An Arrayed Challenger
"Where am I?" Penny's photoreceptors came online to reveal a yellow-orange sky. She scanned her surroundings to find herself standing in the middle of a field.
Around her stood strange beings and things unlike anything she had ever seen. Some possessed features reminding her of Faunus, with their animal traits such as fox ears, cat tails, and even both. Mechanical beings like her chattered among the crowd. Unlike Penny, however, they looked like the Atlesian Knights. A tall, thick-armored figure with a gold visor proved himself an example. Inanimate objects also floated among the crowd, indicated by two white...rectangles volleying a ball back and forth. They reminded Penny of an old game her father played. In addition, there were humans in the mix. Or at least close to humans, in the form of five young women with turquoise and pink outfits decorated with feathery wings. They hovered above the crowd alongside bespectacled turtles riding clouds. Despite their differences, they seemed to have one thing in common: absolute confusion about their current location.
To top it all off, five islands with different structures floated in the distance behind a wide, five-story building. The building stood before the throng of creatures.
Penny fished out her scroll to contact General Ironwood, her father, and her friends. She tried Ironwood first, touching his contact icon. It read "out of range." Then she tried her father, only to receive the same message. Finally, she attempted to give Ruby a call, but the "out of range" message displayed for the third time.
"I'm definitely not in Atlas," she realized, especially when she noticed no snow on the ground. In fact, she didn't think she was even in Remnant anymore, confirmed by the rising full moon. Penny never thought she'd see a whole moon.
"The next group of candidates!" a voice greeted.
The synthetic human looked up to see a plane with pointed blue structures along its wings. A fox leaped off of it. She couldn't see him after he landed, so she hovered a few feet off the ground for a better look. There she saw the animal wearing a white jacket, a helmet with a microphone curved from its side, a green jumpsuit, and silver-armored boots. A gun was cradled in a holster on his belt. He was not Faunus, but he walked like a human.
A fox on two legs? Penny thought. She watched as the animal pulled out another, smaller microphone and affixed it to his red scarf.
"Hello, everyone!" he spoke. His voice carried to the now-silent crowd.
Puzzled responses and murmurs resonated among the massive crowd.
"I understand your confusion as to why you are all here," he continued. "If you have received a letter in your mail and opened it, you have accepted the invitation."
"Invitation to what?" Penny wondered aloud. All she remembered was receiving an envelope sealed by an odd symbol: a circle with a thin horizontal line and a thick vertical one. Her name was written on the front. When she opened the envelope, it turned into a red and black portal. The portal had sucked her in and dropped her in the middle of the crowd of creatures.
"The invitation to Super Smash Brothers," the fox continued.
"'Super Smash Brothers'?" she repeated.
He gestured to the building. "Before you all, you see Smash Academy, the first step to being accepted. Well, second after the letter. As soon as you enter, you'll be split up among the guides and start at different areas."
This is like the tours I give at Atlas Academy, Penny mused. At least I think.
"I doubt that is likely and I do not know what this Atlas is."
Penny noticed a man walking up to her in the corner of her eye. Turning her gaze to him caused her cheeks to burn. Green cat-like eyes stared back. The top part of his long black coat revealed his muscled chest, where a pair of suspenders formed a cross. His silver hair fell to his knees. The sword sheathed behind him looked like it had seen its fair share of blood. A single black-feathered wing folded inward on his back.
"Excuse me?" she asked.
"You are thinking the tours will be like those you have given at this Atlas Academy," he said bluntly. "I said that may be unlikely."
How can this guy read my mind? Penny wondered.
Her time to ponder that question was cut short by the fox opening the doors to Smash Academy. He gestured for the crowd to follow him in as orderly a fashion as possible.
"Welcome to Smash Academy! My name is Fox McCloud, and it's nice to meet you all! Good luck!" he greeted as the throng of creatures filed into the building.
Penny landed and walked alongside the silver-haired man, who cut another small glance at her. That tiny action caused her to feel something unfamiliar. Who was this man?
More importantly, what was Super Smash Brothers?