(NOTE: If you haven't played Paper Mario 2, this POV contains spoilers to Chapter 3 in PM2)

Title: Fair Fight

Character: Rawk Hawk

Description: Taking a stroll around Glitzville, Rawk Hawk thinks about how a simple fight changed his view on winning.

(RAWK HAWK'S POV)

Night. The perfect time to take a walk without getting swarmed by screaming fans asking for autographs. Now, don't get me wrong! I LOVE my fans. But right now, I really don't feel like running into any.

Ever since the Great Gonzales...Er...I mean Mario...left Rougeport, the Champ belt had went back up for grabs. Even though I am an amazing fighter, there's still one fighter in the arena that's good enough to call my true rival, but I'll get to that later.

I had grown up practically LIVING in Glitzville. I had visited it so frequently that almost everyone there knew me by name. I was such a fan of the Glitz Pit that I had quickly found out what I wanted to be when I grew up: A fighter good enough to be worthy of the championship.

When I found a gym, the trainer said that I was too young to work out in the gym because everything there was better suited for guys with experience. I'm ashamed to say it now, but I had to lie about my age to get in and be allowed to work out.

As I grew older, I worked out like there was no tomorrow. I became strong, full of muscles and an excellent fighter. When I became old enough to enter, I set off for Glitzville and applied for the tournament under the alias of 'Rawk Hawk'. The manager, a man named Grubba, sent me to the Minor Leagues to start.

I quickly climbed up the ranks of the tournament, knocking down my opponents like dominos. The current champion, Prince Mush, had even complimented on my skills. I quickly landed a spot in the Major Leagues and started climbing the ladder there as well.

Unfortunately, that was when greed got the better of me.

I had just defeated the Koopinator, the only one standing in my way of Prince Mush. I made a piece of cake and secretly placed something in it so that whoever ate it would instantly become sick. Probably too sick to even compete. I have no idea why I did that now. Maybe it was because I was REALLY wanting the championship title, or maybe it was because I KNEW I didn't stand a fighting chance against Prince Mush and was too scared.

Now, Prince Mush ended up eating the cake, and instantly became sick. He was too sick to show up for the title bout and I was declared champion by default.

At the time, I couldn't believe it. I had actually become champion. I was probably too amazed at myself to feel guilty that I didn't win fairly. Life as a champion was great. Every battle that was thrown at me was nothing to me. I breezed by everything with next to no problems.

And yet, Prince Mush had never battled me. In fact, I hadn't heard from him since I sent him that cake. Grubba had said that he was just as clueless as me. The whole thing was disappointing to me. I was really hoping to battle Prince Mush as champion and see what he could do.

A while afterwards, Grubba got a secretary. Her name was Jolene, and see was a very attractive Mushroom citizen. I quickly saw that she was very mysterious and strangely suspicious. Every time she awarded me my fight money, she left the room, and when I went out after her to find her, she was already gone. It seemed like she could simply vanish into thin air. No matter how hard I looked, I could never find her anywhere. I was wanting to try and solve this mystery myself, but I never had any time because Grubba kept assigning new fights to me.

Soon after, a portly plumber dressed in red showed up and applied for the tournament himself. Grubba entered him as the 'Great Gonzales', but I wasn't stupid. I had heard of this guy. It was Mario, the famed hero of the Mushroom Kingdom. What he was doing in Glitzville was beyond me, but maybe he was here to solve the mystery. Hey, that worked out. Maybe I could find out what happened to Prince Mush.

As time went by, Mario was quickly climbing up the ladder of fights just as quick as me. When he landed in the Major Leagues, I considered him a threat to my title. Again, greed got the better of me. I sent another piece of cake to him. However, he was smart enough not to eat it. Instead, it was Shellshock, the Dark Troopa warrior with a powerful right hook, who got sick.

Now, normally I didn't let fighters get me afraid, but at this point, I was terrified. I had one of the guards send Mario to a deserted Minor League locker room and lock him in. THAT, I had hoped, would be enough to stall Mario and give me the win.

However, I quickly saw that my plan failed. Just before Grubba counted them out, Mario and his partner, a Goomba girl wearing a hardhat, walked into the ring and challenged me.

To make a long story short, they wasted me.

I found myself in the Major League locker room again. At first, I was upset that I had lost, but then I realized that all the fame and attention I was getting had gotten to my head. I had deserved it. I wanted to become a good fighter, and resorted to cheap tactics to achieve my goals. Well, no more! From that point on, I decided to play fair. No more dirty tricks.

I was talking with the recovered Shellshock when Jolene walked in. She grabbed my arm and pulled me aside, out of earshot from the other fighters. Whispering frantically, she told me everything. How Grubba was somehow responsible for Prince Mush's disappearance. Apparently, Jolene was the big sister of Prince Mush and became Grubba's secretary to find stuff out. Prince Mush had apparently found something out and was starting to tell her over the phone what it was, but was cut off before he could get everything out to her. Jolene then went on to explain that Mario had chased Grubba back to the ring and may have needed help. I quickly agreed, thinking that this would be a perfect chance to repent and make up for all the cheap tricks I pulled in the fights.

Jolene and I rushed towards the ring, but several of Grubba's muscled bodyguards had confronted us. They said that Mario was harming Grubba and must be stopped. Cracking my knuckles, I told Jolene to go ahead and find Mario while I prevented the bodyguards from giving Grubba any help.

It was a quick bout, and I had defeated all of the guards. I rushed towards the ring in hopes of helping Mario.

When I arrived at the ring, I quickly saw Mario and his partner, Goombella, standing over Grubba's defeated body with a shiny star in their possession. Jolene stood aside, sobbing and hugging Prince Mush, who looked exactly the same as he did when I first saw him.

Afterwards, Mario went on to save Rougeport, meaning that he didn't need the champ's belt. Jolene became the new manager of the Glitz Pit, taking Grubba's place. Prince Mush, in the meantime, was planning a comeback. Perfect, I thought to myself. Finally, I would get my long awaited fair fight with Prince Mush.

Prince Mush was definitely worthy of becoming the first Glitz Pit champion. He and I climbed back through the ranks at equal speeds and ended up fighting each other in the title bout. However, we ended up in a stalemate. Neither of us came out the winner. The time ended and we had taken equal damage.

Every single time Prince Mush and I confront each other in the ring, we end up tying. Whether it be time-outs or double knock-outs, it seemed that neither of us could beat the other. Sure, in the ring, we were bitter rivals, but out of the ring, we were best of friends.

I smirk as a look into the sky and watch a shooting star soar across the sky. Mario doesn't know this, but we of Glitzville have had many adventures in the past while since he left. You see, Grubba has constantly come back to try and get revenge in different ways. The 'Glitzville Gang', as we call ourselves, have learned to work together on all of these occasions.

One time, Grubba had planted bombs all over the underside of Glitzville. Don't ask how. I'm still not sure myself. The only way we could stop the timer, which was inside a sealed room, was to send Bandy Andy through the vents and send directions on how to stop it.

Another time, Grubba hired a group of mercenaries to take us all out, one at a time. They had managed to temporarily hospitalize Spiky Joe and Sir Swoop, but the trio of Shellshock, Hamma and Cleftor managed to find the weak points and stop them, preventing us all from landing in the hospital.

But the most recent adventure topped them all. Jolene had disappeared and no one had any idea where she went. After a bit of mystery solving, Prince Mush and I found out that Grubba was behind her disappearance. We managed to get her location out of him and the two of us found Jolene before she got hurt.

Well, that's pretty much the whole story. I turn around and walk to the juice bar, preparing to order my usual refreshment. I can't really believe it. If Mario hadn't shown up, we'd still be working for Grubba, Prince Mush never would have been found, and I never would have changed my ways. I guess we all owe a lot to the little guy.

You know that old saying 'It's not whether you win or lose; It's how you play the game'? Well, I follow that rule all the time now.

And I don't think my millions of fans would have it any other way.

END

Author's notes: (sigh) I'm really stuck. I can't seem to think of a good premise for the Mallow POV. I've been trying to come up with a good premise since Fice T's POV, but I'm not going to give up.