Page 137: Steve

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Super Smash Brothers: ONLINE LOGIN #1: Welcome, Newbie.

Marth opened his eyes for the first time in the Mushroom Kingdom. "Woah..." Marth spoke, as the screen finally finished loaded. "This is... amazing!"

Character: Marth Race: Human Level: 1 Class: Swordsman HP: 90 MP: 20

-Mushroom Kingdom-

Marth's character had been loaded right into the middle of Mushroom Square, the main town in the Mushroom Kingdom server. In front of the swordsman was a large fountain, shaped like a mushroom, spouting water from it's tip and landing perfectly within the ring of water behind it. Moving his avatar, Marth could see all of the other attracting that awaited him. The area was a circle, with shops in the shape of mushrooms laying on the edge of the ring. Each shop was labeled differently... the red shop was the armor shop, the blue shop was the item shop, the green shop was the weapons shop. He look upwards to see a surprisingly bright sun shinning down onto the city, piercing through the clouds... with smiles on them. But the most beautiful sight to be seen was a large white castle in the distance.

---

I heard a slight tune being played in the background. It was calm and quiet, but it was quickly drowned out by a flood of random voices entering my ear piece. "Yak!" I yell, nearly throwing the headset to the floor. "Damn, that's annoying!"

"Excuse me?!" I looked onto the screen to see what I believed to be a Hylian woman in a yellow dress, golden hair and tons of jewelry. "How dare you, you stupid newbie!" She yelled before stomping off in the direction of a round, white portal.

"Erm, sorry?" I muttered, not sure if she heard. When she didn't turn back around I assumed she didn't and just went on to pick up my controller. "Okay... how to-"

"MOVE YOU STUPID NEWBIE!" I heard another person call out. I looked up onto the screen to see a group of four players run up to me. I still wasn't sure on how to move, so I just gulped and hoped for the best...

Thankfully, you can (apparently) run through each other's avatars. Sighing, I glanced down at my controller. "Okay... time to learn how to move."

---

Marth stood there for a good few moments, just staring into space. "Ummm..." Marth muttered. "Erm... I wonder if people will laugh at me if I tell them I don't know how to move."

"Press up on your control pad." Came a voice from behind. "Newbies... heh, what would we do without them."

The blue haired swordsman let out a sigh and tried doing just that. He moved forward one step. "Hey, I did it!" He spoke, causing the group who had raced past him a few minutes ago to burst out laughing.

---

A blush crossed my face. "Geez... who would have thought I'd be this embarrassed..." I mutter, looking away from the screen for a second.

---

Across town, the sound of laugher reached the headset of another player. He was a small human boy, who wore a red and yellow striped shirt. On his head rested a red cap and his shorts were of a blue style. "Eh? Looks like someone is having a good time." He spoke with a laugh.

Next to the boy sat a Hylian dressed in a green tunic. On his back he carried a sword and shield, giving away his class to any avatar passing by. "Hmm?" He grunted. The boy pointed over in the direction of the noise. "I wonder what's going on over there?" Said the Hylian, standing up.

"Who know's." The boy said with a shrug. "But if we don't leave now, we're gonna be late. We'll pass it on the way. Let's go, go, go!"

The Hylian began to walk towards the white portal. "All right..." He spoke softly.

The duo walked over by the group and saw a group of high leveled characters, all pointing and laughing at what, judging by their taunts, was a new player. "Oh, it's a newbie." Said the boy with a grin. "Look! He can't even move. Haha!"

The Hylian let out a slight giggle, but it was quickly silenced when the crowd began to part. "That avatar..." He whispered, walking towards Marth. By the time he reached Marth, the taunting players had warped out. He could tell that Marth was embarrassed by the low grunts he could hear from the character. "You. Hey you."

"Huh? Me?" Marth asked.

"You're new to this game, aren't you?"

"Uh huh." Spoke Marth.

The Hylian smiled. "Heh, I figured. Well, Marth, do you want to learn how to play the game?"

"Huh?!" The boy at his side said, jumping back in shock. "Hey, hey! Link! We don't have time for this. She's waiting, isn't she? If we don't leave now, we'll be late!" He began to wave his arms franticly, trying to regain the attention of his friend.

"Shut up." The Hylian, Link, as the boy called him, said quickly, pushing the little human's avatar onto the ground. "Can you move? Just press the keys on your controller..."

"Yeah I can move." Marth said, taking a few steps forward and backward.

Link nodded. "Okay, good. Now, I'm going to send you a party invite, so that we can talk privately without anyone hearing. You accept by clicking yes to the popup that'll show, got it?"

"Erm..." Marth replied. "Uh, sure..."

Just as Marth had finished, a popup appeared on Marth's screen:

>LINK Has invited you to join his party! >Yes/No

A few moments passed as Marth tried to figure out how to click on the yes button. After he clicked yes, a new small list appeared at the right corner of his screen. It read Party Members, and listed two other people besides Marth himself:

Character: Link Race: Hylian Level: 35 Class: Swordsman/Ranger HP: 250 MP: 70

Character: Ness Race: Human Level: 10 Class: Psychic/Healer HP: 100 MP: 150

"Okay good." Marth heard Link's voice over everyone else's in the area. "Press F4 to switch to party chat mode. In this mode, you hear our voices over the voices of anyone who isn't in our party."

Marth weakly replied, "Sure, give me a sec... there, like that?"

Link nodded. "Yes, very good!" He said with a smile.

"Whatever." Spoke Ness, crossing his arms and looking away. "We really don't have time for this, Link..."

"Yes, we do. I contacted her a few seconds ago." Link smiled again facing the boy. "She'll wait for us. Trust me on this one, Ness." Ness gave a few grunts of disapproval, but slowly nodded afterwards. Link turned back to Marth. "All right then. Let's give you a basic run down on how to play."

---

I listened in closer to what Link had to say, taking in ever bit of the lesson. "Okay, so I target something by pressing the L button..." I pressed it and it went to the closer character, Link. "And if that something is a monster, I can attack by pressing the A button?"

Link nodded. "Yup."

"Uh-huh..." I nodded, though Marth did not. "Gotcha. And I open my item list with start?"

"Yes."

"Kay, kay... I got it now... I think."

"Doubt it." Came a snide remark from Ness. But the boy was quickly silenced by a whack to the head from Link.

"Uh... can I ask a few questions?" Link nodded with a smile and I smiled back. "Okay, first off, how did you know my name before? I didn't tell you."

Link laughed. "Well, you can either use the L button to trigger the closest target, or just roll your mouse over the person for their stats and name." I did just that, rolling my mouse over the Hylian which brought up his name, level, class, HP and MP.

"Ah, I did it."

Ness rolled his eyes. "Someone wants a cookie." He muttered, walking off towards the white portal. "I'll wait over by the portal till you're done teaching him."

>NESS has left the party!

"I don't like him..." Were the first words out of my mouth once he had left the party. I kinda forgot that anything I said could be heard by Link.

Link let out a loud laugh, which was followed by a few moments of silence. After about 20 seconds, he continued, "Yeah, yeah... You get used to him after a while. What were your other questions?"

Before Link could answer, a popup, well, popped-up.

>NESS wishes to join your party! >Yes/No

"Say no, please." I whispered, to which Link gave another laugh. Ness's name and stats appeared below mine, showing that he had joined the party. "So why did you come back? Miss me?"

"Hardly." I heard Ness mutter as he neared us. "You're lucky I owe Link too much..." He gave a smile and pointing to himself profoundly. "And I am the only healer in the game who can keep up with him, so he'll need me to keep you guys alive."

I was puzzled. "Alive? Huh?"

Link turned and looked at me. "We're heading to an area to fight. Ready?"

"Ummm..."

"Don't worry." Link pointed to that brat next to him. "He may not take it seriously, but Ness is a great healer. He won't let you die. And on the area we're heading too, there is no need to worry about death."

"O...kay." I said, still slightly unsure of what was going to happen. Link dashed off towards the white portal and just as he reached it, my screen went black. The words, "Your party leader is selecting an area" scrolled across the screen. After a few moments of waiting, the screen began to load up and I found myself in a new area.

---

The area was a beautiful green plain, trees and bushes dotted the landscape and birds flew through the smiling clouded sky. Off in the far distances, a tower could be seen, reaching high up into the sky. Across the field, other parties could be heard slashing and hacking away at unseen foes. "Goomba Plains?" Marth asked as he read aloud the title scrolling across the screen. "It's a... level five area!? Ah! I'm not level five!"

Link turned and laughed. "Don't worry, I told you, we won't let you die. Don't worry. This'll be a good way to level up."

Looking around, Marth noticed that Link's sword and shield were now in his hands, and Ness's perviously unseen weapon, a staff which looked very much like a baseball bat, could now be seen tightly clutched in his hand. Marth glanced to his side and saw that he too had draw his weapon, a long sword called by his item list; "Falchion". "Hey, wait!" Marth called out, causing the two to stop in their tracks.

"What? You forget how to move again?" Ness asked with a sigh.

"No... But um... How do you, like, do what you did back there?" Marth asked, running towards the two.

Link tilted his head in confusion. "Huh? Did what?"

"That! You just titled your head. How, how do you do that?"

Ness let out a laugh, his avatar falling and rolling on the ground. "Wow, you've never played an online game before, have you?"

Before Marth could try to tear Ness's head off, Link spoke up and explained, "Well, there are these things called emotes. Short for emotions. You use them by putting in certain commands and your avatar does them. Like..." Link smiled. "That is /smile. And..." Link began to break dance, but quickly stopped at the whistles and hoots from Ness. "That's /dance. There is pretty much an emote for everything you can think of in this game. Just type it in and you should be able to do it. You can also do this..." Link walked forward and flicked Marth on the forehead. "Thats /flick, but I also had you targeted. If you target someone and use a certain emote, it's done to them. Got it?"

"Yup!" Marth replied cheerfully. He then turned towards Ness and targeted the boy. "Let's see if this works..." Marth lifted his right hand, made a fist and... did a not-so-nice gesture towards the boy, causing Link this time to fall on the ground laughing.

"HEY!!!" He screamed, lifting his bat staff. "I don't care if this isn't a PVP field, I'll still kill you!"

Marth gave a weak laugh. "I didn't think they'd have that emote in here."

>Link: Don't worry. That was the first one I gave to him too :P

"Huh?" Marth looked over to Link, who was getting up off the floor.

"Thats called a whisper. You hit F5, type in a characters name or click on a character and type a message. Only they can read it." He said, trying to contain his laugher.

Ness looked shocked. "Wah?! Wha-What the hell did you just whisper to him?!"

Link giggled. "Nothing. Let's go level up!"

The trio had only begun running into the field when suddenly the peaceful music changed to that of a battle. Just as the new music began, the earth began to glow golden and three white orbs floated up from the ground and began to take shape. "What's going on?!" Marth exclaimed, readying his sword.

"This is a battle." Link explained, bring his shield and sword into position. "See those white orbs? They're gonna become monsters in a few seconds... so get ready! Ness, I want you too-"

"Yeah, yeah I know." Ness muttered, taking a few steps back.

Marth looked around confused at Ness and then back to Link. "He's going to focus on healing. Marth! Get ready, here they come!"

The orbs took the shape of three brown goombas. Marth targeted the closest one and read what it said aloud. "Goomba, level five!"

"No shit..." Ness muttered, rolling his eyes.

Link pointed to the Goomba Marth had singled out. "Attack Marth! Target, then use the A button to attack!"

Marth charged forward at the first Goomba and swung his sword at the small creature. A red "10 DAM" appeared above his head. "Did I do it?" Marth asked.

"Watch out!"

The first Goomba jumped forward and headbutted Marth, dealing 30 damage. The second one hit and dealt 20. The third Goomba was just about to attack Marth when a bolt of energy struck it, causing the monster to catch flame. "PK FIRE!" Marth heard Ness call out from the distance. Rapidly, the words 10 DAM appeared over the Goomba's head, till it exploded in a pop of colors.

"Ness, heal Marth!" Link called out, raising his shield to block an attack by one of the Goombas.

"Shuddup." Ness muttered. "Life Up Alpha!" He called out, causing a pale green aura to surround Marth. As it did, Marth's HP quickly rose back up to 90 and he was able to charge into the fight again.

"Take this!" Marth yelled as he rapidly swung his sword at the Goomba. 10 DAM, 9 DAM, 10 DAM, 8 DAM, 7 DAM... The Goomba's HP was slowly, but surely going down. But for ever attack Marth landed, the two Goombas double teamed him. Although Ness healed him quickly after, Marth's HP was constantly dropping into the red.

Link decided to even the playing field. "YAAAA!" Link cried out, spinning in a circle quickly. The second Goomba who had been trying in vain to hit him before quickly exploded in a flash of colors. This left on the one Goomba that Marth had attacked the beginning. "You can do it Marth!" Link cheered on, watching Marth do battle with the Goomba.

Without it's friends, the lone Goomba fell quickly. Marth struck it with two more hits, bringing the green bar above it's head into the red. "Almost there..." He muttered, swinging his sword down one last time. As he did, the words. MAJOR HIT! 20 DAM floated above the Goomba's head. This last strike was all it took to send the Goomba packing, and it quickly exploded into a rainbow of colors. The battle music again changed to a high-energy victory tune, as the words+300 EXP flashed over Marth's head. Just as it did, a flourish was heard in the background as Marth's level raised to level two. "Yeah! We did it!" Marth cheered, throwing his fist into the air. "Level Two!"

"Good job Marth!" Link said, patting Marth on the back. "Way to go!"

"Yeah, real amazing." Ness muttered. "One level."

Marth, at that remark, had just about had it. "Dude, what's your problem?" He asked, turning to face Ness. "What did I do to piss you off? Is it cause I'm new or something? You're only like, what, Level Ten? C'mon man, stop, please."

Ness was about to open his mouth when he was shut up by a glare from Link. "Hmph." Ness crossed his arms. "Are we moving on?"

"Why you..." Marth was about to tackle the boy when he was pulled back by Link.

"Hey, just let it go you two, all right? Ness is only in a bad mood cause we're supposed to be somewhere else right now."

The three stood there for a bit, not saying anything until Link finally began to move on. The others followed in silence, waiting for the next battle to take place. The rest of the trip was... rather quiet. Link and Marth made a few exchanges here and there, but mostly the loudest the group got was in battles.

What seemed to the group as a few minutes was really that of an hour or so. By this time, they had reached the doors of the castle, which hid the final boss of the field. By the time they had reached the last part of the field, Marth had gained two more levels, bringing him to level four, and Ness had even gained one level, bringing him to level eleven. Along their way, they had a few battles stolen from them by other players. But thankfully, no other players had reached the boss prior, so they didn't have to wait for a spawn.

The three stood outside the large pair of doors. Link and Marth readied their swords as Ness prepared to heal. "Okay Marth, this is the boss battle." Link explained. "Boss battles are just like normal battles... just tougher."

Marth nodded. "Yeah, I'm ready."

"Ness, you..."

"I know, I know." Ness replied quickly, taking a few steps back.

Link nodded and began to head towards the door. "This Boss is called the Goomba Prince. It's a level ten monster, so... let me head in first and take the arggo, and you guys follow, okay?" The two other players nodded and Link kicked down the stone door.

The screen changed to a cutscene, showing Link leading the other two into the castle. Once Ness entered, the doors slammed shut and the room fell into complete darkness. A second later, all of the candles in the room lit up, revealing a large Goomba sitting on a throne with a crown, mustache red and white pants, and eyes that looked every which way except forward. "WHO DARES ENTER MY THRONE?!" Spoke the Goomba. He then noticed the party of three standing before him. "AHA I SEE! YOU'VE COME FOR MY GOLD AND COOKIES! YOU SHALL PERISH!" There was a flash of light and two more Goomba's appeared, one red and one blue, who began to cackle as the cutscene ended.

"Shit..." Link muttered the second the screen returned to normal. "Just our luck we get the RM this time."

"RM?" Marth asked. He rolled his mouse over the king and nearly screamed out into the headset. "Goomba King? LEVEL TWENTY!?"

Ness took a step back and gripped his bat staff tighter. "Liiiink... this isn't good. I'm only level eleven."

Link began to sweat, but quickly shook it off and lifted his sword. "OKAY! Ness, stay behind and heal me. Marth, stay out of this fight." He gritted his teeth. "You're too weak to handle this." With that, the Hylian charged into battle, quickly striking the charging blue Goomba. The words: DAM 40 appeared of the Goomba's head. The two Goomba's then head butted him from both sides, making Link take 20 Damage each.

"FOOL!" The Goomba King yelled out. "YOU CAN NOT GET MY GOODIES!" The giant Goomba jumped from his chair and landed flat on Link, crushing him and making the entire screen shake.

"Woah!" Marth called out, his character being knocked down by the shock wave.

Ness ran forward. "Oh no!"

Marth looked up at his party menu and saw that Link's HP had gone from green to orange, meaning he was nearing death. After the Goomba King removed himself from Link's body, the words 100 DAM was seen floating above his head. "You okay?!" Marth called out, standing up.

"Life Up Beta!" Ness called out, causing a dark blue aura to surround Link. Just as Link's HP returned, Ness's MP dropped sharply, clueing to Marth that the spell cost alot more then the simple spell used on him before. "PSI Shield Beta!" Ness's MP dropped even father down as a light blue circle to appear around Link. "That'll protect you for a bit." He called out.

Link nodded and pick up his sword. "Thanks Ness!" He called out before striking the blue Goomba once again. 42 DAM appeared above it's name and it exploded. The Red Goomba let out a cry of anguish, then bit Link right on the arm. "Damn." Link muttered, pushing the Goomba off. He had only taken 10 Damage, but Link's green health bar had turned a light red.

"What's wrong with Link?" Marth asked Ness, trying to get up off the floor.

Ness grimaced. "He's bleeding... it means he's losing health slowly over time. And I haven't been able to unlock my condition removal skills yet so... there isn't anythin- Life Up Alpha!" Link had taken another large amount of damage from the giant King Goomba stepping on him, but it had be reduced due to Ness's shield "...that I can do about it."

"YAAA!" Marth turned to see Link perform the same spin attack he used in their first battle against the Red Goomba, causing the words MAJOR HIT! 60 DAM to appear above the Goomba's head. "Ness! Do you have any MP to spare?" He called out.

"Barely." The boy replied, charging to the front lines.

Link nodded. "Use freeze. He's a fire based Goomba."

"PK FREEZE ALPHA!" Ness called out, causing an block of ice to surround the Goomba. It froze the goomba in it's place, then disappeared, making the words MAJOR HIT! 80 DAM appear above it's head. Without a second to spare, the goomba exploded into nothing, leaving only the King remaining. "Ha... but Link, I need to recover my MP... Freeze finished it off." Ness said, running back to the background.

"You don't have any MP Shrooms?"

"I used my last one right before entering the boss battle."

"Darn... alright." Link gripped his sword and readied his shield, just as the King Goomba jumped into the air. He rolled out of the way as he landed, causing the castle to shake once more.

Marth watched on in amazement. "This is... so cool!" He said, watching as a child would watch a baseball game for the first time. Marth couldn't take his eyes of the Hylian, who was dashing about, running up and slicing the boss, then jumping back just in time to avoid the next attack. "He's really good!" He then looked over at Ness, who was sitting on the floor, his legs crossed and eyes closed. "What are you doing!?" Marth yelled, shocked at the boy's sudden time out.

"Recovering my MP." Ness replied with his eyes shut. "It recovers over time slowly, but if I rest, I can get it back fast."

"AH!"

Marth turned to see Link flying through the air and slamming into the wall of the castle, taking a large amount of damage and lowering his HP bar into the red. And he was still bleeding, so his HP was even decreasing as he called out, "Oh no, Link!"

The Hylian was panting heavily when he stood up, but he reached into his pocket and pulled out a red tomato looking object. It disappeared in a flash of white and Link's HP quickly rose back into the green, stopping the bleeding. "Alright!" Link smirked, charging at the King again.

He slashed at the giant's feet, causing different amounts of damage; 20 DAM, 14 DAM, 15 DAM, 19 DAM, 14 DAM... Not as high as it was when he fought the other goomba's but still stronger then Marth could do. As Marth watched the battle, he couldn't help but begin to cheer for the swordsman. "C'mon Link! Get him!"

"WHO DARES!?" The King Goomba called out, turning towards Marth. Marth's face went pale as the giant goomba began to charge over towards him. "GET OUT OF MY CASTLE!"

"MARTH! DODGE! RUN AWAY!" Link screamed, taking out a bow and arrow. He pulled back the string and sent an arrow flying towards the King in an attempt to gain it's attention, but to no avail.

Instead of running, the foolish Marth lifted his sword and charged. "I'm not gonna let you kill me!" He called out, swinging his blade across the King Goomba's chest. DAM 0 floated above his head, causing Marth's avatar to suddenly get a giant sweatdrop appear behind it's head. "Uh-oh..." Was the last word uttered by Marth before he was smashing into nothing by the Goomba.

--

The screen went all black, expect for the red words flashing across the monitor, You are dead. You are dead. You are dead. Please wait for party member to revive you. Below that was the choice to return to town and lose any progress I've made while in the field.

I sigh, sitting back in my computer chair, listening to the sad, depressing music that played lightly in the background. "Damn this sucks..." I mutter. The sad music was underscored by the sounds of Ness and Link calling out various attacks against the Goomba. I could hear them, but couldn't see them. Will they revive me? I bet Link might but... I don't know about that Ness brat.

"Link... Ness... can either of you hear me?" I spoke into the headset. Nothing. Guess not...

A few minutes had passed. It was getting annoying hearing seeing the words you are dead over and over... I guess this is one reason why dying isn't all that fun.

Suddenly, my screen lit back up and colors filled my monitor once more. "Took 'em long enough..."

--

Marth opened his eyes to find himself still within the castle. He was laying on the castle floor, with Ness at his side, staring down at him with an angry look on his face. "You're an idiot, you know that, right?" He said.

"Shut up." Marth muttered, standing up. He looked over to see the Goomba King still fighting with Link, but instead of the large green HP bar, it was down to near empty. "Ha! Link's winning!"

The Hylian was getting ready for the final strike. "Take this!" Link cried. He charged at the Goomba, thrusting his sword deep into his body. MAJOR HIT! 30 DAM appeared above his head just as the screen went to that of a cutscene.

"NOOOO!" The King cried out. "THIS CAN NOT BEEEEEE!" He stumbled back a few inches, then let out a loud scream before exploding into a bright white light. Sparkles and orbs of light began to fall onto the trio, who's avatars began to dance in victory as the cutscene neared it's end. As it ended, Marth heard the flourish again, showing that he had leveled up to Level 5.

"Good Job Link!" Marth said, patting Link on the back.

Link let out a sigh. "That was pretty tough considering I was alone." He said, smiling at his deed.

"Look!" Ness said, pointing towards the throne. One of the light orbs was beginning to transform and take the form of a large object. "It's our victory prize."

The white light flash and ontop of the throne rested an unopened treasure chest. The following words scrolled across the screen:

>MVP: LINK

"What's that mean?" Marth asked, referring to the scrolling text.

"The MVP is the person who gave either the most damage to the boss, or the one who gave the finish blow to him." Ness explained. "It means Link can open the treasure box and has the highest chance at getting a rare item."

Marth nodded as Link walked towards the treasure chest. The Hylian kicked it open, and it glowed a bright yellow. The words scrolled onto Marth's PC:

>You've found 40 Gold and a Maximum Tomato!

"Ugh, just a MP Shroom..." Ness muttered with his prize. "What ya get Link?"

Link didn't answer right away. "The King's Crown, a gold item." He spoke, a slight glee in his voice.

Ness's mouth dropped. "REALLY?! COOL!" He began to laugh. "That's worth at least 10K Gold, ya know, if you sell it to a newbie." He then turned to Marth and gave him an odd look. "I'd say scam him, but it doesn't look like he has any gold at all on him."

Marth crossed his arms. "I really don't like you."

"Ness..."

"Hm?" The boy turned to Link and stared. "Oh! Yey! An outpost!"

Marth looked over in Link's direction. "Huh?" A white portal, much like the one in town, was seen floating in front of them. "Does that lead back to town?"

Link shook his head. "No, it leads to a victory town. Or, as some players call them, 'Outposts'. They're towns you can only get too when you beat a boss. There are atleast two different victory towns in each server, most have three." He pointed to the portal. "I think this one leads to... Goomba Village, I believe."

"What's the point of those?" Marth asked, confused.

"Well, it's pretty and you can relax there... plus the items are cheaper to buy."

The swordsman smiled. "All right! Let's go." He quickly dashed forward and disappeared into white portal, leaving behind Ness and Link.

"Ness..."

"Hm?"

Link looked up at the ceiling of the castle. "Can you do me a favor? Stay with Marth for a bit... give him your GID and teach him how to play a bit more."

"Why?!" He nearly screamed. "Can't you tell we don't like each other?"

Link nodded. "Yeah but... I really need to go meet with her right now. It's important." Before Ness could answer, Link pulled out a green orb, which then transformed into a warp pipe. He disappeared down the tube, and it vanished afterwards, leaving an annoyed Ness.

-Goomba Village-

Marth was busy running about the town, admiring the scenery and enjoying the peaceful atmosphere when Ness warped in and walked up to him. "Where's Link?" Marth asked as the boy neared him.

"He had to log off..." Ness explained. He stopped a few feet away from Marth and put his hands on his hips, staring at the swordsman disapprovingly. But before Marth could ask what was going on, the words scrolled across his screen:

>NESS has given you his Gamer ID! >Give yours?

"What-"

"My Gamer ID." Ness began to explain. "Hit F10." Marth did so and a screen appeared on his monitor reading 'Gamer List'. The top and only name on the list read: Ness - Online. Level 11 Psychic/Healer

"By hitting F10, it'll bring up your Gamer List. Each player gets a Game ID, or GID as we call it, when you log on for the first time. This GID is you're character's name and your forum e-mail address. You can choose who you send your GID too by clicking the 'Send Gamer ID' when clicking on a character." Ness paused, catching his breath. "With a GID, you can see which of your friends is online, and who you can send whispers too. You can also invite them to your party like this, even if they aren't in front of you. Got it?"

Marth nodded weakly. "I... think so."

Ness shrugged. "Well, if you don't, oh well. When do you log on most of the time?"

"Today was my first time on..."

"So around the same time?" Ness asked. "I'll have a friend waiting to meet you, okay? She'll teach you the ropes better then I can. Listen, I've gotta go for the night. I've got school in the morning. Don't you have work or school tomorrow?"

"College..." Marth replied dully.

"Well... go to bed." Ness said before quickly disappearing from sight.

--

>NESS has left the party!

When those words scrolled across the screen, I was once again alone. I glanced over at the clock. "Holy... it's already two in the morning?!" I yell, nearly falling from my seat. I quickly hit the LOG OFF button, and my screen went from the cheerful image of Goomba Village to the main screen, asking me to choose to log in or not.

All and all... I was surprised. Shannon was right. This game was pretty fun. Link was pretty cool... but that Ness brat, ugh. I wonder why he gave me his Gamer ID and Link didn't though? Maybe he forgot. Regardless, I didn't have time to think of what happened. I stood out of my computer chair and crawled into bed, falling asleep to have dreams of the very game I had so shunned until today.

--

-Hyrule Castle-

Link stood outside the doors of a massive castle, located in the middle of a field of grass and flowers. "Well, it took long enough, but I'm here." He muttered, pushing open the doors and entered a long hallway. The castle was huge and empty, with large stone pillars holding the massive roof up. On each side of a pillar was a light, ever burning within the game. It had a single red carpet which lead up to an empty throne and a large, stain glass window, which the sun blazed brightly through, painting beautiful images of color across the floor.

The Hylian began to walk down the long hallway, the only sound filling his player's headset was the of his footsteps. As Link came closer to the throne, He saw three figures. Two beasts, one looked like a rabbit with a long white and richly covered cloak. A healer. The other looked that of a frog with tightly fit leather. A ranger. "So, is that really the waiting lady?" One spoke, the frog.

The rabbit nodded. "Yeah. They say her player leaves her standing here in the reflection of the stain glass window twenty four-seven. People say she's waiting for someone, but who knows."

The frog laughed. "She's a freak, that's what she is." He poked the third figure with a giggle.

Link rolled his eyes and approached the two. He ran his mouse over the duo and called them out by their names. "You two... Peppy, Slippy!" The two beasts turned. "What are you guys doing here?"

The rabbit, Peppy, shrugged. "Who knows. Just wanted to see the lady. You must be here for the same reason, you know there are no monsters in this field."

Link crossed his arms. "I'm here cause of the rumors of a treasure chest randomly appearing in the field outside the castle. I came here to wait for a friend. Only one spawns a day, so we're in a rush."

The two beasts glanced at each other. "Erm, gotta run!" Slippy said as the two dashed out from the castle.

Once they were out of earshot, Link sighed. "Idiots... oh well." He turned to the person standing in front of him. "The tale of the godless twelve ended." He spoke.

A minute or so passed until a beautiful voice responded, "And the tale of the twenty-seven begins." The figure turned around to reveal a Hylian woman, dressed in a beautiful pink dress. Her hair was golden blonde and her eyes shown a bright green. "You're late, Link."

"Sorry bout that Zel. Teaching a newbie." Link said with a laugh.

The Hylian woman smiled gently at the young man and sat down. "Just like you, Link. Always helping the new players."

Character: Zelda Race: Hylian Level: 35 Class: Arcane/Healer HP: 180 MP: 300

Link sat down next to the Hylian. "You're getting to be pretty famous, huh, 'Waiting Lady'." He said with a wink and a laugh.

Zelda shrugged. "I suppose."

"Why you leave your character here instead of leveling up, I do not know."

She giggled. "We each play the game differently. This is my way of playing. Just as yours is to help newbies."

Link's joking face turned into a more serious one. "But Zel... I don't think this was just any ol' new player." Zelda looked at him questionably and he continued, "I think he was... part of the 'Event'."

Zelda looked shocked. "Really? Are you sure?" She asked, standing up. The hylian walked over towards the glass window and staring into the colors. "...Which one was he?"

"The swordsman of blue." Link answered. "His avatar... it was just too perfectly matched to be a normal players."

"Was his name-"

"Marth." Link interrupted.

Zelda paused for a bit, reorganizing her thoughts. "I see." She spoke after a few moments. "So you think he's one of us?" Link nodded, although Zelda couldn't see. "...Bring him to me. I want to meet him."

"Of course." Link replied, standing up himself. "But he's only level five... it'll take some time."

Zelda shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Take as much time as you need. Just bring him to me."

"Will do!" Link said with a salute. "Maybe SSBM will get another guild member? Haha! Nah I think Ness and him would kill each other before that happened."

The arcane rolled her eyes. "Who wouldn't want to kill that boy from time to time. Regardless... SSBM dismissed." With that, Link logged off from the game, leaving Zelda alone in the castle, staring up at the glass window. "It is just as I thought..." She whispered to no one. "The hands are on the move. Another avatar has been created..." Glancing up into the window, she sighed. "It's happening all over again... it seems the destruction of Super Smash Brothers Online is about to begin..."

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