"I heard Little Mac's hands are shaped like boxing gloves!"
"I heard Little Mac punched through twelve buildings to quickly stop a bank robbery!"
"I heard Little Mac has cheeseburgers in his boxing gloves!"
It took him a while to notice, but recently, strange rumors about Little Mac started flying around for no reason.
It all started from when he fought those space pirates. Ever since he made short work of the odd hostilities, people started talking about how "the newcomer" was "interesting" and unique to the scene of Smash Bros. Strange, considering how he had perfectly normal-looking hands and didn't knock over buildings like bowling pins.
Even when he entered the mansion, Sonic walked up to him and asked, "Yo, is it true that you went all 'Punch-Out!' on a god of war before? That's sweet!"
Never did Mac recall boxing with a pale man with red tribal marks and two deathly long chain blades. That was even worse than imagining Von Kaiser with a shotgun.
Truthfully, Mac did not want to stop anyone from talking about him. If they wanted to talk about him, he would not mind. But when things easily blew out of proportion, that was when he knew that some things required moderation.
As the boxer pulled down his hoodie on his way to the cafeteria, his eyes met Falco Lombardi's.
"Hey, your hair stands up straight because they're actually thick quills, right? I totally believed it in that since day one!"
Mac shook his head. When he went past Falco, the pilot remained still with a look of horror as he screamed, "What has my life led up to?!"
While eating at the cafeteria, the male Wii Fit Trainer approached him frantically. Standing behind Mac, the Wii Fit Trainer asked,
"Mac! Is it true that your stomach can only consume burgers?!"
Little Mac stared at the Wii Fit Trainer with an incredulous look- with a burger in hand.
He glanced at his burger, then at the Trainer, whose eyes widened at the burger.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
The Wii Fit Trainer promptly ran out of the cafeteria, his hopes in convincing Mac to get fit like a Wii Fit waning rapidly.
During Mac's training at the gym, Snake walked up to him and asked,
"Do you have nanomachines in your boxing gloves?"
Little Mac shook his head. Snake scratched the back of his head and left the gym without a word.
After Little Mac called Doc Louis at his dormitory, he got up to relax at the mansion's backyard, only to find Palutena standing right in front of his dorm's entrance.
"Hello, Little Mac." The goddess of light spoke with a cheeky smile.
"Ey."
"So, Pit's been talking about all kinds of things about you, but is it true that you can shoot lasers out of your eyes?"
A curious thought entered Mac's head as Palutena eagerly awaited an answer.
Why is a goddess asking me if I can shoot lasers out of my very human eyes?
Nevertheless, he shook his head.
"Oh, phooey," she sighed. "Because if you could shoot lasers, I thought about having you zap Bowser or Ganondorf for me."
"…Goddesses can't use lasers?"
"Well, there are some reasons behind why I don't want to waste my own power on them." Palutena shrugged with a rather mysterious smile. "Sorry for bothering you. Have a good day!"
And with that, the goddess left, leaving Mac utterly confused.
It took him awhile to notice it, but recently, Little Mac realized that almost all of the Smash Brothers were curious about him.
It was easy to tell. They found many of the rumors and theories about him to be believable to some extent. Ganondorf thought that Little Mac had steroids, Robin thought that Little Mac was purposefully holding back an air game, and Lucario of all people- or Pokemon, to be more specific- thought that Little Mac was somehow related to "the Aura."
He found the overall reception to his character to be one giant overreaction at his potency with fighting. In fact, only Ryu, who seemed everything but normal, thought that Mac was just really good at fighting.
Taking a deep breath, Mac stared at the skies, pressing his back against a tree placed near the mansion. He didn't like lying on grass back at New York. There were bugs everywhere, yet he came to tolerate nature more once he faced Great Tiger. The mystical boxer who used magic against Mac once told him to go out and simply appreciate the peace and quiet nature tended to bring.
It felt nice to relax.
He closed his eyes, taking a break from all the training he did to keep his body in check.
A few minutes flew by uneventfully. He continually dozed off as he did not bother with trying hard in staying awake.
When he blinked for the umpteenth time, however, he found himself staring into the eyes of Samus Aran.
Did she scare him? No, but she literally tried to knock the daisies out of him to confirm if he was related to the Swarm not too long ago, so it was natural for him to be wary of her presence.
They remained silent as their eyes continued to lock onto each other. She sat in front of him, her knees pressing against her chest.
"…"
"…"
Mac sometimes wondered if she didn't like him. Fortunately, Link was kind enough to tell him that Samus was just quiet in general. Years of fighting space pirates and enduring a lonely life did things to the way she approached everything, whether it be important or superficial.
That still didn't justify the way she scared him at the Fountain of Dreams, but he let the thought slide.
"Mac," Samus spoke as if to confirm if that was his name or not. When he did not respond, she put up a thoughtful, yet idle look.
She then looked up at him.
"I have a rather insignificant question about you that lingers in my mind."
The boxer nodded, prompting Samus to fire away.
"Are you twenty-five years old?"
Now, even Mac himself paused visibly at the question. It wasn't something a lot of people asked, yet it felt so random coming from a serious bounty hunter like Samus. She seemed serious about the question too, so he could not disregard it as a joke.
Since he quit boxing at the WVBA at the age of seventeen and rested up for two years before reuniting with Doc Louis for "special training" for what would be revealed to be the Smash Brothers tournament, that would make him nineteen years old.
Remaining still at the tree, the boxer answered,
"I'm not twenty-five."
Samus visibly stiffened.
Yet, she continued to remain quiet.
The wind blew gently past them, and Mac felt like something bothered Samus about his age.
"You're… not?"
"Ye."
Samus blinked as she glanced at Mac's built body, then at his relatively young face again.
"Are you in your twenties, then?"
"I'm nineteen."
At his statement, Samus' composure finally broke as her eyes widened.
"…Nineteen?"
"Ye."
The wind continued to blow.
Little Mac wanted to know why Samus thought he was in his twenties, but he decided that being passive in their conversations would work for the moment. Maybe he just looked a bit older than what people thought him to be.
That could be taken as either a good or bad thing. For Mac, it was a good thing, because that meant there was a card he could pull out if someone made fun of his height. At least people would then have to admit that he looked older than his own age because he was skilled or something-
"Well, I was just curious," Samus broke him out of his useless train of thoughts as she stood up. She donned her blue training outfit, which certainly looked easier to move around in than Mac's hoodie.
"Sorry for bothering you. See you later."
The boxer nodded back. Soon, the bounty hunter jogged on, and silence returned to the nature around Mac. He eventually got up and returned to the mansion.
Sitting at Mac's couch with Mac himself, Ike turned to the boxer and blinked.
"A lot of people are asking things about you?"
"Ye."
If there was one person who had yet to directly ask anything about Little Mac, it was probably Ike. Although he continued to slowly learn about the way Mac worked outside of fights, he never directly went up to the boxer to learn more about him. They just got to know each other naturally.
And that was exactly why Mac asked Ike a question that lingered in his head: why were people so curious about him? After all, he was just a human boxer who had less to worry about than most of the other contestants.
Ike visibly brainstormed the answers he could give Mac before he spoke.
"I guess they're just interested in you. You know how some of the contestants here make you curious about just what they're supposed to be?"
Now that he thought about it, Mac never paid attention to the media too much back in his WVBA days. Doc Louis had him covered for that stuff, so all he focused on was boxing.
It made sense why he wouldn't understand it too well. He was just never exposed to people's curiosity without someone around to wall them off for him to train.
So, Mac nodded.
"I get it," he stated.
"You do? That's good to hear," Ike said as he yawned. "By the way, what's for dinner tonight?"
"Beans."
"Aight. Next time, wanna eat out at the sushi bar? Heard that the sushi at this one place I heard of is pretty good."
"Ye."
…
…
…
The next day, Samus, Peach, and Zelda found themselves next to each other at the cafeteria.
It was a lovely day. Master Hand finally got sick of the explosive shenanigans at the mansion for once, so he punched Ganondorf as hard as he could. That didn't stop the King of Evil from coming back with a burning desire to pent his stress against the mansion itself. Things only became truly peaceful when Master Hand caught Crazy Hand passing by and threw his destructive partner at Ganondorf.
Zelda took a sip of tea, Peach hummed as she made an Origami bird thoughtlessly, and Samus stared at her hamburger intently.
After remaining silent for a few moments, Samus sighed.
Princess Zelda glanced at Samus, while Peach turned to the bounty hunter with wide eyes and a heart full of innocence.
"What is it, Samus?" Peach asked.
"You look serious," Zelda pointed out to Samus.
Taking a deep breath, Samus closed her eyes as she leaned against her chair. Her eyes opened slowly as she muttered,
"I'm just feeling a bit tired."
At her statement, Peach's eyes shined as her hands clasped in excitement. "Oh! Then would you like to golf with me?"
"…Er, thanks, but I'm not into golf."
Zelda blinked in confusion. "Wait," the Hylian mused as she put up a thoughtful look, "I thought I saw you trying to hit a golf ball the other day-"
"You saw nothing."
"You can't deny that!"
As Zelda huffed and drank more tea, Peach continued making her Origami bird.
And the day continued to be a quiet day in the mansion-
Suddenly, the sound of two punches colliding echoed across the cafeteria. As a gust of wind blew past the three women, Zelda looked up.
"Ah," she said as she raised her cup. "They're at it again."
Why, of course- it wasn't a normal day at the mansion if Captain Falcon and Ganondorf decided not to duke it out inside the mansion.
"Falcon PUUUUUUUNCH!"
"RrrrrrrrrrrrrAAAAGHHHHHHH!"
It was hard for Samus to think that fighting the same guy over and over again for way over several months could be fun, but Captain Falcon and Ganondorf said otherwise just with their fights alone. They weren't even at the worst of terms, either, which made them fighting in the mansions far less enjoyable for her to be around.
"It isn't a normal day without two men punching each other for no productive reason in the cafeteria," Samus muttered.
Zelda nodded as she sipped her tea. "Indeed."
Meanwhile, Peach smiled openly as she finished her Origami bird.
With the F-Zero pilot and the King of Evil trading blows in the cafeteria, a "normal day at the mansion" was established yet again. Some trained for more Smash Brothers matches, some rested up for the sake of resting, and some were just willing to kill time in particularly smashing ways.
Some, like Mac, just wanted to eat some beans.
Author's Notes:
Next chapter: "Zelda and Link!"