Wow, thanks for all the nice reviews! And Diabolos: Yeah, you're right. I made a typo- thanks for telling me; it's fixed now!

Chapter 1

42 Smashers remaining…

Ness was pale and sweating when Marth burst into the entrance to the Smash Mansion, carrying Ness in his arms. Lucas and Ganondorf hurried in behind him as several others rushed over, Dr. Mario at the front of the crowd. "What happened?" he asked urgently as Marth lay Ness down on a couch.

Lucas shrugged as he pushed his way through the people crowding around his cousin. "He couldn't use any PK abilities during the fight and he said he hasn't felt well since he woke up. He passed out on the way back and hasn't woken up since."

"We got worried when his nose just started bleeding. It wasn't from the fight and it wasn't from when he fell; it just started bleeding out of nowhere," Marth added in concern.

Dr. Mario nodded worriedly and tipped Ness's head back to try and stop the bleeding. "Someone go get me an ice pack!" he shouted, but Lucas shook his head.

"No need. PK Freeze!" he cried, summoning a huge block of ice to rest next to Dr. Mario. With a grim smile, Marth drew his sword and slashed through it, his blade turning into a blur of silver as he created a block of small ice cubes instead, which held its shape for a moment before collapsing into a heap.

"Show-offs, the both of you," Dr. Mario muttered under his breath before grabbing some of the ice and holding it to Ness's nose, trying to stop the bleeding before yanking his hand back. "Damn, he's burning up! Marth, hold the ice here, let me take his temperature."

Ness moaned softly and continued tossing and turning as Dr. Mario took out a thermometer from wherever he kept his endless supplies of pills to throw at people, using it to take Ness's temperature.

Ten seconds later, he withdrew the device and swore when he read the temperature. "105! God, how did no one notice this until now?" When he was met with silence, Dr. Mario sighed before gesturing for someone to come forward and help. "Come on, pick him up, get him into bed. He probably just has a bad case of the flu."

"But what about the nose bleed?"

Dr. Mario shrugged. "Probably just a delayed reaction to the fall or the fight. Sometimes the nose won't start bleeding for several seconds, Lucas. Now, someone pick him up."

Roy came forward, muttering under his breath, "You've always got to pick on the strong people, huh? Roy, do this, Roy, do that. Why don't you ask for someone else to help you for once?"

Ike groaned. "You know, Roy, nobody asked for you specifically. You didn't have to do anything. Now, though, we all have to suffer because we listen to you complain."

Glaring at him, Roy picked up Ness and followed Lucas towards Ness's room, muttering something about a stuck-up newbie under his breath. Ike just rolled his eyes before beckoning for Marth to follow him and left.

"Nobody fight with Ness until he's better," Dr. Mario ordered as he followed Roy. "I know he's a bit of a lug head, but don't humor him for a while. If you really need someone with PK abilities, use Lucas. There's nothing wrong with him, you know.

Lucas smiled slightly to himself. Finally, someone who didn't think he was terrible just because he didn't move quite as quickly as Ness! Maybe he wasn't as doomed to obscurity as he thought.

After the first day of Ness remaining unconscious without any sign of waking up, people started to get worried. Dr. Mario assured everyone that he could still just have bad case of the flu and to wait before panicking. By the third day, they were panicking.

Most people were pointing fingers at Ganondorf and accusing him of doing something different with his Final Smash while others pointed out that Lucas said that Ness felt bad before the fight. Since nobody else was getting sick, though, people weren't too worried. After all, if it wasn't contagious, it wasn't like this one case it would lead to an epidemic. Even Lucas wasn't too worried about his own cousin; since Ness wasn't getting worse, they all assumed that it was just the flu.

"Hey, Ganondorf!" Marth called when he saw the evil king polishing his extraordinarily impressive and utterly worthless sword. "You up for a rematch? Me, you, and my other friends from Akaneia? Come on, what do you say?"

Ganondorf just rolled his eyes. "You're just embarrassed that I kicked your ass when you had someone else on your team, Marth."

"No, actually, everybody thinks I did well since Ness was so sick. So this will be a chance for me to gain back some repse- um, I mean, for you to get your reputation back," Marth said with a cough. "If you beat me, Roy, and Ike, maybe people will stop saying that you were better before. You know, before you gained all that weight and got so slow- I mean, started flashing your worthless sword everywhere. Oh, no, I mean-"

"You want to insult me, Marth?" Ganondorf exclaimed, getting to his feet and pushing Marth back. "All right, then, fine! Let's go! Right here, right now!"

Holding back a laugh, Marth nodded. "All right, then. Let me get Roy and Ike and we can do this!"

"Oh, scared to fight me without your posse to back you up? All right, fine! It'll just make your defeat that much more crushing!"

As Marth ran to get Ike and Roy, his face was as red as Mario's hat from repressed laughter.

For the three heroes from the land of Akaneia, fighting someone as slow as Ganondorf was a piece of cake. In fact, they began playing monkey in the middle with a poke ball, just to entice Ganondorf into attacking. Well, Ike and Marth were the ones playing with the poke ball. Roy was using this as an opportunity to get his breath back.

When Marth had asked him to join in and help kick Ganondorf's ass, he had only agreed because he knew the fight would be easy. As it was, Roy had yet to do much of anything besides sit back and let the others do the fighting. His head was killing him.

A voice in the back of his mind was warning him that this was how Ness had felt just before passing out, and that he had yet to wake up. But Roy thought that he was fine; just a cold. Clutching his stomach as another wave of nausea hit him, Roy fell to his knees, barely managing to catch himself with his hands before he hit the ground.

"Come on, Roy," he muttered under his breath. "Get up!" Planting his sword in the ground, he managed to force himself back into a standing position.

"Can't get us, can you, Ganondorf?" Marth taunted before grabbing him and holding him still. "Ike, now!"

Ike ran forward, striking Ganondorf with one great blow of his sword and shouting, "Great Aether!" As Ike launched into the air, hitting Ganondorf over and over in a whirlwind of pain, Marth gave a satisfied smirk and turned to look at Roy.

Ike was just about to go in for the kill when a panicked shout from below him caused him to hesitate. "Ike! Ganondorf! Get down here, now!" Marth cried, and they both looked down to see him kneeling oner an unconscious Roy. Ike and Ganondorf looked back at each other before Ike delivered one more powerful blow, shooting him towards the ground like a missile before gently descending himself to where Marth was working on Roy.

He was sprawled on his back, sweating profusely, his skin pale… and a trail of blood coming from his nose.