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Meta Knight found Kirby outside, sitting on the grass and staring at the star-covered sky. Instead of disturbing him, Meta Knight silently sat down next to him. The swordsman would hate to disrupt an important thought.

Eventually Kirby noticed him there. “Aiy!” the pink puffball said.

“Yes, hello Kirby,” Meta Knight said. “Deep in thought?”

Kirby nodded and looked back up at the sky.

“I suppose there's a lot to think about,” Meta Knight said, also gazing at the stars. “We've all done a lot here. It has been a turbulent path to be sure, but I certainly wouldn't replace it with anything.”

“Poyo,” Kirby said thoughtfully.

Meta Knight let his eyes drift closed for a moment as he used his other senses. The sound and feel of the very slight breeze, the cold of the night, the texture of the grass beneath him.... Like the memories he had with the other Smashers, he wouldn't give up a night like this for anything.

He slowly opened his eyes, and he and Kirby briefly glanced at each other. Kirby was smiling and, though it couldn't be seen from beneath the mask, Meta Knight was too. They stayed in the contented silence for a bit longer.

Meta Knight turned his gaze back towards the sky, but then squinted.

“What… is that?”
  
“Father, I really think that you should reconsider,” Lucina said, strolling behind her father in the garden.

“It wasn't a good idea in the first place,” Chrom said. “I think it's for the best that we wait for a bit longer.”

“It was a great idea, father. You don't give yourself enough credit,” Lucina said. “Sending a letter to mother explaining what has happened here would do a lot to ease her worry.”

“Perhaps, but to send it I would need to ask Marx. That might annoy him, and even if it didn't there is no guarantee that the letter would actually make it. Marx himself said that he has only ever attempted to transport his own body between dimensions,” Chrom said.

“But isn't it preferable to at least try?” Lucina asked.

Chrom sighed. “You're right, Lucina. Your mother's peace of mind is worth any risk. I'll start writing a letter tomorrow morning.” He looked at his daughter, who was staring at the sky. “Lucina?”

“What… is this…?” the swordswoman asked.

Chrom followed her gaze, and found that the sky was becoming a deep crimson all of a sudden.

“... Hmm?” he hummed, raising an eyebrow.
  
“Link, calm down. There is no such thing as a blood moon in this world,” Zelda said, trying to prevent the hylian swordsman from freaking out.

“What's going on?” Sonic asked, entering the room.

“That's a good question, but one thing that I know for certain is that it is

not

a blood moon,” Zelda said, shoving Link's hand away from his sheathed sword.

“... What the hell is a…” Sonic mumbled, but then he shook himself out of it. “Well, all I know is that the sky is red now, and that usually doesn't happen here, from what I've seen.”

“I am inclined to agree,” Zelda said.

“Well, I sure as heck can't see anything from in here. Let's go outside,” Sonic said.

“We'll be right behind you,” Zelda affirmed.
  
“What’s going on?” Chrom asked as he and his daughter ran up to Meta Knight and Kirby.

“I don't know,” Meta Knight said, “but it seems to be stemming from there.” He pointed to the sky above Smashville off in the distance, which was a brighter red than any of the rest of the sky.

Zelda, Link, and Sonic joined them. “What the…” the blue hedgehog said.

All of a sudden, the sky started ripping open over the town, and a gigantic white eye with a red and black iris partially emerged from the rift. The sheer force of its movement seemed to make the whole world tremble and quake.

“What is that?” Lucina asked.

“I have no idea,” Zelda said. “Anyone else?”

Meta Knight looked at Kirby, and found the pink puffball looking terrified. He was frozen as he stared at the eye.

“Wait, is that…” Meta Knight started, “Is that Zero?”

Marx appeared out of literally nowhere and gabbed Meta Knight with his wings, holding him above the ground slightly.

“Take it back!” Marx shouted. “Tell me you don't mean it!”

“Umm…” Lucina said, and then pointed to what they had all been staring at. Marx turned to see it, and his expression visibly dropped.

“That… that's Zero alright,” he said. He turned back to the others, and they were surprised to see terror in his eyes.

He blinked. “We're all going to fucking die.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Are you serious, Marx?” Sonic asked. “But you're… you!”

“Yeah, I'm me. I'm all-powerful and fucking destructive,” Marx said. “That thing up there, though? He's like three of me.”

“Zero

is

known for conquering worlds with absolute ease,” Meta Knight said.

“Yeah, so… fuck that,” Marx said.

“You aren't even going to try stopping it?” Chrom asked.

“Nope!” Marx said. “Because it's motherfucking ZERO!”

Mega Man came out. “What about Zero?” He looked up. “Oh. Wrong Zero.”

“So what do we do?” Lucina asked.

“You guys can do whatever the fuck you want. I'm getting the hell out of here,” Marx said, wrapping himself in his wings.

“Marx, please! If you leave, then we might all die!” Zelda said. “Marx… we need you.”

Marx looked at her. Then he started trembling in anger and snarling. “GAAAAHHHH,

FINE

. I'll help you guys.”

“That's a relief to hear,” Mega Man said. Link nodded.

“But we're not going to fight him. We're going to run,” Marx said.

King Dedede came out of the front door and his jaw dropped nearly to the floor.

“Yeah, me too pal,” Marx continued. “You people should get everyone assembled so we can get out of here. I'm going to call an old friend.”
  
All of the fighters assembled outside a few minutes later as the humongous eye continued to descend.

“Question: what the fuck?” Samus said.

“Eyeball of certain doom. That's all you really need to know,” Meta Knight said.

Marx tapped his foot on the ground. “Come on, come on… get here before he sees us…”

“Can't you just poof us to another dimension or something?” Dark Pit asked.

“If you like being permanently bisected, then sure. We can do that,” Marx said. “Otherwise, we have to hope he arrives on time.”

“I have an idea,” Palutena said, rubbing her eye. She had been sleeping when everything had been happening.

“Spit it out then. Time is money,” Marx said.

“If we are worried about this Zero noticing us, why don't we simply make a diversion to buy us more time?” Palutena said.

“That's a solid plan, but from what I've heard, Zero only cares about living lifeforms,” Meta Knight said.

“... There are always the Mii Fighters…” Dark Pit mumbled.

Everyone looked at him.

“That's…” Marth started.

“Immoral!” Zelda protested.

“It could be our only chance,” Male Robin said.

“Fuck it! I'm doing it,” Marx said. His eyes started to glow a faint green. “Release the Mii Fighters.”

Down the hill from them, just barely visible, the doors to the Mii factory opened up, and faceless creatures literally

sprinted

out. They headed straight for Smashville, and Zero seemed to notice.

“Okay, hopefully that'll give us enough time for-” and then Marx stopped. “Yes! He's here!”

A star-shaped portal appeared a distance away out of thin air, and a blue ship emerged from it. It had depictions of feathered wings on the sides, and a star on the front. It flew across the air and then drifted to a stop in front of the group. A blue walkway lowered itself from the deck, and a Kirby-like character with floating hands and wearing a blue robe floated down the ramp.

“What. The. Fuck, Marx?! You didn't tell me that Zero was here!” the new figure said.

“Magolor. Nice to see you,” Marx said in a deadpan tone. “And can you honestly say that you would have shown up if I had told you the truth?”

Magolor sighed. “No, I definitely would have left you all here to die.” He looked at the rest of the crowd. “Everybody get on the Lor Starcutter. We can get out of this dimension with it.”

The fighters piled their way onto the ramp. As Meta Knight passed by Magolor, the two shared a brief glaring contest before the swordsman moved on.

Female Robin took stock of everybody entering the ship, and froze when almost everyone had boarded. “Oh no.”

“What's ‘Oh no’? 'Oh no’ is bad!” Pit commented.

“We forgot the plant,” Female Robin said.

“Who fucking cares about the plant? We need to go,” Cloud said, moving onto the ramp.

“No,” Fox protested. “The Piranha Plant is one of us. It fights with us every day, and we

won't

leave it behind.” He looked back at the mansion. “I am going to go get it. Wait for me as long as you can.”

“O-okay. We'll let the others know,” Female Robin said.

Fox ran into the mansion, and the others got on the ship.

“Alright, let's go already!” Marx shouted.

“No, hold on!” Pit shouted. “Fox went in to get the Piranha Plant.”

“He did

what?!

” Marx shouted. “Fuck it, we're leaving him.”

“No, we're not,” Chrom said, glaring at Marx.

Marx growled. “I fucking hate you people...” he mumbled to himself. “Fine, but we can't wait long.”
 
Fox dashed into the the lobby and was delighted to see the Piranha Plant in its usual corner. He grabbed it by the pot, but had to bend backwards to prevent the plant from biting his face off.

“Hey, I'm trying to help you,” Fox said, indignant.

But then, the windows shattered as Mii Fighters dove into the room. They were no longer faceless, but now had evil-looking eyes over the blankness. And there were dozens of them. They lunged at Fox.

“Crap!” Fox exclaimed. He kicked two away, but was left completely vulnerable to a third. Or he would have been, if not for the plant he was carrying. The Piranha Plant bit onto the brawler's leg and flung them against a wall.

Fox looked to his leafy savior. “All right! Now we're working together!”

Fox put Piranha Plant on the ground and drew his pistol. He fired shot after shot to thin the crowd, but a Mii Gunner seemed to figure it out. They deflected the shot and then fired one of their own. Fox prepared to deflect it, but he never needed to. The Piranha Plant intercepted the shot while hiding inside its pot, then extended its stem and bit the Gunner, who went flying back out of the window.

“Come on, let's go!” Fox said, leaping out of another shattered window. The plant seemed to understand the mercenary's meaning, and jumped through right after him.
 
“Is that them?” Little Mac asked.

Palutena squinted, then nodded. “It's them.”

“Everybody go below deck! We'll take off as soon as they get on!” Magolor called out.

As everyone followed his instructions (begrudgingly in some cases), Roy looked a small distance behind their friends. “Are those… Mii Fighters? But, with

eyes

?”

Zelda followed his gaze. “Oh, that is certainly bad.”

Fox and the Piranha Plant bounded up the ramp in only a few leaps.

“Come on, come on, let's go!” Fox said as they touched the deck.

“Alright, we're setting off!” said Magolor's voice though the intercoms. The ramp automatically pulled itself onto the deck right before any of the corrupted Miis could get on it and the ship started to rise. “Get inside!”

The last few people on the deck ran down below, and… they were immediately surprised by how deceptively large the interior was.

“... How…?” Zelda asked.

“The Lor automatically resizes itself to fit the needs of the people riding it,” Magolor said from his control panel. “Don't ask how, your brain might explode.”

“Are we going to be leaving this world?” Marth asked.

“Yep. We're going to lay low for a while,” Magolor said. “Once there are no more people to corrupt, I'm sure Zero will leave. And then you people can go back to… whatever it is you do.”

“They beat the crap out of each other on a daily basis,” Marx said.

“And you?” Magolor asked without looking away from his controls.

“I regulate their crap-beating,” Marx said.

“Hm. Would've never pegged you for someone who would settle down and get a job,” Magolor said.

“Well, surprise!” Marx said.

“He took the position after our last announcer… had some issues,” Dr. Mario said.

“Huh. Sounds to me like you guys killed him,” Magolor said, pushing a lever.

“Well, yes, but… it was more complicated than that!” Zelda said.

“No judgement here, lady,” Magolor said. Then he looked at the external camera system and staggered backward. “Oh no.”

Zero was looking right at them.

“We're screwed,” Magolor said. “Well, maybe not. But most likely yes.” He pushed a button and another star-shaped portal appeared in front of the ship. “Come on, come on…”

Then a mansion-sized red laser shot from Zero's iris and straight into the ship.

Every fighter was thrown into one wall after another as the ship felt like it was tearing apart. After flying into the wormhole-like tunnel, the Lor fell off of its course and was sent plummeting through the multiverse.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Pac-Man rubbed his head as he opened his eyes. They had definitely crash-landed. Painfully.

The yellow classic got to his feet, stretched out, and examined the damages. All things considered, they weren't bad. The main concern was all of the people sprawled out on the floor after the massive amount of jostling.

Pac-Man went person-to-person, helping them up and making sure they were okay. They were all scraped and bruised, but that was something that they could recover from.

Then he went up to the main console and examined Magolor on the ground.

“Uuhhhgggg,” Magolor groaned, pushing himself upright. “I guess I need to get more used to landings like this.”

“You call that a landing?” Samus said, rubbing her shoulder.

“A crash landing is still a landing…” Magolor said. He then looked up at his console. “Oh, no no no! Darn it!”

“What's wrong?” Ike asked.

“That shot hit us hard. We lost a lot of pieces of the Lor,” Magolor said. “Ah, crap. That's really a pain in the neck.”

“Is that really bad?” Lucina asked.

“It's… annoying,” Magolor said. “It's not too big of a deal, though. We made it to another world.”

“Yeah, but where the hell are we?” Marx asked, making a stepladder of vines up to the screens.

“Why are you doing that? You can float,” Magolor commented.

“Meh,” was Marx's only response.

They all examined the camera feeds from outside. Quite a few were completely destroyed, but two were still active. They showed that the ship had landed in a sparse woods, right near a little stream.

“Well, at least we landed somewhere that seems pleasant,” Palutena said.

“Yeah, this'll be a good place to lay low,” Magolor said. “We'll stay here for a while, and then we'll go back to your world and you guys can keep doing what you guys normally do.” He rubbed under his scarf with his disconnected hand. “I'm going to need you guys to gather the lost pieces of the Lor if we're going to go back, though.”

Kirby, Meta Knight, and Dedede all shot him a nasty look.

“What? I'm not going to betray you this time. I learned my lesson. Honest!” Magolor said, placing a hand on his chest.

“Seriously? Does Kirby have any friends who

haven't

tried to kill him?” Dark Pit said.

“Alright, time to find out where we are!” Magolor said, turning to his control panel. He typed in some words, and one of the screens started showing some statistics in black and green. “Mhm, mhm. Okay, breathable oxygen. That's good.”

“Uhh,” Fox said, pointing at one of the camera screens. There were people there examining the fallen ship. Human people, armed with swords, axes, and lances. Some of them were on warhorses or pegasi. And-

“Is that me?” Chrom asked, looking at a man on the screen.

“That… yep. That's you,” Male Robin said.

“Well, at least we're somewhere we know,” Palutena said.

“Yeah. The Lor's smart. Even in an emergency situation, she'll make sure the world you land in is one you know,” Magolor said. “Makes me proud to know I built her.”

“You stole her,” Meta Knight said.

“Makes me wish I could be proud to know I built her,” Magolor said.

“Well, we should probably go outside and let everyone know that they aren't getting an alien invasion,” Female Robin said.

“Yes, that would be preferable,” Lucina said.

“Right,” Magolor said, pressing a button. A door in the side of the ship made a horrid screeching noise as it pulled itself open. “Knock yourselves out.”

So the group made their way out of the door (slowly, because all of their bones ached from the crash), led by Female Robin, Lucina, Male Robin, and Chrom.

All of the people outside seemed to have put their guards up when the door opened, but seemed confused by the group that came out of it.

“Nobody panic,” Lucina said. “We mean no harm.”

“Robin?” said Cordelia.

“Yes, it's me,” said both Robins in sync. Then they looked at each other.

“Wait, which one of our worlds is this?” Male Robin asked.

Female Robin cleared her throat. “Hey, raise your hand if you're gay.”

Two of the three people raised their hands.

“Okay, it's my world,” Female Robin said.

The Chrom actually from the world nodded. “I mean, I'm glad to see you, but… that was certainly a way to make an entrance.”

“Yeah, that's… a story,” Female Robin said, scratching the back of her neck. “I'm just glad to see some friendly faces after all the stuff we just went through in the past, like, hour.”

“Speaking of friendly faces…” that world's Chrom said, looking at the Smash Chrom.

“Yeah, this is kind of awkward…” Smash Chrom said.

That world's Chrom's gaze traveled among the many fighters, and when it settled on Lucina his expression softened. “Lucina… is that really you?”

Lucina bowed her head. “Yes, but I'm sorry. I'm not the one from your world.”

That world's Chrom sighed. “I knew that, I'm sorry,” he said. “I've heard about it from the people who visited your 'Smash Mansion’. But… it's still nice to see your face again.”

Lucina smiled. “I’m glad that I can at least bring you that solace.”

Vaike let his axe rest against his shoulder and looked at the group. “Look, it would be nice if we could invite all'ya over to camp, but… uh… there're like a billion of ya’.”

“That's fine,” Magolor said from the back of the group. “We actually have to fix this ship, so

most

of us should go look for pieces.”

A lot of the group groaned.

“Someone's gotta do it, and I need to actually be here to fix the ship. So get to it, lackeys!” Magolor said.

“Pfft, lackeys,” Marx chuckled.

Cordelia quirked an eyebrow. “Did he just call you…?”

“Yeah, he's new,” Female Robin said. “As in, we literally just met him.”

Cordelia just looked more confused, as did the rest of her group.

“Don't worry about it. I'll bring a few people to come to camp with me,” Female Robin said.

“Wonderful,” Cordelia said. “And then we can talk about whatever caused this.” She gestured at the whole ship.

“Well, that'll be a short story, because I'm pretty sure that almost none of us really understand what happened,” Male Robin said.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“So, it seems like a lot has changed in the mansion, from what I saw,” Cordelia said as they walked.

“Yeah. A

lot

,” Female Robin said.

“Well, run us through it,” that world's Chrom said. The other Chrom stayed at the ship to minimize confusion.

“Well, I guess I should start with the big reveal,” Female Robin said, taking Lucina's hand. “Say hello to my girlfriend!”

Cordelia's eyes lit up. “Oh, you finally confessed!”

Female Robin nodded. “Yep!” Then she gestured toward Palutena as Lucina took the goddess's hand. “And this is my girlfriend's girlfriend!”

And the entire group was immediately confused.

“Your…” Vaike started, “... uh…?”

“Don't think too much about it,” Palutena said. “What is important is that we both love Lucina.”

“And I love both of them,” Lucina said, smiling and squeezing the hands of her lovers.

Something seemed to click in Cordelia's mind, as she made an ‘o’ shape with her mouth. “So you were the other letter-sender?” she asked, looking to Palutena.

“Ah, I see. You were informed about this,” Palutena said. “Yes, and after a few complications we were able to work out the relationship that we now have.”

“So, you're both dating my daughter,” Chrom said. “For some reason, I feel the overwhelming compulsion to lecture you.”

“Please don't, the other you did that plenty already,” Female Robin said. “Plus, it's not really your daughter. It's the otherdimensional version of the... otherdimensional version of your daughter. Wow, okay, I can see how that might be confusing.”

“Oookay, moving on,” Vaike said. “So, what else happened?”

“Well, we had to destroy the announcer,” Male Robin said, Joker nodding behind him.

“Oh… why?” Cordelia asked.

“He was going to erase all of our memories,” Female Robin said.

“Is that possible?” Chrom asked.

“Yes, and he actually achieved it,” Lucina said. “He erased many of Samus's memories.”

“Oh no! Is she okay?” Cordelia asked.

“Now she is,” Female Robin said. “She won't ever get those memories back, but she's gotten back on track.”

“Anyways, we destroyed the announcer in a big battle, and then Marx became the new controller of Smash,” Male Robin said.

“Marx…?” Cordelia asked.

“Oh, I believe you have seen him before,” Palutena said. “He is a small purple orb with feet and a jester hat.”

“Oh, I think I saw the guy a few minutes ago,” Vaike said. “Why'd you give control to such a small little guy?”

“Because he could probably eat our reality,” Female Robin said.

“... Are you joking?” Vaike asked.

“Not even a little bit,” Female Robin said.

“Marx is… powerful beyond belief,” Lucina said.

“That… concerns me,” Chrom said.

“It concerned us, too,” Male Robin said. “But all he really cares about is showing off and playing pranks. He caused a lot of mischief, but not much trouble.”

“He was definitely strong enough to stop the announcer, though,” Female Robin said.

“I see,” Chrom said. “But that does beg the question: what was strong enough to force him

and

all of you to leave?”

“Well, you see…” Lucina started.
  
 Samus slammed her hands on the dashboard as Magolor worked on it. “I want answers.”

“Cool, mind giving me the questions first?” Magolor said.

“What is up with this ‘Zero’ situation?” Samus asked.

“I thought I told you guys,” Marx said. “Big eyeball, too powerful.”

“We need more information than that,” Zelda said, stepping next to Samus. “I was under the impression that this was a creature that Kirby had defeated.”

“So was I,” Meta Knight said. “I'm confused as well.”

“Okay, so it's like this:” Marx said, “Zero is an all-powerful force that is more all-powerful than I am, as much as I hate to admit it. That thing that Kirby beat twice? That was just an extension of him. Think of it like a hand, but there's no arm and instead of a hand it's a big eyeball.” He stopped. “Actually, don't think of it like that, that makes no sense.”

“What he's

trying

to say is that Kirby didn't actually beat Zero, just a small dose of him,” Magolor said. “The real Zero is what you saw in your ‘Smash’ world. And facing him would be like trying to punch instant death in the face.”

“How do you both know all of this?” Meta Knight asked.

“The two of us met in a dimension that the ancients created. Marx ended up there after he got defeated by Kirby,” Magolor said. “And while we were there…”

“We saw some shit,” Marx finished. “Shit that was fucking terrifying and I don't want to relive, thank you.”

“You know, it's weird,” Magolor said. “From what I've picked up in Halcandran texts, Zero usually doesn't move his true form very far. I wonder what drove him to actually show up on you guys’ doorstep.”

“Maybe he was really mad at Kirby for beating him?” Samus said, shrugging.

“Hmm, maybe,” Magolor said, clearly still thinking about it.

“It doesn't matter why he's there,” Marx said. “Once he's bored, he'll leave, and it'll be business as usual.”

“And if he doesn't leave?” Zelda asked.

“Then we stay here. Forever,” Marx said. “I'm not going back while he's still there. Not in a million years.”

“He really scares you, huh?” Samus said.

Marx gave her a warning glare. “He is the

only

thing that scares me.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Why does it feel like whenever something super powerful shows up, it's always from Kirby's world?” Richter asked.

“Don't know,” Snake said, shoving a shrub out of his way. “Otacon said something about Smash being related to Kirby's world. Maybe it's something like that?”

“Mmm, maybe,” Richter said. “My theory is that Kirby's world is just filled to the brim with reality-breaking horrors.”

“That's a pretty good guess, too,” Snake said. He squinted. “You see that glow over there?”

Richter looked. “Yeah. Looks like a piece of the ship.”

The two walked over to the object. Upon closer inspection, it revealed itself to be a few gears in a self-contained bubble.

“Sure. That makes sense,” Snake commented.

“Kirby stuff. Always weird and logic-defying,” Richter said, picking up the bubble. It slipped out of his hands and started hovering above them. It still followed his hand movements, though, so it wasn't too much of a hassle.

“Hey, what do you think of this Magolor guy?” Snake asked.

“Honestly, I'm not worried about him,” Richter said, trying to look for the best path back to the ship. “Compared to Marx, he's not exactly threatening.”

“Amen to that,” Snake said. He pointed in a direction and they started heading that way. “But I was more questioning his competence. Do you think his plan of laying low is going to work?”

“Hmm, I guess I don't have enough information to answer that,” Richter said. “If this 'Zero’ thing is just there to conquer the world, then it shouldn't matter if we're there or not. But if it's out for revenge…”

“Then that could turn ugly,” Snake completed.

“Yeah,” Richter said.

“Well if push comes to shove, we can get boxes and hide under them,” Snake said.

“We… what?” Richter asked.

“Boxes. If Zero can't see us, he can't kill us,” Snake said.

“... Boxes,” Richter said.

“Yes.”

“To hide in,” Richter said.

“You got it,” Snake said.

“In the middle of a forest,” Richter said.

“Exactly,” Snake said.

Richter made a face, but then they made it into the clearing where the Lor Starcutter was entrenched. “Well, guess we'll have to develop this brilliant plan of yours later,” Richter said. They stepped on to the ship.

“Alright, alright, what've you got for us,” Marx asked impatiently.

Richter gestured to the floating gear orb that had been visible this whole time.

“... Right,” Marx said.

“Good find,” Magolor said, ducking out from below the control panel. “I think that one goes below the sail. Please toss it in that pile over there.”

Richter did so, and just as he did Zelda and Pit entered holding hands.

“We got one!” Zelda proclaimed, raising a bubble proudly.

“Very nice,” Magolor said, nodding. “I think that one actually goes right here. Gimme.”

Zelda handed Magolor the orb and he went right back under the panel.

Snake looked up at Marx. “So what are you doing?”

“Supervision,” Marx said simply.

“... That's just a way of saying you're not doing anything, right?” Richter said.

“Oh, absolutely,” Marx said, grinning.

“Hey, black holes for brains, how about you start trying to get us out of this hole?” Magolor said.

“Dude, if we weren't friends I would so kill you for that nickname,” Marx said. “Fine, I'll get to work.” He disappeared.

As soon as that happened, Cloud stomped into the bridge holding-

“

Five pieces

?!” Pit exclaimed.

“Wow, that's a lot,” Zelda said.

“Showoff,” Snake commented.

Magolor bumped his head on the bottom of the console. “Ow…” he said, and then he gestured with his hands that were still visible. “Just put them over there…”

Cloud deposited the orbs, and then once again approached the door. Bet before he left, though, he sent a self-congratulatory eyebrow wiggle to Snake. He stepped out.

“Oh no, I'm not going to lose to a punk like him,” Snake said, dragging Richter back out the door.

“Wait, since when was this a competition?” Richter's voice said, becoming fainter with distance.

Magolor emerged from under the console again. “Okay, it should be all good down there.”

“I wanted to apologize to you, Magolor,” Zelda said. “It is somewhat our fault that your ship ended up this way.”

Magolor waved a disembodied hand dismissively. “Don't worry about it. This isn't the first time she's crashed and it won't be the last,” he said. “Y'know, if we don't die, that is.”

“Right,” Pit said, rubbing the back of his head.

“I do have a question,” Zelda said. “Do we have a plan for when it gets dark?”

Before Magolor could answer, the whole ship rumbled and shook before Marx appeared in the room.

“Did my job,” Marx said, going back to sitting on top of a stack of speakers.

“Thanks,” Magolor said, and then he turned back to Zelda. “To answer your question, this ship uses weird, ancient techno-magic to make it bigger to accommodate the number of passengers it is carrying, and it makes rooms for everyone. You'll have somewhere to sleep,  don't worry.”

“That's always nice to hear,” Pit said.

“Well don't get too comfy,” Magolor said. “We're going to get you guys back to your world before too long.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“So we've told you how things are at Smash,” Female Robin said. “How are things over here?”

“Well, you know. The usual,” Sumia said. “Some followers of Grima setting out for 'vengeance’, but nothing too dangerous.”

“After Grima, I doubt anything can be intimidating anymore,” Male Robin said. “At least, not anything from this world.”

“I have heard of Grima from Robin. Er, Female Robin, that is,” Palutena said. “It seems like it was a difficult situation that you found yourselves in. Dark gods are nothing to be scoffed at.”

“I can agree with that statement,” Lucina said, her expression dark. “Grima committed some terrible atrocities.”

“But she's dead now,” Female Robin said quickly. “Everything's fine. Just some people throwing hissy fits about losing.”

Lucina visibly perked up. “Sorry, I did not mean to make you worry,” Lucina said. She gave a small smile that made both of her girlfriends’ hearts melt.

“Hissy fits or no, it's still our duty as Shepherds to protect people from these dangerous individuals,” Frederick said.

“Ah, Frederick. Tightly-wound as usual,” Female Robin said, smirking.

“Honestly, I would've preferred going up against your announcer. Things have been so

boring

over here,” Lissa said.

“You… trust me on this one, you don't want to face off against him,” Male Robin said. “We were all almost killed before the announcer even used a single attack. It's only because of Lucina that we were able to actually face him.”

“Yeah, she basically faced up against a god and won,” Female Robin said. “It was hot.”

Palutena nodded. “Very hot.”

Lucina covered her face and sunk down in her chair. “Please, you two…”

Chrom cleared his throat, and all three women composed themselves. “So, about the housing of the others…”

“We won't make you go through the trouble of trying to house us all,” Male Robin said. “It would be basically impossible. I'm sure Marx and Magolor have some sort of a plan in place.”

“Magolor, maybe,” Lucina said. “However, Marx does not seem to be the planning type.”

“We can still work with that,” Male Robin said.

“I'm sure that some of the others would enjoy properly meeting all of you, too,” Female Robin said.

“Speaking of which,” said a voice from outside the tent. The person entered and revealed herself to be Samus, with Dark Samus close behind, “I'm here.”

“Uh, hi,” Male Robin said. “Why

are

you here?”

“I can find important items in a treacherous landscape better than anyone,” Samus said. “But cheap gears in a relatively peaceful forest? No thanks.

Boooring

.”

“I guess that's fair. We have plenty of people looking, and it's getting dark,” Female Robin said.

“So… is anyone going to introduce me to this woman?” Chrom asked.

“Oh, right. I forgot that the announcer never let me invite you because of technicalities,” Female Robin said. “This is Samus. She's been in Smash since the very beginning.”

“A pleasure,” Samus said, doing a little bow.

“And behind her is Dark Samus, who used to be a megalomaniacal killing machine, but now she's adorable. Also, she's Samus's girlfriend now,” Female Robin continued.

“She's…?” Cordelia started.

“Don't think about it too much. It's not as weird as it sounds,” Male Robin said.

“Also, I'm the person whose memories got erased, since I'm sure you've all been told that story,” Samus said.

“Oh,” Sumia said. “I'm so sorry!”

“Thanks, but it's all good now. We worked out the kinks,” Samus said.

Frederick cleared his throat. “Please do not take this the wrong way, but when will you all be leaving?”

“Fair question,” Male Robin said.

“I would approximate a couple of weeks. Of course I don't know much about this enemy that has taken over, but without anything left to conquer or rule, I believe it is a safe bet,” Palutena said.

“Maybe,” Joker said.

“We'll try to be as unobtrusive as possible,” Lucina said, bowing her head.

“No, we're fine with all of you being here,” Chrom said. “We'll help out as much as we can to make sure you can get back when you need to, though.”

“Yeah! It's basically just a scavenger hunt!” Lissa said. “It shouldn't be too hard to find the pieces of your weird flying boat.”

“Pfft, weird flying boat,” Samus said. “I'm totally calling it that from now on.”

Palutena respectfully bowed her head. “We would greatly appreciate your help.”

“Great,” Chrom said, standing up. “I will let everyone know in the morning. Robin, we still have your tent open, and we have one more free tent. It likely won't hold four, though.”

“That's fine. I want to find out what the sleeping situation is for the others, so me and Joker might just head back,” Male Robin said.

“Then me and Sai will take the tent,” Samus said. “Should be nice and romantic.”

“Well it seems like that's settled, then,” Cordelia said.

Chrom went to the door and stopped. “Lucina… if you don't mind, could I talk with you alone?”

Lucina looked surprised. “... Oh… Alright?” She stepped out with her otherdimensional father.

Chrom took a deep breath. “I… can I ask you to do something with me?”

“Of course,” Lucina said.

“I'd like to go see your moth- um, Olivia, my wife. I think she would be so happy to see you,” Chrom said. “I know it's kind of awkward, considering that we aren't your actual parents, but…”

“It's fine,” Lucina reassured with a small smile. “I would love to go.”

“Thanks,” Chrom said.

They walked past a few tents before entering one. Olivia was in it, practicing dance moves with her back towards the door.

“Hello, honey. I brought someone to see you!” Chrom said.

“Oh, Chrom!” Olivia said, turning around while blushing. “Who-” and then she stopped when she saw Lucina. The dancer was stock-still for a moment. Then tears filled her eyes and she lunged into a hug with the bluette. “Oh, my baby girl!”

Lucina accepted the hug graciously. Regardless of her not being Lucina’s actual mother, regardless of the situation, Olivia's hugs still felt the same. And Lucina could feel the same amount of love.

“I'm alright, mother,” she said, squeezing onto the other woman just a little tighter.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Pit had to say, he liked this world. Palutena had given him the power of flight and let him take a look around, and Pit was impressed by what he saw. Everything was green, everything was beautiful, and everything was magical. Not more magical than Skyworld, mind you. Pit would never claim that. But this world felt new.

So of course, on the second night there was a thunderstorm to ruin everything.

Pit sighed as he looked out the window in his room. He was lucky to have one, actually, as some of the rooms didn't. The rooms on the Lor were very utilitarian in nature. Just enough room to do everything you need to do, but not a lot more. The beds were surprisingly comfortable, though, so Pit could put up with the lack of space.

But he sure wished he could be out flying, looking for pieces of the ship and sightseeing. The storm had foiled that.

A particularly loud crack of thunder rang out, and Pit didn't even flinch. Between fighting Phosphora and piloting the Lightning Chariot, he had been desensitized to lightning.

But he did hear a small squeak outside of his door. Pit cocked an eyebrow before going to the door (which took only one step) and opening it.

Outside he found Zelda, making herself as small as possible against the wall and trembling.

“Zelda? W-what-” Pit looked at the tears streaming down his girlfriend's face. “Are you okay?”

She opened her mouth, but another crack of thunder silenced her immediately. She buried her head behind her arms.

“Hey, hey, it's okay,” Pit said, kneeling down to be at her level. “Why don't you come into my room?”

Zelda hesitated, then silently nodded. She stood and went through Pit's door, but every motion was wobbly. Pit could barely believe that this was the same person as the Zelda he had known thus far. She seemed so… frail.

Pit shut the door behind him, and found that Zelda had already buried herself in the sheets on his bed.

“I-I-I'm s-sorry. I shouldn't c-come by unannounced like th-this,” Zelda said.

“It's alright,” Pit said. “I always enjoy your company.”

Then Zelda started bawling. “I'm s-sorry! I-I-I g-got scared and, and I w-was alone a-and I just… I-I need someone to be here f-for me right now…”

“It’s okay, Zelda. I'm here,” Pit said. He hoped he was doing this right.

“I-I just- I've been th-through so much d-danger in my life, b-but it w-was all

predictable

. I c-could tell how m-much danger I was in a-and when things were g-going badly. B-but lightning is random, and i-it's so- so easy for it to snuff you out in one strike and you would n-never see it coming, and now we're i-in a

metal ship

, and… goddesses, I'm so scared…”

“Zelda…” Pit said. He decided to take a risk. He sat down on the bed and opened his arms for a hug.

As soon as he did, Zelda propelled herself into his embrace and clung to him like a lifeline.

They stayed like that for a while. Every time a crack of thunder came, Zelda would tremble uncontrollably, but it would eventually subside with Pit holding her.

“Pit…” Zelda said eventually.

“Wha- mmph!” Pit was surprised by a big kiss on the lips by his girlfriend. After it ended, Zelda kept her hand on Pit's cheek.

“It’s r-really sweet of you to do this for me,” she said, only faltering once.

“Uh, yeah,” was all Pit could think of to say because

wow.

“C-can I stay here with you tonight?” Zelda asked.

“Y-yeah, that's fine,” Pit said.

“Thank you,” Zelda said, and then she moved to reposition the two of them so that they were laying down.

“Hey,” Pit said. “You don't ever have to ask if you need me for something like this again. I'll be more than happy to help.”

Zelda's eyes were already starting to droop. “Thank you,” Zelda said again, drowsily.

And she fell asleep cuddling in his arms.
  
In the morning, they left the room together.

“I should go get changed,” Zelda said. “I'll see you later!” She headed for her own quarters.

“Bye!” Pit called back.

He smiled. It was times like these that reminded him of how much he was in love.

Pit turned, and then nearly toppled over on the ground when he saw Snake standing right behind him. Had he been in that box that Pit had ignored approximately fifteen seconds ago?

“So, how was it?” Snake asked.

“How was what?” Pit asked.

“Last night? You and Zelda?” Snake said, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Oh, it was very nice,” Pit said. “She was very gentle and kind, and I feel like I was the same to her.”

Snake nodded in approval.

“And she was crying a lot, and it ended up being a lot of hugging,” Pit said.

Snake then looked confused, but he shrugged. “Uh, whatever you two are into, I guess.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Samus: Hey, is this workingFox: I couldn't tell you how, but it is.Kirby: Wow, I totally thought these would be useless! (✿☉｡☉)Samus: Yeah yeah, whatever. I found that last set of oars we were looking for and I have a few questionsSamus: 1: Why did it have to land in the middle of a horde of zombiesSamus: 2: WHY THE FUCK ARE THERE ZOMBIES???M Robin: ah you found some risenSamus: If you mean risen from the dead, then yesF Robin: thats exactly what he meansSamus: Why do they exist though?M Robin: grimaM Corrin: Yeah, sounds about right.F Robin: ****ing grimaLucina: *Nods*Samus: Well, there are a lot of them. Is it okay if I kill them all?F Robin: please doF Robin: im bringing others to help outSamus: I mean I don't need it but okay “Let's go, team!” Female Robin said.“A Risen horde that big, and so close, too,” Tiki said as they started moving. “That is concerning.”“No need to worry, milady. I will be at your side,” Say'ri said.“Of course, my love,” Tiki said, grinning.“Hey, maybe you guys should go back to wondering why this is happening,” Dark Pit said. “From what I know, the dead don't just spring up for no reason.”“It is possible that the cause is an old follower of Grima stirring up trouble,” Maribelle said. “What a pest.”“Yes. It would be a shame if they fell victim to some deadly curse,” Tharja said, her grin as dark as usual.“... Alright, or we could just defeat them,” Ike said.“Where's the fun in that?” Tharja said.“Lucas, are you ready?” Female Robin asked.Lucas nodded, a sparkle appearing on his finger.“Well, good. Because we're here,” Female Robin said.They reached the top of a hill and-“Oh,” Ike said.There were piles and piles of dead Risen within the small ravine beyond the hill. It was like a horror movie, but if it were the bad guys who were supposed to be scared. The group watched Samus plow through another group of undead, surely grinning under her armored helmet.“THIS IS AWESOME!” she shouted. She probably hadn't even seen her allies yet. She just shouted it for the sake of it. She shot a missile at another few Risen, blowing them to smithereens.“Well… that's impressive,” Tiki said, unable to find any better words to say.“Yeah…” Dark Pit said, in reluctant awe.With only a sparse few Risen left over, Samus spotted her allies in the distance. “Hey there! It seemed like you had a pest problem, so I went ahead and took care of it!”“Well, I'm absolutely elated that we came all this way just to watch you take care of the threat yourself,” Maribelle said.“To be fair, I warned you guys,” Samus said. “It's alright, you can call me a badass if you want to. I won't stop you.”Female Robin shook her head, with an amused smile. “Sorry guys. I guess I didn't count on Samus's skills at genocide.”“You bet,” Samus said. “So, now that I've sated my bloodlust, lunch?”“Don't get ahead of yourself,” Say'ri said, putting a hand on her sword and taking a defensive stance.Samus turned to see what the swordswoman was talking about, and found a woman standing at the top of a cliff. She was wearing all black-and-red garments, with eyes depicted on the front of  her dress. “Hey, you should get down from there,” Samus said. “You could get really hurt if you fell.”“ You dare speak to I, the Grim Lady, in such a condescending manner? ” the woman said with a demonic echo behind her voice.“No really, I insist,” Samus said. “Here, let me help you down.”She shot a missile at the cliff below the woman, sending her and several big chunks of rock plunging multiple meters to the base of the ravine.The woman activated some sort of slow-fall spell before she hit the ground, but even so the impact looked harsh.“ You fool! I will not be defeated in such trivial means!” the Grim Lady said.“Eh, worth a shot,” Samus said.“ I was stockpiling those Risen for months, trying to amass an army strong enough to kill those who murdered my master! ” the Grim Lady said. “ I was to be the vassal of the grim dragon's vengeance. But then you showed up, and destroyed the entire force of my army! ”Samus yawned. “Are you monologuing right now? Are you seriously doing this?”The Grim Lady looked stunned. “ How- How dare! I cannot forgive this insolence!” The Grim Lady took out a tome. “ I will show you that I am someone to be feared! ”“Oh noooo , a book. However will I survive?” Samus deadpanned.“ Let us see you keep that insulting tone when you face off against this! ” the Grim Lady exclaimed. “ FLUX! ”A cloud of purple energy shot towards Samus, and the bounty hunter dodged it easily by curling into a ball and rolling under.“... Flux?! Seriously?! Flux?!” Tharja exclaimed from afar, drawing the Grim Lady's attention to the group assembled on the hill. “That was your trump card? Your most powerful attack?”“ I'd like to see you achieve something more powerful,” the Grim Lady said. Then her entire body rotted on the spot and dropped dead to the floor.Samus jumped. “Jesus Christ!”“Gods…” Ike said.“Tharja, why?!” Female Robin said, looking away from the corpse.“She was an insult to dark mages,” Tharja said, lowering her hand while still glowering at the body.Samus pinched her nose. “You know what, all of the dead bodies down here are starting to stink. Can we just get the oars and leave already?”“I suppose that would be a wise decision,” Tiki said.The group started walking down a natural ramp into the ravine. Robin moved to follow, but then stopped and turned when she remembered a particular member of the group.“Lucas! Are you okay?” she said, concerned.Lucas just shrugged.Honestly, he didn't look any more traumatized than usual.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Excellent!” Magolor said, grabbing the bubble with the oars encased in it. “This was the last piece we needed!”

“So we could theoretically go home now?” Female Robin asked.

“Yeah, but… we're not gonna do that just yet,” Marx said.

“Yeah, that Zero fucker's probably still there,” Dark Pit said.

“Exactly,” Magolor said. “So, why don't you all go enjoy yourselves?”

“We will,” Female Robin said.

“Why not join us?” Ike asked.

“Well…

someone

has to keep an eye on the ship,” Magolor said.

“Pal, I'll take care of it. Go have fun,” Marx said, balancing on his tiptoe on top of his beach ball.

Magolor turned to him. “Are you-”

“I

got

it. I will literally obliterate anything that tries to touch your stolen metal baby,” Marx said.

Magolor sighed. “Okay. I guess I do need to get out more.”

“Staying shut in is unhealthy,” Female Robin said. “... Or so people keep telling me.”

“You saved our lives. At least let us get to know you a little better,” Samus said.

Lucas nodded.

Magolor dusted off his front. “All right, let's go.”

They met up with the group of Robin's friends who were simply standing near the doorway, looking confused and a little intimidated.

“Hey,” Female Robin said. “Are you all okay?”

“What…

is

all of this?” Maribelle said.

“Everything seems very advanced,” Say'ri said.

“... I think I need a nap,” Tiki said.

“Yeaahhh, I don't think they were ready for this,” Dark Pit said.

“Let's get you all out of here. I think you might need some fresh air,” Female Robin said.

“And I can explain how all of this stuff works while we're there,” Magolor said, and then received a warning look from Robin.

“No thanks,” Tiki said, yawning and leaning her head onto her wife's shoulder.

The group started walking back to the Shepherds’ camp.

“So is that sort of a villain a common occurrence now?” Ike asked.

“Sadly, yes,” Maribelle said. “Some people are simply sore losers. They won't accept that they have already been defeated, and they don't have the proper amount of skill to back up their intentions.”

“Incompetent people suck,” Dark Pit said.

“I would never use such crass language to describe them,” Maribelle said, and then her voice became quieter. “But yes. They do.”

“It isn't all bad, though,” Say'ri said. “Their presence has necessitated the continuation of the Shepherds. They have kept us all together.”

All of the people from the world smiled as they entered camp.

“Ah, so this is where you live. How… quaint,” Magolor said.

“Better quaint than confusing, I guess,” Female Robin said. She stepped to the meeting tent and peeled open the flap. “Hello?”

She saw Frederick on the other side of the table, with his back turned to her. He was sitting with his axe laying across his lap.

“Hey, Frederick!” Robin said. “We dealt with the Risen! Turns out that the mastermind was a huge joke.”

Then Frederick turned to look at her, and his eyes looked… cruel. Cruel, and angrier than usual, which was saying something.

“Frederick?” Robin said.

The knight grunted with exertion as he vaulted the table and swung his axe at the tactician. She barely backstepped in time to avoid the weapon slicing her throat.

“Gods, Frederick, stop!” Robin said, frantically reaching for a tome in her cloak as she staggered backwards.

“Frederick? Why are you attacking our friend?” Tiki asked.

He only made a growling noise in response.

“That isn't your 'Frederick’ anymore,” Magolor said darkly.

Frederick went for another axe swing, but Samus's arm cannon fired a shot that knocked the weapon out of his hands.

“Calm down,” Samus said.

Frederick did not calm down. Instead, he charged toward the group.

“PK Freeze!” Lucas shouted, and a ball of icey energy emerged from his fingertip. It struck Frederick's feet and froze him in place.

The knight struggled for a moment, and then his body went slack. All of a sudden, a ball of darkness emerged from his back. It gazed among the group with its single eyeball, and then rose into the air.

“Don't let it get away!” Magolor shouted before shooting an energy sphere from his hands. It just barely missed the dark being.

“Thunder!” Robin shouted, but the creature evaded her bolt.

Its attention had been on the wrong threat, however, as it was blocked on its path by a large dragon. The said dragon used a breath of fire to quickly do away with the threat. Then the reptile landed and turned back into Tiki's human form.

“What was that?” Tiki asked.

“Dark Matter,” Magolor said. “They take over minds and put them under the thrall of Zero.”

There was a groan. “Can someone get my feet out of this ice?”

“Frederick!” Robin said, taking out a fire tome. “Are you okay?”

“I should be asking you that,” Frederick said. “My failure to fight that creature's control almost got you killed.”

“It seemed that you didn't have much choice in the matter,” Ike said.

“Yeah, man. Don't take it too hard,” Samus said.

“Ironic that you're apologizing to

me

for getting mind controlled now,” Robin said, smirking as she used her fire tome to gently melt the ice.

“There is some irony in the situation, yes,” Maribelle said.

The Chrom from the world emerged from his tent. “What happened? I heard Tiki's roar,” he said.

“The situation's handled,” Dark Pit said.

“Well… perhaps not…” Say'ri said, staring at the sky.

Everyone else turned their gaze upwards. The sky was starting to turn red.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“What's happening?” Palutena asked as she emerged from her quarters and found a group gathered around the monitors.

“It's Zero,” Pokemon Trainer said. “He followed us.”

“That's… very bad,” Lucina said from Palutena's side.

“Yes, yes it is,” Magolor said as he and the Smashers who had been with him entered.

“Wait, but

why

did he follow us?” Mega Man asked. “I mean, it's not like

we've

done anything to him.”

“I don't know, but it's clear that he’s going after us specifically,” Magolor said. “Wait, where's Marx?”

“He went to find a smoothie place,” Fox said.

“In a medieval forest?” Magolor asked.

“Yeah, it didn't work out,” Marx said as he teleported in.

“Marx, you said that you would watch over the Lor!” Magolor said.

“Yeah, well… I didn't,” Marx said.

“Sometimes I hate you,” Magolor said.

“Focus, please,” Peach said.

“Right,” Magolor said. “So Zero isn't just going for your planet. He's after you people specifically.”

“Maybe because of Kirby defeating him,” Meta Knight said.

“That means that if you want to avoid the suffering of the people on this planet, we need to

go

,” Magolor said.

“I'll try and call everybody back to the ship,” Fox said as he took out his screen.

“Hey,” Female Robin said, pointing to one of the ship's camera screens. On it, a pegasus could be seen flying towards the ship.

“Go take care of that,” Magolor said. He raised the bubble with the oars in it. “I still need to install these.”

“Right,” Female Robin nodded. “Luci, Palutena, mind coming with me?”

“No problem,” Lucina said, and Palutena smiled. They exited through the front door.

The pegasus landed right in front of the ramp, and Chrom hopped off of the back while Sumia stayed on her mount. The eerie red glow from the sky made it difficult to see either of their expressions.

“Is this the Zero you were talking about?” Chrom asked as he walked a little bit up on to the ramp.

“Yes,” Palutena said. “It doesn't seem that he is poking his eye out just yet, but he is definitely approaching.”

Chrom seemed to looked disappointed. “I guess you'll be leaving, then.”

“Yes, I'm sorry,” Female Robin said. “He's clearly going after us, and we should be able to lead him away. I don't want anything to happen to you guys.”

“And you're sure that there's no other way?” Chrom said.

“The only thing that we're certain of is that we don't want anyone here to get hurt in the crossfire,” Lucina said.

“Hey, at least we got to see you for a little bit,” Sumia said.

“Yeah, it was good to catch up,” Robin said. “But I wish it didn't have to end so soon.”

“I'll extend your goodbyes to everyone,” Chrom said. Then he smirked. “Tharja will be disappointed.”

“Yeah, but what else is new?” Robin said.

The two chuckled for a moment as the other Smashers that had been outside of the ship started to return.

Eventually, Chrom spoke again. “Well, I wish you safe travels.”

“Yeah, keep fighting! Don't give in against this big guy!” Sumia said.

Robin felt tears prickle at the edges of her eyes. “Thanks.”

“And you two,” Chrom looked at Robin and Palutena, “take care of Lucina. I know she's not technically my daughter, but you should treat her well anyways.”

“You have my word,” Palutena said.

“You know I wouldn't do anything to hurt her,” Robin said.

“Yes, I know. I've known since you first fell in love with her,” Chrom said with a knowing look.

“... Wait, you

what?!

” Robin exclaimed.

The ground began to rumble as Zero's eye began to emerge from a red portal in the sky. The vibrations almost made the Smashers and warriors stumble. Beside them, the oars popped into their place on the side of the ship.

“Come on! We need to go!” Magolor shouted from the top deck before going back down below.

Robin looked back to her friends. “I guess this is my goodbye.”

Chrom nodded as he stepped off of the ramp and back onto the pegasus. The Smashers waved as they stepped back into the ship, and the ramp slammed closed as soon as they had reached the interior.

“Alright, let's go before he starts killing people,” Magolor said. He pushed two levers and flicked a few switches, and they were in a portal immediately.

Thankfully, Zero had not been able to catch them. A collective sigh of relief went among the crowd. They made it out.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Magolor, having put the Lor into autopilot, gathered everyone around a central table that had emerged from the floor.

“So, this is bad,” he said.

“No shit,” Wolf said.

Magolor glared at him before continuing. “Zero isn't after colonizing planets right now. He's trying to

kill

all of you.”

“Not exactly ideal,” Richter said.

“But we can't just hop from world to world forever,” Female Corrin said.

“I mean, theoretically we could,” Magolor said. “But… something tells me you guys wouldn't be happy with that.”

“No, we wouldn't be,” Mario said.

“Then we go with Plan B,” Magolor said. Then he paused. “... Does anybody have an idea for Plan B…?”

“Are you serious?” Samus shouted.

“You've got nothing?!” Falco exclaimed.

“Look, you're putting me on the spot here, and I don't appreciate it,” Magolor said. “I just think it's time that someone else come up with some plans.”

“Well, let's go over the facts,” Male Robin said. “What do we know?”

“Okay, that I can do,” Magolor said. “We know that it took Zero three days to find us, but due to the nature of dimensional travel that could be inconsistent.”

“We also know that he's sending those dark matter things ahead of him,” Female Robin said. “One took over Frederick. Any more could be a big problem.”

“Well, they weren't particularly strong once exposed,” Ike said.

“Yeah, kind of a pushover,” Dark Pit said.

“Unfortunately, that particular weakness won't help us much in regards to Zero himself,” Zelda said.

“Aaaand we've come full-circle,” Ken said.

“It turns out we still don't have a plan,” Male Corrin said.

Marx sighed. “Fuck, and I was going to prepare the fanfare for whoever came up with the winning idea.” A single spout of confetti popped out of nowhere and a very sad trumpet noise played.

“Please take this seriously, Marx,” Palutena said.

“TRUST ME, I am,” Marx refuted. “You want the best idea I can come up with?

Fine.

I would suggest that we use Nova to wish Zero out of existence. But wait! What's this?! Kirby

destroyed

Nova and its wish-granting powers are lost forever. It's fucking bullshit!”

Magolor seemed to perk up at this.

“What's up, Mag’?” Captain Falcon said.

“Well-... 'Mag’...?” Magolor shook his head. “Marx has the right idea.”

“Um, did you literally not listen to a single word I said? I said that Nova was destroyed,” Marx said.

“Yes, you're right, but Nova and the Lor Starcutter have something in common: their origin,” Magolor said. “Both were created by the ancients of Halcandra. And I'll bet you money that there are still some powerful weapons lying around on that planet.”

Marx's eyes practically sparkled. “Something as powerful as Nova could make our problems way easier!”

“So let us go to Halcandra, then,” Marth said.

“Well, don't get hasty,” Magolor said.

“Are you kidding me? A giant eyeball is tracking us down and trying to kill us,” Sonic commented.

“Solving this problem quickly would be preferable,” Dr. Mario said.

“Well, long-distance interdimensional travel is no walk in the park,” Magolor said. “I'm used to it, but you guys? Not even close. It'd tear you all to pieces.”

“So what do you suggest?” Rosalina asked.

“We take some pit stops along the way,” Magolor said.

Diddy Kong questioningly pointed to Pit.

“No, not that kind of 'Pit' stop,” Marx said.

Magolor walked to his console. “We will go to a few other worlds along the way and take some breaks. Only for a couple of days, though. We can't let Zero catch up to us.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Samus said.

“Where will we be stopping first, then?” Meta Knight asked.

“Oh, I don't know,” Magolor said.

Meta Knight squinted at him. “You… don't…”

“Knowing where you're going sucks the fun out of it,” Magolor said.

“That's my man!” Marx said, clapping Magolor on the back with a wing.

“Wow. I thought I wasn't okay with having

one

psychopath in charge,” Snake said, crossing his arms.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“You know, this wormhole thing is actually pretty pretty,” Samus said, before turning her gaze from directly upwards to the direction of her smirking alien girlfriend. “And yes, I know I said pretty twice.”

Dark Samus's smirk became a soft smile as she started watching the swirling greens, reds, and blues amongst the black of the dimensional tunnel. Samus was right. It had an ethereal beauty.

“You're prettier, though,” Samus added, shifting in the reclined chair so that she could rest her head on Dark Samus's shoulder.

Dark Samus reflexively wrapped an arm around her girlfriend, basking in the bounty hunter's comfortable warmth. She turned her head to kiss the blonde's temple, who giggled a little in response.

“Hey,” Fox said, coming cautiously out of the door to the deck. “Is there air up here?”

“Yeah, some sort of a bio-shield bullshit,” Samus said. “Just don't end up too far away from the ship.”

Fox stepped all the way up onto the deck. “Sorry, am I ruining a moment?”

“Nah, moment's still happening. You're just gonna end up feeling like a third wheel,” Samus said, cupping a hand over her girlfriend's on her abdomen and wrapping her other arm around the phazon creature.

“I can live with that,” Fox said, walking to the edge of the ship and leaning on the railing. “I can see why you two came out here. It's beautiful. We didn't get much of a chance to see it last time.”

“Yeah, getting shot down will do that to you,” Samus said.

“All three of us have traveled through space a lot. Well, Dark Samus might not remember it, but… I have to say, this is a different experience from normal space travel,” Fox said.

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Samus said. “Space just feels like emptiness, but this… feels like more. I don't know, I'm not good at this philosophy stuff.”

“No, it made sense,” Fox said. “It's like we get a small taste of every world we're passing by.”

Dark Samus nodded thoughtfully and rubbed a thumb along the knuckles of Samus's hand.

“Man, I guess interdimensional travel brings out the poet in me,” Fox said.

Samus moved her head from Dark Samus's shoulder and sat up a bit, but not enough to warrant Dark Samus retracting her arm. “Hey, let me ask you something, Fox,” Samus said.

“Hm?” Fox responded.

“Do you have anyone that you're ‘involved’ with. Like, a girlfriend? Or boyfriend, if that's what you're after.”

Fox smiled softly in recollection. “No, but I have someone close.”

“Do tell,” Samus said, smirking.

“Her name is Krystal,” Fox said.

“Krystal like the Assist Trophy?” Samus asked.

“That's the one,” Fox said, nodding. “She's… beautiful and a wonderful person. And even if we've…

clashed

a bit, I really do love her.”

“Define ‘clashed’,” Samus said.

“She joined Star Wolf once,” Fox said. “Actually, twice.”

“Yeesh,” Samus said.

“Yeah,” Fox said. “It was my fault. But she's back now. And she knows that I like her. I just need to get her to like me too.”

“You're thinking about this wrong,” Samus said.

“Huh?” Fox said.

“You shouldn't

do

something to get her to like you,” Samus said. “Just be you. Be… heroic, and sometimes flawed, and strangely poetic in time-space portals.” Samus punctuated the last point with a little bit of a giggle. “The reason why me and Dark Samus work so well together is because we didn't try to put up facades in the beginning. She knows that I'm kind of a bitch, and

I

know that she doesn't really understand relationships. We went in knowing these things. Probably both times.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Fox said.

“Don't make an extreme effort to impress Krystal. If she's right for you, she'll find out that she likes you for who you are,” Samus said. “I know it sounds cliché, but it's true.”

“Huh,” Fox said. “Thanks, Samus.”

“But take everything I say with a grain of salt. It's not like I've had a

lot

of relationship experience before this,” Samus said, putting her head back on Dark Samus’s shoulder.

“No, it was good advice,” Fox said. Then he peered over the edge of the ship. “Looks like we're about to leave the portal.”

A speaker screeched to life. “Attention! We're about to leave the portal!” Magolor's voice said.

Samus sighed. “Well, the view was nice while it lasted.”

Dark Samus made a noise of agreement that sounded like a cat purring into electrified water.

“Well, I guess it's time to see what kind of a hellhole we end up in next,” Fox said.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The ship passed through another portal, and emerged in a blue sky.

“That's a good sign,” Sonic said.

Magolor nodded. “But just to be cautious, I'm going to cloak us.”

“That seems like a smart option,” Palutena said.

Magolor turned a few dials and flipped a few switches, and the exterior of the ship almost vanished from sight.

Fox, Samus, and Dark Samus came down from the deck.

“Okay, I did not appreciate the ground looking like it disappeared from below me,” Fox said.

“Don't be a baby,” Marx said. “I'd catch you if you fell.”

“Would you really care that much, though?” Samus said, narrowing her eyes at the jester.

“You got me there,” Marx said.

“So, let's find out where we are,” Falco said.

“BIRD!” Sonic shouted, and sure enough, a large bird narrowly avoided getting hit by the ship.

“Hey, wait a second,” Pokemon Trainer said, leaning in to look at the screen. Another flock of the gray-and-white birds could be seen in the distance. “Those aren't just birds. Those are Starly!”

Ganondorf looked at him. “And that means…?”

“They're Pokemon!” Pokemon Trainer said. “I guess we're in my world now. I'd like to formally welcome each and every one of you to the world of Pokemon!”

All of the Pokemon looked greatly excited to be back on their own world, some of them even exclaiming their excitement in their Pokemon cries.

“Now, I have to ask: are you a boy? Or are you a girl?” Pokemon Trainer said.

“... Um?” Samus responded for the rest of the group.

“Sorry, inside joke. Let's go!” Pokemon Trainer said, oozing with energy.

The ship came to a slow descent in the forest next to what looked to be a sizable city.

“So, this is where you live,” Meta Knight said.

“Not exactly,” Pokemon Trainer said. “I'm from the Kanto region. This seems like it's Hearthome city, which is part of the Sinnoh region.”

“I don't know what any of that means,” Meta Knight said.

“Think of it like different countries,” Pokemon Trainer said.

The door to the ship opened up, and all of the smaller Pokemon bounded out immediately. They began rolling in the grass and basking in the feeling of home, even if it wasn't exactly the place they lived.

Pokemon Trainer clapped Lucario's shoulder in the doorway. “This is where you're from, isn't it?”

“Lu,” Lucario said, nodding.

“Do you have a trainer here or something?” Pokemon Trainer asked.

Lucario seemed to hesitate heavily before shaking his head. “Lucario.”

“Oh. Well, I'm sure you have some places you'd like to see anyways,” Pokemon Trainer said.

“Hey, don't go too far. We can only stay here for two days, max,” Magolor said.

“Yeah, yeah. They'll be careful,” Samus said, giving Pokemon Trainer a thumbs-up.

“Hey, would you mind showing me around? This place looks really interesting,” Pit said to the Trainer.

“Sure! I've been here once on a vacation. I should know some good places to go,” Pokemon Trainer said. “Anybody else who wants to join me, come on over!”

A train of people trailed the Trainer out of the ship, leaving it sparsely-populated. Magolor started tapping away on his console while the others slowly dispersed.

Magolor sighed. “I wish they would stop treating this like a vacation. This is serious. All of our lives are on the line.”

“Then why are you still here?” Marx asked, spawning a beach ball from nothingness and kicking it across the room.

“What do you mean?” Magolor asked.

Marx rolled his eyes. “Look, we both know you could have left us all to die many times over. You could have taken your ship and left us all behind. So why are you still here?”

Magolor paused in his motions on the console without looking at the purple puffball. “..... Because Zero will associate me with all of you now that he's seen me with you.”

Marx grinned and kicked another beach ball across the room. “Bullshit. You're doing this because you want to.”

“No, this is out of necessity,” Magolor said.

“Whatever,” Marx said, before kicking another beach ball. The action made Magolor glare at him.

“Will you stop that?” he said.

“Will you stop lying to yourself?” Marx countered.

Magolor was quiet for a moment. “... Okay, so I'm doing it by choice. So what?”

Marx grinned again. “You're starting to like them.”

Magolor sighed. “They're noisy, and rude, and brutish, and annoying.”

Marx stared thoughtfully out of the door to the ship. “Yeah… but you've got to admit, they grow on you.”

Magolor turned back to his console. “Yeah… I guess you're right.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“No way!” Pokemon Trainer exclaimed as he looked at the sky.“What's up?” Fox asked from his position leaning against the invisible ship.“It's Rayquaza!” the Trainer said. “That's a legendary Pokemon right there!”Fox looked up as Diddy Kong pointed from beside him to the green dragon soaring through the air. “Oh yeah. Me and Diddy have seen one before.”“Right, I forgot. Subspace,” Pokemon Trainer said.“Excuse me!” Isabelle said, walking to them. “I have to ask: what's Subspace?”Pokemon Trainer looked at her surprised. “No one ever told you what Subspace was?”“No, I'm afraid not,” Isabelle said. “I'd like to know, though.”“Subspace was kind of like the World of Light,” Fox said. “It was a story that Smash cooked up and that we all worked together to conquer, complete with platforming stages and bosses.”“Yeah, we had to save the world from the evil Subspace army, who were setting off bombs to make a morbid collection for their master,” Pokemon Trainer said.Diddy Kong made monkey noises and clapped above his head.Isabelle shivered. “That sounds terrifying!”Pokemon Trainer smiled. “Don't worry, it was all fake.”“Well, most of it,” Fox said.“What do you mean?” Pokemon Trainer asked.“Well, back then things weren't so advanced in the mansion. The bosses were too complex for the hologram technology to create, so most of them were actually real,” Fox said.“So that's why so many of them were robots…” Pokemon Trainer said.“Yeah, even Ridley and Rayquaza were just very lifelike robots,” Fox said. “I mean, clearly. Ridley isn't nearly that big.”“So Tabuu was a robot, too?” Pokemon Trainer asked.“Tabuu?” Isabelle asked.“He was the leader of the Subspace army,” Pokemon Trainer said.“Actually, I'm not so sure what he was,” Fox said. “The way he moved didn't seem robotic, even from up close. And he was way more powerful than any of the other bosses. Like, unreasonably difficult.”“Huh. I guess that's just one more mystery to pile onto the rapidly increasing list of things we don't know about Smash,” Pokemon Trainer said.“We really don't know a lot about the place we work, do we?” Isabelle said.“No. No we don't,” Fox said.Pokemon Trainer counted off on his fingers, with Diddy Kong doing it along with him. “Who created the announcer, where had he been getting resources, what are those shadow beasts…”“Maybe, for now, we should just be happy that we're all still doing well, despite all the odds,” Isabelle said.“That's a nice way to look at it,” Fox said. They were silent for a moment, and then he turned to look at Pokemon Trainer. “So, are you going to go after that Rayquaza?”Pokemon Trainer seemed to ponder it for a moment. “Nah. I'll leave it for a newer trainer. I'm happy with the Pokemon I've got.”And the three watched the cosmic dragon become a speck in the distance.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Lucario looked at Yoshi and Greninja relaxing in the sunlight and smiled. It was nice to see his friends happy. The two worked well together, and somehow communication wasn't even an issue for them. They just read each other that well.

He sometimes longed for that kind of companionship. Not of a

romantic

kind, per se, but… something. Something to replace what he had already lost.

Lucario turned away from the two and examined the fountain in Amity Square. He had been here when it had been the only feature in the park. Things seemed so different now.

Lucario instinctively tensed up when he heard a noise near him, but relaxed when he found it to just be a little girl playing with her Vulpix.

“Come on, Cinnamon! You know this is a new dress that mommy got me! We shouldn't get it messy!” the girl squeaked against the onslaught of licks and kisses that she was getting from the fox Pokemon.

Lucario smiled a little. It was good to see Pokemon who loved their trainers. If they were happy together, then they could achieve anything.

“God, you're so useless!” a Pokemon trainer shouted through the pouring rain. “I'm never going to beat Cynthia while I'm dragging you around!”

The Riolu in front of him pouted and stared at the ground. He had really screwed up, hadn't he? But… he had really been trying his best! Was his best not good enough…?

“You're so weak! You're never going to catch up to the other Pokemon in the party,” the trainer said.

The Riolu felt even more defeated, and the fact that he was quickly becoming drenched didn't help. He had failed his master.

“Gah, and I don't have enough space in the PC to deal with you,” the trainer said. “You know what, you'd be a waste of PC space anyways.”

A waste of space?

“Rio…” the Riolu said. It was a plea. A plea for anything Riolu could do to make it up to his master, but it fell on deaf ears.

“Maybe I should-” the trainer started, and then he cut himself off with a nod. “Yeah, that'll work.”

The trainer took out Riolu's Pokeball and held it for a moment. Riolu expected that he would be returned. He would be okay with that. His master would likely still be upset with him, but at least he would be out of this downpour.

This was not what the trainer had in mind. He placed the Pokeball on a nearby stump before pulling out another one. “Go, Bronzong!”

A blue metal bell Pokemon emerged from the ball. “Zooong,” it said.

The trainer pointed at Riolu's Pokeball. “Use Gyro Ball!”

Riolu instantly knew where this was going. And he also knew that he couldn't do anything to stop it. He watched as the Bronzong spun towards the stump and impacted against it, leaving the Pokeball on top in pieces. Riolu's eyes filled with tears. What about all of the good times they had had? Did they mean nothing to his trainer?

“There, it's done,” the trainer said. He turned to Riolu. “Now get out of my sight.”

Riolu hesitated, but a sharp shooing gesture robbed him of any remaining doubt. His trainer didn't care about him. His trainer just wanted him gone.

Riolu sniffled as he disappeared into the damp, unfamiliar woods, never to see his master again.

Lucario wiped his eyes. Had he been crying? The girl and her Vulpix were gone. How long had he been standing there, reminiscing?

He didn't care. He didn't care about anything. Everything was fine. He was fine.

… He missed having a trainer.

Lucario stepped over to the nearby pool of water and gazed at his reflection in it.

Am I still too weak? What would it take for me to be strong enough for you?

Lucario shook himself out of the train of thought before punching the water so that the ripples would ruin his perfect reflection. Who cares what some douchebag trainer thinks? Lucario did fine on his own, anyways.

Lucario stomped out of Amity Square, leaping over walls in order to leave in a direction with the minimum number of people.

He was halfway back to to the base when he heard Snake's voice.

“Whoa, what has you so riled up?” Snake said.

Lucario turned to look, and found Snake and Meta Knight sitting at the base of a small tree.

“Yeah, I'm talking to you, Lucario,” Snake said.

“You seem pretty distressed. Are you okay?” Meta Knight asked. “Why not come sit with us?”

Lucario just stood there for a moment, staring at the ground and debating whether he wanted the company right now. The answer was obviously yes, but he was a stubborn Pokemon.

“Would some poffins tempt you? Meta Knight just made them in town,” Snake said.

“I did no such thing!” Meta Knight refuted.

The offer was enough to sway Lucario. He moved next to the two and plopped down on the ground, taking a poffin. Mmm, bitter and spicy, with a hint of sweet. Lucario could get behind this.

“I know you're not much for talking, but you

do

look like you've had a rough day,” Snake said. “I get it if you don't want to talk about it, but I'm trying to be more… personable.”

Lucario huffed out a chuckle. He was feeling better already. Screw his trainer. He had friends now. Friends that wouldn't leave him behind. Friends that wouldn't abandon him.

… They wouldn't, would they?

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Lucina finally succumbed to her desires. She took her shoes off and walked barefoot in the grass.

Why did it feel so much better than the grass of her own world? It was like walking on soft carpet. It was greener than the average grass, too. Lucina was almost tempted to roll around in it. But that would be too far. It would be informal. It would be silly.

… Lucina did it anyway. She took off the armored pads in her outfit and just relished in the feeling of the soft, soft grass beneath her. It was… nice.

Then she saw Corrin approaching from the distance. Or, one of the Corrins. She couldn't tell which, as they were currently in dragon form. And… being pelted by Pokeballs?

Lucina rushed over to see what was happening.

“Darn, that one didn't work either?” a female trainer said. “These quick balls are crap!”

“Excuse me!” Lucina said. “What is happening here?”

“Oh, hello! I'm trying to catch this Pokemon. I think it's a completely uncatalogued one!” the trainer said.

“For the last time, I'm

not

a Pokemon!” Male Corrin's voice echoed from the dragon.

“And I've only ever heard of legendary Pokemon talking. This could be a big deal!” the trainer said, seemingly ignoring the contents of Male Corrin's previous statement.

“I'm sorry to disappoint you, but he actually is not a Pokemon,” Lucina said. “Male Corrin, why don't you show her your human form?”

“Can't,” Corrin said. “Because of our resource problems I've had to reuse old Dragonstones, and sometimes that can make them kind of… faulty.”

“Oh,” Lucina said. “Well, my point still stands. He is not a Pokemon.”

The trainer narrowed her eyes. “He looks like a Pokemon…”

“That's because I'm not from this dimension,” Corrin said.

“This dimension…?” the trainer said.

“Yes, we are from other worlds,” Lucina said. “But don't fret. We'll be leaving somewhat soon.”

“Wow, either you're delusional or actually telling the truth, and I choose to believe it's the second option,” the trainer said. “So... you're not actually a Pokemon.”

If Corrin's dragon form had eyes, he would undoubtedly be squinting them in anger. “Are you serious?”

Lucina placed a hand firmly on the joint where one of Corrin's front legs connected to his body. Just in case if she needed to stop him from killing this girl.

The trainer bowed her head. “I'm sorry that I threw so many Pokeballs at you…”

Corrin drew out a long sigh. A

long

one. “... It's fine.”

The trainer looked up. “But in my defense, you do look a

lot

like a Pokemon.”

Corrin chuckled a bit. “Well, next time you see a creature like me going, 'Corrin! Corrin!’ I won't blame you.”

The trainer turned to the bluette. “I'm sorry, I don't think I caught your name.”

“Lucina,” the swordswoman said. “And you?”

“Dawn. I'm trying to become the master of contests here in Hearthome city!” the trainer said. “Me and my partner, Chimchar. Come on out, Chimchar!”

Dawn threw out a Pokeball and a small orange monkey came out. It looked up at Lucina. “Chim, char!” Then it saw Corrin and squared up to battle.

“Dude, I'm a water dragon. I could annihilate you,” Corrin said.

“It's okay, Chimchar. I'm not trying to catch him,” Dawn said.

“Yes, he normally doesn't look like this,” Lucina said.

“Wait, hang on,” Corrin said, and then he seemed to strain himself. In a flash of light, he emerged as his human form. “Okay, finally.”

“Oh, so this is what you look like,” Dawn said, and then she looked at their feet. “Is there just a thing about not wearing shoes on you people's world?”

Lucina looked down and realized that she was still without her boots. “Oh, no, sorry. I took off my shoes a moment ago. I wanted to feel the grass.”

“And I…. have no excuse,” Corrin said.

“Well, I don't really care,” Dawn said, shrugging. “Hey, if you're interested I'm going to be performing in a contest not too long from now. I can probably get you free seats.”

“That sounds like fun,” Lucina said.

“As long as it doesn't involve me getting pelted with more Pokeballs, I'm game,” Corrin said.

“Great! Meet me there?” Dawn asked.

“We will,” Lucina nodded.

Dawn waved and she and Chimchar rushed back into town. And, after collecting the bluette's armor and boots, Lucina and Corrin followed.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Samus noticed Pokemon Trainer packing up.

“Going somewhere?” she asked.

“Oh, Samus,” Pokemon Trainer said. “Yeah, I was going to challenge the Hearthome gym. I thought I might as well keep my Pokemon battling skills sharp while I'm here.”

“Planning on becoming the champion?” Samus said.

“Well… not really,” Pokemon Trainer said. “I already got to that level in Kanto, I just couldn't take the full-time position.”

“Good. You seem like champion material,” Samus said, crossing her arms.

“Oh,” Pokemon Trainer said, blushing a little from the compliment. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Samus said. “So, when are we going?”

Pokemon Trainer was taken aback a little bit. “Wait, you want to come with me?”

“Duh, that's why I just said that,” Samus said.

“Well, I'm ready to go now,” Pokemon Trainer said, putting on his backpack.

“Cool, let's go,” Samus said.

“Uh…” Pokemon Trainer said, pointing to Samus's holster, “I don't think they're going to let you in with that.”

Samus looked at her blaster. “... Really?”

“Yeah,” Pokemon Trainer said.

Samus sighed, stepping back a few doors and tossing her gun into her room. “If I get bit by that damn plant again, I'm blaming you.”

“Noted.”
  
“Aaand we're here!” Pokemon Trainer said.

“Wow, it's… dark,” Samus said.

“Yeah, apparently that's Fantina's ‘thing’,” Pokemon Trainer said.

“Got any idea where you're going in here?” Samus asked.

“No clue!” Pokemon Trainer said.

Samus grinned. “Excellent.”

They wandered through the dark, and encountered a few trainers along the way. None of them were particularly difficult.

But then, they reached the purple-haired gym leader.

“C'est fantastique!” Fantina said. “Another trainer has coming to fight me!”

“That's right,” Pokemon Trainer said. “I thought I'd come get a gym badge while I was here.”

“You seem to be making an underestimation of me,” Fantina said. Then she looked at Samus. “Who is this?”

“I'm just here to watch, don't worry,” Samus said.

“That is okay by me. I hope you have been preparing. This fight will not be so easy for you,” Fantina said.

“I wouldn't have it any other way,” Pokemon Trainer said. “Go, Charizard!”

The first combatant was Haunter, which was done away with with only a few hits traded. Then Fantina sent out Duskull, and in a short time Charizard fell victim to a nasty Future Sight, making him faint.

Ivysaur was sent out, and she was almost immediately singed by a Will-O-Wisp. But she was able to pull through and defeated Duskull.

Fantina then sent out her last Pokemon, Mismagius. Ivysaur fought her heart out, but she eventually succumbed to the Will-O-Wisp's burn.

“Ivysaur, return,” Pokemon Trainer said, a red beam emerging from his Pokeball and pulling the fainted dinosaur back in. He rested his forehead against the ball. “You did a good job.”

Samus caught Pokemon Trainer's attention. “Hey, take a deep breath.”

Pokemon Trainer did so.

“You've got this,” Samus said.

“Okay,” Pokemon Trainer said. He threw his last Pokeball. “You've only got a little bit to go, Squirtle!”

Squirtle emerged, and immediately looked determined. “Squirtle, squirt!”

“C'est an adorable creature,” Fantina said. “But it is an unfortunate choice. Mismagius, use Magical Leaf!”

Pokemon Trainer's eyes widened as psychic-fueled leaves pelted his Squirtle. Super effective.

Squirtle fell over on the ground, and Pokemon Trainer was sure it was over. But then Squirtle painstakingly pushed himself back up to his feet.

“Squir… tle,” the small turtle defiantly cried.

“All right!” Pokemon Trainer said. “Our turn. Use Surf!”

Squirtle created a wave of water underneath him and had it plow into the Mismagius. And, as the wave washed away, Mismagius's unconscious body was revealed.

“That's the match,” said the referee, and Squirtle jumped into Pokemon Trainer's arms in glee.

“I knew you could do it!” the trainer said.

“You had me scared there for a sec, pal!” Samus said, petting Squirtle's head, much to the Pokemon's delight.

“Yes, you did good!” Fantina said, her Pokemon having been returned. “And so I am giving you the Relic Badge.”

The well-dressed woman walked over and handed Pokemon Trainer a shiny new badge. He immediately turned it around in his hands and started examining it.

“Thank you!” Pokemon Trainer said.

“I need no thanking,” Fantina said. “You can use the teleporter to help you in going out.”

Samus and Pokemon Trainer nodded and followed her instructions. Soon they stepped out of the gym.

“So, where are you going next, Mr. Hearthome Master?” Samus asked with a smirk.

“Pokemon center, and then food,” Pokemon Trainer said. “I'm starving.”

“Yeah,” Samus said. “Wait, where do people even eat here?”

All Pokemon Trainer could give her was a noncommittal shrug.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Everyone aboard?” Magolor asked.“Looks like it!” Bowser Jr. said.“Yep,” Pokemon Trainer said.“Then let's set off,” Magolor said.As the door to the Lor Starcutter closed, Pokemon Trainer took a last look out into his world. He wished he could have stayed longer, but he understood that the circumstances made that too dangerous. He could tell that the other Pokemon were thinking the same thing.Magolor pushed a lever, and then they were back to shooting through the dimensional wormhole.“Aaaand, cloaking off,” Marx said, flipping a switch with his foot to remove the cloaking. Magolor then slapped at the appendage.“Don't touch my console,” the magician said.“Wait, if we have cloaking then why are we not using it to avoid Zero?” Marth asked.“He’s a giant, intergalactic eyeball. I doubt a little light-refraction is going to fool him,” Magolor said. “But if it makes you feel better, we'll use it next time we see him. Or, y'know, he sees us.”  Jigglypuff had a random craving for bananas. She didn't know why, but she really, really wanted one. Bananas were no nanab berries, but they were close enough to make Jigglypuff's mouth water.So she went to the ship's food storage area and looked where the bananas always were. Except, they weren't this time.“Jiggly!” Jigglypuff puffed up in anger. She wanted one thing, and someone had taken that away.She gave up and turned to the doorway just in time to see King K. Rool hauling a huge yellow pile as he sprinted past, followed immediately by Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong in pursuit.Ah. So that explained the banana situation.  Little Mac burst up onto the deck. “Guys, I'm going to go completely insane if I don't have something to punch in the next five minutes.”“Heads up, Mac,” Ken said, before working together with King Dedede to throw Luigi at the boxer. Little Mac sidestepped the green projectile, leaving him to slide across the ground.“Why?” Mac asked.“Aww, you were supposed to punch him,” Ken said, disappointed.“Why did you want me to punch him?” Mac asked.“Well, it would solve both of our problems. You'd get to hit something, and Luigi was annoying us,” Ken said, Dedede nodding beside him.“How was he annoying you?” Mac asked.“Two words:” Ken said, “vacuum plunger.”  Shulk found Zelda pressed against the wall beside a door and dressed up in her full Sheik garb.“Zelda, why-”Zelda put a finger against her lips. Well, her lips were covered by a scarf, but the point still came across.Shulk decided instead to come close and lean into the same wall the disguised princess was.“This is Wario's room,” Sheik whispered. “Ganondorf went in, and I don't trust the two of them together one bit.”Shulk nodded. “So, what have you heard?” he whispered.“Unfortunately, not much. These walls are deceptively thick,” Zelda whispered.Inside the room, though…“So, you're certain that this method can ease back pain?” Ganondorf asked, draping the hot towel across his shoulders.“Oh yeah, Wario does it all the time,” Wario said. “Just don't pick anything up for a while when you're doing it. Lay down on a bed and let it soak.”“I must say, I did not expect you to give advice like this so freely,” Ganondorf said.“You're not the kinda guy I could make a profit off of,” Wario said. “But if you see anybody who looks like I could…”“I'll be sure to send them your way,” Ganondorf said.Wario gave him a thumbs up. “Happy doing business with you, then.”Ganondorf clicked the door open.“Speed!” Shulk's voice said, and he was gone in a flash.Ganondorf turned in that direction, and now found only Zelda, dressed in her Sheik outfit. She was glaring at him.“What's with the towel?” she asked hostilely.Ganondorf sighed. “It's for back pain, but I'm sure you won't believe that.”“You're right, I don't,” Zelda said.“Then I see no reason for this discussion to continue if you will not listen to the truth,” Ganondorf said. “Goodbye.”And the two Triforce wielders stormed off in opposite directions.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Everyone up on the top deck! Let's see where we're landing for our last stop before Halcandra!” Magolor's voice said over the speakers.

“It's only six a.m.!” Dark Pit groggily yelled back at the speaker, to no avail. He then threw a pillow, which impacted with the wall and dropped harmlessly to the floor.

“Fucking megaphone voices always waking me up, never letting me sleep when I want to, first the fucking announcer and now this fucking weeb, fuck this,” Dark Pit grumbled before immediately falling back asleep.
  
Meanwhile, almost everyone else made their way to the deck to examine the new world. The ship exited the portal, and a seaside cityscape was revealed.

“Ah, a city,” Palutena said. She looked to Snake. “Is this your world?”

“Doesn't look like it to me,” Snake said. “Too colorful.”

“Mega Man?” Male Robin asked.

“Not mine either,” Mega Man said. “It would be way more robot-y.”

“Whoa, no way! It's Inkopolis!” said a male voice that none of them had ever heard before.

“Wow, wasn't expecting that!” a new, female voice said.

All of the Smashers turned to the sources with bewildered expressions.

“Did the Inklings just speak English?” Fox said.

The Inklings seemed to be startled by this and looked back at the other Smashers with equally-startled expressions.

“Did- did the fox guy just speak Inklish?” the female inkling asked her male companion.

Cloud rolled his eyes. “Of course it would be called

Inklish

. Because that's totally not asking for confusion.”

“Wait, so you can understand us?” Female Corrin asked.

“Yeah, and you can understand us?” the Female Inkling asked.

“Yes!” Lucina said.

“What is happening right now?!” Male Inkling cried out, but he had a face of awe.

“The Lor translates the primary language of the world into the primary language of the people in the ship and vice-versa,” Magolor said calmly.

“That sounds like a bad plot-convenience from a crappy sci-fi show,” Samus said.

“Yeah, well you're one to talk, Miss space bounty hunter.” Marx said.

“Just… stop. Everyone,” Female Inkling said. “This is a lot to take in. Mainly the fact that I've known all of you for a long time and still don't know any of your names.”

“Oh. I see why you are confused, then,” Mario said.

“We'll be here for at least a couple of days, darlings. There'll be plenty of time to properly introduce ourselves,” Bayonetta said.

“Yeah, I guess,” Male Inkling said. Then he looked to Magolor. “Wait, you've had this translating technology this whole time and you haven't used it until just now?”

“I don't have any clue of how to control it. This ship has approximately a bajillion features and I probably know a solid 30 of them,” Magolor said. “The Lor does the translating thing on its own. So make the most of the time you have to actually talk with everyone.”

The Inklings nodded.

“Hey, so do you two have actual names, or…” Female Robin said.

“Oh, right,” Male Inkling said. “You guys can call me Blue.”

“... Is it because your ink is blue?” Chrom asked.

“You figured me out really fast,” Blue said.

Everyone then looked at Female Inkling.

“Oh, uh…” she said, seemingly hesitating. Then she shook her head. “You know what? Fuck it. You guys are my friends. You can go ahead and call me Three.”

“Why Three?” Falco asked.

“Oh, that's my agent number in the New Squidbeak Splatoon. And… it kinda just became my whole life. So yeah, Three is fine,” Three said.

“Alright,” Richter said. “Blue, Three, it's nice to finally get the chance to get to know you!”

“Likewise!” Blue said, grinning.

“So, do you guys have people that you're planning on meeting with now that we're here?” Female Robin asked as they touched down in the cloaked ship.

“Yeah, I'm definitely going to see Eight,” Three said.

“Who is that, if you don't mind me asking?” Palutena said.

“She's my girlfriend,” Three said.

Female Corrin smacked her male counterpart in the arm. “Ten bucks,” she said quietly.

“What?” Lucina asked, confused.

Kamui huffed. “I made a bet during Pride Day that the Inklings weren't gay and just had no idea what was going on. Apparently I was wrong.” He handed Corrin the money. As they had already known it would, the Smash currency had changed into Inkopolis currency.

“Don't be mad just because I was right,” Corrin said cockily.

“How about you, Blue?” Ike asked, ignoring the chatter.

“Oh, I'm going to go see my girlfriend,” Blue said.

“I want my money back,” Kamui said.

“You can have half back,” Corrin said.

“You know what, that's fair,” Kamui said.

“Sooo,” Mega Man said, bringing them back on track, “either of you mind bringing some of us with you?”

“Sure, as long as you're fine hanging out in my apartment for a while,” Three said.

“Probably not me, though. My girlfriend's not a huge fan of crowds,” Blue said.

“That's alright. Some individuals have those preferences,” Dr. Mario said.

Then Dark Pit stormed up on deck, in a general mood of doom and gloom. “What'd I miss?”

“Literally everything,” Three said.

Dark Pit stared at the suddenly English-speaking Inkling, and then shook his head. “Yep. This is too much. I'm going back to fucking sleep.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Alright, welcome to my apartment building,” Three said to her entourage as they approached the front door of the building.

“It's…” Magolor started.

“It looks wonderful!” Rosalina said. She sounded genuine, if not entirely representative of the feelings of the group.

“Thanks,” Three said a little awkwardly before leading them in.

They stepped through a lobby and into an elevator. Three pressed the button for the fourth floor.

“So, do you have a job or something?” Mega Man asked. “How do you pay for this place?”

“Well, my job is shooting octarians in the New Squidbeak Splatoon. It's hard work, and it's very secretive.

And

I work with a bunch of rich people,” Three said, “... which is why I constantly wonder why my paycheck is so small.”

“And your girlfriend?” Female Corrin said. “What has she been doing to pay for it while you were gone?”

“Okay, well those rich coworkers I talked about and also her own rich friends are making sure she's taken care of until I come back. Well, this won't count, but when I

actually

come back,” Three said.

“That's nice of your friends to do for her,” Male Corrin said.

“Ha, I wouldn't go as far as to say 'friends’,” Three said. “Let's stick with coworkers.”

The elevator door opened, and they walked a few doors down. Three fished a key out of her pocket.

“Lucky that I brought this with me,” she said as she turned it in the lock.

The door opened, and a very startled-looking octoling was a few paces behind it, leveling an Octoshot at the group behind the doorway. Her hands were shaking violently.

“Hey, Eight, it's me. Don't worry,” Three said while making calming gestures.

Eight squinted at her for a few seconds. Then realization dawned on her face. The corners of her eyes filled with tears and she catapulted into a hug with the inkling.

“Yeah, it's me. It's Three. I'm so happy to see you,” Three said, stroking her girlfriend's back.

One of the octoling's red tentacles wrapped itself around one of Three's orange ones as she held the inkling tight. To the other Smashers it kind of felt like they weren't supposed to be seeing such an intimate moment, but neither of the cephalopods seemed to care about their presence.

Eventually Three pulled away from the hug. “Alright, I know you'll keep hugging me for the rest of the day if I don't tell you to stop,” she said, beaming. Then she pried the Octoshot out of her girlfriend's hand. Her face grew concerned. “Hey, I know you thought it was an emergency but you shouldn't touch these anymore.” Three dropped the shooter on the ground and took the octoling's trembling hand, kissing it.

Eight nodded solemnly, then took on a curious expression and touched the area around Three's right eye.

“Oh yeah, my scar,” Three said. “Yeah, I put makeup over it for Smash.”

“You have a scar?” Mega Man asked.

This statement seemed to remind the two lovers of the presence of everyone else, and they turned to face their guests.

“Oh, uh, yeah, but I'm not a huge fan of it,” Three said.

“Oh, so that’s why I saw you in the Smashville cosmetic store that one time,” Female Corrin said.

“... Yeah…” Three said, blushing from embarrassment. Eight cupped her face and kissed the area under her right eye. Then she backed up and made a lot of gestures with her hands.

“Oh, sign language,” Magolor said. He started making gestures back, but Eight seemed to be confused by them.

“Okay, several things,” Three said, stopping Magolor in his tracks. “One, she can hear you just fine. She's not deaf, she just can't talk. Two, I don't know what kind of sign language

that

was, but it definitely wasn't the one we use in Inkopolis. And Three, my personal favorite,

you don't have fingers to sign with

.”

Magolor looked down at his hands. “Okay, well, you aren't wrong.”

Three sighed. “Eight, these are some of my friends from Smash.” She pointed to Rosalina. “This is, uh… Peach.”

Rosalina giggled. “Close. It's Rosalina.”

“... Right,” Three said. “And this is… Mega Man,” Mega Man nodded, “and Corrin?” Female Corrin also nodded. “And that's Corrin Two.”

Female Corrin cracked up. “Ha! I am officially Corrin number one!”

Male Corrin sighed. “Why do I put up with you?”

“Because I'm you,” Female Corrin said.

“Ah,” Male Corrin said.

Three moved on. “And this blue guy is the guy who brought us here in his ship. His name is Magmalario.”

“Not even close,” Magolor said.

Eight seemed to silently giggle. She signed to Three.

“Okay, I don't know their names because until, like, half an hour ago we had a huge language barrier,” Three said. “Don't judge me.”

“So Eight, have things been alright for you while Three was gone?” Rosalina asked.

Eight smiled and signed.

“You found a nice pizza guy… are you saying that you've barely gone out since I left?” Three asked.

Eight looked sheepishly towards the ground.

Three sighed. “No, I get it. You don't feel like it's safe. I can understand that. But… did you go out at

all

?”

Eight made a noncommittal gesture.

“Why wouldn't it be safe for her?” Male Corrin asked.

“Well… she's an octoling, and octolings aren't really… accepted yet,” Three said. “Thankfully most people don't actually know that octolings exist, so she can pass as an inkling. But… it's good to be safe about it.” She looked at Eight again. “But that doesn't mean that you should hide in the apartment the whole time I'm gone!”

Eight gave a guilty smile.

“Okay, that settles it. As long as I'm here, we are going to make you go out and see the world again,” Three said. “We're going to get you food, and new clothes, and any little thing that you want.”

“Yeah, let's do it! I'd love to see the rest of Inkopolis,” Mega Man said.

“Food? What do Inklings even eat?” Corrin asked.

“Mostly seafood,” Three said. “Or if you're an octarian, apparently nutrition blocks. Blegh.”

But the second statement was completely lost to the group's surprise over the first.

“

Seafood?

” Male Corrin said.

“Isn't that a bit odd for you?” Rosalina asked.

Three shrugged. “You don't see me judging you for eating cows.”

The group mulled over that statement for a moment. Except for Mega Man. The entire conversation was lost to him.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Ridley felt like being a little piece of shit for a bit.

They had been to so many worlds (two), and no one had let him destroy anything in any of them? This was unacceptable. Something had to be done about it. Ridley was a space pirate, and he needed to do some space-pirating stuff.

So if he was going to get in serious trouble for knocking buildings over, he would do the next best thing.

Scare the shit out of people.

He snuck out of the ship (he knew people would be suspicious if they saw him leave) and stayed in the shadows of the city. Then he found exactly what he was looking for- a manhole. He hopped in and waited for prey to arrive.

And arrive they did. Two inklings- one female with short tentacle-hair… things, and one male with longer…. thingamajigs. Ridley knew what they were, he just thought they were stupid enough that they didn't deserve to have him title them properly.

Anyways, the two inklings passed beside the manhole as Ridley peered at them from within the grate. This was his chance.

He burst out of the manhole and let out a mighty, screeching roar. The inklings gave the desired effect- they ran away screaming. Ha.

Ridley lowered himself back into the manhole to wait for another opportunity, but he slipped on the way down. He took the short plunge into a river of ink.

The current dragged him for quite a ways. He tried to use his wings to fly out, but the ink was weighing him down and he couldn't tell which way was up due to all of the tossing and turning. All he could do was thrash violently and futilely.

Eventually the current dumped him at some canyon. Soaked with ink, he trudged his way into an open space and tried to regain his bearings. Because at the moment the only thing that he knew was that he was dizzy.

Apparently dizzy enough to not notice the big tea kettle below his feet. He tripped over it and went crashing inside.

Ridley was surprised to find that there was a huge area within this relatively small container, filled with platforms and a lot of water below. Ridley shook himself back into steadiness. What the fuck.

Now capable of

not

tripping over himself, Ridley began flying forward to see if he could find an exit. But on the way, he spotted something red on the ground. He landed next to it.

It turned out to be a red tentacle… thing. With a face. And a gun? What was going on with this weird planet???

Ridley gave a half-hearted roar to try and scare the tentacle (an octarian, he believed) away, but it only managed to catch the creature's attention. It pointed its gun at him.

Boy, had that been a mistake.
  
Ridley re-entered the Lor with splatters of purple ink decorating him.

“Fuck, who let Ridley out?” Samus asked.

“Don't look at me, he's

your

arch-nemesis,” Falco said.

Samus sighed. “Shut up.” She pointed at Ridley. “You. What have you been doing?”

Ridley just started walking past her. Samus was expecting him to just try to ignore her, but right before he left he stopped and flashed her an evil grin. Then he left for his room to get cleaned off.

“Is it just me, or is happy Ridley way scarier than angry Ridley?” Falco said.

“I have to agree with you on that one,” Samus said.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Male Robin smiled up at the night sky.

“The stars are different here,” he said, tracing constellations with his fingers. He felt the shoulder he was resting his head on bounce a little bit. “What's so funny?”

Joker smiled at him. “Nerd.” He then kissed the nerd on the cheek.

Robin grinned, and then they settled back into a contented silence.

After a while, Joker grabbed at his mask. “Persona!”

Arsene appeared in a rush of blue flames on the ship's deck behind the two.

“I am here,” he said. “And, considering that I see no enemies, I'm going to assume that you only summoned me to show off.”

Joker just shrugged and smirked, which was in stark contrast to Robin's reaction of wonder.

“Wow, I haven't seen Arsene up close except for when, well, he's being used to fight against me. I've never gotten a good look at him, though,” Robin said.

Joker gestured for him to do so.

“I feel like this is a misuse of my abilities,” Arsene complained.

Joker rolled his eyes.

Meanwhile, Robin was intensely studying every facet of the devilish persona before him. He seemed to internalize every bit of information about him.

“I think it's unwise to give such valuable intel to an opponent,” Arsene said.

Joker waved him off.

“I promise, I'm not trying to gain an advantage here,” Robin said. “I'm just trying to learn about you, because I like learning about things.”

“That seems like an easy lie to tell,” Arsene said.

“That's absolutely true. It sounds like something a liar would say, but I am a very, very bookish person. It's not a lie for me,” Robin said.

Arsene sighed. “I suppose your heart doesn't

seem

corrupt.”

Joker gave Robin a thumbs-up, causing the tactician to laugh.

“I guess that's high praise,” Robin said.

“We're baaaack!” said a loud female voice from below deck.

“I guess we should go see what’s up,” Robin said. Then he turned to Arsene. “I'll study you more another day.”

“Please, don't feel obligated to,” Arsene said sassily, and then he disappeared. Joker, now with his mask on, stood up, and both men went into the ship.
  
“Marx,” Magolor said sternly.

“Yes?” Marx said, batting his eyelids.

“Last time I left you in charge of the Lor, you abandoned it to go find a smoothie,” Magolor said.

“Yes,” Marx said.

“This time I return to the Lor, and I'm chest-deep in an ocean of smoothie,” Magolor said.

“Look, I wanted a smoothie,” Marx said.

Magolor facepalmed with his disembodied hand, splattering some of the blended liquid onto his hood. “Please get rid of all of the smoothie, Marx.”

“Yeah, please?” Female Corrin said.

Marx rolled his eyes. “The things I do for you people.” He ripped open a black hole and inhaled all of the liquid. “Mmm. Strawberry and lasagna.”

“I'm… going to pretend I didn't hear that,” Captain Falcon said.

“ANYWAYS,” Male Corrin said, as Robin and Joker came down into the room, “Three is staying at her apartment for the night. In the morning she's going to take some of us out to do some mall shopping and other activities with her girlfriend.”

“I think I'll tap out of those. I'm a little worn-out from today's 'shopping and activities’.” Female Corrin said.

“It would be better to work out who is going once we all have rested,” Rosalina said.

“Well, you can still count me out,” Magolor said. “And someone should remind those Inklings that we have to leave tomorrow night. They can't stay at their houses for too long.”

“Hey, one more night wouldn't kill us, right?” Mega Man said.

Magolor huffed. “Probably not, but I like being safe. The more of a time-gap we can have between us and Zero, the better.”

“Hate to tell you guys, but the power of love isn't going to save us on this one. Unless if we found, like, a really really big Love Love Stick,” Marx said.

“Yeah, yeah, we get it,” Mega Man said.

“Gods, fuck Zero,” Robin said. “Everyone say it with me. Three, two, one…”

“Fuck Zero,” everyone said in unison.

“Big eyeball prick,” Captain Falcon added afterwards.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Mall shopping. Yaaayyy…” Three said with little enthusiasm.

“You're the one who brought us here,” Male Corrin said.

“Yeah, doesn't mean I have to like it,” Three said. “But Eight needs stuff. And I'm a loving, doting girlfriend who wants to provide the stuff.”

“I see,” Rosalina said.

The group was slightly changed from the prior day. Female Corrin and Magolor had been dropped, and in their place Kirby and Bowser Jr., of all people, had joined.

“So, where's the first place we're raiding?” Bowser Jr. asked.

Eight looked concernedly at him and signed to Three.

“She says that she doesn't really like how you phrased that. And

I

don't like how you brandished your hammer while saying it,” Three said.

“You can't prove that,” Bowser Jr. said instantly.

“Poyo~” Kirby said, clearly not caring about the conversation.

“Okay, well, let's go clothes shopping first, I guess,” Three said, and Eight clapped in excitement.

They went to a couple of stores looking for clothes. Three advised that Rosalina and Corrin look in the urchin sections for clothes that might fit them (none of them did, of course). But they weren't the primary reasons for the shopping.

In Three's perspective, it was useless to describe what Eight tried on. It all looked stunning on her. Three couldn't think of a single article of clothing that could make her girlfriend less radiant.

Cod, she was gay.

Of course, Eight's preference towards crop-tops put Three's gay heart in a panic every time that the octoling stepped out of the dressing room. But… come on,

look

at those abs. But don't. Three will beat you up.

Eventually they got all checked out, and (after multiple apologies given over sign-language) Eight finally stopped feeling bad for Three using her Smash money for the purchase.

“Alright, where to next?” Mega Man asked.

“

Food

,” Three said, immediately heading towards the food court.

Six of them drank special drinks and ate some… fried… stuff. They had to cut off Kirby pretty quickly, as the food wasn't cheap, but everyone else definitely ate their fill. Well other than Mega Man, for obvious reasons.

Then the group navigated to a weapon store, and Eight looked very not okay about it.

Three stopped all of them in front of the store and held Eight's shoulders. “Eight, I have to get some replacement weapons. My old ones have been getting worn out. But you

don't

have to come in with me. I know that might trigger bad memories.” Three leaned her forehead against her girlfriend's. Now that the agent had changed her tentacles’ color back to their natural green, the two's heads had a colorful contrast from one another. “Just wait outside. I'll try not to take too long.”

Eight nodded and smiled. Then she made a shooing motion towards the shop's door.

“Alright, team, time for you to see what kind of firepower us inklings are packing,” Three said to the other Smashers.

“Yeah!” Mega Man cheered.

The six of them walked into the shop, and Three greeted the shop owner, apparently named “Sheldon”. They walked to the back of the store and started combing their way through the aisles.

“Wow, there are a lot,” Male Corrin said.

“Yeah,” Three said. “Turf wars are a big thing in our society, so everyone wants every single gun known to cephalopod kind.”

“What do you use?” Rosalina asked.

“I use…” Three grabbed a blaster off of a hook, “a little bit of everything. I can use basically anything here.” She grabbed a Splattershot off of a shelf. “But, I guess my main weapon for agent work is a shooter like this, so let's say that's what I specialize in.”

“Mmhmm, mmhmm,” Mega Man said, sounding genuinely interested.

“Blue's a Slosher main, apparently, and I heard his girlfriend uses chargers,” Three said. “Eight used to be super good with any weapon under the sun but, well, she doesn't use them anymore.”

“Yeah, what's up with that, anyways?” Bowser Jr. asked.

Three sighed. “I don't know if it's really my place to say, but Eight can't, so…” she cleared her throat. “Eight escaped from Octo Canyon, where many octolings had been held in control by a big asshole named DJ Octavio. Once she got her free will back, she tried to get out of there, but she was unfortunate enough to bump into me as I was on a mission. I automatically thought she was evil and tried to kill her.”

“Don't feel too bad about that. We all have those experiences sometimes,” Male Corrin said.

“No?” Bowser Jr. said.

“I haven't personally experienced that issue,” Rosalina said.

“Not really,” Mega Man said.

“Wow, just me then. Okay,” Male Corrin said.

“So,” Three said, bringing them back on topic, “Eight and I got ambushed in the middle of the fight, and we both fell very far into a sort of subway crossed with a lab. While I was investigating and trying to get my captain out, Eight was put through grueling challenge after grueling challenge. She had to suffer a lot in that time, and now that she's made it to the surface, touching a weapon puts her mind back in that Deepsea Metro where she had to fight for her life again and again.”

“Jeeze,” Male Corrin said.

Kirby walked up and comfortingly patted Three on the leg.

“Thanks, pal,” Three said, picking up one final weapon. The group walked to the front register, where the owner rung them up.

“Wow, it seems like you've made a pretty good selection of weapons and gadgets!” the small, bespectacled man said. “Since you're already buying these, it might be a good idea to consider getting-”

“Don't upsell me, Sheldon,” Three said sharply.

Sheldon squinted at the inkling. “Oh! Three! I didn't recognize you for a second. What happened to your…” he trailed off.

“The scar? I covered it with makeup,” Three said. “I'd like to pay for the weapons, please.”

“Oh, alright,” Sheldon said.

Money exchanged hands, and Three carried the bags of arms and munitions out of the store. Considering the sheer amount of stuff in those bags, it was clear that the agent was pretty strong.

The group looked around for a moment. Hadn't Three asked Eight to meet them here? The octoling was nowhere to be found.

“Eight?” Three called out, growing increasingly concerned. “Eight?!”

“I'm sure she's fine,” Mega Man said, trying to be reassuring.

Three completely ignored him, dropping her bags on the ground and

running

. “Eight?! Where are you?!”

The other Smashers (even Bowser Jr.) followed after her. Mega Man at least had the decency to activate his Guts Man ability to grab all of the bags on the way.

Three stopped not too far away, continually calling out her girlfriend's name. But then she heard something, and of course it came from the nearby dark alleyway.

She went in, and found a rather incriminating scene. Eight was lying on the ground, clutching at her arm in what seemed like pain, and four inklings stood sneering above her. One of them kicked Eight, and Three completely lost it.

“Hey Jackasses!” Three shifted her color to match Eight's before throwing a Splat Bomb. The four inklings all scattered from around the octoling. Before they could get back anywhere near her, Rosalina appeared and took a defensive stance above the injured girl.

“What the fuck?” one of the inklings, the only female, said. “She's a fucking octoling! Can't you see that?!”

“Yeah, I can see it fine,” Three said, absolutely fuming.

“Why are you defending her? They took the Zapfish. TWICE. Octarians have done nothing but cause trouble!” one of the male Inklings said.

“The only trouble I see are a few inklings that I'm highly tempted to splat,” Three said.

“Ah ah ah, you know that's illegal,” the female ruffian said. “No splatting outside of a turf war zone.”

Three scowled and took her hand off of her Splattershot. The remaining four Smashers ducked into the alleyway and saw the situation.

“Did you people hurt Eight?” Male Corrin said, before transforming into a dragon. “You're going to regret that!”

“Corrin, don't,” Three said. “If we hurt them, we'll get in serious trouble.”

“But shouldn't

they

get in trouble for attacking Eight?” Corrin asked as the four ruffians gazed startled at his draconic form.

“Unfortunately, the police would probably take their side…” Three said.

“Of course they would! We're in the right here!” one of the male Inklings said.

“And we're a pretty famous turfing team, so they'll believe us over… whoever the hell you are,” the female ruffian said, eyeing Three up and down.

“Yeah, we're the White Fins, and we're not going to let something like this slide,” said another male member.

“Wait, the rest of you aren't inklings either!” said the fourth member.

There was a pause, and then his team members facepalmed.

“Shut up, Carl…” the female inkling said.

“Hey White Fucks,” Three said, “if you're so great of a turfing group, then maybe you should prove it. Let's settle this on the battlefield. If my team wins, you and your team never talk to Eight again.”

The female inkling, seemingly the leader, grinned. “That sounds fair. I'm always up for some practice.” She looked Three over again. “Even if it won't be much.”

“Fine. Let's do it at noon tomorrow. I can't fucking wait to destroy you bigots,” Three said, before helping Eight up and storming out with her.

Corrin transformed back to human form and narrowed his eyes at the White Fins. “Don't think you're off scot-free. You've just put yourselves on my shit list.” He followed after Three.

“You should all be ashamed of yourselves,” Rosalina said, floating after the others.

“Just… not cool,” Bowser Jr. said before his exit.

“Poyo!” Kirby said somehow very angrily before walking out.

“I… don't have anything clever to say. But screw you,” Mega Man said, being the last to depart.

The group reassembled outside of the alleyway.

“Eight, show me where it hurts,” Three said, supporting her girlfriend's weight just in case.

Eight pushed off, able to support herself, and tapped on her own right arm with a wincing expression.

“I'm going to kill them. They're going to burn in hell,” Three said. “Mark my words, I'm going to humiliate them tomorrow.”

Corrin's face flashed with realization. “Oh, uh… tomorrow. Uh…..”

“We… should go speak with Magolor,” Rosalina said, looking worried.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“The cartilage in your arm is damaged,” Dr. Mario said. “But don't be concerned. Given time, it will heal. You just have to be patient and avoid straining it.” He finished wrapping the gauze around Eight's shoulder and forearm. The octoling nodded and felt at the bandages with her other hand.

“So let me get this straight,” Magolor said to the others in the room. “I

specifically

tell you people that we have to leave tonight, and then you go and make plans for noon tomorrow?”

“That… uh…” Three said sheepishly. “Yeah, I guess that's exactly what I did.”

Magolor irritably pulled at his hood. “You people frustrate me to no end.” He took a deep breath. “No. We're going to get Eight back to the apartment safely, and then we're leaving. End of story.”

Three scoffed. “Um, no. I'm not going to let the people who

hurt my girlfriend

think I'm chickening out.”

“I think you people need a reminder,” Magolor said. “This is not a vacation. We are all being

hunted

by a creature that we have barely any hope of defeating. A creature who could destroy this planet easily just to get to us. We. Have. To. Go.”

Male Corrin crossed his arms. “I'm with Three on this one. Our two day rule was just to be extra safe. Another day won't cause trouble.”

“What happened to Eight was unacceptable,” Rosalina said. “Though I do not normally condone retaliation, this is a special case.”

“Those inklings need to be taught a lesson,” Mega Man said.

“It's like none of you are listening to a single word I'm saying,” Magolor said. “This is a huge risk.”

“It's one that I have to take,” Three said.

“

We

have to take,” Blue said, walking into the room. “You need a team for your turf war. I'm a top-ranked slosher player, and my girlfriend is a hell of a good charger. We've got your back.”

“Blue, you'd do that for me?” Three said, smiling broadly. “Thank you!”

Eight couldn't sign currently, but she seemed to try and show her appreciation through a huge grin.

“So this is what's happening now. Now I'm just getting completely ignored,” Magolor said.

“Magmamaga, we're doing this. I'm sorry, but we can't leave yet,” Three said.

“Okay one: not my name. And two: I….. fuck, fine. Fine, we'll stay. But as soon as that game ends I want you on this ship so we can go.”

“Yes!” Blue and Three cheered.

“But Eight is in no condition to perform any sort of physical activity,” Dr. Mario said. “You will have to find someone else to fill in the empty slot in your team.”

“I don't think she was in the running for the position anyways,” Male Corrin said, recalling the conversation in the weapon store.

“Well, I guess you could ask another inkling to help you out,” Mega Man said.

“No, this is personal,” Three said. “I want one of you to join us.”

“One of us?” Rosalina asked.

“Yeah, all of you smashers are my friends, and you guys in particular were there to see what happened to Eight. I can't think of anyone better to help fight for her,” Three said.

“But none of us know how to use any of those weapons,” Mega Man said.

“Well that's just fine,” Blue said, drawing Three into a side-squeeze, “because Three and Blue's Turfing Boot Camp is now open for business!”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Alright, let's see what you guys are capable of!” Three said. “Corrin, you first!”

“I still think we should have just dealt with them in the alleyway,” Male Corrin said. “I'm a water dragon and Inklings get splatted in water. It wouldn't have been that hard.”

“But then the police would have gotten involved, and believe me, that would be the worst thing for Eight,” Three said.

“Alright, whatever,” Corrin said. “What do you want me to do?”

“Choose a weapon from that table, and then take down those targets,” Three said.

“Where did we get a table? And targets, for that matter?” Corrin asked.

“It's the Lor. There's an entire room dedicated to Kirby's High-Jump ability. I think these are some of the least weird things we could have found in there,” Mega Man said.

Corrin pondered for a moment at the many options in front of him, eventually choosing a gun that looked like the zapper that Duck Hunt carried around occasionally. Corrin ran up and shot at each target, and was surprised at his skill at aiming the weapon. He hit each target several times, and a minimal amount of ink ended up missing and hitting the floor.

“Wow, not too bad!” Mega Man said.

“Impressive,” Rosalina said. Her luma seemed to share the same sentiment.

Corrin smiled and turned to look at Three and Blue, but they did not look nearly as impressed as the others. In fact, they didn't look impressed at all.

“Uh… good job, I guess?” Blue said.

“What'd I do wrong?” Corrin asked.

“I mean, good aim and all that, but you wouldn't be very useful in a turf war,” Blue said. “Rosalina, you go next.”

Rosalina gestured for her Luma to wait a small distance away, and she picked up a Luna Blaster (because of course she did). She hit her targets, and ended up with more splashing on the ground.

“Alright, that's a little better,” Three said. “Mega Man?”

The robot walked up. Obviously the Inklings were looking for other criteria than just what they said. So he decided to get creative. He pointed a Splattershot into his Mega Buster and filled it up with ink.

“Um…” Blue said.

Mega Man then shot his Mega Buster at the targets, not only inking them but also denting them. “Take that!”

“Well, that's definitely creative,” Three said. “Buuut… I don't think it would be legal. Kirby?”

Kirby started off promising, taking the Splattershot and immediately inking the ground. The inklings got their hopes up… and then they were lost when they realized that Kirby was just drawing hearts on the ground with the gun.

Three sighed. “Well, I guess that's the best we're going to get, considering that Bowser Jr. didn't show up-”

And then she was stopped by the Koopa kid himself dramatically leaping from the top deck of the ship and landing in front of the table of weapons. He immediately grabbed the inkbrush, and braced himself.

There was silence among his spectators for a moment. Then Bowser Jr. kicked off. He rushed forward, swinging his brush the whole way and absolutely slathering the ground in purple. He repeatedly whacked the targets, while still covering ground. It was…. beautiful.

After he finished, he leaned on the brush. “How’d I do?” he asked, smirking.

Three took a deep breath. “YOOOOOOOO!!!!” she yelled.

“It's… incredible…” Blue said. Was that a tear in his eye?

“But he was completely inaccurate! Most of those swings just ended up splatting ink on the floor, not the targets!” Corrin protested.

“That’s what you don't understand, dragon boy,” Three said. “In turf war,

everything

is your target, especially the floor.”

“I think we know who our new team member is,” Blue said, grinning.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“This is the place that we'll be setting up the battle,” Three said as the group stepped into some sort of lobby room filled with receptionists and computer screens. This time almost all of the mansion residents had joined her. It was going to be a hell of an audience.

“Wait, do you think that they will allow Bowser Jr. to fight, even when he's not an inkling?” Zelda asked.

“That's not going to be a problem,” Blue said.

On cue, Bowser Jr. walked out of a dressing room, looking very much not like himself. His original form was completely covered up in a bluish-black ichor of a cephalopodal design. In other words, he looked like Shadow Mario, except now in the shape of a female inkling.

“That's… actually kind of impressive,” Female Robin said.

“... I want him to teach me how to do that…” Snake said.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” Pit said, “But you still don't really look like an inkling. You kind of look like… a monster that kidnaps inkling kids in the night.”

“Well, we haven't told you part two of the plan,” Three said.

Blue whipped out several units of inkling currency. “Bribery!”

Everyone was silent for a moment. Then Simon said, “There is no conceivable way that this is going to work.”
  
“I can't believe this fucking worked,” Samus said.

“I dunno, something tells me that the average inkling doesn't put a lot of value in intelligence,” Richter said as he sat down on the bleachers between the bounty hunter and Lucina.

“Yeah. I guess I'm glad that we ended up with a couple of smart ones,” Samus said.

“I suppose the lack of concern over details stems from how content the average populace is with their lives,” Lucina said.

Richter looked at her. “Lucina, you've been hanging out with your smart girlfriends too much. That was way too philosophical for me.”

“Sorry,” Lucina said, blushing.

“Don't be, I was joking,” Richter said.

“Hey Eight!” Samus called as she saw the octoling approaching the stands. “Come sit with us!”

Eight seemed to be surprised by the offer, and then began to approach.

“Umm, we're not going to be able understand her,” Richter said. “Unless one of you learned ISL while I wasn't looking.”

“My girlfriend can't talk either. Trust me, you don't need words to understand another person,” Samus said.

Eight sat down beside Samus, looking a little uncomfortable until the bounty hunter patted her shoulder.

“Hey,” Samus said. “We know what Three's capable of. There's no way she doesn't win this.”

“Yes, and hopefully it will show those other people that it is not okay to be so prejudiced,” Lucina said.

“Honestly, I'm kind of excited to see what Bowser Jr. brings to the table,” Richter said.

Eight nodded and turned her gaze attentively to the battlefield. The match would start soon.
  
“Everyone, meet Veronica, my girlfriend,” Blue said, leading in an inkling with long purple tentacles, one of which having been swept over her shoulder.

“H-hi…” Veronica said. “It's-It's nice to f-finally meet you, Th-Three.”

“It's nice to meet you, too,” Three said. “Back when Blue and I were the only ones able to understand each other, he would talk about you

all the time

. On, and on, and on-”

“Okay that's enough,” Blue said, blushing. Not nearly as much as Veronica, though. She completely covered her flushed face.

“U-um…” the shy inkling said.

“Relax, I'm just joking around,” Three said. Then she looked at Blue. “She is precious, and I love her, and if you ever mistreat her I will be legally obligated to kill you.”

“Duly noted, but I won't give you a reason to,” Blue said, squeezing his girlfriend in a hug as she tried to somehow hide herself in plain sight.

“Okay, looks like our color is orange,” Three said as she looked a display screen, before shifting her green tentacles back to the color she normally used in the mansion. Then she smirked. “Are you going to be able to live with that, Blue?”

Blue rolled his eyes as he shifted his tentacles to orange as well. “Ha, ha.”

Veronica made the same color change with her tentacles, which just left Bowser Jr. wondering what he was going to do and unable to convey it. He couldn't really talk with this black paint over him.

Thankfully Three seemed to notice his predicament without him having to convey it. “Oh, I tricked out your inkbrush so you can choose its ink color,” she said. “Also, it'll reload if you just hold the tip in our color of ink.”

Bowser Jr. nodded and proceeded to mess with a dial on the gigantic brush until he was on the orange setting. Then a buzzer rang out.

“That's our cue,” Three said.

“Let's do this,” Blue said.

“W-we can do it,” Veronica said.

Bowser Jr. followed them onto a platform suspended above water, with all of his friends (and enemies?) from Smash spectating from one big set of bleachers a distance away from the battlefield, and the other side of bleachers filled with inklings decked-out in White Fins merchandise.

Three gripped her Splattershot tight. It was time.

3, 2, 1, Begin!

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

And they were off. Three immediately formed a path of ink with her Splattershot and swam forward. She wasn't going to show any mercy to these assholes.

She glanced behind her and watched her teammates fan out to cover more ground. Literally.

She took some time to cover some floor towards the middle of the arena, and that was when her first run-in with the enemy occurred.

One of the inkling boys came barreling in with his dualies. Three at first mistook it as stupidity, but that was exactly what her enemy wanted. When she fired at him, he dodge-rolled out of the way and landed some ink shots on Three. She fortunately was able to protect herself by swimming through the ink she had been placing into cover.

The dualie-wielder started inking the terrain around himself. Smart. But Three knew she had experience on him.

She popped out of cover and tossed a Splat Bomb to the enemy inkling's right, and immediately started shooting right at him. He rolled in the only direction that he safely could, to the left, but realized too late that there was a wall in the way.

SPLAT! A couple of shots took him out, and Three continued covering turf in a leisurely manner.

Eventually Three pushed forward, trying to sneak in some more ground coverage (and maybe splat some of those fucking idiot asshole bitchface sluts). Okay, she might have been a little bit completely filled with rage over what they did to Eight. But she was going to use that to fuel her on her way to victory.

She made a strip to swim through, splatted an unsuspecting inkling from the other team, and continued on her way.

Straight into a trap.

She backpedaled when a Charger shot covered the ground in front of her while she was swimming. Then a rain of ink shots covered behind her. This was bad.

She shifted back into her bipedal form and looked up. Two inklings, one being the leader chick with the charger and the other being dualie boy, had the high ground on either side of her.

Three mentally berated herself. She was the scourge of Octo Canyon, a force to be reckoned with. How did she fall for this?

“After we clean up this match, I'm going to make a PSA to our fans about that octoling chick. Just so everybody knows about the danger she poses,” the leader said.

“You're a bitch, and I hope you know it,” Three said.

The female inkling smirked, and then she fired a fully-charged ink shot at Three. Her target wasn't going to let that be the end of it, though. Three purposefully jumped on enemy ink to avoid the shot, then inked a strip below herself. The dualie-wielder was prepared to clean up the kill, but Three perfectly tossed a Splat Bomb to land at his feet, forcing him to dive away.

Three turned to squid mode and dashed to the side of her strip to avoid another charger shot and to recharge some ink. Then she fired on the White Fins’ leader, forcing her to back up.

But then Dualie came back. Three expanded her floor strip and swam a distance to avoid some shots, then started shooting back. Dualie didn't seem to like that, and he chucked something at her. That something landed beside her and formed mechanical legs. Fuck. Autobomb.

Three made a path as far as she could and just barely avoided getting splatted by the explosion. Then she did a 180 to dodge

another

charger shot. These people were relentless.

Three needed to get rid of someone

now

, or bad things were going to happen. And then, believe it or not, bad things happened.

Dualie's tentacles started glowing and he leaped into the air. Three knew he was about to crash to the ground with a splashdown, and that would most certainly splat her. But she had one plan. She bowled a splat bomb across the ground in front of her and used the dregs of her ink tank that she had left to ink partway up a wall. She climbed up the wall in squid form, and then took a leap of faith.

She landed short of where her bomb exploded, but she wasn’t aiming for it anyways. She avoided the splashdown, inked below her, dodged a Charger shot, and then splatted the male inkling who was then on her level. One down. One to-

And then her well-tuned instincts kicked in, causing her to look behind her. And she saw certain death approaching. A Roller, heading straight for her, with no time to react. This was it.

And then an inkbrush-wielding shadow inkling plowed right through the enemy and covered the ground. Finally, some room to breathe.

“Booyah!” Three cheered. Bowser Jr. gave a thumbs-up.

Then Three dove out of the way of another Charger shot.

“Of course fucking Carl would screw that up,” the leader said. “He had you fucking dead to rights, you piece-”

And then she exploded in a spray of orange.

“I got… I got her!” Veronica shouted from across the map. Even though she was yelling, it still somehow sounded quiet.

Then Blue showed up, covering up the sections of terrain that hadn't been yet. “Let's finish this!”

The rest of the match was properly humiliating. Team Eight-is-the-best didn't give any of the enemies the chance to leave spawn. It was a thorough, thorough defeat for the White Fins.

The calculating of the victor was all but unnecessary. Basically the whole map was orange.

“I just want to say,” Three said into a microphone that was given to her to speak to the crowd, “thanks to all of the people here to support me, especially my team.” And then she pointed at a red speck in the crowd. “And a HUGE shout-out to my girlfriend Eight. I will never put up with someone messing with you. You are the love of my life, and you deserve the world.”

There were a few “Awww”s in the crowd, and Three lowered the microphone.

“Hang on, give me that fucking microphone!” the White Fins leader shouted, charging at Three. She promptly found herself falling over Bowser Jr.'s outstretched foot, however, and face-planted into orange ink.

She pushed herself back up, though, and was ready to charge again, but the referees grabbed her and kept her from getting violent. And, to Three's pleasure, a lot of reporters seemed to snap pictures of the moment. That wasn't going to look good.

And then a hush fell over the crowd. A terrified hush. It wasn't due to anything on the arena. It was because the sky was turning blood red. And all of the Smashers were all-too-used to that.

“GOD DAMN IT!” Wolf shouted from the bleachers, loud enough that the whole stadium could hear.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The group, including Eight and Veronica, fled to the Lor as panic ensued throughout Inkopolis. People were

freaking out

about the eyeball descending from the sky.

“WHAT DID I SAY?!” Magolor yelled out. “I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO!”

“Alright, alright, we're sorry,” Mega Man said.

“Who the fuck cares if you're sorry?! GET ON THE FUCKING SHIP!” Magolor shouted.

“Jesus, calm down Magolor,” Marx said.

“Does this seem like the time to be calm?!” Magolor said. “Everybody. On. The. Ship. Now!”

Nobody questioned it this time. Everyone started piling on.

Three turned to Eight. “I'm sorry we can't have a longer goodbye, but be safe out there.” She kissed the octoling, and Eight happily leaned into the kiss.

Blue looked to Veronica. “Uh, I love you and I wish I could give you a better goodbye than just this kiss.” Then he kissed the purple-tentacled inkling, making her blush profusely.

And then the worst people alive showed up.

“Hey, I'm not done with you!” the White Fins leader shouted at Three. The other members of the team were right behind, glaring with just as much hostility as their leader.

Male Corrin turned around from the ship's ramp and rolled his eyes. He transformed, and then roared. “Get lost,” he said with little enthusiasm, and then he breathed a whirlpool of water that splatted the oppressive inklings.

“Thanks,” Three said.

“GET ON THIS SHIP RIGHT NOW!!!” Magolor shouted.

Three, Blue and Corrin rushed onto the ship, and spared one more second to wave to Eight and Veronica. Then the ramp closed.

Magolor pushed a lever, and the ship started moving. After a few moments, he took a deep breath. “Okay, I'm sorry I lost my cool there. We needed to go, though.”

“I get it,” Three said. “It's my fault we were here for too long, anyways.”

Magolor hummed noncommittally. “Hey, as soon as we leave this world, the translation's going to stop working. If there's anything that you want to say, say it now.”

“Oh…” Blue said. “Right…”

The inklings looked around at the other Smashers and started to get misty-eyed.

“Well,” Palutena said, kneeling to be at the same level as the two. “I'm so glad that we actually got the chance to

truly

meet you two.”

“Yeah, you guys are pretty cool,” Little Mac said.

“Poyo!” Kirby cried, hugging Three and teetering at the brink of tears himself.

Three giggled. “You guys are so nice. I'll miss this.”

“Hey, we'll figure out how to translate you at the mansion someday,” Sonic said. “We'll figure it out.”

“Portal's opening,” Magolor said.

Blue gave a sigh of acceptance. “It's been- wit-swee,” he said, his voice shifting to inklish as soon as they entered the portal. A sad sigh went amongst the group.

Then the whole ship shook.

“What was that?” Marth asked.

“Skoo-wee?” Three asked, no longer understandable.

“Uhhhh,” Marx said.
“Did… did Zero seriously just curve a laser through the portal and hit my ship?” Magolor said. “Sure, why not? Why wouldn't he do that? That's just great.”
“Can we still fly?” Samus asked.

“Um… no. That was our portside tail wing. We can't steer without it,” Magolor said. “I hesitate to ask, but is there anyone who doesn't need air who could jump off the ship to grab that?”

There was no verbal response, but Dark Samus shifted to her armor form and ran up to the top deck.

“Fuck, don't just go alone!” Samus shouted. She then ran to her room to grab her armor.

“Well, it seems like the crisis situation is being handled,” Rosalina said.

“Let's be real,” Marx said, “when is any situation

ever

handled with you people?”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Dark Samus leapt off of the edge of the ship and let her momentum carry her through the wormhole's zero-gravity environment. She started using bursts of concentrated phazon to correct her course and speed her up, and eventually she accelerated enough to come in contact with the wing piece, which bubbled itself for ease of carrying.

Then Dark Samus turned around and realized the extent of how far she was away from the ship. Very far. The ship was just a dot.

Though she couldn't in this form, she felt like sighing. This was going to take a long time. Dark Samus pointed her arm cannon behind herself and started firing, propelling herself toward the ship.

It took a very long time (at least half an hour) to make it back. It would have taken longer, but it seemed that the Smashers and Magolor had stopped the ship. That was nice of them. Dark Samus let go of the bubble, and allowed the wing to reposition itself on the ship. Then she touched down on the deck.

Wait, had the ship been this dark before?

“Dark Samus,” she heard Marth say. She turned to look at him and found him standing on the deck with Shulk and Bowser. But as Marth approached her, she realized something.

Their eyes were wrong.

Dark Samus propelled herself through the air to avoid Marth's sword strike, and then watched as Shulk and Bowser got ready to charge her as well. Shulk went for his patented backslash maneuver, and Dark Samus floated backwards to avoid it. Then Bowser ran up and tried to grab her, but her grab was longer. She tethered onto the Koopa king and threw him into Marth, before making a break for the entrance of the ship.

“SPEED!” She heard, and suddenly Shulk was right in front of her. Thankfully, her reactions were tuned well. She roundhouse-kicked the Monado-wielder in the face, and then rushed down below deck.

Unfortunately, the situation there was just as bad. About seven different fighters were gathered around the controls, and turned to look at her as soon as she got close. All of their eyes were unnaturally sinister. Dark Matter was inside of all of them.

Dark Samus knew her limits. She ran as fast as she could away from the group. Magolor, one of the members of the corrupted group, conjured a magical projectile that curved and hit Dark Samus in the side, knocking her through a doorway.

Thankfully this was to her benefit. She slammed the door shut and promptly locked it. And then, as an extra precaution, blocked it with a nearby shelving unit. As banging started ringing out from the other side of the door, Dark Samus knew that she was safe for the moment.

Except that reassurance went away immediately when she turned and looked at the rest of the room.

“Sai,” Samus said. She was fully armored and standing a few paces away.

Dark Samus raised her arm cannon at her girlfriend. She didn't like it, but she had to.

“Hey, hey, it's okay,” Samus said, raising her arms in a peaceful gesture. “It didn't affect me for some reason. I don't think it could get through my armor.”

Dark Samus kept her blaster raised. Even though she

really

wanted to trust Samus.

“We're not going to get through this alone, Sai. You have to trust me,” Samus said. “I love you Sai. Please lower the gun.”

Dark Samus reluctantly put her cannon down. She believed this was really her girlfriend. And Samus was right, she wasn't going to be able to get everyone out of this situation alone. She shifted to her humanoid form and smiled.

“There she is,” Samus said. “Okay, here's the plan: I think I already told you about the one of these 'Dark Matter’ things we ran into in Female Robin's world. It took over a guy, and then after we beat him in a fight the thing flew out.” Samus walked towards the door that Dark Samus was beside. “If the two of us knock everyone unconscious, we should be able to save them. And we can start with the people behind this door.”

Dark Samus looked at her incredulously.

“Hey, I didn't say it was going to be an

easy

plan, but we need to start somewhere.” Samus backed away from the door so that she was a little behind Dark Samus. “Whenever you're ready.”

Dark Samus nodded, and then pushed the shelving away. She hovered her hand over the locking mechanism for a moment, and then she unlocked the door.

It burst open immediately as Bowser came plowing in. Dark Samus shot him with a non-lethal charged shot, and he was knocked to the ground, stunned a little.

Then Jigglypuff tried to punch the alien, but she moved her head in time. She grabbed the balloon Pokemon and chucked her against the wall.

Marth came at Dark Samus with his sword once again, and the alien lifeform was prepared to intercept, but then she saw something in the corner of her eye. A blue glow.

Dark Samus swiveled out of the way as a charged shot plowed into the enemy swordwielder. She looked at Samus to nonverbally congratulate her, but she found that the bounty hunter hadn't been aiming at Marth. She had been, and still was, aiming at

her

.

Dark Samus dodged another partially-charged shot and rushed at her girlfriend, grabbed her by the arm cannon and ripped her helmet off. Yep. She had those same evil eyes that everyone else had.

“Hey, Sai,” Samus, or rather the Dark Matter inside of her, said. “Guess you figured out my secret.”

The bounty hunter grabbed Dark Samus by the neck, which wasn't too bad considering that she didn't need to breathe, but it certainly sent a message. Samus threw her into the metal wall, which made a resounding 'clank’ against her armored form. Then the corrupted woman shot a missile, which Dark Samus just barely avoided. Richter swung his whip at her from the doorway, and she leaped over it. Mario threw a fireball, and Dark Samus dodged once again.

She wasn't going to be able to make it through this. She went for the one option she had left. She threw the helmet still in her hand at Samus's head (which was easily deflected), and then sprinted to the other side of the room and dove out of the window.

Once outside of the ship, she climbed along the side of the vessel until she reached a window for a room a distance away from the one she had just escaped from. She managed to get the window open, and then crawled inside. Then she closed the window, slumped against the wall, and sat on the floor.

She was all alone now, wasn't she?

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Dark Samus jumped when she heard a noise. She normally wasn't such a jumpy person, but given the circumstances she thought it was forgivable.

Looking around, she found the room that she had escaped into to be one of the passenger quarters. A bed, a dresser, and not much else.

The dresser. That was where the noise had come from. Dark Samus got to her feet and walked across the room, checking to make sure that the door to the room was locked along the way. Thankfully, it was.

Stepping in front of the dresser, she leveled her arm cannon at the cabinet towards the bottom. She had already been fooled once today by something taking the form of the one she loved most. Damned if she was going to let it happen again.

She ripped the door to the cabinet open and jammed her gun in, charging it up and preparing to fire. And the blue light that the phazon created shone on a small yellow figure crammed inside of the space.

Trembling

.

“Pi…” Pichu cried, shrinking away in terror.

Dark Samus stopped charging her arm cannon. She may have just been betrayed, but she wasn't cruel. Pichu was terrified, and Dark Samus didn't see any signs that he was taken over by the Dark Matter.

Dark Samus changed her form back to her humanoid shape, assuming a gentle and inviting expression and gesturing for Pichu to come out. The yellow mouse hesitated, continuing to try hiding in the corner.

It was times like these that Dark Samus wished that she could really communicate. It would have made the situation a lot less difficult.

Well, she could try.

Dark Samus gestured to herself with both hands. “Sai,” she said in her mix of noises.

Pichu just looked perplexed.

“Piu,” Dark Samus said, pointing at the startled Pokemon. She was trying her best, but she wasn't built to make words. She pointed to herself again, and really tried to say 'Not bad.’ Unfortunately, it just came out as, “Nuaa.”

Pichu looked confused, but at least he seemed more confused than he was scared now. Dark Samus decided that communication was a bust, and reached out to Pichu once more. This time, he tentatively crawled out of the dresser, and took the moment to really examine the woman before him. And, after several seconds, Dark Samus was completely surprised by Pichu climbing up her body and sitting on her shoulder.

Not knowing what to do, Dark Samus settled on petting Pichu's head, which the Pokemon seemed to appreciate. And then she started thinking. It seemed like

everyone

had become corrupted by Dark Matter, so why hadn't Pichu? After a moment of thought, Dark Samus figured it out: Pichu had already been hiding before Dark Matter had arrived. The poor guy must have been terrified of Zero this whole time, and apparently no one had noticed. Well, she was here for him now.

And unfortunately she needed him to be here for her, too, because the door to the room started getting violently bashed. Dark Samus went back to her armor form, and then took a moment to pet Pichu once more before lowering him to the ground. Then she readied a charged shot.

Bang. Bang.

Dark Samus neared the door and hovered her hand over the lock. It only sounded like one person on the other side. She could definitely handle that.

Bang.

Dark Samus turned the lock and quickly stepped to the side as the door was knocked open. She aimed her gun and-

It was Samus.

The moment's hesitation that this realization gave her was enough for the corrupted Samus to capitalize on. She fired a missile that hit Dark Samus in the torso and sent her careening into the dresser, breaking it apart. At least Pichu wasn't still in there.

Speaking of Pichu, Dark Samus saw him start cowering away from the combatants. She didn't blame him. He was way out of his league here. But then again, she herself was, too.

Samus stalked up towards her doppelganger and threw a punch, which Dark Samus sidestepped. Then the alien went for a kick, but-

“Sai, don't!” Samus cried. Her uncovered face showed so much desperation and fear in that moment.

Dark Samus stopped mid-attack, not wanting to actually hurt her girlfriend. She shifted back to her humanoid form. And then Samus grabbed her by her outstretched leg and threw her to the ground.

“Man, you made this easy,” Samus said. “Are you really that gullible?”

The bounty hunter placed her armored knee on Dark Samus's neck. She may not have had to breathe, but that was still

painful

. And just to add to the agony, Samus bent the alien's arm in a way that it was very much not meant to bend.

In response to Dark Samus's flailing and pseudo-wimpers, Samus smirked. “You probably thought that you were safe just because you avoided our preliminary attack. But that just means that we won't be corrupting you. We'll just kill you.

I'll

just kill you, Sai.”

Dark Samus wished that this monstrosity would stop calling her by that name. That name was for Samus to use and Samus alone, and this… thing was making a mockery of it.

“You know, I could just shoot you, but this feels a lot more… intimate,” Samus said, increasing the pressure on both Dark Samus's arm and throat. “Wouldn't you like that? To die in a moment of intimacy with the one you love? It’s romantic, really. Maybe a bit risque. But you can't deny that it's exciting.” Samus put even more weight on Dark Samus's throat, and it felt like she was about to snap. “I hope you enjoy whatever hellhole that non-believers go to, Sai. Here's a parting gift as you go out.”

Samus removed her knee from Dark Samus's throat, which was so relieving that it almost hurt in itself. And then the being inhabiting Samus's body bent down and

kissed

Dark Samus on the mouth. Dark Samus thrashed against the bounty hunter's pin, trying desperately to get her to stop, but the corrupted Samus just smiled sadistically into the kiss and bent the alien's arm even further.

Eventually Samus parted from the kiss, wiping saliva off of her lips, and then once again kneeled on Dark Samus's neck. “Goodbye,” she said simply, and then she pressed down as hard as she could.

“Pi-CHU!!!!!!!”

A Skull Bash sent Samus tumbling off of her captive, and Dark Samus relished in her sudden release. Now Pichu stood between her and the corrupted bounty hunter, in a defensive stance.

Samus started to pick herself off of the ground. “Why you little shit-” and then she was cut off by being electrocuted with a Thunder Jolt.

In the brief moment that Samus was stunned, Dark Samus changed into her armor form and aimed her gun, before finally firing off the charged shot that she had been holding this whole time. Samus was catapulted into the wall, banged her head, and slumped to the ground unconscious.

Dark Samus started staring up at the ceiling. That… was a nightmare.

A shadowy form emerged from Samus's body, and was quickly dispatched by Pichu, who then approached Dark Samus and nuzzled her.

The alien sat up and tried not to move her neck or right arm too much in the process. Then, with her still-undamaged arm, she gave Pichu a pet on the head. He had really saved her.

Dark Samus slowly and painfully turned her head to the door. More of the corrupted fighters would come for them. They had to stop this.

Dark Samus stood up and gestured for Pichu to follow as she stealthily entered the hallway. She spared one last glance toward Samus, slumped unconscious against the wall, and… Dark Samus didn't know what she felt in that moment. But for Samus's protection, she locked the door to the room.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Sneaking through the halls, the duo of Dark Samus and Pichu avoided any attention from their former comrades. Being spotted could likely be lethal.

The whole way, Dark Samus cradled her damaged arm. She would need to rest it as much as she could for the inevitable next conflict, and she had full intentions to transfer her cannon to her left arm when that time came.

Pichu scurried ahead and peeked out of the hallway, then backed back up to Dark Samus and trembled a bit. Someone was coming.

Dark Samus grabbed a door handle and let some particularly concentrated phazon leak from her palm, corroding the metal in the lock and opening it. The two filed into the room and closed the door just as an evil-looking Donkey Kong stalked past.

Dark Samus and Pichu waited for a while until the noises of the ape's steps faded away. Then they continued forward. To where? Dark Samus wasn't sure. The ship was stopped in-between dimensions, so they couldn't bank on any outside help. Maybe she could get to the Lor's controls and pilot it somewhere? No, she didn't know how to fly this ship. Her piloting it would end up being a very bumpy ride.

Wait. That wasn't so bad of an idea.

With a destination in mind, Dark Samus led Pichu in another direction. They had a few more close shaves with corrupted fighters, but they weren’t so easily caught.

Or so they thought.

As Dark Samus exited another bedroom, she started to give the all-clear to Pichu. But she suddenly was grabbed by something. No longer willing to ask questions first, Dark Samus immediately kicked whoever was behind her and knocked herself out of their grip. She spun around, shifted the arm cannon to her healthy arm, and readied a missile. She wasn't going to be fooled a third time.

She found her attacker to be R.O.B., who bent out of the way of the missile that Dark Samus sent at him. And then he started wildly flailing his arms in the air.

Dark Samus didn't budge. This was definitely some kind of trick.

Pichu came out of the room and examined the fighters. Then he went over to R.O.B.

“Pi, Pichu!” the yellow mouse said excitedly to the robot.

Dark Samus was taken aback. Did Pichu not understand what was going on here?

“... From what I've heard, Zero only cares about living lifeforms,”

Meta Knight's voice rang out in Dark Samus's head. Oh yes, that was why they had released the Mii Fighters back in the Smash world. But that meant…

Wait, had R.O.B. just been meaning to hug her?

Dark Samus lowered her gun, and R.O.B. seemed relieved. Well, as relieved as someone with no capacity for facial expressions could look.

This was good. They could use as much help as they could get for Dark Samus's plan. She very briefly changed to her humanoid form to show off a smile before changing back and beginning to cradle her injured arm again. Even that little amount of physical activity had strained it, not to mention her neck.

Dark Samus used her good arm to gesture in the direction that they were going, and R.O.B. and Pichu followed.

And finally, the control room was in sight. The only obstacle was Magolor, who was looking at the screens. Dark Samus and her crew silently stalked towards the magician.

“You must think that we're idiots,” Magolor said, and then he pressed a big red button on the console. Alarms started blaring in the room. “Really, where else would you have gone? We knew you'd show up eventually.”

Dark Samus rushed at their prior pilot and tried to take him out quickly, but he wasn't having it. Magolor seemed to vanish from reality, and then reappeared a small distance away a second later. He shot a chromatic bolt of energy, which Dark Samus countered with a slightly-charged phazon blast. Then Pichu shocked Magolor out of nowhere and R.O.B. bonked him over the head. He was knocked out cold immediately. Dark Samus supposed that he wasn't built to be a fighter.

A Dark Matter exited his body, and Dark Samus took great pleasure in incinerating it. Then she went to the console and ghosted her hands over the buttons. She looked around the room and found a couple of seats in the corner with seat harnesses attached and she gestured for Pichu and R.O.B. to take them. Then, after making sure that they were buckled in, Dark Samus firmly planted her feet on the ground, going as far as to change the shape of her feet in order to grasp better onto the flooring. Then she started frantically pushing buttons.

Her hope had been that this would cause some havoc on the ship, but she had been wrong. The buttons that she pressed had fairly docile results. At least she found a way to disable the alarm, but it turned out to be pointless.

A bunch of fighters emerged from hallways and immediately caught sight of Dark Samus.

Ignore them, ignore them…

Dark Samus thought. There was nothing she could do about them if this didn't work.

“No you don't,” corrupted Falco said, taking out his blaster and shooting Dark Samus in the back twice. It was horribly painful considering the state that she was already in, but Dark Samus had to persevere.

And then she pressed

the

button. The holy grail of ship commands.

“Gyro-lock has been disabled,” said a computerized voice from the ship.

And then every button and switch that Dark Samus pressed made the ship pitch and toss and twirl. All of the unprepared fighters started getting flung into the walls and ceiling, and Dark Samus kept it up for a whole minute. Then she pressed that button again.

“Gyro-lock has been enabled.”

She reformed her feet and collapsed into a kneeling position. Everything hurt.

Pichu and R.O.B. got out of their harnesses and rushed to her side to make sure that she was okay. The bodies of all the other fighters had been knocked to the ground, and they looked thoroughly defeated. But the trio hadn't accounted for one thing-

Dozens of Dark Matters emerged, and looked at the three very hostilely with their single eyes. There were just… too many. R.O.B. and Pichu prepared for a fight regardless, though.

Thankfully, they didn't need to get in one. Marx appeared out of nowhere and suddenly all of the Dark Matters exploded from the inside-out.

“Thanks for clearing me a path, pals!” Marx said, grinning.

Dark Samus slowly turned her head to him, took on her humanoid form, and gave him a look that she hoped conveyed the feeling of, 'Where have you been?!’

“Oh, come on, don't be like that,” Marx said. “I've been hanging out outside the ship. I didn't want you guys to have to deal with a mind-controlled version of me

again

. When the ship started doing barrel rolls, I figured that there was still at least one person who was free, so I knew the coast was clear. So I guess what I'm saying is… hooray for me saving the day!”

Dark Samus gave Marx another, even nastier look. Then the moans and groans of the many sore Smashers started occurring.

“God… Dark Samus, are you okay?” Falco said. “I didn't want to shoot you. I tried to stop it, I swear!”

Dark Samus smiled at him. It was alright.

“That was clever. Using the ship itself to knock us down,” Meta Knight said.

“Yeah, I've got to agree,” Magolor said. “I guess I'll let you get away with touching the controls this one time.”

Dark Samus did her equivalent of chuckling, before doubling over in pain.

Dr. Mario picked himself off of the floor. “Everyone out of the way. Doctor coming through.” He rushed in and started examining Dark Samus's wounds. The Italian doctor had called her into his office once in order to gain a better understanding of her biology. That was clearly paying off now.

Magolor retook his place at the helm and typed some things into the console. An internal map of the ship appeared with several moving icons on it. “Looks like the Dark Matter presence is pretty much gone,” he said, and then looked at Dark Samus. “Take it easy, now. We'll take care of the rest.”

Fast moving footsteps could be heard approaching, and Dark Samus immediately got paranoid. She was ready for another attacker. But it was only Samus that slid into view, now in her Zero Suit and clearly uncorrupted. Dark Samus was relieved for a moment, and then her mind connected Samus's face to the near-death experience that she had faced at the bounty hunter's hands, and she was stressed out all over again.

Samus rushed towards her. “Sai, I'm… I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do any of those things! That must have been such a fucking nightmare for you! Fuck, I'm sorry! I-” and then she abruptly stopped when she saw Dark Samus flinch from her approach. Instead of getting any closer, Samus opted to stand awkwardly right where she was. “Sai, I…” and she trailed off.

“Hey, are the screens always supposed to do that?” Marx asked, drawing (almost) everyone's attention to the now-flickering camera screens that had just become various shades of red and gray.

“That's…” Magolor started. “... No.” And then he rushed up to the top deck without another word.

“Um… should we…” Captain Falcon said.

“You should follow him,” Dr. Mario said. “The less of a crowd around Dark Samus, the better.”

“Alright, let's go,” Wii Fit Trainer said, leading the pack up the staircase. Palutena placed a hand on Samus's shoulder and drew her up with the rest of them as she continued sadly staring at her girlfriend the whole way. Pichu and R.O.B. brought up the rear of the pack.

On the top deck, everyone found Magolor in a state of panic, and it was easy to see why. Because Zero could be seen at the far end of the space tunnel. Pichu was gone from the deck in an instant, likely to hide in the dresser again.

“FUCK!” Dark Pit exclaimed.

“Yeah, that's a good word,” Magolor said, stressfully planting his hand on the railing. “He sees us! He fucking sees us! And-”

And then a huge red droplet of… something crashed into the side of the ship. The whole vessel shook violently, making almost everyone lose balance, and one unfortunate soul lost it in the worst way possible.

Magolor was closest to the point of impact, and was flipped over the railing, sailing off the edge of the ship and plummeting towards the edge of the wormhole.

“Mag!” Marx shouted. He tried to teleport out to him, but had to teleport back when another red droplet gushed by.

Magolor closed a hand into a fist as he drifted away and then literally

threw

a colorful bolt at the ship, nailing Captain Falcon right in the face. But out of the magical missile dropped a metallic object.

“Keys?” Falco said.

Marx stared at Magolor for a bit longer and watched as he vanished into the dimensional wall. Then the jester looked at the rest of the group. “He wants us to keep going.”

“What? And just leave him?” Palutena asked.

“We don't have a choice. If we live through this, we can find him again,” Marx said. “It kinda sucks to ask… but does anybody know how to fly this ship?”

“Shouldn't

you

?” Roy said, bracing himself as the ship shook again.

“Well I don't, soooo…” Marx said.

“We can figure it out,” Palutena said. “Right now, the only thing that's important is getting away.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Dr. Mario raised a questioning eyebrow as everyone returned to the control room, and Dark Samus gave a similar expression beneath him.

“That was fast. I assume you dealt with whatever was causing that quaking?” Dr. Mario said.

The ship then shook violently once again.

“Nope,” Dark Pit said.

“It's Zero. The Dark Matter incident gave him time to catch up with us,” Palutena said, drifting over to the controls.

“Magolor will not be happy if he finds out you touched his console,” Dr. Mario said.

“Something tells me that won't be a problem,” Falco said.

Dr. Mario looked confused, but didn't ask any further questions. Then a few more people entered the room from deeper in the ship.

“Well, that was terrible,” Mega Man said, with Link and K. Rool behind him. “Is nobody going to talk about the Dark Matter invasion that I had to fight through?” Then his eyes focused on Dark Samus. “Whoa, I guess I didn't have the worst of it. Is she okay?”

Samus stayed completely silent, but looked at Dr. Mario expectantly.

“She is in no position for any more combat, but she will recover,” Dr. Mario said, allowing Samus to let out a held breath. Then the ship rumbled again.

“What

is

that?” Mega Man asked.

“It's Zero trying to shoot us out of the sky, and that's the last time we'll answer that question,” Marx said.

Palutena frustratedly banged on the metal of the console she was working at. “I can't understand what any of these buttons and dials do…”

“You have plenty of minds to work the problem,” Roy said, and more minds arrived just in time.

“I'm not sure exactly what is going on, but from what just happened to all of us I can only assume that it relates to Zero,” Zelda said.

“Bingo,” Dark Pit said. “Glad you could make it.”

“Where's Magolor?” Female Robin asked.

“Gone,” Marx said. “Can we move on to the part where we fix the problem? I don't know why Zero isn't just ripping us apart and it's freaking me out.”

“Uh, right,” Pokemon Trainer said. “What's the problem?”

“Figuring out how to control a half-magic, half-tech flying machine that defies the laws of space,” Falco said.

“Huh,” Pokemon Trainer simply said.

“Well, maybe some of the functions are locked?” Male Robin said.

“Locked?” Palutena asked.

“Yeah,” Female Robin said. “Maybe there's a passcode or-”

“A key,” Captain Falcon said.

Palutena nodded and felt around for the keys in her pockets. She then realized that she did not

have

any pockets.

“Here, I have them,” Falco said, tossing her the keys. As soon as they got near the console, the keys started glowing blue.

“That seems to have done something!” Zelda said. “Try the console now.”

Palutena pulled a lever, and the ship started moving.

“Complex problem, simple solution,” Palutena said.

“Here, let me drive,” Falco said, stepping up to the controls.

“Don't let that idiot fly, he'll kill us all!” Wolf shouted as he entered the room. “I'm the real pilot here.”

“Fuck you, no. You're a murderous bastard, and I'm not letting you fly,” Falco said.

“Yeah, I'm a murderous bastard, but that has nothing to do with my flying skills,” Wolf protested.

“Quiet, you two. Bickering like children will get us nowhere,” Meta Knight said.

“...

Murderous

children…” Falco grumbled.

“Stop,” Meta Knight said.

“How about we flip a coin?” Mega Man said.

Everyone stumbled as the ship was given a particularly bad jolt.

“Nope. No time. Falco, fly. Wolf, suck it up,” Marx said.

“Fuck you,” Wolf said, but he didn't make any moves to stop Falco from taking the helm.

“Alright, we've just got to-” and then he pushed a button.

“Gyro-lock has been disabled.”

And everyone in the room froze. Then Palutena frantically used magic (and the assistance of Meta Knight) to move the injured Dark Samus into a seat and buckle the seat belt.

But Falco just pressed the button again.

“Gyro-lock has been enabled.”

“No one should

ever

press this button

ever

again,” Falco said.

“... Yeah,” Roy said.

The ship rumbled again.

“Seriously, why the fuck isn't he just killing us?” Marx said.

“Yeah, it's starting to freak me out too,” Captain Falcon said.

“Is there some kind of a nitro boost on this thing? We need to get some distance between us and the death eyeball,” Mega Man said.

“Uhhh…” Falco said, hovering his hand over many buttons. “Eenie, meenie… this one.” He pressed a button, and the ship fired a star-shaped projectile behind it right into Zero as seen from the external cameras. The star bounced off of him without leaving so much as a scratch. “Nope! Wrong one!

This

one!”

This time when he pressed a button, it actually did what he wanted. They couldn't feel much of a change inside of the ship, but from the cameras they could see that they were moving much faster. Zero disappeared into the distance of the tunnel after only a few seconds.

“Okay,” Male Robin said, wiping sweat from his brow. “Now I want to find the speaker button.”

“Why?” Dr. Mario said.

“Because half of the ship probably thinks we're all still possessed,” Male Robin said.

“Well go ahead and try to find it. I won't stop you,” Falco said.

After some experimentation with buttons, Male Robin found the right one and called everybody to the control room. Finally, everyone was together again. And then the ship’s autopilot (which they had accidentally found while looking for the intercom) started taking them out of the wormhole. The ship emerged into a red world with just as red of a sky, and the remnants of a civilization poking out here and there. Yep. Halcandra.

“Okay, so here's the deal:” Falco said. “how do I land this ship?”

“Well if Magolor's track record is anything to go by, you

don't

,” Meta Knight said.

“Honestly, just crash it if you need to. We need to get on the planet fast,” Marx said. “We may have gotten away from Zero, but he's right on our tail. And it looked like he was

trying

to get us to leave the wormhole.”

“Well, apparently we did just what he wanted,” Ike said.

“We'll make it out of this. We came all this way, didn't we?” Pit said. “I'm sure we'll-” and then everyone was simultaneously knocked over onto the ground. Except for Falco.

“We're landed!” Falco said.

“A little warning next time?!” Female Corrin shouted.

“Hey, just letting all you know that we're on the ground now. Consider yourself warned!” Falco said with a snarky grin.

Marx body-slammed the ship's door open. “Alright, fan out. We need to find something good, and fast. This is our last stand. If we don't find something… well, then we're all fucked.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Seeing as it would have been stupid for anyone to go out alone, they went in pairs (except for Palutena, Lucina, and Female Robin, but no one wanted to split them up). Some people chose their partner immediately. Some people were content with their pairings. Some people were mildly uncomfortable with their partner.

Mr Game and Watch ended up with Marx, which he didn't know how he should feel about.

“Oi, 2D boy, speed your flat ass up,” Marx said as he levitated ahead on the ruined streets they were walking on.

Game and Watch didn't exactly appreciate being rushed, but he picked up his pace anyway.

“Okay… so if I were a superweapon, where would I be…?” Marx asked himself. “Well, nevermind, I

am

a superweapon. I guess the superweapon could be wherever it wanted to be… this is getting us nowhere.”

Mr Game and Watch poked around in the rubble of a collapsed building while Marx rambled and built himself a tiny little 2D house out of the fallen pieces of stone and metal. He was very proud of it. But it needed a chimney.

Game and Watch walked around the rubble pile in search of something generally chimney-shaped, and ended up finding it in a small piece of metal poking out of the pile. He reached for it and attempted to tug it out, but it wouldn't budge. He tried to get it from a different angle, and that was when it revealed itself not to be a piece of discarded metal. It was a handle. A handle to a trap door that creaked open from Mr Game and Watch's pulling.

Once it had opened all the way, Game and Watch stood a bit shocked for a moment. He then looked inside. It was dark, but he could tell there was a metal flooring. Definitely secret base material.

Game and Watch started ringing his bell to catch Marx's attention.

“What? I'm asking myself existential questions over here!” Marx complained, but he approached anyways. Game and Watch gestured to the trap door. “Oh,” Marx said, and then looked at Mr Game and Watch. “You are now my favorite.” Then, without any hesitation, the jester made his wings vanish and leaped in.

After Mr Game and Watch followed, they investigated deeper, using the light from Marx setting his own hat on fire. And then they came upon a pedestal with a large, metal object on it, made up of many parts all compressed into a rectangular prism. In front of the pedestal was a metal tablet with glowing green symbols on it.

“Ooo, instruction manual! Goody!” Marx said. He walked up to it, and then somehow started inhaling with his eyes, making little bits of data-filled light filtered in. Once the tablet had gone dark, he looked at Game and Watch. “We need it. Help me move it out of here.”

Game and Watch obliged, walking up to the object and lifting it. Well,

trying

to lift it. It weighed an absolute ton. Marx flew on top of it and tried to lift with his feet, but no dice.

“Okay, Plan B,” Marx said, and then his eyes rolled up into his head as he started using the group chat.
 
Marx:
Hey y'all, get your faces and tits over here

F Corrin:
You can have my face, but not my tits.

Mario:
Please don't ever say those words again.
 
Marx came back to reality. “Yup, they're coming. Let's kick off the welcome party.”

After some waiting, everyone grouped up in the metal basement and, using the combined strength of about half of the fighters, lifted the rectangle and slowly moved it out.

“So, what even-” Chrom huffed as they gave the weapon one last tug out of the hole, “-is this thing?”

“It's called the Power Rig,” Marx said. “If someone puts it on, it will enhance their natural abilities to an unbelievable extent. An extent so great that it could rival Zero.”

“That sounds like exactly what we need,” Female Robin said.

“Yeah, but it has limited juice,” Marx said. “A couple of minutes of using this thing, and it's toast.”

“Well, we'll just save it up for the conflict with Zero then,” Fox said.

Then the ginormous eyeball emerged from a portal in the sky, faster than it ever had before.

“You just

had

to say something, didn't you?” Cloud sassed.

“I guess this is where our final battle is gonna be,” Daisy said.

“It looks that way,” Meta Knight said.

“We're prepared,” Female Robin said.

“I believe in us,” Pokemon Trainer said.

“Bree!” Three said. They knew she couldn't understand them, but she got the picture.

“So who's gonna use the Power Rig?” Wolf asked.

Before anybody could respond, Sonic saw a flash of red light occur on Zero.

His eye widened. “WATCH-”

And before he could even get another word out, they were all enveloped in a red laser.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Zelda coughed red dust out of her lungs. Every part of her body was in pain, as if she had just been splashed all over with boiling water. But… she was alive?

She looked around. All of her comrades were in the same sort of state that she was and some were out cold, but none seemed to have perished. The crater that they were now laying in was a testament to the power of the attack.

Zelda looked in the direction of Zero and found Marx standing in between the giant eyeball and all of the Smashers with his wings outstretched, looking extremely beat-up.

“Ha… haha… I… I did it…! I... blocked some of Zero's attack! I guess I'm… stronger than I….. thought…….” he said, and then he collapsed.

“Marx…” Zelda tried to call out, but her voice was so raspy and broken that she wasn't sure if it was even possible to understand her.

Zelda slowly turned her head to look at the piece of Halcandran tech that they had uncovered, praying that it hadn't been destroyed in the cataclysm. And, to her surprise, the large metal box was completely unharmed. She supposed that the Power Rig was made specifically to withstand that kind of power. But with how damaged everyone was, there was no one left to use it…

For just a moment, Zelda started to ponder if this was the end. Whether Zero would just launch another attack, and they would all be erased without ever knowing why they were being hunted in the first place. But then she saw the black tip of an ear poke out from behind the large metallic device.

Pichu peeked out only temporarily before darting his head back behind the Power Rig and trembling. But he had been behind it this whole time, so he was completely unharmed by Zero's attack.

Zelda had hope again.

“P… Pichu…” she called to him, prompting him to poke his shaking ears out once more. “You… you have to activate the power rig. Put it on… put it on and finish this.”

The fear in Pichu's eyes came to a peak as he vigorously shook his head with tears in his eyes.

“Pichu… you have to be brave...” Zelda said, trying to pull herself towards the Pokemon to comfort him, but not succeeding in making it that far.

“Y-Yeah!” Pit said from elsewhere in the crater they were all lying in. “You… you can do this, Pichu! We believe in you!”

“You're strong... and we all know it,” Sonic said, flicking his nose. “Don't let this get you down.”

“For all of us, you have to do this,” Palutena said, painstakingly pushing herself up to a sitting position above Lucina and Female Robin’s unconscious bodies. “Please.”

“I never thought that there would be a day that I would depend on a mouse with my life,” Ganondorf said, only able to get up to a kneeling position. “But I know that you are capable of achieving this great feat. You simply have to take the first step.”

“I've seen what you can do, Pichu,” Chrom said. “You have nothing to be afraid of. You can do this.”

“Inciner...!” Incineroar said. It was likely something motivational.

“It’s-a okay to be afraid. But-a you have to keep-a going,” Luigi said.

“Pichu… we believe in you,” Zelda said. “Please. You can save us all. You just have to let go of your fear.”

Pichu still looked scared, but he examined the large metal box in front of him.

Zelda turned her head to look up at Zero, and was filled with dread. A bright, red light was radiating from his iris. It seemed he was charging another blast and making sure that it would kill them all for sure this time.

The light condensed, and then Zero fired a beam as big as a skyscraper. This was the end.

“Pi-CHUUUUU!!!!!!!”

A bolt of lightning equally as large shot back and clashed with the red beam, before making it dissipate entirely.

Zelda turned to look at Pichu, and saw an image of absolute power. Bands of metal and technology were now wrapped in strategic places across the Pokemon's body, and he looked determined. Raw electricity coarsed in the air around him, sparking outwards and making everyone's hair stand up on end. The electric current was so strong that the yellow mouse started being electro-magnetically levitated off the ground, but he didn't look phased. All he cared about was protecting his friends.

Zero charged up another shot, but Pichu wasn't going to let him get away with it this time. The Pokemon Quick-Attacked through the air and hit the giant eyeball with the most powerful Skull Bash of all time. It was so immense that Zero, his size being comparable to that of a mountain, was staggered backwards in the huge portal he was peeking out of.

As a panic move, the giant eyeball started throwing giant glops of burning red substance in every direction. Pichu danced through the air, dodging one, after another, after-

Then one hit him, and he came crashing back to the ground, forming a large crater from the impact.

“Pichu!” Pit cried out.

But the yellow rodent emerged from the dust and shook the hit off. He wasn't done yet.

Zero tried for one more laser, but Pichu wasn't going to let it happen. He charged every bit of electrical energy inside of him, channeled everything he had, and with a, “PIIIIIIII!!!!!!!” he used Thunderbolt.

To the Smashers, many of which had found their way up to their feet, the entire world became pure white from the sheer size and brightness of the bolt. It was absolutely blinding, but only for a couple of moments. Then the sky became its usual red, and the damage could finally be seen.

Zero, with a huge scorch mark on his side, began to fall from the sky.

Every single conscious Smasher cheered their hearts out. It was a sound of true jubilance. It was over. They had finally stopped Zero.

Zelda sluggishly approached Pichu, who just plopped onto his rear, exhausted and battered from his own attacks. She took the power rig off of the Pokemon, which seemed to magically recondense itself into the box shape that they had found it in. Then she hugged him.

“You did it!” the princess said. “I knew you could do it!”

Pichu just made a contented sound and fell asleep in her arms.

“Why the fuck are you all being so loud...?!” Marx's groggy voice said, drawing the Smashers’ attention to him.

“We are celebrating,” Meta Knight said. “You should be, too.”

“Why the fuck would I…” he said before squinting at the sky. “Holy shit, you guys killed Zero.”

“Pichu did, actually,” Chrom said.

“HOLY SHIT, the rat killed Zero,” Marx said, clearly in absolute awe.

“But you're the reason we're all still alive, so we have to thank you, too,” Sonic said.

“Well, yeah. Of course. Naturally,” Marx said. “Please feel free to tell me how great I am.”

Zero's eyeball neared the ground in its fall, but then suddenly snagged on something. Golden chains of light revealed themselves coming out of the back of the giant eye. Golden

puppet strings

. They were yanked out by the eyeball's downward momentum and retracted back into the portal it had fallen from. Then Zero collided with the ground, kicking up a shockwave from the impact.

After it passed, Palutena smiled. “I must admit, that fight was certainly a sight to see.” But then she looked around at the other Smashers, and found that some of the older ones seemed… despaired. “What's wrong?”

“... No…” Meta Knight said.

“It can't be,” Ganondorf said.

“I thought we beat him!” Pit cried out.

“Oooh, no…” Luigi said.

“What's going on?” Chrom asked.

“No… we worked so hard to beat him last time!” Sonic said.

“Hey, someone answer my question. What's happening?” Chrom asked.

“Well, I believe we have just found the reason why Zero had been after us,” Ganondorf said.

A hunched-over, shimmering blue figure drifted down from the portal in the sky, and butterfly wings appeared at its back. The figure was not unique in itself, but it seemed to radiate a sort of eeriness. And all of those who had seen this figure before could only think of one name.

Tabuu.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Who the fuck…?” Marx said.

“A puppet master, of sorts,” Ganondorf said. “He is Tabuu, and he is a force to be reckoned with.”

“How do you know this creature?” Palutena asked.

“I'm sure

someone's

told you about Subspace,” Sonic said.

“Oh yes, Subspace,” Palutena said. “Does this mean that this creature is-”

“The incredibly difficult creature who led the whole incident?” Zelda said. “The very same.”

“Oh…” Palutena said.

“Is he stronger than Zero?” Chrom asked.

“I don't know. Maybe?” Sonic said. “I mean, we've beat him before. It clearly wasn't a permanent solution, though.”

“It doesn't matter,” Zelda said, gently laying the sleeping Pichu on the ground. “We still have this.”

Zelda pressed a button on the Power Rig, trying to take it onto herself, but it made a sound of rejection. She tried again, but it just made the same noise again.

“Incin?” Incineroar remarked.

“It's out of power, numbnuts,” Marx said. “It's going to take at least a few days before it's usable again.”

“Well, we still have you,” Meta Knight said. “You are our ace in the hole.”

“Are you kidding? I just took a facefull of death-laser to save your asses. I don't have a lot left in me right now,” Marx said, and upon further inspection it was clear that he was indeed wobbling on his feet. “Look, here's what I can do for you.”

All of the conscious fighters started glowing with colorful flames.

“I filled your final smash meters. Use them carefully, 'cuz I can only give you one,” Marx said. “Go give this guy hell.”

Pit nodded. “This is our chance to end this once and for all!” he said. “I know we're all pretty beat-up, but let’s give it everything we've got!”

“Stop making motivational speeches and

fight

,” Ganondorf said, charging forward. Tabuu was still far in the distance, after all.

The group rushed towards their adversary, who drifted downwards in the sky so that he was somewhat closer to the ground.

“I'll go for the first hit,” Chrom said, positioning himself at the lead of the pack and drawing his sword. In response, Tabuu suddenly created a laser cannon and fired. Chrom tried to dodge, but the attack was too quick to miss the whole beam. Suddenly the swordsman felt like his arm was being ripped off as it separated into thousands of little blue light orbs and they were scattered by the force of the blast. Thankfully, the orbs reconstituted soon after and his arm returned. He did scream out in pain, though.

“What was that?” Sonic asked.

“It seems to be Tabuu's new method of dealing with us,” Meta Knight said. “He isn't trying to add us to his trophy collection any longer. He intends to rip us apart.”

“Well, we aren't going to let that happen,” Sonic said. He then raised a hand, and seven chaos emeralds appeared above him. “Super Sonic style!”

He turned gold, and then started flying at mach speeds towards their opponent. Said opponent, however, simply turned his body into a blade and shot towards Sonic at a similar speed. Sonic veered out of the way, knowing he wouldn't win that trade. Then he tried to zoom around the other side of Tabuu, but he found himself not getting any opportunities through his attacks. And before too long his final smash ran out, and he became blue once again, dropping to the ground.

“Crap,” the hedgehog said, before dashing out of the way of a rain of light-bullets.

Palutena looked to Pit, and then they both nodded before looking back to Tabuu.

“Lightning Chariot!” Pit shouted.

“Black Hole!” Palutena said in kind.

A large black hole surrounded Tabuu as Pit hopped into his chariot and aimed. Tabuu clearly was restrained, so Pit took his chance.

“Go!” he shouted, and the chariot darted ahead at blistering speed. Right before he made contact, though, Tabuu completely vanished and the Lightning Chariot passed through the black hole unhampered. “What?!” Pit said as the chariot dropped him off on the ground.

Tabuu reappeared a distance away, and Palutena pointed at him with her staff. “Mega Laser!”

Tabuu quickly phased out of the way of the pink beam and tossed a spinning blade of his own making at the goddess. She warped out of the way in the last possible second.

“We're wasting too many final smashes,” Meta Knight said. “We need to use them strategically.”

“That

was

strategic,” Palutena said. “He's too mobile, however. It is going to be challenging to hit him.”

“We need to lure him closer to the ground. We'll have better chances then,” Ganondorf said.

“I can do that,” Sonic said, having returned from his previous attack. He raced across the earth once again. “HEY BLUE-BALLS!”

That caught Tabuu's attention, for better or for worse. The blue figure teleported right in front of him and swiped a purple light-blade. It struck true, and Sonic felt himself being disassembled for a moment. It was painful, but brief.

The speedster retreated towards the group. “Whatever you're going to do, do it!”

Meta Knight flew above him and approached their enemy. Then he activated his final smash, temporarily growing two extra wings and shooting out lightning. Tabuu avoided his flurry of attacks by teleporting away, but there was something that he didn't realize- Meta Knight hadn't had any intention of hitting him.

The blue figure floated right where Ganondorf wanted him. The evil king transformed into his demon form and charged right through his enemy with massive golden blades. That was the first good hit they had had.

Tabuu staggered from the attack, and right into Incineroar's. The big cat head-butted him into the ground and created a massive explosion. Then Luigi used his Poltergust to stop Tabuu from moving away, and, right afterword, Chrom appeared.

“AE-THER!” he shouted as he swiped through the blue being. A direct hit.

Zelda smirked from a small distance away. With the amount of damage Tabuu had taken, he was ready to be finished off. Zelda held her hands apart from each other and focused her power. A Triforce appeared in front of her, and Tabuu started to be pulled in.

“This is it!” Pit said.

But then Tabuu's wings appeared, and a ripple came out of him. A ripple of immense power.

It blasted through each of the fighters, and they were temporarily reduced entirely to blue specks. When they were pieced back together, they all dropped to the ground. Between Zero's attack, the fight, and this final strike from Tabuu, they had nothing left.

Tabuu loomed over them, and prepared to destroy them for good.

But then a giant blue ship flew straight into him, carried him for a while, and then crashed into the ground on top of him.

Wolf leaped out of the Lor's entrance. “Now

that's

how you crash a ship.”

“Wolf!” Zelda said, shakily getting to her feet.

“It's about time you woke up,” Meta Knight said.

“Har-dee har har,” Wolf said, rolling his eyes. “Look, I just saved you assholes.”

“It's not quite over yet,” Ganondorf said from the front side of the ship. Everyone used the last of their energy to make it to him.

Underneath the ship's bow, Tabuu was pinned and… spasming. His limbs moved erratically and his body flickered. But he didn't try to escape in any way.

“I think he's at his end,” Palutena said.

“Let's make it a little quicker for him,” Wolf said, drawing his blaster. “Light 'im up!”

A blaster shot, an Explosive Flame, Din's fire, a green fireball, and a light arrow all hit Tabuu at once, and then his body shined brightly with the release of energy. Harmless shockwaves rippled out of him on the ground as he was destroyed. And then it all stopped, only leaving shattered pieces of blue light behind. Tabuu wasn't just defeated. Now, he was gone.

“Okay, I think now it's safe to say…” Pit hesitated for a moment, then continued, “it's over.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Magolor knew the sound of his ship creating a portal anywhere. It was a small noise from this distance, almost unnoticeable, but he knew it immediately. And he was overjoyed.

“They did it,” Magolor said. “I can't believe it, they did it!”

Then he caught sight of the Lor in the sky and it was clear that whoever was flying it was… struggling.

Magolor sighed and took his homing beacon out of his cloak. It was undoubtedly how they had been able to find him. Thankfully, it also was able to remotely activate the autopilot. He pressed the button to do so, and then sought out an area that would be suitable for landing.

The ship touched down, and the ramp opened to Marx's smiling face.

“Guess who didn't die!” the little demon said.

“Honestly, I'm genuinely surprised,” Magolor said. “I didn't think you people had it in you.”

“Yeah, well this thing helped,” Falco said, slapping the top of the Power Rig. It made a bleep of denial.

Magolor examined all of the bruised and battered Smashers. “Jeeze, you people look like you need a break.”

“A

long

one,” Dr. Mario said.

“Yeah,” Samus said.

“We

are

getting a break, right?” Bowser Jr. asked pointedly to Marx.

“You think I want to deal with you guys’ whining? Of course you're getting a break,” Marx said.

“Not until I get you home,” Magolor said, climbing into the ship.

“What, you're not going to let me fly?” said Fox from the controls. “I was doing really well for a while there.”

“That's because I put you on autopilot,” Magolor said, taking Fox's place at the controls. “Let's get you all back to your world.”
 
The ship took off and disappeared into the sky.

“Whoa, did you see that?!” a voice from the ground said.

“Yeah, I did!” said another, younger-sounding voice.

“What do you think it was?” the first voice said.

“I don't know, but I think it might have been from another world!” the boyish voice said.

“Woah, for real?!” the more mature voice said.

“Obviously, Skull. Why else would something like

that

be in Tokyo?” said the younger voice, which was coming from a black cat.

“Can you stop being so full of it, Morgana?” Ryuji said, shaking his head.

“But it's part of my charm!” Morgana said.
  
Finally, the ship returned to the world of Smash. It took some time to clear out the possessed Mii fighters from the mansion, but the group managed. After what they had been through, it was hardly a challenge.

Male Robin leaned against an outer wall and sighed. “Okay, I think that's the last of them.”

“That was annoying,” Pokemon Trainer said.

“Well, it looks like you guys are all getting settled back in,” Magolor said. “You don't need me anymore, so I guess I'll head out.”

“Magolor,” Lucina said, kneeling down in front of him to shake one of his hands, “Thank you. Without your help, we likely wouldn't be standing here any longer.”

“Don't worry about it. It's been a while since I've had an adventure,” Magolor said.

“I hope you have safe travels!” Isabelle said.

“Try not to crash on the way down,” Meta Knight said.

Magolor narrowed his eyes at the last comment, but gave a thumbs-up nonetheless. “It's been fun.”

The wizard turned and headed towards the Lor parked on the other side of the garden. But then Male Robin ran up to him.

“Wait!” the tactician said, prompting Magolor to stop in his tracks. “Maybe you don't have to leave.”

“Uhh… what do you mean?” Magolor asked.

“Hear me out,” Robin said. “Ever since we ousted the announcer of this place, we've stopped being able to get resources. We've been running low on just about everything recently. So… what if you helped us out?”

Magolor seemed to quirk an eyebrow. “Helped you out?”

“Yes,” Robin said. “With the Lor, you could go to other worlds to supply us with what we need.”

“Well, I'm not a charity worker here,” Magolor said.

“You don't have to be,” Marx said. He wasn't actually there, his face just appeared in the ground. “The system of this place gives out currency that changes to whatever currency you need it to be. I could mess with the thing so that you're added to the payroll.”

“Hm…” Magolor said, bringing a hand up to where his chin would be. “You've caught my interest. Alright. You've got a deal.”

Male Robin reached out a hand to shake, and Magolor did so vigorously.

“Now that that's over with…” Snake said, “who wants to go get drunk with me in the basement?”

“Count me in,” Ryu said.

“Me too,” Captain Falcon said.

“

Please

,” Palutena said, gesturing for Lucina and Female Robin to join as well.

“Absolutely,” Female Corrin said.

“Yeah,” Male Corrin said.

Dark Pit looked to Dr. Mario. “Looks like you've got your work cut out for you,” the angel said.

Dr. Mario sighed, “Yes, yes I do.”