Chapter 02: Night Before to First Fight

Room 309

"So then, I pulled out the biggest Power Shot you've ever seen, flung it straight into Razorbeard's mouth, and BLAM!" Ray fell back onto his bed, laughing his head farther off. "It was great!"

"Oh yeah?" Sonic chuckled. "Once, I was fighting Eggman, and he was going on and on about himself, completely forgetting the explosives in his hands. Then, they just blow up, sending him flying off!"

"Ok, that is pretty good." Ray looked to Glover. "How about you G-man?"

'Have cramp, ask Treecko.'

"Alright, what about you, Treecko?"

"Well, uh, you know, um…" the grass Pokemon sighed, his shoulders slumping. "The truth is, I wasn't here for the Preliminaries. I came here for the Pokeball Try-Outs. I'm not a hero, I'm just a guy who got in the wrong line."

"Cheer up, buddy." Sonic said, putting his arm around Treecko. "So you aren't a big shot hero. Who cares? Most of the competitors have never even fought before."

"Yeah, so what? There's still a plethora of former champions who'll tear through the new guys. I'm pretty screwed."

Ray was about to try cheering his friend up as well, when the TV came on, Zelda appearing on screen. "I'm just saying that, technically, I'm two characters, so… oh! Hello competitors. Now that you are all in your rooms, we have a surprise. The roommates you are now with will be your teammates for the first round." the hotel was filled with shouts and groans for a few seconds. "The way this will work is that Team A will go against Team B, fighting until the opposite team is out of fighters. Basically, defeat all four on Team B and Team A will win. Also, thanks to our monitors, we have been able to randomly select the first two teams, and we'll now show them to you. Here they are."

As the first team appeared, Ray almost choked on his soda. On the screen, the four occupants of Room 309 were being shown.

The Next Morning…

"This is bad, this is bad, this is bad." Rayman repeated, pacing back and forth around the room.

"Calm it down, Ray." Sonic said, watching his friend. "It's not that bad."

"Are you insane!" he yelled, stopping in place. "We're about to go into a fight without any clue who we're about to fight! And in case you've forgotten, that's you're fault!"

"Hey, seeing our faces shocked me. Can I help it if my mouth was full of soda at the time and it decided to jettison itself onto the TV?" Ray just stared at him.

"Guys, I'm sure we'll be fine." Treecko said, intervening before Ray tried to rip Sonic's head off. "As long as we take it one fight at a time, make sure I go last, if at all, and win the coin toss, we should take the first round."

'He's right.' Glover wrote. 'Co-operation, not competition, will save us.'

Ray sighed. "I'm sorry Sonic. It's just, I really want to win this."

"Well, listen up, bud. We will help you all the way, no matter what. For now, let's go kick us some butt." Sonic went and opened the door, only to have his eyes flashed full of light from a flock of cameras. He quickly slammed the door shut. "But I doubt it'll be through there."

"How about this?" Treecko said smiling, lifting their room's window, from which they could see the stadium. "I love how linear this place is."

"Let's go!" Ray jumped out the window, his hair starting to spin like a helicopter's blades.

"Alright, now that's just cool." Sonic stated, smiling. A second later, he was almost knocked off his feet as Glover jumped on his back. "Hey! Do I look like a chauffer?"

'Yep.' was already written on the sign. Sonic sighed, before zipping down the fire escape. Treecko quickly followed, closing the window.

Smash Stadium

"Dude, this is screwed up!" Ray shouted. The stadium was deserted. "Where is everybody!"

"It's closed fighting." Sonic said. "It's to let the combatants focus better. Besides, this'll be televised across the gaming universes."

"Which is good, cause everyone will be able to you guys lose it all!" Sonic and the others turned to see the other team entering. First, there was Billy Hatcher, boy of the magic chicken suit, who had said the last thing. Second, there was the original blue bomber, Mega Man. Next, there was the brown haired Keyblade master, Sora. Last, there was a tall, blonde haired man, who looked to be in his early twenties. "I could not believe my eyes last night! We get to be the ones to fight the guy dumb enough to get stuck in the hangar doors! It's too good!"

"Watch yourself, egg boy." Ray snarled.

"Welcome, competitors!" yelled Roy, bursting from the ground in a flaming surge. "I will be your judge for this first day of competition fun!" the others just stared at him. "Eh, heh heh. Well, if you'll follow me, we can begin." he led them to the arena, directing each team to a special seating box on each side. Roy stepped onto the arena as it began to rise into the sky, bringing the boxes with it. After rising about 100 feet, it stopped. "Will the team leaders please step to the center of the ring!"

"Leader?" Treecko said, bewildered. "We're supposed to have a leader?"

"Chill out, Treecko. I'll go take care of it." Sonic jumped from their pit to the arena, heading to the center at the same time as Billy.

"Ok, the coin toss loser's team will have to send their fighter in first, giving the other team a slight advantage. Sonic, call it in the air." he flipped the coin high into the air.

"Uh…Tails!" Ray caught the quarter, which landed in Sonic's favor "Sweet!"

"Alright, since you won the toss, Billy's team gets to pick the stage you'll be fighting on."

"Uh, ref, before we get to that, can I have a moment alone to speak with Sonic?"

"Well, I guess so." he walked over to a nearby corner.

"What do you need Billy?"

"I just thought I'd give your team a chance to surrender."

"And what motivation would we have to do that?"

"See him?" Hatcher said, tilting his head over toward the blonde. "His name is Eike Kusch, and he can travel through time and make sure we win no matter what."

"What! That can't be fair."

"Oh, it isn't against the rules, so it's completely fair." he turned to walk back to his pit, laughing. He then yelled to Roy, "By the way, we pick Fountain of Dreams!"

"Ok, then. Holo-Generators, up!" Four poles shot from the corners of the arena, sending blasts of energy out. Within seconds, the ring had become the Kirby level.

Sonic began to walk back to his team's pit. "This isn't good."

Fields

Spike yawned, leaning against the oak tree. He was looking to the arena high above, which had just turned into the Fountain of Dreams. Spike was surprised that he was the only person in the fields, even his teammates staying in the room. He pulled out a banana, something he had grown to like while capturing Spectre and his monkey army. "I've gotten a bit too healthy."

Something then caught Spike's eye, but he wasn't sure what the heck it was. He could see some kind of warping of the landscape, but he couldn't see what was causing it. He thought he could make out a human like shape, but his eyes began to hurt looking at it. "What the heck is that thing?" Suddenly, it surged toward the stadium. Curious and worried, Spike chased after the thing.

To Be Continued…