Chapter 3: If at First You Don't Succeed, You Are an Idiot
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My alarm clock woke me up at six in the morning as usual. Suddenly I realized that today would be my first day brawling! Despite it being so early I felt wide awake. I still had to pick an outfit to fight in though, but that shouldn't take too long. I just needed something comfortable and easy to move in. I decided on my royal blue leather jacket, silver t-shirt, black jeans and combat boots. I wouldn't win any beauty competitions but I would be able to fight easily. "I wonder how Zelda and Peach can fight in dresses and high heels," Nova mused. "I have no clue." I stayed in my room playing video games until six-thirty when I headed down to the kitchen with Nova on my shoulder. I could probably squeeze in some practice before the brawls started.
When I got downstairs, I expected to find the kitchen empty, but someone else was already there. "I didn't know anyone else was crazy enough to get up super early," I stated as I walked into the kitchen. Samus stared at me. "We're not crazy, everyone else is for not wanting to get up this early. You must have spent some time as a bounty hunter to appreciate getting up early though." "Now that you mention it, I've been a bounty hunter since I was twelve," I told her. At that moment the toaster popped and Samus tossed a bagel at me. "Thanks." We spent the morning talking about nothing in particular, but the subject always seemed to fall back to fighting. About half an hour later, most of the smashers had joined us in the kitchen for breakfast. Toon Link and Link still looked half asleep so I'm guessing that Zelda had dragged them down. Ah classic Link, always sleeping.
Later, Pit came up and tapped me on the shoulder not occupied by a dragon. "Have you seen the match-ups for your fights today?" I shook my head. "Come on I'll show you." I followed Pit to a room I recognized as sort of a common room and he pointed at a screen. The screen showed all the match-ups for the day. "Brawls usually start around eight-thirty and since you're new, you'll be brawling third so you have a chance to see what happens," He explained. "Normally you wouldn't be allowed to fight until you had some training but Master Hand seems to think you are qualified enough to start right away." I thought for a moment, "I don't like the idea of fighting before I've had any training. Do you think you could teach me a few things before we start?" Pit nodded. "Sure. And I can get some of the others to help out."
A few minutes later, Pit, Marth, Ike, Link and I were standing in the training room. "Okay so how do you normally fight? Got any powers?" Ike asked. "Well I use a rod which has sort of an ice whip shoot out of it but guns are my back-ups. Since I spent some time as a bounty hunter, I can adapt to almost guns and swords and I know several different fighting techniques. Oh, and I'm also a mage and I can control ice and snow. Does that help?" "Not really," Ike replied as the others laughed. "How much training do you actually need anyways?" I shrugged "Enough so that I'm not going in blind."
Fighting professionals is hard work. They all had different styles and I had to figure out their moves before I could counter them but I am proud to say that I was able to hold my own. I wasn't on a winning streak but at least I wasn't losing. We finished at eight so we would have some time to relax before the brawls started. "You were amazing," Marth told me afterwards. "Why do you think you needed training? You already fight like a trained smasher." I snorted "If you thought that was good, wait until you meet my friend Hollis."
Today's brawls were all in teams; for my first brawl it was me and Marth against Samus and Lucario. Since I'd played SSBB before, I knew just how hard they would be to beat. "Need any advice before we start?" Marth asked. "Nope I've got my own advice and it's pretty good." "What is it?" I grinned. "If at first you don't succeed, you are an idiot." Marth started laughing. "How on earth do you figure that?" "Well if you didn't succeed the first time, it means you did something wrong, making you an idiot," I explained. What I didn't tell him was that this was my sister's advice and her advice is never sound. Well, almost never. We were fighting in Zelda's Temple which was one of my favorite places to fight. "I'll take Lucario okay?" I said. Marth nodded.
We had three minutes to knock off Samus and Lucario as many times as possible. A timer began counting down the seconds until the brawl began. "3…2…1… GO!" Almost immediately, Lucario charged up an aura sphere and flung it at me which I flipped over. I swung my whip at him but he backed up. He must think that because of my whip I can only do close attacks. Alright then, time for plan B. I hooked the rod to my belt and started firing ice beams at him but Lucario was too quick; he could dodge all my attacks.
Suddenly something hit me from behind and nearly knocked me off stage but I grabbed the ledge at the last second. Since I was new, they must have been planning to take me out first. I can't believe I didn't see that coming! No, that couldn't be it; wouldn't it make much more sense to- isolate us and take out Marth first because he knew how to fight! Damn! I jumped back up in time to see Lucario get the smash ball. I ran over to where Marth was standing. "What are you doing?!" he yelled but I ignored him. Just before Lucario's smash could hit us, I created an ice wall to block it. Before I had time to recover, Samus blasted me off stage. A little while later, Marth threw a bomb at Lucario blasting him off stage.
When the round ended it was a tie so we went into sudden death. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the smash ball float on stage and before anyone could react, I smacked it as hard as I could with my ice whip, and the ball broke. I wonder what my final smash is, I thought. Using my new power, I jumped up high into the air and summoned a giant sphere of ice magic, and sent it smashing down into Lucario and Samus, knocking them both offstage. "GAME!" A voice shouted. "Blue team wins!" "Good job," Marth told me as we left the arena. "That was an amazing final smash."
I did very well with my next matches; I didn't hold back and I won two of my remaining four matches. Three wins on my first day was phenomenal! I hoped the rest of my matches turned out just as well.
Quick note about Nephelle's final smash: you only get damaged if you are close to her. However, once she starts her smash, you can't back away; it's kind of like being frozen in place. If you see any spelling or grammar mistakes, feel free to point them out. Constructive criticism is always welcome.