As the dwarf Mulch Diggums says in the third Artemis Fowl book: "Finally, a breakthrough!!" Wai!! I'm so proud of myself for writing this chapter. It's really hard. And I've been really busy, dammit. But enough about me. Enjoy the show!! Er… the story. You get it.

Chapter Three:

Training

~~~

Mario had given the fighters the option to train or lounge around. Many of them chose the latter option, and the recreation room was jam-packed that afternoon. But there was no time for fun for Megun-chan, JJ, or Chrissy. Being the only three people who didn't have much of a fighting background, they were thrust violently into the training room along with the people who would be helping them.

Wouldn't you know it: It was Mewtwo, Bowser, and Ganondorf.

"Come ON, you girl!!"

"Your aiming sucks JJ."

"Thanks."

"So much for trying to do this together…" Bowser smacked his forehead.

"Okay," Ganondorf spoke to the three, "This always works: Think of someone you hate the most and pound the crap out of me. I mean, them. I mean… Whatever."

Chrissy grinned. "Thanks for the tip, G-dork!"

JJ and Megun-chan snickered.

"Well… who should I hate?" JJ asked. "I mean there's Ramsey and Tanya and Sean and other... people..."

"Uh… Eenie-meenie-miney-moe?" Chrissy shrugged.

"Guess that means Ramsey." JJ said and concentrated. Suddenly, her eyes opened, filled with rage, and she punched Ganondorf in the nose. He flew backwards and smacked into the wall of the Hyrule Temple. She then turned around, gave a battle cry a la Christy Carlson-Romano in the Even Stevens movie, and ran after Mewtwo screaming.

"……Wow." Megun-chan and Chrissy were in awe. Megun-chan turned to her friend. "What about you, Chrissy?"

"Oh, that's easy!" Chrissy smiled. "I'll think of Peach!"

Ganondorf's eyes bulged. "Hoooooooly crap…"

Chrissy gained the same concentrated look as JJ had. Finally, her eyes snapped open, she raised her 6-foot 120-pound sword high above her head, and screamed.

"WHAT THE F-?!?!" Ganondorf screamed.

"My thoughts exactly." Bowser nodded.

"It's the 'magic' sword," Megun-chan answered, making quotation marks with her fingers when she said "magic". "She was 'destined' for it."

"……….Oh…" Ganondorf yelled in faux terror, and ran off, Chrissy in hot pursuit.

"………" Megun-chan watched as the two disappeared into another battle arena. "So… now what?"

WHACK!!

Bowser ran up and smacked Megun-chan across the face. The impact sent Megun-chan reeling back, screaming. She tripped at the edge of the platform and fell down onto the dirt below. Bowser jumped off the platform and prepared to squash her, but Megun-chan leapt up and flipped backwards onto another platform.

"…Who knew?" She shrugged and ducked as Bowser tried to scratch her again. Her hand landed on her hip and she felt the deck of Bicycle Poker cards in the pouch at her waist.

"Eh?"

~~~

The three girls walked through the weapons room in amazement. It was as big as the foyer had been, lined with every single kind of weapon imaginable. Hell, it even had extra copies of Marth's sword as well as Roy's and Link's and Ganondorf's, as well as the Power Suit in many different colors.

"Neato." JJ said as she poked Marth's sword.

"Yeah." Megun-chan nodded. "But you like using your fists more, right?"

"Hell yeah." JJ grinned.

"Ooh!! Lookit!" Chrissy shouted excitedly and pointed to a large, 6-foot sword hanging on the wall.

"That's awfully heavy…" JJ said as she tried to lift it. Chrissy looked disappointed, but stood on her toes and took the sword from the wall and swung it over her back with no apparent difficulty.

"…Wooooooooooow…"

"Hey, JJ," Megun screamed as she pointed to a pair of gloves, "how bout these?"

The gloves mentioned were black leather fingerless gloves. JJ's face lit up in interest as she put the gloves on. "Score. They fit perfectly." As she made a few punches into the air.

"So what about you, Megun-chan?" Chrissy asked.

"Huh? Me? Well…" Megun-chan looked around, and spotted a small leather belt lying on a table. Attached to the belt was a small leather case, large enough to hold a deck of playing cards. Funnily enough, the deck holder glowed with an eerie blue light.

"The hell?" Megun-chan walked over to it and took the cards from their pack. She picked one card off the deck, and noticed it was attached to the card below it with a blue electric-looking chain. "Nifty."

~~~

'Oh YEAH!!' Megun-chan smiled, and took the cards from her hip. She took the cards and flung them at Bowser. They acted like razor blades, and Bowser was knocked back. The cards glowed, and flew back to Megun-chan, knocking Bowser down once again.

"Interesting." Bowser landed and looked at the cards.

"Now, let's see…" Megun-chan put her hand on the top card, and flipped it over. She looked at it, and held it out. "Hey. Ace of Spades. What does that do?"

BOOM!! (But that size of the font hardly does the word justice. Try "BOOM!!!" in, like, font 847,972,991)

A dustcloud rose over the Hyrule Temple level. Over in the Fountain of Dreams level, JJ and Mewtwo heard the explosion and turned around in shock.

"The hell?" JJ blinked, coming out of her angry Ramsey-induced trance.

"The hell indeed." Mewtwo nodded.

"Somehow I'm scared… Wanna check it out?"

"It was Bowser and Megun-chan. Enough said."

JJ still looked slightly interested, if not worried or mildly concerned.

"We can't die on the battle stages, JJ." Mewtwo said. "So stop being stupid and worrying."

"Megun-chan and Bowser…" JJ shrugged. "Chemical imbalance in the brains, don't worry about it."

"Exactly what I said."

"No, you didn't." JJ turned around, and a Shadow Ball smacked her right in the face. "OW!!" she shrieked. "What the bloody-?!"

"I did too say don't worry about it." Mewtwo flew forward, but earned a punch in the chest. He jumped up onto one of the platforms raised upwards by the water fountains. JJ leaped up onto the second one and made a gigantic leap onto Mewtwo's platform. She tried a low kick, but he flipped behind her, spun her around, and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt.

"JJ, your aim does suck," He commented, and threw her onto the ground., "We'll have to work on that." Mewtwo leapt into the air and purple-colored psychic energy began to glow around him. JJ gasped as he fell down towards her, but rolled out of the way. Mewtwo landed feet-first, and spun around, thus receiving a kick in the face.

~~~

Meanwhile, Chrissy had chased Ganondorf into Onett, where they had fought a heated battle and were now standing on opposite roofs, exhausted.

"I'm… still surprised… you can use… such a huge… sword…" Ganondorf panted.

"Thanks…" Chrissy replied. "What… did… Megun-chan say? …It was a 'magic' sword and I… was… 'destined' for it?"

Ganondorf nodded. Chrissy pulled herself up, and picked up an item that had fallen by her foot. It was a Maxim tomatoes, and when Chrissy ate it, she suddenly felt more energetic, and lifted the sword. When Ganondorf lunged at her again, she swung it above her head, and he was knocked backwards by the blade, landing on the ground. There was a shrill whistle coming out of nowhere, and a car zoomed by, knocking the King of Evil into the wall and then back onto the floor again. Chrissy leapt down onto the ground too, but Ganondorf snatched a Pokéball and threw it at her. Chrissy threw out her hand, and a blue-colored shield came up. It rebounded off the shield and landed on the floor. Sensing danger within the Pokéball, Chrissy jumped back onto a roof where she waited.

"Goldeen…" The orange and white fish Pokémon Goldeen flopped around helplessly on the floor.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!" Chrissy laughed and fell over, pointing a finger at Ganondorf. "Loser!"

BOOM!!

Chrissy leapt up and turned around. Over in the east, a mushroom-shaped dustcloud had risen into the air. "Wow," was all she could manage.

~~~

"I get it!!" A slightly charred Megun-chan, sitting on a fallen Bowser, pounded her fist into her hand. "It's like Mr. Game & Watch's attack! If I pull out a Diamond, my opponent is burned…" She pulled out a Jack of Diamonds, and Bowser was blown a little bit off the ground, flames coming off his body as he shouted in pain and annoyance.

"And if I pull out a Spade…" She took the Nine of Spades off the top of her deck, and nimbly flipped onto an upper level of the Temple as Bowser vanished in an explosion. "Then they blow up!

"Club cards freeze them…" Bowser was encased in ice for a few seconds when Megun-chan took out the Seven of Clubs.

"And Heart cards heal me!" She held the Queen of Hearts up in the air, and the signs of any damage she had taken vanished. "The number on a card is one-third of the damage my opponent gets… Two being the lowest card… and the Ace is the highest possible damage-"

"CUT IT OUT!!!" Bowser roared as he stood up. "Stop explaining things!! End simulation!!"

"…………Sorry." Megun-chan looked up at Bowser sheepishly, then turned around in surprise as the Hyrule Temple faded into a plain, albeit large, white room. After a few seconds, Mewtwo and JJ appeared in one of the corners of the room, and Ganondorf and Chrissy in the other corner.

" Chrissy looked at Bowser. "……Wow. What happened to you? Megun-chan, did you do that?"

"HELL, YEAH!! THAT'S THE FUNNIEST DAMN THING I'VE SEEN IN MY WHOLE LIFE!!!" One of the walls turned into a window looking out into the recreation room. Falco, who had just spoken, was leaning back in a chair laughing hysterically. "You gals ROCK!!"

Megun-chan, JJ, and Chrissy grinned. "Yeah, we didn't do so bad for our first try…" JJ replied. "And it felt like we really knew what we were doing."

"Speak for yourself," Megun-chan nudged JJ as they left the room.

"Oh, come on, kid." Samus took off her helmet and set it on the table. "You did fine."

"It was fun seeing those guys get the crap kicked out of them." Ridley gave the girls a toothy, crocodile-like grin.

Ganondorf did a sudden double take. "Ridley, when did you go Meta?"

Everyone turned and stared at him. In the time they had been fighting, Ridley had changed from a dark purplish color to metallic black. Samus had undergone the same change, into her more organic blue-and-yellow Fusion suit.

"Yeah! You guys changed costumes!" Chrissy pointed at them. "It looks cool!"

Samus blinked, then smiled. "Right! Mario, you didn't tell them!"

"Tell us what?" All six fighters asked.

Mario cleared his throat. "Ahem. In addition to the color-a scheme changes that have-a been available during the-a tournaments, this-a year we added costume changes as-a well.
Each of-a the costume changes modify-a the stats of the fighter who-a changes costume. For example: Samus is-a wearing her Fusion-a suit, which adds five-a points of damage to each of her-a special attacks-a, the Charge-a Beam, and so on. The various-a costumes are-a accessible… Ah, forget it-a. We'll-a just have to-a show you."

"That DOES sound like fun!" Megun-chan clasped her hands. "It's just like equipping different stuff in an RPG, like in Chrono Trigger or something!"

"Yeah, Megun-chan," JJ nodded and raised her eyebrows. "But we didn't bring any other outfits besides pajamas and whatnot."

"The costumes are already provided, really," Peach came into the rec room carrying a tray of drinks and a box of Vanilla Wafers ("Ooh! Nilla Wafers!!" Megun-chan cried, and ran to the table to help herself). "Well, at least for us. Our costumes come from all the different times in our careers."

"So the games, then?" JJ asked.

"Exactly what I said." Peach nodded.

"No, you said your careers," JJ put her hands on her hips. "Do people have a problem with saying what they mean?"

"No, we just mean what we say, which is an entirely different matter." Mewtwo folded his arms and smirked.

"No it's- AUGH!! Don't go into this Alice in Wonderland philosophy with me!" JJ threw up her hands. "Just tell me where we can find our stupid costumes!"

"Right here, JJ!" Chrissy suddenly cried out in joy. JJ turned around and backed up with a noise of alarm. Without a sound, it seemed (maybe because JJ had been distracted), Chrissy had changed her costume from her black & purple outfit to another black & purple outfit. But this one JJ recognized as the dress of Pixy Misa, the villain from Magical Project S and Chrissy's number one favorite anime character (apart from Tamahome).

"I'm Mahou Shojo PIXYYYY MISA!!!" Chrissy exclaimed. "OH-HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOH!!!"

"Damn. She's good." Bowser raised an eyebrow, and Ganondorf nodded.

"How'd you do that?" JJ asked.

"Simple." Chrissy turned around. "I was just thinking about how cool it would be to have an alternate costume and if I did have an alternate costume what it would look like and what it did… Then I thought it would be Pixy Misa's outfit and it would give my B powers more attack like Samus's, and it worked! Yay!"

"Go, Chrissy!!" Megun-chan raised a fist in the air. Fox, who happened to be sitting next to Megun-chan at the time, closed his eyes tight and stuck a finger in his ear. "….Sorry, Fox…"

"It's fine, it's fine," He waved a paw lightly in the air. "I'm tired. Gonna go take a nap or something."

"Aw, Fox," Krystal looked up. "We're just starting to have fun! Game & Watch's going to do Adventure mode next!" She looked over her shoulder at a two-dimensional, completely black character sitting on a chair in front of the viewscreen, who waved and made a clicking noise.

"So you guys do have an Adventure mode thing?" Megun-chan asked. "What's that like?"

"I don't know," Krystal shrugged. "but everyone else does. It's supposed to be really cool."

"Well, while it will be fun watching him pummel a simulated version of me and everyone else," Fox stood up, "I'm sure I won't miss anything I haven't seen before."

"Well, they are adding some new things to it, 'cause of the new characters." Young Link spoke up. "Like, Ridley's gonna be in it, and Paula too, and they're replacing you with Wolf, Falco."

Falco shot Wolf a dirty look, and the latter snorted into his drink.

"Like I said, I'm sure I'll see something like it eventually. Maybe when I get up I'll come take a whack at it. Later." Fox walked out of the rec room, waving casually, and shut the door behind him.

"Hey, Samus?" Peach looked over at the bounty hunter. "Are you and Fox going to start your thing tomorrow?"

Samus leaned back and grinned. "If the conditions are right."

"Wait a second." Krystal leaned forward and took a sip of soda. "What thing?"

"You'll see."

~~~

It silently flew through the air, or as silently as it could when it was what it was. The oncoming darkness didn't matter to it; it saw in infrared. And now it saw a mass of warm bodies grouped behind a large wall. It stopped in the garden and just hovered, waiting for one of the bodies to go astray. Finally it happened. It couldn't tell what the body was; just that it was warm and alive, which was good enough for it. It never moved forward nor backwards, just drifted upwards, following the ascent of the solitary body, stopping when the body arrived three levels up from the ground. It paused for a few hours, then drifted forward. It saw an obstacle immediately. Between it and the body was a large windowpane. It drifted up and down, looking for a way through. Finally, it noticed a crack, and slipped through the windowpane into the room. It noticed by now that the body was a furred animal, which was good. It like the taste of furred animals. Without hesitation it drifted forwards.

Fox McCloud was fast asleep, not noticing the loud buzzing that filled the room. Once or twice his ears twitched, and once he frowned and groaned in his sleep, but then he was still. Deadly still.

WAI!!! ::hides as people throw items at her:: STOP IT, STOP IT!! Fox isn't dead, you fools!! You'll see. This isn't going to turn into another Angel of Death here. And I would NEVER kill off one of my favorite characters. That makes me sad :(.

Well, the fourth chapter is on its way, so you'll have to see what happens!! Ta-ta!

~ M