I hope you all have been enjoying your summer so far. Much has happened, have you not noticed? I mean with your daily lives among other things you'd be paying attention to.

I don't know why I'm rambling now. Anyway, please read on.

The current cast, minus the three that will make their appearance at some point, had gathered around a simple, yet profound monument honoring one of the greatest deities they have ever known. It was significant enough that they even brought their friends and loved ones from outside the Smash Mansion to be able to share and remember this solemn occasion.

Even the villainous characters had ceased their usual brand of mischief and declared an official truce among themselves at this time.

Regarding the main trio…

Ness was holding onto Paula's hand as she wept while struggling to keep a straight face himself as to be strong for her. He couldn't help it. He had his baseball cap in his other hand out of respect as well. Their other two friends, Jeff and Poo, were not available, but they still offered their sincere condolence through the latter's telepathy.

Villager was working on consoling Isabelle, who came in as his guest. She had completely buried her face into his chest and wetting his favorite shirt with tears, yet her lamentations were still clear and ringing along with the other mourners. He held his Balloon Trip hat with a free hand and stared at it contemplatively.

Toon Link was able to bring both his little sister and his pirate friend as guests, all three of them having different reactions to the incident. Like a good portion of other sentimentally prone characters, Aryll sobbed loudly while her big brother reassured her that everything will be well again. Tetra attempted to remain indifferent as to not soil her tough pirate reputation, but allowed herself to shed some tears over this event and allowed her heart to be touched by her Link's dedication.

Master Hand and Crazy Hand, without the crazy, rose up in the air in perfect harmony before the whole audience before the monument. It was time to get things going.

"We are grateful for all of you to come this day, as late as it seems," Master Hand began. "We felt that a proper tribute should be made for the great Satoru Iwata here."

"Pay your respects to the man that made your lives the way they are, for better and for worse," Crazy Hand picked off with remarkable eloquence.

As such, the Smashers and their guests arranged themselves in an orderly line. Mario, being the head of everything as usual, was the first to pay his respects along with Luigi and Princess Peach, leaving a large golden Star upon the monument as their parting gift. Yoshi and Rosalina were next to follow, leaving an egg and a bag of Star Bits.

The trend continued with each group of characters leaving behind unique items that came from their worlds, such as Bowser Jr. leaving a self-made painting with his Magic Paintbrush and Samus departing a helmet from one of her older power suits. Some had opted to go the traditional route of leaving flowers behind, which was perfectly acceptable anyway.

When it was Ness, Villager, and Toon Link's turn, they prepared their gifts. Villager offered to cover all three of them with three gold roses in a pot, but Ness and Toon Link turned it down as they had their own items to share. So Villager and Isabelle placed the potted golden roses next to Mr. Game & Watch's old handheld. Ness departed his first baseball bat next to Duck Hunt's zapper gun and Kirby's first apple from Whispy Woods while Paula watched over fondly. By a Poké Ball that had a half gold and the other half silver, Toon Link left a slingshot that he and Aryll used to play with, as well as a few gold pieces courtesy of Tetra…

Not that she would ever admit owning up to it.

The memorial was concluded as the third-party group composed of Sonic, Mega Man, and Pac-man paid their respects despite not being as involved as the main cast was. In any case, they were still grateful to be a part of this great experience.

"And so the memory of Mr. Iwata lives on," Master Hand concluded.

"Time to resume your daily lives after this quick moment of silence," Crazy Hand added.

…

…

…

They then rose and distinctively clapped together twice.

*Flash*

It was another normal day at the Smash Mansion. With all the mourning, tributes, and respects paid and done, everyone was able to focus on their regular lives and reach up to their character potential as they were meant to be.

This was to bear in mind of the enjoyment and hardships shared among each other from all of the journeys they have gone through.

So moving out from the sentimentality, Ness and Toon Link were walking down the hallway and discussing the upcoming multi-tag team tournament coming up fairly soon. The paper work had been sent in and evaluated by the Hands.

However, they left a rather cryptic message before departing with the team forms in regards to potential team changes before the tournament would begin.

"I really don't know, man," Ness said. "We haven't actually practiced team combinations and I'm not sure how our powers can mesh."

"We have to start training if we want to stand a chance," Toon Link suggested earnestly. "We're still short a member. We're already familiar with each other's strengths and weaknesses. And I've already tried out combinations with him, so it's your turn to see how you and Villager match up together."

"Well, you might be right, surprisingly," Ness remarked. "Villager and I do have similar bodies and physical stats. I'm still wondering how my PSI can work with all those tools he pulls out of his pockets."

"But don't you use bats and yo-yos to fight?" Toon Link inquired. "Those are kind of the same thing. And plus, I've seen his slingshot KO more opponents than your yo-yo has since I've known you."

"Keep talking like that and I'll test that theory on you," Ness warned, pulling out his yo-yo in a tightened fist.

"All I'm saying is that you need to give Villager a chance now that he's joined our posse," Toon Link repeated, holding his hands up to calm the PSI Powerhouse down.

"Since when did you become the voice of reason?" Ness asked with a skeptically raised brow. "That's usually Villager's job when either one of us get out of hand."

"Villager is back in our room doing his mayor paperwork and someone's got to do it," Toon Link admitted with a casual shrug. "And since you're being you and Lucas isn't around, well…"

"I see," Ness agreed with a nod before shooting his eyes wide open. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean me being 'me'? What's wrong with me?! I'm capable of peace and reason too! Why are you trying to sound sensible all of a sudden?"

"I absolutely have no idea," Toon Link admitted numbly with wide unassuming eyes. "It's almost like voodoo or something."

"Or a convenient plot device," Ness muttered under his breath.

"A what?"

"Nothing. Better go find Villager so we can start working out our team dynamics."

Ness quickly ran off down the hallway while the Wind-Waking Warrior was momentarily pondering about what he meant by 'plot device.' Toon Link watched the wake worriedly.

"He hasn't been rational since Lucas was not brought back to Smash," Toon Link remarked offhandedly before chasing after his psychic friend. "I know a few of our old friends from our past brawl couldn't make it, but really."

It was unfortunate that Toon Link didn't catch what Ness had mentioned about plot devices. Even if he did, he would be weary of other factors in the background waiting to start another short side plot as a result of his last comment.

"So Ness is unhinged because crybaby Lucas isn't around?" a brattish voice mused from a hidden nook nearby where Ness and Toon Link were. "I've got to tell Papa this so that he can help me get revenge on those twerps."

In the youth trio's bedroom…

Villager had just opened a window to let the fresh air from the wonderful outside environment to enter the bedroom. It was such a nice day today and though he wanted to go out and play with the others, he already had obligations to fulfill from Isabelle and his citizens.

In truth, there wasn't a lot of complicated mayoral paper work that would need his signature for authentication. In their simplistic system, Villager was basically in charge of pushing forth certain ordinances depending on the current needs of his town, as well as setting up foundations projects to fund for in order to get something established in the town.

If there was anything more complicated than deciding what would be best for Smashville, then it would be responding individually to letters sent in from his friends back home. They've wanted to know what it was like for their mayor to take part of a momentous event like Super Smash Bros.

So Villager had to sort out the stories and experiences he had to make them as truthful and exciting for them. Even though they were privileged to watch any matches that sent fighters to Town & City or Smashville, they still wanted to hear about the experience from their mayor's perspective.

Whenever Villager finished a letter to be sent out or decided on what ordinance or project to enact, he would use a special communication system Master Hand had set up for him in order to send over official documentation or other objects from here to the town center. Of course, a size restriction was set up in order maintain certain rules and standards, such as preventing contraband in being transferred over.

It was fine either way for him.

He was grateful that he was able to also receive a fresh cup of one of Brewster's famous blends from back home that Isabelle sent over to him. That was enough to help him get through his mayoral tasks.

"Hey, Villager!" Ness called out, pushing the bedroom door open. "Time to train and practice our team combos!"

"Is it that time already?" Villager asked in wonder. "Just give me a moment to finish up here."

"No time! We got to go now before someone else makes the claim over the training room," Ness quickly rebutted, grabbing the young mayor by the arm and pulling him out by force.

"W-Wait! My drink!" Villager exclaimed, inching his hand out to pocket his gifted beverage from his desk before allowing Ness to lead him away.

The two of them, mostly Ness dragging Villager along for the ride down the hallway, passed Toon Link just as he was about to catch up, spun Peach on her heels from their speed, knocked over Wario and his platter of garlic, tripped over Olimar as he attempted to dislodge a Pikmin stuck in a railing, had a temporary race with Sonic in which they lost, were praised by Captain Falcon for a valiant effort, inadvertently stepped on Palutena's toes, had a raging Pit chase after them, clotheslined into Shulk in an attempt to flee, settled the two sword wielders down by throwing an unsuspecting Meta Knight on them, kicked Yoshi's egg into Marth's face, were sworn at by Lucina for dishonoring the Hero-King, tangled Luigi with his own Poltergust 5000 hose, and tried out Falco's cupcakes on the way to the training room.

Quite the trip to the training room had turned out to be.

"Whew, we made it," Ness panted, having the door to the training room slide open for him and his partner.

"Did we really have to make things hard for the others on our way?" Villager questioned rhetorically.

"They should've stepped aside the moment they saw us bolting down like Sonic on a semi-bad day," Ness remarked.

"A 'semi-bad' day?" Villager repeated wryly.

"Today was an average day for him and he still beat us in that race," Ness clarified. "Anyway, into the teleporters!"

The training room was fairly average in size. It was a clean, blank room, save it for two transporter pods, a mounded touch screen interface between them, and a monitor that displayed the training simulation.

"Any particular stage you want to work in?" Villager asked.

"Let's set it for Onett," Ness declared, tapping the icon for his home stage on the touch interface. "It's flat and has platforms to maneuver about. Plus, I'm feeling a bit homesick right now."

"Cool," Villager accepted, stepping into a teleporter pod.

Ness had set the automatic starting countdown and raced into the other pod in order to be sent off into training. The doors to the pods closed upon them and locked themselves, along with the touch interface, to ensure that no one else would interfere with their ongoing training until they decided to call it quits.

The pod containers showed a visage of their respective trophy poses while their real selves were sent to the Onett stage. As it was not an official versus match, Ness and Villager appeared in a bright flash of light on different sides as opposed to their specialized entrances.

"Now we need to learn how to use each other's strengths for the upcoming tag-team battles," Ness announced.

"But isn't friendly fire disabled unless requested otherwise?" Villager inquired.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't know each other's powers," Ness reasoned. "Now, I'm going to send some special attacks your way. Let's see how you handle them. PK Fire!"

Having been forewarned of Ness's plans, Villager was quick in pocketing the first PK Fire before it erupted upon him. He then tossed it back at Ness with twice the power, only for the PSI boy to counter it with another PK Fire. The two colliding attacks burned each other out.

Ness then sent a PK Thunder his way, only to have that pocketed as well. Villager decided to mix things up by leaping over to the other side of the ground and quickly retaliating with the captured PK Thunder from behind Ness. What the young Smashville mayor did not expect was Ness activating PSI Magnet to absorb the PK Thunder's energy.

"You're quick," Villager praised.

"You can't make yourself predictable by quickly firing back any projectile you catch," Ness advised. "Now it's your turn to attack. Don't hold back!"

Villager conjured a Lloid Rocket to see how Ness would react. He simply brought up his shield at the last moment to perfectly defend against it. Villager then produced another Rocket, this time riding it and pumping his fist in the air without a care in the world. Ness kept his spherical shield up as Villager's Rocket collided against him, having been reduced to a very small and vulnerable state from the strangely added power.

The young mayor leapt on top of the building on the right side of the stage after dismounting from the Lloid Rocket. He decided to use his big Timber trick by first planting a sapling on the roof top and watering it. Ness inched closer to see what his sparring partner was up to, only for a large tree to suddenly grow out on top of the roof and conceal Villager from his sight.

Villager took out his sturdy axe and gave it one chop. Seeing that Ness was right next to the building and within range of the Timber's fall, he gave it one final chop to send the tree tumbling down. There was little time for Ness's shield to have recovered from the previous attacks. He was sure it would shatter if he were to use it against Timber.

*CRACK*

He instinctively recalled what kind of sound that was and quickly rolled backwards to the top of the triangular roof. Villager saw his own tree momentarily fly back up before withering into nothing. He quickly looked down to see Ness brandishing his bat in triumph.

"That bat!" Villager exclaimed with widened eyes.

"I'm sure you can recall that with my trusty baseball bat, I can send nearly any projectile right back," Ness explained proudly, withdrawing the bat. "That includes that giant tree of yours. If I didn't react as quickly as I did, that would have seriously hurt big time."

"Wow, I'm really glad I don't have to actually face you for the tournament," Villager chuckled.

"I'm actually scared of you, Villager," Ness laughed back. "With your ability to pocket a lot of projectiles, you could effectively prevent me from recovering back to a stage."

"Oh, yeah, that's right," Villager murmured upon realization. "And with my recovery, I can make a clean getaway."

"You know, I think there really can be something made between my psychic powers and your trolling trickery," Ness stated.

"Uh, 'trolling'?" Villager repeated with a skeptic brow raised.

"Come on, you can't deny that with the Rockets you produce and your slingshot attacks, you're able to keep other fighters at a distance," Ness indicated. "Even I'm not that fast enough to react and send them back."

"I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit, Ness," Villager assured. "Anyway, should we train with some items while we're still here?"

"I think there won't be any items for the tag-team tournament except for Smash Balls, but yeah, I don't see why not," Ness agreed, pulling up the start menu holographic interface between the two of them. "What do you want to practice with?"

Back at the training room, Toon Link watched his roommates train with much gusto for the upcoming tournament, wielding Beam Swords and Mr. Saturns. Since their team was just the three of them, they would need to work extra hard to compensate against full teams of four.

Speaking of training, he hoped that they would end their training session soon so that he could get in some exercise as well.

Meanwhile…

"Papa! Those little jerks think they're better than me and all of us!" Bowser Jr. whined. "The psychic kid, Ness, especially!"

"Oh, Jr., I know I raised you to be tougher than this, so let me just say… those punks that sullied your good name will be brought to fiery, painful judgment!" Bowser roared triumphantly.

"I knew I can count on you, Papa," Bowser Jr. affirmed affectionately.

"Bwa ha ha! That's my boy!" Bowser guffawed. "Trust only the Koopa Klan and use every advantage you can steal!"

"Speaking of advantage, I know how you can mess with Ness and humiliate him and his friends just as they did me," Bowser Jr. cackled sinisterly, rubbing his tiny claws together. "It involves a bigger crybaby than the three of them combined…"

"A cunning mind, I couldn't be more proud," Bowser commented, pretending to wipe a tear while leaning down to listen to his son's devious plan.

So what are the Koopa King and his son planning? I hope it's made clear enough what's going to happen for next chapter from this last section.

I planned on making the training session a bit longer, but after writing and reading it through, it kind of felt like beating a dead horse after getting some points across. Does that make sense?

Anyway, please review!

L-ater!

(And remember Mr. Iwata! Sorry for the late tribute!)