The time had come. The stadium was full of cheering fans. Now, they could begin the first match of the Super Smash Brothers Brawl tournament.

"In this corner, an old favorite, the pink puffball from Dreamland, KIRBY," said master Hand acting in his role of announcer.

"And in the other corner, the self styled ultimate life form from Mobius, SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG."

Shadow appeared on the opposite side of the stage from Kirby, after teleporting in with his chaos powers. Before the match started, he looked around the stage to see what it would be like, while ignoring the cheering fans. The stage looked like it was in front of a giant tree, with boxes making a bridge over to smaller platforms.

Shadow looked it his opponent, Kirby. He was, in fact, a pink puffball, looking like an oversized marshmellow. He also wasn't taking this very seriously, waving his arms around and staring at the crowd.

Shadow pulled out his rifle and made sure it was loaded. After he had done so, he heard master Hand say, "READY, GO!"

Shadow started off quickly, running to the center of the stage and taking aim with his rifle at Kirby. He cut loose with automatic fire, explosions blossoming as the bullets impacted. Kirby blocked the first shots, but was thrown as they kept impacting against him.

Suddenly, Shadow was shocked to see that Kirby had stopped getting him ,and was actually breathing in the bullets, protecting him from harm. "Humph, fine," said shadow as he threw his rifle off to the side.

Shadow rushed forward to hit Kirby with a spin dash attack ,but was pulled off his feet by Kirby's breath and actually sucked into the Puffball. Shadow moved around, trying to get out, punching and kicking, but it was all for naught until h was expelled by Kirby, who had gained a black and red spiky hairdo.

"What. The. Hell. You're gonna pay for that, puffball," said Shadow angrily.

Dashing around the stage,. He picked up his rifle and a plasma rifle that had appeared, and laid into Kirby while moving around him. He then activated chaos control, and teleported behind Kirby then hit him with a devastating kick. Kirby catapulted left, slamming against a box, which broke open. He waddled over and grabbed a smart bomb, then hurled it at the approaching Shadow. Shadow saw it coming, and quickly moved out of the way so he was not hit when it went off.

Shadow was getting tired of this, and decided to end it. While the bomb was exploding, he picked up his rifle again. When it faded, he ran forward, only to have to dodge quickly as Kirby jumped into the air and slammed down with a sword, creating a shockwave that Shadow had to jump over. As he fell through the air, Shadow fired at Kirby, who now had to dodge the hail of bullets. Shadow then moved into a spin attack, but collided against. Kirby who had used his own spin attack.

Hm, so that puffball can copy my abilities when he dons that weird hairdo, thought shadow as he landed on the ground.

Shadow knew what he had to do to end this. Activating Chaos Control, he teleported behind Kirby, then planted his gun on Kirby's back and fired at maximum power. The power overwhelmed Kirby's resistance and catapulted him off of the stage into the void. A flash of light akin to an explosion announced Kirby's exit from the stage.

Shadow nodded to himself and glanced at the audience as he laid his gun along the back of his neck in a resting position. "Humph, Perfect," he said.

At the same time, Master Hand called out, "KIRBY DEFEATED." At that, the crowd went wild.

Shadow basked in the applause. This, truly, was recognition for the ultimate life form. Before he could enjoy it more though, he was teleported back into the preparation room in the mansion, along with the defeated Kirby.

Shadow placed his rifle back in its holster as Kirby walked up to him. "Poyo poyo," said Kirby, congratulating him on his victory.

Shadow heard Kirby, but didn't return the compliment. His victory was never in doubt., so there was no point in telling someone they gave him a good fight when they hadn't. Instead, he took off his fighting gear and walked away, leaving a very sad Kirby behind.

Mario and Captain Falcon were sitting in one of the common rooms watching America's Got Talent when Kirby, still sad from before, walked in. Mario and Falcon immediately knew that something was up. Kirby was the happiest person in the entire mansion, you never saw him sad.

Kirby sat down by Mario. "Hey Kirby, whats the matter," asked Mario.

Kirby replied "Poyo, po, ai."

Mario frowned at that. "Wait, so you say that Shadow was a jerk to you, and didn't even respond to your congratulations?"

"Poy," said Kirby as he nodded his head.

Mario and Falcon glanced at each other.

"Hm, looks like Shadow needs to be taught a lesson," said Falcon as he lounged on the other couch.

"Yeah,' replied Mario as he patted Kirby on the head. "Hey, I think I saw a cake in the fridge."

At that, Kirby immediately lit up. Nothing could keep him down forever, and food was the best way to cheer him up. Happily, he ran to the kitchen and started munching cake.

"Hey, Mario, I think I found a way for us to beat some respect into Shadow."

"Yeah," asked Mario as he walked over to Falcon, who was holding a paper on which was printed the tournament schedule.

"Yeah. It looks like his next match is a four way battle, with you, me, and Samus. I think we can work something out with our resident bounty hunter so that shadow is sadly eliminated first."

Mario frowned. He didn't like doing things like that, since he considered it to be akin to cheating, but seeing how Shadow had made Kirby feel changed his mind pretty quickly. "Alright. I will talk to her," he said.

"Good. Time to teach that bastard a lesson he'll never forget,' said Falcon as he cracked his knuckles.