Chapter Text
You are a shadow.
You hear a siren.
Light flashes around you as you form into existence.
3
What was that?
You look down at yourself.
You are holding a sword. It isn’t your usual kat- It’s long, straight, and sharp, with an elegant gold hilt. It feels somewhat heavy, but you hold it comfortably in one hand. There is enough space on the hilt for you to put your second hand, to gain greater leverage and power in your swings, but you feel no need to. Embedded in said hilt is a red gemstone, and in the pommel, a green one. At your side is a scabbard, blue with golden flourish, hanging cleanly from your belt, which you have just drawn the sword from. The sword’s name, FALCHION, springs into your mind. Where did that come from?
2
You are wearing a cape. The inside, brushing against your back, is a dark maroon. The outside is a dark blue. It reaches up to your shoulders and is fastened around your neck with a ruby clasp. Under this, a blue tunic, once again with gold complimenting it. Above this is a simple pair of armoured shoulder-pieces, more gold-on-blue, complete with a fairly loose collar that reaches up to cover most of your neck. Around your waist is a brown belt, with the aforementioned scabbard hanging from it. Your hands are gloved, fingerless (the gloves, not the hands), and you wear a pair of boots that reach all the way up to your knees. Your leggings, perhaps the only uninteresting part of your ensemble, are something between grey and black. Which would be grey. In your hair, your blond blue hair which reaches around your head, sits a golden tiara, quite small.
1
You stand on the wall of a castle, in the middle of a siege. Fires burn, both in the keep and the forest surrounding this fort. Beneath your feet, red flagstones, in something of a checkerboard pattern, but every square the same. On your right is a turret with a flagpole, from which flies a red banner, longer than you are tall, with some simple shape roughly approximating a dragon, with great wings and a long, snaking tail. Strangely, this seems to be the only thing supporting the platform you stand on, which is barely long enough for you to take 5 strides before falling off. Below, about 6 feet down, is another platform, red once again. It’s longer, but not by that much. Behind you, it suddenly becomes a ledge, a shear drop to the battlefield down below. Ahead, it slopes down slightly, plateauing again through what appears to be a damages corridor, one wall of which has been almost completely destroyed, the other damaged but holding strong. It then re-opens again after just two windows have been passed, only to become another shear drop. However, of much greater interest, atop the ruined corridor lies another platform, much like the one you are perched upon. On it, standing up from his crouched pose, is a man. He wears a red top, blue denim overalls, almost cartoonish brown shoes and white gloves, and a red cap, the letter M on the front. Out of his moustachioed mouth come the words “Let’s-a go!”, reaching your ears just as another voice, deafeningly loud, completes its countdown.
GO!
The man in red dashes forward, falling from his platform onto the lower one with a perfect landing, continuing in stride for a few more steps before jumping up toward you. In mid-air, he spins, executing a bicycle kick which slams into your legs. Surprisingly, instead of falling to the floor, you are instead knocked slightly upward into the air. Before you have time to react, he executes another, this one launching you further. You realise for a split second that you should have enough time to prepare while he falls to the ground, perhaps to in some way block his next assault, when he
He jumped in mid-air!?
The next kick slams into you, followed by another. He lands on the platform beneath you are you are thrown a bit further into the air, then immediately re-joins you in the sky, executing another flawless quartet of bicycle kicks. This time, surely, he won’t be able to land again and return to the air before you can do something about it. You’re both much too high above the ground to-
He executes a final upward thrust, this time with his raised fist, somehow gaining the momentum to propel you both upward about another 15 feet. The punch slams into your chest several times, each punctuated by the bizarre appearance of a large golden coin, which disappears moments after its creation.
The man falls down as you are launched further upward. You have enough awareness to notice that as he falls, he seems helpless, as if unable to manoeuvre in the air an more. You find yourself suddenly no longer stunned by the hit, and allow yourself (somehow) to quickly drop to the floor, landing a few yards off from him at about the same time. As you do, a thought comes into your mind, from who the hell knows where.
75.3%
The thought is in orange, a few shades darker than you usually which is probably bad news. It’s not alone. The man, you decide to call him M for lack of another name, has gotten up from where he fell, and is now charging toward you with determination in his eyes.
The reaction is instinctual. You slash forward with Falchion, an upward slash, putting your full force into the movement. M is caught by it, the sword going straight into him, halfway up to the hilt. You see the tip of the blade glow light blue for a second, as M’s body is thrown back. You stand in place, glancing over at the prone form, surely almost cleaved in two by the swing.
M gets back up.
He’s fine. There’s not a cut on his skin, the overalls are still as un-sliced as they were when you first saw him.
What the hell is going on?
He’s running at you again. This time, he hops upward, posing into a flying kick. You swing Falchion further up this time, so as to cover a greater area above you, albeit with less range forward. He once again is knocked back, but comes back toward you remaining in mid-air, this time with a… yellow cape?
83.7%
You’re disorientated for a second. Weren’t you facing toward the forest? Where did the battlements come from?
Something grabs you from behind, spinning you around. You’re in M’s grasp and can’t shake free. He headbutts you, once (85.2%), twice (86.8%), before spinning and throwing you, tossing you, like a ragdoll, forward, over the ledge. (96.4%)
You fall.
You see the wall. You see the ground beneath you, far below. You’d break your neck, or at least something, falling that far. And you’re going to. There’s no way in the world, in the laws of physics, you can avoid plummeting to your doom. At least this time there’s no r At least you got some hits in.
You try swinging your sword forward randomly, as if that would do anything. It hits M, who was running at full tilt after you. Why would he do that? What does he gain by joining you in your demise?
Unless…
He can make it back.
And maybe you can too.
You imagine you are standing on solid ground. You imagine bending your knees, putting pressure into your feet, pushing with all your might off from the floor beneath you, into the leap.
You jump off of nothing.
You reach out your hand, grasp the ledge.
You did it.
You double-jumped in real life.
You hang there for a moment, before remembering you’re meant to be in a fierce battle. You can’t see if M’s standing above you, ready to whack your head as soon as you peak above the ledge, so instead of simply getting up, you jab Falchion forward along the ground as you do. M is knocked back, giving you the time to pull yourself to your feet. He lands, bouncing off the ground and onto his feet in a split second. You leap forward, swinging your sword in the same downward arc as you had while you were falling, aiming it directly for his head.
M crouches slightly, raising his fists in a defensive pose. A red translucent sphere swings into being around him, absorbing your sword strike. As you land, he drops this shield, and swings at you with his foot (104.8%). You’re once again knocked over the ledge, but this time the double-jump only gets you next to the ledge, unable to drift forward far enough to reach it.
As you fall once again, you think back to his first flurry of hits. Didn’t he do another jump where he hit you with his fist? Maybe you can do something similar with your sword.
You will yourself upwards, and the words Dolphin Slash burn in your mind. You dart up, cutting through the air, and come to a halt several feet above the ledge, this time far enough forward to drift to solid ground. You’ve done it! You can, not once, but twice, propel yourself in mid-air!
Your battle senses just barely allow you to register M, leaning back, holding his hands together, as if charging up something. You try to swing Falchion again, but find yourself unable to move, as you descend. As your feet touch the ground, M releases his position, throwing himself forward toward you. His right hand connects with your chin in a palm strike, but more devastatingly, it produces a powerful burst of flames. You are lit ablaze, and before you know it, are flying backward, away from the ledge, and M, and everything. A brilliant flash of light flows from behind you, somehow showering M with confetti.
The voice from before rings out into your ears as your consciousness fades.
GAME!
And suddenly you’re back. A featureless blue void. Words, white and orange, float in front of you.
Your name is ///
Your name is //// ////
Your name is //// /////// and you
Your
name
is
Marth Joins the Battle!
Your name is Marth.