Chapter 1 - Xavier the Bandit (G&G)

Darkness.  To many, it was a symbol of the unknown.  To Xavier,
however, it was quite the opposite.  In fact, darkness was all he had
ever known.  In times of hopelessness,  darkness had always been there
to help him reach a new day.  It did not always work in his favor,
however.  The darkness had also allowed the bandit to keep his inner
fears and emotions bottled up, which prevented him from learning to
function in society.  As this train wreck of emotions spiraled out of
control, feelings of violence arose within him.  The darkness had taken
full control of Xavier, and he needed to unleash his rage on the owner
of this cursed establishment.  It was too bad he was such a failure of
an assassin.

“At long last,” mumbled Xavier, “I shall complete my task.”
 Crouching on top of scaffolding near the ceiling, the sneaky bandit
prepared to drop a light on Chubba, who was in the middle of hosting a
battle.  “At long last… victory shall be mine!”  With these words,
Xavier used a hammer to strike the cord holding the light with all his
might.  Unfortunately, all his might wasn’t enough.  The hammer collided
 with the cord and bounced back into his face, causing him to lose his
balance.  He fell to the ground with a yelp, landing right in front of
his overweight target.  Indignant, Xavier scrambled to his feet and
raised the hammer over his head for a direct hit, only to be knocked out
 by the light whose foundation he had loosened.  Barely phased by the
fifth murder attempt that week, Chubba simply waited for the failure’s
teammates to carry him back to his room.

Several hours went by before Xavier returned to his senses.  He
sat up in bed, quickly recognizing his location as the red major league
room.  Then the events that had occurred earlier that day came back to
him, and he fell back again.  “Why is it that I always come so close to
achieving my goals, yet make a fool out of myself in the end?” he
muttered, closing his eyes again.  All of a sudden, the door to the room
 slammed open, and in came his energetic boo teammate.

“XAVIER! XAVIER! WAKE UP!” Skelloetta screamed.

“I’m not sleeping. What do you want?” he mumbled, refusing to open his eyes.

“I SAID WAKE UP! WAKE UP, ALREADY!” She began rocking the bed to
the point that she accidentally flipped it.  Enraged, yet too depressed
to get up, Xavier screamed back at her.

“I’M AWAKE!  GOD, WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM?”

“Well. I’m just really excited because…” Skelloetta started,
proceeding to relocate right next to his ear.  “IT’S SNOWING FOR THE
FIRST TIME THIS WINTER!”

The sheer intensity of the girl’s shriek caused blood to flow
from Xavier’s ears.  His head rattled, and he struggled to catch his
breath.  “Why… would I care… about a little bit of stupid snow?”

“Well, we’re all having fun out there, and we wanted to know if you-”

“Let me stop you there, sweet cheeks.  First of all, rolling
around in a bunch of solid water in the midst of freezing weather isn’t
exactly my idea of ’fun.’  Second of all, I could care less about what
all of you think of me.  I have a mission, and this mission is all that
matters.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get some sleep.”  With
that, Xavier rolled over so his back was to her.

Usually, the bubbly ghost would just shrug off a remark like
this, but this time around she appeared to be genuinely hurt.  Xavier,
noticing this out of the corner of his eye, felt something odd as well.
 It was almost as if he felt sorry.  His inner darkness, just like with
all his other feelings, quickly hid this emotion away.  He had no reason
 to feel bad!  After all, he was a mighty king, a master of his craft!
 Feeling invigorated by his ignorance, he jumped up to his feet, only to
 slip on a blanket and slam into a window.  With a groan, Xavier
adjusted his mask and took in the scene that was taking place in
Glitzville.  Skelloetta wasn’t lying-- there was several feet of snow on
 the ground, and every other battler was out playing.  Their joyfulness
was disgusting to him.  The lack of cautiousness they practiced could
easily lead to someone falling right off the edge of the island.

That’s when it him.  A grin spread across Xavier’s masked face,
for he had just developed a new plan that was sure to succeed.  As he
burst out into the hallway, he thought to himself that this would
finally be the day that his name would cease to be the butt of mockery
among the others;  he would at last reign supreme.