Smash Brothers Odyssey Book 5: Ultimate

by SmashBrosOdyssey

The fifth tournament is underway! Behind the scenes however, Conker the Squirrel has acquired the missing Smash Core and is assembling an inter-dimensional army of villains in a decade-overdue power play to dominate the universe. What havoc will the villains reek? How will Mario, who is now tasked with leading the Smashers, respond?

39. Opening Day!

Lucas of Tasmilly Village awoke to the buzzing of wrist communicators layered in triplicate. The devices of the three boys who occupied the room, himself, Ness, and Cuphead chirped loudly, each blaring a neon blue light which was the only source of light in the otherwise pitch-dark room. Lucas rolled over, touching the device, allowing the alarm screen to give way to the instant messaging field. A message from ROB read:

Please come down to the dining hall for breakfast. The transport to the opening of Smash City will depart in 45 minutes. Opening Day ceremonies are at dusk, where will do procession of the flags, unveiling of the bracket, opening speeches Required group dinner is after.

"Blah," grumbled Ness, who had just seen the same text, "Hope that the City Opening isn't required again this year."

"Hnng, what happens at those?" groaned Cuphead with a big stretch of all four of his limbs, not even having awoken enough to turn off his alarm.

"We all get in a flying saucer and watch the ships that come in from all of our worlds."

"Flying saucer? Peachy keen, that sounds right out of the pulps." Cuphead guffawed.

Lucas grinned. The cartoon boy's ceaseless wonder had made him a delight to room with. Ness, on the other hand, wore a disinterested frown.

"Yeah well, the people I usually invite have been here for every tournament, so it's kinda just…same old crap."

"I mean," Lucas said with a warm, empathetic smile, "You have been around the horn the most of us."

Ness simply nodded, frowning deeply when he read Lucas' thoughts accidentally, a passive-aggressive snipe at taking his family for granted.

"Oh God, I just realized how crappy that sounded."

"Yeah, I came across as mean too."

"No you didn't," encouraged Ness, "Not verbally anyway.".

"I can't help but think about how much I want to be cheered on by my family. Sometimes I forget that not everyone has that problem, ya know?"

"And sometimes I forget not everyone has a loving and supporting family."

Cuphead bolted upright and bed, "I'll leave you two to…whatever pity party this is. As for me, time's a-wastin'!" said the sentient teacup, bolting out of the room.

Ness and Lucas once again exchanged looks, Cuphead's outburst having drawn their attention. Ness noticed Lucas was already smiling warmly at him. Ness admired that about Lucas, his ability to quickly bury petty, accidental arguments. Noticing Lucas blushing at having read Ness's thoughts, they quickly broke eye contact, chuckling nervously as they fumbled into their day clothes and leaving the room. Lucas grunted in shock as he fell into the forming parade of Smashers. Looking around, he saw the same cast of characters he had been standing near on the way to the first all-hands meeting. But unlike that one, which was full of wonderment and cheer, this journey to the dining hall was marked by an uncomfortable silence from veterans and newcomers alike. Ness having bolted into the crowd almost immediately, Lucas had no choice but to let his mind wander out of boredom, picking up stray thoughts along the way.

The tournament bracket makes me nervous! With all these people here, who will we fight? echoed the thoughts of Olimar, who shuffled to The Dining Hall with his Pikmin.

Man, I really hope I don't have to fight my Papa, came the voice of Bowser Junior.

That one unnerved Lucas. Fighting loved ones was something other Smashers had experienced. The first example that popped into his head was Lucina and Robin fighting each other in the first round last time. Perhaps because of the distance he had had from the situation, it was easy to dismiss as something that didn't apply to him. The reality of the situation, however, couldn't be further from that. What if he had to fight Red, or Cuphead, or Ness?

The blond boy shook his head, stowing his fears as he descended the stairs. Walking into The Dining Hall, ROB was there to greet them, "Your seats are assigned, please find the card with your name on it."

As Lucas navigated the enormous table before him, ROB's monotone voice drifted further and further into the background, a chorus of investigative yet droning thoughts flooded him as everyone ambled about, looking for their seats. Telepathy made even tasks as monotonous as these require the utmost of his coping mechanisms. Breathing deeply and shutting the thoughts out, he found his seat. Sonic was already seated to his left, impatiently tapping his foot, "Hate these meetings," mumbled Sonic, "Hate sitting."

"You alright bud?" asked a concerned Lucas,

Sonic huffed, before nodding, "Yeah. Just wish they'd hurry it up. It's not like the vast majority of us don't know what's going on."

Lucas nodded back, "Ness was saying the same thing this morning."

"We can't be the only ones." Sonic whined, "If this is a meeting about stuff us veterans already know, why don't they just pull the newbies aside?"

A new voice piped in, "Because, Mario wants us to do stuff as a unit."

"Oh, hey Diddy," Lucas greeted, his gaze snapping up to the chimpanzee, who had taken the seat on Lucas' happily munching on a banana.

"Where the heck did you get a banana? Thought we all had these power pellets for breakfast."

"Power-?" asked Lucas, taking notice of his plate for the first time.

Indeed, three blinking yellow pellets from Pacman's homeworld sat upon their plate. While Diddy was lecturing Sonic on why it would be unwise to deprive Donkey Kong of his daily banana, Lucas listened to the chatter. To his left were the more senior members of the group, some of the earliest recruits from the Brawl days down into the Melee class. They were quiet, chattering amongst themselves with the poise of professionals. Meanwhile, the right side of Lucas' hearing, which was occupied by those less senior than him, was more aflutter with excitement the further down the table they went. Some speculated what the tournament would be like, others bragged about who could beat up who, while others whined at the lack of the usual dining options.

That reminds me, better try these pellets.

Using the fancy silverware, Lucas cut a piece off, even though he could've popped it into his mouth without thought. His adventure rallying against the forces of Porky had seen him eat many a questionable delicacy, so he took foreign foods with much more caution. He brought the fork to his mouth, taking a bite of the power pellet. Lucas' eyes went wide. The outer shell tasted like a lemon hard candy, but the inside was fleshy like a pineapple, and just as sweet too. Lucas let the taste dance around in his mouth. It felt as though manufactured sugar and the natural sweetness of the fruits that reminded him of childhood were engaged in the world's weirdest waltz. Lucas popped the rest into his mouth quite happily. As the small bite earlier hit his stomach, he felt the empty void of hunger disappear, as if he'd just consumed an especially carb-loaded sandwich.

Woah, talk about protein Lucas thought, impressed at this apparent miracle food.

"So what, can we eat ghosts now?" Sonic asked sarcastically, "Because if so, we've got a ghost in my world fat enough to feed the whole world."

As if on cue, the doors to the hall swung open, Mario and the rest of the Administration Team walked through, ROB joining them to bring up the rear Mario bearing a mischievous smile, "No Sonic, I'm afraid that's specific to the Pacman physiology, but they are a great emergency ration, which is what we're gonna need today. Before we get off on the city opening, I just wanted to quickly introduce on-camera personalities for this event. Our commentary team will be Cranky Kong and 9-Volt as it was last year."

Diddy sighed deeply as the old man hobbled into the room, the young apprentice of Wario, 9-Volt bouncing excitedly at his side. Cranky simply waved at the crew, grumbling something to his young co-host.

"And," continued Mario, "We have the usual interviewing team. Mister Zero from Captain Falcon's homeworld, Rita Richards, the beat reporter from the land of Rhythm Haven."

The doors swung open. A green-haired man wearing odd red goggles and a garish purple suit stepped in. He and his companion, a formally dressed yet disheveled women took their place alongside 9-Volt and Cranky

"Now," Mario said, "We have some new personalities to bring on to the mix. I've always thought our tournaments have been missing pre-fight and post-fight engagement. So, introducing first, from the world of Splatoon, OFF THE HOOK!"

Again, the enormous double doors burst open. The first one through the door was a shorter Squid Girl with pale skin and cream hair with pink highlights. She wore a white dress, pink knee-high socks, and white boots. Her companion, a taller Squid Girl with darker skin, brown hair with blue highlights, and an all-black ensemble befitting of a pop star cut off top, shorts, and black boots started the proceedings.

"Y'ALL KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS!" she said.

"Hey, isn't that usually my line Marina?" asked her companion.

"Thought we'd switch it up Pearl because we'll be COMIN' AT YOU LIVE from Smash City before every round. As you heard, I'm Marina, she's Pearl, and we're…."

"OFF THE HOOK!" the two said simultaneously, striking their signature pose.

As Torri stood up and clapped, Off the Hook took their places in the line up of on-camera personalities.

"Now," Mario continued, "Introducing the post-fight analysis. Going forward, he will be the host of "Coffee with Cait," He is….CAIT SITH!"

From beyond the double doors bounced a fluffy white…bunny…thing, as far as Lucas could reckon. Resting atop its head was a grey cat humanoid.

"Reeve, the hell are you doing here?" moaned Cloud from several seats down.

"They through some moolah my way, and here we are!" Cait chortled.

"Oh, okay," Cloud growled, turning to Mario, "So you only let my friends in Smash City when there's money to be made?"

The veterans' portion of the table went silent, while the newcomers murmured confusedly.

"Look," Mario began, "I should explain, Cloud's history with Smash is… what can-a best be described as uniquely antagonistic,"

"Can I tell my own story please?" snapped Cloud.

Mario simply nodded.

Cloud sighed, and began his tale, " So, after my last fight with Sephiroth I went to Cosmo Canyon for a couple of months to get my head straight. I'm on my way back when suddenly Midgar is before me as if I'd never defeated Shinra, the corporation that almost killed the planet. That's when Kirby, Samus, and Red's Pokemon trio jump me. I beat 'em all, and Master Hand shows up, offers me an invitation to join Smash Brothers. I turn him down. Apparently, I'm the only guy to ever do that, so I piss off the Hand. Of course, bein' the merc I am, I negotiate to be paid a winner's purse as a signing bonus. Hand eventually realizes I'm worth the price, but cause he's pissed off, he decides no one from my world can come watch me fight. After I won the tournament, Master Hand had promised to make amends with me next time. But, then the shit with the Smash Core happened, so I never got that. But now, instead of just letting my friends in, you have one host a show.

"I was getting to that," Mario muttered.

"What?" Cloud demanded.

"Yeah Cloud ole buddy," Cait jubilantly "We're all here."

"All? Do you mean…?"

Lucas' family too, Lucas heard Mario think absentmindedly.

Lucas' heart skipped a beat.

"Where are they?" Lucas and Cloud asked simultaneously, shooting up from their seats.

Mario blinked for a second, his muscles tensing, then relaxing, "Oh, Lucas, I forget that you're psychic sometimes. We found an alternate dimension with your family intact. The Trophy Hotel. A car's already been assigned to take you there. You're excused."

And so, the two Smashers headed out the doors and to the front door of the mansion, where, sure enough, a limousine was waiting.

As the two barreled into their seats, the limo taking off as soon as the doors shut, Lucas thought about saying something to Cloud but decided that, between the far-away look in Cloud's eyes, and never having had a conversation with the intimidating swordsmen, now wasn't the best time. He had his own feelings to parse through. Was it true that all of his family was here? What would he even say to Claus, his mother? He felt the tears of sheer disbelief come on. Just as suddenly, he felt eyes on him. Lucas snapped his gaze to see Cloud staring at him from the opposite end of the limo, eyes glistening with tears held back, giving him a curt, singular nod. Lucas nodded back. So it seemed the two didn't need to speak to know they were in the same boat.

Peering out the window, his heart pounding, Lucas saw it up ahead. The last landmark before the Smash Mansion entrance, The Trophy Hotel was by and large the largest building in Smash City, which was the base for everyone notable to the Smashers' adventures, making it the most elite of the exclusive buildings in the City. Its outward opulence reflected that status with two golden towers piercing the clouds with its sheer verticality Before Lucas' time, the top of the golden, two-towered building was the setting of the "Snag the trophies" event, which amounted to nothing more than a gimmicky game of basketball on a tightrope between the two buildings, where the Smashers juggled trophies into a hoop to promote the Trophy Museum, an extraordinary collection of sculpted figures of the Smashers and their guests, on the main floor, the only part of the building that was accessible to everyone. Every other floor of the monolithic building was invitation-only, except for Smashers who could browse the building as they wished.

Stepping out of the limo, the two passed through the golden automatic doors of The Trophy. Immediately, cocktail jazz music flooded their ears, and top of the line air fresheners flooded their noses. Cloud looked around. On the left stood the enormous golden doors to the Trophy Museum. To his right, a wall lined with expensive bottles of booze in transparent glass cases.

"Heh, and I thought Shinra was tacky," Cloud grunted.

"You mentioned them in the meeting, but I don't quite understand…"

"Corporate bigwigs I had to fight back home," Cloud finished Lucas' thought, "I never was comfortable around opulence before I crossed them, and fighting them just made it worse."

Lucas nodded, "I get that, kinda reminds me of what my town turned into."

Cloud nodded back, stepping up to the counter on the opposite side of the room, in relatively quick strides, "Excuse me, but uh, can you direct me to the elevator?"

"Ah, Mister Strife, we don't have them," said an unknown voice.

Floating down from the seemingly infinite expanse that was the ceiling, a yellow block creature whose only defining feature was black circles around its black eyes appeared before them.

"I am Mister Disk, the proprietor of this fine hotel. Mario rang ahead."

"You didn't answer my question," Cloud growled.

Mister Disk said nothing for the briefest of seconds, his face remaining creepily stoic as he spoke, "Each guest's room is on a need to know basis. They are given wristwatches that, upon typing in…"

"Enough, we have people to see," growled the Ex-SOLDIER once again.

"Don't mind my associate Mister Disk, please continue," Lucas interjected

"Thank you," Mister Disk continued, "As I was saying, each guest is given a wristwatch, and, upon typing in their room code, they are teleported to their room. Guests are of course, given codes for other facilities, such as the gym, pool, shopping area, and our many restaurants. As Smashers yourselves, your watches are already integrated with our software, all you need is…"

Mister Disk winked, and USB dongles appeared in the USB slot of their wristwatches. Immediately, both their wrist watches flared to life. Both of them looked at their watches, "AVALANCHE family? So I just press, the 'Go' button and I'm there?"

"Yes, it's as simple as that," proudly chided Mister Disk.

Lucas was awestruck but what he saw, "Lucas' family,". His finger shook and his heartbeat felt like it was going a million miles an hour.

Am I ready? Will, I ever be ready? fretted the young boy.

Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw Cloud, smiling uncharacteristically warmly down at him.

"It's alright kid. I'm nervous too. There'll be people I haven't seen in a long time where I'm headed too. This isn't a one-time thing either. Everything that needs to come out, will."

"Oh, okay. Thanks, Cloud," Lucas said, breathing in deep to achieve calm.

"Let's do it together," Cloud said, "It'll help me be brave, alright?"

Lucas flashed a sideways smirk, "You, need help being brave? I don't believe that!"

Cloud smirked back, "You have no idea. Anyway, let's count it down. One… Two… Three!"

At the count of three, both of them pressed the buttons that took them to their families. Lucas saw a white flash of light. When the world came back into focus, he smelled his mom's nutbread. And there they sat around a quaint kitchen table, Claus, Flint, and Hinawa.

"MOM!" shouted Lucas,

Everyone looked up. Before Lucas could register Claus speaking first, "Well! Look what the cat dragged in," he teased

"Claus! Be nice to your brother! He hasn't seen you and me in quite a while after all."

Hinawa excused herself from the table, holding her arms wide for Lucas. Tearfully, Lucas ran to her, hugging her tight, which she reciprocated. Claus hugging them both.

"How…how much did Mario tell you?"

"Everything. We're from a universe where Porky didn't survive the transition from his time." Claus explained, "But Mario briefed us on the way over like you said, but the whole "finding out about other timelines" thing that happens when you come here filled in all the blanks. With all that on the table, mom and I couldn't be prouder with how you handled it."

"That means a great deal Claus, thank you," Lucas said, peering over the group hug to make eye contact with a still seated Flint, "What about you Dad? You hanging in there okay?"

"Better than I have in years son."

Lucas nodded, before a wash of cold brushed over him, "Wait, where am…I?"

"Back home with Dad," Claus shrugged, "I guess not having to go on the adventure means that you're still a timid wallflower where we come from. Didn't wanna see the fighting."

Again, Lucas nodded, "I understand. This Smash stuff isn't everyone's cup of tea."

"Speakin' of," interjected Flint, "Ya need to tell me about some of these…weirdos."

"Flint!" Hinawa scolded.

"Don't 'Flint' me! I ain't never been to one of these, like I said when we all met up. Then I find out there's a kid with Lucas' powers from hundreds of years in the past?"

Lucas' eyes lit up, "Oh, Ness? I can't wait for you all to meet. He's my best friend!"

"That's wonderful dear!" Hinawa said with a smile, "Let's start with him, and work our way to some of your more…colorful friends. I figure you already ate breakfast, but maybe you'd like some peanut butter and nut bread?"

Lucas giggled, "Oh boy, would I!"

AVALANCHE Family Suite, moments earlier

Cloud appeared at the end of the room, opposite an enormous table. The first thing his eyes drifted to was Tifa. His gaze drifted first to the center of the table, which seemed to house a miniature mountain of Gil. That's when he noticed the others at the table, Yuffie in Vincent's lap, Cid, Barrett, Marlene, and Denzel had cards in hand.

Cloud smirked, Spades, he thought as he found himself reminiscing on the sheer amount of gill he had lost in Barrett's favorite card game on the adventure.

"Eight books," Marlene happily declared, throwing down her hand.

Annoyed grumbles filled the room, much to Cloud's amusement as those nearest to Marlene helped her scoop the gill over to her.

"Best make sure she doesn't spend the money in one place, Barrett," said a smooth, handsome sounding voice.

"Yeah! Or else we'll have an incident like last year's Chocoboween on our hands," said another voice, the spunky voice of a young woman.

Cloud's eyes widened. So transfixed was his gaze on Tifa, he hadn't realized who else was occupying the card game.

Biggs.

Jessie.

Wedge.

At the head of the table was Zack, Aerith in his lap.

"Yeah," chuckled Barrett, "I never thought she was gonna come down from that sugar rush."

Cloud finally shook himself from his stupor.

"What?" balked Cloud, choking back a cough, "You're alive?"

Inwardly, Cloud moaned Not my coolest line.

No one seemed to care though, as everyone looked in his direction, "Cloud!" everyone cheered.

Marlene and Denzel were the first up. Cloud knelt down as they both ran into a hug from him. Cloud stood up when he felt a tap on his shoulder, "Got enough hugs left for me?" asked Aerith.

The ex-SOLDIER stood, "Need to build up my mana first," he chided.

Aerith giggled as they hugged, "No ethers here, unfortunately."

"Damn it," playfully cursed Cloud.

" There are kids here Cloud, right in front of you in fact," said Zack.

Cloud smirked over Aerith's shoulder, "You haven't been around Barrett very long then."

Zack chuckled, "If he cusses in life like he does when he loses a hand of spades, I get it."

"Hey," barked Barrett, "I didn't come to this thing so that I could get lip service from two spiky-haired asses."

Again, the room flooded with chuckles. Aerith finally let the hug go so that Jessie could hug him.

"Clouuuud!" she cried, squeezing ever tighter.

"Hold it together Jessie," scolded Biggs, "Aerith didn't freak out that bad, and who knows the last time Cloud and Aerith saw each other."

"The City of the Ancients," Aerith explained, "But Zack and I have been watching him ever since then, so it hasn't exactly been a long time."

"A long time since you hugged him though, I'd imagine," piped in Wedge.

"See!" protested Wedge to Jessie, "Aerith was way more calm about it than you were!"

"Aerith's a freakin' saint, you can't hold my thirst to her standards" snapped Jessie, much to Aerith's amused giggling.

"So uh, how are you guys here?" Cloud choked out.

"We come from a timeline where we survived the plate falling. Zack and Aerith come from separate timelines where they survived the nonsense too. At least, that's how Red explained it." Jessie explained.

"Speaking of which, where is the old man?"

"Taking advantage of the quiet with Reeve, who's still doing the Cait Sith thing with the meeting you ducked out of."

"What kinda hero are you, skipping out on a big hero meeting like that?" sarcastically balked Yuffie.

"Heh, I shirked my Shinra duties back in the day to hang out with this one," said Zack, suavely pointing a thumb at Aerith, "So we're more alike than we thought."

"Ugh, both of you are such bad role models," smirked the heiress to the Wutai throne.

"Um…Aunt Yuffie? Didn't you steal their Materia, like Uncle Cid told us?" Denzel asked timidly.

Yuffie's hands curled into a fist in childish indignation, "I told you! I borrowed it."

"Doesn't borrowing imply permission?" dryly teased Vincent.

"Ooooh! Not you too!" Yuffie yelled

Laughter once again filled the room, but a very distinct giggle caught Cloud's attention. There was one person he hadn't said hello to yet.

"Now if you'll excuse me, Jessie," Cloud mumbled.

Cloud picked Jessie up, setting her aside.

"Hey!" shrieked the bomb maker.

"Let the man see his girlfriend Jess, sheesh," grumbled Biggs.

"Not quite yet," said Zack standing up, "You mind if I have some time with Smasher boy Tifs?"

"Not at all. I'll have plenty of time with Cloud later." Tifa said with a flirty wink

"Why is it when she does that it's hot, but when I do it's weird," grumbled Jessie.

"Because you're not his girlfriend idiot!" shouted Yuffie.

Wordlessly rolling his eyes. Cloud extended his hand. Zack gave it a hardy shake, "I'm proud of you kid," he said.

"I mean, Aerith was the one who had the forethought to summon Holy…"

Zack shook his head, "Not just that. You've…improved since the Geostigma crisis. Not nearly as…hey Denzel what was the word you used earlier?"

"Emo," matter-of-factly stated Denzel.

"Yeah! Apparently, that's what all the kids call mopey people."

"Hey!" Tifa suddenly barked, catching the attention of everyone in the room, "Lay off him. He went through a lot."

"No Tifa, he's right," bemoaned Cloud, "I was in a bad place. It took me going to Cosmo Canyon to find myself. And…I'm sorry I took at my emotional immaturity on you."

Cloud brushed past Zack, making his way to Tifa. She stood up, throwing herself into Cloud's arms, " No, it's fine. I wasn't the best partner either. What matters is that you're okay and that you're back. I'm so glad you. I'm so glad we went through all this."

Cloud raised an eyebrow.

"No, I don't mean that in a vindictive way. You know the saying, that it's darkest before the dawn? Without the darkness, we couldn't have gotten here, to the dawning of a new day, so in a way, I'm happy with the path we've taken."

"Me too, now I can finally be the man you deserve. That Denzel deserves,"

A smirk on her face, Tifa pecked Cloud on the cheek, "I always knew you could, from the day you followed me up Mount Nibel."

Cloud returned the smirk and the peck, "That long ago huh?"

"Yeah," Tifa whispered, her eyes sparkling with admiration and lust.

Cloud and Tifa moved in for a more thorough kiss, but a voice from outside the group rang out. "Aye, I'm not interuptin' anything am I?"

Cloud's attention turned in the direction of the suites, to see Reeve finally joining the group, Red XIII walking alongside him.

"Nah, meeting wrapped up?" Cloud asked.

"You bet yer," Reeve began, in his singsong Scottish Cait Sith voice, before clearing his throat and saying in his normal voice, "Yeah. You didn't miss much. Lots of dumb questions, as are typical of meetings like these I'm afraid. Futaba, the orange-haired Phantom Thief is going to offer her predictions before each fight based on the knowledge she has."

"Reeve," Cloud snapped, suddenly deadly serious, "How was…he?"

"Oh, Sephiroth?" Reeve asked.

Cloud nodded.

"Behaved. He looked bored though,"

Cid and Yuffie spoke up at the same time, "Are we…?"

Cid beckoned for Yuffie to speak,

"Are we gonna talk about that?" asked Yuffie, "Sephiroth, on the side of the good guys? Seems fishy to me."

"Well I'll be, the princess says something that ain't snark," joked Cid.

"Hey!" shouted Yuffie.

"He has a point my dear, you've been in a grouchy mood for a while now," mumbled Vincent

"I just lost like, a hundred gill to a six-year-old in spades, cut me a break," snapped Yuffie, slamming her hand down on the table.

"Aunt Yuffie, I'm eight!" whined Marlene.

"So, what's it to ya?"

Cloud held up a hand, silencing the room " It seems like he had a disagreement with the other side. He hasn't caused a disturbance beyond the one I instigated when he first showed up. He's sworn allegiance, for now, even going as far as to let us know if we're something he needs to eliminate later, he will."

"Well, that rouses my confidence," muttered Cid, taking a long drag of a cigarette.

"I know. I'm not exactly about it either but having someone as powerful as him on my side is invaluable."

"We each come from timelines in which Sephiroth has been defeated. With the team operating at full strength, I have more faith in our ability to succeed than I did before coming here," Red explained.

A chorus of agreement flooded the room. As the show of morale ebbed, Tifa spoke up, "So, when do you have to be back?"

Cloud thumbed through the calendar function on his communicator, simultaneously kneeling, and scratching Red where the base of his skull connected with his neck. The already docile animal purred out in approval, "Technically, being at the viewing for the city opening isn't required. I've gotta be back for the big procession at the stadium."

Yuffie flashed her trademark big, goofy smile, "Awesome, so you've got some time. You can take my place in Spades, I'm outta gill."

"Actually," said Cloud, pulling Tifa ever closer, "I think I owe her some time most of all."

Through her childlike grin, Tifa asked, "Actually, Reeve, can you take my place?"

"Yeah Mister I-have-a-savings account, put yer money where your mouth is," challenged Barrett

"Yeah!" Yuffie agreed with a celebratory fist pump.

"Alright, if you say so," smirked Reeve, before glancing over at Cloud and Tifa, "You two have fun alright?"

"Oh, and if you pop one out I get naming rights!" added Yuffie.

"Not on your life, that's Zack and Aerith's honor," disagreed Cloud as he led Tifa to one of the bedroom suites by the hand, Tifa pointing him in the direction of her suite through a torrent of giggles.

When the door closed, Zack broke the silence with "Boy oh boy, the price of spades is steep."

"Protect your pocketbook as a SOLDIER?" Aerith joked as the cards were put in the middle of the table and dealt.

A shit-eating grin plastered itself of Zack's face, "Come and get it,"

Smashcraft 1

Quinn took in the scene before him for seemingly the hundredth time. Whether that was an exaggeration or not, even Quinn could notice the narrowed glances of the villains on board the flying saucer. However, the truth remained that this was no less surreal a scene no matter how often one stopped to breathe. Quinn was in a flying two-tiered flying saucer at level with the top floor of The Trophy Hotel. On the tier in which he stood were most of the newcomers, the only exception being Sephiroth, who had refused to abandon his post. The only veterans who had opted to come along for fun were Olimar and Rosalina, each of who had made remarks about feeling more "at home" on the floor of space crafts. On the tier above them, a makeshift viewing bridge stood the administration team with Luigi Zelda, Peach, Daisy, Bowser, Dedede, Ganondorf, Paliutena, Marth, Roy Corrin, Villager, Isabelle all three Yilssian royals, and both elders of the Kong family. Everyone seemed to be in chatter, but a certain space pirate's complaints were the loudest of all.

"Why are they here?" Ridley snarled, casting a glance up at them at the occupants of the upper floor.

"It just now occurred for you to ask? You're less observant a fool than I could've imagined," taunted K. Rool.

"No, you idiot," hissed Ridley, "Having royalty beaming down at me reminds me too much of a court-martial."

"Have you not realized that that's the connection?" asked Altair to a childish growl from Ridley, "They're dignitaries. They have a stake in whether or not their subjects make it safely to this plain or not. At least, that's my understanding from what Sans has told Quinn and I."

"You get information that isn't nonsense from that buffoon?" Ridley asked indignantly.

"It's a difficult task if the subject doesn't interest him."

"You know I can hear you right?" called Sans from the top tier, "But…you don't care do you?"

The tiniest smirk appeared on Altair's lips, his eyes, hidden by his cowl and by the downward tilt of his head, no doubt afire with immeasurable glee, "No I do not. Not one bit," proudly shouted the assassin.

Small chuckles could be heard as Sans cast his roommate a thumbs up. Ridley piped up again, "Hey! Shouldn't you be up there with the ruling class scaley?"

"Like you're one to talk," King K. Rool shot back, "And if you'll remember, all of my subjects accompanied me here."

"Right, because you're such a loser your people were vagabonds on a submarine for what, two decades?" Ridley quipped.

King K. Rool began to advance menacingly towards Ridley, who adopted his fighting stance. Dark Samus leaped in between them, growling a breathy roar as if the strongest lungs had inhaled into a drive-thru speaker. Immediately, Dark Samus' shock collar activated. Dark Samus scuttled away, and the interruption seemed to startle the two combatants.

"And we were doing so well," bemoaned Shulk with a solemn shake of his head.

"Dark Samus is my associate, and yet you treat her like she's your puppy!"

As the air in the room quickly became polluted with the sounds of Ridley and Shulk arguing back and forth, Quinn saw the opportunity to make his way over to Rosalina, "So are the Lumas outside?"

Rosalina's gaze on the bay window finally broke, turning to him, "Yes, they quite like greeting the ships that come in. The people like it too."

"I can imagine so. It must be like being greeted by a mascot at a theme park as soon as you walk in," said the Mii representative with a nod.

Rosalina nodded back, with a heavenly giggle.

"Indeed!" said the cosmic princess, "That's exactly the rationale The Hands gave when I first joined."

"Same for my Pikmin and I," Olimar agreed.

Quinn's face must have inadvertently betrayed his initial shock because Olimar chuckled at him, "It's my voice isn't it? Yeah, I get that all the time."

"Yeah but uh…" Quinn paused to find the words, "Pikmin are mascots around here?"

"Oh yeah, sure," Olimar said matter-of-factly, "People love growing them as pets, so it's really emblematic of the Smash experience to have a Pikmin or two at your feet."

"Huh, never thought a pet would be something I'd walk out of this with," Quinn stated.

Quinn paused, thinking of a joke, but mulling over if its recipient would find it offensive or not.

Eh, screw it, Quinn thought.

"Hey Rosalina, are your Lumas for sale?"

"No, but I can find you an agreeable deal on a Luma plushie."

Rosalina was suddenly in full-on laughter, which Quinn and Olimar couldn't help but join in on. Quinn once again found himself reflecting on the moment. Rosalina's every emotion was like a supernova of warmth, and damn it, he liked being at the center.

"If we could have quiet please, it's showtime," Marth commanded the newcomers/

"Alright," Mario muttered, rubbing his hands together, and sighing deeply, "ROB, take us through it."

"Zypher ring locked. Main re-block disengaged."

Before anyone knew it, the sky was full of diamond-shaped stargates. Whatever scientific mumbo jumbo brought people to the other side wasn't active yet Quinn guessed, as he could still see the sky through the open holes in each of the near thousands of stargates that faced them. The machines began to whir in synch. The outer rim of each stargate began to flash a neon green, eventually expanding outward in a green circle.

"All blocks confirmed, no anomalies detected," ROB continued, "Commencing energy exposure,"

Each green circle produced beams that centered in each diamond enclosure

"Widening gate lenses,"

With that, each previously opaque circle became a neon green. Aboard Smashcraft 1, the reactions of this spectacle ranged from expressions of sheer awe, to shriek from the brightness of the light.

"All gates have been successfully created."

To the cheers of everyone aboard Smashcraft 1, Mario triumphantly, declaratively, raised his fist in the air, "Alright ROB, give everybody the go-ahead, and take us up."

"Affirmative,"

The ship lurched up just as the first dreadnaughts, brown passenger ships with the Smash logo emblazoned in red, ambled through the portal. Impossibly long ships proudly displaying the logos of countries and corporations alike marched in a seemingly endless aerial parade. The caterwauling of noise was immense, most of it amazement. He heard the peppy, high pitched voice of Haru Okumura gleefully point out the ship with the Okumura Foods logo on it to her friends, the balking of Sly Cooper and Dante, each of which seemed equally befuddled that this many people would come from their homeworld to watch them fight, to the shrill grumbling of Ridley, something about modifying Cornerian technology for this purpose. Above it, all, however, came the authoritative, yet relieved voice of Mario, "Alright everyone, everyone visiting Smash City has a teleporter/communicator device, but only VIPs you specified have been given your communicator number, so some of you might be gettin' calls-a relatively soon. I don't-a mind some phone time, as we've still got a few hours to go before actual Opening Day ceremonies, but if we could not go visit people in the city til after the first-a round, that would be greatl."

"Why did the spikey-haired kid get to go visit his friends then?" whined Ridley.

"Hey dumbass, nobody cares about what you think!" Daisy finally barked.

"Dear…" gasped Peach, whose nerves looked like they'd only just to begun to dissipate after the mass arrival, only to shoot back up again.

"No Peach, you said I hadta put on my princess face for everybody coming through, now that's over, now it's back to the real Daisy!"

"Oh, because everyone loves you being a loud shrew sooo much," sarcastically cooed Ridley.

As everyone erupted into an argument, Quinn saw Sans elbow Marth, whisper something into the prince's ear, and disappear upon the prince's approving nod.

Smash Mansion: Sans, Altair, and Quinn's Room

15 minutes. 15 minutes Sans had waited since exiting Smashcraft One. The skeleton's normally level breathing trembled.

"This is already gonna be the worst conversation of my life, and making me wait is gonna make me feel soooo much better ya old goat bastard," he ranted to no one in particular.

No sooner had the last syllable of the last word left his mouth than did his communicator ring. On the screen came the warm, kindly face of Asgore Dreemur, the former King of All Monsters.

"I apologize for the delay my friend," bemoaned the grandfatherly voice of Asgore, " It took me forever to get to the cargo hold so I could make this call quietly. Papyrus and Frisk wanted to talk to you so badly, it reminded me of when Asriel would climb on me when he was.."

"Spare me your fatherly anecdotes," barked Sans, "We both know why we're here,"

Asgore's face darkened, "That we do. So, what do we glean from them, these Smashers?"

Sans shrugged, "Dunno. Mario didn't outright reject me wanting to fix the timeline, but he didn't seem enthusiastic either. He seems like a nice guy who inherited way too intense a job."

Back into grandfather mode, Asgore chuckled, "That I can understand. So, where do you stand?"

"Dunno," Sans shrugged again.

Sans had expected anger, annoyance, from The Mountain King, but what he got was, a genuine sadness, "Sans…"

"You don't understand. He is here."

Asgore's eyes widened, "You don't mean…"

"I do,"

"But he's..."

"I know."

The two sat in an uncomfortable silence. Sans finally broke it, "Ya know, letting you in on this timeline secret was the worst thing I ever did."

"I understand it couldn't have been easy. If other timelines are any indication, we know greater philosophical quandaries have been beyond this old goat."

Had he not had more control of it, Asgore's plunge back into "Grandpa Asgore" mode would've prompted his feared blue eye to make an appearance,

But, thought Sans, If he's not angry with me, the least I owe him is not to be angry with him.

"That's why I'm saying, sleep on it. Your plan to rewrite history so that the monsters win the Human/Monster War is respectfully ambitious, but the whole "unraveling hundreds of years of racial tension," thing's beyond my pay grade, hence why I never went further 'Frisk falls down the mountain.' Hell, Flowey never went back that far, and dude's nuttier than a squirrel cafeteria in the winter."

"Helping a few hundred lives work through their trauma or eliminate the trauma of all your people, only to condemn humans to that same trauma."

"You seem remarkably centrist for someone who wants to reverse the condemning of an entire race."

"It is quite the quandary. On one hand, I respect your boundaries with this amazing power and could be swayed to it myself. On the other hand, where has taking the middle road ever gotten us?" Asgore mused, thoughtfully rubbing a paw on his chin.

"It's something I've been thinking about and pushing to the back of the conga line ever since I discovered all this stuff but…"

"But what?" gently prodded the king.

"I don't know if I ever told you this, but…I can smell LOVE."

"The violence in someone?" Asgore asked.

"Yep," Sans sighed, "He talks to me sometimes, reminding me how bad it stinks, something I tuned out a long time ago. I dunno what he wants outta me, but it's hard to reconcile that involves giving people I consider buds a bad time. But I can't deny going along with your original proposal means getting him out of my head "

"Perhaps Sans," Asgore began, the soft tones of a beloved grandfather laid on extra-thick, "It's time to take your own advice and sleep on it. You have times to think everything over, decide where your allegiances lay."

Sans silently nodded, fighting back tears.

"I understand that…you and I might end up on different sides of this conflict, depending on what we decide. No hard feelings, alright?"

Sans again nodded, this time announcing, "None whatsoever."

Asgore nodded happily, "Good! Let me know when you are free, we are all long overdue for a get-together. Papyrus has been pining for your company ever since you left."

Sans chuckled, his understanding of the situation needing no words.

"Anyway," Asgore said, "I should let you go. They'll only believe I was making special requests for the suite for so long."

"Not if you tell them it was over additional cots. That was always a thing at Mettaton's place."

"So it was!" said Dreemur with his signature belly laugh, "See you soon,"

"See you soon."

Asgore terminated the call just as Sans heard a confirming beep. The door to the room swung open, and Quinn called out, "Sans? Everything alright?"

"Yeah," the skeleton called back, "Just had to help some people in my VIP crew make some decisions."

"You and your kind's pedantic modern living," Altair tutted, "My Order is used to sleeping in the roughest conditions, so their accommodations come easy."

"And you went uphill to school both ways I'm sure," Sans shot back to Quinn's laughter, " Not everyone can be a warrior badass like you."

"Perhaps not," Altair said, "But, it's given me a fighting pedigree like no other."

"Yeah Sans, you shoulda seen him when we trained with the rest of DLC. He won!"

"I've watched all your training. Administrative duty, remember? Everybody's trained in a way unique to them. , and anyone can take this tournament."

Altair chuckled, brushing out of the door to Sans' suite. and to his own, Quinn nervously doing the same.

"Gonna dunk on that dude so hard," muttered Sans as he flipped on some TV.

Core Machine Room, 30 minutes from the opening ceremony

Mario watched the bay of screens intently, ROB stoically stood next to him. What was usually reserved for stages had been flipped to the security camera. He seldom felt the need to watch the cameras, as this was usually ROB's duty. But this time, he found himself especially interested in it, with the unveiling of the bracket about an hour away. The usual cliques that had developed ever since everyone arrived were nervously chattering amongst each other. The prevailing theme was a nervous uncertainty, mostly speculating about who would fight who. He'd received multiple complaints from his administrative team and the Smashers closest to him that they had been hounded about the bracket after Smash City had opened to the public. He let the regret of not being more open about his plans for the bracket, at least with the other admins register for a second. But, as remembering something Toadsworth had once told him, "The best-kept secret is oft not told to many people," dissipated the guilt As simple as the saying was. It was true. The safety of the multiverse was his to shoulder alone, here and after. Or, that's how the Hands had seen it at least.

They couldn't have foreseen this, could they? Mario wondered aloud.

Beyond the tournament woes, the opening of Smash City had caused his inbox to go berserk. For every big coup against Conker's villainous faction, another larger problem materialized. Doctors Eggman and Wily had sworn their allegiance to the good guys because Sigma and Nega Eggman had been recruited. The "enemy of my enemy is my friend" had snaked its way down the impending battle lines, nearly affecting every homeworld for every Smasher.

And the man himself didn't even show up! Don't know why I was expecting less from a megalomaniac, cursed the leader of the Smashers,

According to ROB's intelligence network, the Red Squirrel Kingdom's transportation vessel lacked The King and Queen, but his chief advisors Gruntilda and Wizpig had been aboard along with all of Conker and Diddy's mutual friends who had sworn allegiance to Conker. They bore a letter that Mario must've read a thousand time's over since ROB's drones had brought it back to him after landing back at the mansion hours earlier.

Sorry Mario buddy, gotta skip out on this one. Got way more important plans after this whole tournament thing as I sure you know. Truth is, I coulda shut you down a while ago. Coulda shut you down when The Smash Core landed in my lil kingdom, shoulda shut you down when the damn crocodile blabbed, or when the angel boy vamoosed. Truth is, I admire your little gang, I really do. Makes me nostalgic for when I was young and stupid when I woulda pegged myself as a hero. But then I lost Berri, then I understood all the little things that drive all the wussy villains in your gang. Control, hatred, greed. But unlike them, I ain't gonna cave. Not now, not ever. And when the history of our collection of worlds is written, I want it to be known I didn't kneecap ya. I let you have yer fun, let you get all your chess pieces organized, and I still won. If there's one thing I gotta commend you for Mario, it's that you've shown me that same respect. Lesser leaders woulda just nuked their enemies. But, all that means is I'll make sure my piss is clear instead of yellow when I marinate your grave in it. Take care pal, and see ya up the road. I'll be watching (and betting obnoxious amounts of money) with interest!

Love, Conker.

Mario rubbed his temples and eyes with two fingers.

"ROB," he asked.

"Yes, Master Mario?"

"Do you think we could've set this off if we'd reached out to Conker?"

The sentient machine whirred in thought, then spoke, "For therapy to occur, one must be a willing participant, correct?"

"Yes, but..."

"All one can do is line up the chess pieces based on the problems that arise, Master Mario,"

"Speaking of, is Team F.U.C.K.I.T under observation?"

"Yes, including the one you weren't sure about."

"Excellent. Send out the message that we're all heading out to Smash City."

"As you wish."

Grinning as he saw the communicator with the text from ROB that everyone report to Smashcrafts one through four. Then, a second text, sent to him specifically, letting him know he would be aboard Smashcraft 1. Mario sighed deeply. Whether they be countries, planets, or disciplines, 68 were represented within the Smash Brothers roster. Each of these would be grouped into Smashcrafts based upon their order in tonight's procession. As he was leading the parade of icons along with the first 10 groups, he was on Smashcraft 1 with them.

Exhaling, Mario addressed ROB one more time, "Do I look okay?"

The camera lenses that equated to ROB's eyes seemed to assess him up and down before the robot spoke, "Yes…your outfit appears to be in order,"

Mario breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh thank the Seven Stars-a! I dug the old white wedding tux outta storage, and I was afraid I'd sweat through white, ya know?"

"You have interrupted me, Master Mario," ROB continued, "You are missing your suit jacket as well as the hat that accompanies this ensemble,"

"Damn!" cursed the plumber, barely able to stop the instinctual slap to the forehead that his synapses initially demanded.

Mario pivoted on his heel, grabbing his white suit jacket that had been lazily slung over a desk chair, putting that on, and grabbing the white top hat nestled on the base of the chair. The plumber affirmed the dress wear to his head as he walked out the door. ROB ambled behind him, the two admins walking to the main level in silence. Once they passed the threshold, Mario waved to ROB, "See you after tonight!" as he shoved his way to the front of the growing crowd.

Smashcraft 4, 25 minutes later

Duck, weave, duck, jab jab, roll.

Quinn Marmaduke and Little Mac circled each other. As soon as the craft had closed its doors, they had found each other nervously shadowboxing, which had caused Doc Lewis to cajole the two into a no-contact sparring session. Ryu had offered to join in, but Ken had forbidden it, reminding him that it was 'public appearance time' Similarly, Cloud and Sephiroth had clashed swords at the One-Winged Angel's goading about Cloud's hair being more unkempt than usual, but Shulk had intercepted the two blades with Minado, forbidding horseplay in his own way. Chun-Li did leg stretches. Sans munched popcorn he had procured from seemingly nowhere. Altair and Megaman, as well as Sephiroth and Cloud, who had been shamed into sitting quietly by Shulk, had watched the no contact drills Doc was running the boxer and the Mii through with bemusement.

"WATCH OUT FOR THE…" Shulk shouted.

Mac's right fist connected directly with Quinn's stomach, which seemed to simultaneously jaunt his legs out from under him and a short distance into the air. As a result, Quinn more or less belly-flopped onto the metal floor with a mighty clang.

"..Body blow," Shulk finished

"Oooooh," Chun-Li winced, "You alright?"

Quinn nodded, springing to his feet, pointing an accusing finger at Shulk "Yeah, you coulda warned me with a little more haste though,"

"My little power kicks in at less than opportune moments sometimes, what can I say?" Shulk flippantly shrugged.

"Woah, where did this come from?" Sans asked, "You've had a pole up your ass the entire time we've been here, and now suddenly you're Mister Badass?"

Again, the keeper of the Minado shrugged, " What can I say, tourney time puts me in a different mindset. You'll find that out when I bop ya one."

"If I let you," Sans snapped with a chuckle.

The occupants of the cruiser sat in silence for a few seconds before Shulk's communicator beeped, "Ah, we're here. Everyone get in line behind Megaman like we talk about."

Quinn only had time to blink before he felt the craft come to a halt.

"What kind of craft is this?" exclaimed the Mii Brawler, "I didn't even feel it land."

"Ah, you know, Smash magic," Shulk answered with a dismissive wave, "Now let's get into line please."
Megaman stood at the bay door of the craft and the line formed. First Mac, then Pacman behind him, humming some sort of rock anthem. Quinn took his place in line next, with Altair behind him, then Sans. The Street Fighter crew took their places behind the skeleton, with Cloud and Sephiroth taking up the rear.

"Alright," boomed the voice of Shulk, "Smashcraft 4 is ready to unload."

With that, the bay doors opened, and the line exited the ship, each passenger handed a flag by a Wire Frame attendant. As Quinn cast a quick glance up at his flag, the flag of Wuhu Island, he took in his surroundings. They were clearly in an entrance tunnel, queuing in line to make their way to the field for the procession. However, Quinn hadn't expected it to be so noisy. The soft jazz that played over the stadium's speakers was tunneling down to them, and the acoustics of the space amplified every conversation.

"Hey, does anybody wanna hold my flag for a hundred bucks?" Sans was asking the conglomerate.

"Hey Ryu, does this song sound familiar to you?" Ken asked.

"Yes, from Gambit and Rogue's wedding if I remember correctly."

"What was the name of it?"

"Make Way for Tomorrow Today. That I'll never forget because you kept singing it on the way home, and just that accursed refrain."

Quinn breathed deep, cutting out all the noise. He had to, lest he lose his sanity completely. Suddenly, he could hear Mario's voice above all the other drabble.

No, literally above, Quinn realized.

Sure enough, a drone barking instructions in Mario's voice flew overhead. They seemed generic as the drone passed over him. It seemed that way for a while still, until Quinn heard Mario shout, "WHERE ARE THE PHANTOM THIEVES?"

"I don't know," came the barely audible voice of Goro Akechi from behind Quinn, "They made a big fuss about standing behind me in line, and then as soon as we got off the craft, they were gone.

"ROB can you track them?"

"Yes," came the voice of ROB from the drone, "They're heading up to the production booth."

"Seven Stars sake," came Mario's words through audible annoyance, prompting suppressed laughter from some, "They'd better be something up to something suitably cool."

Smash Stadium

"Persona Series" section

Maybe I shoulda taken up the VIP booth offer.

Sojiro Sakura sat in his seat in the impossible expanse that was Smash Stadium, in a section dubbed "Persona Series", Futaba had attempted to explain the odd naming convention upon his arrival, that it had to do with how some higher power saw the world in which they all lived. A spiritual, yet not exactly religious man, Sojiro had no interest in what some deity thought of "his world," all that mattered was that he had been tapped to open up a Le Blanc pop-up when Ren and Futaba had been tapped to join…whatever the hell this was, and that, he was told was practically a license to print money, owning a much-ballyhooed pop up in a city of hundreds of billions.

The other thing he had no interest in was using this vacation/networking venture to drudge up old neighborhood politics. With Takemi and Iwai sharing the VIP booth with him, as well as some of the other non-Phantom Thieves in Ren's life, he would have to engage in small talk, something he wasn't particularly interested in doing off the clock. So, he'd asked Futaba to sub out his VIP booth for a regular seat. What the coffee-making master had not anticipated, however, was how long it had been since he'd been a spectator in a stadium. And just how god damn noisy it all was.

Examining the red piece of construction paper he'd been given upon entering, then looking out the tunnel that he assumed the fighters would come out of, and the stage some feet away, the old man began to muse to himself, "Well, Futaba did say seating was only assigned for one night, as to encourage fraternization between people from different places after all. And after all, my boy Ren is a Smasher, I'm sure I could schmooze my way back into VIP if I wanted to. I can put up with this for one night."

No sooner had the words left his lips, the smooth jazz track that had been on loop since he had entered the giga-venue was suddenly replaced with a techno blaring techno track, the style of which Sojiro remembered being popular 15 years ago on the streets of Shibuya, and quite frankly, not something he was a fan of.

"THIS IS THE DREAM EVENT! ONE WRONG MOVE, AND YOUR FAVORITE SMASHER JUST MIGHT LOOOSE," A natively Japanese announcer speaking English declared.

Sojiro felt his eye twitch at the last word, which sounded like a failing robot.

"Me 'an my big mouth," cursed the Hierophant, "I'd go out for a smoke, but I might not ever find my seat again."

"THE WINNER OF THIS TOURNAMENT IS THE ULTIMATE SMASHER! ANY COMBATANT COULD WIN THE TOURNAMENT! ONLY A SMASHER WITH ABILITY, GUTS, AND STRENGTH, CAN WIN THE TOURNAMENT! ARE YOU READY TO GET IT ON?" The announcer concluded.
As the techno beat hammered on, Sojiro could hear a particularly loud smattering of noise from the section he'd almost walked into while trying to find his seat, the "King of Fighters Series" section. The noise of this section had reminded him of a few instances where international soccer hooligans had wreaked havoc by being idiots on the streets of Shibuya. The only difference was that what he could see of the enormous section were sporting red hats bearing the logo of a man named "Terry", howling what Sojiro had assumed to be the catchphrases of this lunatic, including such gems as "BUSTAH WOLF" "ARE YOU OKAY?" and most perplexing of all, "WHEN TERRY?"

Sojiro felt feelings of Wakaba creep up, remembering how not judging too harshly and looking beyond initial impressions allowed him to connect with one of the most fantastic women he'd ever met. Maybe things were just different in their world, he reasoned. He found himself chuckling, "Their world like they're little green men or something."

"I know man!" barked the exuberantly drunk American next to him.

Sojiro raised an eyebrow, "Where have you been getting beer?"

"Tablet," the man shouted, doing a big, sweeping gesture to the seat in front of him, "It's in the seat pocket in front of ya!"

Sojiro reached into the leather tablet case behind him. Turning it on, he was greeted with the menu. It had automatically been curated to the "Persona Series" menu. Scrolling down briefly it indicated food that he was familiar with. Out of curiosity, he clicked the "Metroid Series" menu. It appeared that most of the food was either dried or in pill form, like something out of the pulp novels that were popular in his youth.

Different strokes for different folks I guess, shrugged the coffee man, Couldn't hurt to expand my palette while I'm here, he thought.

Just as he thought this, the house lights went down, and the techno music faded out. On the veritable monolith of video screens that expanded out from the center of the arena, two black lines blazed through a white circle, making an off-center crosshair logo. Despite being a logo that Sojiro, and by extension everyone else, had seen practically everywhere as they settled in Smash City, the stadium erupted. Sojiro couldn't help but grin despite his aversion to such noise.

Damn, I guess these Smash Brothers, whatever they are, mean a lot to everybody, pondered Sojiro.

"AND NOW, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, THE MANY NATIONS, DISCIPLINES, AND IDEAS THAT SHAPE THE SUPER SMASH BROTHERS,"

Sojiro's ears perked up as the next musical piece began. John Williams Olympic march.

"INTRODUCING FIRST REPRESENTING THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM, MARIO, WHO IS ALSO CHAMPION OF THE TWELVE AND PRINCESS PEACH. "

As the stadium once again erupted, and the camera focused on Mario, carrying a flag bearing a mushroom with eyes, Sojiro felt his heart leap. He may be an old fart, at least in the eyes of his two wards, but he knew who Mario was at least. As the implication of a video game character standing in his vicinity in the flesh crept in, Sojiro's jaw went agape.

"Wait, is this a video game thing? Are we a video game?" he announced to no one in particular,

Remind me to give Futaba shit for not telling me Ren might fight freakin' Mario later, he thought as he saw people near him visibly snickering.

Sojiro was so struck dumb with realization and embarrassment he missed the next few entrances. The guy that you played as when you got the second controller in Mario came out with some brunette version of Peach, holding a flag with a strange floral design on it. They represented some kingdom that would've been impossible to pronounce in Japanese. As Le Blanc's owner made a mental note to ask Futaba for the Japanese translation, Sojiro was briefly stirred by the mostly hostile reaction that marked the appearance of Mario's sworn enemy, who he knew as Koopa, but was called Bowser here for some reason.

Another one for the ever-growing list of questions to ask Futaba.

As Sojiro chuckled at the fact that Bowser had seemingly brought his kids and a carnivorous sentient plant with him, the announcer moved on.

"REPRESENTING THE RARE ARCHIPELAGO, DONKEY KONG, DIDDY KONG, KING KARNIVEROUS ROOL, AND THE DYNAMIC DUO OF BANJO AND KAZOOIE!"

As the next throng of combatants made their way out with an odd golden 'R' symbol on their flag, the drunk man next to him shouted, "SO THAT'S WHAT THE 'K' STANDS FOR!"

For the first time since they took their seats, Sojiro turned to him, "You sound like you know your stuff?"

"You know it! I'm a huge gamer, have been since I was a kid."

"So's my daughter, but I don't understand half the stuff," Sojiro chuckled lightly.

As the arena applauded the next contingent, Yoshi representing Yoshi Island, and Wario perplexingly representing his company, Warioware Inc, Sojiro asked the man, "Uh, something I've been hung up on, since when does Donkey Kong wear a tie?"

Mister Drunk laughed, "Since like 1994, get a clue, old man!"

"Fair enough," Sojiro grumbled, crossing his arms and sitting back further in his seat.

Sufficiently embarrassed, Sojiro sat in silence for the next few parts of the parade. Someone named Rosalina represented a place called The Cosmic Observatory. The thought crossed his mind to ask Mister Drunk if she was an astrologist or something, but the man's response to his earlier question curbed that thought almost immediately. The next part of the procession got the biggest reaction since Mario appeared, The Kingdom of Hyrule. Sojiro recognized the name Hyrule, and he recognized Link and Zelda, but he couldn't remember from where. He also observed Toon Link accompanying the elven looking warrior and princess, having seen art from somewhere that depicted Link as a young boy. Was he a boy? Was he a man?

Probably some sci-fi time travel crap, he concluded.

"REPRESENTING HYRULR OF THE FUTURE, TOON LINK!"

Called it.

Sojiro suppressed a laugh as the little boy came out with his flag, whose only difference to the golden triangled Hyrule flag was the presence of what appeared to be water on the bottom of the flag. He looked like something straight out of a cartoon.

"Something tells me it only gets weirder from here," chided Sojiro to his drunk seat neighbor, who was too engrossed in yet another cup of drone-delivered beer to say anything.

"REPRESENTING THE GERUDO TRIBE, GANONDORF"

More boos erupted as a grey-skinned man appeared, his flag bearing some sort of squiggling design he couldn't even begin to comprehend. Much like Link and Zelda, Sojiro vaguely recalled a villain named Ganon, but in his mind's eye, that conjured to mind images of a blue pigman. Again, Sojiro opened his mouth to ask the drunk man, but he figured it might cause something similar to the DK faux pas from earlier.

Sojiro tried to clear his mind as the next few representatives made their appearances, Samus and Captain Falcon representing the ever-so vaguely named Galactic Federation. The Brawl Champion (whatever that meant) Kirby, along with King Dedede and Meta-Knight represented a place called Dreamland, while a black-suited version of Samus named Dark Samus and an ugly dragon guy named Ridley represented The Space Pirate Conglomerate.

Remind me to give those guys a 20 percent discount at least, Sojiro shuddered to himself, not even wanting to begin to imagine what people like that could do to his humble little popup.

Fox, Falco, and Wolf came out next, representing the Lylat System. As had been done with Samus and Captain Falcon's entrance earlier, the throng of space ships that seemed to linger above the stadium at all times shot off a quick, yet impactful burst of fireworks. As the audience 'ooohed' in delight, Sojiro made yet another mental note to see if Ren or Futaba could get him on one of those. He had heard some sort of animal-hu talking about how absurdly luxurious the floating yachts were, and he wanted to see for himself.

Wait, didn't Haru say she had one set aside for Okumura Foods employees? Maybe that'll be easier than I thought, he once again thought to himself as the fighter Krystal came out, at the cue of the announcer as all the others had, representing a place called Cernia, to more raucous boos from somewhere in the stadium than even Bowser or Ganondorf had gotten. Chants of "Trait-or, Trait-or," and "Ly-lat, Ly-lat," rang thick through the air amongst the boos. Sojiro glanced up at the video screen. The blue fox woman had a deep frown on her face, her eyes betraying…sadness?

Sojiro felt a pang of guilt, despite not having participated in the chants himself. Second-hand guilt perhaps? Either way, there was obviously much more to the story than those booing her were accounting for.

"REPRESENTING THE KANTO REGION OF THE POKEMON WORLD, FORMER LEAGUE CHAMPION RED ALONG WITH HIS TEAM SQURTILE, IVYSAUR, AND CHARIZARD. ENTERING TRAINERLESS ALSO FROM KANTO ARE PIKACHU, JIGGLYPUFF, AND MEWTWO."

That perked Sojiro up. This was something he knew. One of Futaba's greatest loves was Pokemon, and, whenever they had spoken after her awakening, it had been in part about Pokemon. As it combined her love for anime and video games, he was intimately familiar with this segment of the parading fighters. From the Kanto brigade to Pichu in Johto (which, got a shockingly big response from the crowd, as this was its first return since an early tournament), Lucario in Sinnoh, Kalos' Greninja, Alola's Incineroar, to Galar's Pokemon Trainer Green, Sojiro found himself applauding them all and judging by the applause of the crowd, he wasn't alone in this respect for the Pokemon crowd. As much as he hated to admit it, his interest waned with the next few. Eagleland's Ness and Tazmilly villages Lucas were seemingly ordinary young kids, despite their heads being larger than he'd expected, as well as their somewhat off-putting all-black eyes. New Pork's City's Porky looked interesting.

Heh, if Futaba's animes have taught me anything, always count on the mecha robot.

The near-unanimous ovation of the Nakatsuka Tribe's Ice Climbers got caught the coffee master off guard. Like Pichu, he assumed, they were returning from a long absence. The man sitting in front of him, a mulleted American man, stood up, attempting to start a "Not dead last" chant, realizing that his attempt at a chant was drowned out by the raucous cheers, and sitting back down. Sojiro struggled to keep from outright laughing at the man in front of him as the announcer heralded the coming of the next few nations to be represented in this tournament. Saki of Ruffian Earth, Prince Marth of Altea, Melee's champion, Roy of Pherae, Chrom, Robin, and Lucina, the royal families of Ylisse. Briefly taken out of his concentration by a young girl in the expanse of the stadium screaming, "CHROM GETS HIS CHANCE!" Sojiro focused back in.

Ike of Crimea, Corrin of the Nohr/Hoshido Commonwealth, and Edelgard of the Adestrian Empire, who had a strange gothic-looking man carrying her flag while she did her best royal wave, were next.

"Geez, how many of these anime swordsmen are there?" Sojiro announced to himself.

Mister Drunk blew a drunken raspberry at the question, whereas Mullet Man snickered so loudly Sojiro could hear him even amongst all the stadium noise.

"REPRESENTING FLAT ZONE, MISTER GAME AND WATCH"

For the first time, Sojiro felt a childish glee overcome him as the little two-dimensional man ambled out, carrying a paper-thin, all-black flag. Sojiro's mind was cast back to his days as a rookie government agent, pining after a Game and Watch to play as he commuted to work every day on the trains in Tokyo, but the devices always being out of range of his budget, being frugal even then.

As those initial nostalgic feelings faded, he felt himself hovering back into neutral. Pit, Dark Pit, and Palutena represented Skyworld, with the latter, a green-haired goddess, carrying the flag, with two angels, one clad in white, and another in black, marching behind her. Snake, representing not a nation, but an organization called FOXHOUND, which briefly piqued Sojiro's interest as it sounded like a secret military installation, Olimar representing Hocotate Corp, ROB the robot representing Subspace, whatever that was, Villager, Isabelle, Otis, and Mikey representing a place called Smashville, Miss Trainer represented Wii Fit, which Sojiro recalled in name only, having fleetingly considered buying it for Futaba, but deciding against it. Next was Megaman, representing the nonsense-sounding time period of 200X. Little Mac, and the World Video Boxing Association he and the man carrying the flag Doc Louis represented set off a pang of familiarity with Sojiro, as he vaguely remembered playing Punch-Out with Wakaba in a bar once. Pac-Land's Pacman brought Sojiro joy like Mister Game and Watch's appearance had. As Sojiro saw the yellow gaming icon walk out of the tunnel and join the others on the stage, planting his flag in the holder behind him, Sojiro caught himself recalling if the little guy had ever had hands and feet. Sojiro batted those thoughts away with a shake of his head.

That's the old man in me talking for sure, he thought.

Shulk representing Colony 9 and Quinn from Wuhu Island was next. Altair, representing The Assassination State of Masyaf briefly caught Sojiro's attention, making a mental note to put him and his entire state on the "give a discount to avoid getting roughed up in an alley," list. The name of the skeleton representing something called The Human Monster Alliance, Sans rang a bell. He briefly recalled Futaba and Ren discussing it over a Skype call very late one night, something about the minor details of getting a certain ending, but that was it.

"REPRESENTING THE ANTSASATSUKEN MARTIAL ARTS DISCIPLINE, RYU, AND KEN!"

"Them?" came the burst of curiosity from Sojiro.

"Whaddya mean?" asked the drunk man.

"I just…remember when these guys were all the rage in arcades, but this was before my daughter was born, so I had no interest in it."

Drunk Man scoffed condescendingly, "Old man,"

Sojiro couldn't help but roll his eyes as Chun-Li, representing her universe's idea of China, was introduced. After the applause had died down, the next group, the Duel tournament's champion Cloud and Sephiroth representing Gaia, were introduced. Sojiro was hit with a flash of nostalgia from the mid-2000s. An animated movie based on their universe had come out then, and Sojiro recalled feeling like he couldn't go out there without seeing these brooding swordsmen on a poster of some description. As Sojiro came to grips with the fact that something that engulfing and annoying now stood as an emblem of simpler, happier times. Bayonetta of the Umbra Witch Clan and Inkopolis' own Torri Gachi were introduced.

Another duo for the discount list he thought, Wouldn't wanna piss off a witch or a kid with a Super Soaker.

The Belmont Clan's representatives were listed next, with a muscular blond carrying a flag with a European looking family crest on it. This one cast an even more vague memory than Little Mac had. Perhaps he had seen a game starring them in the hallowed halls of a video arcade, but whether or not he had played with Wakaba was lost to time. What followed was a break in the procession, one so noticeable that the audience around him began to murmur in confusion. Sojiro reckoned it was only a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity, looking at an empty entrance tunnel, and a stage of Smashers already as confused.

"REPRESENTING THE KINGDOM OF ALIHAN, ERDRICK!"

As Erdrick appeared through the tunnel with his nation's flag held above him, Sojiro asked the drunk man, "Is he, from Dragon Quest?"

"Yeah, why?" the man next to him slurred.

Sojiro laughed, "I remember when the first game came out, and there were rumblings that they'd have to pass a law demanding that the games come out on weekends so people wouldn't call in sick."

"Was that a thing? I thought it wasn't real?"

Again, Sojiro Sakura laughed, " I don't know if it ever went into law or anything, but it was office gossip back when the first one hit stores."

"Woah, that's pretty interesting," he slurred.

Sojiro smirked, Huh, no nerdy contempt this time. Maybe I'm breaking through to this kid, after all, he thought.

"REPRESENTING SOUTHTOWN, TERRY BOGARD!"

"WHEN TERRY?" what Sojiro surmised to be half of the fabled King of Fighters section asked.

"ALL NIGHT LONG!" responded the other half.

"WHEN TERRY?"
"ALL NIGHT LONG?"
"WHEN TERRY?"

"ALL NIGHT LONG?"

The King of Fighters' section chanting eventually died down but had it lasted a second longer, it would've drowned out the next participant.

"REPRESENTING MOMENTOS, THE LEADER OF THE PHANTOM…OH I'M SORRY. REPRESENTING MOMENTOS, GORO AKECHI!"

The Persona Series Section of Smash Stadium erupted, not unlike every other section when their representative appeared, but it was a much more mixed, visceral reaction. Anger, happiness, shock confusion, annoyance.

"Goro Akechi is alive?" Sojiro shouted, "How?"

"HEY! WHERE ARE THE PHANTOM THIEVES!" Sojiro heard Mister Drunk shout.

"I'm sure they have somethin' planned," Sojiro tried to comfort his neighbor over the noise but to no avail.

The rest of the Smashers made their entrances amid the aftermath of Akechi's appearance, amid confused clamoring from the Persona Series section that was so loud Sojiro had to strain to hear the rest. Cuphead's Inkwell Isle, Yoshimitsu's Manji Ninja Clan, The G-Corporation, represented by its figurehead, Jin Kazama, The Earth Federation, and United Earth Government represented by Bill Rizer and Master Chief respectively.

"Hey, ain't that kind of the same thing?" Sojiro asked no one in particular, as his two new American friends had reacted raucously to Master Chief.

"I think they're from different places, but there are only so many ways you can name your one planet government," mused the man with the mullet in front of him.

Sojiro chuckled in what he hoped the man in front of him took as agreement as Jak and Daxter were announced representing Sandover Village, and the duo of Ratchet and Clank representing Veldin. What was it? A planet? A galaxy? Sojiro supposed that was one final question to ask Futaba as the raccoon humanoid bearing the flag of what was announced as The Cooper Clan made his entrance a pink hippo humanoid and a green turtle humanoid at his side. The two men that entered next, Dante and Vergil, representing the Devil Kingdom, Sojiro knew well, having to practically tear away Futaba from her PC after many absurdly late-night gaming sessions featuring the two. As he had with so many others, he felt a pang of a vague recollection from younger days when Ryu Hayabusa proceeded to the stage wearing the flag of the Hayabusa Clan. Sojiro was once again hit with memories of coaxing Futaba to go to bed when Travis Touchdown, representing Santa Destroy, appeared next, followed by The River City Girls, representing Crosstown, and Subject Zero, the bathrobed samurai carrying a flag representing the city of New Mecca. As soon as Subject Zero latched his flag into place along with the sixty-eight other flags. As he did, taking his place in the lineup of Smashers, to which the flags served as a backdrop, the Olympic March, which had been looping for the entire procession, stopped. Then, the spotlights shining all over the crowd shut off. Then, the stage lights illuminating the walkway. Then the stage itself. The video screens, which were once displaying the Super Smash Brothers logo, now displayed a new one, a masquerade masked man wearing a red top hat and sporting an eye of white flame, with the words "TAKE YOUR HEART" underneath it.

His section erupted in cheers, but Sojiro could only grin in the darkness.

And there it is, thought the old man, now beaming with pride.

As a funk instrumental began, the intentionally distorted, yet, unmistakable voice of Ryuji cried out "YO! WHAT IS UP EVERYBODY!"

As he did, a spotlight from somewhere in the stadium illuminated one of the Phantom Thieves, the mystery figure now visible as he made his way down from the section directly across from there's, the mystery figure making his way down the stairs. The brisk pace that the jumbotron caught him moving it made it clear to Sojiro that it was Ryuji

"We are the ones you all know as The Phantom Thieves," said a mishmash of some of the other Phantom Thieves voices.

Three spotlights this time, shining on three different mystery figures in all different sections of the stadium. Sojiro could barely contain a raucous cheer when he saw the all-too-recognizable form of Futaba standing lazily on the stairs. Haru and Yusuke were also in different sections, making their way down to the stage.

"We would like to inform you that we are to fight injustice in the multiverse wherever it may roam," came the unmistakable voice of Makoto, a light shining on her as she began her descent.

"At least, that's why we're here," Ann's voice rang next as a spotlight shined on her near the front row. , "Our leader is going to take this tournament, and prove why The Phantom Thieves are the best warriors in the multi-verse. Isn't that right leader?"

All the spotlights turned off, the light shining on the stage next. Standing side by side were The Phantom Thieves, with Morgana perched on Joker's shoulder.

"Yes," declared Joker in usual dulcet tone, "As I took back my country from oppression, I will take this tournament."

As the entire stadium erupted in cheers, the spotlight clicked off again. When the lights, and the Olympic March, resumed, Joker stood in his place next to Akechi, the other Thieves having disappeared.

Sojiro laughed, "That's my boy,"

On stage

The leftover cheers from the crowd and the mixture of annoyed and pleased chattering from the Smashers after Joker's flashy entrance was enough to cause complete mental overload. Just as Quinn pondered if it would be in bad form to meditate right there, in front of the entire multiverse, Mario stepped up to the podium, championship belt slung over his shoulder.

"It is my honor to welcome you all to The Ultimate Smash Tournament!"

Mario paused to let the crowd cheer. When it died down, he continued.

"As well as a Smasher, I am now the president of the Super Smash Brothers organization. Typically The Hands served as co-chairs. However, as-a some of you know an incident with this dimension's power source, The Smash Core, robbed them of seeing another tournament take place. In utilizing the plans they had left behind for us, I sought to create a Smash Brothers Tournament that they would be proud of. It took some deliberation, but I believe I have found a way to conduct this tournament."

Mario paused for a second to let the audience mutter amongst itself, "In previous years, we would assign each Smasher a number, sometimes based on complete random or, sometimes, in the cases of The 12 and Duel, based on multi-participant preliminary matches. But, this year, I have designed a system that will, once and for all, determine not only who is the best among the 100 of us, but of each recruitment class. Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you, the bracket to Super Smash Brothers Ultimate!"

Each enormous jumbotron flared to life, scrolling through the bracket. Simultaneously, the bracket became available on every tablet in the stadium.

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ROUND 1: TWO STOCKS, ITEM FREQUENCY MEDIUM, STAGES DECIDED BY COIN FLIP

Mario vs. Donkey Kong

Link vs Samus

Dark Samus vs Yoshi

Kirby vs Fox

Pikachu vs Luigi

Ness vs Falcon

Jigglypuff vs Peach

Daisy vs Bowser

Ice Climbers vs Saki

Zelda vs Doctor Mario

Pichu vs Falco

Marth vs Lucina

Young Link vs Ganondorf

Mewtwo vs Roy

Chrom vs Mister Game and Watch

Meta Knight vs Pit

Dark Pit vs. Green
Wario vs Snake

Ike vs Red

Diddy Kong vs Lucas

Sonic vs King Dedede

Olimar vs Lucario

ROB vs Toon Link

Wolf vs Villager

Wii Fit Trainer vs Megaman

Little Mac vs Rosalina and Luma

Greninja vs Quinn

Altair vs Sans

Palutena vs Pac-Man

Shulk vs Robin

Bowser Jr/Koopalings vs Duck Hunt

Ryu vs Ken

Corrin vs Cloud

Bayonetta vs Torri Gachi

Ridley vs Simon
King K. Rool vs Richter

Incineroar vs Isabelle

Joker vs Piranha Plant

Erdrick vs Banjo Kazooie
Terry Bogard vs Edelgard

Porky vs Goro Akechi

Cuphead vs Yoshimitsu

Sephiroth vs Team Chaotix

Jin Kazama vs Bill Rizer

Master Chief vs Chun-Li

Jak and Daxter vs Ratchet and Clank

Dante vs Sly Cooper

Ryu Hayabusa vs Vergil

Travis Touchdown vs River City Girls

Subject Zero vs. Krystal

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Mario smugly shot a look over his shoulder as once again, the entire stadium roared in anticipation. Aside from some of the more uncouth Smashers, who were already shouting at their opponents, the rest of the Smashers silently looked in the general direction of their opponents.

"As you can see, each Smasher has been subdivided in the order that they were recruited. Some echo fighters have been paired with their echo in the first round so that they can determine who is the best among them, while some have been grouped so that potential second-round matches will build maximum drama and entertainment. The mixing up of things aside I've done aside, the goal of the tournament overall-a, is to determine who in each recruiting class is the best, as well as which among us is the very best. Smashers, just remember, 100 of you represent 68 nations, ideas, and disciplines. In this tournament, you will fight for what you represent. You will fight to prove that the generation you represent-a in this-a glorious institution is the best. Above all, you will fight to prove that you, and you alone are Undisputed Champion of Smash. With that said, champions, please forfeit your belts."

As the crowd in the stands and the Smashers on stage murmured amongst themselves, Kirby, Cloud, and Roy stepped forward, nestling their championship belts into a pile on the center of the stage, Mario briefly stepping away from the podium to discard his.

"Now, the rewards of victory in this tournament are not all-a philosophical. As each Smasher progresses through the tournament, they have a chance to incrementally double the money they make, each Smasher starting at one million Smash coins. The goal, obviously-a, is to win. Not only will the winner of the tournament walk away with these five beautiful championship belts, and the 128 million smash coins, as the prize money doubles over six rounds, but they get the remainder of the money Smash City makes in revenue."

The crowd erupted in cheers, as did most of the Smashers.

"Now, I can imagine that Smashers and spectators alike are wondering how this will work. The tournament begins tomorrow at noon. The deeper we get into the tournament, the more days in between each round there will be. After the first round, there will be a one day break, after the second round, a two-day break, and so on. The only deviation in-a this will be a day to train for something special we're doing for the semi-finals. This will not only give our Smashers incrementally longer time to train, but it gives everyone, Smashers and Spectators alike time to enjoy the sights and sounds of Smash City. The night after the finals, we will have closing ceremonies and depart back to our homes. This amounts, in total, to 37 days. 37 days to trade, play, learn, meet new people, and try new things. This is the dictionary definition of unity. Therefore, it is the dictionary definition of our order, The Super Smash Brothers."

Mario paused, to let the crowd applaud, moving onto his next point.

"Now, before we end the festivities for the night, there are a couple of things I want to do. First, if we could randomly select the match that will kick off things tomorrow."

The screen showed the bracket being flipped through at lightning speed, each Smashers' pictures appearing and disappearing before anyone could blink. With a confirming ping, the randomizer settled on the first match.

"Our first match will be Ryu vs Ken!" Mario announced to the cheers of the crowd.

As the camera drones focused in briefly on Ryu and Ken, as they fist-bumped in recognition, Mario continued, "Now, to conclude the festivities, if you all could hold your colored paper up to the sky on three, two, one!" the leader of the Smashers counted down.

In a flash, each section was enveloped by the logo of the Smashers they represented. Camera drones floated around each section, showing the enormous multi-colored logos before concluding flying back to their neutral positions.

"Now that's what I call unity," Mario sighed happily, turning to the screen to watch the camera widen to reveal all of the Smashers' logos all together within the enormous stadium.

Mario cleared his throat, "Sentient creatures of all kinds. I wish you a good night. Party, rest, whatever it is you wish. All we, the competitors and staff who put this monolithic, can ask if that you join us tomorrow for the tournament-a!" he concluded.

With that, Mario opened a portal to the Mansion dining hall, the rest of the Smashers following suit. As soon as the last Smasher stepped through the portal, it closed, the cheers of the crowd cutting off behind them. In front of them, upon an enormous dining room table, a feast was spread out among them, with nearly any kind of food one could imagine. As if the senses of the Smashers weren't overwhelmed enough. The Phantom Thieves that weren't Joker appeared before the group.

"Wah!" shrieked Futaba, "All that work trying to get everyone ported to the Smashcraft, for nothing."

"I…don't like the idea of being teleported without my permission," shakily admitted Yusuke, to which Ryuji nodded in agreement.

"Sorry everyone-a, I couldn't risk you guys-a running off again, even though that was cool as hell."

"I mean, lame, but thanks," scoffed Ann.

Mario suppressed a laugh before clearing his throat, "Alright folks, so we're finalizing movesets tomorrow morning, as well as filming general interviews and match promos, so be ready to get up bright and early tomorrow."

"Seven-a starrrs," Wario whined, "Can we just have freakin' dinner?"

Mario put a hand to his chin in thought, "Ya know what Wario? You're right." Enough of dat lame business crap for tonight. Let us mangiare."

Hours later

"So after me 'an Peach spend the night together for the first time, I figure I'mma cook some bacon, cause wakin' up-a to breakfast is romantic right?"

Mario paused to let the snickers roll in. Sonic, Ken, Luigi, Daisy, Dante, Snake, and Peach all sat around the table. Most of the Smashers had gone to bed, but this group had stayed up late into the night, enjoying several glasses of after-dinner wine. He and Peach were holding hands, and her cheeks were tomato red with embarrassment, which indicated he was telling the story well.

"But I don't-a feel like putting on clothes, cause the sooner we get to the bacon the better. I find the kitchen easy enough, start cookin', and who should walk in on-a me but Toadsworth, the old fella who's basically Peach's father."

The group erupted into laughter.

"Oh God," Ken sighed, "I've had some pretty powerful people find me in some pretty embarrassing situations, but I can't say I've ever had a king walk in on me naked."

"OH MY GAWD!" hollered Daisy, "I can see the look on his face,"

"Same," Luigi said after his laughter had calmed down, "You always told me that that happened-a, but you never told me-a what happened after."

"Nothin' worth reporting. He just kinda, stared me down until I finally left to get a bathrobe,"

"Well yes Mario, you were in his kitchen naked," Peach rebuffed.

"Like you've never..." Mario began, but trailed off as he thought about it more, "Nevermind,"

Another round of laughter befell the group before Ken spoke up, "Hey Mario, gotta ask you something so I can sleep tonight," he said, throwing back the remainder of his cup of wine.

"What's up?"

"How'd you get the rights to the Olympic March? I tried to suggest something similar for a Street Fighter tournament, and logistics got back to me and said it would be too expensive even for the tournament organizer."

"Ken, m'boy, let me give you some advice," Mario said as smoothly as his tipsy self could muster, "Sometimes it ain't about money. Sometimes a well-thought-out present-a will do."

"The hell did you get him?"

"Some Henri IV Dudognon Heritage. Asked around and found out that was his sought-after bottle of Cognac."

"Damn," was all Ken could say, "And he gave you it in exchange?"

Mario nodded, "Yessir, plus he loved the Olympic work me an' Sonic were doing, but somebody," Mario suddenly turned towards Sonic, "Almost ruined the deal,"

Sonic shrugged, "Man, we coulda gotten the rights to the Star Wars theme if you'd just listened to me,"

"And I told you, you don't get greedy when you're across the negotiation table with John Williams. Then again, gettin' greedy lost you a couple of metals didn't it?"

Sonic scoffed, "Man, I'm not having this conversation with your wine-drunk ass, I'm going to bed."

"Au revoir Silver Medalist the Hedgehog," Mario called with a wave, causing Peach to cover her mouth to giggle.

As Sonic sped away, Ken yawned, "Man I gotta turn in too."

The rest of the table murmured agreement, wishing one another goodnight and departing. Only Mario and Peach remained. The couple sat in silence before Peach sighed, "Another year, another tournament."

"You nervous?" Mario asked, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

Peach rubbed her chin in thought, "It's complicated. Of course, I trained hard, but I never thought I would be facing Daisy so early. I'm afraid that if I go up against her I won't be at my best."

"I mean, you did beat Wario last time. Love Jigglypuff to death, but she's never made it past round 1. And when it comes to Daisy, you and her have gone about even in every other sport we've done."

"Right," Peach nodded, "But do you think I have it in me to defeat her?"

Mario shrugged, "I mean, with that motivation, you do I think. Daisy's so naturally gifted at everything that she skates by on a lot, especially if she makes the conscious decision that she's there to have fun, and I definitely think she's riding the high of being able to get up to hanky panky with Luigi."

"Why am I constantly surprised by your tactical mind Mario Mario?" teased a giggling Peach.

"I've always been like this, ever since I fixed my first toilet with money on the line!"

"Oh has it?" Peach teased.

"Always be aware of your surroundings and anticipate what might happen next. It's the first rule of plumbing babygirl, ya gotta be looking for chinks in the pipe an' ya gotta remember all the configurations."

"Babygirl?" Peach balked, "I don't quite remember you talking like a street urchin the last time you were intoxicated."

"What can I say? I set up this tournament with so little issue, all this money and good vibes are gonna be flowing, and I'm gonna be riding high with my best girl." Mario explained, squeezing Peach's hand.

Peach smiled, "Not quite the poetry this princess is used to, but I'll take it. So what do you say Mario, to bed?"

"To bed," the plumber agreed with a nod.

And so, hand in hand, plumber and princess headed towards the uncertainties of tomorrow, for when they awoke, the tournament could finally begin.