Ethan (Brawler)

I was lounging on the couch, staring at the television. The weather channel was on, but I wasn't really paying attention to it. I was already exhausted, and it wasn't even noon yet.

I had gotten up early that morning to scout out the garbage bins around the building. I had hoped to find something of interest within them, something I had never seen before. Unfortunately, hours of digging had yielded nothing but junk I couldn't use. At least the shower I took afterwards was nice and warm.

That day was orientation day, and it was supposed to begin in a few minutes. Ganondorf still hadn't gotten up yet, and I was concerned that we would be late to orientation. I was considering going on my own at this point.

I heard a slam and nearly jumped off the couch. I turned around to see Ganondorf standing in the hall, donning a brown hoodie and jeans, both incredibly wrinkly. He was smirking.

"What took you so long?" I asked. "We're going to be late!"

"Oh, quit worrying," Ganondorf replied. "We'll get there on time. It'll only take a few minutes. Now let's go!"

I hopped off the couch and followed Ganondorf out the door. We marched through the corridor over to the main building where orientation was supposed to take place.

"So where's the room where orientation is supposed to take place?" Ganondorf asked me.

"Well, according to the paper..." I began, looking at the other paper I had in my original invitation. "Aha, here it is!"

We had wandered right over to the correct room without even realizing it. The room was rather nondescript, impossible to differentiate from any of the other rooms in the corridor. It made me wonder how anyone could find this room, given how there was no signage.

"Well, what are we standing around for?" Ganondorf asked. "Let's go in there and get this over with."

"Point taken," I replied. "Let's go inside."

Ganondorf opened the door and went inside; I followed right behind him. The room was a standard meeting room, with rows of chairs set up, almost certainly for the orientation. Most of the chairs were already filled; there were a few chairs filled that were much larger than the others. I also noticed large double doors that we had unknowingly passed; I assumed this was where the larger folks had entered.

I took a seat next to Ganondorf. The other person next to me was a large, turtle-like monster. I tried to avoid eye contact with him, as he was creeping me out. I instead panned over the crowd; I was surprised at how many different types of people there were in the crowd.

Finally, the man himself appeared. Sakurai made his way to the front of the room and quickly quieted the students. He began his speech.

"Hello, I'm Masahiro Sakurai," he began, his voice bearing a quiet intensity. "I welcome you to the University of Smash. Your journey begins today, a journey that you won't soon forget. I would now like to explain what you can expect from your time at this university."

"Wow, this is boring," Ganondorf whispered to me. "Let's get out of here and do something fun."

"Wait, shouldn't we stay and get information?" I asked. "It might be useful later on."

"You serious?" Ganondorf replied. "These orientations are all the same. Just pointless fluff to get things started officially. It doesn't matter if we stick around for it or not."

"...Fine, I guess we can leave," I said. "Just try and be inconspicuous about it, okay?"

"No worries," Ganondorf replied. "No one will know we've left, not even Sakurai."

We got up from our seats, crouching in an effort to not be noticed. We walked slowly and lightly over to the door and left the room. We straightened up when we were out of the room, finally allowed to relax a little.

I felt someone breathing on me, with incredibly hot breath. I turned around to see the same turtle creature I was sitting next to looking down upon me, a cruel smile on his face. I cowered a bit, wondering why he was here and why Ganondorf had no reaction to him.

"Oh, yeah, I probably should have introduced you to him," Ganondorf said. "That's Bowser. I met him here a few weeks ago, and we became fast friends. He'll be joining us. Don't worry, he won't hurt you... as long as you don't make him angry or face him in battle."

"Uh, okay..." I said, still a little hesitant and nervous. "So what are we going to do?"

"I was thinking we could go around to the back and burn the garbage," Ganondorf replied. "I want to see the inferno I can cause!"

"That sounds incredibly dangerous," I said. "What if we burn down the whole building?"

"I can contain it," Ganondorf replied bluntly. "Now let's go."

We ran to the nearest stairwell and sprinted down the stairs to the ground level. We slowed down as we rounded the building to the same dumpsters I had been digging through that morning.

"Wait, do you have a match?" I asked Ganondorf.

"No need," he replied. "Bowser, do your thing."

"Sure thing," Bowser said.

Oh, so he CAN speak, I thought.

Bowser turned to the dumpster, opened his mouth and blasted a large fireball at the dumpster, and the garbage erupted into flames. The fire burned brightly, in yellow and orange. It was actually kind of nice to look at, once you got past it being illegal.

"Heh, now this is more like it!" Ganondorf said, smiling. "Isn't this much better than sitting for a boring and pointless orientation speech?"

"I have to admit, this is pretty awesome," I said. "We should probably get out of here, though; we don't want to get in trouble before we even get started here."

"Oh, fine," he replied, appearing to pout a little. He pointed at the dumpster, which caused a flash of purple around it, dousing the fire instantly. "How is that for a magic trick?"

"Ooh, you have some interesting powers!" I said, legitimately impressed. "So what should we do now?"

"Let's grab lunch," he suggested. "I found a sushi place a few blocks from here that sells decent food at a low price. We'll take my car."

Ganondorf began to walk toward the parking lot, motioning for Bowser and I to follow him, which we did.

My new friends are so cool.

Arthur (Swordfighter)

I was sitting at the kitchen table, enjoying some toast. Robin was sitting across from me, staring into a bowl of cereal. Apparently, he had been up late into the night doing research of some sort, though he hadn't told me exactly what he was researching.

"You okay, Robin?" I asked.

"I'll be fine," he mumbled in reply. "I just need a cup of coffee, and I'll be good to go."

"Well, it's a good thing that I put a pot on," I said. "It should be ready in a few minutes."

"Better put it in a to-go cup if we want to make it to orientation on time," he said.

I quickly finished eating my toast, threw my plate in the sink and poured Robin a cup of coffee into a paper cup.

"Here's your coffee," I told Robin as I pushed the cup into his hand. "We need to get moving."

"Very well," he replied. "I have my coffee, so I'll be completely awake shortly. Let's go."

We left our apartment and walked to the conference room that the orientation was being held in. Once inside, we took seats close to the front, as we wanted to make sure we heard everything that was said.

Sure enough, just a few minutes later, Sakurai arrived on stage. His introduction was rather boring and predictable, but I guess he had to start with something. I heard a few students leave out the back; I guess they figured it wouldn't matter all that much if they missed it.

Then Sakurai dropped a bomb on us.

"As you're all aware, you are part of the Smash fighting program. You were also required to submit your academic records in order to be accepted into the program. Those documents were actually just a formality; you will not be taking any university courses. We will be focusing on Smash."

This caused a gasp to rise from the crowd. I knew it seemed a bit weird that I had not chosen any courses before coming here - especially since there was no way for me to choose any courses anyway - but it still came as a surprise nonetheless.

"Training will begin tomorrow. I want you all to prepare yourselves mentally over the course of today for the competition that is to come. I chose you all because I know that you have the greatest fighting skill out of all the citizens in your respective worlds. That's why I brought you here; to prove to the world what you are capable of. This concludes the orientation; I will see you in the training room tomorrow."

With that, Sakurai turned and left through the door in the back of the room.

The room remained eerily silent as everyone left the room. Robin and I lingered behind.

"So we aren't really university students?" I asked.

"Not in the traditional sense," Robin replied.

"We're only here to fight in Smash?"

"From what I've seen, yes."

"...This is what you were researching last night, wasn't it?"

"When a university doesn't allow you to choose your courses at any point in time, it should be obvious that you were never meant to take any."

"I guess some of the choices of students for the program should have given that away. Anyway, what will we do now?

"We should go to the local burger joint. The others will be waiting for us."

"Wait, who are these 'others' you're talking about?"

"I'll explain when we get there. Now let's get out of here before they lock us in."

We got out of our seats and marched over to the parking lot. Along the way, we decided that we would take Robin's car to this burger place. Robin's car was a grey hatchback, a new car smell permeating the cab. He claimed that he got it used, but the previous owner didn't use it much.

We arrived at the burger place in a few minutes. Robin pulled into the nearest spot and we both got out. I opened the door of the burger place and stepped inside. I took a quick look around and noticed a group of people huddled around a table. The strangest thing about them was their hair; most of them had blue hair, and the ones that were different had bright red hair or white/silver hair. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before.

"Looks like you noticed the people I was talking about earlier," Robin said, his hand on my shoulder. "Why don't I introduce you to them?"

We walked over to the table. We pulled out chairs and sat down at the table. I took a closer look at the people around the table; I quickly realized that one of them was Kamui.

"Oh, hey, Kamui!" I said.

Kamui turned to me and smiled, her eyes almost seeming to light up. "Hey, Arthur!" she replied to me. "It's good to see you again!"

"Oh, you know someone here already?" Robin said in slight surprise. "That's great! Now, why don't the rest of you introduce yourselves to Arthur here?"

The first guy turned to me. His sleeveless vest revealed an interesting brand on his right bicep. "Nice to meet you, friend," he said. "My name is Chrom."

The girl directly next to him smiled at me, her long blue hair flowing over her shoulders. "I'm Lucina, Chrom's daughter," she said.

"Name's Roy," the guy with red hair said. "Pleased to make your acquaintance."

A guy wearing a tiara said, "I am Marth; it's nice to meet you."

"I'm Ike, of the Greil Mercenaries," the guy wearing a headband said to me, a serious look on his face.

The guy next to Kamui looked very similar to Kamui. "I'm Corrin," he said. "I see you're already acquainted with my twin sister Kamui."

A girl with twin tails turned to me. "I'm Robyn, spelled with a Y," she said. "It appears my twin brother is your roommate."

"I know Chrom and Lucina from my own world; the rest are from other continents in our world," Robin explained. "We became friends over the past few weeks; now you're part of our group!"

"We ordered a burger for you and Arthur, just like you told us to," Chrom said to Robin. He turned to me. "You don't have any allergies, do you?"

"I have no allergies," I replied.

The waiter came around with the burgers just then. We each grabbed one and began to chow down. The burger I tasted was unlike anything I had ever tasted, and it was absolutely amazing.

I am one lucky guy.

Melanie (Gunner)

I was sitting in the recliner in my apartment, silently contemplating what I had just listened to at orientation.

I had been absolutely floored by what Sakurai had said just a few minutes ago. We weren't really students of the university? I should have seen it coming, I guess, but it was still rather surprising. Guess I'll be getting even more use out of my combat skills than I thought I would, I thought.

Samus emerged from her room and took a seat on the couch. "That was some orientation speech, wasn't it?" she said. "Gotta say, Sakurai sure knows how to surprise his students."

"No kidding," I replied. "What should we do now?"

"Hmm..." Samus said, thinking aloud. "I've got an idea. Why don't we go to the gun range? I noticed you have an arm cannon similar to mine. I want to see how good your aim is."

"Wait, are we allowed to use those at a gun range?" I asked.

"No, but they provide the pistols. Your aim should be fairly similar regardless. I know a few others that would enjoy some target practice."

"Well, I have nothing else to do. Let's see if i can still aim straight."

We left the apartment and jumped into a red sedan that belonged to Samus, as my minivan still had not arrived. We had to drive a while, as the range was on the outskirts of the city. Eventually, we found the place and pulled into a spot.

When we got inside, there were already two people shooting away. They stopped to look at us. One appeared to be an anthropomorphic fox, and the other appeared to be... Samus?

"Uh... who are these people?" I asked Samus.

"Oh, sorry for not telling you about them earlier," Samus replied. "That's Fox, and that's Samus."

"...What?"

"The anthropomorphic fox is Fox McCloud, the commander of Star Fox. The other one is another version of me; I was cloned, so that I could use my Zero Suit and my armor. We call her Zero."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense," I said, still not fully comprehending what she had just said.

"You're late," Zero said flatly. "You said you would be here 15 minutes ago."

"Knock it off, Zero," Fox interjected. "We were all a bit shocked at the orientation this morning; maybe they needed a little bit of time to shake it off."

"If that's the case, then these two are pathetic," Zero replied.

"Stop that," Samus demanded. "Melanie and I are here now, so can we just get to the shooting?"

"Fine," Zero said. "Grab a pistol and let's do this already."

We grabbed a pistol from the desk and walked over to our stations.

"Let's see which one of us has the best aim," Samus suggested.

I raised the pistol and took aim at the target. I fired one shot and, almost instantly, I felt like I was back home with my dad, and I felt more confident. I quickly finished off my rounds and waited for the others to finish.

The others finished shooting, and we went to collect our targets. None of my shots hit the center, but they did all hit the target, getting reasonably close to the center. I checked the other targets. Samus hit the center once and got close with the other shots. Fox missed once, but did well otherwise. Zero, however, was something else; she hit dead center on every shot.

"Wow, Zero, you're an amazing shot!" I said.

"It's what I expected," Zero said bluntly, an unimpressed look on her face. "If you didn't match me, then you're a terrible shot."

"Zero, that's enough!" Fox blurted.

"Can't handle the truth?" Zero responded. "If you can't hit your target every time, then you're worthless as a sharpshooter."

"...I think we should leave," I suggested to Samus.

"That sounds like a good idea," Samus replied.

We jumped into Samus' car and began to drive home.

"I apologize for Zero's behaviour," Samus said to me. "She's been like this for as long as I can remember."

"Well, I still had a good time at the range."

"Good. We should go back many times to improve our aim. It will certainly help our abilities in Smash."

"Yeah. I can't wait to see what you can do!"

"As I for you. This will be interesting."

I hope I'm ready for this...

Sakurai

I opened the doors to my office. I had finally been allowed to return to it after delivering the orientation speech. I had known that it would cause a bit of shock, but I also knew the students would adapt to it quickly.

I took a moment to look around my office; I had been so busy over the past few weeks that I hadn't had any time to really appreciate my office. I had designed it myself. I especially appreciated the main focal points of my office; the fireplace off to the left, the massive desk at the back and the large window directly behind the desk.

I strolled over to my desk, which was covered in papers. I sifted through all of them, starting to organize them, as I hadn't had the time to do that before, either.

Just then, a knock at the door pulled me out of what I was doing. "Come in," I said.

The doors opened, revealing a large man. His suit was perfectly creased, and he stood perfectly straight. A smile was on his face, and a file was in his hand. I recognized him instantly.

"Reggie," I said, slowly smiling myself. "Good to see you. I trust you're well?"

"As always, Sakurai," Reggie replied. "I have the file you requested."

He handed me the file. I quickly opened it and started looking over it.

"73 fighters have arrived so far," Reggie began.

"And the ones that have not?" I asked.

"I've contacted them already. All of them have told me they have business to attend to first. They have also informed me they will arrive before the mock tournament next month."

"Excellent job as always, Reggie," I said. "That's why I trust you with important business like this."

"It's a pleasure to work with you, Sakurai," Reggie replied. "Now I must be off." Reggie turned and began to leave.

I stood up at my desk. "Wait a moment, Reggie," I stated.

He stopped and turned.

"Thanks again for helping me fund this," I said. "I couldn't have done this on my own."

"Of course. You're my friend. It's the least I could do."

He turned back around and left, closing the door behind him. I was once again alone in my office.

As I was already standing, I removed myself completely from the chair and turned to look out the window, taking in the view of the stadium, and the stage in the middle. This was the culmination of my work.

I will make this work, any way that I can.

A/N: So, another chapter is finally added to this book. Yes, I am fully aware of how inconsistent and infrequent the posting of chapters is. I've been distracted by a lot over the past months. This chapter took a few days to write, so I hope it turned out okay. If anyone is reading this, please leave a comment telling me what you think of the story so far and what I can do to improve it. As an additional side note, all the designs, as well as the roster, will now be based off of the designs in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate; the new designs for the Mii Fighters are displayed at the top of this chapter for reference. Anyway, that's all for now, but I'll be back with more eventually.