Author's Note: Keep in mind that at the time of this writing, "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS" was nearing its release date.

Chapter 1: Leaked Pipe

The Gathering Point, a huge chamber with tall, bluish-white pillars and sky blue walls adorned with the Smash logo on each side. It's a hub that connects to four different corridors. Two of them end with a portal to other universes. One leads to a door, which contains the waiting room for the unannounced veterans who came from the previous tournament. The last corridor is pretty much The Gathering Point's exit.

The Gathering Point is just like what its name implies, a place where all fighters from other universes gather and meet each other. This is also the place where the fighters are awaiting news from an entity known as The Great Creator. The news are usually related to the next Smash tournament. Everyone is always very eager for the next news nowadays, considering that the next tournament, called "The Fourth Grand Tournament" is coming closer. It's usually filled mostly with excitement.

It is, until that time…

A few days ago…

"Leaks! Leaks!" King Dedede was rushing through the corridor leading to The Gathering Point.

Hearing the word "leaks", everyone present in the chamber quickly turned to see the corridor where Dedede was running through. "Did somebody said leaks?!" Pit said.

"Careful, you might trip!" Zelda said to the still-running Dedede.

The penguin (or rather, penguin-like creature) is carrying a bunch of photos and a box. The fighters have been facing a lot of leaks that, while some end up being lucky guesses, are actually fake. They usually share those "leaked" photos just to have a good laugh. They know that they can only rely on The Great Creator for all the new info. However, the box looked intriguing. They had never seen anybody else running carrying something else alongside the photos prior to this. They might thought of it as an additional collection of fake photos, but they were still unsure.

As Dedede finally slipped and fall on the white floor, his photos were scattered and his box flew somewhere not far from where he fell. Link walked over and picked one of the photos. He looked surprised, even at something that is considered a leak like many others.

"Link, what's wrong?" Zelda asked. When she glanced at the photo that Link is holding, she became surprised as well.

When everybody else picked up Dedede's photos, their expression upon seeing them vary from the same surprised expression as Link and Zelda, to being mildly confused mixed with worry. Only Pit still laughed hard just like what he usually do when looking at fake leaks.

Dedede got up upon hearing Pit's laugh, saying, "This is not supposed to be funny!"

"What? It's a fake roster. Somebody seems to have too much time in their hands! Hahaha!" Pit laughed again at the photo he was holding.

"No! While by the photo itself it can be seen as a fake, but… uh… where's my box?"

"Are you looking for this?" Ike walked up to Dedede, carrying the latter's box, whose cover had been removed.

"Oh, thanks, Ike!" Dedede thanked him.

Seeing the box, Pit stopped laughing and began to question it. "Uh… what's that box?"

Dedede picked up some kind of disc from inside the box and showed it to everyone.

"It's a disc! What does it contain?" Samus asked.

"According to this thing's label, it's supposed to be… uh… a leak video."

"Leak video? That's impossible!" Pit was surprised.

"Heh. You think. I found this somewhere when I was walking outside. Yeah, you know… for looking for fake leaks to laugh at."

"…You should try checking it out." Palutena said.

When the video was being prepared, Link and Zelda were still contemplating about the photo they were holding. The photo depicts the fighters' stats after the end of the Smash Run event they've been training before. There are the familiar faces like the newcomer Lucina, Charizard who debuted from the X Tournament, which back then it was still part of Pokémon Trainer's team, and… Ganondorf? There's also another fighter who they've never seen before. Link and Zelda actually know that The Great Creator occasionally held secret training for unannounced veterans and newcomers, but who had the guts to take pictures of these things?

"I have a bad feeling about this… I mean, this is the exact status screen that we can see every time we ended a Smash Run session, but… if this is indeed part of The Great Creator's secret training…"

"But… wait a minute… if these fighters are competing, then they should have known each other. Obviously, Charizard cannot speak, so our only chance is Lucina."

While Link waited, Zelda walked up to Lucina, who was also looking at a photo.

"Excuse me, Lucina. I'm sorry that I might be going to break the rules, but do you remember what happened during your secret Smash Run training?"

"Um… no. I don't remember anything. I thought every Smash Run training is the same. No secret training or anything."

"No? Well, then."

As Zelda walked away, the video had just started. "Here it is!" Dedede exclaimed.

The video showed footages of several fighters in action. While most of them are normal, three fighters caught their attention. Two newcomers and one veteran. One of the newcomers looks like the one in the leaked photo. Another newcomer is someone that only people from Mario's homeworld can recognize. Bowser was the first to react at the latter newcomer. He gasped in surprise.

"Is… is that?" Peach wondered.

"Bowser Jr.?" Luigi said.

"Huh. Someone from Mario's universe, isn't it?" Fox said.

"And another newcomer looks like the one in this photo. So... the name is Shulk, hm?" Zelda pointed out the photo depicting the Smash Run stats screen.

"Oh… So, is this really and truly real?" Pit was confused.

"…I can't really say that it's real, but I can't say it's fake either. I mean, we never meet any of those fighters before, yet some of us are shown there. Another thing is that The Great Creator is known for wiping out our memories after certain matches." Dedede explained.

"WHAT?!" everyone in the chamber was surprised.

"Wha-? Urk… I'm sorry. I should have kept my stiff upper beak…" Dedede suddenly felt guilty.

"Dedede? What you said sounds important! Why would you want to stay silent about it?!" Pit asked angrily.

Dedede just stayed silent, but deep inside he knew that he had to say it out loud. He couldn't handle covering The Great Creator's secrets anymore now that the debatable leaks had surfaced.

"I'm sorry, really sorry. But for now, I have to leave you all here." Dedede walked away.

As the video was still playing and showed a footage of Ganondorf, Zelda wanted to ask the penguin about Ganondorf, but she'd rather have Dedede calm down first. All of sudden, the waiting room's door is opened and Ganondorf walked out. Of course, everyone was surprised.

"I heard familiar noises that sounded like my techniques. Is it my turn yet?"

Zelda ran up to Ganondorf and said, "I'm sorry, Ganondorf. Not yet. Please go back to your room. This isn't a real announcement."

"It does look like it."

"But, please, your time isn't up yet. Please go back or we will get in trouble."

"Hmph. As if you're still calm about me not being announced yet. Fine then, but I'll show you my true powers once I'm back." Ganondorf walked back to the waiting room, where it could be shown that there were other veterans being worried inside, while the Ice Climbers were clearly trembling in fear.

After a brief silence, Pit decided to open up a discussion.

"So, what can we say about these photos now that there's a video linked to them? For starters, let's begin with this photo of the roster."

Pit showed a photo depicting the presumably complete roster of fighters for The Fourth Grand Tournament. Several familiar faces like Wario, Mr. Game and Watch, Ganondorf, Falco, Jigglypuff, R.O.B., Ness, and, surprisingly, Dr. Mario are present in the photo. Aside from the newcomers present in the leaked video, there are also others like a dog and Dark Pit.

"Who's that dog?" Wii Fit Trainer asked.

Mario thought for a while, then pulled out several photos from his pocket. The photos apparently belong to the newly registered fighters but not belonging to the Smash crew yet. After flipping through several photos: Geno, King K. Rool, Mach Rider… Duck Hunt! Mario then showed everyone the photo of the apparently tag team Duck Hunt, consisting of a dog and a duck.

"Hm. Now that's pretty weird. At least to me." Wii Fit Trainer said.

"What about that Pit look-alike?" Samus pointed out Dark Pit in the photo.

"Pit look-alike? That's Dark Pit." Palutena said.

"Dark-what?" Pit was annoyed.

"Enough, no more fooling around. Let's discuss about this seemingly real roster, shall we?"

As everyone in the chamber was discussing, the other veterans in the waiting room were still worried about what happened before. Ganondorf was still very grumpy.

"Yeah… even though I myself can't wait to take down Fox in the next tournament, I wouldn't have to burst through the door, eh?" Wolf said.

"Shut up." Ganondorf said.