Chapter 2: Bad Morning

Midnight was fast approaching the lands around the new Smash Grounds. Despite the darkness of the night, two humanoids and three small plant creatures were out and about, making their way up the largest hill within miles, dubbed Assist Trophy Hill, to get a better view of the surrounding area. One of them was Smash Bros. veteran Olimar, with the three plant creatures being some of his Pikmin, and the other humanoid was soon-to-be Smash Bros. newcomer Villager. The two finally reached the top, letting Villager survey the area while Olimar glanced at a map.

"You see anything?" Olimar asked. Villager merely shrugged and shook his head in response.

~Thwomp Caverns from Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time starts to play~

As the gang continued to find where the new Smash Grounds were, on the other edge of the large hill's peak, three identical beings whose identities were shrouded by the darkness of the night glanced at the duo of Smashers. Right behind the three short beings were rocks of all sizes, some of them twitching ever so slightly.

"Hey bros, you see what I see?" one of the three shrouded beings whispered.

"I can't see anything," another one muttered.

"I can't hear what you guys are saying, it's too dark to hear," the last one whispered.

"Bro, you idiot! Hearing can't get blocked by darkness!" the first one angrily whispered.

"It's too dark to feel anything either," the third "bro" muttered, flailing his short arms around.

"Ugh... he's a hopeless one," the first one mumbled.

"Yeah, I can't even feel hope in this darkness," the third being murmured, slowly approaching the second "bro".

"Ah! That moron probably can't even feel his own brain in his head! Mostly... because he probably doesn't have one, but still," the first "bro" thought to himself before speaking quietly again. "Whatever. The thing is, it looks like Mario and some other guy is up ahead. Not sure why Mario's wearing some stupid space outfit that only looks slightly better than his stupid overalls, or who his little pal is, but those details don't matter, bros. All that matters is our job."

"Our job to attack anyone who came around here, especially if they were Mario or any of the Smashers?" the second being inquired.

"Bingo, bro. Speaking of "our" job though... big boys in the back, you guys know what's going on?" the first "bro" silently replied.

~Thwomp Caverns stops as Panic Pit from Mario & Luigi: Dream Team starts~

But before he could get a response from the "big boys", the third "bro" slapped the second one on the butt, drawing in Olimar and Villager's attention.

"WOWZERS!" the second "bro" screamed, jumping up and down and all around.

"Hey, it ain't too dark to feel anything after all! That just means that I just naturally feel hopeless! Sweet!" the third being excitedly exclaimed.

"You moronic excuse of a bro! Don't slap me there ever again!"

"C'mon bro, it was just a prank I did on accident, bro!" the third "bro" claimed.

"Um... hello there, whoever you are," Olimar greeted.

"Now look what you've done, bro! They know we're here!" the first being complained.

"How do you know bro, it's too dark to see or hear or feel or sleep or eat or pointlessly question your own existence," the third "bro" stated.

"NO! SHUT THE ACTUAL LOVING HECK UP, BRO! Bro, beat up bro with me! Guys in the back, you handle these two!" the first "bro" demanded. The first two "bros" leaped at the third one and began pummeling him, taking their small bout to the side.

~Panic Pit stops~

"Well... um..." an voice from an unknown source muttered.

"Yeah... this was... unexpected..." another mysterious voice added.

"Mmm-hmm. I expected those three to just take care of these tw-" yet another mysterious voiced responded. before still yet another mysterious voice yelled.

"IT'S EARTHQUAKE TIME!"

~Panic Pit starts again~

Suddenly, one of the small rocks jumped up and slammed back down once, causing the whole hill to shake. Olimar, his Pikmin, and Villager tried to hold their ground as the three "bros" stopped fighting. The third "bro" nearly instantly fell off, causing the first two to celebrate. Some of the rocks that stood behind the three "bros" fell off, with unknown screams following the rocks falls. Not long after, the duo of Smashers slipped off the hill, though only Olimar screamed as they fell off. The Pikmin however just jumped off once Olimar fell off.

~Panic Pit stops again~

Villager dropped right down, only occasionally bumping his head back on the hill's side. Olimar however managed to summon Winged Pikmin from out of nowhere to slow his fall... for only a few seconds before the Winged Pikmin suddenly let go before flying off to an unknown and probably hellish realm, forcing Olimar to land somewhat painfully on his feet.

"Bless you two for your aid. You will be missed," Olimar said as the three non-Winged Pikmin landed just fine.

"Look! Mute boy is dead!" the blue Pikmin of the group stated. Everyone glanced at the unconscious Villager before Olimar and his red and yellow Pikmin ran towards the poor boy. The blue Pikmin however was quite happy with Villager's suffering and proceeded to dance with a few crabs who appeared out of nowhere.

"Clear!" the yellow Pikmin yelled, rubbing their hands together and generating electricity. Right before they could place their hands on Villager, Olimar grabbed them by the hand and got shocked instead, glowing brightly in the night. The light blinded a flying wild Hoothoot, causing them to crash into the blue Pikmin, accidentally scaring away the dancing crabs. Olimar's shock soon ended, though the Hocolate Freight worker still felt dizzy from the shock.

"Ergh... no more trying to be a doctor, Yellow. Now, all three of you please carry Villager for me. We must find civilization of some kind immediately," Olimar demanded. The three Pikmin obeyed, albeit Yellow and Blue only begrudgingly doing so, before the gang ran off into the wilderness, unknowingly approaching the Smash Grounds.

XxXx

SEPTEMBER 9th, 2014

~Cavern from Metal Gear Solid starts to play~

Within the underground beneath the lone Warp Pipe out in the Smash World's wilderness that Ganondorf and the robbers entered earlier in the night was a large, highly advanced lair. And within one of the lair's storage rooms was the same Waddle Doo who helped steal bombs, who was opening up the boxes to double check that everything was in order.

"Why'd I have to be the one to do this lame-o job?" the Waddle Doo complained. "I could be doing something far more important... far more useful... like promoting the glorious SUPER MARIO MAKER 2! Everyone knows a good campaign for something that's god-tier starts off years before anyone even knows that it exists!" The Waddle Doo barely payed any attention as they rummaged through the boxes until they found a particular box. "Hey, wasn't this one the one that even that Kritter fella found heavy? Wonder what those guys at that weapon shop hid in this old thing." The Waddle Doo then slowly opened the box up...

~Cavern stops with a record scratch~

... and found Solid Snake in there, although it took Snake a few seconds to realize that he was exposed. But once the soldier realized his situation, an exclamation point appeared over his head as the iconic "spotted" sound effect from the Metal Gear series blarred through the room. Snake pointed his gun at the Waddle Doo, ready to fire at any second.

"So THAT'S why this box was so heavy! A new friend was in it!" the Waddle Doo said.

"... Friend?" Snake muttered, lowering his gun.

"Yee. And it looks like this friend is very imaginative!"

"... Imaginative?"

"Yes! Lemme join in that box!" The Waddle Doo climbed on in before closing the box's top, enclosing the two in darkness.

~Fine Field 3 (Prairie Area) from Kirby Triple Deluxe starts to play~

"Cool! Now we can truly dive deep into the pits of our imagination in peace!" the Waddle Doo claimed. "What should we imagine first? Should we imagine what the future will be like? Should we imagine what Super Mario Maker 2 will be like? What about the future after Super Mario Maker 2? Ooh, or we could even imagine what your future kids will look like!"

"Uh... how about we imagine what the future will be like when this group you're a part of succeeds in its mission," Snake suggested, trying to get some info out of the Waddle Doo.

"Pfft, I wish I could imagine that, but I don't even know what the heck we plan on doing here anyways besides getting some bombs for a fireworks show that's probably going to happen just to celebrate something stupid!"

~Fine Field 3 (Prairie Area) stops~

"HEY!" a Hammer Bro. shouted as he and the same Kritter who helped with the robbery came into the storage room. "What's taking you so long?!"

"Oh not much, just talking with my new friend!" the Waddle Doo replied as they opened the box's top. The Waddle Doo then lifted Snake over their body and out of the box, her short arms suddenly having hands, fingers, and noticeable muscle to them.

"S-s-s-snake?!" the Kritter cried out as he and the Hammer Bro. flailed their arms.

"Where?" the Waddle Doo wondered.

~Theme Of Solid Snake from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate starts to play~

Suddenly, Snake leaped off of Waddle Doo and shot at the Hammer Bro. and Kritter, distracting them long enough to run out the room.

"Get him! Don't let him take a single step out of this base or else you'll both suffer greatly!" the Waddle Doo demanded.

"About time you learned to be serious for once in your life!" the Kritter said before running after Snake with the Hammer Bro. by his side.

"Of course I have to be serious! I never even got the chance to ask him if he's hyped for Super Mario Maker 2!" the Waddle Doo responded, even though the two reptiles were too focused to hear. The duo ran down the hall, passing by a large box not too far away from the storage room. Once they left the hallway, Snake lifted the box off of him before silently trekking after them. Soon, Snake came across a crossing of two hallways and took a turn instead of staying on the Hammer Bro. and Kritter's tails. However, as soon as he made the turn, he encountered a Shy Guy with a knife held up to Snake's legs.

"If you know what's good for ya, you'd do every single last thing I te-" the Shy Guy tried to say, only to get interrupted by Snake kicking him all the way down the hall. The Shy Guy crashed into the wall, instantly going into unconsciousness and dropping the knife. Snake rushed over, grabbed the knife, and turned to continue moving away from the storage room. He soon found an open air vent, jumped up, and crawled inside.

~Theme Of Solid Snake stops~

It would only take a few minutes until Snake came found a way to another room. He stayed within the ventilation shafts, peeking through to analyze the room. Within the large room, three Darknuts, six Shy Guys, and nine Klumps were fighting against a large robot almost perfectly resembling Donkey Kong.

"Hrngh... giant robots. First I go back years in physical age just because I step foot in this world again, and now I deal with giant robots for... whatever time this is. It's pretty painfully nostalgic, but if this is my true final mission... then I'll just do what I've always done," Snake remarked. He was about to break the vent open, but a Bomb-omb that snuck into the ventilation shafts blew up right behind him, destroying that part of the shafts and sending him flying into the room. After he slammed into the floor, a Thwomp from above pinned him down. Snake's consciousness slowly started to fade, with the last thing he would see being a large green figure with a golden belly.

XxXx

Mario's peaceful sleep was slowly getting ruined by indistinguishable sounds. As he sluggishly awakened from his slumber, the sounds became more clear...

~Battle - Felix from Golden Sun: The Lost Age starts to play~

... but it wasn't until he fully woke up that he realized that they were screams. Mario's eyes shot open, revealing that he wasn't in the Smasher's Palace anymore, instead finding himself outside, in a field with a red sky looming above. Mario jumped right up, getting a better look at his surroundings, finding Peach's Castle not too far from the plains, guarded by Toads, and surprisingly, members of the Koopa Troop like Goombas and Koopas, fires all across the battlefield, and Toads, Koopa Troop members, and beings from other worlds like Waddle Dees fighting against more otherworldly beings, most of the opposing army consisting of Centurions.

"What's-a going on?!" Mario cried out, unintentionally catching the attention of some nearby Centurions in the sky. The Centurions readied their arrows, but one of the flying soldiers noticed an incoming enemy from above.

"DUCK!" the lead Centurion commanded, though the flying troops couldn't evade in time, thus getting crushed by their foe. Once the large foe crushed the Centurions beneath their feet, Mario turned around, discovering that the Centurions's murderer was Raphael the Raven, who somehow wielded the Falchion despite having no hands.

"I'm not a duck, I'm a raven! You stupid rats with wings!" Raphael complained before turning to Mario. "Oh hey Mario, you're finally awake. There're better places to take a nap than on the ground, you know."

"What's going on here?! What's with all the fighting?!" Mario demanded to know.

"How'd you forget so easily? How'd you forget tha-" Raphael said before Luigi flew by, crashing into a nearby tree.

"Luigi!" Mario yelled, dashing over towards his weakened brother.

~Battle - Felix stops~

But before Mario could reach Luigi, a light-blue arrow zipped by, heading straight towards Luigi's chest.

"Mario!" Luigi cried out, reaching his arm out.

"Luigi!" Mario shouted back, tears falling out of his eyes as desperately tried to outspeed the arrow.

"MARIO!" Luigi yelled again as he started crying as well.

"LUIGI!" Mario shouted again as the arrow was about to pierce Luigi.

"Mario, the FitnessGram Pacer Test is a multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues. The 20 meter pacer test will begin in 30 seconds. Line up at the start," Luigi calmly said, his tears instantly vanishing from his face. Suddenly, seemingly everything froze. The arrow stayed in the air, right in front of Luigi's chest. The fires stopped crackling. Mario, looking far more confused than upset, couldn't budge an inch anymore. Everything had indeed froze.

... except for Raphael, who was impatiently tapping his foot as a frozen Grovyle stood behind him.

"Hey man, you the one behind time suddenly freezing?" Raphael asked. The Grovyle's only "response" was falling down onto his back, which caused a loud and large explosion.

... an explosion that would wake Mario up for real, causing him to discover that he was still in his room within the Smasher's Palace. The morning sun leaked its rays into the room, shining over Luigi and Pikachu, who stood next to Mario's bed.

"Told ya that'd do it," Pikachu said to Luigi. "Still not sure what a FitnessGram Pacer Test is though."

"Hey bro! Breakfest is ready! Hurry up and come down!" Luigi said. Luigi and Pikachu left the room as Mario sat up, holding his head with his hands.

"Mama-mia... thanks the Wish Stars that was just a dream..." Mario muttered. He took a glance through the window next to his bed, getting better look at the beautiful day outside. The birds were singing, the flowers were blooming, and it sure was a day for people like Mario to help finish what work needed to be done with the remaining stages. "I guess Pikachu's negativity from last night inspired that nightmare." Mario finally leaped out of bed and ran into his closet, quickly changing out of his pajamas and into his usual overalls and red hat before making his way out of the room. With a few dashes through the halls and a couple of leaps down the stairs, Mario quickly made his way down to the ground floor of the palace.

~Jungly Steps from Pac Mania starts to play~

Right as Mario arrived on the ground floor, Crazy Han came out from the cafeteria, spazzing even more erratically than usual.

"AND THEN! ANDTHENEVERYTHINGCAUGHTONFIRELIKETHEGRASSTHETREESTHEHILLSTHEWATERANDTHEFIREWASONFIRE! EVERYTHING I TELL YA!" Crazy crazily said as Master Hand, Pikachu, and Samus exited the cafeteria.

"Uh... what's Crazy talking about?" Mario asked Pikachu and Samus.

"He said something about having some sort of dream, and that's all anyone can understand," Samus answered.

"Crazy! Slow down and repeat literally everything you've said!" Master Hand ordered.

"But if I don't go fast, the fire will get me! I have to go fast and do fast and think fast!" Crazy claimed. The insane hand ran outside before floating around in a circle at absurd speeds. Within seconds, Crazy somehow managed to catch on fire, but failed to realize it until he came to a stop. "AH! THE FIRE GOT ME ANYWAYS!" Crazy then ran off, flying over the gates while screeching and spazzing.

"CRAZY! DON'T RUN INTO THE WOODS WHILE YOU'RE ON FIRE!" Master Hand screamed, flying out of the palace. "LEARN TO STOP, DROP, AND ROLL!"

~Jungly Steps stops~

"Yeah... let's just go get some breakfast before Kirby sucks up all the good stuff... again," Pikachu muttered.

XxXx

~Piranha Plant Lullaby from Super Mario 64 starts to play~

The woods right next to the Smash Grounds was near silent, especially farther away from the grounds. Right in the middle of the woods was Smash Ball Lake, a lake with two bridges intersecting to make the shape of a Smash Ball, where the Dr. Robotnik head was sleeping happily.

~Run Through The Speed Highway... For Speed Highway from Sonic Adventure starts to play~

Until Crazy rolled around at the speed of sound through the lake to put out the fire that is. However, the Robotnik head wouldn't wake up until Crazy flattened it to be as flat as paper.

"WOO! Rolling is fun!" Crazy squealed, zipping out of the clearing and back into the woods and closer to the grounds. Along the way, he rolled right past Olimar, his Pikmin, and the still knocked out Villager, nearly knocking them over, before rolling into a gigantic yet hallow tree trunk's hole, eventually rolling up the trunk's innards before flying out through a hole higher up. Crazy landed back down on the ground and continued to roll ahead, heading straight for the unaware Master Hand.

"Gods, he could be anywhere... he could be by Smash Ball Lake, stuck in a tree, or even underground!" Master Hand said to himself.

"He could behind me!" Crazy happily screamed, quickly coming into view and accidentally smashing Master Hand all the way back to the grounds. Crazy just kept on rolling until the Smash Grounds came into sight again.

"Here he comes! Once he tries to roll through here, I'll grab him and get him to come to a halt!" Metal Mario said to Metal Luigi, the former blocking the gates as the latter watched from a short distance.

"Sounds like the only thing that'll come to a halt from that plan is your life," Metal Luigi claimed. Crazy then leaped over Metal Mario before proceeding to roll through the grounds.

"... Oh. I guess I'm an idiot for not considering the possibility of... that..." Metal Mario muttered.

"Eh, come on now bro, this ain't something to beat yourself over," Metal Luigi assured... before Crazy zipped on back just to run Metal Luigi over, flattening him, before rolling away again.

"Metal Luigi!" Metal Mario cried out, leaping over to his flattened brother. Metal Luigi sprung back up, making an accordion noise as he did.

"But that insane uncle of ours definitely deserves to beat himself up for that! And since he won't do that, we'll just have to beat him up ourselves!" Metal Luigi yelled. He then ran after Crazy, causing small quakes with every angry step he took, as Metal Mario worryingly followed. Just up ahead though, Crazy was rolling in place, not wanting to break through the glass doors of the Smasher's Palace.

"C'mon, open! Open sesame! Open or else I will shatter you!" Crazy idiotically chanted. Surprisingly, the threat managed to get the doors to open by themselves, letting the inane hand to roll on in.

~Run Through The Speed Highway... For Speed Highway stops~

But unfortunately for Crazy, Donkey Kong was right behind the other end of the doors and succeeded in stopping the hand's rolling spree by grabbing him before Kong Karrying him over to the angered Metal Luigi. Pikachu peeked out of the cafeteria and watched Crazy try to squirm his way out of DK's grasp to no avail.

"I... feel like I don't want to watch what comes next," Pikachu muttered. He wandered back to the table he was eating at, where Mario, Yoshi, and Samus were now eating. At the next table over were Link, Kirby, and Fox, and at the next table to that one were Luigi, Peach, Toad, and Toadsworth, allowing the Smashers and the two Toads to talk with each other as they ate.

"So... what's happening out there?" Fox asked Pikachu as the mouse sat back down.

"Crazy came back, DK's got a hold of him, and Metal Luigi looked like he was about to pummel someone. I think it's safe to say Crazy's going to get pulverized into next week," Pikachu answered.

"At least he probably won't get as roughed up as the time he forced us to eat that "Super Hyper Extreme Soul-Melting Superspicy Curry" back during the last tournament," Link remarked as Pikachu started munching on an Oran Berry.

"Please don't remind me of that... my stomach felt like it was burning for hours..." Yoshi groaned.

"Man, the fight that came after we ate that stuff was worse. Especially when nearly everyone caught on fire... ugh..." Pikachu added.

"At least we finally have a chef that actually can cook this time," Samus remarked, turning to stare at the new chef, Chef Kawasaki, who gave a happy yet somewhat disturbing smile back alongside a wave.

"I remember when Crazy got really mad when someone stole that SpongeBob lore book of his!" Kirby said before sucking up a Maxim Tomato.

"Mama-mia... the whole palace was nearly destroyed aft-" Mario muttered before getting interrupted.

"NEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! IT'S HORRIBLE!" Crazy screeched loud enough for everyone in the cafeteria to hear, even from outside the palace.

"Something's up. We need to head outside and check it out, right no-" Samus said before Crazy interrupted again.

"MY GLOVE! THERE'S THE TINIEST TEAR IN IT NOW!"

"Never mind, it's nothing," the bounty hunter remarked, calming back down.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! THIS IS EVEN WORSE!" Crazy screeched again.

"Oh boy, another tear in his glove?" Pikachu sarcastically asked.

"THE NEWCOMER'S UNCONSCIOUS!" the insane hand yelled.

~Growing Anxiety from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Time/ Darkness starts to play~

Everyone except for Kawasaki leaped out of their seats and rushed right out of the cafeteria and the palace, finding both Master Hand and Crazy Hand, the Metal Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Olimar, and his Pikmin surrounding Villager.

"What happened?!" Fox demanded to know.

"Forget about what happened for now. He needs medical attention before we start asking questions," Samus stated.

"I really need medical attention too! My glove got ripped!" Crazy claimed. DK and Metal Luigi glared at Crazy for a few seconds before beginning to pummel him with their fists again.

~Growing Anxiety stops~

"Did someone ask for medical attention?" a voice that sounded exactly like Mario inquired.

~Fever from Super Smash Bros. Melee starts to play~

Before anyone could even wonder where the voice came from, Dr. Mario leaped down next to Villager, holding a clipboard in his hand.

"Oh cool, Dr. Mario's here now too! I get to fight both of the Marios now!" Metal Mario exclaimed.

"Yes, you get to be pulverized by me later, and then after that the inferior red Mario and I will both pummel you even worse," Dr. Mario claimed.

"Hey, I'm the only one who mocks Metal Mario's dream of beating Mario around here," Metal Luigi claimed as he and DK finally stopped beating Crazy to a glove-like pulp.

"Um... what's with this Dr. Mario fellow? Is he some sort of clone like Metal Mario?" Olimar whispered into Kirby's ear as Dr. Mario and Metal Luigi began to argue a bit.

"He's from an alternate universe," Kirby quietly answered.

"Well that explains him, but that doesn't explain why alternate universes exist. I can feel my curiosity and my headache growing immensely. Mostly my headache."

"You'll get used to it," Kirby muttered right as the argument ended.

"Whatever. We've got more important business to attend to than arguing with a low tier clone of a low tier clone," Dr. Mario claimed.

"H-hey! I'm a semi-clone now! Even if I have no idea what that means!" Luigi argued.

"Good for you, you're still worse than me. But enough about you or any stupid clones you may have, I have a patient to examine and restore to health, so if you'll excuse me, I'll be rushing him to the infirmary, wherever that may be."

"Considering how slow your fat legs are, you won't be able to rush them anywhere, you hypocrite," Metal Luigi scoffed. Dr. Mario groaned as he gave the metallic Luigi a cold glare. The doctor snapped his fingers, causing an ambulance driven by Nurse Peach to fall down and crush Metal Luigi. Nurse Peach got out of the ambulance and helped put Villager in the back of the vehicle before the two doctors climbed into the front.

"By the way, Metal Luigi. That rumor about me not having as much exercise as Mario, the reason why I'm supposedly fat and slower than that low tier? It's a lie, nothing but a misleading lie."

~Fever stops~

Everyone stepped away from the ambulance before Nurse Peach slowly drove it towards the area behind the palace where the infirmary was. Metal Luigi sprung back up as soon as the ambulance was out of sight, even angrier than before.

"Once that kid's out of the infirmary, I'm going to make sure the doc will be examining himself. More specifically, all of his soon-to-be broken bones," the metallic Luigi cursed, scaring Metal Mario a bit.

"I dare say, what is with that Dr. Mario fellow's attitude?" Toadsworth wondered.

"He's a narcissist Toadsworth, that's all there is to it," Toad answered.

"Yeah, he's been that since the halfway point of the second tournament, and all we know is that he speaks with terms that he apparently learned on the Internet," Fox pointed out. "What I'd like to know is why he is even here in the first place."

"I'll explain that latter. We've got another tale to tell first," Master Hand said. "Mind doing the honors, Olimar?"

"I'm not really sure if you can call it "the honors", but most certainly," Olimar replied.

~Emergence Cave (Olimar) from Pikmin 2 starts to play~

"Villager and I decided to work together to find our way to these grounds after we met at the train station in Smashtopolis. On our way here, we climbed up a large hill not too far away from here to try and find this place," Olimar began.

"Assist Trophy Hill? It's the only large hill near here," Master Hand informed.

"Must be. Either way, things were fine until we reached the top of the hill. That's where we met three creatures that we couldn't even see through the moonless night last night. All I know about those three is that they referred to each other as "bro"."

"Mario and Luigi did it then!" Crazy insisted, grabbing Luigi. "Who is the third perpetrator, green boy?! WHO ARE THEY?!"

"Bro, someone, help!" Luigi cried out.

"See, there's our proof! We need no more proof than that!" Crazy babbled.

"Crazy, put Luigi down right now! Those two couldn't have done such a thing when they were sleeping here the whole night!" Master Hand pointed out. Crazy sighed and forcefully threw Luigi back down at the ground. Mario instantly ran over to comfort his brother as everyone stared at Crazy.

"... As I was saying, those three unknown beings referred to each other as brothers. Not long after we noticed their presence, those three got into a fight, but before they fought, one of them demanded for some "guys in the back" to deal with us. Those "guys in the back" are even more of a mystery than that trio, but they managed to cause a small earthquake to send us flying off the hill somehow. I managed to land fairly well, but... well, I think you already know what happened to Villager."

"Hmm... everyone, we're going to have a meeting in one hour to discuss how we're going to do about those beings at Assist Trophy Hill. Make sure you finish breakfast and whatever else you're doing before then," Master Hand stated. Everyone nodded before heading back into the Smasher's Palace.

XxXx

~Emergence Cave (Olimar) stops~

Snake was still unconscious, and now bounded in rope, leaning against the wall within a meeting room as two Crobat loomed over him. A long table stood before them, and between them and the table was King Dedede and his second-in-command, Bandana Dee, the latter holding onto some papers. Behind the table was a robed being just like the three that hung around the Smash Grounds the day before, with a purple robe and a black crown on their head, the Alakazam that helped with last night's robbery, and quite a few of Dedede's other soldiers, mostly generic Waddle Dees, Bronto Burts, and Capsule J2s.

"So what's the plan, great king?" one of the Bronto Burts asked. Dedede mulled over it for a bit, rubbing his head as he thought about just what to do with him.

"I say we make him starve!" the purple robed being suggested.

"NO, WE SHALL TAKE HIM TO THE MOON AND THEN BLOW THE MOON UP WITH A GIANT LASER," one of the Capsule J2s said in their robotic voice.

"Let's sell him to the place those guys robbed last night!" one of the Waddle Dees suggested before some of his own kind decided to beat him up for his awful idea.

"Meh. We'll figure out what we'll do with him later. I guess we'll just throw him in the dungeon for now," Dedede said.

"I don't think we can do that," the Alakazam said. "From what I heard from Mewtwo earlier, the dungeon's nearly full of prisoners and traitors as is. Even ignoring that, considering just how stealthy he is, he'd probably find a way out, or maybe even bust everyone out of there."

"Hmm... you're right, but I have an idea. We were needing a second stronghold anyways, so we'll take over the old Brawl Grounds and imprison him there. Even if he does escape there, he won't be busting anyone free, and he doesn't even seem to know where this lair is anyways, considering he was in a box all this time," Dedede pointed out. "Bandana Dee, you're going to lead the mission to take Snake there. Most of you are going to be joining him, and I'm hoping some of the other leaders can afford to send out some of their own goons. You all got that?"

"Er... yes, g-great king..." Bandana Dee muttered.

"AYE AYE SIR!" most of Dedede's minions yelled, loud enough to leak out of the lair and into the outside world above.

"Hey! Keep it down! You'll wake him up!" Dedede warned.

"Who're the ones making all that racket?!" Kamek demanded to know as he barged in, flying on his magic broom. "Lord Bowser and Ganondorf are trying to have a very important conversation!"

"He did it!" one of the Waddle Dees said, pointing at the same Waddle Dee that got beaten up before.

"Fool!" Kamek cursed before firing a magic spell at the poor Waddle Dee.

"No, I was being quiet!" the Waddle Dee cried out before the magic spell touched his adorable face. The spell caused the room to get filled to the brim with a blinding light.

~Air Fleet from Shadow The Hedgehog starts to play~

However, when the light faded, it was revealed that instead of being harmed by the spell, the innocent Waddle Dee had transformed. Now the size of Dedede himself, incredibly buff arms, and full hands, the Waddle Dee turned slightly to give an angry glare to all of those who beat him up just moments prior, all of them sweating and backing away.

"Uh... that's... not what I had in mind, but I suppose that, uh... ended well?" Kamek stuttered.

"Heh, sure did end well. Seems like you're a little rusty on your magic though. Might want to do something about that, buddy," Dedede said.

"Er... yes. Yes I should," the elderly Magikoopa muttered before flying back out.

~Air Fleet stops~

"Well, I'm definitely sending you out on this mission too, big guy," Dedede said to the buff Waddle Dee.

"The name's Waddle Buff now. I'd prefer if you'd call me that instead of "big guy" for now on, great king."

"Yeah... sure. Well, you all better get ready. The robed boy and I need to have a talk with the other leaders before you go," Dedede said. Both the king and the purple robed being left the room first before all the Waddle Dees that attacked Waddle Buff ran out.