Greetings, readers and writers of the Multiverse!
School's out for me, so this story's uploading of chapters is going to get sped up as I have more free time...and I'm sure you guys do, too. ;)
So...here's the next chapter!
Chapter 10
Maria woke up with a jump when she heard a loud bullhorn resound from the monitor. She quickly scrambled out of the bed when a voice started speaking, the words appearing as subtitles on the monitor.
"Good morning! As Chaos told you the night before, the racing tournament will be continued over the next few days. Be prepared, as the tracks will become tougher and you may find it harder to fight for your place. Good luck!"
Maria crossed her arms over her chest as she looked at the monitor, then shook her head. "They must be trying different ways to get people up," she noted with some annoyance.
After doing a quick systems check to make sure that she didn't need any new parts, the Reploid stepped onto the warp panel and into the dining hall.
The dining hall already had a lot of the contestants sitting in their seats, looking a little worse for the wear.
"Bullhorn wake you up, too?" Maria asked, sitting down next to Cap.
He shook his head. "A morning medley. Of trumpets." The Avenger took a drink from a mug that the Reploid suspected was full of coffee.
"I think I'd take that over Primal Dialga's roar any day," Pika piped up from Thor's shoulder. "It gave me chills." The Electric-Type shuddered.
Maria shuddered, as well, thinking back to when she had been a Vulpix and she had faced down Primal Dialga on top of Temporal Tower. "Seriously? How did they even get a recording of that?"
"I don't know, but I don't want to find out."
"How is the roar of a creature terrifying?" Thor inquired.
"When Dialga went Primal, he became twisted," Maria explained quietly. "Time was going out of control thanks to a Pokemon called Darkrai, a creature that wanted a world of darkness. Since Dialga can control time, or is directly attached to it, he went crazy. Pika and I managed to face him down, but I think his cry haunted my dreams for a couple weeks afterward."
Thor frowned. "How can it haunt you? You are not the type to so easily be terrified by something you have beaten."
"There are a lot of things you don't know about me, Thor. Sometimes, even what is over and done with can still haunt you."
Maria made it a point to promptly stuff her mouth with an omelette in order to keep from saying anything further - it also acted as a way to say that the specific subject they had been talking about was definitely over.
"You'd think that they would have left us as is, like they did at the beginning of this whole thing," Lea grumbled into his scrambled eggs. "And I'm not even part of it anymore."
"You're sticking around," the light purple echidna next to him spoke up. "That's good enough for them!"
"Agreed," Maria said with a nod and a slight smile. "What got you up?"
"You don't want to know," Lea and Julie-Su responded together. Then they looked at each other with dumbfounded expressions.
Maria chuckled quietly to herself when she saw the looks on their faces. "Something tells me you two have more in common than on the surface."
"I dunno," Julie-Su replied. "I think he's more of a Beryl."
"What?" Lea gave her a curious look.
"Not what; who. He's another echidna."
"Who was trapped in an alternate dimension for almost five hundred years," Maria muttered under her breath, smirking.
Lea shot her a look of surprise. "Five hundred?!"
"Long story," Julie-Su replied dryly.
"It is time," Chaos suddenly spoke. Maria caught sight of him floating above the table. "Prepare for what lies ahead, all of you, for you will be going through two races today."
Maria was one of the first ones out of her chair and going for the door.
The new track that the Reploid found herself on had giant red and white mushrooms on either side of the track. Most of the cars that were there looked like they had been taken from a go-kart ride.
Maria made a beeline for the familiar red and orange car that sat at the starting line, then jumped into the front seat without even opening the door.
"I'm ready to rock and roll," she announced loudly, grinning.
The engine revved in response, and Maria let out a laugh.
"I wouldn't be so excited, if-a I were you," spoke another voice.
The Reploid turned to look to her right, catching sight of a green go-kart, with a familiar green-themed Italian sitting in it.
"Oh?" Maria gave Luigi a curious look. "What makes you say that?"
"This is the-a toughest track that we'v-a got." Luigi looked nervous at the thought. "Rainbow Road."
Omachao appeared again, holding the extra-large checkered flag.
"Three!... Two!... One!... GO!"
Time Break
Maria stomped into the dining hall, a frustrated look on her face. "I will never look at the Mushroom Kingdom the same way again!" she declared. "And especially not anything named 'Rainbow Road'. I'm lucky to have made it onto the next challenge at all."
From somewhere nearby, Sonic let out a chuckle. "Ran you for a loop, didn't they?"
"You have no idea," Maria replied, looking over at the hedgehog. The Mobian was standing next to a bird colored in two different shades of brown with a bright crest on top of its head. "Hey, Paul. How are things going for you?"
"Fine," the bird Pokemon replied. "I haven't been able to see any action, though." He looked over at Sonic. "Sonic thinks we're going to have a Pokemon battle tournament, though."
The hedgehog nodded. "They've done the Mystery Dungeon already. It would make sense that a battle would be next after this."
Maria shrugged. "You never know." She heard footsteps, and turned her head, catching sight of Cap coming out of the doors with another group. "How did your race go?"
"It was...strange," Cap managed. "But I also want to go back and make sure that every last one of the aliens I saw on the track were gone."
"Aliens?" Sonic blinked. "What do you mean?"
"These giant blackish creatures kept sabotaging the track," Cap explained. "We were up on some sort of satellite. Shadow probably would have beaten all of us if it hadn't been for a large alien. He picked up a Smash Ball, turned a silvery-gold color, and promptly tried to destroy it."
Your racetrack was a satellite?" Maria repeated. She frowned. "And aliens that got Shadow's attention..." Her eyes widened, then she shook her head. "I wouldn't worry about it. Shadow probably clobbered those things a long time ago."
"I did." The black hedgehog walked past them as he spoke, then continued on without another word.
Cap watched Shadow go by, then looked back at Maria. "Mobian thing?"
"Let's just say that the Black Arms would have done nasty things if Shadow hadn't stepped in and saved his world," Sonic spoke up gravely.
"But I don't remember you telling me about that happening," Maria remarked, frowning.
"It happened after we got out of the Twilight Zone," the hedgehog explained. "Eggman had made an alliance with them and Shadow ended up playing a big part in taking them out."
"Well, so long as they aren't going to cause us trouble." Cap looked over at Sonic for a moment. "It's amazing that you kids are the only thing standing between peace and destruction in your world. Did your parents -"
"Our parents got kidnapped early in the war," Sonic interrupted. "My dad was the first one to go."
"There was another Freedom Fighter group, but they disappeared early on," Maria added. "Sonic and his friends took over as Freedom Fighters themselves when they were five years old and have been a dangerous force to mess with ever since."
Sonic offered a grin. "Yup! It was actually pretty easy."
"Well, then I commend you for stepping up," Cap stated with a nod.
Sonic's grin got wider, and he gave Cap a thumbs-up gesture. "Thanks!" He then looked over at Paul. "Come on - I've gotta introduce ya to Flash next!"
"Flash?" Paul asked, curious.
But Sonic was already moving to the other side of the hall, so the hedgehog didn't hear what his Pokemon had said. The Pidgeot let out a sigh, shook his head, then took off and followed after his Trainer.
"And you said he was born with that ability?" Cap asked, looking over at Maria.
The Reploid gave a nod. "Yeah. And I don't think anyone has any idea as to why that happened." She scanned the room again, trying to find a familiar face that might add another element to the conversation. "Even I don't know."
"Does that mean the kid's a mutant?"
Maria turned her head, catching sight of Logan walking over with his usual gruff expression, and also wearing a leather jacket, black shirt, and jeans.
Maria shrugged. "Maybe. But they don't have super-powered humans on his planet, so it hasn't really come to anyone's attention."
Logan grunted. "It will. Count on it."
Bongggg!
Maria turned sharply when she heard the deep bell tone and started to look around for the source. At one end of the hall, near the doors, she caught sight of Chaos standing next to a large bell, which flash brightly before disappearing. Some sort of extra that the Hands let the Pokemon call upon?
Chaos turned to face the collection of competitors. "Because the races caused your numbers to be cut so quickly, the Hands have decided to shift to a different approach in the tournament - especially considering that some of you aren't exactly compatible with cars." The Mewtwo looked pointedly in the direction of Thor, who glared back and looked like he was ready to do some pummeling.
"So, we will be moving focus to a different style of tournament that will not be removing all of you with such swift judgement," Chaos continued. "However, what the competition is will not be revealed until tomorrow morning."
There was a collective grumbling from some members in the crowd, and Logan muttered a curse under his breath himself.
"You're not in it anymore," Maria pointed out to the mutant. "Why are you so interested?"
"Because I want to know what the kids are going to be up to." Logan jabbed a thumb in the direction of a group of figures that were wearing identical black-and-yellow costumes with giant X's on their chests. "If I know, then I can mess with their heads a little." He grinned mischievously.
"And Logan, if you want to know, you can come and talk to me when I'm done up here."
The kids Logan had pointed out all looked in their direction and burst out laughing while the mutant stiffened and scowled, releasing a low growl at being surprised.
"There is an event planned tonight of which the Hands only just informed me, as well," Chaos continued. "The meal is going to be arranged very much like a formal dinner party, and you are expected to come without masks or costumes."
Maria's eyebrows arched in surprise upon hearing the statement, then glanced over at Cap, who looked a little surprised himself.
"If you did not bring any sort of formal wear with you, it will be provided for you," Chaos added. "And that includes you, Maria." He looked pointedly at the Reploid, who was suddenly the subject of stares from the other competitors.
Under that pressure, Maria blushed.
Cap gave her a curious look. "Does this have to do with your armor?"
"Probably. I mean, I can't exactly take it off, so..." Maria shrugged. "I just hope I'm not going to look like an idiot wearing whatever-it-is they've got."
"Believe me, you will not," Chaos replied calmly. He nodded to the group. "Dinner will be served shortly. I trust you will be able to get into your formal wear in time."
With that, Chaos disappeared abruptly in a flash of light.
Those few heroes present exchanged glances and started muttering among themselves. Maria caught sight of Sonic grinning up at the Flash while Paul looked at the Justice League member expectantly.
"I'd better go see what's in my room," Maria muttered to herself.
Cap nodded in agreement. "I didn't expect them to do anything like this, either. I'd better check on my quarters." He started for the warp panel as others in the group started to move. Maria started after him, intent on returning to her own room, as well.
Time Break
Come the dinner hour, the entire dining area had changed to look less like a medieval mead hall and more like a place for a royal banquet. The separate tables had been arranged into one complete table again, but the seats were arranged in a moderately random order. People were walking around, greeting each other and conversing in a manner that was usually reserved for rich dinner parties.
At least, some of them had been using their manners.
Chaos had made it a point to kick Bowser and Bowser Jr. out as soon as they had gone after the dinner table and tried to wolf down everything that was there. The Mewtwo had sent food after them.
Most of the contestants had arrived and were starting to sit down when the warp panel in the corner flashed once more, and Maria stepped off it.
Cap - who happened to be wearing some sort of fancy army uniform - looked in the direction of the warp panel. His eyes widened in surprise upon seeing who had just appeared.
"Hey, Cap," Maria greeted as she walked over in a simple red, knee-length dress with matching red sandals. "Sorry about getting here so late."
"It's fine, Maria," Cap replied, holding up a hand. "I think you got here just in time."
Maria let out a sigh of relief. "Well, that's good." She looked around the room and caught sight of Stark chatting animatedly with a man who had blond hair and was wearing a green suit. Standing next to him was Bruce Wayne. "So, what do you think of all these people?" She looked back at Cap, then added. "What the heroes look like under the mask, I mean."
"It's certainly a diverse group," the Avenger replied. "Tony and Bruce Wayne seem to have hit it off pretty well." He motioned over to the group Maria had been looking at a second ago. "They've been talking to someone named Oliver Queen about what's been going on in their worlds and what it is that they've had to do in order to adapt."
"Stark and Wayne hitting it off?" Maria did her best to stifle a laugh. "Well, I guess I should have expected it, considering how drastically different Wayne is from his other side."
Cap frowned. "What do you mean by that?"
Maria shrugged. "It's just...well..." She looked over at Wayne again. The man was holding a glass of what looked like champagne and looked very calm and collected. "Let's just say that Wayne's got more secrets than Stark will ever be able to get his hands on."
"Excuse me!"
Maria and Cap turned their heads as a man with dark hair and glasses ran over carrying a pen and a notepad. His blue eyes were clearly looking eager.
"I'm Clark Kent, a reporter from the Daily Planet," the man introduced. "Chaos asked me to write up a few things on each of the contestants' hidden identities."
A curious frown came over Maria's face. "What for?"
"He said something about filling out profiles for games that are going to be based off on these events," Clark explained. "Not all of them are going to be shown in all the different worlds - just in the ones that certain people don't exist in."
"Ah, I see." Maria's face brightened into a smile. "That might not exactly hold with me, though, what with what's happened on my world."
Clark frowned, raising an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" His eyes widened after a moment. "Hang on - this might be useful for your profile. If you'll just give me your name, age, and home world, then we can get started."
"I'm Maria Carlsdale, and I'm a seventeen-year-old World Jumper from a version of Earth," Maria replied, smirking.
Clark quickly scribbled something, then looked at Maria in surprise. "World Jumper? I haven't heard of that before."
"I didn't really hear about them before last year," Maria replied with a shrug. "All I know about them is that they're supposed to be able to help keep worlds in balance - at least, that's what I've tried to do. I haven't really run into others who are more experienced yet."
"So you've met other World Jumpers, I'm guessing."
"Yup." Maria put her hands behind her head the same way that Sora usually did. "The only other Jumpers that I know of are my sister and one of my neighbors. But they got the title either the same time I did or some time after." She shrugged again. "It's kinda because of some events that happened not too long ago that caused us to be known by about everybody else in our neighborhood, so I've had to deal with a lot of unwanted attention for the past couple of weeks."
"Really?" Clark Kent looked surprised. "What happened?"
"It involved a guy that I'd beaten before trying to get his revenge. I got called away to another world and he started dragging kids from my world to his. My sister and my neighbor ended up being a big help to them since I couldn't make it."
Clark nodded, then did some more rapid scribbling. As he wrote he said, "And your abilities - what are they?"
"I've got control over fire," Maria replied, dropping her arms from the back of her head. She glanced over at Cap, who seemed to be watching what was going on around them more than the reporter. "I used to have a staff that let me access other elements, as well, but that ended up getting morphed into a Buster cannon that's housed in my right arm. Dr. Light also added boosters to my systems so that I can fly for short lengths of time, but it takes a lot out of me."
Clark gave an absent nod as he finished writing in his notepad. "OK, thanks." Then he paused and looked at Maria in surprise. "Systems? But you look like a human."
"I used to be, but I ran into a bit of an accident with a robot and had to be turned into one in order for me to keep on living. As for the looking human bit, I'm actually wearing a lot of armor from the base of my neck down to my feet. It's all hidden thanks to a hologram generator of sorts that Dr. Light installed."
"Oh. That makes sense." Clark made one final note in his notepad, then turned to a new page and adjusted his glasses before turning to look at Cap. "And you are?"
"Captain Steve Rodgers," the Avenger replied. "And yes, that's my actual army rank, despite the fact that I am also Captain America."
Clark's open mouth snapped shut, and Maria had to suppress a laugh at the reporter's befuddled expression.
"OK, I guess that settles that," Clark muttered to himself. He looked between Maria and Cap for a long moment before finally looking back at the Avenger. "And I heard from Stark that you fought in your version of World War II."
Cap gave a nod. "That's right."
"How did you manage to...well, stay young?"
"I was trapped in ice up in the North Pole for over fifty years," Cap replied shortly. "I had to crash land a plane so that it couldn't be used by the Red Skull or Hydra to escalate the war even further than it had already gone."
Clark's scribbling paused. "Red Skull and Hydra...?" He looked up from his notepad at Cap. "Those are villains exclusive to your world."
Maria noticed that it wasn't a question. Then she saw Cap looking in her direction.
"You'd probably be able to explain it better than I could," the Avenger stated.
Maria looked surprised at the statement. "Me? You were there."
"Your world was able to see both sides of the conflict; I only saw one."
Maria held up her hands to ward off the look Cap was giving her. "All right, all right. I'll explain."
Clark turned his attention back to her, his pen hovering mere centimeters from the paper.
"Hydra was originally the scientific branch for Hitler's little Nazi spiel," Maria started. "It was led by a man who came to be known as the Red Skull mainly because a serum that was supposed to create super soldiers had something go wrong and made his entire head look like a...well, a red skull. This guy was nuts - he spent most of his time looking into mythological weapons from Norse tales that most people didn't believe."
"Since Thor's here, I'm guessing he proved that wrong," Clark guessed, pausing in his writing to look up and push his glasses up his nose.
"Exactly. Red Skull ended up finding an item called the Tesseract - a powerful cube that gave off tons of energy. He used it to create a lot of dangerous weapons that could vaporize a person in a second. Course, the US didn't exactly figure out about that until later, after Captain Rodgers came onto the playing field." Maria looked up at the mentioned Avenger. "He knows what happened better than I do - he was there, after all."
"I can cover my origins later," Cap replied in passing.
Clark gave a nod, not looking up from his notepad. "And Red Skull and Hydra were just a part of World War II?"
"Eh..." Maria looked up at Cap. "Are they still causing trouble where you are? Because there are a couple alternate dimensions that have major problems with those myth-hunters."
Cap frowned upon hearing this, his blue eyes darkening. "I haven't heard anything from them since the problem we had with Loki and the alien invasion. If they are still in my world, then they've been biding their time since the war."
Clark frowned, pausing in his writing. Then he let out a sigh, slid the pen into the spiraled wire that kept his notepad together, then took off his glasses and looked up at Cap.
"I'd suggest keeping your guard up, then," the reporter stated seriously. "Sometimes, your worst enemies can pop up when you least expect them to."
"You sound like you have experience," Cap noted.
Clark smiled wryly. "Not so much me as Superman and the other members of the Justice League. Old villains have come up so often there's a rumor going around that they've made a...syndicate of sorts to keep each other going. I doubt it, though."
"Never underestimate your opponent," Maria remarked. "Unless they are so bad at teamwork that it's a wonder they're still around."
"Even then, don't underestimate them," Clark replied seriously. He glanced back at the dining table, where it looked like most of the contestants had already sat down. "Looks like we're going to miss dinner unless we go sit down now." He looked back at Cap and Maria. "Thanks for the interview."
"It was no problem," Maria replied with a smile.
The trio moved over to the dining table and took three of the four empty places. Clark, who sat a good distance away from Cap and Maria, was soon joined by a woman with dark hair and a pass hanging around her neck that said "PRESS" in bright red letters.
"Who exactly is he?" Cap asked as he sat down as Maria did the same.
The Reploid looked at the Avenger in surprise, her blue eyes darkening in curiosity. "You mean you didn't see a resemblance with another hero?"
"Well, I have my suspicions, but I want to know what you think."
Maria smirked. "Your thoughts first; then I'll tell you if you're right of wrong."
"All right. I think he's Superman."
Maria's smirk turned into a grin. "You hit it right on the nose. Clark Kent is Superman." She turned her brown-haired head and looked down the table at the mentioned reporter. "The Hands must've figured it might be a good idea to get profiles together using someone adapt at that kind of thing."
"But then..." Cap frowned. "He wouldn't write a profile on himself, would he?"
"He might, he might not." Maria looked back at Cap and motioned with her head towards the two reporters sitting down the table. "See the woman sitting next to him? That's Lois Lane, another reporter from his world. If Supes isn't going to write his own profile, she'll probably take care of that."
A look of understanding came over Cap's face, and he gave a nod before turning his attention to the meal. Maria quickly did the same.
Spacial Break
Bowser and his youngest son were snoring loud enough to wake the dead when a shadowy figure crept into their room and looked around in disgust at the mess that had been left in the Koopas' wake. It looked like a food fight had taken place in this castle-like chamber - which, considering whose room this was, may as well have happened during their secluded dinner meal.
The intruder moved carefully around what looked like it used to be a cheese soufflé and nearly had to dance around the remains of a salad in order to get to the lump-covered bed. A single hand moved towards the cover and tore it off before the other grabbed at the figure underneath.
The figure that was grabbed started to squirm and whine, causing the larger body that lay there to shift and growl. Large eyes snapped open and glared at the intruder with a dangerous ferocity.
The intruder removed his hands from the bed and the smaller figure's stomach and backed up. Bowser stood up on the bed, carefully stepping around his son as he glared down at the intruder.
The Koopa King leapt towards the intruder, snarling.
There was a purple flash right before Bowser landed on top of the intruder, and Bowser landed on the remains of the cheese soufflé.
The enraged father got to his feet, still growling as he looked around for the intruder.
Unfortunately, the figure was gone, leaving Bowser to return his attention to his son, who had a look of pain on his face.
Uh oh...looks like there's someone going around causing trouble...