If Ganondorf was the evil guy with no balance on dignity and a sense of humor, Palutena was a goddess who had a good balance of dignity and a sense of humor.

Dr. Mario had once stated that it would not be surprising at all see "a freakin' god join Smash," and much to his (ironic) surprise, a certain goddess did pop into the competition. Master Hand had noticed her presence after the Subspace Emissary, with Pit representing the might of her army in the Smash Brothers tournaments. Convincing her to join was not that hard; sending the message to her in the first place was the hard part.

Watching over Skyworld and living in a mansion packed with fighters did not feel taxing to a goddess like her.

Sitting on a sofa in the first floor lobby, Pit, the captain of Palutena's royal guards, shared his pizza party experience with the long-haired goddess of light.

"And then I got thrown into the ceiling!" He exclaimed, frustrated by the thought. "My head was stuck in that thing much longer than it should have… The pizza still tasted good, though."

"It sounds like you've had fun, Pit," Palutena commented with a wide smile. "You did spend enough time with your friends, right?"

"Huh? Oh right, my friends," Pit blurted out, laughing as he scratched the back of his head. "Well… Shulk was busy talking to people, and Captain Falcon got involved with starting the fight at the party. And Mario was… just not there at all. It's weird; all of my friends were either busy or missing."

Putting up a thoughtful look, Pit glossed over the events of the pizza party before remembering something. "Oh yeah," he added in with a bright smile, "I also met Little Mac! He's a bit quiet, but I think he's a nice guy."

Palutena nodded. Though she had not met the Smash Brothers' newest competitor, she did not hear anything about him being a mean or arrogant person. He always went out for a jog at the morning, practiced his boxing before he ate lunch, and sort of vanished for the entirety of the afternoon. Every once in a while, he would jog in nighttime, according to some of the other Smashers.

"Just a quick question," Palutena asked curiously, "but how tall is he?"

The brown-haired angel blinked before muttering, "Now that you mention it, Lady Palutena, he wasn't as 'little' as his name made him out to be." His expression turned into somewhat of a jealous pout as he added in, "Robin said he's a bit taller than me, actually. Bowser had the nerve to call me 'Little Pit'…"

The goddess of light giggled. "Well, 'Little Pit' doesn't sound that bad!"

"Oh, not you too, Lady Palutena!"

As Pit fell into his humorous despair, the goddess of light thought about how the pugilist could set up a good example of preparing for Smash Brothers battles- and fighting in general. It would do the angel well to train his stamina by jogging and exercising, considering that he was unable to run quickly for an extensive amount of time.

"Say, Pit," she said with a small smile as the angel perked up. "What do you think about jogging every morning?"

"…Jogging?"

Little Mac had heard of stories about Greek gods and the like.

It was when he was young that he first heard about Greek gods. His father would share stories of the gods once in a while, though it was only later that Mac found out that the gods were not… completely pure and honorable and all of that good stuff. But they were generally considered as heroes and had human qualities to them. Most of them were, at least.

Picking up a pencil, Mac did the one thing that looked most irrelevant to his life.

Math.

Of course, he was no genius. As an eighteen-year-old boxer who retired from his WVBA career at the age of seventeen, he was nowhere on the level of those who aced Advanced Placement tests. But according to his parents, his math was pretty decent compared to most other boxers. "I like it when you take a break and sit at your desk," his father would praise him lightly. "It makes you look smarter than my childhood as a whole."

Whether that was supposed to be a massive self-diss setup or just one big compliment would remain unknown to the pugilist.

He solved random problems to keep his brain running. Math was definitely not a forte of his, but it certainly helped his mind stay awake. Solving problems for an extensive time tended to fry his brain, though.

After a few more minutes with some problems, the dark-haired man set his pencil down and got up from the table in his bedroom.

It was time to go jogging.

Putting on his pink hoodie, the boxer closed the dormitory door on his way out as he walked up to the entrance of the mansion. Stretching his crossed arms, Little Mac jogged out of the mansion.

The dark grey blue skies greeted him more than any other skies. Jogging down the same route he always went to, Mac blankly kept his gaze in front of him.

A couple of months after he first began his boxing training, Little Mac had come across a stray dog. At first, he simply believed it to be a dog that frequently wandered around the place without its owner. Time passed enough to make him realize that such was not a pleasant case, for the dog always returned to its home in an alley down at the Bronx.

Every day after he found out about the dog's whereabouts, he tossed a handful of biscuits at the dog's direction without informing his coach about its presence during his jogging sessions. It was all he could offer, for he was in no real position to take in a pet at that time.

But then things got better as he gave more and more biscuits to the stray thing. As his household's status steadily rose through his father's hard work, the quality of the biscuits Mac collected for the dog improved as well. And eventually, the dog began to notice and follow Mac a bit before returning to its home every time he jogged past the alley.

Ironically enough, his parents picked up the dog during a joyride with a new car and asked Mac if they could keep it. He did not say anything about meeting the dog before, though it recognized him pretty quickly. His parents thought he was just a natural with pets.

Not really.

The pugilist continued to jog, huffing quietly as his legs picked up a bit of speed. His body and the air around him steadily grew warmer.

Turning at the end of his route, he jogged back to the mansion's direction. On his way, he saw Pit jogging with his usual attire on. As soon as he noticed Little Mac, the angel brightened up and waved fervently at the American.

Little Mac gave Pit a brief wave of a hand as he continued jogging. He met the angel again when he turned and jogged down the route again, but the more he jogged, the longer it took for the angel to pop up. By the time he completed the route for about a twelfth time, he found Pit remaining still near the mansion, breathing heavily for air.

With his hands in his pockets, the lightweight boxing champion waited for an angel- a supernatural being that was from an otherworldly and ethereal source of existence- to catch his breath.

Mac expected every supernatural being to be a million times better than humans in every aspect. It seemed like that was not the case (thankfully); otherwise, he wouldn't be contending in the Smash Bros tournaments.

Standing still, the boxer continued to wait for the angel to recover. They jogged together as soon as Pit recovered, though the brown-haired warrior seemed to have a better time when Mac jogged alongside him with a slower pace.

"Wow, you're really good at this," Pit commented as the two passed by a park. "You must've jogged a lot, huh?"

"Practice makes perfect," the male Wii Fit Trainer stated as he jogged next to the two.

The lightweight boxing champion nodded as he-

"Huh?! When did you get here?" Pit echoed Mac's thoughts out loud.

With a small smile forming on his pale face, the Wii Fit Trainer responded, "I actually jog every day in the morning. It is a good conditioner for my body to prepare myself for every day."

As soon as the Wii Fit Trainer stopped talking, a certain feminine Wii Fit Trainer screamed at the pale man, "Give me back my exercise ball! GIVE IT BACK TO ME!"

All three of the men glanced at the enraged woman before turning back to the path they were jogging at. Unbeknownst to them, they were running out of pure instinct.

Saluting at the angel and the boxing champion, the man confessed with the same smile he had earlier,

"I blew something up on accident. That explains why I'm running right now."

Mac and Pit opened their mouths ever so slightly as they let out a silent "Oh," nodding as the Wii Fit Trainer picked up speed from his female partner. They promptly returned to jogging as soon as the two trainers were out of sight.

Mac thought that Pit jogging with him was just a one-day thing at first. The brown-haired angel did make it out to be like that.

The next day, Pit jogged with Mac again.

Little Mac did not know why Pit decided to suddenly start jogging with him, but it did not hurt his training routine. Instead of following an overly intense pace like before, Pit started off the jog with a more balanced and controlled pace.

He had the tendency to lie down on benches whenever Mac rested, though. From what he knew, lying down actually extended the amount of time people needed to rest up during sports and the like. The boxer simply sat on the bench, taking slow breaths.

To him, jogging would always be hard. No matter how far or long he could jog, there was always a limit he could break whenever he jogged. Limits were meant to be broken, after all.

Pit improved a bit more on the following day; he followed Mac's example a bit and prevented himself from falling to the temptation of lying down after a jog. And he slowly gouged out some of the flaws he had in his breathing technique, letting him inch a bit closer to Mac's jogging skill.

It was interesting to watch the angel improve step by step.

After another jog, Little Mac walked into his dormitory. He looked up from the ground and let his eyes fall upon a cardio-exercise-addicted Ike on a training mat in front of a television.

And some green-haired woman with a freaky lightshow hovering behind her head. She sat on the armrest of his couch, waving at him as soon as she noticed him.

As soon as the boxer took a step forward into his dormitory, he twisted his body and left it, closing the door behind him as if he meant to just check up on his place.

That was the goddess Samus talked about, right? Mac wondered as he walked away from his dormitory. Why is she inside my dormitory? Did I touch some random relic and make her angry?

Unfortunately for him, the goddess knew how to open and close doors as well. He felt warmth press against his shoulder as he slowly turned his head around.

Palutena, the Goddess of Light, stood with a small smile with her hand on his shoulder. "Hello, Little Mac." She said as her smile widened a bit.

OH SHI-

"Hi."

"In case you're wondering, I'm not here to eat you or something," Palutena laughed lightly. "I just wanted to meet you."

"…For?"

At his curiosity, the goddess said, "You have met Pit already, if I am not mistaken."

The boxer wondered if he should answer honestly, but he nodded by pure instinct before he properly thought about it.

"Pit's been talking a lot about you! So I just felt like visiting you for a brief moment."

"Oh."

He should have known. The instant moment he saw her, he got the "heavenly" vibe from her.

One may ask, But Little Mac, wouldn't you feel shock and awe at the presence of a god?

Well, surprise- he already was in shock and awe.

He had gasped many times in his life. Like any other human being, he had his expectations of things around him shattered many times. As he stretched out the extent of his boxing training, however, he quickly hardened his heart and determined himself to never show fear to those standing across the ring.

It ended up becoming a thing that also existed outside of the ring.

"I hope he is not being a bother to you," the goddess said to him. "Pit is a kind and treasurable angel; it's only natural of him to try getting along with others. As long as they don't look too scary, of course!"

Scary things…

There were some people that just naturally looked scary, but sometimes broke their own visual stereotype with a kind soul tucked away under a tough exterior.

Then there were monster-like things that looked scary in every single abnormal fashion. So far, none of such things showed any signs of friendliness with him.

"Ye," he agreed with a nod.

Her smile seemed to have an obligatory tension to it, but it slowly faded the more Palutena observed the boxer. He was not that much of a far cry from the typical "quiet person" category, but he still listened to what others had to say- even if he did not know of them that well.

It was no wonder Pit kept chanting about making a new friend.

Before she was able to say anything else to Mac, however, someone walked down to the basement. She turned to the person in particular as her smile turned into an idle expression.

Solid Snake remained still, standing at the very end of the staircase as he stared at Little Mac and Palutena. He glanced between the two with an indecent magazine in-hand.

Wondering why they were staring at his hand, the man in a tight combat suit glanced at his magazine before looking back up.

"I am a very healthy man," he simply said.

"Yes. Yes, we can tell," Palutena responded with her smile intact, though it was clear that she did not find him to be amusing.

"Anyway," Snake muttered as he glanced between the boxer and the goddess of light, "has anyone seen a 'Palutena' here? I just can't find her because she almost has no existence in the-"

"That would be me."

"…Oh."

Snake flicked a thumb and lazily pointed behind him as he mumbled, "Master Hand says he wants to talk to you about something. Has to do with your Sky Pong Kingdom or whatever it was-"

"It's Skyworld."

"…Egh, that doesn't roll off my tongue that well-"

"Ｓｎａｋｅ."

Rolling his eyes, the stealth specialist smacked his head to remind himself that he was talking to a god. "But yeah, you should go," he added in. "Though it doesn't seem to be urgent, Master Hand's tone seemed to be a bit serious. Maybe it's about something related to you, I don't know."

After putting up a thoughtful look, the goddess of light turned to Little Mac as she stated, "Looks like we would have to share a conversation another time. It was nice to meet you."

"Ye."

As the goddess of light walked out of the basement, Little Mac stared at the light hovering behind her head. It glowed like the pretty little thing it was.

He wondered if she had the option to toggle it on and off. It would suck if she had to deal with it during her sleep.

With the green-haired goddess gone, Snake sighed as he let go of the bit of tension he held. Not that he felt intimidated by her or anything, but she still packed a punch and left little room for others to equalize the favor.

"…Mac," Snake said before he left the basement. "I don't have anything against many people here, and you're not one of them. So I'll just tell you one thing."

The boxer nodded.

"That woman is a nightmare to deal with. Don't get too involved with her. She tries to manipulate others' minds. Your brain. Your braaaaaain. She looks all smiley and happy and pretty and all of that wizbiz, all the while preparing magic cannons and telekinetic sh#$ to whoop people's butts. It's like a conspiracy; she giggles while chasing after Bowser with an angelic chainsaw. What kind of goddess carries a holy chainsaw?! That's how crazy she is. She's cray-cray from heart, and cray-cray to bone. I heard she actually enjoys being dominant over others, and we all know what happens when someone with her personality takes the seat of dominance. She's psychotic, almost. You and I, we're normal compared to her- even with your freakish strength and my ability to look through fifty magazines in two minutes. You understand me?"

Little Mac blinked. He opened his mouth and let out a simple,

"Wut."

Shaking his head, Snake muttered, "Whatever, that's just my way of helping you a bit. I'm out."

And with that, Snake left with his magazine.

The lightweight boxing champion stood for a few seconds before walking back into his dormitory. "Is she gone?" Ike asked as Mac entered. The Radiant Hero got up from his cardio workout, drenched in sweat as he wiped his face with a towel.

"Ye."

"Sweet. Wanna eat some burgers soon?"

The boxer shook his head as he went over to the fridge. "I'm making tortilla pizza."

"Wow, that's even better."

"Ye."

They ate tortilla pizza. It was good enough to make Ike slam his fists against the table and snap it in half. Little Mac used one of his table's pieces as a plate, and it somehow made the pizza taste better.

Author's Notes:

Next chapter – "Let The Battles Begin!"