'And I'm lost.'

That was what Lloyd realized as soon as he found himself outside in the middle of a maze. He was always horrible with mazes, and navigation was certainly not his strong point. All around him were tall hedges that taunted him, saying that he could never find his way out. However as soon as those thoughts entered his head he shrugged them off as really weird hallucinations, which they were.

Lloyd couldn't climb over, jump over, or even go through the hedges because for some reason there were laser beams blocking any cheap escape through the maze. Whoever built the maze wanted you to have a really tough challenge. He also couldn't dig under anything because the hedges extended deep underground for who know how long. Probably too long to dig down, sideways, and then up in order to get out. He'd run out of all supplies (which he didn't have any on hand) before escaping.

Lloyd looked around and tried to find the path he took to get in the maze in the first place. But sadly, every single path looked the same to him. This was part of the reason he was horrible with navigation and always got lost. The hedges were the same shade of green, the same sized leaves, same shaped branches, same height, same width, and sometimes the same length. It was nearly impossible for him to tell everything apart.

Lloyd then began to wonder why he entered the maze in the first place. He had a map of the Smash Mansion and should have been able to get to the results room, but he entered the maze anyway. 'What is wrong with me?' He asked himself. 'Well, I bet Kai could give me a long list… Especially if he gets annoyed with me.' He chuckled at his own thoughts before remembering how he got in the maze in the first place.

'Okay, do I make a left here or a right?' Lloyd asked himself while looking at his map with confusion. 'I always get the two confused. Maybe I just go straight instead, but from what I cans see it's just a dead end. I know! I'll go where my gut takes me! It'll show me the way!'

Right then, Lloyd's stomach make a low grumble that to him felt like it was pointing to the left. "Good job gut!" He praised his torso. "Maybe I should get you some food when we find he kitchen. I bet that'll make you happy, right gut?"

Lloyd's stomach made no noises.

"No comment, huh? Well I guess you aren't hungry. Oh well. More food for me!"

Lloyd then happily walked to the left with a little bounce in his step, but sadly he missed one important factor. There was a large sign on the right corridor that said in bright, bold letters 'Entrance to the Smash Mansion' and pointed the opposite direction Lloyd was headed in. Sadly he missed the sign, but he was too happy to even care about where he was going. His 'gut' lead him to many places, including the girls shower room (which thankfully nobody was using), the side door, and even the results room before finding a door that had a sign next to it that read 'Warning, Nearly Impossible Maze. Enter at your Own Risk.'

"I bet that if I go straight through this maze I'll wind up in the main lobby!" Lloyd gambled with himself. "Or I'll at least end up in front of the Mansion, whichever comes first."

Lloyd then grinned before opening the door and shutting it, where a 'click' sound was heard, meaning that the door locked itself behind him. 'I guess I can't go back then.' He realized. 'Oh well. I can make it out of here without any problems! And most importantly, I won't get lost!'

'Oh yeah. Now I remember.' Lloyd thought before slapping his hand to his face. 'I REALLY need to start paying attention to where I'm going. That quirk is going to get me killed someday.'

Lloyd sighed before slowly falling to the ground. He laid down on his back and looked up at the slightly clear sky above him. The only thing that didn't make it clear was some sort of single-seated plane that was white with the tips painted blue. His eyes widened once he saw the symbol on the side of it, which was a fox with its tail curled over its back.

Lloyd quickly jumped up and began franticly waving his arms and yelling that he was in the maze. When the pilot didn't see him he stopped acting crazy and just shot a lightning burst straight up into the sky, and accidently hitting the plane with the electric shot.

'Oops.' Lloyd thought as soon as he realized what he had done. He was so excited he put a bit too much power in the lightning, resulting in the plane to slowly crash to the ground. Luckily the plane didn't land too far away, and if anything it just helped him because it destroyed some of the lasers that were inside one of the hedges. He quickly ran to the location of the crash, where he was met with one of the Smashers.

Lloyd watched as the anthro fox climbed out of the slightly smoking plane and turned to face him with a grim look on its face. He scratched the back of his head and grinned sheepishly before speaking. "He he, sorry for that. I didn't expect you to fly into my own line of fire- well, lightning. Now with that out of the way, my name is Lloyd, and I got lost in this maze."

Lloyd held out his hand for a handshake, and heard the fox sigh before shaking his hand.

"My name is Fox McCloud, and I was sent to find you along with the other Smashers." Fox told Lloyd. "You are going to owe me later for damaging my Arwing, and you're not telling me that you're lost."

"What do you mean?"

Lloyd watched as Fox sighed again and turned around a corner. He followed Fox down the corner and almost immediately sweatdropped. There was a door that had a large sign on it that said 'Exit from the Maze. Congratulations!'

"So as you can see, if you were lost, well, I don't think that's possible." Fox said. "Now you need to come with me before there are any more problems.

After a little while Lloyd was able to make it to the main lobby with the help of Fox. He followed Fox down a couple of hallways until they reached a room labeled 'Results Room'. They walked in and were met with all sorts of people, animals, creatures, robots, and things nobody can really describe. He looked around and saw everyone (and thing) in the room wave to him or acknowledge his existence.

"Hello again Lloyd." Master Hand greeted. "These are all of the Smashers. It appears as though you have already met Fox, but you will have to meet the rest. Would you like a list of the current Smashers?"

"Yeah, that would be helpful."

Master Hand quickly snapped his fingers and a sheet of paper floated down to Lloyd. "There is the list. As you can see, your name is at the bottom because you are the newest Smasher. Some Smashers may be leaving the fights sometime soon, but they are allowed to stay here for as long as they wish as well as go back to their own world at any time. But when they are not allowed to fight, their names will be circled in blue pen. New Smashers will appear on that list once they come, which should happen in a week or two. But I want you to get to know these ones first and get yourself situated here before any problems."

Lloyd just nodded before looking at the list. 'I recognize some of these names.' He realized. 'I just hope that I can become friends with some of them and not have too many enemies here.'

Just then Lloyd felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to look at who was trying to get his attention, which happened to be the Pokemon Trainer.

"Hey there Lloyd." The Pokemon Trainer greeted. "That was an awesome battle. You really put up a fight for Charizard."

'Thanks. You were pretty good at commanding Charizard. I can hardly believe it took me out that quickly!"

"Yeah, Master Hand said that we were going to get a couple new Smashers, so I began training my Pokemon as much as possible so we could be ready when we had to fight any newcomers."

"Well I think you're good on the training. If we were fighting like that anywhere else, I don't think I would have been able to survive."

"I think Charizard was just a little excited to battle. He hasn't had a chance to battle anyone new in a while, so he must have gone all out. Oh and I almost forgot, you can call me Red."

"So now I know your name. Back in my world, nobody can confirm your name, but everyone tends to guess it. I don't think I can give you a list of what everyone tried to call you!"

"Wow, that marks another world then. In just about every world the outcome is the same. Nobody knows anything about me except the sound of my voice. But you seem like a nice guy, want to become friends?"

"Sure! I don't know anyone here, and I'd be a good thing if I had someone to help in some of the fights. I don't think fighting almost everyone at once is fair."

"If you think fighting all of the Smashers is hard, wait until someone messes up the Multi-Man storage. It happens almost every year, and it always ends in disaster. The last time someone released all of the Cruel Brawl men. Because we weren't all too prepared, we all just dropped like flies. I kinda hope the tradition doesn't continue."

"If it's that bad, I don't want to get involved in it."

"Yeah, you really don't. To make things worse, this year Master Hand is giving Roy responsibility over all of the Multi-Men. If you can imagine a short, child-like pyromaniac handling all of those NPC fighters, then you're probably going to imagine the bad things that'll come with that combo."

Lloyd then began to think of that combination. He didn't know what Roy was like, but if a child-like pyromaniac was ruling over an army of tough Multi-Men, then we would run for the hills and go back to his world. "I don't even WANT to imagine that."

"Yeah, me neither. But do you know how to get around the Mansion?"

"Uhh... No. I got lost a couple of times."

"Well don't you have a map?"

"Yes, but I never learned how to read this kind of map."

"Hey, I think I can show you to your room. Your stuff should already be up there so you can get yourself feeling at home. I can also show you where everyone else's rooms are, however some people are roommates with each other so we have more room for the newer Smashers."

"Really? Thanks!"

"Ah it's no big deal. It's what friends are for. Now come one, you'd want to get ready before dinner. It's a NIGHTMARE when Kirby has full access to all of the food."

"For some strange reason I can imagine that." Lloyd said before following Red down the hallway so he could find his room.

Lloyd and Red eventually found where Lloyd's room was, which was room B35. The B stood for the floor level, which was the second, and the number stood for the actual number of the room.

"Hey Lloyd, I just realized that this is also my room!" Red suddenly told Lloyd. "It looks like we're going to be roommates! Awesome!"

Lloyd cheered and high-fived Red before opening the door and stepping inside of the room that both of them now shared.