Out-Smasher Chapter 21: How To Talk To Samus!, a super smash brothers fanfic

The name "Samus Aran" brought up varied responses.

Everyone knew she was a tough warrior. She fought Space Pirates, hostile creatures from dozens of planets, and other bounty hunters that intended on completing similar missions for completely different reasons. She traversed lands that the average warrior could not pass through just by sheer will; she relied on technique, strategy, and raw instinct to keep her life intact.

But some wondered what her personality was like; her personality outside of battle, that was.

Some depicted her to be the silent and cold type due to her heavy background. Others thought she would have a somewhat bright and calm attitude in contrast to the journeys she endured.

But really, she was just Samus Aran. She was not linear in any way but did not mind being linear, as all she focused on were several things.

Bounties.

Smash.

And relaxing.

The world that held the Smash Brothers tournaments became somewhat of a strange home to her. She befriended nice people and formed friendly rivalries with plenty of fighters. Her battle prowess proved to earn her respect in the tournaments unlike the Space Pirates that did everything to end her life.

Samus put on her jogging clothes as she jogged out of the mansion underneath the dawn's skies.

Central City had gone quiet, most of its inhabitants still sleeping. She jogged past a park, her mind clouded with thoughts on her next friendly match with none other than Falco. The Star Fox pilot respected her but had an admittedly annoying obsession over screaming "20XX" mid-match. She dealt with obnoxiousness before, so she still felt confident in putting up a good fight.

And aside from her fight with Falco, she had nothing to really think about as she jogged.

Then she saw a hooded figure jog past her.

Again, the recently recruited tournament contender, Little Mac, jogged in the dawn. She always met him around the park. He jogged early in the day, exercised excessively in the afternoon and simply vanished in the night. At this point, most of the Smash contestants knew Mac's routine: exercise, eat like crazy, and exercise again before shutting himself in his dormitory. Once in a while he would fight in a friendly match before jumping into a random part of his routine.

He did not really sound like a social bee. She found that strange considering his boxing career, as most athletes tended to express plentiful of colorful emotions in interviews and the likes. According to Master Hand, however, Little Mac expressed only one emotion in nearly all of his interviews from the press back at his world.

"I'm happy I won," he stated. And literally every other response he made to answer interviews were basically worded differently despite meaning the same thing.

Many of the Smash Brother contestants were interested in Little Mac. Battleholics like Ryu and Lucario believed Mac made a great partner to train with due to his stubborn fighting style, and the more thoughtful fighters like Robin and Snake found him to be full of interesting traits to ponder about.

There was something strange about him, though.

After all, something far stranger popped up as soon as he met Master Hand...

Samus Aran watched the boxer jog wordlessly. He glanced at his left for a few good seconds before paying attention to the path he took again. Curious, the bounty hunter glanced at her left.

She found the sun hiding behind the lake next to her, its presence spreading a warm orange color across the handmade islands floating above nothingness. It was nothing much.

It was a bit peaceful to look at.

Turning back to the path in front of her, Samus continued to jog.

…

"I'm telling you, something about the city is charming!"

Little Mac and Doc Louis sat in a fast food restaurant outside of the mansion, both men wearing refined clothes that made them less noticeable. With a coat and a flat cap on, Little Mac's coach took a bite out of a packed burger.

"I don't know about you," Doc told the boxer, "but there's somethin' about this place that makes sticking around a delight, y'know?"

Little Mac nodded as he bit off a good chunk of a fried chicken wing.

Though the time he spent with Doc Louis had shortened greatly, the quality of their conversations never seemed to change. To Mac, the conversations were sweet like chocolate; they were neither forgettable nor too exciting. Sometimes they would just talk about how Mac could centralize his fighting style against certain opponents. Most of the time they just shared quirky moments in their lives. Very rarely did they ever talk about anything pressuring.

He really did have nothing extremely pressuring, now that Little Mac thought about it. His parents were living a good life, he finished high school, and he had a boxing career that he eventually ended for other potential goals he could accomplish. Mac had an extremely plain background.

That made the applause and cheers he received a bit confusing to him. He was just a regular human being who trained to fight through oddities. He was not some hero who saved an entire kingdom with a sword and shield; he just did things that he considered right or enjoyable.

He did not fully understand the sympathy his fans exerted, but he still accepted their cheers with gratitude.

Was it a problem that he did not express himself enough aside from yelling out of accomplishment? Apparently not, according to the people who liked him. And for that, Little Mac did not consider his own personality to be that problematic. If it hurt someone, then he would just change himself; life was all about adjusting, after all.

After a detailed explanation on how chocolate came in various flavors in Central City, Doc Louis asked the lightweight boxer,

"Speaking of which, did you hear about that Samus person?"

Little Mac blinked as he finished eating the fried chicken wing, tossing it onto a paper plate in front of him as he reached out for another piece from a small bucket.

"She apparently rejected some sort of interview in a pretty harsh way! Sure, it was kind of expected considering the interviewer's certainly annoyin' persistence, but I'd probably wet my pants if I had to talk to her. She's chilly, I'll tell ya; chillier than Chilly the Snowman! I'd avoid getting McStuffin'd with energy blasts first if I were that interviewer."

Getting stuffed with energy blasts sure did not sound that appealing. Mac had to agree with that. He was thankful that what Doc said was only a metaphor.

After his lunch with Doc Louis, the boxer returned to the mansion. Instead of going straight to his dormitory, however, he headed toward the ginormous backyard.

The road to the Observatory changed a little. The small garden Peach nurtured remained as small as ever, but the grass in general grew a bit. Deeper down the path sat a tiny maple tree far away from the road. Anyone could tell it was a young tree, and it was almost miraculous to think that the chaotic Smash Brothers somehow did not destroy it yet. Mac admired the tree's luck.

He planned on borrowing a book from the Observatory's library.

The Observatory itself was not a problem for Little Mac. Sure, it had a bit of height to its stairs, but aside from the floaty stairs was a peaceful building he could genuinely rest at unlike the mansion.

The person who lived at the Observatory was a different story, though.

As soon as he entered the library, Little Mac found Rosalina sitting by the fireplace that kept the library warm. She held a novel labelled "The Hungry Box Games."

She seemed to be fully absorbed with the book. Mac tiptoed his way to the library's shelves and began looking for something to read.

Back in New York there were plentiful of things to read. Newspapers were all over the Bronx's streets, and there were quite a handful of bestselling books to read in the local library. There were only two libraries in the Smash Brothers' world, however: a public library was located in the middle of Central City, and a private library that belonged to Rosalina sat in the backyard of the mansion.

At least all the newspapers were published by one company in the world of Smash. Too bad he saw absolutely none of them in the mansion.

A quick scan of the books available eventually let Mac pluck out a decently large book. It was labelled "Master Hand's Journal" and was apparently written by Crazy Hand.

"…"

Little Mac put the book back into the shelf and took out another one. He ended up with Fifty Shades of Prey and shoved it back into the shelf as well.

Lengthening his time to search for books eventually got him with some sort of psychology-related thing that he knew nothing about.

I guess this'll be a decent read, he thought as he looked around the library.

Aside from Rosalina's rocking chair, there were not many things to sit on. At least a puffy couch was positioned at one of the corners; Mac did not want to take his time to walk past potential chaotic events and risk his life returning a book.

And so he read.

Mac somehow sapped four hours of his life reading a book. He did not go to the restroom, he did not drink water, and he did not eat anything during the four hours. He simply read.

And so did Rosalina.

The boxer and the guardian of cosmos continued reading for a few minutes. They soon stopped reading.

Simultaneously.

When Little Mac stretched on the couch and relaxed, his eyes met the silent woman's. He blinked, and she blinked. He blinked again, and so did she.

"…Oh."

"…"

Closing her book, the quiet woman spoke.

"Hello."

"Ey."

"…"

…

"…"

Silence reigned supreme over the library as the two Smash Brothers contestants stared off into nothing in particular. After staring at the many shelves in the library, Little Mac commented,

"It's been a quiet day."

"…Yes."

"…"

…

Mac asked the guardian of cosmos, "Do you like pizza or burgers?"

Rosalina's eyes sparkled briefly. Perhaps she finally had a response that would not end the conversation instantly?!

"Yes."

"…"

…

Little Mac realized it was time to leave.

Standing up from the comfortable couch, the boxer put the book back to where it belonged as he headed to the exit. He glanced at Rosalina and gave her a quick wave.

"Bye," he said.

"Good bye," she said.

"I had a good read."

"I had a good read as well."

"Ye."

"…"

The WVBA boxer walked out of the Observatory's library, once again infected by the sheer awkwardness of the sentient being known as Rosalina.

…

Later that day, Little Mac went back to his dormitory. He sat on his living room's couch.

…With Ike sitting next to him, casually watching the television Mac had turned on.

"I still find this 'television' thing hard to get accustomed to," the mercenary hero admitted. "But perhaps I'll get used to watching things through a screen composed of the entities known as 'pixels...'"

Mac nodded. Little Mac actually lived for quite a long time with an analog television set to make up for his lack of internet usage. Despite the fact that his family eventually bought a modern flat-screen television, they found themselves continuing to use the outdated and round-screened piece of technology. They were not ready for the "high definition experience," as Mac liked to call it, and only used the better television when the analog television overheated once in a while.

At home, Mac lived a very simple life. It was as simple as his life in his dormitory, really. Once in a while, he would stretch in hopes of squeezing out extra bits of height out of himself. He would make himself food or ride on his bicycle to buy some before watching TV. "We're all kind of busy outside this house," his dad said, "so we should be chill and relax when we're inside it."

Mac's mother delightfully agreed, stating that they should also go out together to eat in dozens of restaurants. Mac had simply nodded at his dad's idea.

Even after the household gained a fair amount of wealth, the lifestyle his father had recommended never faded. Everyone in the house worked: Mac boxed, his mother did managing in the scene of… some athletic thing he forgot the name of, and his father worked as a CEO in a business company. But champion or not, and CEO or not, every member of the household abided by the one rule they decided to follow whenever they entered the house.

Relax.

Sometimes they were busy. Sometimes none of them came home for several days straight. But sometimes they were all lumped up in the house for the entire weekend. They all had things to do, and every member of the family wanted to make happy memories, not cloudy ones.

Those were good times.

As the two fighters watched a stunningly boring commercial made by L'Oréal, which definitely resembled the L'Oréal Mac heard of back at Earth, someone knocked on the entrance door.

"…I'll-"

"No, I'll go," Mac said as he stood up, letting Ike sit back down from an awkward blast-off from the couch. It was as if Ike had lived with Mac for two whole years.

Walking up to the entrance of his dormitory, the lightweight boxer opened the door.

As soon as he opened the door, he was greeted by some sort of catastrophe that would probably be imagined by Crazy Hand in his sleep. Some sort of giant ball of glass with a bunch of red organic tissue sticking out of it flew around like a dementor from Azkaban. As it collided furiously against the walls of the moderately small hallway, Bowser held onto it as he punched it several times.

Much to the little luck he had left, the oversized Metroid did not seem fazed.

"What the f#$%," the King of Koopas initially said in a monotonous tone as the volume of his voice gradually grew. "What kind of monster doesn't let me attack its weak point and get AWAY FROM IT-"

One of the walls crashed with Bowser, knocking the king off. It proceeded to escape out of the hallway through a flight of stairs. Angered beyond comprehension, Bowser chased after it with his fists clenched.

It took Mac a second to realize that Bowser was not the only one that tried to apprehend the Metroid. He saw a glimpse of Ganondorf and Wario as they stormed after the Metroid as well.

"…"

Little Mac stopped staring off at the end of the hallway as he turned to Samus, who stood next to him with a comfortable set of clothes on. She wore a simple t-shirt and shorts.

"I thought about having you punch this thing," Samus explained, "but the thing ran off on its own."

"…Why are Ganondorf, Bowser, and Wario chasing that thing?" The boxer asked.

The bounty hunter gave him somewhat of an incredulous look (if lifting one's eyebrows was considered to be incredulous) before turning to the hallway.

"They broke something."

"…"

"And now they're responsible for catching the thing that came out of the broken thing."

He nodded. It seemed fairly reasonable considering the insane standards of the mansion.

The boxer did not notice the glare Samus directed towards him.

"…Mac, was it?"

"…?"

An emotionless expression swept over whatever emotion Samus had left on her face. As she spoke, Mac noticed that her tone changed.

"There's something I need to ask of you."

"…Okay."

When Samus stated that she needed to ask Little Mac something, he had no idea she would bring him all the way out to the far side of the back yard.

Before Little Mac lay a strange plush star that glowed vibrantly. It hovered over a small field of flowers, spinning ever-so-softly.

"This is a Warp Star," Samus explained. "You haven't fought in any matches including items, so you probably have no idea how this thing functions."

"…"

"…Normally we just use these stars to brainlessly crash into things, but outside of the battles, these Warp Stars allow us to reach places that we normally are not able to reach."

"…"

"…Hop on."

"Okay."

Without a single bit of hesitation, Little Mac got on the Warp Star. He noticed there was a sign behind the Warp Star. To "Fountain of Dreams," it said.

Fountain of Dreams? That sounded like one of the melodramas his mother once went crazy over.

As soon as he hopped on the Warp Star, Samus got on as well. The two sat on the Warp Star as it slowly elevated from the small field of flowers.

And slowly, the Warp Star started moving.

It was a strange experience. First things first, Mac had no idea that heading to the stratosphere would somehow not set him on fire. There was also the fact that the Warp Star somehow did not shake at all, though it did not lessen the anxiety he felt from being separated so far from the ground. He was not an air fighter. His only remarkable experience in the air back at Earth was bungee jumping, and even then, he screamed like an idiot like any fourteen-year old that tried out bungee jumping within the middle of nowhere alongside his family.

He no longer screamed easily, but his soul had yet to stop screaming at how easy it seemed to fall off the Warp Star.

"Don't worry," the bounty hunter pointed out. "Once this thing starts moving, there's a barrier that lets you stay on."

Oh.

The skies turned dark, and soon, Mac was surrounded by stars. He was still breathing, much to his own surprise, and the Warp Star approached a structure he had never seen before.

Clear, starry liquids flowed out of what appeared to be a giant fountain within the air. The liquids turned into dreamy powder-like particles as it left the fountain. Small patches of grass surrounded one side of the fountain, and old-looking structures stood, unharmed despite obviously being within the Smash contestants' reach.

As the Warp Star hovered over the short grass, the bounty hunter hopped off. Little Mac mimicked her but nearly fell on his face.

"No one can hear us here," the bounty hunter stated.

That did not comfort Mac at all.

Why did she bring me up all the way here? The boxer thought as the blonde remained silent.

He had to admit, the Fountain of Dreams seemed quite the dreamy place. He never really explored the back yard of the mansion and only remembered it due to the Observatory's presence.

As floaty as the fountain seemed to be, something about the place made him feel calmer than usual.

"Little Mac."

The boxer snapped back to reality and turned to Samus. She wore a plentifully serious expression.

"Do you believe in gods?"

For a split moment, Mac thought Samus was one of those "witnesses" that visited his door back at Earth. Remembering that Samus was probably not something like that, he shrugged. He had no idea if they existed, but then again, he heard there was an actual goddess among the Smash Brothers.

"So you are not sure," she muttered as Mac nodded in response. "I see…"

Silence loomed over the two for the next few seconds.

"…Something that is not supposed to be here had resurfaced not too long ago."

The lightweight boxer tilted his head ever-so-slightly as the bounty hunter continued.

"Before you came here, there had been several large-scaled conflicts between the creators of this world and beings from various other sources. Most of us did not know what they were, so we fought them for Master Hand without knowing much context.

"But in a more recent conflict, we thought we found the source of all the things that tried to destroy the balance of creation and destruction in this world. We thought that source was from an entity known as 'Tabuu.' Before you came, we were sure that erasing its existence would allow the creator and the destroyer of this world to regain the balance that once safely held this place together. And before you came, we were sure that our hypothesis was correct.

"But then you showed up.

"And when you showed up…"

…

"…We found out that we were wrong."

Again, confusion attacked the Bruiser from the Bronx as he wondered what he had to do anything with a glove that created an entire world- let alone a separate universe.

"Not long after you arrived, Master Hand showed strange signs of hostility. Many of us came to a conclusion that the source of all the entities that tried to attack us was not destroyed. He showed symptoms similar to the ones he had before he was manipulated by Tabuu. The black dust that came out of him during your debut match was one of those symptoms."

The small amount of clarity killed some of the confusion Mac had, but he still felt puzzled on the entire situation. Samus turned away from him as she closed her eyes.

"But while many have decided that something far from this world is trying to destroy the peace of this world, I thought that it should be very close to us."

…

"I believe that it should be close enough to trigger something within Master Hand."

…

"I believe…"

A bright light enveloped Samus' body as she donned the tanky weapon of destruction known as the Varia Suit. The bounty hunter turned to Little Mac, her visor glowing menacingly as she firmly stated,

"…it is something about you."

And at that moment, Little Mac wondered if Ike left the oven on. "Sorry," he said as he walked over to the Warp Star hovering next to him, "but I think I left the oven o-"

Samus shot the Warp Star off of the Fountain of Dreams. The immensely loud sound of the arm cannon made Mac jump as he stared at the warrior out of both fear and confusion in tip-toes.

"Maybe it is presumptuous of me to think this," she said as her arm cannon slowly moved to Mac's direction.

"But I think you threaten the existence of this place."

Mac wondered if the Fountain of Dreams was always used as some sort of execution site. Many questions rushed through his head, such as why he of all people would seem like a catalyst to some unknown entity he had no idea of. But the one he wanted to ask the most was,

Can I still go home?

Author's Notes:

Hi, NK here.

Before I start writing the next chapter, I'll answer some of the questions asked by some of the reviewers.

Though Mac knows about nearly all of the Smash Brothers contestants at this point, all characters that are playable will be featured in some way. So if both Wii Fit Trainers exist, for example, then characters like Alph, the Koopalings and etc. will also be featured. I won't get too in-depth with this because there are some plans for unique introductions.

Fights happen in a general 2.5D fashion mostly due to how the stages are layered in the first place. It kind of forces fighters to fight as if they were fencing moreso than outright brawling, but there's still a bit of 3D movement (which explains how fighters can dodge and etc.).

Remember, reviews are like drugs to us authors. If we go high on reviews we get equally high with writing stuff.

Next chapter: "Fountain of Interrogations!"