Disclaimer: I do not own any character in this chapter; all characters rightfully belong to Nintendo! I do however, own Brian but you guys can all use him if you want. There probably is a guy somewhere who's name is Brian McDonald anyways.

Chapter 1: The Thankful Early Arrivals

Few things were more intimidating to a man then an empty sheet of paper with a pencil lying lifeless on top of it. The same was true for Brian McDonald, as he tried to program the safety features of a new stadium stationed on the moon.

'Worthless piece of junk,' he thought as he gave up on the audience's safety shield and decided to continue working on building the safety belt meant for the twenty-six fighters that would be fighting in the stadium that he was working above in three weeks. Brian was working up in a booth, high above the actual fighting arena. He had chosen this spot because it was quiet and peaceful, and he didn't have to put up with the grinding noise of the blowtorches melting some of the safety features he had designed on the Unythrium walls for the stadium. He took a swig from his cup of coffee and picked up a metal belt labelled Marth. He sighed as he hooked up a cable to the belt that was protruding form the computer and began typing like mad. A soldering iron popped out of the back of the computer and opened up a small panel on the belt and began tinkering with the wires and circuitry as Brian continued typing.

The belts were meant to protect the fighters, and make sure that they weren't seriously hurt. Bloodshed was what Brian was trying to prevent with these belts and he was having some major difficulties doing it. He cursed to himself, thinking if he had only brought his equipment from home. But no, he was promised that everything he needed would be right at his fingertips.

Satisfied that he was finished after about five minutes of working on it, he typed a few commands and the soldering iron retreated back into the depths of the computer after closing the panel to the belt. Fidgeting with a lock of his messy brown hair, and adjusting his glasses, he picked up the belt, and slipped it on his half-chubby waist. Just as he had programmed it, it automatically adjusted itself, and latched onto his skin through his rough, course jeans with tiny needles. The short sting only lasted a second, but he cringed anyway. The stinging quickly went away, and, just as he programmed it, he couldn't even feel the weight of the belt anymore. He moved around, bending his waist, making sure he had full mobility, and then he picked up a knife from the counter. Crossed his fingers, and making a silent prayer that the belt would finally do what it was meant to do, he viciously tried to stab his arm. Immediately his arm recoiled as if a club had hit it with massive force. The pain as if a club had hit his arm and not a knife ripped through his arm, but not even so much as a bruise showed on his arm. He held his arm in pain, nevertheless. He quickly got over the pain however, and glanced at the knife. He grinned, as it was unharmed. He had problems before where the shield around him that the belt produced bent his knife.

Right now however, it was perfect.

Nearly dancing with glee he slipped the belt off and pressed a button on the keyboard, saving the work he'd done. Then he quickly made a backup file on a minidisk, placed it carefully in his desk drawer while humming "I'm to sexy for my shirt under his breath. He then picked up what looked like a micro walkie-talkie off a shelf behind the computer, held it in front of him and anxiously pressed a button on it. A projection of an office popped up with a man sitting idly at his desk. The man glanced up, and noticed he was being watched. And spoke in a Japanese accent.

"Brian, what a lovely surprise. How goes the safety belts?"

Brian proudly replied, "I finished the prototype, it's ready for copying."

"And the knife didn't bend like last time?" The Japanese man asked, leaning forward, anxious for the answer.

"Not a scratch on the arm, or the knife." Brian replied while holding up the switch-blade he had used.

"Excellent work," said the man in the office. He stood up and approached whatever Brian's image was projected fromand continued his speech. "But before you copy it, can you make sure the belt will also block magic attacks?"

Brian's face went pale. No one at the stadium could perform magic.

"Um, Miyomato, how am I to test this?"

The Japanese man smiled and replied, "Well this will be the perfect time to announce that Roy and Marth have decided to make an early audience. They arrive in an hour. Get programming."

"Oh I'm already eighty percent sure that it will block magic attacks, but I must make sure it's work. And I'm one hundred percent sure if the shield blocks one, it'll block them all," Brian replied.

"The other pressing issue is there are some fighters who can use electricity to attack, and you must make sure that the belts don't short out."

"I've already covered that. I was able to program that in first. The shock will merely turn into a heavy blow, depending on how heavy the shock is. Would you like to see?" Brian said while holding up a few wires protruding from the wall.

"No thank you, but excellent work. The one other issue I'm concerned about is have you solved the problem of making a shield belt for the Pokémon? The belts will be quite bulky for them."

"I'm working on it. I don't think it'll be much of a problem now that I have the program all set-up." A stony silence fell between the two men as the suddenly had nothing more to debate, or comment about. Brian was the first to break it by saying, "I …um…better get down to the greeting area and meet Marth and Roy right away, so I'll be leaving now."

"Off you go then. Over and out." With that, the hologram of Miyomato disappeared. Brian wasted no time. He grabbed a donut out of a box next to his coffee, inserted it into his mouth and took off out the door, running with the belt dangling around his shoulder.

*   *   *

"Are you sure we should be arriving this early?" Roy questioned Marth. "I mean the tournament isn't to be for another three weeks."

"Yeah I know, but Miyomato said to come early so that someone could test some safety device for the fighters," Marth replied in a bored, tone of voice. He really didn't want to come early, but he was too polite to refuse Miyomato's request. And besides, they could get a good look around. Marth looked into Roy's brown eyes. They were pointed down to his feet, and were dimmed with grief. Roy was definitely not looking forward to coming early. His Father's death had brought him down. Even though their religion said to be happy for their each other's death, for they would go to a better place, he could tell that Roy still wished that his Father would be watching the tournament. Nevertheless, Roy had forced himself into his battle clothes, which was red leather armour with his blood red cape, even though he still didn't want to be here. He even brought his pride possession, the Sword of Seals for this tournament.

While Roy was wearing nothing but red, Marth had chosen his blue leather armour and cape to match his shocking blue hair and eyes. His own sword given to him by his father, passed down from King to prince, always only handed to Royal blood, the Falchion, rested in it's gold plated scabbard on his back. He himself still had his father, so he couldn't even imagine the pain Roy was feeling.

A moment of silence parted the two warriors before a computer-generated voice rang through the air saying, "We are now boarding the stadium. Please stand by for departure."

"Lets get our bags then," Marth stated as he headed for the storeroom. They were on a small transporter ship, with none aboard except for the Marth, Roy, the pilot, and the co-pilot. Their planet was only two parsecs away, so the trip would be only two hours the pilot had explained. Marth and Roy, of course, had no idea what the pilot was talking about, so they just nodded their heads pretending they knew what she was talking about. Marth and Roy both grabbed their leather sacks, filled with spare clothes and a bit of healing medicine. They were told that food would be provided so they didn't bother packing any provisions. They slung their sacks over their shoulders and headed towards the exit.

When they stepped off the plane, they were greeted by a long marble hallway, and a semi-chubby man running towards them at full speed (which wasn't very fast for the man as Marth and Roy could easily tell he was out of shape). The man had heavy black glasses, messy brown hair, was finishing the remains of what looked like a bun with a hole in it, and had a metallic belt slung over his shoulder.

Brian ran towards the fighters, grateful that he had made it just in time. He mentally cursed himself for being so out of shape while throwing his donut in a nearby trash bin. He ran right up to them, bent over, out of breath for a second, before he stood up straight, trying to slow down his breathing, and extended his hand.

"Hi I'm Brian."

The man dressed in blue hesitated for a minute, as if he wasn't quite sure what to do, then smiled, shook his hand back, and replied with a Japanese accent, "Hello, I am Marth, prince of Altea, pleased to meet you." Brian grinned slightly knowing that most of the fighters probably weren't used to the American handshake, and knew that Miyomato had probably told them before hand how to be polite before other cultures. Brian didn't really care whether they did or didn't know the rules of politeness, he was just glad that they could speak English.

"Um, I hate to be rude, but I really need your help at the moment, come this way quickly," Brian said in an excited tone. Before the warriors could object, Brian had grabbed Marth by the hand and half dragged him to a door on the right.

Marth hadn't expected to be lead by the hand. Despite that the man was quite shorter then him, he had a good strong grip, and Marth was too polite to not let him drag him around the place. The man Brian quickly led him to a door, which led to a row of elevators, as far as Marth could tell. Marth and Roy had only been on an elevator once, and that was only for getting on the transporter ship. Brian led them right into an elevator on the far right and pressed a button as soon as Roy had caught up to them. As the door closed, Marth braced himself for the sensation of moving upwards. Brian quickly pressed a button as soon as the door closed and Marth felt the weird sensation of moving upwards for the second time that day. He nearly lost his balance, but regained it quickly. Brian had stood there, unfazed by the elevator's movement.

"Ok, before we get to the training arena, I need to know something: do you guys can use magic?" Brian asked enthusiastically.

Marth scratched his head and said, "Um, well, yes we can but-"

"Perfect." And before Marth could argue his point, the door opened, and Brian quickly dragged him onward with Roy running to catch up as the door nearly closing on him.

Brian led them down another short hallway before opening a large set of double doors. Marth gasped in surprise when his eyes adjusted to the bright lighting of the rather large room. Brian had led them both to what was no doubt, a training area for warriors. They were weight lifts, ladders, an obstacle course, quarterstaffs lined up in a row on a rack, medicine balls, chin-up bars; everything that a warrior needed to train with was here. Even soft, cushy marshmallow mats lined the walls. Marth looked in awe around the giant room as Brian had finally let go of his hands and was tinkering with the metal belt of his. He walked up to the walls to feel the mats. They were more comfortable then his mother's bed (he wasn't allowed in here room, but he snuck in when he was little anyways).

Brian interrupted his little memory flash back by saying, "Marth, I need you to put on this belt for a second."

"Whah?" Marth said puzzled for a second, then snapping back to reality, he replied, "Oh, sure. He grabbed the belt from Brian and started putting it on his waist while Brian started explaining how the Belt would work.

"Now when you put it on, it'll latch on to you with tiny needles. It should only sting for a split second." Marth wasn't really paying attention so he wasn't ready for it and gasped in pain as the little needles stuck to him.

"AH." He gasped when shock of the sting hit his waist. "What the hell is going-hey. I can't even feel it anymore," he said in amazement.

"Ah, excellent. I wasn't quite sure if it would work for everyone but it seems to work great for you. You'll also notice that you have full mobility. You can bend anyway you could before."

"So just what exactly is the point of these belts?" Marth asked, not knowing what he'd be put through next.

"Well, the point of this belt is to prevent bloodshed. What happens is the belt connects to your spinal cord nerves and whenever you would normally feel the sensation of pain, the shield projected by the belt thus absorbs attack and turns the pain into a blunt attack." Marth just looked at Brian as if he was speaking another language. Brain put his head in his hands before replying, "If Roy did a wicked stab to your stomach with his sword, instead of the sword going through your stomach, you'd go flying backwards."

"Ah," Marth replied, starting to get the point getting it. "So this'll stop me from getting hurt?"

"You won't get so much as a bruise, but still feel as if you received a blow that sent you flying," Brian said proudly.

Marth's face went pale as he realized why he was needed. "And you want me and Roy to test this out?"

"Well, yeah. I've run tests on myself, but it doesn't mean it'll work for you. We have a medical staff here if anything goes wrong so don't worry."

Roy, who hadn't spoken in a while said,"But these swords are lethal. We don't have healers and don't know how good your…um…what did you call it?"

"A medical staff is the same thing as a healer back in your world," Brian said in an exasperated voice.

"Could they put his leg back on if the cut it off?" Roy asked.

"Of course. They could do that quite easily. They could take you're your heart out and put it back in."

Marth then interrupted their argument and asked, "So how do you want me to test this."

"Well, I'd like to start by you just cutting your arm."

"You mean take my own sword and just try and cut it off? I know you said your healers are good but-"

"Not cut it off ya twit, but just bring it down hard enough that it might cut your arm." Marth looked at Roy for support, but Roy was just as pale at the idea. Sure they had both suffered mortal wounds before, and Maybe Brian's healers were as good as they said they were, but he still didn't want to take his own sword to his arm. This wasn't exactly what he had in mind when Miyomato said they needed to run some tests.

Brian looked at Marth and realized he wasn't exactly at all comfortable with the idea and said, "Tell you what. I'll wear the belt, and you can slash my arm." He took out a remote control, and pressed a button, making the belt unclip, and fall to the ground. Marth looked like he was even more horrified with the idea of hurting someone, But Brian ignored the fact and picked up the belt from the ground. He slipped it on, only slightly cringing at the sting of the needles, then held out his arm, signalling that he was ready.

Marth slowly drew his blade, the Falchion.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Marth said. Brian looked at the blade. The edge gleamed in the bright lighting, and he knew that if the shield did not work, then his arm would have a nice deep gash. Reassuring himself that the medical staff was as good as he said, and knowing it had to be done, he still secretly wished that Marth hadn't been so hesitant.

"Just do it," Brian muttered. Marth raised his sword high, and brought it down on Brian's outstretched arm.

THUMP!

Brian's arm flew backwards, recoiling at the vicious slash, and sending Brian stepping back a few steps to regain his balance. Brain immediately held his arm in pain again as it felt like a club had hit it again.

Marth quickly ran up to Brian and anxiously asked, "Omigosh are you alright?" Brian smiled as the pain started drifting away, stood up before Marth could fix and beamed, "It works perfectly." He showed Marth his arm, which, just as he had said, didn't even have a bruise on it.

"Amazing," was all Roy could say to the situation. "And there's no pain?"

"Ah, it fades away after about five seconds." He turned to Marth, grinned, and said, "Care to try it?"

*   *   *

"Excellent work Brian."

"Why thank you Miyomato. The belts work perfectly. Just send me the profiles of all the fighters and I can build the rest of them. Then you can introduce the belts."

"So Roy's Flare attack didn't penetrate the shield?"

"Nope."

"And what about Marth's patented Shield Breaker attack?"

"Not even a scratch. That attack only works for magic-projected shield's like Nayru's love," Brian said proudly.

"Don't tell Zelda that," Miyomato said leaning back in his chair. "And did you test the, um, what did you call it where the fighter's can concentrate to prevent from being pushed back?"

"The attack after-effects. Yes, it's works perfectly. And just as was programmed, the more tired they are after several attacks, the further they'll fly."

"Excellent work Brian, just make the other belts and we'll do the final test when all the other fighter's arrive a week before the tournament. I'll send you the profiles tomorrow first thing in the morning." With that, the holographic projection of Miyomato disappeared. Brian gave a big yawn as he stood up from his chair. It had been a long day, and he was deadbeat. Marth and Roy had both gone to their quarters, to unpack and have a rest, so he stepped out of his office door and headed towards his own quarters.

Author's Notes: Well, This is it. This chapter just filled in a few holes, like how the fighter's will fight without impaling and killing each other. Brian probably won't be featured very much, but he still will probably there in the background. This also explains how the game could possibly work. I'm not saying that this explains everything; it's just my theory. Anyways, hope you like the first chapter. About Marth and Roy's religion, I have no idea how it works. I've never even played their games before so don't ask any questions about that. Probably a lot of characters will be made up about their background, but I'll keep their attacks the same. SSBM RULES!!! Please R&R what you think.

And just to warn you in advance, the following characters will not be in this: Young Link, Pichu, Mr. Game and Watch, and Dr. Mario. Dr. Mario is part of the medical staff, but he's not fighting. Impa, Warrio, Paula, and Star Wolf will replace these characters.

Here's their statistics:

WARNING: You will have trouble making out what the stats are about if you've never played SSBM. You can try, but I doubt you'll understand it. For those who've not only played SSBM, but also all the other games these next four characters are in, I apologize if there stats do not suit them but I've never played most of these games. Actually I've played two, but it doesn't give a good sense of what there stats should be.

Impa: Zelda's Caretaker and teacher

Stats: Basically the same as Shiek, only stronger in all categories except speed.

Warrio: Mario's demented cousin.

Stats: Doesn't jump as high, his up and down B attacks aren't as strong, he's slower, but has way more powerful A attacks. He doesn't have fireballs, but has his blowtorch instead (I can't remember which game it's from) and he doesn't have a cape, but has his Viking punch.

Paula: Ness's girlfriend

Stats: Weaker, but faster then Ness. Her PK abilities are: PK shield (reflects attacks), PK wave (same power as Ness's PK flash), PK fire (same as Ness's), and PK teleport (teleports her about the same distance as sheik. Her weapons are a frying pan instead of a baseball bat, and mummy wrap instead of a yoyo.

Star Wolf: Star Fox's Nemesis.

Stats: Is slower but his attacks are stronger. He doesn't have fox Illusion, but instead fires a missile, and instead of a reflector, the attack is just absorbed give back health like Ness's PSI magnet.

Chow!