As Master Hand prepares to find the last three newcomers (again, this story's an AU at this point), let's take a look back at the veterans of the fourth tournament, shall we? It's at this point that those veterans will finally reunite with the returners, and we get to see how they react.

Also, Pikachu, Fox, Meta Knight, and Bayonetta have trophies because of them each winning a Smash tournament (Pikachu won the first, Fox won the Melee tournament, Meta Knight (who else?) won the Brawl tournament, and Bayonetta won the fourth. Seeing the correlation?)

Smash Mansion...

The Original 12, or the dozen fighters who had been a part of the Super Smash Bros. tournaments since the first one eleven years ago, were sitting at a roundtable, ready to discuss the potential newcomers that Master Hand could've possibly brought to the tournament. The current group at the table consisted of Donkey Kong, Link (much to the surprise of everyone, he ditched the cap, got a blue tunic, and also a tablet that he called a Sheikah Slate), Samus, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Luigi, Ness, Captain Falcon, and Jigglypuff.

Two of their number were missing.

Breaking the awkward silence, Fox asked, "Hey, Luigi, shouldn't your brother be done registering the Fighter Passes of everyone else? I mean, it's just everyone from the last tournament coming back, what could be taking so long?"

Before Luigi could answer, someone knocked on their door.

Ness, leaving his seat, said, "I'll get it!"

Ness opened the door, and Mario and Yoshi walked in, Yoshi having taken a basket of fruit with him, as he was aware that he and Kirby would probably start eating everything in sight if there was no food present.

With the two situated in their seats, the conference began.

Captain Falcon began the conversation by asking the Mario Bros., "So, you two have the second-largest pool for potential newcomers, who do you hope that Glover's selected for this tournament?"

Mario and Luigi began talking in the very broken Italian that they could somehow communicate to each other with, and Mario decided to take the initiative, saying, "I'm just-a glad we didn't have to-a cut anybody this-a time 'round, so I'm not too-a concerned over who's-a coming to this tournament. It could be a Goomba, or even a Piranha Plant, I'm-a just happy that no one got-a the boot this-a time. What about you, fratellino?"

Luigi nervously twiddled his fingers, before saying, "I would like for Princess Daisy to be in the tournament this time, but..."

"Daisy? You mean Orange Peach?"

Luigi glared at Fox, ready to tell him off, before Mario said, "Weeg, it's okay. She'll probably get in as a clone fighter or something."

Eager to change the subject, Luigi turned towards Pikachu and Jigglypuff, asking, "What about the two of you?"

Jigglypuff began by grabbing out her trusty microphone/marker hybrid and a whiteboard, and she began to animatedly draw something. When she finished, she proudly unveiled her drawing. It barely even looked like a Pokémon, but those with an attuned pair of eyes could barely make out the shape of a Zoroark on the board.

Pikachu, rolling his eyes, snagged some markers and a rag from a nearby cup, and began to draw. After about fifteen minutes, he proudly showed his creations with a flourish, which turned out to be a Hydreigon, a Golisopod, and an Incineroar, all beautifully drawn with amazing detail. After a small smattering of applause, Pikachu passed the board over to Yoshi, who after eating a bunch of grapes, instead grabbed a new board, gave Pikachu his art back, and wrote down something in less than five seconds. He then showed the board to everyone, which simply read "The Stork."

After a hearty round of laughter, along with nostalgic smiles from the brothers, Yoshi turned to Samus and pointed at her.

Samus, after some deliberation, answered, "Anybody but Dark Samus or Ridley."

Unbeknownst to everyone in the Mansion, a small trace of Phazon had infiltrated their armory, desperately looking for the suit it had used roughly seven years ago against the bounty hunter that would eventually bring about her downfall.

After a little searching, she had found the Phazon Suit.

Sensing an opportunity at revenge, the Phazon blob latched onto the suit of armor, and its influence began to corrupt the suit, until it was finally black with a glowing blue light.

Dark Samus had risen again.

Meanwhile, after Otacon gave Snake his cardboard box and saw him off to the main auditorium, he retreated back to their shared quarters, where he smiled at the sight of Sunny playing fetch with their six dogs. Otacon then decided to call Snake via Codec.

"Snake, can you read me?"

"Loud and clear, Hal."

"Okay, so I hear that the veterans are going to reconvene in the auditorium in about half an hour! Set up everything correctly? The bird cam's still up in the rafters."

"Yeah, yeah, got it, Otacon."

Otacon deactivated his Codec and maintained surveillance through the dove robot in the rafters, while Snake activated his camouflage inside the box.

Meanwhile, Donkey Kong had grabbed a curtain, tied it around his neck, and put a crown on his head before shaking his head wildly.

"No K. Rool?"

Donkey Kong nodded his assent, before putting the curtain back up.

Before Fox could say anything, an announcement rang through the entire Mansion, which said, "All Smashers, report to the auditorium. Mario will speak to you shortly."

The Original 12 took this as their cue to end their conference, and left for the auditorium.

Meanwhile, all of the returning veterans heard the announcement in their little room, which then continued, "Including returning veterans."

All of them exited the room and showed the front receptionist their Fighter Passes, and began to walk to the auditorium.

Meanwhile, everyone had noticed the incredibly large number of empty seats in the room. Greninja noticed six empty seats over where he and Lucario were sitting, Toon Link found an empty seat between him and Sheik, Bowser found three empty seats near where Mario would've sat, Sonic noticed five empty seats near him and Mega Man, Roy stared at the unoccupied seat next to him, Samus found two empty seats next to her, Diddy Kong noticed an unoccupied seat next to Donkey Kong, R.O.B. and Shulk noticed two chairs next to them, Falco noticed a seat right next to him and internally groaned, and Villager, while he did see the empty seat next to him, only smiled wider. Meanwhile, two chairs were positioned near a lone, inconspicuous cardboard box in the back row.

Mario stepped up to the podium, and cleared his throat, which silenced the raucous crowd in the room. Grabbing Master Hand's paper that he left there, he began the address.

"To all Smashers, it is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the fifth Super Smash Brothers tournament!"

Cheers and applause came from all but the most stoic of fighters, who noticed that Mario had managed to suppress his verbal tic.

"It's been a long eleven years since the first iteration of the tournament, and we've seen many faces come and go."

Those who had known the Ice Climbers exchanged sad glances with each other.

"However, it is with great pleasure that I give you this announcement: In addition to the required newcomers for the tournament, every single veteran will be returning!"

Gasps of shock ran through the audience. Did the hand truly mean everyone? Mario himself stared at the paper as if it was some sort of fake.

A loud knock resounded through the hall, and the door opened.

"Surprise, everyone! We're back!"

Popo and Nana ran into the room, and loud cheers began. Ness and Lucas ran over to the two and gave them a large hug, while Ike gave Popo a teasing noogie before scooping them into an embrace.

Red and Leaf swooped in on the former's Charizard, who let out a ferocious roar, and the cheering got even louder when Red sent out Squirtle and Ivysaur.

A melody sounded on a very familiar instrument, and the cheering from Link's side, save for Ganon, was the loudest of all. Young Link walked through the hall and situated himself between Sheik and Toon Link.

A small mouse bounded through the hall and jumped onto one of the seats near Mewtwo, who regarded it with an amused glance while Pikachu gave it an enthusiastic pawshake. Pichu then sat down.

A howl sounded throughout the room, and Fox and Falco audibly facepalmed as the villains' cheering got louder. Wolf sat next to them, holding a jug of Lon Lon Milk that he had pilfered from the kitchens, before saying, "Missed me?"

Falco vehemently shook his head while Fox did a "kind of" gesture.

Amidst the celebration, everyone present for the third tournament knew there was one person missing.

Mr. Game & Watch ran up to Mario, tapping him on the shoulder, and pointed to a lone cardboard box in the back.

Mario ran to where Game & Watch had pointed, and everyone's eyes followed the plumber. Mario lifted the box, only to find… nothing.

With disappointment present in everyone's eyes, there was a loud noise, and the air crackled with ozone as Snake disengaged his camouflage, stood up, and teasingly said, "Kept you waiting, huh?"

The entire room was silent for ten seconds, before a deafening uproar rose among everyone that attended the third tournament, who then tackled the mercenary to the ground in a large hug, save for Bowser, Ganondorf, Wario, and Wolf.

After a solid minute of soaking it in, Snake, and everyone else, returned to their designated seats.

Yeah, this was a long chapter. I do need some time to gather my thoughts before the next four or five chapters (barring DLC). Regarding remaining seats, once Dark Samus infiltrated the Mansion, an extra seat popped up in the Metroid seating area. Remaining seats:

Pokémon: Incineroar

Mario: Daisy, Geno, Piranha Plant

Fire Emblem: Chrom

Third Parties: Simon, Richter, Ken, and Banjo

Animal Crossing: Isabelle

Single-character universes: Inklings

Metroid: Ridley, Dark Samus

Donkey Kong: King K. Rool

Golden Sun: Isaac, Matthew

Need some wishes to come true? Star Road's your answer!