"The birds are chirping here in the Smash Mansion. The sky is blue. The temperature is very nice. And the air is-" the words spoken by Snake were broken up by a splash of water. He was talking to his colonel on his walkie-talkie. He watched the walkie-talkie fall and hit the ground, breaking. He shot around with an angry face, looking at the pool built into the ground of the mansion's backyard. "What the fuck!" he yelled at the obvious perp of the splash of water, being Roy. He chuckled before sticking his tongue out and diving under the water. Snake growled before taking his shirt off. "Oh, you're dead, boy." He ran in and jumped into the busy pool.
From the entrance of the backyard was someone new, Sora. He tilted his head as he looked at the scene in front of him. They were….having fun. Even the most serious-looking people, like Kazuya, looked to be having fun. In Kazuya's case, he's sunbathing with a glass of orange juice next to Richter, who was doing the same. Sora looked at the person who was guiding him through the mansion, Bayonetta. She had a nasty look on her face.
"You motherfucker," she said as she stomped forward and toward Palutena, who was in a black bathing suit. "You stole my bathing suit."
"You can just make your clothes with your hair."
"Yeah, but that shit feels amazing, better than my hair."
"Too bad, Witch." Bayonetta took offense to that and pushed Bayonetta into the water. Sora just nervously backed away into the mansion. However, he bumped into someone buff. Or at least buff enough to not be moved from him bumping into them. Sora shot around and looked up at the tall man and…saw that it was Cloud.
"CLOUD!" Sora yelled excitedly. Cloud looked down at the boy. "Wow, didn't expect to see you here…I probably should have though." Sora chuckled.
"Don't recognize you," Cloud said. He was soon approached by Sephiroth, who was shirtless. Sora jumped back and summoned his Keyblade.
"WATCH OUT, CLOUD!" Sephiroth rested an arm on Cloud's shoulder as he pulled out a taco and bit into it.
"What's the deal with the kid?"
"I have you know, Sephiroth! I am 18! I am older and stronger since the last time we fought." Sora smirked before Sephiroth turned to look at Cloud, who responded with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Never fought you kid. And I'm sure if I did, I would've mopped the floor with you." Sephiroth finished his taco before slapping the back of Cloud's head. "See you outside, Spikey." Sora chuckled at the name.
"Spikey?" Sephiroth cackled as he left Cloud with an angered look on his face.
"I hate him." Sora's Keyblade disappeared.
"What's going on, Cloud?"
"Ok, I'm not sure how you know me, but I'm sure you're valid in your reasoning. I do not know you. You may have met another version of me, and I know, sounds confusing-"
"Not at all. I'm used to confusing things."
"You're the newcomer, right?" Sora nodded his head before picking up his bags.
"I'm looking for the fighting tournament. I think I'm in the wrong place." Cloud chuckled a bit before patting Sora's back.
"Nope. This is the Smash Mansion. Everyone here…." Cloud motions around to show off everyone that was outside playing and chilling and just relaxing. "Everyone here is a fighter."
"Everyone?" Sora questioned in shock but knowing he wouldn't have lied about this. That was when Pichu walked near Sora, and Pichu's cuteness made Sora rush forward. "YOU'RE SO CUTE!" He started sandwiching Pichu's face between his hands, agitating her.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Cloud said. Sora looked back at Cloud with a raised eyebrow.
"How come?"
"PIII-CHUUUU!" Sora looked up and saw a dark grey cloud. He gulped.
"That's….probably not good." Before he was able to move, a large thunderstrike came from the cloud and directly hit Sora. He screamed in pain before the thunder ended and Sora fell backward, covered in soot. Pichu then kicked Sora's head before huffing and walking off. Cloud looked down at Sora.
"That's why. She's not a fan of physical contact like that." Sora stood up and shook all of the soot off. He took another look around the backyard and at all of the different fighters.
"Wow, everyone here really is a fighter huh?"
"Yes."
"It's not a very….serious fighting tournament."
"Nope. We have tournaments every month, but in between each tournament we have ample time to…do anything. We can go back to our worlds, we can invite people from our worlds to live in Ultimatum, we can hang out, we can literally do whatever the hell we want. We just have to be here for our fights." Sora smirked to himself.
"Sounds like my type of place."
"You found your room yet?"
"No. That woman didn't quite seem to enjoy touring me around." Cloud looked at Bayonetta basically drowning Palutena as if nothing was wrong with it, casually talking with Peach about whatever it was they were talking about. Cloud rubbed the back of his head.
"Yeah. There's not much she really cares about, per se." Cloud shook his head. "Come on. I'll take you to your room. After you set up in there, feel free to take a stab at the pool party out here. Think of it as a welcoming party." Sora nodded and was led back into the mansion by Cloud. They walked through the mansion, with Cloud giving a proper tour of the place. The tour ended at Sora's room. "Your neighbors are Ness on your right and Lucas on your left, but they're usually in Ness's room anyway. I actually don't think Lucas's room even has a bed or anything."
"They share a room?"
"Technically, but they still have separate rooms." He looked down at his nonexistent watch. "Oops, I have to head back. I need to meet with Samus."
"Oooo, is she your girl?"
"Ok, shut up before you become Ridley's food, and trust me, he's rough with his food." Cloud pushed Sora into his room. Sora just chuckled before putting his bag down and started unpacking it. That was when he started hearing some muffled speech. Sora raised an eyebrow before scanning his room. He saw there was a small hole in his wall that would allow him to look into the right room. He walked over and looked into the room. He didn't see anything of real note at first before he saw a blonde guy shirtless right in front of him. "What the heck?" The voice spooked the blonde and immediately notified him of Sora's presence. He shot out of view before a shirtless black-haired boy covered the hole with a cork. Sora backed away and gulped. "Why would they share a room?"
Almost as if answering him, there was a knock at the door. He gulped again before opening the door to see the two boys, now with clothes. "H-hey there…" Sora nervously said.
"Hey there, neighbor. Names Ness, he's Lucas," the black-haired guy said. Lucas nervously, and clearly partially embarrassed, waved his hand. "About what you saw…"
"S-sorry. I just heard noises, then there was a hole, my curiosity got the better of me." Ness shook his head.
"No no no, it's fine. We both would've done the same if we were in your shoes. We apologize for the noise."
"It's fine. Um…so…are you two like a thing?" Ness and Lucas chuckled nervously.
"WHAT! M-me and him? A-as if!" Lucas denied. Sora's eyes squinted. He fully doubted Lucas's words. Ness pushed Lucas in and closed the door.
"Is it obvious?" he asked.
"I mean I haven't been here for even 3 hours and I already know you two are more than friends. I don't know what that means for the rest." Lucas fell to his butt and covered his face. His face was redder than a tomato. Ness rubbed Lucas's back and sighed. He looked up at Sora and brought on a welcoming face.
"So you're the new…newcomer, eh?"
"Yup. The name's Sora." Sora reached out his hand but when Ness looked down at the hand to shake it, he couldn't take his eyes from Sora's feet.
"You've got some….big feet." Sora looked down and kicked his feet around.
"Guess so."
"You know what they say about people with big feet," Ness chuckled as he playfully elbowed Sora. He simply looked at Ness with a confused face.
"No. I don't. What do they say?"
"Uh…it's nothing." He cleared his throat before grabbing Lucas's hand. "Well, if you need anything, you know where to find us. Come on, Luke, we have unfinished business." They walked out, leaving Sora to himself. He giggled before reaching into his bag and bringing out a picture with himself and two of his friends, Riku and Kairi. He smiled as he put the photo on his nightstand.
He grabbed his swim trunks and smiled at them. "I knew these would come in handy." He chuckled before changing into them and leaving the room. He left for the backyard and when he left the mansion he saw the backyard even busier and jam-packed than before. He saw Cloud and ran toward him. "Hey Cloud." Cloud was talking to Sephiroth. They almost seemed like, when they were not fighting, actual friends. Cloud turned around.
"Oh, hello Sora. Did you get settled in?"
"Mhm, but uh…is that Ness and Lucas…."
"A thing? Yes."
"Wow, only 2 hours to figure that out. Took me about 1 week. Good job, kid," Sephiroth said before patting Sora's back. Sora simply crossed his arms at the name Sephiroth called him. But he decided to just not really pay any mind to it.
"So, when is the next tournament?" Sora asked.
"I believe it's in two weeks."
"TWO WEEKS!"
"Master Hand wants the newcomer to feel welcomed and happy before starting the next tournament. So it's starting later than usual," Cloud explained. Sora slumped over.
"What am I supposed to do until then. That's so LONG!"
"Maybe learning some patience would be the first thing," Sephiroth said. Just then, there was a flash of light. Sephiroth looked around and saw a group of people with cameras. "Ah shit, paparazzi. I'll catch you two later." Sephiroth disappeared, causing booing from the paparazzi.
"What was that?"
"Some of us have smaller things we do, like jobs if you will, in our free time, and he's a model. So being a model and a smash fighter causes him to be more popular than all of us. He's famously known as the sexiest man alive." Sora rolled his eyes.
"Sexiest may be a bit much. Now me? I'm sexy," Sora said before growing the widest and most awkward smile Cloud had ever seen.
"You can keep dreaming, Sora, keep on dreaming." Sora lowered his arms.
"So honestly, what do we do now?"
"Just relax, I guess. Maybe go around socializing. It'd be nice to have some friends. Sometimes we do some tournaments where we need to partner up or even go in groups, so it'd be useful."
"Yes sir!" Sora ran off, leaving Cloud to even grow a small smirk.
"What I'd kill to have your optimism, Sora." Sora jumped into the water, causing a decently sized splash. He popped back up, his usually spiky brown hair, was now laying down on his head, a bit of it even covering his eyes. He moved the hair out of his eyes and looked around the pool.
He swam around, looking to see if there was someone in the pool he would like to talk to, not seeing anyone. However, he did see one person acting a bit strange. It was Wolf. He was staring off into a random room of the mansion. Sora tilted his head and swam over to him. "Whatcha looking at." The sudden voice startled Wolf, making the deep-voiced furry jump. He looked at Sora and growled.
"Could've warned me before that, damn," he said.
"Sorry. But I just came over to see if everything is alright." Wolf looked back up and into the same window.
"Not sure." Sora looked up into the window but didn't see much. "The Hands are in their room today. I was wanting to snoop around their room."
"How come?" Wolf looked at Sora up and down.
"You new here, kid?"
"Why does everyone call me kid!"
"Maybe cause you look like a kid. And I mean that in every offensive way."
"I have you know, I am 18 years old! I just…don't look like it."
"Well at least you look more like your age than those other two boys," Wolf said as he rolled his eyes. He looked back into the window. "Say kid, I could use some help."
"What do you need?"
"Nothing right now, but you're new here, so I could use that. Every week, the Hands go out to do whatever the hell they do in their free time, so could you help me snoop around that day?"
"I don't know, that seems quite invasive."
"That….is exactly the purpose, to be invasive. What else does 'snoop around' even mean outside of being fucking invasive."
"Oh…well, I don't know still." Wolf sighed before getting out of the pool showing that he….didn't have swim trunks on. Sora covered his eyes. "Oh relax. I'm an animal, what did you expect? Now, look at me."
"..." Sora looked at Wolf, trying his hardest not to look anywhere else.
"If you decide to help me, on Thursday, meet me out here. If I don't see you that day, then I'll snoop around myself, no offense taken. You hear that, kid?" Sora still didn't know the purpose or the need to snoop around, but if he was given a choice he couldn't be all that mad. He nodded his head, making Wolf smirk. "Nice and obedient, I like it. Names Wolf, kid. Yours?"
"S-Sora."
"I'll be seeing you, Sora." Wolf walked off, leaving Sora to himself.
"That guy is strange." Falco walked over to him and sighed.
"Ignore him. He's one of those conspiracy types," Falco said as he crossed his arms. "He's always going on about how the Hands have a secret. Sounds stupid, huh?"
"Yeah…" Sora looked back at the window and tilted his head. He was used to everyone having secrets to hide. He couldn't help but feel a small sense of truth from what Wolf said. He shook his head, not wanting to think about it because he didn't want his first day to be full of all of that. He just wanted to relax and have fun. He looked around, Falco left to go talk to someone. Sora climbed out of the pool and found a towel. He grabbed the towel, but the towel was grabbed by Dark Pit. He snatched the towel from him and growled.
"Mine!" Dark Pit said as he wrapped it around himself. He was soon joined by Pit putting his arm around Dark Pit's back and smiled at Sora.
"Hey there. Sorry about him. He's a bit rude," Pit says with a happy-go-lucky voice. He extends his hand. "I'm Pit, and this is Pittoo." Dark Pit rolled his eyes.
"I hate you." Sora grabbed Pit's hand and they shook.
"It's fine. I've met some rather rude people."
"I am standing right here, asshats."
"You don't even know the half of it," Pit laughed. Dark Pit smacks the back of Pit's head before turning away and seeming like he was about to walk away, but Pit grabbed his hand.
"Stop being a basket case and socialize."
"I don't need to socialize." Pit held up a finger, telling Sora to wait for a second before he forced Dark Pit to sit down. Dark Pit didn't fight back though, he simply crossed his arms and huffed. Pit sighed before wiping away the phantom sweat from his forehead.
"Now, socialize, Pittoo." Sora couldn't help but chuckle. Dark Pit reminded him of Riku when they were younger. Sora ruffled Dark Pit's hair, which he would never admit, but he liked. But to keep up his front, he pushed Sora away before scoffing at Pit and finally being able to walk away. Pit looked at Sora.
"He's a card, isn't he?"
"That's for sure."
"Hey, I never got your name."
"It's Sora."
"Nice name." Sora smiled at the compliment. "Come on. It's about time for lunch, we'd best get there before Kirby gets his pudgy hands on them."
"How come?"
"He's pretty much a vacuum. Come on, let's go," he said before grabbing Sora's hand. They ran off into the mansion, despite Sora still being wet. They got to the dining room and saw Dark Pit sitting and conversing with Ness and Lucas.
"I thought he didn't have friends?"
"Nah, he's got some. Just not too much. And he doesn't like to show that he's friends with them. They were, what you may say, dedicated to becoming friends with him. Come on." They walked over to the window that showed off the kitchen and allowed the cook, Peach, to hand out the food. She smiled at the newcomer.
"Ahh, Sora, nice to see you," She said with a pleasantly soft voice. She left the window for a second before coming back and putting a fruit cake with a star fruit on the top. Sora's eyes sparkled.
"A paopu fruit!"
"I knew you'd like it. But no. It's just a simple star fruit, but I used it because I presume you'd like to see it." Sora grabbed the cake and smiled down at it.
"What's a paopu fruit?" Pit asked.
"Supposedly, if you share the fruit with someone, your destinies will forever be intertwined. I shared it with my friend, Kairi." Sora grabbed the fruit and bit into it. "Although this tastes better, not going to lie." He walked over to sit next to Dark Pit, making Pit smile that Sora was already looking to be comfortable. He too walked over and sat down on the other side of Dark Pit.
"So, how're you enjoying the mansion so far, Sora?" Lucas asked as he bit into his omelet.
"Pretty good, actually. I'm sure I'll have plenty more fun as time goes on." Sora ate more of the cake and groaned in pleasure. "Wow, so good." Sora devoured the rest of the cake before leaning back against the chai's back and sighed in relief. "How long have you guys been here?"
"A fair amount of time, honestly…but Ness, oh boy," Pit started. Sora's eyebrow raised as he looked at Ness.
"What does he mean by that?" Ness had a smile on his face as he sipped some milk.
"I was here when the mansion first opened. I'm one of the original 12," Ness said. Sora's eyes sparkled.
"You were!?" Ness and Lucas looked at each other before standing up.
"Follow us, there's something we wanna show you." Sora and the Pits followed. They walked through the mansion for a bit before finding the door to the basement.
"What's this?"
"The door to the records room." Ness opened the door and let the others in first. Sora walked down the stairs and made it to the basement. He was instantly hit with the history of the Smash tournament. In the far back was a huge plaque. In big letters were "The Original 12!" Sora walked over to the plaque and saw artist renditions of the original 12 that started the tournament. Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Luigi, Ness, Captain Falcon, and finally Jigglypuff.
"Wow…look at it." Ness walked over and patted Sora's back.
"Yeah. The tournament was much different back then. But I like how it changed." He, not-so-subtly, grabbed Lucas's hand. Pit stepped forward and cleared his throat.
"But that's not all. You see, the Hands may show favoritism to these 12…but that doesn't mean the rest of us don't get any love. Come on, there's something we'll show you." Pit led this time. He walked over to a separate room near the plaque. He smiled before opening it and allowing Sora to walk in. He was…amazed by what was inside it. A huge mural, with everyone who was in Smash in that mural. He saw everyone…including himself.
"Woah…that's me."
"You're a part of the biggest fighting tournament in the universe, Sora. You're one of us now." Sora couldn't break his smile.
"This place gets mad annoying. So you'll probably hate it from time to time…" Dark Pit said as he leaned against the wall. Ness wrapped an arm around Sora's neck and chuckled.
"But that's what makes this place fun. It feels like home." Lucas was looking up at the mural as he sighed happily. He turned around and looked at Sora.
"Welcome to Smash Bros, Sora. We're proud to have you here." Lucas had an extended arm toward him. Sora took it excitedly, but he wasn't the only one. Pit and Ness did the same, and it turned more into a group hand raise. Pit looked back at Dark Pit.
"Come get in on this action, Pittoo," he said. Dark Pit simply rolled his eyes before walking over and putting his hand in. "We are Super Smash Bros…." Everyone was looking at Sora to fill in the blanks. He didn't know what was actually there, but based on the Original 12 plaque and the "Everyone is here" mural…he made a good assumption as to what he should say.
"Forever." The final person to join the Smash tournament. Each one of them…a star in their own right. Each with a powerful, battle-hardened spirit inside them. And each of them…will live on forever as trophies of what's truly possible in what would seem like a gloomy world. And like a sticker…let the imagination, the journey, of Super Smash Brothers, forever stick with you. For the new journey…is only beginning.