(The Arena)
For the second time the entire night, there were only five fighters left in the arena. The next wave would enter soon, and all five of them were getting pumped up to attempt to take the arena on again. Lau, Yuri and Captain Falcon looked at the entrance curtain to watch the next fighter come in (Billy and Mukuro would have looked as well, but the former was still stalking after the latter, trying to get information).
"GAIRA CAFFIENE!" (SS)
To a mixed reaction, the huge, young monk came out from behind the curtain, cracking his knuckles. His string of beads (which doubled as his weapon) dangled around his neck as Gaira walked down to the ring.
"Man! I was really hoping to fight that Goro Daimon fellow!" Gaira lamented as he stepped into the ring. "Oh, well. Looks like I'll have to settle for the one that eliminated him."
The first thing Gaira did was step in front of Mukuro and smash his beads into the zombie's head, bringing him to the ground.
"What're you doing?" Billy shouted.
"This guy robbed me of my chance to fight Daimon." Gaira explained.
"Get away from him!" Billy ordered. "I still haven't gotten the info I want from him!"
As Billy and Gaira continued to argue, Mukuro slipped away unnoticed.
"BLANKA!" (SFA3)
As tribal music came pounding through the speakers, Blanka rolled down the ramp in a similar fashion to Rolento, letting out excited grunts the whole way down. The audience cheered the green-skinned mutant on as Blanka broke out of his roll and jumped into the arena.
Landing directly on top of an escaping Mukuro. Blanka surged himself with electricity, shocking the zombie, but it was unknown if Mukuro actually felt anything.
"ROOMI!" (GF)
The bubbly cat-girl leapt out from behind the curtain and waved to the crowd excitedly. Her cheer was louder than the rest of the Galaxy Fight gang, probably because she was the most popular fighter in the game.
Roomi was determined to make an elimination. Her node was counting on it. Sure, they already had two eliminations, but a third one wouldn't hurt.
The instant Roomi hit the arena, she went over to challenge Yuri to a fight. "Hiya! Wanna fight for a bit?" The cat-girl asked.
Yuri shrugged. "Sure. Don't hold back!"
"Only if you don't either!"
"And now…Mystery Fighter…Number…EIGHTEEN!"
"WARIO!" (Wario Ware)
Wario, dressed in his classic outfit rather than his biker getup from the new Smash Bros., came out from behind the curtain to a surprisingly loud cheer. The portly man (even more portly than Mario) laughed heartily and soaked in all of the attention he was getting as he walked down to the ring.
"That's right!" Wario shouted. "Watch me fight, cheer me on and be sure to buy my games afterwards!"
Although Wario wasn't showing it, he was in deep thought. He had been in the stands, eating a bucket of popcorn when Lee Chaolan was eliminated. And seeing the silver-haired man kidnap Mona fueled his anger. He may not have had a lot of friends, but Mona was definitely someone Wario held dear and, although he never would admit it, he would have gladly paid off her ransom if ordered to do so.
Wario was brought out of his thoughts when he looked up to the Eliminated Seating. He saw Mario, Luigi and Peach sitting there with open mouths and shocked expressions. Wario laughed even harder as he jumped headfirst into the arena.
Captain Falcon saw Wario come in and came over. "I didn't know you were in this." He pointed out.
"The guy that runs this thing came to me a few minutes ago and asked me if I wanted to fight." Wario shrugged. "Hey, I'm not one to turn down a chance like this! First I get the invite to go to the new Smash Bros. Tournament and now this!"
"And…What can you do?"
"Stop with the stupid questions before I unleash the 'Wario Waft'."
"Shutting up."
"JUAN!" (S3)
The blonde, lazy young man walked out from behind the curtain and stretched. The one good thing about getting such a late draw was the fact that Juan got the chance to get some serious sleep. In fact, he had missed almost the entire tournament. The only things he knew were that Watari was the MVP from the Suikoden node thus far and Geddoe and Ace got pretty close to matching it.
Juan stepped into the arena. Lau Chan saw him. "You know? If you didn't sleep so much, maybe you'd be better at fighting."
The younger man simply yawned. Lau thrust his fist at Juan, whom easily and casually blocked it with one arm and without looking.
"Well, the fact that I've got the most combos in one move for my node helps me a bit." Juan replied simply. Thrusting his other hand into Lau's stomach, firing the older man across the arena.
(Hotel; Birdie's Room)
"Well, at least I know why the boss gave me a room in the corner of the hotel." Birdie said. "So that this boy's essence could be picked up."
Junior Maximum narrowed his eyes. The essence had been taken from his body, and the young boy bet that this meant nothing good. "Okay, you got what you came for. Now let me go!"
"I'm afraid we can't do that until Bison completes the plan." Sabretooth said.
Junior continued to struggle against the ropes that were keeping him bound to the chair he was in, but all efforts were futile.
"If I were stronger, like my dad, maybe I could break free of these ropes." Junior thought sadly. He DID always want to be like his dad. Now all he wanted was to see him again.
"Look, how much longer is this going to take?" Sigma asked. "I haven't really done much all night and I need to get back to my home node as soon as I can after this is over."
"Have a little patience." Birdie said.
"I do NOT take orders from a lackey like you!"
Birdie stepped back. "N-Now that's just not nice!"
Junior looked around the room. Aside from Birdie, Sabretooth and Sigma, the only ones in the room were Ripper, Hopper, Gen-An and Yamazaki, whom would be entering in the next section anyway, so that would be one less person to worry about for those hopefully coming to rescue him.
Suddenly, Sabretooth jerked to attention, his advanced hearing kicking in again. He looked at the door to the room suspiciously.
"What's up, furrball?" Yamazaki asked.
"I can hear footsteps." Sabretooth explained. "Someone's outside the door."
As if to confirm this, the door to the room was kicked open. In stormed Asuka Kazama, Falco Lombardi, Ryu, Watari and Johnny Maximum (the one whom had kicked the door open).
Junior's eyes widened at the sight of his father. "Dad!"
J. Maxx was overjoyed to see his son alright, but he had to focus on the matter at hand. "I'll be with you in a minute, son." He explained, holding up an index finger.
Junior nodded. "Give them one for me, dad!"
Underneath his helmet, smirked. "You got it, son."
J. Maxx crouched low and focused n Birdie, whom seemed to be the ringleader in this room.
Birdie stepped back again fearfully. "Uh…Protect me, guys."
"In your DREAMS!" Sabretooth scoffed.
J. Maxx roared and lunged at Birdie head-first.
Ripper pulled out a gun and aimed it at J. Maxx, only to have Watari kick it out of his hand. Said ninja crouched low, holding onto his sword as Ripper and Hopper prepared to fight.
Watari, being Watari, didn't say anything. He narrowed his eyes and rushed forward.
Yamazaki looked around himself. Not only had the two previously-mentioned fights started, but Asuka Kazama was fighting off Sabretooth and Ryu was taking on Sigma and Gen-An on his own.
"Uh…I gotta go get ready to enter the arena." Yamazaki said, pointing towards the broken-open door. "Gotta go!"
Seeing Yamazaki slip out the door, Falco rushed after him. "Oh no, you don't!" The avian shouted, firing two laser bolts into Yamazaki's shoulder as he was running away.
This brought Yamazaki to a halt. He looked at Falco and narrowed his eyes. "Fine."
(The Arena)
"LEONA!" (KOF)
The blue-haired Orochi girl came out to a loud cheer. She saluted the crowd as she walked down to the ring.
Like Iori before her, Leona had to make sure that she kept her Orochi blood under control. She didn't want innocent people to get hurt and thus wanted to avoid any extreme amounts of violence if she could.
Leona got into the arena and looked around for a fight. She quickly saw that Captain Falcon was without a fight and went over to him.
"I take it you want to fight?" Falcon guessed.
Leona saluted. "I admire your strength." She said. "Almost as much as I admire Chang Koehan's strength. I want to see it in action."
Falcon smirked. "Okay, lady. You got it!"
"HEIHACHI MISHIMA!" (T5)
Up in the Eliminated Seating, both Kazuya and Jin were at the railings, side by side for once. This was mainly before they were screaming death threats at the old man that emerged from the curtain.
Heihachi looked at the Eliminated Seating and smirked. As he continued down to the ring, Kazuya and Jin were asked to return to their seats, and people found it odd that they weren't carted away like Kaede and Fuuma were (maybe the security guards weren't stupid enough to try and force either the father or son to leave).
Once Heihachi was in the arena, Wario instantly came rushing over (although it looked more like a fast waddle).
"I'm lookin' for a good fight." Wario said, looking up at Heihachi.
Heihachi smirked. "Then you've come to the right place." He said. "I AM the most powerful person in my node."
As if to test this, Wario grabbed Heihachi and lifted the taller man over his head with one arm. He tossed Heihachi away. "Eh, big whoop." He muttered, rolling up his sleeves. "I can bench-press things TWICE your weight."
"Good. I love a challenge." Heihachi said as he got to his feet.
"BOWSER!" (SSB)
"Gwah-hah-hah!" Bowser laughed heartily. "It's about time I entered! And the best thing? No stupid plumbers to slow me down! Both have already been eliminated!"
With that, the huge Koopa lumbered down to the arena, doing a Whirling Fortress to get in.
Bowser landed in between the fight Lau and Juan were having. The two looked at him.
"I wanna fight you, old man!" Bowser said, pointing at Lau.
"I'd love to, but I have a fight right now." Lau said.
Bowser backhanded Juan, swatted him across the arena. "Well, now you don't." He said simply. "So how 'bout it, gramps? You and me in an epic battle to the death?"
Lau sighed. "You asked for it."
"WOLFGANG KRAUSER!" (FF)
Krauser found it unusual that his half-brother, Geese Howard, was hanging around Bison. The last Krauser heard, neither of the two got along very well.
To a mixed reaction, the purple-haired noble walked proudly down to the arena and leapt in.
Juan suddenly landed by his feet. Krauser helped the young man to his feet. "Are you beingk okay?" Krauser asked. "Zhat vas a nasty fall."
"Yeah, the big turtle just caught me off guard." Juan muttered.
"Vell, since you are beingk heere, how about a spar?" Krauser asked.
"Eh, might as well." Juan shrugged.
"SIE KENSOU!" (KOF)
"I don't care what it takes!"
"I don't care who it shakes!"
"I don't care what they say!"
"I'm gonna do it your way!"
Coming out to 'I Don't Care' by Plus One, Kensou came onto the ramp with a meat bun in his hand. Bobbing his head a couple of times to the rock music, Kensou shoved the meat bun into his mouth, chewed a couple of times and swallowed it.
"Even if I'm afraid!"
"Don't wanna make you look fake!"
"I don't care about anything!"
"It's not about me!"
Once he entered, Kensou looked around. He quickly fired a Psycho Ball at the fight Blanka was having with Mukuro, knocking the green-skinned beast away.
This left Mukuro in Kensou's line of sight. The young Psycho Soldier rushed forward and kicked the zombie in the jaw.
(Eliminated Seating)
Chung sighed as he walked into the Eliminated Seating, found a spot with the others and sat down.
"Well, there's only two left." Gordon sighed. "Rosa and Gozu. And I highly doubt either of them will last very long."
"You doubt Rosa's skills?" Max Eagle asked.
"No. It's just that I'm trying to think realistically here." The overweight cop reasoned. "I mean, there are still a number of really skilled people that haven't even entered the arena yet."
"Yeah, you may be right." Chung admitted.
Meanwhile, the security had finally managed to calm down Jin and Kazuya. The father and son sat down in a huff, watching Heihachi fight Wario.
"That old geezer is SO going down." Jin muttered. "After everything he did to me, I'll make sure to take him down when this is over."
"You think YOU had it bad?" Kazuya asked. "He threw me off a freaking cliff when I was a kid and threw me into a freaking volcano years later!"
"Man. Some father."
"Yeah. Tell me about it." Kazuya muttered. He suddenly realized something, then turned to Jin. "Did we just go about ten seconds without wanting to kill each other?"
Jin was silent, his eyes widened. "Yeah. I guess we did."
"Well, I guess that's ONE thing we have in common, then."
"Yeah. We both hate Heihachi."
For the first time ever, Kazuya and Jin laughed together.
J. Carn, in the meantime, arrived at the Eliminated Seating as well. He was about to make his way down to the ring when he tripped on something. Letting out an awkward shout, J. Carn tumbled all the way down the steps and crashed into the railing headfirst.
The Mongolian quickly looked at where he had tripped and saw Q silently sitting in the corner of the Eliminated Seating, one of his feet sticking out. The mysterious man looked around casually as if he didn't know what he had just done.
J. Carn grumbled as he stood up, found a seat and sat down.
(The Arena)
"And now…Mystery Fighter…Number…NINETEEN!"
"ROLL!" (Mega Man)
Standing outside the curtain, Roll gulped and ran down to the arena nervously. Holding onto the 'Roll Buster' she had been given, the only thing going through the girl robot's mind was {I should have gotten Megaman to come instead.}
Once the nervous robot girl landed in the ring, she looked around. Taking aim, she blasted the scariest-looking fighter with a charged Roll Buster.
Unfortunately for her, that was Mukuro. Said zombie looked at her for a few seconds, then charged.
Roll screamed and took aim again.
"ROSA!" (KE)
The dark-haired swordswoman came out from behind the curtain to a mixed reaction. Yes, she was one of the most popular fighters in her game, but because it was Kizuna Encounter, that wasn't really saying much.
Once Rosa was in the arena, she went for Blanka. Said green beast saw her coming and, knowing what she wanted, rolled at her, starting a fight.
Rosa dodged to the side and avoided Blanka. "Man. He sure doesn't waste any time." She mused.
"And now…Mystery Fighter…Number…TWENTY!"
"AXL!" (Mega Man X7)
Axl whistled and twirled one of his blasters in his hand as he walked down to the ring to a loud fangirl cheer.
"Time to show X and Zero how it's done." Axl chuckled as he jumped into the arena.
The first thing Axl did was fire several shots around the arena, striking several of the fighters. He got the attention of most, but one person in particular.
"You know?" Heihachi asked, stepping up. "I would teach you some respect if you would have been more skilled."
Axl smirked and activated a device on his wrist. One electric explosion later and Heihachi was staring at Axl, or rather Axl transformed into a complete duplicate of Heihachi himself.
The old man smirked. "Oh, this is going to be GOOD."
"And now…Mystery Fighter…Number…TWENTY-ONE!"
"MICKEY ROGERS!" (Art of Fighting 2)
The young-looking, black boxer came out from behind the curtain and let out a loud cheer of excitement. After being out of the spotlight for so many years, he was finally invited to come back and fight.
"And to think I only came here to watch." Mickey said as he jumped into the arena.
(Announcer's Booth)
Unknown1 watched as Mickey started attacking Wario (which was a very stupid mistake), then looked at SSBFreak. "And you brought this guy in…WHY?"
"I was running out of ideas, okay?" SSBFreak replied.
(The Arena)
"And now, the final fighter of this section…"
"ZEUS!" (WH)
The huge man came out from behind the curtain, showing everyone that he was the largest World Hero of the bunch, towering over even Ryofu.
Once Zeus got to the ring, he looked around for people to fight. Eventually spotting the fight between Leona and Captain Falcon, Zeus walked over. Once he arrived, Zeus kicked both fighters at the same time, knocking them both down.
"What was that for?" Falcon asked.
"I need a fight, and I think you two will suffice." Zeus explained, looking back and forth between the two.
Leona growled and got into her stance. "You must have a death wish."
Zeus smirked. "Maybe I do."