Sneaking Suspicion
By Daredevil3181 and Opiate109

Gordon Freeman was busy sitting on his bed and flipping through the stale channels on the television. This dimension just didn't seem to have shows like he did back home. No TLC or Discovery Channel. Just a bunch of really low brow comedies and a few inane news broadcasts.

'Not sure if it's the hour, or the fact that everything around here is utterly pointless,' wondered Gordon. 'Speaking of pointless, I wonder where blondie's at?' The scientist was snapped out of his thoughts by a knock at the door.

"Speak of the devil," Gordon chuckled, as he got up off his bed and took a good hard look at his visitor through the peephole.

"What do you want?" he asked, feigning boredom.

"Let me in already, you ass," hissed the woman.

"I'm sorry, the password must be in the form of a question. If you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try aga-"

"Gordon, if you don't open this door in three seconds I swear I will break it open and shove its pieces into your spine."

"OK, OK, chill," Gordon said rapidly, hoping to calm the waters of Samus' building anger. He ran his hands across two and three locks. When the last one clicked open, there was a terrific push against the door, throwing the man to the bed. In stormed a very determined bounty hunter.

"Nice to see you too," smiled Gordon.

"Oh, c'mon. Cut the crap," Samus said gruffly. She tried to hide it, but there was a trace of a smile on her face. "Did you get them done in time?"

Gordon frowned. "Why do you continue to doubt me?" He then reached into a bag underneath his desk and pulled out two sets of unique goggles.

"I doubt you because you haven't killed any Metroids yet. Or space pirates. Or simply won a match." Samus was enjoying pushing his buttons.

Gordon ignored the woman. "I based it off your helmet's design and shrunk it down into these scanners. Not as strong as the original, obviously, but much lighter. They'll do the job." He then tried one on himself and handed the other to Samus.

The bounty hunter took the gadget from Gordon and slipped it over her head. She saw everything exactly as it should be in the room. Putting her hand up to the side of the device, she clicked a button. Now she could see the heat signatures in the area. Clicking again, she moved into X-ray view. Finally, she moved into the last mode and she could see into the electromagnetic spectrum.

"Adequate," Samus said.

"Adequate my ass," Gordon huffed. "Those are damn good and you know it, Ms. Aran."

Samus didn't say another word. She simply reached into her jogging suit and pulled out a compact pistol. With a flick of her wrist, she tossed it to Gordon.

"A present for me? You shouldn't have," said Gordon. He then picked it up and tested out its weight.

"Be careful with that. It's loaded with real bullets. Mine has the tranquilizers. I'm a faster draw and I prefer to use non-lethal force if necessary. These are innocents we'll most likely encounter."

"Super," Gordon said, as he rolled his eyes. He then stuffed the firearm into his waistband, making sure to put the safety on. "You going out like that? The circus just left a few days ago. You might stand out just a tad."

"Quiet," Samus growled. "The jogging suit was just to get over here. I have something much better underneath." She then zipped off the outer garments to reveal a form fitting black suit underneath.

"Much better," Gordon commented. "If we can't manage to sneak past the guards, your chest will most likely keep them occupied long enough."

Samus shot him a look. "You're just jealous."

"Yes, I'm jealous I don't have breasts. You got me, Samus."

Samus just walked over to the window. "Look, I can keep this up as long as you can, but we should probably head out."

"Uhhh…Samus, I think that suit's cutting off some of your air supply. The door's the other way," Gordon pointed out.

"Yeah, I know. We're not going out the door. We'll leave by the window and make sure we stick to the shadows. As far as everyone else should know, we'll be in your room the entire night." The mercenary then tossed the scientist a thick, black nylon rope.

"I hope you know how to rappel," Samus called out, as she began to fasten her cord to the bottom of the inside window sill.

Gordon didn't really, but he was sure he could figure it out. He saw it on TV once or twice. Besides, he wasn't going to let a girl show him up, especially not Samus. "Yeah, I'll manage."

"Great, just be sure to turn on the television to something we'd both watch together. A little noise will cover up the wind blowing in." And with that, Samus began her descent.

"Something we both would watch, hmmmm…" Gordon mused. He flipped through a few of his normal channels. Still not satisfied, he quickly accessed the pay ones and settled on something he could be happy with. He then walked over to the window and tied his nylon in a similar fashion to Samus'.

"Well, here goes nothing…Geronimo!" Gordon leapt out promptly smacked right into the wall.

'Note to self,' Gordon thought, as he clutched his bruised side. 'When leaping out of a tall building, make sure you have slack in your rope.' He then hurried down to meet up with the bounty hunter and carry out their objective.

----

The man slid through the blackness of night and reached the meeting point. The note had been vague about the location and purpose, but he guessed it was out of necessity. He brushed aside some of the thick foliage and was stopped dead in his tracks when he felt a gun press firmly into the back of his neck.

"It's me, Snake," Kratos said. "I got your note. Now, would you mind pointing that gun away from me and telling me what this is all about?"

"Backup," Snake simply replied. "But first, you need to lower you voice a little. This is a stealth mission and all."

"Stealth?" wondered the swordsman. "Where are we going that we need to be sneaking around?"

"Some of the 'off limits' areas in the medical facility," Snake explained. Kratos waited for him to elaborate a little more, but the military man would say no more.

"To do what exactly?" Kratos asked, after a long pause.

Snake rolled his eyes at the other man. "You said you saw Manny's soul, or something that looked like my previous opponent, fly out into the air. And you said it came from the stadium's medical area."

"Right, but how does this help us? You're trying to look for a soul?"

"No," sighed Snake. "You know I wondered where Lloyd gets it from, but now I know. There must be some evidence around. Hard evidence. Someone has to know something. It's our job to find that evidence and then analyze it."

"You've really put a lot of thought into this," said Kratos, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Came to me over breakfast this morning," Snake said. Kratos didn't know if Snake was making a joke or not. After mulling it over for a second or two, he realized he didn't really care.

"Alright, then," Kratos said. "Let's head out."

"Not so fast," Snake ordered, as he put his hand across Kratos' chest, halting the man's movement. "You might have lived for a long time, but you're still no expert in sneaking. You need to drop all of that extra gear."

"My weapons?" Kratos asked in disbelief. "But then what will I have to defend myself."

"Relax," Snake said. "If we do this right, you won't need to defend yourself. Just drop them in the bushes over there."

Kratos did as he was told. When he walked back over to Snake, the stealth expert handed him a light, yet surprisingly durable, knife. The swordsman turned it over once or twice and then looked back at the gruff man.

"Insurance," Snake explained. "I have a silenced pistol, but I'm guessing you don't know how to work it as well as me. That should fit fine into your hands. Just make sure to secure it somewhere when it's not in use. The silver could reflect off something if you're not careful."

"Fine," Kratos grumbled, doing as he was told. He wasn't used to being ordered around like this and he didn't much care for it. "Shall we go now?"

"Yeah, I think we're ready," Snake said, as he looked everything over. "Follow my lead and do what I tell you. We don't want to create a commotion from pointless arguing."

He then slinked off through the foliage and toward the stadium. Kratos merely looked up at the sky. After gathering his thoughts, he headed out and proceeded to follow the mercenary. This was going to be quite a bit different than any sort of missions he had back home.

----

'This will sure be something different,' Mega Man thought, as he envisioned the chaos that would result from this late night activity.

The blue bomber stood in front of the Trump Towers hotel, peering intently into the lobby through the recently cleaned glass doors. He watched the stairs and elevator closely, awaiting the arrival of those who he had sent his letter to. While he was doing this, he made sure to re-check his memory bank, scanning for any information that may unintentionally cause him to cheat. He confirmed the absence of any such thing, just as the hotel door crashed into his side.

Mega Man stumbled to his left, but quickly recovered. He turned to see the first contestant arrive. It was his first round opponent, Conker, who now stood before him. Mega Man attempted to greet the squirrel, but was distracted by a shout followed by a feminine sounding greeting coming from the lobby.

The always cheerful Luigi Mario was running towards Mega Man, his grin somehow displaying both confusion and happiness. He shoved the door open with a giddy shout, and jumped up. "Its-a me, Lu-"

He was cut off by Conker's cold, sarcastic voice. "Shut up," said the hairy creature, smirking at Luigi. Before Luigi could respond, Rikku and Zidane pushed him out of their way, having just opened the lobby doors themselves. Sonic and Vyse followed those two, who were trailed by Pac-Man and Ness.

"Alright, I guess this is everyone," Mega Man said to the group of contestants. " I suppose you're all wondering why I've gathered you here?" His question was answered explicitly by Conker, leaving a few contestants shocked. "Anyways, I called you here to participate in a little scavenger hunt I organized. There's been enough talk of the contest, so I thought it'd be nice for a little break. We were going to have four teams of three, but I guess a few people couldn't make it. So, how does three teams of three sound?"

Mega Man was astonished that no one objected to the whole idea. Not one question was asked. Everyone just nodded and awaited Mega Man's orders. "Alright then. Ness, can I borrow your hat?" Ness nodded, and handed the hat to the blue robot. Mega Man took out a piece of paper and pen, which he had been holding for this very event. After some quick writing, and a few tears, nine pieces of paper were placed into the hat. "Everyone take one piece of paper. There are three labels: 'A,' 'B,' and 'C'. Each of these is written on three pieces of paper. The three who draw the A's will form team A, and so forth. Understand?"

The group didn't respond, they just reached into the hat as quickly as they could, eagerly waiting to see whose team they were on. When only one piece of paper remained, Mega Man looked at it. "Team A," he said, awaiting an answer.

Luigi smiled and quickly walked over to him. Ness followed, and both showed Mega Man their pieces of paper. Mega Man nodded, as he read two 'A's', and noticed that the other two teams had already been formed. He looked at his team and smiled. 'Great. A coward and a human kid. Oh well, so long as they stay out of my way or decide to actually help out,' Mega Man thought to himself.

Ness shared similar feelings to those of Mega Man. 'Oh god, not Luigi. Why'd we have to get the sidekick? Oh well, I'll just let Mega Man do all the work!' Ness smiled to himself and looked at Luigi.

The green-clad plumber noticed his two teammates were staring at him. Speechless, he just smiled and did his trademark air punch. His teammates were speechless as well, as they sighed quite loudly in unison.

Meanwhile, Zidane was enjoying one half of his team already. "So, Rikku. You and me, eh?" Zidane said, attempting to sound sly. He raised his eyebrows, but quickly frowned as the blonde turned away from him. "Damn," Zidane said under his breath, scratching the back of his head.

His attention was drawn to his other teammate, who Rikku ran up to. Vyse, the air pirate, was leaning carelessly against the side of the hotel. He walked up to Mega Man, ignoring Rikku's giddy greetings. "Say, what items should we be looking for anyways?"

Mega Man, who was still musing and frowning at Luigi's actions, snapped back into reality. "Oh, right. Here's the list," he said, handing two identical pieces of paper to Vyse and Sonic. Vyse walked back over to Zidane and showed his teammate the items on it.

Sonic decided to check over the list first, however. "These are some pretty strange items you've got here! Sure all these even exist?"

"Of course they exist. I've already found them," Mega Man responded. He expected the accusation of cheating, which expectedly came from Conker. After the squirrel's vulgar rant, Mega Man took the time to explain himself. "Don't worry, I completely erased the items' locations from my memory bank. Would I really go to all this trouble just to cheat?"

Sonic, who had known Mega Man for years due to these contests, nodded. "It's true, Mega here wouldn't do something like that," he said. The blue hedgehog turned to his own teammates, Conker and Pac-Man. He eyed the pair warily and thought of possible uses they could serve. 'Well, Pac-Man, he… Uh…'

Sonic's thoughts came to screeching halt, so he turned to Conker. "Oh even better. A profane squirrel with one too many guns…" Sonic hadn't noticed he'd spoken aloud until he got an earful of Conker's angry response.

Pac-Man, who liked both members of his team, decided he should make peace between the two. "Hey, stop that! No need to fight! We can't win if we don't get along," Pac-Man said.

Conker, in his ignorance, realized for the first time that the yellow dot could talk. "YOU… CAN…TALK!" Conker exclaimed, not even cursing once, much to the surprise of Mega Man.

"Of course I can. Why wouldn't I be able to?" Pac-Man asked, looking at Sonic with a grin.

The blue hedgehog smiled. 'Well, if nothing else, this should be good for a laugh, at least.'

"Alright, everyone ready?" Mega Man asked. "We'll report back here in three hours, so that will be 2 AM. Team with the most items found or who gets here in the fastest amount of time wins!" He didn't await a response, as he simply held his arm up and shot his blaster in the air. "Go!"

----

'Stopped…again!' Sonic thought. 'I'm not even moving at a fraction of my full speed and already I have to have to wait for those two to catch up to me!'

The blue hedgehog sighed as he looked down the dark, empty street. He turned around, only to find that his teammates had yet to catch up. He tapped his foot on the ground impatiently and looked around some more. He decided this downtime would be a perfect opportunity to go over the list.

"Let's see… Number seven sounds easy. I mean, how hard can getting a napkin from a fancy restaurant be?" Sonic reevaluated his sarcastic tone when he remembered who his teammates were, in the midst of a conversation of their own.

"So… Conker, what do you do?" Pac-Man asked in a happy tone.

'God, he sounds like someone's grandfather…' Conker thought. "Listen you relic, shut up!"

Pac-Man gasped at the hostility shown by his teammate. "Now, come on. That's no way to treat a friend!"

"You're not my friend, gramps. Shut. Up!"

"Don't be mean."

"Shut the hell up!"

"Okay, okay, fine," Pac-Man said, shrugging. "But, you know you catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

Sonic could just now make out the words on Conker's lips as he drew closer. He smiled at the two, who were incredibly mismatched. "Alright guys, enough of that. We need to get a napkin from a fancy restaurant, so let's check the garbage behind The Silver Skillet."

"Where's The Silver Skillet?" Conker asked, reaching towards his belt of weapons. Sonic took no notice and pointed at the building just behind him.

"Come on, the trash should be just around the corner," Sonic said, as Pac-Man moved towards him.

"Fuck that!" Conker shouted. The blue hedgehog wheeled around just in time to see Conker fire his rocket launcher at the wooden back door of the restaurant. In a glorious bang, the door seemed to disintegrate, leaving only smoke and a cracked doorframe behind.

Sonic grimaced as he saw several lights go on in nearby apartments. 'Oh no…,' he thought, as he pulled Pac-Man inside the building with him. Conker followed, hoping to avoid any eyes that were watching from the window.

"You idiot! You're going to get us disqualified!" Sonic shouted, moving further into the kitchen of the restaurant.

"Besides, Conker. It's not nice to blow up things that aren't yours…" Pac-Man reprimanded the young squirrel.

"Shut the fuck up. I got the damn napkins. What the hell do you care?" Conker asked, turning to leave the restaurant, napkins in hand.

"I guess you're right. Let's just try to get away from here quickly. Number six on the list is a discarded child's shoe. Must be lots of those around, we just have to look in the right places," Sonic said. "Alright, guys, let's run towards the hotel and as soon as we get far enough away, we can stop and look for number six, got it?" Upon seeing his teammates nod, he ran as fast as he could out of the building.

"You first, I insist," Pac-Man said politely. He gestured calmly to the door and smiled.

"If you don't shut up, I'm gonna shove my foot so far up-" His rude words were interrupted by a voice coming from the front of the restaurant.

"Shit! It's the owner! Run!" The squirrel took off at a run in the direction Sonic had left in. Pac-Man followed close behind, or so Conker thought, as he could only hear a "Wakka" for each step the yellow ball took.

The two finally met up with Sonic, who was holding back his laughter. "Pac-Man, you make that noise when you run? I thought it was just when you eat."

"Guess not," Pac-Man said, shrugging carelessly.

"What the hell is it?" Conker asked quickly.

"You know what? I honestly have no idea," Pac-Man replied. The silence that followed was both humorous and uncomfortable.

"Say, Pac-Man, did you buy those shoes here? They look new…" Conker observed, without swearing. His polite tone made Sonic wary, but he said nothing.

"Why yes, I certainly did. In that store right over there," Pac-Man said, pointing to a small box shaped store across the street.

"Good," Conker said, as he began walking towards the store. He pulled out a simple pistol and fired at the look on the door. Sonic winced, but thankfully no lights went on after the bang. Conker kicked the door open and ran inside.

"Conker, what are you doing? It's not nice to steal…" Pac-Man said, worried that his teammate had no morals to stop from doing these crazy things.

"Shut the fuck up," Conker called back, as he emerged with a small shoe in hand.

"Conker, that's cheating, and it's not even used or dirty. Who would throw that away?" Sonic asked. He watched as Conker walked to a puddle and threw shoe in. He rubbed the mud all over the shoe and wiped it off on the grass beside him. Then the squirrel proceeded to stop on the footwear until it had a few holes in it.

"Used enough?" Conker asked. Sonic merely sighed and looked at the next item on the list.

"Let's finish this quick," Pac-Man requested meekly. "I want to go back and do my exercises."

"Exercises for what?" Sonic wondered, lifting an eyebrow.

"My legs. I need to do my squats."

"You're an idiot," Conker jeered. "No one in their right mind would squat down anywhere willingly. That shit is real uncomfortable."

---

Samus and Gordon were both squatting down, flipping their goggles through different energy signatures, trying to find anything out of the ordinary. Their search had brought them to a few odd sections of the training center. Thankfully, there was no one here at this time, but it didn't make the searching and less difficult.

"You know, this reminds me of when I was in summer camp," Gordon whispered. "Just me and the boys, squatting down and-"

"Gordon!" Samus interrupted him, making sure to keep her voice a whisper. "I don't need to hear your random mumblings about something that did or didn't happen. What I do need is for you to help me find any strange energy patterns."

"Well, excuuuuse me, princess," Gordon said, causing Samus to grind her teeth. "What do you think the weird energy will look like anyways?"

"I don't know," shrugged Samus. "Just something out of the ordinary."

"Like a purple coil of tendrils wrapping around another residual signature?"

"Yes!" Samus exclaimed. "Where did you-"

"Look at about 1 o'clock, 500 meters away, in electromagnetic spectrum mode," Gordon instructed. Samus did as he said and was shocked to find an energy signature behaving the way it did. It was a residual mark, but it was almost as if it was still active and attacking other residual energies from time to time.

"Gordon, you've done it. Now let's just…" Samus stopped short as she heard some voices.

"What's wrong?" the scientist wondered.

"People are here," Samus said. "All of them are armed. We need to lay low."

"Thing they have a clue that we're here?" wondered Gordon.

"I wouldn't be surprised," Samus said, as she gritted her teeth and scurried off.

---

"I don't have a clue why we're here," Rikku whined. "Why did you drag us to the training center again, Vyse?"

"Item number three on the list is a claw," explained Vyse, for the fifth time. "People train here, specifically Bowser and the recently departed Yuri. One of them might have chipped a talon off in a virtual reality skirmish."

"Yeah, but there's so much other stuff we still need to look for," sighed Rikku. "We've only found the ninth item, which was a used contact lens. Whoop-de-doo."

"Hey, Rikku," said Zidane. "Mind telling me what the first item on the list was?"

The girl looked to the top of the paper she was holding. "A naked Rikku….Hey!"

"C'mon, Rikku!" Zidane laughed. "Don't you want to help us win?"

"Shut up you two!" Vyse shouted. "I swear it's like I'm babysitting or something."

"Oh, lighten up, Blue Rogue," chuckled Zidane. "Three thieves such as ourselves should have an easy time in finding the rest of the stuff once we got rolling."

"Not if you keep 'editing' the list," pointed out Vyse.

"Relax. The real first item was a triangular shaped rock. Boring!"

"Boring or not," Vyse sighed. "We need to find it if we want to win."

"Hey!" Rikku yelled. "Is that a claw over there?"

"This?" Vyse asked, bending down to pick up something off the floor.

"Yeah!" Rikku laughed. "You should thank me so much for finding that, Vyse. Let's go out sometime!"

Vyse simply opened up Rikku's hand. He then shoved something sticky into it and closed it tight. Rikku looked at the air pirate in bewilderment.

"Congratulations, Rikku," Vyse huffed. "You found some used chewing gum."

"Nice!" commented Zidane. "What flavor? You know I was chewing something a few days ago that had the distinct aroma of-"

---

"-moldy pieces of cheese," Kratos observed, as he crinkled his nose at the smell.

"What?" Snake asked, as he heard Kratos sniffing in disgust.

"It smells in here," Kratos said.

"We're in an air duct. What'd you expect?" Snake asked, not bothering to turn his head.

"Why did we have to take the air duct? Couldn't I have just flown you over?" Kratos asked Snake, who was a few feet in front of him.

"We're trying not to draw attention to ourselves here…" Snake grumbled, as he crawled forward a few more inches.

"Very well. But why does it smell?" Kratos asked again, edging forward to keep up with Snake.

"I guess the old saying is true…"

"What saying?"

"Like father, like son," Snake replied with a slight chuckle. Kratos would have normally grown angry at the insult to himself and Lloyd, but he was too busy keeping up with the stealth expert to take much notice.

"You're right though…something is wrong. Someone's been here before, I can tell…"

"You don't think it was someone who would harm us, do you?" Kratos asked, crawling a foot forward, and halting when he reached Snake. The cautious agent hadn't moved and was leaning forward. Kratos could tell he was trying to hear something, so he wisely held his tongue.

A few minutes passed before Snake finally acted again. "Keep your voice down from now on. You've been talking too loudly. The noise echoes through here to several different spots in the stadium. Straight ahead is the medical room, and we need to be careful. I don't know where the other intruders are, but there's definitely someone else here."

Kratos didn't respond, he merely followed Snake, who was quickly crawling towards the light ahead of him. 'Intruders…This knife won't do me any good against the contest organizers…'

"Snake, what exactly do you expect to find? I mean, it must have something to do with Link, Cloud, Sephiroth, or perhaps all three. If they are here, do we really stand a chance?"

"What makes you so sure it's them? There are other things happening here. Several contestants are acting strangely and half of them I just plain don't trust," replied Snake.

"Be that as it may, what if we run into something we can't handle?" Kratos asked grimly. His grip on the knife Snake had given him tightened, as the solider dropped into the room. Kratos followed, still awaiting a response.

"Damn, get down!" Snake whispered harshly. He ducked, followed quickly by Kratos.

The military man was shocked at the damage here. The entire medical room had been destroyed. Only mangled furniture remained, as well as several unrecognizable objects. Snake surveyed the area, but found no one. He motioned for Kratos to stay where he was. Kratos nodded as Snake slowly stood up, looking towards the doorway. He quickly crept over to the door without making a sound and shut it.

"What happened here?" Kratos asked in a whisper. He stood up as well, awaiting an answer.

"Who knows. I'm just glad the door didn't get blown apart," Snake responded grimly. He drew his gun, clearly worried. "Look around and try to find anything that may be of value here."

Kratos nodded and began to search the room. After several minutes of silently rummaging through ruined furniture, he realized it was futile. "I don't think we'll find anything here."

"Yeah, you're probably right. Looks like someone may be trying to destroy evidence. Let's look around a little more, but we need to do it fast. I think someone is catching on to us," Snake observed. Kratos nodded in grim acknowledgement, as Snake loaded his SOCOM pistol and cautiously walked out into the dimly lit hallway.

----

"You're not-a gonna catch-a anything if you-a do it like that!" shouted Luigi.

"And you have a better idea?" asked Mega Man, who was sifting through overturned trash cans.

"Yeah, can I please put this thing down?" whimpered Ness. "It's getting heavy."

"Look, you complained when I fired a blast and cleared that other room of debris. Now you complain when I do things the 'old-fashioned' way," Mega Man sighed. "What do you people want with me?"

"We just want to find the rotten banana peel," replied Ness. "It's the second item on the list and so far we've had no luck."

"Wouldn't it-a be better to look-a in a cafeteria?" suggested Luigi.

"No," answered Mega Man. "Other groups have probably already tried that. I wouldn't be surprised if there are no more rotten banana peels left in this entire city."

"But we-a don't know!" exclaimed Luigi. "We should-a get out-a here! I think I hear-a someone coming!"

"Just your nerves talking," laughed Mega Man. "What are they going to do? Disqualify us for looking through trash?"

"Maybe not," said Ness, throwing the bin down in disgust. "But I'm tired of holding these things. Let's just move on and search in a different area."

"See! I'm-a right! Luigi is-a always the best!" the green plumber exclaimed.

"Quiet!" Mega Man said. "You haven't helped out at all. You just stand around and shake your knees whenever we ask for you to look for something."

"I gave-a you my-a left sock," Luigi smiled, as he took his bare foot out of his shoe and wiggled his toes around a little bit.

"Oh yeah, that was for the tenth item on here, right?" commented Ness, taking out the paper.

"OK, so you did help a little," the blue bomber conceded. "But we still need you to pick up the slack. I wouldn't be surprised if the other's are more than halfway done by now. We've only found four things."

"Leave it-a to me!" Luigi proclaimed. He then puffed his chest up and ran toward a door. He jerked it open and went inside, determined to lead his team to victory.

After a long pause, Mega Man turned to Ness. "Should we go and tell him he stepped inside a broom closet?"

"Nope," chuckled Ness. "It's funnier this way."

----

Sonic continued to scan the list, looking for something he could find without too much trouble. He thought of all the places that would be closed at this time and began to grow a little discouraged.

"Sonic, let me see that," Conker demanded, walking closer to his teammate. He snatched the list from Sonic and began to scan the items. Conker muttered a few things to himself, before fixing his eyes on item number five. "Pac-Man, what kind of animal are you?"

"What?" Pac-Man asked, looking at Conker, then to Sonic. He noticed the blue hedgehog looked both amused and dismayed, as he discovered what item Conker was looking at.

"What kind of fucking animal are you?" Conker asked, taking a step closer to his yellow teammate.

"I'm not an animal, I'm a man," Pac-Man said.

"So…Your name is really just Pac?" Sonic asked, confused and amused.

"What? Oh heavens no…You see, I'm not the only one of my species, which is called the 'Pac-Man'. There are many of us. It all started long ago, when-" Pac-Man's informative ramblings were cut off by the sound of a pistol being loaded. He noticed Conker was pointing the gun at his forehead.

"Shut the fuck up and give me your fur. That's the next item: the shedded fur of an animal," Conker said, taking a step closer to the yellow sphere.

"But Conker, I'm not an animal," Pac-Man said, raising his hands defensively. The yellow icon took a few steps back, attempting to keep his distance from the insane squirrel.

"Fuck you!" Conker said, as he noticed Pac-Man take off at a run.

Sonic watched the scene with much amusement. Pac-Man ran as fast as he could, trying to avoid the rodent. "Wakka, wakka, wakka." The repeated noise drove Sonic to tears, as a worried yellow sphere attempted to outrun a gun-wielding squirrel.

"Get back here, you motherfucker!"

"Wakka, wakka, wakka, wakka."

"Stop that, you piece of shit!" Conker shouted, as he shot at Pac-Man's back. The wildly fired bullet missed Pac-Man by several feet and hit a window of a nearby house. "Oh hell! Run!"

Sonic sighed, as he took off, easily outrunning his companions. He hid behind a dumpster outside the shoe store and awaited his slower teammates. He looked around and noticed the lid of the dumpster was open. After some rummaging, Sonic emerged with a pair of scissors in hand. His teammates had yet to arrive, so he placed the scissors behind his back and crouched down.

Sonic knew the two slowpokes were close and patiently waited their arrival. When the patter of squirrel feet and the annoying "Wakka's" had stopped, he found the two collapsed in front of him.

"Oh no, Conker. That wasn't nice of you," Pac-Man wheezed to the squirrel, who plopped down beside him.

"Fuck off!" Conker whispered harshly. "Sonic, what are you doing back there?" Conker turned to see Sonic shove something shiny behind his back.

"Nothing at all. Alright, I found some animal fur in this dumpster, so let's get out of here," Sonic replied coolly. He held up some light brown fur, smiling slightly.

"What the fuck is this! That's my fur, you piece of shit!" Conker exclaimed, standing up. He pulled out his machine gun, and aimed it at Sonic. Faster than Conker could even place his finger on the trigger, Sonic took off at a run. The sound of laughter, both Sonic's and Pac-Man's echoed through the alley. "Get back here, you bastard!" Conker shouted, as he ran off in Sonic's direction.

Pac-Man, who was still chuckling slightly, sighed. "Now I'll never catch up with those guys." He took off at run, just in time to avoid the owner of the house that had just been vandalized. The homeowner looked in the alley, but shrugged, as he found no trace of anything, just the sound of a few distant "Wakka's".

'Must be my imagination,' the man thought to himself, as he headed back inside.

---

"Who could ever have imagined something like this?" whispered Gordon in awe. He was totally engrossed in this new energy wave discovery. It was all Samus could do to just make sure the scientist didn't bump into any walls while he followed it.

"It definitely is different," agreed Samus. "How far back do you think it goes?"

"Not sure," Gordon shrugged. "But I'm determined to follow it."

"Get down!" Samus shot, as she grabbed Gordon's shirt collar and dragged him to the floor. Just overhead was a security drone, scanning the hallway for anyone who wasn't supposed to be there. The last thing she wanted was for them to be spotted this close.

The engineer watched the metallic machine go by. He then inched his head around and looked Samus square in the eyes. "Think you can keep that thing occupied?"

"Sure, but why?" wondered Samus.

"The energy trail is either going into or coming out of that room over there," Gordon indicated with a finger.

"Why's that so special?" asked Samus, not following the man's drift.

"That's the room that holds the exit portal," Gordon explained. "You know, the room you'll be introduced to after your match with Frog."

"This coming from the guy who can't win," Samus smiled. "So I take it you need some time to hack into the computer and enter there?"

"Correct-a-mundo," nodded Gordon. "Should take me three minutes. Five minutes tops."

"Fine, fine," consented Samus. She then reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a black ski mask. Although her hair was already tied up and out of the way, this would ensure that no one could recognize her in case the cameras did get a look at her face. Never hurt to be safe.

"Oh yeah, and when you're done, I know a great place to go trick-or-treating," said Gordon. "They give out the best Snickers."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. But if I did, I'd probably have to hurt you." Samus then patted the man's shoulder and silently moved in the direction of the security drone.

----

'I'm really going to have to hurt these two,' the Blue Rogue thought. 'They're really starting to put a damper even on my upbeat attitude. And that's not small task.'

Team B was walking through town, looking for the next item on the list. Rikku was humming to herself, which was clearly annoying Vyse. He turned behind him, to see Zidane walking slowly, almost moping.

"Oh, what's wrong now?" Vyse asked. He had an impatient tone, as he was in a hurry to finish. 'God damn it, I don't know which one is dumber…' Vyse thought to himself, as he awaited an answer.

"I thought I saw something in the shadow's back there at the training facility," Zidane replied, sighing slightly.

"What, are you scared?" Vyse shot back.

"No, I'm disappointed. Whatever it was had a real nice rack," the tailed thief replied.

Vyse scowled. "Get your mind out of the gutter and help." He then turned around, only to find Rikku still humming to herself. "Oh Christ, we're never gonna win at this rate. Zidane let me see your camera. I want to make sure you got a good picture of that street sign with no vowels. It took us a long time to find that fourth item."

"Why, don't you trust me?"

"Hell no! Now give me the camera. I don't want to find everything else only to discover that you forgot to take a picture of 'S St.'," Vyse said angrily, taking a step toward his teammate.

"Don't worry, I got a good picture," Zidane reassured him, putting the digital camera behind his back.

"Zidane, just give him the camera," Rikku instructed in her high-pitched, whiny voice. Zidane, realizing he was outnumbered, sighed and handed the camera to Vyse, who snatched it out of the diminutive thief's hands.

"Alright, let's see what you were so hesitant to show me…" Vyse said, turning on the camera.

"Just, uh…remember, I think a few of those pictures were by mistake…I was just trying to figure out how it worked and all…" Zidane warned, scratching the back of his head. He looked down, but could feel Vyse's gaze burning into him just the same.

"Zidane, all these pictures are the same. Number 1: Rikku's ass. Number 2: Rikku's ass. Number 3: Rikku's-"

"My what?" Rikku piped in, as she finally drew closer to her two teammates. She leaned over to look at the camera, which drew Zidane's gaze from the ground to her chest.

"Er, nothing. Don't worry about it," Vyse told her, quickly hiding the camera.

"Okay!" Rikku exclaimed, walking away again. Clearly, she was quite content merely humming and looking for another item on the list.

"Zidane, I've gone through twenty pictures and all of them have been the same. Did you even get a picture of the sign with no vowels?" Vyse asked impatiently. His free hand was slowly moving towards his main cutlass when Zidane grabbed the camera from him.

"Of course I did…It's at the end, just let me find it…" Zidane said calmly, as he quickly scrolled through the library of stored pictures. Finally, a giant grin worked its way on to his face. "Here it is!"

Vyse looked at Zidane suspiciously and grabbed the camera. He sighed when he was what was being shown. "Zidane, this is Rikku's rack…"

"Exactly, those are two B's," Zidane grinned. He looked as if he almost expected a chuckle, or at least a smile. He was slightly upset, however, when Vyse just turned away from him and walked towards Rikku. As he walked towards her, he still scrolled through the rest of the pictures. He abruptly stopped and turned to face Zidane again.

"What the hell is this?" Vyse asked, stifling laughter.

"That's uh…That's Bowser," Zidane replied. "In the shower…"

Vyse couldn't contain his laughter, which caught Rikku's attention. The female thief ran over and looked at the camera. "Eww Zidane! You're sick!" she shouted in disgust. She turned and put a little distance between herself and the other two.

"My finger must have slipped in the locker room…That's all. It's not like it was intentional," Zidane said defensively.

"Sure, buddy. Alright, let's head back to the actual sign now," Vyse said, putting emphasis on the word actual.

"Oh, do we have to? Thanks a lot Zidane," Rikku pouted, as she walked past the two in the direction of the sign. "Now we have to go all the way back there."

Zidane sighed, and shook his head slightly. "Did you really have to show her the Bowser picture?"

Vyse laughed, and began to follow Rikku. "Did you really have to take it? Anyways, don't worry. I think you really impressed her with that last picture."

"Oh, shut up," Zidane huffed.

"Hey, that's not very nice," Rikku frowned at the Genome. "What you should say is-"

---

"Keep quiet," Snake told his companion. He slowly crept to the door and put his ear to the door to listen to what was happening in the hallway.

"Hear anything?" Kratos asked quickly.

"No, sounds empty," Snake replied, slowly opening the door. Kratos followed very closely behind. Snake peeked his head out and checked for any other intruders. He found none, and slowly opened the door wider.

"Alright, there's no way they destroyed all the evidence. Let's check the room across the hall," Snake suggested, slowly exiting the ruined area. Kratos was right behind him, gripping the knife in his hand. Both were moving silently in a crouched position.

"Damn, it's locked. This will take some time. Make sure no one sees us," Snake instructed.

"And what if some innocent fool comes walking down the alleyway?" Kratos wondered.

"If he's here and it's at this time of night, then he's not innocent. Just do what you have to. I trust your judgment," Snake replied coldly. Kratos knew the implication Snake was making and nodded grimly.

'It's most likely our life or theirs…' Kratos told himself. The dark thought was counteracted by a quick image of Lloyd. 'Far too much of idealist, some things are unchangeable…Hopefully, this is not one of those things…'

"Alright, let's go. Easier than I thought it'd be," Snake said, in his usual gruff voice. He pushed the door open and rolled inside. Kratos was jarred out of his thoughts and quickly followed Snake inside.

Once inside, Snake shut the door and looked for something to block it with. "Kratos, help me move that desk in front of the door," Snake ordered. With the angel's help, he successfully barred anyone else from entry into the room. "Alright, you check that desk over there. There has to be something of use inside here."

Kratos didn't say a word, he merely nodded and followed Snake's friendly order. Silently, the two rummaged through the large stacks of papers in the drawers. Kratos searched intently, but found nothing. He began to think this whole mission had been hopeless, until Snake walked over to him. "What did you find?"

"This," Snake said, slamming down a stack of papers on the desk. "Looks like medical records for all the losers so far in the contest. There's gotta be something documented in these." He opened his mouth to speak again, but stopped. "Listen, we've gotta get out of here. Follow me."

Kratos did as he was told. Soon the two were back in the room from which they entered in. Kratos shut the door behind them. "Where shall we go?"

"I found an old warehouse nearby. Seems abandoned, but the lights still work," Snake said.

"You planned this out very well," Kratos commented, as he climbed into the air duct again. He then looked around and was shocked when he realized neither of them had the medical files with them.

"Well, being unprepared can often lead to death. When you've been doing sneaking missions as long as I have, you need to learn to think ahead," Snake said quietly, as he crawled into the air duct, just behind Kratos. "And don't worry about the files. I saved them on my mini camera. It would only arouse more suspicion if people found them missing as well." The two then left the building in silence, not saying another word to each other.

The two got outside and began walking back toward the city. When they got close to the destination, Snake halted them and looked right at Kratos.

"Alright, the warehouse is about a block away. First, we should get your gear," Snake said. Kratos nodded, and took off in the direction where he had met Snake. Snake waited around, doing nothing in particular, and was a little surprised when Kratos' return caught him off guard.

"Ha, so even the great Snake can be surprised," Kratos laughed, after he weighed Snake's reaction.

"This is no time to kid around. There'll be plenty opportunities later," Snake said harshly. Kratos could tell Snake wasn't as annoyed as he let on. The agent walked in a new direction, followed by the now combat-ready angel.

"Where exactly is this warehouse, anyways?" Kratos asked an annoyed Snake.

---

"Inside Tifa's room?" repeated Ness, his mouth wide open.

"Yeah, we need to be real careful about this," advised Mega Man. "For all we know, she could be sleeping in there right now."

"I'm-a sure about it," proclaimed Luigi. "When I-a did the laundry, I-a saw her-a washing the bedsheets. One of them was-a real funny."

"Are you sure it was Tifa?" Mega Man asked real slowly. "Are you sure it wasn't…nobody?"

Luigi just looked around real confused for a bit. He finally just shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, it's a better lead than anything else we have," Ness said. "Worth a shot."

The three quietly crept over toward the buxom brunette's room. They tried to be as silent as possible. Ness nodded to Mega Man who nodded to Luigi who just stared at the ceiling. With one huge shove, the three were determined to get into the room and take what they needed.

Just as the trio was about to barge in, they were shocked when the door opened of its own accord. In the hallway stood a very angry Tifa, who was now glaring at them. She had just been woken up and apparently wasn't too happy.

"What do you three want?" she growled. "It's 1:30 in the morning and some of us are trying to get some sleep!"

"Shhhh…shhhh…quiet down," whispered Ness. "We just need to ask a favor of you."

"I'm waiting," Tifa said.

"We…well….ummm…there's no easy way to say this, but…uhhhh…" Mega Man stammered.

"We-a want what you-a sleep in," Luigi smiled.

"What!" Tifa exclaimed. "Are you three some kind of sick perverts or something?"

"Ignore Luigi," Ness told her, trying to calm the woman down. "We're in a scavenger hunt. Item number eight here is some funny looking bedsheets. Luigi said he saw you doing some laundry before and thought he spotted you handling something that met this description."

"Oh, he must have meant those," Tifa said, rolling her eyes and emphasizing the word "those". She went inside and when she came back out, she was holding a beige bedsheet. On it was a pattern of her, Cloud, and some other blonde-haired man riding on Chocobos.

Mega Man was barely able to suppress his laughter at the sight. "Looks like Luigi wasn't lying after all. Those are ridiculous, even by Dr. Light's standards."

"We got these as a souvenir for winning the Chocobo races over at the Gold Saucer," Tifa explained. "Look, if you're going to laugh at me, you can forget about borrowing them."

"No, that's alright," Ness said. He grabbed the sheets before Tifa had a chance to pull them back in. "We'll bring them back tomorrow morning, alright?"

"Isn't that this morning?" Tifa groaned, still annoyed at this whole intrusion.

"Yeah, probably," Mega Man shrugged. "Look, thanks again."

The three then left the hallway, now in a mad rush to find the rest of the items before the time limit was up. They only had half an hour left before it was time to meet everyone back at the lobby.

"You-a know," Luigi puffed. "When I-a go home, I'm-a gone make Mario and me some-a sheets just like-a these."

"You are SO weird," Mega Man shot back. "And based on the fact that normal isn't exactly commonplace around here, that's saying a lot."

---

"I am not," Snake huffed. "I'm just cautious is all."

"Whatever you say," Kratos sneered, as he rolled his eyes. "So, find anything of interest in those files?"

"Nothing really, just normal vital stats and such. It's just that with all this information, there has to be-"

"What is it?" Kratos wondered, a little unnerved at Snake's sudden pause.

"Take a look at this," Snake instructed, as he shoved his miniature camera into the angel's hands.

"Really, I think you're overreacting, Snake," Kratos observed, after he could find nothing out of the ordinary. "It says that all the contestants here are in fine condition before being sent back."

"Does comatose sound 'fine' to you?" Snake jeered, as he raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, you're right!" Kratos exclaimed. He then began to flip through the rest of the images. "Every single contestant here all shows the same lifeless symptoms. It's like they're alive and moving, but at the same time, they're not there."

"And underneath all those descriptions, the quack medical doctor wrote they were in 'fine condition to return home'. Something doesn't add up."

"It seems like there is definitely a conspiracy afoot," Kratos agreed. "And it's a bit more far-reaching than one would initially think. What do your propose we do about it?"

"For now?" Snake questioned. "Nothing. Let's just observe and see if these trends continue. I say we make our move next round."

"True," Kratos nodded. "We should wait until suspicion dies down some after all that commotion tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if security is stepped up a notch or two very soon. Besides, I should have no problem with an old man like Diablo."

"Be very careful," Snake warned. "Appearances can often be deceiving. But yes, I feel that you will win too. Why else would I have made you my confidant if I thought you would be taking an early exit?"

"Thanks for the vote for confidence," Kratos said. He wasn't sure if he was trying to be sarcastic or not. "Well, it appears our work here is done. Shall we head in for the evening?"

---

"No. I still have a little left to do," replied Gordon. "But thanks for keeping that blasted robot busy."

"Just doing my job and protecting your weak hide. So now that we're in the portal room, what did you want to do next?" Samus wondered.

"The energy trail is just as I feared. It goes right into the portal," sighed Gordon.

"Do you think it's from a worker around here? I'd say we should go check down below, but it probably has more security measures than up here."

"You're right," Gordon reassured his companion. "But luckily, we won't need to go down there. This computer has a log of every time the portal was in use during this contest and what it was used for. I just need to hack in and find out what I need."

"Gordon, will this be much longer? I don't want to complain, but I'm starting to get a little ti-"

"Done," Gordon beamed. He readjusted his glasses as he watched all the information scroll past. He then hit a key on the keyboard, pausing the screen at a particular part. "I think we found our culprit."

"So, what did they send out?" Samus queried.

"That's the problem," Gordon shook his head. "It's not what was sent out. It's what came IN."

"But I thought that this thing was only capable of sending people back to their home dimensions," Samus said.

"So did I," Gordon said. "But it looks like we were wrong."

"Can you find out what exactly it was that came through?" Samus wondered. If there was a serious threat around here, she wanted to know about it as soon as possible.

"No," Gordon apologized. "It might not even be one thing or person. It might be a few. All I know is that it's a big energy signature and it perfectly matches what we scanned earlier this evening."

"Think this has to do with the way a few of the contestants are acting a bit strangely?" Samus prodded.

"I can't be sure," Gordon answered. "But my gut tells me 'yes'."

"Perfect," Samus groaned. "Can we do anything about it now?"

"No. Best thing to do now is just head back to the hotel and get some sleep. We can talk about this later on in the morning."

---

"Fuck no!" Shouted Conker impatiently. "I'm not waiting till morning! Tell us the winner now!"

"Alright, alright," said Mega Man defensively. "Just give me a second to figure it out…" The blue bomber then turned around, leaving the crowd in suspense.

"Vyse, we've got this in the bag," Zidane whispered. He nudged his teammate with his elbow and laughed a bit.

"I doubt it. And even if we do win, it's no thanks to you," Vyse spoke harshly, not bothering to look at his upset teammate.

"Who cares if we win…I found my Vysie!" Rikku exclaimed, attempting to hug the air pirate.

"Shut up, you were no help either," Vyse said, walking away from the energetic girl.

"Ouch. Tough break, Rikku. How about we go discuss it over a nice drink…or two?" Zidane asked, winking at her. Rikku turned away quickly, once again leaving Zidane all alone.

"Okay, it seems the winner is Team C! Conker, Sonic and Pac-Man!" Mega Man shouted abruptly. "Congratulations!"

"Fuck yeah!" Conker shouted. "Even though you were cheating, we still kicked your sorry ass!"

"Now, now Conker," Pac-Man said calmly. "There's no need for name calling…"

"Pac-Man's-a right! Your words, they-a hurt me!" Luigi said, stifling a few tears. Ness and Mega Man just sighed and turned away from their teammate.

"Shut the fuck up, bitch!" Conker shouted at Luigi, which caused the plumber to cry even more.

Sonic was enjoying his victory silently, laughing at the reactions of the teams. He noticed Zidane was looking at his camera, while Rikku was following a very annoyed Vyse around. Mega Man and Ness were laughing, but quickly stopped their merriment when Luigi ran over and tried to join in.

"Luigi, go away," Ness said coldly. Mega Man laughed slightly, but stopped when he saw Luigi's frown.

"You guys don't-a like me?" Luigi asked through tears. He turned away and began to sob in his hands. Mega Man looked at Ness, and the two just shrugged at each other. Someone would have to comfort the green plumber after the loss, but neither of them wanted to do it.

"Quite the teammate you have there. A bit of a handful, but he's still better than mine were," Sonic said to the two, pointing to his own two former companions. Conker was currently chasing Pac-Man around the street. The yellow sphere was trying his best to avoid anything in his way, but he couldn't help but run into Vyse.

"Hey, watch it!" Vyse said, as he turned to face Pac-Man. He didn't even notice Rikku until she ran up and hugged him as fast as she could.

"Yeah, but it's probably still better than being with Rikku," Mega Man laughed. "Speaking of which, where'd Zidane go?"

"Who knows? I saw him walk away a while ago with his camera," Ness replied.

The three thought about it for a second, but came to no conclusion. Overhearing the conversation, Vyse couldn't help but laugh and then shudder at the thought, even while running away from the blonde who was always at his heels.

"Vysie! Come back!" Rikku shouted, just before colliding with Conker. Vyse laughed at the scene, as Pac-Man walked up next to him. The two quickly noticed their pursuers slowly getting up and ran inside the hotel. Conker and Rikku weren't far behind.

"Say, Mega, why'd you organize this anyways?" Sonic asked, looking at the blue robot. He didn't even notice that Ness had left, following Conker into the hotel.

Mega Man shrugged. "Something fun. "I had enough talk of this boring contest."

"True. It's true a lot of these newcomers really don't know how to take their mind off of fighting," Sonic observed. He watched as Zidane walked towards the hotel, after coming out of a nearby alleyway.

"Of course, some of them can't seem to get their minds ON fighting…" Mega Man laughed, as he began to walk towards the hotel.

Sonic slowly followed him, looking around the streets. He saw the broken windows, the ruined restaurant, and other signs of his team's passing. He thought back on all the bullets that Conker had fired and then took a long hard look at the sobbing mass that was Luigi. "Any chance you'd want to do this again next year?"