Author's Note: So yeah, The Hero got released last night. Played him a bit. Not too sure what I think about him. His specials are cool but the RNG aspect to his Down Special is a bit off to me. Meanwhile, I find him to be slower than what I'm used to but not too slow so that trips me up.

Also, I've been playing Fire Emblem:Three Houses which I am absolutely sure has not affected me writing this.

On another note, Cannon Girl shows up in this chapter. I decided on my own name for the character because while I did like the names that everyone suggested, I still couldn't decide on a name from among the ones suggested. I might change her name because, well, you'll see.

One more thing. I decided to use only one Hero in SWOL but I wasn't sure which one to write in. Basically, since not everyone is able to access polls on my profile, I decided to use strawpoll. Since I won't add Hero for, maybe, another 5 chapters, I'll leave the poll open for votes until then. Link's at the bottom of the chapter.

Review Responses:

Elysium: I guess you're right. SWOL does update more frequently than other fanfics but I think that's more or less because of how small the chapters are compared to others. I am planning to add a Brawler later into the story but that might not be until, maybe, Chapter 30-ish at best.

Guest: My thoughts about Hero were above but about the rumors, I thought that Hero would get released the 31st. I guess I'm happy that I was wrong. As for the chapter title you suggested, it's pretty cool but I don't want to just copy you.

Chapter 25: Knock-Out!

"Come on! Dance like a fly and bite like a mosquito! You can do better than that!"

I punched again, hitting the pad that Doc Louis, a portly man in a tracksuit and the Dojo Master for the Dojo, held. The Dojo was actually a Gym. No styles to be learned, just getting stronger.

"I barely felt that! Put some more oomph into it!" He said.

"What do you think I'm doing?" I muttered as I kept punching. Someone tried to hold back a laugh as my punches were mostly ineffective.

I stopped, turning to see Crazy leaning against the boxing ring's ropes. She had her hair pulled into a ponytail and a twinkle in her eyes. I called out, "Well, why don't you come in ring and I'll show you how hard I punch?"

"I think I'm good," Crazy answered, a smile plastered on her face. She turned to Doc, "Why don't you guys take a break? The two of you have been working out for a while."

"All right then." Doc exited the ring while I walked over to where Crazy leaned.

"What's the point of this?" I asked her. "I have weapons so I don't need to rely on punching. And even if I do lose my items, I've been fine without practice so far."

Crazy's smile dropped into a scowl. "Is that why you weren't taking it seriously?"

"Um, maybe."

She pointed over to where Doc stood. Munching on a chocolate bar, he stared at the wall where several framed pictures were, hanging on the wall. The pictures weren't the only thing that was hanging on the wall. In the center was a belt. Too massive to normally be used for pants, it was made of leather and a massive gold, shining buckle.

I turned my attention to the pictures. Some showed the boxer from earlier in various training exercises. Hitting a punching bag, running, jump rope. The other pictures showed Doc and Little Mac holding up the belt that was on the wall.

"Doc's a bit down cuz of the whole Galeem killing all the Smashers thing," Crazy explained.

"He trained Little Mac?"

"No, it's clearly Bowser." Crazy gave me light punch to the shoulder. "But yeah, Doc used to be a boxer, then he coached Little Mac who then went on to win a championship."

"Huh, neat."

A weird look showed up in Crazy's eyes. "That's what put Little Mac on our radar for the tournament."

"Then what did the Yoga Instructor do to get into the tournament?"

"Oh, them." Crazy got a sheepish look, "Some of the Smashers weren't getting enough exercise in between tournament rounds so we hired a yoga instructor as a solution. They also doubled as nutritionists to help with their diets."

"And they could somehow fight?"

"Hey," Crazy said, shrugging, "we needed all the help we can when Master Core woke up so my brother and I gave them the ability to fight."

I looked back at Doc. All the Smashers had loved ones, and it wasn't just them who were caught in this fight against Galeem. All the Spirits were as well.

"You're caught up in this too," Oblivion asked. "Did you ever ask if you wanted to fight in this war?"

"Doesn't matter if I asked or not, I'm here now."

"And what about your family, how does this affect them? They might think you're dead in a ditch somewhere."

"Oh, look at who's Mr. Pessimism all of a sudden," I thought back. "I'll deal with that after Galeem's dead."

"Galeem's more powerful than a god. Do you even know how to kill him?"

I took a deep breath, slowly clenching and unclenching my fist. "Oblivion, you're kinda putting me in a bad mood. If you really want to know my plan for when we meet Galeem that badly, it's to hit him until he stops moving."

"You okay Nathan?"

Crazy's voice broke me out of my conversation with Oblivion. "I'm fine. Just thinking about stuff. Why?"

"You look like you're going to murder someone."

"I was just thinking about challenging Clarence to a boxing match. It might cheer Doc up if he sees us wailing on each other like Little Mac in a boxing tournament or something."

The side of Crazy's mouth twitched. "Why not? I'll go get Sword Bro and Piranha Plant."

Yeah. I told Crazy to call Clarence Sword Bro, which she did without much hesitation. That's kinda why he went off to a different room to practice on a dummy.

I put on a pair of red boxing gloves while Crazy walked in. Behind her, followed Clarence and Piranha Plant.

I did a couple of hops while Clarence got ready. "Did Crazy tell you the rules?"

Clarence nodded. "No hits below the waist, no weapons, fists only, best of three rounds."

"Sounds about right." I blinked as something dawned on me. "Wait, how did Crazy convince you to do this?"

A wolfish grin grew on Clarence's face. "If I win, you stop calling me Sword Bro."

"Fine." I threw out a practice punch. "But if I win, you're gonna give me some of those sword lessons I asked you about."

"When was that?" Crazy asked.

We ignored her as Clarence agreed to the terms. Doc rang the bell and we started the first round.

Clarence dashed, starting with a right hook. Ducking under Clarence's arm, I hopped back out of his reach.

Moving forward, Clarence threw out several more punches. I avoided them by jumping back further.

"You do know that you're going into a corner, right?"

"Excuse me?" My back hit the corner ropes right as Clarence was in the middle of another hook.

I lunged forward, jabbing Clarence in the face. He stumbled back and I gave another punch in the chest to push him back further. As Clarence reoriented himself, I moved to the side, away from the corner. "Come at me Sword Bro!"

"Why did you do that?"

"Do what now, you soggy tortilla chip."

Clarence answered with a glare, "You could have kept punching me. You had the advantage when you knocked me back so why didn't you follow through?"

"You do know that this is only the first round, right?" I put my hands up as I approached. "Let's just take our time."

Clarence rolled his eyes as he looked at Crazy. Turning his attention to me, he lunged forward with a right hook. I blocked as his left hand came up and connected with my head. Then I only saw black.

The sudden change of lighting disoriented me. After a few blinks, I found myself on a moonlit rooftop. At the edge, Markus stood, in his usual black cloak.

"Gotcha M.H. I'll keep watch." He had a hand up to where an ear would be. In his other hand, a pair of binoculars was held up to his eyes. Or the shadowy void where his eyes would be.

Walking up next to him, I traced his line of sight to what he was looking at. Then my jaw dropped.

A magnificent party was being thrown in the courtyard of a magnificent palace, right across the street. People were dressed in fancy suits and elaborate dresses, magicians maneuvered through the crowds and performed close-up magic, there was a full opera, complete with a conductor and an orchestra of all kinds of musical instruments. Servants, carrying glittering, silver plates, delivered sparkling drinks and colorful dishes to the guests. The guests roared with laughter as they danced, drank, and made merry.

Unlike the last dream, this one seemed to be more modern as the buildings were made of brick and the street was concrete. My attention snapped back to Markus as he began speaking again.

"Um, M.H. There's an expired avocado hitting on your sister." He recoiled, turning away with a gasp of pain before putting the binoculars back up. "And she just hit him in the naughty bits. No wonder you call her Crazy."

Markus's head twitched and he muttered something. Speaking back into his earpiece, "No. Nothing's wrong other than Crazy's about to kill a man."

Watching the crowd, someone with white hair began to push his way through, towards a woman in a black waterfall dress who stood over a potato of a man on his knees. Markus sighed, "Here I am on surveillance while they get to have all the fun."

Sitting, he dangled his feet over the edge. "Maybe I should sneak over there. Blow something up."

He put the binoculars up again, "Man, Crazy is really laying into that guy. Maybe I don't need to go over there after all."

Something apparently caught his interest, as Markus turned away from the party to see a shadowy figure break through a palace window.

"Hey M.H. our dear thief friend just broke into the palace. Following now." Markus took a couple of steps away from the edge before running back and jumping.

Hanging in the air for a single moment, Markus burst into a cloud of smoke, dashing towards the broken window. Reforming with a foot on the windowsill, he pulled himself through.

At least he tried to. A foot kicked him out before he can. Falling, he jumped back in the air, away from the window.

The shadowy figure, dressed in a dark cloak similar to Markus's, pulled out a pistol and took aim.

"Wakey wakey!" Cold water hit me in the face, shocking me to consciousness.

"Fudgepops!" I woke up to Crazy standing over me, with a dripping bucket in a hand.

We made eye contact. Shoving the bucket into Clarence's arms next to her, she said, "Clarence did it."

I sighed, "So I lost, huh?"

"Yes. In a single hit," Clarence stated. "You are quite terrible at this."

Before I could show Clarence at how terrible I am at keeping my temper in check, Crazy interrupted. "Anyway, it's time we headed out again. There's more of the city to explore."

"So I don't have time to change into dry clothes?" I peeled off my soaked jacket, scowling at the two.

"I have a spare set of clothes you can wear," Doc added, handing me a red tracksuit. "You can leave your clothes here to dry."

I took the clothes and slipped into a nearby dressing room.

"Clarence is right. If you got knocked out in a single punch, then you might need to focus on training your body more."

"The only reason that I lost was because we couldn't use items," I hissed back at Oblivion. "Nothing more, nothing less."

"So, you're saying you want to fight Clarence, a fully-fledged knight who has trained and become a master of the blade, in a swordfight. You, someone who most likely before coming to this, never has had more exercise than just running a mile at most in school."

"I never said in a swordfight."

"Oh really? In what then, a game of checkers?"

"First of all, I never learned how to play checkers and I feel attacked by that comment. Second, it would be sword vs. Steel Diver." I finished changing and stepped out of the dressing room.

"My money would still be on Clarence." Oblivion always wants to have the last word, doesn't he?

I threw my old clothes into a laundry basket before turning to Crazy. "So, what? We just walk around the city?"

Crazy shrugged, "Kinda. I saw a place earlier that I wanted to check out but then we found this Dojo so we'll check that place out first."

"It will be quite simple." Clarence shrugged his sword over his shoulder. "There are four of us after all. Any fighters we come across will be dealt with swiftly."

"Whelp," I said as Clarence flew off over the edge. "There he goes."

I leaned over the edge, yelling towards the bottom floor, "Hey! Piranha Plant! Oh, never mind. You already caught Clarence."

I turned my attention back to Donkey Kong in time to dodge another punch. Rolling to the side, I kicked, sending Donkey Kong after Clarence as he hit the ground of the construction site. Yep, we're fighting at a construction site.

We've also been fighting for the past hour.

"~It's time to jump up in the air! Jump up, don't be scared!~" A Peach sitting at the top of the steel skeleton of a building, singing a pop song about jumping or something. The problem was that whenever she finished half of her song, a Mario and Donkey Kong fighter would spawn while the Peach would run away when we tried getting close.

"I am getting really tired of that song." Crazy punched Mario in the face, before grabbing him by the ankle and throwing him at another Donkey Kong. The two collided and flew over the edge.

"I dunno, it's kinda catchy." I double-jumped to the top, firing with the Steel Diver. Peach rolled to the side and jumped off the building, dodging the torpedo. Whipping out a parasol, she calmly floated downward.

"Finally!" Crazy took aim with her Staff and fired at Peach. The shot hit her dead-on but failed to end the fight.

"~Spin the wheel, take a chance. Every journey starts a new romance! A new world's calling out to you." Peach sang and she tucked away her parasol. Double-jumping, she landed on a different level between me and Crazy.

"I absolutely hate this Spirit," Crazy said, climbing up to the Fighter.

I dropped down to the same floor, just in time for another DK and Mario to spawn. I grimaced, firing at the two fighters.

DK jumped over while Mario used his Cape to reverse the torpedo. The torpedo hit me the same time that DK threw a punch. I slid back as the ape chased after me. Sidestepping another punch, I grabbed him by the tie and fired another torpedo point-blank.

The ape flew back into Mario and I ran after. Firing one more torpedo at DK, I threw the Steel Diver at Mario before punching him in the cheek.

Both of the fighters got thrown back and Crazy's Staff rang out, shooting both fighters. Thankfully, both disappeared into smoke, leaving Peach defenseless for about another minute. Crazy and I ran at the princess, a shot rang out.

A green blast raced past Crazy and I, hitting Peach. The blast was a direct hit. The Puppet Fighter released the Spirit as Crazy and I turned to see who fired the shot.

"Finally found you-" Cannon Girl held up her left hand, performing air quotes-"Mr. Target."

"Oh, how ya doing Cannon Girl?" I asked.

She thrust the cannon at me, glowing with energy and stuffed with lasers. "Don't you dare call me that."

I pointed the Steel Diver back at her, "The day I stop calling you Cannon Girl, I'll stop calling Clarence, 'Sword Bro.' Got it?"

"Um, Nathaniel," Crazy took aim with her Staff as well. "You lost the bet so you have to stop calling him that. Did that punch give you brain damage?"

"Huuuuuuuuussssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." I put a finger to my mouth. "She doesn't know that. At least let me try and make Cannon Girl a thing."

A laser drove itself into my chest. Thrown off my feet, Cannon Girl screamed at me, "WILL YOU STOP CALLING ME THAT YOU MORONIC NIMWIT! FIRST: CANNON GIRL IS A COMPLETELY IDIOTIC NICKNAME! SECOND: I HAPPEN TO HAVE A NAME! THIRD: MY NAME IS AIMEE YOU MICROSCOPIC BRAINED APE!"

I jumped away to a different floor as she kept firing at me. "Wow, she's mean."

Crazy charged at Aimee, swinging her Staff. Aimee switched her focus and aimed the cannon at the ground. The cannon spewed fire, launching Aimee into the air.

Towards the floor I was on, sadly enough.

"Guess I really am Mr. Target," I muttered to myself.

"Something about this is really bother me though."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked as I took aim with the Steel Diver. Aimee landed and I fired. She dodged the torpedo and took aim. The cannon beeped and fired its own missile.

"Well, where's Joker?" I sidestepped the missile and moved closer to Aimee. She immediately backed off, trying to get as much distance between us. So she doesn't like me getting close.

A shot came up from below, clipping the side of her cheek. Glancing below, I saw Crazy aiming her Staff up at Aimee. Crazy fired again, this time, hitting her target in the thigh.

Aimee backed up, right over the edge. Her foot stepped out into the air. "Woah!"

I ran over, grabbing her left wrist. She regained her balance, albeit with both feet still on the edge. "Why?" She said. "You saved me from falling off the edge. Do you think you're some kind of hero?"

"What? No. I just wanted to push you off myself." I let go of her wrist and shoved her in the chest. Aimee lost her balance and plummeted from the edge.

"Nathaniel! What the hell!" Crazy called up from below.

"What?" I yelled back, "She was being mean! And that wouldn't kill her!"

"Gah!" I looked over the edge. Aimee had landed on Clarence and Piranha Plant, using them to break her fall.

"See, that wouldn't have killed her. I think she is out cold though."

Crazy sighed, "Fine. Let's drag them back to the Gym."

Save File 2: Saved

Party: Nathaniel, Oblivion(?), Crazy, Clarence, Piranha Plant

Items: Nathaniel- Steel Diver, Fire Flower, Beehive x2, Fire Bar

Crazy Hand- Staff, Deku Nuts, Green Shell, Bob-omb, Bombchu x3, Smart Bomb

Clarence-Special Flag

Piranha Plant- None

Smashers: Mario, Link, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Captain Falcon, Jigglypuff, Peach, Bowser, Dr. Mario, Pichu, Lucario, Villager

Author's Theater:

Nathaniel: Her name is Aimee?

MG: Yep.

Nathaniel: And she has a gun.

MG: Sounds about right.

Nathaniel: Crazy, do you have any tape?

Crazy: Sorry. You lost your tape privileges after last time.

Clarence: Do I still have my tape privileges?

Crazy: You never had any to begin with.

MG: Since I'm not getting taped, the link for the poll is:

https: strawpoll. com dp59crwy

Put two slashes after https, one slash after com and remove all the space. This site doesn't like urls. I used the Smash Bros wiki for the names instead of the official video that showed off the Hero and the 4.0 update. Go and vote if you want.