8: New Year Special 2017

"Thank you to everyone for gathering here in the auditorium." Master Hand floated onto the center of the stage, standing in front of the lectern. "I know it may be tiring to stay awake all the way, but this is for the sake of having fun and enjoying the new coming year." He pointed to the hanging clock behind, which indicated the exact time- 11:59pm. "I praise you all for being able to stay awake."

"Oh, get real, brother!" Crazy Hand laughed and pushed his brother asides.

"What the- Crazy!" the right hand said.

The left hand shrugged. "As if anyone would be tired at this point," he pointed out. "Who the heck would dare go to sleep before New Year?"

The Smashers, albeit slightly worried of Crazy Hand hijacking the last announcement of 2016, nodded in agreement. Master Hand looked around and sighed. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. I apologize, I was planning on starting on a serious note but..." Then he suddenly grabbed the lectern and threw it behind him, everyone gasping. "Forget that! All Smashers, let's start the party! All the announcements and stuff shall come tomorrow!" He pointed in a random direction of the crowd. "Start the countdown! Ten seconds left!"

Very few seconds were wasted on deciding who would lead the countdown. Eventually, Captain Falcon jumped up on some chairs.

"Now that's more like it!" Captain Falcon cheered, everyone starting to get excited and turning to him. "Everyone, I'll lead! Ready?"

"Ready!" almost everyone replied.

Mario and Luigi nodded to each other. "Three!"

Toon Link and the other kids laughed together. "Two!"

Several swordsmen, along with Lucina, raised their arms energetically. "One!"

Captain Falcon, with his right fist scorching in flames, threw his hand up. "Falcon... Start!"

At that moment, everyone erupted into cheers.

Several party poppers went off, balloons were released into the air, ornaments and lights glowed.

The party wasn't limited to only Smashers- several non-Smashers had gathered too and they were participating equally in the celebration. Enemies and friends became no more than comrades, drinking and laughing and roaming around wildly.

A new year had arrived, and the old one had left. 2017 was here, and the Smashers knew they were all going to have a wild time.

"Oh, yeah!" Bowser rushed onto the stage and yanked a mic off the lectern. "I'll show you guys how to rap good stuff!"

"Bowser can rap?" Marth asked.

Ganondorf grinned. "Yeah, and fella's actually good at it."

"Oh, damn. You go, big guy!" Ike cheered.

His son Bowser Jr. also took in a deep breath. "Yeah, do your best, Papa!"

Nearby, Zelda was lecturing Ashley. "No, young lady. You cannot drink these!"

"But why?" the young witch asked. "I'm sure it isn't that bad, you know..."

"You're like, fifteen years old!" the princess answered.

"That's just what the westernization assumed!"

She rubbed her chin. "Okay then... you're like, nine or ten?"

"That's also assumption!"

Popo stepped into the conversation. "Technically, they never confirmed Ashley's real age." Then he walked away to get some punch, which Captain Falcon decided to steal from him, causing a fun chase around the room.

Zelda shrugged. "Well, I'm not sure about that stuff, but girl it is still too dangerous." She raised her arms. "What if it ends up badly for you? Who knows what the consequences are!?"

Pouting, the witch turned away. "Fine... whatever. I didn't want it anyways, hmph!"

As the Hylian princess sighed, someone staggered over to her. "Huh?" She turned around, and Rosalina embraced her. "R-Ross? What's, uh, wrong?"

The light blonde haired princess hiccuped. "Zelllll..." she moaned. "This party is... wiiiiild, hehe..he..."

"Ross, are you drunk?" Zelda asked. "Were you drinking too much?"

"Ms. Rosalina drinks?" Ashley wondered.

"Yeah, good question. Ross, I didn't know you drink."

As if offended, Rosalina stepped away and pouted. "Zel, you-" she paused and hiccuped, "-you, didn't... didn't know? That's, s-stupid..." Another hiccup. "I'm going to, ugh, going to... hafta pu, punish you..."

"P-punish me?" the Hylian repeated. "How are you going to do that?"

"W-with, why, with this!" Rosalina then leapt onto the other princess.

"W-whoa, Ross! W-wait, eek!"

Ashley only stared at the scene, her face turning red as she witnessed Rosalina being drunkenly intimate with her friend.

Ignoring that commotion, going back to the stage, Bowser had been mocked by King Dedede, provoking him into starting a rap battle between the two.

"So in this corner we have the great King of the Koopas, Bowser!" Megaman said as he pointed to the first battler. Everyone roared with excitement. "In the other corner, we have the King of Dreamland, King Dedede!" he said. More cheers erupted from the audience.

Some were chanting Bowser's name, some were chanting Dedede's name, the party going completely wild.

"You wanna give up now before you lose, punk?" Bowser asked, grinning.

"Over Kirby's dead body!" Dedede exclaimed.

"P-poyo?" Kirby called from the stage.

"Shut up, Kirby."

Megaman coughed, getting everyone's attention. "Anyways, the beat shall be performed by me, ROB and Mr. Game & Watch!" More cheers. "Get ready, Smashers! Aaaand... go!"

Bowser brought the mic to his jaw. "Look who's back- it's the fat ugly duckling! The whiny, greedy, stupid, poor excuse of a king!" he began. "I fight a super plumber and the powers that he got, you fight a pink blob who really sucks a lot!" He pointed to the duck Smasher, who had been nodding to the beat. "You're a penguin, Dedede, you don't scare me- the only crime you've done is the stealing of food. I don't clown around, I go around kidnapping princesses but you're just a worthless piece of fat! You're just a lame dude!"

"Sit back down, Mr. King of all Fails!" Dedede retorted. "Plumbers are the only thing that you've ever felled! The amount of times you've lost is ten times your number of kids, and you got controlled by paint? You're a villain full of shit!"

"Language!" Peach yelled. She was ignored by the rapping Smasher.

"Why the heck ya putting axes in your castle levels? It's like you want to lose to your friends, M and L!" Dedede shrugged and pointed to the Koopa King. "I may be a duck, but nobody gives a fuck! You call yourself a Koopa? You were once a green crocodile, sucka!"

The battle continued between the two, flaring the audience even more.

Meanwhile, at the balcony of the mansion, Master Hand floated as he looked down at his Smashers who were enjoying the party. "Must be nice to be young..." he murmured, holding a giant glass of wine.

"I-a think the party is going nicely," Mario said as he stepped up besides the hand's right, looking down.

"Heh. Yeah, sure seems to be going nicely." The giant right hand put the giant glass of wine down behind me. "I just... am still worried, I suppose."

"About-a what?" the Italian plumber asked the leader of the mansion. "We are all-a capable fighters, improving thanks to the tournament and thanks to-a you. Ever since the Subspace Emissary caused by-a Tabuu, we've been training to make-a sure the same mistakes aren't-a made." He took a sip from his own glass. "Whatever else could-a happen?"

Samus then stepped up to Master Hand's left. "Heh, I think maybe you just need to chill too, Master Hand."

"Samus..." the right hand said. "...I suppose you are right..."

Laughing, Mario patted the hand of creation's back. "There's-a nothing to worry about, Master-a Hand. If anything even happens at all, we will make sure to keep everyone-a safe."

"You have my word on that," the female bounty hunter added.

"I..." Master Hand seemed to smile. "Thank you, Mario. Thank you, Samus... you guys, from the original twelve... thank you all." He looked at the party in the garden from the balcony. "The Smashers, the Assist Trophies, everyone... they're all like family to me now."

"Same-a here," Mario said.

"Heh. Well, I guess I should go and try to enjoy the party too." Master Hand took a thinking pose, tapping his fingers on the rails. "What should I do though?"

Chuckling, Samus raised a finger. "Why not do some stunt as our Handy Man character?" she asked. "I personally find that hobby cute. Everyone likes to have a superhero persona. Why don't you go?"

"I see. I suppose I shall do just that." Master Hand glowed, albeit not too bright so he wouldn't get everyone's attention. Within a few seconds, he was now wearing the attire he used for his superhero hobby. "I always had a thing for this, and I sure won't be stopping this soon." Chuckling, the hand floated up and down from the balcony into the garden. "Iiiiiiit's Handy Man to the rescue!"

"There he-a goes..." Mario said before he chuckled as well. "Even Master-a Hand has his playful side too, I-a see."

"Of course," Samus answered. "That guy's always wanted fun. The old days in the first tournament, now those were really good times... fella's just lonely, too." She then thought about Crazy Hand and laughed. "Pretty nice how he grew up, unlike Crazy Hand who just... went crazy."

Mario laughed too. "Yeah, those were-a crazy times... oh, isn't that-a Zelda?" he said.

The bounty hunter looked down and saw the Hylian princess on a table in the garden, sitting on top. "Yeah, that's... is she and Rosalina... huh?" The two princesses below were locked in a fierce kiss, their faces red, Zelda sitting on the table while Rosalina was basically trying to deepen the kiss as much as she could. "Oh, shit... they're both drunk as hell!"

Sighing, Mario grabbed the balcony rail. "I'll go-a stop the thing... kids shouldn't be watching-a that," he said. Samus was confused for a second before looking again- Ashley was still watching the two go at it, her face really red. "I got-a this. You stay here."

"Heh. You go, Mario." Samus waved a bye to the iconic Smasher and watched as he jumped down to the garden and rushed over to stop the intense kissing session. She sighed as her eyes moved around, witnessing others' enjoyment one by one. "A family, huh..." Samus whispered. "...sounds like a nice thing."

"Samus..." a voice said from behind her.

"Oh, Master Hand. You're back?" she asked and turned around. The bounty hunter frowned when she saw that it was not Master Hand, but his brother, Crazy Hand. "Crazy. What are you... you're not enjoying the party?" she asked, surprised. The hand didn't respond, so Samus assumed he was going to prank her any second. Resigning to her fate, she chuckled. "Well, whatever. Bring it, Crazy... whatever prank you got, do your best. I'll get revenge though. Haha."

Then, Crazy Hand floated to besides her. "Samus Aran."

"Hm?" She frowned. Then she noticed. Crazy Hand wasn't twitching crazily like a maniac at all. He was... calm and composed. And his tone was... serious. She narrowed her eyes. Whenever Crazy Hand isn't being crazy like usual, some people may be confused or scared but Samus knew it meant one thing- it was serious business.

She looked back to Master Hand, dressed up as Handy Man, who had been conversing with Luigi and Meta Knight.

Perhaps the promise to keep everyone safe will become slightly harder, assuming trouble was coming.

She turned back to Crazy Hand.

"...I'm listening."