Chapter 1: Alarm
Spiderman stared down his opponent. The cheering in the background meant nothing. All that mattered was to finish off this pompous "Mace Windu".
As the Jedi Knight ignited his light saber, Spiderman swung into action, delivering a perfect jump kick to Windu's skull – except Windu's skull wasn't there anymore. As Spiderman landed, Mace charged up, ready to swing his light saber. Spiderman felt a familiar tingling sensation, and backflipped to avoid the attack.
"Seems we have a stalemate," Spiderman taunted.
"Yeah, right," came the reply.
Spiderman backflipped again, and climbed up a wall. From the top, he fired a web ball right at Mace's eyes. He heard a few boos from behind him, but ignored them. Windu lowered his light saber and closed his eyes.
"What's the matter, Mace?" Spiderman jeered, swinging down to attack. "Your little powers don't help you if you can't see?"
Spiderman delivered the same jump kick as before, but Mace dodged it again.
"Wha-"
"Actually," Windu said smugly, "my powers still work just fine, thank you."
Spiderman, frustrated, sent a flurry of punches and kicks at Windu, but he avoided them all easily, and then kicked Spiderman in the stomach.
"Maybe you should cover your eyes, too, so it would be more fair," Windu mocked.
"Maybe I'll just cover your mouth."
Spiderman suddenly had a great idea. He jumped forward and faked a kick to the head. At the last moment, he shot a webline at Windu's feet, and pulled him down. Mace dropped the lightsaber, and Spiderman leapt over and got it just before Windu's Jedi powers could take it. The boos grew louder.
"Please give that back, Spiderman."
Spiderman grinned. "My pleasure."
The hero shot a web line at the light saber, pushing it toward Windu. Windu caught it, and his hand immediately stuck to the webbing covering the handle. Spiderman, still holding on to the other end up the webline, stepped straight back with one foot, and pivoted. He then started spinning around, taking Mace on the ride of his life. The boos disappeared, and turned to loud cheering. Spiderman let go of the line, and Mace flew backward into a wall.
"Good match!" Master Hand shouted.
The other toys in the toy dimension went to congratulate Spiderman, but he shook them off.
"Good fight, Mace," Spiderman said to his erstwhile opponent, shaking his hand.
"Very good," the Jedi agreed. "We'll have to do it again sometime."
Spiderman and Mace walked over to Master Hand, who, as leader of the toy dimension, had a very large, odd-looking throne.
"That was very entertaining," Master Hand commented. "Why didn't either of you fight with us during the war?"
"Hey," Spiderman replied, "I may be entertaining, but I'm not suicidal."
Master Hand, Mace, and Juvenor laughed. Juvenor enjoyed serving as Master Hand's second-in-command very much, but it was somewhat boring.
Clyne was walking up to talk to Spiderman and Mace, when he stopped suddenly and stared off in the distance.
"What's wrong, Clyne?" Juvenor asked.
Clyne stared gravely at the assembly, and replied, "Aelali. He just went to Eclipsia."
"What?!" Master Hand gasped. "I'm going-"
"Unfortunately," Juvenor interceded, "As leaders of this dimension, neither you nor I are permitted to leave."
Master Hand looked disappointed. "Right. Well, we don't have time to look for volunteers. Spiderman and Mace, go with Clyne."
Spiderman shrugged. "I could go for a bit of shadow-beating."
The three fighters disappeared into the portal.
"I'd better call the smashers." Master Hand mused.
Aelali sat in the shadow dimension, deep in thought. Not only did he want revenge on Emerald, he realized, he also needed to stop his creator from creating another "anomaly", or otherwise trying to capture some dimensions. As far as he could tell, though, Emerald was nigh omnipotent; what could he do?
"Aelali!" came a cry from behind. "What are you doing?"
Aelali slowly turned around, terrified of seeing Emerald behind him. Instead, he saw Clyne, and two others he didn't recognize. This was frightening enough itself; he realized that Clyne had seen him leave and thought the worst.
"Clyne, it's not what you think-"
"Don't tell me what I think!" Clyne nearly spat. "I saw what you did to my friends during the war!"
Aelali shook his head. "I can explain that, but I'll wait. I assume you have more people coming to back you up?"
"Sorry to wake you guys, but we have a situation here," Master Hand's voice said in twenty-two fighters' heads.
"That doesn't sound good," Link commented.
"Well, it's not. I'm creating portals for each of you. They'll take you to the shadow dimension."
"What?!" came the more or less simultaneous response.
"Aelali is back."
"Ah," Aelali said as the smashers began to appear. "Thought so."
"You'll pay for what you did to us!" Falco shouted.
"Wait a minute!" Aelali shouted. "Please, listen to my side of the story."
Aelali explained his nightmare and its implications. The smashers listened ambivalently, not sure whether to believe him or not.
After Aelali finished, the dimension was silent for a moment. Finally, Mario said, "What do youa suggesta, Aelali?"
Taken by surprise, Aelali stammered, "Well, I sort of assumed you'd ignore me and leave."
"If you like," Spiderman answered, turning around.
"No, I think we should try to get this guy." Samus suggested. "If he really did create Anomaly…"
"And you're just going to believe him?" Bowser growled. "It takes a good liar to know one."
"We'll handle this." Ness and Mewtwo said, stepping forward.
A few moments later, Mewtwo gasped. "He's telling the truth."
"Well, let's go get Emerald!" DK shouted.
"Fools."
The sky turned from shadowy black to bright green, almost blindingly bright. When the smashers could see clearly again, they saw a glowing green figure floating above them.
"Emerald, I presume?" Clyne said.
"Indeed. And you are the ones who defeated my shadow army?"
"We are." Marth replied, gripping Falchion tightly.
"Well, you're obviously too powerful for me." Emerald said sarcastically. "I'd better send you to someone who can deal with you better."
With that, Emerald fired a huge green beam at the assembled smashers, and they disappeared.
"Now, as for you, Aelali…"
(A/N: Where did Emerald send the smashers? What punishment will Aelali receive? Um…I think that's it. Stay tuned!)