A tornado of red fire swirled around Mario's hands. Across from him, green flames burst like the quills of a hedgehog from Luigi's back, making it look like he was standing at the front of an inferno.

  "Are you ready?" Mario asked.

  Luigi nodded. "Let's finally go all out against each other, bro."

  Their respective flames grew in size, burning so hot that even the other spectators in the stands could feel the heat.

  "Whoa!" Fox yelled, covering his face with his paws. "That's really them giving off that power?"

  Samus examined her helmet's heads up display. "Mario's flame is hotter than Luigi's," she explained. "A few hundred degrees hotter, in fact."

  The others looked at her. "Does that mean Mario has this win in the bag?" Ness asked.

  "No." Ness turned to look at Link, who was examining the two combatants closely. "Mario's flames might be hotter, but look at Luigi more closely." Ness leant forwards, squinting from the heat of the flames. Mario's fire was bigger and brighter than Luigi's, but the fire that grew out of Luigi's back appeared to have more of a shape to it.

  "Oh!" he exclaimed. "I get it! Luigi's flames are more precise than Mario's! It's like he has more control!"

  Captain Falcon nodded. "It's like the difference between you and I, Ness. I can summon fire to use in my attacks, but I can't really shape it in a meaningful way. Whereas you have more precise fire magic."

  Donkey Kong grunted. "Mario always been strong, but not Luigi. Luigi worked hard for long time."

  "So I guess that makes this a battle of natural talent and practice," Fox said. "I have to say, I'm really excited to see it!"

  Luigi stared down his brother. "Mario," he said. "When this is over, I have a lot of things I want to say to you. But for now, I just want the chance to show you how hard I've worked all my life."

  Mario nodded. He turned slightly, dropping into a fighting stance and extending one hand towards Luigi. "Come on, then."

  Luigi took a deep breath. A lifetime of brotherhood, of chasing Mario's back, and all of it leading to this. He lunged, coating himself in green flames and aiming a punch at Mario's middle.

  Mario twisted, and Luigi's punch went harmlessly past him. He's faster than ever, Luigi realised. Mario brought his elbow down on Luigi's back, slamming him into the ground hard enough to crack the tiles of the roof. And even stronger than he was before!

  He pushed himself off the ground, using a burst of fire to give himself lift, and then spun in the air to kick Mario hard in the face. Mario was thrown backwards, landing on his back before bouncing onto his hands. He turned the tumble into a handspring and landed on his feet, skidding a metre or so more and setting the roof alight. No sooner had he stopped moving, he dashed forwards, becoming the fulcrum for a huge wave of flames.

  "No way!" Fox yelled, leaning forwards in his seat. "That's my fire technique!"

  Samus looked at him. "Seriously? But he only saw it a couple of times at most, there's no way he'd know how to replicate it."

  Link shook his head. "It's not exactly the same, the flames are behaving differently. He's not copying the technique itself, he's just using the fire in a similar way."

  "Your eyesight is really good," Fox noted.

  Luigi gritted his teeth and raised both hands in front of him. He summoned all the green fire that he could, and used it as a shield to block Mario's attack. Mario was like a comet and Luigi was like a volcano, and for a moment they grappled with one another before Luigi lost his footing and was thrown backwards. He landed on his back, and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid a fiery punch from Mario. He spun and came up on one knee, then hit Mario with his own fiery punch. Mario staggered slightly, but regained his balance.

  "That's not strong enough!" he yelled, and went for a burning kick. Luigi tried to meet the kick head on with a punch, but his arm was knocked out of the way and he took the kick to the chest. Red flames burst out his back and he followed them a moment later, tumbling backwards and rolling several times.

  Luigi got to his feet and coughed, spitting out flames as he did so. That gives me an idea.

  Mario closed in for another attack. As he jumped into the air to gain speed, Luigi unleashed a torrent of green fire from his mouth, which enveloped Mario. Mario was forced to end his attack and cover his face to avoid the worst of the damage. Luigi took the opening he had and started throwing as many fireballs as he could. They were like machine gun fire, slamming into Mario and forcing him to take several steps back towards the edge of the roof.

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  "Not... yet," he said. He dropped his arms, stopping the defense of his face, and then brought his hands together. As he brought them apart, a huge ball of fire filled the space they left behind, which was easily ten times the size of any of Luigi's attacks. He hurled it as hard as he could with both hands, and it flew slowly towards Luigi.

  The younger twin increased the speed of his attacks, trying to destroy the fireball before it reached him, but his green flames didn't have the strength to overcome Mario's red ones.

  "You can't overcome me head on, bro," Mario grinned.

  Luigi returned his grin. "Who said that was the plan!"

  Two fireballs slammed into Mario from behind. He stumbled forwards, and his control of the huge fire attack faltered. It crashed into the ground, creating a burning furrow in the roof. When I couldn't see him behind my own attack, he sent attacks that would hit me from behind, Mario realised. He heard a yell and looked up. Luigi had jumped over the top of the giant fireball, and was now above him holding a large green ball of flames in his hand. It wasn't as big as Mario's, but it looked like it would hurt.

  He didn't have time to create anything too large, so he just jumped towards Luigi, covering himself in red fire as he did.

  Luigi grinned. "Thanks for falling for it, bro!" The ball of flames flashed, and Mario felt something pass through him that was no wider than a length of string. Then there was another green flash and Mario yelled in pain as he was suddenly impaled on a lance of green fire that passed from Luigi's hands to the ground behind him. "Luigi Lance!" Luigi cried, seeing his technique work.

  Mario gritted his teeth. He'd been expecting a different kind of attack and had left himself open, but this couldn't be the end of the fight. The lance slammed him into the ground and kept burning, in a way not unlike Ness's PK Fire attack. So you were also watching the others, Luigi, Mario thought. It only made sense - Luigi had spent years working to become better, he would take good ideas from anywhere he could find them.

  He managed to climb to his feet. Something felt wrong - he looked down at his hands and saw his sleeve flickering from white to red. The fire power was running out. But so was Luigi's.

  "Come on..." he muttered, summoning one last burst of fire. His red flames curled around Luigi's red ones, and hit his brother just as both brothers hit the limits of their power.

  The impact of both attacks caused an explosion, shrouding the entire roof in flames.

  "What happened?" Captain Falcon asked. "Who won?"

  Samus and Fox quickly switched to their scanners for some kind of clarity, but the smoke obscured even those. It was Link that reacted first. "Look there," he said, pointing.

  The smoke blew away to reveal Mario still standing, though shakily. His clothes were back to their regular colours, and his hat was lying on the ground in front of him. He looked damaged, but okay.

  Then the smoke in front of him cleared as well. Luigi was also still standing, his clothes also back in their original colours. Like Mario he seemed to be barely standing, but he at least had kept his hat.

  Luigi was breathing heavily, but he at least had the chance to say "How are you doing, bro?"

  Mario spat some soot onto the ground. "Pretty worn out, actually. You?"

  "Barely standing," Luigi admitted. "But, I'm not ready to give up yet. I want to give you everything I have. This is how I prove that I'm worthy to stand by your side."

  "Luigi," Mario said. "I never thought you couldn't stand beside me."

  "It's how I prove it to myself!" Luigi yelled. "I have to give you the best fight I can, so that I'll finally know that I'm not just your brother. I'm someone who can b a hero of the Mushroom Kingdom too, and from now on I'll believe it!"

  "Yeah!" Ness screamed. "Go, Luigi!"

  Luigi nodded at the encouragement from his newly made friend. "Here I come, Mario!" He started to run forwards, raising his fist. Mario took a step back, ready to counter Luigi's attack. It wouldn't be fair to his brother if he didn't meet his challenge with all of his own strength.

  Link sighed. "I almost thought he had it for a second."

  A few feet away from Mario, the last of Luigi's strength vanished and he fell forwards. He landed on the ground in front of his brother. "No," he muttered. "I have to keep fighting. I haven't given you enough. This isn't..."

  He fell silent, as he no longer even had the strength to talk. Mario looked down at Luigi, then knelt next to him. "You did amazing, bro," he said. "I'm barely even on my feet myself."

  "Game!" announced the Master Hand. And that was the end of the match. Mario and Link had won, even if everyone had forgotten for the last few minutes that this was, in fact, a team battle.

  "Well then!" Master Hand said, as he returned the brothers to the stands. "I'd say that was probably the best fight yet. Why don't we all take a break, and come back soon for the next match!"

  He vanished, as did the battlefield and indeed the stands. The fighters were back in the lounge, with an exhausted Mario and Luigi spread out on the sofas.

  "Luigi!" Ness ran over to his friend. "Are you okay? That was totally amazing!"

  Luigi's eyes opened the smallest fraction. "Ness... I'm sorry that... I couldn't win it for our team."

  Ness shook his head and grinned. "It's fine! Winning wasn't the point after all, you got to show off how strong you were! That fight was awesome!"

  Captain Falcon's eyes widened slightly. While everyone else talked with the Mario Brothers about their fight, he walked quietly to the kitchen and leant against the counter.

  Heavy footsteps told him that Samus was approaching, and he looked up to greet her. He was mildly surprised that Pikachu was perched happily on her shoulder, but he supposed they might as well get closer.

  "Hungry?" he asked.

  Samus's helmet retracted into her armour, allowing him to see her stern face. "I noticed that reaction," she said. "What are you thinking, and why didn't you share it with everyone else?"

  The Captain hesitated for a second. "I didn't share it because it's only a theory," he said. "I've been thinking, why did Master Hand give Mario and Luigi that power?"

  Samus frowned. "It did feel strange."

  "I was confused until I heard what Ness said," Captain Falcon explained. "He said 'That fight was awesome'."

  "So?"

  "So," he stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Suppose that the Master Hand has a similar mindset to Ness. Suppose that the whole reason it's doing anything is so that it can see fights that are 'awesome'. Suppose that there's no greater purpose to this."

  "What are you saying?" Samus asked.

  Captain Falcon took a deep breath. "I think the Master Hand might be a child."