Incineroar was enjoying a peaceful nap in his refreshingly cold new room when there was a knock on the door. "Incineroar, it's lunch time," Leaf said. With a few grunts Incineroar picked himself up from the floor and opened the door. Normally he would have tried to tune the knocking out, but food was important. He also wanted to find someone to serve as a tag team partner, which would be hard if he spent the entire day napping. So he followed Leaf down to the dining hall. When they arrived Incineroar scanned the dining hall carefully to find the best place to sit, he decided it was the spot that had all the other Pokemon. Red was also there, and Leaf sat down next to Incineroar.
It was a little hot for Incineroar so he alternated between shoveling food into his mouth and drinking water. His fire belt quickly lowered to a much more pleasant temperature. Pikachu alternated between watching Incineroar and Red. When he was done with his food he jumped off the table and walked to the table where Samus was seated, giving a long look towards Red and Leaf.
"Why is Pika always like that with us? He keeps looking like he wants to say something, then just walks off," Leaf said.
"Pika is from a different version of our world than the one we hail from. Apparently in that world his trainer is a different version of Red, but the one here is far too different for Pika. Pika also knows a version of you and me from his world," Mewtwo explained. Incineroar was only half listening to the exposition he didn't care about. He scanned the room and tried to size up all the different Smashers. There were a good number of potentially good tag team partners, though Incineroar didn't care much for potential. He'd have to see them in action to properly judge them.
"Wow, that's really confusing. Lately I've been having dreams where my name is Green, do you think that's the version of me Pika knows?" Leaf asked.
"Probably. Reality Bleed is strongest with versions connected to other Smashers. I think we forgot to include Incineorar in this conversation," Lucario said. "Do you know of a trainer named Ash Ketchum?" Incineroar shook his head. Greninja let out a mutter of disappointment.
"You know, I think you're kind of cute Incineroar," Leaf said. Incineroar flexed his muscles in an attempt to dispel that image, Leaf laughed at the display. That earned her a growl.
"I think he has an issue with being called cute," Red said. Before the conversation could continue a disruption came from across the dining hall.
"Wah, watch where you're walking numbskull," Wario shouted.
"But you ran into me," Popo said, slowly stepping away from Wario.
"Oh so now it's my fault?!" Wario took a step forward and winded up his fist.
"It's always your fault you loser," Daisy said from her seat. She quickly finished the last of her food and held her plate like a weapon. Incineroar rose from his seat and ran over before things could escalate without him. He grabbed Wario from behind and tossed him up into the air, then jumped up and punched him back down to the floor. A terrified 'wah' filled the room up to the moment Wario made impact with the floor, face first.
A majority of the gathered Smashers clapped as Incineroar posed. He was certain that would prevent the word 'cute' from ever being applied to him again, keeping a kid safe was also always a good outcome in his book. Master Hand teleported in, but cut his lecture about fighting in the mansion short when he saw it was Wario. Nobody had a chance to say hello before Master Hand warped back to his office. Lucario put his hands on his chest spike. "I just realized, Master Hand has been rather reclusive as of late. This may have been the first I've seen him all month. And he's stressed, it's all over his aura. What's been going on with him?" Lucario wondered out loud. Greninja fiddled with his tongue scarf and focused his gaze on Dark Samus.
Incineroar went back to finish his meal and then made his way outside. His room didn't get enough sunlight so he wanted to nap somewhere that got more. Right as Incineroar was about to settle down under a tall tree a young looking girl approached him. She had platinum blonde hair that probably would have touched her feet if it weren't for the ponytail, and a dress that reached all the way down to her shins. In her right hand was a staff. Incineroar closed his eyes and rested his back against the tree, his arms were also folded. "Hey! I was about to talk to you. I'm only the goddess of nature herself, Viridi, you know that one. Kind, charming, cute, way better than those stupid humans," the girl shouted.
A shuriken made of water flew over Viridi's head and scraped the side of the tree. Greninja dashed into view and stopped a good distance away, enough that he could easily jump in for another attack or dodge any reprisal from Viridi before it could connect. Greninja made an x with his hands and glared at Viridi.
"Ugh, what do you Pokemon even see in those humans? Every time I try to recruit one of you guys I get attacked like I'm the bad guy. Come on Incineroar, you can't possibly like those stupid trainers. Join me and we can get rid of them all, then you can nap all day without having to bother with fighting ever again. Let's shake on it," Viridi said. Incineroar took Viridi's outstretched hand, then pulled her into a grab and suplexed her.
Viridi screamed as she hit the ground and quickly got up to her feet. Greninja threw a water shuriken at her. After dodging it Viridi held up her staff and readied an attack, both Greninja and Incineroar were prepared to counter it. The three of them all stood motionless, waiting for any opening to throw out an attack. Then Dark Pit walked into the standoff and looked around in confusion.
"You were supposed to be here five minutes ago. What kind of lousy subordinate are you? I got suplexed by an oversized cat. Now help me fight these two."
"I'm not your subordinate, we just happen to both hate Pit and Palutena," Dark Pit said.
"Yeah sure, whatever. If you want the power of flight you need to actually do things for me sometimes. Now fight those two," Viridi said. Master Hand teleported right into the center of the standoff. He had curled himself up into a fist.
"What part of 'no fighting in the mansion' do you imbeciles not get?!" Master Hand shouted.
"We're not in the mansion," Viridi said.
"You know what I mean. If you want to fight go set up an official match or get the fuck out of here." Master Hand assumed a finger gun shape, aimed right at Viridi. Greninja and Dark Pit exchanged a shocked look. Even Incineroar could tell that Master Hand wasn't usually the swearing type.
"Fine. Dark Pit go fight them. Phosphora will back you up, and if you win, they have to join the Forces of Nature." Viridi said. Incineroar pounded his chest and his fire belt intensified, Greninja summoned kunai made out of water.
"I have better things to do," Dark Pit said. Incineroar responded with an impression of a chicken. Greninja looked at him like he had gone crazy. "Oh that's it, you're on." Greninja sighed as Incineroar laughed.
Phosphora was already in the battle room when the others arrived. Much like the teleporter room both the floor and walls were an uncomfortably sterile white, aside from the people it was completely empty. "About time, I was starting to get bored. Haven't been here since Master Hand wanted to make a data copy of me for the fights," she said.
"Just don't get in my way," Dark Pit said. He was already in a fighting stance, his silver bow split into two small swords.
"I'm not even a full fighter, yet, so I can't use all of my powers. Maybe after this Master Hand will realize who really needs to become a Smasher," Phosphora said. "So what battlefield are we going to-" Greninja and Dark Pit both tried to stop her, but they were too late. The room transformed as the door vanished with a blue flash of light. In the blink of an eye they were standing on a long platform floating up in the sky, three smaller platforms hovered above it in a triangle formation. "What?"
"This thing is voice activated, it heard you say battlefield so now we're on the stage called battlefield. This bullshit happens every week," Dark Pit explained.
"Wow that's really dumb. Well this looks like a decently big battlefield at-"
"No!" The platforms above them shrunk in size and more appeared. The four combatants all exchanged a look and didn't dare say anything more. Incineroar and Greninja walked to the left side of the main platform, Dark Pit and Phosphora went to the right. Incineroar narrowed his eyes and growled, Dark Pit smirked, Phosphora stretched her arms, and Greninja folded his arms.
"One stock, two versus two battle," a robotic voice declared. "Three, two, one, GO!"
Dark Pit started by shooting arrows, backed up by Phosphora shooting out bolts of electricity. Greninja jumped above them and went to the highest platform, Incineroar let Dark Pit's arrow hit and his fire belt flared up in response. Dark Pit and Incineroar charged at each other. Dark Pit split his bow into two blades and slashed. Incineroar spun through it and landed several hits on Dark Pit.
Phosphora sent out an electric orb that followed Greninja as he jumped up and down the different platforms. Phosphora teleported behind Greninja, who used shadow sneak to get behind her and attack. "If I was allowed to use my kicks you'd be so KOed right now," Phosphora complained. She teleported up above the highest platform and sent another series of bolts down.
On the main stage Dark Pit was steadily growing more and more infuriated. Incineroar sidestepped one of Phosphora's bolts and Dark Pit's electroshock arm. With a mocking laugh he used a knifehand strike on Dark Pit. He posed as the angel stumbled back. Above them Greninja got caught by one of Phosphora's bolts, which was followed by another volley that sent him towards the edge.
Incineroar's attempted grab was shut down by Dark Pit's orbitars. Phosphora put her hands together and fired another orb of electricity towards Greninja, who was still recovering from her previous attacks. Incineroar leapt up and took the hit. His fire belt flared up again as he endured the blow. Dark Pit kicked Incineroar from below the platform and into Phosphora's electric bolts. Greninja charged forward and slashed at Dark Pit with a kunai of water, the angel was sent flying.
With his feet back on one of the smaller platforms Incineroar summoned the energy shield granted to all Smashers. Phosphora's bolts wore it down quickly. Incineroar rolled past the bolts and jumped at Phosphora. He spun around in midair and kicked her with both feet. Phosphora was knocked back, but quickly teleported just above Incineroar. Before she could fire another bolt Incineroar grabbed her out of the air. A suplex followed immediately afterwards.
"Dark Pit give me some cover!" A black arrow dug into Incineroar's foot. He howled as Phosphora teleported to the other side of the stage. Greninja had been knocked off and was trying to recover with a jet of water. He barely dodged Phosphora's bolts. Dark Pit prepared to intercept and spike Greninja. He was suplexed by Incineroar before he got the chance. Incineroar got shocked by a bolt from Phosphora in retaliation. Greninja jumped up from the ledge of the main platform. Phosphora got sliced by a blade of water before she could fire any more bolts. She held her arm and grimaced.
Recovering from the suplex, Dark Pit fled to the other end of the main platform. Arrows flew at Incineroar, one right after the other. Greninja jumped up to the smaller platforms and approached Dark Pit. In response Dark Pit stopped firing arrows and jumped up to face him. Phosphora summoned another round of electric bolts. Incineroar jumped up and crashed down towards Phosphora. She bounced up from the fiery impact and right into Greninja's water kunai. In a flash of light she vanished.
Greninja dropped down to the main platform and got behind Dark Pit with shadow sneak. Dark Pit was prepared. Slashes from his two swords sent Greninja flying off of the stage and out of bounds. "Assist trophy eliminated! Fighter two eliminated!" Incineroar snarled and pointed at Dark Pit, then made a throat cutting gesture.
As Incineroar approached Dark Pit shot an arrow. Then he pulled out the electroshock arm and charged. Incineroar shielded himself from the arrow. The electroshock arm rammed into his chest. The jolts of electricity flooded through Incineroar's body, but Incineroar remained in place. His fire belt flared up so intensely Dark Pit was momentarily blinded. With an enzuigiri Incineroar sent Dark Pit flying off of the stage. Dark Pit recovered in midair and used his wings to jump back up towards the main platform. Before he could reach it Incineroar dropped down and performed a double foot stomp, sending Dark Pit crashing out of bounds.
In a flash all four of the combatants were back in the white room. "The winner is… Red team," the robotic announcer declared. Dark Pit scowled while Incineroar triumphantly flexed his muscles.
"That was actually pretty fun. Next time we should fight in my world so I can use all of my powers," Phosphora said. She and Incineroar fist bumped. The door opened and Viridi stormed in.
"You had one job Dark Pit, what do I even keep you around for? Oh forget it, I'm leaving, I need a long bath to forget about all the nonsense I've had to put up with today," Viridi said. She left the room as angrily as she had entered it.
"Viridi's usually a lot better than that, she just tends to stay in a bad mood for a while once she gets into it. Don't get hung up on it," Phosphora said apologetically.
"Humph, like I'd care what some selfish goddess has to say."
"Try not to say that in front of her. Anyway, I'm heading back to my world too, see you guys." With that Phosphora walked out of the room, Dark Pit followed after her. Incineroar gave Greninja a light slap on the back. In response Greninja held out his hand, Incineroar put his own hand on top of it. He didn't have to worry about looking for a tag team partner any longer.
Viridi muttered to herself as she marched towards the teleporter room, consoling herself with various revenge fantasies on a genocidal scale. When she walked into the teleporter room she was surprised to see that somebody else was already there. Despite never directly interacting before Viridi recognized what she was dealing with right away, there was only one source of Phazon left. "Dark Samus? What do you want? I'm really not in a mood to talk right now," Viridi said.
"Ally?" Dark Samus asked.
"Oh please, why would I ever want to join forces with somebody like you. Phazon is just gross." Viridi said.
"Own teleporter in development. Could go to any world with forces. Need your power to finish."
"Wait, you're saying instead of having to ask these stupid Smashers for help I could just send the Forces of Nature to other worlds directly?" Viridi asked. Dark Samus nodded. Viridi tapped her fingers on her staff as she thought through her options. It had always annoyed her that she couldn't take the teleporter to worlds other than her own, and that she was only able to use it in the first place thanks to Dark Pit. On the other hand, Viridi didn't like owing anybody anything. "Just to be clear, I'm betting you expect me to get all buddy buddy with the Space Pirates to help out with this teleporter?"
"Alliance mandatory."
"Thought so," Viridi said. "I'm in, with one condition. You Space Pirates and the like have to treat nature with respect. Do whatever you want to humans or whatever, but don't you dare cause any pollution. Do we have a deal? By the way good luck finding any other goddess who would be willing to help." Viridi held her staff up to appear taller.
"Deal."
"Alright. Here, take this." Viridi slammed her staff on the ground and summoned a green translucent orb. It hovered in the air in front of Dark Samus, who took hold of it. "Just plug that into your teleporter and it should be enough of a boost to get it working. And you better visit me first, also I want my own copy." Dark Samus once again nodded. Viridi had a smug smirk on her face as she set up the mansion teleporter to take her back home. "Oh, I just can't wait to see the look on Palutena's face when she knows what I have going on now."
A/N: Before I talk about this chapter let's talk about the next chapter… Interlude: Of Light. As the name implies this will be covering the events of World of Light, however it won't be a full adaptation. The events immediately preceding WoL, the final battle, and the aftermath are all that will be depicted. More importantly the interlude will bring a significant change in the status quo of this fic, you could consider it the climax of the base game arc. You've got quite a mess waiting for you on your special day, Piranha Plant.
After the interlude I'll be doing the DLC in release order. And if I'm able to sustain this pace and avoid another hiatus, I may be able to write visitor chapters again. They'll be exclusively featuring Nintendo characters (with one possible exception), most from lesser known titles. As before requests will NOT be taken for visitor chapters.
Incineroar was simultaneously fun and hard to write due to his lack of both dialogue and preestablished personality, hopefully he made a good impression. I bet most of you weren't expecting Viridi to appear in a Pokemon character's chapter. Going forward you can expect to see more major antagonistic forces who are not on the roster. In fact some currently don't have any presence in Ultimate, but all of them can be linked to Smash in some way.
Lastly, I'd like to once again promote Super Smash Prose, a discord server for Smash fanfiction writers and fan artists that has helped me with this fic. It even has dedicated channels for different fics/authors/comics/artists, including New Faces and a few others you may have read. The code is gDK48ua.