no idea why he even agreed to enter with Mario. He hated going with Mario on his little adventures, too. But he did not want to be rude and turn him down.
He also did not realize Mario was in the bus. So when the red garbed plumber spoke up, he jumped a couple feet in shock.
"Is this true, bro? You don't want to enter?"
After landing on the ground, he looked down at the ground and said, "No..." He was scared his brother would be hurt that Luigi didn't want to take part in this particular adventure.
"Oh, you should have said something!" Mario said with a smile on his face. Luigi looked up, a look of relief on his face. "But there's no harm in coming along to watch, right?"
Luigi smiled then nodded. "Okay, bro." He then walked inside the bus, sitting beside Mario. "I just hope they can find a replacement for me in the tournament."
"Oh I'm sure they will," Mario said.
"Alright!" Toad said after jumping up to his booster seat. "Next stop, Yoshi's island! I hope they finished that bridge. We don't have time for a boat ride."
The light from the star shining through the cockpit woke him up. "What..." His mind was scrambled. He felt dizzy. He could also feel a bruise forming on his forehead. Fox looked around. Outside his Arwing, he could see a bright, orange sun to the left and to the right was a green and blue planet. At first, he thought maybe it was Corneria. But the geography was completely different. "Where am I?" he thought aloud. He pressed a few buttons on his navi computer, scanning the location. The result came up "uncharted/unknown." He was definitely not in the Lylat System anymore.
He took a few minutes to get rid of the dizzy feeling. Then he tried to remember what happened. The Star Fox team was in Sector X. General Pepper had given them a mission to seek out any remnants of Andross's forces. A rogue fighter squadron snuck up on them. One starfighter took Fox by surprise, shooting his wings off and making his Arwing spin out of control. He looked to the right then to the left. Sure enough, there were black stumps where his ship's wings used to be.
What happened next? Fox couldn't remember. In the chaos of the attack, he must have hit his head on the windshield and knocked himself out. Then his ship must have drifted through the X nebula. It was known to be a naturally occurring, unstable warping zone. The dangerous nature of it made it a great place for one of Andross's bases.
Fox shook his head. He tried to think of what to do now. His engines still seemed to work, but he would run out of fuel soon. Hopefully he would have enough to make it to the surface of that mysterious planet.
A crowd gathered around the Royal Mushroom Kingdom Bus, watching the spectacle. DK was stuck in the doorway of the bus with his torso and arms pointing out of the doorway while his legs and waist was inside the bus. Toad and Yoshi were the only ones fully outside of the bus. He was grabbing hold of DK's right hand, pulling with all his might while Yoshi had his tongue pulling DK's left arm. Mario and Luigi tried pushing the ape out from the inside of the bus.
"I don't... remember... having this much trouble... getting him in..." Toad said, in between panting.
"You need to make a bigger door!" DK exclaimed. "Oh wait, I can feel-" he wouldn't be able to finish his sentence. At that moment, there could be heard the sound of metal bending and then, a half moment later, the squeals of Toad and Yoshi as they are buried by DK's large body.
"Mmf umm mmm mmf umf!" Toad tried to speak through the fur and the girth, but no one could understand a word.
DK finally pulled himself up to see an enraged Toad and a knocked out Yoshi. "Uh... sorry about that little guy."
"You broke my bus!" Toad said, pointing to the broken door hanging off of the side of the bus.
"Should have gotten a bus with a bigger doorway," the ape said, scratching the back of his head and grinning.
"Let's just go!" Toad exclaimed. He grabbed Yoshi's tail and started heading to the Nintendo building, dragging the green dinosaur along the way. DK and the Mario brothers followed. The Nintendo building was huge, a skyscraper in an area mostly devoid of buildings. There were a few houses and stores here and there, but the only buildings that stood out were said skyscraper and the Colosseum behind it.
Mario looked up at the skyscraper in awe. Though he had heard of such buildings being common in other places, such as Eagleland. But this was the first time he had seen a building so tall. Even Bowser's castles weren't this big. He wondered what the Nintendo company actually... did. But whatever it was, it had made them very wealthy to own such an immense building.
When they got to the large, revolving doors of the building, they spotted a chubby little man in a black tux and tie. "Ah! Welcome my guests!" he said, spreading his arms out in as a friendly gesture.
"Who's this guy?" DK grumbled. He thought the guy was a little too cheery for his tastes.
Toad gave the ape an angry look, as if he should have known who this stranger was. "That's—That's-!"
"My name is Nintendo," he said. "I'm the sponsor and host for this tournament. And you must be DK!" He outstretched his hand. DK didn't shake it. But then Toad jumped up to grab it, pulling the hand down with him and shaking it vigorously.
"I'm so pleased to meet you, Sir Nintendo!"
"Just Nintendo is fine, Toad. Ah, and you must be Yoshi," he said, patting the now conscious dinosaur's head. "I have a gift for you, a Yoshi Snack!" Yoshi's eyes went wide as Nintendo reached into his pocket and took out a little, brown dino-biscuit. Yoshi took it greedily and began chowing down. "Oh and you are the brothers," Nintendo said, looking towards Mario and Luigi. "I can't wait to see what you two can do in the tournament."
"Well..." Luigi started to say.
"Uh, it'll just be me in the tournament," Mario said. "Luigi has decided to decline."
"Oh, how unfortunate. Ah well, I'll just get my secretary to call up a new eighth combatant."
Luigi seemed relieved. He was scared that Nintendo would have been mad that he chickened out.
"Oh would you look at that," Nintendo said, staring out into the distance. On one of the several paved roads leading to the Nintendo building was a horse with a green garbed rider.
"Who is that?" Mario asked.
"That would be Link of Hyrule. He's one of the fighters. I have to stay out here and greet him, but you guys are free to go inside if you want to meet the others. It might help to have an idea of what these people are like before you go head to head with them."
Inside the building, on the first floor, was a huge lobby of sorts. A young, female, purple haired secretary sat behind a desk right next to the door. She was too busy playing some handheld game to really notice the group. Behind her they saw a few couches, chairs, and tables set up. A young, blonde haired boy wearing a black and yellow cap, black t-shirt, and dark blue jeans sat beside someone wearing red and orange powered armor. On a table in front of them were two creatures, one a yellow rodent with black stripes, the other a pink... balloon-like little guy. They were stuffing their faces in the complementary food set up on the tables while the two in the couch talked.
Well, the blonde boy talked, at least. No one could see a facial expression behind that green visor, but everyone but the young boy were pretty sure that this guy wasn't listening to anything he was saying.
"- my first pokemon, he is. Found him in Viridian Forest and since then we have been very close companions. He's also my strongest pokemon, which is why I chose him to be in this tournament. I mean, pokemon fights are fun and everything. But this is taking it to a whole new level! Am I right?" He paused a few seconds, but the one in the power armor said nothing. "Right. I'm sure you're probably after the princess for your prize. But I'm not really looking for love. She'd probably think I'm too young, anyway. But I want the money prize. Think of all the pokeballs it'll pay for! Ah! My little Pika will have no shortage of friends if I win this. Isn't that right Pika?" The little yellow creature stopped eating just for a moment to look back at his trainer, nod, then go back to eating. "Yep. I hope hope hope I can win! But we'll have fun all the same, I'm sure!"
The boy was spending so much time talking that he had not noticed the group that had just entered the room. Finally, Toad spoke up after they had approached the chatterbox. "Hello there, guys."
The boy turned his head then his eyes widened. "Ah! Hey, you guys in the tournament, too?"
"Yes," Toad said. "Well, I'm not. I don't fight. But with the exception of Luigi here," he pointed to the green brother, "they'll all be in the tournament. I'm Toad."
"Oh!" the boy reached down and grabbed one of Toad's little arms with both of his hands and shook so violently that he almost picked the little guy off the ground. "Nice to meet you! At first I thought you might have been a pokemon! But I've never heard of one talking before, you know?"
"No, uh, there's no pokemon where we come from."
"How sad..."
"Anyway, this right here is Mario. And there's Yoshi. And this big guy is DK, short for Donkey Kong." Toad was sure to point to each of his friends as he called their name. "And this green guy is Luigi, Mario's brother. He and I will be watching you guys fight in the days to come."
"Oh, I see. Well technically I won't be fighting. My pokemon, Pika, will be. Say hello to them Pika!" The little pokemon stopped eating for a second to stand on its hind legs and wave. Then it quickly got back to eating next to the pink blob. "And my name is Yellow."
"What kind of name is 'Yellow?'" DK asked.
"I dunno," Yellow said, grinning. "What kind of name is 'Donkey Kong?'"
DK said nothing.
"He has a point, you know," Mario joked.
"Shut up."
"So who are the others?" Mario asked. "Is that little guy another pokemon of yours?"
"Who, the pink one? I thought maybe he was a Ditto. They're pink too, you know. But... I've never seen a pokemon like that before. Trust me, I'm an expert. I've been filling up the pokedex for Professor Oak. I've come across over 140 types of pokemon, not one of them anything like this little guy."
The pink guy seemed completely oblivious to the conversation. He just kept eating.
"As for the guy in the suit..." Yellow began to say.
"You must be Samus," Toad said. He knew of some of the combatants. Though he was unfamiliar with Pika and the little pink balloon. Samus nodded in his direction, acknowledging his guess.
"Now we are all here," they heard Nintendo say. He was walking through the entrance with the green garbed swordsman. "Well, except for our eighth fighter. Sherry," Nintendo turned to his purple haired secretary. "Call up our first understudy."
She temporarily put her handheld game down. "Who? Captain Eagle?"
"Falcon. Captain Falcon."
She nodded and started dialing a number on the phone beside her. She then rested it on her shoulder and went back to playing her game while trying to get in touch with Captain Falcon.
"Anyway... This young man beside me is Link who came all the way here from Hyrule. Though that's not as far as Kanto, I'm sure."
"It's cool," Yellow said. "I got my Pidgeot to fly me over here. It surprisingly didn't take very long at all. You'd be amazed at how fast some pokemon can fly. It did get a little confused though because there was no pokemon center around but-"
"I'm sorry to interrupt Yellow," Nintendo said. The boy was going to say that it was fine but Nintendo didn't give him another chance for the chatterbox to speak. "But I need to give you guys the keys to your rooms. The Nintendo building will serve as your living quarters in between battles. Even if you are eliminated, you are still free to stay and watch the rest of the tournament. There is a room for each and every one of you. Even for you, Toad. You'll find your rooms on the tenth floor of the building." Nintendo started passing around keys to the combatants. Each key had a number printed on it in a color matching the person. For instance Mario's was red while Luigi's was green.
"Excuse me, sir, but where is Her Royal Highness?" Toad couldn't help but ask.
"Oh she has her own suite on the fifteenth floor, same floor as the committee member suites and my suite. Don't worry little guy, you're allowed to visit her. But only you are allowed to. None of the others can."
Mario felt a little saddened by this. He had wanted to see Peach, talk to her before his first fight. But ah well.. maybe he'll have time to see her at some point.
"Oh no..." Fox said. The cockpit's alarm was going off, letting him know that his fuel was depleted. He was already in the atmosphere and could see a couple buildings in the distance, but he would most certainly crash without his thrusters and his landing systems to help him. "I'll just have to wing it," the fighter pilot said aloud. He could see a large skyscraper surrounded by a few buildings nearby, but steered the ship away from it. He did not want to crash into a populated area. Thankfully there was plenty of deserted fields all around.
He tried his best to steer the falling Arwing, but it was hard without his wings. When he was sure the ship's trajectory was safe and wouldn't hurt anyone, he pressed the eject button. Fox flew out of the cockpit. Shortly after, his parachute jettisoned and he floated safely to the ground. He watched as his personal Arwing crashed into the ground, catching fire and splitting into several large chunks.
When he landed, he checked his equipment. Thankfully, he had latched his pistol and his personal reflector to his flight suit. There were rations and a first aid kit in the ship, but he was pretty sure they were toast inside the fiery wreckage. He sighed and started walking towards the skyscraper. Maybe someone could help him.
It didn't take too long to get to the skyscraper. There were many people walking around, some grouped up talking in crowds. He expected to see groups of people completely alien to him. Which was partially true. Many of the people were fleshy and furless. They kind of resembled bald monkeys or apes, which made him shudder. A planet of apes? Like Andross?
But there were plenty of anthropomorphic animals. And some anthropomorphic... items or plants, oddly enough. He could have sworn he saw a few walking mushrooms.
He read the word "Nintendo" spread across the entrance. He also saw various posters talking about some tournament. And... one of the possible prizes was a SPACESHIP! Maybe... just maybe he could use it to get home.
Fox walked through the revolving doors, a little confused as to how to get through. He had never encountered a revolving door before. He ended up going through it backwards in his confusion, pulling it with him. When inside, he saw a fleshy purple haired woman messing with some datapad or something. "Hello?"
"Yes?" She looked up from the game. Was this that Captain Fox guy? Or was it a ferret... maybe faun? No it was fox. Definitely Captain Fox. "Oh! You're the one for the tournament, right?"
"Wha..."
"Here!" She tossed him a key with a black number on it. "That's your room. Be sure to meet down here at 6 o clock sharp tomorrow."
"But... uh..." Fox looked over at a poster on the wall, displaying the three prizes. One was a fleshy girl in a pink dress. He guessed that the prize was a date with her.. or maybe marriage. Or could just be a kiss... Another prize was a bunch of "coins." But the one prize he had his eye on was in the spaceship printed on the poster. That was his one chance. "Oh yeah sure thing, ma'am." He headed to the elevator.
Well I hope you liked the first chapter. Be sure to join us next time in Episode 2: The First Match! Mario vs DK!