Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Before we begin, I have a few things to say that you guys might want to know so you aren’t in the dark about this story…

Question 1: What is UVR?

Answer: The UVR, or “Ultimate Video Rumble” was a series of votefics that inspired both the Megamix Tournament and other similar stories like it. The format was the same in that it was a mass-crossover fighting fic, but it spawned a lot of spinoffs back in the day, including mine.

Question 2: I remember your old Megamix Tournament stories. Why did you never finish them?

Answer: My first two tournaments were fine and I finished them, but as I was midway through the third one I got bogged down with other projects that took precedent and anytime I tried going back to it I found that I had lost the spark I had to keep it going so eventually I decided to just pull the plug and move on.

Question 3: So what made you decide to come back and try again?

Answer: In recent years there has been a bit of a resurgence in UVR-styled votefics, and reading them made me nostalgic for Megamix again. Enough that I eventually decided to try and start it again. I’ll try my hardest to keep at it this time and keep myself from discontinuing it like I did last time all those years ago…

Question 4: What are ‘Big Guys’?

Answer: Big Guys are one of three things: Boss characters, certain characters I deem real powerful or people that are just really big. For each Big Guy in the ring at a time, one extra fighter will get eliminated at the end of the section. For example, Chang Koehan, Sagat, Bowser and the Eternal Champion all get into the arena. Instead of the usual fifteen fighters getting eliminated, nineteen will be ousted instead.

Question 5: Why are Kratos and Kirby Big Guys, then?

Answer: Have you SEEN what those two are capable of canonically? Out of all the non-big, non-boss characters that are super-powerful, I don’t think anyone deserves that status more than those two.

Question 6: How do the elimination counts go?

Answer: The top fifteen fighters in each section will get at one elimination, no matter if they survive the section or not. However, if there’s a Big Guy in the ring, the top fighter will get two eliminations instead of just one. So if there are four Big Guys, the top four fighters will get two eliminations.

Question 7: How does fatigue matter?

Answer: Everyone gets tired after a while. So for every section a fighter survives, one automatic ‘die’ vote is given to them at the beginning of the next section, making their survival that much harder and making “Live” votes matter all that much more. For example, Ryu has survived for four sections and Ken has survived for three. At the beginning of the next section, Ryu will have four automatic “Die” votes and Ken will have three.

Question 8: How do I vote?

Answer: You can fill out a voteform and post it in your review, simple as that. You must give out fifteen “Live” votes for the people you want to see survive the section, and fifteen “Die” votes for the people you want to see get eliminated. If there’s an uneven amount, I’ll even them out myself. In the event of a tie in votes between two characters, the priority will be given to whoever entered the ring last.

Also note that there are side matches going on outside the arena with each section. If there are, simply say whom you’ll like to see win the side matches.

Question 9: Why isn’t the whole cast of Playstation All Stars here?

Answer: While…MOST of the cast of that game was fine, there were some I thought were a bit of a stretch to be considered “Playstation” characters. So, to offset this, I’ve taken out those characters like Big Daddy, Fat Princess and Evil Cole and replaced them with other characters I feel would have been better fits in addition to a few more.

Question 10: Why did you split up the Smash Bros node?

Answer: Smash Bros. Ultimate has…A LOT of fighters. To offset this, I took some of the reps, gave them their own nodes and brought down the Smash numbers to make them more-manageable. I also realized too late that this meant I needed to make some cuts to other nodes I otherwise would have used, but I didn’t want a roster too big it would overwhelm me.

Chapter Text

Here’s the Fight Card for the tournament. All Big Guys are listed with a (!) beside their name, though I may alter some as the tournament goes on. Mystery Fighters are, obviously, not listed here.

Street Fighter 5: (46)

Ryu, Ken Masters, Guile, Chun-Li, Blanka, E. Honda, Dhalsim, Zangief(!), Balrog, Vega, Sagat(!), M. Bison(!), Cammy White, Akuma, Charlie Nash, Sakura Kasunago, Karin Kanzuki, Dan Hibiki, Cody Travers, Rainbow Mika, Birdie, Rose, Alex, Oro, Ibuki, Urien, Gill(!), Poison, Juri Han, Seth(!), Laura Matsuda, Rashid, Necalli, F.A.N.G., Kolin, Ed, Abigail(!), Menat, Zeku, Falke, G, Kage, Lucia Morgan, Akira Kazama, Eleven, Luke

King of Fighters: (47)

Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, Benimaru Nikaido, Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, Joe Higashi, Mai Shiranui, Ryo Sakazaki, Robert Garcia, Yuri Sakazaki, King, Athena Asamiya, Ralf Jones, Clark Still, Kim Kaphwan, Chang Koehan(!), Choi Bounge, Heavy D!, Lucky Glauber, Brian Battler, Rugal Berenstein(!), Eiji Kisaragi, Leona Heidern, Kasumi Todoh, Geese Howard(!), Blue Mary, Billy Kane, Ryuji Yamazaki, Shingo Yabuki, Yashiro Nanakase, Shermie, Chris, K’, Maxima, Whip, Kula Diamond, Angel, Ash Crimson, Oswald, Duck King, Shun’Ei, Meitenkun, King of Dinosaurs(!), Antonov(!), Krohnen, Isla, Delores

Super Smash Brothers: (47)

Donkey Kong(!), Diddy Kong, King K. Rool(!), Samus Aran, Dark Samus, Ridley(!), Kirby(!), Metaknight, King Dedede(!), Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, Wolf O’Donnell, Ness, Lucas, Captain Falcon, Marth, Roy, Ike, Lucina, Robin, Corrin, Chrom, Byleth, Ice Climbers, Mr. Game and Watch, Pit, Dark Pit, Palutena(!), Captain Olimar, Duck Hunt, ROB, Wii Fit Trainer, Villager, Isabelle, Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-Man, Bayonetta, Shulk, Pyra, Mythra, Inkling, Simon Belmont, Richter Belmont, Hero, Banjo & Kazooie, Min Min, Steve

Super Mario Brothers: (30)

Mario Mario, Luigi Mario, Peach Toadstool, Toad, Toadette, Daisy, Bowser(!), Yoshi, Birdo, Kamek, Bowser Jr., Rosalina, Wario, Waluigi, Goomba, Koopa Troopa, Dry Bones, Hammer Bro, Piranha Plant, Chargin’ Chuck, Petey Piranha(!), Boom Boom(!), Pom Pom, Wart(!), Geno, Mallow, Rawk Hawk(!), Vivian, Anti-Guy, The Koopinator

Hyrule Warriors: (28)

Link, Zelda, Sheik, Ganondorf(!), Impa, Lana, Darunia(!), Ruto, Midna, Fi, Agitha, Zant, Ghirahim, Tingle, Linkle, Young Link, Skull Kid, Toon Link, Toon Zelda, Tetra, King Daphnes, Marin, Medli, Ravio, Yuga, Volga, Wizzro, Cia(!)

Pokemon: (30)

Pikachu, Pichu, Jigglypuff, Mewtwo, Charizard(!), Squirtle, Ivysaur, Lucario, Greninja, Incineroar, Gengar, Machamp(!), Magikarp, Obstagoon, Meowth, Psyduck, Kangaskhan(!), Scyther, Miltank, Mr. Mime, Zoroark, Mimikyu, Toxtricity, Sirfetch’d, Delibird, Goodra(!), Golisopod, Genesect, Necrozma(!), Regigigas(!)

Playstation All Stars: (30)

Crash Bandicoot, Coco Bandicoot, Dr. Neo Cortex(!), Spyro, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper, Klonoa, Nathan Drake, Kratos(!), Sweet Tooth, Lara Croft, Parappa the Rapper, Um Jammer Lammy, Spike, Heihachi Mishima(!), Kazuya Mishima, Cloud Strife, Sephiroth(!), Cole MacGrath, Solid Snake, Raiden, Jill Valentine, Nemesis(!), Sora, Sackboy, Dante, Sir Daniel Fortesque, Joker, Aloy, Pyramid Head(!)

Team Fortress 2: (10)

Heavy Weapons Guy(!), Scout, Sniper, Spy, Demoman, Soldier, Engineer, Pyro, Medic, Saxton Hale(!)

Brawlhalla: (55)

Bodvar, Cassidy, Rayman, Orion, Queen Nai, Lord Vraxx, Gnash, Sir Roland, Sentinel, Hattori, Lucien, Teros(!), Brynn, Asuri, Barraza, Thatch, Scarlet, Ada, Ember, Azoth, Koji, Ulgrim, Diana, Jhala, Ragnir, Kor, Wu Shang, Val, Nix, Cross, Mirage, Mordex, Yumiko, Artemis, Caspian, Sidra, Xull(!), Kaya, Isaiah, Jiro, Lin Fei, Zariel, Dusk, Fait, Thor, Petra, Vector, Volkov, Onyx(!), Jaeyun, Mako(!), Magyar(!), Reno, Munin, Arcadia

Shovel Knight: (15)

Shovel Knight, Shield Knight, Black Knight, King Knight, Plague Knight, Specter Knight, Propeller Knight, Treasure Knight(!), Polar Knight(!), Mole Knight(!), Tinker Knight, The Baz(!), Reize, Phantom Striker, Mr. Hat

Power Stone: (16)

Falcon, Rouge, Ayame, Wang Tang, Ryoma, Gunrock(!), Galuda, Jack, Julia, Gourmand, Pete Accel, Pride, Mel, Kraken(!), Valgas(!)

Suikoden Trilogy: (33)

Suikoden 1 – Tir McDohl, Gremio, Pahn, Cleo, Viktor, Flik, Jeane, Pesmerga, Ronnie Bell(!), Krin, Barbarossa Rugner(!)

Suikoden 2 – Riou, Nanami, Jowy, Georg Prime, Sierra Mikain, Bob, Clive, Lorelai, Killey, Luca Blight(!), Neclord(!)

Suikoden 3 – Hugo, Geddoe, Chris Lightfellow, Cecile, Gadget Z, Lilly Pendragon, Reed, Samus, Landis, Mel, Yuber(!)

Eternal Champions: (18)

Larcen Tyler, Shadow Yamato, RAX, Jetta Max, Blade, Xavier Pendragon, Slash, Trident, Midknight, Dawson McShane, Ramses III, Riptide, Raven Gindhar, Chin Wo, Blast Chavez, Thanatos, Eternal Champion(!), Dark Champion(!)

Mega Man: (25)

Mega Man, Proto Man, Roll, Bass, Tron Bonne, Servbot, Guts Man(!), Fire Man, Cut Man, Metal Man, Quick Man, Crash Man, Spark Man, Shadow Man, Needle Man, Pharaoh Man, Skull Man, Drill Man, Charge Man(!), Napalm Man(!), Gyro Man, Plant Man, Blizzard Man, Knight Man, Dr. Wily(!)

Punch-Out!!: (14)

Little Mac, Glass Joe, Von Kaiser, Disco Kid, King Hippo(!), Piston Hondo, Bear Hugger(!), Great Tiger, Don Flamenco, Aran Ryan, Soda Popinski, Bald Bull, Super Macho Man, Mr. Sandman(!)

Chapter Text

(VG Central; Streets)

VG Central was a bustling metropolis tucked away in its own world in the middle point of the video game multiverse. Here, it was an easy commute for characters and fans of all types of fiction, though largely from video games, to act as a central hub of activity and events for characters to enjoy their downtime and for fans to see what their favourite characters did when they weren’t working. Currently, it was a sunny, summer day as the denizens of VG Central, locals and tourists alike, went about their day. A couple of Sly Cooper thugs were seen fleeing in terror from a few screaming Rabbids wearing police hats and waving around batons; BD Joe from Crazy Taxi was seen in the middle of a traffic jam, honking his horn at the demonic-looking ice cream truck that was currently stopping traffic (the driver, one Needles Kane from Twisted Metal, simply looked back at him with an icy glare to get him to back off); a few ice-based Robot Masters were seen operating a lemonade stand as a few Fortnite characters were seen trying to pay for their lemonade with V-Bucks (they were promptly chased away by an angry Freeze Man).

All in all, an average summer day.

In the middle of the bustle, two distinctive figures were seen walking down a sidewalk together, apparently in conversation; one human and one anthro. The human was a tall, blonde man with a short moustache, wearing a red sweater, a burgundy vest over it and a pair of black pants. The anthro was a blue wolf with light blue hair, wearing a pair of glasses, a purple jacket over a striped shirt and a pair of white pants.

“…And that’s why I think it’s unfair to call the Rabbids the ‘Minions of video games’ when, in all fairness, the Rabbids technically came first.” The human said, seemingly finishing a conversation.

The wolf paused for a moment. “…How did we get to this point? I thought we were talking about Mario Kart.” He queried.

“…Yeah. We probably were.”

The wolf looked around a bit as the two walked. “Man. This sure brings back memories. It feels like we haven’t been here in years, SSB.” He admitted.

“I know, Tiny. We’ve both been so busy with other stuff lately that we just kind of stopped coming here.” The human nodded.

SSBFreak and Tinyhammer, the human and wolf respectively, were no strangers to VG Central. For a while, they actually had come to this world quite often for events, some of them hosted by the two themselves. However, that was over a decade ago at this point and it seemed that the two friends were in VG Central this day mainly to reminisce about days gone by.

“So when are we going to get to where you tell me why you invited me here, SSB?” Tinyhammer gave a smirk as the two continued to walk. “I mean, it’s fun to reminisce but there has to be a point to us walking around a world that neither of us have set foot in for literal YEARS.”

SSBFreak paused, and then gave a sigh. “There’s…Something I need to run by you.” He mentioned.

“What is it?”

“Just follow me. We’re almost there.”

“…I think I remember this route we’re taking, SSB. I think I may know what this is about…”

A few more minutes of walking later and the two friends arrived at a blocked-off site housing the ruins of what looked to be an old, decrepit dome with a ruined, run-down hotel connected to it. To say that the site had seen better days was an understatement; Stone was crumbling all around the buildings, windows were smashed and shattered, graffiti had littered the ruins in various spots on the crumbling walls and moss had started to grow due to neglect. And that said nothing about the huge vines that creeped up around the buildings and hung out the windows or the huge crystals that protruded from the walls, creating huge holes in the structure. In all honesty, it almost looked like the huge crystals were the only things keeping the tall, ruined building from collapsing in on itself.

Tinyhammer sighed as he looked up at the ruins. “Man. It makes me sad to see the dome in such a state.” He lamented.

“Yeah. We put so much work into the building and this is how it looks after all this time.” SSBFreak shook his head.

The ruins were all that was left of a complex called the Megamix Dome, a building that, a decade ago, had housed a multiversal fighting competition called the Megamix Tournament. SSBFreak had seen the success of a similar tournament called the Ultimate Video Rumble and, long ago, created the dome as a means to host his own spinoff of the tournament. Tinyhammer had hosted with him for it and had even hosted his own spinoff, the Battle of the Luminaries, in the dome to much success. After two successful Megamix Tournaments and one Battle of the Luminaries, it seemed that things were looking promising for the dome and the people that ran the tournaments there.

Then things started happening. Midway through the third Megamix Tournament, the power had been unexpectedly cut, shorting out all the power in a five block radius from the dome. Because the loss of power shut down the technology used to operate the tournament, the third Megamix Tournament needed to be cancelled. However, during the second Battle of the Luminaries, something more-devastating happened that, in the end, created massive vines and huge crystals that destroyed most of the dome and hotel. The tournament obviously needed to be cancelled and, because the two cancellations had taken a huge financial toll on both SSBFreak and Tinyhammer, neither of the two could really afford to pay to have the damages fixed. The two had taken huge losses in having to cancel the tournaments in the first place. Since then, the dome and hotel had sat dormant, with no events going on inside, causing the buildings to slowly fall into decay under the passage of time.

“Why are we here, SSB?” Tinyhammer asked. “I know you don’t like thinking back to then.”

SSBFreak paused, hands in his pockets. “Tiny, I know you’ve been planning a revitalization of the Battle of the Luminaries in Fictograph City.” He mentioned.

Tinyhammer shrugged. “Yeah, I guess seeing Orange’s Tournament of Kikai there kind of brought back some desire to stage a comeback.” He admitted. “I figured Fictograph was more of a fit for me because…Well, I guess I’d have more reach with non-video game players in a more-generalized node.”

“Yeah, and I get that. But…That means that you may know what I can do in the situation I’m in now since you’re getting back into the tournament business.”

“What do you mean?”

SSBFreak sighed. “I…Got an offer to rent the Megamix Dome out for a new tournament.” He replied.

Tinyhammer did a double-take. “W-Wait, WHAT?!” He asked.

“I know. You know GreyRaine, right?”

“Yeah, he was a big supporter of our tournaments.” Tinyhammer nodded. “You mean he wants to rent out the Megamix Dome for his own tournament or something?”

“I think so, yeah.”

“Dude, you SEE the sorry state this place is in!” Tinyhammer reminded, waving his hand at the ruined dome and hotel in front of the pair.

“I know!”

“You can’t, in good conscience, seriously think about renting the place out to him in this state!”

“I KNOW!” SSBFreak insisted. “Maybe he doesn’t know that the dome and hotel are still in this state! I mean, that ‘cleanup crew’ we got to fix the place up after the second Battle of the Luminaries got shot kind of bailed after a few days so maybe he doesn’t know that nothing’s been done about it!”

Tinyhammer paused, and then sighed. “Look, I know how much this place means to you, and I get that renting the place out would breathe some new life into it again after so long, but…Be honest with me: Do you have the funds to pay for professional repairs so that it’d be ready for Grey?”

“Heck no, man. I lost a lot of money cancelling the third Megamix Tournament and have been relying on my Survivor series to keep me afloat financially.” SSBFreak shook his head. “I would LOVE to see the dome get used again but…Well, I just can’t afford to fix the damages.”

Tinyhammer sighed. “I’m sorry, SSB, but…I don’t really have anything I can say to help you.” He admitted. “I know you want to see this place up and running again and I know you want to help Grey get his tournament off the ground but…Well, look at this place. It’d need a MIRACLE to get this place up and running again at ALL.”

SSBFreak sighed and looked down. “I know. To be honest, that’s kind of what hurts me the most.” He admitted. “I guess I just…Thought I’d run everything by you and see what you thought about it.”

“I understand, man. I’m just…Sorry that things are turning out the way they are.” Tinyhammer shrugged, placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“…Me too, Tiny.”

After a moment of silence, Tinyhammer glanced at his watch and saw that time. “Uh…Look, SSB. This has been fun to catch up but I need to get going.” He admitted. “I…Still have a lot of planning to do and not a lot of time to do it.”

“Yeah, for sure. I’m glad we got the chance to visit, anyways.” SSBFreak shrugged.

After exchanging a few more words for their goodbyes, Tinyhammer walked off, though not before apologizing to his friend again for not being able to help him in the way he may have wanted. As Tinyhammer walked off, this left SSBFreak alone again, standing in front of the wrecked ruins of the Megamix Dome. The blonde man looked at the ruins again, reminiscing about old times silently and wishing that there was more that he could realistically do…

“A shame, ain’t it?”

SSBFreak’s eyes widened as he spun around, finding himself looking to his right and seeing a new, unfamiliar man standing near him, staring at the ruined dome himself. He was an older man with gray hair and a goatee, dressed in a black suit and holding a decorative walking cane in his hands.

“Um…Excuse me?” SSBFreak asked.

The newcomer turned his head to look at the blonde man. “This place here, boyo. I can tell that it means a lot to you but even I can tell it’s seen better days.” He lamented. “What was it called again? The Megamix Dome or something like that?”

“…Yeah? Can I help you?”

“Look, sonny. Just call me a fan or entertainment. I couldn’t help but overhear your plight and I figured that…Well, maybe I can help.” The old man smirked. “Allow me to introduce myself: Shawn O. Gorman.”

SSBFreak paused, staring suspiciously for a few seconds before staring flatly. “Yeah, no. I’m not buying that.” He said.

The man gave an innocent smirk. “Whatever do you mean, my friend? I’m just a humble entertainment enthusiast.” He insisted.

“Look, maybe that guise would work on other people, but not someone who’s started more than TEN new games of Skyrim.” SSBFreak said flatly, arms crossed. “You didn’t even disguise your face. Plus, come on: ‘Shawn O. Gorman’? Are you even TRYING, Sheogorath?”

The man paused for a moment before giving a loud cackle, his black tuxedo disintegrating into thin air and replaced by a half-orange-half-purple suit jacket, shedding the disguise he was using. “Ah, I knew I shoulda tried a little harder than to hide myself from someone who knows about me!” He admitted. “But, then again, it makes it SO MUCH FUN when the people know who they’re dealing with!”

SSBFreak sighed. “Well, now that we’ve established who you are, what do you want with me?” He asked. “Or, I guess the question is what do you want with the DOME?”

Sheogorath laughed. “Why would you think I have ulterior motives, friend?” He asked.

“You’re the LITERAL Daedric Prince of MADNESS.” SSBFreak reminded.

The mad god approached the blonde man and gave him a hard slap on the back. “Tell ya what! How about we discuss business over lunch? I have LOTS of good business details to go over with you!” He said.

“I haven’t agreed to anything yet!” SSBFreak insisted as Sheogorath led him away.

“You will.”

(VG Central; Pub)

SSBFreak sat at a table across from the mad god as Sheogorath indulged himself with a variety of cheesy foods he had ordered, seemingly engrossed in it all. The two had been at this pub for a good while now and the mad god had yet to bring up any sort of business talk he had previously mentioned; he was simply content to ramble on about cheese.

“I swear I had no idea people were capable of doing so many things with cheese! Sometimes this mortal race makes me proud! I mean, look at this!” Sheogorath said as he excitedly held up a piece of cheese pizza. “This combination of dough, cheese and sauce is delightful! And then I hear that these pizza things are so customizable that you can get pretty much anything on them! Oh, maybe next time I’ll throw a few pineapple chunks on it! I’m sure that’ll be a combination no one will have any problems with! No, sir!”

SSBFreak sighed and sat back as Sheogorath continued. “Oh, and those poutine things! Whoever decided that it was a good idea to throw cheese curds on shaven potatoes deserves a spot in my personal pantheon back on the Shivering Isles!” The mad god giddily rambled on as he reached for a side dish he had ordered and held up a mozzarella stick. “And THESE!! All they are is just battered, fried cheese, and they’re still so HEAVENLY!! I need to remember the recipes for these dishes for back home! May even get me a few thousand new followers, eh?”

Holding onto his head, SSBFreak finally decided to speak up. “Can we get to the point?” He asked.

“Eh?”

“Look, you said that you wanted to help me with the dome, right?” SSBFreak asked.

“Yeah, I believe I did…Though, my memory’s been a little spotty since I also remember you having a third ear when I mentioned that.” Sheogorath shrugged as bit off half the cheese stick in his hand.

“…WHY?”

Sheogorath gave a playful smirk. “Whatever do you mean?” He asked innocently.

“You’re the Daedric Prince of MADNESS. You live to meddle with the affairs of mortals because it gives you your kicks.” SSBFreak pointed out. “So WHY do you suddenly want to help me revitalize the Megamix Dome?”

“Whoever said anything about HELPING?” Sheogorath quizzed. “I’m offering to fix up the dome and hotel for you MYSELF. One snap of the fingers and the whole thing is back to normal, polished and refreshed as if nothing had happened to it in the first place!”

“…And what do YOU get out of it?” SSBFreak folded his arms.

Sheogorath laughed. “Ah, I just LOVE it when the people realize that there’s a catch!” He said. “Don’t worry; I’m not going to ask for your firstborn or eternal servitude or anything.”

“…Then what DO you want?”

Sheogorath leaned forward as a dark smirk floated across his maniacal face. “I want in.” He said simply.

“…What?”

“Look, Imma cut to the chase. These tournaments bring in chaos every time one of them happens. It’s just accepted that these multiversal fighting tournaments attract the type of people that make the night so fun and interesting that I get a year’s worth of kicks just from watching it for ONE NIGHT!” Sheogorath exclaimed. “I LIVE for the type of chaos that these tournaments bring in! So, here’s my offer: I fix up the dome for you, completely free of charge, and in return I want in on the action itself. The next time you do a tournament, I want a reserved slot as a Mystery Fighter.”

“Wait. I haven’t even thought about doing a tournament myself! I have too much going on!” SSBFreak insisted.

“Oh, I know. But when you DO decide that you wanna do another tournament, keep me on speed dial.” Sheogorath said.

SSBFreak paused in thought. He knew Sheogorath was very-capable of rebuilding the dome and hotel by himself if he wanted to and it seemed like he genuinely wanted to at this point. The blonde man knew right off the bat that he had no plans to restart the Megamix Tournament in the foreseeable future, but he also knew that this could potentially be the best way to get the dome back up and running again for when Grey wanted to rent out the place for his own tournament. The blonde man tussled with his inner thoughts for a moment, trying to come up with a decision on what to do.

After a moment, SSBFreak sighed and opened his eyes, staring at Sheogorath again. He had a feeling he was going to regret this. “Fine. BUT I have a few stipulations.” He said.

“That’s fine. Hope you don’t mind that I have a few of my own.” Sheogorath shrugged as he reached into his coat and pulled out a scroll. He unrolled the scroll as SSBFreak watched the bottom of the parchment hit the floor, roll along the ground, over a confused-looking Goomba, snaking about for about twenty feet before finally coming to a rest near a table occupied by some of the skaters from Jet Grind Radio.

“Uh…What’s that?” SSBFreak asked.

“My list of counter-stipulations, my friend.” Sheogorath said. “Every time you bring up a condition, I’ll counter with one of my own. Sound fair?”

SSBFreak paused, and then sighed again. “Fine. For starters, I’ll be renting out the place to someone else so that they can host their own tournament at the Megamix Dome.” He said. “I don’t want you interfering with his tournament in ANY WAY.”

“Do I look like the kind of insane madman that would do something like that?” Sheogorath smirked.

“First chance you’d get.”

“Eh, fair enough. Okay, I’ll keep my nose out of his business but, in return, I want a private booth in your tournament.” Sheogorath explained. “So when I’m not in the arena I can still watch the chaos of the tournament away from the crowds of my adoring fans.”

“That’s…Fine. You can throw in a private booth if you wanted.” SSBFreak sighed. “Okay. Next condition: When you’re in the ring, you play FAIR. You put a limit on how much you’ll use your otherworldly powers.”

“Fine, fine. I suppose that makes sense. Can’t have me decimating people with a snap of the finger or unravelling their faces with a spin of the hand, after all.” Sheogorath shrugged as he went over his list a bit. “Okay…Here’s my counter: I want the ability to pick TWO additional Mystery Fighters.”

SSBFreak bit his lip, knowing that giving Sheogorath free reign over a choice like that was just asking for trouble with his sense of humour. “…Okay. BUT make sure that you get people from outside your franchise. I want to keep Mystery Fighters at one per franchise still. So none of your other all-powerful Daedric Prince friends.” He said.

“Eh, not that the other Daedric Princes would really consider me a FRIEND.” Sheogorath admitted as he went down his list. “Okay. Next one: The security team that you always hire for these things? I want you to hire back the two funny ones.” He said.

SSBFreak’s eyes snapped open. “PSYMON STARK and MAX?!” He demanded. “They caused not only me but everyone involved with the security teams no end of headaches!”

“Exactly! The funny ones!”

Psymon Stark was a resident of the SSX node, and the only person present on the security team for all three of SSBFreak’s tournaments, and Max, whom had come from the Sam & Max node, was present in the latter two. They had proven themselves to be insane, attracting and causing chaos everywhere they went, more-interested in looking for fun things to do to keep themselves occupied rather than actually doing any security work. The only reason SSBFreak invited them back so many times was that they offered to work for free.

Now one of Sheogorath’s conditions was that he bring the two BACK? SSBFreak feared the headaches that the two would surely bring. One was a psychotic, pain-seeking snowboarder that talked and argued with his own tattoos and the other…Well, the other was Max from Sam & Max.

SSBFreak wrestled with inner turmoil again for what seemed like minutes before finally glancing at Sheogorath. “…Fine.” He said.

“Oh, goody! Those two were always so fun to watch!” Sheogorath laughed. “What’s the next condition, then? This is fun!”

The two went back and forth several times, each with their own stipulation and counter-condition. Every time SSBFreak thought of something to tell Sheogorath NOT to do, the mad god countered with another condition from his long, long list of stipulations himself. Finally, after what must have been thirty minutes of the two going back and forth with conditions and counter-conditions, SSBFreak had run out of things to add, though he noticed that Sheogorath had barely gone through his list.

Still, the mad god seemed satisfied as he rolled the long parchment back up into a scroll format, taking several minutes to do so. “Well, if you’re done, then I suppose I’m done.” Sheogorath admitted. “I’m glad we could come to an agreement that we’re both satisfied with.”

“Well, I guess I’m as satisfied as I CAN be when dealing with someone like YOU.” SSBFreak rolled his eyes. “So I guess this means you’ll rebuild the dome and hotel and fix all the damage done to it?”

“Oh, that? I did that while we were eating.” Sheogorath replied, pointing over SSBFreak’s shoulder.

SSBFreak’s eyes widened as he spun around in his seat, looking out the window at where the ruined dome was across the street. The dome and hotel were fully-rebuilt and all the vine, crystal and time-worn damage had been completely-reversed. It looked like the dome and hotel had been freshly-constructed and ready to start the next tournament all anew as if nothing had happened to it in the first place.

“W-What?...When did you…” SSBFreak said as he turned around again, only to stop himself when he saw Sheogorath’s seat empty. The mad god had vanished completely, as if into thin air, leaving nothing but empty plates with bits of dried cheese stuck to them.

SSBFreak looked around the pub and, when the realization set in, he gave a frustrated sigh. “Looks like I’m paying his tab…” He muttered to himself.

(VG Central; Café; Six Months Later)

Winter had fallen on VG Central, and the bustling metropolis was no less-full of life than it had been during the summer. SSBFreak had come back to visit this node today to do some major planning on a project of his, and had gone to a local café to sit and scribble down some plans in solitude.

Grey’s tournament, the Okron Tournament, had been declared a resounding success when it had been hosted in the newly-refurbished Megamix Dome. Obviously, he had made a few altercations to some sections of the dome to better-suit his tournament, but all in all things seemed to pass by smoothly. At the same time, Tinyhammer’s revived Battle of the Luminaries had been met with acclaim when it had been hosted in the neighbouring hub of Fictograph City.

Seeing those two tournaments flourish, in addition to seeing the success and attention drawn in by the Tournament of Kikai, hosted by another of his friends, SSBFreak suddenly found himself with an urge to host another Megamix Tournament. He had already scribbled down some ideas for potential fighters and promotional materials for the event that, at the time, may or may not even happen. However, as time passed on, SSBFreak found himself coming up with more and more ideas. He even had a goal in mind to start up a potential reboot of the Megamix Tournament by the summer.

For the first time in years, SSBFreak was getting excited about the Megamix Tournament again.

“Here’s your order! Sorry for the wait!” A barista said as they placed SSBFreak’s hot chocolate on the countertop.

“Oh! Great!” SSBFreak said as he took his drink and went back to his table. “Thanks!”

SSBFreak returned to his table, sat down and prepared to scribble down more ideas. However, before he could start, he glanced at his cup and noticed something was off: Instead of his name, the barista had scribbled “Shawn O. Gorman” on the front. SSBFreak’s eyes snapped open as he turned to look at the counter and, more specifically, the staff working behind it.

Sheogorath stood behind the counter, dressed as a barista. Seeing SSBFreak looking at him, the mad god gave a sly smirk, winked at the blonde man and gave a knowing wave.

SSBFreak sat in silence, staring at the mad god incredulously. He looked down at his list of ideas and paused for a moment, pondering what he should do. After a while, the blonde man gave a sigh, hoping that he would live to regret this choice he was about to make.

Reaching for the page for potential Mystery Fighters, SSBFreak scribbled down “SHEOGORATH” on it amongst the others he had already put down, and jotted down a “+2” beside it…

Chapter Text

(VG Central; Megamix Hotel Lobby)

The Megamix Tournament was officially making a comeback. The tournament host had plastered announcements and promo material on what seemed to be every type of social media platform, and it seemed that a lot of talk was being drummed up about the return of something after a decade-long hiatus. People all around the multiverse were looking forward to seeing the Megamix Tournament come back, many of them still riding the excitement highs of similar tournaments like the Battles of the Luminaries, Tournament of Kikai and Okron Tournament, the last of which having been held in the Megamix Dome itself.

The tournament was due to start in a couple weeks time. A familiar blue wolf walked through the front doors of the hotel connected to the Megamix Dome, stepping into the large, open space and laminated tile floors of the hotel lobby. Tinyhammer looked around in what appeared to be amazement as he wandered over to the empty receptionist’s desk, only noticing that it was empty once he had gotten to it.

Tinyhammer looked around curiously, as if trying to find someone in the lobby. “Um…Hello?” He asked.

“Oh! Tiny, you’re here already!”

Tinyhammer turned to his left and saw SSBFreak entering the lobby through a side door, grinning from ear to ear. He approached his friend as the two greeted each other.

“I never thought I’d see the day where you’d be going back to the Megamix Tournament, SSB!” Tinyhammer laughed.

“Hey, what can I say? You, Orange and Grey doing your respective tournaments gave me a lot of inspiration!” SSBFreak gave a shrug. “I wasn’t expecting to make a comeback here either, to be honest.”

“I still can’t believe that the dome and hotel’s back up and running, man! The place is spotless!” Tinyhammer said as he looked around. “Heck, I saw the promo material for the Okron Tournament being held here and I couldn’t believe it THEN!”

“I know, Tiny. It’s still a little surreal that the dome’s up and running again.” SSBFreak nodded.

“How did you get it all fixed? There was so much damage done to the dome and hotel that it seemed easier to DEMOLISH the place and rebuild it.” Tinyhammer noted. “But you managed to get it back up to snuff in time to rent the place out to Grey!”

SSBFreak rubbed the back of his head and looked away. “Wellll…” He said. “That’s…More thanks to my benefactor.”

“Benefactor? You got someone to financially invest in the dome?”

“Um…Kinda.”

“He means me, doggie!”

Tinyhammer jumped in surprise at the new voice that echoed throughout the lobby. He spun around just in time to see a purple pillar of magic appear out of thin air, dissipating as fast as it showed up. Once the pillar fizzled out, Tinyhammer found himself staring into the eyes of a familiar old man with gray hair, a colourful suit, decorative walking stick and manic grin.

“Ah, the look of surprise when a newcomer meets an insane immortal for the first time! Nothing quite like it!” The old man laughed heavily. “Well, other than drifting off to sleep accompanied by the gentle sounds of screaming rabbits. Good thing I don’t sleep. I hate sleep.”

SSBFreak sighed. “Tiny, meet my benefactor: Daedric Prince of Madness from the Elder Scrolls, Sheogorath.” He said.

“Charmed.” Sheogorath winked. “I go by many names: The Mad Star, the Gentleman with a Cane, the Skooma Cat, the Lord of the Creative. But you, my blue, wolfy friend? You can call me ‘Ann Marie’. Seriously, go on. I DARE you.”

SSBFreak quickly placed a hand on Tinyhammer’s shoulder. “Just…It’s just ‘Sheogorath’.” He reminded before realizing that Sheogorath was holding his hand out expectantly for Tinyhammer to shake. “I’d…Also recommend NOT shaking his hand.”

“Oh, come on! I need hands for my collection!” Sheogorath insisted but nevertheless dropped his hand.

“Uh…Noted.” Tinyhammer said. “So…You rebuilt the dome and hotel and undid all the damage?”

“Quite easily so, as a matter of fact. All for a simple favour of being given a small piece of the action myself.” Sheogorath grinned. “Well, I guess the two of us went back and forth a few times with conditions and counter-conditions for about twenty minutes but we all got it sorted out in the end, eh?”

SSBFreak gave a sigh. “Yes, we did. In fact, I’m honestly surprised that you kept up your end of the bargain to stay out of Grey’s tournament.” He admitted.

“Of course! I’m a man of my word, after all! In fact, I’m a man of many words! Like this one: Fizgig! Like that one? That’s mine. Donut steel.”

SSBFreak turned to Tinyhammer. “To make a long story short, he rebuilt the dome and hotel in return for, among other things, being a Mystery Fighter in my upcoming tournament and a private booth.” He explained.

“Oh, well that seems…Reasonable, I guess?” Tinyhammer scratched his head.

“Ah, it’s good to be back in the old stomping grounds!” A new, familiar voice called out.

“I know! Even revitalized by a mad god it still smells like stale corn dogs in here!” A second voice agreed.

Tinyhammer’s eyes widened as he turned his head again, seeing five people walking into the lobby with two very-familiar figures leading the way: One human with dreadlocks, a white tank top, ripped jeans and arms covered in tattoos and one short, bipedal rabbity creature with a toothy grin.

“HEYA, TINY!” The human and rabbit said happily as one.

Tinyhammer was quick to shoot SSBFreak a glare. “You invited Psymon and Max to be on the security team AGAIN?!” He asked.

SSBFreak sighed and looked at the ceiling in frustration. “That…Was another of Sheogorath’s conditions.” He relented.

The mad god in question gave another hearty laugh. “Ah, yes! The heralds of chaos themselves!” Sheogorath greeted. “It’ll be good to watch the antics they get up to this time around! I’ll have a private booth to it and everything!”

Tinyhammer blinked. “You…Have a private booth for the EVENT. Not for the goings-on behind the scenes.” He pointed out.

“Doooon’t I?” Sheogorath said with a sly smirk. All Tinyhammer could do in response was blink in confusion.

“So when do we get to bash some skulls in? There’s only so long I can stand in one place before my psychotically-violent impulses start acting up.” Max, the small rabbit, said casually.

“Guys, the tournament isn’t for two weeks.” SSBFreak reminded. “You guys are just here to check in and get used to the layout of the place.”

“Hey, the building’s the same, the hallways are the same. Max and I are right at home already!” Psymon Stark, the dreadlocked human, laughed before turning to a tattoo on his left arm. “No, I’m not saying we’re moving here! Why do you take things so literally all the time?!...I know the SSX series hasn’t seen any new games in ten years…Yeah, I know I haven’t had my dreadlocks since 3 but this is the design everyone likes so we’re sticking with it!...No, we’re NOT going back to the mohawk!”

“I’ve…Forgotten how much I DIDN’T miss this…” Tinyhammer shook his head.

SSBFreak cleared his throat. “Um…If I can introduce the security team this time?” He asked.

“Oh! Go right ahead!” Max said. “Psymon and I can’t hog ALL the spotlight here!”

“As much as we’d personally love to.” Psymon said eagerly as he and Max stepped to either side of the three newcomers and waved jazz hands at them, as if showing them off.

The first person introduced, shown to be the tallest of the five security members, was a tall, muscled woman with braided, blonde hair, dressed in what looked to be a riot vest and a pair of jeans, complete with protective pads over the knees. “This is Estel Aguirre from Streets of Rage.” SSBFreak mentioned. “I knew we needed someone with skill on the force for something like this and she’s proven to be capable of crushing an entire street gang all by herself.”

Estel cracked her knuckles. “Heh. I won’t disappoint you. Hopefully the others can keep up with me.” She informed. “I take my work VERY seriously, after all.”

“Weren’t you tricked into fighting the heroes in Streets of Rage 4?” Max teased with a trollish grin. He received a bonk on the top of the head from Estel for his troubles.

The next was a thin, tall, lanky man dressed in a green top, green pants and green shoes. In fact, not only were his clothes green but so was his skin and short hair. A green gas tank was strapped to his back and he held a green flamethrower in his hands. The green man seemed to be giving a smirk, showing off green teeth as he did. “Next we have Scorch, coming from the Army Men franchise.” SSBFreak introduced.

“Ah. I guess that explains all the green.” Tinyhammer nodded in understanding. “He’s made of green plastic.”

“That’d be right. Thanks for the job, by the way.” Scorch nodded. “Things have been a little dull for the last decade or so since the Army Men franchise kinda died.”

Estel lifted an eyebrow. “Wait. You’re plastic and wield a flamethrower?” She asked.

“Yyyyyyep.” Scorch smirked. “Know anyone you want turned into a campfire?”

“Ohhhhhh, I like that one!” Sheogorath said giddily. He was promptly ignored.

The last of the five was a small girl who looked to be no older than twelve, dressed in a green floor-length dress. She had light brown hair and stood just slightly taller than Max, whom was already the shortest person in the room. “Finally, we have Lucia, one of the adoptive daughters of the Dragonborn from Skyrim.” SSBFreak finished.

“Wait. Why one of the Dragonborn’s KIDS?” Tinyhammer lifted an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to invite the Dragonborn?”

Lucia raised a hand, as if asking permission to speak, and then spoke up when the hosts were looking at her. “Well, mama’s real busy back home being the hero of Skyrim and everything.” She explained. “Uncle Sheogorath insisted that I be enlisted into the team.”

Tinyhammer glanced at the mad god in question. “...‘UNCLE’ Sheogorath?” He asked.

“What can I say? I’ve taken a liking to the shouty, hacky dragon-slayer and her kids love it when I pop by for a visit!” Sheogorath laughed. “Don’t worry about Lucia, though! She’s hard-working and has the same adventurous spunk that her soul-stealing mother does!”

“You bet! I’m so excited to be doing this!” Lucia nodded eagerly. “I won’t let you down!”

Tinyhammer blinked and then turned to SSBFreak. “So...Another of Sheogorath’s conditions?” He asked.

“Yep.” SSBFreak rolled his eyes. “But, anyways, that’s all five security team members. Hopefully we can-”

“AaAaAaAaAaAahhhh! I’m a fermented talk-show host!”

SSBFreak froze. Tinyhammer froze. Slowly, the two turned back to the security team and saw a new figure standing with the group that literally hadn’t been there a couple seconds prior, standing next to the confused Lucia. The new figure was a strange, armless white being with a massive underbite, wearing a tiny hat on his bald head. The only other clothing the figure appeared to be wearing was a blue shirt with a single word displayed across it in big, white letters...

...‘HOMSAR’.

“Uh...Where’d the new guy come from?” Max asked aloud.

“Ooooh-no! Mah Jengaship sprang a leak!” Homsar said randomly as his hat floated above his head for a few seconds before landing gracefully back in place.

SSBFreak paused before stepping forward, shaking his head. “Nope. Nope, I’m drawing the line at Homsar.” He said as he grabbed Homsar, carried him over to the front door, opened it, and chucked the white being out the door like a football. “I don’t know what you’re trying to prove, Sheogorath, but-”

The blonde man stopped himself when he turned around and froze again, seeing Homsar standing in front of him as if the host hadn’t just chucked him out of the building. Homsar glanced up at SSBFreak with a blank stare. “Mah flowerbed’s covered in turnip seeds...” He said.

SSBFreak glanced at Sheogorath and held his hand out, gesturing at Homsar indignantly. The mad god held up his hands in defence. “Hey, now! That one’s not one of mine!” He insisted. “But, hey, since he’s here and you obviously can’t get rid of him...”

“Homsar is NOT joining the team!” SSBFreak insisted as Homsar silently waddled over to the rest of the security team obliviously.

“Hey, like I said, I ain’t responsible for bringing him here, so if you can get rid of him, by all means, be my guest.” Sheogorath smirked, seemingly knowing full-well that SSBFreak would never be able to get rid of Homsar.

Lucia giggled as she poked Homsar’s cheek. “He’s cute! I like him!” She said.

“Eh. He’s a solid six out of ten at best.” Max shrugged. “I’d have to lower my standards a bit for this one.”

“...Welp, that’s an image I’m never getting out of my head.” Estel said flatly.

Tinyhammer glanced around. “Well, it looks like things are sort of back to normal.” He chuckled. “Sorry I can’t help you host this tournament, though.”

“Eh, it’s fine. You’ve got a lot going on and you’re dealing with your own tournament stuff in Fictograph.” SSBFreak admitted. “Though, that said, I DO still need to find a co-host that is as capable of dealing with this chaos as the two of us are.”

Suddenly, everyone heard a loud sound coming from the doorway that sounded like a portal opening up. They turned and saw a swirling vortex of blue and purple standing in midair near the entrance door to the hotel.

“...aaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!” A voice screamed from within the portal, coming closer and clearer by the second, as a figure clad in purple was thrown out of the portal like a ragdoll, landing flat on their face and skidding along the tile flooring for several feet before coming to a screeching halt at SSBFreak’s feet.

“...Owwwwwww...”

Slowly, the figure stood up, revealing a humanoid figure in a purple cloak that fully-obscured any trace of his face save for two beady eyes, a belt draped over one shoulder and a green cape that hung down around the backs of his knees. He was using a white-gloved hand to rub his hooded head in pain.

“Ugh...I thought I had met my quota for inter-dimensional portals this month...” The figure muttered, more to himself.

SSBFreak blinked, recognizing the new figure as a particular OC of his. “...KHALL?!” He asked.

The figure turned his head, saw SSBFreak staring at him and gave a friendly wave. “Oh. Heya, boss-man.” He replied casually. “Sorry for the unannounced drop-in. I still don’t really have a say in when a multiversal portal yanks me from my home dimension and where it decides to drop me.” He took a moment to look around for a few seconds. “Uh...Where’d the portal drop me THIS time? Is it time for Artfight again already?”

SSBFreak stared, unsure how to proceed. “Khall, this is VG Central. I’m...Starting up the Megamix Tournament again.” He explained.

Khall blinked. “Oh, that old crossover thing you did, like, ten or so years ago? That’s kind of a weird thing to go back to.” He mentioned. “So...Why am I here then?”

“Uh...What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’m OBVIOUSLY here for something or else the portal would have just left me alone.” Khall reminded. “So what is it? You entering me in an OC-fighting tournament again like old times? Getting back to that RPG Maker game you’ve been putting off for so long?”

SSBFreak glanced at Tinyhammer for support, only to see the blue wolf giving him a knowing glance. “...NO.” He said flatly.

“Hey, Orange and I gave the responsibility of hosting our tournaments to OUR OCs.” Tinyhammer shrugged.

“YOUR OCs aren’t time-and-space-hopping ninjas with short attention spans and the IQ of a sack of potatoes.” SSBFreak retorted.

Tinyhammer gave a shrug. “You DID just say that you needed a co-host.” He mentioned.

“But it’s KHALL!”

“At least if he’s co-hosting with you then you’ll be able to keep your eyes on him.” Tinyhammer pointed out. “That’s quite frankly better than NOT knowing where in the dome or hotel he is.”

SSBFreak opened his mouth to retort again only to close it when he realized that his friend had a point. After a few seconds he groaned and turned to the purple-clad ninja again. “Khall, I need a co-host for the tournament. Can you do it?” He asked.

Khall stood in silence for a few seconds, blinked a couple of times...And shrugged. “Innuh.” He said.

SSBFreak sighed. “Good enough.” He admitted.

Tinyhammer paused for a moment, scratching his head. “Well, now that that’s...Uh...Out of the way...” He mentioned. “Is there anything about the roster that you changed up this time around?”

“Yeah, the biggest thing was that, since Smash’s roster was getting to be...Pretty big, I ended up splitting up the reps and giving them their own nodes.” SSBFreak shrugged. “The Mario characters get their own node, as do the Pokemon, while the Zelda reps are entering with the Hyrule Warriors node and the...I guess Sony-like characters like Snake and Cloud are entering with the Playstation crew.”

“Makes sense.” Tinyhammer shrugged. “I also saw that there are a few less nodes on the list than what you mentioned to me earlier?”

SSBFreak sighed. “Yeah, that’s my fault. I didn’t realize I had that many prospective nodes and fighters until I compiled my list so I had to make a few regrettable cuts to make way for some of the new nodes.” He rolled his eyes.

“Splintering the Smash fighters into SIX different nodes couldn’t have helped much.”

“Yeah, I guess I just didn’t want the Smash roster to overwhelm everything else with their roster of almost a hundred fighters.” SSBFreak shook his head. “But, other than that? I think things are pretty much ready. Invitations were sent out not long ago so I think the only thing to do is wait the two weeks until the event.”

“Two weeks?” Khall blinked before sighing. “Welp, I guess I’m sleeping here.”

“Uh...Says who?” SSBFreak asked.

“Hey, I didn’t exactly ASK for the inter-dimensional portal to yank me out of my home universe, boss-man.” Khall said flatly. “So unless another one just magically appears to take me back, then I-”

All of a sudden, a swirling vortex of blue and purple appeared above Khall, surprising most of the people gathered (Sheogorath appeared to be taking notes while Max looked up at the colours in awe). Khall glanced upwards at the portal and stood in silence for a few seconds. “Oh. Nevermind. There it is.” He said casually. “I guess I’ll see you in a couple weeks for the tourney, boss-man.”

Khall was suddenly pulled into the vortex cape-first and the ninja vanished into the abyss with another shout. Khall’s screams echoed through the lobby as the vortex closed up again.

Estel blinked a few times before breaking the silence. “Are...We just going to pretend like that didn’t happen?” She asked.

SSBFreak, Tinyhammer, Sheogorath and the rest of the security team stood in silence (or floated around aimlessly, in Homsar’s case), looking at each other for a few seconds. “Eh.” Almost everyone responded with a casual shrug.

“Well, if that’s everything, I feel I must go and prepare for the tournament myself.” Sheogorath said as he stepped forward. “I mean, I need to make sure my private booth is up to snuff and all that.”

“You were the one who PUT IT IN when you rebuilt the dome.” SSBFreak mentioned.

“Yeah, but I have a tendency to change my mind here and there. It’s quite maddening, you see.” Sheogorath laughed as he cleared his throat. “Heeeeere, Haskie, Haskie, Haskie!”

Another pillar of energy erupted in the air and dissipated a couple of seconds after it appeared, revealing a portly, balding man in a suit with a bored, dying-on-the-inside expression. The newcomer gave a sigh. “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting, sir. It’s a bit of a hassle travelling between dimensions.” He said dryly.

Sheogorath laughed. “Punctual as ever, Haskill!” He said. “Be a dear and go make sure my private booth is properly furnished for the tournament, will you? Oh, and make sure that the room is stocked with the finest Breton cheese that you can find! Remember: BRETON. Not any of that rubbish Nordic cheese.”

Haskill cleared his throat. “If I may, my lord, the tournament isn’t for another two weeks.” He reminded. “Any cheese I put out will surely expire during that time.”

“Ah! Good point! Better make it the Ancient Daedric stuff then. That stuff keeps longer.” Sheogorath said. “Oh, right! Make sure you remember the ‘you-know-what’.”

“The ‘you-know-what’, sir?”

“Yeah, Haskie! You know! The ‘you-know-what’!”

“Yes, sir. I know the ‘you-know-what’. I’m just checking to make sure you KNOW you want the ‘you-know-what’.”

“Of COURSE I want the ‘you-know-what’! You know I wouldn’t have said I wanted you to remember the ‘you-know-what’ if I didn’t MEAN I wanted you to remember the ‘you-know-what’!”

“Very good, sir.” Haskill sighed. “I’ll be sure to remember to pick it up.”

“Good boy. Off you go, then!”

Another pillar of energy enveloped Haskill, making Sheogorath’s chamberlain disappear from the lobby. Once Haskill was gone, Sheogorath turned to see SSBFreak glaring at him. “...What? Is my beard slipping again?” He asked.

“...What are you planning?” SSBFreak asked suspiciously.

“Nothing that concerns you, believe me!” Sheogorath laughed. “Don’t worry; it’s not going to disrupt your tournament.”

“You’re LITERALLY the god of MADNESS.”

“Just believe me! It’s nothing you need to worry about!”

SSBFreak held his head. “Just the fact that it’s YOU saying that it’s nothing I need to worry about is MORE THAN ENOUGH reason for me to worry about it!” He exclaimed.

“Hey, am I the type to scheme about something behind your back like that?” Sheogorath asked innocently before pausing a few seconds, as if going over what he had just said. “...Don’t answer that.”

Without giving anyone time to respond, Sheogorath tapped the end of his walking stick into the floor, summoning another pillar of magic, engulfing the mad god and teleporting him away, leaving the lobby one less person. Homsar floated by where Sheogorath had been standing a second before. “AaAaAaAaAah! Mah kidney stones are fluttering, Geraldo!” He said randomly.

Tinyhammer blinked. “Wow. You...Really have your hands full here.” He admitted.

SSBFreak sighed. “...Yeah.”

(Unknown Location; Shadaloo Lair)

M. Bison was not in a good mood.

The evil dictator glanced down at the invitation in his hands, looking it over and over again to make sure he was reading it right. But, try as he may, there was no changing the letters on the invitation; it was indeed a personal invite to the Megamix Tournament, something he had actually been enjoying not getting for the past number of years now.

Bison had a complicated history with these multi-dimensional fighting tournaments, to say the absolute least, starting all the way back in the original run of the UVR tournaments. Bison had attempted plots of his own in all three of the prior Megamix Tournaments, the Battle of the Luminaries and even the recent Okron Tournament, but had been handed defeat after defeat in every instance, each of his plans left it tatters at the tournament’s conclusion. He didn’t even get to see his plan in the third Megamix to completion because of the mass power outage (that, in all fairness, his allies had been the direct cause of).

And now, here he was, looking over an invitation to yet another tournament. Bison, at this point, was feeling burned out. He knew that almost every person he had ever wronged in all of the previous tournaments would likely be there. Was there even a point to trying to pull something off? He had more than enough ideas for the kinds of things he and potential allies could do in the multiversal setting of the Megamix Tournament, but he also knew that the chances of him actually being able to pull anything off were slim to none, especially since he had tried so many times in the past and failed each time.

“Oh, this is amazing, Lord Bison! We’ll strike at these people right under their noses!”

...And then there was F.A.N.G....

Bison noticed that, in recent years, he had a distinct lack of support. The dolls were all freed of his mind control, Sagat had left the organization years ago, Birdie up and quit Shadaloo and Bison suspected both Balrog and Vega of having possible secret agendas when before the two could easily be convinced to fight for him if given enough coin. The only undoubtedly loyal minion Bison had left was F.A.N.G., someone whom, while easily manipulated into submission by the dictator, was nowhere near as reliable as many of Bison’s former subordinates.

F.A.N.G. was gleefully thinking at the kind of chaos Bison could reap at the tournaments, seemingly oblivious to the dictator’s sour expression. “Just think, sir! You could have the powers of the multiverse in the palm of your hands!” He said excitedly. “Or maybe you can finally achieve immortality by utilizing the powers of some of the other fighters there that already have it! Oh, I can’t wait! Soon EVERYONE will be fearing the name of-”

“No.”

F.A.N.G. paused. “Um...I’m sorry, Lord Bison?” He asked.

“I said no. I will be conducting no such planning or plotting at this tournament.” Bison informed plainly. “I have tried and failed FAR too many times. Nothing is worth the amount of headaches these tournaments bring, and that’s something I should have realized at least two tournaments ago...”

“But...B-But if you don’t try to plan something then you’re leaving the door open for some OTHER mastermind to take all the glory you rightfully deserve!” F.A.N.G. half-pleaded.

“Good. Let THEM try and plan something. They’ll see how impossible it is to do anything in a tournament dome filled with hundreds of potential annoying pests that will do everything they can to stop them.” Bison retorted. “Let someone ELSE deal with the humiliating defeat and loss for a change. I’ll have NO PART in it, and I expect you to do the same.”

“H-Huh?”

“If YOU try assisting a plot in some form, then some pest will surely link you to ME.” Bison replied simply. “I intend to go, take part in the tournament and then simply retire to my room.”

“O-Of course, Lord Bison.” F.A.N.G. nodded hastily. “You...You deserve all the downtime in the world! You’ve had to go through so much in all of these past tournaments, after all...”

Bison sighed and sat back in his chair. He had a feeling he was going to regret this...

(Southtown; Pao Pao Cafe)

“Hey, Bob! Another round for the table!” Terry Bogard called out, resulting in a huge round of cheers.

K’ grumbled as he looked around the crowded cafe, seeing the likes of the Bogards, Joe Higashi, Kyo and his friends and even some of the Ikari Warriors all gathered for the evening. It seemed that receiving an invitation to another multiversal fighting tournament was a cause for a celebration and it attracted the attention of what must have been everyone in his node that received an invite.

And, as such, K’ hated it. He hated people; he hated crowded places; he hated being out and about and being expected to mingle with people he hated. The only reason he was even IN this cafe tonight was the fact that Maxima had roped him into coming when Kula expressed interest in going. The three unlikely friends sat at a booth to the side of the cafe, keeping to themselves, although Kula was looking around curiously at the people filling in the place and looking hungrily at every dessert that one of the waiters walked by with before going to the menu and trying to see if she could find it for herself.

K’ sulked and folded his arms. “Why are we even here?” He muttered as he glanced over to Maxima.

Maxima couldn’t help but chuckle. “Because sometimes you need to get out more.” He informed. “Plus, Whip mentioned that she may have some intel for us.”

“Why did you even agree to that? You know I hate relying on those army people.” K’ grumbled.

“I know you do, but for the moment we’re allies.” Maxima reminded. “Plus, any info we get on someone we need to keep our eyes open for is appreciated.”

“By YOU, maybe.”

“I was wondering which corner of the cafe I’d find you sulking in.” A new voice suddenly mentioned.

K’ looked up and saw a familiar-looking brunette woman approaching his booth, dressed in military garb. She had a sly smirk on her face as she came over. Kula, seeing the newcomer, lit up. “Whippy!” She exclaimed. “Hi!”

“Find anything off the menu you wanted yet, Kula?” Whip joked as she sat down beside the blue-haired girl.

“I don’t know! Everything looks so good!” Kula replied.

“She’s spent the whole time looking at the dessert menu, by the way.” Maxima smirked.

“I figured as such. Find something you like and I’ll treat you to it, Kula.” Whip mentioned. Kula’s eyes lit up as she quickly went back to the menu before Whip turned back to K’ and Maxima. “The commander had some research done. It appears that both Krohnen and Angel will be expected to show up at the tournament.”

Kula pouted. “I don’t like those two...” She muttered to herself.

K’ scoffed. “I figured it would only be a matter of time before they showed up again.” He shrugged. “It’s kind of stupid that they’d do so on such a grand stage, though.”

“I know. That’s what the commander thinks is so strange.” Whip nodded. “Ralf, Clark, Leona and I are instructed to keep our eyes on them at all times during the tournament to make sure they’re not trying anything, and I want to make sure you three are up to speed on things regarding them as well.”

Maxima nodded. “Thanks for the info, Whip.” He mentioned. “Hopefully we won’t have too much trouble with them.”

“There’s more. We’re told that there have been rumours that an invite has been sent to Rugal Berenstein.” Whip explained. “He may have been involved in things long before any of us entered a KOF tournament but, from what I’ve heard from the commander, he’s responsible for and capable of a LOT of suffering.”

K’ shrugged. “He’s entered these tournaments before just like the rest of us. I doubt he’s going to be much of an issue.” He mused.

“DON’T get cocky, K’.” Whip scolded.

“You should know that K’ doesn’t have an off switch for that, Whippy.” Maxima joked.

K’ grumbled and sat back again as Whip and Maxima laughed.

(Smash Bros. Mansion)

“Are we reading this right?” Link asked aloud as he inspected his invite. “We’re...NOT entering as a Smash node as a whole?”

Mario looked over the invite in his hands, noticing that it was slightly-different from the one in Link’s. “It appears that a-way.” He noted. “But...Neither of a-us are entering as a-Smash fighters?”

The two heroes noticed a shadow fall over them and looked up to see Master Hand floating down towards them. “It appears that the host of this tournament decided that the Smash roster would be far too-big to enter as one node this time around.” The hand’s booming voice echoed through the large chamber where all the Smash fighters had gathered. “So, to cut back and make the Smash roster a little more spread-out, some splinter nodes were created. The Mario and Pokemon characters will, for one, be entering as their own nodes along with fellow reps from their respective franchises...”

“Oh! That sounds like it could be fun!” Peach noted. “Maybe it’ll give some of our other friends a chance to fight as well!”

Mewtwo gave a sigh as he floated nearby. “Now I wonder which other Pokemon in our roster of almost nine hundred were selected.” He muttered.

“Pika!” Pikachu said in agreement.

Master Hand continued on, seemingly ignoring the fighters’ comments. “As for the Zelda reps, they’re apparently entering with other Zelda reps to form a node for Hyrule Warriors.” He mentioned.

“So this means we have to deal with Ghirahim and Zant as well.” Link sighed as he rolled his eyes. “Great.”

“And finally, some of the fighters on the roster than could be associated with Sony in some form are joining with the Playstation roster.” Master Hand finished.

Snake gave a shrug. “Eh, makes sense.” He mentioned. “Though, I guess that leaves me to babysit THOSE two on the ride over?”

The fighters glanced over at where Snake was pointing and saw Cloud and Sephiroth, each holding a Sony-rep invite, glaring daggers at each other. “Um...I guess so? Sorry, Snake.” Peach shrugged.

“Hey, it’s no problem! I’m gonna be with him too, you know!” Sora said eagerly, stepping forward.

Peach and Snake glanced at Sora for a few seconds before turning back to each other. “Just...Try to make sure they get to the dome without killing each other?” Peach suggested. “I know you can do that.”

“I’ll try.” Snake shrugged. Sora pouted.

Meanwhile, Fox and Falco were standing by a window that looked outside, towards the smaller house for Assist Trophies next to the Smash mansion. Isabelle came wandering over to see what the two space pilots were looking at. “Um...What’s so interesting, guys?” She asked.

“Our guess is that Waluigi got an invite to join the tournament with the Mario reps.” Fox mentioned, gesturing outside.

Isabelle glanced out the window and looked down at the ground, seeing a laughing, cheering, taunting Waluigi standing outside the Assist Trophy house, repeatedly crotch-chopping said Assist Trophy house with an invite in his hands. “How...How long has he been doing that?” She asked.

“Eh...About twenty minutes now.” Falco shrugged.

“...He...Knows that the Hyrule Warriors are being repped as well, right? That means both Ghirahim AND Skull Kid will be going?” Isabelle checked.

“I...Don’t think that part’s dawned on him, yet.” Fox shook his head.

“...Are any of us going to tell him?”

“Hey, he ain’t entering with OUR node.” Falco shrugged.

“...Fair point.”

(Valhalla)

The halls of Valhalla were bustling with life and energy, which was quite ironic since this was a place history’s finest warriors went to after dying in battle. Warriors from across time and space, of all different species, filled the halls of Valhalla, and regularly held fighting competitions of their own to test their mettle against their fellow legendaries.

The mead halls, on this day, were where the majority of the life and energy was coming from as the gathered warriors seemed to be celebrating joyously in their own ways, though not from the results of a recently-finished fighting competition but rather a tournament that had yet to happen. To them, it was a joy to be invited to a multidimensional fighting tournament in the first place, let alone one that would be sure to host legendary warriors that each fighter in Valhalla would be honoured to fight against.

A bearded Viking man laugh heartily as he slammed a large, empty mead mug onto the large, long table he was sitting at. “Two weeks! I can barely wait!” Bodvar laughed. “There will be so many potential opponents to fight there!”

An elven woman dressed in green robes sitting near the Viking gave a laugh and shook her head. “Always obsessed with fighting new opponents, Bodvar.” Ember admitted. “When are you going to see that there’s more to existence than just fighting?”

A scraggly-looking caveman sitting across from Ember gave a grunt. “Don’t bother. Remember that Bodvar never actually DIED.” Gnash muttered. “He kicked the door to Valhalla open and just let himself in.”

“Oh, right. I keep forgetting.”

“To us!” Bodvar continued obliviously, raising his mug that, inexplicably, was filled with mead again. “May our experience in this tournament be fruitful and filled with a lifetime of grand battles! To Valhalla!”

“To Valhalla!” Most of the rest of the table cheered.

Down the long table, a dark-skinned human dressed like a sixties superhero glanced across the table. “I’ve been thinking. This is going to be the first time in a LONG time any of us have fought someone not dead.” Sentinel mentioned.

A muscled, bearded orc gnawed on a large drumstick and looked back at Sentinel. “Yeah? So what? We’re all here because we’re the greatest warriors in history, aren’t we?” Xull grunted. “What do you have to worry about?”

“I’m not saying that I’m worried.” Sentinel shrugged. “I’m just saying it’s going to be a bit surreal. We’ve all been here for so long that we’ve forgotten what it’s like to be mortal.”

“Hey, are you guys forgetting something?”

Sentinel and Xull looked up and saw a familiar limbless being of indeterminate species floating downwards using his hair as a helicopter. The newcomer landed on top of the table, revealing a floating body with disconnected hands, feet and head, though that didn’t seem to pose a problem for him.

“I’m not technically a resident here. I never died.” Rayman laughed.

“I still don’t know why you’re allowed to compete in our competitions, though.” Xull muttered. “I could have sworn you needed to reside here in order to enter.”

Rayman could only shrug. “Video game logic?” He asked.

Xull stared flatly. “What does that even MEAN?” He asked.

“Honestly, I’m just glad I’m getting some action again.” Rayman admitted as he stepped off the table and sat down. “It’s been a long time since I had an adventure of my own.”

“You’re talking in riddles again, vegetable.” Xull accused.

“I thought we determined that Rayman was a ‘thingamajig’.” Sentinel lifted an eyebrow.

“You and I both know I can’t say that word!”

(VG Central; Megamix Hotel Lobby)

“Well, I appreciate you coming to check in on how things are coming along, Tiny.” SSBFreak admitted as he and Tinyhammer walked back towards the doors to the hotel. The security team had gone long ago, and the two friends had just wrapped up a tour of the renovated dome and hotel. “I’ve still got a lot of stuff to do, but I think things are coming along...Well, pretty nicely, all things considered.”

“...Even with Homsar showing up randomly, the fact that you have a mad god breathing down your neck and you apparently sharing hosting duties with KHALL?” Tinyhammer asked with a smirk.

“That’s why I said ‘all things considered’.” SSBFreak reminded. “Even still, hopefully I’ll have all the kinks ironed out before the tournament rolls around. I’ve been promoting the heck out of the tournament and I really hope the interest in Megamix is still there after all these years.”

“Hey, I think you’ll be fine.” Tinyhammer supplied. “I was thinking the same thing when I was restarting the Battle of the Luminaries and it proved to be successful.”

“I know. I know. I just hope I’m not getting too far in over my head.” SSBFreak admitted. “I can deal with the occasional surprise or two; I just don’t want something catastrophic to happen and throw things into chaos.”

“You DO realize that tournaments like these tend to attract just that, right?” Tinyhammer queried. “I’d be more-surprised if everything DID go off without a hitch.”

SSBFreak sighed. “I know. I guess it’s too late to back out now, though. Things are all set, the invites are sent and I’ve spent a lot of time and money doing to promotional stuff for the tournament.” He said. “If I had second thoughts about anything...Well, I guess there isn’t anything I can do about it now.”

“It’ll be fine, dude. We always find a way to get through things like these and I know you’ll be able to weather it out.” Tinyhammer assured.

“Thanks. I hope you’re right...”

Chapter Text

(The Arena)

Two weeks passed. The buildup and anticipation towards the revival of the Megamix Tournament had, as it turned out, drawn a lot of attention; more than even SSBFreak had been anticipating. He was wondering if there were enough tickets available for everyone that had made the attempt to purchase a ticket, but Sheogorath had assured him that there would be more than enough to go around. The tournament’s host still wasn’t very confident in putting his trust in someone as maniacally-unpredictable as Sheogorath but, at the same time, he also knew that Sheogorath had been looking forward to this night as much as anyone else; he would want to make sure things were able to go smoothly in terms of drawing attention to the tournament, right?

Sure enough, crowds had flooded the dome the night of the tournament, having sold almost all of the available tickets to a multitude of fans from across the multiverse. SSBFreak, seeing the packed stadium around the arena, felt a tad bit nostalgic at seeing such a familiar sight after so long. He sat in the Announcer’s Booth near the top of the domed stadium, overlooking the crowds and arena, and caught sight of Sheogorath’s private viewing booth sitting across the stadium in a similar position of the Announcer’s Booth. Even from across the packed stands SSBFreak could almost see Sheogorath eagerly sitting in his throne-like seat at the huge window of his booth, looking down at the arena in anticipation.

In all actuality, the arena didn’t look like it had changed at all in the downtime between tournaments. The audience bleachers still formed an octagon around the forcefield protecting the crowd from any stray projectiles or magic attacks coming from the arena, and the arena itself was a simple large, square ring surrounded with rubber ropes and corner-posts, forming what looked to be a massive wrestling ring capable of holding dozens of people at the same time. The arena was suspended in midair, by a mysterious force, over a void of nothingness. During the tournament, this void would house a multitude of portals that would warp eliminated fighters to a randomized node but during the downtime it looked like there was nothing under the arena at all except a black pit.

SSBFreak didn’t know how to explain it, but Khall ended up literally dropping back in about an hour before the tournament was scheduled to begin, having been deposited directly into the Announcer’s Booth by another inter-dimensional portal that the purple-clad ninja was apparently pretty familiar with. It took SSBFreak most of the hour prior to the tournament starting to run Khall through the basics of how everything worked but, knowing his OC’s mind had a tendency to not be…Reliable, also knew that there was a high-likelihood that Khall would just run things by the seat of his pants, which told the host that he needed to make sure Khall didn’t leave his sight for the entirety of the tournament.

The host did a quick scan of the arena, seeing that the audience was cheering in anticipation, and took a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s get this show on the road...” SSBFreak said as he turned to his co-host. “Lighting?”

Khall sat in silence, blinking a few times. “Uh…”

“…Is the lighting above the arena working?”

“I dunno. How do I find out?”

“You flip the power switch!” SSBFreak groaned.

Khall continued to sit in silence. “…Uh…”

“The big, flippy thing!”

“Oh! The big, flippy thing! Why didn’t you say so?” Khall said as he flipped the light switch next to his seat, turning the lights above the arena on. The audience started cheering louder, realizing that the tournament was about to begin.

“Good. Microphones?”

Khall look in front of him, at the microphone sitting on the desk, and then back at SSBFreak. “Yep. It’s still there.” He said casually.

SSBFreak struck the desk with his forehead. “…Is it on?” He asked.

Khall paused in silence for a few seconds, turned to the microphone, cleared his throat and started belting out “O Solo Mio” in a surprisingly-operatic voice. SSBFreak was quick to jump in, shove Khall back and press a large button near the microphone to turn the system on.

“Hey! I wanted to press the button, boss-man!”

SSBFreak stared at Khall for a few seconds before sighing and sitting back down. “What about the portal system under the ring?” He asked. “Is it on?”

Khall quickly and wordlessly pressed a few buttons and flipped a few switches. Pulling one more lever at the end, Khall looked out at the arena and watched as he saw light sparking underneath the suspended arena, showing that the portal system was operational. “Okay. All good there.” He said casually.

SSBFreak stared incredulously at the purple-clad ninja, wondering how he was able to do that so easily and yet not know how to do anything else told to him. Khall seemed to notice the looks the host was giving him. “I know a thing or two about inter-dimensional portals.” He responded.

SSBFreak sighed. “Of course you do.” He lamented. “Is the sound booth prepped?”

“Oh, the edgy hedgehog and his friends?” Khall blinked. “They…Seem to be ready. The big guy’s waving at me.”

SSBFreak glanced out of the booth and across the bleachers. Set up in between the Announcer’s Booth and Sheogorath’s private booth was a third box-like booth, housing the arena’s sound system and vast collection of CDs and vinyls to play background music to. Shadow the Hedgehog stood in the booth, giving the host a knowing nod, as he was accompanied by his two regular accomplices in musical trolling for the Megamix Tournament: The huge, ogre-like Astaroth from Soul Calibur and the young, dark-haired Aila, a human archer from Suikoden 3. Astaroth, in a very unusual-looking case of out-of-character, was giving an eager wave to the hosts.

“Well, it looks like they’ve settled in again. May as well go with it…” SSBFreak shrugged. “Is the Ready Room filled with the first thirty fighters to enter the ring?”

“Dude, you know I can’t count that high.” Khall said flatly.

“Good point. I’d better check myself.” SSBFreak said as he checked a small screen that showed the inside of the Ready Room, which itself was connected to an entrance ramp that led down to the floating arena. The host did a quick head count. “…Okay. Looks like they’re all there…”

“So…I take it that means we’re all ready to go?” Khall asked, tilting his head to the side. “Is that everything?”

“I think it is…I guess I’d better get this event started…” SSBFreak said as reached for his own microphone and flipped a switch near it, turning it and Khall’s on.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you back to the Megamix Dome after a long, long hiatus. It’s been a long time and I know everyone here is anxious to get started, so let me officially welcome everyone to the fourth Megamix Tournament!” SSBFreak announced as the audience erupted in cheers. “As usual, I’m your host, SSBFreak. This time I’m joined by a…Bit of a wandering traveler in a time-displaced ninja; Khall. We’ll be announcing the tournament tonight and be your guides as you watch hundreds of combatants duke it out in our Megamix Arena for a chance at the championship!”

“It looks like we’re still running the tournament how it’s always been run with the same, usual format: Fighters will enter the fighty-turnbuckle thingy and eliminate each other by tossing them over the top rope, though I guess any way is fair game since there’s really no way to get back into the fighty-turnbuckle thingy once you’re out.” Khall shrugged.

“You…You mean ‘arena’, Khall?” SSBFreak checked.

“What’d I say?”

SSBFreak sighed and threw another switch, lowering a large, four-sided screen from the ceiling. It came to life, showing the logo of the tournament for the time being.

“Once eliminated, each fighter will spend ten minutes fending for themselves in a random node, taken there by our state-of-the-art, multi-dimensional portal system. As usual, don’t worry about anything terrible happening to any of them because any injuries they sustain will be healed by our crack team of doctors.” SSBFreak explained. “This format will continue until only one person is left, and that person will go on to join the ranks of Kasumi Todoh and Sakura Kasunago as champion of the Megamix Tournament.”

“There were a few more things we needed to say, right boss-man?” Khall asked.

“Right you are, Khall. Please pay attention to the arena for a moment.” SSBFreak announced as the arena fell silent, watching as the host flipped another couple of switches, turning on some holograms in the middle of the ring. The first hologram was that of a familiar-looking orb with a cross design: A Smash Ball. “As before, all of the Smash Bros. representatives, whether they’re entering as a part of the Smash Bros. node or not, will come equipped with a single-use Smash Ball that will allow them to use their Final Smash. Again, it’s a one-time use, so they’re all under instruction to use it either sparingly or when they think will provide the biggest show, whichever comes first.”

The Smash Ball hologram fizzled out, replaced by a new one. This new hologram was that of a one-handed sword clashing with what looked to be a heavy-headed war-hammer, the two weapons locked in combat.

“Next up, we have the inclusion of the Brawlhalla warriors. In Valhalla, they need to manually pick up their weapons or else otherwise be stuck fighting hand-to-hand, something that each of the warriors fights in the same manner.” SSBFreak continued. “So, to compensate for this, each of the Brawlhalla reps will have constant access to EACH of their two unique weapons, at the cost of a bit of mobility for them while using them.”

“In other words: You hold a giant hammer or a rocket-powered lance? You ain’t running as fast or jumping as high anymore.” Khall added. “This ain’t Valhalla where you have the infinite stamina to carry those bulky things around like sticks.”

The hologram fizzled out, replaced by a third one, showing a series of colourful gems, spinning around a single gem in the middle, in a rainbow of colours.

“Finally, we have the Power Stone reps. At random points during each Section, we will be dropping Power Stones into the arena for anyone to collect. Once anyone is holding onto three of these Power Stones, they’ll gain access to a new, powerful form for a limited time. And, unlike the last tournament, there will be more than three stones in the sections so that means that there are plenty of chances for more than one transformation in every section.” SSBFreak concluded. “As for the reps from Power Stone themselves, they will each have access to their Power Stone forms once in the form of a Smash Ball-like object we’ve supplied to them. It’ll allow them to transform into their super forms ONCE, but once that’s done they’ll need to hunt down the actual Power Stones like anyone else.”

“You know? That actually reminds me of a funny story.” Khall supplied. “One time I was tasked with entering a vampire lord’s castle to retrieve the royal family’s colander. Now, I don’t know what use a colander would be to a vampire lord, but I’d learned to stop asking questions about that guy when the guards found him sifting through the garbage bin behind the tavern. Anyways, I entered the castle and-”

(Sound Booth)

Shadow the Hedgehog gave a smirk as he glanced around the booth, looking at all the music he and the others had been provided. “Ah, it’s good to be back.” He admitted. “Now that the automated music player from the Okron Tournament was unplugged after it finished, anyways.”

Aila shuffled through a shelf of CDs. “Well, I mean, I can see why we were barred from this room back when that tournament was happening.” She mentioned. “We have WAY too much fun trolling people here.”

“You know I could have easily Chaos Controlled us into the room at any point, right?”

“Yeah, but then we’d be putting our work HERE at risk.” Aila reminded.

“…Hmph. Also true, I suppose.”

Shadow suddenly heard a knocking on the door to the Sound Booth. The black-and-red hedgehog walked over to the door and opened it, seeing a familiar cat-like Pokemon standing there with a CD in his hands.

“Um…Hey?” Meowth greeted. “I hope I’m not too late to suggest something?”

Shadow lifted an eyebrow. “You want to request a song for when you enter?” He asked. “Well, we can make it work, I guess. I depends on how late your draw is.”

“AND if we can’t find anything funnier to put on for when you DO enter.” Astaroth pointed out, briefly looking up from a box of records he was sifting through.

“Uh…Well, if it’s not too much trouble, I have this CD here of songs I wouldn’t mind being played for…Like, the entirety of the Pokemon reps when each of them enter.” Meowth replied, passing Shadow the CD and a list. “I included a list of which songs should be played for which entrant.”

Shadow blinked. “Hmm…That seems like a pretty big ask.” He replied.

“Want me to take his soul, Shadow?” Astaroth asked hopefully.

“No, Astaroth. We’ll make it work as best as we can.” Shadow said as he accepted the CD and list. “But remember that we can’t make any promises.”

“H-Hey, as long as SOME of the music is played for the reps as they entered, it’s fine! I haven’t told any of them about this, either, so if you could…I dunno, keep it a secret, that’d be great!” Meowth said as he turned tail and scampered off.

Shadow closed the door, CD in his hands. He looked at the list with an odd expression and Aila seemed to notice this. “What the heck was that all about?” She asked.

“I have a feeling we’re going to find out pretty soon, Aila.” Shadow mused.

(Hotel; Unknown Location)

 Heihachi Mishima stepped into a room, holding an open letter. The aging man looked around suspiciously as he stepped into the room, though not before checking to make sure he hadn’t been followed. Seeing a figure in the shadows across the room, Heihachi approached them suspiciously, though at the same time looking annoyed that he could potentially be wasting his time.

“I got your note.” Heihachi said simply as he stepped forward and folded his arms impatiently. “What’s the meaning of this?”

“The fact that you came showed that what I told you in the note at least interests you.” The figure replied casually.

Heihachi narrowed his eyes. “Bison usually would offer me a cut of the power when I agreed to help him in the past.” He reminded.

“Bison is too narrow-minded. All he cares about is power and control. People like us know that there are things that are…A little more-pressing.” The figure replied coldly. “I think you know what I’m talking about.”

Heihachi stood in silence for a moment and sighed. “You have a point. Yes, what you described in your note interests me.” He admitted. “But why are you approaching me about this in the first place? If you seek assistance…Well, I always thought you were confident in your own abilities to act on your own.”

The shadowed figure scoffed. “That may be, but I don’t have access to my army of minions here like I do back home and there are a LOT of meddlesome heroes in this dome.” They mentioned. “The most I can muster now is two or three fools I can easily get to serve me, but I still need more manpower.”

Heihachi lifted an eyebrow. “And where does that fit ME into things? The most I can offer is Kuma and MAYBE Bryan Fury if I pay him enough.” He replied.

“Because I’m not looking for minions from you, though any added help you can bring with be appreciated.” The figure shook their head. “No. For you, I offer a hand of PARTNERSHIP. That’s why I mentioned what I did in the letter. I am offering this to you and ONLY you, but anyone else we can trick into working for us with promises of power.”

Heihachi narrowed his eyes again. “I’ll have you know that I am MORE than able to sense when someone is planning on stabbing me in the back.” He cautioned. “How do I know you won’t do the same?”

“Because this ISN’T about power. I’m extending partnership towards you because I know what I mentioned in the letter means as much to you as it does to me.” The figure replied simply. “I know it’s something you would fight tooth and nail for and it would quite frankly be foolish of me to betray someone as powerful as YOU in regards to something you desire so much.”

The aging Mishima exhaled and went over his options, glancing at the letter the figure had sent to him. It was true; if this was a simple bid for power then Heihachi would no doubt expect a business partner as cunning as this one to stab him in the back to attempt to take it for himself but, then again, this wasn’t a simple bid for power. He went over what was offered to him and realized that this person would likely be in very big need of help if he was actively asking for it, especially from someone like him.

Against his better judgment, Heihachi decided to give this a chance; if his partner DID decide to betray him then at least he’d be easier to take without an army like he usually had. “Very well. You have my interest.” He responded. “But we’re likely going to need a lot more help than what the two of us can put together on our own.”

The figure stepped into the light, revealing the red-haired visage of a familiar dark-skinned tyrant. The image of a triangle lit up on the back of his hand magically as he held it up to his smirking face. “I don’t think either of us will need to worry about that.” Ganondorf said. “Throw enough coin at certain people and they’ll do whatever you ask. Throw enough promises of power at others and they’ll go to the ends of the multiverse to see the plan through.”

“I hope you have the means to gather up enough manpower, though.” Heihachi noted. “Like I said, I can offer two people…Probably at most if Bryan Fury isn’t in attendance tonight.”

Ganondorf nodded. “Zant and Ghirahim will follow me loyally and I’m sure that ring demon Wizzro would be around to ally with me again. He’s done it before.” He noted. “As for others…Well, I guess we’ll have to see which fools are around to enlist.”

“Indeed. Let me know some names on your mind and I’ll see what I can do.” Heihachi nodded. “But be sure to be quick about it; I got a pretty early draw in the tournament.”

“Understandable. I look forward to working with you, Mr. Mishima.” Ganondorf smirked. “Here’s to BOTH of our health, eh?”

Heihachi scoffed. “Just remember; I’ll know if you try to double-cross me.” He noted.

“I’m aware of that.” Ganondorf chuckled.

(The Arena)

“-beat me over the head with a stalactite!” Khall finally finished telling his story into the microphone for the arena to hear.

SSBFreak sat in silence for a few seconds. The audience had seemed to go silent as well. “…Khall, what does all that have to do with the Power Stones?” He asked.

“The what now?”

The host groaned audibly. “I apologize for that, ladies and gentlemen. I’d say we’ve delayed this long enough.” He said as he pushed a few more buttons. “It’s officially time to restart the Megamix Tournament!”

The crowd erupted into cheers again as a spotlight turned on, beaming down onto the curtain at the top of the entrance ramp. On the other side of the curtain was the Ready Room, where the first thirty fighters were preparing to come out. The audience’s cheers continued for a few moments before quieting down slightly as music started playing.

For the first time in years, the first fighter of the Megamix Tournament was about to step into the arena…

Chapter Text

(The Arena)

The audience cheered wildly as the spotlight continued to shine on the curtain at the top of the entrance ramp, anticipating the first fighter. Once the first fighter made their entrance, the tournament would officially be underway and, with a pool of over four hundred fighters in the roster for this competition, the audience was on edge as they waited with baited breath to see who among the huge roster had drawn the first entry.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen…” SSBFreak announced. “…The fighter who drew number one…”

“Uh…And that’s largely because he physically-DEMANDED to be given number one.” Khall interjected. “Seriously, it was kinda scary…”

Background music started playing as the curtain was pushed aside, the first entrant emerging from within the Ready Room…

“SOLDIER!” (TF2)

Standing proudly at the top of the entrance ramp, and rocket launcher slung over his shoulder, the hardhat-wearing mercenary of TF2 gazed around at the cheering audience. Smirking to himself, Soldier gave a proud salute as TF2’s trademark theme blared through the speaker system. After a few seconds of saluting to the audience, Soldier grabbed his rocket launcher and aimed in at his feet. The audience cheered wildly, knowing that Soldier was about to use his trademark rocket jump to make a grand entrance into the arena. As the audience continued to cheer him on, Soldier pointed his rocket launcher down, pulled the trigger…

…And promptly exploded into a hundred bloody chunks.

The audience’s cheers came to a sudden halt as they stared at the place Soldier had just been standing as an empty hardhat landed on the ramp, rolling down it and falling off, into an elimination portal (and into Worms, which caused one side of the battle to mistake the falling hat as a declaration of war against them). Crickets could be heard chirping, though since it was coming from the speakers it was likely that the trio in the sound booth had set up the sound on purpose.

“…Uh…Please bear with me, ladies and gentlemen. Let’s just…Give him a chance to respawn…” SSBFreak announced. “…And…make sure he remembers to equip the right gear this time.”

After a few awkward seconds, Soldier reemerged from the curtain, looking furious. The audience’s cheers resumed as Soldier begrudgingly trudged down to the arena and stepped in, grumbling to himself and realizing that he had blown his chance to make a grand entrance. As Soldier stepped into the arena, the background music changed to signify that the next competitor was about to enter the ring. Soldier turned his gaze up to the curtain he had just emerged from (twice, for that matter).

“And now, the person who drew number TWO…”

“ATHENA ASAMIYA!” (KOF)

The crowd cheered wildly as a cheerful, purple-haired pop star emerged from behind the curtain and started waving to the crowd energetically. One of Athena’s pop songs was playing through the speakers as Athena cracked her knuckles, waved a few more times and ran down the ramp.

Standing in the arena, Soldier watched as Athena came down the ramp, waiting somewhat impatiently for her to arrive, and jumped back in surprise when Athena teleported into the arena when she got to the end of the ramp rather than jump in.

“Sweet land of liberty, lady!” Soldier shouted. “W-What kind of voodoo magic did you just do?!”

“Oh, that? It’s all connected to my psycho abilities.” Athena said brightly.

“What-now abilities?! Your wizard tricks won’t work on me! Merasmus has been trying to read my mind for years and he’s gotten nowhere!” Soldier laughed. “If you think you’re going to mind control me with those psychic whatsits of yours then you’ve got another thing coming, lady!”

“Uh…That’s…Not what they mean.” Athena mentioned.

“Allow me to introduce you to my front line of mental defense against wizards!!” Soldier said as he hoisted his rocket launched and pointed it right in Athena’s face. “I call it ‘Burning Napalm’!!”

Athena was quick to lash out and fire a Psycho Ball into Soldier’s rocket launcher, deflecting the insane mercenary’s arm and causing him to fire a rocket into the air, causing it to fly out of the arena and explode against the forcefield keeping the audience safe.

“Hey! I was saving that for your face!” Soldier cried indignantly.

“Maybe you’ll have to suffice with this!” Athena said with a smirk as she fired a second Psycho Ball into Soldier’s face.

“ROY!” (SSB)

The red-haired swordsman of Smash stepped out onto the ramp and looked around at the cheering fangirls (and a small group of people beating a guy with a ‘keep anime out of Smash’ sign over the head with his own sign). Giving a nod and taking a breath, Roy held the hilt of his sword, drew it and raced down to the arena, hoping to step into the fight between Soldier and Athena before the former lost the last of his marbles.

“Hey! Back off with the explosives!” Roy shouted as he lashed out with his sword, causing Soldier to jump backwards. “You’re going to kill someone!”

“Um…Roy, don’t you cause an explosion of fire if you charge your sword up long enough?” Athena lifted an eyebrow.

Roy groaned. “Ms. Asamiya, I’m trying to diffuse a situation here.” He mentioned.

Soldier laughed. “Diffuse?! What do I look like; Demoman?! Even then, that Scottish drunk doesn’t diffuse a thing! He explodes everything regardless! Most of the time he doesn’t even remember arming his bombs and he blows them up by accident!” He replied.

Roy held up his sword as Soldier fired another rocket, this time at him. Roy swung his sword and expertly sliced clean through the rocket, causing the two halves to explode behind him as they passed by him.

The redhead swordsman flashed a smirk as he looked up. “Your move-” He said before Soldier rushed up and clubbed him over the head with his rocket launcher.

“What is with you people making me waste my rockets?! Each and every one of those rockets is meant to tell a beautiful, meaningful story as it blows you up!” Soldier shouted as he repeatedly beat down on Roy with his rocket launcher.

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Stop that! Ow! Hey! Ow! Come on! Ow!”

Athena watched the scene from afar and decided that she would probably be better off fighting whoever was coming out next. The pop star left Soldier and Roy to their…Uh…‘Fight’ as she glanced up at the entrance curtain.

“GRENINJA!” (PKMN)

(There’s a man that lives a life of danger…)

(To everyone he meets, he stays a stranger…)

(With every move me makes, another chance he takes…)

(Odds are he won’t live to see tomorrow…)

(Secret Agent Man! Secret Agent Man!)

(They’ve given you a number and taken away your name!)

Emerging from the curtain next (to what sounded like a version of the Secret Agent Man sung by the scratchy, off-key voice of Meowth) was a familiar frog-ninja hybrid, crouching low and striking a trademark pose as the audience cheered. Greninja held up his hands and created some water spouts from his palms, and then shot them at the ground, propelling himself into the air with the force of the water jets from his hands. The audience cheered louder, seeing Greninja essentially pulling off the stunt that Soldier had failed spectacularly to do.

Luckily for Greninja, Soldier was still preoccupied with Roy or else he would have seen what he would have obviously called direct plagiarism. Instead, Greninja landed gracefully in front of Athena, seeing her without a fighting opponent for the time being.

“Ja!” Greninja greeted, getting back into a ninja-like stance.

“Oh, you look so cute! You’d be sure to bring in a lot of fans for my shows!” Athena said eagerly.

Greninja paused. “G-Gren?” He asked.

“And those water tricks of yours! It’ll be like a circus act!” Athena said. “Come on! If we put on a show here and now for the crowd, then you’ll get a head start on making the audience love you!”

Greninja, starting to panic, lashed out and threw a shuriken of water at Athena, whom teleported out of the way easily and showed off to the crowd for a seconds before looking at her opponent again. “Great! Let’s keep doing this!” She urged. “We’ll need to put the audience into a good mood for when they come see our show!”

Greninja suddenly realized he wished he was fighting Soldier…

“MENAT!” (SF5)

Rose’s apprentice emerged from the curtain to a loud cheer, waving to the crowd as her crystal ball floated around her gracefully. Menat walked down the ramp, seemingly taking her time, as she scanned the arena, looking as though she was looking for someone specific.

“Hmm…I know Master Rose told me to watch for them to warn them of her vision, but I have no idea when they’ll show up in the arena…” Menat muttered to herself. “I…Guess I’ll just have to wait in the arena until they enter…”

Soldier looked up as he was continuing to bludgeon Roy with his rocket launcher in time to see Menat warp into the arena in a similar fashion to Athena. “Augh! Another wizard?! Where do these vermin keep coming from?!” Soldier said as he looked around. “Where are you, Merasmus?! I know you’re pranking me again! I TOLD you I’d have your rent money on Thursday!...Oh, wait. It’s Saturday, isn’t it?”

“What in the world are you babbling about?” Menat lifted an eyebrow as she came over.

“Ha! I’m onto you, wizard! You think you’ll wipe my mind and make me do crude things against my will so easily?! Well, the joke’s on you! Merasmus tried doing that already!” Soldier laughed. “What do you have to say about THAT, foolish wizard lady?!”

Menat blinked a few times and blasted Soldier in the face with a shot of soul energy that fired from her levitating crystal ball, knocking the deranged mercenary off of Roy. Menat took the time to help Roy up. “Are you okay?” She asked.

“…M-My friends call me...‘Moon Unit’…” Roy said, in a daze, as he struggled to stay on his feet. He was promptly brought back to reality by Menat backhanding him across the face. “A-Ah!...Oh…Um, thanks for that. I really wasn’t expecting that guy to be so relentless…”

“I won’t know until the arena is filled, but my aura readings told me he’s the most-dangerous person in the arena so far.” Menat explained. “It’d be real stupid to try and take him unprepared.”

“Yeah, I…Know that now…” Roy rubbed his head painfully.

“SACKBOY!” (PSAS)

Emerging from the curtain next was a small doll-like figure, much smaller than anyone else thus far, waving cheerily to the audience for a few seconds before eagerly jogging down to the arena. On the way down, Sackboy brought up his menu and summoned something to help him clear the gap between the entrance ramp in the arena. Sackboy, mid-run, decided on a rocket, pulling it out of his menu and into reality as he jumped onto it and rode it into the air, soaring straight towards the arena.

Greninja looked up, saw Sackboy-riding-a-rocket flying towards the fight he was having with Athena and quickly ninja-teleported out of the way in a panic. Athena paused, looked back and saw Sackboy’s rocket falling towards her. The pop idol yelped and teleported herself, causing Sackboy to hit the canvas of the arena and blow up his rocket, launching the cloth doll being forward several feet, landing awkwardly on his face but pushing himself to his feet with an expression that could only be joy.

Athena stood over Sackboy, having teleported out of range of his rocket’s explosion, and folded her arms. “Hey! Someone could have gotten seriously hurt!” She scolded.

Sackboy stared up at Athena with a confused expression.

“Look, I won’t deny that you made…Well, a spectacular entrance. In fact I’d say that you may just be something else my tour needs…” Athena mused. Greninja was seen slowly tiptoeing away behind her. “B-But I can’t have you just endangering everyone around you like that!”

Sackboy tilted his head, stood in silence for a few seconds…And then threw a banana peel into Athena’s face before running away with a childish grin on his face.

Athena ripped the banana peel off her face and narrowed her eyes. “Oh, you’re going to get it, now!” She said as she tossed the banana peel behind her and rushed off after Sackboy.

“BOOM BOOM!” (SMB)

“Wait! Demoman told the guys in charge his college nickname?” Soldier suddenly looked up at the entrance ramp after recovering from another blast of soul power to his face. However, instead of seeing a familiar demolition expert drunkenly staggering down the ramp, he instead saw a huge turtle-like creature with huge fists charging down the ramp instead. “Huh…Demo kinda looks different…”

Boom Boom reached the end of the ramp and leapt into the air, huge arms flailing wildly as he soared into the arena and landed on the canvas with a loud crash. Setting his sights on Roy and Menat, Boom Boom narrowed his eyes and charged over, flattening Soldier as he ran over him. Running over to Roy and Menat, Boom Boom pulled a huge fist backwards, winding it up for a punch…

Roy quickly got in front of Menat and held up his sword to block. Boom Boom’s fist made contact with Roy’s blade and all of a sudden the redhead swordsman countered his attack, launching the huge, angry Koopa backwards, causing him to land shell-down beside Soldier.

“Ugh…King Bowser warned me about those anime swordsmen guys…” Boom Boom muttered to himself as he got back into a standing position. “Try that again, punk! It won’t work on me a second time!”

Roy smirked. “YOU I know I can take. You’re just a big meathead that thinks with his fists.” He noted.

“And what’s wrong with that?!” Boom Boom snapped. “You TRYING to make me mad?!”

Menat focused her mind on Boom Boom and lifted an eyebrow. “Strange…His mind seems…Different. It’s almost as if he DOES use his actions think for him…” She noted. She was about to step forward and help Roy face the angry Boom Boom before she paused, sensing a strange, unfamiliar aura coming from the entrance ramp. She glanced towards the curtain, realizing that the next fighter was the source of the strange aura…

“ORION!” (BH)

Stepping out from the entrance curtain next was a fully-armoured figure wearing white and golden plating. However, rather than be greeted by cheers from the audience, Brawlhalla’s resident mysterious spaceman was greeted by boos from most of the audience around him.

Orion looked around curiously. “Huh…Wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction…” He mused as he started making his way down to the ring, though suddenly felt himself getting pelted with objects. Looking around again, he saw that the audience near the entrance ramp was hurling wheels of cheese at him. “…Okay. That reaction I guess I was expecting.” He shrugged as he continued on, deciding to ignore the jeering and chalk it up as salty people.

Menat approached Orion as the mysterious knight landed in the ring. “Your aura…It’s unlike anything I’ve seen before…” She noted. “It’s just…Shrouded in a mysterious cloud I can’t see behind.”

Orion didn’t seem fazed by Menat’s comment and summoned a futuristic-looking spear into his hands. “Yeah. There are a lot of things you don’t need to know about me.” He mentioned.

Menat narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she got into a stance. “This is something I can’t ignore…Master Rose wouldn’t want me to sweep it under the rug, anyways.” She shook her head.

Orion stoically got into a stance, the jet boosters on his back slowly coming to life. “You don’t know what you’re getting into…” He warned.

(Announcer’s Booth)

Khall blinked in confusion. “Uh…Hey, boss-man? What’s up with the people throwing all that cheese at the weird, edgy cyber-knight-guy?” He asked.

“You’ve…Obviously never faced Orion online in Brawlhalla before.” SSBFreak gave a sigh.

“Why would I face Orion online? Does he play online?”

“That was a rhetorical question, Khall.”

“What do rats have to do with this? Is it because they like cheese?”

“That’s…” SSBFreak started before he stopped himself, realizing that he was fighting a losing battle. “Just…Hey, how about you try calling up the security team and make sure they’ve checked in? They need to start doing their rounds pretty soon.”

“Oh! Sure thing!” Khall said as he grabbed at a phone on the desk and paused. “Um…What’s their number, again?”

“Just push the big button on the phone that has Max’s head on it.” SSBFreak sighed.

(Sound Booth)

Astaroth gave a hard laugh. “Oh, I’ve missed doing this! It’s just not the same when it’s not in the original dome!” He admitted. “This is the most fun I have when not devouring a soul!”

“So why the heck did Meowth give you that CD, Shadow?” Aila asked as Shadow took a CD out of the sound system, having used it to play Greninja’s opening theme.

“Honestly, I don’t know. This whole CD is just covers of him singing other songs that he wants to use for the rest of the Pokemon crew.” Shadow admitted. “Part of me thinks he wanted to troll the rest of them but another part thinks he just wants to show off his mixtape.”

Astaroth scratched his head. “Why did that little cat thing speak, anyways? I thought the only one that could talk was that Mewtwo thing.” He mentioned.

“Better question: When did he decide to try his hand at SINGING?” Shadow asked. “That voice was as grating as that green bird Sonic and his friends raced hoverboards with a few times.”

Aila blinked. “Didn’t Meowth have a cancelled game where he played a guitar?” She shrugged. “Maybe that’s where he’s getting it from?”

(Hotel; Restaurant)

“Okay! One salmon fillet, coming up!” The head chef of the restaurant, Chef Kawasaki from the Kirby franchise, said as he finished taking a customer’s order. “Just head on over to your table and we’ll have your order out shortly.”

When SSBFreak looked to man the stores and eateries in the dome and hotel, he realized that he needed to look elsewhere for the talent and manpower to run things at least semi-professionally. For the restaurant, SSBFreak eventually found Chef Kawasaki and hired him on to be the head chef for the night while, at the same time, hiring a couple other well-known chefs to help out and prepare the food.

Chef Kawasaki turned to the back wall of the restaurant, where there was a hole cut into peeking into the kitchen. “Okay, Chef! One salmon fillet and the homestyle fries!” He called out.

Poking his head into view was a familiar humanoid dressed like a chef, with bushy eyebrows and a thick mustache. “Oh! Okie-dokie!” The chef said in a thick, barely-understandable Swedish accent. “Tater-taters wiff der fishie-fishe!”

Leaving the Swedish Chef to prepare the meal, Chef Kawasaki turned to the customer. “He’ll bring it right out, but please give it time.” He said. “You’re not due to enter the arena for a while, are you?”

Standing at the counter, having just order his food, was a small, balding man dressed as a scientist, with black facial hair and a big N in the middle of his forehead. “No, I got a decent draw tonight.” Dr. Cortex insisted with a handwave. “I can afford to treat myself to a decent meal before I enter the arena. May even put me in a good mood.”

Chef Kawasaki. “Just checkin’, sir. We don’t want your food getting cold because you had to leave for the arena.” He said while, behind him in the kitchen, the Swedish Chef held a knife above his head only for a live fish to jump up and slap him in the face with its tail.

Cortex gave a nod as he turned and walked over to a table that was already occupied by one other person: A man similarly balding and dressed as a scientist but with gray facial hair rather than black (in addition to being at least two feet taller than Cortex). He was sitting at the table and appeared to be checking something on a tablet of some kind.

“Checking in on your bumbling Robot Masters, Albert?” Cortex said with a smirk as he approached the table.

Dr. Wily shot Cortex a glare as the shorter scientist sat down at the table. “You know, that’s rich coming from YOU considering the help YOU usually get.” The older scientist retorted.

Cortex rolled his eyes. “Bumbling or not, at least they can get the job done and aren’t weak to each other’s weapons.” He replied. “I believe you brought with you the one that’s actually weak to his OWN weapon?”

“Can we PLEASE have a business conversation without devolving into petty insults?!” Wily complained. “I thought that was why we were here in the first place!”

“I know. I know. It’s just that you’ve always been so much fun to rile up.” Cortex chuckled. Wily grumbled as the shorter scientist continued. “Now, I assume that you got my memo before we arrived here?”

“I did, and I agree that this chance at that kind of power is too good to pass up.” Wily nodded. “But…Here’s the catch. We both know each other FAR too well. How do either of us trust the other to not try and take all the power for themselves?”

Cortex twirled his mustache in thought for a moment before giving a smirk. “Think of it this way: The power we could attain is FAR MORE than enough for either of us.” He admitted. “We may be old rivals but we’re still scientists at heart. It’d be, quite frankly, foolish to not divide everything up. There’s a respect between us, isn’t there?”

Wily stared flatly, making Cortex’s smirk drop. He sighed. “Fine. Neither of us trusts the other. We can agree on that. But we both know we can’t pull this off without each other, right?” He said. “We both have the brains, but you have the technology and I have the manpower.”

“I have NINE loyal Robot Masters.” Wily reminded.

“I have Koala Kong and Tiny Tiger. Each of them can bench-press half your scrap heap robots.” Cortex countered.

Wily sighed. “Okay. I’ll concede that you have a point, but I think we may need some additional help for something this big.” He said. “Someone as intelligent as we are, perhaps.”

Cortex pondered for a moment. “I wonder if we can track down Ivo.” He mentioned. “We know the blue hedgehog is entering with the Smash fighters, so Ivo’s probably not far behind with an army of his own.”

Wily folded his arms. “I trust Eggman far less than I trust YOU.” He said. “He’s tried and failed to take over the world more times than either of us and has betrayed pretty much everyone that he’s worked with.”

“If we go into that with that mindset, then at least we’ll know to expect it.” Cortex reasoned. “Besides, do YOU know of anyone smart enough for us to enlist in a plan this big?”

Wily paused for a moment, then sighed. “No. No, I don’t. It pains me to say this but perhaps Eggman IS our best bet.” He admitted. “But that’s assuming he’s come here to begin with.”

“I’ll send my minions to search him out. He HAS to be here, though.” Cortex shook his head. “There’s no way he would pass up a chance to destroy his hedgehog enemy.”

In the meantime, Kawasaki had just gotten off the phone with someone and scribbled down an order. “Okay. One caprice salad; shouldn’t take too long to make…” He muttered as he turned towards the kitchen, where the Swedish Chef was heard screaming. “How’s that salmon coming along, Chef?”

By this point, the salmon now had the Swedish Chef in a headlock as he was staring out from a corner of the kitchen window, looking like he was in pain. “Um…D-Der fishie-fishie’s okie-dokie!” He said, trying to sound assured, but the sight of the salmon having him in a headlock was showing otherwise. The salmon quickly knocked him down, pushing him out of view from the bottom of the kitchen window. The salmon was seen standing up, and then jumped into the air, doing an elbow-drop down past the kitchen window. The Swedish Chef’s shouts of pain continued.

“Um…Okay. I have a salad to make, so if you need help with that, let me know.” Kawasaki said as he walked over to a prep counter.

(The Arena)

“YOUNG LINK!” (HW)

The first of the three Links emerged from the curtain, Keaton Mask on the side of his head and large sword at his side, though the Fierce Deity Mask hung around his belt, ready to be thrown on at a moment’s notice. The child Link waved to the crowd before energetically running down to the ring with all the courage that came with being a Link, leaping in.

Soldier was in the process of firing more rockets everywhere, trying to hit Boom Boom in the back while the huge Koopa was dealing with Roy, only for the Boom Boom’s shell to block all of the explosions, when he saw Young Link land in the ring. The deranged man gave a laugh as the small, young fighter came jogging over to him. “Son, I think you must have made a wrong turn! This is a fighting arena, where only the toughest, bravest warriors gather!” He said. “The playground must be somewhere back from where you came from!”

Young Link smirked and brandished his sword. “No, I’m right where I want to be.” He insisted.

Soldier’s response was to point his rocket launcher straight at Young Link’s face. “Eh, I tried. You knew what you were getting into, son.” He said simply.

Young Link’s response was to grab the Fierce Deity Mask and throw it on, engulfing him in a bright light that, when faded, revealed that Young Link had transformed into a full-grown adult with glowing eyes, facial markings and an even-larger sword. The transformed Young Link lashed out with his sword and knocked Soldier’s rocket launcher away.

“Oh, come on! How many of you filthy wizards did Merasmus hire, anyways?!” Soldier demanded as he pulled his shovel into view. “I TOLD him I’d get him his rent money!”

“PAHN!” (ST)

Standing outside the curtain next was a young, dark-haired monk (and one of Tir McDohl’s inner circle of allies), ignoring the reaction the crowd around him was giving. He tried to not care what the audience thought of him, trying to push a few negative thoughts from his mind as he felt he was unworthy of praise in the first place.

Pahn stepped forward and marched down the entrance ramp after cracking his knuckles to prepare for battle. He didn’t know when Tir, Gremio or Cleo entered the arena, but he told himself that he wanted to make sure he cleaned up as best as he could until one of them entered the arena.

(Here we come…Walking down the street…)

(We get the funniest looks from…Everyone we meet…)

Pahn froze, suddenly realizing that a song was playing despite him not requesting one.

(Hey! Hey! We’re the Monk-ees!)

(And people say we Monk-ey around!)

(But we’re too busy singin’ to put anybody down!)

Sure enough, when Pahn glanced up at the Sound Booth, he saw Aila giving Shadow a high-five while Astaroth was already rearing back and laughing his head off. Pahn tried to ignore the mismatched trio trolling him from the Sound Booth as he continued on his way while the Monkees theme song continued to play over the speakers.

Pahn stepped into the arena and quickly ducked as a flying Greninja was thrown over him. Apparently, with Athena preoccupied with Sackboy, Greninja had taken it upon himself to try and help Roy with Boom Boom and was having problems. Pahn quickly helped the frog-ninja up.

“I see you’re having trouble with the big guy.” Pahn noted.

“Ja…” Greninja muttered, ashamed that he was having so much trouble with the large opponent.

“Here, let me help.” Pahn offered as his fist started glowing, revealing that his Boar Rune was about to take effect as he turned towards Boom Boom.

Pahn suddenly shot past Roy and straight into Boom Boom’s chest, delivering a powerful blow amplified by his rune’s power. This was enough to launch Boom Boom flying far enough away to remove him from the fight for now, at least long enough for Roy to catch his breath.

Roy sighed in relief. “Thanks. He was starting to wear me down.” He admitted.

“We can wear HIM down together. He’s the biggest threat right now.” Pahn suggested as Greninja stepped up beside him with another “Ja!”.

Roy nodded and drew his sword again. “Agreed.”

“MEITENKUN!” (KOF)

(By the way, by the way, by the way, I’m not okay!)

(By the way, by the way, by the way, I’m not okay!)

(By the way, by the way, by the way, I’m not okay!)

(To be awake is the only thing I want!)

(With you, I’m just walking in my sleep!)

(To be awake is the only thing I want!)

(With you, I’m just walking in my sleep!)

Standing outside the curtain and already half-asleep, Meitenkun clutched his pillow close to him and yawned. Seemingly oblivious to the cheers of the crowd around him, Meitenkun staggered down to the arena in a sleepy daze before reaching the end of the ramp and groggily stepping in.

As Meitenkun entered the arena, Sackboy rushed by with Athena still chasing him. If the small doll were capable of laughter, you could bet he’d be having the time of his life as he pulled a small piano out of his menu and dropped it behind him as he ran.

As Athena saw the piano hitting the canvas, she teleported through the obstacle in an attempt to get closer to Sackboy. He had proven to be slippery enough to keep himself from getting caught and, to be frank, it just felt like the cloth doll was toying with her at this point. Athena was even starting to doubt if it was even worth enlisting Sackboy into her tour.

Suddenly, Athena came to a stop as she saw Meitenkun laying on the canvas, curled up with his pillow, and holding onto Sackboy like a teddy bear. Sackboy glanced up at Athena, gave a cheeky grin and waved as best as he could while Meitenkun was holding onto him.

“Um…Mein? Can you maybe let him go?” Athena asked.

Meitenkun drowsily opened one eye and looked up at Athena. “…W-Whuh?…N…Nah, I need a nap and I needed a teddy bear…” He mumbled.

Athena paused, going over her options. She realized that she didn’t want to deal with an awake Meitenkun and that meant that disturbing him by taking Sackboy was out of the question. “Looks like I’m going to have to find someone else for now…” She mused as she turned around and walked off.

Suddenly, the lights near the entrance curtain darkened and the spotlights shining on the curtain brightened. It was clear that the next competitor to come out was someone that the hosts were about to hype, and the audience seemed to know what was coming…

“Mystery…Fighter…” A robotic, droning voice said through the speakers. “…ONE…”

The curtain opened as all the lights suddenly returned to normal…

“LORD HATER!” (Wander Over Yonder)

Standing outside of the entrance curtain was a villainous-looking skeleton-like being in a cloak. He bore a menacing stance, laughed maniacally and lifted his hands to the sky and called down what looked to be electrical magic into his hands as the crowd erupted in cheers around him. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that he was wearing very-visible, colourful sneakers he may have been taken a bit more-seriously.

Lord Hater cackled in glee as he looked around at the cheering audience. “They love me! Oh, they really love me!” He said in surprise. “They’re not even WAITING for me to take this planet over before they start cheering me on! Ha! This’ll be easier than I thought!”

With a newfound confidence in his stride, Lord Hater marched down the ramp to the ring and leapt over the gap between the two before catching his foot on the top rope as he was entering, tumbling in awkwardly and landing on the mat canvas flat on his face. Lord Hater promptly pushed himself up and spun around to glare at the audience. “NO ONE SAW THAT!” He snapped.

Lord Hater set his sights on the big fight between Boom Boom and the trio of Greninja, Roy and Pahn. Lord Hater smirked and rushed over to join the fight, clambering on top of the huge Koopa’s back and getting into a standing position.

“H-Hey! What gives?!” Boom Boom demanded.

“Listen up! I shall aid you in kicking those annoying good guys’ butts in return for your allegiance when I take over this world!” Lord Hater instructed as he gathered up more magical lightning in his hands.

“Hey, I’ve already GOT a boss!” Boom Boom snapped.

“Well, maybe he and I can discuss a timeshare or something.” Lord Hater shrugged. “Now ATTACK!”

Roy jumped backwards as Lord Hater rained down lightning at the canvas near his feet. Boom Boom seemed to relent that he could use the help as he rushed headlong into battle again with Hater on his back.

“KAYA!” (BH)

Dressed in her fur suit despite not needing it indoors, the dark-haired teenager adjusted the hood of her coat and waved at the audience as she summoned a spear into her hands much like Orion did not long ago. Kaya glanced around the arena as she made her way down the ramp, looking for someone to fight.

Kaya’s first instinct was to go over to help Orion with Menat, but he seemed to be holding up well enough (thanks largely to his armour blocking and deflecting Menat’s magic attacks. Kaya then noticed that Soldier was fighting Young Link, whom had transformed back into his regular form and thus was a kid again. Seeing Young Link as someone that needed help Kaya reached the end of the ramp and leapt in, using frost magic to coat the end of her spear in an icy wind as she went through the air.

Soldier saw Kaya coming over and snarled. “ANOTHER one?! How much did Merasmus PAY you people?!” He demanded. “At this point he’s going to spend more money than I’m in debt to pay him for rent in the first place!”

Kaya glanced down at Young Link. “Uh…What’s with him?” She asked.

“I guess he has a distaste for magic.” Young Link shrugged.

“Ha! Distaste! No, I know for a fact that magic tastes faintly like lavender and burnt tree bark!” Soldier insisted. “I hate magic because Merasmus keeps trying to kill me with it! He should have learned after the first thirty times failed!”

“You looked like you could use some help.” Kaya said to the smaller fighter.

“Yeah, I guess I could always use it, though considering what I’ve fought in the past I wouldn’t exactly call THIS guy out of my league.” Young Link smirked.

“I know you two are talking about me. I hate it when people talk about me…Unless they’re saying flattering things about me.” Soldier said, clutching his shovel tightly.

Kaya sighed as she spun her spear around to her side, creating what looked like a shield of arctic wind. “Well, that rocket launcher of his could prove to be tricky to deal with.” She reasoned. “He needs to run out of ammo eventually.”

“ABIGAIL!” (SF5)

The largest fighter by far at this point, the huge, muscled mountain of a man shoved his way through the entranceway that looked too small for him to fit through in the first place, roaring to the sky as the audience gave him a bit of a mixed reaction. Cracking his huge knuckles, Abigail charged down to the ring and leapt in with a roar, directing his attention to a similarly-large opponent that had already been getting a good amount of attention.

Boom Boom slammed a huge fist into Pahn’s face, launching the monk backwards several feet, while Lord Hater remained perched on the huge Koopa’s back, launching electric bolts at Roy. Roy couldn’t counter the projectiles like he could Boom Boom’s physical attacks so he was having a hard time getting close to Boom Boom with Hater perched on him.

All of a sudden, Abigail made his presence known, slamming his forearm into Boom Boom’s face with a huge clothesline attack. Boom Boom recoiled backwards, making Lord Hater topple off of him, as he shook his head to see what had hit him.

“Hey! That was a cheap shot!” Boom Boom snapped.

Abigail laughed. “You think I care?! I may not be Mad Gear anymore but that don’t mean I’m playing clean!” He mocked with a smirk.

Boom Boom narrowed his eyes. “Ohhhhh, you’re makin’ me MAD!” He roared. “It don’t matter how big you are! I’ll break you just the same! Come here, you!”

Abigail rotated his head as he got into a stance to intercept the oncoming Boom Boom. “Bring it on!” He called out.

As Boom Boom and Abigail clashed in a battle of muscle, Lord Hater slowly sat up, holding his head in pain from where he had fallen off his makeshift mount. “Ugh…W-What happened?” He asked aloud before looking up and seeing an angry trio of Roy, Greninja and Pahn staring down at him. Suddenly realizing that he had lost his high ground, Lord Hater sat in silence for a few seconds before giving a sheepish-looking grin. “Uh…Tag, anyone?”

“NEEDLE MAN!” (MM)

As Roy, Greninja and Pahn started comically chasing Lord Hater around the arena, a blue Robot Master armed to the non-existent teeth with spikes emerged from the curtain to a mixed reception. He paid the audience no mind as he made his way down to the arena.

“Dr. Wily gave me orders to focus on the big threats until he entered the ring.” Needle Man mumbled to himself as he inspected his spiked arms to make sure he was fully-equipped. “Let’s see who that is…”

Athena was on her way to help Menat with Orion when Needle Man spotted her. Sensing the pop idol’s psychic power levels, Needle Man decided that Athena herself was likely the biggest threat currently in the ring. Needle Man quickly aimed his arm cannon at Athena and fired several spikes at her.

Hearing the spikes being fired, Athena yelped and stopped dead in her tracks as Needle Man’s spiked projectiles shot past her (and into Soldier’s backside; he didn’t seem to notice). Athena put her hands on her hips and glared at Needle Man. “Hey! What is wrong with people today?! So many people acting so dangerously!” She accused.

“Call it a compliment, lady. I saw you as the biggest threat.” Needle Man pointed out as he fired more spikes at Athena, only for the pop idol to teleport around them, leaving the blue Robot Master frustrated. “Ugh! Stay still!”

Athena materialized beside Needle Man and lifted herself into the air, striking Needle Man in the face with her fist as she did. This knocked Needle Man backwards but the Robot Master uprighted himself in midair, allowing him to land on his feet and dig his spikes into the canvas.

“Huh…Not a bad punch for a human.” Needle Man noted as he cocked his arm cannons again. “But I’m on a mission to clear the ring of threats for Dr. Wily and I intend to follow through on it.”

Athena got into her stance and started concentrating, gathering up some more psycho energy. “I’ve fought robots before, you know.” She mentioned. “You look so basic compared to them!”

Needle Man narrowed his eyes. “THAT was a mistake, lady.”

“META KNIGHT!” (SSB)

The audience cheered wildly as the only Edgelord on Popstar emerged from behind the curtain, staring out at the arena and looking for a foe while his cape wafted in the non-existent breeze. Drawing his trademark sword, Meta Knight shape-shifted his cape into a pair of wings as the masked, blue, ball-like creature flew into the arena at high speeds, making a beeline for his target.

Meta Knight flew in between Menat and Orion, clashing his sword against the golden knight’s steel spear. This quickly started a power struggled between the two masked fighters before Meta Knight backed away from Orion, flipping into the air and landing on his feet beside Menat.

Menat blinked. “Um…It’s kind of rude to interrupt someone else’s fight.” She supplied. “I was handling him fine on my own.”

Meta Knight cast Menat a glance. “I can sense a powerful warrior in him.” He said simply. “It has always been my goal to seek out the best opponents.”

“Well, even so, I was still fighting him.” Menat rolled her eyes.

Orion despawned his spear and summoned what looked to be a rocket-powered lance into his hands instead. “Hmph. I’m no stranger to fights with multiple people.” He warned. “I’ll gladly take the two of you on together.”

“Very well! We shall duel like warriors!” Meta Knight said as he spread his wings and flew at Orion, whom activated the jet boosters on his back and flew at Meta Knight, rocket lance igniting and coming to life with energy.

Menat watched from the side as the two masked knights clashed over and over, even taking to the sky and flying around the arena, still clashing with each other to the sounds of massive audience approval. Menat sighed. “So much for me unlocking the golden one’s mysterious aura…” She lamented as she folded her arms, her crystal ball floating beside her, and watched the two flying knights continue to clash weapons.

(Dome; Smash Bros. Locker Room)

Most of the gathered Smash fighters were watching the arena from a large screen on the wall, and everyone was watching with close attention. The only sounds anyone heard other than the muttering of people as fights were going on in the ring were the sounds of Steve using his pickaxe to harvest stone and iron from the tile flooring of the locker room.

“Wow. I didn’t think Meta Knight would find an edgy rival so quickly.” Ike noted. Captain Falcon was seen reluctantly handed Fox five bucks, having wagered it on how quickly Meta Knight would end up in a rival battle like the one he was currently in.

“Hey! I’m totally as edgy as he is!” Dark Pit retorted.

“You’re edgy, but that guy’s, like, SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG edgy.” Ike replied.

“You say that like it’s a GOOD thing.” Samus added.

Ness looked around the locker room. “Boy, it sure feels…Weird, doesn’t it?” He asked. “Like, we’re entering with more fighters than ever before, but it just doesn’t feel right when we’re not sharing a room with Mario, Link and Pikachu…”

“I get what you’re saying.” Samus nodded. “You’re wondering if we team up with them because we’re nodal companions or if we fight them because they’re technically our opponents.”

“Yeah. I mean, say one of the reps that also represents Smash wins the tournament. Does that make Smash the champion node as well?” Ness asked. “These questions have been on my mind ever since we stepped onto the nodal train to come here.”

“I say you’re overthinking it, small psychic child.” Simon Belmont laughed. “We face them in the arena all the time. We may be nodal companions but we’re always still opponents. It’s the same thing here, just on a grander scale!”

Ness shrugged. “Yeah. I guess you’re right…” He admitted. “I still don’t know what to do when we enter the ring with one of them, though. I was waiting to see what would happen in the ring and, while Roy and Greninja seem to be in an alliance, Meta Knight hasn’t really acknowledged them so far.”

“It’s Meta Knight. The only thing that interests him is a good fight.” Samus replied flatly, rolling her eyes behind her helmet.

“I guess that’s also true…”

(Dome; Hallway)

“So Mishima needs my services, eh?” A white-haired man with scars and a creepy-looking smirk asked aloud as he flipped through a wad of bills he had been given. “Hey, I’m good to throw my skills behind him if he coughs up some dough and promises some skulls for me to crack.”

Bryan Fury had gone to the washroom just before the tournament had begun and, while he was content to sit in the stands and watch the chaos and carnage from his seat, he was surprised when a certain representative of Heihachi Mishima had stopped him as he was leaving to return to his seat, cash in hand.

“Looks like it’s all there.” Bryan mused before glancing up at the messenger with a snide smirk. “Heh. Sorry about that. I just know you’re liable to try and tuck some of my payment away in those grubby, furry paws of yours before I get paid.”

The large brown bear gave a surprised grunt that sounded somehow indignant and snarled at Bryan, as if daring him to repeat himself. Bryan rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on, you big sack of fleas. We both know you’d try to take over the Zaibatsu the instant Heihachi is either killed or indisposed.” The thug reminded casually.

Kuma snorted and looked away, not bothering to answer Bryan and thus telling the maniac that he was right. Bryan gave a light cackle. “Yeah, I thought so. Look, the old man’s probably in his room on the hotel side, right?” He asked, receiving a nod from Kuma. “Great. I’ll go there to check in and officially join…Well, whatever it is he’s got up his sleeve. He’s probably got you doing other stuff, so I won’t bother keeping you from doing them.”

The brown bear stood in silence for a few seconds, staring Bryan down. The thug seemed to notice this and rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry. I ain’t gonna try to kill him or anything while you’re gone. I know he’ll mop the floor with me.” He insisted. “Just go on and do…Whatever tasks the old man gave you. I’ll go and report to him and let him know I’m on board.”

This seemed to be enough to satisfy Kuma, at least for now, as the grizzly turned around and walked off, starting on two legs before having to go to four as he went off down the hallway. Bryan gave a sigh as he double-checked the wad of cash he had been given to make sure Kuma didn’t lift any from him when he wasn’t looking. “Mishima’s lucky he pays good.” He muttered to himself.

“Is that the sound of someone ELSE being offered ten grand for a job OTHER THAN ME?” A new voice called out from down the hallway in another direction, catching the hired maniac off guard.

Pausing, Bryan turned in place to see where the new voice had come from, seeing a familiar tall Yakuza thug dressed in black, with a unique, short hairstyle of blonde with black sides, a manic smirk and one hand in his pocket. Bryan, knowing who this newcomer was, narrowed his eyes. “What do YOU want, deadbeat?” He asked.

Ryuji Yamazaki gave a cold smirk. “Oh, nothing much. I’m just wondering why there’s perfectly-good money being passed around and me not even getting thought about.” He mused. “Seems kinda unfair, if you ask me.”

“Buzz off, creep. They came to me first.” Bryan retorted coldly. “You ain’t stealing my gig THIS time.”

Yamazaki approached Bryan, hand still in his pocket. “Now, that’s where we run into a problem, you see?” He mentioned. “We both know you’re a bit of a raging psychopath.”

“And you AREN’T?”

“Eh, fair point, but at least I get the job DONE.” Yamazaki taunted. “So, how about this? I take the job that you’re about to take, take the payment as compensation and go on to wherever you were about to go and, in return…” His smirk suddenly turned crazed. …“I’ll only PARTIALLY UN-ALIVE YOU.”

“That’s rich. How about you put your money where your mouth is?” Bryan asked with a smirk. “Oh, wait. I ALREADY HAVE THE MONEY, DON’T I?!”

Yamazaki laughed heavily. “Oh, it’s going to be good giving you a good slashing, Fury! It’ll be just like old times!” He cackled.

Bryan scoffed and got into a stance. “Just take your stupid knife out of your pocket and fight me, already.” He taunted. “I got a job to get to and I don’t need YOU holding me back.”

The crazed Yakuza responded by pulling his hand from his pocket, revealing a sharp-looking knife. His smirk getting more-crazed by the second, Yamazaki stared holes into what soul Bryan had left. “Let’s see if I can find a place to put a new scar!” He cackled as he leapt at Bryan, knife raised…

(The Arena)

“GREAT TIGER!” (PO!)

The crowd cheered for the Indian boxer as Great Tiger waved to the audience proudly. Staring down at the arena, Great Tiger folded his arms as the gem on his turban seemed to blink in the light. The master of magic suddenly vanished into a puff of smoke, reappearing just above the canvas in the arena, having teleported in just like a couple of the other fighters.

Great Tiger had to admit that he was originally tempted to go over and help Kaya and Young Link fight Soldier but decided against it: The crazed mercenary would no doubt mistake him for a wizard and Great Tiger knew he was in no mood for headaches this early in the tournament. The Indian man looked around as he made his way across the arena, wondering if there was a fight to be had with anyone else…

…He didn’t get very far before he tripped over a sleeping Meitenkun, landing flat on his face. As Great Tiger pushed himself up, Meitenkun yawned as he rolled himself into a sitting position, rubbing his eyes. “Is it morning already?” He asked, still at least half-asleep. He didn’t realize that he had let go of Sackboy in sitting up, allowing the cloth doll to scamper away merrily.

Great Tiger stared down at Meitenkun and sighed. “A fighting arena is no place for a nap, child.” He scolded.

“W-Whuh? But I’m so tired…” Meitenkun insisted as he droopily stood up, still clutching his pillow.

“That’s not my problem that you didn’t get enough sleep last night. You had to have known that this tournament would be a night one.” Great Tiger shook his head. “Now pull your head out of the clouds and show me what you’ve got!”

“Oh…Uh…Y-You dun really…Want that…” Meitenkun yawned.

“Why would I not want that?” Great Tiger challenged.

The Indian boxer didn’t get an answer, as Meitenkun’s head drooped down a bit and he dozed off standing up, holding his pillow close. Great Tiger sighed. He refused to throw a punch at the youth until he woke himself up. Just how heavy a sleeper was this kid?

“MIMIKYU!” (PKMN)

(You don’t know me! But I know you!)

(I’m not one; Nor two; Nor three!)

(You can sing it right, but there’s no more symphony!)

(I’ve got this army! Let’s party!)

(This ink is all the same body!)

(All bark, no bite, no winnin’ this fight!)

(You made me think I’m a clone but I Am Me!)

Meowth’s scratchy voice came through the speakers again as a small, shadowy being crept out from behind the curtain, timidly shuffling down the ramp in what looked like a makeshift Pikachu costume. Reaching the end of the ramp, Mimikyu slowly looked out at the void between him and the ring before slowly floating into the arena like a paper bag, as if there wasn’t anything occupying the costume.

The costume landed softly on the canvas, and Mimikyu popped back up to life, glancing around at the chaos around him to see where he should go first. Spotting his nodal companion Greninja tussling with Lord Hater, Mimikyu shuffled over in what looked like an attempt to help.

Lord Hater, in an attempt to keep away from Roy, Greninja and Pahn, ended up tripping over Mimikyu while he wasn’t looking. The skeletal supervillain landed on his face and skidded forward a few feet as Mimikyu looked at him curiously.

“Oh! You got him to stop running!” Roy noted. “Thank you! We’ve been having a hard time catching up to him!”

Mimikyu stared up in awe at someone appreciating his help and realized that, in order to keep getting this stranger’s approval, he needed to keep helping. Mimikyu slowly turned towards Lord Hater, who pushed himself to his feet.

Lord Hater brushed off his robes and raised his fists to the sky. “Fools! You know not what you’re dealing with here!” He snapped. “You’ve let my rage simmer for far too long, and now I realize that if I want to conquer this stupid world then I need to obliterate you first!” With that, the supervillain held out his hands at the three others and started gathering his magic. “Now hold still while I smite your-”

The magic in Lord Hater’s hands promptly dissipated when he felt something grab his leg. Lord Hater paused as he slowly looked downward, seeing that a shadowy, elastic hand was reaching out from underneath Mimikyu’s cloak and had grabbed onto his ankle. Before Lord Hater had time to react, Mimikyu pulled him down and started pulling him under his cloak. Lord Hater screamed and clawed at the canvas as he was dragged into the blackness under Mimikyu’s cloak.

All of a sudden, Mimikyu’s cloak started moving around in every direction, the sounds of punching being heard from within accompanied by Lord Hater’s screams of pain. Roy and Pahn glanced at each other wish uneasy expressions before looking to Greninja, only to see the frog-ninja slowly backing away from the scene.

“YASHIRO NANAKASE!” (KOF)

Ignoring the mixed reaction the crowd was giving him, the tall, muscular, white-haired man stepped out from behind the curtain and waved to the members of the crowd that were cheering him on. After a few seconds, he took the time to adjust his gloves as he gave a light smirk before charging down to the arena. He, Shermie and Chris were spread out a bit as far as draws went so he could probably rule out teaming up with one of them so he figured he may as well have a little fun while he was on his own.

Athena had just given Needle Man a kick to the face when she heard Yashiro’s name. Seeing Yashiro jumping in, Athena blasted Needle Man in the face with a Psycho Ball as she turned and rushed over to face him.

“Well, look who it is. Miss Past-Her-Prime herself.” Yashiro chuckled.

“I know you and your friends are planning something with Orochi, Nanakase!” Athena declared. “It’s my duty to stop you before they come to fruition!”

“Oh, really? You’re not trying to pick a fight with me because it’d be good publicity for you?” Yashiro smirked. “Seriously, we both know how much competition we’ve been for you in the music business ever since we came back.”

Athena flushed in embarrassment. “S-Shut up, you! I’m going to stop any resurrection plan of yours so that Orochi doesn’t invade this world again!” She said.

Yashiro laughed and held up his hands. “Kid, there’s no way we could revive Orochi here even if we wanted to. Believe me; we’ve looked into it.” He explained. “We’re just here to enjoy the night and maybe promote our tour.”

Needle Man chose this time to get between Athena and Yashiro and glare daggers at the pop idol. “Hey, lady! We were kind of in the middle of something before you decided to just up and leave the fight!” He accused.

“I have bigger fish to fry right now! Sorry!” Athena said as she grabbed Needle Man and threw him across the arena before turning her attention back to Yashiro. “Come on! We have a score to settle!”

“Whatever you say, kid.” Yashiro said with a shrug as he got into a stance.

“PROPELLER KNIGHT!” (SN)

Stepping out from behind the curtain was a tall man wearing a knight helmet with a propeller attached to the top. Drawing a rapier, Propeller Knight posed stylishly and waved to the crowd as he made his way down the ramp and into the arena, using the propeller on his helmet to lift himself over the gap between the ramp and arena.

Propeller Knight touched the canvas and made his way over to Menat, whom was still looking up at the airborne clashes between Orion and Meta Knight. “Hail, milady! I can’t help but notice that you are lacking a dancing partner. Perhaps I may bechance happen to be someone to fill that void?” He asked.

Menat turned to look at Propeller Knight briefly before looking up again. “I’m more-concerned about those two fighting up there.” She mentioned. “Yeah, they’re out of the way, but if they can spend the whole time fighting in the air it’ll make it hard to deal with them later.”

“Verily! I shall go see if I can perhaps convince those two ruffians to bring their battles closer to Earth, eh?” Propeller Knight declared. “After that, then maybe we shall have our duel!”

Activating his propeller, Propeller Knight took to the air again and floated upwards towards the fight between the two other masked fighters. Propeller Knight cleared his throat as the two airborne fighters continued to clash around him. “Listen up, you two-” That was as far as Propeller Knight got before Orion, in an attempt to strike Meta Knight, slammed the bottom of his rocket-powered lance into his back, igniting the jet engines and spiking the propeller-topped knight into the canvas again.

Menat looked down at the prone form of Propeller Knight. “Well…You tried.” She said.

“I-Indeed…Ouch…” Propeller Knight coughed. “If…If it’s alright with you I think…I may just lie here for a…F-Few minutes…”

In the air, Orion used his spear to block a swing from Meta Knight’s sword and shoved him back. “You think you can out-cheese me, you brooding blue ball?” He challenged. “I am the KING of salt in Valhalla.”

Meta Knight let out a mock-chuckle. “Fool. I’ve been cheeseing people in the arena when your game was still a lingering idea!” He taunted as he swung his sword and prepared to charge at Orion again.

Orion held his spear with both hands as he reared back and prepared to fly at his opponent, starting yet another midair battle. It seemed that neither of them had even realized Propeller Knight had been there at all.

All of a sudden, several rapid-fire gunshots rang out as multiple bullets deflected off of the back of Orion’s helmet. That got the attention of Orion, Meta Knight and most of the gathered fighters in the ring. They had also noticed that the spotlight was shining on the entrance curtain again, much like it did for Lord Hater earlier. However, unlike him, the next fighter was already outside the curtain.

“Mystery…Fighter…” The robotic, automated voice announced. “…TWO…”

“BB HOOD!” (Darkstalkers)

Standing outside the curtain with a smoking Uzi in one hand was a familiar blonde girl dressed in Red Riding Hood cosplay. In her other hand was a stack of what looked like contracts, with Orion’s mug plastered on the front one accompanied by a large number. Giving a smirk, BB Hood kept her eyes on Orion as she made her way down to the arena, but glanced up at the Announcer’s Booth as she did, her smirk faltering when she saw SSBFreak giving her an “I’m watching you” gesture, obviously still remembering that BB Hood was part of the group responsible for the Megamix Dome being in such a state of disrepair for the past number of years. BB Hood quickly regained her composure, avoiding eye contact with the host, as she continued down to the ring.

“Get down here, golden boy!” BB Hood called out as she stepped into the arena, looking up at Orion. “I have a bounty I’m here to collect!”

Orion gave a sigh as he floated downwards, landing on the canvas. “What’s this bounty about, then? Artemis usually comes after me herself, so it’s obviously not from her.” He noted.

“Nope. Some guy named…” BB Hood said as she quickly checked the contract. “…Uh…Some guy named ‘Epicgamer33447’? Well, him and about forty other people but he’s the one that put the bounty out.”

Orion sighed. “Likely spurned by salt like all the others.” He muttered.

“Look, I don’t care what the reasons are as long as they pay.” BB Hood reminded as she pointed her gun at the armoured knight again. “And someone is paying good money for me to frackin’ ICE you.”

Orion, unfazed, swatted BB Hood’s arm away with his hand. “I don’t have time for this.” He said. “I’m dealing with another opponent right now.”

“Indeed. He’s fighting ME.” Meta Knight informed as he fluttered down and landed near Orion.

“Oh! You! I think I’m got a bounty out on you, too!” BB Hood said as she flipped through her contracts. “For similar things as the golden guy, for that matter.”

Meta Knight sighed and glanced up at Orion. “Shall we resume our deal after we deal with her?” He asked.

“Fine by me.” Orion nodded.

BB Hood scoffed as Meta Knight and Orion got into stances and prepared to face her together. “Alright, then! I’m no stranger to fighting multiple targets at once!” She said as she drew a knife and held it up with her gun.

“CHRIS LIGHTFELLOW!” (ST)

Standing proudly outside of the entrance curtain was a silver-haired woman dressed in knight’s armour, holding a one-handed sword. Chris, one of the three protagonists of Suikoden 3, glanced around at the audience reception she was getting for a few seconds before holding up her sword and charging down to the ring.

Taking care to step over Propeller Knight’s still-prone form, Chris made her way over to the scuffle Young Link and Kaya were having with Soldier. Reaching the battle in a flash, Chris lashed out with the handle of her sword and struck Soldier in the back with it, making him stagger forward several steps.

Soldier spun around and found himself staring at Chris. “Ugh. Thanks for that, lady. I think you realigned my spine with that.” He muttered. “But what gives?! I’m trying to have a good fight here without people ruining it for me!”

“You are attacking children. Take it from experience, no good comes from attacking children.” Chris scolded, pointing her sword in Soldier’s face.

“Ha! That’s rich! Lady, these are no children but slimy wizards in disguise, here to rob me of my rent money!” Soldier insisted. “The short one even turned into an adult! I’m not convinced he’s even a kid!”

“Well…Jury’s out on that one.” Young Link supplied. “I mean, TECHNICALLY I’m a kid, but due to some time-travel stuff I may actually be mentally older.”

“See?! He’s just admitted that he’s a time-traveler!” Soldier insisted.

Kaya sighed and glanced at Chris. “We kinda think he’s the biggest threat in the arena.” She said.

“You DO realize that there’s a child with a gun in the arena and Meta Knight entered about five minutes ago?” Chris asked flatly.

“We’ve spent the entire time trying to dodge rockets…”

“VOLKOV!” (BH)

A pale, silver-haired, pointy-eared vampire emerged from behind the curtain to a mixed reception, holding a goblet of red liquid in his hand that people next to the entrance curtain could only hope was red wine. Volkov looked around with a bored expression as he finished the drink in the goblet before chucking the empty drink holder into the crowd (where it bounced off an unsuspecting Gex’s head) and floating down to the arena, hovering above the ground with what looked like bat-like shadows.

Volkov hovered into the arena and, arms behind his back, casually floated over to where Great Tiger and Meitenkun were, the former still waiting for the latter to fully wake up so that they could have a proper fight.

“You seem keen on wasting everyone’s time doing nothing.” Volkov sneered.

Great Tiger folded his arms. “I’m simply waiting for the child to wake up and take things seriously.” He responded.

“…Uh…I’m…Getting’ there…” Meitenkun rubbed his eyes. “Just…Having trouble…Mmm…Stayin’ awake…”

Volkov rolled his blood-red eyes. “Any other fighter would have tossed the boy over the ropes and moved on by now.” He replied.

“I would rather fight with SOME honour.” Great Tiger narrowed his eyes.

“Fine…Allow me to make the choice FOR you.” Volkov said before baring his fangs and flying at Meitenkun, aiming for the boy’s neck.

Great Tiger’s eyes snapped open as he made the attempt to lunge forward in an effort to save the boy. “NO!” He shouted.

Meitenkun’s head suddenly shot up as he turned to face Volkov, suddenly fully-awake. Meitenkun tossed his pillow into the air and lashed out with a palm, striking Volkov in the chest and stunning him. Meitenkun followed up with a flurry of palm strikes and kicks, each looking to be aimed at a pressure point, before finishing the combo with a double-palm strike to the middle of Volkov’s torso, launching the vampire backwards several feet.

Great Tiger looked stunned as Meitenkun caught his pillow and went right back to half-asleep. All of a sudden he had a feeling he didn’t want to be facing Meitenkun fully-awake after all…

“PETE!” (PS)

A small, wooden doll emerged from the curtain, made to look like a boy wearing green clothes and a large backpack. Pete looked around and waved at the crowd, quickly checking to make sure he had his Smash Ball with him; the one he was told would give him access to his super form once before tucking it away and jogging down to the arena and leaping in headfirst.

Sackboy was in the process of picking up the large banana peel he had thrown earlier and putting it back in his menu (Abigail and Boom Boom had already slipped on it about five times each during their fight) as Pete came jogging over. Sackboy turned and smiled, giving a cheery wave.

“Hello to you, too!” Pete greeted as he came over, revealing that even the small, wooden doll was a head taller than Sackboy. “I can’t help but notice that you can carry a lot of things in that menu of yours.”

Sackboy gave a nod and demonstrated by cycling through his menu inventory, pulling out what looked like an anvil and levitating it in place for a few seconds before putting it back.

“That’s so cool! I managed to sneak in a few Power Stone weapons myself!” Pete said as he took off his backpack and started rummaging around in it, pulling out a metal bat. “I was going to ask if you wanted to have a fight but I think we can have a little fun before we get to that, don’t you think?”

Sackboy made a face that looked like he was laughing silently and gave a quick nod. Pete quickly pulled a pair of roller blades out of his backpack and handed them to Sackboy as the cloth doll pulled a ramp out of his inventory menu.

“Set up that ramp over there for now and put the skates on! I’ll see what else I have in here…” Pete directed. Sackboy gave another nod as he grabbed the roller blades Pete had given him…

(Hotel; Lounge)

“Okay. Now that we’ve checked in and officially clocked in for the night, we can begin our rounds.” Psymon said as he walked into a large, open room on the hotel side of the building. The room was built like a large lounge area close to the lobby, with several pieces of furniture and a large fireplace on the wall. “Essentially, our job is to keep the peace here because…Um…Spoiler alert: Things never really stay peaceful for very long when one of these tournaments get going.”

Scorch held up his hand. “Hey. When do we set people on fire?” He asked.

Estel narrowed her eyes at the plastic pyromaniac. “We DON’T.” She scolded.

“Yeah, what we do is answer calls to break up a fight and maybe take someone in for interrogation.” Psymon admitted.

Max lifted a finger eagerly. “And THEN we set people on fire.” He said simply.

“There will be NO setting ANYTHING on fire!” Estel urged.

Lucia lifted a hand. “Um…What happens when the people don’t want to come peacefully if we need to interrogate them?” She asked.

“Well, usually some of us get personally involved and try to beat the ne’er-do-well into submission.” Psymon admitted.

“Psymon, never say ‘ne’er-do-well’ again.” Max supplied flatly.

“It’s just that…Well, two of us don’t have any combat experience.” Lucia reminded. “I mean, I’m eager to prove myself to you guys and all, but…I mean, we have HIM…”

Everyone looked to where Lucia was pointing and saw Homsar floating around in midair, seemingly aimlessly. “AaAaAaAaAaAaAh! I ordered mah burger basket extra-crispy!” He said, as if proving Lucia’s point.

“Eh. He’ll be fine.” Max shrugged.

“I’m more-surprised that YOU have any combat experience, Psymon.” Estel folded her arms and lifted an eyebrow. “You’re a snowboarder. What kind of combat experience could someone like YOU have?”

Psymon draped an arm around Estel’s shoulder. “Estel, I’ve been around this block two-and-a-half times in the past. Yeah, I may not have seen a lot of action in the first tournament, but after that I got into a scuffle here and there.” He explained casually. “And, before you ask, the answer is yes. It DID hurt. That’s what made me want to get up and start a whole new fight! Usually the only kind of pain I get is when I take a tumble down a mountain and crash head-first through a glass pane before landing on top of a log buried in a snow-bank. But here? You can get tossed through walls by ten-foot giants! Have a fireball thrown into your face! Get slammed by a hammer the size of your body!”

“Receive impromptu acupuncture by way of magic ice shards!” Max happily joined in.

“See? Max gets it!” Psymon exclaimed.

“You two LITERALLY share a brain cell.” Estel said flatly.

“Eh, maybe. But, for now, until we get a call to go somewhere specific, our job if pretty much to wander the dome and hotel and make sure none of the fighters are doing anything sinister.” Psymon admitted. “I mean, usually some of them are but we mostly leave that kind of stuff to a hero group that ends up forming. It’s kind of the norm in these things.”

Suddenly, everyone heard a ringing noise coming from Max. “Oh! That must be the doorman!” The rabbity thing said as he reached behind his back and pulled a walkie-talkie from his hammerspace. Max quickly pushed a button to answer the call. “Yo-yo, my man! What’s the deal callin’ the Max-line this early?” He asked in a voice that sounded like he was trying to sound cool.

“I apologize, sir, but we’ve got a ‘Code Monochrome’ out front.” A deadpan voice replied from the other end of the line.

“A Code Monochrome already?! Yeesh, I wasn’t expecting that little rodent to show up for at LEAST another three or four sections!” Max exclaimed.

Lucia blinked and turned to Psymon. “Uh…What’s happening? I don’t remember being told about any of this.” She said. “What’s a ‘Code Monochrome’?”

“Eh, nothing too much to worry about. Just some guy that we’ve been warned about is trying to get in.” Psymon informed. “Don’t worry, though. While Max takes care of it, we’ve got someone he knows PERSONALLY standing guard outside to make sure he doesn’t get in. Apparently, the guy has been known for being particularly difficult to pass.”

(Outside)

“I’m sorry, sir, but I have my orders.” A dark-haired man dressed in a black suit with a pair of shades, said in a professional, borderline-emotionless tone as he stood at attention just outside the main gates leading into the dome’s property.

Standing before the bouncer was a short, bear-like creature that was white on one side, black on the other and with a sinister-looking red eye on the black side. He looked angry. “And I’M sayin’ it’s a crime I wasn’t invited in the first place!” Monokuma insisted. “Come on! Let me in! There’s so much chaos to be had in there!”

“I’m aware of that, sir, but orders are orders.” The agent shook his head.

“How about this, then?” Monokuma said as his red eye glowed bright and he pulled a huge chainsaw into view. “You let me in and I won’t carve your face!”

“That’s still a negative, sir. Threats will not do you any good.”

Monokuma stared in silence. “H-How is this not causing you despair or fear?! I’m literally waving a revving chainsaw in your face!” He demanded.

“That’s classified information, sir.”

“Okay, Superball, I’ll take it from here!” Max’s voice added through an intercom on a pillar next to the agent. “Sorry for the wait. I just needed to get to the console.”

“Not a problem, sir. I apologize wholeheartedly for not driving him away on my own.” The bouncer, one Agent Superball from Max’s home node, replied casually and professionally. “I accept full responsibility for not being able to deal with him without you, sir.”

“Not a problem, Superball!” Max’s voice said as a camera attached to the intercom turned to stare down the angry-looking Monokuma. “Listen here, you little rodent. You ain’t on the list, so you ain’t gettin’ in!”

“Come on! You know Danganronpa is just as much a Playstation franchise as any of the others in that node!” Monokuma demanded. “It’s honestly a shock that you didn’t even INVITE me! I’m the friggin’ FACE of that franchise!”

“Dude, did you SERIOUSLY think that, after the multitude of crap you pulled back in the Tournament of Kikai, the host of this shindig here would want you ANYWHERE within a fifty mile radius of this building?” Max asked.

“I saw the fight card! He’s got Sephiroth, Nemesis AND Pyramid Head entering as part of the Playstation node and NOT ME!” Monokuma shouted.

“THEY didn’t try to use the tournament to spread despair or whatever that basic plan of yours was.”

“BASIC?!” Monokuma snapped. “Oh, when I get my hands on-”

“So then, now that that’s out of the way…” Max said as a panel underneath the camera opened up as a huge cannon, one that looked far too long to fit inside the pillar to begin with, emerged from within, pointing down and square at Monokuma. “Please hold still while I remove your non-existent genitals from your crotch.”

Monokuma stared, seemingly in a stunned daze, clearly not expecting this. “…Uh…”

The cannon tilted downwards ever so slightly. “Say cheese!” Max’s voice said cheerily.

“WaitwaitwaitwaitWAI-”

*KA-BOOM!*

When the smoke cleared, all that sat in front of Superball was a smoldering crater in the street. Superball, unfazed, brushed a small bit of debris off his suit as the camera on the pillar turned to look at him again.

“Great job keeping him busy until I could handle that, Superball!” Max said brightly. “You never cease to impress with your ability to keep people from entering places they shouldn’t!”

“Thank you, sir. Your approval means the world to me.” Superball said, still professionally and emotionlessly. “I pride myself on being a good doorman.”

“Well, he’ll probably try again. That nuisance is nothing if not persistent, after all.” Max informed. “The next time you see him come within fifty feet on you, let me know, okay? Keep up the good work!”

“Very good, sir.” Superball said, flashing a light smile.

(The Arena)

“RIPTIDE!” (EC)

A brunette pirate woman emerged from the curtain with a green bandana in her hand, which she quickly tied around her head. Riptide drew her dagger, inspected it briefly and spun it in her hand a few times and shoved it back into its holster as she charged down to the arena accompanied by the cheering audience.

Riptide landed in the arena and the first thing that caught her eyes was the sight of Sackboy and Pete doing roller skate tricks off a couple of ramps Sackboy had placed around the arena. Weaving her way around the two smaller fighters to avoid getting hit, Riptide suddenly caught sight of a shuriken coming at her out of the corner of her eye. Riptide quickly ducked under the projectile as he flew overhead and slammed into the back of Boom Boom, whom didn’t seem to notice it as he continued to tussle with Abigail, revealing that the shuriken had been made of water.

Looking at the thrower of the projectile, Riptide saw Greninja landing on the canvas, crouching low in his ninja pose. Riptide narrowed her eyes and drew her dagger again. “You know, if you were wanting a fight, you simply had to ASK.” She mentioned.

“Ja!” Greninja pointed out, pointing at the fight between Boom Boom and Abigail, making Riptide realize that the two giants were Greninja’s actual target and she had unwittingly stepped in the path of his projectile by accident.

“Oh…Ugh, I told myself I’d watch where I was going in this thing.” Riptide sighed. “Well, I was looking for a fight when I got into the arena, so unless you were doing something, how about you?”

“Gren?” Greninja asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“Come on. Pirate vs. ninja? The audience would eat it up, at least.” Riptide smirked.

This seemed to be enough to convince Greninja, who got into his stance again and started generating another water shuriken. Riptide, in the meantime, held up a hand and started forming a ball of water above her head…

“BLANKA!” (SF5)

As the sound of jungle music blared through the speakers, a familiar green skinned figure emerged from behind the curtain and gave a roar of excitement, banging his chest a few times to get the audience riled up. As the audience cheered, Blanka crouched down and propelled himself forward in a cannonball, flying over the gap between the ramp and arena and launching himself into the ring.

Blanka landed gracefully on his feet and, seeing Boom Boom struggling with Abigail, jogged over to aid the huge Koopa in taking down the literal mountain of man. Blanka leapt into the air, landed on Abigail’s back and activated his electric powers, sending a huge jolt through Abigail while Blanka was attached to him.

Abigail roared in pain as he threw his arms back, throwing Blanka off of him. Abigail looked over his shoulder. “Stay outta this!” He snapped. “I got enough going’ on without you tryin’ ta tickle me!”

“No way! You’re hard enough to fight one-on-one!” Blanka shouted.

Boom Boom grunted as he rotated his arms. “Ugh…Wasn’t really expecting any help after that skeleton-wizard thing got thrown off my back.” He mentioned. “Wonder what happened to him, anyways…”

Blanka rushed over to stand beside Boom Boom. “He gets even-stronger when he gets angry!” He warned. “We gotta take him out before he gets to that point!”

“I think he’s already there.” Boom Boom slapped a fist into his palm. “But fine. How about a little tag-team?”

Blanka nodded. “Fine by me!” He agreed.

Boom Boom’s response was to pick up Blanka and hurl him straight at Abigail. In midair, Blanka curled into a ball and electrified himself so that when he hit the huge man head-on the attack would be more-powerful. As Abigail shouted in pain from an electrified Blanka latching onto his face, Boom Boom cracked his knuckles and rushed over.

“PYRA!” (SSB)

A redhead woman armed with a futuristic-looking sword emerged from behind the curtain to an array of cheers. Pyra gave a friendly wave, though inwardly felt a little weird knowing that she was going into this without Mythra. The two had spent so long in Smash fighting as one that it seemed odd to be fighting apart from each other, after all. Still, Pyra made note to not worry about this: Mythra was just as capable of handling herself as she was.

Pyra stepped into the arena and set her sights on Volkov, whom was standing off to the side and looking like he was still recovering from the surprise beatdown he had been given from Meitenkun. Pyra gave a smirk and drew her sword, preparing to clash with the vampire as she walked over.

Volkov saw Pyra coming over and narrowed his eyes. “Begone unless you wish to have your blood drained.” He hissed. “I’m in no mood for nuisances.”

"Well, then it’s a good thing I’m not technically human, right?” Pyra smirked.

Volkov narrowed his eyes and summoned a sinister-looking scythe into his hands. “Let’s see if you bleed like a human, then.” He said, baring his fangs.

Pyra held up her sword on instinct as Volkov flew at her, swinging his scythe several times in an attempt to get through her defenses. Pyra quickly ignited her sword while it was in her hands and swung at Volkov once she found an opening in his attacks, striking the vampire with flames and making him recoil in pain.

“Augh!” Volkov shouted as he inspected his hand. “Ugh. I’d nearly forgotten what being burned feels like…” He muttered before glaring back at Pyra with blood-red eyes. “Very well, you whelp. You have my attention. Enjoy it while you still live!”

Pyra smirked. “You think a vampire is gonna scare me? The Smash Mansion has TWO vampire hunters living there AND one Kirby!” She taunted.

Volkov stepped back and held up his scythe, engulfing it in what looked like blood magic. “I shall enjoy tearing you apart…” He hissed.

“RAIDEN!” (PAS)

(Buy It, Use It, Break It, Fix It)

(Trash It, Change It, Mail-Upgrade It)

(Charge It, Point It, Zoom It, Press It)

(Snap It, Work It, Quick-Erase It)

(Write It, Cut It, Paste It, Save It)

(Load It, Check It, Quick-Rewrite It)

(Plug It, Play It, Burn It, Rip It)

(Drag & Drop It, Zip-Unzip It)

Metal Gear’s resident cyborg ninja emerged from behind the curtain, strangely wearing his sombrero and poncho disguise. It took a few seconds, but Raiden removed the cheap disguise in a single move as he drew his blade, his eye flashing red as he did. Raiden flashed a dark smirk as he tore down the ramp at high speeds and leapt into the arena accompanied by cheers.

Raiden landed in the arena with a metallic thud and rushed headfirst at Roy, seeing him without a dancing partner and swinging his sword the instant he got close enough. Roy, however, was quick to notice Raiden coming at him and held up his own sword to parry Raiden’s attack, managing to hold the cyborg ninja at bay, though the resulting power struggle looked like it was quickly putting strain on Roy.

“Heh. What’s the matter, redhead? Not used to fighting a killer?” Raiden whispered in a manic tone, showing that his Ripper persona was currently in play.

“Ugh…You’d be surprised…” Roy said through clenched teeth before pushing Raiden back and swinging his sword down, causing an explosion of fire once it struck the canvas, striking Raiden with enough force to propel him backwards. Raiden backflipped through the air and landed on his feet again, annoyingly swinging his sword to extinguish a flame that had sparked on it in the explosion.

“Well, now. Isn’t this a surprise…” Raiden chuckled.

“I’ve heard from Snake that you’re a good guy, Raiden.” Roy said, eyes narrowed. “Why are you acting so unhinged?!”

Raiden chuckled again, this time darker. “There’s a bit more to me than the old man lets on.” He admitted before his red eye flashed again. “I guess I’m more-surprised that your sword stopped mine. Not many things can do that, you know?”

Roy got into a stance and readied himself, knowing full-well that Raiden wouldn’t be holding back. Even with everything Snake had mentioned to everyone about him Roy had a feeling he still knew nothing about Raiden. “I’m fully-capable of taking you on, Raiden. If you want a duel, you just need to say so.” He said.

“A duel? You make it sound so formal.” Raiden chuckled darkly. “But fine. Let’s…Play it YOUR way for a while…”

“DARUNIA!” (HW)

Coming out to an orchestral version of Saria’s Song, the huge Goron chief laughed heartily as he slung the Megaton Hammer over his shoulder, gazing around at the cheering crowd. After waving to the crowd for a moment, Darunia jogged down the ramp, creating a loud thud with every step he took, and jumped headfirst into the ring without a second thought.

Darunia’s first instinct was to go help Young Link (aka his ‘little brother’) with Soldier, but saw that the small Link already had people helping him, at least for now. However, this left Darunia unsure as to who to fight first. He wandered forward, stopping only briefly as Sackboy and Pete were continuing to skate around the arena, and caught sight of Athena and Yashiro, still having their fight. However, what caught Darunia’s attention was Needle Man, whom looked to be attempting to interfere with the fight by winding up his cannon to fire some more spikes at the two humans.

Charging over, Darunia got in the way of Needle Man’s spikes, turning his back to the projectiles as they bounced uselessly off his rock-hard shell. Needle Man looked furious. “Stay out of this! My beef is with the human girl!” He snapped.

“Friend, she’s already preoccupied.” Darunia explained simply, putting on a frown.

“She was occupied with me first before she moved on to fight that other guy!” Needle Man insisted. “You think I’m just going to take such disrespect?!”

Darunia scratched his head and shrugged. “I mean…I happens? It’s not like there aren’t thirty other people in the ring you could fight instead.” He reasoned.

“SHE disrespected me!” Needle Man reminded angrily. “But you know what? If you’re so insistent on making this your problem, I guess I’ll just oblige!”

“That’s the spirit!” Darunia laughed as he held his hammer.

“Don’t complain when I perforate you!” Needle Man snapped.

“Good luck with that, friend.” Darunia winked. “You’ll have a hard time killing someone as tough as a Goron with a simple spike.”

Needle Man narrowed his eyes and cocked his arm cannon again. “Maybe I’ll enjoy this more than I thought…”

“And now,” SSBFreak’s voice echoed through the sound system. “The final fighter of this section…”

“MARIO MARIO!” (SMB)

The fans went wild as gaming’s biggest icon emerged from the curtain and waved to the crowd with a big smile as he made his way down the ramp. However, Mario suddenly stopped when he heard a familiar tune starting up through the sound system, one he knew all too well.

(Do the Mario!)

(Swing your arms from side to side!)

(Come on, it’s time to go!)

(Do the Mario!)

(Take one step and then again!)

(Let’s to the Mario! All together now!)

Mario cast a flat stare up at the Sound Booth as his infamous song continued to play. All he could see from where he was standing was Astaroth, of all people, going along with the lyrics of the song and doing the motions that they entailed. Mario gave a sigh as he continued on to the ring.

Boom Boom’s eyes widened when he saw Mario hit the canvas. “Mario?! He’s entered already?!” He asked. “Lemme at him! Lemme at him!”

Blanka held Boom Boom back. “We gotta deal with the big guy first, remember?!” He queried, gesturing towards the angry-looking Abigail.

“But…B-But I wanna prove to my boss that I can take him!”

With Boom Boom occupied and unable to challenge him, Mario made his way around a few fighters, stepping over Propeller Knight’s form and seemingly-ignoring Lord Hater’s comical screams as the skeletal being continued to struggle to get away from Mimikyu. Mario eventually spotted Pahn, whom was sitting aside, seemingly in meditation to conserve energy now that Lord Hater was being dealt with for the time being.

“You a-look like you need a-something to do!” Mario said cheerily. “How about a a-fight to keep a-you occupied?”

Pahn opened his eyes and stood up. “Well, this is a surprise. I wasn’t expecting you, of all people, to want to fight someone like me…” He mentioned.

Mario gave a shrug. “Eh. You were a-looking bored and a-everyone else looks to be a-in a fight already.” He replied. “I a-saw you fighting Boom Boom earlier, though. Anyone that a-can keep up with a-him is a good in my book!”

Pahn looked surprised and quickly gave the shorter fighter a respectful bow. “Thank you, sir. I don’t think I deserve them, but your comment means a lot to me.” He said.

Mario laughed. “Ah, don’t a-worry! Now, let a-me see what you have! No holding a-back!” He directed.

“Yes, sir!” Pahn said as he got into a stance…

Chapter Text

(The Arena)

The sound of bullets and rockets being fired were all anyone could hear, the bullets coming from BB Hood’s machine gun as she continuously fired shots at Orion and Meta Knight while the rockets came from Soldier, whom was repeatedly firing the explosive projectiles at Kaya, Young Link and Chris Lightfellow. Between the constant noise, Pete and Sackboy playfully skating around and jumping off manually-placed ramps and Lord Hater’s screams of pain and terror as he tried to claw away from Mimikyu, the arena had already devolved into chaos so loud and intense that no one could hear SSBFreak’s announcements as they came through the speaker system.

Bullets deflected off Orion’s golden armour as he rocketed down at the red-clad bounty hunter, rocket lance in hand. BB Hood rolled out of the way as Orion launched past her and then fired her gun again, deflecting several more rounds of bullets off his armour.

“Ugh! How can that stupid armour be bulletproof?!” BB Hood cursed as she slammed another ammo clip into her gun. “I can’t even find any openings!”

“And you’ll find none, I can promise you that.” Orion said just before rocketing towards BB Hood and smashing her in the face with the side of his spear, knocking the bounty hunter to the side and causing her to tumble for a bit before she landed in a crouched position. BB Hood stared icily at Orion as he floated in midair, hovering via jet-propelled back thrusters and drew a hunting knife.

“My bullets may not be able to pierce that armour but maybe I can cut off your chestplate and THEN put a few dozen bullets in you!” BB Hood snapped.

BB Hood suddenly heard the sound of someone flying towards her from behind as the red-clad bounty hunter spun in place, holding up her large knife just in time to block a swing from the incoming Meta Knight.

In spite of barely blocking a surprise blow from the masked puffball, BB Hood flashed a dark smirk. “You’ll get your time, swordy, but Golden Boy’s got the higher bounty.” She smirked. “Wait patiently until I ice him and THEN I’ll give you my attention!”

Meta Knight narrowed his yellow eyes behind his mask. “You’re a reckless fool who gets in way over her head FAR too often!” He snapped as he deflected BB Hood’s knife and backed away, landing gracefully on his feet as his wings morphed into his cape again.

BB Hood quickly drew her machine gun and fired several more rounds, this time at Meta Knight, only for the masked swordsman to swing his blade wildly, deflecting each shot fired at him expertly. The instant BB Hood’s magazine emptied, Meta Knight flew at her and kicked her in the face, knocking the red-clad bounty hunter backwards.

Orion saw his chance and rushed BB Hood before she could get up, leaping above her and slamming the jet thrusters of his rocket lance down onto her face while she was down. BB Hood screamed in pain as she shot blindly upwards, causing a few bullets to deflect off Orion’s helmet. It didn’t hurt the golden knight but it surprised him enough to get off her and let her get up. BB Hood snarled angrily as she looked back and forth between Meta Knight and Orion. Refusing to back down, BB Hood spun her knife in her hand and raised her machine gun again…

Soldier’s rockets, as mentioned, were the other huge source of sound coming from the arena, and he was firing them at all three of his opponents at once in an attempt to keep the trio at bay. Young Link had already turned back into his Fierce Deity form and was trying to keep the deranged merc at bay with his sword strikes while Chris was using her knight’s armour to tank rockets and bear the brunt of the explosions to keep Young Link and Kaya from getting hurt too much. Kaya, in the meantime, was forced to wait for an opening as she readied her bow; She would never be able to get close to Soldier while he was firing off rockets in seemingly every direction and so constantly.

“I don’t get it!” Kaya exclaimed as Chris stood in front of her protectively. “How can he have this much ammunition?!”

Chris narrowed her eyes. “Perhaps his gun is powered by a rune of some sort…” She muttered. “Try to find an opening to get him to stop, Kaya! I’m fine taking the explosions but there’s only so long my armour will hold up against this onslaught!”

“Ha! Even three-on-one you can’t hit me! My training is immaculate! I would nominate my teacher for a medal but, since my teacher was myself, I doubt they’d accept it!” Soldier laughed as he struck Young Link in the face with his shovel, knocking the transformed youth away from him and causing him to turn back into his child form again.

Young Link shook his head to regain his bearings as he gripped his sword. “Okay…I definitely wasn’t expecting a fight like this from ONE GUY.” He admitted.

Soldier, seeing that Young Link was back in his child form again, gave a smirk and raised his rocket launcher again, only to stop when he felt something tap against his leg. Soldier looked down and saw Sackboy and Pete staring up at him, having stopping their reckless skating for now.

“Sorry, but you’re kinda in the way.” Pete pointed out. “We wanted to set up a couple ramps near the two big guys and you’re standing where we want to put one of them.”

Soldier gave a laugh. “Son, the battlefield is NO place for a child!” He said. “So, unless you or your walking voodoo doll there can turn into an older teenager or something, I suggest the two of you run along and play elsewhere!”

Pete stared with a flat expression before pulling a metal bat into view (having taken it from his backpack). The small, wooden doll wound up and lashed out with the bat, striking Soldier in the knee and causing his knee to buckle the wrong way as he and Sackboy reluctantly went off to try and have fun elsewhere.

Soldier stood in silence, his mouth open mid-laugh as his brain seemed to be registering the pain he was feeling. He slowly looked down at his knee, which was still bent the wrong way, and cursed. “Oh, not again!” He complained. “Give me a second while I deal with this, okay?”

Kaya and Young Link could only react in disgust as Soldier grabbed his own leg and started twisting it...

(Announcer’s Booth)

SSBFreak was currently on his personal phone as Khall watched him curiously. Neither of them seemed to be paying much attention to the goings-on in the ring at the moment due to the chaos and loud noises drowning out any announcement either of the two made, and SSBFreak considered it a miracle he had heard his phone ringing in the first place with the sounds of Soldier firing off rockets blaring in the background.

“…Catherine, you have every right to feel this way…Trust me, I’m going to watch that girl like a hawk. However, there’s still something you can’t deny…She’s not Morrigan or Felicia.” SSBFreak said into the phone, receiving a response Khall couldn’t make out every time he paused. “…Fair enough. I have to go back to keeping my eye on BB Hood, anyways. Maybe next time, you can talk to Khall instead…Oi…”

SSBFreak rolled his eyes as he hung up his phone. Khall blinked in confusion. “Uh…What was that all about?” He asked.

“Some of Tiny’s OCs are doing a recap show for this tournament as it’s happening live and…Well, as it turns out, one of the ones he hired for the job was an animal-lover that, for obvious reasons, didn’t take too kindly to me having BB Hood here.” SSBFreak informed.

“Does…Meta Knight count as an animal or is that golden knight guy a furry underneath that armour or something?” Khall asked.

“It’s more what she does in her home node, and the fact that she spent a good portion of the second Battle of the Luminaries working for someone who hunted animals.” SSBFreak replied.

“Wasn’t that the tournament that had to be cancelled because it destroyed the dome here? I remember you wouldn’t shut up about it for, like, six months.” Khall tilted his head.

SSBFreak rolled his eyes. “YES. And that makes BB Hood at least partially-responsible for the dome being in such a state of disrepair for so long since it was the machinations of her group that caused all the damage.” He replied.

“Sooo…Why is she here, then?”

SSBFreak sighed and glanced towards Sheogorath’s private booth. “Sheogorath thought it’d be fun to invite one member of the group responsible for the dome’s near-destruction, and I relented since there’s literally no arguing with that guy.” He admitted. “Either way, I’ve promised to keep my eyes on her while she’s in the ring and make sure she’s under strict supervision while she’s not.”

Khall blinked again. “So, which members of the security team are you assigning to keep a watch over her when she gets eliminated?” He checked. “The crazy rabbit-thing, the guy that talks to his tattoos, the plastic pyromaniac, the literal TWELVE-YEAR OLD or that Homsar guy?”

SSBFreak sat in silence for a few seconds before hitting the desk in front of him with his forehead.

“Ah. Didn’t think that far ahead, huh?

(Dome; Hallway)

Walking down one of the many maze-like hallways of the dome, leading towards what they hoped was a door leading to the audience bleachers, was a tall, lanky, rodent-like creature dressed as a gangster and holding a mafia-style tommy gun under his arm. Beside him was a humanoid robot with a v-shaped boomerang on his forehead. It appeared that neither of the two seemed thrilled to be doing what they were doing.

“I still dunno why dose two doctors want us to find dis Eggman guy.” Pinstripe rolled his eyes.

“Because the two need the brainpower.” Quick Man snapped. “Perhaps if you cared enough to listen, you’d know this.”

“Whatever. Cortex is always ramblin’ on and on about how he’s dis super-brilliant scientist or somethin’, so why is he suddenly lookin’ fer help NOW?” Pinstripe scoffed. “Fer dat matter, why are youse not questionin’ dat Dr. Wily guy about dis, either?”

Quick Man narrowed his eyes as he stopped walking. Pinstripe noticed this and stopped walking himself. “It’s BECAUSE Dr. Wily is seeking Eggman’s help that makes me know that this is serious.” He retorted. “Dr. Wily has never been one to ask for help from anyone, and yet here he is seeking someone he’s reportedly got some sort of history with that none of us Robot Masters even know about! That tells me that he NEEDS the help and he KNOWS it!”

“Fine, fine, whatever.” Pinstripe moaned. “Cortex never told any of us about his history with dat Eggman guy but, to be honest, he never mentioned Wily either. Just makes me a bit suspicious dat dere’s some stuff he ain’t tellin’ us.”

Quick Man rolled his eyes. “It’s not our business to ask questions.” He reminded. “We’re there to provide the manpower because both doctors clearly need it.”

Pinstripe paused and lifted an eyebrow. “Dat’s another thing I’m wonderin’ about. Why ain’t ALL youse Robot Masters workin’ fer dat Wily guy?” He asked. “There’re eighteen Robot Masters here but only nine of em are workin’ fer Wily?”

“It’s…Complicated. Guts Man, Cut Man and Fire Man were actually reprogrammed by Dr. Wily to fight for him and Light has since reprogrammed them back; Pharaoh Man, Skull Man and Drill Man are actually robots made by Dr. COSSACK and only fought for Wily to keep him from harming Cossack’s daughter; And Plant Man, Knight Man and Blizzard Man were robots entered into a worldwide competition that Wily hijacked and reprogrammed so they aren’t technically loyal to him, either.” Quick Man sighed as he looked away.

Pinstripe couldn’t help but give a smirk. “Sounds ta me like dat doctor of yours ain’t as capable as he sounds if only half the Robot Masters he gets ta fight fer him are actually HIS, y’know?” He taunted.

Quick Man was quick to get in Pinstripe’s face. “You’re one to talk, fleabag! How come it’s never consistent as to which villains are actually on Cortex’s side? Is Brio working FOR him or AGAINST him? Does that giant tiger work for Cortex or Brio? Is Dingodile even a VILLAIN anymore?!” He snapped. “If anything, Cortex’s history is far more-spotty than Dr. Wily’s!”

Pinstripe didn’t falter and backed away. “Y’see, I actually agree on dat. Ta be fair, I’m only workin’ fer Cortex cause he PAYS me. I’m da only one of his henchmen smart enough to get some moolah fer his services, and I’m smart enough ta know ta keep my mouth shut about dat.” He said. “I gots me my own outfit these days, but from time ta time I end up helpin’ Cortex when he needs a bit more…Firepower.” He chuckled as he waved his tommy gun around a bit. “Look, do I care what happens ta Cortex? Do I care if dis plan of his and Wily’s succeeds or fails?...Nah, not really. I’m helpin’ cause I’m on da CLOCK.”

Quick Man growled. He hated working with this guy already. “Why are we even working together here?” He asked. “I’d already be at the audience entryway by now if I was alone.”

“Not everyone is as fast as you are, hotshot.” Pinstripe shrugged. “I ain’t fussy on dis little arrangement either, y’know. Believe me, the sooner we track down dis Eggman guy, the sooner we get back and go our separate ways, capiche?”

“Fine by me.” Quick Man grunted. “Try to keep up for once, will you?”

“Whatever ya say, tin can.” Pinstripe chuckled as he followed Quick Man, the two unlikely allies continuing down the hallway.

(The Arena)

Boom Boom and Abigail continued to clash, swinging massive hands left and right in an attempt to get through the other’s defenses. While Abigail was just happy he had someone tough to tussle with, Boom Boom was looking to finish the fight fast so that he could move on to deal with Mario. If Bowser knew he had shared the arena with Mario and had done nothing about it he’d have his head. Blanka had been trying to help Boom Boom with Abigail but, shortly after he had entered the ring and stepped into the fight, the huge man had picked the green-skinned man-beast up and had tossed him away to start a fight elsewhere.

Unfortunately for him, Abigail was too persistent and refused to let Boom Boom break away from their fight from the moment the large human stepped into the ring. Boom Boom received a hard hook to the face, making the huge koopa stagger to the side a few steps, but he managed to recover in time to catch Abigail’s fist to block the next attack, countering by slamming a huge fist into the huge brute’s face. Abigail released Boom Boom as he staggered backwards, trying to regain his bearings, before he stared angrily at the huge koopa, rubbing his jaw.

“Stop it with the cheap shots!” Abigail snapped.

Boom Boom snorted, exhaling steam from his nostrils as he did. “Like you’re one to talk about playing fair!” He snapped. “If you’re gonna rile me up, you’re gonna regret it!”

“Ha! You’ll regret making ME mad first!” Abigail shouted. “Now come here and let me get my arms around your neck!”

Boom Boom flew into a rage and spun wildly, arms outstretched as his fists seemed to go in every direction. Abigail held up his arms and blocked the blows, but Boom Boom was steadily chipping away at his defense. The giant thug tried to hold up his arms as much as he could but Boom Boom was able to break through, striking the huge human with a flurry of huge punches, finishing with a blow that managed to knock Abigail off his feet slightly as he was launched backwards.

Abigail landed flat on his back and growled as he pushed himself to his feet, watching as Boom Boom came stomping over. Abigail started noticeably turning red as he clenched his teeth. “Oh, you’re askin’ for it!” He roared as he pulled his arm back and lunged forward, aiming for Boom Boom’s face. Boom Boom likewise held up his arms but was shocked when Abigail’s punch flew straight through his defense, striking the huge koopa in the face and setting him up for a heavy-hitting combo from the larger man.

Abigail roared in fury as he smashed his fist into Boom Boom’s face at the end of his combo, launching the huge koopa backwards and into the ropes, stretching them a bit and actually bouncing Boom Boom off of them, launching him back at Abigail. The huge man gave a smirk as he leapt up, grabbed Boom Boom by the neck in midair and slammed him into the canvas.

However, this did little other than make Boom Boom angrier. The instant Abigail let go of him, Boom Boom rolled backwards and got up again. The two angry fighters stared each other down for a while, glaring daggers at the other as they let their anger build up. They each knew that it would likely take everything they had to take the other down. All they needed to do at this point was land one good, clean, hard punch and that would probably be all they needed to win. Boom Boom and Abigail both shouted in fury at the same time, charging at each other and winding up their fists, preparing to finish the fight. The two lashed out with their fists, aiming for the face of the other…

*CLANG!*

Both fists struck a metal wall that had been placed between them just before they swung. As Boom Boom and Abigail pulled their fists back and held onto them in pain, the two giants turned towards the person who placed the wall and saw the culprit already picking the wall back up and adding it to his inventory again.

“Oh! Nice timing!” Pete told Sackboy as he came over. Sackboy, in the meantime, had just placed the wall back into the menu floating above his head. “Any later and you would have missed the chance!” Sackboy, obviously, didn’t give a verbal response but flashed a happy grin.

“H-Hey! What gives?!” Abigail snapped, holding his hand.

“Hey, we were having fun as much as we could but we figured we needed to start picking opponents eventually.” Pete shrugged. “You guys looked like you needed something better to do anyways.”

Boom Boom looked increasingly angry as he snarled. “Oh, when I get my hands on you!” He shouted. “Come here, you little rodents!”

With that, the huge koopa charged at the two pranksters full-force. Sackboy opened his inventory, grabbed a log and placed it on the canvas just ahead of Boom Boom. The huge koopa stepped on the log and suddenly started wobbling on it, trying to keep his balance as it rolled forward on its own with Boom Boom still on it. This effectively took Boom Boom out of the equation and left Abigail to fight the two small fighters alone.

In spite of this, Abigail scoffed. “You think I need that idiot’s help to beat you two?!” He snapped. “I’ll rip your stuffing out for that!”

Abigail charged forward and Sackboy rushed in between his legs as the huge man made an attempt to grab at him. Missing his intended target, Abigail looked ahead and ran straight into a metal bat swung by Pete. As Abigail was stunned, Pete delivered a few quick punches and kicks to his torso, finishing with a headbutt that seemed to hit harder due to Pete being made of wood.

As Abigail recovered, Pete ran around him and towards a ramp leading out of the arena that Sackboy had place earlier. Slapping Sackboy’s extended hand as if to tag him in, Pete charged up the ramp…

Sackboy opened up his inventory again, grabbed another banana peel and dropped it in front of the ramp before stepping in front of it and grabbing a large rock out of his inventory as well. Sackboy hurled the rock at the distracted Abigail, breaking it over his back and getting his attention.

“You!!” Abigail roared as he turned red again, charging at Sackboy full-steam. Sackboy stood patiently with a happy expression on his face, even bouncing on his feet for a second, as Abigail rushed headfirst at him before simply stepping aside at the last second, allowing Abigail to suddenly see the banana peel on the canvas.

Unable to stop or change his directions, Abigail stepped onto the banana peel and slid on it straight up the ramp, shouting in surprise as he soared over the ropes and out of the arena, to where Pete was floating in midair with an open umbrella. Seeing Abigail flying towards him, Pete pulled a hammer out of his backpack in midair, wound up and swung down as soon as Abigail was near him, striking him in the head and spiking him straight downwards before swapping back to the umbrella and floating back into the arena safely.

Abigail, in the meantime, could only scream in disbelief as he flew straight down, past the bottom of the arena with no hope of grabbing it to try to climb back in. Abigail fell into the black void for about ten feet below the bottom of the arena before the elimination vortex kicked in, making the huge thug vanish in a bright light.

A portal opened up on a forest path and dropped Abigail onto his face. The huge thug roared in anger as he punched the ground, shooting himself into a standing position. He may not have been expecting miracles due to his early draw that put him in the first section but Abigail was at least hoping he’d do better than the first elimination of the entire tournament.

Looking around, Abigail saw wildlife running past him in terror. Suddenly, before he could get a look at what the animals were running from, a blur of red shot past him, similarly fleeing in terror. Abigail looked back and saw a square being made of meat running away and getting further away as he ran into the distance.

As Meat Boy ran away, Abigail looked ahead to see what everything was running from…And found himself staring down a gigantic deforester armed to the teeth with active buzzsaws that was barreling towards him…

Yashiro held up his arms as Athena fired another Psycho Ball at him. Blocking the pop singer’s projectile, Yashiro lowered his guard and swung his fist, catching Athena in the face and sending her sprawling. Athena quickly got to her feet and teleported behind Yashiro as he swung his fist again, striking him in the back with her palm and igniting it in psychic energy, creating an explosion that launched Yashiro forwards.

Landing on his face, Yashiro couldn’t help but chuckle as he pushed himself up. “You’ve still got fight in you after all this time, I see.” He commented. “You’d think that after so long you’d be rusty…Though I’ll admit that I was hoping you’d have learned some new tricks in the years since I was DEAD.”

Athena looked mad at that comment. “Are you saying that I’m not original anymore?! Look, I’ve been trying, okay?!” She demanded. “I’ve spent the last tournament trying to reinvent myself!”

“Yeah, and my band coming back is STILL taking away some of your fans.” Yashiro smirked.

Athena narrowed her eyes and gathered up more psycho energy into her hands. Athena lashed out with another Psycho Ball, but Yashiro lunged forward and punched straight through it, surprising the pop star and striking her with another punch. Yashiro followed up with a few more heavy-hitting punches before grabbing Athena and tossing her aside. Yashiro was about to charged forward to continue the assault when he heard a noise coming from overhead.

Looking over his shoulder, Yashiro saw the first Power Stone spawning in above the arena, dropping down past Orion, whom was still flying in the air but seemed to preoccupied with dodging BB Hood’s bullets to notice. Yashiro abandoned his fight with Athena for a moment as he raced over to where the Power Stone fell and scooped it up before anyone else could grab it.

Athena got up and noticed that Yashiro had rushed off. “H-Hey! I’m not done with you!” She called out. “Don’t think about quitting the fight now!”

“Oh, I’m not. I’m just getting started on my collection.” Yashiro assured as he held up the Power Stone he had grabbed. “We both know what form I’ll take when I get all three, right?”

The colour drained from Athena’s face as she realized that she knew all too well what form Yashiro was likely to take if he collected three Power Stones; she knew what forms ALL THREE of Team Orochi would likely take. Realizing that she needed to stop Yashiro before he got his hands on three stones, Athena levitated off the canvas and used more psycho power to fly headfirst at Yashiro, igniting her hands again.

Yashiro swung his fist at Athena, trying to counter her before she got to him, but Athena activated a teleport mid-flight and warped around the white-haired fighter, delivering a kick to the back once she was behind him. As Yashiro staggered forwards, Athena went on the offensive, striking Yashiro with several psycho-powered punches and finished up with a fully-charged Psycho Ball to the back, sending Yashiro flying forward several feet and landing on his face again.

Pushing himself to his feet, Yashir held up his arm and caught Athena’s leg as she was attempting to kick him. Throwing Athena into the air, Yashiro swung his fist, striking her in midair with a powerful blow, then leaping up after her to spike her down into the canvas with an overhead punch. Yashiro landed on the canvas and cracked his knuckles as Athena pushed herself to her feet again.

“What say you just step back for a while?” Yashiro chuckled. “My team and I can pick up the slack for the fans while you’re gone.”

Athena narrowed her eyes and held up her arms as Yashiro attempted another hard punch. Athena quickly drove her knee into Yashiro’s chest while he was being blocked, forcing him to step back a bit, as she rushed forward and delivered a flying kick to his face, sending him sprawling.

“As if my fans would listen to your music! They have SO much more class than that!” Athena shot back as she pulled her hands back and lashed them out, firing a huge Psycho Ball into Yashiro’s face, stunning him as she rushed forward and drove an elbow into his stomach.

Yashiro tried to break away from Athena’s onslaught of attacks but found himself on the receiving end of a flurry of punches and kicks from the much-faster Athena. The pop star noticed that she was forcing Yashiro back towards the ropes and, deciding to end the fight, delivered another flying uppercut, lifting both her and Yashiro off the ground. In midair, Athena pulled away from Yashiro and swung her leg with all her might, striking the white-haired fighter and launching him clear out of the arena, the Power Stone he had collected getting flung from his grasp upon impact.

Like Abigail before him, Yashiro tried reaching out for a rope to grab onto so he could pull himself back into the arena but caught nothing but air as he tumbled down into an elimination vortex as Athena landed gracefully on her feet.

Yashiro landed in Parodius. Unfortunately, he was gigantic when he landed and found himself under fire from a swarm of bullets fired from a paper airplane that mistook him for a level boss.

Blanka jumped backwards as a series of needle-like spikes truck the canvas around his feet. Blanka narrowed his eyes and, with a primal yell, leapt onto Needle Man’s back to hold him place for Darunia to hit with his huge hammer. Blanka leapt off Needle Man just before the hammer hit the Robot Master, preventing himself from getting thrown aside.

After having been knocked off Boom Boom’s back, Blanka had been thrown into the scuffle Darunia was having with Needle Man and ended up getting roped into the fight somehow. He had originally been looking for a way to get out of the fight to continue helping Boom Boom with Abigail but, seeing the two no longer fighting each other, the green-skinned man-beast opted to help Darunia with his opponent instead for the time being. Darunia was definitely stronger than Needle Man but the Robot Master was leaps and bounds faster than the Goron chief, and that was what told Blanka that Darunia needed the help for the time being.

Darunia laughed as Blanka landed beside him. “These tournaments are loads of fun!” He admitted. “Where else can you say that you’ve fought a living machine?”

“Uh…” Blanka lifted a finger, thinking back to Seth, before stopping himself. “You gotta stay wary! He’s a lot faster than he looks!”

Needle Man proved Blanka’s point by lunging at the two in a blink of an eye, firing several more spikes from his arm cannon. “Teaming up on me isn’t going to help either of you!” He called out. “I’ll perforate you all the same!”

Darunia quickly got in front of Blanka and turned his back to Needle Man, allowing the spikes to strike his armour-plated back and bounce off uselessly. While Darunia was acting as a shield, Blanka leapt over the larger fighter and latched onto Needle Man again, lighting himself up with electricity and sending a thousand volts through Needle Man.

Needle Man, however, seemed unaffected and laughed as he fired a spike into Blanka’s face and knocked the green-skinned man off of him. “You seriously thought hitting a robot with electricity would do anything?!” He taunted.

“Ugh…I can’t do much against him, then…” Blanka grunted. “He’s got plating I can’t claw through and he’s immune to shocks…”

Darunia gave a wink and hoisted his hammer. “Then let me soften him up for you a little, brother!” He replied as he charged into battle and swung the Megaton Hammer, only for Needle Man to dodge the blow. While Darunia was distracted, Needle Man got underneath him and extended the top of his needle head upwards, spiking it into the Goron chief’s chest. Darunia shouted in pain as he recoiled, clutching his chest, as Needle Man jumped at him and smashed his leg into Darunia’s face.

As Darunia fell out of view, however, Blanka sprung up from behind the giant rock creature and kicked Needle Man with both legs, knocking the Robot Master backwards. Blanka leapt over the downed Needle Man and landed on his chest, jumping on him a few times before suddenly noticing Darunia getting up again. Seeing Darunia pulling his hammer up, Blanka quickly jumped off Needle Man and allowed the Goron chief to bring his hammer down directly on top of the downed Robot Master.

The arena shook with the force of Darunia’s hammer strike. It was just one hit but the canvas vibrated with the force, knocking several fighters off their feet. At the center of the strike, however, was a flattened Needle Man that looked like he was half-buried in the arena canvas. Darunia gave a smirk and hoisted the Megaton Hammer onto his shoulder.

“Looks like you bit off a bit more than you can chew, friend!” Darunia laughed.

“Ugh…Spare me…” Needle Man muttered as he pushed himself into a standing position again and aimed his arm cannon square into the Goron’s face. “The only reason I haven’t flattened either of you yet is because you’re teaming up on me!”

“Eh, believe what you will.” Darunia shrugged. “I don’t know why you’re still pointing that thing at me, though.”

“S-Shut up! I’m working with what I’ve got, here!”

“Yeah? Well, so are we, I guess.” Darunia chuckled as he stepped to the side, showing that he was blocking Needle Man’s view of Blanka again. Blanka was flying straight at him in a rolling, airborne ball, slamming into the Robot Master’s face with full force and bowling him over. Knowing that his electric attacks wouldn’t do anything to Needle Man, Blanka resorted to beating him with his fists, slamming them into his face while Needle Man was down several times before he hauled the Robot Master to his feet.

Needle Man tried to fight back but his aim was too disoriented and he wasn’t able to get a shot lined up before Blanka performed a backflip, striking the Robot Master with both feet as he reached the height of his flip. The force from the blow lifted Needle Man up off his feet with enough force to send him tumbling over the ropes, bouncing off the top rope clumsily and falling into a portal.

Needle Man materialized in a swirling vortex of rainbow colours, seemingly floating in midair. Needle Man looked around to try and get his bearings to figure out where he was but saw nothing but a rainbow void; almost as if the elimination portal had dumped him into another one. Unfortunately, with nothing to do and nowhere to move, all Needle Man could do was wait…

Sparks flew wildly as Roy and Raiden clashed swords again, something they had been doing almost the entire time since Raiden had entered the arena. Every time Raiden used his ninja abilities to attempt to get behind Roy, the latter showed quick awareness and was able to keep up with Raiden’s rapid-fire sword-swinging. At the same time, when Roy lashed out with a flame-charged sword swing of his own, Raiden was quick to see it coming and get out of dodge. The two continued to clash, Roy holding his own against Raiden’s sword, surprising the cyber-ninja with his ability to block the attacks from his sword, which had been known to cut through anything.

Raiden had abandoned Ripper Mode for the time being. It gave him a power boost, sure, but it took a lot out of him and he didn’t want to burn himself out this early in the tournament, especially when it seemed that not even Ripper Mode was helping him with Roy. Raiden lashed out with his sword several times, only for Roy to hold up his own blade and parry each blow, his sword starting to turn a shade more-red with each blow.

Raiden narrowed his eyes. “Ugh. I wasn’t counting on you being so fast…” He muttered.

Roy, in the meantime, gave a smirk. “There’s more where that came from.” He said as he pulled his red-hot sword into the air and swung downwards, striking the canvas with all his might. Raiden’s eyes widened as he rushed to bring his guard up but was caught off guard when an explosion erupted from the canvas, burning Roy himself a little bit but striking Raiden with full force, launching the ninja several feet away.

Managing to upright himself in midair, Raiden landed on the canvas as Roy swung his sword to the side, putting out a bit of smoke on the blade. “Huh. Okay, that one I wasn’t expecting.” He muttered. “It’s bad enough that I can’t cut through that sword like I can with everything else; now I need to worry about things exploding!”

Roy got into a stance as he waited for Raiden to make the next move. The cyber ninja rushed at Roy as fast as he could go and the redhead swordsman quickly held up his sword in an attempt to counter. However, that was what Raiden was anticipating and, in the blink of an eye, he ninja-teleported behind Roy, slashing the young swordsman across the back with his own weapon. As Roy staggered forwards in pain, Raiden pressed the assault and swung his sword wildly, striking Roy several more times before kicking him forward, launching himself into the air.

Roy staggered forward and spun around, instinctively holding up his sword as Raiden came down again, blocking an attempted finishing blow. Roy shoved Raiden backwards and ignited his sword in flames, swinging it upwards and knocking Raiden into the air. Raiden crashed onto the canvas again as Roy got into a defensive stance, choosing to wait for his opponent to get up again.

“Heh…You’re a lot faster than you look, kiddo…” Raiden chuckled darkly, and only then did Roy notice that Raiden’s aura had turned red again.

Roy narrowed his eyes. “Why did you decide to go into your dark mode again?” He asked. “We both know I can keep up with it!”

Raiden’s eye glowed a bright red as a dark smirk floated across his face. “Oh, buddy, believe me. I’m just subbing in for Raiden for a while. Gotta let him recover for a bit, you know.” He said. “It’s time for JACK to have a little fun…”

Roy sighed as he stayed in his defensive stance, waiting for Raiden to make the first move. He was far-more unpredictable and dangerous in this advanced mode of his and he needed to be careful…

“HELP MEEE!!!!”

Roy and Raiden paused in silence as they turned their heads to see Lord Hater scrambling over to them desperately, still being chased by Mimikyu. The latter had been chasing the former ever since Mimikyu had entered the arena and it seemed that Lord Hater had wanted nothing more than to get away from the Disguise Pokemon, or at least distract him long enough to slip away.

“Wait. You’re still running?” Roy asked, an eyebrow lifted.

Lord Hater latched onto Roy’s torso in an attempt to get away from Mimikyu. He pointed fearfully down at the cloak-covered Pokemon as Roy stumbled about, Lord Hater’s weight throwing him off-balance briefly. “Get that thing away from me!! It’s the devil incarnate!!” He shrieked.

“G-Get off me!” Roy said as he stumbled about blindly with Lord Hater latching onto his face.

This left Raiden, still in Ripper Mode, to glance down at Mimikyu, whom turned to stare up at the cyber ninja with a look that could only be described as “cute-but-in-a-weird-creepy-way”. Raiden gave a dark, mocking laugh. “What’s so scary about this little rodent?” He asked. “It looks like it’s made out of cloth!”

Deciding to put Mimikyu out of commission as a way to at least get Lord Hater out of his and Roy’s hair, Raiden swung his sword at the Disguise Pokemon, striking the head of his cloth disguise. A loud snapping was heard as Mimikyu’s disguise head tilted downwards, dangling limply while still attached to Mimikyu’s body.

Mimikyu stared up at Raiden, whom seemed oblivious to what he had just done likely due to Ripper Mode clouding his mind slightly. Mimikyu turned his attention to Raiden, seemingly forgetting about Lord Hater for now, as the fringe of his disguise lifted up, letting a shadowy hand emerged from underneath it. Before Raiden knew what was happening, Mimikyu had latched onto his chest, pulling him down and dragged him underneath his disguise.

“HE’S DOING IT AGAIN!!” Lord Hater screamed as he started calling down electric magic into his hands. “SOMEONE STOP IT!! KEEP IT AWAY FROM MEEEE!!”

Roy managed to look up while Lord Hater was holding onto him and his eyes widened when he saw dozens of bolts of lightning magic flying from above, making a beeline for Lord Hater’s hands. Unfortunately, said hands were currently wrapped around Roy’s torso in a desperate bear hug. “Oh, son of a-”

That was all Roy got out before the lightning magic struck Lord Hater and sent thousands of painful volts of electricity through Roy simply because the evil space villain was holding onto him at the time. Roy’s screams of pain blended together with Lord Hater’s screams of desperation as the two lit up in a bright, electric explosion while the sounds of Mimikyu repeatedly striking and clawing Raiden were occasionally being heard in the background.

Finally, the lightning stopped, though Lord Hater was still latched onto the now-unmoving body of Roy. “D-Did I get him?” Lord Hater squeaked, looking over his shoulder at Mimikyu. However, in doing so, he caused Roy to lose balance as the redhead swordsman fell flat on his back, making Lord Hater step off him and only then noticing that the electric magic had fried Roy and he was out like a light, likely while he was even on his feet. “Uh…Oops?” He muttered, standing over Roy and scratching his head.

With Roy down, Lord Hater looked at Mimikyu and saw the Disguise Pokemon, still with the cloth head dangling limply to the side, standing over a beaten, mangled Raiden. Lord Hater looked back and forth a few times, lifted the bottom rope of the arena and brushed Roy’s prone form underneath it, sending the unconscious swordsman tumbling out of the arena as Lord Hater tiptoed away while Mikikyu was busy using a shadowy hand to pick up Raiden and toss him out of the arena himself. By the time Mimikyu would turn again he would have lost sight of Lord Hater so all the poor Pokemon could do at the moment was sulk and lament the loss of his disguise’s head…

Roy and Raiden’s unconscious bodies tumbled into Dynasty Warriors. When they finally woke up, they laid waste to the enemy army all on their own, leaving a trail of bodies and destruction in their wake.

Volkov’s scythe swung down and struck Pyra’s huge broadsword. Volkov snarled in anger and swung a few more times, but Pyra proved to be quick enough to block all the attempted blows from the vampire lord and, while the two weapons were locked, gave Volkov a kick to the face to send him sprawling.

Seeing Volkov down, Pyra held her sword up and rushed at the downed vampire, swinging it with all her might. However, Volkov turned his head to look at her coming at him while he was down, his eyes glowing red and fangs bared before his body split into several shadowy bats, dispersing from the area and causing Pyra’s sword to swing through the air where the vampire had been.

Before Pyra had time to react, the shadowy bats swiftly moved behind her and formed together again. Volkov emerged from the shadowy swarm and swung a battleaxe down, striking Pyra in the back and knocking her away, causing her to tumbled across the canvas for a few feet. “I may not be able to drain your blood but I can still cut you like the rest of them, fool!” Volkov snapped.

Pyra grunted as she used her sword to prop herself up and push herself to her feet again. “You think you can scare me with that edgy vampire charade?” She smirked. “I’ve taken down WAY creepier than you.”

Volkov stared angrily. “Charade, you say? You DARE mock the lord of Castle Batavia by calling him a charade?!” He demanded as he gripped his battleaxe and ignited it in what looked like blood magic.

Pyra held up her sword and blocked a barrage of fast axe swings from Volkov, and then when she saw him vanish into another cloud of shadowy bats she turned around and instinctively swung behind her, where she was anticipating the vampire to appear, only to cleave through the air in between a few shadows just before Volkov materialized again. Seeing that Pyra had been too quick on the draw, Volkov smashed his axe into her face, sending the redhead sword-woman sprawling. Volkov raised his axe and leapt into the air, using his vampiric powers to hover as he floated over Pyra and swung downwards.

However, Pyra had enough awareness in her to ignite her sword in flames and swing it upwards while she was on her back. Volkov recoiled in pain at the burning flames, dropping to the canvas as Pyra got up again, taking another fire-cloaked swing of a sword at the vampire lord. Volkov backpedaled away, still hovering a foot off the ground, as he attempted to keep away from Pyra’s fire, and the red-haired sword-woman gave a sly smirk.

“Don’t like the heat?” Pyra asked. “How about I crank it up a little?”

Pyra swung her sword again, this time letting it go and physically throwing it at Volkov. Pyra’s sword spun wildly, still caked in flames and ember as it flew straight at Volkov. The vimpire’s red eyes snapped open as he dispersed himself again, trying to teleport away from the flaming sword as he knew exactly how much that weapon would burn him if it struck him head-on.

Switching to his scythe in midair, Volkov flew overtop of Pyra and attempted a downward strike while she was waiting for her sword to return to her hand. Because she didn’t have a weapon in hand to guard against the blow, Pyra received a sharp slash to the back, and held up her arms as she turned around to at least try and negate the damage from Volkov’s following attacks.

“You can’t keep this up forever, child.” Volkov smirked as he hacked away at Pyra with his scythe. “Sooner or later your guard will break.”

“Maybe…Maybe eventually it will.” Pyra said before giving another smirk. “But at the moment I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me!”

Pyra, while blocking with one hand, held out her other hand and caught her still-returning sword. Re-igniting it in flames, Pyra swung outwards, clashing with Volkov’s scythe. The vampire lord continued to try and attack Pyra but found himself recoiling slightly at the intense heat coming off the red-haired sword-woman’s weapon. Seeing Volkov backing off slightly, likely to put some distance between himself and the fire, Pyra shoved the vampire backwards and rushed him, swinging her sword as fast and as hard as she could. Volkov held up his scythe and tried to block or parry the attacks but found that Pyra’s attacks were too strong and she was able to break through his guard after only a few swings.

Volkov staggered backwards with every swing Pyra lashed out at him, trying to lift his weapon to block but not getting the chance to before Pyra got another hit in. Volkov tried teleporting away but was too disoriented to get his thoughts together and simply found himself stepping closer and closer to the ropes as Pyra continued to force him backwards. Before too long Volkov had felt himself push against the ropes around the arena.

Pyra had seemed to notice this as well, as she lashed out with her sword in an upwards swing, striking Volkov in a way that knocked him upwards, tumbling over the ropes. However, while Volkov was outside of the ring he tried to fly back in, using his vampire powers of teleportation to do so, but Pyra seemed to anticipate this as she sent a flaming projectile into the airborne Volkov’s face, stunning the vampire lord and shooting him out of the sky, sending him falling into a portal.

Volkov materialized in the same swirling vortex of rainbow colours as Needle Man, finding himself floating in midair near the eliminated Robot Master. Needle Man saw Volkov trying to upright himself in the space-like void, as he had materialized upside-down, sighed and simply went back to waiting for something to happen…

(Dome; Mario Bros. Locker Room)

Bowser grumbled and folded his arms as he watched Boom Boom getting into a fight with Meta Knight on a nearby TV screen. “Ugh. I shoulda figured that getting someone to deal with Mario before I entered the ring would likely be wishful thinking.” He muttered.

Peach giggled and patted the back of Bowser’s shell as he pouted. “I thought you would have wanted to fight Mario yourself, Bowser.” She noted.

“I DO! But you’d think my minions’d be able to soften him up a bit!” Bowser whined. “Boom Boom hasn’t even been able to get CLOSE to Mario!”

“Well, I don’t think that’s HIS fault.” Peach shrugged. “I mean, he’s just gotten unlucky and gotten involved in other battles.”

Bowser folded his arms and continued to sulk. “Yeah, yeah…”

Suddenly, the door to the locker room opened, getting the attention of the two. Peach and Bowser watched as a familiar wooden doll clad in a blue cloak entered the locker room looking a little annoyed and frustrated. Peach’s eyes lit up. “Oh! Geno, there you are!” She greeted as she went over to the newcomer. “We didn’t see you when we checked in and we were wondering if you were even going to show up when you weren’t here yet when the tournament started!”

Geno gave a sigh. “It’s good to see you again, princess. I apologize for not checking in sooner but something big and important came up that’s been eating up all my time.” He informed. “In fact, the only reason I’m here at all is to tell you what’s happened to fill you in.”

Peach blinked in confusion as Bowser came over. “Um…What in the world happened, Geno?” She asked.

Geno gave another sigh. “A couple days before the tournament was scheduled to start, the Star Road was broken again.” He folded his arms.

Bowser groaned and rolled his eyes. “AGAIN?! Seriously, what kinda guardian are you if the thing you’re tasked to protect keeps getting destroyed?” He half-joked.

“Wait, the Star Road got destroyed again?!” A new voice asked. The three turned to see Mallow coming over with his Froggie Stick in hand. “So wishes are off the table again?!”

“I’m afraid so, at least for now.” Geno shook his head.

“Do you know who destroyed it, Geno?” Peach asked hopefully. “It…Wasn’t Smithy again, was it?”

“You kidding, princess? We blew that bearded metalsmith to bits!” Bowser reminded.

Geno looked away. “Unfortunately, I don’t know who destroyed the Star Road. It all happened so fast and the next thing I knew all the pieces were gone. It was like they had teleported away the instant the Star Road was destroyed.” He explained.

“So…What does that have to do with you being late to the check-in?” Mallow tilted his head.

“I tracked all the pieces to the dome and hotel. I don’t know where they are but they’re all here somewhere.” Geno replied. “I tried looking through the dome and hotel as best as I could before the tournament started but the security team told me to come here and check in. Normally I’d just ignore them but then the white rabbit-creature threatened to gnaw my leg off and use it as a toothpick.”

Peach sighed. “You get used to that one.” She admitted. “But if you need help finding the pieces again then you can be sure that we’ll do what we can to help!”

“Hey! I never said I wanted to help!” Bowser said indignantly. “All I wanna do tonight is face Mario in the ring and stomp him flat in front of a live audience!”

Geno looked around and seemed puzzled. “Wait. Mario’s not here. Is he in the ring already?” He asked.

“I’m afraid so. You missed him by about ten minutes.” Peach shook her head. “But he should be able to hold on long enough for one of US to enter the ring to let him know, and even if he DOES get eliminated, we’ll just need to wait for him to show up again.”

Geno sighed. “I suppose so. Either way, any help I can get finding the Star Pieces would be appreciated, especially since I know there are a LOT of dangerous villains in the dome and hotel that would be sure to be looking for the pieces once they knew what they were.” He said.

“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Peach said as she looked at Bowser and gave him a sweet smile that Bowser knew all-too-well was hiding a cold, judging stare. “…RIGHT, Bowser?”

Bowser sighed. “Okay, FINE. I’ll help out where I can but I have a few things I need to do beforehand.” He reminded. “That said, I beat Bison before at one of these things so if he tried something again I know I could take him.”

Geno narrowed his eyes. “There are FAR more villains here than just him.” He reminded.

“He’s probably the most-dangerous…And persistent, for that matter.” Bowser shrugged.

(Dome; Hallway)

Juri Han gave a whistle as she flipped through a wad of bills she had just been given. “Heh. Looks like it’s all there.” She noted as she pocketed the money. “Okay. You’ve got my attention for now.”

Standing in front of Juri was a familiar tall being dressed in black robes and wearing a large, intricate, stone mask. Juri heard a scoff come from inside the helmet. “I recall you saying that you would be willing to work for Lord Ganondorf tonight in exchange for the payment.” Zant said coldly. “If you’re smart, you’ll do as you say you will.”

Juri gave a cold smirk. “Sure. For now, anyways.” She reminded. “You still haven’t really told me what it is that big-nosed bandit wants, anyways.”

“You ALSO said that you didn’t CARE what he was planning.” Zant replied, staring icily at Juri through the mask he was wearing. “You got your payment so Lord Ganondorf expects your service.”

Juri gave a shrug. “Yeah, yeah. I guess it could be interesting to crack a few skulls. Saves me having to worry about throwing my lot in with whatever Bison’s planning tonight.” She admitted.

Zant paused. “…Is he actually planning something tonight?” He asked.

“Eh, I dunno. I mean, he usually does.” Juri shrugged. “What would make tonight any different?”

“Hmm…I’ll have to run that possibility by Lord Ganondorf. If Bison IS planning something, he may want to know.” Zant noted. “I’d suggest you keep your ears open in that regard, human…”

Juri gave a smirk. “Aw. Did I pwant seeds of doubt in dat widdle head of youws?” She teased.

A blade shot from the emptiness of Zant’s sleeve as the helmeted being pointed it at the unflinching Juri. “Do NOT test me, girl.” He warned. “I’ve already been getting paranoia about trust issues with my colleagues after the last Megamix.”

“Oh, right. I remember hearing about that. You were shaking in your shoes at the thought of a CLOWN betraying you, weren’t you?” Juri snickered.

“I SAID not to TEST ME!!” Zant roared as he lashed out with his sword. Juri backflipped away as Zant swung at her and landed gracefully on the floor several feet away. Juri stood up and gave a smirk as Zant was heard breathing heavily a few times before he retracted his sword back into his sleeve.

“My, my, my. Quite a sensitive topic for you, isn’t it?” Juri teased. “Maybe I’ll stick around and see where this side of you goes. Could make for an interesting night…”

Zant stood in silence, as if mulling over some things in his head, before looking at Juri again. “Lord Ganondorf and his business partner don’t have much more money to spare to hire anyone after you. We’re going to focus on hiring others with offers of power.” He explained. “If you know of anyone that would be willing to work with us in exchange for a little power, then feel free to tell them to come to where I told you to come to check in.”

“Thanks for being so trustworthy.” Juri smirked. “I know of a guy or two that’d probably be up for that. If I can get to them before Bison can then I’ll send them Ganondorf’s way.”

“Fine. Just remember not to push my buttons like that and we’ll be all good.” Zant said coldly as he turned around and strode off down the hall, leaving Juri alone as the dark-haired woman watched him turn a corner and vanish from sight.

“I wonder how long it’ll take before he snaps.” Juri chuckled as she turned around and walked off herself, down the opposite way of Zant. “This night could be a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be…”

(The Arena)

Pahn held up his arms and blocked a jumping punch from Mario with his forearms. The dark-haired monk broke his own guard, knocking Mario backwards as the shorter fighter landed on his feet and skidded to a halt. Pahn pressed the assault and rushed forward with a flurry of bare-fisted swings, managing to get a few lucky hits in but otherwise striking Mario’s arms as the plumber guarded against the blows.

The two had been clashing mostly since Mario had stepped into the arena, though they had to be careful of their surroundings as they fought: Mario had nearly been hit by a couple of stray rockets courtesy of Soldier and Pahn had been grazed by a few rouge bullets BB Hood had been firing off in an attempt to get Orion. The two had been pretty evenly-matched in terms of strength and speed, so it seemed that the duel the two were in was going to come down to a test of endurance to decide the winner.

Mario rubbed his arm after kicking Pahn away, feeling where he had blocked a blow from the bare-fisted monk during the flurry of punches. “You’ve a-got some power in a-those punches…” He mentioned. “It a-hurt just blocking those.”

Pahn clutched his chest, where Mario had kicked him, before getting into a stance. “I put a lot into my punches.” He replied simply. “There are things that I...Regret doing and I strive to keep myself stronger to keep myself from making those decisions again.”

Mario gave a smirk and adjusted his cap. “It a-sounds like you have a a-chip on your shoulder.” He mentioned. “Look. Just a-let yourself relax for the night, huh? Have a little of a-fun here.”

Pahn exhaled and gave a light smile. “I’ll…Try to, anyway.” He replied.

Pahn rushed forward with another flurry of blows, which Mario swiftly ducked under and backflipped away from as Pahn swung at the air. However, Pahn stepped forward as he continued the flurry, managing to take the airborne Mario by surprise, striking him in the stomach. Seeing that he had hit his target, Pahn stepped up his game again, striking the plumber in midair with several lightning-fast punches without giving Mario the chance to react or even hit the ground.

Mid-punch, Pahn activated his Boar Rune, igniting his fist and powering up his attack, finishing a powerful flurry with a hard blow to the chest, knocking Mario backwards at least fifteen feet. As Mario landed on his back, Pahn wobbled in place for a second before stumbling forward and dropping onto his knee briefly before standing back up.

Mario, on his back, groaned a bit before kicking himself back into a standing position. He rotated his arms and gave a smirk as he jogged headfirst at Pahn while the monk was still recovering from his use of his Boar Rune. Leaping over Pahn, Mario kicked him in the back with both feet, knocking Pahn to the ground and springboarding off of him. Mario landed on the canvas, spun around and drove his fist into Pahn’s face, following it up with another punch and finally a kick, knocking Pahn back further and clearly disorienting him.

Pahn skidded to a halt and looked up, quickly holding up a hand on instinct and catching Mario’s fist as it was coming at his face, starting a power struggle between the two. Pahn pushed back against Mraio’s strength as he pushed himself to his feet to get a better footing, surprised at how strong Mario was despite being quite a bit shorter than Pahn. Pahn swung his other hand at Mario while the two were locked in the power struggle, hoping to knock Mario away from him and give himself some breathing room.

Mario saw the attack coming, however, and caught Pahn’s free hand with his own, locking the two in the struggle even further. Pahn tried to wrestle Mario to the ground using all his force and clenched his teeth as he felt like he was using all his strength to push back against Mario in hopes he could get the plumber to back off.

Pahn opened his eyes and he continued to struggle and he froze in shock when he saw Mario pushing against his efforts, looking like he wasn’t nearly as exhausted as Pahn himself was. “You…You’re not even sweating…” He muttered.

“You’ve a-got skill. I a-guess I’m a-just more-experienced.” Mario admitted.

“Am…Am I really that far outmatched?” Pahn breathed in disbelief.

Mario pulled his arms back, breaking away from the power struggle while Pahn still seemed to be processing how much stronger than him Mario actually was. As Pahn stepped back in surprise, Mario lashed out with a fist, striking the bottom of Pahn’s chin and launching both fighters into the air in a jumping uppercut. When the two reached the apex of Mario’s jump, the plumber pulled away, pulled his feet back and lashed out with them, striking Pahn in midair with both feet and launching the monk clear across the ring. Pahn flew over the heads of almost everyone in the ring (flying past an airborne Orion) as he fell outside the ropes on the other side of the ring, tumbling headfirst into a portal.

Pahn crash-landed onto the beach of Dee Jay’s stage in Street Fighter 2, where the Jamaican street fighter tried to get him to loosen up with some music and dancing.

Orion hovered in midair, having watched Pahn fly past him and fall past the ropes. “Where did that guy COME from?” He asked aloud as he glanced over his shoulder to see who could be so powerful to launch a man Pahn’s size that far. He was stopped when BB Hood, still on the canvas, fired another volley of bullets up at him and into his armoured chestplate. “Will you STOP that?!” He demanded, sounding more-annoyed with the red-clad bounty hunter than anything.

“Get your shiny tin keester down here and fight me!” BB Hood snapped, pointing two smoking machine guns up at the flying knight. “I’m not leaving you alone until I collect that bounty!”

Orion sighed and summoned his rocket lance into his hands again, using it to fly straight down at BB Hood, firing a volley of laser blasts from it as he did. BB Hood backpedaled away as Orion’s lasers struck the canvas, and then instinctively swung a machete at the armoured knight, managing to strike him in the shoulder as he got close. Like usual, BB Hood was unable to get through Orion’s armour, but the strike was enough but the strike was enough to stop the armoured knight long enough for the bounty hunter to leap at him and deliver a flying kick to his face, knocking Orion out of the sky.

“Okay…Maybe I can’t get through the armour but I just need to peel it off you!” BB Hood snarled as she spun her machete in her hand. BB Hood leapt on top of Orion’s downed form and slashed at him multiple times with her machete, getting more-and-more frustrated when she saw that none of her attacks were even making a dent in his armour. Orion saw her frustration and activated his jetpack, rocketing on his back out from underneath BB Hood, knocking the red-clad bounty hunter into the air with a spin.

Orion turned around in midair and rocketed at BB Hood while she was still in the air, swapping his rocket lance to his spear and slamming it into the airborne bounty hunter, knocking the wind out of her and spiking her into the canvas. Swapping to the lance again, Orion again took aim and the downed BB Hood and fired another volley of lasers from the lance, this time finding a target and burying the red-clad hunter in a sea of light.

All of a sudden, a grenade was thrown at Orion from within the blinding lights and the armoured knight, out of instinct, ended up shooting at it with his lance. However, the grenade had gotten too close to Orion when he did that and the explosive blew up in Orion’s face, blinding and disorienting him long enough for BB Hood to leap into view and throw a few more grenades, causing them to explode all around Orion and disorient him further. As Orion was trying to look through the smoke caused by the grenades to try and find his opponent, BB Hood leapt through the smoke, latched onto the airborne armoured knight and stuck a machine gun under his chin.

BB Hood pulled the trigger and sent several bullets into the bottom of Orion’s helmet. None of the bullets pierced the plating but BB Hood noticed that the bullets had actually embedded themselves into Orion’s helmet rather than deflect off it entirely. Realizing that she was making progress, BB Hood spun her Uzi in her hand and pointed it straight into Orion’s visor.

“Let’s see you deflect THIS!” BB Hood shouted.

BB Hood suddenly felt something poke into his stomach. Looking down, the bounty hunter saw Orion’s rocket lance preparing to fire another volley of laser, this time point-blank. Before BB Hood could get a curse word out, Orion opened fire and shot the young hunter with countless laser volleys, keeping her airborne as he backed away, floating in midair.

“You’re persistent. I’ll give you that…” Orion muttered. “I shudder to think how powerful you’d be if you somehow ended up in Valhalla in the future…”

Stopping his firing, Orion let BB Hood fall, crashing back-first onto the canvas and then lowered himself down until he was still hovering above the canvas a few inches. Charging up his jetpack and rocket lance, Orion waited until BB Hood had pushed herself to her feet before flying straight at her, rocket lance aimed at her torso.

BB Hood snapped to attention just in time to jump into the air, letting Orion fly by underneath her. As Orion was passing by, BB Hood latched onto his back as the two of them shot forward together, flying up higher as they zoomed around the arena above the heads of everyone else.

“Get…Get off me!” Orion grunted as he struggled to keep his rocket lance steady while at the same time trying to get BB Hood off him. The two ended up flying towards the arena ropes though neither of the two seemed to notice it.

“I’m getting that bounty!” BB Hood yelled as she pulled something from her basket and slammed it onto Orion’s back. “One way or another, I’m getting it!”

BB Hood planted both feet onto Orion’s back and kicked off him, launching him beyond the arena ropes and herself back into the arena. Orion flew forward a few feet further as he came to a halt and spun around in midair, raising his lance and glaring down at BB Hood, preparing to charge her again.

Orion faltered when he saw BB Hood smirking triumphantly and holding what looked like a detonator in her hand. As BB Hood jammed the button on the detonator, Orion suddenly realized what the hunter had done and what she had placed on his back…

*KA-BOOM!*

The C4 BB Hood had planted on Orion’s back exploded, destroying his jet thrusters and preventing him from staying in midair. Without a way to fly back into the arena, Orion fell headlong into the void and into an elimination portal.

Orion crashed into Terraria, straight through the Eye of Cthulhu as a group of heroes were trying to fight it off. Orion spent the next ten minutes working to repair his jetpack using provided materials that the heroes had given him for helping them slay the boss monster.

In the arena, BB Hood exhaled in relief as a smirk floated across her face. “Well, that’s that. All I need to do now is…” She trailed off as her smirk vanished, her eyes widening in realization. Digging out her contract for Orion from her pocket, she scanned over the fine print…

…DEAD ONLY.

BB Hood’s blood started boiling at the realization that she couldn’t collect the bounty on Orion until she had actually finished him off and had just let him slip between her fingers. BB Hood screamed as she stamped her foot and looked up. “Aw, SON OF A BI-”

Boom Boom’s fist connected with Meta Knight’s face and, because the huge Koopa’s fists were the size of the blue puffball’s entire body, resulted in Meta Knight flying backwards several feet, flying into one of the corner-posts of the arena. Boom Boom, in the meantime, approached Meta Knight, cracking his knuckles.

“Stay down, you little runt!” Boom Boom snapped. “I gotta give that Mario a beat-down and I ain’t getting’ near him fighting YOU!”

Meta Knight grunted as he pushed himself to his feet. “If I recall correctly, YOU hit ME first.” He countered.

Boom Boom flailed his arms in fury. “Because I slipped on a log and rolled into you!” He insisted. “You just started attacking me back!”

“Maybe so but you could have stopped the fight anytime.” Meta Knight responded as his cape morphed into a pair of wings. “You intend to finish the fight.”

Boom Boom roared in anger as he spun around wildly, fists flying in every direction as he flew towards Meta Knight in a tornado of punches. Meta Knight spread his wings, took to the sky and flew gracefully overtop of Boom Boom as the huge Koopa flew by underneath him, and swung his sword down as he passed by, striking Boom Boom across the top of his head, knocking the angry Koopa out of his attack phase and sending him flat onto his face.

Pushing himself up, Boom Boom shouted in anger again as he jumped at the still-airborne Meta Knight in a feeble attempt to grab him. “Quit fooling around!” He shouted. “Take the fight seriously!”

“You let your anger get the better of you. It makes you far too-easy of an opponent to read.” Meta Knight responded. “And, by the way, THIS is a tornado.”

Meta Knight spun in a cyclone with his sword pointed outwards, spinning straight down towards Boom Boom. The angry Koopa’s eyes widened as he tried to raise his arms but Meta Knight was far too fast as he drove straight into Boom Boom’s stomach. After giving Boom Boom several powerful strikes, Meta Knight broke out of his tornado move and swung his sword upwards, striking Boom Boom in the face and knocking him backwards.

To any other opponent, the attack would have launched them upwards. However, due to Boom Boom being so big, all the attack did was make the huge Koopa stagger backwards a few steps. Boom Boom’s head snapped down to stare at Meta Knight as a fire lit up in his eyes. Meta Knight swung his sword again but Boom Boom showed fast enough reflexes to hold up a hand and block the masked puffball’s attack bare-handed.

The sight of Boom Boom blocking his attack seemed to momentarily surprise Meta Knight; not for long but long enough for the larger fighter to strike him in the face. Boom Boom was on top of Meta Knight in a flash, striking the swordsman with punch after punch, the power behind his attacks amplified due to the size of his massive fists. Deciding to finish the fight, Boom Boom lifted both hands into the air and swung the down, aiming for Meta Knight’s face…

Boom Boom’s fists hit the canvas, and when the large Koopa looked down again he saw that Meta Knight wasn’t there anymore, having used his cape to warp out of the way and free himself from Boom Boom’s grasp. Boom Boom stood up and looked over his shoulder just in time for Meta Knight to fly by and slash the back of his shell, causing him to shout in pain. Boom Boom swung a fist in Meta Knight’s direction but the puffball had already moved around him, slashing his arm in the process.

He tried to attack and counter, but Boom Boom found that he couldn’t catch or hit the much-faster Meta Knight as the small swordsman flew around him at all angles, slashing him with his sword at every turn. Every time Boom Boom lashed out with a fist, Meta Knight had already flown past him and had attacked him on his other side. Of course, with every failed attack he threw, Boom Boom only got madder at the flying puffball as Meta Knight continued to slash at him from every angle without giving him a chance to counter.

“Stop doing that! You’re makin’ me MAD!” Boom Boom snapped.

“You need to control your temper.” Meta Knight’s voice said from the left. Boom Boom swung blindly and missed his target, Meta Knight having already moved on and suddenly spoke from the right. “You lack control and that makes you an easy target.” Boom Boom lashed out again, trying to hit Meta Knight, only to miss completely.

Steam emitted from Boom Boom’s ears as he started turning red in anger. “Come on! You’re just toying with me!” He shouted out. “If you gonna fight me, then take it seriously!”

“I am.”

Boom Boom turned around just in time to see Meta Knight flying at his face, sword outstretched. Meta Knight hit Boom Boom with a lightning-fast flurry of sword swings, staggering Boom Boom and making him stumble backwards with every attack he was given. Boom Boom triedto fight back but every time he tried swinging a fist Meta Knight slashed his arm with another sword attack to counter the potential blow.

Meta Knight, deciding to finish the fight, backed away from Boom Boom, landed on his feet and readied himself as Boom Boom stepped back, still trying to recover. However, Meta Knight was in his face again, this time delivering a deceptively-powerful kick with enough force to send Boom Boom tumbling over the top rope that he didn’t even realize he had backed up against and sending him down into a portal.

Boom Boom materialized in the same vortex as Needle Man and Volkov, in between the two. The Koopa looked at Needle Man, seeing that Volkov was still trying to get himself turned right-side-up with little success. “Uh…What’s going on here?” He asked.

Needle Man gave a shrug. “You got me. At this point I’m just waiting for something to happen but I’m getting bored.” He sighed. “You don’t happen to have a deck of cards on you or something, do you?” Boom Boom paused and looked down at his unclothed form before staring back at the Robot Master with a questioning glance. Needle Man sighed. “Didn’t think so.” He muttered.

Meitenkun’s head drooped to the side as he swerved around Great Tiger’s punch. The Indian boxer had seen firsthand how powerful Meitenkun was while half-asleep and realized that perhaps, even in his dozy state, he WAS fully-aware of the fight. Great Tiger had to admit that he felt guilty about fighting someone half-asleep but he was actually starting to think that he wouldn’t stand a chance if Meitenkun fully woke up.

Great Tiger received a sharp kick to the face from the half-asleep youth as he staggered backwards. Meitenkun quickly followed up by grabbing Great Tiger by the face, leaping up and slamming the Indian fighter face-first onto the canvas, onto the pillow Meitenkun was always carrying around.

Meitenkun yawned as he got up, allowing Great Tiger to get up as well. “Ugh…Can we finish this?...” He asked as he stretched tiredly. “I’m already starting to...Tire myself out…”

Great Tiger grunted as he pushed himself up. “How can you be so fast and powerful when you’re half-asleep like this?” He asked, though more to himself than anything.

“Oh, that?...I dunno. I guess I’m just lucky like that…” Meitenkun mumbled drowsily.

Great Tiger sighed, knowing that he’d need to have a strategy to beat the younger fighter as he stepped forward and lashed out a right hook. Meitenkun showed more surprising awareness by swerving his head to the side in what looked like a tired stumble, cleanly avoiding Great Tiger’s blow, before swinging his arm using his momentum and clubbing the Indian man in the face with his forearm.

While Great Tiger was stunned, Meitenkun stumbled forward and struck Great Tiger with a few more blows that looked clumsy but hit hard, as shown by Great Tiger looking like he was getting the wind knocked out of him. As Meitenkun lunged forward in a flying kick, the jewel on Great Tiger’s turban flashed in a bright light.

Meitenkun stumbled forward, his leg striking nothing but air as he flew past where he thought Great Tiger was just a second ago. The young narcoleptic caught his footing as he looked at where he had thought Great Tiger had been, only seeing a few wisps of red smoke.

“Ugh…Maybe I’m just getting tired…” Meitenkun mumbled as he rubbed his eyes. “…Startin’ to see things…”

Suddenly, a fist flew in from the right and struck Meitenkun in the jaw, making the youth stagger to the side. Meitenkun held his face as he looked at where the punch had come from, only to see nothing there except for a few more red wisps of smoke. Meitenkun internally wondered where the punch had come from when another punch came in from the left, striking him in the side. This continued a few more times before Meitenkun managed to block an attempted blow, only then seeing that it was indeed Great Tiger behind the attacks.

Meitenkun narrowed his eyes, or at least looked like he was trying to in his half-asleep state. “Huh…You can teleport…” He muttered.

Meitenkun saw the gem on Great Tiger’s turban flash again as the Indian man vanished into thin air while Meitenkun was holding onto his hand, reappearing a few feet away and out of reach of the younger fighter. Taking a moment to adjust his gloves and breathe a few times, Great Tiger cleared his mind and got into his stance again. “I can.” He replied simply. “I suppose there are a few things that you’ve yet to be taught to counter.”

“Eh, not really…” Meitenkun shrugged lazily. “Athena over there…Kinda does it all the time…”

Great Tiger gave a smirk as he started levitating into the air and engulfed himself in a whirlwind of magic. “Ah, maybe so. But can she do…” He said before swinging his hands at Meitenkun. “…THIS?!”

Meitenkun stepped back as two identical clone versions of Great Tiger appeared on either side of the boxer and flew straight at Meitenkun, fist outstretched. Meitenkun tried to counter the first clone but stopped when the clone harmlessly struck him and dissipated into thin air, revealing itself to be nothing but a ghost-like image of Great Tiger. The second clone, however, delivered a blow to the jaw, revealing that it was Great Tiger himself throwing the punch rather than a second illusion.

The force from the surprise blow had staggered Meitenkun enough that he was unable to block Great Tiger’s next blow, which came after sending two fake clones of himself at the younger fighter to fake him out before going in himself and landing another hard punch. Great Tiger, noticing that Meitenkun was approaching the ropes, sent everything he had at the younger fighter, causing at least a dozen copies of himself to charge headfirst at Meitenkun and pull back for a punch.

Meitenkun raised his arms as the clones hit his body, not sure which of the clones was real but at the same time knowing that Great Tiger could be anywhere in the crowd. All he could do was keep his arms raised and hope it would be enough to block the Indian man’s next attack. After what seemed like an eternity, the real Great Tiger’s fist connected with Meitenkun’s blocking arms. However, because the younger fighter had been blocking for a while, the punch managed to break through Meitenkun’s guard and stagger the younger fighter.

Seeing his opponent staggering backwards, Great Tiger gave a smirk and swung his fist upwards, striking Meitenkun with a powerful uppercut that sent the younger fighter clear over the ropes and out of the ring.

Meitenkun crashed into a bed in Tomodachi Life, where he promptly curled up and fell asleep, seemingly-oblivious to the hand reaching down from the ceiling and erasing his face…

Soldier stood in the middle of a circle of constant explosions, laughing like a maniac, as he held two rocket launchers on his shoulders. Where he had gotten the second rocket launcher appeared to be anyone’s guess, but the fact that he was firing rockets at three moving targets that had surrounded him had shrouded all sight of the crazed mercenary.

“Come out, you filthy wizards! I know your magic is no match for my human ingenuity and supply of highly-explosive rockets!” Soldier laughed as he looked around for his opponents. “And you can take that back to Merasmus!”

Soldier looked around, wondering if he had actually managed to hit one of his opponents, and suddenly found himself staring down the ghostly image of a wooly mammoth spirit, Kaya riding on its back, as he emerged from the flames created by his rockets. Kaya gripped her spear as the mammoth spirit grabbed Soldier with its trunk and tossed him into the air. “Link!” She called out as the mammoth spirit dissipated.

Young Link jumped through the smoke cloud, once again in his Fierce Deity form, huge sword raised over his head as he jumped at the airborne Soldier. Young Link roared as he slammed his sword into Soldier’s helmeted head, spiking the mercenary down into the canvas. By the time Young Link had landed on his feet as well, the smoke caused by the numerous explosions had faded out, giving the audience a view of Soldier again.

Chris Lightfellow approached the downed Soldier and started casting magic with her True Water Rune. “Keep him down, you two!” She directed. “If I can freeze him in a block of ice we can just push him out of the ring!”

Young Link and Kaya nodded as the three approached the downed Soldier. However, Kaya suddenly noticed Soldier’s hand moving slowly as Chris stood over him, his finger hovering over the trigger of one of his rocket launchers. “Chris, GET BACK!” Kaya shouted as she jumped backwards.

Soldier snapped to life and lifted his rocket launcher, giving a smirk as he pointed it straight into Chris’ face and fired. The resulting explosion was not only enough to knock Young Link away and out of his Fierce Deity form but it was enough to launch Chris clear across the ring, effectively removing her from the fight entirely.

Kaya rushed over to Young Link as he got to his feet, taking note that he was in his kid form again. “We need to wear him down!” She said. “He’s…A LOT tougher than I thought he’d be!”

Young Link sighed as he clipped the Fierce Deity mask to his belt again for now. “I know. If Ganondorf hired this guy I’d probably have a lot harder time getting through his forces.” He muttered. “I kinda worry what the REST of his team is like if we’re having this much trouble with just HIM.”

“Chris had a good idea; maybe I can still freeze him.” Kaya assured as Soldier got up and hoisted his rocket launchers again. “We should at least try to hold him off until Chris can come back.”

Young Link nodded. “We’re faster. Let’s try using that to our advantage…” He suggested.

Soldier appeared to have heard the two, as he started laughing again. “Ha! You kids think that you’ll be able to take me down with SPEED?!” He laughed. “Scout can run circles around me but once I get my hand on his scrawny neck he loses every time! Need to remind you that I have TWO rocket launchers! I shall call my second one ‘Left Leg’ because it’ll be key to removing said limb from your torso!”

Young Link acted first and raced at Soldier, using his small size in his kid form to avoid the rockets Soldier fired at him. Young Link was quick to get into Soldier face and give him a few slashes as he zipped around, making Soldier stay still as Young Link slashed at his ankles. By the time Young Link stopped running, Soldier noticed that he was standing in the middle of a triangle seemingly drawn in the canvas with the edge of the youth’s sword.

“You think art skills will help you achieve victory, boy?! Art skills will get you nowhere in war! You really think that I will allow myself to be defeated by a glorified pencil?! Don’t make me laugh! Seriously; don’t! My doctor told me that I’d give myself a hernia!” Soldier said before pausing and looking down, noticing that the triangle Young Link had drawn into the canvas was starting to glow and that his feet were suddenly getting hot. “Were my feet ALWAYS on fire?”

Suddenly, a triangular pillar of light erupted from the canvas underneath Soldier, launching the deranged mercenary into the air. Kaya made her presence know, leaping high into the air riding the back of a spectral snow owl as she raised her bow, taking aim with three frost-coated arrows. Firing the arrows, Kaya landed several direct strikes to Soldier’s torso, stunning him in midair as he started falling back down. Kaya leapt over him, aimed more arrows directly down and fired a shot straight into the airborne Soldier’s chest, launching him straight down into the canvas.

However, much to the surprise of the two youth, Soldier was quick to roll into a seated position once he was on the ground. Taking a moment to grab his head and give it a sickening crack to iron a kink out of his neck, Soldier stood up and drew his shovel, holding it up as Young Link tried to attack him again.

“You’re going to have to do a lot better than that, kids! I barely felt that one!” Soldier laughed as he noticed Kaya landing on the canvas, swapping to her spear as she made a run for him while he was clashing with Young Link.

Taking aim with one of his rocket launchers, Soldier fired it at Kaya, whom seemed too surprised that he was still standing to avoid or block the rocket and took it to the face, launching her backwards and leaving Young Link facing Soldier alone. By this point, Young Link was starting to worry; only a minute ago there were THREE people fighting Soldier and he was able to fend off two of them all on his own.

Soldier seemed to notice Young Link’s faltering expression and smirked. “You’re regretting your choice to fight me, eh? Took longer than I thought but here we are.” He mused with a shrug.

“I’m not! I may be young but I’m still a bearing of the Triforce of Courage!” Young Link snapped as he pulled back and gripped his sword with both hands.

Soldier blinked. “Tri-what of Courage? Sounds like one of those sissy plot devices in one of Scout’s Japanese cartoons!” He snapped. “I am more-than-immune to that stuff!”

Young Link slashed his sword a few more times, managing to get some hits in as Soldier staggered backwards. Seeing his opponent distracted, Young Link reached for his Fierce Deity mask. However, Soldier saw what Young Link was doing and swung his shovel downwards, striking Young Link’s hand and swatting it away from the mask clipped to his belt.

With Young Link stunned, Soldier swung his rocket launcher like a club, striking the smaller fighter with it several times before finishing up with a boot to the face, knocking Young Link backwards and causing him to tumble to the canvas in a stunned daze. Seeing Young Link down, Soldier took aim with his rocket launcher and pointed it at the canvas by Young Link’s feet.

“Take your voodoo magic back to Canada, wizard!” Soldier shouted as he pulled the trigger, firing a rocket into the canvas at Young Link’s feet. The resulting explosion launched Young Link into the air, over the ropes and out of the arena with no way to get back in.

Soldier laughed as Young Link vanished into a portal. “Ha! That’s one wizard down! Merasmus should know better than to send his cronies after me, even if he’s too much of a coward to come at me himself!” He guffawed before pausing in thought. “Wait…Wasn’t there another one?”

Soldier turned just in time to see a furious-looking Kaya charging at him, swinging her spear at him like a club. The end of Kaya’s spear was coated in a block of ice, so smashing it across Soldier’s face was like a solid brick shattering on impact as Soldier was sent sprawling. Kaya approached the downed Soldier, a cold wind surrounding her as she walked.

The deranged mercenary looked up and pointed his rocket launcher forwards on instinct, only for it to be snatched away by Kaya’s mammoth spirit’s trunk. Kaya was already riding atop the spectral mammoth as she stared down at Soldier, the mammoth spirit tossing Soldier’s rocket launcher out of the arena like a stick (and into Saint’s Row, where the Boss would be sure to have a lot of fun with it later). Without giving Soldier a chance to fight back, the mammoth grabbed Soldier using its trunk and tossed him upwards, allowing Kaya to swing her ice-coated spear, clubbing the airborne Soldier and knocking him over the ropes as well.

“SON OF A CUSSING CUSS WORRRRRRR-” Soldier shouted, shaking his fist at Kaya, as he fell headlong into an elimination portal.

Soldier materialized in the same rainbow vortex as the previously-eliminated fighters. Looking around, he saw Needle Man and Boom Boom floating around with bored expressions while Volkov was sputtering about uselessly in the space-like void, still trying to upright himself. Soldier spotted Young Link floating nearby, whom was quick to cast a glare at him.

“Well, look who dropped in.” Young Link sighed. “You know, you jumping to conclusions like that is why were both here.”

“Ha! I’ll have you know that I don’t just JUMP! I ROCKET-jump!...Uh…Now where are we?” Soldier said.

“We don’t know. I’ve been floating here ever since I got eliminated and nothing’s happened expect more people trickling in.” Needle Man rolled his eyes.

“The tin can speaks…WHY IS THE TIN CAN SPEAKING?!” Soldier shrieked. “More wizardry!”

Young Link watched as Soldier started spinning around uncontrollably as he lashed out with his limbs and tried to pull his rocket launcher out. “This could last all day…” He sighed.

(Announcer’s Booth)

Khall blinked in confusion as he watched the gathered fighters appear in the void on a small desk-mounted screen. “Uh…Hey, boss-man? Why are so many people appearing in that weird void of nothing?” He asked. “I mean, may be an expert on portals and voids but that can’t be good TV to just watch a bunch of people float around like that.”

“Just give it time.” SSBFreak assured with a handwave. “We just need a few more fighters to appear there and we’ll get things going.”

“Oh, is there still more to this tournament that you haven’t told me, yet?” Khall tilted his head.

“I literally told you about it before we started the tournament.” SSBFreak said flatly.

“Ah. Must’ve zoned out when you told me that, then.”

“Your mind does that a LOT.”

All of a sudden, a pillar of light erupted in between the two. Sheogorath materialized between the two hosts, sitting in a chair of his own and leaning back in it. He glanced at SSBFreak and grinned. “Ah! There you are!” He said. “I do hope I’m not interrupting anything funny because I’d sure hate to miss out on it!”

SSBFreak sighed. “No. What can I do for you, Sheogorath?” He asked.

“Ah, I’m glad you asked! See, I was wondering if I could push up my first Mystery Fighter reserve to enter in the next section.” Sheogorath explained.

SSBFreak blinked. “Wait, already? You want one of your hand-picked Mystery Fighters to enter in Section TWO?” He asked.

“Hey, I noticed a certain someone in the arena and I didn’t realize he had this early of a draw.” Sheogorath shrugged. “I figure sending Number One out there sooner rather than later would be best since I don’t exactly have confidence in him to last until my pick is SCHEDULED to enter.”

“You DO realize that, in the original UVR, Haohmaru entered in Section Two and went on to win the entire thing?” SSBFreak asked flatly.

“YOU realize that you’ve never had an entrant in your tournaments that last anywhere NEAR that length?” Sheogorath countered with a smirk.

“He’s got you there, boss-man.” Khall piped up.

SSBFreak sulked for a moment before sighing. “I guess I can make it work since the next round of fighters hasn’t checked in yet. I’ll just swap your Mystery Fighter for the one I was originally going to have enter.” He admitted. “I’ll just make an announcement and see if they hear it.”

“Glad to hear it, boyo! I anticipate a comical reaction from a certain someone in the ring!” Sheogorath laughed as he rubbed his hands together. “It’ll be fun to watch!”

SSBFreak and Khall watched as Sheogorath vanished in another pillar of light, taking his chair with him. Khall blinked as he looked at the main host. “You’re SURE he’s not evil?” He asked.

“Evil?...Not entirely. Insane? YES.” SSBFreak sighed.

(Hotel; Hallway)

“A fight between Ryuji Yamazaki and Bryan Fury?!” Max demanded as Psymon got off a radio call. “They expect us to get between THOSE two THIS early in the tournament?!”

Psymon shrugged. “I know. Usually we don’t get called to one of these things until, like, Section Five or so.” He admitted. “With our luck the fight will have wrapped up by the time we get there, though.”

“That suuuuucks! I wanna get involved in a fight between two bloodthirsty maniacs!” Max whined.

“AaAaAaAaAh! The blood moon’s callin’ for mah blue suede shoes!” Homsar said randomly as he floated around somewhere behind the group.

Estel rolled her eyes. “It’s just two guys. What could they do against a team of us?” She asked. “We just need to break up the fight.”

“You…REALLY don’t know much about those two, do you?” Max mentioned.

“We’re sharing a dome and hotel with astral beings, nightmare monsters and a twelve-foot, Earth-moving Pokemon, and you’re worried about two human guys?” Estel folded her arms.

Psymon draped an arm around Estel’s shoulder. “Stelly, word of advice: It’s ALWAYS the normal-looking ones that are the most-dangerous.” He said.

“Don’t call me Stelly.” Estel said flatly as she removed Psymon’s hand from her shoulder.

“Where’s that fight breakin’ out, anyways?” Scorch asked.

“An unspecified hallway somewhere in the dome.” Psymon replied casually.

“That’ll take us FOREVER to find it if it wasn’t specified!” Estel reminded.

“Trust us. Psymon and I know EXACTLY where the fight’s breaking out.” Max grinned.

“Attention, Mystery Fighters. Due to some shuffling, there has been a slight change in draw order.” SSBFreak’s voice announced through a nearby intercom. “Would Sheogorath’s first Mystery Fighter pick please report to the Ready Room? You will be taking the place of the fighter currently entering as Mystery Fighter Three.”

Scorch looked at the intercom as the Security Team walked by. “Yeesh. Somethin’ about that Sheogorath guy don’t sit right with me.” He admitted.

Lucia gave a shrug. “He’s not that bad when you get to know him and learn to understand that…Well, you’re never really going to understand him.” She admitted. “I mean, Uncle Sheogorath is a Daedric Prince and he STILL treats us better than some of the people in Skyrim, so that has to account for something.”

“I still say that it feels like looking at him the wrong way will get him to turn your head into a pumpkin or somethin’.” Scorch sighed.

“Sweetroll, actually.” Lucia said casually. “Cheese wheel if you do something REALLY egregious.”

Estel lifted an eyebrow as she stared at Lucia. “You don’t seem old enough to know what that word means.” She mentioned.

“Hey, Uncle Sheogorath thinks it’s a funny word and he encourages it when we say funny words.” The small girl shrugged. By now, the team had walked in front of the doorway to the Lounge again and Lucia looked inside, pausing momentarily, noticing that something seemed to be missing. “Uh…Hey, guys? Didn’t there use to be a piano in the Lounge?”

(Dome; Hallway)

Ryuji Yamazaki crashed back-first into the wall of the hallway with a loud grunt, and then instinctively ducked out of the way as Bryan Fury’s fist slammed into the wall where his head had been, using enough force to leave a fist-sized hole. Bryan ripped his fist out of the hole in the wall and turned to face Yamazaki again, only to receive a massive headbutt for his troubles, making him stagger backwards several steps.

While Bryan was staggered, Yamazaki reached out, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, gave him another headbutt and then tossed him to the ground, making sure to kick Bryan while he was on his back several times as the white-haired maniac was struggling to get up. One hard kick to the torso while he was on his hands and knees was enough to send Bryan sprawling again, but it put distance between the two and allowed Bryan to get back up again.

Grunting to himself, Bryan rotated his head a few times as he stared daggers at Yamazaki. “I’d forgotten how hard you hit when you play dirty.” He muttered.

Yamazaki laughed. “Well, ain’t that the pot calling the kettle black! Name one time since you started this path of destruction of yours that you DIDN’T play dirty!” He shot back.

Bryan growled back and chose not to counter Yamazaki’s point and instead rushed the maniac headfirst. Dodging a lightning-fast slash of Yamazaki’s hand, Bryan slipped a punch past Yamazaki’s defenses and struck him in the jaw, opening him up for Bryan to deliver several more hard blows to the chest, finishing the flurry by grabbing Yamazaki and driving his knee into the Yakuza’s face, making him stagger back.

In spite of this, Yamazaki’s smirk remained, showing that he was still aware enough of his surroundings to counter back as he lifted his arm to block Bryan’s next blow and swung with his other arm, slamming his fist into the side of the white-haired maniac’s face, knocking Bryan face-first into the wall. Yamazaki quickly grabbed Bryan’s back, pulled him back and started slamming his face into the wall multiple times, laughing like a maniac the entire time. Bryan managed to stop the attack by slamming his hands into the wall and bracing himself against it, keeping Yamazaki from pushing his face into it. Bryan swung his head backwards, smashing it into Yamazaki’s face and making the Yakuza let go of him.

Yamazaki laughed as he felt his nose, checking to see if he was bleeding. “You always know how to put up a fight, Fury! It’s what makes you such a fun opponent to dismantle!” He cackled.

Yamazaki drew his hand from his pocket, revealing his knife, as he lunged at Bryan and slashed wildly. Bryan was aware enough to dodge the knife swings, but Yamazaki got a lucky hit and struck him in the leg with the last slash. Bryan shouted in pain as he fought through the feeling and lashed out, slamming his fist into Yamazaki’s face. Bryan rushed forward and continued to attack, striking the Yakuza with several more blows and making him drop his knife to the floor. Seeing this, Bryan swung his leg and gave Yamazaki a roundhouse to the side of the head, sending the tall Yakuza tumbling head-over-heels several feet away.

Yamazaki sprung to life as he watched Bryan pick up his knife. “You let go of that!” He snapped. “That’s MY knife!”

“You got a personal attachment to it or something, deadbeat?” Bryan chuckled as he inspected the knife. “Funny. I usually prefer to shoot guys with rockets if they get annoying enough.”

Anger flared up in Yamazaki’s eyes as he lunged at Bryan. “I said give that BACK!” He shouted as his hand made a reach for Bryan’s throat. Before Bryan had a chance to react, Yamazaki had grabbed him by the neck and had thrown himself into the air, dragging Bryan with him. The next thing Bryan knew, he was getting dragged along the ground by the neck for a few feet before getting picked up and on the receiving end of multiple enraged headbutts from Yamazaki before he was thrown straight into the wall again.

Bryan collapsed onto the floor, the wind knocked out of him, as Yamazaki snatched his knife back from the floor, as Bryan had dropped it at some point during that last frenzied attack. Yamazaki pocketed the knife and smirked as he stared down at Bryan’s barely-conscious form. “Looks like I win again, Fury. I thought you’d be smarter than to take a grab at my knife, but I guess I gave you too much credit.” He said casually. “Now then…Where’d you pocket that money?...”

Yamazaki dug around in Bryan’s pockets for the payment Kuma had given him. Bryan tried to stop Yamazaki but was too weak to put up much of a fight as Yamazaki found what he was looking for: a thick wad of bills, which he pulled into view and started flipping through it himself.

“You…That’s mine…” Bryan seethed as he struggled to push himself up. Yamazaki pressed a foot into Bryan’s back, forcing the white-haired madman back onto his face.

“Correction: It WAS yours.” Yamazaki smirked as he pocketed the money. “Hey, don’t worry about it too much; you probably would’ve failed this job anyways. I think I heard you say it was Mishima paying for this gig? I’ll just go and report in your place. I’ll be sure to succeed where you quite-obviously wouldn’t have, so know that the money will be going to good use.”

With that, Yamazaki strolled off down the hall, laughing like a maniac, leaving Bryan on the floor, beaten and near-unconscious. Bryan struggled to push himself up as he stared hatefully at Yamzaki’s retreating form before he finally blacked out.

(The Arena)

Riptide backflipped away as a water shuriken hit the canvas, exploding into a puddle when it made contact. In response, Riptide created a dagger of water in her hand, which she threw at her attacker in hopes of doing some damage. Greninja saw the projectile coming and used his ninja-like agility to leap out of the way, rolling to the side and slashing Riptide with a blade of water when he got close to her.

Staggering backwards a bit, Riptide clutched her arm as she watched Greninja generate another water shuriken in his hands, throwing it at her when it was fully-charged. Riptide quickly spun around, vanishing in what looked to be a splash of water into nothingness, before appearing right behind Greninja, slamming her leg into the side of his head from behind.

“Ja!” Greninja shouted in pain as he tumbled forward, only to vanish in a cloud of smoke as he rolled, leaving behind a small doll. Riptide looked down at the doll for a second, only to suddenly receive a flying kick to the back of her head herself, revealing Greninja had teleported behind her much like she had done to him. “Gren!”

Riptide landed flat on her stomach and rolled herself over as Greninja leapt down from above, baring another blade of water. Riptide pulled out her dagger and swung while she was on her back, slicing through Greninja’s water blade as she kicked him away from her, letting herself get up.

“Huh. I thought fighting you would be like fighting Shadow but you’ve got a different skillset.” Riptide muttered as she pocketed her dagger again. Lifting her hand, Riptide generated a ball of water in the air and hurled it at Greninja.

Greninja stepped back and held his arms up, not knowing what the ball of water would be able to do, but it struck his arms with the weight of an iron ball and slashed at him with multiple water blades as it exploded. “J-Ja!” Greninja shouted in pain as he backed away, only for Riptide to rush in and give him a hard left hook followed by a few more punches and kicks.

Somewhere in the middle of Riptide’s flurry of attacks, Greninja kept his awareness up long enough to pull off Substitute again, vanishing in a cloud and replacing himself with a small doll mid-attack from Riptide. The pirate woman struck the doll with her fist on instinct and Greninja suddenly appeared again, striking Riptide in the face and making her back off, leaving her open for a counter-attack from Greninja.

Now on the offensive, Greninja lashed out with several quick strikes of water blades, injuring Riptide and keeping her stunned, and then finishing by grabbing the pirate woman, leaping high into the air and throwing her straight down, slamming her into the canvas as he started charging another water shuriken from above.

“Oh, crap!” Riptide shouted aloud as she slapped her hands together while on the canvas and vanished into another splash of water just as Greninja’s huge shuriken struck the canvas. Riptide reappeared a few feet away and looked up just in time for Greninja to pounce on her from above, having anticipated her teleportation.

“Ja! Gren-gren!” Greninja shouted as he gave Riptide a few punches to the face while she was down, then pulled her to her feet, giving her a massive water blade to the face that knocked her away and sent her sprawling.

Riptide pushed herself up with a groan and instinctively ducked as Greninja flew over her head in an attempted tackle. Riptide could tell that she was fighting a losing battle unless she finished her opponent now. Greninja was too fast for most of her attacks to hit and Riptide realized she was a little in over her head picking a fight with him with the way the fight seemed to be going.

Riptide rushed Greninja, throwing a few more water-daggers at him as she ran forward while at the same time pulling her real dagger into view. Greninja dodged and blocked the first few projectiles but by the time one got past his defenses he was stunned as he staggered backwards. Riptide saw her chance and lunged forward, swinging her dagger…

However, this turned out to be what Greninja was expecting. The instant Riptide got close, Greninja swerved to the side and let her pass by. Greninja spun around, grabbed the passing pirate woman and spun around a few times, winding up a throw before hurling Riptide forward with all his might, sending her flying over the ropes around the arena. Riptide tried to teleport back into the arena but by the time she had realized what had happened she was already too far out to make it as she vanished into a portal.

Riptide fell onto the top of a tower in Q*Bert, where she spent the next ten minutes trying to keep herself from getting jumped on while at the same time trying to understand what the heck Q*Bert is saying…

Meta Knight flew through the air, dodging around a volley of flaming lasers. He stared down at the canvas, where Pete was standing with what looked to be a lance that was firing lasers into the air that in turn turned into a volley of fire. It looked like Pete was just firing off the shots because it was bright and colourful but now that Soldier was gone from the arena Pete had turned into the biggest source of chaos due to the amount of Power Stone weapons he appeared to have snuck into the arena.

Dodging around another laser, Meta Knight pulled his sword back and flew straight down at Pete as the wooden doll continued to wave around the laser-shooting lance…

*CLANG!*

Meta Knight flew straight into a steel block that was place directly in his path. As Meta Knight comically peeled off the side of the block and floated down to the canvas like a pancake, Sackboy lifted the steel block and put it back into his inventory.

Pete laughed in approval. “That was amazing! I wish the two of us could fly indefinitely like that, though…” He mentioned as he put the Lance of Lava back into his backpack. “It looked like a lot of fun dodging the fire volleys in midair.”

Sackboy gave a goofy, wide smile, showing his approval as Meta Knight’s flat body popped back into its natural shape. Meta Knight jumped to his feet and stared at the two pranksters with what looked like a controlled rage. “You two are not taking this tournament seriously…And somehow you’re STILL able to pull things like that off?!” He demanded.

“Hey, I’ve learned to have a little fun now and then, even during my matches with the other Power Stone fighters, and I think Sackboy feels the same.” Pete shrugged as Sackboy gave a rattly nod. “You should be used to it; I mean, Kirby fights you all the time.”

Meta Knight breathed heavily for a few seconds before mentally calming himself down and drawing his sword. “No. Kirby may be a childishly-innocent fool but I know for a fact he takes every fight he has seriously in his own way.” He shook his head. “You…You’re just acting like clowns for the sake of acting like clowns!”

A pie suddenly splat against Meta Knight’s mask. The pie slowly slid off Meta Knight’s face, revealing a pair of eyes that now appeared to be portraying tranquil fury. Sackboy was giving another silent laugh, an empty inventory slot above his head, as Pete gave another shrug. “Hey, you were the one who SAID it.” He reasoned.

Sackboy suddenly saw Meta Knight staring at him, likely due to the fact that he had been the one to throw the pie. Sackboy grinned as he plucked a rocket out of his inventory and clambered on, igniting the fuse. Meta Knight realized what Sackboy was doing and flew headfirst at him with a swing of his sword, missing Sackboy by just a few feet as the cloth doll took to the skies on his rocket. Meta Knight started shaking in anger for a few seconds before shifting his cape into a pair of wings and torpedoing into the air to give chase.

“Hey! That’s no fun! I don’t have a way to follow you guys!” Pete called out from the canvas.

Fleeing Meta Knight, Sackboy glanced backwards with a grin as he rode his rocket around the arena, weaving around several of the remaining fighters as he did. Meta Knight gave chase, skillfully weaving around everyone Sackboy steered him towards as he started to close the gap between himself and the cloth doll.

Sackboy reached into his inventory and dropped a few heavy-looking objects behind him, hoping to trip Meta Knight up. Meta Knight swung his sword as he flew, cutting cleanly through a boulder, a fridge and even an anvil as he continued to fly after Sackboy’s retreating form. Sackboy glanced back as he rode, seeing a furious-looking Meta Knight getting within an arm’s reach of him, and quickly opened his inventory again to find something else to throw.

Meta Knight swung his sword and struck the end of Sackboy’s rocket, causing it to explode and launch Sackboy into the air, closing his inventory in surprise. Meta Knight saw Sackboy getting launched and flew up at his, striking Sackboy with several lightning-fast sword strikes in midair, seemingly juggling the cloth doll for a few seconds. Meta Knight pulled back, waited for Sackboy to fall into his line of sight and spun at him in a drill-like tornado, spiraling into the airborne cloth doll and, due to the latter’s lighter weight, launched Sackboy away at least twenty feet. In this case, it was more-than-enough to send Sackboy out of bounds to send the cloth doll falling into a portal.

Pete stamped over in anger as Meta Knight landed on the canvas. “Hey! What’d you do that for?!” He demanded. “He was just having fun!”

Meta Knight took the time to brush the last bit of pie crust off his shoulder pads. “He was being a nuisance. You both were.” He pointed out simply.

Pete grunted and pulled a large, steel hammer from his backpack. “Then maybe it’s time I showed you what it’s like when I stop having fun!” He challenged.

Blanka rolled out of the way as Great Tiger’s fist flew past him. The Indian boxer teleported and quickly reappeared next to Blanka, delivering a powerful uppercut as Blanka popped out of his roll. Blanka rolled backwards with a yell as he kicked at Great Tiger, managing to catch the older man in the face with a backflip kick.

Landing on his feet, Blanka instantly threw himself at Great Tiger while his opponent was distracted, rolling through the air like a cannonball. However, Great Tiger managed to snap himself to attention and saw Blanka coming at him in time to teleport out of the way, causing Blanka to miss his target, land on the canvas awkwardly and skid to a halt.

“Hey! Stop doing that!” Blanka shouted.

“It’s the only way I can keep up with your speed.” Great Tiger insisted as he stood in a defensive stance, waiting for Blanka to make the next move.

Blanka growled as he ignited his hands in electricity and lunged at Great Tiger, who stepped backwards as Blanka hit the canvas and slammed his hands down, firing off a blast of electricity that Great Tiger failed to get out of range of. Great Tiger shouted in pain as he was shocked by Blanka’s attack, and staggered backwards in a daze when the green-skinned fighter finished, leaving him open for Blanka to cannonball-roll into his torso, knocking him away.

All of a sudden, before Blanka had a chance to continue the assault on Great Tiger, a projectile slammed into the back of his head and knocked him down. Blanka landed flat on his face, but shot up and spun around to see Darunia facing off against Athena Asamiya, the latter being responsible for attacking him due to a misaimed Psycho Ball that Darunia avoided.

Darunia saw Athena’s attack strike Blanka and turned to face the idol with a fierce expression. “Hey! Your fight is with me! Leave brother out of this!” He snapped.

Athena frowned as she dodged an overhead hammer swing from Darunia. “I was aiming at you! You dodged it!” She reminded.

Darunia held up his arms and blocked Athena’s next Psycho Ball, but when he lowered his guard to strike back Athena was faster and drove a fist into his chin, launching them both upwards in a Psycho Upper and catching the large Goron Chief off-guard. Darunia landed on his back and instinctively rolled onto his stomach as Athena landed feet-first on top of his shelled back, allowing Darunia to throw her off of him by shoving himself to his feet.

Darunia suddenly took note of the shiny stone poking out of Athena’s pocket as she pushed herself to her feet. “Hey! You’ve got some of those Power Stone things!” He exclaimed. “I tried eating one of those things when I grabbed it earlier but they’re too tough even for me…”

Athena paused. “Wait. You’ve got one?” She asked.

Darunia smirked. “I’ve got two.” He said, pulling two Power Stones of his own into view (where he had gotten them was anyone’s guess).

Athena smiled cheerily. “Oh, great! Then you won’t mind if I took one, would you?” She asked.

“Well, actually, I kinda would since I know these things’ll give me a powerful new form and…” Darunia trailed off when he saw Athena dashing at him using her teleport move. Darunia backpedaled and pulled his hand back as Athena took a swipe at the Power Stones. “Hey! Get your own!” He accused.

Meanwhile, Great Tiger had created a couple of clones of himself and was attempting to rush Blanka with them in a similar vein as what he did with Meitenkun, throwing himself at Blanka along with his copies in an attempt to throw the green-skinned fighter off. Rather than block, Blanka crouched low and ignited himself with electricity again. Each clone that tried to strike Blanka burst into a cloud of smoke upon contact while the original, seeing what Blanka was doing, ended up throwing himself over Blanka in an attempt to keep himself from getting electrocuted again.

Blanka looked mad as he turned around to face Great Tiger as the Indian boxer stood up. “You keep making copies of yourself! How is that fair?!” He demanded.

Great Tiger, trying to keep his composure, brushed himself off. “You’re one to talk, my friend. You’re a walking battery.” He countered.

“Hey, I need to have SOME way to counter Honda spamming his flying headbutt attack!” Blanka shouted

Blanka rushed Great Tiger again, lashing out with clawed hands in every direction, anticipating his opponent to start teleporting again. Great Tiger tried warping around Blanka but found himself teleporting into the path of Blanka’s fist, receiving a hard blow to the stomach for his troubles. Blanka saw he had landed an attack and pressed further, striking Great Tiger a few more times with some punches and kicks before finishing the combo with another backflip, striking Great Tiger with his feet and launching him into the air.

Great Tiger landed on his back, feeling the wind knocked out of him. He tried pushing himself to his feet and looked up in time to see Blanka leaping at him from above. Thinking quickly, Great Tiger teleported again as Blanka missed his attack, striking nothing but canvas now that his opponent had warped out of the way.

Blanka looked around, seeing that Great Tiger hadn’t reappeared yet and had chosen to remain invisible. Narrowing his eyes, Blanka scanned the arena as he looked amongst the dwindling number of fighters, taking a sniff of the air as he did. Catching a scent, Blanka’s gaze snapped to his right and his instinctively threw himself forward in another cannonball roll, slamming into an invisible object with enough force that it caused the object to turn visible again, revealing that Blanka had thrown himself into Great Tiger’s torso without actually seeing him.

Great Tiger was launched backwards, landing on his back and skidding for a few feet, as Blanka approached the downed fighter, who looked like he was pretty much out of it by this point. “Im…Impossible…How did you know where I was?...” He asked.

“A perk of living in the jungle for years.” Blanka narrowed his eyes. “You learn to pick up the scents of your enemies.”

Grabbing the downed Great Tiger by the ankles, Blanka spun around a few times and let go, showing surprising strength as he threw Great Tiger clear out of the ring, so far that the Indian boxer nearby hit the forcefield protecting the audience from stray attacks.

Great Tiger landed in the jungle of Alien vs. Predator. Realizing where he was, he quickly turned invisible and teleported to high ground.

In the arena, Blanka was about to turn around and help Darunia with Athena when he saw something sparkly fly up into the ring after Great Tiger vanished into a portal. A green crystal gem landed at Blanka’s feet, revealing that, at some point after eliminating Meitenkun, Great Tiger had managed to pick up a Power Stone once it had been spawned. Blanka curiously picked it up and sniffed it a couple of times.

Suddenly hearing a loud explosion coming from behind him, Blanka spun around and saw that Athena was engulfed in a white light, Darunia having shielded his eyes. When the light cleared, Athena was standing in full gold warrior armour, holding a shield and wielding a sword. She looked the same otherwise but the bore an air of confidence and power that she lacked in her normal form. Blanka realized that Athena had managed to pick up a third Power Stone and had transformed into a super-powered form to continue her fight with Darunia.

Darunia held up his arms as he tried to block a swing from the powered Athena’s sword, but she managed to break through his near-impenetrable defense and he ended up getting caught in a flurry of sword attacks before Athena finished with a shield bash to the face, knocking Darunia backwards and sending the Goron Chief rolling back several feet.

Managing to land back in a standing position, Darunia ignited his hammer in flames and lashed out, aiming for the transformed Athena’s head, but the latter held up her shield and managed to block to blow, even bouncing Darunia off of it with the force of the attempted hit getting nullified.

“Is this the type of power you get when you take another form? Amazing!” Darunia laughed.

Suddenly hearing a whistle, Darunia looked over his shoulder and saw Blanka with a Power Stone in hand. “Here!” He called out, chucking the Power Stone at Darunia. The Goron Chief grinned widely as he reached for the stone.

Athena, in the meantime, saw what Darunia was about to do and remembered that he already had two stones. “No!” She called out as she swung her sword at Darunia, hoping to catch him before he could grab the stone Blanka had just thrown at him.

Before Athena could make contact, however, Darunia got his hand on the stone, engulfing him in an explosion of light that knocked Athena backwards. Digging her sword into the canvas as she skid to a halt, Athena looked up as the light cleared and saw Darunia’s transformed state.

Darunia had bulked up in size considerably and his muscles looked far more rock-like than before, in addition to his eyes glowing a burning yellow and his beard and hair being made of actual flames. Darunia laughed, spewing a burst of fire from his mouth as he did, showing that he was less a Goron and more a literal walking volcano now.

“Wow! I feel so much stronger!” Darunia cheered as he looked over his new form. Seeing Athena getting into her stance again, Darunia hoisted his Megaton Hammer onto his shoulder. “Right. Let’s test out this bod of mine and see how that armour holds up NOW, eh?”

Darunia rushed Athena and lashed out with his hammer, lighting it up with flames a she did. Athena held up her shield in an attempt to block but Darunia’s weapon smashed through her defenses and left her open to attack. Every blow Darunia landed on her armour hurt, even with the powered-up state Athena was in, and it felt like any of the Goron’s attacks could break off a piece of armour at any time.

Athena saw an opening and took it, swinging with her sword and managing to strike the transformed Darunia in the shoulder. Unfortunately for Athena, the attack did little other than bounce off the transformed Goron with little more than a chip off the shoulder. Darunia kept swinging the hammer and Athena realized that she needed to back off and play keep away from Darunia until he transformed back, knowing that now SHE was playing defense.

Unfortunately, Athena backed away at the wrong time and just as she was putting distance between herself and Darunia, her thirty seconds with the Power Stones was up and, in another flash of light, Athena was back in her normal form and the three stones had launched away in different directions, leaving her in her base form against a towering, flame-coated rock monster with a hammer as big as she was.

Before Athena had time to register what had happened, Darunia swung his huge hammer and slammed it into her torso. With a mighty strike that sounded like an exploding volcano, Darunia launched Athena clear out of the ring with a single strike. As Athena vanished into a portal, Blanka came running over to the still-transformed Darunia. By the time Blanka reached him, Darunia had turned back to normal as well as his Power Stones scattered.

Darunia laughed as Blanka reached him. “Thank you for lending me that stone, brother!” He said. “I definitely needed that power boost against her!”

“I remembered you saying you had two. It made sense.” Blanka shrugged.

Darunia gave Blanka a hard slap on the back with a hearty laugh, knocking him over.

Chris Lightfellow held up her sword and parried a bolt of lightning thrown at her. The culprit, Lord Hater, growled and fired a few more bolts at the silver-haired knight in an attempt to break through her defenses.

After being knocked away by Soldier, Chris ended up in a fight with Lord Hater in her attempt to get back over and help Kaya and Young Link. Even after watching Young Link get tossed (and Soldier getting tossed in revenge), Chris had been unable to break away from Lord Hater ever since the two had started fighting.

“Oh, come on! The last sword-guy I took down with my electricity with ease!” Lord Hater cursed. “How are you not feeling any of this?!”

Chris smirked. “My metal armour is acting like a lightning rod, my friend.” She mentioned. “You’ll find that any of those magic bolts you throw at me wll just go through my armour and into the floor.”

Lord Hater’s eyes flared up in anger. “That’s cheating! That’s MY job!!” He shouted. “Oooooh, I’m going to obliterate you so hard that your ancestors will feel it!!”

Lord Hater threw himself at Chris, hands outstretched in what looked like an attempt to claw the female knight’s eyes out. Chris held up her sword and blocked the blow as Lord Hater wrapped his mitts around the blade and tried pumping it full of electricity. However, like before, the lightning shot through Chris’ full-body armour and shot into the canvas uselessly. Chris struggled to overpower Lord Hater’s strength, however, as she started straining when the space maniac tried to force her backwards.

Finally, Chris lashed out with a fist and clocked Lord Hater in the face, making him let go of her sword. Lord Hater’s head comically spun around a few times before he grabbed it to stop the spinning. As he did, Chris lashed out with a foot and gave Lord Hater a hard kick to the stomach, knocking him down onto his back.

On his back, Lord Hater watched as Chris stood over him and started casting magic of her own with her True Water Rune. Lord Hater saw a huge block of ice starting to materialize in the air above him, screamed like a little girl and instinctively lashed out with his hands, firing another bolt of electric magic up at the silver-haired knight. Lord Hater got lucky and struck Chris in the face, the only part of her body not covered in metal armour, and caused her to stumble backwards, cancelling her spell and letting Lord Hater get to his feet again.

“Okay. Aim for the face. Shouldn’t be too hard…” Lord Hater muttered as he rolled up his sleeves and started gathering magic again.

Suddenly hearing a family rustling noise coming from behind him, Lord Hater froze in terror, the magic in his hands dissipating as he slowly looked over his shoulder and found himself staring down at Mimikyu. At some point he had stopped lamenting over his broken disguise, although he still looked a bit downtrodden at the dangling cloth head that hung loosely by his torso.

Seeing Mimikyu focusing on him again made Lord Hater scream in terror and leap away, scrambling to escape the Disguise Pokemon before he got a hold of him again. “NOT YOU AGAIN!!” He screamed. “STAY AWAY, DEMON!”

Chris lifted an eyebrow and stepped forward. “Why are you so scared of this little guy?” She asked before kneeling down and noticing that Mimikyu was looking a little depressed. “Oh, you’re sad, aren’t you? Are you hurt?”

“Lady, I swear! Get away from that thing!” Lord Hater urged before trailing off. “It’s…Pure…Evil…” Upon realizing what he was saying aloud, Lord Hater gave a smirk. “Hmm…This may work, actually…”

Chris, in the meantime, cast a spell with her True Water Rune and healed Mimikyu. Suddenly, Mimikyu’s cloth disguise head lifted straight up again, as if the damage done to it had been undone. Mimikyu seemed to take notice of this and his eyes lit up in awe, seemingly thanking Chris by nuzzling against her leg before turning and scampering off in an attempt to make her proud.

As Mimikyu wandered off, Chris instantly spun around and swung her sword, striking through a few bolts of electric magic that Lord Hater had fired from his hands while Chris had her back turned. Chris pressed forward and swung at Lord Hater with her sword, though the bony villain jumped back as Chris tried to attack him, and then slammed a palm into her face while she was recovering from an extended swing.

Chris staggered back, holding her face. “Ugh…You’d be quick to attack someone from behind, huh?” She challenged.

Lord Hater wiggled non-existent eyebrows and gave a smirk. “I’m a villain. It’s what I do.” He admitted with a shrug before receiving a butt to the head from the handle of Chris’ sword, stunning him and opening him up for further attacks from Chris. Lord Hater received multiple slashes to the torso and was quickly kicked onto his back. Before Lord Hater had the chance to get up again, Chris jammed her sword into the canvas, through Lord Hater’s cloak, effectively keeping him pinned.

“Hey! Lady, do you know how much time it’s going to take Peepers to FIX that tear?!” Lord Hater demanded.

Chris didn’t respond and instead raised her arms again, casting more water magic. Lord Hater watched as, instead of a huge ice boulder, Chris was surrounded by multiple spears of water, each one pointed down at him. Lord Hater screamed and quickly tried tearing his cloak free of Chris’ sword.

Just as Chris lashed out with her hands and fired the volley of spears at Lord Hater, the insane villain managed to yank his cloak free with a loud tear and backpedaled away from where he had been trapped as the water spears struck the canvas one after the other until Chris had fired what looked like twenty into the canvas. Chris finally stopped her magic and opened her eyes, suddenly noticing that Lord Hater had gotten free before she cast her magic. Chris turned to the right just in time to see a fist flying at her face.

Lord Hater decked Chris with a right hook, knocking the silver-haired knight backwards a few steps and stunning her. Lord Hater followed up with another quick couple of punches, forcing Chris backwards as she tried to raise her guard. However, she was unable to get her guard up fast enough as Lord Hater hit her with a running clothesline, sending Chris tumbling over the top rope and finally out of the arena.

Lord Hater, standing victorious in the ring, gave a sigh as he picked up Chris’ sword and chucked it out of the ring after her before examining the tear he had made in his cloak trying to get free. “Aw, maaaan…Peepers is gonna give me an earful for this one…” He whined.

Propeller Knight spun his helmet propeller in front of him, sending a magic ball of Soul energy flying off in a random direction. Quickly lifting his head, Propeller Knight took to the sky as Menat lunged at him with a flying kick, only to miss when Propeller Knight started flying. Propeller Knight flew abover Menat as she fired a few more balls of Soul energy into the sky in an attempt to shoot him down, only to see that he was too fast in the air for her to hit.

“Aha! It appears this one hath an advantage, doesn’t it?” Propeller Knight said from the sky. “Mayhaps the tide is turning in my favour, eh?”

Menat couldn’t help but smirk. “How are you going to beat me if you stay in the air like that. I can’t fly myself, after all.” She mentioned.

“Alas, this too is true, milady! Me staying up her doth not give me a chance to fight you.” Propeller Knight agreed.

Rearing back with his fencing sword, Propeller Knight soared straight at Menat at high speeds, causing Menat to jump out of the way in surprise, not expecting Propeller Knight to be that fast or an attempt a dive-bomb attack. Menat rolled into a crouching position and lashed out with a hand, sending three of her floating orbs at Propeller Knight, striking him in the face while he was getting up from his failed attack.

Menat saw Propeller Knight stagger backwards and rushed him, striking the armoured fighter with her legs a few times as she gathered her Soul energy orb and flung it past her opponent. Propeller Knight tried to lift his sword to counter Menat but she was quicker, kicking him and sending him flying backwards, only to feel Menat’s magic orb slam into his back as it returned to Menat.

Propeller Knight groaned as he pushed himself to his feet, Menat watching him as she gathered up some more energy and created a few more smaller Soul orbs around her. “Ungh…It appears I may have underestimated you milady.” He mentioned as he got into a stance again. “Nevertheless, you shan’t take me by surprise like that again!”

Menat gave a smirk. “Let’s see if you can live up to that claim.” She mentioned.

Propeller Knight acted first as he lunged at Menat and swung his sword, trying to anticipate her dodging and adjusting his attack accordingly. Menat managed to swerve around his blows the first few times, but Propeller Knight managed to get a lucky hit in, which allowed him to quickly strike Menat a few more times with his sword. Stepping back, Propeller Knight reared back again and prepared to lunge forward.

That, however, was when Menat recovered and backflipped away, avoiding Propeller Knight’s attack. Menat fire all of the small Soul orbs flying around her at her opponent once she was back into a standing position, but Propeller Knight seemed ready for that as well since he had already aimed the propeller attached to his helmet at Menat and had turned up the power on it. Menat’s magic projectiles were promptly thrown back at her, striking her in the face and torso, as Propeller Knight changed the direction his propeller was moving and instead started pulling Menat closer to him, in an attempt to get her within range so he could attack her again.

Realizing that kicking at propeller Knight while he had his propeller pointed at her was a sure-fire way to lose a limb, Menat threw her Soul orb behind her opponent again and summoned it back, causing it to strike Propeller Knight in the back and knocking him over, causing him to stop spinning his turbine-like propeller and releasing Menat from the wind’s pull. Propeller Knight struggled to get up but seemed to forget that he had yet to turn his large turbine propeller back into a regular propeller, thus keeping his head weighed down.

Seeing Propeller Knight down and trying to get up, Menat slammed her hands together and created a pillar of Soul energy underneath Propeller Knight’s feet, launching him upwards, and Menat swung her hands a few times to create small explosions of Soul energy that bounced Propeller Knight around while the pillar of Soul energy kept him airborne. Menat continued to attack Propeller Knight while he was hanging in the air, knowing that if he landed he was likely to start up his turbine again.

Propeller Knight swung his sword around as he was getting assaulted, trying to strike something to keep Menat from attacking him. He managed to deflect some projectiles Menat threw at him but most of the attacks were striking him from different angles, causing him to miss entirely or be facing the entire wrong way when he tried to attack. This left Propeller Knight near-defenseless as Menat continued to strike and weaken him and he didn’t notice that the purple-haired seer had leapt into the air towards him since he was so preoccupied with trying to keep himself from getting hit.

In the air, Menat stopped her psychic attack on propeller Knight as the pillar she created dissipated in an instant. Propeller Knight looked ahead just in time to see Menat’s foot coming at his face. Propeller Knight tried to lift his sword to parry the blow…

*CLANG!*

…But was half a second too slow and received a heavy flying kick to the face for his troubles, Menat using enough force to send Propeller Knight flying clear over the ropes. The flying knight tried to fly back in but realized too late that he still hadn’t changed back from his heavier turbine propeller and the weight of his helmet ended up carrying Propeller Knight down into a portal before he could change to his normal propeller.

Propeller Knight fell into the world of Joe & Mac, where he spent the next ten minutes running and screaming from an angry T-Rex.

Back in the arena, Menat landed on her feet and dusted herself off as she stood up, a single Soul orb flying around her. Hearing some teleportation noises coming from around the arena, Menat glanced around and saw that the Power Stones had been teleported out of the arena for the moment, signifying the end of the section.

Darunia and Blanka were still together, and the former had given the latter a rock to eat and recover some stamina (Blanka sniffed the rock a few times and attempted to take a bit out of it before realizing what he was doing was stupid). Mimikyu was in the process of tussling with BB Hood, likely as a means to impress someone, while the latter was swearing up a storm at the apparent loss of two Power Stones she had collected, thus leaving her to fight Mimikyu with no extra power. Lord Hater was watching Mimikyu from far away, looking like a bizarre mixture of fear and interest, while Meta Knight was perched on a cornerpost, observing the rest of the remaining fighters while saving some stamina while keeping his distance from a pouting Pete, whom sat down and folded his arms. Greninja looked to be meditating, Mario looked eager to keep fighting and looked like he had barely broken a sweat while Pyra and Kaya were talking and exchanging details about their weapon properties.

Realizing that the section had come to an end, Menat gave a sigh in relief as she glanced up to the entrance curtain, knowing that downtime would be short-lived as the next wave of fighters was about to enter…

(???)

In the multicoloured void of vortexes, eight eliminated fighters floated in what seemed to be an empty space. Sackboy had brought a deck of cards with him in his inventory so Needle Man and Boom Boom appeared to have something to do to pass the time as they were playing Go Fish with the cloth puppet (who seemed to be happily beating them, much to their frustration), while Volkov simply floated around upside-down, having given up on trying to upright himself long ago. Soldier was no so easily-swayed, however, and continued to spin about, arms flailing as he tried to attack back against the void. Chris and Athena, the last two to arrive in the vortex, were conversing with Young Link to try and figure out where they were.

“This is weird. Usually in these things we’re dropped into a random node when we get eliminated.” Athena scratched her head. “The host even made that announcement before the tournament started.”

Chris sighed and folded her arms. “I’m more-annoyed that I got eliminated so easily…” She lamented.

“Hey, think of it like this.” Young Link shrugged. “I got eliminated by THAT GUY.”

Athena and Chris glanced over at Soldier, whom was shouting to the void and spinning head-over-heels as he fired another rocket into the vortex. “You won’t get my rent money that easily, leprechauns! You’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands!” He shouted.

All of a sudden, a new voice was heard in the void, startling all eight of the fighters. “SECTION ONE…ENDED.” A robotic voice was heard, coming from everywhere all at once. “PREPARING PORTAL.”

Volkov looked up (or down, in the case of everyone else) and saw a white light emitting from somewhere in the vortex. “It looks like we’re finally getting answers…” He muttered with a scoff. “Great. I’ve been upside-down for the last fifteen minutes…”

“Aren’t you a vampire?” Needle Man asked flatly.

“Shut up!”

Everyone watched as the white light grew stronger and brighter, enveloping all eight of them as the portal finally started to take effect…

RESULTS (15 votes on the Main Event; 14 on the Side Battle)

Main Event

BLANKA (SF5): 12:3 = 9 (Needle Man, Great Tiger)

META KNIGHT (SSB): 12:3 = 9 (Boom Boom, Sackboy)

LORD HATER (WOY): 12:3 = 9 (Roy, Chris Lightfellow)

MARIO MARIO (SMB): 11:4 = 7 (Pahn)

BB HOOD (DS): 11:4 = 7 (Orion)

GRENINJA (PKMN): 11:4 = 7 (Riptide)

DARUNIA (HW): 10:5 = 5 (Athena Asamiya)

PETE (PS): 10:5 = 5 (Abigail)

KAYA (BH): 10:5 = 5 (Soldier)

PYRA (SSB): 9:6 = 3 (Volkov)

MIMIKYU (PKMN): 9:6 = 3 (Raiden)

MENAT (SF5): 9:6 = 3 (Propeller Knight)

(ELIMINATED)

ATHENA ASAMIYA (KOF): 9:6 = 3 (Yashiro Nanakase)

SOLDIER (TF2): 9:6 = 3 (Young Link)

GREAT TIGER (PO!): 8:7 = 1 (Meitenkun)

SACKBOY (PAS): 8:7 = 1

MEITENKUN (KOF): 7:8 = -1

ROY (SSB): 7:8 = -1

RAIDEN (PAS): 6:9 = -3

PROPELLER KNIGHT (SK): 6:9 = -3

YOUNG LINK (HW): 6:9 = -3

CHRIS LIGHTFELLOW (ST): 5:10 = -5

YASHIRO NANAKASE (KOF): 5:10 = -5

NEEDLE MAN (MM): 5:10 = -5

RIPTIDE (EC): 4:11 = -7

ORION (BH): 4:11 = -7

BOOM BOOM (SMB): 4:11 = -7

PAHN (ST): 3:12 = -9

VOLKOV (BH): 2:13 = -11

ABIGAIL (SF5): 0:15 = -15

Side Battles

“Psychos For Hire”

RYUJI YAMAZAKI (King of Fighters) slices and dices BRYAN FURY (Tekken)

10 to 4

Every Vote Matters: This section just goes to show how voting matters in things like this. Great Tiger getting an elimination over Sackboy was decided due to his later draw, and Menat survived the section over Athena and Soldier because she entered FIFTH, while they entered SECOND and FIRST.

Chapter Text

(The Arena)

The twelve remaining fighters in the arena from Section One were scattered around the arena, enjoying the slightest bit of downtime they could get before the next wave of fighters entered, although BB Hood was still struggling to keep Mimikyu off of her and in turn wasting her precious downtime. Other than her, however, everyone seemed content to simply wait for the next batch of fighters to enter.

The audience started cheering as the spotlight started shining on the entrance curtain again, signifying that the next Section was about to start and the next eighteen fighters were about to make their entrance into the arena…

“CHARLIE NASH!” (SF5)

The audience cheered as a familiar blonde-haired, repeatedly-dying soldier emerged from behind the curtain, though some unfamiliar with Street Fighter 5 seemed taken aback by the patchwork appearance of Charlie’s body, his entire form looking like it was sewn together. Nevertheless, Charlie seemed to pay the attention the audience was giving him no mind as he marched down to the ring and stepped into it.

Pyra saw Charlie enter and frowned as he made his way over. “Yeesh. What’re YOU looking so grumpy for?” She asked. “I mean, Ryu and Ken made mention of you from time to time but they never said you were such a downer.”

Charlie narrowed his eyes. “I suggest you stay out of my way. I’m simply waiting for Bison to enter since my quarrel is with him.” He replied coldly before pausing. “Though I’ll admit I’ll probably settle for Urien or Kolin if given the chance.”

Pyra placed her hands on her hips. “You know, I’m sure there’s someone at the Smash Mansion that could fix you right up if you let them.” She mentioned.

“It’s already too late for me.” Charlie muttered before getting into a stance. “Though it looks like you aren’t going to just let me be.”

Pyra lifted her sword. “Hey, it’s clear that you need help. You may be stubborn to refuse it but you still need it.” She responded.

Charlie narrowed his eyes and lashed out with a hand, firing a Sonic Boom at Pyra and making her backflip out of range. “And it’s clear to me that you need to mind your own business.” He retorted. “Now I’ll say it again: Stay out of my way or I won’t be held responsible for my actions.”

Pyra sighed and got into a stance. “One way or another I’m going to find out what your deal is!” She said determinedly.

“WANG-TANG!” (PS)

A young, dark-haired martial artist flew through the entrance curtain with a loud yell and a flying kick, much to the audience’s delight. Showing off a few moves and aerobics on the ramp, Wang-Tang charged down to the end of the ramp and leapt foot-first into the ring with another flying karate kick.

Landing in the ring, Wang-Tang spotted Pete sitting on the canvas, still pouting at the results of the previous section. The young martial artist made his way over to the sad-looking doll. “Hey, Pete. You look kinda down for someone that survived a section and got the first elimination of the tournament.” He noted.

Pete looked up. “Aw, my new friend got tossed too quickly and I was looking forward to having some more fun with him.” He lamented. “Now that he’s gone the arena’s going to be so much more-boring…”

“Aw, you’ll find a way to have a good time. You always do.” Wang-Tang shrugged with a smile. “By the way, you never told us that you smuggled a bunch of our weapons in with you.”

Pete smiled lightly. “Yeah, I knew they’d make for a little more fun.” He said. “I think I brought some of pretty much everything.”

“…How the heck did they all fit in your backpack?”

“That’d just give you an unfair advantage in our fights back home.” Pete joked with a wink.

“DIDDY KONG!” (SSB)

The audience cheered as the familiar small chimpanzee emerged from the curtain, waving to the crowd as he tossed his trademark hat to himself a couple of times. People quickly took notice of the rocketbarrel pack on Diddy’s back as he made his way down the ramp and watched excitedly as Diddy used it like a jetpack to propel himself into the arena with a loud cheer.

Diddy landed on the canvas next to the fight BB Hood was having with Mimikyu and pulled out one of his Peanut Popguns while in the air, raining down a hail of peanuts from above at the tussle between the two. Mimikyu scampered away, avoiding the assault altogether, as BB Hood was pelted numerous times in the face as Diddy touched down and landed on the canvas, signifying that the red-clad hunter was Diddy’s original target anyways.

BB Hood, looking mad, stared down at Diddy. “What is it with people trying to pick fights with me?! I even told myself I’d try to stick to going after bounties tonight!” She exclaimed. “I really just want to go after the little edgelord in the mask but if you insist on being annoying then-”

Diddy fired another peanut into BB Hood’s forehead and laughed before giving a smirk and motioning the red-clad hunter to approach him. BB Hood’s eye started twitching a few times in response.

“Okay, you know what? Congratulations.” BB Hood said as she drew her knife. “You just moved up on the Kill List.”

Diddy’s response was to blow a raspberry at BB Hood, drawing his second peanut gun and taking aim, looking like he was trying to strike a cool pose but failing to look intimidating due to holding a pair of wooden guns that fired peanuts instead of bullets…

“SLASH!” (EC)

The Eternal Champion’s resident caveman emerged from the curtain and gave a primal roar to the sky with a wave of his club as the audience gave a cheer in approval. Slash set his sights on the arena and, with a toothy, fanged smirk, marched down the ramp before jumping in headfirst.

Darunia saw Slash coming over and gave a friendly, jovial wave. “Ah! Hello, friend! Say, you look like the kind of guy that enjoys a good rock. Care for one before we start fighting?” He offered.

“Um…He can have mine.” Blanka said, handing Darunia back the rock the Goron Chief had given him to eat.

“Oh, brother! You’re so courteous it makes me proud to call you a brother!” Darunia laughed as he took the rock and held it out to Slash. “Here, friend! Eat up!”

Slash looked at the rock in Darunia’s hand for a second, slowly took it and stared at it a little more. “You…Eat these?” He asked.

“Of course! All Gorons eat rocks! It’s how we get our nutrients!”

Slash stood in silence for a moment before crushing the rock in his hand. Darunia froze mid-laugh as he stared at the crumbled rock in Slash’s hand. “We break rocks.” Slash responded. “We break them into smaller rocks that we use for wheels and tools. This rock…This rock was too weak to be of any use…”

Darunia stared in silence as Blanka looked a little worried, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Uh…He…He didn’t mean that…” He mentioned.

“Stand back, brother.” Darunia urged, holding a hand out in front of Blanka. “Gorons do not stand for such disrespect. I shall take him myself.”

Slash gave a smirk and held his club in his fighting stance. “Heh. Looks like I’ll get a good fight out of you.” He mentioned.

“NECROZMA!” (PKMN)

(Don’t you wanna be free?)

(Don’t you wanna be hook, line and sinkered?)

(Listen to the voices telling you your choices!)

(I’m telling you that running ain’t a choice!)

(For a cold, dead Parasite!)

(Look beneath and you’ll find my demeanor!)

(Swallowed by a monster, trapped within a blunder!)

(I’m telling you that hiding ain’t a choice!)

(For a cold, dead Parasite!)

Meowth’s off-key singing blared through the speakers again as the crowd sitting near the entrance curtain backed away in fear of the strange, polygonal-looking, pitch-black Pokemon emerged from the curtain and slowly made its way down to the ring, seemingly-ignoring the crowd’s reaction or the fact that Meowth’s voice was accompanying it down to the ring.

Dragging its huge, taloned hands behind it, Necrozma entered the ring and scanned the fighters, likely eyeing them all up to see who would give it the most power. Sensing a huge amount of energy coming from Menat, though it couldn’t explain where it was coming from. Either way, Menat seemed to have the most energy and that was all that mattered for Necrozma.

Menat seemed to be mentally-aware that Necrozma was coming after her since her head spun around to see the dark beast racing at her with a claw outstretched. Menat jumped and wove her way around Necrozma’s attack, landing behind it as it passed by. Menat summoned her Soul orb and fired it into Necrozma’s face once it had stopped and turned around after it saw that it had missed its mark.

“I know that look and I’ve dealt with many people and things like you in the past, even under the tutelage of Master Rose.” Menat shook her head. “I do NOT get taken by surprise that easily.”

Necrozma gave a roar in response, taking another swing at Menat’s head with a claw, which the seer backflipped away from skillfully. Menat landed on her feet and got into her stance, separating her large Soul orb into six smaller ones that floated around behind her. In response, Necrozma reared back and screeched at Menat as it got into a feral, menacing stance. One way or another it would get her energy…

“Mystery…Fighter…THREE…”

“MAD PIANO!” (Super Mario 64)

In the arena, Mario froze up, his eyes widening in horror as he heard the name of the next entrant being announced. Slowly, Mario turned in place as he found himself staring up at the entrance ramp, watching as the next Mystery Fighter was shown wandering down the ramp.

Indeed, there it was. The Mad Piano: A literal sentient grand piano with more teeth than a horror game monster, marching down the ramp awkwardly and making a noise every time it move that sounded like…Well, a grand piano moving by itself. Finally, after awkwardly lugging itself down to the bottom of the entrance ramp, the Mad Piano flung itself into the ring, showing that it was apparently very-capable of jumping somehow.

Mario gave a yell as the Mad Piano made a beeline for him, obviously still intent on shredding him like it tried those years ago. Everyone gathered in the arena seemed to pause what they were doing and watched in bewilderment as a terrified Mario ran screaming through the arena chased by a sentient piano. The Mad Piano was moving quite a bit faster than it used to, and as it was chasing Mario it threw itself into the air and turned over, opening its lid and exposing the rows of sharp teeth it was hiding underneath it as it fell towards Mario.

“Not a-this time!” Mario shouted in a panic as he threw himself into a forward roll and dodged the oncoming falling piano as it crashed into the canvas. Mario made a break for one of the corner posts and jumped up on top of it, spinning around while perched on it to stare down at the Mad Piano as he made vaguely-barking sounds at him from the canvas.

“Just..Just a-stay back, you!” Mario challenged. “I…I a-definitely have a way to beat you now, you know! It’s…It’s a-very real, I a-swear!”

The Mad Piano sat on the canvas for a few seconds before opening its lid and spitting a book at Mario, causing him to scream again and leap off the high ground as the book flew past his head.

“You a-have projectiles, now?!” Mario yelled as he ran away with the Mad Piano hot on his heels. “Who a-gave you projectiles?!”

(Announcer’s Booth)

Khall looked down at the arena, blinking in confusion. “So…That piano thing is one of Sheogorath’s Mystery Fighter picks?” He asked.

“Yep. Evidentially he thought it’d be funny to sic it on Mario since he knew how much it terrorized Mario 64 players back in the day.” SSBFreak shrugged. “I guess he wasn’t counting on Mario entering the ring in the first Section and that’s why he wanted the Mad Piano moved up in draw order.”

“Um…But where did all these moves come from?” Khall scratched his head. “It’s faster, can jump, has some biting moves and can throw those haunted books now. Maybe I’m remembering it wrong but I don’t remember it having those things back in Mario 64…”

SSBFreak gave a sigh and handed Khall a piece of paper. The purple-clad ninja looked over the paper for a few seconds and lifted an eyebrow. “Uh…What the heck’s a ‘Smash Remix’?” He asked.

(???)

A portal opened up on a snow-covered island, dropping eight fighters into a deep snowbank. Most landed upright, and Sackboy was too light to sink into the snowbank anyways, but Soldier landed in the snow face-first and was left struggling to get himself out with his feet sticking into the air.

Chris Lightfellow pushed herself out of the snowbank and brushed her armour off. “Where the heck are we?” She asked.

Athena looked to be shivering as she stepped out of the deep snow. “A-And why didn’t we get dumped somewhere warmer?!” She added.

Volkov, flying in the air, cave a cold shrug. “I don’t notice anything different.” He admitted.

“You’re a VAMPIRE!” Several of the others shouted at once. Volkov rolled his eyes in response.

Boom Boom stepped forward and squinted as he stared out over the edge of where everyone was standing, across a large body of water. He spotted what looked to be a base of some kind with hard-working machinery built into it from every angle, looking like it was either digging into a nearby frozen mountain or melting snow on it. Either way, experiments appeared to be going on since the base looked to be crawling with armed guards.

“Uh…What’s that out there?” Boom Boom asked. “Looks kinda like something King Bowser would build if he were into destroying ecosystems as opposed to kidnapping Princess Peach.”

“Ah! The Doom Monkeys are here!”

Everyone jumped (as Soldier finally managed to pop his head out of the snowbank he was trapped in) as they found themselves staring upwards as a floating screen attached to a propeller floated down, showing the face of a short scientist with red hair, a metal faceplate taking up half of his head and a live rocket sticking out of the top part of his cranium.

“Greetings, Doom Monkeys! Dr. Cortex has told me for so long about this tournament he was invited to! One that was guaranteed to involve being on the receiving end of a lot of pain! I was thinking I was sure to be invited along even as Dr. Cortex’s plus-one! I even had my twelve suitcases packed with all the basic essentials like my irradiated toothbrush and my collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber albums!” N. Gin announced on the screen. “But no, Dr. Cortex needed someone to keep watch over his mining operation here to make sure that the bumbling henchmen didn’t botch anything while he took the least-incompetent ones with him to the tournament! And that’s FIIIIIIINE! I certainly didn’t want to go to a tournament where I would be sure to get my beautiful buttocks broken a bountiful bunch! I’m FINE just standing around and watching Dr. Cortex’s stupid minions play Texas Hold’Em despite the fact that they’re actually all playing Omaha without realizing it!” N. Gin devolved into a fit of crazed, desperate-sounding laughter for a few seconds before staring furiously at the eight gathered fighters. “I’M NOT BITTER!! YOU’RE BITTER!!”

Boom Boom blinked. “Yeesh. This guy makes old Kamek look SANE.” He muttered.

“A-HEM.”

Everyone, the screen holding N. Gin’s face included, turned to see a hologram of SSBFreak materialize nearby. Once everyone was looking at him, SSBFreak continued. “Welcome, fighters, to our big twist for the tournament: The Multiversal Matchup!” He announced. “Now, you may have lost your chance to win the main tournament, but how would you like to have a chance to win a secondary prize? In each Section, eight eliminated fighters will be selected at random, so long as they scored either one or no eliminations in the main tournament, as a way to give more of a chance to shine to some fighters that may have felt like they had more to give. Those eight, in this case you guys, will be put into a mission-based or elimination-based side round for a chance to win a special prize: A special Multiversal Matchup Trophy, different from the one that will be given to the winner of the main tournament.”

“A trophy? I like trophies! They’re like medals except shinier and you can bludgeon someone with them if they’re big enough!” Soldier said with a grin.

“Wait. We weren’t told of any of this beforehand.” Needle Man spoke up.

“Of course. This was a twist we wanted to keep secret until things got going.” SSBFreak smirked. “Now, in every Multiversal Matchup, there will be many ways you can get eliminated, so remember that you only have one chance. These matches will go until there is a definitive winner or all but one of you are eliminated, but remember that these matchups are NOT fighting-oriented so the winner will NOT be decided by the standard means, although in most cases they will still be a last-man-standing format.”

SSBFreak wove a hand in the direction of the base built into the frozen mountain, as if to showcase it. “For this first Multiversal Matchup, you have all been brought to the world of Crash Bandicoot; more-specifically, to one of Cortex’s bases that’s sure to be conducting experiments and causing ecological disasters with its mining of crystals. N. Gin is overseeing things here and is stationed on a platform near the top of the base.” He explained. “So, here’s your mission for the first Multiversal Matchup: The first person to get to N. Gin and BLOW HIM UP will be the winner of the trophy. If none of you survive the round, the trophy will be given to the last one standing.”

“Hey! I never agreed to that!” N. Gin shouted indignantly. “I mean, I’m all for the delicious pain but Dr. Cortex will shatter my spleen if he comes back to a destroyed mining operation! I LOVE my spleen!!”

Soldier laughed and drew his rocket launcher. “Ha! Asking me if I want to blow someone up is like asking me if I changed my socks today!” He laughed. “And by that I mean that it’s a very stupid question because I have, in fact, been wearing this pair of socks for the last two weeks straight! They are now a part of my feet!”

Chris and Boom Boom, the ones standing on either side of Soldier, promptly took a few steps away.

SSBFreak smirked. “Well, if you’re all ready, the first Multiversal Matchup will start as soon as this hologram shuts off.” He said. “Good luck and may the best man, woman, robot, Koopa, cloth doll, vampire or deranged mercenary win!”

With that, SSBFreak’s hologram shut off, leaving the eight fighters standing in the snow and staring at N. Gin’s video screen. N. Gin stared in silence for a few moments, as if suddenly realizing that eight multiversal fighters were now on a personal mission to destroy him. “Oh, fiddle-muffins…” He squeaked as he hastily cut the feed on the screen.

Young Link watched as the screen floated away, likely starting to go back to wherever it had come from. “Well…Looks like our night’s not over yet.” He said with a smirk and grabbing hold of the Fierce Deity Mask clipped to his belt. “Who’s up for a little race?”

“Looks like the little guy’s already gotten the idea.” Needle Man pointed out.

Everyone turned towards Sackboy and saw that the cloth doll was already riding into the sky on another rocket with a wide grin. Everyone else seemed to finally realize that the competition had started as they all started running off in every direction, trying to make their way towards the base to beat the boss and win the first Multiversal Matchup…

(The Arena)

“ANGEL!” (KOF)

The audience cheered as the white-haired wrestler emerged from the curtain, playing to the crowd as she came out to an instrumental song that sounded like it would be at home in an actual wrestling match. After taking a moment to hype the crowd up to her liking, Angel charged down the ramp and leapt in with an acrobatic flip.

“Hey! Frogman!” Angel shouted as she rushed over to a meditating Greninja.

“Ja?” Greninja opened an eye as he watched Angel running over.

“Yeah, I’m talkin’ to you! Gimmie a battle!” Angel said. “I always wanted to fight a real ninja!”

(Hotel; Restaurant)

Mai Shiranui was sitting at a table with Andy Bogard, eating a small meal, before giving a loud sneeze and flying backwards in her chair, landing on her back.

Chef Kawasaki looked up and his eyes widened. “Oh, dear! Did I put too much pepper in the stir-fry?!” He asked aloud.

(The Arena)

“Plus with you been a lizard or something it may make you a slipperier opponent for me! I’m always up for a good challenge!” Angel laughed.

“Gren?” Greninja lifted an eyebrow.

Angel shrugged. “Yeah, I can’t understand you or anything, so I’m just gonna go with the assumption that you’re agreeing to the fight.” All of a sudden, Angel rushed Greninja and lashed out with her arm in a running clothesline, which Greninja backflipped away from.

Landing in a crouching position, Greninja narrowed his eyes and started forming a water shuriken in his hand. “Gren…” He hissed.

“WIZZRO!” (HW)

Ignoring the mixed reaction the audience was giving him, a boney, shadowy figure in a large cloak emerged from the curtain, only a single eye shining out from the blackness of the hood. Wizzro scanned the arena from the top of the entrance ramp as his eye suddenly turned into a grinning mouth.

“Hehehe. Oh, I think that one will do nicely.” Wizzro chuckled as he floated down the ramp and leapt into the ring. Setting his sights on the fight between Necrozma and Menat, Wizzro floated over and created a wave of poison darkness, shooting it outwards.

Menat looked to her left in time to see the wave coming and created a magic plane in front of her with a wave of her arm, blocking the blow. “Another one seeking a fight? Hmm…You somehow seem even more-corrupt than the Pokemon monster.” She mentioned.

Necrozma, on the other hand, screeched in pain as Wizzro’s wave, which was aimed at Menat, splashed against it. Necrozma stared down at Wizzro in fury and roared at him. Wizzro backed away slightly, holding up his hands in defense. “Uh…H-Hey, now! No need to get rash! I was coming in to help you with the girl!” He insisted. “I swear!”

Nacrozma responded by swatting Wizzro in the face and knocking him away. Wizzro landed on his back and tumbled for a bit, rubbing his face. “Ugh…Lord Ganon could really use that Pokemon’s power on his side…” He muttered. “I may need to try a different approach now that it seems to be angry…”

Suddenly feeling a hand on his shoulder, Wizzro turned around and found himself staring into the eyes of Blanka, whom had a dark, serious look on his face.

“Hey. So, my buddy over there is currently fighting that caveman guy but he still warned me about you.” Blanka mentioned casually as he pointed behind himself, where Darunia was still fighting Slash. “So how about I deal with you instead?”

Wizzro watched as Blanka ignited his free hand in electricity and his mouth changed to a panic-stricken eye. Wizzro squeaked in terror as Blanka’s iron grip clamped down on his shoulder…

“CAPTAIN OLIMAR!” (SSB)

The crowd cheered as the spacesuit-clad, small humanoid emerged from the entrance curtain and waved politely to the audience as he made his way down the ring, taking the time to wring his hands and take a deep breath before stepping into the ring. After the whole “Nack the Weasel” incident at the Tournament of Kikai, which involved one of the hosts deliberately wanting to emulate a violent series of events from the original UVR run, Olimar was looking forward to staying away from any major drama, but getting another early draw kind of threw a wrench into that.

“I knew I should’ve offered my spot to someone else. Someone here is probably crazy enough to want an early draw…” Olimar sighed as he made his way over to Kaya and cleared his throat. “Um…Excuse me?”

Kaya looked down at Olimar as he approached, having been checking her bow for cracks in the downtime. “Oh! Sorry, I didn’t see you come in!” She mentioned. “I…Take it you’re looking for a fight?”

Olimar rubbed the back of his helmet. “Well…I mean, I kinda would rather avoid the violence and all that but I guess the audience is looking for some action.” He admitted with a shrug.

Kaya chuckled. “Yeah. You have a point. Sorry I haven’t been paying attention for a bit; I’m not used to checking my weaponry for damage now that I’m not in Valhalla.” She admitted before switching to her spear and coating it in ice as she got into a stance.

Olimar paused in though. “Hmm…Cryomancer, eh? I think I can work with that.” He mused as he reached down and plucked three blue Pikmin from the canvas (…somehow…). “Okay. I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

Kaya laughed. “Your pet things are cute! I’ll try not to hurt them!”

“MAGYAR!” (BH)

Stepping out from behind the curtain next was what looked to be a walking suit of armour that appeared to be possessed, complete with a spear sticking straight through the torso. The walking suit of armour stopped walking as it seemed to notice that its helmet was on crooked before adjusting it and continuing down the ramp.

(Coming to you on a dusty road)

(Good loving; I got a truck load)

(And when you get it, you got somethin’)

(So don’t worry, ‘cause I’m coming)

(I’m a Soul Man!)

(I’m a Soul Man!)

(I’m a Soul Man!)

(I’m a Soul Man!)

(And that ain’t all!)

Magyar suddenly froze and cast a dark, icy glare up at the Sound Booth. Astaroth was seen laughing his head off and Aila was doubled over on her back while Shadow, ever the stoic guy, simply looked highly amused as he gave a smirk.

“I say we visit that Sound Booth after we’re finished in the arena…” A voice said from somewhere in Magyar’s armour.

“Are you KIDDING, 67?! You DO know the big guy is known to steal souls, right?!” A second voice demanded.

“Yeah, I agree with 94. He’d likely wipe us all out.” A third voice chimed in.

“Fine, fine. Let’s just keep going…” The first voice whined.

Magyar landed in the arena and spotted Lord Hater crouching over and talking to Mimikyu. The possessed armour strode over, summoning their huge greatsword into their hand.

“…I know we didn’t really get off on the right foot and, to be perfectly honest, I think that’s something we can BOTH agree that we BOTH could have handled better.” Lord Hater said, taking care not to set Mimikyu off again. “But now that I’ve seen your power firsthand I think I could REALLY use someone like you working for me!”

Mimikyu stared up at Lord Hater with a confused expression, and then looked behind him to see Magyar approaching from behind. Mimikyu let out a surprised squeak, getting Lord Hater’s attention as the villain stood up and turned around to find himself staring at the possessed suit of armour.

“Oooooh! A spooky suit of armour! That’s gotta be the most-classic minion type a guy could wish for!” Lord Hater said, shaking his hands in glee. “Say, how would you feel about throwing your strength behind an amazing, evil and cool space dictator like me, huh?”

Magyar’s response was to point their greatsword at Lord Hater’s face. “NO.” Several voices said as one.

“Hey, let’s not be hasty! Let’s give him a shot!” Another voice inside Magyar asked.

“Shut up, 13!” Several more of Magyar’s voices shouted.

Lord Hater paused, his smile slowly drooping down. “Ooooh…There’s more than one of you in there?” He asked timidly.

“This suit is powered by one hundred souls…” Magyar replied coldly in what sounded like twelve voices.

Lord Hater looked around fearfully for a way out. “Um…Maybe I’d be able to work you all in. I definitely can’t afford to pay all one hundred of you, though…” He mentioned meekly.

“Mystery…Fighter…FOUR…”

“MERENGUE!” (Animal Crossing)

Emerging from the curtain, much to everyone’s surprise, was a pink, timid-looking rhino girl with a strawberry-like horn holding a tray of muffins and cookies. She looked around at the surprised crowd cheering for her as she nervously started passing out the free samples on her tray.

“U-Um…T-Thank you! If you like these free samples, I-I’m working at the café in the hotel side of the building, s-so please come by and support my friends and I there!” Merengue said nervously with a timid, shaky smile as the audience nearest to the entrance ramp accepted the free samples as they were being handed out.

Once she was done handing out the free samples, Merengue stood in silence on the ramp for a few seconds before covering her face with the empty sample tray. “Oh, w-why did I let Chai convince me to do this?! I-I’m so stupid! I’m not a fighter! How does she expect me to do in this thing against people trying to kill each other?!” She whimpered as she slowly made her way down the ramp, inch by inch, until she reached the end. Taking a deep breath, Merengue decided to go with it and let herself fall into the arena.

BB Hood was still in the process of fighting Diddy Kong, using her knife to try and close the distance between the two but the smaller was proving to be a slippery target, laughing and taunting her with every chance he got. BB Hood’s patience had worn thin long ago and by this point she just wanted to end the fight and move on to something else but knew that if she didn’t destroy this cheeky monkey then it’d drive her crazy. BB Hood raised her knife above her head and prepared to swing it down.

“E-Excuse me!”

BB Hood swung her knife down but a blur of pink got between her and Diddy, holding up a metal tray and blocking the blade with a loud clang. BB Hood bounced backwards as Merengue stood her ground, fearfully lowering the tray but still somewhat hiding behind it. “Y-You should be more careful! It’s dangerous to j-just swing those sharp things around like that!” She stammered.

BB Hood stared darkly. “You…Are you kidding?” She hissed. “It’s just…One thing after another with you people…How many of you do I need to KILL HERE?!” She screamed as she rushed Merengue and raised her knife again.

“N-NOOOO!!!” Merengue screamed as she flailed her arms about, seemingly forgetting that she was still holding onto the metal tray. The tray ended up smashing across BB Hood’s face and the strike, combined with Merengue’s natural rhino muscle, sent BB Hood flying clear across the arena with one blow.

Diddy Kong looked at Merengue in awe as she continued to obliviously flail about, as if not realizing that BB Hood wasn’t there anymore, and glanced at the tray she was holding, seeing that it was now sporting a dent in it shaped specifically like BB Hood’s face. He scratched his head.

“BOWSER JR!” (SMB)

Bowser Jr. laughed proudly as he came out from behind the entrance curtain riding his mini clown car. The audience cheered as the Koopa Prince flipped a switch on the inside of his clown car that swapped out the propeller for a set of tires, which he used to drive down the ramp and rocket himself into the ring, much to the approval of the people watching.

Landing with a loud thud, Bowser Jr. gave a smirk as he pulled his hammer into view and made a beeline for Mario, seeing that he was still in the process of being chased by the Mad Piano. “Atta boy! Get the plumber, doggie!” He called out as he swung his hammer at Mario.

Mario, however, saw the hammer coming at his head and slid under the swing. Bowser Jr. snarled as he watched Mario get up again. “Oh, you think you’re so cool, Mario? Well, just you wait!” Bowser Jr. said determinedly. “Now that I’m working with poochie here, we’ll take you down in no time!”

Mario paused. “You…You have a-no idea what that thing is, do you?” He asked.

“I was told the piano terrorized you back in Big Boo’s Haunt and I wanna capitalize on that!” Bowser Jr. said before turning around to face the Made Piano. “Okay! You wear him down and I’ll-”

The Mad Piano bared its teeth at Bowser Jr. and lunged at him, showing no discernment between him and Mario. Bowser Jr’s face drooped comically before the Koopa Prince screamed, turned around and started running away with Mario rather than chase after him, the Mad Piano now chasing them both.

“W-Why isn’t this thing listening to me?!” Bowser Jr. demanded. “I-I thought it was one of papa’s minions!”

(Dome; Mario Bros. Locker Room)

Bowser looked down in shame as Peach watched the screen in horror. Slowly, the blonde princess turned to Bowser. “You…You never told him that piano was FERAL?!” She demanded.

Bowser held up his hands in defense. “I-I swear I didn’t think we’d see that thing again! There’s a reason I never tried to bring it back!” He insisted.

Peach put her hands on her hips and looked cross. “Then why and how did you enlist the piano to your forces in the FIRST place?!” She checked.

“I DIDN’T! The piano was part of Big Boo’s Haunt to begin with and it terrorized my minions so much we just let it be! It…It seemed safer that way…” Bowser said timidly, tapping his fingers together.

(Hotel; Café)

Two elephant girls were standing behind the counter of the hotel’s café, seemingly oblivious to the main barista, a green male pigeon with a pair of small shades, sighing in frustration as he served his current customers. This was largely due to the fact that they were currently in an argument.

“You seriously signed Merengue up for the tournament without telling ANY of us?! And you only told her when the tournament was about to BEGIN?!” A white elephant whose head looked like it was designed after a china teapot, said in anger.

The other elephant, a light-blue elephant wearing a hat that looked suspiciously like a cup and saucer, waved her hands in front of her face. “H-Hey, give me a break, babe! I thought it’d give Brewster and us some additional business tonight!” She insisted nervously.

The teapot elephant folded her arms and stared coldly. “Chai, you do NOT get to call me ‘babe’ tonight. Not after pulling this with Merengue.” She said.

“Aw, Tia!” The blue elephant whined.

“She’s our FRIEND! She’s not a FIGHTER!”

“She’s a RHINO!” Chai cried. “She doesn’t NEED to be a fighter! She’s a TANK!”

The pigeon barista gave another sigh and turned back to his customers. “Coo…I’m real sorry about this…” Brewster said stoically as he set a cup of coffee on the counter. “Our baker just entered the arena as a Mystery Fighter and only one of my co-workers knew anything about it.”

The first customer, an overweight bald man with a thick beard and a pair of overalls, gave a handwave. “Eh, that’s fine. To be honest I’d probably feel the same way if that happened to me.” Bear Hugger admitted.

“Coo…Thanks for understanding. You want Pigeon Milk in your coffee?”

“Eh…Nah, but if you have cream and sugar I’ll take four of each and make it a Double-Double.” Bear Hugger said before holding up the donut he had bought. “By the way, this donut is amazing! The maple flavor really shines through, eh?”

Brewster nodded as he poured some cream and sugar into Bear Hugger’s coffee. “Thanks…Merengue is one of the best bakers I know.” He said before turning to Bear Hugger’s companion. “Can I get you something?”

The second customer, a snowball-shaped robot wearing a winter hat and a pair of skis, shook his head. “No thanks, eh. I’m a robot so I can’t or don’t really need to eat anything.” Blizzard Man admitted.

Brewster nodded as he finished up and turned around to try and keep Tia from killing her girlfriend, leaving Bear Hugger and Blizzard Man at the counter while the former stirred his coffee.

“Ya know, you didn’t need to come with me if you weren’t going to order anything.” Bear Hugger admitted. “I coulda even paid for you if you wanted to try something.”

“Thanks for the offer, eh, but I can’t really eat or drink anything. It’ll mess up my circuits.” Blizzard Man gave a friendly laugh. “I guess I just wanted to tag along because it’s always good to see a bit more Canadian representation, eh?”

Bear Hugger gave a laugh. “Oh, you got that right! I thought that cyborg from KOF and I would be the only ones here!” He admitted before pausing. “Though, I hope that you’ll forgive me for saying this but I kinda think you’re designed like a Canadian stereotype. I mean, a snowball robot wearing skis with ice powers? Canada’s more than just snow.”

Blizzard Man rubbed the back of his head nervously. “Uh…I mean, I don’t wanna offend you but you can’t really talk about that, eh.” He mentioned. “You’re a lumberjack that drinks maple syrup, plays hockey, trains with a bear and you’re even eating a maple donut now.”

Bear Hugger laughed in embarrassment. “Oh, yeah. I kinda put my foot in my mouth there, eh? Sorry about that!” He said.

“No, I’m sorry, eh. I didn’t want to mention it.”

“No, I’m sorry! I was the one to start things.”

“Yeah, but I’m sorry that I decided to keep it going.”

Bear Hugger and Blizzard Man sat in silence for a few seconds before laughing together. “We’re definitely Canadian.” Bear Hugger admitted with a grin.

“Totally, eh!” Blizzard Man laughed.

Suddenly, Blizzard Man turned his head to look over his shoulder, his sensors picking up some sounds coming from near the doorway to the café. Bear Hugger seemed to notice. “What’s up, eh?” He asked.

“I hear a couple of people talking…” Blizzard Man mentioned.

“It’s impolite to listen in on a conversation.” Bear Hugger scolded.

Blizzard Man sighed. “Sorry, eh. It’s just that I could make out the words ‘plan’ and ‘power’ and stuff like that and I figured it’d be something I should hear.” He looked down.

Bear Hugger lifted an eyebrow. “Wait. I think I remember something like that going on behind the scenes last time I was at a tournament happening here.” He mentioned. “Hmm…Maybe we SHOULD look into it…”

(Hotel; Hallway)

“Look, I appreciate that Ganondorf thought of me when he started looking around for people to help him. Quite frankly he needs all the help he can get.” Urien sighed as he folded his arms. “But why the heck should I CARE about what he’s planning if I’m just going to be a lackey?”

Standing in front of the tall, lanky, white-haired man was a similarly lanky man with white hair, though this one was pale, had pointy ears and was dressed a little more flamboyantly compared to Urien’s business suit. In response, Ghirahim gave a smirk. “See, that’s what set you apart from the others in the eyes of Lord Ganon. He knows you’re far too powerful and smart to simply boss around like some hired thug.” He said. “That’s why he’s willing to let you in on the power he’s going to be getting from this.”

“You still haven’t told me what it is he’s trying to do.” Urien lifted an eyebrow.

“He hasn’t told anyone yet. It’s a mystery to even me.” Ghirahim admitted. “But he insists that all involved will get a taste of the power, and I know that’s something you could really use, especially if you finally want to usurp that brother of yours.”

“Do NOT speak of him!” Urien roared before pausing. “Ganondorf’s…Not planning on asking Gill to join him, is he?”

“No. He knew you two would never work together and he gave you priority.” Ghirahim shrugged.

Urien paused in silence before finally sighing. “You know what? Fine. I’m interested. I don’t know if Ganondorf will be able to follow through on his promises of power but if there’s a chance I can get enough to surpass Gill then I have to take it.” He admitted.

Ghirahim gave a creepy smile. “Of course. Personally, I knew you wouldn’t pass up the chance.” He explained. “Here. I’ll give you some directions. I can’t lead you to the meetup point myself because I’m still doing some recruitment work.”

“Fine, fine. Just gimmie the directions.” Urien sighed.

“Pardon me, buddy.”

The two turned towards the door to the café and saw Bear Hugger and Blizzard Man standing outside of it, the former looking a little cross, which was something not many people saw on the face of the normally-friendly boxer.

“I certainly hope you aren’t planning on any villainous things, friend.” Bear Hugger folded his arms. “The last time something like that happened in this dome it sorta ended with the dome’s destruction.”

Ghirahim scowled. “Kindly leave your disgusting face out of our business.” He said.

Bear Hugger smirked. “Kinda hard to do when the guy you’re drinking with has super-hearing.” He said, giving a motion to Blizzard Man, who gave a light wave.

Urien sighed and stepped beside Ghirahim. “Looks like a little obstacle.” He mentioned. “Should be nothing but a roadblock.”

Ghirahim scoffed and summoned his sword. “Less than a roadblock; this is a simple speedbump.” He added. “Perhaps this will be the perfect way to see you in action to see if you’re worthy of the position.”

“Whatever. Just don’t get in my way.”

Bear Hugger sighed and glanced at Blizzard Man. “Looks like you were right, buddy.” He said. “I don’t think we’re going to get any answers unless we beat them, either.”

“I don’t think we’ll get answers either way, eh.” Blizzard Man shook his head. “But we should probably at least stop them.”

“Yeah. That works too.” Bear Hugger shrugged casually before cracking his knuckles. “Alright, you two. Who wants a Bear Hug?”

Ghirahim scoffed again and held up his sword. “I’ll cut the fat off you LITERALLY.” He said. “Maybe I’ll shave that beard while I’m at it!”

(The Arena)

“TIR MCDOHL!” (ST)

Coming out from behind the curtain to, surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), the theme song to Soul Eater was the first protagonist of Suikoden, taking the time to tighten the green bandana on his head to make sure it was on tight enough that it wouldn’t fly off during a fight. Gripping his fighting staff, the dark-haired Tir jogged down to the ring and leapt in without a second thought.

To be honest, Tir was a bit disappointed that Pahn had been tossed so quickly since he had been looking forward to teaming up with him when he saw their entry number so close together. Now Tir had to hope that he could last until Gremio or Cleo entered but he knew they weren’t due to enter for a while…

Meta Knight saw Tir coming over to him from his perch on one of the cornerposts and turned to face him, his cape turning into a pair of wings again. “The boy with the soul-eating magic.” He greeted darkly. “I hope you’ve got control over it here. There are a lot of people that your rune is capable of killing if something goes wrong.”

Tir stared flatly. “I’ve been controlling the Soul Eater Rune for years now. I think I can control the outbursts so long as no one in the arena straight-up DIES before they get eliminated.” He replied simply.

“That may be so, but I don’t want to take any chances.” Meta Knight said as he jumped off the cornerpost and landed on the canvas. “I’m no stranger to world-ended catastrophes and I feel your rune is one just waiting to happen.”

“Believe me, I feel the same. But THANKFULLY, I’m not one to use the power the run has so recklessly.” Tir rolled his eyes before getting into a stance. ‘But I don’t think you’re going to let this go until I fight you, right?”

Meta Knight chuckled behind his mask and drew his sword. “You’d be right, boy.” He mentioned. “Believe me; you won’t see me coming.”

“We’ll see about that.” Tir narrowed his eyes.

“CLARK STILL!” (KOF)

The crowd cheered as a blonde soldier wearing a cap and sunglasses emerged from the curtain and stood on the ramp. Seemingly paying little mind to the cheering crowd, Clark gave a like smirk as he otherwise stoically looked down at the ring, cracking his knuckles as he scanned the arena for potential opponents. Clark took off like a bullet and shot down the ramp before leaping in headfirst to start his foray in the tournament.

Clark landed in the arena and, on his way over to help Menat with Necrozma, suddenly heard a battle cry coming from overhead. Clark turned his head and looked up to see Wang-Tang falling at him in a flying kick. Clark spun around to face the young martial artist and held up his arms, blocking Wang-Tang’s attempted kick and forcing the younger fighter to leap off him and land a few feet away.

“That’s some serious defense for someone who isn’t a giant.” Wang-Tang smirked. “Usually the only one to withstand my kicks like that is Gunrock.”

Clark couldn’t help but smirk. “You’re new here. There’s a lot of thing that’ll surprise you.” He admitted. “But, since you’ve already thrown the first punch, I suppose I’ll give you the fight you’re looking for.”

“You sure? I’m sure I’m stronger than you think I am.” Wang-Tang taunted.

“Like I said, you may find yourself surprised.” Clark reminded simply.

“Oh, really? Well, that’s great! I hope you’re ready for-”

Wang-Tang suddenly found himself getting thrown straight up into the air. Screaming in surprise, Wang-Tang flew upwards, hung in midair for a a couple seconds at the height of the toss, and then started falling down again towards Clark, whom was holding his hands up and getting ready to catch the falling martial artist.

Wang-Tang had a feeling this was going to hurt…

“SPIKE!” (PAS)

The spiky-haired protagonist of Ape Escape emerged from the curtain to a warm reception from the crowd, stun club in hand. Giving a wave to the audience, Spike jogged down the ramp and leapt in, using his propeller gadget to fly into the arena with great air. Landing on the canvas, Spike looked around for an opponent and noticed that both Raiden and Sackboy were out already.

“Aw, man. So much for a double-team. I was hoping I wouldn’t be the only one in the arena.” Spike lamented as he made his way over to Merengue, whom was trying to get the imprint of BB Hood’s face out of her tray while Diddy Kong watched in curiosity.

Diddy noticed Spike coming over and gave a monkey shout, pointing Spike out to Merengue as he drew his popguns again. Merengue seemed to notice this and turned to see Spike coming over. She straightened up nervously as Spike came over. “I-I hope you aren’t planning on capturing Diddy in that net of yours.” She mentioned. “He’s not one of those monkeys that you chase around in your home node.”

Spike sighed. “Yeah, don’t worry. I know. I also know that if I tried capturing HIM I’d have to deal with Donkey Kong at some point and I don’t think I’m really ready for that.” He rolled his eyes. “I was more coming over to see if you wanted a match.”

“Um…M-Me? I-I mean, I’m flattered but I’m not sure how much of a fight I’d be able to put up…” Merengue stammered in surprise.

Diddy Kong quickly climbed onto Merengue’s shoulder and fired a peanut into Spike’s face. Spike staggered backwards a couple of steps in surprise but quickly recovered and stared flatly, holding up his stun club again. “Kind of looks like that choice has been made for you.” He said with a light smirk. “That monkey may not be one of mine but he’s still asking for a little bit of trouble. Hope he doesn’t mind if I respond.”

Merengue looked over her shoulder at where Diddy was still perched, back and Spike and nervously looked back and forth between the two for a few seconds before realizing that she was caught in the middle. “…Oh, no…” She whimpered as Spike lunged at her and Diddy yelled a battle cry from his perch on her shoulder.

“IBUKI!” (SF5)

The crowd cheered as the young, dark-haired ninja of Street Fighter emerged from the curtain and started playing to the crowd with so acrobatics as she made her way down the ramp. Reaching the end of the ramp, Ibuki gave a loud, determined cheer as she leapt into the arena, leaping high into the air as she did, and took aim at someone in the ring, throwing a series of throwing knives at her target while she was in the air.

On the canvas, BB Hood had been recovering from the surprise smash attack from Merengue when she jumped to attention as a throwing knife hit the canvas at her feet. BB Hood jumped back as Ibuki’s knives struck the mat and watched as Ibuki landed gracefully on her feet about ten feet away from the bounty hunter. “Ugh! What’s the big idea?!” She demanded.

Ibuki smirked. “Hey, I just saw that you didn’t have an opponent when I came out. It’s kinda hard to miss you with the bright red cloak and all.” She pointed out. “Besides, keeping my eyes on you to keep you from destroying the dome again is easier if I’m fighting you.”

“Technically I was only part of the group responsible!” BB Hood sharply reminded.

“Eh, you were still there.” Ibuki shrugged before getting into a stance. “Even still, fighting you keeps you from going after animals again.”

“I’m hunting bounties and my top priority is the edgelord in the mask!” BB Hood snapped in frustration before pulling a machine gun from her basket. “How many people are going to keep me from claiming that bounty?! He’s RIGHT THERE!!”

Ibuki giggled as she pulled a kunai into view. “People like you are so much fun to rile up.” She said.

“You brought this on yourself!!” BB Hood roared.

“FIRE MAN!” (MM)

Coming out to a relatively-warm reception, the first of the original Robot Masters emerged from behind the curtain, the top of his head ignited in bright flames. Striking a pose that cause a stream of fire to shoot from his arm cannon and into the air, much to the audience’s approval, Fire Man jogged down the ramp and leapt into the ring, landing on his feet and instantly firing a beam of fire towards an intended target.

Kaya was still in the process of fighting Olimar and his blue Pikmin when a beam of fire shot over her head, right through the end of her raised spear that had been coated in ice. Kaya jumped in surprise as she turned to see Fire Man coming over. “Hey! Are you trying to kill someone?!” She demanded.

Fire Man shook his head, giving a smirk before his face mask. “I’ve been programmed to avoid killing. I was aiming for that ice spear of yours to…” He trailed off when he saw that the tip of Kaya’s spear was still coated in ice, as if his fire beam hadn’t done anything to it. “W-Wait! How did your ice manage to not melt after that?!”

“It comes with the powers.” Kaya smirked back. “Are you still up for a fight knowing that your powers don’t hurt me like you thought they would?”

Fire Man got into a stance as his torch-head burned bright. “Heh. Of course. That just means that I’ll have more of a challenge.” He mentioned. “I’m not evil anymore but I still know a thing or two about getting scrappy!”

Kaya grinned and got into a stance again. “I’m used to fighting robots. I doubt you’ll be much different.” She taunted.

Olimar looked between the two, saw Fire Man’s flames and sighed as he plucked a couple red Pikmin from the canvas. “It’s a good thing I’m used to multitasking…” He muttered more to himself.

“And now, the final fighter of this section…”

“BODVAR!” (BH)

Brawlhalla’s posterboy and resident undying Viking emerged from the curtain with a loud, boisterous yell and the loudest cheer for Brawlhalla thus far. Bodvar grinned in excitement as he eyed the fighters in the arena, as if scanning those gather to see if he could find who would give him the best fight. Not wanting to delay the action, Bovar ran down the ramp and charged into the arena without a second thought.

To be honest, Bodvar was actually a little disappointed in his draw; not in the fact that he had gotten such an early draw but rather at the fact that he hadn’t thought about trying to barter his way into the first section. He wanted to fight as many multidimensional fighters as he could and already there were sixteen fighters that he had missed the chance to fight with due to the first section’s fighters, save for his nodal companions Orion and Volkov, already being eliminated. Nevertheless, Bodvar vowed to make the best of it since there was nothing he could do about it now as he rushed over to help Menat with Necrozma.

Necrozma heard Bodvar shouting from behind and turned just in time to see the Viking lunging at it with a sword in his hands. Necrozma swung a huge claw and swatted Bodvar out of the air, but that left it open for a Soul attack from behind from Menat. Bodvar landed on his feet and swung at Necrozma again, only for the monstrous Pokemon to back away out of range of the sword attack.

“Your help is appreciated, Viking.” Menat nodded as she summoned her Soul orb back to her side. “This monster seems intent on fighting me and I’m sensing that it’s a lot more-powerful than it seems…”

“Ha! That just makes it better!” Bodvar said with a grin. “The stronger they are, the better the fight!”

Necrozma roared at Bodvar as the Viking turned to face it. Bodvar, in response, gave a dark grin and got into a stance. “Oh, our battle will be legendary, monster, but I’ll destroy you like any other monster I’ve beaten!” He taunted. “My path to Valhalla was strewn with the bodies of my foes! You won’t be any different!”

“You don’t want to irritate it!” Menat scolded.

Bodvar smirked as he briefly turned to Menat. “If it makes it fight harder, then I’ll make it as mad as I want!” He said before turning back towards Necrozma just in time for a huge clawed hand to wrap around his head.

Menat sighed as Necrozma started attacking Bodvar. “I wonder if he WILLINGLY runs into battles over his head.” She muttered as she got into a stance and rushed in to help the Viking.

Chapter Text

(The Arena)

Bodvar jumped backwards as a laser beam struck the canvas near his feet. Grinning with anticipation, the half-bear Viking summoned his warhammer and charged at his current opponent, the polygonal Pokemon Necrozma, as more lasers were fired at him while he was running. Necrozma found that Bodvar was too quick to hit and help up an arm to block the Viking’s hammer swing, and then swung a clawed hand to bat Bodvar out of the air.

Turning its attention back to Menat, or rather the light coming from her Soul Orbs, Necrozma gave a roar and swung a clawed hand at the psychic, only for Menat to backpedal away and fire an orb into its face, staggering it briefly. Menat took the opportunity to get in close and strike the large Pokemon in the legs a few times, making it roar in what sounded like pain. Necrozma swatted Menat away from it and approached in with the intent to absorb her power before Bodvar leapt at it from behind and smashed his warhammer over its hard back. This, however, did little other than annoy Necrozma as it turned around and fired two laser beams into Bodvar’s face while the Viking was still in the air, knocking him backwards.

Landing on his back, Bodvar grinned as he pushed himself to his feet. “This monster has a lot of fight in him!” He laughed as Menat rushed to his side while keeping her eyes on Necrozma.

“I think that monster is attracted to my powers.” Menat informed. “I can try to keep its attention on me but I’m going to need your help to overpower it while it’s distracted.”

Bodvar despawned his warhammer and switched to his sword. “Where’s the fun in that, though? I’m having a grand time fighting it head-on!” He admitted.

Menat sighed. “I’d be all for using YOU as the distraction so you can fight it head-on but, like I said, it’s attracted to ME.” She replied.

“Just makes things a lot more-interesting!” Bodvar grinned as he charged at necrozma with a loud battle cry. Necrozma roared in response an lifted a huge, clawed hand into the air in an attempt to counter whatever Bodvar was going to throw at it.

Menat sighed and split her Soul Orb into six smaller orbs again as Bodvar’s sword clashed with Necrozma’s claws. Necrozma made for a large enough target but it’d be hard to get a shot in while Bodvar was so insistent on fighting it up close. Then again, perhaps the Viking could use a warning shot or two to get him to start fighting strategically.

Lord Hater landed on his backside and started scurrying backwards as Magyar towered over him menacingly, holding a huge, spiked mace (in the form of a warhammer) in their hand. Lord Hater looked around for a way out of the situation frantically and saw that Mimikyu was simply sitting aside, watching with curiosity, as if he wasn’t sure where he stood on being Lord Hater’s minion yet.

“Uh…M-Maybe we can work things out! I-I can offer paid sick days for…Maybe forty percent of you!” Lord Hater stammered. “We’d save the money on dental because the hundred of you don’t have any teeth but I’m stretching my resources as it is!”

Magyar held the mace over their head. “And we thought we told you we’re not interested in becoming your lackeys…” Several voices replied coldly. “Perhaps we need to remind you.”

“H-Hold on, now!” Lord Hater said desperately as he covered his face with his arms and braced for impact. “Not the faaaace!!”

Magyar stood in silence for a few seconds, still in a position with the mace above their head. Lord Hater waited a few seconds before peeking out from behind his arms.

“…Why aren’t we swinging the mace?” One of Magyar’s souls asked. “Who stopped?!”

“I did!” Another soul replied.

“WHY?! Are you seriously thinking of taking this guy up?!”

“No, but come on! Working with this guy in the arena could be interesting! You saw how he was fighting in the first section!”

“You can’t be serious!”

“I know most of you are thinking the same thing!”

Magyar started shaking as they stood frozen in place, as if some of Magyar’s souls were trying to wrestle control of their mace-wielding arm away from the ones currently holding the weapon back. After several long, agonizing seconds for Lord Hater, Magyar let out a yell of frustration (in what sounded like at least twenty voices) and dropped their mace arm. “FINE!!” Magyar shouted.

Lord Hater looked up hopefully. “So…That means that you’ll join me?” He asked.

“NO. We are simply forming an alliance in the arena.” Several of Magyar’s souls insisted as they helped Lord Hater to his feet. “And this is only because we think it’ll make for some decent entertainment fighting alongside you.”

“H-Hey, that’s fine!” Lord Hater insisted, waving is hands in front of his face before taking a moment to calm himself down and smooth out his cloak. “Now, then. If we’re forming an alliance, I say we look for some unsuspecting people to throw out!” He glanced down and watched as Mimikyu shuffled over to him and looked up and him curiously. “Oh, NOW you decide to come over? Well, how about you help us in some fights?”

Mimikyu paused in silence, still not sure how to process what was going on, but nevertheless followed Lord Hater and Magyar as they ran over to the fight Charlie Nash and Pyra were having to see if they could get in on the action.

(Announcer’s Booth)

Both hosts were on a different phone and talking to someone on the other end, neither of them looking like they were paying much attention to the action in the arena. While SSBFreak was sweating and looking nervous as he was talking on his personal phone, Khall was casually talking on the phone attached to the desk.

“Well, after Merengue was announced, boss-man’s phone started ringing and he said he needed to take the call.” Khall admitted. “But when he saw your name come up on the caller ID thing he insisted that I be the one to talk to you. You should have seen his face! It looked like he thought it’d be the end of the world if I didn’t!”

“Gee, I wonder why.” A voice snarked from the other end of the phone. “He probably knew I’d chew his ear off if I knew he sent a helpless animal into the ring with monsters, possessed pianos and BB Hood.”

Obviously, SSBFreak wanted to make sure that the next time Catherine, one of Tiny’s OCs that had a love for animals, called looking to tear him a new one he wanted to pass the call on to Khall and let him handle it; He’d received an earful from her when BB Hood entered the arena and when he saw a second call coming in on his personal phone that he felt took priority he used that as an excuse to not deal with Catherine for now. He figured he’d hear from her again later, especially with Sheogorath’s troll-like machinations involved, but for now he felt his attention was needed on this other call.

“Yeah! He even gave me this note to read to you when you called in!” Khall said, holding up a note.

“This aught to be good.” Catherine sighed. “But…I thought you couldn’t read.”

“Eh. Comes and goes.” Khall admitted. “So, turns out, this elephant girl that’s working at the café with Merengue applied her to be a Mystery Fighter. Apparently not all his intended Mystery Fighters could make it and he didn’t want to give Sheogorath any more Mystery Fighter picks than he already did.”

“But Merengue isn’t a fighter! The only fighters from Animal Crossing are Villager and Isabelle!”

“Oh! Boss-man gave me an answer to that as well! Maybe he knew you’d bring it up. I’m supposed to answer that with ‘Penny Proud made the final two of the Tournament of Kikai’.”

“…Y-Yeah, but…”

Meanwhile, SSBFreak was busy dealing with his own call, and one that he was looking desperately to avoid getting into bigger trouble with. “I-I think you’re being a little bit hasty here, Mr. Nook!” He said.

“Hasty? I found out that one of my friends, whom is about as close to a fighter as Crazy Redd is to an honest businessman, has just entered a multidimensional fighting tournament that’s playing host to demons, monsters, killers, hitmen and people that just really like to punch things.” A voice said coldly from the other end of the line. “What I want you to do is give me a good reason why I SHOULDN’T outright buy you out and cancel that tournament of yours a SECOND time.”

“W-Why are you making this big a deal about this, though? I mean, you’ve never bat an eye to Villager or Isabelle fighting in these things!” SSBFreak stammered.

“Villager is resourceful if nothing else and the only reason I let Isabelle join Smash was because I knew she was best friends with that scary muscled guy with the chainsaw, but Merengue has never had ANY experience fighting so I want to know why she’s in the arena at ALL.”

SSBFreak sighed. “Look, I had a couple of free Mystery Fighter slots and Chai put in an application for Merengue, saying that Merengue was too busy baking goods for the tournament to apply herself.” He explained. “I swear I had no idea that Merengue didn’t know about it until she was called to the Ready Room.”

Tom Nook was heard giving a loud sigh on the other end. “I’ll…Admit that does sound like Chai.” He relented. “Okay. I’ll overlook it this one time so long as you promise to make Merengue’s health a priority when she gets eliminated.”

“I-I’ll see to it myself that she’ll be fine!”

“Good, because I want you to remember this: I’m holding you PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE for ANYTHING that happens to Merengue in the arena.” Tom Nook replied coldly. “Carry on for now, but remember to keep a tab on your phone. You may just be expected to answer it.”

The phone line went dead, Tom Nook having hung up on the tournament host and leaving him sitting in his seat holding his cell phone in his hand. He slowly started registering what Tom Nook had said as he slowly put his phone in his pocket.

By this point, Khall had wrapped up his talk with Catherine and had hung up the phone. He turned to the host. “So. Uh…What’d the raccoon guy want?” He asked.

SSBFreak’s head hit the desk several times.

“That bad, huh?”

(Multiversal Matchup)

Chris Lightfellow and Athena Asamiya seemed to be in a footrace across a frozen island, making as fast a route as they could towards N. Gin’s base attached to the nearby cliff. Athena was faster on her feet than Chris was but the silver-haired knight didn’t seem to be affected by the cold as much as Athena was, giving her an edge in the stamina. The two jogged at an even pace, but looked around as they ran to see where they stood at in this race they had been thrust into.

They could see Volkov and Sackboy flying through the air and looking like they were fighting each other in an attempt to get to N. Gin first, and could faintly see Needle Man on another small island, trying to scale the cliff with his needle cannons to only moderate effect. So far there was no sight of Boom Boom, Soldier and Young Link but it could only be guessed that the three were causing mayhem and destruction somewhere out of sight.

Athena spotted a frozen part of the ocean and ran out onto the ice, fast enough that she could outrun the ice cracking under her feet, separating sheets of ice from the mainland. Chris came to a screeching halt just at the shore of the island and watched as Athena started floating away on a sheet of ice she herself separated.

Seeing Chris stopping herself, Athena turned around and smirked. “Looks like I’ve got a bit of an edge…” She mused as she fired a Psycho Ball behind her, using the momentum to push the ice sheet she was riding along the water as she sailed towards the central part of N. Gin’s base.

Chris grunted in annoyance. “There’s no way that ice’ll hold me wearing my armour.” She cursed herself as she turned towards a nearby entrance to the base that was heavily-guarded, though currently under attack as Chris saw Soldier blasting armed guards off the island with his rocket launcher. Realizing that she would have to take a longer route to try to catch up with Athena, Chris drew her sword and advanced.

Up in the sky, Volkov was trying to make a break for the top of N. Gin’s base, where the insane scientist would likely be hiding out, and looked over his shoulder as he saw Sackboy riding his rocket, already in the process of opening his inventory again. Volkov instinctively lashed out and sent a wave of bats at Sackboy, hoping to throw him off his rocket while he was distracted with his inventory.

Sackboy managed to close his inventory just in time to swerve out of the way of the bats but the tail wing of the rocket he was riding got slightly hit by a couple of the bats, knocking the cloth doll off-course and giving Volkov a bit more time to fly on ahead. Regaining his balance, Sackboy gave a comical-looking frown as he opened up his inventory again and started throwing blocks and shapes ahead of him, aiming all around the airborne space.

Volkov yelled in surprise as Sackboy’s thrown and dropped blocks turned into an airborne obstacle course as he was forced to weave around and through shapes as they were being placed around him. Summoning his scythe into his hands, Volkov flew straight at a block Sackboy had placed in his path and sliced cleanly through it diagonally, providing him a direct path to the top of N. Gin’s base.

However, Volkov hadn’t anticipated that Sackboy had placed a steel wall just behind the block and, not seeing it until he had just cut through the block ahead of it, the vampire lord flew straight into the wall with a loud thud. Volkov groaned in pain and annoyance as he latched onto the wall and looked over his shoulder in the direction Sackboy had been. “You DARE toy with the master of Castle Batavia?! You glorified voodoo doll!” Volkov shouted as he held his scythe in one hand as he turned while holding onto the wall with his other. “One swing is all it’ll take to cut you in half, you little-”

Volkov’s froze mid-yell as his eyes went wide, watching as Sackboy leapt off his rocket in midair and sent the now-riderless explosive projectile directly at him. Volkov opened his mouth to scream a curse towards the cloth doll just before the rocket made contact with his face. He was a fraction of a second too late to get anything out.

*KA-BOOM!*

Sackboy was in the process of free-falling towards a platform attached to N. Gin’s base as he shuffled through his inventory. Spotting a large mattress, Sackboy pulled it out of his inventory and threw it downwards, bouncing off of it just as it struck the top of the platform. Sackboy landed directly onto the middle of the mattress, his fall officially broken.

As Sackboy got off the mattress, a screaming Volkov suddenly fell past the platform, engulfed in flames and surrounded by tiny shrapnel of rocket. Sackboy wandered over to a railing and peered over it, watching Volkov continue to fall until splashing headfirst into the ice-cold water below, effectively taking him out of the race entirely.

Sackboy gave a silent laugh as he turned around to continue on his way, only to stop when he saw himself staring up at a huge bear armed with a scimitar, another of N. Gin’s guards. Sackboy took a few seconds to shift through a couple pages of his inventory awkwardly before turning around and running away with the bear guard hot on his heels, swinging his sword wildly.

(Hotel; Dr. Cortex’s Room)

Cortex and Wily were sitting on a pair of chairs around a small coffee table, hunched over what looked like a set of blueprints. With the way the two were discussing things it looked like they were struggling to come to an agreement on how some of the components of what they were planning on building would work.

“I still say we need to add a few more regulators to the secondary chamber.” Wily informed, pointing to a spot on the blueprints.

“That seems like needless padding and a use of materials we’re already short on.” Cortex replied with a sigh. “I think the device will operate fine without the extra regulators.”

“Cortex, you KNOW what kind of power this machine is meant for. We do NOT want it backfiring on us.” The older scientist said sharply. “We need to make SURE it’s safe.”

“It will be! The amount of regulators in this thing is already the same amount as the number I had on the Evolve-O-Ray!”

“Ninety percent of your henchmen are idiots and you created CRASH BANDICOOT with it.” Wily reminded, resulting in an eye roll from Cortex.

“Fine, fine. I suppose we can add an extra regulator or two if you’ll stop whining about it.” Cortex said.

“It’s already hard for the TWO of us to come to an agreement on things and you STILL think it’s a good idea to involve EGGMAN?” Wily asked flatly. “I don’t think we’ll get ANYTHING done with the three of us arguing over each other.”

Cortex gave a sigh. “We’re capable of working together for a common goal if it benefits us all.” He insisted. “Hopefully when Ivo gets here we can fill him in on what the plan is so that-”

Interrupted by a knocking on the door, Cortex and Wily turned to the door that led out of the room and watched as Nina Cortex, the mad scientist’s niece, entered the room, looking a little sheepish. “Ah! Nina, there you are!” Cortex said. “Did you happen to find Robotnik?”

Nina glanced out into the hallway uneasily for a couple of seconds and then back at her uncle with an unsure expression. She lifted a robotic finger into the air. “Uh…We found…A Robotnik.” She replied.

Cortex lifted an eyebrow. “Uh…What do you mean ‘A’ Robotnik?” He asked.

Nina gestured to someone outside the room and let a new figure enter. Cortex and Wily’s eyes widened as their faces fell slightly as the newcomer entered the room. “…Oh…” Was all Cortex could say.

(The Arena)

Blanka rolled underneath a purple sludge projectile with teeth as his opponent continued to keep his distance and fire waves of toxic, purple darkness at him. Every time Blanka tried to get close to Wizzro, the cloaked shadowcaster had evaded him and gotten further away. Blanka grunted in annoyance as he leapt over a razor-sharp wave of darkness and lunged at Wizzro, hand outstretched and lit up in electricity.

Wizzro cackled. “Still too slow!” He taunted as he ducked into the canvas, making Blanka miss him again, and popped up another ten feet away. “I’ve heard you were one of the fastest in your node but you haven’t impressed me so far!”

Blanka roared in frustration as he turned to face Wizzro again. “Hold still! You’re spamming projectiles like an online Guile player!” He snapped before a flaming ball of shadows slammed into his face and sent him sprawling. Blanka groaned as he pushed himself up, trying to clear his mind and focus on different ways to get close to Wizzro.

In the meantime, Wizzro was opting to try and finish the fight as quickly as possible. He knew Ganondorf would be eager to see if he could get Necrozma on his side and Wizzro had already failed at making a good first impression. Now he was stuck fighting Blanka and he needed to get the fight over with so he could go back and try again with Necrozma. As Blanka pushed himself to his feet, Wizzro waved his hand and created a ring of more shadowy fireballs, sending them homing in on Blanka one at a time in an attempt to keep the green-skinned man-beast at bay.

Seeing the fireballs homing in on him, Blanka started running and dodging, rolling to the side when a fireball got close, allowing it to strike the canvas and fizzle out uselessly. Blanka saw Wizzro already on the move again while he was avoiding the fireballs and launched himself forward in another rolling ball, anticipating where Wizzro would be moving to as the shadowcaster vanished into another puddle of toxic darkness.

Blanka came to a screeching halt beside a puddle of darkness on the canvas, on that he was sure Wizzro would be heading towards, and slammed his electricity-coated hands into it, sending thousands of volts directly into the puddle. In an instant, a screaming Wizzro burst from the puddle, engulfed in lightning, leaving him wide open for Blanka to leap on and start attacking him with strikes once he had latched onto the dark shadowcaster. Wizzro received several blows to the head before summoning a huge, skeletal hand from the darkness around him, using it to grab Blanka and throw him away.

Wizzro sneered as he created a huge puddle of darkness on the canvas. “You annoying whelp! I’ll wring the life from your neck and use your soul to give my ring more power!” He shouted as he slammed his hands into the canvas, causing another skeletal giant hand to emerge from the darkness and raise high into the air before swinging it downwards.

Blanka’s eyes widened as he rolled out of the way just as Wizzro’s huge hand slammed into the canvas, and then leapt over it when Wizzro tried to swing it at him from the side. Blanka found himself dodging a few more swings from Wizzro’s huge hand before he was taken aback by a rouge fireball to the face, stunning him long enough for Wizzro to grab hold of him with his huge hand.

Seeing that he had caught Blanka, Wizzro gave a laugh as his mouth became visible in the blackness of his hood. “Haha! Got you, you annoying little gnat!” He taunted. “Don’t think about trying to shock me through that, either! That hand isn’t technically MINE, after all!”

Blanka struggled in the grasp of the huge hand but was unable to break free in time as Wizzro pulled him up and, with a swing downwards of his real arm, smashed Blanka headfirst into the canvas. Wizzro released Blanka and started gathering energy in front of him, hoping the end the fight while Blanka was stunned. As Blanka pushed himself up, the green-skinned man-beast suddenly saw Wizzro gathering energy into what looked like a ball of darkness in front of him. Having an idea of what this was going to be, Blanka started running.

Wizzro yelled in anger as he lashed out with all the energy he gathered, firing a powerful beam of darkness forward at where Blanka was standing. Seeing that Blanka was already on the move, Wizzro cursed himself and started steering the beam to chase him. The beam ended up grazing a few of the other fighters inadvertently (one of which being the Mad Piano, distracting it long enough for Mario and Bowser Jr. to slip away unnoticed), but Wizzro paid collateral damage no mind and was instead focused solely on tracking down Blanka. True to his status as being one of the fastest of the Street Fighters, Blanka dodged around the beam as it chased him down, allowing him to close the gap between him and Wizzro while the latter was still trying to hit him with the beam.

Before Wizzro could stop firing his energy beam, Blanka had rolled close to him and sprung to life, striking the shadowcaster in the face with his feet in a backflip-kick. This stunned Wizzro briefly and got him to stop firing his beam, which in turn gave Blanka a chance to continue his attack, igniting his hands in lightning for added power and effect.

Wizzro received blow after blow as he was knocked backwards with each attack, and when Blanka latched onto him again and sent another thousand volts through his body he barely had the strength left to scream in pain. When Blanka released him, Wizzro had crumpled to the canvas, nearly out like a light. This gave Blanka more-than-enough time to grab Wizzro by the cloak and chuck him over the top rope, sending him tumbling down into a portal as the first casualty of the section. His job done, Blanka gave a sigh of relief as he turned and rushed in to help Darunia with Slash.

Wizzro fell into Dark Souls, where he was quickly and mercilessly stabbed through the face by a hero mistaking him for a boss monster. Said hero would soon be disappointed with the lack of EXP that Wizzro would give out upon death.

Clark Still held up his arms and blocked a flying kick from Wang-Tang. The Ikari Warrior gave a silent smirk as he gripped the younger fighter’s leg and spun around, pulling the surprised Wang-Tang over his shoulder and slamming him back-first into the canvas. While Wang-Tang was down, Clark rotated his arm a couple of times before grabbing the young martial artist by the legs and tossing him into the air again, catching him on his shoulders.

Before Wang-Tang could react, Clark had driven him into the canvas again using a piledriver, dazing him even further. Clark flipped Wang-Tang over and prepared to haul him to his feet again for another toss (much like he’d been doing ever since Wang-Tang had entered the arena) before Wang-Tang fired an energy blast from his palm, knocking Clark off of him and allowing the younger fighter to stand up.

“Ugh…Doing that outside of my powered-up form takes a bit more out of me…” Wang-Tang muttered to himself. “Can you do anything other than just toss people around like a pizza?!”

“Hey, it’s what I’m good at…” Clark shrugged casually as he adjusted his shades, having gotten them knocked loose a bit from Wang-Tang’s counter.

“Then maybe I need to even the odds a bit to keep you away!” Wang-Tang said as he started focusing his energy. I didn’t think I’d need this so soon but I won’t be able to get close to you otherwise!”

Wang-Tang suddenly was engulfed in a bright light which made Clark realize he was powering up into his Power Stone form. When the light cleared, Wang-Tang was in his powered-up form: A golden-haired, golden-skinned monk bursting with a powerful energy that looked like he’d be right at home in an episode of Dragonball Z. Wang-Tang gave Clark a cocky smirk as he lashed out his hands and sent a series of energy projectiles at the Ikari Warrior.

Clark was instantly on the defensive, backpedaling away as best as he could before one of Wang-Tang’s energy beams struck him in the chest and stunned him. Seeing an attack find a target, Wang-Tang flew headfirst at Clark with lightning speed and delivered a series of rapid-fire strikes to the older fighter’s chest, hoping to at least knock the wind out of him. Finishing up his combo with a powerful uppercut, Wang-Tang launched Clark into the air and leapt up after him, striking him in the side with a flying side kick that sent the Ikari Warrior crashing down into the canvas.

Pushing himself to his feet, Clark looked up and saw the powered-up Wang-Tang flying straight at him with his fist pulled back. Clark held up his hand and caught Wang-Tang’s fist, grunting in annoyance as the force from Wang-Tang’s punch ended up pushing Clark back on his feet a couple of steps. Managing to persevere through the power of Wang-Tang’s attack, Clark strained against the force that was Wang-Tang attempting to push through his defense and lashed out with his free hand, aiming for the transformed martial artist’s face.

Wang-Tang, however, saw the punch coming and held up his own free hand, catching Clark’s fist. Now that both fighters had their hands locked, the two were at a stand-still as they pushed against each other in an attempt to overpower the other. Wang-Tang strained as he struggled to make any ground against Clark, shocked that, even in his powered-up form, Clark was still on even grounds with him.

“H-How…” Wang-Tang grunted. “You’re…You’re not even in a super form!”

Clark managed a smirk though it was clear he was visibly struggling against the transformed youth. “Like I said…It’s what I’m good at…” He snarked.

All of a sudden, Wang-Tang fired more energy blasts from his hands that were still holding onto Clark’s. The burst of energy cause Clark to shout in pain as he recoiled, holding his hands, thus giving Wang-Tang an opening for another rapid-fire flurry of punches and kicks. Wang-Tang prepared to launch another energy blast from his hands when Clark swatted at his arms, knocking them aside just as Wang-Tang fired an energy bolt off to the side (where it burned through a couple of Olimar’s blue Pikmin; he grumbled as he set to work plucking a couple new ones out of the canvas).

As it turned out, that last energy blast was the last of the power Wang-Tang could unleash as his super form was drained of energy, reverting him back into his normal form with another flash of light. Wang-Tang blinked in silence for a couple of seconds as he turned his head to look at Clark, whose smirk had gotten bigger and was cracking his knuckles in preparation. All of a sudden it dawned on Wang-Tang that he had been fighting someone whose power could rival that of his own in his super form, and he wasn’t IN said super form anymore.

“…Aw, crap…” Wang-Tang muttered as he slowly started backing away with Clark approaching him again.

“Outta the way!! Get outta the way!!”

Clark and Wang-Tang froze as they turned in place. A huge mallet came swinging in, clobbered Wang-Tang in the side and sent him unceremoniously flying over the top rope, leaving Clark to stare in silence for a second.

“H-Hey! What-” That was all Clark got out before the owner of the hammer, Bowser Jr., jumped onto him and got in his face. “You gotta help us! You’ve got big, muscly muscles! You can help!” The Koopa prince said in a panicked voice.

“Uh…With what?” Clark asked.

“THAT!!” Bowser Jr. shouted, turning Clark’s head to look at the Mad Piano, which seemed to be absorbing fireballs Mario was throwing at it.

“Projectiles aren’t a-doing anything!” Mario shouted in a panic. “It’s a-just absorbing them!”

“You hear that?! The only way to fight that thing is to get up close and personal!” Bowser Jr. insisted. “You can use your thick arms to pry open its jaw or something!”

Mario dove out of the way as the Mad Piano lunged at him. Setting its sights on Bowser Jr. instead, the Mad Piano leapt high into the air and opened its gaping, tooth-filled maw as it fell overtop of Clark and Bowser Jr.  Bowser Jr. was quick yo release Clark with a scream and throw himself away from the ensuing chaos, thus leaving the Ikari Warrior alone underneath the falling Mad Piano.

Almost on instinct, Clark held up his hands in an instant and caught the Mad Piano as it fell towards him, one hand on either side of its tooth-filled lid, keeping its mouth open without it snapping shut on his head. Clark stained hard as he held the Mad Piano above his head, but in the end he could only hold the huge piano in the air for a few seconds as the Mad Piano fell overtop of him and snapped its mouth shut on him.

Mario and Bowser Jr. watched from aside as the Mad Piano sat in silence for a couple of seconds before making an odd noise that sounded like a mix of a spit and a cat jumping onto the piano keys. Clark was ejected from the Mad Piano’s mouth like a cannon and was fired clear over the top rope.

“Now what?!” Bowser Jr. whispered to Mario.

“Keep a-your distance…” Mario whispered back. “Maybe…It’ll get a-bored…”

The Mad Piano slowly turned in place to stare at Mario and Bowser Jr. again. The two stood in silence for a couple seconds before they screamed and took off with the possessed instrument giving chase again.

Fire Man launched a wave of flames from his arm cannon, sending it flying at Kaya. The young cryomancer ducked under the flaming projectile and pulled back on her bow’s string, firing two ice-coated arrows into Fire Man’s face as she slid under his fire wave. Fire Man recoiled in annoyance as Kaya leapt at him and struck him with her bow, swinging it like a club a few times.

As Kaya was attacking Fire Man, however, Captain Olimar was seen flying overhead being carried by a pink, winged Pikmin. Olimar gave a loud whistle as some blue Pikmin jumped on Kaya and started attacking her as she was pulled away from Fire Man. The Robot Master didn’t have much time to recover before some red Pikmin leapt on him and attacked him in a similar vein to the blue ones with Kaya.

Kaya grunted as she felt a blue Pikin slap her face. “Ugh! Get your pets off me!” She looked up at Olimar. “They’re cute but they hurt!”

“Hold still. Maybe I can get them off.” Fire Man said flatly as he, while the red Pikmin were still attacking him, pointed his fire-shooting arm cannon at Kaya again. The red Pikmin seemed to take notice of this and, in a panic, tried to pull Fire Man’s arm away to keep him from burning the very-flammable blue Pikmin attacking Kaya.

Olimar suddenly dropped down from above and, struck Fire Man over the head with a heavy purple Pikmin, knocking the Robot Master into the canvas. Kaya, in the meantime, managed to grab one of the blue Pikmin attacking her and throw it back at Olimar, making it bounce off his helmet. Olimar turned around in annoyance just as Kaya fired another ice-coated arrow, this time at him. Olimar received the projectile to the face and was sent flying backwards but the blue Pikmin near him seemed unaffected. Kaya used the chance while both her opponents were distracted to shake off the rest of Olimar’s blue Pikmin and swap her bow out for her spear.

“Ugh…I’d forgotten how hard those Pikmin hit when they’re turned against me…” Olimar groaned as he pushed himself to his feet just in time for a spectral mammoth, with Kaya riding it, to grab him with its trunk and toss him into the air. Kaya’s mammoth dissipated as she landed on her feet and prepared to swing her spear at the airborne Olimar when Fire Man made his presence known again, clubbing Kaya over the head with Olimar’s purple Pikmin.

“Huh. There’s a lot to be said for physical weaponry.” Fire Man mused as he seemed surprised at the power the purple Pikmin held. In the meantime, Olimar had landed flat on his face, bounced a bit off the canvas and landed on his side.

Olimar pushed himself to his feet and rubbed his helmet, inspecting for cracks, before narrowing his eyes. “I need to regroup…” He muttered before giving another loud whistle to summon all of the gathered Pikmin back to his side, including the purple one Fire Man was holding. Olimar was quick to dart forward, underneath an attempted shot from Fire Man, and threw the first Pikmin he could grab at Kaya as he ran past her.

Unfortunately, he had thrown a red Pikmin at the cryomancer and, while it indeed struck her in the face and made her stagger backwards, it was easily dispatched with a well-placed ice arrow. Kaya rushed forward as Olimar clashed with Fire Man and slid forward on her knees, generating a sheet of ice under her to keep her momentum going. The instant she got close to the other two, Kaya fired her arrows and struck both Fire Man and Olimar in the faces, knocking them both away.

Kaya smirked as she got to her feet. “I’m no stranger to fighting more than one person at once!” She called out as she loaded her bow again, coated the arrows with ice and aimed them forward. Seeing Olimar closer to her, Kaya aimed at him and fired.

Olimar was quicker on his feet as he dodged Kaya’s arrows, signaling his gathered blue Pikmin to follow him as he rushed forward and charged the cryomancer. Kaya realized that Olimar was getting too close for her to use arrows on him and switched to her spear again, taking a swing at him as he got close. Olimar dodged Kaya’s first swing but received a sharp blow to the side when Kaya swung again.

Knocking Olimar back, Kaya spun her spear around a few times, generating a cold wind and a shield of snow that protected her as Olimar’s Pikmin bounced off her shield as they tried to attack her. Because all of the Pikmin attacking her were blue, none of them died in the ice attack but they were all knocked aside like Olimar was.

Looking around at the Pikmin laying around her, Kaya paused in thought. “Wait…Where’d Olimar go?” She asked.

“Right HERE!”

Kaya turned just in time to see a purple Pikmin flying at her face. The force of the large Pikmin hitting her knocked Kaya backwards, and Olimar approached her with the purple Pikmin in tow, grabbing it and striking her with it multiple times. Kaya tried to attack Olimar back with another swing of her spear but Olimar was faster, leaping over the attack and pulling the purple Pikmin up with him as he jumped.

Olimar was now overtop of Kaya and in the process of swinging the purple Pikmin down overhead like a club. Kaya’s eyes widened as she tried to raise her guard but found that she was just a bit too slow. The weight of the purple Pikmin smashing over her head was enough to knock Kaya out completely, making her collapse onto the canvas.

Olimar landed on his feet, his arm aching from having to physically swing the heavy purple Pikmin like that. He looked down at Kaya’s prone form for a moment before turning to his gathered Pikmin. “Could…You guys deal with this for me?” He asked.

The Pikmin were all-too happy to oblige, gathering around Kaya’s unconscious body, lifting her up, carrying her over to the arena and, with one mighty heave, threw her over the top rope and out of the arena.

Kaya landed in Fortnite. When she woke up and found herself surrounded by twenty people dabbing, she summoned her mammoth and tore through them.

Olimar sighed in relief, seeing his Pikmin eliminating Kaya. He suddenly remembered Fire Man and turned to face him, only to see that Kaya’s last attack on him had frozen his body in a block of ice, with only his head remaining unfrozen.

“Um…A little help?” Fire Man asked.

Olimar stood in silence for a few seconds before awkwardly pointing at the frozen Robot Master. “Uh…Take him away too, I guess?” He shrugged at his Pikmin.

Fire Man suddenly watched as he was surrounded by Pikmin, whom picked him up by his frozen body. “Hey! Hey, no! Stop that!” He shouted indignantly as the Pikmin carried him away. “Oh, when I get out of this, I’m flambéing each and every one of you!”

Bodvar dodged a claw swing from the much-larger Necrozma and grinned in anticipation as he leapt up and slashed at the large Pokemon’s head. Necrozma received the blow to the face and staggered backwards a step before regaining its footing and roaring furiously at the smaller Viking, as if daring Bodvar to strike it again.

Suddenly, a bright orb slammed into Necrozma’s face mid-roar, stunning it and allowing Bodvar, whom had switched to his warhammer, to slam the handle of his hammer into Necrozma’s torso. Bodvar was quick to press the assault, continuing to strike Necrozma with hammer attacks while Menat summoned her soul orb back to her side.

“I sense a spike of energy, Viking! Get away from it!” Menat shouted as she swung a hand and created a psychic shield in front of her to block any potential blows from Necrozma.

Bodvar laughed. “I can take it! I’ve tanked much worse!” He taunted as he stood defiantly in front of the furious Necrozma. “Have at thee, you pointy monster!”

Necrozma pointed a claw at Bodvar and fired a laser from it. Bodvar rolled to the side, but this let the laser bolt fly at Menat, whom managed to absorb the laser with her shield. Menat lifted an eyebrow in surprise as she watched her shield absorb Necrozma’s projectile before smirking and lowering her shield.

“This just got a little interesting.” Menat mused as she summoned a few more soul orbs.

Necrozma had just managed to wrap a huge claw around Bodvar’s neck and was in the process of yelling in his face while Bodvar seemed to be screaming back at it, refusing to show fear in the face of a monster. In the meantime, Menat created another soul orb that fired a laser-like projectile, the same one that her shield had absorbed from Necrozma, and shot it back into the polygonal Pokemon’s face, stunning it and giving Menat an opening to rush in, leap at its head and deliver some quick kicks tom make it let go of Bodvar. Once he was let go, Bodvar lashed out with his sword and slashed at Necrozma’s hand. Necrozma managed to recover and slammed a huge palm down onto Bodvar, crushing him into the canvas, before turning its attention to Menat.

Menat waved her hand a few times and struck Necrozma with her soul orb, backflipping out of the way as the huge Pokemon took a swing at her. Necrozma approached her with loud steps as it fired another couple of laser blasts at her, only to watch as Menat ducked and dodged around them. However, Necrozma was approaching her as it was firing lasers at her and before too long it was in range to hit Menat with the side of its arm like a club.

Menat received a couple heavy-hitting strikes before she was able to backpedal away. As she tried to regain her senses, Menat summoned a few more soul orbs and fired them at Necrozma, hoping to keep it at bay while she recovered.

Necrozma held up a hand and caught Menat’s soul orb projectiles, absorbing them into its body. All of a sudden, Menat noticed bright, glowing purple shards cover Necrozma’s sharp knuckles, as if signifying that the large Pokemon had used the power it had absorbed from her projectiles to give itself a bit more power. Menat’s eyes widened when she realized that she had just given Necrozma an uneeded power boost, as she seemed to realize as Necrozma was barreling towards her and lashed out with its new armoured knuckles.

Menat tried to hold up her guard but Necrozma punched straight through her psychic shield, showcasing a newfound strength now that he had absorbed a small amount of Menat’s power. Menat tried to swat away Necrozma’s limbs, knowing that it was likely seeking to absorb more of her power, as the large Pokemon continued to strike her with its powered-up fists. Before Menat could try to fend off Necrozma’s attacks, she felt it grab her by the throat and hold her in the air.

Feeling Necrozma draining the power from her (and giving itself more glowing armour on its arms), Menat summoned a soul orb and smashed in down against the back of Necrozma’s head while it was holding her in the air. This did little other than annoy Necrozma, showing that it had already improved its defenses.

However, it wasn’t prepared for the smash over the back from Bodvar’s warhammer. Having just gotten up and seeing Necrozma attacking Menat, Bodvar had made his presence known with a mighty yell before striking the large Pokemon from behind. However, in doing so, Bodvar had caused Necrozma to turn its attention to him.

“Looks like you’ve got a bit more power on your side now. That makes things a lot more-interesting, eh?” Bodvar smirked.

Necrozma narrowed its eyes as, seemingly forgetting about Menat to focus on Bodvar, it tossed the fortune teller away, sending her across the arena with one over-the-shoulder toss.

Menat was tossed towards the fight between Angel and Greninja, too dazed to stop or upright herself in midair. Greninja saw Menat flying in his direction and pointed over Angel’s shoulder. “Gren. Ja-Ja.” He pointed out.

Angel looked over her shoulder and saw Menat coming her way. “Oh. We’ve got an incoming bogey.” She said. “Give me a second, okay?”

“Ja.”

Angel backflipped into the air and lashed out with her legs, grabbing hold of the oncoming Menat by the head. Once Menat was in her grasp, Angel flipped herself over in midair and flung Menat out of the arena before landing gracefully on her feet in front of Greninja again. “Thanks for that, pally.” She winked. “Where were we?”

Menat’s barely-conscious form landed in Psychonauts. Unfortunately, it was in someone’s mind and she was quickly overrun by angry Censors that started attacking her with rubber stamps.

Bodvar’s hammer smashed against Necrozma’s face several times. The large Pokemon seemed more-able to take the blows due to the added defense brought on by the powers stolen from Menat, but it still staggered backwards with each blow from Bodvar. Bodvar received a hard blow to the face from a club-like arm to get the Viking to back away from Necrozma but Bodvar was able to remain standing as he stepped backwards.

“You fight fiercely, monster. Know that vanquishing you is no easy task…” Bodvar said as the ghostly image of a bear materialized behind him. Necrozma paid it no mind as it roared loudly and lunged at Bodvar.

Bodvar swung his hammer as the bear-ghost followed suit with a ghostly claw. As Bodvar drove his hammer into Necrozma’s stomach, the bear-ghost did the same with a set of sharp claws. Necrozma’s eyes snapped open as it roared in pain, leaving it open for Bodvar to attack again, swinging his hammer sideways and smashing it across the monster’s polygonal head, knocking Necrozma aside.

Necrozma managed to stop itself from falling over by digging its claws into the canvas, and then swung blindly behind it, getting lucky and striking Bodvar in the torso. Bodvar was knocked flat on his back and that gave Necrozma the time to get overtop of him. The polygonal Pokemon pulled both huge armoured hands into the air and prepared to bring them down on Bodvar’s face.

Bodvar suddenly sprung to life, kicking away Necrozma’s hands while he was down and jumping to his feet, swapping to his sword and stabbing it upwards, aiming for the wounds his ghostly-bear had made. Bodvar’s sword managed to find a home in Necrozma’s torso as the large Pokemon screeched in pain. While Necrozma was distracted, Bodvar kicked it off his sword, making the large Pokemon stagger backwards.

Suddenly noticing that Necrozma was getting close to the ropes, Bodvar gave a smirk and rushed headfirst into battle again, swinging his sword wildly. Necrozma held up its armoured arms as sparks flew with each slash of a sword Bodvar struck it, but each strike made Necrozma step back inch by inch towards the ropes. Bodvar continued to press the assault and, after several quick and sharp blows, managed to break through Necrozma’s defense, striking the large Pokemon in the face and causing its arms to break away from its face.

“And I think that should do it.” Bodvar smirked as he rushed at Necrozma, leapt upwards and slashed at the polygonal Pokemon’s face, making it lean backwards. Bodvar then planted both feet against Necrozma’s torso and kicked off it with all his might, leaping backwards while sending the large Pokemon tumbling over the top rope while he did. Bodvar landed on his feet and raised his fists to the sky as Necrozma vanished into a portal.

“I hereby declare you VANQUISHED!” Bodvar cheered.

Necrozma materialized in a swirling, multicoloured void rather than in a particular node, which meant that it had been selected for the next section’s Multiversal Matchup. Necrozma looked around the void and saw Wang-Tang and Clark floating nearby.

“Oh, great. Look who just dropped in…” Clark muttered. Necrozma gave a roar of defiance but, in doing so, caused itself to start tumbling about in the void. Clark, in the meantime, looked at Wang-Tang. “Remember not to fire any of those energy blasts at that thing. I think it’s a power leech of some kind.”

Wang-Tang pouted. “I can’t, anyway. You made me use my Power Stone form.” He reminded flatly.

Clark chuckled. “I guess I did.” He agreed before leaning back and ducking an attempted kick from Wang-Tang, causing the young martial artist to spiral off in a random direction.

(Multiversal Matchup)

Chaos was erupting on a metal suspension bridge connecting two building of N. Gin’s base. The bridge overlooked the icy waters below and served as the method of choice for the combatants in the Multiversal Matchup to dispose of N. Gin’s guards and Lab Assistant henchmen. Soldier seemed to be doing the most of the damage on the bridge as he was swinging wildly and energetically with his rocket launcher, shovel and sometimes bare hands in an attempt to clobber the Lab Assistants that were within reach. Soldier was laughing during the chaos and seemed to be having so much fun that he had seemingly forgotten that he was technically in a race.

While Soldier was busy with the dozens of guards and Lab Assistants rushing him (and quickly getting thrown over the railings of the bridge into the cold water below), Young Link and Chris Lightfellow were bringing up the rear, fighting their way through waves of guards from behind. Young Link had faster speed to confuse the guards while Chris was using her swordsmanship skills to cut through the guards’ weapons and gunfire.

“He’s distracted…” Chris said to Young Link as they back up against each other. “If we can get around him now he may not notice us ahead of him.”

Young Link nodded. “Yeah. That maniac’s been ahead of us the entire time and this may be the best chance to get ahead of him…” He admitted.

Chris suddenly noticed a Lab Assistant standing a good distance away with a beaker of fluid that was likely going to be very-explosive as he chucked it at the pair. Chris knew by this point that cutting the beakers in midair was going to be a bad idea since the formula would explode anyways so all the silver-haired knight could do was backpedal away from the airborne projectile as the beaker struck the ground near her feet, resulting in a small chemical explosion. Chris managed to get far enough away from the explosion to avoid the brunt of the blast but shards of glass were sent flying in all directions. Chris shielding her face with her armoured arms and Young Link held up his shield, but several shards ended up embedding into Soldier’s arm while he was busy breaking limbs. Soldier paused in silence for a few seconds before glancing at the shards of glass sticking out of his forearm.

“That’s strange. I don’t remember scheduling acupuncture today…Oh, right! I HATE acupuncture!” Soldier said as he turned to Chris and Young Link before pointing at his glass-pierced arm. “Which one of you commies did this?!”

“He did.” Chris and Young Link quickly said as one, pointing at the Lab Assistant that had thrown the beaker. The assistant started backing away nervously, holding up his hands in defense.

Soldier, in the meantime, gave a crazed smirk. “Oh! I must’ve missed that one when I started breaking the others’ legs! Thanks, you two!” He said as he charged headfirst down the bridge towards the offending Lab Assistant. In doing so, however, he ended up running straight through Chris and Young Link, barreling between them and launching them into the air simply for standing in his way in getting to the single Lab Assistant on the other side of the bridge. Young Link managed to grab hold of the railing and use his athletics to easily climb back onto the bridge after Soldier had passed, but Chris found herself getting weighed down by her armour as she grabbed the railing and dangled off the bridge.

Chris tried to climb back onto the bridge but strained against the extra weight of her armour pulling her down. Young Link seemed to notice her plight and, his hero’s instinct overweighing his desire to win the race, came running over to help her. Young Link grabbed Chris by the arm and tried pulling her up, only to find that she was too heavy to haul up onto the bridge again.

Seeing that she was fighting a losing battle at this point, Chris sighed and looked at Young Link. “Stop. We both know my armour’s weighing me down.” She directed.

“So take off the chestpiece! That’s probably the heaviest thing you’re wearing!” Young Link urged.

“I can’t unclip it as easily as you think, especially with one arm.” Chris shook her head with a sigh. “Look, kid. I appreciate the gesture, but we both know how this ends.”

“No, wait-”

Chris yanked her arm out of Young Link’s grasp and allowed herself to drop from the high-hanging metal bridge, plunging into the frigid water below. Young Link gave a sigh as he stepped away, glanced at where Soldier was still wrangling the hapless Lab Assistant’s neck before running off to continue the race.

Across the base, Needle Man had just managed to climb into a window of another part of the building, having just scaled the mountain the base was attached to using his claws. Needle Man glanced around and saw only a few guards. Hearing the commotion outside the building with Soldier, Needle Man realized that he could gain a bit more ground in the race if all of the guards were futilely trying to take down the insane mercenary with the rocket launcher.

“Heh. Looks like taking the backdoor was the safest bet.” Needle Man mused to himself.

Noticing that he was by himself against the small number of guards, Needle Man quickly went on the offensive, firing needles from his cannons at anyone in his way. Guards dropped like flies as Needle Man made his way down a long corridor, and the ones that took notice of the spiked Robot Master in time were only able to fire off one or two shots before they too went down under an onslaught of spikes.

Needle Man made his way down the corridor, looking around. He was sure he was heading in the right direction due to how he entered the building from the outside but, due to everything looking so similar on the inside, he felt like he would get lost in the base if he wasn’t careful and that’d give someone else a chance to win.

“Ugh…How are there so few windows in this place?” Needle Man muttered. “If I could see where I am in this base I’d have an easier time trying to get to that weirdo with the rocket sticking out of his head.”

Suddenly hearing a noise coming up from behind him, Needle Man turned and readied his spike launcher, only to freeze when he saw a rampaging Boom Boom tearing through the corridor, uplifting any and all debris in his path, including downed henchmen, with his fists as he ran. He was in the process of chasing a few terrified-looking Lab Assistants that seemed to have long-since given up on trying to hurt the huge Koopa and were now more-focused on self-preservation.

Unfortunately for Needle Man, the Robot Master found himself standing directly in Boom Boom’s path. His eyes wide, Needle Man dropped his arm cannon. “Oh, crap…” He muttered before turning around and starting to run away, fleeing the rampaging Boom Boom along with the Lab Assistants.

Needle Man found himself leaping over boxes and barrels as he struggled to outrun Boom Boom, whom seemed to be substituting for the “huge enemy you need to run away from” of the Crash Bandicoot level that was N. Gin’s base, and Boom Boom seemed to pay it no mind that Needle Man was now desperately running away from him in addition to the three or four Lab Assistants he was looking to pummel into the floor.

Suddenly, Needle Man noticed that the Lab Assistants were starting to outrun him, starting by catching up to him and finally overtaking him. Needle Man suddenly realized that, since he wasn’t the fastest Robot Master, his lack of speed was coming back to bite him as the terrified Lab Assistants continued to put more ground between them and him.

This also meant, as Needle Man seemed to clue in as he looked over his shoulder while running, that there was now no one in between him and the blinded-with-rage Boom Boom, whom quickly overtook him himself while still not really noticing him. Needle Man found himself trampled underfoot by Boom Boom as the huge Koopa continued his rampage obliviously, getting stepped on and crushed multiple times as Boom Boom stomped as hard as he could with every step.

The Lab Assistants continued to run away as Boom Boom gave an angry yell and continued to give chase, completely-ignoring the mangled wreck of Needle Man laying on the floor. Needle Man’s limbs twitched a few times once the corridor has gone silent again.

(Dome; Security Office)

“Why were we late to breaking up that fight between Bryan Fury and Yamazaki?!” Estel demanded in frustration. “The job of a security guard in things like these is to get to a fight before they get out of hand and break them up!”

“Of course, buuut…Yeah, in these things we’re always late.” Psymon shrugged.

“There’s probably some meta stuff at play there but I can’t remember the last time we got to a fight before it finished.” Max pointed out.

“Then what’s the point in HAVING a security team if they can’t do their job?!” Estel held her head.

Psymon and Max stood in silence, looked at each other, back at Estel and waved jazz hands. “…Comedyyyyy….” The two said as one.

Lucia glanced at the two security veterans. “Uncle Sheogorath mentioned to me that in the last tournament you guys had something that helped you out a bit?” She asked.

“Oh, yeah. The script.” Psymon rubbed the back of his head. “Well…Yeah, as it turns out, having us be TOO meta and do nothing but fourth wall jokes kinda gets old after a few sections.”

“Yeah, so we’ve been cut off of the script this time around.” Max rolled his eyes. “It’s annoying but we gotta deal with it.”

“So what do we do, then?” Lucia asked. “Didn’t we already get a call to break up a fight just outside the café?”

Max gave a shrug. “Yeah, but that fight’s definitely going to be over by the time we get there.” He mentioned. “I guarantee that there won’t be any trace of those people there if we go investigate.”

“So we can’t even set anyone on fire? That sucks…” Scorch whined.

“Why is THAT your priority?!” Estel gripped her head.

“I wouldn’t worry about it, people. Yeah, we may miss out on getting anywhere on time to stop a fight but chances are high that we’ll see some action ourselves.” Psymon grinned.

“Yeah! Sooner or later something’ll come along that’ll make things interesting!” Max nodded.

Psymon and Max stood in silence for a few seconds. The others paused, looked amongst each other and glanced back at the two veterans. “Uh…Hello?” Estel checked.

“Just a second…” Psymon held up a finger.

“Aaaaaany minute now…” Max nodded.

The office fell into awkward silence again as Estel, Scorch and Lucia looked amongst each other, not sure how to proceed or what to say. After another few seconds, Estel held her forehead. “This…This is getting us nowhere! Why are we just standing around waiting for-”

“Saxton HAAAALE!!”

*CRASH!*

The wall behind Scorch suddenly exploded, shattering debris everywhere as the plastic pyromaniac stumbled forward. Standing in the middle of the newly-created hole, and right next to the door to the room he COULD have used, was a huge, muscled man with a thick mustache clad only in a pair of shorts, boots and a hat. The most-notable thing about him was the fact that his chest hair was somehow in the shape of the country of Australia.

“Ah! THERE you all are!” Saxton Hale announced as he stepped into the room. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you security people!”

Estel looked between hole in the wall Hale had just made and the door that was right next to it. “You…You couldn’t just use the DOOR like a NORMAL human being?!” She demanded.

“Lady, this is an emergency! I’ve got no time for doors when punching through the wall is quicker!” Hale insisted.

“See, that’s what I always tell Sam but then he reminds me that our landlord is one more explosion away from evicting us.” Max scratched his head.

Hale sighed. “Look, I can’t waste time with small talk!” He insisted. “Something big has happened and I need you lot to do your job and help me!”

Estel took a deep breath and stepped forward. “Okay. So what is it you need us for? Is someone hurt or missing?” She asked. “Did someone attack you in a hallway?”

“Worse!” Hale said as he grabbed Estel by the shoulders and started shaking her. “This is a disaster that could spell the end for not only me but the future of Mann Co in general!”

“Hold your horses, Crocodile Dundee.” Max said as he strolled over. “Kindly let go of the new girl and tell us what crawled up your pants this morning…Uh…I guess you aren’t wearing pants so maybe ‘shorts’ is a better fit, though.”

Hale’s response was to drop Estel, grab Max by the fur of his chest and hold him up to his face. “Someone stole my Australium!” He exclaimed.

(The Arena)

Merengue screamed as she backpedaled away from a volley of flames that hit the canvas around her. The pink rhino weaved around a few more erupting fire pillars as flames rained down from above, barely managing to keep herself from getting hit but noticing at the last second that her apron had caught fire a bit. As Merengue slapped her apron in a panic in an attempt to put of the fire, she seemed oblivious to the fact that her opponent, Pete, had put the Lance of Lava he had used to rain fire down from the sky back into his backpack.

“Eh…There’s only so much fun you can have with something meant to combat like this…” Pete lamented as he fished around in his backpack for something else.

After spending a few minutes caught up in the middle of Spike and Diddy’s match, trying to keep herself from getting caught in the chaotic crossfire, Merengue ended up slipping away from the fight between the two and ended up crossing paths with Pete. Merengue had spent the majority of the time shielding herself from Pete’s attacks as the wooden doll seemed more-willing to fight now that his playmate Sackboy had been eliminated.

“Come on! Why aren’t you fighting back?” Pete asked as he pulled a magic staff from his backpack. “You knew what you were getting into when you signed up for this, didn’t you?”

“I-I DIDN’T sign up for this!” Merengue stammered.

Pete didn’t seem to hear Merengue as he stuck the end of the magic staff into the canvas and extended it, launching himself high into the air above Merengue. Retracting the magic staff back into its normal length, Pete spun around in midair and swung the staff downwards, extending it again and aiming for Merengue, whom seemed rooted to her spot on the canvas.

Merengue screamed and crossed her arms in front of her face, blocking the magic staff as it smashed down across them and managing to keep Pete at bay. The staff Pete was wielding seemed to wobble as it strained to break through Merenge’s defenses, and Menernge finally broke away by grabbing the staff Pete was holding onto and swinging it down, surprising Pete by smashing him into the canvas while he was still holding onto the staff. Merenge let go of the staff, causing it to retract back into its normal size.

“Please! I-I swear I don’t want any trouble!” Merengue said.

Pete groaned as he pushed himself up. “How’d you just shrug that off?” He asked. “Oh, man. Not even Gunrock is able to shrug attacks like that off!”

Menergue’s eyes widened. “Um…What does that mean?” She asked hesitantly.

“That means I get to bring out the big guns!” Pete said happily as he dug around in his backpack again. “I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to use some of these things on most people here because they’re too dangerous or powerful to use but if you’re tough then I don’t have to worry about it!”

“I-I don’t like the sound of that!” Merengue insisted.

Pete’s response was to place a huge bomb in Merengue’s hands. “Here, hold this. We’ll test out your durability.” He said as he rushed away and threw himself to the canvas.

Merengue looked at the lit bomb in her hands for a couple of seconds before screaming and throwing the explosive clear out of the arena, showing amazing arm strength by throwing the bomb straight into the forcefield around the ring, causing it to explode safely away from everyone. Merengue sighed in relief as she glanced at Pete, whom stood up to see how far Merengue had been able to throw the bomb, and stepped forward to try and talk some sense into him before she realized she couldn’t move.

Curiously, Merengue looked down and saw a ball-and-chain clamped down on her ankle, weighing her down. Although she figured it was another tool Pete had pulled from his backpack, Merengue had no idea when he had the time to attach the leg weight to her while he was handing her the bomb.

“W-When did you-” Merengue said as she turned her head to look at Pete again, only to freeze when he saw the wooden doll pulling a morning star from his backpack. Pete smirked as he started spiking the spiked ball around above his head.

“I didn’t really wanna use weapons like this but it’s clear it’s going to take a lot of effort to bring you down.” Pete shook his head.

“N-No…Nononono…” Merengue whimpered as Pete approached. She looked down at the canvas. “Why…Whywhywhywhywhy…”

Pete swung the morning star, aiming for Merengue’s side.

*CRASH!*

The morning star struck something solid, shattering the spiked metal ball into a thousand pieces as Pete froze, wondering what he had hit to cause the morning star to break like that. His eyes widened in shock when he saw Merengue holding her arm up. Blood was starting to drip down her arm towards her elbow, showing that Merengue had blocked (and broken) the morning star with nothing but her own forearm. Merengue’s bleeding arm was shaking as it was held up.

…And Pete noticed a fist forming on it.

“Why…Why…” Merengue whimpered as she stared at Pete, showing tear-stained, furious eyes. “Why do you insist on FIGHTING?!”

*POW!*

Pete was sent flying halfway across the ring with one furious punch to the jaw, landing on his back and skidding to a halt after a few feet of sliding. Merengue, her fist still shaking violently, looked down at the leg weight still attached to her ankle. Reaching down, Merengue silently grabbed hold of the weighted ball and ripped it off the chain it was attached to with one hand.

Pete stood to his feet and shook his head to regain his senses. He looked ahead and froze in place when he saw Merengue holding the detached weighted ball from her leg weight in her hand and was looking right at him with a cold, teary expression. Merengue silently pulled her arm back and, with one mighty throw, hurled the weighted ball straight at Pete with enough force and speed that it looked like it burst into flames the instant it left her hand.

Even if Pete had the time to think about getting out of the way, he wouldn’t have been able to anyways. The weighted ball slammed into his chest with enough force to lift Pete off his feet altogether and carry him into the air. The weight continued going, flying past several of the other fighters, and flew straight out of the arena with Pete, not stopping until it flew straight into the arena forcefield a good fifty feet outside of the arena, and even then it had enough force behind it to keep pushing Pete into the forcefield for a few seconds before it finally stopped. Dazed, disoriented and too far outside of the arena to even make an attempt to get back in, Pete peeled off the forcefield and fell down into a portal.

Merengue watched as Pete fell below the arena and sighed before holding her arm. “Owowowowow!” She whimpered. “Oh, that hurt! I wish I’d remembered to grab a first-aid kit before coming here…”

Pete landed in Undertale, where he got into a Dance Battle with Mettaton. The audience loved it.

Blanka yelped and leaped backwards as a burst of flames exploded in his face, igniting some of his hair on fire. Blanka had thought that stepping in to help Darunia with Slash would be an easy fight for the two but the advanced caveman was proving to be faster and smarter than he looked. The fact that the burst of flames had erupted from the end of Slash’s club seemed to help play into the surprise factor as well, for that matter.

“Where the heck did that fire come from?!” Blanka shouted as he quickly tried to put out the flames in his hair. “That club’s stone!”

Slash gave a toothy, fanged smirk. “That’s something of a secret.” He admitted as he pulled his club into the air and prepared to smash it down on Blanka’s head. Suddenly, however, Darunia made his presence known by grabbing Slash by the back of the pelt he was wearing and threw him over his shoulder, causing Slash to bounce off the canvas a couple of times a few feet away.

“Stay behind me while we fight him, brother!” Darunia said to Blanka as he stod protectively in front of the green-skinned fighter. “Those flames of his, no matter how hot they are, are nothing to a Goron!”

Blanka managed to put out the flames on his hair and sighed. “I’m fine! I just wasn’t expecting that!” He reminded.

Darunia gave a grin. “Don’t worry! The next time he tries that I’ll just get a warm breeze!” He assured.

Slash pushed himself to his feet and stared at Darunia, whom was standing in front of Blanka while the latter recovered from the burning he had just received. The caveman gave a smirk and raised his club as he rushed at the two, seemingly blindly, with a loud yell.

Darunia pulled back the Megaton Hammer and swung, aiming for the oncoming caveman’s face, but Slash proved to be anticipating this as he leapt over the swing, grabbing hold of Darunia’s hammer while he was in the air and leaping off of it, getting right into the Goron chief’s face. Darunia, undeterred gave a smirk and readied himself for a burst of flames, only to receive a shocking blast of cold and ice instead.

Darunia howled in pain and shock as he staggered backwards, giving Slash the time his needed to give the Goron a few more hard strikes to the body and head with his club. Slash gave Darunia another strike to the head, managing to knock the stunned Goron down, but this gave Blanka the chance to jump him and start lashing out with claw-like fingers.

Pushing himself to his feet, Darunia clutched his chest, which had bared the brunt of the ice attack. “Okay…THAT was unexpected.” He admitted. “That club can emit both fire AND ice? What magic is this?!”

Darunia rushed in to help Blanka with Slash and swung his hammer over his head with all his might. Slash saw the attack coming and jumped backwards but the vibrations in the canvas the hammer made when it struck shook the caveman for a few seconds, making him stumble backwards awkwardly. This gave Blanka the opportunity to jump on his back and start emitting electricity.

“Augh! Get off me!” Slash shouted as Blanka sent thousands of volts through his body, thrashing about in an attempt to shake Blanka off.

“Hold him still, brother!” Darunia shouted as he charged again, preparing another huge hammer swing.

Slash managed to grab hold of Blanka’s arm and, with one mighty swing, threw the green-skinned fighter over his shoulder, sending him colliding with the oncoming Goron chief, knocking both down. With both opponents distracted, Slash took the time to step back and recover, trying to formulate a plan of action against two strong fighters that could very-easily outclass him in strength.

Blanka got up first and, with a mighty roar, leapt off Darunia’s back and launched himself at Slash in a rolling cannonball. Slash held up his arms and club and allowed Blanka to fly into his arms, and the caveman managed to hold Blanka at bay as the green-skinned fighter continued to barrel into him in an attempt to break through his defenses.

Seeing an opening, Slash managed to catch Blanka with one hand and struck him with his club using the other. This knocked Blanka out of the air and sent him crashing into the canvas, dazed from the surprise blow to the head.

“Owww…” Blanka moaned as he held his head.

Unfortunately, Blanka didn’t get much of a chance to react or dwell on his injury as Slash had hauled him to his feet again, striking him in the face a few times while he was still distracted. Slash suddenly saw Darunia charging him again while he was busy with Blanka and narrowed his eyes. “Ugh…I can’t deal with both of you at once…” He muttered.

“W-Wait!” Blanka shouted.

Slash wouldn’t listen and swung his club with all his might, striking Blanka with enough force to send the electrical fighter flying out of the ring, barely conscious, before he turned to face the oncoming Goron chief.

Blanka landed in Pokemon Sword, where an angry young female trainer tried catching him while shouting in a barely-understandable Scottish accent.

“You’ll pay for that, friend!” Darunia shouted as he smashed the canvas with his hammer, causing a small eruption of fire and magma. While the addition of fire and debris caught Slash by surprise, the caveman managed to leap back and avoid the burning rocks as they crashed against the canvas and lunged forward when he saw an opening.

Before Darunia had time to act, Slash had hit him in the face with another blast of ice, making the Goron stagger back again. Slash smirked as he swung his club again, only for Darunia to swing a beefy arm half-blindly as he attempted to get the ice out of his eyes, striking Slash in the face and knocking the caveman backwards.

Landing awkwardly on his back, Slash grunted as he pushed himself to his feet. “Just need to focus on ice with this guy…” He muttered to himself as Darunia got into his stance again. “And stay away from those fists of his…”

Darunia rubbed the last bit of ice out of his eyes and turned just in time to see Slash swinging his club at his face. The Goron chief received a few more sharp blows to the face as he staggered backwards but otherwise remained on his feet as Slash continued to press the attack. Slash jumped back and leapt into the air, aiming for an overhead swing to hit Darunia from above, but the Goron chief managed to see the attack coming this time and held up an arm to block the blow.

Darunia, seeing that he had managed to block Slash’s blow, gave a smirk. “You’re fast and tough, I’ll give you that, friend.” He admitted. “But you have a long ways to go before you can match up to a GORON CHIEF.”

Swinging his arm out, Darunia launched the surprised Slash into the air and pulled back with the Megaton Hammer. Once Slash fell within view, Darunia swung the hammer with all his might and, with one mighty clobber, sent Slash clear out of the ring with one strike. Slash tried to reach out for an arena rope as he passed by but was unable to grab anything as he fell headlong into a portal, officially eliminating him.

His fight done, Darunia sighed and pulled another rock into view, holding it up. “I’m sorry I couldn’t eliminate him sooner, brother. I dedicate this rock to you!” He said as he tossed the rock into his mouth and started eating to regain his strength.

“Gren!” Greninja shouted as he slapped his hands together, creating a water geyser that shot him into the air. Angel’s leg smashed through the water geyser in an attempted roundhouse, her attack missing the frog ninja due to Greninja shooting himself out of the way. Angel recovered from her failed attack and spun in place, holding up her arms instinctively as Greninja threw a water shuriken at her while in the air.

Angel saw the shuriken flying at her and used her arms to block the projectile, but when she tried to grab it herself to throw it back, the shuriken fell apart into a puddle of water at her feet. Angel narrowed her eyes in annoyance as Greninja landed on his feet a ways away from her and proceeded to start sniping her with water attacks.

“So you wanna play the long game, huh?” Angel asked as she smirked. “I’m fine with that.”

Angel charged forward and ducked around the water shots Greninja was attempting to hit her with from afar. Greninja managed to get a hit in and strike Angel in the shoulder but his eyes widened when he saw that wasn’t slowing her down. The next thing he knew, Greninja had received a hard kick to the head, staggering him for a few seconds. While Greninja was stunned, Angel reached out and grabbed him, and then proceeded to perform a huge suplex, smashing the frog Pokemon head-first into the canvas.

Angel wasn’t done after this, however, and hauled Greninja to his feet again, swinging her foot into the side of his head to knock him tumbling over, only to snatch him out of midair by jumping at him and getting both of her legs wrapped around his neck before spinning in midair and slamming him down into the canvas again. Angel took the time to posture for the crowd for a few seconds as Greninja staggered to his feet in a daze, then rushed him and jumped at him, grabbing his head and slamming him onto the canvas again.

“Come on! I know you’ve got more in the tank!” Angel taunted. “The crowd’s looking for more action!”

Angel stood over Greninja, spun her arm around a couple of times and performed an elbow drop onto the downed Greninja, but only hit canvas. Surprised at the turn of events, Angel saw that Greninja had vanished while he was down and reappeared above her, striking her with a hard kick to the face that sent her sprawling.

“Ja!” Greninja shouted as he summoned a water spout under him and launched himself into Angel, swinging a blade of water as he did. Angel received a sharp slash to the torso as she staggered backwards, giving Greninja the chance to pelt her with rapid-fire water darts. Greninja quickly got close to Angel grabbed her and leapt high into the air, spinning around in midair and slamming his opponent into the canvas.

Leaping off Angel’s back once the two had crashed into the canvas, Greninja formed another water shuriken in his hand while in the air and hurled it down at his downed opponent, only to watch as she sprung to life and rolled to the side as the water projectile struck the canvas where Angel had been. Greninja landed on his feet and instantly backflipped away as Angel attempted to grab him again, knowing that getting in range of a grappler was a bad idea at this point. Landing on his feet again, Greninja threw another large water shuriken and this time managed to strike Angel in the stomach, stunning her for a second.

That second, however, was all Greninja needed to act as he lunged forward with another barrage of rapid-fire strikes to the torso, making Angel stagger backwards as she attempted to raise her guard and find an opening in Greninja’s attack pattern. Greninja proved to be too fast for Angel to counter, however, and the next thing she knew the frog ninja had created a water spout under her feet, launching her into the air with a yelp.

Crouching low and creating a blade of water in his hand, Greninja launched himself upwards and slashed at Angel while she was in the air, delivering several more rapid-fire strikes with the water blade. Angel tried to get her bearings straight in midair in time to recover and attempt a block but Greninja seemed to be attacking from all sides and angles, not giving her a chance to respond. Greninja, seeing that Angel was diroriented, decided to finish the fight by planting his feet into her stomach and kicking off of her in midair.

The force from Greninja’s midair kick sent Angel flying past the ropes and out of the arena. By the time she had gotten her head on straight enough to become aware of her surroundings again, the only thing she saw before vanishing into an elimination portal was the bottom of the arena itself getting further and further away.

Lord Hater looked back and forth between targets as he started gathering electric magic in his hands, trying to decide on who to throw it at. He was standing in between two fights, Mimikyu fighting Pyra and Magyar fighting Charlie Nash, and wasn’t sure which of the two looked like they needed help more; He needed to show his latest recruits that he was a caring-enough tyrant to look out for his minions, after all.

Seeing that Magyar was using their broadsword to block a Sonic Boom from Charlie, Lord Hater decided to aid Mimikyu and fired a ball of lightning into Pyra’s face, catching her off guard and letting Mimikyu grab a hold of her with a huge, shadowy hand and slam her into the canvas.

Lord Hater laughed as he approached Mimikyu. “You’re doing adequate so far, my loyal minion!” He said. “Here; I’ll be gracious enough to give you a hand here to show how good of a boss I am.”

Mimikyu stared up at Lord Hater in confusion. When did he agree to become this guy’s minion?

Lord Hater continued on obliviously. “Now, here’s the plan. You hold her down with those shadowy hands of yours and I’ll keep hitting her with lightning.” He said with a smirk. “She can’t handle both-”

That was all Lord Hater got out before a spinning, flaming sword slammed into his face from the side, knocking him away. Mimikyu turned to see Pyra staring him down as the spinning sword returned to her hand. “You think that, just because there are two of you, you’ll be able to get the better of me?” She challenged. “Need I remind you that you’re both wearing VERY flammable cloth?”

Lord Hater, holding his face in pain, froze in thought as he glanced over his cape, including the ugly tear from where Chris Lightfellow had stuck her sword through in the previous section. “Well…I mean, I guess Peepers is already going to have to repair this cloak later…” He reasoned.

Charlie Nash crouched low as Magyar’s huge broadsword swung over his head, leaving the possessed armour open for a Flash Kick from Charlie, striking Magyar with enough force to momentarily remove the helmet from the rest of the suit, though it was quickly pulled back down by several of Magyar’s souls to connect with the rest of the armour again.

“Dude! Not cool!” One of Magyar’s souls shouted.

“This guy’s faster than most of the people back in Valhalla and he hits harder than them too!” Another voice added.

“Hold the defense!” A third voice directed. “We can hold him off!”

“We already know he can break through it!”

Charlie narrowed his eyes. “You know I can hear you arguing with yourselves, right?” He mentioned. “If I didn’t know there were a hundred of you in there it’d be a little concerning.”

Several of Magyar’s voices shouted in frustration. “Fine! We’ll try another way!” One shouted.

Magyar dropped to all fours and assumed the form of an armoured beast of sorts that charged at Charlie and swung the huge broadsword as if holding it by a tail. Charlie, taken aback by Magyar’s change in form, backpedaled away from the sword swing but was unable to avoid Magyar’s follow-up attacks as they continued to lash out with claw-like swings. Charlie received a few sharp blows to the torso and that left him open for a slash to the chest from the huge broadsword.

Charlie staggered backwards but managed to remain on his feet as he swung his arms downward and created a vertical Sonic Boom that slashed down at Magyar’s torso, causing several shouts of pain as Magyar leapt back and out of their primal stance, reassembling the armour back into its regular mode.

Charlie, seeing his attack getting through the armour, gave a dark smirk. “Looks like I found a method of attack.” He mentioned as he rushed Magyar and gathered up more energy in his arms. Magyar tried to block the blow but Charlie’s fist smashed into the armour’s torso, resulting in several shouts of pain as it seemed like Charlie’s attack had bent the armour itself. Charlie followed up by firing another Sonic Boom into Magyar’s torso, further damaging the plating.

Magyar swung their broadsword haphazardly, trying to get Charlie away from them as they attempted to keep their suit of armour together, but Charlie was too fast for them and had struck the armour’s body multiple times with precision strikes that would have hurt a lot more if Magyar’s souls had a more-physical body. Charlie finished the onslaught with a massive Sonic Hurricane, a stationary Sonic Boom that shredded at Magyar’s armour. Charlie finished with another Flash Kick that knocked the possessed suit of armour onto its back.

Magyar slowly pushed themselves to their feet. “He’s too fast!” One of the souls shouted. “At this rate he’ll break the armour!”

“Guys! The mace! Switch to the mace!” A soul said from somewhere within Magyar.

The rest of the souls seemed to agree with the suggester and despawned the greatsword as they summoned the large mace into their hand, revealing a spiked ball on the end of a long staff. Magyar held the spiked ball out as Charlie swung again, causing the reanimated soldier to strike the weapon with his fist instead of the armour. As Charlie recoiled in pain and frustration, Magyar pressed the attack and swung the mace upwards, the strength of the souls inhabiting the armour lifting it off the ground a couple of feet as Magyar brought the mace straight down again, managing to catch Charlie off guard and smashing him into the canvas.

Charlie got to his feet again but Magyar was quicker, using the new weapon to their advantage to keep the soldier at bay better than they were doing with the greatsword. Every time Charlie lashed out with a hand or foot, Magyar managed to counter it with the mace, and even attempting a Sonic Boom proved to not do as much. Magyar was still attacked by the shredding properties of Charlie’s projectiles but they were able to block the brunt of the force using the harder-hitting mace. As Charlie left himself open following a barrage of failed Sonic Boom attacks, Magyar swung again and knocked the soldier onto his back with the huge morning star.

Seeing Charlie down, Magyar decided to take action and grabbed him with one of their gauntlets, using brute force to lift the soldier off his feet by the neck. Charlie grunted in annoyance as he started chopping his hand at Magyar’s arm in an attempt to get the possessed armour to let go of him but found that he wasn’t getting anywhere.

Charlie, in a last-ditch effort to get Magyar to let him go, grabbed at the arm gauntlet choking him and trying to make an attempt to rip it off.

“Hey! No touchie!” One of Magyar’s souls shouted as the possessed armour swung the mace and smashed it into Charlie’s face while their other arm was still holding him up.

Charlie felt his hands losing their grip on Magyar’s arm gauntlet as the mace connected with his head. He tried to focus himself and keep his bearings together but the force from the blow was too great and he found himself getting ripped from Magyar’s grip, flying backwards from the impact as he tumbled out of the ring.

Charlie landed in Batman Arkham City, where he spent the next ten minutes taking his aggression out on a gang of hapless Penguin goons.

While Magyar was dealing with Charlie, Pyra used her sword to fend off Mimikyu’s shadowy hands, deflecting each attempted swipe from them and causing Mimikyu to back away in pain each time his palms were burned by Pyra’s sword. Lord Hater fired a bolt of lightning from his own hand and threw it into Pyra’s chest while she was busy with Mimikyu, stunning her momentarily and allowing the Disguise Pokemon to grab her with a large, shadowy hand and slam her into the canvas.

“Keep her on the edge!” Lord Hater instructed Mimikyu. “If I know anything about dealing with annoying enemies it’s that they’ll take any chance you give them to pounce!”

Mimikyu turned to Lord Hater with a confused expression and tilted his head.

Lord Hater sighed. “Look, it’s a long story, and it’s one that I can’t really tell without feeling a lingering pain in my neck, so how about we-” He started to say.

Pyra interrupted Lord Hater by slamming her sword into the top of his head from behind; Lord Hater screamed. Pyra ignited her sword in fire; Lord Hater screamed louder.

“If you’re DONE?” Pyra asked, eyes narrowed, as she removed the sword from Lord Hater’s head and kicked him away, leaving her to fight Mimikyu alone. Mimikyu watched as Lord Hater went sprawling before turning to Pyra with what looked to be an angry expression. “Oh, come on. You know he had it coming.”

Mimikyu responded by reaching out with a pair of black, shadowy hands, each forming a fist as they shot at Pyra from different angles. Pyra swung her sword again, deflecting the attempted blows as best as she could, but Mimikyu was more-determined and managed to sneak a fist around Pyra’s attacks, striking the redhead swordswoman in the face and staggering her.

Seeing Pyra distracted, Mimikyu lunged at her and lifted up the hem of his disguise, preparing to drag her underneath and start attacking her in the darkness of his cloak. Pyra managed to snap herself back to attention in time to see the Pokemon coming at her and ignited her sword in flames and spun it around in front of her face, causing Mimikyu to burn himself as he tried to attack her. Mimikyu recoiled in pain as he struggled to put out a fire that had started at the hem of his cloak, giving Pyra the chance she needed to press the attack and strike Mimikyu with a quick flurry of hard swings of her sword.

Mimikyu somehow got through the onslaught of attacks without having his disguise broken but the last attack from Pyra sent the Pokemon flying away, clear over the rolling-on-the-canvas-holding-his-flaming-head-in-pain Lord Hater. Pyra chased after Mimikyu and swung her sword upwards, juggling the Disguise Pokemon a few times in an attempt to keep him from touching the canvas again.

Managing to upright himself in midair after Pyra had missed one of her slashes, Mimikyu floated around Pyra’s sword attacks and managed to latch onto her weapon using his shadowy hands. Pyra suddenly realized that Mimikyu was holding onto a weapon she could ignite and did so, causing a large burst of flames to puff out from her weapon.

This time, however, Mimikyu seemed to know what was coming and let go of the sword just as the flames burst in his face and lunged around the sword, smashing two shadowy hands into Pyra’s face, giving him the opportunity to continue to attack her with several strikes of his talon-like claws. Pyra tried to get her guard up but Mimikyu was too fast and soon he had knocked her onto the canvas after a flurry of blows. This allowed Mimikyu to grab Pyra by the ankle while she was down and drag her underneath his cloak.

The sounds of Mimikyu striking and hitting Pyra from within his cloak were heard as the cloak bounced around like a cartoon fight was happening inside it. After several seconds , Pyra was suddenly ejected from underneath the cloak, landing flat on her face, as Mimikyu floated back down to the canvas again.

Pyra groaned and pushed herself up, turning around just in time to see another shadowy hand flying at her face. Pyra instinctively held up her sword and managed to block the blow and then deflected Mimikyu’s fist away before striking him a few times with her blade. “You’re a lot faster than you look!” She mentioned. “And those hands of yours hit like a truck…”

Pyra swung her sword again, spinning it a few times and engulfing it in flames as she did. Mimikyu leapt over the spinning sword but was struck from behind as it returned to her hand. Pyra tried to follow up and get a few more hits in but Mimikyu was able to weave around the blows like a bag in the wind.

“Oh, come on! Why are you so hard to hit?!” Pyra demanded. “You’re not this evasive in the games!”

Mimikyu, obviously, didn’t give a response and instead swerved backwards as Pyra continued to swing her sword at him. Knowing that Pyra’s flames were capable of setting his precious disguise on fire, Mimikyu knew he at least wanted to keep himself as far away from her sword as he could when it wasn’t flaming. Pyra pulled her sword back and ignited it again, preparing to throw it at Mimikyu in another spinning boomerang.

All of a sudden, a bolt of electricity flew into the back of her head, making Pyra stop charging her attack. The redhead swordswoman turned around and saw a severely-ticked-off Lord Hater pushing himself to his feet, pointing a finger at her. The seething look of burning fury he was giving off told Pyra that he was looking to get her back for smashing a flaming sword into his head.

“Get her, my loyal minion! Destroy her!” Lord Hater commanded as he fired several more lightning bolts at Pyra, whom held up her guard to block the attacks.

Pyra looked over her shoulder as she was blocking Lord Hater’s attacks just in time to see Mimikyu lunging at her again, shadowy hand outstretched as it grabbed her by the face. The next thing Pya knew, Mimikyu had pulled her into the air and started slamming her into the canvas several times. Pyra struggled to gain sense of the situation she was in but was unable to get her head on straight and couldn’t ignite her sword, not that it would have helped her since Mimikyu had taken to grabbing her by the head now.

After about four or five slams into the canvas, Mimikyu pulled his hand back and pitched Pyra out of the ring, finishing the fight as Lord Hater held his head in pain. Mimikyu instantly turned back to Lord Hater, as if to seek praise for his help.

“Okay. Not bad for now, but we need to keep this up, soldier!” Lord Hater said, still holding his head in pain. “I’m going to stick to helping the tin can of souls for a while but I’ll need you to back us up, got it?”

Mimikyu gave a happy nod as he scurried off to cause mayhem elsewhere.

Pyra materialized in the void alongside the others currently waiting for the round to end. Clark and Wang-Tang were still trying their best to keep their distance from the raging Necrozma but the former had since gone to keeping his eyes focused on Angel, whom had just arrived herself. Slash seemed content to sit back and float in peace as he watched the chaos unfolding with Necrozma.

“Oh, you got chucked too? That sucks.” Angel lamented as she swam over to Pyra. “I was hoping some girls would dominate the arena back there and you’d already gotten an elimination.”

Pyra sighed. “Luck of the draw and the fact that I had an evil space tyrant with electrical magic powers helping out the cloaked Pokemon.” She replied.

“Watch out!”

Pyra swerved her head to the side as a rouge laser flew past her head. The change in momentum caused Pyra to start spinning in the void but she saw that the laser had been a wild shot from Necrozma fired in frustration.

Wang-Tang sighed, having been the one to shout. “Just…Keep your eyes on that one at all times while we’re here.” He reminded. “It’s…Dangerous.”

Pyra sighed and folded her arms as she continued to spin around, knowing that she would likely never be able to stop herself now…

(Multiversal Matchup)

“Bring more rockets! Bring more TNT! We need to protect the core! And, for all that is good and explodey, will someone PLEASE find the post-it note I wrote my secret family recipe for toast on and get it far away from here?! That is the most-valuable thing in this entire base and I’ll stick doom in ALL of you if ANYONE causes it to be destroyed!!”

N. Gin, needless to say, was in a panic. He was running around on a suspended platform, around what looked to be a giant energy core that seemed to be powering the whole base and arming himself with explosives. His minions had been failing to stop the intruders from coming his way and now he knew that the only line of defense between them and the destruction of Cortex’s mining operation was himself.

“More rockets! More rockets! I need things to shoot at the invading doom monkeys when they show up!” N. Gin ordered as the rest of his gathered minions were passing him more explosives. He briefly looked back. “Who was the genius that decided to keep the core that’s powering the entirety of the base fully-exposed on a suspended platform, anyway?!”

“Um...I think that was you, sir.” A Lab Assistant piped up.

Before N. Gin had a chance to protest any further, he heard a loud banging noise coming from a nearby section of the base connected to the suspended platform by another suspension bridge. N. Gin shivered in fear as he turned his attention to the doorway that whoever was approaching would be sure to exit through and readied himself for a fight. “W-What are you idiots waiting for?! Get ready for a fight!” He urged.

The large door at the end of the suspension bridge slowly opened up. N. Gin grabbed a nearby rocket launcher and aimed it at the door, holding his breath, as the Lab Assistants got into nervous-looking fighting stances. The doorway creaked open a little further...

...Sackboy emerged from the doorway. He looked around curiously, saw N. Gin and gave a cheery-looking wave.

N. Gin blinked in confusion. “Wait. It’s...It’s just the dolly? Where’s the crazy psychic girl or the guy with the explodey rockets or the big turtle with hands the size of my face?” He asked.

Sackboy responded by opening up his inventory and pulling down a cannon, pointing it straight at N. Gin.

“NEVERMIND! THIS IS WORSE!” N. Gin screamed. “GET THE VOODOO DOLL, DOOM MONKEYS!!”

The Lab Assistants started charging down the suspension bridge at Sackboy in an attempt to stop him from firing his cannon at the core N. Gin was standing near (with about a ton of explosives). However, as the henchmen was running towards the cloth doll, the door Sackboy had just exited through burst open and out from behind burst a very-angry, screaming Boom Boom, whom blindly ran forward.

The Lab Assistants screamed as they instantly turned around and ran away from the rampaging Koopa. Sackboy turned his head just in time for Boom Boom to stampede over him, kicking the cannon clear off the bridge as he made an angry beeline for N. Gin.

“BOOM BOOM SMASH!!” Boom Boom screamed as he charged forward.

“Psycho Ball!”

A purple projectile slammed into Boom Boom’s head from the side, catching everyone by surprise as they turned to another suspension bridge and saw Athena Asamiya standing near another door, having made her way up another way.

“Hey! I was about to beat these guys up and blow up the guy with the rocket in his head!” Boom Boom challenge.

Athena smirked. “Why do you think I stopped you? That’s what we’re ALL here for!” She replied as she started dashing down the bridge and raced towards the platform N. Gin was on.

Another crashing noise was suddenly heard as N. Gin turned around to look at a third bridge, seeing that Young Link had burst his way through another doorway, but was looking back as he pulled a bomb from his pocket and threw it back into the doorway.

“I can’t stop him!” Young Link shouted. “He’s crazy!”

An explosion was heard past the door as Soldier flew out into the open, the blast from Young Link’s bomb having launched him forward. Young Link noticed this all-too-late when Soldier pulled his shovel out in midair and smashed it across his face as he flew by.

Soldier landed on his feet as Young Link crumpled to the ground and saw N. Gin’s platform, forming a smirk. “Ah! There’s the guy with the rocket in his head!” He said as he aimed his rocket launcher. “Maybe if I blow him up that rocket will detonate and launch him higher!”

Soldier fired a rocket straight at N. Gin, whom screamed and backed away as he watched the explosive projectile flying at his face. However, seemingly in slow motion, Boom Boom leapt into the way and caught Soldier’s rocket with his hand. “You stay out of this! I’M the one that’s gonna blow him up!” He challenged.

“Ha! You think I’ll stand back just because an overgrown turtle is saying so?! You’re probably just a figment of my imagination that Medic keeps telling me about!” Soldier laughed. “You can pick up the remains of the rocket-headed midget after I’m done blowing it up!”

“H-Hey! The rocket-headed midget has a name!” N. Gin shouted indignantly before turning his head and screaming again as he saw Athena lunging at him out of nowhere with a blade of psychic energy around her hand.

“Hopefully this won’t hurt TOO much!” Athena said as she pulled her psychic blade back.

Soldier responded by leaping in from the side and striking Athena with his rocket launcher, knocking the purple-haired pop star away from N. Gin’s platform. “Oh no, you don’t! I’m going to shove a rocket so far into the other side of that guy’s head that it’ll match the one already in it and make it look like he’s wearing explosive Disney ears!” He said.

Athena narrowed her eyes and generated another blade of psychic energy as she got up again. “You know, it looks like I’ll have to go through you! And I’m fine with that!” She said.

“Lemme get a piece of him first!” Boom Boom roared as he lunged at Soldier from behind, holding the rocket he had caught in his hand.

N. Gin blinked in confusion as he watched the last three intruders standing get into a close-quarter fight for the right to blow him up. “Uh...” He said, lifting a finger into the air with a questioning look. He looked at his remaining conscious Lab Assistants for help but all he got were confused shrugs in return.

*KA-BOOM!*

The rocket that Boom Boom had caught finally managed to explode after hitting Soldier with it one too-many times, engulfing the three Multiversal finalists in an explosion and cloud of smoke just far enough away from N. Gin’s platform that none of the explosives he had stupidly piled near the core were set off. N. Gin glanced at the explosion cloud that had covered all trace of Athena, Boom Boom and Soldier and squinted a bit to see if he could make anything out.

“Uh...Did they kill themselves?” N. Gin asked aloud.

Suddenly, another explosion was heard as a lone figure was propelled out of the bomb cloud and into the air high above N. Gin’s platform. As N. Gin looked up, he saw a familiar fighter flying above him and looking like they were coming straight down.

Rocket launcher still smoking from his rocket jump, Soldier grinned maniacally as he fell towards N. Gin, pulling his rocket launcher up again and readying another shot. In the meantime, the cloud of smoke had cleared on the ground, revealing Athena and Boom Boom getting to their feet in pain. Boom Boom noticed Soldier first and lunged forward in an attempt to stop the deranged mercenary, followed a couple of seconds afterwards by Athena.

“Eat napalm, rocket-head!!” Soldier yelled.

“NOT THE FAAAAAAAAAACE!!!!!” N. Gin screamed as he covered his face.

*KA-BOOM!*

The main building of the base exploded as the entire mining operation went dark in an instant. A screaming N. Gin was sent flying hundreds of feet into the air, flying far away and over the far horizon propelled by the massive force of the core exploding. It was clear that the challenge was over since N. Gin was out of the picture in an explosive way and the entire base had shut down due to the core being destroyed.

Standing on the remnants of the platform N. Gin had been on seconds before, with Boom Boom and Athena laying unconscious several feet away, was Soldier, holding a smoking rocket launcher and laughing to the sky.

“Oh, that was invigorating! I’m beginning to see why Demoman is so into causing explosions!” Soldier laughed. “Come on! I can go another round or two!”

“And that’s it! We have a winner!”

Soldier turned to see another hologram of SSBFreak materializing just off the platform. “It was chaotic, to say the absolute least, but we have a very-decisive winner due to both being the last one standing and being the one to finish the objective!” He announced. “The winner of this Section’s Multiversal Matchup: Soldier!!”

“I won?...Oh, right! I forgot the objective for a second! I won!” Soldier cheered. “So I get a shiny new trophy for this?”

“Indeed you do, Soldier, but at the END of the tournament, where we’ll be handing out the awards to the other winners.” SSBFreak responded. “In the meantime, all you need to do now is wait until you come back to the dome so that you can enjoy the rest of the tournament.”

“Sooooo...Can I blow up the rest of that short guy’s henchmen?” Soldier said, noticing a few retreating Lad Assistants trying to slip out a nearby door and get away.

SSBFreak gave a shrug. “Go nuts.” He said.

“Yay! Come here, poindexters! I feel the need to set someone’s eyebrows on fire!”

SSBFreak couldn’t help but chuckle as Soldier ran off to cause more mayhem in the time he had left in this node. “Well, better here than in the dome, anyways.” He admitted with a shrug before his hologram shut off accompanied by the sounds of the Lab Assistants screaming in terror.

(Hotel; Hallway)

Urien grunted in pain as he flew back-first into the hallway wall, being hit head-on by a huge, metal ball as big as his body. As Urien hit the floor, the ball uncurled itself to reveal Blizzard Man, having turned into his ball form to strike the tall man with full force. Blizzard Man waited patiently as Urien pushed himself up.

“I freakin’ HATE robots...” Urien spat.

“That isn’t very nice, eh.” Blizzard Man noted as he waved a hand and generated several razor-sharp snowflakes in midair around him and, with one wave of a hand, sent them all flying at Urien at once.

Narrowing his eyes, Urien charged forward shoulder-first and dashed underneath the snowflakes as they flew at him, although one of them managed to cut his cheek and draw a bit of blood, as if to signify how sharp and cold they were. Urien charged forward and flew into Blizzard Man in a powerful shoulder barge, knocking the surprised robot backwards.

As he stumbled backwards, Blizzard Man stuck one of his ski poles into the ground to stop him from flying further back, managing to stop himself. However, the instant Blizzard Man managed to stop himself, he looked ahead just in time for Urien to give him a running punch to the face, knocking him even further backwards. Urien took the opportunity to give Bizzard Man a few more hard punches while the robot was stunned and then showed surprising strength by picking him up and throwing him into the wall.

“You’re in WAY over your head. You shoulda thought harder about stepping in to fight someone who you have no business in fighting.” Urien smirked as he cracked his knuckles.

Blizzard Man grunted as he pushed himself up. “You’re up to something, eh! It can’t be good, whatever it is!” He said.

“And YOU need to learn to keep your nose out of other people’s business!” Urien narrowed his eyes.

Blizzard Man responded by curling into his ball form again and hurling himself at Urien. Urien held out his arms and managed to catch Blizzard Man as he attempted to roll into him, but the force Blizzard Man was using was starting to push him back on his feet a bit. Urien grunted in annoyance but was taken by surprise when Blizzard Man uncurled himself while Urien was holding onto him and struck the tall man in the face with one of his ski poles.

In the meantime, Bear Hugger held up his arms in defense as a flurry if needles made of dark magic flew into them. The Canadian boxer clenched his teeth as he tried to block out the pain, and then dropped his guard just in time to see Ghirahim lunging at him with his sword. Bear Hugger instinctively pulled a hand back and swung out wildly in a hook, clubbing Ghirahim in the side of the head and knocking the evil magic swordsman to the side. Ghirahim snarled and spun around to face the large man again, swinging his sword as he did.

Bear Hugger swatted away the sword as it came at his face and staggered Ghirahim long enough for the larger fighter to give another hard strike. Bear Hugger was slower than a lot of his nodal companion and his weight hindered his reach a bit so he needed to make do with what he had, though with Ghirahim getting into his face constantly it gave the Canadian no shortage of chances to give the white-haired demon a hard hook or two to the face.

Holding his face, Ghirahim staggered backwards as he glared at Bear Hugger with his one visible eye. “You’re starting to annoy me, you fat oaf...” He mutted.

Bear Hugger couldn’t help but laugh. “Funny. I coulda sword we were bothering you earlier.” He mentioned. “That’s why you’ve been trying to kill us, remember?”

“No, we’re trying to kill you because you’re trying to stick your ugly nose where it doesn’t belong.” Ghirahim spat as he waved a hand and summoned several sharp blades in the air, each of them pointed at Bear Hugger. “But since you’ve decided to bring this on yourself and just be as annoying as mortally possible, I’ve decided to do everyone a favour and end your life!”

“Sounds like you got some anger issues, friend.” Bear Hugger shrugged. “Need a hug?”

Ghirahim rolled his eyes. “If you think affection is going to make me-”

That was all Ghirahim got out before Bear Hugger lunged forward and wrapped his arms around him in a crushing bear hug, slamming both hands into the sides of his head. However, Bear Hugger had forgotten about the blades Ghirahim had summon as they all pelted his arms and torso, causing him to back away from the demon swordsman in pain, giving Ghirahim a chance to close the gap between the two and attack the larger man with his sword a few more times.

Trying to get his guard up, Bear Hugger ended up backing into a wall before taking another blind swing, making Ghirahim teleport backwards to avoid getting hit again. The white-haired swordsman narrowed his eyes and got into his stance again. “Those meaty hands of yours won’t hit me again.” He promised.

“You wanna switch opponents, eh?” Bear Hugger heard Blizzard Man ask as the robot was still tussling with an angry Urien. “Those spikes of his may not pierce my armour.”

“I’m fine! I’m fine!” Bear Hugger assured. “I got better defense than I look!”

Blizzard Man gave a shrug as Bear Hugger clashed with Ghirahim again. “Okay. I guess I’ll stick with the other angry guy, eh.” He mentioned.

Urien pushed himself to his feet, having been knocked down by another of Blizzard Man’s rolling charges. His suit also had a few notable tears in them, having been cut by several of Blizzard Man’s snowflakes. Despite this, it didn’t look like Urien was done as he stood up and wavered in place for a couple of seconds.

“We’re not...Done yet...” Urien growled through his teeth.

“I dunno, eh. It kinda looks like you are and I’d feel bad fighting someone who can’t fight back anymore.” Blizzard Man said as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. “Look, how about you just...Y’know, PRETEND to fall unconscious so that I can go help fight the broody emo guy with the sword?”

“You know that’s not gonna happen!”

Blizzard Man. “I kinda thought not, eh.” He mentioned as he curled into a ball again and rolled at the barely-standing Urien, striking him head-on with enough force to send the tall man flying backwards into the wall again. Urien crumpled to the floor and this time didn’t get up.

His job done, Blizzard Man turned in place to see Bear Hugger still fighting Ghirahim. He was still playing defensive and had his arms up as Ghirahim yelled in frustration as he swung his sword several times. Blizzard Man narrowed his eyes and waved a hand, creating and throwing more sharp snowflakes at the swordsman.

Ghirahim raised his sword as several snowflakes flew past him, cutting his arms and making him shout in pain as he despawned his sword to look at his arms to assess the damage instinctively. Seeing Ghirahim distracted, Bear Hugger dropped his guard and slammed a huge fist into Ghirahim’s face, leaving him open to be grabbed by the large wrestler.

The next thing Ghirahim knew he was getting thrown into the wall. That didn’t hurt much in retrospect, but the fact that Bear Hugger threw himself into him with his full body weight directly afterwards definitely hurt tons. Bear Hugger backed away from the wall and let Ghirahim’s unconscious form slide down the wall until it came to a rest in a sitting position propped up against it.

Bear Hugger sighed in relief as he turned to face Blizzard Man. “Thanks for the help, pal. That guy was gettin’ real annoying with those sword swings of his.” He mentioned.

“No problem, eh. It looked like he was gettin’ annoyed and I didn’t want him to lose it.” Blizzard Ma replied with a shrug.

“Well...Now what? I mean, we won but we never actually found out anything.” Bear Hugger scratched his head.

“Maybe we should look into this a little more.” Blizzard Man supplied. “There’s obviously something going on and these two aren’t gonna tell us anything anyways, eh.”

“Yeah, they’ll be sore when they wake up; that’s for sure.” Bear Hugger sighed. “I hope we aren’t too far in over our heads in this, though.”

Blizzard Man shrugged as the two wandered off. “Too late to back out now, eh.” He reminded.

“Yeah, I guess so...”

(The Arena)

“Get down here and fight me on land, you ingrate!” Lord Hater shouted as he fired shot after shot of lightning into the sky in an attempt to strike the flying and constantly-moving Meta Knight.

“I’m more in my element up here.” Meta Knight replied simply as he swerved around another electric projectile and flew down at Lord Hater, drilling into his stomach sword-first, kicking off the space villain and backflipping in the air before landing on a corner post.

Holding his stomach in pain and growling in anger, Lord Hater gathered up some electric magic in one hand. “I don’t know why I decided you would be a good opponent here. I saw that fight you had with the golden jetpack guy in the last Section and everything!” He complained.

Meta Knight couldn’t help but chuckle. “That, I’m afraid, is on you.” He said as he spun at Lord Hater in a flying tornado, striking the villain and lifting him off the ground in a flurry of airborne strikes. Lord Hater tried to grab hold of Meta Knight while in the air in an attempt to bring him down with him but was unable to grab anything solid as he crashed back-first into the canvas.

Lord Hater cursed his luck as he pushed himself to his feet. He had thought when he and Magyar interrupted the fight between Meta Knight and Tir McDohl that it’d be easy to pick the two off due to them being ambushed but the two just turned their attention to them and continued to attack. The worst part was that Lord Hater knew that he was the best of between him and Magyar to fight Meta Knight because the haunted suit of armour lacked the projectiles needed to fight Meta Knight in the air like he had so he couldn’t even complain about switching opponents.

Lord Hater fired an electric bolt at Meta Knight, whom leapt into the air and off the corner post the instant the bolt left the villain’s hand. However, Lord Hater quickly fired a second bolt from his other hand, having gathering up magic in it in secret, and launched it into the air just ahead of the flying Meta Knight, causing the winged swordsman to fly straight into the path of the projectile. Meta Knight received the bolt to the side and let out a shout of pain as he wavered in the air a bit but still remained flying.

Seeing that he had a chance to take his opponent down now that he had hit him, Lord Hater fired several more electric shots into the air as Meta Knight circled him overhead. “Stop flying like that! It’s like you’re TRYING to pester me!”

Meanwhile, Tir McDohl jumped backwards as Magyar’s huge broadsword slammed into the canvas. The haunted armour attempted to follow up with a second swing but Tir was quicker, using his staff to deflect the blow as he continued to keep his distance. Tir looked apprehensive about the fight and seemed to be playing mostly defensive as Magyar was struggling to break through his defense and land a hit on the smaller fighter.

“You’re holding back…Why aren’t you taking this seriously?!” A voice shouted from within Magyar.

“Yeah! You think we’re not worthy of being fought at full strength?!” Another voice chimed in.

“I AM taking this seriously! My rune LITERALLY eats souls to get stronger and you’re a collective of a hundred loose souls!” Tir snapped back. “If I let my rune eat enough of your souls it’ll get to the point where not even I can control it!”

“I think he’s trying to scare us!” Another of Magyar’s souls chimed in.

“I dunno. We’ve heard about that rune. It could be dangerous to fight this guy…”

“We’ve fought worse and we share a node with a literal Grim Reaper!”

Tir groaned as he got into his stance, holding his staff with both hands. He could feel the Soul Eater Rune’s power pulsing on his hand, as if signifying that it could sense a lot of souls nearby that it could feast on and, though Tir was able to keep the rune under control through sheer willpower, he knew it would only be a matter of time before it overpowered him if nothing remained changed. He knew he needed to get Magyar out of the arena to keep the Soul Eater from lashing out but he also knew that he couldn’t get too close to the haunted armour out of fear that the rune could steal a few loose souls.

Lashing out with his staff, Tir managed to sneak through Magyar’s defense and strike the armour in the helmet, making Magyar step backwards while holding it to keep it in place. Tir jumped forward, using some acrobatics to leap over Magyar and strike them in the back with his pole on the way down. Magyar, in response, spun around and swung their broadsword in a blind arc, surprising Tir with their reach by striking him in the side and knocking him down.

The souls inside Magyar raged as the flames engulfing the possessed armour seemed to burn brighter. “You’re just TOYING with us!” Several souls shouted. “Stop toying with us!”

Tir could sense the souls getting angrier and that was just making the Soul Eater Rune hunger for them that much more. Mentally warding off his rune’s influence, Tir pushed himself to his feet and readied himself for another attack. “Believe me, I’m NOT toying with you.” He warned.

Magyar switched to the morning star again and rushed Tir, swinging their longer weapon several times. Tir held up his staff and blocked the blows that came at him, taking a few steps back as he did while mentally telling himself to keep up the defense and let Magyar tire themselves out, though he wasn’t sure if a collective of a hundred souls would even HAVE a stamina limit...

Lord Hater landed flat on his back as Meta Knight dropped to the canvas, having just shredded the space villain with another airborne flurry of lightning-fast sword strikes. Meta Knight landed on his feet as Lord Hater groaned and pushed himself up. The space villain glared at Meta Knight in fury as his hands lit up in electricity. “Stop moving around so much!! You’re as much of a pest as Wander!!” He shouted in rage.

Meta Knight gave an amused chuckle as he zipped into the air again as Lord Hater fired another volley of lightning at him, shouting in incomprehensible anger as he frantically and desperately fired more and more electricity at Meta Knight as he started chasing him around on foot while the winged swordsman continued to swerve around the projectiles.

“Get back here, you!! I’m not done with you yet!!” Lord Hater shouted. “No one makes a mockery of Lord Hater except maybe Wander and that’s only because I can never get him back for it no matter how much I try, but you are NOT Wander! I will NOT be humiliated by YOU!!”

“You’re doing a fine job proving otherwise.” Meta Knight muttered under his breath as he flew around in the air, waiting for Lord Hater to tire himself out so that he could swoop in for another quick attack. His anger was clouding his judgement enough already; it was only a matter of time before the space villain made a mistake that would trip him up enough to leave an opening.

All of a sudden, a black, shadowy hand reached up and caught Meta Knight out of midair. Meta Knight had been so focused on Lord Hater that he had failed to noticed that he had flown straight into an outstretched hand of Mimikyu. The disguise Pokemon slammed Meta Knight into the canvas before letting go and pulling his hand back under his cloak as Lord Hater came to a halt, panting and looking exhausted.

“Good...Good job, faithful minion...” Lord Hater exhaled heavily. Mimikyu gave another confused head tilt in response.

Meta Knight groaned as he pushed himself to his feet. “Ugh. Forgot about him...” He muttered before spreading his wings again. “No matter. I’m still too fast for-”

Lord Harter cut the swordsman off by firing a bolt of lightning through his right wing, making it catch fire. In a panic, Meta Knight shifted his wings back to his cloak. “You...Okay, I’ll admit, that was smart thinking.” He admitted.

“You want the bird to stop flying, you clip the wings. Especially if the bird’s been REALLY annoying!” Lord Hater replied.

Meta Knight grunted in annoyance as he drew his sword. “Still, I’m just as fast on my feet as I am in the air.” He responded. “All you’ve done is slowed me down a-”

*POW!*

Lord Hater interrupted Meta Knight again with an angry football kick to the face that sent the masked swordsman flying out of the arena, having focused a lot of his pent-up anger on the kick, as something shiny was knocked from Meta Knight upon impact. Meta Knight saw that he was flying out of the arena and tried shifting back to his wings in midair, only to realize that the hole Lord Hater had shot through one of them was still there, preventing him from flying as he fell headlong into a portal.

Meta Knight landed in NBA Street, where, without his ability to fly, he was trounced in a game of basketball due to his rather poor jumping abilities. He spent most of the ten minutes pouting on a bench.

Lord Hater seethed in anger as he watched Meta Knight fall into a portal and gave a sigh of relief when he did. “I’m glad THAT’S over.” He muttered with an eye roll before his eyes widened. “Wait! I saw something shiny fly away when I kicked him! Maybe it was one of those stone thingies!”

Excitedly, Lord Hater turned in the direction the shiny object had flown in hopes of scooping it up before someone else did, and noticed that he had turned towards the fight between Magyar and Tir McDohl. He also saw a purple Power Stone a couple of steps behind the oblivious Magyar.

“Hey, minion! Pass me that stone by your feet!” Lord Hater shouted as he started running over.

Magyar blocked a blow from Tir and looked over their shoulder. “For the last time, we’re NOT-” Magyar cut themselves off when they noticed the Power Stone. “Wait. Is that one of those stones?!”

Magyar received another sharp blow to the helmet courtesy of Tir as they were thrown backwards. However, Magyar reached down and grabbed the stone as they passed over it, and when they had hit the canvas again they had already been engulfed in an explosion of light.

When the light cleared, Magyar was now twice as tall as they usually were and the hundred souls contained within the armour had grown in intensity to make a full muscled humanoid body of souls with talon-like soul claws and a face of pure white soul energy with no discernible features. The body was so big that the pieces of armour that usually covered Magyar were now smaller bits of clothing, with the gauntlets becoming wristguards, the bodypiece becoming a belt, the steels boots becoming shorts and the helmet becoming a demonic-looking choker.

“The power! Oh, man! Look at us now!” One of the souls shouted in glee. “I haven’t felt like this in a century!”

Tir’s eyes widened in horror as he felt the Soul Eater Rune shouting for him to eat Magyar’s souls now that they were five times stronger. “You...You already had two stones?!” He asked, stepping back.

“You already had two stones?! And you didn’t even TELL ME?!” Lord Hater demanded.

The transformed Magyar held up their broadsword, which now looked more like a regular one-handed sword in the much-bigger soul hands of the soul collective. “We don’t have a lot of time. Let’s see what we’re REALLY capable of!” One of the souls suggested.

Tir held up his staff but the guard was easily broken through with one swing of the huge sword. The transformed Magyar’s burning souls were putting more power into each swing and it was taking less of them to deal the same amount of damage as before. Tir tried to get some swings in with his faster speed but was struggling to keep the Soul Eater from acting out of control at the same time and thus the onlooker could tell that he couldn’t put a hundred percent of his effort into the fight with the much-larger, much-stronger Magyar.

Magyar winced slightly as Tir’s staff smashed across their face but it did little other than annoy them as they swung with a huge talon, taking the young fighter off his feet with one swing. They watched as Tir landed on his back, looking like he was already struggling to get to his feet. Tir tried to focus and get his rune to back off, knowing now more than ever that he did NOT want his rune getting power by taking some of Magyar’s already-power-up souls.

Magyar seemed undeterred, however, and rushed headlong into battle again, taking another few swings at Tir as they got close. Tir held up his staff and managed to bear the brunt of Magyar’s first attack but the next attacks almost instantly broke through, overwhelming Tir with the sheer power and force of a hundred souls working together. Magyar continued the assault but after a few seconds it was clear that the soul collective was only really fighting to test their new strength as Tir had stopped fighting back entirely and could barely stand once Magyar had given him a little breathing room.

Tir saw Magyar winding up for a finishing blow and tried to jump out of the way of the attack, but Magyar’s reach was far too-great in their transformed state and Tir was caught in an attack arc that, with the powerful force of the broadsword slamming into his side, sent Tir flying out of the arena with no hope of return.

Tir landed in Donkey Kong Country 3. Unfortunately, it was in the Riverside Race level and he was promptly overrun by a swarm of angry bees.

“You seriously had TWO of those stones and you never told me?!” Lord Hater demanded to a still-empowered Magyar. “I thought we agreed that I would get the stones if any of us got them!”

“NONE of us agreed to that.” Several voices inside Magyar replied sharply as they were engulfed in another white light, reverting to normal as three Power Stones scattered around the arena again.

Lord Hater pouted. “I wanna get a cool new form and smite a buncha people...” He whined to himself.

Fire Man launched a wave of fire into the Mad Piano’s open mouth as it lunged at him, and then rolled to the side as the haunted instrument crashed onto the canvas. Fire Man charged up another fire beam and launched it at the Mad Piano, managing to knock it back a couple of feet and giving the Robot Master a bit of time to put some distance between him and it while he charged up a more-powerful shot.

After spending the past ten minutes or so still frozen in Kaya’s ice block, Fire Man had managed to burn his way out after a bit of waiting and attempting, though he had a little help when the Mad Piano spent a few minutes eating away at the ice trying to get to Fire Man. When Fire Man had managed to get himself free he turned on the Mad Piano to keep himself from getting eaten, and this allowed the sentient instrument to forget about Mario and Bowser Jr. for the time being.

“You can’t keep tanking my flames forever!” Fire Man shouted as he fired a fully-charged flaming shot at the Mad Piano, striking it head-on and sending it recoiling. Seeing that he was getting somewhere, Fire Man rushed the Mad Piano and jumped, vaulting himself off the closed lid of the piano before firing a volley of flames at onto it from above.

The Mad Piano turned and opened its lid at the airborne Fire Man, shooting a haunted book at him while he was still in the air. Unable to dodge the projectile, Fire Man was struck in the face and was launched backwards a couple of feet, landing on his back. The Mad Piano seemed to notice this despite not having any visible eyes and launched a few more books out of its mouth.

When Fire Man got to his feet he saw that the Mad Piano had spat several books at him. Narrowing his eyes, Fire Man aimed his arm cannon and fired several shots, sniping each of the books out of the sky with a well-aimed fireball, burning each to a crisp and leaving another clear path to the Mad Piano. However, the instant Fire Man was in line with it, the Mad Piano lunged forward and slammed into the Robot Master, knocking him back again.

As Fire Man landed on his back, the Mad Piano lunged into the air and opened its lid, preparing to chomp down on the Robot Master from above. Fire Man fired a volley of flames up into the Mad Piano’s mouth as it was coming towards him and, when he saw it didn’t seem to be doing anything, rolled out of the way as the piano came crashing down. Fire Man pushed himself to his feet and fired several flaming projectiles into the body of the piano as it was trying to recover from its failed attack.

“Am I even doing any damage?! It’s not even flinching!” Fire Man asked aloud as the Mad Piano spun in place and threw itself back into a standing position before leaping at the Robot Master, teeth bared. Fire Man tried firing a few more shots into the piano’s open mouth but couldn’t deter the Mad Piano as it smashed into him face-first, closing its jaw around his torso.

Fire Man struggled to keep the Mad Piano from getting him inside its mouth fully and, as he thrashed about in a panic, fired a charged flame wave into the back of the Mad Piano’s throat, or what he felt looked like the throat. The next thing Fire Man knew he was getting spat out and he landed flat on his back as the Mad Piano roared in pain, a fire erupting from the back of its mouth.

Knowing that he was doing a bit of damage now, Fire Man pushed himself up and leapt onto the flailing Mad Piano in an attempt to keep its lid closed. “Oh, no you don’t!” He shouted.

The Mad Piano started bucking about like a horse, throwing Fire Man around as the Robot Master tried to keep himself holding on and keeping the piano’s mouth shut. The piano thrashed about and, as much as Fire Man tried to hold onto its lid, it finally managed to throw the Robot Master off of it after several seconds of struggling.

Spinning in place and seeming to stare up at Fire Man as the Robot Master fell headlong towards the canvas, the Mad Piano lunged upwards and opened its mouth, snapping its lid shut on Fire Man and catching him out of midair. The Mad Piano could feel heat in its mouth again, as Fire Man was attempting to set the inside of its mouth on fire again, but after a couple seconds it spat Fire Man out before the Robot Master could do any damage.

Fire Man flew backwards and fell against the ropes around the arena, flying into them with enough force to stretch them back a bit and be slightshot off of them into the air again, flying back towards the Mad Piano. His eyes widened when he saw the Mad Piano appear to crouch low as he was flying overtop of it.

As Fire Man fell towards it, the Mad Piano lunged upwards, striking the Robot Master with the entire top of its lid. The force from the upward smash was enough to launch Fire Man into the air again, far enough back that he fell headlong past the ropes and tumbling out of the arena.

Fire Man landed in the sandy dunes of Tatooine in Star Wars, where he was quickly abducted by Jawas mistaking him for a scrap robot. He burned a hole through their Sandcrawler a few minutes later.

Diddy Kong backflipped away from a swing of Spike’s stun club and fired a peanut from his popgun into the monkey-catcher’s forehead while he was upside-down. As Spike staggered backwards a couple of steps, Diddy landed on his feet and threw himself headfirst into the youth’s stomach in a flying tackle, knocking him down.

Spike made attempts to swat Diddy away as the chimp climbed on top of him while he was down and started striking him in the face. “Ugh! Get offa me!” He shouted as he managed to grab Diddy by the shirt and throw him off of him, allowing Spike to get up again. The red-haired youth was quick to strike the distracted Diddy with his stun club, making the monkey shriek as he tumbled away awkwardly.

“You’re a lot wilier than most of the monkeys I deal with back home.” Spike sighed. “I guess I should be thankful you aren’t evil or else I’d have a REAL hard time taking Specter down.”

Diddy responded by flashing a cheeky grin, drawing a popgun and firing a volley of peanuts at Spike. The red-haired youth shielded his face and covered his head in annoyance as Diddy fired peanuts at him and dashed to the side to outrun the projectiles, but Diddy seemed to be anticipating this and leapt onto Spike’s face from the side, clawing and scratching at the back of his head. Spike again thrashed about as he tried to get Diddy off of him, and ended up attempting to knock the monkey off his face by striking him with his own stun club. Diddy saw the club coming and leapt off Spike just in time for the monkey hunter to strike his own face with the club, stunning him and making Spike stagger back again.

Seeing his opponent faltering, Diddy switched to his rocketbarrel jetpack and took off into the air watching as Spike looked up at him from the canvas. Diidy swooped down and collided with Spike, carrying the youth several feet while at the same time knocking the wind out of him, before throwing him back and onto the arena ropes. Spike bounced off the ropes and was sent flying back towards him, and Diddy drew his peanut popguns again, taking aim at the airborne Spike.

However, Spike was ready this time. While in the air, Spike pulled out his slingshot and took aim at Diddy’s rocketbarrel jetpack, firing a shot at it while he was in the air and surprising Diddy with his reaction speed. The slingshot pellet flew over Diddy’s shoulder and, with pinpoint accuracy, struck the back of his jetpack, which in turn caused a reaction in the explosive barrels. Diddy could only have time to stare ahead in horror, as if he knew what was going to happen, before the jetpack activated by itself and rocketed Diddy screaming into the air uncontrollably.

In the meantime, Spike landed on his feet and looked up as Diddy continued to spiral out of control on his malfunctioning jetpack. Drawing his slingshot again, Spike pointed it upwards and waited for Diddy to fly into his line of view.

“Let’s see you dodge THIS!” He shouted as he fired his slingshot again just as a screaming Diddy flew into his sight. The pellet found a target again, striking an exposed part of Diddy’s jetpack, which caused the already-malfunctioning jetpack to outright explode in a ball of fire in the air, sending a screaming, burning Diddy hurtling towards the canvas. Diddy hit the ground, bounced a couple of times and came to a halt just past Spike.

Diddy coughed a few times as he pushed himself up, shaking black soot off himself to clean himself off as he took his cap off and hit it a few times, knocking the last bit of soot loose, before putting it back on his head and adjusting it with a serious look on his face.

Spike sighed. “Look, I already took your jetpack out and that gave you most of the advantage.” He reasoned.

Diddy reached behind his back and Spike readied himself for another volley of peanuts but faltered when he saw Diddy pull an orange into view. The red-haired youth blinked a few times. “Wait. An orange?” He asked.

Diddy gave another smirk and blew a raspberry at Spike before tossing the orange at him. Spike stepped back in confusion, expecting the orange to bounce off him like the peanuts did, and as such simply raised his arm to block the projectile as it came at his face.

*BOOM!*

As it turned out, the orange was an active explosive (...somehow...) and blew up in a powerful ball of orange fire the instant it connected with Spike’s arm. Spike yelped in surprise as he was thrown backwards in the blast, landing on his back and sliding back a few feet from the force of the explosion. On his back, Spike lifted his head up and stared incredulously. “W-What the heck was THAT?!” He demanded.

Diddy responded by jumping on top of him from above and attacking him while he was down, though it looked like most of the attacks revolved around jumping on the red-haired youth’s body as he made unsuccessful attempts to get Diddy off of him. The next thing Spike knew, Diddy had grabbed him by the ankles and slammed him down face-first onto the canvas, knocking the wind out of him even more.

Realizing that Spike would be unlikely to fight back much more, Diddy spun around while holding Spike’s ankles and, in a Mario-like fashion, let go once he had built up enough speed to send Spike flying. He didn’t go far due to Diddy’s lacking strength but he went far enough to go past the arena ropes. Spike tried to grab them as he fell over the ropes but failed in the end as he fell down into a portal.

Seeing Spike gone, Diddy sighed as he turned towards the wreckage of his rocketbarrel jetpack. Sitting down beside it, Diddy started tinkering to see if he could get it working again. Funky would either be proud of his handiwork or give him an earful for such a shoddy job after this was over...

Bowser Jr. screamed as he ducked into his clown car to avoid an attempted knife swing from BB Hood, and they turned his clown car over in midair to make it block a volley of bullets from the increasingly-angry bounty hunter.

“Hold still, you little rodent!” BB Hood shouted. “You were the one who wanted to fight so FIGHT!”

In an attempt to keep away from the Mad Piano, Mario and Bowser Jr. had ended up walking into the battle Ibuki was having with BB Hood, which the latter took as someone else stepping in to fight her to keep her from claiming her bounties. While the crazed bounty hunter lashed out at Bowser Jr. for being the apparent one to instigate things, although it was more-likely the Koopa prince was just the closest one to her, Ibuki ended up in a clash with Mario.

“Get offa my clown car, lady!” Bowser Jr. said as he swung a hammer at BB Hood and knocked her off him as the bounty hunter tried to clamber onto his vehicle. “Dad’ll be real mad if I break this one so early in the tournament!”

BB Hood landed on her side but was quick to push herself up as she turned to face Bowser Jr., stopping when she saw a cannon protruding from the clown car’s mouth. BB Hood rolled to the side as a cannonball flew past her and then threw herself at Bowser Jr.’s clown car, giving it a hard enough kick at the bottom to knock it on its side and leave the Koopa prince scrambling to regain control.

BB Hood stepped up to Bowser Jr. and smirked darkly as she drew an uzi, but forgot about the cannonball she dodged as it flew into the arena ropes, bounced off of them and flew straight into her back on the return. BB Hood yelped as she was sent tumbling over Bowser Jr., giving him the chance to get control of his clown car back.

“Okay, this girl’s crazy!” Bowser Jr. said aloud as he started digging around for something in the clown car to help him. “There’s gotta be something here I can throw at her!”

Pushing herself to her feet, BB Hood turned to face Bowser Jr. again and screamed in fury. “Just hold still and LET ME GUT YOU!!” She yelled as she leapt at the Koopa prince’s clown car and raised her machete.

Bowser Jr. scrambled about, backpedaling every chance he could get as BB Hood lashed out erratically with her machete. A pair of boxing gloves emerged from the sides of the prince’s clown car and grabbed at BB Hood’s machete as it swung at him, though she managed to force her way through Bowser Jr.’s defenses a couple of times before the prince managed to swat away the knife with one of the car’s boxing gloves.

BB Hood narrowed her eyes and pulled a grenade from her basket. “Maybe I need to separate you from that car of yours!” She said as she jumped up and grabbed onto the side of the clown car, reaching up and throwing the grenade into the car before jumping off. Bowser Jr., seeing what BB Hood had done, screamed as he ducked to try and grab the grenade before it went off.

*BOOM!*

Bowser Jr’s clown car exploded, throwing the Koopa prince into the air. Bowser Jr. bounced off the canvas a couple of times before landing flat on his face. He didn’t have much time to lament over his injuries or lack of vehicle before BB Hood hauled him to his feet and threw him over her shoulder again.

Mario threw a fireball at Ibuki and ran forward, hoping to catch her by surprise once she dodged the flaming projectile. However, his eyes widened when he saw the young ninja use a kunai to cleave through the fireball, see Mario coming at her and give him a hard kick to the face while he was distracted. Mario took a tumble backwards as Ibuki pulled a few throwing knives into view, hurling them at Mario while he was down.

Acting quickly, Mario rolled backwards as the kunai hit the canvas around his feet. Mario backflipped into a standing position and charged at Ibuki again, adjusting his hat before doing so, and dashed around a volley of throwing knives that were hurled at him. Being ready for Ibuki’s attacks this time, Mario leapt at her, jumped off her head and then slammed his fists into her back on the way over her, knocking Ibuki down.

“Ow! Okay, you’re a lot faster than you look.” Ibuki mentioned as she threw herself forward to put some distance between her and Mario, getting into a kneeling position and drawing another kunai. “Looks like I’ll need to pull out all of my ninja training for this one!”

Mario watched as Ibuki vanished into thin air and quickly looked up to see her appear above him with a kunai raised. Mario backpedaled away from Ibuki as she slammed into the canvas, but received a sharp kick to the face the instant the young ninja had landed. As Mario staggered backwards, Ibuki pressed the attack, lashing out with quick strikes and slashes, though Mario managed to get his guard up and block most of the attempts. Ibuki managed to get a couple of quick hits in, however, and ended the combo by grabbing the plumber and throwing him over her shoulder.

Landing on his side and tumbling for a few feet, Mario pushed himself up just in time to see Ibuki’s palm flying at his face. Mario yelped and leaned back to avoid the blow, and then rushed in with a flurry of punches of his own. Ibuki managed to block most of Mario’s attacks but received a couple of hard punches to the stomach that knocked the wind out of her a bit. Mario used this to his advantage by backflipping into the air and kicking Ibuki in the face with his foot on the way up, knocking the young ninja backwards.

Mario exhaled in relief as he waited for Ibuki to get up again. “You’re a-fast. If I a-didn’t have experience fighting a ninja you probably would a-have beaten me by now.” He complimented.

Ibuki narrowed her eyes and drew a kunai. “You have experience fighting a ninja? Who?!” She demanded.

Mario pointed over his shoulder with his thumb and Ibuki saw Greninja, whom seemed to be meditating in a circle of Captain Olimar’s blue Pikmin. Ibuki sighed. “He doesn’t count!” She said.

The two continued to clash, each throwing out a series of punches, kicks or, in Ibuki’s case, slashes with a kunai. They each managed to land a hit here and there but overall it seemed like they were both skillfully avoiding the other’s attacks. Ibuki jumped back as Mario lashed out with another volley of fire, dancing around the multiple fireballs thrown at her as she drew some more kunai and pulled her arms back.

“You can’t dodge them ALL!” Ibuki shouted as the threw all the kunai she had in her hands, which amounted to at least five, at Mario as she hoped that he wouldn’t be able to avoid all of the knives at this close of range.

Again, Mario yelped as he jumped around the knives as best as he could, and even managed to kick a knife out of the air at one point. Seeing a kunai coming at his face, everything went in slow-motion for Mario as he crouched low and allowed the kunai to fly just over his head, barely grazing the top of his hat.

As the kunai passed, Mario grinned and jumped to his feet. “You’re a-going to have to a-do better than a-that!” He called out.

“YEOWCH!!”

Mario and Ibuki paused and looked behind Mario, seeing BB Hood standing over a cowering Bowser Jr. with a kunai embedded in the back of her shoulder. BB Hood slowly looked over her shoulder to stare icily at the two as she silently reached up and ripped the kunai out of her shoulder before turning around to face the two.

“Is...Is it SERIOUSLY too much of an ask to let me do my frackin’ JOB?!” BB Hood demanded. “Seriously, what is WRONG with you people?!?! If it’s not flying ninja knives it’s stupid-looking clown cars with-”

That was all BB Hood got before Bowser Jr. sprang to life, spawning an all-new clown car out of thin air and driving it straight into the bounty hunter’s back with full force, knocking her down. The wind knocked out of her from the force of impact, BB Hood rolled onto her back and found herself staring up at a suddenly much-more-confident Bowser Jr. as he sat in a new clown car.

“W-What?! I...I blew up your stupid car! Why do you have another one?!” BB Hood demanded. “And...W-Where did you GET it from?!”

“Trade Koopa secrets that old man Kamek wouldn’t want me spilling.” Bowser Jr. shrugged.

Before BB Hood could get up or fire some more bullets into Bowser Jr.’s new clown car, she was grabbed by a pair of long arms with boxing gloves attached to them. Bowser Jr. pulled a few levers that caused the boxing gloves to hit BB Hood a few times before spiking her into the canvas. Giving time to get some distance between him and BB Hood, Bowser Jr. activated the wheels of his clown car and zipped away as the bounty hunter slowly stood up.

“You...You’re just gonna run away now?!” BB Hood demanded as she turned around and drew a gun. “You think that, after all that, I’m just going to-”

Again, BB Hood was interrupted, this time by a cannonball flying straight into her stomach, Bowser Jr. having shot it at her from afar. The force from the cannonball striking her caused BB Hood to accidentally let go of her gun as she was sent flying clear out of the arena with no hope of getting back in, screaming all the way down into an elimination portal.

BB Hood fell into a cave of sabrecats in Skyrim. Seeing at least four fanged, feral tigers starting to circle her, BB Hood gave a dark smirk, drew a machete and prepared to let loose a lot of pent-up aggression...

Mario and Ibuki watched BB Hood get eliminated and looked at each other, realizing that Ibuki’s misaimed kunai that Mario had ducked had indirectly led to the bounty hunter’s elimination. “Um...I won’t tell if you won’t?” Ibuki shrugged.

“Works a-for me.” Mario nodded.

With that, the two resumed their spar, with Ibuki having the faster draw with an attempted palm strike but Mario being quick enough to block it with his arm. Mario responded by delivering an uppercut to Ibuki’s chin, knocking her into the air as several coins emerged from the air around the point of impact.

Ibuki landed on her back but was smart enough to instinctively roll to the side and let Mario hit the canvas where she had landed, attempted to jump on her from above. Ibuki drew yet another kunai and leapt at Mario, spinning around and attempting to attack him with the momentum of her whole body behind a single strike. Reaching Mario, Ibuki lashed out and swung her kunai with all her might as everything seemed to slow down.

Her attack missed as Mario jumped out of the way. As Ibuki landed on her feet and screeched to a halt, she turned around just in time to see a gloved fist coming at her face. As Mario’s punch dizzied his opponent for a moment, Mario took the chance to grab Ibuki, toss her into the air and leap after her, giving her another few airborne punches, followed by another Coinbox Jump and finishing the combo by spiking Ibuki into the canvas with an overhead meteor smash.

Ibuki landed flat on her back in pain as Mario landed on his feet a short distance away. Seeing Ibuki down, Mario sighed and approached her, taking the time to adjust his hat again. “I a-think you’re spent.” He mentioned.

“N-No! I can still fight!” Ibuki insisted as she struggled to push herself to her feet, but it was clear that she was pretty much done and too tired to keep fighting.

“Don’t a-keep pushing yourself. You’re good but you’ve a-got to know when you can’t a-continue.” Mario replied, stepping back and easily dodging a half-hearted, tired swing of one more slash from Ibuki as she struggled to keep herself going.

Ibuki tried to clear her mind but she was already woozy and could see multiple Marios in front of her instead of just one. Focusing all of her attention, Ibuki took a deep breath and, refusing to admit defeat this easily, lunged forward with her kunai in hand in an attempt to give Mario one last strike that could hopefully take him off guard.

Unfortunately for Ibuki, she lunged at the wrong Mario and landed flat on her face, clearly out of it. The real Mario sighed as he picked her up and gently dropped the young ninja over the top rope, eliminating her and tipping his hat to her as she vanished into a portal.

As Mario finished with his elimination, he turned around to look at the rest of the remaining fighters: He saw Bowser Jr. nearby and the two silently nodded at each other, stepping further back from the middle of the ring, where the Mad Piano sat still, looking like a regular non, sentient piano that would surely be ready to strike as soon as someone got close enough. A meditating Greninja was still surrounded by a circle of similarly-meditating blue Pikmin while Olimar seemed to be taking notes on his Pikmin’s behavior in a tiny journal. Lord Hater appeared to be still pouting at the fact that he had lost a chance to become all-powerful with the Power Stones while Mimikyu looked at him with a curious, semi-concerned look and Magyar stood aside, arms folded and looking uninterested in Lord Hater’s whining. Darunia still seemed upset at the loss of his ring-brother Blanka but seemed to be getting cheered-up by a similarly-boisterous Bodvar, Merengue was still nursing her wounded arm from her fight with Pete and Diddy was sitting down, still tinkering with his broken rocketbarrel jetpack.

Hearing the sounds of the Power Stones being despawned, Mario did a quick headcount and realized that the section had ended. Taking his hat off and wiping his brow quickly, Mario place his hat back on his head and glanced up at the entrance curtain, knowing the next wave of fighters was about to enter.

(Multiversal Matchup Void)

Ibuki looked around at the void she had been teleported into. She barely had the time to lament being eliminated so quickly when she realized that she had ended up in the same vortex as seven other people, making the young ninja realize that she had been selected for the next section’s Multiversal Matchup. The knowledge of this seemed to give her a second wind of energy, though she noticed that she felt her strength returning as soon as she appeared, likely to prepare her for the challenge to come.

Clark and Wang-Tang had been warning everyone that appeared to stay away from the angry-looking Necrozma, though when the polygonal Pokemon tried firing a laser at the former all it seemed to do was knock itself off-balance and send it tumbling about uselessly. Angel seemed to be having a bit of fun teasing the monstrous Pokemon while Slash was making an attempt to actually try and fight it, with predictably comedic fails as the caveman tumbled about in a similar fashion to Necrozma. Finally, Pyra was seen consoling a pouting Spike, likely to try and lift his spirits at his similarly earlier-than-expected elimination.

Pyra looked at Ibuki as she appeared and her face lit up. “Oh, great! You were picked! That makes eight!” She said aloud.

“So we’re finally going to stop floating around in a void of nothingness?” Wang-Tang asked.

Angel shrugged. “I dunno. I was kinda getting used to it.” She admitted.

“SECTION TWO...ENDED.” The same robotic voice was heard throughout the void. “PREPARING PORTAL.”

Spike sighed. “Well, we may have lost the tournament but I’m glad we’re at least getting a shot at this.” He mentioned as he looked ahead and saw a bright light starting to overwhelm the void, signifying that everyone was about to be warped.

“Alright! Bring it on!” Ibuki cheered. “Now that we know what’s coming I’m looking forward to it!”

One by one the white light engulfed the eight eliminated fighters, the warp starting to take effect and preparing to start the next Multiversal Matchup...

RESULTS (17 Votes)

Main Event

MAD PIANO (SM64): 13:4 = 9 (Clark Still, Fire Man)

BOWSER JR. (SMB): 12:5 = 7 (Wang-Tang, BB Hood)

MAGYAR (BH): 12:5 = 7 (Charlie Nash, Tir McDohl)

LORD HATER (WOY): 12:6 = 6 (Meta Knight)

MIMIKYU (PKMN): 11:7 = 4 (Pyra)

GRENINJA (PKMN): 11:7 = 4 (Angel)

BODVAR (BH): 10:7 = 3 (Necrozma)

MERENGUE (AC): 10:7 = 3 (Pete)

CAPTAIN OLIMAR (SSB): 10:7 = 3 (Kaya)

DIDDY KONG (SSB): 10:7 = 3 (Spike)

MARIO MARIO (SMB): 10:8 = 2 (Ibuki)

DARUNIA (HW): 10:8 = 2 (Slash)

(ELIMINATED)

BLANKA (SF5): 10:8 = 2 (Wizzro)

ANGEL (KOF): 9:8 = 1 (Menat)

SLASH (EC): 9:8 = 1 (Blanka)

META KNIGHT (SSB): 9:9 = 0

IBUKI (SF5): 8:9 = -1

CLARK STILL (KOF): 8:9 = -1

PETE (PS): 8:10 = -2

BB HOOD (DS): 8:10 = -2

NECROZMA (PKMN): 7:10 = -3

PYRA (SSB): 7:11 = -4

MENAT (SF5): 7:11 = -4

FIRE MAN (MM): 6:11 = -5

WANG-TANG (PS): 6:11 = -5

SPIKE (PAS): 5:12 = -7

WIZZRO (HW): 5:12 = -7

CHARLIE NASH (SF5): 5:12 = -7

KAYA (BH): 5:13 = -8

TIR MCDOHL (ST): 2:15 = -13

Current Top 10 Eliminations: Blanka (3), Lord Hater (3), Mario Mario (2), Darunia (2), Greninja (2), Mimikyu (2), Mad Piano (2), Bowser Jr. (2), Magyar (2), Meta Knight (2)

Multiversal Matchup

SOLDIER (TF2): 97 Points

BOOM BOOM (SMB): 93 Points

ATHENA ASAMIYA (KOF): 87 Points

YOUNG LINK (HW): 86 Points

SACKBOY (PAS): 85 Points

NEEDLE MAN (MM): 60 Points

CHRIS LIGHTFELLOW (ST): 55 Points

VOLKOV (BH): 50 Points

Side Battles

“Villains Invade Canada”

BEAR HUGGER (Punch-Out!) and BLIZZARD MAN (Mega Man) freeze GHIRAHIM (Hyrule Warriors) and URIEN (Street Fighter 5)

15 to 2

Unexpected Results: I’ll be completely honest; I definitely wasn’t expecting the Mad Piano to dominate the votes the way it did, and even Bowser Jr. and Magyar rounding out the top three was a big shock to me. Just goes to show that even I can be taken by surprise at the results sometimes…

Last Minute Surge: The votes in the Multiversal Matchup were pretty close between Soldier, Athena and Young Link for a good chunk of the voting period. At the end, however, enough votes came in to not only secure Soldier the win but push Boom Boom up into a surprising second place.

Chapter Text

(The Arena)

The twelve survivors of Section Two were scattered around the arena, taking a bit of time to rest in the downtime between sections, although it was clear that about half of them were uneasily watching the Mad Piano, which was still sitting like a regular inanimate piano until someone approached it, and no one really wanted to be the first one to step forward. Lord Hater had finally seemed to get over his lamenting of his inability to collect Power Stones, at least for now, due to what seemed to be a comforting hand of Mimikyu on his shoulder, giving him an awkward pat.

As the lights started shining on the entrance curtain again, the audience started cheering, knowing that the next section was about to start and that they were going to get some more fresh faces in the arena. All they needed to do was wait until the next fighter made their grand entrance…

“RYO SAKAZAKI!” (KOF)

The audience cheered as the blonde-haired protagonist of Art of Fighting emerged from the curtain, giving a few waves as he walked down the ramp to the arena, psyching himself up silently as he readied himself to enter the arena. Taking a deep breath as he quickly scanned the arena for a potential opponent, Ryo stepped in to officially start his run.

“Okay. Yuri usually does well in these things; I just need to replicate that success.” Ryo muttered to himself. “Shouldn’t be too hard. Just…Stay away from the piano.”

Bodvar looked up, saw Ryo enter the ring and waved him over with a bright smile. “Ah! Hello, old friend! Come over here!” He greeted.

Ryo lifted an eyebrow as he wandered over to the boisterous Viking. “Uh…Do I know you?” He asked.

Bodvar laughed. “Ryu, don’t be silly! The two of us have clashed numerous times in Valhalla after that whole Street Fighter crossover event was announced!” He admitted.

Ryo’s face fell. “Um…I’m…Not Ryu.” He lifted a finger to interject.

“Oh, nonsense! You think I wouldn’t recognize my old sparring partner just because he decided to dye his hair?” Bodvar laughed again, wrapping an arm around the confused Ryo’s shoulder. “Come! Let’s pick up where we left off at the last Brawlhalla tournament!”

Ryo stepped back nervously, suddenly not liking where this was going. “I…Don’t think that’s a good idea.” He admitted.

Bodvar smirked as he summoned his sword. “YOU, being apprehensive about a fight, especially with ME? My, a lot has changed since we last saw each other, eh?” He said. “Well, no matter! Let’s continue the fight, Ryu!”

“I-I already said I’m not-” Ryo stammered but Bodvar seemed too far gone to listen as the Viking was already pouncing him.

“SHEIK!” (HW)

Stepping out from behind the curtain was a familiar masked figure, playing a harp a few times to the crowd before placing it on her back, crouching low and dashing down to the arena like a ninja. The audience cheered as Sheik raced down the ramp, leapt into the arena and vanished in a cloud of smoke in midair, appearing on the canvas to signify her entrance.

Truth be told, this version of Sheik was actually the Twilight Princess Zelda that had been retired from Smash once Ultimate’s Zelda made her debut. Master Hand told her that he could still have her as Sheik rather than outright replace her with the new Zelda like it sometimes happened to the Links in Smash so TP Zelda had been quick to agree to fight in Smash solely as Sheik. It made things a lot easier when she found out Zelda and Sheik were separate fighters in Hyrule Warriors, anyways.

Greninja seemed to sense Sheik approaching and opened an eye, briefly stopping his meditation. The blue Pikmin surrounding him seemed to notice as they stood up and looked at Sheik as well. Greninja instinctively got into a stance as Sheik approached him as the blue Pikmin surrounding him seemed to do the same.

Olimar seemed to take notice of this. “Fascinating…The Pikmin seem to be adapting to a different personality type…” He mused as he continued to write down notes.

“Don’t worry, Greninja. I’m not here for a fight.” Sheik handwaved as Greninja faltered a bit. “Look, the two of us can fight any time at the Smash Mansion. If you don’t mind, I’m looking for someone a little different to fight for now. Any suggestions?”

Greninja blinked in confusion before glancing over to the trio of Lord Hater, Mimikyu and Magyar. “Ja?” He mentioned, pointing in the trio’s direction.

Sheik gave a nod. “Thanks. I was thinking about that space guy.” She mentioned as she went on her way, walking around a series of blue Pikmin that each attempted to strike a threatening-looking ninja or karate pose in an attempt to keep Sheik away from them. Greninja scratched his head and looked around at the blue Pikmin, wondering when he had accumulated so many apprentices…

“HEIHACHI MISHIMA!” (PAS)

The audience cheered loudly as the iconic old veteran fighter of Tekken emerged from the curtain, standing tall and stoic in an arms-folded stance as he stared out amongst the arena survivors. With a commanding presence, Heihachi strode down the ramp, seemingly ignoring the reaction the crowd was giving him.

In truth, Heihachi was contemplating what kind of help he could recruit in the ring. Wizzro had failed to do much of anything, Necrozma was eliminated before a real attempt at recruitment could be done and Lord Hater looked far too ineffective of a villain to be of any use despite the fact that he had a shadow Pokemon and a possessed suit of armour working with him. This left Heihachi with no real prospects as he stepped into the arena and did another scan.

Heihachi paused as he set his sights on the motionless object in the middle of the arena. A smirk slowly floated across the old man’s face as he started making his way over to the piano sitting in the middle of the canvas.

Bowser Jr.’s eyes snapped open. “Dude! Get away from that thing, old man! It’ll tear you apart!” He called out, trying to get Heihachi’s attention despite still staying far away from the Mad Piano.

Heihachi gave a dark chuckle as he looked over his shoulder at the scared Koopa prince. “This thing is currently the number one opponent in the ring.” He mentioned. “If anything will give me a good fight, it’s this.”

As soon as Heihachi got close enough, the Mad Piano sprang to life and lunged at the old fighter. Heihachi responded by driving a fist into the side of the Mad Piano, sending it recoiling in seeming pain. Heihachi smirked as got into a stance as the Mad Piano approached again…

“FAIT!” (BH)

A book in hand, out stepped from behind the entrance curtain a woman with bright hair, a pointed hat and a aura of magic and mystery about her. Scanning through the tome in her hand (which, as it turned out, appeared to be a book on Pokemon), Fait glanced down at the arena and, with a playful smirk, closed the tome with one hand before spawning a scythe in the other and jogging down to the ring, choosing to use her scythe magic to teleport into the arena rather than jump in herself.

Mimikyu was in the process of trying to pry Sheik off of Lord Hater when he suddenly felt a presence behind him. Letting go of Sheik and instinctively swerving to the side, Mimikyu avoided a scythe swing from Fait, whom had materialized just behind him, and stared at the magician woman with an angry expression.

“Hmm. Seems you’re more aware of your surroundings than my notes on you gave credit for.” Fait mused with a light smirk. “I was expecting a bit of an easier fight but you’re swifter than you look. Perhaps it’s the lighter weight?”

Mimikyu lashed out at Fait with a shadowy hand, but the magician simply spun her scythe again and teleported just as the Disguise Pokemon’s hand grabbed at her, reappearing behind Mimikyu. “You have a strange movement to you. This is strange. My notes didn’t go into that kind of detail…” She mused, catching Mimikyu by surprise.

“H-Hey, lady! Leave my minion alone!” Lord Hater said as he struggled to get himself out of a headlock from Sheik. “Y-You’re playin’ with fire here! Seriously!”

Fait laughed. “I think you have more-pressing matters to deal with at the moment.” She admitted as she turned to Mimikyu and got into a stance. “I hope you don’t mind me taking a few notes while we fight, do you? You Pokemon fascinate me.” She insisted.

Mimikyu tilted his head in confusion.

“Mystery…Fighter…FIVE…”

“SCRATCH AND GROUNDER!” (Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog)

The audience reacted in surprise at the sight of two animalistic, yet cartoony, robots that emerged from the curtain side by side: A tall, lanky chicken robot and a short, green, vaguely-mole-shaped robot with drills for arms, tank treads for legs. The crowd, after getting over their surprise at seeing the two badniks, gave them a warm reception as the two comedic lackeys looked around.

“Gee, Scratch, it kinda looks like they LIKE us.” Grounder, the mole-like robot, admitted.

“Of course they do, bolt-brain! And if they like us, then they won’t mind if we destroy Sonic once he enters the ring!” Scratch, the chicken robot, said with a smirk as the two robots marched down to the ring together.

Grounder paused. “Uh…But when is that gonna be?” He asked.

Scratch paused. “Wait. It was your JOB to find out when Sonic entered!” He insisted.

“Nuh-UH! Dr. Robotnik said it was YOUR job!”

Scratch rolled his eyes and swatted Grounder upside the head, knocking the mole-like tank robot into the arena before stepping in himself. “Look, we wanna make Dr. Robotnik proud while he watches us from the crowd, and it’s CLEAR that neither of us know when that stupid hedgehog is supposed to enter.” He mentioned as Grounder pushed himself off his face. He saw Mario off to the side and pointed him out. “He’s friends with that plumber guy, isn’t he? Maybe HE knows when Sonic is gonna enter.”

“Oh! Great idea, Scratch! Maybe we can beat the information outta him!” Grounder said, turning his drills hands into actual hands just so that he could rub them together in anticipation.

“Of course we can! We were built to destroy Sonic, so what good is a puny, fat human gonna do?” Scratch asked as he climbed onto Grounder’s back. “Come on! Run him over!”

Grounder grinned darkly as he revved his tank treads and took off, making a beeline straight for Mario. Mario stood in their path, lifted a leg and took one step to the side, allowing the two badniks to fly by him, screaming in terror as they crashed headfirst into a cornerpost.

Mario stood over the prone forms of Scratch and Grounder. “You know, it a-doesn’t really help you when you announce you’re a-plans out loud.” He reminded.

“Aw, shut up!” Scratch moaned from the canvas.

“SQUIRTLE!” (PKMN)

(Ahahahaha!)

( Wipeout!)

While the audience was spared more of Meowth’s off-key singing because the song he had picked for Squirtle was almost entirely instrumental, they soon realized that Meowth was playing the guitar for the riffs of the surf song and that his guitar playing was just as off-key and off-tune as his singing was.

Squirtle seemed to pay the awful guitar music blaring through the speakers no mind as the small turtle Pokemon’s thoughts appeared to be elsewhere. It was clear he was still a little bummed that the tournament host had yet again not allowed him to enter in his Blastoise form, something he had turned into during the Tournament of Kikai, solely because ‘it’s Squirtle that shows up in Smash and not Blastoise’. He had heard the same excuse in the revived Battle of the Luminaries and he was honestly getting tired of the amount of times he was getting forcibly turned back into a Squirtle now that he knew what it was like being a Blastoise.

Greninja saw Squirtle enter and made his way over. “You look a little down, kiddo. You still upset about the power downgrade?” He asked, though in the Pokemon language only other Pokemon could understand.

“Of course I am! How would YOU like it if, after spending so long in your third form, you get forced back into your FIRST?!” Squirtle demanded, again in the Pokemon-only language.

Greninja sighed. “I understand the frustration. I would be annoyed if I were in your shoes.” He insisted.

Darunia suddenly made his presence known as he came over, huge hammer slung over his shoulder. “Ah! Another potential little bro, perhaps!” He said. “Say! You look like you could use a little iron, kid! I think I’ve got a rock or two if you’d like.”

“Why would I eat a ROCK?!” Squirtle demanded.

“You learn to just kind of roll with it with this guy, Squirtle.” Greninja sighed.

Darinia laughed as he fished a rock into view, not understanding what the two water Pokemon were saying. “Sounds like you’re interested! Well, believe me, these rocks are full of all the iron you-”

“SQUIRTLE!”

Squirtle fired a beam of water from his mouth, more in an attempt to get Darunia to start talking, only to watch as, instead of a small, weak jet of water, a high-pressure beam of water fired from his mouth that knocked Darunia not only off his feet by caused the Goron chief to fly backwards several feet.

Greninja jumped back in shock at Squirtle’s display of power and even Squirtle himself seemed surprised when he stared ahead with wide eyes and an open mouth as the water jet died down. “Did…Did you just do what I think you did?” Greninja asked.

“Yeah…I think I did. I only have that kind of power as a…” Squirtle said before a smirk floated across his face. “Okay. I can work with this.”

(Announcer’s Booth)

SSBFreak stared in wide-eyed silence at the arena, his brain seemingly trying to register what was happening. Khall, in the meantime, was scratching his head in confusion. “Huh. That little guy’s pretty OP, if you ask me.” He mentioned. “I’d hate to see what kind of power he packs when he becomes that big water-tank-turtle thing.”

SSBFreak blinked a few times, held his bridge of his nose in annoyance for a few seconds, and took a deep breath. “SHEOGORATH!” He yelled in frustration.

A pillar of light appeared behind the two hosts and, when it fizzled out, there stood Sheogorath, with Haskill behind him and carrying a serving tray of cheese. “Yes, hello, that’s me name. Please don’t wear it out or put it on a tee shirt and expect it to not be shrunk in a hot wash.” The mad god said with a playful grin.

SSBFreak turned to stare at Sheogorath with an angry look. “WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?” He asked flatly.

Sheogorath paused, then glanced at Haskill. His chamberlain gave a shrug in response, and then the mad god glanced back at the host. “Yoooou’re…Gonna need to be a bit more-specific.” He admitted.

“SQUIRTLE!” SSBFreak exclaimed, waving his arm in the direction of the arena, where Squirtle was shown picking up Darunia, whom was at least three times his size, and piledriving him into the canvas. “Why is he showcasing this kind of power?! He’s way stronger than a Squirtle should have any RIGHT to be!”

Sheogorath laughed. “Oh, THAT? Lad, the poor thing went through SO MUCH growth and development in the Tournament of Kikai. LITERALLY! He literally became a Blastoise over the course of the tournament!” He reminded. “But due to the stipulations about needing to be a Squirtle for the following tournaments he needed to take a step down in power and, if I’m being honest, I thought it felt kinda unfair for him. To have all that muscle and destructive power just stripped away from you? How would YOU like it if someone warped your insides and turned any dwabbingly-miniscule muscles you have to fat? Seriously, how WOULD you like it, because I can definitely arrange it.”

SSBFreak held his forehead. “So…Let me get this straight: When Squirtle was turned from a Blastoise back into a Squirtle for the tournament, you didn’t change his power level? So we have a Squirtle in the arena with the power of a BLASTOISE?!” He asked. “And you expect me to believe it’s because you felt SORRY for him? YOU?!”

“Eh, I’ll admit that most of it was seeing the humour of watching such a small fighter packing a punch like that.” Sheogorath shrugged nonchalantly.

SSBFreak sat in silence for a few seconds, holding his head. “…Please tell me you didn’t do the same thing to Ivysaur…” He sighed.

“Okay. I WON’T tell you.” Sheogorath replied. After a couple seconds of awkward silence, he pointed his thumb at his chamberlain. “Haskill will.”

“He totally did.” Haskill stated dryly.

SSBFreak’s head hit his desk again as Sheogorath and Haskill vanished in another pillar of light, likely to return to Sheogorath’s private booth.

“Y’know, I can’t put my finger on it but something tells me that guy has something going on he’s not telling you.” Khall mused.

(Hotel; Dr. Cortex’s Room)

The only sound heard in the room was the quiet ticking of a clock hanging on the wall. Awkward silence hung over the room’s table as Cortex and Wily glanced at each other a couple of times before returning their gazes to the third person sitting at the table; the same one that Nina had returned with only a moment prior. It was true that Nina had returned with “A” Dr. Robotnik; just not the one that her uncle was looking for.

The new figure bore a slight resemblance to the Dr. Eggman that Cortex and Wily were searching for but was far-more cartoonishly-overweight, with a slightly-elongated forehead and a thick, busy orange mustache. Rather than wear glasses like Eggman did, the newcomer had bright red irises inside pitch black eyeballs.

“Now then! Shall we get down to business?” The cartoonish Dr. Robotnik asked with an over-the-top hamminess to his voice. It was clear he didn’t have very much patience. “I assume that there’s a reason you two decided to interrupt the grrrreat evil genius that is Dr. Ivo Rrrrrrobotnik while he was watching this tournament?”

“Um…May I ask why you were here watching the tournament in the first place?” Wily asked.

“Hah! I heard that the rrrrotten, rrrrepugnant hedgehog was here so I entered my two dumb-bots to smash and destroy him the instant they saw him!” Robotnik insisted, rolling his r’s at almost every instance he could for some reason.

“You realize that it’s not YOUR Sonic entered in the tournament, right?”

“How DARE you, you shrrrriveled old man! You think I wouldn’t rrrrecognize my sworn enemy when I saw him?!” Robotnik demanded. “You DARE challenge the memory of the genius mind of Rrrrrobotnik?!”

As Robotnik continued to ramble in an over-the-top manner, Cortex glanced at Nina. “You REALLY couldn’t find Eggman?!” He whispered in a hushed voice.

“We scanned everywhere in the crowd! We really don’t think he’s here!” Nina whispered back.

“Why THIS one?! I’d even take the live-action movie version of Robotnik over this one!”

“This one was the only one we could find!”

“Hey! Small one! What are you talking about over there?!” Robotnik demanded. “Don’t you know it’s rrrrude to whisper when other people are around?!”

Cortex coughed. “Uh…Forgive me. My mind is elsewhere right now…” He admitted. “Well, my colleague here and I have a project ongoing tonight and we needed some more mindpower for it so-”

Robotnik laughed heartily. “Ah, so you OBVIOUSLY heard I was here and decided that this little prrrroject of your needed a mind of MY genius intellect behind it!” He guessed.

Cortex and Wily glanced at each other awkwardly before turning by to the overweight scientist. “Yeah. Sure. Let’s go with that.” Cortex replied.

“We know it’s not an optimal situation but we could really use the help.” Wily explained. “Are you able to give us a hand?”

Robotnik pondered for a few moments. “Well, you see, that’s a good question. While I would LOVE a chance to have some help building a machine that can finally destrrrroy that cursed hedgehog once and for all, and I honestly don’t see those two dumb-bots of mine having any luck in the rrrrring, I…” He trailed off for a couple of seconds, looking deep in thought. “…Oh, who am I kidding? Of COURSE I’m interested!”

“Ah! Splendid! Perhaps we can work on this machine right away? Cortex isn’t due in the arena for a bit and even I have a few sections before I’m due in there, so if we can get a head-start on building this then we won’t need to worry about catching up with it later.” Wily said.

“That said, we could also use a bit of manpower in addition to what we have.” Cortex said. “I...Certainly hope that you brought more help other than those two robots you just sent into the arena.”

Robotnik blinked in confusion. “Why would I ever need more?” He asked.

Cortex and Wily shared another glance. They both had a feeling that tonight wasn’t going to be fun...

(Hotel; Hallway)

“It’s good to hear that you’re on board with this.” Zant said as he walked down a hallway alongside a tall, slim man in a suit with a hat covering his eyes. “Lord Ganondorf said you were usually up to chip in if it caused a little chaos.”

Yuber couldn’t help but give a light smirk. “I couldn’t stay away if you asked me to. Chaos and destruction seems to attract me.” He admitted. “Plus, I figured someone would be coming to me for help tonight anyway. I’m just surprised Bison never approached me this time.”

“Hmm...You think he’s actually not going to try something?” Zant asked. “Lord Ganondorf would definitely want to know if he needs to worry about Bison tonight.”

“If Bison IS planning something I was never approached about it. You did, however; that’s all that matters to me.” Yuber shrugged. “I take it Ganondorf’s looking for people to check in?”

“Well, him and the old Mishima guy from Tekken, but he’s in the ring by now.” Zant replied.

“Huh. I didn’t count on Ganondorf being one to have a work partner.” Yuber smirked. “You sure Mishima won’t catch on that he’s probably just as much a pawn as you are?”

Zant turned his helmet to face Yuber sharply. “My patience runs thin enough as it is! Lord Ganondorf has a plan and I intend to make sure he sees it through, and right now that involves getting as much help as I can!” He insisted.

“Sure, sure. Like I said, I’m fine just playing along if it means I can cause some mayhem but remember that I need to keep one eye open tonight. Usually the host of these things has Pesmerga enter as a Mystery Fighter just to mess with me but now I know he’s entering as a regular fighter so I know he’ll likely be looking to come after me.” Yuber informed.

Zant scoffed behind his mask. “I still don’t see why you’re so scared of that guy. He’s just a guy wearing a black suit of armour.” He mentioned.

Yuber sighed. “I’ll...Admit that the Suikoden series kind of died out before that whole subplot got resolved.” He admitted. “Just remember that, if Pesmerga shows his face when I’m around, I’m retreating. I don’t have the time, will or patience to deal with him tonight.”

Zant sighed. “Fine. Just go report to Lord Ganondorf and I’m sure he’ll fill you in one what he’ll expect of you.” He mentioned.

Yuber nodded as he tipped his hat and sunk into a portal of light on the floor he generated under his feet, leaving Zant alone in the hallway. The masked Usurper King glanced around a bit before he was satisfied that he was alone and gave a sigh. “How many of these prospects are going to piece away at my sanity?” He asked aloud. “I’m looking over my shoulder enough as it is...”

Zant was loyal to Ganondorf but he had to admit that he was getting tired of this recruiting. He felt he had spent the last couple of sections doing nothing but gather forces for his master and even then he felt he was getting nowhere. For that matter, Ganondorf still hadn’t told him what the plan was about. The only one who seemed to be fully-aware of what the plan entailed was Heihachi Mishima, Ganondorf’s apparent business partner (and the main reason Ganondorf had the funds to provide Zant to recruit hirable forces), and Zant was still cautious to actually trust the old martial artist. Something about him put Zant off and it wasn’t just the fact that he kept a huge grizzly bear around as a loyal pet and bodyguard.

Zant turned around and prepared to start walking down the hallway again, likely to go and try recruiting someone else. Perhaps that red-clad bounty hunter would be up for some extra work now that she had been eliminated from the tournament. However, the instant he turned around, Zant froze when he saw a new figure coming down the hallway. The newcomer, a female, was dressed colourfully, complete with bright, puffy yellow overalls, oversized red sneakers and a bright blue top, and had orange-ish hair designed and patterned like a colourful lollipop. The most-notable characteristic for Zant, however, was the round, bright red nose the woman had as she walked obliviously towards Zant.

“Oh! Excuse me!” The clown woman said as she passed by Zant and made her way into a nearby door leading into the hotel’s restaurant.

A thousand thoughts went through Zant’s mind as he watched the woman vanish into the restaurant. All he continued to see in his mind was the woman’s red nose; a giveaway to her status as a clown. His thoughts instantly went back to the third Megamix Tournament; before the dome lost its power and needed to be cancelled, Zant had gone to a magic reading room owned and operated by Street Fighter representative Rose, and he had gotten his fortune told on a whim, though he immensely regretted it now since it had kickstarted his paranoia...

Zant had been told that, at some point, he would get into a fight with someone, an unknown assailant but described as a clown with a bright, red nose, and barely survive the battle regardless of if he won or lost. Zant had remained overly-paranoid about a villainous clown that he had been working with, worried that he would be ambushed at some point but, since nothing had happened, Zant figured that the fortune had been warning Zant about another clown he hadn’t known about. Now, years later, Zant was beginning to wonder if that fortune he had been told all those years ago in a separate tournament entirely was really warning him about someone in THIS tournament.

And, specifically, about the clown woman that had just passed him and walked into the restaurant.

“...Clown...Clown...” Zant whispered in a panic. His limbs started shaking in fear as a blade suddenly shot from his huge sleeve...

(Hotel; Restaurant)

“Welcome to the restaurant! You lookin’ for something to eat while you watch the tournament? We’ve got you covered!” Chef Kawasaki greeted.

Lola Pop, resident clown fighter of ARMS, gave a polite nod as she approached the counter. “Hi, there! I’m looking for something that’ll satisfy my sweet tooth for a while!” She greeted. “What do you recommend from your dessert menu?”

“Oh, I have a strawberry cake here that’s to DIE for, my friend! Seriously, Kirby’s gone on a warpath before JUST BECAUSE a slice of his strawberry cake got stolen.” Chef Kawasaki replied. “I mean, Kirby will eat anything but if it’s something that’s worth going on a path of wanton destruction that results in the annihilation of a fragment of Dark Matter then I’d say it’s definitely good.”

Lola Pop blinked a few times in confusion before giving a shrug. “Sure. I’ll give it a shot.” She replied.

Chef Kawasaki nodded as he left to start preparing the order, passing by the kitchen window where the Swedish Chef was chasing a sentient block of cheese with a grater before, a few seconds later, running in fear from the same block of cheese that was now wielding the grater. Kawasaki didn’t trust his fellow chef enough with this recipe; this cake needed to be made to perfection.

Lola Pop waited as Chef Kawasaki started to work on the cake. Admittedly, the clown girl was a bit disappointed that the ARMS cast was passed over for a formal invite to the tournament, but she knew Min Min would be making the node proud as a rep for the Smash node. Maybe the next time ARMS would get a full roster representation? Lola Pop couldn’t help but be hopeful for the future, in that regard.

Still, she wanted to get back to her seat before Min Min entered the arena. She didn’t know when Min Min was slated to enter but Lola Pop started getting a craving for something sweet that she couldn’t ignore and decided to make a quick trip to the restaurant. She could have gone to the nearest vending machine but she knew the good sweets would be chef-prepared. Hopefully she could get her order and take it back to her seat before Min Min could enter the ring. The last thing Lola Pop wanted to do was miss-

Lola Pop suddenly heard what sounded like a sword getting unsheathed, which brought her out of her thoughts. Lola glanced over her shoulder and saw Zant standing in the doorway to the restaurant. “Oh, hello. Did...You forget something in here?” She asked.

“...Clown...No...No clown is going to succeed...”

Lola Pop tiled her head in confusion. “Um...What?” She asked.

Zant raised two scimitars into the air and, with a loud battle-cry, leapt at Lola Pop with both weapons raised above his head. Lola Pop yelled in surprised as she rolled to the side, causing Zant to slam his scimitars into the counter.

“Hey! Those are new counters!” Chef Kawasaki yelled from his prep station.

Lola Pop instinctively got into a stance as she transformed her regular arms into her long and elastic ARMS, designed to look like long, stretchy taffy. “W-What is your DEAL?!” She demanded.

Zant wasn’t listening as he slowly turned around to face the girl. All he cared about was stamping out the clown. And that, at the moment, was Lola Pop...

(The Arena)

“NECALLI!” (SF5)

The crowd seemed to be giving a mostly-negative reaction as a long-haired, primal-looking man emerged from the curtain, crouching low as he scanned the arena, as if looking for someone specific before making his entrance.

“I sense powerful souls...Souls of fierce warriors...” Necalli muttered as he looked down at the arena with wild eyes. He set his sights on one fighter. “That one!”

Necalli roared as he stampeded down the entrance curtain and threw himself into the arena, landing on his feet as he stared straight ahead and made a beeline for his target, leaping over a surprised Olimar as he did.

Magyar looked up and saw Necalli charging at them. They quickly held up their broadsword and blocked a blow as Necalli dug into the sword with his bare hands. “What crawled up YOUR pants and died?” One of the souls snarked.

“You carry many warrior’s souls in you! I MUST HAVE THEM!” Necalli roared as he continued to take wild shots and lash out at Magyar, as if trying to break through their defense using brute force.

“Yeesh. It’s just one thing after another in here.” One of Magyar’s souls said flatly.

“Well, I don’t think he’s leaving us alone if he’s actively looking to eat us.” Another soul admitted.

Magyar took a huge swing at Necalli, striking him in the side with their broadsword and sending the soul-hungry warrior sprawling. Necalli didn’t seem fazed too much as he landed on his feet again and turned to face the haunted armour, letting out another roar as Magyar got into a stance.

“H-Hey! Don’t leave me alone! I can’t fight this crazy girl by myself!” Lord Hater pleaded at Magyar, suddenly realizing that, with both Mimikyu and Magyar distracted, he was on his own as far as Sheik went.

“You’ll live.” Sheik smirked as she played her harp a bit and summoned a flaming rock over Lord Hater’s head.

“BAYONETTA!” (SSB)

To a combination of cheers and catcalls, Bayonetta emerged from the curtain and struck a few poses, seemingly reveling in the attention before striding down to the arena, guns in hand. Reaching the end of the ramp, Bayonetta struck another stylish-looking pose before backflipping into the arena, earning her another cheer for the show.

Bayonetta landed in the arena near Merengue, whom seemed to be finally stopping favouring her shoulder. Merengue stepped back in surprise, nearly falling over, as Bayonetta landed in front of her. “Ack! D-Don’t surprise me like that!” She said.

“Darling, you should have known what you were in for when you signed up for this.” Bayonetta shrugged with a chuckle.

“I-I DIDN’T sign up for this!”

Bayonetta laughed again. “Sorry, sweetie, but if you don’t have the willpower to stay in the ring then you’ve kind of brought this on yourself.” She said. “Don’t worry. This’ll be quick and painless.”

Bayonetta lashed out with her foot, aiming straight for Merengue’s face. The pink rhino screamed as she held up her hands and caught Bayonetta’s foot with them, keeping the kick from landing. The umbra witch’s smirk faltered when she saw that Merengue was holding her in place and preventing her kick from going forward.

“Hmm...You’ve got some muscle on you...” Bayonetta remarked.

“P-Please don’t make me fight you!” Merengue shouted as she picked up Bayonetta by the leg and threw her over her shoulder in a desperate attempt to get the witch away from her.

Bayonetta landed on her side and awkwardly bounced back a few feet before coming to a halt and pushing herself up. “Okay. I definitely wasn’t expecting that.” She remarked as she pulled up a pistol. “I may have to try bullets on this one...”

“NECLORD!” (ST)

The crowd backed away in fear as Suikoden’s resident vampire lord emerged from the curtain with a cold, fearsome presence compounded by the dimmer lights accompanying him down to the ring. Neclord took his time walking down to the ring, giving the audience time to bask in his dark presence, before he reached the bottom of the entrance ramp. His hand lighting up with electricity, Neclord descended into the arena.

Heihachi was still fighting the Mad Piano, seemingly to a standstill. The Mad Piano was snapping at Heihachi wildly, sometimes even tossing a book or two at him, but the older martial artist was proving to be too fast for it to hit and strong enough to counter when the sentient piano tried attacking him.

All of a sudden, Heihachi felt the presence of something coming at him from behind and instinctively dodged out of the way. A powerful bolt of lightning shot past him and slammed directly into the Mad Piano, knocking it back several feet from the power of the blast. Heihachi turned around and saw Neclord coming over. “That was a mistake; trying to take a shot at me from behind.” He said as he got into a stance.

Neclord couldn’t help but smirk. “Your reflexes are surprising for someone of your age.” He mentioned. “It’s been a while since I’ve faced someone with such skill.”

Heihachi paused, going through some thoughts in his head as he weighed his options. He knew of Neclord’s power and pondered if he was someone that could be of use to his and Ganondorf’s plan. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to have the vampire lord on his side, anyways. “Actually, now that I’ve seen the power you wield, perhaps we can avoid a conflict?” He asked.

Neclord paused. “What did you have in mind, mortal?” He asked.

“I have a little...Business offer for you.” Heihachi said. “If you come on board, I can almost guarantee an army of fools that, after killing them, can be resurrected into fighting for you.”

Neclord thought this over for a few seconds before giving a dark smirk. “I’m listening...” He said.

Bowser Jr., meanwhile was screaming as he tried to keep the Mad Piano away with a hammer. Neclord making his appearance by blasting the piano away from Heihachi got it to set its sights on the Koopa prince again.

“Get away from me, doggie! I swear I’ll give you indigestion!” Bowser Jr. said as he swung a hammer at the Mad Piano, causing it to jump back and avoid the attack. The Mad Piano then leapt at Bowser Jr., teeth bared and ready to chomp down on the small Koopa.

All of a sudden, a huge ninja star slammed into the side of the Mad Piano and exploded, knocking the sentient instrument to the side again. Bowser Jr. looked around to see where the star had come from and found himself looking at the entrance curtain. His face fell again. “Aw, maaaaaan...” He whined.

“POM POM!” (SMB)

Standing outside of the curtain was another large Koopa, though not as big as Boom Boom was, this one a female with a ponytail and a red-pink colour scheme. Standing in a pose after throwing her ninja star down at the Mad Piano, Pom Pom summoned another one into her hand as she raced down the ramp like a ninja, disappearing at the end in a cloud of smoke.

Another cloud of smoke burst from nothingness in front of Bowser Jr. as Pom Pom appeared in front of him. “I’m glad I got to you in time, prince!” She greeted. “When King Bowser saw the piano entering the ring he gave me strict instructions to make sure it didn’t get to you.”

Bowser Jr. sighed. “How many times do I need to tell papa that I don’t need a babysitter?” He whined. “I mean, I’m glad for the help because that thing took me by surprise but you and Boom Boom don’t need to worry about me so much.”

“Your father didn’t want to take any chances.” Pom Pom insisted.

“So her seriously told you to watch me like a hawk the instant you got into the arena?! I don’t need protecting!”

“My prince, I don’t like to talk back to you but you DID see how much damage that monster is capable of in the last section, right?”

Bowser Jr. pouted. “...Fine. Thank you for saving me from the deranged piano, Pom Pom.” He sighed. “But I don’t think either of us are safe until it’s gone.”

Pom Pom looked over her shoulder and saw the Mad Piano preparing another lunge. Slapping her hands together, pom Pom generated four clones of herself that surrounded the Mad Piano, seemingly taking it by surprise and making it stop. It glanced about at the five Pom Poms surrounding it, as if wondering which one was the real one.

“Stay behind me, my prince! We can take it!” All five Pom Poms shouted at once as they all threw a ninja star at the Mad Piano.

Bowser Jr. sighed again as Pom Pom bravely (or stupidly) jumped in to fight the Mad Piano with her group of clones and he pulled out another hammer before racing in to help her with his clown car. His dad would be sure to give him an earful after this...

“LORD VRAXX!” (BH)

Standing outside the curtain was a green, one-eyed alien with a mad grin and laughing insanely to the sky as the crowd gave him a warm reception. He waved to the crowd proudly as he marched down to the ring like a regal king.

“Thank you, my future loyal subjects! When the great Lord Vraxx conquers this universe he will be sure to remember you all and will be sure to perhaps go easy on you!” Lord Vraxx called out to the audience as he continued to wave until he reached the end of the entrance ramp. Vraxx grinned as he summoned a pair of futuristic-looking blasters into his hands as he jumped into the ring.

Diddy Kong was still trying to tinker with his rocketbarrel jetpack that had been busted in the last section when Vraxx came over and stood over him. “The arena is no place for TINKERING, you whelp! I didn’t become grand emperor by letting my soldiers build contraptions on the battlefield! I just placed high-powered, untested, particle-accelerated guns in their hands and pointed them at the enemy!” He announced. “Look around you! There are fights everywhere!”

Diddy stared up at Vraxx flatly, pulled out his peanut popgun and pointed it at Vraxx’s huge, single eye. Vraxx laughed loudly. “Is...Is that gun made of WOOD?!” He demanded. “What good is a gun made of WOOD expected to be against two top-end blasters like the ones I-”

*POW!*

A peanut bounced off Vraxx’s eyeball. The space tyrant screamed bloody murder as he staggered backwards, gingerly holding his eye. “Owwww! What’d you hit me for, you little rodent?! Don’t you know how RUDE it is to shoot someone when he’s in the middle of a monologue?!” Vraxx yelled before he paused. “...Wow, now I know how my enemies feel when I do the same thing to them...”

Diddy, having finished fixing up his jetpack, tucked it away for now (where he put it was a complete mystery), and got into a stance, beckoning Vraxx to face him.

“So you’ve decided to stand up and fight after all, huh? Very well...” Vraxx said as he opened fire on Diddy with both blasters. “Now SUBMIT TO VRAXX!!”

Diddy leapt around the volley of laser bolts Vraxx fired upon him, showing athletic gymnastics and backflips to get around some of the shots. Vraxx continued to unload lasers onto Diddy but steadily got more and more frustrated the more Diddy avoided the shots. Finally, when Diddy landed on his feet away from Vraxx, he pulled out his popgun again and fired another peanut into his eye.

“OW!! Stop that, you flea-bitten little throw-rug!” Vraxx shouted as he charged at Diddy with another yell. “No ones makes a mockery of Lord Vraxx!!”

“MAI SHIRANUI!” (KOF)

For once, SNK’s resident fanservice ninja seemed to be ignoring the cheers and declarations of love thrown her way. Instead, she stared down at the arena with a serious, hardened gaze, setting her sights on one particular target as she drew a fan, shoved it between her teeth and ran down the ramp with two more in her hands, engulfing herself in flames as she leapt into the arena.

Landing in the arena, Mai rushed headfirst at her target, shoulder-barging her way past a surprised Darunia (as he was recovering from another high-pressure water jet from Squirtle) and leaping her way over Greninja, whom seemed to be stepping in her way and looking for a fight from a fellow ninja.

Bayonetta turned her head just in time to see Mai’s leg coming at her head. Mai smashed her leg across Bayonetta’s face in a powerful roundhouse, knocking the witch down as Merengue looked on with a bewildered gaze.

“Um...Thanks for the help.” Merengue piped up.

Mai didn’t seem to be listening and instead stared down at Bayonetta. “Stand up, hussy! I’ve got beef with you!” She declared.

Bayonetta pushed herself up and stared at Mai, wiping a drop of blood from her mouth. “Dear, I think you must have me mistaken for someone else.” She said.

“Bull! Sakurai barred me from Smash because he deemed me too inappropriate to even be a cameo, but he’s fine letting YOU be a full-fledged FIGHTER?!” Mai said as she got into a stance. “What do you have that makes you appropriate in a game for ‘good boys and girls’?!”

Bayonetta looked Mai’s outfit up and down a few times. “Perhaps an outfit that doesn’t show off enough skin that you could wear it to a swimsuit competition?” She asked.

“You’re clothes are LITERALLY your HAIR!!” Mai yelled, getting frustrated. “And you strike enough sultry poses you could work part-time as a stripper! Am I the only one seeing the hypocrisy here?!”

Bayonetta lifted an eyebrow and smirked. “My. It seems you have a chip on your shoulder as big as your chest. Can’t have that.” She said as she aimed her guns at Mai. “How about you put your money where your mouth is?”

“Gladly! I’ve been waiting for this moment for years!” Mai said as she got into her own stance.

Merengue looked back and forth between the two a few times before she finally decided to slink away and hope no one notice her get out of dodge when the two women clashed.

(Dome; Security Office)

A blubbering, barely-holding-it-together Saxton Hale sat on a chair in the security team’s main office. Max, Lucia and Scorch were all taking notes as Saxton Hale continued to tell them all what had happened, although it was clear that they were having struggles since Hale was barely able to get a sentence out before sobbing and devolving into a sputtering mess.

Estel gave a sigh as Hale collapsed into a sobbing mess again as she turned to the note-takers. “Well, what do we have to go on?” She asked.

Max showed his notepad, revealing a bunch of scribbles and a few stick figures getting their heads bitten off by a stick figure resembling Max himself. Lucia scratched her head and gave a silent shrug, showing her notepad to be covered with incomplete words in her attempts to make sense of what Hale had been saying. Scorch silently showed Estel his notepad and she saw that, likely out of boredom, he had set his paper on fire despite having no access to his flamethrower.

Estel groaned and slapped her head. “We’re getting NOWHERE with this! All we know is that someone took something called an ‘Australium’ and that’s not even a real thing!” She said.

“In the world of TF2 it is.” Max supplied, holding a finger in the air. “One of the most-valuable and sought-after minerals in that world, as a matter of fact.”

Estel blinked. “And you decided to hold back on telling us that you knew this WHY?!” She asked.

Max shrugged. “I dunno. Watching the big guy cry was funny.” He admitted.

Estel held onto her forehead in frustration. “…And what ELSE can you tell us about this ‘Australium’?” She asked.

“Oh, basically that it’s the reason ol’ discount Chuck Norris here is a successful businessman since Australia is pretty much the only source of Australium, wars have been fought over the stuff and the TF2 announcer lady may or may not have an agenda of her own involving Australium in a bid to gain immortality.” Max said plainly. “But don’t quote me on that last part because the TF2 comics are still unfinished ten years later.”

“TF2 refuses to die so badly that the endgame comic can’t even be finished.” Psymon smirked.

Estel blinked. “And WHY did Mr. Hale think it was a good idea to bring a material that priceless and important here in the FIRST place?!” She demanded.

Hale looked up and wiped away his tears, trying to regain his composure. “Lady, I’ll have you know that I ALWAYS walk around with a twenty-five pound brick of Australium just in case I decide I want to buy someone out! I was intending to see how I felt about this tournament before I decided if I wanted to buy the rights to it off the owner!” He insisted. “B-But…But when I looked at where I had stored it in the TF2 Locker Room, it was GONE!”

“So whoever stole it had access to your locker room, so wouldn’t that obviously narrow it down to one of the nine mercs?” Estel guessed.

Lucia held up a hand. “Except maybe rule out the Soldier guy because he was probably still in the ring when it was stolen.” She added.

“Good point. So that means it’s one of eight guys?”

Hale stood up. “Oh, absolutely NOT! Those mercs may be idiots but they’re not stupid enough to steal AUSTRALIUM from ME, their BOSS!” He insisted.

“Well then, who else could it be?! The locker rooms have tech installed to keep people from entering a locker room not belonging to their node!” Estel replied.

“I don’t know! That’s why I came to you lot!” Hale retorted.

Estel sighed and looked to Psymon. “Well. What is it we do when we have so little to go on?” She asked.

Psymon scratched his head. “Uh…I dunno. Usually the security team just wanders the hallways aimlessly, gets into fights with the odd villain here and there and just…Stands around being funny.” He said.

“It helps break up the pace of the action in the ring!” Max supplied.

“AaAaAaAaAaAahhhhhh! Ah’m ten feet away from rupturing mah pancreas!” Homsar said randomly, as if proving Psymon and Max’s points, as he floated over Saxton Hale’s head.

Hale looked up and watched Homsar float by. “Uh…Is that white blob thing one of yours?” He asked.

“He’s a tagalong that we can’t get rid of.” Estel rolled her eyes. “Okay, Mr. Hale. We’ll start looking for leads on who took your Australium and where they went with it. If none of the mercs took it, then maybe they at least saw something.”

“Uh…I’m gonna request that you keep me away from the Pyro.” Scorch said. “I may be a pyromaniac but I don’t feel like melting tonight.”

(Multiversal Matchup)

A portal opened up in the sky and deposited eight fighters into their node. Unlike the previous section’s participants, the eight Multiversal Matchup fighters were dropped onto the top of a sand dune as opposed to a deep snowbank. Most of the fighters managed to stick the landing okay but Wang-Tang ended up landing awkwardly and tumbling down the dune before landing face-first in the desert sand below.

Angel looked around. “Well, at least we got sent someplace warm.” She admitted.

Slash felt the sand and couldn’t help but smile. “This feels like home to me.” He admitted. “Maybe we’re somewhere prehistoric…”

Pyra brushed herself off before looking ahead, down the dune. “Hey, look! There’s a town down there!” She pointed out.

The group looked ahead and saw a small collection of stone buildings in the sand, surrounded by palm trees and bits of water. Even further over the horizon, the group could see a larger civilization with more buildings and likely more signs of life. However, what caught everyone’s sights the most was that there were soldiers occupying the small town, looking ready to take on a group of invaders that, as it slowly dawned on the group, likely meant that the goal of this round was to invade the town and cut through them.

Clark looked around curiously. “Strange…This place feels familiar…” He admitted.

Angel smirked. “So we’re likely in Ikari Warriors? That’d give you a home field advantage.” She admitted before looking at the others. “Hey, everyone? We’re ganging up on the guy with the shades!”

“This is NOT Ikari Warriors.” Clark said sharply. “All I said was that it looked familiar.”

“So where are we, then?” Ibuki asked, arms folded.

Spike looked over his shoulder and saw Necrozma looking towards the sky. After a few seconds, it fired a laser beam into the clouds. “Uh…Guys? The Pokemon seems to see something up there.” He said.

Everyone looked up into the sky (although Wang-Tang had to crawl his way out from under the sand first) and watched in surprise as a fleet of UFOs descended from the clouds and honed in on the soldier-occupied town. Almost instantly, the sounds of screaming and shooting were heard as the soldiers were clearing trying to fight off the UFOs.

As most of the other fighters reacted with shock and surprise, Clark gave a sigh. “THAT’S why this place felt familiar…” He admitted.

“Your suspicions are right, Clark!”

Everyone turned to see that a hologram of SSBFreak had materialized beside Wang-Tang at the bottom of the dune. Everyone came down the dune to be closer to the hologram and see what the host had to say, though Necrozma seemed more-intent on shooting at the UFOs that passed by. The others decided to leave it be for now.

“Welcome to this section’s Multiversal Matchup, everyone. Like before, you eight have been chosen for a little side competition in an effort to win a special trophy at the end of the night. Also like before, this one isn’t necessarily elimination-based but we all know anything can happen. You’ve all been brought here, to the world of Metal Slug, during an invasion of the Mars People.” SSBFreak announced.

“Mars People? You mean the aliens?” Spike asked.

“Yeah. They specifically call themselves the ‘Mars People’.” Clark explained.

“Anyways, as you can see, the soldiers down there are being annihilated by the Mars People…Buuuut, I mean, I guess technically the soldiers are enemies too but the Mars People are the bigger threat.” SSBFreak shrugged. “So, here’s your mission: Fight your way through the town. The Mars People’s mothership is at the edge of the town and is the main thing responsible to this invasion, so obviously the mission for this Multiversal Matchup is to destroy it. The Mars People will be trying to shoot you but, be warned, so will the soldiers. You can use whatever method you want to get ahead, including the firearms left scattered around the town, but remember that there are NO respawns or extra lives in this case like there are in Metal Slug. The winner will be the last one left standing or the one that destroys the mothership at the edge of the town.”

Slash narrowed his eyes. “I’ll do this without the firearms! I’ve faced Trident before and surely these ‘Mars People’ are no different genetically than he is!” He announced. “My club is all I need!”

“Speak for yourself. This’ll be way more-intense than catching monkeys.” Spike sighed as he looked out at the chaos the group was about to be thrust into.

“With that, all that’s left is to wish you luck. The challenge starts when this hologram shuts off.” SSBFreak finished. “Let the second Multiversal Matchup…Begin!!”

With that, the host’s hologram shut off, leaving seven fighters standing at the bottom of the sand dune and Necrozma continuing to fire lasers at the UFOs, trying to get at the lights they were emitting. Again, the others seemed to be ignoring it.

“This’ll be interesting.” Pyra smirked as she summoned her sword into her hand. “I’m sure I can burn my way through those aliens like I can anything else.”

“Don’t be so cocky. I’ve fought those Mars People before and they’re NOT to be taken lightly.” Clark reminded.

“So you DO have a leg-up here!” Angel said. “Guys, my point still stands! Let’s gang on up him!”

Everyone suddenly heard a loud screeching coming from the top of the sand dune. Necrozma, in its attempts to snipe down a saucer, had caught the attention of a low-flying UFO. Necrozma leapt onto it as it swooped by and started slamming its huge claws onto the top of the ship in an attempt to bring it down. The UFO carried on with Necrozma on top of it, towards the town, before the polygonal Pokemon managed to bring it down somewhere inside the town.

Ibuki’s eyes widened. “That thing’s already gotten a huge head-start!” She exclaimed as she took off running towards the town.

Clark, arms folded, watched as everyone else raced off towards the town in a panic, hoping to catch up with Necrozma before it could do too much damage. Clark sighed as he unfolded his arms, took the time to adjust his shades and brushed a bit of sand off his shoulder. “Here we go again…” He lamented as he took off after everyone else…

(Hotel; Gym)

The gym of the hotel was more of a formality than anything. Most hotels needed to have some sort of gym even if they were barely used, and on the night of the tournament the gym would likely not see anyone at all. SSBFreak only decided to keep the gym as part of the hotel because he had felt it just wouldn’t feel the same without it.

That said, despite the fact that there was a huge event going on, the gym was currently being used. Two Pokemon were using one of the weight benches, but what was unusual was that the muscled, four-armed Pokemon seemed to be the spotter for the small, round, balloon-shaped Pokemon currently lifting weights on her back using the bench.

“Come on! You’re almost done the set!” Machamp said.

“It’s…It’s getting heavier each time I push!” Jigglypuff groaned as she continued to push the weight upwards but looked like she was struggling.

“You’ve been going strong for ten minutes! You just need a couple more!” Machamp urged.

“I’m...I’m getting tired. My stupid stubby arms are hurting!”

“You want to prove how strong you are, right?!”

“Y-Yes!”

“You want to impress Kirby, right?!”

“YES!!”

“Then show me! Finish the set!!”

Jigglypuff yelled as she pushed the weights up one more time with all her might, managing to get the bar over the hooks and rest the weights off of her, finally ending her set. Her workout done, Jigglypuff sat up, which looked more like a ball rolling, as she panted in exhaustion. “Thank you for spotting me, Ms. Machamp.” Jigglypuff said. “And…Um…Thanks for keeping this a secret.”

Machamp folded both sets of her arms. “Why do you want to keep you working out a secret?” She asked.

“Come on. You saw how much I was struggling with so little weight! People would just laugh at how stupidly weak I am!” Jigglypuff sighed as she grabbed a bottle of water Machamp was holding out for her and started drinking it. “You can bench-press fifty times what I just did!”

“Jiggs, I’m a MACHAMP. Not many Pokemon get to be as strong as me.” Machamp reminded. “But the fact that you’re trying at all is admirable and you’ve been steadily showing progress in the time I’ve been training you.”

“I’ve been doing these workouts for three months now, though, and I don’t feel any stronger…”

  “It’s a process. Believe me; you’re getting stronger.”

Jigglypuff sighed. “That makes me feel a bit better, I guess…” She admitted. “Maybe in a few more months I’ll become the strongest Jigglypuff around! I won’t even NEED to become a Wigglytuff!”

Machamp couldn’t help but smirk as Jigglypuff suddenly regained some energy and started hopping around in what looked like an attempted boxing stance and started throwing a few practice punches with her stubby arms. “It’s good to see you’ve got your confidence back. That didn’t take long.” She said. “Well, now what? Want to rest a few minutes and keep going with the weights or move onto something else?”

Jigglypuff was about to respond when, all of a sudden, a muffled explosion rocked the gym, the source sounding like it was coming from outside the gym in the hallway. The two female Pokemon turned to face the door to the gym.

“What was that?! A bomb?!” Jigglypuff asked.

“Come on! Pikachu told us about potential plots at these things; maybe we can catch whoever planted that!” Machamp urged.

(Hotel; Outside Gym)

“Klump, why do you keep insisting on EATING those oranges when you KNOW they’re grenades?!”

“I can’t help it, your scaliness! They’re so good!”

King K. Rool sighed and held his forehead as he observed his two loyal hench-Kremlings, Klump and Krusha. The blue-skinned, muscled form of Krusha seemed to be staring at the shorter, helmet-wearing form of Klump in confusion as smoke emitted from the latter’s mouth as he spoke.

The Kremling king narrowed his eyes. “You know, there’s a reason we don’t get taken seriously and I have no doubt it’s because of you two bumbling buffoons and your inability to destroy those Kongs!” He said.

“I thought it was because you kept changing identities in every game you were in, your heaviness.” Krusha lifted a finger.

“THANK YOU, Krusha.” K. Rool rolled his eyes.

“You’re welcome.” Krusha replied dumbly.

“Look, the only reason I came for you two idiots was because I got an offer to help Ganondorf with something tonight and I told him I had some extra hands in exchange for some more power.” K. Rool folded his arms.

“So you have faith in our abilities to fight for you! We won’t let you down, sir!” Klump said energetically.

“NO. I made Ganondorf promise me some extra power in I brought ANY help. He won’t realize I’ve conned him until I come back with YOU TWO.”

Klump stood in silence for a few seconds. “I’ll take it.” He shrugged.

“JIGGY!”

K. Rool and his henchman turned to see the door to the nearby gym burst open as Jigglypuff and Machamp spilled out into the hallway, each of them looking mad.

“Puff! Jiggy-jigglypuff, puff!” Jigglypuff said.

“Champ! Ma-champ!” Machamp added, hoisting a handheld barbell into the air with one of her arms.

Klump shouted in surprise as he grabbed at his helmet. “A couple of spies! They musta heard what you were saying about Ganondorf, sir!” He said. “They must have heard you were offered power and now you’re working with him with us as your help!”

Jigglypuff and Machamp paused in silence, staring at Klump with awkward looks. K. Rool slapped his forehead and slowly dragged it down his face. “Klump, remind me after this is done to KILL YOU.” He said, realizing that Klump had just blabbed everything he knew to both Pokemon.

Klump shrunk back in fear. “I’ll, uh, make a note of it.” He said.

Krusha held up a hand, as if asking permission to speak. “So…Uh…Does this mean we gotta kill those things now?” He asked.

“YES, Krusha, this means we gotta kill those things now.” K. Rool sighed.

Krusha nodded as he turned just to be met with a massive fist to the face courtesy of Machamp. Krusha was sent flying back, straight past K. Rool, as the Kremling king seemed to realize just how much-stronger even the one Pokemon was than his stronger Kremling.

“D-Don’t just stand there, Klump! Start fighting them!” K. Rool said as he stepped forward.

“R-Right, sir!” Klump saluted as he pulled an orange grenade into view.

“Krusha, get over here! Don’t think that, just because you got punch head-over-heels and knocked into a wall headfirst, you get to lie down on the job!” K. Rool said as he looked back to where Krusha was picking himself out of a hole in the wall.

“Coming, your vileness!” Krusha announced as he jogged in to help his king.

Jigglypuff and Machamp looked at each other for a few seconds, nodded as one, turned back to the three Kremlings and got into serious-looking stances. It was time for Jigglypuff to see if her workouts were paying off…

(The Arena)

  “CRASH MAN!” (MM)

(I’m walkin’ down the street)

(And my heart goes boom)

(In a minute we will meet)

(And my heart goes boom)

(When we are together, I want your love forever)

(I’m walkin’ down the street)

(And my heart goes, boom, boom, boom)

(And my heart goes boom)

The orange-armoured Robot Master only spared a glance up at the Sound Booth (seeing Aila and Astaroth doubled over in laughter again), quickly deciding that a Crash Bomb wouldn’t be able to reach that high up, before walking down the entrance ramp accompanied by a generally-positive reaction.

In all honesty, Crash Man was glad he was entering the arena at this point; he had been with Nina when the two of them found the cartoonish Dr. Robotnik and Crash Man felt it was safer to duck out and enter then arena rather than face Dr. Wily’s anger at returning with the wrong version of the scientist Wily had asked for. Deciding to take his early entry as a blessing in disguise in that manner, Crash Man reached the bottom of the ramp and jumped in, arming his first couple of Crash Bombs.

Crash Man’s first target was Greninja and the Robot Master fired one of his bombs out of his arm as he rushed forward. Greninja showed awareness, however, as he turned around and sliced through the bomb with a blade of water, causing the two halves of the explosive to explode on either side of him. “Ja!” Greninja shouted as he quickly got into a stance to face the approaching Crash Man.

“Straight to the point, huh? I guess I should’ve known better than to try to sneak-attack a ninja.” Crash Man rolled his eyes.

“Gren, gren-ja!” Greninja said as he formed another blade of water in his hand and crouched low, surrounded by approximately six blue Pikmin that had been meditating with him not long ago, each of which striking a similar attempt at a threatening pose.

Crash Man smirked as he loaded up another bomb. “Well, your ninja skills won’t be able to help you forever.” He mentioned. “Sooner or later one of my bombs is gonna blow you up.”

Greninja crouched low and narrowed his eyes, waiting for Crash Man to strike first as the Robot Master pointed an arm cannon at him…

“Mystery…Fighter…SIX…”

“STEVE!” (Borderlands)

The surprised audience gave a cheer to a strange, masked figure dressed in a leather jacket adorned with enough spikes and armour to make him look like a Mad Max reject. Taking the time to adjust his gloves and make sure his mask was on tight, Steve cleared his throat and looked out amongst the audience.

“Heyooooo!” Steve called out, garnering a larger audience cheer at the sound of his trademark. His job done, Steve pulled a crowbar into the open, jogged down to the arena and leapt in, readying himself for a fight.

One of Olimar’s red Pikmin seemed to notice Steve coming over and frantically pointed him out to the space captain, whom had his back turned to the approaching raider. Steve waved at the smaller fighter as he approached, clearly showing no intention of attacking from behind.

“Oh. Looks like we’ve got someone looking for a fight.” Olimar mentioned as he flipped through his notes. “Well, it looks like I’ve got some free time. I may be able to squeeze you in.”

“Heyooooo!” Steve said.

“Uh…Yes. Hello.” Olimar said. “You ARE here to fight me, right?”

Steve tilted his head. “Heyo?” He asked.

Olimar glanced at the red Pikmin, who shrugged simply. Olimar glanced back at Steve. “Uh…I’m sorry. I don’t think I speak your language.” He said.

Steve’s response was to pull out a rocket launcher and point it straight at Olimar. “Heyooooo!” He said cheerily.

Olimar’s eyes snapped open. “Okay, I DEFINITELY understand that!!” He said as he grabbed the red Pikmin and scrambled away as Steve shot a rocket into the canvas and started chasing him.

“ICE CLIMBERS!” (SSB)

(One for your mind!)

(Two for your soul!)

(Want it, want it! Got to have it!)

(Two slices of pie!)

(One for your mind!)

(Two for your soul!)

(I feel like havin’ a pie!)

Nana looked unimpressed as she and Popo emerged from the curtain, the former waving to the crowd in an attempt to hype the Ice Climbers up. “Popo, this was such a stupid idea.” Nana said.

“Whaddya mean, Nana?” Pop asked his sister.

“The music you picked! No one born in the last twenty years is going to get the reference!”

“It’s a Newgrounds classic!”

“You’re only saying that because we were the stars of it.” Nana rolled her eyes.

“It’s the same difference.” Popo shrugged. “Come on!”

Nana sighed as the Ice Climbers jogged down to the ring together, using a belay to jump over the gap between the ramp and the arena. Landing on their feet, Nana glanced around. “Okay. Wanna go help Mario fight those two robot things?” She asked.

“He’s technically not entering as part of our node, though.” Popo supplied.

Nana swatted Pop upside the head. “Popo, we’ve been sharing the Smash Mansion with him for YEARS.” She reminded. “It doesn’t MATTER if he’s not with our node currently.”

Mario turned and saw Nana dragging Popo over in his direction by the ear. “Oh! Heya, kids!” He greeted. “You a-looking to give me a hand?”

“You bet, Mario!” Nana nodded. “Two against one isn’t a fair fight, even if it IS those two.”

“Hey! That isn’t very nice!” Grounder pouted.

“But now what?! Now YOU guys outnumber US three to two!” Scratch cried.

“Eh, I wouldn’t worry about that.” Nana shrugged. “Popo and I function as one fighter.”

“But we do, too! So even with YOUR logic is still two-to-one for YOU!” Scratch said indignantly before turning to Grounder for help. “Back me up here, Grounder! You see the problem, right?”

“I can’t do maths.” Grounder replied simply.

Scratched slapped his forehead. “When Dr. Robotnik melts us into scrap I hope he turns you into a TOASTER.” He said.

“MR. SANDMAN!” (PO!)

The world champion boxer of Punch-Out emerged from behind the curtain and played to the ground proudly as the audience around him gave him a loud cheer. Mr. Sandman pumped his fist into the air a couple of times as he strode down to the ring proudly and slowly, taking his time as it seemed he was making a big thump on the ground with every step he took.

By the time Mr. Sandman had gotten to the arena, he had set his sights on a target. Cracking his knuckles, the towering champion silently strode over in the direction of Heihachi Mishima, whom was in the process of talking to Neclord.

“I’ll admit that your proposal is tempting, Mr. Mishima.” Neclord stroked his chin in thought. “Are you sure you are able to promise this?”

“We’re sure to attract unwanted attention in doing this. I can promise you no shortage of bodies and mortal souls at your disposal.” Heihachi assured.

Neclord gave a nod. “Then perhaps I’ll join up, at least for the time being, after I’m done here.” He said before he looked behind Heihachi. “I’d better find a dance partner here. It looks like you may have your hands full.”

Heihachi instantly spun around and caught an attempted punch from the larger Mr. Sandman as Neclord slunk away to see if he could start a fight with someone else. Mr. Sandman smirked as he felt Heihachi pushing back against his punch. “Oh, you’re a strong one, old man.” He laughed in a deep, booming voice. “I knew you’d be the toughest opponent here.”

Heihachi narrowed his eyes as he shoved Mr. Sandman back and drove a palm into the larger man’s stomach, knocking the boxing champ backwards on his feet. “While it’s smart of you to see me as the strongest opponent, it’s foolish to try and attack me from behind.” He informed.

“Thanks for the advice but you learn to take any advantage you get when you fight the opponents I do back home.” Mr. Sandman smirked. “Aran Ryan has tried every dirty trick in the book on me and he can STILL barely land a hit.”

Heihachi got into a stance. “Well, now that you have my attention, I assume you don’t intend to walk away.” He said.

“No way. I’m finishin’ this fight!” Mr. Sandman said, pounding his gloves together.

“Just know what you’re getting yourself into.” Heihachi said darkly as a shadow fell over his face.

“KING KNIGHT!” (SK)

The audience near the entrance curtain needed to shield their eyes as the spotlight reflected off of King Knight’s glistening, golden armour that coated his entire body. Paying it no mind, King Knight lifted his scepter and started running down the ramp, only to trip a couple of feet on his long, flowing cape that he had forgotten to remove. Groaning in annoyance, King Knight unhooked his cape and continued on his way to the arena, trying to play it off as if nothing had happened.

Merengue was trying to steer clear of all the chaos in the ring when she noticed King Knight coming over to her and started panicking. “Oh, no! Not another person wanting to fight me!” She said.

“My dear, surely you jest! The whole point of this tournament is to get into these bouts, is it not?” King Knight asked. “Now, personally, I’d be fine to simply lay low for a while until that accursed Shovel Knight enters so I can smite him in front of a viewing audience…Buuuut I’ll admit that I neglected to find out what draw he got so I suppose I’m stuck here for now unsure of when he’s going to show up.”

Merengue fidgeted. “So…Does that mean you don’t want to fight?” She asked hopefully.

“Oh, of course I wish to fight! I saw that showcase of strength you displayed in the previous section and I wish to challenge you because of it!” King Knight said as he twirled his scepter in his hand. “If you’ll pardon the rather poor taste in words, it’ll be like a knight facing a fearsome dragon of otherworldly power!”

“Um…I’m a rhino…” Merengue meekly lifted a finger in protest.

“Eh, tomato, to-mah-to.” King Knight shrugged. “You’re big, you’re strong, you have horns…Well, A horn, anyways. I’d say it’s close enough.”

“P-Please don’t do this! I don’t want to hurt anyone else!” Merengue pleaded.

King Knight laughed heartily. “Worry not! You’ll find me a much more-formidable foe than a wooden doll looking to goof off!” He assured. “Now come! Let’s begin the epic duel of man vs. beast, eh?”

“Why is no one listening to meeeeee?!” Merengue cried as King Knight lunged at her.

Music was suddenly heard around the audience as they looked towards the entrance curtain again. They saw that, just in front of the curtain, a golden sign had been set up, obstructing any view of the curtain behind it. At some point after King Knight had made his entrance, someone must have set up the sign without looking.

(I wear a disguise; I’m just your average Jane)

(The ‘super’ doesn’t stand for ‘model’ but that doesn’t mean I’m plain)

(If all you see is how I look, you miss the super-chick within)

(And I christen you the Titanic; underestimate and swim)

“And now, the final fighter of this section…And the current reigning champion of the Megamix Tournament…”

Someone suddenly burst through the sign in a flying kick, revealing their presence to the audience…

“SAKURA KASUNAGO!” (SF5)

(And I’ll be everything that I wanna be!)

(I am confidence in insecurity!)

(I have the voice yet waiting to be heard!)

(I shoot the shot! Bang! That you hear round the world!)

(Cause I’m a One-Girl Revolution!)

Landing on her feet just outside of the sign she had broken through, Sakura stood straight and pumped her fists to the cheering crowd as she made her way down the ramp, eagerly looking forward to starting her run in the Megamix Tournament again.

It was true that she had been involved in other tournaments since the last Megamix had been cancelled, but this was the first time in a long time Sakura was making her entrance as a defending champion again; It felt a little more-special for her in that regard. Because of that, Sakura was determined to give the audience a good show as she made her way down the ramp and leapt in.

Sakura took all of three steps in the arena before she suddenly saw a bolt of lightning coming at her. Sakura dropped to the canvas, allowing the bolt to fly over her head, and she looked up to see Neclord striding over to her, smirking darkly.

“Well, look at what we have here. I was looking for someone to fight with and the defending champion falls right into my lap.” Neclord smirked as his hand lit up in lightning again.

Sakura narrowed her eyes and got to her feet. “I didn’t win my tournament as a fluke, you know! It’s going to take a lot more than that to take me off-guard!” She pointed out.

“I see that now. How about you show me what it is about you that made you a champion in the first place?” Neclord said as he spread his arms, enveloping his body in dark magic and lightning.

“Champions came before me; champions came after me. All I can be as a champion…Is me!” Sakura grinned as she rushed forward and pulled her first back, preparing to meet Neclord head-on…

Chapter Text

(The Arena)

The arena shook with each strike as Heihachi Mishima and Mr. Sandman continued to clash, creating a thunderous boom every time their fists struck each other, the sheer power behind each blow being felt by everyone around them. Mr. Sandman definitely had the height advantage and was decades younger, but Heihachi had so far been showing him why he was considered one of the strongest fighters around in his world by being able to counter the massive hooks and body blows with ease. The two had been going at it ever since Mr. Sandman had entered the arena and it seemed neither of them were going to let up anytime soon.

Mr. Sandman grunted in annoyance as Heihachi slipped around his defense and slammed a palm into his torso, knocking him back a couple of steps. “Ugh. You’re tough for an old guy.” He muttered. “If you were about thirty or so years younger then you’d be a legitimate threat for the belt in my league.”

Heihachi scoffed with a smirk. “I’ve seen the lack of rules your league enforces. I could probably enter today, fight opponents less than half my age and none of the officials would bat an eye.” He assured.

Mr. Sandman narrowed his eyes and lashed out with his hands in a rapid-fire flurry. “Look, the rest of the freakshows in my league may be up to bendin’ rules left and right but at least I fight fair, and I’m the friggin’ CHAMP!” He roared. “No matter how many times Aran Ryan tries to headbutt me, how many magic clones Great Tiger throws at me or how much of that stupid soda Popinski drinks I still beat them all into the mat!”

“And for that, you have my acknowledgement.” Heihachi smirked as he stepped back to avoid the blows, lashing out and striking Mr. Sandman again. “The only reason I’m taking you seriously is BECAUSE you got to the top on sheer strength and skill alone.”

“Hmph. I guess I should be thankful for that, then.” Mr. Sandman said as he pounded his fists together. “But you gotta tire out sometime!”

“Incoming!!” A voice shouted out from behind Mr. Sandman. Mr. Sandman paused and glanced over his shoulder…

*KA-BOOM!*

A rocket slammed into his back and blew up, igniting the area just behind Mr. Sandman in fire as the huge boxer grunted in pain, stepping forward a step but otherwise tanking the projectile harmlessly. Mr. Sandman turned in place and found himself staring an icy glare into the mask of Steve, whom had accidentally fired a rocket into his back while aiming for Olimar, whom had been the one to shout when he dodged out of the way.

“H-Heyoo?” Steve said timidly, waving awkwardly, as he saw how much Mr. Sandman towered over him and that he had just tanked his rocket.

“Wait your turn, you little punk!!” Mr. Sandman shouted as he lashed out and slammed his huge fist into Steve’s face.

*POW!*

“Heyooooooooooo!!!” Steve screamed as he flew backwards, flying off his feet and soaring across the arena until slamming back-first into a corner post. Olimar, in the meantime, took the chance to slip away while Steve was getting his face punched in.

Mr. Sandman rotated his arm as he turned around to face Heihachi again, whom stood in an arms-folded stance patiently waiting for the huge boxer to deal with the interruption. “Now, then. Where were we?” He asked.

Heihachi smirked. “I believe we were at the point where I was beating you.” He admitted.

“In your dreams, old man!!”

Olimar darted around the arena, dragging his red Pikmin along by the flower, as he tried to slip away from Steve, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Steve was no longer chasing him. Olimar slipped around several fights, ducking underneath a bolt of lightning as he rushed away, already looking short of breath.

Sakura yelled in pain as Neclord sent a wave of electricity through her, but it did little other than stagger her in the long run as she fired a Hadouken at the vampire lord’s face once she recovered and rushed forward, pulling her fist down and readying an uppercut.

Neclord swung his hand and clawed through Sakura’s fireball before, with a dark smirk, igniting both his hands in lightning and firing it through Sakura as she got close enough to attempt to punch him. Sakura screamed again as she broke away from Neclord and backed up, holding her arm.

“You’ve got spirit but you’re too easy to read, my girl.” Neclord smirked.

Sakura narrowed her eyes and stayed in her stance. “I’ve fought worse than you before, sometimes at events just like these.” She assured. “All I gotta do is look for an opening and you’ll fall like all the rest!”

Neclord gave a dark chuckle. “Then I guess that means I can’t give you one.” He mentioned. “But the same goes for you. All I need is one opening and my teeth go straight into your neck.”

“That creepy act won’t faze me. I’ve fought my fare share of creeps as well.” Sakura smirked.

All of a sudden, Darunia flew in between the two fighters, catching both Sakura and Neclord off-guard as the Goron chief rolled on his back for a bit before stopping getting himself into a seated position, rubbing his head. Sakura and Neclord could only watch in silence as Darunia started laughing as he got to his feet.

“Boy! Little brother can sure pack a punch! He must have been looking for a sparring partner that could go toe-to-toe with him forever!” Darunia admitted.

“Squirtle! Squirt!” Squirtle shouted from afar.

“Don’t worry! We’re not done yet, little brother!” Darunia assured as he hoisted his Megaton Hammer onto his shoulder again as he charged back in eagerly to fight Squirtle, leaving Sakura and Neclord alone as if he was never there.

Neclord lifted an eyebrow. “I wonder if he’s aware of what’s going on around him...” He mentioned.

“Sometimes I wonder that with about half the people that show up to these things.” Sakura sighed.

(Announcer’s Booth)

“Soooo...I’ve been wondering something, boss-man.” Khall scratched his head.

“What is it?” SSBFreak asked.

“That Neclord guy. Did...He change his name when he became a vampire or...Did his parents just KNOW he was gonna become one?” Khall asked.

“Uh...What?”

“I mean, the guy’s name is literally ‘neck-lord’. He couldn’t be more-obvious if his last name was something like ‘Bloodsucker’ or ‘Neckbiter’ or ‘Definitelynotavampire’.” Khall pointed out. “It’s like he was ASKING to become a vampire with that name.”

SSBFreak blinked in confusion and paused, not really wanting to admit that he had never made that connection himself (especially to Khall, of all people). He opened his mouth to say something when a phone on the desk started ringing, sparing him the humiliation of admitting that Khall had just raised a valid point.

Khall, the nearest one to the ringing phone, instinctively picked up. “Hello?” He asked.

“YOOOOOUUU!!!” A voice screamed from the other side of the phone line.

Khall blinked. “Meeeeeeeee!” He replied.

“Ugh. Who is this?! I was expecting SSBFreak to pick up!”

“Oh, this is Khall.” Khall said casually. “Why? Who’re you?”

“I’m Xero! I hosted the Tournament of Kikai!”

“Aw, don’t call yourself a zero! Don’t be so hard on yourself!”

“N-No! No, my name is Xero! With an X instead of a Z!” The angry, one-eared rabbit shouted.

“Oh, so you’re a Kingdom Hearts fancharacter? Can I guess what your name was before you got the X in your name, then?” Khall asked brightly. “Was it Roe? It was Roe, wasn’t it?”

“Don’t play games with me! You know what you did and you know why I’m calling!”

“Well, it’s obviously so that you can yell at us for some reason. That seems to be a thing so far in this tournament...”

“It’s Steve! You completely ignored the meme and put that stupid Borderlands raider in the ring instead!” Xero shouted.

“What meme is that? Sorry, I kinda fell off the meme bandwagon after the whole Rickroll thing...”

“The ‘Steve the Trooper’ meme!” Xero said. “What ELSE would I be calling about?!”

Khall blinked. “Steve-Trooper? Is that the name of that random Stormtrooper that always seems to get invited to this tournament? Good on him for finally getting a name!” He said.

“No, no, you idiot! Steve the Trooper! Olimar’s red Pikmin!”

“Those things have names? I always thought he just called them all Pikmin...”

“That’s the point of the meme!” Xero said. “The meme was supposed to acknowledge Steve as the reason behind Olimar’s success and instead SSBFreak invited some no-name raider from Borderlands that can only say one word! It completely spits in the face of the Steve meme!”

All of a sudden a switch went off in Khall’s head, causing the ninja to immediately jump onto another train of thought. “Oh! That reminds me! Did you happen to know that Borderlands Steve is a long-standing and current member of the Council of Steve?” Khall said.

“H-Hey, don’t change the subject!”

“It’s cool when you know about it! So, as it turns out, at any given time, there are nine guys named Steve scattered across the multiverse holding reality together simply by existing. None of the Steves know that they’re doing anything important and simply go about their days of being Steves, but behind the scenes each Steve is vital to holding the multiverse together by being a part of a secret council of other Steves that none of the Steves realize even exists. If, for any reason, a Steve is removed from the Council of Steve, another Steve is raised up to take his place. It doesn’t matter if the Steves are good or bad; all that matters is that they exist by being Steves.” Khall rambled. “No one knows what would happen if the Council of Steve were to fall but it can only be cataclysmic, and if the Steves were to suddenly stop being Steves then the results could lead to Steve-mageddon, the end of all Steves and the collapse of the Steve-verse.”

“Uh...W-What?” Xero could only say, his anger suddenly replaced by sheer confusion.

“The lack of Steve in the Steve-verse would cause a collapse not seen since the Steves in the time of the all-Stevey One High Steve. Seriously, it’s scary how much the Steves rely on being Steves to hold the Steve-ality together with their Steve-ness. I mean, without the Steves, there’d be no Steves and if there’s no Steves the whole Steve-ality of the Steve-verse will come in on itself and destroy all the dimensions that rely on the Steves and their Steve-ness to keep the Steve-verse afloat simply by being Steves!”

Xero was dead silent, as if trying to make a lick of sense of what Khall had just said. “...Uh...” He said.

“Oh, sorry! I just remembered that I have a job to do!” Khall said. “Bye, Steve!”

Without giving Xero a chance to retort, Khall hung up the phone and resumed sitting in his seat, watching the goings-on in the arena.

“Um...Who was that?” SSBFreak asked.

Khall shrugged. “I dunno. Some guy named Steve.” He said.

(Hotel; Lobby)

Due to the event currently taking place, the combined lobby of the dome and hotel sat empty, although the receptionist stationed at the large front desk. The receptionist was to keep tabs on the front door and lobby in general just in case someone came in late or something came up in the lobby that needed the security team to be called in for.

Currently, the receptionist was typing something on her computer, appearing to be updating her resume (that looked to be about twelve pages long). She had dark hair done into a bun, large glasses and tattoos going up both arms, covered up halfway by the sleeves of her red blouse. At the moment, she seemed to be typing in her current job of ‘receptionist for big multidimensional event’ to the top of her comically-long resume.

In all honestly, Sybil Pandemik was a little surprised that Max had been so quick to put her name forward when SSBFreak told him he was looking for a receptionist to work the front desk. Sure, she had gotten to be close friends with the Freelance Police in Max’s home node but she didn’t remember telling Max that she had worked as a receptionist in the past (she did for a couple of weeks in between her stints as a private Latin tutor and bowling ball cleaner), but was thankful that Max seemed to know. Now she could update her resume for after the tournament and see what other types of receptionist jobs she could apply for. Just having the door open seemed to be enough for Sybil for now, at the very least.

“Let’s see...Would my stint as a video game tester be relevant enough to keep on my resume even though I only did that for a week?” Sybil mused to herself. “Maybe I’d better leave that in just in case I apply for a job at another game studio. Maybe I should take out that part about me being a professional witness, though. I don’t want another mafia putting a hit out on me again...”

As Sybil continued to type on her computer, she was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts when she heard the front doors opening. Glancing at the front doors, she saw a familiar black-and-white bear-like creature sneaking into the lobby with a pair of long ears seemingly taped to the top of his head. It looked like he was trying to sneak by without anyone noticing.

Sybil turned away from the computer and glanced at the newcomer. “May I HELP you?” She asked in a friendly, loud voice as if to signify to the intruder that she was watching him.

Monokuma froze in place as he turned his head towards Sybil. “Uh...Hi there?” He asked. “I’m...Sorry I’m late. I’m here for the tournament!”

“That’s odd. I have a tally of all the fighters scheduled to enter the arena.” Sybil responded as she reached for a clipboard on her desk. “Everyone checked in long ago.”

“O-Oh, I’m not here to ENTER the tournament.” Monokuma explained nervously. “I’m...Uh...Here to support a family member.”

“Oh, really? That changes everything!” Sybil said. “Who might you be?”

Monokuma approached the front desk hesitantly. “Uh...I’m Wigglytuff. See?” He said, pointing out the long ears he had haphazardly taped to the top of his head. “I’m...Here to cheer on my little sister Jigglypuff.”

“Certainly! If you’ll just wait a moment, I’ll patch you through and we’ll get you signed in.” Sybil said as she reached for her intercom. “We’ll see if we can get you access to the friends-and-family VIP area.”

Monokuma paused. “O-Oh. Really?” He asked, surprised that things seemed to be working.

“Of course! Just bear with me a minute.”

Monokuma scratched his head, wondering how he was getting away with this. After slipping past Superball he was certain this disguise wasn’t going to fool anyone and yet here Sybil was getting ready to grant him access to a VIP area? This was almost too easy...

*CLICK*

Monokuma lifted his head and froze when he found himself staring down the barrel of a huge rail-gun wielded by the psychotically-grinning Max, whom was sitting on top of the receptionist’s desk beside a smirking Sybil.

“Overusedbearfullofholessayswhat?” Max asked brightly.

“Uh...What?” Monokuma asked back.

*RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!*

Sybil turned back to her computer and went back to updating her resume.

(Multiversal Matchup)

Wang-Tang flew past an enemy soldier, striking him in the face with a flying kick and dropping him in one blow. Wang-Tang quickly scooped up the downed soldier’s machine gun and ducked behind a barrier as bullets and lasers fired overhead, looking around to see if he could catch a glimpse of the other combatants if just to see whereabouts he was in comparison to everyone else.

“And I used to think it was chaotic falling off an exploding sky-flyer or escaping a collapsing ruin mid-fight!” Wang-Tang exclaimed as he looked around, suddenly catching sight of Ibuki darting across a series of rooftops, preferring to use her ninja kunai as opposed to the guns dropped by the soldiers as a form of attack. Looking down the street of the desert town Wang-Tang saw Angel giving another soldier a suplex, seemingly enjoying cracking a few hapless skulls and blissfully ignoring all the gunfire around her.

“Man...I wish I didn’t waste my super form in the arena. I could have used it to shoot way ahead of the others here...” Wang-Tang lamented, knowing that, because his powered-up form gave him flight, he would have been way out in front if he were transformed. Wang-Tang was more-than confident in his own abilities without the Power Stone transformation but he was in unfamiliar territory with a bunch of unpredictable people; he would have needed all the edge he could get.

Suddenly spotting a Mars People ship flying overhead, Wang-Tang turned his attention to it and started shooting up at it, managing to strike at some exposed engine core and bring it out of the sky, causing it to crash into the side of the building where Ibuki was currently running across the roof of. Ibuki wavered in place as the building started falling down under her but the young ninja was quick to jump to the next rooftop over and cast a glance down at Wang-Tang.

“Watch where you’re bringing down those things!” Ibuki shouted down at the young martial artist.

“Hey, I’m not the one running across the rooftops like an easy target!” Wang-Tang called back as he carried on.

Ibuki sighed as she looked ahead and saw a few Mars People beaming down onto the rooftop she was currently on. The young ninja drew her kunai. “I’ll have to deal with him later...” She muttered to herself.

Charging forward and swinging her kunai, Ibuki cut through the Mars People in her way, setting her sights on the next rooftop over. The rooftops provided Ibuki with a clear line of sight to the Mars People mothership at the edge of the desert town and she figured the rooftops would help her cut a few corners to get there, especially with the fact that Necrozma had already gotten a head start on everyone else. That said, Ibuki hadn’t seen any trace of the polygonal Pokemon since it brought the small UFO down somewhere in the town. Perhaps it had gotten lost or was focusing on bringing down more ships...

Clark ducked behind some cover, machine gun in hand, as a group of Mars People fired a volley of laser shots at him. Quickly taking aim after waiting for the lasers to die down, Clark expertly sniped two of the Mars People shooting at him in quick succession before ducking back behind cover.

“Those things are just as annoying as ever.” Clark muttered. “I wonder why we haven’t run into Marco and his crew here yet, though. Those guys would be tearing this place apart by now if they knew the Mars People were attacking...”

Clark leapt over the cover he was behind and charged forward, shooting a few more Mars People from afar as he slid behind another bit of debris, grabbing some ammo from a downed soldier as he waited for his next chance to pop his head up. Having had experience fighting the Mars People in the past, he had the best handle on how the aliens acted and knew the best ways to fight them, or at least the most-effective ways.

Suddenly setting his sights on Angel up ahead, still looking like she was having fun fighting the Mars People and soldiers hand-to-hand, Clark decided that there wasn’t really much Angel could do while they were in this world. He had been told to keep tabs on her just in case she was involved in something but it wasn’t like there was anything she could do here anyways. Clark would need to make sure that he put his focus on staying alive at this point; he knew firsthand how chaotic and deadly this world could be.

Hearing a roar coming from behind, Clark turned and readied his machine gun only to pause when he saw Slash standing in the middle of the town road, swinging his club wildly and knocking soldiers and Mars People away with each swing. He was showing to be surprisingly-capable of fighting off the attackers despite the fact that he had yet to pick up a gun and was still relying on his club as his only weapon.

“Get a weapon, already!” Clark shouted. “You need the range!”

“These things fall with only a couple hits!” Slash laughed as he pointed his club at a Mars People, firing a beam of fire at it and engulfing the screaming alien in flames. “They make good training dummies!”

Slash leapt forward and smashed his club into a soldier’s face as he raised a gun to fire upon the caveman, and then he leapt up towards an open window of a building, flying through the window and vanishing from sight. Clark watched, though still shooting a few soldiers at the same time, as he heard sounds of fighting and screaming coming from inside the building Slash had vanished into, and then watched as a few screaming soldiers were thrown out open windows, screaming as they plummeted to the ground.

After several seconds, Slash burst through a stone wall of the building, mid-attack on another screaming soldier, as the two fell down towards the ground. Slash was quick to fire a burst of ice at the ground as he fell, creating what looked like a small slope that caught the caveman and allowed him to slide to safety without breaking anything in the fall, unlike the soldier that fell straight into the ground right beside the ice slope Slash had just created.

Slash landed on the ground and looked around as he watched a few more Mars People starting to approach. Slash got into a stance before charging forward and smashing his club into the head of one of the Mars People. Slash quickly raced towards the second Mars People but received a laser to the shoulder on his way to his target. Slash managed to push through the pain as he brought his club down on the Mars People’s head.

Slash roared all around him, as if challenging anyone to come at him. “I’ll take you all on!” He shouted. “It’s going to take more than a lousy laser shot to take me down!”

“Don’t provoke them!” Clark warned.

Slash watched as more Mars People (and soldiers being used as puppets BY Mars People) started approaching him from all directions. Slash scoffed at the enemy numbers and readied himself. “Now this is more like it! Bring it on!!” He challenged.

The Mars People seemed to take the challenge to heart and quickly started unloading a volley of lasers at Slash from all directions. Slash managed to take down a couple of the alien invaders before he was hit from behind by another sharp laser shot. Slash tried to counterattack and fired a burst of fire into the offending Mars People’s face but, in doing so, left himself open for another alien to attack him when his back was turned again. Slash fought as best as he could be he was quickly overwhelmed, forced down and shot at from all directions.

Clark sighed as he watched the Mars People continue to unload ammunition onto Slash as he jumped out of cover and ran off. “They never listen...” He muttered as he continued the mission to take down the mothership.

(The Arena)

Darunia slammed the Megaton Hammer into the canvas, creating what seemed to be a volcanic eruption upon impact, but Squirtle backpedaled out of the way quickly and jumped onto the end of Darunia’s hammer while it was still on the canvas. Before Darunia could register what Squirtle had done, the small Pokemon lunged at Darunia’s face and, with one punch, sent the Goron chief stumbling backwards several feet.

Holding his chin and giving a smirk, Darunia chuckled. “Boy, surprises come in all shapes and sizes, don’t they? I’ve never met someone who can just toss around a Goron like that, and to see it from someone so small is impressive!” He admitted.

Squirtle gave a smirk himself, realizing that combining his small speed with the Blastoise power that he still apparently had made him someone that could hit hard and be hard to hit at the same time. Darunia’s swings packed a punch, even without the massive hammer he had, but he couldn’t do any damage to Squirtle if he couldn’t land any hits.

Darunia seemed to notice that Squirtle was getting a little too hard to hit, however, and slammed his hammer into the canvas before raising his hands, catching a huge ball of flaming rock that fell from above (...somehow...). Squirtle’s eyes widened as Darunia hurled the flaming boulder at him and slid out of the way using his shell as the rock exploded against the canvas. Squirtle thought that he had avoided the attack but when he looked up he saw Darunia lunging forward through the firey explosion, having used the boulder as a distraction.

Darunia slammed the Megaton Hammer into Squirtle, launching the much-smaller fighter across the arena with one strike. Squirtle bounced off the canvas a couple of times before landing awkwardly on his side. Pushing himself up, Squirtle saw Darunia holding the Megaton Hammer over him again, looking ready to finish the fight. Squirtle quickly shot a jet of water from his mouth and sent it straight into Darunia’s hammer as he started bringing it down.

The Goron chief found himself pushing his hammer against another high-pressure water jet, and tried to break his way through the stream so that he could continue the attack but found that the power behind Squirtle’s water jet was too great and, after a few seconds of straining, was sent flying backwards into the air with a water jet to the face. Seeing his opponent flying backwards, Squirtle rushed after Darunia and got underneath him.

The audience watched as Squirtle, using his Blastoise strength, hit Darunia back into the air as he got close, and then did it again when the Goron chief came close again. Squirtle continued hitting Darunia into the air with his punches, effectively juggling the much-larger fighter, for a few seconds before Darunia managed to break the combo by curling into a rock-like ball in midair and falling down towards Squirtle like a meteor. Squirtle’s eyes widened as he swung his fist upwards again, striking the oncoming Darunia in an attempt to knock him back again, only for the force of the huge Goron falling to be too much for him to handle as Darunia crushed Squirtle underneath him as he landed on the canvas.

Uncurling himself and seeing Squirtle dazed on the canvas, Darunia gingerly picked the smaller fighter up. “Oh, shoot. I hope I wasn’t too rough on you there, little brother...” He mentioned. “Maybe I didn’t take into account your frail form not matching your immense strength...”

In Darunia’s hand, Squirtle opened his eyes and narrowed them as he coughed. “S-Squirt!” He cursed as he pushed himself up while still in Darunia’s hand before performing an elbow drop onto Darunia’s forearm while he was being held aloft. Darunia shouted in surprise as he dropped Squirtle.

“Augh! Boy, I really felt that one!” Darunia admitted. “You’ve got a real fire in you for someone focusing on water!”

Squirtle zipped around Darunia as the huge Goron swung with the Megaton Hammer again, and then jumped onto his back, kicking him with both feet and knocked Darunia onto his face using his Blastoise power. While Darunia was down, Squirtle grabbed Darunia by the ankles and lifted the huge fighter off the ground, slamming him down again in a swinging arc. Squirtle continued this a few more times, clearly enjoying his newfound power.

However, Darunia swung his arm blindly while Squirtle was lifting him up again, managing to catch the turtle Pokemon by surprise and swatting him across the face, making him drop Darunia as he staggered back a few feet. Darunia pushed himself up and shook his head to clear his mind as he got into a stance again. Darunia yelled as he repeatedly slammed the Megaton Hammer into the canvas, creating an eruption each time he did. Squirtle, in his daze, tried to block the blast but after the second explosion he found himself getting launched into the air.

In the air, Squirtle looked down at Darunia and saw the huge Goron winding up with his hammer in preparation to send the small Pokemojn out of the arena like a baseball and quickly shot another Hydro Pump into the canvas from above, keeping him in the ait. Squirtle shot up with enough momentum that Darunia’s timing was thrown off and he missed his swing, though Squirtle ended up launching himself over Darunia on just the power of water pressure.

Before Darunia knew what hit him, Squirtle threw himself shell-first into his back. The force wasn’t as strong as some of Squirtle’s other powered-up attacks but it was still enough to stagger Darunia for a couple of seconds. This was all Squirtle needed to deliver a couple of punches to the Goron’s legs and bring him to his knees. A powerful uppercut later and Darunia was flat on his back.

Taking a deep breath, Squirtle grabbed Darunia by the leg and started spinning around ala Mario and Bowser. Spinning around several times, Squirtle started building up speed as Darunia was lifted off the ground.

“Squirtle!” Squirtle shouted as he let go of Darunia and sent the huge Goron flying out of the arena with no hope of coming back in.

Darunia landed in SimCity, where he fell from the sky like a meteor and flew straight through a building, demolishing it in one strike.

Ryo Sakazaki lashed out with his hands and threw a huge fireball into Bodvar’s chest. Surprised at the size of the flaming projectile, the half-bear Viking tumbled backwards but quickly uprighted himself as he skidded to a halt. Giving a smirk, Bodvar drew his sword and approached Ryo again.

“Looks like you’ve been training hard, Ryu! That fireball of yours was huge!” Bodvar mentioned.

“How many times do I have to tell you that I’m now Ryu?!” Ryo asked. “If anything I look more like Ken Masters, anyways!”

Bodvar laughed. “My friend, I know Ken Masters. He smells like money.” He replied.

Ryo sighed and looked down. His family dojo’s money issues had come back to bite him yet again.

“Now then. Where were we?” Bodvar asked as he got into his stance. “Howabout we have a rematch of our championship match during the Street Fighter crossover event, Ryu?”

Ryo rolled his eyes, having given up on his attempts to prove to Bodvar that he was, in fact, not Ryu, before leaping backwards to avoid a lunging swing from the Viking’s sword. Ryo countered with an uppercut to the chin, knocking Bodvar into the air. Ryo followed up by jumping up after him and delivering a hard, spinning kick to Bodvar’s torso, knocking the Viking away.

Bodvar landed on his side and bounced a couple of times before coming to a stop. Giving a grin of anticipation, Bodvar pushed himself up again and tossed his sword to himself a couple of times as a ball of green light started appearing on his free hand. “You still have that fire of yours, old friend!” He commented.

Ryo quickly held up his arms as Bodvar lunged at him, only for the Viking to grab him instead of attack him. Bodvar leapt into the air with Ryo and only then did he lash out with his sword, engulfing it in the same strange green aura as his hand and knocking Ryo away. Landing on his feet, Bodvar switched to his huge warhammer and rushed over to where Ryo had landed, swinging his hammer upwards.

The ghostly image of a bear appeared behind Bodvar and appeared to use a claw to lift Ryo off the canvas, sending him into the air again. As he waited for Ryo to come down again, Bodvar pulled his hammer back and waited in anticipation. Ryo, however, managed to upright himself in midair and, seeing Bodvar winding up for a swing, lashed out with his foot, striking the Vikin’g hammer mid-swing and knocking it aside.

Before Bodvar had a chance to register what Ryo had just done, the blonde-haired man landed a hard kick to his face as he landed, and then rushed the Viking with a flurry of strikes, finishing up with another close-range fireball that lit up Bodvar’s face and singed his thick mustache and sent him flying backwards, landing flat on his back. Ryo rushed forward, learning by now that he didn’t want to give Bodvar an inch, and leapt above him, preparing to attack him from above.

Bodvar seemed to notice Ryo coming at him from above and rolled backwards as the martial artist landed on the canvas fist-first. As he rolled into a crouched position, Bodvar took the time to extinguish a spark of fire on his mustache before igniting the head of his warhammer in green flames and lunging forward with it.

Knowing what would likely happen if Bodvar managed to strike him if he was using that green flame, Ryo jumped back and narrowly avoided Bodvar’s swing. He wasn’t prepared, however, for the Viking to follow up with a second swing, striking Ryo in the side with the heavy warhammer and knocking the wind out of him as Ryo was sent sprawling again.

“Ugh...This is why I hate fighting people with weapons...” Ryo muttered as he pushed himself up.

Turning to face Bodvar again, Ryo saw that the Viking had switched to his sword again, giving him a bit more mobility, and was leaping at him with his weapon above his head. Ryo instinctively held his arms out and put them in front of his face, managing to block Bodvar’s sword with them. Clenching his teeth in pain, Ryo kicked Bodvar away from him while he was blocking and knocked the Viking backwards a couple of steps, opening him up for a hard kick to the side of the head and an uppercut to the jaw.

Launched into the air by the force of Ryo’s uppercut, Bodvar gave a smirk as he uprighted himself in midair. Letting himself fall towards Ryo, Bodvar pulled a fist back and slammed it into Ryo’s face while he was falling, slipping past Ryo’s defenses but unable to stop Ryo’s own fist from flying into his own face for a counter.

The two stood in silence for a couple of seconds, having punched each other in the face at the same time, before they quickly jumped away from each other. The two stared at each other for a few seconds, Ryo with hesitation and Bodvar with anticipation, before rushing each other quickly. As it turns out, Bodvar had the faster draw and ended up striking Ryo in the shoulder with his sword as he ran by. Ryo shouted in pain as, mid-punch, he staggered forward and clutched his shoulder, where Bodvar had cut him.

“How did you...?!” Ryo asked, wondering how Bodvar’s reflexes were as fast as they apparently were.

By the time Ryo had turned around to face Bodvar again, there was another warhammer head flying at his face. Before Ryo had time to react, Bodvar had smashed his hammer across his face, sending him flying to the side several feet. Ryo didn’t notice that he was standing close to the arena ropes until he had ended up bouncing off of them. Ryo tried to find his bearings to steer himself back into the arena again but Bodvar was again faster and gave him another hard swing of his hammer, sending Ryo flying far enough away from the ropes that he would never have a chance of getting back into the arena.

As Ryo fell into a portal, Bodvar took the time to salute his fallen opponent. “You never cease to put up a good fight, old friend!” He said with a grin before turning and going off to find another fight.

Crash Man swatted away a few blue Pikmin as he blindly attempted to shoot a Crash Bomb from his arm cannon while trying to ignore the attacks coming at him from all directions. Greninja skillfully leapt over the Crash Bomb as it flew at him and then lunged at the Robot Master with a blade of water in his hand. A blue Pikmin saw Greninja coming and quickly jumped off Crash Man’s face, giving the Robot Master only a second to notice Greninja coming at him before receiving the slash to the face.

Tumbling backwards from the force of the blow, Crash Man pushed himself up and narrowed his eyes. “Fight fair, you lizard!” He snapped. “I can’t get a hit in while you’re using those pets of yours! Why do you even HAVE those?! Those things belong to that space guy!”

Greninja glanced around at the several blue Pikmin around him, all of whom were standing in ninja-like stances and staring at Crash Man, and gave a shrug. “Ja.” He admitted.

Crash Man sighed. “I don’t know why I even bothered trying to communicate.” He mentioned.

Greninja leapt at Crash Man and lashed out with another slash with his water blade, and the blue Pikmin gathered around him followed suit by leaping at the Robot Master with what could only be described as Pikmin battle cries as they latched onto and bounced off the explosive Robot Master with their attacks.

Crash Man staggered about, blindly aiming his arm cannon at the Pikmin attacking him from all sides. “Of all the times for me to be an explosion-based Robot Master!” He cursed his luck as he realized shooting at any of the Pikmin close range would result in getting caught in the explosions of his own Crash Bombs.

Seeing Greninja crouching low and gathering up water in his hands to create another water shuriken, Crash Man tried to look through the blue Pikmin surrounding him and pointed his arm cannon at the frog ninja, hoping to snipe him with another bomb. Greninja threw a large shuriken of water at Crash Man, only to freeze as he saw a Crash Bomb flying at him, slamming into the shuriken in midair and destroying it as the explosive projectile flew up to his face.

*BOOM!*

Greninja was sent tumbling backwards from the force of the explosion in his face. This cause the blue Pikmin ganging up on Crash Man to turn their heads in surprise and look at their mentor as he received the bomb to the face, and that allowed Crash Man to swat them all off of him while they were distracted. Seeing Greninja taking the time to get to his feet again, Crash Man narrowed his eyes, armed another Crash Bomb and rushed forward in an attempt to take the Pokemon down without giving him an inch.

Managing to snap himself to attention in time, Greninja held up his arms as Crash Man lashed out with his arm cannon, blocking the Robot Master’s attempted attack, though afterwards he felt Crash Man attach another bomb to his raised arms. Greninja, acting quick, generated a shield of water around the Crash Bomb, diffusing the explosive before the Robot Master had a chance to detonate it, as he ripped the dead bomb from his arm and tossed it back at Crash Man.

Ducking under the thrown dud bomb as it was tossed at him, Crash Man charged at Greninja again, dodging a jab at his face as he swung his arm cannon up. He may have lacked fists but the drill tips of his Crash Bombs would made for good impromptu blades that could cut through the Pokemon’s water blades. This was proven as Greninja’s water blades splashed against Crash Man’s drills and the Robot Master cut through them with ease. Greninja jumped back as Crash Man fired another Crash Bomb into his chest. Noticing the explosive, Greninja backed away slightly from Crash Man and slapped his hands together, vanishing in a cloud of smoke and leaving a small dummy in his place with the Crash Bomb still attached to it. Crash Man only had time to look down for a second at the doll before the Crash Bomb exploded at his feet, launching him into the air.

Greninja made his presence known while Crash Man was in midair as the Pokemon leapt up at him from the side and slashed at him with another blade of water. The several blue Pikmin followed suit and attacked Crash Man with consecutive flying kicks that, while they didn’t seem to hurt very much, still knocked Crash Man around in midair a bit before the Robot Master finally crashed down onto the canvas. Greninja landed gracefully on his feet while the blue Pikmin landed scattered around him as they all seemed to strike ninja-like poses.

Crash Man groared as he pushed himself to his feet and narrowed his eyes. “Smart guy, huh?” He asked as he armed himself again. “Let’s see how smug you’ll look when you’re-”

*CRASH!*

Crash Man was interrupted when someone flew in from the side, smashed into him and knocked the two aside. Greninja and the blue Pikmin stood in silence, blinking in confusion.

Crash Man groaned as he pushed himself up before turning to the guilty party, whom was getting up himself. “Hey! Find your own fight, will ya?!” He asked. “I’ve got my hands full here already with that frog ninja and his plant cronies!”

Brushing himself off, Mario scratched his head. “Eh. Sorry about a-that. The robot chicken got a a-lucky hit in.” He admitted.

“Well, you’ve got bigger things to deal with right now.” Crash Man narrowed his eyes as he jammed a Crash Bomb into Mario’s chest. “I’ll go back to fighting that ninja after dealing with you!”

Mario looked down at the Crash Bomb attached to his chest, grabbed it and ripped it off. Crash Man’s face fell comically as Mario hurled the Crash Bomb into his face and then gave the Robot Master a Coinbox Jump to the chin, knocking the explosive robot into the air with a jumping uppercut. Crash man flew into the air before his Crash Bomb exploded in his face, knocking him into the air again while he was still airborne.

Seeing Crash Man falling towards him, Mario crouched low and jumped up, striking Crash Man with a flying kick that sent the Robot Master flying out of the arena as Mario landed gracefully on his feet.

“Boy. I don’t a-know why that a-guy was so angry.” Mario shrugged before he turned around and ran past the still-stunned Greninja as he rushed to go back to helping the Ice Climbers fight Scratch & Grounder. “Heya, Greninja!” He called out as he ran past without looking back.

Greninja stood in silence, still trying to process what had just happened. Greninja slowly turned around to look at where Mario had come from in the first place just in time to see Captain Olimar wandering over, looking over his shoulder to make sure Steve wasn’t following him.

“Uh…Hey there, Greninja.” Olimar greeted. “I was kinda wondering if I could have my blue Pikmin back. I kinda need the numbers again.”

“Gren?” Greninja scratched his head.

“Look, it was interesting research to see how the Pikmin took to you but I DO think I need them back.” Olimar sighed.

The blue Pikmin were quick to stand at attention, getting in between Olimar and Greninja and facing down the space captain, one of the blue Pikmin even going so far as to latch onto Greninja’s leg.

Olimar sighed again. “Guys, this is just getting silly.” He mentioned. “Now come on; I need some help with the guy with the rocket launcher.”

One blue Pikmin responded by lunging at Olimar and striking him in the head with a flying kick, making Olimar stagger backwards a couple of steps. Greninja seemed shocked at the sight but quickly started forming a shuriken of water in his hand just in case Olimar sought retaliation.

Regaining his footing at the surprise attack, Olimar stared at the blue Pikmin. “Seriously? What the heck has gotten into you guys?” He asked indignantly. “If I didn’t really need the extra help then I’d find this behavior interesting and needing additional research, but I guess that can be done afterwards.”

The blue Pikmin didn’t back down and one even lunged at Olimar, slashing at him with its leaf like a blade. Olimar jumped to the side in surprise and shock as he grabbed the attacking Pikmin by the stem and threw it back at Greninja. The space captain sighed as Greninja caught the Pikmin. “This…Isn’t good. This got way too far way too fast.” He admitted as he grabbed his red Pikmin by the stem. “I may need to cut the problem off at the hand.”

“Ja?” Greninja asked just as Olimar threw the red Pikmin into his face, causing it to latch onto his face.

The blue Pikmin turned an made an attempt to rush in and help Greninja as he struggled to get the red Pikmin off his face but Olimar was faster, rushing past them all with the ourple Pikmin in hand, swinging it like a club as he smashed it into the bottom of the Pokemon’s chin, lifting him off his feet. Because Greninja didn’t see the attack coming, he didn’t get the chance to perform another substitute move and was sent flying into the air, over the ropes. Seeing that Greninja was past the ropes, the red Pikmin let go of his face in midair and kicked off Greninja to let itself jump back in as Greninja fell headlong into a portal.

Olimar sighed in relief as the red Pikmin landed beside him as he turned around. “There. You guys can hang with him later if you want but right now I need you to-” He said before getting interrupted by the sight of the swarm of blue Pikmin running past him and leaping through the arena ropes to fall into the portal one all at once after Greninja. Olimar stood in silence for a couple of seconds. “What.”

Greninja crashed into Mario Sluggers, surrounded by his team of Pikmin. They formed a baseball team and started a five-inning game against a bunch of Koopas and Yoshis.

Scratch gave a sigh of relief after managing to swat Mario with enough force to send him across the arena. Dealing with three opponents at once was enough of a hassle as it was and the Ice Climbers were annoying enough on their own. Maybe with Mario out of the picture for a bit he and Grounder could wear down the other tag-team.

Turning around to help Grounder with the Ice Climbers, Scratch saw Popo and Nana continuously striking Grounder on either side of his head with their hammers, creating a metallic ringing like a bell every time they struck it. “Ow!” *CLANG!* “Stop it!” *CLANG!* “Ow!” *CLANG!* “That hurts!” *CLANG!* “Scratch!” *CLANG!* “Scratch, help!” *CLANG!* “Ow!” *CLANG!*

Rolling his eyes, Scratch jogged over and gave Popo a running kick to the face, sending the blue-clad Ice Climber sprawling. This in turn distracted Nana long enough for Grounder to turn one of his drill hands into a hammer and strike her in the side with it, knocking her away.

Scratch folded his arms as he stood over Grounder. “You know, I kinda thought you’d be able to handle those two on your own while I dealt with the LITERAL king of gaming.” He mentioned.

Grounder held onto his still-vibrating head to get it to stop shaking and ringing. “Aw, gimmie a break, Scratch! You know how much I hate hammers to the head!” He whined. “They make my head rattle!”

“Look, just stay focused! These kids are annoying but they’re not anything we can’t handle!” Scratch insisted. “We were built to destroy Sonic!”

Grounder blinked. “But…We haven’t actually succeeded yet.” He piped up.

Scratch opened his mouth to retort when both Popo and Nana jumped at him from behind and slammed their hammers into the back of his head. With a loud, awkward squawk, Scratch tumbled forward, tripping over Grounder and landing flat on his face. Grounder scratched his head as he looked ahead and found himself facing down both Ice Climbers alone again.

“You guys talk too much.” Nana smirked.

“Yeah, we get that a lot.” Grounder replied with a shrug.

“Come on, Nana! Let’s get him!” Popo shouted as he leapt towards Grounder and slammed his hammer into the canvas as the mole-like Badnik rolled backwards on his tank-treads. Nana took that as her cue as she jumped off Popo’s back and threw herself at Grounder, hammer raised above her head. Grounder screamed as he instinctively held out a drill hand and activated it, causing it to spin rapidly. Nana’s hammer slammed into Grounder’s spinning drill and all she ended up doing was getting a hole bore into the wooden face of her weapon, spraying Grounder with sawdust.

Nana yanked her hammer back and inspected it, seeing the hole drilling right through the center. She no longer had a hammer; she had a wooden cup. Staring coldly at Grounder, whom was busy trying to brush sawdust out of his eyes, Nana stepped back as Popo stood up again.

“Look what that thing did to my hammer, Popo!” Nana called out, showing her brother her hammer.

“Yeesh. And I thought all the anime swordsmen in Smash did a number of them with their slashes and slices.” Popo blinked. “Can you still create ice?”

“I think so…”

Grounder blinked. “Uh…What’re you two talking about?” He asked.

All of a sudden, two small icebergs smashed into Grounder’s face, freezing the mole-tank-hybrid robot into a block of ice. Popo and Nana glanced at each other, held their hammers (or half-hammer, in Nana’s case) and charged at the frozen Grounder together, preparing to knock him out of the arena while he was still frozen.

Scratch suddenly made his presence known by kicking the iceberg containing Grounder from behind, sending it sliding across the canvas with enough force and speed to surprise the Ice Climbers and catch them off guard enough for the iceberg to slam into Popo and knock him backwards again. Nana looked at Scratch just in time to see a metal fist flying at her face, sending her sprawling as well.

Scratch glanced at the still-frozen Grounder and sighed, tapping against the iceberg containing his partner with a knuckle. “Well, looks like I’m on my own as usual.” He complained. “Buckethead probably wouldn’t have been much help anyways.”

Scratch watched as the Ice Climbers got to their feet again and threw more small icebergs at him. Stepping around the freezing projectiles with his long, lanky legs, Scratch rushed at the two parka-clad kids and held up an arm as Popo slammed his hammer into it.

“You kids are getting on my nerves!” Scratch snapped. “I’ve saving my anger for Sonic!”

Swatting Popo away with a swing of his hand, Scratch pulled his foot back and lashed out, striking Popo in the face and sending him flying into Nana, knocking both Ice Climbers to the ground as the chicken Badnik stood over them, looking frustrated.

“If I direct all of my anger towards other people then I’m not going to have any to direct towards Sonic and Dr. Robotnik will tear me apart if I let that happen!” Scratch said.

“That kinda sounds like a YOU problem.” Popo said flatly as he tried pushing himself to his feet.

Suddenly hearing a crashing noise coming from behind him, Scratch turned around and saw that Grounder had managed to break out of the iceberg on his own by using his drill hands. Seeing that he was still stuck in the iceberg from the waist down, Grounder moaned in frustration as he picked up a chunk of the iceberg he had been trapped in and chucked it forward blindly out of anger. Scratch saw the iceberg flying towards him and, acting on instinct, got behind it and gave it a hard kick, sending it flying straight into Popo and Nana, knocking them both backwards enough to send both kids over the top rope.

Scratch barely had time to celebrate his victory, however, as Mario suddenly jumped back into the fray and landed a hard hook to the chicken Badnik’s face as the Ice Climbers tumbled down into an elimination portal.

Grounder, in the meantime, was busy trying to use his drill hands to break his lower half out of the iceberg he was still stuck in. “Uh…I’ll be right with ya, Scratch!” He called out as Scratch yelled out protests as he was on the receiving end of a beatdown by Mario.

The Ice Climbers fell into Stardew Valley, where they spent the majority of their ten minutes chasing shadow monsters around the cave system with their hammers.

Mai smashed her leg into Bayonetta’s head, sending the with tumbling to the side, but wasn’t counting on Bayonetta to plant her hands into the canvas on the way down and vault herself back into a standing position. Midway into her somersault, Bayonetta fired a round of bullets from the guns attached to her feet. Mai held up her fan and managed to block a few of the bullets but yelped in pain and surprise as a couple of stray shots grazed her shoulder.

Bayonetta landed gracefully on her feet and smirked as she approached Mai, whom backed away while clutching a shoulder. Bayonetta drew her pistols and loaded them again. “Looks like I’m just too fast for you, dearie.” She explained.

Mai glanced up and gave a smirk of her own, holding up another fan and igniting it in her hand. “No. I just needed to get you a little closer.” She replied casually.

Without giving Bayonetta a chance to react, Mai hurled the flaming fan into the witch’s face, blinding her and making Bayonetta stagger backwards. Mai leapt to her feet and threw a few more flaming fans at Bayonetta, knocking her back a couple more steps. While Bayonetta was distracted, Mai lunged forward, engulfing herself in flames as she barreled straight into the witch like a self-propelled cannonball, striking Bayonetta in the upper torso and knocking her backwards several feet.

Bayonetta groaned as she pushed herself to her feet, watching as Mai got into her stance again, staying back a ways from the witch. “I don’t recall you being this fierce a fighter.” She admitted. “You must be passionate about…Whatever it is you’re fighting for.”

Mai narrowed her eyes. “This is me taking a good few years worth of pent-up aggression out all at once!” She shot back. “I’ll show Sakurai that I’m just as worthy of showing up in Smash as anyone else!”

Bayonetta gave a light smirk. “Maybe if you change back into what you wore in Fatal Fury 2.” She teased.

“You’re the LAST person who should be giving wardrobe advice!”

In a blind rage, Mai threw herself forward and swung her leg at Bayonetta, only to miss as the witch stylishly dodged the blow in what looked to be slow-motion and countered with a kick to the chin, knocking Mai into the air. Bayonetta leapt into the air after Mai and landed a flurry of kicks, seemingly vanishing after each kick before striking Mai from another angle for the next, before finishing the combo with a roundhouse to the torso that sent Mai crashing straight into the canvas.

While she was in the air, Bayonetta aimed all four of her pistols down at Mai and fired, the force of the continuous firing keeping her in the air, as Mai rolled backwards to avoid the stream of projectiles. Rolling into a crouched position, Mai hurled another fan into the air, igniting it as it left her hand. The fan flew straight into the still-airborne Bayonetta’s face, making her stop shooting momentarily.

As Bayonetta fell towards the ground, Mai crouched low and leapt into the air, using her ninja skills to jump in midair, seemingly giving herself extra height by jumping off nothing. Igniting herself in flames, Mai swung her arms like blades as she approached Bayonetta, only for the witch to snap to attention and go into slow motion again, swerving around Mai’s attacks and striking her in the face after the fact, stunning the ninja and knocking her back while still in midair.

Mai tried to hold up her arms to block Bayonetta’s counter but only managed to deflect a couple of strikes before a high-heeled boot slammed into her face. Bayonetta juggled Mai in the air again with another flurry of kicks before striking her in the side of the face with her pistol. Bayonetta finished the combo by unloading another several rounds of shots into Mai’s torso while in midair, sending Mai crashing headfirst into the canvas a second time.

Bayonetta landed gracefully on her feet and gave a smirk. “You’re fast, but that doesn’t mean anything to someone with my abilities.” She mentioned.

Mai grunted as she pushed herself into a kneeling position, looking pained as she did so. “That just means I’ve got to think a little smarter.” She countered, forcing a smirk of her own as she pulled an arm back and hurled a fan at Bayonetta’s face.

Bayonetta held up an arm and blocked the fan, expecting a burst of flames upon impact and bracing herself accordingly. However, the fan didn’t ignite and limply fell to the canvas after bouncing lightly off Bayonetta’s arm, ineffective and otherwise unused. Bayonetta opened her eyes and glanced down with a questioning look at the fan laying uselessly on the canvas. “Did you just forget to...”

The witch trailed off when she looked up and saw Mai on her feet again, running circles around Bayonetta and igniting a trail of flames behind her as she ran as fast as she could. Bayonetta tried to aim her pistols at the running ninja but saw that Mai was too fast to hit. Before Bayonetta knew it there was a seven-foot ring of fire circling her and keeping her from moving. Mai had vanished into the flames and Bayonetta soon lost track of her altogether.

“Hmm…You’re a sneaky one, aren’t you?” Bayonetta asked aloud. “Where’d you go?”

Mai suddenly made her presence know by leaping through the wall of fire and slamming into Bayonetta’s back with both legs, kicking off of Bayonetta and launching herself back into the flame wall and vanishing from sight again. Bayonetta quickly spun around and fired a few rounds into the flames, hoping to hit Mai but somehow knowing that her shots were missing.

Bayonetta was suddenly kicked in the side. The witch spun around and lashed out with her leg, only to watch as Mai ducked under her leg and slammed an elbow into her face, stunning Bayonetta long enough for Mai to throw a couple more fans into her face and leap back into the fire.

Mai kept up the game for several seconds, leaping out of the cover of fire long enough to strike Bayonetta once or twice before leaping back into the flames before the witch could respond. Bayonetta tried keeping track of Mai’s shadow through the fire but by the time she felt confident enough that she had a bead on the ninja she was attacked again and lost track of Mai all over again. Soon enough Bayonetta abandoned all attempts at doing damage and simply resorted to holding up her guard, hoping that she could withstand Mai’s offenses long enough for the ninja’s flames to go out.

Suddenly, Bayonetta felt a sharp pain in the back of her leg, making her yell out in pain as she collapsed onto one knee. Mai, having struck Bayonetta in a pressure point with her foot, quickly followed up with a hard kick to the back of the head, knocking Bayonetta onto her face as the ring of fire slowly died out, leaving a ring of ash burned into the canvas. Knowing that she needed to finish Bayonetta off before she got a chance to activate her slow motion again, Mai rushed over, grabbed Bayonetta and hauled her to her feet.

“Thanks for letting me take out my aggression. I really needed that.” Mai said with a smirk as she spun Bayonetta around and threw her forward, sending her tumbling over the ropes. Realizing that Bayonetta could fly back into the arena, Mai tossed another flaming fan at her, making it bounce off her back and dizzying her long enough to send the witch tumbling into a portal.

Bayonetta landed in Death Road to Canada, where she mowed down a horde of zombies using her pistols before a group of survivors trying to get to Canada accidentally ran her over from behind with their van.

Sakura held up her hands as a beam of lightning slammed into her. While Sakura was trying to fight her way through the pain of the electricity flowing through her arms (she was used to fighting Blanka, after all), Neclord suddenly made his presence known by flying into her and slashing at her with his taloned hands. Sakura yelled in pain as she was sent tumbling backwards, screeching to a halt as Neclord approached her, gathering electricity into his hands as he did.

Neclord wasn’t prepared, however, for Sakura to spring to life and plant another Shoryuken uppercut onto his chin, launching the vampire lord into the air. Sakura jumped after him and landed a few hard kicks to his body in the air before kicking him straight down into the mat. Sakura landed nearby, hauled Naclord to his feet and threw him over her shoulder, shoving impressive strength since Neclord was a fair bit bigger than she was.

Neclord grunted as he pushed himself up. “Hmm…You’re fierce. You’re not giving me much of a chance to counter here…” He noted.

“Because I know you’ll take whatever chance I give you to throw something powerful at me!” Sakura replied. “I became champion back when I was representing Alpha 3! Now that I’m older and wiser I know that much more about-”

Sakura was cut off when a burst of dark magic exploded in her face, knocking her back. Neclord chuckled as he lowered his hand. “Looks like you’re still as susceptible to talking as anyone else is, though.” He replied with a smirk.

Holding her head, Sakura pushed herself to her feet just in time to see Neclord’s hands coming at her face, preparing for a grab. Sakura backpedaled out of Neclord’s reach as the vampire lord made an attempt to grab her but the evil vampire seemed to anticipate this and fire another bolt of lightning into Sakura’s torso, stunning her long enough for Neclord to jump in, grab her and throw her into the air.

The next thing she knew, Sakura found herself swarmed with angry bats while in midair. Trying to swat them away while she fumbled about in the air, Sakura found that the bats were somehow keeping her in the air with each small hit they landed. Sakura felt pain on each limb where she was sure the bats were biting but, surprisingly, she saw no trace of Neclord coming for her blood while she was in the air and the bats seemingly let her fall flat on her back once they were done with the multi-hit combo.

Neclord couldn’t help but chuckle as he gathered more electricity in his hands, dispersing the bats. “It seems the time off from these tournaments has made you rusty, champion.” He taunted. “Perhaps taking your soul wouldn’t give me the power I seek after all…”

Sakura lifted her head just in time to see another blast of lightning coming at her face. Yelping and ducking to the canvas again as Neclord’s attack flew over her head, Sakura rolled forward on the canvas, underneath a continuous wave of lightning fired by the vampire lord, before getting close enough to slam her foot into Neclord’s leg. Neclord grunted in pain as he clutched his leg, only for Sakura to leap to her feet and strike him with a rapid-fire flurry of punches, finishing the combo with her attempt at a Hurricane Kick that ended up as little more than a couple of hard-hitting roundhouses, knocking Neclord away from her.

“I’ve got more than enough fight to deal with the likes of you!” Sakura snapped, getting into her stance again as Necdlord pushed himself into a kneeling position.

“Ugh…You pack more of a punch than I thought…” Neclord muttered as he clutched his chest. He waited as Sakura approached him, looking ready to throw him from the arena and finish the fight. However, he gave a light smirk as he secretly started gathering more dark magic in his hand out of Sakura’s sight. “It’s…A shame, really…”

“How so?” Sakura said, eyes narrowed.

“…You could have been a useful minion for me after all!” Neclord shouted as he lashed out his hand, firing the dark magic he had accumulated at Sakura’s face once he felt she was close enough.

Not taking her eyes off of Neclord, Sakura swerved her head to the side and let Neclord’s burst of magic fly past her head, doing little other than make her hair move in the breeze of it passing her. Neclord’s smirk suddenly left his face as he saw Sakura staring holes into him silently.

“HADOUKEN!!”

Sakura lashed out both hands and sent a fireball straight into Neclord’s face at point-blank range, sending the vampire lord sprawling again. Sakura, seeing how far her close-range projectile had sent Neclord, ran after him and pulled her fist back as Neclord slowly pushed himself to his feet, readying to time her next attack and hope it was her last.

Neclord looked ahead. The last thing he saw was Sakura’s fist flying at his face.

“SHORYUKEN!!”

Sakura’s fist found a home underneath Neclord’s chin again, launching both fighters into the air at the power of Sakura’s uppercut. Sakura landed gracefully on her feet to the sound of the audience’s approval at the successful attack, as the dazed Neclord fell past the ropes and went falling headfirst down into a portal.

By the time Neclord had gotten his bearings back together, he looked around and saw that he was floating in the swirling void that gathered fighters for the following section’s Multiversal Matchup. Holding his head in pain, the force of Sakura’s Shoryuken still yet to have been removed, Neclord glanced around to see what else was around.

“Well, that didn’t go as well as I hoped it would…” Neclord muttered. “Still, perhaps this night isn’t quite a waste.”

“Because you were chosen for the next Multiversal Matchup, right?”

Neclord looked at where the new voice had come from and saw Ryo Sakazaki floating in place, arms folded. Crash Man could be seen floating around aimlessly behind him. Neclord paused, not knowing Ryo was listening as he had actually been referring to the deal Heihachi Mishima had given him a few minutes earlier. “Indeed. It seems both of us still have something left to prove.” He said with a nod. “Just stay out of my way when we get there and I think we’ll both benefit.”

Ryo rolled his eyes. “I’m used to not doing well in these things so maybe this’ll be a change for me.” He admitted.

“I’m totally saving a Crash Bomb for you, blondie!” Crash Man called out as he spun around behind Ryo.

“I’ll make you eat those words, robot!”

Neclord sighed as Ryo and Crash Man continued to taunt each other. This section couldn’t end fast enough…

(Hotel; Ganondorf’s Room)

Ganondorf stared flatly as Ryuji Yamazaki stood before him, smirking. Ganondorf didn’t remember telling any of his recruiters to scout the insane yakuza out but here he was and he apparently had money with him that signified that he was there for work. Ganondorf almost didn’t want to know where Yamazaki had gotten the money if it wasn’t from Ghirahim, Zant or Kuma.

“…What are you doing here?” Ganondorf asked coldly.

“What’s it look like? I’m here to do some jobs for you for the night.” Yamazaki replied casually with a shrug. “Don’t worry. I’ve already received payment.”

“…From WHO, exactly?” The Demon King narrowed his eyes.

“Eh, some has-been Bryan Fury or something.” Yamazaki shrugged. “Not that it matters. He was all too-willing to let me do the job for him after I pried the money from his hands.”

Ganondorf slapped his forehead. “So you’re saying that you attacked the person whom was actually commissioned for the night, stole his payment and now you’re here to do the job instead.” He said.

“Come on, G-Man. You and I both know I’m a smarter pick than Fury is.” Yamazaki reminded.

“You’re insane.”

“So’s Fury. And, in case you forgot, I get RESULTS.”

Ganondorf folded his arms, still looking less-than-amused. “And what will you do if Fury comes looking for payback?” He asked.

“Eh. I’ll just gut him again.” Yamazaki shrugged. “So am I in? I mean, not like I care or anything since I’ve already got the money. But I figure I may as well have something to do tonight.”

Ganondorf sighed. “I don’t agree with your methods but I’ll admit I’m more-confident with your abilities over Fury’s solely because I know what to expect from you.” He admitted.

“Great! So what’s the plan tonight? You mind telling me what you and the old man are up to that warrants hiring a bunch of people for manpower?” Yamazaki asked.

“I’m not telling anyone until we get all of our numbers hired, and I’m not going to be telling you at ALL because I frankly don’t trust you.” Ganondorf retorted sharply.

Yamazaki shrugged. “Fair enough. I wouldn’t trust me either.” He relented. “Just point me at some suckers that you want the skulls bashed in of and I’ll do it.”

“So long as you stay in line I’ll put up with you.” Ganondorf said. “Just be ready to fight when I say so because I don’t anticipate this plan going off without some meddlers finding out about it.”

“It appears that may already have started, master.”

Ganondorf glanced towards the door to his room and saw an injured-looking, frustrated Ghirahim enter with Urien following behind him, favouring his head and looking just as annoyed. “Someone already found out, Ghirahim?” Ganondorf asked coldly, eyes narrowed.

Ghirahim sighed. “I apologize, my king. I swear we were alone when I discussed matters but I wasn’t counting on someone with heightened hearing listening in from another room.” He replied as Urien muttered something under his breath about snow and robots.

Ganondorf paused. “Was it anyone we should be afraid of?” He asked.

“Honestly? Probably not. I think it was more them taking us by surprise that they got the better of us.”

Ganondorf sighed. “We’ll keep going as is for now but remember to keep watch for anyone and anything. Now that at least one person knows that something is going on we can bet that there’ll definitely be more.” He mentioned. “I was hoping to at least amass the entirety of our forces tonight before anything got out but I guess that was just wishful thinking.”

Yamazaki smirked. “Now you know how Bison felt when all his failed plans were found out early on, eh?” He asked.

“You’re already on thin ice. Don’t press your luck any further than you already are.” Ganondorf shot back.

(Multiversal Matchup)

Spike yelped and dove behind a wrecked car for some cover as he avoided getting hit by a volley of Mars People lasers. The red-haired monkey catcher ran run out of ammo for the gun he had picked up long ago and he was realizing quick that his slingshot ammo wasn’t going to cut it here, especially since it was hard enough getting close enough in range to hit something with his Stun Club.

Spike looked around cautiously once he was behind cover. He may have been used to fighting with guns before (due to the whole ‘Million Monkeys’ game he had been in) but he wasn’t used to things being THIS chaotic. Gunfire was coming in from all directions from both the humans and aliens and Spike had largely been resorting to trying to find the fastest, safest way through the gunfire without getting hit. He was the smallest of the guest fighters here so he figured that gave him a little bit of wiggle room in that regard.

Hearing a crash coming from behind him, Spike turned around and saw Necrozma screeching as it leapt from a crumbling building to another. In all of the chaos, Spike didn’t realize that he had actually gotten ahead of Necrozma but it seemed too committed to shooting down the bright lights of the Mars People’s mini UFOs for the rest of the combatants to notice. That said, Necrozma seemed to be causing the most collateral by bringing UFOs down straight through buildings.

“Ugh. That thing’s a bigger menace than the aliens are.” Spike muttered as he turned back to peek over his cover, seeing some screaming soldiers fleeing from a couple of chasing Mars People.

“You don’t have much of a means to fight back?”

Spike turned around again and saw Pyra approaching. The red-haired swordwoman held a flaming sword in her hand that Spike would guess had recently been used to cleave through a few enemies. “Look, I’m used to chasing chimps with slingshots and none of my gadgets are built for long-range attacks.” He sighed. “The only one that IS isn’t doing me any good.”

“How close are we getting to the mothership?” Pyra asked as she looked around, crouching beside Spike. “There’s so much going on it’s hard to keep track of where we’re supposed to go.”

“I know. I’ve just been running forward and trying to avoid getting shot.”

“You haven’t picked up any guns?”

“The last one I picked up ran out of ammo and I haven’t been able to get close to anything else.” Spike shook his head.

Pyra pulled a laser blaster into view and tossed it to Spike, whom hastily caught it in surprise. “I pulled this off a Mars People back there. I’m fine using my sword so I don’t need the gun.” She said.

“R-Really? You’re fine just giving me something to fight them with?” Spike asked.

Pyra smirked and held up her sword and ignited it in flames. “Just don’t fire any shots at me and I don’t think we’ll have any trouble.” She said.

Before Spike had time to ask any further questions, Pyra swung her sword and cleaved the car the two were hiding behind in two, giving Pyra a big chance to leap out into the fight again, surprising a couple more Mars People by slicing through them from behind as she continued on her way.

Spike hastily jumped to his feet and charged forward, more on instinct since Pyra had just destroyed his cover. He managed to take a few shots with the laser gun and shot a few soldiers out of a nearby window as he ran past, hoping to gain a little bit of ground before he ran out of ammo again. He told himself further to keep track of Pyra’s trail of destruction; maybe he could pick up the gun of a fallen soldier if she wasn’t picking any weapons up…

Angel smirked as she swung a leg, striking Wang-Tang from behind and knocking the martial artist to the ground, causing him to let go of the machine gun he was carrying. It had taken a little bit of running to catch up to Wang-Tang when she spotted him but Angel made a beeline for the young fighter seemingly just to hit him in the back of the head.

Wang-Tang pushed himself to his feet and held his head, turning around to glare at Angel. “Hey! Do I LOOK like one of those things?!” He demanded.

“Hey, we’re all opponents here.” Angel shrugged. “You were getting a little too far ahead.”

“Look around you! The ninja girl’s up on the rooftops, Clark’s been mowing through the soldiers and aliens like it’s second nature and the Pokemon’s brought down more buildings than aliens!” Wang-Tang reminded.

“Yeah, but you were the only one I could catch.” Angel shrugged before getting into a stance. “Plus, I’m sure I can catch up to the others if I just brute-force my way through them. Since you’re the fastest here, I’ll start with you.”

Wang-Tang held up his arms and blocked a hard kick from Angel that sent him backwards a couple of steps. “We’ve got more-pressing things going on!” He insisted. “Neither of us has time for this!”

“Actually, I think you have more than enough time for this.” Angel said as she grabbed at Wang-Tang and got him into a headlock. “That super form of yours could probably catch up to everyone in an instant!”

“I don’t HAVE my super form! I used it in the arena fighting Clark!”

“Oh, really? Maybe then I’ll be able to finish this quicker.” Angel chuckled.

Wang-Tang shouted as Angel slammed him into the ground and got him into a leglock. Angel proceeded to give Wang-Tang a few more grappling throws and tosses, slamming him into the ground multiple times without giving him a chance to counter or realize which way was up. After the fifth suplex combo Wang-Tang could barely stay conscious and was struggling to push himself up, barely able to get onto his knee.

Angel laughed as she stood in her stance. “Looks like the chaos took a lot of the fire out of you.” She admitted. “Maybe I should have-”

“INCOMING!!”

Angel turned around and saw Spike running in her direction, looking panicked and running away from something. Angel got into a stance again, thinking that Spike was coming for her, only to watch as a volley of lasers rained down from above, striking Spike and burying him in dirt as the youth was hit multiple times trying to get away from something.

Angel glanced upwards and her eyes widened as she saw a small Mars People UFO careening towards the ground with a screeching Necrozma latched onto the top. Realizing that she was in the direct path of the UFO, Angel turned and ran away, running past Wang-Tang as he struggled to look up at what was now coming straight at him.

*CRASH!*

Before Wang-Tang had a chance to react, the UFO crashed directly on top of him. The UFO bounced off the ground, launching Necrozma off it, and continued falling towards the retreating Angel. Angel looked over her shoulder as she ran just as the UFO came crashing down on top of her as well before it finally exploded in a ball of fire, effectively taking her, Wang-Tang and Spike all out of the game in direct succession.

Necrozma, in the meantime, landed in the sand several feet away. Pushing itself up, Necrozma glanced around and continued the hunt, clambering up the wall of a building to continue going on its way and leaving the smoldering wreckage of the UFO it had brought down behind.

(Hotel; Restaurant)

Lola Pop jumped high into the air, soaring clear over Zant’s head as the evil wizard spun wildly at her, attacking blindly with his scimitars. Turning herself over in the air, Lola Pop extended one of her huge, artificial hands and slammed it into the back of Zant’s helmet with pinpoint accuracy, knocking Zant out of his spin and making the demented king stagger forward, hitting his head on the restaurant’s counter.

Zant spun around and stared at Lola Pop in anger as she landed on her feet again and readied herself for whatever Zant was preparing next. “You going to tell me what your deal is?!” Lola Pop demanded. “No one just attacks a random stranger without a motive!”

“In these tournaments they do.” Chef Kawasaki lifted a flipped from behind the counter, shielding himself behind the window leading into the kitchen as he and the Swedish Chef cowered in fear of getting caught in the crossfire.

“I don’t have to listen to a clown! Clowns are the reason I’ve been looking over my shoulder ever since the last Megamix got cancelled!” Zant snapped back, seemingly ignoring Kawasaki’s outburst, before lunging forward and swinging his scimitars. “I won’t let you get the better of me! Not when I know it’s coming!”

Lola Pop held up her hands and blocked Zant’s furious flurry of sword strikes before pushing a fist into the ground and lifting herself into the air, giving Zant a hard kick to the face and forcing him away from her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” She insisted. “I’m just here to watch the tournament!”

“Don’t expect me to buy that!” Zant said as he slammed a hand into the floor and pulled a twelve-foot totem pole from a dark portal. Lola Pop was too stunned by Zant’s trick that she wasn’t prepared for the volley of dark magic blasts fired at her from the totem pole.

Zant watched as Lola Pop was struck multiple times by the dark magic and used the time she was distracted to lunge at her again. Because Lola Pop wasn’t able to guard in time she received several lightning-fast slashes from both of Zant’s scimitars before Zant kicked her away and knocked her into a nearby table.

“I’m stamping out the problem before it gets worse!” Zant said as he suddenly started growing in size, quickly growing to be over twenty feet tall, as he lifted a huge foot over Lola Pop’s form as she lay over one of the restaurant’s tables. “Literally!”

Lola Pop’s eyes widened as she instinctively puffed her body up into a ball shape just as Zant’s foot came down. Zant’s huge foot bounced off Lola Pop’s body and the demented tyrant yelped as he found himself tumbling backwards, crashing over another table behind him.

“H-Hey! Watch the tables!” Kawasaki pleaded. “These are all new!”

Deflating her body, Lola Pop stood up and watched as a dizzy Zant shrunk back to his normal size. Pounding her fists together, Lola Pop jumped at Zant and swung her fists several times, striking his metal helmet so many times she could bet that his head was ringing like a bell inside it. Lola Pop only stopped when Zant held a hand into her face and fired another dark magic blast, launching the clown woman off of him and allowing him to get to his feet.

Staggering up, Zant held his head, retracting his helmet briefly so that he could gingerly touch his head. “Ugh…You…You think this is going to help you? All you’re doing is making me mad!” He insisted.

“You started it!” Lola Pop reminded.

Lola Pop suddenly saw Zant’s swords starting to glow with red light, possibly implying more dark magic involved. Zant spun around wildly and lunged forward like a top, swords outstretched as he reached for Lola Pop again. The clown woman held up her fists to block the multitude of blows but could feel Zant’s power through her guard, showcasing that Zant had indeed powered up his scimitars.

Lola Pop suddenly felt her guard break as Zant lunged forward, aiming a scimitar for her face in an attempt to finish her off. However, he had already forgotten about Lola Pop’s key defense, which he was reminded of when Lola Pop inflated her body into a ball again, bouncing Zant away from her in a comical fashion as he was sent crashing into a wall.

Zant grunted as he pushed himself up, though feeling himself getting weaker by the second. “N-No…No, I can’t let myself be taken advantage of like this…” He hissed to himself. “I-I’m the king of twilight!”

Zant drew a scimitar again and lifted his head to stare at Lola Pop again, only to see one of her fists flying at his face from across the restaurant. It was then that Zant suddenly remembered that he hadn’t put his helmet back up yet and received a huge fist to the face, knocking him into the air and back into the wall that he had just flown into. Zant fell off the wall a second time and landed directly on top of a table, breaking it under his weight.

Watching as Zant collapsed onto his face, Lola Pop exhaled as she dropped her stance. “Are we DONE here?” She asked as Zant weakly pushed himself up, keeping himself from falling unconscious.

“Ugh…This…” Zant tried to say before muttering something under his breath. “…I’ve wasted too much time…I need to get back…”

Lola Pop narrowed her eyes. “Oh, no you’re not! You think you can just come out of the blue, attack me from behind and then just run away with your tail between your legs without an explanation?!” She demanded.

Zant narrowed his eyes at Lola Pop before closing his helmet and standing straight. “I’ll deal with you LATER…” He hissed before vanishing into thin air, dispersing into a series of red and black magic particles.

Lola Pop looked around in silence for a few seconds after Zant vanished, wondering where the sorcerer had gone to but finally allowing herself to relax once she was certain that Zant was gone for good. “What the heck was THAT all about?” She asked aloud before pausing in thought. “And what the heck is he UP to if he meant he wasted too much time?...”

“Uh…Here’s your strawberry cake, ma’am.” Chef Kawasaki said timidly as he placed a plate with a slice of cake on it on the half-wrecked counter near Lola Pop.

“Huh?...O-Oh, right! Thank you. Um…Maybe, if it’s not too much trouble, could I get a to-go box for this?” Lola Pop asked as she took the cake. “I think I have to go see what that guy’s deal was.”

“Uh…Sure.”

“Sorry about the mess. I really don’t know why that guy just lashed out at me like that.” Lola Pop said, looking down.

“It’s okay. From what I hear this place has gone through a lot worse.” Chef Kawasaki sighed.

(The Arena)

“Heyooooo!”

Olimar rolled to the side as a rocket exploded on the canvas behind him, Steve still hot on his heels. At some point after Olimar had eliminated Greninja, Steve had managed to spot him again and resume the chase. Olimar still had no idea why Steve was so intent on fighting him but was simply focusing on staying in one piece since he didn’t want to get on the bad side of the raider’s rocket launcher.

Acting quickly, Olimar plucked a yellow Pikmin from the ground and spun around, hurling it at Steve while he was running. The yellow Pikmin latched onto Steve’s face and started slapping him with its stem. Steve yelled out in surprise (which was just a surprised-sounding ‘Heyooooo!’) as he fumbled about, trying to get the Pikmin off his face. Steve ended up pulling what looked to be a crowbar wrapped in barbed wire into view and tried swinging it at the yellow Pikmin, seemingly forgetting the fact that the Pikmin was clinging to his face.

The yellow Pikmin seemed to see the attack coming and leapt off Steve’s face just as the crowbar made contact with the raider’s face. Steve staggered backwards in a daze and even then he smashed the crowbar into his own face a couple more times as if he still somehow thought that the Pikmin was still latched onto his face.

Olimar sighed in relief as the yellow Pikmin landed by his feet. “Okay. So he’s an idiot.” He mentioned. “I can work with this.”

Steve, holding his head in dizziness, looking down at Olimar. “Heyo?” he asked aloud.

Olimar took a deep breath and blew on his Pikmin whistle. All of a sudden Olimar was surrounded by a horde of red and yellow Pikmin, which Olimar sent charging at Steve like an army with one wave of an arm. Steve suddenly found himself swarmed by Pikmin that either swatted his legs with their stems or started climbing his legs to swat him in the stomach.

“Heyooooo!” Steve shouted as he flailed about before pulling his rocket launcher out again and, without thinking, firing it at his feet.

*KA-BOOM!*

The resulting explosion sent Steve spiraling into the air like a ragdoll as Olimar’s Pikmin flew in every direction. Steve landed on the canvas and bounced awkwardly, ragdolling for a few seconds before landing flat on his feet. Olimar, in the meantime, looked around as his Pikmin rained down around him and saw them all getting up. He still wasn’t sure why the Pikmin didn’t seem capable of dying in this tournament but he certainly wasn’t complaining.

“Okay, everyone! Gather around!” Olimar said as he blew on his whistle again, making all of the Pikmin flock to him as Steve pushed himself up. “Get ready for round two! We can swarm him with numbers!”

“Heyo?”

Olimar looked up and saw that Steve was pointing a new gun at him, one that he hadn’t seen yet. In comparison to the rocket launcher he had previously been using the gun looked normal but Olimar had a feeling that the gun was capable of doing something extremely terrible and over-the-top. He just didn’t know what…

All of a sudden, SSBFreak’s voice came through the speakers. “Uh…L-Ladies and gentlemen, it appears that Steve has just produced the ‘Bane’! If I were you I’d cover your ears!” He said in a panicked voice.

“Wait. My ears?” Olimar said in confusion.

“Heyooooo!” Steve said brightly as he pulled the trigger.

And then the gun started screaming.

“BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!!”

“RATATATATATATATAT!!”

“FIRING NOISES!!”

“SHOOTING WEAPON!!”

Instead of the regular sounds of a gun firing, the gun in Steve’s hands screamed in what sounded like twelve simultaneous voices, each scream loud, obnoxious and ear-piercing as the canvas around Olimar began getting riddled with bullets. Olimar, all his Pikmin and almost everyone in the arena screamed in pain as they covered their ears to shield them from the over-the-top, obnoxious screams coming from the gun. The only exception seemed to be Mimikyu for an unknown reason, who looked around curiously as everyone around him fell to their knees and clutched at their ears.

Olimar suddenly cursed his horrible luck at the fact that his helmet was preventing him from actually covering his ears, meaning that there was nothing he could do but just sit there and let Steve’s gun assault his ears with its screaming. “I can’t cover my ears!! Why do I need to wear a helmet here, anyway?! I-I can’t block out that unholy screaming!!” He yelled out loud as the shots from Steve’s gun struck him all over and knocked him backwards with surprising force.

Steve seemed unaffected by the annoyance level of his gun (or maybe he was just used to it by now) and noticed that he was forcing Olimar towards the ropes with his shots. Steve quickly took his finger off the trigger, mercifully sparing everyone the sounds of the screaming gun, and rushed at Olimar, whom only had time to look up before Steve swung a foot, punting Olimar and kicking him clear over the top rope like a football.

Steve held both hands into the air in celebration. “Heyooooo!” He cheered as Olimar’s Pikmin seemed to notice that their captain had just been kicked over the ropes and they scurried to jump after him, effectively removing Olimar’s presence from the ring entirely.

Olimar and his Pikmin fell into a round of Lemmings, where Olimar used his direction skills to help the hapless denizens of the world get to the exit in one piece before any of them decided to blow themselves up. One did anyways.

Heihachi’s fist slammed into Mr. Sandman’s face the instant everyone recovered from Steve’s use of the screaming gun. The towering boxing champion staggered to the side from the force of the old fighter’s punch but retained his footing as he turned around to stare daggers at Heihachi, rubbing his cheek for a second where the old man had hit him.

“Not bad, old man. You’re making me work up a sweat here.” Mr. Sandman chuckled darkly. “Let’s see if your face can hold up the same way against MY punches.”

Heihachi narrowed his eyes in determination. “Arrogance will be your downfall, fool.” He said as he held up his arms and blocked Mr. Sandman’s lightning-fast punch, still getting hit hard enough that Heihachi was forced backwards on his feet several steps but the older fighter managed to remain standing through the force of the punch. He wasn’t prepared, however, for Mr. Sandman to follow his lightning-fast punch with another one of equal speed and force, breaking clean through Heihachi’s defense.

Seeing his attack land a hit, Mr. Sandman smirked as he pulled his fists backs and started unleashing a torrent of fast punches, striking Heihachi repeatedly in the face without giving him a second to counter. Finishing up the flurry, Mr. Sandman pulled a fist back and smashed it into Heihachi’s face, launching the older fighter backwards into the air upon impact and sending him towards the ropes around the arena.

Heihachi would prove to be more-aware of his surroundings than Mr. Sandman had been anticipating, however, as the older fighter grabbed hold of the top rope to keep himself from falling too far out of the arena. Heihachi was pulled back a bit on the ropes before the rope snapped back into position, launching Heihachi back into the arena. The older fighter used the added momentum he was given to charge headfirst at Mr. Sandman and ignite his fist in what looked to be electricity.

Mr. Sandman held up an arm in front of his face to block the blow but Heihachi was able to slip the punch past his defenses, striking the huge boxer in the nose. Mr. Sandman howled in pain as Heihachi’s lightning went through his face, and Heihachi was able to slip in a second hit to follow up the first, but Mr. Sandman lashed out blindly in an attempt to get the older fighter away from him, swatting Heihachi away with his huge arm.

As Heihachi landed on his feet and backed away a couple of steps, Mr. Sandman grunted in annoyance, looking like he was starting to get mad. “That magic of yours actually HURTS, old man.” Mr. Sandman said crossly.

“There is no magic here, fool. This is the power of the Mishima clan.” Heihachi smirked darkly as he clenched his fist, extinguishing the lightning in it for the time being. “Would you still consider this an unfair advantage if this comes straight from raw, natural power?”

Mr. Sandman rolled his eyes and got into a stance. “I guess it’s on par with those crazy Star Punches of Mac’s…” He muttered to himself.

Mr. Sandman rushed Heihachi again and attempted a Dreamland Express, throwing a fist at the older fighter in a fast, powerful uppercut, and then swinging again with the other hand in an uppercut from the other side. Heihachi leaned back, stepping back with every attempted swing that the boxing champ attempted, waiting patiently for Mr. Sandman to finish his attempted combo before attempting to counter, spinning an electrified fist into Mr. Sandman’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him with one blow.

As Mr. Sandman bent over due to the pain coming from his stomach, this left his face with open for Heihachi to perform an uppercut of his own on. Mr. Sandman was too large to send into the air from the hit but the boxing champ staggered backwards a few steps. Heihachi took the opportunity to rush the stunned Mr. Sandman while he was distracted but the boxing champ sprung to life and swung his fist down from above, smashing it over Heihachi’s head and spiking him into the canvas.

“Alright. I’ve had enough of this.” Mr. Sandman said as he hauled Heihachi to his feet. “You’re powerful for an old man; I’ll give you that. But there’s only room in this ring for ONE champ.”

Heihachi couldn’t help but chuckle as Mr. Sandman held him off his feet and pulled a fist back. “Indeed…You’re right.” He admitted. “However, you may be mistaken in thinking YOU are that champ.”

Heihachi slammed his hand down on Mr. Sandman’s forearm while he was being held in the air, striking a pressure point. Mr. Sandman shouted in pain as he dropped Heihachi and grabbed at his arm, cursing a few times in pain as he stepped backwards. Heihachi took the chance to land a spinning roundhouse to the large boxer’s face, knocking him back even more.

“You’ve shown me how you became a champion in your world.” Heihachi explained simply. “But, as fast and as hard as you punch, you share a flaw with everyone else in your node.”

Mr. Sandman looked up, as if daring Heihachi to continue his taunting.

Heihachi smirked and got into a stance again as his fist ignited in electricity. “You’re predictable.” He concluded.

Without giving Mr. Sandman a chance to respond or retort, Heihachi swung his electrified fist upwards in an uppercut, making Mr. Sandman lean back in pain and recoil. Heihachi followed up the punch with a powerful jumping kick, striking the huge boxer under the chin and making him lean back even more. Heihachi quickly rushed forward and threw all his weight into a shoulder-barge to Mr. Sandman’s torso, finally doing enough to topple the boxer and send him tumbling backwards, falling over the top rope and out of the arena.

Heihachi exhaled and got out of his stance. He would never admit it but Mr. Sandman was giving him a rough fight for a while and the old fighter looked more-relieved than anything to be rid of the formidable opponent. One less threat in the arena, as far as he was concerned.

Turning around and glancing about the arena. Heihachi cursed when he saw that Neclord had already been eliminated. “I hope I didn’t recruit a pushover…” He muttered to himself. “Well, I guess now I just need to see who the most-worthy opponent in the arena is now that-”

“Squirtle!”

Heihachi paused and glanced down, seeing Squirtle looking up at him cutely. Heihachi rolled his eyes. “I don’t have the time to deal with you, small one.” He said. “Step aside or I’ll step THROUGH you.”

Squirtle continued to stare up at Heihachi, only making a gesture for the older fighter to approach him. Heihachi narrowed his eyes. “You refuse to listen? Perhaps you’re too foolish to understand when you’re out of your league.” He mentioned as he pulled his foot back. “Allow me to show you!”

Heihachi swung his foot, only for something to catch it. Heihachi looked down and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw Squirtle holding Heihachi’s foot back with one hand. Replacing the innocent smile he had for a mischievous smirk, Squirtle grabbed Heihachi by the leg.

The next thing Heihachi knew he was getting slammed repeatedly into the canvas multiple times as Squirtle swung him around by the leg. Squirtle finally slammed Heihachi down on his back after at least half a dozen slams, leapt into the air and landed directly onto the downed Heihachi’s stomach feet first, causing Heihachi to yell in pain as he pushed Squirtle off his him and scramble to his feet.

“W-What magic is this?! That turtle creature packs the punch of something ten times its size!” Heihachi exclaimed as he got into his stance. “N-No…I refuse to let this small creature make a mockery of me! I’m Heihachi Mishima, you gnat!”

Squirtle blew a raspberry in response.

Heihachi narrowed his eyes. “Very well! Now that I know how powerful you are, you won’t surprise me again!” He said as he ignited his fist in lightning.

Squirtle saw the lightning in Heihachi’s hand and went into defense mode, firing a water jet from his mouth and into Heihachi’s arm as he was swinging, deflecting the punch. While Heihachi was distracted with the deflection, Squirtle rushed forward, leapt at Heihachi and tackled him to the ground. Once Heihachi was on his back, Squirtle grabbed him, hoisted him onto his shoulders (which looked comical due to being a third Heihachi’s size) and leapt high into the air, turning over in midair and piledriving Heihachi into the canvas again.

Squirtle took the time to look over his hands and feel the Blastoise strength flowing through him as he grinned in anticipation, slamming his hands into the canvas and launching Heihachi into the air on a water geyser. Leaping up after the older fighter, Squirtle spun around in midair and struck Heihachi in the air with his tail with enough force to send Heihachi falling back into the canvas with full force.

Heihachi, laying on his face and dripping wet, clenched his fist in anger and pushed himself up, staring at Squirtle as he landed on his feet and happily started skipping over to him. “N-No…Not like this…I refuse to just accept that this creature could get the better of me so EASILY!” He said as he slammed the canvas, shooting himself into a standing position again. “I’ll show you that the Mishimas are not to be defeated by a small TURTLE!”

Heihachi lunged at Squirtle and managed to weave his way around another water jet aimed at his head. Heihachi swung his fist and managed to land a hit on Squirtle’s small frame and, once he saw that he had managed to hit his target, followed up with a quick flurry of strikes, which was enough to juggle Squirtle into the air with a few strikes. Giving a smirk to himself that he had managed to gain the upper hand, Heihachi swung his electric fist upwards again, aiming it for the airborne Squirtle.

In the air, however, Squirtle managed to upright himself and see the attack coming. Firing another Hydro Pump into the canvas, Squirtle propelled himself upwards and out of Heihachi’s range as the older fighter’s fist swung at nothing but air. By the time Heihachi had realized that he had missed his attack, the still-airborne Squirtle shot another high-pressure water jet from his mouth and into the older fighter’s back, knocking Heihachi forward several feet and launching him off his feet.

Squirtle turned himself over in midair and landed on his feet, and then rushed at Heihachi, sliding forward on a wave of water he generated to give himself more speed. Heihachi was still in the air and flying forwards as Squirtle reached him, and then the turtle Pokemon rode his wave up to meet the older fighter, striking him with his feet in midair. Heihachi looked down just in time to see Squirtle’s tail flying at his face again.

Squirtle’s tail struck Heihachi in the face with enough force to launch the older fighter clear out of the arena, revealing that the Blastoise strength had extended to even the tail. Squirtle landed on his feet again and gave a loud, excited cheer as Heihachi could do nothing but watch in stunned silence as he fell headlong into a portal.

Heihachi landed on a sofa in what looked to be an underground living room of sorts. He roared in anger as he held his head in his hands. “How could I just let that happen?!” He demanded. “I’m Heihachi Mishima! How did a small TURTLE just get the better of me like that and make it look like it wasn’t even TRYING?!”

Heihachi stood up and paced around, not even bothering to look around at where he had landed. “It’s humiliating to think of…ME, of all people, losing a fistfight to an insignificant TURTLE!” He snapped. “If I see another turtle ever again, I’ll…”

Heihachi trailed off when he looked up and saw four turtles with different-coloured ninja masks walking into the room he had landed in with a stack of pizza boxes. The group stared at each other for a few awkward seconds, as if trying to process what the other side was seeing.

“Uh…How’d you get into our home, dude?” The turtle in the blue mask asked.

“Want some pizza?” The turtle in the orange mask asked, grabbing the pizza box from the top of the stack. “Hope you like pepperoni!”

Heihachi, eyes staring off into space, slowly turned around, walked to the corner of the room, sat down, curled into a ball and fell onto his side. He would remain that way for the next ten minutes.

The orange-masked turtle glanced at the others. “He seems nice.” He said with a grin.

“Shut up, Mikey.” The turtle in the red mask rolled his eyes.

Back in the arena, the Mad Piano roared and leapt at Pom Pom, snapping its lid hut on her only for her to burst into a cloud of pink smoke, revealing that the sentient piano had just tried to bite down on one of her clones. Landing on its feet, the Mad Piano seemed to shift around as the remaining three Pom Poms surrounded it, each one holding a giant ninja star and looking ready to fight it.

One of the Pom Poms threw a ninja star at the Mad Piano and the instrument sprung to life, lunging at what it thought was the real Pom Pom, only for it to be another clone that dispersed into smoke when it struck her. The ninja star the clone threw at the Mad Piano, however, was very real and embed itself in its lid. The Mad Piano didn’t seem to notice.

“HI-YAH!!” The real Pom Pom announced as she leapt in from the side and kicked the ninja star stuck in the Mad Piano, burying it deeper. The Mad Piano howled in what seemed to be pain (and several notes being played at the same time). Now it noticed.

“My prince! It’s hurting!” Pom Pom announced.

Bowser Jr. made his presence known as he leapt up from behind the Mad Piano, having launched himself out of his clown car with a sledgehammer over his head. Bowser Jr. slammed the hammer down onto the top of the Mad Piano, seemingly doing some damage as the koopa prince leapt off the haunted piano and jumped back into his clown car.

“I told you this thing was tough, Pom Pom!” Bowser Jr. shouted. “I don’t know if we’re doing much here!”

“We just need to hold it off, prince!” Pom Pom urged. “Maybe you’ve got some explosives in your clown car?”

“I’ve tried! Unless they go into its mouth explosives don’t seem to work!”

Pom Pom smirked as she dodged a lunge from the Mad Piano. “Then let’s get the mouth open!” She said.

The Mad Piano made several attempts to bite at Pom Pom, whom was using her ninja skills to keep herself away from it while at the same time making sure it was staying away from Bowser Jr. Pom Pom leapt into the air as the Mad Piano lunged at her, landing directly on top of its lid. The Mad Piano felt Pom Pom land on it and started bucking about like a horse, seemingly in an attempt to get her off of it.

As Pom Pom grabbed hold of the Mad Piano’s lid while she was on it and tried to pry it open, Bowser Jr. continued to dig around in his clown car before popping his head back up with a Bob-omb. “I’ve got a bomb, Pom Pom!” He called out. “Get its mouth open!”

“I-I’m trying, prince! This thing is strong!” Pom Pom grunted as she struggled to pry open the Mad Piano’s lid. The Mad Piano thrashed about, trying to get Pom Pom off of it, as it seemed aware of what the two were trying to do.

Slowly but surely Pom Pom was able to pry the piano’s lid open; not all the way but hopefully enough for Bowser Jr.’s Bob-omb to fit in. “N-Now, sir! Throw it!” She directed.

Bowser Jr. normally didn’t like being told what to do but in this case he was all too willing to oblige and hurled the lit Bob-omb at the Mad Piano, aiming for the semi-open mouth Pom Pom was struggling to hold open.

*KA-BOOM!*

The bomb exploded once it was inside the Mad Piano’s mouth, causing it to recoil in what looked to be pain. Unfortunately, the explosion had also been enough to launch Pom Pom off the Mad Piano entirely and send her flying across the arena, leaving Bowser Jr. to face the possessed instrument alone.

“Aw, crap! Pom Pom!” Bowser Jr. exclaimed as he watched his only support flying across the arena and ending up flying into Mai Shiranui. “Now I gotta fight this thing on my own!”

The Mad Piano looked like it had already recovered from the explosive Bowser Jr. had fed it and had slowly turned to face the young koopa prince silently, one of Pom Pom’s giant shurikens still sticking out of its side (which, by the way, just seemed to make the Mad Piano look more-menacing).

“B-Back off, you!” Bowser Jr. said as he shakily pulled his sledgehammer into view again. “Remember how painful it was when I hit you over the head?...W-Well, I’ll totally do it again! So just…Uh…” Bowser Jr. trailed off when he realized what he was saying. “Uh…If I promise NOT to hit you with it will you leave me alone?”

The Mad Piano responded by lunging at Bowser Jr. again, opening its lid wide and showing the young koopa prince it’s multitude of razor-sharp teeth. Bowser Jr. screamed and backpedaled away in his clown car as the Mad Piano snapped its lid shut where he had previously been. The Mad Piano opened its lid again and spat out a series of possessed books at Bowser Jr., seemingly to slow him down, as it followed behind them.

Bowser Jr. flailed about, swinging his sledgehammer at the books as they flew around him from all angles. “Stop that! Get away, you stupid books!” He yelled. “Is this revenge for me refusing to read anything?! You books are all so boring, though!”

Spinning in place as he swung his hammer, Bowser Jr. unwittingly exposed the bottom end of his clown car to the Mad Piano. The instrument was mid-lunge when Bowser Jr.’ turned around and ended up snapping its lid shut around the metal casing of the koopa prince’s clown car, unable to break through. The Mad Piano tried a couple more times, biting down harder in a vain attempt to snap Bowser Jr.’s clown car in half, but seemed to be at a standstill, unable to make any headway.

Bowser Jr. suddenly took notice of the Mad Piano biting down on his clown car and screamed. “Get off me, you monster! You trying to chip away at my clown car’s paint or something?!” He demanded before starting to trail off. “You can’t even…”

A light bulb suddenly went off in Bowser Jr.’s head as he looked around. Turning the clown car around a bit while the Mad Piano still attempted to bite down on it, Bowser Jr. pointed the clown car at the nearest set of arena ropes he saw. He reached down and flipped a few switches inside the clown car. “You want the clown car that badly, poochie?!” He demanded as he pressed a big red button. “Well, TAKE IT!”

Bowser Jr. leapt out of the clown car, pushing the round vehicle deeper into the Mad Piano’s mouth as he did.

*KA-BOOM!*

The clown car exploded in a ball of fire, this time intentional on Bowser Jr.’s part, the self-destruct mechanism kicking in and launching the Mad Piano into the air in the explosion. Bowser Jr. pulled out his sledgehammer again and took aim as he watched the Mad Piano falling down again, hurling the sledgehammer at it and striking it in midair with enough force to send it just past the ropes and falling out of the arena, too dazed to attempt to get back in.

The Mad Piano landed in Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, where it chased down a suddenly-terrified Leon Belmont, whom was suddenly wondering why his supply of holy water wasn’t having any effect on the beast.

Bowser Jr. sighed in relief as he climbed into a new clown car (where it had come from was anyone’s guess). “I can’t believe I actually did that. That was the worst fifteen minutes of my LIFE.” He sighed as he looked around. “Where the heck did Pom Pom go?”

Pom Pom, as it turned out, was still fighting Mai Shiranui. After flying into her as a result of the failed explosive takedown of the Mad Piano, Mai had taken that as a challenge for a fight and wasn’t giving the ninja koopa an inch.

Pom Pom ducked under a thrown fan from Mai and generated a ninja star in her hand. “Lady, I need to get back to my charge! I don’t have time for this!” She said.

Mai smirked playfully. It seemed that eliminating Bayonetta had put her in a better mood. “Hey, YOU were the one that flew into me.” She replied as she pulled another fan into view and ignited it in flames.

“It was an accident!” Pom Pom insisted as she disappeared in a puff of smoke as Mai’s flaming fan flew towards her. She appeared above Mai and attempted a ninja kick to Mai’s back, striking her from behind and knocking the human ninja down.

Mai was quick to recover, however, as she rolled forward s she went down and shot into a standing position again when she got her feet on the canvas again. Spinning around to face Pom Pom, Mai stopped when she saw five Pom Poms in front of her in a half-circle, each one striking an identical pose. Mai looked between the five different Pom Poms, knowing that the real one was among them, as she got into a cautious, defensive stance. A few seconds of silence passed as the five Pom Poms each drew a shuriken, preparing to throw them at Mai all together…

…All of a sudden, a flaming Mai shot towards one of the Pom Poms, slamming her foot into the ninja koopa’s face, revealing it to be the real Pom Pom since she didn’t burst into a cloud of smoke like a clone. As the four other Pom Poms burst into smoke, revealed to be the actual clones, the real Pom Pom tumbled backwards awkwardly while Mai landed on her feet and skidded to a halt.

“Ugh…How’d you know which one I was?” Pom Pom grunted as she pushed herself to her feet.

“In case you forgot, I’m a ninja too. I know how that trick works.” Mai reminded.

Without giving Pom Pom a chance to react, Mai lunged at her, tackled her and kicked her into the air. Mai leapt up after her, seemingly jumping off the air again as she did, and landed a few more quick kicks to the ninja koopa before igniting a couple of fans and swinging them at Pom Pom, creating a small explosion around her.

Mai landed on her feet and turned around, getting ready to end the fight, before freezing as she saw a shell flying at her face, knocking her backwards and into the air. Pom Pom’s shell flew around Main with fast speeds, this time causing Mai to be hit with a lightning-fast combo. Pom Pom’s shell smashed itself against Mai’s face one last time, sending the brunette ninja flying straight into the canvas, laying flat on her back, as Pom Pom popped out of her shell again. It seemed apparent that Pom Pom had retreated into her shell just before Mai caused her explosion, protecting her from the would-be harm and giving her a slight advantage.

“It seems you don’t know ALL the tricks.” Pom Pom smirked as she threw a giant shuriken at Mai as she pushed herself up. Mai seemed to see the shuriken coming and instinctively held up her arms in an attempt to block the projectile, only for Pom Pom to land a flying kick ahead of the star to get Mai to drop her guard. The ninja star flew straight into Mai’s face, sending her sprawling again. Pom Pom, seeing Mai down, leapt into the air and lashed out with another flying kick, aiming for the brunette ninja while she was down.

However, Mai sprang back to life, leaping to her feet and kicking the oncoming Pom Pom with her feet as she was kicking herself into a standing position again. Pom Pom was knocked back in recoil as Mai crouched low and ignited herself again as she launched herself at her opponent.

Pom Pom snapped herself to attention while she was recovering from Mai’s counter and looked down just in time to see Mai lunging at her airborne form in a ball of fire. Pom Pom tried to get out of the way but was unable to vanish in a cloud of smoke in time for Mai to slam headfirst into her torso, tackling her out of the air and sending the two on a crash course with the canvas in a big ball of fire.

The two crashed into the canvas at once, Mai on top of Pom Pom, which seemed to knock the wind out of the ninja koopa enough, but Mai was done yet as she kicked off Pom Pom’s stomach to get off her, backflipped into the air and threw a couple more flaming fans into her downed form before she landed on her feet, which seemed to ignite something as the already on-fire Pom Pom burst into another small explosion once the fans made contact with her.

Mai landed on her feet and looked over Pom Pom, whom looked completely drained and out of the fight at this point. It looked like the ninja koopa was struggling to stay conscious and was even now trying to push herself up. “Stay down. You’ve got ninja potential but I’ve already proven that I outclass you.” Mai instructed.

“I’m not…I’m not done yet…” Pom Pom mumbled.

“I think you are. Thanks for the exercise, kiddo.”

Pom Pom tried to retaliate but she found that she was too weak to do anything as Mai picked her prone form up and tossed it out of the arena. The ninja koopa realized that she was too disoriented to try teleporting back in as she tumbled into a portal.

By the time Pom Pom had regained her bearings she realized that she had landed on top of a moving forklift operated by an oblivious Ryo Hazuki in Shenmue. As Ryo continued his forklift operations, unknowing of his surprise passenger, Pom Pom finally lost consciousness.

“Hold still, you little rat!” Lord Vraxx shouted in frustration as he fired several laser shots from his pistols at Diddy Kong. Said monkey seemed content to tease Vraxx by swerving and dodging around the lasers and making faces at the deranged tyrant every few times he missed, which only seemed to aggravate Vraxx even more.

It took very little to anger Lord Vraxx on a good day; the space tyrant often thought of himself as the emperor of the galaxy and neigh-invincible so seeing a common animal mocking him so badly sent Vraxx’s anger meter straight to ten. Vraxx’s anger was coming out in wild volleys of laser blasts in all directions in hopes of somehow catching Diddy off guard but the small chimp seemed unfazed by Vraxx’s relentlessness and continued being a general nuisance to the dictator.

Diddy landed on his feet as he rolled to the side to avoid another volley of lasers. Crouching low, Diddy gave a smirk and charged forwards, throwing himself headfirst into Vraxx’s stomach as the tyrant was in between shots. Vraxx coughed in pain as Diddy tackled him to the ground and jumped on his body a few times while he was down.

“Ugh! Get…Get off me, you buffoon!” Vraxx shouted, flailing as he tried to push Diddy off of him. Vraxx managed to point a laser pistol into Diddy’s face and pulled the trigger just before the chimp noticed. Before Diddy could react, Vraxx fired a laser into his face and launched him off, allowing the dictator to get to his feet while Diddy recovered.

Vraxx growled as his blasters vanished in his hands, deciding to swap them out for his rocket lance that appeared in his hands in their place. “Maybe I just need a little more…Firepower.” Vraxx said, his huge eyeball twitching a couple of times as Diddy narrowed his eyes and drew his peanut popguns again. Diddy crouched low and pointed his guns at Vraxx, as if bekoning him to attack first.

“Your stupid wooden guns and allergy-inducing ammunition won’t get to me anymore, you little runt!” Vraxx snapped. “Now hold still!”

Diddy responded by firing several peanuts at Vraxx, hoping for similar results as before, only to watch in surprise as Vraxx fired a strong volley of lasers that blasted right through the chimp’s ammunition. Diddy yelped and backflipped away as the canvas was hit by lasers, though he awkwardly shouted in pain as a rouge laser clipped his tail during the backflip.

Diddy landed on his feet and looked ahead to see Vraxx charging at him lance-first, the tip of the lance lighting up with glowing neon energy. Before Diddy could dodge, Vraxx got close and fired an energy beam from the edge of his rocket lance, wrapping around Diddy’s torso and slamming the chimp into the canvas. Seeing that he had an advantage over his opponent now, Vraxx gave a smirk as he swung his rocket lance again, with Diddy still grabbed with it, and tossed him around a bit more before letting go and flinging Diddy into a cornerpost.

Vraxx laughed. “This is more like it! That’s why I was struggling with him so much! He’s used to the pistols!” He said aloud. “Maybe now that I’ve switched to the rocket lance I can-”

*BONK!*

Vraxx cursed again as he felt something hard bounce off his head. Rubbing his head and looking down to see what had struck him, Vraxx’s eyes widened when he found himself staring at one of the Power Stones. Evidently Diddy had picked one up at some point and had dropped it while Vraxx was using his rocket lance to toss him around.

Vraxx grinned darkly as he set his sights on the gem at his feet. “What luck! It’s one of those stone thingies!” He said as he bent over to pick up the stone. “I only needed one anyways!”

Another burst of white light erupted from the ring, getting Diddy’s attention while he was down. Rolling himself into a sitting position and rubbing his head, Diddy glanced up and saw a victorious-looking Vraxx in a transformed state. Vraxx’s getup had changed to look more-regal than his usual fighting attire, and even the rocket lance in his hands had changed appearances to look more-kingly than before, with a sleek, futuristic appearance befitting of a monarch. A diamond crown sat on Vraxx’s head and a royal cape wafted in the air behind him. Lastly, and strangest of all, was that his lone eye had changed drastically. No longer could Diddy see an eye staring back at him but instead what looked to be the twinkle of an entire galaxy, as if Vraxx now held the power of the cosmos itself.

“Ah! It’s been so long since I’ve felt like this!” Vraxx laughed in a booming voice. “Not since before I was taken to Valhalla, for that matter! I feel like I can crush a planet in my hand!”

Diddy took a wary step back as he aimed his peanut popgun at Vraxx, though knowing that he didn’t really have a chance against the emperor in his new form. Vraxx seemed to notice this and cackled loudly. “You think you scare me in this form, you little gnat?!” He laughed. “Perhaps I’ll demonstrate just how powerful I used to be on you!”

Diddy jumped backwards as Vraxx fired a huge ball of neon energy from his rocket lance, far bigger and more-powerful than anything he utilized in his normal form. Even though he got out of the way, however, the ball of energy exploded when it struck the canvas, catching Diddy in the explosion and knocking him backwards several feet.

Vraxx wasn’t done, however, as he waved his hand and, seemingly using nothing but raw power, threw another ball of energy at his opponent as he ran after it and high speeds, hoping to catch Diddy in a combo. Diddy saw the ball of energy coming and leapt over it, kicking the superpowered Vraxx in the back as he flew by.

Vraxx recovered quickly, however, and unleashed everything he had on Diddy, firing energy bolts from his rocket lance and throwing projectiles of raw power with intense strength. Diddy tried to avoid the attacks as well as he could but eventually Vraxx hit his mark and Diddy got hit in a stunlock, allowing the alien emperor to unleash a torrent of strikes and projectiles onto him without giving the chimp a chance to react.

Knowing that Vraxx would get the best of him in this form unless he did something, Diddy lashed out with his feet in between attacks from Vraxx, striking the emperor in the face and making his stagger backwards. While Vraxx was distracted, Diddy pulled his Smash Ball into view and slammed it into the canvas, breaking it into a hundred pieces and lighting Diddy up in pure energy.

Vraxx, holding his face where Diddy had kicked him, growled as he stared at his opponent again. “I dare you to try that again, you-” The emperor suddenly froze when he saw what Diddy had just done.

Diddy’s jetpack was looking souped-up and more-powerful, and he activated his Final Smash by igniting the barrels on his back, launching himself into the air with top speed and maximum thrust. Vraxx quickly tried shooting at Diddy as the chimp flew around him on his powered-up jetpack, though Diddy was proving to be too fast to hit now.

“Augh! You annoying fly! Hold still and let me swat you!” Vraxx yelled as he blindly shot more lasers into the air as Diddy flew around them, seemingly flying from all directions, before firing a peanut down at Vraxx. The peanut homed in on Vraxx like a homing missile and struck him right in the forehead…

*KA-BOOM!*

As it turned out, the peanuts were packing more of a punch as well while Diddy was in his Final Smash mode. Seeing the peanut explode, Diddy took aim and rapid-fired from his popguns as he flew around Vraxx, bombarding him with exploding peanuts left, right and all around him due to flying about and attacking from every angle. Every time Vraxx tried to aim up at where Diddy had fired a shot from, the chimp had already flown to another side and pelted the alien emperor with another round of exploding shells.

Vraxx yelled as he tried to force himself to attack through the blinding explosions. “N-No! I refuse to believe that even in my prime that stupid wooden jetpack can match me!” He shouted. “Come down here and fight like a man, you rotten little-”

Vraxx stopped himself when he saw Diddy appear directly in front of him during a fly-by. Diddy’s response was to fire an exploding peanut directly into Vraxx’s face.

*KA-BOOM!*

Vraxx was launched backwards as Diddy flew out of range of the explosion he had caused. Vraxx landed on his back and groaned in pain as another white light engulfed him, reverting him back to his normal form as the Power Stones went flying out in three different directions again. In the meantime, Diddy realized that his Final Smash was approaching its end and quickly unhooked himself from his jetpack, climbing on top of it while it was still in the air.

Vraxx looked over himself and realized that he wasn’t in his powered-up form anymore. “W-What?! I couldn’t even stop him?!” He asked aloud as he looked up and his single eye snapped open, seeing Diddy kick off his jetpack and leap away as the jetpack, in a flaming ball, flew straight down at where Vraxx was sitting. His eye twitched a couple of times as the rocket-propelled explosive flew straight into his face.

*KA-BOOM!*

As Diddy landed on his feet, his Final Smash done, he watched as a barely-conscious Vraxx was flying head-over-heels out of the arena from the force of the explosion, doing midair flips continuously as he tumbled down into a portal, finally eliminated. His job done, Diddy smirked, adjusted his cap and ran off to start a fight elsewhere.

Vraxx materialized in a multicoloured void with some of the other eliminated fighters, signifying that he had been chosen for the next Multiversal Matchup. Vraxx held his head as he looked around. “Ugh…I was robbed! I could have laid waste to the entire arena with my power but I instead get made a fool out of by a monkey?!” He demanded.

“I know the feeling.” A new voice sighed. Vraxx turned around in place (floating about awkwardly as he did) and found himself staring at Mr. Sandman.

“Well, at least the day’s not done yet. I have a lot of anger I need to take out on someone and it looks like I may get the chance.” Vraxx muttered, folding his arms.

Mr. Sandman glanced over at the others. Ryo and Crash Man were still throwing insults at each other while Neclord seemed like the bickering was finally starting to get to him as he was looking flustered and annoyed despite everything. “Stay out of my way and I won’t steamroll you like I will the others.” He instructed.

Vraxx scoffed. “You’d do well not to toss petty threats at me! If I was in my prime I would vaporize you for that!” He shot back.

Mr. Sandman glared at Vraxx, sending a sudden chill down the alien emperor’s spine. “Well, you AREN’T in your prime anymore, are you?” He challenged.

“Eh…No.” Vraxx squeaked.

Neclord gave an exasperated sigh as he made an attempt to cover his ears. “This section feels like it’s gone on an eternity already and not everyone’s even here yet…” He hissed to himself.

(Multiversal Matchup)

Clark looked up. “…Huh. That’s…Big.” He muttered.

Clark had made it to the Mars People’s mothership at the edge of the desert town after mowing through soldiers and aliens with guns and his own KOF moveset (like he, Ralf and Leona had all done in the past) and only when he was up close did he see exactly how big the flying saucer was (as well as how no one noticed it until they got close in the first place; it overshadowed everything else around it and the hole in the middle of its underside alone was big enough for an entire building to fit through.

“I’ll never get used to how chaotic this world is.” Clark sighed as he pointed a machine gun upwards and shot a couple of Mars People UFOs out of the sky as they were exiting the saucer. “How the heck are any of us expected to bring that thing down?”

Looking at his feet, Clark saw a belt of grenades near the body of a downed soldier. Scooping them up, Clark glanced up at the hole in the underside of the mothership. Small UFOs were emerging from the hole but Clark also knew that there was a tractor beam in use somewhere. Maybe if he could get the saucer to activate its tractor beam he could toss the grenades into it? He’s need a lot more explosives than just the one belt, though, to bring down a UFO this gigantic…

Suddenly hearing a crashing noise coming from behind him, Clark spun in place and drew the machine gun again, expecting another wave of Mars People, only to stop himself when he saw a duel breaking out between Pyra and Necrozma. The former had just knocked the latter through the wall of a building with a powerful sword swing, taking a huge hole out of the side of it, but Necrozma appeared to be shaking the attack off and instead roared at Pyra before lunging at her, claws outstretched.

“Why are you guys fighting each other?!” Clark asked. “We have to take down the mothership!”

“Hey, tell that to this guy! It’s attracted to my flames for some reason!” Pyra shot back as she held up her sword to block a blow from Necrozma, whom wrapped its claws around the blade. Pyra responded by igniting her sword, making Necrozma screech and back away in pain.

Clark paused for a moment before deciding to let Pyra and Necrozma fight; less competition for the game, anyways. Turning around and continuing on his way, Clark shot his way through a few more enemies as Necrozma continued to claw at Pyra, trying to break through her guard. Clark heard a noise coming from above and glanced up at the rooftops, seeing Ibuki fighting her way through a swarm of Mars People as she jumped from rooftop to rooftop, making a beeline straight for the mothership.

Clark cursed under his breath. He had forgotten completely about Ibuki since she had spent the entire time on the rooftops and now she now only had a straight line of sight for the target mothership but she had a big head start on him. Picking up the pace, Clark ran forward, ruling against shooting at Ibuki because that would just draw attention to himself, both from Ibuki and the aliens she was fighting.

“Maybe if I focus on the ones down here I can direct their attention to her.” Clark muttered. “I’ve got some grenades so maybe if I throw a distraction grenade I may be able to-”

*ZAP!*

Clark was cut off when a laser slammed into his back from behind. Clark shouted in pain as he was hit, causing him to drop his weapons and collapse onto his knees. However, in the process, he had also dropped the belt of grenades he had picked up, including one he had just pulled the pin from to use as a distraction grenade.

*KA-BOOM!*

Pyra was in a struggle with Necrozma when the explosion went off, causing her to look in the direction of where the grenade had gone off, though seeing nothing but dirt being scattered in all directions and a crater. “Ugh! Some soldier musta thrown a grenade or something! I’m lucky they’re all lousy shots.” She muttered before turning her attention back to Necrozma. “You gotta watch where you’re shooting those lasers, pal! You almost hit me in the face!”

Necrozma only responded with another primal screech as it lunged at Pyra again.

Meanwhile, Ibuki was racing across the rooftops, pulling her kunai out of another Mars People as she set her sights on the huge mothership. The explosion caught her by surprise but she quickly resumed her running when she realized that the grenade had exploded on ground level and not up where she was.

“Come on. Almost there…” Ibuki muttered as she ducked under a volley of lasers fired from a Mars People’s pistol and slammed her kunai into its face as she ran by. “Outta the way, squid thing!”

Ibuki gave a smirk as she jumped from one rooftop to the next, seeing that she was only a couple of rooftops away from the mothership. She was too focused on the mission to pay attention to her competition but she knew she had to be-

*CRASH!*

Ibuki was brought out of her thoughts when she felt the building shake around her. Briefly stopping herself, Ibuki glanced down and saw that Pyra had thrown Necrozma into the wall of the building and was starting to bring the building down on top of it, likely as an attempt to keep the monstrous Pokemon down for good. Realizing that she was currently on a collapsing building, Ibuki made a break for the edge of the rooftop and leapt to the next one as the building collapsed to rubble, burying Necrozma under what must have been a ton of stone.

Taking a sigh of relief at seeing Necrozma down, Pyra looked up and saw Ibuki running towards the mothership. Narrowing her eyes, Pyra took off running, leaping off the walls in between buildings to wall jump her way to the rooftops herself in an attempt to catch up with Ibuki, whom she saw as the only one left in her way.

When she got to the top of the rooftops, Pyra lashed out and threw her sword at the retreating ninja, igniting it in fire and sending it flying at Ibuki like a burning arrow. Hearing something getting thrown at her, Ibuki leapt to the side and watched as Pyra’s flaming sword slammed into the rooftop where she had just been. In the time she took to turn around to see where the sword had come from, Ibuki found herself on the receiving end of a running punch to the face, sending the ninja girl sprawling.

Pyra smirked as she grabbed the handle of her sword and yanked it out of the roof, allowing Pyra to get to her feet. “Sorry about that, but you were getting too far ahead.” She admitted. “Besides, if either of us has the firepower to take that huge ship down it’s going to be me.”

Ibuki grunted and pushed herself up. “No way! All it’ll take is a couple of swift, sharp attacks on a couple pressure points and the whole thing’ll come down!” She insisted as he pulled another kunai into view and got into a stance with it.

“Well, I mean, I can try your way if you want but I’ll need to take you out first.” Pyra smirked.

Meanwhile, as the two girls started fighting each other while juggling fighting off waves of Mars People, the rubble at the bottom of the wrecked building Ibuki had jumped off started shifting. Necrozma ended up pushing itself out of the rubble and shook itself off as it glanced around, as if wondering where Pyra had gone.

Getting itself into a standing position, Necrozma suddenly heard an explosion coming upwards and looked up, seeing Pyra creating an explosion around her and Ibuki, launching several Mars People off the rooftop they were fighting on. Necrozma stepped back and pointed a claw up at the fight on the rooftop, preparing to shoot another laser bolt at the two as Mars People started falling around it.

Necrozma fired several laser beams upwards, striking the edge of the building Pyra and Ibuki were fighting on. More Mars People were knocked off the building but the swordswoman and ninja stayed upright through some staggering.

Pyra regained her footing and looked over the rooftop. “How is that thing still moving?! I buried it under a wall!” She said.

Ibuki glanced down at Necrozma and seemed to look at where its claw was aiming. Her eyes widened. “Crap!” She said as she turned and ran off, running towards the edge of the rooftop to continue her trek to the mothership.

“What?” Pyra asked aloud just before Necrozma fired a laser beam straight into the edge of the rooftop where Pyra was standing, causing it to explode around the swordswoman and cover her in debris.

Pyra coughed and tried to clear the dust from in front of her face as she tried to get her bearings together. She swung her sword through the dust a few times, igniting the dust with the flames to disperse it quicker, not even realizing that doing so in the cloud of dust was lighting her up for Necrozma, who continued to aim a claw at her.

*ZAP!*

Pyra barely had time to looked down as a laser beam shot through the dust cloud and slammed into her stomach, knocking her off her feet and sending her flying off the other side of the rooftop.

As Ibuki continued to run towards the mothership, Necrozma seemed to see where she was running and found itself drawn to the bright lights emitting from the large hole in the underside of the huge saucer. Clambering its way across the ground towards the mothership, Necrozma fired several laser beams at the underside as it screeched to the sky, seemingly in an attempt to get the ship’s attention. Soon, Necrozma was directly underneath the mothership as it continued to fire lasers up at it defiantly.

All of a sudden, a beam of light shot down from the underside of the mothership, engulfing Necrozma and lifting it off its feet in a tractor beam. Necrozma tumbled about in midair as it tried to fire up at the mothership but found that something in the tractor beam was keeping it from firing any lasers. In the end, all Necrozma could do was screech defiantly as it was pulled up into the mothership.

In the meantime, Ibuki had leapt across the final rooftop and had landed on top of the Mars People mothership. The first thing she did was look around for a weak point she could exploit since she hadn’t picked up any firearms to help her.

“There has to be a panel or something I can open. A few cut wires is probably all it’ll take to bring this thing down.” Ibuki said to herself as she scanned the top of the mothership. “It happens all the time in the movies!”

Ibuki ran up towards the middle point of the top of the saucer, looking for a panel. Spotting one with some loose screws, Ibuki bent over and started using a kunai to unscrew the panel, hoping that she could find some vital networks underneath it. Ibuki was racing through her task, knowing that she was likely on a time limit and she was a sitting duck up her if any of the Mars People decided to pop up themselves, and managed to get a couple of the screws out of the panel, nearby providing an opening into the inner workings for her…

*KA-BOOM!*

The mothership shook, throwing Ibuki off balance. The ninja girl looked around frantically, wondering where the explosion came from, before looking down and realizing that the explosion had actually come from inside it.

“Ack! W-What the heck was that?!” Ibuki asked aloud as she staggered in place, trying to keep her footing. Another explosion from inside rocked the mothership again, and this time a purple laser beam shot straight through the top of the mothership to go along with it. Several more explosions were heard inside the mothership as Ibuki suddenly noticed lasers shooting through the outer shell of the ship all over, continuing to throw Ibuki off.

Ibuki tried to keep her footing but, after several seconds of staggering about on an exploding UFO, the ninja girl suddenly realized that the mothership was going down. Flames were quickly emitting from the holes created by the lasers and the mothership was starting to go lopsided as it fell towards the ground. The slanting of the mothership was too much for Ibuki to handle as she was finally sent tumbling off the saucer, falling down to the ground as the mothership came down after her.

*CRASH!*

The mothership hit the ground and rocked the entire desert town, bringing several buildings down around it as it slowly came to a halt, though it continued to burn as the fires got more intense as they engulfed the wreck of the saucer. It was clear that the mothership was down for good as the surviving Mars People seemed to be in a big panic. Around the mothership itself, though, things were quiet. No movement was seen across the top of the wrecked mothership, which lasted several long, painful seconds…

…A black, taloned claw burst its way through the outer shell.

All of a sudden, a familiar hologram materialized on the top of the mothership, nearby the newly-made hole as a familiar polygonal Pokemon clawed its way out of the mothership from inside. “Looks like that’s it, ladies and gentlemen! We’ve got ourselves a winner!” SSBFreak’s hologram announced. “It was long, hard-fought and…Well, extremely-violent at times, but in the end the mission was done and we’ve got a definitive winner of this Section’s Multiversal Matchup: Necrozma!!”

Necrozma stood up on top of the wrecked mothership, bathed in bright energy that it appeared to have siphoned from the mothership itself. Necrozma screeched to the sky in what appeared to be a challenge as it fired some practice lasers up at some retreating Mars People UFOs, downing them all in spectacular, powerful explosions. It seemed like it was paying SSBFreak’s hologram no mind, or the fact that it had actually won the Multiversal Matchup, and was instead seemingly intent on showcasing its new power on anything around it.

SSBFreak’s hologram watched as the powered-up Necrozma scampered off obliviously to tear through some more Mars People. “Yeesh. I’m not sure if that’s anger issues or a desire for more power talking.” He mused before pausing. “Uh…I wouldn’t worry about this, ladies and gentlemen. I assure you that Necrozma will be drained of this new power once it returns to the dome.”

SSBFreak watched Necrozma’s blind, furious rampage for a few seconds before looking away in disgust. “Ugh…I’d better make sure Sheogorath doesn’t try to KEEP that thing this way…” He muttered to himself. “I’ve got enough headaches as it is already…”

(Hotel; Outside Gym)

Machamp’s fist slammed into Krusha’s face, knocking the muscled blue Kremling into the wall like a ragdoll. As Machamp approached Krusha to continue the beat-down, however, she was grabbed from behind and tossed into the opposite wall herself. Machamp looked up just in time to see K. Rool pulling out his blunderbuss and fire a cannonball into her chest.

Machamp grunted in pain as the cannonball slammed into her. Normally she would brush an attack like that off but K. Rool was notably a lot stronger than she was anticipating. Krusha alone was a near-match for her power and the Kremling king seemed content to step in to pick up the scraps once Krusha did enough damage. As Machamp collapsed onto one knee, K. Rool rushed her and slammed a foot into her face in a powerful running kick, knocking her into the wall again.

“You aren’t used to heavy hitting, are you?” K. Rool laughed cockily. “You can’t take the hits when you fight something as strong as you are, huh?”

“You LITERALLY just shot me with a cannonball!” Machamp shouted indignantly, though to K. Rool all she said was a bunch of ‘Machamp’s.

Pushing herself up, Machamp held up one of her right arms and caught K. Rool’s fist as it was coming at her face. Grunting in anger, Machamp twisted K. Rool’s arm, contorting the Kremling king’s face in pain before the muscled Pokemon slammed her forearm into the overweight lizard’s face, smashing him off his feet in a massive clothesline. K. Rool yelled awkwardly as he flipped head-over-heels from the force of Machamp’s attack before landing flat on his face.

“Ugh…K-Krusha, get over here!” K. Rool snapped as Machamp picked him up and hoisted the much-larger reptile over her head.

Krusha was about to rush in to help his leader when he paused, noticing that Machamp was easily lifting K. Rool into the air. “Wow…Can you show me how to do that?” He asked.

“KRUSHA!!” K. Rool roared.

Krusha seemed to snap back to attention as continued running to help K. Rool  reaching Machamp just after she had already spiked the Kremling king into the floor headfirst. K. Rool groaned in pain from the floor as Krusha tackled Machamp into the other wall. He struggled to push himself up but fell flat on his face as Krusha continued to clash with Machamp.

Jigglypuff floated around an orange grenade thrown at her as the projectile exploded against the wall behind her, and then slammed a stubby fist into Klump’s face while she was still in midair. Klump lashed out with his limbs, trying to hit Jigglypuff, but found that the Balloon Pokemon was too swift in midair and swerved her way around his attacks.

“Aw, come on! Hold still for a second!” Klump whined.

Jigglypuff gave a smirk, seeing that she was avoiding the Kremling’s clumsy attacks. “Jiggy! Jigglypuff!” She taunted.

Klump blinked. “Uh…What?”

“Puff! Jiggly!”

“Hey! Quit sayin’ that! I ain’t fat!” Klump insisted, narrowing his eyes. “I just got a high bone density!”

Klump charged forward and tried to grab at Jigglypuff, only for the Balloon Pokemon to float over his head and avoid his charge as the Kremling general staggered forward, trying to stop himself. By the time Klump turned around, Jigglypuff had slammed a stubby fist into his face again.

Staggering to the side, Klump held onto his face in pain, surprised at Jigglypuff’s power. “Ugh! Okay! Maybe you got a few surprises but that don’t mean I can’t beat you!” He said.

Jigglypuff again smirked cockily as she jumped back before curling herself into a ball and spinning in place, revving up her Roll Out attack. Klump stood his ground, however, and held up his hands, as if in anticipation, as Jigglypuff threw herself at him with blinding speeds and a fully-charged revving. Jigglypuff slammed into Klump’s open palms and pushed him back a couple of feet but he managed to hold his ground and keep his hands out as Jigglypuff’s continuous roll slowed to a halt in his hands.

Once Jigglypuff had stopped spinning, Klump grabbed her and held her in one hand like a bowling ball. “Heh. Looks like I can outsmart you after all!” Klump said.

Seeing that K. Rool and Krusha were still struggling with Machamp, Klump turned his attention to the other fight and pulled his arm holding Jigglypuff back. It didn’t take long for Jigglypuff to realize what Klump was doing and was about to do. “Puff! J-Jiggy!” She cried in a desperate attempt to keep Klump from acting.

Klump let go of Jigglypuff and rolled her like a bowling ball, causing her to inadvertently rev up into another Roll Out as she rolled along the floor. Machamp only had a second to look in Jigglypuff’s direction before the out-of-control puffball rolled straight into her leg, knocking Machamp off her feet as Jigglypuff slammed into the wall behind her.

“Ah! Good thinking, Klump!” K. Rool said. “Now get over here and help us!”

“Right away, your wretchedness!” Klump nodded as he jogged over to help his king.

Machamp pushed herself to her feet, looking over her shoulder to see that Jigglypuff was looking a little woozy as she rolled into a seated position. Seeing that Jigglypuff was okay for now, Machamp turned her attention to the Kremlings and narrowed her eyes. Wanting to end the fight before Klump got into the fight, Machamp pulled two fists back and lunged at K. Rool, knowing that he was the leader of the three.

K. Rool, however, saw Machamp lunging at him and gave a smirk. “Not this time, my multi-armed friend!” He said as he slapped his stomach just as Machamp’s fists struck it. Instead of knocking K. Rool backwards with the power of the punch, Machamp found herself being launched backwards, bouncing off K. Rool’s stomach in what looked like a counter move. Machamp slammed into the wall and collapsed on her face, landing on top of Jigglypuff and crushing the Balloon Pokemon under her weight.

“That’ll teach YOU to mess with the king of Kremlings!” K. Rool laughed.

Machamp pushed herself up, the wind knocked out of her, as she tried to force herself to her feet, only for Krusha to strike her in the face with his foot on K. Rool’s order. Machamp tumbled backwards into the wall again while Jigglypuff looked like she was struggling to stay conscious, though having a Machamp collapse on top of you would be enough to knock the wind out of you.

Klump came over and scratched his head. “Uh…What now, sir?” He asked.

“We need to finish them off, you idiot! They overheard the part where you blabbed everything out loud!” K. Rool reminded flatly. “Use one of your exploding oranges for all I care!”

“Oh! Good idea, sir!”

As Klump fished around for another orange grenade, Krusha looked back behind K. Rool, pausing in silence. He quietly tapped the Kremling king on the shoulder. “Uh…” He said.

K. Rool sighed. “What is it, Krusha?” He said as he turned around, jumping in surprise when he saw who was behind him.

Bear Hugger folded his arms. “You gators wouldn’t happen to be causing any TROUBLE, would you?” He queried.

“Yeah, eh. Kinda looks like you may have assaulted an innocent Pokemon there.” Blizzard Man added before pausing. “Oh, sorry. TWO Pokemon. I thought the little pink thing was a balloon, eh.”

K. Rool suddenly saw that Klump had pulled another grenade into view and urgently elbowed him, getting the general’s attention. “W-What is it, your heftiness?” He asked as he turned around, saw the two Canadian fighters and jumped in fright, fumbling about with the orange grenade for a few seconds, as if looking for a place to chuck it, before tossing it into the air and eating it himself.

A muffled explosion erupted from Klump’s stomach, causing Bear Hugger and Blizzard Man to stare in surprise for a few seconds, glancing at each other before turning back to the Kremlings. “We don’t want any trouble, so I suggest you better move on.” Bear Hugger said sternly.

K. Rool stood in silence for a few seconds, glanced down at Machamp, and scoffed. “It’s nothing concerning, anyways. They struck first, you know.” He said. Machamp tried to object but the only thing out of her mouth, obviously, was her name. “We’ll carry on as we were and forget this ever happened. Klump! Krusha! Come!”

Klump blinked. “Uh…But I thought you said we needed to-”

“KLUMP.” K. Rool said through his teeth, glaring down at Klump with his oversized, bulging eye. Klump shrunk back a bit and hastily nodded.

Krusha watched as K. Rool and Klump wander off down the hallway before turning to Blizzard Man. “Say. Could you make me a snowcone?” He asked.

“KRUSHA!” K. Rool shouted from down the hall.

Krusha instantly turned tail and jogged off down the hallway. “Coming, your craftiness!” He said as he ran off.

Bear Hugger sighed as he watched Machamp push herself to her feet. “Boy. It looks like those guys kinda took you critters by surprise, eh?” He asked.

Machamp rolled her eyes, opting not to bother giving Bear Hugger an answer as she turned to Jigglypuff, whom was rubbing her head. “You with me, Jiggs?” She asked.

“Ugh…I’m glad I’m used to the heavyweight Smash fighters landing on me or else that probably would have hurt a lot more than it did…” Jigglypuff moaned. “What happened?”

"These two seemed to have come along at a good time. They got the crocs to back off.”

Jigglypuff glanced at Bear Hugger and Blizzard Man and her eyes widened. “Oh! Great! You guys gotta help us! We just overheard that there’s apparently something big going on and those three are in on it! We know that Ganondorf is involved so it’s probably something big and evil and we’re going to need all the help we can get to fight him!” She said urgently as she looked up at the two newcomers. “Maybe we can catch up to them and beat the info out of them now that there’s four of us! You believe me, right?!”

Bear Hugger and Blizzard Man stood in silence and glanced at each other. “Uh…You get any of that, eh?” Blizzard Man asked.

“Nope. Just a lotta ‘Jiggly’s and ‘Puff’s.” Bear Hugger scratched his head. “…Though now I’m getting a bit hungry for Jell-O and marshmallows.”

Jigglypuff paused, suddenly realizing that she was explaining the situation to people that couldn’t understand her. Jigglypuff’s expression slowly changed to one that stared flatly ahead, looking extremely-annoyed, as she pulled what looked to be a permanent marker into view.

“Jiggs, NO.” Machamp scolded.

Jigglypuff sighed and reluctantly lowered the marker.

(The Arena)

Scratch was launched backwards as a fireball exploded in his face, causing him to tumble over Grounder and land flat on his face. Grounder looked confused for a second at Scratch tripping over his before he suddenly noticed Mario lunging at him with his fist prepared to attack. Grounder yelped and held up his drill hands in defense. However, at some point beforehand he had swapped out his drill hands for regular hands and had forgotten about it, so Mario’s punch slammed into a pair of gloved palms instead of a pair of spinning drills.

“Ack!” Grounder shouted in surprise as he realized that he didn’t have his drills active just before Mario punched through his guard and smashed him in the face. Grounder rolled backwards and tripped over Scratch’s still-downed form.

“How the frack did you forget that you didn’t have your drills active?!” Scratch demanded.

“H-Hey! He’s fast and hits hard! You try thinking on the fly!” Grounder insisted.

“It’s hard for YOU because Robotnik didn’t upgrade your brain waves!” Scratch grunted as he pushed himself up and turned to stare at Mario, getting into what he thought was an intimidating stance. “Put up your dukes, plumber boy!”

Mario adjusted his cap and lifted an eyebrow. “That’s a-what I’ve been doing ever a-since you booted the kids.” He mentioned. “Have I a-been hitting you too hard?”

Scratch growled. “Shut up!” He snapped. “Just because you’re stronger and faster and more-athletic and…And more-successful…A-And have a girlfriend…And…Have seen work in the last thirty years…”

Scratch trailed off as he slowly gazed downwards, seemingly lost in thought as he stared blankly into the abyss. Grounder approached him and tapped him in the leg. “Uh…Scratch?” He asked.

Scratch sprung to life, grabbed Grounder and, with an angry yell, hurled the mole-like robot at Mario. Mario’s eyes widened and he was too taken aback by the surprise attack to get out of the way as Grounder fell into him with full weight, knocking both to the ground.

“Owwww! Scratch, why’d you throw me at him like that?!” Grounder demanded as he pushed himself off the dizzy-looking Mario.

“To make sure you’re pulling your weight!” Scratch countered.

“Hey! I’m not fat!”

Mario used the chance while Grounder was distracted to engulf his hand in flames and lunge at the drill robot, aiming for the side of his head. Grounder seemed to snap to attention just in time to lean out of the way of the punch, and then quickly switched his hands back to his drill hands in time to lash out and send a spinning drill into Mario’s side while he was recovering from his own attack.

Mario yelped as he was thrown back in recoil from Grounder’s attack, landing awkwardly on his side before quickly uprighting himself and getting himself into a standing position again. Holding his head in pain from the fall, Mario gazed at Scratch and Grounder as they continued to bicker. He realized that he should be thankful that these two didn’t seem to get along very much since he worried about how annoying it would be to fight them if they weren’t constantly bickering with each other.

“Ugh…These guys are a-taking me by surprise here…” Mario muttered to himself. “If the a-kids couldn’t beat them together they a-must be doing something right…”

“All I’m sayin’ is that I beat those Eskimo kids on my own and there were TWO of them!” Scratch said to Grounder as the two seemed to be having an argument while losing focus on Mario.

“Yeah but you expect me to fight this plumber guy on my own?!” Grounder insisted. “He’s probably got a wrench or something that’ll take me apart!”

“He doesn’t use a wrench, you idiot! He throws fireballs!”

“What kinda stinkin’ plumber throws fireballs?! It doesn’t make any sense!”

Unknowingly to Grounder, a huge flame started forming behind him. Scratch’s eyes widened when he seemed to take notice. “Get out of the way, you idiot!” He shouted.

“Why?” Grounder asked.

The flame suddenly struck Grounder’s back in an explosion of fire, making Grounder scream as he was sent lunging forward uncontrollably on his tank treads. Scratch tried to scrambled out of the way but was unable to avoid Grounder as his partner rolled over him, flattening the chicken robot on the canvas as he was barreled over. Grounder, in the meantime, slammed into a cornerpost, barely able to keep himself to flying out of the arena.

Pushing himself off the cornerpost, Grounder turned around and saw Mario rushing him and preparing another round of hard-hitting punches. Grounder instinctively lashed out with his drills in an attempt to keep Mario away from him, managing to deflect Mario’s punches with his strikes as he found himself dangerously close to getting pushed out of the arena.

“Scratch! Help me!” Grounder shouted in a panic before he noticed that Scratch was still laying flat on his face and out like a light, meaning that he didn’t have any help in fighting Mario. Mario continued to lash out with his fists, seemingly ignoring the fact that Grounder was using drills to parry his punches. Mario just noticed that Grounder was getting close to the ropes and he wanted to end the fight, or at least get rid of Grounder first so that he could easily get rid of the still-prone Scratch before he had a chance to recover.

“Look. I a-think I a-need to finish this.” Mario said. “You two are a-dangerous in a team.”

Grounder blinked a few times. “…Really?” He asked. “That’s the first time anyone’s ever called us dangerous…”

Mario smirked and pulled his fist back, readying another Coinbox Jump. Grounder was hit in the face with Mario’s fist, making him lean back, but Mario’s eyes widened when his fist slipped off Grounder’s head as the latter recoiled back. Mario realized all too late that Grounder’s lack of a chin made it hard to uppercut him and Grounder had just unwittingly taken advantage of that fact.

Grounder suddenly noticed that Mario was above him and, acting on instincts, lashed out with both his drill hands at once, striking Mario in the torso from below and knocking him into the air in a daze. Switching his drill hands back into his gloved humanoid hands, Grounder grabbed the top rope and pulled it back as hard and as far as he could as Mario fell downwards. Once Mario fell into view, Grounder released the rope.

The top rope struck Mario in the side and, like a slingshot, launched the red-clad plumber clear out of the arena. Mario made an attempt to get back into the arena but still fell about ten feet short as he fell headlong into an elimination portal. Grounder, having leaned over the side of the arena to make sure he saw Mario get eliminated, gave a visible sigh of relief when he saw Mario vanish.

Mario landed on a flowery hilltop in a familiar landscape. Looking around, Mario saw the familiar backdrop of Peach’s Castle behind him. Sighing, Mario stood up and brushed himself off, thankful that he was in a familiar location.

Suddenly hearing a loud crash coming from the castle, Mario turned around and saw a large hole in the castle wall, including a second hole in Peach’s window further up. Hearing the sounds of screams of terror coming from inside the castle, Mario’s hero mode decided to kick in as he rushed towards the castle without a second thought…

Necalli lashed out with wild strikes as Magyar continued to hold him off with their broadsword. Necalli had proven to be a fierce fighter and determined if nothing else judging by how he had been solely focused on Magyar ever since he entered the arena, but the haunted suit of armour was starting to get annoyed at the wild fighter’s persistence.

“Seriously! Why can’t we catch a break with people out to eat our souls?!” One of Magyar’s voices shouted. “First it was that kid with the bandana and now it’s this crazy guy with the flowing hair!”

“I dunno. I feels nice to have the attention again after so long…” Another soul lamented.

“Shut up, 13!” Several more of Magyar’s souls shouted at once.

Necalli clawed at Magyar’s sword with his hands in an attempt to break through their defense and, despite the fact that he didn’t seem to be getting anywhere, still continued to try. “You can’t keep me at bay forever! You house the souls of so many warrior spirits that-” He said before he was hit in the face with the blunt end of Magyar’s sword, cutting him off and making him stagger back.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. We get it. You wanna eat our souls.” One of Magyar’s souls snarked. “Learn to get a few more character traits before you sound like a broken record!”

“Don’t antagonize him, 28!” Another soul scolded.

“He’s literally been going on about that ever since he showed up!”

Necalli held his face and stared a hole into Magyar’s many souls. “I’m going to enjoy tearing out your souls one by one!” He snarled as he lunged at Magyar and roared a primal yell.

Magyar swung their broadsword up, hoping to catch Necalli in the side and stop his impending attack, only for the feral warrior to kick the blade to the side while he was in midair. Landing directly in front of the surprised and distracted Magyar, Necalli leapt onto the haunted suit of armour and latched onto them, seemingly trying to pry open the armour’s helm.

“H-Hey! Get off, you maniac!” One of the souls shouted. “We already went through this with that other Street Fighter!”

Magyar thrashed about as Necalli continued to try and pry off their armour so that he could get access to the souls inside that were no obviously very terrified of the primal fighter. After a few seconds, the broadsword in Magyar’s hand switched to the mace and the haunted armour was able to swing it easier, striking Necalli and making him let go of Magyar. Once free, Magyar backed away in caution as Necalli crouched low, holding his side where the spiked mace had struck.

Necalli looked up at Magyar and the haunted armour suddenly noticed the primal fighter’s eyes turn black, his long, flowing hair turning blood red at the same time. “Oh, great. I think we just triggered this guy’s Ultra Instinct form.” One of the souls snarked.

“That’s Dragonball, dude! And how do you know that, anyways?! That’s one of the franchises we HAVEN’T crossed over with yet!” Another soul demanded.

“I try to make myself up to date with my memes.”

Rather than try to question how that would even be possible when the souls occupied the same suit, Magyar held the mace in front of their face in preparation for Necalli’s likely more-powerful attack rush. Necalli roared to the sky and lunged at Magyar, lashing out with his talon-like hands with a rapid speed and ferocity. It seemed that any sort of humanity had left Necalli and he was little more than a literal feral beast as he continued to lash out with everything he had.

Magyar tried to hold up their defense against Necalli’s onslaught but eventually the guard broke as the feral warrior burst through the armour’s defense and struck them multiple times without giving them a chance to respond or counter. Once he saw that he was through Magyar’s defense, Necalli lunged at them with a flurry of slashes and flew right through them, knocking Magyar off their feet and causing the suit of armour to flip head over heels before crashing down on their back.

The next thing Magyar knew they were staring up at Necalli, whom was standing over them in his primal form. His blood red hair and black eyes would have sent a chill down Magyar’s spine if they had any. “Ugh…Anyone catch the license plate of that truck?” One of the souls asked in a daze.

Necalli climbed on top of Magyar while they were down and crouched low, staring into the helm with pitch black eyes and roaring like a beast. It was clear Necalli was out for blood and Magyar didn’t even have any to spare. Necalli lifted a hand and prepared to finish Magyar off…

…All of a sudden, Necalli glanced to the side, seemingly hearing a noise, before a bolt of electricity slammed into his face, creating an electrical explosion that knocked Necalli off Magyar. Magyar looked up in time to watch Necalli fly over the ropes from the recoil of the explosion and tumble out of the ring.

Magyar sat in silence, wondering what had just happened. “…What?” Several souls asked. Magyar turned their head to see Lord Hater in a headlock courtesy of Sheik, with his hand outstretched blindly. It seemed that, in an attempt to get out of Sheik’s grip, Lord Hater had fired a lightning projectile blindly and had ended up taking Necalli out with it.

Magyar stood up slowly, unsure of how to proceed. “So…Do we tell him that he actually saved us?” One of Magyar’s souls asked.

“NO.” Several more souls responded flatly.

Magyar turned to see what they could do now that Necalli was gone and suddenly found themselves staring at Sakura, whom stood ready in a fighting stance. “Wait. Sakura?” One of the souls asked. “What are you doing?”

“Come on, Magyar! I wanna fight!” Sakura replied with a smirk. “We did that all the time when Valhalla did that Street Fighter crossover event!”

“You don’t have the best track record against us, though.” Another soul reminded, almost playfully.

“Well, THIS time I’m not weighed down by a cannon and fumbling about with kunai! I’m fighting the way I’m MEANT to be fighting!” Sakura smirked. “Let’s see how well you can match me at my finest!”

Magyar paused for a few seconds before getting into a stance. “May as well. We’ve gotten used to fighting you with the cannon and kunai so fighting you regularly could be interesting.” They mused.

Sakura lunged at Magyar in the blink of an eye, surprising the haunted suit of armour as she lashed out with a roundhouse kick aimed at the head. Magyar hastily held up their mace and blocked Sakura’s kick but was knocked to the side when Sakura’s kick easily broke through their guard, receiving a sharp kick to the side of the head.

Before Magyar had a chance to recover or wonder how Sakura was able to break through their guard like that, the haunted suit of armour was attacked from above as Sakura landed a flying kick to the back of their head, knocking them down. Magyar quickly spun around before they hit the ground, lashing out with their mace as they did, but Sakura easily backpedaled away, out of range of Magyar’s polearm before leaping back into the fray and driving her knee into the haunted armour’s face.

Magyar tried to fight back but Sakura proved to be much too fast for them to catch, showing surprising speed and skill as she weaved around their attacks and landed hits of her own easily. Every time Magyar swung their weapon in an attempt to catch Sakura off guard, the younger fighter would slip around the attack and counter with one of her own to knock Magyar even further off-balance.

Sakura continued to attack Magyar, showing off her skillset as the haunted armour tried to fight back and found that they couldn’t even land a hit. After thirty seconds of this, Magyar still hadn’t landed a hit on Sakura while the younger fighter was looking eager to continue the fight. Magyar staggered back from a hard kick to the helmet and stuck their broadsword into the canvas to keep themselves from tumbling over the nearby arena ropes.

“It feels good to fight like I usually do again.” Sakura grinned. “Thanks for sparring, Magyar!”

Before Magyar could make a retort, Sakura rushed forward and planted a fist underneath the chin of the haunted helmet, lifting both fighters off the ground in a Shoryuken. The force from the blow seemed to be enough to finish Magyar off as the haunted armour fell past the arena ropes and straight down into an elimination portal. Sakura landed on her feet and suddenly saw Magyar’s broadsword sticking out of the canvas. Realizing that Magyar had let go of their weapon during the Shoryuken, Sakura yanked the broadsword out of the canvas and chucked it out of the ring as well.

Magyar landed in the Spirit Temple of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, directly in front of the transformed Twinrova. Their broadsword fell out of a portal a few seconds later and landed on the transformed witch’s head.

Lord Hater was still locked in a chokehold, courtesy of Sheik, completely unaware that he had saved Magyar from Necalli with a blast of lightning. All the demented space tyrant could think of was about trying to get the ninja woman off of him.

“Let…Let go of me, you crazy woman!” Lord Hater coughed as he flailed about, trying to get Sheik off of him, as he tried calling a bolt of lightning down towards his location in hopes of shocking Sheik off of him.

Sheik seemed to notice the magic lightning raining down above her as she quickly let go of Lord Hater and kicked off of him in an attempt to get out of range as lightning fell from the sky and struck the crazed space villain just as she was out of the way. Sheik landed on her feet and couched low, drawing a kunai as she did, while Lord Hater slowly stood to his feet, gasping for air as he seemed unaffected by the magic lightning that had just struck him.

“Lady, are you trying to kill me here?!” Lord Hater demanded indignantly.

“Forgive me for assuming you were the biggest threat.” Sheik snarked. “You clearly don’t know how a tournament like this operates.”

“I do SO know how this thing works!” Lord Hater roared. “But you never see anyone fighting to KILL in these things outside of the original series! I mean, the fighters sometimes died INSIDE THE RING in the original UVR but you don’t see that anymore and I don’t know why it would start now in this one, of all spinoffs!”

Sheik smirked underneath her scarf as Lord Hater continued to rant as she pulled a Deku Nut into view. Sheik quickly threw the Deku Nut at her feet, blinding Lord Hater in a bright light for a second and cutting off his ranting. When the light cleared Sheik was gone as Lord Hater quickly looked back and forth for his opponent.

“Don’t you know it’s cowardly to run away from a fight when someone’s venting their frustrations?!” Lord Hater demanded as he gathered lightning magic in his hands while looking around for Sheik. “Show yourself, lady!”

Sheik made her presence known by appearing directly overtop of Lord Hater, kunai raised as she plunged it into the top of the tyrant’s head, which of course resulted in another bout of painful screams from Lord Hater. The space villain fired magic blindly over his head, managing to get lucky as he struck Sheik in the face and knocked her off him again.

Lord Hater slowly turned around to face Sheik, kunai still lodged in his head, as the ninja landed on her side. “What IS IT with you people driving sharp objects into my head as a way to get my attention?!” He demanded as he ripped Sheik’s kunai from his head. “Do you have ANY IDEA how PAINFUL that is?! Or do you just like watching me suffer?!”

“Huh…Wasn’t expecting him to just shrug that off…” Sheik muttered to herself as she pulled her harp into view. “Looks like I may need a new strategy.”

Lord Hater watched as Sheik strummed a few notes on her harp quickly. “Oh, and now you’re just going to play me a song like you didn’t just drive a knife into my skull?!” He demanded. “Why are you even-”

*CRASH!*

That was all Lord Hater could get out before a flaming meteorite landed on his head.

Sheik watched as the meteor she summoned exploded into nothingness, revealing Lord Hater face-down in the middle of a burned crater. Knowing that Lord Hater had a surprisingly-high pain tolerance, Sheik started playing again as a shape started forming on the canvas underneath Lord Hater as he pushed himself to his feet.

“You DARE try to crush me like that?!” Lord Hater said in rage as he lifted his hands, oblivious to the image of a triangle that was lighting up around him. “I’ll unleash all the magic I have just to smite you and remove you from the face of-”

*KA-BOOM!*

The Triforce shape Sheik had created with her playing suddenly exploded into a pillar of light, launching the screaming Lord Hater high into the air. Lord Hater fell headlong towards the canvas again, falling at least twenty feet before landing flat on his face. While Lord Hater was down, Sheik drew her kunai and rushed the downed space villain, preparing to end the fight before he had a chance to inevitably get up again. Reaching Lord Hater’s downed form, Sheik pulled her kunai into the air and swung it down…

…A gloved hand caught Sheik’s arm, preventing her from bringing the kunai down. Sheik suddenly realized that Lord Hater’s arm had shot up and caught her arm, stopping her attack while he was still face-down on the canvas.

“…That…Does it…” Lord Hater seethed into the canvas as he lifted his head, staring into Sheik’s eyes with a look of burning rage. “That…DOES IT!!!”

*KA-BOOM!*

Sheik was thrown back in an electric explosion that engulfed Lord Hater. Sheik tumbled backwards several feet in recoil but managed to stop herself as she looked up, freezing when she saw Lord Hater slowly standing to his feet, engulfed in electric magic in a way that, strangely, made him look like a Dragonball character powering up on what looked like nothing but anger and pent-up frustration.

Sheik cursed herself as she drew her harp again. “I think I just made him mad…” She muttered

Rushing Lord Hater, hoping to get to him before he did anything reckless, Sheik strummed a few notes and sent a wave of lightning at the space madman. Lord Hater, in response and not even breaking his line of sight of Sheik, swung a hand and swatted Sheik’s lightning wave away with a backhand. Sheik tried to summon another flaming meteor above Lord Hater but this time the madman seemed ready for it as he held up his hands, caught the firey boulder and, unloading some of his magic into it, caused it to explode in his hands, all the while still staring at Sheik with a look that could set a forest ablaze.

Sheik paused, suddenly realizing exactly how far she had pushed Lord Hater. “…Uh…” She said.

Lord Hater screamed like a madman as he lashed out his hands and unleashed continuous bolts of lightning magic at Sheik, unloading all of his pent-up magic on her as he started to chase her around the ring, screaming incoherently as he shot what looked to be a hundred projectiles at her at once. Sheik jumped around the projectiles as she ran but she knew that she was fighting a losing battle if Lord Hater refused to let up.

“This guy is just as crazy as he looks!” Sheik shouted out loud as she dodged another lightning bolt before fishing another Deku Nut into the open and throwing it down as she ran, vanishing in another bright light in an attempt to give Lord Hater the slip.

Lord Hater skidded to a halt when he saw Sheik vanish. However, rather than look around like he did the last time, Lord Hater turned upwards and fired a huge blast of electrical magic into the air, striking Sheik as she appeared just above him again. Caught off guard by Lord Hater’s awareness, Sheik was propelled into the air, flying backwards at the same time. Lord Hater saw Sheik falling downwards, pulled his hands back and fired another magic bolt at her, striking her in midair and launching her further back, this time far enough to send her out of the arena entirely.

“Take that, you teleporting, stab-happy, harp-playing weirdo!” Lord Hater shouted, shaking his fist to the sky. “No one messes with Lord Hater!!”

Mimikyu extended his shadowy arm and grabbed Bodvar by the leg, attempting to drag the Viking under his cloak. Bodvar, acting quickly jammed his sword into the canvas and held onto it as Mimikyu started pulling on his leg, straining as he struggled to get Bodvar to let go of his sword.

Bodvar, while Mimikyu was trying to pull on him, looked to the side. “I’ll be with you in a minute, Fait! This little rascal’s got a lot more bite than I thought!” He said with a hearty chuckle.

Fait rolled her eyes as she held her magic orb in front of her face, deflecting a few peanuts fired at her. “I could have told you that, Bodvar, but nooooooo; you just HAD to fight it for yourself.” She mentioned.

“It’s been in the ring since the first section! I knew it’d give me a good fight!”

Fait was still in the process of fighting Mimikyu, something she had been doing since she had entered the ring, when Bodvar stepped in to help her after finishing with Ryo. Mimikyu had been keeping both Brawlhalla reps at bay as best as he could before Diddy, having just beaten Vraxx, decided to jump into the fray as well and even the odds. Mimikyu didn’t know how or when Diddy decided to enter the fight but he was thankful for the help; Bodvar alone was proving to be persistent if nothing else.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it, then.” Fait sighed as she left Bodvar to deal with Mimikyu while she continued to deal with Diddy, whom was flying around on his jetpack and shooting at her with peanuts. “I’ve got enough problems to deal with right now…”

Diddy, flying in midair, pointed his popguns down at Fair as he zoomed overhead, bombarding her with peanuts during a fly-by. Fait swerved around the projectiles in response, seemingly aware of where the peanuts were going to hit as she switched her weapon from her orb to her scythe again. As Diddy attempted another fly-by, Fait spun her scythe in front of her, surrounding her in a circle that disappeared, making her vanish with it, and reappear a few feet away, allowing Fait to teleport out of the way of Diddy’s attacks.

Before Diddy could register what Fait had done, the mage lifted the tip of her scythe upwards, making a star-like projectile shoot from the canvas and strike Diddy while he was passing overhead, knocking him out of the sky and causing him to land on his stomach in pain. As Diddy was on his face, Fait pointed her scythe at him and fired another star projectile, this time aiming for his jetpack. Diddy stood up just in time for Fait’s star to slam into his jetpack, causing it to explode on his back and launch the small monkey forward several feet, tumbling and rolling on the canvas until he came to a stop.

“Do yourself a favour and don’t bother fixing that or pulling out a new one. I can anticipate something like that coming.” Fait warned as Diddy pushed himself up. “But…I’ll admit I’m confused as to how you seem capable of doing it in the first place…”

Diddy put on an angry face as he adjusted his cap. Opting to forget about his jetpack for now since Fait had the range to hit him while he was flying, Diddy charged forward and leapt at Fait’s face, swinging an arm at her as he did. Fait swing her scythe at Diddy but found that he was too slippery in the air somehow as he latched onto her face and swatted her a few times before kicking off again, making Fait staggered backwards.

Fait caught herself before she stumbled over and looked at Diddy just in time for a peanut to be shot straight into her forehead. Fait cursed under her breath in annoyance. “Okay. Now I know not to tease Vraxx about that happening to him…” She muttered.

Bodvar’s sword sliced through the air, attempting to slice at Mimikyu’s shadowy hand as he made several attempts to grab the Viking. Bodvar gave a sly grin as he continued to keep Mimikyu’s hand at bay with his sword, slowly backing a few steps each time he did as he looked for an opening.

Bodvar laughed as he sliced at Mimikyu’s hand while it made a grab attempt at his leg. “That won’t work a second time, my shadowy friend! You’re going to need to come up with something new if you want to surprise someone like me!” He challenged.

Mimikyu seemed to take that advice to heart when he pulled his hand into the air and slammed it into the canvas with all his might, launching himself into the air as he floated above Bodvar like a paper bag. Bodvar looked up and smirked as he switched his weapon to his warhammer again. “You think I can’t hit an airborne target?” He asked aloud. “Hate to disappoint you but that’s how I’ve won multiple Valhalla tournaments!”

As Mimikyu fluttered down from above, Bodvar swung his hammer upwards, the familiar green image of a bear materializing around him and swinging a mighty claw in a similar arc. Mimikyu seemed to swerve around the attack like a bag as Bodvar’s attack missed, allowing Mimikyu some extra room to fall down from above. Bodvar’s smirk started to falter as he swung a few more times, only for Mimikyu to harmlessly drift around the blows.

By the time Bodvar realized that he couldn’t hit Mimikyu like this, the Disguise Pokemon was already on top of him. Bodvar couldn’t get out of the way in time as Mimikyu’s cloak fell on top of him and pulled him under, much like Mimikyu’s previous opponents. Mimikyu’s cloak bounced around several times once again before Bodvar was launched out from underneath it, tumbling backwards several feet before landing on his back.

Bodvar held his head as he slowly pushed himself up. “Okay. Perhaps I misjudged the strength of this one…” He mused. “Still nothing I can’t handle, though. I just need to…”

Bodvar trailed off when he stared at Mimikyu again. His shadowy hand was again out in the open, but Mimikyu had increased its size at least tenfold as the Disguise Pokemon held the now-gigantic hand overtop of Bodvar, ready to bring it down. Bodvar gave a smirk as he watched the huge hand come down, swinging his hammer upwards as he did. The ghostly bear visage appeared again and swung a claw to catch Mimikyu’s shadow hand, keeping it at bay and starting a power struggle.

As the sight of Bodvar’s ghost-bear clashing with Mimikyu’s shadow hand continued in the background, Fait ducked under Diddy as the chimp threw himself at her again. Diddy had managed to get a few lucky hits in but once Fait had gotten his movements down it had become harder for the chimp to hit her, especially since she had range with her scythe’s star projectiles. Fait had mostly kept to her scythe when fighting Diddy since it gave her range and used it to close the gap or snipe at the smaller fighter when he tried shooting her with peanuts.

Diddy backpedaled out of the way as Fait swung her scythe at him, but wasn’t prepared for the mage to teleport into his face and slam her leg into the side of his head. Diddy was sent tumbling to the side as Fait spun her scythe in her hand and fired a spread of star projectiles at Diddy as he was recovering, striking the chimp and knocking him back further.

Scrambling to his feet, Diddy glared angrily at Fait as he pulled out his rocketbarrel jetpack again, one that strangely looked mostly fixed despite Fait blowing it up not long prior, and strapped it to his back, pulling out a pair of popguns at the same time. Diddy crouched low as flames started emitting from the boosters on the jetpack, preparing for launch.

Fait, seeing what Diddy was about to do, gave a sly smirk. “You don’t want to do that.” She warned playfully.

Diddy paid her no mind as he allowed the jetpack to take off, taking to the sky again as he made an attempt to snipe Fait from above with his popguns, knowing to be aware that Fait could snipe him out of the sky herself if given the chance. Nevertheless, Diddy flew past Fait and continued to fire peanuts at her, though making sure he was turned in a way that kept Fait from shooting at his jetpack.

Turning himself around as he got close to Fait, Diddy aimed his popgun and fired a peanut at the mage as he passed her. Fait, however, managed to avoid the projectile with a dive to the side and, sliding underneath Diddy as he flew underneath, sliced at the chimp’s jetpack with her scythe. Diddy flew into the air and turned around, pointing his popgun down at Fait…

*KA-BOOM*

…And then his jetpack exploded on his back again. Diddy suddenly realized all too late that, in his haste to get out of range of Fait’s attacks, he had flown beyond the arena ropes. Diddy fell headlong downwards and tried to reach out for the arena but came up far too short as he fell straight down into an elimination portal.

Fait sighed in relief as she watched Diddy fall into the portal. After a couple of seconds she heard a crash noise coming from behind her, making Fait remember the fight between Bodvar and Mimikyu.

She turned around only to see Mimikyu’s giant shadowy hand laying flat on top of Bodvar. It became apparent that Mimikyu ended up winning the recent power struggle he was having with Bodvar and, before Fait could have the time to come over to aid the Viking, the Disguise Pokemon ended the fight by grabbing the prone Bodvar with  his shadowy hand and chucking him over the arena ropes as well.

Bodvar landed in Rhythm Heaven, where Diddy had already landed and was proving to be an expert at keeping rhythm by high-fiving a series of monkeys to the background music. Bodvar tried to do the same only to realize that his rhythm was terrible…

Merengue held up her arms to block King Knight as he attempted another powerful shoulder barge. However, hitting Merengue with her guard up was like running into a stone wall and King Knight found that he wasn’t even able to move the pink rhino backwards even an inch. The instant King Knight backed away at the end of his shoulder barge, Merengue swung a hand and gave the golden-clad knight a backhand that knocked him flying backwards several feet, landing flat on his back.

King Knight grunted as he picked up his briefly-dropped scepter and stood back up, brushing his armour off. “This fair maiden’s got a lot more muscle than I expected.” He mused. “Then again, that will make my victory all the more sweeter when I triumph! The next time I conquer Pridemoor Keep I’ll be known as a slayer of beasts!”

“Um…I can hear you, you know.” Merengue piped up.

King Knight seemed to pay Merengue no mind and dashed forward towards her again. Merengue yelped and held up her arms again in anticipation, only for King Knight to leap directly over her and spin downwards, spiking his metal-clad feet into the top of Merengue’s head. Merengue staggered forward in surprise a couple of steps, and this allowed King Knight the chance to do another shoulder attack, flying into her back and making her stumble forward even more. Even with all of that, however, he still wasn’t able to knock Merengue off her feet.

“What magic is this?! She’s harder to knock over than a stone wall!” King Knight exclaimed.

“C-Can you please stop attacking me now?” Merengue asked timidly as she turned around. “I really don’t want to do this!”

“How are you this unmovable? You don’t seem to be wearing any iron boots to weigh you down!” King Knight continued.

“I-I’m a RHINO!”

King Knight stood in silence for a moment. “Ah. Yes, I forgot about that bit.” He scratched his head. “I suppose that would explain it.”

“Do…You not HAVE rhinos where you live?”

King Knight seemed to pay Merengue no mind again as he leapt forward and tossed a handful of sheets into the air before slicing at them with his scepter. Merengue stepped back as she watched the sheets get shredded into a swarm of confetti that wafted down towards her. Merengue didn’t know what King Knight was expecting to accomplish by trying to attack her with confetti but when one piece flew past her and gave her a sharp cut on the arm she suddenly realized what his plan was.

Merengue backed away as she tried to avoid the confetti storm floating downwards towards her. Her larger size made it harder for Merengue to avoid the sharp cuts of paper as they flew all around her, slicing at her from what felt like every direction as she held up her arms and tried to keep the confetti away from her face. When the confetti storm subsided Merengue’s arms were now sporting several new, painful-looking cuts and her work outfit even had a couple of tears in the sides.

Merengue lowered her arms once she realized that the confetti had subsided just in time to see King Knight swinging his scepter at her. Merengue staggered backwards from the blow as King Knight looked pleased that he seemed to finally be doing some damage before he noticed that hitting Merengue with his scepter had bent it out of shape.

“W-What the blazes happened to my-” King Knight asked aloud, looking over his bent scepter, just before a pink fist slammed into his masked face, sending the golden-clad knight sprawling again, launching him away several feet.

Merengue lowered her fist and slowly stepped forward, approaching King Knight with what looked to be a twitching, teary eye. “I don’t want to fight…I swear I don’t…” She whimpered. “But…B-But some of you people just refuse to LISTEN…”

King Knight pushed himself up and turned to face Merengue. “Now, my lady, I think you-”

*POW!*

Another hook to the face and King Knight was laid out flat on his back. Merengue stood over him, her arms shaking in what looked like anxiety, before laying into the gold-clad knight, striking him with punch after punch as if Merengue was letting out all of her pent-up emotions and frustrations all at once.

“You made me do this because y-you refused to listen to me…” Merengue said in between punches. “I-I’m real sorry about this b-but you’re not giving me a choice!”

Each punch rattled King Knight so much that he feared what it would feel like if he wasn’t wearing full-body armour. Realizing that Merengue had finally been set off, King Knight held up his bent scepter in front of Merengue’s fist, which knocked Merengue off of him in recoil in addition to bending it back into shape from the blow. King Knight quickly got to his feet as Merengue backed off, holding her hand.

“N-Now, I think you’re being a bit hasty!” King Knight insisted. “Perhaps we got off on the wrong foot or something?”

“You’re…You’re wanting to listen to me NOW?” Merengue demanded. “After…After trying to fight me for…E-Ever since you entered the ring?”

“Uh…”

“N-No…No, I’m done trying to reason with you…” Merengue shook her head as she stepped forward and pulled a fist back, preparing another powerful hook.

King Knight ducked under Merengue’s punch as the pink rhino staggered forward due to the recoil coupled with her wooziness. King Knight saw Merengue throw herself off and quickly decided to act on it, charging into her with another shoulder barge that made Merengue stagger forwards another few steps as she got closer to the ropes around the arena.

“I’ll admit I probably stuck my foot in my mouth on this one…” King Knight muttered to himself. “I…Apologize for this!”

Merengue looked over her shoulder just in time to see King Knight wave his long red cape at her, blinding her briefly. The time she was blinded was more than enough for King Knight to act on and shoved her forward, sending her tumbling over the ropes and out of the arena, though doing so took a lot of physical exertion from King Knight to do.

With Merengue gone, King Knight gave a sigh of relief as he looked over himself, seeing that his scepter was still not bent back into shape perfectly and that his armour was now sporting some very unsightly dents that would eb sure to take an entire day to fix. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the rest of the remaining ten fighters scattered around the arena. Lord Hater was still visibly enraged after his previous fight with Sheik, though Mimikyu was using his shadowy, stretchy hand to give the tyrant an awkward-looking pat on the back in comfort. Fait seemed content to stand aside and keep her energy up, though she had switched weapons to her orb to gaze into it for a bit. Bowser Jr. looked relieved to be rid of the Mad Piano but disappointed that Mario seemed to be gone as well while Scratch and Grounder stood off to the side, the latter repeatedly slapping the former to get him back to his senses. Squirtle and Sakura seemed relatively untouched and looked eager for the next round of fighters to enter so that they could continue while Mai took the time to dust off her outfit, looking satiated for the time being after her earlier bout with Bayonetta. Steve seemed to be the only one who noticed King Knight looking at him and gave a friendly wave (accompanied by a familiar ‘Heyooooo!’) to the gold-clad knight.

As the Power Stones were despawned again, signifying the end of the section, King Knight brushed himself off and tried to look as professional as possible for the next wave of fighters that were sure to make their entrance any time now. He wanted to at least look presentable for a future opponent…

(Multiversal Matchup Void)

“Oh, no! I’m not done yet?! I-I thought I was done with the tournament!”

Ryo lifted an eyebrow as he glanced at Merengue, whom had just appeared and looked crestfallen that her day wasn’t done yet. “I thought you’d be all for having another chance at something after getting eliminated.” He mentioned.

“I was signed up for the tournament without my knowledge!” Merengue insisted. “I-I didn’t think Mystery Fighters would apply to this side stuff, though!”

Neclord sighed in frustration as he looked around at the full void; Crash Man had given up on pestering Ryo and had moved on to Necalli, whom was lashing out at the Robot Master in rage and frustration, still in his enhanced primal form, while Ryo was consoling a flustered-looking Merengue, whom looked like she wanted to be anywhere but where she currently was. Vraxx was tumbling about, still yelling about unfairness and injustices (which was actually kind of ironic, coming from him) while Sheik seemed to be the most-relaxed person in the void as she simply played a few notes on her harp patiently.

“Is that eight?” Neclord asked through his teeth to Mr. Sandman, whom was floating beside him and looking just as annoyed. “I can’t take this anymore…”

Mr. Sandman glanced around and sighed. “Yeah. That’s eight. Not a minute too soon, either.” He said.

“Good. We can finally move on and be done with this place!”

“SECTION THREE…ENDED.” The robotic voice echoed through the void. “PREPARING PORTAL.”

Crash Man grinned. “Great! I’m looking forward to this!”

Sheik put away her harp. “Don’t act so cocky. You don’t know what we’re going to be thrown into on the other side of this…” She warned.

“Eh, I’m sure it’s nothing any of us can’t handle.” Crash Man chuckled as the void started to get overwhelmed in a bright light. “Heck. Maybe they’ll throw us into DOOM or something and make us fight a wave of demons.”

“D-Don’t say that!!” Merengue pleaded, having heard Crash Man, just before the white light engulfed her.

It wasn’t long before the eight fighters were engulfed, taking them through the warp that would take them to the next Multiversal Matchup. Soon, their questions would be answered…

RESULTS (16 Votes)

Main Event

SAKURA KASUNAGO (SF5): 13:3 = 10 (Neclord, Magyar)

SQUIRTLE (PKMN): 13:3 = 10 (Darunia, Heihachi Mishima)

SCRATCH & GROUNDER (AoStH): 12:4 = 8 (Ice Climbers, Mario Mario)

LORD HATER (WOY): 13:5 = 8 (Necalli, Sheik)

MAI SHIRANUI (KOF): 11:5 = 6 (Bayonetta, Pom Pom)

KING KNIGHT (SK): 10:6 = 6 (Merengue)

STEVE (BL): 10:6 = 4 (Captain Olimar)

FAIT (BH): 10:6 = 4 (Diddy Kong)

MIMIKYU (PKMN): 11:7 = 4 (Bodvar)

BOWSER JR. (SMB): 10:7 = 3 (Mad Piano)

(ELIMINATED)

CAPTAIN OLIMAR (SSB): 10:7 = 3 (Greninja)

DIDDY KONG (SSB): 10:7 = 3 (Lord Vraxx)

HEIHACHI MISHIMA (PAS): 9:7 = 2 (Mr. Sandman)

BODVAR (BH): 9:8 = 1 (Ryo Sakazaki)

MARIO MARIO (SMB): 9:9 = 0 (Crash Man)

MERENGUE (AC): 8:9 = -1

MAD PIANO (SM64): 8:9 = -1

ICE CLIMBERS (SSB): 7:9 = -2

LORD VRAXX (BH): 7:9 = -2

BAYONETTA (SSB): 7:9 = -2

SHEIK (HW): 6:10 = -4

GRENINJA (PKMN): 7:11 = -4

MAGYAR (BH): 6:11 = -5

MR. SANDMAN (PO!): 5:11 = -6

RYO SAKAZAKI (KOF): 5:11 = -6

POM POM (SMB): 4:12 = -8

DARUNIA (HW): 5:13 = -8

CRASH MAN (MM): 3:13 = -10

NECLORD (ST): 3:13 = -10

NECALLI (SF5): 1:15 = -14

Current Top 10 Eliminations: Lord Hater (5), Bowser Jr. (3), Mimikyu (3), Blanka (3), Mario Mario (3), Sakura Kasunago (2), Squirtle (2), Scratch & Grounder (2), Mai Shiranui (2), Darunia (2)

Multiversal Matchup

NECROZMA (PKMN): 102 Points

IBUKI (SF5): 95 Points

PYRA (SSB): 90 Points

CLARK STILL (KOF): 83 Points

ANGEL (KOF): 63 Points

WANG-TANG (PS): 59 Points

SPIKE (PAS): 45 Points

SLASH (EC): 39 Points

Side Battles

“Coulrophobia”

LOLA POP (ARMS) traumatizes ZANT (Hyrule Warriors)

13 to 3

“Wrecked Work-Out”

KING K. ROOL (Super Smash Bros.), KLUMP and KRUSHA (Donkey Kong Country) tire out JIGGLYPUFF and MACHAMP (Pokemon)

10 to 6

Not Looking Back: Unlike the previous Multiversal Matchup, which saw a three-way race for first place, once Necrozma got ahead in the votes it stayed that way. Every time either Pyra or Ibuki got within striking distance Necrozma just shot further ahead with the next vote.

Newbies Rule: Lord Hater, Mimikyu and Bowser Jr. are the only ones left in the ring that have lasted more than a single section. I was surprised to see a vote turnaround for Magyar and Mad Piano especially considering the support the two got in the previous section.

Chapter Text

(The Arena)

The ring almost seemed a lot emptier with only ten people in it. The emptiest the ring had been all night so far, the overall feel of the ten survivors of the previous section was that they were ready to take on the next wave of fighters, whoever they be. King Knight, sporting several unsightly dents in his armour and a bent scepter, looked to be the odd one out, but even he seemed as prepared as he could to take on a new opponent. Lord Hater had managed to quell his anger and frustration for now but kept mumbling something about it being only a matter of time before someone else stabbed him in the face.

The lights started shining on the entrance curtain again, signifying the start of the next section to the audience and arena survivors. Everyone gathered waited as they wondered who the next person to enter the arena was up until the curtain was pushed aside and the next entrant made their way onto the ramp…

“MORDEX!” (BH)

Emerging from the curtain to a mixed reaction was a gray-furred werewolf in tattered human clothes. Paying his audience reaction no mind (he figured half of his critics were fueled by salt, anyways), Mordex gave a wolf-like howl to the sky as he raced down the ramp, baring his claws and looking ready to spill some blood as he leapt into the arena.

Landing in the arena, a pair of clawed gauntlets appeared on Mordex’s hands as he raced over to the first person he saw, leaping and baring his claws as he readied to bring them down on his chosen opponent. Mai Shiranui, however, could hear Mordex coming up behind her and instinctively jumped to the side as Mordex slammed his claws into the canvas where she had been only a second prior.

“You should know better than to sneak up on a ninja.” Mai smirked as she drew a fan into the open.

Mordex gave a dark smirk of his own. “Well, forgive me for not realizing you were. That outfit of yours doesn’t exactly help you blend into the background.” He taunted.

Mai narrowed her eyes as she ignited the fan and tossed it at Mordex, whom swatted it away with a single backhand. However, this left him open for a diving kick to the face from Mai that sent him sprawling.

“Okay. I don’t have much experience fighting werewolves but it can’t be much different than fighting Iori when he’s gone full beast mode.” Mai mused as she got into her stance.

Mordex pushed himself up and managed a smirk as he used one of his clawed gauntlets to rub a bit of blood off his mouth. “Heh. I think I’m going to like making you suffer for that, lady.” He said coldly.

“Yeah, yeah. Just start throwing punches so I can set that fur of yours on fire.”

“KULA DIAMOND!” (KOF)

The blue-haired cryomancer emerged from the curtain with an ice cream popsicle in her hand that looked vaguely like Sonic the Hedgehog. Finishing her treat, Kula waved to the audience as she skated down to the ring and leapt in, secretly thankful that she at least didn’t need to worry about dealing with Angel in the ring. Now all she needed to do was hope that Krohnen wasn’t going to enter the ring right after her.

Landing on the arena canvas, Kula set her sights on Bowser Jr., whom was fidgeting with a Mechakoopa, as her eyes lit up and someone who looked to be her age in the ring with her. Kula quickly skated over as Bowser Jr. looked up and instinctively pulled another hammer into view.

“Ack! S-Stay back, you! I’m armed!” Bowser Jr. snapped, still on edge from having been trying to deal with the Mad Piano for two sections.

“I’m not here for a fight! I wanna hang out!” Kula said cheerily.

Bowser Jr. blinked as he lowered his hammer. “Wait. What?” He asked.

“Come on! I enter these tournaments all the time and it’s not often I come upon someone my age.” Kula shrugged. “Maybe we can wait for someone to enter that we can fight together or something.”

“So…You’ll be, like…My minion or something?” Bowser Jr. paused.

Kula put her hands on her hips and looked cross. “Hey, I’m saying we can hang out. Do you not do that where you come from?” She asked.

“Uh…” Bowser Jr. scratched his head.

Kula sighed. “Looks like I’ll need to break the ice then.” She shrugged. “So, you like ice cream at all?”

Bowser Jr. grinned. “Uh, LOVE IT.” He said. “My only regret about living in a kingdom of fire is that I can’t eat ice cream so whenever dad invades a snow kingdom I always make sure I stock up!”

“PHANTOM STRIKER!” (SK)

Emerging from the curtain next was a masked man wearing spiked armour and wielding a fencing sword. Taking a moment to play to the crowd, Phantom Striker raised his sword and called down a bolt of lightning from the sky that struck the tip of his weapon and sent bright, sparking electricity through his armour, which resulted in a round of approval from the crowd. His armour still sparking with the stored-up lightning, Phantom Striker made his way down the ramp and jumped in.

King Knight saw Phantom Striker land in the arena and turned to face him, posing as dramatically as he could with dented armour and a bent scepter. “Ah, the wandering lightning rod himself! I assume you’re here to challenge me in my bid to the throne?” He asked.

“Don’t flatter yourself, King Knight. I don’t even need to face you to determine that you have a LONG way to go before you become worthy of my time.” Phantom Striker said simply as he walked past the angry King Knight.

“What makes that blasted Shovel Knight worth your time, then?!” King Knight demanded.

Phantom Striker looked over his shoulder. “The fact that he’s a noble warrior that fights with honour may have something do to with it.” He said simply as he continued onwards, ignoring King Knight stomping the canvas in anger.

Sakura suddenly took notice that Phantom Striker was coming her way. “Um…Can I help you?” She asked, slightly-intimidated by the electrified, spiked armour the approaching swordsman was wearing.

“Indeed. I think you’ll be a good opponent seeing as how you’re a former champion.” Phantom Striker said as he got into a stance. “We’ll see how well you stack up to warriors I’ve faced in the past, but hopefully you haven’t slipped in the years since you’ve won.”

Sakura gave an amused smirk. “Oh, I think you’ll be VERY impressed.” She said as she got into a stance herself.

“JOWY!” (ST)

The crowd cheered for the young man with silver-hair as he emerged from the curtain, his ponytail flowing in the wind dramatically (despite, again, it being an indoor arena with no wind blowing) and staff in hand. Gazing out at the arena, Jowy made his way down the ramp as he looked for an opponent to fight.

“Neclord’s already gone…And it took a lot faster than I thought it would…” Jowy muttered. He had been anticipating needing to help someone fight off Neclord but when he watched Sakura defeat him so easily and in such a short amount of time he started to wonder if he was out of his depth here. Either way, he told himself to at least steer clear of Sakura; if she could take down someone like Neclord as easily as she did then he didn’t want to mess with her.

Deciding to try his hand at facing Fait, Jowy ran over and prepared to attack her with his staff. However, the instant he got close to Fait she spun her scythe around, vanishing out of Jowy’s line of sight just as he swung his staff. Before Jowy realized what was happening Fait had reappeared beside him and kicked him in the head, knocking him on his side.

“Ack! W-What was that?!” Jowy asked out loud.

“Here’s some advice; Don’t try to seek up on someone with clairvoyance, and especially not one that can teleport.” Fait smirked.

“Ugh…Leave it to me to try and pick a fight with someone who can see me coming.” Jowy muttered to himself.

“You seem tense and your mind is giving off some weary readings.” Fait lifted an eyebrow. “Let’s see…I assume it’s because you’re afraid a certain Luca Blight will be entering any time now?”

“Hey, if you knew anything about him you’d be scared for his arrival in the ring even if you COULD foresee it.” Jowy replied flatly.

“DUCK HUNT!” (SSB)

Coming out next was a familiar dog-and-duck duo; a regular non-anthropomorphic bird perched atop a regular non-anthropomorphic dog. The dog wagged his tail as he scanned looked around curiously while the duck quacked a few times, flapping his wings to dislodge a couple loose feathers. The dog trotted down the ramp, almost out of curiosity, before leaping into the arena excitedly.

Grounder turned his head and saw the Duck Hunt duo land in the arena and start making their way over to him and Scratch. “Hey, Scratch! Check it out! Someone must have lost their dog or something!” He pointed out.

Scratch lifted an eyebrow. “How the heck did a dog get all the way out here? How bad is the security in this place to have not seen it?” He asked. The Duck Hunt Dog barked a couple of times at Scratch, making the robot chicken back away. “Okay. He’s got an attitude as well.”

“Maybe he doesn’t like birds?” Grounder asked.

“Then explain the one that’s sitting on his back!” Scratch insisted, pointing out the duck on the dog’s back.

“Uh…Maybe he’s a bird that hates other birds?” Grounder scratched his head before pausing a couple of seconds. “Hey, Scratch? Did you always have one of those gun-target thingies on your stomach?”

“Gun-target thingies? What are you on about NOW?” Scratch grumbled as he looked down, freezing when he saw a glowing crosshair on his stomach. “Where the heck did THAT come from?!”

*BANG!*

Scratch jumped out of the way just as a gunshot rang out and something exploded in the air where he had just been. Scratch looked around frantically as he got up. “Is…Is there a sniper shooting into the arena or something?! Where’d that shot come from?!” He demanded.

Grounder suddenly noticed that the Duck Hunt Dog was snickering. “Uh…Maybe the dog knows?” He asked.

Scratch turned to face the Duck Hunt Duo as they got into a stance. “Oh, a wise-guy, huh?! Well, let’s see if we can wipe that stupid grin off your face!” He snapped as he and Grounder charged forward to fight the dog and duck duo.

“PROTO MAN!” (MM)

The crowd cheered as the red-and-white robot emerged from the curtain, his yellow scarf wafting in the invisible wind in a similar fashion to Jowy’s hair despite the lack of actual wind. Proto Man summoned his trademark shield into his hand and readied his Proto Buster as he made his way down to the ring.

“Leave it to Mega Man to prefer to NOT know when he’s going to enter the arena because he wanted to be ‘surprised’. Now I have no idea how long I’ll have to wait until he decides to show up.” Proto Man muttered under his breath as he stepped into the arena.

Landing in the arena, Proto Man set his sights on Lord Hater and Mimikyu and started making his way over, only to hear a familiar “Heyooooo!” followed by the sound of a rocket launcher being fired in his direction. Proto Man quickly turned in place and held up his shield, tanking a rocket that exploded in his face and pushed him back a couple of steps. However, Proto Man’s shield was sturdy enough to hold steady throughout the blast and Proto Man remained untouched.

Proto Man lowered his shield and stared darkly through his shades at the perpetrator. “You.” He said darkly.

Steve quickly put his rocket launcher away and pointed to himself. “H-Heyoo?” He asked innocently.

“You know, I WAS going to try fighting the evil space tyrant but if you’re THAT intent on making yourself a target so quickly, then who am I to argue?” Proto Man said. “Maybe you’ll give me something to focus on while I wait for Mega Man to enter.”

Proto Man started opening fire on Steve, firing multiple shots from his Proto Buster as the raider danced around the projectiles nervously. “Heyooooo!” He called out as he scampered away with Proto Man hot on his tail.

Lord Hater watched the previous scene unfold and scratched his head before glancing at Mimikyu. “What was THAT all about?” He asked. Mimikyu appeared to shake his head, as if he didn’t know either.

All of a sudden, music started playing. It was a familiar, somewhat-cheery tune but it was being played as a twisted remix of sorts. “Wait…That music…I think…” Lord Hater said, trying to recognize the song, as he glanced up to the entrance curtain. “…Is…Is that a remix of the Chicken Dance?”

Sitting outside the entrance curtain was a stop sign sticking out of the ground, adorned by a big exclamation mark instead of the word ‘STOP’. People near the entrance curtain were already screaming in fear.

“Mystery…Fighter…SEVEN…”

A green, disembodied hand burst from the floor and grabbed hold of the sign’s metal post.

“TRICKY!” (Madness Combat)

Bursting out from the floor outside the entrance curtain (and leaving an unsightly hole) was a familiar humanoid with green skin, bright red hair and wearing a metal faceplate like a mask. His hands and feet seemed connected to his body with invisible limbs as they floated in the air near his body, but that didn’t seem to stop the undead zombie clown from ripping the stop sign out of the ground and wielding it like a long club as he zipped down to the arena with lightning speeds, constantly vibrating and shaking the entire time.

In an instant, Tricky was in the arena, bouncing all around as he made an awkward, zigzag beeline towards Lord Hater, whom started to back away in nervousness as Tricky lunged at him, screaming like a demon as he pulled his stop sign into the air and prepared to smash it over Lord Hater’s head. Mimikyu, seeing Lord Hater about to be attacked, sprung into action and lashed out with his shadowy hand in an attempt to grab the stop sign…

…Mimikyu missed. The stop sign slammed into the top of Lord Hater’s head so hard that it became wedged, resulting in yet another bout of painful-sounding screams from the space tyrant as he flailed about backwards. Mimikyu stood in awkward silence for a few seconds before turning his attention to Tricky, only to see that the zombie clown had warped around him and was continuing to lunge at Lord Hater, this time with talon-like fingers, as he attempted to get his stop sign back.

Lord Hater grabbed the post of the stop sign embedding in his skull and, likely in pain, sent a wave of magic lightning into the metal post just as Tricky was reaching for it. Tricky grabbed hold of the post just in time to a huge surge of electricity to flow straight into his hands, making the reality-warping zombie screech as he recoiled in pain. His entire body twitching and shaking violently, Tricky shook out his hands and stared daggers at Lord Hater, preparing to pounce again just as the space villain ripped the stop sign out of his head with one last painful-sounding scream.

“What IS IT with people using my face as a pincushion tonight?!” Lord Hater demanded. “Seriously, what about my face just screams ‘extremely-stabbable target’?!”

Lord Hater turned to Tricky just in time for a clawed hand to slash across his face, making him yell again as he backpedaled, dropping the stop sign as Tricky scooped it up again. Holding his face, Lord Hater glared at Tricky. “Okay. No more mister nice Hater! The fact that you’re a clown just makes you that much more-punchable!” He said. “Bring it on, you creepy, green, vibrating weirdo!”

Tricky’s response was to let out another unholy screech as he jumped at Lord Hater again.

(Announcer’s Booth)

“Aw, come on! I think having a hole in the entryway gives it a little bit more character!”

“I can’t risk anyone tripping in that hole and getting injured before they even enter the arena!”

“Well, you shoulda known that was coming when you consider who that Mystery Fighter was.”

Khall looked back and forth between SSBFreak and Sheogorath as the former tried to convince the latter to repair the hole Tricky had just made in the floor of the entrance ramp. Sheogorath, however, seemed content to just get the blonde host riled up and was sitting back in the chair he had warped into the Announcer’s Booth with.

SSBFreak sighed as pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. “Look, I know how easy it’d be for you to just repair the hole. I don’t see what the big deal is.” He pointed out.

“Yeah, but…Why?” Sheogorath smirked.

“I said it’s because I don’t want anyone tripping and getting hurt!”

“…And?”

“Look, the tournament’s been going fine so far…For…For the most part. Could you PLEASE just fix the hole?” SSBFreak pleaded. “It’s not too much of an ask, is it?”

“Fine, fine. I’ll fix the bloody hole but only because I know a hole in the entrance way is gonna be the LEAST of your worries with that guy.” Sheogorath sighed as he finally snapped his fingers. Khall looked out the window of the booth and watched the hole Tricky made in the entrance ramp close itself up on its own. “Now, if we’re done here I believe I have a wheel of cheese to get back to before you decided to rudely call me here.”

Khall watched as Sheogorath warped out of the Announcer’s Booth again and SSBFreak sat back down in his chair. “Boy. It’s hard making deals with that guy, isn’t it?” He asked.

“You don’t know the half of it.” SSBFreak sighed.

“Still, I wonder if he knew that hole was coming when he invited that zombie clown thing to this.” Khall scratched his head.

“Uh…What?”

“Uh…That zombie clown is his second Mystery Fighter pick, isn’t he? I mean, an undead reality warper with bloody intentions and a psychotic streak as long as both my arms combined?” Khall asked. “That…HAS to be a pick from the god of madness, isn’t it?”

SSBFreak shifted uncomfortably for a few seconds as he awkwardly turned his gaze back to the arena. Khall sat in silence, looked back and forth between the host and arena a few times, blinking in confusion as he did, before returning his gaze to the host. “…He’s one of YOURS?”

(Dome; Outside TF2 Locker Room)

The five security team members (including Homsar, who just fluttered about upside down behind them) wandered the hallways of the dome on their way towards the Team Fortress 2 Locker Room, led by a still-upset Saxton Hale. The team may have been tasked with finding Hale’s Australium but they still needed to at least examine the apparent crime scene and interrogate the mercs.

“Okay. How likely is it that these mercenaries will let us ask them questions?” Estel asked.

“Well…I mean, the mercs are all varying degrees of psycho and they’ve all committed at least a few war crimes.” Max replied casually. “Just remember that Scout likes to talk about himself…Like, a LOT, Demoman will probably be in a drunken stupor and be impossible to understand and I think we should rule out getting anything out of Pyro altogether.”

Estel sighed. “So interrogating is going to be a chore in of itself.” She lamented. “Just be ready for anything.”

“I’m not sure about this…” Lucia piped up nervously.

“Ah, you’ll be fine, Lucia! Just stay behind us and I’m sure you won’t get caught in the crossfire!” Psymon grinned.

“Psymon, you’re NOT helping her.” Estel warned as the group reached the door to the TF2 Locker Room. “Looks like we’re here. Look alive, everyone...”

“AaAaAaAaAah! Mah athlete’s foot’s come down with a case of polio…” Homsar rambled. Everyone ignored him.

Estel saw the hand reader set up next to the door to the locker room. In order to make sure that the locker rooms could only be accessed by people representing the node the locker room was for, a hand registry system had been set up. If anyone other than someone the locker room was meant for tried scanning their hand, the door wouldn’t open. The security team, however, had full access to every locker room and that meant that they could go inside to start their investigation.

Walking over to the hand reader, Estel lifted her hand and approached, preparing to scan her hand and open the door to the locker room. All of a sudden, however, the door flun open on its own, having been opened from the other side, as a screaming Scout flew out the door as fast as his legs could carry him, slamming into Psymon, whom was standing in front of the door. Scout tripped as he hit Psymon, sending the two flying into the wall.

Saxton Hale was quick to pull Scout off Psymon. “What in Australia has gotten into you, boy?!” He demanded. “Are you perhaps so guilt-ridden for stealing my Australium that you were coming to confess yourself?!”

Scout suddenly saw who was holding him. “B-Boss! Mr. Hale, you gotta help us! It’s chaos! It’s mayhem!” He cried. “We don’t know how it happened but it’s happened!”

“Yes, yes. We know about the stolen Australium.” Estel sighed. “That’s why we’re here.”

Scout blinked. “The stolen what-now?” He asked.

*CRASH!*

The security team jumped and turned to the door just in time to see Heavy Weapons Guy burst from within the locker room, screaming incoherently in rage. Due to the fact that his eyes were now colourless voids of white and the fact that he looked to be near-frothing at the mouth everyone could tell that something was definitely not right. Heavy looked out at the group of people in front of him and roared again in another garbled mess of random screaming.

“W-What happened to Heavy?!” Estel asked, stepping back in shock.

“I don’t know! We found him asleep not long ago and we thought he was just takin’ a nap for the tournament but when he woke up he just started lashing out at everything!” Scout exclaimed. “We can’t get him back under control!”

“Then it’s a good thing we’re here!” Estel said as she stepped forward. “Maybe we just need to use a bit of force!”

“Lady, this guy breaks limbs for a living!” Scout reminded. “Seriously, I’ve had to respawn at least a dozen times just because I pushed his buttons one too many times! How bad do you think it’s gonna hurt to try fighting him NOW?!”

“Kid, we’re on the security team for a reason.” Estel nodded. “It’s our job to make sure the peace is kept here and I’m going to make sure we live up to that!”

“Uh…” Scorch fidgeted, looking over Heavy’s huge frame. “I’m kinda with the kid on this one, Estel.”

“So you’re picking NOW to chicken out?!”

“I’m picking NOW to remember that I’m made of PLASTIC.” Scorch reminded flatly.

Estel sighed and turned to the person next to her. “Psymon, you’re with me. We can take him together!” She urged, grabbing Psymon by the shoulder. “Time for you to show me why you were brought onto the security team each time!”

“I…Think it was because I volunteered.” Psymon reminded. “Buuuuuut…Sure, why not? I’ve been itching to crack a few skulls. May as well start with a big one.”

Lucia stepped back in fear as she watched Estel and Psymon prepare to take on the deranged, feral-looking Heavy. “W-What do we do?!” She asked.

Max jumped in front of Lucia and grabbed her shoulders, staring at her with surprising seriousness. “Lucia, listen carefully! Go to the restaurant, get a sandwich and bring it back here!” He directed. “It may be our best chance!”

“T-The restaurant has, like, twenty-five different sandwiches!” Lucia reminded.

“Just tell Kawasaki that it’s a ‘Code Pootis’! He’ll know what to do!”

“W-What does that even-”

“Just GO! We’ll try to buy you time!”

Lucia hesitantly turned around and scrambled off down the hallway, hoping that Max knew what he was telling her to do. As the small girl ran off, the deranged-looking Heavy let out another roar as he lunged at Estel and Psymon, whom looked ready to take him on together…

(Multiversal Matchup)

The portal opened up inside atop a small outlook overlooking a village graveyard on a dark, rainy night that sloped down a set of stairs into an underground chamber. It looked like the portal had actually opened up just outside the entrance to the chamber and it spat out the eight multiversal contestants at the top of the rocky stairs, though Ryo ended up too close to the edge when he landed on his feet and ended up sliding down, slamming head-first into what looked to be a wooden stake with a lantern attached to it.

“Ow! Ugh, I can’t see a thing!” Ryo said. “What the heck did I hit?!”

“I can’t tell. It’s too dark…” Merengue whimpered. “Um…Did someone bring a light at all?”

“I did. Just give me a second.” Sheik replied as she grabbed her harp and started playing a few notes.

The floor around Sheik lit up, revealing the full underground chamber to everyone. The wooden pole Ryo had crashed into was one of dozens, each one adorned with a wooden lantern, all set up in a big, circular pattern around an empty circle in the middle, while the big stone door apparently leading into the ruins lay sealed shut.

“Great. We’re underground.” Mr. Sandman rolled his eyes. “So what does this have to do with whatever we’re gonna be doing here?”

Necalli lifted his head, having finally returned to normal out of his primal form. “I sense souls…Hundreds of thousands of warrior’s souls.” He mentioned.

“T-This place is kind of creepy…” Merengue looked around in fear.

Sheik looked around suspiciously. “I feel like I know where this place is…Like another Zelda from a different point in time had set foot in here…” She mentioned.

“What does that even MEAN?” Crash Man asked flatly.

“Can your bombs ignite all of those torches at once down there?”

“Of course! Watch the master at work!”

Crash Man shot a Crash Bomb from high up the steps and caused it to stick the landing directly in the middle of the empty circle in the middle of the torches. Crash Man smirked as he detonated the bomb…

*KA-BOOM!*

The explosion not only lit up all of the torches in the circle but launched Ryo clear off his feet, sending him flying backwards several feet in recoil. With all the lanterns lit (and somehow not destroyed from the bomb going off), the door to the ruins slid open. Once it did, everyone felt a cold chill wafting in from the ruins, as well as haunting wails of the dead. Merengue was quick to tremble and cower behind Ryo.

“Looks like we just opened a tomb.” Crash Man noted before glaring at Sheik. “How did you know how to open the door?”

“Like I said, I felt it. It was as if I could feel the presence of a past Zelda.” Sheik shook her head. “We must be somewhere in Hyrule.”

“You are indeed right, Sheik!”

Everyone turned to see another hologram of SSBFreak materialize nearby, this one standing in the middle of the torches Crash Man had ignited. Most of the contestants seemed eager to know what was expected of them though Neclord looked bored and Merengue looked terrified.

“Welcome to this section’s Multiversal Matchup. For this one, I’ve decided to make it a bit of a scavenger hunt rather than a fight towards a target that needs to be brought down. As Sheik may have guessed, we are indeed in the land of Hyrule, in one of the most-popular Zelda nodes of them all: Ocarina of Time.” SSBFreak explained. “More-specifically, the Shadow Temple, home of Hyrule’s generations of the deceased.”

“I’ve heard about this place. My ancestors told me it was haunted.” Sheik folded her arms.

“VERY haunted, Sheik. This temple is home to Redeads, Keese, Skulltulas and…Let’s just say ‘other monstrosities’ and leave it at that.” SSBFreak said.

Vraxx scoffed and drew a blaster. “Big deal! Everyone in Valhalla is technically undead in their own right. These creatures will fall to a few blaster shots just like anything else!” He said.

“Not so fast, Vraxx. Keep in mind that this temple is filled to the brim with hidden passages and invisible hazards that, normally, you would need something called the Lens of Truth to even see in the first place, something that, for obvious reasons, none of you exactly have access to.” SSBFreak reminded. “So here’s the mission: Somewhere in the temple is a treasure chest containing a special treasure. Your goal is simply to find it while everything in the Shadow Temple is trying to kill you. I won’t tell you where it is because, quite frankly, the temple is a maze already and no amount of hints will help you track it down.”

“That doesn’t seem fair!” Crash Man whined. “We could be at this all day!”

“Hey, let it be known that I COULD have stuck you guys in the WATER Temple. Be thankful that I didn’t.” SSBFreak said flatly. “Anyways, without further delay, let the third Multiversal Matchup…Begin!!”

With that, the hologram shut off, leaving the eight contestants in the opening chamber of the Shadow Temple. Everyone awkwardly looked at each other, save Necalli, whom stared at the open door to the temple, seemingly taking in the presence of the hundreds of thousands of restless souls inside. It was as if everyone was silently daring each other to go in first.

Neclord was silent. He knew he’d have an advantage over the undead due to being one himself but he was also smart enough to not remind anyone of that fact. The vampire lord gave a scoff. “Fine. If none of you are willing to take the first step I suppose I must have to-” He said before Necalli rushed past him and charged headfirst into the temple. Everyone else seemed to take this as a starting pistol firing as they all rushed past Neclord and charged into the temple after Necalli. Neclord stood in silence for a few seconds before sighing in frustration and following everyone else.

Merengue stood alone outside the temple, trembling and unwilling to take another step. “Um…I-I think I’ll just stay out here in the graveyard if that’s okay…” She called out. “Y-Yeah, it’s much safer in the…Graveyard…”

*KA-BOOM!*

A bolt of lightning struck behind Merengue, followed by a loud rumble of thunder, making the pink rhino jump in fright before she scrambled into the Shadow Temple after everyone else, officially starting the next Multiversal Matchup…

(The Arena)

“DAWSON MCSHANE!” (EC)

The crowd cheered as a tall, grizzled-looking cowboy emerged from the curtain, his long dustcoat moving with the entrance curtain as he did as traditional wild west music started playing through the speakers. Giving a polite wave to the crowd, Dawson took a moment to gaze out around the arena before setting his sights on someone. Dawson briefly pulled out his revolver and opened it to inspect the chamber.

“Yep. Looks like I remembered it.” Dawson mused to himself as he closed the chamber of the gun, spun it in his hand and shoved it into his holster stylishly before marching down the entrance ramp casually and stepping into the arena.

Mordex was still fighting Mai, making her back away in caution with each of his attempted claw slashes. Mordex had made a up a bit of ground while fighting Mai, proving that he was just as fast as she was and twice as deadly, and Mai had been forced onto the defensive for the last couple of minutes when she realized that Mordex was keeping up with her.

All of a sudden, Dawson entered the fray, slamming Mordex in the face with a running punch as the werewolf was preparing to lunge at Mai. Mordex was sent sprawling in pain and surprise while Mai glanced at Dawson, whom was rubbing his fist with a smirk. “Where the heck did YOU come from?” She asked.

“Hey, ma’am. I saw you tusslin’ with this werewolf and I guess I wanted in on it.” Dawson admitted.

“You a werewolf hunter or something?”

“Nah. In fact, I didn’t believe they existed until I ended up sharin’ a node with a merman and a half-vampire. I figure if things like that exist then werewolves must exist as well.” Dawson shrugged casually. “Looks like I was right.”

Mordex scoffed as he pushed himself up. “It doesn’t matter. I cleaved my way through an entire clan of monster hunters. I can take two people at once.” He said.

“That’s why I’m packin’ this.” Dawson said as he drew his pistol again.

Mordex smirked. “Bullets don’t have any effect on werewolves, fool.” He said darkly.

“One of ‘em is pure silver that I keep on me ‘just in case’.” Dawson winked before aiming his gun at Mordex. “Wanna find out which of ‘em it is?”

Mordex snarled. “I’m used to dealing with those, too…”

“LAURA MATSUDA!” (SF5)

Stepping out from behind the curtain and giving a few energetic poses to the cheering audience, the young Brazilian woman pulled a microphone into view and started speaking into it. “That’s right! I’m here to represent and promote Matsuda Ju-Jitsu as the strongest and best martial art around!” She announced. “I’ll be at the convention hall after the tournament is done with fliers and cards for anyone that wants to sign up after seeing me demonstrate it in the ring, so be sure to stop by!”

Tossing the microphone over her shoulder, Laura jogged down to the ring and leapt headfirst into it, setting her sights on Sakura, seeing her as the biggest threat and best opponent to face if she wanted to promote her family’s martial art style. Laura grinned in anticipating, knowing that a fight with the defending champion would be sure to garner up attention in her fighting style. She only hoped that she had printed enough cards and sign-up sheets for later…

Suddenly, a figure dressed in gold stepped in front of her, causing Laura to slam into it face-first, stumbling backwards and stopping her from continuing her running. Rubbing her head, Laura looked up and saw that King Knight had stepped in front of her and she had run into him. “Hey! What’s the big idea?!” She demanded as she pushed herself up. “I was gonna go have a fight with someone!”

“Milady, you may notice that your prospective opponent is currently dealing with someone. Someone quite RUDE, as a matter of fact.” King Knight huffed, still not over the fact that Phantom Striker passed him up to fight Sakura. “I’m without a sparring partner so, if you’re so intent on showing off that fighting style of yours, I’ll be more than happy to test you!”

Laura narrowed her eyes. “In THAT gaudy armour? You’re be more like a walking training dummy.” She admitted.

King Knight gave a high-pitched gasp as he stepped back. “G-Gaudy?! I’ll have you know that this armour is smelted from the finest gold!” He said. “It’s probably worth more than your family dojo makes in a year!”

Laura smirked. “Then I’m sure you won’t mind if I take a shoulder pad or two, right?” She said as she cracked her knuckles.

King Knight shrieked again as he backpedaled, pulling out his still-bent scepter. He was suddenly regretting challenging this one to a fight…

“PETEY PIRANHA!” (SMB)

As a casual, chill, island surf song started playing through his speakers (his theme from Mario Strikers Charged), a huge, bipedal piranha plant of sorts emerged from behind the curtain , showcasing a huge, gaping maw lined with teeth that appeared to be smiling. Waving two leaf-like arms to the crowd as it cheered for him, Petey swaggered his way down the ramp before flapping his arms like wings at the end of it, lifting himself off the ground and carrying himself into the ring.

Petey crashed down on the arena canvas (with a loud thud that shook most of the arena) as he stepped forward, seemingly oblivious to the chaos around him as he seemed to set his sights on the fight Lord Hater and Mimikyu were having with Tricky. Squirtle tried to get in the way to get into a fight with the much-bigger opponent but Petey, seemingly not noticing Squirtle, stepped clear over him without realizing it.

Lord Hater fired another bolt of electricity at Tricky while Mimikyu was wrestling with him over the stop sign when he saw Petey lumbering over. “Um…A-Are you here to help us or the zombie clown thing?” He asked.

Petey’s response was to stand in silence for a few seconds. It was awkward enough that Mimikyu and Tricky seemed to take notice and stop wrestling over the stop sign, Mimikyu letting go and shuffling away when he saw Petey’s towering size. Petey turned to Tricky and stared down at him with a dumb-looking smile…

…And then he hucked up a ball of sludge onto the clown.

Lord Hater and Mimikyu stared in shocked silence as Petey continued to stare down at the pile of goop he had just spat up and buried Tricky with. “Well…I guess that answers my question?” Lord Hater asked aloud.

The pile of sludge started shaking as a screaming Tricky burst out from within it, turning his attention to Petey and lunging at him, only to bounce harmlessly off the giant plant’s bulbous stomach. Petey gave a dumb-sounding laugh in response as Tricky pushed himself up and threw himself at the giant plant again, bouncing off in similar fashion.

Lord Hater scratched his head in confusion as Mimikyu shuffled forward to help Petey with Tricky. “Where do I get these weird minions?” He asked before realizing it was probably best to just go with it.

“BENIMARU NIKAIDO!” (KOF)

Once again, KOF’s resident prettyboy emerged from the curtain with his hair down. Benimaru grabbed his hair and, using his electric powers, ran a few volts through his hair as he pushed it upwards into the iconic style he was known for. Benimaru took in the sounds of the cheering audience (mostly girls) for a few seconds before running down to the arena and leaping in, preparing to start another go at the tournament.

Squirtle was still standing in silence, processing the fact that Petey Piranha had literally stepped over him without seeing him, when he noticed Benimaru enter the arena. Giving a sigh that his chance to fight a giant had been missed, at least for now, Squirtle jogged over to intercept Benimaru as the young man was going over to help Laura with King Knight.

Benimaru stopped himself when he looked down and noticed Squirtle getting in his way. “Oh. What’s up, little guy?” He asked.

“Squirt! Squirtle!” Squirtle said energetically, putting up his fists.

“…Yeah, I probably walked into that one.” Benimaru sighed, realizing that he couldn’t strike up a conversation with a Pokemon. “But it looks like you want a fight?”

“Squirtle!”

Benimaru rubbed the back of his head. “I dunno…You sure you want to do this? I know what electric moves do to water Pokemon.” He reminded. When Squirtle refused to back down, Benimaru gave a shrug. “Well, I tried, I suppose.”

With that, Benimaru lashed out with a hand and created a sphere of lightning around it. Squirtle backpedaled out of range but not far enough to get out of range entirely as he got shocked with a sure of electricity generated from the tall, lanky man’s hand. Squirtle recoiled in pain but managed to tank the hit for the most part as he fired another Hydro Pump at Benimaru’s chest.

Benimaru was quick to swerve to the side, having seen Squirtle’s attack coming, and flashed a smirk. “You think I didn’t see the power you were wielding before I came in? I know your moves are going to hit like a truck.” He said.

Squirtle narrowed his eyes and cracked his knuckles, getting into a stance and readying himself to throw hands with the tall human.

“ENGINEER!” (TF2)

(Hey! I am alive!)

(Immortalized!)

(You’re the creator; you traitor!)

(Hey! There’s no vaccine!)

(To cure our dirty needs!)

(So now you must)

(Build up our machine; you die tonight!)

The hard-hatted Engineer whistled along with his entry theme music as he strolled down the entrance ramp with a large, red toolbox over his shoulder as the audience cheered. A lot of people seemed curious to see what Engineer would do in the arena since it was so far out of his comfort zone.

Stepping into the arena, Engineer placed his toolbox down and pulled out his wrench as the box unfolded into a small sentry gun. Hitting the sentry with his wrench a few times, the sentry slowly got a little bigger. All of a sudden, the sentry got big enough that, just as a still-panicking Steve flew past, still being chased by Proto Man, the sentry started firing after the bandit.

“H-Heyoo?!” Steve said as he suddenly became aware that the new gun was shooting at him. Panicking some more, Steve changed directions and ran off just as the small sentry seemed to somehow sprout legs and chase after him.

Proto Man was taken aback by the sight but didn’t actually stop completely until he felt Engineer grab his shoulder. “Uh…What? I was in the middle of something?” He asked.

“Why d’ya think I just sent my prototype sentient sentry pet after him?” Engineer asked with a smile. “I wanted a bit of alone time with ya before anything major got started.”

Proto Man blinked. “What are you talking about?”

“Y’see, I’ve been lookin’ forward to findin’ out more about ya Mega Man characters ever since I found out we’d be crossin’ paths at this here tournament.” Engineer replied simply. “A whole node of sentient, highly-advanced robots that have technology beyond anything I’ve got access to in my home node? I just couldn’t pass up the chance.”

Proto Man suddenly didn’t like where this was going as he started backing away, keeping his hand on his Proto Buster. “Maybe you should stay away…” He mentioned.

Engineer never dropped his smile as he pulled out his wrench. “Aw, don’t fret. I just wanna see what makes you bots tick.” He replied casually. “It’ll only take a minute.”

“BYLETH!” (SSB)

The turquoise-haired teacher emerged from behind the curtain, revealing to the audience that it was the female Byleth chosen to come to the tournament. The audience gave Byleth a cheer as she waved for a bit before she set her sights on a particular person in the arena. Giving a sigh, Byleth made her way down the ramp and stepped into the ring.

“…Oh yeah, I can skate! I very-nearly took home an Olympic medal in ice skating one year when Mario and Sonic got together for the games!” Bowser Jr. said. “I wasn’t counting on a robot version of Sonic to be that good of an ice dancer but that was the reason I missed out on the bronze.”

Kula’s eyes lit up. “You went to the Winter Olympics?! Oh, I love those! A lot of the sports they do there look like so much fun!” She said.

“They are! It sucks that we kinda stopped doing them but I guess maybe they took too much time outta dad’s princess-kidnapping schedule.” Bowser Jr. shrugged. He suddenly looked to his right, saw Byleth coming over and visibly deflated. “Aw, maaaaaan. It’s the fun police…”

“Evening, Junior. How goes your studies?” Byleth asked as she approached the two younger fighters.

“Byleeeeeth! I’m having a talk with my new minion!” Bowser Jr. whined. “Why does everything need to be about studies with you?!”

Byleth folded her arms. “Hey, SOMEONE needs to make sure your academic needs are met.” She reminded. “If I recall, your dad made me your personal tutor at the Smash mansion.”

“We’re not IN the Smash mansion, Byleth!” Bowser Jr. flailed his arms in a temper tantrum. “Can you PLEASE at least wait until after the tournament to bug me about this boring school stuff?!”

Byleth sighed. “Fine. I suppose I can wait but just remember that I’ll be looking to see where you’re at with you geographical studies at the end of the tournament.” She pointed out.

“Oh, joy. I can’t wait.” Bowser Jr. said flatly. “Say, look. I can see Duck Hunt trolling those two robot thingies with their exploding cans. Why don’t you go over there and teach them a lesson?”

Byleth turned and saw the Duck Hunt dog laughing as he repeatedly kicked tin cans at Scratch and Grounder, causing them to explode when they touched either of the two robots. Said Badniks were holding onto each other and screaming in confusion at the fact that they were being assaulted with exploding cans. “Oh, those two!” She huffed. “When will they learn?!”

Byleth drew her sword and started making her way over to the chaos the dog and duck duo were making. Bowser Jr. sighed in relief after she was gone as Kula scratched her head. “She’s…Your teacher?” She asked.

“Don’t ask…” Bowser Jr. sighed.

“LIN FEI!” (BH)

The next person emerging from the curtain was a young, dark-haired Chinese woman dressed in green garb. Striking a few martial arts poses (from several different martial arts, for that matter) to show off to the crowd for a few seconds, Lin Fei summoned a huge cannon into her arms as she charged down the ramp, ready to start taking people on. Perhaps she could learn a few new moves while she was here…

Sakura heard the name announcement and glanced up to the entrance curtain to watch Lin Fei made her entrance. Sakura winced a bit and tried to hide it, something that didn’t go unnoticed by Phantom Striker. “Something troubling you?” The wandering warrior asked.

“It’s complicated. When Street Fighter did their crossover event with Brawlhalla I was excited to get invited but then I learned I’d be not only be using weapons I wasn’t used to using but also essentially be a glorified palette swap of…Well, HER.” Sakura admitted.

Lin Fei hit the canvas and quickly made her way over to the fight Laura was having with King Knight. The golden-glad knight spotted Lin Fei coming over and flagged her down. “L-Lin Fei! I implore you; give me a hand with this one!” He pleaded.

“You’ve never been the begging type, King Knight. She must be giving you trouble.” Lin Fei joked as she wandered over.

Laura lifted an eyebrow. “How do you two know each other?” She asked.

“Crossover event.” King Knight and Lin Fei said as one.

Laura sighed. “Great.”

“Don’t feel bad. Perhaps I can teach you a few things while I’m here.” Lin Fei offered as she got into a stance. “You were passed over when Street Fighter got invited to Valhalla so I’m sure you’d like the chance to throw hands with some of us.”

“Ha! I don’t need to take pointers, lady! I’m here to promote my OWN style of fighting!” Laura retorted. “If I were to add anything to the style of Matsuda Ju-Jitsu then I’d no longer be using it!”

“I appreciate your passion but you lack discipline.” Lin Fei shook her head. “Perhaps you DO need a little bit of a humbling…”

“You know, that’s kinda funny considering who’s standing next to you.” Laura reminded, pointing out King Knight.

“Oh, I’ve already given King Knight more than his fair share of humblings during fights in Valhalla.” Lin Fei said plainly. “This is him AFTER a humbling.”

King Knight pouted as Lin Fei pointed her cannon at Laura and prepared to take her on.

(Hotel; Hallway)

“What d’you think happened at the restaurant?”

“No idea but it looked like we just missed out on a chaotic fight.”

Two figures walked down the hallway of the hotel, making their way back to the dome side of the building so they could get back to their locker room. The bigger one of the two, a mountain of a man with a bald head, thick black beard and lugging around a huge ball and chain, was carrying a large platter with various sandwiches, junk food and side orders while the small one, clad in a stylish hat, round shades and wearing clawed gloves, followed just behind.

“Maybe it’s a good thing we missed it, though.” Choi Bounge, the small man, scratched his head. “The last thing we need is for Kim to think we were responsible for that.”

Chang Koehan, the huge man, gave a shrug. “I mean, Xanadu ain’t here so that may at least make Kim think that we aren’t following him.” He admitted.

“But that still doesn’t mean he won’t try to rehabilitate us again while we’re here.” Choi reminded.

The two unlikely friends paused for a moment before simultaneously shuddering. After they were done, they continued walking. “Say, by the way, how’d your challenge of that pink hippo’s copyright infringement lawsuit go?” Choi asked.

“It’s…Still ongoing. I can barely afford a lawyer that’ll take me and I’m sort of a convicted criminal.” Chang rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, but…The hippo’s a literal thief that hangs out with Sly Cooper, remember?” Choi asked. “Plus, where does he get off trying to lay claim that he owns the right to a specific superhero alter-ego personality just because yours just so happened to be similar to his? That’s like someone like Deadpool suing She-Hulk or Ambush Bug just because they break the fourth wall all the time!”

“I know. I know.” Chang sighed. “Maybe it’s me going soft but I don’t wanna hurt Murray’s feelings. He’s kinda soft enough as it is.”

“People LOVED you when you were ‘The Koehan’!”

“I wasn’t in the right mind, Choi! I got hit on the head!”

“The first time! You told me that the second tournament was all you, though!” Choi insisted. “I mean, couldn’t you just do that again?”

Chang frowned sadly. “That was so long ago, Choi…I feel like I’ve forgotten all of that self-training I did, especially since we parted from Kim and threw in our lot with Xanadu.” He reminded.

Choi was silent for a few seconds. “Well…Then I guess we just need to find a way to bring him back out?” He suggested. “I mean, we know he’s in there somewhere.”

“I dunno, Choi. I mean, I love the fact that people actually root for me when I’m ‘The Koehan’, but sometimes I feel like I want to try doing things as myself.”

“You did in the Tournament of Kikai, didn’t you?” Choi checked. “Heck, remember the third UVR itself? You really got a boost in support after the crowd watched you eat the evil eldritch squid monster from Marvel.”

Chang was silent in response to that as the two continued walking. It was true the a couple of random events long ago had given him a boost in support even long before ‘The Koehan’ came into existence. Maybe something like that would happen again here? Did he even NEED ‘The Koehan’ for the audience to like him anymore?

Chang was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Choi curse under his breath. “Crap, I think I left my wallet back at the restaurant.” He said, feeling his pockets.

“Want me to come with you to find it?” Chang asked.

“No, it’s good. I think I know where I left it.” Choi shook his head. “You go on ahead, Chang. I’ll catch up later.”

“Hopefully before one of us enters the ring.” Chang smirked.

“Well, then I guess that just means that one holds out until the other enters.” Choi replied back.

The two friends split up and walked down the hallway in different directions, Chang back to his node locker room and Choi back to the restaurant, hoping that his lost wallet would still be there by the time he got there.

However, several minutes later, as they were walking in silence down the hallways, one of the two friends was passing by the hotel lounge when they heard speaking coming from inside, from a familiar, sinister voice. Their curiosity getting the better of them, the lone person silently approached the doorway to the lounge and listened in…

(Hotel; Lounge)

“Look, I’m saying that I don’t have the money for the job. I just said I’d keep watch for potential prospects that could work as a mercenary and send them towards Ganondorf’s room.” Juri pointed out as she sat back in a lounge chair, talking to someone whom was sitting in another chair nearby.

BB Hood folded her arms. “You should know I don’t come cheap.” She warned.

“I figured that but, hey, I ain’t the one paying.” Juri shrugged casually. “I just figured someone with your reputation would want to know that there are potential jobs floating around.”

The red-clad bounty hunter narrowed her eyes. “And what reputation is THAT, may I ask?” BB Hood challenged.

“Oh, nothing. Just that you have a reputation for being a part of these goings-on in the past.” Juri chuckled before smirking. “Some maybe involving this very dome?”

“Don’t you DARE bring that up! YES, I know that sometimes get hired out to do some jobs for the bad guys! YES, I know that the last time I got involved with a job here I was partly-responsible for the dome’s destruction! YES, I know that I’m already on thin ice with the guy in charge here because of that!” BB Hood held her head in annoyance. “But I hate how no one is letting me FORGET about it!”

Juri chuckled again. “Sweetie, you let things bother you too easily.” She teased.

BB Hood’s response was to pull an uzi from her basket and point it straight at Juri’s face. “And YOU get way too much pleasure out of riling people up!” She countered. “Now when are we going to get to the part where you TELL ME about what this job is for?!”

“Truth be told, I don’t know either. I’ve just been hired for it and said I’d scout a bit more myself.” Juri shrugged, unfazed by BB Hood’s gun being shoved into her face. “If you’re not interested, though…”

“Of COURSE I’m interested.” BB Hood growled as she put the gun away. “But I don’t know if I can afford to take the job because I know the host of this thing here is going to be watching me like a hawk.”

“He can’t watch you ALL the time, especially with everything ELSE going on around here.” Juri smirked. “Besides, so what if he finds out?”

BB Hood cast Juri another glare. “If he finds out I may be further on the hook than I already am!” She shot back before folding her arms and sitting in silence. “…But I’ll admit that I could really use the money.”

“So you’re in?”

“Don’t push it. I want to at least find out what it is that’s going to be happening.” BB Hood responded. “If whatever this Ganondorf guy is planning looks like it could cause a lot of destruction I’m not having any part of it just because I want to steer clear of anything potentially catastrophic, and if word of this plan of his reaches the host then I will have had NOTHING to do with it.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, kiddo.” Juri winked with a chuckle as she stood up. “Good to see that you could potentially be on board. Just don’t expect the big guy to reveal anything about what he’s planning until after things get started.”

“So why are YOU so interested in this if even YOU don’t know where it’s going?”

“What can I say? Could make for a more-interesting night.” Juri gave a carefree shrug. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around.”

With that, Juri stood up and left the lounge through a secondary door. BB Hood sat in silence for a few seconds before giving an aggravated groan and pushing herself to her feet as well, walking out of the lounge a different way and finally leaving the room empty…Or empty as far as the two women knew.

One lone figure, whom had silently listened in on the conversation just moments before, poked their head into the empty lounge and did a quick scan, as if seeing to make sure that the lounge was empty again. The figure paused for a moment, as if contemplating what to do, before sneaking across the lounge and leaving the room through the same door as Juri did…

(The Arena)

“SAGAT!” (SF5)

Standing tall and proud outside of the entrance curtain (as ‘Eye of the Tiger’, started playing through the speakers), Sagat seemed to not notice the crowd cheering for him as he scanned the arena. Sagat contemplated going over to challenge Sakura to a fight but decided against it, seeing as how she was already busy with an opponent and seemed to be handling herself well enough.

Instead, as the tall, fierce-looking fighter hit the canvas, he made his way over to the fight Benimaru was having with Squirtle. The small turtle Pokemon was in the process of swinging Benimaru around by the arm, repeatedly slamming him into the canvas, when he noticed Sagat coming over, towering over him. “Squirt?” He asked aloud.

Sagat formed a smirk as he folded his arms. “You look like you’re having a bit of fun. Care to throw hands with a REAL opponent?” He asked.

Benimaru, in a daze, looked up at Sagat. “Dude, you do NOT want a piece of this guy!” He mentioned. “He’s fast AND strong!”

“Precisely why I want to fight him.” Sagat said before looking back to Squirtle. “You possess a power in you tonight that is unlike anything I’ve seen from you in previous tournaments. I think now is as good a time as ever to test you and see just how strong you’re capable of being.”

Squirtle seemed to pause in thought for a moment before shrugging and throwing Benimaru away with one hand before turning to face Sagat, putting up his fists. “Squirt! Squirtle!” He said energetically.

“Hm. I’ll take that as a yes. I hope you know that I won’t be holding back now that I know what kind of power you can wield.” Sagat said as he got into a stance as well.

Squirtle response was to leap into action again and swing his tail, aiming for Sagat’s head. The Thai warrior quickly lifted a hand and caught Squirtle’s tail, preventing him from moving any further as Squirtle’s grin started to falter when he saw that Sagat was apparently perfectly capable of standing up to his attacks if he was blocking that so easily.

“Mystery…Fighter…EIGHT…”

“GIOVANNI POTAGE!” (Epithet Erased)

(In the dead of midnight, someone’s creeping down the hall…)

(See those yellow uniforms? We’re the ones who got it all!)

(We might trigger an alarm but we never come to harm)

(Because before the cops can catch us we can call my mom)

(We’re great at crime!)

(“Don’t call us dumb!”)

(Yeah, we’re great at crime!)

(“I stole some bugglegum!”)

Emerging from the curtain next was a red-haired, lanky young man in a yellow uniform (complete with a flowing, red cape), giving a sly, cocky-looking smirk as he gazed out around the audience, taking in their cheers, though no cheers were as loud as a group of six similarly-uniformed youths sitting somewhere in the crowd, waving signs and banners. Seemingly reveling in the fact that people were giving him support, he took a moment to take it all in before whistling along to his theme song and marching down the ramp to the arena with his weapon, a wooden baseball bat with a knife haphazardly-taped to it, slung over his shoulder.

Giovanni hit the canvas and set his sights on Bowser Jr., seeing that he was still having a conversation with Kula. Bowser Jr. saw him coming over and moaned. “Aw, gimmie a break! I’m just trying to have a conversation here but people keep walking up to us!” He whined.

“Hey, good on you for being a good listener, little guy! Truth be told, I’ve always admired you and your pops for being great examples of what bad guys SHOULD be.” Giovanni said as he approached.

Bowser Jr. blinked. “Wait. Really?” He asked.

“Of course! You guys cause enough trouble for the heroes but not enough to keep them from beating you and you take your losses in stride!” Giovanni laughed. “I kinda think you two need to focus a bit more on treating your lackeys and minions with a more respect but I guess we can’t have everything, though.”

Kula lifted an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips. “Well, what makes YOU such an expert?” She challenged. “I mean…I kinda think you’re hurting his feelings.”

“Hurting my feelings?! No way! This guy just said that he thinks dad and I are COOL!” Bowser Jr. said.

“Ehhhhhhhh. Not quite what I said but we’ll go with that for now.” Giovanni shrugged. “So whaddya say, sporto? Want me to show you what it’s like to be a REAL supervillain?”

“Well, how’re you gonna do THAT?” Bowser Jr. folded his arms. “There aren’t really any goody two-shoes in the arena at the moment.”

“Just wait until Mr. Kaphwan enters the ring.” Kula rolled her eyes.

“Oh! My teacher’s over there picking on a dog and duck!” Bowser Jr. pointed out Byleth, whom was in the middle of scolding the Duck Hunt duo while Scratch and Grounder sat aside, whimpering in pain as a red crosshair hovered over them.

“Picking on animals?! Oh, that’s a REAL scummy move! REAL villains don’t need to cross lines like that!” Giovanni said in anger. “Thanks, kiddo! I’ll go teach that lady a lesson!”

Kula blinked as steam burst from Giovanni’s legs, rocketing him towards Byleth with blinding speeds, then turned to Bowser Jr. “Uh…Didn’t you send Byleth over to the doggie and duckie in the first place?” She asked.

“I won’t tell if you won’t.” Bowser Jr. smirked.

Kula stood in silence for a few seconds before giving a shrug.

“TOXTRICITY!” (PKMN)

(Who broke my heart? You did, you did)

(Bow to the target. Blame Cupid, Cupid)

(You think you’re smart? Stupid, stupid)

(Shoot that poison arrow to my heart!)

(Shoot that poison arrow!)

(Shoot that poison arrow to my heart!)

(Shoot that poison arrow!)

Unlike the other Pokemon thus far, Toxtricity seemed not bothered with Meowth off-key singing and seemed to be bobbing his head along with the music that had been picked out for him. The lanky, purple, lizard-like Pokemonstarted playing air guitar to the rock music playing through the speakers as he jammed his way down the ramp, headbanging to the beat and alongside the audience cheers. Reaching the end of the entrance ramp, Toxtricity flashed a rock-on sign with his hand before leaping into the ring.

Toxtricity landed in the ring directly in the path of a still-running Steve fleeing from Engineer’s moving sentry turret. Steve flew past Toxtricity as the rocker lizard thrashed one more strum of air guitar, sending a wave of electricity outwards that struck the sentry walker and caused it to short-circuit. Steve noticed the sentry short out and stopped running, looking back at Toxtricity before running back over.

“Heyooo-” Steve said as he grabbed Toxtricity’s hand in an attempt to shake it, only to receive a sharp, electric shock when he did.

Having heard his sentry walked being shorted out, Engineer came jogging over, looking panicked. “Hey! Who in tarnation is sappin’ mah sentry?!” He demanded as he hit the sentry with his wrench a few times, seemingly fixing it. He turned his attention to Toxtricity. “Alright, you little zappy snake-lizard! I’m gonna bend mah wrench around that scrawny neck of yours!”

Toxtricity seemed to give a casual smirk as he took a step back, sending electricity through the air in front of him that appeared to take the shape of an electric guitar, as Engineer pulled a shotgun into view and loaded it.

In the meantime, Proto Man wandered over to Steve, whom seemed content to watch for now. “What just happened? That guy in the hard hat was trying to pry me apart a few seconds ago.” He mentioned.

Steve responded with a shrug. “Heyo?” He shook his head.

“LUCIEN!” (BH)

The next person out from the curtain was a blonde man with an almost-entirely shrouded face dressed as a highwayman. Lucien seemed to ignore the crowd’s reaction to him as he scanned the arena, summoning a pair of flintlock pistols into his hands before charging down the ramp to the arena, throwing a bomb at his feet that exploded into a cloud of smoke that propelled him into the air and into the arena.

Lucien landed on his feet near Benimaru, whom was just managing to push himself upwards after having been thrown aside by Squirtle. The tall-haired young man suddenly noticed Lucien near him and shook his head. “Ugh. That turtle’s tougher than it looks…” He muttered.

“He’s the least of your worries.” Lucien muttered. “You forget that there’re twenty-eight other people to worry about?”

“Hey, cut me some slack. I thought I had the edge over him with my electric attacks.” Benimaru shrugged. “And yet, there he is having a power struggle with Sagat…”

Lucien glanced to the side where he saw Squirtle having an even-looking power clash with the much-larger Sagat before glancing back at Benimaru and pointing one of his pistols at him while the tall man’s back was turned. “Still, I think you need to be more-aware of others in things like this.” He said. “You never know when an attack is going to come.”

Lucien pulled the trigger and fired an explosive round at Benimaru that burst into a ball of fire the instant it left the gun, but Benimaru was quicker, having anticipated the shot and swerved to the side to avoid being hit. Before Lucien had time to act, Benimaru had kicked him in the face and sent him sprawling.

“Thanks for the warning but I think I can handle myself just fine.” He said with a smirk.

Lucien grunted as he pushed himself up. “So much for the easy way…” He muttered.

“FI!” (HW)

Floating just off the ground as she emerged from the curtain the blue sword spirit glanced around at the cheering crowd as her sleeves floated in the invisible wind that wasn’t actually there. “It appears that I have approximately 68% support from the crowd. That is admittedly better than what I was expecting.” Fi mused to herself as she glanced down at the ring. Setting her sights on Mordex’s fight with Mai and Dawson, Fi floated down the ramp and leapt into the arena to start her run.

Mai landed flat on her back, having been knocked away by Mordex when she tried attacking the werewolf. Mai pushed herself up and was about to rush back in to help Dawson with Mordex when Fi floated down from above and landed just in front of her. “Uh…Do you mind?” She asked as Fi seemed to stare into her soul for a few seconds.

“I sense a large amount of tension in you. I can estimate that there is an 87.5% chance that the cause of this tension is fueled by Smash Bros.” Fi greeted.

Mai huffed. “Hey, eliminating that witch made me feel a lot better!” She insisted. “Now outta the way! I need to go help a cowboy fight a werewolf!”

“It may have improved your mood but I can tell that it didn’t ease the years of tension.” Fi shook her head. “Perhaps you need some assistance.”

Mai narrowed her eyes. “If you volunteering for a fight then I’m fine with that but I still not in the mood.” She said. “But will fighting you get you off my back?”

“If it will decrease the unhealthy amount of tension, then yes.” Fi nodded as she floated back a bit and appeared to get into a stance.

“Fine. This won’t take long, anyways. Hopefully the cowboy’s okay fighting the werewolf on his own for a bit…” Mai muttered as she drew another fan.

“And now, the final fighter of this section…”

“CRASH BANDICOOT!” (PAS)

The crowd went wild as a familiar orange marsupial emerged from the curtain. Gazing out at the cheering crowd with a dumb-looking grin, Crash took the time to do his trademark shuffle dance (to an even bigger cheer from the crowd) before winding up and spinning into his trademark tornado move, lifting himself off the ground and spinning straight into the arena like a UFO.

Proto Man suddenly saw a shadow fall over him as he was watching Engineer fighting Toxtricity and looked up in time to see a still-spinning Crash falling towards him like a drill. Acting on instincts, Proto Man held up his shield and blocked against Crash’s drill attack, though he strained against it with how much force he could feel Crash applying with the attack. Finally, after several seconds of struggling, Crash finally stopped spinning, only then realizing that he was standing on top of a shield. Proto Man was quick to dump Crash off, causing the bandicoot to land flat on his back.

“Where the heck did YOU come from?” Proto Man asked. “Keeping yourself in the air just by spinning seems physically impossible!”

Crash’s response was to kick himself back into a standing position. “Ta-dah!” He said happily.

Steve, standing near Proto Man, gave a wave. “Heyooooo!” He called out.

“Buh?” Crash said confusedly, staring at Steve with a questioning look.

“…Heyo?” Steve repeated, sounding a bit unsure of himself now.

Crash stood in silence for a few seconds, reached into his pants and pulled out a bazooka that looked to be as big as he was. Proto Man jumped back in surprise. “Why do so many people in this thing have bazookas?!” He demanded out loud as he backpedaled away.

Steve, on the other hand, stood his ground and drew his own rocket launcher. “Heyooooo!” He called out.

“Heyooooo!” Crash called back with a grin as the two pulled the triggers of their rocket launchers at the same time.

*KA-BOOM!*

Proto Man was sent flying backwards in recoil from the explosion, landing on his back and skidding backwards several feet. Pushing himself up when he finally stopped, Proto Man was about to charge into battle when he paused and saw two soot-covered figures in the middle of a black crater, laughing dumbly as they each held a smoking bazooka.

“I’m going to die here.” Proto Man sighed.

Chapter Text

(The Arena)

Byleth’s axe clashed with Giovanni Potage’s bat, locking the two combatants at a standstill despite the fact that a wooden bat blocking a swing from an axe went against many laws of physics in Byleth’s mind. Byleth didn’t have time to question Giovanni’s actions any further, however, as he broke away from the clash and gave the turquoise-haired professor a kick to the stomach, making Byleth back away from him.

“Serves you right for picking on animals, lady!” Giovanni challenged, getting into a batter’s pose with his bat.

Byleth rolled her eyes. “You didn’t see it but those two troublemakers were harassing the robots with their exploding cans!” She insisted. “I’m just trying to ensure that they play nice here!”

As Byleth was saying this, the Duck Hunt dog was continuing to huck exploding objects at Scratch and Grounder, having moved on from tin cans to clay discs. Every time the dog spontaneously pulled something new from out of nowhere and tossed them at the robotic duo. “Why are the disc things exploding?!” Scratch demanded in a panicky voice as clay discs exploded around him. “Are they filled with C4 or something?!”

“The red target thing’s on me now, Scratch! How do I get rid of it?!” Grounder added as he tried to brush himself off to rid himself of the red crosshair just before something exploded in his face.

Giovanni gave a toothy smirk. “Hey, animals can be full of surprises but you gotta learn to let them do their own thing.” He admitted. “I mean, I’ve seen a cat wield a shotgun. You’d be surprised what they can do.”

Byleth didn’t respond as she watched Giovanni swing his bat again, holding up her axe as the red-haired youth clashed with her again. “How is this possible?! You’ve got a wooden bat! Swinging it at my axe would chop it in half!” She insisted.

“Hey, I’m not complaining.” Giovanni said slyly as jumped back, leaping out of Byleth’s range. Byleth was quick to pull out her bow and took aim at the youth, seeing that he was out of range of her axe now.

Seeing Byleth drawing her bow, Giovanni narrowed his eyes and smirked harder. “Oh, you think that’s gonna do anything? Lemme show you what a bad guy thinking on his feet can do!” He taunted as he crouched low. “Teleports Behind You!!”

Giovanni vanished in a burst of steam as Byleth fired an arrow of light through the steam cloud Giovanni left behind. Before Byleth had time to realize what the youth had just done, Giovanni appeared behind her and clubbed her in the back of the head with his bat, knocking her down.

Proto Man was in the process of holding up his shield as explosions erupted all around him, courtesy of Crash Bandicoot and Steve continuing to do nothing but jump around and fire rockets at each other. The only thing Proto Man could hear other than the constant barrage of explosions was obnoxious, childish laughter and the occasional “Heyooooo!!” as the red-and-white robot could do nothing but stand in the middle of it all with his shield up.

“Ugh…I can’t even see anything through the smoke…” Proto Man muttered as he tried to look through the explosions all around him to try and spot either Crash or Steve. “I don’t remember this tournament being this chaotic…Or that it attracted this many maniacs…”

Suddenly hearing a beeping noise coming from beside him, Proto Man glanced to his side and his eyes widened behind his shades when he saw Engineer’s mobile sentry gun staring straight at him. Acting on instinct and out of paranoia that the walking turret would fire a bullet into his face, Proto Man dropped his guard briefly and swatted the sentry gun with his shield, knocking it back on recoil. This, in turn, caused it to topple backwards directly into the path of a stray rocket fired by either the dopey bandicoot or the maniac raider; in the end it wouldn’t matter who had fired the rocket anyways.

*KA-BOOM!*

The sound of something being blown up finally caused Crash and Steve to stop shooting rockets at each other. The smoke finally started clearing as the two troublemakers started looking around curiously to see what they had managed to blow up. They suddenly spotted an annoyed Proto Man lowering his shield, and then spotted several scattered parts that used to be Engineer’s moving sentry gun.

“Are you two FINISHED?” Proto Man asked flatly.

Suddenly hearing a high-pitched gasping noise, everyone turned to see Engineer staring at the pile of scraps on the ground. He was in the middle of holding Toxtricity by the neck and quickly clubbed the lizard Pokemon with his wrench before rushing over and sliding on his knees as he came to a screeching halt by the pile of scraps.

“Speak to me!” Engineer pleaded as he picked up the sentry’s head. After a few seconds, Engineer looked up at the trio of Proto Man Crash and Steve with what looked to be anger. “Alright. Which one of ya side orders of roadkill did this?!”

Proto Man opened his mouth before pausing and slowly looking at Crash and Steve, whom stood there sweating nervously, as he suddenly realized that, in all the chaos happening all around him, he actually had no idea which of the two ended up firing the rocket that destroyed the sentry gun. “Um…I…Don’t know, actually…” He admitted. Crash and Steve were quick to point a finger at each other in response.

“No matter! I’ll lay the BOTH of ya out!” Engineer yelled as he pulled his wrench into view and lunged at the pair of troublemakers.

(Announcer’s Booth)

“I was wondering what it would take to get those two to stop firing rockets at each other.” SSBFreak sighed. “I could barely see anything happening in that part of the arena with all that smoke.”

“Um…Question, boss-man?” Khall asked.

“What is it this time?” SSBFreak rolled his eyes.

“Well…That Steve guy and that weird-looking orange thingy have been firing explosive rockets at each other ever since the furry one entered the arena, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Well...I was kinda under the impression that the raider guy’s rocket launcher was more of a firework launcher, and that the furry guy’s bazooka normally fires FRUIT.” Khall scratched his head. “Where did they suddenly gain access to actual explosives?”

SSBFreak opened his mouth before pausing in thought for a few moments. He turned his gaze to stare at Sheogorath’s private booth for a few seconds before sighing in defeat. “I don’t even need to ask him about his reasoning for this one…” He moaned.

“Oh, yeah. That beardy, cheesy guy likes chaos, doesn’t he? Enough to drive you mad.” Khall said before giving an aside glance and staring off into nothingness. “…That’s the joke.”

“Who are you talking to, Khall?”

(Hotel; Restaurant)

Lucia, short of breath, scrambled into the restaurant, coming to a screeching halt when she saw the state that the restaurant was in; the counter and tables looked to be still a mess with gashes and broken bits everywhere, and the dents and holes in the wall were very noticeable and prominent. The restaurant looked very different from how it looked only a few minutes ago, regardless.

What stood out the most to Lucia, however, was the fact that there were seven or eight Sheogoraths manually fixing the restaurant, each one dressed in a reflective vest and hard hat as they went about undoing the damages to the restaurant. Realizing that she had seen a lot weirder from Sheogorath (multiple house visits from the self-proclaimed fun-uncle would do that), Lucia weaved her way through the small crowd of Sheogoraths as they worked as she ran up to the counter.

“M-Mister Kawasaki! I need a sandwich!” Lucia said urgently. “It’s an emergency!”

Kawasaki blinked in confusion. “…A…Sandwich Emergency?” He asked. “Look, if this is about Max wanting to make another last-minute order, I’ve got my hands full with orders, I’m still waiting on the next shipment of back bacon and your uncle kind of showed up to just do…Well, THIS…Instead of just snapping his fingers to undo all the damage.”

“Uh…Yeah, sometimes he just does whatever sounds funnier to him.” Lucia said before remembering why she was there. “Uh…T-This is still an emergency, though! Max told me to tell you it was a ‘Code Pootis’ or something?”

Kawasaki shrieked. “A Code Pootis?! ALREADY?! Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!! Why didn’t you open with that?!” He said in a panicked voice as he looked towards the window leading into the kitchen. “Chef! We’ve got a Code Pootis!!”

The Swedish Chef screamed, as did the five sentient vegetables he was currently in a fistfight with as they all suddenly stopped. “A Codum Pootis?!” He screamed, followed by the chaotic screams of the sentient vegetables. The Swedish Chef promptly, in a panic, took off his chef’s hat and replaced it with an army helmet.

“Chef, you know what to do! Grab the emergency bologna and I’ll work on prepping things out here!”

The Swedish Chef gave a panicky salute before scrambling around the kitchen, leaving Kawasaki to approach his prep station and get to work himself. Lucia, in the meantime, could only blink in confusion at what she was watching and how not only did both chefs know what was happening with the code words but seemed to be terrified about it.

“Makes for an interesting show, eh?”

Lucia turned around and saw Sheogorath, likely the real one due to him relaxing in a nearby chair rather than with the group of clones he had generated to fix up the restaurant. “O-Oh. Hi, Uncle Sheogorath.” Lucia said as she wandered over to the Daedric Prince of Madness. “I assume you’re just here to watch your clones rebuild the restaurant?...Even though I know you can fix it in an instant whenever you like?”

“It’s as you say, Lucia. If it seems funnier to me then chances are I’ll probably do it.” Sheogorath laughed.

Lucia blinked. “You heard that?” She asked.

Sheogorath laughed louder. “Oh, sweetie!” He said before giving a manic smirk. “…I hear EVERYTHING.”

Lucia paused again, as if mulling over her thoughts, before taking a deep breath. “Um…Uncle Sheogorath, why did you insist I be a part of the security team?” She asked.

“Hey, you jumped at the chance for adventure, didn’t you?” Sheogorath challenged playfully.

“Well, yeah, but…WHY?” Lucia asked. “I saw the rest of the team. Even if Ms. Estel is the only one that seems to be taking things seriously I still feel outclassed. I mean, sure, I like to swing my dagger around a bit at the training dummies back home but I just ran away from a fight with a feral, giant man to come here just so I could get a sandwich which apparently is the only thing that may diffuse the situation.”

“Ah, yes. I do recall that I needed to convince that shouting, soul-stealing mother of yours quite a bit before she would let you come here, but I DID promise her that nothing bad would happen to you.” Sheogorath assured. “So don’t you worry that little Imperial head of yours, kiddo! You always have good ol’ Uncle Sheogorath watching your back!”

“But…I mean, I still feel a bit in over my head.” Lucia admitted.

“Lucia!”

Lucia turned to see Kawasaki hastily placing a sandwich in a bag and placing it on the counter. “Here’s the sandwich!” The chef instructed urgently. “Get it to where you need to go as quick as you can! You don’t have much time!”

Not bothering to bother asking questions, Lucia thanked Kawasaki and grabbed the bag with the sandwich in it, preparing to make her way back to where she could only hope the others were still keeping Heavy Weapons Guy at bay.

“One more thing, kiddo.”

Lucia paused as she looked at Sheogorath again. “If and when you think that you’re overwhelmed by this job of yours, just pop by my private booth and say hi.” He explained. “I may have a way to help you out.”

“Uh…O-Okay, Uncle Sheogorath. Thanks.” Lucia nodded.

Quickly saying goodbye to Sheogorath, Lucia flew out the door to the restaurant with the bagged sandwich in her hands, running off in the direction she came. After Lucia was gone, Sheogorath chuckled and sat back, continuing to watch his clones rebuilding the restaurant with comical-looking effects.

(Multiversal Matchup)

Sheik slowly crept her way down one of the many maze-like corridors of the Shadow Temple, concentrating as she tried sensing to see if she could find a hidden passage. She could feel the eerie chill of death everywhere she walked and she could hear the restless moans of the undead every time she turned a corner, almost as if they were coming from the walls themselves. Still, Sheik knew better than to tread recklessly in a place like this; she had heard stories about the temples in the Hyrule of previous generations and the backstories behind them.

Sheik suddenly found herself staring at a dead end. She had run into a few of these so far; even in the large, more-open areas of the temple that looked like they contained branching paths themselves. Taking a deep breath, Sheik slowly approached the dead end and held up a hand, reaching out for the wall experimentally.

“Hopefully I’m not about to disturb another swarm of Keese.” Sheik muttered quietly as she watched her hand faze through the wall, revealing that the dead end was a false image that, in reality, continued on further.

Seeing that she was getting somewhere, Sheik glanced back to make sure that no one was following her. Satisfied that anyone else in the area wasn’t looking in her direction, Sheik slipped through the false wall and vanished from sight, hoping that wherever she was wandering would end up taking her in the right direction.

No sooner than Sheik vanished into the wall did Lord Vraxx come rounding the corner, breathing heavily and laser pistol smoking as he looked back.

“How are these walking corpses so persistent?!” Lord Vraxx demanded aloud. “And those screeches…They’re the stuff of nightmares!”

Vraxx turned his head and found himself staring at the false wall Sheik had vanished into. “Wait…Where the heck did that ninja lady go?! I could have sworn she came this way!”

Merengue poked her head into view from around the corner. “U-Um…Maybe you made a wrong turn?” She supplied.

Vraxx cursed loudly. “Those zombies must have slowed me down more than I thought!” He said.

Vraxx had been quick to enlist the help of Merengue once the challenge had gotten started; Vraxx needed some muscle on his side, at least temporarily, and he was smart enough to see that Merengue was desperate to at least have someone to hold hands with so that she wasn’t wandering the spooky crypt of walking dead by herself. That at the very least made her someone he could utilize to get through the temple easier.

“Wait…The host said that there were secret passages everywhere down here.” Vraxx muttered. “There has to be another way we can go!”

“B-But what if we trigger a trap?” Merengue asked timidly. “I don’t want to end up in another room full of those screaming zombies…”

An ear-piercing scream suddenly split the silence as Merengue and Vraxx turned to see a Redead coming around the corner, shambling slowly but still in a way that kept the contestants rooted to their spots.

Vraxx cursed again. “Did I miss that one?! I thought we put down all of them when I opened that crypt!” He said.

“M-Maybe you didn’t hit it hard enough!” Merengue stammered.

“How hard do you need to HIT these things to kill them?!”

The Redead screeched and lunged at the two. Merengue screamed in return as she instinctively turned and ran down the dead end hallway with the Redead following her. Merengue reached the end of the hall and tried using brute force to knock down the wall only to tumble through the fake image and vanish completely like Sheik did before her. The Redead shuffled after her, leaving Vraxx alone, blinking in confusion.

After a couple of seconds, Vraxx gave a smirk. “Aha! A hidden passage!” He said. “I knew there had to be one around here!”

With that, Vraxx charged forward and rushed through the false wall after Merengue, deciding to follow her screams of terror as she continued to flee from the zombie chasing her.

In another part of the temple, the monsters seemed to be flocking towards a loud crashing noise, which turned out to be Mr. Sandman standing in an open room, trying to punch his way through a wall in an attempt to make his own way through the Shadow Temple and forego the secret passages and traps altogether.

Mr. Sandman had already made a decent-sized dent in the stone wall he was punching into when he suddenly noticed several armed skeletons lunging at him from behind; Stalfos. The instant Mr. Sandman saw the Stalfos getting behind him, he spun in place and clobbered all of the approaching skeletons with a single clothesline, obliterating them all in a single punch and shattering them into a hundred pieces, their bones flying in every direction.

Mr. Sandman grunted in annoyance as he sighed. “Macho Man’d better not have seen that. He’d be likely to assume I just stole one of his moves.” He muttered.

All of a sudden, Mr. Sandman saw something moving out of the corner of his eye. Turning around and expecting a fight, the huge boxer stopped when he saw Necalli fly past him, setting his sights on the dismembered pieces of the Stalfos Mr. Sandman had just destroyed. Necalli looked to be a bit dismayed as he picked up a couple of discarded skulls and examined them.

“No…These souls were fierce warriors…” Necalli lamented. “I can’t sense them anymore…You banished them!”

Mr. Sandman rolled his eyes. “Some warriors. They crumbled with a single hit.” He mentioned.

Necalli glared up at the larger man and bared his talon-like hands. “You’re depriving me of the powerful souls here by destroying them!” He said.

The huge boxer scoffed and turned his back to go back to punching his way through the wall. “Well, don’t let me stop you from doing your thing.” He mentioned. “Some of us have a challenge we’d like to win.”

Mr. Sandman was about to pull his fist back and get back to trying to punch his way to a new room when Necalli jumped onto his back and plunged his talon-like hands into his back. “I’ll take your soul first!!” Necalli roared with a primal-like fury.

Despite the fact that Necalli’s fingers were buried in his back, Mr. Sandman didn’t flinch and instead reached back, grabbed Necalli by the head and threw him aside, sending the primal fighter sprawling; Mr. Sandman looked more-annoyed than anything right now. “You REAL sure you wanna start something with me?” Mr. Sandman asked coldly.

Necalli narrowed his eyes. Mr. Sandman had a powerful soul but he knew he would fight to protect it with all his superhuman strength. Perhaps it was better to leave the much-larger man alone for a while, let the monsters in the temple wear him down and then finish him off later. “…I’ll stick to the souls of the fallen warriors here…” He mentioned.

“Good. Now don’t bother me again.”

Necalli left Mr. Sandman to his own devices, though deciding to stick nearby for now in case the huge boxer punching the wall of the temple attracted more undead warriors. He could already sense a powerful warrior’s soul nearby, for that matter. Necalli put his sense to use as he wandered around, slowly meandering towards a spot in the middle of the room that he could still sense the soul coming from.

“…Here…Why is it coming from here?” Necalli asked aloud, wondering why he could sense the soul of a fierce warrior coming from the middle of the floor. He bent down and inspected the temple’s floor tiles up close, examining them to see if what he was sensing was just the remnants of something long-since destroyed…

…All of a sudden, a zombie hand (likely belonging to a Redead) shot up from the false floor image covering up the trap hole in the floor, grapping Necalli by the neck as a Redead screech echoed throughout the room. Before Necalli had time to react, the arm pulled his through the covered hole in the floor followed by another terrifying screech.

Mr. Sandman instinctively turned around at the Redead’s screaming but paused when he saw nothing. It was then that he also noticed that Necalli was gone. “Huh. Looks like he took the hint…” He muttered as he went back to punching the wall…

(The Arena)

King Knight received a sharp kick to the chest as he was sent tumbling head-over-heels backwards from the force. As King Knight recoiled from her attack, Laura Matsuda cartwheeled to the side as Lin Fei lunged at her with a pair of kunai in his hands. As Lin Fei realized that she had missed her attack, she quickly ducked under an attempted roundhouse from Laura and countered with a hard kick of her own.

Laura stumbled backwards as Lin Fei spun around and struck a stylish-looking pose, generating what looked to be an image of smoke around her as she did. Although Laura was confused as to what Lin Fei could do with smoke, the young martial arts trainer waved her hands a bit and shifted the smoke to fire before throwing a wave of it at Laura. Her eyes widening in surprise, Laura backpedaled and tried to lean back to avoid the stream of fire, managing to get herself out of the way but not without singing her clothes and hair a bit.

Staring angrily at Lin Fei, Laura narrowed her eyes and gingerly felt her hair. “Watch where you’re throwing fire, will you?!” She demanded.

Lin Fei couldn’t help but chuckle. “I suppose you can’t exactly afford to lose any MORE of that clothing of yours.” She half-joked.

Laura’s response was to rush at Lin Fei and attempt a flying kick. Lin Fei was quick to dodge the attack but received a sharp, surprise follow-up to the face while she was dodging Laura’s first attack and was knocked back a bit in a stunned stated. Seeing that she had a chance to get some hits in now, Laura rushed Lin Fei and lashed out, delivering several lightning-fast blows that seemed to spark with electricity with each hit. Eventually, Laura finished the combo and sent Lin Fei falling onto her back.

Seeing her opponent down, Laura gave a smirk as she approached. “Not bad, huh? That’s just a taste of what my family’s fighting style can offer!” She said.

Lin Fei grunted as she pushed herself up. “Not bad when it comes to fighting someone who’s simply trying to distract you.” She admitted.

Laura’s eyes snapped open as she spun around to see a golden knight charging at her shoulder-first. In her attempts to fight off Lin Fei, whom she considered the bigger threat, Laura had forgotten entirely about King Knight, whom had just recovered from her last attack and had made his presence known by charging straight into her.

Lin Fei brushed herself off as King Knight exhaled in relief while Laura was sent sprawling again. “Did she really kick you that hard to put you out of the battle for THAT long?” She asked.

“H-Hey! I just finished a fight with a monster with superhuman strength!” King Knight insisted.

“I believe that was a RHINO and she was a PACIFIST.” Lin Fei smirked.

“P-Please let me have this…” King Knight whined. “It’s not often I get a victory since that blasted Shovel Knight bested me.”

Lin Fei gave a shrug. “Very well. If you seem so keen on this, I won’t keep you from fighting our current fighter alone.” She mentioned as she ran off to start a fight elsewhere.

“H-Hey! N-No, I still need your help with-” King Knight stammered just before he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned his head just in time for Laura’s fist to slam into his face, sending him tumbling backwards again.

Laura couldn’t help but smirk as she cracked her knuckles. “Looks like the odds are evened up again, aren’t they?” She asked.

King Knight hastily pushed himself to his feet. “U-Um…Certainly we can sit down and discuss this a little bit?” He half-pleaded.

“Not so cocky now that you know that little trinket of yours is bent out of whack, huh?” Laura said as she stepped forward.

King Knight instinctively held up his bent scepter and used it to block against Laura’s next several attacks, trying to keep up with her speed while keeping her away from striking him herself. King Knight frantically blocked each of Laura’s strikes before spotting and opening and swooping on it, striking the younger fighter with the blunt end of his scepter while she was in between kicks.

While Laura was stunned, King Knight sprung into action, slamming into her shoulder-first and knocking her down. Grabbing a handful of papers while Laura was down, King Knight tossed them into the air and slashed at them, turning the papers into razor-sharp shards. Before Laura could realize what King Knight had done, several blade-like shards of paper flew past her, giving her several shallow, painful cuts across her arms and torso.

Laura held up her hands and tried to block out the pain of receiving the multiple cuts and could only wait until the barrage of shards subsided. When they did and she lowered her guard, Laura all of a sudden was grabbed by King Knight and thrown to the side, ending up pushed against the ropes around the arena.

“Ugh! Where did all those paper blades come from?!” Laura asked aloud.

“Every good ruler needs a signature attack!” King Knight replied as he swung his scepter again.

Laura wasn’t able to get her defense up fast enough and received a sharp blow to the head, knocking her down. King Knight struck Laura a few more times before Laura had the chance to counter because he knew she would take the chance if given it, and forced her closer towards the ropes with another couple swings of his scepter.

Pushing herself against the ropes to keep herself balanced, Laura looked ahead as King Knight slammed into her with another shoulder-barge, knocking through her defenses and sending Laura tumbling over the ropes altogether. She tried to grab them as she went over but her grip slipped as she fell headlong into a portal.

Laura landed in a medieval world of Crash Bandicoot Warped. A huge frog tackled and kissed her before turning into a prince.

Sakura jumped back as Phantom Striker’s fencing sword jabbed at her, coated with electricity. However, while she avoided the initial strike, Sakura forgot about the electrical discharge that followed, sending a bolt of lightning through her body as she stumbled backwards. Seeing Sakura struck by his lightning, Phantom Striker called down another bolt that struck his sword and ignited the area around him in electricity.

Sakura was standing in range of the electric blast and felt the full brunt of it, but managed to keep her footing as she powered through the lightning with her guard up. Phantom Striker didn’t notice that Sakura hadn’t been knocked back until he looked ahead and saw a fist flying at his helmeted face.

“Augh!” Sakura shouted in pain as she pulled her hand back, having seemingly forgotten about Phantom Striker’s spike-laden helmet before she punched him and, while the wandering swordsman staggered backwards in a stunned stance, Sakura grabbed her hand and cursed herself for forgetting about her opponent’s defenses.

“Not used to fighting someone with body armour, I take it.” Phantom Striker said after he regained his footing and saw that Sakura had injured herself.

“In Brawlhalla I was. Sometimes I forget that some people fight with armour.” Sakura muttered as she shook her hand a few times.

Phantom Striker took the opportunity to strike while Sakura was recovering and lunged forward, sending a sharp wave of lightning from the tip of his sword at the same time. Sakura saw the attack coming and held up her hands again, clenching her teeth in pain as Phantom Striker sent another wave of electricity through her. The instant she felt the electricity subside, Sakura lowered her guard and pulled a fist back.

“Shoryuken!” Sakura shouted as she planted her fist underneath Phantom Striker’s helmet (one of the few spots that wasn’t adorned with spikes) and launched them both into the air with an uppercut. Phantom Striker tumbled backwards, landing on his stomach after flipping over in midair as Sakura landed gracefully on her feet.

Grunting and pushing himself to his feet using his sword, Phantom Striker held onto his helmet to stop his head from spinning. “Huh…I hadn’t taken an attack like that into account.” He muttered. “I suppose that serves me right for being so used to fighting people with weapons.”

Phantom Striker, rather than try to get close to Sakura, lashed out with his sword and fired a few more bolts of lightning from it at the young martial artist. Seeing the attacks coming, Sakura narrowed her eyes as she crouched low and jumped into the air, swerving around the first couple of electric projectiles before landing on her feet and crouching again, ducking under the next couple of electric shots.

By this point, Sakura had closed the gap between her and Phantom Striker and fired a close-range Hadouken into his chest, launching the wandering fighter backwards on his feet. Phantom Striker tried to recover and took a few swings with his sword while Sakura was still close to him but the younger fighter was faster, weaving around his weapon as he tried to strike her.

The next thing Phantom Striker knew, Sakura had planted a foot into his chest and kicked off it, backflipping into the air and landing gracefully on her feet again as Phantom Striker recoiled, clutching at his chest in what appeared to be pain.

“You’re…You’re fast…” Phantom Striker muttered.

“Oh, I’m a lot more than fast.” Sakura smirked as she clenched her fists, igniting a small amount of flame in her hands as she did.

Sakura seemed to take off like a rocket, lunging at Phantom Striker with a flurry of spinning kicks and hard punches. Phantom Striker tried to pinpoint Sakura so that he could fire another bolt of lightning at her but Sakura was too fast to lock onto and all the wander swordsman could do was keep his guard up as Sakura continued to hit him from all angles.

Thinking he could call down another bolt of lightning to keep Sakura off of him, Phantom Striker lifted his sword to the sky as a bolt shot down into the weapon, igniting Phantom Striker again and creating a burst of lightning all around him. Sakura saw the attack coming this time, however, and backpedaled out of range as Phantom Striker called down the lightning and lit up the area around him in electricity.

Surging himself with electricity, Phantom Striker armed himself and readied to lunge at Sakura again, hoping to get the better of her and weaken her while she was unprepared. However, he suddenly noticed that Sakura had gotten out of range of his electric surge and barely had time to register what had happened before Sakura swung a leg at him, knocking the wandering swordsman head-over-heels as he landed awkwardly on his back.

Standing back and waiting for Phantom Striker to get to his feet again, Sakura decided to finish the fight and charged at him again. Phantom Striker saw Sakura running at him and raised his guard but was a second too slow as Sakura planted a foot into his helmeted face, lifting them both into the air. Sakura followed up with a hard kick to Phantom Striker’s torso while they were in the air and the force from that second kick was enough to send Phantom Striker clear out of the arena with no hope of getting back in.

Mai Shiranui tossed a few flaming fans at Fi, only for the living sword to elegantly float around the projectiles as they flew at her. Fi got close to Mai and swung a leg at her head only for Mai to see the attack coming and dodge to the side. Mai lashed out one of her own legs, managing to strike Fi and get the blue being to back away, though still floating in the air.

Fi seemed to gathered herself almost instantly after being hit and, after taking a second of pause, seemed to float at Mai in what appeared to be a dancing pattern, still staying off the ground the entire time as she spun in circles and leapt over Mai’s attempted counter attacks before getting close and creating a burst of light energy from the canvas beneath her feet, knocking Mai backwards and causing her to land on her back. Mai was quick to recover as she jumped to her feet while Fi seemed content to float in place, seemingly watching her from afar.

Mai narrowed her eyes. “You’re not going to try rushing me again?” She asked.

“I calculated an 87.5% chance that you would be anticipating me to get close and then counterattack.” Fi explained casually. “It would be foolish of me to try and attack you when you were so clearly waiting for me to act first.”

Mai sighed. “Sometimes I forget you’re a walking computer.” She muttered as she pulled another fan into view.

“I am also not walking. My feet do not touch the floor at any point.”

Mai opted not to give Fi a response and ignited her fan, throwing the flaming projectile at Fi before running after it. Fi spun in place, kicking Mai’s fan out of the air with her foot, but Mai used the fan as a distraction as she hurled herself at Fi in a flaming cannonball, flying into the living weapon and knocking her down. Mai tried to keep Fi down but soon realized that the blue being was still floating off the ground slightly even after being knocked over.

By the time Mai realized this, however, she suddenly saw that she was not holding onto Fi but rather a glowing sword. A beam of light shot down from the sky and struck Fi’s sword form, striking Mai was a blast of power. The magic sword started swinging around on its own, clearly being controlled by Fi from within, as Mai was knocked back a couple of steps with every strike. As Mai was sent flying backwards, tumbling back, the magic sword transformed back into Fi again as she floated over to Mai’s seemingly-downed form.

As Fi floated closer, Mai sprang to life, kicking herself into a standing position and striking Fi in the chest with both feet as she got back into a standing position. With Fi stunned, Mai crouched low and lunged at her again, using what looked to be ninja speed, striking Fi from all angles before the living weapon could react. Mai finished off her attack rush by screeching to a halt after passing Fi and, closing a fan shut in her hand, caused something to ignite around Fi.

*KA-BOOM!*

Fi was launched into the air by the explosion but seemed to reorient herself in midair as she looked down at Mai, uprighting herself as she floated down towards the canvas again. “I sense a heightened level of aggression from you, though admittedly it’s a bit lower than I was anticipating.” She noticed.

“Beating Bayonetta put me in a bit better mood.” Mai shrugged. “Still, I feel I have a bit more to let out.”

“Bottling up your anger and frustrations is not healthy.” Fi informed. “I can theorize a 73% chance that continuing to hold onto your anger and misplaced frustration will decrease your lifespan by approximately three years.”

Mai narrowed her eyes. “Hey, I DID say that eliminating Bayonetta made me feel better!” She said.

Mai rushed forward at Fi, engulfing her hand sin fire as she prepared to barrel herself into the living weapon again. However, when Mai struck Fi, all she felt herself hitting was a wall. Mai paused and looked at Fi when she realized that her attack wasn’t following through and saw that Fi had raised a magic shield of light in front of her, preventing Mai’s attacks from hitting her.

Without giving Mai time to realize what had happened, Fi jumped into and air and flew headfirst into Mai, still holding the magic barrier up as Mai was hit in the face several times with Fi’s barrier as Fi flew through the air gracefully on what looked to be one foot. When Fi stopped her barrier attack and stopped moving, Mai was sent flying backwards, landing awkwardly on her side.

“You are correct that your frustrations have dwindled but they still make you predictable.” Fi explained simply as she floated over to Mai as the ninja pushed herself up again.

Mai narrowed her eyes as she got into a stance. “Oh, come on! Your floaty moves make you too hard to hit!” She reminded.

Fi admitted that she didn’t have a response to that one and gave a silent nod of acknowledgement. “I suppose that’ to my benefit, then.” She replied. “But I fear this battle has gone on long enough and I feel there’s a 45% chance I broke a couple of your ribs in that last attack.”

“There’s no way you did that just by-” Mai snapped before cutting herself off by grabbing at her stomach. “A-Ack! W-What did you do?!”

“It appears I miscalculated the force of my impact, or perhaps you were more-injured after the last section than you previously thought.” Fi shook her head. “Regardless, it seems it’s finally caught up to you now.”

Clutching her stomach where she was sure that, true to what Fi had said, it felt like somewhere during the fight she had broken at least a rib or two. She tried to fight through the pain but by the time she looked at Fi the living weapon had already turned into her sword form again and hovered over the canvas near her, looking intent on finishing the fight.

*SLAM!*

Fi’s sword form spiked into the canvas close to Mai, creating a burst of light energy that lifted Mai off her feet and sent her flying out of the ring. Trying to use a ninjutsu teleport trick to get back into the arena, Mai realized that her injuries were causing her too much pain to focus as she tumbled into a portal.

Mai crashed onto a beach chair in Sonic Adventure. Looking around and seeing where she had landed, she decided to lay back in the chair and try to keep the pain in her ribs under control, deciding to ignore the spiraling-out-of-control plane overhead or the screaming two-tailed fox trying to  keep it in the air as it flew past her overhead.

Tricky was moving too fast to see as he seemed to bounce around the area he was fighting at lightning speeds. Lord Hater tried picking him off with more lightning magic but Tricky easily avoided the shot as the magic projectile flew into Petey Piranha’s stomach (he didn’t seem to notice). Mimikyu tried to attack the zombie clown with his electric, shadowy hands, leaping at him from behind, but Tricky seemed to teleport out of the way as Mimikyu touched the canvas again, reappearing in the blink of an eye to smash the Disguise Pokemon in the side with his stop sign.

Lord Hater watched as Mimikyu was sent sprawling. “This clown’s too fast!” He said. “We need to find a way to pin him down so we can hit him!”

Petey Piranha lumbered over to Tricky and attempted to huck up another ball of sludge, only for the insane reality-warper to sidestep the ball at the last second. In the blink of an eye, Tricky was in the air beside Petey’s face as he smashed his foot into the huge Piranha Plant’s face. This didn’t seem to hurt Petey very much but it made the huge plant stagger backwards, causing him to tumble back.

Lord Hater suddenly saw Petey’s direction as the plant was falling over and his face comically drooped. He pulled a tiny umbrella into view, opened it and gingerly held it in front of his face.

*CRASH!*

Tricky paused (though still while vibrating intensely) as he watched Petey flop down on top of Lord Hater, crushing the space tyrant under his weight. As Petey flailed about on his back, with Lord Hater’s legs thrashing legs being visible underneath the huge plant’s body, Tricky waited to see if either of the two were going to make any attempt to get back up. While Hater seemed to be in a rush to get back into the fight, however, Petey seemed content to just lay there for now, seemingly oblivious to the fact that there was a very-angry and very-flat electromancer underneath him.

Tricky gripped his stop sign and prepared to rush the pair, likely with the intent to spear the two at once with the sign’s metal post, when a huge, shadowy hand lunged in from the side, grabbed the zombie clown by the torso and dragged him into the air. Mimikyu used his shadowy hand to swing Tricky around in midair, disorienting the zombie a bit, before slamming Tricky into the canvas as hard as he could.

Mimikyu let out a screech in pain as Tricky shoved the metal pole of his stop sign through his shadowy hand while the Disguise Pokemon was pinning him down. As Mimikyu instinctively retracted his injured hand, Tricky shot to his feet again and turned his attention to the cloaked Pokemon, instantly bouncing around the area in an attempt to throw Mimikyu off. As Mimikyu stood in the middle of Tricky warping and bouncing around him, he tried to keep his sights on the zombie clown as best as he could but saw that, much like Lord Hater had said, Tricky was much too fast.

All of a sudden, Tricky was directly in front of Mimikyu with his stop sign raised above his head. Mimikyu’s shadowy hand grabbed at Tricky’s stop sign and kept the zombie at bay as best as he could, but Tricky was proving to be a lot stronger than Mimikyu was, or at least didn’t showcase any mortal limits due to being undead. It was clear that Mimikyu would eventually lose the power struggle.

Mimikyu suddenly lashed out with a second shadowy hand that made an attempt to grab at Tricky’s stop sign and give himself more leverage but Tricky swerved to the side a bit, causing Mimikyu to accidentally grab hold of his metal mask instead. Before he realized what he had grabbed hold of, Mimikyu pulled his second hand back, ripping Tricky’s mask off and revealing a set of jagged, rotting teeth and a face with no other features save for a pair of black lines intersecting at the middle of the head.

Somehow, Tricky’s screeching was even worse with the mask off. Tricky let out another roar that actually made Mimikyu recoil in surprise (well, that in addition to the shock of seeing Tricky’s exposed face) and cause the Disguise Pokemon to let go of the stop sign. With his weapon in hand and with renewed intensity, Tricky started warping around Mimikyu, attacking from every angle and getting multiple hits in without letting the smaller fighter breathe.

In the middle of all of this, Mimikyu struggled to retain concentration and decided to try something different. The instant Mimikyu saw Tricky materialize in front of him, the Disguise Pokemon leapt into the air and tilted the hem of his cloak upwards, causing Tricky to accidentally fly headfirst into the darkness underneath Mimikyu’s cloak.

Tricky’s screams were heard underneath Mimikyu’s cloak as it looked like he was frantically trying to get out in between sounds of a fight happening underneath the sack-like cloak. It seemed that, at least for now, Mimikyu’s cloak seemed to be capable of keeping Tricky contained and unable to warp around like he usually did. Now that he had the advantage, Mimikyu wasn’t about to let it slip by.

The sound of what seemed like an explosion finally got Petey to sit up, looking around in confusion as he pushed himself onto his stubby legs. Looking back, Petey noticed Lord Hater’s comically-flat, prone form laying on the canvas, reached down, picked up the space tyrant and gave him a hard shake, springing Lord Hater back into shape again.

“Ugh...Why the heck did you wait so long to get off me, you overgrown weed?!” Lord Hater snapped. “Couldn’t you hear my screams of pain while you were sitting on me?!”

Petey’s response was to laugh dumbly. Lord Hater sighed. “Look, we still have an insane clown monster to deal with so let’s just go and-”

Lord Hater froze when he turned his head towards where Mimikyu was fighting Tricky and saw the former standing over the latter, seemingly victorious. Tricky was still conscious but looked to be dazed after being subjected to Mimikyu’s assault and the Disguise Pokemon was now repeatedly swatting the downed clown’s prone form with his own stop sign. Mimikyu suddenly took notice to the fact that Lord Hater and Petey were up again as he seemed to brighten up before turning his attention back to Tricky.

Using the stop sign in his shadowy hand like a spatula, Mimikyu wedged the sign underneath Tricky’s still-dazed form and flipped the clown over his head with one mighty heave, sending the screaming Tricky flying headfirst out of the arena. Mimikyu turned and chucked Tricky’s stop sign out after him like a javelin.

Lord Hater blinked in confusion. “Uh...G-Good work, minion!” He said nervously, flashing a thumbs-up at Mimikyu which he seemed to greatly appreciate. “N-Now we can go start a fight with some NORMAL people, okay? No more starting fights with vibrating, reality-warping clown monsters, okay?”

Tricky spiked into the ground in the middle of a busy pathway in Planet Coaster, and then his stop sign ended up impaling him to the ground through his torso when it came down after him. The park-goers seemed to ignore Tricky’s plights as he made several desperate attempts to kill someone as they walked past him to go about their day.

Engineer swung his wrench at Crash, only for the orange bandicoot to back out of the way, kick off the ground and land a flying kick to the mercenary’s face, making Engineer stagger backwards. Engineer held his face for a couple of seconds as he regained his footing, but once he looked ahead he saw Crash lunging at him in a spinning, orange tornado. Crash struck Engineer multiple times with a flurry of lightning-fast slaps before Crash finished with a roundhouse that knocked Engineer onto his back.

Proto Man sighed as he cocked his Proto Buster, choosing this moment to step in. “Look, this has gone on long enough.” He said.

“Wuh?” Crash asked in a confused voice.

“This is more for his sake. He’s been targeting you and the maniac with the rocket launcher since you idiots destroyed his sentry.” Proto Man replied flatly. “I think we need to get him out of the arena before he gets delusional.”

Crash was quick to get in Proto Man’s way. “Na-uh!” He insisted, getting into a stance.

Proto Man paused in confusion before groaning. “You think messing with him is FUN.” He lamented. Crash rapidly nodded his head in response, creating an audible rattling noise as he did. “Look, I’m doing this for HIS sake. You can’t just keep toying with him because you think it’s funny.”

Crash gave an aside glance, wiggled his eyebrows for a couple of seconds and pulled his bazooka into view again. Proto Man cursed and pointed his arm cannon at Crash. “Are you seriously going to make me go through YOU in order to take care of HIM?” He asked, receiving another rattle-sounding nod from Crash.

Engineer, in the meantime, pushed himself to his feet and adjusted his hardhat. “Oh, that little orange rodent packs more of a punch than he looks...” He muttered. “Looks like I gotta go and-”

“Heyooooo!”

His eyes snapping open behind his goggles, Engineer threw himself to the ground and rolled forward a few feet as a projectile hit the canvas and exploded into a puddle of acid where he had been standing. Turning around in a crouched position, Engineer saw Steve approaching, reloading what looked to be a makeshift grenade launch, albeit one that looked capable of firing acid bombs instead of actual grenades.

“Sonny, I’ll admit that the firepower you’re packin’ is interestin’. I may have to take a look at a few of ‘em once this here tournament is all over.” Engineer said calmly as he stood up. “But I ain’t got time to deal with you right now. I’m gonna give you a chance to back away.”

Steve paused. “Heyo?” He asked.

Engineer ripped his glove off, revealing to Steve a mechanical hand instead of a regular hand. Engineer’s robotic hand started spinning wildly as he pulled his hand back and readied himself for a hard punch. Steve stepped back in surprise and received a hard, spinning punch to the face from Engineer’s robotic hand, sending the raider tumbling backwards several feet.

Engineer stepped forward, grabbing what looked to be a pull-start on his mechanical hand and yanking it, causing the hand to rev up even faster and louder. “That’s what happens when ya make me angry, son.” He warned. “Care to go another round?”

Holding his head, a dizzy Steve pushed himself to his feet. “H-Heyoo?” He asked.

“See, I don’t speak ‘apocalyptic bandit’ but I’m gonna take that as a yes.” Engineer smirked as he pulled his mechanical hand back and prepared to smash it into Steve’s face again.

Proto Man suddenly managed to get in between the two and held up his shield. Engineer’s metal hand slammed into Proto Man’s shield and the latter easily showcased the durability of his shield by keeping his footing and causing Engineer’s attack to bounce off it uselessly.

Staggering backwards a couple of steps, Engineer adjusted his hardhat again. “Wait, why’re you gettin’ in between me and him?” He asked. “I still want to see what makes you tick!”

“And I keep telling you I’m not going to let that happen.” Proto Man narrowed his eyes behind his shades.

Engineer narrowed his eyes in return. “Okay. I don’t like doin’ this to such a fine piece of mechanical engineering but it looks like you’re not backin’ down...” He said.

Proto Man held firm and held his shield up as Engineer swung again, this time with his wrench. Proto Man pushed back and knocked the mercenary away from him. Rather than continue attacking Proto Man, Engineer turned to the canvas, tossed a toolbox down and started hitting it rapidly.

Before Proto Man could ask what Engineer was doing, he froze when he saw that the mercenary had just erected a full Level 3 sentry gun in a manner of seconds. Proto Man was about to ask how Engineer could have possibly built the sentry so fast when the sentry beeped and turned its attention towards him.

“Looks like I gotta bore a hole in that there shield of yours first.” Engineer smirked.

Proto Man grunted as he found himself getting pushed backwards on his feet little by little by the rapid firing rate of Engineer’s sentry gun. He knew his guard was absolute but Engineer’s guns would eventually overpower him and break through his defense if given the chance. He just needed to wait for an opening and a chance to counter attack...

“Heyooooo!”

Steve suddenly made his presence known by leaping over Proto Man with an automatic rifle in his hands. Steve opened fire on the sentry gun as Proto Man tanked the bullets with his shield. The sentry gun appeared to switch targets to Steve in the middle of the barrage, and that gave Proto Man the chance to throw his shield at the sentry, striking it with the projectile and knocking it back.

This, in turn, would allow Steve to continue shooting at the sentry, forcing it back even further before it tumbled backwards and crashed onto its back uselessly. It seemed to be trying to track Steve and Proto Man while on its back but was obviously failing in doing so since it could only scan the air above it while on its back.

Before Engineer could make a move to get his sentry uprighted, Crash also made his presence known, leaping into the fray, grabbing Proto Man’s discarded shield and leaping over the downed sentry with the shield under him. The sentry picked up Crash’s movement above him and started firing upwards but, due to Crash using the shield, it failed to damage the orange marsupial. Instead, the rapid firing striking the impenetrable shield kept Crash aloft in midair, riding the shield as the sentry’s bullets kept him from touching the ground. Crash, being Crash, seemed to enjoy the ride as he cheered along with the ride.

“H-Hey! Stop doing that, ya little rodent!” Engineer objected.

“And give me back my shield! That’s not what it’s meant for!” Proto Man added as he rushed forward.

Time seemed to slow down as both Engineer and Proto Man lunged at Crash, whom seemed oblivious to the fact that the two were rushing him from both sides, one reaching for the sentry and the other reaching for the shield Crash was currently riding atop.

“Heyooooo!”

Everyone realized, at the same exact instance, that they had forgotten about Steve.

*KA-BOOM!*

Steve had pulled his rocket launcher out and, seemingly for no reason other than the fact that everyone else would be caught in the blast radius, fired a rocket that hit the sentry gun head-on, igniting it in a ball of fire that launched a screaming Crash into the air and sent Engineer and Proto Man flying backwards in opposite directions. Steve, in the meantime, landed on his feet near the smoldering wreck of what used to be Engineer’s sentry and seemed pleased with the carnage he had just cause.

Engineer landed on his back but was quick to shoot to his feet again when he saw Steve standing over the wreck of his level 3 sentry. “No!” He yelled as he rushed over, shoving a surprised Steve out of the way so that he could inspect the damage to his sentry. As he seemed to realize that the sentry was beyond repair and that none of his hard work could be salvaged, he slowly turned his gaze towards Steve and stared at the raider with silent judgement. “...YOU...”

“H-Heyo?” Steve asked hesitantly.

Engineer turned to face Steve, showing a burning intensity that seemed unlike the otherwise calm demeanor that the Engineer usually showed. Engineer stepped towards Steve, whom looked a little too nervous to run away, and stopped about three feet away from the raider, staring down into Steve’s mask silently for what seemed like an eternity...

...And then he started dancing.

“YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-” Engineer yelled in a loud voice for what seemed like several seconds.

*KA-BOOM!*

All of a sudden, the area around Engineer spontaneously exploded, engulfing both him and Steve. The force from the explosion sent Steve flying head-over-heels clear out of the arena as the explosion died down, revealing an untouched Engineer that looked like he had just let off some steam.

“Heyooooooooooo-” Steve called out as he fell backwards into the abyss and vanished into a portal.

Crash and Proto Man stood aside in silence, wondering what the heck they had just witnessed.

“Uh...” Proto Man lifted a finger.

Crash quickly scooped up Proto Man’s shield, smashed it across the robot’s face with enough force to send him over the top rope, chucked the shield out after him and quickly made himself scarce to steer clear of Engineer until he had cooled off a little more.

Proto Man appeared in the swirling void of colours, signifying that he was in line for the next Multiversal Matchup round. Noticing his shield floating nearby, Proto Man was quick to grab it.

“Now I remember why I don’t like coming to these things...” He lamented.

Proto Man looked to his right and paused when he saw a familiar raider floating around upside-down near a disappointed, bored-looking Phantom Striker.

“Heyooooo!” Steve called out brightly. Apparently, in spite of everything that had just happened, he was still unfazed.

Proto Man sighed. “If you think I’m babysitting you when we land, you’re mistaken.” He said flatly.

(Announcer’s Booth)

“WHY THE CRAP DID YOU GIVE ENGINEER THE YEE BOMB?!”

By this point Khall had gotten used to SSBFreak calling Sheogorath into the booth to voice a complaint over something that had been done without his knowledge. Even Sheogorath was looking a bit bored with the fact that SSBFreak had called him into the Announcer’s Booth just to yell at him.

“Come on. That hard-hatted nerd needs all the help he can get.” Sheogorath handwaved. “I mean, what is he gonna do other than build guns and teleporters? Hit people with his wrench? Sounds like a rubbish fighting style in an arena-based tournament, eh? Well, I mean, I guess I can’t really talk about things like that since you decided to cast a frackin’ GOOMBA as one of the fighters.”

SSBFreak slapped his head in annoyance. “Why the Yee Bomb specifically?! It’s not even CANON!” He demanded.

“Hey, if it shows up in a thousand different Youtube videos made with Garry’s Mod then its canon enough for me.” Sheogorath smirked with a chuckle.

SSBFreak sighed. “Why do you keep insisting on doing things like this behind my back?” He asked.

“Because it’s funny.” Sheogorath shrugged.

“And what ELSE did you manage to loophole into this tournament without me knowing about?”

“Ah, ah, ah! No spoilers!” Sheogorath scolded playfully. “Takes away half the fun if you know when things are coming!”

SSBFreak groaned. “I swear, if Sniper comes out spinning in circles and getting headshots by firing straight up...” He started.

Sheogorath’s smirk vanished, replaced by an insulted look. “You think I would stoop to using SPINBOTS? No, no, no, no. The Yee Bomb is never NOT funny. Spinbots are NEVER funny. They’re just CRUEL. There’s a difference.” He reminded.

Leaving SSBFreak to hit his head on the desk again repeatedly, Sheogorath warped out of the booth again. Khall sat in silence for a few seconds as SSBFreak continued to hit his head against the desk. “Y’know, I kinda wish that he knew about STBlackST’s videos. It would have been funny to watch Soldier go all ‘American Boot’ on people while he was in the ring.” He piped up.

“Do NOT give him ideas...” SSBFreak moaned, face buried in his desk.

(Multiversal Matchup)

Neclord stuck to the shadows as he crept his way through the passages of the Shadow Temple, avoiding the shambling Redeads as best as he could. Him being undead himself kept himself hidden from most of the denizens of the Shadow Temple, though the Skulltulas were the obvious (and very annoying) exception since they seemed to attack anything that moved.

Neclord grunted as he stepped over the body of a dead Skulltula he had just killed with lightning magic. “Loathsome creatures...” He muttered.

Turning a corner, Neclord peered into the darkness and saw a group of three Redeads shuffling about in an open area. Narrowing his eyes in determination, as he knew that there was likely a hidden passage in the area if there were a group of those zombies wandering seemingly aimlessly, Neclord silently started casting some magic as he turned the corner fully, setting his sights on a Fire Keese that was fluttering about near the shambling zombies.

Casting his magic, Neclord fired a sharp blast of lightning at the Fire Keese, striking it with pinpoint accuracy. The Fire Keese screeched as it fell back from the blast of lightning, which garnered the attention of the Redeads. However, as the closest one turned to look at Neclord, the flaming bat slammed into its face, setting the Redead alight before it could belt out its trademark ear-splitting scream. The force from the bat hitting it in the face caused the now-on-fire Redead to stagger backwards, into the other two Redeads as they were slowly approaching from behind.

Neclord gave a dark smirk as he watched the three Redeads flail about as they were all set on fire in a chain reaction. “Pity I don’t have a way to enthrall them.” He mused as he stepped forward. “They could otherwise be useful to help me find a hidden passage...”

Stepping his way around the three now re-dead Redeads, Neclord pressed his hands against the stone walls in an attempt to see if he could find another hidden passage that took him deeper into the temple. “Hmm...There must have been a reason there was a group of these things around. It can’t have been for no reason...” He muttered.

*KA-BOOM!*

The muffled explosion caused Neclord’s ears to perk up, hearing the noise coming from the opposite wall. Walking over to the wall, Neclord pressed his hand against the wall only to watch as his hand phased through it, showing another hidden passage. The vampire lord gave a dark smirk. “Looks like I found my way forward...It’s probably that robot that made that explosion...” He mused as he stepped through the false wall.

Continuing into the next room, Neclord stepped into a large, open room with a large, ceramic-looking pot in the middle of it. Neclord’s suspicions about the maker of the explosion was proven correct when he saw Crash Man trying to lob his Crash Bombs into the top of the pot from the ground, only for his poor aim to cause them to either attach to the side of the pot or miss altogether.

Neclord rolled his eyes as he stepped forward. “What the blazes are you doing NOW?” He asked. “Those explosions will bring the whole temple down on top of us.”

“Hey, I know a puzzle when I see one!” Crash Man snapped. “All I saw in this room other than that locked door over there was this huge pot! I gotta get SOMETHING in there and the only thing I have on me are my Crash Bombs!”

Neclord glanced to the end of the room. Other than a secondary sealed door that Crash Man had obviously entered the room from, Neclord saw another door adored by a large silver lock. Relenting that Crash Man had a point that there was a likely puzzle involved (though obviously not saying it aloud), Neclord sighed. “How are you not hitting that target, then?” He asked. “I thought robots like you were supposed to have enhanced accuracy or something?”

“Hey, you wanna take a shot at it, gramps?” Crash Man looked over his shoulder. “Come over here and try it yourself! It’s harder than it looks!”

Neclord sighed and stepped forward, into a circular area next to the pot that Crash Man was lobbing bombs at...

*SHING!*

...Only to suddenly freeze in pain as he felt a blade slice into his torso. Looking down in shock at his new wound for a second, Neclord glanced upwards and looked around, seeing that there was nothing visible in the area that could have sliced him like that. He would have seen it coming...

A light went off in Neclord’s head. He didn’t see it coming because he didn’t see it. Whatever had just sliced him was invisible.

Crash Man looked over his shoulder again. “Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that there was an invisible spinning statue of some kind there. It tried to slice me but, you know, since I’m a robot it didn’t really affect me.” He said with a smirk. “Looks painful, though. I’d wager it was a scythe the statue was holding.”

“You...Knew...” Neclord grunted before he collapsed onto his face.

“Yeah, and I also knew that taking the undead vampire lord out of the challenge would be needed to win something like this.” Crash Man nodded. “So then, now that we’re done here, I can continue trying to get my bombs in this stupid jar...”

With that, Crash Man continued lobbing his Crash Bombs towards the top of the jar. His aim was not getting any better...

Lord Vraxx cursed several more times as he fired volleys of laser shots all around him, recklessly shooting at the Keese that were flying at him from all directions.

“You little winged rodents! Ugh, and I thought it was annoying fighting against Volkov and his bat powers!” Vraxx shouted in anger as he looked around, wondering where Merengue had gone off to. He had lost sight of her when the Keese started swarming the two and he still needed her to lead him through the maze of hallways.

Chasing off the Keese for now, Vraxx turned a corner and saw a screaming Merengue curled up on the floor, another large swarm of Keese flying around her. Grunting in frustration, Vraxx shot at the swarming Keese flying around Merengue, knowing that he still needed her and she wasn’t any use to him if she was petrified to the spot. It took a few shots but Vraxx was able to chase away the Keese that were swarming Merengue, allowing the pink rhino to stand up.

“Pull yourself together! You’re not going to do either of us any good if you turn and run at the slightest sign of something!” Vraxx snapped as Merengue tried to catch her breath.

“T-There are ZOMBIES down here!” Merengue reminded. “I just managed to lose the one chasing me and then I run into a den of angry BATS!”

“Ugh...Just keep your wits about you, will you?!”

“Something tells me this is more about you not wanting to go through this alone, yourself.”

Vraxx looked over his shoulder and saw Ryo approaching, dragging a re-dead Redead by the back of the neck for a few feet before dropping it to the ground, showing a bit of flames in his hand. “Get lost, human! I know you’re just piggybacking off of what the two of us have been doing!” He accused.

“Actually, I’ve been going my own way. You’d be surprised at how many branching paths end up connecting down the line again here.” Ryo shook his head as he folded his arms. “But if you’re so confident about your abilities, then why don’t you take the lead for once instead of sending her along ahead of you?”

Vraxx narrowed his eye. “It’s called surviving in this temple of undead!” He said. “Perhaps you should mind your own business!”

Vraxx suddenly yelped as Ryo threw a fireball into the wall beside his head. Ryo approached and cracked his knuckles. “Look, I’ll be frank. I know I don’t tend to do well in these things. But I figured that maybe if I took out one of the bigger threats like you early on that I’d have a better shot at winning this.” Ryo explained.

Vraxx scoffed as he pulled one of his blasters into view again. “So you think that I’m one of the big threats? That’s smart.” He said with a smirk.

“The only reason I think so is because Sandman is spending his time punching down a wall, the robot is hucking his bombs into a pot and I haven’t caught sight of Sheik since we started this.” Ryo shook his head. “That tech of yours allows you to fight the things here from a distance and if you keep fighting from behind the rhino girl then it makes you hard to catch up with.”

Vraxx scoffed. “I don’t need HER! You think I can’t take the things here on my own?!” He demanded as he stepped forward.

Ryo cracked his knuckles as he approached Vraxx as well. “I think you’d be a massive pushover if you took the weapons away.” He said simply.

“I’ll make you eat those words! I’ll vaporize you and THEN go back to the challenge!”

Ryo and Vraxx stood a few feet away from each other as Merengue looked back and forth between the two a few times, wondering which of them would act first. “U-Uh...We don’t need to resort to more violence, do we?” She asked.

Neither of the other two seemed intent on listening to Merengue as Ryo and Vraxx rushed forward at each other, Vraxx pulling out his second blaster as Ryo started gathering fire in his hands...

...And then the two of them fell through a hidden hole in the floor.

Merengue blinked a couple of times, wondering what had just happened. “...What.” She asked aloud.

Vraxx and Ryo tumbled through the ceiling of another room and crashed onto what felt like a dirt floor. The two groaned as they pushed themselves up, wondering where they had landed. “Now look at what you did!” Vraxx accused. “I have no idea where we are and that’ probably put me even further behind in this stupid challenge than I already was!”

Ryo didn’t respond as he seemed to have taken notice of the door leading out of the room and that it was sealed shut. As Vraxx continued to complain, Ryo turned back to the alien and froze in his tracks, his eyes widening in horror. Ryo slowly started backing away.

Vraxx noticed Ryo backing away and paused. “Oh, NOW you don’t want to have a fight?” He asked incredulously. “Seriously, what is WRONG with you?! Make up your own mind!” He paused when he saw the look on Ryo’s face. “...What? What are you looking at?”

Wondering what Ryo was looking at to make him back away in fear, Vraxx turned around and suddenly found himself staring at a grotesque mass of pale, bloody flesh with stubby arms, an eyeless head and a face full of razor-sharp teeth. And that said mass of grotesque, pale flesh was shambling in his direction.

Before Vraxx had the chance to react, a few hands sprouted from the ground behind him and grabbed hold of him, keeping him in place as the Dead Hand slowly shuffled towards him. “N-No! Get away! Back, I say!!” Vraxx stammered. The Dead Hand wouldn’t listen.

As Vraxx’s screams echoed throughout the room (and, by extension, the rest of the Shadow Temple) Ryo tried looking around for an opening or a way to defeat the Dead Hand, knowing that if he defeated it the way out would likely get unsealed. He looked around at the multiple hands sprouting from the ground and wondered if they were a good place to start.

Ryo didn’t get very far, however, as some hands grabbed him from behind and, much like Vraxx before him, held him in place as the Dead Hand slowly turned its attention towards him...

Ryo’s screams were heard next as Merengue stood on the ground above where he and Vraxx had fallen. Looking around for a bit, Merengue slowly and silently slunk off, hoping to steer clear of pretty much anything she could...

(Hotel; Dr. Cortex’s Room)

“I’m getting impatient here! When are we getting to the point where you actually tell me what it is we’re going to do?!”

Cortex and Wily exchanged annoyed glances as Robotnik complained. His over-the-top tantrum was garnering a lot of odd looks from Wily’s Robot Masters and Cortex’s minions but no one had the guts to step forward and say anything (because, regardless of how eccentric he was, he was still an iteration of Eggman and thus extremely-dangerous in his own right) and just resorted to staring at him and keeping their distance.

Wily sighed as he glanced at Cortex. “Maybe we should get started.” He reasoned. “I know we agreed that we would wait until everyone was here but I think waiting for all my Robot Masters to be here along with those two bumblers of his to get here would waste too much time.”

Cortex folded his arms. “Very well, Albert. I suppose you have a point.” He mused before he turned his attention towards the rest of the gathered people in the room, which almost-entirely consisted of minions of the two evil scientists. “I think it’s best that we go over what exactly we’re going to be doing.”

Quick Man rolled his eyes. “Finally. I’m getting restless just standing around listening to the fat guy complain.” He said.

“I could dismantle you with my bare hands, you insufferrrable machine!” Robotnik snapped.

Cortex decided to ignore the exchange and walked over to a door leading into the closet in his room. Opening it up, Cortex dug around in the closet and pulled something out, turning around to reveal to the room that he was holding a large, golden star almost as big as he was. Cortex grunted in annoyance as he carried the star over to the table in the middle of the room.

“You were keeping it in your CLOSET?” Wily demanded.

“Do YOU see room in here to construct a high-tech containment capsule for something of otherworldly power?” Cortex retorted flatly as he set the star down on the table.

“...You were keeping it in your CLOSET?!” Wily repeated.

Robotnik lifted an eyebrow. “What in tarrrrnation is THAT?” He asked. “Why...It looks like one of those Power Starrrr things from the plumber’s node!”

Cortex sighed. “Close, but not quite, although it DOES come from Mario’s node.” He replied. “THIS, in actuality, is a piece of something called ‘Star Road’. It’s been shattered into pieces and I’ve tracked the location of the rest of the pieces to the dome and hotel but I don’t know where they are...”

Pinstripe couldn’t help but smirk. “Your tech failin’ youse at da last second, eh Cortex?” He chuckled.

“DON’T make me shave that hair of yours off, Pinstripe.” Cortex said bluntly.

Robotnik stared flatly. “And WHAT, prrrray tell, would we hope to accomplish by collecting all of these ‘Starrrr Pieces’?” He asked.

“We wouldn’t be trying to collect them all if it wasn’t worth it.” Wily smirked. “If we collect all seven pieces, we’ll be able to-” The older scientist caught himself before finishing, as if realizing who he was talking to, before completing his sentence. “...Uh...Control the tides.”

Robotnik’s face lit up. “Contrrrrol the tides, you say?! SPLENDID! That rrrrotten hedgehog HATES water so if I could contrrrrol the tides then I could trrrrap that miserrrable little rrrrodent on a small island in the middle of nowhere!” He said gleefully before bursting out laughing. Ripper Roo started giggling insanely as well, likely just because Robotnik was doing it.

As Robotnik continued to gloat about how he was destined for victory once he got Sonic trapped on a small piece of land in the middle of the ocean, Nina Cortex blinked in confusion as she turned to Wily and her uncle. “Uh...I thought that completing Star Road allowed the granting of wishes.” She whispered.

“It does, but I’m not telling HIM that.” Wily whispered back.

Cortex’s eyes widened in realization. “Good call, Albert. Someone like HIM with the power to grant wishes is NOT something we need.” He whispered. “Let’s just...Let him think what he wants for now.”

Wily nodded as he turned to the room. “Okay, everyone. Here’s what we’re needing to do. We know that the guardian of Star Road is entering tonight with the Mario node so he’ll be looking for these Star Pieces as well.” He reminded. “We need to find them before he does, or at the very least take them from him if he does.”

Charge Man blinked. “Uh...Isn’t that the guy that has the firepower of a small army at his fingertips?” He checked.

“So I guess that’s just more incentive to get to the pieces first, isn’t it?” Wily asked, eyes narrowed. Charge Man hastily nodded his train-shaped head.

“I don’t know where in the dome and hotel the pieces are so make sure you look around THUROUGHLY.” Cortex reminded.

“That funny word.” Tiny Tiger interjected. He was subsequently ignored.

“The pieces could be ANYWHERE and literally anybody could stumble upon them.” Cortex instructed. “If you see someone finding a star piece, your goal is to TAKE IT FROM THEM. We need ALL SEVEN pieces to make this work. Is all this understood?”

Cortex’s henchmen and Wily’s Robot Masters gave nods of acknowledgement or responded with a ‘Yes, sir’ (though Tiny still looked confused). Robotnik was still laughing in anticipation for his inevitable victory against Sonic and Ripper Roo was laughing along for the fun of it. Cortex seemed satisfied as he exhaled. “Good. Now get going. And remember to fill in Robotnik’s Badniks about all of this whenever they decide to show up.” He said.

The henchmen and Robot Masters filed out of Cortex’s room to start their search. Once everyone was gone, Robotnik approached the table that Cortex placed the yellow star piece on and grinned evilly. “Ah, I can tell this is going to go splendidly!” He said. “Once we find all those pieces, then the power to control the ocean will be in our grrrrasp!...I DO trrrrust that you intend on giving me my fair share of the power, corrrrrect?”

“Yes, yes. Don’t worry.” Cortex handwaved. “There’ll be more-than-enough power like that for all three of us.”

“Perfect! That rrrrotten hedgehog won’t know what hit him!!” Robotnik said in a gleefully hamminess. “Hopefully Scrrrratch and Grrrrounder won’t rrrrough him up TOO much in the arena. I do so want to see the look on his face when I rrrraise the ocean levels to strand him on a deserted island!”

(The Arena)

Scratch and Grounder continued to scream.

The red crosshair was chasing Scratch as the chicken badnik continued to flail about in an attempt to avoid any midair explosions it was creating. In the process of trying to get away from the crosshair, Scratch would end up tripping over Grounder, whom was having a bit of a chaotic time avoiding the similarly-explosive clay discs that seemed to be flying in from every direction.

As the two badniks were fumbling about, trying to avoid getting caught in a chain of explosions, the Duck Hunt duo sat back and seemed content to just watch the show. The dog, obviously was giving off his signature laugh while the duck was perched on a nearby cornerpost to watch the sights from above (because the dog was currently rolling about on his back in hysterics). Even since Giovanni Potage had stepped in to take Byleth’s attention, the Duck Hunt duo could get back to their attempts at trolling the competition.

Scratch scrambled backwards on his rear as the red crosshair continued to fire at him and shoot explosions in the air. “Get this thing away from me! How the crap do we stop it if we can’t touch it?!” He exclaimed.

Grounder shook his arm repeatedly as he tried to shake off a clay disc that had gotten stuck to it. “Uh...S-Sorry, Scratch! I got my own problems going on right now!” He replied hastily.

Scratch scrambled to his feet and, thinking as fast as his tiny metal brain would allow, rushed over to where the Duck Hunt dog was still laughing. Still being chased by the red crosshair and multiple explosions, Scratch lunged at the dog and landed flat on his face just in front of him. The red crosshair, however, didn’t stop firing and created an explosion that blew up in the dog’s face, launching him backwards while Scratch, whom lay on his face, was relatively unharmed.

The duck flew down from his perch on the cornerpost to check on the injured Duck Hunt dog, whom whimpered in pain but got back up and shook his head a few times to clear his head. Scratchpushed himself up as the crosshair finally seemed to stop shooting explosions, at least temporarily, as if it didn’t expect to catch the Duck Hunt dog in the last explosion.

“Alright, you flea-bitten little rodent! I’m gonna show you firsthand Dr. Robotnik’s wrath against animals!” Scratch shouted as he stomped up to the dog, whom backed away and growled at him in caution.

Meanwhile, Byleth’s whip-like sword wrapped itself around Giovanni’s bat. The red-haired punk smirked impishly as he yanked his bat back, pulling the sword out of Byleth’s hands as the teacher staggered forward in surprise. This allowed Giovanni the opportunity to strike Byleth in the face with his bat a couple of times, knocking her away.

“C’mon! C’mon! I’m so close to thirteen hits! I need that guaranteed critical!” Giovanni muttered to himself.

Byleth cursed as she fished her bow into the open, realizing that Giovanni had just taken away the bulk of her offense by taking the sword out of her hand. “Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?” She half-scolded as she took aim with her bow.

“All the time. It helps to mess with my opponents, and every great villain knows the best way to rile up their enemy.” Giovanni smirked as he activated his Epithet and started materializing a liquid in the air in front of his face.

Byleth watched as a ball of liquid started forming in front of Giovanni’s face and, not wanting to give the younger fighter a chance to attack, fired an arrow straight at it, hoping to strike Giovanni in the face through the liquid. As the arrow burst through the liquid, however, Byleth suddenly saw that Giovanni was gone.

Realizing that Giovanni was performing his lightning-fast ‘teleport’ again, Byleth looked over her shoulder only to see Giovanni’s bat coming at her face again. Byleth staggered to the side as Giovanni cackled impishly. “‘Teleports behind You’!” He announced before generating another ball of liquid in the air while Byleth was recovering.

The ball of liquid floating in the air quickly started steaming. As Byleth recovered from his last attack, Giovanni tossed the ball into the air and pulled back with his bat, readying a swing.

“Chew on this for a while if it doesn’t melt your face! ‘Soup That’s Too Hot’!” Giovanni announced as he struck the ball of magma-hot soup with his bat, sending it flying straight at Byleth. Byleth held up her arms to block the projectile but yelled in pain as the piping-hot soup splashed against her, giving her a searing pain as she backed away several more steps.

Grounder was in the vicinity of Giovanni’s attack and received a splash of soup to his face as well. The reaction of the liquid meeting some exposed circuits (thanks to one of Duck Hunt’s exploding discs) caused Grounder to scream in pain as a thousand volts went through his body. A small explosion burst in Grounder’s face as he flew backwards, landing flat on his back.

“Hey! Who told you that you could sleep on the job, rust-bucket?!” Scratch demanded as he looked back while fighting Duck Hunt.

“S-Scratch! I just got hit in the face with a f-flaming hot liquid!!” Grounder said in a panic as he clawed at his exposed eye. “M-Ma always t-told me this would happen!!”

“You don’t HAVE a mother, bolt-brain!”

“S-Scratch! Help me!!”

Scratch sighed. “FINE, but only because I know I need you for whenever Sonic enters the ring.” He said as he shoved the Duck Hunt duo away and stormed over to Giovanni, tapping him on the shoulder while he was locking blades with Byleth (well, his bat against her axe; yes, the bat was still in one piece). “Hey, do you MIND? You’re reducing my teammate to a whining baby.”

Giovanni spun around, not expecting Scratch to grab his shoulder, and smashed his bat across the chicken badnik’s face, causing Scratch to stagger backwards, his head rapidly spinning in place. Scratch grabbed hold of his head to stop it from spinning and narrowed his eyes at Giovanni. “Oh, a wise guy, huh?!” He demanded. “Well, if you wanna play it that way, then fine! Come here, you little scrawny tryhard!”

Giovanni smirked and held up his bat, blocking an attempted blow from Scratch. “You think I didn’t prepare for this? Double-crossing is one of the biggest rules in the supervillain playbook!” He cackled. “You turned on me faster than I thought you would but I knew it was coming eventually!”

Byleth blinked as Giovanni and Scratch started fighting each other. She scratched her head for a second. “Um...Are we going to continue this or do you just have a short attention span?” She asked. She suddenly caught sight of the Duck Hunt duo trying to slink away unnoticed, likely because their targets were currently occupied with something else. “Oh, no you don’t! I’m not letting YOU TWO off the hook that easily!”

Byleth leaped forward and jumped in front of the Duck Hunt dog, grabbing it by the scruff of the neck and holding him up. “What have I told you about relentlessly-trolling people? It’s not going to do that image of yours any favours!” She scolded.

The Duck Hunt dog rolled his eyes and gave a visible pout, clearly not interested in listening to Byleth. The turquoise-haired teacher saw this and narrowed her eyes. “Do we seriously need to send you to obedience school? AGAIN?” She warned. “I know you don’t like going there, but-”

That was all Byleth could get out before the Duck Hunt duck flapped around in her face, quacking angrily and causing the teacher to staggered backwards, dropping the dog as she did. As Byleth staggered backwards, swiping at the duck with her hands, the dog grunted and fished another clay disc into view with his mouth...

Giovanni received a hard hook to the face, although maybe it felt harder since Scratch was made of metal. Either way, Giovanni staggered backwards as he struggled to regain his footing while Scratch stomped forward, looking mad. Grounder was seen in the background laying down, still favouring his wounded eye but otherwise looking okay.

“You know, there’s always a little extra room in my awesome villain group for a couple more recruits.” Giovanni smirked. “You two have a fighting spirit and a natural ability to be a nuisance. You’d fit right in!”

Scratch narrowed his eyes. “And turn our backs on Dr. Robotnik?! No way!” He said.

Giovanni shrugged. “Eh, too bad, but I guess I can’t force you.” He said. “Maybe I’ll still give you my card in case you change your mind.”

Scratch lashed out again, only for Giovanni to teleport again, vanishing in a cloud of steam and reappearing behind Scratch, striking him in the back with his bat and knocking him down. Giovanni glanced upwards, noticing a number counter floating in the air that only he could see, seeing that the counter was currently at 12. Seeing this, the redhead youth gave a smirk.

“Alright! I’m at lucky number thirteen! Time for my guaranteed critical!” Giovanni announced as he raced at Scratch, whom had pushed himself to his feet, and swing his bat with all his might.

*CRACK!*

Scratch was sent flying backwards several feet from the enhanced power of Giovanni’s critical hit, causing him to skid on his back until he came to a rest by Grounder’s treads. The mole-like badnik peered in from the top of Scratch’s view. “Uh...How’s it going, Scratch?” He asked.

Scratch pushed himself up as he noticed Giovanni generating another one of his magma-hot balls of soup in the air. “Look, Grounder. We gotta work together to take this guy down. He’s more-annoying than I thought!” He urged.

Grounder nodded. “I know! Some of that stuff got into my eye and I STILL can’t see straight!” He whined. “What do we do?”

Scratch responded by grabbing Grounder by the arm, spinning him around several times and letting go, sending the mole-like robot flying straight into Giovanni with a panicked scream while the youth was gathering up soup with his Epithet. Grounder crashed through the already-boiling soup that Giovanni was generating, splashing both him and the young punk with the searing-hot liquid, resulting in loud screams of pain coming from them both.

Giovanni screamed as he pushed the heavier Grounder off of him with his legs, standing up and shaking the magma-hot soup out of his uniform as best as he could. “Augh! I know that’s why I wear a full uniform but I can still feel the heat through it!” He cursed before looking to face Scratch again. “I dare you to try that again, you-”

*POW!*

Scratch slammed his fist straight into Giovanni’s face, sending the redhead punk tumbling backwards over the top rope. Giovanni was dazed enough that he could only make a feeble attempt to grab at the topes as he fell into an elimination portal.

Seeing Giovanni gone, Scratch sighed in relief before looking over his shoulder. “Okay, you big coward. He’s gone.” He said.

“Why’d you throw me at him for, Scratch?” Grounder moaned, pushing himself up. “You just got more of that soup stuff in my circuits!”

“It’ll give you a bit more spring in your step. Soup is GOOD for you.” Scratch said sarcastically.

*BOOM!*

Scratch and Grounder jumped in fright at the familiar explosion, recognizing it as one of Duck Hunt’s, and turned simultaneously in the direction of the explosion, readying for another trollish onslaught of exploding cans. Instead, however, they saw Duck Hunt standing over a dazed, clearly out-of-it Byleth, having been caught in the last explosion of one of Duck Hunt’s clay discs.

The duck watched as the dog grabbed the dazed Byleth by the collar with his teeth, dragged her back a couple of feet and, with one mighty throw, hurled the teacher out of the arena before she could recover enough to try and get back in.

“Uh...How about we try to pick a fight somewhere away from the dog with magic explosions?” Grounder suggested nervously.

“For once, I totally agree with you!” Scratch replied hastily as the two badniks scrambled away before either of the Duck Hunt duo saw them again.

Dawson McShane cursed loudly as several sharp spikes of ice slammed into his arms while he had his guard up. Stepping back and lowering his guard briefly to check for bleeding, Dawson unwittingly opened himself up for attack from Mordex, whom lunged at him, grabbed him by the face and slammed him into the canvas. Mordex dragged the Scottish cowboy across the arena mat for a couple of feet before tossing him aside, sending him flying into a cornerpost.

Mordex growled as a dark smirk floated across his face, baring the talons of his gauntlets. “You’re a fool to think someone like you can stand to even catch me, let alone lay a hand on me.” He said. “I’ve spent years perfecting my craft.”

Dawson grunted as he pushed himself up and adjusted his hat. “Big deal. The Eternal Champion’s as old as time itself and the bunch of us routinely throw down with him.” He counted. “You’re swift but everythin’s gotta slow down at some point.”

Mordex crouched low. “You will feel the cold of death rush over you before that happens...” He hissed.

“Yeah, I’ve had that, too.” Dawson muttered, briefly feeling his neck before returning his gaze to Mordex. “Care for another dance, doggie?”

Mordex narrowed his eyes and lunged at Dawson, teeth and claws bared. Dawson lifted his arm and tilted it in a way that Mordex’s claws would hit the hidden knife-launcher under his sleeve, effectively stopping the werewolf’s advances in its tracks. Before Mordex could question how it appeared Dawson was blocking his claws barehanded, Dawson swung his head and struck the close-up Mordex in the face with the barbs tied into his ponytail.

Mordex howled in pain as he staggered back, grasping at his eyes. Dawson used the distraction to his advantage as he rushed Mordex and strung him with a lightning-fast flurry of punches, mixed in with a few elbows and finished with a headbutt that knocked Mordex flat on his back, flying backwards a couple of feet.

Mordex rolled backwards as Dawson stamped his foot onto the canvas where his stomach would have been. Dawson quickly took aim with his hidden knife-launcher and fired several throwing knives at Mordex, hoping to get lucky and land a hit to at least slow the were wolf down. Mordex, however, quickly swapped to his scythe and swung it several times, deflecting the knives away as they flew at him. Realizing that he had the upper hand with his speed, Mordex pressed forward and swung his scythe at Dawson while he was reloading, catching the cowboy in the stomach and making him stagger backwards in pain.

Quick to push himself through the pain, Dawson kicked away Mordex’s next scythe swing before lunging at the werewolf, tackling him to the ground. Dawson punched Mordex in the face several times, seemingly stunning the werewolf, before getting up and kicking Mordex in the side, causing the evil werewolf to roll to the side a few feet. Seeing Mordex down, Dawson sighed and approached him, getting ready to throw him over the ropes.

Suddenly springing to his feet and leaping several feet into the air as he did, Mordex, flew overtop of the surprised Dawson, landed on the other side and dug his claws into the cowboy’s back. Dawson yelled in pain as Mordex lifted him off his back and threw him away, though the werewolf noticed something fall from the cowboy’s pocket as he bounced off the arena canvas.

Mordex stared down at the Power Stone that fell at his feet while Dawson fell on his back before an evil smirk floated across his face. “Looks like I may have an advantage here.” He muttered as he reached down and plucked the Power Stone off the canvas, engulfing himself in a white light as he touched it.

Dawson shielded his eyes and cursed colourfully as he pushed himself to his feet, not realizing that Mordex had swiped the Power Stone he had in his pocket. He almost didn’t want to know how fast, powerful or brutal Mordex would be in a powered-up form but he realized that he didn’t have a choice but to face it now. All the cowboy could do was wait until the light faded and see what Mordex had become now that he was powered up on Power Stones.

Mordex looked somewhat similar in his new, transformed state, though he was a fair size larger, with longer hair, sharper claws and fangs and his dark gray fur had now shifted into a mix of pitch-black and blood-red, including a piercing gaze from a pair of crimson eyes. Even the ragged, tattered clothes that Mordex was always seen wearing looked more-sinister despite still looking even more-tattered. The last thing Dawson noticed about the transformation, however, was that the new Mordex was wielding both a sinister-looking scythe and a deadly, spiked gauntlet at the same time. Unlike Vraxx before him, it seemed that Mordex, in his new, transformed state, was more-than-capable of wielding both his weapons at once.

Mordex gave a dark chuckle. “This must be how the rest of the world perceives me in my werewolf state. I always DID think that being in Valhalla took away some of my raw power.” He admitted before swinging his huge, sinister-looking scythe around with one hand. “Let’s see if I have all that power BACK...”

Mordex swung his sinister-looking scythe with one arm, showcasing immense raw strength by sending Dawson flying back with one swing, creating more jagged icicles of cold death that would have pierced the cowboy’s body if he didn’t see them coming and dodge the attack. Mordex didn’t stop, however, and pressed the assault further, this time lashing out with the razor-sharp talons of his gauntlet.

Dawson jumped back and took aim with his knife-launcher again, firing several knives into Mordex’s arm, though it seemed to do little than annoy him. Realizing that Mordex had higher durability in this transformed state, Dawson reasoned that he wouldn’t be able to do any damage, at least not with anything in his arsenal save for his emergency silver bullet, and that he was likely better off playing defensive until Mordex transformed back. Dawson was brought out of his thoughts when he saw the transformed Mordex lunging at him again, getting out of the way before the werewolf could tear into his stomach.

Thus started a strange game of cat and mouse, with Mordex pouncing and swinging each weapon with every chance he got and Dawson swiftly dodging most of the attacks by being ready for them. He could only dodge for so long, however, before Mordex got a lucky hit in and raked his claws across Dawson’s back. Dawson shouted in pain as he staggered forward, and this left him open for a further attack from Mordex. Dawson tried to get his guard up but Mordex was too fast and struck the cowboy with several powerful attacks that sent Dawson tumbling back into a cornerpost, falling down.

Mordex smirked darkly as he stood over Dawson. “Had enough, fool?” He asked.

Dawson took aim with his revolver. Mordex chuckled again. “You think that even a silver bullet would be enough to harm me in this form?” He asked. “You’re welcome to try but you’re just prolonging the inevitable...”

Dawson couldn’t help but chuckle as he used the barrel of his gun to push the brim of his hat up a couple of inches, giving Mordex a view of the confident look he was giving off in spite of the pain. “I’m prolonging SOMETHIN’, alright.” He said.

Mordex snarled and lifted his scythe above his head, preparing to bring it down and end Dawson. However, while Mordex was preparing to finish the cowboy off, he was engulfed in another white light, reverting him (and, by extension, his weapons) back to his normal form. “That.” Dawson said as he pushed himself up.

Mordex looked over his de-transformed hand in shock. “But...That was nowhere NEAR the length of time I’d seen those forms last for!” He exclaimed.

“Musta used up too much power at once, partner.” Dawson chuckled.

In the blink of an eye, Dawson lashed out with his pistol and hit it off Mordex’s forehead, resulting in a howl of pain and cursing from the werewolf as he stepped backwards. Dawson pressed the assault again, punching Mordex in the snout a couple of times before throwing him back and sending him into the same cornerpost he himself had been backed into a moment prior. Mordex growled and pushed himself off the cornerpost only to howl in pain as a throwing knife found a home in his shoulder. In the moments he was distracted, combined with him unexpectedly losing his transformed state, made Mordex easier for Dawson to hit with his knife launcher.

Mordex cursed loudly. “What do you hope to gain from that?! This knife isn’t even SILVER!” He snapped.

“I know. Just softenin’ you up to keep you from gettin’ back into the arena.” Dawson said as he smashed his elbow into Mordex’s face, stunning the werewolf and causing him to tumble over the arena ropes, too dazed and distracted by the pain in his shoulder to try and get back in.

Mordex crashed into Doom Eternal, where he took out his aggressions on a hapless Cacodemon. Strangely, he seemed to fit right in.

Fait shot a few stray stars from his tip of her scythe at Petey Piranha, only to watch as they bounced harmlessly off his stomach. The mage gave a sigh as she held her scythe with both hands, going over how to tackle this opponent. “My stars don’t do any good.” She muttered. “I may have to play the close-up game and cut him down to size...”

After Mimikyu had dealt with Tricky, Lord Hater and Petey Piranha ended up stumbling into the fight between Fait and Jowy. While Hater was in the process of fighting the latter (and getting swatted upside the head multiple times from Jowy’s staff), Fait was left to try and deal with Petey, though she had obviously just found out that some of her attacks weren’t going to be doing her any good. Mimikyu, in the meantime, seemed to be busy with Sakura so he was unable to assist the others for the time being.

Petey stepped back a bit as Fait lunged forward and swung her scythe, yelling in pain as Fait cut through a leaf-arm. Petey held his wounded arm for a bit and stared down at Fait in what looked to be actual anger before he roared and swung his massive head down, hoping to give the mage a headbutt. Fait saw the attack coming and used her scythe to warp away, appearing behind Petey as the huge plant proceeded to headbutt the canvas.

Fait gave a smirk as she started spinning her staff in her hand. “Outsmarting this thing isn’t going to be the issue. His durability is what I need to worry about.” She muttered to herself as she swung her scythe upwards.

Petey found himself getting launched into the sky on a pillar of magic that Fait had created under his feet. However, while he was in midair, Petey started flapping his leaf arms and (...somehow...) kept himself afloat in the air, giving himself a bit of height as he floated towards Fait, whom seemed surprised at what Petey was doing. Fait warped herself out of the way again just as Petey came crashing down belly-first, creating a loud crash and shaking half of the arena.

“I hope you realize that you broke a few laws of physics by being able to do that.” Fait said, eyes narrowed.

Petey pushed himself up and gave another ferocious-sounding roar as he bore down on Fait. The mage looked undeterred and prepared to swing her scythe again.

Jowy jumped back and swung his staff, deflecting a magic shot away as Lord Hater shouted in anger. The silver-haired man danced around Hater’s blind volley of magic projectiles as the space tyrant continued to shoot at him while chasing Jowy around the fight between Petey and Fait.

“Stand still, you greasy-haired little punk!” Lord Hater shouted. “You’re just a human! You should be able to fry as easily as anything else!!”

Jowy stopped dodging backwards briefly and swatted another of Hater’s magic shots with his staff, sending it flying straight into the tyrant’s face, resulting in a round of screaming from Lord Hater as his head caught fire. Jowy smirked as he started charging his rune. “I guess the same can be said about you, then?” He asked.

After putting out his painful-looking head-fire, Lord Hater was steaming mad (literally; steam started emitting from the sides of his head like a kettle) as he raised his hands and started gathering magic. “Wait till I get my hands around that scrawny neck of yours!” He said as he turned around, his face drooping when he saw that Jowy had surrounded himself with several ghostly swords, all of which were pointing dangerously at Lord Hater himself. “Uh...” He said.

“Yeah. I think this is the part where you run.” Jowy smirked.

Jowy swung his hand as the ghostly swords flew straight at Lord Hater. The space tyrant backtracked and danced around the swords as best as he could while they were flying at him from all directions, but it was only a matter of time before one of the swords landed a lucky hit, and by lucky hit we mean that Lord Hater ended up getting impaled on it while it attacked from behind.

Lord Hater slowly turned his gaze towards the ghostly sword sticking through his chest for a few seconds before letting loose with another round of screams. “WHY AM I IMPALED?! WHY DOES THIS HURT JUST AS MUCH AND NOT AS MUCH AS I THOUGHT IT WOULD AT THE SAME TIME?!” He demanded. “NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE!”

“You’d think you’d be used to this by now.” Jowy chuckled as he grabbed his staff and pulled it above his head, lunging forward and preparing to strike Lord Hater while the space tyrant was distracted by the sword impaling him.

Lord Hater held up his hands and caught Jowy’s staff in the middle. Lord Hater stared daggers into Jowy’s soul as he ignited his hands with magic. “I AM. And, believe me, it’s just making me MAD!!” He said in rage as an explosion of electricity engulfed both him and Jowy, emitting from the middle of the latter’s staff.

Fait tried to block out the sounds of the electrical explosions coming from behind her as she continued to try and keep Petey at bay. The scythe had proven to be effective at cutting Petey’s attacks short but they seemed to be making the giant plant monster mad so Fait had opted to swap to her orb and try fighting him that way.

Fait watched as Petey reared back and prepared to huck up another ball of sludge. Thinking quickly (or perhaps having predicted it herself), Fait leapt onto her orb and rode it straight into the huge plant’s throat, slamming into it with full force and causing Petey to choke on whatever disgusting muck he was about to spit up. Petey sputtered about for a bit, flailing about uselessly as he toppled over onto his back.

“I didn’t even NEED to be a fortune teller to predict that coming.” Fait chuckled to herself as she leapt into the air, pulled her orb back, charged it with magic and fired it into the downed Petey’s stomach like a magically-charged bullet. Petey reacted with a garbled shouted of pain while on his back as the recoil from Fait’s attack seemed to make him sit up. However, Fait neglected to get far enough back in time as Petey’s huge head smashed into her face at full force, sending Fait flying backwards in a daze as the huge plant pushed himself to his feet again.

On her back, Fait looked up and saw Petey towering over her. Realizing that his durability and surprising elasticity were proving to be too much for her to try and fight on her own, Fait rolled backwards as Petey slammed his huge head into the canvas again, getting to her feet and readying her orb to fire another magic bullet. Petey, seeing Fait up, reared his head back again and roared at Fait, though he wasn’t prepared for Fait to use her orb to fire a projectile of light into his open mouth.

Petey staggered backwards a couple of steps, feeling his stomach for a second as he felt a wave of indigestion hit him. Fait, in the meantime, leapt at Petey and swapped out to her scythe again, preparing to slice him in half. While she was in the air, however, Petey opened his mouth and coughed, firing a burst of light energy, the same energy that Fait had just fired down his throat, from his maw. Fait’s eyes widened just before the burst of magic hit her, striking her full-force and sending the mage flying backwards several feet from her own magic, causing her to skid on the canvas for several feet.

Lord Hater was screaming incoherent angry gibberish as he continuously struck Jowy’s near-downed form with his own staff. It was unknown how Hater had managed to get the upper hand in the fight due to more focus being on Petey and Fait’s fight when it happened, but Hater was beyond caring about anything but enacting vengeance for his own dignity. Jowy was trying to cover his head as Hater continued to use his own weapon against him and the space tyrant seemed completely-oblivious to the fact that one of Jowy’s ghostly swords was still sticking through his chest.

“Ow! Ow! Stop that!” Jowy said in between strikes as Lord Hater continued to use his own staff against him.

“You wish for me to STOP?! Did anyone stop when I told them how painful it was to get stabbed, crushed set on fire or IMPALED?!” Lord Hater demanded, showing the ghost sword still running him through.

Lord Hater continued to attack Jowy with his own staff and it had long-since gotten past the point of the younger man recovering; he was barely able to stay conscious by the time Lord Hater was finished attacking him. Jowy simply lay on the canvas while Lord Hater stood over him, breathing heavily and staring down at him in what looked to be pent-up rage.

Suddenly hearing the sound of loud footsteps approaching from behind, Lord Hater turned and saw Petey lumbering over, dragging a barely-conscious Fait behind him. He sighed. “Huh. Looks like you managed to beat her.” He mused. Petey gave a dumb-looking nod of the head in response. Lord Hater glanced down to the ghostly sword still sticking out of his chest. “I’m still wondering why the heck this sword thing hasn’t disappeared like all the others did, though...And how am I going to get it out when I can’t reach the-”

Petey cut Lord Hater off by grabbing the handle of the sword sticking out of the space tyrant’s back and pulling the ghostly sword out, resulting in another round of painful screaming from Lord Hater. He finally stopped himself from screaming as he turned around and stared daggers at Petey while the ghostly sword finally dissipated in Petey’s leafy hand. “THANK you.” Lord Hater said flatly. Petey grinned in response.

Sighing to himself, Lord Hater grabbed the prone Jowy and chucked him over the ropes and out of the arena, though he seemed to forget that he was still holding onto Jowy’s staff and didn’t throw it out after him. Petey seemed to take that as he cue and tossed Fait out of the arena after Jowy.

The prone forms of Fait and Jowy fell into Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, right in the middle of Clock Town. Fait woke herself up upon receiving a premonition about what was about to happen, grabbed Jowy’s barely-conscious body and dragged him away.

Sagat stood his ground as he watched Squirtle zoom around him on a wave of water, tucked into his shell to give him more speed. Sagat simply stood still, waiting for Squirtle to act first, as he slowly raised his guard while he kept his single eye trained on the moving opponent. In the blink of an eye, Squirtle shot himself at Sagat, aiming for his chest and acting like a rocket getting launched at a target as he spun wildly in his shell.

Sagat’s hands caught Squirtle shell in midair, stopping the attack dead in its tracks. Squirtle poked his head out of his shell in surprise. “S-Squirt?” He asked aloud.

Sagat couldn’t help but give a light smirk. “You either underestimate my ability to take you on or overestimate your newfound strength.” He said as he spiked Squirtle into the canvas with a loud crash.

Squirtle pushed himself up and quickly jumped back. “Squirtle! Squirt!” He shouted as he ducked into his shell and started spinning wildly again, charging up an attack as he shot himself at Sagat again, hoping to break through his defenses with a powered-up attack.

Sagat’s response was, once again, to stay his ground as he held up his arms, blocking Squirtle’s attack as Squirtle spun into him and keeping the small turtle Pokemon at bay even with his enhanced power level. Sagat pressed back against Squirtle while he was blocking and caused Squirtle to break away, leaving him open for a fierce Tiger Knee to the face the instant Squirtle poked his head out of his shell.

The small Pokemon bounced on his shell a few times as he struggled to regain his footing from the surprise attack before skidding to a halt. Squirtle pushed himself to his feet with a groan of pain as he looked up at Sagat, whom stood in an arms-folded stance. “You’ve gotten used to having your newfound power but the rush you’ve gotten is going to your head.” He said casually. “You may be able to push around most others but you aren’t prepared for ME.”

Squirtle suddenly realized that Sagat was right; somehow, Sagat was a stronger opponent than he had been thinking, or at least knew how to handle Blastoise-level strength. Even Darunia was tossed pretty easily once Squirtle realized he was at full power. How was a normal-looking, albeit very-intimidating, human not only keeping up with the power of a Blastoise but seemed capable of matching it?

Sagat pulled his hands back and fired several rapid-fire Tiger Shots at Squirtle, trying to snipe him from afar. Squirtle quickly ducked into his shell and zipped around the projectiles as they were fired at him, getting around the shots and flying straight at Sagat’s face. Sagat wasn’t prepared for the counter attack this time and received a heavy hit to the face, making him stagger backwards in disorientation.

Seeing Sagat distracted, Squirtle fired another Hydro Pump at the tall human, hoping to overwhelm him with the force of the water pressure. Sagat was hit square in the face but, much to Squirtle’s surprise, stood his ground and even pushed back against the high-pressure water jet, taking a few steps forward against the Hydro Pump. Squirtle’s eyes widened when he saw Sagat still standing after this, spun himself into his shell again and launched at the tall human.

The shell slammed into Sagat’s leg, resulting in a loud shout of pain coming from the tall man. The searing pain in his leg made Sagat falter against the remaining force of the Hydro Pump and he was launched backwards and fell onto his back as Squirtle bounced off his leg and popped back out of his shell.

Sagat pushed himself into a kneeling position as he saw Squirtle swinging his tail at his face. Grunting in annoyance, Sagat swung his arm and deflected Squirtle’s tail, throwing the small Pokemon off slightly; just enough for Sagat to reach out and grab the tail he had just deflected away. With a yell, Sagat pushed himself to his feet, pulled Squirtle over his shoulder and slammed the turtle Pokemon back-first onto the canvas.

Giving a sigh of relief as Squirtle groaned in pain from the canvas, Sagat rotated his head a few times. “You have raw, untapped skill and power. Under the right training you could be a huge force to be reckoned with.” He mentioned before cracking his knuckles. “Now let me show you the kind of raw strength you get from training your body to its fullest...”

Sagat struck Squirtle with several powerful punches, kicks and knees, tossing the smaller fighter about like a ragdoll without giving Squirtle a chance to react or counter. Notably, Sagat refrained from using a Tiger Shot in his combos, as if he was proving a point by using nothing but fighting strength in his attacks that seemed to take most of the fight out of Squirtle by the time the tall human was done with the combo.

Squirtle landed flat on his stomach as Sagat stood over him. The tall human gave a sigh. “You may have the spirit of a fighter but it still brings me no joy to fight someone so small like that.” He admitted. “Perhaps if I just eliminate you now I can focus on other opponents.”

“S-Squirtle!”

Sagat looked down at Squirtle just in time to see the turtle Pokemon launch himself into the air by firing a water jet into the canvas under him. Sagat watched as Squirtle flew overtop of him and didn’t notice the turtle Pokemon swinging his tail at his face until it had already hit him with the force of what felt like iron.

With Sagat distracted again, Squirtle went on the offensive while he was in the air, striking Sagat in the torso with a few short punches and kicks that packed a massive punch with his added power level. Sagat staggered backwards with each strike, as Squirtle’s quick jabs seemed to be hitting a few pressure points in his arms and torso. He tried to raise his guard but Squirtle proved to be too fast this time and was able to slip attacks past his defenses. Before Sagat realized it he had been backed up towards te ropes around the arena.

Squirtle landed on his feet and crouched low before leaping at Sagat and generating a wave of water under his feet that carried him upwards. “Squirtle!” He shouted as the wave slammed into Sagat’s chest, carrying both fighters upwards a bit. Once the wave had reached the apex of its carry height, Squirtle kicked off it and spun around, striking Sagat in the face with his tail one more time with enough force to send the kickboxing legend out of the arena altogether.

Sagat materialized in the endless void of the Multiversal Matchup waiting room. Glancing around, Sagat gave a sigh and rubbed a sore arm, where Squirtle had hit a pressure point on. “I suppose I got a bit overconfident there...” He muttered to himself. “I don’t know why I keep doing that...”

Glancing about the void, Sagat saw that Byleth and Giovanni Potage had both shown up as well, the former muttering about sending the Duck Hunt dog to obedience school again and Giovanni childishly pouting about how the tournament was stupid and dumb and unfair. Proto Man and Phantom Striker seemed to be keeping to themselves a bit, likely to keep their energy up for the battle ahead of them.

“Heyooooo!”

Sagat looked over his shoulder and saw Steve swimming around overhead, waving at him. It seemed that at least ONE of them was getting well-adjusted to this place, in any case.

(Multiversal Matchup)

A lone Redead shambled aimlessly through a dark corridor. The undead zombie shuffled about for a bit, stepping into a faint light inside a large room. The Redead stumbled forward a couple of steps, the only sounds in the room being heard were the groans coming from his mouth.

All of a sudden, a hand armed with a kunai lashed out from the shadows behind the Redead and plunged the dagger into the side of the zombie’s head. Sheik emerged from the shadows behind the Redead as she pulled the kunai from its head, allowing it to crumple to the floor, dead for the second time. Sheik crept into the room and stepped over the dead Redead as she scanned the chamber she had stumbled onto.

The new room was huge and long, consisting almost-entirely of an empty void of nothingness over a pit of darkness. What caught Sheik’s eyes the most, however, was the pillar at the far end of the room with a lone treasure chest sitting atop it. Glancing around some more, Sheik saw that the room looked devoid of traps, but Sheik wouldn’t rule out the chance of them just being invisible.

“The chest...That must be the one we’re looking for.” Sheik muttered to herself as she looked around. “Hmm...Doesn’t seem to be any way to reach it...That must mean...”

Sheik picked up the dead Redead she had just killed and hurled the body forward, off the ledge where she was currently standing. Rather than fall into the abyss, the Redead’s body landed on what appeared to be nothing but air with a loud thud. Sheik narrowed her eyes. “A hidden pathway over an abyss of darkness...” She muttered. “There’s probably a lot of twists and turns in it, too...”

Pondering for a few moments as to how she would get across the pathway she now knew was there, Sheik pulled out her harp and started playing the Song of Storms. The storm cloud that was summoned over Sheik’s head proceeded to rain down around her, hitting the surface of the invisible walkway and showing Sheik where it was with the water droplets the cloud was creating.

*CRASH!*

Sheik froze as she stopped playing her harp while she was standing on the invisible walkway in the middle of nothingness. Sheik turned to her left and saw a wall of the room getting broken down, revealing the towering form of Mr. Sandman on the other side, having finally managed to break his way through the wall with his bare hands.

Mr. Sandman glanced around the room and gave a smirk. “Looks like my hunch was right.” He said. “That chest is as good as mine!”

Sheik’s eyes widened in horror. “Did...Did you just break through the wall of an ancient burial tomb?!” She asked.

Mr. Sandman rolled his eyes. “Kid, this ‘ancient burial tomb’ has been trying to kill us since we got here. I think we can tear a wall down here and there.” He mentioned before pausing and noticing that Sheik was seemingly standing on nothing. “Huh...Looks like there’s something there that we can’t see, huh?”

“How are you going to get over here from that hole you just made?” Sheik challenged.

Mr. Sandman glanced around. He didn’t have much of a platform to stand on other than the hole he had just broken into the room through, but he looked down and saw some debris from the wall he had just punched down. Mr. Sandman picked up a couple of rocks and hurled them forward, breaking them over the invisible walkway and scattering bit of rock and dirt around the area of the walkway, providing Mr. Sandman with a visible platform to jump to.

Sheik watched with wide eyes as Mr. Sandman picked up another couple of rocks and jumped onto the invisible walkway from the hole he had punched through. Sheik realized that this easily put Mr. Sandman ahead of her on the walkways to the chest and played the Song of Storms again to start the rain up and provide her a bit of visibility on the walkway she was using.

Mr. Sandman chuckled as he scooped hoisted a rock and chucked it further ahead, causing most of it to fall into the abyss but breaking a bit on the edge of the invisible walkway and giving himself a bit of a visual on where to go. “Relying on magic? All I need is just raw strength.” He said. “Helped me bypass most of this stupid temple, anyways.”

“EEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!”

Mr. Sandman’s eyes widened a she turned his head towards the hole and watched as a screaming Merange came charging down the tunnel he had created and made a blind leap onto the invisible walkway not far away from him. Several Redeads came tumbling out of the tunnel in a chase after the rhino, falling into the abyss clumsily as a swarm of Keese burst from the hole at the same time and started swarming the room with mad screeching.

“Keese!” Sheik shouted as she drew her dagger and readied herself for a swarm of bats that were charging at her in a suicide run.

“Where the heck did YOU come from?!” Mr. Sandman demanded as he approached the terrified-looking Merengue.

“I-I saw the tunnel and I didn’t have time to think about where it led!” Merengue insisted.

“You led all those things here!”

“I-I just...Ran! I didn’t care where I was going as long as it was away from those things!”

Mr. Sandman turned and grunted in annoyance, turning his attention towards Merengue. “Ugh! This stupid challenge is almost over as it is! Why does everyone need to make it complicated?!” He demanded.

Merengue took a hasty step backwards as Mr. Sandman towered over her. He narrowed his eyes. “Only one of us is gonna win this...And there ain’t room on this invisible walkway for the both of us.” He said as he pulled his fist back.

Mr. Sandman lashed out his fist with all his might, only for his fist to feel like they hit a brick wall that he couldn’t break through. Looking down, Mr. Sandman’s eyes widened when he saw that Merengue was blocking his fist with the back of her arm and nothing more. The pink rhino was notably shaking like a leaf as she blocked the huge boxing champ’s attack.

“P-Please. J-Just leave me alone...” Merengue pleaded. “I-I don’t want any trouble!”

Mr. Sandman grunted as he pulled back. “Y-You little punk...” He hissed. “You think I’m just gonna take that disrespect?!”

The huge boxer, without thinking, lashed out with another lightning-fast hook, aiming for Merengue’s head. The pink rhino instinctively ducked under the blow and watched Mr. Sandman’s fist flying over her head, and reached up to grab it while he was recovering from the failed attack. Before Mr. Sandman knew what was happening, Merengue was in the process of throwing him over her shoulder.

Merengue didn’t realize the power of her own throw until she watched Mr. Sandman going over the edge of the invisible walkway. Realizing that she had used more muscle than she had anticipated, Merengue tried to reach out for Mr. Sandman’s leg as the huge man went over the edge but came up with nothing as the huge human fell headfirst into the dark pit with a scream.

Merengue stood in paralyzed silence on the invisible walkway, staring down into the darkness where Mr. Sandman had just vanished. “I-I...I didn’t...”

*KA-BOOM!*

Merengue jumped as she and Sheik turned again, seeing a familiar Robot Master entering the room from the doorway Sheik had entered from. Crash Man was seen loading another Crash Bomb as he stepped into the large room surrounded by the skeletal remains of multiple Stalfos that had been giving him trouble not long before.

“Ugh. These skeleton things are so annoying. Couldn’t picture having one myself.” Crash Man rolled his eyes before looking around the large room and putting things together. “Aw, crap! I’m behind!”

“Don’t you dare use those bombs in here, Crash Man!” Sheik challenged.

“Why not? If it helps me win...” Crash Man smirked as he took aim and fired multiple Crash Bombs around the room, seemingly shooting randomly. Before any of the remaining three competitors knew what was happening, Crash Man’s bombs were littering the room, stuck to the invisible surfaces of several parts of the invisible pathway, meaning that Crash Man had just inadvertently made the job of getting to the chest a lot easier.

Merengue looked around in fear, realizing that bombs were everywhere. She could see where she could and couldn’t go, at least, but that did little to ease her mind from the fact that her path was being lit up by active explosives. “Y-You just launched fifty explosives around the room!” She said.

“Eh...Fifty-seven, if we’re being specific.” Crash Man shrugged casually.

Sheik drew her kunai and threw it at Crash Man, only for the explosive Robot Master to leap into the air and avoid the projectile. Crash Man smirked while in the air as he fired a few more Crash Bombs down at Sheik, whom teleported out of the way as the bombs stuck to the invisible walkway where she had just been standing. Sheik felt herself teetering on the edge of the invisible walkway she was on as she reappeared from her teleportation but managed to regain her footing and keep herself from tumbling off the walkway.

As Sheik regained her footing, Crash Man landed on the invisible walkway and smirked as he armed some more bombs. “Sometimes you gotta cause a little bit of collateral to win something, you know?” He chuckled.

“You’re going to blow us all up!” Sheik snapped.

“Correction: I’m going to blow the two of YOU up.” Crash Man replied casually.

Crash Man lifted an arm and prepared to blow up the bombs around Sheik but Sheik was faster, lunging across the invisible walkway and swinging with her kunai, deflecting Crash Man’s arm before he could detonate his bombs. Crash Man staggered back a bit and held up his guard as Sheik attacked further, trying to eliminate the Robot Master before he did the same to her.

Merengue watched the battle between Sheik and Crash Man from afar as she slowly started creeping her way across the invisible walkway, opting to try and avoid the conflict altogether. Maybe she could reach the chest, get the treasure and finish this competition before things got deadlier than they already have.

Sheik was struck in the face with Crash Man’s arm as he tried to put some distance between the two. He looked over his shoulder, saw Merengue creeping towards the chest and cursed loudly. He pointed his arm towards several of the Crash Bombs closer to Merengue when he felt Sheik kick him in the back, knocking him flat on his face.

*KA-BOOM!*

Unfortunately, Crash Man landed on his arm, which ended up detonating some of the bombs. Doubly unfortunately, one of the bombs that exploded was the one closest to where Sheik and Crash Man were fighting, obliterating the invisible walkway the two were fighting on and sending them both on a free-fall down into the black pit below.

...Crash Man managed to grab hold of the broken part of the invisible walkway by sticking himself to the surface with his own Crash Bomb. Sheik, however, wasn’t so lucky and all she could do as she fell into the pit below was throw a few last spiteful kunai at Crash Man as she, followed by her harp, tumbled into the abyss below.

Merengue jumped at the sound of the explosion and looked back, seeing neither Sheik nor Cash Man anywhere around the room. Taking a deep breath, Merengue turned back to the treasure chest and continued making her way towards it, hoping to open the chest and finish the mission.

Crash Man landed on the invisible walkway just ahead of Merengue, having jumped into the air from where he had grabbed onto the invisible walkway. Merengue yelped and backpedaled away a couple of steps, falling over. Crash Man pointed his arm cannon straight down into Merengue’s face while she was down.

“Don’t think I didn’t see you trying to sneak up to the chest there, honey.” Crash Man said. “I didn’t come all this way just to come up with NOTHING.”

Merengue tried to lift her hand and shield her face when she felt that it was stuck to the invisible walkway slightly. Merengue glanced downwards at her hand for a moment before looking back at Crash Man. “I-I just want this game to end. I’ve been running and screaming from everything here ever since we got here…” She insisted.

“Hey, if you want the game to end so badly then you won’t mind me going up and taking that treasure, will you?” Crash Man shrugged.

“B-But can’t you go about things without causing so much destruction?!”

“Hey, I was literally built to wreck things. It’s kind of what I do.” Crash Man said as he turned around and started walking towards the chest. “Now just sit there and don’t get in my way like everyone else has, huh?”

“…No…”

Crash Man stopped and looked over his shoulder at Merenge, whom was slowly pushing herself to her feet. “Are you kidding me? You’ve spent the whole time running and screaming.” He said. “You really think you can take me in a fight?”

“I…I just…I just want the violence to stop…” Merengue whimpered.

Sighing to himself, Crash Man turned around. “All you’re doing is dragging this out.” He reminded. “I’d have already grabbed the treasure by now if I didn’t keep getting interrupted.”

“I need…To stop…”

Crash Man smirked. “Stop what? Me?” He taunted.

Merenge closed her eyes, tears flying wildly, as she pulled her fist back. “T-The VIOLENCE!!!”

Crash Man noticed something glistening on Merengue’s fist as she pulled it back. He took a split second to look at what it was before his smirk vanished and his face dropped.

One of his own Crash Bombs was stuck to Merengue’s hand…

…And she was now about to punch him in the face with it.

*KA-BOOM!*

The Crash Bomb ignited and exploded the instant it touched Crash Man’s face, engulfing both contestants in a cloud of fire and debris. The smoke created by the explosion coated the area around the two for several long, agonizing seconds, with no movement or sound coming from inside it.

A lone figure stepped through the smoke cloud, head down, limbs shaking and a clothes a bit singed but otherwise looking okay. Merengue walked out of the smoke and fire silently, towards the pillar with the treasure chest on it, as she briefly looked back when the smoke started clearing, revealing Crash Man’s torso and not much else. He had been blown apart in the blast of his own bomb while Merengue seemed to have largely tanked the explosion on sheer durability and willpower.

Merengue looked down as she made her way to the treasure chest, silently throwing it open the instant she got to it. Merengue dug around in the treasure chest for a few seconds before pulling the treasure out from inside it.

…A piece of paper. Merengue paused for a moment before unfolding the paper and reading what was written on it.

‘I O U one world-shattering relic. Left it in my other pants. ~ Sheogorath’

“Looks like that’s it, everyone! We have ourselves a winner!”

Merengue turned her head and saw SSBFreak’s hologram materialize nearby, floating over the black void of nothingness. “I think it’s a good thing this temple hasn’t seen anyone come down here in a few centuries or else they’d…Probably get a bit angry over the level of destruction caused by some of the players…But I guess I should have expected that when I saw that Sandman and Crash Man were dropping in.” He shrugged. “Nevertheless, we’ve got a winner for this Section’s Multiversal Matchup: Merengue!!”

“Is…Is it finally over?” Merengue asked quietly.

SSBFreak gave a sigh of what sounded like relief. “Yes, Merengue, it’s over. And, believe me, no one is happier to hear that than I am.” He admitted.

Merengue sighed in relief as she felt herself drop to the floor, leaning against the now-empty treasure chest for support. She wiped her eyes a few times, glad that she finally didn’t need to fight anymore. “I am going to kill Chai…” She lamented.

“Don’t worry. I think her girlfriend’s got that part covered.” SBFreak shook his head. “Just…Take it easy when you get back to the dome…Though I would probably suggest to get out of the Recovery Room quickly before Crash Man is fully-recovered. I don’t think he’s going to be real happy about what just happened when he does.”

Merengue nodded as she lowered her head and seemed to doze off, falling asleep due to the intense rush of adrenaline she had been experiencing the whole night and the crash finally catching up to her. Once Merengue was out, SSBFreak sighed. “Hopefully Tom Nook doesn’t hold this against me…” He muttered.

(Dome; Outside TF2 Locker Room)

Heavy Weapons Guy continued to scream incoherently as he pummeled Psymon Stark into the floor with his fists. He had been fighting in a feral, inhuman state ever since the security team had run into him and it seemed that Psymon and Estel were no closer to getting him to snap out of this violent state since they began.

“Ah! I think the pain in my right shoulder is gone!” Psymon said in between, grinning manically despite the situation he was in. “A little more to the left, big guy!”

Estel leapt in from behind Heavy and latched onto his back. Heavy roared and thrashed about, trying to get Estal off of him, but the policewoman held firm and pulled him away from Psymon as she fished a tazer into view. Estel jammed the tazer into Heavy’s back, causing him to scream in pain for a few seconds as he continued to thrash about but he seemed otherwise okay.

“Ugh! Calm down! We’re here to help!” Estel shouted. “Psymon! Give me a hand!”

Psymon pushed himself to his feet and shook his head a few times. “Sure thing, Estel! I’ll lay him out with French Toast and Syrup!” He said.

“W-What the heck are you-”

Estel was cut off when Psymon leapt at Heavy and landed a double drop-kick to the chest with both feet while he was in the air. Heavy staggered backwards as Estel jumped off him before she was crushed under Heavy’s weight when the large, feral man fell onto his back.

“Those are the names I gave my boots, by the way!” Psymon piped up.

“Come on, Psymon! Help me pin him!” Estel urged as she rushed over to Heavy and tried pinning him to the floor to keep him from getting back up.

“Oh, great idea!” Psymon said as he turned back to Max. “Wanna start the ten-count, Max?”

“DO I?!” Max asked happily as he bounded over.

“PSYMON!” Estel shouted as she struggled to keep Heavy down. Heavy managed to push Estel off of him as he got up, picked up the policewoman and threw her at Psymon, bowling him and Max over as he stormed over to them to continue the fight, seething in anger and near-foaming at the mouth.

Estel groaned as she pushed herself to her feet and glared at Saxton Hale, Scout and Scorch. “Why aren’t you guys HELPING us?!” He asked.

“I ain’t touchin’ this with a ten-foot pole, lady!” Scout said in fear.

“It wouldn’t be right for a guy to pummel on his own employees when they’re off the clock, especially when they aren’t thinking straight.” Saxton Hale looked down.

“I’m made of PLASTIC.” Scorch reminded flatly.

“Oooooh-no! Mah Lens-crafters of truth can’t pick up the Bongo-Bongo!” Homsar exclaimed. Estel nearly did a double-take when she saw that Homsar was now wearing Saxton Hale’s hat while Hale himself was wearing Homsar’s; he didn’t seem to have noticed yet.

Estel sighed and turned back to Heavy, only to see him hauling Psymon off the floor and throwing him into the wall. Estel was quick to rush Heavy and kick him in the back from behind, making him stagger forward and into the wall himself, unwittingly crushing Psymon in doing so. As Heavy pushed himself off the wall and turned to face Estal with a feral snarl, Psymon collapsed to the floor in a heap.

“Ah, the feeling of being crushed between a wall and a giant mass of fat! So nostalgic!” Psymon said from the floor as he pushed himself up again.

Psymon turned around to face Heavy again as the huge man was busy thrashing about while Estel managed to get him into a headlock. Grinning, Psymon rotated his head a few times, jumped into the fray and landed on Heavy’s back while he was distracted with Estel, landing a falling elbow-drop on his back that resulted in another yell of angry pain from the huge mercenary.

In anger, Heavy swatted Psymon away with a blind swing of his arm, which in turn distracted Estel long enough for him to break free of her headlock and give her a heavy-hitting jab to the face, sending the policewoman flying down the hall a few feet and landing on her back. While Estel was knocked back, Heavy grabbed Psymon, picked him up and started slamming him repeatedly against the floor, throwing him about like a ragdoll.

Scout blinked a few times. “Has…Has he been HOLDING BACK on the clock?!” He asked in fear.

Estel tried to push herself to her feet, rolling herself onto her stomach as she tried to clear her head. As she was in the process of getting up, however, Heavy swung Psymon down again and slammed him onto her back, knocking Estel onto her face again. Heavy then proceeded to repeatedly slam Psymon onto Estel’s back like a club, keeping her down while stunning Psymon further with every blow.

Scorch glanced at Saxton Hale. “Uh…Can we do something to help?” He asked.

“Pain builds character, son!” Saxton Hale interjected.

“Our job is just to make sure that the fight doesn’t spill out into…Well, anywhere other than right here.” Max supplied.

“The big guy is literally beating Estel with Psymon.” Scorch said flatly.

Max shrugged. “Pain builds character.” He repeated simply.

“Come on, Max. I think we gotta do something or else Estel’s gonna chew off our ears.”

“I’ve done that, too. Sam keeps telling me not to do that because then the criminals can’t hear us interrogate them.” Max scratched his head. “But don’t worry about it. Psymon and I knew that we didn’t really have a chance against the big guy. That’s why we’re just stalling for time until Lucia gets back with-”

“Guys! I got the sandwich!”

Max turned down the hall and saw Lucia scrambling over with a paper bag in hand. Max grinned as he held his hands open while Lucia passed him the bag. “Great going, kiddo! That was faster than I thought!” He said.

“T-The chef seemed terrified when I told him it was a Code Pootis.” Lucia panted, short of breath from her run through the dome.

“Great! He remembered the code! Hopefully he remembered the right recipe to go along with it!” Max said as he fished a sandwich from the bag and turned to Heavy, whom was still in the process of hammering both Psymon and Estel into the ground while screaming in primal rage. “Hey, Hefty-Man!”

Heavy stopped hitting the two clearly-down security team members and turned to face Max. He let out another roar as he turned around and stared the small rabbit-like creature down.

“Special delivery from Chef Kawasaki!” Max called out. “Catch, boy!”

Max hurled the sandwich through the air like a frisbee, and sent it flying straight into Heavy’s open mouth while he was still screaming. Heavy, in his rage, ended up swallowing the sandwich in one gulp, finally getting him to stop screaming. Heavy staggered around for a moment, holding his head and grunting in pain, for several long, painful seconds before his rage quieted down.

Heavy slowly opened his eyes, revealing his normal eyes again. “Ugh…Heavy feel funny…” He muttered. After a couple of seconds of wobbling on his feet, he tumbled over backwards and landed flat on his back, out like a light.

Scout screamed in fear. “You killed him!” He exclaimed.

“Calm down, Double-Jumper. He’s only sleeping. He musta burned through all his energy while he was in scary-bear-mode. Wow, I knew the sandwich would have that kind of effect on him but I wasn’t expecting it to kick in THAT fast.” Max supplied. “Kawasaki’s a way better cook than I thought he was!”

Lucia blinked. “Uh…H-How’d you know the sandwich would work like that?” She asked.

“I used to play poker with him all the time. Sometimes a good sandwich is what kept him from flipping the table and shooting Tycho full of holes whenever he lost with a good hand.” Max replied casually. “Kinda wish he did sometimes, though. That Tycho guy was creepy and won a lot of my lunch money…”

(The Arena)

King Knight yelped as he backpedaled out of the way as Engineer swung his wrench wildly at him. Engineer swung again, only for King Knight to deflect the blow with his scepter. The golden-armoured knight found himself on the defensive as he locked weapons with  Engineer and only managed to break free of the struggle by shoulder-barging his way straight into the mercenary’s face, sending Engineer recoiling backwards.

“Why are you so intent on fighting me, you simpleton?!” King Knight demanded. “I know I’m armoured but I’m not a robot!”

“Oh, Ah know that.” Engineer chuckled as he pushed himself to his feet. “I was just wonderin’ if I could pry a couple pieces of that armour of yours off. It may not be Australium but it’d be sure to fetch good coin.”

“What is it with people trying to take my armour?! It’s mine!” King Knight said. “You can have it when you pry it from my cold, dead body!”

A shadow fell over Engineer’s face as his still-present smirk suddenly looked a lot more-sinister. Engineer reached behind his back and pulled out a shotgun. “Y’see, Ah kinda figured you’d say that.” He admitted.

King Knight paled behind his mask. He really needed to know how to word his sentences better…

King Knight jumped into the air as Engineer shot at his feet a few times. Engineer took aim and fired again, only for the shot to strike King Knight’s armour and deflect off, though the armoured knight could definitely still feel the shot hitting him.

“Hold still, tin can!” Engineer said as he cocked his shotgun and reloaded it before taking aim again.

King Knight dashed to the side as Engineer’s shot missed him, and the armoured knight tried to outrun the shots while Engineer continued to shoot at him, laughing like a maniac as he continued to shoot after King Knight like he was at a shooting gallery. Realizing that he couldn’t run forever, King Knight stopped himself and leapt into the air, surprising Engineer as the mercenary was chasing him. King Knight quickly spun around in midair and drilled into Engineer’s forehead with his foot with pinpoint precision, bouncing off the mercenary as Engineer staggered forward, briefly stopping his chase to grab hold of his head and curse a few times.

While Engineer was distracted, King Knight took his chance to go on the offensive as he turned towards his opponent and swung with his scepter a few times, aiming for Engineer’s face and torso since he knew the mercenary’s hardhat was likely going to protect him from any blows to the top of the head. After striking Engineer a few times, King Knight charged into Engineer with another shoulder-barge to get the mercenary away from him, knocking Engineer down again.

Not wanting to give Engineer the chance to get back up and continue clashing with him, King Knight leapt over the downed mercenary and spun around, performing his drill move again as he spun himself straight into Engineer’s stomach while he was laying on the ground, resulting in a scream of pain from the mercenary.

Trying to ignore the pain, Engineer pointed his shotgun upwards with one hand and fired blindly, managing to strike King Knight with enough force to send the gilded knight flying off of him. As King Knight landed flat on his back, Engineer pushed himself to his feet and narrowed his eyes behind his goggles as he reloaded his shotgun again, kicking King Knight’s scepter out of the way when he saw that King Knight had let go of it after being propelled backwards.

Engineer stepped on King Knight’s arm while he was down, keeping the gilded knight from getting back up again as he tried to reach for his scepter. “Y’know, you may act like a pansy but you know how to fight dirty.” He commented.

“You have a firearm!” King Knight retorted.

Engineer shrugged. “Eh, suppose y’got a point.” He admitted. “Now, where were we?”

King Knight tried to fight back as Engineer hauled him to his feet but was quickly struck in the face with the blunt end of the mercenary’s shotgun, making him stagger backwards and hold onto his helmet to keep his head from rattling. As King Knight was busy trying to keep his head on straight, Engineer jumped in and struck him with his shotgun a few more times.

Knowing that he needed his scepter to fight back properly, King Knight attempted his drill attack again, leaping above Engineer and spinning down, hoping to bounce off his head and launch himself towards his discarded weapon again. This time, however, Engineer was ready for him as he swung his shotgun upwards like a club, striking King Knight in the side while he was in the air and throwing him off-balance.

“That trick ain’t gonna work a second time, tin can!” Engineer shouted as he took aim with his shotgun and fired a round into King Knight’s armour while he was in the air, knocking him away several more feet from the force of the shot.

King Knight landed on the canvas in a crumpled heap. He tried pushing himself up but he could feel himself injured from the shotgun blasts Engineer had unloaded onto him. King Knight remained in a kneeling position as Engineer came marching over, shotgun slung over his shoulder.

“Well, looks like Ah can’t pry any of that armour off. It’s on too tight…” Engineer lamented. “Looks like we’re just gonna have to settle for eliminating you.”

“No…I’m not done yet…” King Knight coughed.

Engineer didn’t bother responding and picked up King Knight, showing surprising strength by lifting the gold-plated knight above his head and hurling him over the top rope with both hands. Once King Knight was gone, Engineer noticed the still-discarded scepter and picked it up, examining it a few times.

“This ain’t even real gold! It’s fool’s gold!” Engineer exclaimed as he hurled the scepter out of the arena as well.

King Knight fell onto Death Mountain in Zelda: Breath of the Wild, where he realized very quickly that his armour did little to protect him from the intense heat…

Bowser Jr. threw three small Mechakoopas out of his clown car and chucked them at Benimaru, only to watch as the tall human lashed out a hand and sent a wave of lightning through the remote bombs, detonating them in midair. Bowser Jr. felt the clown car shake from being hit by the force of the Mechakoopas explode as he was sent wavering backwards a few feet.

“Hey! Stop that! You’re gonna wreck my ride!” Bowser Jr. snapped.

“You kids were the ones to pick the fight.” Benimaru noted.

Benimaru was indeed telling the truth; he was actually in the middle of his clash with Lucien when Bowser Jr. and Kula Diamond, likely out of boredom, decided to step in and tag-team them. While Kula had decided to fight with Lucien (because, in her words, she had fought Benimaru enough back home), this left Bowser Jr. to fight with the tall, lanky electromancer on his own.

In all fairness, Benimaru was proving to be too quick for the Koopa prince to hit and his powers over electricity were proving to be too powerful for his explosives to handle. Unfortunately, since Bowser Jr. was too stubborn and refused to learn from his mistakes, the Koopa prince continued to throw bombs and Mechakoopas at him so that he could stay out of range of Benimaru’s electrical attacks that seemed to have more range.

“Come on! Hold still!” Bowser Jr. shouted as he pulled a few hammers into view and started throwing them at Benimaru.

Benimaru smirked as he jumped to the side and swerved back and forth a bit with fast speeds, avoiding the hammers as they hit the canvas around his feet. Benimaru quickly leapt at Bowser Jr. and struck the side of his clown car with a lightning-fast kick, sending Bowser Jr. tumbling about in midair and causing him to fall out of his clown car entirely.

Meanwhile, Lucien was using his flintlock pistols to shoot his way through a series of ice walls that were being built around him. Shards of ice crumbled down around Lucien as the highwayman tried to set his sights on Kula Diamond, whom seemed to be raising new walls every time Lucien destroyed one.

“You can’t keep this up forever, kid.” Lucien said darkly as he set his sights on Kula’s image behind one of the ice walls and fired his pistols again, destroying the ice barrier in one shot.

Kula held up her arms to shield herself as her ice wall came crumbling down around her. “I don’t need to keep it up forever.” She reasoned. “I just need to do it longer than you can!”

Kula started generating cold energy in her hands in preparation to make another wall when Lucien lunged forward with his katars, taking a swing at the blue-haired girl. Kula instinctively backpedaled (which looked a bit like she was skating on the canvas) to get out of the way but didn’t get out of range quick enough as Lucien struck her a few times with his blades.

In the middle of the combo, Kula managed to generate some ice magic around her arms and held them up, managing to block Lucien’s next attack with his katars and stopping him in his tracks. While Lucian was distracted with having his attack being blocked, Kula shoved him backwards and fired an ice projectile into his chest to knock him back further. While Lucien was distracted, Kula skated up into close range and delivered a fast combo of her out, finishing with a kick that knocked the highwayman onto his back

Kula rushed over to Lucien and generated a block of ice above his head, preparing to bring it down on him. Lucien responded by shooting his pistols straight up into the ice block, shattering it and pelting Kula with shards of broken ice that gave her numerous cuts. Kula yelped as she backpedaled a bit, letting Lucian jump to his feet and reload his pistols.

“I’m used to fighting cryomancers.” Lucien said simply. “Kaya pulls that trick on me all the time.”

Kula pouted. “You’re no fun!” She complained.

“I get that a lot.” Lucien admitted as he took aim at Kula with his pistol.

Kula ducked as Lucien pulled the trigger. The blast of fire that burst from Lucien’s pistol exploded above Kula’s head, giving her the time she needed to skate closer to Lucien and drive her knee into his stomach, stunning the highwayman long enough for Kula to create some more ice around her hands and smash them across his face a few times.

Receiving a hard hook to the face, Lucien staggered back as the ice around Kula’s hands shattered. Kula raced at Lucien, hoping to get to him before he regained his footing, but Lucien snapped his head to attention and hit Kula off the forehead with the blunt end of his pistol, stunning her long enough for him to get in a combo of his own that ended by sticking his pistol into Kula’s stomach and firing, launching the blue-haired girl away with the force of the resulting explosion.

Bowser Jr. was faster outside of his clown car than in it, as Benimaru was finding out when the small Koopa prince was swiftly avoiding most of his already pretty-fast attacks. Every time Benimaru managed to land a hit on Bowser Jr., he could never follow it up with a second one since the smaller fighter was quick to get out of the way.

At the same time, however, Bowser Jr. quickly realized that he had relied a lot on the power and defense of his clown car since without it he was pretty vulnerable in something like this. Bowser Jr. yelped as he leapt out of the way of another of Benimaru’s electric attacks as he created a large ball of lightning around his hand and swung it at the Koopa prince, suddenly wishing that he had the time to summon another clown car and get better defense again.

Benimaru frowned. “Hold still, you!” He said. “I didn’t think you’d be this hard to hit while you were out of that car!”

“T-Then give me the time to get back INTO it!” Bowser Jr. said frantically as he scurried backwards, avoiding a flurry of lightning kicks from Benimaru.

The tall, lanky man chuckled. “You think I’m going to let you get back into it when I know it can tank my electricity?” He asked. “That’s not going to happen!”

“I was afraid of that…”

Thinking quickly, Bowser Jr. pulled a hammer into view and used it to block one of Benimaru’s kicks, throwing him off balance as the smaller fighter rushed forward and struck the idol a few more times with the hammer. Benimaru tried to regain his footing but Bowser Jr. was quicker and struck him in his other leg, knocking him over and causing Benimaru to land on his back awkwardly.

Holding his head, Benimaru looked up and his eyes widened when he saw that Bowser Jr. had either jumped back into the clown car he had fallen out of or had summoned a new one since he was now baring down on the tall man with a pair of huge, mechanical boxing gloves. Benimaru saw a ball and chain emerge from the clown car’s mouth and rolled backwards as the weight hit the canvas where he had just been.

Getting to his feet, Benimaru was quickly on the defensive as Bowser Jr. lashed out several times with a rapid-fire flurry of punches with his clown car’s boxing gloves, holding up his arms as he felt the huge boxing gloves hit against his defenses multiple times. Trying to ignite his hands in electricity while he was blocking, Benimaru suddenly lost focus and felt Bowser Jr. break through his guard and hit him in the face with with a huge boxing glove. This left Benimaru open for a lightning-fast flurry of automated punches as Bowser Jr. smirked at his attacks getting through. It looked like Benimaru was quickly tiring of putting up with the abuse…

Kula and Lucien performed a bit of a dueling sword dance as they moved around the arena, Kula lashing out with blades of ice and Lucien with his katars as they each tried to land a hit on the other, though at this point it seemed as if they were both too fast and nimble for the other to hit with their attacks. Gracefully and swiftly avoiding every attack thrown at them, Kula and Lucien unwittingly circled the fight Bowser Jr. was having with Benimaru, quickly shrouding the other two in a cloud of cold mist generated by Kula’s snow and ice.

Lucien, however, easily saw through the mist as he lunged at Kula and swung his katars, hoping to break through some more of the blue-haired girl’s ice defenses. Kula was nimble but Lucien was just as fast and perfectly able to match her agility; for every attack she landed, he managed to counter with at least one of his own. It was only a matter of time before one of them slipped up…

Lucien stabbed at Kula again, only for his blade to stick itself in an ice barrier Kula had created in front of her face. Shaking his hand a couple of times, Lucien realized that his katar was stuck on the barrier and he was unable to pry it free as Kula let go of her makeshift shield and backed away.

Lucien narrowed his eyes behind his mask. “All you did was give me a bludgeon, kid!” He said.

Kula smirked as she started generating ice magic again. “Nope. I just made YOU a bigger target for me to hit with THIS.” She said.

Lucien suddenly realized that Kula had created a comically-large hammer made of ice in her hand. The blue-haired girl leapt into the air and pulled the hammer up, preparing to bring it down on top of Lucien, and the highwayman raised an arm only to then realize that he was holding the brick of ice above his head and that Kula was about to smash her hammer of ice over it. He realized this just a half-second too late…

*CRASH!*

The brick that Lucien’s katar was stuck to shattered into a thousand pieces upon impact, as did the hammer in Kula’s hand, showering both fighters in ice pieces that half-buried Lucien and gave him multiple cuts and lacerations as the shower of ice fell around him. Lucien shouted in pain as he fell back, Kula landing on her feet and standing over the highwayman’s downed form.

“I-I did it! Yay!” Kula cheered. The frosty mist she had created around the second fight slowly dissipated now that she wasn’t fighting, revealing Bowser Jr. in his clown car and hovering over a downed Benimaru, showing that he hadn’t let up on hitting the taller man with his clown car’s boxing gloves until well after Benimaru had enough and had lost consciousness.

Kula picked up Lucien’s wounded form and, with a bit of effort, chucked him over the ropes as she saw that Bowser Jr. had just won his fight. “Oh! You beat him as well?” She asked her new friend.

“Of course I did! I’m the prince of all Koopas! You think I’d let a guy like this beat me that easily?” Bowser Jr. laughed as the huge hands of his clown car picked up Benimaru’s unconscious body and hurled it over the ropes in the opposite direction of Lucien.

“No, but you have to admit things were getting a bit dicey for you there.” Kula shrugged.

“H-Hey! No, they weren’t! I just got separated from my clown car!” Bowser Jr. insisted indignantly.

Benimaru’s unconscious body landed on a soft surface as he slowly started waking up. He looked around, seeing himself on a platform in a void of black, and he looked down at what he had landed on. It was soft and it almost felt like bread…

…It wasn’t until he looked up and saw the giant burger falling down towards him did he realize he had landed in Burger Time.

Crash Bandicoot held his pants up as he waddled away from a swinging, floating sword (Fi in her weapon form). He had gotten a little too close to the sword in an attempt to attack Fi and his pants had paid the price for it. Grumbling to himself comically and taking a quick couple of seconds to adjust his pants to keep them from falling down, Crash turned to see the floating, sentient sword change back into Fi.

Fi watched as Crash shouted garbled, unintelligible at her while shaking his fist. “It appears that you got a little too close to me when I swung at you.” She mentioned. “While, under normal circumstances, I would advise against that, I must remind you that we’re in a fighting tournament and I’m not to hold back.”

Crash blinked in confusion. A fly flew into one ear and out the other. “…Buh?” He asked, trying to make heads or tails of what Fi had just said (she had said a lot of long words, after all).

Fi paused for a moment. “I detect a 97.5% probability that you don’t understand half of what I’m saying.” She mused. “Perhaps that’s for the best, though.”

Fi flew headfirst at Crash, forming a shining crest in front of her like a barrier. The crest struck Crash in the face and bowled him over, and Fi continued the attack but leaping into the air, turning into her sword form and spiking into the canvas, creating a burst of light magic that knocked the dazed bandicoot into the air.

In the air, however, Crash managed to upright himself and go into a tornado spin as he floated downwards slowly. Fi watched cautiously as Crash floated towards her in a descending tornado spin and Crash, once he got close enough, quickly grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her into his spin attack, striking the living weapon multiple times before knocking her away with enough force to send her flying backwards several feet.

Like Crash before her, Fi uprighted herself in midair as she floated gracefully down towards the canvas, hovering off the canvas a couple of inches, as Crash pulled himself out of him spin and came to a screeching halt. “You appear to possess ability to break physics in confusing ways.” She mused. “Perhaps I’ll need to adjust my strategy here to account for it.”

Crash, rather than respond, pulled his bazooka out of his pants again and took aim, firing a rocket at Fi. The sword spirit swerved to the side and avoided the explosive projectile as Crash fired off another couple of rockets, hoping that at least one of them would hit his opponent. Fi used her grace and dance-like moves to swerve and float around the rockets as they flew at her and, once Crash was in between rocket firings, surrounded herself in a white light that exploded as she got close to Crash, knocking him away again.

Landing on his face and skidding to a halt on the canvas, Crash held his head as he pushed himself up onto his feet again, slapping the side of his head and knocking some loose dust out of his ear. Narrowing his eyes at Fi, Crash charged forward again and readied himself for Fi’s next attack, leaping into the air as Fi lashed out with a heeled boot, swinging it underneath him as he flew over Fi’s head.

Catching Fi by surprise, Crash landed on her shoulders and wrapped his arms around her head, attempting to obscure her view. Fi staggered about for a bit, likely due to Crash throwing her balance off, but didn’t seem that fazed and instead created a pillar of light around the two, obscuring both fighters and launching Crash straight up.

Crash, however, wasn’t done and, while he was still overtop of Fi, he flipped over and performed his belly flop, crashing straight back down on top of Fi and managing to crush her underneath the force of him falling like a dead weight. Crash saw that he had actually managed to knock Fi down and took the time to get up and do his trademark shuffle dance on top of her body, seemingly forgetting that he actually hadn’t beaten her yet.

Fi proved this by springing to her feet and knocking Crash off her with a yell from the marsupial as he fell flat on his face. Fi quickly floated over to Crash and spun around multiple times as he pushed himself up, kicking him repeatedly until her last kick knocked him down again. Backing away slightly, Fi decided to finish the fight and engulfed herself in a white light, transforming herself back into her sword form again.

Crash looked up in time to see a giant sword blade coming down towards his face.

*CRASH!*

Fi’s blade was embedded in the canvas and Crash’s limbs were seen sticking out into the air from underneath it. As Fi reverted back into her spirit form and floated backwards, a pained-looking Crash lay on his back as he comically popped back into shape. Crash rolled over and watched as Fi approached him again, spinning into the air and preparing to drive a heel into his head.

Crash suddenly spotted something on the canvas a ways away that Fi didn’t seem to have noticed; A green, shiny gem sitting by its lonesome. His desire to collect gems kicking in, Crash sprang to life as he feet started moving at rapid speeds, zooming out from underneath Fi just before she spiked herself into the canvas.

Fi looked over her shoulder after striking the canvas just in time to see Crash scampering towards the loose Power Stone on all fours. As Fi turned around to make an attempt to stop the bandicoot, Crash had already lunged at the Power Stone, grabbed it with both hands and became engulfed in a bright light, signifying another transformation for the tournament. Fi floated backwards and got into a cautious stance as she waited to see what awaited her when the light faded…

Crash was now floating a few inches off the canvas similar to Fi, and was glowing in a white, magical energy emitting from his entire body. His eyes were glowing a bright white and he was now sporting some glowing tattoos around his head and body that seemed to be emitting even-more of the magic energy. His short hair was noticeably a bit longer and wafted in invisible wind and he was surrounded by several orbs of more magic energy. It was almost as if he was overflowing with the same magic that powered Aku Aku or even now a being made of the same magic entirely.

Fi stepped back a bit as she stood in silence for a couple of seconds. “I can sense a 500% increase in your power level.” She mentioned. Crash looked over his glowing hands for a couple seconds, looked to one of the glowing orbs near him, grinned, grabbed it at started using it as a cosmic yo-yo. “…And a 0.002% increase to your intelligence.”

Crash laughed as he started using his new cosmic yo-yo to throw powerful orbs of magic at Fi, bouncing them off her face and body several times as he continued use his newfound otherworldly magic power to perform slick-looking yo-yo tricks. Fi held up her sleeves to block the blows but quickly felt her defenses wane as Crash’s newfound power broke through her guard after only a few attempted blocks, knocking the sword spirit away a few feet.

Fi bounced off the canvas but quickly managed to push herself up as Crash continued to throw magic projectiles at her, looking like he was more goofing off and having fun than paying attention to the fight. Fi looked for an opening in Crash’s attacks but found that he was lashing out at seemingly random with no rhyme or reason to his attacks. “His thought pattern is untraceable…” She mentioned to herself. “I can’t find any openings or patterns if he attacks with no strategy…”

Trying to use brute force to break her way through Crash’s attacks, Fi lunged at her powered-up opponent and generated the strongest barrier she could muster, flying straight into the bandicoot who simply stood there with his hands out to stop the blow. Fi flew into Crash’s arms and started pushing against him but, other than pushing Crash back a few feet with her own otherworldly power, the attack did little to make Crash falter since, unlike before, he not only remained standing but managed to bring Fi’s flying attack to a slow halt until both fighters stopped moving entirely.

Fi could feel her magic waning a bit as her barrier dissipated, leaving nothing in between her and the still powered-up Crash. “I…Theorize that I grossly underestimated your competence…” She could say.

“Ya-daaaah!!” Crash said with a big grin as he pulled his fist back and, with a lunging, spinning uppercut, struck Fi underneath the chin with enough force to launch the sword spirit clear out of the arena with no hope of getting back in. Crash spent the last little bit of time he had with his new powered-up form playing with his cosmic yo-yos again before transforming back to his normal form.

Fi materialized in the skies high above the world of the Sims, where she started a free-fall that ended with her reaching terminal velocity and crashing into the Landgraab residence like a meteor.

Lin Fei swung a katar at Toxtricity, striking the electric rocker Pokemon in the torso and making him stagger back, though not enough to knock him down. Toxtricity staggered back a few steps but grunted as he stared darkly at Lin Fei, his hair starting to spark with electricity.

The young martial artist stood in her stance, knowing what Toxtricity was likely going to try to do. “Nice try, but I’m not about to lunge at you when you’re obviously planning a power surge.” She smirked. “You trying to do an area attack to hit everything around you or something?”

Toxtricity flashed a cocky smirk and thrashed an invisible guitar, creating a huge wave of electricity that shot out in every direction. Lin Fei’s eyes widened, seeing the lightning shooting farther than she had anticipated, and leapt into the air to avoid the attack. While she was in the air, Lin Fei aimed herself at Toxtricity and lunged downward with her katars out, striking the lizard Pokemon and stunning him a bit longer before Lin Fei kicked him in the chest and knocked him on his back.

Landing on her feet, Lin Fei started gathering energy and created an image of mist around her before lunging at Toxtricity, hoping to strike him before he could get to his feet. However, Toxtricity sprang to life, kicking himself into the air and overtop of Lin Fei’s mist attack, landing behind the martial artist and swinging his arm, sending a purple, needle-like projectile into the back of her shoulder.

Lin Fei grunted as she staggered forward, looking over her shoulder as Toxtricity started gathering lightning again by playing his invisible guitar again. “Ugh…That shot was poison, wasn’t it?” She asked the Pokemon. Toxtricity’s smirk seemed to say it all. “Great. You’ve got lightning AND poison abilities…”

Tactically swapping weapons to her cannon to allow her some longer-ranged combat, Lin Fei aimed her large firearm at Toxtricity and pulled the trigger, firing an explosion of power from the barrel and striking Toxtricity in the face, launching the lizard Pokemon backwards while cancelling out his stored energy.

Toxtricity groaned as he lay on his back but slammed his hands into the canvas and launched himself into the air with an explosive discharge of electricity, allowing him to upright himself in midair and bombard Lin Fei with poison shots from above. Lin Fei held her cannon in front of her face to block most of the poison being thrown at her but a couple of stray shots managed to clip her arms and that brought the martial artist to her knee in pain as Toxtricity landed on his feet and came wandering over casually, playing air guitar again.

Lin Fei grunted as she turned her cannon around in her hands to point it at the canvas. “You’ve got skills and a demeanor that hides them.” She mentioned. “But if you think that you’re the FIRST edgy, music-obsessed animal I’ve fought, you’re mistaken. I know how to deal with this…”

*KA-BOOM!*

Lin Fei fired her cannon into the canvas by her feet, launching her into the air as Toxtricity lashed out with another electric wave. Toxtricity saw Lin Fei moving her cannon around in the air to point it down at his face and instantly thrashed his invisible guitar again, unleashing as much stored-up electricity at he could as Lin Fei fired another shot at him from above.

Just as the cannonball left Lin Fei cannon, Toxtricity’s electrical wave attack struck it and caused it to detonate in Lin Fei’s face, launching the martial artist higher into the air. Toxtricity saw that Lin Fei was fumbling about as she tried to get herself uprighted again and leapt into the air after her, striking the airborne Lin Fei with an overhead spike that sent the young woman flying straight into the canvas.

Landing on his feet, Toxtricity threw some more poison shots at Lin Fei, whom rolled backwards as the shots hit the canvas, following her for a few seconds before she got to her feet. “Ugh…The cannon’s too slow. I may actually need to try and get up close for this one…” She muttered as she swapped weapons back to her katars.

Lin Fei jumped close to Toxtricity, slicing another of his poison shot in half with a katar as she started generating a flame around her other hand. Swinging her katar and launching a wave of fire at Toxtricity, Lin Fi watched as the lizard Pokemon recoiled back in back, opening him up for a quick flurry of strikes from her blades as Lin Fei got in several hits and knocked Toxtricity back a few steps.

Seeing her chance to eliminate Toxtricity, as he was getting close to the ropes as he staggered backwards, Lin Fei lunged forward and made another attempt to strike him with her katars. Toxtricity snapped to attention in time, however, and swatted away Lin Fei’s hand as it was coming at his torso. This distracted Lin Fei long enough for Toxtricity to act, grabbing her by the shirt and throwing her aside, into a cornerpost back-first. This seemed to knock a bit of the wind out of Lin Fei as Toxtricity started strumming his invisible guitar again, gathering up more lightning.

Lin Fei tried to push herself away from the cornerpost in an attempt to put some distance between herself and Toxtricity but before she could get very far the lizard Pokemon discharged his stored-up lightning and created a massive explosion of electricity around both him and Lin Fei, resulting in a scream of pain from the martial artist as she was thrown back into the cornerpost again.

Seeing that Lin Fei was on the ropes, Toxtricity gave a smirk as he grabbed at the stunned martial artist and tossed her into the air, throwing a few bolts of lightning at her that knocked her further and further out of the arena every time he landed a hit. By the time he had hit her with the last shot, Lin Fei was too far out to try and get back in as she fell headlong into a portal.

Toxtricity took the time to pose for the cheering crowd, whom seemed impressed at his show. Glancing around at the crowd, Toxtricity ended up looking around the arena at the remaining fighters. Engineer was begrudgingly building another sentry gun and making sure that it was sturdy enough that it would get blown up with one shot, while Scratch and Grounder seemed to be eyeing the mercenary with curious expressions. Duck Hunt seemed to have given up on the chase for the two badniks for now as the dog and duck duo were curled up in a corner of the arena and taking a nap while Crash was casually playing with his (thankfully now normal) yo-yo. Squirtle still looked eager to start another fight and was throwing a few practice punches while Bowser Jr. and Kula Diamond seemed to be discussing their favourite cartoons. Sakura looked to be psyching herself up for the next wave of fighters as she eyed up the survivors while Dawson McShane was seen leaning against another cornerpost and taking  a bite out of what looked to be a piece of jerky to recharge his energy. Finally, Lord Hater appeared to be discussing plans with Mimikyu and Petey Piranha though it was unclear how much of what the dictator was saying was actually getting through to the unlikely minions.

Chuckling to himself and strumming his invisible guitar a couple more times to get himself charged up, Toxtricity turned towards the entrance curtain, ready to give the next wave of fighters a welcome…

(Multiversal Matchup Void)

Lucien watched as Lin Fei materialized near him. “You too, huh?” He asked.

Lin Fei sighed as she held her head. “I really thought I’d be able to pull a win out on that thing.” She admitted. “Well, now what?”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m scoping out the competition.” Lucien said as he looked around.

Byleth appeared to be chastising Giovanni Potage for his child-like behavior, though the red-haired punk seemed to be taunting the professor by plugging his ears and singing an annoying song in a loud, off-key voice. This seemed to be annoying Phantom Striker and Sagat but the punk was too far out of range for either of the two to attack, though that didn’t stop Sagat from trying to his him with a Tiger Shot that just flew off into the void, striking a still-swimming Steve and knocking the raider further away from the floating group. Proto Man looked like he wanted to die on the inside as everything seemed to be happening all around him.

Phantom Striker turned his head and saw Lucien and Lin Fei appear in the void. “Hey. Looks like the last ones are here.” He said.

Sagat sighed in relief. “Finally. I’m getting a bit restless.” He said.

Steve continued to float off into the distance, a victim to a rouge Tiger Shot to the face. “Hey-oooooooooo!” He shouted as he continued to drift off.

Lin Fei blinked a few times as she watched Steve float away. “Is anyone going to try helping him?” She asked.

“What’s the use?” Sagat asked. “With all eight of us here, that means that the next one of these mid-round bonus matches are about to-”

“SECTION FOUR…ENDED.” The robotic voice echoed from everywhere in the void. “PREPARING PORTAL.”

Byleth looked away from Giovanni. “Oh, are we getting ready to begin the round?” She asked.

Giovanni grinned as he pulled his bat into view again. “Great! I’m always lookin’ to crack a few skulls in the name of villainy!” He cackled as he turned to see a white light starting to engulf the entire void.

Lucien sighed as he drew a flintlock pistol and loaded it before turning to Lin Fei. “Unless we find ourselves against a world-ending monstrosity on the other side of this, don’t expect a team up.” He said.

“Wasn’t expecting one, Lucien. Perhaps you’ll learn a few things from me in this.” Lin Fei smirked as she drew her katars.

“Hey-ooooooooooooooo~” Steve shouted as he was pulled headfirst into the white light ahead of everyone else as the void was engulfed once again.

RESULTS (19 Votes in the main event; 18 in the Multiversal Matchup and Side Battle)

Main Event

CRASH BANDICOOT (PAS): (16:3) = 13 (Proto Man, Fi)

ENGINEER (TF2): (14:5) = 9 (Steve, King Knight)

SCRATCH & GROUNDER (AoStH): (14:6) = 8 (Giovanni Potage)

MIMIKYU (PKMN): (15:7) = 8 (Tricky)

LORD HATER (WOY): (15:7) = 8 (Jowy)

TOXTRICITY (PKMN): (13:6) = 7 (Lin Fei)

SAKURA KASUNAGO (SF5): (13:7) = 6 (Phantom Striker)

PETEY PIRANHA (SMB): (12:7) = 5 (Fait)

DUCK HUNT (SSB): (12:7) = 5 (Byleth)

KULA DIAMOND (KOF): (12:7) = 5 (Lucien)

BOWSER JR. (SMB): (13:8) = 5 (Benimaru Nikaido)

SQUIRTLE (PKMN): (12:8) = 4 (Sagat)

DAWSON MCSHANE (EC): (10:9) = 1 (Mordex)

(ELIMINATED)

KING KNIGHT (SK): (10:10) = 0 (Laura Matsuda)

FI (HW): (9:10) = -1 (Mai Shiranui)

BYLETH (SSB): (9:10) = -1

PROTO MAN (MM): (9:10) = -1

MAI SHIRANUI (KOF): (9:11) = -2

SAGAT (SF5): (8:11) = -3

LIN FEI (BH): (7:12) = -4

MORDEX (BH): (7:12) = -4

GIOVANNI POTAGE (EE): (6:13) = -7

BENIMARU NIKAIDO (KOF): (6:13) = -7

LAURA MATSUDA (SF5): (6:13) = -7

TRICKY (MC): (6:13) = -7

LUCIEN (BH): (5:14) = -9

STEVE (BL): (5:15) = -10

PHANTOM STRIKER (SK): (4:15) = -11

FAIT (BH): (4:16) = -12

JOWY (ST): (3:16) = -13

Current Top 10 Eliminations: Lord Hater (6), Bowser Jr. (4), Mimikyu (4), Sakura Kasunago (3), Squirtle (3), Scratch & Grounder (3), Blanka (3), Mario Mario (3), Crash Bandicoot (2), Engineer (2)

Multiversal Matchup

MERENGUE (AC): 106 Points

CRASH MAN (MM): 93 Points

SHEIK (HW): 92 Points

MR. SANDMAN (PO!): 88 Points

RYO SAKAZAKI (KOF): 85 Points

LORD VRAXX (BH): 80 Points

NECLORD (ST): 54 Points

NECALLI (SF5): 37 Points

Side Battles

“For the Want of a Sandwich”

HEAVY WEAPONS GUY (Team Fortress 2) crushes puny skulls of ESTEL AGUIRRE (Streets of Rage) and PSYMON STARK (SSX)

16 to 2

Mystery Masters of Comic Relief: Five Mystery Fighters entered this section. When the smoke clears, only Lord Hater and Scratch & Grounder remain.

Flash in the Pan: I have to expect that I wasn’t expecting that big of a turnaround in votes for Fait and Steve. Mai was close to getting another elimination but she sorta falls into the same boat.

Chapter Text

(The Arena)

The chaos in the ring had died down after the Power Stones were forcibly despawned. Most of the survivors from the previous section looked to be recovering energy for the next wave of fighters, though Engineer was still constructing a new sentry gun now that he apparently had the time. Grounder was poking a bit of exposed wiring under his eye and quietly asked Scratch if the two could ask Engineer to fix him up (he was promptly swatted upside the head for his question). Sakura and Squirtle were noticeably looking a little worn from their fierce battles so far but they both looked eager to continue the fight in their own way.

All of a sudden, the spotlights started shining on the entrance curtain at the top of the entry walkway, signifying to everyone present that the next fighter was about to enter. Everyone waited patiently (or impatiently, depending on how eager they were to see another fight start) for the next fighter to make their appearance as the entrance curtain was finally brushed aside…

“EMBER!” (BH)

Emerging from the curtain was a young-looking elf girl dressed in a green cloak, alongside what looked to be a full-sized wolf. Ember took the time to pet the wolf a couple of times before the wolf vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving Ember to draw her bow and run down the ramp to the arena.

The Duck Hunt duo saw Ember land in the arena and making her way over. Thinking quickly, the dog pulled another clay disc from nowhere and prepared to throw it at the elf warrior. Ember was quick to fire an arrow with pinpoint precision, shooting the disc out of the dog’s mouth and causing the dog to yipe and jump backwards.

“Stay your hand, beast.” Ember scolded as she came over. “I’m not here to fight.”

The dog tilted his head a bit and sat down curiously. The duck, on the other hand, seemed to be eyeing Ember suspiciously. The elf girl continued. “I make it a habit of fighting for and with the animals of the forest where I come from. Or…Well, where I originally came from, anyway.” She explained. “If you’ll give me a chance I’d like to see how well we can mesh as a team.”

The dog and duck paused for a moment before the two looked at each other. The dog barked a couple of times while the duck was shaking his head, angrily squawking as he did before he sighed and seemed to relent on a bit further insistence from the dog. The dog turned to look at Ember and gave a nod.

The elf girl smiled. “I’m glad to see that you’re willing to take the chance of a bit of a team-up.” She mentioned. “I hope we don’t disappoint each other.”

“PLANT MAN!” (MM)

The plant-based Robot Master emerged from the curtain and played to the crowd a bit by extending a few vine-line whips from his hands and flailing them about a bit as he marched down the entrance ramp. Reaching the end of the ramp, Plant Man lashed out with another vine, grabbed one of the light fixtures hanging above the arena and swung himself into the arena on it, resulting in another cheer for the show.

Landing in the arena, Plant Man was suddenly hit in the face by a purple arrow-like projectile, making him stagger back a bit. Plant Man, with an annoyed expression, looked ahead and saw Toxtricity coming over, having shot the incoming Robot Master with a poison shot. However, the smirk Toxtricity had on his face seemed to falter when Plant Man didn’t really look affected by the poison shot.

“Did you seriously just throw a poison projectile at me?” Plant Man asked. Toxtricity looked around awkwardly and shrugged. “Do…You not realize that the plant I’m based on is toxic already?”

Plant Man didn’t bother letting Toxtricity answer and lashed out a couple of thorny whip-like vines from his hands at the Pokemon. Toxtricity quickly backpedaled away from the plant-based Robot Master, striking the vines with electric shot with enough force to get them to back away.

Plant Man cursed in pain as he retracted his vines that were now surging with electricity. “Forgot about that part.” He muttered to himself. “Well, it’s time I showed you a thing or two about flowers. I may not be reprogrammed by Wily anymore but I’ve still got a few toxic moves of my own.”

“E. HONDA!” (SF5)

Coming out to a crowd cheer, the boisterous sumo wrestler gave a laugh and waved a few times before turning his attention to the ring and giving a determined smirk. Getting into a sumo stance, E. Honda charged down to the ring and leapt in headfirst, looking for a good opponent to face.

Grounder looked behind Scratch and saw E. Honda approaching from behind him. “Uh...Sumo wrestler at...Uh...Behind-you-o’clock, Scratch.” He pointed out.

Scratch turned around as he eyes snapped open. “A sumo wrestler?!” He asked. “Oh, absolutely not! Those guys are WAY too tough to deal with!”

“Aw, come on, pal! I’ve never really clashed with a couple of robots before!” E. Honda laughed as he came over. “Might give me a little bit of a new experience while I hone by sumo!”

Before giving the two badniks a chance to react, Honda leapt into the air and lunged forward in his flying headbutt, slamming into Scratch’s face and sending the chicken badnik sprawling. Grounder’s eyes widened. “H-Hey! Jumping?! FLYING HEADBUTTS?!” He asked. “T-That isn’t even sumo!!”

“Of course it is! Allow me to demonstrate!” Honda laughed as he lashed out and slammed a palm into Grounder’s face.

Scratch pushed himself to his feet and watched as Grounder was in the process of getting hit by Honda’s Hundred Hand Slap. “Great. We end up against a sumo wrestler and he’s one that doesn’t even sumo properly...” He moaned as he jogged in to help Grounder with Honda.

“LUCAS!” (SSB)

(You make me feel invincible!)

(Earthquake powerful!)

(Just like a tidal wave, you make me brave!)

(You’re my titanium!)

(Fight song raising up!)

(Like a roar of victory in a stadium!)

(You make me feel invincible!)

Nervously stepping out onto the entrance ramp and giving a timid-looking wave to the crowd, the blonde psychic boy glanced down at the ring and took a deep breath before quietly making his way down to the ring, stepping in before he decided to second-guess himself.

Stepping into the ring, Lucas set his sights on Crash, whom was still occupying himself by performing yo-yo tricks. Lucas silently approached Crash and cleared his throat while the bandicoot was mid-trick, causing him to jump and pull back on his yo-yo at the wrong time, causing the long string to wrap around him several times, tangling him up in a comically-long yo-yo string.

Lucas blinked. “Um...S-Sorry about that.” He said, rubbing the back of his head. Crash mumbled to himself as he pulled himself free of the yo-yo string. “If...If you don’t mind, I’ve always been curious about something, Mr. Bandicoot.”

“Buh?” Crash asked curiously.

“I’ve...Just been wondering what it is about you that makes you tick.” Lucas said. “Would you mind if I poked into your mind for a bit?”

Crash scratched his head and shrugged before nodding his head (complete with rattling sound). Lucas smiled. “Oh! Thank you! I promise it’ll only take a second...” He said.

With that, Lucas focused his mental energy on Crash, trying to see if he could read his mind and find out what went on inside his head in order to have the kind of success he did in battle. Lucas honed in on Crash’s mind for a moment as he could feel an image appear in his own mind, the inner workings of Crash’s mind materializing before him.

...An image of hundreds of tiny copies of Crash himself simultaneously doing his trademark shuffle dance.

Lucas pulled himself out of Crash’s mind and appeared confused for a moment, wondering what he had just seen. “Weird...Is there truly no method to his madness?” He asked himself. “He just...Does things for the sake of doing them?”

Crash grinned and held out a Wumpa fruit for Lucas. The young boy glanced at it for a second. “This may require a few more attempts...” Lucas mused as he got into a nervous, uneasy stance.

“KRATOS!” (PAS)

Standing proud (and very angrily) outside of the entrance curtain was the very-familiar Ghost of Sparta. Those familiar with Kratos, however, noticed that he looked a bit younger; this wasn’t the old Kratos from his more-recent journeys, but rather his young, vengeful version that showed up in Playstation All Stars. Brandishing his trademark chained blades, Kratos set his sights on one person in the ring and stalked down with a determined look on his face that somehow still looked angry.

Squirtle saw Kratos stepped into the arena and smirked stepping forward and cracking his knuckles. “Squirtle!” He shouted at Kratos, as if signifying that he was ready for a fight.

Kratos walked right past him.

Squirtle paused and turned around to watch Kratos stalk away. “Squirt?” He asked, wondering why Kratos was passing up a fight with him.

Kratos set his sights on his target and drew his blades. “You.” He said simply.

Sakura turned and saw Kratos coming over. “Uh...Me?” She asked.

“Yes. You’re the strong one here.” Kratos replied gruffly. “Until someone of otherworldly power enters, you’re the one most-worthy of my time.”

Sakura blinked. “Um...Well, I’m flattered that you think that highly of my abilities, but it’s been a long time since I was champion here.” She said.

“It matters not. You still possess a warrior’s spirit and I don’t see that often in someone so young.” Kratos shook his head before giving a very-light smirk. “Don’t worry, though. You have yet to do anything to anger me so I won’t be fighting you to the death today.”

“Um...Today?”

Kratos decided not to bother follow up and got into a stance. “We waste too much time! Let us begin!” He said gruffly. “Show me that champion spirit of yours!”

Sakura took a deep breath, wondering if she was ready to fight someone like Kratos. Telling herself that she had faced Bison and Akuma before, she got into a stance and flashed a smirk. “Okay! I’ll try not to let you down!” She said eagerly.

“TINKER KNIGHT!” (SK)

Tossing a wrench to himself, a small, dark-haired man in a welder’s mask and apron emerged from the curtain. Paying no heed to the audience reaction to his entrance, Tinker Knight casually made his way down the ramp and stepped into the arena, contemplating who he should go after first.

His first instinct was to go see if Engineer was up for exchanging schematics (Tinker Knight could really use the blueprints to those sentries for the next time Shovel Knight clashed with him), but when the mercenary’s fully-built sentry turned its attention to him and started firing rockets at him Tinker Knight decided to try his luck elsewhere. He eventually found himself wandering over to Lord Hater, flanked by Mimikyu and Petey Piranha.

“Ah! Another potential minion, perhaps?” Lord Hater grinned in anticipation.

Tinker Knight chuckled sarcastically. “Hardly. I more consider you a big threat, and...Well, I suppose half of that is because of your help.” He mentioned.

Lord Hater’s smile promptly vanished. “H-Hey! I’ll have you know that I’m VERY dangerous! I don’t need HELP when I’m completely capable on my own!” He said.

“I’ve been keeping a tally on the amount of injuries you’ve sustained thus far.” Tinker Knight mentioned as he produced a notepad from his apron and pausing a couple of seconds. “On second thought, maybe I can study you to see if I can unlock your secrets of durability. That would definitely help me in my endeavors.”

“You think I would just spill my secrets to anyone, let alone someone who thinks he’s too GOOD to work for me?!” Lord Hater roared. Mimikyu was quick to get into an aggressive stance next to Lord Hater and Petey just stared dumbly for a few seconds before glancing down at Tinker Knight, smiling and waving with a leaf arm, as if he didn’t even notice the small knight until now.

“Well, I had anticipated that reaction, too.” Tinker Knight shrugged as he pulled a remote-like device from his pocket.

All of a sudden, Tinker Knight was engulfed in a white light that expanded to enormous size. When the light cleared, Tinker Knight was now piloting a steampunk-looking mech with tank-like treads and a giant drill-like arm. The mech was so big that is was not only by far the tallest thing in the arena (very likely out of everyone for the entire night), but it towered over Petey, standing at least twice the giant plant’s height.

Tinker Knight leaned out of the cockpit. “So...You going to start talking before or after we fight?” He asked.

Lord Hater stared up in silence, dwarfed by Tinker Knight’s mech. “...Uh...” He said.

“You know what? Never mind. I feel like I want to see that durability in action firsthand anyways.” Tinker Knight said as he started up his mech, bringing it to life.

Lord Hater screamed.

(Announcer’s Booth)

SSBFreak held his head as he stared out at the ring in horror. “Oh, crap! Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!!” He shouted.

“What did the cheesy guy do this time, boss-man?” Khall asked.

“Nothing! I-I completely forgot that Tinker Knight only uses his mech to fight!” SSBFreak said. “I-I should have registered him as a Big Guy because of that and I DIDN’T!”

“Uh...So?”

“Tinker Knight is now the biggest fighter of our ENTIRE ROSTER! That ALONE should have made him a Big Guy!” SSBFreak exclaimed. “And that says nothing of the fact that the mech multiplies his power by at LEAST a HUNDRED TIMES!”

“And...Why can’t you just change it so that he’s a Big Guy?”

“Because he’s already in the ring! I may be able to alter Big Guy status of some fighters if I needed to but once they enter the arena things are set!” SSBFreak said in a panic. “Tinker Knight is literally driving a two-story mech around the arena and I can’t do anything to change his status!”

“Couldn’t we get help from the cheesy guy?” Khall asked. “Like, I’m sure he could make that mech disappear with a snap of his fingers.”

SSBFreak held his head in his hands. “Not only is he likely ENJOYING this but he’s probably in hysterics at the thought of something like this slipping under my radar while I was busy worrying about stuff HE’D try to pull.” He moaned. “Knowing him that was probably the plan the entire time...”

(Dome; TF2 Locker Room)

Heavy Weapons Guy was holding his head in dizziness as Medic had a healing beam on him from his Medigun. The rest of the mercs sat around (minus Demoman, whom was draped over a bench, flat-out drunk, with a bottle of scrumpy in hand) as the Security Team looked to be asking Heavy questions, though Estel was noticeably favouring her side and holding her head in pain while Psymon was taking the time to wrench his dislocated arm back into its socket.

“Okay. So, just to clarify, you have no idea why you suddenly turned into a feral monster that tried to destroy everything in sight?” Estel checked.

Heavy shook his head in shame. “Memory is all fuzzy. I just...Remember catching person in locker room that wasn’t supposed to be in here, then getting weird dust blown into my face. Things went blurry after then.” He recounted. “Next thing I remember, I’m chewing on sandvich and falling asleep again.”

“Wait! Someone was in the locker room when they shouldn’t have been?” Scorch lifted an eyebrow. “But we have tech installed that is supposed to completely-prevent that from happening!”

Estel sighed. “Well, it appears that someone found a workaround, and it’s also highly-likely that whoever you saw in the locker room was also the one that stole Mr. Hale’s Australium.” She said.

Spy lifted a curious eyebrow. “There was Australium HERE?” He asked quietly.

Scout rolled his eyes. “I know. If only we’d known ‘bout that earlier.” He lamented.

“Wait. How do we know it wasn’t the guy in the suit?” Max asked. “I mean, maybe he used his disguise kit to turn himself into someone else?”

Spy stared flatly. “If I had a twenty-five pound brick of Australium on me, TRUST ME, I wouldn’t even be here.” He said.

“Well, what ELSE could it be?” Estel asked aloud. “I mean, Ditto didn’t show up with the Pokemon and I don’t think there are any OTHER shapeshifters in the roster lineup.”

Max lifted a finger. “Uh...TECHNICALLY there’s Zoroark.” He mentioned. “He can shapeshift like Ditto; he just can’t mimic moves.”

Psymon grunted as he finally wrenched his arm back into its socket (Lucia looked horrified at the sight as Medic look momentarily intrigued). “Oh, and don’t get us started on the Zelda baddies. Almost all of them are masters of illusion.” He added.

“Oh, right! Sometimes I forget that behind the huge sword and cave-your-face-in punches Ganondorf is actually a master sorcerer.” Max scratched his head.

Estel groaned. “Look, ignoring...ALL OF THAT...There’s still the issue of how they got into the locker room in the first place!” She insisted. “None of them could get past the ID scanners!”

Max smirked slyly. “Zoroark could.” He said.

Estel froze. “...What.” She asked flatly.

“Like I said, Zoroark’s a shapeshifter. He may not be able to mimic abilities but...I mean, fingerprints are technically doable, aren’t they?” Max reasoned.

Estel was silent. “...And what, pray tell, would a Zoroark do with a brick of Australium?” She asked.

“Who knows? Maybe he’s planning on posing as Saxton Hale and making a lucrative business decision with it?”

Saxton Hale paused and shrugged. “Eh, he’d probably make better business decisions than some of the ones I made.” He said.

“Max literally just said that Zoroark may try to perform identity theft on you!” Estel exclaimed.

Saxton Hale laughed. “I’d like to see him try! I have a security inspection every day so that my employees know it’s me and not a body double, so unless this mongrel can wrestle a two-hundred pound crocodile then he ain’t gonna fool anyone!” He assured.

“He makes US go through the same security inspection once a week.” Sniper folded his arms.

“I still can’t feel my left kneecap.” Scout whined.

Estel groaned and held her still-hurting head. “OKAY. Just...Is this a lead?” She asked. “Is Zoroark a viable-enough candidate that warrants us to look into him further?”

“I hope it isn’t him.” Lucia mentioned. “I kind of like the Pokemon...Well, except Gengar. That thing scares me.”

“Hey, if it turns out he’s the culprit then we gotta bust his skull like anyone else.” Max shrugged. “I call dibs on his hair! I always wanted a red pompadour!”

After asking a few more questions, the security team filed out of the locker room to start their search, likely to hunt down Zoroark before he entered the arena. Homsar stayed behind, however, standing in silence, as he looked up at Heavy.

“...AaAaAaAaAaAahhhh! Mah sandwich-taster got turned inside-backwards!” Homsar said before levitating off the ground and doing stationary, airborne cartwheels out the door after the rest of the security team.

Scout blinked. “Uh...Do you guys just see that?” He asked.

“...Oh, you guys saw that too?” A very-drunk Demoman slurred as he pushed himself off the ground. “Clearly I ain’t drunk enough, then...”

(Mushroom Kingdom...?)

Mario walked through the halls of what appeared to be Peach’s castle. That said, everything about the castle seemed a bit...Off. Mario glanced around at the walls as he looked around; he could tell that it was still Peach’s castle but...It wasn’t the one he was familiar with. There was just something...Wrong...About it.

And then there were the holes. Holes EVERYWHERE. Holes in the walls, holes in the doors, holes in the walls BESIDE the doors; everywhere Mario looked there was another giant hole in the wall that either led into another room or into a void of black nothingness.

And that said nothing of the screaming, mangled and disfigured Goombas and Koopas littering the floor everywhere he went.

Mario cautiously approached a Koopa with a cracked shell, a bent leg and a crooked nose. It looked like he had been run over by a train and was somehow still alive. Mario looked down at the injured Koopa in shock. “What...What a-happened here?” He asked.

One of the Koopa’s eyes snapped open (the other one was swollen shut) and started screaming. “N-NO! Get away! How are you not done yet?!” The Koopa shrieked. “Is once not good enough for you?! You need to come back for seconds?!”

Mario stepped back. “W-What are a-you TALKING about?” He asked.

“Oh, just stop! Just stop and end my suffering, already!” The Koopa yelled. “Go and beat King Bowser like you always do and we’ll just be back at this next week! My bones won’t have even healed by then and you’re still just going to crush my skull with a door again!”

Mario looked around awkwardly as he backed away, ignoring the Koopa’s repeated accusations of “You did this!!”. He turned around and continued on his way, stepping around the mangled minions and castle debris as he walked. The Koopa’s words echoed in Mario’s head as he explored the wrecked castle, peering through holes and doing his best to ignore the carnage around him.

Walking up a set of stairs leading to the next floor, Mario approached a star-door-with-a-massive-hole-in-it as it slid open anyways. Mario took a deep breath and started walking forward. Perhaps this world’s Peach or Bowser had answers for him. He just needed to find them...

All of a sudden, Mario started feeling a little light-headed. Knowing what the feeling was, as he had felt it in all these tournaments he had entered in the past, Mario glanced at his hands and saw that he was starting to glow a bit, signifying that his time in this weird world was up and he was about to be whisked away back to the Megamix Dome’s Recovery Room. Mario sighed, a little let down that he didn’t find out more about this creepy parallel world of his but at the same time relieved that he didn’t need to think about it anymore.

Suddenly hearing a high-pitched voice that sounded eerily similar to his own coming from behind, Mario spun around just in time to see a blur of red and blue flying up the stairs and straight at his face. Mario screamed and shielded his eyes as everything went white just as the blur was about to come into contact with him...

(Dome; Recovery Room)

Magyar groaned as they sat up in what looked like a hospital bed. The possessed suit of armour glanced around the room, seeing a couple of the other eliminated fighters from his section also recovering in beds, in addition to a couple more materializing in beds, having just finished the time in their respective elimination nodes.

“Oh! That was a fast recovery!”

Magyar glanced in the direction of the voice and saw Nurse Joy, one of the doctors on the medical staff, walking over with a clipboard. “Not many fighters are up almost instantly.” She admitted as she flipped through her notes. “Honestly, I didn’t even realize you were here since we’ve been a bit busy healing the...Less-fortunate losers of the Multiversal Matchups.”

Magyar grunted as they pushed themselves into a seated position at the edge of the bed. “Yeah, well, there are a hundred of us in here. It’s not surprising that we can recover quicker.” One of Magyar’s souls admitted plainly.

“I still think the concept of a being such as yourself is fascinating...A hundred souls possessing a suit of armour even after death in the afterlife of Valhalla?” Faust (the bag-headed doctor of Guilty Gear) admitted as he leaned into view from the other side of Magyar’s bed. “You wouldn’t mind if you stayed a bit longer, would you? I would like to run a few more tests.”

“Aaaaand we’re done here.” Another of Magyar’s souls said as they pushed themselves off the bed.

Nurse Joy sighed. “Just...Be thankful that the TF2 Medic is a fighter in this tournament because he otherwise would have likely been on the staff as well.” She said.

“Yeah, she’s got a point.” Another of Magyar’s souls piped up. “That guy’s likely to try and trap us in a pumpkin just for the sake of doing it.”

“Shut up, 13!” Several voices inside Magyar snapped at once.

Magyar stepped onto the floor and took a few steps towards the door to the Recovery Room, intending to leave and likely end up at the Eliminated Seating. However, after only a couple of steps, Magyar slowed down before stopping altogether. “That’s...Odd...” One of the souls mused.

“What’s wrong, Magyar?” Nurse Joy asked curiously.

“Does anyone else feel...Different?” The soul asked again. “Like...They’re a bit lightheaded?”

“Yeah, I definitely feel weird. Something’s not right...”

“...Yeah, I feel it, too.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay, Magyar? If any of your souls are feeling lightheaded then we may need to take a look at it.” Nurse Joy explained. “The head doctor is out at the moment but when he gets back he can look at you.”

“No, it’s not that...” One of Magyar’s souls insisted. “Something just feels...Wrong.”

“How so?”

Magyar was silent for a few seconds, unsure of how to answer, before a lone soul piped up. “Um...Is it just me or...Does it feel a bit more...Roomy in here?” The soul asked uneasily.

Magyar froze, seemingly in terror. “Head count! NOW!” One soul boomed.

Nurse Joy and Faust stepped back as a lone soul flew out from the suit of armour and shouted “ONE!” before flying back into the armour. The instant it did, another soul left the armour, flew out a bit and shouted “TWO!” before turning around and returning to the armour.

Thus started a chain of souls leaving the armour to announce the next number in a line, as if each soul had been assigned a number, before they each returned to the armour one by one to let the next one have their turn. This went on for several seconds as the souls of Magyar continued to count their way towards 100. Faust appeared to be taking a few notes as he watched the perfect teamwork and synchronization of the souls despite how at odds they always seemed.

After what felt like half a minute of continuous counting upwards, the countdown seemed to finally be reaching the end as Magyar’s souls continued to perform a head count.

“EIGHTY!”

“EIGHTY-ONE!”

“EIGHTY-TWO!”

Silence. Long, awkward silence.

Magyar looked at their hands and started a panic. “W-Where’s 83? Where’s 83?!” One of the souls demanded.

“I-I don’t know! Nothing happened to us in the elimination node!” Another soul replied.

Magyar quickly turned to Nurse Joy. “Did any of you do anything to us to remove a soul?!” They demanded.

“N-No! I swear we didn’t! Like I said, you recovered almost instantly and we’ve been so bogged down with healing injuries from the Multiversal Matchups!” Nurse Joy insisted.

“Fascinating! So...You somehow LOST one of your souls?” Faust said with great interest.

“H-How is this possible?! We’ve inhabited this armour for so long I thought we were all BONDED to it!” A soul insisted. “When did we lose 83?!”

“Dude, we were sharing an arena with SEVERAL soul-stealers!” Another soul reminded. “We musta came in contact with all of them at least once!”

“Things were so chaotic in the arena...Did we seriously not notice that one of us was missing until now?!”

“How long has 83 been GONE?!”

“Wait! Calm down; all of you!” Nurse Joy urged as she stepped up. “Surely there’s something that can be done? The missing soul couldn’t have gone far.”

“We know. That’s why we’re going to FIND THEM.” A soul said determinedly before turning and charging out of the Recovery Room, bursting through the door on their way out to start their search.

Nurse Joy sighed as she watched Magyar go. “Why, of all times, did this happen when the head doctor went for coffee?” She lamented.

(The Arena)

“LEONA HEIDERN!” (KOF)

Standing at attention outside of the entrance curtain, Leona glanced around at the cheering crowd before gazing out at the arena. She didn’t see anyone in the arena she was told to watch for, Leona set her sights on Engineer, whom was putting some finishing touches on his now-level-three sentry gun, and leapt into the ring to make her way over to him.

Engineer’s sentry came to life as Leona got close and opened fire with a barrage of bullets. Leona acted quickly by lashing out with her hands with lightning-fast reflexes. By the time Engineer turned to look at the sight, his sentry had used up its ammo clip and Leona looked unharmed. The blue-haired soldier stood up and opened her hand, dropping a handful of bullets to the ground.

“What in tarnation was that all about?!” Engineer demanded.

Leona adjusted her gloves. “You gun’s tech is surprisingly well-crafted for the time period your game takes place in.” She mentioned. “With a little modern upgrading it would be a huge tide-turner on the battlefield. We may be interested in purchasing your schematics later.”

Engineer sighed and scratched the back of his head with his wrench. “Aw, shucks. It ain’t like Ah appreciate the opportunity, ma’am, but Ah got a bit of a contract with Mann Co.” He explained. “It ain’t somethin’ that can be broken that easily, either. Mr. Hale’s made sure of that.”

Leona sighed. ‘Well, perhaps we can pull a few strings with him. The commander is nothing if not persuasive.” She said as she put up her fists. “Perhaps I can give that tech of yours a bit of a test run in the meantime.”

Engineer pulled out his wrench and turned to face Leona. “Y’see, Ah believe ya just said that my guns were hi-tech as it is.” He said.

“Sure, but are they capable of handling someone with Orochi blood?” Leona asked, giving a very light smirk as she did.

“Huh. S’ppose Ah never really found that out.” Engineer replied. “Just don’t come cryin’ if y’get shot in the face, ma’am.”

“SCYTHER!” (PKMN)

(Seasons don’t fear the reaper)

(Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain)

(We can be like they are)

(Come on, baby! Don’t fear the reaper!)

(Baby, take my hand! Don’t fear the reaper!)

(We’ll be able to fly! Don’t fear the reaper!)

Emerging from the curtain was a winged bug/dragon-like Pokemon with a pair of sharp-looking scythes for hands. Not bothering to cast a glance up at the music booth as the song was playing (he had to admit he at least appreciated the song choice even with Meowth’s buthering of it with his singing), Scyther made his way down to the arena and started buzzing his wings, flying into the arena once he reached the bottom of the entrance ramp.

Plant Man looked up from his fight with Toxtricity just in time for Scyther to slice through a thorny vine like butter using one of his scythes. Plant Man yelped as he let go of Toxtricity and backpedaled. “Oh, no you don’t!” He shouted. “I’ve seen sword-based Robot Masters so I KNOW what you’re capable of around my vines!”

Scyther landed beside Toxtricity and looked down. “You okay?” He asked in Poke-language, though Plant Man could obviously only hear him talking his own name a few times.

“Hey, I was doing FINE.” Toxtricity insisted. “No need to be a killjoy.”

“Yeah, and that’s why I had to save you from the killer PLANT.” Scyther rolled his eyes. “Look, you’re poison-electric. You obviously can’t do much to a ROBOT.”

Toxtricity grunted. “And you CAN?” He asked aloud.

“He’s a PLANT-based robot. I can cut through him as easy as anything else.” Scyther reminded, showing off a scythe.

“Look, bro. I was having FUN here. Taking him on is a CHALLENGE. That’s kinda what I like about it.” Toxtricity explained. “Now how bout you let me get back to it? You’re kinda killing the vibe, here.”

Scyther suddenly saw Plant Man moving out of the corner of his eye and kicked Toxtricity away as a giant, thorned vine slammed into the canvas in between the two Pokemon. “You two done bickering? I may not understand you but I can tell you two have beef.” The Robot Master mentioned. “But it can wait until AFTER I’m done with you.”

“Dude, look at what you did.” Toxtricity whined. “Now he thinks we hate each other.”

“If I had hands the first thing I’d do is strangle you.” Scyther retorted flatly as Plant Man prepared to take them both on.

“SIMON BELMONT!” (SSB)

The crowd cheered as the classic Castlevania protagonist came out from behind the curtain (appropriately to a remix of the Castlevania theme), his whip and holy cross attached to his belt. Simon glanced around the ring at the people in it, as if scanning for unholy demons.

“No sign of any of the vampires or werewolves that were showing up tonight.” Simon muttered to himself. He was tempted to go see if he could fight Lord Hater (the space tyrant SEEMED evil enough), but decided against it since it looked like he had his hands full trying to keep himself from getting crushed by Tinker Knight’s giant mech.

Deciding to put off his quest to slay the forces of darkness until one actually showed up in the ring, Simon hit the canvas and wandered over to Dawson McShane, hoping that the cowboy could give him a bit of a spar until the next demon entered the arena. Dawson saw Simon coming over from his position leaning up against a cornerpost and lifted the brim of hit hat. “Somethin’ I can help ya with, friend?” He asked.

“Indeed. You possess an interesting, versatile arsenal and I wish to test it for a bit.” Simon admitted. “At least until the next unholy demon or monster enters the arena.”

Dawson chuckled a bit as he turned to face Simon. “Y’got a bit of a one-track mind when it comes to this quest of yours, ain’t ya?” He asked.

Simon narrowed his eyes. “Where I’m from, Dracula’s forces are everywhere and ruthlessly taking innocent lives by the day.” He informed. “If my goal to stamp out the darkness is what defines me, it’s because it’s what I use as motivation to SLAY Dracula in the first place.”

“Huh. Sounds like a sucky place t’live.” Dawson admitted.

Simon paused for a moment before sighing, sagging his shoulders. “It is.” He lamented.

“Well, I suppose I could humour you for a while.” Dawson admitted as got into a stance. “I may not have the experience fighting’ monsters like you do but I fight a half-vampire regularly and I’d say that’s pretty close, huh?”

“That’s what I wanted to hear.” Simon smirked as he got into a stance as well, reaching for his whip. “I hope you realize that I won’t hold back.”

“Wasn’t askin’ you to.”

“Mystery...Fighter...NINE...”

“...AND...TEN...”

“SHAGGY!” (Multiversus)

“MATT!” (Wii Sports)

To a loud audience cheer, two recognizable characters emerged from the curtain to a song that players of Friday Night Funkin’ recognized as ‘Final Destination’ from their shared mod. As Matt threw a few practice punches with his orange, ball-like, floating hands, Shaggy reached into the entrance ramp itself, pulled a sandwich from the ground and ate it in one bite.

“You finished the pre-fight snack yet, Shaggy?” Matt asked as the Mii reached behind his back and pulled a baseball bat into view.

“Like, ready when you are, Matt!” Shaggy said as he clenched his fists and engulfed himself with a bright, Dragonball-like aura of energy for a second as his eyes stared glowing brightly. “Normally I’d be a little scared about all this but since I unlocked that untamed power of mine I’m looking forward to getting to fight a bunch of famous people!”

Matt smirked. “Good to hear. How about we go for the big guy first, then?” He asked.

Shaggy flashed a thumbs-up. “Sounds good, Matt-man!” He said.

The two ultra-powerful memelords ran down to the ring and jumped in together as the audience still continued to cheer for them. Landing in the arena, Shaggy and Matt made a lightning-fast beeline for the backside of Tinker Knight’s mech, each one of the two landing a hard punch at the exact same time with enough combined force to rattle Tinker Knight’s huge mech and knock it forward on its treads for a couple of feet.

“W-What?! What the heck was THAT?!” Tinker Knight demanded as he poked his head out of the mech cockpit and looked behind him to see Shaggy and Matt standing there, each one surrounded by more Dragonball-like energy auras. “H-How did two ordinary humanoids shake my machine that much?!”

“Sorry. We underestimated the durability of your mech.” Matt admitted as he pulled his bat into view again. “We were expecting that attack to break it apart completely.”

Shaggy, in spite of his normally-fearful demeanor, gave a laugh as he magically plucked another sandwich from the ground. “Like, it looks like we’re gonna need to use more than one percent of our power on this guy, Matt.” He said with a grin.

“One percent EACH or COMBINED?” Matt half-joked, flashing a smirk.

Shaggy laughed. “That was a good one! I gotta remember that one for next time, man!” He said.

“You two DARE make a mockery of my machines?!” Tinker Knight demanded as he turned his huge mech around and stared down at the two newcomers. “I’ll destroy the both of you for this!”

Shaggy held his hand out for Matt; the Mii low-fived it as the two unlikely friends prepared to take on the huge mech together. “Like, bring it, man! You totally aren’t ready to take the two of us on at once!” He said.

“Try me!” Tinker Knight shouted as he revved up his mech’s huge drill arm.

Lord Hater blinked in confusion as he, Mimikyu and Petey Piranha watched Tinker Knight forget all about them and turn his attention to someone else. “Uh...Want to just forget all about that guy?” He asked his ‘minions’ hopefully.

Mimikyu gave a nod as he followed Lord Hater away to another part of the arena. Petey turned around and wandered after them, his ever-present dumb smile never leaving his face.

“LILLY PENDRAGON!” (ST)

The young aristocrat of Suikoden 3 emerged from the curtain to a mixed reaction. Adjusting her gloves and muttering a few things to herself, Lilly glanced around at the audience’s reaction, at least somewhat thankful that the reaction was mixed this time compared to the negative reaction she had been getting in previous tournaments. Perhaps it was because her franchise had cooled down a bit since her last outing in the tournament...

“I don’t know why I keep accepting the invites to these things.” Lilly muttered. “And I won’t have any allies in this section so I can’t get any help...”

Stepping into the arena and brushing herself off, Lilly took a couple of steps towards the fight between Leona and Engineer before a stream of water struck her in the face, making her stagger to the side from the force of the shot. Lilly spun on her feet after regaining her balance and found herself staring down at an eager-to-fight Squirtle.

“Oh, what do YOU want, you little twerp?!” Lilly demanded. “Ugh! You even got my outfit soaked!”

“Squirtle! Squirt!” Squirtle shouted as he got into a stance.

“You know what? Fine! I’m sick of the treatment I get in these tournaments anyways!” Lilly snapped. “You’ve got this extra power and strength? It doesn’t matter; I’m so mad at this tournament that I’ll cut through it all anyway!”

Squirtle, in defiance, shot another Hyrdo Pump at Lilly’s face, hoping to send her across the arena with the force of the pressure. Lilly drew her sword and held it out, causing the jet-stream of water to strike the sword and cut clean down the middle, separating on either side of the aristocrat and leaving her unharmed.

“I told you I would cut through that power of yours!” Lilly snapped as she swung her sword again. Squirtle leapt backwards to avoid the blow and landed on his feet, screeching to a halt as Lilly prepared to take him on, likely just because she had a lot of pent-up frustrations about...Well, everything.

(Multiversal Matchup)

The multiversal portal opened up in what looked like a large, open world of bright colours, dropping the eight Multiversal Matchup contestants onto a soft surface that almost felt padded. Pushing themselves to their feet, everyone looked around and saw that they appeared to be on a floating platform suspended in the air, with nothing but bright, rolling hills and colourful sky as far as the eye could see.

“Where the heck are we?” Proto Man asked as he looked around. “This place is just...An overdose of colours.”

Sagat shielded his good eye. “Ugh. It’s too bright out...” He muttered.

“You guys are just being pessimistic.” Lin Fei pointed out. “I think the place is pretty enough.”

“Eh, colours are fine. What I’M wondering about is how we’re on a floating platform over nothing.” Giovanni Potage noted as he peered over the edge of the platform everyone was on.

Lin Fei shrugged in response. “All of the fighting arenas in Valhalla float over nothingness. I guess I’m used to the sight.” She admitted.

“That doesn’t change the fact that we don’t know where we ARE.” Sagat informed.

“I’m sure we’ll find out eventually.” Lucien noted as he glanced towards one of the other contestants and paused. “Um...Who’s your friend, Striker?”

Phantom Striker paused. “Friend?” He asked as he turned and jumped, finding himself staring at a strange, vaguely bean-shaped being with stubby arms and legs, dressed head to toe in a copy of the armour of Shovel Knight, complete with a tiny shovel blade. “W-What is THIS all about?!” He demanded.

All of a sudden, more bean creatures started appearing on the platform, some climbing up from below, some falling flat on their faces from the sky above and some just appearing of out nowhere. All of them had the same shape but they were all in a variety of colours and wearing a multitude of different costumes and cosmetics. In a manner of seconds, the platform the eight combatants were on was flooded with small bean-like creatures, each one dressed in a different, over-the-top, ridiculous outfit.

Sagat looked down at a pair of bean creatures that, with their costumes, vaguely resembled Ryu and Chun-Li. “...I’m...Uncomfortable.” He relented.

Steve found himself surrounded by beans. He looked around for a few seconds before waving cheerily. “Heyooooo!” He said. The crowd of beans all waved back, each one saying nothing but the word “Woo!” at different times and volumes.

“Where in the world ARE we?” Byleth asked as she looked around, trying to see through the crowd of bean creatures on the platform with everyone.

All of a sudden, several more platforms appeared connected to the initial platform, revealing high platforms, floating spinners, rotating hammers and ramps that extended into what could only be described as an obstacle course gauntlet of galvanized rubber and bottomless pits.

“Looks like a race, then.” Giovanni said with a smirk as he walked past Byleth. “Looks like something right up my alley, even!”

Sagat shook his head as he gazed out at the obstacle course before them. “This is far more than a normal obstacle course.” He mentioned.

“Right you are!”

Everyone, beans included, turned to see SSBFreak’s hologram materialize in the air nearby, giving a smirk. “Welcome to this section’s Multiversal Matchup, everyone. What you see before you is only one course in a world of obstacle courses, elimination rounds and races that is usually occupied solely by the clumsy, yet very-cute, bean creatures you see around you.” He announced. “Ladies and gentlemen: Welcome to the land of Fall Guys!”

“So it IS a race?” Giovanni asked with a smirk.

“In a way, it is. The Fall Guys compete in multi-round competitions where the last one standing in the final round wins the coveted Golden Crown. After a few rounds of either trying to take down a threat or trying to survive in a haunted temple I thought that maybe some light-hearted competition was due.” SSBFreak announced. “So, for this Multiversal Matchup, you eight will be competing against each other in a multi-round match of Fall Guys. Your goal is simply to outlast your fellow competitors because there will be eliminations in EVERY round leading to the finals.”

“So what about these bean things?” Proto Man asked, arms folded.

“Hey, it wouldn’t be a round of Fall Guys if there were only eight of you in a competition that is supposed to hold SIXTY.” SSBFreak explained. “So, we filled the remaining slots with some of the Fall Guys themselves, whom you will be competing against as well. Need I remind you all that the Golden Crown is literally all they fight for so they will be competing with all their might as well?”

“So...Wait. Who’ll get a win, then? This seems a little unorganized if you’re just going to let sixty people compete at once.” Lin Fei pointed out.

“THEY’RE competing for a Golden Crown. The winner of this Multiversal Matchup, however, will be whoever either wins the competition or lasts the longest.” SSBFreak said. “So, with that out of the way, good luck and let the fourth Multiversal Matchup...Begin!! Oh, right. I’d be wary of trollish Fall Guys. We made sure to grab a few grabbers while we were at it.”

With that, and without giving anyone a chance to question the meaning of what he had just said, SSBFreak’s hologram shut off. As soon as it did, a starting pistol was heard and the huge crowd of Fall Guys waddled forward as fast as their legs could carry them, racing their way through the first round obstacle course.

“Just like that? We just...Start?” Phantom Striker asked. “I’ll...Admit I wasn’t expecting this.”

Lucien glanced upwards and his eyes slightly widened when he saw some floating numbers in the sky: 0/48 Qualified. “Those things already have a head-start!” He cursed as he took off and started running after the crowd of Fall Guys.

The others seemed surprised by Lucien’s sudden burst but they seemed to take him running off as a means to get started themselves as the seven remaining contestants chased after the highwayman, Steve bringing up the rear, pumping his arms into the air with another yell of “Hey-ooooo!”, officially kicking the fourth Multiversal Matchup off.

(Hotel; Hallway)

“WhatamIdoingwhatamIdoingwhatamIdoing...”

A thousand thoughts went through the head of Choi Bounge (all of them wondering what he was doing) as he crept down the hallways of the hotel, trying to tail Juri Han without her noticing he was following her. He had been doing so ever since he listened in on her hiring BB Hood for something he wasn’t sure about and, as far as he knew, he had successfully managed to keep himself unseen as he crept after Juri.

Choi didn’t know why he started tailing Juri in the first place; he just started following her on instinct. Why did he want to see what Juri was up to and why did he feel the need to try and stop it? Juri was insane and he knew it all too well; there was a time a long while ago where he was probably just as insane as she was, after all. Perhaps that was why Choi knew whatever Juri was up to wasn’t going to be good and convinced him to follow her...

Currently, Choi was hiding behind a trash can (his small stature made it easy for him), listening in on Juri talking to another prospect, this one a familiar raven-haired man dressed in knight’s armour, with a huge sword strapped to his back; one Luca Blight, someone just as insane and bloodthirsty as Juri herself, probably even-more so. Realizing that if Juri was recruiting people as crazy and psychotic as BB Hood and Luca Blight then he was likely way out of his depth, Choi decided to stay quiet and hope that the two maniacs vacated the hallway they were talking in soon and without spotting him. All Choi could do now was listen in...

“See, this is why I like you, Luca.” Juri smirked. “All one needs to do to get you on board is the promise of chaos and destruction.”

Luca Blight, towering over Juri, gave a smirk. “You have good tastes in allies, and are wise to come to me so quickly in this.” He admitted. “Surely you heard about how I carve a path of destruction whenever I conquer?”

Juri chuckled. “I did, and that’s why I decided to seek you out. I don’t know what it is Ganondorf’s planning but I figure whatever it is will be more-fun than just waiting around and watching the tournament.” She admitted.

Luca scoffed. “Indeed. My time is better suited for conquest. After I finish up in the arena I’m seriously expected to just sit still and watch the other peons fight?” He asked. “Honestly, if you hadn’t come to me first I probably would have just razed this entire building to the ground out of boredom.”

“Good to see I don’t even need to fork over cash for your services; I don’t have any on me, anyway.” Juri chuckled. “But if this plan of Ganondorf’s attracts people to try and stop it, there’ll be no shortage of blood to spill.”

Luca smirked darkly. “That’s all I wanted to hear. Just remember this: Luca Blight is NOT a lackey.” He reminded. “I don’t care about whatever Ganondorf is up to; I’m just a part of this so that I can kill.”

“Hey, we’re in the same boat, then.” Juri shrugged before glancing to her right and giving a dark smirk. “In fact, how about we get a head start on that right now?”

Juri suddenly lashed out, lunging at the trash can Choi was hiding behind, kicking it hard enough to launch it into the far wall with a dent in its side. His cover blown, Choi yelped as he tumbled backwards, surprised at the fact that Juri had apparently known that he was there.

Luca narrowed his eyes. “Hmph! A little gnat deciding to eavesdrop?” He asked. “Looks like we’ve already got someone looking to be a thorn in our side.”

“D-Did you know I was there the entire time?!” Choi demanded.

“You’re not as sneaky as you think, short stuff. I picked up on your footsteps not long after I left BB Hood, which makes me think that you also listened in on my conversation with HER.” Juri said with a smirk.

“And yet you still led him to me?” Luca asked flatly.

“Like I said, it makes things more-fun.” Juri said. “Plus, I believe this provides us with a bit of an outlet, don’t you think?”

Luca paused for a few seconds before smirking and drawing his sword. “I suppose you have a point.” He said darkly.

“N-Now, now! Let’s talk this over!” Choi insisted, waving his clawed hands in front of his face.

“Oh, NOW you want to talk? You seemed fine with staying quiet while you followed me.” Juri smirked. “Don’t worry; I know you gotta enter the tournament later so we won’t kill ya. But...I won’t say you won’t WISH you were dead.”

Luca smirked as he stepped forward and raised his huge sword above his head. Choi screamed as he shielded his face and waited for the huge man to attack.

All of a sudden, a large boxing glove on a taffy-like spring shot from the shadows and smashed into Luca’s jaw, making him stagger backwards and back away from Choi. Juri spun around to look into the shadows of an intersection in the hallway and saw the boxing glove retreat back to its owner. The newcomer stepped out of the shadows, revealing a familiar colourful boxer dressed as a clown with long, taffy-like arms.

“Hmph. First the weirdo with the helmet and now you two.” Lola Pop said. “There is definitely something going on.”

Juri scoffed. “Back off, candy-pants. This is between us and the shrimp.” She said.

“I’ve already been attacked; I’m already involved.” Lola Pop said simply as she hit her fists together. “Plus, you think I’m just going to stand back when I hear you talking about how the two of you are looking to spill blood?”

Juri’s eye twinkled a bright purple as she smirked darkly. “Fine. We can make room for one more.” She said. “You’re not a fighter tonight so I think we’re good to kill YOU.”

“I wonder if she bleeds taffy...” Luca said as he got into a stance with his sword. “No one hits Luca Blight with a sucker-punch and lives to tell about it...”

Lola Pop stepped forward and got ready to take Juri and Luca on as the two insane villains got into stances. Choi quickly saw that Lola Pop needed assistance and scrambled to her side, screeching to a halt next to her and baring his claws. “Y-You’ll need help. These two are insane.” He said urgently.

“I literally just beat an insane guy.” Lola Pop shrugged. “But you’re welcome to help if you want.”

Choi gulped as he and Lola Pop prepared to fight Juri and Luca Blight together. From the looks of sadistic anticipation on their opponents faces, Choi had a feeling that he wasn’t going to enjoy this...

(The Arena)

“FALKE!” (SF5)

Coming out to a mixed reaction was a young, blonde woman dressed in some sort of military uniform and carrying a long baton in her hand. Ignoring the audience reaction to her, Falke gazed out at the arena and set her sights on a certain pair of youth, whom had so far spent most of the section away from the chaos and talking to each other.

“I dunno. I kinda think spikes a a little bit much, especially if you put them on everything already.” Kula admitted.

“Aw, c’mon! Spikes make EVERYTHING cooler!” Bowser Jr. whined. “Sometimes I tell dad that we should invest in making a level out of nothing BUT spikes but then he tells me that we need to draw the line SOMEWHERE.”

Kula suddenly noticed Falke coming over, baton in hand. “Oh! Hi, there! You a soldier like Whippy is?” She asked. “That’s neat! What kinda military do you have in your world?”

Falke sighed and drew her baton. “I represent Neo-Shadaloo.” She said.

Kula blinked. “Shadaloo? Wait, that’s Bison’s crew!” She said. “What’s a nice-looking lady doing working with the bad guys?!”

Falke slapped her own forehead. “We’re...We’re NEO-Shadaloo! We’re helping people oppressed and affected by Shadaloo!” She insisted.

“So...You name your organization after the one you’re fighting AGAINST?” Kula blinked. “That’s like...I dunno, if a team of people that hated the Sakazakis decided to enter KOF as the ‘Anti-Kyokugen Team’ or something.”

“Yeah, lady. Even I could tell that was a dumb move.” Bowser Jr. said flatly. “So...You here to fight or somethin’?”

Falke groaned. She KNEW she should have told Ed that it was a dumb name. Nevertheless, she aimed her baton at the two youth as sparks started to fly from it. “We’re making a stand in this tournament to make our presence known.” She mentioned. “If you two are up for it, I’ll start with a fight with you here.”

“Bring it!” Bowser Jr. said as he jumped into the cockpit of his clown car again. “Maybe I can give you a cool new suggestion for a name for your organization while I’m at it!”

“SCARLET!” (BH)

Emerging from the curtain was a redhead woman dressed in a noble-like outfit that looked a bit steampunk at the same time. She already held a large rocket lance in her hands and seemed to be examining it, as if checking the small, working parts to make sure it was working properly. Satisfied with her handiwork (perfect, as always), Scarlet despawned her rocket lance for now as she made her way down to the ring and stepped in.

Engineer was in the process of shooting at Leona with his shotgun, trying to keep her from destroying his sentry gun, when he suddenly heard a clinking noise coming from behind him, where he had stationed his gun. His eyes widened behind his goggles as he saw Scarlet opening the hatch on the back of the sentry and peering inside. “H-hey! Lady, get your paws off my sentry!” He said as he turned his attention to Scarlet.

“Relax. I’m just checking the inner workings a bit.” Scarlet said. “Impressive for what they are but I could add a few modifications if you’d let me.”

“How’d you get near the sentry without it shootin’ at you, anyway?!”

“What can I say? I have a way with machines.” Scarlet smirked as she continued to look into the inner workings of the sentry gun.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Engineer shouted as he fired his shotgun at Scarlet, only for her to summon a large, steam-powered sledgehammer into her hand and cloud herself with a screen of steam, blocking her from view and causing Engineer to miss his shot.

The next thing Engineer knew, Scarlet had grabbed him with the end of her hammer, spun around a couple of times and threw him into the surprised Leona, knocking both fighters to the canvas. Scarlet gave a chuckle as she showed off her hammer. “Like it? It took a bit of ingenuity to create a steam-powered battle-hammer but, hey, what better way to spend a few hours in the afternoon?”

Engineer pushed himself up and loaded his shotgun again. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a smart-aleck.” He muttered. “Why don’t ya put yer money where yer mouth is, missy?!”

“I WOULD, but my fleet of airships speaks for itself.” Scarlet winked. “But feel free to fight if you want. There’s only a couple of other pure intelligent minds back in Valhalla that can match me in smarts so I’m interested to see what you’ve got.”

As Engineer and Scarlet clashed with each other, Leona pushed herself up, quickly checking her earrings to make sure they were still there. Sighing in a bit of relief when she felt the earrings there, Leona glanced at the two builders and got ready to continue the fight, preparing to fight them both if she needed to...

“KOOPA TROOPA!” (SMB)

Marching proudly down the ramp to his theme music from Mario Strikers Charged was a lone, ordinary, green-shelled Koopa. In spite of this or how out-of-place he looked, the Koopa Troopa gave waves to the audience as he reached the end of the ramp. However, when he reached the end of the ramp, the Koopa Troopa suddenly sprouted wings from the back of his shell, lifting off and flying into the arena, surprising the crowd and earning a cheer.

Lord Hater saw the Koopa Troopa land in the ring and smirked. “Finally! An easy win!” He said in glee. “With all the abuse I’ve endured so far since I entered this stupid arena I think I deserve a little break!”

The Koopa Troopa gave a playful smirk as his wings seemed to despawn, turning him back into a regular Troopa. “You sure you wanna talk like that?” He asked.

“I’ve already proven that I have a way with words! I already convinced your king’s pet plant to abandon him and join me!” Lord Hater announced, showing Petey Piranha, whom seemed to wave happily to the Koopa.

“Oh, him? He kind of just does his own thing. King Bowser gets him to fight for us, sure, but it doesn’t take much.” The Koopa explained with a handwave.

Lord Hater fumed. “Why you little-” he said as he pulled his fist back and lashed out at the Koopa, whom turned around and faced the space tyrant with his back.

*CRACK!*

Lord Hater’s fist made contact with the Koopa’s shell, which was now rapidly changing a rainbow assortment of colours. Lord Hater stood in silence for a few seconds before pulling his fist back and examining it, noticing that his fingers were now all bent in odd, painful-looking directions.

As Lord Hater screamed in pain and clutched his hand, trying painfully to bend each finger back into its right position, Mimikyu glanced at the Koopa curiously as the rainbow colouring of his shell stopped, leaving it green again.

“Oh, that? Well, the guys in charge realized that sending me into this thing with just the shell on my back was a bit of a death warrant so they made it so that I could swap shells whenever I wanted.” The Koopa said nonchalantly. “I haven’t used the Rainbow Shell since Mario World but you can probably see why it hasn’t come back since then.”

“TINGLE!” (HW)

Tingle seemed to pay the audience’s mixed reaction to him no mind as he posed a few times, creating bursts of confetti with every pose. Playing up to the crowd a bit, Tingle jogged down the ring (making odd-sounding noises with every step he took) and generated a balloon on his back that lifted Tingle into the air and into the arena.

While he was in the air, however, Tingle reached into his bag and pulled out a bomb twice as big as he was, tossing it down at the fight between Lucas and Crash. The huge bomb landed in between the two as Lucas screamed and backpedaled to try and get out of range for when the bomb exploded. Crash, being Crash, stood still and silently prodded the bomb with his finger.

*KA-BOOM!*

The bomb exploded in a ball of fire. When the smoke cleared, Crash was standing there covered in soot and still in his bomb-prodding pose. He blinked a few times and collapsed onto his back.

Lucas angrily looked up as Tingle deflated his balloon and landed gracefully on his feet. “A-Are you trying to kill us?!” He demanded.

“Kill you? No, no, no! I’m just trying to get you to use some of your special fairy magic!” Tingle said as he looked offended.

“My...Fairy magic?” Lucas blinked as he looked at his hands. “You...Mean my psychic powers?”

“You make sparkly magic when you wave your hands, Mr. Fairy! Maybe you could teach me how you unlocked the magic’s secrets!” Tingle said excitedly. “I’ve been trying for so long but I can’t seem to get it quite right!”

Lucas held his forehead. “I can’t just...TEACH YOU...How to have psychic powers.” He admitted.

“Could you at least give me a demonstration of your sparkly magic, though?”

Lucas paused and pointed a finger at Tingle, creating a bright sparkle of light as he started charging a psychic attack. “Fine.” He said as he aimed at Tingle’s face.

“And now, the final fighter of this Section...”

“ANTONOV!” (KOF)

The crowd cheered as the boisterous wrestler emerged from the curtain and flexed his muscles a few times, showboating to the crowd for a moment as he took his time making his way down to the ring. Rotating his arm a few times as he walked, Antonov reached the end of the ramp and leapt headfirst into the arena to start his tenure in the tournament.

Ember and the Duck Hunt duo were about to step into the fight between E. Honda and the pair of Scratch and Grounder (well, it was mostly the badniks flailing about and insisting that Honda was doing nothing that could be considered legal in actual sumo) when Antonov decided to make himself known, lunging towards Ember with a yell and his arm out, ready to deliver a clothesline attack from behind.

The Duck Hunt dog barked, seemingly trying to alert Ember to the newcomer, but the elven girl was quicker on the draw as she spun in place and threw herself backwards, taking aim with her bow, firing a shot that caught Antonov’s hat and lifted it off his head, making him stop in his tracks.

Antonov glanced down at his hat, picked it up, yanked the arrow out of it and placed it back on his head before turning to Ember and smirked. “I like your spunk, lady! You’d fit right in at my Galactic Wrestling Federation!” He announced.

Ember narrowed her eyes. “Some of the others at Valhalla speak of wrestling. Can’t say I see the appeal.” She mentioned. “I mean, why PRETEND to hit someone when you can ACTUALLY hit someone?”

Antonov smirked. “That’s what sets us apart! Our fighting is all real, and the federation will be made up of people that love the sport!” He insisted.

Ember shrugged as she drew another arrow with her bow and aimed it at Antonov. “Well, I suppose I can’t fault you for being passionate about what you do.” She said. “So I take it you came over to fight me?”

“Of course! Consider this your interview!” Antonov grinned as he got into a stance. “Once my federation takes off the ground, you’ll be the first one I call if you manage to impress me!”

Ember couldn’t help but smirk. “And how, pray tell, do you intend to get in touch with me in Valhalla?” She asked.

“Eh, I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.” Antonov shrugged. “You need to die in battle or something to get into Valhalla, right? Maybe I can pull a few strings and get in there myself...”

“Something tells me you’d get along with Bodvar...” Ember sighed as she got into a stance.

Chapter Text

(The Arena)

Sakura jumped backwards as Kratos’ chained blades lashed out at her from all directions. Sakura was no stranger to fighting people she couldn’t get close to (years of fighting against Guile’s Sonic Booms will do that) but Kratos’ weapons lashed out in a way that just seemed unpredictable and the younger fighter was kept on her toes as she tried to avoid getting hit. She knew what those blades were capable of and wanted to make sure that they didn’t touch her.

Kratos grunted in frustration as he continued to lash out, watching Sakura weave and duck around the flying blades. He was used to fighting annoying enemies that were hard to hit but Sakura’s potential and experience were giving her an edge as far as avoiding his attacks.

Sakura yelped as she leaned back to avoid a chained blade that flew dangerously close to her face. “You’re cutting it real close there!” She insisted.

Kratos couldn’t help but smirk as he yanked the chain back into his hand. “Consider yourself fortunate that I’m not aiming to kill here.” He admitted. “Your head would be long gone otherwise.”

Sakura narrowed her eyes. “Hey! I know you’re a violent guy but you don’t need to hold back!” She accused.

“You do NOT want me fighting at full strength. I left Olympus as a pile of bleeding corpses.” He said. “Even Zeus fell by my hands!”

“Well, my node is filled with some of the best martial arts masters on the planet and I’m a former champion of this exact tournament!” Sakura insisted, getting into a stance. “Come on, then! Don’t even think about holding back!”

Kratos watched as Sakura charged him again and narrowed his eyes in return. “Be careful what you wish for, girl.” He said as he lashed out his chained blade again, spinning them wildly and in every direction as Sakura charged him, dodging through a flurry of chains and blades as she rushed in close and leapt at him.

Kratos could only watch as Sakura’s foot flew at his face. Receiving a hard kick to the forehead, Kratos found himself getting knocked backwards, his chained blades briefly leaving his hands as they clattered to the ground beside him. As Sakura landed on her feet, still in her stance, Kratos pushed himself up and, with a snap of his wrists, yanked his blades back into his hands. “You won’t do that again.” He said coldly.

“You really think that?” Sakura asked with a smirk.

“YES! Now hold still while I-”

“A-HEM!”

Kratos and Sakura froze in place as they turned their heads towards the new voice, seeing Crash Bandicoot in an unamused, arms-folded stance. His pants lay in tatters around him, leaving him clad in only a pair of heart-printed boxers. In because clear that Crash’s pants had been an unfortunate casualty of Kratos’ flurry of flying chains and blades.

Without giving either of them a chance to react, Crash pulled a wumpa fruit into view (no one really wanted to know where he was KEEPING it) and bounced it off Kratos’ head before pulling a fresh pair of pants into view (again, it’s best not to ask where he got them) and put them on before grumbling and trudging off elsewhere.

Sakura couldn’t help but chuckle as Kratos wiped a smear of wumpa fruit off his forehead. “You’re probably thankful that Crash didn’t show up in Playstation All Stars, huh?” She joked.

“Not. ONE. Word.” Kratos said through his teeth before pulling a chained blade back.

Lord Hater dove to the side as a winged Koopa Troopa slammed into the canvas where he had been standing. The Koopa, in his shell, bounced off the canvas where he had tried to hit Lord Hater, bounced off the semi-oblivious Petey Piranha’s stomach and popped out of his shell in midair, glancing down at Lord Hater while the space tyrant scrambled to his feet.

“Why the blazes are you so fast?! You’re a common foot soldier!” Lord Hater insisted.

“A foot soldier who, if just for tonight, has been blessed with abilities from across the Koopa lineup.” The Koopa Troopa smirked.

Lord Hater blinked. “And…Isn’t that still pretty much just kicking your shell?” He asked.

*POW!*

The Koopa Troopa’s shell, almost as if proving Lord Hater’s point, ricocheted off his face, knocking him backwards again and making him land flat on his back. The Koopa retracted his wings as he flipped backwards, landing on his feet. On his back, Lord Hater fired a bolt of lightning magic at the Koopa, only for the shelled soldier to dodge out of the way by briefly ducking into his shell again.

“Ugh…I didn’t think it would be this hard to recruit you to my cause!” Lord Hater whined as he pushed himself up.

“I told you that I’m loyal to King Bowser.” The Koopa shook his head.

“I swayed HIM!” Lord Hater pointed to behind the Koopa.

The Koopa glanced over his shoulder and saw Petey Piranha towering over him. Petey swung a razor-sharp leaf at him but the Koopa was quick to spin his shell and dodge the blow as Petey struck the canvas with his leaf-hand.

“And I thought I told you that this guy just does his own thing. It doesn’t take much for King Bowser to convince him to help us but half the time he’s too much trouble than he’s worth. He’ll listen to anyone.” The Koopa replied before smirking. “Look. Watch this.”

The Koopa folded his arms and looked up at Petey. “Hey, Petey!” He called out. The huge plant creature turned his head to look at the Koopa and tilted his head. “You’re a helicopter!”

Petey stood in silence for a few seconds, staring with a vacant expression before standing straight and extending his leafy arms silently. After another couple of seconds, Petey started spinning in place, making a whirring-like noise, before he lifted himself off the canvas and floated in midair, still spinning in circles.

Lord Hater stared at the scene with a slack-jawed expression; one that, after a few seconds, caused his lower jaw to fall off completely. The Koopa quickly used Lord Hater’s distraction to bounce his shell off the space tyrant’s face, knocking him on his back again.

(Announcer’s Booth)

SSBFreak blinked a few times as he watched the spinning, levitating, t-posing Petey hovering above the arena canvas, seemingly with no real set goal other than to imitate a helicopter. “…Huh…” He mentioned. “…That’s new.”

Khall gave a shrug. “Eh. As far as giant, sentient plant-life defying physics and keeping itself in the air goes…” He mentioned before pausing in thought for a moment. “…This ranks about third.”

All of a sudden, the phone on SSBFreak’s desk started ringing. SSBFreak looked at who the number was calling from and lifted an eyebrow. “Huh. The Recovery Room is calling.” He mentioned.

“Whaddya think they want, boss-man?” Khall asked.

SSBFreak sighed and reached for the phone. “I don’t know but if it’s because either Psymon, Max or BOTH of them got their teeth stuck in another electrical outlet I don’t really want to hear it.” He mentioned as he picked up the phone. “Hello?”

Khall watched silently as SSBFreak talked on the phone with an unknown caller. “…Oh, hello, Nurse Joy. What seems to be the problem?...Yes…Uh-huh?...Good, that checks out…” SSBFreak paused. “…Wait, what?...Mass chaos?...REALLY?...Destruction? In the Recovery Room?...Wait, what do you MEAN he just ‘broke out’?”

(Dome; Recovery Room)

Nurse Joy sat in the middle of a wrecked Recovery Room, surprisingly the only person or thing in the entire room that didn’t look destroyed or mangled. Papers flew everywhere, beds were overturned and several recovering fighters were moaning in pain, in unrecognizable, mangled forms, seemingly just happening to be caught in the crossfire.

In spite of this, Nurse Joy remained neutral and spoke with a little bit of annoyance in her voice. “I MEAN he just BROKE OUT.” She insisted. “After waking up he was silent for about five seconds before he just…UNLEASHED himself on the room. The next thing I know half of our recovering fighters have new injuries, there isn’t an overturned or broken piece of furniture in the room and, if that weren’t enough, he left the room not by using the door but by breaking a hole in the wall BESIDE the door.”

Faust was in the process of taking some notes as he inspected the large, unsightly hole in the wall beside the untouched door to the Recovery Room. “Fascinating…” He mentioned as he scribbled a few more notes down with a comically-sized pencil.

(Dome; Hallway)

A lumbering, angry, giant man stomped down the hallway, his huge frame taking up almost the entirety of the corridor itself. It seemed that he was in no mood to even bother complaining that the hallways were barely big enough to contain him as it was; his mind was elsewhere.

Abigail was still mulling over his performance in the ring; not only was he the first elimination of the entire tournament but he fell to a couple of kids that looked like they were just focusing on having fun. He had been made a huge fool in front of the entire multiverse and he had actively avoided going to the Eliminated Seating solely because he knew watching the tournament continue would just sour his mood even more.

And now, to top it all off, when he went to the restaurant to grab something to take his mind off his performance in the ring, Abigail saw that it had been temporarily closed for a bit due to Sheogorath’s clones working on fixing it taking their fifteen-minute break at the time he decided to show up. His streak of bad luck was simmering his temper and his skin was already starting to slowly turn a noticeable shade of red.

“I wonder where the gym is in this place…” Abigail muttered. “Maybe if I pump some iron I’ll feel better…Or maybe I’ll just break a mirror. Maybe I’ll do that anyway.”

Abigail continued stomping his way down the hallway, his loud footsteps creating a light rumble with each step with how angry he was. In his mind, the whole night was a wasted experience. Maybe it’d be better if he just retired to his room in the hotel and stayed there. He wasn’t in the mood to watch any more of the tournament and if he entered the Eliminated Seating and saw either of those two runts that eliminated him in the first place he may just lash out again. That’d be sure to get him hauled away by security.

As Abigail was walking, however, something caught his eye as he rounded a corner, spotting it thanks to a light glow coming off of it. He couldn’t make it out from afar but he saw what looked to be something glowing sticking out slightly from underneath a garbage can. His temper slowly being replaced by curiosity, Abigail wandered over and bent over.

“What the heck is this?” Abigail asked aloud as he grabbed the item and pulled it into the open to see what it was.

In Abigail’s huge hand, much to his surprise, was what looked to be a glowing, golden brick. Judging by the weight it was pretty heavy, but to Abigail it was nothing as he turned the brick around in his hands, inspecting it from every angle while wondering what it was doing in a random hallway and underneath a garbage can. It honestly wasn’t even hidden that well since he could see the glow from far enough away.

“Is…Is this gold?” Abigail asked as he examining the brick. “What is a brick of gold doing here, of all places?”

Gears started turning in Abigail’s head. He knew that he was never really one for thinking too hard about things in the first place but he couldn’t ignore the fact that he had literally just stumbled upon a heavy brick of gold. Gold that would either fetch a huge payday in a pawn shop or could be melted down to make valuable vanity parts for his vehicles in the shop. After a few seconds of mulling things over, a smirk slowly floated across Abigail’s face. He glanced around a few times, as if looking around to make sure no one was watching him, before he shoved the brick into a huge back pocket on his pants.

“Okay…Maybe this night wasn’t such a waste after all…” Abigail muttered to himself as he continued walking down the hallway, looking like he was in a bit of a better mood now…

(Multiversal Matchup)

Lin Fei could only stare in bewilderment as she watched the multitude of strange bean creatures fling themselves at the huge, rotating, padded clubs. Those that were batted off the floating platform like a baseball fell into the abyss for a couple of seconds before magically appearing back on the platform to try again. Those that got past the spinning club waddled on determinedly to the next obstacle in the course, a huge fan-like obstacle with spinning blades.

“How in the world are these things just THROWING themselves at this course?” Lin Fei asked as she made her way down the ramp she was on and making her way towards the spinning club herself. “Are they impervious to pain or are they just sadists?”

Lin Fei heard a laugh and turned to her left, seeing another platform with another spinning bat, this one with Giovanni Potage latched onto it. He had already tried jumping over the bat but couldn’t quite make the jump and was now holding onto the bat to keep himself from getting flung into the abyss himself. “I dunno but if they deal with this much abuse they’d make GREAT henchmen!” He called out. A few of the Fall Guys tried jumping over the bat he was latched onto but found themselves getting swatted off the platform due to Giovanni being an extra obstacle they couldn’t jump over.

As Lin Fei ran at the fan and timed her jump to soar through an open gap in between the huge blades (as several Fall Guys slammed into the blades like a wall directly after her), Proto Man was seen trying his luck with a side path of the obstacle course, facing down the other spinning bat on the floating platform. As Proto Man jumped onto the platform, another couple of beans were sent flying off of it, followed closely by Steve, whom went into the abyss with another “Hey-ooooo!”.

Narrowing his eyes behind his shades, Proto Man held up his shield and stood his ground in the face of the spinning bat. The bat struck Proto Man’s shield and, amazingly, stopped rotating, pushing against Proto Man’s impenetrable shield but not getting anywhere. Several of the Fall Guys watched the scene in awe while several others took advantage of the situation, dashing past the stopped obstacle while Proto Man was holding it at bay. Steve, having just respawned back on a nearby platform, tried to follow the Fall Guys in running past the stopped obstacle only to get hit in the face with a giant, flying lemon (fired from an off-course cannon), sending him ragdolling into the abyss again.

Proto Man started to falter as he tried to push back against the baton. He had thought he would be able to make a bit of ground and force his way past the spinning obstacle using his shield and brute force but it seemed that, slowly but surely, the baton was starting to beat him out. Realizing that he needed to stop pushing against the bat and try to get over it before it barreled him over. Grunting in annoyance, Proto Man dropped his shield and instantly leapt over the rotating bat, barely clearing it as it went underneath him.

The same could not be said for Steve, however, whom was about to run around the stopped obstacle again when Proto Man stopped holding it back. The bat started spinning at a supersonic speed to let out its built-up energy, striking Steve from behind and sending the raider ragdolling clear across the remainder of the course. Steve landed face-first onto the ramp leading up to the finish line for the course, skidded up the ramp on his face from the force of the throw, bowling over a few Fall Guys close to the finish as he did, and skidded clear over the finish line. The instant Steve crossed the line, he vanished from sight to the sound of a small fanfare as the number of qualified players for the next round ticked up by one.

Byleth jumped through the huge fan blades and lashed her sword out, extending it and wrapping it around another spinning bat, pulling herself towards it and using it to propel herself forward, going over a few of the beans as they scrambled to get through the course. Byleth had been relying on her weapons, mostly her linked sword, to help get her through the course; at least going through the course this way kept her out of the way of the others and the Fall Guys. She had seen a few of them standing at ledges with arms outstretched, grabbing oncomers and throwing them off the edge so she knew she needed to steer clear of the Fall Guys just to be safe.

Byleth looked back as she made her way through the course and saw Sagat pushing his way through the obstacles, towering over everyone else there with a couple of grabbers latched onto his legs. It appeared that they had tried grabbing Sagat to keep him from going further in an attempt to troll him but Sagat was having none of it, preferring to simply continue charging through and dragging the failed grabbers along with him, flailing about as they continued to latch onto his legs. Byleth, seeing that Sagat was dominating the round even with the Fall Guys trying to hold him back, lashed out with her sword again, hoping to latch onto him herself and get him to carry her across the finish, but her aim was a little off and all she succeeded in doing was pulling a Fall Guy off of Sagat’s leg and launching it into the void.

As Byleth blinked in confusion, watching the Fall Guy fall briefly into the abyss as Sagat easily crossed the finish line (dragging multiple Fall Guys with him and raising the qualified counter by at least seven), Phantom Striker materialized beside her, having just recovered from another failed attempt to clear an obstacle.

“This obstacle course keeps catching me off guard!” Phantom Striker cursed. “Every time I clear that spinning bat I get hit in the face with a flying fruit!”

“Hey, at least you don’t have to worry about those grabby bean things anymore.” Byleth mentioned with a sigh as she pulled her sword back into her hand. “I think Sagat took them all across the finish line with him.”

“Fantastic. So we get to deal with them again LATER.” Phantom Striker rolled his eyes behind his mask.

Phantom Striker glanced around as Byleth continued forward, making another attempt to cross the next obstacle. The qualified counter was ticking up at a steady pace at this point with large groups of Fall Guys crossing the finish line and the group was running out of time to complete the course. Phantom Striker’s armour was sparking with stored-up electricity that he had been using to keep the grabby Fall Guys at bay but with Sagat taking them all to the next round that sort of negated the skill, at least for now.

Keeping his eye on the spinning bat (the same one that Proto Man had been holding back with his shield), Phantom Striker saw the speed that the bat was going at and suddenly started forming an idea in his head. Realizing that Steve had been hit clear over the finish line by getting hit like a baseball, Phantom Striker jumped down and prepared to let the high-speed bat do the same to him. Phantom Striker stood still as he set his sights on the finish line and aimed himself at it to make sure the angle was right. In a split second, the bat hit him from behind and knocked him forward.

Phantom Striker landed painfully on a platform just off the ramp to the finish line. “Ugh…It seems that the power from that bat is already dropped.” He muttered, realizing that he didn’t get launched nearly as far as Steve did and needed to make the rest of the way up the finish ramp himself. Phantom Striker pushed himself up and prepared to make his way up the ramp.

“POW! Surprise Sneak Attack!”

Phantom Striker turned around in time to see a huge, boot coming at his face. Giovanni’s boot flew straight into the wandering swordsman’s face, knocking him to the ground, as the young troublemaker stampeded over him, cackling with glee. Several other Fall Guys followed behind them, trampling over Phantom Striker’s downed form unwittingly as their sights were set on the finish line.

“Works every time!” Giovanni cheered with another laugh as he charged over the finish line, followed by the several Fall Guys. In the meantime, Byleth was seen flying over the finish line herself, extending her sword to latch onto the poles of the finish line itself to pull herself across it.

This left Phantom Striker laying flat on his face, his back adorned by the feet marks of multiple Fall Guys and Giovanni’s boot imprint. Phantom Striker pushed himself onto his hands and tried to force himself to his feet…

“Wooooo!”

All of a sudden, a lone Fall Guy (having been batted across the course like Steve) bounced off his head, knocking Phantom Striker flat on his face again. The bean flew across the finish line, followed by another cheery fanfare, before another jingle played, as if signifying that the round was over.

The next thing Phantom Striker knew he was suddenly in a box. Shaking his head to clear his vision, he glanced around and saw everyone else in similar boxes set up in a grid system. Looking down, Phantom Striker saw nothing but a huge Plinko board going down as far as the eye could see.

“Uh…What happened?” Phantom Striker asked.

“I don’t know. I just materialized here when I crossed the finish line.” Sagat shrugged.

All of a sudden, everyone heard a drum-roll as several Fall Guys were forcibly pushed out of their boxes and down onto the huge Plinko board where they tumbled downwards out of view. It was almost as if this is what happened to the ones who couldn’t…Qualify…

Phantom Striker’s eyes snapped open behind his mask. “Waitwaitwaitwai-” He said just before the back of his box pushed forward, pushing the swordsman out of his box and sending Phantom Striker down the Plinko board with the rest of the eliminated beans.

Lucien watched as Phantom Striker’s yells vanished into nothingness the further he fell down the Plinko board (painfully bouncing off multiple pegs as he did). “I…Think we now have a motivation to not come in last…” He mentioned.

All of a sudden, a screen appeared in front of the surviving players, showing the next round that they were about to play as the field started teleporting again.

Giovanni lifted an eyebrow as he saw the name of the upcoming game. “Tail Tag? Sounds kinda kiddie…” He mentioned as he started vanishing to go into the next game. “Eh, how bad can it be? It’s just Tag. It’s probably super-simple…”

(The Arena)

Plant Man lashed out with his hands, creating huge, thorny vines that lashed out at Toxtricity and Scyther. The two Pokemon dodged out of the way as best as they could, though Toxtricity received a slap upside the head from a vine, and Scyther cleaved through another vine cleanly with his blade-hands. At the same time, Toxtricity managed to latch onto the vine that had been annoying (slapping) him and ignited his hands with lightning, destroying the vine in his hands.

Stepping back and holding up his hands, Plant Man grunted as Scyther slashed at him, attempting to cut him in half. Plant Man quickly kicked out and struck Scyther in the face, making the bug-dragon Pokemon stagger backwards. As Plant Man generated some more vines in his hands, the Robot Master lashed out with them in an attempt to strike Scyther with a few more of the thorns.

As Scyther was slapped with a thorny vine and staggered even further backwards in pain, Toxtricity made his presence known and slashed an invisible guitar riff, creating a wave of electricity that sliced through the air and struck Plant Man in the face, causing the Robot Master to shout in pain and annoyance as he staggered backwards himself. “Ugh! You Pokemon are bigger pests than I thought!” He snapped. “Though now I’m starting to see how that little electric rat managed to win one of these tournaments.”

“Dude, Mewtwo was a top-two finalist TWICE!” Toxtricity shot back. “Don’t disrespect that guy’s power by not including him!”

“He can’t understand you, you dope!” Scyther snapped as he pushed himself up again.

“Well, how was I supposed to know that?” Toxtricity asked as he took his attention off of Plant Man.

It took all of Scyther’s will to keep himself from facepalming in frustration (due to, you know, not having any palms in the first place and instead razor-sharp scythes). “How the crap do you just FORGET that humans can’t understand us?!” Scyther said indignantly.

Toxtricity paused for a few seconds and gave a shrug…And then a huge vine wrapped around his head, picked him up and chucked him across the arena.

Scyther watched as Toxtricity flew off and turned to face Plant Man again, seeing the Robot Master approaching and generating more vines in his hands. Realizing that he was on his own for now until Toxtricity got his head in the game (which, knowing him, would be never), Scyther gave a sigh and bared his scythes, getting ready to take the plant-based Robot Master on by himself.

Plant Man narrowed his eyes. “Your blades won’t get near any of my attacks.” He warned as he held out his hand. Scyther watched as multiple petals burst from the Robot Master’s hand and surrounded him in what looked to be a magic shield of petals.

Deciding to test how tough the shield was, Scyther lunged at Plant Man and swung a scythe, only to watch as the attack was deflected away, throwing the Pokemon off long enough for Plant Man to create another vine and spike it into Scyther’s torso, knocking the flying Pokemon backwards and into the air. However, while Scyther was in the air, he managed to upright himself and started buzzing his wings, keeping himself in the air as Plant Man stood his ground below, staring up at the airborne Pokemon.

“Those blades won’t do you any good now!” Plant Man snapped. “Your attacks can’t get through my shield and my vines can pick you off from down here!”

As if to prove his point, Plant Man lashed out with everything he had, sending vines at Scyther as the flying Pokemon swiftly flew around the vines as they shot at him from every angle. Every time Scyther managed to slice a vine to keep it away he was force to avoid two more coming at him from another angle. Scyther flew around as Plant Man continued to bombard him from the canvas, knowing that if he let the Pokemon get close he would likely lose the fight since Scyther could cleave through him easily.

Suddenly managing to spot an opening in the vines as they continued to circle and try to ensnare him, Scyther flew downwards and shot through the opening he saw, flying straight at Plant Man and slicing cleanly through the several vines that Plant Man shot up at him. Plant Man stepped back a bit in surprise but kept his footing as Scyther’s blade-hands slammed into his shield. Plant Man held up his shield in an attempt to keep the Pokemon at bay but, much to his surprise, Scyther managed to break through the shield with sheer force and the fact that his blade-hands were already absurdly-sharp.

As Plant Man staggered backwards, Scyther was quick to go on the offensive as he lunged at the Robot Master, lashing out with his blades as fast as he could to keep Plant Man from getting any chance to retaliate. Cutting most of Plant Man’s vines off his hands, Scyther gave the Robot Master a standing kick to the chest and knocked him away a couple of steps. Plant Man took a second to examine his hands, only to see the useless stubs of the vines sprouting from them. “H-How can you be so FAST?!” He demanded.

All of a sudden, Plant Man’s right arm fell off. Plant Man blinked in confusion a few times before yelling in shock. “W-When did you do THAT?!” He continued as he fumbled about, trying to grab at his discarded arm while still surveying the fact that Scyther had somehow been able to cut off his arm in what was very-likely one swing without letting Plant Man realize it.

Likely out of knowing that Plant Man couldn’t understand him anyways, Scyther didn’t give the Robot Master a response and opted to rush forward, swinging his scythe at Plant Man’s torso and creating a huge gash in the metal as he was knocked back, nearly dropping his discarded arm. Scyther took the opportunity to fly straight at Plant Man and, with a powerful upward swing of his blade-arms, managed to send the Robot Master into the air, finally causing him to tumble over the ropes and out of the ring.

Plant Man landed in Plants Vs. Zombies, where he spent the next ten minutes sulking over the loss of his arm while a stupid-looking zombie, likely mistaking him for a plant, started gnawing on his head.

Shaggy and Matt were in the process of fighting Tinker Knight in his huge mech together, Matt leaping onto the top portion of the mech to repeatedly strike the outer shell of the huge machine with rapid-fire punches while Shaggy held the mech at bay by holding onto the huge drill with his hands, somehow using nothing but his bare hands to stop the mech in his tracks.

Tinker Knight shielded his face (which was still hidden behind his welding mask) as Matt’s fists assaulted the metal framework around his mech, rattling the entire machine with every blow. “S-Stop that this instant!” He demanded. “This machine is meant to withstand diamond!”

Matt gave a light smirk. “Then I guess that means I gotta throw my punches faster.” He said.

Shaggy, on the canvas, gave a grunt of annoyance as he was starting to falter against the drill of Tinker Knight’s mech. He was still standing his ground but the power from the mech was enough to catch Shaggy by surprise and nearly make him take a step back to regain his footing while still holding onto the drill. “You’d better hurry, Matt! Like, I can hold against this drill thing but I think he may overload the mech!”

“On it, Shaggy!” Matt said as he started throwing punches like a rapid-fire machine gun, lashing out with what looked to be a hundred punches a second as it looked like he was slowly breaking through the metal plating of the mech itself with his hands. Matt punched the metal plating so fast that Tinker Knight could almost see the Mii creating an after-image that was doing its own punches and seemed to be doing its own damage to the mech.

Tinker Knight scrambled about in the cockpit of his mech as he looked around for a level to pull. Spotting the lever as Matt caused his huge mech to shake and rattle even more, Tinker Knight grabbed it and pulled it, opening a hole in the top of the mech and firing a bolt of lightning out of it, striking Matt in the face and knocking him off the mech. With Matt momentarily off of the mech, Tinker Knight threw a few more switches and brought the mech to life with some emergency power.

Matt landed on the canvas near Shaggy as the lanky youth pulled back and let go of the drill when he saw his memetic friend away from the mech. “Like, this guy’s mech is more-powerful than we thought, man!” Shaggy mentioned. “I didn’t think we’d be fighting something this powerful so early!”

Matt stared flatly (which, for Matt, seemed to be his regular expression). “You fight SUPERMAN.” He reminded.

Before Shaggy had time to respond, a new figure flew in from the side and crashed into Matt, knocking the Mii to the ground under the prone body’s form. Shaggy looked in surprise and saw that the newcomer was Toxtricity, having been thrown aside from his previous fight with Plant Man. “Like, whoa, man! Where did YOU come from?” He asked as a dazed Toxtricity pushed himself up.

Matt pushed himself up quickly, finding that Toxtricity wasn’t getting up fast enough, and threw the rocker Pokemon off of him as he got up. “Hey! What’s the big idea, punk?!” He demanded.

Toxtricity gave a response but, obviously, Matt couldn’t understand anything the rocker Pokemon was saying. Matt narrowed his eyes. “Look, I don’t take to kindly to being attacked from behind. Maybe I need to teach you a lesson.” He said as he slammed his fists together before glancing at Shaggy. “You think you can take the mech solo for a bit, Shaggy?”

Shaggy glanced up at Tinker Knight in time to see several rockets emerged from the shoulders of his huge mech and started to hone in on him. Shaggy leapt into the air, gave a rocket a hard kick and sent it flying right back into the mech, knocking Tinker Knight’s machine backwards a couple of feet from the force of the blast. “Like, I’ll try, man.” He said with a nervous smile and giving Matt a thumbs-up.

As Shaggy engulfed himself in another bright, Dragonball-esque aura and leapt at Tinker Knight’s mech, Matt turned to Toxtricity. The rocker Pokemon seemed resigned to having to fight him, realizing that Matt would never be able to understand him anyways. Taking a step back as Matt lunged forward with a hard, flying punch, Toxtricity thrashed his invisible guitar and created an electric shockwave that launched Mat backwards, causing the Mii to land flat on his back.

Matt grunted and pushed himself up as Toxtricity approached, looking ready to thrash some more on his invisible guitar. Matt narrowed his eyes and put up his hand, getting into a boxing stance as he looked ready to take the lizard Pokemon on. Toxtricity strummed his hands several times, thrashing his guitar multiple times and sending several shockwaves at Matt as the Mii stood his ground.

Matt pulled his fist back and lashed out, striking a shockwave with it and causing it to dissipate from the force of the impact. The remaining several shockwaves that followed after the first were met with similar fates as Matt punched his way through all of the electrical projectiles, slowly taking steps towards Toxtricity as he did. By the time Toxtricity saw what Matt was doing, the Mii was close enough to slam his fist into the Pokemon’s face, knocking the rocker lizard backwards. This allowed Matt the chance to press the offensive, continuing with a lightning-fast flurry of punches that Toxtricity could only attempt to block in between blows.

Tinker Knight activated his mech to fire another barrage of missles down at Shaggy, whom scrambled around them as they exploded on the canvas at his feet. Tinker Knight managed to get lucky with a missile and struck Shaggy in the face, knocking the lanky youth backwards several feet in recoil. Seeing Shaggy getting hit, Tinker Knight sprung back into action and threw another few levers.

“Eat this, you punk!” Tinker Knight shouted as he brought his mech to life, engulfed it in sparking electricity and revved up its steampunk engines. The mech took off, charging at Shaggy with its drill spinning wildly. “I’ll crush that power using my mind’s creations!”

Shaggy looked up in time to see the huge mech barreling at him with a spinning drill pointing at him and instinctively held up his hands to block the blow. The mech rammed straight into Shaggy but the lanky youth managed to keep the mech at bay. Tinker Knight saw that Shaggy was holding his mech back with his hands and quickly upped the power in its engines, hoping that he could overpower Shaggy by making his machine more-powerful.

Seeing that the added power he was putting into his mech wasn’t doing anything against Shaggy, as well as hearing nothing but the squealing sounds of his mech’s treads against the canvas, Tinker Knight looked back and saw dark smoke starting to emit from the exhaust ports of his machine. Panicking and thinking quickly, Tinker Knight threw his mech into reverse and backed away from Shaggy.

“H-How in the blazes are you doing that?!” Tinker Knight demanded. “You’re using nothing but your hands!”

“Like, sometimes I don’t even really know, man.” Shaggy shrugged. “I’m not complaining, though. These powers are totally awesome!”

Tinker Knight looked around his cockpit for another switch to throw, hoping that he had some sort of weaponry that he could use against Shaggy, or at least keep him away long enough to get him out of the ring. Deciding to throw his mech into overdrive, Tinker Knight pressed a large button that caused the drill-like lance the huge mech was holding to open up, revealing what looked to be a huge, steampunk-designed cannon.

Fiddling with the controls, Tinker Knight adjusted the aim of the cannon and redirected it to point straight at Shaggy. “I didn’t think I’d be forced to resort to this so soon!” He shouted defiantly. “Be thankful I consider you a worthy-enough foe for this! I was saving it for Shovel Knight!”

Shaggy’s eyes snapped open as he watched the huge cannon start building energy. “Zoinks!” He shouted as he turned tail and scrambled to the side as Tinker Knight activated the cannon.

A huge beam of energy fired from the mouth of Tinker Knight’s cannon as Shaggy dove out of the way. Seeing Shaggy running making him think he could get the edge, Tinker Knight steered his mech and started chasing Shaggy down with the cannon beam. He looked down and saw that, judging by a meter on his dashboard, the over-use of the beam would be sure to overheat his mech’s engines, Tinker Knight resolved to chase down Shaggy and finish him off quickly.

Toxtricity lashed out with a foot and struck Matt in the head, knocking the Mii down and giving the Pokemon a chance to strike him while he was down with a few powerful shockwaves, hoping to stun the Mii long enough to eliminate him while he was disoriented.

However, Matt managed to push himself up as the shockwaves her hitting him from above. Clenching his teeth to block out the feeling of the shockwaves slamming into his back, Matt spun around and roared, lashing out with a fist and punching his way through Toxtricity’s onslaught again. Matt pressed the assault again as he continued to step forward, lashing out with multiple punches and catching Toxtricity off-guard.

Toxtricity tried to either block the onslaught of rapid-fire punches from Matt or back out of the way but the angry Mii wasn’t giving him an inch. Matt continued to strike the rocker Pokemon in the face, determined to end the fight as quickly and efficiently as possible, and didn’t let up even after it was clear Toxtricity couldn’t muster the strength to fight back any more. Matt finally stopped his attacks as the dazed, barely-conscious Toxtricity crumped to the canvas.

Matt looked over his shoulder and suddenly took notice of Shaggy running from a constantly-moving laser beam as it chased him down. Thinking quickly, Matt picked up Toxtricity’s prone form. “Hey, Shag! Heads up!” He shouted as he spun in place a few times, winding up power as he spun Toxtricity around. Toxtricity started coming to his senses as Matt continued to spin around but by the time he had realized what was happening Matt had already let him go and thrown him.

Tinker Knight, perched in his seat in his huge mech, turned his head just in time to see Matt throw Toxtricity. His eyes snapped open behind his welding mask as he saw that Matt had not thrown the rocker Pokemon at Shaggy for a one-two elimination, or even over the ropes, but straight at the mid-section of the side of his own mech.

*KA-BOOM!*

Toxtricity crashed into the side of Tinker Knight’s mech with enough force and velocity that the mech didn’t even stop him; he just kept going. Toxtricity was thrown straight through Tinker Knight’s mech, creating an explosion upon impact as the rocker Pokemon was sent flying through the explosion on the other side of the mech after he had been thrown clean through it. Despite this, and the fact that Matt had literally just thrown him through the side of a mech, Toxtricity continued flying with no control over where he was going as he flew straight over the top rope and clear out of the ring with no way to get back in as he finally lost momentum and tumbled headlong into a portal.

As a result of Toxtricity being thrown through his mech, however, Tinker Knight could do nothing but sit there as a chain reaction went off, igniting the body of his mech and causing it to explode in a firey blast that rocketed Tinker Knight straight up, cockpit and all, into the air and providing him with a good view of what remained of his mech as it burned on the canvas.

All of a sudden, a figure materialized in midair just ahead of him, having moved so fast that it looked like he had teleported. Tinker Knight saw Shaggy floating in midair, giving a smirk, before spinning around and giving the cockpit he was sitting in a midair flying kick, striking the cockpit with enough force to send it, with Tinker Knight still sitting in it, flying out of the arena as well.

Tinker Knight emerged in a water level in Mario Bros. 3. Unfortunately for him, he was shot out of the portal at an angle and, thanks to the momentum from Shaggy’s kick, was sent skipping across the water like a rock as he screamed from atop his cockpit before he smashed into a wall and finally flopped into the water…

…And then, as if to add insult to injury, he was promptly eaten by a giant fish.

Grounder crashed onto the canvas, a victim of a massive overhead throw by E. Honda. Pushing himself up, the mole-like robot turned his head. “Has ANY of what this guy has done actually sumo?!” He demanded as he changed his drill hands into boxing gloves. “Hold on, Scratch! I’m coming!”

Scratch couldn’t respond as he was in the middle of getting smacked senseless by a hundred rapid-fire palm strikes to the face. Every time Scratch thought he could get a word out, Honda had slapped him across the face again. He just knew that he would need to get the bolts in his neck tightened after this to keep his head from falling off but he needed to find a way to get Honda to stop slapping him first.

“You’re a resilient little robot, aren’t you!” Honda laughed as he continued to lash out with his Hundred Hand Slap, refusing to give the chicken Badnik a word in. “Most of my opponents are already down for the count but you’re still standing!”

Honda suddenly received a hard hook to the side of the face as Grounder made his presence known with his huge boxing gloves. This stunned Honda long enough to make him stop attacking Scratch as the chicken robot staggered backwards, holding onto his head to keep it in place. Seeing that Honda was stunned momentarily, Grounder rolled forward and struck him a few more time with the boxing gloves, making the large sumo wrestler stagger backwards and giving Scratch a chance to regain his footing.

Once he saw Grounder keeping Honda away from him, Scratch snapped to attention and rushed in to help. “Keep him still!” He directed.

Grounder smirked as he lashed out again, feeling confident in the fact that he was starting to overpower Honda. However, Honda broke free of the barrage of punches by raising a thick arm in between punches and deflecting Grounder’s attack, knocking the mole-like robot off balance. Scratch leapt around Grounder and aimed his fist for Honda’s throat, only to get swatted away himself, causing the chicken Badnik to land in the crumpled heap a few feet away.

Honda rubbed his jaw, looking a little impressed as he glanced down at Grounder. “Y’know, I haven’t felt a punch like that since the last time I squared off with Balrog.” He mentioned. “You two are a lot tougher than you look. If you got along better you’d be a more-formidable force.”

“H-Hey! We can run circles around you and you’re only doing as good as you are because you ain’t even practicing real sumo so everything you’re doing is taking us off guard!” Grounder insisted.

“Sounds to me like you two are just projecting.” Honda laughed. “How about when this is over I give you two a tour of my new sumo dojo in Metro City? Teaching you a bit about sumo would do you a world of good!”

*BASH!*

Scratch jumped back into the fray, smashing a bat across the back of Honda’s head and causing him to stagger forward in surprise. “IT’S!” *BASH!* “NOT!” *BASH!* “EVEN!” *BASH* “SUMO!!” Scratch screamed in fury in between strikes with his bat.

Grounder blinked in confusion. “Uh…Where’d you get the bat, Scratch?” he asked.

“Don’t ask questions, stupid! Help me fight him while he’s distracted!” Scratch snapped.

Grounder snapped to attention and quickly rolled forward to help Scratch while he was hitting Honda from behind with his bat. However, as Scratch was doing so, Honda took off like a rocket, lunging forward and flying through the air headfirst, slamming straight into the surprised Grounder and knocking him back while Scratch whiffed his next swing of his bat, missing the sumo wrestler altogether.

The next thing Grounder knew he was being lifted off the ground. His eyes snapped open. “Oh, no! Please! Not another throw! Those things hurt when I land!” He pleaded before Honda spun and, with all his might, threw Grounder over his shoulder again, causing him to fly backwards.

Scratch’s eyes widened when he saw that Grounder was flying straight at him. He held up his bat in front of his face, as if trying to protect himself, and braced for impact.

*CRASH!*

Grounder had collided with Scratch headfirst and the amount of damage that the two Badniks had incurred throughout their stay in the ring seemed to finally catch up to them at once. As Scratch was crushed under Grounder’s weight, the two Badniks literally exploded into a jumbled mess of pieces and parts. Scratch’s head bounced a couple of times before it came to rest near where Grounder’s head hand landed.

“Look at what you did, you idiot!” Scratch’s head accused. “How are we supposed to fight Sonic when he enters the ring NOW?!”

“Uh…Maybe he’ll trip over our body parts?” Grounder’s head asked. “He doesn’t look where he’s running, does he?”

Honda laughed again as he walked over to the pile. “You two are so entertaining and you managed to put up quite a fight!” He admitted as he picked up the Badnik’s heads and held one in each hands as he looked between the two of them. “Looks like I may have overdid it with the sumo, though.” He mentioned. “Ah, well. What can you do? Thanks for the exercise, you two!”

With that, Honda tossed the two Badnik heads over his shoulders and sent them flying out of the ring. He quickly brushed the rest of their parts underneath the bottom rope to remove the two Badniks from the ring entirely.

“IT’S NOT SUMOOOOOOOoooooo-” Scratch and Grounder shouted as one as the two heads fell helplessly down into an elimination portal, vanishing at the same time.

The heads of Scratch and Grounder landed in the world of Angry Birds, where they were forcibly set up into a giant slingshot and hurled screaming at a stone structure. Neither of them were very effective.

Antonov punched at an explosive disc, destroying it in one hit as the Duck Hunt duo looked annoyed that the huge wrestler had destroyed a projectile so easily. However, as Antonov was blinded by the explosion of the clay disk in his face, this left his unprepared for Ember to lunge into his stomach with a pair of katars. Antonov was knocked backwards a couple of feet but managed to regain his footing, though he still wasn’t prepared for Ember to follow up her attack by swinging her katars upwards, lifting Antonov off his feet and making him land flat on his back.

Pushing himself up to his feet, Antonov instinctively held up his arms as the Duck Hunt duo kicked an exploding can at him. Another explosion knocked Antonov back on his feet but the huge, muscled wrestler remained standing, forcing himself to bear the brunt of the explosion in his face.

Brushing himself off as he gave a smirk, briefly taking the still-lit cigar out of his mouth (how it had stayed in his mouth the whole time was anyone’s guess). “You two have amazing teamwork despite just meeting up!” He mentioned. “A tag-team like this is just BEGGING to be included in the G.A.W.!”

Ember, in the meantime, had swapped weapons and was armed with a bow and arrow, pointing the sharp projectile at Antonov. “Sorry. I have a tag-team partner back in Valhalla already and I’m not looking to branch out until we can beat Cassidy and Sentinel in the upcoming 2V2 tournament.” She mentioned.

Antonov grinned as he got into a stance, as if preparing for the following attack. “You think you scare me with that pointy stick?” He asked. “After what the KOF board lets into their tournaments on a yearly basis?”

Ember gave a smirk and rushed at Antonov, still holding her bow and arrow in a pre-firing position before letting go of the arrow. The arrow exploded just in front of Ember, covering her in a cloud of smoke. Antonov was expecting her to teleport or make an attempt to blind him but his look faltered a bit as he watched Ember leap out of the cloud of smoke on the back of a large wolf. In Antonov’s moment of surprise, Ember’s wolf snapped at him and caught him in the torso.

Although surprised by Ember summoning a wolf out of thin air, the Duck Hunt duo quickly recovered when they realized that the wolf was on their side and spawned another exploding can and prepared to kick it at Antonov while he was busy dealing with Ember. However, just as the dog kicked the can and sent it flying into the air, a new figure was thrown into view and ended up falling directly into the path of the can.

*BOOM!*

The Duck Hunt duo yelped as they recoiled back, the feeling of the can exploding much earlier than they were expecting them to making them reel back. They suddenly noticed the new figure falling out of the air after being hit in the face with the exploding can and saw Mimikyu’s costume float down to the canvas through the explosion.

Mimikyu slowly pushed himself up, dizzy from being hit in the face with the misaimed exploding can. Suddenly noticing the Duck Hunt dog shaking its head around to shake himself back to attention, Mimikyu put two and two together and turned to face the mismatched duo, deciding to put off helping Hater and Petey deal with the Koopa Troopa for now.

The duck saw Mimikyu’s shadowy hand lunging at the pair and quacked loudly, making the dog snap to attention. The dog yelped and backpedaled out of the way as Mimikyu swiped at nothing but the air. Mimikyu pressed forward and shuffled towards the Duck Hunt duo silently, baring its second shadowy hand as he prepared to fight the two alone. The dog took the chance to pull another exploding disc into view and hurled it at Mimikyu in an attempt to keep the disguised Pokemon away from them. Mimikyu responded by lashing out, grasping the disc in a shadowy hand and clutching it, making it emit a muffled explosion from within his hand.

While Mimikyu was distracted with the disc, however, he wasn’t prepared for the duck to suddenly detach itself fom the dog’s back and start fluttering around Mimikyu, distracting the Pokemon as he swatted around, trying to get the duck to back off. While Mimikyu was dealing with the duck, the dog gave a smirk and kicked another can at Mimikyu, watching as a red crosshair appeared and started tracking it.

The next thing Mimikyu knew, the crosshair had lined up with his face (the real one; not the tilted Pikachu-like head) and created several small explosions that knocked Mimikyu back, dazed, as the duck fluttered back to the dog so that the pair could continue fighting the Pokemon as normal.

Antonov held up his arms as Ember slashed at him with her katars again, hoping to break through his defenses. Antonov quickly pulled his arm back and slammed it into Ember’s face once the elven woman had made the attempt to attack him. While Ember was stunned, stepping back a couple of feet from the strike to the face, Antonov reached out, grabbed her and tossed her over his shoulder with a mighty throw. Giving a smirk, Antonov leapt into the air after Ember, doing a stylish backflip as he went over her head.

Ember looked ahead while she was in the air and watched as Antonov fell straight on top of her stomach-first, slamming into the canvas on top of her and crushing her under his weight. Although she had the wind knocked out of her from the attack it did little to slow Ember down (having been used to sharing a node with a literal dragon and minotaur), as she activated a wind-like power underneath Antonov using her katars that lifted the surprised wrestler off of her.

While Antonov was in the air, Ember swapped to her bow and swung it into the air, creating another small cloud of smoke that spawned what looked to be an eagle. The eagle screeched and swung at the airborne Antonov with its claws before despawning again and letting Ember follow up by firing an arrow straight into Antonov’s shoulder while he was still falling back to the canvas. Antonov was sent tumbling backwards and crashed onto the canvas headfirst before groaning and pushing himself up. Amazingly, the cigar remained in his mouth and had stayed in one piece for the entirety of Ember’s assault.

Antonov couldn’t help but chuckle as he grabbed the arrow sticking out of his shoulder and pulled it out. “You’ve got spunk, kiddo!” He admitted. “You sure you aren’t interested in the G.A.W.? Could you at least give me your contact info when this tournament is done?”

Ember narrowed her eyes. “I’d ask how a human can just shrug off attacks like that but…I mean, the crossover events we did with the Street Fighter and Shovel Knight cast kind of told us otherwise.” She sighed as she drew another arrow. “Maybe if I aim for your forehead it’ll get you to stop talking.”

Antonov held his hat as he ducked under the next arrow that Ember fired at him as he rushed forward and swung his arm again, striking Ember with a massive clothesline that knocked the elven warrior off her feet and into the air. Antonov quickly grabbed Ember by the leg and swung her over his shoulder, preparing to spike her into the canvas with one swing.

However, Antonov was unprepared for Ember to slash as his leg with a katar as he was preparing to throw her into the canvas. Antonov shouted as he let go of Ember and staggered back, clutching his leg, as Ember uprighted herself in midair and landed on her feet, getting into a stance and preparing to take Antonov on again.

Ember rushed at Antonov and lashed out with her katars, swinging at each of the larger man’s limbs, but Antonov took multiplied steps back, dodging each swing of the blades and deflecting several of Ember’s attempted strikes. Giving an amused smirk, and still clutching his cigar in his teeth, Antonov swung his palm out and managed to slip through Ember’s strikes, striking her in the face and making her stagger backwards.

While Ember was distracted, Antonov rushed forward and lashed out again, swinging his fists multiple times without giving the elven warrior a chance to react. Reaching out and grabbing Ember by the cloak, Antonov leapt into the air and prepared for a massive piledriver…

*SLAM!*

Mimikyu’s huge, shadowy hands slammed down onto the Duck Hunt dog, striking him into the canvas and knocking the wind out of him. The duck tried fluttering around Mimikyu again to distract him but the Disguise Pokemon was too determined at this point to even pay much attention to the flying duck, instead focusing on the dog since he seemed to be the one that could create the exploding projectiles. The dog tried to create another exploding can in Mimikyu’s hand, causing it to explode and briefly distract Mimikyu.

However, as Mimikyu backed away, the dog tried to push himself up but found himself too weak to do so, having been knocked senseless by Mimikyu’s onslaught of attacks. Pushing himself onto all fours again, the dog saw his duck companion trying to distract Mimikyu and created another exploding disc in his mouth. The dog reared back and prepared to use all his might to throw the disc at Mimikyu, hoping to strike while he was distracted by his duck partner.

And then Mimikyu threw the duck onto him. With the exploding disc still in the dog’s mouth.

*BOOM!*

The disc exploded before it could leave the Duck Hunt dog’s mouth, knocking both animals off their feet and laying them out on the canvas, both clearly spent and unable to get up, though the dog tried again only to realize that all his strength had finally left him. Mimikyu shuffled over and examined the downed forms of the Duck Hunt duo, as if trying to figure out a means to get rid of them.

*CRASH!*

Mimikyu jumped and turned in time to see Antonov hit the canvas, finally pulling off his piledriver and spiking Ember into the canvas one last time. Ember didn’t get up from this attack, showing that she, much like the Duck Hunt duo, was down for the count.

Antonov laughed. “Thanks for the duel, my friend! I’ll be sure to remember to track you down after the tournament is over!” He said as he picked up Ember’s prone form and chucked her over the arena ropes. “At the very least I should find out more about your node!”

Mimikyu watched as Antonov eliminated Ember and glanced back to the still-downed forms of the Duck Hunt duo. Remembering that he was still needed to help Lord Hater, Mikikyu used his shadowy hands to pick up the dog and duck and throw them over the ropes as well before shuffling off.

Ember slowly came to and found herself floating in the void of coloured portals, signifying that she was being set up to drop into the next round Multiversal Matchup. Looking around, she saw that the Duck Hunt duo had materialized in the void with her. “Well…I suppose that could have gone a bit better.” Ember sighed. The dog gave a sad-looking nod.

Suddenly hearing a guitar being played, Ember glanced to her left and saw Toxtricity also floating around, lazily playing an invisible guitar with a bored-looking expression on his face. He briefly stopped playing, glanced at the two newcomers and gave a half-hearted wave. Ember floated in silence before giving an awkward-looking wave back.

(Multiversal Matchup)

“WHAT THE CRAP ARE THESE HITBOXES?!”

The shout of indignation had come from Giovanni, whom fell onto his face awkwardly as the tail that he had been desperately trying to keep possession of since the game of Tail Tag had begin once again vanished from his back in a puff of smoke. The offending Fall Guy who collected it appeared to do so without really even touching him, strangely.

“Seriously! I have to be all up in their business to even TRY to steal the tail but they can take mine from five feet away from me?!” Giovanni shouted as he pushed himself up again. “How is that fair?! This stupid game of tag SUCKS!”

The other Multiversal Matchup contestants seemed to be doing their best to ignore Giovanni’s whining, instead focusing on either keeping or stealing tails themselves. Lucien was keeping to higher ground using his agility, Sagat was using his long reach and power to his advantage and Proto Man was keeping the Fall Guys at bay with his shield but the others were having a bit of a harder time.

Sagat saw a Fall Guy trying to approach him from behind to take his tail. He quickly turned around and kicked the bean in the face, sending the Fall Guy ragdolling off the platform he was standing on and down onto a moving conveyor belt. “These pests are somehow even MORE annoying when these tails are involved…” He muttered.

Lucien watched from his perch, preferring to survey the scene from above in a place none of the others could reach. “They’re more-athletic then they look.” He mused. “But maybe that’s just their blind determination showing…”

“Lucien, how the heck are you doing that?!” Lin Fei asked as she scrambled around the box-shaped arena to keep the Fall Guys away from her. “You’re just hanging from the wall!”

Lucien gave a light smirk from behind his mask. “Comes with the territory of what I do.” He admitted simply. “Pretty sure Ezio stole half of his moves and abilities from me, anyways.”

Lin Fei sighed as she went back to trying to keep the Fall Guys away from her. She was able to use her martial arts skills to keep jumping around the bean-like beings as they made attempt to steal the tail that she currently had. She also realized that she needed to avoid Steve and Giovanni since they were currently lacking tails and now trying to take hers. Time for the round was ticking down fast and everyone had realized by now that they were expected to be in possession of a tail when the timer hit zero in order to qualify for the next round.

Lin Fei instinctively jumped into the air as a diving Steve flew underneath her, faceplanting into the floor and skidding onto a conveyor belt that carried him further away from the carnage and leaving Lin Fei alone for now.

However, this left Lin Fei to have to deal with not only the swarm of Fall Guys waddling behind her to try and take her tail but also Giovanni, whom seemed to be lunging at her with desperation in an attempt to take the tail once he saw how close to the end of the round everyone was getting.

“Gimmie that tail, lady!” Giovanni shouted as he took another swipe at Lin Fei’s tail, missing as she did a backflip over his head and the heads of several Fall Guys. “H-Hey! Come back here!”

Narrowing his eyes, Giovanni crouched low and created a burst of steam around his legs, launching him into the air and sending him flying at Lin Fei, hoping to grab her tail while she was in the air. Link Fei saw Giovanni flying towards her and quickly swung her foot at him as he was flying at her, striking the redhead youth in the face with a flame-coated kick.

Giovanni crashed flat onto his face away from the crowd of Fall Guys trying to steal Lin Fei’s tail. Pushing himself to his feet with a grunt, Giovanni muttered under his breath as he looked around to see if there was another tail he could try stealing to avoid having to deal with Lin Fei. “Ugh…How many tails ARE there, anyways?” He asked aloud.

Suddenly spotting Lucien attached to the wall higher up, Giovanni smirked when he saw that the highwayman had a tail. “Ah! A tail!” He said.

“Stay away, soup-boy.” Lucien said coldly. “There’s a reason I’m clinging to the wall this high up and it’s so that no one can-”

Lucien suddenly leaned to the side as a ball of flaming-hot soup was thrown into the wall near him. Lucien glared down at Giovanni and saw that he was giving a toothy grin while summoning a few more balls of flaming-hot soup into the air, looking like he was getting ready to throw them.

“…If you throw one more ball of soup at me I’m going to stab you in-”

*SPLAT!*

Lucien dodged again as another ball of soup splattered against the wall. Lucien somehow managed to stay attached to the wall as Giovanni continued to throw flaming hot projectiles at him as he scrambled to keep himself from falling off, knowing that the instant he let go of the wall he’d be open for everyone to take his tail. Pulling his pistol into view, Lucien dodged another ball of soup and pulled the trigger, creating a burst of flames that shot down at Giovanni in an attempt to engulf him.

In spite of seeing the flames coming at him, Giovanni kept his smirk and held out his hand, creating another powerful burst of steam that, much to Lucien’s surprise, managed to part the wave of fire and cause it to split on either side of him, leaving Giovanni unscathed.

“You should know better to try and use flames on someone who knows how to handle the heat!” Giovanni cackled. “Now then…GIMMIE THAT TAIL!!”

Lucien was suddenly bombarded with several flaming-hot projectiles, each one splattering against the wall around him. The highwayman tried to avoid the shots as best as he could but got splattered with hot soup every time a projectile hit the wall near him. Lucien tried to keep his grip on the wall he had latched onto but after a few doses of scalding-hot soup he finally lost his grip, slipped off the wall and fell flat onto his face a couple of feet in front of Giovanni.

The yellow-clad punk gave a cocky smirk as he grabbed at the tail on Lucien’s downed form, swiping it and making it appear attached to him. “Yoink!” He said.

All of a sudden, as Lucien was pushing himself up and preparing to draw his pistol again, the round ended with a loud, screeching whistle, signifying the clock finally reaching zero. The next thing everyone knew they were back in the field of boxes overlooking the giant Plinko board.

“That round was pain.” Proto Man moaned. “I didn’t know these bean things could get so possessive of tails.”

“I know. The race round was fun enough but that round just felt like a hassle to get through.” Byleth shook her head.

Everyone suddenly heard a loud drumroll as eliminated Fall Guys started getting pushed out of their boxes. Lucien’s eyes widened behind his mask, realizing all too late that Giovanni had taken his tail with a split second to spare. He quickly turned to the box holding a cocky-looking Giovanni. “Oh, you little-” He said before the back of his box pushed him out of it, sending the highwayman tumbling down the Plinko board and into the pit below with the other eliminated Fall Guys.

Giovanni watched Lucien fell and only when the highwayman was gone did he finally exhale in relief, dropping his cocky smirk. “That was WAY too close.” He lamented.

The survivors suddenly saw that the game was changing again as they saw a window displaying the next game. They were all suddenly warped again as they went into the next game with the suddenly-fewer amount of Fall Guys. The next thing everyone knew after their vision became clear again, they were all standing on a circular platform over a pool of slime. At the middle of the platform was a large pillar with a pair of foam bats attached to it.

“What the heck is THAT?” Proto Man asked in bewilderment.

Sagat scoffed as the machine started coming to life as the bats started moving, slowly spinning around the platform everyone was on. “Looks like we need to do more jumping.” He muttered. “I assume these things do that a lot in these games.”

The six remaining Multiversal Matchup contestants prepared themselves to start jumping over the spinning bat as the surviving Fall Guys awkwardly flung themselves over the bottom bar as it spun around. The crowded platform was chaos as the Fall Guys and remaining players darted around to try and either stay ahead of the spinning bat or get into a position where they could time their jumps.

Giovanni gave a smirk as he watched the bat move, seeing the others jump over it at the Fall Guys awkwardly dive over it, though some got their ankles clipped by the large beam as it went underneath. The yellow-clad youth crouched as he watched the bat come at him. He was confident in his jumping abilities and, even if he wasn’t, he could activate his epithet and use a burst of steam to clear the bat. It seemed that this would be a test of endurance and Giovanni was more-than-sure that he’d be capable of-

*THUD!*

Giovanni tried jumping but found himself held back as he fell flat on his face. Pushing himself up, he turned around and saw a lone Fall Guy grabbing him from behind and keeping him from jumping. Giovanni suddenly realized that this was likely one of the trollish “Grabby” Fall Guys SSBFreak had warned them about.

“Hey! Let go, you little twerp!” Giovanni shouted as he tried to shake the Fall Guy off of him. The Fall Guy remained holding onto him, refusing to let go. Giovanni saw the bat swinging towards him as he started to panic, stepping up his efforts to get the grabby Fall Guy to let go. “I-I’m serious! I-If you don’t let go then we’re BOTH going to-”

*THWAP!*

Giovanni realized all too late that trollish Fall Guys didn’t care about winning. Giovanni received the huge, foam bat to the face as he was sent tumbling over the side of the platform, falling head-over-heels down into the pool of slime with the ragdolling Fall Guy that had decided to bring him down with him.

Jumping over the bat, Lin Fei glanced downward as she watched Giovanni hit the slime. When he didn’t reappear on the platform, she came to a conclusion as to what would happen. “Okay. Stay out of the slime. Good to know.” She muttered as she watched the bat speed up as it came around again.

(Hotel; Hallway)

Juri leapt at Choi and swung a leg, attempting a powerful roundhouse as the shorter fighter rolled out of the way causing Juri to accidentally strike another garbage can. Juri didn’t falter, however, and spun her head around to grin manically at Choi as the smaller fighter bared his claws and rushed her in a desperate attempt to keep her away. Juri leapt backwards as Choi slashed at her and then landed a foot into his face, making the small fighter tumble backwards.

While Choi was on his back, Juri smirked and leapt into the air over him and prepared to bring her heel down on his face. Choi quickly snapped to attention and rolled backwards, slashing at Juri’s leg as she hit the floor where he had been. Juri grunted in annoyance as Choi’s claws raked her leg but looked otherwise unfazed as she glared daggers at the small fighter.

“Oh, I can’t wait to kick out a few of those teeth of yours, shrimp!” Juri cackled as she rushed Choi again and swung her foot in a flying roundhouse, looking like she had engulfed her foot in flames as she did.

“H-Hold up!” Choi pleaded as he rolled to the side, barely avoiding Juri’s foot as it flew past him. Due to Kim’s rigorous training he knew how to fight someone who fought primarily with kicks and, though he hated it, he was used to fighting insane people as well due to a few KOF fights with Yamzaki.

“You want me to hold up, shorty? You shoulda thought about that before you decided to get nosy.” Juri smirked as she kicked again, striking Choi’s claws as they were coming at her face, deflecting Choi’s attempted attack and following it up with another kick to the face.

With Choi stunned, this left him open for Juri to lash out and strike him with a fast flurry of kicks, bouncing him between the wall of the hallway and her attacks several times. One spinning roundhouse later and Choi was sent flying several feet away down the hall, landing flat on his face. Juri gave a smirk as she approached Choi’s downed form, grabbed him by the back of his head and hauled him up.

“You know? Not long ago I’d think that you’d be up for helping out in this little venture.” Juri admitted. “But now you think that you can just grow a conscience and try to throw a wrench in things? You don’t even know what’s going to happen.”

“I-I know enough that when things start brewing between villains that it never ends well!” Choi stammered as he swung wildly with his claws while Juri was holding him up, though found that she was holding him just out of reach. “The last time some villains tried something in this dome it caused its destruction!”

“You forgot to mention the part where that’s MY problem.” Juri smirk as she pulled her fist back and prepared to strike Choi while she was still holding him.

Thinking quickly, Choi spun around while Juri was holding him, managing to generate enough speed that he managed to create a whirlwind around him, surprising Juri by lifting her off her feet and sending her crashing into the wall herself, making her let go of him. Relieved that he could at least even the odds now, Choi quickly rushed Juri and prepared to continue fighting her before she could get up again.

Luca Blight’s huge sword smashed into the floor as Lola Pop swerved to the side, avoiding his attack before sending one of her springy fists into his face. Unlike with Zant, this strike did little other than annoy the huge, insane despot as he grunted when the fist hit his face.

“You are doing nothing but make me angrier, clown woman!” Luca sneered. “I’ll rip those taffy arms of your off and strangle you with them!”

Lola Pop narrowed her eyes. “You are just as angry as the last one that lashed out at me.” She mentioned as she pulled her fist back and got into a stance. “Seriously, what do people have against clowns these days?”

Luca rushed Lola Pop again and swung his sword. Lola Pop held up her hands in an attempt to block against the blow but Luca had put so much of his power into the swing that he broke clean through her defenses, making Lola Pop stagger backwards in recoil. Seeing that he had the advantage, Luca rushed at the clown fighter again and swing his sword multiple times, attempting to hack away at Lola Pop’s defenses. Luca cackled each time he swung his sword, knowing that it was only a matter of time before his power broke through whatever defenses Lola Pop had left and cut her in half.

Clenching her teeth in pain, Lola Pop managed to break through Luca’s attacks, seeing an opening mid-swing and inflating her body into a balloon, causing Luca’s next swing to bounce off of her body, making the huge man fly back in recoil. As Luca recovered, Lola Pop deflated her body back to normal and rushed forward, swinging her fists rapidly and striking the large man in the face several times as the head was the only part of Luca’s body not covered in armour.

Luca grunted in annoyance as he swung blindly through the flurry of attacks Lola Pop was giving him. The clown boxer saw the sword coming and backflipped out of the way, having to leap as far as she could due to Luca’s longer reach that his gigantic sword gave him. As Luca lunged forward and tried again, only to swing at nothing but air as Lola Pop slammed her fists into the ground and used them to propel herself into the air, overtop of Luca as he went underneath her. Lola Pop quickly slammed her fists into Luca’s back while she was still in the air, slamming him into the floor as she landed on her feet.

Grunting in annoyance, Luca pushed himself up just in time for Lola Pop to extend her fist again and slam it into his face, knocking him down again. “Stay down!” She shot.

Luca turned around and glared firey daggers into Lola Pop’s eyes. “Never!” He yelled defiantly.

Choi and Juri seemed to be fairly evenly matched at this point; Choi’s small size and Juri’s flexibility made it hard for either of the two fighters to hit each other once the two had gotten more-used to the others attacks. Every time it looked like one of them was about to land an attack, the other was able to avoid the blow and make an attempt to attack themselves. Juri leapt backwards as Choi attempted to slash at her and kicked off his face in a backflip to put some distance between them.

Juri landed on her feet and gave a dark smirk. “You’re still standing. I’m impressed.” She mentioned. “You’re making this a lot more fun than I thought.”

“I’m trying to stay ALIVE!” Choi insisted.

“You knew what you were getting into the instant you decided to start tailing me.” Juri said as he eye started twinkling purple again. “Now hold still while I decide on how close to death I’m going to put you!”

Juri rushed Choi and leapt at him, aiming for his torso in a way that she would try to strike even if he tried dodging. Choi saw Juri flying at him with her fingers bared like talons and ducked low, letting Juri fly over him. While he was underneath Juri as she flew by above him, Choi swung his claws several times, cutting Juri’s torso and legs several times as she went over him. Juri shouted in pain as she landed awkwardly on the floor and tumbled into a wall.

As Choi pushed himself up and stared Juri down, staying in a defensive stance in case she wasn’t done, the psychotic woman pushed herself and turned around, letting Choi get a glimpse of the amount of cuts he had given her. Juri clutched at her stomach, where Choi had managed to draw the most blood, and tried to stand up before grunting in pain and collapsing onto one knee.

“Ugh…You little punk…You managed to catch me by surprise there…” Juri muttered.

“You threw yourself at me without thinking and I’m armed with claws.” Choi responded simply, staying on guard because he knew Juri was liable to try attacking him again anyways. “That’s on YOU.”

“So’s Vega and I fight him on a semi-daily basis.” Juri muttered. “Great. I’m going to need to get this looked at before I enter the ring…”

“I-I still need answers!”

Juri forced a smirk. “You think I’m going to spill anything, especially when I don’t actually know what he’s planning yet?” She chuckled. “You’re stupider than I thought.”

Juri looked at Luca, whom was in the process of holding up his sword as he guarded against another rapid-fire barrage of punches from Lola Pop. “Luca! We need to bail!” She insisted.

“Luca Blight does NOT back down!!” Luca sneered through his teeth as he defiantly continued to block. Swinging his sword, Luca managed to break through Lola Pop’s attacks and get the clown boxer to back off, leaping away from him.

“I can’t continue fighting like this! He caught me by surprise!” Juri replied. “You can’t fight the two of them at once!”

“I can fight an ARMY, you gnat!!”

In anger, and as if to prove his point, Luca roared and rushed Lola Pop again, only to bounce off of her when she quickly inflated her body at the last second. Lola Pop deflated herself again as Luca was bounced straight into the far wall of the hallway. Luca groaned in annoyance as he pushed himself up again, getting to his feet.

“Are you DONE yet?” Juri asked flatly.

Luca looked conflicted as he stared at Lola Pop, clearly wanting to finish her off but frustrated at the fact that he couldn’t seem to do so. Finally, after a few seconds of waiting, he shouted in frustration and turned to Juri. “FINE. We leave. THIS TIME.” Luca hissed.

“Oh, no! I’ve already had one person up and leave without giving any answers!” Lola Pop said as she pounded her fists together. “It’s not happening a second time!”

“Sorry, sugar. We don’t even have the answers for you even if we WANTED to spill them.” Juri chuckled. “Feel free to keep poking around, though. It could make for an interesting night for all of us…”

With that, Juri turned and rushed off as quickly as she could while still clutching her torso wound. Luca grunted in annoyance as he followed suit, though he took one more spiteful swing at Lola Pop (who backed away to avoid the attack) before following Juri. Choi and Lola Pop, despite both obviously looking for answers, let the two wander off, knowing that they were still dangerous to face and they didn’t want to risk setting either of them off.

This left Choi and Lola Pop alone in the hallway. Choi finally exhaled in relief, not realizing that he had been holding his breath. “Thanks for that. I was terrified those two were about to kill me.” He mentioned.

Lola Pop shook her head. “Don’t mention it. I was actually attacked by another weirdo not long ago and I guess I’ve been trying to find out why ever since.” She replied. “I…Don’t suppose you’d know what’s going on, would you?”

“I followed Juri and listened in on as much as I could but it sounded like she doesn’t really know yet.” Choi admitted. “I know that Ganondorf is apparently assembling a bunch of bad guys and villains but…That’s pretty much all I overheard.”

Lola Pop folded her arms. “Well, I guess that’s a start, at least. Now we have something to work on.” She admitted. “That is, if you’re committed to putting a stop to whatever this is.”

“I…Guess I don’t really have much of a choice, do I?” Choi asked aloud. “I’ve kinda already fought for my life so I guess I’m committed.”

Lola Pop chuckled. ‘I guess so. We’re going to need more than just the two of us in this, though.” She mentioned. “We don’t know how many other people this Ganondorf is recruiting.”

“I know, but where do we even start?”

“Hey, you two!”

Choi and Lola Pop turned in the direction of the new voice and saw Bear Hugger approaching, flanked by Blizzard Man, Jigglypuff and Machamp. Bear Hugger looked to have an amused expression on his face. “We just passed a couple of injured, ticked-off lookin’ baddies. I don’t suppose that was you two, eh?” He asked, pointing his thumb over his shoulder in the direction his group had just come from.

“Yeah, eh. We don’t suppose you two found anything outta them, did ya?” Blizzard Man asked hopefully. “They didn’t seem to be in a talkative mood and the big guy hit me in the head with his sword when I asked, eh.”

Choi and Lola Pop stood in silence for a few seconds before glancing at each other curiously.

(The Arena)

Scarlet swapped weapons to her steam-powered sledgehammer and swung it at Engineer’s sentry, striking it in the side and toppling it over, rendering it useless for now as she rushed Engineer, looking ready to swing at him with the hammer as well. Engineer hastily pulled his pistol from his pocket and fired a few shots at Scarlet but the steampunk lady was too swift and either dodged the bullets or deflected them with a swing of her hammer.

As Scarlet got close, she swung with her hammer, striking Engineer from above and spiking him into the canvas. As Scarlet stepped back, Engineer pushed himself up, looking a little sore as he rotated his shoulder.

“Okay. Yer a lot tougher than ya look, missy.” Engineer mentioned. “And I gotta admit that I’m impressed by those steampunk weapons of yours.”

“These are only two but they are still some of my favourites.” Scarlet replied casually.

“Man. I shudder to think about what kind of stuff you’d build with Australium…”

Scarlet opted not to respond and lunged at Engineer again. Swinging her hammer with all her might, Scarlet took aim at Engineer’s face. However, Engineer held up a gloved hand and managed to block the oncoming attack, catching Scarlet’s hammer with one hand. Scarlet’s eyes widened as she realized that Engineer was holding her attack back and had just blocked her attack barehanded. “W-What magic is THIS?!” She demanded.

Engineer gave a smirk as he swung his arm to the side, deflecting Scarlet’s hammer and sending her sprawling. Scarlet turned to look at her opponent and saw him removing his glove, revealing a primitive-looking prosthetic arm. Scarlet’s eyebrow lifted in curiosity. “Oh, now THAT’S impressive.” She mentioned. “Considering the time you come from and the fact that you lack the technology that I do, a prosthetic like that is quite advanced…”

Engineer gave a smirk as his metal hand spun around rapidly. “Thanks, missy. Means quite a bit comin’ from a fellow inventor.” He mentioned. “How about I show you first-hand how this works?”

Scarlet couldn’t help but give an amused smirk as she switched to her rocket lance. “Are you challenging me to a fight or are you trying to FLIRT with me?” She asked. “Because I’ll have you know that I’m a hundred years too OLD for you.”

“Shucks, you know Ah ain’t mean it like that.” Engineer chuckled as he used his metal hand to load another ammo clip into his pistol.

Scarlet didn’t respond again and rocketed forward on her lance, riding it like a horse as he flew at Engineer at high speeds. Engineer tried to use his metal arm to grab at the rocket lance but missed his attempted deflection as Scarlet flew into his stomach lance-first. While Engineer was distracted, Scarlet leapt off her lance, grabbed it and swung it upwards, striking Engineer under the chin ad lifting him off his feet with a jet of steam in what looked like an uppercut with the lance.

Engineer landed flat on his back as Scarlet leapt above him, hoisting her rocket lance above her and preparing to slam it engine-first onto his stomach, which would be sure to cause a powerful eruption of steam when it hit. Engineer quickly rolled to the side as Scarlet slammed the flat end of her lance into the canvas as he jumped to his feet and pulled out his shotgun again. Scarlet saw Engineer pulling out his firearm and acted quickly, holding her rocket lance in front of her face defensively as Engineer fired a couple of shotgun shots into her weapon.

However, Scarlet wasn’t prepared for Engineer to follow the failed shots with a swing of his shotgun, using it like a club. He managed to slip past Scarlet’s defenses with it as he struck the steampunk woman in the head with his shotgun, stunning her briefly and making her stagger backwards. Engineer saw that he had the advantage now as he lashed out with his metal arm and struck Scarlet with it a few times, knocking her onto her back. It looked like being hit in the face with a metal fist several times had dazed Scarlet to the point of keeping her from getting up again.

“Sorry ‘bout this, missy. Maybe after this is over we can talk shop.” Engineer said in a friendly manner as he picked up Scarlet by the back of her jacket.

Scarlet suddenly became aware of her surroundings again as Engineer hurled her over the top rope. Thinking quickly, Scarlet summoned her rocket lance and made an attempt to ride it back into the arena so that she could continue the fight. The rocket lance gave her a bit of ground as it looked like she would be able to make it back in with room to spare.

However, Engineer would be having none of that as he pulled his pistol into view and chucked it at Scarlet, bouncing it off her head and throwing her off her rocket lance, finally sending her down into an elimination vortex.

“Eh. That pistol had limited use anyways…” Engineer muttered to himself.

Scarlet landed in Mech Assault. Once she got her hands on a mech, nothing stood in her way.

Falke rolled out of the way as Bowser Jr. rolled by in his clown car in an attempt to run her over. As Falke rolled into a kneeling position, she pulled her baton into view and charged it up with a bit of psycho power as she pointed it at Bowser Jr. in an attempt to fire a projectile at the Koopa prince as he turned his clown car around to make another run at her.

However, Kula chose that time to skate past her on a path of ice, giving Falke a kick to the face as she glided past. Falke dropped her baton as she fired a shot of psycho power into the canvas uselessly and gripped her jaw where Kula had kicked her.

Falke had been fighting Bowser Jr. and Kula ever since she had entered the arena and, despite handling herself well enough fighting them both alone, she was still getting annoyed with their antics and how hard it was to hit either of them. The two seemed to enjoy toying with her since it was clear she was having a hard time trying to keep track of both of them at once. However, Falke had remembered seeing what had happened to Abigail earlier in the tournament with Sackboy and Pete and knew better than to just lash out. To outsmart these two, she would need to fight smarter…

“You can’t keep running around me forever, kids.” Falke narrowed her eyes as she started pumping more psycho power into her baton.

Kula skated a little further before spinning on her feet and turning to face Falke again. “It’s the best we can do against you if you keep trying to pick us off with that creepy magic of yours!” She called out. “It’s the same magic as Bison’s and I know better than to get anywhere NEAR that stuff!”

Falke chose not to respond as she switched her focus to Boswer Jr., seeing him pulling another Mechakoopa out from his clown car, chucking it at her as he drove by her. Falke saw the walking bomb flying at her and quickly fired a blast of psycho power at it from her baton, making the Mechakoopa freeze in midair as she watched its eyes slowly turn purple and the key in its back starting to wind up rapidly.

Giving a smirk, Falke spun in place and hurled the psycho power-fuelled Mechakoopa at Kula as she was in the process of skating over to her. The mechakoopa landed on the canvas directly in front of Kula and exploded in a ball of purple flames, empowered by Falke’s psycho power, knocking Kula off her feet and making her land flat on her back.

This left Bowser Jr. to deal with Falke alone until Kula recovered and Falke was quick to take advantage of the situation, stepping to the side as Bowser Jr. drove by again and jumping onto the back of his clown car as he unwittingly took her for a ride.

“H-Hey! Lady, get off my ride!” Bowser Jr. snapped. “I can’t control this thing when you’re holding onto the back like that!”

“Then how about I take over the controls for a bit?” Falke smirked.

Bowser Jr. tried to regain control over his clown car but Falke was able to manipulate the movement of the vehicle by leaning from side to side, steering the wild clown car towards a cornerpost. Bowser Jr. tried to recover and get control back but Falke drove his clown car straight into the cornerpost of the arena with a crash, leaping off of it just before it hit. Bowser Jr. was knocked about when his clown car hit the post and tumbled out of it entirely as the clown car tipped over onto one side from the impact.

Knowing better than to let Bowser Jr. get back into his clown car, Falke picked up the Koopa prince and drove her knee into his stomach, throwing him away and firing another bolt of psycho power from her baton into his downed form while he was trying to get back up, forcing him away from her again. Falke approached Bowser Jr. and charged another blast of psycho energy, preparing to take out one half of the nuisances before the other one could rush to his aid…

*SLAM!*

All of a sudden, Falke was hit in the side of the head with a bat of ice that shattered on impact, knocking her down and making her shoot another bolt of psycho power into the air wildly. Kula quickly skated over to Bowser Jr. and helped him up.

“This lady’s dangerous! That psycho power isn’t as powerful as it is with Bison but the fact that she has it at all makes her a threat!” Kula urged.

“Ugh. Papa told me that psycho power stuff was hard to deal with when he fought Bison himself a while back. It definitely hurts…” Bowser Jr. muttered. “We may need to pull out all the stops. You picked up two of those Power Stone thingies, right?”

“Yeah! I’ve still got them!”

Bowser Jr. pulled a Power Stone into view. “Take this and power up! I’ll use my Final Smash on her!” He urged. “We can take her together if we’re both powered up!”

Kula grinned. “Oh, this is gonna be fun!” She said as she took the Power Stone. As Kula was engulfed in a bright light, Bowser Jr. dug his single-use Smash Ball out from his clown car and smashed it with a hammer…

Falke pushed herself up, grunting in annoyance. “Ugh…I thought I had more time than that…” She muttered as she turned, only to freeze as she looked at what the two kids had turned into with their new forms. She saw that Bowser Jr. had shapeshifted into a watery version of Mario himself, armed with a magic paintbrush, but she had anticipated that due to it being his Final Smash. Kula’s however, was an entirely-different story…

Kula was now a being of rock-solid ice, standing at least twelve feet tall with huge, thick arms and legs made of pillars of ice shaped like huge icebergs. One could barely even see Kula’s regular body anymore in the middle of the huge limbs; it was just her upper torso sticking out of another huge mass of ice. Kula’s eyes glowed a bright blue as her hair, though still flowing freely, seemed to sparkle like ice. In this new form, Kula had become a literal titan of ice that stood as tall as Tinker Knight’s mech when it was still in the ring.

Falke’s eyes widened as she cursed out loud and stepped back as Kula looked over her new club-like hands. “Awww…I was kinda hoping I’d get a pretty dress like Elsa…” She lamented in an airy, echoy voice.

Bowser Jr., in his Shadow Mario form, seemed to be looking over Kula’s new form in awe. “Are you KIDDING?! That looks AWESOME!” Bowser Jr.’s voice came from somewhere in the watery Mario clone body. “Come on! We can totally whoop that lady now!”

Kula nodded as her massive new form followed Bowser Jr.’s more-swift form to continue fighting Falke. The Neo-Shadaloo member held her ground defiantly as she charged her baton with more psycho power and jumped back as Bowser Jr. swung his paintbrush at her, nearly splashing her with magic ink. Falke swung her baton and clashed against Bowser Jr.’s paintbrush a couple of times but leapt backwards when she saw Kula’s massive ice titan form swinging a huge arm down at her, attempting to crush her while she was dealing with the watery Mario clone.

What followed was Falke making every attempt that she could to avoid getting hit by either of the two’s new attacks. Bowser Jr. was faster with his paintbrush swipes and Falke new better than to let herself get hit by any unknown substance that the paintbrush generated would do her no good, but he was quick and seemed to come at Falke from every angle with another paintbrush attack. Bowser Jr.’s flurries of attacks made it hard for Falke to keep at bay and trying to find an opening for her to get an attack in was hard enough without having to worry about getting hit herself.

And that said nothing of Kula’s new huge form that took every chance she got to swing her huge, club-like arms at Falke every opening that the Neo-Shadaloo member thought she had. Bowser Jr. would swing a paintbrush at Falke a few times and then back away for Kula to take a swing herself. More often than not Falke was too busy trying to deal with one of the two that she completely overlooked the other, leaving her open to attack.

Falke tried to hold up as best as she could but found herself open for too long when, after knocking Bowser Jr. backwards with a hard, well-placed kick to the face, Falke turned to Kula only to see the huge ice titan exhaling a cold wind onto her. Falke backed up slightly as the cold enveloped her, leaving her a frozen statue of ice when the cold wind died down (aka when Kula stopped exhaling in Falke’s direction).

Bowser Jr.’s Final Smash finally ended as he returned to his normal form and laughed as he approached Falke’s frozen body. “That was so COOL!” He cackled. “Boy, if you found a way to unlock that form without needing those stones then we’d be unstoppable!”

Kula, noticing that she was still in her ice titan form, looked over her huge arms again. “I still don’t think I like this form…” She mentioned.

“Aw, don’t worry about it! You’d get used to morphing into huge, superpowered abominations! My dad does it all the time!”

Kula glanced over the frozen Falke. “So…How do we decide who eliminates her?” She asked out loud.

Bowser Jr. scratched his head. “Do you have a coin we can flip?” He asked.

“If I had a coin I would have bought ice cream. There’s a reason Foxy and Diana don’t let me carry spare change any more…”

Before Bowser Jr. could respond, a new figure flew in from out of view and crashed into Falke’s frozen body, shattering the layer of ice around Falke and releasing the Neo-Shadaloo member, knocking her very out-of-it form flat on her back. Bowser Jr. and Kula jumped in surprised as they watched Lord Hater pushing himself to his feet, having been thrown into the fray while he and Mimikyu were trying to deal with the Koopa Troopa.

“Ugh…How many different shells does that thing HAVE?” Lord Hater moaned as he suddenly spotted Bowser Jr. Growning in anger, Lord Hater rushed over and grabbed Bowser Jr. by the back of his shell and held him in the air. “YOU! How the blazes have you not CONQUERED anything by now if your forces are as strong as HIM?!” He demanded, guesturing to where Bowser Jr. and Kula saw the Koopa tussling with Mimikyu.

Bowser Jr. blinked in confusion. “Uh…Are you seriously having trouble with a normal KOOPA?” He asked.

“That thing is NOT normal! He’s been hitting us with new forms and different shells and…And weapons, and…A-And...” Lord Hater yelled. He trailed off when he, Bowser Jr. and Kula suddenly became aware of the sounds of what sounded like a helicopter floating overhead. As Bowser Jr. and Kula looked around in confusion, Lord Hater groaned in exasperation and looked up. “Get back down here, you idiot! You’re not ACTUALLY a helicopter!”

The helicopter noises suddenly stopped.

*CRASH!*

You hear that? That was the sound of a suddenly-realizing-he’s-not-actually-a-helicopter Petey Piranha falling out of the sky and landing directly on top of Kula’s huge ice form, crushing her underneath his weight. Petey sat up, looked around dumbly for a few seconds and slowly got up, seemingly forgetting that he had spent half the section defying physics and pretending to be a helicopter just because he was told he was one.

As Petey got up, Bowser Jr. caught a glimpse of Kula laying flat on the canvas, out cold from being crushed under Petey’s weight and now back in her normal form. Petey seemed to take notice of Kula, picked her up and dropped her over the top rope, sending her prone form falling down into an elimination portal. “H-Hey! That was so cheap!” Bowser Jr. complained.

Lord Hater rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, I’m starting to have second thought about bringing him into my ranks as well.” He admitted as he chucked the flailing Bowser Jr. over the ropes as well before turning to Petey. “Now can we PLEASE get back to fighting the Koopa?” He asked. Petey nodded dumbly as he followed Lord Hater, the former leading him back into the fight Mimikyu was still having with the Koopa Troopa.

Falke, laying flat on her back, groaned as she slowly regained consciousness. “Ugh…W-What happened there?” She asked aloud as she pushed herself up.

Unbeknownst  to Falke, as she was pushing herself up, Crash Bandicoot slipped into view behind her. Crash glanced to the side and wiggled his eyebrows with a cheeky grin a few times before grabbing Falke by the legs.

Before Falke could register what had happened, Crash had slammed her into the canvas by pulling her down and then hurled her out of the arena. Crash glanced to the side again, gave a wave and moonwalked away.

Falke landed in Battletanx. Unfortunately for her, Bowser Jr. had landed there ahead of her, had already commandeered a tank and was looking mad.

Simon Belmont lashed out with his whip, aiming for Dawson McShane’s neck. The cowboy raised his arm and allowing Simon’s whip to wrap around his forearm before pulling back with all his might, yanking Simon towards him and leaving the vampire slayer open to a hard right hook to the face.

As Simon staggered backwards, Dawson swung his head and struck Simon in the face again, this time with the spurs tied into his ponytail. Simon retracted his whip and staggered backwards, holding his face for a second, before turning to Dawson and narrowing his eyes, watching as the cowboy got into another stance and gave a cocky smirk.

“You’re quick, cowboy. But my resolve is stronger!” Simon challenged.

“Hey, just ‘cause you fight vampires for a living doesn’t mean you have it rougher.” Dawson smirked. “Need I remind you that everyone where I come from is constantly fighting for a second chance at life?”

Simon stared as he drew his boomerang cross. “That may be. Perhaps I need a new strategy against you, then…” He mentioned.

Simon hurled his cross at Dawson, whom leaned to the side and let it sail past. He wasn’t expecting the cross to be a boomerang, however, as he felt the cross slam into his back on its return trip to Simon’s hand. With Dawson stunned, Simon rushed forward and slammed his fists and knees into the cowboy’s body multiple times. Delivering a powerful rising uppercut to Dawson’s chin at the end of the combo, Simon launched the cowboy backwards and sent him falling flat on his back.

While Dawson was down, Simon drew his whip and lashed it out, wrapping the whip around Dawson’s leg while he was pushing himself up. Pulling with all his might, Simon yanked Dawson into the air with his whip and slammed him onto the canvas a couple of times. As Simon was preparing to swing him into the canvas again, however, Dawson instinctively drew his shotgun and fired blindly, causing Simon to back away in surprise as he instinctively tried to dodge the shot fired at him. This caused his whip to let go of Dawson’s leg as the cowboy dropped onto his feet again, uprighting himself before he hit the canvas.

Reloading his shotgun again, Dawson took aim at Simon and opened fire again, this time aiming it for his opponent instead of just firing blindly. Simon acted quickly and threw a bottle of holy water at the canvas near his feet, creating a pillar of fire that melted Dawson’s bullets as they passed through the flames with the intense heat. As the flames died down again, Simon threw his boomerang cross again, causing it to cut through the remaining flames and strike the surprised Dawson in the chest, making him stagger backwards as the cross returned to Simon.

Simon again lashed out with his whip, sending the spiked ball at the end of the whip flying at Dawson’s face. The cowboy received a sharp blow to the face, leaving him open for a diving kick from Simon and allowing the vampire hunter to get up close with him again. However, as Simon lashed out with his fists again to start another combo, Dawson managed to hold up his arms and block the blows. Carefully waiting for an opening in the attacks, Dawson lashed out with his knee, managing to catch Simon in the torso and making him stagger backwards, leaving him open for Dawson to rush forward and give the vampire hunter a flurry of punches of his own, striking with surprising power and force with each blow. Dawson finished the combo with a hard standing kick and knocked him onto his back.

Dawson smirked as he stood over Simon. “Looks like I’m a bit faster on my feet that the zombies and skeletons you usually tussle with, eh?” He chuckled as he drew his pistol and loaded a couple more bullets into it. “I’m kinda runnin’ out of non-silver bullets but I think I may have eliminated the only werewolf in the contest anyways so I guess I came overprepared.”

Simon pushed himself up, caught an attempted punch from Dawson and countered, knocking the cowboy back on his feet. Simon fished a new item from his pocket as Dawson was recovering, showing off his single-use Smash Ball. Crushing it in his hand, Simon engulfed himself in a glowing aura. “I won’t make the same mistake of continuously underestimating you, my friend!” He called out. “I see now that I need to pull out all the stops for this!”

Dawson cursed. “Crap! I forgot about those!” He muttered, having realized that he had focused on the Power Stones in dealing with Mordex in the previous section and had forgotten about the existence of the Final Smashes for dealing with the Smash roster.

Simon was off like a shot, rushing Dawson and getting up close again. Dawson was instantly on the defensive and made an attempt to roll to the side to avoid whatever Simon was going to lash out but it seemed that Simon was anticipating this. As Dawson rolled to the side, everything seemed to go in slow motion as Simon lashed out with his whip, striking the retreating cowboy in the leg.

That seemed to be enough for Simon to trigger his Final Smash. Rushing in close again, Simon attacked Dawson and summoned a coffin several feet behind the cowboy. With one hard attack, Simon knocked Dawson into the coffin, which slammed shut the instant the cowboy had been thrown into it. Simon followed up by lashing out with his whip, wrapping the chain around the coffin several times as he yanked it close and tossed the coffin containing Dawson into the air.

As the coffin holding Dawson was passing by over his head, Simon leapt into the air and engulfed himself with a holy light that erupted into a huge, towering pillar that shot straight into the forcefield around the arena. The pillar of holy light engulfed the coffin containing Dawson as the audience erupted in cheers for the spectacle. The power of the light shattered the coffin around Dawson , overwhelming the cowboy with holy light that seemed to be naturally emanating from Simon’s body as the pillar of light sent him skyward, surrounded in broken splinters, the only remnants of the coffin that he had literally just been trapped in.

As the pillar of light died down after only a few seconds, Dawson tumbled clear out of the arena, too far out to do anything to try and get himself back in as he fell helplessly down into an elimination portal. The audience’s cheers at Simon’s performance continued for several seconds after the light had died down.

Landing gracefully on his feet, Simon exhaled in relief as he adjusted his bracers and made sure his whip was still attached to his belt. “I didn’t think I’d have to use my Final Smash but maybe I gave him too little credit at the start…” He muttered to himself. Maybe he’d have to look up Dawson later and see if that half-vampire from his node fought like an actual vampire…

All of a sudden, something flew into Simon’s back from behind, knocking the vampire hunter down. Simon found himself underneath another competitor and pushed himself up, forcing the offender off of him with his superior strength. He quickly turned around. “What is the meaning of this?! You attack someone from behind like that?!” He said before realizing who he was shouting at.

“Like, sorry about that, man! That wrestler guy, like, totally hits harder than it looks!” Shaggy said nervously, backing away from Simon. “Please don’t crush me with those bulging biceps of yours, dude!”

Simon narrowed his eyes. “Hmph. It seems like you need a little lesson in manners.” He said as he drew his whip again. “I may not like raising a weapon against an unarmed youth but perhaps this will get you to wisen up.”

Shaggy backed up a little more, waving his hands in front of his face. “L-Like, don’t make me do this, man!” He half-pleaded.

“Do what?” Simon asked flatly.

*POW!*

Shaggy’s fist found the bottom of Simon’s chin, lifting both into the air. Everything seemed to go in slow-motion for Simon again as he continued to feel the power of Shaggy’s fist slamming into his chin, sending what felt like waves of untapped power flowing through the punch as the vampire hunter was launched into the air. As Shaggy finally pulled his fist away from Simon’s chin, the vampire hunter rocketed out of the ring as well, reeling from the force of the uppercut.

Shaggy landed on his feet and sighed as he brushed his shirt off. “Like, I told him I didn’t wanna do it.” He lamented.

“Yo, Shaggy!”

Shaggy turned and saw Matt struggling to get out of a headlock from Antonov. “A little help here?” Matt asked, looking more-annoyed than anything.

“O-Oh! Sorry, Matt!” Shaggy said as he jogged over to continue fighting Antonov.

Simon materialized in the Multiversal Matchup void, floating in space surrounded by the others that had already been there. Kula had arrived as well and seemed to be pouting that her run had ended the way it did (or maybe she was still upset that her Power Stone form didn’t give her a pretty dress). Toxtricity was still playing his invisible guitar and Ember was polishing one of her katars, likely preparing for whenever the section ended. The Duck Hunt duo had, by this point, curled up and had fallen asleep, despite still floating endlessly in the void.

“Well, look who it is.”

Simon turned and spotted Dawson floating nearby. He couldn’t help but give a chuckle. “Doesn’t look like you lasted long after givin’ me the boot, huh?” He asked.

Simon sighed and rubbed his jaw. “Why did that single punch have that much power behind it?” He asked. “How could a human youth be that strong?”

(Dome; Smash Bros. Locker Room)

Richter slapped his forehead. “Seriously, why did he think raising his weapon at Shaggy would be a good idea?” He asked aloud flatly. “How did he not know about his power levels?! Facing Shaggy is on another level from Dracula!”

Lucina blinked. “How are you the bigger memer of the two of you?” She asked.

(Multiversal Matchup)

The quintet of Byleth, Lin Fei, Proto Man, Sagat and Steve stared up at the very-vertical obstacle course in front of them, surrounded by the remaining Fall Guys. The obstacle course, with multiple levels leading up to a finish line at the top, could only be described as a skyscraper of padding, platforms, spinning barriers, swinging mallets and coated from top to bottom in slime that, by this point, everyone left knew would be extremely-slippery on any surface.

“…What the heck is THIS?” Byleth asked flatly.

“Looks a bit like a…Skyscraper of slime…” Proto Man mused. “I guess a…Slime-Scraper, then?”

“If I was where I was about ten years ago I probably would have killed you for that pun.” Sagat said flatly.

Proto Man’s eyes widened behind his shades. “Augh! I didn’t even mean that!” He moaned. “I’ve been hanging out with Auto too much…”

“How many more rounds of this can there possibly be?” Lin Fei asked. “There are still five of us left.”

Sagat sighed. “I don’t know but these senseless competitions are starting to get irksome.” He mentioned. “Scrambling for a tail was humiliating enough.”

The round started as the remaining, dwindling group set off, starting their trek up the long, tall obstacle course. Steve jogged ahead with several of the Fall Guys, saw the beans jumping at the lower walls and climbing themselves up and realized that he could utilize some shortcuts by climbing himself.

Sagat watched Steve scrambling up a wall and pulling himself up and noticed that all he was skipping was a couple of second by bypassing the first corner at the top of the first ramp. “Why are they going through that trouble to shave a few seconds?” He asked aloud as he ran up the ramp the normal way. “It seems pointless.”

As Lin Fei rounded the corner at the top of the ramp and started following the group as she made her way towards the first obstacle. She glanced downwards and suddenly saw that the pool of familiar-looking slime underneath the obstacle course starting to rise up, having already covered the starting area at the bottom of the course.

“It’s that slime again!” Lin Fei cursed. “It’s rising this time!”

“Why does that slime keep following us?! How many games has that stuff been in now?!” Proto Man said.

As the group of Fall Guys (and Steve) scrambled across the first obstacle, a group of disappearing platforms, the rest of the survivors started falling to the back of the pack as they realized that they needed to time their jumps. As Steve threw himself across the platforms with reckless abandon (like he does), the others started to fall behind.

Lin Fei looked down at the platforms as she made her way across. Several of the Fall Guys awkwardly tumbled between platforms or through the air just as a platform disappeared as they tumbled down into the slime, vanishing on impact and eliminating themselves from the game. Seeing that the slime was raising at an alarming rate, Lin Fei realized that everyone needed to pick up the pace and that they couldn’t really afford to be careful anymore; they’d just run the risk of letting the rising slime catch up to them.

Reaching the end of the disappearing platforms, Lin Fei saw that the next obstacle was a constantly-running treadmill. “Ugh…Another treadmill. Why does it seem they are as numerous here as those giant hammers are?” She asked aloud as she carefully leapt over to the treadmill and started running so she didn’t get tripped up.

Proto Man landed on the treadmill just behind her and started running, managing to keep the pace with little issue due to not having to worry about stamina running out (due to being a robot and all). “That slime is still rising!” He called out. “Is it going to chase us all the way up the course?!”

“I’d say to count on it.” Lin Fei. “I also think that the beans things are onto something with taking quicker routes up the course. It allows them to make mistakes at the more-difficult parts of the course and still stay ahead of the slime…”

Proto Man glanced around as he ran. “So how do we do that ourselves? I don’t see a lot of ways for us to get to higher ground without going through most of the obstacle anyways.” He mentioned.

“I think I can see a way. We just need to-”

“Hey-ooooooo!!”

Steve suddenly fell down from the next level up, having been knocked off by an obstacle and landing on the conveyor belt just in front of Lin Fei. Normally, Lin Fei was agile enough to leap over an obstacle like that but because Steve had just fallen down from out of nowhere and directly in front of her he had caught her by surprise, causing her to trip over Steve’s prone form and landing flat on her face herself.

Steve quickly realized that he had fallen down to the next level and jumped to his feet to scramble down the conveyor belt a second time as Lin Fei tried to get herself to her feet. Unfortunately, due to being on a conveyor belt, it didn’t take long for Lin Fei to be dumped off the edge before she could get to her feet as the martial artist was send tumbling down into the still-rising slime.

Proto Man cursed as he watched Steve catch up to him on the conveyor belt. “Are you just NATURALLY this clumsy or are you doing this on purpose?” He asked flatly.

“Heyo?” Steve asked curiously.

Proto Man sighed as he decided to ignore Steve. “Just don’t point your rocket launcher at me.” He lamented. “I dealt with that thing enough in the ring.”

Steve shrugged as he continued jogging down the conveyor belt for the second time, watching as a couple more of the Fall Guys fell into the slime after bouncing off the conveyor belt themselves. Looking ahead, Steve saw another conveyor belt set up a few feet away from the one he and Proto Man were currently riding on. The racers would need to jump the gap between conveyor belts and land on the second one, not stopping their running the entire time.

Getting ahead of Proto Man, Steve jogged up to the end of the conveyor belt and leapt off the edge, hoping that his timing was right because the slime was at the point where he didn’t have another chance at making it. Steve flew through the air, making it about halfway between the two conveyor belts…

…And then a section of the wall pushed out and knocked Steve out of the air.

“H-Hey-ooo-” Steve sputtered as he fell headlong into the slime, getting cut off as he made impact with it.

Proto Man cursed again, though secretly thankful that Steve had just shown him that he needed to watch his surroundings; he just needed to hope that, by the time he reached the end of the conveyor belt himself, his timing would be better and he’d avoid the timed wall trap…

Further up the obstacle course, Sagat was trying to push himself through openings on multiple spinning walls, each one set up on a turntable moving in the opposite direction. Sagat took pride in his size and height but in cases like this he felt like it was more of a detriment. He saw a couple of Fall Guys ahead of him but he was managing to stay ahead of the rest of the pack for now. He just had a couple more levels to go and he would make it to the top of the obstacle course.

“Hmph. I’ve gained a bit of ground on the crowd.” Sagat noted. “They must be having trouble with the obstacles further down…”

All of a sudden, Sagat heard a familiar sound of a chain unfurling. Looking up, Sagat saw Byleth flying over head, using her chain-linked sword to skip the obstacle holding him up entirely. Sagat narrowed his good eye and fired a Tiger Shot into the air, striking Byleth while she was in midair and bringing her out of her level-skipping mode, causing her to crash down on the ground just ahead of him at the end of the current obstacle.

Byleth groaned as she pushed herself up and drew her sword, retracting it back into a regular sword shape again. “What was that for?!” She demanded.

“You’re just blatantly cheating with those tools of yours! You need to run the course like the rest of us!” Sagat accused.

“Hey, I’m using the tools I was given!” Byleth insisted. “It’s a lesson I teach my students all the time!”

Sagat narrowed his good eye. “Fine. If you insist on using those trinkets of yours then I’ll just show you how useless they can be.” He said. “I’ll beat you to the top with nothing but my natural power!”

“Oh, NOW you’re interested in the game?” Byleth smirked.

Sagat didn’t respond and leapt over Byleth, lunging forward in an attempt to give himself more range on her. By the time Byleth saw what Sagat had done he was already reaching the next corner and climbing to the next floor up. As Sagat did, one of the couple Fall Guys that was still ahead of Sagat had fallen down, bounced off the platform he had climbed up to and off into the slime.

Drawing her sword, Byleth aimed up at the next level and lashed out, extending her sword and causing it to latch onto a platform to draw herself up to it. By the time Byleth had reached the next level, she realized that she was about to reach the exact same spot on the next level that Sagat was at the same time. Swinging her leg, Byleth caught Sagat in the face with a kick and stunned him, knocking him down as she pulled herself up to the next level.

Byleth pulled her sword back and looked around for another surface to hookshot herself to. All of a sudden, Byleth noticed that she was standing on a track of three lines, each one adorned by a bat that was rapidly moving up or down the line. Seeing that she was standing in the path of one of the bats, Byleth tried to move to the side and found that the entire floor of this level was covered in low-traction slime. Byleth barely managed to get out of the way before the bat hit her as it continued down the path it was on, sailing towards Sagat.

Pushing himself up, Sagat stared ahead and held out his hands, opting to catch the bat rather than try to get out of the way. As Sagat caught the rubber obstacle, he snapped the bat off at the base using his hands, looking more annoyed at the obstacle than anything. Byleth suddenly realized that Sagat was more-than-capable of completing this course using nothing but his muscle as she quickly turned in place and prepared to extend her sword again.

“You won’t get that chance again!” Sagat shouted as he lashed out another Tiger Shot, slamming it into Byleth’s back.

As Byleth staggered forward, stunned from the projectile, Sagat lunged forward, intending to fly by her again while she was distracted. Byleth seemed to snap to attention as she spun in place and prepared to swing her sword, intending to aim a swing at Sagat’s torso. However, in turning around, she ended up slipping on the slime under her feet, causing her to lose her balance and topple over to the side of the course in a bout of lost balance. Byleth landed face first on a panel just off the track.

*BOING!*

Sagat briefly paused as he watched Byleth sail over his head, being launched by a hidden springboard under the panel she had just inadvertently activated. Byleth tried to extend her sword to pull her back onto the course again but by this point the slim had risen too high and she fell headlong into the liquid.

Sagat saw that he was unchallenged and moved further up the course, realizing that he was closest to the end now. Reaching the final turn and climbing up to the final level, Sagat looked ahead and saw a single Fall Guy making an attempt to leap over another gap, only to be hit midair by a flying obstacle, falling into the gap and tumbling down into the slime. This left the roar clear for Sagat to continue up unhindered. All it would need was a couple more jumps across moving treadmills, avoiding a couple more swinging pendulum obstacles and one last climb up what looked to be a slime-coated pinball table to the finish line.

All of a sudden, Sagat heard the noises of someone approaching from behind. Turning in place and expecting one of the surviving Fall Guys, Sagat paused when he saw Proto Man making his way up the previous level, using his shield to defend himself against the force of the rubber bats that would have otherwise knocked him down.

Sagat looked around. “Are we the only two left?” He mentioned. “I don’t think I’ve seen you since this round started.”

Proto Man narrowed his eyes behind his shades. “Look, this matchup has been a little hectic for the both of us.” He replied. “How about we just finish this round and hope that we can focus on the next one without having to worry about a sea of instant-elimination slime?”

Sagat paused, glanced over his shoulder at the finish line that still hadn’t been crossed yet for a few seconds, and then back at Proto Man. “This annoying matchup has gone on long enough. I say it stops here.” He said sternly.

“You can’t be serious.” Proto Man sighed. “That slime is still rising! It’ll take both of us out at once!”

“Not necessarily. I’m still higher up the course than you are.” Sagat replied casually as a light smirk floated across his face.

Proto Man paused, realizing that, if he didn’t make a move, Sagat was indeed higher up the course and would be sure to still be on dry land when the slime caught up to Proto Man. Gripping his shield, Proto Man narrowed his eyes as he stared up at Sagat, who got into a stance. The two knew that they likely only had a few seconds to spare with the still-rising slime but all they needed was for the other to touch the slime first in order to win the matchup and they seemed to be aware of that.

Proto Man acted first, racing at Sagat and arming his Proto Buster. Sagat fired a couple of quick Tiger Shots at the oncoming robot, only to watch as Proto Man’s nearly-indestructible shield blocked the shots easily, allowing the robot to continue running at him unhindered. Sagat held up his arms to block a few shots from Proto Man’s arm cannon and held his ground as the robot rushed closer.

Lunging at Sagat, Proto Man held out his shield to block any attempted attack as he made the attempt to run past the tall human. However, it seemed that this was what Sagat was anticipating as he quickly lashed out with a Tiger Uppercut, striking Proto Man in the air and launching him up. Before Proto Man could get too far away from him, Sagat grabbed Proto Man by the ankle and slammed him into the ground.

“I tire of this challenge. This ridiculous world has been causing me no end of headaches since we arrived and I just want this to end.” Sagat said simply as he stood over Proto Man’s form. “Now stay down and just let the challenge end. We’ve both let this drag on long enough.”

Proto Man grunted as he rolled onto his back, seeing Sagat standing over him. He narrowed his eyes up at Sagat. “You…You know something my annoying little brother and I have in common?” He asked out loud before gripping his shield.

Sagat looked down at his fallen opponent.

“We don’t know when to QUIT!”

*WHAM!*

Proto Man’s shield bounced off Sagat’s forehead, causing the large fighter to stagger backwards. As Sagat was distracted, Proto Man jumped to his feet, grabbing his shield as it flew back into his hand, and then kicked Sagat in the chest, making him stagger even further backwards.

Holding his head, Sagat tumbled backwards, realizing all too late that he was approaching the edge of the platform he had been standing on. Briefly looking back as he started falling backwards, Sagat barely had time to shout in surprise or shock as he toppled off the platform and into the slime below.

Proto Man watched Sagat vanish into the slime and sighed in relief, putting his shield back into position on his back again. “That was the strangest competition I think I’ve ever done…” He muttered.

“Looks like that’s it, everyone! We’ve got a winner!”

Proto Man looked over his shoulder and saw SSBFreak’s hologram materialize nearby. “Well, this round turned out to be about as chaotic as I was expecting it to do, even with the unconventional means to complete the courses that some of the contestants had. All I can do is hope that the Fall Guys don’t get any ideas from that or else this game could just become Pay 2 Win with all the blatant skill abuse I just witnessed.” He admitted, rubbing the back of his head. “Nevertheless, all but one of the competitors has fallen into the void of elimination and we have ourselves a winner: Proto Man!!”

Proto Man sighed in relief. “I’m not used to this kind of insanity.” He mentioned. “I think I was saved a few times solely because of my shield.”

“Hey, you gotta use what you’ve got in these things, Proto Man.” SSBFreak shrugged. “It helped you outlast seven other players, after all.”

“AND all of the residents of this world as well, I suppose.” Proto Man admitted.

“Wooooooo!”

A long Fall Guy suddenly flew past Proto Man, continuing his way up the course towards the finish line. Proto Man froze, watching the Fall Guy go up towards the finish line, only then realizing that the game hadn’t actually stopped when Sagat went into the slime. Before Proto Man could register what had happened, the slime had caught up with him. Proto Man vanished the instant the slime touched his feet, leaving SSBFreak’s hologram floating in silence, clearly not expecting what had just happened either.

“…Oh, right. I forgot that there was a game still going on.” SSBFreak admitted. “Um…I guess he DIDN’T outlast all of the residents of this world after all…” He looked around awkwardly for a bit. “He’s…Not going to be in a good mood when he respawns in the Recovery Room…”

(Dome; Hallway)

“Look, all we know is that apparently this whole thing is involving Ganondorf in some way and it seems he’s recruiting people to help him.” Choi admitted. “That’s what I got out of Juri and Luca Blight when I was listening in on them.”

“Well, that’d explain those two bad guys we tussled with earlier, eh?” Bear Hugger turned to Blizzard Man.

“They, they were definitely up to somethin’.” Blizzard Man nodded. “And one of ‘em was even that Ghirahim guy, eh? He works with Ganondorf, don’t he?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you two!” Jigglypuff snapped indignantly. “He even got those lizards on his side!”

“AND he probably recruited K. Rool and a couple of his lackeys.” Bear Hugger added. “We walked in on them beatin’ up these two Pokemon-thingies.”

“Yeah, and they were definitely looking to go somewhere suspicious, eh?” Blizzard Man agreed. “Yeah, I totally wouldn’t be surprised if this Ganondorf guy got them on his side, either.”

Jigglypuff stared flatly. “I’m going to kill them.” She said.

“Jiggs, NO.” Machamp said sternly.

“They’re just repeating what I say!”

“You and I BOTH know they can’t understand either of us.”

To everyone else, Jigglypuff and Machamp’s talking was just Pokemon-speak, so Lola Pop folded her arms and nodded as well. “I got attacked in the restaurant by that weirdo Zant guy.” She added. “He also works for Ganondorf, I believe.”

“Was he recruiting anyone else?” Bear Hugger asked.

Lola Pop paused. “Uh…No. He just…Lashed out at me and tried to stab me while I was ordering food.” She admitted. “I didn’t see anyone else with him.”

“Huh…That’s kinda weird.”

Choi was silent for a few seconds. “So what do we do? Clearly Ganondorf is up to something and…Well, just from the sound of things he’s recruiting a lot of dangerous people.” He mentioned. “Juri? Urien? Luca freaking BLIGHT?”

“You think we’re outta our depth?” Blizzard Man asked.

“Look at us! There’s only six of us! For all we know Ganondorf could be amassing an army!”

The six stood in silence for a moment, looking around at each other and wondering who should speak first to offer their opinion. “Well, things usually happen at these tournaments, don’t they?” Bear Hugger asked. “Shouldn’t we be focusing on learning more about what may be going on and doing some recruiting of our own?”

“The first stop would usually be the Eliminated Seating but it’s still early enough on in the tournament and not as many people will be there yet.” Choi admitted. “And I don’t know how much more we’re going to learn now that they know that people are onto them in the first place.”

“Speaking from experience?” Lola Pop smirked.

“Hey, I’m just saying that I’ve participated in these tournaments more than anyone else here.” Choi informed. “Not everyone automatically goes to the Eliminated Seating right after respawning in the Recovery Room.”

“So what do we do, eh?” Blizzard Man asked. “Just kinda…Wander around and get into fights with bad guys?”

Lola Pop shrugged. “I’ve already gotten into two fights. What’s a few more?” She mentioned.

Machamp smirked. “I like her already.” She mused to herself.

“That ain’t the way to go about this, missy.” Bear Hugger scolded. “That’s just a sure-fire way to getting us picked off.”

“So what DO we do? The only lead we have to go on is that Ganondorf is involved with SOMETHING and it’s something that involves a lot of recruiting.” Lola Pop asked. “It seems like the Eliminated Seating is still the best way to go for now to at least get a few more allies. At the very least it’ll get us a few more sets of hands.”

“That may be but we may be a little suspicious if we set foot up there. None of us have entered the arena yet and you ain’t even a fighter tonight.”

Choi sighed. “It’s probably as good a plan as ever, though.” He admitted. “We should head over there and-”

“Uh…Is this thingy on?” A voice asked through a nearby intercom, one that was probably blaring throughout the dome and hotel. “Could the…Walking Canadian stereotype please report to the Ready-Room-thingy and get ready to enter in the next section? We noticed you still haven’t clocked in yet.”

Everyone turned to Bear Hugger and Blizzard Man. The two glanced at each other for a few seconds, then looked back up at the intercom. “Which one?” The two asked as one.

“Khall, you idiot! You need to be more-specific!” SSBFreak’s voiced scolded in the background through the intercom.

“More-specific? You mean there’s more than ONE walking Canadian stereotype in this competition thing?” Khall’s voice asked. “Uh…Okay, then. The…Real hairy human guy that likes to hug bears?”

“His name is Bear Hugger!”

“There is NO way that is his real name. Who the heck names their kid ‘Bear Hugger’?” Khall’s voice asked. “That’s like naming your kid ‘Bald Bull’ or ‘Pizza Pasta’.”

Bear Hugger blinked as the sounds of SSBFreak’s head hitting his desk several times echoed through the intercom. “Huh. We musta been wandering the dome longer than we thought.” He mentioned. “I didn’t realize it was already coming up to Section Six.”

“Wait, this is good! You can see if you can do some scouting in the ring!” Choi interjected. “It’ll give us a head start and warn other people about what’s going on!”

“Uh…Sure. I guess I can do that, eh.” Bear Hugger shrugged. “The bunch of us could when we enter the arena…Well, I guess except maybe for the Pokemon.”

Jigglypuff stood in silence, her eye twitching. Everyone else seemed to ignore her for now.

“Remember to keep your eyes peeled for anyone who you think we could use on our side.” Choi reminded. “I…Really don’t think we can be picky at this point. If they are willing to listen and chip in, I say fill them in.”

“Sounds like a plan. Hopefully we can get a few allies outta this.” Bear Hugger nodded. “You head on over to the Eliminated Seating and start recruiting, then. I guess I’ll either meet up with you all in the ring or after I’m out.”

The others seemed to come to an agreement, wishing Bear Hugger luck as he wandered off down the hallway to get ready to enter the arena. The others went off in another direction, hoping to track down the Eliminated Seating and get in without being spotted by the security team, hoping that they were busy dealing with something else when they arrived.

(The Arena)

Lord Hater fired several magic lightning bolts at the Koopa Troopa, hoping to get lucky and land a hit. The Koopa’s small frame and agile nature was making him as annoying to hit as Wander would tend to be and the times Lord Hater DID manage to land a hit the Koopa had turned his back and the lightning had struck his protective shell instead.

Needless to say, this was making Lord Hater angrier every time his shots failed to land a hit. “Can one of you two hold him down while I build up some energy?!” He demanded.

Mimikyu suddenly made his presence known by lunging into view and grabbing hold of the Koopa with a shadowy hand. Mimikyu quickly turned in place and hurled the Koopa backwards, sending him flying straight into Petey Piranha’s always-open mouth. Petey was knocked backwards from the force of the Koopa flying down his gullet and was knocked backwards on his feet, screeching to a halt. Petey stood in silence for a second before groaning and holding his stomach.

Lord Hater blinked. “Uh…That works, I guess?” He mentioned.

All of a sudden, Petey’s stomach lunged forward a bit, pulling the huge Piranha Plant ahead a couple of steps, then his back lunged backwards, pulling him back again. Lord Hater and Mimikyu watched as Petey was knocked about from the inside several times, pulling the huge plant in every direction and even into the air a bit. Petey stood in wavering silence after the lunging stopped, looking queasy, as he fell flat on his back.

The force of Petey falling over launched the Koopa out of his mouth. The Koopa was launched into the air and then, while airborne, grew in size by at least five times. Lord Hater screamed as he saw that the now-huge Koopa was overtop of him and scrambled to safety as the giant Koopa came crashing down onto the canvas.

“Now you can grow in size?!” He demanded. “When have you ever been able to just do that?!”

The giant Koopa gave a smirk. “Giant Land; Mario Bros. 3.” He recounted.

“I-I thought those things were a sub-species and not something you could-”

*POW!”*

Lord Hater was cut off by a huge Koopa fist to the face, sending him rocketing across the arena. The large Koopa looked over his shoulder and saw Mimikyu sitting there, staring up at him curiously for a few seconds before having a pair of shadowy hands emerge from underneath his cloak, appearing ready to take him on alone with Lord Hater across the arena and Petey down for the count.

The Koopa looked over his huge hand. “Ugh. I don’t have a lot of time in this form…” he muttered. “I need to make this fast…”

The Koopa lashed out at Mimikyu with a huge fist, striking the canvas as Mikyu wafted around the fist like a paper bag in the wind. While the Koopa was distracted, Mimikyu lashed out with his shadowy hands, wrapping them around the Koopa’s forearm and using his strength to lift the much-larger opponent up into the air, slamming him down onto his back and causing the Koopa to revert back into his normal size to be able to slip out of the surprised Mimikyu’s grasp.

Seeing the Koopa getting loose, Mimikyu pressed the assault further, making another attempt at a grab as the Koopa slid backwards, narrowly avoiding getting grabbed again. The Koopa took the chance to duck into his shell and spin himself at Mimikyu, striking the Disguise Pokemon in the face (his real face; not the disguise’s face) that sent him flying backwards. Mimikyu reached out on instinct, managing to grab hold of the still-prone Petey Piranha as he kept himself from flying too far back. Mimikyu narrowed his eyes at the Koopa and leapt at him, lifting his disguise and preparing to swallow the Koopa into the darkness underneath his cloak.

The Koopa’s eyes widened when he saw that his attack didn’t send Mimikyu flying backwards as far as he had hoped. Ducking into his shell, the Koopa spun around in circles on the canvas, quickly stirring up what looked to be a tornado that shot into the air and lifted the surprised Mimikyu into the air, again like a bag in the wind. Mimikyu fluttered about in the air, trying to regain his footing to keep himself from floating out of the arena, as the Koopa finally stopped the twister and popped back out of his shell again.

The Koopa looked around as saw Petey slowly pushing himself to his feet. Thinking quickly, the Koopa rushed over to Petey, jumped off his huge head (knocking the huge plant down again, and sprouted wings on the back of his shell, turning his sights towards Mimikyu, whom was still in the air, Mimikyu saw the Koopa flying at him and lashed out with a shadowy hand, hoping to land a hit and deflect the Koopa, but his aim was off due to being disoriented in the air as the shadowy hand flew past the Koopa, whom tilted to the side to avoid the blow.

This left Mimikyu open for the Koopa to fly into, bouncing off and then flying straight into him again. The Koopa proceeded to bounce off Mimikyu several times, knocking the Disguise Pokemon further into the air with each hit, before backing away and lining up another shot with Mimikyu, whom looked to be too disoriented to try and upright himself anymore. Rearing back, the Koopa flew straight at Mimikyu, striking the Disguise Pokemon with a direct hit to the torso that knocked Mimikyu further out of the arena, opting to let Mimikyu fall into an elimination portal when he was too far out to try and get back in.

Mimikyu tried to extend his shadowy hands to grab the arena and pull himself back into the ring but found that he was still too disoriented from being hit so many times in succession and was unable to recover. It took a little longer due to his lighter weight but Mimikyu slowly floated downwards into an elimination portal as the Koopa returned to the ring.

“No! My minion!” Lord Hater wailed from the arena. “Now I’m stuck with just the plant!” Petey smiled dumbly in response.

Mimikyu landed in the doll mansion of Resident Evil 8. Seeing Ethan Winters running around and destroying dolls, Mimikyu decided to do the smart thing, find a corner and sit perfectly still.

Scyther held up his scythe arms in front of his face as a small earring struck them, blowing up like a tiny grenade. Despite blocking, Scyther felt the full force of the explosion and found himself being knocked backwards on his feet, screeching to a halt as he lowered his guard to watch Leona pulling another explosive earring into view, preparing to throw it at him.

Taking to the sky with his wings, Scyther avoided the next earring thrown at him and flew at Leona, swinging an arm at her in an attempt to cut her down. However, Leona swung her arms downward at the same time, timing her swing as a crescent-shaped slash formed in the air around her arms, striking Scyther as he was getting close and knocking him back again.

Leona saw that Scyther still remained in the air and narrowed her eyes. “I need to keep that thing grounded…” She muttered to herself as she jumped into the air, managing to grab hold of Scyther’s leg and swinging him down once she had a hold of him, spiking Scyther into the canvas and giving her an opening.

Scyther grunted as he rolled himself over, seeing Leona swinging her arms down at him while she stood over him. Scyther acted quickly again, swinging his own arm that deflected Leona’s attempted attack, throwing her off balance and leaving herself open for Scyther to get up and strike her a few times with his blades.

Forcing herself to push through the pain of getting slashed multiple times, Leona lunged forward and struck Scyther with her shoulder, hitting him in the face and knocking him flat on his back. Leona was quick to get on top of Scyther and struck him several times in the face, trying to force herself from leaning too far into her violent side and getting off of him after a few strikes. However, as Scyther was getting up again, Leona started charging up an energy around her fist that slowly looked like it was taking the form of a blade.

Scyther looked at Leona in time to see her lunging at him and plunging her energy-coated fist into his stomach. Leona pulled her fist back as the area she had attacked on Scyther’s torso exploded, launching the winged Pokemon into the air. However, Scyther managed to upright himself in midair and spread his wings, keeping himself in the air, as if realizing that staying on the ground wouldn’t be a good idea dealing with Leona.

Leona narrowed her eyes. “So you want to play that game?” She asked. “Fine. I guess I’ll just need to clip those wings of yours…”

Leona waited for Scyther to fly in close before crouching low and flying past him, striking him in the side as she went by. As Scyther was stunned in midair, Leona zipped back, striking him again on the return trip. The next thing Scyther knew Leona had hit him several times just by jumping past him, attacking him each time, over the course of just a few seconds.

Finishing up her attack, Leona coated her fist in energy again as she rushed at Scyther and slashed, creating what looked like a v-shaped slash in the air with the movement of her hand that cut through Scyther. The winged Pokemon shouted in pain as he was brought out of the sky, landing flat on his back again.

Breathing a few times, Leona made a mental attempt to calm herself and keep herself from going too far lest she accidentally awaken her Orochi powers. Seeing that Scyther was pushing himself to his feet again, Leona grabbed another explosive earring and raced at him, attaching it to his torso as she dashed past him.

Scyther looked down and saw the glowing earring attached to his torso like a sticky bomb and instantly started panicking, fumbling to get the earring detached before Leona detonated it but realized that his lack of actual hands were making it hard to get it detached without accidentally stabbing himself. Knowing he was short on time, Scyther glanced at Leona and rushed her, reaching out with his scythe-hand as he flew closer.

Leona tried backing away but was unable to avoid Scyther as he flew into her, taking the two of them into the air above the arena. Leona’s eyes widened as Scyther flew higher, realizing that he was intending on either catching her in the explosion when her earring went off or dropping her like a rock to the canvas below when the bomb went off. “Get off of me!” She shouted as she kicked herself out of Scyther’s grip before the two of them got too high.

As Leona fell down towards the canvas, she glanced up at Scyther and prepared to activate the explosive earring before she noticed that the glowing spot on Scyther’s torso wasn’t there anymore. Quickly realizing that Scyther had somehow passed the bomb back to her when the two of them were close, Leona glanced around to see if she could find the bomb before it went off. She suddenly noticed the glowing orb attached to her side and ripped it off, preparing to throw it.

*KA-BOOM!*

The bomb exploded in Leona’s hand, coating her in a cloud of fire that she fell through on her way back down to the canvas. She landed back-first onto the canvas, dazed and disoriented, a victim of her own explosive. As Scyther landed nearby, Leona struggled to push herself up only to realize that the combination of the explosive and the long fall had taken too much out of her and she was not able to get up again.

Leona looked up at Scyther as he approached. He stared at her silently, as if acknowledging her abilities, before lifting the ropes of the arena and pushing the prone Leona underneath them (since picking her up was kind of out of the question with blades for hands). Leona was too weak to make an attempt to try and grab the ropes as Scyther was pushing her under them as she tumbled down into an elimination portal.

Crash Bandicoot received a sharp blow to the head, courtesy of Engineer’s wrench, as he staggered back, stars spinning around his head. Engineer quickly grabbed a sentry gun that had been knocked over, uprighted it and hit it a few more times with his wrench in an attempt to upgrade it as quickly as he could.

“Let’s see how you like dealing with a couple hundred pounds of pure Texas steel, you orange devil!” Engineer grinned as he continued hitting the top of his sentry.

The stars finally vanished from around Crash’s head as he glanced at Engineer. “Buh?” He asked before freezing, seeing that Engineer had upgraded the sentry he was working on. The next thing Crash knew, Engineer was smirking and pointing at him as the sentry gun started firing multiple rounds at him. Crash scrambled to get out of the way as the sentry continued to fire at him, tracking his movement as the bandicoot ran about.

Pulling a Wumpa Fruit from his pants, Crash dashed at the still-firing sentry, leaping over a volley of bullets that it had shot at him before landing directly on top of the sentry. Using the Wumpa Fruit, Crash jammed it into the barrel of the sentry, plugging it up and stopping the bullet fire.

“H-Hey! Stop messin’ with my machines, you rodent!” Engineer said as he pulled his shotgun into view again. “You’re as bad as Spy!”

Crash jumped into the air as Engineer shot at him, zipping to the side as Engineer tried to tail his and pick him off from a distance. Engineer tried shooting a couple more times but when he was forced to reload his shotgun Crash took the chance to rush at him, grab the barrel of his shotgun and go into a tornado spin, pulling Engineer with him with a surprised yell. Crash spun around wildly for several seconds before stopping his tornado abruptly, sending Engineer straight into the air.

Grinning in anticipating, Crash leapt into the air after Engineer, got above him and performed his body slam, throwing himself directly on top of Engineer while he was in the air and slamming both of them down onto the canvas, knocking the wind out of Engineer as Crash took the time to do his trademark shuffle dance on his downed body.

Grunting in annoyance, Engineer lashed out with his robotic hand while he was on his back, grabbing hold of Crash’s leg. Crash froze as he looked down. “Eh?” He asked aloud before Engineer flashed a smirk and activated his metal hand, causing it to spin rapidly without having to move his arms. Crash’s expression drooped as he looked to the side just before being yanked off his feet and being forcibly spun into another tornado, this time at Engineer’s mercy as the mercenary pushed himself up before slamming the still-spinning Crash into the canvas, letting go of him and causing Crash to spin about like a top on his head for several seconds before finally stopping and skidding to a halt, ending upside-down on his head and shoulders.

“Heh. You’re a bit of a smart-aleck even though you don’t talk. You know that?” Engineer asked.

Approaching the downed and still upside-down Crash, Engineer pulled his foot back and prepared to kick the bandicoot in the face. Crash quickly sprung to life, pushing himself off his hands and sending him flying feet-first into Engineer’s face. As Engineer was knocked backwards, Crash pushed off of the mercenary’s face and pulled out his yoyo, throwing it out and bouncing it off Engineer’s nose, stunning him a bit more.

Pulling his hand away from his nose, Engineer looked at Crash just in time for him to kick him in the stomach, making him bend over in pain and put his face within range for Crash to give it a solid punch, knocking him back again and causing his hardhat to fly off on impact. Engineer quickly felt his head, as if checking for himself that the hardhat had been removed, just before Crash jumped into the air and bounced off his uncovered head.

“Augh! Stop doing that, you twitchy-” That was all Engineer could get out before Crash performed another belly flop from above, this time directly overtop the mercenary’s head, crushing him again underneath Crash’s surprising body weight. Engineer tried to swing his wrench to deflect Crash’s attack but the bandicoot was too fast and the mercenary found himself at the mercy of Crash’s combo.

Feeling like he wanted to step the attacks up a notch, Crash looked around and spotted Engineer’s sentry that still had a Wumpa Fruit plugging the barrel. Grinning, Crash spun over to the sentry as Engineer groaned and pushed himself up, looking dazed. He quickly picked up his hardhat as he glanced at Crash, getting ready to continue the fight, only to freeze when he saw that Crash was now holding his sentry above his head, jumping into the air above Engineer and with a grin on his face.

Engineer stood in silence for a second before placing the hardhat on his head.

*CRASH!*

Crash bludgeoned Engineer with his own sentry, breaking the gun apart upon impact and burying the mercenary in a pile of metal and unused bullets. Engineer didn’t seem to be getting up from this one and appeared to be finally down for the count. Crash grabbed the prone Engineer by the feet, went into another tornado spin and let go of the mercenary, throwing Engineer clear out of the arena.

Engineer crashed into the world of Minecraft. Within two minutes he had built a convoluted-looking flying machine that ran on redstone and pistons and was flying it across the sky.

Using his chained blades, Kratos slashed one of Sakura’s fireballs in half as it flew at his face before yanking the blade back into his hand. Acting quickly, Kratos rushed at Sakura and swung the blades multiple times, striking the young woman several times and finished the combo up with a kick to the chest, knocking Sakura on her back. Sakura rolled backwards on her back as Kratos swung a chained blade down at the canvas and propelled herself to her feet, lunging forward and landing a flying kick to Kratos’ face, making him grunt in annoyance as he staggered to the side.

Kratos looked otherwise unharmed and looked more-unamused than anything. “You’re quick, girl. I was right to go to you first.” He mentioned simply.

“Should I feel flattered?” Sakura half-joked.

Kratos gave a light, but still menacing, smirk. “You provide a good fight; one that I haven’t seen since Olympus.” He admitted. “The fact that you are a reigning champion in your own right will make victory that much sweeter if I win.”

“IF you win?” Sakura asked.

Kratos narrowed his eyes. “I’ve come to know that anything can happen outside of your home node. Even during my days in the Battle Royale I learned that even a cloth doll or a clown armed with a simple knife could still beat me in a fight.” He mentioned. “It’s not like back on Olympus where I can go one a one-god rampage against all the deities on the mount.”

Sakura couldn’t help but give a smirk, though it hid a shaky feeling that she was in a bit over her head. “Well, I hope I’m not going to disappoint you.”

Sakura acted first and lashed out with a spinning kick, only for Kratos to suddenly swap weapons and pull out a pair of large gauntlets, which he used to block the blow and catch Sakura by surprise. Kratos lashed out with a gauntlet and struck Sakura in the torso, launching her into the air slightly. While Sakura was in the air, Kratos lashed out with another chained blade, wrapping the chain around Sakura’s torso while she was in the air and swinging downwards with all his might, pulling Sakura straight into the canvas.

Kratos pulled his chained blade back into his hand, pulling it off Sakura as he did, and then ignited the blade itself in flames before spinning it again, aiming for Sakura’s side. The younger fighter managed to push herself into the air from her back, going over Kratos’ blade as it went under her, landing on her feet.

Once she was on her feet, Sakura rushed Kratos again and lunged at him with another spinning kick as he was distracted with his weapon. Kratos received multiple sharp kicks to the face as Sakura landed on her feet and swung her fist upwards in a Shoryuken, striking Kratos in the chin and launching him upwards. Sakura waited for Kratoss to fall closer to the canvas before striking him in the torso with another flying kick, launching him backwards.

Uprighting himself in midair, Kratos dug his chained blades into the canvas to keep him from sliding out of the arena and hauled himself to his feet. Narrowing his eyes, Kratos watched as Sakura rushed him again, holding up his blade and letting the young woman kick it. Once Sakura struck the blade, Kratos lashed out with his second blade in a counterattack, striking the younger woman in another combo.

Sakura was pushed backwards as Kratos unleashed a lightning-fast combo of flaming blades. Sakura was slashed several times as the god-slayer’s blades cut all over her body and she struggled to get her arms up to make the attempt to block the attacks. Before Sakura could find the chance to get her guard up, Kratos had wrapped the chain of one of his blades around her waist and Kratos pulled the weapon into the air, hauling Sakura off her feet and slamming her down on the other side of him before pulling the chain back into his hand.

Pushing herself up, Sakura looked up and saw Kratos swinging a blade down at her in an overhead arc. Rolling to the side and allowing Kratos to slam his blade into the canvas, Sakura fired a Hadouken into his chest, knocking him backwards. As he staggered backwards, Kratos lashed out with another blade, attempting to strike Sakura while she was recovering from her own attack.

Sakura saw the chained blade coming at her, however, and swerved to the side to avoid the weapon. This time, however, she grabbed hold of the chain just as Kratos pulled the weapon back and allowed herself to be pulled in close to Kratos while he was attempting to return his weapon to his hand. By the time Kratos realized Sakura was flying straight at his face, she had given him a hard hook and knocked him to the side.

Realizing that she had an opportunity she needed to take, Sakura rushed Kratos and delivered another fast combo of punches and kicks. Kratos attempted to swap to his gauntlets again but Sakura was too fast and when she saw that he was attempting to switch weapons she landed a jumping kick t his face to stun him again. By this point, Kratos was struggling to find an opening or even get the ability to block Sakura’s attacks; all he needed was to find a way to stop her attacks and he should be able to find an opening to continue the assault himself.

He wouldn’t get the chance, however. Sakura seemed to know that she was against a dangerous and deadly opponent and forced Kratos towards the ropes as she dealt blow after blow. Seeing how close he was, Sakura yelled and landed one final Shoryuken to his chin, launching Kratos into the air and over the ropes. Knowing that Kratos could pull himself back into the ring using his chained blades, Sakura lashed out with a Hadouken that struck him in the face midair, throwing him off long enough for him to tumble into an elimination portal.

Kratos landed in War of the Monsters, a tiny flea caught in the middle of a kaiju fight between a gigantic stone golem and an eyeball in the middle of a creature made of electricity. Kratos went to town on them both and lay waste to the city they were fighting in.

Squirtle shouted and slammed his fists into the canvas, creating a geyser of water underneath the feet of Lilly Pendragon. The aristocrat was launched into the air and landed flat on her face. Pushing herself up, Lilly looked ahead just in time to see Squirtle spinning at her, hitting her in the face with his shell and knocking her back even further.

Lilly grunted and pushed herself up using her sword. “I don’t know why I keep coming to these tournaments.” She muttered. “Do you just see me as a free elimination at this point?!”

“Squirtle!”

Lilly moaned. “I don’t know what I expected.” She mentioned before drawing her sword. “No matter. I’ll take my frustrations out on you regardless!”

Squirtle activated another Hydro Pump and fired a jet of water from his mouth. Lilly dashed forward, using her sword to cut through the water as she ran, and then gave Squirtle a sharp kick once she had gotten close enough. Soaking wet but otherwise unharmed from Squirtle attempted attack, Lilly swung her sword through the air in an attempt to dry it out as Squirtle pushed himself onto his feet.

Lilly lashed out with her sword, swinging it down at Squirtle in an attempt to finish the fight. Squirtle quickly sprung to life, however, and spun his shell to the side as Lilly slashed at him and fired another water jet into her face, using enough force to launch her backwards and send her falling onto her back a few feet away, her sword sticking into the canvas beside her.

Seeing Lilly down, Squirtle rushed forward, ducked into his shell and rode a powerful-looking wave towards her, aiming for her face. Lilly was quick to get up, however, as she yanked her sword from the canvas and held it in front of her face, blocking against Squirtle’s attempted attack and keeping him at bay. Lilly swung her sword, deflecting Squirtle’s attack and knocking the turtle Pokemon away from her and making him land on the back of his shell. Seeing Squirtle down, Lilly rushed at him and swung her leg, striking Squirtle’s shell and kicking him like a football.

In the air, Squirtle managed to upright himself and generated a wave of water underneath him to slow his descent to the canvas again. Squirtle saw Lilly swinging her sword again and fired another jet of water from his mouth, striking Lilly’s sword and deflecting her attempted attack, throwing her off-balance and leaving her open for Squirtle to strike in the face with his tail, stunning her so that he could follow up with a few more punches and kicks. Squirtle finished up the combo with another water geyser underneath Lilly, striking her in the face due to her stepping backwards a couple of steps.

Lilly landed on her back and grunted in annoyance as she pushed herself up again. “How am I supposed to beat this thing?” She muttered to herself before glancing at her sword. “Hmm…I think I have an idea…”

Squirtle saw that Lilly appeared to be on the ropes and started charging up another Hydro Pump, firing a huge jet of water at Lilly’s face from a few feet away from his opponent. However, as Squirtle was activating his move, he suddenly felt a huge electrical volt shock him. Squirtle shouted in pain as he stopped his Hydro Pump to see what can happened. “Squirt?!” He asked aloud.

Lilly stood her ground, holding her sword that now seemed to be surging with electricity. Lilly had apparently used her rune to augment her sword which, somehow, seemed to have given her an electrical edge over Squirtle’s water-based attacks. Lilly gave a smirk as Squirtle stepped back in surprise, not anticipating this turn of events.

Lilly was off like a shot, racing at Squirtle with renewed vigor. Squirtle stepped back again, opting to duck into his shell while he formulated a plan. Not being able to utilize his powerful water attacks was not something he was anticipating. He may be forced to rely on his Blastoise-level strength for this fight if he could get close enough to attack Lilly while she had the longer reach of her sword.

“Get out of that shell, you stupid turtle!” Lilly shouted. “You think you can just hide like a coward now that I have the ability to fight back against you?!”

Squirtle remained in his shell for a few seconds as Lilly struck it with her electrified sword a few times, showing that his shell was actually providing some protective cover from the lightning. Waiting until Lilly was between swings, Squirtle shot out in his shell and lashed out with his tail, striking Lilly in the face with enough force to briefly stun her. Squirtle saw an opportunity to get close as lashed out with his short arms, hoping to land a hit hard enough to do some serious damage.

Lilly was faster, however, and managed to shake off the stunned state she was in in to to see Squirtle making an attempted attack. Lilly quickly held out her sword in front of her, causing Squirtle to punch her electrified sword instead. Squirtle yelled as several more high-powered volts went through him, causing him to back off in pain.

Knowing that she didn’t have much time before her rune wore off, Lilly rushed forward and swung again, stunning and electrifying Squirtle a second time and keeping him at bay. As Squirtle collapsed to the canvas, stunned with electricity, Lilly picked him up and, with one arm due to him being lighter, chucked him over the ropes and out of the arena.

Squirtle landed in Overcooked, where he was roped into making an attempt at making a plate of pasta. As it turned out, Squirtle is not a good chef…

“PK Thunder!”

Lucas generated a ball of mental energy and steered it towards a giant balloon in the air that had Tingle suspended from it. Tingle was about to make an attempt to drop a large bomb from above on top of Lucas but was caught off guard when Lucas’ PK Thunder flew through his balloon, causing it to burst and drop Tingle out of the sky, causing him to land flat on his face.

While Tingle was down, Lucas stepped back and held his hands out. “PK Freeze!” He shouted as he generated another ball of psychic energy, this one looking ice-cold to the touch, and directed it towards Tingle.

Tingle seemed to notice the PK Freeze coming at him and quickly inflated a balloon from his backpack, popping it and propelling himself forward into a roll so that he could avoid being hit. While Lucas was still distracted with directing the PK Freeze, Tingle rolled straight into him, striking him a few times and knocking him back, allowing Tingle to push himself up, looking overall unaffected by what had happened.

“Your magic tricks are so neat, Mr. Fairy!” Tingle said in glee. “If I can learn how to do them myself I’d become so respected as a fairy myself!”

“I told you that I can’t just teach you my powers!” Lucas mentioned. “I don’t think you have any psychic potential at all!”

Tingle didn’t seem to register what Lucas had said (due to having a bit of a one-track mind when it came to fairies) and pulled a few more bombs from his backpack, proceeding to chuck them at Lucas with no real aiming in mind. Lucas quickly rolled to the side, knowing that a PSI Shield wouldn’t help much against explosives, as the bombs exploded on the canvas around him. Lucas quickly rushed over to Tingle, ducking underneath the wave of bombs the green-clad man was throwing, firing a quick burst of psychic energy in Tingle’s face, knocking him backwards and stopping the barrage of bombs.

Not letting this set him back, Tingle jumped to his feet and rushed at Lucas. “Perhaps I should show you just how prepared I am to learn your magic!” He said as, while lunging at the psychic boy, he reached into his backpack and pulled out a huge, golden statue in Tingle’s own image that was as big as he was. Tingle slammed the statue down onto the canvas, launching Lucas into the air with the shockwave it created on impact.

While Lucas was in the air, Tingle inflated a large balloon in his backpack and popped it once it was three times Tingle’s size, launching him into the air in a flying tackle, slamming into Lucas in midair in a flying tackle. While in the air, Tingle pulled another bomb into view and kicked Lucas away before throwing the bomb down at him.

Lucas landed flat on his back and quickly noticed the bomb above him. Thinking quickly, Lucas lashed out with his hands while he was on his back and launched a PK Fire upwards, striking the bomb while it was still airborne and igniting it on impact.

*KA-BOOM!*

Tingle flew right into the bomb just as it exploded, launching him into the air with a surprised yell. Tingle quickly inflated another balloon to keep himself either in the air or to slow his descent as he floated down from above. Unfortunately, this just made him a larger target as Lucas sent another PK Thunder through his balloon and sent Tingle falling down into a free-fall again.

While Tingle was falling down this time, however, Lucas focused on him and activated his psychic powers, catching Tingle in the air and holding him in place for a second. Swinging his hands around, Lucas telekinetically threw Tingle around, slamming him into the canvas a few times to knock the wind out of him with each strike. Lucas made an attempt to psychically throw Tingle from the arena while he was dazed but after Lucas let him go Tingle sprung to life and spawned another balloon to keep himself from going too far. Tingle quickly deflated the balloon again and dropped to the canvas before Lucas could have the chance to shoot him down again and landed on his feet.

Realizing that he had a better chance against Tingle if the latter stayed in the air, Lucas generated some psychic energy and pointed it at the canvas.

Tingle, in the meantime, was giving an amused, child-like laugh. “You’re making this fun, Mr. Fairy! I’m learning so much!” He admitted. “Maybe we can swap notes after this is done! I can show you how to make life-sized sculptures!”

Lucas gave a smirk. “No.” He said simply as he fired a psychic blast at the canvas, launching Tingle into the air. Crouching low, Lucas jumped into the air after him and landed several hard kicks to Tingle in the air. Tingle tried to upright himself in the air or bring another bomb out of his backpack but Lucas was faster and continued to hit him with swats and kicks as he gathered more psychic energy in his hand.

Giving Tingle one final kick, Lucas narrowed his eyes as he watched the wannabe fairy tumble away. “PK Thunder!!” He shouted, generating another ball of psychic energy, steering it towards Tingle as he looked like he was trying to summon another balloon to get back into the arena.

Tingle flailed about as he tried to generate another balloon but Lucas’ PK Thunder slammed into his stomach and sent him tumbling away, cancelling out his attempt to inflate a balloon. The PK Thunder carried him further and further outside of the arena before dissipating, letting Tingle fall down headfirst into an elimination portal.

Lucas sighed in relief and lowered his hand, relieved that the fight was done but annoyed with himself that he had struggled as much as he did in the fight. Remembering that he still wanted to try and read Crash Bandicoot’s mind, Lucas turned around to do a quick scan of the arena. Crash was in the middle of his room and, for some reason, seemed to be imitating Engineer’s Yee Dance rather than his trademark shuffle dance while E. Honda appeared to be laughing at the sight. Shaggy and Matt had backed away from Antonov, opting to keep their distance from someone all too eager to tussle with them, while Lord Hater seemed to be lamenting the loss of “his most-competent minion” while Petey was giving him a dumb-looking, awkward pat on the back. Lilly Pendragon was wringing water out of her hat, Sakura was taking some deep breaths to prepare herself for the next round due to looking a little fatigued and the Koopa Troopa seemed to be cycling through a few of his different shells, trying to decide on which one to use next. Finally, Scyther was perched on a cornerpost, eyeing the rest of the survivors in the arena to see who he should go after next.

Doing a quick head count, Lucas realized that the section had ended. He turned his attention towards the entrance curtain, knowing that the next section was about to begin and the next wave of fighters was about to enter…

(Multiversal Matchup Void)

Tingle looked around as he floated in the multiversal void. “Oh! So many colours! Did I get warped to the fairy dimension?!” He asked aloud.

Ember rolled her eyes. “Is he ALWAYS this one-track?” She asked the Duck Hunt duo, who barked and quacked in confirmation to answer Ember’s question.

Leona tried her best to ignore Tingle’s nonsensical ramblings and seemed content to float in silence, knowing what would be happening soon and that she needed to be prepared for the battle ahead. The only thing she allowed herself to hear was Toxtricity still playing his invisible guitar. She had to admit that when he wasn’t thrashing punk music his music was actually pretty soothing.

“Oh! Heya, Leona!”

Leona looked over her shoulder and saw Kula swimming over. “I didn’t think you’d get eliminated that quickly.” She mentioned. “I swear I would have come over to help you but I kinda got distracted helping out my new friend.”

Leona sighed. “Well, what’s done is done. There’s nothing either of us can do at this point.” She replied.

Kula looked around. “Is…That eight? Are we all here?” She asked.

“I reckon so, missy.”

Kula and Leona looked up and saw Dawson and Simon floating overhead, floating by themselves rather than get involved. Dawson gave a tip of his hat in response to Kula. “That weirdo in the spandex was the eight so I think we’re due to warp pretty soon.” He replied.

“SECTION FIVE…ENDED.” The void’s robotic voice announced. “PREPARING PORTAL.”

“Right on cue.” Simon sighed. “I wonder where they’re going to dump us.”

Kula grinned. “I hope it’s somewhere colourful!” She beamed. “Maybe ice cream-themed as well!”

“And I thought that fairy guy had a one-track mind.” Leona gave a light smirk.

“I’m ready for whatever they throw at us.” Ember mentioned as she drew her bow and arrows as she looked down at the white light that was starting to engulf the entire void again. “Hey, heads up down there!”

Toxtricity, floating off by himself further downwards from everyone else, suddenly perked up and stopped playing his guitar. Toxtricity only had the time to look down and stare in bewilderment as the white light engulfed him, followed by everyone else in the void.

RESULTS (19 Votes)

Main Event

SCYTHER (PKMN): 14:5 = 9 (Plant Man, Leona Heidern)

CRASH BANDICOOT (PAS): 14:6 = 8 (Falke, Engineer)

SHAGGY (MV): 13:6 = 7 (Tinker Knight, Simon Belmont)

LORD HATER (WOY): 15:8 = 7 (Bowser Jr.)

ANTONOV (KOF): 12:7 = 5 (Ember)

MATT (WS): 12:7 = 5 (Toxtricity)

LUCAS (SSB): 12:7 = 5 (Tingle)

KOOPA TROOPA (SMB): 11:8 = 3 (Mimikyu)

E. HONDA (SF5): 11:8 = 3 (Scratch & Grounder)

SAKURA KASUNAGO (SF5): 12:9 = 3 (Kratos)

PETEY PIRANHA (SMB): 11:9 = 2 (Kula Diamond)

LILLY PENDRAGON (ST): 10:9 = 1 (Squirtle)

(ELIMINATED)

SIMON BELMONT (SSB): 10:9 = 1 (Dawson McShane)

MIMIKYU (PKMN): 12:11 = 1 (Duck Hunt)

ENGINEER (TF2): 10:10 = 0 (Scarlet)

LEONA HEIDERN (KOF): 9:10 = -1

EMBER (BH): 9:10 = -1

SCRATCH & GROUNDER (AOSTH): 10:11 = -1

KULA DIAMOND (KOF): 9:11 = -2

TINGLE (HW): 8:11 = -3

TINKER KNIGHT (SK): 8:11 = -3

SQUIRTLE (PKMN): 9:12 = -3

BOWSER JR. (SMB): 9:13 = -4

TOXTRICITY (PKMN): 7:13 = -6

DUCK HUNT (SSB): 7:13 = -6

KRATOS (PAS): 5:14 = -9

DAWSON MCSHANE (EC): 5:15 = -10

FALKE (SF5): 4:15 = -11

SCARLET (BH): 3:16 = -13

PLANT MAN (MM): 3:16 = -13

Current Top 10 Eliminations: Lord Hater (7), Mimikyu (5), Sakura Kasunago (4), Crash Bandicoot (4), Bowser Jr. (4), Engineer (3), Squirtle (3), Scratch & Grounder (3), Blanka (3), Mario Mario (3)

Multiversal Matchup

PROTO MAN (MM): 107 Points

SAGAT (SF5): 102 Points

BYLETH (SSB): 98 Points

STEVE (BL): 86 Points

LIN FEI (BH): 80 Points

GIOVANNI POTAGE (EE): 70 Points

LUCIEN (BH): 64 Points

PHANTOM STRIKER (SK): 54 Points

Side Battles

“Surviving the Sadists”

CHOI BOUNGE (King of Fighters) and LOLA POP (ARMS) scare off JURI HAN (Street Fighter 5) and LUCA BLIGHT (Suikoden Trilogy)

13 to 6

Survivor of the First Section: Lord Hater is officially the last remaining fighter from the first Section still in the main competition. Only time will tell how far he can keep this up.

And So We Fall: This section’s Multiversal Matchup was the closest one yet. The lead swapped between the top three multiple times before Proto Man got the last minute votes needed to win.

Chapter Text

(The Arena)

Everyone seemed to be taking a little bit of a breather now that they knew for a fact that the previous section had ended, though Lord Hater was being the loudest in the ring with his complaining about the loss of Mimikyu because that meant that he was stuck with Petey Piranha instead. Everyone else seemed to be doing their best to outright ignore the space tyrant as they focused on resting up; they knew that they only had a bit of time to rest before the next wave of fighters entered the arena and then they would just be starting the whole chaotic mess up again.

When the spotlights started shining on the entrance curtain, everyone knew that their rest time was up. Everyone (except for the still-complaining Lord Hater) turned their attention towards the curtain, wondering who would be the next fighter to come out. People like Sakura and Matt looked eager to continue the fight while Shaggy and Crash looked more-interested in doing other things (Crash was dancing and Shaggy pulled another sandwich from the canvas). Everyone waited in anticipation as the next fighter emerged from behind the curtain…

“JOKER!” (PAS)

Emerging from the curtain and dressed in his trademark mask and stylish jacket, Joker gave a wave to the cheering crowd as he drew his pistol and double-checked to make sure he had a full ammo clip. Satisfied, he put the gun away for now and gazed out at the arena.

“Hmm…I wonder if there’s a way to change the heart of that space villain.” Joker mused to himself as he made his way down the entrance ramp. “…Eh, maybe not. It’s looks like he’s suffering enough as it is.”

When Joker hit the canvas, he suddenly felt the jacket getting caught in a bit of updraft. Looking up curiously, he saw Scyther floating overhead, his low flying being the cause of the updraft. Joker couldn’t help but give a smirk. “I guess I didn’t really need to look far for a fight, huh?” He asked.

Scyther landed on his feet and seemed to give off a smirk himself as he got into a stance, as if confirming Joker’s queries. The leader of the Phantom Thieves pulled his knife into view and got into a stance himself. “Well, maybe you can give me a bit of a fight before the next dark-hearted villain comes in. Maybe you’ll give me enough time to build up my Persona as well.” He mentioned.

Baring his scythe hands, Scyther yelled at Joker and got ready to fight the Phantom Thief as Joker rushed forward and swung his knife. Scyther blocked the knife blow with his bladed hands and kicked Joker away before baring his blades again and preparing to fight the young human.

“RYUJI YAMAZAKI!” (KOF)

Standing tall, proud and with a dark smirk already floating across his face, the well-known Yakuza thug emerged from behind the curtain with a hand (as always) in his pocket. Gazing out at the arena, Yamazaki scanned for any potential help he could get but didn’t really see any potential allies in the arena.

“Kind of a sucky lineup at the moment. The only villain I see is that space guy and I know G-Man ain’t gonna want anything to do with him.” He mused. “Looks like I gotta make my own fun until some better candidates enter.”

E. Honda saw Yamazaki enter the arena and turned to face him, giving a smirk. “Oh, I remember you! I know that you go a little crazy with your fighting style!” He announced. “Maybe I can stay on my toes if I fight someone as unpredictable as you!”

Yamazaki rolled his eyes. “You sure you wanna do this, fat boy?” He asked. “I literally just got into the arena.”

“Of course! I wanted to get a chance to fight you before someone else took the chance!”

Yamazaki watched as Honda got into a sumo stance and readied himself for a fight. He pondered his options for a moment before giving a shrug. “Eh, sure. It’s your funeral, after all.” He mentioned. “Heck, I’m even in a pretty good mood so far so, just for you, I’ll not use my knife to gut you.”

Honda smirked. “You don’t want to face me at full strength? My sumo can take anything you dish out!” He mentioned.

“My hands will gut you just as fine on their own.” Yamazaki smirked back.

“TOADETTE!” (SMB)

Emerging next, and to a particularly-warm reception (and the theme song to Captain Toad), was a familiar pink mushroom creature with pink braids. Toadette gave the crowd a friendly wave as she made her way down the ramp and to the arena, holding what looked to be a comically-sized pickaxe over her shoulder. Toadette reached the bottom of the ramp and jumped in energetically to begin her run in the arena.

Lilly Pendragon was still in the process of wringing out her hat when she saw Toadette enter the arena and make her way over to her. “I don’t think I’ve seen you at one of these before. Is this your first outing?” She asked.

“You bet! I’ve seen a lot of these tournament things on TV and it got me prepared!” Toadette nodded. “I even brought my pickaxe from my explorer days to use as a weapon if I need to!”

Lilly sighed, narrowing her eyes. “Word to the wise; don’t get your hopes up. You won’t have the fun you think you will.” She mentioned. “I used to think that way as well.”

Toadette blinked. “Um…Didn’t you think that you’d be able to hide behind your bodyguards and just…Demand people let you win?” She asked.

Lilly’s eye twitched a few times before she placed her still-wet hat on her head and drew her sword. “Maybe I need to teach you a few manners.” She mentioned.

“Hey, that’s okay with me if you want to be my first fight in this.” Toadette shrugged. Lilly slashed at the pink mushroom. Toadette swung her pickaxe in response, clashing against Lilly’s sword with it and knocking her backwards a couple of steps when she deflected her sword. “Hope you don’t mind if I try a few things out, do you? I’m not as familiar with close-quarter combat that didn’t involve just jumping on bad guys’ heads.”

Lilly sighed. “I wonder if this is just fate’s way of laughing at me…” She muttered as she got into a stance.

“SPY!” (TF2)

(Who’s that; dressed to the nines?)

(No clue; is that a disguise?)

(With a classy suit and tie)

(Who will look good at your funeral? Spy!)

(It’s time to murder this track)

(You’ll find a knife in its back)

(Got equipment? Watch me break it!)

(Saw me die? I probably faked it!)

Emerging from behind the curtain, dressed in his trademark mask and neatly-pressed suit, Spy stood on the entrance ramp for a moment before pulling out his disguise kit and examining the combatants in the ring.

“Hmm…I don’t really see anyone I can disguise myself as at the moment…” Spy muttered. “Eh, no matter. It gives me more of a chance to show off with my natural skills for a bit.”

Lighting up a cigarette and pocketing his disguise kit for now, Spy strode down the entrance ramp, looking not in any particular hurry, as he stepped into the ring and adjusted his gloves and tie. Scanning the arena, Spy pulled out his cloaking device and prepared to go invisible to lay low for a bit and was about to push the button to cloak himself just before Antonov made his presence known, giving Spy a running clothesline and knocking him off his feet.

Spy landed flat on his face and pushed himself up to look at Antonov. “Ugh. May I HELP you?” He asked, annoyed. “Where I come from we don’t just introduce ourselves by going straight for the jugular. That doesn’t come until later.”

“I need to scout you out, friend!” Antonov admitted. “Someone who can magically disappear and disguise himself as other people? You would make a perfect heel fighter for the G.A.W.!”

Spy stared flatly. “You are seriously asking me to indulge in that drivel?” He asked. “You’re better off asking Heavy or Scout for something like that.”

“Sure, but only YOU can be the heel that my league desperately needs right now!” Antonov said as he got into a wrestling stance. “Come on! Let’s consider this a tryout!”

“I’ll show YOU a tryout, you buffoon.” Spy said as he drew his pistol and pointed it at Antonov.

“BARRAZA!” (BH)

Brawlhalla’s resident dystopian wastelander emerged from the curtain, looking more like a reject out of a Mad Max film as he hoisted an axe that looked like it had bits of scrap metal haphazardly attached to the blade and stick. Barraza scanned the ring, ignoring the audience reaction, as he looked around for someone he could fight first.

“Ugh. That pile of metal from that guy in the hard hat is gone.” Barraza muttered from the loss of Engineer’s materials. “I was hoping to salvage something before that metal vanished…”

Trudging down to the arena, Barraza stepped into the arena, his axe still drawn as he looked around for someone to fight. He didn’t have to look far, however, as Lord Hater was quick to approach, looking a bit more-desperate by this point.

“You there! You look tough, dangerous and like someone no one would want to mess with!” Lord Hater half-pleaded. “PLEASE become my minion! I can’t keep relying on just the plant!”

Barraza glanced upwards and behind Lord Hater. Petey Piranha stood tall, smiling dumbly and giving the wastelander a silent wave. “That depends.” Barraza explained. “Are you able to pay in gasoline?”

Lord Hater blinked. “Gasoline? People still USE gasoline in your world?” He asked.

“Gas is so sparse it’s practically become our currency.” Barraza hissed. “So if you aren’t able to pay up for my services I’m going to have to give you an axe to the face.”

“N-No, please! Not the face! I’ve already been stabbed in it too many times tonight!” Lord Hater pleaded.

“Hmph. Then make sure you put your money where your mouth is.” Barraza warned.

“I-I’ll remember that!” Lord Hater nodded before turning to Petey. “Right?”

Petey made a noise that seemed to question what Lord Hater had asked him, as if he hadn’t been paying attention. Lord Hater sighed and slapped his own forehead, slowly dragging his hand down his face in exasperation.

“Mystery…Fighter…ELEVEN…”

“DAPHNE BLAKE!” (Be Cool Scooby Doo)

The audience watched in surprise as a somewhat-familiar redhead emerged from behind the curtain. However, what surprised them was that, while this was still Daphne, she looked a little bit…Different. Most-notably, Daphne looked a little more-cartoonish than how she looked the last time she entered one of these tournaments. Daphne seemed pay the reaction no mind as she cheerily waved to the audience as she made her way down to the ring.

“Okay, Daphne. You’ve studied up on every sort of martial art that you could, rented all those cheesy action hero B movies and took part in a demolition derby or two using the Mystery Machine.” Daphne told herself, giving herself a pep talk. “I think you’re ready to handle a multidimensional fighting tournament.”

“Don’t forget the time we snuck into a royal rumble diguised as a professional wrestler!”

Daphne turned to her hand to look at the small puppet version of herself that she had on her hand, having used it to add onto her own conversation. “I don’t like to talk about that.” She scolded her puppet as she continued her way down to the ring.

Landing in the ring, Daphne saw someone familiar and her eyes lit up, jogging over. “Shaggy? Shaggy, what the heck are YOU doing here?” She asked.

Shaggy turned around, showing Daphne a view of his face. The smile suddenly vanished from Daphne’s face, replaced by a look of confusion. “Uh…Wait, you’re not Shaggy.” She mentioned.

Shaggy chuckled nervously. “Um…Like, actually I AM. Just…Not YOUR Shaggy.” He replied.

“What does that even mean?”

“Like, it’s a long story. Lemme just say that the multiverse is a real strange thing, man.” Shaggy admitted, rubbing the back of his head.

Daphne stood in silence as she drew another puppet into view, this one of Shaggy. “Like, this version of me’s kinda confusing me, man.” The Shaggy puppet said, Daphne doing her best Shaggy impersonation.

(Announcer’s Booth)

SSBFreak lifted an eyebrow. “Wait, what the heck?” He asked.

“What is it, boss-man?” Khall asked back.

SSBFreak reached for a stack of papers and looked through them. “I could have SWORN that I invited the mainline Daphne to this thing; the same one that entered the Tournament of Kikai.” He replied.

Khall blinked. “Oh, does Scooby Doo delve into multiversal stuff too?” He asked.

SSBFreak sighed. “It’s…A bit strange. Essentially, every Scooby Doo cartoon is in its own universe.” He explained. “Even the version of Shaggy and Velma from Multiversus appears to be from its own universe.”

“And you mistakenly invited the wrong version of Daphne?”

“NO. I KNOW I invited the mainline Daphne. This has Sheogorath written all over it.” SSBFreak moaned.

“Are you gonna call him in here again to vent?”

SSBFreak sighed. “No. I’m going to wait until he does something REAL egregious.” He replied.

“…Changing the invite and bringing a different version of the character you TRIED to invite isn’t bad enough?” Khall checked.

“It’s Sheogorath. This is actually kind of tame compared to what he’s capable of.”

(Hotel; Outside Gym)

“So this Cortex guy thinks that one of these star pieces is inside the gym?”

“Dat’s what he said, anyways.”

Pinstripe strolled nonchalantly down the hallway, tommy gun at his side and flanked by the large, bulky, very-top-heavy frame of Koala Kong and the spike-topped frame of Needle Man. The three of them had been directed to the hotel’s gym to search for one of the star pieces though it seemed none of the three seemed up to the task; Needle Man still looked mad about his arena and Multiversal Matchup performance, Pinstripe just didn’t look like he cared and Koala Kong didn’t seem to understand what was going on.

“I still don’t understand why we’re looking for these star pieces.” Needle Man admitted. “Dr. Wily is more-than-capable of taking over the world and it seems that this Cortex of yours is in the same boat.”

“One; he ain’t MY Cortex. Two; dere’s a reason neither of ‘em have taken over any worlds and dat’s ‘cause of meddlin’ heroes.” Pinstripe reminded flatly.

Needle Man rolled his eyes. “The literal only reason Dr. Wily can’t beat Mega Man is because that blue child has the ability to copy our moves.” He said. “Cortex CREATED the bandicoot. What’s HIS excuse?”

“Yeesh. Are ALL of youse Robot Masters this snarky?” Pinstripe asked with a smirk before glancing back. “What’re they like, eh, Kongy?”

Koala Kong blinked in confusion. “Uh…I’m just looking for stars.” He reminded.

“Dat’s where we’re GOIN’, ya palooka.”

“But I hate polka…”

“I said PALOOKA ya palooka.”

Needle Man gave a sigh as the trio approached the door to the gym. “Look. Let’s just do a quick check in here and leave again. The star piece should be easy enough to spot, right?” He asked.

“Yeah. If it’s in dere den we’ll find it.”

The three villains entered the gym, finding it almost empty save for one figure lifting some weights at one of the benches. It seemed that the weightlifter didn’t seem to hear the trio come in and resumed their workout.

Koala Kong absent-mindedly grabbed a barbell in one hand and started pumping it repeatedly, seemingly for no reason. “Is the star here?” He asked simply.

Pinstripe rolled his eyes. “Why d’youse always have ta pick up the first barbell y’see, Kongy?” He asked flatly. “Ya ain’t doin’ much to help youse portrayal of ‘resident meathead’ if youse keep actin’ like dat.”

Needle Man ignored the two mutant villains and scanned the gym, quickly spotting what looked to be a large belt hanging off of the bars of an exercise bike near where the lone gym user was working out. Needle Man took a closer look at the belt and saw something particular of note; a bright, sparkling, orange star adorning the belt like a buckle.

“Hey, look! It’s right there!” Needle Man pointed out.

“Hey! Yer right, pokey!” Pinstripe admitted before standing in silence. “Youse gonna get it?”

“With what hands?”

Pinstripe glanced at Needle Man and saw that, without proper hands, he didn’t actually have a way to grab the belt. “…Okay. Good point.” He shrugged before turning to Koala Kong. “Kongy, get dat belt dere.”

Koala Kong gave a nod and reached for the belt with the hand he wasn’t currently pumping iron with. All of a sudden, just as Koala Kong was about to touch the belt, the lone gym attendant made his presence know, leaping into view and hitting Koala Kong with a flying double-kick, knocking the towering koala backwards and making him drop the weight.

“H-Hey! What gives?!” Pinstripe demanded, jumping back when he saw the huge koala getting kicked.

The gym user was quick to scoop up the belt, showing that he was a familiar yellow bird-like creature with flowing, yellow hair, dressed like a wrestler and built like a muscle-bound tank. He slung the belt over his shoulder and held it almost protectively. “Back off, you bozos! You think I’m givin’ you a chance to hold my belt just like that?!” He demanded.

“Look, we don’t give a crap about the belt! We just need the buckle!” Needle Man insisted.

Rawk Hawk laughed. “Suuuuure, you do! That’s what they all say but what they REALLY want is to steal my belt and either keep it to themselves or sell in on the black market to the highest bidder!” He said. “Besides, I ain’t parting with my belt buckle, either! I found it fair and square a week ago! Do you know how hard it was to find a replacement buckle after the whole Crystal Star fiasco back home?! Even though my old buckle was a fake I still didn’t want it attracting attention!”

“Y’see, dat’s kinda funny.” Pinstripe said as he pointing his tommy gun at the wrestling champion. “Cause we’re here on a mission specifically for dat star and we ain’t gonna be leavin’ empty-handed.”

Rawk Hawk narrowed his eyes. “You think you’re gonna just walk over me like that and TAKE my championship belt?” He demanded, cracking his knuckles. “I’ll have you know that there’s a good reason I won that!”

“Youse a wrestler. Everythin’ you louses do is fer show.” Pinstripe rolled his eyes with a smirk.

“Is that what you think? Well, allow me to surprise you!” Rawk Hawk said as he got into a stance. “Get ready to be RAWKED!”

Needle Man narrowed his eyes. “We can overwhelm him with numbers. We need that star.” He informed.

“Youse and I both know dat.” Pinstripe nodded as he looked over his shoulder. “Get ovah here, Kongy! We need dose muscles of yours!”

Koala Kong blinked. “Uh…Okay.” He mentioned as he lumbered over, rubbing his head. “I thought we were here for the star, though.”

“We ARE! We just gotta beat dis guy’s skull in foist!”

Rawk Hawk scoffed. “You think you punks scare me? I’ll take all three of you on!” He challenged. “Bring it on!”

Pinstripe pointed the barrel of his machine gun at Rawk Hawk and narrowed his eyes. “One ways or anudder, I’m getting’ dat star…” He said darkly.

(The Arena)

“HERO!” (SSB)

Coming out to a somewhat mixed reaction, the hero of Dragon Quest seemed to pay the reaction no mind as he drew his sword and shield, gazing out at the arena. Glancing upwards at his menu of magic spells to double-check that his MP was full, Hero ran down to the ring and performed a high jump, using MP to give him a bit of extra height as he leapt halfway across the arena. The audience seemed to approve.

Hero landed on the arena canvas in front of Matt, making the Mii step backwards a bit. “That was some impressive air.” Matt lifted an eyebrow. “You lookin’ to start something, though?”

“Call it a bit of a curiosity.” Hero mentioned with a light smirk. “The Smash Mansion sometimes plays host to a bunch of Mii fighters and I want to see how well you compare to all of them.”

“…And you think I’m going to fight like those Miis that you’re used to?”

“The Miis can have different movesets and I think we’ve fought every variation multiple times.” Hero replied confidently as he got into his stance.

Matt gave an amused smirk in return. “Buddy, there’s a difference between a Mii Fighter and a Mii FIGHTER.” He said. “I should probably warn you that I’m going to be a lot tougher of an opponent than you’re probably expecting.”

Hero looked up into his spell menu and started looking for a good spell to equip. “I think I can manage.” He said. “So are you up for it?”

Matt glanced back at Shaggy, noticing that his friend was still in the process of trying to explain the concept of the multiverse to the different variation of Daphne (though Daphne just looked more-and-more confused the more Shaggy talked); he’d be on his own for a bit against Hero. Nevertheless, Matt glanced back at Matt. “I think I can spare a few minutes.” He replied with a shrug as he cracked his non-existent knuckles.

“Good to know. Hopefully you don’t disappoint!”

“Don’t worry, kid. I’ll try not to obliterate you.”

“BEAR HUGGER!” (PO!)

Emerging from the curtain was the familiar large, Canadian boxer of Punch-Out, though the reaction the audience was giving him was the last thing on his mind. Bear Hugger scanned the arena as he lumbered down the entrance ramp, looking for some potential villains to get answers from or some potential allies that he could bring up to speed.

“Don’t really see any real bad guys in the arena yet…” Bear Hugger mused. “I may need to see if I can do a bit of scouting but I may need to lay low for a while to keep from lookin’ suspicious and all that.”

When Bear Hugger hit the ring, he wandered over to where Lucas appeared to still be trying to use his psychic abilities on Crash’s mind. Said bandicoot was sitting in the middle of the arena, his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth, and seemed content to just let Lucas do his thing.

“What’re you kids up to?” Bear Hugger asked curiously.

“I’m trying to figure out what makes him tick.” Lucas admitted. “There’s only so much I’m finding out, though, and his mind is either almost-completely vacant or he has some of the best mental defenses I’ve seen.”

Bear Hugger scratched his head. “And he’s…Okay with this?” He asked.

“Well, I haven’t been shot at with a bazooka yet.” Lucas shrugged.

Bear Hugger was about to respond when he felt something moving in the pouch of his overalls. He looked down and watched as a small squirrel poked his head out into the open, looking sleepy. “Oh, you’re just waking up NOW?” Bear Hugger asked with an amused smile. “You missed a LOT, little buddy.”

Lucas lifted an eyebrow. “You carry a live squirrel in your overalls?” He asked.

Bear Hugger laughed as he pulled the squirrel into view, showing that the small animal was wearing boxing gloves. “Sure! Never asked for a better tag-team partner!” He replied.

“Your league ALLOWS tag-team BOXING?”

“Eh, you’d be surprised at what the league lets slip.”

“HEAVY D!” (KOF)

The audience cheered as the tall, stylish-looking boxer emerged from behind the curtain, giving a smirk as he scanned the crowd at the positive reception. Heavy D! took the time to remove his shades and tuck them away into a pocket of his jacket before setting his sights on someone in the ring.

“Good to see I’ve still got some of the support. Hopefully the time away from the ring in these things hasn’t made me rusty.” Heavy D! mused to himself before putting his fists to his face and dashing down to the ring, leaping in headfirst.

Lord Hater ducked under an axe swing from Barraza and suddenly saw Heavy D! landing in the arena and making his way over. “H-Hey! I need some help getting this prospect off my back!” He pleaded.

“All you need to do is cough up some gasoline!” Barraza informed. “Until you do, you’re an opponent just like everyone else!”

Barraza suddenly received a running punch to the face, lit up by a large explosion on impact, as the wastelander was sent rocketing away. Lord Hater looked up at Heavy D! and pushed himself up. “Um…I didn’t think you’d actually be coming to save me.” He admitted.

Heavy D! gave a shrug. “Eh, it’s more because I wanted to fight you myself.” He replied.

“Uh…What?”

“You’re the longest-running fighter in the ring. That makes you prime opponent material.” Heavy D! smirked as he cracked his knuckles. “I wanna see if I still got what it takes.”

Lord Hater blinked a few times…And then Barraza’s axe spiked into his head from behind, causing another bout of painful screams.

“Back off! I was here first!” Barraza hissed before pulling Lord Hater into the air by the axe still embedded in his skull.

Heavy D! narrowed his eyes. “You think I won’t fight through you as well?” He asked. “Fine! This’ll help me hone my skills even more!”

Heavy D! rushed off to save the flailing Lord Hater from Barraza (so that he could have the chance to fight him himself) and start a fight with the wastelander. This left Petey Piranha standing there alone, looking around as if wondering what he could do now. The thought of running in to help Lord Hater didn’t seem to cross his non-existent mind as he wandered off in a different direction.

“MR. MIME!” (PKMN)

(He never told me he was a mine!)

(He never told me he was a mime; oh, no!)

(Acting like he’s trapped inside a big, glass box all the time! What a crime!)

(He never told me! He never told me! He was a mime!)

(He walks against the wind everywhere we go!)

(Stops on every corner; gotta put on a show!)

(Carries round a picture of Marcel Marceau!)

(Always was the quiet type but how was I to know?!)

Meowth’s song-butchering came through the speakers again as a familiar mime-like humanoid Pokemon emerged from the curtain to a positive reception. Giving a friendly wave, Mr. Mime started jogging down the ramp but, due to being a mime, only succeeded in running in place for a moment. After a few seconds of running nowhere, Mr. Mime stopped and looked in thought for a second before getting an idea.

The audience watched as Mr. Mime performed the action of climbing onto an invisible motorcycle, revving it up as he did. All of a sudden, Mr. Mime started moving, hovering in the air and riding down the entrance ramp on an invisible motorbike, before doing a backflip in the air as he went off the end of the ramp.

“I still don’t understand why you have thse weird, awesome powers, Shaggy.” Daphne scratched her head. “I mean…Does this mean that MY Shaggy has them too?”

Shaggy shrugged. “I dunno, man. If you don’t, like, want him to get them, I recommend keeping him away from mystical crystals that he may mistake for rock candy.” He admitted with a sheepish smile.

Daphne looked over her shoulder when she heard the sound of someone landing on the canvas and saw Mr. Mime make his entrance. “Hey! A mime!” She said. “Do you mind if I take this for a second, Shaggy?”

“By all means, Daph. Like, I’m gonna grab another sandwich and then help Matt.”

Mr. Mime silently walked across the arena (quickly creating a barrier to his side to prevent him from being him by a rouge blast of lightning courtesy of a still-flailing-about Lord Hater) but was suddenly stopped when, all of a sudden, Daphne silently approached him, now somehow and suddenly dressed as a mime herself. Mr. Mime stepped back in surprise and scratched his head.

In her mime outfit, Daphne grinned as she placed her hands against an invisible wall, pretending that there was a barrier in front of her. Mr. Mime experimentally knocked against the invisible wall himself, as if testing it, then pulled out an invisible sledgehammer, striking the invisible wall and bouncing off of it comically. Daphne silently laughed and gave a teasing wave as Mr. Mime pounded his hands against the invisible wall.

“F.A.N.G.!” (SF5)

Coming out to a mixed reaction from the crowd, Shadaloo’ s new number two emerged from the curtain and did his best to avoid attracting attention as he made his way down the ramp.  He still didn’t know why Bison wanted so much to just sit back and do nothing tonight but F.A.N.G. had learned to respect his boss’ wishes and would make sure that he himself didn’t get involved with anything; the last thing F.A.N.G. wanted was to give Bison unwanted attention from other people…

However, just as F.A.N.G. landed in the ring (slowing his descent by flapping his arms), Bear Hugger noticed him enter and paused. “Wait. Ain’t that guy working for that Bison villain?” He asked himself aloud. “He’s probably a good a lead as any.”

Deciding to leave the encounter with Lucas and Crash (Crash had gotten bored long ago and had wandered off already), Bear Hugger made his way over to the lanky, clawed human and stood before him. “Uh…Excuse me, buddy.” He mentioned.

F.A.N.G. narrowed his eyes behind his shades. “Hmph. What could you POSSIBLY want, you fool?” He asked.

“Oh, nothing much, I guess.” Bear Hugger shrugged. “I’m just wondering what Bison’s got up his sleeve tonight.”

F.A.N.G. froze. “Um…W-What?”

“Look, it’s come to our attention that some of the villains here are up to something and I figure that Bison is for sure in on it as well like he usually is.” Bear Hugger pointed out. “Heck; he may one of the ringleaders.”

F.A.N.G. stepped back nervously. “H-Hey, now! I’ll have you know that Lord Bison is NOT getting involved with this.” He insisted. “He’s gotten involved so many times that he just wants some peace and quiet!”

“Sorry, pal. I don’t really buy that. A few of us have already been attacked and I kinda told them I would try to find stuff out.” Bear Hugger said. “Now, seeing as how you’re the only one that kinda fits that bill in the arena right now I guess you’re a good place to start.”

F.A.N.G. hysterically bared his claws. “Stay away you oaf! I have nothing to tell you!” He insisted.

“MIRAGE!” (BH)

Emerging from behind the curtain next was a young woman dressed in an Egyptian cloak, though some hi-tech gadgets could be seen on her wrists and torso underneath the cloak and scarf. Mirage smirked and spawned a staff into his hand as she zipped down to the ring, turning herself into a wave of sand to get her some more speed. Reaching the end of the ramp, Mirage burst back into her regular form and launched herself into the arena, spear held up and ready to attack.

Lucas watched Crash wander off and had tried to go after him when Mirage landed on the canvas near him and made a beeline for the psychic boy, lunging at him with her spear. Lucas flipped backwards as Mirage lunged at him and he kicked her spear on his way back down, deflecting her attack.

“Huh. You’ve got good reflexes, kid.” Mirage admitted.

“Is there a REASON you decided to go after me first?” Lucas asked as he took a step back. “I was kind of in the middle of trying to read someone’s mind.”

“Hey, you’re a known psychic. I wanted to try my hands on facing off with a psychic.” Mirage shrugged. “Plus, you weren’t doing anything right now.”

“Um…That plant thing isn’t doing anything either, right?” Lucas checked.

“Yeah, but I figured I’d get more of a fight out of you.”

Lucas sighed and did a quick mental scan of Mirage to see if she potentially had anything up her sleeves he should be expecting. He stepped back in surprise. “Wait…Those brainwaves…You aren’t actually from ancient Egypt?” He asked.

“Nope. I’m a time-travelling martial artist that ended up in Egypt.” Mirage winked. “What? Is my mind a little more-advanced than what you were expecting?”

“Something like that.” Lucas said as he got into a stance, no longer looking as confident in his chances now that he knew he was dealing with a time traveler.

(Multiversal Matchup)

The multiversal portal opened up over a grassy hill in the middle of an open plain and dropped the eight Multiversal Matchup contestants onto the top of it. As the group stood up, they looked around and saw that, unlike previous challenges, this world seemed almost normal by comparison. It looked like they had just been dropped into an open plain in a forest world.

“I wonder where we are…” Ember mused as she looked around. “It looks like I’ll be right at home, regardless.” The Duck Hunt dog barked in agreement.

“Well, we’re definitely not seeing the whole picture.” Leona mentioned. “There must be a catch.”

“But this place looks so pretty and peaceful!” Kula reminded. “Look! They even have flying fish!”

Everyone looked ahead and saw winged fish soaring through the air, making a beeline for the group. The fish bounced off Toxtricity’s head, causing him to mutter a few things in Pokemon-speak as he rubbed his face.

“That ain’t right…” Dawson noted.

“So we’re in a fantasy setting then.” Leona nodded. “That’s at least good to know.”

Tingle looked up at the sky and his face lit up in awe. “Oooooh! Look at all the colours in the sky!” He said excitedly. “It all looks so magical!”

Everyone looked up into the sky and suddenly saw that, instead of the clear blue sky that had been there only a few seconds before, the cloud had become engulfed with strange, colourful, slime-like objects that, without warning, suddenly started raining down on them from above. Tingle was hit in the face and knocked flat on his back, revealing that the things falling from the sky were actual sentient slime creatures.

“Wait. It’s raining SLIMES?!” Ember asked, quickly drawing her bow and pointing her arrows at a nearby slime creature that had landed near her feet. “This shouldn’t be possible!”

The slime rain only lasted a couple of minutes but in that time the group had been assaulted and bombarded by slimes of several colours. Though none of them were seriously injured, they were able to fend off the slimes until the sky returned to normal and the remaining slimes sunk into the ground, vanishing from sight.

Simon sighed as he put his whip away, shaking slime off of it before he did. “Normally I would call that unholy but it almost felt a little too-lighthearted to be considered the work of demons.” He mentioned.

Everyone suddenly became aware of a small village of houses nearby. A selection of people, the apparent villagers, were finishing off the few remaining slimes. Among the villagers were people like a nurse, a fisherman, a miner and even what looked to be a dryad of some kind.

“So where the heck are we?” Kula asked as she looked around. “Do those people know?”

“I think they’re the locals.” Leona mentioned. “At least they look capable. I’d hate to worry about babysitting them.”

“Uh…Sorry about that, everyone!”

The group turned to see SSBFreak’s hologram materializing nearby; he looked a little bit embarrassed. “I wasn’t expecting a Slime Rain event to be happening so soon after you guys arrived.” He admitted. “I thought we had more time.”

“So where are we?” Dawson folded his arms. “We clearly ain’t anywhere normal.”

“You’d be correct on that. Things may look normal in this main area NOW but that can and will change depending on where you go in this world; the land of Terraria!” SSBFreak explained. “You have all the materials and abilities to survive but the instant you go underground you’re sure to run into monsters and be wary of where you go above ground because there are some biomes that are swarming with unholy monstrosities.”

“Wonderful.” Leona said flatly. “So what’s stopping us from just staying in the main area if all the dangerous things are either underground or elsewhere?”

“Because you have limited time to get a shelter built; once night comes around, the monsters get more-dangerous and more-frequent.” SSBFreak explained. “Even zombies come out at night in the main area. And that’s to say nothing about events that happen periodically, such as the Slime Rain that just happened.”

“So what’s the goal here? Is there something we need to do?”

“Actually, there is only one goal here for this Multiversal Matchup; survive. You are meant to go out into the world of Terraria and try to collect materials and resources. You need to get back here and build shelter before night falls because that’s when the zombies come out, and keep in mind that days pass a lot faster in this world than normal. I encourage you to explore to collect materials but remember than almost anything in the other biomes will be trying to kill you on sight.” SSBFreak mentioned. “Also note that events will still be happening that can overwhelm you if you aren’t ready: a Goblin Invasion or another Slime Rain for example. And, just to remind you, you do NOT want to be out in the open during a Blood Moon event.”

“I’m fine destroying a few monsters.” Simon shrugged. “I’m sure everyone else is the same.”

“Uh…Even him?” Kula asked.

Everyone turned to see that Tingle was already down the hill and plucking flowers. He then inflated a balloon in his backpack and started going higher to collect some flowers from higher up a cliff. It was unknown how much of what SSBFreak had said he had actually listened to before zoning out. No one decided to pay it any mind.

“The winner of this Multiversal Matchup will be the one who lasts the longest because, again, monsters are everywhere in this world.” SSBFreak explained. “So watch your back while you’re mining or exploring because it doesn’t take much for the unprepared adventurer to get overwhelmed.”

Leona folded her arms. “And what happens if it turns out some of us are just too GOOD at staying alive?” She asked.

“Uh…Let me just say that the adventurers of this world have access to a LOT of boss spawners. I’ve convinced the masochists NOT to spawn all the bosses at once but I would recommend hurrying up before they get TOO bored.” SSBFreak said.

The group looked amongst each other, suddenly realizing that their survivability could potentially rely on someone getting bored enough to literally spawn an eldritch horror whenever they wanted.

“So, just remember the goal as I let you loose on this world: Survive and get materials to prepare you best for the night and eventual boss encounters. The last one left standing will be named the winner of this section’s Multiversal Matchup, even if the finalists are stuck fighting a terrifying boss together; whoever lasts longer will be the winner.” SSBFreak announced. “So, without further delay, let the fifth Multiversal Matchup…Begin!! Good luck!”

With that, SSBFreak’s hologram shut off abruptly, leaving the group of combatants standing there, unsure about how to proceed.

All of a sudden, Tingle fell from the sky and landed face-first onto the ground, startling everyone else. Tingle pushed his face out of the ground. “Oh! What’d I miss?” He asked.

“We’re trying to survive.” Dawson explained as he looked around. “Looks like we’ve got free run of the place to go exploring as well. Apparently there’s gonna be monsters.”

“Monsters? Oh, dear! Maybe I need to stay in the air!” Tingle exclaimed.

Without giving anyone else a chance to speak, Tingle jogged off, likely to get a head start on gathering supplies. Ember and the Duck Hunt duo vanished next, disappearing into the forest to start their journey.

Simon narrowed his eyes and gathered his whip and crosses again. “This talk of bosses. It’s probably not unlike anything I’m already used to fighting.” He mentioned.

“Wanna make a bet, then?” Dawson smirked. “I reckon I can kill a few more than you can.”

Simon lifted an eyebrow. “If you think you can kill more monsters than a monster hunter then I’ll be happy to prove you wrong.” He mentioned as he and Dawson went off in opposite directions.

This left Leona, Toxtricity and Kula alone. Toxtricity wandered off towards the village, playing guitar again, as Leona turned to Kula. “Be careful out there, Kula.” She informed. “I can’t afford to babysit you out here.”

“I’ll be fine, Leona.” Kula smiled. “Let’s try to have fun out there!”

Leona sighed as she watched Kula run off. “I don’t know how K’ and the others can contain her.” He lamented as she wandered off to officially kick off the next Multiversal Matchup.

(Hotel; Café)

Four figures, all from the Suikoden node, sat at the counter for the hotel’s café, waiting patiently as Brewster was preparing their orders. It seemed that two of them were trying to do their best to comfort the other two after their performances in the ring as two of them seemed a little bit let down.

“Sorry that things didn’t exactly go the way you wanted, Pahn.” Cleo mentioned.

Pahn gave a sigh. “I mean, I entered in the first section so I wasn’t really expecting to go far but I was hoping I’d have a better showing than I did.” He lamented.

“I mean, hey, you got eliminated by MARIO. That has to account for something, right?”

Pahn didn’t really have a response to that as Brewster returned with a cup of tea, which he set in front of a blonde man dressed in a green cloak. “Here’s the first tea.” He said as he went to start preparing the first one.

Gremio thanked the barista. “Um…What happed to your helpers? I haven’t really seen them since we came in.” He asked.

Brewster sighed. “Chai’s still not off the hook with Tia about signing Merengue up for this tournament and I sent them on a walk to get them to work things out.” He explained. “I can’t have them having a domestic on the clock since it affects our customer service.”

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.” Gremio mentioned.

“Coo. Don’t be. There are times when Chai gets an idea that she decides to pounce on without thinking and it gets her in hot water with Tia for the day.” Bewster handwaved. “I guarantee this will have blown over by the time the tournament is done.”

Gremio paused and shrugged. “Well, I suppose I’ll trust you on that.” He mentioned as Brewster nodded and went back to making the next tea. As he did, Gremio turned to the rest of his group. “I’m a little surprised we haven’t been as effective as we could be thus far.”

“I’m not. I kind of think we’re in a bit over our heads.” Cleo shook her head. “Yeah, we may be responsible for a lot of powerful and unexplainable things where we’re from but I think we’re kind of overshadowed here.”

“But the young master has the Soul Eater Rune!” Gremio reminded. “One of the most-powerful True Runes in our world!”

“In OUR world.” Cleo countered. “Who’s to say that the relics of certain worlds aren’t that much stronger.”

Gremio sighed. “I’m sorry that you didn’t manage to do well in the arena, young master.” He mentioned to the young man beside him.

Tir McDohl sighed back. “It’s okay, Gremio. Cleo has a point.” He replied. “I think half of the problem, though, is because I spent most of my time in the ring trying to deal with someone my rune was screaming at me to eat.”

“Oh, right. You were probably juggling trying to keep your rune under control.” Cleo said. “I’m glad you were able to do that. It shows that you’re getting better at controlling it.”

“I think so. I just wish that the collection of souls I was fighting took the hint.” Tir sighed. “At least then I would have had more of a chance to-”

“YOU!!”

Everyone sitting at the counter turned in their seats in surprise and saw a familiar suit of armour at the door, standing in the doorway and staring into Tir’s soul with what appeared to be almost a hundred souls of their own. The suit of armour summoned a broadsword into their hand and the flames around their armoured body burned intensely.

Tir fumbled back. “Y-You?! What are you doing HERE?!” He asked.

Magyar growled. “I know you took them…Give them back!” They roared as they stepped into the Café.

“W-What are you talking about?!”

“You took 83!” Another one of Magyar’s voices accused as they pointed the broadsword in Tir’s direction. “Give them back or we’ll MAKE you give them back!”

Pahn, Gremio and Cleo were quick to get up and stand close to Tir, as if shielding him. “You stay away from him!” Pahn said. “You make his Soul Eater Rune go crazy!”

“That’s why we know it was him who took 83!” Magyar sneered.

“Guys, no! Stay back!” Tir urged as he stood up.

“Young master, your rune will go crazy if you face this thing!” Gremio said.

“They’re clearly after ME. The last thing I need is any of you getting caught in the crossfire and my rune stealing your souls if you get injured!” Tir reminded.

“Guys, do we really wanna do this?” One of Magyar’s souls asked. “We know that this guy can steal souls.”

“He took 83! If we beat him maybe we can rip 83 from that rune of his!” Another soul informed.

Tir stepped forward alone as his friends, against their better judgment but respecting their leader’s wishes, stood back to let him do the fighting. “Are you certain about this, young master?” Gremio asked. “You know we won’t hesitate to aid you in this.”

“I’ll be fine, Gremio. This thing causes my rune to rage but it’ll be more-manageable without having to worry about any of you.” Tir nodded before he turned to Magyar. “I don’t know what your problem is but you’re prodding into this WAY more-intense than you’re able to handle!”

“Funny. We were just about to say the same about you.” Another soul of Magyar said coldly.

Tir winced as he looked down at his wrist briefly and saw the Soul Eater Rune lighting up on the back of his hand, signifying that it could already sense the multitude of souls nearby. Tir narrowed his eyes as he tried to keep the rune’s hunger under control and drew his staff, preparing to face the haunted suit of armour for the second time tonight; Magyar didn’t seem willing to listen so it seemed he needed to beat them down to get them to smarten up…

(The Arena)

“FALCO LOMBARDI!” (SSB)

The audience cheered as Star Fox’s resident hotshot emerged from the curtain and checked the ammo clip of his pistol. A bit annoyed at his poor draw (and the fact that Fox had gotten a way better one that he had; Fox would never let him forget that), Falco tried to block the thoughts from his mind for now to avoid throwing himself off as he made his way down to the ring, setting his sights on the fight between Honda and Yamazaki.

Yamazaki was about to swing his leg at Honda’s head when he felt something shoot into his shoulder from behind. Cursing out loud, Yamazaki looked over his shoulder and saw Falco approaching. “You have a death wish, bird?” He challenged.

“Hey, gimmie a break. I’ve seen you fight and I know the easiest way to surprise you is to shoot you from behind.” Falco replied as he approached.

The Yakuza grunted as he kicked Honda in the face, knocking the sumo wrestler away as he turned to face Falco. “You wanting to start something while I’m busy with another fight? You KNOW I’m more-than-able to multitask, right?” He asked with a light smirk.

“Hey, so am I.” Falco smirked back as he got his pistol ready again. “It comes with the territory of being in Star Fox.”

“You think I care? I’m actually thinking about what to have with roast turkey tonight.” Yamazaki said as he crouched and got into an insane-looking stance.

Honda suddenly jumped into view and slammed a palm into Yamazaki’s head. “Hey! We’re kind of in the middle of something, here! Don’t just walk away from the fight now!” He accused.

Yamazaki responded by grabbing Honda and, with a bit of effort, throwing him at Falco. The avian pilot jumped to the side to avoid getting crushed as he shot at Yamazaki again with his blaster. The Yakuza ducked under the shots as he charged forward before lunging at the two, preparing to rip both Falco and Honda apart.

“TOON ZELDA!” (HW)

Another large, bulky suit of armour emerged from behind the curtain, only two glowing eyes visible from the blackness of the armour’s helmet. As the audience cheered, the armour gave a friendly, polite wave before a spirit poked her head out of the armour’s chest, making the armour go lifeless. The blonde, spirit princess looked around at the arena for a moment.

“Hmm…I don’t know when Link is going to show up so…Maybe I should try to clean up a bit so that if comes in soon we can team up…” Toon Zelda mused before she vanished back into the suit of armour, bringing it back to life again as she made her way down the entrance ramp.

Bear Hugger ducked under a slash from F.A.N.G., narrowly avoiding being poisoned as he did, when he noticed Toon Zelda running over. Before he had a chance to turn to acknowledge her, Toon Zelda had gotten in front of Bear Hugger and slammed a huge, metal fist into F.A.N.G.’s face, sending the gangly villains sprawling. Bear Hugger blinked as the possessed suit of armour stood near him, looking ready to fight F.A.N.G.

“Oh! Uh…Thanks for the hand, there.” Bear Hugger mentioned.

“You’re welcome! I’ve heard about this guy and that he’s a bit of a monster.” Toon Zelda’s voice came from inside the suit of armour.

“He’s not that tough but he’s unpredictable, eh.” Bear Hugger shrugged. “Maybe you may be impervious to his poison attacks with that armour of yours, though!”

“O-Oh! Sure, I’d be happy to help!” Toon Zelda nodded.

Bear Hugger appeared to be in thought for a moment. “Maybe you wanna stick around after we deal with him? I wanna run a few things by you.” He mentioned.

“Oh, is something going on?”

F.A.N.G. pushed himself up with a groan. “I think I’m starting to understand why Lord Bison doesn’t want anything to do with the other villains tonight…” He complained.

“Mystery…Fighter…TWELVE…”

“HELL’S CHEF!” (Gregory Horror Show)

“No smoking…”

Standing outside of the entrance curtain was a blocky, candle-like being with a lit wick on his dark head and two bright, red eyes staring out from the darkness of his face. Several people screaming in fear as they backed away, letting Hell’s Chef wander down the ramp menacingly.

Spy was still clashing with Antonov when he heard the announcement and his eyes snapped open. Suddenly taking notice of the still-lit cigarette sticking out of his mouth, Spy quickly kicked Antonov back a couple of steps as, in the background, Hell’s Chef could be seen approaching, emitting what could only be described as a deadly aura.

Antonov grunted in annoyance. “Hey! What was…” He trailed off when he suddenly saw Spy standing aside, trying to look inconspicuous, and that his cigarette was gone despite him having it only a couple of seconds ago. “Uh…Weren’t you smoking just now?”

“AbsolutelynotIhavenoideawhatyou’retalkingabout!” Spy said quickly, sweat dripping down his face as Hell’s Chef finally approached the two.

Hell’s Chef slowly looked at Spy, staring him into the soul. “I smell smoke…” He repeated. “…Where is the smoke coming from?...”

Hell’s Chef looked Spy up and down for a second, noticing that the French mercenary didn’t have any cigarette visible. However, when the living candle turned to Antonov, he saw that the wrestler still had a lit cigar sticking out of his mouth and turned his full attention to him, seemingly bypassing Spy not that he had as target in mind.

“…I HATE SMOKING!!!” Hell’s Chef screamed as he pulled a huge meat cleaver into view, hoisted it into the air with one hand and swung it down at Antonov.

Antonov stepped back in surprise and, likely on instinct, lashed out and deflected the attempted attack, striking the cleaver with his fist and making Hell’s Chef stagger backwards a couple of steps.

“Wow! I’ve never seen any kind of attitude like yours! You’d be perfect for the G.A.W.!” Antonov insisted.

Hell’s Chef didn’t seem interested in listening and continued to swing at Antonov, forcing the wrestler away for the time being. Once left alone, Spy exhaled in relief, causing a puff of cigarette smoke to emerge from his mouth, a hint to how he got rid of his cigarette in such a short amount of time…

“PRIDE!” (PS)

Emerging next was an older man with a mustache dressed in what looked to be a pilot’s uniform, giving an energetic wave and salute to the crowd cheering him on. Pride stood proud outside the ramp, his scarf blowing in an invisible wind, as he scanned the arena for someone to tussle with first.

Joker and Scyther were still clashing with blades (Joker had realized that Scyther was being too quick to shoot) when Pride made his entrance and jumped into the fray, eagerly slamming a fist into Scyther’s face from the side and knocking the Pokemon away for a few seconds as Pride turned his attention to Joker with a smirk.

Joker blinked in confusion. “Uh…I was in the middle of a fight there.” He mentioned.

“Oh, come on! You can’t just expect to go through a competition like this and not expect a few surprises here and there!” Pride laughed. “You’re young so maybe you just need to be taught that lesson!”

Joker sighed and drew his gun again, this time pointing it at Pride. “Well, the Pokemon is too fast for the bullets but I don’t see you being as fast as him.” He mentioned.

Pride smirked. “You can try to shoot me if you wish, my boy. You’ll find I’m more-resilient than I look!” He exclaimed.

An annoyed Scyther suddenly burst back onto the scene again and jumped onto Pride’s shoulders with his feet, angrily throwing him down and leaping off, getting into a stance with his blade arms and hissing at Pride. The old pilot stood up and brushed his jacket off, seemingly unbothered by the attack.

“See? The Pokemon gets it.” Pride chuckled.

Joker sighed and took a step back. Pride seemed to have Scyther’s attention for now but Joker still needed to have the chance to build up his Persona. Now he needed to pick his targets…

“VIKTOR!” (ST)

A burly, scruffy-looking swordsman emerged from the curtain with his sword in hand and giving an energetic fist pump in preparation to get into the arena. He took a glance at the face that adorned the sword in his hand. “You ready to cut loose a little?” Viktor asked the sword.

An audible sigh came from the sword. “Do I have a choice?” The Star Dragon Sword asked.

“No. Not really.” Viktor said as he ran down the entrance ramp.

“Then why did you ask me, you hairy gorilla?!” The Star Dragon Sword shouted in frustration as Viktor carried it.

Lilly Pendragon lifted an eyebrow at the sound of the familiar voices and turned her head after deflecting a blow from Toadette’s pickaxe and saw Viktor coming over. “Wait…You look younger from the last time I saw you, Viktor…” She mentioned.

“Oh, wait! I remember that we’re from different points in time!” Viktor said as he came over. “I’m told that I end up saving you from a creepy vampire in my future…But I guess it’s also in your past since I was told you were a little girl at the time. I guess this timeline stuff is confusing.”

“EVERYTHING is confusing for you, you clod!” The Star Dragon Sword shouted indignantly.

“I see the sword is just as talkative as ever.” Lilly sighed. “Look, are you here to help or do you just like to talk about stuff neither of us really know about?”

Viktor shrugged. “Hey, I thought it was a neat concept when I heard it.” He mentioned.

“You thought SHOWERING was a neat concept!” The sword insulted.

Toadette lifted an eyebrow as she approached. “Um…What’s going on?” She asked.

Lilly sighed. “Just…Don’t ask.” She mentioned. “Let’s just continue our fight and let Viktor have this little banter with his sword. I remember him doing this a lot.”

“And now, the final fighter of this section…”

“RYU!” (SF5)

The audience cheered wildly as the main character of Street Fighter emerged from the curtain and gazed about the arena stoically. Adjusting his headband and gloves, Ryu set his sights on one person in the ring and jogged down the ramp, seemingly not paying attention to the reaction the audience was giving him.

Sakura had ducked under an attempted swing from Petey Piranha when her eyes lit up at the announcement. She looked over her shoulder and saw her hero jumping into the arena. “Ryu-san!” She called out before delivering a Shoryuken to the bottom of Petey’s huge head, knocking him away as she turned around to greet Ryu. “I wasn’t expecting you to enter the arena so soon!”

“I was surprised as well but it gives me more of a chance to face challenges.” Ryu admitted. “It’s good to see that you’re still in the arena, Sakura.”

“I’ve been fighting my hardest, Ryu-san! It’s how I’ve been trained!” Sakura nodded eagerly. Despite the fact that she had been in the arena for a few seconds she still looked ready for more fighting.

Ryu gave a smile. “I’m actually glad about this; I’ve been wanting to put you through a test now for quite a while but until now I think there were times where neither of us were ready.” He admitted. “You were still training and I was dealing with my inner evil.”

“Well…I mean, we’re both here right now, aren’t we?” Sakura asked. “I’ve had real success in these tournaments and you’re managed to purge your evil side, right?”

“Indeed. I think now’s as good a chance as any to test both of us.” Ryu said as he got into a stance.

Sakura grinned. “You’re actually looking to spar with me?!” She asked excitedly.

“I am. You may be defending champion here but I want to make sure that you haven’t gotten rusty since then.” Ryu explained. “And now that I don’t need to worry about submitting to the Satsui no Hadou anymore I can fight with full strength. I trust that you’ll do the same?”

“Of course, Ryu-san! I know how fierce you fight and I know that you won’t hold back!” Sakura said as she got into a stance that looked somewhat similar to Ryu’s. “I swear I’ll come at you with everything I have and show why and how I won this tournament in the past!”

“I know you will, Sakura. Now let’s see what you’ve got.”

“Right!”

The audience cheered as Ryu and Sakura rushed each other, looking ready for a fierce battle clash.

Chapter Text

(The Arena)

Heavy D! ducked out of the way as Barraza swung his huge axe at him. Not one to be deterred, Barraza pressed the assault and swung again, stepping forward as he did and forcing Heavy D! to adapt a defensive stance, holding up his arms as the blunt end of Barraza’s axe struck him while his guard was up. Heavy D! quickly saw an opening and lashed out with a Rolling Soul Driver, striking the wastelander in the face with a drill-like aura that surrounded his fist with the punch.

Although momentarily stunned, Barraza shook off Heavy D!’s attack and narrowed his eyes, swerving to the side as the boxer lashed out with a flurry of quick punches. While Heavy D! was distracted, Barraza lashed out with his foot and kicked the taller man back another couple of steps.

“You think I can’t see your attacks coming?” Barraza asked gruffly. “You’re not as fast as you think you are.”

“Hey, gimmie a break. These tournaments are the only action my team and I seem to get these days.” Heavy D! rolled his eyes behind his shades. “Plus I ain’t used to fighting scrappy people like you.”

Barraza couldn’t help but give a smirk behind his ventilator mask. “Is that your way of telling me that you know I’m better than you?” He asked.

“Y’know, I’m not sure that ventilator mask is big enough for that big mouth of yours.” Heavy D! said darkly.

“When I’m through with you you’ll need the ventilator more than I do!” Barraza shouted.

“I AM IN SO MUCH PAIN!!”

It should be noted that, throughout Heavy D! and Barraza’s fight, the wastelander’s axe was still embedded into the skull of Lord Hater and Barraza was swinging him around with his weapon, seemingly having forgotten about him to focus on Heavy D!.

As if to prove this point, Barraza swung his axe again, causing another bout of terrified screaming from the flailing Lord Hater that (again) went ignored. Heavy D! jumped backwards as the axe just missed him and then lunged forward, striking Barraza in the face with a counter-punch that made the wastelander stagger backwards again.

Again recovering quickly, Barazza narrowed his eyes and snarled. “You’ll pay for that!” He hissed as he charged into battle again.

“WHY IS EVERYONE IGNORING MEEEEEEEEE?!” Lord Hater screamed as he was involuntarily pulled along for the ride as Barraza and Heavy D! continued to clash.

F.A.N.G. was slammed face-first down onto the canvas, a victim to a one-handed throw by Toon Zelda, who was using the huge suit of armour she was controlling to toss the Shadaloo agent around like a ragdoll. Before F.A.N.G. could register what was happening, Toon Zelda had hoisted him into the air by his leg again, over her shoulder and back down onto the canvas on her other side.

Bear Hugger stood back and scratched his head. “Uh…Okay, missy. Y’don’t wanna hurt him TOO much cause we still need info out of him and all that.” He reminded.

Toon Zelda paused and looked down at F.A.N.G. for a couple of seconds. “O-Oh! Right! Sorry!” She said as she let go and stepped back. “I-I just figured that since I’m possessing a suit of armour I’d be immune to his poison.” She mentioned.

Bear Hugger laughed. “I think he found that out a long time ago.” He said as he wandered over. “You gonna let us know what Bison’s planning tonight, eh?”

F.A.N.G. pushed himself up onto his feet and exhaled heavily. “He…He’s not planning ANYTHING!” He insisted. “How many times do I have to SAY that?!”

In anger and frustration, F.A.N.G. lunged at Bear Hugger with his long claws bared, ready to plunge poison into the Canadian’s veins. Bear Hugger was quick to counter the blow, however, by slapping the Shadaloo henchman was a hard hook that knocked him out of the air. F.A.N.G. landed flat on his back as Bear Hugger stood over him and scratched his head again.

“Yeesh. Bison must be desperate for help if you’re the only one of his lieutenants that stuck around, eh?” He asked.

“Shut up, you oaf!” F.A.N.G. shouted as he pushed himself to his feet again. “You’re just making me mad with your insistence of not listening! Lord Bison may not be planning anything tonight but I’m still going to take my frustrations out on you!”

Bear Hugger glanced at Toon Zelda, whom shrugged. The Canadian turned back to F.A.N.G. “Sure. If it’ll make you feel better, eh.” He admitted.

As F.A.N.G. roared in fury and leapt at Bear Hugger, claws bared again, Toon Zelda drew her huge sword and prepared to run in to help the Canadian boxer. However, just before she did, she saw something out of the corner of her eye that made her turn her head. Toon Zelda found herself watching Mr. Mime and Daphne Blake (still dressed in her mime getup) miming walking against the wind as they slowly walked past her. They didn’t seem to have any set destination in mind.

Toon Zelda watched the two continue on randomly and decided to refrain from asking any question before turning back around and rushing in to help Bear Hugger with F.A.N.G.

(Announcer’s Booth)

SSBFreak was on the phone already as Khall watched from his seat. He had put another tally down on a sheet of paper next to his seat, showcasing the number of times SSBFreak had received a call so far tonight, as the host continued to talk.

“Look, I’m sorry about all the confusion, Brewster. I had a lot going on at the time I received that application and I didn’t really think much of it.” SSBFreak said into the phone. “I’m glad that she made it back to the café okay…Yeah, she’s probably going to be out of it for a while longer still after that Multiversal Matchup. I don’t blame her. I’m sorry for that as well; No, I swear that the contestants for those things are picked completely-randomly…Oh, you know about Sheogorath?...” The host gave an audible sigh. “…Yeah, I don’t like to admit it but I wouldn’t put it past him to rig the selection system to ensure Merengue got selected for the Multiversal Matchup. Look, just tell her to take care of herself and that she can help you and the girls when she feels up to it.”

Khall waited in silence for another few seconds as the host lifted an eyebrow in confusion. “Wait. Chai and Tia are still out on that walk you sent them on? Yeesh, it must be taking them longer to cool things off than you thought.” SSBFreak mentioned. “Well…I mean, I could see if one of the security team can come help out in their place while you wait but then we’d both run the risk of Max or Psymon showing up to work as a barista…Yeah, that’s what I figured. You should be able to run the café by yourself until Merengue is ready to help out again. Now that the tournament’s underway you probably won’t get as many people for a bit.”

SSBFreak wrapped up his call and finally hung up the phone, exhaling in relief. Khall blinked a few times. “Was that the bird guy that runs the café?” He asked.

“Yeah, Brewster was just letting me know that Merengue had just checked back into the café but she was still looking exhausted and traumatized from the Multiversal Matchup she was thrown into.” SSBFreak mentioned. “Plus, Chai and Tia still aren’t back yet. Chai must be in real trouble with Tia if they’re still having an argument.”

(Dome; Hallway)

The hallway was deathly silent; not a soul to be found wandering this particular hallway. This hallway wasn’t connected to anywhere the audience would be needing to go during the tournament and the security team was elsewhere so there were many hallways devoid of life and eerily quiet.

All except for the light footsteps made by a familiar white-and-black bear as he crept along the hallway, trying his hardest not to be seen by anyone.

Monokuma felt it was a miracle he had made it this far on his most-recent attempt to get into the building. He didn’t know how no one had spotted him but he wasn’t complaining; he wasn’t used to being in an area he didn’t have free run of the place in, after all. He just told himself that he needed to lay low s he slowly worked his way through the dome and hotel now that he was inside.

“Okay…I’ve gotten this far…Now I need to find a way to get into the arena…” Monokuma muttered as he crept down the hallway. “Maybe if I can figure out who the next few Mystery Fighters are I can off one of them and take their spot. All I need to do is avoid running into that crazy rabbit thing again and I should be-”

“T-Tia, wait up!”

Monokuma’s eyes widened, hearing a voice coming up from behind him. Realizing that he couldn’t risk being spotted by anyone, Monokuma rushed over to a trash bin, sat down on the floor beside it and slumped forward, pretending to be a discarded stuffed animal. As soon as Monokuma sat still, a pair of elephants were seen rounding a corner down the hall, coming in his direction.

“Chai, you saw Merengue’s face when we saw her in the Recovery Room!” Tia snapped, refusing to stop walking as Chai desperately followed behind her. “She looked beyond traumatized!”

“I didn’t know about that Multiversal Matchup twist at ALL, let alone that she would be picked for one and ESPECIALLY not the one that involved running through a cursed tomb of the dead!” Chai insisted. “A-All I did was sign her up for the tournament!”

Tia looked over her shoulder and stared coldly. “And look where that ended up.” She accused.

“I-I told her I was sorry! You saw it!”

“It doesn’t magically make things better, Chai!” Tia scolded sharply. “You always act before you think on things like this! You were like this before we started dating!”

“B-But…But you always said you liked that about me!”

Tia finally stopped walking, her head low, coming close to where Monokuma was sitting, still pretending to be a stuffed toy. Tia glanced over her shoulder again at Chai, whom stood there, trembling and crying a river of tears. “I liked it better when it didn’t get one of our closest friends HURT.” She responded simply.

“I…I thought she’d be able to handle herself…” Chai whimpered. “S-She loved watching the old tournaments on TV…”

“If it was one of the athletic guys that you did this to, like Scoot or Sprocket, then I’d be less-mad because I know THOSE meatheads would be all over a chance to enter something like this. But MERENGUE?” Tia said. “I REALLY thought you knew her better than that.”

“T-Tia…I swear I didn’t want her to get hurt…”

Tia sighed. “I…I know you didn’t, Chai. I know you didn’t mean for any of this to happen. But I can’t forgive you this quickly. Not for something like this that resulted in Merengue getting traumatized.” She mentioned.

Chai didn’t respond; she just sniffled and wiped her eyes, looking devastated.

“Look, we’ve been gone from the café long enough, but…Maybe I should just head back on my own.” Tia said. “What I want you to do before you come back yourself is just take a bit of a walk by yourself, have a good, long think about what you did and then, when you feel ready, come back to the café and give Merengue a GOOD apology.”

“B-But…”

“I know you can act mature if you really want to, Chai. Now’s your chance to show me.” Tia shook her head. “I’ll be waiting for you at the café.”

Leaving Chai in the hallway, Tia turned around and walked off again, wiping her eyes a few times as she did before turning the corner and leaving Chai alone in the hallway. Chai stood her ground, a blubbering mess. She whimpered a few times as she watched Tia go before openly crying and covering her face, kneeling down onto the floor as she did.

Crawling over to the wall, Chai sat down and cried into her knees, seemingly-oblivious to the fact that she had sat down next to Monokuma, whom was still pretending to be a toy. All Monokuma could do was mentally scream at Chai to get lost so that he could get up and continue his self-imposed mission to get into the arena.

The next thing Monokuma knew, Chai had instinctively grabbed him and had grabbed hold of his head with one hand. Monokuma didn’t know what Chai was doing and it seemed that she didn’t either, as she was too overwhelmed by emotions to realize what she was doing. His eyes widened, however, when he felt Chai starting to pull. He opened his mouth to scream but Chai was quicker.

*RIIIIIIIP!*

The sobbing Chai, in an outburst of emotion, had ripped Monokuma’s head clean off his body using nothing but her hands. Letting go of what she thought was now a destroyed doll and hurling the bear’s head down the hallway in frustration, Chai curled up again and continued crying, this time alone in the hallway for sure…

(Dome; Vending Machines)

A lone figure was seen walking down another hallway, walking towards a selection of vending machines set up in a small alcove area in the hallway. Approaching the vending machines, the figure gave an inspection of what was available. They saw a few vending machines of standard snacks and drinks, a vending machine of Pokemon food, one consisting of nothing but E-Tanks (for the Mega Man crew) and one consisting of nothing but cheese (probably at the insistence of Sheogorath).

Zoroark approached the vending machine of Pokemon food and glanced at the selection. He was tempted to purchase something from the human selection but decided against it; maybe he’d treat himself to some human food later if he did well enough in the ring. For now, he pulled a coin into view (where he had gotten it from was anyone’s guess), inserted it into the machine and made his selection.

As he waited for the machine to dispense his snack, Zoroark pondered the tournament, going over his options. He had his own selection of abilities, sure, but he was mostly-known for his ability to shapeshift. It got him out of some scrapes in the past (like how he tried sneaking into Galar multiple times before they let the national dex in) but he needed to go over how he could make it work in an arena setting where people would be actively looking for him.

Reaching into the vending machine and pulling out his snack bar, Zoroark unwrapped the end of the bar and sighed. He needed to play his cards right once he got into the ring. His tricks worked well enough in one-on-one battles but he wasn’t used to a battle with a full ring of fighters. Maybe if he could-

“Excuse us.”

Zoroark froze with the snack bar inches away from his mouth as he glanced to the side. He saw the members of the security team standing there, Homsar floating about aimlessly. Max was smirking in anticipation and holding a chainsaw in his hands.

Estel stepped forward and folded her arms. “Zoroark, we’re taking you in for questioning on suspicion of stealing a twenty-five pound brick of Australium.” She explained.

Zoroark blinked in silence, his mouth still open and holding his recently-purchased snack bar, as if processing what Estel had just said.

“I’m contractually-obligated to urge you to come quietly but I truthfully want this to be interesting because I’ve been dying to steal a couple of kneecaps for a while now.” Max said brightly.

Zoroark blinked a couple more times before slowly moving the snack bar closer to his mouth, never taking his eyes off the security team.

“Put down the candy bar, fuzzball.” Max said in complete seriousness, eyes narrowed. “Don’t make me go all tree surgeon on you!”

Zoroark, in the blink of an eye, pulled something into view (again, where is he keeping this stuff?) and threw it at the floor in front of him, causing it to explode and engulf him in smoke, hiding him from view.

“A smoke bomb!” Estel cursed. “I didn’t know Zoroarks carried those!”

“He must be who we’re after!” Scorch added, cocking his flamethrower.

Without giving any of the other time to act, Scorch rushed forward and spewed a stream of fire from the barrel of his flamethrower, covering the entire cloud of smoke that had engulfed Zoroark.

“No! Don’t use fire, you idiot!” Estel shouted as she jumped forward and grabbed at Scorch’s flamethrower, pulling it up and causing him to stop spewing fire from his trademark weapon.

Unfortunately, the damage had been done. The added fire from Scorch’s flamethrower acted like fuel to the fire for the cloud of smoke, just making the smokescreen worse and shielding Zoroark from view even more and with a bigger, darker cloud of smoke.

“Ugh! SEE?” Estel asked flatly. “You just gave him a bigger window!”

“Sorry. When I think about fire I just want to shoot fire.” Scorch shrugged.

“W-Which way did he go?!” Lucia asked. “I didn’t see him leave the smoke!”

“We’re in a hallway! There’s only one way he COULD have gone!” Estel urged. “Come on! We don’t want to lose him!”

“AaAaAaAaAaAhhhhh! The cheese-thief swiped all the gorgonzola!” Homsar droned randomly, floating somewhere overhead.

The security team quickly rushed forward, flying through the cloud of smoke in an attempt to run down the hallway and chase after Zoroark. Hopefully he couldn’t have gotten far…

(Multiversal Matchup)

Leona Heidern grunted as she slashed at a tree trunk with her hands, creating a wave in the air that sliced through the tree, obliterating it and bringing down bundles of wood around her. Leona was about to pick up the wood that fell around her but paused when the pieces just flew towards her and into her hands as she got close.

Sighing to herself after magically picking up all the wood, Leona turned towards the nearby village. “So I guess the physics of this world applied to us when we arrived.” She mentioned to herself as she looked up at the sky.

The sun was already starting to set, signifying that night was about to begin. The enemies that she had come across so far had, for the most part, been slimes and the occasional flying fish (due to a rainstorm that briefly passed through) but was told that the mobs spawning at night were a little more-dangerous than the day ones so she knew that she needed to get a shelter built before then.

Leona made her way into the village and over to a small base that she had built at the edge of the village (trying to stay out of the way of the village residents) and continued constructing her shelter. If she could get through the night then she could go searching for other materials she could use. All she knew was that she needed to outlast the others but if all they were expected to do was survive against the elements then she figured whatever this world had in store for them would take them by surprise.

Getting back to the village, Leona saw the villagers walking around with party hats. Lifting an eyebrow, Leona looked up and saw several balloons floating through the air. Looking further into the village she saw Kula walking around with the villagers, holding a plate with a piece of cake on it and seemingly enjoying the party that the villagers were throwing.

Leona put the wood down on the base of the shelter she was building and glanced at Kula. “Kula, I said I wasn’t going to babysit you here.” She reminded. “You need to build a shelter before night falls here.”

“Yeah, but the Party Girl was throwing a party and she had cake!” Kula said. “You know I can’t say no to that!”

“But what are you going to do about a shelter?” Leona asked. “I’m too busy working on my own to worry about yours.”

Kula blinked, turned around and waved her hand, creating a full-sized shelter out of ice, complete with a door, in seconds. “There! All done!” She said cheerily.

Leona blinked. “Is that going to hold up against monsters trying to break in?” She challenged.

Kula shrugged. “The fisherman kid’s house is made out of ice. Kinda looks shoddily-made, too.” She mentioned, pointing over her shoulder to where a short kid dressed like an angler was sitting outside of a small hut made of ice and brick. “Want me to make a house for you as well, Leona? You can have some cake as well!”

“…I think I’ll pass. I’d prefer to have a sturdy shelter I feel comfortable with.” Leona mentioned as she turned and went back to work on constructing her shelter, knowing that she only had a bit of time left before nightfall.

Under the surface, away from the village and digging underneath the nearby forest, Simon Belmont was gathering stone and ore, digging his way through the ground and creating a network of tunnels. Every time Simon stumbled upon an ore deposit he quickly dug up all of the ore, going out of his way to do it, before continuing on with digging the tunnel. He probably had enough materials to make a shelter at this point but something was just compelling him to keep digging.

Breaking his way through a thin wall of stone, Simon found himself digging into a large underground cavern. Realizing that it was dark in the cavern, Simon pulled a torch into view (having realized he could use the gels that were dropping from the slimes he’d been killing to craft them) and placed it, giving himself a bit of light to at least see where he was moving just ahead of him.

As he placed down his torch, Simon suddenly heard the sound of a low groaning coming from somewhere in the cavern. Knowing that that sound usually meant that there was at least one zombie in the area, Simon narrowed his eyes and drew his whip. “It doesn’t matter where I end up. Why does the undead always seem to follow me?” He asked aloud as he stepped into the cavern.

Placing a few more torches down, Simon lit up more of the cavern and saw a couple of undead miners shuffling about around what appeared to be an abandoned underground cabin. Realizing that the cabin may have some good supplies and materials, Simon pressed on towards the cabin, laying down stone blocks he had collected to form a bit of a bridge to help him cross a large gap leading into a dark abyss.

The undead miners seemed to take notice of Simon and shuffled towards him, groaning as they did, but they quickly fell to the vampire hunter’s whip and holy water as he made his way forward in the cavern, laying down torches as he did.

“I worry for the others…” Simon muttered to himself. “The things that are abundant in this world would be sure to overwhelm a lesser-experienced monster hunter…”

Suddenly hearing some digging coming from the other side of the large cavern, Simon looked towards the fall wall and watched as a familiar cowboy ended up digging into the same cavern from his own tunnel. Despite the fact that the two had gone off in opposite directions when they had started, it seemed that Simon’s digging had led him on a direct course to meet up with Dawson’s.

Placing his own torches down at his end of the cavern, Dawson looked ahead and smirked when he saw Simon. “Well, well. Looks like this world ain’t as big as we thought it was, huh?” Dawson noted. “What are the chances that we’d end up digging towards each other like this?”

Simon sighed. “I suppose I haven’t been paying attention to where I’ve been digging. I’ve just been digging towards ore deposits.” He admitted.

“Yeah, I get it. I’ve got enough materials for a shelter but every time I see another ore vein I feel like I gotta dig it out.” Dawson shrugged before noticing the cabin. “Oh, lookie here. That cabin’s probably got a good amount of materials. It’s made of wood and everything.”

Simon narrowed his eyes. “That cabin is mine! I’ve laid claim to it!” He mentioned.

Dawson chuckled. “I seem to be closer to it. I may be able to get a few things out of it before you cross that gap.” He said.

Simon was quick to draw his cross into view. “I’ll fight you for the contents of that cabin, cowboy!” He challenged. “You may be closer to the cabin but I’ve got all the ranged attacks and weaponry!”

Dawson adjusted his hat. “Hey, I’m good with that.” He mentioned. “I’m up for round two if ya want.”

Simon narrowed his eyes again and hurled his cross at Dawson, aiming to keep the cowboy away from the cabin. Dawson jumped to the side as the cross flew past him and waited for the cross to come back as he knew it was a boomerang cross by this point. Pulling a shotgun into view, Dawson quickly took aim and fired a couple of shots at Simon, striking the stone walkway that the vampire hunter was building to get himself over to the cabin.

Realizing that Dawson was trying to break his platform, Simon quickly returned to laying down some more stone to continue his walkway, knowing that he didn’t have much time before the cowboy reloaded his shotgun to take another shot. Simon only had a precious few seconds to lay down another couple feet of stone before Dawson reloaded and fired again. Simon wobbled about on his stone walkway but remained standing again as all Dawson’s scattering shotgun shots were doing were chipping away at the vampire hunter’s way over.

Dawson pulled another couple of shotgun shells from his pocket and loaded them into his gun but, in the process, he looked at Simon and saw the vampire hunter throwing a bottle of holy water at him; now that he had gotten a bit closer he could aim his throws better and the bottle was flying straight at Dawson’s face. Holding onto his shotgun, Dawson rolled to the side as Simon’s bottle of holy water broke on the ground, creating a small pillar of fire upon impact. In the meantime, Dawson rolled himself back into a standing position and took aim with his shotgun.

*CLICK!*

Dawson froze when he heard the clicking sound that came from his feet. He looked down and saw that, upon closer inspection, he had stepped onto a pressure plate that was hidden in the rock he was standing on. Hearing something getting shot from the darkness to his right, Dawson spun around and his eyes widened just in time to see a dart shooting from the shadows. “Oh, sh-”

The dart cut Dawson off by burying itself in his chest. Dawson staggered back a couple of steps as he clutched at his chest, quickly realizing that it was too late and whatever was in the dart was already getting pumped into him. Feeling his strength leaving him quickly, Dawson weakly turned to face Simon and tried to take off one final shot at the vampire hunter before falling forward and laying flat on his face. His hat fluttered down off his head and came to a rest just beside his motionless body.

Seeing what had happened to Dawson, Simon held up another torch and looked in the direction the poison dart had come from. He had to squint a bit but he saw what looked to be a stone face attached to the cavern wall, the mouth open and clearly where the dart had been shot from. Simon narrowed his eyes as he climbed off his stone walkway and onto the main area where the abandoned cabin was.

“Booby traps as well? Well, at the very least now I know that they’re here as well.” Simon muttered as he glanced down at Dawson’s motionless body. “You’re a good opponent, cowboy. Maybe later I can treat you to a drink.”

Walking past Dawson’s motionless body, Simon made his way towards the cabin and drew the pickaxe he had been spawned into the world with inexplicably. The cabin was sure to have good resources and he seemed ready to take advantage of that; he just needed to make a mental note to watch for more pressure plates just in case…

(The Arena)

Falco Lombardi leapt into the air and lashed out with a flying kick, striking Ryuji Yamazaki in the face and making him stagger backwards, holding his head. Before Yamazaki could recover and counter the attack, he was stunned further when Falco shot a couple of blaster shots into his torso to keep him in place. Yamazaki tried to push through the blaster shots but was grabbed from behind by E. Honda and thrown over the sumo wrestler’s shoulder, causing him to land on his back a few feet away.

Pushing himself up onto his feet, Yamazaki narrowed his eyes. “Oh, so you two wanna play like that, huh?” He asked aloud. “You wanna snipe me from far away, bird-boy?”

Falco spun his blaster in his hand a few times. “Hey, I’m the ace sharpshot of the team. Gotta show it somehow.” He smirked.

Yamazaki gave a sly smirk and drew his knife. “You wanna try it again, then?” He challenged.

“Keep him stunned with those shots of yours!” E. Honda said. “It’ll let me get close and give him some sumo slaps to the face!”

“Hey, if you wanna get up close and personal with him, be my guest.” Falco shrugged as he aimed his blaster again.

Falco fired another volley of lasers as E. Honda rushed Yamazaki and prepared to swing his palms. Yamazaki was quick to swing his knife, slicing through Falco’s lasers in the air before they could hit him and giving the Yakuza an opening to kick at E. Honda, striking him in the arm that was coming at his face. While the sumo wrestler was knocked off balance, Yamazaki rushed him again and ran into him shoulder-first. It took a bit of effort and force but the larger sumo wrestler was thrown backwards into Falco, knocking the avian pilot onto his back.

Yamazaki smirked as he approached his opponents, tossing his knife to himself. “Wanna keep this up?” He asked. “You both should know I kinda like to fight unpredictably.”

Falco grunted and pushed himself up. “Yeah? Well, I’ve been known to be a bit reckless myself.” He smirked back.

“We can still catch him off guard, friend!” E. Honda insisted. “He fights dirty but there’s still a method to his madness!”

“You really think that, fat boy?” Yamazaki taunted. “We haven’t really clashed since the old Capcom vs. SNK days. Wanna see what kind of tricks I’ve learned since then?”

“I can tank them all!” E. Honda cackled as he stood his ground and got into a sumo stance. “Hit me with everything you’ve got!”

Falco’s eyes widened when he saw Yamazaki rushing the sumo wrestler, whom was standing right next to him, with a psychotic smirk and his knife-wielding hand in his pocket. “H-Hey, wait! I’m not ready to fight him close-quarters!” He said, hastily trying to pocket his still-drawn blaster and grab at his portable reflector shield.

E. Honda held out his hands and caught Yamazaki as the thug lashed out and made an attempt to perform a sumo throw to launch the Yakuza over his shoulder again. Yamazaki was quicker as he was thrown over the sumo wrestler’s shoulder this time, lashing out with his arm like a whip and striking both Falco and E. Honda in the face at the same time, stunning them both and making Falco drop the reflector he held in his hand.

Like lightning, Yamazaki was in Falco’s face, delivering a huge headbutt to the bird’s forehead and knocking him on his back. With Falco out of the way, Yamazaki spun on his foot and delivered a strong kick to E. Honda’s face, knocking the sumo wrestler backwards a bit more but not enough to make him topple over. Yamazaki pressed the assault and swung his legs a few more times, ending up driving his knee into E. Honda’s face with one good strike that finally caused the sumo wrestler to topple over.

While E. Honda was on the ground, Yamazaki took the chance to kick him a few more times while he was down before hauling the sumo wrestler to his feet and slamming him down again a few more times, cackling like a madman every time he did. It took a few more times than usual due to E. Honda’s bulkier frame but Yamazaki was soon able to get the sumo wrestler disoriented and weak after continues canvas slams.

“Ugh…You hit just as hard as ever and you play just as dirty.” E. Honda muttered as he made an attempt to push the Yakuza away from him. Although Yamazaki leaned back to avoid E. Honda’s hand coming at his head, the attempt was too weak to make any real attempt.

“Yeah, and you’re just as predictable as you were in the early 2000’s.” Yamazaki chuckled as he pushed E. Honda backwards as hard as he could, making him stumble backwards towards the ropes. Yamazaki followed up with another boot to the head, sending the sumo wrestler tumbling over the ropes and down into an elimination portal.

E. Honda crashed into the middle of the desert in Grand Theft Auto 5, obliterating Trevor Phillips’ house.

Yamazaki looked over his shoulder as soon as he had sent E. Honda out of the ring and saw Falco on his feet again, rushing him and swinging his wings. Yamazaki held up his arm and blocked Falco’s attack, though wasn’t prepared for Falco to smash his metal boot into his face while he was blocking. As Yamazaki staggered backwards, Falco pulled his blaster out and fired another couple of bolts into the Yakuza’s torso.

“Ugh! You want to keep this going, you turkey?” Yamazaki grunted. “I’ll just gut you easier now that I only have to deal with one of you!”

“I like those odds.” Falco smirked as he rushed Yamazaki again while he was still recovering from the volley of lasers Falco had shot at him. Yamazaki held up his arm and blocked Falco’s attempted attack, grabbing the avian pilot by his metal leg while he was in the air and smashing him down onto the canvas. While Falco was on his back in pain, Yamazaki pulled his leg into the air and prepared to stomp down on the bird pilot.

Seeing Yamazaki lifting his foot above his head, Falco acted quickly and threw his deflector shield upwards as the thug swung his leg down at him. Yamazaki’s foot struck the deflector and he was knocked back in the recoil of his foot bouncing off the shield. As Yamazaki was thrown back, Falco pushed himself up and crouched low, zipping forwards on his feet at the speed of light and barging into Yamazaki’s stomach.

Although Falco charging into him like a bullet train knocked the wind out of him briefly, Yamazaki grabbed at Falco’s jacket and hauled him into the air, grunting in annoyance as he tossed Falco straight up into the air. Yamazaki clutched his stomach for a second as he watched Falco fall down and then lashed out with a headbutt, timing his swing in a way that lined him up with Falco’s head, striking the bird in the forehead with enough force to send Falco flying backwards in the air for several feet, landing awkwardly on his back.

Seeing Falco down again, Yamazaki rotated his neck a couple of times as he walked over and hauled him up again, throwing the avian pilot over his shoulder now that he knew Falco had the ability to fight back at close range. As Falco landed on his back again, Yamazaki pulled his knife from his pocket and rushed forward, preparing to take the hotshot pilot apart. Falco was on his feet again quickly and fired a few blaster shots at the approaching yakuza while taking some steps backwards. Yamazaki swung his knife again several times, slicing through Falco’s laser shots as he rushed in for the kill.

“Let’s see you dodge THIS!” Yamazaki shouted as he pulled his knife into the air and swung down.

Yamazaki’s knife hit solid metal and stopped. Yamazaki saw Falco holding his leg up in the path of the knife and he suddenly saw that the bird pilot was blocking his knife with his metal boot. The Yakuza tried swinging again but Falco was quicker, blocking Yamazaki’s knife with his metal leg again. Yamazaki tried slashing several times out of frustration but Falco was again quicker, lashing out with his foot several times and parrying all of the thug’s blows expertly. Parrying Yamazaki in a way that made him stagger backwards a couple of steps, Falco leapt into the air and delivered a spinning kick to the side of his head, knocking him down with a hard, metal strike.

Grunting in pain, Yamazaki pushed himself up. “You know? I always forget how annoying it is to fight you Star Fox guys.” He muttered.

“Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes, especially against someone like you.” Falco smirked as he crouched low and, after flipping a nearly-invisible switch on his metal leg, engulfed himself in flames.

As Yamazaki turned to face Falco again, the hotshot launched himself forward, straight into Yamazaki’s body like a flaming rocket. As Yamazaki was knocked up into the air, Falco came to a screeching halt, spun on his feet and launched himself upwards again in another Fire Bird attack, striking Yamazaki and knocking him further into the air. While he himself was in the air, Falco stopped his attack and turned around, giving a smirk as he watched Yamazaki fall into his line of sight.

Falco lashed out with his legs while the two were in the air, striking the Yakuza with several airborne kicks in rapid succession as the two fell towards the canvas again. Falco finished the combo with another upwards kick, knocking Yamazaki into the air a bit more as the two finally landed on the canvas, Falco on his feet and Yamazaki on his back.

“You done yet? I can keep this up all night, you know.” Falco smirked.

Yamazaki grunted again as he tried to push himself up again. “Ugh…You punk…You killjoys just like to take the fun out of everything…” He muttered. “Why can’t you just be a good little bird and let me ROAST you?”

“Cause I got more skill? That may have something to do with it.”

Yamazaki turned his head towards Falco one last time just in time to see his metal boot flying at his face. Falco smashed his metal leg across Yamazaki’s face one last time, causing him to collapse on his face, finally out like a light. Falco took a couple of seconds to wait before he was satisfied that Yamazaki was down for the count.

“Well, so much for that…” Falco muttered as he lifted Yamazaki’s prone form up and, with a bit of effort, dumped him over the top rope, sending the Yakuza down into an elimination vortex. His job done, Falco glanced around to see if he could spot someone else to fight.

Matt lashed out with a rapid-fire flurry of punches, aiming for the Hero’s stomach, only for his fists to strike metal and repel his attacks. Matt suddenly realized that, rather than striking Hero’s sword like he had originally thought, the fantasy hero had turned himself into a metal statue that seemed immune to attack.

Grunting in annoyance, Matt punched Hero’s metal form a few more times, as if to test the thought that the punches weren’t going to work on him in this form, before glancing at Shaggy. “He’s given himself a metal coating, Shaggy!” He called out. “Punches don’t work on him when he’s metal!”

“Really? He doesn’t seem to be, like, fighting back, man.” Shaggy scratched his head.

“Huh…Yeah, he hasn’t moved since he turned metal.” Matt noted. “Maybe he becomes a literal statue when he’s metal or something.”

All of a sudden, Hero’s metal coating vanished and the swordsman lashed out with his weapon, striking the surprised Matt in the chest, knocking him backwards on his feet. Hero followed up be swinging his hand and throwing a fast fireball into Matt, knocking him back and sending him crashing into Shaggy, knocking the two of them down.

Matt moaned as he pushed himself up. “Great. A fighter AND a mage.” He mentioned. “You ever fought anyone like that, Shaggy?”

“Like, I dunno. Some of the others seem like they’re fighting mages but I dunno if any of them use actual MAGIC.” Shaggy shrugged as he got up as well. “Well, other than Black Adam but, like, no one really liked Black Adam.”

“Looks like neither of you are used to my fighting style.” Hero mentioned with a smirk as he brandished his sword again. “You’re both fast but I can be a lot faster, you know?”

Matt couldn’t help but smirk as he slammed his fists together. “Wanna test that theory, kid?” He asked.

“Like, stall him for a sec, Matt!” Shaggy said as he backed up and engulfed himself in another Dragonball aura.

Matt gave a nod as he turned his attention to Hero again, watching as he lashed out and fired a bolt of lightning from his hand. Matt jumped to the side in the blink of an eye, dodging the lightning, as he rushed at Hero. Hero lashed out again, firing another bolt of lightning, only to watch as Matt weaved his way around the second shot as well.

In the blink of an eye, Matt had closed the gap between the two and lashed out with his fist striking Hero in the stomach. Surprised by Matt’s speed, Hero didn’t have time to turn himself to metal again and received the full power of the punch to the torso. Matt swung again and knocked Hero back on his feet. Hero tried to hold up his sword to block against Matt’s relentless attacks.

As Matt rushed at Hero, Shaggy took a few seconds to power himself up and, glowing with otherworldly power, plucked a sandwich from the canvas again. Giving a cheeky grin, Shaggy glanced at Matt, whom was in the process of giving Hero a flurry of punches. “Incoming, man!” He said as he threw the sandwich at the dueling pair.

The instant the sandwich left Shaggy’s hand, his otherworldly power left him and flowed into it, making it grow into a huge sandwich a hundred times its original size the instant it was thrown. The huge sandwich soared through the air, making a beeline for Matt and Hero. Matt had heard Shaggy’s prior warning and dove to the side, rolling on the canvas and letting the airborne sandwich pass him by, leaving Hero in the direct path.

Hero looked ahead and saw the huge sandwich coming at his face. Giving a smirk, Hero waved his hand again and created a barrier in front of him that the sandwich flew straight into. Rather than splatter against Hero’s barrier, however, the sandwich bounced off it instead, flying right back at Shaggy. His eyes widening as he watched the huge sandwich flying back at him, Shaggy didn’t have the time to get out of the way as the sandwich flew straight into his face.

*POW!*

With the power of what felt like a Falcon Punch to the face, Shaggy’s sandwich flew into his face and launched him into the air the instant it made contact with him. Matt cursed under his breath as Shaggy was knocked airborne with his own projectile. “Great. He’s got a reflector too.” He muttered. The Mii swerved out of the way to avoid another fireball as he raced at Hero and continued the fight.

In the air, Shaggy managed to upright himself, holding his head as he felt a bit dizzy. “Like, I gotta cut back on the salami, man. I forget how much that stuff hurts!” He mentioned as he glanced down, seeing that he was still above the fight Matt was having with Hero, and pulled his fists into the air as he fell headlong towards the canvas.

While clashing with Hero, Matt glanced upwards subtly and saw Shaggy falling downwards. Thinking quickly, Matt punched Hero in the chest and caused the fantasy hero to stagger backwards. Shaggy suddenly fell in between the two and slammed his fists into the canvas, creating a powerful shockwave that lifted Hero off the canvas altogether. As Shaggy landed on the ground and watched Hero launch into the air, the lanky youth crouched low and leapt up after him, smashing a fist over Hero’s head in an overhead spike that sent the fantasy hero flying straight into the canvas again.

Hero grunted as he pushed himself up again. “Ugh…How are these two so fast and powerful at the same time?” He muttered to himself. “I may need to go more on the offensive with my MP…”

Turning to face the two unlikely friends, Hero started charging his MP and cycled through his spell list, trying to find one he could use that could catch the two off-guard. “I didn’t want to resort to my powerful spells this early since they drain the most MP for me but it’s clear that I need to pull out all the stops with you two!” He challenged.

“You think that scares us?” Matt chuckled as he rushed forward. “Bring it!”

“Like, hold up, Matt! I think he’s planning something!” Shaggy called out as he ran after Matt.

As Hero continued charging MP, his two opponents reached him. Matt lashed out with an orange fist but Shaggy managed to grab hold of Matt from behind to keep him from doing anything rash. However, in doing so, Shaggy had accidentally been thrown forward due to Matt coming to a full stop so quickly, sending him crashing into Hero and breaking his concentration.

“Augh! Don’t interrupt me when I’m charging my MP! I could accidentally cast a spell that I…” Hero trailed off when he glanced at his spell list and saw which one he had inadvertently cast when Shaggy broke his concentration. His eyes snapped open in realization as he suddenly felt a terrible feeling of déjà vu. “Oh, no! Not again! You DIDN’T!”

“Uh…Like, did wha-”

*KA-BOOM!*

The area around Hero exploded in a violent ball of energy, engulfing Hero and launching Shaggy off of him, back into Matt. As the two friends collapsed onto the canvas in a crumpled heap, the explosion of energy died down, revealing Hero laying flat on his stomach, clearly out like a light.

“What the crap did you DO, Shaggy?” Matt asked as he pushed Shaggy off of him. “You ain’t never had to use that much power on someone before!”

“Like, that wasn’t me, man!” Shaggy insisted as he got up. “He said something about accidentally casting a spell…”

Matt blinked as he glanced at Hero’s unconscious body. “Did…Did he blow himself up?” He asked.

Shaggy scratched his head. “Like…Maybe?” He asked.

Matt sighed. “Well, we may as well dump him over the ropes and go find someone else to fight, then.” He mentioned.

Shaggy nodded as he picked up Hero’s unconscious body and dumped it over the ropes. “Like, we gotta stay away from magic is it causes that kinda stuff, man.” He mentioned. “Maybe we should just stick to the superpowers.”

“Yeah, if magic is that volatile, I don’t think I want to try using it, either.” Matt shook his head. “You mentioned that Superman hates that stuff? I kinda see why now.”

Hero crashed into Dungeons & Dragons. When he came to, he ended up killing a couple of monsters and sulked off to the nearest village to buy a couple of magic potions.

Barraza swung his makeshift axe (ignoring the fact that a screaming Lord Hater was still attached to the blade by the skull) at Heavy D!, only for the boxer to swerve to the side and avoid the attack. D! lashed out with a Rolling Soul Driver and struck Barraza again, making the wastelander stagger backwards but no enough for him to drop his axe. Barraza was quick to shake off the punch to the face as he swung blindly, forcing Heavy D! to leap backwards to avoid the attempted attack.

However, this proved to be what Barraza was hoping as he pulled his pistol into view and fired a close-range, explosive round into Heavy D!’s face, stunning the boxer long enough for the wastelander to leap up to him and swing his axe again, striking Heavy D! in the face several times with his axe, though it probably hurt a lot less than it normally would have since the boxer was actually struck with Lord Hater’s flailing, screaming body instead of a sharp blade.

As he was struck several times without being given room to breathe, Heavy D! stepped backwards after blocking another blow, swerving backwards in a boxing spot dodge and let Barraza miss his next attack. Giving a smirk, Heavy D! lashed out with his hand, creating a semi-projectile in a burst of energy that struck the wastelander in the face, staggering him. Heavy D! landed another Rolling Soul Driver to Barraza’s face, stunning him into a rapid-fire punch flurry that the tall boxer quickly led into.

“Ugh! Those blows of yours are sharp but I’ve dealt with people who hit a lot harder than YOU!” Barazza snapped as he pulled his pistol into view again. Heavy D! tried blocking for the inevitable explosive gunshot but was caught off-guard when Barraza struck him over the head with the pistol rather than fire it. As Heavy D! dropped his guard, Barraza pointed the pistol at his face again. “Let’s see you dodge THIS.” He taunted with a smirk behind his facemask.

Heavy D! received another explosive round to the face, launching him backwards and causing him to land flat on his back. Barraza, seeing his opponent on the canvas, leapt high into the air and pulled his axe above his head, preparing to bring it down hard on the downed boxer with the intent on finishing the fight there. Heavy D! looked up in time to see Barraza falling down towards him and sprung to life, pushing himself upwards and striking the canvas with his fist, creating an burst of energy around him that exploded outwards, catching Barraza off guard and knocking him into the air.

While Barraza was in the air, Heavy D! wound up his fist and lashed out again, this time punching upwards, striking Barraza with several upwards strikes to keep him airborne. One wayward punch struck the side of Barraza’s axe, finally managing to dislodge Lord Hater from it (by striking him in the face) and send the evil space tyrant flying off to the side, away from the battle, with another scream.

Heavy D! pulled a fist back and charged up some energy as Barraza fell into view. “Well, let’s see you dodge THIS instead!” He challenged before swinging his fist.

Heavy D! laid into his opponent with a rapid-fire flurry of punches, each one hitting harder than the last. With the last punch, Barraza was launched backwards, straight into the ropes around the arena. Being brought back to reality as he noticed that he was stretching the arena ropes, Barraza narrowed his eyes and gripped his axe again. The ropes sprung back into form again, launching him straight back at Heavy D! with a yell of pure rage.

Stepping back in surprise from seeing Barraza shrugging off his combo, Heavy D! didn’t have time to guard as Barraza flew straight into him, swinging him axe and creating a firey explosion on impact with the tall boxer’s torso. Barraza kept up the attacks and struck his opponent several more times, seeming like he was pouring his anger into his strikes to make them more-explosive. Barraza finished the combo by striking Heavy D! in the face with an upward swing of his axe, knocking the tall boxer into the air.

As his opponent was in the air, Barraza narrowed his eyes and jumped up after him, preparing to continue the combo above the arena. However, Heavy D! managed to upright himself in midair quick enough to see Barraza coming and instinctively lashed out with his fist. He hated punching in midair (due to being a boxer and all) but he realized that he needed to at least throw the wastelander off or else he’d be in trouble. Heavy D! managed to get lucky and struck Barraza in the face as the wastelander was winding up for another swing of an axe, throwing him off balance and getting him to stop his attack. Taking advantage of the situation, Heavy D! reached out and grabbed Barraza by the head in midair.

“Hey! Let go of me!” Barraza shouted as he flailed about.

“Time to take a page or two out of Brian’s book!” Heavy D! shouted with a smirk as he and held onto Barraza’s head and fell down towards the canvas, pulling Barraza down headfirst.

*CRASH!*

Heavy D! bounced off the canvas as Barraza hit the ground forehead-first. As Heavy D! landed on his knee and pushed himself up, Barraza remained face-down on the mat, not getting up. Heavy D! waited a moment, watching the downed wastelander, before he was satisfied that Barraza was down for the count.

“Well, that took more out of me than I thought it would.” Heavy D! lamented as he picked up Barraza’s prone form and chucked it over the ropes. He turned around and took a couple of steps before pausing. “…Huh. Why did I end up fighting that guy, anyways? There was SOME reason…”

Bear Hugger ducked under a poison claw swing from F.A.N.G. as the Shadloo lieutenant flew over his head. F.A.N.G. had attempted a swipe at the large boxer during an attempt to get out of range of Toon Zelda’s broadsword and tried to jump at the opportunity to attack, not expecting the larger man to see the attack coming.

As F.A.N.G. went over his head, Bear Hugger reached up quicly and grabbed hold of him by the ankle. As F.A.N.G. yelped in surprise, Bear Hugger pulled him down and slammed him into the canvas a couple of times before throwing him towards Toon Zelda, whom swung her square shield and smashed it into F.A.N.G.’s head once he got close enough, knocking the Shadaloo villain into the air. While the villain was in the air, Toon Zelda created a circle of light on the canvas and caused a pillar of light to shoot up from it, striking F.A.N.G. and launching him back even further.

Landing on his feet (though already looking fatigued), F.A.N.G. narrowed his eyes behind his shades and got into a stance again. “Would you two get it through your skulls?!” He demanded. “Lord Bison isn’t planning on doing anything tonight!”

Bear Hugger shrugged. “You keep sayin’ that but…I dunno, eh.” He mentioned. “But you still make it hard to believe you.”

“You’ve been doing nothing but tossing me around ever since we started this!” F.A.N.G. snapped. “But what do you expect to learn from doing this when I don’t have anything to tell you?!”

Toon Zelda, though still looking cautious, tapped Bear Hugger on the shoulder. “I kinda of think he may be telling the truth at this point.” She mentioned. “I think he’s the time to reveal everything if you beat him up too much, isn’t he?”

“Sure, but he’s also a plotting, conniving murderer.” Bear Hugger reminded.

Toon Zelda blinked a couple of times and turned towards F.A.N.G. for a couple of seconds before turning back to Bear Hugger. “…THIS guy?” She checked.

Narrowing his eyes, F.A.N.G. bared his claws. “I’ll rip your tongue out for that!” He snapped as he lunged at the pair and swung his claws. Bear Hugger got cut across the chest, making him stagger backwards a couple of steps, but Toon Zelda held up an arm and managed to block F.A.N.G.’s claws with it, stopping him in his tracks.

“Okay. That one wasn’t very smart. Not only am I already dead but I’m possessing a suit of armour.” Toon Zelda informed.

F.A.N.G. snarled. “Ugh! I thought I wouldn’t have to deal with one of you after I watched that haunted armour get tossed a few sections ago!” He snapped as he kicked at Toon Zelda and forced her away from him. “I’m not used to fighting people immune to my poisons…”

Toon Zelda readied her sword for another attempted attack from F.A.N.G. as Bear Hugger stood up, gingerly holding his chest. “You okay?” She asked. “That looks like it hurt.”

“Eh, I’ve had worse. Aran Ryan tried to sneak a chainsaw into the ring one night.” Bear Hugger shrugged before glancing at F.A.N.G., the squirrel in his pouch shaking an angry fist at the Shadaloo member. “You wanna try that one again, bud?” He asked.

“How are you not affected by my poisons?!” F.A.N.G. demanded indignantly. “What use is fighting with poison if everyone is immune to it outside of my world!”

“I think that’s just bad RNG due to us being you’re opponents.” Bear Hugger shrugged.

Toon Zelda’s glowing eyes blinked a couple of times behind the visage of the helmet her armour was wearing. “What’s RNG?” She asked.

Again, Bear Hugger shrugged. “Eh, I dunno. Disco Kid uses the term all the time and it sounds like it fits here.” He admitted.

Baring his claws, F.A.N.G. yelled angrily, getting both of their attention. “No matter! If my poison doesn’t affect you I’ll just cut you both to ribbons instead!” He screeched as he lunged at the pair again, swinging his claws wildly. Toon Zelda was quick to get in front of Bear Hugger and use her armour to continue to block against F.A.N.G.’s rapid-fire strikes, seeing her as more-capable of withstanding the assault due to Bear Hugger’s limited armour.

“You can try to hold me off as long as you like! Eventually I will cut through that armour!” F.A.N.G. shouted.

Toon Zelda looked at her armour’s bracers and saw that F.A.N.G. was slowly starting to chip away at her armour, slowly knocking out little pieces as he continued to attack. She realized that she was in no danger of his attacks due to him doing so little damage to her suit of armour but Toon Zelda knew that she couldn’t block against him forever.

Standing behind Toon Zelda, Bear Hugger gave a smirk as he scooped his squirrel friend into his hand. “Go for those goofy-looking glasses, little buddy.” He said. The squirrel-wearing-boxing-gloves gave a salute as Bear Hugger tossed the furry animal over Toon Zelda’s shoulder, aiming for F.A.N.G.’s face.

“AUGH!”

Toon Zelda blinked in confusion as F.A.N.G. backpedaled away from her making an attempt to claw at his face as a squirrel wearing tiny boxing gloves was now scurrying all around it. F.A.N.G. cursed several times as he flailed about, trying to get the squirrel off of him, but the small animal latched on and evaded the Shadaloo henchman’s claws simply by being too swift. F.A.N.G. ended up falling onto his back.

“W-What the blazes is going on?! What’s attacking my face?!” F.A.N.G. demanded.

“Need a HUG?!”

The squirrel suddenly jumped off F.A.N.G.’s face and leapt away, seemingly taking that as a cue. F.A.N.G. sat up and looked up in confusion, wonder why he was suddenly not being attacked anymore.

*SLAM!*

Bear Hugger slammed his hands onto either side of F.A.N.G.’s head with all his might, pulling off his signature move and allowing F.A.N.G. to fall on his back, clearly out like a light, as his two opponents stood over him.

Bear Hugger sighed. “Well, gettin’ any info out of him was a bust but he just wouldn’t let up.” He mentioned.

“Like I said, I don’t think he actually had any info.” Toon Zelda explained.

“Well…If that’s the case then Bison ain’t even in on it.” Bear Hugger scratched his head. “That’s a little confusing. I’d have thought it were a sure thing he’d be involved, eh.”

“Well, at least we know he ISN’T, then?” Toon Zelda shrugged.

Bear Hugger gave a nod as he picked up F.A.N.G.’s prone form and chucked him out of the arena. “Eh, I suppose so.” He reasoned. “It’s a start, at least.”

F.A.N.G. landed in Dry Dry Desert somewhere in Mario 64. He stood up, holding his head in pain and was about to curse his rotten luck when he was unceremoniously flattened by a Tox Box.

Hell’s Chef roared as he swung his butcher knife at Antonov, slamming it into the canvas as the large wrestler backpedaled to avoid the blow. The evil-looking candle made another attempt to strike Antonov, only for the muscled human to kick the knife away as it was coming at his torso, throwing Hell’s Chef off slightly and leaving him open to attack.

Smirking to himself, Antonov rushed at Hell’s Chef and grappled him, suplexing the blocky candle into the canvas with all his might and then getting to his feet to play to the crowd. Hell’s Chef grunted in anger as he pushed himself up, the flame on his candle blowing brightly, while Antonov was busy flexing and playing to the crowd. Narrowing his red eyes, Hell’s Chef pulled his huge knife back and prepared to run the wrestler through with it.

Antonov suddenly looked over his shoulder, aware of Hell’s Chef’s presence, and smirked as he jumped to the side, avoiding the attempted stab. “You’ve got a lot of gusto, friend!” He said. “You’d make a real killing as a heel in my wrestling organization!”

Hell’s Chef growled. “You wave that accursed cigar around in my face and you think I’ll work with you?!” He demanded, seeming insulted.

“Oh, this? It’s my trademark!” Antonov laughed. “I never fight without one!”

This seemed to trigger something inside Hell’s Chef as he froze for a second and growled even deeper. “You are willingly destroying your precious taste buds for SHOW? AND you have to audacity to promote the practice towards fans?!” He demanded. “I’ll burn you to a crisp!!”

Hell’s Chef lunged at Antonov, burning with a firey aura and swinging his butcher knife in a flurry of slashes. Antonov gave another smirk as he swerved around the knife as best as he could. It seemed that Hell’s Chef was taking aim at the cigar in Antonov’s mouth more than the wrestler himself, almost as if he was trying to destroy it. Antonov tried to evade all of the knife slashes but Hell’s Chef was too quick and the large wrestler was struck a few times in the torso. Seeing that he had landed a hit, Hell’s Chef pressed the attack and picked up the pace, the candle on his head burning intensely.

Trying to ignore the pain of taking the multiple slashes (he had fought armed fighters like Choi Bounge, Haohmaru and Nakoruru in the past, after all), Antonov pushed himself through the attacks and hit Hell’s Chef with a running clothesline, knocking the blocky candle off his feet and causing him to hit his head on the canvas. While Hell’s Chef was on the canvas, Antonov grabbed him by his blocky legs, having to get a better grip due to how big and blocky they were in the first place, and lifted him off the ground in a wrestling grapple, slamming Hell’s Chef down again.

Seeing that Hell’s Chef was still groaning, though it was clear he was starting to lose steam, Antonov gave a smirk. “You’re tough for a walking, angry candle, friend!” He said as he hauled Hell’s Chef to his feet. “Let’s give the audience a good show!”

“Ugh…What is it with you and this-” Hell’s Chef muttered before he was cut off when Antonov performed another wrestling move, pulling him into the air by his back and slamming him face-first into the canvas again. The audience cheered as Antonov continued to play to the crowd.

Hell’s Chef growled lowly as he pushed himself up again, gripping the handle of his butcher knife as he turned to face the still-showboating Antonov again. Antonov heard the growl and turned around, getting back into his stance again. “You think I’m just going to let a smoker step all over me?” He said darkly. “I’ll cut you in half!!”

“We really need to workshop your catchphrases, pal.” Antonov chuckled as he kicked away Hell’s Chef’s knife. “But that can be done at a later date.”

Hell’s Chef lashed out again, clearly not used to someone just being able to shrug off his attacks like this. The last time he had entered one of these tournaments he had spent the majority of his time in the ring chasing down a cowardly cowboy with a cigarette so seeing someone just standing up to him and fighting him off so effortlessly was something Hell’s Chef hadn’t been accustomed to.

Hell’s Chef lunged forward again, swinging his butcher knife at Antonov’s neck. Antonov ducked under the rage-fueled swing and swung his fist upwards, striking Hell’s Chef with a powerful uppercut that seemed to stun the angry candle long enough for the wrestler to go on the offensive instead.

Feeling himself on the receiving end of a combo, Hell’s Chef tried to block Antonov’s punches with his butcher knife but could only manage to block a couple of blows with it before Antonov broke through his guard and deflected the huge butcher knife away, leaving Hell’s Chef open to more attacks. The next thing Hell’s Chef knew, Antonov had grabbed him again and was setting him up for another powerful wrestling move.

“Lemme show you why I run the G.A.W.!” Antonov laughed. “This move’ll make you see stars!”

Antonov leapt high into the air, taking Hell’s Chef with him, and turned himself over, holding the blocky candle’s head and preparing to give Hell’s Chef a firey suplex as the two went on a crash course towards the canvas. Hell’s Chef tried to break free but Antonov either had too tight of a grip on him or he had already used up too much of his stamina trying to fight the wrestler. All Hell’s Chef could do was look at the canvas coming towards his face.

*CRASH!*

Antonov and Hell’s Chef went straight into the canvas as the crowd went wild. Antonov laughed and pushed himself up, playing to the crowd a few more times as he glanced down at the nearly-beaten Hell’s Chef on the canvas. “You have determination and pizzazz. We definitely could use that. I’ll remember to give you a card for the league later.”

Without giving Hell’s Chef a chance to counter or respond, Antonov picked him up, spun him around a few times and threw him away. He laughed heartily as he watched Hell’s Chef fly away. “Ah, nothing feels better than to test out a potential new recruit!” He said aloud.

Suddenly hearing a strange noise coming from nearby, Antonov glanced over his shoulder and saw Spy materialize, turning off his cloaking device. “You know what would have made you feel BETTER?” He asked.

“What?” Antonov asked.

“Actually throwing him OUT OF THE RING.” Spy reminded flatly.

Antonov looked in the direction he had thrown Hell’s Chef and realized that, yes, he had indeed thrown the angry candle in the complete opposite direction of the arena ropes. “…Oh.” He mentioned.

Ryu ducked under a kick from Sakura and stood back up, preparing to counter her attack, when he caught sight of something coming towards the fight over her shoulder. “Sakura, behind you.” He mentioned.

Sakura glanced over her shoulder and saw Hell’s Chef flying towards her. “Oh! Thanks, Ryu-san!” She said, turning in place and crouching low.

“SHORYUKEN!”

Sakura’s fist connected with Hell’s Chef’s face the instant he got close, launching the angry candle clear out of the ring in an upwards arc. Sakura turned back to Ryu, whom seemed to be waiting patiently for her to deal with the distraction. “You didn’t want anyone interrupting the fight?” Sakura checked.

“Correct. We both know how dangerous that thing is from the previous tournament and I’ve seen far too many fight interruptions in general in these things.” Ryu shook his head. “The last thing I want is an unfair fight.”

“Of course!”