Spire Of Fire

by GengarFan3

Months passed since the Smasher's Palace burned to the ground, taking the life of a Cucco friend of Falco's along with it. After receiving a letter that claims to know the truth of the fire, Falco goes investigating and teams up with Roy Koopa, Raichu, and Lucina to solve the case in their wacky yet cruel world.

2. Ch 2: Streets Of Rampage

Chapter 2: Streets Of Rampage

APRIL 16th, 2019

~Through The Fire And The Flames by Dragonforce starts to play~

Falco was running through the streets of New Donk City, leaving a trail of dust in his wake. He turned his face towards the "screen" and winked as the words "Falco Lombardi: Galactic Avenger" splashed on the "screen". The words faded as Roy caught up to Falco in his Junior Clown Car. After Roy rose his fist into the sky, the "screen" zoomed in on him and brought up the words "Roy Koopa: Ichiban Wrestling Koopa". The same repeated for Raichu, who did the Sonic Adventure pose at the "screen" and gained the title "Raichu: Eternal Thunderstorm", and Lucina just kept her focus on what was ahead, gaining the title "Lucina: The Only Truly Sane One". With the quartet's intros out of the way, the Delusion: Beta airship came into view, heading right for the four heroes.

~Through The Fire And The Flames stops~

Suddenly, the entire "screen" became just static, before it zoomed out, revealing that the real Roy, Raichu, and Lucina were sitting in Falco's apartment, watching the now static TV.

"That was just like one of those fancy animated arts Snake showed me, except this had no nearly naked people in it," Roy pointed out, earning a confused look from Raichu.

"Guys!" Falco yelled, leaping out of his bedroom.

"Ah, Falco. Did you find out anything about this Delusion group on the Internet?" Lucina asked.

"No," Falco lamented. The other three just stared at Falco with blank stares.

"Bruh," Raichu uttered in the iconic bruh voice.

"And know I have to idea what to do," the space bird complained.

"Our only possible action would be t-" Lucina muttered.

"Would be to go out and ask the civilians about this Delusion gang!" Roy intervened.

"... Yes, actually. Exactly that," Lucina replied.

"Should I consult the Internet if that is the right choi-" Falco said.

"Absolutely not," Lucina calmly yet sternly interrupted.

"WOOHOO! Let's go find them and give them a good thrashin'!" Roy roared. The Koopaling leaped out of the already broken windows, followed by Falco and Raichu doing the same thing. Lucina glanced down from the broken window while Falco and Raichu fell to the street below.

"MY LEG!" Fred the fish cried out once Raichu accidentally crushed him, while the "screen" stayed focused on the wincing Lucina above.

"Sorry!" Raichu responded.

XxXx

~Athletic from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island starts to play~

Oscar the grouch of all things was sitting on the sidewalk, extending and retracting his neck to the music... at least until Roy tapped on his trash can. Oscar retreated into the trash can, slammed the lid down, and the trash can took off like a rocket, flying onto the rooftop of the building right behind him. Oscar popped out, only to realize that Roy had used his Junior Clown Car to fly up after him and was standing behind the grouch. Oscar retreated into his home again and leaped down back where was, but Roy still followed. Oscar rocketed back up to the rooftops, and thus started a cycle of fleeing from Roy.

XxXx

Falco and Raichu were running around one of New Donk City's parks, asking numerous people, including Corrin, Barry B. Benson, and the legendary Morshu if they knew anything about Delusion: Beta. With every response being a no, Falco and Raichu approached the last person in the park, the great Papyrus. Upon asking the glorious skeleton if he knew anything, Papyrus rapidly shook his head to the point that it fell off from the rest of his bony body. Falco, Corrin, and some other nearby civilians started shrieking and flailing their arms as though they were Gmod ragdolls, Raichu just stared at the fallen head, and Papyrus's head stared back before the two started to have a polite chat about whether or not a character that actually made it into Super Smash Bros. actually deserved it.

XxXx

Lucina was talking to her own father, Chrom, to see if he knew anything about the organization when a Fedora Dog stole Lucina's Parallel Falchion. Lucina and Chrom ran after the thief as a police car driven by an Electivire zoomed past them. Once the cop car got close enough to the Fedora Dog, a Magmortar pushed themselves partially out of the passenger seat window and used the move Flamethrower over the car and at the Fedora Dog, spewing out a trail of flames from their hand cannon. The hostile dog was burned into nothing but ashes, yet the Parallel Falchion remained intact. Another hostile Fedora Dog tried to run off with the powerful sword, but once they tried to bite the grip of the sword, the dog's mouth got burned. The Fedora Dog ran around uncontrollably from the flames, eventually falling into the sewers. Lucina and Chrom glanced at the heated Parallel Falchion and then the police car, noticing that the Electivire was giving them a thumbs up. The cop car drove off, and the two Exalts turned their attention to the clock tower across the street.

One Hour Later...

~Athletic stops~

Falco, Roy, Raichu, and Lucina had just met back up in front of the same clock tower, with Raichu wearing a fedora she stole from one of the Fedora Dogs.

"Curses! We found out nothing!" Falco cursed.

"Yeah, we know, that's obvious," Raichu replied.

"And a fairly predictable outcome, if I'm being honest," Lucina added.

"You know what else is obvious? We're gonna fight a lot of people," Roy claimed.

"What? Why?" Lucina inquired.

"Because that sign behind us says "Streets Of Rampage"." Roy pointed behind him, right at a billboard that said just that. After a moment of confused silence from Raichu and Lucina, Roy spoke up again. "Also because there's a suspicious group behind you."

~There's Trouble! from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX starts to play~

Falco, Raichu, and Lucina turned around, encountering a somewhat large group of Croagunk behind them.

"Eh-heh-heh! Lookie what we have here! A flightless bird, a turtle in a baby jumper, a fat rat, and... a human with blue hair," one of the Croagunk said.

"What? "A human with blue hair"? That's really the best insult you could come up with?" another Croagunk responded. "Real lousy, mate. You deserve to get booted out just for that pathetic attempt at an insult."

"Just who are you calling a fat rat?!" Raichu growled, already getting into a battle stance.

"And who are they calling a turtle in a baby jumper?" Roy asked, legitimately confused. "I don't see any turtle in a bab... Oh. OH NO! THIS THING'S A BABY JUMPER! I'M NOT JUST IMPRISONED! I'M IMPRISONED IN A CURSED BABY JUMPER!"

"Poor guy," yet another Croagunk muttered.

"Shut it," yet again another Croagunk groaned, smacking the third Croagunk down.

"Yeah, we're a flightless bird, a turtle in a baby jumper, a fat rat, and a human with blue hair. What's your beef with us?" Falco asked.

"Our beef with you is that YOU TOOK OUR BEEF!" the second Croagunk declared.

"... Seriously?" Lucina questioned.

"Don't play dumb, blue-haired sword person number four-twenty! Your buddy's already playing dumb, and we don't need more morons acting like even bigger morons!" the same Croagunk answered while Roy tried to yank himself out of the Clown Car with a giant crowbar. "You punks hijacked our beef delivery truck and made off with the beef!"

"What makes you think we stole your beef?" Falco angrily asked. Raichu glanced back at Roy, who was scarfing down Slim Jims.

"Must... consume... Slim Jims... must become... stronger... to free myself!" the Koopa exclaimed, constantly swallowing Slim Jims whole in between words.

"We got word from our beef delivery guy, said the truck got hijacked right on the outskirts of town. He couldn't make out just who took our truck, but a bystander that couldn't talk much informed us that your four were the ones who made off with our beef," the second Croagunk claimed.

"That's preposterous! We never did such a thing!" Lucina stated. Meanwhile, in an alley not too far behind the four heroes were two of the figures that assaulted the Iron Fist Dome, one of which was the fiery figure, whose body was smoking just the tiniest bit.

"Nice job. Hopefully that'll keep those filthy idiots off our tail," the smoking being remarked. The two figures walked into the depths of the alley as tensions only got worse between the two parties.

"Stop lying!" a fifth Croagunk ordered. "If you disgusting punks don't hand over our beef, we're going to have to poison you like we do with some of our custom- er, I mean, no, we don't poison people who buy our food if we get ordered to do so!"

"Oh, so you want to get fired instead of the bad insult guy, huh?!" the second Croagunk growled. A dispute formed between most of the Croagunk group, and the four heroes took advantage by slowly sneaking away.

"Oi! Those thieves are trying to escape!" a sixth Croagunk warned.

"Mmm... looks like we'll have to fight our way out, everyone!" Lucina exclaimed, unsheathing the Parallel Falchion.

"Well, I did say it was obvious we had to fight somebody," Roy pointed out.

~There's Trouble! stops as Fortress Boss (Super Mario Bros. 3) from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate starts~

The four heroes ran ahead towards the incoming Croagunk, with Falco and Raichu leading the charge. Falco dashed even further ahead using the Falco Phantasm technique, slamming into a line of three Croagunk before zipping back to do it again, over and over, until he did a sliding flip kick to send them upwards, fishing them off by firing lasers from his Blasters that stunned them. The Croagunk trio then slammed into the street, knocked out.

"AHAHAHA! Finally, I get to use my secret weapon!" a seventh Croagunk cackled, pulling out a cannon. The maniacal Toxic Mouth Pokémon pulled the trigger, unleashing a somewhat large fireball from the heavy weapon. The fireball nearly struck a Murkrow flying above the battle, who fled the scene as soon as they noticed the brawl going on.

"Cheaters! If you little punks are gonna cheat, then the Royster will cheat back!" Roy exclaimed. Suddenly, the Junior Clown Car's face turned into its iconic twisted smile while its boxing glove arms emerged from the sides. "Go baby jumper, gooooooo!" Roy and his Clown Car charged ahead, the Clown Car throwing punches to knock away any Croagunk that got in the way. Roy eventually slowed down and let the Clown Car make a weak uppercut to a single Croagunk. The uppercut only knocked the Toxic Mouth Pokémon up slightly above Roy, but once they fell back down, Roy grabbed them. Leaping up and back towards the three knocked out Croagunk, Roy gave the poisonous frog a suplex before tossing their unconscious body on top of the other three.

"None of you will stop me! Or the rest of us! But mostly me!" the maniacally Croagunk claimed, firing more fireballs around wildly. One of the fireballs zipped right over Oscar, nearly hitting him.

"Watch where you're firing that thing! I'm trying to watch some violence, not get vaporized by said violence!" the grouch growled. Meanwhile, Falco started using his Fire Bird move to clear through a large group of the Croagunk. Once the blazes surrounding him died down, another Croagunk run up, ready to use the move Poison Jab from behind. Lucina just barely managed to send the frog away with a slash from the Parallel Falchion. The slashed Croagunk landed on their two feet and worryingly glanced down at their stomach... before just becoming confused.

"Uh... dude? You alright?" another Croagunk asked.

"I shouldn't be... I got sliced. Through the stomach. I feel the pain. Yet it looks like nothing happened to me," the slashed Croagunk stated.

"I disagree with that notion," Raichu said before giving the slashed Croagunk a Thunder Punch uppercut into the sky. Once the slashed Croagunk was high enough, Raichu unleashed a flurry of Thunder Punches, zipping by the Toxic Mouth Pokémon while landing each punch, before finally using the move Body Slam to send the slashed Croagunk back down onto the already unconscious frogs.

~Fortress Boss (Super Mario Bros. 3) stops~

The knocked out Croagunk flew all over as soon as the slashed Croagunk and Raichu crashed down onto them. One of them flew over and knocked Oscar both into unconsciousness and out of his trash can. Another Croagunk made off with the trash can, laughing in Peter Griffin's dumb voice.

~Expander from Streets Of Rage 2 starts to play~

"And now I hope you disagree with your own notion," Raichu scoffed. She got off the Croagunk she just body slammed and discovered a decent amount of more Croagunk enemies had surrounded her. "C'mon, I know you people want to be personally pulverized by the Eternal Thunderstorm, but couldn't you guys at least made a line?" The Croagunk leaped at the Mouse Pokémon, but Raichu retaliated by using Surf. Riding on top of the tide she summoned, Raichu plowed down some of the Croagunk in front of her. Those that didn't get swept by the water however not only stood firm, but even got healed a bit thanks to their Dry Skin ability that allowed them to absorb some of the water. Some of the Croagunk that took the hit laughed at Raichu's failure. However, with the tidal wave gone, Raichu raced back and used Thunder Punch to send one of the Toxic Mouth Pokémon flying off towards the sun.

"Get her!" one of the Croagunk demanded. The poisonous Pokémon that surrounded her prior charged ahead again, but she just waited for the one that would attempt to attack first. The first Croagunk that drew near got struck in the stomach with a slightly weaker Thunder Punch before getting assaulted with a flurry of Thunder Punches. She finished the Croagunk off with a stronger Thunder Punch, sending them right into a nearby building head-first.

"Oh boy, tasty frog legs!" a Goomba remarked, standing right next to the stuck Croagunk. Everyone stopped fighting for a moment to give the Goomba a disgusted glare, including the four heroes. "What?" A bunch of the Croagunk that Raichu didn't hit with her Surf attack before rushed over piled onto the mushroom, constantly using the move Poison Jab on them. The Goomba let out a small shriek when the Croagunk first attacked, but said shriek died in seconds, and the Croagunk backed off another second later, revealing the flattened and bruised Goomba to the world. Everyone then returned to fighting, with Raichu barely dodging all of the attacks from the group of Croagunk coming after her again.

"You will not stop us!" Lucina yelled, slashing away another Croagunk. The Croagunk crushed into the back of a dump truck, which drove off. As Lucina jumped around to dodge and attack, she caught quick glimpses of just how many opponents Raichu was dealing with in comparison to the rest of her allies. While the mouse was having an easier time taking down her opponents, she was also having a harder time dodging their attacks. "Raichu! Do you need some help?!"

"Relax! I got this all under control!" Raichu boasted, pinning down a Croagunk by the neck with one hand. However, one of the Croagunk managed to strike her with a Poison Jab, poisoning her. Lucina rushed over, clearing away some of the Croagunk before tossing Raichu a Pecha Berry. "Bleh... I said I had this all under control. I don't need any help. Ugh... thanks though, I guess."

"I think we're all going to need help at this rate," Lucina remarked, taking a short glace at Falco, who threw a loaf of bread at a Croagunk. The Croagunk caught it, stared at it, and then sat down and started nibbling the loaf. Roy approached Falco before the canon-wielding Croagunk fired another fireball. The fireball crashed and exploded right in front of the two morons, knocking them a good distance away. A fair distance away on the sidewalk was a Waddle Dee, sitting beneath a ? Block. The Waddle Dee spotted the incoming Falco and Roy, let out a shriek, jumped up like a super star from the shock and smacked the block above, which released a Fire Flower on top, and finally ran off. While Falco barely managed to land on his feet, Roy ended up getting his head stuck into an open sewer entrance.

"NO! THE ROYSTER HAS BEEN IMPRISONED TWICE NOW!" Roy screeched. Falco barely managed to yank Roy and the Junior Clown Car out of the hole. "HALFWAY FREE! Thank you brother!"

"No problem, guy I'm not related to," Falco responded. The space pilot noticed the Fire Flower and jumped on top of what was once a ? block and now an Empty Block to grab the power-up.

"I'd recommend not eating one of those, brother. They taste terrible and give you heart burn," Roy claimed. Falco ignored the ex-wrestler's words of wisdom and swallowed it whole.

"That's weird, I thought these things were supposed t-" Falco muttered. Suddenly, Falco transformed into Fire Falco. His outfit changed to his red alt. costume from the Smash Bros. games and faint, painless flares surrounded his hand-wing things. "Oh, OK."

"Do you feel the heart burn yet?" Roy asked, nibbling on a Slim Jim, with the Croagunk that caught the bread earlier nibbling their loaf right next to the Koopa.

"No, but they will!" Falco then tried to charge up a Fire Bird attack, but instead he unintentionally charged ahead and was surrounded in blue flames instead of the usual orange flames. "WOAH!"

"Bah! Your flames are nothing compared to mine!" the canon Croagunk claimed. The maniac frog fired another fireball, heading right for the rapidly approaching Falco.

~Expander stops~

Right as the engulfed Falco and the fireball were about to collide, time seemed to slow down drastically. Both objects inched closer and closer until they were practically touching.

~Fire Field from F-Zero starts to play~

But the fireball, despite exploding upon contact, couldn't even slow Falco down. The canon Croagunk didn't have to react, for Falco slammed right into them. Thanks to the flames and the canon Croagunk's Dry Skin ability, the frog's skin dried up to the point of cracking. Eventually, Falco stopped his attack, just so he could turn around and zoom right back to the fight using the same move. The canon Croagunk got off the street, though a piece of their cracked stomach broke off. They just stood there, staring at the shard of their body, frozen in horror.

"Eat this, pal!" Raichu excitedly growled, using Thunder Punch into the side of a Craogunk's jaw to smash them into a building.

"I must admit, you sure can clear through more enemies than most could on their own..." Lucina remarked, blocking a Croagunk with her Parallel Falchion before slashing them away. "But you really need to learn to accept hel-"

"Yeah, I really can sweep the floor clean of rats like these numbskulls. But hey, you guys aren't doing too bad yourselves," Raichu replied. After Falco blazed through a decent amount of Croagunk, he stopped and noticed that most of the remaining Croagunk were the ones Raichu and Lucina were dealing with, aside from a few Roy was body slamming constantly and the Croagunk peacefully eating the bread.

"Hmm... I wonder if I can toss fireballs too now..." the space pilot thought to himself. He threw ahead a single fireball at the large group of Croagunk left...

~Fire Field stops~

Suddenly, something surrounded with water flew through a tiny gap left between Lucina, Raichu, and the Croagunk, put out the fireball, slammed into Falco. The water kept pushing the bird ahead until the one within the water knocked Falco upwards. The water dissipated, revealing the creature within to be a Poliwhirl. The Poliwhirl then used Waterfall, surrounding itself in water again and flying after Falco to push him upwards even more before using the move Ice Punch to send Falco onto a window where a Shy Guy was staring out towards the outside world. The Shy Guy waved, and Falco waved back until he started sliding down the building.

"Thank goodness, the blue guy's daughter is here!" one of the Croagunk cheered.

"Dude, he's been with us as second-in-command for several months, and you still can't just refer to him or his daughter by name?" another Croagunk groaned.

"He's not the boss, so his name isn't worth remembering! Just like yours, Croagunk number four-hundred and fifty-three!"

"What did you just say, punk?!"

"You heard me, you generic dunce!" Everyone else, from every other Croagunk, to Lucina and Roy, and even the Poliwhirl stared at the two arguing frogs. Only Falco, Raichu, and the Croagunk eating bread kept their attention off of the argument.

"Hey, blue blunder! You think you can just come in and try to turn the tides?!" Raichu growled.

"Yes," Poliwhirl calmly answered.

"... Well, guess what? You don't stand a chance! I can shock you into submission in seconds!"

"Try it then, rat."

"It's on!" That's when Falco finally slipped off the side of the building and landed on Donkey Kong, who had just arrived. Falco flashed between his Fire form and his normal form until he reverted back to normal. Both Raichu and Poliwhirl lunged for each other, charging up a Thunder Punch and an Ice Punch respectively. However, something was flying down from the air like a drill. Before the two Pokémon had the chance to fight, the flying object slammed right into Poliwhirl's body. Despite all of the drilling the flying object did, Poliwhirl managed to knock it off.

"Now what was that?" Poliwhirl looked back up, finding the flying object was a Honchkrow. Numerous Murkrow flew in and landed around the fight scene, glaring at the Croagunk and Poliwhirl.

"So now you're harassing others, eh? We weren't enough for ya?" the Honchkrow asked. The Croagunk started getting a little worried, but Poliwhirl remained calm yet silent.

"... Everyone, retreat," Polwhirl ordered. The Croagunk started screeching and running off in the direction Poliwhirl stood. One Croagunk ran over to Luigi, who was in a Pipe Frame kart, tossed the green plumber out of the kart, and drove off. Some of the running Croagunk trampled over Luigi, leaving him bruised. With the Croagunk mostly out of sight, Poliwhirl turned around as well. "We'll deal with you later. Both you Murkrow and you four hijackers." Poliwhirl chased after her Croagunk allies using Waterfall again, catching up to them in seconds.

"I... I definitely could've handled that by myself. I had the type advantage. It would've been a one-on-one fight. Come. On." Raichu complained. Honchkrow just sighed in response.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Lucina asked the Big Boss Pokémon. Honchkrow was about to speak, but turned both ways before doing so.

"I'll explain everything, but... we really shouldn't be doing this kinda talk out here. We need somewhere private for all of us. Somewhere where those palookas won't find us."

"I have a place in mind!" Falco, currently being held by Donkey Kong with only one hand, exclaimed.

XxXx

Almost all of the Murkrow from Honchkrow's group were resting on the roof of the apartment complex Falco lived in as the sun started setting. Most of them had a deadpan glare in their eyes.

"Welp, guess we should start getting ready from the inevitable assault from either the cops or those Croagunk," one of the Murkrow groaned. A Murkrow right next to them pulled out a bazooka out of nowhere. The first Murkrow slapped the bazooka out of the second's wings, resulting in the second Murkrow tilting their head down in shame. Within Falco's apartment, the four heroes, Honchkrow, a few of Honchkrow's Murkrow cronnies, and even DK were chilling. DK opened the fridge, discovering the Peanut Butter Jelly Time Banana. The banana screamed a tiny scream and leaped out of the chilling prison, and thus DK gave chase across the apartment.

~Virbank City from Pokémon: Black 2/ White 2 starts to play~

"So... the story about those Croagunk..." Honchkrow started. "Our mafia and their's go way back. For about a decade now, we've been rival restaurant owners. Italian restaurant owners."

"Speaking of Italian food, I still have no idea where that stuff came from," Falco commented, earning a sigh from Lucina.

"No one does. Anyway, their building was just a few blocks away from ours. Both of our restaurants even opened on the same day... March fourteenth, back in o-ten. Since that day, we've been rivals... stealing things from each other, painting graffiti on each other's buildings..."

~Virbank City stops as Sandgem Town from Pokémon: Diamond/ Pearl starts~

March 28th, 2010

A younger Honchkrow, still only a Murkrow that wore a hat shaped like the hat-like crest a Honchkrow would have, flew alongside many other Murkrow along New Donk City's skyline. Eventually, they dived down for a semi-truck. The young Honchkrow picked the lock on the trailer the truck was pulling using a crowbar, and the rest of the Murkrow went in and came back out with packaged meat. The truck stopped on the edge of the road, and a Croagunk came out to scream at the fleeing birds.

April 20th, 2013

A lone Murkrow was scrubbing off the final bits of graffiti on the front side of "Midnight Delizioso Bar". Literally the second the Murkrow grabbed the nearby broom, two Croagunk showed up and painted a picture of a Croagunk T-Posing over a Murkrow right where the original graffiti was. As the two frogs were making the final touches, the Murkrow started swinging the broom around like a Bō and continuously smacked the two on the head.

~Sandgem Town stops~

"Ah... those were the old days," Honchkrow commented.

"They shouldn't be the old days, we should still be in like two-thousand and fifteen or somethin'," one of the Murkrow inside the apartment replied while the PBJT Banana tried to fend off DK with a kitchen knife drenched in peanut butter and jelly.

"I mean yes, but let me continue," the boss bird said. "Despite the tension between our groups, neither end took this rivalry too seriously. The worst that would happen is a minor fight that would happen once every few months. But back in last November... someone snuck their way into their restaurant and actually blew up the kitchen. No one got harmed or anything since no one else was even there, but it took a lot of cash to repair the damages made to that place. Next day, the Croagunk started attacking any lone wolves in our kind without hesitation, a low that neither of us went to before. Even though we definitely didn't cause the explosion, I know they must've pinned the blame on us. Even when we started leaving them be altogether, they still occasionally try to start something. And judging by the look of things, that violent behavior isn't just reserved for us now."

"... Right. Well, your story was nice and all, my guy, but just an FYI, we asked if you knew anything about this Delusion: Beta group and nothing else," Raichu scoffed.

"... Oh," Honchkrow uttered. "Well... I've heard quite a bit about that group."

~Stormy Sea from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red/ Blue Rescue Team starts to play~

"You have?!" Falco shouted.

"Yes... I even encountered them while they were fleeing from a fire-"

"FIRE?!" Falco roared.

"Fire!" Fox shouted in the room below, using his Fire Fox move.

"Yes, a fire. A fire that occurred back in October last year, down by the outskirts of town. At the time, I figured they were just a bunch of hooligans that tried to start a fire, only for things to backfire on them, like those irritating Fedora Dogs. Since they were wearing robes, and I felt no need to figure out their identities, I never bothered to fly up and see their faces. I heard one of those members scream about how the group needs to be disbanded after whatever happened. I could only assume that they did indeed just disband and that'd be the last I'd heard of them again, but one of our spies-"

"Me! Me me me! It was me!" a Murkrow in the room shouted.

"Yes, him, informed me that he heard rumors that the group had returned, though with only two of its original leaders still remaining. Granted, before this supposed revival, they were just called Delusion."

"So no Beta slapped on at the end to sound like some other organization?" Roy randomly asked.

"No, not at all. And since you four showed me that tag and explained what went down at the dome last night, that rumor's been confirmed as legitimate. Unfortunately, that's all I know about those shifty people, outside of that incident you just informed me abou-"

~Stormy Sea stops~

"BOSS! BOSSSSSS!" a Murkrow screeched, flying into the apartment.

"Oi! What is it? What's the big deal?"

"One of our spies came back in with a report about that Delusion group again!" the Murkrow replied.

"WHAT'D THEY SAY?!" Falco demanded.

"They said they overheard some tall blue guy talking to himself in an alley by that old warehouse on the other edge of town! They didn't hear much, but they heard the robot bring up that they couldn't "afford a confrontation like last night", meeting them at the warehouse around eleven, and something about something called Ridley."

"RIDLEY!" the space bird roared. He slammed his hand-wing thing onto the coffee table, breaking it into two pieces. "I KNEW THAT BASTARD WAS THE ONE BEHIND ALL OF THIS! WHEN I'M THROUGH WITH HIM, I'M GOING TO SNAP HIS BODY IN HALF LIKE-" Falco only then actually took into the fact that he destroyed his coffee table. "... Sheeoot."

"Hmm... eleven... that's only a few hours away..." Honchkrow remarked.

"And that's just fine brother!" Roy claimed. "That's just enough time to train, eat the meats, watch a round of wrestling, destroy the corrupt government with our bare fists..." The Junior Clown Car gained its twisted smile again and revealed its boxing arms, throwing a practice punch at DK while Roy continued talking. "... train more, eat more meat..." The Clown Car's twisted smile was replaced with a horrified look featuring wide eyes and an open mouth before DK chased after the vehicle. "... go shopping, show those frog things what for, and train even more!"

"Eleven o' clock tonight, not eleven years from now," Raichu groaned.

"If we're going to have a brawl with this group, I'd suggest we bring some of those... power-ups, like the one Falco used earlier," Lucina said.

"I have a few on me," Honchkrow replied, grabbing a Fire Flower and a Cape Feather out of his own feathers.

"Sacrificing one of your own feathers for us... that takes a lot of courage. I like that," Falco stupidly remarked.

"Thank you, Honchkrow. Much appreciated," Lucina stated.

"We'll finally crush those brats for messing with the Royster, the Royster's brother, and the Royster's friends!" Roy yelled, him and his Clown Car lying on the floor while DK beat the shit out of the latter.

"That's right! We'll make them pay for the life they took, for kidnapping Incineroar, and for making me break my own property! ESPECIALLY for Cucco's death!"

"And while you guys do that, I'm gonna watch television," one of the Murkrow brought up. Said Murkrow turned on the TV, which just so happened to be airing the fight between the four heroes and the Croagunk. "Oh cool, anime."

~Lava Reef Zone, Act 1 from Sonic Mania starts to play~

Suddenly, a text box reading "Our heroes finally have a lead on where Delusion: Beta are hiding out!" appeared over everyone. A text box that everyone noticed and stared at.

"Oh good, we've already gotten replaced," Chick, who just appeared out of nowhere, sarcastically remarked.

"Not on my watch!" Stew's voice boomed. The blue-haired chicken himself flew in and shattered the text box into millions of pieces with a single punch.

~Lava Reef Zone, Act 1 stops~

Stew safely landed on the floor before realizing that everyone were now staring at him.

"What?" Stew asked. The PBJT Banana slowly rose up right behind the chicken, still holding its peanut butter and jelly knife.