So I turned off my wii u, which argo closed smash bros which was currently running(which was saved on a usb flash drive, a mere 3 weeks old might I add). A few hours later I decided to turn the system back on to play, it booted up fine no issues. I then boot up smash "Write protection has been enabled on your usb storage, please consult manufacturer instructions" well the usb stick had no physical way of enabling it, it was ALL software based. That being said the stick itself couldn't of been corrupt prior and it didn't enable it itself. I unplugged it and re-plugged it back in. Opened smash bros again, boots up fine with the boot screen and theme playing as it loads, the cutscene plays: I skip it and am greeted with the usual "Press any button to continue" prompt. Afterwards it goes into it's usual load screen, only the menu wouldn't actually load. The sceen would just continue the loading animation. I decide to play another game: super mario 3d world. It is also saved onto the usb stick, ran just fine until I tried to save: "Write protection has been enabled on your usb." Same exact prompt as before. I can't send the usb back as I didn't get an warranty from the store, and the manufacturer's site (kingston) doesn't actually have the model (DTIG4/32GBCR, incase anyone's wondering) as an option on their support.
TL;DR, the wii u somehow put my usb flash drive on write protected, this can only be done through software as the flash drive lacks a switch. The drive is brand new. I can't seem to shut it off manually through my pc.