Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon, Banjo-Kazooie, Kirby, Mario, or any other characters featured here. You know who does, though.

Author's Note: I can't really say much this time around, except... enjoy the fic!

A warm, delightful spring breeze blew around a spacious meadow west of Pallet Town as daffodils glowed in the light of the golden sun. Down below, on a hilltop in the middle of the meadow, Pokémon Master Ashton Ketchum, or Ash as everyone called him, rested his head on the lap of his beloved sweetheart, Misty Waterflower, as Pikachu lapped up the ketchup bottle. Misty's Togepi wandered around aimlessly, as usual.

"Aahhh... it feels so good to be out here," Ash grinned as Misty sweetly handed him a chicken leg from the picnic basket. "I've got my best girl by my side, and no pesky Rockets to worry about. Ah, I love being a Pokémon Master."

But close by, a pair of snoopy eavesdroppers spied on the picnicking couple. Now a snoopy pair wasn't anything new for Ash, except sometimes in the case of this duo.

"I'm hot!" Brock Slate complained.

"Will you be quiet and let me draw them?!" Tracey Sketchit quietly shouted. "I can't concentrate with you griping so much."

"Can't you just take a photo of them?"

"I'm a Pokémon watcher, not a Pokémon photographer, Brock."

"Well, couldn't you take a picture and then draw using it for reference? It'd be much easier that way. Besides, these aren't Pokémon you're examining; it's just Ash and Misty."

"No," Tracey said. "It wouldn't be much fun."

"I'm still hot," Brock whined. "And hungry, too! They've got chicken and I don't!"

"Shut up."

Ash and Misty hadn't heard anything that Brock and Tracey were saying. What they did hear, though, was the sound of wing flaps in the distance. After a while, the wing flaps got closer. And closer. And closer. Until finally, they could see what the sound belonged to. Or rather, whom it belonged to.

"Parakarry!" Ash addressed the familiar aviator's-helmet-wearing Parakoopa from the Mushroom Kingdom. "What brings you to Kanto?"

"My wings, of course!" Parakarry joked. "But seriously, I'm here to bring you this." He took out a piece of paper and handed it to Misty.

Misty looked at the scroll, and then she gasped of astonishment. "Oh Ash! Look at this! There's a Nintendo Heroes' party and we're invited!"

Ash took the scroll and read it himself. "Oh wow! And our Pokémon are invited too!"

Pikachu put down his ketchup bottle and listened in eagerness. And Togepi stopped waddling around and did the same.

"You really think we should go?" Misty asked her black-haired boyfriend.

"Well, why not? We've blasted Team Rocket off zillions of times, and I think we can be called heroes for that." Ash turned to Parakarry. "Well, Parakarry, Misty and I gladly accept this invitation."

"Swell," Parakarry said. "By the way, shall I deliver an invitation to those idiots in the bushes over there, or should you tell them yourselves?"

At that point, Brock and Tracey leaped out of the bushes, and got down in front of Ash and Misty.

"Yes, yes!" Tracey screamed. "We want to go to that party!"

"Yeah!" Brock shrieked. "We want to meet all the girls there!"

Misty bit her lip and cleared her throat. "What were you two doing over there?"

"Uh, we were just studying some lovebirds," Tracey explained. He suddenly realized the error in his sentence. "Oops! It was Brock's idea!"

Misty turned back to Parakarry. "Let us handle their invitation."

Parakarry saluted, and then flew off back into the sky.

The next thing that Brock and Tracey knew, they were lying on their backs on account of an attack from Misty's always-coming-from-out-of-nowhere mallet.

"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO STOP SPYING ON MY DATES AND ROMANTIC INTERLUDES WITH ASH!!!" Misty bellowed.

***

On the Isle O'Hags, a heated battle of wits was being made in a race to collect as much property as possible. In his house near Spiral Mountain, Banjo the yellow-shorts-wearing honey bear and his loud-mouthed breegull friend, Kazooie, were playing a game of Pokémon Monopoly with the mysterious masked shaman, Mumbo Jumbo.

"Mumbo have Giovanni's Nidoqueen and Nidoking," Mumbo said, talking in that strange way that he talks. "Me gonna destroy filthy breegull."

"Oh yeah? Just watch a pro in action, mask man." Kazooie rolled the dice and her piece ended up on a Professor Oak space. She picked the card from the top of the corresponding pile and read it. "'Go Directly to Jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200.' Rats!"

"When you get out of jail, me destroy you." Mumbo taunted, rolling the dice. He moved his piece, and it ended up on a very unpleasant space on the board. "OH NO! Not on 'Gary Attacks!'"

Banjo stretched out his right paw. "Pay $200, please."

Mumbo crossed his arms and looked away from the brown bear. "No."

"Y'have to," Banjo coaxed. "It's the rules."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

Banjo reached into the box that the board game came in, and he pulled out the instructions. "Th' rules say that if yuh land on 'Gary Attacks!', yuh gotta pay $200."

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"NO!" Mumbo screamed. He then got so angry that he kicked the board. It crashed into the wall and broke in half. Mumbo looked at the damage he had just made. "Oops. No problem. Don't bother calling repairman. Me fix board with mighty Mumbo magic!" He walked up to the remains of the board and began shouting some of his famous magic words.

Then, Mr. Bottles, the mole who had helped Banjo and Kazooie in their adventures, entered. "Hi fellas! I was comin' over to visit you guys, when Parakarry from the Mushroom Kingdom showed up. He told me to give you this." He handed Banjo an invitation, which looked similar to the one Parakarry had given to Ash and his friends back in Kanto.

Banjo looked at the invitation. "Ya-huk! A Nintendo Heroes' Party! Ah think we can enjoy this!"

"Tsk tsk tsk!" Kazooie put her wings to her hip. "Banjo, of course we can enjoy a party! Don't you remember? We enjoyed parties after both of our victories against Gruntilda!"

"Oh!" Banjo guffawed. "Ah get it now!"

At that point, Tooty, Banjo's cute little sister, walked in. "I thought I heard a crash in here, big brother. What happened?"

"We just got invited to a big party!" Kazooie said.

Tooty looked at them, confused. "That caused a crash?"

Kazooie slapped herself on the face while Mumbo looked on.

***

On the planet Popstar, the young Star Warrior, Kirby, was fast asleep, despite it being close to noon. Tokkori, the cranky canary who had taken over Kirby's house (and sometimes kicked poor Kirby out of it), looked at the snoozing Star Warrior. He also listened to the snores coming from the puffball.

"Eeuh!" Tokkori groaned. "This kid could outsleep a Nodi! Maybe some TV will drown 'im out…" The bird flew over to the television set near Kirby's bed and turned it on. When the picture came up, all there was on the screen was a test pattern. "D'oh, nothing but infomercials! Channel DDD better get its act together soon!"

At that point, Tokkori heard the voices of Kirby's friends coming from outside the house. He opened the door and found Tiff and Tuff standing there on the hill where Kirby's house resided.

"Yeah, what is it?!" Tokkori asked crabbily, perching himself on top of the door.

"We have news that Kirby may need to know," said Tiff.

Tokkori put his wings to his hip. "You'll just have to come back later; he's sleepin' like the dead."

Suddenly, Kirby came up and slid open the door, knocking Tokkori down. Obviously, the little pink marshmallow had been awakened by the sound of his friends.

The ill-mannered Tokkori picked himself up. "Go ahead," he said, brushing his wings. "Tell him your screamin' headline."

"My sister and I think something strange is going on," Tuff explained to Kirby. "This morning, we looked all over the castle. We couldn't find King Dedede or Escargoon anywhere!"

"Really?" Tokkori interrupted, perched up on top of Kirby's door. "That sounds like good news."

Tiff looked upwards. "It sounds like bad news. They might be up to something."

Kirby just blinked.

Tokkori perched himself on the door again. "Well, at least now I know why there's nothing on TV!"

Just then, Melman, the mailman of Cappy Town, walked up to the group.

"Excuse me, but could you give this to Kirby?" Melman said, handing an invitation to Tuff. "Some flying tortoise told me to deliver this to him."

"Let me see that," Tiff said after Melman had left. She took the invitation from her brother and read it to the young Kirby, who wasn't able to read yet. When she finished reading, she looked baffled. "A Nintendo Heroes' Party? I don't know about you guys, but I have a bad feeling about this…"

"You may be right," a Mexican-accented voice came.

A Mexican ditty sounded in the background, and there was the mysterious Meta Knight, standing on the hillside.

"I, too, am not so sure about this so-called party." Meta Knight's eyes glowed an emerald hue. He suddenly disappeared just as quickly as he had appeared.

But despite the older Star Warrior's warning, Kirby had a rather cheerful expression too happy to resist. "Pyo!" he chirped.

"No way, Kirby!" Tiff shouted. "King Dedede's tried to kill you a lot of times, and this may be another trick of his!"

"Aw, forget it, Tiff," Tuff looked at the invitation. "If this were from King Dedede, his symbol would be on it. Besides, I'd love to go to this party myself."

Tiff put some thought into it. Maybe this was one of King Dedede's traps, maybe it wasn't. Tiff was always convinced that Dream Land's illegitimate ruler was only doing things like giving the Cappies television or delectable food just so he could get rid of Kirby. And she was usually right. But Tuff was right about the invitation not coming from Dedede, so Tiff was pretty convinced that this party wasn't a King Dedede-made trap.

She turned to her brother and said, "I guess you're right." Then she faced Kirby. "All right, Kirby. You can go to this party, but we must come with you."

Kirby smiled in that cute way he smiles. "Pyo!"

***

All across Nintendoland, all the heroes of the many Nintendo video games were looking in their mailboxes and finding invitations like the ones Ash, Banjo, and Kirby had received.

On Kongo Bongo Island, Donkey Kong found an invitation in his elevator, and started reading it as his little buddy Diddy Kong looked on from the tire-swing in the big ape's treehouse. "'You are invited to a party to end all parties'…"

In Hyrule, Link III was reading his invitation in front of the North Castle. "…'a Nintendo Heroes' Party!'"

In the headquarters of the Galactic Federation, Samus Aran found a computer-generated invitation on her main computer. "'All Nintendo heroes welcome!'"

At his house in Onett, the Chosen One, Ness, and his three friends looked over their invitation with great interest. "'There'll be loads of entertainment, enjoyable music'…"

On the planet Papetoon, Fox McCloud, the leader of the Star Fox team, was looking over the hologram of their invitation, in his hideout. "…'and best of all, free refreshments!'"

Captain Falcon was at his pit stop, reading the invitation, as his pit crew fixed up his car, the Blue Falcon. "'Just come to this address'..."

At Icicle Mountain, Popo and Nana, the Ice Climber twins, were reading their invitation as they scaled past a herd of Topis. "…'and party on!'"

And they were all accepting these invitations.

***

Later that day, Parakarry dropped an invitation in the mailbox that sat in front of the house that belonged to the pair of plumbers who happened to be heroes around where they lived.

"Mail call!" the flying turtle shouted, as he usually did when he delivered the mail to that house.

Soon after Parakarry left, the tall, slim Luigi Mario, dressed in his blue overalls and green hat, walked outside and advanced to the mailbox. He opened it up, took out all the letters, and went back towards the bungalow where he and his brother lived.

Luigi flipped through the letters in his hands. "Hmmm-a, junk-a mail, junk-a mail, junk-a mail, junk-a mail-a… Wait a minute, what's-a this-a?" As Luigi was walking onto the porch, he took hold of the party invitation in his stack of mail.

"Any good mail-a?" the short, pudgy Mario Mario, wearing his blue overalls and red hat, asked his little brother as he walked through the door.

"We've-a been invited to a party!" Luigi answered.

Mario leaned over in his chair. "Oh, that's-a nothing-a new. Princess Peach throws lots of-a parties." His chair suddenly slipped, and he fell off, landing with an "Oof-a!"

"Oh, but this isn't-a-Peach it's-a-coming from." Luigi placed the junk mail on the desk near their bunk beds. "Let-a-me read it."

Mario looked over his brother's shoulder as Luigi read the invitation.

You are invited to a party to end all parties - a Nintendo Heroes' Party! All Nintendo heroes welcome! There'll be loads of entertainment, enjoyable music, and best of all, free refreshments! Just come to this address and party on!

Mario licked his lips. "Mmmm-a, free refreshments! I wouldn't miss any party that has-a that-a! This-a mystery host knows a-me well. By the way, who's the invitation from-a?"

"I don't-a know," Luigi answered. "Whoever the host of the party is, he seems to be keeping his identity a secret; he didn't a-print his name on the invitation."

"Well, that's-a not important right now-a," Mario swished his hand downward. "Does it-a say where it's-a being held-a?"

"Yeah. It's at a-some a-place in-a Megaland called-a Skill Castle."

"Megaland? Isn't that-a the Video World-a where the robot blue bomber, Mega Man, lives-a?"

"Yeah."

"So this-a party's at-a Skill-a Castle, is it?" Mario put his right hand up to his chin in a pondering look. "That-a sounds-a like a good name for a video game exhibition hall-a."

"Or a practice-a level!" Luigi looked at his brother.

"Well, whatever it's a good-a name for, we can't afford to miss a-the party that's-a being held-a there!" Mario snapped his fingers.

"Hee hee," Luigi chuckled, "I'll-a bet the Ghostbusters never got a-time off like this-a." He suddenly gasped in realization. "Oh my! I need a-to have a shower!"

***

And so, after a quick shower, the Mario Bros. were on their way to the so-called Skill Castle. The invitation had provided directions on how to get there. They hadn't gone very far into Toad Town when they happened to notice the two maidens they were always rescuing – Princess Peach Toadstool of the Mushroom Kingdom, and Princess Daisy of Sarasaland.

"Oh Mario!" Peach greeted the red-hatted plumber, barely noticing Luigi. "Where are you going?"

Before Mario could answer, Luigi spoke up. "Mario and I have a-been invited to a Nintendo Heroes' Party!"

"And it's a good-a thing we're-a going too," Mario added. "This-a party could-a clear my head-a."

"Of what?" Peach asked.

"Well-a, recently, I had the strangest-a dream I've ever had-a," Mario explained. "It-a started with this-a strange rain-making person or robot or-a something that Bowser was-a using on a city with a stupid-a name. And-a then we defeated Bowser and he tried to escape through a warp-a, and he wound up a-taking you, Luigi, and Toad with him. Then there was this pig in a tank blowing up a hot-air balloon-a, and-a then a girl killed some other girl with a plasma chainsaw, and she and her boyfriend reenacted some other couple's love-a story. Then a man I had-a never seen before showed up, claiming to be part of a team of women officers, and he was-a swallowed up by a little marshmallow-like a-thing, who then-a started to act just like him! And if that weren't enough, a brain in a pickled jar showed up, accompanied by some hippo-like guy who thinks he's a king and an eggplant with magical powers. And they turned this British man into a giant mechanical toy or something, and throughout the entire event, everyone was-a quoting the motto of some evil organization called, uh… Squad-a-Firework? Or-a-something like that-a."

Princess Daisy pulled a mallet from out of nowhere and squished Mario with it. "That's the stupidest load of idiocy I've ever heard!"

Mario peeled himself off of the pavement. "Well, what do you expect a dream to do? Make-a sense?"

"He's right, you know," said Peach.

At this point, Peach's most loyal servant, Toad, showed up. He was on the saddle of Yoshi, the long-tongued green Struthiomimus.

"What's going on here?" Toad asked.

"Luigi and I have been invited to a Nintendo Heroes' Party at-a Skill Castle!" Mario answered.

"With lots of food?" Yoshi inquired.

"Yes-a," Luigi responded.

Toad looked disappointed, and so did Yoshi and the Princesses. The Marios obviously figured it was because they hadn't received any invitations themselves.

Mario looked at them sympathetically. "You want to come along-a?" he asked.

Toad and the others brightened up. "You mean it?" asked Toad.

"Yes-a," Mario said. "Why shouldn't you guys a-be invited-a? Me and Luigi may be the heroes of a-this kingdom, but you're all a-very heroic yourselves-a. Peach, you were a big-a help in the crusade against-a Wart in a-Subcon, and you helped me out a lot when Bowser stole the Star Rod. Yoshi, you helped a-me rescue King-a Fret and-a Prince Pine of Jewelry Land when the Koopas-a captured them. Toad, you a-single-handedly stopped-a Wario from-a dominating the woods-a. And-a Daisy…" He stopped at this point in the monologue to think of something to say about Daisy. "…well-a, you're a great-a cowgirl. Right-a?"

Daisy put away her mallet and shot the breeze. "I'm fine with that."

"Enough talk-a, guys!" Luigi got between everyone. "If we're-a going to this party, let's-a get going, or we'll-a miss it-a!"

"Good-a point!" said Mario.

And so, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Toad, and Yoshi set off for the place known as Skill Castle. As they were leaving Toad Town, looking for a warp to Megaland, there was something they hadn't noticed. Or rather, someone.

Meta Knight watched from up on top of the Toad Town Post Office as the Mario Bros. and their friends trekked out of the town. Speaking not a word, the mystifying blue Star Warrior immediately vanished, completely unnoticed by the unaware citizens.

Well, there you have it - the first chapter is finished! (Well, it's the first chapter if you count this and the prologue, anyway.) BTW, Kirby's scene here was originally supposed to be part of the montage of the heroes reading their invitations, but in order to lengthen the story, I turned it into a whole scene. Also, if you're confused about Daisy being a cowgirl, it'll make more sense if you've played the "Daisy's Rodeo" mini-game in the Mario Party-e e-Reader cards. I'll be posting the next chapter soon, so stay tuned!