Gandandorf's failure had haunted him for ten years. For the past decade he had been forced to hide in the mountains, scouring for food like an animal. Struggling to survive in the harsh conditions of the rugged mountain terrain. He wanted revenge. No, he needed revenge.

He had not heard his late night visitor arrive; the footsteps had been muffled out by the snow and the crackling of the fire.

"Gandandorf."

The man turned towards the mouth of the cave that had become his shelter. Whoever had said his name was hidden in the shadows, just out of reach of the firelight.

"Who is it? Show yourself!" Gandandorfs hands blazed with his dark, purple energy.

The stranger let out a slight chuckle. "Calm down, calm down. I am only here to propose a deal."

The purple energy died off of Gandandorf's fists. "What kind of deal?"

"A deal that could get you exactly what you want. The deaths of the very people that nearly caused yours."

Gandandorf was still skeptical. "Who are you? How do I even know if you can achieve this?"

"Ah, but this is where you come in. I can only help you if you tell me where Bowser is."

"Bowser? How can that brute help you?"

"He has something that I need."

"What?"

"That is not for you to know."

"Unless you tell me what it is that you need and what you're plan is, how am I to trust you?"

The hidden voice paused, then replied. "I was afraid you would act this way. I suppose I will have to tell you everything."

The sound of the crowd yelling and screaming inside the arena could be heard from all the surrounding towns. Only one thing could set the crowd into such a state: The Smash Ball. The object that changed the tide of the battle, and generally caused more chaos.

Just a little higher, and I got it. Pit thought, as he effortlessly flew toward the Smash Ball. Just a couple more fee-but Pit's thought's and upward movement were ended by Kirby's large hammer.

Kirby was just about to swing his hammer one more time, and crush the Smash Ball, when a radical idea struck his brain. What if I inhaled the Smash Ball? Would I be able to do my Final Smash over and over again? Would I become more powerful? Would I grow? Would I change color? Kirby's curiosity was too strong. He inhaled with all his might.

He immediately felt like someone had set off a large bomb inside his stomach. Then, his vision became blurred. He began to fall towards the ground, or was it the ground? Kirby couldn't tell. He felt something solid come in contact with his body, and then, nothing.

"Is he gonna be okay?"

"I can't believe he did that..."

"Who won the match?"

"Falco!"

"Just wondering..."

"Sssh! I think he's waking up!"

Kirby blinked several times, then opened his eyes. He was met with the faces of his fellow Brawlers.

"Well, I can't believe I actually let you guys bring me down here. The kid's totally fine. You guys just overreacted." Everybody turned around to see who had spoken. It was Wolf, leaning against the door, cleaning his gun with an oil rag.

"Overreacted? He's been out for five hours!" Marth said, pointing to the clock.

"Five hours? That's nothing. When my ship went down on Tartarmus, I was unconscious for five days!"

"What? That's impossible!"

"How would you know?"

"Don't you get into this Link-"

"Why not?"

"Just forget about it."

"No way! This is because I be-"

"When did you beat me?"

Kirby let out a small sigh. Whenever there were more than three Brawlers in one place, at one time, it never went well.

After the argument had settled down, and Kirby's visitors had filed out, Kirby quickly fell asleep.

Kirby woke up with a start. He had been poked by something sharp. He tried to roll over to see what it was, but found that he couldn't. He was surrounded by a strange assortment of objects. He quickly ballooned out of bed, and floated over to where he remembered the light switch to be. He stood on his tiptoes, and flicked the switch.

After his eyes had adjusted to the light, he gasped. There on his bed were all the weapons of the Brawlers. Ike's sword, Pit's bow, Samus's cannon, several of Snake's grenades, Link's boomerang, and more. Kirby was astounded. He just didn't understand how they had all gotten there. He hadn't seen his friends leave them there... and there was no way they could have put them all there while he was asleep without waking him up... Kirby would've pondered more, but he collapsed with exhaustion. Two in the morning was not a time when Kirby generally did a lot of thinking.

Knock, knock, knock.

Bowser whipped his head around. Someone at the door? That was impossible... the defenses surrounding his castle were impossible to penetrate.

Knock, knock, knock.

Still in confusion, Bower stepped down off of his throne, and walked down the torch lit hallways to the main entrance to his castle. He slowly pulled open the huge door.

"Bowser. I believe you have something that I need." The voice seemed to come from the night itself, the speaker unseen.

Bowser roared.

"A key, to be more exact."

Bowser roared even louder.

"Let's be reasonable here, it's for a good cause."

Bowser looked puzzled. The last time they had used the key-

The voice seemed to read his thought's. "It will not be like the last time. We will use a different strategy, different methods."

Bowser roared again. This was becoming complicated. Bowser didn't like complicated things.

The voice sighed. "I suppose I'll have to take it myself then."

Bowser opened his mouth to roar again, but a black object flew straight out of the night, connecting with his stomach. He crumpled backwards into his castle.

"Nice doing business with you."

Meta Knight paced the empty halls of the Halberd, his every step echoing throughout the ship. It served as his home, as it hadn't left the ground in a while. He hated having to live in it, because he hated seeing it in this state. Once a scourge of the skies, now several tons of scrap metal. He wanted to live elsewhere, in the woods that had once been his home, but several of the Brawlers had taken residence there, and he couldn't show his face around them. Despite the fact that he had fought on their side in The Great Battle of Subspace, they continued to judge him by his past deeds. The times he had nearly destroyed Dreamland, and other terrible things he had done.

"Meta Knight." The voice could have been coming from anywhere. Sounds carried and echoed almost everywhere in the ship.

Meta Knight looked around, but saw nothing. He swirled his cloak, and disappeared. He reappeared seconds later in the control station of the Halberd. Next to the main speaker, he saw a small computer.

"Ah, I knew you would find me. You are far smarter than the others I have contacted." The voice came from the computer. It was being filtered through some kind of machine, making the voice completely un-identifiable. Meta Knight raised his sword, preparing to slash the computer in half.

"You might not want to do that. I can help you."

"How?"

"I have the key, Meta Knight."

"Prove that you have possession of the key." Meta Knight asked, his true expression remained hidden behind his mask.

"In exactly twenty four hours, one of the Brawlers will fall under my control."

"If this happens, and you truly do have the key, where can I find you?"

"You will find me behind the door that only the key can open."

"As you wish." Meta Knight began to walk away. The screen of the computer changed from black to blinking numbers. 23:58.

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Virus. I believe that I will be able to update probably every 1 and a half weeks, give or take a day or two. Please review with your comments, criticism, praise, etc. I would especially like to know if this chapter was too long, or too short.