Author's Note:

Can't believe that it's already September...time sure flies, don't it? On to the reviews:

"Dangit, looks like you'll miss the Astral Chain's anniversary! It was supposed to be on the 30th (just 3 days from this chapter). Will there ever be a chance (even the slimmest one) for the Astral Chain redux chapter to ever happen?"

Pac-Man World: Re-Pac really threw me off. But no worries, there's still a chance for an Astral Chain redux chapter to happen. Next is The Reader:

"Wait, Falco said that if Waluigi wins, Shadow will be the man of the tower. Waluigi will only be the man of the tower if Shadow wins. So, since Waluigi wins, Shadow should've been the man of the tower now! Or is that an honest mistake from you?"

That was indeed an honest mistake. I'll have to go back and change it. Moving on:

"Also, you know what would've been funny? You showed that all of Pac-Man's family is kidnapped, except Ms. Pac-Man isn't kidnapped, since, you know, she's been replaced by Pac-Mom and all?"

Would've been funny for sure. Still feels weird seeing Pac-Mom taking her place in the remake. A JRPG enjoyer has inquired about Octopath Traveler once again:

"So...whatever happened to introducing the other Octopath groups? It's been 2 weeks, and I still don't see any signs of Therion, H'aanit, Tressa, Olberic, Ophilia, and Cyrus. Don't tell me Alfyn and Primrose will be the only ones appearing."

Alfyn and Primrose won't be the only protagonists appearing. The other six heroes have been planned for future chapters down the line. The gang will have made an appearance before Thanksgiving, mark my words. Up next is An NFL fan:

"Well, the pre-season is almost over, and it's now time to prepare for the NFL season opener. Will we see some reactions from the residents for the 2022 season? I mean, the Seahawks are on their all-time low, and I wanted to see how Master Hand would react. Maybe he'll think that Drew Lock is the new savior of Seattle, or maybe he wants the Seahawks to tank in the season to get a better quarterback."

I may do something football-related in the next chapter (mainly because my Bills are playing in the season opener), so you might see a few reactions from the residents concerning the new season. I doubt that Master Hand will view Drew Lock as the franchise savior, but given how much of a Seahawks fan he is, we'll see how that goes. David with questions:

"Does Viridi wear different outfits besides her goddess one? Have Pit and Viridi gotten a proper date after the last one ended with Pit covered in beestings? Is Baraduke (Dig-Dug's ex-wife and Mr. Driller's mom) going to have the trope of "The Character Died With Her" enforced when Dig-Dug and Mr. Driller appear? (Mainly because Yuko Mizutani who voiced her in Namco X Capcom passed away in 2016). Has Futaba taught Tails how to be a hacker? Is anyone in the Mansion a fan of The Usos? And finally, do you think AEW is gonna lose fans after the bad Squash Match between CM Punk and Jon Moxley? And you think Moxley went too far throwing shade at WWE and desperately telling fans to watch AEW? (Some said that he pretty much indirectly insulted Seth 'Freakin' Rollins and Roman Reigns when he threw shade at WWE)."

Viridi does wear different outfits, on occasion. Pit and Viridi haven't had a proper date since chapter 68. Baraduke won't have that particular trope. Futaba hasn't taught Tails...yet. Pit might be a fan of the Usos. I don't think that the squash match will necessarily make AEW lose fans, but the bad will from the match may precipitate it. And yes, Moxley did go too far with throwing shade. Way to be professional, Mox! We also have a returning Prometheus:

"1) How do you think Mario and Sonic would do against each other in a bet to see who has the hardest levels and see who wins? Depends on the level of course, but yeah
2) Can smash's Dedede ever meet his chubby self from Kirby 64 and Forgotten Land?"

1) Based on my own past experience, Mario would probably win the bet. I still have mixed feelings about World 9-7 from New Super Mario Bros Wii...
2) If the cards are played right, then perhaps.

The last review comes from Romance Enjoyer, and it has spoilers about the ending of Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Skip past this if you must...

"Well, since Dunkey is tweeting about it, I guess now I can tell you about Rex's relationship with his lady friends. So apparently, Rex having a harem is a thing, now. He managed to not only bag Pyra and Mythra, but he also got Nia on his side as well! And now, the funniest part, Rex got a child each from Pyra, Mythra, AND Nia. That man is a player! Ngl, kinda reminds me of Uzui Tengen from Demon Slayer. So, now you can fix Rex-Nia-Pyra (and Mythra) love triangle! Having him date all three! Yes, it's that wild."

When I saw that picture of Rex with his...harem, I almost laughed my butt off. Rex dating Pyra, Mythra, AND Nia might happen in this story. Everybody wins. But would I commit to doing that? What if I just keep Rex with Nia? Come to think of it, not many folks would be too ecstatic about that...

Episode 350: Haunted

As much as he probably enjoyed eating ghosts, there was one thing about Pac-Man that most people didn't know...he used to grow up with a ghost! That ghost was called Orson, who in the last episode kidnapped Pac-Man's family in an attempt to lure his childhood friend to Ghost Island.

Or so Pac-Man and Mario believed. It turned out that Orson was used as part of a plot by Magolor and busted-out inmate Sho Minazuki to lure not only Pac-Man but Mario to the island. Fortunately, Mario ruined their plans when he captured a pink ghost, infiltrated a ghost party, and took care of the Toc-Man robot that Magolor piloted. Oh, and he also freed the captured Pac-Man and his family, can't forget the important part.

But there was a question that often flies under the radar - was there any evidence of other ghosts existing out there? It was a question that was rarely asked, but it deserved some merit...or at least the male Inkling thought so.

"Dimentio was spotted near the top of the Space Needle," Isabelle said to Master Hand as the two strolled down the hallway, with Isabelle discussing an incident that was recently reported. "Should we do something?"

"Maybe he was just checking out the city's attractions," replied Master Hand, not willing to do anything about Dimentio unless stuff was really going down. "What, should we document him inspecting the Taj Mahal?"

"Perhaps not, but Dimentio constantly popping up in town is a slight cause of concern. Especially if he's doing it away from the mansion."

"Master Hand, I got a question for ya," the male Inkling approached the giant hand, who was stopped in his tracks along with Isabelle. "Do you believe that ghosts are real? Aside from the ones that Luigi and Pac-Man deal with?"

"I believe that you're a doofus! Ha!" snorted Master Hand, as the male Inkling appeared unamused by the response. So unamused, that Master Hand petered off on the laughing. "You don't...you don't have to take that answer seriously."

"Asking the wrong person..." With his question left unanswered, the male Inkling walked away as he looked for someone more knowledgeable to ask. Soon Ness and Lucas approached Master Hand, also with a question to ask.

"Can we speak with you in your room, Master Hand?" Lucas asked the giant hand as he nervously twiddled with his fingers, while Ness looked equally as nervous if not more. "It's something important..."

"Let me guess, you broke another window while playing baseball?" presumed Master Hand, knowing that Ness and Lucas were nervous for a reason - but not for the reason he was thinking. "You're too old now to be spanked, so...just, just come with me."

Ever since Dimentio was first discovered on the mansion's security tape, Samus and X would visit the computer room every now and then to review the security footage. More recently, the duo would stop by the producers' room in the mansion to look over the documentary footage, just to look for anything out of the ordinary. They were in the room right now, going through the laptops and whatnot.

"Why is there footage of the All-Star Manor?" questioned X, watching footage from the April Fool's episode that was episode 328. On his screen were Big Daddy and Little Sister about to play hopscotch.

"Amazing what our friends are able to get away with," remarked Samus, who was viewing raw footage of Pac-Man wheeling the Pac-Attack arcade machine into his home. Pac-Man was seen screaming when he saw the camera on him, as he quickly covered the lens with his hands.

Samus: We have to go through the documentary footage, to see what the security cameras don't show. Only because you guys don't really tell us what's going on, most of the time. But don't worry, we asked the producers for permission to access the room. *pauses* Or I might've forced them. Almost broke a hand here and there.

"Gotta stop watching this, I'm getting sidetracked," said X, pausing his video and pulling up a new window on the laptop. The new window featured footage of Bowser Jr and company down in Vault Boy's fallout shelter.

"No wonder the security cameras in the arcade room were turned off that night," commented Samus, barely even listening to X as she was watching the footage of Pac-Man intently. X fast-forward through his footage, only to stop when he saw something amiss.

"Uh oh..." X froze the footage at the scene of Magolor in the fallout shelter, holding a can of beans while in front of a cryogenic chamber. But it wasn't Magolor that caught the robot's attention.

"Uh oh? What do you mean, uh..." Samus wheeled her chair over to X and soon found herself staring at X's laptop screen with the same look X had. "...oh."

With no time to waste, Samus and X hustled to Master Hand's room with Samus holding the laptop X was using. Whatever or however they saw was so concerning, that Master Hand absolutely had to know.

"Did you ask the producers if you could borrow their laptop?" X asked Samus as the two were nearing Master Hand's room. A little too late to be asking that question, X.

"Does it even matter?" retorted Samus, holding the laptop close to her chest as she saw Master Hand's room with distance. Once she reached Master Hand's bedroom door, Samus kicked it open with a simple roundhouse kick.

"Again with kicking doors?!" boomed Master Hand, who was in his room (obviously) with Isabelle, Ness, and Lucas...and Link and Zelda, too. "Those door hinges aren't cheap, you know..."

"Now isn't the time, Samus," Zelda kindly told the bounty hunter; if the princess and Link were present, then what Ness and Lucas had to share was far more serious than just a broken window.

"Yes, Zelda, thank you for putting Samus in her place." Master Hand expected Samus and X to leave, but neither of them wanted to. Well, X would leave. "Now what were you saying, Ness?"

"He was there with Giovanni," Ness explained to Master Hand, detailing a brief encounter that he witnessed at the tail end of the last episode. "There was a portal opened and then..."

"Who was with Giovanni?" Samus asked Ness, as her mere presence was enough to make Master Hand growl. X, on the other hand, didn't bother Master Hand nearly as much. "Who are we talking about?"

"Can you not butt into our conversation, Miss Aran?" Master Hand asked the bounty hunter, never more incensed with Samus than he was right now. "Link, can you ask our unwanted visitors to leave?"

"Ness and Lucas saw a man speaking with Giovanni," Link explained to Samus, doing the exact opposite of what Master Hand wanted. "The man was..." The Hylian did a brief pause, as he furrowed his brow. "...that man was Zant."

"Funny you should mention him," said X as he took the laptop from Samus and opened it up. The robot pulled up the fallout shelter footage and placed the laptop in Isabelle's hands. "Check this out..."

Master Hand and company gathered around Isabelle, who pressed the play button. The footage played, as everyone saw Magolor eating from a can of Vault-Tec beans - with his mouth unexposed. Nothing too exciting about that. But when the Twilight portal appeared, and Zant and Astor exited from it and spoke with Magolor, that's when the intrigue started to rise and settle in.

"That's the man who helped Zant in trying to sabotage our wedding," Zelda whispered to Link as she pointed at Astor, Zant's right-hand man. Master Hand saw the footage, becoming fully incensed.

"Zant is teaming up with Dimentio?!" boomed Master Hand, as he was now taking the threat of Dimentio more seriously than he did before. "Now this is getting personal."

"This was in Vault Boy's fallout shelter," explained X, as Isabelle paused the video and gave X back his laptop. Erm, the producers' laptop. "Quite the interesting development, I'll say."

"What are we gonna do, Master Hand?" Isabelle asked the giant hand, who was now super determined to put an end to whatever Dimentio was plotting.

"Since Zant is involved...I'd say that we pay our former enemies a visit," replied Master Hand; it took Isabelle a while to figure out who Master Hand was referring to.

"Our former enemies? You don't mean the...oh dear."

"Yes, I do mean them. We are going to New York!"

At the Mario household, Mario was stuck with a dilemma - the guy didn't know what to cook for dinner! He had more meat in his fridge than he knew what to do with, and he wished to use said meat before it expired. With dinnertime drawing near, Mario had to make up his mind soon.

"Hot-a dogs, or hamburgers?" Mario asked Spyro and Hunter, who were in the living room watching television. Mario held up a pack of hot dogs in one hand, and a pack of burgers in the other.

"What the girl in that taco commercial says," replied Hunter, as Mario stared at the cheetah until he got a more definite answer. "Hamburgers, I guess..."

Spyro: Hunter watches a lot of weird videos on Mario's computer. For instance, he'll watch some old taco commercial with some young Mexican girl. On repeat. I hope that he never discovers those Japanese commercials...trust me, I've seen some stuff.

"I'm in more of a hot dog mood myself," answered Spyro, and soon Mario was left with another dilemma - Spyro and Hunter preferred different things. The plumber needed a dealbreaker, and fast.

"Why not consult me about dinner?" Peach asked Mario as she came into the living room, holding Lou in her loving arms. "I am your wife, after all." Mario stared long and hard at his wife, considering the princess's point.

"Tell-a you what - whoever cleans-a out the oven first will have the meal-a they crave for," Mario said to Spyro and Hunter, who both hopped off the couch as they ran to the kitchen. Spyro outraced Hunter as he reached the oven first.

"Ha! You snooze, you lose!" Spyro taunted Hunter, who stomped his foot in defeat as Spyro had his hand on the oven door. When Spyro opened the oven, he saw something in there that he shouldn't see...

"BOO!" exclaimed the imp that was hiding in the oven, Midna, as she flew right out of the appliance. Spyro was momentarily frightened as he took a step back, nearly crashing into Hunter.

"How long have you been hiding in there?" Spyro watched as Midna hovered down to eye level with the purple dragon, and Midna was slightly upset that Spyro wasn't any more afraid.

"Not that long - I just wanted to scare somebody." Midna saw Mario and Peach enter the kitchen, slamming the oven door shut. "But really, I came here to tell Mario something."

"Midna why are-a you here, you don't live-a with us!" stated Mario, wishing that Midna had cleaned out his oven while she was hiding in there. "On that note...hot-a dogs, or hamburgers?"

"Forget your dinner plans!" Midna flew over to Mario and slapped the meat out of the plumber's hands, causing the meat to fall on the floor. "You're going with Link and Zelda to New York City. They wanted me to tell you."

"New York-a City? At this time of the night?" It was getting close to six o'clock in Seattle; New York was only three hours ahead. A pretty huge time jump.

"Quit your complaining - think of it as a formal business trip." A formal business trip...that didn't make Mario feel any better about going.

"I'll cook the meat while you're gone," Peach assured Mario, letting her husband know that dinner will be ready for him once he returned home. "The hot dogs - and the hamburgers, too."

"Guess that means we both won," Hunter said to Spyro as he held out his hand for a handshake; Spyro walked away, leaving poor Hunter hanging.

"Well, if I have to go on a business-a trip to New York..." Mario said to Midna as he pulled out his phone, with a person in mind that he wished to call. "...then I'm gonna need a traveling partner."

After being the lone working barista at Cafe Leblanc, Pit was given a part-time schedule by Joker as a reward for his hard work. It didn't mean that Pit got his own "special counsel", but it does mean that the angel had more time to play games in the arcade room.

"Beat you yet again!" Pit taunted Cloud, as he bested the swordsman in Space Invaders for the nth time. Who's to say that Cloud wasn't giving it his all? "Turns out you're not as good at arcade games when Denzel isn't player two."

"I kind of missed Pit being a full-time barista," Cloud said to Meta Knight, who nodded his head in much agreement as he walked away. Shortly after Meta Knight left, Cloud heard his phone ring, and he answered the call. "Yes? Hey, Mario - no, I'm not busy. What's up?"

Master Hand, Link, Zelda, and Isabelle were about to head out, intending on going to New York City for what Master Hand called to be a "business trip". The group was in the foyer, where Master Hand saw Dark Pit and Mr. Game and Watch doing their usual groundskeeping duties.

"Mr. Game and Watch! Dark Pit!" shouted Master Hand, as both men stopped what they were doing and gave Master Hand their uninvited attention. "The four of us are heading out. You two are gonna wash the bathrooms, right?"

"Yes, sir!" Mr. Game and Watch saluted Master Hand, knowing that any bathroom left uncleaned was a blemish on his record.

"Absolutely not!" Dark Pit saluted Mater Hand, knowing that he had far more important tasks to complete than cleaning a stinky bathroom.

"Haha! You stay out of trouble!" Master Hand said to the groundskeeping duo, as he and the others left the mansion. Link, Zelda, and Isabelle went through the front door, while Master Hand just disappeared.

Link: We will be flying to New York in the Great Fox. Master Hand argued that it'll be more "professional" that way, as opposed to just teleporting there. Which I agree with.

Master Hand: Our traveling party has yet to be completed. Aside from Mario, there is another man that will be coming with us. He may not know about it as of yet but eventually, he will.

Once Master Hand and company left, Dark Pit and Mr. Game and Watch resumed their current tasks. Kasumi passed through the foyer, maneuvering past the two groundskeepers when she saw a curtain.

"Hey, guys! What's this?" asked Kasumi as she unveiled the curtain, revealing a secret ladder of sorts. "A secret ladder to the roof?" Mr. Game and Watch stopped what he was doing, looking all fidgety.

"Uh, I don't think Master Hand would like that," Mr. Game and Watch said to Kasumi, before checking to see if Master Hand might return to the foyer at any given second. The Inklings were standing in the foyer, seeing Kasumi standing near the curtain.

"Can we actually go up there?" the male Inkling asked Kasumi, as he saw the secret ladder in plain sight. Mr. Game and Watch was growing more nervous.

"Sure we can! Roof time! Roof time!" chanted the female Inkling, and the male Inkling chanted along with her as the Inklings went through the curtain. Kasumi followed after the Inklings, as Mr. Game and Watch reached peak nervousness. Dark Pit, on the other hand, casually carried on with his work.

Kasumi and the Inklings went up the ladder that was behind the curtain and arrived at a lower roof of the mansion. To the Inklings' surprise, they saw a cooler, a beach chair, and a pile of pine cones lying about.

"Cool! Did you put all this stuff up here?" the male Inkling asked Kasumi, whose eyes darted around a bit as she made a knowing smile.

"I may or may not sneak up here during my free time," replied Kasumi, as she took a pine cone and threw it at a target on a tree. Perfect precision. "Yes!"

"Me first!" exclaimed the female Inkling, as he and her male counterpart took turns throwing pine cones at the target. The male Inkling's aim was off, as he struck Luigi's car by accident. The Inkling blushed as the car alarm went off.

Luigi: *sighs deeply* Why is it that my beloved-a car is always a target of abuse?

"Jackpot! High five," exclaimed Kasumi as she held up her hand to the male Inkling; the male Inkling looked at the young woman, almost entranced. "Don't leave me hanging." Breaking out of his trance, the male Inkling leaped up and gave Kasumi a high five.

"Kasumi!" Yusuke was heard shouting to Kasumi, who turned around and saw Yusuke standing at the entrance to the lower roof. Kasumi wasn't the only one who knew about that secret ladder.

"My friends must be waiting on me. Later, Inklings!" Kasumi waved to the Inklings as she followed Yusuke down the ladder, while the male Inkling looked on.

"Later Kasumi!" the male Inkling waved back to Kasumi, while the female Inkling looked at her male friend with a smile. Heh heh heh...good times."

"Uh, oh! Somebody's in love!" the female Inkling grinned as she poked the male Inkling; she remembered fondly of the male Inkling fighting with Jeff and Hisui Hearts over Kasumi's affection in episode 202.

"Yeah, right! I just think Kasumi's cool, okay? It's not like I lay awake at night thinking about her!"

Male Inkling: Aight, confession time...I do lay awake at night thinking about Kasumi. Please don't tell anyone...

Today marked the one-week anniversary of Conker staying at his new house, with Jakob as a roommate. But Jakob wasn't the only temporary roommate that Conker had - the squirrel also had Pac-Man's old friend, Orson, stay with him. Sonic and Lavenza would stop by the house just to see how Conker was handling himself.

"Is this your wine cellar?" Lavenza asked Conker, who was showing the blue hedgehog some new stuff he added to his house. Sonic and Lavenza came across a wine cellar, looking skeptically at the bottles of beer lined up on the shelf.

"No, it's...it's a syrup cellar!" Conker replied nervously as he grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniels and handed it to Sonic. "I sure love syrup." Conker belched loudly, as he tried to shrug it off with a smile.

"Oh cool, I didn't know that Jack Daniels also made syrup," marveled Sonic as he screwed off the top of the Jack Daniels and took a sniff, as Conker's nervous smile grew even wider. "Smells as strong as their beer..."

"Conker, your beer bottles have filled up the recycling bin," Jakob alerted the squirrel as he stopped by the wine cellar, with Conker silently begging the butler to stop speaking. "When are you going to..."

"NEVER!" shouted Conker as he snatched the Jack Daniels from Sonic and bashed it over Jakob's head. Jakob was mostly unaffected, his stoic visage intact as the beer ran down his face. "What's with that face? Don't like syrup?"

"Remind me to sign you up for Alcoholics Anonymous before I leave..." Jakob wiped the beer and broken glass off his face, as went off to go clean his clothes. He would walk past Orson, who was speaking with another person that stopped by to visit - Pac-Man.

"Thought that Jakob was gonna be mean, but he's been pretty pleasant," Orson said to Pac-Man, sharing his experience with his two housemates so far. Jakob being nice to Orson was evidently a testament to Sonic's heart-to-heart with him.

"You wouldn't like him five years ago, he was a menace," remarked Pac-Man, happy to hear that Jakob was less hard to deal with than he was in the past. The doorbell rang, which was followed by a knock on the door. "Come in!"

Orson and company had more visitors come in, as Link and Zelda entered the house. The Hylian couple had to make one more pit stop before embarking on their trip to New York, but only at the request of Master Hand.

"Yo, Link and Zelda! Come and check out Conker's wine...I mean syrup cellar!" Sonic called out to the couple as he held up a bottle of Jack Daniels. Conker hastily snatched the Jack Daniels and placed it back on the shelf.

"That's cool, Sonic," responded Link, who was not at all interested as he and Zelda had some business to handle. The Hylian turned his attention to Pac-Man and Orson. "Is Jakob home?"

"Someone called?" inquired Jakob as he entered the living room, now wearing a clean dress shirt while fastening on a new black vest. "Ah, Princess Zelda and Link! Has the royal family of Nohr made contact with you?"

"Not yet - we were wondering if you were available for coming with us to New York," Zelda offered to Jakob, who appeared slightly intrigued by the idea.

"There's a bunch of guys and gals that we think you deserve to meet," added Link, as Sonic and Pac-Man knew exactly who these guys and gals were.

"Can I come too?" Sonic asked Link and Zelda as he raised his hand, wanting in on the trip to the Big Apple. "I've never been to New York before. Or maybe I did. Who knows!"

"Obviously, he's going for the chili dogs..." Zelda whispered to Link; New York City was known for its chili dogs, and many other culinary specialties. "...we'll see if Master Hand approves."

"Uh, you and Lavenza are free to come with," Link said to Sonic, who celebrated by pumping his fist. Ask and you shall receive. "Provided that you're on your best behavior..."

With Master Hand going on a "business trip" to New York, the residents were free to party away. And party away they did, as a bunch of folks was letting loose in the gaming room. Kasumi was invited by her friends to this party, which was what compelled the male Inkling to stop by. The female Inkling came along too, just to mess with her bestie.

"Random dance party for no reason!" exclaimed Shantae as she danced her tail off, while the others joined in on the dancefloor. Akihiko watched from a distance, considering his options before walking away.

"Go! Go! Go! Go!" chanted Ribbon Girl, with a few others joining in with the pop singer. Meanwhile, the male Inkling was standing on the dancefloor, not dancing but rather writing "I am pretending to write something down" on a notepad.

"Inkling Boy!" Kasumi called out to the male Inkling, who threw his notepad up in the air before catching it with one hand. Caught it like Randy Moss.

"Uh what, yes?" the male Inkling asked Kasumi as he held the notepad behind his back, playing it cool as his crush was speaking with him.

"Aren't you gonna get in on this?"

"I don't really dance."

"Yeah, you do!" stated the female Inkling as she came over to Kasumi. "One time while we were in Inkopolis he had lost a bet, and he was forced to dress up in a lamb costume and do..." The female Inkling leaned in close to Kasumi and whispered in her ear, "...The Lamby Dance!"

"Now is not the time to talk about the Lamby Dance..." the male INkling said angrily to his female counterpart; now wasn't the time for him to be embarrassed.

"Lamb costume?" Kasumi furrowed her brow, as her sudden intrigue was causing the male Inkling's embarrassment to rise. "Wow, is there like little ears and a tail or...?"

"Well uh, uh..." The male Inkling looked down at the floor with his hands behind his back, and that's when the female Inkling held up a picture.

"The male Inkling would prance around and sing a song about grazing," the female Inkling explained to Kasumi, as the male Inkling silently motioned his friend to stop speaking. Thankfully for the male Inkling, Kasumi's notification sound went off, as Kasumi checked her phone.

"Well, look at that!" remarked Kasumi as she looked up and saw her Phantom Thief friends at the gaming room entrance. Sans Joker. "My friends are waiting for me."

"Wait! Why don't I...or we come with you?" the male Inkling proposed to Kasumi, right before the young woman could make her leave. Kasumi looked at the male Inkling, having some doubts.

"Ooh...I don't know. My friends are pretty intense. How old did you guys say you are?

"We're, uh...thirteen! So, technically a teen.

"All right. I like your moxie! Let me get my stuff." So Kasumi left, following her friends out of the gaming room.

"Since when are we thirteen?" wondered the female Inkling, who honestly had no clue how old she and the male Inkling were. "Is this a leap year?"

"Come on, female Inkling," the male Inkling said to his friend, not wanting to let this opportunity go to complete waste. "This is our chance to hang out with, you know, the cool kids. And Kasumi and whatever.

"I knew it! You love her!" The female Inkling pointed and laughed at her male counterpart, glad that her suspicions were correct.

"Oh hey, what's that?" The male Inkling pointed at something, and the female Inkling looked...only for the male Inkling to flip her hair over her face. Nothing better than sweet retaliation.

Fox had his Great Fox parked in front of Conker's house, as Fox was putting fuel into the spacecraft. Master Hand and the others all waited around for Fox to complete his task.

"Before you ask, I got Slippy to repair the Great Fox," Fox informed Mario, with several empty fuel tanks sitting at his feet. "He said it was moving slower than usual because..."

"Don't wanna hear any more-a excuses, Fox," Mario said to the pilot, who grunted as he decided to ignore Mario until the Great Fox was up off the ground.

"So this trip to New York City, what is it for?" Jakob asked Master Hand and Isabelle, slowly under the assumption that the "guys and gals" that Link referred to were the folks from the All-Star Maor.

"It's not just any regular trip - it's a business trip!" exclaimed Master Hand, doing a little jazz hand to add a bit of pizzazz. Nevertheless, Jakob wasn't that impressed. "We'll explain more during the ride."

"I'd prefer that you explain now, rather than doing a cop-out." Jakob had to abide by Master Hand's rules; his curiosity would have to wait for another minute or two.

"Got a full tank!" confirmed Fox, hearing a loud notification sound from the Great Fox. The pilot threw the last empty fuel tank to the side. "Time to get this show on the..."

"WAIT!" yelled Mario, right before Fox could hop inside the Great Fox and turn on the ignition. What could possibly be the hold-up now? "We have to wait-a on one more person."

"But who?" Zelda asked Mario, who impatiently tapped his foot as he looked at his watch. "We already have Jakob." Mario looked down the road, hoping for someone to show up at any minute.

"Yes! I beat him to the house!" a certain angel shouted from up above, as Pit made his descent to Conker's house. "Bet he thought that I got the wrong...address." Once he landed, Pit saw the others awkwardly staring at him.

"This is who you wanted to invite?" Link asked Mario, who was met with bitter disappointment when Pit arrived. Pit looked confused as to why nobody wanted to see him. "You must be joking, Mario."

Mario's hopes were lifted, as a motorcycle was seen driving down the road towards Conker's house. Mario looked up and smile as the motorcycle pulled up into the driveway...with Cloud behind the wheel.

Cloud: Master Hand and the gang are going to New York to visit the All-Star Manor. Apparently, Mario pegged me to come along on the trip. Had my reservations when he asked for Denzel, but that experiment turned out well in hindsight. So, I'll trust him on this one.

"I'd greatly appreciate it if you didn't eavesdrop on my phone calls," Cloud said to Pit, as he got off of his motorcycle; at least Pit could say that he reached Conker's house before Cloud did.

"Why did you invite him?" Master Hand asked Cloud, not that keen on Cloud going on the trip because of one reason. "He's part of the reason why we're in this mess with Dimentio."

"But we don't really know that..." said Sonic as he tried to silence Master Hand, almost certain that Mario, Link, and Zelda didn't know all the full details. The truth might set them free.

"Oh, but we do, Cloud even..." Master Hand was suddenly silenced, as Lavenza shushed the giant hand. Everyone looked shocked at Lavenza, in disbelief that the young girl had the gall to shut Master Hand's yap.

"Save your dispute for later," Lavenza said to Master Hand, who to everyone's surprise was backing down as he had no other words to say. "We have to go at once; it's getting late."

"Lavenza's right - it's getting late over on the east coast," stated Fox, taking out his keys and pressing a button as the hatch to the Great Fox opened. "Everybody hop in! Except you, Master Hand."

"I know that, McCloud..." said Master Hand, taking the more instant route to New York as he vanished away. Once everyone was inside, Fox turned on the ignition. Pac-Man stepped outside, watching as the Great Fox rose up in the air.

"And they're off!" the eater of ghosts proclaimed, as the Great Fox flew off into the sky. Orson would join Pac-Man at the front door, grimacing while holding a bottle of Jack Daniels "syrup".

"This syrup's disgusting...and too liquidy!" Orson said to Pac-Man, hacking up a storm as he spat out the contents. Pac-Man smiled in amusement upon seeing his friend learn the hard truth.

All of Kasumi's friends were outside in the mansion's driveway, waiting for Kasumi to show up. They were gathered around a Citroën H Van, which was a kind of vehicle that Morgan can transform into in Mementos. It was even black just like Morgana. Since he was done working at the cafe, Joker was able to join his friends outside.

"Is this van Morgana?" Joker asked Makoto, the driver of the van, as he was quick to notice how similar the vehicle was to Van Morgana. "I thought that he couldn't transform into a car in the outside world?"

"I'm right here, you know..." Morgana said to Joker, as he was standing at the young man's feet. Joker looked down and sheepishly smiled.

Makoto: *standing in front of Citroën H Van* Happened to steal this van from a man at a junkyard. I felt about it at first, but then I discovered that the man was a drug addict who somehow broke out of jail. So he had it coming for him.

"Hey, guys! Sorry that I was late," Kasumi apologized to her friends as she showed up outside, bringing the Inklings along with her. "The Inklings will be coming with us."

"So are you, like, babysitting, or..." Ryuji asked Kasumi, as he was not that fond of letting the Inklings hop aboard. It was supposed to be a Phantom Thieves' night out only.

"Come on, Ryuji! If you don't act nice, I'll make you do all the babysitting."

"Yeah, right! You can't make the guy who spray-painted Marth's house babysit."

"Oh, you mean the big muffin!" exclaimed the male INkling, who saw Ryuji's graffiti artwork; he had meant to splatter Marth's house with paint the other day.

"Um, it's a giant explosion." Soon everyone turned their attention to Marth's home, as they saw a giant "explosion" on the side of Marth's house.

"Hehe! Kinda does look like a muffin!" giggled Haru, as Ann and Futaba laughed along with her. Feeling self-conscious about his work, Ryuji glared intensely at the male Inkling.

"Let's hurry it up, guys," Makoto said to the others, as she got inside the van sitting in the driver's seat. "I got big plans for tonight!" Everyone got in the van, as the male Inkling went over to the passenger...only to see Ryuji already there.

"Sorry kid, I'll ride shotgun alright?" Ryuji said to the male Inkling, who grumbled as he got into the back with the female Inkling. With all the passengers seated and their seatbelts tucked in, Makoto took off as she drove the van down the road.

Thanks to the improvements Slippy had done, the Great Fox had a smoother ride than the one last week. The passengers didn't have to worry about any potential "system malfunctions" giving them anxiety. Pit, who was traveling to New York as an unwanted tag-along, was easily enchanted by the many gizmos inside the Great Fox.

"Why do you have a self-destruct button?" Pit asked Fox as he pointed at the button in question. The angel was tempted to press the button, but not at the risk of killing the other passengers.

"...it's more of a self-defense mechanism," answered Fox, as Pit ogled at the other buttons on the dashboard. Pit held his hand towards a switch, only for Fox to swat his hand away. "Hands off!"

"Mind filling me in on this business trip?" Jakob asked Isabelle, desiring to be caught up with the others if possible. "Master Hand said you'd explain more during the ride."

"I'm...not really the best explainer," Isabelle admitted to Jakob, nervously twiddling with her stubby hands. Jakob was given yet another cop-out.

"Falco may not handle you going to New York without him," Cloud said to Fox, already imagining how jealous Falco might be. Falco could shrug off Fox going to Ghost Island, but going to NYC? That would be unforgivable.

"He'll be fine," replied Fox, worrying very little about Falco; it was Krystal and Marcus he was more concerned about. Falco was a distant second. "He better not do something stupid like raiding my fridge while I'm gone."

With Fox taking Mario and company to New York, his house was now unoccupied...unless you exclude Krystal and Marcus. It was unoccupied nonetheless in the eyes of Falco, who entered the house with his house key. Having a key to Fox's house was a special kind of power Falco was not meant to have.

"Aw sweet, he left the television on," gleamed Falco, rubbing his hands in anticipation as he saw that the TV in the living room was left on. Falco sat on the sofa and relaxed, letting out an exhale.

Falco: Fox is off in New York, and so I'm gonna crash his place until he gets back. It's not like Krystal will bother me or anything - I've bothered her enough times to the point where she won't even speak to me on most days. I kinda did myself a favor.

"You're watching the black and white period piece old lady boring movie channel!" said the TV announcer, as Falco showed great displeasure with the TV channel that was on. Falco looked around for the TV remote but found it nowhere in sight.

"Krystal! I can't find the remote and I refuse to stand up!" Falco called out to Krystal, hoping for the vixen to show up and find the TV remote for him. But getting her to appear wouldn't be so easy.

"Stay tuned for the Friday night movie, The Duchess Approves, starring Sturly Stembleburgiss as 'The Duchess' and Grampton St. Rumpterfrabble as irascible coxswain 'Saunterblugget Hampterfuppinshire!'"

"KRYSTAL!" Falco could only watch, as the program The Duchess Approves began. The title card was on the screen, and there was not a thing that Falco could do about it. "NO! NOOOO!"

Krystal: Oh yes, I can hear Falco screaming. Can hear him loud and clear. Doesn't mean that I'll be helping him, though.

The Phantom Thieves and the Inklings arrived at their destination, which was a closed-down convenience store. Said store was fenced off, as the group was standing behind a fence.

"There it is - the condemned Dusk 2 Dawn!" exclaimed Joker, as everyone saw the convenience store in question through the fence. The store looked awfully ominous.

"Why'd they shut it down?" inquired the male Inkling, curious as to why Dusk 2 Dawn was no longer in service. "Was it like a health code violation, or..."

"No...murder," answered Yusuke with a profound look on his face, as if he had witnessed the murder scene that had taken place. "Some folks died in there, the place has been haunted ever since!"

"This city has such a colorful history!" remarked the female Inkling, amazed by the many wonders and horrors of the emerald city; the male Inkling, on the other hand, was awfully nervous.

"Wha...are you guys serious?" the male Inkling asked the Phantom Thieves, having some second doubts about seeing what was inside Dusk 2 Dawn.

"Yeah! We're all gonna die!" Ann responded sarcastically, pretending that she was scared, before punching the male Inkling friendly. "Chill out! It's not as bad as it looks!"

Skull Kid: *standing in front of a sign on the fence, which says "no trespassing - violators will be prosecuted"; the word "DEAD!" is spraypainted over the word "prosecuted"* Yeah, it's as bad as it looks. Take it from me.

It was past nine o'clock over on the east coast, as the Great Fox finally arrived in New York City. The spacecraft slowly made its descent as it landed near a manor situated just outside the suburbs...the All-Star Manor.

"We're here," announced Fox as he opened the hatch to the Great Fox, as everyone got out. Master Hand suddenly appeared. "And Master Hand has arrived at the same time we did! What a coincidence!"

"I totally didn't mess around while you were up in the air," Master Hand said to Fox and company, despite sporting some evidence as he had a few gold rings on his fingers. "Somebody put my rings in the Great Fox..."

"So this is the fabled All-Star Manor," said Jakob as he marveled at the manor, while Sonic took the gold rings off of Master Hand. Lavenza offered to help the blue hedgehog.

"This is my second time-a here, believe it or not," Mario said to Jakob as he joined the butler, standing next to him. Being at the manor brought back a few memories to the plumber.

"Didn't you say that Raiden took you to the manor before the whole treaty ordeal?" Link asked Mario, as the mention of Raiden brought to Jakob remembrance of the time he dealt with the mercenary.

"Yeah, in a space-a ship. I also remember when-a he gagged my wife and threw her in a closet. That was messed-a up."

"I may have put him up to it..." Jakob admitted his past fault to Mario, who along with Link looked at the butler relatively shocked. "...when I was a bad guy, mind you."

"Enough reminiscing!" shouted Master Hand, ready to get down to business as Sonic and Lavenza had all the gold rings off of the giant hand. "We don't have much time, so let's make this snappy."

"I'm gonna take a nighttime stroll around the Big Apple," Fox said to the others, having no interest in whatever Master Hand and company had to accomplish. "Give me a shout when you're ready to fly."

"Ooh, can I come with you?" Pit excitedly asked Fox, interested in knowing what the nightlife of New York City was like. "Lady Palutena never lets me out into the city at night."

"And for very good reason...make sure you're on your best behavior." Locking the Great Fox, Fox walked away from the All-Star manor as pit happily followed after him. Master Hand and company approached the manor, with Zelda ringing the doorbell.

"Wonder how they'll react to us," wondered Zelda, expecting to see many shocked and surprised faces all around. The front door was soon opened by Parappa the Rapper.

"Quit botherin' us, we don't want anymore...pizza," said PaRappa, only to trail off when he saw Zelda and the others standing by. PaRappa was the first surprised manor resident, with his eyes going wide.

"Good evening, PaRappa," greeted Zelda, doing her best to stay professional and not burst out laughing at PaRappa's face. "Is Polygon Man home?"

PaRappa didn't answer Zelda's question, for the dog fainted on the floor. PaRappa's limp body was lying at the front door, creating an awkward silence.

"Pizza delivery guy's bothering us again?" a certain demon hunter asked PaRappa, as Dante showed up at the front door and saw PaRappa fainted. No, not the one from the mansion - this was the alternate universe one.

"No way, it's Dollar Store Dante!" exclaimed Cappy, unsure of why he was so hyped upon seeing Dante in the flesh. Mario tried to silence Cappy, but the damage was already done as Dante was triggered.

"Who are you calling..." Dante would soon ease up, as he cracked a smile upon seeing Zelda and the others standing by. "...well, I never thought I'd see you at this time of night."

"Good evening, Dante," Zelda greeted the demon hunter, who acted cordial as he brushed PaRappa away with his foot. "I tried asking PaRappa this, but...is Polygon Man home?"

"He was home; he's off in the city doing some 'excursion'. We still don't know what that means. But you're all free to come inside." As Dante looked past Zelda, he spotted a familiar face in Jakob. "Brought Jakob along too, eh? That's neat."

"Looks like you've got some explaining to do..." Cloud said quietly to Jakob, as he and the others followed Dante inside the manor. Master Hand found Cloud's words to be pretty ironic.

Many of the Phantom Thieves had gotten over the fence, as Joker, Ryuji, Ann, Makoto, Futaba, Haru, and Kasumi were all on the other side. Yusuke and the male Inkling had yet to climb over, with the male Inkling straddling the fence.

"Come on, Inkling Boy!" Kasumi encouraged the male Inkling, who was nervous to take another step down the fence.

"Okay Okay! Just gotta get a foothold..." the male Inkling responded, slowly lowering his left as he tried to take a step down.

"Dude, the Inkling Girl did it," Ryuji said to the male Inkling, as the female Inkling was indeed over the fence. Yet that still wasn't enough to give the male Inkling any sort of impetus.

"Hey, you know what?" said Yusuke as he climbed up the fence, before throwing the male Inkling off. "There you go." The male Inkling landed on the ground, wincing slightly in pain. "My apologies."

With everyone now over the fence, the Phantom Thieves and the Inklings approached the Dusk 2 Dawn store. Futaba looked in the window of the store, seeing what was inside.

"Wow! This place is amazing!" the hermit exclaimed, as Ryuji tried to open the store door but to no avail. No elbow grease could get the job done.

"I think it's, it's stuck!" said Ryuji as he was ultimately unable to pry the door open. Was there anyone else who would make an attempt?

"Let me take a crack at it!" the male Inkling said confidently as he flexed his fingers; Ryuji snorted at the youngster.

"Oh yeah. I can't get in, but I'm sure Junior here is gonna break it down like Hercules!"

"Come on, leave him alone," Kasumi said to Ryuji, sticking up for the male Inkling. "He's just a kid."

The male Inkling would prove that he was more than just a kid, as he walked around to a dumpster and jumped on top of it. The others watched as the male Inkling got on the roof, went over to the vents, punched the vent cover into the vents, and walked inside.

"Hey, take it easy!" Makoto shouted to the male Inkling, hoping that he could hear her. That male Inkling was doing a whole lot of maneuvering in there.

"Who wants to bet he doesn't make it?" asked Ryuji, certain that the male Inkling couldn't get the job done. But the delinquent had to eat his own words, as the male Inkling walked out the door and gestured for everyone to go inside.

"Good call inviting this little maniac!" Ann said to Kasumi as she walked inside the store, clicking her fingers at the male Inkling. "Your new name is Dr. Funtimes!" Everyone else followed after Ann, with the female Inkling giving her male counterpart a high five along the way.

"Nice work!" Kasumi commended the male Inkling, as her complimentary words got the youngster smiling. The male Inkling skipped inside after everyone else, closing the door behind him.

"Do you guys really think it's haunted?" Futaba asked her friends, as everyone took a gander at the Dusk 2 Dawn store. The group split up as the fellas and felines took a look around.

"It's even creepier than I imagined!" exclaimed Haru, breezing through the abandoned convenience store while spotting several bugs crawling about. The female Inkling saw a change slot and wiped the dust off, before licking her finger.

"Yep. It's dust," the female Inkling confirmed, grateful that the dust didn't harm her as water usually does. The male Inkling found a newspaper on a newspaper stand and dusted it off, seeing that the paper was published back in 1995.

"Where do you think they keep the dead bodies?" Makoto asked Haru, as the two were passing through a shopping aisle. Kasumi came across a pair of light switches that caught her attention.

"Guys, check it out!" Kasumi called out to the others as she pointed at the light switches. "You think these still work?" The young woman flicked the light switches, and suddenly the lights in the store came on.

"Jackpot!" exclaimed the female Inkling, as the Phantom Thieves were all saying positive things about how the store looked. The lights being on really helped alleviate the atmosphere.

"So, what are we going to do now?" the male Inkling asked Kasumi, now that the lights were on. There was only one thing that could be done...

"Anything we want," replied Kasumi, giving the Inklings and her Phantom Thief friends permission to do...well, anything they wanted.

As implied by PaRappa earlier, dinner at the All-Star Manor was pizza. Many of the manor residents had enjoyed their fill and left the dining room to enjoy the rest of the night. Some stuck around to grab seconds until they inevitably fought for the last slice of pizza. Which would ultimately be given to Kratos, if we're being honest.

Since Mario and his friends didn't have dinner yet, they were free to have some of the pizza that was still available. Mario, Sonic, and Lavenza enjoyed their pizza in the living room, sharing the living room couch with Sir Dan Fortesque.

"You three make me jealous!" Sir Dan frowned at Mario and company, angrily stomping his foot - stomping so hard, that his leg even came off! The skeleton sheepishly smiled.

"It's nothing personal, buddy," Sonic said to Sir Dan, who got up from the couch and hopped away on one leg while holding the other in his hand. "Ha, that dude's super eccentric!"

"Everyone in this manor appears to be that way," observed Lavenza, who looked behind the couch and saw Dr. Nefarious holding a slice of pizza. Nefarious held that pizza as if it was a prized jewel.

"I will do it...I will eat this splice of pepperoni pizza WITHOUT FAIL!" vowed Nefarious, before scaring down the slice of pizza in one gulp. In a matter of seconds, he began choking as Cole MacGrath came to his aid and applied the Heimlich maneuver.

"You...cannot...eat...regular...food!" Cole said to Nefarious, speaking every time he applied pressure to Nefarious's stomach. Eventually, he got Nefarious to spit the pizza out.

"How dare you!" Rather than thanking Cole for saving his life, Nefarious instead slapped the man silly and left him confused. "Embarrassing me in front of our guests, the absolute nerve!"

"Well, excuse me then, doctor..." Cole walked away from Nefarious, holding his face and massaging his right cheek. Don't worry, Doctor Nefarious - one day you'll finally consume human food.

Zelda: Took a brief look around the manor, and ran into some of the folks here. It's really assuring to know that there's no more bad blood between us. The manor residents have no ill will towards me and Link. *pauses* Except Kratos. There is no getting through to him.

"Anyone care for some soda?" Isabelle asked Mario and company as she came from the dining room holding two liters of soft drinks in her hands. "They said we can have the soda from the..."

"MARIO!" boomed Kratos as he showed up in the living room, nearly kicking Isabelle out of his way. The demigod was seething when he saw Mario and Sonic sitting together. "You and Sonic will DIE!"

"That's-a cool," responded Mario, he and Sonic unbothered by the threat from Kratos...and that only ticked Kratos off. It unnerved Kratos when anyone shrugged off the possibility of dying.

"Enjoy your last time breathing!" Kratos was about to let Mario and Sonic have it, as he held up his Leviathan Axe. Then seconds later, he felt nothing but air, as Sweet Tooth snatched the weapon out of his hands.

"It's your turn to wash the dishes," Sweet Tooth said to Kratos, who was in disbelief that a demigod like him had to do lousy house chores. It was a way to make him mortal. "Get to it. Chop, chop."

"Curse you, dishes! Why didn't we use paper plates instead?" Kratos chose not to make a scene, as he went to the kitchen in an extremely bitter mood.

"One day he'll finally take up an anger management class..." With Kratos gone, Sweet Tooth approached Mario and company and pulled out an ice cream cone. Where he pulled it out from, nobody wanted to know. "...take this cone, little girl."

"Um, thank you," Lavenza thanked Sweet Tooth as she reluctantly accepted the ice cream cone. Sweet Tooth stared menacingly at Lavenza, who had her eyes locked with the clown as she finally liked the cone.

"Good child." Sweet Tooth patted Lavenza on her head, only to spring into action when he heard the sound of a broken dish from the kitchen. "Don't tell me he's breaking dishes already!"

"Fox and Pit must be having lots of fun out in the city," remarked Sonic, wondering how Fox and Pit were handling themselves while Sweet Tooth was shouting with Kratos. Too bad none of the cameramen chose to follow Fox and Pit around NYC.

Meanwhile, at Dusk 2 Dawn, there was plenty of fun to be had. Ryuji, Ann, and the male Inkling were embroiled in a food fight, while Makoto and Futaba took turns popping mints into a Coca-Cola bottle as it exploded. The female Inkling ran around the corner and saw something on display.

"Oh my gosh! Smile Dip!" the female Inkling exclaimed, as the male Inkling came around the corner and saw all the Smile Dip that was present. "I thought this stuff was banned in America!"

"Maybe they had a good reason," assumed the male Inkling, before getting hit by a balloon full of food. As the male Inkling ran off, the female Inkling grabbed a Smile Dip and placed a stick in the concoction...before pouring the entire package into her mouth.

Jakob had a brief history with the All-Star Manor - if you might recall, the butler had Raiden kidnap Lucas. It was all part of Dr. Eggman's evil plan, back in 2017. As such, Jakob had some familiarity with a few manor residents, such as Nathan Drake. The two were chatting on the balcony.

"You definitely look as snobby as Raiden described you," Nathan said to Jakob, taking note of how regal the butler looked. Link and Zelda, who were also on the balcony, overheard the conversation as they giggled quietly.

"I've taken a few steps to change that perception..." stated Jakob, swallowing his pride as he overheard Link and Zelda giggling. When he gave the Hylian couple and stone-cold stare, the giggling ceased.

"How is Heihachi Mishima doing?" Toro Inoue asked Link and Zelda, as he tugged on Zelda's dress to get their attention. Toro deemed himself to be Heihachi's biggest rival, although Heihachi barely even thought of him.

"He's doing fine - his own son wants to kill him," replied Link, the man who was too chicken to ever discipline Kazuya. After Link mentioned the word "kill", guess who came running to the balcony? Kratos.

"Kazuya Mishima wishes to kill Heihachi?" Kratos asked Link and Zelda while wielding his Leviathan Axe, looking to chop Heihachi's head off with it. Just like Thor did to Thanos in Endgame. "Does he require any assistance?"

"Yo, Kratos, you missed a spot!" Daxter called out to the demigod, who gritted his teeth as he was full of rage. When was the guy not full of rage?

"This will be the last time I agree to wash dishes..." Kratos put his axe away as he left the balcony, grumbling loudly. Moments later, Jak showed up at the balcony with Daxter on his shoulder.

"Sorry you had to deal with that," Jak apologized to Link and Zelda, fortunate that Kratos didn't lay a finger on the couple. "Also, Polygon Man is on his way. Might wanna let Master Hand know."

Where was Master Hand in the manor, you ask? The giant hand was at the manor's game room, disappointed by how underwhelming it was compared to the mansion's gaming room. He was watching the Sly gang - Sly Cooper, Murray, and Bentley - play pool when Isabelle stopped by.

"Saved you a slice of pizza, Master Hand!" Isabelle said to the giant hand, as she presented to him a slice of cheese pizza. Master Hand's favorite, apparently.

"Put it in my mouth!" demanded Master Hand as he held his hand out wide. The Sly gang stopped their game and watched in perplexity, as Isabelle placed the pizza in the palm of Master Hand.

"What in tarnation...?" Bentley crinkled his nose, as Master Hand closed his fist and chewed; Sly furrowed his brow intensely, while Murray ran to the nearest trash can to throw up in.

Sly: Don't care what anyone says...that was the foulest thing I've ever seen. Not as bad as using a hot dog as a straw, but it's pretty close. The guy who came up with that hot dog straw idea should be locked up behind bars - or thrown underneath the prison.

"Mm, this is some good New York-style pizza!" Master Hand critiqued the pizza after he was done chewing. "What's the name of the restaurant?" The giant hand asked Sly, who shook off the look on his face.

"Domino's," replied Sly; Master Hand was now met with grave disappointment as he was left in shambles. "I had the honor and privilege of deciding what was for dinner tonight. All I had to do was win a rock-paper-scissors tournament."

"You had a rock-paper-scissors tournament to decide what dinner will be?" asked Isabelle, who instead of being weirded out (as Sly expected) was intrigued by the concept. "We should do that, Master Hand!"

"We'd have to exclude a select few," stated Master Hand, knowing who the prime suspects would be; Isabelle suddenly received a rare text message, as the Shih Tzu took out her phone. "I take it that it's your crush, K.K. Slider?"

"Shut up, Master Hand..." Isabelle blushed profusely, before reading the text message in full. It was a text from Cloud - talk about a rarity. "...Cloud says that Polygon Man is arriving soon."

Master Hand didn't even bother waiting around on Isabelle, as he appeared in the manor's foyer in a jiffy. He appeared next to Cloud, who had put his phone back in his pocket when he saw that he had company.

"Someone clearly didn't wait around," Cloud said after seeing Master Hand, as the doorbell rang; thinking that it was Polygon Man, Cloud opened the front door...and saw Polygon Man nowhere in sight.

"Outta my way, I'm walkin' here!" Pit said to Cloud, as Fox stood next to the angel feeling some second-hand embarrassment. The angel dropped his New York accent as he realized where he was. "Whoops, wrong situation..."

"Well, you boys didn't last that long!" Master Hand said to Fox and Pit as he joined Cloud at the front door. He saw that Fox was holding a bag of souvenirs. "Tuckered out? Done for the night?"

"Apparently so," replied Fox as he glared at Pit, blaming the angel for ending the night out prematurely. Absolutely no surprise there. "Pit almost got into a fight on the subway."

"I was just trying to educate the New Yorkers!" defended Pit, who believed that he did nothing wrong; to him, it was just a usual case of New Yorkers on the subway acting unruly.

Pit: All I did was tell some Yankees fan that the Boston Red Sox were a far superior team. He and his boys wanted to beat me to death! What is it with New York sports fans refusing to accept the truth? I mean, the Red Sox are a good team, right?

"Aw, how sweet, you left the door open for me! Now if only my underlings could do the same..."

At long last, Polygon Man returned to the manor after his so-called "excursion", showing up outside behind Fox and Pit and startling the two. Since he was too big to fit through the front door, the giant head instead appeared in the foyer. Which, to him, was the same action as entering through the front door.

"Hello, Master Hand! I've been told that I would be expecting you," Polygon Man said to the giant hand, as Fox and Pit entered the manor. Polygon Man wished that he had a hand, so he could do a fist bump with Master Hand.

"How do you do, Polygon Man?" asked Master Hand, who was more open to doing a secret handshake with Polygon Man as opposed to a fist bump. "Hope you enjoyed your excursion."

"Meh, it was fun while it lasted. The New York Mets security kicked me out of Citi Field because I took up 'too much space' in the stadium. Lousy peons, I paid for those tickets!"

"Kinda weird seeing them getting along so well," Cloud whispered to Fox and Pit, as Master Hand and Polygon Man shared a laugh together. Once he was done laughing, Polygon Man saw Cloud and the others.

"How lovely of you to bring some visitors. Though I must ask...what is the occasion?" Polygon Man knew that Master Hand and friends being at the manor was a sign of something fun and bonding...or something serious.

"A former adversary of ours is back in the fold..." Master Hand explained to Polygon Man, whose happy visage faded away as he took the matter seriously. "...any chance you have a room where everyone can meet?"

"We do have a theater; everybody can fit in there. Provided that my residents aren't conducting movie night without my permission...we should be good."

"Inkling Boy, this night is, well...spectacular," Kasumi said to the male Inkling, as the two were sitting atop a shelf enjoying some ice cream.

"Really?" the male Inkling asked Kasumi as he stopped licking his ice cream cone and looked at the young woman all funnily.

"Just look around. The guys are bonding. I've never even seen Futaba look up from her phone this much before. Your friend seems to be going crazy with that Smile Dip."

"Ugh, maybe I've had too much," said the female Inkling, her belly full as she had eaten all of the Smile Dip. "What do you think?" The youngster turned her head as if she was someone was speaking to her in a hallucination. Which was the case. "Of course, I'd want to eat your paws, you little angel!" The female Inkling grabbed the paws and chewed it...when in reality, she was chewing on air.

"You know, Inkling Boy, I wasn't sure if you could hang with us Phantom Thieves at first, but you're surprisingly mature for your age," Kasumi said to the male Inkling, giving the youngster some props.

"Yes, yes I am," the male Inkling confidently responded, accidentally smearing ice cream on his face as he missed his mouth. Hopefully, Kasumi didn't see.

"Hey, guys! We need more ice!" shouted Ryuji, who was shaking an empty bag of ice over Yusuke's pants. Poor Yusuke was down on all fours, looking like he was in serious pain.

"I'm on it!" The male Inkling was up for the task, as he jumped off the shelf and walked over to an ice freezer. He took a bag of ice...

...but then he looked up to see some sort of cooler monster. The male Inkling screamed as he dropped the ice and closed the door, gasping. He looked back at the door and he slowly opened the door again but the monster was no longer there.

"What was that? I thought I heard some lady screaming back here," said Ryuji as he and the Phantom Thieves came over to the ice freezer to investigate. "You freaking out, kid?"

"Uh, no. I'm cool," the male Inkling assured, trying to play it cool as he rested his hand on the ice freezer. Kinda stung a little. "Everything's cool."

"Then what's all this about?" Ryuji pointed at the bag of ice lying on the floor, as all the ice was spilled.

"That's uh, um uh...hey look! Dance Dance Revolution! The game that tricks people into exercising!"

The Phantom Thieves looked away from the male Inkling, as they saw the Dance Dance Revolution game in question. The Thieves all mumbled in agreement as they walked over to play it.

"Heh heh, yeah let's all...let's go play that..." the male Inkling said with faux enthusiasm, before turning around and looking at the cooler's door. Then he turned around again and walked to the video game.

The manor residents all convened in the manor's theater, where a meeting was to take place. As everyone found a seat, Master Hand and Polygon Man waited at the front with the peeps from the mansion...and Mario, Fox, and Jakob.

"Go and take a seat, boys!" said the manor's resident princess, Fat Princess, as she secured three rows of seats for her many underlings. Jakob stared at Fat Princess, baffled by how overweight she was.

"I will never fat-shame another princess ever again..." the butler vowed, with his mouth agape; Zelda giggled at Jakob as she closed his mouth for him.

"This seat doesn't look taken," said Murray as he sat in a seat...inadvertently sitting on an unsuspecting Sackboy. Sackboy crawled from underneath Murray, falling to the floor and gasping for air.

"Is that everyone?" asked Polygon Man, not saying another word until Sackboy found another available seat. Once Sackboy sat down, the meeting began. "Good! As you can see, we have a couple of guests from the Smash Mansion..."

"BOOOO!" jeered Cole MacGrath...or rather, his evil twin, Evil Cole MacGrath, as he stood up and booed. Many manor residents turned their heads and looked at the anti-hero. "Oh, we're not being tribalistic anymore?"

"Big Daddy...you know what to do." Doing as he was told, Big Daddy rose up from his seat as he revved up his drill hand. That got Evil Cole to change his tune, as he sat down. "Any further interruptions and I will not hesitate to use the paddle."

"He has to use a paddle for grown adults?" Link whispered to Zelda; paddling PaRappa would go without a hitch, but paddling Kratos...not so much.

"Anyway, as I was saying. We have a couple of guests from the Smash Mansion. And they have some important news to share. Master Hand, my friend, you have the floor."

"Much obliged," thanked Master Hand, as the manor residents felt weirded out by Polygon Man referring to Master Hand as a friend. "But I would like to give the floor to the man and woman of the mansion, respectively...Link and Princess Zelda."

"It's okay, we don't need any applause," Zelda assured the crowd, although the manor residents weren't in the mood for clapping. In fact, some of them were miffed.

"They have a man of the mansion?" inquired Sir Dan's arch-nemesis, Zarok, sounding intrigued as he scratched his chin. "Polygon Man, I demand that you make me the ruler of this..."

"No, Polygon Man, make ME the man of the manor!" demanded Kratos, favoring the idea of having rule over his peers. "I know who to remove." The demigod preferred to kill the unworthy residents, but he knew that Polygon Man wouldn't let him.

"You two better shut up right now or you're both getting a paddling!" boomed Polygon Man, as both Kratos and Zarok shut their trap - but only just to appease Polygon Man. They weren't scared of some paddling.

Nathan: I'll admit, I got paddled by Polygon Man. But, because I'm in my forties, I only get light taps. It's the younger and innocent-looking residents who suffer the most.

Toro: *rubs backside* Hiney still hurts from last week...only sometimes, though. Should've left that cookie jar alone.

"What we are about to say may or may not alarm you," Link addressed the manor residents, hoping that they all were comfortable enough. "Does anyone remember the king of Twilight, Zant?"

"The bloke who was responsible for the treaty signing?" asked Colonel Radec, cocking the gun in his possession like he was prepared to shoot up Zant. "What about him?"

"He's...he's back." Zant was now the person of intrigue in the theater, as the manor residents were murmuring among themselves about the king of Twilight.

"He's also working with Astor, a man who helped Zant try and ruin our wedding," added Zelda, as Sir Dan slowly raised his hand. "No, Sir Dan, you were never invited to our wedding." Sir Dan moaned in sadness as he put his hand back down.

"How do you know that Zant has returned?" asked Nathan's wife, Elena, needing proof; for all she knew, Link and Zelda could be pulling everyone's tail. Fortunately, Fox had some evidence as he opened his laptop.

"Got the video evidence right here," replied Fox as he pulled up a video on his laptop - the footage of Magolor and Zant, which X sent to him. The footage played on the big screen.

"We believe that Zant is working with Dimentio, an evil jester," explained Zelda, as a couple of manor residents were drawn to Magolor in the footage. "And no, it's not that alien Zant is speaking with..."

"Was about to say, little fella looks weak," commented Emmett Graves, thinking that he could kick Magolor into the sun like a football. "So who is this Dimentio creep anyway?"

"I think Mario here can explain better than us." Zelda figuratively passed the mic to Mario, who knew Dimentio better than his peers. He had the lore from the Paper Mario storybook to prove it.

"Anyone here like long-a stories?" Mario asked the crowd; Sackboy seemed to like long stories, as he clapped happily. "Stop-a clapping, that was a rhetorical question!"

Yusuke: I won't be playing Dance Dance Revolution just for myself...I will be dancing for Haru's love. My moves will inspire my friends, but they'll inspire Haru the most. If for any reason my friends are inspired but Haru isn't, it'll be a failure of epic proportions...

Yusuke was playing Dance Dance Revolution right now, moving his feet about on the dance pad. Everyone was cheering on the artist, whose main goal was to leave a lasting impression on Haru.

"Dance! Hurry up!" the voice from the Dance Dance Revolution game said to Yusuke, as the game picked up speed.

"Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!" Ryuji and Ann cheered on Yusuke, who was sweating buckets as he struggled to keep up.

"Wow, he's really terrible at this," Makoto commented on Yusuke's poor dancing performance, with Yusuke missing a whole bunch of dance moves. The male Inkling looked into a glass door and saw a reflection that made him rub his eyes.

"I'll be right back..." the male Inkling said to the Phantom Thieves, as he ran off to use a telephone. He entered a phone number and hit the dial button, as the dial tone sounded. "...come on, Fox, pick up! Ugh, what is he doing?!"

The male Inkling was attempting to call Fox, trying to reach to the pilot on his house phone. The only problem was that Fox wasn't even home! Krystal could answer the phone herself, but she was busy keeping away from Falco who was in the living room watching The Duchess Approves.

"I don't care about Dukes, or Commoners, or His Royal Highness Lionel of Cornwall!" said the Duchess, as the main character of the program was having an argument with her mom. "I'm not afraid anymore, Mother!"

"Duchess, I forbid you," the mom said to the Duchess, as Falco was heavily engrossed with the program while eating some of Fox's ice cream.

"I may be a Duchess, but...I'm also a woman!" The Duchess took off her hat to reveal her long hair flying in the wind, as dramatic music began playing.

"Yes! Yes! In your face Elizabeth!" cheered Falco, happy to see the Duchess's mother get her just desserts. "It's just like my life...in a way."

Believing that Fox's neighbors were too busy to answer their phones, the male Inkling decided to speak with the female Inkling. He would find the female Inkling sitting on the floor in front of the Smile Dip stand.

"Female Inkling, I need your advice," the male Inkling said to his female counterpart, who had her back turned. "We're hanging out in a haunted convenience store, I can't get a hold of anyone, and if I try to say anything about it to any of these guys they'll just think I'm a scared kid or something! Female Inkling.

The female Inkling finally turned around and was making a gurgling sound with Smile Dip all over her face and clothes. She had a crazy look in her eyes, too.

"The future...is in the past! Onwards Aoshima!" shouted the hallucinating female Inkling, triumphantly raising her fist after she made her valiant battle cry. Who knows what planet or even universe the female Inkling was even inhabiting?

"Female Inkling! How many of these did you eat?!" The male Inkling shook his friend silly, unable to make the female Inkling snap out of it.

"Beleven...teen..." The female Inkling briefly broke out of her hallucination, only to drift back into it as the male Inking dropped her to the floor. The female Inkling was the male Inkling's last hope...

"Ha! Hahaha!" Ryuji laughed as he used a quarter to scratch a few lottery tickets. The delinquent dropped the coin and it rolled onto the floor before stopping in front of a white line. Ryuji went to go pick it up but stopped. "Woah guys, you might wanna see this."

Everyone except the female Inkling gathered around the tape markings of two bodies, which were on the floor. The Phantom Thieves talked to each other, as the male Inkling nervously gulped.

"Then the rumors are true!" exclaimed Morgana, who knew for a fact that a murder did take place at Dusk 2 Dawn. "Joker, I dare you to lie down in it."

"Good idea!" Ryuji agreed with Morgana as he pushed Joker forward. "Go lie down in it!" the delinquent said to Joker, who sighed as he did what he was told.

"Look at me, I'm a dead body..." Joker said in a deadpan tone as he walked over to the markings. Just when Joker was about to put his foot down...

"Wait! Maybe let's not do that," the male Inkling said to Joker, putting his hands out as he caused Joker to freeze in place.

"This guy's scared!" snorted Ryuji, with Joker struggling to stand upright with his one foot in the air. Almost lost his balance, even.

"All I'm saying is, why tempt the fates? I mean...what if this place really is...haunted?"

"Boo! Just take it down a notch, Captain Buzzkill!"

"I thought I was Dr. Funtimes."

"Well, you're acting like Captain Buzzkill! Right?"

"Yeah, a little bit," Kasumi agreed with Ryuji, as the others nodded their heads. The odds were against the male Inkling's favor.

"Status update: trapped in store with insane kid," said Futaba, as she was only texting away - because there'd be no way that chick had a social media account. If she did, it was probably a highly unused one.

"I'm not a kid!" the male Inkling angrily defended himself, lying down in the tape markings just to prove his worth. "I'm technically a teen!

The tape markings began to light up, and then the lights go out. Futaba looked up and dissolves. The male Inkling picked up Futaba's phone.

"'Status update: AAAAUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH!'" the male Inkling read whatever was on Futaba's phone, and soon enough he and the Phantom Thieves saw Fuataba appearing on a security camera screen. Futaba screamed, and the others screamed along with her.

"Futaba! Futaba! Can you hear us?!" Makoto called out to the hermit, only to be met with no response as Futaba was screaming and looking around in confusion.

"What are we supposed to do?!" Ryuji asked Joker, looking towards the faithful leader of the Phantom Thieves for any sort of solution. Quite frankly, Joker had no clue what to do.

"Let's just go already!" replied Joker, willing to leave poor Fuataba behind if it meant escaping from the potential horrors of Dusk 2 Dawn. Some friend he was.

"Yusuke!" Haru called out to her boyfriend, who was still playing Dance Dance Revolution. Yusuke might be sucking at the game, but he was determined to make Haru impressed.

"Wait! I've almost got the high score!" shouted Yusuke, who was about to set a new high score despite missing a bunch of dance moves. Talk about efficiency. The artist dissolved and reappeared inside the game "Uh? What?"

"It's time to shake what your mama gave you!" the voice from Dance Dance Revolution said to Yusuke, who was being pelted by arrows falling from above. It was an absolute arrow barrage.

"No! So many arrows!"

"You're a dance machine!"

"No! You're a dance machine!"

"Yusuke!" shouted Haru, watching in peril as Yusuke was pelted nonstop by the arrows. Yusuke was even crying from the endless torture.

"Forget them! Let's go!" shouted Ryuji, forgetting about Futaba and Yusuke as he and Ann ran to the doors. The doors instantly closed, and Ann couldn't get either one of them open.

"What the...guys, it's locked!" Anna alerted her friends, with the doors to the convenience store locked tight. Everyone was trapped inside.

"OUTTA MY WAY!" Ryuji grabbed a cash register off the counter and threw it at the doors, only for the register to dissolve as a green light flew at Ryuji.

"Everybody, wait! Whatever is doing this has to have some kind of reason!" theorized the male Inkling, certain that an evil spirit was lurking that needed to be calmed down. "Maybe if we could just figure out what it is, they'll let us out of here!"

"'Uh, uh, they'll let us out of here!' Yeah, that makes a lot of sense!"

"I don't know guys, maybe he's got a point!" Kasumi said to the Phantom Thieves, believing that whatever spirit that was haunting Dusk 2 Dawn could possibly be tamed.

"Yeah right, I'm sure the ghost just wants to talk about his feelings!" Little did Ryuji know that he was the next victim, screaming as he dissolved and reappeared on a Cocoa Puffs cereal box. "W-What?"

"I'm cuckoo for eating you alive!" said the Cocoa Puffs cereal mascot, Sonny, as he held up a spoon and beat Ryuji repeatedly with it. Ryuji was left screaming in pain.

"Ryuji!" Joker shouted the delinquent's name, his mind now made up as he turned his attention to the male Inkling. "I'm with you, Inkling! 100%!"

"Welcome..." a deep voice called out to Joker and company, as everyone turned around and saw a passed female Inkling flying up behind the counter. Everyone screamed in fright.

"They got the female Inkling!" the male Inkling shrieked, knowing that the female Inkling eating all that Smile Dip was bound to land her in a horrible predicament.

"Welcome to your graves, young trespassers." The possessed female Inkling kicked her legs and laughed, delighting herself in the fear of the trespassers

"We're super sorry for hanging out in your store!" Makoto apologized to the spirit that was possessing the female Inkling, looking for any way out. "Can we just go now and leave forever?"

"Well...okay. You're free to go." Obeying Makoto's plea, the possessed female Inkling opened the doors to the store. "But before you leave, hot dogs are now half off. I know it might be crazy, but you gotta try these dogs!"

Joker and Morgana didn't care for any hot dogs, as the young man and cat tried to make a run for it. But before the duo could escape from the store, the possessed female Inkling slammed the doors shut.

"Just kidding about the hot dog sale!" the possessed female Inkling shouted at Joker and Morgana, preventing Joker and Morgana from making their escape.

"Just let us out of here already!" Morgana shouted at the possessed female Inkling, as he was ready to launch; Joker had to hold his pet cat back.

"I don't like your tone!" The possessed female Inkling dissolved Morgana, and seconds later Morgana reappeared as a hot dog on the hot dog stove.

"No! I'M A HOT DOG! This just isn't right!" Morgana was cooking away inside the stove, as he was turned about just like the other hot dogs.

"It begins." The possessed female Inkling made everything float, as everyone and everything was stuck to the ceiling. "Welcome to your home for all eternity!"

"Inkling Boy, what do we do?!" Kasumi asked the male Inkling, as the remaining Phantom Thieves were depending on the youngster to save their butts.

"DUCK!" the male Inkling shouted, as a flying shelf was hurled towards him and Kasumi. The male Inkling and Kasumi ducked to avoid the flying shelf, as Kasumi later found a hiding spot.

"Quick! In there!" Kasumi pointed at a tipped-over ice machine, as she and the male Inkling ran to it and hide inside. Both were panting. "What do they want from us?!"

"Revenge, I guess?"

"What did we do wrong?"

"Okay, let's try to figure out the pattern here. Why was each person taken? Futaba was texting, Yusuke was playing a video game, Ryuji was being sarcastic; it doesn't make any sense!"

"Yeah! I mean, those are all just normal teenage things. And occasionally young adult things."

"Kasumi, say that second-to-last part again."

"Normal teenage things?"

"Of course! Stay here until I get back!" The male Inkling crawled out of the freezer, knowing exactly what must be done.

"What are you doing?!" Kasumi could only watch, as the male Inkling bravely confronted the ghost that was possessing the female Inkling.

"Hey, ghost!" With its attention grabbed, the ghost turned the female Inkling's body around to face the male Inkling. "I've got something to tell you! I'm not a teenager!"

The male Inkling's confession did the trick, as everything that was floating dropped to the floor. The female Inkling was unpossessed as two ghosts appeared, both of an elderly couple. We'll call these ghosts Pa and Ma.

"Hohoho! Well why didn't you say so?" asked Pa, who was holding the female Inkling by her hair. He dropped the female Inkling into a pile of candy, as the Inkling landed in the candy and rubbed her head. "How old did you say you were?"

"I'm...technically not a teen," the male Inkling reluctantly answered, having no clue how old he truly was. It was a mystery to him.

"When we were alive, those young folk were a scourge on our store!" Ma explained to the male Inklings, as she and Pa had painful memories of the teenagers that they found disrespectful back in the day.

"Always sassafrassin' costumers with their boomy boxes and disrespectful short pants!" added Pa, getting chills down his spine as he thought about the kinds of fashion that he was subjected to. "So we decided to up and ban them! But they retaliated with this new-fangled rap music."

"The lyrics, they were so, hateful! It was so shocking, we were stricken down with double heart attacks! And that's why we hate young people so much. Don't we, honey?"

"We sure do!" Pa and Ma nuzzled with one another, embracing the hatred they had towards teenagers and young adults alike.

"But they're my friends, isn't there anything I can do to help them?" the male Inkling asked, more than determined to make things right and set the Phantom Thieves free.

"There is one thing. Do you know any funny little dances?"

"Uh...is there anything else I can do?"

"NOOOO!" Pa lit himself on fire, letting the male Inkling know much he wanted to see a dance routine.

"Okay okay okay! Um...well, I do know...the Lamby Lamby Dance. But I can't really do it, without a lamb costume!"

"Not a problem!" Pa snapped his fingers, and instantly the male Inkling was in a lamb costume. No turning back now.

"Oh, well...there it is." Taking a deep breath, the male Inkling was about to do the infamous Lamby Lamb Dance...

Well...
Who wants a Lamby lamby lamby?
I do! I do!
So go up and greet your Mammy mammy mammy!
Hi there! Hi there!
So march march march around the daisies... (Wendy smiles; this is the cutest thing she had ever seen)

"Yes, Yes! More! MORE!" Pa egged the male Inkling on, as Kasumi was watching the dance performance with a cute smile on her face.

"Don't don't don't you forget about the babies!" the male Inkling sang the last line of the song, marching about with sweat running down his face. The youngster finished off with a pose, as he did a wink.

"That was so fine, girly dancin' boy! Your friends are free." So Pa opened the store doors, and the male Inkling was back in his normal clothes.

"Well, I don't think you have to worry about us coming back, so..." Soon Ma and Pa both disappeared, as they allowed everything to fall back to the floor. The Phantom Thieves that were trapped were now freed.

"Ugh...I'm never gonna eat or do anything ever again," groaned the female Inkling, who didn't expect eating all that Smile Dip to bite her in the back. She learned a valuable lesson today.

"Hey! There's still some left!" The male Inkling picked up a package of Smile Dip off the floor, and the female Inkling stared at it like it was poison.

"EVIL!" The female Inkling slapped the Smile Dip out of the male Inkling's hand, vowing to never have another Smile Dip ever again.

"What happened after everything went crazy?" Ryuji asked Joker, Ann, Makoto, and Kasumi - the only unaffected Phantom Thieves - as he was looking for some answers. Fortunately, Kasumi had a good enough explanation.

"You are not going to believe it! The ghosts appeared, and the male Inkling had to..." Kasumi started to explain as she giggled a bit, only to see the male Inkling looking at her silently pleading with her not to tell anyone. "...uh, and the male Inkling just took his Splat Roller, and just started beating ghosts down, left and right, and the ghosts got all scared and ran away like a couple of little girls, it was insane!"

"Job well done, Dr. Funtimes!" Yusuke applauded the male Inkling, who now won the full respect of the Phantom Thieves. Kasumi turned to the male Inkling and zipped lips, and the male Inkling returned the favor.

"...and that is the story of Dimentio, pretty much-a," Mario finished telling the story of Dimentio to the manor residents, and it was shorter than the plumber had intended. "Basically, he's a sociopath. An omnicidal sociopath."

"What is it that he wants?" asked Ratchet, who gathered from the information shared that Dimentio was a threat not to be taken lightly. "What's his goal?"

"He's looking to go on a revenge tour against the Smash Mansion," replied Jakob, as it was his turn to speak; the butler recalled some of the details that Dimentio shared when the jester tried to entice him. "Mainly for trapping him in Subspace."

"QUESTION! How on earth did he escape from this Subspace?" asked Buzz the game show host, and Jakob didn't have the answer for that one. That's when Cloud knew he had no choice but to come clean.

"...it was my fault," Cloud admitted his fault to the manor residents, who collectively gasped (minus a handful of people). Zelda and the others gasped, too.

"Cloud?" Zelda uttered the swordsman's name, as Cloud held his head in shame slowly realizing the damage he caused - back then and in the near future.

"You heard that right. It was my doing. I'm the one to blame since the major project I worked on last year came with a few...unforeseen consequences."

"The Aerith Revival Project - he wanted to resurrect his dead girlfriend!" stated Pit, doing his best to stick up for Cloud; all he got instead was Cloud giving him a stare to shut him up.

"Let me speak, Pit.." With Pit zipping his lips, Cloud returned his attention to the manor residents. "...just know that Dimentio broke out of Subspace thanks to a time-traveling experiment with a Rift Generator."

"Which I was a part of," stated Sonic, raising his finger so that he could be recognized. The blue hedgehog pulled a picture of a rift on his phone and passed his device around to the manor residents. "That's the rift Dimentio escaped through."

Master Hand: Color me surprised - Cloud owned up to his mistake! In front of his friends, no less. Perhaps I misunderstood him...

"We all remember what Zant did in the past," Polygon Man said to the manor residents, as Sonic's phone was passed around. "Anyone who associates with him is an enemy of..."

"Mama mia, some-a one's missing," observed Mario, as he saw that one resident was not present in the theater. And it definitely wasn't Heihachi. "Where's-a Raiden?"

"Still trapped in the Twilight Realm," replied one of the manor residents, Spike, as he felt defeated; Cole MacGrath, Raiden's roommate, couldn't care less. "Which kinda sucks, since he must've known about Zant teaming up with Dimentio from the jump."

"Our dear Professor has made attempts to free Raiden from the Twilight Realm," Polygon Man explained to Mario and company, as the Professor kept attempting since episode 328. "No such luck..."

"Maybe we can build that Rift Generator thingy and rescue Raiden that way!" proposed Daxter, thinking that he was a genius for his idea. "Huh, huh?" To his dismay, no one followed him up, as he folded his arms grumpily.

"The inventor won't be building a new Rift Generator anytime soon," stated Cloud; the whole fallout from the Aerith Revival Project would certainly make Dr. N. Tropy think twice. "So the Professor is our best bet."

"Indeed - we need Raiden on our side, and soon," stated Jakob, seeing Raiden as a potential X-factor in spoiling Dimentio's plans. "He could very well be the one to tip the scales..."

It was a long night for the Inklings and the Phantom Thieves, as the entire group was inside the van all tuckered out. The male Inkling and Kasumi were the only ones standing outside.

"Well, I'm probably scarred for life," remarked Kasumi, knowing that she was bound to have nightmares about the events that transpired tonight.

"Yeah, that was pretty crazy," said the male Inkling, who felt extremely fortunate to have made it out of the Dusk 2 Dawn store alive.

"I think I'm gonna go stare at a wall for a while and rethink everything. Hey, next time we hang out, let's stay at the mansion. Okay?"

"Next time? Yeah! Let's, let's hang out at the mansion! Yeah...next time." The male Inkling got inside the van and closed the door, and once Kasumi got inside too the van took off. Makoto drove away from the store, as the store lights went out.

The meeting in the theater was adjourned, as Master Hand and company had done their job. Not only did they let the manor know about Zant, but they also found themselves allies with the manor residents.

"Thanks for giving us the heads up about Zant," Ratchet spoke with Master Hand and company in the hallway, as the Lombax and Clank were speaking outside the theater. "If he starts giving you problems, you know who to call."

"Anything we can do on our end to help you guys out?" Zelda asked Ratchet and Clank, as Ratchet looked towards Clank to think of any tasks the mansion could handle.

"The Professor could use some electricity to power his new machine," stated Clank - that's where Pikachu and Pichu might come in handy. "He'll need an extremely large amount, though." Or maybe not...

"Zeus would come in handy, but he's busy handling stuff in Olympus," added Ratchet, being that he was the god of lightning, Zeus had electricity in bundles. "Hasn't been at the manor in a while."

"We'll figure something out, don't you worry," Master Hand assured Ratchet and Clank, hoping to find a large source of electricity soon. "The soon we get Raiden on board, the better!"

Falco was still watching The Duchess Approves in Fox's living room, as he was in the middle of a marathon. Apparently, the avian pilot reached the season finale, which was a wedding episode.

"Ah, the wedding - I've waited so long for this," said Falco, watching as the Duchess walked down the aisle in her wedding dress. "Oh, look at her in that dress! Count Lionel? What's he doin' here?!" Count Lionel was a controversial character, as evidenced by the people on the TV collectively gasping.

"I've come to reclaim my bride!" proclaimed Count Lionel, who was crashing the wedding only to claim the Duchess as his own.

"You had your chance at the cotillion, you!" For Falco, seeing Count Lionel on the TV screen made his blood absolutely boil.

"You had your chance at the cotillion, you!" said a man from the television, echoing the same thoughts that Falco had.

"That's what I'm saying! UGH!" Falco was being so loud, that he inadvertently woke up Marcus from his sleep and made him cry. Krystal finally showed up, holding the sobbing Marcus as she appeared in the living room glaring at Falco. "Uh, couldn't find the remote..."

The Phantom Thieves and the Inklings returned to the mansion, as Makoto pulled up the van into the driveway. At the same time, the Great Fox returned to Seattle as it made its landing.

"I can tell that you guys are gonna get plenty of good sleep tonight..." remarked Makoto as she and Kasumi got out of the van, having to drag their friends out of the vehicle. The Inklings, however, exited the vehicle full of energy.

"That was a fast-a return trip," Mario said to Fox, as he and the other occupants got out of the Great Fox. Fox was about to head to his house when he saw his front door open and Falco threw out by Krystal.

"Don't you dare go through our freezer without our permission EVER again!" Krystal shouted at Falco, who ran to the mansion retreating in fear. Fox chuckled at his friend's misfortune.

"Ha, serves him right," the pilot smirked, as he went to his house; Link and Zelda went to the mansion, catching the Inklings along the way.

"Had a fun night, you two?" Link asked the Inklings, as he saw Makoto dragging a tuckered-out Joker up to the mansion porch. Kasumi was doing the same with Ryuji.

"It was alright," the male Inkling replied, downplaying what went down at the Dusk 2 Dawn store. He thought that Link and Zelda wouldn't believe his story. "So what's up?"

"An, uh, an acquaintance of ours needs some electricity. A whole lot of it. You know where to find some, right?" Evidently, the Inklings did, as they looked at each other smiling.

"You're in luck - we got an invite to the Splatfest next week!" replied the female Inkling, taking out a Splatflest invite and showing it to Link and Zelda. On the invite was the hottest band around, Deep Cut - the hosts of the event. "We can stop by Inkopolis sometime and consult the Great Zapfish."

"Ooh, that would be very ideal," gleamed Zelda, who heard stories about the Great Zapfish and how it powered all of Inkpolis. Imagine what it could do for any kind of machinery. "Next week it is, then."

A Splatfest next week, hosted by Deep Cut? The Inklings were bound to have another Friday full of fun. (Minus the scary bits.)