Chapter 8: The Eight Colors of Samus
"Huh. I'm still wondering why I didn't look at this one photo back then…" Dedede thought as he walks down the main corridor with the blurry timeline photo on hand.
"Should I tell everyone about this? I mean, I've already spoke a lot about my actual duty, so…"
Suddenly, Pit catches up to the penguin.
"Hey, hello there, Dedede! Pretty early, it seems!"
"Oh, it's you, Pit." Dedede quickly hides his photo in his coat.
"Ah… You look suspiscious, that's why! Let me take a look at it!"
"But! But!" Dedede holds his thick coat tightly to keep Pit from pulling it off.
"No ifs and buts, I want to see it!"
"Please! Listen to me first!"
"Well… okay, then, The Great Creator's right-hand man…" Pit felt annoyed.
"Actually, I'm not sure if I want to talk about this thing again…"
"Hm… The leak?"
"Yes… I've discovered yet another matching photo with yesterday's update…"
"Dedede. Everything about the leak is old news now."
"Huh?"
"Look. You've already told us more than a week ago about a potentially legit leak and, after a sudden mistake that same time, you also revealed yourself to be The Great Creator's assistant a few days after. Since then, we always place our trust in you."
"Uh… What do you mean…?" Dedede scratches his head.
"Before this particular leak, we always make fun of those… um… fake leaks. Even if this leak really is legit, we still won't know until the first day of tournament begins. Dedede, you're the only one we can rely on new info because you're tasked to watch all of our training, while you still have your own training session. I can't imagine how you do that, but it doesn't matter. Even if we're still aware of that specific leak, we consider ourselves to simply ignore it. The Great Creator might be aware of this. I'm thinking that he had no choice but to show pictures matching the leak because of how fully accurate the look-alike photos are."
"…So?"
"The Great Creator didn't punish you and allowed you to explain about yourself not because he simply gave you the permission. It's because he's literally giving up against the leaks! Even though there are still other things that are yet to be confirmed, those leaks have done a lot to him I guess…"
"Uh… I think your wording is too harsh. I don't think The Great Creator would like that…"
"Oops. Sorry. Was it really that harsh?! (I'm sorry, The Great Creator…) Anyway, it still doesn't change the fact that some of those leaked photos have proven to be actually related to this tournament. The only mystery is just who had the chance to take photos of our important trainings…"
"Yeah. When you think about it, we haven't discussed about the culprit."
"We should talk about this later, Dedede. For the time being, let's forget about those leaks. We're nearing the tournament's first day, so those leaks should not matter to us, no matter how accurate they look."
Dedede nods in agreement, then the two walk down the main corridor to The Gathering Point.
A couple hours later…
At The Gathering Point, the current day's update consists of three pictures. The first two show the eight different suits of Samus, while the last one shows a group of four different Villager variations. Right after this, one of the fighters, Villager, is suddenly greeted by the same group of Villagers who arrived from one of the portal corridors. The group consists of two male and two female Villagers. One male Villager wears a purple shirt with the number "4" on it, while the other wears a light blue and white striped shirt. One female Villager wears a light green dress, while the other wears a dark blue and yellow striped dress.
"So… it seems that I can wear one of the eight different kinds of suits now. I'm wondering about my Zero Suit form…" Samus thought.
"Aw… Those Villagers are cute…" Peach commented.
"Now, Sam… What do you think of this? That's just for your usual form!" Dedede asked Samus.
"Actually, I'm indifferent about this, but the fact that I can finally wear more suits compared to the previous tournament just makes me feel fine about this. No objections."
"Actually, it's not just for you. See those Villagers? I know it's not something to compare because the "actual" Villager himself doesn't change his outfit, but Villager now has eight variations too!"
"…?"
"Okay, to put this simply, actually all of us here can now either wear eight different costumes or have eight different variations!"
"Wait. Are you serious?" Pit said.
"Of course! Remember when you called me "The Great Creator's right-hand man", hm?"
"Heh… You're just being silly that time. But anyway, this is awesome!"
"I wasn't acting silly…" Dedede thought.
"Wait a minute… Speaking of costumes… um… never mind."
Dedede just shrugs. He then walks up to Samus again.
"Varia… Gravity… Fusion… Dark… Light…"
"What are blabbering about, Sam?" Dedede asked.
"…I'm just mentioning my other suits that these alternate suits based on."
"Isn't it nice to wear something that is already familiar to you?"
"Hmph."
Looking at the second picture depicting her other alternate suits, Samus then notices something.
"The black one…"
"Why's that? Is it also based on another one of your suits?"
"No. And I don't think you really remember that black suit when we were training."
"Eh?"
"It's Dark Samus."
"Oh… Your evil counterpart, isn't it? It doesn't really matter in the world of Smash!"
Samus just feels annoyed because of Dedede.
Meanwhile, in Wolf's room, Snake, Wario and Wolf himself are enjoying some feast instead of waiting in the their usual room with the others.
"Yum! I'll never have enough of these!" Wario devours a pile of apples.
"Heh. After the whole time we're waiting, being threatened to be kicked out and failed to find any more leaks, I have to say we have to enjoy our last days in this world." Wolf said as he grabs some bread.
"Being *munch* threatened? *gobble*"
"Oh. You never know? It's a bad thing you didn't join us days ago."
"Eh? I was too busy in my room. I was flooded with those pesky fan art mails!"
"Eheh. You're pretty lucky back there." Snake said as he takes a bite out of a banana.
"Grr… Those mails look like as if they never stop coming! Once I saw a picture of me wearing that blue suit as worn by that Samus! And there's another picture of me looking like a blob! WAH!"
"Your fans seem to be really that obsessive… heh."
"Enough of that, let's keep eating and we'll be all finished, hehehe…" Wolf said to Snake and Wario.
Author's Note: I have a feeling that some of the chapters don't look as good as I thought. Because I tend to base my idea on the current "Pic of the Day", the result of a chapter can either end up as being average or pretty lackluster/mediocre/whatever bad impression in it. Also, I'm still trying to improve my writing ever since I stopped writing stories long ago, fanfic or not.
