Twelve heroes appeared in the foyer of a great hall, all of them summoned from far off lands. Two creatures called Pokémon from a land of battle and adventure. A child from a land of psychic horrors. A hero from a land of fantasy. A bounty hunter from a universe of racing and intrigue, and another from one of endless war and death. A mercenary pilot from a system locked in combat. A dinosaur and an ape from peaceful islands, and a puffy pink creature from a land of dreams. Lastly, two simple plumbers from a kingdom ruled by a beautiful princess and constantly besieged by powerful enemies.
They had all been invited to join a tournament, though the method of invitation was certainly an unorthodox one. Great comets had screamed out of the sky and landed near them. Only when they managed to translate the strange runes upon the invitations were they allowed to open a portal to Smashworld. And once there, they were met by the Master Hand: A massive, ethereal hand, bigger than all of them put together.
The Master Hand introduced himself as the ‘Spirit of Creativity and Imagination,’ and he lived up to his name. The spirit seemed capable of conjuring anything from his fingertips. He claimed that he had a hand in creating all their worlds, and that he’d been watching all of them, and many more worlds, for eons on end. He said that he wished to see which of his creations was the most powerful of all, and that he would grant the most powerful of them a single wish, should they fight and win in his first ever ‘Super Smash Brothers’ tournament.
The purpose of the tournament was not merely to fight, however, as the Master Hand encouraged that all of them get to know each other and forge friendships with one another.
It was difficult to create friendships with those you were ordered to fight, but it was soon revealed that it was incredibly difficult to be hurt in the Smashworld, and downright impossible to be killed. The violence soon came to be treated as a mere sport; a sparring match between friends.
The tournament lasted for eight long months, and in that time, the twelve of them ended up forging friendships of some form or another. At the very least, they all grew to respect one another, and all of them became better fighters, and arguably better people because of it. Eventually, though, the tournament began to draw to a close.
Eventually, one fighter won the tournament, and the fabled prize that the Master Hand offered: one wish from the spirit of creation and imagination himself. The multiverse was in his hands. Whatever he wished for could shape the destinies of countless realities and the fates of all beings within. The winner was none other than Kirby of Dreamland, and that wish was something simple... A slice of strawberry shortcake.
The Master Hand was contented with his work in the previous tournament. The most powerful of his creations had been chosen and had gotten his wish. However, not all was at peace in the Master Hand’s world.
The Master Hand’s brother, the Crazy Hand, took every chance he could to provoke and prod at his sibling. The Crazy Hand, the ultimate spirit of Destruction and Ruin, proposed that the Master Hand had not found the most powerful of all of his creations. For while he may have found the most powerful champion of good, the Crazy Hand proposed that evil was far more powerful a force. After all what good is creation when anything that is created can be destroyed in an instant? What good is it to promote peace and the creation and preservation of life and civilization, when but a single horseshoe nail could bring it all tumbling down?
Indeed, the Crazy Hand made an interesting case. Which was the more powerful force? Good or Evil? Creation or Destruction? The question troubled the Master Hand’s mind, and the Crazy Hand proposed that he host another tournament to put it to the test. Eventually, the Master Hand agreed, and summoned up even more champions from even more worlds. Most of them good, but a number of them evil.
Bowser, the King of the Koopas, was summoned; A powerful sorcerer and kidnapper. Ganondorf, the king of thieves and wielder of the Triforce of Power too was called; A dark wizard of the cruelest intentions and scourge of the land of Hyrule. And Mewtwo, the world’s most powerful pokémon bred and tested upon in a cloning lab; The most powerful psychic anyone had ever seen and hateful of all human life.
The tournament began anew, but this time there was an air of tension over the whole thing. The heroes were forced to work together to keep these three villains from ever obtaining the Master Hand’s prize.
Mewtwo watched as all of the creatures he fought against forged bonds and friendships that he had never known. Mewtwo’s thoughts were troubled as he watched these humans laughing, dancing, sparring, and living together in friendship and harmony. It was all so different from Mewtwo’s experience with humanity. The humans that Mewtwo had known and hated had been cold, analytical, and cruel, prodding him with needles and shocking him with electrodes just to test his limits. The humans Mewtwo had destroyed were different from these people. Mewtwo considered this. If he were to destroy humanity with his wish, would he be destroying innocents the way his humans had nearly destroyed him when he was once innocent? Would he be any better than his tormentors?
Mewtwo still fought with every ounce of his being in the tournament, and eventually won. The Crazy Hand gloated over his brother. The Master Hand seemed crestfallen as he offered Mewtwo his wish.
It was tempting for Mewtwo to wish for the destruction of humanity. The destruction of humanity in all universes. But as he looked over the faces of those who had fought him, he felt too conflicted to wish for such a thing. Instead, he looked at the Master Hand and wished for one thing.
“Understanding”
That was all he said. Mewtwo wished to ‘understand.’
The Master Hand and the Crazy Hand both were surprised. The Master Hand granted the wish.
None of the fighters in the tournament ever found out exactly what happened. All they knew was they looked into Mewtwo’s eyes as the wish was granted then and there and they saw something different. Mewtwo looked as if some great puzzle had finally been solved. His posture was more relaxed and his telepathic voice softer.
He stood there, reveling in his epiphany for a few moments, before turning to the Crazy Hand and speaking only four words.
“You are a fool.”
The Crazy Hand cried out in rage. Somehow, even in his victory, he had met with defeat. In his rage, he attacked all of the fighters, even the ones he had summoned to fight for him.
All of the champions were forced to fight the most powerful foe they’d ever faced: The Spirit of Destruction himself. In the end though, they succeeded in defeating him against all odds. Mewtwo struck the final blow, sending the Crazy Hand hurtling into the void of the Final Destination to lick his wounds. And so, the fighters were all sent home, and when the call came out once more, Mewtwo did not join them.
Once again, the champions were summoned, in even greater number this time. However, this time there was no test awaiting them. The Master Hand said nothing about a test between good and evil or a test to see who was the strongest among them. Instead, they were merely told to fight.
Behind the backs of the heroes though, the Master Hand was making pacts with the nefarious Ganondorf, Bowser, Ridley, and Wario. He claimed that although Mewtwo eventually relented and claimed that Good was more powerful than Evil, he was still technically aligned with Evil when he actually won the tournament. Therefore, whatever he said afterward must have been wrong. The Master Hand claimed to have had an epiphany and proposed an alliance with the villains. He claimed that he would make all of them the rulers and gods of their own worlds if they agreed to help him destroy those who were obviously inferior: the champions of Good.
For seven months, the tournament was waged. The heroes all eventually became complacent as the villains were supposedly all eliminated from the tournament early on in the games. However, that merely allowed those who followed Evil to gather together in a mysterious realm called Subspace uninterrupted by the heroes. There, they constructed weapons, armies, and entire cities, all with the purpose of destroying that which was good with the help of an enslaved army of robots called “R.O.B.s” or “Robotic Operating Buddies.”
And when they struck, none of the heroes were prepared. The R.O.B.s were made to sacrifice themselves to detonate bombs that absorbed the power and energy of the Smashworld and powered the subspace engines that they would use to destroy the heroes. The heroes attempted to fight back, but in all the confusion ended up fighting each other as much as they ended up fighting their aggressors.
Eventually, the heroes managed to get themselves together and coordinate to destroy the R.O.B. army and the bomb factory, defeat Wario, and seemingly thwart the plans of the evildoers. Ridley was beaten twice, and the heroes gathered together to invade Subspace and thwart the villains. Only Ganondorf, Bowser and the Master Hand remained. Ganondorf attempted to pin the blame of their imminent failure on Bowser to save face with the Master Hand and stabbed Bowser in the back. It was then revealed, however, that for the Master Hand, everything was going according to plan.
For you see, the Master Hand was not actually the Master Hand that the fighters knew. The Master Hand was being controlled by a villainous lord of emptiness. A vile creature known as Tabuu: Lord of the Space between Spaces.
Tabuu discovered the Smashworld when the Crazy Hand was defeated by Mewtwo. When such a powerful entity was broken, it caused a rift to open in space and time and alert Tabuu to the existence of the Smashworld. For Tabuu was obsessed with expanding subspace and consuming all worlds to become the ultimate being, but his imprisonment in the space between spaces made that impossible. The Smashworld, being by nature an amalgam of many worlds’ energies mashed together, was a perfect way to worm his influence into many worlds at the same time and eventually give him the strength to consume all worlds. But he was too weak to do it on his own, so he slowly and carefully weakened the Master Hand from the safety of Subspace with his corruptive influence. The Master Hand was already in a sorry state from his fight with his brother and eventually he managed to break the spirit of creation. From there, he immediately summoned the means to construct an army that would absorb the Smashworld into Subspace and thus grant him the energies of the world and its heroes, making him more powerful than ever.
Tabuu revealed to Ganondorf that he intended for the heroes to catch on and reach his lair. That way, he could absorb their powerful energies along with the energies of the world itself. He had played Ganondorf, Bowser, and Wario for fools. The only one who had known about Tabuu was Ridley, who sided with him when Tabuu promised to make him his highest general. Tabuu set everybody up and revealed that he fully intended to betray Ganondorf, then stole his energy and left him for dead. The weakened Master Hand attempted to fight back, but Tabuu swiftly defeated him and absorbed his energy as well. He then went on to do the same to the heroes and with that, he managed to absorb the whole of the Smashworld.
He would have gone on to absorb all of the heroes’ homeworlds and eventually the entire multiverse, but after absorbing so much energy and with his foes seemingly defeated, he decided he could spare time to rest. It was merely serendipity that the heroes managed to ever fight back. Kirby, the most powerful fighter from the first tournament, was saved by a strange artifact he had taken from his on-again-off-again nemesis, and proceeded to restore every other champion. The champions united and managed to fight through the mangled Smashworld that now floated about in subspace and confront Tabuu.
They reached him too late, however, as Tabuu ripped holes into every world in the multiverse. It was only by luck that Tabuu was startled out of his feast by a speedster from one of the universes he ripped into, and in his confusion, the other fighters managed to take him down. The last of the R.O.B.s managed to strike the final blow, angered at the loss of his race through Tabuu’s manipulations.
With Tabuu destroyed, the Smashworld was set right once again and Tabuu’s influence throughout the multiverse was severed. The Master Hand was restored and, though the tournament was ultimately a farce, he offered a wish to the last R.O.B. for his aid in defeating Tabuu. R.O.B. wished for the restoration of his race and the R.O.B.s went on to return to their pacifistic ways of aiding and serving those who are in need.
And so, the fighters were all sent home, having saved the multiverse itself from being destroyed by Tabuu and the armies of Subspace...
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and of course he burns it if anyone else finds it, just like a comic I found with him and Lucina. (I apologize if this is inappropriate.)
