A/N: A little bummed that I wasn't able to write and post this chapter on Wednesday (I would've loved to have capitalized on the direct, but work has been pretty crazy this past week.) This is probably for the best because I think this chapter wouldn't have been as good if I just wrote something on the spot, which is exactly what I did with the last chapter and the reason why it's not as good as many of the other chapters haha. Thanks for your patience, and I hope this chapter is much better.

Would love to hear what you guys thought of the direct on Wednesday. I expected a Castlevania character but was kind of surprised that there wasn't any shocking out of left field character reveals (i.e. Wii Fit Trainer back when Smash 4 was announced). Anyway, enjoy the chapter!


Chapter 8 – Vampire Hunters Take On Smash

Once the judges were finished talking about K.K. Slider, Fox did not hesitate to shout for the next fighter to come out and show their moves. While the team wasn't necessarily running behind yet, Fox had a sneaking suspicion that things would eventually go wrong sometime soon. His face was rock solid and stern, he meant business today.

A tall figure in a dark cloak walked onto the stage with a chain in hand. As the figure walked toward the center stage, each of the judges looked at each other in slight confusion, after all, they had no idea who this person was.

"Good morning," Fox began slowly, unable to see the face before him. "May I ask who you are?"

There was a moment of silence before the figure ripped the cloak off, revealing a tall, muscular man with long blonde hair and brown armor. "Sorry, figured I'd make an entrance. I'm Simon Belmont of the Castlevania series," he announced in a quiet, yet deep voice.

Pit gasped at the sight of Simon before his eyes. Pit quickly jumped up from his chair, "I can't believe Simon Belmont is here before me, asking if he can join the roster. I'm such a fan of your work, Mr. Belmont, sir!"

Simon raised his brow, "Uh...thank you for your support, I guess?"

Peach turned toward Samus, "Is it me or is that guy kind of hot" Peach asked, hoping to be discreet as Pit began worshipping the ground that Simon walked on, giving the vampire hunter as many praises in a short amount of time.

Samus turned her head over to Peach and raised her eyebrow, "I thought you were dating Mario, y'know the Italian plumber?"

Peach's seemingly discreet whispering turned into a shout, "No! I am not, and have never, dated Mario! And he's not even a plumber! I've never even seen him unclog a fucking toilet in my life!"

The entire room paused and stared at Peach, who now was wide-eyed, like a deer in headlights. "Oops, sorry, didn't mean to shout that out loud. Carry on!"

"Anyway," Fox cleared his throat. "Simon, tell us about yourself. You must have come a long way to get here considering the fact that you're from the Castlevania world."

"That is correct," Simon nodded. "It took days to travel here so I could stand before you. I am a member of the Belmont clan. For centuries, it has been our duty to slay Count Dracula. Today, I am here to be a part of your fighting competition."

Samus tapped her fingers on the desk, "May I ask why you want to be part of Super Smash Brothers?"

Simon shrugged, "I don't know, I've just been told by a lot of people to audition, so that's why I'm here."

Fox pursed his lips and nodded, "Yeah, that's pretty common."

"Okay, I know this is an unrelated note, but I do have a question for you, uh, Simon, is it?" Peach asked, pressing her finger on her lips, her voice hesitated for a second, "What product of shampoo do you use? Your hair looks amazing!"

Simon squinted his eyes, his mouth slightly open in confusion, "Sham...poo? I have no idea what you're talking about."

The rest of the judges looked at Peach equally confused, to which Peach just shrugged. "Hey, I warned you all it was unrelated. I was just curious. Carry on!"

"Actually, I have a question for you Simo-I mean, Mr. Belmont, sir!" Pit announced, trying to respect the vampire hunter he had such an affinity for. "Do you have any family members or friends here supporting you? Maybe holding up a sign saying something like, 'You can do it, Simon!' or 'You're gonna slay?' We never ask that question here, and I don't know why."

"Because most of the people who audition don't actually have a family?" Little Mac answered slowly.

"Yeah," Peach sighed, "Now that I think about it. I don't think I've ever met my parents. I have no idea who the King and Queen of the Mushroom Kingdom even are! Do they exist? Am I actually the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom?"

"Okay, why is it that we keep getting off track?" Samus grunted, her arms crossed glaring over at Peach and Pit. "You two just keep interrupting this audition. Why are you wasting our time like this?"

"Actually, I do happen to have a family member here. He's backstage," Simon said gesturing toward stage right.

"Can he come on out? I'd love to meet more of the Richter family!" Pit squealed, practically jumping up and down in his seat.

"Uh, sure!" Simon responded. He looked over backstage, to see another muscular vampire hunter with short, dark hair, a gray bandana, and blue armor. Simon motioned over to the man to come onstage with him.

The other vampire hunter walked on stage slowly. The sound of his boots scuffing on the stage echoed in the room. Pit, who was completely starstruck, uttered a loud gasp, "You're Richter Belmont! I can't believe you're here too! I'm a huge fan."

Richter looked over at Simon awkwardly, Simon shrugged as if to say "just go along with it." Richter looked back at the judges, all of whom were nowhere near the excitement of Pit, who was fanboying so hard; His eyes were as wide as his smile, which, at this point, pretty much covered up his face. His face was turning red from all of the thrills.

Richter nodded, "Yes, I am Richter Belmont. Nice to meet you guys."

Peach smiled, "So what's your relationship with Simon? Are you guys brothers?"

"Oh, no. Not at all," Simon laughed. "He's my descendant. I was born in the 17th century, Richter was born in the 18th century."

Peach paused, "Okay, I have a ton of questions now."

"Well, we don't have the time for it," Samus interjected. Putting her hand on Peach's mouth to shut her up. "Simon, please show us your moves. We can send Luigi out here. I'm sure you could use a punching bag."

"Well, I'm here," Richter responded, raising his hand slowly. "Why don't we just fight each other instead? Could be much more exciting than watching Simon beat the shit out of some guy."

"Yeah, that's true. I feel like I'd just kill him on stage. Just doesn't seem right," Simon interjected.

Little Mac let out a slight laugh, "Honestly, you might be doing us a favor if you kill Luigi."

"At this point, I don't care, just do something," Samus grunted.

Simon and Richter moved toward separate sides of the stage. At first, the two both stood still, bracing themselves for the fight that was about to begin. Simon began to throw his whip across the stage, hitting Richter and stunning him slightly. Richter's response was to toss his cross over at Simon. The cross didn't actually hit Simon but turned back toward Richter. He caught his cross and started running closer to Simon.

The intensity of the fight started to kick in, Simon sent his axe toward Richter, hoping to stun him and make him vulnerable to attack. However, Richter shielded himself from attack. Richter threw a glass of holy water at Simon. As it landed on the ground, Simon was trapped in the water's fire. Richter then used an uppercut to send Simon in the air. Simon swiftly flew up into the air before falling to the ground.

However, Simon didn't quit so easily as he immediately got up from the ground. He flung his whip around in circles as if to taunt Richter to come his way. Richter took the bait, running back toward Simon, throwing an axe to his opponent. Simon dodged the attack and used his whip to push Richter back.

Suddenly without warning, the lighting in the room started to dim, and multicolored flames started to surround Simon. The judges looked at each other in shock, was Simon really about to unleash a Final Smash out of nowhere?

"Wait, I'm so confused. How is that even possible?" Peach asked, turning her head toward Fox and Samus.

Samus's mouth was wide open, and she was left almost speechless...almost, "I have no idea. Final Smashes aren't determined until after auditions when we have the entire cast."

"How could he possibly have his Final Smash already?" Fox asked, knowing that nobody would have an answer to his question. "The Smash Ball isn't even in play."

Simon grunted loudly as the Final Smash started to begin. He trapped Richter in a brown coffin, trapping his descendent in with his whip. Simon's whip helped launch Richter into the air, and through some type of magic energy (or at least that's how the judges saw it), Simon flexed as a blue and purple aura attacked the coffin, releasing Richter and sending him flying horizontally into the backstage, ramming into Luigi who was sitting backstage and reading a newspaper. As the two collided, Luigi laid down on the floor, panting. "Why does this keep happening to me?"

"Sorry about that...Luigi, I assume?" Richter asked, helping Luigi up.

Luigi grabbed onto Richter's hand, his other hand rubbing his bruised forehead. "Ugh, thank you," he muttered.

"Alright, well, I've already seen more than enough," Fox announced, as he began to applaud. "Well done to both of you. That was definitely an interesting performance to watch."

The other judges began to applaud as both Simon and Richter returned back to center stage, somehow both seemed completely unscathed.

"I actually have a question for you, Richter," Fox began. "Have you considered joining the Smash roster with Simon. You guys clearly have similar moves, but you can always become Simon's echo fighter."

Richter nodded, "Uh, I mean, I considered it, but...what is an echo fighter?"

"Oh, it essentially means you're a clone of another fighter, in this case, you would be Simon's echo fighter," Samus explained, gesturing her hand over to Simon.

"I mean, in that case, Simon learned some his moves from me. Can we really say he's my echo fighter?" Richter argued calmly.

"It doesn't really matter who echos whom," Fox responded, "Point is, I think you are both worthy fighters for Super Smash Brothers, and after that performance, I don't think it would be fair to include one of you without the other."

"I love that idea!" Pit screamed. "You guys already know I'm a huge fan of both of you, so I say the more the merrier!"

Samus crossed her arms and scoffed, "I mean, you both did a great job, my only concern about having Richter as an echo fighter is that he needs to fill out all of the forms like everyone else who auditioned."

"Uh, I gotta be honest," Little Mac spoke up, "I've never read a single form since I started here, so I don't think that it's really all that necessary. You both kicked ass today."

"Thank you very much," Simon responded lowly, he crossed his arms and let out a small smirk.

Little Mac continued, "I was just curious, Simon, how did you happen to have a Final Smash already? That usually isn't fully determined until after auditions when we have the full cast."

"I'm...not sure, actually," Simon responded, scratching his head. "After all of that fighting, the power just got ahold of me. I honestly don't know how to explain it."

"You know what?" Fox interrupted, taking out a pen and paper. He began writing down "Chargeable Final Smashes" on the lined paper. "I'm a fan of the idea of a chargeable Final Smash on the Battlefield. I'm gonna speak with some of the higher-ups and see if we can make that happen."

Both Simon and Richter nodded in approval, both at a loss for words. As Fox finished writing down his note, he looked over toward the other judges, to see if any of them had anything else to add, "All in favor of including Simon Belmont and his echo fighter Richter Belmont onto the Smash roster?"

A unanimous "I!" echoed in the room as all five judges gave their decision.

"Well then, I guess this makes Castlevania the first third-party series in Smash history with two representatives. Welcome to the team, guys!" Fox announced, once again applauding them.

The other judges applauded before Pit bounced in his seat, "Man! I'm so excited for some Castlevania representation! I'm a huge fan of the music from the series. Mind if I share my favorite song with you all?"

"Pit, no!" Fox shouted, "If you play the song, everyone's going to find out that someone from Castlevania made it onto the roster. You know we're supposed to keep hush-hush about this, right?"

Fox's pleas fell upon deaf ears as Pit began to play some music from his phone. The song echoed throughout the auditorium, and the slight echo could be heard outside the audition area. Wii Fit Trainer opened the door and ran over to Pit, who was jamming out to the song on his phone. She slapped the phone out of Pit's hands. She looked at Pit dead in the eyes, "That is enough evidence of a leak. Someone could have found out that there will be Castlevania representation in Smash Bros!"

A crowd of fighters stood by the door that Wii Fit Trainer left open, listening in on Wii Fit Trainer's rant.

"Hey, wait one second," a short young witch with black hair by the name of Ashley shouted out, forcing everyone in the room to turn over toward the open door. "There's going to be a Castlevania character in Smash? I've gotta tell everyone about this!"

The judges glared over to Wii Fit Trainer, who let out an uncomfortable giggle, scratching the back of her head and blushing nervously. "Oops, sorry about that. Hope this leak doesn't spread. That would be...pretty bad."

The judges didn't say a word as Wii Fit Trainer walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her. Fox turned his head back to Simon and Richter, "Well, congratulations, I guess! Have a good rest of your day."

Simon and Richter didn't say a word as they both slowly exited stage left. The room was now uncomfortably silent, everyone glared at Pit. Pit laughed slowly, "Well, at least this is something we'll laugh about once this is all over...right?"

Pit's response was met with crickets. Fox cleared his throat, not acknowledging Pit's words. "Alright, we're ready for the next fighter!"