A/N: Hi, guys and welcome to this new fanfic! It will be on Punch-Out!. I still plan to do the Super Adventure Rockman fanfic, but since the game is only in Japanese, it is very difficult to translate everything and prepare the script, so if someone knows the game and Japanese well, I would advise you to help me, it is the my hardest project so far. End premise, let's start!

Chapter 1: A rocky start

It was 1987. Little Mac, a young seventeen-year-old Italian-American boxer from the Bronx, a neighborhood of New York, was training, as there would soon be a boxing match in the international tournament he joined, the World Video Boxing Association, also known as WVBA. Mac wore green shorts and boxing gloves and a black tank top and boots.

''Come on, you idiot! The match is about to begin!'' shouted Mr. Sterling, Mac's coach.

''I'm coming!'' replied the boy.

Shortly thereafter, the match began. It was already the fifth that Mac did, and he remembered that the last four always ended with his defeat, and now he had to face the Japanese Piston Honda. He was 28 years old and was a light heavyweight, 1.87 meters (6 feet 2 inches) tall and weighing 79 kg (174 pounds), while Mac was a light flyweight who was 1.70 meters tall (5 feet 7 inches) and weighed 48 kg (107 pounds). The WVBA has personal rules: it ignores weight classes, so everyone can face each other, if a boxer is on the mat the opponent mustn't interfere in their attempt to get up, three KOs in the same round are equivalent to a TKO, the matches consist of in three rounds of three minutes and it is not allowed to grab the opponent, hit him with the elbow or with a headbutt. Honda bowed to the boy, who returned the gesture.

''Start!'' shouted the referee.

(''Main Theme- Punch Out! Wii OST'')

Honda attacked first with a right and left hook, which Mac dodged before hitting him in the stomach four times, but was hit by a strong jab to the head. An uppercut then almost knocked him over, and Mac was forced on the defensive, dodging other attacks.

''What are you doing?! Be ruthless and attack!'' shouted Mr. Sterling.

Little Mac followed his coach's order, but no matter how many hits he landed, they didn't do much damage, leading him to wonder if he should hit Honda when he let his guard down. Halfway through the first round, he knocked the opponent down for the first time, but the Japanese boxer got up at 6.

''Not bad. Let's see how you deal with this!'' said Honda, who used his special attack: the Piston Rush(1), a series of spinning punches. Mac dodged the first three, but was hit by the other four and fell to the mat for the first time, getting up at 7.

''He's strong. And his attacks are deceptively quick.'' he thought.

Shortly thereafter, the three minutes of the first round ended, thus beginning the break.

''Mac, attack relentlessly!'' yelled Mr. Sterling, while Little Mac drank some water.

In the second round, the boy began to sweat and feel tired: many of his attacks were dodged or parried, making him understand that what the coach had told him was not a good idea. He dodged a right jab and hit Honda four times, then parried two left hooks. A powerful uppercut knocked him out for the second time as the referee started counting.

"Get up, you wimp!'' screamed the coach, and Mac barely managed to get up on time, with the count at 9. Now he had a bruise over his right eye and another one on his forehead, and he managed to knock Honda down a second time, but the Japanese got up again with the count at 8.

''You are better than I thought.'' said Honda, who always spoke in a formal and respectful way, like a Japanese samurai. He used the Piston Rush again, which Mac tried to parry. He successfully parried the first two hits, but the third broke his guard and the other four hit him hard, almost knocking him over. He knew he couldn't tolerate many more hits, but Mr. Sterling repeatedly yelled at him to end the match soon.

''Easy to say, he is parrying and dodging so many hits! I won't last much longer!'' replied Mac.

Twenty seconds to go until the end of the second round, and Honda hit Mac with a powerful right cross and a left uppercut that hit him on the chin, and a subsequent direct right was enough to knock him out for the third time. His attempt to get up failed, and the countdown expired.

''Little Mac is KO! The winner is Piston Honda!'' the referee announced, then lifted Honda's arm upward, to indicate that he was the winner. Honda bowed to Little Mac, who had just got up. The American boxer looked behind him and saw the disapproving look on his coach's face, which made him a little nervous, knowing what would happen.

(''Main Theme- Punch Out! Wii OST-s'')

(''Environmental Silence- Metroid Fusion OST'')

''You failed again, you ninconcoop!'' screamed Mr. Sterling, in the locker room. When Little Mac lost or failed to meet his enormous expectations, he denigrated and insulted him heavily.

''I don't understand. Seriously, did you actually think that I was going to dominate?'' asked Mac.

''I just thought you could beat him! But no, you were defeated like an imbecile!'' replied the coach angrily.

The young man was increasingly confused. Reflecting on what had happened during the match, he was sure that he had not made any particular mistakes, and thought that he had lost only because he was inexperienced. ''I just don't get it. With more experienced boxers against a seventeen-year-old teenager, what did you expect?'' he asked.

''Don't contradict me, and watch your mouth. I should have expected that someone like you would fall so easily.''

''What does that mean? That this is my fault?''

''Definitely, you blithering idiot!''

The young boxer was now nervous. ''I do everything i can to win a match, this is getting ridiculous!''

*SLAP!*

Mr. Sterling slapped Mac in the face so hard that it irritated his right cheek. ''Shut up, you moron! I'm ashamed to be your coach, I'm out!'' he growled, and left.

Little Mac was running out of ideas. Being without a coach, he couldn't take part in other matches, it would only be humiliating. It was bad enough that everyone had been making fun of him for years because he was short. Even the French Glass Joe, who was twice his age, was marginally taller and heavier than him, and was the only one with his own same class. Forced to do everything on his own, he completely changed his schedule: he decided to stay in the gym all morning and then he spent the afternoons looking for a trainer. Unfortunately, being a minor and small boxer in comparison to the other boxers, who towered over him, he was always rejected about ten times a day.

''No one said it would be easy.'' he thought.

(''Environmental Silence- Metroid Fusion OST'')

Three weeks later, Little Mac was becoming less and less confident. He had always been a laughingstock, and being fed up with being always treated like the scum of society, last year he had chosen to stop attending school and become a boxer to redeem himself, but so far, nothing was working. So far, he had not given up, but he felt that it would not go on for long, and after being refused for the two hundredth time, he decided to go home for lunch.

His mother was waiting for him and had prepared lunch for him. ''Hi, Mac. I made you this sandwich for lunch.'' she said.

''Thanks, Mom.'' Mac said, starting to eat.

''Haven't you managed to find a coach yet?''

''Unfortunately not. I guess it's because I'm like this, my old coach abandoned me after my fifth defeat, the one against Piston Honda.''

''Your father is sure you did well, and I agree with him. Don't listen to what he says.''

''Easy to say. I'm sick and tired of always being the village idiot, the society's laughing stock. By the way, where's dad?''

''He has just finished eating, and now he's outside.''

After he finished eating the sandwich, Mac heard screams. ''Who's screaming? Let's go and see.'' said Mom.

The two went out and saw Mac's father arguing heatedly with a man.

''What's going on, Dad?'' asked the boy. However, he was shocked when he realized that the man was his former coach.

''Do you know him?'' asked Mom.

''Yes, he's my former coach!'' said Mac.

''What are you doing here?'' asked Dad.

''Better yet, why is your son enrolled in the WVBA? He's nothing compared to the others!'' replied Mr. Sterling.

''It's too early for such a judgment, especially to a seventeen-year-old.'' replied Mom. "Besides, he thought it would be the way to redeem himself.''

''He's not worthy of being a boxer!'' yelled Mr. Sterling, and Mac was more and more shocked.

''Leave my son alone, this time you went too far!'' shouted Dad.

''Little Mac will never be a professional, so he should just retire and surrender, he's nothing!'' snarled the former coach.

(''Scent of Silence- Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories OST'')

The boy couldn't take it anymore. Ignoring his parents' concern, he ran away and went to the nearest park, sitting on a bench by the river. Mr. Sterling had broken all his self-esteem, and he was sure he would never become a boxing champion. His father always told him not to listen to him and reassured him that he had done his best, but it was not enough. Losses werehumiliating for him, and this was made worse by all the refusals he received from other coaches. Looking at his boxing gloves, he felt disgusted by them. He threw them on the ground facing the river and sat down on the grass, then covered his face with his hands and started to cry. No matter how hard he tried, he felt it was of no use. He felt really useless, the laughing stock of the society's laughingstock and scum, and he thought that this would be the end of his sad, mediocre life, believing that he had passed and suffered too much, and he was ready to throw gloves in the river.

''Hey, kid. What are you going to do?'' asked a voice.

Little Mac was taken aback by the speaker. He turned and saw an African-American man with black hair and mustache. He looked middle-aged, rather overweight, in a red jacket and blue pants, and was eating a chocolate bar. ''Is something wrong?'' asked the man.

''Everything went wrong. I've been looking for a coach for three weeks, but it's no use.'' replied the boy.

''You could explain it to me.''

''I'm sorry I can't. Not now.''

''I understand. I don't blame you, maybe you're right.''

Little Mac realized something. ''Wait a sec. You're...'' he asked, before being interrupted.

''You guessed. I'm Jerome Doc Louis, but you can call me Doc. I was a heavyweight boxing champ years ago.'' said Doc Louis.

''I really wasn't expecting that.''

''Me neither. You said you needed a coach, didn't you? I followed the recording of your match with Piston Honda, and you were really good.''

''Really? I always believed that I had lost those match just because I was inexperienced, but the reality is that I'm weak.

Doc didn't believe what Mac said. ''Come on, don't say that. You have a lot of potential inside you. How old are you?'' he asked.

''They call me Little Mac, and I'm seventeen.'' replied Mac.

''Seventeen years old?! I really didn't expect that. I will become your coach, I'm sure you have untapped potential.'' said the man, holding out his hand to the boy, who hesitantly took it.

''I can't believe that a heavyweight boxing champion is my trainer.'' said Mac.

''Come with me, Mac. I will train you, and under me, you will become a real champion.'' said Doc, taking the boy to the nearby gym, as they were eating a chocolate bar.

(''Scent of Silence- Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories OST-s'')

A/N: Well. Little Mac is a character I like, but he was never been developed much in the series, perhaps because it's a simple game, so gave him a story. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and i'll see you guys next time! See you soon!

(1): Piston Honda's special attack resembles Piston Hurricane's Hurricane Rush.