Chapter Fifty

Linda stood there at the booths, taking tickets. "Tch, this would be easier with that rat still around! Ah well, it's better to not have him nagging at me for stupid things… Besides, it wouldn't be hard to replicate him anyway! Rodent mascots are easy to replace!"

Everyone was going to see the concert being held by the newly reformed CFWs. They used to be known as 'Criminals of the Free World', but are now 'Citizens of the Fair World'… Underling found the name change unusual, but at least it makes it easy to still say CFW.

They became quite the strange mix. Judge was naturally the one who did percussion and anything involving screaming, Magic was the main vocalist, Trick was usually back-up and worked with synthesizers. Brave, while a bit embarrassed by the turn of events, was the guitarist.

No one was exactly sure how to take the unusual turn of the CFWs now being a music group. It was most likely due to Magic'a appearance or younger audiences liking Judge's constant swearing and shouting that lead to quick popularity. As long as children were happy, Brave was satisfied… As was Trick, unfortunately.

Uni approached the booth, handing her ticket to Underling. "Huh?" Linda was taken by surprise at first glance, but then stopped with a smirk. "Let me guess, your boyfriend gave you free tickets and you wanna watch— More-so, hear him?"

Blushing, she snapped back. "I-it's not like that! I just thought it would be nice to take his offer! That's all!"

"Riiiight… No need to hide it y'know. Nearly everyone in Lastation knows, and so do we." Linda snickered, stamping the ticket. "Alright, in you go, I'm not stopping you at all!" Trying to ignore her, Uni went inside.

With a sigh, Linda looked at the money all stacked up in the case she had, and smiled. "I never thought Lady CFW Magic would lose faith to Arfoire and become this… But I'll follow Lady Magic to anything and anywhere, to the ends of the universe…"


Vert opened up the face-time call on her computer.

"Oh… Hello Vert." Blanc greeted on the other end, softly.

"Nice of you to join this conversation! We would have to keep Lonely Heart company otherwise!" Neptune chirped.

"Sh-shut up!" Noire retorted.

"Now, now, there is no need for teasing at this hour. How is everything going so far? Are the Xbox avatars treating the Miis well?"

"They get along great. As does Noire's sack-thing and skeletal knight, they always come over to hang out with Kirby and Link. It gets a bit noisy at times… But I don't mind. Dart is also getting along well with the Fire Emblem cast." Blanc replied.

"Same thing happens with that Dragon Born girl. Ever since that war of 'which is better' between the Elder Scrolls and Souls series, she keeps visiting Lastation sometimes… I think she prefers me over you, Vert! Frinnia always makes good conversation with the other warriors!" Noire sneered.

Paying no mind to her boast, Vert then remembered. "Oh yes, that's right! Have Banjo and Conker been seeing your cast of Donkey Kong characters again, Blanc? I gave them permission to drop by."

"Yes… I'm honestly not comfortable with them, especially the squirrel." She grumbled. "But it makes Diddy, T.T., and the residents of Timber Island happy…"

"Hey, hey! No one is going to ask about Sonic Boom?! Geeeeez! I got former Naughty Dog members on my side right now!" Noire rolled her eyes at Neptune. "Grimmy is becoming such a worry-wart too, it's adorable! Both him and my lil' sis have been freaking out if I'm in pain or anything."

"Probably 'former' for a reason…" Noire said to herself.

For a while most of them began chatting about games, and how theirs were better than the other, except mostly joking this time as none of them wanted to have their characters fight each other again. Vert however, did take a pause after mentions of some older characters.

"Ladies… Do you remember years ago back when we still resided in the heavens? Before Neptune settled all of our scores to friendly competition… The original goddess split her powers into many besides us four, though we were the main for surviving so long…" They all went quiet.

"I… Didn't mind knocking Bleu out of Celestia, but Neya, I feel truly bad about now. She was rather nice, especially her younger sister; Geya… Now they're…" Blanc's words trailed off. "It's… My fault… I didn't want competition. I really was just… Just as bad as L.O.G back then."

Neptune then tried to lighten up the situation. "We all do things we regret Blanc! No one is as much of a manipulative jerkwad as L.O.G though, he just wanted everything to his advantage and stuff!"

"Had you not survived and put an end to all of our bickering so we could fight the real enemy years ago… Then chances are, you would end up like them, Neptune, considering how we all ganged up on you back then." Vert then took a sip of her cup of black tea.

Noire was completely quiet, as usual not wanting to admit guilt or fault to things. "Say, do you really think that after we knocked some of the former CPUs out of Celestia… Would they really die?" Neptune wondered.

"Between the heavy beat-down delivered by a majority of us, falling from the heavens for a long period of time, having faith in them lost a little beforehand, and then having a very harsh landing… There is no way Pink and Blue Hearts survived." Blanc then sighed.

"Ugh! Quit making this so depressing! This is the end, isn't it?! We don't have anymore L.O.G, ASIC, or Console Wars! We can just be friendly with our competition! Who cares about what happened back then, just as Neptune said!" Noire yelled, suppressing any regret.

"True, true! Almost too true! Say Blanc, why don't we all come over and play some Smash Bros, Playstation All-Stars, SEGA All-Star Racing, or anything el— Whoa! Hey!" Before Neptune could finish her sentence, she felt herself picked up.

Mr. Grimm lifted her up, bridal style and sighed. "No dear, you need to do work today and not run around so much!"

"Awww! No fair! I barely got any spotlight in this story! It's because I'm just SEGA, isn't it?!" Neptune whined while giggling a bit.

With Neptune out of the call, Noire shook her head. "Geez! Even with that reaper from Twisted Metal around she's a nuisance! I don't know how he puts up with her, with how long I've known Grimm!"

"Still, it is a good idea. I shall come visit Lowee and see how both my and your characters are, Blanc. I'll make sure to escort the Miis back to you as well." Vert got out of her chair and took the cup of tea which was now empty.

"Alright then Vert—"

"W-wait! What about me?! I need to go pick up Sir Daniel, Sackboy, and Dart anyway!" Noire objected, looking flustered.

"But they have traveled from Lastation to Lowee and back before… Oh, wait. That's right, we can't just leave you alone I guess. It's either you feel left out, or miss your characters already… Right?" Blanc gave a smug grin, making Noire even more embarrassed.

"Why, you…! That's it! I'm totally going to destroy you in PSASBR!"

"Heheheh! Not if I can beat you in Smash Bros. Brawl~"

"Even with silly arguments, it's so much better than it was back then… I'm on my way right now!" Vert then turned off her call, as did Noire, as they went over to Lowee.

The whole night was spent playing games, even with other characters. Sackboy, Kirby, and Mario had the most fun when it came to joining in. While the Kongs and RareWare characters got nostalgic with Diddy Kong Racing along with other multiplayer titles…

Truly, this was how Gamindustri was meant to be.

Not clashing against each other, but having fun equally. It didn't matter who or what was better than the other. Because in the end…

Games were games. A wonderful and beautiful escape.


Epilogue

The brunette finished tinkering with the strange system. "Now with L.O.G out of ze way, I can make myself present. I wish I could have revealed his true colors earlier, but… None of zen would trust someone who zey think was dead, non?"

Near her, a very large man in bulky armor nodded in agreement. "Lady Bleu… How is… The 'M2'?"

"Magnifique, dear Adalnan! And, I dug up some things regarding Smash 4…" She grinned, looking at some photos and videos on her camera.

"I see… You got… Leaks?"

"Oui! And we all know how Blanc feels about zat…" She then sighed. "Soon, zey wil all know how wrong eet was to cross Blue Heart, and take her precious characters! Leaks, blackmail, reviews… All while I work on my own console and find ze 'New Game Plus'!"

Before the woman was a system. Rather bulky, but glassy-looking blue exterior. "M2: Aquaria! Ze 'meant-to be' successor…" Adalnan, the large man, finished the sentence for her quietly.

"Of… The 3DO…"

Already, it seemed Gamindustri would have another form of threat soon.


((Since this is the ending and the previous chapter was so long, this finale is short.

So… This is the end. I hope all of you readers enjoyed the ride! Once again, I thank all of you. Reviews/comments, favorites, follows, critics, event the trolls! They really helped me keep going… I think if not for all of you, I would have dropped this like many other stories I attempted years ago.

And yes… I did kinda try to squeeze a silly personal belief in here. I don't think any console or company is better than the other, and that 'Console Wars' are indeed pointless. Everyone has their own pros and cons, this isn't the 90's anymore where a crap system like… Anything Tiger Electronics was easy to identify. I just believe in all the good stuff there is!

As for the little bonus epilogue… That's part of the main plot of "PSAS Tag-Team Royale". Bleu is a CPU fan-character based off of the 3DO systems. If you want to know more about her, you might have to read those… Though… She won't get much expansion until much later on. :V

If there was anything that this chapter and the previous one did not shed light on that I forgot about, I will most likely add it per request.

Keep in mind, I'm not going to check in on characters we already saw: Like most of the Smashers, All-Stars, some of the Microsofties.

Until my next update on "PSAS Tag-Team Royale"… I bid you all, adieu!))