If you've read even a single chapter of my story, you know how the formula goes whenever I do boss fights: I introduce the boss in a dynamic manner, everyone gets a few hits in, the fight drags on for several thousand words, yadda yadda yadda, someone gets the killing blow, you know the drill. Hell, even Sif feels formulaic looking back on it, and I thought I did a pretty good job on that one when I first wrote it.

Well... hopefully this next boss is decidedly a step away from that same formula. If you paid attention to that last bit in the previous chapter, you may be able to guess just who I'm referring to... but if you didn't (and I'm guessing that a whole lot of you didn't read the last chapter), well just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

"Man, this place really gives me the creeps..." Pit mumbled as Cloud cut down the door at the end of the hospital wing, revealing a small hallway that had nothing but doors.

Next to him, Little Mac mumbled, "Yeah, tell me about it, this is like one of those old horror movies that Doc and I watched back in the Bronx... hate these kinds of places with a passion."

As everyone trudged forwards, the unsettling atmosphere slowly beginning to get to them, Snake noticed that there was a slightly open door the moment the lights flickered, and he looked at the group, asking, "Look, do you think we should check that out? We might be able to get some clues about this place." Noticing the apprehensive (and tired in Mewtwo's case) looks on everyone's faces, Snake continued, "You don't have to if you don't want to." Captain Falcon was the only one who volunteered, and Snake pulled the door open before walking through, Captain Falcon accompanying him. Shining the flashlight around the room, Snake sucked in a breath and remarked, "Geez, this is not pretty..."

Scrawled all over the padded walls and floor were various phrases, the ones that stood out to the two the most being "IT WATCHES US," "THERE IS NO ESCAPE," and "THE SHADOW KNOWS ALL."

Snake and Falcon slowly began backing up, until the bounty hunter heard something squish underneath his boot. Snake quickly whirled around, shining the flashlight at the source, which turned out to be a particularly bloody corner of the room, and most disturbingly, the blood still appeared to be recently spilled. His eyes widening, Snake muttered, "Uh, Douglas, you're stepping on something," before picking up the object, which turned out to be a piece of paper that was marked by splotches of blood on one corner.

Captain Falcon received the note from Snake and read through it thoroughly. Once he was done, he hissed, "David, take a look at this!" Snake came over and shone the flashlight onto the note, to which Falcon reacted with, "That isn't necessary, y'know," and Snake pointed the flashlight away in response. Pointing to something at the top of the paper, the good captain said, "These are medical records!"

"Yeah... for one Mira Schreiber." The cogs began to turn in the mercenary's head, and he read through the rest of the paper until he saw what the records were for and where they were from, and his eyes widened in shock once he saw where the records were from. "I thought this place was a myth..." Snake muttered as he leaned on a portion of the wall that was noticeably cleaner than the rest.

"Huh?"

"Look at where this record comes from."

"Brookhaven Hospital in Silent Hill, Maine." Looking around, Captain Falcon realized, "But if this is a hospital-"

"Then we're smack dab in the middle of the psycho ward." Putting a hand on his forehead, Snake mumbled, "But there's no way this place is real, it's just a myth..."

"What do you mean by 'it's just a myth,' David?"

"Look, I'll tell you and everyone what this all means once we get out of this room." Snake walked out of the room once he said that, and Captain Falcon took the medical records with him as he followed Snake, shutting the door once the both of them had reconvened with the others in the hallway. Snake, upon having everyone's attention, swallowed and said, "I have a hunch on where we are right now, and if it's correct, then we'd better get the hell out of this creepy building as soon as possible." As everyone continued listening, Snake continued, "Back when I was a Green Beret, I was told stories of a small town in the New England area... Silent Hill. According to them, Silent Hill is a pretty normal town... until the fog swallows the town whole. From that point on, Silent Hill becomes a place of monsters and undiscovered horrors. Legend has it that sometimes the place even becomes the Otherworld, a representation of one's inner psyche."

"Hmm, spooky story and all, but what does that have to do with this specific building?"

Snake gave the Umbra Witch an unamused look as he said, "Douglas, pass me the medical records." Captain Falcon fished through one of his pockets and gave the paper to Snake, who turned it around to the other Smashers to reveal what he and Douglas had discovered.

Upon reading what the paper said, Wolf's eye bugged out and he asked for clarification, "So you're saying that we're currently stuck in a hospital that was located in that freak town you were telling us about, AND it's most likely filled to the brim with all these unspeakable horrors?"

"Bingo."

Wolf rolled his eye as he muttered, "Just our luck..."

All of a sudden, the lights went out, eliciting alarmed screams from Popo and Nana while at the same time, Snake's flashlight died, causing the mercenary to curse as he began to open the flashlight to take out the dead batteries, only for it to float out of his hands and into Mewtwo's, who said, "Allow me."

Mewtwo's three fingers sparked with lightning as it held the flashlight, and after a brief pause, the flashlight powered back on. Snake silently thanked Mewtwo, though not before giving the Pokémon a suspecting glare. Pointing the flashlight forward, Snake's eyes narrowed as he noticed something that certainly wasn't on the wall when he and the others were walking through the hallways of the hospital. Not bothering to look back once he uncovered more of what he saw, Snake uneasily said, "Uh... you guys may want to take a look at this."

Just like the padded cell Snake and Captain Falcon had explored earlier, the walls were completely covered in writing, except instead of the writing being done in black ink like it had been in the cell, the writing had been done in blood... fresh blood, specifically. The others caught up to him and began reading the phrases, either silently or out loud.

"The shadow knows all..."

"It sees you."

"It will bathe in your blood..."

"The Executioner will pass judgement..."

"It has come to collect."

Under his breath, Snake mumbled, "Yeah yeah, I think we get the picture," before continuing to press forward.

After walking through the hallway, which seemed to take forever, Fox was about to ask a question until he heard something scrape along the floor. Fox looked at Matthew with a suspicious look, and the Adept defensively raised his hands, asking, "What?" before rubbing at his neck.

"...Sorry, I thought I heard something."

Fox turned his attention back to the front of the group, while next to him, Wolf's ears perked up as he heard the same scraping sound. Grabbing Fox by the shoulder and letting everyone else walk past them, Wolf whispered, "McCloud, did you hear that?"

"Yeah, what do you think it is?"

"Well, it's clearly not Blondie One or Blondie Two, their swords aren't even touching the ground... oi, Plissken!" As Snake turned around, Wolf continued, "Pass me that flashlight, would you?" Snake tossed his flashlight to Wolf, who waited for the scraping noise to occur again before turning on the flashlight. Wolf, though his demeanor betrayed some level of apprehensiveness, pointed the flashlight down the hallway, his eye wide open to look out for the source of the noise. The vulpine mercenary caught a glimpse of something and almost fumbled the flashlight in shock, his voice nearly going a full octave higher as he whispered, "What on Corneria was that?!"

Fox had also seen what Wolf had saw, and for a second, the two space mammals seemed to be frozen in place as they stared at the figure at the other end of the hall: a half-clothed behemoth of a man whose body was riddled with scars, his left hand holding a skinned, headless corpse while his right held a massive knife that was being dragged across the floor with how heavy it was. However, the most notable feature of said figure was his head... or rather, his apparent lack of one, for where his head was supposed to be, there was a massive pyramid of metal sitting on his shoulders, with some parts of said pyramid appearing to be fused into his skin.

As the two stared dumbfounded, the flashlight chose the most inopportune time to flicker off, plunging the entire hallway into darkness. After a bit of percussive maintenance from Wolf, the flashlight turned back on, and Fox whispered, "Is it just me, or is he getting closer?" Wolf, to test something out, turned off the flashlight and counted to five before turning it back on. Sure enough, the man was noticeably closer to the two of them the moment the light came back on, causing the two to scream in terror and run back up to the group, Fox frantically yelling, "RUN FOR IT!"

A panicky Wolf tossed the flashlight back into Snake's hands, who, after shining the flashlight down the hall, audibly swallowed and repeated Fox's command, causing everyone else to run while he simultaneously loaded his SOCOM and dialed up Otacon on his Codec, having put the flashlight in between his teeth to do so. While he waited for Otacon to respond, Snake took the flashlight out of his mouth and began taking shots at the figure. Much to his horror, unlike Artorias, who, while almost implacable when they had fought him, was only human at the end of the day, the bullets passed right through the pyramid-headed man, causing Snake to reholster his pistol, take his flashlight back out out of his mouth, and break into a run, having abandoned all plan of attack. After several rings, Otacon's Codec came online, and Snake quickly belted out, "Hal, what in the living fuck is that thing?!"

Otacon's voice was equally panicky as he replied, "I don't know! Um... S-Snake, the only bit of intel I have on this thing is that it's called 'Pyramid Head!' I know nothing of its capabilities and quite frankly, I've never seen anything like it..."

Taking a brief moment to look at the metal pyramid on the being's head, Snake, in an attempt to hide his fear, snarkily remarked, "Real on the nose, don't you think?"

"I suppose... but that's besides the point, Snake... the only advice I can give you is to stay the hell away from that thing!"

"Don't need to tell me that twice, Hal." Snake deactivated his Codec and continued to run, eventually managing to catch up to the others. After a while, the Smashers came across a door at the end of the hallway that appeared to lead into a new area, and Snake flung it open before ordering everyone inside. Looking back, the mercenary saw that Pyramid Head was closing in, and his eyes widened in fear just before he slammed the door shut. Matthew stepped forward, rubbing his neck as he did so, and he stomped one of his feet, which was coursing with an aura of powerful Venus Psynergy, into the floor, causing a wall of solid earth to erect itself in front of the door just as something slammed into it.

After a few tense moments, Pyramid Head walked away from the door upon finding a massive wall of earth in his way, his footsteps slowly getting fainter and fainter while his knife made that horrendous scraping noise as he dragged it along the floor.

Once Snake and the others could no longer hear the footsteps, the mercenary breathed a sigh of relief before sitting down on the floor, muttering to himself, "Jesus, what the hell is that thing..." while the others took some time to calm down after that particularly harrowing experience.

After a while, Matthew got up to go look at himself in a nearby mirror to see if what he had seen just outside the hospital in the Abyss-tainted forest was indeed just a figment of his imagination. While he did so, he felt a cold chill run throughout his body as something seemingly exited him. Looking back, he saw that Sveta's Spirit Orb had indeed left his body and was heading towards Snake. Upon seeing Snake begin to converse with Sveta, Matthew turned back to the mirror... and noticed a black vein running down his face, while his left eye had also turned back into something that resembled Dharkon, much like what he had seen in that puddle in the forest earlier.

"Anyways, can I ask you a favor?"

"Of course."

Within the Spirit Orb, Sveta nervously fingered at the hem of her robe before continuing, "Can you please watch over Matthew? He's been awfully silent ever since he killed that Artorias figure, and killing that wolf has made his headspace far too dark for myself to stay in... it felt like there was something within him that was trying to force me out..."

"Don't worry, Lupa, I'll be sure to take care of your boyfriend." As Sveta blushed within the confines of her Spirit Orb, Snake asked, "Do you also want me to watch that Artorias guy too?"

"Oh, no... I feel that though he may not appear to be outwardly friendly, he seems to have good intentions for Matthew."

Artorias's Spirit Orb floated out of the Spirit Pouch that was clipped onto Snake's belt, and after a couple of bewildered stares from both Snake and Sveta, the knight turned to Snake and asked, "Thou would to interrogate me?"

"Yeah, first off, what's the deal with your sword, and secondly, out of all of us, why are you singling out Matthew?"

"That sword of mine was originally intended to be a weapon against the Abyss... at least till mine corruption at the hands of Manus. Now, the sword feeds off the darkness, with it growing stronger 'i power as the bearer's affinity with their own dark side augments. As for thy friend... I truly see him of a gentle warrior that is capable of using mine sword as a force for good."

Snake's eyes narrowed as he pressed, "You said that the sword feeds off darkness, how is that a good thing?"

"Light and darkness are not inherently benevolent or evil... 'tis what the wielder chooses to try with that power that makes it good or ill."

Sveta chimed in with, "He's right, I suppose, what with the Apollo Sanctum and all..." but before she could continue, she heard an alarmed scream from what sounded like Matthew, and Snake ran over to investigate, Mega Man joining him.

Matthew had fallen onto his rear in shock upon seeing himself in the mirror, and upon getting up, was greeted by Snake and Mega Man (not wearing his helmet) giving him concerned looks. The Blue Bomber began by asking, "Are you okay?"

Matthew looked back at the mirror, and saw that once again, his face had reverted back to normal, and he replied, "Yeah... I think I may be seeing things, this whole place is getting to me... really sorry about just now."

Snake's expression softened even further, and he said, "Don't worry about it, kid. We'll take a short break in here before continuing, how about that? I don't want to see that pyramid-headed freak anytime soon, and the longer we stay in one place, the more likely he'll find a way to get to us."

Matthew rubbed at his neck once again, responding, "Yeah, that sounds good." At that, Snake and Mega Man walked away, Mega Man relaying the news to everyone else while flicking something off his helmet that he had left on the ground.

The moment Snake walked back to the two Spirit Orbs, Sveta's hurried over to him, asking, "Is he okay?"

"Yeah, he is... but the kid's kinda tired, so I think we'll rest up for a bit before heading out, and the less we see of that Pyramid Head freak, the better." Snake opened the Spirit Pouch, and Sveta and Artorias retreated into it. Closing the Spirit Pouch, Snake sat back down in his corner of the room, trying to calm himself for the rest of the trip through the Brookhaven Hospital.

In another corner of the room, Dr. Mario muttered to himself, "How did this hospital even stay afloat? There's no way OSHA could've let this dump stay open... not without a PR nightmare," thinking of the numerous amount of poor quality hospitals he had seen close down back in Brooklyn.

Next to him, Joker mumbled, "This place is really starting to freak me out... not even the Metaverse was this crazy," before opting to take a nap.

After roughly half an hour, everyone got up and began to explore deeper into the hospital with the hope that they would be able to find an exit. Once Cloud shut the door, the black particle that Mega Man had swept off his helmet began to twitch and stretch until it became a near perfect replica of Mega Man's helmet, except instead of being blue, it was black and had a large portion on its left chipped off, and slowly but surely, the main parasite slowly split off into other parts that began to morph into other parts of Mega Man's body while constantly regenerating to maintain its original mass.

Eventually, the body parts came together, assembling like some kind of robotic Frankenstein, and the Mega Man clone, its eyes blank with static while the parasite continued to ooze out of its body like tar, began to walk in the direction that the other Smashers had gone... until without warning, it teleported away to some other part of the Brookhaven Hospital.

Snake heard a distinct blip sound from behind him and turned around, pointing the flashlight down the hall. The action earned him quizzical stares from everyone else, and Corrin, having received the full brunt of the light, covered her eyes and asked in a somewhat annoyed fashion, "What did you see?"

"Agh... I thought I heard something, sorry 'bout that." Snake turned back to the front and pushed a bent-up hospital bed that was bizarrely lying out in the open away, before shining his flashlight down the hall and noticing that there was a smoking hole in the wall that dripped with black ooze. Snake muttered, "What the hell...?" as he approached the black goop, but Mega Man, upon doing a quick scan, swatted Snake's hand away from the hole in the wall, shaking his head as Snake looked at him in annoyance.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you... scan showed that the goop's composed of mutated X Parasites."

Everyone but the Piranha Plant, Joker, and Matthew (due to the three being tournament newcomers) exchanged worried glances as Snake muttered, "Right... by the way, this hole was clearly a recent addition to the hospital decor, and if it's swarming with X Parasites..."

Mega Man finished, "Then that means that we have an alien killing machine roaming this place too, and that we need to be careful because we don't know who it copied. Given the size of that hole in the wall, the fact that it's smoking, and that it smells like... gunpowder... oh no..."

A heavy moment of silence followed Mega Man's concluding statement until Matthew muttered, "I'd much rather take my chances with the thing with the big sword at this rate..." As if the universe wanted to make the Adept retract his statement, the group heard something bang against a window that was on their right. Snake slowly turned towards the source of the noise as everyone else fearfully turned in the same direction, and behind the window stood Pyramid Head, silently watching them while holding his Great Knife in his hands as if he were bestowing it to them. Paralyzed in horror and fear, the Smashers could only stare at the figure in the window, waiting to see if he would do anything to them... but Pyramid Head did not move a muscle, appearing to be frozen in place, with only its heavy, feral breathing answering the question as to whether it was alive or merely a statue.

Cloud eyed the massive knife with a mixture of fear and interest before saying to Snake, "Maybe we should just get out of here."

"Definitely."

The Smashers continued onwards until they found a stairwell that lead to the next floor, and they began climbing up, the feeling of dread beginning to settle among them...

"Hey Elf Boy, how long is it going to take you to finish up that map?"

"Hold on, Bowser! Almost... done!" Link put the final touches on the map with a triumphant flourish, which he then showed to the other Smashers, who studied it intently. Clearing his throat, Link began, "From what I remember of Zelda's studies..." pausing to emphasize that it was his era's Zelda that he was referring to, having remembered the massive crash course on his world's history that Master Hand had given him upon his arrival at the Mansion (the hand had stressed that it was mandatory for any and all bearers of the Triforce that were to join the tournament).

Upon receiving impatient looks from Bowser, Kazooie, and Donkey Kong, Link hurriedly cleared his throat and continued, "She also studied the Triforce and its three components: Power, Wisdom, and Courage." Looking down at the completed map, Link pointed to the northmost portion of the realm and said, "This symbolizes the Triforce of Power, the Triforce of Hyrule's scourge. And here,"—pointing to the bottom left portion of the map—"is the Triforce of Wisdom, belonging to the one who has the blood of the Goddess."

"And this here is the Triforce of Courage, the Triforce that belongs to the Hero of Hyrule and his unyielding spirit," Zelda finished for him, pointing to the bottom right of the map, after which she continued, "The three pieces of the Triforce hold the essence of the three Golden Goddesses of Hyrule-"

Kazooie popped out of Banjo's backpack and shook one of her wings at Zelda like it was a fist, snapping, "Okay, we get it, princess, now stop yapping about your history and get to splitting us up, it's clearly the only way we're going to cover ground at this rate!"

"Wait a sec, Kazooie... take a look at the map!"

Kazooie peered her head over Banjo's shoulder, and her eyes lit up... only to become half-lidded once again as she saw what Banjo had saw. "Banjo, we are NOT going to that old hag's lair again!"

"I can't believe that we're going to that witch's lair again!" Kazooie sulked from within the backpack as she, Banjo, the Kongs, Bowser, King K. Rool, the Inklings, Arvus, Ridley, Terry, and Pichu (the little rat resting in Arvus' hair) began to set off for the domain of the Triforce of Power, Link having cut out part of the map to give them a way to navigate there.

Watching the group recede from his line of vision, Link called out, "Meet us at the castle in the middle when you're finished!"

Terry let out a hearty "OKAY!" in response, and Link rolled his eyes in amusement, the Southtown native having endeared himself to him during the group's short trek from the Halberd's wreckage to the Sacred Realm.

Turning back to the others, Link muttered, "Right, the Triforce of Wisdom..." After thinking about it for a bit, he turned to Zelda before cutting out another portion of the map and handing it to her, asking, "Can you go to this portion of the area?" Zelda nodded, and gestured at Ryu, Falco, R.O.B., Marth, Jigglypuff, Meta Knight, Lucario, and Min Min to follow her, showing the map to them as her right hand glowed with the power of the Triforce of Wisdom, causing a slightly crestfallen look to come across the Hylian champion's face.

Turning to the remaining eight Smashers that stood with him, Link said, "That leaves us with this area... the Lost Woods of Hyrule." Toon Link walked over to him and picked up the map, and his right hand began to glow with the Triforce of Courage in a similar vein to Zelda, causing Link to pout in yet another wave of silent disappointment. Shaking it off, Link knelt next to Toon Link and asked him, "Do you know anything about the Lost Woods?"

"No, unfortunately... Tetra and I have spent most of our time out at sea ever since... have you heard about the Great Flood of Hyrule?"

"Only as a bedtime story from my childhood, unfortunately." Looking out to where his group was supposed to go, Link noticed a distinct lack of fog in the Lost Woods, and he turned to Toon Link, sighing, "It appears that I'm going to be just as in the dark as you are in navigating this forest..."

Link took out a tree branch and held it out to Mario, who let a small burst of flame flicker to life in his hands to illuminate the torch. From there, the nine of them ventured into the forest, hoping to find something that would guide them to the Triforce of Courage. After some time, the group came across a fork in the road, and Lucas turned to the Luminary, asking, "Where do we go?"

Eleven raised his hand that bore the Mark of the Luminary and pointed it towards the rightmost path... and received nothing in response. Pointing to the middle path, Eleven once again got no response. However, when he pointed it to the leftmost path, the mark on his hand began to glow with a radiant light, and he muttered, "I sense a particularly strong source of light on the leftmost path..."

Link and Toon Link exchanged surprised glances, and the Hero of the Winds remarked, "Well, that was way easier than I thought it would be... I guess that's the way to the Triforce of Courage?" the older Link nodding in agreement, having expected some incredibly cryptic puzzle that would've taken quite a while to solve.

Mario, recalling information from the database he had Captured back in Shroob Castle's basement, pointed to the same path that Eleven had denoted was the way to the Triforce of Courage and said, "Young Link is-a that way too... oddly coincidental, don't-a you think?"

Link shrugged in a nonchalant manner and replied, "As long as it gets us through this place faster, I'm not complaining." Turning to Eleven, Link said, "You're coming with us, we need to find the Triforce of Courage."

"Uh, okay, if you insist," Eleven managed to get out as he hurried after Link and Toon Link, who were beginning to disappear from his line of sight due to the two of them having run headlong into the forest.

Geno looked down the rightmost path and said, "I guess we might as well split off, three of us go down one path, the remaining three go down the other." Mario nodded before taking out his hammer and twirling it in his grasp, ready to face whatever challenges were ahead of him.

Sonic saw that Red, the Mii Swordfighter, and Lucas were already heading down the middle path, and he hurried over to where Mario and Geno were headed, managing to catch up to them in less than a second. Looking at Mario, Sonic began, "So Jumpman, what's the scoop on this area? Any other familiar faces that we may run into...?"

Sighing in amusement, Mario turned to the hedgehog and remarked, "You know, I don't think Young Link would-a necessarily count as a 'familiar face' to-a you specifically..."

Sonic was about to continue the conversation by asking Mario if he knew about the other Smashers' whereabouts until he heard the sound of a whistle off in the distance. Turning back to Mario with a sly expression on his face, Sonic instead replied, "I think we might find a 'familiar face,' if we follow that whistle, I'll go ahead and check before reporting back to-"

Sonic didn't even finish his sentence as he peeled off, speeding towards the source of the noise, while Geno gave Mario a quizzical look, the plumber helplessly shrugging in response before continuing forward, saying to Geno, "Odds are that-a trouble's gonna find him first- WHOA!" Mario was caught off guard as Sonic zipped back towards him and Geno, coated from head to toe in a rainbow of Pikmin. Mario, with a resigned look on his face, pulled out F.L.U.D.D. and said, "I'd advise closing your mouth and-a holding your breath," as he began charging up the water pump. The Pikmin, upon seeing the threat of the F.L.U.D.D. and the water that was slowly beginning to drip out of its nozzle, scattered with the exception of the Blue Pikmin, who simply stayed on Sonic and kept nipping at him.

Sonic raised his hands in protest, but it was too late as Mario fired, a strong blast of water sending Sonic into a nearby tree. Once the high-pressure blast of water had ceased, Sonic, after spitting out a small geyser of water and giving Mario an unamused glare, saw that the Pikmin were still latched onto him, much to his annoyance, and he performed a Dizzy Spin to shake the rest of the Pikmin off, which killed them and caused their small ghosts to float upwards before fading out of sight. Geno noticed a straddler, that being a Red Pikmin who had not yet reached full bloom, which then perked up once he heard the same whistle sound as before. Looking at Mario, who was giving Sonic an apologetic look, Geno nudged his friend and said, "I'm gonna go follow that thing, you'll know how to find me," before walking deeper into the forest, following the small red creature.

Geno saw the Pikmin round a corner and he opened up one of his fingers, a small firearm barrel protruding from where the tip of his finger had been. Pressing forward, Geno saw an absolutely massive horde of Pikmin that a diminutive man in a space suit was lecturing.

"Anyways, as I was saying-" Olimar was cut off by the leaf-tipped Red Pikmin he had sent to scout out the area making its way over to him, and then seeing another intruder come his way, except instead of Sonic, it was a human-sized wooden doll in a blue cap and cloak that his boss, the president of Hocotate Freight, would've positively gone gaga over. Olimar palmed at his helmet, muttering, "You're lucky I like you, Steve..." before blowing his whistle, getting the attention from all of the Pikmin except for Steve, the leaf-headed Red Pikmin from earlier, who he was holding by the stalk. Olimar pointed to the intruder and yelled, "GET IT!" watching as his massive horde of Pikmin ran after the puppet, before he himself followed in pursuit, Steve looking to his side with as he was dragged along with an utterly clueless expression on his face.

"But-a anyways, why is it that-a whenever I've seen you fight alongside us, you-a only ever use the Spin Dash and Spin Charge plus an assortment of-a strikes? I know for a fact that-a you have lots and lots of strange powers from your own adventures over the years..."

"Not as many as you have, though!" A random thought came into Sonic's head, and he asked, "Hey Mario, who do you think would win in a no-holds barred fight between you and me?"

Mario gave a hearty chuckle at that and responded, "I don't ever think that-a it'd ever reach that point between the two of-a us, even with that-a little rivalry we had at the third tournament..."

The two's banter was interrupted by what sounded like a terrified yell coming from Geno, and Mario pulled out his hammer and charged forward, with Sonic throwing up a small plume of dust as he sprinted over to Geno. There, they saw the doll retreating from... something while returning fire. As Mario and Sonic rounded a corner, they saw a positively massive horde of Pikmin swarming towards them with, with of a bunch of Purple Pikmin in the center of the horde acting as a pedestal for their commander, who was none other than Olimar. Gritting his teeth, Mario conjured a fireball in his hands and smacked it towards Olimar, who blew his whistle, causing a wall of Red Pikmin to rise up from the horde and completely blank the fireball, causing Mario to curse under his breath.

Sonic, meanwhile, had seen what Mario had tried to do, and an idea quickly formed in his head. Grabbing Mario by the collar, Sonic dashed away from Olimar and his sea of Pikmin and into a nearby shrub, where he relayed his idea to Mario, who was trying to readjust his hat from how quickly he had been dragged away from the scene. As Mario listened, he slowly nodded, a sly grin coming across his face as he pieced together just what the teenage speedster had in mind. Once Mario gave him a thumbs-up, Sonic said, "Just give me the signal and the plan'll be a go!"

Mario nodded, and ran back out into the open, where he saw that Olimar had a phalanx of Rock Pikmin at the front of his horde functioning as his vanguard. Waiting for the spacefarer to get closer, Mario then tossed a fireball into the air, which was Sonic's signal to spring the plan into motion. As Mario jumped up into the air, preparing to smack the fireball at Olimar, who whistled, getting nearly all of his red Pikmin save for Steve to form a wall to block the fireball once again. However, Sonic jumped into the fireball, creating a makeshift Flame Shield around him, and Mario then smacked Sonic down towards the front of Olimar's Pikmin line with a hearty, "HEE-YAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Sonic, upon touching down on the ground, peeled out while exclaiming, "It's go time!" as he smashed right through the front line of Rock Pikmin, carving his way through the horde of Pikmin to reach the pedestal of Purple Pikmin that Olimar stood upon. The space captain in question frantically blew on his whistle while waving a fist, causing a horde of Red Pikmin to create a fist and then proceed to slam down onto Sonic's head, which only resulted in the Flame Shield dissipating as the Red Pikmin dispersed. Sonic, seizing the opportunity, peeled out in a figure-eight that created streaks of blue fire on the ground due to how fast he was going, flattening a large amount of Pikmin of assorted colors and types before skidding to a stop to admire his handiwork for a brief moment, that being the burning infinity symbol that he had left on the ground. Looking back at Mario, Sonic called out, "You and Geno take care of the horde for me, I'll take on the captain in a one-on-one showdown!" before kicking away at the Purple Pikmin pillar with the Humming Top, performing a whirlwind of kicks that blew away an assorted number of Purple Pikmin.

Grinding his teeth in frustration as his platform began to shrink, Olimar frantically whistled once again, and a squadron of Winged Pikmin picked up some of the remaining Rock Pikmin that had not been destroyed by Sonic's initial blitz and began to drop them on the hedgehog as if they were performing a bombing run, while Olimar blew his whistle once again and said, "White Unit, anti-air!" causing the White Pikmin that had heard the order to begin jumping towards Sonic in an attempt to latch onto, and subsequently poison him. Turning towards the front of his swarm, Olimar commanded, "Red Unit, tortoise formation!" which was quickly followed by "Bomb Squad, let 'em fly!"

Mario and Geno watched in surprise as the Red Pikmin began to form both a wall and a roof for the rest of the Pikmin, while from the back, a volley of bomb rocks sailed overhead, causing the two of them to scatter as the rocks made contact with the ground and subsequently exploded. As Mario and Geno looked up, they saw that a small portion of the path had been reduced to a smoking crater, and Mario, getting desperate, pulled out an Ice Flower, turning into Ice Mario.

However, Olimar had seen Mario take the Ice Flower out, and he whistled once more, ordering, "Wing Squadron, fly the Blue Unit over to Mario!"

Mario, both of his hands being supercharged with ice, then decided to let the attack fly, shooting both ice balls as well as a concentrated stream of ice, but however, a Blue Pikmin flew into one of his ice balls and ended up completely neutralizing it, much to his horror.

"Ice is just frozen water, didn't you remember that?" Olimar taunted as he watched Sonic slowly get nipped at by White Pikmin, his strength beginning to fade as the poison started setting in.

However, it was at that moment when Geno hurled a Star Cutter at the horde of Pikmin, the massive disk of cosmic energy killing a vast number of them while also shaving down Olimar's pedestal a fair amount. Wasting no time, he focused his attention on the Winged Pikmin that were carrying Blue Pikmin towards him and Mario, and he fired at each one like a sniper, killing them in one hit and causing the Blue Pikmin to begin to fall, which Mario took care of by jumping up and smacking each of the descending Pikmin with his hammer, giving them a one-way trip to the afterlife. Seeing that the field had mostly been cleared thanks to Geno's Star Cutter, Mario pulled a Refreshing Herb out from his overalls and tossed it over to Sonic, yelling, "Eat this!"

Sonic weakly looked up, only for an extremely bitter herb to fall into his mouth. Gagging at the taste, he reluctantly took Mario's advice, chewing and swallowing the herb, and all of a sudden, his body began to feel better. Looking at the White Pikmin that were still latched onto him, Sonic smirked and jumped up, performing an Insta-Shield which killed all the White Pikmin on his body. Once he landed, he turned his attention to the once-mighty Pikmin horde, which had been reduced to a few stragglers that Mario and Geno were cleaning up.

Turning his attention to what remained of the Purple Pikmin pedestal, there he saw Olimar, holding a Red Pikmin with a leaf on its head for some bizarre reason by its stalk, the captain looking positively livid that most of his squadron had been sent packing to the other side. Tossing Steve into a nearby shrub, Olimar blew his whistle and said, "Purple Unit, inverted wedge!" The remaining Purple Pikmin formed a V-shape and began strutting towards Sonic, who snorted in a mixture of derision and amusement, and instead leapt over the formation, kicking Olimar square in the helmet with a Sonic Flare which launched the spacefarer upwards, while behind him, Geno wiped out the inverted wedge formation of Purple Pikmin with a sweeping Astral Beam.

Meanwhile, Sonic pursued after Olimar in the air, juggling him higher with a scissor kick before performing a Spring Jump and smashing Olimar back down to the ground courtesy of the Sonic Eagle, the astronaut having no protective measures against the attack due to having lost nearly all of his Pikmin.

Mario and Geno stepped forward once they saw Olimar make contact with the ground, and the two of them cautiously waited for him to wake up before they did anything, while next to them, Sonic landed in a graceful three-point stance. After a bit, Olimar slowly came to, his damaged helmet (it had cracked upon his impact with the ground) having repaired itself thanks to the nifty self-reparation function that his new spacesuit for the tournament had. Touching his helmet, Olimar smiled in approval at the function before asking, "What happened?" Looking around, Olimar called out, "Steve?" before blowing his whistle. The Red Pikmin hopped out of the bush that Olimar had thrown him into earlier, and Olimar got back up to his feet, pulling out a small bubble of nectar from his suit.

As Steve drank from Olimar's hand, Mario asked, "I want to-a know, what makes that-a particular Red Pikmin so important to you?"

"Well, Steve here is one of my oldest companions, being the very first Pikmin I encountered on PNF-404. Even though he possesses a rare genetic defect among his species that prevents him from flowering like all other types of Pikmin are capable of doing, he more than made up for it with the amount of effort he put into every task he did. In fact, you could say he's quite the trooper for sticking with me for this long." The Pikmin gave Olimar an unamused look at the old nickname he had given him while the latter was stranded on PNF-404, and Olimar turned back to Mario and asked, "So, what gives? Why are we out in some kind of dingy forest?"

"Well, here's the-a scoop..."

Banjo, being the one that was holding the map of the Triforce of Power sector, muttered, "Hmm... I can't see a thing in this fog," before turning to Kazooie and asking, "Is this the right path to Grunty's lair?"

Kazooie popped out of Banjo's backpack and peered over his shoulder to look at the map, before then looking at the group's immediate surroundings and immediately shrugging, replying, "I don't have the foggiest idea."

Bowser then stepped up to the forefront and cracked his knuckles, proclaiming, "Stand back, shrimps, this is how the King of Awesome gets things done!" before opening his mouth and beginning to inhale, creating a massive vacuum which sucked in most of the fog in the area, giving everyone else a clear view of the sector, only coughing out a few wisps of smoke once he finished doing so.

Before the group could continue walking forward, however, they heard a rather loud bark, followed by a ballistic can of beans hitting Arvus right in the head and exploding, causing the hero to cough out a puff of smoke before yelling, "Who did that?!"

An odd snickering sound came from what looked like a formation of rocks, and Kazooie frantically looked around, only to get beaned in the head by a clay pigeon which exploded, showering her and Banjo in bits of clay.

Shaking the soot off his face, Arvus shot a Kaboom at the rocks, proclaiming, "Show yourself, coward!" The entire formation blew up, and within the rocks was a dog who was laughing at seemingly nothing, with a duck on his back that was trying to alert him to the group of people who were giving him irritated stares. Once the dog received a sharp rap on the head courtesy of his avian friend, he looked up and yelped in alarm before summoning one of his five Gunmen, who fired a bullet at the group, who scattered. Once they were distracted, the dog kicked another can at them before barking at his partner to make their getaway, and as the can exploded, it seemed that the Duck Hunt duo would make their getaway... at least until the dog was hit by a pair of bombs that splattered ink all over him and his companion when they exploded, causing the duck to lose concentration and begin to plummet towards the ground while the dog covered his eyes in terror.

However, Terry jumped up and caught the two before landing, and once he touched down on the ground, he asked, "Hey, are you oka- OUCH!"

The dog— whose name was Ollie—bit Terry, causing the Southtown native to drop him while clutching at his hand before trying to make a break for it on foot instead of through the air, but Bowser suddenly landed in front of him, causing him and the duck, Mallie, to rapidly back up... right into Ridley, who grabbed the two and opened his mouth, as if he were preparing to charge a plasma beam. The Spirits possessing Ollie and Mallie, upon realizing that they were facing potential obliteration, held their paws—or wings in Mallie's case—in surrender, while their eyes changed back from the purple that indicated possession to their normal colors, upon which Ridley put the two of them down.

Upon bounding over to the others, Ollie began to scratch at his ears while Mallie absently hovered over her friend's head, looking at Banjo and Kazooie, who were intently studying the map of the area, and Ollie began to frantically bark, "Hey! Listen!" Banjo looked at the dog, his curiosity piqued, and Ollie continued, "There's more of our friends in here! We know who else is in this desert!"

"You do?"

Mallie continued in Ollie's stead, quacking, "Yeah! The Koopa kid and the yoga trainer are somewhere in here-"

Mallie was interrupted by Bowser sprinting up to her and Ollie and hurriedly asking, "You've seen my son?! Where is he?!"

Ollie pointed a paw to his back and barked, "He was somewhere up there last I saw him..."

That was all the Koopa King needed to know, and he sprinted away, bounding over rocks and ruined architecture as if he were an Olympic hurdles competitor, yelling, "I'M COMING FOR YOU, JUNIOR!"

After a brief, awkward pause, Banjo handed the map back to Kazooie, who stuffed it in the bear's backpack, and he said, "Right, this way, follow me!"

The group, save for Bowser, who had broken off to look for his son, pressed forward on the path Banjo and Kazooie were directing them on.

Zelda's group, upon arriving at the destination their portion of the map had directed them to, looked around and saw that they were stuck in an abandoned town with a humongous clock tower functioning as the town's centerpiece, due to the area suddenly being sealed off. As Zelda and the others looked around, Marth bumped into a statue of an owl and found a small engraving on it that he read aloud, that being, "Wisdom lies trapped in time..."

"You have any idea what that means?" Lucario asked as he used his Aura to scan the area, finding about four other owl statues.

"Well, Zelda is already representative of the Triforce of Wisdom, so unless there's another Zelda around here, we're out of luck... 'trapped in time' is probably the clock tower in the center."

Ryu, folding his arms as he looked at the centerpiece of the small town, inquired, "We haven't found Sheik yet, have we? It was basically an open secret that she was Princess Zelda, after all."

"Wait... that's it! Sheik is trapped in the clock tower with the Triforce of Wisdom!" After coming to his realization, Marth's expression fell somewhat as he also mused, "But getting the Triforce itself won't be easy, considering that it'll be Sheik that we're fighting, after all."

Murmurs of assent came from all except Min Min, having remembered how much trouble the Sheikah ninja had given them in either the second or fourth tournament. Before they could continue searching the realm, however, Falco exclaimed, "Woah!" as he jumped over a rather large blast of energy, looking for the source once he landed.

At the same time, Jigglypuff, who was tasked with aerial surveillance along with Meta Knight, was shot down by a salvo of homing missiles, and once Meta Knight looked back to see the commotion, he was promptly shot by a seemingly invisible projectile that exploded once it touched him, setting the hem of his cape ablaze. Landing on the roof of one of the houses, Meta Knight stamped out the fire and began looking at the trees to see if there was anything suspicious about them.

Upon seeing a glint in the one of the trees, his eyes flashed red for a brief second and he used his Dimensional Cape, flickering out of existence for a brief moment before rematerializing and attempting to strike what he had seen in the trees... except that there was no one there. Clenching one of his hands in frustration, Meta Knight took to the skies once again before trying to once again locate the mystery attacker. After a bit, he saw a smoking grenade fly out from the shrubs and towards Min Min, to which the masked swordsman reacted to by swooping in and sending the grenade back into the bush, causing a small explosion which flushed out their attacker: the Mii Gunner, who otherwise went by Faye.

Dusting some soot off of her jacket, Faye snorted and casually said, "Well, you caught me. What else are you gonna do?"

Falco, stepping up to her, offered, "Well, you could always just peacefully surrender and give us back our friend... or we could beat the stuffing out of you to do it," gesturing to Ryu, who cracked his knuckles and tightened his headband for emphasis.

"Like hell I'm going to do that!" Reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small energy pistol, Faye shot orange lasers at Falco, Lucario, and Ryu, stunning the three of them for a moment before she reholstered said pistol and achieved liftoff by shooting herself off the ground with her arm cannon, making sure she kicked Jigglypuff in the face for good measure. Before she was fully in the clear, however, something latched onto her leg and pulled her down to the ground, with Faye hitting her head on the roof of a small house as she descended. Getting up almost immediately, Faye belted out, "Which one of you punks did that?! So help me, I will blast you into the stratosphere when I find out!"

「我在这里，你在说什么？」

Faye whipped around and found the source of the voice, that being a girl with bizarrely long arms that looked like they were made of ramen.

Min Min noticed that her target was staring at her with a flabbergasted expression, and she changed her left arm back into a normal arm that she used to facepalm, muttering to herself, "Right, not everyone understands Chinese..." before saying in English, "I'm right here, what were you saying?"

Faye laughed in a mocking fashion before responding, "Oh no, I understood what you said perfectly, I just thought it'd be funny to pretend not to," before firing a missile at Min Min, who was forced to jump over it before switching her left ARM to a Megawatt and letting loose with a punch, which Faye vaulted over with Lunar Launch. Before she landed, Faye fired a salvo of energy projectiles at the martial artist before taking out her energy pistol and firing another shot just as Min Min sent some of her projectiles back at her with a backflip kick, after which she dodged the extra shot Faye had sent her way. Upon sidestepping the returned projectiles, which flew into the wall of a house, Faye took a few potshots at Min Min, who slid under them, only to be blindsided by Lucario's Extreme Speed once she began to reload her pistol.

The Aura Pokémon stood between both Faye and Min Min, the spikes on his glowing paws pointed at her while a vicious-looking snarl was fixed on his face. Faye rolled her eyes as she adjusted some settings on her cannon arm, and once she had finished, she grinned and said, "Time to turn up the heat!" as she fired a blast of blue flames from her cannon at Lucario, the exhaust sending her skyward, and out of everyone else's reach as a result.

With a light growl, Lucario smacked himself twice in the face with Power-Up Punch to augment his Aura, and he took off from the ground using Extreme Speed to give chase to Faye. Once he had closed enough distance, Lucario bellowed, "AURA BOMB!" before hurling a humongous Aura Sphere towards the Mii Gunner and propelling it forwards by using Power-Up Punch once more. Teleporting forwards with Double Team, Lucario brandished the spike on his left paw while having a Drain Punch readied on his right.

Down on the ground, Min Min, with a slight pout on her face, muttered, 「我才刚刚开始...」

Though she weaved around the Aura Sphere, Faye was smacked in the face by a hard Metal Claw before being launched upwards by a Drain Punch uppercut. Looking below her, she saw that Lucario was approaching, a Flash Cannon prepped in his hands for the finishing blow, and she positioned her cannon arm behind her while pointing it outwards, and as she began to fall into Lucario's range, Faye fired a concussive blast from her cannon while extending her right foot out for a kick, managing to nail Lucario right in the face with a Cannon Blast Kick.

As she descended, Faye used her cannon arm to control her flight path and adjust the speed of her descent, landing gracefully on the ground, while nearby, Lucario made such a hard impact that when the dust cleared, it was revealed that he was lying in a small crater. As Faye approached the crater, a confident expression on her face, Lucario suddenly jumped out of it and battered her with a Bullet Punch that had been greatly augmented by the three Power-Up Punches that the Aura Pokémon had performed earlier.

As Faye was sent sliding back, Lucario, the Aura slowly beginning to overwhelm his senses, began to pursue her like a Sharpedo that had smelled blood in the water, rushing in with Extreme Speed, though as Faye prepared to shoot him, he suddenly changed course by teleporting behind her with Double Team and then landing the finisher: a Blaze Kick that seemed to glow with blue flames, and through a combination of the power boost from the trifecta of Power-Up Punches and Lucario's own greatly heightened Aura, Faye was sent catapulting into a nearby tree that collapsed once she made impact with it.

Twitching slightly as he raised his paw, Lucario then pointed it at himself and used Heal Pulse, managing to assuage the worst of the Aura overload he was suffering from. Taking a deeper breath, he continued using Heal Pulse on himself, and he eventually returned back to his normal state (as normal as one could be after Shroob experimentation). Taking slow steps forward, Lucario readied an Aura Sphere in one hand, approaching cautiously in the event that the Spirit had not yet left Faye's body, as he was not close enough to use his Aura Sight on her. Upon reaching the collapsed tree, Lucario's eyes glowed gold, and he used Aura Sight. Upon seeing a lack of a malicious presence in Faye's body, he stopped charging the Aura Sphere.

Groaning, Faye woke up with a splitting headache, and when she looked up, she saw that Lucario was standing over her, a paw extended out to her, and she took it while asking, "Geez, what happened to me? And where am I?"

"I... may have kicked you in the head and sent you flying into a tree, sorry about that. And as for where we are... you'll have to ask Zelda."

Faye nodded in understanding, and when she looked over Lucario's shoulder, she saw a girl in an orange cap and combat outfit standing over by a slightly damaged house, inspecting it out of curiosity. Looking back at Lucario, she asked, "Who's she? She wasn't at the Newcomer Ceremony..."

"Name's Min Min. She says she can speak... Chinese? She's a really good chef, I'll tell you that much. You know what, why don't you go introduce yourself to her?"

Faye proceeded to do just that, walking over to Min Min and beginning, "Hey, I'm really sorry about that whole thing earlier..."

「啊，没关系。 我的名字是面面， 你呢？」

Rubbing the back of her head awkwardly, Faye replied, "Ah... see, I can understand you, but I can't speak Chinese. Can we keep it in English between the both of us for simplicity's sake?"

"Sure, no problem."

Abruptly changing the subject, Faye asked, "So Lucario told me you're a good cook, is that true? I haven't eaten in a while..." trailing off as her stomach growled for emphasis.

Min Min laughed good-naturedly as she turned her ARMs back into normal arms, and opened up her bag, pulling out all of her cooking equipment. As Faye looked on in awe, the martial artist asked, "Now, would you like a rice dish, or a bowl of ramen?"

"...I'll take the ramen."

Chrom let out a yell and leaped at Byleth with a one-armed overhead slash, but she dodged, and upon switching her weapon from Areadbhar to Failnaught, fired an arrow of light at the exalt, who jumped over it and tried approaching with an inwards horizontal slash, which Byleth blocked by changing the bow back to Areadbhar. Chrom retreated, and Byleth attempted to catch his escape by thrusting the bone-tipped lance forward as hard as she could, though she only barely managed to graze him, causing a slight tear in his outfit.

Chrom charged in once again, except instead of doing the same predictable frontal approach he had gone for twice previously, he ran off to the left, jumping over Byleth's horizontal sweep with the lance. As he landed, he saw that he had an opportunity to land a meaty hit on the swordswoman, and he performed a forceful overhead slash that missed, and resulted in Chrom's sword being partially embedded in the ground. As he attempted to pry his sword out of the ground, Byleth managed to cut his cheek with another sweep of her lance, enraging Chrom enough that he pried out his sword and ended up smashing a gargoyle statue with how hard and far he had wrenched his arm back, Chrom then leaped back into the fray, intending to lop Byleth's head off right where she stood. However, Byleth blocked the slash with Areadbhar's hilt, forcing her and Chrom into a weapon lock.

As the Falchion clashed against the handle of the bone-tipped lance, Chrom took advantage of the fact that Byleth was using both hands to wield her lance by switching to a single-handed reverse grip on his sword, while he punched Byleth in the gut with his now-free left hand, causing her to double over in pain, dropping Areadbhar as she did so.

As Byleth looked up, she saw that Chrom had his blade pointed right at her face, while he smugly said, "Checkmate."

"Not quite." Byleth's eyes flashed a deep purple, and time came to a standstill. Closing them, Byleth thought to herself, "Take me back to when we were in the weapon lock."

Divine Pulse began to work its temporal powers, rewinding time back to the point where Byleth had Chrom in the weapon lock, Areadbhar clashing against the Falchion. Byleth blinked again, and time began to flow normally once again. When she saw Chrom begin to adjust his grip on his sword, Byleth acted quickly and kicked Chrom in the shin, which caused him to let out an exclamation of pain, which she capitalized on by changing Areadbhar into Aymr, and while it took her slightly more effort to heave the massive axe than any of the weapons the Creator Sword had transformed into previously, she was still able to wield it with relatively little trouble, using the back of the weapon's head to hit his other leg incredibly hard and sweep Chrom off his feet, causing him to drop Falchion and hit his head on the ground.

Byleth quickly snatched the Falchion off the ground as Chrom brought himself to his knees, due to him not being able to stand on his feet just yet due to the glancing blow he had received from Aymr. Once he lifted his head, however, he saw that Byleth had both his Falchion and a sword made out of bones that glowed with an orange hue fashioned like a pair of shears aimed at his neck, and the professor calmly threatened, "Try me, why don't you?" as she moved the two blades closer to his skin.

"Alright, stop! I yield!" The Spirit possessing Chrom let go of its host, causing his eyes to change from purple back to their normal blue, as well as causing the barrier he had created while possessed earlier to dissipate.

"Chrom!" Robin pushed past the other Smashers once the barrier had finally vanished, and ran over to her husband before pulling him into a tight embrace, which Chrom reciprocated. Robin then took out a healing tome and began to work on healing Chrom's wounds, some of which earned the occasional uncomfortable groan or a small hiss of pain from the exalt of Ylisse, who for some reason did not react well to healing magic of any kind during his and Robin's adventure.

Eventually, everyone was ready to go, and Byleth handed Chrom back his Falchion. Before they could get going, Rosalina quickly realized two of their number were missing, and she asked, "Wait... where are Ike and Ness?"

The Spirit Orb that Chrom had unleashed earlier pulsated with some sort of dark aura, and he muttered, "What have I done..."

Ike and Ness found themselves standing on the Spear Pillar, except none of the Legendary Pokémon were anywhere to be found, which worried the two of them. As they began to explore around the peak, attempting to find an answer to why they had suddenly been taken to Spear Pillar, a sudden force of energy pushed the two of them back while throwing up a cloud of dust, and Ike unsheathed Alondite in response, ready to face whatever threat had come for them.

After a bit, the dust cleared, and Mewtwo, possessing red eyes and a tail that was as white as the rest of its body, asked, "What brings you puny earthlings to Mount Itoi-" interrupting itself the moment it saw Ness. Realizing that it was indeed the boy it had seen in its premonitions, Mewtwo, or rather, Giegue's eyes narrowed, the instability in its eyes becoming rather apparent as it hissed, "You."

While it won't be stated within the story, the name of the X Parasite Mega Man (black X Parasites are new to my story and are smarter as well as being capable of copying inorganic matter as well as organic matter) is the RO-X. Just thought it'd be nice to know. The X Parasites themselves also weren't present in my initial draft of this chapter.

Regarding the choice I made to turn the building into Brookhaven Hospital... it wasn't going to be the way it currently is, what with Pyramid Head and all (though I am curious to know what you thought of it). It was originally going to be a generic, creepy building until I realized that I hadn't given something along the lines of Silent Hill or Eternal Darkness a fair shot (and since I knew nothing of Eternal Darkness, Silent Hill was ultimately selected).

Regarding Olimar, I struggled to find a unique fighting style for him for a long time, which was the reason why he was moved to the Dark Realm compared to him being found relatively early on in the Light Realm in-game. Hopefully his fighter battle shown here interested you on the capabilities of the little astronaut.

You can thank AkaiRiot on Twitter for giving me the inspiration on Mii Gunner through his most recent artpiece of her. And speaking of the Miis, I might as well give them names: Brawler's name is Cain, Swordfighter's is Brian, and Gunner's is Faye.

I'm thinking to make Sheik's outfit a fusion of her Brawl/Smash 4 and Ultimate attires... and on the topic of the Sacred Realm, it might end up receiving solo chapters just because of how large in scale this particular dungeon is.

Taking on darker stuff is really fun, I'll admit.

Translation notes:

我在这里，你在说什么？= "I'm right here, what were you saying?"

我才刚刚开始... = "I just got started..."

啊，没关系。 我的名字是面面， 你呢？= "Ah, no problem. I'm Min Min, what's your name?"

Group 1 (Dracula's Castle): Luigi, Ness, Peach, Villager, Rosalina, Simon, Daisy, Isaac, Samus, Wario, Yoshi, Pikachu, Pac-Man, Mr. Game & Watch, Eight, Ike, Ken, Robin, Richter, Byleth, Chrom

Group 2 (Sacred Realm - Triforce of Courage sector): Link, Toon Link, Mii Swordfighter/Brian, Red (Squirtle, Ivysaur, Charizard), Sonic, Eleven/Luminary, Geno, Mario, Lucas, Olimar

Group 3 (Sacred Realm - Triforce of Wisdom sector): Ryu, Zelda, Falco, R.O.B., Lucario, Marth, Jigglypuff, Meta Knight, Min Min, Mii Gunner/Faye

Group 4 (Sacred Realm - Triforce of Power sector): Banjo, Ridley, Inklings (Meggy, Evan), Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, King K. Rool, Bowser, Erdrick/Arvus, Terry Bogard, Duck Hunt Duo (Ollie, Mallie)

Group 5 (Mysterious Dimension): Matthew, Joker, Snake, Kirby, Dr. Mario, Cloud, Fox, Greninja, Mega Man, Little Mac, Pit, Piranha Plant, King Dedede, Captain Falcon, Ice Climbers, Wolf, Incineroar, Bayonetta, Solo, Corrin, Mewtwo

Group 6 (Puppet Fighters with known whereabouts): Young Link

Apollo Sanctum key pieces: 5/13