Here it is, after my hiatus, the NEW COLLECTION! I hope it makes you guys happy, and I hope (even though there is NO WAY I will be able to write Mousey's characters as well as she does) I can emulate what made The Game a great series. There will be humor, there will be adventures, and there will be new people! One last thing: read The Game. Seriously, I know it's 71 chapters, but it the best 71 chapters I have ever read. The first five chapters will be focusing heavily on picking up where The Game left off, so it'll probably help your understanding to check that masterpiece out. Other than that, I hope you enjoy!

A blue light flashed from the teleport station. The lack of a voice proclaiming "A NEW CHALLENGER HAS APPEARED!" told Samus that it was probably someone she knew. Despite that, she still couldn't bring herself to open her eyes. At that moment, Samus was sitting in a cushioned chair in an unfamiliar place that resembled the waiting room in a hospital. She had her eyes shut, and was desperately trying to fall asleep. Her days hunting monsters in space had drained her, and she had lost a lot of sleep in recent weeks. She, along with most of the competitors from the last Smash tourney, had been sent a notification letter (or email, or scroll, depending on the recipient) a week prior telling them that they had been invited to join the newest competition, simply dubbed Super Smash Brothers.

She was, quite unfortunately, trapped in the strange purgatory between being awake and being asleep, where she was too lazy to wake herself up, but too conscious to be asleep. Her thoughts were all over the place, thinking about the days leading up to her arrival, the feeling of (slight) relaxation after so many tense and sleepless days in space, hunting various bounty, and most of all, the thoughts of the past, specifically from Brawl. Her thoughts were random at first, jumping around from things such as taking the kids to the Brink the first time, the night of stupid teenagers with Altean wine, the shooting the next morning, the Valentine's Day battle, the late night Ramen snacking, the shrink's funeral, the thundersnow "picnic", the fabled "Dairy Queen Incident", the teary farewell, until she realized that all of her thoughts were progressively starting to revolve around him. The one man who stole her heart. The one who broke it when he told her that his duties as a king would not allow him to return. She began to glare, eyes still shut, and her fists began to clench. She was in a bad mood now (not that she had been in an amazing one previously), and very few people were able to get Samus Aran out of a bad mood. Luckily for her, one of those people had just warped into the room.

"Samus!" A loud, feminine voice rang out from somewhere behind the female bounty hunter. Samus nearly fell off the bench she had been snoozing on, before turning around swiftly, seeing one of her closest friends for the first time in months.

"Zelda!" she yelled back in response as she vaulted over the bench, grinning from ear to ear, and sprinted towards the princess. The Hylians had arrived, and she was smiling wider than she had in years. She almost tripped over the Villager and Kirby, who were sitting on the floor, and were apparently trying to play rock paper scissors. Samus almost stopped to consider how strange it was that two people (the term "people" being used loosely) who had circles for hands were trying to play a game requiring (at the minimum) 2 fingers and a palm. She brushed the thought aside, and tackled Zelda in a hug, the both of them laughing and spinning in circles. Luckily for the Hylian princess, the bounty hunter was wearing street clothes instead of her armor, so there was no damage upon impact. Samus hadn't been this happy in a long time, and she was glad that at least two of her best friends were with her.

After the hugging and spinning had ended, Samus turned and saw the elf boy, the "little hero", Marth's "boyfriend" (as many hecklers liked to call him); the one and only Link. He held out his hand for shaking, and she just rolled her eyes.

"You've spent too much time in the royal courts, elf head," Samus remarked, smirking slightly, pulling the Hylian into a big hug. He stiffened for a second, but then eased up a bit, returning the hug. After the hug ended, Samus longed to be in someone else's arms.

"So… Have you heard anything about Marth?" She blurted out, instantly regretting what she said, and almost slapping herself in the face. It came out abruptly, and made her feel incredibly awkward. Her two friends looked at each other sadly, silently communicating with their eyes, and then Link turned to Samus.

"The war in Altea just began. The battles have started, and he's swamped with responsibilities. I'm sorry Samus." Link said sadly. She looked down, attempting to hide her face from her friends. She knew it was irrational to even think she would see him again, but it still felt like a kick to the stomach to hear that he was out there in the middle of a warzone. He probably didn't remember her. She immediately felt selfish, but couldn't help it. She missed him so much, and it had been a long couple of years.

"Hey Link, maybe you should go, uh, change into your street clothes." Zelda suggested, giving him a look of let me handle this. Despite the fact that he was already wearing them, he nodded knowingly and walked off. Zelda stood there for a moment, contemplating what she could say to make the bounty hunter feel better. Samus could, at times, be unpredictable emotionally, and the princess did not want to risk setting her off and making her mad.

"I know you have nothing comforting to say, so don't worry." Samus replied, her face and voice softening up. Zelda immediately felt relieved, but also slightly guilty for not saying anything. "It's not like he was guaranteed to come back anyways. Besides, we have other friends to attend to. "

Zelda gave her a confused look until she followed her friend's line of sight. About 10 feet away from them and across a few rows of chairs, she spotted Ike being smothered by Sheik, who was hugging him tightly, and planting kisses all over his face. She was off of the ground, using his shoulders to hold herself up. Samus felt a little better seeing that her closest friends were doing well on the romantic side.

"It's been a while since they've seen each other, hasn't it." Samus said, not as a question, since the answer was pretty obvious. Zelda nodded, smiling at her other half acting uncharacteristically giddy.

"8 months apart can feel like 8 years sometimes." Zelda remarked, still smirking.

"Get a room!" Samus yelled jokingly at the two of them. Sheik stopped her barrage on Ike's face and turned.

"SAMUS!" Sheik screamed, using her boyfriend as a springboard to kick off towards Samus. Ike stumbled backwards, hitting his head on the wall and sliding onto the floor, as Sheik started jumping over chairs to reach her friend. Despite the twinge of pain in the back of his head, the general was smiling like a loon, still somewhat dazed from the shower of affection the ninja had given him. Link walked over and slid down the wall onto the floor next to him. He whispered something in the Gallian's ear, and started snickering. Ike snapped out of his trance, gave Link an annoyed look and punched him in the face. Before Samus could dwell on that funny moment anymore, she stumbled backwards as Sheik jumped on her.

The two embraced, giggling and spinning much like Samus and the ninja's counterpart had done earlier, and Zelda rolled her eyes.

"Well someone's energetic today," Samus commented happily after the celebration had concluded. "I see it's been a while since you've seen each other."

Sheik blushed; she had been so happy to see Ike that her self-preservation and sense of dignity had sort of faded into the background. Samus simply grinned wider, and thought this is gonna be fun.

"Well, I mean 8 months is a pretty long time, and we were in the middle of wars and quests, and I sort of wasn't thinking, and I really missed him, and we couldn't visit each other that often, and…" Samus gestured I get it, no need for excuses, and smirked at her. Sheik realized she had been rambling, and looked down at the floor, suddenly finding her shoelaces incredibly interesting. She longed to have her scarf, so she could cover up her reddened face. Samus patted her on the back, still grinning.

"Let's see who else is here," Samus suggested, all thoughts of Marth sent into deepest pits in the back of her mind…

zZz

Just fall asleep Samus… Just let yourself drift away. Stop thinking about him. Just…

Samus sighed. She was lying in her new bed, in her new room, in the new stadium. She felt uneasy, as it had been years since she was in a room like this. She had spent most of her days in space in a tiny metal room, on a vaguely soft mattress. Despite how cushiony her new bed felt, it felt wrong. She didn't feel at home, and almost started regretting taking up Nintendo's offer to join the fight again.

"Ugh…" Samus groaned, as she tried to fight the insomnia. It had been a long and boring day and she just wanted some peace. While Marth had not showed up, Samus still held out the smallest bit of hope, as this was admission day 1. There were still quite a few brawlers who hadn't yet shown up. Of the ones who had arrived, Samus remembered Ike, Sheik, Link, Zelda, Pit, Kirby, Villager, Mega Man, Mario, Bowser and Peach.

The bounty hunter finally gave in to her inability to sleep, and got up and exited her room. She began wandering aimlessly, as she was not familiar with the new building. It seemed that Nintendo had attempted emulate the previous stadium, having similar carpets, similar doors, similar not-so-hidden-utility rooms. One thing that was noticeably different was the entrance to each room. The brawlers within said rooms (for the most part) made an attempt to personalize their doors, with Kirby's being covered with pictures of food, Villager's having a well-drawn image of a net, Mario having a red mushroom, and Link having a the Triforce, with only the top triangle being gold, and the bottom ones being gray. Samus had dutifully noted to do something special to her door, since, at the moment, hers was a standard silver door; boring and bland.

She passed by Ike and Sheik's rooms, and wondered if, by request, their rooms were connected by a door or something. She figured that Nintendo let the couples have connected rooms, as she saw that Zelda and Link's rooms were next to each other, and the same with Peach and Mario. She made another mental note to check if her room was connected to another, possibly behind the dresser that was on the left side of her room, or behind the bookshelf on the other. Both rooms next to hers, as far as she knew, were vacant.

Stop that! You're just getting your hopes up for nothing! He's not showing up!

Samus thought miserably. She tried to not let her thoughts of Marth get to her, when she heard her stomach growl. She groaned, and decided to try and find the kitchen.

zZz

After twenty minutes of searching, she realized that the insomnia was starting wearing off. An hour before, Samus would have been more than grateful to fall into a deep sleep, but now she was desperately craving some Ramen noodles with macaroni and cheese mix.

"Never had a craving before…" she thought out loud, and then added "Never talked to myself before either… Great…"

The only thing she had seen during her pointless walk was metal grating, metal walls, and metal doors. Granted, there were a few color differences here and there, like some red corridors and some blue ones, but nonetheless it was really tedious, and was nowhere near as interesting as walking through the Brawl stadium. Everything here was uniform and streamlined, and Samus wondered if she would even find her way back to her room, or if she would have to crash on the floor somewhere. Even sadder was that she hadn't seen any carpet, so she would likely end up with a stiff neck in the morning, with grate marks on her face and legs. The bounty hunter began to shiver, and realized that she would probably freeze overnight, considering her pajamas were just a t-shirt and shorts. Her final mental note of the night was to get warmer pajamas.

After several more minutes of walking, she came across her room… She facepalmed and gave in to her insomnia, figuring that breakfast was only a few hours away. As she walked in, she noticed a laptop and a smart phone lying on the desk next to the entrance. She was a bit happier, glad that she would have some distractions if insomnia struck again (which was very likely). She picked up the phone, an iPhone, and checked the time: 2:00 AM. She sighed, and unlocked it, and started personalizing some things. She changed the wallpaper to the smash logo, changed her password to "62784", downloaded Doodle Jump and Cut the Rope, and checked the weather. It read rainy all week in Seattle, which was apparently where this stadium was located. She sighed and set the phone back on the desk. She went over to her dresser, pulled out a pair of sweatpants and changed into them. Her sleepiness finally took over, and she closed her eyes. A certain Tom Hanks movie was the last thing that went through her head, and she sAfter several more minutes of walking,

zZz

AN: Poor Sammy . NEVER FEAR, PLOT DEVICES TO THE RESCUE! I hope I've captured the essence of The Game, and, if you have a problem, please let me know. I enjoy all feedback, even negative!

-Flame