A flurry of punches, a flurry of movements. A sudden premonition, a sudden turn of tides. The crowd went wild, the referee counted down.
Standing back up from a sudden punch thrown at him, Super Macho Man cracked his neck as he gave his opponent a snide smile. But deep inside, he felt fear consume his entire body. For so long, he was considered the best in the WVBA. He stood at the top of the hill as its king, hogging all kinds of spotlights on himself. He had wealth, he had fame, and he had attention. He practically had everything he needed.
Then Sandman came along to take the throne, but nevertheless, Super Macho Man lived a comfortable life. For everyone he fought before Sandman were unable to handle his sick moves. Even if they memorized patterns in his fighting style, they always fell for them anyway. He still thrived in a world where only one man had bested him.
And as if Sandman was not enough, another challenger threatened his position as second best in the WVBA. This man not only jeopardized his position in the WVBA, however, but he also threatened his entire reputation. Super Macho Man, after all, boasted that no one else other than Mr. Sandman would ever bring him down. He initially felt extremely confident about the particular statement, for it was actually a true fact.
Until a short boxer from the Bronx met him on the boxing ring.
No one really knew his full name, so they simply called him "Little Mac." The man looked simple as well. Never did Super Macho Man ever think that someone like him would make him feel fearful. He saw him, misunderstanding the monstrous fighter within the small man, and claimed that he would win without letting his knees touch the ground.
And when he directly confronted Mac on the ring, Mac smashed him down against the ring and made him kneel two times.
Two. Times.
Everything he said put him in danger. Everything he believed would happen proved to be nothing but lies. Everything he told the press would be thrown back at him and send him plummeting through his own fame.
He stood up for the second time, gritting his teeth as he felt his energy turn into fear-filled adrenaline. Not even his Super Macho Clothesline Attack worked against Little Mac to his favor. As soon as he successfully used it to knock Mac down, the little boxer never fell for the attack ever again, no matter how cleverly he tried to use it.
Little Mac dodged an uppercut sent to his right, punishing Macho Man with five powerful jabs to the face. Little Mac dodged an uppercut sent to his left, punishing Macho Man with five powerful hooks to the stomach. Little Mac dodged, dodged, and dodged. And Macho Man missed, missed, and missed. And each time he missed, he would get hit by a flurry of punches.
The battle ended too quickly.
As soon as he tried to send an overhead punch out of desperation, it was over. The tiny boxer from the Bronx swung his fist against his face, causing him to spin wildly in the air before landing face-flat.
How…
How did he lose?
Super Macho Man barely picked his face off of the ground, managing to see Mac raise his boxing glove out of the joy of winning the match. As soon as he saw the boxer turn his face to another side of the audience that now cheered Mac's name, he let his strength fade. He rested his head against the ring in shame.
From then on, he would remember one thing. No matter how formidable looked Little Mac seemed…
…He would never ever forget the innocent fury behind the boxer's attacks.
…
…
…
A Smash Brothers match had been scheduled for the day. Though it certainly was no tournament match, most people found friendly battles between the tournaments' contestants to be interesting to watch. After all, observing the battle prowess of fighters always hyped people up when a good fighter came in.
There were plentiful of matchups that riled the audience up. Mario and Sonic, Link and Ganondorf, Captain Falcon and Samus… Most matchups gained recognition through the fighters' relationships with each other. Some used to be rivals with each other, and some remained rivals even after joining the Smash Brothers tournaments.
On another note, some fighters were brand-new, and people just wanted to see what such fighters were like.
It was another day of hype for the most recent addition to the Smash Brothers tournaments.
"Ladies and gentlemen," a familiar host cried with excitement. "Today, on this very fine Saturday, we present to you… Link VS. Little Mac!"
As the crowd grew wild, Falco, who appeared to be a guest host yet again, immediately spoke out,
"This is technically Mac's first match against an actual contestant! Link's balanced fighting style polarizes itself greatly from Mac's in-your-face boxing skills. One is fast and equipped only with boxing gloves, while the other is heavily loaded with a dangerous arsenal."
"A very interesting analogy to start us off with the match, Mr. Lombardi!" The Host exclaimed. "Would you care to give us an analysis on our fighters for today's Smash battle?"
Falco cleared his throat, rolling his neck as he prepared to share his observations. The hype machine within him made not only the people listening to him get hyped, but he also could not help but hype himself.
"Well, first things first, we're all familiar with Link by now. He's got arrows, bombs, a boomerang, a hookshot, and most importantly, his sword. To top it off, he also has a shield! He can keep a distance and get up close to his opponents regularly, which automatically makes him a formidable foe.
"On the other hand, from what we've seen, Little Mac has enough speed to avoid Link's ranged weapons. The question is how he'll approach him once he locks into close-quarter combat!"
"What a mighty fine analysis, Mr. Lombardi!" The Host said before turning his attention to a certain guest host that accompanied Falco previously. "Mr. Mewtwo, any thoughts on this matchup?"
"Death would love to dine tonight."
"Thank you for your thoughtful input, Mewtwo!"
Little Mac leapt on the main battleground, watching his surroundings change. His surroundings were consisted of ancient-looking buildings and a vast sky. The stage he stood on was a flat version of Battlefield, which was deprived of several floating platforms that usually came along with it. Readjusting his gloves, the boxer threw out a few punches to make sure he was in a good condition before reaching for his hoodie. Tossing the pink clothes in the air, he prepared his idle boxing stance.
Before him was Link. This Link was the hero of Hyrule, from what he heard. In fact, there were multiple Links that existed within the universe, but only one of them actively continued to contend in the actual Smash Brothers matches.
Whoever he was, Little Mac would not underestimate him. Link's face screamed experience all over it, as the swordsman let his eyes sharply focus on Mac's movements.
"Three…"
The sound of the announcer made the two fighters tense.
"Two…
"One…"
Little Mac took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a brief moment.
"GO!"
As soon as the match began, however, his eyes jerked open as he took a step back.
Link took out a bomb from his seemingly infinite pocket, jumping and throwing it at Mac's direction as he moved forward. He also threw a boomerang at the boxer before launching an arrow. Thankfully, Mac had learned some techniques exclusive to the Smash Brothers battle system, so he quickly jumped and caught the bomb in midair. With the bomb in hand, the man watched the fuse furiously head towards the strange bomb itself. Not knowing what else to do with the thing, Mac threw the bomb at Link, only to deflect the boomerang the warrior tossed at him earlier.
When he landed, he looked up and saw the swordsman holding a bow. Out of sheer instinct, Mac barely sidestepped out of the way, letting an arrow zoom past his chest. Link took out another bomb, only for the boxer to go straight up to his face.
Reaching out for the swordsman, Little Mac loosely caught the swordsman before delivering three body blows. Link, however, knew how to break free from such grapples, and almost instantly broke free. With both of his hands gripping his blade, the swordsman vertically swung the Master Sword at Mac. When the boxer stepped away from the first attack, Link quickly followed up the attack with a second attack, diagonally slashing at the Bruiser from the Bronx.
Little Mac did not see the diagonal follow-up attack coming at him. Getting hit by the sword, the boxer fell on the ground and momentarily thought about reaching out for a rope.
He then remembered that he was not in a boxing match. Scrambling onto his feet, the dark-haired boxer moved up to Link once more. The Hylian twirled his sword in one hand, and the two fighters entered a state of controlling the distance between them.
When Link threw his boomerang, Mac smashed it away. When Mac threw forward a powerful jab, Link rolled out of the way. Deeming his situation to be unfavorable, the swordsman reached out to take out a bomb.
At that moment, Mac charged in for a chance to attack the swordsman. The boxer ran up to Link before wildly swinging a glove forward down to the ground, propelling the pointy-eared hero of Hyrule into the air. He then ran again, only to successfully attack with the same move as the swordsman approached the ground. Right before he performed the dash attack once more to send the experienced fighter off of the stage, however, Mac felt his eyes widen at the sight of Link pointing his blade downwards. Barely timing his retreat correctly, Little Mac rolled away from Link, who drove his sword into the ground with immense strength.
Little Mac decided that he should take a more careful approach to the solid fighter before him.
Running up to Link again, the boxer raised a fist as if to hit the Hylian with the dash attack once more. Anticipating his menacingly fast attack, the swordsman threw a boomerang at Mac's direction before raising his sword to attack the boxer with his powerful smash attacks.
From what Mac heard from Doc Louis, however, there was something special about Link's boomerang.
The boomerang was not a simple projectile used to attack opponents from afar. It could be used to drag opponents towards his close-ranged attacks, or simply push certain projectiles away from him. In Mac's case, all he needed to worry about the boomerang was its potential in allowing Link to chain his attacks together. After all, he did not really use projectiles.
So, Mac took things very technically.
He first dodged the boomerang before pretending to resume his attack. When Link decided that the pugilist really was going for a dash attack, he swung the attack he had been charging up. Mac barely rolled back from the smash attack, and he quickly glanced behind him.
As Link quickly swung a second strike at Mac, who rolled away again, suddenly, he raised a fist by his head as if to charge an attack.
The Hylian paled when he saw his own boomerang carrying Little Mac over to him with a slightly charged smash attack.
It was evident on what the boxer planned to do with the boomerang. Little Mac clearly aimed to attack Link when he was open, but never did Link think that the pugilist would use his own boomerang out of all things to suddenly attack him out of the blue. Raising his shield, the Hero of Hyrule attempted to defend himself, only to feel a powerful punch landing against his face.
The swordsman flew away from the stage, but he was not down for the first count. Leaping over to the flat Battlefield, the wielder of the Master Sword wildly swung his blade in the air, lifting himself up to the edge of the floating platform. Mac took a few steps back, his gloves raised by his face, as he watched Link swiftly reenter the battleground.
Reaching out for his boomerang, the Hylian tossed the object diagonally into the air, forcing Mac to dodge it. He then took out a bomb before taking out an object Mac had never seen before.
With the hookshot in hand, Link let the versatile tool drag the boxer towards him before lifting his opponent to the air. He slashed Mac into the air with his sword before throwing the bomb he took out, throwing the explosive to the lightweight boxing champion. Little Mac found himself flying backwards in the air, only to get dragged down to the ground by Link's boomerang. The Hero of Hyrule rolled back to position himself. He then precisely timed his next attack as he crouched and powerful swung his sword around the ground, sending Mac away from him.
As soon as Mac fell on the ground, he recovered almost instantaneously. Taken aback by the warrior's creative combinations of attacks, the boxing champion quickly calmed himself down as he looked up at Link. The Hylian pointed a bow at Mac, intent on sending him flying into the air. Little Mac did not plan on letting the skilled fighter forcefully pummel him around again.
Mac dashed towards Link, who instinctively fired his bow the instant moment the boxer took three steps. The boxer, however, anticipated the attack much earlier than Link hoped he would. Leaping over the arrow like a wrecking ball, Little Mac delivered a haymaker on Link, sending the wielder of the Master Sword into the air. Link quickly recovered and swung himself down to the ground blade-first.
Dodging the ground-penetrating sword attack, Little Mac put a hand by his chest. He poured a great amount of strength to his next punch. The punch was no ordinary punch, as it was exclusively taught to him by none other than its inventor, Doc Louis. Flames coated his glove as he furiously threw an uppercut at the Hylian.
The Star Punch collided against Link's kidney and sent the Hero of Hyrule flying to the skies. An eruption of light signified his knock-out.
Little Mac huffed as he straightened himself, noticing that his surroundings changed once more. He soon found himself in a familiar coliseum, where thousands of people cheered for the battle.
It took him a few seconds to realize the battle just ended.
With an encouraged smile, Little Mac raised one of his gloves, causing the audience to explode into cheering louder than before.
…
…
…
After receiving his pink hoodie from one of the faculty members that worked at the coliseum, Mac left the battleground. He managed to meet Link after the battle, and thankfully, the swordsman himself seemed impressed rather than being angered out of his mind.
"A good fight," Link said, which correctly summed up the entire match. If Mac made one mistake in approaching Link, he would have been toast. Link, on the other hand, did incredibly well for facing an opponent he never fought before. Little Mac applauded him for managing to surprise him with his ability to chain attacks together so efficiently.
For a first match, Mac thought that he did not do that bad. Sure, he did not expect to win every single battle, but having a good start always made him feel encouraged.
"SIR MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC!"
Then there was this fool.
Little Mac felt Robin's hands clutch his shoulders as the tactician began to shake him violently.
"YOU WON IN SUCH AN INTERESTING WAY! How on Ylisse did you ever think about using Link's own weapons against him like that? Did you know it was going to work? Can we spar sometime? Do you think I'll stand a chance?"
Mac cried internally as Robin endlessly swarmed him with an extremely disturbing amount of questions. At the same time, he found Robin's excitement to be quite amusing, considering how he initially depicted him as a collected man who remained calm at all times.