Super Smash Bros.: MELEE
Roy's story…
Chapter Three: "Let's Get Ready to Melee!"
The 'Smashers', as they were called by their host – announcer, were all gathered in a room that looked very similar to the one they had been gathered in the first time Roy had come to this place. Except this time there were four round platforms on one side of the room, opposite the door.
"Once you step onto those platforms you will be altered," their host explained. "Small changes will be made to your apparel, and maybe even to your physical being, whilst you are in the arena so that you will be better fit for the battle style you are about to be immersed in. Also note your strengths and your weaknesses will be exploited. For instance if you're physically strong but at the cost of your speed, those will each be slightly more evident." Bowser frowned. Well, frowned slightly in a slightly more worried fashion than his normal scowl. "Speed will also be a more evident factor if that is a trait of yours, but your strength will more than likely decrease. The same can go for stamina, defense, and etcetera. It all depends on your personal traits."
Roy thought about it. He supposed he wasn't overly fast. Average, really. He was slower than Marth but stronger than the other swordsman. Every strength was balanced out by a weakness. Roy looked around the room. He was just glad that he was one of the last people to go so that he could study everyone else to learn their weaknesses and use them against the other Smashers.
vvvvvvvvv
High up in the Smashers' box, Roy watched Bowser's and Mario's battle. They were in a stock match and Mario had been running and jumping around the arena more than half the time, landing multiple hits on Bowser, but most weren't enough to damage him too much. Bowser, however, had only managed to get a few hits on Mario, though they made up in number through sheer power. Each had managed to knock the other off 4 out of 5 times however, and each had a high damage count according to the large screen behind them.
The screen apparently showed what was displayed on the much smaller screens that were located on their wristbands. At any time during the battle you could glance down and check which opponent to focus on.
Bowser was currently watching Mario hop from a higher platform that seemed to be hovering in the air. The arena currently in use was dubbed "Pokémon Stadium" and transformed into different stages like a "rock" stage where everything was earth – based or something like that. Right now it was at the original form: a green, rectangular stage with two smaller duplicates hovering about 7 feet above the ground serving as platforms.
Mario was jumping off one of the platforms and Bowser saw his chance.
A stream of fire came from Bowser's mouth, hitting the ground and shooting out about 8 feet from there, straight at where Mario was going to land. At the last second, Mario stopped short and pulled back slightly, spread – eagled and hovering in the air for a moment. Special dodging abilities were another stipulation of being altered for battle. Bowser's attack missed by mere inches and Mario ran up to swing some sort of cape-like thing at him. With very surprising alacrity, Bowser leapt into the air and somersaulted, landing very hard on Mario. Because Mario's damage was so high, the already powerful attack sent Mario flying off the edge at high speed, going out of sight before a crash and flash of light came from the direction he had disappeared in.
Their host…announcer's voice came over a loudspeaker over the audiences' cheers.
"GAME! And the winner is…BOWSER!"
The voice boomed and echoed. The noise made the little box holding the other 24 Smashers shake. Luigi and Princess Peach looked a little sour, but the rest of the occupants of the room applauded.
Samus and Ness were the next two to go up. The boy did quite well, using his psychic powers and baseball bat, eventually winning the match, much to the surprise of their peers. And so it went on, and as he watched, Roy calculated, sorted and stored each of the other Smashers' statistics and performance in battle. Caught up in his thinking, he was caught off guard when Marth tapped him on the shoulder.
"I want a rematch," he said with a glint in his aqua eye, and strode off.
vvvvvvvvv
Roy and Marth stepped into the room with the strange platforms. A last nod and handshake and they stepped onto the circles in the floor.
Roy felt a change as soon as his foot hit the section of floor and he was warped out onto the arena on a hovering platform unlike the two already there. It was only big enough for him and would disappear as soon as he stepped off. He glanced around quickly at himself, it took only a fraction of a second but he noticed the changes. The armor he wore was more ornate. A quick look up showed his hair was darker, just like the inside of his cape. He felt stockier, though still not much beyond what he was.
Marth's changes were very similar. There was more decoration on the armor and darker colored hair, along with the being oh so slightly broader.
Both of them somersaulted backward off their individual platforms. Marth automatically launched into a Sword Dance. Roy felt a strange feeling, not of pain precisely, but more the idea that there was pain. The scoreboard behind them showed his damage percentage going up with each hit. On the fourth hit, Roy was hurtled backwards from the impact, near the edge. Jumping up, he seized the edge of the platform above him and rolled across it, just in time to get behind a fast – charging Marth. Wondering faintly about how he was moving so fast, Roy dropped down behind the blue – haired man and struck with a few quick, slicing swings of his sword.
The surprise attack combined with the number of hits was enough to send Marth off the edge of the platform. Just as he was regrouping, the other swordsman twisted in midair, somehow did a mid-air hop and used a move similar to the redhead's own Blazer. It propelled him upward and he grasped the ledge and hauled himself back up.
Because of his momentary shock, Roy didn't notice until he was struck that Marth was charging up an attack that was similar to his Shield Breaker attack, but not quite. That alone made him wonder what it was briefly as he flew through the air. The next thing he felt was a feeling of being sucked into something and faintly he could hear a roar, either of the crowd or of his hitting the invisible barrier, he didn't know.
vvvvvvvvv
Lying on his back in bed with an arm draped over his face, Roy thought furiously. How had Marth been able to move so fast, swing with such power? At the same time, his war – trained mind was already at work developing new strategies against the blue – clad man and the others.
Someone knocked at the door.
"Come in," he called. Stifling groans, he sat up on the edge of the bed. Wounds might not actually hurt during battle, but they gave the receiver a headache for the ages.
All pain was forgotten when Zelda waltzed in. She didn't show any sign of aches or pains, but that was probably because she didn't suffer such a humiliating defeat. In fact, she had won her battle, surprising Yoshi with a quick change into the character she called Sheik, a martial arts master.
Trying to stand straight, he stood up and smiled warmly. Friendly smile. Don't push it too far.
"How are you feeling?" she asked, slight concern in her eyes and voice, but a smile on her lips nonetheless.
Roy stretched. "Oh, as well as can be expected from what happened today."
She laughed. Such a musical sound, that slight chuckle. It was almost as if…
Stop it! Roy berated himself silently. What's wrong with you? Ever since you got here your brain has been going to mush!
"Anyway, I came to tell you that there's a meeting being called right now," she said, still with that small, kind smile. "It seems Marth found out something that our host…or announcer…whatever one he is, forgot to mention."
"Of course. That would explain my one to five defeat today."
Chuckling again, she exited. Roy stood there a moment longer, thinking deeply about how Marth could have figured that out, Zelda's eyes, whether the large man who served as their host had purposely kept that information from them and Zelda's eyes.
vvvvvvvvv
"'Smasher' is the title given to you for a reason," the announcer was saying as Roy came down the stairs. "I can't believe I forgot this, and I'm sure I'll be in trouble for it, but Smash Attacks, Dashing and Throws are one of the keys to this tournament."
Roy looked around the room. Everyone was present from Samus in her special blue casual wear to Pichu, the small, yellow mouse-like creature. Everyone was there…except for Marth. Roy guessed he probably thought he knew all about this and didn't need to hear it again. Throwing, however, hadn't been used on him in the whole fight. Thus, Marth had just lost his advantage.
vvvvvvvvv
Four days later was the next match, and it had been promised to be special. Those four days had seen Roy constantly practicing on the Wire Frames in the Practice Room, an entire corner of the house to itself. Master his throws, blocks, Counters and Smash Attacks had been the priority. He also discovered that Smashing could be done in any direction, as long as the focus was the same. A charged upward thrust would result in flames shooting up the blade of his sword, a charged downward swing in both directions would send opponents onto their backs and the default forward swing would do essentially the same thing as a fully charged Flare Blade, but without the fiery explosion, therefore resulting in less damage.
On the day of the fight, everyone was told to go back into their rooms and not to come out under any circumstances whatsoever. Roy had to go to the bathroom very badly. After a quick decision, he turned to his window.
Shutting the window and redoing his pants, he sighed contentedly. And then jumped when he heard his name being called over the private intercom.
"Roy, go to the arena entrance room, please."
Starting down the hall, he noticed it was utterly silent. Everyone must have been waiting anxiously to hear if his or her names would be called he supposed.
But…why all the secrecy?
Arriving at his destination, he noticed no one else was there.
"Step onto the platform," he was told again over the intercom.
Stepping through, he felt the alterations being made to his body as he was transported to an arena. When the sensation stopped, it was completely dark. Holding out his hand, he tried to find it in the pitch – blackness and ended up hitting himself in the face from leaning forward too far.
Suddenly, the announcer's voice blasted through the darkness.
"TIMED MELEE!"
Lights blasted on and the roar of the crowd filled Roy's ears. Blinking from the momentary blindness, he took note of the new stadium. It was a series of four different platforms arranged in a diamond shape. The bottom one was the widest, and where he was located currently. The two on either side were smallest and the top one was in between both. They appeared to be mining cart tracks, floating over green lava in a very large cave. Looking down, the flame haired man noticed that the lava seemed to be rising steadily. Already, plans were forming in his mind on how to get to the highest platform and hopefully avoid that.
At least I haven't lost that much sense, he thought to himself dryly.
Suddenly he became aware of Samus on the middle level platform farthest from him, and Fox McCloud, the humanoid seeming fox and Kirby, one of the two pink balls, on the top platform.
The announcer's voice reverberated throughout the stage again. "IT'S TIME FOR BATTLE ROYALE!" More cheers erupted from the unseen fans, and then Roy heard his wristband beep twice, looked down, and saw a timer start on it. As if that was a cue, all four combatants leapt into battle.
vvvvvvvvv
"Eeeyah!" Roy cried out, using Blazer to shoot up from the lower level to the top, knocking Samus and Kirby into the air. Samus fell on her back on the edge and Kirby went sailing through the air, hitting the invisible barrier and warping back on the little platform again. Before he had the time to come back, however, Roy had used his low Smash Attack to knock Samus off to the side. And was abruptly sent into the air from Fox's aptly named Fire Fox, which consists of the mysterious creature charging up in a ball of flame before shooting up into the air.
Which is why it was no surprise that Roy barely had time to twist, jump again in mid-air and use Blazer to grab the edge. Jumping was not a strength and it showed. Because of that, Samus had the lead in Knock Outs, but Roy was only one behind her. Pulling himself up, he grabbed Kirby from behind and threw him over the edge that he himself had just climbed up. The pink ball puffed up and floated back toward the stage, only to be hit repeatedly by Fox's Blaster attack, lose concentration and fall into the rapidly rising magma. Which, Roy noticed as he roll – dodged Samus' default Smash, was very close to where they were at.
Using a quick Smash on Samus to keep her down at the last moment, Roy double-jumped up onto the top platform and stood in a ready Counter position. Because Samus still hadn't regained her feet by the time the strangely colored lava reached her, she was shot into the air, a result of high damage; almost 250, Roy noticed, quickly glancing at his wristband before she reached the barrier; and the damage of the lava. Fox jumped up with a downward Smash prepared, only to be Countered off the edge and onto the bubbling inferno himself, staying alive only because of a low damage count.
Fox being bounced right back in front of the red haired swordsman, however, was even worse after he was on the receiving end of a Flare Blade attack, sending him in the same direction Samus had gone moments earlier.
Speaking of Samus, where—
That was all he had time to think before Kirby shot up from below him and he was sent up into the air. He twisted, already knowing he was far too high up to even want to try recovering, and saw the tail end of Samus' Screw Attack, which let her jump and spin, somersaulting many times rapidly in midair, causing plenty of damage.
Damn her. I almost won, Roy thought as he braced for impact…and…
Froze in midair.
"TIME!" came the cry of the announcer.
"AND THE WINNER IS…ROY!"
vvvvvvvvv
After much congratulating and cajoling on his improvement from last time, Roy stumbled up the stairs to his room. Collapsing on the bed, his last thought before exhaustion over took him was the light of pride in Zelda's beautiful green eyes.
Thus, I end the third installment of my premier story. R&R, muchly appreciate it.
S&C44
