At 9pm sharp, schedules went up online and everyone immediately jumped on them.

"Dammit," said Fox. "Pikachu in my first match? Really? I hate fighting him, nothing but electric shocks the whole time. Puts my fur on edge."

10 matches per fighter were already assigned, with more to be assigned in the future. Hundreds of events lined up. It was going to get very busy soon. Every week there would be two matches on Friday, two on Saturday, and three on Sunday.

"Mario and DK starting things off again as usual," said Link. "They fight tomorrow night, then Yoshi against Samus right after, followed by me against Kirby and you against Pikachu.

Fox looked through the rest of his schedule, searching for any newcomers.

Link sat up in the sofa. They were in their common area of their unit with Mario and DK, who were lounging in the other chairs. After the interviews they were so burnt that they just wanted to go look at their upcoming schedule then head to bed early. They could hear the muffled noises next door that was Captain Falcon's room partying after a hard day's work.

"I got a fight against that Ken guy," said Fox. "The one Ryu knew?"

"Looked like a carbon copy of Ryu to me," rumbled DK. "Seems like Hand got a lot of those."

"Those-a what?" asked Mario.

"People who seem just like someone else. Daisy's probably gonna to be just like Peach. Ken looks like Ryu. Dark Samus is actually a copy of Samus. Just seems like a lot o' similarities."

"Speaking of Dark Samus," said Link. "Neither Dark Samus or Ridley is facing Samus at all. Guess Hand didn't want something getting out of hand."

"Huh," said Fox. He almost wanted to see what those fights would've turned out to be, even if Samus did rip the stage in half in the process.

Over in Zelda's room, her temper was running short.

"Two nights in and we're already two for two on being obnoxiously loud," she complained. Captain Falcon in the room below had been excitedly playing beer pong against Falco and it sounded as if the ping pong ball was being shot off of every wall in the room each throw.

"No one's going to stop you going down there and shutting them up yourself," said Palutena from a hammock she had strung up at the side of the room. She was lazily flipping through the schedules that had just been posted.

"I'm just about ready to," said Zelda, gritting her teeth as Cap let out a triumphant roar and there was a sound of a table being smashed.

Lucina was sitting on a chair upside down with her legs hanging off the top and her head laying on the table. "They'll pass out soon enough. If it gets to being too late, we can just go down there ourselves and tell them off."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure a drunk Cap will be someone we can reason with," Zelda said with heavy sarcasm. She was torn between wanting to bash Cap's face in and wanting to be lazy and not do anything after a long day.

Rosalina curled up in a ball in her chair. "I usually don't care," she said. "I'll sleep right through it anyways."

Zelda gave an annoyed flick on her phone and slid down through the schedule. She would be facing Ness, one of the two short boy champions with psychic powers, in her first match.

"Anyone got fights that are particularly interesting," asked Lucina.

"I have one against Ganondorf," said Palutena.

"Ew," said Zelda instinctively.

"Aw, man," said Lucina, disappointed. "I have to fight Pichu? I don't want to fight Pichu. I want to love Pichu."

"Tough break," said Zelda flatly.

"Are you alright, Zelda?" asked Rosalina.

At that moment all four of the boys below burst out in shouting and laughter. Zelda slammed her phone down on her chair's armrest and stared daggers into the air.

"Can I just set them on fire?" she asked to no one.

There was a knock on their door.

"It's Samus," they heard. Zelda flicked her wrist and the lock came undone.

"Come in," Zelda called, still irritated.

Samus opened the door. She was already in a set of night clothes.

"Are those guys keeping you up as well?" she asked. Her eyes were a little red as if she had been trying to fall asleep.

"We haven't gone to bed yet," said Rosalina.

"But they are being loud as hell," snapped Zelda.

"Alright," said Samus. "Just wanted to make sure it wasn't just me. I'm gonna go shut them up."

Samus left them and headed down the stairs to the next floor. Each step was like a lead boot falling down. The emotional and mental stress of the past twenty-four hours was a lot more than she was used to doing as of recent. Not much compared to her bounty hunting days, of course, but that was a different kind of conditioning she was under. Now it was putting up with stupid crap each day.

She arrived at the next floor and walked straight for the second door on the left, making note to go right past the first door without any acknowledgement of it, for that was the unit Ridley was in.

She pounded twice on the door.

"Who that?" called Falco.

"It's Samus," she called back.

The door flung open and the anthropomorphic blue eagle stood in front of her.

"Yes?" he asked politely.

"Uh, first of all," started Samus, looking past Falco and into the room, "why is Cap holding Incineroar upside down?" This alarming sight had demanded an answer. Captain was standing on top of a sofa, dangling Incineroar by his legs in front of Sonic who was holding a beer can, frozen and staring at Samus.

"Uh," started Falco, looking back at the scene over his shoulder.

"You know what, don't even care," said Samus. "Shut the hell up. You're keeping the whole building up, and if you don't, I'll send Mario next time."

For all of Captain's audacity, he still commanded a certain respect for the Big Eight, and especially for Mario. He gave her a big smile and a thumbs up whispering loudly, "Don't worry, we won't be as noisy."

Samus rolled her eyes. "Better not," she said as she shut the door.

She immediately heard some muffled commotion on her way back to the stairs.

"Idiots," she growled.

Upon walking passing the unit containing Ridley's room, the door flung open. Samus jumped back out of shock and looked at who had appeared.

Ganondorf was standing in the frame with his usual jeans and black hoodie. Samus let her arms down, which had been raised in defense. "What're you up to," she said, acting as if she hadn't just jumped the entire length of the hallway.

Ganondorf looked curiously at Samus as he let the door close behind him. "I wanted to go get something to eat before I went to bed. You?"

"Just got done shutting up the boys over there," she replied, nodding her head over to Captain Falcon's unit.

"Yes, they were starting to get a bit out of hand," said Ganondorf, looking at the closed door at the other end of the hall. "But," he looked back at her, "I assume that's nothing to do with why you nearly jumped through the wall when I opened the door?"

"No," said Samus, looking away and saying, "it's nothing."

"Hard to believe nothing would cause a seasoned bounty hunter to nearly jump out of her night clothes," said Ganondorf.

Samus returned her gaze back to Ganondorf, reading him. He didn't seem to be in a pushy mood, but his raised eyebrows and leveled voice tone let her know that he knew what she was thinking.

"I figured he was about to bust through that door," she muttered. Ganondorf nodded and indicated that they should walk downstairs and out of earshot from the door.

On the way down the steps Ganondorf responded, "And what would you have done if it had been him?"

"I don't know," she said. She previously had no intention of going anywhere near Ridley. It just so happened the unit he lived in was right next to Cap's. "Probably would've just ran away back to my room. Not like I would want to be in his presence any more than I needed to."

Ganondorf shrugged. "Well, that is certainly a much better response that I would have thought."

"What did you think I would've done?"

"I thought I would have to either come pull you off of him before your broke his neck, or I'd be rubbing laser burn marks from my door frame for the next week."

They entered into the dining hall on the first floor. When there wasn't a huge feast in being prepared and served, it was frequently stuffed with non-perishable food items as well as all types of ingredients next to the now opened up kitchen. Kirby usually had the kitchen to himself when preparing feasts, but in the middle of the night, it was open for anyone to use.

"Do you really think I'm that short tempered?" she asked. Ganondorf grabbed a can of soup, a bowl, and headed into the kitchen.

"Of course not," he said, pouring the soup into the bowl and beginning to heat it up in the microwave. Samus folded her arms and leaned against one of the counters. "On the contrary," he continued, "given the types of people who live here, you're one of the most level headed out of all of them. I just wouldn't blame you if your rationality left you when it came to him."

"You wouldn't?" asked Samus.

"I know what it's like to be consumed by hatred," said Ganondorf. "Whether its righteous or not, it has the same intoxicating effect. One tends to lash out in favor of the easiest solution rather than keep your head on straight."

Samus didn't respond. It would make sense that Ganondorf would have experience with these issues. Back when he became a champion, Link and Zelda were borderline murderous towards him. Link had always been a hot head, but Zelda in particular Samus had never seen lose her cool so much. Years later, with Ganondorf becoming rather passive, the rage had significantly subsided. They understood each other thoroughly, and, despite never being the best of friends, still respected each other.

Ganondorf retrieved his heated soup and headed back into the empty dining hall. He and Samus sat facing each other.

"So, what do you suggest?" she asked.

"Well," he said, "I wouldn't be the expert on what you should do. You should talk to Zelda about that. What I can tell you is how he feels."

"And why should I care about that," she responded flatly.

Ganondorf raised a finger. "Even if you have no interest for the foreseeable future on coming to terms with him, you ought to at least understand him."

Samus looked away. "Sorry, but I'm not exactly interested in doing that right now."

Ganondorf paused to eat his soup. Samus stared towards the front of the room, where Hand had appeared yesterday to greet the newcomers. Hand, who invited Ridley himself, something she could never understand. Some wounds just cut too deep.

"Well, no one's pushing you," said Ganondorf. It's not like it's my head on the line if you lose your cool. I'd just make sure that you don't let it get in the way of any of your job. After all, you've got a big day tomorrow."

"Whoa."

Leaf had just walked into the stadium. It was opening day. Four major events scheduled for today, all of them featuring members of the Big Eight going against each other. Thousands of people were pouring into the venue, filling the rows and rows of chairs surrounding the stage.

Up above, the huge display was now alive and had details of the upcoming matchup.

Mario (-110) vs DK (+125)

Starting in: 15min 32sec

Mario and Donkey Kong's pictures were staring down from the display at the spectators below.

"Yep," said Bowser, "it's a pretty nice place."

"I had only seen it on the TV before in the past, but I didn't realize it was this huge! The stage looks tiny now!"

Indeed, the stage which the champions would soon be dueling it out on looked absolutely miniscule compared to the towering stands around it. A small feature among the thousands of chairs.

"And we get some of the best seats," Bowser continued. He pointed to a box right in the middle of the stands about halfway up which looked right over the stage. "Might get a bit crowded since everyone is coming today, but it's pretty comfortable."

"Is it because there are so many champions?" Leaf asked.

"Partly. Board members also show up to watch sometimes. And then there's friends and family of the board, and Hand, other special guests, you know."

Bowser and Leaf headed behind the stands and made their way to the box seating area. There were a flood of people moving about, trying to get their seats.

The appearance of Bowser and Leaf was immediately noticed. People began crowding them immediately. They weren't the only ones being swarmed. Leaf could see Peach and Daisy together drawing a considerable crowd. Ganondorf and Ridley were also getting some attention. Incineroar and Captain Falcon were strutting through the crowd like proper celebrities.

"Oh," said Leaf, alarmed as the huge group approached her and Bowser asking for pictures and signatures. She saw Bowser happily agree to take selfies with the fans and sign anything. She followed his lead and grabbed a pen.

Up in the press box, Zelda and Palutena had already gotten themselves settled. They had taken up seats right next to the windows looking over the stage outside. Lucina was still out with her father and Rosalina.

"Zelda, Palutena, how are you guys?"

Hand had just arrived in the box.

"Hey, Hand," said Zelda. "We're doing fine. Just relaxing and stuff. What're you up to?"

"Well," said Hand, adjusting his tie and looking out the window. He was wearing a fine black suit in stark contrast to Zelda and Palutena's hoodies and jeans. "First I had to meet the board members this morning when they arrive. They got here well before most of the crowd started showing up, and they're over there at the bar right now. Then some of the partners began arriving. Broadcasting people, you know. We did some final testing on the broadcasting equipment to make sure everything was working as expected. Some of the other special guests, sweepstakes winners and celebrities and whatnot, just started arriving so I've been getting them situated. Overall a productive morning."

Zelda's eyebrows were raised. She slumped deeper into her chair. "I had breakfast, if that counts as being productive," she said.

"Well, you have more important things to worry about later," said Hand with a smile. "How about you, Palutena?"

"I don't have any events until next week," she said, "so it's all training for me until then."

A booming voice echoed around the stadium.

"WELCOME LAAADIEES AND GEEENTLEMEEEEN!"

Hand jumped and said, "Looks like I need to go! Have fun!"

The crowd had erupted at this greeting. Most of the seats had been filled in by now. The sea of chairs surrounding the stage had become a wall of spectators.

Just then, Bowser and Leaf had made their way into the press box.

"Alright," said Bowser, taking a seat next to Palutena and rubbing his hands together, eyeing the stage with hunger. "Let's see DK smash that plumber to bits."

Palutena laughed, "Never a dull moment with you two, is there?"

Leaf had taken the seat next to Zelda.

"Picture?" asked Zelda.

"Oh, m-me?" stammered Leaf.

"Of course, you," said Zelda, pulling her phone out and stretching it out in front of them. "It's your first big day as a champion, you gotta have something to remember it with!"

She took the picture.

"At least," she continued while she slumped back into her chair and returned her phone, "something that doesn't involve any of the parties Cap is going to throw tonight. We're going to have plenty enough to remember from those probably."

"Oh," said Leaf, still unsure, "are you not a fan of them? Peach mentioned they get out of hand a lot and you have to live right above them."

"On days like this they're a blast," said Zelda, "but when he's partying at two in the morning when absolutely nothing happened that day? Yeah, they get pretty annoying."

"AAAAND NOW! LET'S START THIS OFF WITH A BANG AS WE START OUR COMPETITION WITH THE TWO THAT STARTED IT ALL! MARIOOOOOOOO VERSUS DONKEEEEEY KOOOOOONG!"

Leaf was thankful they were inside the box, because the announcer and the crowd noise had to be deafening given how loud it still was where they were.

Up on the stage, Mario had jumped up onto the left side and began bouncing up and down on his toes and stretching his arms. On the right, Donkey Kong clambered up and began flexing his huge muscles.

Surrounding the stage was a holographic box. This box was invisible for the most part, except for when champions approached it. The closer a champion got, the more visible that section of the box became. If a champion touched the box, their opponent got a point. The first to three points won the set. The first to win four sets out of seven won the game. Given the box boundaries extended a great deal past the size of the stage, throwing your opponent outside of it required either launching them a considerable distance, or throwing them so far from the edge that they are unable to return to the stage.

The crowd welled up as a countdown started on the screen began.

"THREE!"

"TWO!"

"ONE!"

"GO!"

Mario and Donkey Kong launched at each other. Mario attempted to land the first hit, but DK dodged it and walloped him backwards. DK attempted to follow up with another hit, but Mario landed in control and swung his feet around, tripping DK up. Mario then proceeded to land a series of upward striking hits on DK, hitting him up to one of the platforms, then continuing into the air. After three straight hits, while in midair, Mario suddenly launched straight upwards and hit DK well into the air, nearly reaching the top of the boundary.

While it just looked like a simple stage with a holographic box, there was a lot packed into the field in front of them. Champions could perform midair hops as if they were pushing off the air itself, but the system's programming only allowed them to do this once before touching the ground again. It allowed for a great deal of vertical movement to occur in fights.

Donkey Kong managed to pull himself away from the boundary just in time. He shot straight down, attempting to smash Mario in the process. Mario managed to roll backwards away from the attack as it hit the ground.

"Aw man," said Bowser, clapping his hands and slouching back. "Thought for sure that would've hit."

Donkey Kong sent a whirl of fists at Mario, constantly peppering him with huge blows. Eventually one found its way past Mario and hit him square in the jaw. It was Mario's turn to fly backwards this time. DK attempted to pursue, but Mario again regained his footing and grabbed DK mid sprint. With a tremendous heave, Mario launched DK off the left side of the stage. DK expended his midair jump in a furious attempt to get back to the stage, but Mario had followed him off the stage and landed a ferocious punch that sent DK downwards and out of the box.

The crowd erupted once more as Mario used his midair jump to get back onto the stage. A small platform had picked DK up and began transporting him back to the stage. At the same time, a medical device was mending his wounds. This was another marvel of the stage. Each time an opponent was knocked out, they came back with all their wounds healed, so their opponent who just knocked them out now had to play at a disadvantage against a now refreshed champion. This was to prevent runaway matches where someone would get far too beat up at the beginning and just keep giving up points in an impossible fight.

The platform reached the center of the stage, hovering above the topmost platform. DK jumped off it with a vengeance. He ran down Mario again, peppering him with more punches. When one found their way through again, Mario was unable to regain his footing. DK followed with a full body slam into Mario, sending him off the stage. Unlike Mario, though, DK waited as the plumber used his midair jump and other abilities to barely reach the ledge. Upon grabbing it, DK attempted to smash him off of it, but Mario dodged it and rolled right past DK. DK was ready, though, and grabbed Mario and chucked him off the edge. This time Mario went so far that he hit the side boundary.

"It's so much more intense seeing it in person," said Leaf to Zelda. Mario had returned to the stage and began fighting again in earnest.

"Hm?" said Zelda. She had been half watching the game, half looking at her phone. "Oh, yeah, it's a lot more interesting in person. You can see a lot more from here than a TV camera."

Leaf smiled, "You don't seem to interested though."

Zelda simply waved her hand. "These guys are so evenly matched. It'll start getting interesting once we actually get near the end."

The crowd, meanwhile, seemed to find the entire fight very interesting. Every hit that connected was met with an "ooh!", and every desperate recovery back to the stage was given an "aah!". And of course, every time one of the two was brutally smashed off stage, they cheered raucously.

"You must be Leaf?"

Leaf turned around and was met with a middle-aged woman in a business suit.

"Uh, yeah, that's me," Leaf said. She was unsure who this person was, but they looked important.

"That's Catharine Barr," said Zelda. "She's one of the board members."

"Oh!" said Leaf, jumping out of her chair. "Uh, nice to meet you!" she shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you as well," said Catharine. "No need to be too formal here though, it is a sporting event. Hope you have fun and good luck!" she said with a wink. She walked off smoothly to see the other newcomers.

Leaf sat back down.

"Um," she said, turning to Zelda, "is it normal for board members to talk to us a lot? I'm not overly great with being super formal and such."

"Not really," said Zelda. "I mean, imagine someone like that having a conversation with Cap. Hand usually is the intermediary between us and them."

"Oh, I see," said Leaf, looking back at the battle. Mario had just won the first via a heavy, fiery hit that sent Donkey Kong out the side of the box. Bowser growled and pounded his fist on his armrest.

"Although," said Zelda. This time she was speaking in a low, soft voice, "if someone hasn't told you already, it's important to know that they aren't your boss, Hand is. They might be Hand's boss, but Hand is the only person who should be taking orders from them."
"What do you mean," Leaf said back softly.

"It's just mostly corporate stuff you should be aware of. We usually haven't had an issue with it before, but the last thing you want is for someone to take advantage of you."

Leaf nodded.

Mario had taken an early lead in the second match, but DK had begun to figure him out. In a furious comeback, DK scored two points in a row and took the second match. Leaf applauded excitedly. Some of the other members were also cheering, and Bowser was roaring and hitting his fist on the arm rest again.

"You're going to break it!" said Palutena indigently as the arm rest strained under each blow.

"It'll be fine," said Bowser, not looking away from the stage.

"You put money on this game, didn't you," said Zelda, still not looking from her phone.

"So, what if I did?" said Bowser. "Nothing wrong with legal sports betting."

Zelda smirked.

Down below the box, below the stands, the stage, and the ground, there were rooms where champions got ready for their match. Fox and Link were both staring at a screen, waiting for their fights to begin.

"Man," said Link. "I haven't seen Mario get schooled like that in some time. DK hardly got hit at the end there."

Fox was doing some light jump rope exercises to stay warm. "I think Mario pushed too far. Landed some big hits in the first match then tried to push his lead with the aggression. Ended up backfiring. Surprised DK was that patient."

Samus was behind the two of them, stretching her arms. She was also watching the fight unfold.

"This'll probably go to six or seven rounds at this rate," she said. "They're both really good at coming back from being down. I'd be surprised if any of their matches were decided by more than a point."

Link turned around and looked at Samus. "Are you going armor or no armor against Yoshi?"

"None," she said. "I'd prefer the speed for this fight. It's not like Yoshi has a ton of super hard hitting moves as it is."

In the equipment room, Samus had a full set of body armor from her bounty hunting days. When she had first became a champion, she only fought with the armor, as it had been her sole mode of combat for years. Over time though, she found she could ditch the armor and use a different style of fighting to take on smaller or faster opponents. It had become a matter of fighting preference whether she used the armor in fights or not.

Far above, past the box and into the announcer's box, Kaitlin Panther stood nearby the eccentric play-by-play man who was speaking to everyone watching the game from abroad.

"Oh! Mario gets a clean hit on DK, he's sent back to the right of the stage again but lands smoothly, ready to block the follow up hit. Mario attempts to grab him but he's parried away, and DK shoves him back away. Now Mario attempts an attack from the air, but DK gets out of the way and lands a hit from behind!"

"Mrs. Panther?" said someone from right behind her.

"Yes?" she turned around. One of the tech guys was poking his head through the door.

"Production head sent me. He said you're going to want to look at this."

"At what?" said Kaitlin, putting her pad under her arm and following him out the door. The next room over was a large broadcast room, with loads of workers managing camera feeds and other production settings.

She was taken to one of the stations in the middle of the room, presumably where this man had been working there. Standing next to it was the production manager.

"What is it, Tom?" she asked.

"Right here," he said, pointing at the screen in front of them.

"What's this?" she said, sitting down at the computer.

"That's the viewership ratings tracker. It's not a hundred percent accurate, but it's usually close enough to get a general trend. We'll have far more precise numbers later."

Kaitlin scrolled in and out of the graph, watching the little line move up and down as time went on.

"This is the viewership from the pregame show? It seems fairly low," she said.

"No ma'am. That's the viewership from three minutes ago."

Kaitlin froze. For a moment she continued to stare at the little line, then she got up and turned to the tech guy.

"When this match ends, triple check these numbers and give me the viewer statistics for this match. I want to know everything," she said.

"Yes ma'am."