Who will the two new brawlers be? And by the way, in case anyone was wondering, I'm sorry, but Robin, Cloud, and Corrin did not make it to SSB: Ultimate Brawl. Neither did any pokèmon characters. And don't blame me. I wasn't included when they picked the UB smashers.

It was a gradual change, but Marth noticed it first. Ike had a natural bodyguard sort of instinct that came from his quip of fighting for his friends. Although Samus didn't quite qualify completely in the friends category, she was now somehow his responsibility. It wasn't forced on him. It just happened.

"You notice?" Asked Marth, inclining his head at Samus, who was chatting with Zelda, Ike and Snake not far away, Snake's back to them as he talked to Ike, while Ike's eyes calmly watched Samus as he nodded and agreed with his Russian friend.

"I guess so," agreed Rashida. "I think he feels so bad, he won't let anything happen to her. Did you notice the other day, when Wario shoved her while we waited in line for the salad bar that Ike, after pressing him up against the wall, creamed him in the afternoon brawl they had together?"

"I noticed all right," answered Marth. "It's interesting, to say the least."

Ike was Samus' shadow of sorts. He certainly didn't always follow her, but whenever they were in the same room his eyes were always flicking over to her, as he interacted with the others. Whenever her voice rose from some argument she was having, Ike would stop what he was doing and walk within ten feet of her, leaning against the wall, his arms folded, showing his bulging muscles. If the arguing smasher noticed, they usually stopped their conversation with the blonde, and went away.

No one else besides Marth and Rashida really seemed to notice, except Snake, but he noticed everything, and never told anyone what he noticed anyway.

"You think it's a bad thing?" Asked Rashida, leaning back in her chair and taking a long sip of her strawberry shake.

Marth took a quick gulp of water so he wouldn't have to answer the question and the two lobbyists, Miss Sona, the female with the tight bun, and Mr. Chi, the man with the beard and kind eyes, walked in.

"Good afternoon, all smashers," said Chi, cheerily. "I would like to inform you that we will be receiving two late smashers today in about a few hours. Please make them feel welcome."

The few hours were filled with a buzz of conversation. "What will they be like? Boys or girls? Or both?"

"What if there are two new cute guys," giggled Peach. All conversation stopped for a moment and Peach turned a flaming red until Mario quickly changed the subject to how they would rank in the tiers.

The bus pulled up in front of the smash mansion and the doors opened. The new smashers exited and the others stared. It was a young man and a young woman. Both wore clothing that was medieval, similar to Marth, Ike, and Rashida. Both carried swords.

Marth broke the silence. "Hello, Roy."

The man brushed some of his flaming red hair from his eyes and smiled. "How's my favorite smasher doing? Enjoying the smash mansion?"

Marth smiled and walked up to give him a hug. "It's enjoyable, yes."

Roy put an arm around Marth and turned to the smashers. "Hello new fellow smashers. Marth's my best friend."

Marth turned a pale red and smiled shakily before turning to cordially greet the girl.

Her hair was long and a dark blue, bangs hanging over her eyes. She wore a crown similar to Marth's.

"Are you a princess?" He asked politely.

"My name is Lucina. Yes. I'm a princess." She smiled. "Marth? A prince?"

"I am." Marth motioned to the others. "Why don't you all step forward and introduce yourselves?"

They did so, Rashida, Peach, and Zelda beaming at the new girl. Samus returned to her 'feminist' form in front of the new comers, saying tartly, "Name's Samus. Glad to have another person to defeat in the brawls."

Snake kept his eyes leveled on Lucina as he stepped forward and nodded. "Snake. Pleasure, babe." The hazel irises flicked to Roy and he grunted. "Same."

"Ike," said Ike next, his eyes passing over Lucina to rest heavily on Roy before they returned to stare at the ground.

"I'm sure you'll love it, Lucina," said Rashida encouragingly, as she led her along the hallway. "You'll have your own room until they can figure out who to put you with. How long have you known Roy?"

"I met him when the bus picked me up," answered Lucina.

"Oh. Yeah, I've known Marth and Ike for most of my life. We trained as kids together. There's like four girls in the female click, but now there'll be five. It'd be Zelda, Peach, both princesses, Samus, me, and now you." She grinned. "What's your favorite food."

"I actually like salads," said Lucina, shrugging. "I know that's a little weird, but..."

"Not weird at all. We have salads quite a bit here. So you should probably watch out for Bowser, the dinosaur, because he's not super nice. Neither is that Captain Falcon or that small, fat Wario, with the ziggy mustache. Snake's a little bit of a creeper. And I hate to say it, but Ike's not the friendliest of guys either. I tell you what though, you get on anyone's good side, and you'll be happy you did it. I'm telling you, for here, first impressions are everything."

"That's disturbing and good to hear," answered Lucina, giggling. "I'll know how to act. I mean, I think I'm pretty naturally nice, though, so it shouldn't be too hard."

"How are you with your sword?" Asked Rashida, wondering how to rank this bluenette princess.

"Pretty good. I'm pretty fast, but my sword is not very light, so my lag when I hit is a little slower than I'd like. I'm better than I was, though." She grinned and shrugged. "There's a lot of nice, attractive people here. And some really nice, cute people, too," she added, grinning at Kirby and Lucas, who were playing tag in the halls, which also happened to be against the rules.

Rashida raised an eyebrow. "Yes. Lots of attractive people." She grinned. "Come on. The last brawl of the day. And it's Peach versus Marth."

The brawl was fascinating for both Roy and Lucina, as they sat in the stands. Both had been smashers before, but due to the memory erasing, neither remembered it.

Peach appeared, her skirt swirling about her as she landed gently on the stones and flashed a smile to the audience, which cheered. Marth appeared second, spinning in the air before slowly landing.

Samus and Luigi suddenly entered from the stadium's back entrance, chatting. Ike came behind them, a frighteningly sorted of ominous shadow. Samus and Luigi sat down between Mario and Snake. Ike sat down next to Roy, who gave Lucina a look and then glanced meaningfully at the large man.

"You think he's dangerous?" Asked Roy. He used Japanese, so the man, Ike, couldn't understand him.

"Yes, Roy. We're here to fight. With muscles like that..." She giggled a little.

"Marth versus Peach! 3-2-1, Go!"

Neither moved for a little and then Marth dashed forward and slid into a counter. Peach struck with a kick and skidded back. Marth prepared to follow up with his blade, but after two strikes, which knocked Peach off the edge, she jumped up, over his head, and floated down with her parasol, putting it away and using her own counter as Marth whirled to attack again.

He flipped over onto his back from the force of his own blow, and looked up into the blue eyes of Peach, her hands charging up a blow with her golf club.

Marth crouched and leapt up suddenly, sword pointing to the sky, as Peach released her weapon. It caught his feet, sending him tumbling through the air.

He caught the edge of the stones and jerked himself up, countering mid air to send Peach a couple feet back.

"Boo!" Roared Wario.

"Stop countering and fight like... Smashers! Sic' each other! Strike, kick, punch!" Called Snake.

"Give it to him, Peach!" Cheered Samus.

"You can do it, princess!" yelled Mario and Luigi together.

"Sic 'er, Marth!" Called Toon Link.

Zelda cast him a nasty glance and shook her head. "Not good language for a child, Toon," she scolded. "Only Snake's vulgar enough to talk like that."

"Thanks, babe," came his smooth voice as he settled back in the stands. "I'll take whatever allowances I can get from you."

"Snake!" Barked Link. "Don't call Zelda babe again, or I'll report you for profane words at the lobby desk."

"'Babe' isn't a bad word," answered Snake easily, eyes flitting over the two now sweating brawlers down below.

Link folded his arm. "No. What you said yesterday in response to what I won't say, was, and besides being offensive to all in the room, if Lucas or Ness or Toon had heard that, you would have been in big, big trouble."

Snake actually blushed and finally turned to face Link, who was looking triumphant, but still angry at the way Snake treated Zelda. "They wouldn't have known it was anything bad."

Link snorted. "It doesn't matter. You know you should watch your mouth."

"You know," snapped Snake, suddenly standing to tower over Link, "you should watch your mouth or you'll find that I can get meaner than I let on."

"Yeah?" Retorted Link, jumping to his feet as well.

There was a scream and all whirled to see Peach fly out of the stadium.

Lucina paled and grabbed Roy's arm. Both his red eyebrows were raised in shock as he turned to look at Ike in question.

Ike's impassive face gave no clue as to whether what had just occurred could be remedied. A moment later Peach rematerialized on a translucent blue platform above Marth's head. The platform disappeared and she went hurtling towards Marth with surprising quickness.

Marth scrambled to leap out of the way, but the pointed toes caught him in the back and he curled into a ball, gave a horrifying cry of agony, and flew from the stage.

Peach smiled at the audience and waved as Marth appeared on his own platform above her, his cape billowing behind him as he remained on his re-spawning board a while longer, probably to catch his breath.

"I bet Marth's going to lose," said Samus, confidently folding her arms.

Ike suddenly spoke for the first time. "He'll win." The sentence was spoken in a monotone, but the message was clear. Only Rashida noticed that this was the first time Ike had contradicted Samus since the 'incident'.

Marth did indeed beat Peach. Peach was able to obtain the glowing 'smash ball' when it materialized on stage. She began glowing herself. But before she could make use of her special power, Marth advanced, and with three lightening-quick strikes the glow around her disappeared as the ball reformed to float around again. Marth kicked Peach in the stomach and then raced for the ball, jumping in the air, and performing a wide arc with his sword which cut the ball in half. Marth now glowed dangerously.

He landed and Peach stepped back and shut her eyes in terror as she braced herself.

Marth raised his glinting sword high in the air. "Hiiiiiiyaaaaaa!" Speeding faster than possible across the stage his pointed sword went right through Peach's body and she flew backwards off the stage and dissolved from sight.

Marth stood still, his shoulders rising and falling. They could tell he was breathing hard even from their far vantage point.

"Come on," said Link, motioning. "Let's go congratulate the prince."

The chairs emptied as they exited through the door and dissolved outside the portal. Marth and Peach exited the portal a moment later as well, laughing together over some private joke. Ike took a quick step towards Marth, mouth open with congratulations, when Roy stepped past him and grabbed Marth's shoulders. "You did great, Marth! I was impressed!"

Ike froze and stayed where he was, watching Marth hug Roy and then turn to receive praise from Link, his black gloved hand still resting on Roy's shoulder in a loose, friendly manner.

A stab of jealousy shot through Ike's chest and a hurt look stole into his eyes. He glanced around, wondering if anyone else had noticed that Roy had taken his place of being the usual one to first greet Marth after a brawl, success or fail. Surprisingly, Lucina was the only one looking at him, her blue eyes serious and questioning.

She walked up to him. "Are brawls usually like that?"

"It depends."

"What do you mean?"

"It depends who's fighting who. Snake versus Luigi, Snake'll win within a minute or two. Me versus Bowser, it could take a while."

"Who'd win, you or him?"

He detected a hint of slyness in her voice, which surprised him. She was brave to walk up to him who had always been known as intimidating and angry, and make conversation, but to actually joke a little was rather fascinating.

He shrugged and walked off. She followed.

"Ike, wait up!"

Ike hesitated and Marth caught up. His face was red from the exercise and his blue hair was dark and wet with perspiration. "Are you mad?"

"No."

"Why didn't you want to talk to me?" Marth suddenly noticed Lucina and blushed, but it was unnoticeable because of his already red face. He smiled a little. "I'm sorry. Were you two talking?"

"Oh, no," answered Lucina. "Go ahead."

Marth nodded hesitantly and gave Ike a sideways glance. Ike returned the look and raised one eyebrow very quickly.

"I'm sorry," said Lucina, giggling. "You want to talk in private?"

"Oh, no," said Marth hurriedly. "Uh... How did you enjoy the brawl?"

"You both did very good. I'm slightly intimidated now. But it was good to be able to see you guys brawl. And from both of your perspectives, I'd like to know, who do you think is the best brawler here?"

Link, Roy, Zelda, Rashida, and Pit came up behind them and they began walking as a group, Link answering the question first.

"I think the best might be Snake, honestly. He's such a jerk and a real creeper, but..."

Ike had grabbed Link's arm in a powerful fist and squeezed tightly before releasing him.

"That is," continued Link, chuckling hesitantly as he massaged his arm, "Snake's pretty good at using his weapons. And they give a good amount of damage to begin with."

"You know, Snake's pretty hard," agreed Rashida, "but Ness and Lucas, especially Lucas, are really good at using their special powers. They're in pretty good tiers for being so young."

"I agree," said Zelda, nodding. "Those two are mini power packs. Which is pretty unfair, them being so young and all. What will happen when they get older?"

"Who do you thinks the strongest, Marth?" Prompted Roy. "Yourself, perhaps?" He chuckled.

Marth gave a wry smirk. "I believe it is safe to say I had a rare good day today. And I think that's the case with all smashers. Sometimes you have good days and sometimes you don't. There's no best smasher. Some are better at honing their skills, but it's only practice. And like I said, chance good and bad days."

"He just says that," said Rashida to Lucina, whispering loudly.

Lucina giggled and Marth cast them both an annoyed glare.

"What about you, Ike?" Asked Lucina.

"Samus," Answered Ike shortly. "Samus."

"He just says that because he likes her," Rashida said, tossing her hair. She was half joking, but Ike made no response.

"He doesn't like her," answered Marth. "Not in that way."

"I know, I know," answered Rashida. "I was kidding. He's just making up for what he did..." She turned red and bit her lip.

"What did he do?" Asked both Lucina and Roy at the same time.

Everyone stared at their shoes as, cape billowing out, Ike whirled around and stomped off.

Marth shrugged sheepishly, and dove after his friend.

"Ike, she didn't mean to bring it up," said Marth in a low voice and in Japanese.

Ike responded in the same language. "But the point is she did and Rashida doesn't need to add her own little comments! She can keep them to herself."

Everyone heard Ike's response, but only Rashida and the two new comers understood it and the pink haired sword fighter stalked after them both and caught up.

"I'm sorry, Ike!" She snapped. "They'll find out soon enough anyway. It's common knowledge."

"I don't care if they find out or not," answered Ike. "But I don't need you bringing it up when it's best to let a matter like that remain buried until it's forgotten."

"It'll never be forgotten," she argued.

"But you can help it along!" He snapped.

Lucina cupped her hand to Roy's ear. "That Ike totally understood what you said back in the stands. About him being potentially dangerous and all."

Roy raised his eyebrows. "You're right, but for him, what I said might be a compliment."

Yay! Roy and Lucina were immensely pleased with this chapter. Lucina was pleased with how nice she was and Roy was pleased with how just like himself he was. Roy bought me ice cream and Lucina bought me a book she said she liked. They really are quite sweet.