MASTER HAND:

I now look upon the Battlefield, where these once-great characters now hide from the tyranny of the XIII, where our story of revolution begins...

The skies were dark. Thunderclouds filled the once-blue skies around the Battlefield, threatening to lay a spark upon anyone who dared come out of hiding. Upon a small platform, an obese, yet muscular, man rummaged through the belongings of a trophy that once was a Waddle Dee.



Wario snickered as he plucked several gold coins from Waddle Dee's satchel. "Wa ha ha," he chuckled, somewhat deranged, as he counted the coins. "Moneymoneymoneymoneymoney..."

Wario heard a thump. "Weh?!" he cried, startled. "Wa! Mine! Mine!" he hissed, clutching the coins in his meaty fist. He looked around with bloodshot, beady eyes, gnashing his square teeth. His jagged mustache quavered as his eyes darted from left to right. Wario breathed heavily.

Wario turned around. "WA! IT'S MINE! ALL MINE!" he cried. "WEH!" Wario's expression changed when he found no one behind him. "Wa-ha-ha..." he nervously laughed. Thunder clapped above him. Lightning flashed, illuminating the manic thief's cartoonish proportions and paranoid expression.

Perhaps Wario's paranoia was justified after all, for no sooner than the last bolt of lightning did three dark, shadowy figures appear, wielding spears. These diminutive figures had shadowy auras about them, and round, bulbous heads, as well as glowing yellow eyes. They made no sound as they pointed their spears at Wario. Wario recognized their forms immediately; these were the dreaded Shadow Toads of the XIII's creation. Wario backed up and pulled the Wario Bike out of his back pocket. "Wa! Stay back! I've got a bike, and I'm not afraid to use it!" Wario stammered. "I'm starting the engine!"

The Shadow Toads hurled their spears at the Wario Bike's gas-guzzling engine, causing the bike to explode and Wario to go flying off the platform. Wario screamed and let off a long fart that launched him to another platform. Wario scrabbled at the ground to get back up upon hitting the platform, looking behind in horror as his assailants jumped from the other platform and chased after him. "WA!" Wario cried. He dove behind a ruined column and shivered as the Shadow Toads looked for their prey.

They found a different target, however; as the effeminate Princess Peach floated daintily down upon the floating islands of Battlefield, the Shadow Toads turned their attention upon the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom.



Peach landed upon higher ground, before looking down upon the dark land far below. She could see moving shadows upon the ground, shifting through the barren canyons and desecrated forests. Peach folded up her parasol and placed a hand on her heart. What has become of my love? He has left a void within my heart that nothing can satisfy.

Wario looked upon her. A shame that such a pretty lady and powerful ruler was reduced to an aimless, loveless wanderer.

I look upon this world of trophies, and I wonder what I have created.

WAKA WAKA WAKA WAKA WAKA WAKA~

Following a small white pallet, Pac-Man quickly gobbles it up as he lands on a platform that was next to Peach. He had seen her before, during the glory days of Smash, and knows that she was not a threat. However, he looks upon the battlefield and sees shadow versions of Peach's people. He knew that they must not be under her command and felt sorry for the Princess. Where was Mario when you really needed him?

Neither less, Pac-Man holds his arms up, ready to fight the Toads if they decided to attack. He cannot speak, but his actions says it all.

---

Donkey Kong leaped down from a higher platform onto the ground, slamming his fit down into several of the shadowy figures. A brute by nature, it was instinct and instinct alone that drove him to instantly attack those who even looked threatening. After hitting the black toad-shaped figures, he jumped backwards and landed, finding himself next to none other than Pac Man. Unable to speak to his ally, he merely turned his head to look at him once again facing his enemies, pounding his chest as he did so.

Kong looked around to assess the rest of the environment. Wario was nearby and looked to be recovering from an attack himself. Peach was there too, and despite her current neutrality, she seemed to be garnering the attention of the foe.

Princess Peach looked over at Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. As the shadow Toads stared up at them with blank eyes, more shadow Toads fell from the higher ground and joined their earlier companions. Wario cowered behind a brick structure and watched the Toads jump inhumanly (in-Toadly?) high onto the platform. Peach stepped back, and plucked a radish from the ground. She held it up, ready to throw it at one of her shadowy people.

Three shadow Toads leaped into the air and descended upon the three fighters on the higher platform. One tried to land a kick on Pac-Man, before spraying damaging spores. Another rammed straight for Donkey Kong as a third attempted to punch Peach in the gut. Peach hurled her radish at that Toad and knocked it backwards. She then went for a Peach Bomber, thrusting her rear into the shadowy being and knocking it off the platform.

A shadow toad quickly kicks at the yellow walking sphere as he gets punched out of the way by Pac-Man's fist. Soon afterwords, it spewed out its damaging spores, damaging Pac-Man by only a minor percent. Then two more toads lunge at Pac-Man from both sides, only to be sent flying away after getting hit by his down smash attack. He then charged at another lunging toad, grabs him, and throws him off the side of the stage, before dodging another toad who attempted to push him off the stage. Pac-Man's counter was his forward special and chomped his way towards the shadow toad, knocking him off as well.

DK timed it perfectly; when the shadow figure came just into range, he slammed it down into the dirt, wedging it there. Using the free time this alotted him, he wound his fist up several good times before the thing broke free. The moennt it popped out of the ground, DK popped it a good one, punching it square in the face and sending it flying off the platform.

As a follow up, DK leaped into the air and landed in the middle of the toads, then brought his hands up an started slamming them into the ground repeatedly. This shook the ground to the point that it lnocked the toads into the air and kept them bouncing, allowing for someone else to come in and take advantage of what he was setting up.

As Pac-Man continued to blow shadow Toads off the platform, Peach stood back and plucked a healthy supply of radishes from the ground, offering support to the classic arcade character. However, Peach soon met her own problems: three shadow Toads got the jump on her at the same time, all about to land hammer fists upon her delicate head. Peach dodged out of the way as the Toads hit the ground, before countering a follow-up attack from another Toad with her own neutral special Toad. The generic mushroom retainer, mortified at the sight of these shadowy doppelgängers, winced as the shadow socked him in the chest, causing a release of green spores that latched onto the shadow Toad and dealt damage.

The Toads barreled into each other, toppling over and tangling in a ball. Peach whipped out a golf club and whacked all three of them off the platform, before running over to the ground-shaking gorilla to offer aid. She leaped into the air and spun once, activating her floating power, kicking away the shadow Toads that Donkey Kong launched into the air, blowing them off the platform. Any that tried to clamber back onto the platform promptly got caught in DK's hand slap-o-rama and subsequently whacked off the stage by a wild princess slap.

But a shadow Toad from behind headbutted Donkey Kong to end the ape's process of shadow elimination. Peach, descending from her float, kicked downwards at the Toad, hoping to drive it away from Donkey Kong, and succeeding.

Donkey Kong yelled in proud triumph, seeing that this battle was won seemingly with ease. There was a toad that had snuck up on him, headbutting him from behind, but when he turned to take care of the nuisance, he was only met by Peach. He caught her at the tail end of whaf appeared to be a kick that had sent whatever toad was there away. He simply grunted and nodded in thanks before turning his attention to Pac-Man. He seemed to be having a slightly tougher time taking care of the toads, but that wasn't saying much considering he was still making it look easy.

Through his peripheral vision, DK saw another shadow figure falling through the air toward him. This did not change his attitude toward them though, as one little guy was hardly a threat, if he was one at all. Snatching the little guy out of the air before he could attack, DK pummeled him a couple of times before casually throwing him forward over the edge, too far for any form of recovery.

Suddenly another toad lunges at Pac-Man, only to be sent flying by the yellow sphere's up-attack. He was still slightly bothered by the smell of the wretched spores, but he didn't take too much notice. He runs at another toad, hitting it with a dash attack, and then grabs the nearest toad, which was behind him, and throwing him into another Toad. This was still a rather easy battle, but where are they all coming from? Why are they here? And who sent them?

He was then taken by surprise when he sees another Toad flying towards him, from DK's throw, and quickly does a back ariel, pummeling the toad off stage. The battle was to the fighters!

As the last of the Toads fell off the stage, Peach collapsed to the ground. The sheer weight of her emotions, combined with the stressful battle against dark clones of her retainers, had taken its toll upon the princess. She breathed heavily.

As she lay, the dark clouds seemed to shift as a gray air-skiff soared into view. Peach looked up as she heard the whine of the air-skiff's engines. Her eyes widened as she spotted the skiff's contents: two cages, one too small with a morose, blue frog, and the other rattling with a mouth-foaming, vicious basset hound.



It seems that the XIII had captured two rogue fighters; one seemed quite resigned, the other, quite furious. Peach looked on and thought it might be the relative titchiness of the cages themselves; confinement behind iron bars could make anybody sullen or savage. Peach, however, could not find the strength to get back up.

Meanwhile, Wario, sitting behind the ruin, gnashed his teeth. "Weh... Weh-weh..." he snorted. He thought in anger how the Fallen had succumbed to their violent passions and the most ruthless had clawed their way to the top, subjugating the weaker ones. Wario resented being one of those weak ones. All he wanted was money. Money, money, money...

Perhaps it was not merely money; perhaps it was security Wario sought, and the only security he could think of was of the financial sort.

Whether due to a passionate spite of the XIII or to some other driving force, Wario felt compelled to chase after the air-skiff. "Grr..." Wario growled, pulling out his Wario Bike and jumping on the seat, revving the engine. He glared madly at the air-skiff before gunning the engine and driving off the edge of the platform he was on.

DK looked up at the cages with an expression that showed obvious curiosity. First he looked at the frog-like creature, not getting any signs of hostility from it. He then turned his attention to the dog, however, and saw obvious signs of bloodthirstiness from it. Realizing what was obviously another attempt to take them down, DK roared out at the air-skiff and beat the hit the ground in anger. Who wanted to take them out so bad? Although this was a question that was only in the back of Donkey Kong's head at this point, it certainly was a rather important one.

As the shadow toads began their retreat, Pac-Man breathes a sigh of relief. However, looking to the sky, he can see the two trophies being taken away by the air-skiff. One Frog-like creature, which eerily looks like a ninja, and a bloodthirsty hound. The two looked very familiar, but yet he still can't figure out who they were exactly. However, Pac-Man looks behind him to see Peach on the ground, seemingly injured. He quickly runs to her to see if she was ok. Using various sound effects that can be understood he asks: Are you ok?

Peach knelt on the ground as Pac-Man asked her in his NAMCO bleeps and blips if she was okay. "Nothing physical," Peach said. "Inside, though... I feel somewhat empty.

She stood up and watched the air-skiff soar away. "They shouldn't put fighters in such small cages like that," she continued. "It's a shame to see what our world has come to. I suppose this whole tournament got way out of hand."

Peach looked out into the distance. "Still, I wish to release those poor fighters from those cages," she said. "Perhaps the dog would mellow out once free from its cramped confines." She then jumped off the platform, appraising before her the long series of floating islands that she would have to traverse. The skiff was moving rather slowly, mostly due to the unstable nature of the craft; it would be somewhat bad for the drivers if they were to lose their quarry to the force of gravity.

Peach decided to attempt to catch up to the skiff, and ran, heels clicking, to cross the floating islands. She jumped on a small floating boulder and attempted to regain her balance, before jumping to another, opening her parasol and floating gently to the next;.

Donkey Kong turned to see what the others were up to. He watched as Peach took off after the flying contraption, seeing her leap from floating boulder to floating boulder. Deciding to do the same, he followed suit, running across the platform he was currently on. He placed his fists on the geound in front of him and lurched forward repeatedly and rapidly, moving the way the average gorilla would. Once he reached the end of the platform , he leapt onto a boulder. The boulders he chose were larger than those the princess had decided to take, as he needed the extra size to keep his balance stable this high in the air.

He jumped forward, doing everything in his power to reach the next boulder he could stand on. Realizing he would not make it, he turned and started spinning, arms out and laying flat in the air, and this gave him the extra distance he needed to make it to the boulder. He landed soundly, and looked up at the skiff to see how far it had progressed since he last checked on it. Surprisingly, they were approachingit rather quickly, as the slow speed of the aircraft allowed them to do a little more than keep up. Now convinced they would catch the craft, he found the drive to pick up his pace and get to it as soon as possible.

Pac-Man wondered at watch Peach mean't, only to conclude to the savior of the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario. He had seen the plumber before, though had not encountered him up close. He always admired the guy, everything from his skills to his powers. But where can he be at a time of darkness? However, it was not the time to wonder about his whereabouts. As Peach and DK began to run after the skiff, Pac-Man ran after them. He jumps from platform to platform, occasionally using his ariel attack to get to a farther one. He too wanted to free the poor fighters who were in the cages, taken to who knows where, and already they were getting really close to the skiff...

Suddenly from no where, a purple hand flew up and grabbed onto one of the floating platforms. After it threw itself up, two figures appeared, one a young boy with black hair, a silver jacket, and blue pants, and the other a strange beast with an abnormally large head, strangely thick arms, and a body made primarily of tentacles.

In an instant, the monster dissapeared, leaving only the human boy. So his search for his friends had brought him to this strange place. It was the first time he had ever seen other people who hadn't tried to assault him, and thusly he decided it was best to pursue them. After watching their battle with the shadow toads, it was clear that these people could in some way help him in this strange new world, and so the boy had made his decision. He, Arata Sanada, and his partner Keramon would join this band of strange characters in order to find answers. Satisfied with this he began jumping from island to island, closing in on the party of fighters.

Princess Peach's eyes shot wide open as the skiff produced two laser cannons and fired at the Battlefield's floating islands. With enough fire, the lasers cut clean through a landmass, causing it to explode into chunks. Peach jumped to a coming piece and stumbled, almost losing her balance; however, the skiff continued to fire at the islands, breaking apart the larger landmasses and generally making things more difficult than they should be.

Peach leaped with her parasol open and floated to an approaching gray arch, struggling to keep the skiff in her sights. She landed on the flat gray stone, running straight forward along the arch with the wind blowing in her face. The arch turned in mid-air, making a slope that would throw Peach off the arch if she dawdled for too long.

Lightning flashed, thunder clapped. Peach heard an ominous screech resonate from below...

Wario's bike rumbled and roared as it dodged falling debris from other platforms. Wario jumped and revved his bike, keeping a beady, bloodshot eye on the skiff. "Weh... Mhfmmfgh..." he seethed. "I'm-a take the whole thing down..." Wario sneered to himself. He clenched the Wario Bike's handles in his meaty hands, his knuckles warping and shifting in his gloves. The screech from below startled him, and caused him to flip the Wario bike and grind against the floor. The bike erupted in a burst of flame and threw Wario against the cobblestone. Wario caught a brief glimpse of a dark red shape soaring past him...

The skiff took a hard U-turn, its lasers firing at the ground below Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. As Donkey Kong performed his Spinning Kong, the lasers erupted before him, pulverizing the boulders into smaller chunks. Safe ground existed below, but the path would be significantly longer due to the altitude. Peach turned around in worry, but forgot that the arch was now uneven. She took a step, stumbled, and lost her balance. She cried out in horror as she pitched over the edge of the stone arch.

The laser guns then trained upon the other two characters. Pac-Man would find the ground quickly tearing to shreds underneath him, and because of this, Arata would find it more difficult to keep up with the others.

Another screech.

The laser fire caused Duck Hunt to stop snarling and start whimpering. The poor dog could not cover its floppy ears with its paws. The duck quacked in panic, flailing its wings in the confined cage. Greninja, on the other hand, covered its auditory canals with its webbed hands and wrapped its tongue around its head.

As the skiff's massive laser cannons fire upon the heroes, Pac-Man did his best in avoiding the shots. One after another, an island explodes into smoldering smithereens, falling down to the ground below. Even below him, the ground began to crumble below him. The yellow sphere initiated his ariel attack as a boost for him to get on top of another platform, rapidly making his approach towards the skiff. However, he can see that both Duck Hunt and Greninja were suddenly freed from their trophy prison, but still inside their bars. With a powerful leap, and another ariel attack for good air, he finally grabs the edge of the skiff. It was a bumpy ride for Pac-Man, but soon he was able to get on and hold onto Duck Hunt's cage.

Don't worry little buddies! Pac-Man said in his namaco bleeps towards the imprisoned heroes, I'll get you guys out!

Duck Hunt's ears perked up. A chance to escape this horrible cage?

Duck Hunt was merely a dog (and a duck). The cage was not big enough for both of them, which is why Duck Hunt had seemingly turned savage upon capture by the XIII's mooks. But at heart, it was simply afraid. Very afraid.

Greninja was simply sullen; how could it get captured like this? It was banned from OU for being too strong! (Then again, in Smash it doesn't have Gunk Shot.) Greninja looked sadly out the cage at Pac-Man, acknowledging his existence.

Duck Hunt attempted to lick Pac-Man through the cage out of joy. A savior had come!