CHAPTER 1: WELCOME TO THE SMASH MANSION!

The ride from his castle to the Smash Mansion was new to him. He almost made the wrong turn at the Salsa Land and Yoshi Island. (How many times had I come these far? Bowser questioned himself.) The ride through the portal station from Mario franchise to Super Smash Brothers franchise was amazing. He never knew it before that there's such a modern technology in his world. Well, he did meet up with Donkey Kong before, but he wasn't the one who travel through portal to visit them so he had no idea. He might need to write these down his diary later.

Upon arriving at the front of the mansion, he parked his car at the parking lot with mushroom logo on the floor. Was it for Peach's carriage? He didn't care.

Stuff was unloaded and his car was locked, Bowser carried everything to the giant front double door.

The Koopa looked upward. So this is the smash mansion, he thought. The whole mansion was made with fine cut stone. Wooden window frames can be seen from where he was standing. The design was pretty simple and flat; no wall pattern and simply decorated with bushes, which apparently were just being watered by someone.

Enough observation, Bowser turned the door knob and pushed both of them open. The door make a little creak sound, followed by a few people (creatures? animals?) gazed at him for a second before return to their previous focuses.

"Welcome!" clear, middle-aged voice shouted across the hall even before Bowser could observe anything. "Before anything else, we would like to apologize for the delay of an invitation," the voice owner floated toward Bowser, which freaked him out a little bit. A hand that can talk and fly around? Whoa.

"E..er… nevermind, I guess?" the Koopa stuttered.

"But whoa, we did not expect you to arrive this early, the mail has just been sent so we thought-"

"Bah! How can I miss such an interesting thing! Of course I come here as soon as I've got the mail so I could get away from all the fucking boredo- ahh, I mean, being the king of Koopa is pretty boring, and simply I want to get my muscle worked and crush someone."

"Haha, I understand, I understand. By the way, the name is Master Hand. I am in charge of this place along with my brother, Crazy Hand. Umm… he is currently busy with his crazy inventions back in his lab. Anyway, nice to meet you."

"Nice meeting you too. I think you probably know my name already," Bowser offered his hand. They did a hand shake. A hand shaking with a hand feels pretty weird, Bowser thought.

"I suppose you should feel a bit bizarre because you just got to actually shake a hand, haha, get it? See you tonight, make yourself at home," Master Hand pointed jokingly at Bowser before floated away, leaving Bowser stood there, processing whether he should give in the joke or not.

Honestly, it was lame.

"Honestly, it was lame," the vulpine behind Bowser spoke up. "We all here was told the same joke though."

"Errr… yeah. I have to agree with that," the Koopa said as he picked up his bags- wait, where the hell were all his bags?

"He took it, don't worry," the fox spoke up again. "By the way, the name's Fox McCloud. I'm here since the sixty-four."

"Sixty-four?"

"Our previous title, Super Smash Brothers Sixty-four. So basically I was here since the beginning," Fox said with pride.

"Oh, yeah, I heard Mario talk about it but I didn't recall."

"According to the newcomers list you must be… Bowser Koopa from Mario franchise."

"Yes I am."

"Nice to meet you, good or bad news I don't know, but finally every newcomers are here," Fox smiled and offered his hand.

"If only that Hand sent me a letter sooner…" they made a hand shake.

"So this is Bowser we're waiting for?" Interjected the Gerudo Dark Lord, assumed he was talking with Fox previously.

"Oh, well, let me introduce you two," Fox stepped back a bit. "Bowser, this is Ganondorf from Legend of Zelda franchise. Ganondorf, this is Bowser from Mario franchise."

"Nice to meet you," Ganondorf spoke softly and gave a little nod.

"Nice to meet you too," Bowser nodded in respond.

"You're looking great, hope to see you have a good fight in the battle,"

"Thanks," Bowser grinned. Not only he was complimented right at the beginning but that Gerudo guy was also looking good as hell.

Wait, why did he think like that?

"Anyway," the voice of the vulpine interrupted the Koopa's line of thought. "Bowser, let me show you around."

"Oh, okay."

"Wait," interjected the Gerudo Dark Lord again. "I'll go too."

"Come on then!"

During the walk around the Smash Mansion, the three chatted and exchanged their personal information, occasionally greeted everyone they passed by.

"Nice to meet you, Zelda. I'm Bowser from Mario franchise."

"Fuck, for the hundred times already, my name is LINK, not ZELDA!"

"Yeah, he was mistaken countless of times," commented Fox.

"Oooh, sorry, sorry," Bowser bowed down repeatedly.

"It's dinner time!" stated Fox.

"Aaaaaaand we are now arrived at the cafeteria," inserted Ganondorf.

"Seriously, guys," Bowser huffed. "We've been walking around the whole Mansion for like half a day and the last place we visit is the cafeteria! I'm gonna die of starving right now!"

Speaking of which, Bowser haven't eaten anything since breakfast. Seemed like he was too excited back then.

"Haha, calm down, calm down. The food is always-" Fox said as they walked around the corner. "-ready."

Food.

Seemingly infinite amount of food.

Food stalls everywhere.

"Wow…" the Koopa became speechless. Both Fox and Ganondorf were amused by Bowser's reaction.

"Hahah, that was me when I first came here," Ganondorf laughed.

"Me too! Except that was like 4 years ago," Fox joined the laughter.

"…this is… tremendous," the Koopa's mouth was hung open. He had never been to such a crowded cafeteria like this before. Being the king of Koopa restricted him from going places, nor do he has time for that.

"So… let's dig in, shall we?" the vulpine grinned.

"What are we waiting for? LET'S GO!" shouted the Koopa.

The three then strode to the closest food stall marked with Pokémon symbol. Various types of food and drink was neatly arranged. Some of them even have hot steam floating up, indicated that the stall was frequently filled so they never run out of food.

"This one looks tasty," Bowser stared at one of the green fruit in a basket before gently examined it. "What does it called?"

"That's… WAIT!" too late. Before Ganondorf could even warn Bowser, an Aguav Berry was down Bowser's throat.

"YUCK! IT DOESN'T TASTE GOOD AT ALL!" the Koopa could only spitted it away as fast as he could.

"…that's Aguav Berry. It's a bitter berry. For Pokémon only, though."

"AND WHY DON'T YOU TELL ME SOONER?"

"Welp," the Gerudo Lord shrugged, "I didn't think you would eat that right away. You must be so hungry."

"Of course, I am!" the Koopa put the other berry on his hand back to the basket.

"Hehe, your face was hilarious," giggled Ganondorf.

"WHAT!?" Bowser yelled, followed by Fox and Ganondorf's laughter.

After dinner, the smashers were called to the Pokémon stadium. From what Bowser overheard, since everybody was here, it's time for an introduction of newcomers and season opening ritual.

So basically everybody was waiting for Bowser and Bowser only. The season supposed to start like a week ago but because the letter for Bowser was late so everything had to be postponed.

Curse you, Master Hand.

At first Bowser thought there would be just 25 smashers that come to the stadium, but he was wrong. On the stand there are up to thousand creatures, some he knew, some he didn't. He also noticed Goombas, Koopas and Paratroopas. These guys were here even before Bowser got the mail! Fox later explain to him that these creatures work at the backend, either become obstacles of the stage or work as servants in the mansion.

Shortly after everyone settled, a countless amount of floodlights was turned on, illuminated the whole stadium. At the center of the field floated Master Hand on the white wooden podium.

"Good evening, smashers. I reckon the dinner was great as always, yeah?"

"YEAH!" shouted audiences, some chose to applaud instead.

"Well, well. Tonight… is the night. Tonight, is the night we are all united for the first time. No one was left behind, no need to wait for anyone else. Tonight, is the beginning of our season in Super Smash Brothers Melee."

"To the newcomers, Welcome. Allow me to tell you the tale of this place. We are the brawling club, as you might hear from the veterans. The objective of our club is to gather as many people as we could make a contact to this place. We will have fighting sessions and tournaments, which all of smashers will have to attend. We did not just brawl for fun, but also to hone up your fighting skills and analyze each individual's physical ability to fight. After four years of great successfulness Crazy Hand and I had discussed and came into an agreement that we would open for new smashers from a larger array of franchises we could reach. And that is how you newcomers are here! Besides, we had renovated the Mansion and even build more gateways to battlefields so that we have various choice of stages and more battles we can held at a time! Though the renovation price cost an arm and a leg, I do not have any of those so… who cares!"

"To the veterans, welcome back. Some of you might feel unfamiliar to this renewed mansion, but I assure you some parts of it is still the same! Be sure to show the new faces the rope, anyway. I am afraid to say that due to the delay, we will start ranked matches tomorrow. No warm-up matches-"

Master Hand's speech was interrupted by disappointed veterans' groaning and booing.

"Well, I understand that you might feel the need to get your muscle warmed first, but if we had that, we would end up delaying the whole schedule. I know you guys do not want to miss that day so please understand," he waited until the crowd quieted down. "Thank you."

"Alright, I do not want to waste everyone's time because tomorrow will be the first day we have a warm-up tournament and some tutorial for the newcomers. I hereby to declare the Super Smash Brothers Melee is starting… now!"

Like any other Olympic opening ritual, the giant torch in the opposite of the stand was magically burst in flame, marking the beginning of the season, followed by fireworks, people (creatures) cheering, applauding and chanting all over the stadium. The main theme song of the Super Smash Brothers Melee could be heard.

"The flame will never die down until the end of the season," informed Link. "I once threw Mario to that flame and was suspended to join any match for 2 weeks, but Mario had to stay in the hospital for a week. Worth it~" he laughed.

"Alright, smashers, it would be better if all of you go to sleep early. We are going rough tomorrow!" announced Master Hand. As ordered, everyone left the Pokémon stadium and headed back to their bedroom.

Dear diary, I've never thought I would have that weird feeling toward him. I mean, not that I don't like it but it feel just… weird. I've never felt like this before in my life. What happened to me? I'm legibly confused right now.

But one thing I'm certainly sure for now; the Smash Brothers Melee is going to be fun.

END OF CHAPTER 1