It turned out that the tournament WAS more than just "strange."
Floating before Little Mac was a large portal- yes, a portal out of all things- to somewhere the boxer had not gone to before. The boxer initially wondered if all of this was just a flashy way of saying "hello" from some fancy boxing association, only to be met with the grim truth when Doc Louis bluntly stated,
"Mac baby; now you're contesting with ALIENS!... Pfft! Just kidding, son. Well, there might be a few aliens, but some of them are peeps! Or, so I've heard."
It was at that moment that Little Mac finally lost it, but still, he was quick to keep his cool. Why did Doc just laugh at some extraterrestrial wormhole floating in front of him? Was he that much of an awesome sportsman, or did he just see it enough while Mac was not looking?
The boxer quickly concluded that it was the chocolate bar his mentor happily devoured. There must have been some sort of antidote within the chocolate that automatically made people feel completely used to extraterrestrial wormholes. Staggering a little, Mac put on his boxing gloves before nudging Doc with one of them. Doc Louis noticed the somewhat hungry look Mac gave to his chocolate bar.
"Good idea, Mac baby!" The ex-heavyweight champion of the WVBA laughed, taking out a spare chocolate bar just for his student. "I know it's a lot to take in, but... think about it, Mac! This ol' fool right here actually had the chance to go in 'n out of this cool thing!"
If Mac did not give Doc Louis enough respect beforehand, now seemed like a great moment to do so. Giving the Doc an incredulous look, Mac watched his teacher walk straight toward the wormhole. "It ain't that bad," Doc might say, but still, Mac had second thoughts about the entire ordeal.
...Then again, he faced Sandman! Over and over again! And he beat him down a lot during his Last Stand, and that alone was a massively impressive achievement!
For some reason, Mac felt like he was intentionally diverting his attention from the very idea of getting killed by the stupid wormhole floating in front of him. It did seem that the desperate strategy was working, however, as the lightweight boxer reluctantly began to walk toward the portal. In mere seconds, he had devoured the chocolate bar.
Right after Doc Louis entered the frightening thing, the boxer stopped in his tracks, staring at the extraterrestrial entity. There was the possibility of not coming back... but he had already made a big enough name for himself in the world. And since he was no superhero of any kind, he had little to worry about the world. If what Mac thought of the portal was, indeed, absolutely correct, then this might have been the last time he would ever see his home planet.
Little Mac turned back, a solemn look now over his face. He realized how far he had come, from being a small, frail man who sought out recognition of beating the odds of weight and height to a champion who no longer had anything to lose.
Perhaps his past self's motivation never changed, after all.
With a now determined look, Mac turned to the portal, which floated right in front of him. He took a deep breath, finally finding the spirit to calm down, before walking straight into the wormhole. What lied beyond it, he did not know, and soon, he would discover just what kind of tournament he would be in.
Darkness enveloped the lightweight boxer.
The darkness felt unnervingly serene. Mac felt his heart beat at a less rapid rate, and he no longer took audible breaths to keep himself motivated. Only a bright light remained floating on the other side of the room of darkness. Still in awe by his new surroundings, Mac took his time to look around the place as he walked toward the light. He occasionally spun around in an attempt to calculate just how large the room was.
Right before he entered the light, however, he felt an unnatural chill run down his spine. Mac jerked his head behind him, his eyes wide in alarm, as he put up a defensive stance.
Nothing awaited him on the other side of the dark, dark ring.
Maybe he was just overthinking things...
Putting down his boxing stance, Mac straightened up before turning to the light. He heard... voices. They belonged to multiple people, and one of them clearly belonged to Doc Louis. He needed to make a good first impression if he wanted to punch out with a great start. The boxer took a deep breath, closing his eyes.
Two seconds passed, and Little Mac opened his eyes, walking straight into the light.
The lightweight boxer found himself walking into a very vast area. His feet touched what appeared to be a floating platform, and his surroundings were consisted of nothing but white, gray, and a tinge of sky-blue. Everything felt unnatural.
What disturbed him most was the fact that he could not see any ceiling, wall, or floor. He did not want to imagine what would happen if one were to fall off the platform. Fortunately, there seemed to be glass walls encasing the white platform.
"You look like you saw a ghost, son!" Doc Louis joked, causing Little Mac to wake up from his own little world. The lightweight boxer turned to Doc Louis, who was accompanied by... a floating hand.
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
"...!"
Mac froze, simply staring at the... hand. Actually, it seemed to be a floating glove, which did not make things any more logical for Mac. The right hand remained still for a few seconds before waving at the boxer.
"Hello," the glove said.
Hello, the glove said.
Hello.
The glove
said Hello.
It did not even bother to use sign languages to communicate. Heck, the glove seemed completely naturally with talking like a person. The way it spoke was so natural, it bothered Mac to no end. Did it have a mouth inside the glove?
"No," Mac wanted to tell himself. "Don't obliterate your common sense, Mac."
Even so... the glove just bothered him to death.
"Pardon my appearance, boxer," the white glove said with certain grace. "I am the one who has invited you to join my universal tournament. You may refer to me as Master Hand."
The boxer nodded, standing as far as he could from the glove.
"...Uh," Doc Louis interjected with a knowing grin, "Mac ain't much of a talker, so you won't have to worry about stuff like that."
"I see," Master Hand responded, as if the glove understood Mac's general silence. "Very well, then."
The hand directed its attention towards Doc Louis, allowing Mac to stop stiffening his shoulders for a while.
"Mr. Louis," the hand asked curiously, "you stated that Little Mac is one of the best boxers in your world, correct? Would you mind if I may have a demonstration of some of his abilities?"
Doc Louis laughed with a wide grin, pointing at Little Mac with a thumb as he boasted, "Well, as long as we can get a sandbag, I think Mac baby could show you a trick or two. But a fair warning for you, Master Hand; he just might do better than you'd expect!"
The glove remained still for a while before giving a thumbs-up to the Doc. It seemed that the glove was more used to social conversations than Mac had ever imagined, as it seemed to develop some sort of friendly relationship with his mentor.
Master Hand snapped his(?) fingers, causing a bright light to briefly flash at the center of the platform. There, a sandbag with... cuddly eyes remained still.
Mac looked up at Doc Louis, who gave him a faithful smile and an encouraging thumbs-up, while Master Hand proceeded to request of the boxer to show his skills.
"I would like to see some of your punches, Mac."
The lightweight boxer nodded, turning to the sandbag with cuddly eyes. No more would he just sit around and do nothing but get surprised at everything. It was time to accept things as they were, and in a world like this, that seemed like the best option to go with. Raising his boxing gloves, Little Mac glared at the sandbag, which stared back with a lack of emotion.
Mac suddenly leapt toward the sandbag, delivering an airborne haymaker with an immense amount of power. Master Hand remained still in the air, not showing any signs of surprise or disappointment. Gritting his teeth and firmly stabilizing his body's framework, Mac proceeded to send out a rapid flurry of punches at the sandbag with blinding speed.
Through speed and strategy, he prevails. Through power and calmness, he conquers. That was how he became a boxing champion.
After the flurry of punches sent at the sandbag, Mac delivered a light uppercut at the object, sending it slightly up in the air. At this point, however, Mac did not know what to do. He had faced plenty of big opponents who only knew how to fall, not how to fly. With this in mind, Mac quickly thought up of a random attack he could use to complete the chain of attacks.
Taking a step forward, Mac lifted his body off of the ground, spiraling upwards at a short height, before smashing the sandbag with a powerful, airborne uppercut. The lightweight boxer fell on his back due to his inexperience with the move he just made up.
It took Little Mac a few seconds to realize that the Master Hand floated over to him.
"That... was far more than I expected, Mister Mac," the hand admitted with a tone of delightful surprise behind its voice. "The Mac trophy we had been using during your World Circuit career cannot compare to what you are right now."
Little Mac blinked, looking at Doc Louis before at the hand again. It seemed that the Doc had explained quite a lot to the white glove.
The Master Hand let out its pointer finger at the boxer, allowing Mac to grab it to pull himself up. With an impressed tone, the Master Hand told Doc Louis,
"I am pleased to tell you that this boxer... just might fit right in with the other fighters."
Portals were apparently a thing in the strange world.
It felt as if Little Mac flew past a dozen portals just to get to the shelter he would reside in for the time being. The man did not have the chance to check out all of the environments within each portal, but he preferred not to get overwhelmed by his environments yet. And according to Master Hand, the place he would be residing in would already be a handful to have concern over, anyway.
Little Mac eventually found himself walking down a brick road, which led to a gigantic mansion of some sort. Perhaps he had to live inside of it?
"This will be where you reside for as long as you contend in the tournaments."
"..."
Of course.
As Mac approached the mansion, however, a sudden shout echoed out of the mansion.
"FAAAAAAAAAALCOOOOOOOOOOOON...
PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNCH!"
Suddenly, one of the windows shattered, and a large figure flew out of the open hole like a missile. Soon, Mac would learn that a speed racer was the one who just punched a legendary evil being out of a mansion because of a "your mom" joke.
"..."
"..."
"...That ain't lookin' good."
Little Mac somehow felt the urge to respond "No sh-t, Doc," but decided to remain positive and mentally prepare himself for what was about to come...
Author's Notes
Fun Fact: Out-Smasher is a hybrid play on the words "outsider," "out-boxer," and, of course, "smash."
To clarify Little Mac's silence, most of his entire personality is based off of "Punch-Out! (Arcade/NES)" and "Punch-Out! (Wii)", both of which depicts Little Mac as a man with few words, but not none. I intentionally ignored "Super Punch-Out!," where the player talks much more frequently, because... Little Mac actually doesn't exist in it.
Thank you to my early reviewers! I might have not been able to explain those little details if I wasn't reminded about them.