A/N: Thanks so much for your patience and support! The past few weeks have been a bit rough so I haven't had the chance to do some writing. The audition in this chapter kind of takes a back seat, but I wanted to do something a little bit different this time around. There will be a couple of changes in the upcoming chapters just to make this more fun and interesting to write, but let me know if these are welcome changes or not. Enjoy!

Chapter 9 – Samus Goes Dark

"Alright, who's next?" Wii Fit Trainer announced to the crowd of fighters backstage, all of whom raised their hands, begging to join the stage next.

All except for one fighter. She separated herself from the crowd, barely visible in the dimly lit area. She stood with her left leg bent slightly higher. While Wii Fit Trainer was trying to decide who would go on stage next, this bounty hunter showed no hesitation. She walked onto the stage confidently, completely avoiding Wii Fit Trainer's radar.

Samus looked up at the stage to see a replica of her Phazon Suit standing before her, immediately shouting "Oh for fuck's sake this is not happening again!"

"What? What's the problem now?" Fox sighed, looking over at Samus slamming her fists down on the table.

Samus grunted, "Take a look for yourself, Fox. Dark Samus is here!"

Fox looked up at Dark Samus, who silently stood before still. "What's the big deal? We've seen her in the past. She used to be an assist trophy."

"Yeah, I know!" Samus argued, "And I was angry to see her then, I didn't think we'd see her now! First Ridley, now Dark Samus? Why does the universe hate me?"

"Okay, so I have a question for you, Samus," Peach asked, turning her head to face Samus. She pointed over at Dark Samus, "So... is this Metroid?"

Little Mac chimed in, "I was about to ask the same question, to be honest."

Samus scoffed, "Ugh, I'm not even going to answer that question. This is some bullshit."

Dark Samus stilled stood in front of the judges, saying nothing. Peach looked back toward Dark Samus and smiled cheerfully, she began to speak louder and much slower, "Hi, Dark Samus. My name is Peach. Do you speak English?"

Dark Samus cackled in a deep voice. Shortly after, a Mii with dark, shoulder length hair and dark eyes walked ran onto the stage, carrying a handful of note cards in her hands. Samus rolled her eyes as the Mii stood next to Dark Samus. While Dark Samus remained silent, the Mii was still getting everything together, "Super sorry, give me one moment! I didn't realize my client was on stage until it was too late."

Pit smiled, "No worries! Take your time!"

"No," Samus grunted. "Let's get this done and over with. I want this trash off of the stage so that we can see better, more original fighters come up here."

Peach gasped, "Oh my gosh, Samus! That's so rude of you to say to that poor Mii! She's just trying to get herself together."

The Mii paused and looked over at Peach, "Did Samus really say that I was trash?"

"No, no no no no no. No!" Samus immediately shouted, in an attempt to save herself. "I called Dark Samus trash because she is awful. Peach technically was the one who called you trash."

The Mii's blank stare turned into a face full of rage, it was now Peach's turn to explain herself.

"I mean," Peach began, her voice starting to trail off, "I'm sorry I misconstrued what Samus was saying. I don't think you're trash, um...sorry I didn't catch your name?"

"My name is Guest D," she began, "And I think you're full of shit, Princess."

Samus let out a sinister grin as Guest D started giving Peach the evil eyes. Peach sat up in her seat, uncomfortably, and shut her mouth.

"Hey, let's actually just skip through the interview and just see your moves?" Little Mac shrugged, attempting to move the audition along.

"I don't think we need to see anything," Samus argued. "She's just going to use the same moves I have. I mean, her name is Dark Samus. We all know Dark Pit is an echo of Pit, I don't think she's going to reinvent the wheel. For that reason alone, I'm saying no. Goodbye!"

"Um, neither of you have the jurisdiction to be speaking right now," Fox interjected. "Dark Samus, Guest D, as head judge, tell me a little bit about yourself."

"You're not head judge," Samus argued. "There is no head judge. We all get paid the same amount for this!"

"Yeah, and we aren't even getting paid to do this," Pit announced.

Peach's eyes went wide, "Wait. We aren't getting paid to do this? What do you mean?"

Little Mac turned over to Peach, bringing up a piece of paper with a dollar sign crossed out. "Well, Peach, as you can see from this diagram, we aren't getting paid to do this. Meaning, that we are just volunteers technically."

"I-I was not informed," Peach stuttered. "I could've sworn we were all getting paid for this."

Little Mac scoffed, "Aren't you rich? You don't even need the money!"

Guest D looked over at Dark Samus, lifting her brow. Dark Samus shrugged in confusion as the judges continued to argue. Within minutes, Guest D started to shout, "All of you need to shut up! This isn't about you assholes, this is about my client! She wants to be part of Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. She waited on line all day long yesterday and today. Stop thinking about yourselves for once and consider those who just want to take five minutes to share their moves with you!"

Samus stood up from her seat, "You know what, Guest D, you're right. Sometimes, we have a habit of thinking about ourselves just a little too much. In fact, I quit, actually."

The room gasped as they all turned to Samus. Fox looked at Samus angrily, "What do you mean you quit? You can't just quit!"

Samus scoffed, "Well, I'm doing it. I'm quitting. I'll see you all when the auditions are done."

As Samus walked toward the exit, Fox stopped her in her tracks and pointed at Samus, "If you quit, you're off the roster, Samus. You can't compete anymore!"

Samus laughed, "That's an empty threat and you know it. You don't have the power to remove me from the roster. We already announced that everyone is here! Think of all the backlash when both Samus and Zero Suit Samus aren't battling!"

Fox slowly retracted his finger, "Y-you're right, I guess. I can't really stop you from quitting, can I?"

"Nope. Have a good one, bye!" Samus announced, slamming the door behind her.

The room was silent, and all of the judges looked at each other. Luigi ran on stage quickly, "Samus quit? Does that mean I get to take her spot now instead?" He asked with a giant grin on his face.

Fox facepalmed, "Ugh." His hand slowly slipped off his face as Luigi started rushing off the stage to take Samus's seat.

"I can't believe this is actually happening. I'm so happy, I could actually cry," Luigi said, wiping a tear away. "So what are we doing, who are we judging? Oh my, I don't even care, I'm just excited that I'm not going to get beat up for once!"

"Yeah, about that," Fox responded slowly. "What are we going to do if we don't have a punching bag? Someone's got to take one for the team, and Luigi, you're the best at getting beat up."

"Yeah, it can't be me," Peach argued, patting her pink dress "This is a new dress, I can't get it dirty!"

"Well, I'm not doing it," Luigi argued. "I've done it long enough, and I've been here since the beginning. I think I deserve to be a judge."

"Ugh, fine," Fox grunted. "You can judge, if only because we literally need a fifth judge here, and you're just at the right place at the right time."

"Hooray!" Luigi cheered. "So who are we judging?"

Guest D cleared her throat, "Dark Samus! Dark Samus is the one auditioning. We've been up here for five minutes and you've barely given us the time of day! What is this bullshit?" She asked angrily.

"You make a great point, Guest D," Pit explained. "I don't think we even need to see Dark Samus's moves. We might as well just let her in, she's been patient."

"No, no, I want to see her moves!" Luigi argued, "Without me getting beat up for once."

Peach rolled her eyes, "Can we just see Dark Samus's moves? I'm pretty sure they're the same as Samus's, but let's just see them already so everyone can shut up!"

Guest D smiled, "Yeah, so, Dark Samus is an extremely intelligent antagonist from the Metroid series as you all know. There aren't really any female antagonist's in the Smash Bros roster, so we're excited to add some diversity to the cast."

"Diversity? If Dark Samus does get in, we'll have three Samus's," Peach argued. "What's so diverse about that? One Samus is more than enough for me!"

"Listen, you little shit," Guest D responded angrily, "I'm tired of hearing your voice, so shut up or I'll make Dark Samus attack you!"

"Oh, really?" Peach asked. "I can give Dark Samus a no if that's what you want, Guest D. I have the power to make your client not make it into Super Smash Brothers. I would stay on my good side if I were you."

Guest D crossed her arms and grunted, "Whatever. We've waited long enough, let's just let Dark Samus do her thing."

"Alright," Fox shrugged. "You're right, Guest D, we've wasted way too much time. Go right ahead, Dark Samus."

Dark Samus let out another deep cackle as she aimed her charge shot straight at the judges. All of the judges gasped and hid under the table for safety. Her shot blasted toward the table, destroying the table and the chairs that the judges were hiding under. The only exception being Peach's throne, which still remained intact, but was now crushing her. As Fox and Luigi were able to get off the floor, they lifted the throne off of Peach, allowing her to get off the floor as well.

"Well," Fox sighed, putting his hands on his hips, "This is certainly a predicament."

The judges looked around the audition room. The regal table provided by Villager was now destroyed into a ton of pieces. The four plastic chairs were also in poor condition as well.

Little Mac dusted himself off the ground and walked over to Luigi, "This is all your fault. Dark Samus didn't have anyone to attack, so she attacked all of us instead!"

"This isn't Luigi's fault," Peach argued. "It's Samus's fault for quitting on us! The nerve!"

"Alright, alright!" Fox announced, walking over toward Peach, Little Mac, and Luigi. "Let's not start this now. Let's just finish this stupid audition, and then everyone can clear the air. Alright?"

Little Mac scoffed, "Fine. Carry on."

Fox walked over to Guest D and Dark Samus, both of whom were chuckling as the judges continued squander. "If you guys leave right now, then Dark Samus can join the roster. We good?"

Guest D nodded, "Alright, it's settled. Pleasure doing business with you."

The two cackled off the stage, as Fox turned around to see the other four judges arguing in each others faces. "Alright, alright! Shut up! This is getting out of hand!" Fox shouted. Luigi, Peach, Little Mac, and Pit didn't respond to Fox's outcry and continued to argue.

This caused Fox to snap, "You know what? I quit too!"

The four judges stopped, Little Mac raised his brow, "Wait, you're quitting too? Why?"

Fox grunted, "If this is how we're spending the entire day, with all of us fighting with each other, I'm not sticking around. Just do this without me."

"But, Fox," Peach began, putting her hand on Fox's shoulder in an effort to console him, "You're literally the glue that holds us together. Without you, nothing will get done."

"Really? Because even with me, you all constantly bickered the entire time. I'm done. It's not worth it anymore. I have better things to do with my life," Fox sighed.

Pit scratched the back of his head, "Alright, well, if that's how you feel, man, I understand."

Luigi and Little Mac silently nodded. Peach, bit her lip and ultimately sighed, "I think this is a bad idea, but what am I even going to say that will convince you to stick around?"

Fox kept a straight face, "Exactly. Best of luck with the rest of these auditions. I expect this to be a shit show, but it's not my problem, so I don't really care."

As Fox exited the room, Peach looked around at Pit, Little Mac, and Luigi all of whom remained silent.

Peach sighed, "Well, I guess the first order of business is we need a replacement for Fox. Anyone know who we should get?"

At that moment, Captain Falcon slammed the door open, "Guys! What's going on in here? I saw Samus and Fox leaving here claiming that they quit?"

Peach walked over toward Captain Falcon, "Well, you see, it's a long story, where do I begin?"

"Samus got angry that Dark Samus was auditioning and decided that she was going to quit, so we replaced her with Luigi. Then, after Dark Samus attacked us all, Fox quit because he was tired of us all fighting," Little Mac explained, speaking quickly.

Peach's eyes widened, "Well, I guess it's not as long as I thought it would be. Anyway, what's really concerning is that we're short a judge right now and need a replacement."

"Oh, yeah, that's quite a predicament you've got there," Captain Falcon responded, stroking his nonexistent beard. "I wonder who would be a great fit for this?"

Pit's eyes beamed, "Captain Falcon, you should do it! Everyone loves you and you're literally the only other person here. What could go wrong?"

Captain Falcon smiled, "Everyone loves me? I'm in! This is going to be great!"

Captain Falcon reached in and hugged the others. Peach looked at Little Mac with a look of concern, "Oh no," the princess muttered, "This is going to be a mess isn't it?"