A/N: I'm still writing several chapters of Blazin' Trails...but this idea won out, simply because it was the shortest-and it was so hilarious that I couldn't resist not posting it. This takes place in a modern-day AU, by the way.

Oh, and bonus points go to those who can figure out the other references (aside from the blatant Mario Kart and Super Smash ones).

Disclaimer: Do I really have to put that I don't own either Ricochet or Droop-a-Long in every freakin' chapter? Oh, well, it's better than getting sued. And I don't own anything Nintendo, of course.


Story 14: Game On

Droop-a-Long was in the middle of watching his favorite program, All the Maybes and What-Ifs, when he heard the doorbell ring, followed by a series of staccato knocks on his door. He sighed as he got up from the couch, remembering to turn off the TV before he opened the door. Ricochet tended to forget about the reason why he came over whenever soaps were on.

He opened the door, and there stood Ricochet with a wide grin on his face and holding up two things: the first being a game case, and the other being a square-like device, colored red and decorated with a sword, a shield and a triangular symbol. "I finally bought it today, Droop! I'm still waitin' to get my hands on a Wii U so I can buy Mario Kart 8, but 7's not a bad game to have either."

"I had cleared most of the courses on that game already," Droop-a-Long said. "Ta be honest, though, I haven't played it in a long time, not since I bought that fightin' game Mr. Huckleberry talks about."

"Oh, you mean that Super Smash Brothers game," Ricochet said. "I bought that weeks ago."

"You're always ahead when it comes to games, Mr. Ricochet."

"I sure am, Droop." Ricochet jumped on Droop-a-Long's couch and turned on his 3DS. "How's a couple of rounds of online racin' sound?"

"Sounds good to me, Mr. Ricochet." Droop-a-Long picked up his 3DS from under a pile of newspapers. His was colored green and was decorated with stickers of a pink puffball, as well as other creatures. "Let me get the connection set up and then we'll play."


"Aw, durn. It happened again." Droop-a-Long groaned as his character, Luigi, was caught in a blue explosion, bringing him to a screeching halt while all the other players raced past. "How're you gettin' so many Spiny Shells, Mr. Ricochet?"

Ricochet chuckled as he grinned evilly. "I'm just lucky, I reckon," he said.

Droop-a-Long sighed as he crossed the finish line. He was stuck in eleventh place for the eighth time in a row. "More like you found a cheat, Mr. Ricochet."

"I did not cheat! You know how these Item Boxes are, Droop-a-Long; sometimes they give ya the same item multiple times," Ricochet said. "Like I said, I got lucky."

Droop-a-Long hit the A button and began scrolling through the list of courses. "Wish I had some of that luck. All I kept gettin' was bananas and I had no one to trip up."

"Either way, you're gonna have a lot of catchin' up to do now, Droop-a-Long!" Ricochet said. "Oh, let's do Koopa Cape! I love that course!"

"I don' know why I agree to keep playin' Mario Kart with ya, Mr. Ricochet. You always beat me."

"It's jus' because I'm good at racin' games, Droop," Ricochet said. "Now if I was you, I'd quit chattin' and get back to the game."

"Sure thing, Mr. Ricochet," Droop-a-Long answered, "even though I never win at these things..."


Thirty minutes later, Ricochet said the words Droop-a-Long was waiting for. "Hey, Droop, ya wanna play another game?"

"Sure thing, Mr. Ricochet," Droop-a-Long said. "Ta be honest, I was hopin' we could play a fightin' game."

Ricochet looked up at Droop-a-Long in surprise. "You, in the mood to play a fightin' game? That's surprisin', considerin' ya never play anythin' other than that adventure game with the monsters in it." He sighed. "I can't believe that people used to obsess over those games when they first came out."

"Hey, they're good games, Mr. Ricochet. And I play other games, too, but I always play this series. It's hard ta keep up with the generations of 'em, but they're good."

"Eh, it didn't do much for me. I still don't see what the big deal is."

"If I'm right, you were right obsessed with that tradin' card game with the mythical creatures, Mr. Ricochet," Droop-a-Long pointed out, smirking.

Silence filled the air for a moment as Ricochet turned pink with embarrassment. He huffed, "That was somethin' different, Droop-a-Long!"

"If ya ask me, it's about the same."

Ricochet sighed. "Ya know you can start some major fights when you say things like that, Droop."

"Good thing you're not a super serious fan, Mr. Ricochet." Droop-a-Long paused, then added, "Well, not as serious as you used to be."

"Are ya gonna go on about that, or are we gonna play?"

Droop-a-Long sighed, though he couldn't help but smirk at that. "Sure thing. Though I must warn ya that I've gotten better since we played last time."

"That's exactly what you said before we started playin' Mario Kart," Ricochet said.

"Oh, you'll see what I mean in a little while, Mr. Ricochet."


Twenty minutes later, Ricochet did see what Droop-a-Long was talking about. And being the type to rush into things, he found out the hard way.

Ricochet's main in the game was a boyish-looking angel with a crossbow that doubled into two short swords. He could beat majority of the characters in the game with that character, save for a few. When he and Droop-a-Long decided to have a match, he found that Droop-a-Long's main was a yellow mouse creature with lightning powers. He wasn't too surprised with Droop-a-Long's choice, since the coyote tended to pick characters that were small and cute-looking in any game, but he didn't let that bother him. Droop-a-Long would lose, regardless of how many games they played.

He quickly learned just how wrong he was.

Droop-a-Long's skill with this character, Pikachu, was beyond his understanding. It was like he was competing with a professional gamer. Getting too close to Pikachu led to him being electrocuted and thrown across the stage, which put him at a disadvantage. And when Ricochet managed to somehow get the blasted thing off the stage, Droop-a-Long used his recovery moves to get back on and back to attacking him. He had racked up the character's damage to over 200 percent, and Droop-a-Long was still going after him. Even worse, he was stealing all the items, including the Home-run Bat, the Paper Fan, and the Golden Hammer.

The match was set to ten minutes, but it felt like an hour to Ricochet. By the time the match was over, Ricochet knew he'd lost, badly. Sure enough, the scores pulled up that Droop-a-Long had eleven points while Ricochet had a negative three. Droop-a-Long scored seventeen points in all, and he had lost six of them, two of them being a self destruct. Ricochet had gotten eight points, but he'd lost all of them and suffered three more losses, bring his score to a negative three.

Ricochet glared at Droop-a-Long as the coyote sent him a self-assured smirk. "So, you up for another round, Mr. Ricochet?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm up for another round alright. And this time, we're playin' by my rules!" he said. "This time, no items, Final Destination, second best character you play as."

"Oh, that's gonna be a tough one," Droop-a-Long said. The smirk didn't leave his face. "I have lotsa characters that I'm good at."

"Just pick one, Droop," Ricochet said.

"Hmm...there is one character I'm good at, and that's R.O.B."

"What?!" Ricochet couldn't help but laugh. "Are you kidding? That robot's just there as an antique, Droop."

"Hey, he's not a bad character!" Droop-a-Long protested.

"I didn't care for him much in the Subspace Emissary. And his moveset doesn't match my style."

"You're jus' hatin' on 'im because you like to hack and slash people nonstop."

"That is not true!"

"Is too."

"Is not!"

Droop-a-Long was cut off when he got a notification on his screen. "Hey, who's 'SEStranger237'?"

"Why, I reckon that's Huck! He hardly comes online," Ricochet said.

"I didn't know he was a gamer," Droop-a-Long said.

"Remember that time at Top Cat's Fourth of July party?" Ricochet asked.

"Oh, now I do. He was beatin' everyone at everythin'," Droop-a-Long said. "I reckon he wants to do an online battle."

"Well, he'll have to wait. I have a score to settle with you first, Droop," Ricochet said.

"You were serious about that battle, huh?" Droop-a-Long said, settling into his chair.

"When it comes to video games, I'm very serious, Droop-a-Long," Ricochet said. "Now, are you gonna play, or ya chickenin' out on me?"

"I ain't a chicken when it comes to fightin' games, Mr. Ricochet," Droop-a-Long answered. "Let's battle."

Ricochet smirked. "This time, you're goin' down, Droop-a-Long."

"Oh, I wouldn't count on that, Mr. Ricochet." Droop-a-Long had a competitive smirk on his own as he hit the start button. "I've got more than a few tricks up my sleeve."

The second match was a close one. Ricochet had switched out Pit with another character: a slightly muscular, dark blue-haired man wielding a large gold sword. Despite his slowness, he was quite powerful, and was knocking down R.O.B. every which way and that. Droop-a-Long wouldn't give in that easily, however, which only upped the intensity of the match. However, despite Droop-a-Long's skill with R.O.B., he was no match for Ricochet's skill with Ike.

The match was winding down into the last thirty seconds. Upon hearing Droop-a-Long groan with frustration for the fifth time, Ricochet's smirk grew wider. He had this match in the bag.

And then, right when it was getting to the ten second mark...the game froze. A few seconds later, a little window appeared on the screen.

Your connection to other players has been lost. Returning to main menu...

"...what?" was all Droop-a-Long could mutter.

"ARRGH!" Ricochet, for his part, resisted the urge to throw his 3DS across the room again. "That's not fair! I was jus' about ta win, too!" He then sent an accusing glare towards Droop-a-Long. "You! You must've done somethin' to the connection ta make it do that!"

Droop-a-Long stared at Ricochet in shock. "I'd never do that, Mr. Ricochet! 'sides, I was too wrapped up in the game! These things happen, and you know that, too."

Ricochet huffed angrily and crossed his arms. "I can't believe it. Right when I was about ta win..." he grumbled.

"Uh...m-maybe we should do somethin' else, Mr. Ricochet. I reckon you're gonna be steamed about that match 'til dinner time," Droop-a-Long said. "'sides, I think we were gettin' too competitive..."

Ricochet sighed before looking up at Droop-a-Long. "Ya really think so?"

Droop-a-Long nodded. "After all, if you're accusin' me of cheatin'..."

"Sorry, Droop. I guess we do need ta take a break from this game," he said. "So, whaddya think we should do?"

"Hmm...ya wanna catch up on last week's episodes of All the Maybes and What-Ifs? I've got 'em on DVR," Droop-a-Long answered.

"About time ya learned how to use that thing, Droop-a-Long. Ya can't count on me to set it up for ya," Ricochet said. He picked up the remote and turned on the TV. "And ya know they have the whole series on Netflix, right?"

"They don't keep up ta date with it sometimes, Mr. Ricochet. It takes them months ta upload new seasons."

"I can't argue with ya there, Droopy." As the show started, Ricochet sat back in the chair with a sigh. "Now this is the life."

"It sure is," Droop-a-Long said. "So, after this, ya wanna play some more games."

"Sure thing, Droop. And this time, nothin's gonna stop me from winnin'," Ricochet replied.

Droop-a-Long sighed, but it was quickly replaced by a smirk. Competitive to the end, as always...

The End


I had a lot of fun writing this one, mostly because imagining Ricochet and Droop-a-Long as competitive gamers is hilarious.

For those of you who didn't get the other references: the creatures on Droop-a-Long's 3DS are Pokemon and Kirby, respectively. I imagine that the stickers he has are some of the Generation 2 Pokemon as well as the newer ones (I kinda got back into Pokemon recently, if you haven't noticed :D) And the other games that Droop-a-Long plays (in my headcanon, of course) are Animal Crossing, Paper Mario, and probably a few others like Scribblenauts Unlimited.

Ricochet's games are The Legend of Zelda, and I imagine that he plays RPGs like Fire Emblem and Bravely Default. Oh, and as for the trading card game, that was a reference to Yu-Gi-Oh...which would be an old shame for Ricochet, in this case :)

So yeah, Ricochet practically owns at Mario Kart, while Droop's more of a fighting game kind of person (though Ricochet's not too shabby either). And losing your connection in the middle/near the end of the match is THE worst possible thing to happen, no questions asked.

And as for 'All the Maybes and What-Ifs', I took that romance novel from "Guilty Pleasure", and modernized it as a soap opera.

Not sure what the next short will be yet, but as I said before, whichever idea I finish first is going to be the next chapter. Reviews are great, as always!

God bless, iheartgod175