The transport landed on a cliffside and its occupants filed out. In the distance, they could see their enemy. It was taking its time which only set many of them even more on edge. As they assembled into position. Fox strode up to the front of the pack and held out his blaster.

"Don't let a single one get away!"

"We must end this," Chrom spoke with determination.

"There are so many," Peach swallowed hard.

"There were more than R.O.B. initially estimated," Captain Falcon punched the palm of his hand, "Let's do this!"

"We'll each need to take down about ten," Marth commented without taking his eyes off the incoming armada.

"Stow your fears," Zelda spoke to the group as a whole, "It's now or never!"

"We'll win this," Pit chimed in, "I know it!"

"Here they come!" Fox shouted as the Hands sped up while the light…thing stopped, "Get ready!"

However, before they even had a chance to fight, the hands did something strange: they began to unravel into energy which flew back toward the being. Confused, the group stared up waiting for what came next. That was when Shulk had another vision.

He saw it. They were going to get wiped out. And there was not a single thing he could do about it.

He looked back at his teammates and friends before it happened. The beams shot out from the being with blazing speed. Shulk was the first to go too shocked by what he saw to move.

After that, chaos broke out. Ganondorf attempted to rush the being in his arrogance. He did not make it far. Link fought valiantly and managed to actually deflect a beam, but in the end, he could not keep it up. Young Link and Toon Link fared worse without a shield capable of deflecting the beams. Zelda could not counter them with her magic. Shiek managed to evade them for a while, but eventually even she could not keep up with how they twisted and turned to match her movements.

Fox was one of the first to go. There was not much the pilot could do in the face of such an onslaught. Falco and Wolf who were standing by as air support fared better, but even their sharp flying was not enough.

Samus and Mega Man tried to counter the beams with their own weapons, but it failed to have an impact. Bowser as well as Red's Pokemon attempted something similar to no avail.

Marth's graceful movements allowed him to dodge a couple of the beams, but in the end, the hero king was just a man and failed as one. Meta Knight's speed and agility served him well, but not well enough. Sonic's speed allowed him to initially dodge the beams with great proficiency until he slowed down to aid another.

Chrom was caught in a valiant effort to save Lucina pushing her out of the way much to her dismay as she cried out to him with wide eyes. Pac-Man similarly attempted to save Nana and Popo by pushing them out of the way of an incoming beam. Both selfless acts were for naught though, as those they sought to save were soon hit as well.

In the midst of the chaos, Mario was running and jumping with super human precision. He back flipped over one beam only to immediately roll out of the way of another leading into a long jump past yet another. It took all of his focus to keep up with these attacks which meant he had to tune out all the destruction around him despite knowing that many if not all of his friends were likely already gone.

Then he heard it. One simple cry from his brother. Mario turned his head, but he was already gone. His little brother…. In that moment, Mario lost his focus just long enough to get hit.

As the others at the cliff had fallen, one glimmer of light could be seen narrowly avoiding the beams. The pink puff ball had an unusually serious expression on his face. His mind thinking back to earlier that day.

"Hey, Kirby," Fox called out to him holding a plate with a cake on it, "I got something to tell you. I brought cake."

That certainly got the puffball's attention. So, he waddled over and literally inhaled the cake.

"Kirby," Fox's tone was very serious, "I need you to listen to me. Something bad is going to happen later today, and when it does, I need you fly away. Don't look back. Just fly as far and fast as you can."

Kirby took those words to heart and as soon as things looked bad, he took off. His first instinct may have been to fight – and Kirby was certainly a being largely driven by instinct – but he also trusted his friend. So he fled despite the looks his friends gave him as he left them, he flew. His warp star was not actually fast enough to outrun the beams, but that did not matter once he reached warp speed. He was out of dodge.

"It is time," R.O.B. told the three that had gathered after a certain amount of time had passed. He then engaged the tubes. One for each of them.

"I really hate these things," Reflet lamented looking into the portal. She looked to her right. The man in the middle stepped into his without a second thought while the small figure on the right hesitated for a moment before entering. Breathing deep, Reflet stepped in as well.

"Mission accomplished," R.O.B. stated from the control room, "Deleting mission logs…successful. Deleting associated memory files…success–" The statement could not finish before a wave of light engulfed the robot.

"Fox!" Robin yelled into the earpiece he had been given to keep in touch with some of the others. He had been watching through what Fox had called a satellite feed, and he saw what was happening in real time.

He watched in horror as the beams ripped through their ranks, "Everyone! Fall back!" Not that he had to give such an order, nor did it matter. He watched until he saw Chrom push Lucina out of the way only for her to get hit herself soon after.

"Lucina!" Robin cried hitting his fist into the reinforced screen. After that, he did not pay much attention to the rest. He grew numb, but then he went angry. He lashed out as the wave of light came for him. He accomplished nothing, but he faced his fate head on.

Kirby had pushed his warp star to the limit, but he had escaped. Unfortunately, by the time he returned, it was barely functioning. That meant he came in for a crash landing. His squishy body meant that he was easily able to survive, but it was just another thing that had gone wrong.

Picking himself up, he stared out at what was once Homeworld. What he saw was an amalgamation of many different worlds seemingly stitched together. Peering closer, he could see movement down off of the cliff. They looked eerily like Mario. No, these were different, but he then spotted the real Mario held captive and being moved by the impostors. Kirby held an angry expression as he jumped down from the cliff. Him and his friends had been attacked. Kirby would not stand for that.

After Kirby jumped down, three portals opened a short distance away. Out stepped three figures.

"Phew, we made it," Reflet sighed in relief as the small man in a spacesuit walked past her in awe of the stitched world that laid before them. "Wow," She turned back to the third member of the party, "What are you doing?"

He had stooped down in front of something. It was a Hylian Shield. Seemingly the only thing left of the battle. He removed his own shield from his back, put this other one on, and then proceeded to wear his own on his right arm. Then he stood and walked over to the cliff side.

He turned back to the other two with his signature hat drooping down onto his shoulder and gave a slight nod. It was time to get to work.

Edge of Oblivion

Suppose I should clear some stuff up. One, I have no intentions of making this an Awakening story. Also, pairings for this are simply not the focus. The one with the most attention would probably be Robin and Lucina, but they're already married here.

Also, I kind of intended for this to come out on launch day, but, uh, the way I counted down it ended up being today.

So, I suppose the big question is: do you want to see the continuation? This prelude is over, and I don't want to devote time to continuing it if no one is interested. However, in any case, it won't be for a while. For one, I need to get back to Inherited Burden, and also, Smash is coming out so I probably won't be doing much as far as writing goes in the near future.

Still, let me know if you want to see this through.