MERAKI-ENGINE

With love.

SUPER SMASHBOUND RPG 3

v. 4.3s2b

Patch Notes:

- Buffed certain memetic aspects of engine. Should have a locked in difficulty section now along with 'AUTOMATIC' and MANUAL' modules. Contact the Head Admin if you need assistance on tweaking the engine.

- Buffed Memoriam Inhibitors.

- Neutralized DEIRDRE anti-temper program's freezing capabilities. Added new 'triggers' in order to efficiently find cheaters.

-Removed subcomponent Phlogiston-Colophon. It shouldn't be causing anymore issues now. Please contact 1-800-MERAKIN if the issue persists, thank you.

It was quiet at first.

He felt nothing, was nothing, floated in a sea of 'nothing.'

As it should be.

Or was it?

Senses crept back to the unknown figure as it 'awoke' from its shutdown. That's odd, they couldn't remember when they had fallen asleep. A breeze lightly brushed their skin, the first sensation they felt in ages, and it began to wake up. Their senses now kicked in, with the figure's ears picking up some sort of strange tonal noise. Murmuring voices engulfed his mindspace as the current realm around them began to rumble and hum, as if he was inside a living being. Once their hearing and sense of touch was back, they could feel their throat tightening, all dried up and scratchy. Their tongue felt like puke and any attempts to open their eyes were futile, as if they were glued shut tightly. The wind around him picked up speed, and the figure was suddenly thrust towards an unknown destination.

While it did catch the thing off-guard, any attempts to vocalize something in its paralanguage were futile, its mouth having the same treatment as its eyes. Upon realizing this, the mystery person began to panic, sweat dripping down its forehead and bile rising up its abused throat. Its speedy travels increased in velocity, feeling himself shrink and stretch and expand and he cOULD FEEL THEM TOYING WITH HIS BODY! HE JUST WANTED T-

A loud sonic boom resonated around him as the rancid air around the figure suddenly felt the environment become calm and welcoming. Fresh flowers hit its nose as he could hear life all around him, despite the fact that the figure was now throttling towards something awfully fast.

And that's how the residents of Mallardville saw an orange dog suddenly fall from the sky.

Everything was warm. Nice. Comforting.

Minus the muffled voice in the back of his head. He couldn't decipher the words, but it did make him stir. Dirt brushed against his face as the voice grew louder and louder in volume. Something about a name? A goal?

"Now go!" the voice exclaimed, both sounding loud and confident at the same time. "The fate of this world rests entirely in your hands, hero! DefeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEE-"

And then the figure woke up.

Not immediately, no, instead, it slowly opened up its eyes. All he could hear now were birds chirping and the breeze passing through the environment. The area around him blurred, some type of greenish area came into focus as the figure could feel the crust melting away from its eyelids. It blinked once, twice, realizing that it woke up in a forest.

Its mind flashed back to when it was being flown in the air, causing the mysterious figure to slam its head on the dirt clearing as pain exploded in its cortex. After resting for a few moments, it lifted up its head, trying to prop itself up on its feet. Dirt clung to its fur as it stretched, looking down at their… paws? Looking around at itself, the animal realized that he was indeed a dog. With nothing on him but a black collar, the dog looked around him in the forest once more. Nothing but trees and a dirt path laid ahead, almost tempting him to walk forward. Just as the dog was about to lift a paw, however-

"YOUR NAME IS DUCK HUNT. YOU ARE MR. PEEPERS," a voice boomed out of nowhere. The animal fell to the ground, startled as his eyes widened in fear. Who names a dog 'Duck Hunt' anyway? Mr. Peepers?

"THAT'S WHO YOU ARE." Another step. Despite the volume of the voice, nothing in the forest was disturbed. The dog continued to walk forward, keeping an eye out for anything that might jump out at him. Can't be too careful, especially when you woke up here for no reason.

Along the way, he came up across a sign. The animal padded over towards the display, reading the text as the voice came to a halt suddenly.

"Don't forget to save! Memories are most important in Smashbound!"

...Smashbound?

...Smash?

Backing away from the sign, The dog thought to himself; why did that word sound so familiar? He disregarded the sign, continuing to find his way out. Despite his tense posture, the dog continued onward. Small but oddly weird looking creatures moved past him, going about their normal lives. If only they were sentient-

"QUAAAaaaAAACK!"

Without warning, a loud duck call erupted through the trees. The instant the noise reached his eardrums, the dog collapsed onto the ground as a stream of memories flooded his senses. The rough grass under his paws, blue skies, someone repeatedly failing to shoot at something in said skies, ducks flying around without a care.

Ducks.

Ducks!

"Quark! Wuaaa-hooork!" Before he could register what was happening, the hunting dog ran towards the noise, his stomach rumbling in hunger. His jowls began to salivate as he continued to run through the grove. Dust clouds formed around his paws as he kicked up more and more of the ground, speeding past anything that he might've found 'mildly interesting.' Anything was nothing compared to the familiar noise he oh-so looked forward to in his hunting days.

The dog came to a stop at yet another clearing, this time at some colossal-sized tree with a gray statue of some humanoid figure below it. At the bottom of the statue was a duck with blue and white feathers. One of its wings was bent at an impossible angle, but that didn't seem to bother the bird. If anything, it kept snapping at some shadow-y, dog-like creatures. With dark purple dots phasing from their fur into the air, the enemies twitched erratically. Any sounds they made were echoed and layered simultaneously, as if the dog had super-powered hearing.

"YOU SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT THOSE DOGS." Wow. Really?

The orange-furred canine blinked once before jumping on top of the closest mook he could get to. The dark counterpart began to panic, flailing around and snapping at the dog's feet as its attacker pummeled the enemy to the ground. The dog slammed his jaws over its neck, causing it to explode into dark energy particles. The other two mooks noticed, suddenly stopping their assault on the duck as Peepers refused to back down. One of the enemies, however, swiped at the dog and Peepers yelped in pain, skidding across the ground. Despite this, he got up and charged at the fiend, slamming the enemy into a tree root before it could react. When the third animal was left alone, all it did was tuck its tail between its legs and run away, howling. The footsteps grew more and more quiet as Peepers turned his attention to the bird. The duck shielded itself with its nonbroken wing. Its eyes were tightly shut, awaiting its possible demise. When nothing attacked the bird, it leapt up on its feet, staring up at its savior.

"Quack!" it quacked, beaming up at its savior. Thank goodness that ducks didn't have teeth, right?

The dog just stood there, blinking. The avian tilted its head before looking off to its sides. An 'A-ha!' look suddenly appeared on its face and the duck took a deep breath.

"QUAAAAACK!" ('THANK YOUUUU!')

Once again, the dog nearly jumped out of his skin. The dog's brain burned as his migraine came back. This time, instead of the tone he was used to before he woke up, it was a brief 'angelic' noise.

('Don't do that!') the dog yelped, covering its ears with its paws. The bird rolled its eyes before stepping up closer, jabbing its beak to the dog's nose.

('Stop freaking out then!') was the snappy response back. ('Come on, get up!') When the dog only continued to stare at the avian, its wings expanded, ready to take flight. However, the second that the duck decided to lift itself off of the ground, it made a weird 'barking' noise, falling back to the ground. Even if the attempted flight wasn't much progress, that alone caused the dog to snap out of his frightened trance. The duck's broken wing twitched, dark energy veins pulsing over it, much like the enemies the dog fought moments beforehand, dark particles leeched off of it, dissipating into the air.

('One of them bit me,') the duck said telepathically, eyes moving towards the broken appendage in question. ('I think it went through the feathers because every time I move it I get this awful pain… hey!') It got back on its feet, pointing its normal wing towards the canine.

('Did you wake up with a headache too?') it asked. ('Are you DUCK HUNT?')

('I guess so?') the dog pondered, looking up at the sky. ('Someone said my name was that, so that must be who I am. Peepers is fine too, but-')

('I have no idea what you just said, but it sounded really melodramatic. Hello, Duck Hunt!') The avian bowed its head. ('Who's the person that told you that? Do you know them or something?') When the dog didn't respond, the duck quickly shook its head, gesturing toward its broken wing.

('Whatever, we can talk about that later after you fix my wing! It feels like it's on fiiire!')

('What am I supposed to do?! I don't have thumbs!')

('Fix it!')

('Did you not just-')

The sudden sound of snarling interrupted the two's conversation as their attention turned towards the area where the third shadow-covered dog fled to. The bushes rustled as the duck hopped onto the dog's shoulders, peeking out from behind his head. A paw stuck out from the bushes, slamming on the ground. Instead of the appendage being stable, it shook, as if the entity was unsure of its location. It was only until the snarling replaced itself with haggard coughs that the dog thought that something was off.

('It's one of those freaks that attacked me! Finish him off already!') the duck crowed out.

However, what came out from its hiding place was no normally functioning dog. Foam dribbled down its jowls, coating the ground with saliva as it stalked towards Duck Hunt. Strange horns extended from its spine, penetrating through the skin as it coughed and hacked up more and more saliva. Its ragged fur had been torn up in patches, showing exposed skin. Something was wrong here.

"Quaaack!" ('Wait, stop! Don't do it, it's rabid! Get back!') Instead of obeying the duck on his shoulder, all the dog could do is stare. His heart leapt up in his throat as he took a few steps back, tail bumping up against the stone statue. In response, the rabid dog ran up towards Duck Hunt, jumping towards them. Duck Hunt rolled out of the way, making the duck squawk in pain as it was quickly crushed by its new ally. Despite this, the enemy had snapped at the dog's front leg, luckily not breaking the skin. The enemy bonked its head onto the stone, but it quickly got up and barked at Duck Hunt.

('Run! You gotta go! Ruuuun!') The dog ignored the avian, balking as it shifted its position. Taking a deep breath in, it stood there as the rabid enemy tried to charge towards the normal dog. It raised up its haunches, lowering its head as it got closer and closer. When it was close to ripping off the duck's head, the dog jutted up its head. It slammed into the rabid dog's jaw as saliva rained down past the other dog. While the rabid dog yelped in pain, the dog turned around and slammed its hind legs into the mandible. The enemy's head yanked itself backwards, a satisfying crack vibrating to the dog's paws. Some lump appeared on the enemy's neck and the dog managed to yank its back legs away just in time to avoid the puke that emitted from the enemy's throat. When it stood back up, it lolled its head to the side, as if it had no neck bones to hold its head up.

The dog ran from the other before stopping in his tracks. He turned around after hearing more… concerning noises, making the duck beside him quack in annoyance. Despite its shrill cries, the dog could only watch as the enemy tumbled around like a drunkard. It hacked up more puke and whined one last time before tumbling to the ground, dead. As he took the sight in, the dog felt an energy burst go through him. He shook his coat, feeling the small weight on his shoulders adjust slightly.

('Oh… gosh! ...That was easy. Well done!') The duck said, congratulating him. The dog felt a wing slap the back of his head, not even reacting towards it as he stared at the body in pure horror. ('Come on, we have to go fix my wing. I think there's a town past these woods.') Peepers looked up at the statue again, ignoring the duck's commands as he moved past the corpse to read the little plaque at the stone sculpture's feet. He could barely read the words, as they were covered up by the zombie dog's bile and pus. Another wing slapped the back of his head as he huffed, running away from the mess he caused.

Crunch!

Snap!

Flap!

were the sounds resonating in the large woodlands that day. The duo, at best, expected for there to be less enemies since the dog beat up the rabid enemy. Unfortunately, it seems that no matter where they came from, they always seemed to spawn endlessly. Peepers' mind kept flashing back to the incident earlier as he slammed and pummeled into more creatures like snakes, strange brown and lumpy creatures, and birds. (It didn't help that every time the dog felt an enemy bird's wing snap under his jaws, his newfound friend would glare at him like he attempted to kill her as well.)

On occasion, the animal duo would come across crates no bigger than them in size. With a light brown color and some weird, circular symbol painted into the wood, it took them a long time to figure out how you were supposed to open them. It wasn't like there was nothing valuable in them anyway, just shiitake mushrooms and some small bottles filled with a green liquid. It wouldn't be until much later that the dog figured out on his own that those bottles could help with fixing himself and the duck up after a battle. Maybe if they got lucky, if an enemy perished before them, they would 'drop' an item. (Again, they would just be either mushrooms. What was it with this forest and 'shrooms?) Who knows how they were carrying it, as both animals lacked the most important thing you need to carry things: thumbs.

But that didn't matter.

Even if they tried to beat every mook encountered in this forest, the duo couldn't find their way out. Even if that duck kept whining and moaning the more and more time passed in the area. Even if Peepers felt like he was going to claw out his own eardrums with his bare… paws.

('I'm going to die out here and it's going to be your fault!') The duck said. ('My wing's going to rot and decay and I'll be nothiiiiing!')

('Will you shut up?! I'm trying my best!')

('Try harder, then!')

The dog bit back the urge to 'yell' at the duck, instead looking up towards the evening sky. It seemed like they had been going in circles, their exit never popping up. His paws began to shake as the dog plopped to the ground, nearly crushing the duck yet again. Peepers ignored the squawk as he sat up slightly, watching the duck dust herself off.

('We've been going around in circles, you incompetent mutt!') she said.

('Wow, really? I never noticed.') The dog huffed, pulling out the mushrooms he received from the mysterious crate. He weakly lifted up one of his paws as he rolled two of the bigger ones towards the duck. The other animal apprehensively poked the stem with its beak, waiting a few seconds before digging in. The dog's eyelids began to grow heavy as he placed his head down on the ground, fluttering his eyelids.

('No. Don't you dare! I still have questions!')

('You can ask 'em later, I'm going to sleep.')

('No!') Pomf. Silence followed the sudden slap and the duck sighed, looking into the distance. ('Just. Just one question, okay? What happened before this?')

This made the dog sit up, his eyes bursting open. ('What?')

('I can't remember anything before those enemies showed up. The only thing I know is that there's a town past wherever we are. Can you?')

Peepers pondered to himself. What was his life like before this enemy exp grindfest? Something with a field and ducks? That didn't sound very exciting. How did that relate to 'smash,' whatever that was?

('A field,') he finally said. ('That's all I know.')

('A field,') the duck repeated. ('Okay. Sounds boring.') Something tugged at the dog's heartstrings as he scowled. He lied back down on the ground, his back facing the duck as he huffed in annoyance.

('What? What did I say?!') was the last thing he heard before he fell asleep.

"Woof woof!"

Something wet and slimy scraped across Peepers' face as he woke up from his dream. Warm air beated against his muzzle and his brain began to wave around some red flags. In that instant, the dog's eyes shot open as he crouched his posture, snarling at whoever dared to disturb his sleep. Peepers then came face to face with… another dog?

It was smaller than him, with black beady eyes and chocolate-colored fur. A saffron-colored bandana adorned its neck, contrasting against the dark coat. Standing next to the dog was a small boy with black eyes. While one of the eyes looked like it was bloodshot, that didn't seem to bother the blond kid as he reached out a hand towards Duck Hunt, the back of his hand facing the ground. Eyeing the appendage, Peepers sniffed at it as the duck glared at the human. All he could smell was the nice scent of fresh grass.

"Good dog," the boy said, his voice barely above an excited whisper. "You're not one of the other animals, good boy." He retracted his hand, instead choosing to ruffle the top of Peepers' head. The brown dog next to him whined in jealousy as Peepers' avian friend made a surprised 'wenk!' noise, fluttering her wings.

"Are you lost?" he asked. "That's okay, I can help you escape this place."

('I can't believe a tiny human knows more about this place than you do,') the duck mumbled to itself. In that instant, the boy's head snapped over to the duck. Peepers could feel sweat crawling underneath his fur as he tensed himself, shifting his position.

"I do, actually," the boy bit back, glaring at the duck. "You don't need to be so rude."

"Eep!"

Before the blond boy could say anything else, the dog next to him started to howl. The kid turned towards his companion, kneeling down to face the tiny dog. He then glanced over past Duck Hunt, staring into the trees as he stood up. Taking a deep breath, something white and flashy appeared from the kid's empty hand as he pointed it past the duo. His eyes flashed gold for a brief second, and then-

"PK Flash!"

The seizure-inducing bright flash of light zoomed away from his fingers, causing Peepers to yelp as he almost fell backwards, stumbling around on his feet. Something made his eyes tear up slightly as he shook his head vigorously. The psychic boy remained silent as his fingers twitched, waiting for whoever was watching them to scream out in pain. As silence filled the area, he lowered his hand as his left eye twitched once.

"...Nothing? C'mon Boney, are you seeing things?" The dog yipped at him in response as the psychic switched his large stick from one hand to another. He turned towards the duo again, nodding at them once.

"My name is Lucas Sakai, f-follow me, please," Lucas introduced himself, immediately running off into one direction of the forest. Boney took off after him, howling a discordant melody as Peepers looked over to where Lucas shot that psychic blast. Instead of taking off with them, he stared at that spot, almost as if he was in a trance. A low buzzing sound reached his ears as the animal duo slowly turned around and began t-

"Please hurry! I don't want you to get jumped by some shadow bug-infested creatures!" Lucas called out, snapping the dog out of his daze. Without thinking twice, he sped off towards wherever the human left, catching his avian friend off by surprise. Something in the back of his head hoped that he would get some answers to this mystery.

And meanwhile, thousands of miles away from both Lucas and Duck Hunt, was an island in the middle of an unspecified ocean. A small, yellow anthropomorphic dog with a white muzzle and a secretary's outfit was busy leaning back in her lounge chair. Next to her was a small human, trotting up to her and presenting something on a clipboard. She glanced at the paper, held in place by a metal clip, but something in the corner of her eye made her turn her head.

A body.

A human body.

Her friend must've noticed her shocked expression, as he too looked over at the supposed corpse and screamed, running away. Instead of running off with him, her eyes widened when she saw the larger human lift up his arm, as if he was reaching out to her. She trotted over, dread filling up her mind as she tried to save whoever washed up on Tortimer Island. Even if the second she asked him if he was okay, he suddenly passed out again. Something was wrong.

Something.

Some thing.

But what?

Would you like to save?

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Saving... [Do NOT turn off engine while savesys is executing its duties...]

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.

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Save complete. It is now safe to turn off the game console.

Wow, I finally got this done I guess-

Anyway, hello! I'm LilithsDogma and this here is my first Smash fanfic! Unlike most of the stories in this archive, I'm going to try and do something a little unorthodox (oh no... the horror...) in terms of what's normally read here. If you didn't understand a single word I said, what I'm trying to say is that I'm going for something a little more unique! Nothing wrong with that, of course.

Though I do want to say that there's a second version of this fanfiction on AO3, albeit with a few tweaks.

Updates are sporadic, but feel free to leave a follow/fave/comment if you liked this so far! I don't bite, promise!