Chapter Text
“PLAYER 2 DEFEATED”
Was the last words Eight heard before all hell broke loose.
He and female Corrin were in their first team match together, facing off against male Corrin and Eleven. It was a 3-stock game, no time limit, Final Destination. Eight was designated as “player 1,” whatever that meant, and Corrin took “player 2”. Everything had been going smoothly, like any other match - until the dragovian hero saw his partner fly off and those three words hit his ears.
It had all happened so quickly. A fierce, inhuman screech rang across the platform, making Eleven wince and the remaining Corrin turn. A ball of orange flames interspersed with purple lightning enveloped Eight like a Magic Burst. Inside that sphere, the sound of cracking bones signified a painful metamorphosis. When the ball exploded, both of the opposing team members’ eyes widened at what stood in Eight’s place.
Among discarded weapons and shreds of singed, torn clothing stood a 7-meter-long dragon. His scales were as crimson as the Dragovian shield, and his huge batlike wings had dark red membranes with purple lightning-like stripes that extended to the base of his tail. Hair ran down his spine - from his head to a soft leonine tail-tip - erect and glowing with overflowing mauve Tension. His head was adorned with slightly-curved, black horns that swept behind fin-shaped ears. The dragon’s black talons dug into Final Destination, his piercing red eyes staring into the two fighters’ souls.
“Uhhh... Eleven?” Corrin asked in a tiny voice. “Is this one of your ‘Command Selection’ moves that I’m not aware of?”
Before Eleven could reply, the dragon pounced. It was akin to a pack of wild dogs tearing into a still-living victim, the beast ravaging his prey with his newly-sharpened claws and teeth. The Luminary and the Dragon Prince fought all they could, but they were both left battered and mangled. The dragon prepared a plume of flame to char them both to crisps, when another two words rang across the platform:
“NO CONTEST”
Out of nowhere, Crazy Hand flew in to intervene with the sudden change in moveset. He grabbed the feral dragon, doing his best to control him despite not completely fitting in his grasp. He performed his sleeping clench several times, much to the fiery protest of the beast. Miraculously, the repeated squeezes seemed to drain the dragon of his rage. It wasn’t long before he started to grow winded, and he soon fell to the glove’s strange spell. Once he closed his eyes, the dragon’s hair relaxed and darkened to brown.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Well, I don’t really have a choice now...”
Eight gradually opened his eyelids with a massive headache. Immediately, he saw the fuzzy face of Munchie at ground-level. They were surrounded by two of his Hero partners and female Corrin, and by the shapes around him, they were in the Smash Mansion’s main hall.
“Hey, he’s awake!” Arusu exclaimed.
As Eight fully opened his eyes, he gained a clearer picture of his surroundings. Eleven and male Corrin were nowhere to be seen.
“Urrrgh...” the dragovian hero groaned. “What happened?” Strangely, his voice didn’t have a gravelly or draconic overtone like the Corrins.
Female Corrin crouched on front of him. Which Eight found strange - was he lying on his stomach? If so, why was he doing so in the Smash Mansion’s great hall?
“Eight, I’m going to answer that question, but I want you to promise not to freak out,” warned the dragon princess. She gestured to Solo, who pushed a full-length wheeled mirror into his transformed comrade’s view.
When Eight lifted his head, he was taken aback by seeing a red dragon in the reflection. He looked down, expecting his normal human hands, but instead seeing scarlet-scaled dragon hands with sharp birdlike talons. He turned his elongated neck towards the rest of his torso, confirming that he had finally achieved his wish.
Instead of freaking out and going on a panic-filled rampage, the two heroes and Corrin were shook when Eight rose to his feet and jumped for joy.
“YYYYEEEEEEESSSSS!!!”
Unlike the Corrin’s dragon forms, Eight’s was apparently not limited to a quadrupedal stance. He stood on his hind legs, dancing as if he never changed. To be honest, it was pretty hilarious watching a 10-foot-tall dragon trying to moonwalk. Even though he made small tremors with every step, making Munchie bounce.
“Hey, could you maybe chill?!” Solo exclaimed. “You put Eleven and the other Corrin in the infirmary!”
Eight paused his victory dance. “I did?”
“Yeah, and fortunately they’re recovering,” Arusu added. “The hands just had a huge meeting with the rest of the fighters. You were out for quite a while.”
Due to the sudden transformation, the hands had deemed Eight unfit to fight. Since he was registered as an “alternate costume”, he wasn’t allowed to have moves that differed too much from the base Hero moveset. In order to for him to compete again, he would have to learn how to turn back into a human. And since the other Corrin was out of commission, Master Hand assigned female Corrin to be his official mentor.
At the sound of this, the tip of Eight’s tail wagged in excitement. Finally, he could learn how to embrace his hidden potential, and gain a mate along with it!
Wait, “mate”? Eight pondered, surprised by the out-of-character thought. Where did that come from? She’s just a friend. I haven’t even known her for very long. And yet - why can’t I stop thinking about her?