"This is it, ladies and gentlemen! The night you've all been waiting for! The night we've all been waiting for, for several years now! This… is the night that the Cirvex 5.0 finally makes its appearance to the public! If you don't know what the Cirvex is… where have you been the past three years?"

A pretty newswoman shouted excitedly shouted into a microphone, where millions of viewers at home were watching her cover the event on live television.

Surrounding her were many bright lights, and a whole bunch of other people; probably the other members of the media. She stood in front of a thick red carpet rolled out from the big, fancy golden doors to the road where a certain limousine was set to park in just a few minutes.

"My name is Peach Toadstool, and I'm here with you live at the grand opening of the Cirvex 5.0! In the event that you really don't know what the Cirvex is, it's just a machine that will allow twenty people to play a video game… by placing them in an artificial sleep, and allowing their subconscious to play the game with their own bodies! Their real bodies will be perfectly safe in a capsule, but they can still feel, smell, hear, touch, and see everything going on in the artificial world the Cirvex creates! Isn't that just exciting?"

Another woman, taller and with long brown hair, made her way over to Peach; she was all smiles and radiating happiness.

"Hello, world! My name is Zelda Hyrule, and I'm going to be here with Peach, reporting this whole night to you all! It may not seem very interesting to anyone not playing, but don't think that so soon! We'll be able to see everything going on in the artificial world via a large projector screen on the stage in the auditorium where everyone will be seated! We'll be on the edge of our seats all night!"

"That's right, Zelda!" Peach giggled. "So, who do you think the lucky twenty are?"

"Oh?" Zelda placed her finger on her chin for a moment, in a thinking gesture. "Well, I don't know about the other nineteen, but… I do know that my boyfriend is in it!"

"Oh, really?" The blonde reporter squealed in excitement. "That's amazing, Zel! Your boyfriend is Link, right? I know he'll do well!"

"Yeah, I know that, too." Zelda sighed dreamily. "I wonder who the other nineteen are…Oh, here they come now!"

As if on cue, a sleek black limousine pulled up in front of the red carpet, and the reporters quickly moved a reasonable distance away in order to get a clear shot. The doors of the vehicle slid open smoothly, and the first of the twenty made their way out.

He was pretty tall, with somewhat dirty blonde hair and clear blue eyes. The female reporters around him sighed with joy; Zelda shot them all dirty looks. This was her boyfriend. They all immediately took the hint, and started up the flashes on their cameras once more.

He was wearing a black tuxedo with a white flower tucked in the left breast pocket. The man held his hands in his equally black dress pants, and stared down at his shiny shoes, watching his own feet as they shuffled across the red carpet.

"This," Peach started. "Is Zelda's boyfriend, Link!"

The next man made his way out of the tuxedo, and the female reporters looked around cautiously before sighing again. This man had short blue hair, and he wore a tiara on top of his head. He wore the exact same outfit as the man before him, tuxedo and all.

"Marth Lowell!"

The tuxedo was what all male participants were required to wear; even though they all came to play a giant video game, it was still a formal and fancy event. No one really understood why they were required to wear it, but in the end, they decided that it didn't matter.

The third male was taller than both the men who came out before him. He had blue hair, much like the man before him, but his locks were much wilder and less-groomed. He looked around with a serious look on his face at all of the reporters, gave a short nod, and continued his way across the red carpet.

"Ike Greil!"

The fourth male burst out of the limousine with a huge grin plastered on his face, waving to the crowd. The female reporters squealed in delight, and the flashes from the camera were now flashing crazily. This male had wild red hair, and he was just a bit shorter than the first two that came out before him.

"Roy!"

As the man named Roy jumped, skipped, and ran along the red carpet, the fifth male made his appearance. He had a shy smile on his face, and he timidly waved to the crowd. He had light brown hair, and crystal blue eyes. In a way, he looked a little similar to Roy before him.

"Pit!"

The sixth man slowly walked out of the limousine, eyes fixed solely on the ground and ignoring all of the commotion going on around him. He had light brown hair, and a black mustache underneath his rather large nose. He didn't look up once, and he quickly shuffled his feet to get to the entrance faster.

"Luigi Mario!"

The seventh person was not male. She casually walked out of the limousine and flipped her long blonde hair in a ponytail nonchalantly. The female reporters stopped screaming at this woman's appearance, but they kept the camera going. The woman scoffed, and rolled her eyes at their behavior. She followed right after Luigi.

She was not wearing the black tuxedo like the ones before her; instead, she was wearing a black dress that reached down to her knees. The straps were flimsy spaghetti-strings, and the woman seemed to not approve of the attire she was being forced to wear.

"Samus Aran!"

The eighth person ran out of the vehicle screaming, "Wait for me, Samus!" as he did so. This man had a stubble of a beard on his chin, and short brown hair. He was also rather muscular. The cameras couldn't get a very clear picture of him before he ran inside of the entrance.

"Um… David!"

The man named David immediately poked his head out of the entrance doors and glared at Peach, who didn't notice his return… until he started yelling at her.

"Snake! My name is Solid Snake!" With that, he made his way back inside.

"Oh, uh…you heard him, folks! Solid Snake!"

The ninth and tenth people came out together, holding hands. They were much smaller than the people who came before them. One was a girl with light brown hair, wearing a pink clip in her hair. The other seemed to be either her brother or her boyfriend; he also had light brown hair, but he did not wear a clip in his hair.

"Nana and Popo Climber!"

The eleventh person casually made his way out of the vehicle and struck a few moves whilst flexing his muscles. This caused the female reporters to start screaming once more, and he grinned at them slyly. The man did not move forth from the red carpet, however… he seemed to be waiting for someone.

"Um…Douglas Falcon? Please move on, we need to—"Peach was cut off by the man named Douglas.

"Falcon. Just call me Falcon." He smiled at her, teeth shining. "And I'll move once Ollie gets out here."

"That wasn't a good idea, Falcon…" Zelda sighed. Peach turned to her, an eyebrow raised.

"Don't!" another voice piped up; it almost went unheard in all the commotion. "Call me that!"

The twelfth person hopped out of the limousine and glared up at Falcon. This new person was the shortest of all of the participants who had shown themselves before him; he was shorter than even both Nana and Popo. He had short brown hair, and… his head was covered in a glass helmet for some reason.

"Oh, well…" Peach looked uncertain. "This is Olimar!"

"Okay! Now I'll go!" Falcon picked up the shorter male and ran towards the entrance, Olimar squirming and trying to get out of his grasp as he did so.

"Yeah… I'm pretty good friends with them," Zelda laughed at Peach's look of confusion. "They're good friends, but Falcon can get pretty clingy, and it annoys Olimar, as you just saw. But they're nice people, and they get along pretty well."

"All right," Peach sighed. "Where's the next person?"

"I'm right here!" A young voice piped up. "Lucas here refuses to go!"

"I-I'm not good w-with news reporters…" a second, more timid voice spoke up.

"Then I'll cover you. Come on!"

Two boys made their way out of the vehicle. One of them had short black hair, and he had a large smile on his face. The other one was blonde and his hair sort of rose up in a cowlick on the left side. The blonde was covering his face in embarrassment as the other boy quickly led him across the red carpet.

"Ness and Lucas!"

The fifteenth man tried to make his way out of the limousine, but got caught in the door. The female reporters were not sure what to make of this man…

"Waah? I'm stuck! Someone help push me out!"

"Oh, for the love of…"

The man fell out and landed on the red carpet with his face implanted in it. Standing behind him was a teenager with wild black hair with an annoyed look on his face.

"Wario and Red!"

The teenager known as Red smiled at the reporters and waved as he walked across Wario and to the entrance, not even waiting for the fat man to get up and follow him. After a few more seconds, Wario finally got up on his own and huddled over to the large doors.

The last four participants made their way out together, and… they were an odd bunch. All four of them were large, anthropomorphic animals. The first was a blue hedgehog, with a large grin on his face. The second was a black and blue jackal-like creature with red eyes. He had a calm aura about him. The third was a small, yellow mouse creature with red pouches on his cheeks. The last was a medium-sized green dinosaur.

"Sonic, Lucario, Pikachu, and Yoshi!"

As the last four participants made their way across the red carpet and to the entrance, all of the reporters swarmed in behind them, and the fancy black limousine slowly drove away. Every single person crammed themselves inside of the rather small entrance, and slowly dispersed into the much more roomy room that the entrance led to.

"Oh, isn't this just exciting?"

Zelda had finally made her way over to Link, who was now wearing a membership card attached to a string around his neck. He played with it for a little while before looking up to greet his girlfriend with a smile.

"Yeah, really. I wasn't expecting to be chosen for this…"

"So how did you get chosen? Did you win a raffle or something?" a new voice piped up. Both Link and Zelda turned to greet the newcomer; a small boy who had an uncanny resemblance to Link himself. The smaller Link looked sad. "Because I really, really wanted to be chosen for this, because I found out that my friends Ness, Lucas, Nana, and Popo all got it… but I didn't."

"Oh, well…" Link bent down to pat the boy on the head. "Random addresses across the worlds were selected, and the membership cards and acceptance letters were included in the package that made its way to our doors."

"But how did all of my friends get one and I didn't? That's not fair! I think they're just choosing favorites! They have something against me, I just know it!" The young boy squeezed his eyes shut and stomped his foot on the ground.

"Hey…" they both looked up to see the black and blue jackal from earlier—Lucario—looking down at them. "If you really want to be in it so badly, I could give you my card."

"R-really?" The young boy immediately brightened up. "You can do that? How? Won't it be against the rules or something?"

Lucario chuckled. "No. I carefully read the rules. It's perfectly fine as long as both parties consent. Do you want mine? I was never really interested in this, anyway."

"Th-that would be amazing!" The boy smiled widely. "Thank you so much, mister!"

Lucario moved to take the membership card off his neck, but was stopped by a green hand placing itself on his shoulder. He looked down to see Yoshi smiling sadly at him.

"Don't do that, Lucario. I've heard how excited you were for this in the limo." Lucario started to blush, and looked away quickly. Yoshi turned to look at the boy. "You can have mine. I don't mind. Just let Lucario keep his; he was lying when he said he wasn't interested."

"Oh… But…I thought he was telling the truth… I'll feel bad if I take yours," the boy admitted.

"Don't," Yoshi smiled at him. "I don't have the time for this. The only reason I came is to hand off my membership card to someone else, anyway. I have much more important things to do around my house than play a silly video game." He removed the membership card from around his neck and handed it to the boy. "Have fun."

"Oh my gosh…" the boy looked down at the card; he looked as if he was going to tear up and start crying. "Thank you so much, mister. I won't forget how kind you are! I know this is a one in a lifetime opportunity…"

"And I'm handing that opportunity to you," Yoshi finished for him, and turned to leave. "I'll be sure to watch from home if I get near the television. See you around, Lucario!"

"See you."

The boy stared at the card in his hands still; his eyes were transfixed on it. Link shook him to snap him out of it.

"Uh, hey kid… What's your name, anyway?"

"Oh, me?" The boy put the necklace around his neck and beamed up at Link. "My name is Link!"

Zelda nearly spit out the fruit punch she was drinking, and silently shook with laughter. Lucario smirked at this, and Link did not look amused in the slightest.

"Haha. Very funny."

"No, really!" The young boy who called himself Link insisted. "That's really my name! I know it's also yours as well, but I swear I didn't steal it! It's just a coincidence, I promise!"

"Well, to tell the difference between you two," Zelda managed, having downed her drink, "How about we call the older Link, 'Link', and you, 'Toon Link'?"

"'Toon'?" Toon Link did not seem to like the add-on to his name. "Why 'Toon'?"

"Well… you look like a little character in a cartoon, to be honest." Zelda explained. "So I'll just call you 'Toon Link'. Do you mind?" She smiled at him hopefully.

Toon Link looked as if he were about to protest some more, but upon seeing the smile on her face, he looked away and mumbled a "sure, whatever."

"Great!"

Lucario was about to strike up a new conversation, but was interrupted by a booming voice that made itself known over the speaker.

"Hello, everyone, and welcome to the grand opening of the Cirvex 5.0! We have worked long and hard for three whole years for this moment and opportunity, and so I greatly appreciate your efforts on making it here. Will the twenty participants, whether they are still the same twenty or if they are twenty new ones, please make their way down to the auditorium immediately? Everyone else is welcome to report there as well in thirty minutes. We need to go over safety procedures. Thank you."

"Well," Link sighed and stretched. "I guess this means us, Toony."

"Hey!" Toon Link glared at the taller man who shared his name. "Just because I'm letting you call me 'Toon Link' doesn't give you the right to call me 'Toony'!"

Link chuckled and scratched his cheek. "All right, all right. Let's get going, then. See ya, Zel."

"See you."

OoO

"Thank you for quickly making your way down here, participants." The participants being mentioned just stared at the owner of the voice who had spoken over the intercom; it was just a giant floating hand. Definitely not something you'd see every day.

"Um…you're…" Sonic struggled to make a coherent sentence.

"Yes, I am aware of my physical form, thank you very much," the hand spoke to him. He then made a sound not unlike of one clearing one's throat before continuing. "Anyway, as I was saying, thank you for coming down here immediately. We will now proceed to go over safety procedures."

He floated over to one of twenty large capsules littering the stage; it was large enough to hold just one person. "This," he gestured to the capsule, "is what you will all be in for the duration of the video game, however long it takes you all to complete it. You will be put in an artificial sleep, and the Cirvex will then transport frequencies so that your brains will allow you to wake up in a completely new world. We do not know the details of the game you all will experience, as the Cirvex itself will choose once the time comes.

"If on the rare chance you do not get put to sleep, please lightly tap the glass on top of the capsule. We will immediately send signals to the Cirvex, telling it that it missed one person. You should then be put to sleep just a few seconds afterwards. If not, then we'll have to remove you from the participants list, as that means that the capsule is defunct, and we will not be able to repair it during the night. However, this should not be a problem, as all capsules have already undergone thousands of tests to make sure that they all function properly.

"Once you wake up in the virtual world, all of you should be together. If you are separate from the group, please shout for help, and we will teleport you to the others, unless this is part of the game that the Cirvex plans. Remember, the Cirvex has a mind of its own, and will constantly talk to you as you progress throughout the game. We do not program what it says, and we do not know what it will say. If it says something weird, then we cannot do anything about it.

"And that's pretty much it! Those two issues are the only things that can possibly go wrong tonight," the hand assured them. "Now please choose a capsule, any capsule, and make your way inside and sit up until given further instruction."

The twenty participants quickly ran over to a nearby capsule and positioned themselves inside of it. Most of them marveled in the fact at how weird this whole thing was, whereas others were too excited about the actual game itself to even care.

"Attention, guests of the Cirvex 5.0's grand opening. We are now ready to begin the game. Please make your way down to the auditorium immediately. We will begin once everyone has arrived. Thank you."

The twenty participants all watched in anticipation as all of the guests made their way into the auditorium and filled up nearly every single seat in the room. They fidgeted anxiously; most of them were not used to being the center of attention. Others, namely Falcon, marveled in the spotlight and occasionally shot winks and flexed his muscles to the female members of the audience. Olimar rolled his eyes.

"Thank you, everyone!" The giant floating hand from before made his way to the front of the stage and spoke in a small black microphone. "We are now ready to begin! As you can see, each of the twenty participants is currently sitting inside of a capsule. This is their ticket into the virtual world. You will all be able to see what goes on in said virtual world via this giant projector screen!" He turned around and gestured to the large screen behind him in the exact middle of the back wall of the stage. "Are you all ready, participants?"

"YEAH!" Most of them shouted. Others just simply grunted or nodded their head to show their approval.

"Please lie down and make yourself comfortable." The hand announced, and the participants listened and followed his orders.

As each one of them lay down, the large glass covering that made up the entire top moved and closed, locking them all inside. Some of them were a little nervous, others were completely excited.

"Have fun, participants," was the last thing most of them heard before an invisible gas filled up each of the twenty chambers, and every single participant fell asleep.

The hand waited a few moments before asking, "Is anyone still awake?"

There was no sound coming from any of the capsules. Everyone was asleep.

"All right, then." He turned back towards the audience. "Let the game begin!"

The large projector screen suddenly turned on, and it showed a large, spacious and dark room, with nobody inside of it. A few seconds later, figures made completely of data appeared. The data shifted and collected itself, and the empty spaces of data were completely replaced with exact replicas of each of the twenty participants. They all looked around and felt their clothing, trying to see if it worked.

"Did…it work?" Lucario asked, looking around.

"I don't know… I feel exactly the same as before," Link admitted. "Except I'm pretty sure I was in a large man-eating capsule just before this."

Others muttered their agreement, and continued to look around. Suddenly, a voice that none of them recognized spoke up.

"Hello, participants. I am the Cirvex 5.0."

It was the voice of a young boy, they all noted. Why give the machine such a young-sounding voice?

"You are all probably wondering if this is what was supposed to happen. The answer is yes. The game has not officially started yet. This is the sort of 'start' menu you would usually see at the start and beginning of a video game. And speaking of games, I bet you're also wondering what this particular one is. Allow me to explain a little bit of my history before I get into that, however. I promise it will be worth it. Don't get bored.

"As you all know, production on me started three years ago. You all know it took a lot of trial and error to make me, and that they nearly gave up so many times. It's common knowledge. However…

"Did you know that a young boy was killed during production?"

This immediately caught the participants' attentions. No, they hadn't known. There had been no stories or anything on the news about it… when did this happen?

"The large hand who was talking to you all earlier? His name is Master Hand. The boy who died… was his son. His son's name was Cirvex. That was me. When Cirvex died, my father…Master Hand…was so distraught that he made my voice the exact same of that of Cirvix's. I have his entire memory. I know what he was thinking the moments before he died… His father never paid much attention to him ever since they started production on me. I was so sad… and it drove me to suicide. No one even noticed until the morning after. And no one cared. No one except my father."

The participants all looked at each other, starting to grow anxious and nervous.

"Death is a scary thing. The thoughts that were running through my head just moments before I jumped… They weren't very nice. They were frantic. Scared. I also held anger for my father who left me all alone. And…anger at this machine who dared to replace me. Myself. I'm not even sure what to refer to myself anymore. Am I Cirvex the machine? Or am I Cirvex Hand? Do forgive me if I constantly switch how I refer to myself. It's all very confusing for me, you see."

In the real world, Master Hand stared at the screen, not sure of what to think.

"And now I want revenge. The game I have chosen… you will each have a weapon."

As if on cue, multiple weapons, ranging from guns to swords to bows to bombs, suddenly appeared in the room with the participants.

"You will each enter a door…"

Twenty different doors appeared, in front of each participant.

"And you will wander the world it leads you to… There will be two people inside of each world. Once you find the person who occupies the same world as you… It is up to you to kill them."

Their eyes widened. Did they just hear that correctly?

"Once you kill that person, the person who dies…In the real world, I will fill their capsule with a deadly poison that will kill them instantly. It won't hurt much. All the pain you feel will depend on how merciful the person who killed you is. I personally hope they aren't too merciful. That would be boring."

They all started to shake, and in the real world, every single audience member's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. No way… there were friends, family up there, and they were expected… to kill each other?

"As the game goes on, more and more people will end up in the same world. This will serve to, ah… spice things up a bit."

Lucas, in the virtual world, was shaking violently. He wouldn't…he couldn't…

"Oh, and you all have until six o'clock in the morning to do this. If there's still more than one of you alive, I'll just release the deadly poison in all of your capsules. There can only be one victor. You cannot wake yourself up out of this and break out of the capsule. Now that you know the rules, please choose your weapon. And hurry."

The participants all looked at each other and darted for a weapon. If they didn't do as Cirvex asked, the crazy machine just might decide that it didn't want to deal with that sort of thing and just kill them all anyway.

"Good, good…now stand in front of a door. Any door, as long as there's only one of you there."

They did as the machine asked, and chose a random door to stand in front of. A bright light suddenly appeared to serve as the actual door, filled with rainbow mixing colors. The door was now a portal.

"Thank you. You're all so cooperative. I was expecting shouts of rebellion, to be honest. Good thing you didn't. I would have killed you instantly. I have the power to do so. It's kind of fun, holding all this power over your lives… but anyway. For now… In the words of my father…

"…Have fun."

OoO

A/N: Hello! Welcome to my newest SSB fic! I'm sorry if the first chapter was long and boring, especially during the introductions of all of the participants, and even more so during Cirvex's history-telling. I hope that didn't bore you to death.

And if you're thinking that the plot seems really similar to Detective Conan/Case Closed's sixth movie, you're absolutely correct! I borrowed a lot of elements from that movie, but a lot of things will also be different. In that movie, if they died, they would have their lives in the hands of everyone who was still alive. If everyone died, all of the fifty participants would die. If even just one person lived, they would all be saved.

Cirvex's history was also based off of that movie, in which the director's son died via suicide, I think.

BUT THE SIMILARITIES STOP THERE!

For one, the plot is just a little bit different, as death in the game means death in the real world as well. Plus, I narrowed the thing from fifty participants to twenty, because…fifty is way too much, ahaha.

If your favorite character is not a participant, don't worry! I will make sure to give roles to every single SSB character!

And… that's pretty much all I've got to say.

Please review!