Rosalina hummed to herself for a few seconds as she walked down the pathway from the Comet Observatory, her home rocketing through the galaxy. Approaching the habitable edge of her realm she came to a stop, continuing to hum out into the vast, twinkling, abyss of space.

…

"Oh, right!" Rosalina remembered what she'd walked out there to do. "Master Hand! I found someone!" Rosalina called out into the darkness, and went back to humming while she waited patiently. About a minute later, a giant disembodied hand appeared in front of her, completely enveloped in a white glove, and levitating just off the comet's ledge.

"Greetings, Rosalina." Master Hand broadcasted its thoughts to her telepathically. "You know you can just summon me inside the Comet Observatory? Or even fly the Observatory over to my headquarters?"

"You freak out the Luma" Rosalina pouted, "You travel through time and space and have psychic powers…can't you just magic yourself a body?"

Master Hand laughed, "You of all people should know that creation doesn't work that easily…"

Rosalina smiled, "I know" she chirped cheerily, "just stay away from the Luma please."

"As you wish" the ethereal hand nodded slightly with its knuckles, "You said you had found the penultimate contestant for the Smash Bros League?"

"Yes! He's from the Alpha-dimension of Earth and-"

"Pass"

Master Hand turned and began fading away. Rosalina puffed out her cheeks and jumped off the comet. She struck Master Hand with a spin kick just before he disappeared, the force of the kick propelling her back onto the ledge. Master Hand slowly swivelled, materialising back fully into reality, Rosalina could feel it mentally exerting extreme levels of annoyance. Master Hand was a gentlemanly being of great intelligence, but any time it took physical damage there were usually dire consequences for the culprit.

"Just let me explain" Rosalina squeaked, surprised at her own bravery, assaulting the right hand of God (as rumour had it). "You never give anyone from Alpha-Earth a chance! This fighter, he has a big heart and-"

"Rosalina! My tournament is not a charity case! Any time I've given an Alpha-Earth warrior a probationary run on the Smash Bros circuit they've always performed poorly. Gilgamesh, Hercules, Merlin, how will your nomination succeed where some of Alpha-Earth's greatest legends have failed?"

Rosalina smiled and tilted her head to one side innocently, happy that she had at least forced some dialogue on the matter. "My nomination is a boxer, Little Mac, he works hard and never gives up."

…

"Was that your entire sales pitch? I'm not sure why you think this Little Mac is any better than the previous Alpha legends-"

"It's because he isn't a legend that I believe he will go far in Smash Bros. He has no ego, no chip on his shoulder, he believes in his own ability, but he also believes that he doesn't have a chance against the Little Mac of tomorrow."

Master Hand remained silent, Rosalina took this as a positive sign to continue.

"When we plucked Gilgamesh and Hercules out of their timelines, they were at the peak of their powers, it made sense. But they had no drive to improve, they were demi-Gods, strong of mind and muscle, but weak of heart. Faced with the impossible odds of fighting alien life forms with magical powers, they gave up and returned to a place where they could rule without challenge… Little Mac isn't like that! …I know he will give it his everything, he has never backed down from a fight and he never will!"

Master Hand pondered for a moment, Rosalina was flushed with excitement, the usually graceful princess was quite worked up over Little Mac's potential candidacy.

"I see…heart and will aside, is he physically good enough to compete with my competitors?"

Rosalina nodded excitedly, "He's only human…but I think his pure punching power will be a devastating weapon in the league!"

"And is he ready? How far ahead in his timeline do I have to go to find him at the peak of-"

"NO!"

There was a stunned silence at the edge of the comet, Rosalina and Master Hand were both a little shocked at the outburst.

"What I meant to say is… Little Mac needs this challenge now, his life is at a cross roads…he's searching for happiness and I think he'll find it in your competition." Rosalina composed herself slightly, watching the highs and lows of Little Mac's night had had a profound effect on her. She had laughed and cried, cheered him on in his title defence, and yelled at the reporters to leave him alone at the end of his press conference. Luma wandering past the princess had been startled by her animated demeanour, rooting for an invisible protagonist millions of kilometres away, but not deterred from her presence, the princess radiated kindness and compassion.

"Master Hand, please give him a shot in the Smash League, he won't let you down!" Rosalina bowed, awaiting the final decision.

Master Hand spun upside down and began scratching his palm with his ring finger thoughtfully. "You say this Little Mac can mix it with the universe's top fighters? A plain human, exchanging blows with my space heroes, swordsmen, and Pokemon?"

Rosalina nodded, quivering with anticipation for Master Hand's answer.

"…This is something that I want to see."

"THANK YOU MASTER HAND!" Rosalina teetered on the edge and hugged one of Master Hand's outstretched fingers. "You won't regret it!"

"We'll see…" Master Hand replied delicately, poking Rosalina back safely onto the comet, "I'll trust you this time Rosalina, I just hope your heart hasn't gotten in the way of your head."

Rosalina sighed with relief and began making her way back to the observatory.

"One more thing."

Rosalina turned back around, only to be sent flying. Master Hand swooped in and swatted her entire body, sending her crashing back to the Comet Observatory the hard way.

"Don't kick me." And with that, he melted into oblivion, on to further preparations.

Rosalina stared up into space, still lying where she had hit the ground at the entranceway of the observatory. "I guess I had that coming" Rosalina laughed quietly to no one in particular. Some Luma made their way over to see what the commotion was, and promptly started using their guardian as a trampoline. It's up to you now, Little Mac.

OoOoooOoooOoO

Sunlight filtered through the dusty windows of Doc's Bronx gym, the dawn silence shattered by the squeaking of boots, and the barrage of advice. Even with his future in doubt, Little Mac still had the passion for early morning training.

"Atta boy Mac, jab! Jab! Harder! You can't just throw your arm out there son, you gotta mean it!"

Little Mac danced around the ring, firing off jabs as fast and as hard as he could. His opposition was a punching bag…being manoeuvred around the ring by Doc Louis, hugging it around the middle and yelling advice out from behind it. Doc blindly charged, forcing Mac into a series of sidesteps, escaping the corner he'd been trapped in.

"That's some fancy footwork baby, but where's the mustard? Give this clown a little sting on the way out! What are we practicing sidesteps or JABS!"

Little Mac nodded, annoyed at himself for his lapse in concentration, at heart he was still a defensive boxer, landing hits while retreating was a foreign concept in his old playbook.

Doc charged again, swinging the punching bag left and right wildly, forcing Little Mac to wait until the last second to choose his escape route…left! As Little Mac had expected, Doc had pushed him to his weaker side, but being ready for it certainly helped. As Little Mac sidestepped away, lunging his head backwards to duck out of the range of an imaginary attack, he swept his left arm forward, hitting two soft, prodding, jabs on the punching bag's would-be facial region, before withdrawing completely and skipping back to the centre of the ring.

"Not bad Mac, not bad, you still gotta get a little more oomph on them jabs, but it's a helluva improvement kid. My advice would be to either time it better to fire off more of them rapid prods you like so much, or put your weight into it and hit one good jab on the way out."

Little Mac nodded in agreement, a thoughtless escaping punch that lacked damage wasn't worth the risk.

A sudden knock on the door interrupted another attempt, Little Mac and Doc looked at each other, baffled. "Who in the hell…" Doc rolled out of the ring and opened the door, annoyed that their training session had been delayed.

"Special delivery, I got a parcel here for a Mr. Little Mac!"

"Its 6am" Doc said slowly, "I didn't think the post ran this early."

"Neither did I" the postman muttered darkly under his breath, "but when money changes hands…" Little Mac jogged up to the door and received the parcel, balancing it carefully on his boxing gloves, it was medium sized and something was rolling around inside.

"Good fight last night, kid", the postman smiled sleepily at Little Mac before dragging his feet back to his delivery van and taking off. The pair shuffled back inside, inspecting the mysterious package, still precariously lodged inside Little Mac's boxing gloves.

"Did you order anything Mac?"

Little Mac shook his head.

"Yeah me neither, want me to open it?"

Little Mac nodded excitedly. They sat down on the nearest workout bench, Doc started carefully unwrapping the packaging. And then he unwrapped it some more. And some more. A minute passed and Doc was still unwrapping, tearing off the paper in chunks now. The box wasn't getting any smaller, it defied the laws of physics.

"W-what is this magic?" Doc hastily dropped the package back down on the bench, "This is some weird voodoo Mac, the wrapping keeps regenerating itself or something!"

Little Mac couldn't believe his eyes, the box was still completely intact. They both slowly backed away and peered at the package from behind some lockers, expecting it to snap at them or blow up, or do something any minute.

"Mac…Maaaaaac" Doc whispered.

"What?"

"…Run over there and give it a punch"

"I'M NOT DOing that" Mac yelled before catching himself and returning to whispering.

"You want a poor defenceless old man handling the magic box? You are the world champion"

Little Mac glared up at him, "I've never fought a magic parcel!"

"And you think I have?"

"You are quite a bit older than me" Little Mac shrugged.

"Why you!" Doc shoved Little Mac out into the open, shooing him with his hands when Mac turned around to look at him indignantly. "You can do it son!" Doc whispered as loud as he dared, before scuttling back behind the locker.

Little Mac gulped, turning back again to look at the parcel, sitting there on the bench innocently where it had been dropped. There is only one way to do this… "HAAAAAAAAAA!" Little Mac pulled his fist back, sprinted three paces, and leapt into the air. "-AAAAAAHHHH!" Little Mac came slamming back down, smashing the box as hard as he could, using the now trademark overhead motion of his Jolt Haymaker.

The box absorbed the destructive force of the punch, bouncing off the bench and toppling over to the corner of the room, coming to a rest completely intact. Little Mac remained frozen on the spot, waiting to be cursed or struck by lightning, but nothing happened.

"So, what now?" Doc called out. Little Mac cautiously walked over to the parcel and nudged it with his foot a couple of times.

"What are you doing? You're going to wake it up! Or blow it up! Just leave it alone!" Doc hissed from the other side of the room.

"It's for me"

"Yeah Mac I know that! But that's some serious bad juju-"

"No…I mean it's calling for me."

Little Mac knelt down and ripped his gloves off. His hands shaking, he reached out and began unwrapping it.

"Don't do it Mac!" Doc ran across the room, unable to take it anymore. Just as he reached Little Mac the parcel burst open, knocking both of them flat on their back. A shiny metal ball whizzed around the room, finally settling in the middle of the gym after a couple of laps, hovering about a metre and a half off the ground.

Doc's eyes were bulging out of his head, "U-U-U-U-F-O?" he stammered. After staring at the levitating orb for a minute, Little Mac slowly turned his attention back to the parcel. Unlike Doc, it had only taken him a few seconds to get through the paper packaging. The second a hole had been made however the metallic ball had blasted through. Still remaining in the box was a solitary sheet of paper, Little Mac picked it up and began reading it.

…

"You wanna spill the beans for the rest of us or just keep reading it in your head?"

"Oh, right, sorry"

Dear Mr. Little Mac,

You are hereby formally invited to join the Super Smash Bros Circuit. Here, you will be given a place as an active competitor in the Smash Brothers League (SBL). In live televised events, competitors will fight in my stadium arenas, there are no rounds and no time limits, a loss only occurring by ring out.

I promise you the level of competition is extremely high, higher than anything you could ever experience in your own world.

Should you choose to accept, please attack the Smash Ball that is hovering nearby. If you are able to deal sufficient damage, a teleportation field will be activated, transporting you, and anyone else in that field, to my headquarters.

Should you choose to decline, please do nothing, the Smash Ball will disappear in 5 minutes.

Any further questions, queries, or quandaries, will be answered if you accept this offer.

Yours sincerely,

Master Hand

Little Mac and Doc Louis stared at each, dumbstruck.

"Well, it's gotta be a hoax, I mean, I ain't ever heard of no Smash Brothers League, and 'teleportation'? Come on man."

"But what If it's not?" Little Mac replied softly. "How do you fake a flying magic ball?"

"Oh I don't know Mac, there are probably heaps of gadgets that do that stuff nowadays, I say if you punch that thing, we all gunna get blown up!"

Little Mac stood up and walked over to the ball, inspecting it closely.

"I'm going to do it."

"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?"

"Doc, trust me." Little Mac smiled, the answer to his problems had fallen into his lap. For some reason he knew he could trust the note, like there was a gentle warmth guiding him to the right decision. Now there was only one more thing left to figure out…

"But, how, why, you can't be-"

"Doc, will you come with me?"

Little Mac cut across Doc Louis' babbling and extended his hand. Doc looked at it warily before sighing in defeat. "Aw hell, if you're going then I'm going, it's not like another boxing prodigy is gunna stumble in here for me to train…" Doc looked at the gym door hopefully for a second, before throwing his head back and laughing heartily. "I'm just messin with ya Mac, we're partners, and I got ya back to the bitter end, now fire away before I change my mind."

Little Mac flashed him a cheeky smile as they shook hands, "Now watch this, Doc." Little Mac put his gloves back on and lowered his centre of gravity in a half-crouch position, throwing his right arm out behind him, almost like a golf swing. "HHHHHH….YAAAAAA" Little Mac exploded off the ground, spiralling upwards, and uppercut the orb with his infamous Star Punch.

"Mac baby, not a day goes by that I don't regret teaching you that dumb punch…"

"You love it" Mac teased, waiting for the metallic ball to stop rocketing off the walls.

The Smash Ball eventually readjusted itself and levitated back to the centre of the room, the quiet hum of gears turning could be heard from inside. The ball began vibrating, and then suddenly, a mystical blue sphere of energy expanded out of the ball, surrounding Doc and Mac.

A high whining emitted out of the ball and then a flash! Little Mac was totally disorientated, like someone had taken his photo at close range, but at the same time totally immobile. His head was spinning, but he couldn't do anything to stop it.

Little Mac could barely get his thoughts together before another blinding flash, he found himself staggering around clumsily, which at least meant his movement had returned. He took a deep breath in and forced his eyes open, not sure what to expect.

They were in paradise. Lush green grass covered the ground around them, meeting a crystal blue sky on the horizon. The landscape was dotted with large trees, full of life and colour. The faint twittering of birds rode the warm breeze, the air tickled the skin with a relaxing heat.

"Mac, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore…"

Mac nodded slowly, a little dumbstruck by the change of scenery.

"Welcome to Shōri, Mr. Little Mac."

Mac and Doc spun around, the gigantic hand that floated before them had no presence, they hadn't sensed it watching them at all.

"If you'll be so kind as to follow me…"

The hand beckoned with its fingers before turning and hovering down a brick path.

Aaaand the usual pesky questions in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

Master Hand stopped and turned back around to face Mac and Doc, who both promptly stopped to avoid a collision. Doc Louis seemed a little flustered, a little bug eyed, taking in the impossible form of a huge talking hand, but otherwise calm. Little Mac's face was set, brow furrowed, gaze determined. He didn't care how big the hands were or where they led him, this kid just wanted to fight. Without a word of explanation, Master Hand turned again and continued on the path to Smash Bros headquarters.