Hand climbed up the stairs into the main arena as an uproarious cheer reverberated inside.

"Ticket, sir?"

Hand fumbled inside his jacket, pulling forth a ticket, and handed it to the person in front of him.

"Section E, right down there, row twelve," he told him, tearing the ticket along the perforation.

"Thank you," Hand nodded curtly. He walked down the stairs towards the arena. It was a boxing ring, and surrounding it was a massive stadium of thousands upon thousands of people. Hand marched down to row twelve and excused himself as he waddled his way to his seat. Everyone around him was cheering as a boisterous man in a suit walking into the ring.

"Thank you for coming, ladies and gentlemen! Who's ready to see a battle?!" the man shouted, drawing out the last word to egg on his audience.

"Ooooover on my right for the first half of our fiery contest we have the winged beast with a heated attitude! He brings down fiery rage from the sky above…Chaarizaaard!"

An orange, dragon shaped animal dropped from the air just above the ring into a corner on the right with a heavy thud. It looked around at his admirers before giving a tremendous roar with fire spewing out of its mouth. The crowd went crazy. A boy just in front of Hand was jumping up and down furiously with a bag of popcorn, spilling its contents below.

"Dad! It's him!" he said, yanking the sleeve of the person on his right.

Charizard stomped around some before settling into the corner. Two people just outside the ring, a boy and a girl, walked up to the ropes and began talking and prepping their fighter. Hand made sure he got a good look at these two coaches.

"Aaaaand on my left," continued the man in the suit. "His passion is that of an erupting volcano! I give you…Inciineroaaaaarrrr!"

Hand was wondering if the boy in front of him would have any popcorn by the time the match started. He chuckled as he saw his father attempt to settle him down as to save the poor kernels flying everywhere.

Another creature, this one more humanoid but with lots of short fur and a huge, muscular torso, crawled into the ring. He stood up and spread his arms for the crowd, pumping them up as he strutted around the ring. Hand noticed some sharp claws on him as he paraded. His fir was mostly red and blank, save for his chest which was white and black.

Incineroar settled into his corner. Hand saw another coach show up next to him, a masked man, who began talking.

The man in the suit quickly hopped out of the ring. A large referee walked into the center of the ring.

"Alright fighters," he called. "Meet here with me in the middle." The two massive creatures stomped towards the middle together.

"Now," said the referee once they had arrived, "shake hands."

The two did so. Hand was sure the grip between the two of them could have shattered rock.

"No flying above ten meters, no fire outside of the ring, no claws or fire to the face, understood?" said the referee gruffly.

They nodded, then took a few steps back.

"Three! Two! One! Fight!"

The stage looked like it had caught fire, and what followed was a brilliant spectacle of fire and fighting. Charizard, mobile as could be with his ability to jump and fly around, frequently sought to get behind Incineroar, constantly berating him at range with fire attacks. Incineroar would occasionally land a powerful hit, drawing applause from the audience, which he would acknowledge before continuing his fight.

Hand thought happily to himself as Incineroar suddenly grabbed Charizard mid-flight and threw him to the ground. These were two good competitors to have. Charizard then whipped his tail around, thrashing Incineroar about the waist and into the ropes.

The crowd loved every second of it, cheering and gasping at every hit.

It was getting close to the end of time when Charizard attempted to dive bomb onto Incineroar. Incineroar dodged the attack and Charizard landed on the other side of the ring. Charizard turned and started to ready himself to spit flames at Incineroar again.

Hand saw Incineroar smile, more so than he had been the whole match at least, and launched himself at Charizard. He dodged the breath attack, not breaking pace, winded up his arm and drove it into Charizard's gut.

WHAM!

The hit connected perfectly. Charizard fell over backwards, struggling to get up.

The bell rang.

The crowd roared once more as Incineroar celebrated. Charizard slowly got back to its feet.

The referee beckoned both to the middle again and grabbed their arms. When he thrust Incineroar's hand into the air, the stadium erupted again. Incineroar strutted about the ring once more, dousing himself in the crowd's affection before turning to Charizard and offering a firm handshake once more.

Large sections of the crowd began heading for the bathrooms and concession stands for an intermission. Hand moved to the stairs with the group, but then had to move against the wave of people by marching down the stairs again towards the arena. He found the tunnel where the fighters and their coaches had disappeared into and walked up to the guard in front. He pulled out another ticket from his jacket.

"Backstage pass to see Incineroar and Charizard," he said. The guard nodded and stepped aside.

Within the halls were a great deal of strange creatures. Many of them were large like the two he had just seen in the ring, but others were rather short and stocky. He looked in each of the rooms as he walked down the hall in search of his query.

After a few minutes he happened upon where Incineroar was laying. A healer in a white dress was tending to his burns.

"Ah, Incineroar! And you must be his coach," he said to the man wearing a mask.

"Trainer," the man corrected him. "Professor Kukui. And you are?"

"Mr. Hand," he replied, shaking Kukui's hand.

"Hand eh? Well what're you here for?"

"Well, I actually have heard a great deal about your Incineroar here." Hand noticed the creature perk up a little at this. "In fact, I've decided to invite him to a special competition of mine." He looked inside for the jacket for the right invitation. Upon bringing it out he added, "I hope you'll join," and handed it to Kukui. Kukui took it and, before even opening, let out a yelp.

"But that's," he stammered, looking at the seal, "that's the seal of that one place!" He said, pointing at the seal on the invitation. He started at the seal, then at Hand. "Wait, that place is full of legends, how come I haven't heard of you?"

Hand laughed somewhat abashed. "Ah, I'm more of the executive. Keep the place running and, in this case, issue out invitations to fighters who we want to join us."

"This is incredible! Look!" Kukui said, opening the letter and showing it to Incineroar. Incineroar looked at it briefly, then jumped out of the hands of his healer and off the bench while giving with a triumphant roar.

"You need to stay still!" snapped the nurse, shoving Incineroar back onto the bench.

"I'll take that as a 'yes' to you joining then, Incineroar?" said Hand happily. Incineroar gave a huge grin and nodded ferociously. "Excellent. I've already arranged for someone to pick you up just outside. You'll have to wait just a moment; I have more invites."

Hand left the room and looked for the Charizard he had spectated. A few more doors down he found it, along with other creatures in the room and two coaches. He knocked on the door.

"Hello!" called the girl, looking up to see who had arrived. "Who're you?" The boy, however, immediately recognized him.

"Hand!" he called. He jumped out of his chair and ran to shake his hand. "What're you doing here?"

"Hello Red," hand said to the boy, shaking his hand. "And you must be Leaf, correct?" he said to the girl, shaking her hand as well.

"Yes, sir!"

"It's been a while," said Red. "Is there a reason you're here?"

"Well, Red, I'm actually preparing to start another competition soon and…"

Red cut him off. "Oh, you must be here to pick up Charizard then!" He walked over to the great dragon, who was also being treated for minor burns. "He was great last time, weren't you!" Charizard gave a short roar of approval.

Hand smiled and said, "Actually," which was enough to freeze Red in his place and look straight at him. Hand gazed around the room as he pulled two invitations from his jacket. "I wanted to invite both you and Leaf here to fight with your…uh…" he fumbled, searching for the appropriate word to call all these strange creatures running around him.

"Pokémon!" Leaf cried.

"Ah, yes, those," Hand finished. Red ran over and snatched the invitations. Handing Leaf the one addressed to her, he tore his opened and began reading eagerly. Leaf waited a moment to admire the seal on the letter. Then she too tore hers open and began reading hungerly.

"You want Squirtle and Ivysaur with us as well right?" Red exclaimed.

"Certainly," Hand replied.

"Just like old times!"

Hand chuckled, "Yes, Red, just like old times."

Red jumped and fist pumped the air as Charizard let out a great roar just like Incineroar had done.

"Now, I've arranged for you to be picked up just outside. I've also invited Incineroar, so he should be out there as well with his, uh, trainer."

"Great," said Red. "Let's get going!"

They all bounded out of the room, leaving Hand behind. He looked at the remaining invitations in his jacket.

"Two down, fourteen to go," he said to himself. He had a long day ahead.

Outside the arena, Incineroar, Red, and Leaf were waiting along with Professor Kukui.

"Really impressed with what you kids have been able to do at your age," Kukui said. "Few have been able to train their Pokemon to stand up against my Incineroar like that."

"Thank you very much, sir," said Leaf. "Your Incineroar really is quite the fighter! I've never seen anything like him!" She looked up at the beast, who smiled and posed. The three of them laughed. "And he's so confident!"

"Yeah, I always tell him he's full himself, but he's got a heart of gold," said Kukui.

"Well," said Hand, coming up behind them, "I believe our transport has arrived."

A hovercraft descended in front of them and opened up to a luxurious interior.

"Man," said Kukui, "they weren't kidding when they said you guys had some money to throw around!"

"Well, by the looks of how your Incineroar fought he clearly only expects the best!" Hand laughed. Incineroar struck yet another pose.

Hopefully he stops doing that, thought Hand with a smirk, or the other fighters will tear him up when he does.

Red, Leaf, and the hulking Incineroar climbed into the vehicle, waving goodbye to the two standing on the dock. It closed its doors and shot off into the sky.

"Well," said Kukui, "I'm sure you're quite the busy man right now! Handing out invitations takes a lot of travelling I assume."

"Yes, but I thought you might be able to help me find my next fighter. It's an old friend of mine, quite small."

Kukui smirked, "Of course, but you gotta promise me. My Incineroar, he likes playing tough, but he's as gentle as a lamb when he's not in the ring. Make sure those other fighters don't bully him too much." He gave a wink.

"Oh, don't worry," said Hand, "I can already think of some people he's going to fit in great with."

Lunch at the mansion was always a chaotic affair. With it being the day before all the newcomers would be announced, there was a great deal of added anticipation. However, there was an even greater amount of fear. Along with the announcement of all the people who would be joining their group, there was also a solemn ceremony for those who would be leaving the mansion. Each event always saw a net increase in the number of members, but there had been some heavy losses in the past.

"You know," muttered Fox to Link, "I actually feel really bad betting against her now."

They were staring at a woman with dark blue hair who was sitting bolt upright in her chair, hands grasping her pants tightly as she repressed her shaking. Lucina, who Fox had put money on being removed from the guild tomorrow, was being consoled by two people on each side of her. One was her roommate, Zelda, who sported long hair the same color as Link's, and a guy Fox and Link knew to be related to her in some weird fashion, Marth, who had short hair the same color as Lucina's. Marth patted her hand and Zelda gave her a hug as a solitary tear defied her rigidity and slid down her face.

"Yeah," said Link, piling some meat onto his plate, "you know I'm all so confident that they'll stay, but it reminds you that none of us are really safe."

"You and I are, pal," said Fox, diving into his food. "Also, you're checking out Zelda again."

"Am not!" Link cried indignantly. Fox smirked.

"No, but it's funny how worked up you get over someone accusing you of it."

Link grumbled.

"You say that we're safe, but you wait," pointing his fork at Fox. "One of these days even one of us will get kicked out. There's nothing special preventing us from getting the same fate."

Fox, with a mouthful a food said, "Except, ya know, the riots that would take place outside Hand's office if that happened." He swallowed half his plate. "People would be breaking down his door and he'd have to, I dunno, flick them all out?"

The two of them laughed.

"Mario!" drawled a deep voice.

Mario looked up from his mushroom pizza, partly amused. "Yes, Bowser-a?"

A great mass that could be best described as a giant snapping turtle with huge spikes on its emerald green shell approached the table Mario was eating at. "How's it going, ya old plumber?"

"It's-a going well," he replied, eyeing Bowser dragging half the food within his reach onto his plate. "What are-a you doing." He stuffed half a pizza into his mouth.

"Aw c'mon," Bowser mumbled through his food. "I can't sit with you ever without making you suspicious?"

"Bowser, the-a only time you don't sit next to either Wario or a Ganondorf is when you are-a up to something," Mario replied flatly, returning to his food.

"Well," said Bowser, wiping his mouth politely and gesturing like he thought himself a businessman, "to be honest I'm not really up to something. I just want to ask the questions everyone here is too scared to ask."

"Bowser, you-a know we don't-," Mario started, but Bowser shut him down.

"What's the new member list gonna look like?" he said. It wasn't very loud, but his voiced carried far enough to get to everyone's ears. The room lowered to a low buzz, with a few people exchanging quiet comments. All fifty plus members turned towards the pair.

DK answered from a table over. He was sitting with a smaller ape, Diddy Kong, and a boy with bright angel wings, Pit.

"You know we don't know anything 'bout a member list, Bowser," he rumbled.

"All of your fancy meetings you eight have and Hand doesn't even let you know who's coming tomorrow?"

"No," said Yoshi. He was sitting with Kirby, who nervously began stuffing more food into its mouth, and Pikachu, who watched Bowser curiously. "Why should we? If he's going to tell us, then he might as well tell all of us."

"We just help run the show," called Fox, "we don't know who the cast is going to be."

"Hmph," said Bowser as conversation in the room began to return. "Well, it was worth a shot at least." He got up, taking his monstrous pile of food with him, and left to go sit between Wario, a large man who wore the same type of uniform as Mario except yellow instead of red, and Ganondorf, who typically wore a set of black armor to go with his fiery red hair. Instead today he was wearing some track pants and a sweatshirt with a single purple word on it, "Power".

"Big-a day tomorrow, eh, brother?"

Mario's taller and slightly thinner brother, Luigi, nudged him with his elbow.

"It's-a stressful," mumbled Mario, packing more mushrooms onto his pizza.

At that moment there was a sob and Lucina could be seen sprinting out of the dining room, nearly tripping over her sweatpants and breaking a plate in the process. Zelda was running after her but stopped once she saw Marth following behind. She turned around on the spot, whipping her white dress sharply. Marth stopped in his tracks.

"No," Zelda told him sharply. "You stay here." She pointed back at the table. A small flame sparked from her hand.

"But-," Marth attempted to start, but the flame sparked again.

"Stay."

It was a command. Marth, hand in hair, slumped his shoulders and returned to his table alone. Another man with blue hair, although built bigger than Marth, came over and sat down, rubbing Marth's shoulder. Zelda dashed out of sight of the room.

Mario turned to Luigi. "It's-a hard to get excited this time. We have-a so many first timers we don't know who will stay." He leaned closer and lowered his voice. "I fear that-a we will lose more members than we will gain this time."

"I hope that-a you are wrong, brother."

A table over from where Lucina was, and where Marth now sat helpless, two sets of twins sat toying their food, not really eating a whole lot. All four of them had brilliantly white hair, and each set of twins had a boy and a girl. Each pair also had the misfortune of having the same name when they arrived at the mansion. Hand had simply told the other fighters to figure it out when they tried questioning. One of the pairs, both named Robin, were wearing black hoodies. The boy, dubbed Rob by the others to simplify things, had a pair of dark jeans on while the girl, Robin, let her oversized hoodie fall past her waist to nearly her knees. The other pair, both Corrin, had white and blue sweaters. The boy, Corinth, kept sawing at his steak with a knife but never eating it. The girl, Corrin, was ignoring the food entirely and was curled up in a ball staring at nothing. Her eyes were glassy. Rob and Robin were still very new and were some of the most at risk at getting cut, while Corinth and Corrin barely even made it as a part of some late additions by Hand. They all had made great friends during their time here but were now faced with the very real prospect of being removed from it all.

Fox surveyed the room. He hated it. Usually the place was wild with people shouting, food being scarfed down, happy faces, and even occasional fighting. Right now it was just depressing.

"I'm gonna go get those new floor plans from Isabelle," he told Link.

"Mmmhmm," replied Link, mouth full of food.

Fox jumped out of his chair and left the dining room. Once he got out into the hall he began thinking to himself.

"Hand probably knew who was staying and who was leaving weeks ago," he mumbled. "I bet he's got something in his office…a list or something, yeah. He's out delivering invitations. He won't be back until late tonight. If I can just get a look at that…well," he thought about the look on Lucina's face.

"Well at least they won't have to keep agonizing about it," he finished. His pace quickened as he headed towards Hand's office.

However, along his way there, he heard someone sobbing. It was interspaced with someone attempting to console them it sounded like. Fox, knowing everyone else was still at lunch, knew it was probably Zelda with Lucina.

Fox slowed, thinking he at least owed her some words of encouragement, started moving towards the door where the sobs were coming from.

At that moment the door flew open and Zelda walked out. She didn't see Fox until she closed the door, but then she looked up to see him standing awkwardly about two feet away.

She paused for a moment, surprised to see him, then her eyes narrowed and she slammed the door shut.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed accusingly.

"I was just going to Hand's…I mean Isabelle's office," he replied.

"This isn't Hand's office!"

"I know, I know," Fox said exasperatedly, waving his hands. "I knew Lucina was upset and heard her and thought I should at least say something to help. You know, encourage her a bit?"

Zelda maintained a sharp glare and took a deep breath. Fox braced himself, but then she let out a huge sigh and her expression softened. Instead of standing so stiffly, she leaned against the wall, running her hands through her hair, looking like she wanted to pull it out.

"I know," she breathed. "So did Marth, but honestly, I don't know if there's anything we can say to her when even we don't know if she'll be here after tomorrow. I felt bad about sending him off like that, but this situation…ugh…these things are always so stressful."

Fox thought of the imagined piece of paper in Hand's office that he hoped would contain the list of people staying and leaving.

"You sure Hand didn't tell you guys anything?" Zelda asked.

Foxed snapped back to reality. "Wha-? Oh…no. He hasn't said anything to us. The only thing we know is that we're getting a bigger mansion."

Zelda's eyebrows raised. "Mario never mentioned that."

"Yeah," Fox continued. "It's like a whole two new floors. We're also moving to four a suite instead of three, but that's it. I'm surprised he even told us that much."

"Well," started Zelda, "that's a really good sign at least, but it doesn't guarantee anything. I mean…" she backed away from the door some, "…we've still always lost people each time these things happened."

Fox nodded in agreement.

The door opened once again. Zelda spun around to see Lucina standing shyly in the frame. Fox noticed her eyes were very red, and her hair had become quite a mess at this point.

"Oh," she said meekly, "hey Fox."

"Hey Lucina," Fox replied. Although the other two couldn't tell, he was feeling especially awkward standing in the presence of the person he had so confidently betted against. "Um…"

Zelda jumped in for the save. "Fox saw you running from the dining room and wanted to come by to help cheer you up some."

"Yeah," Fox added on helplessly.

"Oh," said Lucina with a sniff. "Thanks Fox. You're always so nice."

"Unless they touch his tank," mumbled Zelda. The three of them laughed a bit.

"I, uh, I think you'd want to go back to eat," said Fox, scratching the back of his head. "The other guys, Marth, Ike, I think they still want to see you."

"Okay."

Lucina started heading back towards the dining room. Zelda gave Fox a wink, which he responded to with a half cheerful wave. He then turned back onto his previous route.

Now he was determined to find that list, wherever it was or whatever it might be. If he could just know what was going to happen tomorrow.

A minute later he was approaching Hand's office. Fox tested the door handle, which was unlocked. Hand usually left his office open when Isabelle was still around. He slowly turned it and looked inside.

The room was the same as it had been for years, aside from being somewhat empty. Lots of the work that usually piled high around the place wasn't there. Fox assumed this was because not much was going on anymore, and most of Hand's work was probably completed given he was now out delivering invitations. He gazed around the room, looking at drawers and desks where an important piece of information might be-

"FOX!" rang a sharp voice.

Fox jumped so hard he flew back out of the office and into the middle of the hallway.

"Who-?" but he stopped immediately upon seeing a small figure trotting up to him. It was Isabelle.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"I, uh," Fox started, thinking fast. "I was told by Mario I needed to get some floor plans from you? I figured you might be in Hand's office?"

It was a pitiful excuse, for Isabelle had her own office she worked in. If Fox had truly been looking for the floor plans that she had made, he would've gone straight to her office.

Isabelle obviously didn't buy the lie, but she clearly had taken pity on him.

"Yes," she said, "I have them. Here…" and she dug out a collection of papers from the case she was carrying.

"Thanks," mumbled Fox. He began heading back to the dining room.

"Fox."

"Yeah?"

"Tell everyone I said good luck, alright?"

Fox turned to face her. She had a soft smile.

"Yeah," said Fox, smiling back, "I will."

But Fox, now in possession of the plans, didn't want to return to the dining room. He felt like bringing in the floor plans would only raise the anxiety of the place. Instead, he began marching up the stairs back to his suite.

Up until now, the rooms had been suites of three for a very long time. The last time they were put in groups of four was way back towards the beginning of the guild when there were only twelve of them and they hadn't made a whole lot of money yet. Fox's roommates were Link and Mario.

Link had already returned. He was laying across the sofa in his blue tunic, arm draped across his face for shade. He seemed to be napping but stirred awake when he heard the door open.

"That you, Mario?" he asked.

"Fox."

Link sat up. "You have those floor plans?"

"Yep."

Fox spread out the papers across the table in front of the couch. He sat down with Link and began organizing them.

"This…" said Link as the bigger picture came together. "This is huge!"

He was right, thought Fox. Not only was the mansion two whole floors taller, but the transition of three person suites to four massively expanded the size of each floor.

"Wait a minute," said Link suddenly.

"What?"

"None of us really thought about this, but with these, we can tell how many people will be living here!"

Fox paused. "I mean, yeah, but it doesn't really tell us much about who will be taking those rooms."

"It's at least something, which is a whole lot better than what Hand has given us so far," said Link. He began counting and multiplying the rooms quickly. "So the bottom room is obviously still all the basic stuff. Kitchen, dining room, whatever. Then, there's four floors with four suites each holding four people…"

"Not that one," said Fox, pointing at room shaped a little different than the others. It was accommodating some of the appliance space on the first floor, so it only fit three.

"Okay, and then a fifth floor with only two suites, for each, so that's…that's…sixty – no – seventy-one!"
The two of them paused and looked at each other. That was a huge number of members. They thought they were reaching a breaking point at a little over fifty, but Hand had apparently decided to add nearly twenty more slots.

Whatever Hand was planning, this event was going to be much different than all the others.

Note: There is a time gap between the end of this chapter and the next, which I may or may not fill depending on story consistency and pacing. There is a chapter already written but I wasn't a fan of the style so it's not included for now.