Marth didn't sleep well that night.

Most of his dreams involved the Ultimate Tournament. In one dream, Marth had won the tournament, and when he awoke, he was surprised and a little disappointed it wasn't true. A good many of his dreams were nightmares; his body, bloody and bruised, thrown around by a shadowy enemy, his strength completely gone, unable to fight his foe. He awoke with a start during this dreams, sweat pouring down his face; numerous times, he checked his body to make sure he really hadn't been hurt.

So naturally, he was very groggy when he woke up the next morning. He decided to sleep in, not daring to go back to sleep. After all, he thought, a great dream which turns out to be false is a nightmare.

He still wound up falling asleep, although no more dreams came to haunt him. He woke up and let out a yelp of surprise as his alarm clock--a nifty little piece of technology, that--showed the time as 10:12 AM. He hopped out of bed and quickly started getting ready.

Everybody else was already up by the time he went downstairs. Not all of them looked awake, however; Ness's hair, while covered with a cap, was undeniably messy, and Fox...Marth couldn't help but let out a little laugh.

"What?" Fox snapped.

Marth shook his head and entered the kitchen. It was a large, spacious room directly to the right when coming down the stairs to the second floor. If coming up the stairs from below the first floor, it would be on the left.

Marth still hadn't gotten used to everything in the kitchen. The food, the drinks, the "toasters" that startled him every time they went off...everything. For instance, just recently, he had been introduced to coffee. It was Samus who had shown him the light-brown, steaming-hot drink. He was skeptical at first, but when he took a sip, he found that he really liked it. It was only after eight cups when he realized he had gone too far. His body tingled, and he spoke so quickly, he mixed up some of the words. He didn't sleep well the first night, either. He never drank coffee again afterwards, no matter how much Samus insisted that it was good in moderation.

Coffee beans also surprised him. At first, he thought they were a safer way to drink the boiling-hot, energy-giving coffee drink. When he ate one, he discovered such was not the case. He even went as far as to plant coffee beans in the ground and was dismayed when a few weeks later, there were no mugs of coffee waiting for him.

So instead, he drank water. He filled up a glass cup with water and sat down at Roy's table. But Roy was not Roy today.

"Haveyoudrankthisstuff?" Roy blurted out.

"You're speaking too fast. What?"

"Thisstuffisamazingyoureallyhavetotryit!" Roy practically shouted.

It was only then when Marth noticed the coffee mug on the table in front of him. Roy's eyes were wide open, his body trembling. He slammed his foot on the ground repeatedly to relieve excess energy.

"I'm gonna go have a talk with Samus," Marth said, standing up and taking his water.

"ReallyI'llcomewithyou!"

Roy followed Marth so closely, if Marth had stopped, Roy would have bumped into him. He arrived at the strikingly-beautiful blond's table, holding Roy's arm. He pointed to him.

"Please explain," he said.

She shrugged. "Well, I figured if you weren't going to take it seriously, maybe he might," she said.

"TakewhatseriouslycoffeeIlovecoffeecanIpleasehavesomemorecoffeeI'veonlyhadtwelvecups!"

Twelve? Marth mouthed. Marth had had to stop at eight; Roy was on "only" twelve?

"And yes," she added, "I told him to take it in moderation. Did he listen? No."

"Ican'thelpitIloveitpleasegivememorecoffee!"

"No more coffee for you," Marth said, and walked back to his table.

For the next half an hour or so, Marth tried to pretend that there wasn't a hyper 15-year-old jabbering about whatever came onto his mind until the subject came to squirrels. He also tried to ignore some of the irritated heads turning in his direction. He hoped the energy would wear off soon.

"Aren'tsquirrelssoawesomeIthinkthey'reawesomedoyouthinkthey're--"

"Hey, look, Roy! A coffee pot!"

The moment Roy's head turned, Marth bolted out of the kitchen. He dashed up to his bedroom and closed the door, pressing his weight against it, ear pressed to the door. When he was sure Roy wasn't following him, he turned around.

"HeyMarthwatchadoing?"

"Ah!"

How in the world had Roy made it into his room? For a minute, he considered that he might still be dreaming in his bed, but no matter how hard he pinched himself, Roy would not disappear. He had no idea what to do. He was saved by a knock on his door.

"Please come in!" Marth yelled with almost too much desperation.

Roy lunged forward and opened the door so fast, he thought it would fall off. Link, startled, his hand in the air to grab onto the door knob, walked into the room.

"HeyLinkit'sbeenawhilewhatareyoudoing!?!"

"He's hyped up on twelve cups of coffee," Marth explained.

Link mouthed "Oh," then walked further in. "I was wondering if you wanted to have a match between the both of us. To prepare for the tournament, you know."

"SureI'dlovetolet'sgo!"

"He wasn't talking to you," Marth said irritably. "Yeah, let's do it. Roy, go downstairs and pester Samus for more coffee."

One second Roy was in the room, the next, he wasn't. Marth sighed and shook his head. "Reminds me of when I had coffee for the first time. I've never touched the stuff since."

--

The match between them would take place on the Hyrule Temple stage, with items off and one life for each of them. Just like Link said, this was exactly like the tournament.

And since it was just like the tournament, Link wasn't going easy on him or using just his sword as they often did. Boomerangs, arrows, and bombs were flying everywhere. Marth found these projectiles a nuisance at first, since he had no projectiles of his own, but he discovered he could sneak in an attack as Link was preparing one of his items.

"Do you think you're ready for the tournament?" Marth asked conversationally as he tilted his head to the side to let a bomb fly past.

"Pretty sure," he said. "I've been hitting the Target Tests like crazy, training my archery, and everything. Do you think you're prepared?"

"Pretty sure," Marth mimicked. "Who do you think's gonna make it to the top three?"

Link parried a blow from Marth's sword. "Besides me...." He rolled his eyes. "Just kidding. But I'm thinking Donkey Kong's going to get pretty high up there. I watched him lay down a beating on Fox the other day. Wasn't pretty."

In order to prevent fighters from seriously injuring one another, Master Hand had come up with the brilliant idea of Smart Shields. These were invisible, paper-thin barriers that surrounded the fighters to give them extra protection. They minimized pain, although it could still be felt, and prevented serious injury. The occasional accident did happen, and when they did, the injured fighters were sent to the Recovery Room, where Mario would become Dr. Mario with Peach aiding him and heal the fighters. Since sometimes the injured people were Mario and Peach themselves, they had backups like Samus and Zelda. If not for the Smart Shields, Marth would have been dead from day one.

"What do you plan on doing with the money?" Marth asked. "If you win it."

"Maybe buy a few little knick-knacks, but really, I don't have any use for it here," he answered. "I guess I'd take it home with me."

Several things could be bought with Smash Coins. Decorations, toys, training equipment, figures, tools, candy bars (Marth loved those Skittles)...they could all be bought with Smash Coins. There were actually a surprising number of things to be bought, and veterans like Mario and Link still hadn't bought half of it. A million Smash Coins was a lot of berry-flavored Skittles....

--

Marth came out on top during the fight with Link. He had adapted to Link's new fighting patterns instantly; once Link recognized that using his extra items wasn't working, he would use his sword only. Marth concentrated on countering the attacks and turning them back against him.

Marth was walking back to his room when he heard a familiar voice from behind a door.

"I am good. I am good. I am good. I am good."

Marth walked into Captain Falcon's room to find the fighter posing repeatedly in front of a mirror. Marth rolled his eyes.

"I am Marth. Hello, Good."

Captain Falcon stopped saluting to himself and turned his head toward Marth. "Hey, Marth! Show me your moves!"

Marth was about to turn around and head back to his room when Captain Falcon stopped him. "Hey, wait a minute, swordsman. I think you fit the bill." Marth paused and turned around. "I was just doing the Home Run Contest when I decided I had hit it far enough by myself." Marth knew what he was getting at. "I felt like I needed a challenge. So, how about you take on me in the Home Run Contest? Loser pays 50 Smash Coins."

50 Smash Coins? That was above average for a Home Run Contest. Furthermore, Marth was horrible at that contest; his moves seemed to have so much knock-back, Sandbag flew off the platform before he could grab the Home Run Bat.

"Thanks but no thanks," Marth replied. "I'm terrible at it."

"Ohhhh, I'm sure you're just bluffing," Captain Falcon teased. "Come on! One game!"

Part of Marth reminded himself that Capt. Falcon wasn't necessarily that good at it himself. He always hit Sandbag incorrectly with the bat, so Sandbag flew high into the sky and made about 8 feet. Why not take the challenge? that part of him urged. If you win the Ultimate Tournament, you'll have much more than 50 Smash Coins. And Capt. Falcon's bad at it, too. You're a fair match.

Against his smarter side, Marth said, "Okay, I accept."

Captain Falcon grinned and led the way to the stadium.

--

The stadium was huge. Incredibly huge. Master Hand had designed it to be up to 9,999 feet. It was almost two miles long, in other words. Which made Marth feel worse each time Sandbag barely made it over 900 feet. Most other fighters got it well over 1,000.

"Well? Are you ready?" Captain Falcon asked.

No. I'm not ready. "Yeah, sure," Marth said, still looking at the length of the field.

"I'm telling you, I've got some moves now," Captain Falcon bragged. "You ought to watch me in action. It will blow your socks off."

Now Marth was feeling even less confident. "You go first," he said, and stepped back to the edge of the platform.

The counter started. Captain Falcon had 10 seconds to whale on Sandbag as hard as he could without knocking it off the platform. He rushed forward, double-kicked it into the air, then jumped up to greet it and kicked it back down to the platform. The process repeated itself until the final seconds approached. He gave it one last good kick, then did some Marth did not expect. Instead of grabbing the bat, he charged up one of his famous Falcon Punches and smashed into the bag with a fist of fire.

Sandbag flew out of sight quickly. Marth had flinched during the Falcon Punch and fallen off the edge of the platform. On his back, he watched as Sandbag got smaller and smaller still without sinking. Marth knew he couldn't get that far. After what seemed like several hours, a tiny dot in the horizon hit the ground and slid to a stop. Marth climbed back onto the platform to see a grinning Captain Falcon.

"So dynamic you couldn't stand up?" he teased. "Well, have I improved or what?"

"Yeah," Marth said shakily, "you improved."

Marth walked over to the electric Distance Scanner on the corner of the platform to see how far Sandbag had gone. 1,183 feet. Wonderful.

"Ready to hand over the 50 Smash Coins?" Captain Falcon asked rhetorically.

"I guess so," Marth said, watching the machine intently as if, any second, it would switch to a lower distance. He straightened back up and pressed a button on top of the Distance Scanner. Sandbag teleported back to the center of the platform instantly.

"Start the timer!" Captain Falcon yelled.

For a second but what seemed like forever, Marth hesitated. He couldn't beat Captain Falcon! He grabbed Sandbag, hurled him into the air, and smashed it with his sword. It teetered towards the edge of the platform. He grabbed the bat and hurried after it. He smashed Sandbag again and again, looking like a juggler starting to fail. The final seconds approached. Closing his eyes, he leaned back and hit Sandbag with the bat as hard as he could.

He fell over with the effort. He watched as Sandbag went flying. It didn't go nearly as high as Captain Falcon's, and it sank before long. He hurried back to the platform and watched the Distance Scanner. He had already set a personal record; it had broken 1,000 feet. Captain Falcon maintained his smug look but didn't appear as certain as he was before. Sandbag landed and slowly approached Captain Falcon's length. It arrived at 1,181 feet. 2 feet shy.

"You know what they say," Captain Falcon remarked. "Close, but no cigar."

Marth didn't know what a cigar was, but he watched curiously in the Distance Scanner's subscreen as Sandbag wobbled. Finally, it fell over sideways. 1,184 feet.

Marth was speechless.

So was Captain Falcon.

Nobody said anything for awhile. Even as "New Record" flashed across the screen, nobody moved. Could such an ironic thing really happen?

"Did I win?" Marth asked cautiously.

Captain Falcon nodded. "I...I guess so. I guess I have to pay you 50 Smash Coins."

Marth shook his head. "I only won because it fell over sideways. I'll take half of it. It's only fair."

Captain Falcon looked like he was about to argue, but he straightened up. "Well, sounds good to me. Go ahead and take your 25 Smash Coins."

--

Marth jingled the money in his pocket happily as he walked back to his room. He felt better about his personal new record than his acquired money. He turned into his room and saw Samus waiting for him. Roy was walking around in circles around her, hands behind his back.

"Hi, Samus," Marth greeted. "I just beat Captain Falcon at a Home Run Contest. Set a new personal record and got 25 Smash Coins."

"What did you say to him?"

Marth paused. "What?"

"Roy has been pestering me for the past hour or so to have another cup of coffee. He told me you sent him here. What did you say to him?"

When Samus was stressed, it was usually best not to be in the same room as her. When Samus's anger was directed at you, there was no escape. Marth had to take it.

"Well, I kind of jokingly told him to go pester you for more coffee so Link and I could have a match," Marth confessed. "I guess I didn't think he'd actually do it."

"OfcourseI'ddoit!" Roy shrieked, now pacing around Marth. "I'dkillforacoffeebean!"

"Yes, good point," Samus said sarcastically. "The next time Roy drinks coffee, please deal with him."

Samus strode past Marth and walked out of his room. Roy paused next to Marth and said the shortest sentence he'd said all day:

"Coffee?"