It was a starless night in some dark, scary and haunted forest. A Gummi ship was flying through the path surrounded by almost leafless otherworldly spiky trees. Sora and Geno were laughing while the former was still piloting.

"Gosh, Geno. Please do it one more time!" Sora requested while trying to contain his laugh.

"Sure", the puppet accepted as he started to imitate poorly Kratos back in the Playstation All-Star mansion in a goofy way. "We're on an invalid hunt. And think we don't know how to weed them out?!"

Then the two were roaring at this hilarious joke while piloting much deeper into the forest. It was getting more and more sinister as well as dubious the more they advanced.

"Weed them out", Sora repeated.

"That guy was such a prick", Geno grinned.

They resumed laughing. Suddenly, their ship shook, causing the two passengers to be shocked.

"Woah! I guess the turbulence messed up the flight!" Sora assumed.

Unknown to them, the ship just hit huge piles of skulls from underneath. Luckily, said turbulence stopped and the ship flew like normal.

"You know Sora, there's a lesson to be learned from this", Geno explained like a wise teacher.

"Uh, what's that?" he inquired.

"A comic reading, shows and movies watching invalid doesn't belong in this world. It's a world for the real players."

"Yeah."

Sora realized something.

"Wait, we read those comics. Doesn't that make us comic reading, shows and movies watching invalids?"

Geno started to have existential crisis on this, questioning whether or not they were what he just said. But then, he stopped thinking when he saw something in front of them.

"Sora look! Free ice cream!" he happily exclaimed while pointing.

They stopped the ship and parked in front of some small stand with the words "Cooking Mama's delicious ice cream" written on them.

"Oh man! I'm hungry!" the teenager exclaimed while rubbing his belly.

Sora quickly jumped out of the ship to reach eagerly the stand, not knowing he was running through a pile of skulls. Geno decided to wait for Sora to bring back the sweet. He was smiling when he saw his friend leaving. He saw a skull of a Dry Bone lying next to him and decided to hang out with him.

"Hi, mister. Nice to meet you", Geno greeted the head skull.

However, his eyes widened when he realized that something went amiss. He was talking to an already dead Koopa. He looked around and was horrified by the sight. They were surrounded by lots of piles of dry bones, bone piranha plants, bony beetles and even fish bones for some reasons. And all of them were seemingly not able to move at all, as if they were in fact dead. Geno started to grasp in dreadfulness.

"Wait a minute! WAIT A MINUTE! SORA!"

The young hero finally arrived to the stand, but stopped immediately when he heard his friend's distressed scream. He turned around, confused and worried.

"Yeah, Geno?" he asked from a distance.

"Add caramel to my ice cream!" Geno requested, completely ignoring the actual situation.

"Sure!" he turned to the red-haired apron-wearing woman. "Two sea salt ice cream, please", he ordered.

"Certainly", the lady smiled in a friendly way as she handed to him the blue double ice pop to Sora. "You invalids enjoy."

"Actually, we're valid, ma'am, but it's fine", Sora bitterly talked back while grabbing the ice cream with one of his hand.

"Okay, Geno. I got the-"

Sora tried to leave and go back to the ship where his friend was waiting. Yet, he was unable to take more steps. He looked at the lady's arm, which was stretching and somehow glued to the sea salt ice cream.

"Huh, miss? You can let go of it, now", he said, an uncomfortable feeling all running over him. "I say you can let go."

He kept stretching it, struggling to get it off. Sora started to feel something really gross whenever he grabbed the ice cream, it was sticky and squishy. He noticed that the sea salt ice cream he just grabbed was sticking to his hand like glue and was also dripping with a green-ish translucent foul liquid. It also looked like it merged with Cooking Mama's hand.

"Ugh, UGH! What is it?"

Sora was struggling even harder to get his hand unstuck to the strange stuff. A small earthquake suddenly came out of nowhere, appalling the now stuck hero. It made the stand fall out, revealing that this "woman" had no legs, just an upper body. He could just stare at her in horror.

"What kind of lady are you?!"

The hair fell out, revealing her bald head.

"EW!"

The earthquake started to get more frightening as he could see giant stalactite teeth coming out of the ground, and a purple glowing eye with black sclera staring at him. He screamed in terror. The giant creature came out of the ground. It was a huge ghost spherical white ghost wearing a purple crown (King Boo). And Sora just happened to grab the lure on his purple sticky tongue. King Boo growled hungrily as Sora screamed even harder. Geno was looking everything that happened to him on the rear-view of the ship, not quite understanding the danger his friend was in. Back to the prisoner, Sora can only stared in horror as he watched helplessly the saliva-dripping upper mouth closing on him, saliva dripping all over his face, while his hand was stuck to the tongue, unable to escape. King Boo was closing his mouth filled with big, sharp, stalactite teeth, about to eat the boy alive. He shrieked as he quickly summoned his keyblade from his free hand.

"Firaga!" he conjured a spell just as the giant Boo closed his mouth, trapping the prey inside.

King Boo felt the heat inside the mouth and quickly spat Sora out, sticking his burning tongue out, trying to extinguish the fire. Sora was falling from the huge height, before he landed inside the Gummi Ship. Geno was piloting it and finally got the hint when he saw what happened.

"Did you get the ice cream?" Geno asked oblivious of his traumatized drool-covered friend.

King Boo was roaring furiously at them for ruining his dinner as they looked at him in fear.

"Keep flying, Geno!" Sora yelled in terror.

The wooden puppet obeyed and flew as fast as he could to escape the giant angry ghost. However, the ghost pursued them. The two heroes were shrieking as the ghost trailed them behind the ship.

In the meantime, Doomguy kept flying on his jet. He landed near a familiar run down mansion as he noticed something on the ground. Big and small footprints. He walked toward those to examine them near. He saw some ripped papers on a big footprint and took some from the ground. It was ripped comic book papers. He took out his mask and blew them up in the air. From the ripped papers, an image magically formed showing Sora and Geno reading and ripping out the comic book pages while laughing like crazy. He knew he was on good track. He was almost close to them.

"HEY! You armored green man!"

Doomguy turned around to see an angry Kratos and his fellows Playstation fighters outside the mansion. Obviously, the gray Greek man wasn't too happy about what he did with the ripped comic book papers.

"We have a rule for comic book reading invalids."

He snapped his finger to signal fighters to start talking. Everyone and Kratos started to speak in chorus about the rule.

"All comic book reading invalids will be beaten senselessly by-"

The last thing Kratos knew was that he got uppercut by Doomguy's muscular fist, sending him flying in the air before he crashed in the mansion screaming. The already run down mansion collapsed on him. The Playstation fighters were watching the scene as they kept repeating the rule in unison. They looked back nervously at Doomguy who left them behind flying on his jet. The fighters were now homeless and had nowhere else to go or fight.

Back to the two heroes, King Boo was still trailing them in the dark sky, not giving up on his food. Unfortunately, while their transport can fly high and fast, so can the ghost. They were still panicking when they looked back at the giant restless ghost and the sentient part of his tongue nearing the ship.

"Come on, I'll let you have the sea salt ice cream!" Cooking Mama promised while holding the ice pop to them.

This only made them screamed even harder.

"I'll let you pet my Purugly too."

Said Purugly came out of the ghost's mouth. It looked like it was attached to a vein.

"Purr", the cat-like Pokemon meowed.

They screamed one more time from the sight of the ugly creature.

"Geno! Out of the ship!" Sora told him, completely distressed.

They both jumped out of the cockpit. King Boo finally caught up to the ship and ate it in one bite. What he didn't know was that the ghost was floating right above a trench. A long yellow whisker grabbed him before he got eaten by a long, giant green serpentine dragon (Mega Rayquaza). Sora and Geno were watching this while standing near the cliff. When the Pokemon completely disappeared into the abyss, the two were staring and blinking comically with their mouth agape.

"Well, we lost the Gummi ship again", Sora started to speak, breaking the silence.

"Forget the ship. Where's the road?"

"Road."

"Road."

"Road."

"Road."

Sora turned at Geno, who was imitating the echo the entire time.

"Road."

"Road. Sorry."

"There's the road!" Sora illuminated as he pointed at the other side of the cliff. "It's just on the other side of this…"

Sora looked down the cliff, sweating. The trench was covered by some sort of smoky black and purple void.

"Deep, dark, dangerous…"

A fire ball came out of the subspace.

"Hazardous" Geno added.

"Hazardous" Sora repeated.

Some shadow bugs formed out of the subspace before going back inside.

"Monster infested…"

"Yeah, monster infested…" Sora gulped a bit. "…Subspace."

"Hey Sora, look! There's a way down!" Geno called out as he showed him a decrepit ladder attached to the rocky wall of the cliff. A Primid was hiding behind it and was looking out for potential victims. "Well, what are we waiting for? The glove won't save itself! To the way of the Great maze!"

Geno tried to climb down the first step of the ladder. A menacing roar could be heard.

"What!?" Geno wondered in disbelief.

He put his feet several time on the first step, each time the roar could be hear.

"You heard that? The ladder made noises", he chuckled a bit. He then became worried. "Huh, Sora? What are you…?"

Geno saw Sora going the opposite direction, downtrodden.

"Sora! Wait! Where are you going?!" he stopped him, catching up.

"I'm going home, Geno", he answered, discouraged.

"You can't go home now! What about Mister Sakurae?"

"What about us? We would never be able to survive in that subspace! You said it yourself, this is a world for the real players! And let's face it. We're… invalids."

"We are NOT invalids!" he angrily replied.

"Open your eyes, Geno! We're from the wrong Mega Universe, we're not that important. We even support Goku for Smash, for crying out loud! We don't belong here!" he heatedly argued.

"We don't support him!"

Sora ripped his hat off his wooden head, showing a wood carving word that was written #Goku4Smash on top of his head.

"Geno, you've been keeping this carving of #Goku4Smash under your hat for almost 7 years straight. What do you call that?"

"S-support? You're right Sora! We're not valid!"

Geno ran away crying with his still bald head, except for the carving. He then accidentally tripped and landed on the ground below. Sora caught up to him as he let the blue hat fell and landed on top of his head.

"Put back your hat and just go home", he told to his fallen friend.

"But you can't go home!"

A familiar female voice could be heard, causing their eyes to widen. They look at the girl and her star-like yellow pet pal in front of them and immediately recognize her.

"Arle!" Sora greeted with a content smile.

"Arle?!" Geno realized as he tried to put back his hat.

"Huh, how much did you hear?" Sora asked out of embarrassment.

"I've heard enough", she stated in concern.

"Did you see my carving?" Geno asked the spellcaster, hopeful.

"No, Geno."

"Did you want to?

Geno put his hands on his hat, wanting to impress her. She just ignored him and started talking to them.

"Listen, you two. I know you're both invalid, but you're the only ones left to get the glove", she explained.

"What do you mean the only ones?" Sora inquired, starting to get worried.

"Things really went south in Smash World ever since you two left. Or should I say… World of Dark?"

Arle made a portal image appeared in front of them. Inside, it showed the current event that happened ever since Dharkon succeeded to take over. Smash World had now become a dark, dystopian and sterile place inhabited by who used to be free willed Smashers now mindlessly controlled puppet slaves, who were trying to rebuild this world to Dharkon's image, while chanting for their new overlord.

"Oh Hail Dharkon!"

"Oh Hail Dharkon!"

Dharkon was floating in the sky commanding his subjects.

"Come on, my puppets. Rebuild this world faster to celebrate my almightiness! No resting until I'm satisfied!"

"Oh gosh, Geno!" Sora's eyes widened in disbelief. "Dharkon turned everyone we know into slaves! Sephiroth!"

The possessed Sephiroth, now wearing the cursed bandeau around his head, was fanning Dharkon and Galeem with his one black wing. Unfortunately, the puppets had succeeded to capture him before, and was now brainwashed by the giant entities, becoming one of the mere controlled puppets in the process.

"Zelda."

The puppet Hylian princess was carrying a rock with her magic. Sora was watching her with tears filling and dripping out of his eyes, holding his hands at his chest, like he was heartbroken.

"Byleth."

The puppet professor was breaking a rock with her bone-made whip sword.

"Even Meow Wow too", he gasped in sadness.

The Dream Eater was pulling a giant rock with a rope attached to him. Like everyone else, he was caught into this mess and got possessed by Dharkon in the process with a bandeau stuck around his head.

"Squeak, squeak, Dharkon" he chanted in his squeaking.

Geno observed Sora's expression toward this disaster. He couldn't help but noticed that the brown-haired boy was acting weird when he saw Zelda. Off all the horrible disaster that happened there, she seemed to affect him the most. He wasn't sure why, but he looked lovestruck yet completely devastated by the possessed princess. The wooden puppet wondered.

"Sora, do you have feelings for Zelda?" he asked out of curiosity.

"Y-yeah" Sora admitted, embarrassed and sad. "Ever since I saved her from a giant heartless. She was so beautiful, kind, sweet, strong, brave, and smart, and has the most beautiful laugh I've ever heard. She was one of my main reasons I wanted to join the brawl. But after years of trying, I never succeeded and I thought this mean we were never meant to be, so I had to stop pursuing her. But I realized… I squandered it."

"Eh, eh! You have feelings for Zelda. You have feelings for Zelda!" Geno taunted his friend trying to hold back his laugh.

"GENO! SHUT UP!" Sora snapped, his face completely red.

"AHEM!"

The two were interrupted before they were about to get further in a fight and realized they were still in a conversation with Arle.

"Uh, can't your father help?" Sora asked her, mortified.

"My father was so preoccupied by his appearance he never even had time to see me", Arle explained.

Back in the Smash Castle, Crazy Hand was trying to make a new glove for his older brother. White tissues were put over the king while the little brother was trying to stitch them up into a proper glove, just like the old one. However, he was hesitating and trembled a bit.

"Crazy Hand! Are you done yet?!" Master Hand asked out of impatience.

Suddenly, out of clumsiness, Crazy Hand accidentally pricked Master Hand's finger, which went through to the other side. Master Hand screamed in incredible pain as he had the needle stabbed through him.

"Sorry, brother!" he apologized mortified. "Gee, being the king's brother is hard!"

Back to Sora, Geno and Arle, the two heroes watched all this in disbelief and started to understand the situation. The spellcaster closed the portal down.

"See, you can't leave. The fate of Smash rests in your hands."

"But we're just…"

"Hey, it doesn't matter if you guys are invalid or not. You're still cool regardless. You just gotta believe in yourself. You gotta believe!" she exclaimed as she magically flew in the air with Carbuncle circling around her.

"I… believe…" Sora slowly let out.

"That's the spirit!" Arle cheered throwing a fist bump in the air.

"I believe everyone I KNOW is a goner!"

Sora and Geno burst in tears. Arle was disappointed in them.

"Come on, guys" she said.

Sora and Geno ran around weeping.

"GUY!" she let out in annoyance.

The crybabies were now throwing tantrums.

"Guys?" she tried to get their attention.

They spewed their tears into each other's mouth.

"Ew!" she stuck her tongue in disgust.

The spellcaster realized it was gonna take a lot more to convince those two desperate babies.