Alright, so here's the final 'Behind the Scenes' chapter. Enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I only own Death by Chocolate and the contents of this story. I do not own any of the other characters within.

A Winner is You! Behind the Scenes

Chapter 3

"Alright, hold it right there!" Axel yelled, throwing his chakram. It struck the large crack separating the large column from the ceiling and rolled down the line, fusing the structure back together and leaving a glowing orange line. The chakram then circled around back for him to catch, and he twirled it in his finger. "You spin me right round baby right round," he softly sang as Mewtwo levitated another broken pillar into place. "Like a record baby right round right round."

"Ugh…" the cat Pokemon replied. "Hate that song. Dance ruined techno music." He pointed to a scorched palm tree, and muttered, "Growth. Natural Cure." The bark instantly began to heal on the tree, and the leaves began to multiply and regain their lush greenness.

"Are you crazy?!" Axel asked, burning away some debris he judged to be beyond the point of saving. "Dance music rocks! It's the best thing since Beethoven!"

"Beethoven's over-hyped! Mozart is the king of classical!"

"Oh no you didn't!" Axel replied angrily, approaching Mewtwo with his chakram still in hand.

"'Ello, gentlemen. Enjoying your evenin'?" A dark figure landed between the two, a sword held menacingly in each hand. Mewtwo levitated a park bench to use as a weapon, until he recognized the speaker.

"Deadpool? What the hell are you doing out at this time of night? There's a curfew, you know."

"The current author said that since this literary form doesn't support yellow word balloons, I could instead have all boldface text and occasionally speak in sentences where every alternate word begins with the same letter. Thought I'd try it tonight. Are your eyes bleeding yet?"

Mewtwo ignored a strong desire to roll around on the floor, frothing at the mouth, and curl up in the fetal position for a year. "What else?"

"Ima gonna spy on Deathy McCocoa; figure out who my last round opponent will be. I'll settle your debate if you'll let me pass?"

"What do you think, Mewtwo? I'd say he's as impartial as anybody," Axel said, stretching casually.

"Yes, he's impartial in the same way that a paint huffer is impartial. But fine… let's HEAR your BRILLIANT and IMPARTIAL opinion."

"Baroque music is better than classical music… and you're both ugly and boring. See ya." Deadpool teleported away.

"Well, that was predictable." The psychic cat Pokemon sighed and gave Axel a sidelong glance. "Should we go find him?"

"We could…" Axel chuckled. "Or we could finish up with this cleanup and then pretend that whole conversation never happened. And I'll buy you some catnip."

Mewtwo was silent for a while, simply working his near-limitless psychic powers to restore the cracked plaster around them. Then, "Make it a martini instead."

--

Death By Chocolate sighed, stacking the fallen I-beam with the others. He had simply run out of favors to call in, and tonight even he had to do some of the grunt work in mall reconstruction. Magneto was repairing the monorail, theme park, and surrounding areas, since those had the most metal; Axel and Mewtwo were working the outer 'spokes' of the mall. Kirei and the pointy-haired boss had turned in for the night, and most of the minor demons Death had summoned had to be sent to repair the space needle (why did they even have towers? Sure, they looked stupid on a wheel-shaped mall. But despite the designers' protests, the board of directors insisted on having everything together in this one giant building). Consequentially, Death by Chocolate was working alone for the moment.

"Let's see… how can I write some of this off?" he said aloud to himself, really just passing the time. "Can I classify Roku as a force of nature? Or Kyuubi? Or even Marluxia? Does 'acts of God' cover Wolfwood? The mall has mad science insurance… that covers Vexen, but how much of the damage dealt by the Experiments does it cover? Vincent brought an airship through the roof last round… can I charge him for that?"

As he clambered over a large fountain, sealing holes in it with chocolate, he snarled. Vincent's last battle had ended with Solid Snake being crippled, and having to withdraw from the tournament. He'd need to pay for a double leg transplant for Snake (he'd been assured that where Snake came from, not only was a double leg transplant possible, but his dead brother Liquid had two perfectly serviceable legs just lying around, waiting to be grafted on). Not only was this expensive for the tournament, but it left them with an odd number of contestants for the final round.

"Great, just great." Death looked at the head of the fountain's statue, which had fallen off. Chocolate wouldn't be enough to glue it back together. Death picked up the head, uttered a short incantation, and slid his finger along the broken surfaces. His finger left a thin trail of caramel, which acted as a powerful adhesive when he stuck the head back on. He'd had to act in secret earlier that night, taking drastic measures to 'remove' another contestant so that there wouldn't be a bye in the last round.

"Well, tomorrow will be better." Death leapt lightly off the statue, his work done for the night. Some Heartless would be coming to finish repairing the damage.

"Not so fast, Death by Chocolate! Ooh, that's got a really nice ring to it…"

"You." DbC didn't turn around so much as his face inverted itself and poked out the back of his head. "What are you doing up so late? You need your sleep, or Sylar will tear you asunder tomorrow."

"Ha! I already have a Sunder! It weighs 85 tons and I've decked it out in Clan weaponry! …Wait, don't act like nothing's up! I know your brilliant plan and stuff!"

"Oh, really? What am I planning?"

"…Alright, I don't know."

"If you're that curious, right now my schemes are centered around staying alive. I don't think it's really that evil of me, so if you could just scuttle off to wherever you've been sleeping, that'd be great, thanks."

"You may be able to fool a sane person, but you can't fool me! I saw what you did to Scorpion!"

This was enough to rate DbC's full attention, and he turned around entirely. "Did you now?"

"Yeah! And I'm going to prove it to the readers… with this flashback…"

Deadpool brand flashbacks -- Deadpool brand flashbacks

"Wee… all the blood's rushing to my head." The Mad Merc hung from a high chandelier by nails driven into his feet, where Wolverine had suspended him as revenge for making him surrender the previous round. Wolvie had also taken his teleportation device and glued it to a different part of the chandelier, just out of 'Pool's reach. "I wonder if I can make my blood leak out my mask without impaling himself…myself? I'm not even sure anymore." He looked down at Scorpion, who had chosen for some reason to spend the night meditating right under him (maybe that's where the Murder Feng Shui was best?), and considered bothering him for the hundredth time. It was then that he saw the demon.

Death by Chocolate had quietly entered the vicinity of the chandelier and Scorpion's meditation spot, a spot which usually displayed a new model of luxury Sedan (which had been wrecked by a Metal Gear earlier on, and hadn't yet been replaced). If you looked at the delicious dastard in the eye after he stopped walking, he would have looked completely still. However, Deadpool's elevated point of view allowed him to see what was really going on: chocolate was spreading out from Death's feet, flattening itself to the floor, surrounding Scorpion in a complicated system of concentric circles, runes, and pentagrams. Scorpion, white eyes closed, appeared unaware this was happening – that is, until he said, "Why are you doing this?"

"Well…" Death said as the brown designs began to glow. He finally shrugged. "I'm banishing you."

"I know that," the hellspawn snapped, his eyes flicking open to glare. "I asked why. You know you're sentencing my return to hell, don't you? Destroying my dreams?"

"I know all about that. Trust me, my only dream in life is to stay out of hell myself. But I'm afraid I have to send you back. There are an odd number of contestants. My employers wouldn't tolerate a pass for the last match, but neither do they allow me to touch a single hair on the heads of the contestants. And I'm no good at coercion, you see, which leads me to you. Nobody will miss you, Scorpion. You're a tremendous letdown. All that power, and you've lost again and again. You've even let Sylar take your abilities. And most importantly, you're a contestant I can get rid of without touching."

"But can you get rid of me without me touching you?" Scorpion leapt to his feet, and his whole body tensed, but nothing happened. "What?!"

"It's an oblivion banishment ring. You can't teleport out of it," the demon explained. The glow of the chocolate had reached a fever pitch. "Scorpion, on my authority as a patron demon, you are-"

"RAH!" Scorpion threw a fireball at Death by Chocolate.

"…banished." The hellspawn and fireball both disappeared as if they had been just a dream. Death blinked, and the chocolate ceased glowing and seeped into the cracks beneath the floor tiles, disappearing from sight. "That poor bastard." He turned. "Oh well, more cleaning to do."

Deadpool brand flashbacks -- Deadpool brand flashbacks

"And THAT, dear Watson, is exactly how it happened."

"That's not true. I didn't blink."

"You're splitting hairs – or skulls, or whatever it is demons split. I know you're up to more than just trying to survive that holocaust fox! So what is it?"

"Do you really want to know? It's so devious, it could drive you sane."

"YES! Explain to me your Xanatos Gambit!"

Death gave a small smile. "Ha! Little do you know it's actually a Xanatos Roulette… and you're the Xanatos Sucker!"

"BIG NO! I'm going to be your Xanatos Gilligan!"

"You hope to create a Thirty Xanatos Pileup? Don't make me laugh! At best, you're a Psycho For Hire, and not even the most Ax Crazy one here! You know all too well I can have you Put On A Bus, or even Killed Off For Real if you're not careful, because I'm a Devil In Plain Sight and a Magnificent Bastard! Evil will triumph tomorrow because Good Is Dumb!"

"But not the Ultimate Evil."

"No, I'm just the Big Bad. If you're also after resealing that Evil In A Can, then I think we can work out an Enemy Mine situation."

"Ha! Yeah, right!" Deadpool turned to leave, walking away cockily. "Don't underestimate me, Forces Of Hell! I'm an Ensemble Darkhorse with No Fourth Wall, infinite Hammerspace, a Bottomless Magazine, and Katanas Are Just Better! I Am Not Making This Up!" He continued ranting until well out of Death's earshot.

"Well, that was interesting," the demon muttered. "At least it distracted him from actually asking what my evil plan was."

--

"Contestants, friends and family of contestants, honored audience members!" the pointy-haired man yelled into the microphone. The cheering in response was deafening in an indoors environment, even in one as expansive as the central hub of the mall. He grinned up at the crowd that packed six wide, circular balconies and most of the first floor. He was getting good at this. "Our most gracious host has a few words for you before we begin the tournament's final round!"

As Death walked up towards the raised platform, flanked by Mewtwo and Kirei, he whispered to Mewtwo, "When you first came to me, you thought nobody in this tournament was an opponent worth your attention. Do you still feel that way?"

Mewtwo didn't need any time at all to think. "No. I'd be very glad to have a match with either of this tournament's finalists."

Death took a slurp from his drink (a can of 'Shockolate'). "Perfect. Here's your last job: Whether Kyuubi wins or loses the final match, he'll probably end up out for chocolate, if you know what I mean. If he wins, I at least have to hear him out for his wish, but either way, your job is to engage him instead. Got it?"

"Sounds entertaining."

"This is a tournament. Everything's entertaining." Kirei said, as he and Mewtwo stopped, allowing Death up onto the podium alone. "For example, what's about to happen."

Death smiled as he took the stage. Kyuubi continued to be undefeated, and that had exactly one upside – it had finally convinced the mall's board of directors to declare a state of emergency on the tournament. That gave Death by Chocolate more control, including the ability to make a very interesting rules change. "Good morning, El Centro Del Mundo, and all of you people watching this at home right now! Are you ready for the last round, and the greatest fights yet?!" Even louder cheering. Kirei had to stop himself from reflexively clamping his hands to his ears.

"THAT'S FUCKING AWESOME!" Death continued in response to the cheers. "But first, I've got a bit of a rules change to announce! For the final round, the rule against killing your opponent… WILL BE LIFTED!" The cheering was the loudest yet. It actually largely died out in the contestants' part of the audience on the ground floor (although Sylar, 627 and some others cheered louder than ever, Kyuubi and Orochimaru smiled darkly, and Deadpool roared his approval while hoisting a poster reading 'BAN THE BOMB').

No, the cheering mostly came from the audience, and this brought a still bigger grin to DbC's chocoriffic face. These people couldn't care less about the contestants. They just wanted to see blood. It was the evil in human hearts that allowed demons to exist, and it nearly brought tears to the demon's yellow eyes to see that evil was alive and well.

The cheering began to die down, but Death wasn't ready to relinquish it just yet. "YEAH!" he screamed, one hand forming into a blade. "THREE CHEERS FOR KILLING!" He spun his clueless, pointy-haired assistant around, and before the man could say 'not in the budget', Death by Chocolate had impaled him through the chest, heart, and spine, as well as reopened the wounds inflicted by Daken. The manager went limp, and Death casually dropped him. "THREE CHEERS FOR KILLING!" he repeated, and as the manager watched the world grow dark, Death got them.

Hip hip hooray.

End of Chapter

Yeah. I went there. Character death. By the way, catch any references you can; that's what they're in there for. Almost all the references are made by either Death by Chocolate or Deadpool (in fact, I think they all are). And for those of you competing, have a great final round, and keep your eye out for a new thread!