Peach did not get much sleep that night. As a consequence, she awoke to the beeping of a clock. Not remembering having a clock on the bedstand, she rolled over and yelped in surprise upon seeing R.O.B. there.

"Please prepare for today's tourney," it instructed her, and turned away to leave the room before she could reply.

Once her heart stopped racing, she pulled on her dress and tore a brush through her hair. She checked the heavy bags under her eyes, decided she wasn't going to bother with makeup today, and left to find something to eat. Her sudden adrenaline rush made her even more tired, and she didn't even conceal her yawn as she walked into the main room.

"Hey, Peach! You look like you could use some coffee." She turned to see Pit offering her a mug.

"Oh…why thank you…" she said sleepily as she sat down and took a sip. It tasted like dirt on fire and she had to use every ounce of her princess training not to spit it out across the room. "Ummmm…did you make this?"

"No, DK did." Pit motioned to Donkey Kong, who gave her a thumbs up. "He makes it really strong. You should wake up in no time!"

"Thanks so much…" Peach said with a smile, then wondered if she could convincingly make sipping sounds to fake drink the foul brew she held in her hand. DK lumbered over and reached out his hand, offering a banana. "Why, thank you!" She accepted with much more enthusiasm.

Peach looked around the room. Wario was floating asleep in an inner tube in the pool. Pit was eyeing the tourney board and taking notes. Samus and Ganondorf sat deep in discussion on the other side of the room. Bowser and Zelda were nowhere to be seen. She glanced at the tourney board and realized Bowser was already participating in a fight.

DK tapped the table to get her attention, then hooted and motioned Samus over. Samus walked up to her and said, "Might we speak with you?"

Samus's computer-voice creeped her out, but Peach noticed a pair of eyes looking out through the visor. He's not just a robot…there's a person in there!

"Yes, of course. What do you wish to speak about?"

"Strategy. You, I, and DK are in the next round. Our competitors are all new, so we don't know much about their fighting styles."

Peach felt her blood run cold. "I see…"

Samus nodded toward her. "I noticed you have a floating ability. The next setting is an open-floor board, so you would be best off staying as high as you can. You can then also give us anything you observe about the other fighters."

"Open-floor?"

"There is no floor, only platforms. Falling to the bottom is an instant game over."

Master Hand really has it in for me, doesn't he? She thought in a panic. New people, difficult board, and one of the two people I'm with can't talk. Not to mention the fact that Zelda hasn't come out of her room since the new guy came…

She gave Samus a pained smile. "Well, I don't have any strategy of my own, so I'm more than happy to go with yours."

DK slapped a copy of the tournament board on the table. He pointed to the names on the opposite side of the bracket: "Sonic", "Roy", and "King Dedede".

"Roy is from Marth's world, and likely has a similar fighting style," Samus explained. "King Dedede is from Kirby's, and all I know is that he doesn't float or assume others' powers. I have no idea what kind of being or fighter Sonic is. I suppose we can watch for moves associated with speed or sound."

Peach nodded. "I'll watch them and tell you what I see."

They heard a short set of tones that indicated the current match was over. Bowser walked in rubbing his neck. "Man, don't ever go up against Pauletina when you're partnered with Pikachu. Fire and lightning don't affect her at all. Fox didn't even get to do anything."

Samus motioned for Peach and DK to follow. Peach swallowed hard and gave Bowser a wave and smile as he shouted some words of encouragement. She wrung her hands with anxiety. Just float at the top…float at the top and tell the other two how to fight…

They stepped through the door, and Peach felt so taken aback by the scene in front of her that she almost turned around and fled. The entire stadium had a reddish hue, set against black with flame and wires visible on all sides. A smattering of small platforms floated in the air, the highest quite farther up than Peach had seen before. At ground level a great chasm yawned before them. DK scratched his head and looked apprehensive; but Samus did not seem bothered at all. Peach wondered with a shiver if this was the type of place he was from.

"Let's welcome back Samus, Donkey Kong and Princess Peach!" Master Hand announced, accompanied by the cheers of an unseen audience. "And let me introduce three new fighters!"

Peach narrowed her eyes to watch the newcomers react to their names as Master Hand gave a background that said nothing about their abilities. "Roy" did indeed look similar to Marth, like a warrior prince from a fairy tale, but all in red instead of blue. "King Dedede" looked about as unassuming as Kirby as a large penguin, but Peach could not miss the huge hammer he carried. "Sonic"…she couldn't place. A…porcupine? With a mohawk? And sneakers? He didn't carry a weapon. Was he going to try to stick them with quills?

With a shout from Master Hand, the match began. Peach's head snapped up to the platforms above her and she immediately began jumping them one after another. Platforms are ok, I can do platforms…not all that different from the Mushroom Kingdom…

With a couple more to go, she felt a rush of wind like a physical force pass just to the side of her. It knocked her sightly off balance and she fell to her knees, clutching at the platform behind her. She followed the blur of movement and turned just to see Sonic hit the side of the wall, curl into a ball, and come rocketing after her.

Peach yelped and dodged just enough for him to miss. She rolled over the platform and grasped it with her hands. Hanging there by her fingers, she could see Sonic hitting the other wall for another round. With every once of strength she had, she heaved herself up onto the platform and leaped for the next one. She could feel her hair and skirts whip around her after the next cannonball. Finally she reached the top platform and turned to face him.

Sonic bounced off the wall and came hurtling toward her. At the last minute she leaped out into space, opening her umbrella. She watched Sonic fly by with a surprised expression, then hit the top platform and slide off. He scrambled but lost his foothold on the one below it, and then the next. Finally on the next one and stopped, considering his next move.

Peach floated at a dizzying height, trying to find Samus and DK in the flurry of activity. "Sonic is too fast! He can't stop!" she shouted down as loud as she could. DK was engaged in what looked like a slap fight with King Dedede. Roy chased Samus with sword drawn, as Samus kept his distance with his arm cannon loaded.

Peach turned just in time to see Sonic make another flying attack. Unable to react in time, she lost her grip and fell.

Before she could even think, she summoned her umbrella again and hung in midair. Sonic made another pass and she fell again, this time on purpose. As she landed on a platform she pulled up a turnip and hurled it at the back of Dedede's head. It hit and DK laid him out with a punch when he turned around to see who hit him.

She heard a shout and jerked her head upwards to see Roy leaping toward her with sword drawn. She jumped out into space again, opened her umbrella again, and make a short click of the tongue when she realized the platform she'd landed on was the bottom one. She tore her gaze away from the bottomless pit and leaped to a higher platform to her right.

To her dismay she heard Master Hand announce, "Looks like our bottom-rung fighter is clawing her way up! Let's see how she and the others fare with a visit from…Ridley!"

Peach looked wildly around for another player, with no idea what it would look like. Suddenly a massive earthquake shook the board as well as the floating platform where she stood. She looked down in consternation to see something dark emerging from the black hole beneath them. Her hair stood up on the back of her neck and she couldn't even react as an enormous creature thrust itself upward, then found herself staring face to face with a dragon!

This dragon made the Koopa King look soft and cuddly in comparison. It was all hard angles and sharp lines, in a deep purplish black like the color of a bruise. It stared at her with wicked little black eyes and made a hissing sound like an angry snake. It opened its mouth to swallow her whole just as she opened hers to scream.

Suddenly she felt herself being hurled to one side, and fell on a platform hard on one shoulder. She looked up to see Samus standing where she had been a second ago, an enormous charge forming on his arm cannon. He fired and Ridley shrieked in pain and anger, a sound that nearly broke Peach's eardrums. It raised a clawed hand and raked Samus across the chest, then raised its other arm and struck him hard. Samus slammed hard into the side of Peach's platform.

Suddenly a series of things happened, seemingly in slow motion. The robot suit shattered, and amid the flying debris Peach could see the shape of a human being. She reached out as far as she could and made a wild grab, snatching someone's hand. The next thing she knew, she was staring down into the face of a blonde woman in a skintight suit.

Peach could feel the woman's weight pulling her downward. She was yelling to let go, but Peach could not. She couldn't open her umbrella with both hands gripping the hand of another. She could feel herself sliding forward and then down toward the dark chasm…

Wham! Peach felt herself hit something solid. She opened one eye to see an empty gray chamber.

"What a performance!" Master Hand shouted to the cheering crowd, even though there was no longer any platforms, red walls, or giant hole. "DK floored King Dedede, Roy got backhanded by Ridley while he attacked Samus, and Sonic fell below after running out of steam! Samus rescues Peach and Peach returns the favor! Look at that show of teamwork! Camaraderie! The spirit of friendship! Am I right, ladies and gentlemen?"

More cheers. Samus dusted herself off and offered Peach a hand up. "You're…female?" Peach asked, then mentally slapped herself.

Samus just laughed. "I get that a lot. Are you all right?"

"I…think so." DK clapped and gave her another thumbs up.

"All right everyone! Time for the next match!" Master Hand spoke now in a quieter voice without the cheers. "Rest up, everyone! And good work to our new fighters, in their first battle!"

The three fighters walked back into the lobby. Bowser immediately ran up to them. "Peach! You jumped two ranks!"

"I…did?" She still felt out of breath.

"Yeah. You get extra points for helping a teammate. I knew you had it in you!" He gave her a slap on the back that nearly knocked her over.

"And you lost a rank." Peach turned to see Ganondorf scowling at Samus with arms crossed. "You must have attacked a prop again."

"A prop? You mean that dragon? It looked pretty realistic to me!" Peach piped up in spite of herself.

Samus scowled back at Ganondorf, but didn't look insulted at all. "Ridley and I have a long history. "

"You must have known it wasn't the real thing."

"It took me a split second to recognize that when I saw it attack another person."

"Hmpf!" Ganondorf walked off. "On your head be it, then. Heroic nonsense…"

"What's his problem?" Peach demanded. "Why does he care what Samus does?"

"It's all right." Samus bent down and gave Peach a significant look. "You know, Kings and Princesses like yourself…they don't like being told what to do."

"Hey, Wario! Break open the cooler! It's party time!" Bowser bellowed over the lobby.

Peach stood there for a moment, then sat down at the table, mulling over what Samus had told her. Perhaps Ganondorf didn't want to be there either? That would make him an ally…though she certainly didn't trust him at all.

Then again…in this situation, people who wanted to escape were allies. Zelda had told her to avoid people who wanted to fight. Of course, that meant she shouldn't seek help from Bowser…but Zelda also said she could speak to people who were enemies back home.

Then again, she hadn't shown up since her own nemesis appeared. Peach ran her hand through her hair in frustration.

Bowser nudged her with a soda bottle. "Here, Peach. Congrats on your first win!"

"Thanks…" She opened it and took a sip, then started guzzling the whole thing. She hadn't realized how thirsty she had been until now.