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Chapter Text

(The Arena)

Chaos reigned everywhere in the ring, and while a lot of gunshots were heard from Elmer’s gun, a lot more gunshots came from Fuzzy’s shotgun as he continually fired shots at Sulley, whilst Elmer was busy trying to shoot at Gato, who dodged his gunplay with a Demon Flip, before rushing down and slamming his legs onto Elmer’s face, knocking the bald hunter down a peg. Between that and Numbuh One’s constant screams, Fred Fredburger’s constant talking, Demyx’s splashing of water being summoned by his sitar, nobody could hear anything from the constant announcements Xero was making… or rather, the clicking sound he was making with his tongue.

Sulley winced a bit as he felt a blast of buckshot slamming on his arm as Fuzzy raised up his gun and let out a deranged howl. “You is gonna pay for hurtin’ mah banjo!”

“Listen, I swear, it was an accident!” Sulley called out as he raised his arms, trying to calm the pink, furry monster down, but to no avail as he continued shooting at the monster.

“Yew hurts Joe, so now you’re gonna pay dearly!” Fuzzy growled in anger as he jumped up in the air and slammed his fists onto the ground, creating a power quake that caused Sulley to slip and fall on his feet.

This caught everyone else off guard as they fell down to the ground momentarily. The only people that avoided the power quake all together was Landia, who was flying in the air as he noted Spike and Espeon being thrown off by the quake, before picking themselves up, Bentley and Berry, who had jumped over the quake entirely, and Infinite, who only laughed at Ken as he got knocked down to the ground. Ken growled angrily before getting up and punched Infinite directly in the face.

Sulley quickly got himself back up as he tried to get himself in position, heavily huffing and puffing to himself before shaking his head. “Right…”

The blue monster then let out a loud roar as he charged directly at Fuzzy and slashed him a few times, causing the pink creature to yelp. Fuzzy recovered as he angrily growled at the blue monster, before swiping at Sulley with his own hands, causing some brutal damage on the blue monster’s arm.

Sulley groaned as he rubbed his arm, before getting up. He growled as he pulled out his dodgeball, seeing that reasoning with the monster was out of the question…

All the while, Raphael was giving a small smirk of his own as he managed to charge forward and use his sais to block Dean’s electrical punch. Dean panted heavily as he narrowed his eyes at Raph, before charging forward towards him with another punch. Raph quickly side stepped out of the way so as to reveal Jack Turner, who had jumped up in the air. Dean yelped as he rolled to the side, avoiding a Drop Kick from the heavyset man himself.

Dean growled as he looked at the two of them. “What are you trying to do, double team against me?”

“That’s the idea!” Raph called out as he waved his sai. “No offense, man, but between the three of us, it’s easier to get rid of the person that stands no chance against heavyset players like us!”

“Yeah, the turtle has a point!” Jack Turner smirked as he punched his fist into his hand. “So, let’s see if we can change up the fighting style, shall we? Get started with an elimination right off the bat? Right before the wheel spins?”

Dean narrowed his eyes as he held up his fists. “If you think you can-”

All of a sudden, as quick as a flash, Jack Turner jumped up and slammed his legs on Dean, sending him flying out of the ring… when all of a sudden, a large trampoline appeared from out of nowhere to bounce the electromancer fighter back into the ring and sending him flying up in the air.

This caused Jack and Raph to stare in shock as they saw Dean flying back into the ring… and landing right on Demyx, causing Cerebella to yelp, before turning her eyes towards the two fighters responsible.

“Uh, what the heck was that?” Raph asked.

“That, my dear Raphael…” Xero’s voice sounded, causing everyone to be silent as they all turned to the announcer’s booth (fighters included, save for Numbuh One, who was still running from Fred Fredburger, still constantly talking). “...is the first instance of a rule in place. During the times the wheel gets spun, nobody is allowed to make any surprise eliminations. I let that slip by last tournament when Mulan eliminated Boingo during the wheel spin, but I have to make that a rule now. No eliminations when the wheel is about to be spun, or if it’s spinning currently.”

“And speaking of spinning the wheel!” Monika appeared on the monitor, all dressed up like Vanna White as she pointed to a new wheel on her monitor screen. “I’ll be like a contestant on Wheel of Fortune, and spin the wheel. For those who don’t know how the wheel works, before a match and every five eliminations, and at the end of the round, the wheel will always spin, and whoever it lands on during a round, they will either suffer a punishment or earn a reward, depending on what’s on our minds at the moment. As for the end of the round spin, it plays differently, but we’ll get to that when we get to it.”

“All right, then, shall we see who gets the first wheel reward or punishment?” Maurice called out as everybody let out a large cheer.

Patti frowned as she held her head. “Good to know people are still here to enjoy us suffer as the rounds go…”

“Believe me, as somebody who’s been here last tournament, it’s always going to be a thing.” Garnet said from nearby as she gave a sigh.

“All right, let’s get the wheel spun!” Xero smiled. “Monika, do the honors!”

Monika giggled as she grabbed the wheel and started to spin it. Most of everyone in the ring were looking nervous as the wheel continued to spin around and around… until slowing down to a crawl, and landing on the face of a familiar gang leader.

Jack Turner yelped as Raph gave a small oomph. “Sucks to be you, man…”

“Heh, don’t count me out yet! I could be getting a sweet reward!” Jack smirked as he crossed his arms.

“Nack in the first round had his weapons taken away, and got eliminated almost instantly.” Raphael pointed out.

“Yeah, but that was because the host had that stupid bias! No way there’s going to be a bias against me!” Jack laughed.

“Jack Turner, since you’ve been landed on, let’s see what we’ll do with you… I think it would be fitting if the first thing we do is PUNISH you.” Monika said. “You’ve been relying on that drop kick move a LITTLE too much. Seriously, probably the most devastating thing in your debut game.”

Jack’s eyes shrank as he narrowed his eyes. “I do not like where you’re going with this…”

“Thus, for two rounds, you’ll have to fight whilst your legs are bound together. You can’t jump very far, and your kicking attack will be nerfed.” Monika said as a pair of handcuffs glitched out as Jack looked down at his feet to see the cuffs getting attached.

“HEY! How am I supposed to fight without my feet?” Jack frowned.

“Use your fists. You’re a boxer, aren’t you? So box!” Monika called out, before giving a giggle. “Okay, see you guys in five eliminations! Have fun!”

“Hey, wait a minute! You can’t-” Jack tried to protest, only for Monika’s screen to turn off. “UGH! DARN IT, this can’t get any worse…”

“Hey!”

Jack groaned as Raph shook his head towards him. “You seriously had to say that cliche line, didn’t you?”

Jack turned to see Cerebella walking forward towards the gang leader as the circus gal narrowed her eyes. “I don’t care what you do, but you do not throw your opponents towards my potential fights!”

“Look, lady, I was trying to eliminate HIM out of the ring. How was I supposed to know the other glitch lady would summon a trampoline to bring him back?!” Jack frowned.

“Fair point, but regardless, I’m not letting this opportunity pass by!” Cerebella called out before giving out a loud yell as she jumped in the air, using her hat, Vice-Versa to do an elbow drop on the strongman.

Raphael frowned as he crossed his arms. “Hmph. Well, it would seem you’re busy, so… I’ll just come back when you’re in a better mood…”

Jack didn’t hear the large turtle as he was focused on punching Cerebella’s strong armed hat. Raphael gave a small smile as he turned to where Dean was. “Hey, pal, sounds like we’re back on for…”

Raphael suddenly stopped to see Dean, having recovered, was now fighting against Demyx. He gave a small frown. “And you’re busy… great! Just great! Now what do I…”

The large heavyset turtle then heard the loud screams coming from Numbuh One as he turned to see the small kid running away from the green elephant. Raphael gave a small frown. “Hmph, that elephant is a little more annoying than anything… but I guess I better help that kid out…”

With that, Raph readied his sai as he charged forward towards the kid and elephant demon.

(Announcer’s Booth)

Xero was smiling as he crossed his legs, looking excited for the tournament with each waking moment. As he was keeping a watchful eye on the tournament, however, Maurice was on his cell phone, giving some last minute instructions to the security team in their room.

“All right, glad to see everything’s in order. Just remember, if you have to split up, you’ll need to come up with a code word, in case something happens.” Maurice said as he gave a nod towards his phone. “Yes, I agree, we can’t take any chances in case someone tries to knock one of you unconscious and someone comes in posed as one of the security team members. Just remember, be extra wary. Of course, you already know what I mean. Okay, thanks again, Maki.”

With that, Maurice hung up the phone as he gave a sigh of relief. “Okay, I just gave the word to the security team members to have one last meeting before they do their rounds.”

“And thanks to Ashley and Drake’s little side story thing for the Tournament of Kikai, hopefully, we’ll be getting more rallies in terms of viewers!” Xero smiled as he looked around at the stationary cameras. “TVs, Twitch, YouTube, old radios…. hopefully people out there manage to catch the second Tournament of Kikai somewhere in their homes.”

“Well, they should buckle in, because we might be in for a LOOOOONG night… or couple years, depending on what’s going down.” Maurice said as he gave a small yawn.

Xero nodded as he was about to speak, before hearing his phone ring. Xero looked over and smiled as he picked up the phone and answered it. “Penny, my girl! My first ever Tournament of Kikai champion, how’s everything?!”

“Hey, Xero. Glad I managed to catch you. Listen, uh, is it all right if I change numbers with somebody else?” Penny’s voice asked.

Xero blinked twice in confusion. “Sort of a last minute thing, isn’t it?”

“I know, I know, and I’m sorry, I know you wanted to hype me up for the next round, but there’s someone who needs a little comfort right now, and boy, she really needs it.” Penny sighed. “I’m currently following her right now, but I did give an advance on who I want to switch with. I’ll still be entering the early rounds, it’s just going to be a round later. He’s already agreed on the switch.”

Xero raised an eyebrow, before giving a smile. “Well, if you already got someone willing to switch last minute, I guess it’s okay. We can just hype you up in the round you’re going to appear in later.”

“Ah yeah! All right, this is the person I’m switching with…” Penny said as she put her voice in an inaudible whisper, for only Xero to hear.

Xero looked surprised at the choice, before giving a smile. “You know what, I can respect that. Very well, consider it done! I’ll just let Monika and Shuichi know there’s been a slight change in the line up.”

“Thanks! Again, sorry to call for the switch at the last minute.” Penny said. “But I’m hoping to help someone in need and give them a small cheer up.”

“All right, then. Don’t run into any trouble.” Xero smiled before hanging up the phone.

As he did so, Maurice turned to his friend as he raised an eyebrow. “What’s that all about?”

“Just our champion requesting a number change. She already made the arrangements, and her partner already agreed, just need to get the word to Monika and Shuichi.” Xero said as he reached for the phone, before pausing. “Or just Shuichi. I have a feeling Monika already knows.”

Maurice took a deep breath through his nose before giving a small sigh. “Boy, I’ll tell you one thing. It certainly won’t be boring with these contestants running around.”

“No argument there…” Xero chuckled. “And that’s not even getting into the Safe Zone’s twist…”

(Dome; Security Room)

Deep within the security team’s room, it was basically a bit of a hangout… a coffee pot with coffee settling on a table, a box of donuts, a large table with a few papers scattered… and a few old magazines on the side, with even a television screen showing the tournament’s outcome. And a phone stationed near the door, for anybody on the security team to pick up.

At the current moment, however, most of the security team was sitting down as Della and Maki, both of them sitting at the head of the table, gave nods. “All right, everybody, attention please! Glad all of you could make it in one piece.”

“At least, we all hope it’s all of you.” Himiko said. “Quick check to be sure you’re not Tsumugi or some imposter?”

Scooby looked up as he tried to pull at his face, in an attempt to unmask himself, before retracting his face as he fell backwards. Scrappy could give a shrug. “Believe me, if I were an imposter, I’d just tell you! And my uncle Scooby and I are just as real as we can be.”

“My word, I do declare that I’m me. If you don’t believe me, then ask me what I’m good at.” Penelope grinned. “I can assure you, I’m good at any sport. How do you think I try to escape out of the Hooded Claw’s traps on my own?”

“And I know I’m real, because my robotic parts are pretty hard to duplicate.” Bunnie said as she knocked on her robotic legs. “Della, you know the feeling, sug.”

Della laughed a bit as she removed her robot leg for a moment to wave it around. “Heh, of course I do.”

As Della reattached her leg, Mallow proceeded to wave his arms and jump out of his pants to summon lightning from out of nowhere, causing Scooby to yelp in fear as he clung onto the table. Mallow hopped back down his own pants before giving a smile. “Are you convinced?”

Himiko gave a small, quiet chuckle before turning to Maki. “And you know me, Maki. I’ve been close with you and Della since this morning.”

“A wise point.” Maki nodded. “Okay, I guess we’re all ourselves. That’s good to know. And that’s the main goal. While we are scouring around both the dome and the hotel to make sure any evil plans made by the villains are to be stopped…”

“And hey, eighty percent of this tournament’s behind the scenes IS basically ‘evil plot central’.” Della pointed out.

“...our main goal is that we managed to stick close to our partner.” Maki explained. “That’s why we’ve all been given a chance to know each other, depending on what our likes are and our interests…”

“That would explain the constant meetings we had to do every morning since we first came to the building.” Scrappy pointed out.

Himiko sighed. “Scrappy, we explained why we had to do this. It was to build bonds and trust for everyone, so that way, we got to know each other, and try to spot any differences in case an imposter captures us and poses as one of us.”

“Ever since Tsumugi, it’s the rightful thing to be wary about.” Maki sighed. “Even with SSBFreak’s and Drake’s choice of security team members, it has been a little bit of a worry that they’d make the same mistake and have an imposter amongst them.”

“I don’t think Sheogorath would have let an imposter be part of the security team roster.” Mallow pointed out.

“Yeah, sug, that Daedric Prince of Madness would flip his lid if he had imposters…” Bunnie pointed out… before pausing. “That is, if that Monika girl could extend our memories beyond what was shown so far…”

“That’s another thing I’m worried about…” Penelope said as she crossed her arms. “Monika. I know she randomly chose me, but looking at her, I don’t think I trust her as far as I could run.”

All the other security team members nodded in agreement, with Maki giving a silent nod. “I agree with you, but we don’t really have a choice. We have to play this by ear, and besides, if what Monika says IS true, she’s not going to be taking over the world or whatever.”

“It does feel uncomforting that she’s watching our every move though…” Himiko said as everyone silently nodded.

“Oh come on, I’m not THAT awful!”

All of the security team members yelped as they turned to see a new face sitting down on the other end of the table. Monika could only giggle as she waved her head around. “Besides, as I’ve already established to all of you, I don’t have an ulterior motive… other than to flirt with my audience and readers AND see if I can go to the outside world… but that’s unrelated to the tournament, so just being the one in charge will do.”

The other security members looked bewildered by the random appearance of Monika, but Maki was the only one who shut her eyes in frustration. “What do you want, Monika?”

“I just figured you’d be interested to know there’s a bit of a ruckus in the restaurant back at the hotel. I was wondering if you were going to go check into that.” Monika smiled.

“Why would you come here to tell us this? By the time we come here, the chaos will have already disappeared.” Maki sighed.

“I’m just saying, you guys would be bad at your jobs if you didn’t investigate it, at least.” Monika pointed out.

Maki sighed as the others looked towards her. “You raise a point… look, can you give us a few more seconds?”

“Oh fine, but they could be gone by the time you get there.” Monika said as her whole being blinked out of existence.

Maki groaned as she tried to speak up, trying to stop the omnipotent school girl, but could only stand there, feeling useless. Her eyes darkened a bit as she muttered, “This girl is going to be the death of us, I can feel it.”

“Well, at least we got somethin’ to work with.” Penelope pointed out… before pausing.

“Okay, I guess now’s the time to split off into teams. Della and I will be scouring around the entire dome, keeping an eye out for anything strange or related. Penelope, Bunnie, you’re going to be downstairs patrol, where the restaurant, arcade and mainline activities for hotel are. Find out what’s going on at the restaurant and report back here. Himiko, Mallow, Scooby, Scrappy, you four are together for the time being. We need you to look around upstairs for any signs of villains. If you hear anything that may sound suspicious, tail them, and if they’re planning anything, report to us right away, and try to hold them off for as long as you can.”

Everyone paused as Bunnie gave a smile, “Well, shoot, that sounds fair. All right, Penelope, let’s get down to business!”

“All right.” Penelope said as she got up. “I have to admit, I am a little new to this security team thang, but it’s still exciting to be part of the team.”

“Oh, and one other thing. If you see a bookcase moving in the lobby, and you see a door behind it, with a keypad, don’t worry about it. That’s just Dexter’s lab, where he’s most likely going to spend the majority of the tournament until his time to enter comes.” Maki pointed out.

This caused everybody (save for Maki, Della and Himiko) to look at Maki in bewilderment, as Mallow asked, “I’m sorry, what?”

“It’s a long story, and it’s basically Dexter’s place. It’s best not to disturb him during his work.” Maki sighed. “All right, we all have our assignments. Now we just need a code word.”

“I got a good suggestion.” Scrappy raised his hand. “It has to be a code only WE know, right? So, how about whenever one of us repeats a certain word, the other answers with another?”

“Hmmmm… I guess that could work…” Della paused before looking back at the monitors, before giving a smirk. “How about something related to our hosts… what can we describe as Xero?”

“Many things.” Bunnie frowned as she crossed her arms. “Some of which I don’t think I’m allowed to say.”

Della smirked. “How about this? The code word will be ‘Irresponsible Lagomorph’. That’ll be easy to remember.”

Maki and Himiko just gave light chuckles as Bunnie crossed her arms and smiled. “Now that’s a code word I can get by!”

“That’s an interesting code to go with.” Penelope said as Scrappy, Scooby and Mallow gave respective nods.

“All right, I think we got everything, so let’s get started on our jobs, right now!” Della said as she pointed out the door, with everyone giving a nod, as they got up, ready to go out and investigate every nook and cranny, just as Ichigo had arrived.

(The Arena)

Ken let out a grunt as he was pushed back by a series of red blocks. By the time the man recovered, he was met with a punch in the face by none other than Infinite, as he was surrounded by red energy. Ken quickly fell backwards to the ground as he looked dazed for a moment.

Infinite gave a small chuckle as he crossed his arms. “Hmph. For a Mishima, you’re pathetic…”

Ken’s eye momentarily twitched before getting back up in anger as he raised his fist and swung towards Infinite’s chest, causing the jackal to let out a loud yell of anguish. Ken smirked as he stretched his hand out.

“We Mishimas aren’t as pathetic as you know…” Ken growled as he narrowed his eyes. “True, Heihachi, Kazuya and I don’t talk much, but we are still related by blood, and I’m going to show you just WHY we have a lot of potential.”

Infinite narrowed his eyes. “A foolish effort for one so confident…”

Recovering quick, Infinite got up and started to run forward as he summoned his sword and jumped up in the air, slashing at Ken’s chest. The tall man stumbled backwards before making a quick recovery… however, another round of red energy projectiles hit the man as he looked around in confusion, his sight leaving him.

Infinite gave a chuckle as Ken turned towards the sound, giving a growl. “Fun fact. Any of my abilities can impair your vision temporarily, so you won’t know when I’m coming…”

As the jackal spoke, Infinite charged forward before landing a punch on Ken, making the man slide backwards. Ken started to blink his eyes twice before managing to get his vision back. He then turned to Infinite, who could only let loose a small laugh. Giving a growl, Ken charged forward and landed a sharp kick to Infinite Face, causing the masked jackal to fly backwards to a corner post.

Infinite growled as he quickly recovered and summoned his sword once more in an attempt to push back Ken. However, the musclebound shirtless man saw the attack coming and quickly dived out of the way, causing Infinite to miss the attack. The jackal blinked twice, before narrowing his eyes in anger. He turned around fast and started to raised his sword to attack once more.

Ken smirked as he pulled out a couple of grenades, throwing them towards Infinite as the jackal stopped to look at the items in confusion. This was a big mistake on his part.

KABOOM!

The small explosion threw Infinite off his game as he fell directly to the ground. Infinite growled as he got up and narrowed his eyes at Ken. “Hey! That’s cheating!”

“Hey, man, anything goes. And by the way…” Ken smirked as he pulled off one of his gloves to reveal a gun that was attached where his hand should be. “You should look before you leap.”

Before Infinite had a chance to react, Ken shot a bullet from his gun hand as it penetrated Infinite’s mask, causing Infinite to stumble. Seeing the chance of a lifetime, Ken rushed forward and grabbed Infinite in a grappling sort of style before holding him up to his neck…

CRACK!

Everyone watching this fight winced at the sounds of Infinite’s back cracking, causing the jackal to whimper in pain, before his lone eye activated. “You…”

“Probably shouldn’t have been so cocky to fight me.” Ken smirked before tossing the jackal out of the ring and into the portal below. Ken gave a smirk as he looked at the cameras. “How do you like that, folks? First elimination of the night goes to Ehrgeiz!”

Everybody applauded as Ken’s face appeared on the monitors, showing his elimination of Infinite countless times in instant replays. Ken smirked as he looked down. “I feel sorry for anybody who has to face that cocky individual…”

Infinite landed in Mega Man X: Commando Mission, more specifically in a chrome like area as the jackal recovered from his fall. Giving a low growl of anger, he stomped on the ground.

“I don’t freaking believe it! It’s bad enough I was kicked out of the first round and humiliated by a samurai who should have minded his own business, BUT now I’m the first one out of the FIRST round! Ugh, I will NEVER live this down! I guess the only good thing about this is that I can wait for ten minutes, probably beating up the WEAKEST person next to me…”

“Weak?”

Infinite stopped talking as he slowly turned to see a large green robot like figure with red metal wings staring at him angrily. “You dare call the great Steel Massimo WEAK?! You’re going down!”

Infinite’s visible eye shrank as Steel Massimo grabbed him and threw him against a wall, knocking him out.

(Announcer’s Booth)

“First world… Mega Man X: Command Mission.” Maurice wrote down.

“What are you doing?” Xero asked in confusion.

“Writing down all the nodes that everyone is visiting. I want to see which node is the running gag node this time around.” Maurice suggested.

“Ah…” Xero smiled before pushing a button. “No need to worry about Infinite, folks. He’ll be back in the Recovery Room in about ten minutes, where our expert team of healers, both in physical AND mental health, will be able to help them back on their feet.”

(The Arena)

Jack grunted as he tried to hop on his legs, trying to get used to the way they were bound together by the handcuffs. Still, he had gotten quite used to it as it managed to help him avoid the giant arms from Vice Versa. Cerebella narrowed her eyes angrily as she rushed forward, hoping to get a good swing at the large musclebound man.

However, the gang leader could only stare smugly before using his fist to stop the swinging fist of the hat, engulfing it into flames. Cerebella yelped as she shook her head, getting rid of the flames before looking towards the man in anger.

“You really know how to set me off, don’t you?” Cerebella frowned as she used her mouth to blow a bit of her hair away from her.

Jack just crossed his arms with a smug expression. “You’re the one who approached me, lady! I’m just going with the flow here.”

Cerebella puffed her cheeks in anger, before rushing forward and jumping up in the air as she used the large arms on Vice Versa to slam them into the ground, causing the musclebound man to let loose a gutteral roar before jumping up in the air in an attempt to drop kick her… only to forget that his legs were a bit bound by handcuffs, and thus, was thrown off his game.

He slammed down onto the floor with a dizzy look on his face, before recovering as he got up and shook his head. Jack then turned back to the grinning girl, who could only give a chuckle.

“All right, Jack, focus! You managed to subdue a circus bear at a young age, you can subdue a circus girl with a musclebound hat!” Jack said to himself, before letting out a guttural yell.

He charged forward as he blocked the swing of Cerebella’s hat with his punches once more. Cerebella grunted a bit as she tried to push Jack away with a kick of her own, using Vice Versa’s hands to stand on as she swung and kicked the man in the jaw.

Jack yelled in pain as he stumbled backwards… only for another stray fireball (sent by Bowser from the red grates on the ground) to hit him forward. Cerebella saw this as an opportunity as she rushed in and grabbed Jack with her musclebound hat. She momentarily took off the hat and hopped up in the air, landing on Jack’s head before slapping him in the face, multiple times.

She quickly hopped back towards her hat and put it back on, before tossing him up in the air.

“And now, for my next trick! Watch this man disappear into the portal before your eyes!” Cerebella called out as she hopped up in the air and used Vice Versa to slam one of its fists into Jack Turner in midair, sending the man flying out of the ring.

Jack Turner landed in Paperboy, slamming the hapless little paperboy trying to deliver the newspapers to the houses as the Grim Reaper of that world noticed the boy on the ground and slowly approached him. Jack quickly got up and just watched the crazy antics going on in this strange neighborhood.

“DANCE, WATER, DANCE!”

Dean growled in frustration as once again, Demyx was playing heavily on his sitar with watery clones of himself being sent out of his person as they slammed forward towards the young man. He could only growl as he punched each water figure into droplets, with an occasional fourth punch triggering an electric shock, causing Dean to yelp as he got electrocuted.

“Damn…” Dean growled as he looked towards Demyx with a small frown. “Think you’re so clever, trying to use your little instrument to throw me off?”

“Hey man, I’m just playing here.” Demyx pointed out as he opened one eye, still strumming his sitar.

“I can see that, and yet, you are SO annoying to fight!” Dean growled. “Are you sure you were labeled as the coward of the group.”

Demyx blinked twice, before narrowing his eyes. “Okay, I am not a coward. I’m just lazy. There is a difference!”

“Well, Mr. Lazy, why don’t you stop playing your little sitar for a minute and get serious!” Dean said as he charged forward with a punch ready.

Demyx narrowed his eyes before leaping forward, dodging the incoming attack, but also leaving behind water geysers that spouted from above, damaging Dean as the man got splashed and damaged.

Dean grunted a bit before turning towards Demyx as he gave a smirk. “Like it? Come on, get to the beat!”

The everyman growled as he ran forward, an electrical fist at the ready as he slammed his fist towards Demyx, the Nobody feeling the electrical shock going into his body. Demyx let out a small yell as Dean quickly chained his punches into a combo, before grabbing the Nobody by the cloak.

Demyx yelped as Dean jumped up in the air, electrical lightning surging from his fists before Demyx got tossed into the ground, getting him to land on a nearby blue grate. Demyx recovered quickly as he noted the blue grate under him. Getting a quick idea, Demyx jumped up in the air just as Dean landed back on the ground.

By the time Dean had noticed where Demyx had landed, he was too late to react to the incoming shockwave that dazed the man (and caused Cerebella, Patti and Kitty to jump over the shockwave as they did see it coming). Demyx laughed a bit before running forward and used his sitar to slash at Dean, whilst more water spouts came rushing out.

Dean readied his electrical fist as he landed on the ground and punched Demyx once again, throwing the man off his balance as the Nobody started to get near the edge of the ropes. Dean gave a small chuckle to himself as he rushed forward to push Demyx off the ring…

However, Demyx quickly recovered and stepped to the side as he strummed his sitar one last time, sending another huge bout of water from the ground, sending Dean flying up in the air. Then, using his sitar as a bat, he swung and hit the everyman in the air, sending him flying clear out of the ring as he landed in the portal below.

Demyx gave a small sigh of relief as he looked at the score. He had to admit, this was pretty good, but he knew this round wasn’t over yet. He quickly eyed all the fights, looking ready for anything.

Dean landed in Hammerin’ Harry, where he helped the titular character defend himself from any goons coming for his head.

Spike took a deep breath as the dog looked inbetween his two opponents… Espeon was looking at Spike with a small glare on her face, while Landia’s four heads were growling towards the dog. Spike eyed each opponent, knowing that any minute, they’d be making a first move.

“All right, fellas, you want to double team against me?” Spike said as he curled up the fur in his arms, to show an anchor tattooed to his bare arms. “I ain’t afraid of no dragon or pussycat, and that ain’t gonna change anytime soon!”

“You truly have no idea how much WE are capable of.” All four Landia heads rolled their eyes.

”Just forget it, you know he’s just going to keep rambling about how he’s going to rid the arena of all cats. That’s apparently how his little mindset works.” Espeon sighed as she got into position and leaped up in the air.

“Ah ha!” Spike smirked as he jumped forward and punched Espeon in the air, sending the pink Pokemon down to the ground. “Gotcha, cat!”

Landia took this as their cue to shoot fireballs from their respective heads as they trinkled down and aimed towards Spike. Two of the fireballs missed, BUT the other two landed directly at their target, causing Spike to let loose a loud scream.

The bulldog landed on the ground, sprawled out. He quickly shook his head as he narrowed his eyes angrily at Landia, before turning his attention towards Espeon, who was quickly recovering from that punch. Espeon’s gem glowed as she stretched itself. At that moment, Spike looked up at the open night air and noticed a peak of sunlight peeking out from the clouds. The dog just blinked in confusion as he checked his watch. “8:34 PM. Now, this time can’t be right…”

Spike looked back up and yelped to see that Espeon had gotten up, feeling more refreshed and healed after having the sun’s rays shining through and healing Espeon as the Pokemon looked relatively fresh. Spike growled in anger as he rushed forward with a fist ready… only for Landia to fly upwards into the air and flap its wings to summon wind wave projectiles towards the dog.

Sure enough, Spike was unprepared for the projectiles as they slammed Spike in the back hard enough for him to fall on the ground. Espeon took this opportunity to have her eyes glow blue as she started to pick up Spike in a blue aura.

“H-hey!” Spike struggled in anger as he was trying to get out of his predicament.

Espeon focused a bit as Landia was examining the struggling, floating figure in front of them.

“And, and sometimes, I like to have those little hot dogs… you know, the ones that come in a can… like, like sardines, but not like sardines at all? Came from Vienna? Anyway, I like those little hot dogs… oh, oh, and French Fries! I like to dip them in mustard and ketchup and mayonnaise… have you ever tried dipping French Fries in mayonnaise? It’s actually a good combination!”

Espeon blinked twice as he turned his head slightly to see Numbuh One shaking fearfully in the corner post as Raphael was busy trying to maintain peace with his sais, but failing as Fred Fredburger just kept talking, as if not being phased by being attacked at all. Espeon lowered its ears as she turned towards Landia, the eyes breaking concentration as Spike fell to the ground below.

”I have to go take care of something. Would you mind taking care of the dog for me?” Espeon requested.

”Of course! This won’t take long, I assure you!” The four heads assured her as one of them gave a smirk.

As Espeon bounded over towards Raphael and Numbuh One to help them out with Fred Fredburger, Landia gave a smirk as he turned towards Spike, who was trying to follow after Espeon. However, Spike stopped short as the four headed dragon blocked his path.

“HEY! Out of the way, you four headed freak! There’s a cat I’m trying to take care of!” Spike growled as he tried to walk around Landia, only for the dragon to follow Spike by blocking his path in front of him. After a bit, Spike growled in annoyance. “Fine! Then it looks like we’re gonna have to do ‘dis the HARD way!”

Landia laughed before swooping up in the air and flying towards Spike, before ramming the dog down. Spike quickly got up as he looked around in anger, trying to locate his new target… only for Landia to go up in the sky, then fly back down as two of the heads started to breathe fire down towards their target.

Spike yelped as he got affected by the fire, forcing him to whimper as he ran around for a bit, his rear end smoking and roasting. Upon recovery, Spike growled as he looked up in anger… his face growing red in frustration. A train whistle was then heard as Spike started to grow red as Landia looked down, all four heads raising eyebrows in confusion.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first Berserk mode from Tom and Jerry: War of the Whiskers active!” Xero announced.

“For those who don’t know, Berserk Mode is basically what happens when someone gets hit too many times. At any point if a Tom and Jerry character withstands blows to the point where they can’t take it anymore, they glow red and blow off some steam by beating up their opponents.” Maurice pointed out.

“Meaning, their attacks have just gotten stronger, and they have a very strong attack resistance, so unless someone is equally as mad as Spike here, any blows that hit Spike won’t be as effective.” Xero explained.

“All I can say is, if a Tom and Jerry character starts to glow red, BEWARE.” Maurice called out.

Landia, hearing that announcement and the cheers of the audience upon seeing Spike’s Berserk mode, didn’t need to hear a second opinion as they flew up in the air, taking a deep breath before unleashing a barrage of fireballs in hopes of slowing the dog down.

The Berserk Spike looked up in anger as he punched the fireballs away, as if by toon force, causing them to go their separate ways (with Fuzzy taking a few of the fireballs respectively, making the pink creature even more mad than before), as he jumped up in the air and landed a hard punch on Landia, causing the dragon to spiral out of control, the crown it was wearing on one of its head momentarily dropping to the ground with a clanking sound.

However, Landia hadn’t noticed as it was more focused on trying to get Spike off his back. ”Let go of me, you slobbering ignoramus!”

But Spike remained firm in hanging tight as he gripped his paws on the four headed dragon’s back, and using his legs to beat up on the dragon’s back. Landia gave a small groan before flying directly up into the air, before doing a divebomb down towards the portals, all without the Berserk-induced Spike noticing what was going on. One of Landia’s heads gave a small smirk as it gave a nod towards the other heads. One barrel roll later, and that was enough to throw Spike off his game, causing the dog to slip and fall, with having no way to get back to the ring as he fell directly into the portal below.

Spike landed in The Dog Island, where, upon calming down, he noticed the large dinosaur fossil that came to life charging towards him. Spike, however, didn’t care as all he saw were beautiful bones as he dived right in.

To go back to a few minutes before this fight, Numbuh One was looking behind Raphael’s back as he looked fearful towards the smiling elephant demon. Raph, on the other hand, looked rather annoyed as he readied his sais.

“Look, kid, I get it. Something happened between you and him and he’s annoying. VERY annoying.” Raph frowned. “What I don’t get is why you’re still afraid of him now.”

“Well forgive me if a little trauma from the past is still affecting me a bit.” Numbuh One frowned as he held his head. “Look, Fred Fredburger, he’s a nice person, but when used as a torture device, one can’t stand his voice. It just causes you to reveal all of your secrets. Just listen to this guy!”

Raph turned over to Fred Fredburger, who was now holding a frying pan with his trunk as he continued to talk. “And then there was this one time when I went to the dog show and there were these dogs in dresses and doing tricks… and… and there was this one dog that kept being funny by disobeying its master and ketp going back to the baby carriage, because it was a baby carriage act, and they had to get the dog off the carriage, but they couldn’t do that until finally, they tempted it with a treat… oh, and did I mention this one time, at the county fair, when I went to this cat show, and all the cats started to roam around, scratching each of the judges because they hated getting dressed in those suits… oh, oh, and there was this all pet show I went where all the dogs and cats started to fight each other in brawls, it was amazing, but, but, I didn’t go mainly because…”

Raphael quickly winced as he narrowed his eyes. “I can understand what you mean.”

Numbuh One groaned as he held his head. “Look, you’re a teenager, and I’m a kid, and normally, in my world, teens and adults are the Kids Next Door’s enemies. I know that that’s not how this works here, but… I need someone to have my back, and admittingly, if my team and I WERE to cross in the teen territory someday, I will admit, I hope that it’d be like the Ninja Turtles.”

Raphael raised an eyebrow in surprise, before giving a smirk. “Well, I’ll be. Never thought you’d be fans of our work.”

“Numbuh Four and Numbuh Three are… the former for the kickbutt action scenes, and the latter… because, well, turtles are now her newfound favorite animal of the month.” Numbuh One shrugged. “Regardless, I acknowledge you’re a good fighter, and I’m more than willing to put the teen and adult tyranny angle aside to work with you.”

Raphael smirked a bit as he held out his hand. “All right! You got a good deal with the Raph!”

Numbuh One smiled as he shook Raph’s hand before turning towards Fred Fredburger, looking at him nervously. “What do you suppose we can do with him?”

“Leave him to me, dude! Just watch a pro in action, and back me up if I need assistance!” Raphael smirked as he rushed forward towards Fred Fredburger as he kept talking and moving around, waving his frying pan erratically.

Raph gave a smirk as he ignored the annoying ramblings of the demon elephant and dodged the frying pan nimbly, before blocking the weapon itself with his sais.

This caught the attention of Fred as he gave a smile. “Oh! Hey mister! Those are some great looking knife thingys you got there! Can I have them? I want them to carve my name on the floor! Because I can spell my name real good!” Fred grinned.

Numbuh One looked between the two fighters as he noticed Raph had got Fred in a standstill. Giving a smile, Numbuh One quickly pulled out his G.U.M.Z.O.O.K.A as he took careful aim at Fred, sticking out his tongue. “Okay… got to take it easy now… target is in plain sight… don’t miss, Nigel… gotcha!”

The boy smirked as he pulled the trigger and shot three gumballs, managing to strike Fred in the face as the demon elephant yelped, tripping on his own face.

“Ha! Now you’re about to witness the taste of RAPH!” Raphael boastfully shouted before swinging his sais and charging forward for a quick attack, sending Fred up in the air. Readying his sais, the red bandana wearing turtle quickly jumped in the air…

Only for Fred to quickly recover as he spun in a circle, clinging onto his frying pan as the demon elephant slammed Raph in the head with it, sending the turtle down to the ground. And he still kept rambling.

Numbuh One just stood in awe. “How is that even possible…”

“And, and sometimes, I like to have those little hot dogs… you know, the ones that come in a can… like, like sardines, but not like sardines at all? Came from Vienna? Anyway, I like those little hot dogs… oh, oh, and French Fries! I like to dip them in mustard and ketchup and mayonnaise… have you ever tried dipping French Fries in mayonnaise? It’s actually a good combination!”

Numbuh One backed himself to the corner post in fear as Raphael was recovering, trying to maintain himself as Fred kept talking. The turtle narrowed his eyes before getting up. “You think you can be clever, you little demon! You haven’t faced the wrath of-”

Before Raphael could charge in once again, Espeon suddenly leaped between Raphael and Fred as the large musclebound turtle stared at the pink Pokemon in confusion. Espeon’s eyes then glowed blue as a blue aura surrounded Fred, much to the demon elephant’s notice.

“Oh, hey, I’m glowing! Am I like, a magic fairy or something, because I like magic, and those card tricks that magicians always-” Fred Fredburger started to talk, but that was as far as Fred could say before he got tossed all the way over to another fight. Espeon’s eyes went back to normal before licking herself causing Raphael and Numbuh One to stare dumbfounded… before Raphael began to squee.

“Oh my gosh, you are so adorable, Saikou! You managed to wipe out that elephant for us, he won’t be a pwoblem anymore, will he!” Raph said as he swooped up Espeon in his arms and gave him a hug, much to Espeon’s chagrin.

”I already regret saving you…” Espeon said as her ears went down.

Numbuh One just blinked twice, before looking over to see where Fred Fredburger was headed…

Around that time, Sulley had rolled backwards to avoid another gunshot from Fuzzy’s rifle. Fuzzy laughed as he pulled the trigger… only to hear a clicking sound. Sulley, hearing the clicking sound, looked up with a laugh. “Sounds like you ran out of ammunition pal.”

“That may be true, but I STILL have my OTHER secret weapon!” Fuzzy said as he dug around in his pockets and pulled out ANOTHER gun, aiming it directly at Sulley as the monster gave a yelp. “And unlike my boomstick, THIS never misses.”

With that, Fuzzy pulled the trigger and shot a laser out of it, aiming directly for Sulley. Sulley yelped as he tried to back away, only to be surprised when Fred Fredburger flew between him and the shot.

ZAP!

Fuzzy blinked twice as he noted the place where Fred Fredburger once stood was now a large slab of steak… still talking in Fred Fredburger’s voice as it looked around. “Wow, what a rush! This is such a good rush, I feel like I’m not myself!”

Fuzzy blinked twice. “Uh, not what I had in mind, but now you know that my Meat Gun is still as effective as ever!”

“...meat gun?” Sulley said as he looked a bit disturbed.

“Oh yeah, I made it myself! It can turn anything or ANYBODY into meat!” Fuzzy grinned, as if looking rather proud of this accomplishment. Fuzzy then picked up the slab of meat that was ‘Fred Fredburger’. “Unfortunately, seeing that this meat is a little… green, I lost my appetite…”

“Fuzzy, just to remind you, NO eating contestants, even if you have turned them into meat!” Maurice announced with a frown on his face. “That applies to the ‘no killing’ rule.”

“Whatever.” Fuzzy frowned as he tossed the Fred Fredburger meat aside and threw it out of the ring.

Fred Fredburger immediately got back to normal as he landed right in the Disney version of The Jungle Book. He immediately began to throw off Colonel Hathi’s march by saying random numbers… and just talking in general.

Fuzzy crossed his arms as he gave a smirk. “Feel threatened?”

“So let me get this straight. You’re a simple creature that wants nothing more than to have people off the property, yet you have computer knowledge and invented a gun that can turn people into meat?” Sulley asked. “Why aren’t those girls treating you as more of a threat? At least you’d be more threatening if your banjo hadn’t been destroyed.”

Fuzzy’s eyes widened in shock. “Oh yeah. You just reminded me…” His eyes narrowed in anger. “YOU HURT JOE!”

Sulley slapped his forehead. “I just had to open my mouth…”

Regardless, Fuzzy started firing willy nilly as Sulley dodged each blast, but not before each blast shot Cerebella, Demyx, Landia, Sir Daniel, ROB, Bowser and Crush respectively. As soon as those respective characters turned to meat, Bowser said in anger, “Okay, this pink menace is clearly a big threat! Is there a time limit to how long we’ll be meat?”

“Not to worry!” Monika said as she once again appeared on the monitor, with the wheel all prepped and ready to go. “As soon as two minutes wears off, you’ll be back to your fighting selves. Until then, we’ve got our first five eliminations out of the way, so let’s spin the wheel!”

Everyone’s attention turned towards the monitor as the wheel was spun once again by the omnipotent schoolgirl. After a few seconds, the wheel stopped before it landed directly on Boyd.

The old man, who had been fighting with Kukri for a good while, looked up as he gave a sinister chuckle to himself. “Okay, so Jack had a punishment, right, and didn’t do too hot. Only fair I get myself a good reward to balance it out.”

“How right you are, Boyd.” Monika giggled as she wiggled her hands about as a glow started to surround Boyd for a minute, much to everyone’s concern. As soon as the glow went away, Monika gave a giggle. “Congratulations, you have a good power increase on your projectiles that will last for two rounds.”

“Ah, a power boost!” Boyd laughed as he turned to Kukri. “You better be prepared for what I’m about to do to you.”

Kukri blinked twice, before giving a scoff. “It doesn’t matter how powerful you get, you still have a weak point amongst you.”

Boyd smirked as he shot a couple more finger gun lasers at the geomancer, only for that to get blocked with a sand force field. Boyd laughed before cracking his knuckles.

Numbuh One, all the while, kept a sharp eye on both opponents as he gave a smirk to himself.

“Whoever is left in that fight… is the one I face…”

(Hotel; Lobby)

“At last!” Dexter smirked as he backed away and smiled at the new shiny outer door that led to the inside of the brand new, upgraded laboratory. “My scientific upgrades to Dexter’s Laboratory 2.0 has been completed.”

Dee Dee, Lee Lee and Mee Mee looked up in awe as they watched Dexter crossed his arms, feeling proud of himself for a moment. Dee Dee smiled as she looked over towards her younger brother. “I have to admit, Dexter, you certainly outdid yourself.”

After a moment of silence, Dee Dee laughed as she jumped up and screamed, “LET’S GO BREAK IN THE NEW LAB! COME ON GIRLS!”

Dee Dee and Mee Mee then let out screams of joy as they both rushed towards the door of the lab, only to stop short as they noticed that, one, Lee Lee hadn’t joined them, two, Dexter was giving a smile, and three, the doors were still shut.

“Uh… Dexter? How exactly do we get in the lab?” Mee Mee asked in curiosity.

“Well, unlike voice activation, which I have a feeling you’ll manipulate somehow, I decided to embroider the entrance to my new laboratory with a keypad, where I will enter a five digit code.” Dexter explained. “And no, I am not going to give you three the code, because the laboratory is for me and me alone. And before you ask, “But Dexter, what about letting your friends from the Tournament of Kikai in, like Ariel and Grim?”, they have already been informed of this, and I gave them the code that they strictly promise to keep secret, and never to share with my dear, stupid sister and her equally stupid friends.”

Dee Dee rolled her eyes as she looked over towards Mee Mee, and then Lee Lee, the former having the same annoyed look, and Lee Lee having a bit of a disappointed look, much to Dee Dee’s notice. Nevertheless, Dee Dee turned back towards her younger brother as she said, “Oh, please, Dexter. The code is so obviously your birthday.”

With that, Dee Dee walked over to the keypad and pushed a few numbers… before hearing a loud blaring horn sound, causing the girl to fall on her feet. As Dee Dee rubbed her head, she turned to Dexter in annoyance as the boy genius crossed his arms. “Nice try, but no.”

Dee Dee paused for a brief moment. “Then… is it 00001? 00002? 00003?”

“Dee Dee, if you’re going to stand around and guess my code, we’d be here all night.” Dexter frowned. “Now, understand that I have NO other secret entrances to this lab, and the only way IN is to go put the code in. So, while you three can have all the fun you wish, I will actually be busy in my own lab.” Dexter explained. “And believe me, with me working in peace without the three of you running amok in my secret laboratory, it’ll give me a good moment’s rest. Now, turn around.”

“WHAT? Why should-” Dee Dee started to protest.

“Dee Dee, just do it.” Lee Lee sighed as she turned around.

Dee Dee fumed as she turned around, alongside Mee Mee as Dexter quickly punched in his code.

“Access granted. Welcome, Dexter.” A female, robotic voice said as the doors opened.

Dee Dee, Mee Mee and Lee Lee turned around as they took a look at the lab from the inside, looking like it was before Ripto came in and wrecked everything in the last tournament. Lee Lee couldn’t help but look in awe as she said, “Wow, Dexter, from the outside, your lab looks amazing!”

Dexter just crossed his arms with a big smirk. “Heh, of course it does! But that’s as far as you can go. All right, that’s it, stay out. I have some work to commence.” Dexter said as he walked into the laboratory as the door shut behind him.

The three girls could only watch as the painting rolled back into position and settled itself behind the wall, covering up the door to the lab, as if nothing was there to begin with.

“...do you girls ever wonder what the extension of the outside lab is like?” Mee Mee asked. “Like, is it somewhere underground, or does it connect to another room?”

Dee Dee huffed a bit as she crossed her arms. “Whatever, we don’t need Dexter’s stinkin’ lab! We can have fun with or without him. After all, there’s a lot to do in the dome and hotel… so let’s go!”

“You guys go on ahead. I’ll catch up.” Lee Lee said as she settled herself on the couch.

Dee Dee and Mee Mee looked towards their friend in surprise as the blonde haired girl asked, “Are you sure?”

“I’m fine. Just need to collect my thoughts. Maybe we’ll catch up in the karaoke room later?” Lee Lee offered.

“Oooooo, yeah, I love me some karaoke!” Dee Dee said in awe.

“Come on, Dee Dee, let’s belt out some tunes!” Mee Mee said as the two girls ran off.

Lee Lee looked back towards her friends as she gave a small sigh, before turning back towards the painting that had the secret entrance to Dexter’s Laboratory all sealed up. She sighed as she looked down, sadly.

“I know you say you want to be alone, but…” Lee Lee shut her eyes a bit. “Sometimes, I wish I were with you… admiring you every step of the way…”

Pausing for a brief moment, she got up as she was about to walk off, when the doors of the hotel opened up. At that time, Lee Lee had accidentally ran into someone coming in.

“Oh, sorry!” Lee Lee said as she backed away, but raised an eyebrow as she noticed the person she ran into. “Hey! Aren’t you Connie Benge… the one from Doug?”

Connie’s eyes lit up as she smiled. “Yeah! And I think I know who you are! Lee Lee, right? One of Dee Dee’s friends from Dexter’s Laboratory?”

“The one and only!” Lee Lee giggled. “What are you doing out here?”

Connie paused for a brief moment, as she gave a sad sigh. “Honestly, I just wanted to get away from my locker room for a while.”

“Oh yeah, I did see that your name was on the roster list for the tournament. Honestly, I’m surprised the hosts picked YOU over… well, Skeeter or Porkchop.” Lee Lee pointed out.

Connie gave a sigh. “I was just as surprised to see an invitation sent to me, but… if it meant getting closer to Doug, since he was invited as well, I figured, why not take a shot, hm?”

Lee Lee blinked twice, before her eyes widened. “Wait, I thought that crush on Doug thing was only relevant in the Nickelodeon series… and that it was only for one episode.”

“Didn’t you have a crush on DEXTER himself, and said he was cute in one episode? Girl, I may have had more appearances than you, and even I’m surprised you would have a crush on Dexter, of all people.” Connie pointed out.

Lee Lee bit her lip nervously. “Honestly, yes, but… uh… I don’t know. With our show being canceled and all, things haven’t been quite looking up for me and Mee Mee. There were the IDW comics, but that’s up to you whether they’re canon or not…”

Connie paused briefly as she nervously chuckled. “Oh yeah, I forgot Dexter had a comic series by IDW at some point…”

Lee Lee giggled a bit before raising an eyebrow. “Anyway, you’re in the same boat as me, then?”

Connie blinked in surprise. “Well, pretty much. You see, ever since our show ended, my friends and I have always hung out, often talking amongst ourselves, still going to school… which I guess being kids, it’s a mandatory requirement…”

Lee Lee sighed. “Sometimes, it’s a little annoying being a kid that’s been created as such.”

“Tell me about it.” Connie scoffed. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s great, but… sometimes, you wonder about what could be, you know. And with a lot of reboots and remakes that have been coming out in modern times, part of me wishes that a Doug reboot would actually happen.”

Lee Lee’s eyes widened. “Wait, I did hear something about that. What your creator said if he did do a reboot of Doug.”

“Yeah…” Connie sighed as she looked down. “I mean, looking at Jim’s potential ideas, there is some interesting thoughts. I mean, the idea of if a reboot did happen, and Doug and Patti DON’T end up together?” Connie chuckled a bit. “Okay, I get that if it ever got made, it would be a bit heartbreaking, but it’s life, I suppose. And from what Jim’s ideas have been revealed, Doug would have eventually found someone else.”

Lee Lee’s eyes widened. “And you’re hoping that if that ever happened, that someone could be you?”

Connie giggled a bit as she looked up. “I know that it’s a little farfetched, and yes, part of me is hoping that I’d be that girl, but…” Connie sighed. “I don’t know if that hypothetical reboot will ever happen, or if Jim is just messing with our heads or what… but being stuck as kids, Doug will always have eyes for Patti Mayonnaise, no matter what.”

Lee Lee paused briefly as she motioned for Connie to sit down. The green skinned girl did so as she continued, “I get that Doug and Patti will always be seen as the ‘canon’ pairing, but… with the possible idea if our creator ever wanted to do a reboot… you wonder to yourself… if only I could work up the feelings to tell him how I REALLY felt about him.”

Lee Lee sighed. “Believe it or not, I’m in the same boat, concerning Dexter. Don’t get me wrong, I get that the point of the show isn’t romance, but Dexter’s inventions and how a boy genius survives his day to day life with the occasional rival coming in, and how Dexter has to solve a problem, but ever since the one episode I did, where I said Dexter was kind of cute… I don’t know, it just felt right that I might have a teeny, tiny crush on him. Unfortunately, I never appeared in any other episodes beyond the ones in the Gennedy days, and even when I was in a few comics, either the DC runs or the IDW ones, while my crush on Dexter was explored a bit, it didn’t really expand on much.”

“Ohhh…” Connie sighed as she looked down. “Wow, I never thought of it that way.”

“...man. I hate to say it, but it sucks that we’re the girls that have crushes on the main protagonists, and yet, nobody really expands on these ideas.” Lee Lee pointed out.

“Tell me about it.” Connie said as she looked depressed as unaware to the two of them, the lobby doors opened up as a familiar face was leaning in and listening in, her face giving a small range of emotions. “I guess when you’re a side character to another person’s story, you just have to grin and bear it, you know.”

“You know you girls shouldn’t feel that way.”

Lee Lee and Connie immediately looked up as they noticed the comforting smile of Penny Proud approaching the girls. Lee Lee and Connie looked excited as Connie said, “Penny! Hey! I didn’t hear you come in.”

Penny chuckled nervously. “Sorry, Connie. I just noticed you were depressed over Doug, and thought I’d follow you to try cheering you up, but from what I can see, it looks like I need to cheer two people up.”

Lee Lee chuckled nervously. “I guess that’s spot on, but how can you cheer us up?”

“Well, let me relate to you a story I had about when we had to do Louder and Prouder.” Penny explained. “You know, our new show. Do you remember the Proud Family Movie? Remember 15 Cent?”

Lee Lee and Connie both nodded, as Penny gave a small smile… before sighing. “Yeah, turns out one episode retconned that whole movie out of existence… and probably retconned a love interest I would have had.”

Lee Lee and Connie gasped as they both winced at that. Little did they know that as the three were talking, the Red Guy was on the floor, cleverly hidden under the couch that the girls were sitting on as he overheard every word of the conversation, with the devil pulling out a cell phone and calling Him.

“Hey, Him, Red Guy calling. I’m following that girl like you asked, and you better listen to this conversation. Could be important.” Red Guy whispered as he leaned the phone towards the couch.

(Dome; Hallway)

“I don’t know about this, Babbitt!” A small, fat black cat with a white underbelly and a tan face said nervously as he turned towards his friend, a skinny black cat with white paws and a similarly tanned face. Both of them seemed to be looking at a vending machine filled with an assorted number of snacks. “Are you sure we can get those snacks without payin’?”

“Of course, lunkhead! We’re starving, and we lost our meal tickets for the restaurant because SOMEBODY misplaced them.” Babbitt, the skinny cat, said as he glared towards his partner in anger.

“Well, don’t glare at me, Babbitt! I wouldn’t have lost the tickets if you said to place them in a specific spot.” Catstello argued.

“I said, ‘place our tickets in the locker room’. I THOUGHT I was clear on the ‘locker’ part.” Babbitt frowned as he shook his head.

“Well, how was I supposed to know that throwing them under the lockers and have them be lost means that we have to go hungry?!” Catstello argued.

Babbitt frowned as he slapped his own forehead in frustration. “Look, it doesn’t matter. The vending machines are here, let’s see what we can do to get these snacks out!”

Catstello groaned as he looked up at the snack machine in awe. “Please don’t tell me you have a wonderful scheme in mind.”

“Don’t worry, little friend. My idea is as simple as possible. Use your head.” Babbitt smirked as he grabbed Catstello and started to back up.

Catstello’s eyes widened as he tried to squirm out of his friend’s grasp. “Put me down, Babbitt, put me down! I don’t want to use my head! I bruise easily! Don’t you dare do it, don’t you dare do it!”

But his pleas fell on deaf ears as Babbitt ran forward towards the vending machines, aiming Catstello’s head towards the glass as the cat was panicking. “BABBIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITT!”

SLAM!

Both cats recoiled as they dropped down to the ground, but the snacks have not moved an inch. Catstello quickly got up, looking rather dazed as he shook his head. “Ohhhhhh… do I have a splitting headache…”

Babbitt frowned as he recovered from his blast and got up and examined the vending machine. “Okay, so it’s a very flexible machine.”

Catstello groaned as he rubbed his head. “I just don’t see why we can’t eat any of the boids or mice around here.”

“Look, I’m all for chasing and eating those mice and birds, but I don’t think the hosts would liked it if we eliminated their competition…” Babbitt frowned as he crossed his arms… before his eyes widened. “Hmmmm… or maybe we can! We can eliminate our competition quickly by eliminating someone before they have a chance to be announced on stage! I mean, there’s plenty of small rodents and birds around, right? What’s the harm in grabbing one little bird that’s competing and swallowing it whole between us? Nobody would have to know we took out ONE little bird!”

“But who can we even take out without noticing? I don’t think we can go after that canary from our node… especially not with that old lady and dog guarding her.” Catstello pointed out.

“Yeah, and even then, we’d have to contend against Sylvester… and heaven knows that didn’t end well for us when we met them during that hockey adventure.” Babbitt frowned.

“So we just find ANOTHER bird…” Babbitt pointed out, before looking over and noticing something in the distance, his eyes widening in interest. He quickly turned Catstello around as he said, “And I think we spotted our target!”

Catstello looked over and yelped as he noticed a familiar little duckling being carried by a familiar looking, boyish angel. “That duckling from the Tom and Jerry node?”

“That’s the one!” Babbitt smirked as he crossed his arms.

“I don’t know, Babbitt. He seems to be close to that angel person. And did you SEE the amount of weapons he has? I don’t even want to know what holy powers he possesses!” Catstello shuddered in fear.

“Things to work out as we try to nab the bird. Now come on, let’s follow!” Babbitt said as he started to run off, dragging Catstello with him.

The short, fat cat gave a small sigh as he looked up towards one of the cameras. “Yep, this is gonna be a LOOOONG night.”

(The Arena)

Boyd gave a small smirk as he started to rush forward, hoping to hit Kukri where he stood. Ever since he had that power boost from the wheel, he was starting to grow a little MORE confident as he continued to battle it out against the best. Quickly, he readied his fist for a punch.

Kukri gave a small smirk from behind his hood as he quickly vanished into sand, causing Boyd to fly right through him, but he managed to save himself by skidding on the ground. Quickly turning around, he noted Kukri standing on the other end as he crossed his arms.

“Is that the best you can do, old man?” Kukri taunted as he motioned the old man over with his hand.

Boyd frowned as he narrowed his eyes. “Son, I know my fighting techniques, and I will admit, I’ve never fought anyone with as evasive moves as you, but I am still a veteran!”

“...didn’t you lose in your first tournament? By accident, and with Mario touching you because he had an invincibility star?” Kukri asked.

Boyd growled in anger. “I am WELL aware of how I managed to get myself out, thank you. And I’m also well aware of how I failed to eliminate Captain Falcon.”

Kukri gave a small chuckle. “It was pretty funny that you threw him into the fight between Donald and Rajan.”

“SHUT UP!” Boyd growled in anger as he jumped up and aimed his fingers to shoot out more lasers, hitting Kukri where he stood. Kukri backed away a bit upon feeling the sting, but quickly recovered as he narrowed his eyes towards the large man. He quickly rushed forward before giving a quick, swift kick to Boyd’s feet, tripping the old man up.

Boyd quickly got back up on his feet before looking back towards his pet turtle, who had managed to follow him the whole time. “Keep close to me, Harry! We have ourselves a fighter!”

Boyd then jumped up in the air to avoid a sand wave from Kukri, before landing down and punching the man in the face. Then, as quick as he could, Boyd chained his punch into a fist combo, before grabbing the geomancer and kicking him hard to make him fall to the ground.

The old man gave a small chuckle to himself as he approached Kukri from the side. “A nice little effort coming from you, but…”

Before Boyd could even pick Kukri up, the geomancer teleported out of the way, leaving behind another sandy figure as the old man gave a yelp. He quickly turned to see Kukri slamming his fist down hard as he was sent flying… not out of the ring, BUT…

“Uh buh… hmmm… ha ha! Oh oh oh, I think I got a word, I got a word!” Beaky laughed a bit as he picked up three letters and placed them next to an open ‘I’. “I can spell Icon with your ‘I’!”

“Oh, that’s a triple word score right there!” Launchpad grinned as he was writing something down on a notepad. “You’re ahead of me by about fifty points!”

Beaky gave a small chuckle. “Oh, uh, shucks! That, uh, that really means a lot!”

Yeah, Launchpad and Beaky were still playing Scrabble whilst fights were going on. It was an unusual way to go through the tournament, but so far, it was working for both birds. Nobody was even paying attention to them…

That is, until Boyd landed right on the gameboard, causing Launchpad and Beaky to jump up in surprise, with Boyd’s eyes looking rather dazed.

“Hey, buddy, that was a good game we have going!” Launchpad pointed out.

Beaky blinked twice as he examined the man before pulling out an old timey tape measurer and examined it. “I, uh, I don’t think he can hear us, uh, uh, Launchpad.”

Launchpad paused as he looked over in concern. “Hmmmm… I guess he DOES look a little dazed. Well, we can’t let him lay on our pieces. He needs to see a doctor right away.”

With that, Launchpad picked up the large man bridal style as if it was nothing, all while Boyd’s pet turtle hopped up and landed right on Boyd’s head. With a nod, Launchpad casually tossed the man out of the ring. “There we go. Hope he gets a good doctor where he lands.”

“Gee, I hope so too.” Beaky said as he put a hand behind his head, looking rather concerned.

Boyd landed in Team Fortress 2, where he was constantly blown up repeatedly by the Soldier.

Kukri just stared in awe, before slapping his head with his left hand. “Typical! Why did I expect ANYTHING else from these tournaments? Is this arena, like, CURSED or something because eliminations didn’t go people’s way? Was this arena built over some Native American ground that was cursed?”

Kukri growled in anger as he readied his sleeves, about to teleport over to both buzzard and duck with the intent to eliminate them both… however, he got stopped by a squirt of mustard on his back, causing the young man to scream loudly. Kukri turned in anger to see Numbuh One holding his M.U.S.K.E.T., giving a small smirk of his own.

“Oh, you’re so dead, kid!” Kukri shouted as he ran over towards the small Kids Next Door operative.

All the while, Launchpad and Beaky had decided to go back to their game, as if Boyd was never there. Most of the others just ignored them, but to Patti and Kitty… they were just staring at them rather dumbfounded.

“...Are you freaking kidding me right now?” Kitty asked as she gave a frown. “How the HECK did that large duck… pelican… like bird thing just ignore that he got an elimination?”

“...Is it sad to say that this is how most tournaments with some fighters go?” Patti asked.

Kitty gave a small frown as she turned to Patti. “Tell you what, friend. How about we truce for now and let’s see if we can take the two of them out?”

Patti’s eyes widened. “Wh-what? I don’t know if I can do that! Launchpad is a nice person, with a lot of bulk to back him up, AND Beaky can be stupid, BUT he is VERY powerful in his punches… helps that he’s a Looney Tune, and all Looney Tunes are practically known for their stamina and iron bodies of steel!”

“All the more reason to pack it in and pull out the punches! Come on!” Kitty smiled as she started to run over to where Beaky and Launchpad were at.

“H-hey!” Patti shouted as she tried to rush over to catch up with Kitty.

Just as Launchpad was about to place his letters, both he and Beaky heard Kitty calling to them as they looked up towards the kid.

“Are you two just going to sit around and play Scrabble all tournament?” Kitty asked.

“That, uh, seems to be the initial plan…” Beaky pointed out.

“Shucks, we’d love to be in the battlefield, but we don’t even know where to look.” Launchpad said. “We’re just playing to pass the time.”

“Well, no need to sit around, because Patti and I are going to be your opponents for a two on two battle!” Kitty smirked as Patti finally caught up, the orange skinned girl looking a bit exhausted.

Beaky looked up and gave a blush. “Uh, well, uh, I don’t know if I, oh oh, gosh, I…”

Launchpad, on the other hand, gave a big smile as he pulled Beaky to the side. “Oh, come on, pal! Let’s at least show off what we’re capable of! You still have your skills from World of Mayhem AND your toon abilities from your cartoons, right?”

“Uh, well, on the top of my head, I suppose I could give a small whistle for my special, uh, weapon…” Beaky paused as he tapped his head.

Patti’s eyes shrank. “Special weapon?”

Kitty narrowed her eyes at the two of them. “Oh no, we’re not going to let you pull that out! Patti, take care of the buzzard! I got the pelican-duck creature!”

Launchpad blinked twice as he felt his beak. “I can see why the beak would be confusing, but I am actually classified as a duck. Heck, there are rumors that Donald was considered more goose than duck. Of course, he does have some geese as cousins, but-”

Before Launchpad could say another word, Kitty leaped up in the air and slammed Launchpad in the face with a karate kick, causing Launchpad to stumble backwards.

Patti yelped as she turned to where Beaky was standing… only to see that he had mysteriously disappeared. “Huh?”

Patti’s eyes widened as she tried to look up at the dome and sure enough, noticed Beaky flying up in the air as he was flapping his wings slowly and humming a small little tune to himself.

“Baaaaaah… bah doo bah doo… doo… da da da da… doooooo…” Beaky hummed to himself as he started to search around and noticed Patti looking up at him, before giving a grin. “Oh boy! I think I spotted my opponent! Doh ho ho ho!”

With that, Beaky started to wind himself up for a landing and aimed directly towards Patti Mayonnaise, about ready to hit her.

Patti yelped as she pulled out her baseball bat and readied for a swing, hoping to get the timing right. Then, as soon as Beaky went close to her, she swung her bat.

CLANG!

The sound from the bat made Beaky shake a little bit, leaving a few afterimages for a moment, before landing down on the ground, looking a bit dazed. Patti blinked twice as she looked down, only for Beaky to look around. “Uh, did I get her?”

“Uh… no.” Patti said sheepishly. “As you can plainly see…”

Beaky looked up towards Patti as he narrowed his eyes a bit, before standing up as he took a bit of time to examine her… before pulling out a large coffin and held it up in the air. Patti gave a loud scream before diving backwards to avoid the large coffin coming down on the ground.

“I don’t know why I had to say it…” Patti said as she panted a bit… before yelping as a stray shot from Fuzzy’s meat gun came in her direction. The good news was, it didn’t hit her entire body… on the other hand, her left leg had now transformed into a form of meat (specifically, bacon).

“Oh no…” Patti yelped as she looked at her transformed bacon leg.

Beaky blinked twice as he looked up towards the booth. “Hey, uh, you said no eating contestants, because it would count as killing contestants, but, uh, uh, what about if PART of their body turns into meat? Is that fair game?”

“NO!” Xero, Maurice and Monika shouted in anger (the latter appearing from the monitor as she glared angrily at the buzzard’s request).

Beaky winced a bit. “Ah, shucks, I actually wanted to pull off an old routine. Now you just gone and hurt ma feelings.”

He sighed as he pulled out a bottle of ketchup and a bag of hamburger buns and threw both of those items out of the ring. “So much for the whole ‘trick person into eating their own leg routine’...”

Beaky then turned back and noticed Patti was trying to get away. As quick as a flash, the buzzard somehow zipped over to Patti, making her yelp. “Now, uh, you weren’t trying to sneak out of our fight, were ya?”

Patti looked around nervously, before giving a small, clever smile. “Now you ought to know better than that…”

“Oh, good!” Beaky smiled. “Because, uh, I think I’m just getting warmed up!”

Patti smiled nervously as Beaky started to fly back up in the air as Patti readied her bat again, hoping to get another pass at the buzzard.

All the while, Launchpad was getting walled by Kitty’s kicks as she managed to corner Launchpad to a corner post. Kitty smirked as she hopped backwards before looking up and motioning him to come closer.

Of course, Launchpad, being naive, walked over and leaned down. “Uh, yes?”

WHAM!

Launchpad winced as he got hit by another punch to the beak. The bird rubbed the sore beak before turning towards the small girl. “You know, I have to admit, you really pack quite a punch.”

Kitty gave a smile. “Thanks! It’s to make sure I can be a great sidekick.”

This immediately got Launchpad’s interest. “Oh, you’re looking to be in the sidekick business? Let me tell you, when I became DW’s sidekick, he always commends me for my good work!”

“...aren’t you, like, the guy that always crashes any and all vehicles?” Kitty asked in confusion.

“Hey, my crashes are a wonderful part of the experience! I’m also a great mechanic on my off times!” Launchpad smiled. “Hey, look up my number, I can give you some tips!”

“How thoughtful… but nevertheless, I still want to battle you, and I am just about to corner you good!” Kitty laughed as she jumped up and kicked Launchpad in the stomach, causing the large bird to go backwards.

However, much to Kitty’s surprise, Launchpad managed to maintain his balance before taking a deep breath, as he tried to charge towards Kitty, hoping to grab her gently… only for Kitty to reach for his hand and lift him off the ground, surprising a lot of people as she slammed Launchpad directly on the ground.

The pilot coughed a bit as he looked up towards Kitty. “Wow, you are surprisingly strong!”

Kitty laughed as she showed off her muscles (by literally growing into a muscle girl for a brief moment). “All that lifting heavy objects that are twice my size is totally worth the strength upgrade…”

Launchpad panted a bit as he took a deep breath. “Okay, I can see I’ll need help… BEAKY! The weapon!”

Beaky, still up in the air and about to swoop down on Patti, heard Launchpad’s call as he stopped himself, before looking down. “Uh, sorry, but uh, uh, Launchpad actually needs me.”

With that, Beaky flew towards Launchpad as the orange skinned girl gave a yelp.

“H-hey! Come back here!” Patti shouted as she tried to wave down Beaky.

Kitty looked over to see Beaky flying over to Launchpad as she tried to charge towards Launchpad for a kick. “I am not letting you pull off your Limit Break!”

However, Kitty’s punch missed as Launchpad grabbed onto one of Beaky’s feet as the two of them were now up in the air.

“The only way to fly!” Launchpad called as he pointed towards the arena, with Beaky using one of his other feet to pull out a car key alarm as he pushed the button.

The sound of whirring is heard as a light engulfed the two of them, with Beaky being heard saying, “We’re-a huntin’ down some victims!”

The light then went away as it was revealed that a flying black helicopter had appeared in thin air, with Launchpad sitting in the passenger seat, and Beaky manning an old machine gun (with non-lethal bullets.

“Oh boy… RUN!” Patti shouted as she tried to turn around.

Kitty didn’t need to be told twice as she followed Patti, trying to avoid all the fights coming as Launchpad drove the helicopter around, with Beaky shooting at his opponents.

Going back to a couple minutes before the Limit Attack happened, another fight was taking place as Garnet was taking a deep breath before throwing a punch towards Ed. The boxer gave a small nod before countering her punch with one of his own, colliding his fists. Ed yelped as he felt the painful side of Garnet’s gauntlets.

He blew on his hand and waved it a bit before looking up towards the Crystal Gem with a determined look. “I’ll admit, you’re pretty rock solid, but I’m not one to back down from the likes of you!”

Garnet just stared at Ed with an emotionless expression. “Better be careful with your overconfidence. Sometimes, it can be quite a factor!”

“Maybe so, but hey, now that there are no distractions with those electric forcefields and fireballs… and the only thing to worry about is that gun the pink creature is using, I think it’s safe to say there’s a fair fight to play!” Ed pointed out.

“Fair enough.” Garnet said before motioning herself and readying herself for another attack.

Ed thought quick as he backed himself up before summoning a ball of Psycho Energy, before punching it forward towards the Crystal Gem. Garnet simply punched through the Psycho Energy ball as if it were nothing, before zipping forward towards Ed, thanks to the star she had placed on him earlier to get a good hit in.

However, Ed, expecting Garnet to charge forward, side stepped before punching Garnet at least three times, counting the number of punches respectively before kicking his opponent in the chest, causing Garnet to step backwards.

Nevertheless, Garnet had recovered nicely as she now focused her attention on Ed as he charged forward, his fists glowing purple as he readied another induced punch of Psycho Energy. Garnet took a deep breath before bending down and charging up her punches before hitting Ed directly in the chest, sending him upwards.

While still airborne, Garnet saw her chance to rush forward and punch Ed with her fists, sending him flying.

“You were quite a good opponent, but I’m afraid it’s just not your day.” Garnet said as she crossed her arms.

Ed landed in Dragon Ball Z. He managed to somehow get into an argument with Vegeta, and found himself in a one sided match.

Garnet gave a small sigh of relief as she crossed her arms. “Well, that’s one down… hopefully, we’ll be able to wait it out unless one of the futures happen…”

All of a sudden, she saw Kitty and Patti rushing past in a panic before looking up to see Beaky and Launchpad still in their Limit Break attack, as Beaky and Launchpad had now switched positions, with Launchpad firing off the machine gun, and Beaky driving the helicopter.

Garnet groaned as she gave a shout, “EVERYBODY, GET DOWN!”

All but Fuzzy, Patti and Kitty quickly ducked down as machine gun fire started to go rampant around the arena. In fact, as Demyx, Cerebella, Sir Daniel, ROB, Landia, Bowser and Crush had been transformed back, they found it wise to duck down.

Sure enough, as Fuzzy was still rampaging around in anger, he didn’t see the gun shots shoot down his meat gun as it went flying past. “HEY! MY MEAT GUN!”

All the while, Xero, Maurice and Monika were eagerly watching the chaos, with Monika casually munching on some popcorn as Xero applauded this turn of direction. “You know, THIS is exactly what I missed about these tournaments. You never know what might happen next!”

“First Limit Break of the round, folks, and as you can see, they’re about as chaotic as ever, so watch yourselves!” Maurice called out.

“A little late for that, aren’t we?” Patti called out in annoyance.

All of a sudden, both Beaky and Launchpad were sitting in the pilot’s seat together as they nodded. “Uh, shucks, uh… happy landings!”

“Let’s give this a three pointer!” Launchpad smiled as he drove the helicopter up in the air, before somehow getting it upside down.

Everyone yelped as they ducked to the side, avoiding the crash as the helicopter sent out a large shockwave, nearly knocking everybody down. But the ones that got sent flying were Patti and Kitty respectively, as they both flew out of the ring and into the portal below.

Both Patti and Kitty landed in StarFox. Thankfully, it was on StarFox’s main ship, rather than one of the main Arwings as they were given a chance to relax.

“Note to self. Don’t let yourself get dragged into dangerous situations to the point where a Limit Break can happen…” Patti groaned.

“Yeah, probably not my best play…” Kitty sighed as she held her head. “Oh, I bet Eric watched all of that! This is super embarrassing, I might die!”

Back in the arena, both Beaky and Launchpad crawled out of the wreckage as Monika decided to quickly make work by blinking the helicopter crash out of existence, but leaving the cracked impact where the area once stood. Launchpad smiled as he looked at the impact. “Wow! I have to admit, I crashed a lot of aircraft before, but this is the first time I ever crashed in a fighting arena!”

“Uhh… do you think we can do that again?” Beaky suggested.

“I don’t think so. As fun as crashing into the arena was, that’s probably going to be a one time thing for me…” Launchpad said before looking around. “Huh. Guess we got the girls out. I feel bad, but it’s the nature of the tournament…”

“Uh… think we should send them an apology gift basket when we get out?” Beaky asked in curiosity.

“We’ll see.” Launchpad said as he looked back at the discarded board game. “Now come on, I believe we were in the middle of our game.”

“Oh boy, oh boy!” Beaky clapped his wings happily as he followed Launchpad back to the center.

Everyone just stared stunned, before making a mental note to NEVER approach Launchpad or Beaky while they were playing their game.

“...am I the only one who remembers the fact that Beaky drove a helicopter before in Looney Tunes: Back in Action?” Demyx asked as his question got ignored.

After a brief moment of silence, Fuzzy paused, before giving a glare at Sulley.

“YOU HURT JOE!” Fuzzy growled in anger before jumping right at Sulley.

Bowser and Crush, now no longer being meat, nodded to each other before heading towards the battle between Sulley and Fuzzy, in hopes of helping the blue monster out.

Gato swiftly avoided the two gunshots that came directly for him as he quickly snapped back into position, before charging forward towards the opponent who shot him. Elmer gave a small gulp as Gato proceeded to strike Elmer with his knee, leaving an explosive impact as Elmer got sent flying in the air.

The hunter immediately landed all the way down to the ground before getting up and rubbing his head.

“Ooooo… this fightah is starting to wub me the wong way…” Elmer grunted to himself as he managed to get himself back into position as he held his gun closely.

Gato gave a small grin to himself before charging forward and striking Elmer Fudd in multiple blows, sending the hunter into the air. Elmer tried to get himself out of the combo streak the man had going, but it was too useless for the hunter as he got juggled into the air, with another punch forward afterwards as Elmer got flattened to the ground.

By the time Elmer picked himself up from the floor, Gato quickly got up on his head and straddled it, causing Elmer to grunt in protest before turning his body around to snap Elmer’s neck in a different direction, before flipping off the man as he was sent flying upwards into the air.

As soon as Elmer landed on the ground, he used his own hands to get his neck back into place before narrowing his eyes. “You’re so wucky I’m a cartoon charactuh, or that would weally hurt!”

Gato frowned as he went back to a fighting position. “Your naivety is cute, but not threatening enough. If you can’t even shoot a rabbit, what good are you as a game hunter.”

Elmer growled in anger before aiming his gun and shooting towards Gato. The man could only jump over the bullets before landing in front of Elmer and palm-thrusting the hunter in the face, causing Elmer to stumble backwards.

“Ooooooo…” Elmer growled in anger before charging forward to dodge one of Gato’s attacks.

Gato laughed before giving a taunt. “You foolish hunter, you really think you have what it takes to be in the big leagues? All I see is a big disappointment.”

Elmer then yelled in anger before using his gun as a club and slamming it on Gato’s head, causing the man to yelp as he stumbled backwards.

“HEY!” Elmer shouted in anger as he aimed his gun. “Maybe I’m not the best huntuh, but I’m pwoud of my accompwishments!”

With that, Elmer shut a couple more bullets as Gato narrowed his eyes, before rolling out of the way. However, much to the man’s surprise, the bullets immediately turned and followed him as they stopped in front of his face, opened both heads up and fired gunshot respectively in the man’s face, causing the man to falter a bit. Elmer quickly saw this as his opportunity to strike and hit Gato hard with his gun, pushing the man and causing him to trip over the ropes as he fell out of the ring and into the portal below.

Gato landed in Ninja Gaiden, where the man found himself battling against ninjas for ten minutes.

Elmer gave a sigh of relief as he took a few deep breaths. “Whew… that was an ordeal…”

Elmer quickly turned around to see who was left in the arena and quickly counted the number of players… before realizing something. He turned behind him to see the Safe Zone tent located a bit outside the arena. Giving a smirk, he had an idea. And if his math was right…

“Ladies and gentlemen, ten eliminations have passed AND we’re about halfway through the round!” Xero smiled. “That means it’s time to spin the wheel!”

Seizing the opportunity, as soon as Monika’s face turned on with the wheel on the monitor, and with everybody looking up in awe, Elmer walked on the path of the Safe Zone, carefully balancing himself before diving right into the tent.

At that time, the wheel landed on a certain Nobody’s head as Demyx’s eyes shrank. “Aw, come on, I just got out of being turned into meat!”

“Sorry, Demyx, but you’re going to be facing a punishment this time.” Monika giggled as Demyx felt a puddle of glue forming around him. “Inspired by Xero’s idea from way back when, you’ll be facing the Sticky Shoes punishment. Meaning you can only stay in one place, and have to rely on long distance attacks for the remainder of the round.”

Demyx narrowed his eyes as he strummed his sitar. “All right… then I guess I’ll have to rely on a forcefield for a while…”

With that, Demyx strummed his sitar in a hard motion as water clones started to appear, going around the arena as everyone who was still fighting did their best to avoid the clones for a while.

Monika, on the other hand, gave a small smirk as the monitor went off…

(Safe Zone)

Inside the tent, Elmer landed face first on the ground before getting up, giving a small groan as he rubbed his face. “Ooooo, that smarts.”

Upon shaking his head to recover, Elmer took a quick look around the place as he stared in awe. The inside of the tent was LARGER than it was on the outside. There, as promised, was an abundance of outfits and clothes, from the Looney Tunes to even Smash Bros alternate costumes. There was a privacy part of the room to give him time to change clothes. But there was one particular area that drew his attention.

A monitor and a table with three cloches stood in front of him. Another thing that Elmer noticed was the timer, that had started counting down from… TWENTY MINUTES?

“Hey, wait a minute…” Elmer frowned as he examined the counting time. “I thought I onwy had TWO minutes to choose…”

“Two minutes OUT THERE.” Monika’s voice said as the monitor turned on, causing Elmer to turn towards it in curiosity. “Hello, Elmer. I’m not too surprised that a Looney Tune would be the first one to use the Safe Zone. I knew the idea of ‘changing into your other outfits from Worlds of Mayhem’ would grab your attention.”

“I just wanted to gwab one of my outfits to change my fighting styah.” Elmer pointed out.

“Ah, but take a peek out from the Safe Zone for just a moment.” Monika grinned.

The hunter, looking rather confused, turned around as he peeked out… only for his eyes to widened.

All of the arena was at a standstill. Nobody was moving around. Looking rather concerned, Elmer was about to charge out.

“Uh uh uh! If you step out of the Safe Zone, only a second will pass, and time will resume as if nothing has happened.” Monika warned.

Elmer blinked twice before turning towards Monika with a frown on his face. “What did you do to the world?”

“Relax, it’s nothing bad, I promise. In fact, I ran this idea by Xero and Maurice to do something regarding this Safe Zone. There was more to it than what the bunny and bull described.” Monika explained. “So, Elmer, considering you’re the first person IN THIS ROUND to enter the Safe Zone, how would you like to complete a challenge in the time allowed on that clock you see?”

“A chawwenge?” Elmer asked, looking rather interested.

“Yes, a challenge.” Monika giggled. “These can range from ‘easy to difficult’, depending on the cloche you pick before you. And each prize you win will AFFECT the arena in any way you choose, all depending on if you are still in the ring.”

“Well… what are the pwizes?” Elmer asked in confusion.

“Well, before I get into that, I should probably explain to you the new twists of the Tournament of Kikai rounds, and how each round will be affected in each area.” Monika explained as her monitor switched off to another screen. “Consider this a bonus for you, because you’re going to know the twists ahead of time, rather than be surprised. How this will work WILL affect how the tournament is played.”

The screen then showed the first option, marked ‘You’re The Boss’. “First, the “You’re The Boss” rounds. That one is not changed. Basically, the last person who gets landed on the wheel after the round ends will be a Big Guy for one round. If that person was already a Big Guy by default, then their status upgrades to a ‘Really Big Guy’ for one round. And if someone is a Really Big Guy, that means there is a chance that a player will earn THREE eliminations, instead of one or two. However, that person who is a REALLY Big Guy will get TWICE the fatigue, or in vote terms, will get TWO Die votes instead of just one. However, if the person that got Big Guy or REALLY Big Guy status survives the end of their next round, they get a prize.”

“That makes sense.” Elmer nodded.

Monika giggled as she switched to the next screen, showing two arenas, with the words ‘Arena Split’. “This is basically the King of Smashers replacement, called ‘Arena Split’. If someone selects this card, the arena will split into two, and an assortment of characters, both mixes of veterans and new fighters, will be on both ends of the ring, meaning that for voters out there, there will be TWO voteforms. One arena will consist of popular characters, and the other arena will consist of underrated or characters not expected to do well. In a way, it’s still forty fighters, but it might give you a chance to improve your scoring if you wish to stay.”

“Ahhh…” Elmer nodded.

Monika giggled as she pushed the next button showing a large audience. “Mystery Reserves. Basically, we pick a member from the audience to be part of the tournament so that they can be a Mystery Fighter. However, suggestions are NOT OPEN YET! Wait until the first Mystery Reserve round is played, THEN we’ll talk.”

Elmer blinked in confusion as he cocked his head. “Huh?”

Monika giggled. “Sorry, just wanted to make it clear for the readers. Anyway…” The screen switched to see the arena as a few were surrounded in a circle in a chairs, while others were fighting OUTSIDE the circle of chairs. “Big Guy Blocker. You remember Monukuma forcing a fifteen survivor round? Well, Xero and Maurice actually liked the idea, and decided to adapt it. Basically, anybody who has Big Guy status will not affect the ring in anyway, and will be played like a normal round. One elimination per player. Once a player gets an elimination, they will be forcibly dragged to a table and sit down until the player is ready. The downside is, the Safe Zone will not be used during that time.”

Elmer sighed as he shook his head. “Well, there had to be a catch somewhere…”

Monika giggled as she clicked the button. “Now here’s a sneak peek at a favorite of mine, inspired by Round Eighteen of the Tournament of Kikai.”

The screen showed the arena having some problems as characters were high on the ground, T-posing, or just using cheats to get their way. Monika grinned. “GLITCH FEST! In those rounds, the arena will be glitched out, and everybody is allowed to use cheats or various ways of glitching in the arena in order to get their eliminations. Just beware of one spot that can get you stuck in a T-pose, because you will be STUCK like that for a round. The only good thing to come out of this? No wheel spins, just chaos and fun!”

Elmer yelped as he made a mental note that if this was ever a choice, he would NOT go near that card.

“And last, but most certainly not least… Redemption Arc!” Monika smiled as she turned to the last screen on the board, showing off the arena as a few dots fall into the portal, only to show on the other half of the screen to see one dot returning to its post. “In Redemption Arc, a character selected at random from the last round, as long as they had one elimination or zero eliminations, will return ONLY once to play through the game… basically, a contestant will grant someone a Get Out Of Jail Free card to return them to the game.”

“Say, that does sound pretty nifty.” Elmer smiled… before pausing. “Uh, what depicts how Redemption Arc players are picked?”

“The host decides through a random number generator, posing from either 10 to 30, 11 to 30, 12 to 30, 13 to 30, 14 to 30, and finally 15 to 30, if Big Guy Blocker was the last round played.” Monika said. “Speaking of which, if Big Guy Blocker was chosen for a round, Redemption Arc is closed off as an option for next round.”

“Ohhhh…” Elmer said in surprise.

“Now, the reason I’m telling you these twists NOW is because you could have a chance to influence the twists, depending on what is chosen.” Monika explained. “And for this first challenge, it’s pretty simple. Just pick the cloche that is covering a prize. One contains no prize, the second contains a prize that could benefit you, and the third contains a prize that benefits OTHERS. You won’t know what it is until the choice is selected… and you only have… uh, the time remaining on the clock to make your choice.”

Elmer looked over to see eighteen minutes still remaining. Monika giggled. “Of course, you don’t HAVE to go for the challenge. You can choose your outfit AND be on your merry way, but think about what you could have.”

Elmer paused slightly as he started to think about it… before giving a smile. “Okay, I feel wucky today. I’ll take… THIS one.”

Elmer pointed to the middle cloche. Monika looked over as she raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you want that cloche?”

“Positive.” Elmer smiled.

“Okay, you have your cloche chosen. You can stick with that choice, OR… see what’s behind this door.” Monika said as a door randomly appeared next to him. “Inside that door could be a beneficial tool that can help you in battle, like a form that isn’t even IN your World of Mayhem game.”

Elmer paused briefly as he thought about it. On the one hand, he was hoping that even if the wheel didn’t land on him, maybe it’ll change the course of the game. On the other hand, that door could lead to something more helpful. He drummed through his fingers, wondering what the outcome was… before giving a smile, making his decision right then and there.

“I’ll stick with this one.” Elmer said as he put his hands on the cloche.

“You may reveal it.” Monika smiled.

Elmer nodded as he opened the cloche to reveal… a purple token. Elmer just looked at it in confusion.

“Ah, the ‘Last Round Players Comeback’ token. I have a feeling you’re going to like this.” Monika smiled.

“What is it?” Elmer asked.

“Let me explain to you what it does, then I’ll be out of your hair, and you can change into your costume…” Monika said as she turned to the camera and gave a wink. “As for you, my lovely audience… shouldn’t you all be reading about who the players eliminate out of the first round?”

(The Arena)

After Raphael decided to let go of Espeon for the time being, the purple cat like Pokemon returned to Landia, who had just recovered from being transformed into meat thanks to Fuzzy’s meat gun. However, once the two were reunited, they decided to make good on their promise to battle each other as both of them stood their ground, ready for anything.

”Ready for this?” Landia growled as they turned their heads.

Espeon narrowed her eyes as she got into position. ”Buddy, I am MORE than ready!”

Landia smirked as they started to fly up into the air in hopes of catching Espeon offguard before swooping down in the air and did a large tail swing. Espeon quickly hopped over the move as the four headed dragon missed the attack. Hoping to retaliate, Espeon quickly used Swift to summon some stars on the field as they were sent to attack Landia, striking him down as the dragon gave a loud yell.

The four headed dragon quickly recovered as it gave a loud roar, before flying up and turning to side, two of the side heads breathing fire down on the ground. Espeon ran towards the fire, before swiftly moving to the side, using Agility to boost up its speed sharply. However, one of the fire streams did manage to singe Espeon’s tail a bit as she leaped into the air and wagged its tail a bit, getting rid of the fire. However, upon seeing Espeon’s tail wagging, Landia noticed a blue aura surrounding him.

“Wait, what the-” The four headed dragon shouted in shock before looking towards the announcer’s booth for an explanation.

Xero, watching this, coughed before announcing. “OH! Espeon used Tail Whip! Landia’s Defense has been lowered!”

All four of Landia’s heads could only look down in annoyance as they shook them respectively. Xero quickly announced, “Hey, you were the one who looked at Espeon’s tail wagging! It would be wise if you didn’t WATCH the tail wag, but you did!”

Maurice, hearing this, groaned as everyone else was heard facepalming. “Do you realize what you just said that can be easily taken out of context?”

Xero blinked, before giving a nervous smile. “...uh, no?”

Back with the fight, Landia decided to not let the distraction bother them as they continued to soar into the air in the hopes of swooping down and catching Espeon off guard. Espeon could only keep an eye on the dragon in confusion, before trying to dive out of the way of the attack, only for Landia to swoop down fast and headbutt the cat Pokemon, sending her into the air.

Espeon then landed on the ground and rolled over a couple of times before getting up and shaking its head, narrowing its eyes towards Landia as the gem started to glow blue. Quickly, Espeon unleashed a Psybeam as the laser shot from the gem and hit Landia square on one of the heads.

”OW!” Landia roared, before narrowing its eyes at its target. ”Okay, that is just pushing it to the edge! I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no other choice! Boys, let’s separa-”

”DAZZLING GLEAM!” Espeon shouted as a bright light began to flash from its gem.

Landia stopped flying for a brief moment. ”Wait, Dazzling wh-”

A bright light suddenly appeared in front of Landia, causing the four headed dragon to twitch twice before falling to the ground.

Espeon could only shake her head as she said, ”Look at my movepool and the TMs I learn, buddy. It may not be STAB, but I can learn a FAIRY TYPE move, and Fairy is strong against Dragon types. Honestly, try to keep up.”

With that, Espeon used her psychic powers to levitate the four headed dragon and tossed them out of the ring. Espeon quickly noticed the crown that was laid down next to it, before levitating it out of the ring as well. ”And to make sure THIS doesn’t start a running gag…”

Landia found himself floating in an office building somewhere as he looked around, noticing that no door was available. Much to their confusion, they wondered what node they landed on. All of a sudden, Monika suddenly appeared in front of the dragon, causing the dragon to jump backwards… as its crown landed directly back on its head.

“Hello, Landia. So I see you got eliminated.” Monika giggled as Landia cocked its head in confusion. “I would love to explain why you’re here, but why don’t you watch the rest of the round first? Don’t worry, all will be clear soon enough.”

Monika snapped her fingers as a television appeared to show the arena and what was going on beyond it. Looking curious, and deciding it had nothing better to do, Landia approached the monitor in curiosity.

Raphael looked over towards Espeon as he gave a smile. “Good for the little guy! Certainly knows how to kick butt.”

“Hey, pal! Focus on the fight in front of you!”

The red bandana wearing turtle quickly snapped out of his trance as he noted Ken charging straight at him, readying another punch. Raphael narrowed his eyes before pulling out his sais to block the attack. Then after doing a couple of flips backwards, Raph jumped up in the air in hopes to slash Ken in the chest.

Ken saw the attack coming as he rolled over to the ground just as Raph landed on the ground, missing the attack. Seizing the opportunity, Ken charged in and rapidly punched Raphael in the face multiple times before uppercutting him in the air.

Raph quickly recovered as he narrowed his eyes. “Listen, pal, if your mission was to disrupt my mojo, congratulations. You accomplished your mission!”

Ken gave a light chuckle to himself. “I’m just riding on a little high right now, since I managed to get the first elimination of the round. I say I’m pretty impressed.”

Raph frowned as he readied his sai. “Guess what, hotshot, just because you got an elimination for your node doesn’t mean JACK if you don’t keep it up with a hot streak.”

Ken smirked as he took off his glove to reveal his gun hand. “Oh, but I’m just getting warmed up.”

With that, Ken used his gun to shoot at Raphael. Raph growled before putting away his sais and pulling out a pair of tonfa, clutching onto them before slamming his fists together to reveal red mystical power surging through his veins as it blocked the bullets. Ken jumped in shock as Raph looked up, a cocky grin on his face.

“The best thing about being from a DIFFERENT version of the turtles? They get access to different sorts of abilities. Do you see the 2003 Raphael summon mystical powers like these?!” Raph laughed as he jumped up in the air, a red mystical hand coming down to slam on Ken’s face, sending the man flying.

Ken quickly recovered as he looked at the smirking red wearing turtle. “You think you’re being cute right now? I am a MISHIMA! I am one of the most powerful beings on earth, and you will respect that!”

With a loud yell, Ken charged up, readying another attack as he ran forward and punched Raph in the chest, sending the turtle backwards just a smidge.

Raph grunted as he narrowed his eyes, before waving his hand to make the mystical power arm slam Ken in the face, sending him down to the floor. Raphael then proceeded to charge forward and raise his arm. “POWER PUNCH JUTSU!”

Ken quickly got up, but got slapped hard by a giant fist as Ken rebounded by the ropes. Ken grunted a bit as he pulled out a mine and tossed it to the floor in front of Raphael, before pushing a button.

KABOOM!

The mine exploded as Ken gave a small smirk, noticing the smoke it left behind… only for two red glowing arms to grab him from behind as he found himself floating in the air. Ken turned his head to see that Raphael was still there, but was now inside a red, mystical version of himself as Ken yelped.

“And now, to take you out like a boss!” Raphael shouted before swinging Ken around a couple of times before tossing him out of the ring and into the portal below.

Raphael gave a small chuckle to himself as he turned off the mystical powers and stood there. “I have to admit, I didn’t think the mystic powers would be useful here, but I’m glad I gave them a try!”

With a nod, he turned to see Espeon licking herself, so Raph decided to keep the psychic Pokemon company. As he did so, he passed by the Safe Zone, little realzing that at around that time, Elmer had came out with a smirk on his face, and he was now wearing a yellow Viking armor suit with a golden helmet with horns and holding a spear. Elmer smirked as he ran out and jumped back into the ring, looking around.

“Well, that took no time at all.” Elmer smiled as he patted his chest. “And my wittle token is safe until the time is wight… now who do I disturb…”

Elmer looked around before spotting his target and pointing towards him, before charging forward towards another fight.

Ken landed in the same office that Landia was as he looked around and noticed the dragon casually watching the tournament.

“What’s this?” Ken asked himself as he joined Landia. “Don’t tell me this is one of those Multiversal Matchups. Is that even a THING in these tournaments?”

Landia’s four heads grunted, looking as inquisitive as Ken was. Ken gave a sigh before sitting down next to Landia as they watched the remainder of the round.

Berry was slowly looking around as she held her Loveberry Rod close to her chest. Just a moment ago, she had been distracted by the monitor and the wheel spin, and the next minute, her opponent was missing by the time she turned around. The girl narrowed her eyes as she tried to look around.

“All right, I know you’re here. A turtle in a wheelchair is not hard to locate…” Berry whispered to herself as she looked around sharply.

Little did she realize was that right atop of the corner post, Bentley was settling down, activating some sort of cloaking device to make himself invisible.

“Note to self, thank Professor Xavier from the X-Men node for this little ability.” Bentley said to himself before pushing a button, making himself visible. “Of course, I had to modify it my way, but hey, the task of invisibility STILL works.”

Bentley nodded before pulling out a bomb from his wheelchair and tossing it directly at Berry. The young girl felt the bomb tap her feet as she curiously looked down…

BANG!

Berry was sent flying to her side as she laid down on the ground. Berry quickly got back up on her feet before turning towards Bentley as she gave a smirk.

“Neat new trick.” Berry noted. “Granted, I don’t remember you turning INVISIBLE in ANY Sly Cooper game, but I commend you for it.”

“Well, when your game abilities are limited, you have to get inspiration somewhere.” Bentley pointed out before pushing a button on his wheelchair arm to summon a few mechanical arms that were holding bombs. “The real question is, can your Mew skills withhold a few more bombs?”

Berry took a deep breath as she looked ready. With that, Bentley threw the bombs towards Berry as the rabbit-cat Mew sidestepped on a few bombs… but not before getting slapped by a few bombs that exploded in her face. She shook her head a bit to get rid of the smudges from the explosions before taking a deep breath.

“RIBBON… LOVEBERRY… CHECK!” Berry shouted as she waved her small wand, sending out a few heart shaped rays of light towards Bentley.

The wheelchair-bound turtle yelped a bit as the rays attacked him, blowing him and his wheelchair slightly off kilter, but the turtle managed to hang on to the best of his abilities. Of course, this gave Berry more than an ample opportunity to charge forward and slam her fist at Bentley herself, punching him in the face.

Bentley grunted and groaned, but shook his head as he crossed his arms in annoyance. “All right… well, you have very impressive skills in magic… which I’ll admit, I still don’t quite understand Mew DNA myself, but you are a good fighter.”

Berry beamed at the compliment. “Thanks!”

“Unfortunately, I’m gonna need a little backup… and I just know how to get it…” Bentley said to himself as he pulled out a couple of rage bombs and spotted two targets of his choice. He quickly threw the bombs…

Cut back to a couple of minutes before Bentley’s attempt. Over near the other end, it was a three versus one battle, with the one holding himself up fairly well. Fuzzy huffed and puffed in anger before trying to slash towards Sulley, only for Bowser to jump in his path and slam his fist into the pink creature. Fuzzy growled in anger before turning his attention towards Bowser as the Koopa King took a deep breath and breathed fire on the hillbilly.

“YAHHHHHH!” Fuzzy let out a loud scream as he backed away before growling in anger, turning to Sulley. “It ain’t no fair that you have three people against one on me!”

“Hey, buddy, I was more than ready to ignore it, but your little meat gun fiasco forced me to take care of the problem!” Bowser growled as Crush came stomping in, stomping on one of the still working red grates to send out a fireball towards Fuzzy’s direction, burning the pink creature’s fur as Fuzzy let out another scream. Bowser then turned to Sulley as he looked a little relieved. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

Sulley gave a small sigh of relief. “I just hope this goes better than the last time I was in a three to one battle.”

Fuzzy yowled in anger as he waved his arm in a threatening way. “If only I were allowed my family in the ring with me, then all of youse would be in for a wrasslin’ time!”

“Yeah, well, as much I want all my minions in the ring, save for permission, I ain’t willing to put them in danger.” Bowser pointed out before jumping up and slashing Fuzzy up.

Fuzzy growled in anger as he held up his gun to block Bowser’s slashes… however, the pink creature wasn’t watching his back, the most vulnerable side as Crush moved in and whacked him in the back with his chicken leg club, sending Fuzzy to the ropes.

Fuzzy quickly rebounded back before steadying himself as he noticed one of the corner posts nearby. Fuzzy laughed as he climbed up the corner post and started to jump up in the air, in hopes of landing on one of the three opponents.

“Oh no you don’t!” Sulley growled as he readied his claws before getting Fuzzy in the stomach as he was midair.

Fuzzy yelped as he clutched his stomach as he immediately dropped to the ground. Crush, seeing this as a golden opportunity, ran forward as he slammed Fuzzy in the head with his club, causing the pink hillbilly creature to get dizzy.

Bowser laughed as he crossed his arms. “Well, it looks like we got our mission accomplished. Now, let’s see who eliminates him, shall we?”

Sulley and Bowser stared at each other, before looking at Crush, who was about ready to throw Fuzzy out of the ring. Nodding, both of them charged towards Crush as the blue Riptoc looked over and yelped, being slammed on the floor by both heavyset monster and Koopa respectively. That caused Fuzzy to be dropped to the ground even more.

All three of them quickly got up as they backed away, eying each other as they seemed ready to go on the attack. Before anybody could react, a bomb thrown by Bentley appeared in front of the three of them. Sulley was the first one to notice as he jumped backwards and hid behind the unconscious Fuzzy, but Bowser and Crush failed to notice it in time.

BOOM!

Both Bowser and Crush were blasted away, still dazed for the moment as Sulley yelped. Both Riptoc and Koopa were now surrounded by a green aura as they slowly came to. Not wanting to know what happened to them, Sulley quickly tossed Fuzzy out of the ring and into the portal below before investigating what was going on.

Fuzzy came to as he found himself in the same office room where Ken and Landia were sitting. “What th- oh, you’ve got to be kidding me right now!”

“Well, hello to you too.” Ken said as Fuzzy sat down. “It would seem that either the three of us are part of a Multiversal Matchup OR there’s something else that’s just as big.”

“If we was part of some Multiversal Matchup, shouldn’t there be more characters with us? At least two others.” Fuzzy pointed out.

“Yeah, I’m just as lost as you…” Ken sighed before Monika appeared.

“Ah, so all three of you have made it. Welcome.” Monika smiled. “Before you question anything further, I think a few minutes of your time will be perfectly necessary…”

The three looked a little confused as Landia cocked their heads in confusion. Fuzzy and Ken, on the other hand, looked at the schoolgirl warily as they sat down, little realizing that being in the room was healing the characters within.

Berry’s eyes shrank as she witnessed Bentley’s attack on Bowser and Crush, before turning to him in shock. “Why would you do that?”

“Like I said, I know my abilities won’t be enough, and I do need a lot of backup. As much as I hate doing this sort of thing, I think a few of my Rage Bombs will be more than enough to temporarily change those two’s minds about attacking anyone else…” Bentley pointed out.

Berry yelped as she turned in fear to see Bowser and Crush getting up as they looked around, the green aura still active. Both of them turned to Berry as they growled at her… but then they turned to each other with a growl.

Swiftly, Crush slammed Bowser on the head with his club, causing the Koopa King to yelp before growling in anger. Quickly, Bowser grabbed Crush by the neck and swung him around before tossing him out of the ring and into the portal below.

Crush recovered as he landed in My Pet Monster, where upon meeting Beastur, tried to beat him with his club. It didn’t end too well as Beastur showed his own natural strength.

Bowser’s green aura went away as he took a few deep breaths, before blinking twice in confusion. “What was that all about? What just happened?”

Berry blinked twice as she turned to Bentley. “Uh, that did not go to plan.”

“Didn’t it?” Bentley said with a smirk as he was now holding a remote with one button on it.

Berry blinked twice as she saw Bentley pushed the button. Berry looked down to see a small trap below her as it opened up and started to pull the Mew in as she was spinning around. Bentley smirked as he said, “You see, I knew that by saying I was going to get back up were you to draw attention elsewhere while I set up my REAL trap. Yes, using Crush and Bowser respectively was a bit much, but if it meant distracting you with the idea that you were going to fight both of them, it allowed me time to set up my real trap. Now, normally, this traps enemies inside and leaves health behind, but I modified this beauty to suck people in… and only I’ll release the people out. Get the picture?”

Berry’s eyes lowered as she gave a pout. “Clever trick… clever trick.”

With that, Berry got sucked in as the trap shut tight. Bentley smiled before using one of his mechanical arms to pick up the trap as he aimed the opening directly towards the outside, to the portal below. One push of a button later, and Berry was spat out in that direction.

Berry landed in the 2003 Teen Titans as she decided to team up with Raven to fight off against Jinx for ten minutes. Raven felt embarrassed to even be standing next to Berry in the first place as Jinx taunted both of them. Of course, that proved to be a mistake on Jinx’s part.

Bentley crossed his arms as he gave a nod.

“I have to admit, kid, you got a little devious this time…” Sulley’s voice sounded.

Bentley’s confidence quickly shattered as he turned his head to see Sulley’s glare, and from the look on his face, he had witness what had happened.

Bentley gave a slight chuckle. “Uh, well, you have to improve on your fighting skills from last time, and there were a few devices I didn’t use… uh, well… SMOKE BOMB!”

The wheelchair bound turtle then grabbed a smoke bomb from his pocket as he slammed it down on the ground, covering Sulley as Bentley quickly wheeled away from him. When the smoke cleared, Sulley looked around to notice that Bentley had disappeared.

Sulley just stared, before sighing. “I’ll give him this, he’s certainly upping his gameplay…”

“Okay, everyone, we’re just about done with the round, but before we see who makes it to the next round for the next three eliminations, let’s spin that wheel!” Maurice announced as Monika once again appeared on the monitor, with the wheel in hand.

Sulley could only watch as the wheel span around and around until finally… it landed on his face, much to his curiosity. “Oh? So, what did I get?”

“Sulley, for doing pretty well for yourself, you earn yourself a reward in the form of a Smash Ball.” Monika giggled as she snapped her fingers, a Smash Ball appearing in his hand. “Be sure to use it well.”

Sulley paused as he looked at the Smash Ball for a bit, before shrugging as he put it somewhere in his fur. “Well, I suppose it could be useful. I just hope Mike didn’t SEE that embarrassment of an elimination I got… or the fact I got outsmarted by a turtle.”

(Hotel; Restaurant)

Retasu was ducking down behind the counter as she noted the various amounts of food being thrown around in the area. “How did this chaos all even start here?”

“Trust me, you get plenty used to it.” Mung said as he peeked out behind with Retasu.

“Radda radda radda.” Schnitzel agreed as he peeked from Retasu’s right side.

All this time, while there were some people looking at the tournament, there were others who had turned their attention towards a battle that was taking place between three characters… or two characters with one reluctantly being dragged into the battle as he was hiding behind his friend and groaning in frustration.

“Look, man, I already explained that I had nothing to do with that practical joke!” Bloo shouted in anger as he picked up a bottle of mustard and shook it, before aiming it at Mike Wazowski. He then pushed the mustard bottle to squirt the dodgeball away from him, but in a mustard and dodgeball battle, the yellow liquid can only do so little to slow a fast curve.

“Practical joke, maybe, but to push it this far on a WAITRESS of all people, a girl who not only WORKS in this restaurant, but could very well potentially BE your opponent… you’re asking for trouble, kiddo!” Mike said as he charged forward. “ESPECIALLY when what you did was cruel!”

“But I’m telling you, I didn’t tape over the ketchup bottle!” Bloo said before being hit by Mike’s body, the imaginary friend screaming in pain as he flew off.

“He’s telling the truth, Mr. Wazowski!” Mac said as he tried to calm the atmosphere.

But Mike was too furious to remain calm as he put up his fists in an attempt to draw him out. “Come on, you little Pac-Man reject, is that all you got? Come on, come on!”

Bloo growled in anger before jumping up as he ran over to Mac. “Mac, throw me like a dodgeball! I’ll show him what for!”

“Bloo, you cannot be-” Mac tried to argue, before lowering his eyelids. “Ah, heck with it, what’s the use of trying to reason with you!”

The young kid quickly threw Bloo towards Mike was he was about ready to throw another dodgeball at the two. As if on cue, Bloo and the dodgeball collided with each other as Bloo dropped to the ground.

“Oh yeah?!” Bloo shouted in anger before getting up and grabbing a few people’s plates, much to their anger.

“Hey!” Vector the Crocodile shouted in protest as he narrowed his eyes at the blue imaginary friend, but he was ignored as Bloo threw Vector’s plate at Mike.

The plate of spaghetti immediately landed on the green cyclops’s face as Mike growled in anger. “OH! So we’re turning this into a food fight, huh? FINE! FOOD FIGHT!”

This caught the attention of most everyone in the room as everyone was either throwing food around, ducking through the tables OR just trying to sneak out of the restaurant. Two people in particular were noting the damages being caused.

“I think now’s a good time to amscray.” The person smirked as they got up.

“Are you really going to just leave these people here? What if someone finds out YOU’RE the cause?” The other person asked.

“By the time they figure it out that it wasn’t the imaginary friend, I’ll be long gone. Now, come on, let’s see what else we can mess up!”

“...there are times like this I wonder if you even have a conscience that says that what you’re doing is wrong…”

“Just come on! Oh, and let’s forget you saw me taking the ketchup bottle when nobody was looking.”

“Forgetting!” The owner of the second voice chirped adorably.

The two quickly scampered off and started to wander away. Little did the two mysterious people realize that at this very moment, someone had been watching them leave, having been the only person to have witnessed what had happened… and crossed their arms with a frown on their face.

“Well… it would seem a job is never done…” The voice sighed before hopping off as they left the room.

All the while, as food was being flung everywhere, the blue ghost like imaginary friend was holding a few plates of spinach and goulash as he looked around, before spotting Mike as he gave a shout. “GOTCHA! TASTE SPINACH AND GOULASH!”

With that, Bloo threw the plates of food towards Mike… only for them to drop short and crash everywhere, leaving tons of spinach and goulash on the floor. Bloo’s eyes shrank as Mac joined in with his hand holding his forehead in annoyance.

“Nice aim, Bloo.” Mac said in a sarcastic tone of voice.

“Really? I didn’t think it was that good.” Bloo said as he gave a sigh. “My throwing arm must be off.”

Mike smirked as he held up two bowls of hot scalding soup. “Let me tell you something, buddy! I think it’s time ‘pho’ you to talk to the soup!”

With that, Mike rolled forward and dumped the scalding soup on both Mac and Bloo as both of them yelled out in pain, before going down. Mike crossed his arms with a smirk. “Guess you two… aren’t of ‘soup’-reme quality!”

Mac groaned at both the pun AND the scalding soup. Immediately, Wilt, Coco and Eduardo ran over to both Mac and Bloo as Wilt asked, “Are you two okay?”

“No… I’m wet, there’s scalding hot soup on my head!” Bloo groaned.

All of a sudden, a whistle was heard blowing as everyone stopped what they were doing. They turned around quickly as they noticed Penelope Pitstop and Bunnie stepping into the restaurant, Penelope blowing the whistle as Ichigo came in, crossing her arms.

“All right, all of you, break it up! We will not be having ANY foot fights in this arena as long as the security team is here!” Penelope called out.

“Now, which of you little rascals started this food fight?!” Bunnie asked as she looked around.

Everybody in the room immediately pointed to Bloo and Mike as the green cyclops blinked twice, before looking around. “Wha- oh come on, why am I getting fingers pointed at me?! I was defending a lady’s honor because he taped over the ketchup bottle.”

“I’ve been trying to tell you, I didn’t!” Bloo yelled in anger.

“He’s telling the truth!” Mac groaned. “Bloo’s been with us the whole time.”

“Wait, wha-?” Mike blinked.

“Si, it’s true!” Eduardo nodded. “Azul has been sitting with us the whole time and we were chatting over what he was going to do in the ring once he entered, since he had higher number.”

“That’s exactly what was going on! We only noticed the ketchup bottle being spilled on this girl’s face AFTER she spilled it.” Bloo frowned. “In other words, you got the wrong guy!”

Mike blinked as he looked rather awkward. “Oh… uh, I feel embarrassed…”

Penelope paused as she looked around and picked up the ketchup bottle in question, noticing the tape under the cap. “Yep, story checks out…”

“If anybody is still in here and they taped this ketchup bottle, step up.” Bunnie called as she looked around… but silence filled the room. The rabbit robot frowned. “Well, either they’re very good at keeping secrets, or they’ve been long gone.”

“It’s fine, really…” Ichigo sighed. “The main question is… this restaurant is now a mess! Looks like we’ll have to clean everything up…”

“Allow me to hire assistants for you this time, Ichigo…” Ryou said as he stepped over, watching this from afar, before pointing towards Mike, Bloo and Mac. “You three may not have intentionally humiliated my employee, BUT you still caused this destruction. So you clean up EVERY spic and span of this place UNTIL it’s spotless!”

Mike’s one eye widened… before lowering it. “Okay, fair enough…”

“Fair enough? FAIR ENOUGH?! NO! NOT FAIR ENOUGH! SOMEWHERE OUT THERE IS A MYSTERIOUS PRANKSTER WHO JUST STRUCK IN THE RESTAURANT! YOU TWO!” Bloo barked as he turned towards Penelope and Bunnie. “YOU’RE THE ONES IN SECURITY! TRACK DOWN THAT PRANKSTER AND BRING THEM TO JUSTICE!”

Bunnie and Penelope paused before looking at each other… before Penelope sighed. “Sorry, dear. I wish we could, but…”

“Darling, we’re only looking for villains intending actual HARM on people. And as far as the ketchup bottle tape gag is a bit cruel, I think it was just intended to be a harmless prank.” Bunnie pointed out.

Ichigo sighed. “Yeah, you guys sort of escalated this fiasco by turning the restaurant into a warzone, so…”

Mac sighed as he gave a nod. “I guess a lot of us did overreact. All right, we’ll clean up. We don’t have to enter the ring until a lot later, so Bloo and I should have time.”

“Yeah, and I do want to make up for causing this mess.” Mike said in embarrassment. “Just let me know when I’ve done a good job cleaning everything, okay?”

Ryou nodded towards Mac and Mike. “Fair enough. Once I feel you’ve cleaned up everywhere, you’re good to go.”

“Uh, hey, would it be okay if Eduardo, Coco and I helped too?” Wilt asked. “We are technically with Mac and Bloo and we intended to just be in the restaurant for a short while, but seeing as how we don’t have anything to do…”

Ryou sighed. “Fine, whatever.”

As everyone was quickly discussing the damages to the dining area and what to clean (with Coco already laying down eggs to get a mop, bucket and broom respectively), Bloo was the only person frowning as he crossed his arms.

“Oh no, I’m not giving up this easily! I don’t know who you are, mysterious prankster, but rest assured, I will have my revenge! You won’t get by me for long!”

Bloo paused before looking back as he noticed everyone else talking. Nobody was watching him. Giving a snicker to himself, Bloo quietly slipped away and ran out the doors.

“All right, so it’s settled?” Mike asked as everyone nodded. “Okay, let’s get to work so that I can get back to training for the tournament, hm?”

“Fair idea.” Mac said as he picked up a mop. “Come on, Bloo, let’s just do this quick.”

After a moment of silence, Mac paused as he turned towards where Bloo was standing, only to find he wasn’t there. Mac slapped his forehead in annoyance. “Oh no…”

Everyone had noticed the blue imaginary friend took off as well as Wilt, Eduardo and Coco’s eyes lowered.

“Coco coco coco co?” Coco asked in a very sarcastic tone.

“I agree Coco, I guess it’s not too surprising Bloo took off on his own… again.” Wilt frowned as he held his head.

“Do you want us to go find him?” Penelope asked. “He couldn’t have wandered TOO far…”

“Please do.” Mac sighed. “Like I said, we don’t have to be in the ring until way later, but it’d be better to have him closeby.”

“All right, sug!” Bunnie nodded as she and Penelope walked out of the room. “We’ll keep a lookout for your blue imaginary friend for ya.”

With that, the two security team members departed as everyone stood in silence… before Ryou looked around.

“Well, don’t just stand there! GET WORKING!” Ryou shouted.

Everybody immediately jumped up as they started to get to work around the restaurant area, little realizing that Pudding and Chowder, having come out of the kitchen, and holding deliveries, looked over and winced at the damages.

“It’s a good thing we were all inside the kitchen keeping track of the orders.” Chowder said with a smile.

“And holding you back from eating each one.” Pudding rolled her eyes, before giving a nod. “But yeah, by the time we get our deliveries done and we get back here, the restaurant will be spic and span!”

“How long will that be?” Chowder asked as he and Pudding walked out of the restaurants.

“Section Three results… Section Four at the latest. Give or take.” Pudding said. “It IS going to be a longer tournament than normal, so let’s just kick back where we can.”

(The Arena)

For the first section of this tournament, things have been dying down mostly on the chaotic end of things, with only three battles remaining… well, two battles, but one person was getting bored as they interrupted a three way fight as they dragged that person away.

“How dare you try to drag me away from a battle! I am this close to getting that robot… and that hunter man with the spear!” Sir Daniel Fortesque complained as best as he could without his lower jaw as Bowser settled him down.

“Look, buddy, I don’t know what you’re saying, but I’m feeling a bit antsy right now, and I didn’t want to wait until ONE of you two eliminates the other. Let’s just say, I’ve been compelled to battle even more since I got blinded by a momentary amount of rage… I still don’t know how that happened…”

Sir Daniel narrowed his eyes, before lifting his sword. “Ha ha! In that case, you beast, you have made the mistake of challenging the likes of the hero of Gallowmere!”

Bowser paused, before giving a small eyeroll and a grunt. “Yeah, pal, I still don’t know what you’re saying.”

Sir Daniel growled in anger. “I’ll show you!”

With that, the skeleton raised his sword and slashed Bowser in the chest, causing the Koopa king to hold his stomach in pain. “Okay, THAT I understood.”

Before Bowser could get a chance to retaliate with an attack, Daniel jumped in the air and threw an ethereal axe in the air, charging at Bowser before nicking him on the nose. The skeleton hero immediately grabbed the axe as it went back in his hand, before pocketing it. Sir Daniel immediately then pulled out a large hammer as he slammed Bowser multiple times in the head, before kicking the Koopa forward.

Bowser groaned a bit, before shaking his head, giving a narrow glare towards Sir Daniel. Noticing the ropes, Bowser got an idea as he went near them, before withdrawing in his shell and started to roll around like a ball before going near the ropes as he used them as a catapult to rush forward and bowl over Sir Daniel, sending the knight and his skeletal bones flying in the air for a moment.

As quickly as possible, Sir Daniel reassembled himself as he growled at Bowser angrily, the Koopa only holding a smug look on his face as the large Koopa king was taking a deep breath. Figuring that Bowser’s next move was going to be fire breath, the hero of Gallowmere quickly pulled out his shield, only for Bowser to switch tactics as he pulled out a strange looking weapon from his shell. A large gun like weapon that the Koopa king hoisted on his shoulder.

“All right, pal, say hello to my Bowzooka!” Bowser laughed before pulling the trigger as a large fireball projectile came in and struck Sir Daniel’s shield. The impact from that left an explosion that sent Sir Daniel up in the air. Seizing the opportunity in and of itself, Bowser quickly ran forward and punched Sir Daniel so hard, he was sent flying out of the ring.

Bowser laughed as he crossed his arms, giving a small smirk to himself. “Nobody outdoes the king!”

Sir Daniel landed in Killer Instinct, where he went toe to toe with Spinal.

Numbuh One was having a little bit of a tough time, but at least compared to someone like Akane from last tournament, he was seemingly tracking Kukri’s every move. Although, to Sector V’s leader, it was getting annoying having to fight against someone that can use sand to teleport behind them.

“YAH!” Kukri shouted as he kicked Numbuh One in the back as the kid was sent flying. Then, using his hand to summon some sand, Kukri began to fly in the air as he started to cycle the bald kid with multiple kicks before sending him flying and landing on the ground. Kukri gave a light chuckle to himself. “Is that the best you got?”

Numbuh One could only chuckle. “You think your little sand tricks are going to annoy me? Buddy, my friends and I have been to the beach plenty of times, and I’m pretty sure Numbuh Four and I get buried in the sand a few times. I’ll admit I’ve never fought a geomancer like you, but I’ll consider it good practice for if I EVER have to face one of those.”

Kukri gave a light chuckle as he readied the floating sand in his hand. “You think you can outbest me, when you couldn’t even get an elimination last time you were in one of these things?”

“You didn’t get an elimination either in the last Tournament of Kikai.” Numbuh One pointed out.

Kukri stopped for a short, brief period as he tried to come up with a response… before growling angrily. “SHUT UP! And taste my wrath!”

With that, Kukri zipped forward, leaving more sand illusions before slamming Numbuh One in the chest. However, just at that moment, the jets on Numbuh One’s shoes began to activate as he took to the air. As quick as he could, the kid pulled out the S.P.I.C.E.R. and shot a pepper cloud below him as it covered Kukri in the face.

This caused Kukri to stop as he took in the pepper and started to sniffle. “Ah… ah… ah! ACHOO!”

Kukri sneezed as he stumbled backwards. This left Numbuh One with an opening as he circled down as he pulled out his G.U.M.Z.O.O.K.A. and shot a rapid fire amount of gumballs to the man’s head.

Kukri shouted in pain as he quickly got up and narrowed his eyes at the kid. “You know, for a little squirt, you’re certainly annoying!”

The man then let out a loud shout before rapidly teleporting forward, leaving behind a few sand illusions, before trying to make his move and get Numbuh One from behind.

But the kid saw it coming as he shook his head. “Not this time!”

Numbuh One flew up with his boots quickly, leaving the geomancer to whiff his attacks. Numbuh One panted before pulling out a familiar looking Smash Ball.

“I didn’t think I’d be the first one to use their Final Smash/Punch Time Explosion, but desperate times call for desperate measures!”

With that, Numbuh One crushed his hand on the Smash Ball as he started to glow a blue aura. He smirked as he gave a shout. “ATTACK!”

With that, the kid pulled out two pepper spice guns, ones that were known as S.C.A.M.P.P. or Soup Can And Magnified Photon Phlaser. With that, he used his rocket boots to go up in the air and spray around the area Kukri was.

The man began to cough as he tried to get through the pepper clouds, but he felt like he was being damaged at every turn. “What is this…”

Numbuh One laughed a bit before aiming his gun in the air and shooting out bottles in the air… yes, BOTTLES. The laser functionality in the guns weren’t quite working, but Numbuh One found that quirk interesting enough to keep, and he did use those specific guns in Punch Time Explosion, so it was merely details at best. Those bottles were enough to knock Kukri off his feet as he fell down to the floor.

Seeing as how Kukri was done, Numbuh One swooped in and grabbed Kukri by the hood as he gave a smirk.

“Where you’re going, you won’t be able to cause trouble.” Numbuh One said before tossing the man out of the ring and into the portal below.

Kukri landed in Final Fantasy Tactics where he went one on one with the Geomancer.

Numbuh One gave a sigh of relief as he landed down on the ground. Noticing one fight left, he figured that the best he can do at the moment was go over and check over with Raphael. After all, for better or worse, the red bandana wearing turtle WAS his alliance partner.

”CRITICAL DAMAGE IN THRUSTERS!” R.O.B. panicked as he tried to keep himself afloat, but it was pretty useless as the robot cursed itself.

Ever since Elmer decided to interrupt the robot’s fight with Sir Daniel, the two of them found themselves working together against the man who was wearing his ‘What’s Opera, Doc’ uniform, but during the battle, his nodal companion, Bowser, came by and took Sir Daniel, leaving the robot to fend for himself.

Elmer, at the moment, seemed to be enjoying himself as he raised his arms up in the air to summon lightning clouds as rain started to pour down in the arena. “Well, well, Mr. Wobot! Considah youwsewf swowed down! Now that I got a good costume from the Safe Zone, I think I have moah of a goahden oppahtunity!”

”HOW IS IT POSSIBLE FOR ONE COSTUME CHANGE TO GIVE YOU POWERS?” R.O.B. asked in confusion.

“You just watch as I do it… with my spear and magic helmet!” Elmer sang as he pointed to his helmet as it started to glow gold.

”YOUR SPEAR AND MAGIC HELMET?” R.O.B. blinked twice.

”Spear and magic helmet!” Elmer declared as he raised his arms up.

”MAGIC HELMET?”

”MAGIC HELMET!!”

R.O.B. lowered his eyes in annoyance. ”MAGIC HELMET…”

”Yes, magic helmet! And I’ll give you a samplllllllllleeeee!” Elmer sang in an operatic style as he held the note long. As soon as he was done, everybody in the audience applauded the reference (even Xero, Maurice and Monika were applauding hard).

Elmer gave a small smile, before raising his arms up in the air. “WIGHTNING, STWIKE THE WOBOT!”

He then pointed his arms towards the robot as lightning struck down near the robot, causing R.O.B. to yelp as he pushed himself backwards, before throwing a few gyro tops towards the hunter, dinking his armor a bit. R.O.B. then proceeded to shoot some lasers out of his eyes to throw Elmer off kilter as the hunter got affected by the lasers.

“YEOWCH!” Elmer shouted in pain as the laser hit his arm, causing him to hold it as the rain and lightning temporarily stopped. Elmer growled in anger as he pulled out… a rather wooden hammer as he wiggled it.

R.O.B. jumped back. ”ERROR! ERROR! YOU DO NOT HAVE A HAMMER IN THIS FORM?!”

“Technicawwy, yes I do! This costume had me wield this magic hammer in a boss fight one time!" Elmer smirked, before looking up at the announcer’s booth. “Isn’t that wight, wabbit?!”

Xero gave a small deep breath. “Figured that Elmer would point to me and call me ‘wabbit’, since Bugs isn’t around…” He then went to the microphone. “Yes, the hammer is a legit weapon for Elmer to use as part of his Siegfried Elmer costume. It wasn’t in ‘What’s Opera, Doc’ or World of Mayhem, but Elmer DID don the costume and wield this weapon in Bugs Bunny and Taz: Time Busters.”

R.O.B. blinked as he said, ”CALCULATING CHANCES. RESULT… OH NO.”

Elmer gave his trademark laugh as he ran forward and raised his magic hammer, before slamming the robot’s head down, causing the robot to get down.

Elmer smirked before using his hammer as a golf club, aiming it at R.O.B.’s midcenter. “FORE!”

The hunter/Viking then swung his hammer as R.O.B. was sent flying out of the ring and into the portal below, giving everyone a chance to applaud the efforts of the hunter.

R.O.B. landed in Robots, where Rodney and Fender were examining the new arrival in curiosity, wondering what type of robot he was.

Elmer smiled as he held up his arms in victory, a fanfare playing that signified the end of the round. The hunter quickly looked around to see who was left out of everyone.

Beaky and Launchpad had long since ditched their Scrabble game and were now moving onto checkers, as the buzzard was busy contemplating a move, Launchpad waiting patiently. Bowser was playing to the crowd a bit as he was showing off his muscles and laughing, while Sulley was sighing in relief and relaxing near the ropes. Demyx, knowing that his Sticky Shoes punishment was over, felt relieved as he felt movement in his legs again, before strumming his sitar for the audience. Raphael was holding Espeon close and petting her on her lap, the purple cat Pokemon oddly finding the lap of the turtle comforting, with Numbuh One watching in curiosity. Cerebella was busy performing circus tricks with her hat Vice-Versa, right as Bentley turned visible, looking relieved that nobody had noticed him. And finally, Garnet was looking towards the monitors, knowing that any time now, the end of the round wheel spin was about to commence.

Elmer gave a nod as he patted his pocket, having an idea for what to do with this token given to him in the Safe Zone.

“Okay, folks, the end of the first round is here! And before we get to the second round, it’s time to spin the wheel! Monika, do the honors!” Xero announced as Monika came on screen, with everybody turning their heads.

“With pleasure!” Monika giggled before the wheel started to spin around and around… before landing directly on a certain duck’s face.

Launchpad looked rather surprised, before giving a chuckle. “Oh wow! I get to choose the new round twist? Hey, that’s an honor! Hey, Beaky, you don’t mind pausing the game for a moment, do you?”

“Uh, buh, uh… sure, pal.” Beaky nodded as Launchpad got up as he approached the monitor.

“Okay, so how does this work? What are my choices? Do I select three envelopes or…” Launchpad asked.

Maurice held up his hands to silence Launchpad for a moment before explaining, “For those who don’t know how this works, basically, the player who gets landed on in the wheel at the end of the round will get a chance to select the twist for the next round, which could help them, help others, OR even give any of you in the audience a chance in the next round! Either way, the twist will go into effect in the round after all thirty players… or more, depending on the twist… comes in!”

“Anyway, we got some new twists this time, and we want to specialize in THOSE first, before doing anything else.” Xero said before three envelopes appeared before Launchpad, floating in the air. “So, Launchpad, you will have the choices of ‘Arena Split’, ‘Monika’s Twist’ and ‘Redemption Arc’.”

Launchpad raised an eyebrow as he looked at the three choices, with everyone looking intrigued. “What do they do?”

“We can’t tell you that. Pick an envelope you think might be best for the round, and then we’ll speak then.” Xero said as Launchpad paused to think.

Everyone paused as they waited for Launchpad’s choice. Elmer was waiting nearby, patting his pocket, crossing his fingers in hopes Launchpad could select the right envelope…

Launchpad paused briefly… before snapping his fingers. “Redemption Arc must mean a returning fighter, right? I mean, there were a lot of fighters that didn’t get a chance to shine in the last round, and… you know what? I’m a fan of the underdogs, so… I’ll pick Redemption Arc!”

With that, Launchpad picked up the envelope. This gave a shine to Elmer’s eyes as he reached into his pocket.

Xero and Maurice nodded as Maurice said, “A good choice. And a good guess, Launchpad. With Redemption Arc-”

“WAIT!”

Everyone stopped as they turned to see Elmer Fudd walking up, and pulling out a token. “Earwiah in the Safe Zone, as I went in to change, I was given a chawwenge by Monika hersewf. It happens once a wound, and ANYBODY can enter the Safe Zone, not just Wooney Tune chawactahs like me! The point is, the first person to enter a Safe Zone in the round will have a chance to pway a chawwenge. Time stops outside, so yes, two minutes IS twue on the outside, but on the inside, you have more time… wike twenty minutes, not onwy to change into your outfits, BUT to pway this random chawwenge! Anyway, I took a gamble and it paid off! I wanna pway my token now!”

Everyone jumped as they looked at Elmer in shock. Even the next fighters that were waiting in the wings were just as shocked to hear Elmer’s declaration…

(Office Building)

On the TV, Ken, Fuzzy and Landia looked a little surprised as they found themselves perfectly healed and their weapons perfectly fine. Ken paused before giving a smirk. “Well, well, well, this could prove interesting now…”

“Uh, what does that mean for us, though?” Fuzzy asked in curiosity.

All of a sudden, the screen turned off before two more monitors appeared, each of them labeled with Ken, Fuzzy and Landia’s names… as they immediately turned green. A portal immediately opened up as Monika’s voice was heard through the speakers.

“Ken “Godhand” Mishima… Fuzzy Lumpkins… Landia… welcome back to the ring.”

RESULTS: (13 Votes)

LAUNCHPAD MCQUACK (DTAAS): 12:1= 11 (Boyd, Kitty Ko)

BOWSER (SSB): 10:3= 7 (Crush, Sir Daniel Fortesque)

ELMER FUDD (LT: WoM): 10:3= 7 (Gato, R.O.B.)

GARNET (MV): 10:3= 7 (Ed)

DEMYX (KH): 9:4= 5 (Dean)

SULLEY (KH): 9:4= 5 (Fuzzy Lumpkins)

BENTLEY (SC): 9:4= 5 (Berry Shirayuki)

BEAKY BUZZARD (LT: WoM): 8:5= 3 (Patti Mayonnaise)

NUMBUH ONE (CN: PTE): 8:5= 3 (Kukri)

ESPEON (PKMN): 8:5= 3 (Landia)

RAPHAEL (NAS): 8:5= 3 (Ken “Godhand” Mishima)

CEREBELLA (SG): 7:6= 1 (Jack Turner)

(ELIMINATED)

KEN “GODHAND” MISHIMA (E): 7:6= 1 (Infinite)

FUZZY LUMPKINS (PPG): 7:6= 1 (Fred Fredburger)

LANDIA (K): 6:7= -1 (Spike)

JACK TURNER (AoF): 6:7= -1

FRED FREDBURGER (TGAoB&M): 6:7= -1

SPIKE (T&J: WotW): 6:7= -1

SIR DANIEL FORTESQUE (PSASBR): 6:7= -1

KITTY KO (SK): 5:8= -3

BERRY SHIRAYUKI (TMM): 5:8= -3

CRUSH (StD): 5:8= -3

ED (SF): 5:8= -3

PATTI MAYONNAISE (DTAAS): 5:8= -3

INFINITE (StH): 4:9= -5

R.O.B. (SSB): 4:9= -5

KUKRI (KOFXV): 3:10= -7

BOYD (TRF): 3:10= -7

DEAN (FF): 2:11= -9

GATO (KOFXV): 1:12= -11

SIDE BATTLES:

”Where’s Your Sense of Humor?”

MIKE WAZOWSKI (KH/MI) disciplines MAC & BLOO (CN: PTE/FHfIF)

11 to 2

TOP 10 ELIMINATIONS: Launchpad McQuack (2), Bowser (2), Elmer Fudd (2), Beaky Buzzard (1), Demyx (1), Cerebella (1), Sulley (1), Numbuh One (1), Bentley (1), Garnet (1)

Strong Start for Cartoons: So far, Elmer and Launchpad have earned two eliminations each, with Garnet, Sulley, Beaky, Numbuh One AND Raph getting one elimination each. Even Fuzzy himself got an elimination, even if he didn’t survive the section. However, that may change considering the first round is Redemption Arc...

Speaking of Redemption Arc: I’m actually surprised to see how many people voted for Numbuh One, considering he didn’t survive his debut section in the last tournament. Maybe with new voters and returning ones, it could mean redemption for some fighters. And I’m looking forward to those possibilities!