The first thing he recalled was an eerie silence. There was no noise at all. His head didn't even feel like it was on the floor, and when he opened his eyes, his vision was horribly obscured. Dull pain filled his entire body, especially his head, which felt like it had been slammed into a wall, possibly repeatedly. Had he been drugged? His limbs are sore and heavy. Despite the pain, he grabbed a chair, or what felt like a chair since the room was cascaded in darkness that was sitting next to where he had woken up and used the arm of it to lever himself into it. Looking around, everything was dark apart from small blue light shining from somewhere. He looked and saw a cyan rectangle, about the size of a iPad, on what felt like a table. He felt something tight around his right wrist. A shackle was clipped to him, chaining him to what felt like the table. The lights turned on, blinding him. He whimpered as he immediately developed a migraine. There were a lot of other people in the room, which was large yet empty at the same time. Apart from the chairs and table, it was very barren, like a prison cell. He saw cameras in the corners of the walls. They were being watched... The walls, floor and ceiling were metal, steel by the looks of it. A heavy bolted door was across the room, a screen now demonstrating numbers.

01:00:00.

An hour? Was it a countdown? What for? He got into the chair and saw others doing the same. He counted how many were in the room. 81. The table was a big square, with each Smasher sitting in a chair. They were all wearing masks, but he realized that all of the Smashers were here. Why were they in this weird place? It was unclear. He was on the end of the table, right on the corner. Looking to his left, he saw a familiar person still asleep on the floor. Despite the lion mask on his face, he knew who it was.

"Sonic?" He asked quietly.

No answer. Lucario quickly tried reaching him, having just enough slack from the chain to reach him. He gently shook his shoulder.

"Come on, wake up...!" He felt panic rise in him. "Sonic please...!" Others were starting to look over. He saw Sonic's chest heave as he came around, groaning groggily. He let out a huge sigh of relief. It washed over him like an ocean. He was glad his best friend was alive and well. "Are you okay?" He looked over at him.

"...L-Lucario?" Sonic's voice was hoarse and pretty shaky.

He nodded. "Are you okay!? Are you hurt?"

Sonic frowned, thinking. He shook his head. "My arm is sore, but other then that, I'm fine." Lucario frowned and looked at the hedgehog's arm. There was a bruise on his arm. He looked at his own. A similar bruise, like he had been struck with a taser or stun gun. He helped the hedgehog up and into his chair.

"You okay, hedgehog? You're the last one up." Terry called.

"I'm fine. Whatever knocked us out clearly affected me longer than the rest of ya. I'm good, tho'." Sonic did a thumbs up.

"Good, we're glad you're okay." Peach nodded in joy. Sonic took in his surroundings and gulped.

"I don't like the looks of this place..."

"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you." Lucario promised. "I wonder why you are wearing a lion mask..."

"Yours is a rabbit."

"Oh Arceus, I don't wanna be a Lopunny." He groaned, earning a small cute giggle.

He looked around the room. There seemed to be seven types of masks being used, all different animals: a wolf, a pig, a lion, a dog, a rabbit, a bear and a fox. They weren't even either, some types of mask were more common and some were more rare. There were similarities. All of them were chained up to a table and they were unbreakable, the masks were locked and didn't come off, all of their personal belongings were gone apart from important medication like tablets and inhalers, none of them remembered how they got to the room, and each of them had a stun gun bruise, either on their arm or in a more sensitive area like their chest or back. There was suddenly a loud buzzer, and the one hour timer on the wall began counting down. On the table in front of them were screens, which now lit up. In them were "Rules" of some sort.

"C-Can I get everyone's attention?"

Lucario saw somebody stand. He recognized her as Isabelle, who was one of the new Smashers. She had been the one who called for everyone's eyes and ears to be on her. She was wearing a fox mask. It looked like she was going to read the rules to everyone. The rules went as follows:

Each person in the room has committed a sin.

Only one person can win the game.

The room must vote for the person they want executed.

Everyone must vote, or there will be punishment.

Anyone breaking the rules will be punished.

Everyone looked around the room. Some in blind panic, some in suspicion, some already strategizing for their own survival. The screens cleared and displayed everyone's faces in alphabetical order.

"So what, we're all criminals!? Baloney!" Ridley roared.

"Says the overgrown space dinosaur who is a confirmed murderer." Snake growled, glancing at his girlfriend Samus. She nodded in thanks.

"There is little evidence to suggest that the information that is apparently incriminating us is true. Let's be frank, a lot of us here aren't the type of people to hurt others." Meta Knight mused.

"Well, we can test the water by clicking a picture and seeing if the information is true." Came a reply from Min-Min.

"Wouldn't that put that person at a disadvantage? We're most likely to vote that person out first." Daisy pointed out.

"We could just reveal everyone's information at once." Roy called in confidence.

"I-I think that would overload the system Roy." Toon Link mumbled. Suddenly they saw their screens clear. They saw that Wolf had clicked on Fox's picture. The pilot wore a rabbit mask like Lucario.

"You bastard!" He yelled.

"Come on, I wanna know what dirty secret you're hiding." Wolf just shrugged at this.

Fox McCloud: Psychologically tortured his girlfriend Krystal and used her telepathic powers to his own benefit.

Everyone immediately stared at Fox in shock, horror and disgust, excluding Wolf.

"I...! No! I would never hurt Krystal!

"Fox is right! Krystal is a valuable part of our team! He would never hurt her, he loves her!" Falco backed Fox up, though his voice wavered a little.

"So the information is bogus. That is reassuring. We have no need to vote anybody out. We just need to vote for ourselves." Meta Knight sighed.

"Is that even allowed? It would only take one deviant for somebody to die." The Villager, Ai, whispered.

Lucario and Sonic looked at each other, nodded, and cast their votes.

"You two voted already!?" Fox exclaimed.

"Relax, we're voting for ourselves." Sonic assured. "I'm not killing anybody, you're all my friends! This game is messed up."

"If they voted, should we vote too?" Mythra pondered.

"Before we do..." Fox tapped Wolf's picture, eager to get even. Wolf just looked disinterested, if his posture was anything to go by. He wore a mask that looked like a dog.

Wolf O'Donnell: Murdered James McCloud out of envy due to having no family of his own.

"You...YOU MURDERED MY FATHER!?" Fox raged, though his handcuff stopped him from acting. He did, however, manage to kick Wolf squarely in the chest. Wolf landed in his back and coughed a bit.

"No I did not. I was nowhere near Venom-"

"How do you know where he died!? You did it!" Fox cut Wolf off, filled with rage.

"Hang on..." A hand went up from Pyra. "If Wolf's sin is real...that means Fox's is too..." Falco looked at Fox, feeling betrayed.

"Fox, you didn't..." He stared at his friend brokenly. Fox didn't say anything. If he defended himself and got angry, it was only going to make his situation worse. Marth cleared his throat to cut through the increasing tension in the air.

"I think it is fair at this point to just vote for either Fox or Wolf. Majority wins."

"Is that a good idea?" Came a murmur from Olimar, looking at Marth.

Everyone began casting votes before anyone answered him. The timer stopped at 00:27:56. Everyone had voted. The votes came in.

62 votes for Wolf.

14 votes for Fox.

2 votes for Sonic.

2 votes for Ridley.

1 vote for Lucario.

Sonic slammed his hand on the table. "Okay, who voted for me!?"

Nobody raised a hand.

Lucario equally looked shocked. He knew both he and Sonic voted for themselves as promised, yet somebody else had also voted for the hedgehog. Thankfully in this case, it hadn't impacted much, but it could later on.

A loud buzzer sounded. Wolf heard faint humming coming from somewhere. He then realised...it was coming from his handcuff. He screamed as an electric shock was sent through his body, sending him to the ground. He violently convulsed. Everyone screamed in horror. None of his comrades could see it, but Wolf was foaming at the mouth. Blood seeped from his eyes. Eventually he laid still, his body truly cooked. Hysteria quickly set into the rooms. Screaming, a lot of screaming. A lot of them vomited, not great with masks on. A couple of them wet themselves from the fear, and that was mostly the younger Smashers, children who at their age shouldn't be subjected to such violence and r-rated topics like execution and murder. A few of the girls, mainly Peach, Rosalina, Lucina and Ai, the Villager, fainted. Lucario was trying not to be sick. He could feel the horror-induced nausea swirling in his stomach. They just killed somebody. Regardless of what crime he had committed, they had murdered him in cold blood. He looked at Sonic. He was frozen stiff, but he could hear his fast breathing. He could imagine the shock, disgust, horror. He gently but secretly gripped his hand.

"I won't let them kill you too. I'm gonna make sure you and me survive this. We'll both get out of this death game, and confront its creator. Promise." He urged, tightening his grip. Truth was, he loved Sonic, and had never told him.

"I don't w-want to die..." He croaked. Lucario had never seen this amount of fear in him.

"And you won't." He reassured gently. At that point, the chains connecting them to the tables released, and the door opened. It looked like a swanky hotel. The design was black and white modern, art deco almost. Escape was impossible. The door was heavily bolted and machine guns stood guard. There were no windows. A huge screen appeared and it lit up with a message.

WELCOME TO YOUR NEW REALITY. ONLY ONE OF YOU WILL SURVIVE.

That was the last thing Lucario recalled before he passed out, cracking his head on the tiled floor.

A death game. All of them were secretly guilty of a crime. They were to be executed one by one, day by day. Different methods, different stories. Only one out of the eighty left was going to survive long enough to see the real world ever again. But who? And what was everyone's crime? They were the judge, the jury and the executioner.

Their suffering had only just begun...

XO

Two men in black were watching their captured victims quickly run to Lucario's aid. They were both smirking to themselves.

"Everything is in place." The first darkly laughed.

"Let us see how the mortals entertain us this time." The second agreed, before looking at the screen where their subordinates were disposing of Wolf's body. "The fools, they have no idea that this game is bigger than their minds can imagine."