Origins: Sans

It was a few hours past midnight, and all was silent in the Smash Mansion. Those who had arrived had all settled into their rooms, sound asleep. Such was the case for one of the biggest suites in the mansion, where, on the large bed with a luxurious curtained canopy, Mario Mario and Princess Peach lay, Peach snuggled into Mario's chest, and for a moment, the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom was in pure bliss. The bliss snapped as quickly as it had begun when Mario's wrist watch-esque communicator/transporter began to ring. flashing a neon blue light in its center as it did. Peach groaned, rolling off of Mario, scrambling to her side of the bed for one of the many, many decorative pink pillows that were hers placing one of the frilly, gold trimmed pillows aggressively on her head in some vain attempt to stop the noise. Mario meanwhile, sleepily scrambled over to the bedside table, fumbling for a few seconds before pressing the center button. When he did, the metallic face of ROB appeared on the screen. ROB was the night watchman of the technologies that The Hands had invented. As he was a robot powered by a perpetual energy source of an alien nature, he didn't need sleep. That aside, ROB was a prudent, no-nonsense sort, and he wouldn't contact him if it wasn't important.

"ROB?" a tired Mario groaned out.

"Master Mario, I do not mean to intrude upon your sleep cycle, but there's an anomaly that the Core Machine is tracking, which requires your attention immediately."

"Grrgh. I'll be right down-a" mumbled Mario, throwing on a bathrobe as he scuttled out of the suite and down the hall.

The Core Machine Room

It had taken him longer than he would've liked, but Mario finally came through the sliding glass doors of the Core Machine Room, to find ROB staring unblinkingly at a map. Mario briefly glanced up at it, as he could see a blue dot ping-ponging across multiple maps of multiple universes.

"ROB-a….what can even do that?" tiredly asked Mario.

"According to energy signatures I've been able to pick up in the brief time it is immobile, it's almost identical to our Core Machine."

Mario felt a coldness wash over him.

"Conker?" Mario asked, barely able to get the words out

"Negative. Your realm is being monitored, and the energy signature did not originate from there."

"Where did it originate from then?"

"Unknown."

"How much time until it gets here?"

"Seconds, assuming he picks up on our Core Machine's energy signature. Shall I sound an alarm?"

Mario held up his hand, "No. We determine if it's hostile, and we go from there"

"Affirmative.'

Suddenly, a blue light erupted from seemingly nowhere, blinding Mario briefly. When he regained his sight, he saw a short skeletal figure standing on a much smaller version of the circular Core Machine he, Shulk and others often stood in. The skeleton was smiling widely, wearing a blue housecoat, with a t-shirt underneath it, shorts, socks, and house slippers.

"Sup?" said the skeleton man in a slow, apathetic drawl.

"No, I'm the one who asks the questions around here! What I want to know is what's 'sup' with the device you just rode in here on?"

"Oh, this? My friend built it, a long time ago. Just got it up and running today" the skeleton said, in the same drawl.

"Your….friend?"

"Yeah. He…was, a real science genius where I come from."
Mario took note of the stranger's unchanging tone of voice. The guy, whoever he was, was a pacifist.

"Pardon me for asking" ROB interrupted, "But did he also have something to do with the blaster on your arm?"

Mario's eyes snapped to the skeleton creature's right hand immediately. He had a gun mounted to his arm, that almost looked like the blue-eyed face of some horrific creature.

"Yeah" the skeleton responded.

Silence hung in the air, before Mario cleared his throat, "Who are you and where do you come from?"

"My name's Sans. I come from a place called The Underground. I've been building this machine to get out of there."

"Is your realm in danger?"

Sans sighed, "Well, yes and no. The timeline resets every so often. I tried everything, even thought fighting the human might help when they went off, but that didn't even work. Thought it was best for everyone, and me, if I just bounced to the one place with a similar energy signature to my machine. You could say the day to day life was, driving me out of my skull"

Sans' gaze snapped from Mario to a far off gaze at something Mario couldn't see. Mario tried to follow his gaze, but for all he knew, Sans was just looking at the wall.

"So….um…" Mario was bewildered. He'd never met someone like Sans before, "The timeline in your world….resets-a, and you're aware of that?"

"Yes."

"Are you familiar with the Multiverse theory?"

"Dude, I read theoretical physics books for fun. Of course, I know about the Multiverse theory."

Mario once again cleared his throat, "My name's Mario. I lead a group called The Super Smash Brothers. Our public-a persona is that of a multi-dimensional fighting league. But privately we're something of a peacekeeping task force, only getting together when a multiverse level threat appears. The energy source that powers this land, similar to the one that powers your machine, is in the hands of an evil despot, who's amassing something of an army. We plan to conduct a tournament while waiting for dis-a despot to strike. We have a "gunner" role that's got an opening. Would you-a mind joining us?"

"We get to wait until something happens and I get slotted into a pre-assigned roll? Excellent, I'm in."

Sans extended his hand, Mario extended his. The two hands clasped.

Pffffffft

Sans giggled, "Ahhhh, whoopee cushion in the hand trick. Classic."

"Seven stars above" Mario muttered as he stared at his own hand in shock

Again, Sans chuckled, "You're just like my brother."

Suddenly, Sans gasped, jarring Mario,

"So wait, all your tech still works despite the power source being who knows where?" he asked

"Yes. It's quite powerful."

"Rad. Something that powerful could make it so that my timeline doesn't get rewritten over and over."

"Perhaps. After our mission's over, our guy who's more experienced in this might be able to manipulate things."

"Good enough for me."

Mario nodded, "ROB, show Sans to one of the open rooms. It'll take us a couple of days to get everyone settled, so feel free to make yourself at home till then.

"Great." Sans said, "Hey, uh, do you have any ketchup? I'm really hungry."

"Yeah, ROB'll get you a bottle before bed" Mario explained as ROB lead Sans away.

A slacker scientist who plays pranks and drinks ketchup like juice. Man, how'd Hand deal with dis-a crap? thought Mario

Mario dialed a number key. After a few rings, the sleepy visage of Princess Peach appeared

"Is everything okay love?" she asked

"Yeah, there's a skeleton man here who rode in here on a similar device to our Core Machine. He's the newest Smasher, and he wants ketchup."

A pause then, "What?"

"Heck if I-a know."

"Honey, your brain sounds fried. Come up to bed."

Mario smiled. She was always looking out for him. Her penchant for knowing the mental limit of people she loved was impeccable

"I will babe. But do you want a juice or anything to take on your morning run with Wii Fit?"

"Mario, her name's Miss Trainer. Only the Hands called her that.

"Yeah, shoot, sorry. Been reading and re-reading the Hand Protocols lately, got their weird verbiage stuck in my head."

"I understand, you have a lot to think about. Don't worry about the juice my dear. I'll get it myself. You might bring me up a bottle of ketchup by mistake."

Mario laughed, "You know, the way this-a night has gone, that's possible. I'll be up in a minute. Love you, babe."

"I love you too Mario," Peach said as she closed her commlink.

Mario shook the cobwebs from his head, leaving the Core Machine room.

She's-a right, my brain is fried like a good toasted ravioli. Need to delegate my authority I think thought the leader of the Smashers as he trudged back up to the room.