Lucas wasn't sure how it happened.

After letting his brother die, pulling the final needle and watching the world turn itself inside-out, the only thing he wanted to do was plop down on his cot in Tazmily and fall into a deep, undisturbed sleep. He felt like one adventure would be enough to last him a lifetime. He didn't need another.

And yet, just when he thought peace had been achieved, everything went dark. Not like the darkness of night, either; it was so dark he couldn't see his own hands, and for a moment he wondered if he'd gone blind.

Then, a blue light appeared in the distance. Out of it emerged a giant white hand, like a glove. It grabbed Lucas. The next moment, he was being swirled into the depths of space and time. He felt as if his body was being stretched into a thin line, and then passed out.

When Lucas came to, he was sprawled out on a cold metal floor. The room was dark, illuminated only by the presence of a brilliant blue being that resembled a human with a butterfly's wings.

"Welcome," the being said, "to Brawl."

Lucas squinted his eyes at the bright figure. "Wh-where am I?"

"Neither here nor there," the being replied. "This is simply the place Characters go when they have completed a Game."

Lucas looked around confusedly. "Heaven?"

"Something like that. In this world, you can't die. If you get hurt too much, you'll come back fully revived. You don't even need to eat. You don't age. Simply put, you're immortal."

Lucas gave a nervous smile. "Really?"

The blue being floated down to Lucas' level. "That's right. All you need to do is make a contract with me." He extended his hand so that Lucas could shake it.

Lucas eyed the blue hand nervously.

"You can refuse, of course, and I'll simply send you right back to the sinful world from which you came."

Lucas reached out his right hand. After careful consideration, he said, "Okay. I'll do it." He took the blue being's hand and shook it. Instantly, something white hot erupted on his hand and he yelped out in surprise.

"Ouch!"

"Enjoy your stay." The blue being lifted itself into the air and disappeared.

Lucas looked at his right hand. It now bore the words:

PROPERTY OF NINTENDO

Lucas frowned and looked around at the now empty room. He found a door, yanked it open, and went outside.

What greeted him outside was a handsomely decorated room, with an expensive looking carpet covering the ground and fine art lining the walls. Seated in a handsome mahogany desk was a man dressed like a butler.

He spotted Lucas. "Ah, welcome." He looked down at a long roll of paper. "Lucas, is it? I'm the administrator."

"Hullo." Lucas said nervously.

The man smiled tenderly. "Welcome to Brawl. Now, I'm in a bit of a hurry, so here your keys. Your roommate will explain everything to you."

Lucas received a small golden key with the number 027 engraved on it. "Thank you," he said.

"No need. Now, your rooms are over on the left hand side," the man said, indicating two large double doors. "I'll be off now. Good luck."

Lucas stood still for a moment, completely bewildered. Everthing was happening so fast. After a moment he decided just to deal with it, and he went through the double doors.

The hallways were completely empty and quiet. He looked around at the doors leading to each room. They reminded him of Yado Inn, only much fancier yet at the same time, much lonelier. Proceeding down the hall, he took two lefts and found himself in a narrow corridor. At the end of the corridor was his room, 027. He turned the lock and stepped inside.

The room was also handsomely furnished. There were two beds on each side of the room. One was well made, empty and clean. Lucas assumed that was his own. The other was messy, and had various objects lying around it. Among them were a pink baseball cap, a bat that said "Gutsy" on it, and a black T-shirt with Mr. Saturn on it.

"Hey!" Lucas exclaimed, "I know what this is!" He lifted up the shirt and looked at it closely. Sure enough, it was the same creature with the strange dialect of Saturn Valley.

Lucas almost felt at home when the door opened. He spun around. Standing in the door frame was a boy about his height. He had black hair, a red baseball cap, a striped shirt and denim shorts.

Lucas quickly put down the shirt. "Hi," he said.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"I'm- I'm Lucas."

"Right." The boy walked over to his own bed and sat down, shoving Lucas roughly aside. Then, he took out two golden stars from his pocket and held them in his right hand.

"What's that?" Lucas asked.

The boy ignored him, closing his hand around the two stars. Lucas noticed that they also had PROPERTY OF NINTENDO written on them. The stars lit up, and then disappeared.

Lucas' jaw dropped.

The boy looked up. He was smiling now, and looked a whole deal happier than before.

"Hi," he said. "I'm Ness. You're new here, I take it? Where did you come from?"

Lucas was completely taken aback by Ness' change in attitude. "I came from… Tazmily. That's on nowhere islands."

"I'm from Onett. Eagleland."

Lucas gulped, looking back down at Ness' right hand.

"Oh this?" Ness asked, indicating his empty right hand, "those were stars. You get one whenever you kill someone."

"I thought… no one could die in this world," Lucas said, frightened.

Ness laughed. "Of course not: they come right back. I should have said knock out or something. Anyways, when you knock out someone, you get their star. That's the basically the system."

"And what do you do? With the stars, I mean."

"You absorb them," Ness said, opening and closing his right hand.

Lucas stared for a moment. Ness grinned. "If you don't, you quickly become cold, angry, and completely depressed. And then…"

Lucas knew exactly what Ness was going to say. His face paled in realization that this was not heaven, or anything remotely close to what he thought it was.

"You die for real."

A/N: Review if you want more :)