Omg another edited chapter!

Differences: Only one character thus far (there are four in total) know who the unknown person is. No one knows about Xalcus.

Anyways, all the chapters after this have been deleted. They will be re-uploaded once I finish editing them. :)

Also, check out my profile if you actually want me to continue this story! Vote for it in the poll at the top of my page. Whichever story gets the most votes I'll set at the top of my priority list. :p

Fun fact: This chapter was twenty pages long on Microsoft Word! Twenty pages is usually the normal amount of pages I'll have per chapter within a story like this. XP

Thirteen people were gathered in an arena. Eleven of them; Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Sonic The Hedgehog, Knuckles The Echidna, Link, Kirby, Kaito Kid, Sora, Roxas, and Natsu; were unconscious. The other two were waiting in the middle of the arena with black hooded cloaks on. One groaned and began to speak in a whiny, feminine voice.

"Geez, did they not get any sleep last night? How much longer will they make us wa-"

"Just shut up, Azure!" said the other voice, cutting her off. This voice also sounded female and spoke in an annoyed tone. Azure was about to argue back but shut up when the fighters began to regain consciousness. While most of the gang began to sit up and groan, Natsu was on his feet with a ticked off look.

"GERARD! WHERE ARE YOU?" He yelled, flames emitting from his body.

Azure's eyes widened and she hid behind her cloaked partner, who muttered, "Your element is water you moron, why are you scared of him?"

"What, you aren't scared of someone who could burn you to a crisp?" she whimpered. A number of people looked at her, confused. The other girl sighed and began to walk away.

"Hey, you can't just leave me here with them! This was YOUR idea!"

The cloaked figure snapped her fingers and a large monitor above the arena turned on. A tournament tree popped up on the screen, the matches listed along the bottom of the screen.

Mario VS. Link
Yoshi VS. Kirby
Sonic VS. Knuckles
Sora VS. Roxas
Azure VS. Natsu
Luigi VS. Kaito Kid

First Match: 10 minutes

Azure's eyes widened at her opponent. "This isn't what we agreed on," she whimpered, the result of the battle already playing through her mind.

"A battle?" Natsu said, obviously getting excited. "So . . . Who's Azure?"

"Not me, that's for sure!" exclaimed Azure with a nervous smile. Her cloaked partner laughed and clapped her hands cheerfully. This was going to be fun . . .

~xxx~

"I don't get it. Why do we have to fight each other?"

The eleven male fighters were gathered in a locker room of sorts. It was rather spacious for a locker room and could easily fit a dozen or so more people. Save for a few whispers from the ones who knew each other, it was rather quiet. Roxas had been the one to speak up, causing everyone to look up at him.

"Who cares?" Natsu says, looking as arrogant as ever, "I need a good fight after what happened back at the guild."

Sora looked towards Natsu, growing curious. "What happened?"

"This guy who tried to kill us before came in and tons of black smoke appeared. I swear, I'm gonna make him pay once I see him again!"

"Black smoke . . . ?" Sonic confirmed, remembering how he'd encountered a black smokey substance before waking up here.

"Yeah. Then I conked out and woke up here."

"Weird . . . That happened to me too," Sonic replied.

"Same here," Sora said, followed by agreeing nods from everyone else except Roxas.

"I didn't encounter any black smoke at all," Roxas said, "I met with one of my friends and I passed out on top of a clock tower . . ."

"Puyo puyo!" Kirby exclaimed, only to receive confused looks. As if on cue, the unnamed cloaked girl walked in and knelt down in front of Kirby. She stuck a small device on his forehead and smiled. As Kirby tried to look at the face under the hood, Kaito Kid walked towards the cloaked figure from the lockers he was leaning against not too long ago. He reached out a hand to pull back the hood when it was slapped away by the girl, who giggled quietly to herself. Resisting the urge to taunt him and reveal her voice, she stood up and walked over to Yoshi and stuck the same device on his neck. She then left the room, Kid swearing under his breath as Kirby tried to look up on the device on his head.

"Puyo . . ." Kirby muttered, causing another voice sounding like his to come out of the device. "Weird . . ." it said, causing Kirby's eyes to widen in shock.

"A translator . . ." Kid assumed, curious to how the girl got such technology.

"Anyways," Mario said, "Would you mind repeating what you said before?"

"Puyo . . . Puyo puyo!" Kirby repeated, which came out as; "Okay . . Well, what that guy said is kind of the same for me. I saw my friend and she told me to follow her. Then she exploded into black stuff."

"This pink marshmallow said all that in two weird sounds?" Natsu questioned, stepping closer to examine the translator, curious as to it actually works.

"Well, my friend didn't explode into darkness or anything . . ." Roxas said, remembering the event that took place before falling.

The door opened up before anyone else could say more and a female teenager walked in. She had long blue hair and blue eyes filled with annoyance. The girl was dressed in casual jeans and a fancy top. When she spoke, the fighters identified the voice as Azure's. "Alright boys, first match," she announced, reading off a sheet of paper, "Mario versus Link. Both of you are to head to the red door and blue doors respectively. If you get lost, check out one of the maps around the stadium, blah blah blah . . . The rest of you can head to the stands if you don't feel like sitting around like a bunch of lazy morons." She crumpled the paper into a ball and tossed it into a nearby trash can. "You have three minutes. Oh, and don't worry about hurting each other. We'll just heal your wounds before the next battle."

"What happened to the cloak?" the blue hedgehog asked, unsure if he should trust this new face.

"That hideous thing?" Azure rolled her eyes. "Sister let me ditch it since she's absolutely positively sure none of you know me. Don't ask, she has issues." The girl left the room before anyone else could respond.

Not having much of a choice, the confused group got up one by one and left for the arena.

~xxx~

"Are you sure about doing this? I mean, fighting is fun to watch n' all but we really have a job to-"

"Azure. Shut it."

Azure and her sister sat in the announcer's booth, the former ready to announce the first battle. She noticed the first two brawlers walking to their places in the arena. Knowing there was no more time to talk; she sighed and turned on the mic.

"Our first match is some plumber and elf boy. Okay, begin the battle, blah blah blah."

Her friend gave her a sour look as the mic was turned off.

x~x

Link unsheathed his sword and dashed at Mario, who jumped over the attack and charged a fireball. Both wanted to get this over with and return home to their normal lives. The red plumber fired the fireball at the hero in green, who was smacked the minute he turned around. Thankful his clothes weren't severely burnt; Link took out a bomb, lit it, and tossed it Mario. The bomb landed right in front of Mario and sent him back a bit. A boomerang came flying through the smoke a second later. As the boomerang whizzed past Mario's head, he got his hammer ready and watched Link's boomerang curve and head back to its thrower. As it passed by him again, he quickly hit the boomerang back to Link, who had no time to dodge. Link was nailed right in the stomach, forcing him to fall back to the edge of the arena. He stood up as the smoke cleared and readied his bow and arrow. Mario got ready to counterattack when a funny looking pig appeared out of thin air in the middle of their duel.

"I believe my friend forgot to say this," said a voice over the loudspeaker, obviously covered with voice filters, "But every match I will add a unique gimmick. These gimmicks can be a stage change to a fun little item or even a particular rule. If you wonder why I do this, it's because I think a normal battle is fairly dull. Anyways, have fun."

The speaker was turned off as more pigs appeared on the stage. Mario shrugged and shot a fireball at the distracted Link, who barely avoided it. Rather, the fireball hit one of the pigs, which went red is anger. It dashed towards its attacker and tried to knock him down. As Mario leaped out of the way, Link took this opportunity to fire an arrow at his opponent. The arrow made its target Mario's hat and flew into the wall. As the pig calmed down, Mario got an idea. As Link fumbled for another arrow while making sure the ill-tempered pig were out of his way, Mario picked up one of the pigs and got his hammer ready. The pig squealed as it was thrown into the air and came in contact with the hammer. Like a ball and a bat, the pig flew towards Link and knocked him out of the arena. The Hylian's head crashed against the wall as a bell sounded, signaling the end of the match.

"That's strike three and Mr. Mario wins the match!" Azure said over the speaker with a smile, her horrid pun making her companion facepalm. The pigs began to disappear as the cloaked woman warped in front of the unconscious Link.

"The next match will be Yoshi versus Kirby. You have ten minutes to prepare or whatever."

The nine others who sat in the stands stood up and gaped at Link's body. The front of his tunic had been burnt from the fireball at the beginning of the match while the back of his head was soaked with the crimson colour of blood. The blood had already made its way down to his neck and continued along his back. The cloaked figure sighed as she put Link in a sitting position and lowered his head. A bright white sphere materialized in the woman's hand and infused with the wound, causing the skin to reform and close the wound. A damp towel appeared in the person's hand and she began to clean up the bloody mess.

Azure warped down and watched as Link seemed to look just as he did before the match.

~xxx~

Ten of the eleven fighters were gathered in the locker room again. Link was supposed to be resting somewhere from what they heard. They had all been silent until Kid decided to speak up.

"Kaito Kid."

Everyone looked at him, confused. "Huh?" each of them said in their own way.

"My name. Or at least, what I shall be known as here." Kaito Kid smirked as he leaned against the lockers. With this, the brawlers realized they hadn't introduced themselves to each other.

Sora was the next to introduce himself. "I'm Sora."

Sonic smirked and said, "I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog. And this knucklehead-" he looked at the red echidna, "-is Knuckles."

As Knuckles gritted his teeth, Mario stood up and spoke. "You may know this from the match but I'm Mario."

"Yoshi!"

"Hiiiiiiii, I'm Kirby!"

"Roxas."

"Luigi!"

"And I'm Natsu!" yelled the fire-breathing teen with a big smile.

As if knowing each others' names made things better, they all started to smile and talk casually to each other. Talking about their pasts, their lost friends, silly moments . . .

T'was if it was a normal day.

Azure found herself walking into a room filled with laughter and joy after the ten minutes. She ahem'd and the room slowly went silent.

"I see all of you are having a good time . . . Anyways, according to Aq- Mrs. Dorkface, it's time for the next match. Elf boy is conscious again so some of you can go fetch him if you wish. Or not, whatever floats your boat. Questions? No? Good. Kirby and Yoshi, please go to the arena ASAP!"

Azure left the room as the green dinosaur and the pink puffball stood up. They looked ready to fight, even if they didn't particularly want to.

"Aren't you supposed to say the separate letters rather than what it would sound like as one word?" Kaito Kid mused, making fun of how Azure said 'aey-sap' rather than 'aey-es-aey-pee'.

Everyone chuckled slightly as they all left for the area, resuming their joyful chatter.

~xxx~

"Our second match of the day shall be a pink marshmallow versus a green dinosaur . . . lizard . . . thing . . ."

"It's a Yoshi."

"Right, a green thing."

The cloaked woman sighed at Azure's ignorance. It was always about her, wasn't it? "Anyways, the gimmick for this match is this," she said, still using the voice filters. She snapped her fingers and two Yoshi-looking eggs appeared on the arena; one in front of each of the fighters. "You mustn't let these eggs break. If your egg breaks, you automatically lose."

Azure rolled her eyes. "Yeah, no one cares. Just begin the damn battle thing."

Both the brawlers picked up the egg in front of them and stood cautiously. They lose if the egg breaks.

Yoshi placed his egg behind him and laid an egg of his own. He whipped the new egg at Kirby, who tossed his egg up in the air, took out his hammer, and hit the fired egg right back at Yoshi. The green dinosaur grabbed his egg and lept towards Kirby's airborne egg, which now seemed defenseless. As if out of nowhere, Kirby jumped up and hit Yoshi with his sword (which came out of nowhere, apparently), forcing him to fall back to the ground and release his egg. As he landed on his back, Yoshi watched his egg hurl towards the wall. Releasing his tongue and stretching it as far as he could, Yoshi grabbed the egg and pulled it back to him. Yoshi swallowed the egg and stood up; laying an egg that contained the egg he swallowed. With this knowledge, an idea formed in Yoshi's head.

Kirby decided to take the risk and ran towards Yoshi, egg in one hand, hammer in the other. Yoshi jumped over the pink puffball and whipped his egg at Kirby's. Unprepared, the eggs made contact. Kirby's egg smashed while only Yoshi's outer egg had broken. The bell sounded as the small crowd cheered.

"Well, wasn't that an eggcellent battle?" Azure snickered, her sister groaning at her attempted pun, "The . . . the green thing is the winner. Yeah . . ."

Yoshi and Kirby shook hands as the other fighters hopped down from the stands to congratulate them - Link included (who seemed to be one hundred percent better). Up in the announcer's booth, Azure couldn't help but notice her friend's smirk, seeming anxious for the next match.

~xxx~

Azure sat in the announcer booth and watched the time tick away slowly. The cloaked woman hadn't left the room this time around and had been strangely silent.

"Um . . . Aq-"

"Shush!" the woman scolded, cutting her off, "He could be listening. He's a sneaky bastard . . ."

"Tch, whatever. Anyways, why are you making them fight like this? I mean, hello, we kinda have a world to save here."

The figure grew silent and pondered about the answer to this question. After what seemed to be forever, she responded with: "Boredom."

Azure gave her a questioning look but didn't respond. Rather, as if reading her mind, the woman said, "I'm also doing a small test for Mel-sama. However, it's hard since not all of them are here . . ."

"There are more of them?"

Amused, Azure's friend smiled. "Yup! Some fellows from the nineteenth century and many friends of the people you see now."

"Alright then . . . What kind of test are we talking about?"

"You'll see~!"

Azure slouched in her chair grimly as her friend got up and left to fetch the next pair of fighters.

~xxx~

"Our next match is a really damn fast blue hedgehog and a red mole that could probably destroy this arena with one punch."

Again with the rudeness! "First, he's an echidna. Second, that's a horrible exaggeration. Third, your makeup is running."

"Firstly, shut up nobody ca- WHAT?"

Azure frantically picked up a small mirror in front of her as the girl beside her snickered. She spoke into the microphone again as Azure frowned at her reflection, seeing nothing wrong. "Anyways, this match's gimmick is a stage change."

Suddenly, the flat stage morphed into a rocky terrain with uneven land and tall rocks towering above the ground. Two more rocks rose beneath Sonic and Knuckles, nearly knocking them over.

"Secondly, nothing is wrong with my makeup! Thirdly, you said the gimmick was-"

The anonymous girl grabbed Azure's mic and tossed it across the booth. "Fourthly, shut up. Begin the fight, please."

The girl turned off the mic as her sister began whining about something irrelevant. She tuned her out and watched the fight below.

x~x

Without a second to waste, Sonic jumped to the rock Knuckles stood on. Knuckles jumped back and off the rock, landing on the ground. As Sonic landed on the rock, Knuckles punched it, causing it to shatter. Sonic jumped onto the ground and ran at Knuckles, who sidestepped out of the way. The echidna raised his fist and ran at Sonic, who walked backwards, moving out of the way every time Knuckles tried to punch him. As the duo approached the edge of the arena, Sonic jumped over Knuckles and got ready to attack him when a scream stopped him in his tracks.

Using this moment of weakness, Knuckles punched Sonic in the stomach as hard as he could, sending him flying towards the wall. The blue hedgehog quickly spun into a ball and crashed into the walls of the arena. With only a few cuts and bruises, Sonic dashed towards the announcer's booth and threw open the door to see the cloaked person holding a knife to Azure's neck. She had a long, deep cut on her arm as well.

"What the hell are you doing?"

The woman smiled under her cloak and spoke, her voice coated with some sort of electronics, "I forgot to mention another gimmick. You can't leave the arena. So don't get yourself distracted." She turned on the mic and calmly said, "Knuckles the Echidna is the winner of the match. Please return to your room and prepare for the next ten minutes."

She watched as Sonic didn't move an inch when the mic was turned off. With a sigh, the woman grabbed Azure's arm and healed it the same way as Link's head. The skin sealed up and looked completely normal.

"See? No harm," she said, dropping the knife. Azure scrambled to the other side of the room, wanting to put as much distance as possible between them.

"Who are you?" Sonic questioned, beginning to distrust this person.

The unknown person smiled and calmly got up to sit in her chair again. "All in good time, my frustrated friend. For now, please accept your defeat and re-"

"You did all this just to make me lose? What is wrong with you? Why are we here anyways?" Sonic looked at Azure for an answer but she just shrugged, forcing him to look back at this psychotic freak.

"You lost by your own mistake. And you shall find out why you're here soon enough." She paused before continuing, "As for what is wrong with me, I'll just say everything is wrong with me. Capeesh? Now please leave, I believe my assistant would like to speak with me."

Sonic hesitated then left for the locker rooms. Who is that person? What was their reason for bring them here?

~xxx~

"And what did you want to talk about?"

"I believe you wished to talk to me."

Azure continued to sit in the corner farthest from her assumed friend. She bit her lip and nearly started yelling at the top of her lungs. "Why the FLIP did you make him lose by threatening me? Why would you do such a thing?"

The anonymous woman smiled and said, "Boredom."

"WHAT?"

"You believed Sonic would win, did you not? I just wanted to give someone else the chance for the spotlight. His speed would be a nuisance to the other fighters. Knuckles relies on his power, making him easier to hit."

Azure stared in disbelief. Was her friend replaced when she wasn't looking? Or was this her darker, more sinister side?

"Azure, can you fetch me a can of Sprite?"

"Do it yourself!"

The woman frowned and spoke in a whiny childish voice, swiveling around in her chair and crossing her arms. "Meanie."

Azure sighed and got up to walk out of the room. Some things never did change. "Fine, I'll get your dumb soda . . ."

"Thank you!" her friend said with a smile, seeming to enjoy being in control of everything happening around her.

~xxx~

"Our next match contains two kids who fight with giant keys. I mean, really, who fights with a key?"

Azure's friend sighed and took a sip from her Sprite. "Azure, would a club be a good weapon?"

Azure blinked, confused. "Isn't a club a suit in the card games?"

"Baka! I mean the weapon that can bash people's heads in!"

"Ohhhh. Yeah, I suppose it's a decent weapon."

"A Keyblade is the same. You can bash people's heads in."

"It's still a dumb weapon," Azure muttered.

The woman sighed and moved the conversation back on topic. "Anyways, today's gimmick shall be familiar to the two fighters here today. I'll let you see for yourself before I explain."

The ground began to shake and the sound of a clock tower rang through the air. Sora and Roxas did their best to keep their balance as the arena began to rise to reveal the clock tower that was so well-known in Twilight Town. The two looked around anxiously, growing slightly nervous. The cloaked woman warped on the very top and began yelling loud enough to be heard by the two Keyblade wielders once the clock tower stopped rising.

"I'm only going to say this once so pay attention. The objective this time around is to not touch the ground floor. If you think the small edge isn't enough room to fight on, then you can take the battle to the skies. You have both been given the power to levitate."

Both Sora and Roxas began to doubt the last part. They had been told about the reason behind the scream after the last match. This woman seemed suspicious.

"In other words, you lose if you are knocked out or you fall back to the ground. You have no boundaries. Of course, you can't go ahead and fly as far away from this place as you possibly can. I'll be here, watching you two fight. You may begin now."

Both fighters summoned their Keyblades and thought to themselves. If this woman was lying about the whole flying thing, someone down there would make sure they wouldn't kill themselves. Besides, they had once been taught how to glide if anything went wrong. They'd just have a battle while slowly descending towards the ground.

Both of them made their decision.

They jumped off the clock tower . . .

. . . and flew up above it.

The woman smiled and looked at the two of them as they flew (or hovered, if you want to get pedantic) above her, Keyblades clashing. They mirrored each other's fighting skills, just as she thought they would. And if her math was right . . .

"Fire!" Sora yelled, as he and Roxas had been knocked back far enough to be out of the Keyblade's range. A ball of fire formed at the end of his Keyblade and shot towards Roxas.

"Blizzard!" Roxas sent out a ball of ice which collided with the fire, creating a small explosion between the two.

Roxas wasted no time to cast his next magic. "Thunder!" Bolts of lightning flew through the sky, a few nearly hitting Sora.

"Aero!" A shield of wind surrounded Sora, causing the lightning to bounce off. "Stop!"

Roxas froze, unable to move at all. Sora quickly flew up to him and hit him with the Keyblade, causing Roxas to start falling. "Cure!" Healing magic came out of the Keyblade and recovered Roxas, who flew back up to where Sora was. The magic and blade battle continued, each of them taking hits. Eventually their Keyblades were locked once more, neither of them showing any sign of giving up. Roxas glanced down at the figure who had been watching from the top of the clock tower this whole time. His eyes widened to see her eating sea-salt ice cream and no longer watching the battle. For a second, the person seemed familiar to him.

"Xion . . ." he mumbled. He returned to reality when his Keyblade went flying from his hands and he was struck in the shoulder, causing him to start falling again. He summoned his Keyblade again and as he winced at the pain, he shouted, "Cure!"

But nothing happened.

"Out of magic already?" The Keyblade wielder's Nobody clenched his teeth and began to fly back up, ignoring the pain in his shoulder and the coldness filling his body. His Keyblade clashed with Sora's once again before he would regain his balance. He had followed him down and intended to make sure he stayed down.

Sora flew up a bit and pointed his Keyblade at Roxas. "Gravity!"

Roxas sucked in air as he felt the life being sucked out of him. He began falling again, suddenly feeling his body go numb. The Keyblade disappeared and he fell towards the ground, his consciousness slowly slipping away. The woman realized this and warped to the bottom of the clock tower, creating a gust of wind to gradually slow Roxas's fall, only releasing her hold on the wind when Roxas had reached the ground. Sora landed next to her, wondering if his friend was okay.

"And what's-his-face soars to the next round, beating his opponent with flying colours!"

The woman began to grow irritated, knowing Azure has no idea how serious this just became. "Azure! Get down here right now!"

The blue haired teen warped beside her friend, seeming displeased. "What, you can't go up there?"

"Baka! This is serious!"

"Let me guess, you thought this kid was gonna win instead of the other? Y'know, you can't always get what you wa-"

"Poison."

Azure gave her a blank stare. "Eh?"

The woman seemed extremely stressed, starting to pace back and forth. "Before the match began. There must've been one on top of the clock tower. I must've let my guard down and didn't notice it."

Azure crossed her arms as her friend stopped and knelt down beside Roxas. "One of what? There are tons of creatures on this planet that can poison humans!"

By this time, everyone had left the crowd and gathered around. "An uncommon creature for the daylight hours. It's a-"

"Vampyre?"

"No, not a vampyre. They roam in the daylight all the time you idiot."

"No they don't! I don't see people that sparkle or anything!"

The cloaked person did a mental facepalm and wished she never let Azure read the Twilight saga. "Vampyres don't sparkle. And they don't poison people. Not in this world at least."

"Liar! They do so sparkle!"

"Azure, have you ever seen me sparkle in the sunlight before?"

"You're only part vampyre, you don't count."

Why me . . . ? "Anyways, enough about stupid vampyres. I'm talking about an Invysible."

"Ohh. Well, he's screwed."

The woman sighed and turned to look at all the fighters gathered around them. "I apologize for the trouble. I'll extend the time between now and the next match to somewhere between thirty minutes and an hour. You may do whatever you please until I call everyone back. And I assure you your friend, Roxas, will be just fine."

Azure began muttering to herself, "Fine my a-"

The woman stomped on Azure's foot, causing her to shut up and start complaining about how her shoes are all dirty now. "Please ignore her; you have my word that he will be okay. I wouldn't want someone to die during a tournament I hosted. It would make me feel horrible."

No one said a word, not knowing if to believe her. All of this seemed so wrong and odd.

The cloaked person, beginning to feel uneasy in the silence, quietly said, "You may all go now."

When no one moved, she opened her mouth to repeat but then a few people turned and left, the rest following behind. She sighed and began to wish she hadn't done any of this in the first place.

~xxx~

Roxas had been put on a bed, lying on his stomach. He was still unconscious and his shirt had been taken off. On his back was a large, deep wound which still had blood slowly gushing out of it. The wound looked like it was made by a claw done in a hurry; wide and jagged. The blood looked red-purple, much to the woman's dismay.

No doubt, he was poisoned.

The woman stood beside Roxas's bed, still pondering over what to do. Azure opened the door and walked in, closing it behind her. She walked up to the woman and yanked the hood off.

"Azure! What do y-"

"Calm yourself," Azure said, leaning against the wall, "No one's around, I checked. And this kid ain't getting up anytime soon. Besides, it made me feel like I was talking to some crazy psychopath murderer when you looked like that."

"Fine," the woman sighed, not wanting to argue, "Just for now, however."

"Of course," Azure replied, looking at her friend's face. She never understood how she was this girl's clone. She had pretty blue eyes, blond hair . . . Everyone said they looked so similar but she never saw it.

The two teens went silent, both of their minds thinking about completely different things. Eventually, the blondie sighed and mumbled something that was incomprehensible to Azure.

"Um . . . Can you repeat that . . ?"

"Roxas . . . I'm going to help him . . ."

"What, you can make antidotes for deathly poisons now?"

The woman stared at Roxas's wound. "Of course not. I'm not like Melody, memorizing the contents of a six thousand paged potion book within five seconds. I can only transfer the poison to another person . . ."

"Idiot! You'll die if you do that!"

The woman's hand hovered about a foot over Roxas's wound as a thin line of light connected the two. She looked at Azure and smiled. "If that happens, you'll take leadership and save our wonderful planet, correct?"

Before Azure could reply with something rude or sappy, her friend sucked in air in pain as the poison from the wound flowed on the string and into an opening wound on the hand. Azure grabbed her shoulders so she could stay balanced.

"Holy sh-! . . ." she muttered under her breath, beginning to feel pain, followed by numbness. Bits of blood started spewing from her mouth, forcing her to cover it with her free hand. The small string of light broke as the teen stumbled back, unable to keep her balance anymore.

"Oh god . . ." Azure muttered, noticing her friend's body was going cold. She put her friend's hood up and propped her up against the wall. "I-I'm gonna find someone, okay?"

The woman didn't respond and started coughing. Azure stood up and headed for the door. She opened it just to have it bonk into Sora's head, who muttered a small "ow".

"I'm sorry! She . . . Look, can you just go find someone to help?"

Sora peeked over Azure's shoulder to see a blond girl with a black cloak coughing up mouthfuls of reddish-purple blood. He also looked at Roxas before responding. "Um, okay, I'll try . . ." He turned and ran down the hallways, questions rising in his head. How did that weird mystery chick, who was barfing up weird coloured blood, get in a worse condition than Roxas, who seemed perfectly normal?

~xxx~

It had been fifteen minutes since everyone was alerted about the woman's condition. No one knew the details, however, only that her blood contained poison as well. Another bed had been set up in the room Roxas had been sleeping in. He was still unconscious but his torso area had been bandaged. Beside him was the other bed that the woman was laying in. Her skin had gone a ghostly white, her veins visible through her skin. Azure stood at her side, more worried about her condition than Roxas's. The door began to creak open and was shut again when a woman about the same age as the other two walked in. Her hair was long and burgundy and her eyes were green with a bored, emotionless look in them. She wore black jeans and a fancy white t-shirt that seemed to blend with her slightly pale skin.

Azure turned to look at the visitor. "Melody . . ."

"You should've told me about this tournament." Her voice seemed as dead as her eyes.

"Sister didn't want you to "ruin her fun"," Azure said as Melody walked over, inspecting the cloaked person's body. "Besides, didn't you know from her thought process?"

"Azure, please remove her cloak," the emotionless woman said, ignoring her question, "The wound has opened up on her back, like the boy's did."

"B-But what if . . . ?" she began, looking over at Roxas who appeared to be sleeping rather than knocked unconscious by a deadly poison.

"It'll be fine," Melody answered, more concerned about the girl's health. Azure hesitated then snapped her fingers, making the cloak vanish and leaving the woman in her normal clothing. A vial materialized in Melody's hand, containing a white substance. Azure resisted to poke fun at the colour and listened to what her friend had to say.

"The antidote will take effect ten minutes after she drinks it. You'll know it works because she'll cough up all the poison.

"And because you are a genius."

Melody cracked a small smile that faded just as fast as it was made. "That too."

Coughing and groaning could be heard from Roxas as he began to stir. Azure's eyes widened, thinking he wouldn't wake up.

"Melody, you said-"

"I said "it'll be fine" not "he won't wake up"," Melody said, now looking at Roxas who struggled to sit up.

"What happened . . ?" he mumbled and looked over at the bed beside him. He gave a confused look and rubbed his eyes.

"You were poisoned," Melody answered, "Her highness saved your life at the cost of her own."

Her highness? He glanced down at the bandage around his stomach. Everything was just so confusing to him.

Why were he and everyone else here? What was the purpose of all of this?

Melody sighed as she answered Roxas's thoughts, "The reason you and the others are gathered here will be revealed after this tournament. The purpose of this tournament is mostly boredom on her behalf . . ." She glanced at the unconscious girl before continuing, "However, this is also a sort of test. That will also become clearer within the future."

The Nobody blinked, feeling even more confused. A test? Was it something to see who's the strongest?

The apathetic teenager sat the woman's body up against the wall and forced her to drink the antidote, only laying her back down when all of the liquid was consumed.

"Azure, you will take good care of our protector, correct?

"Eh? You're leaving already?"

Melody spoke as she began walking towards the door, "Yes. I can't entrust the children with the boys. I fear for Kassandra as well."

Melody opened the door and turned towards the trio once more. "I shall see you tomorrow, if everything goes according to plan. Good-bye Lady Azure. Roxas." She bowed slightly before leaving the room, closing the door behind her.

Roxas lied back down, nothing making sense in his mind. Firstly, why were he and the others here? Second, who was that girl and how did she know his name?

~xxx~

"And our next match is-"

"NO NO, I FORFEIT THE MATCH, OKAY?"

"Tch. Wimp," the unknown woman (who was wearing her cloak once again) muttered as she dragged Azure to the arena. It had been half an hour since the girl was given the antidote. She had coughed up all the poison and was unaware of Melody's visit. As for Roxas, he felt fine enough to watch the fights from the stands again.

Natsu was waiting with a big smile on his face, seeming ready to fight.

"Yeah, I'm a wimp! Now let me give up!" Azure whined, struggling to get away.

The small crowd started to laugh as Azure continued her attempts to flee from the arena. She glared in their general direction, a massive wave of water appearing from nowhere, ready to crash down on the fighters. Sonic was the only one to escape getting completely drenched.

Azure started laughing uncontrollably. Her sister smirked behind her.

"See? You'll be just fine in this match."

"Wha-? No! I forfeit! Mr. Scary-fire-guy wins!" Azure said, her laugh taking on a nervous tone.

Her friend sighed and raised her voice. "Fine then. Natsu is the winner by forfeit."

"Aww," the pink haired Dragon Slayer groaned, "I was looking forward to some action . . ."

"Don't worry. Your next match shall be a blast, I promise. Since we have time, Luigi will face Kaito Kid for now."

The two jumped down from the crowd, dripping wet, and took their places in the arena as Natsu went to take a seat. The two waited to hear about the gimmick for the match.

The woman warped up to the announcer's booth and turned on the mic. "Since one of our contestants is the one of the greatest magicians on Earth, therefore, making this interesting, the rules will be normal. Go ahead and start."

Kaito Kid smirked. "Good. I didn't want to follow any quirky rules anyways." As Luigi took out his hammer (how does that fit in his pocket . . ?) and ran towards Kid, smoke was released, the magician completely hidden from view. Luigi trusted his instinct and ran into the smoke and swung his hammer wildly in attempt to hit his opponent.

SQUEAK!

The smoke cleared and Luigi saw that he had hit an inflatable balloon shaped like Kaito Kid. The balloon popped and Luigi's hat suddenly flew off his head, pinned against the wall with a card. The plumber spun around to see Kid holding a gun in his hand. He fired again, another card flying out. Luigi jumped over the card and ran at Kid again, a ball of lightning forming in his hand. He shot the ball of lightning and hit Kid right in the chest, who shook a bit from the shock. With no time to waste, Luigi jumped up and hit Kaito Kid in the head with his hammer, who fell over in a daze.

"And the winner is-!"

"Quiet you! He's not out yet!"

"The lovely mysterious announcer is right," Kaito Kid groaned, standing back up. He looked at Luigi, who was now holding a vacuum (don't ask), the Poltergust 3000! "Hah! What's a vacuum cleaner gonna do-"

Suddenly, a fireball shot out of the vacuum, forcing Kid to duck down. He yelped a bit when he noticed a small flame on his hat, but was unable to do anything about it since more fire was coming out of the vacuum, forcing him to get up and run around the arena. Luigi stopped spraying fire and shot ice out of the vacuum beneath Kid's feet, causing him to slip and fall. As Kaito Kid sat up, a ball of water hit him in the face.

"Whoops, wrong element," Luigi mumbled, attempting to switch it back to fire. Before he could do anything more, Kaito Kid took out his gun and shot a card at the Poltergust 3000, causing it to spark and malfunction, slightly jolting Luigi. Smoke suddenly appeared, concealing Kaito Kid once more. Once it cleared, all that seemed to be left was Kid's hat, cape, gloves, and a smiling mask where the face would be, all floating in the air. Luigi screamed and ran off of the arena, towards the exit. More smoke was released and Kid reappeared, completely whole.

"Works every time," he muttered with a smirk.

"And the winner is Kaito Kid-kun, the Phantom Thief!" the anonymous woman cheered.

Azure started counting down, "Three . . . two . . . one . . . aand . . . !"

THWACK!

"I believe Luigi found the exit," she mused. Of course, there were invisible walls in front of all the entrances and exits from the outside of the arena. A few people in the crowd chuckled as they cheered for the winner. They hopped down from the crowd and waited for their next instructions, knowing this was the end of the first round. The large monitors over the arena turned on and the next matches were shown.

Natsu VS. Mario
Kaito Kid VS. Knuckles
Sora VS. Yoshi

Next Match: 15 Hours, 31 Minutes

The woman began speaking, starting to sound anxious as she continued, "As you can all see, the next round starts tomorrow at noon. Yes, don't let the sky fool you, it's actually past eight o'clock at night, as bright as it may seem. So you can do whatever you like until then."

Some of the fighters looked at the sky as she spoke. The sky was orange, as if the sun was just setting. Was it really eight at night?

They decided to not think about it much and left to go do whatever they pleased until the first round started.

~xxx~

Kaito Kid wandered through a corridor within the arena. His head still hurt, his hat was slightly scorched, and his chest hurt from that ball of lightning. I mean, where does a plumber learn to use lightning?

The magician stopped walking and looked around. Great, now he was lost. I mean, all these halls looked the same! With a sigh, he began opening doors to see if he could either find a familiar room or person to guide him. A few doors later, he opened a room that looked like a normal bedroom. Sitting on the bed was the cloaked girl, playing a Nintendo DS.

Dying music could be heard from the DS as she started muttering in her normal voice, "Ahh, you motherfu . . ." She noticed Kid's presence and shut up, realizing her mistake. Kaito Kid looked at her curiously, trying to remember where he had heard that voice before. The sound of the portable device being closed and the filtered voice brought him out of his thoughts as the woman stood up and looked at him, the cloak's hood shadowing her face.

"Do you need something?"

"Um . . ." Kaito Kid mumbled, trying to think of an excuse. "I think my head still hurts a bit. I figured I would look for you or that other girl . . ."

She sighed and walked over to him, a small vial of aqua coloured liquid appearing in her hands. "Drink this and the pain should go away."

Kid hesitated then took the vial, drinking it all in one gulp. The pain in both his head and chest slowly began to fade away. Then, to his surprise, she took his hat and looked at the small burnt spot, which made a bit of a hole.

"H-Hey, give that-"

"Relax; there are probably many people on Earth that would have a similar appearance as you, Kaito Kid-kun. Besides, your identity doesn't really concern me. Some things are better a secret, anyways. It adds to the suspense and mystery, wouldn't you agree?"

As she spoke, the burn mark faded away and the hole sewed itself back up, as if by magic. "I guess . . ." Kid muttered as the woman placed the hat back on his head. She then put her index finger over a burn mark on Kaito Kid's chest.

"The lightning appeared to burn your clothing as well . . ." she mumbled as the burn disappeared just as the one on his hat did. Realizing me might not get another chance; Kid grabbed the girl's hand and kissed it.

"My lady, you are much to kind," he said. With a poof of smoke, a rose appeared in his hand and he offered it to the woman, who took it silently. "A small gift to show my gratitude." Once she took it, Kid raised his hand and intended to push back the woman's hood to reveal her face. The woman didn't react at all and just stared at the rose.

Kid hesitated then lowered his hand. "Surely, if I knew who you were, it would ruin this puzzling mystery. Besides, you are planning to tell us once all this is over, correct?"

The woman nodded slowly, seeming to be mesmerized by the flower.

Kid smiled, took a step back, and bowed. "And now I shall be off. Good-bye, m'lady." He walked out of the room, leaving the woman alone. A few seconds later, he poked his head back in and began to ask: "Um . . . Where is the-"

"Continue going right until you reach a junction in the hallway. Turn left and the third door on the left of that hall is the locker rooms. There are rooms for all of you connected to that room."

"Thank you!" Kid grinned and left once more in the direction she said, remembering the familiar blue eyes he got a glimpse of from under the hood.

The woman sighed and stuck the rose in a vase. She picked up the DS and looked at the screen, which read "GAME OVER".

The woman made a sour face and spoke in her normal voice, "Whaat? That's not fair, I wasn't even playing! Dumb GBA games . . ." She growled a bit and retried the level in peace, hoping no one else walks in on her.

"okay. . . but you better finish the story! or i'll kill you with the help of my kudan! (which of course you have no idea what it is _ )"

"Yeah, I'll finish it. In like, five years from now. XD
Let's be logical but using math. One WWC chapter is like, the size of three TTT chapters. It takes one month minimum to release a new TTT chapter.
Therefore: One WWC chapter would take about three months to make. The story will have sixteen chapter in total (including the prologue and epilogue). 3 X 16 = 48. So it would take forty eight months to complete this story following my logic. That's four years.
Now, since four and a half chapters have been completely, that's about thirteen months and a half. 48 - 13.5 = 34.5.
Therefore, the story will be complete in a little less than three years. :)"

Azure: Wow fail-nerd.

Shut up. Yeah, this is a conversation me and Zanudikkotik had not more than twenty minutes ago. I honestly think I won't finish this story until I'm out of high school (four years from now). XD Also, for your amusement, we have a number of characters in this story to speak at the footers and headers of each chapter. These people include the Xalcian cast, six other original characters (based on my friends), Kirby, Natsu, Kaito Kid, and Sonic.

Kirby: Puyo!

Azure: Really? First you MAKE this piece of crap, then you actually REVIVE it, and now you're forcing me to actually be a PART OF IT? Screw this I'm leaving.

I'll let you date a super awesome hott guy who is totally into you.

Azure: TUNE IN NEXT TIME FOR THE REST OF THE SUPER AWESOME TOURNAMENT AND A GLIMPSE AT THE VILLAINS BEHIND THIS MAGNIFICENT PLOT!

Yup! Baiiz~!